The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-10-21
VICTORY FOR BRTTONS
Beers Badly Defeated in a Conflict
at Glencoe.
BoER LOSSES EIGHT HUNDRED,

Whlle the Casualty IiSt OF the brltonS |
Is Estimated ut Two Hundred and |
FIfty-Gen. Symons, the British Com
mnuuer, said to BE Badly wounded.
London, Oct. 21.--There was a great
battle between the British and the
Beers at Glencoe yesterday. The alb
sence of details regarding the British
losses in the engagement causes the
deepest anxiety, and the war office is
besieged by relatives and friends of
those making up the forces that took
part in the fight. The battle was bril-
liant success for the British forces. The
Beers got a reverse which may possi-
bly,, for time at any rate, check all
aggressive action.
The British artillery practice in the
early part of the day decided the bat
tie The seizure of Dundee Hill by the
Beers was a surprise, for, although the
pickets had been exchanging shots all
night. il was not until a shell boom
ed over the town into the camp that
their presence was discovered. Then
the shells came fast The hill was posi-
lively alive with the swarming Beers.
Still, the British artillery got to work
with magnificent energy and precision.
The batteries from the camp took up
positions to the south of the town and
after quarter hours magnificent
firing silenced the guns on the hills.
The correspondent could see shells
dropping among the Boer pieces with
remarkable accuracy and doing tre-
mendous execution, for the enemy were
present in very large numbers and in
places considerably exposed.
BY this time the enemy held the
whole of the hill behind Smiths
Farm and the Dundee Kopje, right
away to the south, in which direction
the British infantry and cavalry moved
at once.
The fighting ragged particularly hot
at the valley outside the town. Di-
rectly the Boer guns ceased firing Gen
eral Symons ordered the infantry to
moved on the position. The infantry
charge was magnificent. The way the
| Kings Royal Rifles and the Dublin
Fusiliers stormed the position was one
of the most splendid sights even seen.
The firing of the Beers was not so
deadly as might have been expected
from troops occupying such an excel
| lent position but the infantry lost
heavily going up the hill, and only the
| consummately brilliant way in which
| General Symons had trained them to
| fighting of the kind saved them from
being swept away. Indeed, the hill was
almost inaccessible to the storming
! party, and any hesitation would have
lost the day. The enemy's guns, so
far as the correspondent could see,
were all abandoned, for the Beers had
no time to remove them.
A stream of fugitives poured down
the hillside into the valley, where the
battle went on with no abatement.
General Symons was wounded early
in the action. and the command then
devolved on General Yule. A dispatch
read in the house of commons last
night says General Symons' wound is
mortal.
The enemy, as they fed, were fol-
lowed by the cavalry, mounted in
fantry and artillery. The direction
taken was to the eastward. At the
latest reports the cavalry had not re-
turned.
Some say that four, and some say
five, guns were captured. The Boer ar
tillery firing was weak. A lot of plug
ged shells were used.
Although the enemy's position was
carried soon after l o'clock, scatter
ing firing went on almost all after
noon.
The British losses are very severe
but those of the Beers are much
heavier. A rough estimate places the
British loss at 250 killed or wounded
and that of the Beers at 500. Many
of the Beers surrendered.
The dispatches from South AfricG
leave no doubt that the Beers failed
in their endeavor to execute a com
bined attack in Natal, and that the
British have achieved a brilliant vic
tory, but at the cost of heavy list o.
killed and wounded.
The Boer plan, it is evident, was t.
hold the force at Ladysmith by de
monstrations of the Free State burgh
ers on the western side, so as to pre-
5 vent reinforcements being sent t.
5 Glencoe. The latter place was to bt
Isolated by cutting the railway between
it and Ladysmith. Finally a large
force was to make a converging at
: tack on Glencoe.
r The first two items of the program
were successfully carried out, but tn,
combined operation against Glenco,
failed, owing probably to the fact tina
the Boer military organization is too
rough and amateurish to bring larg
forces into simultaneous action. 1t il
believed that only 1000 Beers were il
the actual action.
Dispatches dated Mafeking Saturda,
night, and carried by dispatch rider
via Kuruman and Danielskull to Hook
town. state that Colonel Baden-Powel
inflicted a tremendous blow on tn
Beers nine miles north of Mafekine
v.oIr lod rrrNk IT,
which it was deemed unsafe to keep il
Mafeking, on account of the risk of ex
: plosion should the town be shelled
were sent by Colonel Baden-Powel
nine miles out. in the hope that thu
Beers would shell and explode them
r And so it happened. When the engin,
had uncoupled from the trucks and re
treated about mile the enemy shellet
the trucks, with the result that ter
rible explosion occurred, killing, it i
estimated, hundred Beers.