Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1900-02-08
GENERAL GATACRE'S
STORMRERG REVERSE.
ImpregnabIe Boer Position Attacked
With Disastrous Results
for British.
CHASED FOR OVER TEN MILES
Five Hundred Men Fail Into tho
Encmy's Hands-.-Graphic
Story of IL Cores
pondcnt.

London, Feb. s.-ENtended accounts
Of the British reverses at Stormberg,
Magersfontein and Colenso are COM
ing in by mail from war corresponds
ents. From those realistic impress
sions may be gained OF what defeat
really means.
81 have seen in my life" writes the
correspondent of the Times. lone or
two ticklish fights, but at Stormberg
for the first time was enabled to
realize what actual defeat means. 1T
was. indeed. Il case of vac victis. The
hopeless exhaustion of the unhappy
soldiers was terrible to see.''
His description of General Gatacres
reverse at this point is, in part, as fol-
lows
'rhe infantry had been at work or
i'm he train i'm open trucks or march,
ing since a. IN. on Saturday. The ac-
tual march occupied several hours,
and it is therefore little to be Won
dercd at that the men were wholly, i'm
capable of making supreme effort
when at last they We're surprised by
receiving fire at short range while
marching in tours i'm fancied security
"On receiving the enemy's fire the
companies at hand rushed at once
against TIE kopjes from which it pro-
cceded, and advancing from bowlder
to bowlder, swiftly commenced to
ascend.
Shcllcd ;'y Their Own Artillery,
"But AT this juncture our own ar
tillery, failing in the yet uncertain
light to observe the ascent of the in
fantry, opened fire upon the enemy,
and several shells, falling short, dealt
destruction among the assailants OF
the position.
"A partial retirement instantly en-
sued, and. having been brought to a
stantlstil, the attack gradually melted
away, until, convinced that the case
was hopeless. the general ordered the
Retire to be sounded
"Eventually over 500 unwounded
men We're taken prisoners. Steadily,
as if on parade, the retirement was eX-
ecuted by those who responded to the
order. the soldiers moving back at a
steady pace. without the least hurry
or confusion, and halting constantly
to fire.
$50 far as | can understand the mat
ter. the causes to which this most
lamentable failure must be attributed
are as follows:
81. The map of the ground was ut
terly misleading and worse than use
less.
81 SO far as am aware no one
among the responsible authorities had
taken any compass bearings, and con-
sequently no one knew where he was
being taken i'm the dark.
So The Berkshire regiment. by
whom the redoubts now occupied by
the Beers at Stormberg had been built.
and to whom every inch of the ground
was familiar, We're left at Queenstown
instead Of being employed to recap
ture the works which they had so un-
willingly evacuated about a month
previously.
II. Our 500 men. afterward made
prisoners. had fallen into trap which
they failed to cNtricate themselves,
consequently when the rest of the
force had been rallied upon defen-
sivc position i'm the rear the general
had not forces sufficient to warrant a
fresh attempt upon some selected
point of attack.
IS. In amy case the men, who had
been by this time ON the move for
over twcnty-four hours on the stretch.
who had Just completed seven hours
marching through the night. and who
had been actually under arms for up
ward of sixteen hours. We're so dead
beat that the severe hill fighting was
quite beyond their powers.
sc. The guns We're at first in the
same trap as the infantry and were
compelled to retreat some distance
over difficult ground before they could
come into action upon even then
poor position with most inferior CONF
mand.
A Panicky Retreat.
Describing the retreat from Storms
berg to Molteno another special CORE
| spondent at Sterkstroom writes:
"Then we had the humiliating eN
oerience of being chased back all those
weary ten miles to Molteno, retreat-
ng as fast as we could in small
groups. sometimes crouching against
he right. side of the road-the Beers
being on our left flank-sometimes
making our way into the corn fields
~ along the interminable veldt, or,
now and again, falling prone to the
4 STOullNt its al sliSIl SaiiS iii''''iiiso o'N'
nead waiting with breathless suspense
antil we heard its dull thud as it
struck the ground. Then, with an eN-
slamation of thanllfulness, as we
found the uncanny thing did not
burst. we We're up and off again, raw
enously hungry and utterly fatigued,
harassed and harried by the Beers,
who accompanied MS for a distance OF
eight miles with the attentions OF
their artillery.
"Nt last. when the majority of our
force. which had left the night before
so full of promise and so brimful of
eagerness. had struggled into Molteno
about II o'clock, and when we all gen
orally found our feet again. we formed
up and got into line at roll call.
when name after name was called;
when sience-dead silence-was the
only answer; when a66 men of the
sturdy Northumberland We're miss
| ing, and when some 294 of our gall
liant Irish comrades failed to give re-
Spouse. then the grim reality of the
disaster came home to us, and we
silently thanked God that we were
safe and thought sadly of the com.
rades-dead. wounded and missing
left behind in the terrible trap al
Stormberg. from which we had just
escaped
| a,rm r,naMnr NH crnranA