At noon the kopjes in front were evacuated, our pontoon taken up, and the Boer punt sunk by gunpowder.
Behind the kopjeswere massed our men in reserve, besides all the Horse Artillery and Cavalry and wagons.
I had known him before when holding the kopjes over the river with his regiment; he insisted on talking to me and sat up to have a cup of tea, and I was glad to hear afterwards that he had eventually recovered.
General Buller is shelling hard the kopjes at Pieters beyond Colenso, but our Infantry do not seem to be gaining an inch.
I have the honour to report as follows:-- Since being detached from Lieutenant Ogilvy's command I moved back across the Tugela river from the advanced kopjes on February 1st.
Patch and I climbed up the kopjes beyond, saw the Boer system of trenches, and inspected the places where they had blasted the reverse slopes of the kopje, perpendicularly cut behind, and had got under safe cover from shell.
Long lines of abandoned trenches, and the perpendicular shelters which the Boers had blasted out behind all the kopjes against shell fire plainly showed how well they knew how to protect themselves.
The Boers face us a long way off on kopjes north of us beyond a large plain.
When we left Karee it was confidently predicted that the Boers would make a stiff stand amid the kopjes which guard the prettily placed and prettily planted little town of Brandfort.
Nothing to see but kopjes all round; and if you want to buy anything, by Jove, you have to pay a pretty price.
On the way towards Ladysmith are a few kopjes of large size, from any one of which the line of the Tugela can be seen, with the hills beyond, occupied by the Boer entrenchments, and over them again the hills which dominate Ladysmith.
Across the river are the bare, stony, trench-lined kopjes and hills held for so many long weeks by the Boers.
The Tugela glistened in the sun like a band of silver, and over the plain and in and out among the kopjes and round the dongas the brown road wound to Ladysmith.
These plains roll away to the horizon, and are broken only by kopjes and dongas and the everlasting ant-hills.
One day Jakhals and Hyena were out walking together when a white cloud came up behind the kopjes and floated over the veld quite close to them.
Jakhals gave one last spring right over poor Oom Reijer, and danced off to his den in the kopjes to tell Tante Jakhals and the little Jakhalsjes how he had cheated Oom Reijer.
We gallop off to the kopjes straight in front of us, making for one of the highest, which is called Taba N'berg.
From the neighbouring kopjes one could distinctly see the "khakis" moving about in the village.
Four men stay behind to strike the camp, and we take up a position to the south-east of Brandfort, on the kopjes that command the plain.
On the 30th, at eight o'clock, orders are given to transport our laager to the foot of the high kopjes we see four or five miles off in the direction of Taba N'chu.
The kopjes form a large semicircle, slightly oval, the curve of which lies to the north-east and the opening to the south-east.
Far off on the horizon lie the kopjes of Poplar Grove, where we were forty-eight hours before.
To the right and left of them, a thousand yards apart, were Boer horsemen circling around kopjes and seeking positions for attacking the already vanquished but stubborn enemy.
At Magersfontein Cronje allowed thirty-six cannon, deserted by the British, to remain on several kopjes all of one night and until ten o'clock next morning, when they were taken away by the enemy.
Boers rode rapidly down the spruit and out upon the veld behind a low range of kopjes which lay in front of the British force.
Dawn lighted the flat-topped kopjes that lay in a huge semicircle in the distance, and men clambered up the sides of the spruit to ascertain the camp of the enemy.
From Taqui the road climbs a chain of kopjes where it is almost overarched with trees, so that a covered waggon has difficulty in getting through.
Our evening outspan was below thekopjes where the copper mines lie, and a few tracks in the veld and an empty tin or two gave warning of human habitation.
We were not more than half a dozen miles from the Swazi border and in full sight of it--a chain of little kopjes with a hint of faint mountains behind.
It was a cool hazy day, and in the west the kopjes seemed to swim in an illimitable sea of blue.
Bold kopjes of rose-red granite appeared on the plain, and at a place called Kleinfontein the road turned sharply south, and we were confronted with a noble line of crags running out like a buttress from the mountains.
