advantage failed to establish themselves.

Sir George White ordered that the hill should be cleared of Boers at all
costs before nightfall, and he sent the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars to
support the troops already at Wagon Hill, and at the same time three
companies of the Devons were ordered to proceed there with all dispatch.

At 10 a.m. the three companies of the Devons, which were in camp,
commanded respectively by Captain W.B. Lafone, Lieutenant Masterson with
Lieutenant Walker, and Lieutenant Field, the whole commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Park, had been ordered to proceed to the camp near
Iron Bridge vacated that morning by the Gordon Highlanders, to be ready
as a reserve if wanted.

At about 3.30 p.m. these three companies received orders to proceed at
once to Wagon Hill to reinforce Colonel Ian Hamilton's command and to
push on, as help was urgently required. The Adjutant, Captain H.S.L.
Ravenshaw, was sent back to camp to order rations and water to be sent
out. Wagon Hill was reached at 4.45 p.m., and it was then ascertained
that the 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars had already been merged into the
firing line, and that a party of forty or fifty Boers were still in
possession of the hill some 100 yards in front of the ridge held by the
Imperial Light Horse, and directly in front of where the three companies
were then halted under cover, that these Boers had been holding on all
day there and inflicting great loss, and that our troops had been unable
to dislodge them. Colonel Park was asked if he could turn them out by
rushing them with the bayonet. He answered, "We will try." After the
three companies had been formed up in column with bayonets fixed and
magazines charged, Colonel Park gave the order to advance at fifty paces
interval in quick time, and when the top of the ridge was reached to