the middle of summer. French carried only six days' rations for the men and five days' forage for the horses. The force left Ramdam at 2 am on 12 February, with only 4,000 horsemen rather than the 8,000 he had expected to have, but French felt he had to push on rather than wait for straggling units to catch up (the brigades' staffs were all new, and brigadiers only joined their units in the course of the march). De Kiel's Drift on the Riet was seized by mid afternoon—French ordered his cavalry to gallop for it as soon as he saw the way was clear—but the crossing was soon in what Haig called "an indescribable state of confusion" as Roberts had neglected to order priority for Cavalry Division baggage. Kitchener, arriving in the evening, ordered French to seize Waterval Drift, another crossing a few miles to the northwest where he had left a brigade masking a small Boer force under de Wet. Although this was done, the advance could not be resumed until 10.30am—with the sun high in the sky—on 13 February, and accompanied by five baggage wagons which had managed to get through the logjam at De Kiel's Drift. Klip Drift French's division moved in line of squadron columns across a five-mile wide front, halting between 12.30 and 1 pm at the well at Blauuwboschpan, where he left a garrison to hold until the infantry arrived. He brushed aside a small Boer force (perhaps 300 men) which attempted to block his path to the Modder River, but concerned that he might be attacked from the east by de Wet's main force, moved quickly at 2 pm to seize the crossings at Rondeval and Klip Drift (he aimed to at least threaten two crossings to avoid the delay which had happened at De Kiel's Drift). By 5 pm he was able to send a galloper to Roberts with the message that he was across the Modder. He had lost only three men wounded, although 40 horses had died of exhaustion and over 500 were incapable of further work. French then had to wait a day while Kelly-Kenny's 6th Infantry Division made a forced march from the Riet Crossings to the Modder Crossings, during which time Cronje, believing French's advance to be a feint, missed an opportunity to reinforce the area. Equipped with three days' supplies, French resumed his advance at