If those Free-Staters--they must have been thinking--try to make a stand there, it will be the last stand they will ever make.
And the English would have been quite right in their anticipations.

To have stayed where we then were would, without doubt, have been the end of us.

Therefore, when the proposal was made that we should take positions in the mountains, I opposed it as emphatically as I could, alleging incontrovertible arguments against it.

It was then decided that all our forces, with the exception of a small watch, should issue forth from behind the mountains.
We also arranged to divide the whole of the commandos[61] we had with us into three parts:-- I was in supreme command of the first division, which was to march under the orders of General Botha.

It consisted of burghers from Heilbron, under Commandant Steenekamp, and of Kroonstad men, under Commandant Van Aard.