Many of the Free State men had left the retreating forces of the Transvaal and remained in their own country. Although they had, through the malign influence of Steyn, thrown in their lot with their northern kindred, there had from the first been no real heartiness between the two sections, the Free State men declaring that they were sacrificed by the Transvaalers, that the whole brunt of the war had fallen upon them, that they were not consulted, and were treated rather as if they had been born servants of the Transvaalers than as men who had sacrificed everything for their sake. The Transvaal men, on the other hand, accused the burghers of the Free State of being half-hearted in the cause, of being backward in fighting, and not to be trusted, accusations which were certainly unfounded. The one desperate attempt for the capture of Ladysmith, had been made by the Free State men, who had fought with greater courage and determination than the Transvaalers had ever done. Their country had been made the theatre of war. It was their railways that had been destroyed, their property damaged, their farms burnt. They had been placed along the Modder to bear the brunt of the British fire, while the Transvaalers had been posted in a comparatively safe position on the British flank. They a civilized people, had been lorded over by one inferior to their foes in all respects except physical strength. It was small wonder that, seeing how all the assurances that they had received had been falsified, all their hopes disappointed, all their feelings outraged, they should have refused to go north to aid in the defence of the country, which had done so little to aid them. The wonder rather is, that they did not retire altogether from the contest and accept the inevitable, when further resistance could but bring ruin upon them. Advancing from the Klip River on the 29th, General Ian Hamilton found the enemy in considerable force with guns on a range of hills to the west. The position being too strong for cavalry to attack alone, two brigades of infantry were sent to their assistance; and the Gordons and the City Imperial Volunteers with the greatest gallantry stormed the heights. The fighting of the Boers here showed how great was their demoralization, there was no such resistance as that offered by the men who held the kopjes of Belmont and Graspan. The Gordons had nearly a hundred casualties, but this was caused to some extent by their advancing in open order in line without a pause; while the City Imperial Volunteers, who were exposed to an equally heavy fire, advanced by rushes, the companies in the rear keeping up a heavy fire against the Boers on the sky-line, and so shaking the accuracy of their fire.