Show WAS A GRAND CHARGE I General Generd Frenchs Ride JUde A ross the Veldt V to 4 IWAS WAS UNEQUALED SINCE THE AS ASSAULT SAULT AT BALAKLAVA Ten Thousand 2 Men en Rushed Bushed Forward Over the Dusty Dasty Plains With a Fierceness That Overwhelmed the th Strongly Entrenched Enemy nemy Heat Was Intense 1 Correspondence of the tho Associated Prom Press P London March 21 In the rapid course courne of events which preceded and followed the relief cf of Kimberley General Frenchs ride to Kimberley escaped the minute attention I it l otherwise have h ve received It is i S said sald that since cavalry charged char ed fruitlessly rr at no such spec spectacular I cular t sight has been recorded in the annals annaIs of ot war In this case there were and with them raising the dust of the plains were some guns The correspondent of the Lon London LondOn London don Times Timea described d these things as follows On Monday the Uhe e march began Ram dam eight miles to the southwest t was wan fB soon passed and nd a sharp skirmish se secured secured cured cur ed Drift D rift on the Riet After a halt hatt of a day the column moved on At Klip Drift the cavalry division halted baited at night The haste heste of a dash through the country carried out out ou with a rapidity probably without a parallel had left its ite mark on I i i I the horses and the transport was hope hape hopelessly I lessly lesly in the rear Five days da s rations and forage were carried by each man and in indeed indeed deed was the amount doled out day by day dav Some of the horses used had but recently been disembarked and the un unexpected expected exp climate had impaired their health apart from the th inevitable slack slackness slackness slackness ness caused by a long sea voyage Over Veldt It had bad not been possible to snare them ther l Day after day the th cavalry caval moved moved ed cd at high pressure over Oyer the veldt during the hottest t hours of the day It is difficult ot convey to Eng English lieu lish readers the burden that this alone entails The absence of shade Is not nota a relative matter Often for tor twenty miles mUes continually there is not a bush that a child could creep under for shad shadow shadon ow on and the very ery leaves of or the trees that are found near watering places are thin or deeply serrated poplars willows and little or no shelter from the tha th tremendous heat of the midday sun Gun On Thursday the at 10 the critical advance ad ance was made and the shelling and capture of two laager a afew few miles out of Klip Drift on ou the northern side of the river cleared the way for the junction of the forces en encamped camped on the Modder lodder some Borne five miles east of the border fence fenc This body was composed of Kitch eners nc r a and andR Roberts horse end and two 0 more regiments of or mounted infantry Be Before Before Before fore they the entered the great plain of f Al the Scots cots Greys Household H cavalry and two Lancers m is i ContInued on Page P ga i It i i WAS CHARGE f 1 i Continued from Page l 1 L LA i A 4 regiments also als joined joine the he force e which hIChI I I I t nw numbered numbe some SIe e t I batteries b tri of horse artillery atler and and three thre field fied feld batteries bt ie t 1 I Their entry into the plain was wag the thet t I signal for the great get event of or the day dayI I The Te plain is perhaps three miles mi in 1 width and five in length converging I t slightly to the north and ana fringed wih with I ft i kopjes hopie The whole force headed by by the i Lancer Lanter lAn r regiments and d the Seats Scot Greys q i 1 as advance ne guards gards deployed to o ten teni e i yard r a intervals and nd thundered across it f i 1 Poured Bullets and ad Shells i The Tue 10 kopjes on either side were held hel 7 by Boers Bor who tired fred bullets bulet and shells into lAto the advancing mass ma almost almot hid hidden hidden den d n by the curtain of dust that that rose rol roseI I I from under the hoofs of the horses homes hore j Those Tho e kopjes were quickly cleared of j their occupants by the te impetuous rush t of the mounted infantry Lieutenant Lle Sweet Escott Ecott of the Six Sixteenth Sixt 1 t 1 lancers lance was the te first fr officer to toi i fall fan shot sho dead at at fifty yards as by a a Boer Boeri i who received r a lance ance through his throat i I I almost al lie 1 could produce the in ia invariable t II 4 i variable cry for cr fl mercy Kopje aCter r i t kopje ws cleared and the Boers Boer were ere eret f t driven n from them right and left as a the thet t I t column crashed forward like Uke some great grest i j ploughshare thrusting aside the enemy n J on either cither side sl e helpless to withstand I II t the tremendous charge and ad almost pow powerless i erless erles to harm it it A barbed I J 4 t t fence tence stretching across acrs the tho plain I i clicked cr the advance for a moment moment and ad adI I c 