Three Years War | Page 6

himself by assuring us that he had
been under the impression that one of his Veldtcornets and a number of
burghers were occupying the hill.
What could we do now?

Commandant Steenekamp and I decided that we must storm the hill
with the three hundred men whom we had at our disposal. And this we
did, and were sufficiently fortunate to capture the northern point of the
kop.
On reaching the summit we discovered that the British troops occupied
positions extending from the southern point to the middle of the
mountain.
The enemy, the moment we appeared on the ridge, opened a heavy rifle
fire upon us. We answered with as severe a fusillade as theirs. Whilst
we were shooting, twenty of Commandant Nel's men joined us and
helped us to hold our ground. When we had been engaged in this way
for some time we saw that the only possible course was to fight our
way from position to position towards the English lines.
I now observed that the mountain top was of an oblong shape,
extending from north to south for about a thousand paces. At the
northern end, where we were, the surface was smooth, but somewhat
further south it became rough and stony, affording very good cover. In
our present situation we were thus almost completely exposed to the
enemy's fire. The English, on the other hand, had excellent positions.
There were a number of ruined Kaffir kraals scattered about from the
middle of the mountain to its southern end, and these the enemy had
occupied, thus securing a great advantage.
Our bullets hailed on the English, and very shortly they retreated to the
southernmost point of the mountain. This gave us the chance for which
we had been waiting, for now we could take the splendid positions they
had left.
Whilst this was going on an amusing incident occurred. A Jew came up
to a burgher who was lying behind a stone, on a piece of ground where
boulders were scarce.
"Sell me that stone for half-a-crown," whined the Jew.
"Loop!"[11] the Boer cried; "I want it myself."

"I will give you fifteen shillings," insisted the Jew.
Although the Boer had never before possessed anything that had risen
in value with such surprising rapidity, at that moment he was anything
but ready to drive a bargain with the Jew, and without any hesitation he
positively declined to do business.
In the positions from which the English had retired we found several
dead and wounded men, and succeeded in capturing some prisoners.
The enemy were now very strongly posted at the south end of the
mountain, for there were in their neighbourhood many Kaffir kraals and
huge boulders to protect them from our marksmen. Their fire on us
became still more severe and unceasing, and their bullets whistled and
sang above our heads, or flattened themselves against the stones. We
gave at least as good as we got, and this was so little to their liking that
very soon a few white flags appeared in the kraals on their left wing,
and from that quarter the firing stopped suddenly.
I immediately gave the order to cease fire and to advance towards the
enemy. All at once the English blazed away at us again. On our part,
we replied with vigour. But that did not continue long. In a very short
time white flags fluttered above every kraal--the victory was ours.
I have no wish to say that a misuse of the white flag had taken place. I
was told when the battle was over that the firing had continued, because
the men on our eastern wing had not observed what their comrades on
their left had done. And this explanation I willingly accept.
Our force in this engagement consisted only of three hundred men from
Heilbron, twenty from Kroonstad, and forty or fifty from the
Johannesburg Police, these latter under Captain Van Dam. The Police
had arrived on the battlefield during the fighting, and had behaved in a
most praiseworthy manner.
But I overestimate our numbers, for it was not the whole of the
Heilbron contingent that reached the firing line. We had to leave some
of them behind with the horses at the foot of the kop, and there were

others who remained at the first safe position they reached--a frequent
occurrence at that period.
I took careful note of our numbers when the battle was over, and I can
state with certainty that there were not more than two hundred burghers
actually engaged.
Our losses amounted to four killed and five wounded. As to the losses
of the English, I myself counted two hundred and three dead and
wounded, and there may have been many whom I did not see. In regard
to our prisoners, as they