The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-03-08
A WOUNDED OFFICERS STORY.
Tale of Intense Suffering on the
Battle Field ef EIn.dsinnEte,
south Africa.

A wounded officer sends n long letter
TO his mother from Pietermaritzburg
hospital describing his experiences at
the battle of Elandslaacte. "it was"
he says. "a splendid feat of arms. and
! am most awfully proud of my regi-
ment, for we bore the brunt of the GAY.
We had a tremendous hard time of il,
and were under fire for ~, hours (con-
siderably longer than any other corps).
But the cost was awful! We had only
ten officers in action. and five of them
were wounded; and of 329 men we had
II killed and SO wounded; two have
since died of their wounds. The Cor
Gons lost even more severely. The rca-
sons for this were, in.my opinion. as
follows: First, their dark kits were
much more visible than our khakis. ard
consequently formed better target:
second. there were more of them. The
GordOns all say that Dargai was the
mercst child's play compared to this.
TO return to my own doings. lay
whore ! fell for about thrce-quartcrs
of an hour, when doctor came and put
field dressing on my wound, gave me
some brandy, put my helmet under my
head as a pillow. covered me with n
Boer blanket which he had taken from
dead man and then went to look after
some other poor bcggar. | shall never
forget the horrors of that night as long
as | live. In addition to the agony.
which my wound gave me / had two
sharp stones running into my back. |
Gas soaked to the skin and bitterly cold
but had an awful thirst: the torrents
of rain never stopped. On one side of
me was Gordon highlander in raying
delirium and on the other Boer who
had had his leg shattered by shell, and
who gave vent to the most heartrending
cries and groans. War is funny game
mother, and no one can realize what its
grim horrors are like till they see il in
all its barbarous reality.
81 lay in the rain the whole of the
night, and at day break was put into n
doolie by doctor, and some natives car
i
ground was awfully rough. and they
dropped me twice; tainted both times.
| was sent down to Ladysmith in the
hospital train; from the station I was
conveyed to the chapel (oiIcer's hospi-
taD in bullock cart, the joltinG of
! which made me faint again. was the
last officer taken in. | was then put
to bed. and my wound was dressed just
II hours after | was hit. They then
gave me beef tea, which was the first
food l had had for q hours. The doc
tors all said at first that l had been
hit by shell, but that is impossible,
for the enemy only had two guns, and
we had taken them both when I was
hit. So the doctors now say that 4.
must have been very heavy explosive
bullet, and, rs an elephant gun was
found close to where was hit, ex-
pect they are right. 1t has made big,
jagged hole in my shoulder, which you
could put your hand into. 1t has blown
some of the muscles away, so l am
afraid l shall always be a bit fl. They
say 1t will take another ten weeks be-
fore l am fit for duty, and I am very
much afraid that most of the fighting
will be over by that time, in spite of the
present critical condition of affairs."-
birmingham (England) Post