William A. Wheeler

The Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881 was the main battle of the First Boer War. It was a resounding victory for the Boers. Major-General... Sir George Pomeroy Colley occupied the summit of the hill on the night of February 26–27, 1881. His motive for occupying the hill remains unclear. The Boers believed that he may have been attempting to outflank their positions at Laing's Nek. The bulk of the 405 British soldiers occupying the hill were 171 men of the 58th Regiment with 141 men of the 92nd Highlanders, and a small naval brigade from HMS Dido. General Colley had brought no artillery up to the summit, nor did he order his men to dig in, expecting that the Boers would retreat when they saw their position on the Nek was untenable. However, the Boers quickly formed a group of storming parties, led by Nicolas Smit, from an assortment of volunteers from various commandos, totaling at least 450 men, maybe more, to attack the hill. By daybreak at 4:30, the 92nd Highlanders covered a wide perimeter of the summit, while a handful occupied Gordon's Knoll on the right side of the summit.
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Battle of Schuinshoogte Also known as Ingogo, was a battle fought at 27°36′59.30″S 29°52′40.9″E /... 27.616472°S 29.878028°E / -27.616472; 29.878028 on 8 February 1881 during the First Boer War. General Sir George Pomeroy Colley's communications with Newcastle were under constant harassment by mounted Boer patrols under Commander J D Weilbach after the Battle of Laing's Nek and as a result the General made it his plan to clear a clean unmolested path along the Newcastle-Mount Prospect road in order to better protect the British supply line, and receive fresh reinforcements he needed to bolster his ranks. At roughly 9 a.m. he left the Mount Prospect camp with a force consisting mostly of Infantrymen. A company of the 60th Rifles and two pieces of artillery were left at a ridge overlooking the Ingogo River while a handful of mounted men and infantry covered the drift. As Colley advanced up the slope of the Ingogo he received word from his scouting party that a mainly mounted Boer force under Gen. N J Smith and Comdt. J D Weilbach was approaching nearby.
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The Battle of Laing's Nek was a major battle fought at Laing's Nek during the First Boer War on 28 January 1881. Following the Boer declaration of... independence for the Transvaal in 1880 the British suffered a series of disastrous defeats in attempting to regain the territory. On 20 December 1880, Lieutenant Colonel Anstruther and elements of his regiment, the 94th, marched from Lydenburg to Pretoria, the regiment’s band leading the column playing the popular song “Kiss Me, Mother Darling”. At Bronkhorstspruit the force was stopped by Boers who courteously required the “Red Soldiers” to turn back. Armstrong equally courteously refused at which the column was devastated by rifle fire from the surrounding Boer ambush. Of the 259 in the column, 155 officers and men became casualties as did some of the women accompanying the regiment. Instead of waiting for the reinforcements, the British High Commissioner for South East Africa, Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, assembled what troops he could and rushed forward, claiming to be moving to relieve the British garrisons in the Transvaal.
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The Battle of Miraflores occurred on January 15, 1881 in the Miraflores District of Lima, Peru. It was an important battle during the War of the... Pacific that was fought between Chile and the forces of Peru. The Chilean army led by Gen. Manuel Baquedano defeated the army commanded by Nicolás de Piérola guarding the second defensive line of the Peruvian capital city. Two days later, Lima, the capital city of Peru was occupied by Chilean troops. Gen. Baquedano's forces marched into Lima triumphant, while Peru's president and his officers fled into the interior, leaving the country without any government. Although the fall of Lima, the war continued between the occupation army and the troops of Andres Caceres for another three years. During the occupation of Lima, Peru's National Library was burned, while a number of other monuments were ransacked by Chilean forces and taken as war trophies. During the battle, Peruvian naval officer Captain Juan Fanning became a national hero for leading a spectacular infantry charge of marines that nearly outflanked the enemy.
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