At the beginning of August the force which he had for this
purpose, as well as to guard a large store of supplies, consisted of 500
men, nearly all Imperial bushmen or Rhodesians, an old muzzle-loading
seven-pounder, and two maxims. By this time Lord Roberts had determined
that several isolated posts in the Western Transvaal, such as this one,
which were in constant danger of attack, must be evacuated, and on
August 1 ordered General Carrington to march to Elands River to cover
Hore's retirement. But De la Rey, with three detachments of his troops
under himself, Lemmer, and Steenekemp, each numbering about 300 men, and
each with a gun and a pom-pom, and a maxim, had arrived there before
him, and on the morning of August 4 had aroused Hore's camp by shell and
rifle fire from the north-west, east, and south-east. The camp was on a
small boulder-strewn kopje, in the centre of an amphitheatre about five
acres in extent, and half a mile east of the river. Most of the men were
on this central kopje, but two small hills on the bank of the river were
held by detachments under Captain Butters and Lieutenant Zouch.
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