The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-12-10

emit But the Bo~r with smokeess powder. a
genius for sclfconcealmrnt. and scfeened by the
smoke q the burning veld.. evidently gave TOMMY
at the end Of It, as Stevens whtcs"we found that
in those Ave hours Of struggling bursts 81 hghing
We had lost, killed and wounded, li6 men And
what was the good! asked doubling Thomas
Much. To begin with. the Beers must have lost
heavily: they confessed that aloud by the fact
that for all their pluck in standing up to the guns
they made no attempt TO follow us home: Sec.
ond. and more important. this commando was
TO aid t-and the Dundee force was marching in
from the cast, Dragging sore feet along tho miry
roads they heard the guns at Rictfontein, and
were glad The seeming obIectless cannonade
sec,nd tho embarrassed home coming Of the four
thousand way-weary marchers from Dundee"
the town again Next day the Chronicles CORE
spondent rode out to meet the Dundee men And
I snE n, sss1I G S S c
ger, absolutely commanded on all sides but one
and preparing for tea as unconccrnediy as II they
mos, NJ unoonoernedy indeed some Of tho
officers showed signs Of their long anxiety and
slceplessuess When came among them some
mounted men suddenly showed themselves in the
distance. They took them for Beers could
hardly persuade them they, were only our own
carabineers tho outpos's through whom had
Just ridden. Three Of our own scouts appeared
across a valley and never were Beers in greater
pnl Of being shot, think may put their lives
THE BRUSH private was even here impeIurbo bio
as usual He sat on the rocks singing the lacs,
firrs and made his Tea, and took an iniriilig gen.
in,srss, n The slaughter Of the oxen Tor all the
Plain. He In really wonderful person Filthy
from hend To foot, drenched with rain. baked
with sun, unshorn and unwnshed for Ave days,
footsore. fresh from terrible fighting and the loss
Of many friends, he was still the samc unmis:
humor and blasphemy, cheeriulness and Gr,m.
bling. never losing that impertuIhability., which
has no mixture OF any other quality at all Tho
they were going to stay here iofsysf Here
we're the guns in order: there tho relics of Tho
Sixue,h, the Dublins, the Royal Irish Fusilicrs
and the rest The guards were set and sen,riss
moved of again for three niles further s advances
to get them well out Of the mountains Why
on or. that perilous march through unknown and
them in sono pass and blot them out IN one OF
the many mysteries Of this strange campaign 1
next morning the column began 10 dribblr in
They were received with relief Icannot say there
went TO meet them is now swarmng with Beers
Further accounts Of the general engagement
more. then eight hundred Of the Glouces,ers and
the Irish Fusileers cnpitulatcd nj Nichoson's
han the %S yon Sase
But the Chroniele's correspondent, In a detailed
account q The fight, shows that it was poor
Taking IadYsmi!h as a centre, he says,
"and with o radius Of Ave miles the Beers posi-
ton extended round a semi-circle or more. from
Iombard's Kop on the east TO Walkers Hook
on the west, with Pepworth Hill as the centre Of
| the arc on the north believe myself that the
position was not n mile less than fifteen miles
long and for the most part u was lust what Beers
| like rocky kopIes and ridges high and low,
| always giving cover and opportunity for sur
| Prise and ambuscadc. II was against the left
| Hank Of that position that our right was now
! hurting itself. The idea, suppose was to roll
| their left hack upon their centre and take Pen
| worth Hill and Long Tom In the confusion Of re-.
| trent. That may OF may not have been the Gene
rails plan but from my post with the Gordons
| / soon saw something was happening 10 prevent
IT, On a fiat piece Of green In front OF the rocky
kopIea where the enemy evidently was I could
| zee men, not running, but walking about in dif.
ferent directions They were not crowded but
| they seemed 10 be moving about like black ants
only in a purposeless kind OF way They nrc
| Beers, and we've got them between our men and
| our battery said n Gordon Officer hui I knew
! his hope was n vain one Very slowly they were
| coming toward us turning and firing and nd.
| vanrng n little, one by one-but Tih coming
toward MS ill ri Inst they began to drbbie through
| the intervals in our batteries Then We knew
| It was British infantry retiring-a terrible sight,
| no matter how small the loss OF how wise The
| order given. Chiefly they were the Sixteth
| IN. r. and the Lcicesters I believe the Dub.
| Inns were there too. Behind them the enemy kep,
| up the inccssnnt crackle Of their rifles
| They came back slowly. tired and disheart.
| ened and sick with useless losses. but entirely
] refusing TO hurry or crowd With bullet and