The attack broke first upon Monument Hill, a post held by Captain Fosbery with eighty-three Royal Irish.  Chance or treason guided the Boers to the weak point of the wire entanglement and they surged into the fort, where the garrison fought desperately to hold its own.  There was thick mist and driving rain; and the rush of vague and shadowy figures amid the gloom was the first warning of the onslaught.  The Irishmen were overborne by a swarm of assailants, but they nobly upheld their traditional reputation.  Fosbery met his death like a gallant gentleman, but not more heroically than Barry, the humble private, who, surrounded by Boers, thought neither of himself nor of them, but smashed at the maxim gun with a pickaxe until he fell riddled with bullets.  Half the garrison were on the ground before the post was carried.

A second post upon the other side of the town was defended by Lieutenant Marshall with twenty men, mostly Shropshires.  For an hour they held out until Marshall and nine out of his twelve Shropshires had been hit.  Then this post also was carried.

The Gordon Highlanders held two posts to the southeast and to the south-west of the town, and these also were vigorously attacked.  Here, however, the advance spent itself without result.  In vain the Ermelo and Carolina commandos stormed up to the Gordon pickets.  They were blown back by the steady fire of the infantry.  One small post manned by twelve Highlanders was taken, but the rest defied all attack.  Seeing therefore that his attempt at a coup-de-main was a failure, Viljoen withdrew his men before daybreak.  The Boer casualties have not been ascertained, but twenty-four of their dead were actually picked up within the British lines.  The British lost sixty killed and wounded, while about as many were taken prisoners.  Altogether the action was a brisk and a gallant one, of which neither side has cause to be ashamed.  The simultaneous attacks upon six other stations were none of them pressed home, and were demonstrations rather than assaults.

The attempts upon Kaalfontein and on Zuurfontein were both made in the early morning of January 12th.  These two places are small stations upon the line between Johannesburg and Pretoria.  It is clear that the Boers were very certain of their own superior mobility before they ventured to intrude into the very heart of the British position, and the result showed that they were right in supposing that even if their attempt were repulsed, they would still be able to make good their escape.  Better horsed, better riders, with better intelligence and a better knowledge of the country, their ventures were always attended by a limited liability.