TRANSVAAL WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 3955, 22 January 1900, Page 3

TRANSVAAL WAR.

NEWS RY THE MAIL. REALITIES OF WAR. The Rev A. A. J. Andrews, the Congregational minister at Durban, who is accompanying the Kata) Mounted Rilles as turn chaplain, has sent a vivid description of Elands Laagtc to his father. Hero is an extract:- —-“flow the bullets sputtered around. They sang and whistled and screamed. It was like a rain of hail, the dust jumped up, and wu could count the bullets by hundreds and thousands. Once when we were gathered behind a kopje a gun flashed m the distance, and an awful scream passed over us within two yards of our heads, bursting in our rear. We were ordered to move our position at once before a second shell came. Home of the men skulked and hid and crouched, and m their fright rushed across the fire-swept valley and lay down behind the stones. I saw one man fall into a hollow, ana ran up to him, thinking lie was wounded, but found he was hiding from fear. Of course, he soon came along. On tho whole, though, the men did grandly, and were as brave as you could wish them to be.” THE FAME OF THE GORDONS. One of the Gordon Highlanders has sent the following to Jus relatives in Leith about the Elands Laagte action : —“I never want to be in the like again. Dnrgai was a picnic to it, and we fought well shoulder to shoulder. It makes one proud of oneself to think that one is a Scotsman and fought as we did, seeing our comrades mowed down by our side as they were by mine. Tho Boers had a splenetic! position, and t hey fought well, but the fame travelled faster than we did. Be got about 50 or GO prisoners. 1 got two. Then we got three more between two of us, and one of these 1 got was jutant of the force we fought against. He asked me how we got through the fire, and I told him witn clisc"|dinc and courage. lie said he felt honoured to be taken by one of the world famed Gordons. The Boers mostly all speak English,” BRAVERY OF THE BOF.RS/ Here is another extract from the same letter:--“One of the Imperial Horse called out, ‘For God’s sake, men, don’t retire,’ and some mistook it for ‘retire’ and the lino scorned to waver. One of our drummers rushed to 1 the front and sounded the regimental ‘Call’ and the ‘Advance.’ 'Then we went steadily forward, and again the ‘Charge’ sounded. The Boers put- xtp the white flag and all was over, but it was a stubborn fight on both sides, and the Boers are just as brave as we are, and fought a good battle ana lost —but they are not to be despised for all that.” A WASH EVERY FOURTH DAY. Quartermaster-sergeant Henry Reek writes from Queenstown camp, Cape Colony:-—“We are not allowed to shave as the heat of the day and cold at night gave everyone, sore faces, and it only comes our turn for a wash about every fourth clay, so you can guess we look all gay with our beards. We are all in khaki clothing—the bluejackets as well. It is tine clothing for the job. If you should .have any spare newspapers you might .send them out, as we are not allowed to have any dealings with people here. There is one thing that would go down all right which is not obtainable here, and that is a pint of good old beer, which I haven’t had a chance to taste since I left Gosport. We are not allowed to have or get a .drain of anything, and it is a good thing too. We have to sleep with our noots and leggings on, and our rilles and ammunition alongside us.” A LUCKY ARMISTICE FOR THE ENEMY. The following is an extract from an officer’s letter, dated Ladysmith camp, October 27, giving some further details of the battle of Glencoe: --“Our General was asked by a flag of truce for an armistice for them to bury their dead, etc., aucl foolishly, as I think, he gave it them, and asked the infantry to cease firing or. the top. Mr Boer then trekked away at a walk on his pony. Tho batteries meanwhile got up to the nek between the two hills, and found the Boers at a thousand yards or so in masses, the most lovely target any of us will ever see; but owing to the General having given an armistice we did not lire a shot at them. The cavalry were waiting some distance on our right and wondered why on earth we didn’t ‘slate them’ and make their retreat info a rout for them to take advantage of. We knocked most of the Boer guns out of action, and could have brought some of them into camp. But it was such a beastly wet night after the battle, and a long way to got them from the nek, that we left them, and never had another chance.” THE MARCH FROM GLENCOE TO LADYSMITH. The same writer continues;—“We marched three days and three nights 90 miles through Almagar, in Zululnnd. The last day we marched at 4 a.m. until 8 a.m. the following morning. We did 40 miles, and got wet through. It was pollring with rain. Our column got broken up in the dark, and to finish it off we had. to cross three rivers with the water up to our knees. Thank God, we arrived safely at Ladysmith. We were then given throe days’ rest, but only got one, as next day we were ordered for outpost duty, watching Boers who were forming up outside camp, but they have not . attacked us yet; only fired on our scouts.” AMMUNITION FOR THE CAPE. There leaves the Thames to-day •(Wrote the “Daily Mail” of December 1) in tho steamship Kararai one of the heaviest cargoes of war material that have ever been despatched from .British shores. Among the ammunition are 40,000,000 founds of small-arm ammunition, iu 3640 boxes; 7000 rounds of shrapnel and common shell, and 4000 rounds of 5-in lyddite shell in 2000 boxes; 851 boxes of fuses and forty boxes of pistol ammunition. In addition, there is a largo quantity of star shell, by which the enemy’s positron can bo ascertained after dark and their camps shelled during night. Each shell contains six stars Of magnesium light composition, burning between thirteen and fourteen seconds, and seven stars of signal-light composition, burning between thirty-four and thirty-six seconds. Tho shell is fired by a time fuse, and by tho adoption of a code of different colours communication can be kept up between two bodies of British troops who may be located a considerable distance from each other. Scotland Yard detectives have been engaged iu watching the Karami, and the guards at the powder magazines in Plumstead Marshes and at Purffeet have been doubled. LORD METHUEN. No one nas hitherto recalled the fact (observes tho “Daily Chronicle”) that it was to an ancestor of the commander of the Guards Brigade on tho Modder .river that Steele dedicated a volume of tlie “Spectator.” Hie Methuen thus distinguished was Lord Chancellor of Ireland.” Steele praises Sir Paul Methuen for the frank entertainment at his table, his easy conde-1 sponsion iu little incidents of mirth and general complacency, or manners.’ Sir

