The battalion was distributed: three companies on Helpmakaar Hill, two
companies on Cemetery Hill, with three companies in reserve near the
road and river-bed immediately beneath Cemetery Hill.

Devon Post received its first shells on the morning of the 3rd. These
were aimed at the tents of the reserve companies, which were rather
ostentatiously pitched on the plain by the river-bed under Cemetery
Hill. The shells were fired from a high-velocity 3-inch gun on Bulwana.
The tents were immediately moved closer under the hill, where they were
out of sight from Bulwana. The Boer guns were then trained on to the
working parties, and some fifty shells were burst in the works (just
commenced and affording little cover) on Helpmakaar and Cemetery Hill
posts, but without doing much damage. After this, owing to shell fire,
it was impossible to work except at night, or when Bulwana was obscured
by fog. The fortifications and defences were, however, hastily pushed
forward, and the platforms for the two large and ancient howitzers known
as "Castor" and "Pollux" were soon completed.

Shortly after the commencement of the siege one of the few shells fired
into Ladysmith which did any damage, burst amongst a party of Natal
Carbineers on the road under Cemetery Hill, killing five men and seven
horses.

On November 5th the Intombi Camp was formed, and all the wounded and
most of the women and children, with a few of the able-bodied male
civilian inhabitants of Ladysmith, were moved into the neutral camp.

On November 6th and 7th, with the exception of a shell or two, things
were quiet on Devon Post, but on the evening of the 7th a furious