The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 8, 1900, Page 1

The SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY, JANUARY 8§, 1900. all PRICE FIVE CENTS. SORTIE BY BRITISH TROOPS OF GENERAL FRENCH’'S COMMAND ENDS IN DISASTER Four Companies Ordered to Attack a Boer Posi- tion Are Repulsed and Seventy Men Taken Prisoners—Burghers Capture the Garrison of Kuruman After a Hard Fight—Buller Fails to Pierce Jouberts Lines to Relieve Ladysmith. LOMDDN Jan. 7 —General French reports a “serious accident” to the First Suffolk Regiment. Four companies of the regiment Lieutenant Colonel Watson, in command, was wounded, and a retreat was ordered. Three-quar- Seventy were taken attacked 2 r position. ters of the E tish reached their camp, but the others were overpowered and compelled to surrender. prlsor"s ding seven officers. Office publishes the following dispatch from General Forestier-Walker, commanding at Cape Town: French reports under date of January 6: tuation is much the same as yesterday, but | regret to report that a serious accident has happened to the First f the Suffolk Regiment.’ “From news just come to hand from them | gather that, with the authority and with the knowledge of General French, four companies of the First Battalion advanced by night against a low hill one mile from their camp. They attacked at dawn. Colonel Watson, commanding, gave orders to charge. He was at once wounded. “Orders for retirement were given. Three-quarters of the force retreated to camp. The remainder held their ground until they were overpowered by greater numbers., when they surrendered. Seventy were taken prisoners, including seven officers. “General French reports that the Boer commando which made the attack on January 4 lost fifty killed, besides wounded and prisoners. The commando was dispersed.” General Buller has wired the War Office the following, dated January 6, from Frere Camp: “The following message was received from General White at 1 p. m. to-day: “*January 6, 11 a. m.—Attack continues and enemy has been reinforced from the south.’ “The following message was received this forenoon from General White: “*Jan. 6, 12:45 p. m.—Have beaten enemy off at present, but they are still around me in great numbers, especially to the , and | th:r.k renewed attack very probable.’ “The sun has failed and | cannot get further information from Ladysmith until to-morrow.” Gener af Buller sends the following from Frere Camp dated to-day: “This from White, dated Saturday, 3:15 p. m.: ‘“Attack renewed. Very hard pressed.” “I have absolutely no more news, and there is no sun. There is a camp rumor that White defeated the enemy at 5 this oon and took 400 prisoners. “| sent all available troops yesterday to make demonstration at Colenso. The trenches there were all occupied by the W er he ar a S ant enemy. PRETORIA, Jan. 4 (via Lourenzo Marquez).—Field Cornet Vesser, under date of Tuesday, Jan. 2, reports as follows from Kuruman, British Bechuanaland: - “I commenced a bombardment of Kuruman yesterday (Monday), aiming at the police barracks. The fight lasted until 6 o'clock in the evening. when the garrison surrendered, issuing from-the forts and yielding up arms. We teok 120 priseners; in- cluding Captain Bates and Captain Dennison. Mr. Hillyard, the magistrate, and eight other officers. We also captured seventy natives. together with 2 number of rifles and revoivers and a quantity of ammunition. “Fifteen British were wounded. They are being attended by us, with the help of Dr. Bearne, an English physician. “The horses. oxen, mealies and flour taken from the prisoners have been sent to Pretoria by way of Vryburg.” LOURENZO MARQUEZ. Thursday, Jan. 4 —A dispatch from the Boer headquarters near Dordrecht says: “The British have been compelled to retreat from Dordrecht. Fighting continues around Colesberg, where the British occupy some of the outside kopjes. Bullets are dropping inside the town.” FIERCE FIGHTING AT THE VERY PEBIIIEBINIIIBIIIININLY VPO BIIIBIIIP TR B B R R R A A | 1 % GATES OF BESIEGED LADYSMITH| last words received | Clery’s ged town ard pres<ed two brigades | so, showing that they werestrong | enough to attack Ladysmith and { hold Buller in check at the same R 4 time. i | Some fighting was begun by | General Clery near Colenso| bridge on Saturday at about 5 { o’clock, since which time no dis- patches have come through. General White’s position at Ladysmith is clearly very criti- cal and it is not an exaggeration to say that the British public must prepare itself for the possi- bility of receiving news of the most serious disaster of ‘the war. The latest message from White himself is dated at a quarter-past 3 p- m. on Saturday. At that time he was very hard pressed, to | quote his own words. Communi- | cations from Ladysmith are re- | ceived, it will be remembered, by | heliograph and at a critical point | the sun failed and General Buller | had absolutely no news to send. | He adds, however, a camp rumor to the effect that at 5 o’clock | General White defeated . the | ers. Presumably General Buller would hardly have transmitted this message unless he had some reason for thinking there was truth in it. Still it does not pro- fess to be anything more than a rumor and General Buller ex | pressly says that he has no real | news. The serious tone in all of White’s messages is very signifi- umns with their bases against ralds by the small part of the British force now In ying column to the relief of