THE BOER WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11243, 12 December 1899, Page 5

THE BOER WAR.

A SERIOUS BRITISH REVERSE,

AN ATTACK AT STOMBERG.

OUR TROOPS FORCED TO RETREAT.

SIX HUNDRED MISSING.

A GUN ABANDONED.

THE ENEMY'S STRENGTH UNDERESTIMATED,

BRITISH VICTORY AT KIMBERLEY.

THE BOERS REPULSED.

OPERATIONS AT MODDER RIVER.

THE ENEMY'S POSITION SHELLED.

THE NEW ZEALAND CONTINGENT IN ACTION

SORTIES FROM LADYSMITH.

A BAYONET CHARGE.

THE BOERS DRIVEN FROM A HILL.

By Tolegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.

Capetown, December 11. General Gatacre, with 3000 men, including the second Northumberland Regiment, the second Irish Rifles, 800 mounted infantry, and the 74th and 77th batteries of artillery, marched on Saturday night from Moltern with the view of surprising 2500 Boers at Stormberg. When within two miles of Stormberg they encountered the enemy, who opened a sudden fire on the front and right flank. The British sought cover behind a kopje, but being still within range, they shifted again, the batteries covering the retreat. Boer reinforcements then appeared from the north, and the Northumberlands and Irish Rifles were sent to intercept them, but suffered a heavy fire from the machine guns. The strength of the enemy was underestimated. They occupied an impregnable position, which the British infantry were unable to assail, while the enemy's two 40-pounders harassed the retreat of the Northumberlands. The Irish Rifles behaved splendidly, but it is feared their losses are heavy. Two hundred and ninety Irish and 306 Northumberlands are missing. General Gatacre telegraphed his regret at the serious reverse. He was misled by the guides as to the enemy's position, and found them on impregnable ground. It is known that two men were killed, and nine officers and 16 men wounded, while nine officers are included amongst the missing. The retreat was followed for three hours by the enemy's artillery. The British were betrayed while in fours, after a fatiguing march. A gun had to be abandoned. It is feared the disaster will intensify the disloyalty among the Cape Dutch. BOERS SHELLED AT MODDER RIVER, GREAT SLAUGHTER. Capetown, December 11. The naval gun at Modder River shelled the northern kopjes, which were crowded with Boers. The lyddite shells effected great slaughter, churning up an acre of ground, and destroyed the emplacement for the guns. ENCOUNTER AT KIMBERLEY THE BOERS REPULSED. Capetown, December 11. The Boers have been heavily impulsed at Kimberley. SKIRMISH AT NAAUWPOORT. THE NEW ZEALANDERS TAKE PART. FIVE BOERS KILLED. Capetown, December 11. The New Zealanders and New South Wales forces made a reconnaissance at Naauwpoort, in Northern Cape Colony. They drew the enemy's fire, add killed five Boers. THE OPERATIONS IN NATAL.

BOERS ATTACKED AT LOMBARDSKOP. BRITISH BAYONETS CAUSE A PANIC. LAAGER BURNED NEAR BESTER'S. Durban, December 10. Major-General Sir Archibald Hunter, with 500 Natal volunteers and 100 Imperial Light Horse, on Thursday surprised the Boers at Lombards-

kop, destroying a Gin gun and howitzer and capturing a Maxim. He lost one killed and one wounded.

When the British were half-way up Lombardskop there was a hurried fusilade from the summit, but the men climbed like lizards, cheering as they went.

At the sight of the bayonets the enemy were seized with panic. The Boer guns were wrecked witli guncotton.

The 19th Hussars on the same night raided Pepworth Hill, near Hester's, burning the Boers' laagers and cutting the barbed wire protecting them.

