The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-27
DEATH OF GENERAL SYMONS
ANNOUNCED IN THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS.
YULE LEFT HIS WOUNDED AT DUNDEE
His Column Reaches Gen. Whites Camp After
Marching Through Night of Storm.
Five Thousand Additional
Troops to Sail
from England.

London, Oct. 2G.-The dispatches from
the front are so diversified and con-
Trajectory that it is difficult to outline
the situation with any degrc2 of pre-
cision. Three or four main facts, how
ever, stand out prominently. General
Symon's fight at Glencoe was not any
thing like the decisive victory at first
alleged, and General Yule would prob
ably have been annihilated or met With
the same fate as the captured hussars if
he had not retreated.
General Whites artillery duel" at
Retfontein, was a very severe engage
ment in which the rifle did great execu-
ton, and where success was only achiev-
ed ut Il distressing cost. The bombar1-
ment of Mafeking has commenced, with
unknown result, and the Beers have got
their hussar prisoners safely to Pretoria.
Altogether. the campaign is being
pushed by the Beers so strenuously and
on such sound strategica lines that the
, situation of the British must in all prob
ability give them cause for deep anxiety
for some time to come.
1t is difficult to see how the concen-
trated force at Ladysmith will be able
to take the aggressive Immediately
Apart from the fatigue, regiments like
the Gordon Highlanders and Royal
Rifles have been practically without Off
GERS since the fights, and one hundred
and thirty-fve additional officers have
been ordered to leave England as speedi-
~ as possible.
HARD WON VICTORIES.
London, Oct 26.-Details of the fight
ing at Rietfontein are coming in slowly.
A special dispatch from Ladysmith,
October 24th, filed after the fight, says:
ION discovery that the Beers were
massed to the westward of the main
road to Dundee an attempt was made by
train to recover the body of Colonel
Scott-C Chisholme, killed at Elandslaagte.
The train was fired upon and obliged
to retire, and General White moved out
to attack the Beers, believed to be Free
Staters, who should have joined the
Transyaalers at Elandslaagte. General
White commanded personally The
Fifth Lancers were placed on either
flank. They first came in touch with the
Beers below M0dderSpruit, where 1,500
burghers occupied strong ridge whence
they opened fire at 1,200 yards, hitting
several of the British In the meanwhile,
the Erdsars and Natal Carbineers adj
vanced unscathed through an opening in
the ridge, under the fire of a Boer gun,
while the Imperial Light Horse took
part of the crest of the ridge, the Beers
retiring. At about nine however, a Boer
gun stationed on the crest of Matawana-
skop opened fire with great accuracy on
the Boer force, which in the meanwhile
had cCme up; but the shells failed to eX-
plode, and the British artillery 81
fenced the opposition. The whole
British force then advanced, and the
action became general. A large body
of Beers occupied a strong position at
Matawanaskop, and the PERCEPTIONS
ridges surrounding it. The British guns
sheled the positions, and the infantry
advanced under cover of the fire. The
Gloucesters and Devons crossed a fear
full fire-zone beneath Tuitanyoni hill,
whence the Beers poured a whitening
fire with such effect that thirty of the at
tackers dropped Within a distance of
200 yards Seeing the peril of the
Devons and Gloucesters, General White
tue odIBllI6cIS dllt I@lNcID DOOiS
TO take the enemy in the rear.
"A fierce rifle and artillery duel was
maintained for some time The British
Maxim's ratified, but the Beers, under
cover of the rocks remained cool and re-
piled with an incessant rifle fire. The
British artillery swept the face of the
hill, and at length the shells became
so destructive that the Beers retreated
TO another ridge, whence they were dis
lodged by the volunteers in the face of
a CALLING fire. The Beers soon reformed
and took up position on another ridge,
but the volunteers dashed across the in
tervenng plateau, again rushed the
Boer position and drove them back to
the main force, occupying Matawana-
skop. The British then shelled the
latter until clusters of Beers were seen
leaving and retreating westward, when
the engagement closed.
"A special dispatch from Glencoe Camp,
dated October 23rd, says:
After the victory Friday the British
imagined they were free from further
molestation for some days, but they
coon found tbof fba earlier rpDOFtS of a