The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-09-14
BOERS and BRITISHERS,

CAPT. REIcHMANN'S REPORT AS TO
WHAT HE SAW IN THE TRANSVAAL:
He Praises the Fighting and Daring Of the
6oers. But Says They Lack Discipline
In Offensive Operations the Foreigners
Had to Bear the erunt Of the Fighting.
Captain Carl Reichmann's report on
the operations of the British and Boer
forces in the war in South Africa is to
be published by the War Department.
1t is long and particularly interesting.
| Captain Reichmann says: Politics
character, his fighting qualities and dar-
ing, but criticises the absence of soldier
qualifications. He declares that for
elgners were the aggressive feature Of
the Boer army and explains the victories
OF the British in the following sentence ::
The causes of the defeat of the Beers
are not far to seek The preponderance
| OF Great Britain in men, money and war
like material was overwhelming.
Captain Reichnann says: Politics
play great role m the election OF Of
ficers. To the military mind the degree
to which inferior officers carried their
selfwill is inconceivable.
Referring to the Beers themselves, he
continues: Although still fine shots,
the Beers are no ionger the excellent
marksmen they used to be. Among
troops where no discipline is enforced,
it is natural that the expenditure and
waste OF ammunition were great; the
burghers travelling on a train would
shoot out of the windows at the ant
heaps in the prairie. Our guide, a grand
son of President Kruger, tried to stop
the shooting, but came back dishearten-
ed. There was no importation of NUM-
tions of war after hostilities had broken
out and the government eventually went
to work to establish ammunition fac
tories. Volunteers generally have play
ed considerable part In this war; they
were mostly foreigners, adventurers,
amateurs, active, retired and ex-ofhcers
of foreign armies The Beers are hunt
ers rather than soldiers, they are not
much given to holding position to the
last. The foreigners, on the contrary,
once posted would hold their ground.
"A careful investigation of the
strength of these. foreign corps shows
that their number did not exceed 600 or
500. The Hollander corps numbered
800 men, the Italian corps numbered
about seventy-fve, representing eleven
different nationalities under command of
Captain Riccardi, who had been with
Aguinaldo in the Philippines. The
Scandinavian corps numbered forty men.
The Irish brigade was commanded by
Colonel Blake, formerly an officer i'll
the Sixth United States Cavalry and
numbered about $50 men. The German
corps numbered 200 men, and there was
also French corps of twenty-five men,
a Russian corps of twenty-five men, and
an American scoat company of about
fifty men. Another was that of the
Irish-Americans, who had reached Pre-
toria, under the guise of ambulance per-
sonnel, they being members of the am
bulance organized at Chicago"
Captain Reichmann explains his meet
ing with General De Wet and General
Cronje and describes number Of en-
gagements which he witnessed from the
battle at Abrabam's Kraal, which re-
suited in the retreat to Driefontein, to
the defence of Lydenburg district in
September. He tells of the life of the
Boer in camp, declaring that during my
stay of seven months with them never
saw drunken Boer, and the greatest
piece of profanity / ever heard was the
Dutch equivalent for Almighty. In
camp or at halt on the march he read
his bible or hymn book, and at night,
after dark groups of men would sing
psalms. The men who led the Beers
in prayer also led them in battle Their
religious sentiment predominated in
everything and their individual trend
of sentiment was such that they were
as much appalled, by the slaughter of
the enemy as they were grieved by their
own defeats"
Referring to charges that the Boers
violated the rules Of war, Captain Reich
mann says: "Such alleged unlawful oc-
currences were not confined to the side
of the Beers, they occurred on the British
side also. When they occurred on the
British side, the Boer had little to say
about them. When they occurred on
the Boer side, horde of war cores
pondents stood ready to snap them up
and heap libel on the Beers.
"The Boer bestowed the same care
on the British wounded as on his own
and treated British prisoners with kind
ness and consideration. His most seri-
Gus defect was the lack of military sdisci-
pine When a proposed movement did |
not suit him or his officer, he simply !
did not move and many planned
affair was ruined in that way. Under
fire the Beers were remarkably cool and
deliberate. Once started on the attack
the British infantry had no cover
against the Boer artillery, but as rule
the Beers lack of offensive capacity
prevented him from reaping the fruits