The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1899-12-09
STORY Of NODDER RIVER.
A London Daily Chronicle Core.
spondent's Account of the
Bloody Battle.
IT LASTED NEARLY FOURTEEN HOURS.
The British Advances Met win n
N'riinble Hail OF Lead, and
Though the Boers Ultimately he
tired, They Did So In Good Order,
Taking Their Guns with Them,

London, Dec. 4.-The Daily Chroni-
Gle publishes the following dispatch.
dated Wednesday, November 20, NOM
ing, from its correspondent at Modder
River camp;
The severest engagement our col
umn has yet had, and probably the
seNercst of the whole compaign.
was fought yesterday on the
banks of the Modder river The bat
Tie was waged fercely for nearly four
| teen hours.
Beers strongly Intrcnchcd.
THE enemy occupied a strongly in
trenehed position, their front extend
ing five miles along the bank of the
stream. They We're 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 Grenadicr
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 Of
field artillery and the first 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
il time for the fight. The battle
started at daybreali, our guns shell
ing the Beers left.
THE enemy replied with artillery,
Hotchkiss and MaXims, and the artil-
lery duel lasted some hours. Then
there was a brief lull in the enemy's
operations, of which the general i'm
mcdiately 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
aWfu! 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. 1t 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 500
yards before they were fired on. Then
they had to lie down to escape the
deadly fusilade, which lasted without |
throughout the day
The Highlanders made several at
tempts to force passage of the river, |
but they were exposed to such a |
murderous enfilading fire that they |
had to retire after they had suffered |
terribly.
subsequently a party Of the guards
got over and held their own for hours
against vastly superior force.
Never Faced Such Fire Before.
''1he general opinion of The staff is
that there had never been such sus-
tanned 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
Cordington of the Cold
stream guards, Capt Sellburn of the
Queensland contingent, and dozen
members of the Coldstream guards,
who jumped into the river and swan
nearly to the other side in the face of
Il steady fire; but who We're forced to
retire and, joining hands, swan back,
two of their number being nearly
in the retreat.
The Beers Reiterated MT Night.
The British guns kept up a heavy
fire all day, and fearful havoc was
wrought on the Boer positions, the
enemy being forced to fly from their
Night put an end to
the terrible bloodshed. The infantry
brigade was dreadfully cut up.
The Beers reiterated at night, talk
ing their guns with them, and we are
now occupying their positions. The
,nmy's loss was tremendous