The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-22

| Correspondence of the Associated Press.)
London, Dee. 13.-Letters from Brit
ish officers and soldiers fighting in the
Transvaal and lengthy descriptions
from war correspondents that filter
into print through the mails, TEEN with
thrilling and pathetic incidents. Writ
ing 10 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 to die bleeding from a wound
In his thigh, and shivering with cold.
there stumbled over. him a Tommy of
my company named Rogers" This
I Tommy quickly whipped off his over
coat. 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 a
graphic account and explanation of
the British disaster at Nicholsen's Mex
where Carleton's column. consisting Of
SIX companies of the Royal Irish Fu-
siliers. four and a half companies of
the Worcestershire regiment, and No.
IL mountain battery, surrendered.
Disaster at Nicholsen's Mex.
Two hours before daybreak," says
this correspondent. while the column
y
shot was fired or a boulder rolled into
the battery. The mules stampeded and
easily broke away from their half
asleep drivers. They came back on the
Worcestershire regiment, the advance
party of which fired into the mass. be-
lieving in the darkness that it 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 animals
with them
1T became a hopeless panic. The
animals, wild with the shouting and
the turmoil, tore down the Nullah into
the darkness. and the last that was
heard of them was the sound of ammu-
milton boxes and paniers as they were
splintered against the boulders.
The hubbub of these few moments
was sufficient to have alarmed the
enemy. BY a strenuous effort the Of
ficers succeeded in getting the men
again under control and when daylight
came they seized the first position
which presented itself, and which was
about two miles short of the original
goal. They were forced to take advaR-
tage of the first kopje, as .Boer scouts
were all around them, and the day was
ushered in with desuitory firing.
In a Sorry Plight.
1t was a sorry position which they
had chosen, and the men were in a
sorry plight. All their reserve ammu-
milton was gone, and though they had
saved pieces of the screw guns, they
We're not able with these pieces to
patch up single mounting.
From earliest daybreak Boer scouts
We're accommodating, and about 5
O'Clock mounted Beers could be seen
galloping in small groups to the cover
of the hill west Strong parties of
mounted men took positions on the
far side of the two hills. commanding
the kopje from them. About O'Clock
these two parties had crowned the hills
and opened heavy fire at short range
right down upon the plateau.
Our men made a plucky attempt to
return this fire, but it was impossible.
They were under a cross fire from two
flank and rear. The two
companies of Gloucestershire holding
the seif-contained ridge were driven
from their shelter. and as they crossed
the open on the low plateau were ter
ribly mauled. the men falling in groups.
THE Beers on the west had not yet
declared themselves, but about 200
climbed to the position
which the two companies OF the Glou-
cestershires had Just vacated. These
men absolutely raked the plateau. and
it was then that the men were ordered
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 absolutely hemmed in, and !
what had commenced as a skirmiSh /
seemed about to become butchery-
The grim order was passed around: |
On faugh-a-ballaghs your bay !
onets and die like men,
There was the clatter of steel, the |
moment of suspense, and then the