Within the next few months we had captured several thousand prisoners, and they all told the same story and it was just as related above. That is enough about the English officer at this stage of the war, but I assure him that I will give him plenty of attention before this narrative is finished. To continue, we now heard that the English were moving out of Dundee to take possession of the hills lying between us and the town. The Irish Brigade were ordered to move at a gallop and reach the hills first, and we succeeded. The English were to be seen at different places in the little circular valley in which Dundee is situated. This valley is about six miles in diameter and surrounded by hills and mountains. Several deep ravines run through it, and in them a whole army could easily be concealed. Dundee was near the hills on the east side, and Glencoe near the hills on the west side of the valley. Had the English troops taken possession of the hills and mountains around Dundee, I do not believe we could have taken the place. General Penn-Symons had about 6,000 men there and eighteen cannon, and for defence his position was most excellent. Fortunately for the Boers, he did not take advantage of his position, and the result was that 1,000 Boers were chasing the Lancers armed with cold British steel, about that little valley nearly a whole day. The English seemed afraid to move eastward of Dundee, yet there were no Boers there, as Lucas Meyer had fallen back some fifteen miles. The Boers in bands of 100 or 200 placed themselves about the north and west sides of the valley, and here it was that the Lancers, in bands of 400 strong, would try to find an outlet. At every point the Boers would meet them with a few shots, and off went the cold British steel in search of another outlet. The mountains were rugged and steep on the southeast side, and there was but one pass through to the valley, and that leads to Ladysmith. At times it would rain, and then again the heavy clouds would roll over the valley and totally obscure the whole scene of action.
The whole day, however, was to the Boer something like a day of sports, for they had enjoyed themselves chasing the Lancers about the valley as so many springboks. When night came, it was terribly dark, and now it was that Colonel Yule and his 6,000 men, armed with cold British steel, took advantage of the only outlet to the south and made their escape to Ladysmith, some thirty miles away. During the battle with Lucas Meyer, General Penn-Symons was killed, and Colonel Yule succeeded him. For this masterly escape of Colonel Yule and 6,000 men from about 1,000 Boers at Dundee, the English proclaimed to the world their great victory, and promoted Yule to the rank of Major-General. In any other army he would have been put aside in disgrace. I am not sure whether he received a Victoria Cross or not, but if he didn't he certainly deserved one. On the following day Dundee surrendered, with about 250 officers and wounded men, and almost an equal number of prisoners. Enough food and ammunition fell into our hands to provide our command for many months. The English, as usual, after one of their great victories, had forgotten to bury the dead who had fallen at Talana Hill two days before, in the fight with Lucas Meyer; they had dug a shallow pit and thrown in some of them.
But when we arrived, their hands and feet and stomachs were protruding above its surface and presented a most revolting scene. Thirty-nine dead bodies were left unburied, and the savage Boer gave them decent interment. It was near this very spot that, two days beforehand, the English, on getting possession of Dr. Van Der Merwe and his ambulance, tied ropes about his neck, and the necks of his Red Cross assistants, and then, having fastened the ropes to their wagons, dragged them off as prisoners of war.
Mr. Englishman can't deny this, but he may lie about it. Something else fell into our hands here, something that has caused Mr. Chamberlain to tell many a falsehood to the world. We captured thousands of dum-dum bullets and split bullets, and gave plenty of them to the different foreign consuls. I had the pleasure of supplying the whole Irish Brigade with these dum-dum bullets and split bullets, and the English Lee-Metford rifles captured at Dundee. The Boers thought it a pity to waste them also, so they too supplied themselves. We gave the English back their own medicine in big doses at Ladysmith, and many and numerous graves in and about that town mark the results.
The prisoners captured at Kraaipan were all carrying dum-dum bullets, and all the cartridges fired at Rietfontein near Elandslaagte were dum-dum bullets; and, Mr. Englishman, we would never have known what dum-dum bullets were, had you not brought them to South Africa and given them to us. Bring some more, next time. If asked why we didn't capture Colonel Yule and his 6,000 men, as well as all they possessed, I answer that we had no generals—we had only Lucas Meyer and Daniel Erasmus, and the fighting brains of the two together, would not suffice to make an efficient corporal; much as we deplored their determination not to fight, yet we found a little satisfaction in the fact that we saw that awfully, awful death-dealing "cold British steel" in an awfully, awful, terrible tremble. How is that, Mr. Englishman?
We now passed on towards Ladysmith where we hoped to have a shake not only with Colonel Yule, but also with General Sir George White, Generals French, Hunter and other terrors of the English army. Lucas Meyer fought General Penn-Symons on October 20th, and on October 21st was fought the Battle of Elandslaagte. That good, unfortunate old soldier, General J.H.M. Koch, was in command of a mixed commando of Boers, Germans and Hollanders, numbering something like 600 or 700 men, all told. He should have closed up the only pass through which Colonel Yule could escape, but he didn't. He was persuaded by his under officers to go towards Ladysmith, and at Elandslaagte, fifteen miles from Ladysmith, his men unfortunately captured a supply train on its way to Dundee. On that train was plenty of whiskey and wines, and all the men thought it best to dispose of such beverages by drinking them; the result was that many were not in very good fighting trim. General French was sent out with his thousands of trained soldiers, bristling with cold, British steel, to meet General Koch and his little band of 600. They met, and a bloody battle was fought, in which the Boers were defeated, General Koch mortally wounded, and many other distinguished men lost their lives, among them being that brave and patriotic Hollander and States Prosecutor, Dr. Hermanus Coster. General Koch had no position at all, for it was open to cavalry movements on all sides, and offered no protection in any sense of the word. He should have retreated at once, but he didn't, so it simply remains for me to tell what happened.
We lost forty-five men killed, about 100 wounded, and something like 190 taken prisoners. Not over 300 escaped, so it proved a bad day's work for us, and allowed the British to boast of the prowess of cold British steel throughout the civilized world. The British officer, and the soldier, too, are both justified in their boasting, for they used their cold British steel as it had, I hope, never been used before. They went about the battle field driving their lances through the bodies of both the dead and wounded, that each might carry his bloody lance back into Ladysmith, display it, and boast to the men, women and children of the town, of the bravery of him who carried it. I will here insert a letter or two, to convict the boasters in their own words. These letters have often been published before, but they cannot be published too often, for the people of the world should know all about cold British steel, and how it is invariably used. Many an unarmed negro has fallen victim to cold British steel, so it is well for all to read the following letters, and, having read them, apply to the British army for lessons in chivalry, and on the best methods of carrying on civilized warfare in the twentieth century.
"After the enemy were driven out, one of our squadrons pursued, and got right in among them in the twilight, and most excellent pig-sticking ensued, for about ten minutes, the bag being about sixty. One of our men stuck his lance through two, killing them both at once. Had it not been getting dark we should have killed more."
The above is a published extract from a British officer's letter and speaks for itself.
The Lancers wrote many letters, boasting of their savagery and many acts of murder, as the following published extracts will show.