The Boers, repulsed on all sides, eventually drew off, leaving 40 dead and 5 wounded, including Commandant Oosthuyzen (since dead), on the field.
Colonel Kekewich had also some noteworthy adventures. On the 28th he marched to attack a laager at Beestekraal on the Crocodile River. Having concealed his troops in the hollows around Hartebeestspruit, he, on the following day, resumed his march. At night his mounted troops, under Colonel Duff, moved towards Beestekraal, while his infantry moved to Klipplatt. The western approaches to the Boers' camp being unguarded, they fell victims to the surprise prepared for them. Resistance they soon found to be futile, and Colonel Kekewich marched back to Rustenburg plus 78 prisoners (including B. A. Klopper, former chairman of the Volksraad) and many waggons and horses.
Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. J. Byng from Kroonstad spent the best part of October pouncing on commandos. On the 13th he attacked a laager at Jackfontein and captured 18 prisoners, and later in the month (the 25th) he surrounded Spanneberg's laager at Huntersolei, securing, with Field-Cornets Spanneberg and Oosthuyzen, 20 burghers; 11 extra prisoners were captured near Plessis Rush. On the 2nd of November he moved to Heilbron to take up his position for combined operations in the direction of Reitz. At Heilbron was Colonel Wilson (Kitchener's Fighting Scouts), who with Major Damant at Frankfort continued to cover the completion of the blockhouse line in that region. Major Damant on the 13th caught and engaged 300 Boers near Naudesdrift on the Wilge, and two days later handled somewhat vigorously a gang of 500 whom he drove to the Bothersberg, capturing Adjutant Theron in the course of the operation. More prisoners were secured before the end of the month.
General Elliot's columns, under Broadwood, with the energetic Lowe and De Lisle, continued to operate north of Harrismith, but they were much hampered both by rinderpest and by incessant rains. Nevertheless Colonel De Lisle, working independently, surprised a Boer laager on the 15th, in the neighbourhood of the Wilge River, and made a fine haul of vehicles and cattle, in addition to the fifteen prisoners taken. General Broadwood, with 700 of his own men and some detachments of General Rundle's force, made an expedition to the eastern extremity of the Brandwater Basin, which resulted in the capture of a few prisoners and much ammunition. General Campbell remained in the region constructing forts, in order to baulk the enemy at important points. From Bethlehem Colonel Briggs (1st Imperial Light Horse), with his dashing men, carried on a series of exciting raids, thus clearing the country for twenty-eight miles round.