Daily inter mountain., 1899-11-08
A BRIT |SH SORT|E
That Resulted in a Grand
Victor y For Them.
BoERS CUT TO PIECES
They Were Caught in the Open and
PeriShed Almost to a Man-Gen.
Whites Dispatches About the Mat
ter Are Modest.

London, Nov. 7.-Tonight's welcome
dispatches from the front have rent tbs
Veil of gloom enveloping Ladysmith
showing the British garrison rot merely
standing on the dogged defensive, but
executing a series of brilliant sorties
Accounts from different sources agree
| that the laconic official descriptions of
Thursdays engagement as an reflective
shellins of the Boer lager was unuuly
modest. I appears that General White
sent strong force of cavalry and in
fantry to attack the Beers at latham S
fam. about ten miles to the northwa est,
and apparently achieved a surprise, the
! Beers being caught in the open and cut
! TO pieces, and their camp captured. En-
| couraged BY this success. General White
decided 70 risk an even more important
engagement on the following day, which
was again justified by success.
Ladysmlth has been isolated and a
Boer force has intercepted the railway
between Ladysmith and Colenso. This
force on Friday had descended upon Co.
lenso and had compelled hurried aban-
donment Of COlensO and a retirement of
the British to Estcourt. General White
had ascertained that the Beers were at
tacking CClensO. but he was not aware
Of the British retirement. He had de-
tern!nad. therefore, to attack the Beers
IN the rear. thus hoping to achieve the
double object of drawing off an attack
upon the weak garrison of Coenso and
possibly Of reopening communication
southWard.
The Beers had advanced southwark
until they had occupied the hills north
Of Tugea river and domina ting Colenso,
on the o:her side of the stream. The
hills slope to plain that reaches the
bank Of the Tugela. General Whites
division caught the Beers in the rear
and after the hills had been shalled the
British infantry stormed the position.
Meanwhile the British cavalry swept
around the hill. and the ating enemy
descended into the plains with British
Eiyonets behind and the river in front of
them. they We're charged by the cavalry
ard seem to have perished almost to
man. The British then returned tc Lady
smith without coming in touch with the
Coenso garrison. which had retired to
F.stcGurt.
Sundays disna tches from Estcourt,
however, showed that an armored train
had been sent back to Colenso to repair
the line, and the next news may possibly
be of the restoration of the communica-
ton with Ladyslnith. While the British
troops We're thus engaged in successful
endeavors to wipe out the Nicholson s
Mex disaster. the situation inside Lady
smith, as shown by an official dispa n
from the general at EstcouIt, was most
satisfactory, encouraging a hope that
Sir George White may yet completely re-
trieve his shaken reputation ard that his
forces may emerge triumphant from the
or9sal through which it IS now passing
General Lord Wolseley, the comma nler
in chief, has Written to Lady Randolph
Churchill, thanking her for the efforts
Of the American ladies in England in TT
ting out a hospital shin for South Afri-
can waters. The Maine Will sail for the
Cape on November % With Lady Ran
dolph Churchill on board.
1t is row virtually decid "a to send an
other division OF ,oGo men to South Af-
rca as speedily as possible. For this
purpose a second and third army corps
vii! be mobiizsd. The second will con-
sist of 10000 men, of which 10000 will go
to Africa, the rest being concentrated at
Aldershot in readiness fer emergency.
, The third corps will number $4,000 men,
who will be USED for garrison purposes
at home. Thus the entire British army
will virtually be modified. which will
be an unprecedented occurrence.