This time, however, there was no element of surprise, and the British were able to approach the task with deliberation and method.  The result was that both upon the 19th and 20th the Boers were shelled out of successive positions with considerable loss, and driven altogether away from that part of the Magaliesberg.  Shortly afterwards General Clements was recalled to Pretoria, to take over the command of the 7th Division, General Tucker having been appointed to the military command of Bloemfontein in the place of the gallant Hunter, who, to the regret of the whole army, was invalided home.  General Cunningham henceforward commanded the column which Clements had led back to the Magaliesberg.

Upon November 13th the first of a series of attacks was made upon the posts along the Delagoa Railway line.  These were the work of Viljoen’s commando, who, moving swiftly from the north, threw themselves upon the small garrisons of Balmoral and of Wilge River, stations which are about six miles apart.  At the former was a detachment of the Buffs, and at the latter of the Royal Fusiliers.  The attack was well delivered, but in each instance was beaten back with heavy loss to the assailants.  A picket of the Buffs was captured at the first rush, and the detachment lost six killed and nine wounded.  No impression was made upon the position, however, and the double attack seems to have cost the Boers a large number of casualties.

Another incident calling for some mention was the determined attack made by the Boers upon the town of Vryheid, in the extreme south-east of the Transvaal near the Natal border.  Throughout November this district had been much disturbed, and the small British garrison had evacuated the town and taken up a position on the adjacent hills.  Upon December 11th the Boers attempted to carry the trenches.  The garrison of the town appears to have consisted of the 2nd Royal Lancaster regiment, some five hundred strong, a party of the Lancashire Fusiliers, 150 strong, and fifty men of the Royal Garrison Artillery, with a small body of mounted infantry.  They held a hill about half a mile north of the town, and commanding it.  The attack, which was a surprise in the middle of the night, broke upon the pickets of the British, who held their own in a way which may have been injudicious but was certainly heroic.  Instead of falling back when seriously attacked, the young officers in charge of these outposts refused to move, and were speedily under such a fire that it was impossible to reinforce them.  There were four outposts, under Woodgate, Theobald, Lippert, and Mangles.  The attack at 2.15 on a cold dark morning began at the post held by Woodgate, the Boers coming hand-to-hand before they were detected.  Woodgate, who was unarmed at the instant, seized a hammer, and rushed at the nearest Boer, but was struck by two bullets and killed.  His post was dispersed or taken.  Theobald and Lippert, warned by the firing, held on behind their sangars, and were ready for the storm