As soon as some of the troops had passed, they lined the bank until the
two battalions were over, and then advanced over some low hills,
clearing out a few Boers who occupied some advanced trenches. By six
o'clock the ferry-boat began to carry the main body across, taking over
half a company at a time; but it was not until half-past three in the
morning that the horses, waggons, the guns of the brigade, and a
howitzer battery were on the northern bank, and the whole brigade
established on a ridge a mile beyond the river.
The Maritzburg Scouts were delighted at receiving orders on the morning
after their arrival at Springfield that they were to move forward at
once and encamp close to Spearman's Farm, and to furnish orderlies for
carrying messages for the general. They started at once, and after an
hour's fast riding arrived at the point assigned to them.
Twenty men and an officer were at once sent to the farmhouse. They took
with them three tents which they had brought in the regimental waggon,
and erected these some fifty yards from the house; the rest of the troop
established their camp at a point indicated by a staff officer a quarter
of a mile away. It had been two o'clock in the morning before the convoy
had reached Springfield, and horses and men were alike tired out; and as
soon as breakfast had been prepared and eaten most of the troopers
turned in to sleep.
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