The Saint Paul globe., 1900-01-15


Operations Not Less Interesting
Than Those Furnished by the
War Correspondents - BOer Side
Represented I'm Letters Which Are
Coming to Europe From the Front
Correspondence of the Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. 6.-Letters from the SOL
diers fighting against the Beers are pub
lished in large numbers, and In many
cases are just as interesting as the ac-
counts by trained war correspondents. A
medical officer under Lord Methuen, de-
scribing the battle Of Modder river,
writes:
"a lot of the North Lancashire men
were horribly wounded. 1 turned over a
sergeant, black In the face, dead One
man was brought to me who had been
struck by a shell fragment-face mutt
lated, throat cut, and chest lacerated.
oh, God, the night was sickening, blood
everywhere Very few of our men being
wounded, l went out near sunset to aid
the Highlanders. They had been lying all
DAY under that frightful sun, and their
wounded were still there No stretchers
bearers could advance, as they were all
shot at. Some men utterly collapsed, and
all could DO was to put pad to their
wounds and my whisky flask to their
nps. then crawled back to my horse
ana MADE my way to some ambulances
two miles distant to get their aid 1 was
under fire all the time, bullets dancing
around ME. felt a kind of solemn dis
regard. foE l had been exposed to greater
dangers before
BOER SPIES.
In letter written to his father from
Mooi River on Nov. %, an officer in the
Queens Royal West Surrey regiment
says:
Against an enemy like the Beers, in
fantry is useless. The Beers have spies
everywhere, and as they are well mount
eo they can move away hours before our
infantry can get within striking distance.
On the other hand they will never at
tack, and when we advance toward Pre-
torla commandos will be left all over the
country looting and burning farms. The
only people who have chance with them
are the local volunteers. If the govern
ment would only raise about 1000 volun-
teers and send out lot Of mounted In
fantry who could work with the local
volunteers these small Boer forces would
soon be wiped out. At present we are
helpless as they, make rings around US.
ATTACK ON KIMBERLEY.
The special correspondent of the Cape
Argus thus describes a bombardment of
Kimberley:
What will probably be handed down in
the annals Of history to Boer posteritv
as the bombardment of Kimberley proba-
bly, occurred on Tuesday Nov. 27 and
IL ever the farc1cal element was introduc-
ed into such a serious business as war.
the puerile attempts to raze Kimberley
can surely lay claim to It, The Beers had
two guns mounted. one at Scholz Mex.
trained on The Premier mine at Vessel
ton. at a range of something like $500
yards and the other on Spytfontein, quite
1000 yards distant A couple of shots
were fired between and o'clock in the
morning, but then the Beers desisted un-
til about 10, when one gun at Scholz Mex, 4
apparently nine-pounder, firing al
French shell, opened fire on Wesselton
The fire, however, proved harmless, near
ly all the shots landing in the debris heap,
our guns at Wesselton replying, and
quickly getting the range, induced the
enemy to cease firing, and they cleared
off about noon.
$50 little was thought of the Boer fire
that the alarm was not even sounded
ana business was carried on just the
same. Thus ended the bombardnent of
kimberley. So little alarm did It cause
that the men in the redoubts were actual
ly playing cricket and quoits while it
was going on
AT MODDER RIVER.
The following Is a letter from a reserv- /
ist sergeant in the Coldstream guards.
who is with Methuen's column He was
at the battle Of Modder River, and says
During the afternoon some one seemed
to. have spotted me from the trenches.
First, a shot struck the side of my boot,
and then another struck my rifle Just in
front Of my face, filing my eyes with
dirt and splinters. / rose up little when
another bullet struck the middle finger Of
my left hand l had gotten to my knees
when a bullet struck me fair in the chest,
on the buckle of my haversack, breaking
through it, causing a slight puncture Of
the skin and bruising my chin. I was
then congratulated as being the most
lucky beggar in my company
FROM BoER SIDE.
From the Boer side come reports Just
as interesting. A lad of seventeen writes
to his mother just after the battle of
in the Journal de Geneve, as follows
I'VE were on a kopje. Our horses were
behind 1t in a hollow. AS the Infantry
advanced against us we began shooting.
When 1t looked as though we were going
to be surrounded a certain number of our
men fell back to another position. About
a hundred Of us remained on the kopje
But the fire of the Maxims and the other
guns became so violent that we withdrew
n n ir1d a
joen rallied us and brought us back to
the top Of the hill and advised US to get
as much shelter as we could. I followed ]
the direction of the general and remained
on the crest The general led the rest.
The English were now advancing, and
they were now within 500 yards of US.
1t was easy to recognize the kties they
were wearing. We fired at them inces-
sanity. All our bullets seemed to strike.
had no time to be afraid. prayed God
and fired on, aiming each time at one of
their men. You know 1 am not a bad
shot. Their Maxims gave US back what
we sent them without a moments stop.
A few of US, finding our position too
risky, ran back to where the horses were
and went off. ! was close to the general
and remained. We fired on, he as well as
I, and tried to get cover behind three
great blocks of rock, when a lyddite shell
puTSl ClOSe 10 Us olto CONCicO us Will
earth and stones. The general withdrew
us a little back.
"At this moment one Of my neighbors
was hit in the side. But he had strength
enough to get to his horse and galloped
off. We were now only fighting on the
kopje with the general, and the kilties
were still advancing and crushing us IN 4
circle AT fifty yards distance we were
still firing on them. Just then the general
faI1lss Tho Qrorlp around ma Waa rod1fcnd
to eight, Of whom three were wounded.
My friend Van Nierke had been wounded
at the wrist, but kept on firing with his
left hand resting his gun on the right