General Wauchope

This book chronicles the life of Major-General Andrew Gilbert Wauchope who as a British Army officer, was killed while commanding a brigade at the Battle of Magersfontein in the South African War. The biographer of this book has this to say about his subject: "He died as he had lived, ever in the midst of strife, an earnest, brave, and self-denying man, thinking more of others than himself; graced with the dignity that comes from inborn gentleness of spirit, and ever in his conduct exemplifying the faith he professed. No wonder that when such a man fell, there was a wail of lamentation, not merely around his own home in Edinburgh where he was best known and loved, but throughout the whole British Empire."

GENERAL WAUCHOPE BY WILLIAM BAIRD, F.S.A. SCOT Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches, etc We have endeavored to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artifact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. GENERAL WAUCHOPE BY WILLIAM BAIRD, F.S.A. SCOT

Excerpt from General Wauchope On the 11th day of December 1899, amid the rattle of rifles, the fierce booming of cannon, and the sharp bang of exploding shells a British force of Scottish Highlanders found themselves suddenly confronted in the darkness of an early African morning by an unseen enemy. All night they had been on the march, tramping the bare rocky veldt north of the Modder river, to attack, and if possible capture, the fortified and strongly entrenched position held by the Boer army of General Cronje among the rocks and cliffs of Magersfontein. This was full of difficulty and danger. But the relief of the beleaguered garrison of Kimberley was urgent, and if the work were to be done, it demanded the best the British army could achieve. Steadily and determinedly stepped out the men of the Highland Brigade, commanded by him they had long had reason to trust. As lieutenant, as captain, as colonel, they had followed him in many a well-fought battle, and now with Major-General Wauchope leading them in the darkness, no doubt or fear entered their breast. But suddenly there was a flash of light from the rocks above, followed immediately by a long belching flame of fire from a thousand rifles in front. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.