All down the line men were in movement. From Orange River Camp, on the morning of the 10th a great convoy, hundreds of waggons strong, was advancing on Ramdam, an important road-junction, in charge of a strong force of mounted infantry under Colonel Hannay, whose task it was to clear of the enemy the country to the south of the Riet. All the 11th he was in contact with a party of 300 or 400 Boers, detached from Cronje's force, who hung upon his flanks and rear, skirmishing continually, but none the less he held steadily on his way to Ramdam. [Illustration: [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._ LIEUT.-COLONEL HANNAY. (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders).] [Illustration: HOWITZERS OF THE 37th BATTERY. Photographed immediately after the fight at Sunnyside, in which they had taken an active part.] [Sidenote: [FEB. 11-12, 1900.] Punctually at 3 a.m. of the 11th, the day of prayer and intercession for success in England, General French led out his cavalry regiments and his horse artillery in magnificent procession--the last seven batteries or 42 guns strong. The night had not yet given way to dawn, when he struck due south from Modder River Camp, leaving his tents standing to deceive the enemy. The spectacle was a very fine one. "Out of the moonlit dust," writes an officer, "one could discern a squadron of Lancers trotting up into position, the lances standing out against the sky-line, the heads and shoulders of the men being just visible, while the lower portion of their bodies and the horses faded into obscurity. Then there would come with a heavy rumble a battery of artillery, similarly vignetted in the moonlit dust, or, perhaps, an ambulance section, with its red cross, or a battalion of mounted infantry, while hoarse, short words of command caught the ear on all sides." The troopers marched light with only their arms, the clothes they wore, and five days' rations. In the darkness the horses stumbled often over the holes of the ant-bears. Now and then a cavalryman would come heavily to earth; at times a half-dozen of men and horses would be floundering in one confused heap, and the cry was heard on every side--"Hole here!" "Hole to the right!" The horses were for the most part in bad condition. They had not recovered from the long sea voyage before they were put to the hardest of work in an unfamiliar climate. The mounted infantry men, too, were not skilled in the art of sparing and saving their horses. The move in the fierce heat to Koodoesrand Drift, at General Macdonald's demand, had put a great strain upon one of the cavalry brigades, from which it had not entirely recovered. And so, as in the twilight the dust-shrouded column swept down towards Ramdam, twenty miles away, some of the horses already began to show signs of weakness. The railway was followed as far as Graspan, so as to afford not the slightest indication of the division's object. Then turning east, Ramdam was struck about mid-day.