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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #51066 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51066)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Japan-Russia War, by Sydney Tyler
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: The Japan-Russia War
-       An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East
-
-
-Author: Sydney Tyler
-
-
-
-Release Date: January 28, 2016  [eBook #51066]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR***
-
-
-E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Rachel Oei, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
-(https://archive.org/details/americana)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
-      file which includes the original illustrations.
-      See 51066-h.htm or 51066-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51066/51066-h/51066-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51066/51066-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
-      https://archive.org/details/japanrussiawaril00tyle
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: A SILENCED GUN IN PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-
-THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR
-
-An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East
-
-The Greatest Conflict of Modern Times
-
-by
-
-SYDNEY TYLER
-
-War Correspondent and Author of
-"The Spanish War," "The War in South Africa," Etc., Etc.
-
-Illustrated by Photographs and Drawings Made by Eye-Witnesses
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-P. W. Ziegler Co.
-Philadelphia
-
-Copyright, 1905,
-by
-Sydney Tyler
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                             INTRODUCTION.
-
-
-The Japan-Russia War goes into history as the greatest military
-struggle the world has known. Its story, therefore, rivals in interest
-those of the great wars of the past which have been an unceasing
-inspiration in every field of art and literature. The political
-machinations of great and little kings, of famed prime ministers, of
-peoples and states have attracted attention in more or less limited
-circles, but the world's wars have appealed to every class and rank.
-The world's vast army of readers have never wearied of the classic
-stories of feats of arms by men and armies told of the dawning days of
-world history; the tales of later map-making struggles of Asia, of
-Europe, of America, have never grown old or dull. So in the Orient of
-to-day. The great political battles which have centred about China and
-Japan for the last half century have interested the few. But to-day the
-attention of the world is centred on the lands bordering the Pacific,
-because a war has waged; because the whole human family loves the
-stories of valorous deeds, of military achievement, of the
-history-making that is done with the sword.
-
-The purpose of this volume is to bring American readers face to face
-with the events of the struggle of such stupendous magnitude, now drawn
-to a close. From battlefield to battlefield the author carries his
-thrilling narrative, bringing the scenes before the mind's eye as only
-one could do who stood within sound of the roaring guns, within sight
-of the onrush of resistless battalions, elbow to elbow with Japan's
-brilliant history makers. From the opening of the struggle to its close
-there was never a moment when stupendous events were not either in the
-process of making or so imminent that the civilized world held its
-breath. A single year's campaign in Manchuria and around famed Port
-Arthur furnish three land battles, greater in the number engaged in the
-awful cost of life, in the period of duration, than is presented by all
-of the pages of history. The siege of Port Arthur has no duplicate
-among all recorded military achievements. The opening of the second
-year of the war added a battle, that at Mukden, so vast, so brilliant
-from the standpoint of the victors, so disastrous from the standpoint
-of the defeated, that it has been accorded by masters of strategy a
-niche by itself in the chronicles of war. The author saw this wonderful
-panorama of events unfolded. His story bristles with dramatic touches,
-flashes of enlightening description that bring the scene home to the
-reader with a vividness that thrills.
-
-American readers have a more immediate interest in the struggle than
-the universal love of the stories of battle. With Japan victor over
-Russia, with the great Muscovite Empire deprived of a foothold on the
-Pacific, Japan and America remain the only Powers there to divide the
-rich spoils of Oriental commerce. Our possessions, the Philippines, are
-Japan's nearest neighbors, and their proximity to Japan, their bearing
-upon the Asiatic problem open the way for events of more than ordinary
-importance, if not of seriousness. Already the statement has been made
-that Japan covets these Islands. Will the United States, one day be
-called upon to go to war in their behalf? The question is one which no
-American can ignore. The nation must educate itself to decide one day,
-the issue, for or against a struggle with this wonderful little Empire,
-the Great Britain of Asia. The volume, therefore, in addition to its
-value and interest as a chronicle of a marvelous series of bloody
-battles is educational, the pioneer, blazing the way to an appreciation
-of events, of possibilities for our own country which lie in the story
-of Japan's overwhelming success. Will the Mikado come to believe that
-having humbled and crushed what was Europe's mightiest Power, he can as
-readily drive from the Pacific the American Republic?
-
-The author in this volume has even more completely demonstrated his
-genius as a chronicler of war than in any of his earlier efforts. Step
-by step he followed the British in Africa and at the conclusion of that
-struggle contributed to British literature a history which was
-generally conceded to have been more accurate, more graphic, less
-warped by prejudices than any other. Step by step he followed the
-unfolding of our own Spanish war and the story of that struggle as told
-by Mr. Tyler became at once the standard not only in Great Britain, but
-in the several Continental countries in which it appeared. With the
-priceless experience of these two wars to ably equip him, Mr. Tyler has
-contributed one more narrative of a great war to military literature
-and the assertion is unhesitatingly made that it will not be equalled
-by any of the hosts of volumes destined to be written of this memorable
-war.
-
-Along with the author went his camera. To that fact the reader is
-indebted to a series of illustrations never before attempted in the
-portrayal of military campaigns. What little the author has left to the
-imagination is supplied by these graphic pictures that bridge nine
-thousand miles and bring the sights and almost the sounds of battle to
-the reader.
-
-In brief, this volume as a description of the succeeding struggles of
-the Japan-Russia War, for accuracy, graphic qualities, detail and
-literary finish; for its educational value and significance, for the
-hitherto unattempted excellence of its illustration is presented to the
-American public with confidence that an appreciative reception will not
-possibly be denied.
-
-                                                         THE PUBLISHERS.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                           TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-                  Causes of the War                 13
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-                  The First Blow                    39
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-                  The Korean Campaign               69
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-                  Naval Operations                 101
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-                  Sinking of the "Petropavlovsk"   133
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-                  Battle of the Yalu               167
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-                  Cutting off Port Arthur          197
-
-                             CHAPTER VIII.
-                  The Assault that Failed          225
-
-                              CHAPTER IX.
-                  Battle of Liaoyang               257
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-                  Naval Battle off Port Arthur     289
-
-                              CHAPTER XI.
-                  Battle of the Sha-ho             317
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-                  The North Sea Outrage            347
-
-                             CHAPTER XIII.
-                  Surrender of Port Arthur         379
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-                  The First Year of the War        409
-
-                              CHAPTER XV.
-                  After Port Arthur                430
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI.
-                  In Winter Quarters               453
-
-                             CHAPTER XVII.
-                  The Battle of Mukden             467
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII.
-                  Retreat towards Harbin           497
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX.
-                  The Battle of the Japan Sea      523
-
-                              CHAPTER XX.
-                  The Treaty of Peace              557
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
-                                                                   Page
-  A Silenced Gun at Port Arthur                            Frontispiece
-  Japanese Infantry Attacking a Chinese Position                     21
-  Map Showing the Area Affected by the Dispute                       25
-  The Japanese at Port Arthur                                        27
-  Battle of the Yalu--Sinking of the Chih-yuen                       38
-  Japanese and Russian Admirals                                      48
-  Japanese Generals                                                  57
-  Russian Generals                                                   68
-  The Harbor of Port Arthur                                          71
-  Russian Fleet Trying to Leave Port Arthur                          77
-  Russian and Japanese Destroyers at Close Quarters                  88
-  The Czar                                                           97
-  The Mikado                                                         97
-  Raid by the Vladivostock Fleet                                    107
-  The Tokio Military Hospital--Officers Quarters                    118
-  Sketch Plan of Port Arthur's Main Fortifications                  121
-  Funeral Procession of a Japanese Officer in Yokohama              125
-  A Skirmish Between Japanese and Russian Cavalry                   129
-  Desolation in Manchuria                                           140
-  Blowing up of the Petropavlovsk                                   145
-  Arrival of a Dispatch for General Kuropatkin                      152
-  Russian Concentration on the Yalu                                 161
-  Map Showing the Actions on the Yalu, April 29th-May 1st           169
-  Hauling a Japanese Howitzer into Position under Fire              171
-  Russians Collecting Wounded on the Night after the Battle         182
-  A Last Gallant Stand of Russian Gunners                           191
-  After Three Months                                                199
-  In the Russian Trenches                                           202
-  A Desperate Encounter at Port Arthur                              211
-  General Stoessel Exhorting his Troops in the Defence of
-      Port Arthur                                                   222
-  Outside Port Arthur                                               227
-  A Skirmish on the Manchurian Railway                              234
-  Russians Charging Japanese Trenches at Port Arthur                243
-  After Four Months                                                 247
-  Russian Priest in the Trenches with General Stackelberg's
-      Army                                                          250
-  General Nogi before Port Arthur                                   257
-  After Five Months                                                 261
-  Food for the Japanese Army                                        265
-  Map Showing Territory Adjacent to Liaoyang                        269
-  After Six Months                                                  273
-  Death of Count Keller at Yang-Ze-Ling Pass                        275
-  The Six Days' Action Around Liaoyang, Aug. 29-Sept. 3d            281
-  Map Showing Route of March and Principal Actions of the
-      Four Japanese Armies, Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th                      283
-  Japanese Assault on a Russian Position at Liaoyang                286
-  Russians Recapturing their Lost Guns at Liaoyang                  295
-  On the Deck of the "Rurik"                                        307
-  After Seven Months                                                313
-  Capture of the "Reshitelni" at Chifu                              316
-  Japanese Outpost Relieving Guard near the Sha-ho                  325
-  Japanese Scaling Fort at Port Arthur                              335
-  The Remnant of a Regiment After the Battle of the Sha-ho          347
-  Huge Siege Guns before Port Arthur                                355
-  Thirsty Japanese Troops Crossing the Sha-ho                       366
-  Fight in Street of Lin-Shin-Pu, Battle of Sha-ke River            375
-  Port Arthur and the Surrounding Forts                             381
-  Hauling Guns Up a Captured Hill at Port Arthur                    386
-  Japanese Eleven-Inch Mortar before Port Arthur                    396
-  The Evacuation of Port Arthur                                     405
-  After Twelve Months                                               408
-  Cossacks in Retreat After a Reconnaissance Near Liaoyang          415
-  The Garrison of Port Arthur--Leaving the Fortress                 426
-  The Bamboo Gun at Port Arthur                                     435
-  On the Slopes of Ojikeishan before Port Arthur                    446
-  A Night Attack on a Russian Position                              455
-  Japanese Troops Caught in Barbed Wire Entanglement                466
-  Map of the Battle of Mukden                                       469
-  Russian Retreat in Manchuria                                      475
-  Russian Suffering after the Battle of Mukden                      486
-  On Board a Japanese Battle ship during the Battle of the
-      Japan Sea                                                     496
-  The Russian Fleet in the Battle of the Japan Sea                  505
-  The Retreat from Mukden                                           519
-  Peace Envoys in Session at Portsmouth                             556
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-                          The Japan-Russia War
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-
-  Two Irreconcilable Destinies--Progress v.
-    Stagnation--Europe's Danger--Insatiable Russia--A Warm
-    Water Port--Japan's Warlike Progress--The Chino-Japanese
-    War--Russia's "Honor"--M. Pavloff--Russia in China--The
-    Russo-Chinese Bank--The Mailed Fist--Russian
-    "Leases"--Benevolent Professions--Wei-Hai-Wei--Niuchwang
-    Railway--Pavloff in Korea--Russia and
-    Manchuria--Russo-Chinese Treaty--Anglo-Japanese
-    Alliance--Russians in Korea--Japanese Protests--Russia's
-    Discourtesy.
-
-Never since the great Napoleonic wars which convulsed Europe a century
-ago has the world witnessed an appeal to arms so momentous in its
-issues and so tremendous in its possibilities as that which has just
-been tried between Russia and Japan in the Far East. The great
-internecine struggle in the United States in the middle of the last
-century, the disastrous duel between France and Germany which followed,
-and England's recently-concluded campaign in South Africa, have each,
-indeed, left a deep mark upon history. But while their import was at
-most Continental, if not local, the conflict between Japan and Russia
-is fraught with consequences which must inevitably be world-wide in
-scope. There is no civilized Power in either hemisphere whose interests
-are not more or less directly concerned in the question--Who shall be
-the dominant Power in the China Seas? For the whole course of the
-world's development in that quarter must depend on whether the mastery
-remains to the obstructive and oppressive Colossus of the North or to
-the progressive and enlightened island-Empire which, like Pallas in
-Pagan myth, has sprung fully armed from an ancient civilization into
-the very van of modern progress. It was no mere dynastic jealousy or
-racial animosity that brought about this fateful collision. It was the
-inevitable antagonism of two irreconcilable destinies. "Two stars keep
-not their motion in one sphere"; and the ambitions of Russia and the
-aspirations of Japan cannot find room for fulfilment together. One or
-the other must be crushed.
-
-[Sidenote: Two Irreconcilable Destinies]
-
-For Japan, the question is one of national existence. With Russia
-established in Manchuria and dominating the Yellow Sea, the absorption
-of Korea becomes a mere matter of time; and then the very independence
-of Japan would be subject to a perpetual and intolerable menace; while
-the new life which has dawned for its wonderfully gifted people would
-be crushed at the outset. But if Japan is fighting for her life, Russia
-is fighting for something almost as precious--the consummation of an
-ambition which has been the dream and the fixed goal of her statesmen
-for more than a generation. The expansion of the Russian Empire has
-been steadily eastwards; and the further conquest and dominion have
-spread, the more has the necessity been felt for an outlet to the
-navigable seas. Unless all the labor and sacrifices of years are to be
-in vain, and the great Siberian Empire is to remain a mere gigantic
-_cul-de-sac_, Russia must establish herself permanently in the Gulf of
-Pechili, and find in its ice-free ports that natural outlet for her
-trans-continental railway which will enable the life-blood of commerce
-to circulate through her torpid bulk. The struggle, therefore, was one
-between two irreconcilable destinies.
-
-[Sidenote: Progress v. Stagnation]
-
-But if the issue was immediately of such paramount significance to the
-two combatants, it was only less charged with import for all Asia,
-Europe and America. The victory of Japan would incontestably give her
-the predominance in the Far East, commercially as well as politically.
-Not only would she be a formidable trade rival to the European nations
-whose methods she has so successfully adopted, but she would be able to
-influence the conditions under which that trade was carried on. The
-immensely valuable and as yet imperfectly developed market of China
-would be practically within her control; and European Powers would no
-longer be able with impunity to seize naval bases and proclaim
-exclusive spheres of influence in Chinese territory. On the other hand,
-if Russia were to emerge victorious from the war, the whole of China
-would become a mere vassal state, if indeed its integrity could be
-preserved. Trade would be discouraged and finally extinguished by the
-exclusive methods of Russian policy, and except on sufferance no other
-Power could obtain a footing in the Far East. The whole future of this
-vast region, therefore, hung in the balance, for the battle was between
-freedom, progress and enlightenment, as represented by Japan, and
-obscurantism, oppression and stagnation, as represented by Russia.
-
-[Sidenote: Europe's Danger]
-
-But the anxious concern of the world in this Far Eastern war was based
-not only upon a calculation of material interests. Every civilized
-Government had before its eyes the imminent danger of other countries
-being dragged into the conflict. The situation was such that at any
-moment some untoward incident might set Europe in a blaze. The specific
-obligations of France to Russia under the terms of the Dual Alliance,
-and of Great Britain to Japan under the Treaty of Alliance concluded in
-1901, made the limitation of the struggle to the original combatants
-not only difficult, but even precarious. A breach of neutrality by any
-third Power would at once have compelled France to join forces with her
-Russian ally, or Great Britain to come to the assistance of Japan. Such
-a breach might have been merely trivial or technical, and yet
-sufficient to give a hard-pressed belligerent ground for calling her
-ally to her assistance. It might even have been deliberately provoked,
-in the hope of retrieving disaster by extending the area of conflict;
-and if the two Western Powers were once dragged into war, no statesman
-would be bold enough to put a limit to the consequences. Both Germany
-and the United States are profoundly interested in the Far East and in
-the issue of this great struggle for predominance; and one or both of
-them might at any moment have been ranged on one side or the other.
-From such an Armageddon the factors which determine the balance of
-power throughout the world, and therefore the development of national
-destinies, could hardly have emerged without profound modification; and
-the ultimate establishment of peace would have found many more
-international rivalries and antagonisms resolved than those which are
-immediately connected with the Far East. Lord Beaconsfield once said
-that there were only two events in history--the Siege of Troy and the
-French Revolution. It seems more than possible that the Russo-Japanese
-war will have to be reckoned as a third supreme factor in the progress
-of the world.
-
-[Sidenote: Insatiable Russia]
-
-The outbreak of the present war became practically inevitable as long
-ago as 1895, when, on the conclusion of peace between China and Japan
-the three European Powers--Russia, France and Germany--stepped in and
-robbed the Mikado and his people of the fruits of their hard-earned
-victory. From that time up to the present Russia has steadily, and
-without ceasing, tightened her grip upon the Northern province of the
-hapless Chinese Empire, and has ended by threatening the independence
-of Korea, the legitimate sphere of influence of Japan, and the
-indispensable buffer between herself and the insatiable and
-ever-advancing Northern Power.
-
-[Sidenote: A Warm Water Port]
-
-It must be borne in mind that the determining consideration which led
-Russia to cast longing eyes upon Manchuria--apart from that eternal
-hunger for territory which is one of her strongest characteristics--was
-the necessity of acquiring a warm water port as a naval base and
-commercial harbor. The port of Vladivostock--which, by the way, she
-acquired from China as early as 1860 by a truly Russian piece of
-bluff--has proved of little use in this respect, owing to the fact that
-during the winter months it is almost entirely icebound. A striking
-illustration of the embarrassment such a state of things must cause was
-afforded in the course of the present war by the plight into which the
-Russian Cruiser Squadron stationed there fell. There can be no doubt
-that the ambitions of the Czar's advisers had for years been directed
-towards the acquisition of the fortress and harbor of Port Arthur
-(known to the Chinese as Lu-shun-kau), which situated as it is upon the
-narrow neck of land at the extreme southernmost point of the Liao-tung
-Peninsula, should, if properly served by a strong and efficient naval
-force, dominate the Gulf of Pechili, and prove the most powerful
-strategic post in Northern China.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Warlike Progress]
-
-It is not known, of course, what path the development of Russian plans
-in this respect would have followed if they had been allowed to proceed
-without interruption; but, as it turned out, they were suddenly
-threatened with a dangerous obstacle in the complete and unexpected
-success of Japan over China and her capture of the whole of the
-Liao-tung Peninsula. This short but sanguinary conflict between China
-and Japan is memorable for having first revealed to the world the
-amazing progress which Japan had made in her efforts to engraft and
-assimilate the characteristics of Western civilization. It proved that
-in less than twenty years Japan had earned for herself an established
-position in the community of progressive nations. The war also made it
-possible for the first time to estimate the influence and effect in
-warlike operations of the tremendous engines of destruction with which
-modern science has equipped the fleets and armies of to-day. The navy
-of Japan had been organized on the latest model, and her officers had
-been trained in British schools; and though China's equipment was not
-to be compared with that of her antagonist, she possessed several
-powerful armorclads of the latest type, officered and engineered by
-experienced Europeans.
-
-[Sidenote: The Chino-Japanese War]
-
-The salient features of the war were, at sea, the battles of the Yalu
-River and of Wei-hai-Wei; and on land, the rout of the Chinese at
-Ping-Yang, the passage of the Yalu and storming of Port Arthur. The
-first of these in order of time was the battle of Ping-Yang, a town
-situated near the north-west coast of Korea. Here the Chinese troops
-under General Tso attempted to prevent the advance of the Japanese
-towards the Yalu. By a series of skilful movements carried out on
-September 15th and 16th, 1894, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, Marshal
-Yamagata, completely surrounded the Chinese and defeated them with
-great slaughter, their General himself falling dead upon the field. On
-the next day the Chinese fleet stationed at the mouth of the Yalu,
-which had proved entirely ineffective in preventing the landing of the
-enemy's forces upon Korea, gave battle to the Japanese. The ships of
-the latter Power were mainly cruisers, but the extraordinary skill with
-which they were manoeuvred and the rapidity of their fire completely
-outweighed the advantage possessed by the Chinese Admiral in
-battleships. He sustained a crushing defeat, and eight of his best
-vessels were destroyed. In the meanwhile Marshal Yamagata continued his
-march to the North, and after a bloody but indecisive conflict near
-Wiju on October 22nd he succeeded in crossing the Yalu River and
-driving his antagonists in rout before him. The Japanese now proceeded
-to overrun Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula, capturing all the
-principal positions one after the other with unvarying success. A great
-army under Marshal Oyama invested Port Arthur in November, and on the
-20th and 21st he took that powerful fortress by storm, the defenders
-being massacred to a man. The final and decisive act of the war was the
-bombardment of Wei-hai-Wei and the island fortress of Leu-Kung-tan by
-the combined naval and military forces of Admiral Ito and Marshal
-Oyama. The operations lasted from January 30th, 1895, till February
-12th, when, unable to hold out any longer against the terrific assault,
-Admiral Ting, the Chinese Commander, surrendered his fleet and the
-forts under honors of war. A closing touch of tragedy was the suicide
-of Ting and his principal officers, unable to bear the shame of their
-defeat. On March 19th negotiations for peace were opened at
-Shimonoseki, and the final treaty was signed on April 17th. The Treaty
-of Shimonoseki gave Japan unqualified possession of that Peninsula and
-also, of course, of Port Arthur--a very moderate territorial prize,
-considering the absolute character of her victory over China, and the
-sacrifices she had made to obtain it. But Russian susceptibilities were
-alarmed, and the Government of St. Petersburg decided upon a drastic
-step to avert the calamity which threatened to render its ambitions
-futile. Gaining the support of both Germany and France, it compelled
-Japan, by threats of force which that Power could not resist, to retire
-from Port Arthur and the Liao-tung Peninsula, and to restore the
-territory to China. The reason alleged for this high-handed action was
-the specious plea that the presence of the Japanese on the Asiatic
-mainland would endanger the independence of China and Korea, and would
-be a constant menace to the peace of the Far East. Naturally enough the
-indignation of Japan was intense, but defiance of three such powerful
-antagonists was impossible for her at that moment, isolated as she was
-and exhausted by the exertions of a great war. Great Britain was asked
-by the other three Powers to act jointly with them in this matter, but
-she refused to assist in depriving the gallant Island people of their
-rightful spoils of victory. The attitude of Lord Rosebery's Government
-on this occasion, although it gave no positive aid to Japan,
-undoubtedly led to a better understanding between the two countries,
-and paved the way ultimately to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance,
-which, by rescuing Japan from her position of isolation, enabled her to
-enter effectively into the momentous and complicated game which the
-European diplomatists were playing, with varying fortunes, at Peking.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's "Honor"]
-
-Meanwhile, however, Japanese aspirations received a check from which
-they were to take several years to recover. The statesmen of the Mikado
-were even unable to obtain a pledge from China that the territories
-yielded back to her by Japan would never be alienated to a third Power.
-Russia's delicate sense of honor, it appeared, revolted against the
-imputation implied, and therefore China must give no pledge. On the
-other hand, Russia would be so generous as to give an assurance on her
-own account that she had no designs upon Manchuria. Forced to content
-herself with the cold comfort of this empty and meaningless
-declaration, and baffled upon all essential points, Japan sullenly
-withdrew her troops from the mainland and settled down to nurse her
-just wrath, and prepare for the inevitable day of reckoning.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE INFANTRY ATTACKING A CHINESE POSITION.]
-
-[Sidenote: M. Pavloff]
-
-The centre of interest was now shifted to Peking, where began that
-amazing scramble among the European Powers for commercial, and
-especially for railway, concessions in China, which, by unmasking the
-ambitions of some countries, and revealing the community of interests
-of others, has led ultimately to important modifications of
-international policy, and to a re-arrangement of alliances. The
-complexity of the game, the swiftness of the moves, and the ignorance
-of the average man, not only of the issues involved, but even of the
-main geographical and economic features of the immense country which
-was the object of the struggle--all contrived to puzzle the mind and to
-darken the understanding; but a vague feeling, only too clearly
-justified by the events, arose in this country that England and America
-were not getting the best of the conflict, and that Russia and Germany
-were making all the running. In truth, there is no doubt that the
-skill, or perhaps, to speak more correctly, the duplicity, of the
-Russian diplomatists both in Peking and in St. Petersburg left their
-competitors completely behind. Foremost among them there emerges at
-this time the sinister figure of M. Pavloff, the Minister of the Czar
-at the Chinese Court. The tortuous diplomacy of the Muscovite has
-produced no more characteristic tool. M. Pavloff has been the stormy
-petrel of the Far East. Intrepid, resourceful to a degree, unscrupulous
-beyond the average, he is ever in the forefront of the diplomatic
-battle line. His appearance in any part of the field is the signal for
-new combinations, fresh aggressions, the stirring up of bad blood
-between nations, and the unsettlement of apparently settled questions.
-A man whose god is the Czar; a man with whom the expansion of the
-Empire of the Little White Father is an ideal cherished with almost
-religious fervor; a man who indeed in all probability honestly regards
-the extension of the Russian autocracy over the world as essential to
-the due progress of higher civilization--he is thoroughly typical of
-the class of agents whose devoted services Russia has always managed to
-secure for the spread of her Empire and the gradual but steady
-absorption of fresh territory all over Asia, whether in China, Persia,
-Turkestan or Tibet.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia in China]
-
-Such was the instrument possessed by the Government of the Czar at the
-Court of Peking, and he was not likely to neglect the unique
-opportunity which lay ready to his hand. By her action in restoring
-Port Arthur to the nerveless grasp of China, Russia naturally assumed
-the character of a powerful friend whose smile was to be courted and
-whose frown was to be proportionately dreaded. What more natural, in
-the circumstances, than that the Emperor should grant to the subjects
-of his brother and ally, the Czar, peculiar commercial privileges in
-the country which had been so generously rescued from the grip of Japan
-and restored to the Empire of the King of Heaven?
-
-[Illustration: MAP OF THE AREA AFFECTED BY THE WAR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Russo-Chinese Bank]
-
-The first result of M. Pavloff's policy of disinterested friendship
-became manifest in 1896, when the Chinese Government concluded an
-agreement with the Russo-Chinese Bank, providing for the formation of a
-company to be styled the Eastern Chinese Railway Company, the ownership
-of which was to be vested solely in Russian and Chinese subjects and
-which was to construct and work a railway within the confines of China,
-from one of the points on the western borders of the province of
-Heh-Lung-Kiang to one of the points on the eastern borders of the
-province of Kirin; and to the connection of this railway with those
-branches which the Imperial Russian Government would construct to the
-Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the Southern Ussuri lines. The
-institution, which went by the plain, solid, commercial name of the
-Russo-Chinese Bank, was, of course, merely a sort of Far Eastern annex
-of the Finance Bureau of M. de Witte, and the line thus modestly
-announced was the nucleus of the great railway which has since played
-such a large part in consolidating the Russian dominion over Manchuria.
-At the outset it was pretended that the line was to be merely a short
-cut to Vladivostock, but the true ambitions at the bottom of the scheme
-became apparent when Russian engineers began to pour into the country
-followed by squadrons of Cossacks, nominally for the protection of the
-new railway, but really in pursuance of Russia's invariable policy of
-impressing the natives with a due sense of her enormous military
-strength.
-
-[Sidenote: The Mailed Fist]
-
-The construction of the line, however, had not proceeded very far when,
-in 1897, an event occurred which gave the Czar's Government the chance
-for which they had long been anxiously looking. The massacre of some
-German missionaries led to swift and stern reprisals on the part of the
-Kaiser. The port of Kiao-Chau, in the province of Shantung, was seized
-until reparation was made for the outrage committed upon the majesty of
-the German Empire, and to placate the offended "mailed fist," the
-feeble Government of China were compelled to hand over this important
-position to Germany as a permanent possession, although, by a
-characteristic euphemism of diplomacy, the transaction was conveniently
-styled a "lease." Russia's opportunity was now too good to be
-neglected. Emboldened by the example of Germany, she demanded--for that
-is what her so-called "request" amounted to in reality--permission from
-the Chinese Government to winter her fleet at Port Arthur. Perhaps it
-may be imputed to her for righteousness that, unscrupulous as she is,
-she has never found it necessary to employ the missionaries of Christ
-as instruments of aggression; at all events on this occasion she had no
-such excuse at hand. The helpless Chinese assented, of course, to her
-request; but now Great Britain, awake at last to the dangers which
-threatened her Treaty rights, endeavored to intervene. Strong
-representations were made by the English Minister to the
-Tsung-lai-yamen as to the necessity for turning the port of
-Ta-lien-wan--which lies immediately adjacent to Port Arthur--into a
-Treaty port; that is to say, throwing it open to the trade of the world
-on the same terms as obtain at Shanghai, Canton, Hankau, and other
-ports of China at which the policy of the Open Door prevails.
-
-[Illustration: THE JAPANESE AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Leases]
-
-English statesmen, however, were no match for the wily Russians, who
-had the ear of the Chinese mandarins. The Government of the Czar
-successfully opposed the suggestion, and backed up its representations
-at Peking by significant display of force, for a considerable fleet of
-men-of-war arrived at Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan in the spring of 1898
-and practically took possession. Then, by a mingled process of
-terrorism and corruption, the Chinese Government were induced to grant
-the Czar a "lease" of the two harbors on the same terms as those on
-which Germany had been granted possession of Kiao-Chau, and, equally
-important, to permit the extension of the line of the Eastern Chinese
-Railway Company to Port Arthur. Thus came into being the Manchurian
-Railway, the construction of which was pushed on with feverish activity.
-
-[Sidenote: Benevolent Professions]
-
-The first step towards the complete acquisition and control of
-Manchuria had now been successfully accomplished, and English diplomacy
-sought in vain to wrest from Russia the advantage she had thus
-skilfully acquired. Of course Russia was prolific of "assurances" as
-she always has been in similar circumstances. The Government of the
-Czar solemnly declared, for the satisfaction of any confiding person
-who was willing to believe it, that it had "no intention of infringing
-the rights and privileges guaranteed by existing treaties between China
-and foreign countries," and that the last thing it contemplated was
-interference with Chinese sovereignty over the province of Manchuria.
-The sincerity of these benevolent professions was to be judged by the
-fact that, having once secured a grip of Port Arthur, Russia hastened
-to convert it into a fortified post of great strength and magnitude,
-and closed it absolutely against the commerce of the world; and that,
-while on the one hand she so far met the anxious representations of the
-British Government as to constitute Ta-lien-wan a free port in name, on
-the other hand she deprived the concession of all real meaning by an
-irritating system of passports and administrative restrictions upon
-trade.
-
-[Sidenote: Wei-hai-Wei]
-
-Great Britain attempted to neutralize the advantage her rival had
-gained in the Gulf of Pechili by securing a port on her own account,
-and, with the support of Japan, she induced the Chinese Government to
-enter into an agreement for the acquisition "on lease" of Wei-hai-Wei,
-a harbor situated on the southern shore of the Gulf and opposite to
-Port Arthur. It was imagined at the time that the port could be turned
-into a powerful naval base, but the naval and military surveys
-afterwards taken showed that it was of little use for strategic
-purposes, and it has consequently sunk into the position of a health
-station for the English China Squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: Niuchwang Railway]
-
-In the meantime Russia steadily increased her hold upon Manchuria, and
-large bodies of troops continued to be poured into the country. Her
-position had now become so strong in the counsels of the Chinese Court
-that in July, 1898, she openly opposed the concession, which British
-capitalists were seeking, of an extension of the Northern Railways of
-China to the Treaty Port of Niuchwang, which lies to the north of Port
-Arthur, at the extremity of the Gulf. The importance of this extension
-to British and American commerce was immense. Niuchwang is the main
-outlet of the trade of Manchuria, and was at that time a busy thriving
-town of about 60,000 inhabitants. Its value from the commercial point
-of view may be estimated from the fact that its total trade rose from
-£1,850,000 in 1881 to £7,253,650 in 1899, the year before it fell
-absolutely into Russian hands. Russia's attempt to deprive her
-commercial rivals of practical access by land to this valuable port
-were, however, on this occasion only partially successful; the
-construction of the Shan-hai-Kwan-Niuchwang Railway was finally
-permitted; but the agreement was greatly modified to suit Russian views.
-
-[Sidenote: Pavloff in Korea]
-
-Concurrently with these events, significant developments had been
-taking place in Korea, which brought Japan once more upon the stage.
-For some time after the Japanese had been driven from Port Arthur,
-Russia left Korea alone. She even entered into formal engagements with
-Japan, recognizing that Power's peculiar commercial rights and
-interests in Korea. But now M. Pavloff arrived upon the scene at Seoul.
-In March, 1900, he gave the Japanese the first taste of his quality by
-endeavoring to obtain a lease of the important strategic port of
-Masampo, situated in the southeast of Korea, facing the Japanese coast
-and dominating the straits between. At the same time he stipulated that
-the Korean Government should not alienate to any other Power the island
-of Kojedo, which lies just opposite to Masampo. Japan successfully
-resisted this bold stroke of policy; and matters were in this position
-when the Boxer rising gave Russia a supreme opportunity. Her troops in
-Manchuria were attacked by the rebels, and she at once hurried in
-reinforcements and seized the whole country. Resistance to her arms was
-put down with relentless vigor--with a vigor, indeed, far transcending
-the necessities of the case, and the Blagovestchensk massacres, in
-which thousands of unarmed Chinamen were offered up as a sacrifice to
-the offended majesty of Russia, will long be a stain upon the
-escutcheon of the Imperial Prophet of Peace. In the drastic process of
-absorption which was now adopted, the treaty port of Niuchwang was
-naturally included, and the interests of other Powers there became of
-very small account indeed.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia and Manchuria]
-
-It was evident that the Manchurian question had now assumed a more
-serious form. Of course the Czar's Government was profuse in its
-explanations. No permanent territorial advantage was being sought, we
-were told; as soon as lasting order had been established in Manchuria,
-and indispensable measures taken for the protection of the railway
-Russia would not fail to recall her troops from the province; above all
-"the interests of foreign Powers and of international companies at the
-port of Niuchwang must remain inviolate." The restoration of lasting
-order, however, appeared to be a very tedious process. More and more
-troops were drafted into the province and on the naval side also
-preparations were made for an imposing demonstration.
-
-[Sidenote: Russo-Chinese Treaty]
-
-Admiral Alexeieff, commanding the Russian fleet, though not yet
-advanced to the dignity of Viceroy of the East, now took charge of the
-Czar's interests, one of his first acts being to invite China to resume
-the government of Manchuria "under the protection of Russia." On
-November 11th, 1900, an agreement was signed at Port Arthur between the
-Russian and Chinese representatives. The terms of this remarkable
-document, which were promptly disclosed by the able and well-informed
-correspondent of the London _Times_ at Peking, were a startling
-revelation. They provided virtually for a Russian military protectorate
-over Manchuria. Mukden, the ancient capital of Manchuria and the
-burial-place of the Manchu dynasty, was to be the centre of control,
-and a Russian political resident was to be stationed there. This city,
-which now possesses a population of about 250,000, has in modern times
-become a great place of trade. It is situated 110 miles to the
-northeast of Niuchwang, and its position in the centre of the
-Manchurian railway system renders it a place of much strategical
-importance. Not only were these vast concessions made to Russia, but
-the Treaty rights of other Powers at Niuchwang itself were disregarded.
-Great Britain and the United States necessarily entered an urgent
-protest against this singular method of preserving their interests
-inviolate. But Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister for Foreign
-Affairs, declared to our Ambassador that the Russo-Chinese Agreement
-was merely a temporary arrangement.
-
-The value of the solemn assurance of the Foreign Minister was exposed
-to the world almost immediately afterwards by the invaluable
-correspondent of the London _Times_, who sent to his paper the terms of
-a new and more far-reaching Agreement which the Russian diplomatists
-were trying to force upon the Chinese Court.
-
-[Sidenote: Anglo-Japanese Alliance]
-
-The position of affairs was now profoundly altered by the conclusion of
-the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This important Treaty gave Japan the
-strength and the encouragement ultimately to intervene on her own
-account and endeavor to curb the restless ambitions of Russia. Russia
-gave a definite pledge that her troops would be withdrawn from
-Manchuria by instalments on the expiration of a certain period. That
-period expired on October 8th, 1903, but the pledge was never redeemed.