j Paul was also a man of pluck. While landing at Lisbon as Ambassador, arrayed in Court robes, Sir George Rooke. with whom his Excellency had sailed from England, perceived a French vessel entering tne Tagus, and at once decided to give battle. Methuen, throwing aside his ambassadorial apparel, insisted on accompanying tho Admiral. After a severely contested engagement Hie Frenchman struck his colours. Sir Paul, in his anxiety to be the first on board the prize, tried to jump to the Frenchman’s deck, hut slipped and fell into the water. He was nearly drowned before he could be rescued. SCENES AT THE CAPE. Considerable reticence is observed by the staff as to the movements of troops, (writes the correspondent of an Australian daily from Capetown). The press censor would not pass a wire containing any news of this kind. Troopships slip up to the wharf and disgorge the men and horses in thousands. The men are bundled into trains, which run alongside, with no chance of stretching their legs, and away they go up country. Only the officer in command knows their destination, and he only gets his orders at the last moment. Of course some regiments are kept back and sent into camp. This for a variety of reasons. Some are not properly dressed—possibly too conspicuous. Every man must- don khaki from helmet to foot; sword-belts must be covered, bayonets painted khaki colour, even the Highlanders have kahki aprons over their kilts. It all looks very business-like, but it is also confusing. You cannot identify any particular regiment, except by a couple of square niches of coloured cloth on the side of the helmet, and officers and men are all like. You cannot tell the other from which. Most officers even carry carbines, but I believe no ammunition. Men are here from all parts of the world, and the civil population of Capetown is equally mixed. All colours, from the dead black to the flaxen-hair-ed Saxon. Tlie streets swarm with mule-drawn waggons, and huge lumbering traction engines Labour in the principal thoroughfares with half a dozen truck loads astern. The whole military mechanism appears to work with a clock-like regularity. If anything goes wrong no one but the heads of the departments know it. Their’ orders filter through thousands of,channels; down to the native carriers, Kaffirs and Basutos. MAUSER BULLET WOUNDS., The special correspondent of the “British Medical Journal” sends some particulars with regard to the Wynberg Hospital and the wounded. “One is struck,” he says, “with the rapid way in which the wounded have convalesced. All except about half a dozen are up and about, with wounds completely healed, and in only very few eases have the wounds become septic. This, while partly due to the style of weapon used, at the same time speaks volumes for the excellence of the arrangements on the field. All are Mauser bullet wounds except two. One of these is a superficial wound' of the hand inflicted by a shell splinter, and the other a Martini wound, the bullet having passed between the radius and .ulna without apparently having damaged either bone. It had healed well. All the men agree as to the very small amount of shook produced by the' Mauser bullets, many stating that they went on some distance after feeling ’ they were hit, one man telling me that he did not notice being hit until he began to feel dizzy and found that he had lost a lot. of blood. One notable circumstance is that the vast majority of the wounds are in the extremities. This the men attribute to the wild firing of the Boers, and to the fact that they were generally hit just at the moment of leaving or taking cover. One wound had its aperture of entrance just on the inner side of the lower third of the right thigh, and its aperture of exit in the right buttock. Probably this was due to the man having been climbing a steep- bit of rock at the time. Apparently the bone was not injured, but it is notable that the injuries involving bone are just as aseptic as the rest. I saw one case of a perforating Mauser wound of the chest. The entrance was about the second interspace, and the exit just to the inner side of the angle of the scapula. It had completely healed without hmrnoptysis or any other bad symptom.”

