[Nov. 15, 1899.
Capture of Mr. Winston Churchill and eighty men.
At once the Boers galloped in upon the shattered remnants and demanded their surrender. Churchill was captured with the party; he had been on the engine, but upon reaching Frere had gallantly jumped down and gone back into the battle. Five of the British force were killed; twenty wounded and sixty unwounded prisoners were taken; fifteen wounded escaped on the engine, and about twenty men who were not on the engine got away through the bush. Thus needlessly and wastefully were a hundred men, whom the country could ill spare, thrown away. The defeat had, however, one excellent result. It thoroughly discredited the armoured train, and this death trap was used no more. Henceforward scouting was done by mounted men. The Boer detachment which had effected this capture was 300 strong, part of a commando of about 3,000 men who were moving south under General Joubert to raid Natal. The unhappy British prisoners were assembled and marched to Colenso, whence they were despatched to Pretoria. They were treated with extreme kindness. The Boer commander complimented them upon their defence, and permitted them to see the guns which had wrought their discomfiture. These were of the latest type, quick-firers, using fixed ammunition (i.e., with shell and cartridge made up together as in rifle ammunition), and of much greater range than British field guns.
FRERE BRIDGE, DESTROYED BY THE BOERS, November 24.
[Photo by the Biograph Co.
The Estcourt garrison in danger.
Nov. 15-20, 1899.] The Boers in Central Natal.