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Show BLOODIEST OF CENTURY. Brltlsh-Boer Battle at Modder KlTr Characterized. London, Dec. 2. The expected great battle of Modder river has been fought and General Methuen has added another anoth-er victory to his achievements of the past week. There appears to be no doubt that General Methuen has gained 1 rea'k advantage though the details must be awaited before the full effect jf bi ten hours' desperate fighting ;an be gauged. Presumably the burghers' army was on the south bank of the river, but whether when the Boers retreated they crossed the river northward, or retired in an easterly direction into the Orange Free State, is unknown. Possibly the Boers had repaired the bridge previously reported destroyed, and managed to withstand the British attack with their rear guard while their main body escaped over the bridge, the rearguard destroying the bridge behind it. The British, however, how-ever, appear to have Burmounted the difficulties of crossing the river, and to have seized for themselves a position posi-tion on the north side of the stream. This success of the British clears another an-other stage of the road to Kimberley, the siege of which General Cronje must have partially raised in order to give battle to General Methuen. The Burghers are understood to have a strong laager at Syptfontein, fourteen miles north of the Modder river, so another engagement possibly awaits the British before they can commence the last stage of the eleven miles from Spytfontein to Kimberley, though it is pointed out that General Cronje will thereby run a great risk of being caughtbetween General Methuen and Colonel Kekewich, the British commander at Kimberley. A belated dispatch from Orange river says General Methuen's troops are advancing under . the greatest difficulties, fighting an omnipresent, but almost invisible foe. A special dispatch from Windsor says General Methuen's dispatch to the queen, after the battle of Modder river, says: , "The battle was the bloodiest of the oentury. The British shelled the enemy ene-my out of the trenches and then charged. The result was terrible." |