vilian
volunteers to hold the court-house. The jail was garrisoned by twenty
fusiliers, and the fort and earthwork, of some thirty yards square,
situated about 1000 yards from the court-house, was held by 140 men of
the fusiliers and a detachment of artillerymen, with two 9-pounders,
under Major Thornhill. The three posts were provisioned as well as
circumstances permitted.

On the 15th 500 mounted Boers entered the town. On the 16th fighting
began in earnest, and the firing was hot on both sides. A very heavy
fire was kept up on the prison and court-house. Half an hour after it
commenced Captain Falls was killed. For the next sixty hours the firing
continued, night and day, and one of the little garrison was killed and
nine wounded. During the night the Boers broke into a stable close to
the court-house, and from a distance of eight yards a heavy fire was
kept up. During this time Colonel Winsloe in the fort had given what
aid he could to the garrison of the courthouse by shelling the building
from which the Dutch were firing upon it. On the evening of the 17th he
signalled to the garrison to retire on the fort; but, being completely
surrounded, they were unable to do this. On the morning of the 18th the
Boers attempted to set fire to the thatch roof of the court-house; and
as nothing in that case could have saved the garrison, Major Clarke and
Commandant Raaff agreed to surrender on the terms that the lives of all
those in the court-house should be spared. This was agreed to; but two
loyal Boers, who had been captured at an outpost, were tried, condemned
to death, and shot. On the 21st of December the garrison of the prison,
falling short of provisions, evacuated it, and succeeded in gaining the
fort without loss. The Boers occupied the post, but were driven out by
the shell-fire from the fort. Mr Nelson, the magistrate, was taken
prisoner in the town by the Boers, and kept in close confinement. Three
of his sons got into the fort, and took part in its defence. Two of
them, on a dark night, on the 19th of February, got through the Boer
lines, and carried despatches from Colonel Winsloe to Newcastle,
arriving there on the 5th of March, after many perils, not the least of
which was swimming the Vaal River when in full flood.

In the meantime the attack on the fort itself had been uninterrupted.
The very first evening the watercourse from which the supply of water to
the camp was taken was cut. A well h