n reporting the results, said, "Commandant
Lucas Meyer (commanding the eastern force) has had an engagement with
the British at Dundee. Meyer made a plan of campaign by messenger with
Commandant Erasmus, who, however, did not put in an appearance."
Convergent attacks, intended to be simultaneous, but starting from
different quarters, are particularly liable to such mishaps.

While these two columns on the 18th were moving on Dundee, a third
force of about 1,000 mounted men, under General Koch, coming from the
north, passed round Glencoe to the westward, crossing the Biggarsberg,
a lofty spur of nearly 6,000 feet, that extends from the western
mountains almost across Natal, with occasional depressions, through
one of which the railroad passes. On Thursday these took possession of
Elandslaagte, a station sixteen miles north of Ladysmith, capturing
one train and nearly intercepting another. Railroad communication in
the rear of Symons was thus intercepted, at the moment that Meyer was
advancing from the east, expecting to fall upon him in conjunction
{p.040} with the northern column. During the night of the 19th Meyer's
force crossed the Buffalo River at Landman's Drift, ten miles east of
Dundee, at 2.30 A.M. drove in the British pickets in that direction,
and at daybreak was seen dotting the hill-ridges, about three miles
east of the camp.

The scene of the approaching action of October 20 is the valley of a
small stream, the general course of which, as nearly as can be judged
from the maps, is north and south. The river-bed, or donga--to use the
conveniently short South African term--is half a mile east of Dundee,
the ground sloping easily toward it; while on the other side the
watershed rises, slowly at first, afterward more rapidly, for a mile
or more, to the ridge occupied by the Boers, which the road to
Landman's crosses at a depression called Smith's Nek. The enemy were
on both sides of the latter when first seen by the British. To the
north of the Nek--to the Boer right--is Talana Hill, where the
decisive fighting occurred, and which had to be carried by direct
assault, lasting, with the intervals of cover, for nearly six hours.
The {p.041} characteristics of the Hill itself, therefore, need to be
understood. As described by an eye-witness, it is about eight hundred
feet high from the level of the donga. The summit presents the flat
table-like sky line, frequently noted in South African travel, of
which Table Mou