Lieutenant-General Blood had six columns under his command and was engaged in the sweep to counter act the guerrilla tactics of the Boers in the area, working his way towards Dullstroom.
On 19 April, Lieutenant-Colonel Benson, who was commanding one of the columns captured a Boer convoy on the farm Klipspruit, which was north of Middleburg in the old Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga), and together with wagons, took 30 prisoners.
