The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-05-11

tsaNA Sss&sSAA SsSs sss5 was a slaughter
T. .NVSS--SS ssfSss&> pen, unrelieved
FGIAA> NfSinI4SI by anyt hing
7SgEnSJ4 SSISlAAs save the valor
GA ~ HSsAAS.Fn of the soldiers,
EsI- HSYs ASST sa valor displayed
F@SNHgs ~ Ns .ssgS y on both sides.
~ .ss-sxNNS 1t is idle to de-
scribe the part the hill played i'll the
Boer line of defense covering Lady
smith. The British could not pass the
range in which it was a conspicuous
height SO long as the Beers were there.
Therefore long before light on the fifth
day of the fighting along the range a
column of British set out through the
darkness on the march along the deep
valley and in single file, using their
hands and knees like Alpine climbers,
crawled up the native trail to the
plateau Of Spion Kop,
BY means of Buffers dispatch of
Jan. %, saying that Warren would
position, that night the whole world
except the Beers was aware of the at
tempt. The Beers had pickets on the
hill, but nothing able to stem the Brit
ish rushes. The first trench was car
ried, and the victors sounded yell
which penetrated to the British re-
serve, and again the cable wires told
the world of the capture of Spion Kop.
But at 10 O'Clock that morning, when
the fog lifted, the Boer artillery open
ed from three points. and the British
We're forced to retreat from the trench
es to the shelter of the southern edge
of the plateau out of range.
Not until this repulse did Warren
provide supports for the storming par
ty, and then he sent but three regi
ments without artillery. These three
regiments, the Dorsets, the MiddleseN
and the Imperial light, climbed the
same narrow pathway to the plateau,
charged the trench and pressed on in
the face of the artillery fire to trench
at the north edge of the plateau. The
Beers had placed two Maxims In posi-
ton and hurled this column back to the
shelter of the first trench. Twice this
second or daylight charge was repeat
ed with tie same result. Meanwhile
General Woodgate had been shot
through the head and taken from the
field, leaving Lieutenant Colonel
Thorneycroft of Thorneycroft's horse
in chief command 1t is one Of the
peculiarities of the British army that
In column of some thousand troops
there may be no brigadier and posi-
bly, no full colonel Woodgate was q
major general and the next in rank a
battalion commander.
While Woodgate was fighting the
Kings Royal rifles and the Scottish
rifles were sent forward in support.
The Royal rifles attacked another spur
of the range but the Scots climbed
Spion Kop just in time to meet a
countercharge of the Beers. This first
charge was defeated, SO the British
correspondents declare, but still the
hill was not taken. The hour must
have been long past noon, and the stu
alton for the British was terrible III
the extreme. None of the men had had
food or water or an hours sleep since
the previous night. The little water
found on the crest was required fol
the wounded. All through the after
noon the Boer shells were hurled upoI
the occupants of the southern edge Of
the plateau, where in a narrow space
the troops lay huddled so thickly tina
every shell plowed the ranks Of thu
living and the rows Of wounded ant
corpses. Only the Scottish rifles wer,
on the firing line, and there maj
couldn't raise his head above the ston
= of
punctured The Boer trench was bu
20 yards away, and as usual the Mau
ser shooting from there was extreme
ly accurate. If a man stood up to he'll
"a wounded comrade, he was sho
through. the head, and even when
stone was removed to make loophol
for firing the Beers saw it and sen
bullets through with deadly effect.
Just when the crisis came for til
British by the main Boer rush, as dt
scribed by the Boer commander, Gel
-eral Louis Botha, is not clear from hi
narrative nor the British account.
General Botha says that before the 70
lifted he started with $50 men to driv
the British from the hill. Even in tn
ascent, he says, while the mist was S
thick that the British could not b
seen, his men kept falling from var
Gus kinds of missiles, and when til
summit was reached the combatants {
both armies ran against each othe
In spite Of the losses his men wei
ahead and soon closed with the enem
actually tearing the muskets out {
their hands in score Of instance
One statement of Botha's is signi
cant. "Finally," he says, "after seyel
lighting, we gained the day, and ;
darkness came on over the scene v
had taken 200 prisoners" Botha is
man of few words, and it may be TIL
his first descriptions apply to the Brl