This Post Was Held By
Captain Kirke With Forty Garrison Artillery To Work The Big Gun,
And Seventy Liverpool Infantry.
In spite of the barbed-wire
entanglements, the Boers most gallantly rushed this position, and
their advance was so rapid, or the garrison so slow, that the place
was carried with hardly a shot fired.
Major Cotton, who commanded
the main lines, found himself deprived in an instant of nearly half
his force and fiercely attacked by a victorious and exultant enemy.
His position was much too extended for the small force at his
disposal, and the line of trenches was pierced and enfiladed at
many points. It must be acknowledged that the defences were badly
devised - little barbed wire, frail walls, large loopholes, and the
outposts so near the trenches that the assailants could reach them
as quickly as the supports. With the dawn Cotton's position was
serious, if not desperate. He was not only surrounded, but was
commanded from Gun Hill. Perhaps it would have been wiser if, after
being wounded, he had handed over the command to Jones, his junior
officer. A stricken man's judgement can never be so sound as that
of the hale. However that may be, he came to the conclusion that
the position was untenable, and that it was best to prevent further
loss of life. Fifty of the Liverpools were killed and wounded, 200
taken. No ammunition of the gun was captured, but the Boers were
able to get safely away with this humiliating evidence of their
victory.
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