The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-12-08

London, Dec. 4.-The Daily Chroni-
Gle publishes the following dispatch,
dated Wednesday, November %, NOM
ing, from it's correspondent at Modder
River camp:
The severest engagement our col
umn has yet had, and probably the
severest of the whole compaign.
was fought yesterday on the
banks of the Modder river. The bat
tie was waged fiercely for nearly four
teen hours.
Beers Strongly Intrenched.
"The enemy occupied strongly in
trenched position, their front extend
ing five miles along the, bank of the
stream. They were well supplied with
artillery and fought desperately.
"Our force consisted of the second
battalion of the Coldstream guards,
the first battalion of the Scots guards,
the third battalion of the Grenadier
guards, the first battalion of the North
cumberland fusileers, the second bat
TALON of the Yorkshire light infantry
(the Kings OWN, a part of the first
battalion of Loyal North Lancashire
regiment, the Ninth lancers, the
mounted infantry, three batteries If
field artillery and the hrst battalion
of the Argyll and Sutherland High
landers princess LOuise's).
Arrived Just I'm Time.
'The latter reinforced us from Gen.
Wauchope's brigade, and arrived just
ir time for the fight. The battle
ch
ing the Beers left.
'.The enemy replied with artillery,
Hotchl1iss and Maxims, and the artil-
Iery duel lasted some hours. Then
there was brief lull in the enemy's
operations, of which the general inn
mediately took advantage. Our in
fantry advanced across the plain to-
wards the river in two brigades. The
guards, on the right, were met by an
awful hail of bullets from the enemy's
snarpshOoters, posted close to the
river on the opposite bank. Ours had
no cover whatever, and were simply
moved down. It seemed impossible to
live through the terrible fire. but the
brave fellows did not retreat an inch.
The BOer fire was terribly accurate;
and they must have numbered at least
10000.
The Scots Guards Advance.
THE Scots guards advanced 600
yards before they were fired on. Then
they had to lie down to escape the
deadly fusiIade, which lasted without
intermission throughout the day.
The Highlanders made several at
a y,rf fHa -
but they were exposed to such
murderous enfilading fire that they
had to retire after they had suffered
terribly.
subsequently party of the guards
got over and held their own for hours
against vastly superior force.
Never Faced Such Fire Before.
"Thc general opinion of the staff is
that there had never been such a sus-
tained fire in British annals as that
which our troops had to face yester-
day Our men fell in dozens while
trying to rush the bridge.
among the many heroic deeds. one
of the most conspicuous was that of
Lieut.-Col. Cordington of the Cold
stream guards, Capt. Sellburn of the
Queensland contingent, and a dozen
members of the COldstream guards,
who jumped into the river and swan
nearly To the other side in the face of
n steady FIRE; but who were forced TO
retire and. joining hands. swan back,
two of their number being nearly
drowned in the retreat.
The Bocrs Reiterated mt Night.
''The British guns kept up a heavy
fire all day. and fearful havoc was
wrought on the Boer positions. the
enemy heing forced to fly from their
intrnchments. Night put an end to
the terrible bloodshed. The infantry
brigade was dreadfully cut up.
Tile Beers retreated at night, taxi
ing their guns with them, and we are
now occupying their positions. The
emmy : loss was tremendous
THE CTTRAN CFNCTTC TAKEN