The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-12
sTEEvENs's LAST WAR STORY.



of an Attack ON Ladysmith.
ST. LOUIS. Feb 1.-THE Republic to-day
prints the following under date of London,
Feb. 2: This letter from Mr.. George w.
Stevens, the war correspondent of the
Daily Mail, is published by that paper. 1t
is the last letter received from Mr..
Stevens, who succumbed to fever at Lady
smith:
when all is said, there is nothing to stir
the blood like rifle fire. Rifle fire wins
loses decisive actions; rifle fire sends the
heart galloping. At o'clock on the morn
ing of the 9th i turned on my mattress
and heard guns. I got up. Then 1 heard
the roar of distant musketry and / hur-
ried OUT IT tf4o from the north and 1t
was languidly echoed from Caesars camp.
Tack-tap, tack-tap-each shot echoed lit
tie muffied from the hills. Tack-tap. tack
tap, tack-tap-as If the devil was hammer
ing nails into the hills Then hurricane
of tacking, running round Ladysmith, run
ming together into scrunchng roar.
From the hill above Mulberry grove you
can see every shell drop, but of this there
was sign-only noise and furious heart
beats.
went out 10 the strOuSesl dHu
toiled up a ladder of powders. 1 came up
on to the sky line and bent and stole for
ward. To the right Cave Redoubt,'
with the Al; to the left two field guns un-
lmbered and left alone, and some Of the
rifle brigade snug behind their stone and
earth schanzes. In front was the low,
woody, stony crest of Observation hill;
behind was the tall table top of Surprise
hill--the first ours, the second the enemy's.
Under the slope of Observation hill were
long, dark lines of horses; up to the sky
lne prolonging the front leftward, stole
half dozen of the Fifth Lancers From
Just beyond them came the tack-tap, tack
tap.
"Tack-tap, tack-tap-it went on minute
by minute, hour by hour. The sun warmed
the air to an oven; painted butterflies.
azure and crimson. came fitting over the
stones; still the devil went on hammering
nails into the hills Down leftward black
powder gun was popping on the film-cut
ridge of blue bank. A Boer shell came fiz-
King from the right and dived into whirl
of red dust where nothing was. Another
another-another. each pitched with mathe-
matical accuracy into the same nothing.
"Our gunners ran out to their guns and
flung four rounds on Surprise hill. A Boer
gun puffed from Bulwana-came 10000
yards, Earring and Gathering loud over
head-then flung a red earthquake just
beyond the Lancers horses. Again and
again, 1T looked as If the shot could not
miss them; but the horses only twitted
their tails as If he were new kind of fly.
The AZ crashed hoarsely back, and black
nimbus was flung up far above the trees
on the mountain. And still the steady
tack and tap-from the right among the
Devons and Liverpools. from the right
center. where the Leicesters were: from
the left center. among the Sixtieth and
the extreme left, from Caesars camp.
.The fight lasted six mortal hours and
then guttered out. From the early hour
they began and by the number of shells
and cartridges they burned, suppose the
Beers meant to do something. But at not
one point did they gain an inch. We were
playing with them-playing with them at
their own game. One of our men would
fire and lie down behind rock. The Beers
answered furiously for three minutes.
When they began to lie down another man
fired, and for another three minutes the
Beers hammered the blind rocks. On six
hours lighting along a front of ten or
twelve miles we lost three killed and
seventeen wounded.
"And do you know, really believe that
this tack tapping among the rocks was
the attack. after all. They had said-or it
was among the million things they were
said TO have said-that they would be in
Ladysmith on Nov. 3. and 1 believe they
half believed themselves. AT any rate. I
make no doubt that all this morning they
were feeling our thin lines all round for a
weak spot TO break in. They did not find
it and they gave over. but ihey would have
come had they thought they could have
come safely.
"They began before 1t was fully light
with the Manchesters. The Manchesters
on Caesars camp. We're. in a way. isolated
They were connected by telephone with
headquarters. but II took half an hour to
side up 10 them. They We're shelIed re-
ligiously for part OF every day by Pufing
CONTINUED ON SECOND PAGE.)