The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-02-17
BUTLER ALMOST WFPT.
Claimed His Brigadiers Sold Him at
Tugela River Disaster.

/ ClilSSiS5C' t tD. Ia special " lAiS
! Record from Victoria, B. c., says: A
/ letter received by Mrs. A. A. Humph-
reys of this city from a captain of a
| border regiment, since wounded al
/ Spion K0p, gives graphic description
Of the loss of the British guns at the
! Tugela river. The letter was dated al
( Erere, Dec. y, and in part says:
People hardly realize yet what a
big undertaking this is turning out tc
be. Everything points to the Beers
| having not less than $4,000 men in the
| field, with guns superior to ours IN
| range and little behind us in marks
manship, and until we get out lot
more troops there is no likelihood OF our
| doing much more than hold them in
check
They are undoubtedly following out
plan of campaign which they have
worked out in all details in peace times,
and they are carrying it out most per-
| fectly. They have spies everywhere,
and are always prepared to meet any
move on our part almost before we've
begun. We are exactly the reverse and
never seem to know what they are do
ing nor how many there are of them
IN any direction. We won't trust SIN
gle colonial Cape ColonisD.
I'VE have a first-cIass Typographical
map of the frontier but no military
map of these parts and no one knows
which hill commands another, or what
kinds of positions there are on the othef
side of the mountains facing us. We
are exactly like the French in the
FrancO-G German war, with excellent
maps of the enemy's country, but with
none of our own. The Boer positions
are on all the high ridges and hills.
They extend for miles and command
every hit of ground in front
1.-The hills behind are prepared for de-
Tense If they are driven back from
one position they don't have to go very
far to get behind new line of resist
ance. Water is far from plentiful and
the transports scarce, so we have to
stick pretty we'll to the railway Butler
has a hard nut to crack in the Boer po-
sitfon in front of us-ColensO hillside
Tending the river Tugela. which we
must cross, and which is only fordable
in places few and far between.
I'VE tried to do so last Friday and
had a battle. We were 10000 strong,
and the Beers between 10000 and $4,000
Our brigade, Fifth, attacked on the
left but our brigadier made an awful
mess of it and Butler ordered him to
withdraw, which we did, after 532 were
killed and wounded.
Something went wrong with the
right brigade and the officer command
ing the Royal artillery advanced his
guns up to within 100 yards of the
Boer position and trenches long before
the infantry We're at hand to support
him. The Beers allowed the guns to
be I'm imbered and then poured such
hail of bullets that the teams of two
batteries were killed in a very short
time. When the gunners were shot
down the attack could not be carried
out, and Butler had to give the order to
retire and ten guns had to be aban
doned. Our total loss was La and all
for nothing.
Butler almost wept and was heard
to exclaim: My brigadiers have
sold me-
I'VE shall have another division here
shortly, and will then have 10000 men.
and as the Beers have been receiving
reinforcements they will number not
far from 10000, and all in splendid po-
sitions. The shrieking and bursting of
Shells and the roar of battle and the
thousands of Mausers, Lee-Metfords
and Maxims last Friday was something
awful. The heat, too, was dreadful, but
the men behaved splendidly."