The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-05-15
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FOREIGN NEWS,
KILLING A THOUSAND zUIUs.
Lord CAslmaTOrd's Relief Of Col. PearGOn's Com
msnd--WarrlOn Plungihg Into . Sheet OF
Fire, butUHablS to Make their At
tack Hand-to-Hand Fight
Two Hours Of Blood
ahed.


st. Vincent, April 22.-The relief Of
Col. Pearson has been accomplished by
the column under the personal command
of Lord Chelmsford. After difficult
marches, our troops, who had already
been sighted from Ekowe, camped at
Gingihlovo toward sundown on the first
of April. Much rain was falling about
dusk and during the night, and 1t had
been signalled from the Ekowe church
tower that the Zulus were drawing in up
on the Generals position with very
large numbers. Lord Chelmsford had
taken every possible precauuon against
surprise. The faces of the camp were
covered with lines Of shelter trenches;
the guns posted at the angles, and all po'
sitions of importance covered.
A little before o'clock a. m. large
masses of zulus began to show all over
the hill tops in our vicinity on the north
eastern side of the camp. The thickets
in this direction seemed on sudden to
swarm with the enemy, who, with their
usual tactics, were seen pouring in a
stream of shields and black bodies, right
and left, 80 as gradually to enyelop this
quarter of our lager. AS soon as their
order of battle was thus formed, they
came down in most resolute style upon
the side of the camp defended by the
Sixtieth Rifles, raising their curious war
cry and brandishing their weapons. The
foremost portion of the Rifles were lying
inside the trenches already mentioned,
and their supports behind them had
second line of shelter, as we'll as the laa-
gered wagons, from which to fire, and
the Gatlings were stationed to the right
As the enemy drew out of the grass
and thorn bushes into dense semicirCle
of advancing warriors, the whole front
of our camp broke out into sheet Of
fierce fame which ran from corner to
corner without intermission, in rat:ling
volleys of frightful close range musket.
ry. Nothing, it might be thought, could
live before this terrible and perpetual
roll of the breach loader, and yet our
gallant though savage foes crowded their
way onward through the hail of death.
While spreading now to the right, now
to the left, as if to find some break in
the wall Of fire, their central swarms
kept desperately pressing forward past
the fallen bodies of their comrades.
Those behind sprang to the front over
the corpses of their fellows, only to sink
to the. ground themselves and be sue.
ceeded by fresh desperadoes. twas inn
possible for men to perish with more
magnificent contempt of death, but they
could not quite reach even our outer
trenches. After again and again charg'
ing up to within 20 or 80 yards of the
muzsles of our Martini Henris-despite
the withering tempest of bullets rained
upon them, to say nothing of the Cat
ling fire and the rockets-these heroic
saVsges gave the game up at last upon
this face OF the camp, leaving the front
Of our defenses piled with dead and
wounded.
Another large body had meanwhile
concentrated on the other flank OF our
lager, and Just as the first attack was
failing second and most spirited at
tempt to rush our positions was tried
in this new quarter. If the courage of
the enemy was admirable, 30 was the
Coolness with which the men of the
Ninety.6rst and Fifty-seventh met the
swarms of yelling thousands which
closed in toward the trenches This last
effort was led by chief of high rank
named Oubalmanzi, who was mounted
on a good horse, and rode in the thick of
his regiments close up to the lager
The onset was for some minutes very
formidable, and once inside our lines
such men might have done anything
but the never Ceasing rattle of the
breechloaders could not be confronted,
and on the point of forcing on that hand
to-hand fight which they wanted, the
daring barbaTians melted away again,
and finally abandoned the attack.
A ringing British cheer was raised up.
on this second retreat of the enemy, and
the word was given for the mounted
troops to dash out. This was done by
the cavalry and B4rrows mouLtel ir-
fantry, accompanied by some OF the
swift footed Native Contingent, who
flew forth from the shelter of the wagons
and pursued the now disheartened sur
vivors. Once turned and beaten, the
Zulus make no further stand, and in the
headlong hunt which ensued almost as
many of the foe as had fallen before the
musketry and the fire of the Gatlings
were overtaken and despatched in the
bush. From the first appearance of Ce.
tywayo's army upon the hill tops and
amid the hollows till the last fierce
blows dealt on the flying savsges, the
affair did not occupy two hours. But 1t
was sharp work while it lasted, and tho
the British loss in killed and wounded
together fifty for all contingents, yet
some nine or ten hundred Zulus lay
dead around us as the sun rose high
Their total loss is estimated at fifteen