The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-01-13
ATTEMPT TO TAKE A BOER FORT
FAILS.
Great Loss of Life Among the Attack
ing Party-Many officers Among the
Slain and Wounded

LONDON, January GAS a. m.-The
Times publishes the following dispatch
from Mafekng, dated December 26th:
Eat dawn today Colonel Baden Powell
organized an unsuccessful attack upon
a strong position of the enemy at
Gametree, two miles from Mafeking,
from which the Beers have been main
tanning a desultory but annoying shell
and rifle fire for several weeks. The
railway has recently been reconstructed
between the town and Gametree, where
the Beers had destroyed it, the final
repairs being made in preparation FOR
the sortie.
During the night the armored train,
with Maxim and Hotchkiss guns under
Captain williams and troops, took up
positions for attack from two sides.
Captain Lord Charles Bentinck and a
squadron were in reserve upon the left,
while the extreme left wing was occu-
pied by artillery under Major Panzera
and a galloping Maxim of the Cape Po-
lice, the whole being under Colonel
Hore.
"Emplacements were thrown up dur
ing the night, the orders being to at
tack at dawn and the artillery fire TO
desist upon prolonged footing from the
armored train. At daybreak the guns
from the enemy our shells bursting
within effective range. Captain YER
non gave the signal to cease firing and
to advance, his squadron leading OF.
"As ourmen engaged the position with
the rifle fire it was soon found that the
strength of the fort was greater than
we had supposed. The enemy concen-
trated such an exceedingly hot fire that
the advance of Captain Vernon was al
most impossible but with remarkable
heroism and gallantry Captains Sand
ford and Vernon, Lieutenant Patton
and Scout Cooke, who guided the
suuadrons, and a few men actually
reached the sand bags of the fort. With
in 300 yards of the area of the fort.
But nothing living could exist there,
| since the ground was swept by Mauser
and Martini bullets. The men who
charged through this zone of fire sur
fered terribly, and in following their
officers to capture the fort twenty men
lost their lives. Captain Sanford was
the first to fall, and Captain Vernon,
already twice wounded, and Lieutenant
| Patton We're killed at the foot of the
fort. These two officers, climbing a
ditch which surrounded the fort, thrust
their revolvers through the enemy's
loopholes only to be shot themselves the
next moment.
|
which contained many sharpshooters,
and their accuracy of fire confused the
men who had followed Captain Vernon
and who saw him and his brother Off
GERS killed. Being without commanders
they were driven off at one point, but
they endeavored to scale the fort at
others. They found the position of the
Beers however, almost impregnable.
when we retired under cover of the
armored train so many men had been
wounded that suspension of hostili-
ties occurred under the auspices of the
Red Cross. The Veldt around the Boer
position was at once dotted with flags
of mercy and it was seen that oul
wounded were scattered within but 9
short radius of the fort. We had al
most completely surrounded it, and, had
it not been so extraordinarily well pro-
tected we should have been in posses
sion.
II went with an ambulance to Game
tree The fort itself is circular, with a
wide interior and a narrow frontage
between six and seven feet high, pierced
with triple tiers of loopholes and sur
rounded by ditch"