Theobald and Lippert,
warned by the firing, held on behind their sangars, and were ready
for the storm which burst over them.
Lippert was unhappily killed,
and his ten men all hit or taken, but young Theobald held his own
under a heavy fire for twelve hours. Mangles also, the gallant son
of a gallant father, held his post all day with the utmost
tenacity. The troops in the trenches behind were never seriously
pressed, thanks to the desperate resistance of the outposts, but
Colonel Gawne of the Lancasters was unfortunately killed. Towards
evening the Boers abandoned the attack, leaving fourteen of their
number dead upon the ground, from which it may be guessed that
their total casualties were not less than a hundred. The British
losses were three officers and five men killed, twenty-two men
wounded, and thirty men with one officer missing - the latter being
the survivors of those outposts which were overwhelmed by the Boer
advance.
A few incidents stand out among the daily bulletins of snipings,
skirmishes, and endless marchings which make the dull chronicle of
these, the last months of the year 1900. These must be enumerated
without any attempt at connecting them. The first is the
long-drawn-out siege or investment of Schweizer-Renecke. This small
village stands upon the Harts River, on the western border of the
Transvaal. It is not easy to understand why the one party should
desire to hold, or the other to attack, a position so
insignificant.
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