On January 22nd General Cunninghame left Oliphant’s Nek with a small force consisting of the Border and Worcester Regiments, the 6th Mounted Infantry, Kitchener’s Horse, 7th Imperial Yeomanry, 8th R.F.A., and P battery R.H.A.  It had instructions to move south upon the enemy known to be gathering there.  By midday this force was warmly engaged, and found itself surrounded by considerable bodies of De la Rey’s burghers.  That night they camped at Middelfontein, and were strongly attacked in the early morning.  So menacing was the Boer attitude, and so formidable the position, that the force was in some danger.  Fortunately they were in heliographic communication with Oliphant’s Nek, and learned upon the 23rd that Babington had been ordered to their relief.  All day Cunninghame’s men were under a long-range fire, but on the 24th Babington appeared, and the British force was successfully extricated, having seventy-five casualties.  This action of Middelfontein is interesting as having been begun in Queen Victoria’s reign, and ended in that of Edward VII.

Cunninghame’s force moved on to Krugersdorp, and there, having heard of the fall of the Modderfontein post as already described, a part of his command moved out to the Gatsrand in pursuit of Smuts.  It was found, however, that the Boers had taken up a strong defensive position, and the British were not numerous enough to push the attack.  On February 3rd Cunninghame endeavoured to outflank the enemy with his small cavalry force while pushing his infantry up in front, but in neither attempt did he succeed, the cavalry failing to find the flank, while the infantry were met with a fire which made further advance impossible.  One company of the Border Regiment found itself in such a position that the greater part of it was killed, wounded, or taken.  This check constituted the action of Modderfontein.  On the 4th, however, Cunningham, assisted by some of the South African Constabulary, made his way round the flank, and dislodged the enemy, who retreated to the south.  A few days later some of Smuts’s men made an attempt upon the railway near Bank, but were driven off with twenty-six casualties.  It was after this that Smuts moved west and joined De la Rey’s commando to make the attack already described upon Lichtenburg.  These six attempts represent the chief aggressive movements which the Boers made against British posts in the Transvaal during these months.  Attacks upon trains were still common, and every variety of sniping appears to have been rife, from the legitimate ambuscade to something little removed from murder.