fronted by both
detachments, retired to Colesberg. Thus by evening French, though
disappointed with the results north of the town, where he had hoped to
secure "Grassy" (later Suffolk) Hill, had cut off Colesberg from the
rest of the colony on the south and west. His intercepting line ran
north as far as Kloof camp.[264] As all the troops were thus fully
occupied, French asked for reinforcements with which to "manoeuvre the
enemy out of his position." Schoeman himself, at the same time, was
demanding assistance from the Boer Headquarters to enable him to hold
his ground.[265]

[Footnote 264: Casualties, January 1st:--Killed, one officer;
wounded, six officers, twenty-one N.C.O.s and men; missing,
one man.]

[Footnote 265: The former received the 1st Essex regiment,
two companies 1st Yorkshire regiment, 4th battery R.F.A., and
the Household cavalry composite regiment; the latter the
Johannesburg Police under Van Dam, and a commando under
Commandant Grobelaar. The reinforcements reached the two
opponents on January 4th, 5th and 6th.]

[Sidenote: Jan. 4th, 1900. Schoeman attacks French's left, obtains a
momentary advantage, but completely fails.]

Next day (January 2nd) General French delegated the command of the
left attack to Major-General Brabazon, with Headquarters at Maeder's
farm, and relieved the cavalry at Kloof camp by four companies of the
1st Suffolk regiment, one squadron alone remaining there to act as a
screen to the northern flank. This day and the next passed
uneventfully. Early in the morning of the 4th, Schoeman, baulked in
his attempt of the 1st January against the British right, dashed
suddenly from his lines with a thousand men against the left, and all
but rolled it up. Eluding the cavalry piquets posted on the outer
flank of the Suffolk, the burghers galloped for a line of kopjes which
ran east and west across the left and left rear of Kloof camp, into
which they therefore looked from the flank, and partially from the
rear. The enemy's artillery at once opened fiercely from their main
position upon the entrenchments of the Suffolk, who, assailed from
three directions, were for some time seriously threatened. Much
depended upon the action of the next few minutes. French's front line
was for the moment truly outflanked, and, were the enemy to establish
himself where he was, nothing would remain but a speedy and diffic