Their lives in order to gain time for their comrades to
get away. Twelve killed and fifty wounded were our losses in this
unfortunate skirmish, and about one hundred prisoners supplied the
victors with a useful addition to their rifles and ammunition. A
stronger British force came up next day, and the enemy were driven
out of the hills.
A week later, upon February 18th, there occurred another skirmish
at Klippan, near Springs, between a squadron of the Scots Greys and
a party of Boers who had broken into this central reserve which
Lord Kitchener had long kept clear of the enemy. In this action the
cavalry were treated as roughly as the mounted infantry had been
the week before, losing three officers killed, eight men killed or
wounded, and forty-six taken. They had formed a flanking party to
General Gilbert Hamilton's column, but were attacked and
overwhelmed so rapidly that the blow had fallen before their
comrades could come to their assistance.
One of the consequences of the successful drives about to be
described in the Orange River Colony was that a number of the Free
Staters came north of the Vaal in order to get away from the
extreme pressure upon the south. At the end of March a considerable
number had reinforced the local commandos in that district to the
east of Springs, no very great distance from Johannesburg, which
had always been a storm centre.
