The Portland daily press., 1900-01-26
Vivid Story Of Gen. Buller's Terrible
Defeat.
1t Simply Rained Bullets
for Awhile.
The Only Wonder That Any Es-
capped Alive.

Correspondence Of the Associated Press.)
London, January 1.-THE following
account of the battle Of Colsnso, written
Dy an infantry officer, present, was re-
ceived by tcdsy's mail:
After tnat most terrible and ons-sided
battle Of Colenso last Friday faintsd
whom got to Damp, from sun stroke, and
on Saturday morning l found ! had
dy ssntsry. How any one escaped on FRI
day IL n marvel to me. We were nine and
q half hours under fire and 1t was like
severe hail storm on tn room. could
not put my slasEes up without hearing
'phit. 'phit.' From the very first l saw
it would be no 60. Directly we got un-
der IRE, q corporal said to me: Il wonder
how many Beers there are hidden In that
wood along the TugslaP sAidi Il expect
IL Is fuil Of them as Butler has never
shelled 1t ALL j was right. Two ooinpa-
nies of the 23d went In and jolly soon
came out through US and our four oom-
psnies 10 double fire, and / don't sec
how we escaped at all. Then l saw
about three companies of the 7th fusiliers
90 In ON ths left OF the taken guns and
they soon came out Of 10. After that we
wers told to advance bit and eventually
We were told off as escort to the lost
guns with the result that we retired
(when ordered to and Tommy does not
like that word at aIl), and had six offic-
ers taken and over leo men killed, wound
ed, missing and prisoners, out Of . total
of Is offiosrs aud 572 inen with which
We started OF q. m.
II never was in suoh veritable tx
and hope l never shall bs again: and
then, to add TO 1t all. they peppered US
with shot, shell and those beastly ons-
pound Maxim -Nordenfeldt shells and
Maussrs until we had retired well out OF
range.
"But poor Tommy was simply grand.
On tho troops went through 1t oil. They
never hssitassd one moment, never
ninohsd. On they went with destruction
and death and agony all around them.
shall never forget the sight. A man
MAS hit, on the line went, . shell fell
between two men Mt six PAGES. on they
went. A shell blew poor captain of
the Connaught rangers to bits. A
subaltern of the InnIskillings close ty
looked back. but could zee absolutely
no trace OF his comrades left, and l see
he IL repoitsd as MISSING, as they could
not hnd him, and yet on went the lines.
My own company was NJ ost light hearted.
One cid soldier who used to be the quar-
tefmaster's storeman at Chatham was
In front OF me, while we onoe were or
dered to turn In lille to the left and wheel
to right to double about half q mile to
the right flank Of the guns and when q
bullet wh!zzed very close to him he began
to play antics and skip about, laughing
and cracking jokes the while. The bullets
were az thick as bses and had several
mighty close to my head. Directly We
halted and lay down, showers Of bull
lets came, two pitching about half yard
In front OF my head. 1t was truly one
sided game as we could see no one to aim
at Just before We lay down, u private
behind me said: sir, don't know how
we got through all that without one of
us getting hit. i think God must be
good to us today l was much i'm
pressed by what this man said.''
Il can assure you all of us earned
cur wretchsd clasp at Coienso, but to
make a frontal attack with the whole
armysjust like an Aldershot field day was
simply silly rot"
The ST James Gazette's correspondent
| in his account of the bsttle of Colenso,
wells on the effect OF the Maussr bullet
which he says Is ''no doubt very hu-
name one," and inficting some wonder
| full wounds.
"The Bosrs treats ed our wounded
well, and In fact did not tnke them pris-
oners as they said they could not be both
cred with them. They took the wounded
colopels, as they liked colonels and would
prefer one with q title, but they rifled
their pockets and went for the bread In
the haversacks with greed. l don't think
they oan be getting much bread now.
They also stripped our dead of all cloth
ing for they have no pimioln behind
them and offioers' breeches were highly
treasured.
"fhe wounded were picked up almost
at once and within u hours thsy were
comfortably settled In hospitals and
being attended by the best nurses with
every comfort that money could pur-
| chase.