-A show of evacuation was made in 1902, but the troops returned, and at
-the end of October of 1903 Mukden was re-occupied in force. Never
-during the whole period did Russia lose her grip upon Niuchwang.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians in Korea]
-
-Notwithstanding the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance
-in the beginning of 1902, Japan waited for eighteen months before
-entering into the diplomatic lists alone against Russia. But at last,
-in August of 1903, this course was rendered imperative upon her, not
-only by the failure of the Czar's Government to carry out their
-engagements in regard to Manchuria, but by their aggressive policy in
-Korea. M. Pavloff, rebuffed at Masampo in 1900, had turned his energies
-in another direction. He secured for his countrymen valuable mining
-rights in Northern Korea, and Russians then began to cross the Yalu
-River and ultimately occupied Yongampo, a town of some importance on
-the southern bank. Not content with railway enterprises, they even
-started to construct fortifications. The Japanese, of course,
-interposed energetically and succeeded in modifying the Russian
-activity; but it now became apparent that, unless some binding
-arrangement could be arrived at, Korea was destined to share the fate
-of Manchuria.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Protests]
-
-Representations were therefore made at St. Petersburg calling for a
-revision of the Treaties of 1896 and 1898, and a friendly settlement of
-the respective rights of the two Powers. The story of the negotiations
-which ensued is a simple one. It is a story of courteous and moderate
-representation on the one side, and of studied delay and contemptuous
-refusals on the other. The negotiations on behalf of Russia were in the
-hands of Admiral Alexeieff, now elevated to the position of Viceroy of
-the East, and it is said to be mainly due to his influence that his
-Government adopted such an unbending attitude. Japan asked for a
-repetition by Russia of the pledges she had given that she would
-recognize the integrity and independence of China and Korea; and,
-further, that she should recognize the preponderance of Japanese
-political and commercial interests in Korea. Russia haughtily refused
-to give Japan any pledge as to the integrity of China, and contended
-that her position in Manchuria was regulated by treaties with China in
-which Japan had no right to interfere. As to Korea, she proposed the
-establishment of a neutral zone in the north of the province, leaving
-the south of the country to become a sphere of commercial influence for
-Japan, but she expressly stipulated that the latter Power should make
-no use of any portion of Korean territory for strategic purposes. The
-proposal was so absurdly one-sided that Japan returned to the charge
-with the suggestion that a neutral zone should be established both on
-the Manchurian and the Korean sides of the frontier. She also
-reiterated her request for an agreement as to the maintenance of the
-territorial integrity of Manchuria and China.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's Discourtesy]
-
-Russia contemptuously delayed reply to these representations in spite
-of the courteous requests of the Japanese Government. In the meanwhile
-she kept augmenting her forces in the Far East till the situation
-became impossible of continuance.
-
-Every day that passed threatened to transfer the balance of naval power
-in favor of the European Power, for a powerful fleet was being hurried
-out to the Far East, and the badly-finished warships in Port Arthur
-were being patched up by an army of mechanicians. Mr. Kurino, who
-conducted the negotiations at St. Petersburg, pressed for an answer,
-but was put off with promises no less than six times. Such discourtesy
-could only have one result. The dignity of Japan could brook no further
-insolence, and the Czar and his Ministers were politely informed that
-under such circumstances negotiations were useless. It was in vain that
-hurried telegrams were dispatched to Admiral Alexeieff to present a
-reply to the justly incensed Cabinet at Tokio. The die had been cast,
-and the big bully of the North, who had for so long baited the plucky
-little Japanese, realized at last that threats and bluff no longer were
-of any avail, and that the matter was now referred to the God of
-Battles.
-
-On February 7th, 1904, Japan formally broke off the negotiations and
-withdrew her Minister from St. Petersburg. The war cloud had burst.
-
-[Illustration: BATTLE OF THE YALU--SINKING OF THE CHIH-YUEN.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-
-  Russia Bluffing--Japan's Navy--"Nisshin" and "Kasaga"--New and
-    Efficient--Japan's Dockyards--Opposing Figures--Russian
-    Navy--Belated Help--Japan's Superiority--Russian
-    Harbor--Japan on Land--Russia's Army--East of Baikal--Weak
-    Communications--Port Arthur--Korea as Base--Command of the
-    Sea--The First Blow--World-Wide Interest--A Graphic
-    Account--Russian Losses--The Fight of February 9th--Russian
-    Bravery--Japanese Modesty--Damage Understated--Only One
-    Repairing Dock--Alexeieff's Reason for Casualties--The Fight
-    at Chemulpo--The First Shot--Japanese Disembarkation--A Brave
-    Russian Captain--A Target for Japanese Gunners--The Plucky
-    "Korietz"--Wounding and Burning--Japan's Handicap.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Russia Bluffing]
-
-The growing menace of the situation in the Far East had been for months
-attracting the anxious attention of the whole world, and at the
-beginning of 1904 it became evident that war was inevitable, unless one
-or other of the disputants was prepared to make a complete surrender of
-its essential claims. The unlikelihood of this remote possibility being
-fulfilled was confirmed by the steady and, on the Russian side at
-least, the feverish preparations for hostilities which were carried on
-as an accompaniment to the repeated protestations of pacific intentions
-by the Czar's Government and its diplomatic agents abroad. Those who
-still believed in peace were sustained by the conviction that one of
-the parties to the dispute was bluffing. Sympathizers with Russia
-pointed to the tremendous power and inexhaustible resources of the
-Northern Empire, and asked whether it were possible that a young and
-small country like Japan should dare to try conclusions with so
-gigantic an antagonist. On the other hand, the friends of Japan
-emphasized the weakness of the Russian position in the Far East and the
-well-known financial embarrassments beneath which her Exchequer was
-laboring. It is, therefore, apropos to survey at this point the
-military and strategic position in the Far East which revealed itself
-immediately before the final rupture of diplomatic negotiations and the
-beginning of active hostilities.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Navy]
-
-In any conflict between Russia and Japan it was obvious that the first
-struggle must be for the mastery of the sea, and it is, therefore,
-interesting to consider primarily the relative naval strength of the
-two Powers in Far Eastern waters. The navy of Japan has been built, not
-only on English models, but for the most part in English yards; and
-since the Chino-Japanese War it has been increased by a number of
-vessels of the latest and most powerful type. The result is that the
-most formidable feature of Japan's naval strength is its complete
-homogeneity. The tabular statement on page 41, gives the names and
-principal characteristics of what may be called Japan's first fighting
-line at sea.
-
-[Sidenote: "Nisshin" and "Kasaga"]
-
-Towards the close of 1903 the Japanese Government, with great
-enterprise, managed to secure a powerful accession to this fleet by
-purchasing from Argentina two freshly constructed cruisers of the most
-modern and efficient type. These two vessels, which have been
-re-christened the _Nisshin_ and _Kasaga_, were hastily equipped for sea
-at Genoa, and, commanded for the time being by retired English officers
-and manned by English crews, started in January for the long voyage to
-the Far East. Although war had not yet been declared, it was clearly
-imminent, and the Russian squadron in the Mediterranean received orders
-to watch the new cruisers closely, with the object, of course, of
-capturing them in case hostilities broke out before the vessels had
-reached Japan. The taste of their quality, however, which the _Nisshin_
-and _Kasaga_ were able to give to the Russians proved how valuable an
-addition they were to the Japanese navy, for they easily outdistanced
-their slow-footed pursuers, and what promised at one time to be an
-exciting race degenerated practically into a walk over. The new
-cruisers arrived safely at Yokohama on February 16th, and were at once
-sent into dock to refit and prepare for active service. These splendid
-fighting machines must, therefore, be added to the list.
-
-                        JAPAN'S UP-TO-DATE NAVY.
-
-                              BATTLESHIPS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-     Hatsuse          15,000    15,000  18.0     14--6        4,240
-     Asahi            15,000    15,000  18.0     14--6        4,240
-     Shikishima       15,000    15,000  18.0     14--6        4,240
-     Mikasa           15,200    16,000  18.0     14--6        4,225
-     Yashima          12,300    13,000  18.0     14--6        4,000
-     Fuji             12,300    13,000  18.0     14--6        4,000
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-     Tokiwa           9,750     18,000  21.5      6--6        3,568
-     Asama            9,750     18,000  21.5      6--6        3,568
-     Yakuma           9,850     16,000  20.0      6--6        3,368
-     Adzuma           9,436     17,000  21.0      6--6        3,368
-     Idzumo           9,800     15,000  24.7      6--6        3,568
-     Iwate            9,800     15,000  24.7      6--6        3,568
-
-                          PROTECTED CRUISERS.
-
-     Takasago         4,300     15,500  24.0    4-1/2--2       800
-     Kasagi           4,784     15,500  22.5     4-1/2         800
-     Chitose          4,784     15,500  22.5     4-1/2         800
-     Itsukushima      4,277     5,400   16.7     11--4        1,260
-     Hashidate        4,277     5,400   16.7     11--4        1,260
-     Matsushima       4,277     5,400   16.7     11--4        1,260
-     Yoshino          4,180     15,750  23.0       --          780
-     Naniwa           3,727     7,120   17.8       --         1,196
-     Takachiho        3,727     7,120   17.8       --         1,196
-     Akitsushima      3,150     8,400   19.0       --          780
-     Niitaka          3,420     9,500   20.0       --          920
-     Tsushima         3,420     9,500   20.0       --          920
-     Suma             3,700     8,500   20.0       --          335
-     Akashi           2,700     8,500   20.0       --          335
-
-[Sidenote: New and Efficient]
-
-The table, it will be observed, does not include a number of coast
-defence vessels, nor--more important for offensive purposes--the
-torpedo flotilla, which is of great strength and of remarkable
-efficiency, and includes over a score of 30-knot destroyers of the most
-modern type. The first four battleships in the list were completed less
-than two years before the war, while the armored cruisers were built
-between 1899 and 1901. The protected cruisers include several of the
-vessels that defeated the Chinese fleet at the battle of the Yalu.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Dockyards]
-
-For the accommodation of her fleet Japan possesses four well-equipped
-dockyards, capable not only of repairing damaged vessels of any class,
-but of constructing new ones; and this is, perhaps, the greatest
-advantage which the island kingdom has over Russia in the present
-struggle.
-
-[Sidenote: Opposing Figures]
-
-The naval strength of Russia in the Far East at the outbreak of
-hostilities is shown in the tabular statement appearing on page 44,
-which, again, does not include vessels of the smallest class nor the
-torpedo-boat flotilla.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Navy]
-
-It will be remarked that the Russian battleships offered a great
-variety in design and fighting power--a serious disadvantage, for in
-manoeuvring the efficiency of the whole squadron sinks to the level
-of that of the least effective vessel it contains. The _Czarevitch_ and
-the _Retvisan_, which were the latest vessels to arrive at Port Arthur,
-were also the most powerful members of the fleet. The former vessel was
-built in France after the latest French model, and the latter in
-Philadelphia. This fleet was divided, at the outbreak of war, between
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock, the four powerful cruisers, _Gromoboi_,
-_Bogatyr_, _Rossia_, and _Rurik_ being stationed at the latter port.
-
-[Sidenote: Belated Help]
-
-While negotiations were still proceeding, though at a critical point,
-Russia prepared to send out very formidable reinforcements to the Far
-East from her Mediterranean Fleet. These reinforcements included the
-_Osliabia_, a battleship of over 12,000 tons displacement, with a speed
-of 19 knots; the _Dmitri Donskoi_, an armored cruiser of 6,000 tons
-displacement and a speed of 15 knots; the _Aurora_, a swift protected
-cruiser of the largest class; several cruisers of the volunteer fleet,
-with troops, naval drafts, and supplies; and a number of torpedo craft.
-This squadron had begun to assemble at Port Said before the outbreak of
-war, and the vessels at once began to pass through the Canal. But
-before they were ready to sail for the China seas, war broke out, and
-the departure was delayed. The initial Russian reverses at sea made it
-practically impossible for this reinforcing fleet to proceed to the
-seat of war, as it would have been liable to interception by the
-Japanese fleet in overwhelming strength. Accordingly, after cruising
-aimlessly about in the Red Sea for some weeks, the ships were ordered
-to return to the Baltic; and in the beginning of March they passed
-through the Suez Canal again on their way north.
-
-                        RUSSIA'S AVAILABLE NAVY.
-
-                              BATTLESHIPS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-                       Tons            Knots.     In.          Lbs.
-     Poltava          10,950    11,200  17.0     10--5        3,367
-     Petropavlovsk    10,950    11,200  17.0     10--5        3,367
-     Sevastopol       10,950    11,200  17.0     10--5        3,367
-     Peresviet        12,674    14,500  19.0     10--5        2,672
-     Pobieda          12,674    14,500  19.0     10--5        2,672
-     Retvisan         12,700    16,000  18.0     10--5        3,434
-     Czarevitch       13,100    16,300  18.0   11--6-3/4      3,516
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-                       Tons            Knots.     In.          Lbs.
-     Bogatyr          6,750     19,500  23.0      5--4         872
-     Askold           6,500     9,500   23.0       --          772
-     Varyag           6,500     20,000  23.0       5           510
-     Diana            6,630     11,600  20.0     4-1/2         632
-     Pallada          6,630     11,600  20.0     4-1/2         632
-     Boyarin          3,200     11,500  22.0       --          180
-     Novik            3,000     18,000  25.0       --          180
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-                       Tons            Knots.     In.          Lbs.
-     Gromoboi         12,336    18,000  20.0     6--3/4       1,197
-     Bayan            7,800     17,000  22.0      7--3         952
-     Rossia           12,200    18,000  20.0       2          1,348
-     Rurik            10,940    3,500   18.0       3          1,345
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Superiority]
-
-Though nominally the fleets of the two Powers were fairly equal, Japan
-possessed several very considerable advantages which, in the opinion of
-experts, changed that paper equality to marked superiority on her side.
-In the first place, the Chino-Japanese war only ten years ago had given
-her naval officers and men an invaluable experience of fighting on the
-grand scale under modern conditions; in the next place, their fleet was
-much more of a pattern; and in the third place it was operating from a
-base fully capable of providing all the needs and reinforcements
-entailed by losses in war, including a ready coal supply.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's Harbors]
-
-Russia, on the other hand, had for its only bases Port Arthur and
-Vladivostock, the one inadequate to the multifarious needs of her
-fleet, and the other ice-bound in winter, and so situated
-geographically as to be completely isolated from what promised to be
-the main scene of operations. Although Port Arthur had been rendered
-almost impregnable as a fortress, the Russians had not had time to
-complete it as a naval dockyard, and at the outbreak of war it
-possessed only one dry dock, and that not capable of accommodating
-vessels of the largest size. At Vladivostock the channel out of the
-harbor could only be kept free by ice-breakers. In the event of naval
-disasters, Russia, therefore, had no possibility of repairing her lame
-ducks, while the radius of her fleet's activity was limited by the fact
-that her only supplies of coal were to be obtained at Port Arthur. In
-the situation, therefore, which presented itself at the outbreak of
-war, this powerful naval force was practically deprived of mobility. It
-could not leave Port Arthur for more than a short cruise; and while it
-remained there it must be specially vulnerable to attack, lying in an
-open roadstead and huddled together in order to enjoy the protection of
-the guns of the fortress.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan on Land]
-
-With regard to the land forces of the two belligerent Powers, it was
-only possible to reckon with certainty those of Japan; for it remained
-doubtful, until the progress of active operations revealed the facts,
-how much of Russia's enormous military strength had been concentrated
-in the Far East. Broadly speaking, Japan could put into the field in
-the last resort an army of between 400,000 and 450,000 men. The
-standing army amounts to almost 200,000 men, and it was immediately
-available for mobilization. To this number another 35,000 men was added
-by the reserve, while the militia of all arms could be reckoned at
-200,000 men. The Japanese infantry soldier is armed with the Midji
-magazine rifle, and the artillery with the Arisaka quick-firing gun;
-but the adoption of this latter weapon has been so recent that the
-whole of the artillery is not yet supplied with it, and in this one
-respect at least the Russian gunners are believed to possess a very
-great advantage. The Japanese army has been organized largely on German
-models. It proved its efficiency as a fighting machine in the
-Chino-Japanese War; while the Japanese troops that took part in the
-relief of the Peking Legations earned the unstinted praise of all the
-military experts who watched their behavior. Until the present war,
-however, the Japanese army had never undergone the supreme ordeal of
-facing a European adversary.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's Army]
-
-Of the Russian military organization, the strength and weakness have
-long been known to the world, and the great question for strategists in
-contemplating the present hostilities was the number of troops which
-the Northern Power could bring into the field to confront her foe.
-Various estimates had been given, from the overwhelming army of 400,000
-men confidently claimed by Russia's partisans, to a force of little
-more than a quarter of that strength. But though the actual figures
-were in doubt, it was possible by collating the information from
-various sources to arrive at an approximate estimate of the truth. At
-the time of the Boxer outbreak in 1900 Russia had 35,000 men in the Far
-East, and that force was, within little more than a year, trebled.
-Since the possibility of trouble with Japan had loomed on the horizon,
-reinforcements had been steadily dribbling over the Trans-Siberian
-Railway and over seas in the volunteer transports, until the army under
-the command of the Viceroy of the Far East could not number much less
-than 150,000 men of all arms, with 286 guns. Of this force, at least a
-half must have been absorbed in the defence of the long line of railway
-communications and in garrisoning fortresses; but the troops available
-for active operations consisted largely of Russia's most formidable
-fighting material--namely, the Cossacks, who possess an endurance and
-mobility which must be of the utmost value in such a country as that in
-which the present war was to be fought out.
-
-[Illustration:
-         ADMIRAL TOGO.                         ADMIRAL KAMIMURA.
-                          ADMIRAL MAKAROFF.
-       ADMIRAL SKRYDLOFF.                   ADMIRAL ROZHDESTVENSKY.
-
-                     JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN ADMIRALS.]
-
-[Sidenote: East of Baikal]
-
-In the latter part of January the well-informed correspondent of the
-London _Times_ at Peking telegraphed an estimate of the Russian forces
-east of Lake Baikal, which, in its circumstantiality and
-exhaustiveness, bore the evidence of truth. According to this
-authority, Russia had available at that time a total of 3,115 officers,
-147,479 men, and 266 guns; and these numbers included the railway
-guards over the whole of the Manchurian railways and the garrisons of
-the principal fortresses. The infantry of this force numbered 108,000
-officers and men, and the cavalry 22,000 officers and men, of whom
-nearly the whole were Cossacks. The garrisons of Port Arthur and
-Vladivostock alone absorbed 45,000 men, and remembering that the
-railway line to be guarded, east of Lake Baikal, was over 1,500 miles
-in length, and traverses a country of which the inhabitants were more
-or less hostile, it is evident that the troops available to take the
-field at the end of January could not have exceeded, on this estimate,
-more than 50,000 men. Lake Baikal is 400 miles in length, and though a
-railway round its southern extremity was in course of construction, it
-was far from completion at the outbreak of hostilities. The lake is
-frozen over during the winter months, when transit has to be effected
-by sledges. But in the emergency the Russians laid railway lines across
-the lake, and thus by the end of February had established a through
-service of sorts. But even then the number of reinforcements and the
-quantity of supplies that could be moved up to the theatre of war were
-strictly limited by the delays inseparable from the working of a single
-track railway, and it is doubtful whether more than 25,000 men at the
-outside had been added to the field force by the beginning of March.
-
-[Sidenote: Weak Communications]
-
-The strategical problem which presented itself at the outbreak of
-hostilities was a comparatively simple one--for Japan at any rate. The
-power of Russia in the Far East depended on the maintenance of two
-great arteries of communication with the heart of the Russian Empire.
-One of these was the over-sea passage from the Black Sea or the Baltic
-through the Suez Canal and the East Indian Archipelago--a voyage
-occupying six weeks at least, and however feasible in time of peace,
-rendered particularly difficult and even precarious under war
-conditions owing to the possibility of interception and the absence of
-any intermediate coaling stations. The other connecting link between
-Port Arthur and St. Petersburg was the Trans-Siberian Railway, that
-gigantic enterprise which, completed in 1899, brought the capital of
-Russia within 15 days' journey of its furthermost outpost in the Yellow
-Sea. From Moscow to Port Arthur is a distance of some 4,000 miles, but
-at two-thirds of its length the railway is interrupted by the great
-inland sea known as Lake Baikal. At this point transshipment across the
-lake had to take place, a circumstance that offered an insurmountable
-hindrance to rapid transit. In the building of the railway, too,
-soundness had been sacrificed to rapidity of construction; the line was
-only a single track one, with stations and sidings at intervals of
-about 25 miles; and even when the whole service was monopolized for
-military purposes the number of trains that could be passed over the
-railway in one day was a fixed and very limited quantity. Even with
-this line open, therefore, the rate at which Russia could reinforce her
-troops in the Far East had to be determined by other circumstances than
-military urgency, and the number of her reinforcements also had to be
-governed by the capacity of the line to bring up not only men, but
-supplies; for Manchuria itself does not provide the means of support
-for a large army. The experience of the American Army in Cuba and of
-the British Army in South Africa proved what tremendous difficulties
-may be encountered in carrying supplies to a large force at a distance
-much less remote from its base than Russia's was. For years past Russia
-has sent out her troops and supplies to the Far East mainly by sea. For
-twelve months before the war broke out a constant stream of transports,
-colliers and supply ships had passed from the Black Sea to the Gulf of
-Pechili, and this stream was only interrupted on the outbreak of war--a
-significant admission of the incompleteness of the Russian
-preparations, as well as of the inadequacy of the Trans-Siberian
-Railway to supply her needs.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur]
-
-It was evident, therefore, that Japan's first object was to shut off
-Port Arthur from the sea, and her next to cut the railway communication
-to the North. This done, the Russian fortress, however impregnable to
-assault, must ultimately fall to investment. From Port Arthur, which,
-as a glance at the map will show, lies at the very tip of Liao-tung
-Peninsula, the railway runs due north for six hundred miles through
-Niuchwang and Mukden to Harbin, where it joins the branch line to
-Vladivostock. Though Russia has for several years been in occupation of
-this territory, her hold upon it is by no means secure. The population
-is distinctly unfriendly, and for the mere defence of the line
-thousands of troops are necessary. Indeed, it was this necessity that
-Russia urged as an excuse for her military occupation of Manchuria.
-
-[Sidenote: Korea as Base]
-
-Within the triangle of which Harbin is the apex, of which the lines to
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock are sides, and of which the course of the
-Yalu River is the base, the sphere of immediate military operations
-practically had to be confined, as the ice-bound condition of the coast
-to the west of Port Arthur made a landing in force there impossible
-till the spring. The necessity of maintaining communications tied the
-Russian forces very largely to the railway lines. But for either
-belligerent the helpless kingdom of Korea, which lies south of a line
-drawn between Port Arthur and Vladivostock, for aggressive operations,
-afforded the most convenient line of advance. Through Korea Russia
-could menace Japan, and through Korea Japan could most easily march
-against Port Arthur. Naturally, therefore, Russia's first care was to
-mass her available troops on the line of the Yalu, and concentrate
-reinforcements at Harbin ready to be moved to whatever point might
-prove the objective of the Japanese attack.
-
-[Sidenote: Command of the Sea]
-
-But the command of the sea was the essential condition to attack by
-land by either combatant. With the Russian fleet masked or destroyed,
-Japan could choose as a landing-place for her armies any of the
-numerous ports on the western coast of Korea, and so approach in force
-the Yalu River, which divides Korea from Manchuria and the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. With imperfect command of the sea, Japan would have a second
-resource. She could land her troops at Masampo, separated only by a
-hundred miles of sea from her own ports, or she could, at a push, land
-her forces on the east coast of Korea, at Yuen San or Gensan. But the
-former plan of operations would have entailed a long overland march
-before the objective was reached, and the latter the maintenance of
-communications over difficult and mountainous country. Evidently, then,
-immeasurable importance attached to the result of the first naval
-engagements, and to their influence in giving the command of the sea to
-the one or the other of the two belligerent Powers.
-
-[Sidenote: The First Blow]
-
-On February 5th M. Kurino, the Japanese Minister at the Court of St.
-Petersburg, announced to the Government of the Czar that Japan could
-wait no longer for the long-delayed Russian reply, and that further
-negotiations were broken off. This startling news reached Europe and
-America on the evening of Sunday, February 7th; and while its
-significance was still being anxiously discussed in every capital, and
-while statesmen and jurists were still trying to convince one another
-that the rupture of diplomatic negotiations did not necessarily imply
-the beginning of war, there burst like a thunder-clap the further news
-that the first grim and irretrievable blow had been struck. Having
-decided that the arbitrament of war was inevitable, Japan acted on her
-decision with swift and terrible effect. On the night of Monday,
-February 8th, a daring attack by torpedo-boats was made on the Russian
-fleet lying at anchor in the Port Arthur roadstead, and at one fell
-swoop the boasted might of Russia at sea was hopelessly broken. This
-astounding intelligence was first conveyed to the world in an official
-telegram from Admiral Alexeieff to the Czar, couched in the following
-terms:--
-
-"I most devotedly inform your Majesty that about midnight between the
-26th and 27th of January (February 8th and 9th) Japanese torpedo-boats
-delivered a sudden mine attack on the squadron lying in the Chinese
-roads at Port Arthur, the battleships _Retvisan_ and _Czarevitch_ and
-the cruiser _Pallada_ being holed. The degree of seriousness of the
-holes has to be ascertained. Particulars will be forwarded to your
-Imperial Majesty."
-
-[Sidenote: World-wide Interest]
-
-The stunning effect of this news was only enhanced when fuller details
-of the incident so baldly and laconically announced came to hand. No
-news of the movements of the Japanese fleet had been allowed to leak
-out, and its presence before Port Arthur was wholly unexpected by
-others as well as the Russians. On the 3rd of February the Russian
-fleet had put to sea, and for twenty-four hours the world was agog with
-the news of so momentous a movement. But the speculation died suddenly
-when it appeared that the fleet had returned immediately to its
-anchorage. The Japanese, with characteristic alertness, realized the
-splendid opportunity which the necessarily exposed position of the
-Russian ships afforded to an enterprising enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: A Graphic Account]
-
-While everything was still tranquil at Port Arthur, and the Russian
-authorities were confidently announcing that the foe could not be
-expected for three or four days, the blow fell. According to the
-graphic account of an eye-witness, every one at Port Arthur had settled
-down for the night, when suddenly across the bay reverberated the shock
-of three violent and successive explosions. In a moment all was bustle
-and confusion on the Russian warships. Searchlights flashed
-bewilderingly and without purpose across the waters, and quick-firing
-guns from vessel after vessel began a panic fusillade, which Admiral
-Alexeieff, in his official report, euphemistically described as "a well
-concentrated fire at the right time."
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Losses]
-
-It was midnight, and in the darkness and confusion it was impossible
-for any one to know exactly what was happening; but when the morning
-light broke over Port Arthur the two proudest possessions of the
-Russian fleet, the powerful battleships _Retvisan_ and _Czarevitch_,
-were seen passing slowly towards the harbor entrance, across which they
-presently lay in evidently a badly damaged condition. The cruiser
-_Pallada_ followed, listing heavily to port, and she also was grounded
-outside the entrance to the harbor.
-
-[Sidenote: The Fight of Feb. 9th]
-
-It was at ten o'clock the next day, the 9th of February, that the
-Russians obtained their first glimpse of the enemy. In the distance
-three Japanese cruisers were described hanging observant upon the
-Russian fleet, and immediately what remained of that once powerful
-squadron put to sea in pursuit of the audacious enemy. But, as before,
-this bold movement had no result, and the Russian ships returned to
-anchor. Scarcely had they done so when the Japanese squadron of sixteen
-vessels, including six battleships and four first-class cruisers,
-steamed into view in fighting formation. As the leading vessels at a
-distance of some three miles came into line with the harbor entrance
-the flash of their great guns broke through the mist, and for nearly an
-hour the Japanese shells continued to burst over the forts, along the
-beach and among the Russian ships, who replied vigorously, and whose
-fire was assisted by that of the powerful land batteries. Again the
-Russian squadron steamed out to meet the enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Bravery]
-
-Some of the cruisers advanced towards the Japanese fleet with great
-gallantry, the _Novik_, the _Diana_, and the _Askold_ particularly
-distinguishing themselves, with the result that they were all rather
-seriously hit by the Japanese fire and were compelled to retire upon
-the main squadron. Several other of the Russian ships were damaged
-before the Japanese fleet drew off.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Modesty]
-
-The official dispatch of Admiral Togo to his Government upon the
-momentous achievements of his fleet during these two days was a model
-of modesty and self-restraint. Dated "February 10th, at Sea," it ran:--
-
-"After the combined fleet left Sasebo, on the 6th, everything went off
-as planned. At midnight on the 8th the advance squadron attacked the
-enemy's advance squadron, the latter being mostly outside the bay. The
-_Poltava_, _Askold_ and others were apparently struck by torpedoes.
-
-"At noon on the 9th the fleet advanced to the offing of Port Arthur Bay
-and attacked the enemy for forty minutes, I believe doing considerable
-damage. I believe the enemy were greatly demoralized. They stopped
-fighting at one o'clock, and appeared to retreat to the harbor.
-
-[Illustration:
-               GENERAL KUROKI.                GENERAL OKU.
-                               MARSHAL OYAMA.
-               GENERAL NODZU.                 GENERAL NOGI.
-
-                            JAPANESE GENERALS.]
-
-"The Japanese fleet suffered but very slight damage, and its fighting
-strength is not decreased. Our casualties were 4 killed and 54 wounded.
-The Imperial Princes on board suffered no harm.
-
-"The conduct of the officers was cool, and not unlike their conduct at
-manoeuvres.
-
-"This morning, owing to heavy south wind, detailed reports from the
-vessels have not been received, so I merely report the above fact."
-
-[Sidenote: Damage Understated]
-
-This dispatch, as we know both from the Russian official accounts and
-from independent witnesses, really understated the extent of the blow
-which the Japanese Admiral had dealt to the Russian fleet; the vessels
-torpedoed were not cruisers only, but the two crack battleships upon
-which Admiral Alexeieff necessarily placed peculiar dependence, and the
-"considerable damage" which Admiral Togo believed had been done by the
-subsequent bombardment had put out of action, for the time being, the
-battleship _Poltava_ and the cruisers _Diana_, _Askold_ and _Novik_. Of
-these the _Poltava_ and the _Novik_ were badly hit on the water
-line--damage the seriousness of which needs no comment.
-
-[Sidenote: Only One Repairing Dock]
-
-The most significant confession, indeed, of the crushing character of
-the blow which at the very commencement of the war the Japanese had
-succeeded in dealing to their powerful adversary was contained in a
-subsequent dispatch from the Viceroy to the Czar. Telegraphing on
-February 11th, Admiral Alexeieff reported "the _Czarevitch_ and the
-_Pallada_ were brought on the 9th inst. into the inner harbor. The leak
-in the _Retvisan_ is being temporarily stopped. _The repairing of an
-ironclad is a complicated business, the period for the completion of
-which it is hard to indicate._" This guarded language must be read in
-the light of the fact that the Russians had only one repairing dock
-capable of holding a large ship at Port Arthur, and the terrible
-character of the disaster which within forty-eight hours had befallen
-the naval power of the haughty Muscovite in the Far East will be
-realized. The losses in men were not very serious, amounting in all to
-10 men killed and 2 officers and 41 men wounded, but the injury to the
-fleet was practically irreparable. Seven out of Russia's best vessels
-had been placed _hors de combat_, her battleships' strength being
-reduced to 4, namely, the _Petropavlovsk_, _Peresviet_, _Pobieda_ and
-_Sevastopol_ (the last two being themselves under repair when the war
-broke out), and her already small cruiser force being reduced to two,
-namely, the _Bayan_ and the _Boyarin_. The following is the list of the
-damaged ships:--
-
-           _Czarevitch_, battleship, torpedoed.
-           _Retvisan_, battleship, torpedoed.
-           _Poltava_, battleship, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Novik_, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Askold_, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Diana_, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Pallada_, cruiser, torpedoed.
-
-It should be added that the repairs to the _Askold_ were quickly
-executed, and that she was able to take part in the subsequent
-operations a few days later.
-
-[Sidenote: Alexeieff's Reason for Casualties]
-
-Admiral Alexeieff's dispatch to the Czar stated that the majority of
-the wounded belonged to the _Pallada_. The reason for this was that
-they were "poisoned by gases produced by the explosion of the torpedo
-charged with melinite."
-
-The Japanese fleet, naturally, did not emerge from such an action
-unscathed. Its losses in men were officially reported as 4 killed and
-54 wounded; and although the fighting efficiency of the fleet was not
-seriously impaired, two armored cruisers, the _Iwote_ and the _Yakumo_,
-were injured, and, as the casualties show, several other vessels were
-struck. But the most remarkable circumstance was that the torpedo-boats
-by which the night attack had been delivered escaped scot-free.
-
-[Sidenote: The Fight at Chemulpo]
-
-While the Russian capital was still reeling under the shock of this
-unexpected disaster, there came the news of a fresh blow struck by the
-Japanese arms in another quarter of the theatre of war. This was the
-naval engagement at Chemulpo--a port on the northwest coast of
-Korea--in which two of the Czar's warships and one transport steamer
-were destroyed. It is true that only one of these vessels had any
-fighting capacity, and that the conflict in itself was of much less
-consequence than the battle at Port Arthur, but the incident gave a
-further and mortifying revelation of the disorganization of the naval
-forces of Russia in the Far East, and of the total absence of anything
-like a bold and definite plan of operations from the minds of her
-commanders. In spite of the critical position in which the negotiations
-between the two Powers had been standing for weeks, the Russian fleet
-in the Yellow Sea was unconcentrated and generally unprepared for war.
-The outbreak of hostilities found two vessels, the _Varyag_, a
-protected cruiser of 6,500 tons, and the _Korietz_, a gunboat, old,
-indeed, but not without some use for coast defence, quietly stationed
-at Chemulpo, a ready prey for a Japanese squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: The First Shot]
-
-On the 8th instant a Russian steamer called the _Sungari_, which was
-employed for the transport of stores, entered the harbor with the news
-that a large fleet, which her captain believed to be Japanese, was fast
-approaching. The _Korietz_ was sent out to reconnoitre. The columns of
-smoke on the horizon did indeed come from the funnels of the enemy's
-ships. The advancing squadron consisted of a first-class battleship
-flying the flag of Admiral Uriu, and the cruisers _Akashi_,
-_Takachiho_, _Naniwa_ and _Chiyoda_, as well as seven torpedo-boats,
-the whole convoying transports with 2,500 Japanese troops on board. The
-_Korietz_ cleared her decks for action and fired--one account says that
-the shot was accidental--upon the rapidly approaching foe. The latter
-replied by discharging two torpedoes at the daring gunboat, which then
-retreated back into harbor. It is interesting to note that, whether the
-gunner of the _Korietz_ acted under orders or not, he fired the first
-shot in the war, for the incident occurred several hours before the
-torpedo attack upon Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Disembarkation]
-
-The Japanese took no further notice of the Russian ships until the
-disembarkation of their troops had been carried out, a process which
-was commenced immediately and was carried out through the night with
-great celerity and in the most perfect order. In this matter, indeed,
-as in all the preliminary stages of the war, the operations of the
-Mikado's forces showed how carefully thought out were the plans of his
-naval and military advisers. Not a detail appeared to have been
-omitted, every eventuality had been skilfully calculated beforehand,
-and as a result the whole machinery of warfare moved like clockwork.
-
-By four o'clock on the morning of the 9th the process of disembarkation
-had been successfully completed, and the soldiers had all found their
-pre-arranged billets on shore. The Japanese squadron then put out to
-sea once more, and waited for daylight before taking any action. At
-seven o'clock, however, the captain of the _Varyag_ was served with an
-ultimatum from Admiral Uriu declaring that hostilities had broken out
-between Russia and Japan, and summoning him to leave the harbor by
-midday. Should he refuse to do so, then the Japanese fleet would be
-compelled to attack the _Varyag_ and the _Korietz_ within the harbor. A
-correspondent of a London paper who was present on the spot states that
-the commanders of the other warships stationed at Chemulpo--namely, the
-British cruiser _Talbot_, the Italian _Elba_ and the French _Pascal_,
-held a meeting and drew up a strong protest addressed to the Japanese
-Admiral against his proposal to attack the Russian vessels in a neutral
-port. The message was sent out in the _Talbot's_ launch.
-
-[Sidenote: A Brave Russian Captain]
-
-The protest, however, was not needed, for the captain of the _Varyag_,
-in spite of the overwhelming disparity of forces, determined to face
-his enemies in the open. It was an act of conspicuous gallantry, only
-to be expected, it must be said, from the representative of a country
-whose sons, whatever their faults, have never been slow to die for her
-sake. The manner, too, in which the _Varyag_ set about her voyage to
-inevitable destruction was well worthy of the finest naval traditions
-of all countries and all ages. We are told that as the drums beat to
-quarters, and as the doomed ship steamed out amid the cheers of the
-foreign crews in the port, the band was massed upon her deck and burst
-into the strains of the Russian Hymn, the National Anthem. It was like
-that "flourish of insulting trumpets" with which Raleigh faced the guns
-of Cadiz, and the bravado of which Stevenson said he liked "better than
-the wisest dispositions to ensure victory; it comes from the heart and
-goes to it." No one, indeed, who is capable of generous emotions can
-fail to be uplifted by the story of the _Varyag's_ passage to death. It
-is well to know that the cold science of modern naval warfare and all
-those mathematical calculations and inventions which have displaced the
-ancient ascendency of brawn and muscle at close quarters have not
-quenched the eager spirit of the sailor, or diminished his "heroic
-superstitions and his strutting and vainglorious style of fight." It
-was with a spirit not less high and intrepid that the captain of the
-little _Korietz_, disregarding the orders of his superior officer to
-remain within the shelter of the harbor, followed in his wake and
-strove desperately to meet the same fate.
