were recast, and by 4.30 a.m. on the 28th, the
division was on the march,[173] but unfortunately the men were not
all of them adequately prepared for the work which lay before them,
for owing to the change of plan many started without their breakfasts.

[Footnote 172: This sketch had been made a few days before
the outbreak of war by an officer who was ordered to report
on the best method of defending the Modder River bridge with
one or two companies of infantry. It was executed under
circumstances which, even had his instructions been more
comprehensive, would have prevented him from effecting any
extensive reconnaissance of the Riet and Modder rivers.]

[Footnote 173: The Northamptonshire was detailed to guard the
baggage at Wittekop. The 1st battalion Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders joined Lord Methuen's column on the night of the
28th from the lines of communication.]

[Sidenote: The cavalry stopped by concealed riflemen before division
arrives.]

[Sidenote: The real dispositions of defenders.]

The cavalry, who had moved off at 4 a.m., were brought to a standstill
by the enemy's fire at about 5.30 a.m. Major Little then reported to
Lord Methuen, who had accompanied the mounted troops, that all the
information sent in by the officers of the advance squadrons showed
that the river was strongly held from the railway bridge eastward to a
clump of high poplars. Major Little's deduction, as far as it went,
was perfectly correct; but he did not know, nor did anyone else in
Lord Methuen's force suspect, that admirably concealed entrenchments
had been thrown up along the left bank of the Riet, from Rosmead east,
to the bend where the bed of the river turns sharply southwards. At
many places on the northern bank shelter trenches had been
constructed. The farms on the southern bank had been prepared for
occupation by riflemen; the houses of Rosmead and Modder village had
been placed in a state of defence. At various points behind the Riet,
epaulments had been thrown up for the six field guns which the enemy
had with them, while among the foliage on the bank three or four
pom-poms were cunningly concealed. It is uncertain whether the whole
of the long series of trenches was actually manned when the cavalry
first appeared before the river, or whether the Boers only occupied
the western works after it had become clear that L