This force, temporarily commanded by Major G. A. Williams, 1st South Staffordshire Regiment, consisted of the 34th, 35th, 36th, and 53rd Companies Imperial Yeomanry, and one gun of the 79th Battery and a pom-pom. It lay that night on the slope of a lonely kopje; the outpost line held the crest, the camp being situated on a gentle slope to north. The south side was steep. From this steep and apparently unprotected side the Boers by night, at 2 A.M. on the 25th, delivered their attack, scrambling up the heights exactly in the swift and silent way they had mounted Wagon Hill on the 6th of January 1900, and rushed the piquets in overwhelming numbers. The ridge secured, there followed a dash through the camp, and so swift was the movement that many of our officers and men were shot down before they had become aware of what had happened. It was a deplorable affair, and Major Williams paid for what mistakes he may have made with his life. Five other officers were killed and also 51 men; 8 officers and 81 men were wounded. Lieutenant Harwich himself fired with the pom-pom, and was shot through the heart in the act. Lieutenant Watney (Imperial Yeomanry) was killed as he headed the gallant charge on the enemy. A Boer prisoner gave the following account of the fight: Commandant Mears on the previous day spied round the camp, noting the exact positions of the guns. After sunset De Wet assembled over six hundred men and moved on Colonel Firman's camp, arriving within a thousand yards at two o'clock on Christmas morning unobserved. The Boers marched to the foot of the hill on which the camp was. There they left their horses, and scaled the precipitous height. When the sentry challenged them the Boers yelled madly, hoping thus to create confusion, and rushed into the British camp, shooting our men down point-blank as they came out of their tents. Our gunners, who were firing the guns at a range of forty yards, were overpowered, and the camp was captured after a fierce hand-to-hand conflict. Some Boers who lagged behind when the enemy charged the hill were sjamboked along by De Wet and Brand. The official casualty list of the Boers was fourteen killed, including Commandant Oliver, of Bethlehem, and Field-Cornet Lawrence, and thirty-two wounded. At this time General Rundle, with a small column, was encamped some 2½ miles to the east of this lonely hill. Hearing the firing he despatched Colonel Tudway, D.A.A.G., and his Mounted Infantry to ascertain the cause, and at the same time summoned two regiments of Imperial Light Horse from the neighbourhood of Elands River Bridge. Quickly the Boers discovered their peril, and made off into the Langeberg, carrying with them the gun and pom-pom they had captured in their attack on the camp.