The trek was resumed, and shortly afterward the column was divided into two parts; the one consisting of nine hundred men under General Peter De Wet, proceeding by a circuitous route to the hills south of Sannaspost, and the other of five hundred men commanded by General Christian De Wet moving through a maze of kopjes to a position west of the trekking station.
The burghers were not informed of the imminence of a battle; but they required no such announcement from their generals.

The atmosphere seemed to be surcharged with premonitions of an engagement, and men rubbed sleep out of their eyes and sat erect upon their horses.

The blacks even ceased to crack their whips so sharply, and urged the mules forward in whispers instead of shrieks.

Burghers took their rifles from their backs, tested the workings of the mechanism and filled the magazine with cartridges.
Artillerymen leaped from their horses and led them while they sat on the cannon and poured oil into the bearings.

Young men speculated on the number of prisoners they would take; old men wrote their names on their hats by the light of the moon.