The party of Gordons continued to resist after the smash, and were killed or wounded to a man.

The painful incident is brightened by such an example of military virtue, and by the naive reply of the last survivor, who on being questioned why he continued to fight until he was shot down, answered with fine simplicity, 'Because I am a Gordon Highlander.' Another train disaster of an even more tragic character occurred near Waterval, fifteen miles north of Pretoria, upon the last day of August.
The explosion of a mine wrecked the train, and a hundred Boers who lined the banks of the cutting opened fire upon the derailed carriages.
Colonel Vandeleur, an officer of great promise, was killed and twenty men, chiefly of the West Riding regiment, were shot.

Nurse Page was also among the wounded.

It was after this fatal affair that the regulation of carrying Boer hostages upon the trains was at last carried out.
It has been already stated that part of Lord Kitchener's policy of concentration lay in his scheme for gathering the civil population into camps along the lines of communication.

The reasons for this, both military and humanitarian, were overwhelming.