s position, about 3,000 yards
distant from the latter. Colonel W. Kitchener was entrusted with the
command of this force and directed to seize Brynbella by a night
attack. Beacon Hill was occupied without opposition, and the Naval
gun, Field battery, and 2nd Queen's were detailed to hold it as a
support to the attack; to these was subsequently added the 1st Border.
A thunderstorm of great severity now delayed the advance upon
Brynbella; the night was intensely dark; the rocky nature of the
ground and the absence of beaten tracks made the task of assembling
the troops and directing their movements extremely difficult. It was
not, therefore, until after midnight that the column, led by Colonel
Kitchener, moved forward under the guidance of a Natal colonist, Mr.
Chapman, who was unfortunately killed in action after he had
successfully accomplished his task. The march was made in column of
double companies. Owing to the darkness of the night and the broken
ground, the difficulty of keeping touch between the companies was
great; firing had been forbidden, but when half the distance had been
covered, a company reached a wall and rushed it, thinking that it was
the enemy's position; the next company was thrown into confusion, and
a third in rear and on higher ground opened fire and began cheering.
Colonel Kitchener with great coolness succeeded in restoring order,
but not before eight soldiers had been hit by bullets from their
comrades' rifles. The advance was then continued and Brynbella Hill
was occupied at 3.30 a.m. without further casualties. The Boer party,
which consisted of eighty Johannesburg policemen, under Lieut. van
Zyl, retired to a ridge about 1,500 yards further to the south. A
Creusot field gun had been withdrawn the previous evening after a
brief exchange of shots with the Naval gun on Beacon Hill.

[Sidenote: He falls back to Estcourt, Nov. 23rd.]

At daybreak next morning Kitchener's men came under the fire of the
Boer commando holding the southern ridge, and after some two hours'
skirmishing at long range the enemy began to creep forward, and the
rifle and gun fire gradually became very effective. Kitchener,
perceiving that no supports were being sent forward to him, decided to
retire, and in this carried out the Major-General's intentions. A
gradual withdrawal from the hill in groups of two or three was
therefore commenced. Mounted troops, which had left Estcourt at
daybreak under command of Lt.-Colonel