-
-[Sidenote: A Target for Japanese Gunners]
-
-Slowly but steadily the two ships held on their course towards the
-Polynesian Archipelago, where lay in wait their powerful foe. The
-_Varyag_ had reached Round Island, when at a distance of nearly two
-miles the Japanese flagship opened fire with one of her big guns. The
-aim of the gunners was true. Right amidships burst the great missile,
-doing terrible execution, and shell after shell followed with
-relentless rapidity. The _Varyag_, wheeling around in a small circle,
-responded dauntlessly with her 6-inch guns, but with little or no
-effect upon the battleship, and now Admiral Uriu's cruisers joined in
-the cannonade. Within half an hour of this fearful raking fire her
-bridge was shot away and her sides were gaping with holes, but she kept
-afloat and still withstood the onslaught, endeavoring heroically but in
-vain to find an opening by which to break through and escape out to
-sea. At last, after an hour's terrible pounding, she was compelled
-reluctantly to give up the attempt as hopeless, and, taking refuge
-among the islands, with difficulty crept back into Chemulpo harbor,
-disabled beyond repair and with her decks reduced to veritable
-shambles. Her desperate struggle had not left the enemy utterly
-scathless, for there seems no doubt that one of the Japanese cruisers
-received a good deal of damage.
-
-[Sidenote: The Plucky "Korietz"]
-
-In the meanwhile the little _Korietz_, with extraordinary bravery, but
-with absolutely pathetic ineffectiveness, had been attempting to
-imitate the manoeuvres of her consort and to do some injury to the
-big ships of the enemy. As well might a warrior with a popgun try to
-engage a battery of field artillery. It was magnificent, it certainly
-was not war. The range was hopelessly beyond her powers, and perhaps it
-was the bitterest drop in the cup of her commander and crew that the
-Japanese soon ceased to pay her any attention at all, concentrating all
-their efforts upon the more dangerous _Varyag_. When that vessel
-retreated at length into harbor, the _Korietz_ followed her unharmed
-but undisgraced.
-
-[Sidenote: Wounding and Burning]
-
-The wounded of the _Varyag_, numbering 4 officers and 214 men, were
-removed in boats to the British, Italian and French warships. The dead
-were left on board, for it was decided to scuttle the ship. At the same
-time arrangements were made to blow up the _Korietz_. Just as the
-Japanese fleet again appeared in sight the latter vessel blew up, and
-the shattered hull, after one great burst of flame and smoke, sank
-beneath the waters. The _Varyag_ refused to sink so easily, and the
-Russian sailors therefore again boarded her to set her on fire. After a
-little more than an hour she had burned down to the water's edge and,
-heeling over, disappeared. The _Sungari_ was the next to meet its fate,
-the Russians setting fire to it also to prevent its falling into the
-hands of the enemy.
-
-The Japanese fleet then steamed out to sea once more, having left
-behind it no further obstacle to the landing of troops on the west
-coast of Korea.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Handicap]
-
-Thus within forty-eight hours of the rupture of diplomatic relations,
-the first decisive action in the struggle for sea-supremacy had been
-fought, and the result left to the enterprising and intrepid Navy of
-Japan not only the immense moral value of a victory well contrived and
-unerringly accomplished, but the solid material advantage of a
-superiority in fighting strength which was incontestable.
-
-[Illustration:
-       GENERAL LINEVITCH.                      GENERAL GRIPENBERG.
-                          GENERAL KUROPATKIN.
-       GENERAL KAULBARS.                      GENERAL RENNENKAMPFF.
-
-                            RUSSIAN GENERALS]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-
-  No Rest for Russia--Port Arthur--The Russian Forts--Another
-    Russian Disaster--Second Night Attack--Japanese Daring--Demons
-    of the Storm--Moral Effect--Bottling up Port Arthur--The
-    Fireships--Fire and Searchlight--Rain of Shell--Russians Still
-    in the Woods--The Blockade--Transport Problems--Secrecy of
-    Japanese Movements--Admirable Arrangements--A Close
-    Censorship--Japanese Landings--Terrible Weather--At
-    Ping-Yang--Perfect Organization--At Seoul--The Korean
-    Emperor--A Japanese Protectorate--Advantage to Japan--Railway
-    Building--Japanese Rapidity--Dismay at St.
-    Petersburg--Alexeieff Criticised--General
-    Kuropatkin--Confessions of Weakness--Desperate Efforts--On the
-    Yalu--Round Niuchwang--Martial Law Proclaimed.
-
-
-[Sidenote: No Rest for Russia]
-
-If the Russians at Port Arthur imagined that an enemy so resourceful as
-Admiral Togo had shown himself to be would rest quietly upon his oars
-after the conspicuous successes of the 8th and 9th of February, they
-were greatly mistaken. The first course of action for the victor in
-such a case is to keep on striking and to give the harassed foe no
-rest--in the striking words of Captain Mahan, to "benumb the victim."
-This was precisely the plan of campaign adopted by the Japanese, who
-continued to show the same remarkable skill and coolness of
-calculation, and the same dash and daring in execution as had
-characterized their naval operations from the first. On the other hand,
-the disorganization of the Russian fleet, and of the defending force at
-Port Arthur generally, showed itself more markedly than ever, and the
-incapacity of the Czar's commanders conspired to aid the enterprise of
-the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur]
-
-Before entering, however, upon a narrative of the attacks upon Port
-Arthur which followed in swift succession upon the great battle of the
-9th, it may be well to give some description of that famous stronghold.
-The inner harbor is oval in shape, and two miles long from east to west
-and a mile in breadth from north to south. The shores are protected by
-hills, which the Russians had assiduously fortified since they obtained
-occupation of the place. Entrance is afforded from the south by a
-narrow channel, so narrow indeed that while it has the advantage of
-being easily held against an enemy, it has the counteracting
-disadvantage of being somewhat difficult of navigation for the ships of
-the defending fleet. The mouth of this channel is protected on the
-southwest by two dangerous reefs, which would prove a snare to an
-unwary foe; while on the eastern shore there stands the hill of
-Kwang-chin-shan, 250 feet above the sea level, upon which frown the
-guns of several powerful batteries. Upon the lower slopes the Russians
-had established two batteries of Canet quick-firing 5.5in. and 7.5mm.
-guns, with a torpedo and searchlight station. The entrance channel is
-flanked along the northwest by a narrow strip of land which goes by the
-expressive name of the "Tiger's Tail," and this strip was fortified
-with battery of 7 Canet 5.5in. quick-firing guns. The distance from the
-Pinnacle Rock, one of the reefs above mentioned as situated at the
-western corner of the entrance passage, to the opposite shore, is
-nearly 350 yards. In its course the channel narrows, till at one point
-it is only 500 feet in width, but it widens out again at the northern
-end. At the northeastern end lies the basin, or East Port. There is
-accommodation here for about a dozen large men-of-war, and on the north
-side stands the one dry dock for repairing large vessels of which Port
-Arthur can boast. On the other side of the channel, which at this point
-is 430 yards in width, lies the mouth of the harbor proper, facing the
-southeast. To enter it, ships have to round the Tiger's Tail, not a
-particularly easy process for men-of-war of the largest size. Nor is
-the harbor itself yet fitted to receive a great fleet. When the
-Russians took it over they found that it was too shallow for berthing
-vessels even of a moderate size; and in spite of the feverish activity
-of their engineers in the last year or two, the dredging operations
-have not proceeded far enough to allow of accommodations for more than
-three battleships, together with minor craft. Hence the Port Arthur
-squadron has generally been disposed either in the East Port, or basin,
-or in the open roadstead outside the entrance channel. It was indeed
-the position of the Russian ships in this latter anchorage that gave
-the Japanese the opportunity for their fatal torpedo attack on the 8th.
-
-[Illustration: _THE HARBOR OF PORT ARTHUR._]
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Forts]
-
-The land defences of Port Arthur were exceptionally strong. A range of
-forts, of which the Kwang-chin Hill already mentioned was the most
-important, commanded the harbor entrance; and another range of
-batteries, with the most powerful and up-to-date garrison ordnance,
-surmounted the hills which surround the town and protect it on the
-other side. Another line of forts guards the entrance channel on the
-west side, the most important being Wei-yuen. It seemed, indeed,
-undoubted that Port Arthur was impregnable from the sea, though at the
-beginning of the war European experts were not inclined to dogmatize as
-to the possibilities of its being stormed from the land side. As for
-the fleet, if it were lying in the West Harbor or in the East Port
-under the shadow of Kwan-chin, it would probably be perfectly safe from
-attack; but, on the other hand, it will be seen that there was a danger
-that the narrow entrance channel might be blocked up by an enterprising
-enemy, in which case the Czar's ships, even if they were the finest in
-the world, would be useless for all the essential purposes of naval
-warfare. This attempt to "cork up the bottle" was, indeed, nearly
-carried out by Admiral Togo in the course of the fortnight following
-the outbreak of war.
-
-[Sidenote: Another Russian Disaster]
-
-Two days after the great attack another disaster befell the hapless
-Russians. With this the Japanese fleet, which had retired temporarily
-to the Elliot Islands in the Korean Gulf to refit and repair injuries,
-had nothing to do. It was solely due to carelessness and mischance; and
-while illustrating the state of demoralization that existed at Port
-Arthur, it contributed to spread that demoralization still further
-among the already sufficiently harassed forces of the defenders. The
-mine transport _Yenesei_, which, with her sister ship the _Amur_, was
-engaged in superintending the mine defences of the harbor entrance,
-observing a submarine mine which had become detached floating on the
-surface of the water, approached it for the purpose of firing upon it
-and thus removing an obvious danger to the ships lying at anchor.
-Unfortunately, in the excitement of the process, Captain Stepanoff, who
-was in command, allowed his ship to drift upon a neighboring mine. A
-terrific explosion followed, and the _Yenesei_, with a yawning hole in
-her bows, began at once to settle down. An attempt was made to lower
-the boats, but the catastrophe was so sudden and unexpected that little
-could be done. Captain Stepanoff went down with his ship, and there
-perished also, either from the direct effects of the explosion or from
-drowning, the engineer, two midshipmen and ninety-two men of lower
-rank. Not only was this terrible disaster damaging to the _morale_ of
-the fleet, but it deprived Admiral Alexeieff of a valuable ship and of
-stores which he could ill spare. The _Yenesei_ was built at Kronstadt
-in 1898. She was of 2,500 tons displacement, with a speed of 17-1/2
-knots; was armed with five 4.7-inch and six smaller quick-firing guns,
-and was capable of carrying 500 mines. It is, of course, possible that
-she had not that full number on board at the time of the explosion, but
-in any case the loss in this respect alone must have been very severe.
-The accident throws an instructive and rather terrifying light upon the
-possible dangers of submarine mines, not only to the enemy who are
-attacking a fortified port, but also to the defenders themselves.
-
-[Sidenote: Second Night Attack]
-
-Before the Russians at Port Arthur had recovered from this
-nerve-shaking disaster the tireless foe flew at their throat once more.
-On the night of the 13th a flotilla of Japanese torpedo-boat destroyers
-started out to make another dash at the survivors of the Czar's fleet,
-which were still lying in the open roadstead, presenting for a daring
-and resourceful enemy a tempting object of attack. The flotilla was
-under the command of Captain Nagai. A blinding snowstorm was raging at
-the time, and it was no wonder in the circumstances that the vessels
-became separated from one another and that some lost their way
-altogether. But two, more fortunate than their fellows, hit the right
-course. These were the _Asagiri_, under Captain Iakawa, and the
-_Hayatori_, commanded by Captain Takanouchi. A snowstorm on that coast
-is enough to tax the skill and the courage of the most intrepid sailor,
-but the Japanese officers and crews were equal to the occasion. Right
-in the teeth of the awful blizzard, their decks sheeted with ice and
-snow, but with hearts on board hot with the fire of heroic adventure,
-the gallant little craft held steadily on their way. The navigating
-lieutenants had to find their course more by instinct than by
-calculation, for it was impossible to see anything clearly ahead
-through the pitch-darkness and the relentless snow. On, however, they
-crept through the terrible night, each working independently of the
-other, for under such conditions no concerted plan of attack was
-possible.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Daring]
-
-At three o'clock in the morning of the 14th, the _Asagiri_ reached the
-harbor mouth, and in she dashed regardless of the searchlights, which
-made broad, livid tracks even through the storm of snow. A hot fire at
-once broke out from the fortress and the ships, but the aim of the
-gunners was wild, and, undaunted by the perils of his situation,
-Captain Iakawa drove his boat right up to the Russian torpedo flotilla,
-and discharged a torpedo at one of the larger vessels, from whose
-funnels smoke was seen ascending. The deadly weapon went home, and
-after waiting to see that it exploded, the _Asagiri_ engaged in a smart
-exchange of shots with the enemy's torpedo boats and destroyers, in the
-course of which she sent a "scout" to the bottom. Then, and not till
-then, did her brave commander withdraw. Turning out to sea once more,
-and still hotly replying to the Russian fire until she was out of
-range, the _Asagiri_ safely escaped, covered with honor.
-
-[Sidenote: Demons of the Storm]
-
-Two hours later the _Hayatori_ arrived upon the scene and performed the
-same gallant feat. Still facing the terrors of the storm, she
-approached the harbor entrance and stealthily crept up to the fleet,
-which lay helplessly at anchor. At last the audacious little destroyer
-was discovered. Two vessels opened a fierce fire upon her, but without
-hesitation, though at the same time with the most deliberate coolness
-and perfect aim, she discharged a torpedo at the nearest ship. The
-missile was seen to explode, and then, like her consort, the _Asagiri_,
-fled safely to sea once more, after spiritedly returning the hot
-fusillade directed upon her from all quarters.
-
-[Sidenote: Moral Effect]
-
-In the characteristically restrained dispatch in which Admiral Togo
-described this brilliant feat of arms by the _Asagiri_ and the
-_Hayatori_, he remarked:--"It is impossible to state the definite
-material results, owing to the darkness, but the moral effect was
-certainly considerable." From other sources, however, something was
-learned of the character of the material damage done to the Russian
-fleet Not only was a scout destroyed, but the cruiser _Boyarin_ was
-injured by one of the torpedoes, and the Volunteer Fleet steamer
-_Kayan_ had her upper works knocked about by a shell from one of the
-Russian guns. The exact amount of the damage done was not revealed on
-the Russian side, but there can at all events be no doubt that, in the
-words of the Japanese Admiral, the moral effect was considerable. It is
-clear from the safe return of these two small destroyers out of the
-very jaws of the enemy, that the Russian gunners had become
-demoralized, and the ineffectiveness of Admiral Alexeieff's own torpedo
-flotilla in the face of an attack which it was peculiarly designed to
-meet points strongly in the same direction.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN FLEET TRYING TO LEAVE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Bottling up Port Arthur]
-
-But still a third harassing attack was in store for the Russian fleet.
-While one division of his torpedo-boat destroyers was thus carrying
-confusion and dismay into the ranks of his opponents, Admiral Togo,
-holding his main fleet within the shelter of the Elliot Islands, was
-quietly preparing for a larger and more far-reaching _coup_. This was
-to be nothing less than the operation of "corking up the bottle," in
-other words sinking ships at the entrance to Port Arthur Harbor, and
-blocking the fairway against passage of the Russian ships. It was an
-enterprise in some ways similar to the famous exploit of Lieutenant
-Hobson of the _Merrimac_ at Santiago-de-Cuba during the
-Spanish-American War, but in the present case the blockading fleet
-attained less success.
-
-[Sidenote: The Fire Ships]
-
-Five old steamers were chartered for the purpose. Their names were the
-_Tenshin Maru_, the _Bushu Maru_, the _Buyo Maru_, the _Hokoku Maru_,
-and the _Jinsen Maru_. Two of these, under the names of the _Rohilla_
-and the _Brindisi_, were formerly in the service of the Peninsular and
-Oriental Company. It may here be remarked that the spirit animating all
-ranks of the Japanese in this war was shown by the numbers of
-volunteers who came forward for the dangerous task of manning the
-doomed steamers. The difficulty, indeed, was not to find sufficient
-men, but to select the limited force required without giving offence to
-the remainder of the host who sought to share in the glorious risk. At
-last, however, the officers and crews were chosen, and the vessels,
-having been carefully filled with heavy stones and explosives, left for
-Port Arthur on the morning of the 23rd of February, escorted by a
-flotilla of torpedo boats and destroyers.
-
-[Sidenote: Fire and Searchlight]
-
-In the darkness of the early morning of the 24th, they reached the
-roadstead outside Port Arthur, the _Tenshin Maru_ leading the way. The
-Russians, however, were more vigilant than on former occasions, and
-their searchlights soon revealed the renewed presence of their
-insatiable enemy. The _Tenshin Maru_, steering too far to the left,
-came within the fire of the batteries on the Tiger's Tail at close
-range. She was disabled by a shell, ran upon the rocks three miles to
-the southwest of the harbor entrance, and there blew up. The other
-steamers changed their course to the northeast, but the attentions of
-the Russian searchlight operators rendered their progress highly
-difficult and dangerous, and they were soon the object of a positive
-storm of fire from the forts on the Tiger's Tail, Golden Hill, and
-Electric Cliff, and also from the damaged _Retvisan_, which lay
-grounded at the entrance to the channel. The _Bushu Maru_ was the first
-to suffer from the cannonade. Her steering gear was carried away, and,
-staggering blindly to the west, she grounded close to the _Tenshin
-Maru_, blew up, and sank. The fate of the _Buyo Maru_ was no better.
-She was raked fore and aft by the Russian shells, and before she could
-reach the coveted entrance she also exploded and sank beneath the
-waters.
-
-[Sidenote: Rain of Shells]
-
-The _Hokoku Maru_ and the _Jinsen Maru_ were more successful. They made
-a rush together for the harbor channel, and got close up to the
-_Retvisan_. Disregarding the heavy fire directed upon them from the
-disabled but still dangerous monster, the adventurous volunteers calmly
-anchored their vessels upon the spot previously selected. Then only did
-they set the match to the fuses. Cheering loudly, but with no undue
-precipitation, they now took to the boats and pulled away in perfect
-order, in spite of the rain of shells and bullets showered around them
-on every side. The abandoned steamers blew up immediately afterwards
-and sank close to the lighthouse at the channel mouth. The activity of
-the Russian searchlights and the hot fire from the guns of the
-_Retvisan_ and the forts compelled the men in the boats to take a very
-roundabout course, and they could not regain the Japanese torpedo
-fleet, which in the meantime had successfully picked up the crews of
-the other sunken ships. But the situation of the sailors of the _Hokoku
-Maru_ and the _Jinsen Maru_ was full of peril. To add to their
-difficulties, the wind rose to a gale towards daybreak, and they were
-driven out of their course. But they struggled bravely on, and, after
-enduring great hardships, they managed to reach the main fleet about
-three o'clock in the afternoon. According to the Japanese Admiral's
-report, all engaged returned in safety from this dangerous enterprise,
-an achievement comparable to the most daring "cutting-out" expeditions
-of olden times. It should be added that not a single destroyer or
-torpedo-boat was injured.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians Still in the Wood]
-
-Owing to the failure of three of the steamers to reach the entrance of
-the channel, and the insufficient size of the two which were
-successfully sunk there, the main object of the scheme was not
-attained, but it is thought that some temporary inconvenience was
-caused to the Russians, especially as the position of the grounded
-_Retvisan_ herself was already something of an impediment to
-navigation. Extraordinary jubilation was created in the Czar's
-dominions, particularly in the Capital, by the failure of the Japanese
-expeditions. It was at first thought by the defending force, in the
-darkness and confusion, that the merchant steamers were men-of-war, and
-a grandiloquent account was sent to St. Petersburg by an imaginative
-correspondent announcing no less a disaster to the Japanese than the
-destruction of four of their battleships, after a severe engagement in
-which the wounded _Retvisan_ had covered herself with glory. The news
-was quickly transmitted abroad by the semi-official agency, and the
-greatest excitement was caused in every capital in Europe. Cool-headed
-people, nevertheless, waited for some confirmation of this remarkable
-story, and when the truth came out the partisans of Russia were
-chagrined to find what a different complexion the real facts wore.
-Admiral Alexeieff, however, after the previous disasters which had
-befallen his fleet, was to be pardoned, perhaps, for the somewhat
-exultant tone of his dispatch to the Czar, in which he attributed what
-he called "the complete derangement of the enemy's plan" to "the
-brilliant resistance and destructive fire of the _Retvisan_."
-
-[Sidenote: The Blockade]
-
-Undiscouraged by the failure of this attempt to bottle up the enemy,
-Admiral Togo continued to maintain a strict blockade of the port, and
-to pursue the policy of alternate torpedo attacks and heavy
-bombardments at frequent intervals. But before proceeding with the
-story of these damaging and disconcerting operations, it will be
-convenient to describe the course which events were taking in other
-quarters of the theatre of war.
-
-[Sidenote: Transport Problems]
-
-The signal success of Japan at sea had reduced to comparatively simple
-proportion the problem of the transport of her forces to the seat of
-war on land, where the curtain was about to rise on the most desperate
-act in the great drama. With half the Russian fleet at Port Arthur
-disabled, with the other half confined to the harbor by strict
-blockade, and with the Vladivistock cruiser squadron reduced to
-ineffective isolation, the Mikado's military advisers were able to
-choose the most convenient landing-places in Korea with a freedom which
-was only limited by the difficulties of the winter season. This indeed
-was a serious impediment to the movement of troops in large numbers.
-Not only were most of the available harbors both in Korea and on the
-Liao-tung Peninsula blocked by the ice, but when the invading force
-landed it found the roads in such a state as to render them almost
-impassable. The country was covered with snow several inches deep; the
-frost was biting; and even when milder weather began to prevail the
-conditions did not at once prove more favorable to marching operations
-and to the conveyance of heavy artillery. For the time being, in fact,
-they grew worse rather than better, for the thaw produced a perfect sea
-of mud, which made progress northwards a terribly slow and painful
-business. Anyone who has tried to cross a ploughed field during the
-break up of a prolonged frost can form some idea--faint, however, at
-the best--of the pleasures of marching in Korea at the beginning of
-spring.
-
-[Sidenote: Secrecy of Japanese Movements]
-
-In spite, nevertheless, of all the natural difficulties of the
-situation, the Japanese proceeded steadily and systematically to "weave
-the crimson web of war." Nothing has been more remarkable in the course
-of these operations both by sea and by land than the complete secrecy
-with which the Mikado's strategists have veiled all their important
-movements until the calculated blow has been struck. In this, of
-course, they have been aided by their speedy acquisition of the command
-of the sea. All the correspondents who have proceeded to the seat of
-war agree in paying mortified tributes to the thoroughness of the
-Japanese press censorship. For weeks together a great army of
-"specials" were condemned idly to kick their heels at Nagasaki, while
-before their eyes transport after transport, crowded with soldiery, was
-leaving that port for unknown destinations. It was, however, generally
-evident on the face of the broad facts of the situation, that the main
-objective of the Japanese armies at that time was the west coast of
-Korea; for though the ports in the district were undoubtedly difficult
-of access on account of the ice, the condition of things on the
-Liao-tung Peninsula, the other probable place of disembarkation, was
-very much worse.
-
-[Sidenote: Admirable Arrangements]
-
-Before the end of February over forty transports sailed from Nagasaki,
-and a still larger embarkation went on at Ujina, near Hiroshima, where
-a great force of horse, foot, and artillery were steadily detrained
-every day and sent on board. The admirable arrangements made by the
-Japanese directors of mobilization and transport were the theme of
-universal praise among unprejudiced observers. Everything had been
-carefully thought out beforehand; all the necessary material was ready;
-and consequently, when war broke out, there was no confusion, no undue
-haste--only the ordered bustle of men who knew exactly what they had to
-do and how it was to be done, down to the veriest detail. Special
-wharves had been prepared and were in position within a few days, with
-railway lines laid upon them, connecting them with the main lines over
-which the troops travelled from the interior, so that the trains could
-be brought down almost to the water's edge. Here the soldiers were
-detrained, and, after a meal, embarked upon lighters and steam
-launches, and were conveyed swiftly to the ships to which they were
-assigned. These transports averaged 6,000 tons in burden, and were
-excellently fitted up for their purpose. An important part of the
-vessels' equipment in each case was a number of large surf-boats or
-sampans, about the most useful form of boat possible for landing troops
-in the shoal waters of the Korean harbors.
-
-[Sidenote: A Close Censorship]
-
-What was taking place in the meanwhile on the other side of the
-channel, and particularly upon the western coast of the Hermit Kingdom?
-We now know something of the strength and the disposition of the
-Japanese forces, although right up to the last moment before the
-general advance only the smallest items of information were allowed to
-pass through the narrow-meshed net of the censorship.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Landings]
-
-According to the most trustworthy accounts, however, there seems little
-doubt that the chief point of disembarkation of the Mikado's army was
-Chinampo, a small and obscure treaty port situated about 150 miles
-north of Chemulpo. We have already related the landing of the Japanese
-advance guard at Chemulpo on February 8th, before the naval battle
-which resulted in the destruction of the _Varyag_ and the _Korietz_.
-This force, which belonged to the 12th Infantry Division under General
-Inouye, and consisted of 2,500 men, was billeted at once in the little
-town, and was followed during the next few days by the remainder of the
-Division, with transport corps, train, and engineers. When the Mikado's
-advisers had been assured of the success of the initial naval
-operations and of Admiral Togo's supremacy at sea, a small expedition
-was immediately landed near Haiju, a place situated about half-way
-between Chemulpo and Chinampo, and sent forward by the Seoul-Wiju road
-to seize Ping-Yang, a strategical point the importance of which was
-amply demonstrated in the Chino-Japanese war. The main body of General
-Inouye's Division followed with all possible speed from Chemulpo.
-
-[Sidenote: Terrible Weather]
-
-The hardships which these troops had to face were terrible indeed. The
-weather was at its worst. Heavy rain was succeeded by frost, and on the
-top of the frost came snow, and cruel blinding blizzards, in the teeth
-of which the little Japs, each man burdened with a weight of 100 lbs.,
-had to struggle as best they could. In the circumstances the
-achievement of these forerunners of the Mikado's main army did an
-admirable piece of work. They did a steady march of 25 miles a day,
-bivouacking in the dirty Korean villages by night. At last, after four
-or five days, the force reached Ping-Yang and proceeded with all
-expedition to fortify it against possible attack. By the end of
-February a considerable body of troops was in occupation of Ping-Yang,
-and patrols were being pushed northwards to Anju.
-
-[Sidenote: At Ping-Yang]
-
-The seizure of this strong position, providing as it did against any
-immediate danger from the north, enabled the Japanese to land higher up
-the coast than Chemulpo, and henceforth the main work of disembarkation
-in this quarter was carried on at Chinampo, access to which is gained
-by an arm of the sea called the Ping-Yang Inlet.
-
-[Sidenote: Perfect Organization]
-
-Here we find the complement of the operations which at Nagasaki and
-Ujina excited such keen admiration on the part of foreign critics.
-Perfect order and discipline characterized the disembarkation of the
-Japanese, as it had characterized their embarkation. The Pink-Yang
-Inlet is difficult of navigation at the best of times, but the inherent
-difficulties were enormously enhanced at this period of the year by the
-drift ice, which rendered landing an awkward and, in some cases, a
-hazardous undertaking. But the Japanese showed that admirable
-forethought which has characterized every step they have taken, and the
-transports brought with them large numbers of pontoon wharves, which
-enabled the troops to disembark from the sampans at some distance from
-the shore, and to march easily on to firm land. Here the hardy
-Japanese, in spite of the severe cold, bivouacked for the most part in
-the open, and were then pushed forward with all possible rapidity
-towards Ping-Yang. By the middle of March, as far as can be estimated,
-at least 80,000 men had landed in Korea ready to advance northwards as
-soon as the weather would permit; General Kuroki, commanding the 1st
-Army Corps, assuming the direction of affairs until the arrival of
-Baron Kodama, the Chief of the General Staff, who had been appointed
-Commander-in-Chief.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE DESTROYERS AT CLOSE QUARTERS, MARCH
-9TH.]
-
-[Sidenote: At Seoul]
-
-In the meanwhile a strong force, under General Inouye, had marched upon
-Seoul, and without difficulty overawed the feeble Emperor and his
-corrupt Court. On the 12th of February M. Pavloff, whose name had for
-so long been a word to conjure with in Korea, left the capital for
-Chemulpo under the humiliating protection of a Japanese guard. M.
-Pavloff, it is said, was thunderstruck by the news of the disasters to
-the Russian navy, and by the sudden revelation of the real strength of
-the hitherto despised Island Empire. It was now clear to the world, and
-not least to his dupes, the Koreans, that the diplomatic bluff in which
-he, in common with his administrative chief, Admiral Alexeieff, had
-been indulging for so long was ludicrously out of proportion to the
-naval and military preparations which would ultimately have to support
-it. But the power of this able man at the Court of Seoul, though broken
-for the moment, was not by any means destroyed. So well had he done his
-work that even in the hour of Japan's triumph he still managed to find
-tools in the corrupt servants of the Emperor, and when he had taken his
-departure for Shanghai more than one attempt to communicate with him
-had to be frustrated by the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: The Korean Emperor]
-
-For the time being, however, the star of Japan was unquestionably in
-the ascendant at Seoul. The Emperor hastened to congratulate the Mikado
-on the victory of his fleet, and assured him that in view of Korea's
-position her satisfaction equalled that of the Japanese. At the same
-time the Korean local officials were ordered by the central Government
-to give every facility to the invading troops.
-
-[Sidenote: A Japanese Protectorate]
-
-But a more definite acknowledgment of Japanese supremacy followed. On
-February 23rd an important agreement was signed at Seoul by M. Hayashi,
-the Minister of the Mikado, and General Yi-Chi-Yong, the Korean
-Minister for Foreign Affairs. By the terms of this Protocol, Korea,
-"convinced of Japan's friendship," undertook to adopt the advice of the
-Japanese Government in regard to administrative reform "with a view to
-consolidating the peace of the Orient." On the other hand, Japan
-guaranteed the safety of the Imperial family and the independence and
-territorial integrity of Korea. In pursuance of this provision, the
-fourth Article declared that an encroachment by a third Power, or an
-internal disturbance resulting in danger to either of these interests,
-would justify prompt measures on the part of Japan, who would receive
-assistance from Korea, and in order to give effect to such action Japan
-might occupy strategical points in Korea if necessary.
-
-[Sidenote: Advantage to Japan]
-
-The object of this agreement was, of course, to regularize Japan's
-position in the eyes of the Powers and at the same time to give a sop
-to the dignity of Korea. Its most important point, as far as the future
-was concerned, was the definite guarantee on the part of Japan of the
-independence and territorial integrity of the Hermit Kingdom. The
-significance of this action of the Mikado's Government, as foretelling
-the lines of their permanent policy in the event of a final victory
-over the forces of the Czar, was heightened by the visit to Seoul a few
-weeks afterwards, on a special mission, of Japan's most famous
-statesman, the Marquis Ito. The attention was reciprocated by the
-dispatch of a special envoy from the Korean Court to Tokio. The most
-important immediate effect, however, of the complete ascendancy now
-acquired by Japan at Seoul was of military rather than of civil
-interest. This was the granting of a concession to the Japanese under
-Article 4 of the Protocol, for the construction of the projected
-railway between Seoul and Wiju, on the Yalu River, while at the same
-time arrangements were made for the completion of the southern portion
-of the line between Seoul and Fusan, a port at the southern extremity
-of Korea.
-
-[Sidenote: Railway Building]
-
-Here the marvelous organization of the Japanese War Office came into
-evidence once more. All the preparations for acting upon this
-concession had already been made. The material which had been intended
-for the construction of some unimportant railways in Japan was at hand
-ready to be transferred to the seat of war, and the engineer and
-pioneer corps only waited for the conclusion of the necessary
-formalities to begin operations. On March 8th a body of 8,000 men
-started work on the line between Seoul and Wiju, and the enterprise was
-conducted at high pressure, the material being conveyed with all
-possible speed by steamers from Japan. The value of this railway for
-strategical purposes will be obvious to anyone who studies the map;
-and, more fortunate than the Russians, the Japanese, provided that they
-could hold the northern part of Korea at all, were not likely to be
-faced with the difficulties which had proved so embarrassing to their
-enemy, in the shape of brigands and train-wreckers, in Manchuria. The
-completion of the whole line as far as Fusan would furthermore make
-them practically independent of sea transport for men as well as
-supplies, except, of course, as far as the narrow Korean Channel is
-concerned.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Rapidity]
-
-It will thus be seen that, considering the inevitable delay due to the
-severity of the season, the preparations for a general advance by the
-Japanese army had been conducted with remarkable celerity and success,
-and that by the middle of March great progress had been made.
-
-We must now turn to the Russian side of the war.
-
-[Sidenote: Dismay at St. Petersburg]
-
-One of the first consequences of the reverses at Port Arthur was a
-change in the commands. The unexpected collapse of the Russian navy
-under the attacks of the despised Japanese caused grave searchings of
-heart at St. Petersburg, and there can be no doubt that the Czar
-himself was greatly shocked by the revelation both of the lack of
-readiness of his fleet and of the strange paralysis of enterprise on
-the part of the Admiral in command. It was not long before the Imperial
-displeasure was visited upon this officer, Admiral Starck. On the 16th
-of February he was formally superseded, and Admiral Makaroff,
-Commander-in-Chief at Kronstadt, and a sailor of proved energy and
-skill, was appointed to the command of the Pacific Fleet in his place.
-The official reason, indeed, which was given out for Admiral Starck's
-recall was "ill-health," but this ingenious euphemism deceived nobody,
-the less so because the same mysterious complaint simultaneously seized
-hold of Rear-Admiral Molas, his second Chief of the Staff, who was
-recalled in the same Imperial Ukase.
-
-[Sidenote: Alexeieff Criticized]
-
-The Viceroy himself did not escape criticism at the hands of the
-Russian public, and in official circles at St. Petersburg keen censure
-was bestowed upon him for his share in the disasters which had befallen
-the fleet under his control; but he still appeared to retain the
-confidence of his master the Czar. It soon became apparent, however,
-that the military problem in Manchuria presented difficulties of its
-own hardly less embarrassing than those which were being experienced at
-sea, and as the magnitude of the task dawned upon the Czar and his
-advisers, it was deemed necessary to take drastic measures. On February
-21st, therefore, the celebrated General Kuropatkin, Minister for War,
-and the first Russian military strategist of the day, was appointed
-Commander-in-Chief of the land forces in the Far East. It was carefully
-explained that Admiral Alexeieff, as a naval officer, could not be
-expected to conduct great operations on land, but it was apparent to
-everyone that as these land operations were now destined finally to
-decide the issue of the great conflict, the direction of the whole war
-on the Russian side had virtually passed to General Kuropatkin.
-
-[Sidenote: General Kuropatkin]
-
-Some slight account of this famous captain may not be out of place
-here. Like so many of Russia's distinguished men, both in the past and
-in the present, Alexis Nikolaievitch Kuropatkin has owed his rise
-rather to merit than to influence. His family was indeed a noble one,
-but it was little known, and his early advancement in the service was
-due to his own ability and industry, and not to high connections. When
-quite young, however, he was fortunate enough to attract the attention
-of the celebrated Skobeleff, and he became a great favorite as well as
-a zealous disciple of that famous cavalry leader. His opportunity came
-in the Russo-Turkish War, where he displayed notable dash and
-gallantry, risking his life recklessly in the terrible conflict at
-Plevna. In crossing the Balkans he captured a large Turkish force, and
-was promoted to the command of a division. Towards the close of the war
-he became Chief of the Staff to Skobeleff, and in the campaign against
-the Turkomans, which followed, and which resulted in the conquest of
-Turkestan, he served that great General in the same capacity. His rise
-was indeed remarkably rapid; promotion came to him while he was young
-and active enough to make the best use of it; and although he had held
-the highest position in the army--the Ministry for War--for some years,
-his age was now only fifty-six. Like most successful men, he was not
-without his critics and detractors--it was said indeed that among these
-was to be found Admiral Alexeieff himself, and that there was no love
-lost between the two--but there can be no doubt of the General's
-immense popularity with the army. His appointment to the supreme
-command caused a universal feeling of relief to spread not only
-throughout the Service, but throughout all classes of society in
-Russia, while at the same time it proved that the real seriousness of
-the task which lay then in the Far East had at last been grasped by the
-Czar's Government.
