The Irish standard., 1900-11-24
Part of the Boer Ambulance Corps Recently Returned from
South Africa, Receives Marked Attention.
Cead Mile Failte Extended to Them by Thousand
Enthusiastic People Last Sunday Afternoon.
Their Achievements for Liberty Related Graphic
by Lieutenant Daniel F. Daily and Others.

inch shell Mt the rate of 800 a minute.
us well as hand Maxims and rifles.
Yet not man Of us was even hit.
we retreatcd to the Zand river,
where our brigade blew up the bridg-
es and railroad tracks, as we were as
signed to that kind Of work at the re-
quest of President Stcyn and General
botha. After we dynamited the bridg-
es regiment of English cavalry tried
to cross the river after us. and Cen.
eral Botha let fly the old Long Tom at
them right in their center, and, al
though they pluckily tried to reform
three times, they were unable to. and
only thirteen of the whole outfit COT
back.
"Then we retired to Rcitspruit, when
B0tla came up and told us to stick
by the guns. We did, and carried
them to kroonstadt, where some of
our horses gave out. We had the
poorest mounts, anyhow, us we came
late, and had to take what was left.
Some Of the boys had to stay in
kroonstadt, and those of us who had
mounts kept right on.
Outside Kroonstadt we were out.
thanked again, and Botha ordered us
to retire, while Blake went to Kroon.
stadt to commanders some horses, We
| then went to Hcilbron, and were or
dered to intrench ourselves on the
banks Of the Rhenoster river. After
| building our "schonces," which are
holes large enough for Il man to fit III
and fire out of, we were outtllnked by
fifteen miles, SO we crossed the Vaal
river and entered Vcrccniging.
''TwO days later we were sent to the
Kip river, to take position, but our
guide lost his way, and part of us got
| separated from the brigade
"Our advance was surrounded by
the enemy, but we got away and ar
rived at Elandslaagtc, but before ar
irving there we had II skirmsl with
the British scouts, and held it for two
days, without Il morscl to eat.
ave entered Johannesburg the Sec
ond night, and trckkcd with the Beers
next day. We landed Mt Six Mile
Spruit, and had another brush with
the enemy and retired Our horses
got done up, so we had to 20 to Pre-
tOrla on foot.
I'VE subsequently went to Middle
burgh for remounts. Those who had
horses went back to Bronkerspruit,
where they licked blazcs out Of the
English and drove them back to Pre-
toria. Then the enemy was reinforced
and came out to Donkerspruit, where
the Scots Greys, the Lancashire fusi-
leers, and some other regiments were
cut to pieces by our side. and the
English rctrcated to Pretoria for
good.
"rhen Butler came through Chris
Botha's lines in Natal, so we decided
to make n stand at Belfast.
"When we went into action there
were less than 5000 on our eide, occu-
plying IS miles of fighting front,
against 10000 infantry alone, and we
held our position for eight days. On
the eighth day the English had SO
guns playing on one acre Of ground,
in which was n kopje guarded by Is
Johannesburg police, and although the
English under such a cover attacked
the kopje three times they were driv-
en- back.
"Then our big gun and ammunition
gave out and we had nothing to do
but retire, which we did under fire.
but we infantry men remained until
all the cavalry on our left got safely
away. During this engagement the
British turned all their guns at one
time on our Long Tom,' and we
thought it was all up, as they fired
1856 lydditc shells at our old standby.
But Long Tom opened up again, and
when we heard it all Of us jumped up
out of the trenches and yelled like
blazes with the bullets flying around
us thick.
"The English used dumdum, split
and soft-nose bullets up to the last
day, and we returned them in kind
when we captured their ammunition.
"Soon after Belfast we were sent
by Secretary Reitz to entrench our
| selves and hold back the 5000 Kaff1rs
! and the 600 English who were coming
from No Mans Land, but they never
showed up. Then the mounted men
! went to Nelspruit, where 1t was de-
cided that President Kruger should
leave and give q free hand to General
! Continued on Fourth Page)