and advanced, while the other half battalion was sent to the
left under Captain Jacson, with orders to proceed as rapidly as possible
to the assistance of the Gordon Highlanders, who, it was reported, were
being heavily threatened by the Boers on the extreme left. With the
exception of some shell fire the main advance was continued unopposed.
The left half battalion of the Regiment had to make a very long detour,
and on its arrival to the assistance of the Gordons it was found that
the Boer force, which was threatening the left flank, was simply
Dundonald's mounted troops drawing up stationary behind some rising
ground.

After a stiff climb the summit of the Amersfoort Hills was reached just
before dark.

It was found that the Boers had evacuated their position, on their left
flank and rear being threatened by the 8th Brigade. The leading
battalion of this brigade, the 60th Rifles, came under some heavy
musketry fire from the houses in the town, and after several casualties,
which included four officers, Major Campbell, commanding the 60th,
threatened to burn the town if the firing was not discontinued. The
firing then ceased, and the Boers retired to the hills north of the
town.

The Boers had set fire to the long dry grass in every direction, and it
was chiefly by the light of these fires that regiments, companies, and
parties of mounted men found their way off the hill on a pitch-dark
night.

No orders had been circulated as to where the force was to halt and
bivouac for the night, and from every direction various bodies of men
groped their way in the dark towards the town, in the hopes that when
once there some orders might be obtained. It was late when the half
battalion under Captain Jacson found its bivouac and joined hands again
with that of Major Davies just outside the town. One company came in
later, having unfortunately lost its way in the dark.

Some of the leading wagons of the transport, which had been sent along
the direct road from Meerzicht to Amersfoort, broke down in a bad drift,
thus blocking the remainder. No wagons arrived in Amersfoort that night,
and the men after their long tramp, a continuous march without a halt
from 7.30 a.m. till about 8.30 at night, were without greatcoats or
blankets. The night was bitterly cold, with a hard frost. Gangs of men
went down to the town and brought back wood. Soon fires began to light
up in the Devons' and Gordons' bivouacs, which were adjoining, and fo