Soon after passing north of Paardeberg Drift he heard that French had already returned from Kimberley, and was holding a line of high kopjes running north-west from Koodoosrand Drift, and completely commanding the drift.
All around were steep kopjes such as the Boer soul delights in, and thorny tangles which afforded comfortable shelter for the enemy's guns.
For some weeks the troops had been fixed on a string of kopjes to the north of the Metsima Suma Bridge, while the Boers' laager, strongly fortified, occupied another ridge in the vicinity.
The enemy had moved north and turned into a strongly fortified line of kopjesmidway between the river and Grobler's Kloof, and from thence there was some doubt whether he could ever be displaced.
For two hours every spot on the kopjes had been searched, painted with the noxious hues of lyddite, and seamed with shrapnel, and few Dutchmen there were who cared to remain to welcome the bayonets of Kitchener's braves.
Meanwhile the army was moving westward from Hlangwane plateau, with a view to marching up beyond the stream, and getting out of the valley of the river and beyond the kopjes that frowned over it.
The artillery planted their shells with admirable exactness on the kopjes west of Karree where the enemy had ensconced himself.
At midday the Boers attempted to hold three low kopjes two miles north-east of Klip Drift, but were driven back to a stronger position at Drieputs.
They found life in the trenches and kopjes not what is vulgarly described as "all beer and skittles," and began to think of the coming seasons which would find them empty as the fabled grasshopper in winter.
Here extra precautions were taken, for none knew how many Dutchmen might be ensconced in the surrounding kopjes or whether the drift might be swarming with Boers.
Colonel Broadwood had no sooner discovered the enemy in his snake-shaped array of kopjes than he commenced to shell him and drive him forth from the lower projections of the position.
The cavalry, worn out as they were and without food, had to hold the kopjes and water their horses in turn some five miles off.
The troops were preparing to clear some kopjes held by the enemy when some Boers suddenly advanced on them.
By this time the Boers had posted themselves on the kopjes eight miles south of Abraham's Drift.
The nigger drivers are terrible cowards, and all fled to the hills or kopjes near at hand, leaving the waggons and oxen to the mercy of the Boers.
In crossing the third I noticed some fresh spoor, which indicated that the enemy had passed shortly before towards the kopjes in front.
We were next instructed to march towards the kopjes to the southeast, and my section was sent in front, scouting.
Away to our right and further advanced, but quite exposed in the open, were two other batteries, shelling some distant kopjes on our right at the foot of the great mountain lump of Lombard's Kop.
I believe myself that the position was not a mile less than fifteen miles long, and for the most part it was just what Boers like--rocky kopjes and ridges, high and low, always giving cover and opportunity for surprise and ambuscade.
Towards the end of the retirement he quietly cantered out across the most exposed bit of open ground, and went round among the kopjes as though looking for something.
Our only chance was to seek cover behind kopjes and in ditches, for on any Boer showing his head the bullets whistled round his ears.
I therefore sent out scouts on the high kopjes in the neighbourhood, and not until these had reported all clear did we take the risk of off-saddling.
They would sit on thekopjes and watch the fighting and the various manoeuvres, congratulating each other when the enemy approached a little nearer to them.
I sent out Commandant Muller with a strong patrol, while I placed the laager in a safe position, in the ridge of kopjesrunning from Rhenosterkop some miles to the north.
As far as our information went the Donkerhoek Kopjes were in possession of General Pole-Carew, and on our left General Hutton, with a strong mounted force, was operating near Zwavelpoort and Tigerspoort.
Our first and best positions were now obviously the kopjes which stretched from Donkerhoek past Waterval and Wonderboompoort.
I sent our carts into the forest along Poortjesnek to Roodelaager, and made a stand in the kopjes near Rhenosterkop.
On the west side is a great gap up to Zustershoek, only interrupted by some "randjes," or ridges, near the Albert silver mines and the row of kopjes on which I had now taken up a position.
The Lancashire Brigade, under Colonel Wynne, started at two o'clock that afternoon to carry the kopjes up the Brook Spruit, which ran in the rear of Grobler's Kloof.
As they pressed forward they were met by a heavy rifle fire both from the kopjes in front and on the left.
