The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-03-13
BOERS NOT SAyAGES.
AN ENGLISHMAN PAYS THEM
HIGH TRIBUTE.
Says That They Are Generous Friends
and Pitving Foes and That They Are
Being MalicIously Misrepresentod by
the CapItaIistic Press of England.


tie of Colenso writes to London
paper, describing the confusion and
slaughter that marked Buffers first
battle in the campaign. He also re-
counts an incident which shows the
Boer soldiers in a pleasanter light than
is often done. He says: About ten
men OF the Connaughts and twenty OF
the Inniskillings, representatives OF
the green and orange under Col.
Thackery found themselves in this po-
sition, and the ambulance wagons be-
ing already on the field carrying on
the wounded, they were Obliged 70
cease firing. Well men, said Col.
Thackery, 1T is now Pretoria for p's
(meaning surrender), or shall we do
the best we camp The devil of Pre-
toria for u.s. was the cry of all; do
the best you can, and if the worst
comes We'll fight it out A Boer officer
came up and said: You seem to have
lost very heavily here
"'Yes,' said Col. Thackery, laughing,
but we shall be at Pretoria for the
New Year all the same
"'Well,' said the Boer, If you are.
j promise to stand you the best bottle
of champagne in South Africa
after some similar chaff, Col.
Thackery said: 'Good-by. I'm going
back to camp, and intend to take my
|arms with me-
Very WELL I've no orders about
that, but in any case I'm looking the
other way And so they parted. 1t
has been the custom in England, for
the purpose of melting the passions of
the people to the war pitch, to describe
the Beers as little better than savages,
but many incidents like the above
prove them to be something very diff
ferent. People are too ready to take
up cries of treachery against their op-
punents on partial and one-sided evil
denoe.
Gen Joubert has. believe. chal
1onged inquiry before I. court. and two
incidents came under my notice in this
battle which show how difficult it is
to deal with such matters, and how
Ignorance of what is taking place in
the heat of battle, or. perhaps, errors
of judgment, may be misinterpreted
into treachery.
Some Indignation was expressed be-
cause one of our ambulances was
struck by shell. The fact was that
these ambulances had been placed by
mistake in advance of and directly
under one of our naval guns. l under
mstand the arrangements of the medical
Dofficer had been altered by a staff Off
Ger, but under such circumstances the
enemy were quite justified in contin-
uing their fire. Again, the parties
I "a m a q p
naming in the advance line after the
order for the retirement had been Civ
en- kept up their fire long after the am
bulancs had advanced to the field and
were picking up the wounded. OF
course the officers and men were ig
norant of this. but naturally, also the
Beers were ignorant, and threatened to
retaliate. What cry there would have
been all over Europe if our men had
been fired at and hit under similar con-
ditions. The truth is, battlefield is
not managed like an electrical ma
chine, by pressing a button. Groups
and lines of highly excited men are
scattered over miles of country, and
are often unaware of much that is hap
pening outside their immediate vicin-
ity, and, to tell the truth. not always
even there. Men are often only par
TALLY responsible for the result of
their own actions, and certainly they
can be very imperfectly controlled"
The officer was with the Irish bri-
gade, and says: Every survivor looks
back with bitterness and indignation
at the gross folly and mismanagement
that led to the certain slaughter of his
into the very jaws of death in mass of
quarter columns, and without waiting
fer the artillery preparation. No
Obuts were sent forward to discover
~ exact position of the ford. No
skirmishers were thrown out to cover
the advance of the main body. No a.
tempt was made to extend till we'll
within the zone of rifle fire and till
shells had already begun to burst over
their devoted heads. Then it was
found for the first time that they had
been led, not only under a destructive
frontal fire from beyond the river
which barred their passage, but into
the very midst of deadly enf1lade.
For five hours the men were allowed to
remain in this position, helpless for
good, seeing their comrades shot at
every moment by their sides. yet pow
erless to retaliate. Like the Roman
sentry. they kept their posts to the
last, but when the orders came to re-
tire nearly 600 lay on the field. A
more wanton sacrifice of life has never
been made, and there is not an officer
or man in the brigade who is not we'll
aware of the facts"