Fifteen Of The British Were Killed
And Thirty Wounded, While Bridgford The Commander Was Also Taken.
Spens Came Up Shortly Afterwards With The Column, And The Boers
Were Driven Off.
There seems every reason to think that upon this
occasion the plans of the British had leaked out, and that a
deliberate ambush had been laid for them round the farms, but in
such operations these are chances against which it is not always
possible to guard.
Considering the number of the Boers, and the
cleverness of their dispositions, the British were fortunate in
being able to extricate their force without greater loss, a feat
which was largely due to the leading of Lieutenant Sterling.
Leaving the Eastern Transvaal, the narrative must now return to
several incidents of importance which had occurred at various
points of the seat of war during the latter months of 1901.
On September 19th, two days after Gough's disaster, a misfortune
occurred near Bloemfontein by which two guns and a hundred and
forty men fell temporarily into the hands of the enemy. These guns,
belonging to U battery, were moving south under an escort of
Mounted Infantry, from that very Sanna's Post which had been so
fatal to the same battery eighteen months before. When fifteen
miles south of the Waterworks, at a place called Vlakfontein
(another Vlakfontein from that of General Dixon's engagement), the
small force was surrounded and captured by Ackermann's commando.
The gunner officer, Lieutenant Barry, died beside his guns in the
way that gunner officers have.
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