The Boer uprising has caught by surprise the six small British forts scattered around Transvaal, housing some two thousand troops between them, including irregulars with as few as fifty men at Lydenburg in the east where Anstruther had just left.

Being isolated, and with so few troops, all the forts can do is prepare for sieges, and wait to be relieved.

The other five forts, with a minimum of fifty miles between any two, are at Wakkerstroom and Standerton in the south, Marabastadt in the north and Potchefstroom and Rustenburg in the west.

British army garrisons all over the Transvaal become besieged from December 22, 1880 to January 6, 1881.

Although generally called a war, the actual engagements are of a relatively minor nature, considering the few men involved on both sides and the short duration of the combat, lasting some ten weeks of sporadic action.

At the Battle of Laing's Nek on January 28, 1881, the Natal Field Force under Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley attempts with cavalry and infantry attacks to break through the Boer positions on the Drakensberg mountain range to relieve their garrisons.

The British are repelled with heavy losses by the Boers under the command of Piet Joubert.

Of the four hundred and eighty British troops who make the charges, one hundred and fifty never return.

Furthermore, sharpshooting Boers have killed or wounded many senior officers.