The San Francisco call., 1899-12-22

British officers and soldiers fight
ing in the Transvaal and lengthy
descriptions from war correspond
- ents that filter into print through
the mails TEEN with thrilling and pa
thetic Incidents Writing TO his mother
a young officer of the Manchesters,
wounded in one of the first engagements.
relates that while he lay at night on the
hillside expecting 10 die, bleeding from
wound in his thigh and shivering with
cold. there stumbled over him a Tommy
Of my company named Rogers. This
Tommy quickly whipped off his own
overcoat. placed it around the boy officer
and laying down put his arms around
him and for the rest of that long, cold
night kept him beautifully warm"
The Times correspondent gives
graphic account and explanation Of the
British disaster at Nicholsen's Mex.
where Carleton's column, consisting OF
six companies of the Royal Irish Fusi-
liers, four and a half companies Of the
Gloucestershire Regiment and No. 10
Mountain Battery, surrendered.
Two hours before daybreak, says this
correspondent, while the column was in
an enclosed country, either a shot was
fred or a bowlder rolled into the battery.
The mules stampeded and easily broke
away from their half-asleep drivers. They
came back on the Gloucestershire Regi-
ment, the advance party of whom tred
into the mass, believing in the darkness
that il was an attack. This added TO the
chaos. the ranks were broken by the
frenzied animals and they dashed through
the ranks OF the rear guard, carrying the
first and second reserve ammunition ami
mails with them. Ii became a hopeless
panic The animals. wild with the shout
ing and the turmoil, tore down the Nullah
into the darkness and the last that was
heard of them was the sound OF am
munition boxes and paniers as they were
splintered against the powders. The hub
bub of these few moments was sufficient
TO have alarmed the enemy. BY strenu-
Gus effort the officers succeeded in getting
the men again under control, and when
daylight came they seized the first posi-
ton which presented itself and which was
about two miles short of the original goal.
They were forced 10 take advantage OF
the first kopje, as Boer scouts were all
around them and the day was ushered IN
with desultory firing. 1t was a sorry po-
sition which they had chosen and the
men were in a sorry plight. All their
they had saved pieces OF the screw guns
they were not able with these pieces 10
patch up single mounting.
From earliest daybreak Boer scouts
were accommodating and about o'clock
mounted Beers could be seen galloping III
small groups TO the cover OF the hill west.
Strong parties OF mounted men took posi-
tlOns on the tar side OF the TWO hills, COM
manding the Kop1e from them. About 3
clock these two parties had crowned the
hills and opened a heavy fire at short
range right down upon the plateau. Our
men made plucky attempt to return
this fire, but IL was impossible. They
were under a cross nre from two direc-
tions, flank and rear. The two companies
OF Gloucestershires, holding the self-con-
tanned ridge, were driven from their shell
ter, and as they crossed the open on the
low plateau were terribly mauled. the men
falling in groups. The Beers on the west
had not yet declared themselves, but
about 200 marksmen climbed TO the posi-
ton which the two companies of the
Gloucestershires had just vacated. These
men absolutely raked the plateau and II
was then that the men were order TO take
cover on the steep reverse of the kopJe.
AS soon 'as the enemy realized this move
the men on the western hill teemed onto
the summit and opened upon our men as
they lay on the slope. They were abso-
lutely hemmed in, and what had COM
menced as a skirmish seemed about TO be-
come a butchery. The grim order was
passed around oh, -ballaghs, fix
your bayonets and die like men, There
was the clatter of steel, the moment of
suspense, and then the cease fire sound
ed. Again and again II sounded. but the
Irish Fusiliers We're loath to accept the
call and continued firing for many min
utes Then IL was unconditional surren-
der and the men laid down their arms"
The correspondent at Ladysmith OF the
Elandslaagte realistically details the
horrors of war. He writes:
THE battlefield, as 1t stood on Sun
day. conveyed sufficient proof OF the Sc
verify of the fire. The wounded had been
removed by daylight, but the burial par
ties had not arrived TO perform the last
duties to the dead. The men lay there
10 the courage OF the British soldier We
followed this tragic trail-Highlanders
Manchesters and mounted volunteers lay
indiscrminately grouped. Then solitary
figures under the stones showed how lit
tie the cover had availed them. There
were places where wire fences had imped-
ed the advance Here the carnage had
been great and one brave fellow, stopped
in death, was cut off as he strove to
wrench a post from its foundations. In
the skyline of the tableland the dead lay
thickest, there being the main spot where
the attack had been checked. but the
white flag was already there and strings
Of coolies were digging the trench which
I'VE rode back 10 the Boer position-the
little kopje upon which Schiel and his
twenty-three men had made their last
stand. The bodies Of the fifteen that had
fallen OF This little band were grouped as
death had taken them. Some lay with
heads sunken on their rifle stocks fight
hat upon q prominent stone five yards
away and died with his fingers pressing
a charge into his magazine. What re-
maIned OF the laager was the litter of
shell fire. Tents were torn and burned
wagons splintered and overturned. food
stuffs. dead horses and explosives lay in
wrecked pIofusion. There remained no
doubt that our she'll fire had played upon
the position with full efrect. and cne
could only marvel that the Beers had
stood TO their guns so long. But, as one
OF the wounded prisoners told me later
in the day. there was no room TO retreat
the extended files OF the Manchester reRi-
ment, overlapping the reverse OF the
kopje, sweeping the northern footpath.
while the rain of shrapnel DESTROYED
every living thing on the western stones
And the scene at the farm house. nest
ling at the foot Of the ridge, on the far
side. bore out this statement. IL was here
that the Beers had brought their horses
for cover and carcasses lay piled on every
side. The slaughter among the horses
must have been almost as heavy as that
of the men"