Louw Wepener was a military leader (kommandant in Afrikaans) in the Orange Free State

Orange Free State

The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...

 who was killed during the Second Orange Free State-Basuto War at Thaba Bosiu

Thaba Bosiu

Thaba Bosiu is a sandstone plateau with an area of approximately 2 km2 and a height of 1,804 meters above sea level. It is located between the Orange and Caledon Rivers in the Maseru District of Lesotho, 24 km east of the country's capital Maseru....

, while trying to storm the mountain stronghold of Moshoeshoe I

Moshoeshoe I

Moshoeshoe was born at Menkhoaneng in the Northern part of present-day Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage- a branch of the Koena clan. In his early childhood, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34...

, founder of the Basotho

Basotho

The ancestors of the Sotho people have lived in southern Africa since around the fifth century. The Sotho nation emerged from the accomplished diplomacy of Moshoeshoe I who gathered together disparate clans of Sotho–Tswana origin that had dispersed across southern Africa in the early 19th century...

 nation. Wepener was killed in what was to be the last attack on Thaba Bosiu in Moshoeshoe's lifetime. Wepener was killed at Khubelo Pass and today this pass is sometimes referred to as Wepener's.

According to the epitaph on the Louw Wepener Monument he was born in 1812. The monument is erected at his burial site on his farm between Aliwal-North in the Eastern Cape and Bethulie in the Free State.

The town of Wepener

Wepener

Wepener is a village in the Free State, South Africa, located on the border with Lesotho. The town is named after Louw Wepener, the leader of the Boers in their war with the Basotho chief Moshoeshoe I in 1865. It was founded in 1867 on the banks of Jammersbergspruit, a tributary of the Caledon...

 (founded 1867) and Regiment Louw Wepener (since disbanded) were named after him.