An interesting letter from Captain Davies, Driscoll's Scouts, dated 2 August 1900, explaining why so few of the Driscoll's were at Wepener:
"Since I last saw you I have been in nine engagements, and am beginning to feel quite the old soldier, and although I am quite fed up with fighting now, and shall be jolly glad to get back to a mere peaceful avocation, I would not have missed the experience I have gone through the last nine months for anything. We are now at a place called Dornfontein, which lies about half-wav between Winberg and Ficksburg, and our division is extended in a line practically the whole way, and our duty is to stop any Boers breaking south. After the Labuschagne's Nek fight the enemy retired to Aliwal North, the most northerly town in the colony, and we had to go and knock them out of it, which we did after two days' pretty sharp fighting, the Boers retiring to Rouxville, in the Free State. We were ordered to follow up, but I regret to say that my corps, the Frontier Mounted Rifles, refused to cross the border, owing to the action of certain officers who persuaded the men they had done enough, and had never engaged to serve outside the colony. The general was pretty wild, and asked for volunteer, and Captain Driscoll, myself and 25 men were the only ones to step out. He thanked us, and asked Driscoll to form a corps of scouts for the Colonial Division, which he did, getting 28 of the Queenstown Volunteers, which made our little force up to 53, with Driscoll and myself as officers. Until a month ago we were with the Colonial Division, and amongst other items were shut up at Wepener for 17 days, where we lost pretty heavily, and during our time with the Colonial Brigade, although I say it myself, we made ourselves very useful indeed, so much so that General Rundle, who is senior officer in this part of the world, asked that we might be attached to him, which we were about a mouth ago, just in time to take a pretty active part in the Biddulph's Berg fight at Senekal, where we achieved anything but a victory. It was there we saw wounded men burnt to death by a veldt fire. We like General Rundle very much, and he treats us awfully well, never doing anything important without consulting Driscoll or myself. He has given us 36 men and an officer from the Guards Brigade to train as scouts, and, with recruits, our little force is now considerably over 100, with six officers."
The creation of Driscoll's Scouts took place on 18 March 1900, according to the papers. Some men joined 19 March and as late as 29 March.