The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1899-11-02
THE FIGHTING BOERS.
An Englishman's Account of Battles
Fought with Them.
They Are Fearless and Excellent
Marksmen-LOsses of the Eng
lish Outnumber Theirs in
Every Engagement.

1t is usual, l know, for military men
to sneer at the generalship, or want of
it, which, as they allege, was RESPONSE
BILE for the Majuba disaster-these crit
les are wise after the event. 1t is for
gotten that the Beers met other officers
than Gen. Colley at Bronkhorst Spruit
in a number of fights about Pretoria,
Potchestroom, and other villages, and
that in no case were our men and mill
tary leaders able to stand up to the
enemy.
At Durham, in Natal, in 1s4s, we got
the worst of it, as we did at Doornkop,
where English officers of the ordinary
type commanded. The only military
success which English officers can claim
in good many encounters with the
Beers is the battle of Boomplaats,
fought in 1S4S, between artillery and
fintlock guns. 1t is, therefore, non
sense to take refuge behind the lack of
generalship of our leaders. If such fac
tors as courage and leadership do not
come into the controversy, except to
very limited extent, in what direction
must we look for the explanation of our
defeats?
At Laing's Neck the action began by
our guns dropping few shells into the
Boer lines, and. as admitted by the
Beers themselves, the small loss they
suffered from this fire-Gen. Joubert
was nearly hit by splinter of a she'll
induced them to think seriously of
abandoning the position. They were
about to leave when the attack by
small number of mounted infantry and
by few companies of Col Deane's regi-
ment, was made. Only one of our men
reached the Boer lines. the others being
stopped short distance away; and
as they were unsupported, these were
driven back down the hill. Result, 100
killed and wounded on the British side,
against "a Beers killed and wounded
At Ingogo, fought few days after
ward, force of about 300 men and two
guns were stopped on small plateau,
and after an action lasting all day our
men, with the two guns, were with
drawn during the night, leaving the
dead and wounded on the ground. The
Beers also left the field at night. At
this fight the Beers crept up to within
60 yards of our guns. They lost II
killed and wounded, while our loss was
l42 killed and wounded.
\ force of about COO infantry set out
for the summit of Majuba hill on the
night Of February 26, 1881. There were
about $50 combatants. After leaving
some companies on the road about 400
men reached the summit and were dis
posed III various positions about the
rim of the mountain. The first shots
were fired about six o'clock, and the
combat went on uninterruptedly for
hours. In the final stages the main
body of the Beers crept to within 40
yards, and for considerable time flu
silladed our troops at this distance.
Many of the men fell in the subse-
quent flight; but when the fighting
was over, at one o'clock, our casualties
were ESQ killed and wounded, while the
Beers lost one killed and four wound
ed. At Bronkhorst we lost 100 men
killed and wounded within ten minutes,
the Beers losing one. In the Jameson
raid our losses were about 100 killed
and wounded, the Beers having five
killed and wounded in the actual fight
ing.
1t Us usually maintained that these
Transvaal fights were fought at a dis
advantage, and that our men were in
each case vastly outnumbered. If we
accept the Boer accounts, our forces
were not outnumbered. At Majuba they
say they had about 400 men. But even
assuming that there were as many as
900 Beers, the result is still extreme
lv unsatisfactDrr- 'rican Review.