Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1900 — REDUCED TO EXTREMITIES. [ARTICLE]

REDUCED TO EXTREMITIES.

Gen. Cronje Gave Up to Save His Women and Soldiers. The condition of affairs in the camp of the Boers when Gen. Cronje surrendered to Lord Roberts was something frightful. They had run entirely out of food, except the trek cattle, and these were eaten as rapidly as they were killed by the British shells. Their ammunition had given out, and most of their artillery was badly damaged by the British tire. Most of their wagons were burned. The laager was strewn with the corpses of the dead, lying in the broad light unburied and festering. The wounded were in an awful plight. The hospital corps was insufficient to attend to them, and they lay about the laager in heaps, some crying piteously, others shrieking in their pain, many silently enduring their agonies. The British troops, immediately on taking possession of the laager, were ordered by Lord Roberts to devote all their attention to succoring the wounded and burying the dead, as well as caring for the women and children, who, panicstricken and in expectation of some awful punishment, could hardly be induced to accept kindness or aid from their conquerors. The British commissariat was taxed to its utmost to give immediate relief to the sufferers, but everything possible was done to alleviate the condition of the captives. The surrendered force numbers about 3,000 combatants. Besides these, there are over 1,000 women and children and Kafir laborers and members of the Red Cross Relief Corps.