Day by day the number of these refugees increased.

On September 17th special trains were arriving crammed with the homeless burghers, and with the mercenaries of many nations--French, German, Irish-American, and Russian--all anxious to make their way home.

By the 19th no fewer than seven hundred had passed over.
At dawn on September 22nd a half-hearted attempt was made by the commando of Erasmus to attack Elands River Station, but it was beaten back by the garrison.

While it was going on Paget fell upon the camp which Erasmus had left behind him, and captured his stores.

From all over the country, from Plumer's Bushmen, from Barton at Krugersdorp, from the Colonials at Heilbron, from Clements on the west, came the same reports of dwindling resistance and of the abandoning of cattle, arms, and ammunition.
On September 24th came the last chapter in this phase of the campaign in the Eastern Transvaal, when at eight in the morning Pole-Carew and his Guardsmen occupied Komatipoort.