"Those on outpost duty that night heard the rumbling of waggons for many hours in the vicinity of the enemy. Evidently their transport was being moved out of harm's way. The night was bitterly cold, and many of those on outpost duty had nothing but greatcoats to keep them warm, some of the waggons not having yet arrived. At daybreak our 'Long Toms' made excellent practice at what looked like a Boer laager on the slope of the hill across the river to the north. At about 7 P.M. the battle commenced in earnest, and the crack of our rifles, the double crack of the enemy's, the barking of Maxims, the 'pom-pom' of the Vickers-Maxims, and the boom of the 'Long Toms' were heard all along the line. Our front must have been ten or fifteen miles along the Zand River, because Roberts's column was now a few miles to our left, and French's Cavalry Division was on Roberts's left; but for reasons mentioned above the Boers showed a bold front to Ian Hamilton's column only. The enemy kept up a steady fire from the positions they had occupied during the night, some Boers in the dongas having advanced to within a short distance of our firing line. "As the day wore on, reinforcements appeared to arrive for the enemy, and they made a determined effort to turn our right. Here they were opposed by Kitchener's Horse, who were hard pressed, and had to be hurriedly reinforced by the New Zealanders. On the extreme right the enemy now became very bold, and report says that the sergeant-major of Kitchener's Horse made a bull's-eye on a Boer's head at only fifteen yards' distance. All this time we had kept the enemy at bay without the aid of a single gun, though they had been firing at us with common shell and shrapnel, but to our great joy in the afternoon four field-guns came to our assistance, and proceeded to deluge the kopjes and dongas with shrapnel. Brother Boer now finding matters getting rather unpleasant slunk out of the dongas and off the kopjes in groups of ten and twenty in an easterly direction, and now the enemy having been pressed back all along the line, the 7th Mounted Infantry, Kitchener's Horse, and the New Zealanders were left as a rear-guard, and the main body moved on five or six miles. At dark we followed them, and crossed the Zand River unmolested, and bivouacked on the other side of the drift on the position which had been all day occupied by the Boers. It was reported that the following day the bodies of fifty or sixty of the enemy were found in the Zand River dongas, and many more on the kopjes on the right, so the losses were not all on our side."