Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-05-14
ON AN ARMORED TRAIN.
A Young American Tells of That
Branch of the Service In South

Africa.
An interesting letter, descriptive Of
the armored trains utilized by the Brit
ish in South Africa, the work Of the
men detailed for duty upon them, and
other matters which do not find a
place in the press dispatches, has
been received from Percy w. Tinan,
who so far as known, enjoys the dis
tinction of being the only South Da-
kotan who is serving in the British
army in the land Of the Beers. His
letter is in part as follows:
"Our captain of the armored train Is
a brick, and he doesn't seem to care
whether we do any work or not. He
is a young fellow, and not such
crank as most of the imperial officers.
There are two Of us noW-another
Yank besides myself, a young fellow
from Chicago by the name OF Rich
ardson-and he is Chicago from head
to heels. He is the best fellow I have
struck since leaving home, totally un-
like most Of those one meets out here
from the states, who are usually pro-
fessional hoboes. We are, at
the time 1 write this, over on the east
coast and only about ninety miles
from East London.
| First in the train is truck, or car,
containing a searchlight and a Max
i'm gun; second, captains truck; third
gun carriage truck containing two 12-
Founders; fourth, troops; fifth, engine;
sixth, water truck; seventh, cook
house truck; eighth, dynamo truck;
ninth, construction truck; tenth, tele-
graph truck; eleventh, searchlight and
Maxim gun.
There are 5S men with the train,
scattered through the different trucks.
The entire train is sheeted with s-inch
armor with loopholes and so on. The
train guards the frontier, and Is used
for general purposes Of that nature.
Most men with armored trains have a
hard time of it. They have to do both
night and day patrol duty. With the
train we have a cycle machine for pa
troll and scout duty. 1t is four
wheeled machine used on the track,
and constructed on the same principle
as a bicycle. Great speed can be
made with it. I do most Of the work
with it.
I'VE were called out one night by a
report that the Beers had rushed
farm house about IL miles out and
about a mile from the railway line.
Away we went, with our ammunition
beside us, ready to stick a muzzle OF
Krag-Jorgensen through a loop hole
at the first sight Of a Boer. AS we
drew near the house the train slowed
down and a accommodating party was
sent out. In few minutes they were
greeted with a hail Of bullets, many
of which f1attened on our train. Our
scouting party stayed where they were
and by skillful manoeuvring gradually
drew back toward the train, and with
them the Beers.
Like a flash the searchlight was
turned on the Beers and the house.
Bang went one of the 12-pounders,
and such a scampering you never saw.
The shell from the gun knocked out
four men and two horses; the rest of
them got away. AS the ranch belong
ed to a rank rebel who was supposed
to be aiding the Beers on the quiet, the
major in command, who happened to
be on the train, gave orders to destroy
the house. The searchlight made it a
beautiful target, and the gunners with
the 12-pounder soon knocked 1t into
kindling wood. Then we steamed back
to town rolled up in our blankets and
slept.
"a few days after the bombardment
Of the farmhouse we were called out
one night by the report that the Boer
leader in the vicinity was making
north for the frontier. He had been
having hard time in the colony and
decided to try to get out. Away we
went once more, and after passing
about Is blockhouses with no news, we
at last came to the hunting ground.
"In cloudy, moonlight night we
could see the whiskers Of the advance
guard, coming over the veldt a mile
away. We were lying with our armor-
ed train in a cut out Of sight. When
the Beers were little less than mile
off the line each man dropped and be-
gan to make a sneak. Orders were
sent by phone to the blockhouses in
the vicinity to hold fire until we open
ed.
for the fences. They knew that the
line was protected by barb-wire net
works, but guess they did not know
the strength of the fences. They be-
gan slashing and cutting with their
wire-clippers, and after five minutes
work signalled the command in the
rear to come up and make dash for
it. They came-and so did we. Our
cut was half a mile from the attempt
ed place of crossing.
ITO go back a little, you may think
| it strange that they did not put out
outposts. 1t would have been useless,
because the blockhouses are so near
| together, and the sentries have orders
to fire on any one approaching the line.
Twenty men were sent out from
our train and the nearest blockhouses
to hold the pass. Imagine 20 men at
tempting to hold a pass against 275
desperate Beers. caught like rats in a
trap-as that is the number we after
wards learned made the rush. Our