Symons' Death and Victory
"At 8.50 A.M. the Infantry Brigade were ordered to advance. The ground was open and intersected by nullahs, which, running generally perpendicular to the enemy's position, gave very little cover. At 9 A.M. Sir W. P. Symons ordered up his reserves, and advanced with them through the wood at 9.15 A.M. At 9.30 A.M. the Lieutenant-General was, I regret to report, mortally wounded in the stomach, and the command devolved upon Brigadier-General Yule.
"About 11.30 A.M. the enemy's guns were silenced and the artillery moved into a range of 1,400 yards and opened a very rapid fire on the ridge over the heads of our infantry. This temporarily brought under the enemy's rifle fire, and enabled our infantry to push on. The ground in places was so steep and difficult that the men had to climb it on hands and knees; but by 1 A.M. the crest was reached, and the enemy, not waiting to come to close quarters, retired."
The loss of a detachment followed, and Sir George says:
"The Boer force engaged in this action is computed at 4,000 men, of whom about 500 were killed or wounded. Three of their guns were left dismounted on Talana Hill, but there was no opportunity of bringing them away."
Elandslaagte and Engagements
In his account of the Elandslaagte engagement, Sir George details the fight and closes:
"Our men worked forward in short rushes of about fifty yards. Many of the Boers remained lying down, shooting from behind stones until our men were within twenty or thirty yards of them, then sometimes ran for it and sometimes stood up and surrendered. These latter individuals were never harmed, although just previous to surrendering they had probably shot down several of our officers and men.
"At length the guns were reached and captured, and the end of the ridge was gained, from which the whole of the enemy's camp, full of tents, horses and men, was fully exposed to view at fixed sight range. A white flag was shown from the centre of the camp, and Colonel Hamilton ordered the 'cease fire' to be sounded. The men obeyed, and some of them moved a short distance down the hill towards the camp. For a few moments there was a complete lull in the action, and then a shot was heard, which was followed by a deadly fire from the small conical copje to the east of the camp, and by a determined charge up hill by some thirty or forty Boers, who effected a lodgment near the crest line within fifteen or twenty paces of our men, who fell back for a moment before the fierce suddenness of this attack. Only for a moment, however, for our fire was at once reopened, and, reinforced by a timely detachment of the 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, they charged back, cheering, to the crest line, when the remnant of the Boer force fled in confusion towards the north.
"The 1st Devonshire Regiment charged with fixed bayonets, and the cavalry squadrons went through and through the retreating enemy. Sir George White estimates the Boer losses at over 100 killed, 108 wounded and 188 prisoners."