Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-03-31
WOUNDED OFFICERS STORY.
Tale of Suffering ON the Field Of
ElandsIaaEte.

4 Tale of Suffering on the Field OF
1 ElandsIaagte.
| A wounded officer sends long letter
to his mother from Pietermaritzburg
hospital, in South Africa, describing
his experiences at the battle OF Eland-
slaagte, says the Birmingham Post 1T
was" he says, "a splendid feat of arms,
and / am most awfuIIy proud of my
| regiment, for we bore the brunt of the
day. We had n tremendously hard time
| of II and were under fire for two and a
half hours. considerably longer than
any other corps. But the cost was aw-
| full! We had only ten officers in action,
| and five OF them were wo lnded, and Of
800 men we had IL killed and 80 wound
ed; two have since died of their
wounds. The Gordons lost even more
severely. The reasons for this were, in
my opinion. as follows: First. their
dark kits were much more visible than
our khakis and consequently formed a
better target; second. sthere were more
OF them. The Gordons all say that
Dargai was the merest child's play
compared to this.
ITO return to my own doings. / lay
where / fell for about three-quarters of
an hour. when a doctor came and put a
field dressing on my wound, gave me
some brandy, put my helmet under my
head as pillow, covered me with a
Boer blanket which he had taken from
a dead man and then went TO look aft
er some other poor beggar. ! shall new
er forget the horrors OF that night as
long as live. In addition TO the agony
which my wound gave me, had two
sharp stones running into my back. /
was. soaked to the skin and bitterly
cold, but had an awful thirst. The
torrents OF rain never stopped. On one
side OF me was a Gordon highlander in
a raving delirium and on the other a
Boer who had had his leg shattered by
a shell and who gave vent TO the most
heartrending cries and groans- War In
funny game, mother. and no one can
realize what its grim horrors are like
till he sees 1t in all it's barbarous real
ity.
81 lay In the rain the whole of the
night and a. daybreak was put into a
doolie by n doctor, and some natives
carried me down to the station. The
ground was awfully rough, and they
dropped me twice. / tainted both
times. / was sent down to Ladysmith
in the hospital train. From the station
I was conveyed to the chapel Officers
hospital in a bullock cart, the jolting
of which made me faint again. l was
the last officer taken in. l was then
put TO bed, and my wound was dressed
just II hours after / was hit. They
then gave me beef tea. which was the
first food had had for % hours. The
doctors all said at first that had been
hit by a shell, but that is impossible,
for the enemy only had two guns. and
we had taken them both when / was
hit. So the doctors now say that ii
must have been a very heavy explosive
bullet, nnd as an elephant gun was
found close to where l was hit, l ex-
pect they are right. 1t has made a big.
Jagged hole in my shoulder which you
could put your hand into. 1t has blown
some of the muscles away, so. l am
afraid / shall always be a bit stiff.
They say IL will take another ten
weeks before / am fit for duty, and /
am very much afraid that most of the |
fighting will be over by that time. in |
spite of the present critical condition |
of affairs"