Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-14
HOW B0ERS AND
BRITISH FIGHT.

BRITISH FIGHT.
London, April 5.-Though British Off
| GERS dress like privates when under fire,
they won't take to cover. So a Tele-
graph correspondent, writing from Natal,
says:
"The minute fighting begins, he says,
'the men lie down, but the officers stalk
about giving signals, waving their arms,
| smoking cigars, and generally behave as
if they were in Piccadilly. I watched a
young gentleman carrying his rifle under
his arm, as one does ones gun when
walking between the beats of covert
shoot. In his other hand he had a walk
| ing stick, with which he was pointing
out where his men were to fire. The SOL
diers were carefully hidden and he was
/ under a merciless fire-but I saw him
next morning trudging to Ladysmith,
none the worse for his days fighting. In
deed, it does not much matter-if you are
going to be hit, you'll catch it whether or
not you disguise yourself as a private.
Habit is a strong thing, hard to get rid
of. You may dress a British subaltern
or captain of the infantry of the line
how you like, but if he is of the right
sort you can spot him as soon as you
can see him.
Certainly, at close range the Beers
| have made dead set at our officers; an
officer of my old regiment got two in
his thigh one through his hand, three
through the helmet and his right arm
off ic ic foi io1Hy ol1
business like shooting, but the damage
was done at about 300 yards, when all
men shoot fairly we'll. On the other
hand the Beers blaze away an alarming
| amount of bullets which hit nothing at
longer distances. Twice have seen the
South African Light Horse under heavy
rifle fire, as harmless as it was heavy
! three or four men hit out of 800 or 400.
Compare this with the shooting of the
| Bazingers in our Zareeba at Gubat, when
they wiped out every man who stood on
his feet. I have already told you how
I was missed at close range by 20 or 30
riflemen, and on the whole I do not think
the BOer army is above our average in
shooting. When they are facile princes
! at mounted infantry work. at seiz-
| ing and abandoning or reinforcing
position, as necessity may compel; their
| tenacious clinging to place they know
to be necessary to their safety and their
sure eye for such position.
Indeed, against a slowly moving army
like ours, whose precise tactics compel
| it to shift in a leisurely manner, they
are very formidable. Each good Boer
is a general in himself, each pile of
stones he shoots from is a fortress in
itself, commando of 300 men in a good
position means 300 fortresses to be taken
'"Then the Beers let off their ammuni-
tion unstintingly as far as they can see;
they shoot. not because they think they
will hit anything, but for the very good
reason that nothing demoralizes an ene-
my more than bullets coming from an un-
seen rifle. indeed the Beers produce great
moral effect with their little bullets. They
are extremely busy at 1900 yards. But
every man will not walk across the
ground under fire from the Beers at 1000
yards range and whistle "God Save the
Queen" at the same time. If any one
accepts nv bet he will see what he will
see.
what affords the Beers most glee Is
our regular cavalry. Indeed, It does
present ludricous appearance In this
country Of stones and kopjes. often
wonder what woulu happen to a regular
cavalry brigade, of surprised, armed as
they are with lance, sabre and carbine.
The untidy Boer horsemen with his grass
fed pony, lopes along quite regardless of
his formidable looking adversary. II the
lancer attempts violence. the dopper dis
vVon1 nd nlpr to1
airy is little better. but they suffer
considerably from their want of knowl-
edge of horses. Even they are no match
for the Boer at the game of hide and
seek. Fortunately they are brave and
have general contempt for the Dutch
men and aften achieve by audacity what
they would be unable to accomplish IL
their usually willy enemy did not hink
them as formidable as they look. Their
wor4 in Natal however cannot be suf-+
fiently extolled. It is one of the most
pleasing features of the campaign. 1t 10