Tuesday, September 17, 1901. Battle of Blood River Poort.

The United States remained in deep mourning over the death of William McKinley.

Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Gough led his 280-man Mounted Infantry force into a surprise attack on Boer forces in the Battle of Blood River Poort.  He did not bother to reconnoiter is advance.

Outnumbered, after what was effectively a melee, his force was captured, although he and most of his surviving men would make their escape over the next few days.

Gough would go on to be a senior commander in the British Army in World War One.

Gough, for reasons we will not go into here (and may have already done) would end up in disgrace for his command in World War One, and enter private life in 1918, becoming a farmer.  He proved to be a fairly successful businessman.  A man of deep religious faith, he died at age 92 in 1963/

Poor planning lead to multiple injuries in Washington D.C. as people crushed in to pay their respects to William McKinley, lying in state.

Last edition:

Saturday, September 14, 1901. The death of William McKinley.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, 1907, China, Education, Grover Cleveland, It was because of the Civil War, New York, Ohio, Personalities, Qing Dynasty, Spanish American War, The Law of Unintended Consequences, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley