Dec. 15, 1899.] Hopeless Situation of the Two Batteries.
And now on all sides the fight grew furious. Far away on Grobler's Kloof, and on Red Hill, invisible cannon were booming, while from Red Hill to Hlangwane invisible marksmen were raining death upon their assailants. The greatest difficulty with which the British had to contend was that there was no enemy to be seen, no clear target to fire at. The dancing blaze of the Boer Mausers was unaccompanied by smoke, and gave no object for the sights of rifle or field gun. The Boers themselves lay perdu in deep entrenchments, firing in almost complete security through loop-holes. Their most advanced position in the scrub near Colenso, not 300 yards from Colonel Long's guns, was hidden by the undergrowth.
The guns abandoned.
[Dec. 15, 1899.
The two British batteries before Colenso were in an utterly hopeless situation. In a few minutes, most of their horses, two-thirds of their men, Captains Goldie and Schrieber, and Colonel Long himself, had fallen dead or wounded. Help was sent for to keep down the enemy's rifle fire, but help did not come. Colonel Long, shot through the arm and liver, was urged to abandon the guns, but firmly refused, replying, "Abandon, be damned! we never abandon guns!" Yet the fury of the enemy's fire at last drove the survivors back to the nearest donga. There they remained, from time to time rushing forward, when there came a lull in the hail of bullets, to re-open fire. The pitiless storm, however, would always again descend. The diminished detachments caught by its fury would fall to the ground, swept from their feet by the blast of death. Yet so long as there was ammunition in the limbers, one of the twelve pieces continued to fire at intervals, till at last only two men were left. One bowed his head and suddenly fell forward prone upon his gun, the other, the last survivor, turned, and disdaining flight, was walking slowly back as if on parade to the donga in the rear, when a bullet struck him, and he, too, was numbered among the lost. Thus did the gunners of the Royal Artillery answer the call of duty. In the donga behind the guns crouched or lay a few unwounded and a large number of wounded, among them Colonel Long, now delirious, and ever repeating in words of agony and admiration, "Ah! my gunners! My gunners are splendid! Look at them!" Over the donga swept the hail of lead and shrapnel, and it was death to show the head above it. Behind it stretched the smooth level slope, devoid of cover, swept by the enemy's fire, and across this it was almost impossible to send the much-needed aid.
THE VICKERS-MAXIM 1-POUNDER.
Used by the Boers, and variously called by our men "Pom-pom" and "Ten-a-penny."
The naval 12-pounders had, as we have seen, taken up a position 400 yards to the rear of the doomed field batteries. Here, almost without support, they kept up a steady fire, and, wonderful to relate, lost only four men wounded. There were many narrow escapes. The little 1-pounder shells from "Pom-Pom," the automatic Maxim, fairly rained about the guns. Three passed between the legs of Lieutenant Ogilvy, R.N., while he was watching the effect of his fire through his glasses, yet did not harm him.
General Hart's position.