opened fire; Hart's brigade suffered over 500 casualties before they could be extricated. The battalions repeatedly tried to extend to the left and locate the Bridle Drift. On each occasion, Hart recalled them and sent them back into the loop. Hart had given Parsons no orders and Parson's supporting fire was ineffective, even hitting some of Hart's troops. Meanwhile, as Hildyard moved towards Colenso, the two batteries of field guns under Colonel Charles James Long forged ahead of him, and deployed in the open well within rifle range of the nearest Boers. Once again, this was too tempting a target, and the Boers opened fire. The British gunners fought on, despite suffering heavy casualties, but ammunition could not be brought to them and they were eventually forced to take shelter in a donga (dry stream bed) behind the guns. The bullock-drawn naval guns had not been able to keep up with the field pieces, but were able to come into action from the Boer trenches. Buller, who had also heard that his light horse units were pinned down at the foot of Hlangwane and unable to advance, asserted command and took direct control of the battle from Clery. Buller decided to call the battle off at this point, even though Hildyard's men, advancing in open order, had just occupied Colenso. He went forward (being slightly wounded himself) and called for volunteers to recover Long's guns. Two teams approached them, hooked up and brought away two weapons. A second attempt to recover the rest of guns failed when horses and volunteers were shot down by Boer rifle fire. During the afternoon, the British fell back to their camp, leaving ten guns, many wounded gunners and some of Hildyard's men behind to be captured during the night. Although Buller had committed few of his reserves, he reasoned that a full day under a boiling sun would have sapped their morale and strength. Lyttelton committed some of his troops to help Hart's brigade withdraw, but the cautious Major General Barton refused to support Dundonald's or Hildyard's hard-pressed troops. The British lost 143 killed, 756 wounded, and 220 captured. Boer casualties were eight killed and 30 wounded. Aftermath A week after the battle Buller was replaced as Commander-in-Chief in South Africa by Field Marshal Lord Roberts; however he remained in command in Natal. The brigades were dispersed into new divisional commands, and the 2nd