n
five artillerymen were killed and 13 wounded, amongst the latter being
the valiant Lieutenant Coetsee who afterwards was cruelly murdered by
kaffirs near Roos Senekal. The defenders as well as the assailants had
behaved excellently.

Near Monument Hill, at some distance from the position, the burghers'
horses were left behind, and the men marched up in scattered order, in
the shape of a crescent. When we arrived at the enemy's outposts they
had formed up at 100 paces from the forts, but in the dark the
soldiers did not see us till we almost ran into them. There was no
time to waste words. Fortunately, they surrendered without making any
defence, which made our task much lighter, for if one shot had been
fired, the garrison of the forts would have been informed of our
approach. Only at 20 paces distance from the forts near the Monument
(there were four of them), we were greeted with the usual "Halt, who
goes there." After this had been repeated three times without our
taking any notice, and as we kept coming closer, the soldiers fired
from all the forts. Only now could we see how they were situated. We
found them to be surrounded by a barbed wire fence which was so strong
and thick that some burghers were soon entangled in it, but most of
them got over it.

The first fort was taken after a short but sharp defence, the usual
"hurrah" of the burghers jumping into the fort was, like a whisper of
hope in the dark, an encouragement to the remainder of the storming
burghers, who now soon took the other forts, not without having met
with a stout resistance. Many burghers were killed, amongst whom the
brave Field-Cornet John Ceronie, and many were wounded.

It had looked at first as if the enemy did not mean to give in, but
we could not go back, and "onward" was the watchword. In several
instances there was a struggle at a few paces' distance, only the wall
of the fort intervening between the burghers and the soldiers. The
burghers cried: "Hands up, you devils," but the soldiers replied: "Hy
kona," a kaffir expression which means "shan't."

"Jump over the walls, my men!" shouted my officers, and at last they
were in the forts: not, of course, without the loss of many valuable
lives. A "melee" now followed; the English struck about with their
guns and with their fists, and several burghers lay on the ground
wrestling with the soldiers. One "Tommy" wanted to thrust a bayonet
through a Boer, but was caught from behind by one