Three Years' War

lson'

f the Transvaal commandos. On his arrival it was settled that the Transvaalers should proceed to the north of Ladysmith and

p with a flat top, called Swartbooiskop,[10] an hour and a half to the south of Nicholson's Nek. Af

was given. I myself asked Commandant Steenekamp, who had arrived the previous day from Bezuidenhoutspas, to go to General Croup's laager, about two miles distant, and to request him to advance to where the firing was taking pla

occupied by

rd the kop. He excused himself by assuring us that he had been under the impress

uld we

he three hundred men whom we had at our disposal. And this we did, and

itish troops occupied positions extending from t

. 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 t

urther 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 excel

southernmost point of the mountain. This gave us the chance for which we h

. A Jew came up to a burgher who was lying behind a s

e for half-a-crown

Boer cried; "I

ifteen shillings,"

such surprising rapidity, at that moment he was anything but ready to drive a bar

retired we found several dead and wounded me

men. 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

English blazed away at us again. On our part, we replied with vigour. But that did not cont

battle was over that the firing had continued, because the men on our eastern wing had not

ad, and forty or fifty from the Johannesburg Police, these latter under Captain Van Dam. The Police

firing line. We had to leave some of them behind with the horses at the foot of the kop, and there

s over, and I can state with certainty that there wer

unted two hundred and three dead and wounded, and there may have been many whom I did not see. In

lish. The prisoners told us that parts of their big guns had been lost in the night, owing to a stampede of the mules which carried them, and con

m on the same footing as ourselves, as it compelled them to rely entirely on their rifles. Still th

e also seized a thousand Lee-Metford rifles, twenty c

was exceedingly hot, and as there was no water to be obtained nearer than a mile from the berg,[12] we suffered great

d shelter from the scorching rays of the sun, and where their doctors could attend to them. Ot

hite asking him to send his ambulance to fetch them, and also to make arrangements for the burial of h

the laager. I ordered my brother, Piet de Wet, with fifty men

ight each watched his bout span frizzling on the spit. This, with a couple of stormjagers and a tin of coffee, made up the m

he Transvaal burghers were engaged at various points some eight miles

hten,[13] but also close round the laager itself. We were especially careful, as it was rumoured that the English had armed the Z

voortrekkers[14] had suffered was indelibly stamped on our memory. We well knew what the Zulus could do under cover of darkness-their sanguinary night attacks w

ound our laagers at night, and to reconnoitre duri

reconnoitre, and of the reasons why the scouting of the British so frequently ended in disaster. But I cannot resist saying here that t

re I finally lay down my pen, and I shall not hesitate to call them by their true name