MAGERSFONTEIN

STORY BY AN EYE WITNESS. Among the newspaper representatives accompanying the Kimberley Relief Column under Lord Methuen is Mr W. J. Wilkinson, of the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” He reached the front from Orange River, just as the abortive attack on the Boer entrenchments commenced. In the course of a hurried letter to his paper, Mr Wilkinson says: Hurrying up to the front, I took up a post where the whole battlefield was unrolled in one long panorama. It was my first, experience of the real business. One sees many thrilling things in a lifetime, but the sight to make one’s blood sizzle and crack in one’s veins is warsolid, serious fighting. I have seen guns with their teeth drawn, viciously barking at one another, but never anything like this. From where I lay lyddite batteries belched forth squealing shells, which burst over the Boer position in clouds of dirty yellow smoko, and churned up clouds of dust. The Boers were posted in an almost impregnable spot, perfectly trenched, and commanding a big stretch of flat country lying between their kopje and the Modder River. Our batteries had been shelling this position since about- midnight, but not a soul on our side could tell what damage we were doing to their entrenchments, except, perhaps, the man who watched the proceedings from a huge captive balloon anchored on our right flank. We were not getting any response from our enemy. Evidently they had no artillery. Our batteries pegged, away with lyddite and shrapnel. One shot from the gun “Joe Chamberlain” took off the peak of one hill, but still there was no sign of life in the trenches. To the right of the artillery we had the Highland Brigade, with a strong rorce of lancers and infantry. At dawn Major-General Waucliope, with the Highland Brigade, moved up with the apparent object of storming tho Boors’ left flank. They kept close order, suspecting no danger, when suddenly at short range the enemy opened a withering fire right into the .brown of them, and fairly chawed them up. I never saw anything. like it. The Black Watch caught it hot, and they were mowed down, and perfectly-helpless. The order was given to lie down, as bullets were buzzing into them like hailstones. Then they retired, but w>th their ranks decimated. Tho Boers pursued on their ponies, but not far. The artillery kept up a heavy fire all along the line. Gradually our men surrounded their position on three sides. At 12 o’elock hostilities seemed to have ceased, and there was perfect silence. The wounded are coming in in shoals. The ambulance waggons are packed, and the field hospitals crowded, while burial services are being read by divisional chaplains. Imagine little groups of khaki-chul figures standing bare-headed round the graveside no distance from the fighting-lino, artillery booming allround

and clergymen performing the last offices over what an hour before was gallant fighting units. General Lord Methuen directed operations from the Tronr of a waggon.

