]
As the Buffs reached the camp the rain which had hitherto held off came
down. It poured. The darkness was intense. The camp became a sea of mud.
In expectation that the enemy would attack it, General Jeffreys had
signalled in an order to reduce the perimeter. The camp was therefore
closed up to half its original size.
Most of the tents had been struck and lay with the baggage piled in
confused heaps on the ground. Many of the transport animals were loose
and wandering about the crowded space. Dinner or shelter there was none.
The soldiers, thoroughly exhausted, lay down supperless in the slush.
The condition of the wounded was particularly painful. Among the tents
which had been struck were several of the field hospitals. In the
darkness and rain it was impossible to do more for the poor fellows than
to improve the preliminary dressings and give morphia injections, nor
was it till four o'clock on the next afternoon that the last were taken
out of the doolies.
After about an hour the rain stopped, and while the officers were
bustling about making their men get some food before they went to sleep,
it was realised that all the troops were not in camp.
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