I have never seen, even at field firing, the bullets fly thicker. All one could see was little tufts of dust all over the ground, and whistling noise - 'phux' where they bit, and an increasing rattle of musketry, somewhere in front. My first bullet went through my left sleeve, and made the joint of my elbow bleed, next a clod of earth caught me smack on the right arm; then my horse got one, then my right leg one, my horse another, and that settled us, for he plunged and I fell about a hundred yards short of the guns we were going to." The fury of that leaden storm can be imagined from the fact that one gunner was found with sixty-four wounds in his body. In the meantime, Capt Reed, of the 7th Battery, had arrived with three spare teams of horses and he made another desparate effort to save the remaining guns, but five of his thirteen men were hit and one killed and thirteen out of his twenty one horses killed before he could get halfway to the guns. For his gallantry on this occasion he was afterwards awarded the Victoria Cross, as were Schofield, Congreve and Roberts. At Colenso, on the 15th December 1899, the detachments serving the guns of th 14th and 66th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery, had all been either killed, wounded or driven from their guns by infantry fire at close range and the guns were deserted. About 500 yards behind the lines was a donga, in which some of the few horses and drivers left alive were sheltered. The intervening space was swept with shell and rifle fire. Capt Congreve, Rifle Brigade, who was in the donga, assisted to hook up a team into a limber, went out and assisted to limber up a gun. Being wounded, he took shelter; but seeing Lieut Roberts fall badly wounded, he went out again and brought him in. With him went the gallant Major Baptie of the RAMC, who had ridden across the donga amid a hail of bullets and had done what he could for the wounded men. Capt Congreve was shot through the leg, through the toe of his boot, grazed on the elbow and shoulder, and his horse shot in three places. Lieut Roberts assisted Capt Congreve. He was wounded in three places and died of his wounds."

Commemorative: 1. Headstone. 2. Cairn and Memorial Stone, originally at scene of action, now at Coulson Garden of Remembrance, South Africa.

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