Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-20
TOMMY ATKINS OLD LEADER
Career Of the Man Who Succeeds Butler in
South Africa.
BRILLIANT RECORD OF LORD ROBERTS
From the Indian Mutiny to the Fall
of KHndnhnr His Life One of
Constant Warfarc-IdoI of
the British soldier.
BRILLIANT RECORD OF LORD ROBERTS

nelped 10 found and consolidate the British
empire in the east, relates the St Louis
Globe Democrat none have acquired a higher
niche In the temple OF military fame than
the warrior known to the British peerage as
Lord Roberts of Kandahar and Waterford,
and to the British private as Little Bobs"
or Irish extraction. with a dash Of French
Huguenot blood in his veins, Frederick
Sleigh Roberts was born in 1880 at Gavin
pore, which he was afterward TO enter
one of the heroes of an avenging host. His
father, Sir Abraham Roberts, had attained
the age OF 30, and become the Patriarch of
Indian Generals"
After spending his boyhood, like all In
dian born British children. in Engand-at
Clifton. Eton, sandhurst and Addiscombe,
young Roberts came out ninth in a batch of
nifty cadets and was at once posted to a
lieutenancy in the Bombay artillery. At
Addiscombe he had suffered so much from
heart @omplaint that revivlng sherry had
to be kept at his bedside. But If his heart
was functionally weak it was fun of the
finest courage, though 1t very nearly sank
on his way through the Red sea out to
India. 81 don't know" he said, "how we
shall ever be able to fight in India If 1t is as
hot as this" But what the heat of the
Red sea to the torrid sun flames, intensi
fled by the Sepoy shell-fire of Delhi which
were now beginning to flare up? In May,
1857, news of the mutiny at Meerut and the
seizure of Delhi reached Peshawur, where
Lieutenant Roberts was acting as d. A. Q.
G. of the division commanded by Major Cen
eral Reed; and presently before Delhi, the
headquarters of the rebellion, there ap-
peared the immortal Field Force" into
which Roberts, after urgent entreaty, had
been able to exchange from the Punjab NOV
able column.
1t was now that his career of glory began
"a career that was repeatedly all but cut
short by the bullets. shells and sabers of
the Sepoys. Wherever blows were rife
Lieutenant Roberts to be found re-
joicing in the rapture of the fray. He was
close to Neville Chamberlain when the lat
ter's arm was shattered by grape shot; while
"a bullet lodged in the cap pouch of Rob-
erts, making a severe bruise close to the
spine, and had it not been for the cap
pouch he must have been killed" But
wounds he soon recovered from and cholera
he defed. When the siege train at last
up Roberts got himself attached to one
of the batteries, and was indefatigabe in
directing its fire. He had several hair
breadth escapes but, like Cults, the "Sala-
mander" at the siege of Namur he seemed
TO bear charmed life. When the assault
was delivered Roberts had his horse shot.
From the siege of Delhi young Roberts,
still acting as staff officer, passed with
Greathead's movable column to his own
birthplace, blood-s stained Cawnpore-dletin-
gushing himself repeatedly on the march.
In the action of Bolundshur he attached
himself though a gunner, to the Ninth
Lancers, and while passing through a gate
way a Sepoy took deliberate aim at him
and fred though the bullet only killed his
charger. On another occasion the troops
he accompanied performed "the almost un-
paraleled achievement of fighting an action
and marching sixty-six miles in forty hours,
nine miles of which the cavalry did at
ttrot through high crops or over powed
fields"
Heroic Deeds.
Receiving at Cawnpore an accession of
strength from the Ninety-thir Highlanders,
the avengng column started for the relief
OF Lucknow, on which Sir Colin Campbell
and his Highlanders were now also converg
Ing from Calcutta. The march was terribly
toeonie and nerilous. II was sent" wrote
Lieutenant Roberts, "by Sir Hope Grant to
select the ground for a new camp.
While we waiting and talking to what
appeared to be pilgrims we were shot at,
and on looking round saw a considerable
number of the enemy between us and our
force. We put spurs to our horses,
but had narrow escape. My horse while
crossing a river was slightly wounded and
fell and in doing my sword fell from my
hand and cut my left thumb badly" AS
Q, NJ. G.. of Hope Grants column, Roberts
reconnoitered the road and had the honor
of leading the army in the advance from
the Alumbagh to Dilkoosha, which initiated
the operations resulting in the relief of the
beleaguered garrison. But 1t was at the
mess house that Roberts surpassed all his
previous feats of cool bravery, and his own
very modest and self-effacing account OF
the incident is this: 81 took the flag of the
Second Punjab infantry, by Sir Colin Camp
bells orders, and placed 1t on the mess
house to show Outram and Haveock where
We were The enemy knocked the Flagstaff
down three times, breaking the pole once"
But 1t was just as often put up again by the
dauntless Roberts, who stuck to his object
amid hail of bullets.
On another occasion, at Lucknow while
following up the retreating enemy, with
the ardor of a fox hunter, hooerts saw two
Sepoys marching off with a standard. Put
ting spurs to his horse he overlook them
just as they were about to enter a village
and made for them sword in hand. They
Immediately turned at bay and presented
their muskets at him 1t was a critical
moment as one of them pulled the trigger.
but the cap snapped almost in Roberts
face, ana the next moment he had laid the
Sepoy carrying the standard dead at his
feet with a tremendous cut across the
hcad. seiaing the trophy 1t fell from his
lfeless grasp. Meanwhile his companion
made off to the village" But finer ex-
plot OF the same kind ensued Following
the rebels, Roberts came up with group
consisting OF n Sikh Sowar and a rebel
Sepoy, standing at bay, with musket and
bayonet. Roberts, not counting the Odds
rode straight at the Sepoy and with one
fierce Elash across the face killed him
on the spot" These two acts OF personal
prowess gained for him the much-coyeted
Victoria Cross-a fact the record of which
Lord Roberts himself modestly relegates
TO the obscure position of footnote in his
charming "reminiscences of Forty y-one
Years in India"
Roberts" wrote Admiral Oliver Jones,
lis as good IS he is brave. He is one OF
those rare men who, to uncommon bravery
and daring in the field and unflinching
discharge of duty in the camp, adds the
charm OF cheering and unaffected kindness
and hospitality in the tent, and his ac-
quaintance and friendship are high prizes
TO those who obtain them" He was ever
TO the front as usual in ali the operatlons