The first dim rays of the day came over the tops of the eastern hills when
the burghers were aroused and asked to proceed to the positions chosen by
their leaders. The men under Peter De Wet, the younger brother of the
Commandant-General, were led to an elevation about a mile and a half south
of Sannaspost, where they placed their cannon into position and waited for
the break of day.
Christian De Wet and his five hundred burghers advanced noiselessly and
occupied the dry bed of Koorn Spruit, a stream which crossed the main road
running from Thaba N'Chu to Bloemfontein at right angles about a mile from
the station where the British forces had begun their bivouac for the
night, two hours before. No signs of the enemy could be seen; there were
no pickets, no outposts, and none of the usual safeguards of an army, and
for some time the Boers were led to believe that the British force had
been allowed to escape unharmed.
The burghers under the leadership of Christian De Wet were completely
concealed in the spruit. The high banks might have been held by the forces
of their enemy, but unless they crept to the edge and looked down into the
stream they would not have been able to discover the presence of the
Boers. Where the road crossed the stream deep approaches had been dug into
the banks in order to facilitate the passage of conveyances--a "drift" it
is called in South Africa--and on either side for a distance of a mile, up
and down the stream, the burghers stood by their horses and waited for the
coming of the day.
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