RHENOSTER KOP

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 65

RHENOSTER KOP

Several nore or less disjointed a tree unts have been published of the defeat of Viljoen and Botha, at Rhen osier Kop, where the New Zealanders lost & number of men, but the following ooo&» munication, written by one of “bur boys'* who took part in the fight, relates what occurred with unusual clearness: —. No do apt by this time you would have * thought we would have been oh our v ay back to New Zealand. Weil, I do notknow when we are likely to be going back. The Boers seem to be rising again ' all over the country. We started out from Pretoria three weeks ago, and we were not Long before we came .in touch vith the Boers, and found them in far stronger force than we expected. We (engaged them in four small figjhta, r n'ostly with the big guns, but on the L fifth day we got on to their plain lot, and, of course, ycu have heard of our losses. We attacked them, and chsy '■ had a beautiful j osi fcion. We only had about 1500 men, and the Boers had " 2000, and besides, they were getting re- a inforce.nents the whole of the day." We L advanced up to within 400 yards of t them—and had to stay there. We got b in this position at 6 a.m., end were ex- bli pectiiig the infantry to drive tlie Boers U cut oa bur right flank, but the poc-r f. Tommies made tin eo attempts to charge .the kopjes, and each time they wero.-L-j driven back with a few losses. So we poor devils had to stay where we were ;; till seven at night, and could not move? A one way or another till dark. , Then the. c Queenslanders came and relieved ns. Ws ■] v ent out and got a canteen of coffee and <L a biscuit, and had to go-but at el.-ve® - p.m. and dig trenches, fully-expecting a 10 tig fight tlie following day/ After we ’ had dug all our trenches ye got the / word that the Boers had left through / the night. Every time a fellow lifted : up his head the bullets would come around him wholesale. Poor Sergeant ..L Russell was shot through the, back of his neck, and he. did not linger long. He called for the doctor, and in a few min - utes lie said, “Never mind, boys, I am - gone.” Then we lost another man not • t faiv from RusselLLEle was killed out- L right, One. of our officers got shot- early in the fight, and the doctor went out to dress his wound, and he also got shot - through the leg. The poor fellows had { to stay where they were all day in ih® - ,A hot sun, but we got -them but £d- dark.-' No doubt is was a bad day for the 1 New Zealanders. We had twenty-twQ uX t wounded and six killed. One time the “ ambulance came up fer -the wounded with the [red) cross flying, and ] by Heavens the Boers sent a nice volley i- : into (them and killed the black boy that was driving, and the thing retired, L We camped for two days after 1 le i and then we shifted on twelve miles, and were. I only one day therb: We found the “Boers were to<& strong for us and were trying to get- L around us, as wal were camped right down in a big valley. It was a bad place to camp in:, but I suppose the General knew best. At all events, w© had to retire at 11 o’clock that night, - * were not allowed to light, even a s match. We were all expecting an at- Jtack on our .way back; because th« J Gelneral went in the daytime and took r all the Tommies with him. There were ‘ only us and the wounded men left with T the convoy, but we got out : of it sect ‘ lTea - heard afterwards that there were 5000 Boers a few miles from where wa were camped. None of the men think 1 very much of our general. His name is - Paget, He was-with* the Life Guards 1 at one time I think if we get horn© l in four months’ time we shall be lucky. / but it is hard to tell how things will go, A tor they may give in at any time. - l suppose you will see some rare letter* : in the papers about this fight—ami ' + I4S W l ih then l' Au yo»e would j think to read some cf the letters that ; there were Zealanders fighty' r mg out here. s