Train loads of gaily-dressed Pretoria ladies weekly visit the hills round Laclysmith to watch the bombardment A BOER LAAGER SURPRISED. A BRILLIANT ATTACK. TWENTY-EIGHT BOERS WOUNDED. Capetown, December 10. Captain G. L. Holdsworth, of the 7th Hussars, with 85 mounted police, brilliantly surprised a laager at Sequain, a Transvaal township on the Marico River. Twenty-eight Boers were wounded. The attacking force returned safely to Mochudi in Bcchuaoalaid, having ridden 100 miles in 13 hours. THE BOERS IN FORCE NEAR ARUNDEL. Capetown, December 11. The British at Arundel found the enemy in strength seven miles to the northward. TYPHOID AT SPYTFONTEIN. Capetown, December 11. There are indications of an out- ! break of typhoid at Spy tfontein owing to the insufficient water supply. PRO-BOER MAGISTRATES IN IRELAND. London, December 10. Some more pro-Boer magistrates in Ireland have been removed from the roll. THE RELIEF FUNDS. London, December 11. The Queen has authorised collections in the churches to provide comforts for the soldiers and sailors and their families. Her Majesty attended a performance of the oratorio " Elijah" at St. George's on behalf of the soldiers and their families. Miss Ada Crossley, the Australian singer, took part. THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE.. INCIDENTS OF A GREAT FIGHT. SAD PLIGHT OF THE WOUNDED. From the Sydney Morning Herald's special war correspondent's account of the batt'e of Elands Laagte, which was fought on Saturday, October 21, we take the following extracts: — SUPERB FIGHTING BY THE HIGHLANDERS. Most of the Boers were shot either through the chest or the lower part of the body, for even in that hurricane of death these well-disciplined fighters had kept the points of their rifles low. Their fighting was superb, and the Boers admitted it. The compliment is more genuine in that " the quality of mercy" is not being strained by the Gordons. "I pit me bayonet through one big red-hedded chap," said nuggety little Malcolm of Perthshire, " 'an I had to lit my foot to his chest ta poo it oot." Nor are the Fusiliers over nice with the enemy. Two of them at Dundee found a young Boer lying partly under an old man, who was dead, with a little heap of Mauser shells beside him. " What's tho mathor wid ye?" said a big fellow. _ "I'm shot here," said the burgher, pointing to his rijjht thigh. They searched' for the ibullet wound/ and found' none. "Why, blasht ye, it's only shammin' ye are," said the Irishman, as he laid him out on the veldt With a heavy righthander on the chin. Colonel Scott Chisholme, of the Light Horse, fell close up to the breastworks. He was buried with .his men, but from a description given by Brooks they were able to disinter the body nest day and bring it into Lady smith for a military funeral. THE PLIGHT OF THE WOUNDED.. Most ' of the British' wounded \ were brought in during the night, but some of the Gordons .who had fallen just as, they ■

were charging home had been overlooked. All night these poor fellows lay along the rocky ridge with rain beating upon them, realising to the full the horrors of war. On Sunday morning the rain cleared, but the summits of the hills were still enveloped in grey mists. The Red Cross sections of the Boers and British worked side by side; but the enemy have so few surgeons of their own nationality that their wounded for the most part get indifferent treatment. Those brought in by the British ambulance admit that they expected to be treated fairly, but were for the most part astonished at the solicitude of their captors. Occasionally they presumed upon it, and, as at Ladysmith camp, soire of the slightly wounded had to be brought to their senses at the point of the bayonet. One man from Johannesburg, who was shot through the stomach, though in agony from his wounds and drenched with night rain, pleaded piteously that the ambulance men should not kill him. The poor fellow never realised how mistaken were his notions of British clemency, for he died in his stretcher while being carried into the hospital. General French chivalrously sent in men under cover of tho white flag to say that the Boer general, Commander Koch, 'might, if he wished, come into Ladysmith for treatment, and the offer was accepted. The Boers still use the white Hag trickily. They hoisted it in both fights to cover their flight, with a pretence of surrender. They will cry " wolf" once too often, and the white flag will be no protection when they most need it. Count Zepplein, a German, whose father distinguished himself greatly in the FrancoGerman war, was found to be past all aid, for he had been shot in the head, and the bullet wound exposed part of the brain. He was acting as adjutant to Colonel Schick

THE DEAD ON THE BATTLEFIELD. The dead lay upon the battlefield until Monday, and the story of the fight with the advance of the different regiments of British infantry was sadly told by the bodies. Some were lying face down as though peacefully asleep, others tortured and stiffened into strange attitudes, all graesomely flat and shrunken as they lay amongst the rocks. Near to the crest of the hill and close to the Boer position the green kilts and brown jackets of the Gordons were lying thickly. Three officers and 22 men were buried there; and furthest into the medley of broken guns, dead Boers, and mangled horses, which marked their last stand, lay the dead body of Major Denne— big, handsome fellow, who was shot through the body. As the Highlanders approached within 50yds the excited Boers stood up, and some even rushed forward to meet them ; but the instant the Highlanders brought their bayonets to the charge a panic seized the burghers, and they fled. Only a few dead Boers had the mark of the bayonet on them ; but farther on, where the Lancers came in on the flank, more had died from lance thrusts than from bullets. Many of them had loaded revolvers, but were so panic-stricken that they made 110 use of them, and sought only to dodge the lance point. Good fighting men as these Boers are with the rifle in protected positions, they are a rabble when driven out, and make no attempt to rally. Had the flight come earlier while daylight lasted, the slaughter by cavalry would have been something awful to contemplate, even on the side of a rancorous enemy. By Monday the Kaffir bands, whose kraals are scattered all over the veldt, had been looting tho dead, and Mr. Brooks, a road superintendent, who, with his Kaffir boys, buried 56 Boers and 14 British, found the Boers especially stripped of everything. The Kaffirs had hesitated in some cases about touching the British dead, though they had cut Major Denne's stars from his shoulders. On one of the dead officers of the Gordons they found £2 10s, partly in English money, and partly in Indian annas and rupees.

