At This Moment Two Guns Of The 84th Battery Under Major Guinness
Were In Action Against Boer Riflemen.
As a rear screen on the
farther side of the guns was a body of the Scottish Horse and of
the Yorkshire Mounted Infantry.
Near the guns themselves were
thirty men of the Buffs. The rest of the Buffs and of the Mounted
Infantry were out upon the flanks or else were with the advance
guard, which was now engaged, under the direction of Colonel
Wools-Sampson, in parking the convoy and in forming the camp. These
troops played a small part in the day's fighting, the whole force
of which broke with irresistible violence upon the few hundred men
who were in front of or around the rear guns. Colonel Benson seems
to have just ridden back to the danger point when the Boers
delivered their furious attack.
Louis Botha with his commando is said to have ridden sixty miles in
order to join the forces of Grobler and Oppermann, and overwhelm
the British column. It may have been the presence of their
commander or a desire to have vengeance for the harrying which they
had undergone upon the Natal border, but whatever the reason, the
Boer attack was made with a spirit and dash which earned the
enthusiastic applause of every soldier who survived to describe it.
With the low roar of a great torrent, several hundred horsemen
burst through the curtain of mist, riding at a furious pace for the
British guns.
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