A STORY OF BOER TREACHERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6051, 9 April 1881, Page 7

A STORY OF BOER TREACHERY.

Somz of the prisoners of war of the 91th Regiment who survived the Boer onslaught at Bronker Spruit have reached Maritzburg, and from, one of them we have additional particulars of the sad affair of the 19th of December, which, in the abscence of an official report, may be taken as an impartial account of the engagementWe left Lydenburg along with the headquarters and two companies of the 94th about the 6th of December, leaving 50 men under the command of Lieut. Long in the town. Previous toour departure, we had heard rumours about the Boers going to fight, but never for » moment believed those reports. Our train of waggons numbered 34, two of them ammunition waggons, which were loaded with Mar-tini-Henri cartridges. All the officers had horses, some two each. Nothing worthy of notice happened between .Lydenburg <'uul Middelburg, .where we arrived a week or so after. Before our arrival at Middelburg, .30 rounds of ammunition were served out to each man in the ranks. The bandsmen (about 40) had no rifles ; they were in the waggons, but had ammunition in their pouches. stayed one day in Middelburg, the band playm _< m the square as usual, to the great enjoyment of the inhabitants, who wished us to stay there a few days longer, as they informed us the Oliphant's River would not permit of our crossing. On arrival 'at the Oliphant's River, about two days after, we found the river would not permit of crossing, so we were detained at the drift one day. While here three, gentlemen from Middelburg arrived and held a conversation with the colonel.' I heard afterwards it was about the Boers. On leaving the river, orders were issued that evey man was to sleep with his rifle beside him ; a 'laager' was formed every night with the waggons, and 'lights out' at 9.15. I cannot remember the exact date, but about two days, I think, after crossing the Oliphant's River, and after passing two deserted farmhouses, where we had ontspanned and had breakfast, a Caffre came.up to the adjutant and told him 'there were Boers knocking about.' In another half-hour two men (the mess sergeant and a groom), who happened to be riding oh ahead, came galloping back to the waggons, and then to our great surprise (the band was still playing) we saw a lot of BGcrs. I cannot say how many, but there must have been'at least 1000. The colonel and another person were riding at the head of the regiment about 200 yards in advance. . • Orders were issued for the 'band waggon' to draw up, and the bandsmen got their rifles. The Boers had now got within 200 yards and were to be seen in flank and rear,- cutting off the rear guard before anybody was aware of it; the advance guard had fallen back on the main body. The next thing I saw was a white flag as near as possible 200 yards away, and, when this v/as noticed, we hoisted a signal also. The Boer with his flag and our man advanced, meeting about half-way (can't say whether our man was ah officer or not), but the letter he received he brought to the colonel. The.letter I heard .stated 'the Boers did not know whether they were on a: war footing or not, and, if we advanced further, we should have to fight for it, asking that we lay down our arms at once.' , I heard the colonel say, ;'I got my orders for Pretoria, and to Pretoria I'll go.' The colonel then gave the order ito extend in skirmishing order ;' indeed, he had hardly time to give it before a volley was poured into us, and my comrades fell all around. We were enclosed ; the Boers had cover, a sort of .'little bush,' and an incline in their favour. The Boers themselves told;us afterwards that they had everything arranged beforehand, the distance having been ascertained exactly. During the time the flag of truce was flying the Boers continued advaiicinj», and had the officers and non-commis-sioned officers all spotted ; they all fell; at once. While the firing was going on, and about ten minutes from the commencement, Adjutant Harrisongotupand shouted, "Fire, men ; keep it up," when a bullet struck him in the forehead dead. ; We kept firing for about ten minutes or so after this, but our ammunition was getting short, and the Boers in front, rear, and all round, at the same time picked off our men. We knew not how, but they outnumbered us altogether.. We got no time to extend, and that was the reason our men fell so quickly. The bugle sounded " Cease firing", three times before the men heeded it, or, in fact, heard it. In my opinion, the flan of truce was a blind for the purpose of letting the Boers et as near as possible to us, and what became of the flag, the man himself, who was on foot ?—he disappeared all of a sudden. The* Boers disappeared directly the flag dropped. Their fire lasted about 20 minutes, and the colonel, who was wounded, said he had ' better leave a few men to tell the story.' Now the bullocks in the waggons were all over the place, dragging waggons, &c., amoni; the wounded, dead, and dying. The Boers' fire now slackened, and they came in among us and ordered those still standing to put down their arms, pulled our helmets ofT, and made, us ' squat down' like Cadres. While this was going on I think they took away their own dead and wounded ; they made us pitch tents for the wounded. The men that were not wounded were collected, and thirty of the best were picked out by Serjeant-Major Fox to stay and look after the wounded and bury, the dead, myself being one of those left behind for that purpose. Another man and Serjeant Bradley were sent off, on their asking to be allowed to proceed to Pretoria for aid, &c. The Boers left Dr. Ward with us, who worked hard and did all he could for the sufferers. All the other prisoners were marched off to Heidelberg, except the 30. The Boers searched tbe pockets of the dead and wounded, taking rings, watches, and everything worth taking they could lay their hands on ; they helped themselves to the keys of our.musical instruments —because they looked like silver, I suppose. I saw one Boer searching Mr. Carter's pockets and take his watch. All our waggons were taken away—ambulance waggons as well—only leaving us with tents, but no provisions ; we only had what .we managed to take out of the officers' mess and canteen after the departure of the Boers and prisoners for Heidelberg. Our party set about carrying in the wounded to the tents up to four o'clock the next morning. Adjutant Harrison was dead and Lieutenant M'Swiney ; Captain Nourse died during the night; Colonel Anstruther was wounded through the thighs, and was still living when I left. Mrs. Fox was wounded through the lower part of her body, and was then living. Two doctors and two ambulances bad arrived at the scene of the disaster before I left, and a few Army Hospital Corps men. Serjeant-Major Fox, the lady's husband, was shot through the arm. I was detained four days on the spot, when I was ordered along with twenty others (leaning ■ten men then) off to Heidelberg. We were marched to Prinsloo's house over the veldt, which is about two miles distant. Here we stayed a night. Next morning Commandant Prinsloo ordered us to Heidelberg, inspanned sixteen of us like bullocks to a waggon holding the yokes, &c., the other five of us push ing the waggons. This work we were kept at for about an hour, and they cracked their whips over us and drove us like a lot of oxen. It took us three days to get to Heidelberg. Among the band (my own comrades) there were killed—Band-Sergeant Tovel, Sergeant Maloney, Corporal Dennis, Privates M'Key. W. G. Sullivan, Grimes, Hares, Alexander, and Corporal Rnpery. The wounded were— Sergeant Rooper, Corporal Godfrey, Privates Carrol, Gamble, Tablin, and Weston. The majority of the above are married men with families,"