Three days' halt was allowed the column at Middleburg, and on the 25th a start was again made for the north. It was now composed as under:—
Four guns 81st Field Battery R.A., under Major Simpson.
One pompom.
19th Hussars.
5th and 6th West Australians.
Half company Scottish Horse.
Half company Mounted Infantry.
Seven companies Devonshire Regiment.
Two companies under Captain Bartlett had left on the 24th July to garrison Elands River station, on the Pretoria-Lorenzo railway.
The seven companies with General Kitchener marched out 723 strong.
Two other columns were operating with General Kitchener, one under Colonel Park and the other under Colonel Campbell. The whole were under the supreme command of General Walter Kitchener.
On the first day out the 19th Hussars captured a pompom and about sixty prisoners of Ben Viljoen's and Muller's commandos after a very gallant little action in which five men of the 19th Hussars especially distinguished themselves. A great number of cattle and many wagons were also taken, and the Boers lost about twelve killed and twenty wounded.
General Walter Kitchener's column encamped at Rooi Kraal for a few days before moving to a camp at Diep Kloof, from which place convoys were sent to the railway for stores for the three columns.
The first of these convoys under Lieutenant-Colonel Jacson left on August 1st, marched to Middleburg, by Blinkwater and Elandslaagte, and reached Middleburg in three days; halted one day there to load up, and returned via Elandslaagte and Noitgedacht to Diepkloof in three more days, receiving on their return the congratulations of General Kitchener on their performance.
On the 10th another convoy, again under Lieutenant-Colonel Jacson, with an escort composed of men of the Devons and Leicesters and some Scottish mounted infantry and two field guns, started for Wonderfontein.