[Jan. 24, 1900.
Desperate straits.
Throughout the afternoon few messages and few signals had come from the summit of Spion Kop. The heliographs were shattered by the Boer fire; the flag signallers were struck down by the hail of bullets. Heliograms from Sir Charles Warren asking what the situation was remained unanswered. It was even doubtful whether General Coke or Colonel Thorneycroft was in command. Some time in the afternoon a report came in from General Coke couched in the most ominous terms. It stated that unless the British artillery could silence the Boer guns, it would be impossible for the force to endure another day on the summit, and described the situation as most critical. The report was fully borne out by the personal information of the war correspondent, Mr. Winston Churchill, who had made his way to the top, passing on his climb some hundreds of wounded or dying men. "Streams of wounded," he wrote, "met us and obstructed our path. Men were staggering along alone, or supported by comrades, or crawling on hands and knees, or carried on stretchers. Corpses lay here and there.... There was, moreover, a small but steady leakage of unwounded men of all corps. Some of these cursed and swore. Others were utterly exhausted, and fell on the hillside in stupor. Others, again, seemed drunk, though they had had no liquor. Scores were sleeping heavily.... We were so profoundly impressed by the spectacle and situation that we resolved to go and tell Sir Charles Warren what we had seen.... One thing was quite clear—unless good and efficient cover could be made during the night, and unless guns could be dragged to the summit of the hill to match the Boer artillery, the infantry could not, perhaps would not, endure another day. The human machine will not stand certain strains for long."
THE HELIOGRAPH.
The photograph represents the heliographs signallers in the besieged town of Ladysmith communicating with Buller's relief column.
Frank Craig.]
Confusion of commands.
[Jan. 24, 1900.