MAFEKING

CAPTURE OF A BOER FORT. AN IRON MESSENGER. INCIDENTS OF THE SIEGE. (Reuter’s Special Service.) MAFEKIN6, December 6. Since my last despatch, dated December 3rd, no materials alterations have taken place in our strategic positions or those of the enemy. The Bechuanaland Rifles, commanded by Captain Cowan, have won the honour of occupying and dismantling the first outlying fort taken from the enemy. This they accomplished by means of countersapping and trenches, and were commended in a general order by the Colonel Commanding. To the south-east of the town detachments of the Protectorate _ Regiment, under Captain lord Bentinck and Captain Fitzclareuce, have been pushing out towards the positions from which the enemy fires his siege gun, and engagements between the sharpshooters on either side take place daily morning and evening. The enemy’s one-pound Maxim-Nordenfeldt is able to reach the lower part of tho town, but it would seem tnat as they have been so badly mauled each time they have attempted to carry any one of our positions by assault, they have decided to reduce us by hunger, thirst and bombardment, in which, so far, they have signally failed. On December 4tha five-pounder shell fired into the town did not explode, and when picked up and opened it was found to contain a letter to the following effect; “Dear Mr Baden-Powell, —Excuse the iron messenger, but I have no other means of communicating. Please tell Mrs that her mother and family are all well. Don’t drink all the whisky, but leave some for us when we get in.” The signature of the sender was torn off in getting the letter out of the shell. The colonel was much amused with this novel method of getting in news. Yesterday I had an unpleasant experience. The enemy had not been shelling during the early part of the morhing, and during the lull a good many people were out and about. For myself I was below ground writing in an excellent bombproof, which I shared with Major Hepworth, who is in charge of watering arrangements. Major Baillie, of the “Morning Post,” had just left the shelter when a shell from the 100pounder struck Weil’s stores, not fifty yards distant. I rushed up, fearing Baillie had been hurt, and I ay as just in time to see a native come tumbling down the step leading to Mr B. Weil’s underground office in which he transacts the business incidental to his Government contracts. Rushing to the boy’s assistance, a ghastly sight met me. The native was lying.on the step, down which his life blood was trickling in a dull red stream. His right leg was ripped and smashed from the groin tq the knee, and the femoral artery pumping blood was severed too high up to admit of the application of a tourniquet. As I examined the wound the poor fellow watched me with pathetic eagerness, and as he read -in my face that nothing could be done, Tie turned his own down with a low moan of despair. He was taken to the hospital,- and died there to-day. I have detailed this happening because it came under my. personal observation, but if is merely an incident in the siege. Yesterday afternoon a tremendous storm broke over the town, and jn 1 a very feiv minutes the trenches of the Boers and British were flooded, and both sides had to abandon their cover. The bombproof shelters all over the town were rendered untenable by water, as was the women’s laager. Lord Cecil was about and doing what die could to relieve the distress. Rations- and liquor were issued to all the forts and to the women’s laager, and . everything possible was done to avert illness. At sunset, despite the drenching, both our outposts and the enemy’s rallied to the attack as the storm lifted during the afternoon. Captain Fitzclarenco had a narrow escape from drowning. He attempted to swim the Moloppo iu order to communicate the state of his trenches to headquarters. He succeeded, but ouly just, in crossing the river. This afternoon a terrible accident happened at a waggon-maker’s named Gerrans. It-seems that Gerrans was at work endeavouring to extract the detonator and charge from a lOOib shell. He had already successfully withdrawn the detonator, and was loosening the charge, having poured water into it, ’when it exploded. By a strange fatality no shell ’ fired by the Boers has done one-half of the injury caused by this seemingly harmless one. Gerrans himself was seriously though not dangerously wounded. A man in his employ had his left foot blown, off just above the ankle, but is in no danger. A refugee from Johannesburg happened to be passing the shop, and was very dangerously wounded. We are anxiously looking forward to relief, and still hope to eat our Christmas dinner .in peace.

PLUCKY DEFENDERS

THE ENEMY’S PLEASANTRY. MAFEKING, December 4. The siege has now developed a new phase. Finding it somewhat* costly in human life to storm the enemy’s trenches at the point of the bayonet, our outposts now reply to the enemy’s gradual advancement in trenches by constant sapping and pushing forward of rifle-pits to enfilade, those of the enemy. Our advanced sharpshooters on the eastern side of the town are now within range, of the enemy’s 100-pound-er, and cause the gun’s crew considerable uneasiness. Our extreme-outlying trenches are within 400 yards of those of the enemy. The other morning our men opened fire at about 5.30 a.m. The enemy, in an expostulatory manner, shouted out, “No, nol you’begin too early altogether.” To the north of the town Captain Cowan and the Bechuanaland Rifles have, during the past few days, been pushing opt advance trenches in order to bring their fire to hear on the flank of the enemy’s work north-east of the convent. On Saturday they succeeded in doing this, and their good shooting compelled the enemy to evacuate the redoubt, and the Beehuannland Rifles took possession of it without loss of life. There is great enthusiasm in town over our success at Belmont. The enemy is now able to reach the Market square with Lis 1-pqunder Maxim-Nordenfeldt, which is ext/emely unpleasant. _ : , Sharpshooting continues all day,- together with intermittent shelling from various sizes of big guns. All the wounded are doing well.