ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS MARCHING OUT OF LADYSMITH FOR DUNDEE.
Oct. 20, 1899.
From the British camp the ground for some distance sloped down to a river bed; then followed a short stretch of gently rising ground, and at the foot of Talana Hill a narrow belt of wood. This passed, the real ascent began. Halfway up the hill and just at the point where the declivity steepened almost to a precipice ran a stone wall, parallel to the ridge. The Boer position was one of extreme strength. It gave their picked shots excellent cover, and enabled their rifles and cannon to sweep with the deadliest effect the slopes below, over which the British must advance.
While the Dublins, King's Rifles, and Irish Fusiliers went forward to the river bed, the British artillery cannonaded the ridge at a range of 2,000 yards. The Boer guns, after a two hours' duel, either withdrew or were silenced; the moment for the infantry assault had come. And what an assault! to be delivered by three battalions, with present for duty not more than 2,000 men, upon a seemingly impregnable position, held by 5,000 marksmen whose fame had filled the world.
In extended order, with the British guns firing furiously over their heads, the three battalions went forward. They reached the wood under a terrible fire from the heights above; in the wood men began to drop under the rain of bullets. The Royal Irish Fusiliers and King's Rifles lost their formation amidst the trees and undergrowth, which spread confusion and gave no shelter from the pitiless Mausers of the enemy. Yet the line did not halt. Slowly it gained ground, passed out of the upper edge of the wood, and began to cross the Aceldama between it and the wall.
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF DUNDEE.
October 20, 1899.
Symons wounded.