-
-[Sidenote: Confessions of Weakness]
-
-For a time indeed the haughty disdain of their puny foe, which had
-characterized Russian official circles before the war, was succeeded by
-a feeling of acute pessimism. To prepare the public for the worst, an
-official _communique_ was issued at St. Petersburg, in which, after an
-outburst of well affected indignation against the so-called treachery
-of the enemy, the people were warned that much time was necessary in
-order to strike at Japan blows "worthy of the dignity and might of
-Russia," while the state of unpreparedness on land as well as at sea
-was revealed in the phrase, "the distance of the territory now attached
-and the desire of the Czar to maintain peace were the causes of the
-impossibility of preparations for war being made a long time in
-advance." Simultaneously with the issue of this extraordinary
-confession came the news that Admiral Alexeieff with his staff had left
-Port Arthur and proceeded to Harbin, at the junction of the Manchurian
-railway and the branch line to Vladivostock, there to effect a
-concentration of all the available Russian forces.
-
-[Sidenote: Desperate Efforts]
-
-These facts combined were generally taken as indicating the intention
-of the Czar's Government to abandon Port Arthur and Southern Manchuria,
-for the time being, to their fate, and to make the first real stand
-against the enemy on the borders of Eastern Siberia. Desperate,
-however, as the situation appeared to be in these early days of the
-war, it undoubtedly improved somewhat in the next few weeks, and the
-delay which the severe climatic conditions imposed upon the Japanese
-advance necessarily aided the Russians. General Linevitch, commander of
-the Siberian Army Corps, to whom the direction of military affairs was
-entrusted pending the arrival of General Kuropatkin, made desperate
-exertions to collect an effective force as far south as possible, and
-it was regarded as highly probable, from such scraps of news as were
-allowed to creep through the censorship, that by the third week of
-March he had at his disposal in Southern Manchuria a force of about
-50,000 men, the bulk of which was concentrated at Liao-Yang, some forty
-or fifty miles below Mukden.
-
-[Sidenote: On the Yalu]
-
-At the same time a smaller body of troops held the Yalu River, and
-patrols were sent southwards. As early as February 28th, one of these
-patrols, consisting of three Cossacks under the command of Lieutenant
-Lonchakoff, came into touch with a Japanese patrol outside Ping-Yang.
-The Japanese retreated, and the Russians, after advancing within 700
-paces of the town, retired also before the sharp fire directed upon
-them from the walls. This was the first land skirmish of the war; it
-was a small affair of outposts only; and a long interval was to elapse
-before a more serious conflict could become possible.
-
-[Sidenote: Round Niuchwang]
-
-Important, however, as were the events occurring in Korea, it was felt
-by experts in Europe that the most momentous developments on land were
-destined to take place on the western shore of the Liao-tung Peninsula,
-and that the advance upon the Yalu was really intended to cover a blow
-at a spot more vital to Russia's power. But here, by the nature of
-things, the movements of the Japanese could not be so rapid. As already
-indicated, the ice-bound condition of the Liao-tung coast prevented any
-landing operations in that quarter before the end of March or the
-beginning of April, when the frozen belt usually begins to break up. As
-soon as the advancing spring brought about the changed state of affairs
-it was apparent that a descent in force would become practicable to the
-Japanese both at Kinchau in Society Bay, where the peninsula narrows
-down to a mere neck of land, and, more important still, at Niuchwang,
-the treaty port at the north of the gulf. At either of these spots it
-would be comparatively easy to cut the Manchurian railway and sever
-communication between Port Arthur and the Russian headquarters, but the
-seizure of Niuchwang would be of much greater consequence than that of
-Kinchau, as it would place the invading army within easy striking
-distance of Mukden itself. Furthermore, the very process of the break
-up of the ice at Niuchwang, as long as it lasts, is favorable in some
-respects to the landing of an army. In winter the river is frozen out
-to sea for a considerable distance, and thus, when the spring arrives,
-the estuary presents the appearance of several square miles of moving
-ice-floes, tossed hither and thither by the swift and devious currents,
-and rendering the task of laying mines for the defence of the port
-practically impossible. Another advantage possessed by the Japanese in
-attacking from this quarter lay in the physical character of the
-country and in the friendliness of its inhabitants. The boggy nature of
-the land threatened to deprive the Russian cavalry of half its
-usefulness, while it was eminently suited for the movements of
-infantry, in which Japan found her greatest strength; on the other
-hand, the Japanese had made themselves very popular with the
-inhabitants during their war with China, and could depend upon the
-natives for ample supplies.
-
-[Illustration: THE CZAR.]
-[Illustration: THE MIKADO.]
-
-[Sidenote: Martial Law Proclaimed]
-
-The extreme probability on all these grounds of a Japanese descent upon
-Niuchwang was doubtless evident to the Russians themselves, for they
-made great exertions to put the port into a state of defence, and their
-concentration at Liao-Yang, fifty miles or so to the north, was clearly
-designed to meet danger from this quarter. Niuchwang itself, however,
-is not very easily defended against a strong force attacking from the
-sea. The forts are of little avail against the guns of powerful
-men-of-war; and therefore, although General Kondrotovitch, the able
-officer in command, had done his best to strengthen the defences of the
-town, and was said to have some twenty or thirty thousand troops at his
-disposal by the end of March, it seemed clear that this was a vitally
-weak spot in Russia's extended front. On Monday, March 28th, the
-Russian authorities at Niuchwang declared martial law in this "neutral
-port" in the following terms:
-
-According to an order issued by the Viceroy of his Imperial Majesty in
-the Far East, the Port of Ying-kow has been proclaimed under martial
-law. Until the publication of the order the following regulations will
-be enforced, and will be brought into immediate operation:
-
-(1) Martial law extends over the town and port of Ying-kow, over the
-whole population, without distinction of nationalities.
-
-(2) All passengers and cargoes arriving must undergo examination. For
-this purpose steamers, sailing vessels and junks, having entered the
-mouth of the river, must anchor at a distance of six miles below the
-fort. A steam-launch, during daylight, with a naval and Customs officer
-on board, will meet the vessels at that spot. They will examine the
-vessels and conduct them to berths allotted by the Customs officers.
-
-(3) The import of arms and ammunition is prohibited.
-
-(4) It is prohibited to export to any ports of Japan or Korea articles
-of military contraband.
-
-(5) When exporting articles to neutral ports the shipper must deposit
-with the Customs security equal to the value of the cargo, as a
-guarantee that the cargo shall not be reshipped from a neutral port to
-Japanese or Korean ports.
-
-(6) Lightships and leading marks will temporarily cease to be used at
-the mouth of the river.
-
-(7) When dealing with articles of contraband of war, the regulations
-sanctioned by his Majesty on February 14th, 1904, are to serve for the
-guidance of the military and civil authorities of the town and port of
-Ying-kow, who must be guided by the published regulations defending the
-administration of the provinces.
-
-(8) If beans and beancake are exported, a sum equal to twice their
-value must be deposited with the Customs.
-
-                                                 (Signed) VICTOR GROSSE.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-
-  Firing on the Unarmed--Snowstorms and Bitter Frost--Reconnoitring
-    at Vladivostock--At the Mouth of the Golden Horn--Careful
-    Japanese Calculation--Bombardment at Long Range--Russian Ships
-    Lying Low--Makaroff to the Rescue--A Chance for Russian
-    Torpedoes--Sea Fight at Close Quarters--Severe
-    Casualties--Another Hot Fight--Unprecedented Japanese
-    Daring--Carnage Indescribable--Makaroff Outpaced--A Useless
-    Prize--Bombardment by Wireless Telegraphy--Port Arthur a
-    Hell--Golden Hill Silenced--Terrific Missiles--A Vivid
-    Picture--Blood, Blood Everywhere--Further Naval
-    Movements--Hoist with its own Petard--Another Attempt to
-    "Bottle"--Makaroff's Feint--Wary Enemies--Russians Taking
-    Heart--Individual Heroism.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Firing on the Unarmed]
-
-We must now return to the naval operations; but before dealing with the
-proceedings of Admiral Togo's fleet off Port Arthur, it will be well
-perhaps briefly to follow the fortunes of the Russian cruiser squadron
-stationed at Vladivostock, of which so much had been expected as an
-agency for the destruction of Japanese commerce on the high seas. The
-first news received of these cruisers after the outbreak of war did
-indeed appear to bear out the hopes which the Russians had entertained
-of them in this respect; but after one solitary exploit--the sinking of
-a Japanese merchantman--the squadron disappeared from view altogether,
-and for several weeks its movements became one of the most remarkable
-mysteries of a mysterious situation. It will be remembered that the
-vessels composing the squadron were the powerful first-class cruisers,
-the _Gromoboi_, the _Bogatyr_, the _Rossia_, and the _Rurik_, and the
-whole was under the command of Captain Reitzenstein, formerly the
-commander of the _Askold_. Apparently the orders given to the Commodore
-were to cruise about the coast of Manchuria and Japan with the object
-of picking off stray merchantmen belonging to the enemy, and it was
-while he was acting in pursuance of these instructions that Captain
-Reitzenstein, on February 11th, fell in with two Japanese steamers--the
-_Nakonoura Maru_ and the _Zensko Maru_, off the Tsugaru Straits, which
-lie between the islands of Hondo--the Japanese mainland--and Yezo. The
-larger of the two, the _Nakonoura Maru_, was an old ship, built in
-1865, and of 1,084 tons burden; the smaller, the _Zensko Maru_, of only
-319 tons, was quite modern, having been built in 1895. They were bound
-in company from Sokata, in the province of Nizan, to Otaru, in Yezo.
-The older and slower boat fell an easy prey to the Russian cruisers;
-but it would seem that she offered fight, for she was surrounded by the
-men-of-war, bombarded, and sunk, her crew being taken on board the
-Russian ships. This act called forth a great outburst of indignation in
-Japan and also in the United States; for though, of course, a
-merchantman can justifiably be captured as a prize of war, it is not
-usual to destroy an unarmed ship out of hand. The official telegrams,
-however, gave no particulars as to the extent of the resistance
-offered, and it must be allowed that if the _Nakonoura Maru_ absolutely
-refused to surrender, the Russian men-of-war would have no option but
-to fire upon her and let her take the inevitable consequences. The
-_Zensko Maru_, more fortunate than her consort, showed the Russians a
-clear pair of heels and escaped safely to the shelter of the port of
-Fukuyama, in Yezo.
-
-[Sidenote: Snowstorms and Bitter Frost]
-
-This insignificant feat of arms was the sole success in the way of the
-destruction of commerce which could be put to the credit of Captain
-Reitzenstein's squadron in the early days of the war, and the fates
-soon proved unkind to him. The stormy weather which inconvenienced the
-Mikado's fleet off Port Arthur raged in the Japan Sea with peculiar
-severity, and for three days after the destruction of the _Nakonoura
-Maru_ the Russian squadron flew before a heavy gale, aggravated by
-snowstorms and bitter frost. An official message from Admiral Alexeieff
-reporting these facts was the last authentic news of the Vladivostock
-squadron that reached the outside world for many weeks. Rumor upon the
-subject was, of course, busy in Russia. Now it was reported that the
-activity of Captain Reitzenstein had reduced the over-sea trade of
-Japan to a standstill; now it was stated (on the best authority, of
-course) that the squadron had escaped, and evading the Mikado's ships
-in some marvelous fashion, had joined the Russian fleet at Port Arthur;
-still a third and wilder story made out that it was on its way to
-Europe to effect a junction with the Baltic fleet, which, it was
-declared, was to be dispatched to the Far East in July. The truth
-appears to have been that after infinite trouble and hardship Captain
-Reitzenstein managed once more to make Vladivostock, and that his
-storm-tossed ships took refuge again in the harbor, into which a free
-passage was maintained by the efforts of the ice-breakers.
-
-[Sidenote: Reconnoitring at Vladivostock]
-
-The Japanese Commanders, however, were ignorant of the whereabouts of
-this dangerous force, and a strong squadron was therefore sent into
-Japan Sea to search it out, and, if possible, destroy it altogether.
-The fleet dispatched for this purpose consisted of one battleship and
-six cruisers, with a torpedo-destroyer flotilla. The cruisers, it
-should be observed, included the newly-acquired _Nisshin_ and _Kasaga_,
-which had just been fitted up for war. Rear-Admiral Kamimura, Admiral
-Togo's second in command at Port Arthur, had direction of the
-operations, no word of which was allowed at the time to leak out
-through the ordinary channels. A careful patrol was made of the whole
-of the coast, both of Manchuria and Japan, several days of this close
-search finally bringing the Japanese squadron to the very mouth of
-Vladivostock Harbor itself. Considerable excitement was caused in
-Russia's northern stronghold when, at 8.50 on the morning of March 6th,
-without any previous warning of the approaching danger, the garrison
-perceived the hulls of seven great vessels loom upon the horizon to the
-south of Askold Island. The presence of the enemy so far north was
-wholly unexpected, and for some time the real character of the
-advancing squadron was in doubt. But within an hour all speculation was
-set at rest and the approaching vessels were seen to be flying the
-Japanese flag. The great size and imposing aspect of the new cruisers
-led the Russians to take them for battleships, whence they derived the
-mistaken idea that Admiral Togo was present himself with his main
-fleet. As a matter of fact, of course, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief,
-with scarcely diminished forces, was still watching Port Arthur as a
-cat watches a mouse, and the circumstance that he could without
-difficulty spare so powerful a squadron for operations in a far distant
-quarter of the theatre of war was at once a striking demonstration of
-Japan's naval strength and of the straits to which the Czar's fleet had
-been reduced.
-
-[Sidenote: At the Mouth of the Golden Horn]
-
-By noon Admiral Kamimura's ships were half-way between the coast and
-Askold Island, making straight for Ussuri Bay, which lies to the
-southeast of Vladivostock. At the southern end of the peninsula on
-which the town and fortress of Vladivostock stand, and divided from it
-by a broad channel called the Bosphorus Strait, there is situated the
-Island of Kazakavitch. The Bosphorus Strait lies in a northwesterly
-direction, and on the north side of it are two spacious inlets,
-Patroclus Bay and Sobol Bay. Beyond these again lies the mouth of the
-Golden Horn, the Harbor of Vladivostock.
-
-[Sidenote: Careful Japanese Calculation]
-
-The Japanese squadron steamed right on into the Bosphorus Strait, and
-when opposite Patroclus Bay it assumed order of battle. Admiral
-Alexeieff, in his official dispatch to the Czar, declared that it took
-up a position 5-1/2 miles from the shore and out of range of the
-batteries; but the truth seems to be that, with the skill which so far
-has characterized all the Japanese naval operations, Admiral Kamimura
-manoeuvred to secure a station, which, while it was sufficiently
-within range to enable him to do execution to his foe, was, on the
-other hand, outside any possible line of fire from the fortress guns,
-with their necessarily limited arc of training. These dispositions for
-attack argued not only careful calculation beforehand, but considerable
-knowledge of the construction of the Russian forts and of the position
-occupied by their ordnance.
-
-[Sidenote: Bombardment at Long Range]
-
-At half-past one the Japanese ships opened fire with their big guns.
-Forts Suvaroff and Linievitch and the town along the valley of the
-River Obyasseniye were the main objects of the cannonade, and over
-these the great shells continued to burst for close upon an hour, while
-the guns of the defenders were reduced to inactivity and impotence by
-the baffling tactics of the Japanese Admiral. It is true that the
-bombardment was rather in the nature of a reconnaissance than a serious
-engagement, its aim being to induce the mysterious cruisers which were
-suspected of being within the harbor to issue forth and give battle;
-but it was an uncomfortable reminder to the Russians of the
-vulnerability of their powerful fortress from the sea and of the
-comparative immunity which a resourceful enemy might enjoy while making
-a dangerous attack. The only account which has been received of the
-damage done comes from Russian sources. It does not appear to have been
-serious. A house in the town was knocked to pieces by a 12-inch shell,
-and an unfortunate woman, who was inside at the time, was killed;
-another shell burst in the courtyard of the Siberian Fleet Company,
-slightly wounding five sailors; but this was set down as the limit to
-the depredation committed by the Japanese gunners. On the other hand,
-the Russians consoled themselves for the ineffectiveness of their own
-artillery by calculating that the bombardment, by its expenditure of
-200 shells, cost their enemy at least $100,000, a somewhat minute and
-peddling method of reckoning up the balance of losses and gains in a
-great war. It should be added that the Czar did not fail to send the
-garrison a rather magniloquent telegram of congratulation, in which he
-spoke of their bravery under their baptism of fire.
-
-[Illustration: RAID BY THE VLADIVOSTOCK FLEET.]
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Ships Lying Low]
-
-The demonstration failed to disclose the whereabouts of the missing
-cruiser squadron, and a similar result attended the scouting operations
-of the Japanese torpedo destroyers which were engaged during the
-bombardment in searching Askold Island and the coast along the Ussuri
-Gulf. It seemed undoubted, however, in the light of subsequent events,
-that the Czar's ships were within the harbor at Vladivostock all the
-time, and that they felt unable to cope successfully with the powerful
-fleet which was so eagerly seeking their destruction. Admiral Kamimura,
-who retired southwards after the bombardment, returned on the following
-day to the same position, and attempted once more to lure the hidden
-cruisers into the open; but his blandishments were without avail. He
-then conducted a thorough search of Amur Bay, which lies on the west
-side of the peninsula, and finding no traces of the enemy, departed
-finally southwards, leaving Vladivostock, for the time, in peace.
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff to the Rescue]
-
-The interest now shifted once more to Port Arthur, where exciting
-events were on the eve of occurring. Admiral Makaroff, the
-newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, arrived at
-Port Arthur on the 8th of March. This gallant Admiral's reputation
-stands almost as high with the navy as does General Kuropatkin's with
-the army. He has gained the confidence of the men who have served under
-him to an exceptional degree, and the immediate result of his presence
-at the seat of war was the infusion of a new spirit into the fleet and
-into the defending force generally. With immense vigor he proceeded to
-hurry on the repairs of the damaged warships and to prepare for active
-operations as the best means of restoring the somewhat shaken _morale_
-of the force under his command. The effect of this bolder and more
-enterprising policy soon became evident in the movements of the torpedo
-flotilla, which, under the feeble régime of Admiral Starck, had proved
-such a futile branch of the service. An opportunity for the trial of
-the new tactics came almost immediately, for within twenty-four hours
-after the hoisting of Admiral Makaroff's flag on the _Askold_, a
-renewed challenge came from the unresting enemy. It was destined to
-lead to one of the fiercest and most sanguinary combats yet experienced
-in the course of the war, a combat of such a close and hand-to-hand
-character as to recall the desperate struggles of earlier days, when
-the rival ships were grappled together and the final arbiters of
-victory were the cutlass and the boarding-pike.
-
-[Sidenote: A Chance for Russian Torpedoes]
-
-At midnight on the 9th two divisions of the Japanese destroyer flotilla
-crept up once more towards the mouth of the entrance channel. The first
-division, consisting of three vessels, the _Asashio_, the _Kasumi_, and
-the _Akatsuki_, and under the command of Captain Asai, posted itself
-outside the entrance to guard against the approach of the Russian
-flotilla; while the second division occupied itself in laying a number
-of mines of a new pattern in various spots carefully selected
-beforehand for the purpose. These operations were carried out with
-entire coolness and success, in spite of the flashing searchlights and
-the fire from the forts--fire, however, which, according to Admiral
-Togo's official report, was desultory and ineffective. The fact was
-that on this occasion the Russians were determined to rely upon another
-weapon than garrison ordnance. Admiral Makaroff decided to give his
-torpedo destroyers the chance for which they must have longed under the
-nerveless leadership of Starck, and to send them forth to deliver a
-counter-attack upon the audacious foe.
-
-[Sidenote: Sea Fight at Close Quarters]
-
-A flotilla of six of these vessels, under the command of Captain
-Matoussevitch, accordingly issued from the harbor and went in quest of
-the Japanese. About 4.30 in the morning they fell in with Captain
-Asai's Division to the southwest of the Liau-tie-shan Peninsula. Though
-his foes outnumbered him by two to one, the Japanese commander did not
-hesitate for an instant, but, confident in the skill and courage of his
-men, he ordered an immediate attack, and the _Asashio_, the _Kasumi_,
-and the _Akatsuki_ flew upon the enemy. A fierce struggle now ensued.
-The Japanese were heavily outnumbered, it is true, but their vessels
-were stronger individually than those of the Russians, and whereas the
-latter were armed only with 3-pounders, the former carried 6-pounders.
-Moreover, both officers and men had "found themselves" in previous
-conflicts, and were flushed with a consciousness of power and the
-memory of past victories. Their shooting, too was superior to that of
-their opponents, and speedily made its impression. On the other hand,
-the Russians, set free at last from the paralyzing influences which had
-so long cramped their energies, leapt to the contest with a glad
-eagerness, and fought with desperate gallantry. The combatants drew
-closer and closer to one another till they were within a few yards'
-distance, and the execution done by the quick-firing guns was terrible.
-So near did one of the Russian destroyers approach that some
-bluejackets standing on its deck were able to throw by hand a charge of
-explosive onto the bridge of a Japanese boat. Fortunately for the
-latter, it failed to explode, and the Japanese poured in a withering
-fire in revenge. Two of the Russian vessels were so severely mauled
-during the early part of the fight that they were compelled to sheer
-off and retreat to Port Arthur. The others kept up the conflict much
-longer, though they were hopelessly outclassed. But a perfect rain of
-shell and small shot fell upon the devoted Muscovites; their engines
-were rapidly becoming disabled; some of them were on fire; and at last
-it became manifest that if they were to be saved at all they must
-retire. Retreat, therefore, they did, fighting hotly all the way, with
-the enemy hanging upon their flanks like hounds upon their quarry. At
-length they came within the protection of the forts, and the heavy fire
-which was directed upon the Japanese from that quarter compelled them
-sullenly to give up their hold and in their turn retire.
-
-[Sidenote: Severe Casualties]
-
-The losses suffered by the Russian destroyers, in this hand-to-hand
-conflict, which lasted for about forty minutes, were not made public
-officially, but they must have been considerable, if we may judge from
-the damage incurred by their victorious assailants. Seven of the
-Japanese were killed and eight were wounded, some of them severely.
-Prominent among these was Engineer Minamisawa, of the _Kasumi_, who
-peculiarly distinguished himself, and who received injuries which were
-reported as likely to prove mortal. This gallant officer had already
-covered himself with glory in the first torpedo attack upon Port
-Arthur, and in the heroic but fruitless attempt to block the harbor
-entrance on the 23rd of February. The damage done to the Japanese
-destroyers themselves was serious enough, but not such as to unfit them
-for service in a few days. The _Akatsuki_ received a shell in her
-stokehold, which burst a pipe and filled the compartment with scalding
-steam--an accident which alone accounted for four of the lives which
-were lost. All three destroyers had their hulls and upper works knocked
-about by the Russian shells, but the injuries were above the
-water-line, and were made good with little difficulty.
-
-[Sidenote: Another Hot Fight]
-
-An even hotter and, for the Russians, more disastrous conflict took
-place a few hours later. As the second division of the Japanese
-flotilla, under Captain Tsuehiya, was leaving the roadstead at 7 A.
-M., having concluded its work of laying submarine mines, it
-encountered two other Russian destroyers which had been further out
-to sea to reconnoitre, and were now returning to Port Arthur. The
-Japanese at once threw themselves across the course of the newcomers
-to intercept them. The Russians, though on this occasion the
-outnumbered party, were nothing loth to face the danger which
-confronted them, and advanced to meet it with unquenchable ardor. An
-engagement of an even more terrible character than that held three
-hours previously now took place, and lasted for upwards of fifty-five
-minutes. The Russians fought with the courage of despair, and
-succeeded in putting one of their formidable opponents out of action
-for the time, though the damage done was not ultimately irreparable.
-This feat was performed by the _Stereguschtshi_, commanded by Captain
-Sergueieff, which was more heavily armed than her companion, and
-carried a 12-pounder in addition to her ordinary 3-pounders. A shell
-from this weapon struck the Japanese destroyer on the water-line and
-flooded two of her water-tight compartments. The supply of
-quick-firing ammunition was wetted and rendered useless, so that the
-vessel was unable to take any further active share in the conflict.
-Nor was this the only injury she sustained. Another shell burst upon
-her bridge, shivering it to fragments. One man was killed; but a
-lieutenant, a sub-lieutenant, and a signaller, who were on the bridge
-at the time, in some miraculous manner escaped. The terrible missile
-also carried away the binnacle and the engine-room telegraph
-instruments, and sent the davits flying.
-
-[Sidenote: Unprecedented Japanese Daring]
-
-It was clear that the 12-pounder of the _Stereguschtshi_ was too
-dangerous a weapon to be neglected, and, therefore, the other Japanese
-destroyers concentrated their fire upon it, with the result that in a
-short time it was completely dismantled and put out of action. In these
-operations the _Sazanami_ played the most conspicuous part. She drew up
-so close upon the _Stereguschtshi's_ quarter that one of her
-bluejackets with extraordinary daring actually leaped on board the
-Russian vessel, cutlass in hand. Just as he landed on the deck Captain
-Sergueieff emerged from his cabin. The impetuous Jap rushed at him like
-a tiger, and, beating down his guard, struck him a fearful blow on the
-head with his cutlass, felling him to the deck. The Russian attempted
-to rise, but before he could do so his terrible opponent kicked him
-overboard and he sank beneath the waves.
-
-[Sidenote: Carnage Indescribable]
-
-Undismayed by the death of their captain, the crew of the
-_Stereguschtshi_ still fought on with desperate gallantry against the
-raking fire of the _Sazanami_. The lieutenant took over the command,
-but immediately afterwards a shell carried away both his legs, and he
-fell dead at his post. To him succeeded the sub-lieutenant, who
-endeavored bravely but in vain to bring the little vessel, wounded
-almost to the death as it was, into the shelter of the forts. He almost
-succeeded in his heroic attempt, but the implacable foe was not to be
-shaken off. The man at the wheel fell mortally wounded, and as the
-young lieutenant stepped forward to take it from his dying grasp he
-became himself the target of the terrible fusillade and dropped dead
-among his fallen brothers. Now at last, with hardly a man out of her
-crew of fifty-five still living, the _Stereguschtshi_ lay a helpless
-log upon the waters, awaiting the long-deferred capture, but the fire
-from the forts rendered the task of taking her in tow an extremely
-dangerous one. Nevertheless, a Japanese lieutenant and a party of
-bluejackets from the _Sazanami_ boarded her with a rope and made her
-fast. The deck of the Russian destroyer presented a horrible spectacle.
-Everywhere lay the corpses of her gallant crew, in some cases terribly
-mutilated by shell. Even in the few hurried moments at his disposal the
-Japanese lieutenant was able to count thirty bodies; the appearance of
-the stokehold defied description. Two stokers jumped overboard, and
-were picked up by the Japanese. The only other survivors were two
-sailors, who, directly the enemy boarded the vessel, rushed out of the
-conning tower, and, taking refuge in the after cabin, locked themselves
-in and refused absolutely to surrender.
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff Outpaced]
-
-Now began the slow and laborious work of towing the captured boat out
-of range of the shore batteries, whose attentions were becoming
-embarrassing and dangerous. Moreover, a new peril threatened the
-Japanese. Admiral Makaroff, perceiving the plight of the
-_Stereguschtshi_, had hoisted his flag on the _Novik_, and sallied
-forth with that cruiser and the _Bayan_, to the rescue. The other
-destroyer, it should be mentioned, thanks to the diversion caused by
-the heroic stand made by her consort, had in the meantime managed to
-reach the harbor. Things began to look black for the _Sazanami_, as the
-Russian cruisers were rapidly approaching; but Admiral Togo was not to
-be caught napping, and his own cruiser squadron was not far away.
-Several of his ships advanced to the assistance of the plucky little
-destroyer, and finding himself outnumbered and outpaced, Makaroff
-reluctantly abandoned his attempt and steamed back to the protection of
-the forts.
-
-[Sidenote: A Useless Prize]
-
-The _Sazanami_, however, was not destined to save her prize. The sea
-was rough, and the Russian destroyer, riddled with holes, steadily
-began to fill with water. After two hours' towing it became apparent
-that her condition was desperate, and the Japanese were compelled to
-cut the rope. A few moments afterwards the hapless prize gave one last
-lurch and sank beneath the waves with her tragic freight of dead. It
-was impossible to reach the two men in the cabin, and they perished
-with their ship.
-
-[Sidenote: Bombardment by Wireless Telegraphy]
-
-Thus ended one of the hottest conflicts yet experienced in the course
-of the naval fighting around Port Arthur. But this sanguinary affair
-was only the prelude to more important operations. Admiral Togo had
-made his arrangement for a bombardment of the town and fortress of the
-heaviest description, arrangements which, like the manoeuvres of
-Admiral Kamimura at Vladivostock, were conceived in the spirit of the
-most scientific warfare. As long as the Russian fleet remained
-undestroyed he was under an imperative necessity to risk his ships as
-little as possible against the great guns of the Port Arthur batteries,
-but to conduct a successful bombardment without coming within the range
-of their fire presented obvious difficulties. An indirect cannonade
-from Pigeon Bay, on the southwest side of the Liau-tie-shan Peninsula,
-would indeed deprive the enemy of any opportunity of replying with
-effect, but on the other hand in ordinary circumstances the gunners of
-the attacking fleet would also have to aim very much at random, without
-being able to judge the results of their shooting. Nevertheless this
-difficulty was cleverly obviated by the Japanese Admiral. While
-stationing his battleships in Pigeon Bay he dispatched his cruiser
-squadron to take a position on the east side of Port Arthur Bay, at
-right angles to the line of fire, to observe the effects of the
-bombardment, and to communicate suggestions by wireless telegraphy
-during its progress. The post of the cruisers in turn was adroitly
-selected so that while they could see what was going on, they were
-outside the angle of fire of the forts.
-
-[Illustration: THE TOKIO MILITARY HOSPITAL--OFFICERS QUARTERS.]
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur a Hell]
-
-These careful dispositions were completed by ten o'clock on the morning
-of the 10th, and at that hour once more "the red fire and smouldering
-clouds out brake." For close upon five hours a storm of shells was
-poured upon the devoted fortress. The defending guns attempted to
-return the fire, but their efforts were intermittent and ineffective.
-On the other hand, the great projectiles from the 12-inch guns of the
-Japanese battleships wrought immense havoc both in the forts and in the
-town. A shell burst close to the house of a lawyer named Sidorski, and
-wrecked the building; M. Sidorski himself was killed on the spot. The
-wife of Colonel Baron Frank, who was in the house at the time,
-sustained terrible injuries, and her daughter's head was blown off. A
-young lady named Waleritsch was so seriously wounded by another shell
-that she died soon after her removal to the hospital. An English
-advocate, a Mr. Newton, was blown to pieces. The house of General
-Volkoff was completely destroyed, and two sentries only just escaped
-death. A train which was entering the town from the North was struck by
-a 12-inch shell; the engine was shattered into a thousand fragments and
-the driver was killed. And now to add to the horrors of the situation,
-fires began to break out in various quarters of the town, and the
-panic-stricken inhabitants fled to the race course, where, behind the
-shelter of the hills, they were able to find some respite from the
-terrible tornado which had burst upon them.
-
-[Sidenote: Golden Hill Silenced]
-
-While all this devastation was being hurled upon the town, the forts
-themselves were passing through a hot time. The Japanese, assisted by
-the skilful manoeuvre before described, had found the range for their
-high angle fire perfectly, whereas the batteries of the defending force
-could do little or nothing in return. The official accounts issued from
-the Russian side, while admitting the severity when the bombardment
-visited the town, said little about the damage to the fortifications or
-the losses sustained by the garrison; but the reports received from
-other and independent sources, while varying a good deal in details,
-agreed in representing the total result as being of the most serious
-character. It is said that twenty soldiers were killed and that many
-more were wounded. The Governor of Port Arthur himself, General
-Stoessel, who was on the batteries during the hottest of the fire, had
-a narrow escape. A shell burst near to the spot on which he was
-standing with his staff, and bespattered the whole party with splinters
-and sand. The forts on Golden Hill suffered severely, and two guns were
-put out of action. Nor did the ships in the harbor come off scatheless.
-Heavy casualties among their crews were reported, and it was stated
-that the unfortunate _Retvisan_, which had already borne so much,
-received still further damage.
-
-The Port Arthur journal, the _Novi Krai_, gave a terrible picture of
-the scenes on the cruiser _Bayan_.
-
-"The bursting shells," said the writer, "bowled over man after man
-until the decks were slippery with blood. Amidst this hell the captain
-stood unmoved in the conning tower calmly telephoning his orders to the
-captains of the guns. His wonderful coolness had a remarkable influence
-on all the officers. The cockpit was soon crowded with wounded,
-thirty-nine men being brought down before the fight ended.
-
-"Amid the crash of the guns, the hiss of the flying projectiles, and
-the thunder of their explosions, the smashing of splinters, and the din
-of the working engines, the surgeons labored quietly among the wounded
-on the hospital operating table. Although some of the men suffered
-frightful agony, few groans were heard, in spite of the fact that
-anæsthetics were only administered in one case."
-
-[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF PORT ARTHUR'S MAIN FORTIFICATIONS.]
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Missiles]
-
-For hours that to the heart-shaken inhabitants must have appeared
-interminable, the great shells, each of the enormous weight of 850
-lbs., continued to hurtle through the air and to burst over the
-harassed stronghold. The sensations of a garrison in such circumstances
-are well described in a letter which a wounded Russian officer wrote
-from the hospital in Port Arthur to a friend in Russia. He is
-recounting his experiences of the first bombardment, but the account is
-so vivid and would apply so well to the more trying ordeal of the 10th
-of March that it will bear reproduction here.
-
-[Sidenote: A Vivid Picture]
-
-"The sea," he says, "is quite white from the falling shells, and it is
-impossible to hear the words of command. I cry out until my voice
-becomes hoarse, but cannot make myself heard above the din. There are
-more than 150 cannon belching forth smoke, shell and death. There is a
-wild, choking sound from the machine guns. Amid the smoke, steam and
-dust I hear a groan, it is that of a soldier whose nose has been torn
-away by the fragment of a shell. He is surrounded by stretcher bearers.
-Someone lays his hand on my shoulder, and I turn and see at my side a
-soldier, pale, and his lips trembling. He wishes to speak, but his
-tongue refuses to obey. He points with his finger, and I understand
-what has occurred.
-
-[Illustration: FUNERAL PROCESSION OF A JAPANESE OFFICER IN YOKOHAMA.]
-
-[Sidenote: Blood--Blood Everywhere]
-
-"There beneath the cliff I hear a little battery of rapid firing guns,
-very small and elegant. There are 12,000 bullets speeding on their
-errand in sixty seconds. They are destined to defend our shores against
-the landing of an enemy. The orgy is at its height. The shells are
-bursting around us like fireworks at a feast. A whistle, a hiss, and a
-sharp ringing noise, as they rush through the air, then smoke and a
-smell of burning, while the sand dances from the earth. I turn from the
-battery and see a terrible picture. In the midst of the men a shell
-bursts. One soldier is disemboweled, and another is wounded in the
-head, a third is shrieking in the height of his delirium. One steel
-cannon is broken to pieces as though it were straw. An awful picture,
-with blood--blood everywhere."
-
-[Sidenote: Further Naval Movements]
-
-At last, at two o'clock, the inferno ceased. A great calm succeeded to
-the thunder of the guns and the screams of the shells, and the
-civilians of Port Arthur slowly and timidly returned to their ruined
-homes. The separate divisions of the Japanese fleet rejoined one
-another, and after the most destructive bombardment yet inflicted upon
-the land defences of the Russian stronghold, they quietly steamed away
-southwards. While these events were taking place at Port Arthur a
-detached squadron of the Mikado's cruisers had proceeded northeast to
-Dalny, or Talienwan, as it used to be called, and destroyed the
-quarantine buildings erected by the Russians on the Sanshan Islands.
-Outside that port the _Takasago_ and the _Chihaya_ scouted the western
-coast of the entrance to Port Arthur in the hope that the bombardment
-would draw Admiral Makaroff's ships into the open; but no enemy could
-be found and the two cruisers then retired in the wake of the main
-squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: Hoist With its Own Petard]
-
-It was not long before a Russian vessel fell a victim to the mines laid
-by the Japanese destroyers at the harbor entrance on the night of March
-9th. On the 16th the _Skori_, a torpedo-boat destroyer of the newest
-pattern, was entering the channel when she struck upon a contact mine
-and was blown up. Out of her crew of fifty-five men, only four were
-reported to have been saved.
