Their first engagement, that of Sanna's Post, was a great and deserved success.

Three days later they secured the five companies at Reddersberg.

Warned in time, the other small British bodies closed in upon their supports, and the railway line, that nourishing artery which was necessary for the very existence of the army, was held too strongly for attack.

The Bethulie Bridge was a particularly important point; but though the Boers approached it, and even went the length of announcing officially that they had destroyed it, it was not actually attacked.
At Wepener, however, on the Basutoland border, they found an isolated force, and proceeded at once, according to their custom, to hem it in and to bombard it, until one of their three great allies, want of food, want of water, or want of cartridges, should compel a surrender.
On this occasion, however, the Boers had undertaken a task which was beyond their strength.

The troops at Wepener were one thousand seven hundred in number, and formidable in quality.