Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel ordered Grant to attempt a mounted attack on Beersheba, his goal being to take the town wells before they could be destroyed. The light horse did not carry swords but had sharpened their bayonet points some days before in anticipation of such a tactic. The 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments formed up with their squadrons in three lines, each about 300 to 500 metres apart. Wielding their bayonets like swords, they moved forward at a trot while the 13-pounders of the British Notts Battery suppressed Turkish machine guns. Grant initially rode in the lead, but dropped back to the reserve line once the column was headed in the correct direction so as to control their subsequent movements. Three Turkish batteries opposed the light horsemen but they moved forward so swiftly that the Turks could not range on them. The light horsemen swarmed over the Turkish positions and swept into the town, capturing all but two of the seventeen wells before they could be destroyed. For his part, Grant was personally decorated with a Bar to his DSO by the commander-in-chief, General Sir Edmund Allenby, the next day.