Identifier: battlesofninetee06forb (find matches)
Title: Battles of the nineteenth century
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Forbes, Archibald, 1838-1900 Atteridge, A. Hilliard (Andrew Hilliard)
Subjects: Battles Military history, Modern
Publisher: London New York : Cassell and Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ll the ground where the Boer supports were supposed to be massed. The Boers had guns on Middle Hill and on Blaauwbank, to the south and west of Waggon Hill. These guns were served with marvellous accuracy. Although the fighting lines were within 200 yards of each other, the Boer shells roared over the heads of their own men and fell among the defenders of the plateau, causing a good deal of loss. The 21st and 42nd Batteries R.F.A. came into action against these positions. They checked at least one effort of the enemy to reinforce the attack. The guns of the Natal Artillery Volunteers stopped another, and the naval 12-pounders brought a well-directed shell fire to bear on the Boer gun positions. On Waggon Hill the enemy's attack was fiercest. The garrison there had been further strengthened with half a battalion of the Kings Royal Rifles. The enemy held so much of the summit that our men could not merely confine themselves to a passive defence. Efforts had to be made to recapture the ground that had been
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THE ORANGE FREE STATERS AT WAGGON HILL. 153 taken by the Boers. More than one dashing attack was made by the defenders of the hill. At times they gained ground, at other points their efforts were for the moment unavailing. And the Boers, encouraged by every check, tried to push further forward on the plateau. So for hours the summit of Waggon Hill was eager for the war, and good fighting men, the Orange Free Staters had gone into it with only half a heart, and had lived so long in peace that they would prove but feeble adversaries. But at Waggon Hill, where the struggle was fiercest, the brunt of the fighting fell upon the men of the Free State. All who saw or shared in the SfitW »i 1<-\.(ii

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