Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-17
Picturesque Incidents Of the War
in South Africa.
DESCRIBED BY an EYE WITNESS
Tactics and Methods of the Two
Armies Differ Greatly.
BRAVERY OF THE SAILORS

Written for The Evening Star by James Barnes
After the Modder river fight a Boer who
would never fight again lay in the corner of
the garden with his rifle, a Martini-Henry,
poked through crevice in the stones and
still resting as he had fired it. bloody
bandage was about his left arm, showing
where he had been wounded early in the
day and there was big hole In his fore
head He wore a homemade bandolier of
canvas, half filled with cartridges, and his
pockets were weighted with ammunition.
The wall in front was spattered with
blotches of lead. and the garden behind lit
tered with shrapnel.
He had probably stayed there long after
the others had left, holding his post to the
bitter end. When the soldiers found him
they stood about looking at him with re-
spect. He had been fighting man-they
were fighting men. So they picked him up
and laid him out under the shade of an
apple tree while they dug his grave. No
one knew who Re was and probably no one
among his friends would ever know how he
died. 1t was hard to guess his age even
He may have been thirty-he may have
been fcrty-five. The soldiers dug his grave
and they placed cross, very roughly made,
but still cross, at the head; and one of
them took grea pains to print the following
legend on 1t in blue pencil
Unknown Boer
Died Fighting Nov. IS. Peace"
Then. not content, they gathered some
bits of white limestone and lined out the
borders of the mound.
1t was Tommy Atkins all over to do this.
He has a sentimental streak in him that
crops out in odd intervals, and yet at times
a strange Indifference. Once over with the
ceremony, and he seems to forget-funerals
one day and foot ball the next. He sings no
martial songs. If he sings at all it is the
Home and Mother song. AS general
rule he has been kept too busy during the
day, and he Is too tired at night. But he is
generally cheerful, with an unthiuking
cheerfulness that reckons not the morrow
or the cost.
The English soldier depends absolutely
upon his officers; without them he is lost
And now, since the Boer craftsmanship has
compelled the English officers to dress eX-
actly like the men, with all signs of rank
removed, some strange things have hap
pened.
Fever Stricken on the Battlefield.
At Modder river Captain Earle had just
joined his company. He had been with it.
only five days. Most of the time he had
been ill with fever and on the day of the
battle had risen from a sick bed. The ma
iority of his company did not know him by
sight and he could call few of his men by
name. His brother commanded a company
of the Guards. When daylight came the
English found themselves lying on an open
plain swept by a concentrated rifle fire.
Captain Earle's company was in the center
where the longest trenches were. He felt
the fever growing on him, but he struggled
against it; he fought Off the approaching
delirium with all his might. He could hear
his men asking one another who he was.
HE Is our new captain said a sergeant
Two or three times, almost out of his
head he had risen to his feet and they
had pulled him down. All at once rider
less horse galloped across the field to the
rear The captain looked at it and knew
it in an instant. 1t was his brothers.
Looking back. he could see some soldiers
lifting up body.
Perhaps it was the fever or the ague that
stirred him. Rising to his feet, he ran for
ward toward the trenches, calling on the
men to follow. They followed, but huddled
down over him and stopped him when they
had gained his SIDE for it was madness to
attempt to charge on that open ground
And now the captain went into wild deliri-
UNI. He was brought in when evening fell,