To Colonials and Yeomanry belongs the honour of the action,
which cost the British force seven casualties.
Colonel Crabbe
pushed on after the success, and on September 14th he was in touch
with Scheepers's commando near Ladismith (not to be confused with
the historical town of Natal), and endured and inflicted some
losses. On the 17th a patrol of Grenadier Guards was captured in
the north of the Colony, Rebow, the young lieutenant in charge of
them, meeting with a soldier's death.
On the same day a more serious engagement occurred near Tarkastad,
a place which lies to the east of Cradock, a notorious centre of
disaffection in the midland district. Smuts's commando, some
hundreds strong, was marked down in this part, and several forces
converged upon it. One of the outlets, Elands River Poort, was
guarded by a single squadron of the 17th Lancers. Upon this the
Boers made a sudden and very fierce attack, their approach being
facilitated partly by the mist and partly by the use of khaki, a
trick which seems never to have grown too stale for successful use.
The result was that they were able to ride up to the British camp
before any preparations had been made for resistance, and to shoot
down a number of the Lancers before they could reach their horses.
So terrible was the fire that the single squadron lost thirty-four
killed and thirty-six wounded. But the regiment may console itself
for the disaster by the fact that the sorely stricken detachment
remained true to the spirited motto of the corps, and that no
prisoners appear to have been lost.
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