wn as "Barn" on map No. 15, thus acting as a connecting link. The
centre, facing the Colenso crossings, was very strongly held. Here lay
the Boksburg and Heidelberg commandos, the Johannesburg Police, and
the burghers of Vryheid and Krugersdorp districts, the two last-named
units being placed in the trenches along the flats immediately in
front of Fort Wylie. Neither on the centre nor on the right were there
any men posted to the south of the river. The story of the successive
changes in the garrison of the eastern extremity of the crescent of
hills, across the river on the left of the Boer position, is a curious
one, and shows forcibly how much the element of chance at times
influences the operations of war. From the 30th November to the 13th
December, Hlangwhane, which was known to the Boers as "the Boschkop,"
had been occupied by part of the Wakkerstroom commando under a
commandant named Dirksen. A Boer deserter informed Sir Redvers' Field
Intelligence department on the 9th December that the strength of this
detachment was then about 700; but the real numbers were not more than
400 to 500. The arrival of Barton's brigade at Chieveley intimidated
the commando, and on the night of the 13th the burghers, against
Dirksen's orders, withdrew across the river. Botha at first acquiesced
in this abandonment, but Dirksen himself telegraphed to Kruger what
had happened. "If we give this Kop over to the enemy," he added, "then
will the battle expected at Colenso end in disaster."

[Sidenote: 2nd stage.]

The acting commandant-general, Schalk Burger, supported Dirksen's
appeal,[222] and, as a result, a Krijgsraad was held the same evening,
at which, with the concurrence of General Botha, it was unanimously
resolved that Hlangwhane should be re-occupied. A fresh garrison about
800 strong, chosen by lot from the Middelburg, Ermelo, Standerton,
Wakkerstroom and Zoutpansberg commandos, was therefore placed under
the orders of Commandant J. J. Joubert, and moved to the hill during
the night of the 14th. The burghers, on whom this duty fell, accepted
it with much reluctance as they feared that they would be cut off from
their main body. In a Boer official telegram dispatched during the
battle of the 15th, Hlangwhane was referred to as "the dangerous
position."

[Footnote 222: A telegram despatched by Schalk Burger to
Botha on 14th December directed that "Under no circumstances
must Dirksen's position be ab