Fall details have come to hand daring the past week
of the relief of Ladysmith and the condition of the beleaguered town. An advance squadron, appropriately headed by the Natal Carbineers, entered the town on the Wednesday evening and was greeted with the utmost enthusiasm by the garrison and civilians. General Bailer's official entry took place on Friday week at noon, and his first public utterance was to call for three cheers for the heroic civilians of Ladysmith. Sub- eequently the main body of the relieving force—some twenty- two thousand strong—marched through the town, headed by the Dublin Fusiliers who had borne the brunt of the fighting at Pieter'e Hill. The accounts furnished by the correspon- dents abound in details illustrating the privations of the garrison—there were, according to some accounts, only four days' provisions left in the town, though, according to Sir George White, the garrison might have actually lived till April 2nd—and the splendid example furnished by Sir George White and General Hunter. Between casualties and sickness eight thousand fighting men passed through the hospital. From January 15th there have been over two hundred deaths from disease alone, while since the beginning of the siege twenty. four officers and two hundred and thirty-five men died in action or from wounds, the wounded numbering seventy officers and five hundred and twenty men exclusive of civilians. Dr. Treves, who has since visited Ladysmith, reports no fewer than eight hundred cases of typhoid, medical appliances having been practically exhausted for the last two months.
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