The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-22
HORRIBLE SLAUGHTER.
Delayed Reports of the Fight Mt Nichoi-
sons Nclz and ElandsIaagte.

sons Nek and ElandsIaagte.
Correspondence of the Associated Press.
London, Dec. 13.-Letters from Brit
lsh officers and soldiers fighting in the
from war correspondents that filter
into print through the mails TEEN with
thrilling and pathetic incidents Writ
ing to his mother, young officer of
the Manchesters, wounded in one of
the .f1rst engagements, says that while
he lay at night on the hillside expect
ing to die bleeding from a wound in
his thigh and shivering with cold, there
stumbled over him a Tommy of my
company named Rogers" This Tom
my quickly whipped off his own over
coat, placed it around the boy officer
and laying down put his arms around
him and for the rest of that long, cold
night kept him beautifully warm
The Times correspondent gives a
graphic account and explanation of the
British disaster at Nicholson's Mex,
where Carleton's column consisting of
six companies of the Royal Irish fusi-
liers, four and half companies of The
Gloucestershire regiment and No, 10
mountain battery surrendered
Two hours before daybreak," says
this correspondent, while the column
was in an enclosed country, either a
shot was fired or a boulder rolled into
the battery. The mules stampeded and
broke away from half-asleep drivers.
They came back on the Worcestershire
regiment. the advance party of which
fired into the mass. believing in the
darkness that it was an attack. This
ADDED to the chaos, the ranks were
broken by the frenzied animals and
they dashed through the ranks of the
rear guard, carrying the first and sec
ond reserve ammunition animals with
them. 1t became a hopeless panic. The
animals, wild at the shouting and the
tj1n n !, i,fn Eh.S
darkness and the last that was heard
or them was the sound of ammunition
boxes ana paniers as they were splin-
tered against the boulders. The hub
bub OF these few moments We're sutfi-
cient to have alarmed the enemy BY
strenuous effort the officers succeed
ed in getting the men again under con-
troll, and when daylight came they
seized the first position which present.
ed itself, and which was about Two
miles short of the original goal. They
were forced to take advantage of the
first kopje, as Boer scouts were oil
around them and the day was ushered
in with desultory firing. 1t was a sorry
position which they had chosen, and
the men We're in sorry plight. All
their reserve ammunition was gone
and though they had saved pieces of
the screw guns they We're not able
with these pieces to patch up a single
mounting.
From earliest daybreak Boer scouts
We're accommodating and about o'clock
mounted Beers could be seen galoping
in small proups to the cover of the hill
west. Strong parties of mounted men
took positions on the far side of the
two hills commanding the kopje from
them About 9 O'Clock these two par
ties had crowned the hills and opened
a heavy fire at short range right down
upon the plateau. Our men made a
plucky attempt to return this fire, but
it was impossible. They were under
cross fire from two directions. flank
and rear. The two companies of Glou-
cestershires holding the self-contained
ridge, We're driven from their shelter,
and as they crossed the open in the
low plateau were terribly mauled, the
men falling in groups. The Beers ON
the west had not yet declared them
selves, but about 200 marksmen climbed
to the position which the two companies
of the Gloucestershires had just vacat-
ed. These men absolutely raked the
plateau and it was then that the men
We're ordered to take cover on the
steep reverse of the kOpje. AS soon
as the enemy realized this move the
men on the western hill teemed on to
the summit, and opened upon our men
as they lay on the slope. They are alb
solutely hemmed in and what had COM
menced as a slkirmish seemed about to
become a butchery. The grim order
was passed around fix your bayonets
and die like men. There was a clat-