THE GORDONS KISS THE BAYONET. There were men lying there who had gone unscathed through many long years of campaigning. Major Denne, for example, was only 37, yet lie had been a soldier for 20 years. He was in the Egyptian campaign of 1882, and won his medal at Tel-el-ICebir. lie was again in the Soudan in 1884. He fought at El J'eb and Tamai, and finally, with the river column, under Major-General Karle. He must have been the last man killed before the enemy broke and fled, for none lay nearer the breastworks. With the suicidal chivalry which marked the British officers throughout the fight, he led on his men, disdaining cover, and this policy, brave though it may be, has led to the loss of many gallant men in giving the Boers fair targets for their matchless marksmanship. The Gordons have kissed the bayonet and sword to take a heavy toll in revenge for ilieir big major, who only lately rejoined them from the Viceroy's staff in India, and no corps in the British camp at Ladysmith is so bitter against the enemy. This is evident even when they are bringing in prisoners. One Pretorian, who sought to carry it off with a bragging air as tho prisoners camo into Ladysmith, met a big Highlander with a Hitch of bacon under his arm, a queer mixture of fighter and forager. The Highlander turned abruptly and struck him backhanded across the face, with a curt "Sliet ver moo." Tho Boer shrank up, and was silent. Further down tho steep slope lay two other boyish-looking officers of the Gordons. Lieutenant Muir had seen seven years' service, but Lieutenant Murray only joined the regiment in March last. The Highlanders and their officers were buried together, and in time another cairn and cross will, liko that at Miijuba, tell where and how the Gordons fought and died in South Africa. BOERS DENY THEIR LOSSES. The tenacity of the Boers in adhoring to their denials of any great losses was .illustrated on the field. While Brooks was still engaged in his sad mortuary task, ho met the Dutch doctor on the field, and told him he had just buried 22 of his men in one gravo and 24 in another, and offered to show him tho spot. "You have made a mistake," was the reply; " those wero not our dead— were English; we had very few killed," "He was the first man," said the impulsive Brooks, " who did not try to hit 1110 when I called him a liar." Just then a Kaffir boy came up with 10 dead Boers in his waggon, and tho doctor was obliged to admit that these were burghers, but ho was not at all anxious to have proofs as to the identity of the others by having any of tho bodies raised from their shallow graves, though none the less anxious to obtain descriptions of the dead. As the burial party passed along the ridge Mauser rifles were lying everywhere, and tho belts were taken from them and thrown into tho river. Where the crossfire of shrapnel had rained upon the Boer position the havoc was awful. Such munitions of war as had proved too heavy for the Kaffirs to lift were strewn all round in wild confusion. The police riding over tho field put scores of mangled horses out of their misery with revolver bullets. The earth was seamed with the gun fire and great rocks were shattered with bursting shells. Early on Sunday morning the people at Elands Laagte railway station watched them taking their dead and wounded away from this part in waggons, and with good glasses were able to discriminate between the attention given to the dead and wounded men respectively; yet still the Boers persisted in their statement that very few had been killed. Truth to tell, they were hardly in a position to judge.

Imperial Light Horse charged up the ridge ; but once they began to run it quickly became a rout. A feature of the battle was the number of men prominent in official circles in the Transvaal who were killed or captured. De Witt Hamer, who escaped in an ammunition waggon, only to be taken later on, is a member of the Second Raad, and Van Leggellon, Public Prosecutor at Heidelberg, was also taken. Of the more prominent captives, Commander - Viljoen, Colonel Schiel, General Koch, and others, you will have heard by cable.

