Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1900 — BULLER IN RETREAT. [ARTICLE]

BULLER IN RETREAT.

BRITISH FORCES RECROSS THE TUGELA RIVER. Expedition Moving to the Relief of Ladysmith Is Turned Back After a Serious Defeat English General’s Story- of Spion Kop. The war news for which the people of England have been waiting in agonizing suspense has come. It is in the shape, of a dispatch from Gen. Buller and tells of the retreat of the British army"aclpss the Tugela River and the story of Spion kop. The dispatch is dated at Spearman’s Camp and reads as follows: “On. Jan. 20 Warren drove back the enemy and obtained possession of the southern crests of the high table land extending from the line of Acton Homes and Honger’s Poort to the western Ladysmith hills. From then to Jan. 25 he remained in close contact with the enemy. “The enemy held a strong position on a range of small kopjes stretching from northwest to southeast across the plateau from Acton Homes, - through Spion Kop, to the left bank of the Tugela. The actual position held was perfectly tenable. but did not lend itself to an advance, as tbe southern slopes were so steep that Warren could not get an effective artillery position, and water supply was a difficulty. “On Jan. 28 I assented to his attacking Spion Kop, a large hill, indeed a mountain, which was evidently the key of the position, but was far more accessible from the north than from the- sdutb. On the night of Jan. 23 he attacked Spion Kop, but found it very difficult to hold, as its perimeter was too large, and water, which he had been led to believe existed,, in this extraordinarily dry season was found very deficient. “The crests were held all that day against severe attacks and a heavy shell, .fire. Our meu fought with great gallantry. I would especially mention the conduct of the Second Cameronians and tlie Third King’s Rifles, who supported the attack on the mountain from the steepest side and in each case fought their way to the top, and the Second Lancashire Fusiliers and Second Middlesex, who magnificently maintained the best traditions of the British army throughout the trying day of Jan. 24, and Thornycroft’s mounted infantry, who fought throughout the day equally well alongside of them. "Gen. Woodgate, who was in command at the summit, having been wounded, the officer who succeeded him decided on the night of Jan. 24 to abandon the position, and did so before dawn Jan. 25. “I reached Warren’s camp at 5 a. m. on Jan. 2q and decided that a second attack upon Spion Kop was useless and that the enemy’s right was too strong to allow me to force it. Accordingly 1 decided to withdraw the force to the South of the Tugela. A few hours afterward we ‘commenced withdrawing the train, and in thirty-eight hours Warren’s force was concentrated south of the Tugela without the loss of a man or a pound of stores.

' “The faeU tMt “the force cmild Withdraw from actual, touch—in some cases the lines were less than a thousand yards apart—with the enemy, in the manner it did, is, I think, sufficient evidence of the morale of the troops, and that we were permitted to withdraw our cumbrous ox and mule transports across the river, eighty-five yards broad, with twenty-foot banks and a very swift cyrrent, unmolested, is, I think, proof that the enemy lias been taught to respect our soldiers’ lighting powers.” Boer advices state that 1,300 British dead were left on the battlefield, but the report is discredited in London. The loss, however, is conceded to have been heavy.