38. Lt Col S.P.E. Trichardt and Gen Daniel Erasmus

After the Gun Hill attack, surprisingly, the Boers did not step up their watchfulness nor increase the number of men guarding their gun positions. Only on 10th December did Lieutenant Colonel S.P.E. Trichardt address a letter to General Daniel Erasmus remonstrating about the weak force guarding the howitzer on Vaalkop (Surprise Hill). He said that while there were 30 men in the guard detail, only 2 of them remained on guard while the rest went to sleep to the rear of the emplacement. Trichardt required Erasmus to urgently increase the guard to 50 so that at least 10 of these should remain awake and watchful. An extra picquet had been placed at the foot of Vaalkop under the command of Corporal Tossel, formerly a detective in the Z.A.R.P., but this was the only extra measure put in place by General Erasmus. It was too late – Metcalfe and his men were shortly to be on their way to attack the hill.

53. Colonel Beauchamp Duff and Generals Schalk Burger and Daniel Erasmus

It was now towards three in the morning, and Malherbe’s men had nearly exhausted their ammunition. They sat quietly watching the tail of the column vanish into the darkness beyond, on its way to Ladysmith. When daylight came at last, a grim scene met their eyes. Said Reitz: “Before us, within a radius of less than twenty-five yards, lay over sixty dead and wounded English soldiers, and as we walked forward among them we came upon the bodies of three of our men who had not been with us originally. Two were dead and dreadfully hacked with bayonets and the third was at his last gasp.”

62. ZAR State Attorney Jan Christiaan Smuts

None of the officers or men who had been responsible for the slack guarding of the guns on Gun Hill and Surprise Hill were brought before a court martial. The senior officers, Erasmus and Trichardt denied any culpability. Jan Smuts, as State Attorney responsible for organizing such a body, was unable to assemble enough officers as they were all fully occupied around Ladysmith. There were no more British raids – not so much because of any additional protection measures, but because they soon expected relief from Redvers Buller’s army corps now confronting the Boers along the Tugela River.