The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-15
LETTERS FROM AFRICA.
War i'm the Transvaal as Related
and Commented Upon I'm Private
Com lions.

and Commented Upon I'm Private
Communications.
Correspondence of the Associated Press
LONDON. Jan. 6.--Letters from the
soldiers fighting against the Beers are
published in large numbers, and I'm many
cases are just as interesting as the ac-
counts by trained war correspondents. A
medical officer under Lord Methuen, de-
scribing the battle at Modder river, says:
IA lot OF North Lancashire men were
horribly wounded. i turned over SER
geant, black In the face. dead. One man
was brought to me who had been struck
by shell, with his face mutilated, throat
cut and chest lacerated. Oh, God! the
sight was sickening-blood everywhere.
Very few of our men being wounded
went out near sunset to aid the High
landers. They had been lying all day
under the frightful sun and their wound
ed were still there. No stretcher bearers
could advance, as they were all shot at.
They shouted to me to crawl on the
ground. as, though most of the firing was
over, there were still three or four Beers
with express rifles and explosive bullets,
who were under cover and who kept
picking of our men. Some men utterly
collapsed, and all could do was to put
a pad to their wounds and my whisky
flask to their lips. / then crawled back
to my horse and made my way to some
ambulances two miles distant to get their
aid. ! was under fire all the time, bull
let's dancing around me. / felt a kind
of solemn disregard. as I had been ex-
posed to danger before"
Local. Volunteers Needed.
In letter written to his father from
Moot river on November %, an officer in
the Queens Royal West Surrey regiment
says:
against an enemy like the Beers In
fantry is useless. The Beers have spies
and are well mounted They can move
away hours before our infantry can get
within striking distance. On the other
hand. they will never attack, and when
we advance toward Pretoria commandos
will be left all over the country, iooting
and burning farms The only people
who have a chance with them are the
local volunteer. If the government would
only raise about 1900 volunteers and send
out lot of mounted infantry who could
work with the local volunteers, these
isolated Dutch forces would soon be wiped
out. At present we are helpless. as they
make rings around u.s."
The special correspondent of the Cape
Argus thus describes a bombardment of
Kimberley:
What will probably be handed down
in the annals of history to Boer posterity
as the bombardment of Kimberley prob
ably occurred on Thursday, November
Z, and if ever the farcical elements were
introduced into such a serious business
as war the puerile attempt to raze KIM
berley can surely claim it, The Beers
had two guns mounted, one at Sohlotz
mex, trained on the Premier mine at Wes-
selton, at a range of something like
$500 yards, and the other at Spyt-
fontein. 1000 yards distant. A couple of
shots were fired between and o'clock
in the morning, but then the Beers de-
sisted until 49, when one gun, apparently
a nine-pounder, firing a French she'll
opened fire on Wesseton. The fire, how
ever, proved quite harmless, nearly all
the shots falling in the debris heaps
and our guns at Wesselton, replying and
quickly getting the range. induced the
enemy to cease firing. and they cleared
off about noon"
sergeant's Experience.
The following is from a letter from
reservist sergeant In the Coldstream
guards who is with Methuen's column. He
was at the battle of Modder river and
says:
During the afternoon some one SEEM
ed to have spotted me from the trenches.
First a shot struck the side of my boot
and struck my rifle just in front Of my
face, filing my eyes with dirt and spln-
tGTS, rose UP II HUE, WHEN announcer Dul-
let struck The middle of my left hand |
had got on my knees when bullet struck
me fair in the chest ON the buckle of my
haversack, breaking through it and caus-
ing a slight puncture of the skin and
bruising my chest. 1 have been congrat-
ulated as being the luckiest beggar in my
battalion
ROer boys story.
From the Boer side. come reports Just
as interesting. A lad OF II wrote to his
mother. after the battle of Glands laagte.
and the letter is published in the journal
de Geneve, as follows:
1--WE were or kopie. Our horses We're
behind It, in a howwow. AS the infantry
advanced against we began shooting
When 1t looked as ii we were going to be
surrounded certain number of our men
fell back to another position. About a
hundred of us remained on the kopje. But
the fire Of the Maxims and other guns be-
came so hot that we withdrew little to
find cover. The general ard command
ant, Viijoan. rallied us and brought us
back to the top of the hills. and advised
us to get under shelter there as much as
possible. ! followed the Seneral with 4