From " Battle Smoke" dated Wednesday, April 11, 1900 all transcribed by Bev Edmonds

CAPTAIN C.A. HENSLEY of the Royal Dublin Fusileers was mortally wounded in action . Capt. Hensley was a native of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and one of the first Americans to be killed in the South-African War (20 January 1900). [subsequent to the above entry being put on line I am advised by George Newbury that this should in fact read that Captain HENSLEY was one of the first Canadians to be killed]

LIEUT-COLONEL T.D. PILCHER who led the Colonial Troops in their brilliant attack on Sunnyside Kopje New years Day.

1ST DUBLIN FUSILEERS. The first man wounded on our side at the Battle of Colenso was a little boy, John DUNN, bugler to A Company of the 1st Dublin Fusileers. This statement is an obvious Irishism; but then the dauntless Drummer DUNN is Irish - you can see it by his bright sparkling eyes- and that is why he came to go forth to do battle with the Boers at all. He joined the 1st Battalion of the Dublin Fusileers at Aldershot in July, when he was just fourteen years old and four feet and three-quarter inches in height. As became a boy bred in a barracks he took to soldiering like a duck to water, and as " No 6406" he was sent out to the front with his regiment. He landed at Durban on December 1, travelled to Estcourt by train, and marched from there to Chieveley, via Frere. His colour sergeant wanted him to stay at Chieveley, but the boy would not. "I want to be with the company," he said. And go he did.

His company had a hard time, for it was in the fighting front, and lost thirty-seven men out of eighty-four killed and wounded, Captain A.W. GORDON, leading it, being badly mauled. The Fusileers had to swim across the Tugela to attack the Boer trenches. Just as they were doubling towards the enemy lines, the boy, who was in front with the officer got hit by a piece of shell on a muscle in the upper part of his right arm and also his breast. He was too excited to feel pain.............? dropped from his hand. With extraordinary presence ...........? it to his lips with his left hand, only to sink to the ground........? blood. He was immediately carried off in an ambulance.......? he recovered consciousness he discovered much to his..............?bearers had thrown his trumpet into the troublous Tugela........in the way.  Young DUNN was taken to see the Queen. " At e.................? Majesty let it be known that it was her pleasure to see the........? Colenso.

This is not the first time in the war that boys have distinguished themselves. At the battle of Elandslaagte, Trumpeter Shurlock, of the 5th Lancers, shot three Boers dead with his revolver.

Source: " Battle Smoke " dated Wednesday, May 2 1900

MR. TREVES reports that a considerable proportion of the wounds received by our men in the fighting at Hlangwane, Colenso, and Pieters, were caused by soft-nosed bullets. He thinks that the Boers, being incensed by the repeated British successes, have res....d? to these measures out of sheer vindictiveness, and certainly not through ..carcity? of their ordinary ammunition, large quantities of which they left behind them when they fled.

MR TREVES was a Consulting Surgeon with the Forces and in a letter to the British Medical Journal," dated from Chieveley Camp, mentions one little incident which may interest those who are interested in the " Absent-Minded Beggar." Among the wounded brought in one day from Potgieter's Drift was a man of scanty clothing who held something in his closed hand. He had kept his treasure in his hand for some eight hours. He showed it to the sister. It was a ring. In explanation he said: "My girl gave me this ring, and when I was hit I made up my mind the Boers should never get it, so I have kept it in my hand ready to swallow it if I was taken before our stretchers could reach me." Fortunately, the swallowing was not necessary.

Mr. Treves [Comment by PB - This is Sir Frederick, well known historian, who wrote 'Highways and Byways in Dorset' by (Sir) Frederick Treves 1906 rev. 1935.?]

PRIVATE COPSEY of the East Surrey Regiment considers himself a lucky man. On January 21 he writes: " I got a terrible smack in the nose. I thought I had been kicked by a mule, but it was only a bullet, which went clean through the middle of my nose, through the roof of my mouth and roots of my tongue, and out the back of my neck. It was about half-past five a.m. when I got hit, and it was seven at night when the stretcher took me off the field. I lost a lot of blood at the time. I expect to always have a stiff neck, but that's better than being dead, so I must not grumble, for there are thousands worse off than I am.

Source: " Battle Smoke" dated Wednesday, July 4,1900

PRIVATE MORGAN of the Yorkshires in a letter, dated April 1, Private Morgan, of the Yorkshires, who are serving under Lord Roberts says:-- " During the last two months we have done nothing else but fighting and marching, and this is the fifth engagement we have been in now. Thank God I have come out of them all, but have had some very close shaves. On the 27th of last month we were all engaged in a place called Klips Drift, when I had my helmet blown clean off my head with what they call one of their ' ten-a-penny guns.' This gun fires ten rounds at a time, and each shot weighs one pound. I can assure you when I put my hand up to my head I did not know whether it was there or not. When I turned around I saw the shell lying against a big stone twenty or thirty yards away. I picked it up, and am bringing it home as a curio."

PRIVATE J. MADDEN, of the 2nd Cheshire Regiment, writing from Karee, April 3, says:-- " I was properly in the thick of it the other day, but came out alright, although they were falling right and left of me. Lord Roberts gave us great praise for the way we conducted ourselves, advancing towards the enemy as coolly as on parade. Plenty of poor fellows marched to their death laughing and joking, as though out for a Sunday morning walk. I don't want to brag, but there is no man on earth faces death with a laughing face like the British soldier. It was one continual rain of bullets for six solid hours in the broiling sun, and then to lie out all night as we were, and
without anything to drink or eat, and half of us dying from thirst. We could see water, but dare not go and get it.

TROOPER H.WILSON, of Roberts' Horse, writes:-- " We had a terrible fight on March 31-- 6,000 Boers against 800-- but, as you know, British pluck always tells. We did not beat them practically, but we held our own for more than eight hours against them. Oh, it was a grand sight, although terrible-- men and horses falling like flies close to you, the bullets whistling past your ears in thousands. We lost heavily. Out of 280 in our regiment we lost 96 men, eight officers, and seven guns, but we captured five."

PRIVATE G.COY, of the 2nd East Surrey regiment, writing from Elandslaagte, says:-- "We have accomplished our task, and are having the hard-earned rest we deserve. The battle showed what terrible effects the lyddite had done. In one trench there were about two dozen Boers, and we started covering them up when one poor fellow sat up and asked us not to bury him alive. Of course, we took him out directly, but what a sight he presented! He had two deep gashes on his chest and throat,which the lyddite had done, and he was completely yellow."

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