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Updated: June 14, 2025
They succeeded in taking a few prisoners; but most of the enemy fled to Sanna's Post. Only one of the Heilbron burghers was wounded Piet Steenekamp, the son of the Commandant. And now our road was clear; and we passed through! General Fourie joined us two hours after sunset. Then we marched on to Dewetsdorp where we arrived on January 31st.
These guns, belonging to U battery, were moving south under an escort of Mounted Infantry, from that very Sanna's Post which had been so fatal to the same battery eighteen months before. The gunner officer, Lieutenant Barry, died beside his guns in the way that gunner officers have.
On looking at the bodies of the dead and listening to the groanings of the wounded, one was forced to say what a pity that the trap was discovered, that one brave man, through his very bravery, prevented the bloodless capture of his column and his general. The victory at Sanna's Post was soon followed up by another success over the British arms.
As the Boer forces were getting into their different positions during the night, Broadwood, who had left Thaba 'Nchu at nightfall, arrived that very night at Sanna's Post. But we were each unconscious of the other's presence. The next morning at daybreak we saw a waggon and a large number of cattle and sheep not far off the brook.
Broadwood does not appear, however, to have appreciated the importance of the engagement, and made no energetic movement to take part in it. If Colvile is open to the charge of having been slow to 'march upon the cannon' at Sanna's Post, it might be urged that Broadwood in turn showed some want of energy and judgment upon this occasion.
His earliest experiences were with the Kroonstad burghers, who went down into Natal; later on he fought under me at Sanna's Post and Mostertshoek, and took part in the siege of Colonel Dalgety at Jammersbergsdrift. He had stood at my side at Thaba'Nchu and on the banks of the Zand River.
Also in Sanna's little pockets she put all manner of things. She gave each a piece of bread to eat on the way and in the knapsack, she said, there were two more pieces of wheat bread, in case they should grow too hungry.
We settled that Generals Cronje, Wessels, Froneman, and Piet De Wet should proceed with the remaining burghers, numbering eleven hundred and fifty, to the ridges east of the Modder River, right opposite Sanna's Post. They were to take with them the guns, of which we had four or five, and bombard Sanna's Post as soon as it was light.
My object was to surprise the little garrison at Sanna's Post, which guarded the Bloemfontein Water Works, and thus to cut off the supply of water from that town. I started in the direction of Winburg, so as to throw every one off the scent. On all sides one heard the question, "Where are we really going? What can we have to do at Winburg?"
Next me on the floor is a gunner of the 14th Battery, which lost its guns at Colenso. I have also had the story of Sanna's Post from a U Battery man who was captured there. He described how they were marching through a drift one morning, with no thought of Boers in their heads, when they suddenly attacked at close range, and were helpless.
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