The Irish standard., 1901-03-02

one of the brigadiers-Plunkett
"Faith, 1 wanted a kettle to boil my
coffee ill.," said he, and with his knife
he scooped out the shell, and then kin
ding a fire boiled his coffee.
Meanwhile our artillery had cont
pletely demoralized the English. Our
shells fell among them, scattering
death on all sides, and with an cXult-
ant cheer we hailed the silencing Of
the British guns. Then we saw the
English starting to retreat. For Il few
minutes they made an effort to main
tain something like order, but our fire
was too much for them. a scene en-
sued that am quite unable to de-
scribe. The infantry flung down their
arms and raced away toward the town,
the cavalry madly Spurred their horses
through their comrades, trampling
them down in their efforts to save
their own lives, while every moment
our shells burst in on them, hewing
lanes through the wild, panic stricken
mass of khaki. Hundreds of the mad
dened Englishmen flung themselves
face downward on the ground and
were crushed under foot by the others.
All! had we only been allowed to fol-
low them up then we would have taken
Ladysmith and every man inside Of it
without the loss of a man.
The next day the capture of the
Gloucester regiment and the Royal
Irish Rifles filled in the time. They
were captured by force Of 300 Beers
l read with amusement afterward in
the English papers how these British
troops fought to the last cartridge. AS
a matter Of fact, when the English
found things getting hot they hoisted
the white flag and didn't wait to see
whether their cartridges were exhaust
&c or not.
For n month after this we simply
lay picnicking around Ladysmith,
varying the monotony Ivy raiding the
outskirts of the town and skirmishing
with the enemy. At first the enemy
was inclined to skirmish, but little
of it went long way with him, and
in the end we tried to coax him out in
vain. The lanccrs-the heroes OF
Elandslaagte-once venturcd out. They
got such a reception that during the
whole siege not one Of them put his
head outside OF town afterward. On
Nov. 90 Commandant Trichardt asked
me to take some of "his Irelanders," :"
as he affectionatcly called the brigade,
and draw the English to expose their
position on the RoOikopjes. I selected
25 men and next day we rushed the
hottest fire 1 have ever been under.
The bullets sang round us in thou
sands. Two hundred yards from the
fort the English worked their Maxims
like demons, and the wonderful thing
Is how one Of us escaped alive. When
We were retiring found that Dunlop
had been left behind, and, riding back,
l found him dismounted and exposed,
his horse having proved fractions. With
some difficulty | got him behind me
and we both got away unscathed,
much to our surprise, for it was really
miraculous how we escaped the hail
Of bullets.
On the 14th Of December we got or.
ders to proceed to Colenso, and l need
not say the order was joyously obey
ed. AtG in the morning the fight start
cd, and we were stationed as support
to the guns. At Colenso we saw many
things which / am quite sure the cor
respondents OF the British press never
reported. At one period some gallant
Englishmen ran their Red Cross wa
CONS on to the field and sheltered them
selves behind them. One well-directcd
cannon shot fixed the skulkers. The
most remarkable sight Of the day was,
however, the English artillery, dclib-
cratcly shooting down the Irish SOL
dcrs who seemed disinclined to ad-
vance on the Bocr position. Our brl-
gade appealed to me to bring them
into rifle range of the Britishers. With
some trouble got Commantlant Trich-
ardts permission and we started off
to reach the front line. To got there
we had to ride through pass between
two kopies, Which was literally plowed
by the shot and shell OF the enemy. \
shell burst beside me, tumhling myself
and my horse to the ground. Immc-
diately Sergeant Major Frank Reilly
gallopcd up, closely followed by n
young lad of thirteen, Willie Smith Of
Johannesburg. and both offered me
their horses. | ordered them back, but
Reilly insisted on remaining by me,
with bullets whizzing round his head,
until got remount. We had IL good
time in the firing line, helping to drive
away the English from their cannon,
which they abandoned in Il cowardly
fashion. Colonel Bullock and a. few
men stuck bravely to them; but the
others ran like deer, deserving their
guns and officers when the fight be-
came hot.
General Butler appealed to his off,
GERS to rescue the cannon, promising
them promotion and the Victoria cross
If they succeeded. But not n single