-
-[Sidenote: Another Attempt to Bottle]
-
-After an interval of twelve days Admiral Togo made a renewed attack
-upon Port Arthur, the fifth in number since the outbreak of
-hostilities. It was not so serious an assault as the last, its real
-object being to tempt the Russian fleet away from the protection of the
-shore batteries and to give battle at sea. In this design it was
-unsuccessful, but incidently it was useful, as revealing the strength
-of the squadron Admiral Makaroff had at his disposal after the repairs
-which had been effected upon the damaged ships. At midnight on the 21st
-two Japanese destroyers were discovered by the searchlights approaching
-the outer roadstead. The guns of the batteries at once gave tongue, and
-a violent fire was directed against the daring craft, not only from the
-fortress but from the gunboats _Bobe_ and _Otvagni_; which, according
-to Admiral Alexeieff's report to the Czar, compelled them to retire. A
-second flotilla crept up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and this too, it
-was claimed by the Viceroy, was repulsed. A different complexion,
-however, was put upon the operation by Admiral Togo's dispatch to his
-Government. The destroyers retired indeed, but seemingly not in
-consequence of the Russian fire, which left them unharmed, but as part
-of a preconceived plan to lure forth Admiral Makaroff's fleet. The
-Japanese Commander-in-Chief's words were: "The combined fleet acted
-according to program. Two flotillas of our destroyers were outside Port
-Arthur, as instructed, from the night of the 21st till the morning of
-the 22nd. Although during this time they were under the enemy's fire
-they did not sustain any damage." It is clear from this that the aim of
-the Russian gunners leaves much to be desired, for the attacking
-flotilla were able to cruise about in the roadsteads without being
-touched.
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff's Feint]
-
-At eight o'clock on the morning of the 22nd the main fleet arrived off
-Port Arthur. The same tactics as were employed on the 10th were adopted
-on this occasion, but with some modification. Only two battleships, the
-_Fuji_ and the _Yashima_, were sent to Pigeon Bay to undertake an
-indirect bombardment of the town; while the Admiral, with his main
-squadron, took up a position more convenient for an attack upon the
-Russian fleet should it put out to sea. The cannonade lasted again for
-several hours, but his main purpose, that of drawing Admiral Makaroff
-into the open, was not successful. At one period, indeed, the hopes of
-the Japanese ran high. The Russian fleet was seen to issue from the
-harbor as if ready for battle, with the cruiser _Askold_, flying the
-flag of the Commander-in-Chief, at their head. It was now observed that
-the available naval force of the Czar at Port Arthur consisted of five
-battleships and four cruisers, as well as destroyers, gunboats, and
-torpedo-boats. The battleships of course included the _Pobieda_, 12,674
-tons, and the _Sevastopol_, 10,950 tons, which were undergoing repairs
-when the first battle took place. None of the five, it will be
-remembered, was equal to the Japanese battleships, either in size or in
-armament, and the cruiser strength was still more disproportionate.
-Nevertheless, they made a gallant show, and for a time it seemed as if
-they were prepared to come to close quarters on blue water. Admiral
-Makaroff, however, bold and enterprising as he is, did not feel in a
-position to take such a strong step, and, to the disappointment of the
-Japanese, he kept his ships well within the zone of protection afforded
-by the shore batteries, while he joined them in returning the fire of
-the enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: Wary Enemies]
-
-The objects of the two Admirals were indeed identical. Each sought to
-bring about a battle on his own terms, and each was too wary to be
-persuaded. The Russian attempted to lure his enemy within the range of
-the forts; the Japanese endeavored to draw the Russian away from the
-range of the forts; and neither was successful in his blandishments.
-Finally, Admiral Togo gave the order to cease firing, and his fleet
-retired southwards once more. The Russians claimed to have struck one
-of their opponent's battleships; but Admiral Togo in his report
-distinctly stated that his ships suffered no damage, though a good many
-shells fell near the _Fuji_ in the course of the indirect bombardment.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians Taking Heart]
-
-Although Admiral Makaroff did not venture out to sea with his smaller
-squadron when the Japanese fleet was absolutely upon the spot, this did
-not prevent him from engaging in active operations of a much more
-daring character than any his predecessor had dreamt of. On the 26th,
-for example, he took out the whole of the ships under his command for a
-reconnaissance to the Hwang-Ching-Tau Islands, a group situated about
-thirty miles to the southwest of Port Arthur, a proceeding that must
-have heartened both officers and men considerably. No trace of the
-enemy's warships was discovered, but while the fleet was making its way
-back to Port Arthur, the _Novik_ fell in with a small merchant steamer,
-the _Hanien Maru_, on board of which were a number of Japanese
-newspaper correspondents. The crew were transferred to the warship and
-the steamer was taken in tow and subsequently sunk. The whole Russian
-squadron returned safely to Port Arthur after this excursion without
-once coming in sight of the enemy.
-
-[Illustration: A SKIRMISH BETWEEN JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN CAVALRY.]
-
-[Sidenote: Individual Heroism]
-
-But in the meantime the Japanese were busy with fresh plans. Unable to
-draw Admiral Makaroff away from the protection of the forts when the
-whole Japanese fleet was lying in wait, Admiral Togo determined to use
-another card in this game of skill. The project of corking up the
-bottle at Port Arthur, though a failure on the first attempt, had not
-by any means been abandoned, and on the very night of Admiral
-Makaroff's cruise to the Hwang-Ching-Tau Islands, a fresh effort was
-made to block the harbor entrance. It resulted in operations which,
-although again only partially successful, were most brilliantly
-executed, and were marked not only by consummate skill, but by acts of
-individual heroism and self-sacrifice of the most inspiring kind. Nor
-was the gallantry confined to one side alone. The Russians were not
-slow to accept the opportunities for glory vouchsafed to them by the
-daring of their foe, and one of the features of the conflict was the
-attack by a solitary torpedo-boat upon six of the Japanese flotilla.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-
-  Volunteers for Fireships--A Drama of Searchlights--The Devil's
-    Caldron--The Sacrifice of Fire--Heroic Hirose--Undaunted by
-    Death--Covering Themselves with Glory--Casualties Few but
-    Terrible--The Hero of Japan--Channel Still Unclosed--The
-    Shadows of Fate--The Great Catastrophe--The Story of the
-    "Petropavlovsk"--A Double Trap--Captain Oda and his Mines--The
-    "Bayan" to the Rescue--Preparing an Ambush--Makaroff Lured
-    Out--Cutting off the Unwary--Weather Permitting--Into the Jaws
-    of Death--Haphazard Fire--Rescue Work--The Character of the
-    Explosion--Accounts of Survivors--Tribute from the Japanese--On
-    Land--Chong-Ju--The Advance to the North--Concentration of
-    Troops--Kuroki's Line of Front--The Russian Position--Russian
-    Confidence.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Volunteers for Fireships]
-
-As on the occasion of the first effort to block the harbor at Port
-Arthur, so upon the second a spirited competition took place among the
-Japanese officers and men for the honor of occupying the post of danger
-upon the fireships. The claim of the gallant men who had charge of the
-previous attempt to finish the work which they had so well begun was
-finally conceded, their Commander-in-Chief himself deciding the
-question. Four merchantmen, larger than those already sunk, had been
-filled with stones and explosives and were ready for the desperate
-enterprise. The whole fleet left the rendezvous on the 26th of March
-under the cover of night, and accompanied the fireships up to a
-distance of some miles from Port Arthur. There the Admiral gave his
-final orders, and escorted by a flotilla of eleven destroyers and six
-torpedo-boats, which were spread out fanwise in front of them, the
-doomed vessels started upon their last and proudest voyage.
-
-[Sidenote: A Drama of Searchlights]
-
-It was midnight when they set forth, and there was no moon. An inky
-darkness brooded over the waters, which lay still and calm like a
-village pond. No sound was heard, no light was shown on the flotilla
-as, steadily and inexorably, it pursued its fateful passage over the
-silent sea. The only ray of light visible came from the distant
-searchlight on Golden Hill, set like the eye of a Cyclops, in the
-forehead of Port Arthur. Slowly and monotonously the broad refulgent
-beam swept backwards across the bay, throwing into strong relief every
-object upon which it fell within a radius of more than two miles. Every
-moment it seemed to the tense expectancy of the advancing force that
-their presence must be revealed, but still they held on their course
-with calm and patient courage, and still the slow minutes dragged along
-without any sign of suspicion on the part of the garrison. At last,
-when the Japanese had approached so near that they could make out the
-dim contour of the fortress and the surrounding heights, the moving
-light settled for a moment upon the lines of the foremost
-torpedo-boats. Another instant and a startling change had come over the
-scene. Swiftly the searchlight flashed up and down, backwards and
-forwards it plunged and replunged upon the stealthy foe until the whole
-flotilla, approaching with such grim determination, lay exposed to the
-view of the Russian sentries. The trumpets rang out, the garrison
-sprang to arms, and a storm of shot and shell once more burst forth
-from the great guns of Golden Hill.
-
-[Sidenote: The Devil's Caldron]
-
-As the gallant Japanese made straight for the harbor entrance the
-batteries on the Tiger's Tail joined in the fierce cannonade, and from
-more than a hundred guns a hail of shells was poured down, till the
-still waters of the bay were torn up into a maelstrom of foam, "white
-as the bitten lip of hate." But the calm resolution of the attacking
-force was undisturbed. The fan-like formation of the escorting flotilla
-opened out more widely, and the fireships, passing swiftly through,
-drove straight into the devil's caldron in front of them. A mile away
-stood the point for which they aimed, a mile charged every yard of it
-with destruction and death. But setting their teeth dauntlessly, intent
-only on gaining the fateful goal, the picked crews of the merchantmen
-pressed forward upon their desperate errand.
-
-[Sidenote: The Sacrifice of Fire]
-
-At last they reached the harbor mouth. The leading steamer, the _Chiyo
-Maru_, drove straight from the east side of the channel, heedless of
-the terrible fire of which she was the central target. Everything was
-ready; the anchor was dropped; the fuse was set; and swiftly but with
-precision the crew slipped into the boats and made off. A moment later
-a terrific explosion rent the ship from stem to stern, and down she
-sank through the boiling waters.
-
-[Sidenote: Heroic Hirose]
-
-The next to take her position was the _Fukui Maru_, which, edging to
-the port side of the _Chiyo Maru_, let go her anchor. Now occurred one
-of the most heroic acts which had yet characterized the course of the
-war--an act which for cool and devoted gallantry has never been
-surpassed in the annals of European seamanship. Waiting until the
-vessel was securely anchored, the boatswain, Sujino, went calmly down
-to the magazine to light the fuse. Just at that moment the Russian
-torpedo-boat _Silni_ approached and discharged a Whitehead torpedo,
-which struck the _Fukui Maru_ full in the bows and tore a gaping hole
-in her below the water-line. Sujino was killed, but his comrades on
-deck were unaware of his fate. All they knew was that the Russians
-themselves had done their work for them and that the vessel was
-settling down on the very spot designed for its destruction by Admiral
-Togo. Commander Hirose, therefore, ordered his men to take to the
-boats, but before he left the ship himself he determined to find the
-brave Sujino if possible and save him from death. The steamer was fast
-sinking; the water was pouring in at her bows like a mill race; and she
-was the target of a perfect tornado of fire from the forts; but the
-gallant commander searched through her three times for the missing man
-before he would give up the quest. At last it became clear that further
-search was useless. The vessel was on the point of going down, and
-reluctantly Hirose clambered into one of the boats. As the crew pushed
-off the _Fukui Maru_ went down by the head. Success, however, was
-dearly purchased. The delay had enabled the Russians to concentrate
-their fire upon the boats with deadly effect. The chief victim himself
-was Commander Hirose. A shell struck him on the head, carrying away the
-greater part of his body, and leaving in the boat only a shapeless
-fragment of torn and blackened flesh.
-
-[Sidenote: Undaunted by Death]
-
-In the meanwhile, the other steamers were taking up their stations in
-the order provided beforehand. The _Yihiko Maru_, regardless of the
-terrible fire from the forts, steamed in on the port side of the _Fukui
-Maru_ and cast anchor in her turn. The fuse was duly set and lighted;
-officers and crew set off in the boats; and the ship blew up like her
-fellows and sank in the channel. Now came the opportunity of the fourth
-and last of this devoted fleet, the _Yoneyama Maru_. The difficulties
-of the channel and the violence of the enemy's fire led her to take a
-devious course, but the skill with which she was steered excited
-universal admiration. Her commander drove her through on the starboard
-side of the sunken _Chiyo Maru_ and then she was compelled to turn back
-and slip between that ship and the _Fukui Maru_. On her way she ran
-right upon a Russian destroyer and engaged it at close quarters for a
-few moments, but her duty was not to fight but to sink at a spot
-selected. Escaping therefore, from the clutches of the enemy, she
-rounded the _Fukui Maru_ and the _Yahiko Maru_ and finally brought up
-in the very centre of the fairway. There her crew prepared to send her
-to the bottom, and if the operation could have been carried out
-successfully there can be little doubt that the whole enterprise would
-have gained its object, and that the channel would, at least
-temporarily, have been completely blocked. But the Russian
-torpedo-boats were active. One of their deadly engines of destruction
-struck the _Yoneyama Maru_ just as the crew were about to cast anchor,
-and she drifted somewhat to the westward before she sank, her bow
-pointing towards the Tiger's Tail. Her crew escaped safely, but this
-accident left too wide a space between the _Yoneyama Maru_ and the
-_Yahiko Maru_ to effect a total obstruction of the channel.
-
-[Sidenote: Covering Themselves With Glory]
-
-All this time the torpedo-boat and destroyer flotilla had been far from
-idle. The destroyers consisted of the _Shirakumo_, _Kasumi_, _Asashio_,
-_Akatsuki_, _Akebono_, _Oboro_, _Inayuma_, _Ikadsuchi_, _Usugomo_,
-_Sayanami_, and _Shinonome_, while the torpedo-boats were the
-following: the _Karigane_, _Aotaka_, _Misasagi_, _Tsubame_, _Managuru_,
-and _Hato_. Several of these, it will be remembered, had already
-covered themselves with glory in previous combats. On this occasion
-they fully maintained their high reputation. The hot cannonade which
-was directed from the fortress upon the fireships so far from deterring
-the escorting vessels acted rather as an attraction to them, for while
-one division of the flotilla stood by the doomed steamers in order to
-pick up their crews, the other approached well within range of the
-garrison artillery in order to divert its fire from the main operation
-which was proceeding in the channel. Here it was that the _Silni_,
-under Lieutenant Krinizki, came into contact with the Japanese
-torpedo-boats. Without a moment's hesitation that gallant commander
-engaged the whole six at once. The unequal combat could not be long
-maintained, but it was fierce while it lasted. Lieutenant Krinizki
-himself was wounded, Engineer Artificer Swyereff and six seamen were
-killed and twelve other men were wounded. But still, the remainder
-fought gallantry on till a shell burst one of the little vessel's steam
-pipes and destroyed her steering-gear. Her power to continue in action
-was gone, and she was beached upon the shore below Golden Hill.
-
-The work of the Japanese expeditions was now done. The survivors of the
-fireships were by this time all picked up and the several vessels of
-the flotilla were concentrated and retired out to sea.
-
-[Sidenote: Casualties Few But Terrible]
-
-In this remarkable operation the Japanese lost in all four killed and
-nine wounded. Of these latter Lieutenant Hatsuzo sustained very severe
-injuries; the wounds of the others, including Lieutenant Masaki and
-Engineer Awada, being of a slighter character. In the circumstances it
-was surprising that the casualties were so few, and one more
-illustration was given of the comparative impunity with which torpedo
-attacks can be made in harbor under cover of night. The smallness,
-however, of the Japanese losses in this species of fighting in the
-present war, must, of course, be largely attributable to bad shooting
-on the part of the Russian gunners, and it would be unwise to draw too
-general a lesson from it.
-
-[Illustration: DESOLATION IN MANCHURIA.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Hero of Japan]
-
-The most severe loss sustained by the Japanese was that of the gallant
-Commander Hirose, whose death, while it inflamed his comrades with
-pride, caused universal mourning. He had only recently been promoted
-for the skill and courage which he had displayed in the previous
-attempt to block the harbor. He was then in command of the _Hokoku
-Maru_, and regardless of the appalling fire directed upon her, he
-managed to rush his ship further than any of her companions up the
-channel before he blew her up and sent her to the bottom. An act of
-particularly cool, almost reckless, daring on his part on that occasion
-was now fondly recalled by his men. The ship was sinking, she was the
-target of all the Russian batteries, and the crew had taken refuge in
-the boats; but Commander Hirose had forgotten something. It was nothing
-less important than his sword, which he had left on the bridge. So, in
-spite of the imminent peril of the situation, he coolly went back to
-recover it, buckled it on, and escaped into the boat just in time, for
-the ship went down a moment afterwards. Commander Hirose was well known
-in naval circles in England, for he was a visitor to those shores a few
-years before on business for the Japanese Admiralty, and had made many
-friends. His remains were conveyed to Japan and accorded a public
-funeral, and the Mikado only expressed the feelings of the whole nation
-when he posthumously conferred upon the fallen hero the Order of the
-Kite and the Order of the Rising Sun.
-
-[Sidenote: Channel Still Unclosed]
-
-The exact amount of obstruction caused in the channel by the sinking of
-the fireships could not be ascertained. It is, however, apparent from
-subsequent events that whatever inconvenience to navigation, temporary
-or permanent, may have resulted, it was not sufficient to prevent the
-passage of Admiral Makaroff's ships. At daybreak on the very morning of
-the attack he led his whole fleet out and lined it up in the roadstead
-in readiness to meet the Japanese fleet, which was in sight ten miles
-out at sea. Seeing, however, that his enemy had no intention of coming
-outside the range of the forts, Admiral Togo was not to be tempted
-nearer, and retired with the whole of his force to the southward. For
-several days he did not give any outward signs of activity, and his
-ships were not sighted off Port Arthur, a fact which gave rise to the
-impression that he was engaged in covering the transport of fresh
-Japanese troops to the west coast of Korea. On the other hand, the
-vigilance of Admiral Makaroff showed no indication of abating. On the
-6th of April the steamer _Haimun_, specially chartered for the service
-of the London _Times_, was overhauled by the cruiser _Bayan_ an at a
-distance of thirty-five miles to the southeast of Port Arthur. A shot
-fired across the _Haimun's_ bows brought her to, and two lieutenants
-put off with a boat's crew and boarded her. The greatest politeness was
-shown, and after an examination of the _Haimun's_ papers she was
-allowed to proceed. The _Times'_ correspondent was able to observe that
-the _Bayan_, which was flying the flag of the Admiral himself, showed
-signs of injuries received in the recent fighting. Marks produced by
-splinters of shell were visible all over her, and a large hole had been
-rent in one of her smoke-stacks. This fact seems to bear out the story
-published in the _Port Arthur Journal_ of the destruction wrought upon
-the _Bayan_ by the high-angle fire of the Japanese in the bombardment
-of the 10th of March. The correspondent added that the officers and men
-who boarded his steamer "were a little fine drawn, but nevertheless
-looked good material." Some indication can be gathered from this
-statement of the strain which Admiral Togo's repeated attacks had
-involved upon his opponents. The constant anxiety had necessarily begun
-to tell upon the defending force, and many more than the officers and
-crew of the _Bayan_ must have acquired that gaunt, tense appearance
-that comes from a sense of ever-impending danger heightened by a past
-experience of tragedy and disaster. No better illustration, indeed, of
-the watchfulness entailed on the Russians by the perpetual menace of
-their foe could be given than the case of Admiral Makaroff himself, who
-sent the following telegram to the President of the War Relief Society
-at Kronstadt on March 29th:--
-
-"Last night was a very hot one, but we cannot hope for a very quiet
-time now or in the near future. I sleep without undressing in order
-that I maybe ready for any emergency. Consequently, I cannot observe
-your medical advice to take care of myself; nevertheless, I feel
-splendid."
-
-[Sidenote: The Shadows of Fate]
-
-These words were destined soon to receive a fulfilment more
-heart-shaking than any that can have presented itself as possible to
-the mind either of the writer of the letter or of its recipient. For
-even then stern Fate was standing ready with the abhorred shears; the
-shadows were gathering round the head of the devoted Makaroff; and his
-weary watch, pursued so bravely, so unflinchingly, and, alas for him
-and his country, so unavailingly, was moving swiftly towards its tragic
-close.
-
-[Sidenote: The Great Catastrophe]
-
-For on April 13th the telegraph wires flashed all over the world the
-news of a blow to Russia's might in the Far East, more appallingly
-dramatic in its suddenness and more fatal in its consequences than any
-that had yet befallen her in the preceding two months of bungling and
-misfortune. The stunning intelligence was conveyed to the Czar in the
-following telegram from Rear-Admiral Grigorovitch, Naval Commandant at
-Port Arthur:--
-
-"The battleship _Petropavlovsk_ struck a mine, which exploded and the
-vessel capsized.
-
-"Our squadron is lying under Golden Hill and the Japanese squadron is
-approaching.
-
-"Admiral Makaroff apparently perished with the _Petropavlovsk_.
-
-"The Grand Duke Cyril, who was saved, was slightly wounded.
-
-"I beg humbly to report to your Majesty that those saved from the
-_Petropavlovsk_ up to the present are Grand Duke Cyril, six officers,
-32 sailors, all wounded. The bodies of four officers, a surgeon, and 12
-sailors have been found.
-
-"The Japanese fleet has disappeared. Details will be supplied by
-Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtomsky, who has assumed provisional command of
-the fleet."
-
-Swiftly upon the track of this first message there followed the brief
-account of a further disaster, which placed another of Russia's finest
-battleships _hors de combat_. Prince Ukhtomsky telegraphed that "during
-some manoeuvring of the battleship squadron, the _Pobieda_ was struck
-by a mine amidships on the starboard side. She was able to gain the
-port by herself and none on board were killed or wounded."
-
-[Illustration: BLOWING UP OF THE PETROPAVLOVSK.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Story of the "Petropavlovsk"]
-
-The news of this fearful _debacle_ created a paralyzing effect in
-official circles at St. Petersburg, and spread consternation among
-Russia's sympathizers throughout Europe. The first brief reports left
-room for speculation as to the cause of the disaster, and an accident
-was conjectured such as that which had destroyed the _Yenesei_; but the
-later accounts and the dispatches of Admiral Togo to his Government
-speedily put the real facts beyond doubt. It then became known to the
-world that Admiral Makaroff had fallen a victim to the deeply-laid
-plans of his brilliant adversary, and, moreover, that the whole Russian
-fleet had only narrowly escaped capture or complete destruction. The
-story of the operations which practically gave the _coup de grace_ to
-the Czar's maritime power in the Far East is a remarkable one. It shows
-what a revolutionary effect the discoveries of modern science have had
-upon naval warfare, and it proves, too, how completely the lessons of
-that science have been assimilated by the Japanese.
-
-On the 11th of April Admiral Makaroff, still pursuing his policy of
-activity, took the whole of his effective squadron out to sea, for a
-distance of six miles to the south of Port Arthur and exercised it in
-manoeuvres. No sign of the enemy was perceived, and the fleet
-returned to the harbor in safety.
-
-[Sidenote: A Double Trap]
-
-But Admiral Togo was not far away. Despairing of ordinary means of
-tempting Admiral Makaroff into the open to meet his more powerful
-fleet, he was preparing a double trap in which to catch his wary foe.
-He hoped, by the display of a markedly inferior force, to entice him
-beyond the range of the forts and then rush in with his battleships and
-capture or destroy the whole of the Russian fleet. But in the event of
-failure in this manoeuvre, he had ready another scheme. The course
-taken by the Russian ships on leaving and returning to the harbor on
-the occasion of the frequent excursions which they had made of late had
-been carefully noted by the Japanese officers, and Togo had determined
-to mine the passage extensively, so that even if the enemy eluded a
-decisive battle at sea, he still hoped to do damage to their ships by
-driving them in the hurry and confusion of a headlong flight upon the
-hidden perils of his mine field. As it turned out, this part of his
-plan succeeded, and the result was probably even more startlingly
-effective than he expected; but it was only by a mere chance, as
-already mentioned, that the other and grander portion of his scheme
-failed of realization. If he had managed to interpose his powerful
-fleet between the Russian Squadron and Port Arthur, there can be little
-doubt that, although he himself would probably have sustained some
-severe losses, the Czar's naval force in the Pacific, already weakened
-by its former disasters, would have been practically eliminated. As it
-was, indeed, the success he attained was sufficiently striking. By it
-he secured the decisive supremacy of the sea in the Gulf of Pechili,
-and rendered possible at last the important movements on land which the
-strategists at Tokio were waiting to initiate.
-
-[Sidenote: Captain Oda and His Mines]
-
-The arrangements of the Japanese were carried out with their usual
-thoroughness. At midnight on the 12th of April, the fourth and fifth
-destroyer flotillas and the fourteenth torpedo flotilla reached Port
-Arthur roadstead, having with them under escort the mining ship, the
-_Koryo Maru_. The _Koryo Maru_ was a new vessel of 2,700 tons burden,
-specially constructed for torpedo and mining work. Captain Oda, the
-officer in command, was one of the ablest experts in this branch of
-warfare in the Japanese navy, and he had only recently been decorated
-for his distinguished services. He had invented a new type of mine of a
-particularly deadly description, and it was now to be tried for the
-first time in actual warlike operations. The work of laying the mines
-was entered upon without delay, and with all the customary daring and
-resource exhibited by the Mikado's sailors in this dangerous class of
-service. Notwithstanding the relentless glare of the searchlights,
-which threw the vessel into strong relief and made her the target for
-two hundred guns, Captain Oda and his men calmly went about their work
-unheeding. The torpedo-boats and destroyers in the meantime took up a
-position on the flanks of the _Koryo_ and endeavored to attract the
-fire of the fortress to themselves, while their escort was doing her
-deadly work unsuspected. The enterprise was aided by a renewal of the
-extraordinary feebleness and lack of skill which had so often been
-characteristic of the Russian defense in the past. Not only were the
-garrison gunners unable to hit the mark so plainly presented to them,
-but the torpedo flotilla, which, despite its recent losses, still
-constituted a formidable force, did nothing to interfere with
-operations which threatened so vitally the safety of the fleet. Even
-Admiral Makaroff seems to have been at fault on this occasion. It is
-almost inconceivable that the true nature of the _Koryo's_ proceedings
-was not guessed by him, and that the most active measures were not
-taken to put a stop to them. Whatever may have been the reason,
-however, nothing effective was done, and Captain Oda was able to
-complete his work unharmed in spite of the shells which were churning
-up the water all round him. It must be remembered, nevertheless, that
-the immunity which the _Koryo_ actually enjoyed is no measure of the
-risk that she ran. No more heroic and devoted act illumines the long
-history of naval warfare than the laying of these mines close to the
-harbor, and under the full fire of the enemy's guns, any one of whose
-missiles, by exploding the dangerous cargo, might have sent the ship to
-destruction in a moment. But, as it turned out, the _Koryo_ was saved
-by the bad gunnery of the Russians, and having performed his duty well
-and thoroughly, Captain Oda withdrew to the open sea.
-
-[Sidenote: "Bayan" to the Rescue]
-
-In the meanwhile, the torpedo-boats and destroyers, besides distracting
-the attention of the defending force from the work of the mine
-transport, were engaged in more active operations on their own account.
-At dawn the second division fell in with one of the enemy's destroyers,
-the _Strashni_, which was creeping stealthily towards the harbor mouth
-from the direction of Dalny. The Japanese were on her track in a
-moment, and, cutting off her retreat, bombarded her with their
-6-pounders, until in a few minutes she became a total wreck and sank.
-An attempt was made to save her crew, but the work of rescue was
-interrupted by the appearance on the scene of the Russian cruiser
-_Bayan_. Admiral Togo's destroyers sheered off upon the approach of
-this formidable adversary, and left to her the task of picking up the
-drowning men, but the _Bayan_ was too late to be of much service, and
-only five men could be recovered. At about the same time as this
-incident, a second Russian destroyer was encountered by the Japanese
-coming from the direction of Liau-tie-shan. A strong effort was made to
-capture her, but she was more fortunate than the _Strashni_, and
-managed to escape to Port Arthur in safety.
-
-[Sidenote: Preparing an Ambush]
-
-But now began the larger and more important operations which were
-destined to end so disastrously for Admiral Marakoff and his fleet.
-Admiral Togo had ordered a weak squadron, consisting of the first-class
-cruisers _Tokiwa_ and _Asama_ and four second-class cruisers, to act as
-a support to the destroyers, if attacked, and at the same time to serve
-as a lure to the Russians, and tempt them away from the protection of
-Port Arthur. He, himself, with his main fleet, lay in hiding thirty
-miles away to the southeast, waiting for an opportunity to dash in and
-cut off Makaroff's retreat. The day was not unsuitable for such an
-enterprise. Rain was falling, and a mist hung heavy over the sea,
-disguising the smoke of his great warships.
-
-[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF A DISPATCH FOR GENERAL KUROPATKIN.]
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff Lured Out]
-
-By eight o'clock on the morning of the 13th, the Japanese cruiser
-squadron appeared on the offing and engaged in a long-range fire with
-the _Bayan_, which had not returned to the harbor. Admiral Makaroff,
-seeing the smallness of the force opposed to him, gave the order to his
-fleet to steam out in column formation and attack the venturesome
-enemy. Hoisting his flag on the _Petropavlovsk_, the Russian
-Commander-in-Chief led the way himself, followed by the battleships
-_Poltava_ and _Pobieda_, the cruisers _Diana_, _Askold_, and _Novik_,
-and the destroyer flotilla. In the roadstead the fleet was joined by
-the _Bayan_, and the whole force then set forth majestically to engage
-the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Cutting Off the Unwary]
-
-But the orders of Admiral Togo were well observed by Admiral Dewa,
-commander of the cruiser squadron. Gradually the Japanese began to
-retire before the superior force opposed to them, drawing Makaroff
-onwards, further and further out to sea. The Russian fleet began a hot
-fire at long range, to which the Japanese ships replied at intervals,
-just sufficiently to keep their opponents occupied and to lure them on
-to greater efforts by the display of a manifest disparity of strength.
-By this skillful manoeuvring they succeeded in enticing Makaroff out
-a distance of fifteen miles to the southeast of Port Arthur. Now was
-the time to communicate with Admiral Togo. Wireless telegraphy flashed
-the news of the success of the ruse to the Commander-in-Chief. His
-great battleships were waiting with steam up and cleared for action.
-Directly he received the message from the retreating squadron he
-signalled to the new cruisers, the _Nisshin_ and _Kasuga_, to join him,
-and then advanced at full speed with eight powerful vessels to cut off
-the unwary Russians.
-
-[Sidenote: Weather Permitting]
-
-The plan had been well laid and it seemed on the brink of success, but
-that incalculable factor, the weather, intervened and brought Togo's
-calculations to naught. The wind suddenly freshened, and, blowing away
-the mist under cover of which the Japanese men-of-war were approaching,
-disclosed the smoke of their funnels to Admiral Makaroff. In a flash he
-saw the trap into which he had nearly led his fleet, and gave orders to
-retreat to Port Arthur with all haste. Back, therefore, the Russians
-scurried with the Japanese in full cry at their heels. Steam as they
-might Togo's ships were too late to catch their enemy, and great must
-have been the disappointment of the gallant Admiral and his men when
-they saw the prey slip from their grasp. But the curtain had not yet
-fallen upon the drama. Makaroff's ships had emerged from Port Arthur
-and passed over the mine field in safety; by a singular stroke of luck
-they had eluded the Japanese battle fleet, but they had still a third
-danger to encounter--they had once more to pass over the deadly engines
-of war which Captain Oda had placed in their path. And here it was that
-the blow fell.
-
-[Sidenote: Into the Jaws of Death]
-
-By about half-past nine the fleet, with the _Petropavlovsk_ at its head
-regained the roadstead and the protection of the fortress guns.
-Signalling to the torpedo flotilla to enter the harbor, Admiral
-Makaroff turned his own vessel towards the east and ordered the
-cruisers to follow him. The battleship _Pobieda_ was to the stern of
-the _Petropavlovsk_, on the starboard quarter. Close behind her again
-came the _Poltava_. The Commander-in-Chief was on the bridge of his
-ship with the Grand Duke Cyril, son of the Grand Duke Vladmir, and
-cousin of the Czar; Captain Yakovleff, and some other officers.
-Suddenly the horrified spectators on shore saw a great white column of
-foam rise on the right side of the _Petropavlovsk_. A dull report was
-heard, followed by another and more terrific explosion under the
-bridge. A huge thick cloud of greenish yellow smoke rose around the
-doomed vessel, a topmast, a funnel, a turret and the bridge were hurled
-into the air, and the huge monster heeled over on her starboard side.
-Her poop rose up, showing the propeller working in the air. Fire burst
-out in every part, and in a moment the ship was a mass of flame. A few
-seconds more and the whole fearful spectacle was torn from the eyes of
-the paralyzed onlookers, for with a tremendous lurch the vessel turned
-further on her side, the waters rushed in upon her in torrents, and
-with a roar and a hiss the mighty mass plunged beneath the foaming
-surface of the sea. The _Petropavlovsk_ had gone to her death carrying
-with her the gallant Admiral himself, his staff, and full six hundred
-officers and men.
-
-[Sidenote: Haphazard Fire]
-
-This terrible catastrophe threw the whole squadron into the utmost
-confusion. The other ships began a rapid haphazard fire in all
-directions to destroy the mines which they knew lurked in every
-direction, but their shots were purposeless; there was no mark at which
-to aim, and no effect was produced. And then, to carry further dismay
-to the already nerve-shaken fleet, a mine exploded on the starboard
-side of the _Pobieda_. She listed at once, but her fate was happier
-than that of the _Petropavlovsk_. No second explosion followed; the
-watertight bulkheads were shut to, and sorely wounded though she was
-she managed to keep afloat and to crawl into the harbor with the
-cruisers crowding behind her.
-
-[Sidenote: Rescue Work]
-
-The _Poltava_ in the meanwhile had remained upon the scene of the
-disaster, and her boats put out to save any of the crew of the flagship
-who could be found. In this work they were aided by the torpedo gunboat
-_Gaidamak_, and their combined efforts succeeded in rescuing the Grand
-Duke Cyril, seven officers, and seventy-three seamen. These were the
-only survivors.
-
-[Sidenote: The Character of the Explosion]
-
-The difference in the effect of the mine explosions upon the
-_Petropavlovsk_ and the _Pobieda_ was due to causes which could not
-have been foreseen. The terrible character of the disaster which befell
-the flagship was due to the fact that the mine exploded underneath her
-boilers, and that when these burst the explosion of the ammunition
-magazine, which was in the same part of the ship, immediately followed.
-The whole affair was over in less than a minute and a half. On the
-other hand, the explosion at the side of the _Pobieda_ did not touch
-the boilers, and seriously--indeed for the purposes of immediate
-warfare, irremediable--damaged as she was, the same appalling results
-did not follow in her case as in the other.
-
-[Sidenote: Accounts by Survivors]
-
-The accounts of the survivors of the _Petropavlovsk_ all confirm this
-view. But so swift indeed was the tragedy that there was not much time
-or opportunity for the formation of correct conclusions upon this or
-upon any point. The narratives of the men who were picked up were of
-the kind usually met with on the occasion of a sudden catastrophe. They
-were mainly confined to their own personal experiences and miraculous
-escape. Upon the memories of some, however, certain outstanding
-incidents were sharply and indelibly photographed. One of the last
-things which a signalman saw upon the bridge before he was hurled off
-was the figure of an officer lying weltering in his blood. It was
-Admiral Makaroff himself. Captain Yakovleff, the commander of the
-vessel, was hurled against a stanchion with such force that he was
-thought to be killed, but he was afterwards picked up alive. The Grand
-Duke Cyril had an escape just as marvelous. He, too, was knocked on the
-head, but he was not rendered unconscious, and when he was thrown into
-the sea he fell clear of the sinking vessel. He was an excellent
-swimmer, and in spite of the shock and injury he had sustained, he
-managed to keep afloat until he was picked up. Rear-Admiral Molas,
-Makaroff's chief of staff, was in his cabin when the explosion
-occurred, and was drowned. His body was one of the few that were
-afterwards washed ashore. Another picture which some of the survivors
-retained in their mind was that of "an old man with a beautiful white
-beard," who was standing on the deck just before the disaster with a
-book in his hand sketching. This was the famous war artist,
-Verestchagin. Only that morning his friend Makaroff had invited him to
-share the hospitality of the flagship and so gain further material for
-his realistic pictures of the horrors of war!
-
-[Sidenote: Tribute from the Japanese]
-
-The full magnitude of the success which his plans had gained was not
-revealed to the Japanese Admiral till the Russian dispatches made it
-public to the world. He saw a vessel, as he phrased it, "of the
-_Petropavlovsk_ type" strike a mine and sink, and he thought also that
-another ship--he was referring to the _Pobieda_--lost freedom of
-movement; but he did not know that with the _Petropavlovsk_ perished
-the brain of the Russian defence, a brain which, if it had been
-employed from the first by its master, the Czar, might have given a
-totally different character to the war. The death of Makaroff in itself
-brought no rejoicing to the Japanese in their hour of victory, but only
-that feeling of almost personal sorrow which brave and chivalrous men
-feel for the death of a gallant foe. No finer or more generous tributes
-indeed could have been paid even in the western world than were paid to
-the memory of the brave but unfortunate Makaroff by the members of this
-so-called yellow race.
