six o'clock
All was now in readiness for the attack , and the sailors had with steel hawsers , and the aid of the troops , got four more naval guns on to Swartz Kop . Before daybreak the troops were ready to advance . The regular cavalry were near the base of Swartz Kop , while all the Colonial Horse , under Lord Dundonald , were near Potgieter 's Drift . At six o'clock the cavalry went forward , but not far , for the morning was so misty that the artillery could not make out the Boer positions until an hour later , when a tremendous fire was opened from Mount Alice , Swartz Kop , and guns placed on a lower spur of Spion Kop . While this was going on , a bridge was thrown by the Engineers across another drift . Major-general Wynne led the Lancashire brigade in the direction of Brakfontein . They went forward in skirmishing order , supported by five field batteries and the howitzer battery , all of which kept up an incessant fire of lyddite , shell , and shot against the Boer position , their fire being guided by an engineer officer in a balloon , who was able from a lofty altitude to signal where the Boers were clustering most thickly .