memoir · by a contemporary

Letters and diary of Lieutenant G.E.S. Salt during the war in South Africa, 1899-1900

G. E. S. Salt (1873–1900), 1902

Named on the page for Battle of Colenso.

machine-read Machine-read (OCR) from a scanned book at the Internet Archive: expect misread words and names. The scan itself is at the library.

draft Matched to the battle automatically; not yet reviewed.

Passages that name the battle; the whole book is at Internet Archive.

15 December 1899

Battle of Colenso

BATTLE OF COLENSO 47
I knew them both well, and had several days’ shoot- ing with the latter last September at his home near Pembroke Dock. Please pass this letter round, if any one cares to read it. I shall not send it yet, as I hope to be able to tell you of the capture of Colenso before the mail leaves. It is animmensely strong position, but I have no doubt that we shall take it.

LETTER. —- Chieveley Camp, 27th December.
Lerrer.—Chieveley Camp, 2nd January 1900. Since the unfortunate battle of Colenso, the enemy have further strengthened the position, which I

LETTER.—Chieveley Camp, 4th January 1900.
LETTER.—Chieveley Camp, 4th January 1900. It will be three weeks to-morrow since the battle of Colenso, and all that time we have been sitting here doing practically nothing. I think that a move will be made shortly, for Sir Charles Warren is at Estcourt now, and as soon as his division is complete, he is sure to advance. Camp life becomes rather dull after awhile without any excitement. I sent to Maritzburg for some polo sticks and balls, and started knocking about in the afternoons. On Tuesday I was cantering after the ball when my pony stumbled badly, and threw me, and I sprained

LETTER. — Chieveley Camp, 24th January, Jan. 24,1900.
Lerrer.—Chieveley Camp, 28th January. Since my last letter we have had news of Buller, but, alas! only sad and depressing news. There: ais nothing well authenticated yet ; but last night the rumour was, that after taking Spion Kop, a very strong position, too many troops were crowded on to it,! and became a deadly target to the shrapnel shell of the enemy, fired, it is said, from the field guns captured from us at the battle of Colenso. The order was given for some of them to retire, but a bungling of the orders, which seems so often to have caused our misfortunes, made the whole lot retire, and the position was again occupied by the enemy. It was also reported that Buller

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