Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-13
HOW THE BRITISH
GUNS WERE LOST
AT TUGELA RIVER,

Chicago, Feb ia special to the Rec
ord from Victoria, B. c., says: A letter re-
! ceived by Mrs. A. A. Humphreys Of this
city from a captain of a border regiment,
since wounded at Spion Kop, gives a
British guns at the Tugela river. The
letter was dated at Frere, Dec. 81, and
in part says:
"People hardly realize yet what big
undertaking this is turning out to be.
Everything points to the Beers having
not less than $4,000 men in the field, with
guns superior to ours in range and little
behind us in craftsmanship and until we
get out a lot more troops there is not a
likelihood of our doing much more than
hold them in check.
"They are undoubtedly following out a
plan Of campaign which they have worked
out in all details in peace times and they
are carrying it out most perfectly. They
have spies everywhere and are always
prepared to meet any move on our part
almost before we've begun. We are ex-
actly the reverse and never seem to
know what they are doing nor how many
there are Of them in any direction. We
won't trust a single colonial (Cape Colo
nist).
"We have a first-class typographical
map of the frontier, but no military map
of these parts and no one knows which
hill commands another, or what kind of
positions there are on the other side of the
mountains facing us. We are exactly
like the French in the Franco German
war, with excellent maps Of the enemy's
country but with none OF our own. The
and hills. They extend for miles and
command every bit of ground in front.
'"The hills behind are prepared for de-
fense. If they are driven back from one
position they don't have to go very far to
get behind new line of resistance. Wa
ter is far from plentiful and the trans
ports scarce, so we have to stick pretty
well to the railway. Butler has a hard
nut to crack in the Boer position in front
of us-Colenso hills defending the river
Tugela which we must cross and which is
fordable in places few and far between.
I'VE tried to do so last Friday and had
a battle. We We're 10000 strong and the
Beers between 10000 and 14,0o0 Our bri-
6oNCs hAeA, dltdChSO UIl lIlc lclI, DuC our
brigader made an awful mess of it and
Butler ordered him to withdraw, which
we did after 80 were killed and wounded.
Something went wrong with the right
and the officer commanding the
royal artillery advanced his guns up to
within 700 yards Of the Boer position and
trenches long before the infantry We're at
hand to support him. The Beers allowed
the guns to be unlimbered and then pour
ed such hail Of bullets that the teams
OF two batteries were killed in very short
time. When the gunners We're shot down
the attack could not be carried out and
Butler had to give the order to retire and
ten guns had to be abandoned
"Our total loss was 1,147 and all for
Butler almost wept and was
heard to exclaim: My brigadiers have
sold me.''
Eve shall have another division here
shortly and will then have 80, 900 men and
as the Beers have been receiving REIN
forcements they will number not far
from 10000 and all in splendid positions.
The shrieking and bursting Of shells and
the roar of battle and the thousands OF
Lee Metfords and Maxims last
Friday was something awful The heat.
too. was dreadful, but the men behaved