th, 62nd, and 75th R.F.A. Three attenuated cavalry brigades
with some mounted infantry completed the force.

The movement was to be upon the old model, and in result it proved to
be only too truly so. French's cavalry were to get round one flank, Le
Gallais's mounted infantry round the other, and Tucker's Division to
attack in front. Nothing could be more perfect in theory and nothing
apparently more defective in practice. Since on this as on other
occasions the mere fact that the cavalry were demonstrating in the rear
caused the complete abandonment of the position, it is difficult to
see what the object of the infantry attack could be. The ground was
irregular and unexplored, and it was late before the horsemen on their
weary steeds found themselves behind the flank of the enemy. Some of
them, Le Gallais's mounted infantry and Davidson's guns, had come from
Bloemfontein during the night, and the horses were exhausted by the long
march, and by the absurd weight which the British troop-horse is asked
to carry. Tucker advanced his infantry exactly as Kelly-Kenny had done
at Driefontein, and with a precisely similar result. The eight regiments
going forward in echelon of battalions imagined from the silence of the
enemy that the position had been abandoned. They were undeceived by a
cruel fire which beat upon two companies of the Scottish Borderers from
a range of two hundred yards. They were driven back, but reformed in
a donga. About half-past two a Boer gun burst shrapnel over the
Lincolnshires and Scottish Borderers with some effect, for a single
shell killed five of the latter regiment. Chermside's brigade was now
all involved in the fight, and Wavell's came up in support, but the
ground was too open and the position too strong to push the attack home.
Fortunately, about four o'clock, the horse batteries with French began
to make their presence felt from behind, and the Boers instantly quitted
their position and made off through the broad gap which still remained
between French and Le Gallais. The Brandfort plain appears to be ideal
ground for cavalry, but in spite of that the enemy with his guns got
safely away. The loss of the infantry amounted to one hundred and sixty
killed and wounded, the larger share of the casualties and of the honour
falling to the Scottish Borderers and the East Lancashires. The
infantry was not well handled, the cavalry was slow, and the guns were
inefficient--altogether an inglorious day.