The age-herald., 1900-01-06
AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK.
Twenty Men Killed While Trying tc
 Capture Boer Fort.

London, January 6.-4:45 a. m)-The Times publishes the following dispatch from Mafeloing, dated December 26:
 'tAt dawn today Colonel Baden-Powell organized an unsuccessful attack upon strong positions of the enemy at Gametree, two miles from Mafeking, from which the Boers have been maintaining a desultory, but annoying. shell and rifle fire for sev eral weeks. The railway has recently been constructed between the town and Game tree, where the Boers had destroyed it, the final repairs being made in preparation for the sortie.
 fDuring the night the armored train with Maxim and H0tchkiss guns, under Captain Wilia ms and troops, took up positions for attack from two sides. Captain Lord Charles Bentinck and a squadron were in reserve upon the left, while the extreme left wing was occupied by artillery under Major Panzera and a galloping maxim of the Cape police the whole brigade being uader Colonel Hare.
 "Emplacements were thrown up during the night, the orders being to attack at dawn and the artillery fire to desist upon prolonged footing from the armored train. At daybreak the guns opened fire and rapid ay drew the fire of the enemy, our shells bursting within effective range Captain Vernon gave the signal to cease firing and to advance, his squadron leading on.
 "As our men engaged the position with their rifle fire it was soon found that the strength of the fort was greater than had been supposed. The enemy concentrated such an exceedingly hot fire that the ad- vance of Captain Vernon was almost im- possible, but with remarkable heroism and gallantry, Captains Sanford and Vernon. Lieutenant Patton and Scout Cooke, who guided the squadron, and few men actu- ally reached the sand-bags of the fort with ing 300 yards of the area of the fort.
 Nothing Living Could Stand It
 "But' nothing living could exist there, since the ground was swept by Mausers and Martini bullets. The men who charged through this zone of fire suffered terribly, and in following their officers to capture the fort twenty men lost their lives. Cap tain Sanford was the first to fall and Cap tain Vernon, already twice wounded, and Lieutenant Patton were killed at the foot of hhe fort.
 ..These two officers, climbing a ditch which surrounded the fort, thrust their re- yolyers through the enemys loop holes, only to be shot themselves the next mo- ment.
 "Gametree is surrounded with scrub which contained many sharpShooters; and their accuracy of fire still further confused the men who had followed Captain Yer non, and who saw him and his brother officers killed. Being without commanders they were driven off at one point, but they endeavored to scale the fort at others They found the position of the Boers. how ever, almost impregnable.
 ssWhen we retired under cover of tine armored train, so many men had been wounded that a suspension of hostilities occurred under the auspices of the Red Cross. The veldt around the Boer position was at once dotted with flags of mercy and 1t was seen that our wounded were scattered within short radius of the fort We had almost completely surrounded it and had it not been so oextraordinarily vel protected, we should have been in poses sion.
 T went with an ambulance to Game. tree. Tue fort itself Is circular, with g wide interior and narrow frontage, be. tween six and seven feet high, pierced witt triple tiers of loopholes and surrounded by ditch."
 sI was permitted to assist In dressing the wounds, a majority of which appeared to have been caused by explosive bullets, the point of entry being small. but the area oi