The horses were ordered to water while the general and staff rode forward to reconnoitre.

Reaching a favourable height, they saw, 4,000 yards away, the leading wagons of the Boer convoy just descending to {p.279} Koodoosrand Drift, where a road from the northward crosses to Petrusberg, on the Jacobsdal-Bloemfontein highway.

The batteries were summoned up, being cautioned to move at a walk, lest their dust should draw attention, and at 12.15 P.M.the first shot was fired which told Cronje that at the very last moment, with safety apparently grasped, his passage was about to be disputed.
The Boer general, who for a day and a half had been fighting a constant succession of rearguard actions with Kitchener's infantry, took his measures promptly to meet this new dilemma.

He first tried to seize positions of command which would give him control of the ford.
In this French was the quicker, and headed him.

He then turned his column to the right to a ford called Wolveskraal Drift, four miles below, west of Koodoosrand, and the same distance above Paardeberg Drift, from which his defence has received its name.