Further details of the action at Vlakfontein, briefly men- tioned
in our last issue, show that this must be reckoned amongst the hardest fought engagements of the campaign'. From Lord Kitchener's despatch, received on Tuesday, it appears that while General Dixon's column, consisting of fourteen hundred and fifty men with seven guns, was returning to camp at Vlakfontein, fifteen miles west of Naauw- poort in the Transvaal, the Boers, led by Commandant Kemp. acting under Delarey, and covered by the smoke of a veld fire, rushed the rearguard consisting of two guns, 28th Battery, two hundred and fifty men of the 7th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry, and a hundred of the Derbyshire Regiment. The attack was so sudden and determined that fifty of our men fell at the first volley, and the guns were for five minutes in the hands of the enemy. It is further stated by Reuter that a lieutenant and sergeant-major who were made prisoners and refused to give information as to the work- ing of the guns were shot by the Boers. When, however, the main body of the British came into action, the guns were recaptured by a bayonet charge of the Derbyshires, and the Boers driven off, leaving forty-one dead on the ground. Our losses were also heavy, six officers and fifty-one men being killed, and six officers and one hundred and fifteen men wounded, of whom five have since died, while one officer and seven men are reported missing. Further details of the Boer casualties are not yet forthcoming, but it is hardly necessary to point out that, in view of their limited resources, the number of the killed indicates a loss far more serious for them than for us.
