At this time they were a hundred miles inside the Colony, and nearly three hundred from Hertzog's western column.
In the meantime Lord Kitchener, who had descended for a few days to De Aar, had shown great energy in organising small mobile columns which should follow and, if possible, destroy the invaders.

Martial law was proclaimed in the parts of the Colony affected, and as the invaders came further south the utmost enthusiasm was shown by the loyalists, who formed themselves everywhere into town guards.

The existing Colonial regiments, such as Brabant's, the Imperial and South African Light Horse--Thorneycroft's, Rimington's, and the others--had already been brought up to strength again, and now two new regiments were added, Kitchener's Bodyguard and Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, the latter being raised by Johann Colenbrander, who had made a name for himself in the Rhodesian wars.

At this period of the war between twenty and thirty thousand Cape colonists were under arms.

Many of these were untrained levies, but they possessed the martial spirit of the race, and they set free more seasoned troops for other duties.
It will be most convenient and least obscure to follow the movements of the western force (Hertzog's), and afterwards to consider those of the eastern (Kritzinger's).