We have few records of a more dashing or
of a more successful action in the whole course of the war. So
rapid was it that hardly any time elapsed between the glimpse of
the first dark figures galloping through the haze and the thunder
of their hoofs as they dashed in among the gunners. The Yeomanry
were driven back and many of them shot down. The charge of the
mounted Boers was supported by a very heavy fire from a covering
party, and the gun-detachments were killed or wounded almost to a
man. The lieutenant in charge and the sergeant were both upon the
ground. So far as it is possible to reconstruct the action from the
confused accounts of excited eye-witnesses and from the exceedingly
obscure official report of General Dixon, there was no longer any
resistance round the guns, which were at once turned by their
captors upon the nearest British detachment.
The company of infantry which had helped to escort the guns proved
however to be worthy representatives of that historic branch of the
British service.
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