The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-12-22
AS WRITER'S SEE THE WAR.
Correspondents Give Details Of Battles
Which We're BOer Victories. .siif4s


death, cut OIL as he strove to wrench 4
post from It's foundation.
4 ON the sky line of the tableland the
dead lay thickest, this being the main
spot where the attack had been checked
but the white nag was already there and
strings Of coolies were digging the trench
which so often is the soldiers resting
place.
we rode back TO the Boer position-the
little kopjc 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 overtaken them. Some lay with
their heads sunkeu upon their ri1estocks,
| Fighting to the end. Another had placed
his hat upon prominent stone. Ave yards
away and had died with his fingers press
ing charge into his magazine What
remained of the lager was the litter OF
shell fire. Tents were torn and burned,
wagons splintored and overturned. food
stun. dead horses and explosives lay in
| wrecked profusion. There remained no
doubt that our shell fire had played upon
the position with woeful effect and one
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 regiment,
overlooking the reverse OF the kopje.
sweeping tho northern foot path while
the rain of shrapnel destroyed every liv-
Ing thing on the western slopes And the
scene at the farm house Nesting at the
foot of the ridge on the far side bore out
this statement. 1t 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,"
Bonnett Burleigh, the Daily Telegraphs
war correspondent. supplies a full account
Of the annihllatlon of the armored train
contingent at Cheveley. when Winston
Churchill was captured The train, it
appears. with the exception OF the engine.
tender and two trucks was badly wrecked
by the removal of flshplates and the sew
eniy-two men OF the Dublin FusiIeers and
the ninety-s men OF the Durham Light
infantry, to say nothing of blue jackets
from the Tartar. were thrown out. Cap
tain i1aldane. OF the Gordon Hlghlanders.
who commandeS the party. rallied his
bruised and shaken men amid a hail OF
bullets from the Bners began TO clear the
line, while others were pouring deadly
volleys into the almost unseen Beers hid
den behind the rocks about 1000 yards off
The blue Jackets. bravely commanded by
their petty offcer-who was the incarna-
ton of coolness--got their sin FOUNDER
into action. They sent two, II not three.
we'll aimed shells at the Beers several
hundred of whom lined the hills. But
just then a shot from the enemy's three
FOUNDER or field gun. hit the small naval
seven-p FOUNDER. knocked gun and carriage
on to the veldt and wounded several of
the seamen. But the men were not a whit
beaten
The Pail Mall Gazettes correspondent
describes Winston Churchil's conduct on
this occasion as follows: "A party of vol
unters, consisting principally of plate
layers. etc, led by Winston Churchill,
who behaved throughout with most heroic
courage succeeded in placing the rails.
Mr. Churchill had previously assisted In
carrying in no less than twenty men un-
der terrible fire Some idea of the ac-
curacy of the euemy's IRE and of Mr.
Churchill's courage may be obtained by
narrating the fact that u Boer shell burst
in front of MIR Churchill. killing two men
en- each side of him. our wounded were
now dotting the veldt on each side. The
continued rife fire and the weird sound
OF the quick firers added to the horrors
OF the situation. AS last the line WAS
clear and the engine. with one carriage of
the armored train. was enabled to return
to Frere leaving Captain Haldane's party
fiercely engaged, The Beers gave 1t Il
passing salyo of shells, hitting the tender
and nearly derailing the train second
time"
The Daily Graphic correspondent, de
scribing visit to the hulk Penelope at
Somers Bay, where the Boer prisoners are
confined. undertaken in the company of
Colonel Stowe, the United States consul
general. writes: "The majority of the
prisoners are sleek. contented and indlf
terent. They told me they thought the
war would be II picnic; that they would
rush Natal before the imperial troops AR
rived; that England would be involved
in foreign complications and they would
be able to dictate terms from Pietermaritz-
burg and Durham. They thought to view
the Cape peninsula as conquerors. not
from prison ship. Colonel Shield steps
with difficulty. His wound in the thigh IS
nearly healed, but he stll requires the use
of n stick, He Is typical soldier OF for
tune grizzly gray hair. cropped close ag
gressive militaly moustaohe. shrewd gray
blue eyes. thick neck. figure still un-
mistakably active, bat tending to stout.
ness. AS to bearing he is a genial man
of the army. He introduced us TO his
brother officers"