Losses in the action.

It is difficult to ascertain exactly what were the losses on this terrible day. The official return lumped together the casualties for the week of battles, which amounted to 27 officers and 245 men killed, 53 officers and 1,050 men wounded, and 7 officers and 351 men missing. The vast proportion of the missing were prisoners, but a few were among the killed. Of the men lost, about 200 were killed and about 500 wounded on Spion Kop. By far the heaviest sufferers were the companies of Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, which fought with such blind devotion on that blood-stained summit. They went up 194 strong; they returned with only 72 unwounded men. The 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers out of a total of 800 had to mourn a loss of 250, but of these many were prisoners. The Imperial Light Infantry, whose first battle this was, out of 850 men lost 31 killed and 91 wounded or missing. It is typical of the complete disorganisation which the fight produced that the one battalion, the Scottish Rifles, which preserved the best order, could muster only 270 out of 800 men at the foot of the mountain. The reason was, not that its losses were especially heavy, but that in the darkness and confusion no formation could be maintained.

Jan. 25, 1900.] Stories of the Wounded.

The patience, the valour of the common soldier throughout the week, fully merited General Buller's epithet of "splendid." "The men," writes Mr. Treves, the distinguished surgeon with the army, "were much exhausted by the hardships they had undergone. In many instances they had not had their clothes off for a week or ten days. They had slept in the open without great-coats, and had been reduced to the minimum in the matter of rations. The nights were cold, and there was on nearly every night a heavy dew. Fortunately, there was little or no rain. The want of sleep and the long waiting upon the hill had told upon them severely. There is no doubt also that the incessant shell fire must have proved a terrible strain. Some of the men, although severely wounded, were found asleep upon their stretchers when brought in. Many were absolutely exhausted and worn out independently of their wounds. In spite of all their hardships, the wounded men behaved as splendidly as they always have done. They never complained. They were quite touching in their unselfishness and in their anxiety 'not to give trouble.' One poor fellow had been shot in the face by a piece of shell, which had carried away his left eye, the left upper jaw with the corresponding part of the cheek, and had left a hideous cavity at the bottom of which his tongue was exposed. He had been lying hours on the hill. He was unable to speak, and as soon as he was landed at the hospital he made signs that he wanted to write. Pencil and paper were given him, and it was supposed he wished to ask for something, but he merely wrote, 'Did we win?' No one had the heart to tell him the truth."

J. Greig.]

Whilst the Boers treated our wounded with tenderness they did not hesitate to turn out the pockets of the dead and dying.

[Jan. 25, 1900.