The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-01-24
A WOUNDED OFFICERS STORY.
battle Field of ElandsInagte,
south Africa


A wounded officer sends a long letter
TO his mother from Pietermaritzburg
hospital describing his experiences at
the battle Of ElRpdslaagte. 1T was. y
he says. "a splendid feat of arms, and
l am most awfully proud OF ruy regi-
ment, for we bore the hrunt Of the day.
We had tremendous hard time of it,
and were under fire To- 21a hours (con-
] siderably longer than any otter corps).
But the cosl was awful We had only
ten officers IN action, and five of them
were wounded; and OF 800 men we had
IL killed and SO wounded; two have
since died OF their wounds. Tue Cor
cons lost even more severely. The rea-
Sons for this were, in my opinion, as
follows: First. their dark kilts were
much more visible than our khalSis. and
consequently formed a better target;
second, there were more of 9hem. The
Gordous all sag that Dargai was the
merest child's play compared to this.
"To return to my own doings- | lay
where l fell for about ttree-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 zoe with
Boer blanket which he had taken from
dead man and then went TO lock after
some nther poor sbeggar. sheInever.
forget the horrors Of chat night as long
as | live. In addition TO the agony
which my wound gave me had TWO
sharp stones running into my bacI. L
was soaked to- the skin and bitterly cold,
but had an awfulsthirst; the torrents
of rain neyey. stopped. On one side Of
me was a Gordon highlands sr n raving ]
oslirium and onghe osher a. Boer who |
had had his leg shattered by shell, and
who gaveventto the most heart1ending
cries and groans. Warts funny game, I
mother, and no ore'cah realize what its. |
grim horreisE Eare like ttilb1hey see il in
all its barbarous reality.
u lay in the rain the whole of The |
night, and at daybreak was put into
doolie by a doctor. and some natives car
ried me down 10 tbe station. THE
ground was awfully rough, and they
dropped me twice; | tainted ooth times.
I was sent down%to Lady sfnit III in the
hospital train; from the station I was
to the chapel (officer's hospi-
taD in bullock cart, the ioltiug Of
which made me faint again. was the
last officer taken in. was then but.
to bed, and my wound was dressed Just.
II hours after I w0s hit. They tIen
gave me beef TEA, which was the first
food had had for ~ hoprs. TIE doc
tors all said at first that ] had been
bit by a she'll, but chat is impossible,
for tie enemy on'y had two gnos, and
We had taken them both when / was
nit. So the doctors row say that 1t h
must have been a very heavy explosive
onllet, and. as an elephant gun was
ouud cloee to where J was hit. ex-
pect they are right. IL bas made big,
jagged hole in my shoulder, which you
;ould put yo1r haod into. IT has blown
ome of the muscles away, so I am
lfraid / shall always be a bit stiff. They
iay it viii take another ten weeks be-
ore I am fit for duty, and an very
auch afraid that most of the fighting
vill be over by that time, in spite of the
present critical condition of affairs."-
birmingham England Post.