Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-14

LONDON, December 13.-General
Methuen's report from Modder river
shows that he met with a serious check
Monday and suffered great losses. His
dispatch is dated December II, and is
as follows:
"Our artillery shelled a very strong
position held by the enemy in a long
high kopje, from 4 until dusk Sunday.
1t rained hard last night. The High
land brigade attacked at daybreak on
Monday the south end of the kopje.
The attack was properly timed, but
failed. The guards were ordered to
protect the Highlands right and rear.
THE cavalry and mounted infantry,
with a howitzer artillery battery, at
tackled the enemy on the left and the
guards on the right, supported by field
artillery and howitzer artillery. They
shelled the position from daybreak and
at 1:15 | sent the Gordons to support
the Highland brigade. The troops held
their own in front of the enemy's en-
trenchments until dusk, the positions
extending, including the kopje, for a
distance of six miles toward the Mod
der river. To-day | am holding my po-
sition and entrenching myself. l had
to face at least 10000 men. Our loss
was great"
The wal Office has received the fol-
lowing dispatch from Gen. Forester
Walker, dated Cape Town, Tuesday,
December II:
"Methuen wires that Gen. Wauchope
was killed in action yesterday"
Major Gen. Andrew H. Wauchope, c.
B., C. NJ. G., entered the army in 1866,
was promoted colonel in 1888, served
in the Ashanti war in 1878, in the Egyp-
tian wal in 1882, in the Soudan expedi-
ton in 1884, and in the Nile expedition
in 1SS4-S5. He was in command of the
First brigade of the Egyptian expedi-
tionary force in 1898. Gen. Wauchope
has been wounded four times, three
times severely.
A dispatch from Orange River says:
Three hundred and twenty
wounded Men Have Arrived
here from the Modder River"
Gen. Methuen, as expected, followed
up his artillery attack with a general
assault on the Boer positions Monday,
and his report shows that the anxiety
of the public regarding the result oc-
casioned by the ominous silence of the
war Office was amply justified. The
engagement was evidently of consider
able magnitude, and the list of the kill
ed and wounded will be proportionate
without the compensation which a vic
tory would have brought, if, indeed,
the affair does not turn out to be a
more serious defeat than Gen. Methuen
admits. The Highlanders, it is believ-
ed, must have stormed the Boer posi-
ton more than once, while the fact
that the Guards were ordered to sup
port the ~Highlanders' rear looks as
though the Beers may even have out
lanked their attackers. One report
says that Gen. Cronje attacked the
British. The only compensation the
British have been able to discover in
&Lo eAao~%o~f, c%0rx, - H. a.
Methuen's statement that he maintains
his position close to the Beers, arous-
ing hope that he will retrieve the situa-
ton.
1t is apparent that the bombardment
OF Saturday and Sunday did not shake
the Beers grip OF their position, and
1t seems certain that they merely with
drew their guns and rifiemen under
cover, while Gen. Methuen INDUCED in
the usual artillery preliminaries Mon
day, and that when the British guns
were Obliged to cease firing owing to
the danger of hitting the advancing
troops, the Beers speedily reoccupied
their trenches and
Overwhelmed the highlander
with a terrible fire, probably accom-
panying this with an attack on the
British right flank and rear.
Alarm is beginning to be expressed
in many quarters as to the situation
of Gen. Methuen. As the Westminis-
ter Gazette says: IF England ever
needed a victory it is now, and it is
to Butler, the soldier, strong, cool
headed and reticent, that the country
looks for victory
The other papers are abusing the
government for its complacent optim-
ism and inability to grasp the strength
OF he opposition it has to overcome in
South Africa.
Considerable significance attaches to
Gen. Methuen's statement that he is
entrenching himself. indicating fear
that he Beers may follow up their adj
vantage. adopt the offensive and at
tack him. Indeed the gravity Of the