Even this fine position could
not be held against the rush of the three regiments, the Devons,
the Royal Irish, and the Royal Scots, who were let loose upon it.
The artillery supported the attack admirably.
'They did nobly,'
said one who led the advance. 'It is impossible to overrate the
value of their support. They ceased also exactly at the right
moment. One more shell would have hit us.' Mountain mists saved the
defeated burghers from a close pursuit, but the hills were carried.
The British losses on this day, September 8th, were thirteen killed
and twenty-five wounded; but of these thirty-eight no less than
half were accounted for by one of those strange malignant freaks
which can neither be foreseen nor prevented. A shrapnel shell,
fired at an incredible distance, burst right over the Volunteer
Company of the Gordons who were marching in column. Nineteen men
fell, but it is worth recording that, smitten so suddenly and so
terribly, the gallant Volunteers continued to advance as steadily
as before this misfortune befell them. On the 9th Buller was still
pushing forward to Spitzkop, his guns and the 1st Rifles
overpowering a weak rearguard resistance of the Boers. On the 10th
he had reached Klipgat, which is halfway between the Mauchberg and
Spitzkop. So close was the pursuit that the Boers, as they streamed
through the passes, flung thirteen of their ammunition wagons over
the cliffs to prevent them from falling into the hands of the
British horsemen.
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