| Show STORY BRITISH DEFEAT Details of CoI Baden Powells Sore Sor Sortie tie at Mafeking BOERS WERE SVEltE ALL n READY ADY I Troop Were Do by bT nUlo Ut III lUh aud Colenso London Jan war hM through Gen Oen Walker at Capetown the following dIspatch tram Cot Col dated December r Wo o attacked one of oC the works this morning endeavoring to push back the cordon Our force torce consisted ot of three guns ns two squadrons of the Protectorate r regi gl ments one of the rifles es armored traIns etc Tho rho en enemy em had strengthened their works during the night nishi and doubled the garrison since yesterdays Nevertheless our attack ya car carried tied ried out ad homo home with the greatest possible gallantry and steadiness n ness s under a 11 very ery h av fire But Dut all ati to gain the tho Interior by escalade failed Called the tort being practically Im Impregnable pregnable bl e Our attack only withdrew after six of our Jur officers and a large number of men had been hit bit Nothing could have exceeded the courage and dash dig played The gen general ral situation remains un unchanged unchanged changed and the health and spirits o othe of the are very ry sa satisfactory factor j I regret to report the following casual casualties tI ties lJ R fl J 3 Vernon Capt n II C n II C Patton noncommissioned officers and troopers Charles lar larence enee ence twentythree and troopers troopers Gen Oln I Walker points out that the dispatch gives alt all the names lt It tails fails to show that six were hit The Times publishes the following dispatch from bei fAt At c dawn today o 1 C Cot d Powell an unsuccessful at tack Upon strong a position of the enemy at two miles from from which the have hae been maIntaining a desultory but an shell and rifle rille tire fire for tor tera evera anI weeks The has recently been betWeen the town and where the Boers had le de destroyed It the repairs being made maU In for tor the sortie During the night the armored train with rind Hotchkiss guns under Capt Williams and troops took uP position for tor attack train from Cart CaN Lord Charles Charl s a squadron were ere In on the left Ift while hll the left wing was as occupied y artillery under MaJ taJ Pan tern zera and a galloping Maxim of the tho Cope Cape police the whole holo beIng under Cot Col Hare Emplacements were thrown up dur I Ing the night the tho orders being to at attack attack tack at dawn and the artillery fiN to d desist upon prolonged tooting from the Ule armored At daybreak the guns opened fire nd rapidly drew the re reply pi ply from the enemy our shells Mells burst Ing within effective range Copt Capt Ver Verlion Vernon non lion gave gae the signal to cease firing and to advance lit squadron leading off olT As our men engaged the position tUh the rifle rille fire It was soon found that the strength ot of the fort was greater than We had supposed The enemy concentrated d such an exceed l Ingi hot tire fire that the advance of Capt WaB as utmost Impossible but with remarkable heroism and gallan ty try apt Sanford and Vernon Patton Pallon and Scout Cooke who guided the squadrons and a few men actually reached the tho s sand nd bags of the fort fori Within three hundred yards ards of the ar aror area or of the tort ort hut Dut nothing livinG could exist there Kince the ground was swept by b Mauser Iau r ud Martini bullets The men who charged through thi Soil o lire fire suf Cere J terribly and Ind In following their tl to capture the fort twenty men nen lost their lives Ues Capt Sanford was iy the Ihl first to 10 fall and Capt Vernon at 01 ready twice wounded and JI Let I ton lon were wee at tho foot of the tort fort These two officers climbing n a ditch which surrounded the fort art thrust their revolvers through tho ho loop holes only to be shot tho next moment Is surrounded with scrub which contained many sharpshooters and ond their accuracy of lire sUI stil fur tur further ther l the men anen who had tol fot towed lowed Cor Vernon and who saw him himond and ond his killed Being without commanders they were driven ort off at one point but they endeavored to scale the fort ort at others They found the position of the Doers most Impregnable When Then we retired under cover corer of the tho armored train so mun many inca had been wounded that n a suspension of ties occurred under the auspices of the Red Cross Thi Th veldt around the tho Hoer Boer position was at once dotted with nags flags I of mercY merc and It was seen that our wounded were scattered within but a short radius of the tho tort Cort We had at al almost most completely It and hud had It not been so extraordinarily well wo we should have hae been In pos POll possessIon sessIon I 1 went with an ambulance to to Game Oame tree The fort ort itself h is circular with witha n a wide Ide Interior and a narrow frontage between six and seven seen feet teet high pierced with triple tiers of loopholes n II tl u nit 1 lit n 1111 1 I Ink il l was t to a t In dressing the wounds rounds a majority of w which up ap appeared to have been caused by explosive sive ho bullets the point of entry being but the ure area of Injury cOvering a wide region While tho wounded were being attended numbers of Doers left their and gathered around Us At the of the dressing I spoke to several tattered anti dirty but physically fine men Many MallY ot of thorn thom vore and nil all wore beards They referred me to the field cornet who denied the thc use ot of explosive bullet On being shown the horrible wounds he admitted that nt at one time explosive bullets had hod Lee been served out but he said lie he wu they hind had hindall all been previously lr expended and that none nune ouId have hae been Used on this oc occasion casion He then produced a bandolier tilled with and I pointed out that aH a tar far as was concerned these had been recalled Later on I called the tho attention ot of the field cornet to 10 four of hits his own men who were ruling dead bodies lie ox ex expressed pressed his regret to a British officer that d despite his Instructions to respect tie tho d dead al the younger Doers were un Unruly rul ruly and beyond lila his control and ac accused the British soldiers Of stripping hen Oen Jock nM and naked and on the field thus Indirectly cn causing using his death Tho then describes a scene of angry between the tho field cornet and the tho Doors Boors regard Ing the of orders about rob bing th the dead and also about the Iho facts themselves some of the Doers assert I Ing tHat they nl took arms despite the removal nt at that very moment of the bodies of five Ove under Hoer Doer escort escorts with s the pockets o of their uniforms turned inside out He goes goeB on to sa say Some Sume of oC the British wounded flatly accused the tho Doers of o stealing their money rings and ad other valuables Wo We had In getting slon pion to use the armored train to le ic lemoe move moe We believe bellev that carried the news of our Ilia tro sortie to ta the Doer Tho Ph cornet ornet admitted that h he vas as r reinforced i cor J during the night by mounted men and ck withdrawing his London Jim Jan dispatch to the I IDall Dall Daily Telegraph h from Frere camp dated January says There bas teen firing toda today at Lady smith anti A trong cavalry ance Lord Dundonald proceeded westward this morning to toward ward where tirIng firing is pro proceeding o There Is a revival of the reo re rePort port that the tho are short of pro pro Gen army Is eager for lor the advance The of l seizures takes alm st the paramount place In the thoughts of the public the vague PosSibIlity I bill t that they may be made II a pretext for tor con linen tal Intervention dis official and prIVate observers The governments undeviating purpose to the right of search has been set forth In detail dispatched yesterday b by the ad ty JO to the British naval command ors era in III South waters giving them weighty weight warnings without tion to uphold the government meas measures urea ures for tor the suppression of the thou of contraband by way of bay Lady Georgiann Curzon has received I a dispatch from Lady rady Sarah Wilson JI ut Mafeking doted December SoWing sayIng noth well veli referring to herself and to her husband who had been reported as wounded The Dully Dally Malt has the tho following dis patch from Relsberg Reisberg dated January Some Free Pree sent a petition to Steyn asking to return hOme tIe lie replied th that t they had crossed crossell the border without permission and nR as the they had no money mabel to pay the damage done they must pay for tor It with their blood I |