-
-[Sidenote: On Land]
-
-On the 14th Admiral Togo once more brought his fleet before Port
-Arthur, and by means of an indirect bombardment, silenced the new forts
-on Liau-tie-shan. He then retired again to prepare for a further
-attempt to cork up the harbor, which should finally reduce the Russian
-fleet to a state of ineffectiveness, and leave the sea clear for the
-transport of the great army which was to be launched against the
-Liao-tung Peninsula and southern Manchuria. Already General Kuroki,
-with the First Army, was encamped on the south bank of the Yalu River
-prepared for an advance upon the Russian position at Khiu-lien-cheng.
-
-[Sidenote: Chong-Ju]
-
-But before dealing with the momentous events which now occurred in
-rapid succession, both on land and sea, it will be necessary to return
-for a few moments to the earlier fortunes of the First Army, whose
-advance through Korea as far as Ping-Yang was described in Chapter III.
-It will be remembered that a small skirmish took place between Russian
-and Japanese patrols to the north of that town on February 28th. A
-month elapsed before the opposing forces came seriously into touch with
-one another again. During that period General Kuroki slowly but
-steadily continued his advance in the face of terrible difficulties
-arising from the weather and the state of the roads. The mud on these
-north Korean highways in the spring makes them almost impassable, but
-the Japanese had thought of everything, and brought large supplies of
-wood with which they practically relaid the road, and made it admit
-even of the passage of heavy artillery. The Cossack patrols retired
-before this persistent advance, and no real attempt to dispute it was
-made till the vanguard of the Japanese neared Chong-ju, a little town
-about thirty miles north of Anju and fifty south of Wiju. Here, on
-March 28th, they found six squadrons of Cossacks belonging to General
-Mishtchenko's Brigade, posted on an adjacent hill, prepared to dispute
-the forward movement. A brisk engagement ensued. The small force of
-Japanese which first appeared upon the scene, according to the
-testimony of General Mishtchenko himself, gallantly held their ground
-in spite of the commanding position occupied by the Russians and the
-raking cross fire which they maintained, and it was only after half an
-hour of fierce fighting that they gave way and fell back upon their
-supports which were hastening to the front. Reinforcements now rapidly
-arrived, and the Russians, finding their position untenable, retired
-along the road to the north, yielding up possession of the town to the
-Japanese. In this smart little affair the Russians, according to their
-account, lost three killed and twelve wounded, the Japanese casualties
-amounting to five killed, including one officer, and twelve wounded,
-including two officers.
-
-[Sidenote: The Advance to the North]
-
-After the capture of Chong-ju General Kuroki moved forward rapidly,
-finding no resistance. On April 2nd he occupied Syoush-kou, a place
-eighteen miles west of Chong-ju, and forty miles south of Wiju, and two
-days afterwards his scouts entered Wiju itself, an important town on
-the south bank of the Yalu. The Russians did not find themselves strong
-enough to oppose the Japanese advance in Korea, and determined instead
-to resist it on the north bank of the Yalu. General Kuroki therefore
-occupied Wiju without firing a shot, and set to work busily to
-consolidate his forces for the great enterprise of crossing the Yalu.
-
-[Sidenote: Concentration of Troops]
-
-The month of April was occupied by General Kuroki in the steady
-concentration of his troops and in the collection of war material.
-Pontoons were conveyed to the front in readiness for the operation of
-forcing the river; heavy guns were transported over the Korean roads
-with, in the circumstances, really marvelous rapidity; and masses of
-cavalry and infantry arrived at Wiju every day. By the end of the month
-the First Japanese Army had been brought up to its full strength,
-amounting probably to between 60,000 and 70,000 men of all arms. It was
-divided into three divisions, the 12th, the 2nd and the Guards. The
-12th Division, it will be remembered, was the first section of the army
-to put foot on Korean soil, being landed at Chemulpo during the first
-days of the war, after the destruction of the _Varyag_ had left that
-part of the coast clear for the Japanese disembarkation. It may be well
-to record its composition exactly, as it is typical of all the Japanese
-divisions. It was made up as follows:--Infantry, 12,000 (four regiments
-of three battalions each); cavalry, 500 (one regiment); artillery, 900
-(one regiment, 36 guns, two field batteries, two mountain batteries);
-engineers, 700; transport corps, 600; hospital corps, 700; ammunition
-column, 500; post office corps, veterinary corps, pontoon corps and
-balloon corps, 1,000; total, 16,900. Attached to these combatant troops
-were a force of 5,500 coolies for transport purposes, bringing the
-grand total of the division, combatant and non-combatant, up to 22,400.
-The whole was under the command of Lieutenant-General Inouye, whose
-chief subordinates were Major-Generals Kigoshi and Otani.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN CONCENTRATION ON THE YALU.]
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki's Line of Front]
-
-As his army arrived at the front, General Kuroki began gradually to
-occupy a wider front on the south bank of the Yalu, his left wing
-operating at the mouth of the river in conjunction with a naval force
-under the command of Admiral Hosoya, and his right extending to a
-distance of twenty or twenty-five miles up the river, past Sukuchin.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Position]
-
-While the Japanese were thus concentrating on the left bank of the Yalu
-the Russians were gradually strengthening their positions on the right
-bank, the centre and key of which was formed by the village of
-Kiu-lien-cheng. During all these weeks the greatest secrecy was
-observed on both sides in regard to their numbers and dispositions--as
-far, at least, as the outside world was concerned. It seems probable
-from after events that the Russians themselves were largely ignorant of
-the strength of the force which General Kuroki had at his disposal;
-but, on the other hand, that able commander appears to have been
-thoroughly well informed in every detail as to the position occupied by
-his enemy. There was the greatest diversity of statement on the Russian
-side after the battle of the Yalu upon the question of the real
-intentions of General Kuropatkin in holding as he did the right bank of
-the river. When the disastrous result of the conflict of May 1st became
-known in Europe the friends of the Commander-in-Chief in the press
-declared that it was due to the failure of the officer in immediate
-command, General Sassulitch, to follow his instructions, which were to
-offer only a strategical resistance to the enemy and to withdraw slowly
-before the advance of a superior force upon Feng-haung-cheng, a
-position about thirty miles distant upon the Liau-yang road. If this
-explanation is correct, the activity shown by the Russians for weeks in
-constructing earthworks on the heights around Kiu-lien-cheng is
-rendered very remarkable, and equally difficult to understand is the
-size and importance of the force to which was apportioned the task of
-thus keeping in touch with the advancing Japanese army and conducting a
-mere strategic defeat. For General Sassulitch was commander of the 2nd
-Siberian Army Corps, and though the actual body of troops engaged in
-the fighting-line in resisting the passage of the Yalu by the Japanese
-did not amount to that strength, there is no doubt that General
-Sassulitch had under him in the near neighborhood a force of not less
-than 30,000 men. All the evidence, in fact, points to the conclusion
-that the Russian Generals, including the Commander-in-Chief himself,
-wholly underestimated the fighting power of the Japanese and the skill
-with which they would be led when the opposing armies came to close
-quarters.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Confidence]
-
-The kind of talk which responsible military men in St. Petersburg
-indulged in before the battle of the Yalu all goes to strengthen this
-impression. On April 25th, the day before General Kuroki began that
-series of movements which were to culminate in his crossing the Yalu
-and driving the Russians before him in headlong rout, there appeared in
-the _Echo de Paris_ the report of an interview which its St. Petersburg
-correspondent had had with Colonel Vannovsky, of the Russian General
-Staff, and formerly military attache in Japan. The utterances of this
-sapient officer are amusing reading in view of what happened so shortly
-afterwards. He thought it would still be some time before serious
-military operations could begin on the Yalu, for the Japanese, in his
-opinion, were far from having completed their concentration in Korea.
-They probably, he said, had three divisions of from 12,000 to 15,000
-men between Ping-Yang and the Yalu; and, including the Second Army then
-disembarking, they had not more than 85,000 men near the front. Then
-followed a valuable criticism of General Kuroki and his colleague,
-General Oku, the commander of the Second Army. Both, he reminded the
-interviewer, served in the Chino-Japanese War; but "he looked for
-nothing extraordinary from them, both were more than sixty years of
-age." On the whole, he thought that the Japanese would establish
-themselves in Korea; if they crossed the Yalu it would be only to
-satisfy public opinion at Tokio. Colonel Vannovsky soon had reason to
-be sorry that he had spoken so disdainfully of General Kuroki, and with
-such sublime assurance of the Japanese plans. If the crossing of the
-Yalu was mainly dictated by a desire to satisfy public opinion at
-Tokio, it must be said that public opinion at Tokio had its wishes very
-amply gratified before many days had expired. It is a remarkable fact
-that in the history of nearly every war the greatest disasters follow
-the greatest self-confidence. And yet it can easily be understood how
-the armies that had proved successful against those famous fighters the
-Turks in the war of the seventies should despise the little dwarfish
-Japanese, who had hitherto only faced the undisciplined hordes of China.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-
-  Kuroki Completes his Plans--The Scene of Battle--General
-    Sassulitch's Defences--The Russian Dispositions--The
-    Attacking Army--Clearing the Islands--Guards Half-way
-    Across--Parallel Movements--The Searching Japanese
-    Fire--Bridging the Yalu--Confusion in the Russian
-    Councils--Kuroki's Consummate Strategy--Futile Russian
-    Opposition--Masked Batteries at Work--Serpentine Line of
-    Dark Forms--Two Thousand Deadly Thunderbolts--Inferno Let
-    Loose--Howitzer High-Angle Fire--Co-operation of
-    Gunboats--Miserable Array of Russians--Four Miles of
-    Japanese--A Moment of Tense Expectancy--The General Attack
-    Begins--Ridges Alive with Flame--Surprise of the
-    Russians--The Plunge Across the Ai--Overwhelming
-    Legions--The Circling Ring of Fate--Devastating Artillery
-    Bombardment--Black Mass of Human Figures--The Blood-Red
-    Banner--Fight Desperately Against Fate--General
-    Sassulitch's Retreat--The Japanese Chase--The Last Gallant
-    Stand--Rifle Fire and Cold Steel.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki Completes his Plans]
-
-The numerous small skirmishes between outposts which took place on the
-Yalu and its tributaries during the earlier part of the month of April
-need not detain us. They were mainly encounters between small
-reconnoitering parties, and though there were losses on both sides,
-fortune on the whole leaned in favor of the Japanese. The results of
-these reconnaissances in locating the positions occupied by the
-Russians, combined with the success of the Japanese transport
-arrangements, which, as stated already, placed an army of 60,000 to
-70,000 men at General Kuroki's disposal, enabled him to complete his
-preparations for the great task before him by the beginning of the last
-week in April. The night of the 25th found him ready at all points, and
-on the morrow his army entered upon the preliminary stages of a series
-of operations which, culminating in the crossing of the river and the
-capture of the Russian position, first revealed to an astonished world
-the hitherto undreamt-of potentialities of Japan as a military power.
-
-[Sidenote: The Scene of Battle]
-
-Some study of the map of the scene of battle is necessary for a perfect
-understanding of the movements of the contending forces. It will be
-seen on reference to our map (page 169) that just above Wiju the waters
-of the Yalu are joined from the northwest by an important tributary,
-the Ai River, the stream here taking the form of a fork. At the apex of
-the triangular wedge of land which divides the Ai from the Yalu is
-situated the Hosan, or Tiger Hill, an important strategical position
-commanding the south bank of the main river. Opposite Tiger Hill, and
-running some way past it up the Yalu, is the Island of Kulido, which
-divides the river at this point into two streams, both of them
-fordable. The Ai also is fordable at a point near the hill of
-Yulchasan, which is north of Tiger Hill and on the same bank of the
-tributary. Opposite Wiju itself the main river is two miles wide and is
-divided into three streams by two islands. Of these the larger
-Cheun-song-do, is near the right bank, and lies stretched alongside it
-for a distance of about thirteen miles, starting from a spot close to
-Antung, lower down the river, and finishing at a little distance up the
-Ai. It can be reached from the right bank at this end by a ford, and
-there is another ford lower down, opposite to Chiu-lien-cheng. The
-stream dividing the other island from the left bank is also fordable
-waist-deep, but the central stream can only be crossed by means of a
-bridge. These islands are really low, flat, sandy deltas, with
-occasional clumps of small trees and patches of shrub dotting their
-surface, which provide some cover for the concealment of troops.
-
-[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE ACTIONS ON THE YALU
-    APRIL 29TH-MAY 1ST.]
-
-[Sidenote: General Sassulitch's Defences]
-
-The Russian position extended for a distance of upwards of twenty miles
-along the right bank of the Yalu and Ai, from Niang-ning-chin in the
-south, to Yushukau in the north. Yushukau is a hill opposite to
-Yulchasan, and lower down is another hill which General Sassulitch had
-fortified, named Makau (or Potientzy). Then comes the village of
-Chiu-lien-cheng itself, which formed the centre of his position,
-standing at a height of about 180 feet above the river. From
-Chiu-lien-cheng a road runs in a westerly direction to Hamatan or
-Hoh-mu-tang, a distance of about five or six miles; and another road
-runs down parallel with the bank of the Yalu to Antung. A further road
-runs from Hoh-mu-tang in a northerly direction, the most important post
-on which is Tang-lang-fang, almost due west of Yushukau. Westward of
-Hoh-mu-tang stretches the main road to Feng-whang-cheng and Liao-yang.
-South of Antung is the hill of Antushan, and a continual ridge of hills
-connects this eminence with Niang-ning-chin, already mentioned. It will
-be observed that the high ground which the Russians occupied gives a
-defending force a great advantage in meeting an attack from the Yalu,
-as it easily commands the low-lying positions on the left bank. On the
-other hand, Makau, Shiu-lien-cheng, and the positions to the southward
-are commanded by Tiger Hill and Yulchasan, and it is therefore obvious
-that if once the Japanese succeeded in occupying those heights they
-must necessarily render the rest of General Sassulitch's defences along
-the river bank untenable.
-
-[Illustration: HAULING A JAPANESE HOWITZER INTO POSITION UNDER FIRE.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Dispositions]
-
-As far as can be gathered from the Japanese accounts and from the more
-obscure dispatches of the Russian Generals, the distribution of the
-Czar's forces at the beginning of the operations was as follows: Tiger
-Hill was occupied by part of the 22nd Siberian Regiment under the
-command of General Kashtalinsky. The right wing, in the neighborhood of
-Antung, was formed of the 9th and 10th Regiments supported by two
-batteries of artillery; while the centre, at Chiu-lien-cheng, was held
-by the 12th Regiment. The Reserve was formed of the 11th Regiment. The
-artillery were distributed at carefully-chosen positions along the
-whole front, but were massed in especial strength at Makau and
-Chiu-lien-cheng. Advanced outposts drawn from the 22nd, 23rd, and 27th
-Regiments of Eastern Siberian Sharpshooters occupied the islands of
-Kulido and Cheun-song-do. A Russian regiment, it should be explained,
-consists of three battalions, each of which, when brought up to its
-full strength, numbers about 1,000 men.
-
-[Sidenote: The Attacking Army]
-
-On the night of the 25th the Japanese army was massed on the left bank
-of the river in the following order: On the left, facing the island of
-Cheun-song-do, was stationed the 2nd Division; the centre, occupying a
-position to the north of Wiju, was composed of the Imperial Guards'
-Division; and on the right, still further up the river, the 12th
-Division was concentrated, in concealment behind some hilly ground, and
-in readiness for an important move upon the enemy's left, which will be
-described later.
-
-[Sidenote: Clearing the Islands]
-
-At dawn on the 26th a sharp rattle of musketry told the Russians that
-the attack had begun. Detachments from the Guards' Division were firing
-upon General Sassulitch's sharpshooters stationed on the Island of
-Kulido. The Russians replied briskly, but the Japanese rifle fire was
-heavy and well-directed, and at last their position became untenable,
-in face not only of this infantry attack, but of a searching
-bombardment opened by some batteries of Kuroki's artillery, which were
-established on a hill in the rear of Wiju. They therefore retreated to
-the mainland for shelter.
-
-[Sidenote: Guards Half-way Across]
-
-No sooner had this retirement been effected than the Japanese prepared
-to cross over to the island in boats. These craft were all in
-readiness, and before long a considerable force of the Guards had
-landed on the island. When this movement was perceived the enemy
-returned to dispute it; but they were not in large force, and were
-easily repulsed. A squadron of Cossacks came to their assistance, but
-the hot fire with which they were received by the Japanese infantry was
-too much for them, and they were driven back in confusion to the bank
-below Tiger Hill. The Mikado's Guards continued the pursuit across the
-ford, and a smart encounter ensued beneath the hill. The fighting was
-not of long duration, however; the Russians retired; and it became
-evident that there was no intention seriously to dispute the possession
-of the island. The attempt made by General Sassulitch's batteries to
-drive the daring Japanese off the island by shrapnel fire was quite
-unsuccessful, and the whole defence on this side revealed an unexpected
-weakness. The Guards' skirmishers occupied all night the ground they
-had so easily gained.
-
-[Sidenote: Parallel Movements]
-
-In the meantime, the advance guard of the 2nd Division had carried
-through the same operations with equal success on the Island of
-Cheun-song-do. The Russian sharpshooters were driven off in the
-direction of Chiu-lien-cheng, and the Japanese seized the delta with a
-small force preparatory to constructing a bridge over the central
-stream for the passage of the main body of the division.
-
-[Sidenote: The Searching Japanese Fire]
-
-In these small but useful engagements the Guards suffered some slight
-casualties, nine men being slightly and sixteen seriously wounded. The
-2nd Division sustained no casualties at all. The Russians, on the other
-hand, lost more heavily. They were seen to carry off a considerable
-number of dead and wounded, and they left behind them ninety-five dead
-horses, which, in itself, is significant of the searching character of
-the Japanese fire. The body of Lieutenant Senyoloff, commanding the
-Mounted Scouts of the 22nd Regiment, which his comrades had not time to
-remove, was buried at Wiju by the Japanese themselves with all honor.
-
-[Sidenote: Bridging the Yalu]
-
-On the following day the work of bridging the stream both at Kulido and
-Cheun-song-do was carried out, in spite of the intermittent fire which
-the Russian guns maintained upon the corps engaged. So ineffective
-indeed was this cannonade that the Japanese artillery did not even
-reply to it, and their engineers pursued their enterprise calmly and
-without substantial interruption. On the same day the naval squadron
-under Rear-Admiral Hosoya rendered valuable assistance to General
-Kuroki by its co-operation in the Yalu estuary. Two gunboats, two
-torpedo-boats, and two armed steamers ascended the river as far as
-Antushan and effected a useful diversion in the quarter by shelling the
-Russian entrenchments. The bombardment must have proved destructive,
-for after making a brisk reply for some time, which, however, did no
-damage to the Japanese ships, the Muscovite batteries were finally
-silenced.
-
-[Sidenote: Confusion in the Russian Councils]
-
-On Thursday, the 28th, the same tactics were displayed, and the
-position seized by the Guards' Division and the 2nd Division on the
-Islands of Kulido and Cheun-song-do was consolidated. Two companies of
-the former, indeed, crossed over to the mainland and reconnoitred Tiger
-Hill, encouraged by the silence of the enemy on that commanding
-eminence. To their surprise they found that the post had been evacuated
-by the Russians. No explanation has been offered of this remarkable
-step; the only conclusion possible--a conclusion, indeed, strengthened
-by subsequent events--is that confusion reigned in the councils of the
-Russian commanders, and that no definite and coherent plan had been
-thought out by them. For on the next day General Kashtalinsky was again
-ordered to occupy the hill, which the Japanese themselves, having other
-plans in view, were not yet in a position to seize effectively.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki's Consummate Strategy]
-
-On Friday, the 29th, General Kuroki began the important move on his
-extreme right, for which the 12th Division had been all this time kept
-in reserve. The operations of the Guards and the 2nd Division, useful,
-and indeed necessary, as they were for the purposes of a general
-advance, had acted as a screen for his consummate piece of strategy by
-which the Japanese Commander turned General Sassulitch's flank and
-finally captured the position. To the north of Wiju, about thirteen
-miles higher up the stream of the Yalu, stands the small village of
-Sukuchin. Here it was that the Japanese effected a crossing in October,
-1894, in their war with China. On that occasion the movement enabled
-them to outflank a force of 30,000 men, and it is one of the remarkable
-features of General Kuroki's dispositions for attack that they repeated
-in all essential particulars the tactics which proved so successful ten
-years ago. Still more remarkable is it that the Russians appear to have
-learned none of the lessons of the war of 1894, and to have fallen just
-as readily into the trap as did the Chinese. Early then on the 29th the
-engineer corps of the 12th Division started to construct two pontoon
-bridges over the Yalu at Sukuchin. Here, as in every other department
-of the Japanese arrangements, the organization was perfect. Not a
-detail had been omitted and the work proceeded smoothly and with
-dispatch. By the next morning both bridges were completed and the
-troops prepared to cross.
-
-[Sidenote: Futile Russian Opposition]
-
-The Russian Commander, who had at last got wind of the manoeuvre
-which was taking place at this point, had detached a small force to
-oppose the passage of the river, and when at 10.40 the vanguard of
-General Inouye's Division began to march on to the pontoons, a fierce
-fire was directed upon it from the opposite bank. The Japanese,
-however, retorted both with rifle fire and artillery, and the fusillade
-of the Russians was soon checked, with the result that by the afternoon
-the whole of the 12th Division had gained the right bank of the Yalu
-with the loss of only two men killed and twenty-seven men wounded.
-General Inouye then marched forward to seize Yulchasan and Tiger Hill,
-which positions, after their first evacuation, had again been occupied
-by the Russians under General Kashtalinsky.
-
-[Sidenote: Masked Batteries at Work]
-
-In the meantime, the Guards' Division, assisted by a heavy bombardment
-from the batteries below Wiju, was pressing an attack upon Tiger Hill
-from the Island of Kulido, an attack which successfully diverted the
-attention of General Kashtalinsky from the advance upon his left, and
-prevented him from offering it any formidable resistance. The Japanese
-artillery in particular distinguished itself. Never was superiority of
-generalship more strikingly displayed than it was by General Kuroki in
-this case. The position was admirably selected by him; the work of
-placing the batteries was carried out with such skill that the Russians
-were kept in entire ignorance of their whereabouts; and finally when
-they opened fire on the morning of the 30th the heavy character of the
-guns employed took the enemy absolutely by surprise. On the delta
-immediately below Wiju was a belt of trees of which the Japanese
-General had at once seen the potentialities; and behind its screen his
-engineers had constructed gun pits, in which were concealed several
-batteries of howitzers. These pieces of ordnance did terrible execution
-in the Russian lines in the course of the day.
-
-[Sidenote: Serpentine Line of Dark Forms]
-
-To the onlookers standing on the hills behind Wiju the wide field of
-battle spread before them presented a highly picturesque spectacle, and
-as the attack developed the interest became intense. Hardly had the
-advance of the Guards begun upon the Island of Kulido when a long
-serpentine line of dark forms could be seen winding in and out of the
-heights on the right bank of the river to the north of Tiger Hill. They
-were the men of the 12th Division slowly but surely creeping upon the
-Russian left. For miles they pressed forward without coming into view
-of the Russian artillerymen on Tiger Hill, but at last the first
-detachments, rounding the shoulder of one of the nearer hills, were
-exposed to the enemy. Instantly a terrific burst of shrapnel fire broke
-out from General Kashtalinsky's field batteries. Steadily, however, and
-without a check the brave Japanese advanced from height to height, and
-at the same time the batteries on the left bank above Wiju came to
-their aid. The fire of the Russians had unmasked the position of their
-guns on the hill, and the Japanese artillerymen rained upon them a
-terrible hail of shells which soon reduced them to silence and
-effectually covered the advance of the infantry.
-
-[Sidenote: Two Thousand Deadly Thunderbolts]
-
-But now the Guards, who were engaged in effecting a lodgement on the
-lower slopes of Tiger Hill, came in for the attentions of General
-Sassulitch's field batteries at Makau and Chiu-lien-cheng. Believing
-that the Japanese possessed only guns of the same calibre, and totally
-ignorant of the deadly engines of warfare which Kuroki had so
-skillfully concealed behind the innocent-looking belt of trees on the
-delta, the Russian Commander took no pains to mask his ordnance.
-Therefore when his shrapnel swept the Island of Kulido and played havoc
-among the Guards, his whole position in this part of the field lay
-exposed. At once the howitzers on the delta close to the opposite shore
-began to belch forth a terrible fire of shrapnel and common shell,
-which tore up the ground all around the Russians, killing their gunners
-and dismounting their guns. This bombardment was afterwards described
-by General Kashtalinsky, in a dispatch to the Commander-in-Chief, as
-"extraordinarily violent and prolonged," and he added that in its
-course more than 2,000 shells were fired upon the defenders' position.
-The fearfully destructive and demoralizing effect of this cannonade was
-indeed patent at once to the observers upon the left bank of the river.
-The Makau Hill was described by one correspondent as transformed in
-appearance into an active volcano, from which belched forth clouds of
-grey-black smoke.
-
-[Sidenote: Inferno Set Loose]
-
-It was Inferno let loose. The sides of the hill were riddled and
-scored, solid rocks were smashed like crockery, as the screaming
-missiles of death burst among the trenches and filled them with dead
-and wounded. Yet amid it all the Russian artillerymen stood steadily to
-their guns as long as their guns were left in their places, and as long
-as any men remained to work them. But the best troop in the world could
-not endure such a murderous fire for long. The heavy pieces of field
-ordnance were knocked from their carriages like ninepins, the soldiers
-fell around them in scores, and at last the batteries sank into silence
-and the dark forms of the defenders were seen from afar fleeing for
-refuge behind the further line of the heights.
-
-[Sidenote: Howitzer High-Angle Fire]
-
-This fierce artillery engagement lasted about half an hour, and while
-it produced such deadly and demoralizing effects on the enemy it left
-the Japanese practically unharmed behind their screen of trees. Their
-howitzers, unlike the Russian field guns, could do the maximum of
-execution by means of high-angle fire and their battery emplacements
-were so carefully and skilfully masked that the shrapnel of the enemy,
-effective as it may have appeared to be from the right bank, did them
-scarcely any damage. Their casualties, indeed, were only two men killed
-and twenty-five wounded. It was a remarkable triumph of scientific
-warfare, and proved that in the artillery branch of the service at all
-events the Japanese had nothing further to learn from European models.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIANS COLLECTING WOUNDED ON THE NIGHT AFTER THE
-BATTLE.]
-
-[Sidenote: Co-operation of Gunboats]
-
-While this bombardment was engaging the Russian centre and diverting
-its attention from the enveloping movement of the 12th Division on the
-left, and from the advance of the Guards upon Tiger Hill, the gunboat
-flotilla of Admiral Hosoya again operated with great effect against the
-Russian lines lower down the river at Antushan and Niang-ning-chin.
-This simultaneous attack along the whole of his front placed General
-Sassulitch in a position of the utmost difficulty. He was unable to
-tell from which part of the field the real danger would come. It is
-clear, however, from the dispatches of his subordinate, General
-Kashtalinsky, that that officer appreciated the true nature of the
-Japanese operations, and that he recognized the impossibility of
-holding Chiu-lien-cheng after his flank had been turned by General
-Inouye's Division. Early on the 30th he ordered the 22nd Regiment back
-from Tiger Hill to the right bank of the Ai River and endeavored to
-strengthen the position on Makau and Yukushau, and his dispatch to
-General Kuropatkin indicates that he represented to General Sassulitch
-the difficulty with which even that line of defence could be
-maintained, and urged a retreat to Hoh-mu-tang. At night, however, he
-received orders from his superior to remain and accept battle at the
-hands of the Japanese, and he had nothing for it but to obey.
-
-[Sidenote: Miserable Array of Russians]
-
-It was with a miserably inadequate force that he was thus compelled to
-oppose the advance of a foe which had already proved itself so
-determined and so resourceful. At the ford on his extreme left he
-stationed two battalions of the 22nd Regiment. The 12th Regiment of the
-East Siberian Rifles held the hills behind, from Yukushan to Makau,
-supported by the 3rd Battery of the 6th Brigade of Artillery and a
-number of machine guns. General Sassulitch himself was in command of
-the 9th and 10th Regiments occupying Chiu-lien-cheng and the chain of
-hills stretching down to Antung, and the 11th Regiment was kept in the
-rear as a reserve. General Mishchenko's Brigade of Cossacks, though in
-the neighborhood, does not appear to have been actually engaged in the
-battle at all.
-
-[Sidenote: Four Miles of Japanese]
-
-On the Japanese side all was in readiness for the great advance by the
-night of the 30th, and General Kuroki telegraphed to the General Staff
-at Tokio that the attack would begin at dawn. On the left, the 2nd
-Division, under General Nishi, occupied the southern end of
-Cheun-song-do; the Imperial Guards, under General Hasegawa, held the
-northern end of that island, as well as Tiger Hill; and on their right
-was stationed the 12th Division, facing the Ai, on a wide front
-extending for over four miles. In these positions the Army bivouacked
-for the night.
-
-[Sidenote: A Moment of Tense Expectancy]
-
-By five o'clock on the morning of Sunday, May 1st, the whole force from
-north to south was on foot, and prepared to move like one mighty
-machine to the execution of the great task before it. As the grey dawn
-lifted the curtain upon the tremendous drama which was about to unfold
-itself before them, the watchers behind Wiju saw the long lines of
-black forms marshalling upon the islands and taking cover behind the
-scrub and in the hollows of the low sand hills. Far out beyond Tiger
-Hill and along the left bank of the River Ai the lines extended, moving
-out of the shelter of the adjacent hills. It was a moment of tense
-expectancy. Now for the first time were Japanese Infantry to be pitted
-against European troops armed with modern weapons, in a conflict on the
-grand scale. Would they come out of the ordeal with triumph? Would they
-in their sphere of warfare rival the great achievements of their naval
-brethren?
-
-[Sidenote: The General Attack Begins]
-
-But before the infantry could move forward it was necessary to search
-the Russian batteries once more and reduce them, if possible, to
-ineffectiveness. The howitzers and field artillery, therefore, again
-opened their terrible fire of shell and shrapnel upon the heights
-opposite, the storm raging with especial severity over Chiu-lien-cheng
-and the Makau and Yushukau ridge. But to this the enemy made no reply.
-After the awful experience of the previous day, they had been compelled
-to withdraw many of their guns, and the front of their position was, as
-it afterwards appeared, deprived of this defence altogether. General
-Kashtalinsky, as already stated, had with him one battery of field
-artillery, but taught by past lessons he declined to unmask its
-whereabouts until the advance of the Mikado's troops made it absolutely
-necessary. After half an hour, therefore, the Japanese ceased their
-bombardment for the time being, and at last General Kuroki gave the
-eagerly-expected order for a general attack along the whole line.
-Gladly the soldiery of Dai Nippon answered the call, burning as one man
-to plant the flag of the Rising Sun upon the soil of the territory from
-which ten years ago they had been so contemptuously driven out by the
-haughty Muscovite.
-
-[Sidenote: Ridges Alive with Flame]
-
-To the 12th Division fell the perilous glory of crossing first, in the
-teeth of the Russian guns. The skirmishing line advanced first over a
-wide front, keeping up a harassing fire upon the enemy's trenches. A
-smart response was made, but the opportunity of the Russians was yet to
-come; for it was apparent that the actual crossing of the river by
-General Inouye's main body would have to be performed in much closer
-formation, presenting an admirable target for artillery and rifle fire.
-Slowly but steadily the skirmishers pressed forward, taking advantage
-of every scrap of cover, and soon the whole plain was dotted with puffs
-of white smoke as the bullets sped on their way. Behind them came line
-after line of the main storming force. At last the fords were reached,
-and forming into two columns the 12th Division rushed forward to gain
-their passage. At once the ridges opposite became alive with flame, and
-a withering blast of shrapnel and rifle bullets swept across their
-path. The column formation which the Japanese were compelled to adopt
-gave the Russian marksmen every chance, and terrible loss of life
-occurred at this point. The leading files were mown down like grass
-under the sickle; for a moment the head of the column wavered under the
-storm and stood still.
-
-[Sidenote: Surprise of the Russians]
-
-But now the Japanese artillery found the opening they wanted. The exact
-position of the Russian guns was revealed, and at once they were
-enfiladed by a demoralizing fire from the terrible howitzers near Wiju
-while at the same time they were attacked by General Inouye's field
-batteries in front. Once again the fierce and destructive character of
-the cannonade is revealed by the dispatches of the Russian commanders.
-Just as General Kashtalinsky, referring to the bombardment of April
-30th, described it as "extraordinarily violent and prolonged," so
-General Sassulitch used similar terms in regard to this new
-bombardment. Before the day was over the Russian Commander had more
-opportunities of appreciating the "extraordinary" quality of the troops
-whose powers he, in common with more highly placed officers in the
-service of the Czar, had so fatally despised; but it seems clear from
-the use of the same phrase independently by the two generals that the
-artillery tactics of General Kuroki caused them more surprise than
-almost anything else in the whole of these surprising operations. It
-goes to prove that the Intelligence Department on the Russian side was
-not well equipped, for the possession by their enterprising foe of
-heavy guns so far north in Korea seems never to have been suspected by
-them.
-
-[Sidenote: The Plunge Across the Ai]
-
-Supported by this tremendous cannonade, the infantry of the 12th
-Division pressed steadily forward. The survivors of the first line
-melted into the second line, which was advancing quickly behind, and
-careless of death, the gallant little Japs plunged into the waters of
-the Ai up to their breasts, and waded across the ford. Notwithstanding
-the raking fire, however, from General Kuroki's batteries, the Russians
-stuck to their posts like heroes, and the field guns of the 3rd
-Battery, assisted by a number of machine guns, ploughed up the ranks of
-the Mikado's troops, doing terrible execution. But the Japanese were in
-overwhelming force, and though men were falling on every hand, the main
-body pressed resistlessly forward, crossed the river, and took up a
-position on the right bank, at the base of the hills. Not a moment was
-wasted. As the column reached the shore, it diverged regiment by
-regiment to right and left, spreading out in wider formation for the
-task of scaling the heights. The evolution was executed with great
-speed, but with the precision and steadiness of parade; and if anything
-could be more impressive than the gallantry of the Japanese rank and
-file, it was the skill and coolness of their officers from General down
-to company commander. Though it was exposed to a withering fire at
-comparatively close quarters, the movements of the whole force were
-executed like those of a machine.
-
-[Sidenote: Overwhelming Legions]
-
-It will be remembered that there are two fords over the Ai river, the
-one leading from a position near Yulchasan, on the left bank, to a
-position slightly north of Yukushan, on the right bank; the other
-opposite to Tiger Hill, and a little to the north of Makau. It was
-opposite to this latter ford that the bulk of General Kashtalinsky's
-force was stationed, and here in consequence, the greatest losses
-befell the Japanese. But while a fierce engagement was raging at Makau,
-the decisive movement was taking place on the extreme left of the
-Russians at Yushukau. The defence at that spot was entrusted to only
-one battalion of the 22nd Regiment of Sharpshooters, and it was
-impossible for such a small contingent, gallantly as it held its ground
-for a time, finally to withstand the overwhelming legions which were
-hurled against it.
-
-[Sidenote: The Circling Ring of Fate]
-
-For slowly but steadily the Japanese lines encircled the hills with a
-ring of fate, creeping up the sides with infinite nimbleness and
-dexterity, pausing now to take cover and return the Russian fire, then
-up again and climbing from rock to rock with indomitable courage and
-resolution. On the other hand, General Kashtalinsky bravely fought on
-against his advancing foe. With the force at his command, it was
-obviously a desperate undertaking, and he had sent for reinforcements.
-But they came not, and for hours he had to do the best he could without
-them. The fact was, of course, that General Sassulitch himself was so
-busily engaged both on the right wing and at the centre that he could
-spare little assistance to his subordinate.
-
-[Sidenote: Devastating Artillery Bombardment]
-
-For almost simultaneously with the advance of the 12th Division across
-the Ai the Imperial Guards under General Hasegawa had forced the
-passage of the stream on the left, at the foot of the slope which led
-up to the village of Chiu-lien-cheng, while the 2nd Division, led by
-General Nishi, crossed lower down and menaced the Russian right. Four
-batteries of howitzers had been ferried across the stream from the left
-bank of the Yalu to the Island of Cheun-song-do, and as the skirmishing
-line of both divisions moved forward in a fan-like formation these
-powerful pieces of ordnance opened a destructive fire upon the enemy. A
-sharp rattle of musketry was the first sign that the Russians were
-prepared to contest the passage of the river in this quarter, but their
-field artillery remained silent, and it turned out afterwards that all
-the guns which had survived the bombardment of the previous day had
-been removed to the rear, or to strengthen General Kashtalinsky's
-position. As it was, the rifle fire from the trenches was very galling,
-and the Japanese lost a great many men, but the devastating effects of
-General Kuroki's artillery bombardment were beyond anything that the
-Russians could produce in return.
