Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-04-07
THESOUTHAFRI WAR
Correspondents Accounts of Its
Interesting Phases.
DEFEESEs AT MAGERsFoNTEIN.
Simplicity of the Preparations which
Proved So Fatal to the British.
Stories of Wounded Men--Suffer-
ings of African Transport Animals.
Debut of the West Australians.

That many mistaken estimates were
made Of Boer strength and guile while
Methuen's force remained passive in
| front of it is clear from the following
accounts of personal inspection of
Magersfontein, written by the London
Daily Telegraph's correspondent after
the Beers had evacuated the slaughter
place of the highianders:
We looked in vain for the eight foot
wire entanglements" of which we had
read so much from the pens of hyster-
zeal and probably rather frightened
young soldiers after the Magersfonteln
mishap. Instead of an ENHANCEMENT
there was only n simple wire boundary
fence, not continuous, but placed at in
teryals along the line of trenches aud
hung with strips of beef drying into
biltong. This eomestible was probably
more formidable obstacle than the
Then we looked for the deep trenches
underground dwellings deep enough
to engulf man and horse-of which we
had also heard. Disappointment again
"a simple trench, or, rather, a double
row of simple trenches, deep to mid
thigh, very narrow and well protected
by head cover of sandbags and slight
as the profile and confined Its complica-
tons to a slight waviness of plan and
an occasional traverse to minimize the
effect Of shell fire. The most notice
able fact with regard to the trenches
was that the back of the front trench
was always left quite clear, SO as not
to interfere with the fire of the second
line.
All along the trenches lay skins,
coats, karosses, cooking utensils, food
and cartridges, giving us the first indi-
cation we had had that the retreat had
been anything but an orderly one.
From the trenches it was but a step to
the gun emplacements. Here, our good
friends, the gunners, had told us, we
should find travelling and disappearing
carriages and every other artifice
known to the Royal artillery mind.
Again were we greeted with the very
simplest plans to minimize the effect
of shell fire, high embrasure cover
ing the gun and sharp slope of the
ground behind it, and deep recess cut
in the solid rock provided all the pro-
lection necessary to enable Albrecht's
Germans to live through nearly IL
weeks of lyddite and common shell.
One gun had, it is true, been demolish-
ed, as testified by an explosion three
weeks ago and corroborated by the
fragments of twisted iron and wood
work littering the emplacement, but
the others, protected by their simple
sandbags and the troublesome per-
spective of the iron stone kopjes, had
maintained a fairly regular and ac-
curate fire for two months of our win
ter at Modder river.
Men and officers returning wounded
to England tell strange tales of the
battlefield. The other day Lance Cor
poral Ramsey of the Black Watch, who
was brought to Netley hospital, having
been hit eight times at Magersfontein,
said a bugler boy was being dragged
into the Boer trenches. The lad strug-
gled. and, according to the lance cor
poral, the Boer cut his throat. Ram
sey tried to rescue him and split the
mans head with the butt end of his
rife, but was unable to help the bugler
boy, who was dead.
The strange maneuvers Of Mauser
bullets are related by several men able
to testify from experience. Corporal
williams of the First Coldstream
guards received one in his throat. The
bullet carried away a tooth, smashed
his lower jaw and finally lodged in his
neck. The corporal has the bullet,
with a piece of tooth firmly imbedded
In ii. Private Cradock of the Seaforth
highlanders was shot just above the
groin. and the bullet emerged at his
waistcoat pocket, passing through his
watch as it came out. In the case of
another guardsman the shot entered at
the back of his neck and came out at
his throat. AS result he has COM
pletely lost his voice.
There is a section Of our camp de-
voted to the attenuates from up coun-
", writes TIE SoAitSPNhh
ent of the London Telegraph. These
are the wornouts and starvelings from
Modder river and from General
French's force, and CHASTITY crew
they are, the horses Chiefly, alas. Eng
lish) in one kraal, mules in another, to
the number of 200 or 300 each. The
mules, in their tangled, woolly coats,
look the worse, comparable to nothing
but badly stuffed specimens that have
been moth eaten. OF their recupera-
tive power in such a strait l can, for
want of previous experience, give no
reliable opinion. But for the horses,
poor beasts, my heart often bleedsl A
certain few succumbed early, but the
rest, am bound to admit, have devel-
oped already a certain amount of re-
newed vitality. When brought down
to water twice a day, they raise a
weakly trot or, in some cases, even a
wabbly canter.
A more woeful procession of skele-
A Ia. .ssfl. ~,