The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-10-16
HE FOUGHT IN
THE BOER ARMY

thing of an adventurer, while the second
Il. command, Major Mcbride, was an
Irishman. We were irregular troops,
mounted and armed as all of the Beers
were but we none of US regularly enlist
ed or at least signed any regular enlist
ment papers. We took an active part in
the battles of Glencoe, Dundee and Mod
derspruit, which has been called some
times the battle of Nichols Mex. and in
the latter fight j lost this finger"
FINGER WAS AMPUTATED.
Mr.. Turner exhibited his left hand and
from it was shorn the little finger.
1T was crushed by bullet and I had
TO have it amputated, but it did not keep
me out of the fight for even a day. We
finally drove the British back into Lady
smith and there we kept them locked up,
as all the world knows, for many long
months.
Right there the Beers made the big
mistake of the war If General Joubert
had left Sir George White locked in Lady
smith and swept on across the Tugela to
the south he would have had an army of
00OO men at his back in no time and all
the south would have been up to greet him
and he would have been in Cape Town be-
fore the British had time to get their
forces together. The southern provinces
were simply waiting for such a movement
and all of Cape Colony would have Joined
with US and there would have been
vastly different end of the war; or at
least it would not have ended in a year.
But he did not and there's no use talking
about it.
THE BOER ARTILLERY.
| While we were lying around Lady
smith General Butler was massing his
forces to the south and word came to us
that he was at Durham and then at Est
court and then at Chievely. This was in
the middle of December, and We heard
that he was going to move on the 18th, so
a squad of the Irish Brigade, twenty-five
of US, under Commandant Trickhardt of
| the South African States Artillery. wen.
| to the crossing of the Tugela at COlenso
| to help repulse him.
1T was there that I saw the first of
what the Boer artillery could do. Cen
| eral Butler moved up two batteries of
the Royal Horse Artillery and from $50
O'Clock on the morning of December 18th
until o'clock, those batteries were play
! ing on our position, which was across the
river on a low bluff commanding the
| crossing. Our guns, two small French
| field cannon and one Nordenfeldt field
piece, did not open until after o'clock,
and when we did we needed only until
IS o'clock to silence those twelve guns. 1t
was about that time that the attack in
force began. We could see from our ele-
walton the cream of the British army
there Mr.. Turner smiled reminiscently-
coming over slight rise of land this
side of Chievely. They were 5000 strong
and there were but 300 of us, and my
heart was down in my boots. for 1 had
heard of the renown of the British army
III a charge such as we had evidently to
stand the brunt of. They came on and
for half hour the fighting was brisk,
but the Boer craftsmanship was too much
for the British, and ere that half hour
was up we had thinned their ranks sc
that they were forced to retire. -Four
times they charged us and once a few OF
. them got across the river, but comman-
do from Kruegersdorp, only 200 of them
had dropped down into gully or a
drift as they call it, and the fellows
fell right into their hands. On the
fourth retreat the guns were left behind
, as you will remember and the British
made an unsuccessful attempt to secure
them This was at about 3 O'Clock in the
afternoon. and as the British gave up at
tempting to get their cannon, party OF
our force, 279 in all, of which / made one
crossed the river and took them back
, with US, some of them over the bridge
, and others through the shallow water
We secured ten guns the other two be-
ing practically wrecked, and four OF
these were sent to be turned on Lady
smith, while the other six went up TO Pre-
, toria and were sent by the Government
to different parts of the field of war.
TOOK A VACATION.
Il went back to Ladysmith for a time
, ana lnen Wnen Buller made his SECOND
! attempt to cross the Tugela I went to the
front again and helped to again repulse
him. On this occasion 1 was somewha
injured by a lyddite shell. Those were
> nasty things; stink pots, we called them
, If some of the stuff touched you wher,
you were perspiring, it would run al
y over you, leaving stain like ink; ant
! the smell OF them was awful; it would
SURROGATE you if you got much of it,
II After that / decided to take a vaca
: ton and l went back to johannesburg t,
: see my wife. When left the front Com
+ mandant Trickhardt gave me, more as :
+ joke than anything, a discharge"
= Mr.. Turner produced a paper all writer
in Dutch which he keeps as one of hi
. most valuable mementoes of the war. Fo
the Advertiser he translated it and it il
az follows:
This is to certify that Mr.. Franci
. Turner. an American scout was unde
me during the early part of the war a
: the Natal and afterwards in the Orang
;. Free State. l cannot praise his qualities
: as a scout too highly; always wilin,
when called upon and very clever in as
pertaining the whereabouts of the enc
: mys guns Salutations,
+ .'TRICKHARDT.
= "Countersigned