Kimberley are required to gu the bridges and culverts he use of dynamite. And so between DeAar end culvert has to be protected, and the same on between General Buller's camp and Pletermaritz- 4 sufficiently guarded, requiring in the aggregate 2e loyal people in the vicinity, are entrusted with ricts. The abovg illustration, from the London Dally Graphic, shows the guard at a cul- fice these were received by Gen- Aar Junction. Wfioo»wo¢@ooooooo@o—ooooooooorwoo0 D o S T S - Continued on Second Page, forward | were | only to find the Boers massed in| | force in trenches fronting Colen-| & e | | | | { Boers, taking four hundred pris- | declaring that while in the former's fu- PP I I I eI I DI B IEI PO DI PIEIBIDIIIPOIDI DD G0 D0t dedtstsdsdtdodsdosdodsdttodetsdsd D+ +0+9 00+ 209 eiede LIEUTENANT F. G TAIT, Black Wat tial law in COLONEL C. gerously wou Royal Horse at Colenso. BRITISH OFFICERS WHO HAVE WON DISTINCTION AT THE FRONT. valuable to General el Bethune was the d to carry out the decree of mar- His eagerness to get his ch, late golf cham- Artillery, was dan- arge of the .0000'0000-006vvo'000000000000¢0'0'0000000000000000000000000'0000'00'0"00'0'4000000000'000000 B R e o ary DRAMATIC RESCUE OF GILLMORE AND HIS MEN Abandoned by the Filipinos, They Faced Death at the Hands of Savages When the Relieving Force of Americans Arrived. ANILA, Jan. —Lieutenant J. | C. Gillmore of the United States | + / gunboat Yorktown, who was | captured by the 1 gents last April near Baler of Luzon, and rescued a few | days ago by Colonel Luther R. Hare of the Thirty-third Volunteer Infantry, sat to-day in the apartment of his sister, Mrs. Major Price, at the Hotel Oriente, n‘ Manila. and told a remarkable story of | his eight months in captivity, ending with his dramatic deliverance from a death that seemed inevitable. The steamer Venus came into the har- bor last evening from Vigan, province of South Ilocos, with Lieutenant Gillmore and nineteen other American prisoners, inciuding seven of his sallors from the Yorktown. Lieutepant Gillmore, after re- porting, came ashore and hobbied along, | with the aid of a cane, to the Hotel Oriente, where American officers and ia- dies were dancing through the halls to the | strains of “Aguinaldo’s Mareh.” Although tanned and ruddy from ex- posure, Lieutenant Gilimore is weak and nervous, showing the results of long hard- | ships. He speaks warmly of Aguinaldo and very bitterly against General Tino. risdiction he was treated splendidly, but that after he fell into Tino's hands he suffered everything. Colonel Hare and Lieutenant Colonel Howse, the latter of the Thirty-fourth Volunteer Infantry, rescued Gillmore's party on December 18, near the head- waters of the Abalut River, after they had been abandoned by the Filipinos and were expecting death from the savage tribes around them. When the rescuing foree reached them they were nearyl starved. but were bullding rafts in the hope of getting down the river to the coast. Licu. tenant Gillmore made the following state- ment: *The Filipinos abandoned us on the night of December 16. We had reached the Abalut River near its source that cant. According to the War Of- | morning, and the Fllipinos rafted us over. Wa then went down the stream along a rough tratl, guarded by & company of Filipinos. That night we were separated from this guard, and another company, armed with Mausers, was put In charge of N L | us. FEE L2422 v e vy WASHINGTON, Jan. T—The Navy Department to-day recelved the following: MANILA, Jan. & —Secretary of the Navy, Washington: Gilimors, ‘Walton, Vandoit, Elisworth, Briso- lez, Anderson, Peterson and Ed- wards have arrived; also Farley, + Burke and Herbert of Urdaneta. Only Venille is unaccounted for. Was last seen at Baler, June 15th. WATSON. 3 ight from Benguet, ! approac! L ten- 9000000000000000v0' DTSR, Livyion I suspected something, and ques- | Ben, tioned the lieutenant in command. He | said: ‘I have orders from General Tino | to shoot you all, but my conscience for- | hlds I shall leave you here.’ “I begged him for two rifles to protec zl e us from savages. adding that I would give | horsefiesh him letters to the Americans, who would | p, pay him weil and keep him frony all harm. He refused this, howsver, saying that he | pa, would not dare to comply. Soon after- ward he left with his company. ““We had seen some savages in warpaint around us, and we prepared to fight them with cobblestones, the only weapons that were available to us. The next morning we followed the trail of the Fllipino sol- diers, feeling that it was better to stick to them than be murdered by savages, pletely terrified, left but we could not catch up with them. Then I ordered the men to bulld rafts, in the hope of floating down the river. It was a forlorn hope, but I knew the river there. Whers must empty Into the sea somewhere. | there was n ¥ would lodge us was so weak myseif that I did not expect | In a convent. “- ihfl?f‘d greatly from to get out, but I thought some of the men | Want of exercise as well as lack of food.” could. For weeks Lieutenant Gillmore was cov- “On the morning of December 13, while | ered with boils and in great paln. Whea we were working on the rafts, the Ameri- | the Filipinos found the Americans were cans came toward us, yelling. One of my | approaching the tredtment became bets mshnuud.'n:-y-nmnl. He was| ter. There was a sign painter in the lashiog & raft of bamboo. I, however,| party and be palnted advertisements om