The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1901-02-09

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straight line the British have 1000 miles
tot communications to guard, over which
every ton Of supplies must. be conveyed.
Every yard of that is a target for Dewet.
| Three days after his success at Sauna :
Post DeWet swooped down on Redders-
burg, 100 miles to the SOUTH and captured
three companies Of the Irish Rifles and
| two OF the Second Northumberland Fusf-
| liers. In less than a week Dewet, with
his 500 men, had captured 1900 British
soldiers and had taken seven guns
The Net Spread to Capture Him. :
At Wepener, away out on the Basuto
oorder' ne found another isolated British
force-seventeen hundred colonists under
Col. Dslgety-and settled down to be-
! siege it. For seventeen days he beset the
Britishers, but this time unsuccessfully,
| although he killed nearly all their horses
and disabled three hundred of the troop
ers. So Z
The engagement at Wepener had it's
chief interest in the fact that it gave
Lord Roberts time to complete his ar
rangements for netting De Wet and all
of his force. Generals : Rumble and
French, Ian Hamilton, Pole Carew and
Smith Dorrien, Brabant, Hart and
Chirmside, Stephenson, Broadwood and
Bruce Hamilton drew rapidly around him
thirty thousand men disposed in two
nets to CAPTURE De Wet. But Dom CHRIS
tiaan had further. need of his liberty.
He successfully lindered French and
Rumble until his Wepener force was dis
and eli
Ian Hamilton at Thabanchu. On MAY
he was safely hack in Winburg, ana LORD
Roberts had commenced his main ad-
vance on Pretoria.
For some weeks the Beers were too
busy in retreat to give De Wet chance
of attack, but, he carefully disentansled
himself from the main flight Of the Free
State with his president and a handful
of followers. Past him rolled Lord Rob-
arts giant army to Pretoria and the
| north. .
On May q De Wet swooped down on
convoy at Lindley, to the eastward Of.
kroonstad, In the northern part of the
Free State, and after three days fight
ing captured it and the escort of 800
Yeomanry. With him were five guns.
fifteen hundred men and the best of the
Free State horses.
On June he held up a baggage train
OF hfty-fiye wagons near Hebron, fifty
miles to the north of Lindley, and took
prisoners it's escort Of 100 men.
With the supplies secured from these
wagons he set off down the railway line
TO Roodeval, where he found the Fourth
Derbyshires, raw militia regiment. The
nilitiamen had gone quickly to camp in
the kopjes north of Roodeval and ex-
pected nothing less than the hail Of bull
lets that woke them in the night time.
De Vets five guns completely command
ed the camp, and after losing their
colonel and 40 men, the regiment on
June Z surrendered.
- His Restless Activity. ~
Two miles to the south VISA Roodeval
station, and thither, after the noise of
the Derbyshires' death struggle had sill
enced, came a mail train with some
hundred men Of various regiments as
escort. TO them went De Wet and de-
manded immediate surrender, but the
pos1men fought in defense of their ba gs
and the motley details assisted as best
trey could. 1t was useless. About their
ears came the station buildings. Dom
Christian speedily held the train escort
prisoner. With them he captured five
truck loads Of mail, 10000 great coats
and wagon Of great siege shells bound
northward. Train, station, mails and
shells were all set a-blazing and De Wet
rode away with his >captives.
Before doing SO. however, he wrecked
the railway line for miles on either side
OF Roodeval station, destroyed the Rhen-
oster bridge and the Roodeval bridge, and
for ten miles twisted the telegraph poles
into shapeless metal. In a country which
the 1900 miles from Cape Town to Pre-
has not one single tree of timber for
tho 1900 miles from Cape Town to Pre-
toria. bridge destruction and railroad
wrecking IS mora effective military
operation than ever it was in the Ameri.
can Civil war.
/ In haste upon him came Lord Kitche-
ner from Pretoria and Lord Netneur
from Hebron But De Wet moved Of
to The eastward, returned week later.
ana on June IA narrowly escaped captu in
1nS Lord Kitchener himself at Rhoenos.
ter. On June Fl he reappeared at Hon
ing s2ruit station, midway between
kroonstad and Rocdeval, ripped up the
rails to, the north and the south of
waiting train, and SIT to work with his
guns on the former 300 Pretoria prisoners
Who guarded it. For seven hoars the
medley company OF tattered, alarmed
prisoners fought Oft De Wet, ami in the
evening relief came with the c.. I. VS. and
Seonanry. Four men killed and nineteen
wounded was the whole result Of that
raid Of Do Wet.
Dewet at Bay.
80
ever, Weakened the British to the neceg-
sity OF stopping him, and great prepare
tons were made for the capture OF De-.
wet. On July Gen.. Hunter had 10000
men under his command for the purpose.
Slowly, purposefully, the net was drawn
are und Dewet, and on July 12it began to
close In on the guerrilla chief. Four days
'er DeWet dashed down on the rail
road at Honing Sp1uit. captured a train
and hundred Welsh Fusiliers, wriggled
his way through the British lines, and
with five guns and 1900 men got clear
away to the northwest. He was forced
to abandon his wagons and few badly
hcrsed men t. Broadwood's tender me-
cies, but on July % was in comparative
safety on the Naal river.
In the early part Of August Lord K.tch-
ener and Lord Methuen began the third
attempt to corral Dewet. On Aug. Z De-
wet dashed through Dewet's drift to the
north side of the Vaal, with Kitchener
and Methuen snarping up his guns, his
wagons and his provisions at his heels.
Eve ry available man Joined in the chase
ana extracrdir airy efforts We're made by
the Infantry in pursuit. The shropshires
teen hours, in the enGelvor to head him
off. On Aug. IL he crossed the railway
at We1yerdiend. and on the 10Th he was
ten miles east of Vertersdorp and on the
18th he was well out in the Western