The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-22

!, by Beers.
Eorrespondence of the Associated Press.)
< LONDON, Dec. 13-Letters from
British officers and soldiers fighting in
from war correspondents that filter into
print through the mails TEEN with
thrilling and pathetic incidents. Writ
! ing to his mother, young officer Of
; the Manchesters, wounded in one of
the first engagements, relates that
: While he lay at night on the hillside ex-
pecting to die, bleeding from wound
in his thigh and shivering with cold,
there stumbled over him Tommy of
my company named Rogers" This
: Tommy" quickly whipped off his own
GOAT, placed it around the boy officer,
and, lying 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 Cartoons column, consisting of
six companies of the Royal Irish Fus-
ileers, four and half companies of the
Worcestershire and No. 10 mountain
battery surrendered.
Two hours before daybreak," says
this correspondent, while the column
was in an inclosed country, either
shot was fired or boulder rolled into
the battery. The mules stanpeded,
and easily broke away from their half
asleep drivers They came back on
the Worcestershire regiment, the adj
vance party of whom fired into the
: mass, believing in the darkness that it
was an attack. This added to the:
chaos, the ranks We're 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. It
became a hopeless panic. The ami
mails, wild with the shouting and the
? turmoil, tore down the mullah into the
darkness, and the last that was heard
of them was the sound of ammunition
boxes and paniers as they We're splin-
tered against the boulders.
The hubbub of these few moments
was sufficient to have alarmed the en-
envy. By strenuous effort the Off
GERS 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 advan-
tage of the first kopje, as Boer scouts
were all around them, and the day was
ushered in with desultory firing It
was sorry position which they had
chosen, and the men were in a sorry
plight. All their reserve ammunition
was gone. and though they had saved
pieces of the screw guns, they Were not
able with these pieces to patch I'D
single mounting.
From the earliest daybreak Boer
scouts were accommodating, and about
8 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 9 o'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 1t was impossible They
were under a cross fire from two di-
.rections.. flank andsrear. The two
companies of G1oucestershire's holding
the self-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 de-
clared themselves, but about 200
marksmen climbed to the position
which the two companies of the Glou-
cestershires had just vacated. These
it was then that the men We're ordered
to take cover on the steep reverse of
the =kopje- As soon as the enemy real
lied this move, the men on the west
ern hill termed on to the summit, and
opened upon our men as they lay on
the slope. They We're absolutely
hemmed in, and what had commenced
as a skirmish seemed about to become
a butehery. The grim order was
passed around, oh faugh- a. ballaghs,
fix your bayonets and die like men.
There was the clatter of steel, the mo-
nfent of suspense, and then the cease
fire. sounded. Again and again it
sounded, but the Irish Fusileers were
loath to accept the call. and continued
firing for many Minutes. Then it was
unconditional surrender, and the men
laid down their arms"
The correspondent at Ladysmith of
the same paper, describing the battle
field of Glands Laagte, realistically de-
tails the horrors of war. He writes:
& s"The battlefield, as it stood on the
Sunday conveyed sufficient proof of
the severity Of the fire. The wound
ed had been removed by daylight, but
the burial parties had not arrived to
perform the last duties to the dead.
The men lay there as they had fallen,
a sad, pathetic tribute to the courage
of the British soldier. We followed
this tragic Observation-Disclosures Man
chesters and mounted volunteers lay
indiscriminately grouped. Then soli-
tary figures under the stones showed
how little the cover had awaited them.
There were places where the wire
fences had impeded: the advance. Here
the carnage had been great, and one
brave fellow, stopped in death, cut off
as he strove to wrench a post from its
foundations
I'm the sky line of 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 soE coolies were digging the
trench, (which so soften is the soldier
resting place.
cWe rode. back to the Boer positions
the little kopje upon which Schie1 and
HI twsnty-three men had made their