Buller’s scheme for the operations of February 27, was an attack on Pieter’s Hill by Barton, followed in succession by attacks on Railway Hill by Kitchener, and on Hart’s Hill by Norcott, supported by artillery fire from the positions on the right bank.  By the evening of February 26 the troops for the main attack had recrossed the Tugela, and the pontoon bridge west of Hlangwhane could now be removed.  Early in the forenoon of February 27, it was thrown over the river S.E. of Hart’s Hill, where the left bank afforded a covered way of approach to Pieter’s Hill, and the fourth and final member of the zigzag advance was traced, on this occasion towards the north.  For the seventh time Buller ferried the Tugela with his men, who impelled alternately by the impulse of his initiative and by the resilience of the enemy, had been tossed like a tennis ball from bank to bank at Trickhardt’s Drift, Vaalkrantz, and Hlangwhane, yet whom nothing could dishearten.  As they heard the news of Cronje’s surrender at Paardeberg, they were crossing the newly placed pontoon bridge, and on it they set up a signpost bearing the legend “To Ladysmith.”

Barton led the way across the bridge, then turning to the right, crept down the left bank of the river for two miles, and mounted the slopes of Pieter’s Hill, when he became aware of the great strength of the Boer position.  It was hedged in by a river, a wooded donga, and a valley; along its westward face ran a line of kopjes, ending in a detached rocky hill; and it was supported by fire from Railway Hill.  The nearer kopjes were carried without much difficulty, but a sweeping movement to clear the plateau as with the swing of a scythe, was checked by heavy fire from the east, and failed to gather in the rocky hill which commanded the outlying kopjes, and which the enemy succeeded in reinforcing during the fight, and in holding for several hours.

Until the development of the attack on Railway Hill by Kitchener, Barton’s Fusiliers were able to do little more than maintain themselves, as their reserves had been absorbed and their ammunition was running short.  A final attempt was made, with partial success, at the close of the day, to occupy the rocky hill, but at the cost of many casualties.  The enemy was not entirely expelled, but those who remained disappeared during the night.

Kitchener followed in Barton’s track as far as the gorge which separates Pieter’s from Railway Hill.  In spite of the Boer rifles and of the shrapnel of the British gunners on the right bank playing upon the Hill, whose attention was eventually drawn to the situation by the bold advance of two companies to a position from which they could be seen and recognized through the gunners’ telescopes, the eastward edge of Railway Hill was won.  But a portion of Kitchener’s command in rear was magnetically attracted away from the direction of the advance by a flanking fire from Hart’s Hill and, by diverging towards it, broke the continuity of the line facing the position entrenched by the Boers.  Kitchener was, however, able to fill the gap, and he expelled the burghers, most of whom fled before the charge got home; and Railway Hill was won.