The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-01-15
By Those Who Participated and
Have Related Their Own
Experiences.
INFANTRY OF LITTLE VALUE
Against the Beers, Who Are Well
Mounted, and Change Position
Before Infantry Can Act.

many cases are JubL AZ interesting 10
the accounts by trained war corres-
pondents. A medical officer under Lord
Methuen, describing the battle Of
Modder river. writes:
IA lot Of the North Lancashire men
were horribly wounded. l turned over
sergeant, black in the face, dead.
one man was brought to me who had
been struck by a shell fragment-face
mutllated. throat cut and chest iacer-
.ated. oh, God! the sight was slcken-
ing! Blood everywhere. Very few of
our men being wounded. went out
near sunset to aid the Highlanders.
They had been laying all day under
that frightful sun and their wounded
were still there. No stretcher bearers
could advance, as they were all shot at.
They shouted to me to crawl on the
ground, as, though most Of the firing
was over, there were stIll three or four
Beers with express rides and explosive
bullets, who were under cover and who
kept picking of our men. Some men
utterly collapsed, and all ! could do
was to put pad to their wounds and
my whisky flask to their lips. / then
crawled back to my horse and made
my way to some ambulances two miles
distant to get their aid. was under
tire all the time. bullets dancing around
me. felt kind Of solemn disregard,
as had been exposed to greater dan
gers before"
In letter written to his father from
Mooi river on November %; an officer
in the Queens Royal West Surrey
regiment says:
Against an enemy like the Beers in
fantry Is useless. The Beers have spies
everywhere, and as they are well
mounted, they can move away hours
before our Infantry can get within
striking distance. on the other hand.
they will never attack, and when we
advance toward Pretoria command6s
will be left all over the country lootlng
and burning farms. The only people
who have chance with them are the
local volunteers. If the government
would only raise about 1000 volunteers
and send out lot OF mounted infantry
who could work with the local volun-
teers, these isolated BOer forces would
soon be wiped out. AT present We are
helpless, as they make rings around
u.s."
The special correspondent Of the
Cape Argus thus describes a lombard
ment Of Kimberley:
Bombardment Of Kimberley.
"What will probably be handed down
in the annals Of history to Boer poster
ity as the bombardment of Kimberley,
probably occurred on Tuesday, Novem-
ber Z, and IL ever the farcical element
were introduced into such serious
business as war. the peurlIe attempts
to raze Kimberley can surely lay claim
10 1t. The Beers had two guns mount
ed, one at scholz Mex, trained on the
Premier mine at wesseltOn, at a range
Of something like $500 yards, and the
other at spyfonteIn, quite 1000 yards
distant. a couple of shots were fired
between and o'clock in the morning.
but then the Beers desisted until about
10. when one gun at scholg Mex, appar-
emily a FOUNDER, firing a French
shell, opened Are on wesseIton. The
are. however proved quite harmless,
nearly all the shots falling In the debris
heaps and our guns Mt Wesselton re-
plying and quickly getting the range.
induced the enemy to cease firing, and
they cleared of about noon. SO little
was thought of the Boer fire that the
alarm was not even sounded, and busi-
ness was carried on Just the same.
Thus ended the bombardment OF KIM
berley. So little alarm did it cause
that the men in the redoubts were ac-
tuaily playing cricket and Quolts while
it was going on"
The following is from a letter from a
reservIst sergeant in the Coldstream
Guards. who is with Methuen's column.
He was at the battle Of Modder river,
and says:
"DurinE the afternoon some one
semed to have spotted me from the
trenches. First shot struck the side
OF my boot and struck my rife Just in
front of my face, filling my eyes with
dirt and splInters. rose up little,
when another bullet struck the middle
finger of my left hnnd. had got on
my knees, when a bullet struck me fair
in the chest on the buckle Of my haver-
sack, breaking through 1t and causing
a slight puncture Of the skin and bruIs-
ing my chest. have been congratu-
lated as Uelng the luckIest beggar In
my battalion"
Boer Side Of Story.
From the Boer side come reports Just
M interesting. A lad OF seventeen
wrote to his mother. after the battle
Of Elandslnngtc. and the letter is pub
Hshcd in the Journal de GeReVe as fol-
lows;
1--WE were on kopjc. our horses
we're behind It In hollow. As the In
fantry advanced against us we began
shooting. When It looked as " we were
going to be surrounded a certain num-
Der OF our men fell back to another po-