The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-08
THE SIEGE OF LADYSMITH
CRITICISMS AND HOPES or THE BE-
 LE4GUERED CITY.
The Authorities Suddenly Awake 50 Their Precarious Position Incidents Of the Fighting

Of the Fighttngs r.e.
 Ten thousand British troops beleagu-
 cred by Boers! Such a mischance has
 not befallen since the Indian mutiny
 To say that the enemy has given us ar
 unpleasant surprise would be a mild eX'
 pression of our feelings. When we sci
 out on Monday to give them battle neal
 Lombard's KQp We never dreamed thai
 within forty-eight hours we should be
 practically prisoners, surrounded by the
 enemy, with the railway and the tele-
 graph in their possession. 1t Is easy to
 be wise after the event, but the most in-
 dulgent critic of the military operations
 in Natal can hardly help wondering
 why no attempt was made to destroy the
 line north of Ladysmith. Had this pre-
 caution been taken we might have gain
 ed one or two days grace, and the Boers
 would not have retained a speedy and
 certain means of transport. The argu-
 ment that we shall require the railway
 in a few weeks will not bear eXamina- tion, for when the Boers retire they are not likely to show us the same consid-
 eration.
 However. recriminations are useless.
 The Beers are sitting on the hills around
 Is Their guns are in position and com
 mand the town, the camps and the forts. No doubt they are convinced that we
 are at their mercy, and that in four or
 five days General Joubert will be receiv-
 ing the submission of General White,
 his staff and the survivors of the garri-
 son. They are nearly three to one, their guns are heavier and have a longer
 range, the town lies at their feet, and
 our only means of reaching the western
 plain is held by a strong commando
 from the Free State.
 | Despite these apparently desperate
 conditions 1t would be wrong to say 1 that we have any doubt as to the issue. l Thanks to Colonel Ward and to the un- tiring energy of Major Morgan, we
 have provisions to last through pro- longed siege. The arrival of General Butler at Cape Town, moreover, encour- ages hope that In a few days the pressure will be relieved. and that the Boers from the Free State will be on their way to defend their hearths and homes. Meanwhile, although we are conscious Illdl llle late ol coutI <Alil'"
 does not depend on this small column, we are prepared to resist to the last.
 In previous letter l have described the course of events that has brought us to this pass. The fight at Lombards Kop-characterized officially as recon- noissance in force-was really pitched battle. Our plans were admirably laid, but the Boers have never been at loss to discover our intentions With cus- tomary shrewdness and ceerity they changed their position during the night, Our attack failed, and we were driven back into Ladysmith under the fire of the enemy's guns. For moment the situation looked hopeless, and had the Boers followed up their success they might even have taken the town. Hap oily, they are content to fight at long range and keep to the hills. Still more happily the naval brigade from the Powerful arrived at the critical moment and, getting their guns into action knocked out Long Tom, whose exploits at Dundee had caused many people in Ladysmith to think of their souls for the first time.
 We slept soundly enough that night. 1 AL udWI ti I utSudN llft iOoi oi iIpiitp Tom from Penworth Hill nearly six { miles away. reminded us that the Boers | are early risers. A few shots fell in the' town, killing a Kaffir; but the firing | ceased as suddenly as it began. General | Joubert had sent a flag of truce with | a letter, granting us permission to bury | the dead and to remove the wounded of | the Gloucester regiment and the Irish l Fusilers Then, for the first time, we ] heard the true story of the disaster that | had befalen these battalions. On Mon day morning, while awaiting the at tack on the Boers. I was told by two men of the Gloucester regiment that they were the sole. survivors that their comrades had been either killed or cap tured on the previous night, after a of the mountain battery and the ammunition mules.
 The story seemed SD improbable that I hardly needed the advice of member of Gen. Whites staff to receive it with caution. Yet is was in substance true version of the most deplorable incident 1f the campaign. The fate of detached columns during the war of 1SS0-'S1 | seemed to have been forgotten, and on Sunday night nine hundred men, with he mountain battery, were sent to seize Nicholsons Nek, about six miles from own, on the west of Pepworth Hill 1 The object of this movement was to protect our left flank during the assault ,n the Boer position. In order to reach | he Nek the men had to pass through | very difficult country. Their guides were trustworthy and knew every inch if the road. But the Boers were evi- lently acquainted with our plans, and were waiting on g kopje about two miles rom Nicholsons,
 Moving as cautiously and as noise- essly as the nature of the ground would lloW, the doomed regiments were sud- lenly startled by voiley out of the The surprise was complete. Confusion seized the column. Terrified | ( " the noise and the blackness of the light, the mules stampeded with the | i battery. Dashing through the anks with the guns trailing behind ( hem, the maddened animals scattered he men in all directions, hurling some | lto the ditch and in1uring others. The lules carrying the reserve of the small | & rms ammunition also caught fright, l nd, flashing out on all sides, ran amuck , mong the men. Before they could re- lize what had befallen the two bat 1 z alions were in a state of hopeless dis s rder, and their guns and reserve of