Another half-battalion of Rifles came with them.

At each end of the long ridge the situation at the dawn of day was almost identical.

In each the stormers had seized one side, but were brought to a stand by the defenders upon the other, while the British guns fired over the heads of their own infantry to rake the further slope.
It was on the Waggon Hill side, however, that the Boer exertions were most continuous and strenuous and our own resistance most desperate.
There fought the gallant de Villiers, while Ian Hamilton rallied the defenders and led them in repeated rushes against the enemy's line.
Continually reinforced from below, the Boers fought with extraordinary resolution.

Never will any one who witnessed that Homeric contest question the valour of our foes.

It was a murderous business on both sides.