A SHELTER-TRENCH AT MAGERSFONTEIN.
Dec. 11, 1899.] The Highlanders Give Way again.
Meantime, the Gordons and the Guards were gaining ground considerably; the Guards even got near enough to catch a sight of the enemy in their trenches now and then, and to observe that from time to time they refreshed themselves from the gin bottles, which were always found in great plenty in the captured Boer positions. Soon after one, Lord Methuen sent orders to the Highlanders to hold their position till nightfall, when the Guards and the Gordons were to assault the trenches at the point of the bayonet. The difficulty of sending instructions to the fighting line upon the modern battlefield is shown by the fact that Lieutenant Cuthbert, the bearer of Lord Methuen's message, received a volley from the Boers, which killed his horse and riddled his accoutrements, fortunately without touching him. The order had been given in the teeth of the vigorous protests of one of the Guards' Colonels, who pointed out to Lord Methuen the hopelessness of undertaking such an enterprise with weary, hungry men, and without any adequate support. It was not that he or his men were afraid, but that one brigade had already been shattered, so that the virtual destruction of another must mean the complete ruin of the column—perhaps even its envelopment at Modder River camp, with the most disastrous consequences. Were Magersfontein taken, the second Boer position remained to be dealt with. Thus there was nothing to be gained by adopting the desperate course of imperilling the safety of the whole division upon another night assault.
[Photo by Russell.
The premier Marquis of England, killed at Magersfontein.
And now the continual crackle of the rifle fire, which had somewhat abated for the last two hours, suddenly swelled in volume. Away in the front rose dense clouds of dust as from the march of a large body of men. At first it was thought that the movement proceeded from the Boers; but the painful truth was soon revealed. The Highland Brigade had given way once more. Threatened with a flank attack by the enemy, under a heavy cross fire, the shaken, thirst-tortured infantry could hold its ground no longer. Colonel Hughes-Hallett, whom the death of his senior officers had left in command, saw the plight of his men and gave the order to retire. "Back they came," says the Morning Post correspondent, "in a wave that no officer could stop. From a point of vantage on the Horse Artillery hill one could see them swarming like bees over the veldt till they were almost out of range, and the guns were left out in the open with no one to support them. It was, perhaps, the most unpleasant sight that a British soldier of to-day has ever beheld."
"BACK FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH."
Artillery cover Highlanders' retreat.