We shall cover the right flank of the general movement and endeavour to take up a position on the hill, where the battery will pepper the Boers on the kopjes north of the bridge.
General Hart's Irish brigade was to march towards Bridle Drift, and after crossing to move along the left bank of the river towards the kopjes north of the iron bridge.
Now at the time we could not understand these things, but later I was to learn the meaning of these ominous kopjes that gathered in the twilight.
Moved by a sudden thought, I looked northward, and there I perceived a third of these cloudy black kopjes had risen.
To get at the Boers our men had either to go down the sides of the kopjes in full view of the clever enemy, or else make their way between narrow gullies, where shells would work havoc in their packed ranks.
This was merely a narrow pass, running up over a jagged kopje, with two greaterkopjes on each side of it.
Some little distance from the back of the farmhouse a stout stone wall ran down from the kopjes on to the plain.
Right up to the time when our men rushed the kopjes and surrounded the farmhouse I did not see a man enter or leave the house, and when I rode up I found that two women and three children were in possession.
Then our scouts put spurs to their horses and dashed away on either wing, skirting thekopjes and screening the main body, and so for another hour we moved without seeing or hearing anything to cause us trouble.
By this time we had got into a kind of huge basin, the kopjes were all round us, but the veldt was some miles in extent.
If we turned either flank, they could promptly fall back upon another line of kopjesas strong as those they held.
Our forces hold a small plain, which is like the palm of a giant's hand, with the surrounding kopjes representing the digits.
Mr. Lambie and I decided to move on with the advance party, and at a hard gallop we moved away towards a line of kopjes that seemed higher than any of the others in the belt.
Captain Cameron ordered the men to split into two parties, one to move towards the kopjes on our right; the other to fall back and protect our retreat, if such a move became necessary.
They ride round the stage with one eye on the kopjes and the other admiring the fit of their breeches.
A series of kopjes might conceal a few sharpshooters or an army--at a mile's distance scouts were under the fire of an invisible foe.
Tucker put his division in motion--he advanced it across the four miles of plain leading to the foot of the range of kopjes in echelon of battalions, Gen.
Near Abrahamskraal they caught sight of the central division fighting the Boers along the kopjes lying to the right.
Again, its use on kopjes held by cavalry pending the arrival of infantry would surely be beneficial.
The country was simply a succession of kopjes as like each other as a pair of ammunition boots, the map was much too small a scale to be of any use, and our native guide had lost the way!
When we were miles away and among some very suggestive little kopjes we discovered that our friends had lost their way and that we were adrift on the veldt.
The attacks have always been made along the tops of kopjes which afforded excellent cover for a stealthy advance.
She secretly loves the young English officer who reconnoitres kopjes with an eye-glass!
In so doing, they found themselves assailed by Boers to right and to left of them--Boers carefully concealed in kopjes some 600 yards distant.
Here the Boers occupied about a mile or two of frontage, the centre being a picturesque homestead called Bergandal Farm, the kopjes on the left being thickly peopled with the enemy.
Early on the 7th, Lord Methuen engaged a portion of De Wet's force, which was occupying a strong position on a succession of kopjes near Venterskroon.
The pickets, which had been posted on a range of kopjes north of the camp, were strengthened, and some few shots fired at distant snipers.
Dat plaster vas limestone; it come from dose kopjes de good Gott made in His anger against man for his vickedness.
Sir," said he, "this is what we were raking in your kopjes for, and could not find it.
Their acquaintance with lyddite shell is said to have induced them to place less confidence in the rocky crests of the kopjes and to resort to trenches on lower ground, but the principle remains the same.
At 2 o'clock this afternoon a heliograph message from a range of kopjes to the left of Alexandersfontein announced that General French's column was approaching.
A well-equipped and mobile force will hold the hills for eternity--but God help the troops who are launched against these awful kopjes which create the strength of such positions.
They took up positions on the kopjes where, more than a year before, the Yeomanry had surrendered.
We proceeded between the kopjes that surround Vredefort on the north-west.
We found the blockhouses from Kopjes Siding to Potchefstroom and those from Kroonstad to Potchefstroom broken up.
