Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-03-22
SCENES OF A MODERN BATTLE
Julian Ralph in London Mail.


Really, the field of operations is so
extensive and the range of modern guns
is SO great that battle conditions have
altered until there is no longer any
general "clash Of battie,' or even any
possibility Of gIasping or viewing m
engagement from any single point.
There is no great resounding noise in
war nowadays. You hear one OF our
big guns loosed three miles over on the
right, and another one two miles on the
left. Ii you are near one it makes u
tremendous noise, yet have not heard
one explosion as loud as good strong
clap of thunder. You hear the guns Of
the enemy cough far in front of you,
and their shells burst within your lines
with nearer, louder sound-but not
really great or deafening noise by any
means. Our guns create almost no
smoke, though our lyddite shells throw
up clouds of dust and smoke where
they fall miles away. Because the
Beers are using old-fasbioned powder
in their cannons there is small white
cloud wherever one is fired, and squirt
OF red sand where their shells dig into
the veldt. The smoke of war, there
fore, and the so-called 'troar of battle"
are both alike-occasional, scattered,
inconsiderable.
The rife firing has been the princi-
pal feature of our battles. Ii sounds
like the frying Of fat or like the crack
ling and swapping of green wood in
bonfire If you are within two miles OF
the front you are apt to be under fire, and
then you hear the music Of the individ-
ual bullets. Their song is like the mag
nified note of mosquito. ''Z-z-z ~"
they go over your head; 'Z-z-z-Z-p"
they finish as they bury themselves in
tie ground. This is sound only to
be heard when the bullets are very
close. You pick up your heels and run
a hundred or even fifty yards, and you
hear nothing but the general crackle of
rife fire in and before the trenches.
The quit putt torVickers- NordenfeldtJ
gun is able to interest you at a distance
OF three miles. Its explosions are best
described by the nickname given to the
gun by one regiment, The blooming
door knocker. 7" Its bullets or shells are
as big as the bowl of large briar root
| pipe, and they tear and slit the air
with a terrible sound, exploding when
they strike. The firing of the gun was
heard all over the largest of our battle
| fields, and tho explosions OF the shells
sound long way because they ARE apt
to take place on the quiet edge OF the
field. The whizz that even these
missiles make in flying, however. is
like the whispered answer of a maid in
love, only to be heard by the favored
individual who is especially addressed.
In word, there Is not much noise 10
modern battles. These individual
sounds Of which l speak are not loud
enough to blend. The browning, all
pervadipg noises are those of the guns
and the rifle fire, and on the vast veidt
spread over a double line of five to
seven miles in length, only those that
are near are very loud.
The scene of battle-the general view
lis exceedingly orderly. There may
be a devil Of scrimmage where a
company or two are storming a kopje,
but level your glass ON such hill, and
what do you seer A fringe of tiny jets
VI fire from the top where the Beers
are, and lot of our men in kharki
rising and reclining and occasionally
firing as they make their way upward.
The great general view is Of an arrange
ment as methodical as a chess board.
There are several battalions fat or
their faces in two or three long lines
Over here is battery in perfect order
with its timber of horses at rest mel.
by. Another battery, equally vel
arranged, as if to have its photograph
taken, is to be seen in the middle field
third ia on the further side Tn,
cavalry is sweeping across the yeldt il
perfect rank and alignment. There j
no confusion anywhere nothing j
heller skelter. / remember only tw,
momentary disturbances of the dis
cieline Of which l speak, One was II
, the afternoon during the Modder Rive
, fight, when a large baud of mounte'
Beers made a flank movement on GU
, extreme right and fired volley a
our immense mass Of transport au
! ambulance wagons, water carts an
ammunition wagons. The drivers wer
taken by surprise, and fell to lashin
: their mule teams and horses, the ma
. jority to the accompaniment of high
keyed Kaffir yells. The rout only Taste
!, five minutes or less, and was funn
: beyond description, because the leadin
I mules limbed over the wheelers, - an
|, the faster the bullets fell the loudt
4 the katfiIs yelled, and the more the
a piled their enormous whips.
n The bravery of our stretcher bearer
q is as much beyond question as it
q beyond praise. When all OF us less,
+ and immediate historians of the momer
= have told of the valor Of all ii
generals, colonies, majors, captains an
"a "Tommies" OF the army, We shall sti
v have, in common Justice, to descril
4 how the chaplains, doctors and stretch
4 bearers go in and out of the most helli:
h fire, not once or twice, but all thIoue
i. every battle.
,s 1t is Just without the range OF f
!, that you see and realize the horrors
a war. 1t IL there that the wound
"a crawl and stagger by you; it is the
10 that they spend their final output
IL IL energy and fall down to lie until sssie
~ ance comes; it is there that you soc t
rs stretchers laden with their mangl
=. freight, and the sound ores bearing /
"A wounded on their backs and in the
"a arms. To know the brutality and W
T. of war. happen upon kopje that b
Nv Just been stormed or trench that h
IN been carried, Go to such place toda
IN 20 centuries after Christ came with
an message of peace on earth and 60
no will to men, and behold what y
4 shall see.
We Here" said to photographer
ne such place, snap this scene. Lo
"a at the wounded all over the grour
he Quick out with your camera. "
id "Oh, can't" said he; ''it's
va horrible!'
rs You read, in the writings of thu
cl who know nothing of war. about I
writhing of the wounded and the grot
ing on the battle field. There is
writhine, and the groans are few a
faint. s