Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-04-13
BRITISH FORCE CAPTURED.
Five Companies of Infantry Surround.
ed by the Beers.

Attack Lasted Four Hours Before the
British capitalization. MRreuil,
French strntegIsi with the Beers,
Killed and 20 Of His Men Forced TO
Surrender.
An official despatch from Bloemfontein
dated Thursday evening, announced the
capture of large detachment of British
troops at Reddcrsburg, 3S miles nearly due
south of Bloemfontein, and some ID miles
southeast of Bethany, on the railway be-
tween Bloemfontein and Springfontein
Junction, which latter place is held by
Gen. Gatacre. The British force was com
posed of three companies of infantry and
two of mounted infantry. Lord Robertss
report conveys no idea whatever of the
circumstances under which they fell into
the hands of the Beers, for he states that
when Gen. Gatacre arrived at the scene of
action from Springfontein they and their
captors had disappeared as completely as
though the earth had opened and swallow
ed them up. All that was known was that
presumably superior, force of Beers with
four or five guns had attacked the post be-
fore noon on Tuesday, that the resistance
lasted until o'clock on Wednesday morn
ing, when Beers and British vanished to-
gether
In second report from Lord Roberts
regarding the Reddersburg affair he gives
no details except of the losses of the Brit
ish. According to it the fighting does not
seem to have been very desperate, as out
of the total British force of sol, only 40 Of
ficers and men we're killed or wounded.
The rest surrendered. The Beers are now
reported to be giving their attention to
Gen. Brabant's column, which is at Wepene,
at the southwestern angle of Basutoand,
and it is feared they may succeed in turn
ing his position and isolating him, in which
case the road to the railway bridge on the
Orange river at Bethulie would be open to
them. A panic seems 20 have seized the
Basutos employed by the British on rail
way work, and they are hurrying back to
their own country.
Thirty Beers escaped from the old camp
at Simonstown, Cape Colony, Friday night.
Nine have since been recaptured. The
prisoners escaped by cutting fence under
the sentry bridge, while the sentry was
above. a new tunnel has been discovered
in the direction opposite to the former one.
1t had been completed to within FIVE feet of
the point for a breach.
Gen. Roberts forwarded Friday to Lon
Gen. Methuen at Boshof, stating that his
men had surrounded Gen. de Nillebois
Mareuil and 20 Beers. The general and
seven of his men were killed in an attack
which lasted four hours. Eight Beers
were wounded and "a taken prisoners
The British loss was one captain of yeo-
many killed and seven men wounded
Mareuil was evidently in command of a re-
connoitring party. The Kimberley light
horse outflanked the Beers, who were sur.
rounded on kopje, where they made a
stubborn resistance
Gen. Mareuil was chief of staff to Gen.
Joubert in Natal. 1t was announced re
Gently that he had been appointed to the
command of the Boer foreign legation.
Gen. Mareuil was the most noteworthy Of
all of the soldiers of fortune serving with
the Beers. He was about 30 years old,
the scion Of an old and aristocratic French
family. He resigned his commission as
colonel in the French army in 1896, after
having made fine record, beginning with
the Franco Prussian war, in which he
served as lieutenant. He devised the Boer
defences against Gen. Buffers advance to
the relief of Ladysmith He is supposed
to have chosen the gun positions and TO
have laid down the covered trenches. He
disposed the Beers at the centres, from
which they were sent massed to the de-
fence of any part of wide arc. One des-
spatch says the little force with Mareuil
contained Frenchmen. Germans and Hol-
landers. In some quarters there is a dis
belief in regard to the dead officer being
the noted French strategist, as it seems
strange that so noted an officer should
have been conducting such small recon
NOTHING exp edition.
London cable advices from South Africa
state that Lord Roberts's army in and
around BloemfoDtein is unable to move for
lack of horses and supplies, and that the
garrison is seriously menaced by the Beers,
who are massed only 10 miles away, where
they still control the water works.
(Other. South african ne,oS on 10Th page
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