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Page 18
The Boer attack of January 6th on the positions round Ladysmith
commenced on Wagon Hill at about 2.45 a.m., and the Boers were not
finally repulsed till after dark on the evening of the same day.
As the great attack has been so ably described by various authors, it
will suffice here to give a rough outline of what took place on C�sar's
Camp and Wagon Hill prior to the companies of the Regiment reaching the
latter place.
The Boers attacked Wagon Hill at about 2.45 a.m., and amidst a good deal
of confusion on the top, where 4:7 gun was in the act of being mounted,
gained possession of the front crest. Their attempt to take Wagon Hill
itself failed. Reinforcements consisting of two companies Gordon
Highlanders and three squadrons of I.L.H. were sent to assist the 60th
Rifles, the men of the I.L.H., and the detachment of Sappers already
engaged with the Boers.
[Illustration: The Railway Bridge, with C�sar's Camp in Distance,
Ladysmith]
An hour later the attack on C�sar's Camp developed. The Manchesters were
prepared for them, and one company Gordon Highlanders was sent to
reinforce. The Boers, unable to advance against the front crest of
C�sar's Camp, attempted to turn the flank of the Manchesters along the
northern slopes. This attempt was foiled by the advance of the one
company Gordon Highlanders, assisted by the 53rd Battery which had come
into action on the plain below. The Rifle Brigade reinforced C�sar's
Camp at about 7 a.m., and two more companies of the Gordons were sent
there at about 2 p.m. By 10 a.m. the Boers had been pushed back off
C�sar's Camp, and Wagon Hill was reported nearly clear.
Wagon Hill was further reinforced by the 18th Hussars at 10 a.m.
At 1 p.m. the Boers, who had always hung on to their crest line, again
attempted to rush Wagon Hill point, and though they gained a temporary
advantage failed to establish themselves.
Sir George White ordered that the hill should be cleared of Boers at all
costs before nightfall, and he sent the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars to
support the troops already at Wagon Hill, and at the same time three
companies of the Devons were ordered to proceed there with all dispatch.
At 10 a.m. the three companies of the Devons, which were in camp,
commanded respectively by Captain W.B. Lafone, Lieutenant Masterson with
Lieutenant Walker, and Lieutenant Field, the whole commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Park, had been ordered to proceed to the camp near
Iron Bridge vacated that morning by the Gordon Highlanders, to be ready
as a reserve if wanted.
At about 3.30 p.m. these three companies received orders to proceed at
once to Wagon Hill to reinforce Colonel Ian Hamilton's command and to
push on, as help was urgently required. The Adjutant, Captain H.S.L.
Ravenshaw, was sent back to camp to order rations and water to be sent
out. Wagon Hill was reached at 4.45 p.m., and it was then ascertained
that the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars had already been merged into the
firing line, and that a party of forty or fifty Boers were still in
possession of the hill some 100 yards in front of the ridge held by the
Imperial Light Horse, and directly in front of where the three companies
were then halted under cover, that these Boers had been holding on all
day there and inflicting great loss, and that our troops had been unable
to dislodge them. Colonel Park was asked if he could turn them out by
rushing them with the bayonet. He answered, "We will try." After the
three companies had been formed up in column with bayonets fixed and
magazines charged, Colonel Park gave the order to advance at fifty paces
interval in quick time, and when the top of the ridge was reached to
charge the position occupied by the Boers.
The charge took place in a blinding hail-storm, a time well chosen, as
the hail was beating into the faces of the Boers. The men, before
reaching the place where they formed up for the charge, were wet
through, and had put on their warm coats which they had carried strapped
on to their belts.
When the storm was at its height, Colonel Park gave the order to charge.
Lieutenant Field, who commanded the leading company, rushed forward up
the slope, shouting, "Company, double charge!" He was immediately
followed at a distance of about ten yards by Masterson's company, which
was immediately followed by Lafone's. As they got to the top of the
crest they came in view of the sangar of rocks held by the I.L.H. At the
corner of this they had to change direction half right, and the moment
they reached it came under fire from the Boers. There was necessarily
some crowding at this corner, owing to the change of direction, and the
fact that the companies in their eagerness had followed so soon the one
behind the other. There was, however, no halting, no dwelling here. On
they went to reach their goal, 130 yards away, over perfectly flat open
ground, fired into at short range from right, left, and front.
Three-parts of the way across Park directed the rear company more to the
right, the position the Boers occupied being in a semicircle.
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