Nobody could know what might happen behind the ridges and kopjes which we were constantly approaching and passing.
He ordered Talbot Coke with the 10th Brigade of Warren's Division to pass over the Colenso Kopjes on to the open ground beyond, from which the Onderbroek valley could be enfiladed by artillery.
Kelly-Kenny reported to Head Quarters that Seven Kopjes had been reoccupied, and that a detached hill to the east seemed to be strongly held, which was not the impression given by French's message less than an hour previously.
The rest of the artillery was engaged in assisting Hart, who was in trouble, and Buller came to the conclusion that the attack on the Colenso kopjes must be withdrawn.
Botha's special idea was to allure the troops of the frontal attack to his own side, where he could easily pound them from his kopjes and carry out his general idea of netting the British flanks.
However, Kelly-Kenny occupied Seven Kopjes without opposition, and it is said that the infantry on the south bank were never in touch with the enemy.
The whole area is commanded by the surrounding kopjes and ridges.
Belmont, to rejoin him; and a favourable position was occupied on a group of kopjesastride the railway, where on November 25 another battle was fought, in which the Naval Brigade suffered a loss of nearly half its strength.
The Boers on the flanking kopjes were now on the alert; and the battalion as it withdrew down the slope met in the darkness a small but determined detachment which had formed up athwart the line of retirement.
The drifts were held by small parties of the enemy, who offered no resistance, and on the evening of February 13 the Division took possession of the kopjes on the north bank.
Sunday, December 10, the kopjes of Magersfontein were bombarded heavily, between 4.
The kopjescontrolling entrance had been secured by the British, but the transit had to be forced.
This is doubtless the weakest spot in the Boer position, for if an enemy could take it by storm or otherwise, he could render the kopjes north of Colenso untenable.
There the advanced kopjes supported the movement, and there the enemy's fire was weakest.
If successful, it was to enfilade the Wylie kopjes from that position.
The Highlanders were directed to start a half hour after midnight, so as surely to reach the foot of the kopjes by daylight, due at 3.
These kopjes are of varying heights, from fifty to five hundred feet, and consist mainly of large boulders, with, however, a plentiful sprinkling of smaller rocks not too heavy for handling.
A reconnaissance pushed across the bridge showed that the kopjes about Fort Wylie, now rendered untenable by the loss of Hlangwane, were but weakly held and their guns gone.
It was out of the question to follow the railway, owing to the large kopjes on either side, which had been strongly entrenched.
Forte, men of the cruiser, under Captain Jones, bombard kopjes near Colenso, 217.
Almost 1,000 yards from the line ofkopjes three lines of wire had been placed, which were cut during our advance, and other entanglements were stretched just in front of the trenches.
At Richmond Road we came across a detachment of Cape Volunteers who were practising the capture of kopjes in the neighbourhood of the line.
Again, when the warm tints of the setting sun flood the whole expanse of desert, there is a short-lived beauty in the rugged kopjes with all their fantastic outlines sharply silhouetted against the glowing sky.
A clump of low kopjes run almost parallel to the railway on the right, and to ascend these hills our men had to advance over an absolutely level plain devoid of any cover save an occasional big stone or an anthill (precarious rampart!
Sometimes too, at nightfall, a large bird would fly with a strong harsh note across the stony veldt to the kopjes in the distance.
A little to the north of the kopjes which formed the scene of the Graspan engagement lies the station of Enslin.
A large proportion of the kopjes in this part of the country have absolutely flat tops--why, I cannot imagine--and the whole appearance of the country suggests at once the former bed of an ocean.
The battle of Graspan consisted, as at Belmont, in a frontal attack upon a line of kopjes held by a much larger force of the enemy than was present at the earlier engagement.
The lightning played incessantly and sheets of rain blotted out the kopjes and the veldt from view.
The kopjes which were ultimately carried by the gallantry of our troops at Graspan had been subjected to an awful shell fire before the infantry attack.
We froze on the wind-swept kopjes When the frost lay snowy-white.
Those in the kopjes are to remain there, covering the retreat of the rest of the patrol, until this shall have gained better ground some little way beyond.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "kopjes" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
