Our own close formations, our adherence to volley firing, and in this instance the use of our artillery all seem to be legacies of our savage wars.

Be the cause what it may, at an early stage of the action Long's guns whirled forwards, outstripped the infantry brigades upon their flanks, left the slow-moving naval guns with their ox-teams behind them, and unlimbered within a thousand yards of the enemy's trenches.

From this position he opened fire upon Fort Wylie, which was the centre of that portion of the Boer position which faced him.
But his two unhappy batteries were destined not to turn the tide of battle, as he had hoped, but rather to furnish the classic example of the helplessness of artillery against modern rifle fire.

Not even Mercer's famous description of the effect of a flank fire upon his troop of horse artillery at Waterloo could do justice to the blizzard of lead which broke over the two doomed batteries.

The teams fell in heaps, some dead, some mutilated, and mutilating others in their frantic struggles.
One driver, crazed with horror, sprang on a leader, cut the traces and tore madly off the field.