-
-[Sidenote: Black Mass of Human Figures]
-
-It was in one of these trenches on the ridge of the hills to the
-northeast of Chiu-lien-cheng that the greatest damage was wrought. As
-the Japanese infantry steadily advanced, General Sassulitch ordered
-forward a body of his supports from the immediate rear to occupy this
-trench. In order to obey this command they had to round a small spur of
-the hill and pass across the open. Their appearance against the
-sky-line provided a target which the Japanese gunners were not likely
-to neglect. Instantly a rain of shell and shrapnel was directed upon
-the black mass of human figures. Men were seen falling thick and fast
-under this withering fire; but still the Russians pressed on
-indomitably, and at the expense of great loss of life occupied the
-trench, whence they in turn poured a fierce rifle-fire upon the enemy
-below them. By this time, however, the Guards were swarming over the
-lower slopes of the hills around Chiu-lien-cheng, and General Hasegawa
-sent a strong force to the left of the Russian position to turn General
-Sassulitch's flank. At the same time General Nishi's men were climbing
-steadily up the ridge further south, and were threatening the Russian
-right.
-
-[Sidenote: The Blood-Red Banner]
-
-It is interesting to note that the somewhat drab aspect of warfare
-which many of the operations in the South African war assumed,
-accustoming us to the idea that all picturesqueness had departed from
-modern combat, and that the ancient gauds and trappings so dear to the
-soldier's heart had been abandoned for ever, was entirely absent from
-this great battle in the Far East. The opposing forces were not
-separated from one another by illimitable distances of rolling veldt
-and brown hills. They were, on the contrary, so near as to recall the
-fighting in the Franco-German War, or the bloody combats around Plevna
-in the great struggle between Turkey and Russia nearly thirty years
-ago. And more remarkable still, the regimental colors which in our army
-are kept for ceremonial purposes in times of peace, and do not
-accompany the troops into the field, were carried by the Japanese in
-the front of the fighting line. Their presence must have assisted the
-fire of the enemy considerably; but there can be no doubt, on the other
-hand, of the inspiriting effect on the Mikado's men of seeing the
-blood-red banner of their race floating in the van and beckoning them
-forward to victory.
-
-[Illustration: A LAST GALLANT STAND OF RUSSIAN GUNNERS.]
-
-Steadily indeed, and without pause, those flaming banners advanced upon
-the doomed Russian position. The swing round of General Hasewaga's
-troops to the left of Chiu-lien-cheng decided the fate of General
-Sassulitch's centre, and after four hours' fighting the Japanese,
-climbing up the ridges like cats, charged into the Russian trenches.
-All the defenders who remained to contest the charge were bayonetted or
-taken prisoners, but the main body of the 9th and 10th Siberian
-Regiments retreated stubbornly towards Hoh-mu-tang, contesting every
-inch of the ground. The heights, however, in this part of the field
-were won, and at 9 o'clock a great shout of "Banzai"--the Japanese form
-of "hurrah"--went up all along the line, as the banners of the Rising
-Sun were planted upon the ridge and waved proudly in the breeze.
-
-[Sidenote: Fight Desperately Against Fate]
-
-On their left the Russians under General Kashtalinsky were, as we have
-shown, making a more desperate resistance; but unable to obtain
-reinforcements in time, that gallant officer was compelled to retire
-before the advance of General Inouye's Division, which, by driving the
-battalion of the 22nd Regiment in rout before it at Yushukau, had
-completely crumpled up his flank. He therefore fell back slowly towards
-Hoh-mu-tang, fighting desperately against overwhelming odds opposed to
-him. It was not till noon, seven hours after the battle began, that
-reinforcements were at last sent to him. Then General Sassulitch
-ordered to his assistance the 11th Regiment, which all this time had
-been held in reserve well in the rear together with the 2nd Battery of
-the 6th Brigade of Field Artillery, under Lieutenant-Colonel Mouravsky.
-
-[Sidenote: General Sassulitch's Retreat]
-
-With this new force General Kashtalinsky set about the heavy task of
-covering the retreat of the 12th and the 22nd Regiments, or as much of
-them as was left, and also of checking the Japanese advance if possible
-until the 9th and 10th Regiments had made sure of their communications
-along the road to Feng-hwang-cheng. It was now that the fiercest and
-bloodiest fighting of the day took place, and that the Russians in
-particular suffered their heaviest losses. For no sooner had General
-Kuroki captured the whole ridge from Antung and Antushan in the south
-to Yukushan in the north than he ordered his force, strengthened by the
-reserves, to hasten at full speed along three lines in the direction of
-the Feng-whang-cheng road to cut off General Sassulitch's retreat.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Chase]
-
-A strong detachment from General Inouye's Division, therefore, crossed
-westwards to Tan-lang-fang; the Imperial Guards marched rapidly along
-the main road from Chiu-lien-cheng; and the 2nd Division spread out
-towards Antung and pursued the retiring 9th and 10th Regiments. It was
-the Guards Division and the 12th Division with whom General
-Kashtalinsky had to deal in this last brave stand. He ordered the 11th
-Regiment under his chief of staff to assume a commanding position in
-the rear, from which they could fire upon the enemy from two sides.
-Lieutenant-Colonel Mouravsky's battery he held in reserve; and then he
-ordered the wearied troops of the 12th Regiment, the 22nd Regiment, and
-the 3rd Battery of the 6th Brigade to retire under cover of the fire of
-the 11th.
-
-[Sidenote: The Last Gallant Stand]
-
-But before this manoeuvre could be effected the fierce pursuit of the
-Japanese had gained its object. Both the Guards and the 12th Division
-reached the spot by 1 o'clock, and approaching from opposite sides,
-surrounded the hapless Russians. An enfilading fire made it impossible
-for the 3rd Battery to retire. Its horses were killed, and, therefore,
-Colonel Mouravsky, who assumed the command, ordered the gunners to take
-up a position where they stood and return the Japanese fire at close
-quarters. This they did with the greatest gallantry. They fought on
-steadily till not a man was left standing, their brave commander,
-Colonel Mouravsky, himself being among the last to fall. In the
-meanwhile, a company with machine guns had been ordered up to the
-assistance of the 3rd Battery. The officer in command, seeing the
-difficult situation of Colonel Mouravsky, took up a position, in the
-words of General Kashtalinsky's dispatch, "on his own initiative." He
-was no more fortunate than his superior officer. He, too, had entered
-the fatal ring of fire, and half his men and horses were shot down
-before he could render any effective service. An attempt to bring away
-his guns by hand and to take them under shelter of the hills under the
-terrible cross fire to which he was exposed, was no more successful,
-and the guns ultimately fell into the hands of the enemy. The case
-being evidently hopeless, the 2nd Battery, which had been brought up as
-a reinforcement to the 11th Regiment, was ordered back to rejoin the
-reserve by another road, but half its horses, too, were killed, and,
-finding it impossible to ascend the slopes without them, the officer in
-command brought his guns back to their original position, and there
-bravely, but unavailingly, received the Japanese attack.
-
-[Sidenote: Rifle Fire and Cold Steel]
-
-Now ensued a fierce and bloody hand-to-hand combat, in which the utmost
-heroism was displayed on both sides. Closer and closer pressed the
-Japanese till the opposing forces were almost looking into one
-another's eyes, and rifle-fire was abandoned for cold steel. Again and
-again the Japanese desperately dashed themselves upon the serried ranks
-opposed to them, and again and again, in spite of the fearful execution
-wrought by each charge, they were hurled back. But bayonet charge
-followed bayonet charge, and at last the devoted band of Russians could
-hold out no more. In some quarters of the field the white flag was
-hoisted and numbers of men surrendered. But the main body, shattered as
-it was and a mere shadow of its former strength, fought its way
-through. A broken remnant of the 12th Regiment cut its way through and
-carried off the colors in safety, torn and riddled indeed, but not
-disgraced. The same fate befell the 11th Regiment, a small body of
-which, after several hours' fighting, forced a passage out of the melee
-and retreated to Hoh-mu-tang with its colors preserved. But the losses
-of this regiment were enormous. Colonel Laming, the Colonel Commandant,
-Lieutenant-Colonels Dometti and Raievsky, and forty subordinate
-officers were left dead upon the field, and 5,000 non-commissioned
-officers and men were killed or wounded. More than 30 officers and 400
-men surrendered. The casualties sustained by the Japanese were nearly
-1,000 killed and wounded.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-
-  Russian Demoralization--On the Heels of the Enemy--Remarkable
-    Japanese Strategy--The Paper Army--The Thin Black Line of
-    Reinforcements--Position of the Russian Army--Kuropatkin Tied
-    to his Railway--The Second Scheme of Attack--A Model of
-    Organization--Perfect Secrecy of Plans--Cutting off Port
-    Arthur--Alexeieff's Command of Language--And the Sober
-    Truth--Third Blocking Attempt--Lurid Flashing of
-    Searchlights--On the Bones of their Predecessors--Half the
-    Passage Blocked--Honored but Unarmed--Russian
-    Acknowledgements--Terrific Casualties--Togo for Liao-tung--The
-    Japanese Landings--Escape of Alexeieff--Port Arthur Isolated.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Demoralization]
-
-The signal victory of the despised Japanese at the Yalu River filled
-official circles in St. Petersburg with the liveliest dismay and shook
-that determined optimism which had survived even the unexampled series
-of naval disasters sustained by the power of the Czar in the Far East.
-There seems never to have been the least doubt among the Grand Dukes
-and the Bureaucrats by whom the Emperor was surrounded that whatever
-fate might befall the fleet, the "yellow monkeys," as they elegantly
-called their foes, would fly headlong before the onslaught of the
-Russian soldiery, accustomed as it was to victory on many a bloody
-field in Europe. The fatuity of this overweening confidence now stood
-revealed, and it was at last tardily recognized that as stern a task
-awaited the Russian forces on land as at sea. But St. Petersburg
-officialdom, wounded in pride and shaken in nerve as it was, still
-preserved a bold front to the world, and excuses for the disaster that
-had befallen the Russian arms were as prolific as ever. The army at the
-disposal of General Sassulitch, it was explained, was but a small one;
-that commander had blundered, and by giving battle to an overwhelmingly
-superior force, had disobeyed or misunderstood the orders of General
-Kuropatkin; and in any case, although severe losses were admitted, the
-main body had retreated in good order to Feng-hwang-cheng, and the
-_morale_ of the troops was unshaken. The plea that General Sassulitch
-was solely responsible for the defeat which had befallen the Muscovite
-arms, and that he had failed to follow the instructions of his
-superior, has already been dealt with, and its extreme improbability
-has been demonstrated, though, even if it were accurate, it would throw
-a very unflattering light upon the powers of Russian leadership in the
-higher commands. It was soon, however, to be shown that the suggestion
-that the army of the Yalu had retired in good order and with unshaken
-_morale_ was equally devoid of truth. As a matter of fact, the fierce
-pursuit of the Japanese and the heavy losses which they inflicted upon
-the retreating Russians at Hoh-mu-tang and elsewhere on the road to
-Feng-hwang-cheng reduced the defeat to an utter rout, and it became
-impossible for Sassulitch to make a stand at the latter point,
-naturally strong as it was and admirably calculated to resist an attack.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER THREE MONTHS.
-
-The war began with the night attack on Port Arthur on February 8, but
-it was not until two months later that the Japanese appeared on the
-south-eastern border of Manchuria. On April 4 they occupied Wiju, on
-the 21st troops began to land at Tatungkau, and on May 1 took place the
-first great battle of the campaign, when the Japanese forced the
-passage of the Yalu, and drove the Russians back upon Feng-wang-cheng.
-On May 6 the latter place was occupied without resistance.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-[Sidenote: On the Heels of the Enemy]
-
-After a day or two spent in recuperating his tired troops, whose
-tremendous exertions during the previous week must have tested their
-powers of endurance to the utmost, and also in bringing his heavy guns
-and supply train across the river from Wiju, in preparation for the
-march General Kuroki began a forward movement into Manchuria with his
-whole army. The cavalry led the advance, operating over a wide area of
-country and sweeping the scattered units of the Russians before it.
-Some sharp skirmishes took place at Erh-tai-tsu and San-tai-tsu, but no
-real difficulty was interposed in the way of the victorious Japanese,
-who drove the enemy in flight before them. On May 6th the foremost
-cavalry vedettes reached Feng-hwang-cheng, and instead of finding the
-strongly held entrenchments which the Russian press was even then
-busily assuring a sceptical Europe would prevent any further advance on
-the part of the presumptuous foe, they discovered that the troops of
-General Sassulitch had been withdrawn, and they entered the deserted
-town without having to fire a shot. The leading columns of the
-infantry, following quickly behind, marched in and took possession on
-the same day. Before his hurried departure General Sassulitch had
-ordered the magazine to be blown up, but large quantities of hospital
-and other stores fell into the hands of the Japanese. General Kuroki's
-main body was not far in the rear, and the position of the whole army
-was soon securely established at this important point. Feng-hwang-cheng
-is situated at a mountain pass on the Liao-yang road, at a distance of
-about 25 miles from the Yalu. As already stated, it possesses great
-strategical importance. It is the centre at which the roads meet,
-coming from Liao-yang, Haicheng, and Kaiping, places which are situated
-at about equal distances from one another along the Manchurian railway
-from north to south, and it therefore constitutes a _point d'appui_
-from which a force could be thrown against any of them, while it is
-itself a position of great strength. General Kuroki immediately began
-to entrench himself strongly at this spot and to consolidate his
-forces, while he waited for the highly important developments which
-were now to take place in other quarters of the theatre of war.
-
-[Illustration: IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES.]
-
-[Sidenote: Remarkable Japanese Strategy]
-
-A wide view of the position of affairs as they now stood over the
-entire field of operations is necessary at this point in order to make
-clear the remarkable events that followed, and to throw into full
-relief the extraordinary qualities of the Japanese strategy--a strategy
-conceived after the most patient study of all the conditions of the
-problems and worked out in practice with almost machine-like regularity
-and precision.
-
-[Sidenote: The Paper Army]
-
-When General Kuropatkin arrived at Mukden at the end of March and
-took over the command from General Linevitch, he had on paper an army
-of over 250,000 men. It was made up as follows: 223,000 infantry;
-21,764 cavalry; 4,000 engineers; and artillery consisting of 496
-field guns, 30 horse artillery guns, and 24 machine guns. This large
-force was organized in four Army Corps, each with divisions of
-infantry and its quota of artillery and cavalry; while there were
-also two independent divisions of Cossacks, four brigades of Frontier
-Guards, railway troops, fortress artillery and a number of small
-units not allotted. The First Army Corps was under the command of
-General Baron Stackelberg, the Second under General Sassulitch, the
-Third under General Stoessel, and the Fourth under General
-Zarubaieff. It was an imposing force, this army of Manchuria,
-calculated to strike terror into the hearts of an Oriental enemy, but
-unfortunately for the Russians it lacked one thing, and that was
-reality. The actual position of affairs was indeed very different. To
-begin with, the greater part of the troops were not near the front at
-all when the Commander-in-Chief appeared upon the scene to direct
-operations, but were being pushed along the Siberian Railway with a
-feverish haste which at the same time did not denote proportionate
-speed. When they did arrive they arrived in detached fragments, and
-the desperate necessities of the case did not admit of adherence to
-the paper arrangements. For instance, the 7th and 8th Divisions,
-which should have formed part of the Second Army Corps under General
-Sassulitch, were, as a matter of fact, sent to assist in garrisoning
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock. Port Arthur, it will be remembered, was
-by this time under the command of General Stoessel, who was therefore
-unable to direct the operations of the Third Army Corps, which
-properly should have been entrusted to him. On the other hand, the
-3rd East Siberian Rifle Division, which belonged to that Corps, and
-the 6th East Siberian Rifle Division, which should have been attached
-to the First Army Corps, were sent to the Yalu, where, as we have
-already seen, they took part in the ill-fated conflict of the 1st of
-May. It will be observed from these shifts--only a few of the most
-noticeable out of many--that the Army Corps system of the Manchurian
-Army had completely broken down, and that the ideal of a coherent
-fighting force, with officers and men trained together in peace under
-the conditions to which they would be subjected in war, had not been
-attained in the slightest degree. The lack of organization which
-prevailed in the distribution of the larger commands was equally
-manifest in the mobilization of the units of which they were
-composed. Regiments were not complete; hastily-formed levies had to
-be added to bring them up to their nominal strength; and the ranks of
-the officers had to be filled up in many cases with volunteers from
-regiments in other parts of the Empire. The result was a composite
-force very different indeed in fighting power from the splendid
-machine which the Mikado's strategists had been carefully perfecting
-in time of peace in readiness for the struggle which they had so long
-foreseen.
-
-[Sidenote: The Thin Black Line of Reinforcements]
-
-In bringing even this haphazard collection of unco-ordinated units to
-the front in Manchuria, the greatest difficulties had been experienced.
-All that European observers had predicted about the working capacity of
-a railway like the Trans-Siberian for the conveyance of a huge army for
-thousands of miles came true to the letter. Prince Khilkoff, the
-Director-General of Russian Railways, undoubtedly did wonders, and the
-tremendous efforts which he and his staff put forth, especially in
-surmounting the great natural obstacle presented by Lake Baikal, were
-worthy of all praise. But to carry an army of 250,000 men, with all its
-necessary supplies and munitions of war, into Manchuria in the time
-required for the purpose of striking an effective blow at an enemy like
-the Japanese was a task beyond the powers of any railway staff in the
-world. The rickety single line, with infrequent sidings, which
-stretches across the steppes of Siberia from Harbin to the Urals was
-quite inadequate for such a feat of transport. By the middle of May,
-therefore, the position in which General Kuropatkin found himself--a
-position partly created by himself, as Minister of War, and partly
-created for him by the ineptitude of others--was widely different from
-that which the easy and thoughtless optimists in St. Petersburg had
-anticipated when the war broke out. The Fourth Army Corps was not
-across Lake Baikal; 30,000 or 40,000 men were shut up in the fortresses
-of Port Arthur and Vladivostock, and were not only useless for field
-operations, but were themselves liable to siege and capture; and,
-allowing the highest possible estimate, the Russian Commander-in-Chief
-had at his disposal for assuming the offensive in Manchuria no more
-than 100,000 men with 260 guns.
-
-[Sidenote: Position of the Russian Army]
-
-With this army he was holding the railway line from Mukden to Port
-Arthur, a distance of about 230 miles. His headquarters were at
-Liao-yang, and he held Haicheng and Kaiping in force, while a
-detachment was thrown out to the south-west and occupied Niuchwang. In
-the extreme south Port Arthur, though closely blockaded from the sea by
-the watchful Togo, was as yet open to communication by land, and no
-attempt had hitherto been made by the Japanese to secure a footing on
-the Liao-tung Peninsula. On the east of the Liao-yang--Kaiping line the
-Russian troops occupied three important passes, namely, Ta-ling, about
-50 miles distant, in a northeasterly direction, from Liao-yang; the
-Motien-ling, about 25 miles away on the main road to Feng-hwang-cheng;
-and Fen-chu-ling, half way on the road from Tashihchao to Siuyen.
-Tashihchao is on the railway midway between Haicheng and Kaiping. The
-Motien-ling Pass was the scene of a sanguinary combat between the
-Chinese and the Japanese in the war of 1894, and on that occasion the
-Mikado's forces had the greatest trouble in capturing it. Besides
-holding these passes General Kuropatkin had pushed forward his Cossack
-patrols to scour the country as far as Feng-hwang-cheng, and constant
-small encounters took place between them and General Kuroki's outposts
-during the ensuing six weeks.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Tied to His Railway]
-
-It is clear from this brief statement of the Russian position that the
-Japanese, always provided that they could retain the command of the
-sea, were placed at a great strategical advantage compared with their
-enemy. Holding their First Army poised at Feng-hwang-cheng, they could
-throw their Second and Third Armies upon the coast at any point that
-suited them best for the purpose of making a great combined movement.
-On the other hand, Kuropatkin was practically tied to the railway, and,
-with the inadequate force at his disposal, could not advance against
-Kuroki to destroy him in detail before the arrival of fresh armies from
-Japan. He was liable to attack at any point, and it was the peculiar
-difficulty of his situation that he could not tell which point would be
-selected. As a matter of fact, when the blow fell, as it soon did with
-crushing effect, he was powerless to prevent it.
-
-[Sidenote: The Second Scheme of Attack]
-
-The chapter of strategy which now opens is a fascinating one to any
-student of war, and fortunately its main features can be readily
-appreciated also by any layman who makes an intelligent study of a map
-of Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula. The prime object of the
-Japanese plainly was to cut General Kuropatkin's extended line of
-communications, isolate Port Arthur, and then attempt to envelope his
-main force by advancing simultaneously from the south, the east, and
-the northeast. It was consequently necessary, as a preliminary, to
-establish the First Army securely in Manchuria, it being clear that
-with this menace on his left flank, General Kuropatkin would not be
-able to detach many troops to the south to prevent the investment of
-Port Arthur. Everything, therefore, depended on the fortune that would
-attend the advance of General Kuroki across the Yalu, and the Moltkes
-at Tokio, after a patient study of all the conditions of an intricate
-problem, had thought out two great alternative schemes to meet the
-eventuality either of victory or defeat. In case of General Kuroki's
-finding the task of crossing the Yalu unaided to be an insuperable one,
-the Second Army, under General Oku, was to be landed at Takushan, a
-port on the coast some miles to the west of the mouth of the river, and
-thence to strike a blow at General Sassulitch's right flank. On the
-other hand, if Kuroki met with success, Oku's army was to be landed at
-a point on the Liao-tung Peninsula to cut Kuropatkin's communications
-and invest Port Arthur. As we have seen, General Kuroki's signal
-triumph at the Yalu River rendered the first alternative unnecessary,
-and opened the way for the more decisive and dramatic stroke involved
-in the second scheme.
-
-[Sidenote: A Model of Organization]
-
-But before anything could be done to land the Second Army, either at
-Takushan or on the Liao-tung Peninsula, it was imperatively necessary
-to disarm the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur, and prevent even the
-remotest possibility of its interfering with the operations. Here, as
-always, the two services, the army and the navy, had to work in close
-correspondence and interdependence. From the beginning of the war these
-separate branches of the Japanese forces had fitted into one another
-like parts of the same piece of machinery, the whole directed by one
-uniform purpose and striving towards one great common end. The joint
-schemes of the naval and military strategists at Tokio will ever
-provide an invaluable object-lesson to all students of the art of war;
-and it may be predicted that they will prove of valuable assistance to
-the strategists of our own army and navy. One of the most remarkable
-features of the war has been the certainty and precision with which the
-Japanese have worked out their complex plans; it is no less remarkable,
-and affords a further striking evidence of their efficiency, that they
-felt able, absolutely, to count upon that certainty and precision, and
-to make arrangements long beforehand, which with a less carefully
-organized scheme and less trustworthy commanders to carry it out would
-have been foolhardy, or at least wasteful. Failure in any real sense
-does not seem to have entered into their calculations. One portion of
-the plan, indeed, might miscarry, but, as we have seen, partial failure
-had been provided against, and a rapid modification of strategy to meet
-the case would have been possible. It was, in fact, one of the most
-interesting examples of the application of brains to war that have ever
-been seen in the history of the world.
-
-[Sidenote: Perfect Secrecy of Plans]
-
-In the action and inter-action, then, of this great double machine, the
-army had done all that it was possible for it to do for the moment; and
-once again it came round to the turn of the navy to make the next
-decisive move. Upon the success of this move may be said to have
-depended the whole success of the after operations, but, calculating
-with absolute confidence upon the skill of Admiral Togo, the Mikado's
-strategists had already put the Second Army into a state of complete
-preparation, and had even ordered it to be conveyed to a place from
-which it could be transferred to the front at any quarter at a moment's
-notice. Arrangements for its embarkation were begun as soon as General
-Kuroki reached Wiju with the First Army in the early days of April.
-When that commander was able to report that his dispositions for the
-attack upon the Russian entrenchments on the right bank of the Yalu
-were well advanced, the process of embarking General Oku's troops was
-started at once. Not a hint was allowed to escape as to their
-destination; even if the press correspondents, chafing under their
-enforced inaction at Tokio, had learnt the name, the censor would not
-have let it pass to the outer world; but, as a matter of fact, it is
-safe to say that the secret was safely locked in the breasts of half a
-dozen men. By April 22nd the whole army with its transports,
-commissariat, ammunition train, and hospital corps, had been put on
-board ship, and said farewell to the shores of Japan, vanishing, for
-all the world could tell, into the inane. For more than a fortnight
-nothing further was heard of it No one could report its landing
-anywhere, no one could say what it was doing, and day by day the
-mystery grew more mysterious. Only on May 7th was the veil lifted, when
-this great army fell upon the coast of Liao-tung as if from the
-heavens, and proceeded to the investment of Port Arthur. The truth was
-that during this fortnight it had been lying _perdu_ on some small
-islands close to the west coast of Korea, called the Sir James Hall
-group, and distant 160 miles in a southeastern direction from the
-shores of Liao-tung.
-
-[Sidenote: Cutting off Port Arthur]
-
-Here, briefly stated, is the manner in which the scheme worked out. On
-May 1st General Kuroki triumphantly crossed the Yalu and stormed the
-heights above Chiu-lien-cheng. On May 2nd Admiral Togo descended once
-more upon Port Arthur, and blocked the harbor completely by sinking
-eight steamers at the entrance to the channel. On the afternoon of May
-3rd, having made sure of the thoroughness of the work, he set off at
-full speed for the Sir James Hall Islands, reaching his destination by
-early morning on the 4th. Everything there was in readiness for the
-expedition, and within a few hours the whole of the transports,
-escorted by the fleet, set sail for the east coast of Liao-tung. At
-dawn the next day they reached the point on the peninsula which had
-been selected for the landing--Yentoa Bay--and in a few short hours a
-considerable portion of the force had been disembarked, the resistance
-offered by a small detachment of Cossacks, the only force possessed by
-the Russians in the neighborhood, being entirely negligible. On the 6th
-the railway line was severed, and in a few days more the Japanese were
-sitting securely astride of the peninsula, and Port Arthur was cut off
-from the world. The scheme had been carried out like the combinations
-of a skilful chess player, or like the successive steps of a
-mathematical problem.
-
-[Illustration: A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Alexeieff's Command of Language]
-
-It is necessary now to follow the development of these operations more
-in detail. The first that falls to be described is the successful
-attempt, the third of the series, to block the entrance to the harbor
-of Port Arthur. But before giving the real version of this thrilling
-enterprise it may be interesting to quote the report sent to the Grand
-Admiral unconquerable Alexeieff, whose optimism rose superior to every
-disaster and the alchemy of whose dispatches could still transmute
-defeat into signal victory. Here is the message, so soothing to the
-nerves of his fellow-countrymen, in which he announced the event that
-enabled the Japanese to land troops at any point they desired up their
-enemy's coasts:--
-
-"I respectfully report to your Highness that a fresh attack made by the
-enemy last night with the object of obstructing the entrance to the
-port was successfully repelled.
-
-"At 1 o'clock in the morning five torpedo-boats were perceived near the
-coast from the eastern batteries. Under the fire of our batteries and
-warships they retreated southward.
-
-"At 1.45 the first fireship, escorted by several torpedo-boats, came in
-sight. We opened fire upon it from our batteries and warships.
-Three-quarters of an hour afterwards our searchlights revealed a number
-of fireships making for the entrance to the harbor from the east and
-southeast. The _Otvajni_, the _Giliak_, the _Gremiashtchi_, and the
-batteries on the shore repulsed each Japanese ship by a well-directed
-fire.
-
-"Altogether eight ships were sunk by our vigorous cannonade, by
-Whitehead torpedoes launched from our torpedo-boats, and by the
-explosion of several submarine mines.
-
-"Further, according to the reports of the officers commanding the
-batteries and the warship _Giliak_, two Japanese torpedo-boats were
-destroyed.
-
-"After 4 a. m., the batteries and gunboats ceased fire, subsequently
-firing only at intervals on the enemy's torpedo-boats, which were
-visible on the horizon.
-
-"All the fireships carried quick-firing guns, with which the enemy
-maintained a constant fire.
-
-"Up to the present thirty men, including two mortally wounded officers
-who sought refuge in the launches, or were rescued from the fireships
-by us, have been picked up. The inspection of the roadstead and the
-work of saving drowning men are hindered by the heavy sea which is
-running.
-
-"We suffered no casualties with the exception of a seaman belonging to
-the torpedo-boat destroyer _Boevoi_."
-
-[Sidenote: And the Sober Truth]
-
-No one reading this remarkable account could imagine that it described
-an operation which ultimately sealed the doom of Port Arthur. For a
-more sober but a more accurate narrative we must turn to the dispatches
-of Admiral Togo. On May 2nd, as already recounted, the Japanese Naval
-Commander-in-Chief received the news of the successful crossing of the
-Yalu. His plans were already laid and his preparations were complete.
-Eight merchant steamers this time had been secured for the service, and
-upwards of 20,000 men volunteered for the glorious duty of manning them
-and dying for their country. Of these, 159 were ultimately selected.
-The names of the steamers were the _Mikawa_, _Sakura_, _Totomi_,
-_Yedo_, _Otaru_, _Sagami_, _Aikoku_, and _Asagawo_. The vessels ordered
-to escort the doomed hulks were the gunboats _Akagi_ and _Chokai_, the
-2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th destroyer flotillas, and the 9th, 10th, and 14th
-torpedo-boat flotillas. The whole force, which was under the command of
-Commander Hayashi, started for its destination on the night of May 2nd.
-
-[Sidenote: Third Blocking Attempt]
-
-It is a melancholy circumstance, typical of the sombre, but ofttimes
-splendid, tragedy of war, that of this third and most successful
-attempt to block the harbor the narrative is necessarily the most
-fragmentary and obscure, owing to the loss of life which it entailed.
-On the two previous occasions, reckless as was the gallantry of the
-Japanese and enormous as were the risks they ran, the casualties were
-surprisingly small, and the majority of the men engaged were able to
-return to their ships and tell the story of their enterprise. On this
-night, however, everything was against success; the Russians were more
-fully prepared to meet attack than they had ever been before; their
-shooting was more effective; and worse still, the weather turned out
-wholly unfavorable, the ships had to proceed singly upon their way; and
-when they were sunk the difficulties in the way of recovering their
-crews proved more than usually arduous, and most of them were either
-shot or drowned or taken prisoner. In spite of all these adverse
-circumstances a splendid success was achieved, but it was achieved
-under conditions which largely obliterated the record, and leaves but
-sparse material for the historian.
-
-[Sidenote: Lurid Flashing of Searchlights]
-
-The broad outlines of the story, however, are clear. When the steamers
-with their accompanying flotillas were well on their way, a strong
-southeasterly breeze sprang up, which rapidly freshened into a gale. It
-was impossible in the circumstances to keep the vessels together, and,
-fearing that the attack would in consequence be ineffective, Commander
-Hayashi signalled to his subordinates to abandon the expedition for the
-time being. But the weather and the heavy seas prevented his signals
-from being observed, and the gallant enterprise therefore proceeded
-unchecked. By one in the morning the 14th torpedo-boat flotilla reached
-the roadstead and pressed steadily towards the eastern side of the
-harbor mouth. The little vessels were soon exposed to the glare of the
-searchlights, and at once a furious bombardment broke out upon them
-from the Russian gunboats and the shore batteries. For the moment they
-retreated, drawing the enemy's fire upon them, while the leading
-steamer, which was close behind, made a dash for the channel. This
-vessel was the _Mikawa_, under the command of Lieut. Sosa. The
-Russians, as we have said, were much better prepared to resist attack
-than on previous occasions. Piles of combustibles, stationed at various
-points on the shore on each side of the harbor mouth, were set on fire,
-and cast a lurid light on the scene, throwing into strong relief the
-dark forms of the advancing ships, while the searchlights flashed
-backwards and forwards over the unquiet surface of the sea, and made
-every movement of the Japanese fatally visible to the defenders on the
-fortress. A storm of missiles burst over the devoted expedition, but
-undeterred, intent only on reaching the centre of the channel, Lieut.
-Sosa pushed his vessel forward at the top of her speed. Nothing could
-stop him or his crew--nor raging sea, nor searchlight, nor even the
-rain of shot and shell. The _Mikawa_ stuck bravely to her course, and,
-breaking through the boom which stretched across the mouth, anchored
-right in the middle of the channel. In a moment the fuse was lighted,
-and as the commander and his crew pushed off in the boats the ship blew
-up and sank in the fairway. The _Sakura_, which was not far behind, was
-less lucky than her companion. She was driven upon a rock at the
-eastern side of the entrance, and blew up outside the channel.
-
-[Sidenote: On the Bones of their Predecessors]
-
-There was a short pause, and then came a fresh contingent of fireships,
-rushing upon destruction. The aim of the Russian gunners had much
-improved; in the fierce glare of the searchlights and the flaming
-beacons every detail of the steamers was distinctly visible, and that
-they should have succeeded in advancing into the channel in the face of
-such a withering blast as swept across their course was little short of
-a miracle. The waters, too, were thickly sown with mines, in readiness
-for such an assault as this, and they did serious execution. The
-_Aikoku_ was distant only five cables from the mouth when she struck
-one of these deadly engines and blew up, her race cut short just when
-the goal was at hand. Her commander, Lieut. Uchida, the chief engineer,
-Aoki, and eight of the crew were killed or drowned. The _Asagawo_ was
-riddled with shot, her rudder was smashed, and drifting upon the shore
-beneath Golden Hill, she blew up and sank where the bones of so many of
-her predecessors were already reposing.
-
-[Sidenote: Half the Passage Blocked]
-
-But the other vessels were more successful. The _Otaru_ and the
-_Sagami_ reached the harbor mouth before they were sunk, and
-contributed a large share to the obstruction of the entrance. The
-_Yedo_ did better still, for she got further up than these two others.
-Just as her anchor was being got ready her gallant commander, Lieut.
-Takayanagi, fell dead, shot through the stomach; but there was no pause
-in the operations. Sub-Lieut. Nagatu at once stepped into his
-superior's place, and, anchoring the ship with the utmost coolness,
-sank her in the fairway. The _Totomi_ did best of all, for, like the
-_Mikawa_, she burst through the boom in the teeth of the Russian guns,
-got well inside, and turning right across the channel from east to
-west, sank in that position, blocking up at least half the passage.
-
-[Sidenote: Honored, but Unarmed]
-
-Admiral Togo, in his brief and dignified way, thus referred to the
-magnificent services rendered by the men who had fallen in this great
-enterprise:--"The undertaking, when compared with the last two
-attempts, involved a heavier casualty on our side owing to the
-inclemency of the weather and increased preparation for defence of the
-enemy. We could not save any of the officers and men of the _Otaru_,
-_Sagami_, _Sakura_ and _Asagawo_, and I regret that nothing particular
-could be learned about the gallant way in which they discharged their
-duties, although the memory of their exemplary conduct will long
-survive in the Imperial navy."
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Acknowledgments]
-
-But though the Japanese Commander-in-Chief could learn nothing
-particular about the gallant way in which his men had performed their
-duties, the gap in our knowledge can fortunately be supplied, to some
-extent at all events, by the Russians, who bore ample and chivalrous
-testimony to the splendid heroism displayed by their foes. They
-acknowledged, said a telegram from St. Petersburg, "that the enemy
-attacked in brilliant style, seeming never to notice the murderous fire
-which greeted them." One incident in particular struck upon their minds
-and extorted from them the warmest expressions of admiration. "On board
-the fireships," they remarked, "were a number of Japanese cadets, who
-displayed extraordinary bravery. As the ships were sinking several of
-these lads rushed aloft, and sitting on the cross-trees of the
-topmasts, fired their revolvers before they plunged into the sea." The
-account ends with a sentence of terse significance: "It is believed
-that none were saved."
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Casualties]
-
-Of the total of 159 men engaged in this work of desperate heroism only
-36 returned in safety, and of these 28 were wounded. Two officers (both
-mortally wounded) and 30 men were picked up by the Russians and taken
-prisoners. The number of the killed was 75. They had not died in vain.
-The harbor of Port Arthur was now securely blocked--not permanently
-indeed, for while divers and dynamite can be obtained no harbor in the
-world can be obstructed for ever in this way; but blocked to such an
-extent that the Russians could not get any big ships through for weeks,
-even given the most advantageous conditions in which to carry on the
-work of removing the obstacles. And for the momentous operations that
-were to follow the Japanese required not so much weeks as days.
-
-[Sidenote: Togo for Liao-tung]
-
-The fleet remained off Port Arthur till the afternoon to make sure that
-all the rescue work possible had been accomplished. In this duty the
-destroyer and torpedo-boat flotillas rendered admirable service. Once
-again, happy to relate, they emerged themselves from the dangerous
-enterprise with singularly slight damages, and lost only two men
-killed. At last, having realized that no more remained to be done in
-saving life, and having made sure that the "bottle" had finally been
-"corked," Admiral Togo leaving behind a small squadron to watch Port
-Arthur, set off at full steam with his main fleet for the Sir James
-Hall Islands. There he was joined by the gunboat squadron under
-Rear-Admiral Hosoya, which had rendered such effective service in the
-lower reaches of the river at the battle of the Yalu. The transports,
-with the Second Army on board, were practically ready for departure,
-and on the morning of the 4th of May the whole expedition set out for
-the Liao-tung Peninsula. At daybreak on the 5th Yentoa Bay was sighted.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Landings]
-
-Yentoa Bay is admirably suited for the landing of a large force, for
-the shelving shore, with shallow waters, presents no difficulty to the
-approach of boats such as the Japanese use for this purpose.
