‘In the morning, after daybreak, the enemy could scarcely credit their senses that our soldiers had left the hill-top. “Where are the soldiers?” the few Boer scouts who rode forward under the white flag asked our surgeons and ambulance men. “Gone!” “What for?” And subsequently it leaked out from several of them that they had thought the position was lost and they had begun trekking.’

‘The English had employed the night (23rd to 24th January) in making some wide but low shallow trenches, with corresponding parapets of stones, earth, and sods to shelter behind.... These trenches had been established more or less in the centre of the plateau, which was a fatal blunder, this being the very spot where, in the circumstances, a concentrated artillery fire would tell with the deadliest effect.

‘The fight dragged on until the evening, and the position was not recaptured. Those Federals who left the hill at dark thought that the effort to dislodge the English had been a failure—that the fight was lost. It seemed a Platrand fiasco over again, notwithstanding the fine work done by the Federal artillery, and the fact that the retaking of a position like Spion Kop was an easier task than the storming of a defence like Platrand.

‘The night of the 24th to the 25th was one of confused and chaotic panic, which strongly savoured of the beginning of a rout. In the estimation of many the hour of hasty retreat had no doubt sounded, and horses’ heads were turned Ladysmithwards without waste of time. It was expected that the English would make an attack in force next morning, or perhaps in the night, but the demoralisation was so great that no regular watches were kept all along the line of defence in the proximity of Spion Kop. Here and there, it is true, some determined fellows clubbed together with the resolve to have one more trial the next morning, but there is no doubt that if the British had attacked that night the Federals would have made but poor resistance at the utmost, and that their rout would have been a matter of course. Had the English only held the Spion Kop in force until the morning, a second struggle, weakened as the Federals were, would have meant an heroic effort, a short fight, and the success of the English.

‘It was with feelings of blended wonder and thankfulness that some of the Pretoria men and some Free Staters under Commandant Cronje, on climbing the Kop at daybreak, found it tenanted only by corpses and some wounded. Lo! the English had gone! Was it possible? It might be a trap! But no, it was the truth: no soldiers, with the exception of the harmless dead and crippled Khakis, were in sight. The incredible news spread.

‘The exultation of the foreigners at the new gift of victory made to the Federals by English incompetency was great. The remarks uttered in different languages may be condensed in the words of a German officer whose critical judgment was short and to the point: “Wahrhaftig! Dummheit gegen Unwissenheit.” (“Truly, stupidity against ignorance.”) The Boers, hardly knowing what exultation means, were less loud and less given to criticise, but the astonishment they manifested was a censure not to be gainsaid.... Why the English abandoned the Kop in the night from the 24th to the 25th is for me and many others somewhat of a mystery.’

‘January 24th.—It was rumoured last night that Kimberley had fallen, but this is most likely spread about owing to the critical position at Upper Tugela.

‘Fighting began to be very heavy at Upper Tugela early this morning, and a very big affair is going on. At mid-day news came that the English had occupied Spion Kop, a high ridge to the left of the Boer positions, and completely commanding them, during the night. The Boers stormed the hill at daylight, and got to the ridge, and then fearful fighting began at practically point-blank ranges. Our artillery and pom-poms were posted so as to shell the top, and the English are suffering severely, though still sticking to the position. After sundown news came that somewhere about 1,000 troops were taken prisoners on the top. At dark the burghers decided that they had had enough of it, and retired and left the troops in possession of the Kop. Wild rumours are flying about, and everything is beginning to point to a general retirement on to Ladysmith, or possibly to the Biggarsberg. It is even said that the Upper Tugela laagers have begun to pack up and prepare to trek. Boers killed said to number forty.

‘Owing to the confusion it is impossible to get authentic news. Two light carriages arrived to-day to transport my wounded, but no mules were sent to drag them.

‘January 25th.—All the morning the excitement has been terrible. This evening news came that for some inscrutable reason the English retired from Spion Kop the night of the fight or early this morning. The burghers are wild with delight, and are now beginning to claim a great and glorious victory. The English have suffered heavy losses, and then go and throw up a hard-won position—a position which practically meant the relief of Ladysmith. From it they could have flanked all the Lower Tugela positions, i.e. if the burghers had remained in them to be flanked. Between Spion Kop and Ladysmith is country easy to negotiate, with good roads and good enough water. With Spion Kop and the Acton Homes positions being held, it would have been possible to make use of the Van Reenen main road to bring the convoys up. Goodness only knows what will happen now, though they still hold the Thaba Nyama ridges and may be able to break through from there.

‘Prisoners number 250, mostly Lancashire Fusiliers. The Boer loss is 200 certain, and an uncertain number unaccounted for. The English loss must have been very heavy, as our artillery was playing on to them all the time. General Woodgate is said to have been killed.

‘The rumour of Kimberley’s surrender is now denied.

‘January 26th.—It now appears that the English made a great blunder in the manner in which they took up their positions on the top of the hill. They surprised and drove off the Boer picket, and then started to intrench. Instead of intrenching along the front ridge, they threw up trenches in the middle of the top; and varying from fifty to 150 yards from the edge. The Boers were thus enabled to climb up their side of the hill without being fired on, and as soon as they reached the ridge the positions of the two forces were equal, or, rather, the Boers had the better of it, as the English artillery could not get at them.

‘If the trenches had been at the front edge, not a Boer could have got up, as the ascent is very, very steep.

‘January 31st.—I rode over and saw the schanzes, trenches, &c., of our men, and the English at Thaba Nyama. The two positions extend for a long way, nearly parallel to each other. The Boer positions consisted of long isolated trenches dug in the bare veldt, and for Boer positions were undoubtedly weak and unsatisfactory. The English had schanzed the long ridge for a great distance. The schanzes were beautifully made, and in many places were compartments large enough to hold three men lying down. The distance between the positions varied from 1,000 yards in some places to 1,800 in others. In front of the English left was a sort of kloof. Between one edge of this and the schanzes was a flat of about eighty yards. Between the other edge and a long Boer trench was an open slope of about 100 yards. For some reason the English would jump out from the schanzes in batches of twenty-five or thirty men, and make a run for the kloof, and it was while doing this that most of the English were shot. If they had waited till dark, as many men as required could have got into the kloof without any risk, and then a night attack or a rush on the trench could have been made at daylight. This was what the Boers were afraid of for five or six days. The country at the back of the trench is often rolling veldt, affording no cover for any retiring force, and if an attack had been made the Boers would have had to have stopped and made a fight of it. There were millions of empty cartridges lying about, and also several unburied soldiers.

‘February 2nd.—I rode up to the top of Spion Kop and had a good look round. General Botha had obtained a twenty-four hours’ armistice, so that the English dead might be properly buried, as our men had to hold the position and the stench was too dreadful.