Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-07
OPPOSING LEADERS IN WAR.
Military Career of the Commanders
of British and Boer Armies.

| The forces in battle array in South Africa
| are commanded by soldiers who have wol
| their spurs on many bloody field. General
Petrus Jacobus Joubert is already in the
| field in command OF the Boer army and Sir
| Redvers Butler is on the sea bound for South
Africa, where he will take supreme command
of the British army operating against the
Dutch republics.
Few men in England have monopolized so
much of the public attention during the past
month or so as Sir Redvers Butler. With
splendid military record, which includes
years of service in Africa, Sir Redvers might
be forgiven II he showed himself now and
then somewhat conscious of his own import
ance; on the contrary, he is extremely mod
est and gives not the slightest evidence that
the high honors bestowed upon him have
turned his head.
matched by his reputation for personal
bravery He wears many decorations, but
among them all is one that he values more
than the rest put together-the coveted Vic
toria cross How be won 1t is written in
the records of the Zulu campaign, where he
had command of the mounted troops at
tached to Sir Evelyn Woods column. Woods
had sent Butler to drive the enemy from
Inhlobane mountain and the task was splen-
didly accomplished in the face of tre-
mendous odds when the Zulus suddenly
pushed large reinforcements to the front.
He was forced to withdraw his men, retreat
ing down the precipitous face of the hill
under a calling fire which decimated his
command. 1t was in this crisis that Butler,
by three distinct acts of heroism, made him
self eligible as the wearer of the little bit
OF bronze which now means as much to the
tt,o % h. os.,a
of Honor did to the Frenchman in the days
of the first Napoleon. An English writer
thus tells the story
First. when the pursuit was hottest. he
saw Captain darcy of the Frontier Light
Horse dismounted his horse having been
killed under him. and retiring on foot.
Coonel-as Sir Redvers then was-Buller,
though he himself is big, heavy man, quite
load for horse, especially after a fa-
tiguing morning, promptly took Captain
darcy up behind him and carried him out
Of reach of the foe. A little later, on the
same day, under similar circumstances and
in the same manner, he rescued another of
ficer of the Frontier Light Horse, Lieutenant
Everett. He fnished-also on the same day
by carrying out of danger a trooper whose
horse was completely exhausted. When he
took this man up behind him the Zulus were
within eighty yards of them. Three separate
and distinct actions in one day, each of
which would have gained the famous bronze
cross for any man"
The Buffers are a Devonshire family and
in the famous western county the future Sir
Redvers was born, his father being the late
j. w. Butler. The writer above referred to-
in sketchng the generals military career
says:
"Sir Redvers Butler was fortunate in the
outset of his military career, inasmuch as
he received what Napoleon the Less called
his baptism of fire" within two years of
the date of his first commission. This was in
the China war Of 1860. In 1870 he took part
in the Red River expedition. which first
brought him under the notice of Lord Wose-
ley. Three years later he was deputy
assistant adjutant general in the Ashanti
war; in which he was badly wounded He
was in South Africa in 1878 and played an
active part in several actions against the
Gaikas and Galekas and commanded the
column in the affair at Buffalo Range. In
the more serious campaign against the
Zuus he commanded the mounted troops OF
Sir Evelyn Woods column, He had charge
OF the intelligence department In the Egyp-
tian war of 1882 and was present at Tel-el-
Kebir, also at El Teb and Tamai and was
chief of staff in the Gordon relief expedi-
ticn in 1SS45."
For some time Sir Redvers was assisting
the commander OF the army Lord
in the latter's reorganization work.
Latterly he has been in command at Alder
shot. where he proved conclusively his abil-
ity to handle great bodies of men. He also
that while not in any sense a
he was discipliparian who did not
hesitate to critcise with directness and ef-
feet. hard worker himself, he exacts !
from his subordinates implicit obedience and
zeal, He is go years old, in the |
best of health and possessed OF an expert
ence in South African warfare which amply |
iustiles the confidence reposed in him by |
The British public.
General Joubert is a man rough of speech. |
but a fighter whose capabilities the English
well appreciate. Joubert was born in the
Cape Colony in the latter part Of 1881, being
six years younger than "Oom" Paul Kruger.
There is some French Huguenot blood in his
veins, from which he gets his bulldog ten
acitv When a hoy OF years OF aae Iouhert