Lieutenant-Colonel Winsloe, 21st Regiment, now commanding at the fort
which he afterwards defended so gallantly, that he was to commence
firing. Clarke was in the Landdrost's office on the Market Square with a
force of about twenty soldiers under Captain Falls and twenty civilians
under Captain Raaf, C.M.G., a position but ill-suited for defensive
purposes, from whence fire was accordingly opened, the Boers taking up
positions in the surrounding houses commanding the office. Shortly after
the commencement of the fighting, Captain Falls was shot dead whilst
talking to Major Clarke, the latter having a narrow escape, a bullet
grazing his head just above the ear. The fighting continued during
the 17th and till the morning of the 18th, when the Boers succeeded in
firing the roof, which was of thatch, by throwing fire-balls on to
it. Major Clarke then addressed the men, telling them that, though
personally he did not care about his own life, he did not see that
they could serve any useful purpose by being burned alive, so he should
surrender, which he did, with a loss of about six killed and wounded.
The camp meanwhile had repulsed with loss the attack made on it, and was
never again directly attacked.

Whilst these events were in progress at Potchefstroom, a much more awful
tragedy was in preparation on the road between Middelburg and Pretoria.

On the 23rd November Colonel Bellairs, at the request of Sir Owen
Lanyon, directed a concentration on Pretoria of most of the few soldiers
that there were in the territory, in view of the disturbed condition of
the country. In accordance with these orders, Colonel Anstruther
marched from Lydenburg, a town about 180 miles from Pretoria, on the 5th
December, with the headquarters and two companies of the 94th Regiment,
being a total of 264 men, three women, and two children, and the
disproportionately large train of thirty-four ox-waggons, or an
ox-waggon capable of carrying five thousand pounds' weight to every
eight persons. And here I may remark that it is this enormous amount of
baggage, without which it appears to be impossible to move the smallest
body of men, that renders infantry regiments almost useless for service
in South Africa except for garrisoning purposes. Both Zulus and Boers
can get over the ground at thrice the pace possible to the unfortunate
soldier, and both races despise them accordingly. The Zulus call our
infantry "pack oxen." In this particular instance, Co