As for the fight itself, people seem inclined to make a great mystery
about it and talk about "the difficulty of getting at the truth;" but I
don't see myself where the mystery comes in. What happened was this. The
Highland Brigade (Black Watch, Seaforths, Argyle and Sutherlands, and
Highland Light Infantry) was told off for the night attack and marched
before light to the hill. The night was very dark and heavy rain
falling. The ground was rough, stony, and rocky, with a good deal of low
scrub, bushes, and thorn trees, very difficult to get through at night.
The difficulty of moving masses of men with any accuracy in the dark is
extreme, and to keep them together at all it was necessary for them to
advance in a compact body. In quarter column, therefore, the Brigade
advanced and approached the foot of the hill. I have noticed several
times that when you get rather close to the hill the rise comes to look
more gradual and the ridge itself does not stand up in the abrupt and
salient way that it does from a distance. Whether it was this, or simply
that the darkness of the night hid the outline, at any rate the column
approached the hill and the trench which runs at the foot of the hill
much too closely before the order to extend was given. When it was given
it was too late. They were in the act of executing it when the volley
came.

Of course an attack like this cannot be intended altogether as a
surprise--that is, it cannot be pushed home as a surprise. You cannot
march 4000 heavy-booted men through broken ground on a dark night
without making plenty of noise over it; also the Boers must certainly
have had pickets out, which would have moved in as we advanced and
given the alarm. But had our fellows deployed at half a mile, or less,
under cover of darkness, and then advanced in open order, the enemy
could not have seen clearly enough to shoot with accuracy until they
were fairly close, and I daresay the fire then would not have stopped