2 that tat enabled enable the te Boers Boer to withdraw i q their guns gns It I was no time for a flank fank movement to capture them At Devilliers farm at the northern norther I end of f the plain plan the column colum halted haled and reformed reform d after watering the horses hores E They rh had come ten miles mUes and ad broken f the tho ring around aroud the besieged town The C C pace e at which the advance was made I j had bad ha minimized the t e casualties and pre prevented I vented rented Cronje Conj from front appearing with 10 7 10 00 to line the kopjes on the plain realized that that he was defeated t t prone Jd nd acted with wih his usual sual wa sagacity sag l Cronje Conje Was Prompt Po Pt The cavalry c v lo column had ha barely bare gone done gon Jive he ve miles beyond the plan plain before the I x wagons oj ci the Boe oe were I ind the long l ng Q of transports were I 2 trekking t the e very ver line lipe of i I the advance c he had been powerless less to toj j heck heck Cronje acte acted with promptitude md decision By the evening of this i 1 jame mm day dY d not nO a a man of all al th thou thousands I sands of the investing force beyond a I f ew strangling bodies of men opt t pa paI I 11 rolling foraging when Cronje save gave I 1 the ibe le order ord r to to retreat t was w left on the II f tills lills lis and ridges that that had la been ben their f fj 1 i ground gound solo g j Meanwhile the th cavalry pushed on Prom From D farm farI tho country re 1 some o at park paric j with Jh sing st trees e and und d par la laJ lai J i ng rg lg ie e long lon T rass tiroui i the 1 guns uns lI g eU ll J long ng Y d t I f n Q the red rd soil soU Here H r ll f c I II I I I I J j 1 I I i tr 7 pace p ace began beg to t tell ten and horse hore 1 after horse hore h orse that had bad struggled on so far tar fell dead l eaU from some wound woud unnoticed in Ia the het heat b eat of the fight j br ba The strain upon up n the horses of th thoyal royal r artl r had been extreme etre and a nd It is i impossible i to praise prise too too high ly l y the handling that tat brought pearly nearly all learly o of f them the safely through the melee There was wa no no time to pause and ad at last la l ast some three miles mALes mies on on the first frt sight ight s of Kimberley burst burt upon upon the t col coluIn uIn u mn through the fringe of trees tree Entry Ent to Kimberley UA A passage perilous a port pleasant p and aud the tog lug weary wear weeks of r anxiety a and hardship the disappoint ment of and the heart h art sickness s sf of deferred d ferr d hope were alik f forgotten Kimberley was relieved and the t he remainder of the march might as well wel have been a review as a the im imo o mense mese column emerged from the trees treed I j 1 ao and a nd moved down the long lon slopes slope that oppose o the rising ground gro nd on which Wes elton selton slon s stands The Boers Beers in the north of the town at a ah t the intermediate station staton and Kamp af h were firing their last lat shots from f rom their great In guns ignorance of their heir t failure en the south but these soon oon son s stopped and General French en ered tere t the town which in a moment had ha h ad put out its itu flags fag and decorations moment The panic that had nad ad been caused by the t he continuous bursting of the hugo huge shells hells s over oyer every eVe part of the besieged town t own vanished and from the level evel l of the diamond mines thousands of o f mine women and amI children the t he light of day da emerged into Horseflesh For Por Food The Te Standards correspondent at Kimberley Kimberle writing of the hardships of the riege says For many days the novelty of eating horseflesh formed fored an agreeable break brok in the war talk Stav ing l talk ag people however take kindly to any article artcle of food fod Personally al Personal though I have always found f und a piece of succulent horseflesh excellent eating I am not taking any ay of it in Kimberley Not only are ar the wretched animals re r to skin and bones but there Is a prevailing epidemic of influenza and cough among them which forces tem fors me m to abandon its Is use It is however daily served out to though thou the soldiers as a well wel as the te people there the are cases caes of anthrax in the hospitals and ad an outbreak of vy v in many of redoubts There also s is broken out a peculiar form for of throat trouble which may owe its may it origin to this article of food t At p m all conversation al ceases and rumors stop for by proclamation all al lights except e electric or acetylene gas ga must mut be b extinguished There Ther are many cases cese of extreme suffering which although due to the siege have reached a climax from cIma con on circumstances There arc ladies ladle tonight in Kimberley Kimber who are strapped to their and ad wearing straightjackets m nad niad ad from sheer sher ner and Bright |