The Position Being
Too Strong For Him To Force, Hamilton's Infantry (19th And 21st
Brigades) Were Called Up, And The Boers Were Driven Out.
That
splendid corps, the Gordons, lost nearly a hundred men in their
advance over the open, and the C.I.V.s on the other flank fought
like a regiment of veterans.
There had been an inclination to smile
at these citizen soldiers when they first came out, but no one
smiled now save the General who felt that he had them at his back.
Hamilton's attack was assisted by the menace rather than the
pressure of French's turning movement on the Boer right, but the
actual advance was as purely frontal as any of those which had been
carried through at the beginning of the war. The open formation of
the troops, the powerful artillery behind them, and perhaps also
the lowered morale of the enemy combined to make such a movement
less dangerous than of old. In any case it was inevitable, as the
state of Hamilton's commisariat rendered it necessary that at all
hazards he should force his way through.
Whilst this action of Doornkop was fought by the British left
flank, Henry's mounted infantry in the centre moved straight upon
the important junction of Germiston, which lies amid the huge white
heaps of tailings from the mines. At this point, or near it, the
lines from Johannesburg and from Natal join the line to Pretoria.
Colonel Henry's advance was an extremely daring one, for the
infantry were some distance behind; but after an irregular
scrambling skirmish, in which the Boer snipers had to be driven off
the mine heaps and from among the houses, the 8th mounted infantry
got their grip of the railway and held it.
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