one o'clock
In steady order the columns were retiring with their faces towards the Boers , answering shot for shot , carrying off their wounded as they dropped , in spite of the terrible rifle fire and the roar of the Boers ' batteries ; but as soon as the first naval gun opened fire , amid the cheers of the townspeople , the situation was changed . The first two shells burst close to the Boer big gun , the third in the midst of the artillerymen , and it was some time before its fire was resumed . In the meantime the sailors had turned their attention to other Boer batteries which the field artillery had scarcely been able to reach , and one by one these were withdrawn over the crest . At one o'clock Colonel Hamilton 's brigade , which had hitherto been lying behind the crest they first occupied , in readiness to repel any counter-attack the Boers might make , now moved out and took up their position to cover the retirement of Hunter 's column and Howard 's brigade , and although the Boers pressed hotly upon them they held their ground steadily until their comrades had all reached their camp , and then marched in unhindered by the enemy , whose big cannon had now been finally silenced by the naval gun and their batteries for the most part obliged to retire . After seeing the naval gun open fire Chris had gone down to speak to Captain Brookfield , when he met two soldiers of a mountain battery carrying an injured comrade . They took him into the hospital and then came out . Their shoulder-straps showed them to belong to the mountain battery that had gone out with the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Gloucesters , of whom nothing had been heard , though occasionally , in momentary intervals of fire , the sound of distant musketry could be made out in the direction of Nicholson 's Nek .