At seven o’clock in the evening of 23rd January Major-General Woodgate started with the column for the attack, the troops carrying rations for the following day with them. Mr. Bennet Burleigh in ‘The Natal Campaign’ gives the following graphic account of the march:
‘The force proceeded in the gloaming down the slope, moving rearward along the deep dongas to get upon the south side of Thaba Emanyama. Painfully going forward, scrambling over boulders and rocks in the darkness, the column, in two thin lines, silently, slowly neared the mountain. No smoking, no talking—the orders not to fire but to use the bayonet—the men held grimly onward. Almost every man carried a rifle, including General Woodgate.... Whenever a difficult part was reached Thorneycroft went ahead with two or three of his men to discover the best way of surmounting the obstacle, or ascertaining if Boers lay behind interposing ledges. General Woodgate, though far from well, persisted in leading his men. In steep places he had in several instances to be pushed and pulled to assist him onward.’
The column arrived half-way up at half-past one o’clock in the morning of the 24th, and carried the summit at half-past three, some of Thorneycroft’s men and of the Royal Engineers and South Lancashires rushing the position with fixed bayonets with a loss of only three men wounded. The cheers of the successful assailants were heard at the bivouac at Three Tree Hill, and when day broke the summit of Spion Kop was seen to be enveloped in thick mist, which no doubt had assisted the assaulting column to arrive at the top undiscovered.
Early in the morning the troops intrenched themselves as well as the darkness would admit, and from the bottom of the hill the Sappers commenced making a zigzag path to the summit for the water mules and the mountain battery to ascend, and later straight slides at the steep places for the naval 12-pr. guns which Sir Redvers Buller was to send over.
About half-past five o’clock in the morning the Boers, who had fled at the first assault, returned with strong reinforcements, and, as the mist lifted from time to time, commenced firing at our troops from a kopje to the north, some 400 or 500 yards away. Our trenches, owing to the rocky nature of the plateau on the top, were very shallow, and, owing probably to the darkness and fog, were wrongly placed in the middle of the plateau.
At 7 A.M. Sir Charles Warren rode over from Three Tree Hill to the foot of Spion Kop, whence the ascent of the column had taken place, examined the approaches, and gave the Imperial Light Infantry instructions how they should advance to the support of the column without attracting the fire of the enemy. He then returned to Three Tree Hill, but the mist still prevented any signalling from the top of Spion Kop, and it was not until after nine o’clock that Sir Charles Warren received by the hands of Lieut.-Colonel àCourt, who had returned from the top, the following letter from Major-General Woodgate, written about two hours before:
‘Spion Kop: 24th January 1900.
‘Dear Sir Charles,—We got up about four o’clock, and rushed the position with three men wounded. There were some few Boers, who seemed surprised, and bolted after firing a round or so, having one man killed. I believe there is another somewhere, but have not found him in the mist. The latter did us well, and I pushed on a bit quicker than I perhaps should otherwise have done, lest it should lift before we got here. We have intrenched a position, and are, I hope, secure; but fog is too thick to see, so I retain Thorneycroft’s men and Royal Engineers for a bit longer. Thorneycroft’s men attacked in fine style. I had a noise made later to let you know that we had got in.
‘Yours &c.,
‘E. Woodgate.’
Lieut.-Colonel àCourt expressed himself as quite satisfied that the summit could be held—‘held till doomsday against all comers,’ he said to Mr. Bennet Burleigh.