THE ODDS AGAINST THE BRITISH. At Elands Laagte the Boers had their front defended with barbed wire, and the Highlanders having none of the wire-cutters carried by most of the troops, had to pull the barrier down with their hands. These great fights outside Ladysmith really mark a new epoch in the fighting experience of the British soldier, since for the first time in his history he is under shrapnel fire, while the Boers had probably their shrapnel baptism at Krugersdorp from Jameson's raiders. While everyone is praising the Boers for their valour, the great odds in their favour in every fight yet fought must never be forgotten. Had the positions and_numbers been reversed not a single Boer rifleman would have lived to reach the top of the ridge at either Tarana Hill or Elands Laagte in the face of Lee-Metford volleys fired by well-trained men. This will be proved, I feel certain, if the Boers ever nerve themselves to assault such another position as at Majuba Hill. CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY BY THE IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE. Lieutenant Clem Webb, of the Imperial Light Horse, writing to a friend in Durban, says:— The battle of Elands Laagto was a terrible one, and the slaughter too awful for the victory and yet it had to be won. Our men fought splendidly, and led most of the charges. The artillery shells burst within 10yds of us all round, and yet some of our men had to sit on horses at attention under tho fire for one hour. I saw some horrible sights, and yet one must expect these things. One Gordon got a shell right on the face, knocking his head clean off, We charged up to the cannon mouth and took their guns, the Gordons using the bayonet. The Boers were very plucky—shouted for us to come on, and stood to the last. I saw Ben Viljoen badly wounded, and Captain Schiel. I saw Koch and Piennar both dead, and Dr. Coster with a bullet in his head. There are heaps of the Johannesburg, Krugersdorp, and Boksburg officials dead and wounded, and others prisoners— Irish and English amongst them, even Jows. The Lancers made a chargo into those who ran, and did some pigsticking. Some went down on their knees and prayed for mercy, and were let off; others did this, and then shot at ourmen as they went away. One cur killed a Gordon officer who let him off. By Jove, some fine fellows were killed, and died bravely, The Britishers are not yet done, and the way they faced the fire makes me proud to be an Englishman. I asked Schuurman, of Johannesburg, what he now thought of the Johannesburg white slaves, and he replied, "By —, you're a bravo lot of men." He is a prisoner. Captain Schiel played the part of a man when badly wounded, refusing help until our men had been attended to, and ordering his crowd to discontinue shooting at our wounded. We killed and wounded all their officers. In cannot say I relish shells and cannonshot—they sound very nasty. Wo expect another big fight this week. Thousands of Free Staters, with their artillery, are advancing this way. Our artillery shooting is very accurate, and the men splendid, brave, and cheerful. We were right beside them for an hour. One 'shell fell just a couple of yards from me.

STOPPED BY BARBED WIRE. Tho following appears in a private letter from one of the volunteers of Ladysmitli: — I was down the town on Sunday.} There was great excitement over the return of the troops from the fight, with the prisoners and loot. Some of the men were carrying threo or four Mausers, while nearly every man had secured a highly coloured blanket. I noticed one Gordon marching proudly along with a large ham. I got into conversation with one of the Gordons, and he told me that when they commenced the charge with fixed bayonets they came across a barbed wire fence that the Boers had thrown across their front, and which they (the Gordons) did not see until they were on it. Unfortunately they had no wire-cutters, and the posts had to be pulled up, during which execution they lost very heavily. " But," he added, with a smile, "when we got well down to it tho devils ran like —

DR. HOENABROOK AND DR. BUNTINE. A party of 25, who had in galloping away for their lives got separated from the commando, were met by Dr. Hornabrook, of Adelaide, who told them the British bad won the fight, and that they must accompany him as captives to Elands Laagte railway station, which they did. The medical profession has already won much honour in the campaign. A week or so ago Dr. Buntine, of Mariteburg, was out with the Carbineers, who had a brush with the Boers, during which Lieutenant Gallway, son of the Chief Justice of Natal, was wounded, and taken prisoner. As the Carbineers retreated one of the troopers' horses fell, partly stunning him. Dr. Buntine, who is an Australian, and if I am not mistaken a Victorian, rode back under fire and helped him to safety. It is said that the Australian doctor has been recommended for tho Victoria Cross. LEADING BOER PRISONERS. That racial hatred has not died with the second generation of burghers was shown by the fact that most of the Boers who fell at Elangs Laagte were young men. The only white-haired man buried was the father of Sir. W. Blignaut, a champion South African cyclist. The Boers say it was the " riff raff" of their commandos, such as the larrikins of Pretoria and Johannesburg, 1 who first broke and fled as the Gordons and the