Dundonald's men had been thrown out to cover the left of the infantry advance and to feel for the right of the Boer position.

A strong Boer patrol, caught napping for once, rode into an ambuscade of the irregulars.

Some escaped, some held out most gallantly in a kopje, but the final result was a surrender of twenty-four unwounded prisoners, and the finding of thirteen killed and wounded, including de Mentz, the field-cornet of Heilbron.

Two killed and two wounded were the British losses in this well-managed affair.

Dundonald's force then took its position upon the extreme left of Warren's advance.
The British were now moving upon the Boers in two separate bodies, the one which included Lyttelton's and Coke's Brigades from Potgieter's Drift, making what was really a frontal attack, while the main body under Warren, who had crossed at Trichard's Drift, was swinging round upon the Boer right.