The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-09

/
ployed to recapture the works which they
had so unwiliingly evacuated about
month previous.
| a. Over FIVE hundred men, afterwards
made prisoners, had fallen into trap
from which they failed to extricate them
selves. Consequently. when the rest of
the force had been rallied upon defen-
sive position, in the rear, the General
had not forces sufficient to warrant a
fresh attempt upon some selected point
of attack.
| o. In any case, the men, who had
been by this time on the move for over
twenty-four hours on the stretch, who
had just completed seven hours march
ing through the night, and who had been
actually under arms for upwards of six
teen hours, were so dead beat that severe
/ hill fighting was quite beyond their pow
ers. During the actual retirement from
the hills attacked-or rather under which
we were ourselves attacked IN anticipa-
tion-men were falling asleep in the open
ground under fire, after or before using
their rifles. No sooner did they halt TO
fire than they fell forward sound asleep.
An officer told me that he awoke several
such men by kicking them soundly and
thus insisting upon their continuing their
retreat to place Of safety.
g. The guns wereat first in the same
trap as the infantry, and were compelled
to retreat some distance over very diff
cult ground before thew could come into
action upon, even then, poor position,
! with almost inferior command During
this movement a gun was lost in conse-
quence of being stuck fast and the strug-
Cling horses shot down by the enemy. 1t
was pitiabls sight of which those who
saw it cannot speak without emotion
This correspondent adds the following
incident of the retreat:
"a young subafern of the Irish Rifles,
named Stevens. had been shot through
both lungs. From the ridge he walked
down for several hundred yards support
ed by two men of his regiment. Then,
for about three-quarters of mile. four
rifiemen carried him in a blanket. From
the blanket he was transferred to an am
munitton wagon, upon which ne was
carried about a mile more. His next con-
veyance was a Observation-Disclosures, and,
finally, after a still longer interval, he
reached the ambulance. Nothing but the
marvellous pluck and endurance of the
man could have saved him Hurt as he
was, nine men out of ten would have
sunk from exhaustion. But Stevens had
always a CHEEKY smile as one rode up to
see how he was getting on, as he jolted
upon the ammunition wagon"
Describing the retreat from Stormberg
! to Molteno the Associated Press CORES
pendent at Sterkstroom writes:
Then we had the humiliating expert
ence of being chased back all those
weary ten miles to Moheno, retreating as
| fast as we could in small groups, some
times crouching against the right side of
the road-the Beers being on our left
hank-sometimes making our way into
the cornfelds, or along the interminable
veldt or now and again falling prone on
the ground as a shell came kissing over
heod, waiting with breathless suspense
until we heard its, dull thud as 1t struck
! the ground; then, with an exclamation of
| thankfulness, as we found the uncanny
thing did not burst, up and off again. ra-
venously hungry and utterly fatigued as
we were, harassed and hurried by the
Beers, who accompanied us for distance
of eight miles with the attention of their
artillery. At last, when the majority of
our force, which had left the night be-
fore so full of promise and so brimful of
eagerness. had struggled into Molteno,
about eleven o'clock, and when we all
generally found our feet again, we formed
up and got into line for roll-call. When
name after name was called; when 81
! lence-dead silence-was the only answer;
when S66 men of the sturdy Nort1lumber-
lands were missing. and when some 294
of our gallant Irish comrades failed to
| give RESPONSE, then the grim reality Of
the disaster came home to us. and we 81
lently thanked God that we were safe.
and thought very sadly of the comrades,
dead, wounded, and missing. left behind
in the terrible trap at Stormberg from
which we had just escaped"
The Standards correspondent at Mod
der River gives the following picturesque
| glimpse OF the Canadian contingent;
"Oyez-law "Depochez-vous" Say,
therer' Bring her over!' and similar
commands and exhortations in English
! and Canadian French greeted the ears at
/ Orange River Station while the train was
being boarded by the Gordons going to
the front. The Canadians had arrived
| the day before from De Aar. and in one
day they had laid down and completed a
| ME and a quarter Of railway and buflt
a new platform. Railway under
| the South African sun in December Is no
play. and the sight Of these sons of the
North handling sleepers and rails with the
greatest dispatch and enthusiasm, work
ing in a way that white men seldom work
| IL A oh e
the thoroughness of the spirit of patri-
otism which animates all ranks and sec
tions Of the British force now fighting
the Beers"
Mr. Benet- Burleigh, in the Daily Tele-
graph. adds more interesting details to
his account of the battle of Colenso:
Cen Butler is a stern fighter. an in
domitable man of more than bulldog per-
tinacity Once launched into fight, il
is gall and wormwood 10 him to let go.
I have seen him often in battle. and rec
| oGnized his many admirable qualities as
soldier and leader. How great. then, his
courage must be-courage which subju-
gated his own experimentation, seeing
| last Friday cat Colenso) that, as things
had shaped themselves. the con; = must
| drive from bad TO worse. he WI bold
resolution decided to stop the action Non
were being sacrificed, more would f1i'
and the Boer position could not DO taken
before nightfaI-"
/ A Daily Telegraph correspondent, writ
! ing of Col. Baden-Powell and Mafeking.
says:
"Cronje thought 10 approach by trench
es. but the taste Of British bayoaets on
one signal occasion disposed for ever Of