The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-30
CLOSING IN ON CR()NJE
GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OFF HOW THE
FAMOUS GENERAL WAS FL
NALLY CORNERED
NO LoopHoLE OF ESCAPE
BOer Army Sank Out of Sight In the
Bed of the River, and Lay There,
SnarIing and Defiant,
but ImmOVabIe.

correspondence of the Associated Press.
LONDON. March 21.-For a concise and
graphic summary, from q man on the
spot, of the movements which led to the
corralling of Gen. Cronje, Provost Bat
tlerbye's letter from Paardeburg to the
London Morning Post is unequaled I'm
der date of Feb. "a, he writes:
Lord Roberts achievement stands re-
lleved not only by its own merits. but
from the background of failure which
had preceded it. 1t was the conception
OF man undaunted by the successes of
his foes, and accustomed not only to win
his battles, but to take the risk of losing
them.
"Cronje, lying In insolent security
across the hopes of Kimberley heard
that an army had broken at five points in
to the state, and was moving no one
knew whittier.
Accustomed to the dragging import
ance Of our advances when unaided by a
railway, he sent his outposts to stop US
at the Modder and the Riet
But the men to whom the task had
been entrusted either found our scouts
before them or awaited them in too leis-
urely mood. Gen. French swept the
drifts with his cavalry. and his guns, and
the men who held them fed precipitately,
leaving the damper In their billies beside
the fire and the eggs just broken for the
spoon, and as French cleared the drifts
other portions of this army doomed up to
help them. The Seventh division followed
the upper ford Of the Riet, the Sixth laid
Its grip on the lower.
CLOSING IN ON CRONJE.
"Then, during successive nights, the UNI
seen arm was extended between the
rivers, and the Modder was seized. The
great moment came when, with a hand
on either stream, threatening hand to
every movement Of it's opponent, the cav
airy division was flung forward in a wide
sweep to the northeast northward, and
Kimberley was relieved: relieved almost
without a shot fired or a man lost; re-
lieved and at the same moment made
a menace to the force which had await,
ed confidently its fall for months
That is strategy. Cronje, who needs
no instruction in such a matter, knew it
for what 1T was, saw in the swiftness and
daring of the hands which had encom,
passed him that: ne was playing at last
with master in the game OF war, and,
with resolution as swift as 1t was sound,
flung over the hopes on which he had so
long been building. threw his dreams to
the winds and fled.
''II is not every commander that knows
the hours OF abandonment as Well as the
moment for assault, and Is as willing to
break his plans as to make them, but
Cronje is one of them. Only his exper-
fence Of Our methods made him day
late. He still counted on our indecision,
. and his security betrayed him.
CAUGHT IN a TRAP,
Despite a wonderful march from
Magersfontein, his rear guard was struck
at Kip IIraal drift on the Modder. and
q beautifully handled rear guard action
could not shake off the troops which had
come up on him. tired enough, hungry
enough, but as eager for battle as he was
to evade 1t.
''They hung to his TANKS for two nights
and a day. and on the next Cronje found
a foe in front of him as WE'LL for with
scarcely. q days rest for tired horses,
French, had swung out of Kimberley and
stood between him and home.
Behind his enemy was growing strong
er with every moment which delayed
him; in front was the very force he could
have no hopes to elude force Of mount
ed men and mounted guns, equal to his
own mobility, superior in effectiveness.
"In a like position almost any European
army would kave done it's best to cut
through the open, and, falling, would
have surrendered.
but dashing tactics suit the Boer as
little as yielding is suited to Cronje His
reply was threats He and his force
sank suddenly into the river bed, sank
as completely out of sight as though they
had risen into the sky and there at this
moment they are like a rat In a hole
snarling, splitting, but immovable."