The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-24
THE BOERS AS FIGHTERS.
Some Engagements Where They Proved
Their ProWeSS.

| Their HrOWeSS,
IT is usual, I know, for military men
| to eneer at the generalship, or want OF
it. which. as they allege, was RESPONSE
bic 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 villiges. 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
military success which English officers
can claim in a good many encounters
with the Beers is the battle of Boom
plaats. fought in 1S4S between artillery
and flint-lock guns. 1t is, therefore
nonsense to take refuge behind the lack
| of generalship Of our leaders. If such
factors 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 I.aing'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 a splinter of she'll
induced them to think seriously of
| abandoning the position. They We're
about to leave when the attack by a
small number of mounted infantry and
by few companies of Col. Deanes
rc On1v pf
men reached the Boer lines, the others
being stopped a short distance away;
and, as they We're unsupported, these
| We're driven back down the hill. Re-
suit: 1870 killed and wounded on the
British side, against "a Beers killed
and wounded. At Iogogo, fought a few
| days afterward, a force of about 300
men and two guns We're stopped on a
small plateau, and, after an action last
| ing all day, our men, with the two guns,
We're withdrawn during the night, leav-
| ing 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 142 killed and wounded.
force of about 500 infantry set out
! for the summit of Majuba hill on the
night of February 26. 1881. There We're
about $50 comba tants After leaving
some companies on the road about 400
! men reached the summit, and were dis
posed in various positions about he
rim of the mountain. The first shots
We're fired about 6 o'clock and the COM
bat went on uninterruptedly for hours.
In the final stages the main body of
the Beers crept to within 40 yards and
for a considerable time fusilladed our
troops at this distance. Many of the
men fell in the subsequent fight; but
when the fight was over, at o'clock,
our casualties We're $50 killed and
wounded. while the Beers lost one
killed and four wounded AT Bronkhorst
we lost 100 men killed and wounded
within 10 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 fighting
1t is usually maintained that these
Transvaal fights We're fought at dis
vantage and that our men were in each
case vastly outnumbered IF we accept
the Roer accounts. orr forces were not
outnumbered. At Maiuha they say
they had about 400 men. But even as
suming that there We're as many as
1000 ROers, the result is still extremely
unsatisfac tory,-African Review