The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-01-18
Caught by Wires.

Men and officers fell In heaps to-
gether. The Black Watch charged and
the Gordons and the seaforths with a
yell that stirred the British camp be-
low, rushed onward-onward to death
or disaster. The accursed wires caught
them round the legs until they founder
ed like trapped wolves, and ali the time
the rifles Of the foe sang the song Of
death in their ears. Then they fell
back, broken and beaten, leaving near
ly 1900 dead and wounded Just where
the board breast Of the grassy veldt
melts into the embrace Of the rugged
African hills, and an hour later the
dawning came of the dreariest day that
Scotland has known for generation
past. OF her officers, the flower Of her
chivalry, the pride of her breeding, but
few remained to tell the tale, sad tale
truly, but enc untainted with dishonor
or smIrched with disgrace, for up those
heights under simIla. circumstances
even brigade of devils could scarce
have hoped to pass. All that mortal
man could do the Scots did; they tried,
they failed, they fell, and there is moth
ing left US now but to mourn for them
and ayenge them.
"All that fateful day our men lay
close to the Boer lines under a blazing
sun; over their heads the shots Of
friends and foes passed without ceas-
ing. All day the battle ragged. Scarce
ly could we see the foe-nll that met
our eyes was the rocky heights that
spoke with tongue Of flames whenever
our troops drew near. Once our
guards made brilliant dash at the
trenches, and like torrent their resist
less valor bore all before them, and for
few brief moments they got within
hitting distance Of the foe. and well did
they avenge the slaughter Of the Scots
the bayonets, like tongues of flames,
passed above or below the rifles guard
and swept through brisket and breast
bone. Out Of their trenches the guards
men tossed the Beers, as men in Eng
lish harvest fields toss the hay when
the reapers' scythes have whItened the
cornHelds, and the human streams were
plentiful where the British guardsmen
stood. Then they fell back, for the fire
from the heights above them fell thick
as the shume of the surf on an Austria
Ian rock ribbed coast But the guards
had proved to the Beers that, man to
man, the Briton was his master.
I'm vain all that day Methuen tried
by every rule he knew to draw the
enemy; yainly the lancers rode reck
lessly to induce those human rock linz
pets to come out ana cut them on.
Cronje knew the mettle OF our men and
an lronIc laugh played around his Iron
mouth and still he stayed within his
native. Businesses; but death sat ever
at his elbow, for our Gunuers dropped
the lyddite shells and the bowling
shrapnel all along his lines, until the
trenches ran blood and many OF his
guns we're sllenced, In the valley be-
hind his outer line OF hills his dead lay
piled in hundreds. and the slope Of the
hill was a charnel house where the
wounded all writhcd amidst the masses
of the dead, a ghasty tribute to British
gunnery. When, at 1870 p, m. of Tues
day, We drew on to Modder river to re-
cuperate, we left nearly 5000 dead and
wounded o: grim old Cronje's men as n
token that the lion of England had
barred his teeth In earnest"
The last mails from the Cape brought
numerous accounts OF Mngcrsfontain,
but none so vivid as this Julian Ralph,
In the Daily Mail, very bluntly writes
OF the Highlanders after the first Voi'ey
from the hidden trenches
"Thcy turned and ran, literally col
Hiding and climbing over one another in
their confusion. chaplain forward
I'm the ranks was knocked down and
tramplcd upon, as brave man ~ any,
vet, one who declared that there lived no
man who would have behaved differ
emily.
"Thc fever OF fright lasted only while
the men ran 200 yards, and then they
regnincd some measure of order"
The Globes correspondent at Mayors
rontclh. presumably the Earl de Ia Wnrr.
writes GENE plain truths: In fact, part
Of his letter has been eliminated by the
censor
III is not" he says. "the numerical
loss Of Oldlcrs and mcn-Ehastly ana
terrible enough tn itself wffct makes