The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-11-24
Part of the Boer Ambulance Recently Returned from
South Africa Receives Marked Attention.
A cead Mile Faite Extended to Them by Ten Thousand
Enthusiastic People Last Sunday Afternoon.
Their Achievements for Liberty Related Graphic
by Lieutenant Daniel F. Daily and Others

inch shell ut the rate of 800 Il minute
as we'll as hand Maxims and rifles
Yet not man of us was even hit.
we retreatcd to the Zand river.
"here our brigade blew up the bridg-
es ana railroad tracks, as we were as
signed to that kind of work ut the re-
quest OF President Stcyn and General
Botha. After we dynamitcd the bride-
cs IL regiment of English cavalry tried
to cross the river after us, and Gen.
eral Botha let fly the old Long Tom at
them right in their center, and. al.
though they pluckily tried to reform
three times, they were unable to. and
only thirteen of the whole outfit cot
back.
"Thcn we retired to Reitspruit. when
Botlla came up and told us to stick
by the guns. We did, and carried
them to krOonstadt. where some of
our horses gave out. We had the
poorest mounts, anyhow, us we came
late, and had to take what was left.
Some of the boys had to stav in
kroonstadt, and those of us who had
mounts kept right on.
Outside Kroonstadt we were out.
fiankcd again, and Botha ordered us
to retire, while Blake went to Kroon.
stadt to commander some horses. We
| then went to Hcilbron, and were or
dered to intrench ourselves on the
banks Of the Rhenoster river Afte.
building our "scllonces," which are
holes large enough for Il man to fit III
and fire out of, we were outtlankcd by
fifteen miles, SO we crossed the Vaal
river and entered Vcrccniging.
1.-TWO days later we were sent to the
Kip river, to take position, but our
guide lost his way, and part of us got
separated from the brigade
"Our advance was surrounded by
the enemy, but we got away and ar
rived at Elandslaagtc, but before ar
rivng there we had skirmish with
the British scouts, and held it for two
days, without a morsel to eat
1--WE entered Johannesburg the sec
ond night, and trckkcd with the Beers
next day. We landed ut Six Mile
Spruit and had another brush with
the enemy and retired. Our horses
got done up, so we had to go to Pre-
tOrin on foot.
1--WE subsequently went to Middle
burgh for remounts. Those who had
horses went back to Bronkerspruit,
where they licked blazcs out of the
English and drove them back to Pre-.
toria. Then the enemy was reinforced
and came out to Donkerspruit, where
the Scots Greys, the Lancashire fusi.
leers, and some other regiments were
cut to pieces by our side, and tho
English retreatcd to Pretoria for
good.
"Then Butler came through Chris
Botha's lines in Natal, so we decided
to make stand ut Belfast.
"When we went into action there
were less than 5000 on our eide, occu-
pying IS miles of fighting front,
against 10000 infantry alone, and we
held our position for eight days. On
the eighth day the English had SO
guns playing on one acre of ground,
in which was a kopje guarded by rs
Johannesburg police, and although the
English under such cover attacked
the kopje three times they were driv-
en- back.
'"rhen our big gun and ammunition
gave out, and we had nothing to do
but retire, which we did under fire,
but we infantry men remained until
all the cavalry on our left got safely
away. During this engagement the
British turned all their guns at one
time on our Long Tom,' and we
thought it was all up, as they fired
1856 lyddite shells at our old standby.
But Long Tom opened up again, and
when we heard it all Of us jumped up
out Of the trenches and yelled like
blazes with the bullets flying around
us thick. ..
'"rhe English used dumdum, split
and soft-nose bullets up to the last
day, and we returned them in kind
when we captured their ammunition.
"Soon after Belfast we were sent
by Secretary Reitz to entrench our
selves and hold back the 5000 Kaffirs
and the GOO English who were coming
from No Mans Land, but they never
showed up. Then the mounted men
went to Nelspruit, where it was de-
cided that President Kruger should
leave and give free hand to General
Continued on Fourth Page.)