The Battle of Elands River

Sangars at Elands River one month after the siege.

In August 1900, a garrison consisting of majority Australian troops were besieged by vastly superior Boer forces. For nearly two weeks the garrison held out, even after being offered an honourable surrender by the Boer Commander, Koos de la Ray. In the end, the Garrison still held the post and it was the Boers who left empty handed.

The position at Elands River

This stand at Brakfontein on the Eland River appears to have been one of the finest deeds of arms of the war. Australians have been so split up during the campaign that though their valour and efficiency were universally recognised, they had no single large exploit which they could call their own. But now they can point to Elands River as proudly as the Canadians at Paardeberg...they were sworn to die before the white flag would wave above them. And so fortune yielded, as fortune will when brave men set their teeth...when the ballad makers of Australia seek for a subject, let them turn to Elands River, for there was no finer fighting in the war.

—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,