-Furthermore, it possesses great strategical advantages. It is within
-easy striking distance of the railway, while the country in the
-immediate neighborhood favors the advance of an attacking force and
-gives little opportunity for defence. The likelihood of a landing here,
-however, does not seem to have occurred to the Russians, who had
-prepared instead for a descent upon Niuchwang. The whole affair is an
-excellent illustration of the advantages conferred upon a combatant by
-the command of the sea, especially when the openings for attack are
-numerous, as they are in the case of the Liao-tung Peninsula. General
-Kuropatkin could not tell where the descent of the enemy would be made,
-and though he could defend some of the possible points, he could not
-defend all. The Japanese, on the other hand, could select the spot that
-suited them best without any serious risk of interference. Yentoa Bay
-was therefore practically undefended when Admiral Togo's fleet arrived
-convoying the Second Army. A troop of about 100 Cossacks was patrolling
-the shore, but the gunboat squadron quickly dispersed it with a few
-shells, and the work of landing could then be carried through without
-interruption.
-
-[Illustration: GENERAL STOESSEL EXHORTING HIS TROOPS IN THE DEFENSE OF
-PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Escape of Alexeieff]
-
-The first to make for the shore was a force of marines, two battalions
-of whom waded through the shallows and occupied the rising ground above
-the shore. Within an hour the advance guard of the army itself had been
-disembarked, and the rest of General Oku's troops quickly followed; the
-whole process being carried out with the smoothness and dispatch which
-characterized all the operations of this kind on the Japanese side. On
-the 6th, a flying column was sent to the northwards to seize the small
-port of Pitszewo, and more important still, another column moved across
-the neck of the peninsula with great rapidity and, occupying Pulantien,
-broke up the railway and cut off all communication between General
-Kuropatkin and Port Arthur. But before this was done one notable train
-load of passengers managed to escape from the beleaguered fortress.
-Chief among them were the Viceroy of the Far East, Admiral Alexeieff
-himself, and the Grand Duke Boris. They left only just in time. The
-gallant Admiral of the inventive pen had at last discovered that the
-repulse of the Japanese naval attack on which he had prided himself in
-his grandiloquent dispatch to the authorities at St. Petersburg was in
-reality no repulse at all; that as a matter of fact the Japanese had
-done just what they wanted to do; and that they were now able to
-proceed, in their methodical way, to land troops on the peninsula and
-invest Port Arthur. That the Viceroy should be shut up in the fortress,
-too, was not to be thought of--though probably it would have been
-better for the success of General Kuropatkin's strategy if his
-troublesome colleague had been safely removed out of the way for the
-rest of the campaign--and so by a desperate effort the gallant Admiral
-burst through the gradually tightening cordon.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur Isolated]
-
-After the first interruption of communications the Japanese force
-temporarily withdrew, and the success of the Russians in relaying the
-line and in running a train loaded with ammunition through to Port
-Arthur revived the drooping spirits of the official classes in St.
-Petersburg. The act was one of extreme gallantry, and reflected the
-highest credit on Colonel Spiridonoff, the officer in command, but
-beyond giving the garrison some greatly needed supplies it did not
-materially alter the situation. The line was again broken up, the
-Japanese occupied the neck of land in force, and in a few days Port
-Arthur was completely cut off from the outer world.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  The First Japanese Disaster--The "Hatsuse" Strikes a
-    Mine--Admiral Togo Undaunted--Rammed in the Fog--Renewed
-    Russian Hopes--The Vladivostock Squadron--A Thrill Through the
-    Civilized Globe--Skrydloff the Raider--Kamimura on the
-    Track--Approaching Port Arthur--The Importance of
-    Nanshan--Japanese Dispositions--General Oku's Attack--Terrific
-    Carnage--A General Bombardment--Chances of Defeat--Rushing the
-    Trenches--The Russians in Flight--Tremendous Moral
-    Effect--Terrific Casualties--Alarm in St. Petersburg--Fatal
-    Russian Strategy--Old Tactics versus New--The Veil over the
-    Tragedy.
-
-
-[Sidenote: The First Japanese Disaster]
-
-The Japanese fleet, as we have seen in the last chapter, had once again
-done its work thoroughly. The Russian fleet, crippled in the early days
-of the war and harried incessantly ever since, was now for weeks to
-come securely shut up in the harbor of Port Arthur, and could do
-nothing seriously to affect the course of events. Admiral Togo, with
-his six powerful battleships and his splendid cruisers, had absolute
-command of the Gulf of Pechili, and the transports from Japan were able
-to pour troops with perfect safety upon the shores of the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. It was at this moment of conspicuous success that the first
-serious calamity of the war overtook the Japanese Navy, and two
-terrible accidents occurred which filled the Russians with hope, as
-appearing to betoken a turn at last in the tide of fortune and to
-threaten the forces of the Mikado with something like the cloud of
-misfortune that had so far hung over their opponents. There was,
-however, this notable difference between the two cases. The losses
-suffered by the Russians at sea were almost all due to their own lack
-of forethought or of skill; they seemed to court defeat, and defeat
-came to them in full measure. But the blow which now befell the
-Japanese fleet was of a kind which the utmost ability and precaution
-could hardly have prevented, and, moreover, serious as it was, it did
-not materially affect the main course of the campaign, although
-undoubtedly it compelled the Commander-in-Chief in some degree to
-modify his plan of operations.
-
-The disaster was a double one. On one and the same day, the 15th of
-May, the magnificent battleship, the _Hatsuse_, was blown up by mines
-and sunk with fully 500 men; and the protected cruiser, _Yoshino_,
-colliding with the _Kasuga_ in a dense fog, was totally lost, only 90
-of her crew being saved.
-
-[Illustration: OUTSIDE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The "Hatsuse" Strikes a Mine]
-
-It was at a spot ten miles southeast of Liaotishan promontory that the
-_Hatsuse_ met her fate. With the _Shikishima_, the _Yashima_, and two
-cruisers, she was engaged in watching Port Arthur and protecting the
-landing of troops on the peninsula. Heavy fogs come off the land in the
-Gulf of Pechili at this period of the year, and during the morning
-navigation had been rendered difficult owing to this reason, but by 11
-o'clock the weather had changed and the sky was clear. No enemy was in
-sight, when suddenly, without any warning, a shock was felt under the
-stern of the _Hatsuse_ and a heavy explosion took place, damaging her
-steering gear. She signalled to the other ships at once to stand by and
-give assistance, but before anything could be done another mine
-exploded under her and tore a great yawning hole in her plates. The
-water rushed into her in torrents, and at once the great ship began to
-settle down. In a few moments, with appalling swiftness, she sank like
-a stone, with all her freight of humanity. Had the catastrophe occurred
-during the night hardly a man could have been saved, but fortunately in
-the broad daylight something could be done to lessen the tale of death.
-The boats of the other battleships and the cruisers were quickly upon
-the spot and succeeded in picking up 300 officers and men out of a
-total complement of about 800. Among these were Rear-Admiral Nashiba
-and Captain Nakao, the commander of the vessel. The list of the drowned
-included some of the brightest officers of the Japanese Navy, including
-Commander Tsukamoto, Commander Count Nire, and Commander Arimori.
-Besides these, five second lieutenants, five engineers, two surgeons,
-six midshipmen, four engineer cadets, and ten non-commissioned officers
-perished.
-
-While the work of rescue was proceeding, sixteen of the Russian
-torpedo-boat destroyers seized the opportunity to come out of the
-harbor and effect a diversion, but the Japanese destroyer flotillas
-engaged them hotly, and other cruisers from Togo's fleet coming up with
-all speed, drove them back into Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Admiral Togo Undaunted]
-
-The _Hatsuse_, which was built at Elswick in 1899 after the type of the
-English ship _Majestic_, was a ship of 15,000 tons displacement, and
-15,000 indicated horse-power. She could steam 18 knots, her armor was
-14.6 inches, and the weight of her broadside fire was 4,240 lbs. Her
-destruction of course meant a serious weakening of Togo's first
-fighting line, for six battleships were by no means too large a force
-for the work he had to do. Moreover, the _Hatsuse_, with the _Asahi_,
-_Shikishima_, and _Mikasa_, were the most modern and up-to-date ships
-of their class in the fleet; the _Yashima_ and the _Fuji_, which
-completed the list, being older and less heavily armed vessels.
-Nevertheless the grip of the Japanese Admiral upon the beleaguered port
-never slackened one whit, and in the event his five battleships, with
-their accompanying cruisers, were destined to prove more than a match
-for the navy of the Czar in the great battle in blue water which took
-place three months afterwards.
-
-The sinking of the _Yoshino_ was not so heavy a blow, but it was
-serious enough in the circumstances, and the loss of life was in itself
-greatly to be deplored. This second-class protected cruiser was also
-built at Messrs. Armstrong's famous works on the Tyne. She was of 4,180
-tons displacement, and her engines had an indicated horse-power of
-15,750, with a speed of 23 knots, and a weight of broadside fire of 780
-lbs. She was quite an old ship, as modern men-of-war go, having been
-launched in 1892, and taking an honorable part in the Chino-Japanese
-war of 1895.
-
-[Sidenote: Rammed in the Fog]
-
-On the fatal 15th of May she formed one of the cruiser squadron which,
-under the command of Rear-Admiral Dewa, was engaged in the blockading
-operations outside Port Arthur. The squadron had been standing off the
-harbor during the night of the 14th, and early in the morning steamed
-southwards. An impenetrable fog concealed everything from view, and the
-big ships had to proceed with the utmost caution. But in such difficult
-circumstances the utmost caution is sometimes unavailing, and at 1.40
-the _Kasuga_, one of the twin ships recently purchased from the
-Argentine Government, rammed the _Yoshino_ on the port stern. A
-terrible gap was torn in the hull of the unfortunate cruiser, and at
-once she began to settle down to starboard. From the meagre accounts
-furnished by the survivors, it is clear, as indeed might have been
-expected, that the most perfect discipline prevailed on board the
-doomed vessel. Collision mats were quickly got out and placed over the
-hole, but the injury was too severe to be dealt with by such means, and
-the swift inrush of water made all efforts to save the vessel vain.
-Captain Sayegi, the commander of the ship, ordered all the crew onto
-the upper deck, and the boats were lowered without delay, but the
-disaster was too sudden for them to be of any use. Five were lowered on
-the starboard side and one on the port, but before they could get clear
-the cruiser listed heavily to starboard and went down, smashing all the
-five boats on that side to pieces. The cutter, which was lowered on the
-port side, was the only boat that escaped. With perfect coolness and
-self-devotion the captain remained on the bridge and shouted
-encouragement to his men as they were getting into the boats. When last
-seen he was shaking hands with his second in command, Commander
-Hirowateri. In another moment both officers had gone down with their
-ship. The boats of the _Kasuga_ were on the spot with all possible
-speed, and succeeded in picking up 90 of the crew, but the rest,
-numbering upwards of 270, perished with their captain.
-
-[Sidenote: Renewed Russian Hopes]
-
-When this two-fold disaster became known, the Russians were naturally
-elated and even filled with renewed hope. Its true proportions, too,
-were greatly exaggerated, and in the expectation that the Japanese
-would be seriously hindered in their landing operations on the coast of
-Liao-tung, General Kuropatkin countermanded the evacuation of
-Niuchwang, which had already partly taken place, and his forces once
-again occupied that port. However, as we have already stated, the loss
-he had sustained did not lessen the grip maintained by Admiral Togo
-upon Port Arthur. His weakened condition did, indeed, at a later period
-give the Russian fleet, after it had been patched up with infinite
-pains and difficulty, an admirable opportunity to break through the
-cordon, but the attempt was made with singular feebleness, and the
-admiral in command took his ships back to the refuge of the harbor
-without effecting anything. On the other hand, the destruction of the
-_Hatsuse_ and the _Yoshino_, by necessitating the withdrawal of some
-ships from Admiral Kamimura, who was guarding the Korean Straits,
-indirectly gave the Vladivostock squadron a chance of raiding the coast
-of Japan for some time with impunity, of destroying a great deal of
-merchant shipping, and incidentally of bringing about the most serious
-international complications, in which Great Britain, as the chief
-trading country of the world, was the power principally involved.
-
-[Illustration: A SKIRMISH ON THE MANCHURIAN RAILWAY.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Vladivostock Squadron]
-
-It will be convenient at this point briefly to advert to the exploits
-of this squadron, which have necessarily been put on one side in the
-recent course of the narrative by the claims of the more important
-events. After the destruction of two small Japanese merchantmen on the
-11th of February nothing more was heard of Captain Reitzenstein's
-cruisers for more than two months. In April, however, the command was
-taken over by a more highly-placed officer, Rear-Admiral Jessen, and a
-sudden burst of activity took place. With the _Rossia_, the _Rurik_,
-and the _Gromoboi_, and a flotilla of torpedo-boats and destroyers, the
-new commander made a raid upon the east coast of Korea at Gensan. At
-that very time Admiral Kamimura's squadron started on a voyage
-northwards to search for the Russians, and there can be no doubt that
-the two would have met, but by a stroke of the most perverse ill-luck
-one of those dense spring fogs, which descend upon the Sea of Japan
-like a pall, intervened and the opposing squadrons passed close to one
-another without discovering their proximity. When, totally baffled by
-these weather conditions, Kamimura returned to Gensan after a three
-days' cruise, he found to his chagrin that the Russians had visited the
-port in his absence and had even sunk a small merchant steamer called
-the _Goyo Maru_. But of more serious importance still was the
-destruction of the _Kinshiu Maru_, a transport with 124 soldiers of the
-37th Regiment of Infantry on board. She fell in with the enemy's ships
-on the night of the 25th while they were on their way back to
-Vladivostock. A summons to surrender was met by a haughty refusal. An
-hour's grace was given, at the end of which a torpedo was discharged
-against the doomed vessel, striking her amidships. Under the orders of
-their officers the men fell in upon the deck, as calmly and steadily as
-if on parade, to wait for inevitable death. The officers themselves,
-five in number, following the stern traditions of the ancient Samurai
-clan, went below and committed suicide; but the rank and file
-determined that they would strike one blow at the enemy before they
-died, and so they opened a gallant but ineffective fire upon the
-Russians with their rifles. The cruisers made a deadly reply with their
-machine guns, tearing great gaps in the masses of men thickly gathered
-together on the deck of the transport. Still, however, the soldiers
-fought on with desperate bravery, until another torpedo brought the
-tragic drama to a swift conclusion, sinking the ship in a few seconds.
-Undaunted even at the moment of death, the Japanese went down with
-triumphant shouts of "Banzai" upon their lips. Seventy-four of the rank
-and file perished, but forty-five others escaped by means of the
-steamer's boats, which they found floating on the sea, and on the 29th
-they arrived at Gensan with their thrilling story.
-
-[Sidenote: A Thrill Through the Civilized Globe]
-
-It was a story mournful indeed in one aspect, but in all others
-glorious and inspiring. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any one
-event which had hitherto occurred in the whole course of the war so
-inflamed the martial ardor of the Japanese and filled them with such
-high hopes for a successful issue from the great conflict upon which
-they had entered, as the splendid heroism and calm self-sacrifice with
-which the soldiers and bluejackets on board the _Kinshiu Maru_ met
-their death. Who could withhold the conviction that if this was the
-spirit in which the sons of Dai Nippon advanced to the work that lay
-before them, no misfortune, no temporary defeat could in the end
-prevent victory from resting upon the banners of the Rising Sun? Nor
-was the moral effect of the deed confined to Japan. The story sent a
-thrill through the whole civilized globe, and taught the nations of
-Europe and the masters of the New World that, accustomed as they were
-to acts of daring and devotion among their own people, a race had
-arisen in the Far East whose dauntless bearing in war they could not
-hope to surpass.
-
-[Sidenote: Skrydloff the Raider]
-
-Another month elapsed before the Vladivostock squadron proved
-troublesome again. It had then come directly under the control of the
-new Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific fleet, Admiral Skrydloff, who had
-been appointed to succeed the ill-fated Makaroff, and whose reputation
-in the Russian navy was second only to that of his distinguished
-predecessor. Unfortunately for Russia, Admiral Skrydloff arrived in the
-Far East too late to reach his main fleet. At Harbin he learnt that
-Port Arthur was invested both by land and sea, and that it was
-impossible for him to assume the command at the place where his
-services were most needed. He was, therefore, compelled to go on to
-Vladivostock instead and direct the operations of the cruiser squadron
-there in the desperate hope that at a later period an opportunity might
-occur of effecting a junction with his Port Arthur fleet. A further
-piece of bad news awaited him at the northern port. One of the four
-cruisers which were all that now furnished his attenuated command had
-gone ashore in a fog a few days previously, and had become a total
-wreck. This was the _Bogatyr_. She was, indeed, the smallest ship in
-the squadron, being a second-class protected cruiser of 6,750 tons, but
-her speed was high, and her loss in the dark circumstances of the hour
-was a serious blow. However, the gallant Admiral proceeded to make the
-best of the material which lay at his disposition, and in the course of
-the next two months he pursued most vigorous tactics, venturing
-southwards with great frequency, harrying the coasts of Japan, and
-bringing maritime commerce in that part of the world almost to a
-standstill.
-
-[Sidenote: Kamimura on the Track]
-
-Admiral Kamimura with his cruisers made the most strenuous efforts to
-catch his elusive enemy, but the bad luck which had visited him at
-Gensan at the end of April continued to dog him still for a long time.
-Again and again a convenient fog intervened to favor the escape of the
-Russians; moreover, the Japanese squadron had to be depleted in order
-to furnish aid to the main fleet which was blockading Port Arthur, and
-assisting in the landing of troops; and furthermore, the strategic
-necessity of closely guarding the Straits between Japan and Korea and
-preventing the possibility of a junction between the two Russian
-fleets, severely limited the area of Kamimura's activity. In these
-circumstances Admiral Skrydloff's cruisers had an almost uncheckered
-run of success for a period of two months. The Japanese Admiral came in
-for some sharp criticism at the hands of the general public in Japan
-for his apparent lack of energy, but the authorities at Tokio, who had
-all the conditions of the campaign before them in their true
-proportions, trusted him thoroughly, and their trust was magnificently
-vindicated on the 14th of August, when he at last managed to trap the
-Russians into his net, and administered to them a signal defeat in a
-pitched battle on the high seas.
-
-[Sidenote: Approaching Port Arthur]
-
-A return must now be made to the land operations upon the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. Undeterred by the loss of the _Hatsuse_ and the _Yoshino_,
-the Japanese continued to pour in troops at Yentoa Bay and Pitszewo. At
-the same time the 3rd Army, under General Nodzu, began to disembark at
-Takushan. But it was to General Oku and the 2nd Army that the honor
-fell of striking the next blow for the Mikado. This was the capture of
-Kinchau and the storming of the Russian entrenchments on Nanshan Hill,
-which, after preliminary operations lasting over some days, was finally
-effected on the 26th of May.
-
-[Sidenote: Importance of Nanshan]
-
-The narrow neck of land, a mile and three-quarters in breadth, running
-between Kinchau Bay on the west and Hand Bay--a small inlet of
-Talienwan Bay--on the east, possesses great strategical importance. The
-high ground to the south of it, of which the salient point is the
-Nanshan Hill, completely commands the approach to Port Arthur from the
-north, and, as it cannot be outflanked by any ordinary method, it gives
-an admirable opportunity, to a defending force to resist an attack from
-that quarter. It is, indeed, commanded in its turn by an eminence
-called Mount Sampson, which lies to the northeast; but in this instance
-the disadvantage was more than counterbalanced by the fact that the
-Japanese could only oppose to the heavy fortress guns which the
-Russians had mounted on Nanshan, field artillery of an inferior
-calibre. After the landing of the enemy at Yentoa and the cutting of
-the railway had made clear the imminence of the peril which threatened
-Port Arthur, the governor of the fortress, General Stoessel, wasted no
-time in erecting powerful defences at this naturally strong position.
-During the ensuing weeks the Russian engineers went feverishly to work
-constructing entrenchments on Nanshan and the connecting chains of
-hills, and also on a second line of eminences further to the south, the
-chief of which is named Nankuenling. These careful preparations might
-well seem to have rendered the position impregnable. Ten forts almost
-permanent in character were established on Nanshan, and at every
-available point trenches and rifle pits were dug and concealed with the
-greatest skill, and their approaches guarded by barbed wire
-entanglements, while at convenient places mines were laid to entrap an
-unwary foe. Over 70 guns, many of them pieces of fortress artillery of
-heavy calibre, were placed in position here, and the whole was manned
-by a force of 12,000 men; the utmost number of troops that could with
-advantage be employed in such a confined area. Altogether, with the
-exception of Port Arthur itself, no more formidable obstacle has ever
-been presented to the advance of an invading army in modern times than
-was offered by General Stoessel at Kinchau. The village of Kinchau
-itself, it should be explained, though it gave the name to the battle,
-was of comparatively small strategical importance, lying as it does on
-the low ground to the northeast of the isthmus and offering an easy
-prey, but at the same time no particular advantage, to the enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Dispositions]
-
-The concentration of the Japanese army proceeded in the circumstances
-with great rapidity. On the 21st of May, the whole force, consisting of
-three divisions, or about 60,000 men, was established to the north of
-Hand Bay. Under the protection of the angle formed by the range of
-hills to the south of Mount Sampson, the troops were formed up for
-battle, and General Oku explained to his chief subordinates his
-dispositions for the attack. Careful reconnaissances during the next
-two days, by drawing the fire of the enemy, revealed the strength of
-the Russian position, which stretched from Nanshan to the west to
-Hushangtao on the east. At this latter point eight guns were stationed,
-commanding the waters of Hand Bay, so that co-operation by the Japanese
-gunboats from this side was impossible. On the other hand, the Russians
-had a gunboat themselves stationed in the bay, and this was able to
-render valuable assistance to the defending force when the attack
-developed. On the west the waters of Kinchau Bay were too shallow to
-admit of the approach of vessels of any but the smallest draught, but
-four of the Japanese gunboats were able to enter close up to the shore,
-and gave conspicuous aid to General Oku in the course of the operations.
-
-[Sidenote: General Oku's Attack]
-
-On the 25th of May the Russian positions at Kinchau and Nanshan were
-heavily bombarded, and General Oku extended his line to the north as
-well as to the east. At dawn on the next day the attack began in
-earnest. A fierce and sustained bombardment, lasting for five hours,
-prepared the way for the advance, after which the Japanese made an
-onslaught upon the village of Kinchau, and drove the Russians at the
-point of the bayonet back upon their main line of defence, Nanshan. In
-this attack they were greatly assisted by the gunboats, the _Tsukushi_,
-_Saiyen_, _Akagi_ and _Chiokai_, which brought their fire to bear upon
-the enemy's batteries at Suchiatun and Nanshan, and kept them hotly
-engaged. The capture of Kinchau, however, was only the first step in
-the fiery progress which lay before the Mikado's troops. To dislodge
-the Russians from Nanshan itself was a work of much greater magnitude.
-It was to the 4th Division that the main part of this honorable duty
-was assigned, the centre of the Japanese line being held by the 1st
-Division, and the extreme left by the 3rd.
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Carnage]
-
-Another fierce artillery duel preluded the general advance. By 11
-o'clock the Russian batteries appeared to have been silenced, and the
-Japanese pressed forward to storm the heights. But it turned out that
-General Stoessel was only reserving his fire. No sooner did the
-Japanese debouch into the open upon the slopes which led up to the hill
-than a storm of missiles swept across their path, mowing them down in
-serried masses. The wire entanglements, too, proved a deadly obstacle.
-Rush after rush was made by the gallant Japanese, but every attempt to
-get near to the trenches was vain. The carnage was terrific. The
-officers fell in all directions, the rank and file lay in piles of dead
-at the foot of the hill, and the advance came for a time to an absolute
-standstill.
-
-[Sidenote: A General Bombardment]
-
-It was clear that further artillery preparation was necessary, and
-therefore General Oku ordered a general bombardment once more. For
-hours his field batteries, supplemented by the gunboats, rained shot
-and shell upon the Russian positions, searching the whole range of
-forts and trenches, and doing terrible execution. The Russian fire
-slackened under this fearful cannonade, but still the Japanese
-continued their bombardment.
-
-[Sidenote: Chances of Defeat]
-
-And now came the crucial moment of the day. The artillery ammunition of
-the attacking force began to give out. To bring up fresh supplies from
-far in the rear meant that before the bombardment could be resumed
-night would have fallen upon the scene, for it was by this time late in
-the afternoon. When this untoward intelligence was brought to him,
-General Oku was presented with a problem of the utmost difficulty and a
-responsibility which might well have seemed overwhelming. He must
-either hazard another infantry attack at once, fraught with all the
-possibility of failure, or he must temporarily withdraw his forces and
-wait for further ammunition and perhaps heavier guns. The second course
-meant only delay; the first, in the event of a repulse, meant not
-merely delay, but the possibility of a crushing defeat as well. It must
-be remembered, moreover, that the troops had been close upon sixteen
-hours in the field. In these circumstances a commander of less
-resolution and with less confidence in his men would have been under a
-strong temptation to choose the alternative which offered the smaller
-risk, but General Oku was made of different mettle. He knew that delay
-would upset the general arrangements of the campaign; he knew, too,
-that it might give a fatal opportunity for the advance of a relief
-force from the north. He therefore at once accepted the tremendous
-responsibility of ordering a resumption of the attack all along the
-line. Fortunately, a weak point in the Russian defences had been
-discovered. The shallow waters of Kinchau Bay allowed men to wade in
-and approach Nanshan from the southwest, at a point at which, owing to
-the angle of emplacement of the Russian guns, they could do
-comparatively little damage to an advancing force. It was resolved to
-try this plan.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIANS CHARGING JAPANESE TRENCHES AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Rushing the Trenches]
-
-Once again, then, the bugles rang out for attack, and the Japanese
-threw themselves with desperate bravery upon the Russian entrenchments.
-The wire entanglements gave as much difficulty as ever, and the slopes
-of the hill were one blinding sheet of flame; but still the Japanese
-pressed forward, climbing over their own dead and working their way
-gradually through the obstacles placed in their path. By a piece of
-good fortune the electric wires connected with a large mine field were
-discovered just in time and cut, and thus a dreadful disaster was
-averted. But brilliant as was the dash of the 1st and 3rd Divisions on
-the Russian right, the defence of the Czar's troops was stubborn and
-hardly contested, and it was not till the 4th Division on the extreme
-left had carried through their flanking operation that the issue of the
-day was put beyond doubt. Here the gunboats in the bay rendered
-invaluable service. They steamed close in and poured in a heavy fire
-upon the Russian batteries, covering the advance of the infantry
-through the shallows. In this gallant operation the commander of the
-_Chiokai_, Captain Hayashi, was killed, and several other casualties
-were sustained by the crews engaged. But the work was accomplished.
-Climbing the hill like cats, the Japanese soldiery broke through the
-entanglements in face of a galling fire and rushed the trenches,
-bayonetting the defenders where they stood. Nothing could stop that mad
-onslaught, and after a fierce hand-to-hand conflict on the summit the
-flag of the Rising Sun floated triumphantly over the position which the
-Russians had so fondly, and indeed so naturally, deemed to be
-impregnable.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russians in Flight]
-
-General Stoessel, finding that there was no use in continuing the
-sanguinary conflict now that his flank was turned, ordered a general
-retreat. The Japanese, however, in spite of the tremendous fatigues to
-which they had already been subjected since dawn, fiercely pursued
-their retiring enemy, with the result that the Russians found it
-impossible to make a stand at their second line of defence at
-Nankuenling, and were compelled to flee as far as the immediate
-neighborhood of Port Arthur itself.
-
-[Sidenote: Tremendous Moral Effect]
-
-The moral effect of this great victory of the Japanese was tremendous.
-The Russians, and with them a great many Continental critics, had
-attempted to minimize the importance of the battle of the Yalu. The
-Japanese, they said, were in overwhelming numbers, the position was one
-that could be easily turned, and General Sassulitch ought never to have
-tried to stand his ground. But such criticisms were silenced by
-Kinchau. The little Japs were seen to be equal, if not superior, man
-for man, to their Russian opponents, and the fierce, almost fanatical,
-fervor of their patriotism proved a factor in the struggle the
-importance of which few people had properly estimated. It was felt at
-once by military men in Europe, that if 12,000 Russians, armed with
-heavy guns, could not hold such a post as that of Nanshan against the
-onslaught of the Japanese, the fall of Port Arthur itself, provided
-there were no effective diversion from the north, was merely a question
-of time.
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Casualties]
-
-Nor were the material fruits of General Oku's success less striking.
-His losses in _personnel_, of course, were heavy, amounting to 133
-officers, and 4,062 non-commissioned officers and men killed and
-wounded. The casualties of the defenders were naturally not so great,
-but over 500 Russians were left dead upon the field, and it is
-estimated that their total losses in killed and wounded must have
-numbered over 2,000. Sixty-eight pieces of artillery and ten
-machine-guns fell into the hands of the victors.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER FOUR MONTHS.
-
-Continuing their advance, the first Japanese Army, under Kuroki
-occupied Kuan-tien on May 14. In the meantime the second Japanese Army,
-under Oku, had effected a landing on the Liaotung Peninsula at Pitzuwo.
-On May 16 they seized the Kinchau heights, and ten days later defeated
-the Russians at the battle of Nanshan. Dalny was occupied on May 30.
-The third Japanese Army, under Nodzu, began landing at Takushan on May
-19, and on June 8 occupied Siu-yen.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-Four days afterwards the Japanese entered Dalny and occupied that
-important station. With the exception of the great pier, all those
-enormous works upon which the Russians had been expending vast sums for
-years were found to be intact, and the invaders were able henceforth to
-use the port as an invaluable base for their operations against Port
-Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Alarm in St. Petersburg]
-
-This series of disasters caused the greatest alarm in St. Petersburg.
-The seriousness of the danger that threatened Port Arthur was realized
-in all its fulness at last, and the lofty assurance which had hitherto
-reigned supreme among the Imperial _entourage_ gave place to feelings
-of panic. The result was that desperate measures were embarked upon
-which only led to fresh misfortunes. General Kuropatkin himself had
-seen from the first the impossibility of relieving Port Arthur from the
-north until he had a larger force at his disposal than he was likely to
-secure for months to come. His plan had always been to concentrate his
-main army at Liao-yang, or, if necessary, at Mukden, and wait till the
-arrival of large reinforcements enabled him to advance against the
-Japanese with some hope of success. If the Commander-in-Chief had been
-left to himself it is possible that this plan would have been pursued
-consistently and a great _debacle_ might have been avoided. Port
-Arthur, indeed, would have been almost certain to fall, but in the
-opinion of nearly every strategist who had studied the problem, nothing
-short of a miracle could now save the so-called Gibraltar of the East.
-The only sound policy for the Russians was one of retirement and
-concentration until a more favorable opportunity presented itself. But
-now the Evil Genius of Russia interposed with his fatal counsels. To
-Admiral Alexeieff it was unthinkable that Port Arthur, at which for so
-long he had held his haughty Viceregal state, should be abandoned
-without a mighty effort. Ever since the arrival of General Kuropatkin
-in Manchuria had reduced him to a position of comparative inferiority,
-he had been intriguing against that commander with varying success, but
-on this occasion he received powerful backing amongst the Czar's
-advisers in St. Petersburg. The heaviest pressure was brought to bear
-upon General Kuropatkin to induce him to dispatch a strong force
-southwards to the relief of Port Arthur, and in an evil hour for his
-country and his own reputation the Commander-in-Chief weakly consented
-to be overruled. Lieut.-General Baron Stackelberg, the commander of the
-1st Army Corps, with an army 35,000 strong was ordered to advance by
-forced marches into the Liao-tung Peninsula and lead a forlorn hope to
-save the doomed fortress.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN PRIEST IN THE TRENCHES, WITH GENERAL
-STAKELBERG'S ARMY.]
-
-[Sidenote: Fatal Russian Strategy]
-
-The folly of this course is obvious to the veriest tyro in military
-science. Kuropatkin's line was already too far extended for safety. On
-his left flank, creeping gradually closer and working round to the
-northeast to effect a wide turning movement, was General Kuroki, with
-the 1st Army; General Nodzu, with the 3rd Army, was advancing from
-Takushan in the direction of Kaichau; while in the extreme south
-General Oku, having received large reinforcements, was able to hold
-Port Arthur securely invested and to march northwards with forces
-numbering 60,000 men, flushed with recent victory. The southward march
-of Baron Stackelberg, therefore, was doomed to disaster from the first.
-Not only was it highly improbable that he would ever succeed in getting
-through to Port Arthur, but in case he had to retreat, he ran a grave
-risk of being cut off by General Nodzu, and imperilling the position of
-General Kuropatkin himself. This was exactly what happened in actual
-fact.
-
-[Sidenote: Old Tactics versus New]
-
-The ill-fated expedition, after some preliminary skirmishing, met
-General Oku's main body at Wafangkau or Telissu on the 15th of June.
-Telissu is a village situated to the east of the railway line about 20
-miles north of Port Adams. Nothing could better prove the superiority
-of the Japanese over the Russians in the matter of tactics than the
-dispositions which were made for this battle by Oku and Stackelberg
-respectively. Kuropatkin's lieutenant fought in the old-fashioned
-style, with his men closely packed together over a narrow front. The
-Japanese, on the other hand, advanced in an open formation over a
-widely extended area. At dawn General Oku ordered his troops to attack.
-They advanced in two columns, the main body proceeding along the
-railway line against the enemy's centre and right, while a second and
-more mobile force worked round to the west to turn Stackelberg's right
-flank. The Russians threw themselves fiercely upon the Japanese right
-and centre, and for some hours the battle was hotly contested. But in
-the meantime the turning movement to the west was proceeding with
-entire success. Before he realized the imminence of the danger,
-Stackelberg found that his right flank was driven in, and that his rear
-was threatened. He withdrew troops from his left and centre to meet
-this new danger; but it was too late, and he merely weakened his
-position in one part of the field without strengthening it in another.
-From three sides the Japanese now pressed their attack home, gradually
-encircling the Russians with a ring of fire. The terrible effectiveness
-of Oku's artillery was borne witness to afterwards by the Russians
-themselves. Their positions were heaped with dead. General Stackelberg
-in his dispatch describing the battle said that the 3rd and 4th
-batteries of the 1st Artillery Brigade were literally cut to pieces by
-the Japanese shells, and thirteen out of sixteen guns were rendered
-completely useless. A large number of officers were killed, and among
-the wounded was Major-General Gerngross. In spite of this tremendous
-pounding the Russians held their ground with great gallantry; but, as
-the Japanese attack developed, General Stackelberg saw that if he
-maintained his position much longer, he would be altogether surrounded.
-Therefore, just in the nick of time, he ordered a retreat. Slowly and
-painfully the retirement was conducted over difficult, mountainous
-country. The Japanese, exhausted by forced marches and two days'
-fighting, were unable to cut off Stackelberg's escape entirely, but
-they inflicted terrible losses on his retreating troops, and he only
-succeeded in reaching Kaichau some days afterwards with a shattered
-remnant of his force. The Japanese casualties in this great battle were
-not more than 1,000. On the other hand, upwards of 2,000 Russians were
-found dead upon the field and buried by the victors, and the total
-losses sustained by General Stackelberg's army, including prisoners
-taken, amounted to about 10,000. Large numbers of guns and regimental
-colors were captured.
-
-[Sidenote: The Veil over the Tragedy]
-
-Thus ended this ill-advised attempt to relieve Port Arthur. Henceforth
-all hopes of succor from the north had to be abandoned. In fact,
-General Kuropatkin, instead of being able to render assistance to the
-beleaguered garrison, was himself threatened with irremediable
-disaster, largely in consequence of this ill-fated operation. And now
-for upwards of two months almost complete darkness fell upon the
-tragedy that was being enacted round the doomed fortress. Rumors
-reached the outer world from time to time of the sanguinary combats by
-which the besiegers slowly fought their way nearer and nearer to the
-heart of the stronghold; but rumors they remained; and the Japanese,
-true to their policy of silence while important events were in
-progress, allowed no authentic news to percolate through the
-censorship. At last, however, the veil was partially lifted. When in
-the early days of August the Russian fleet, threatened with ignoble
-destruction by the fire of the rapidly approaching batteries of the
-Japanese, made an unsuccessful dash for freedom, it was recognized on
-all hands that the end was near.
-
-[Illustration: GENERAL NOGI BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IX.
-
-  Secrecy of Japanese Strategy--The Geographical
-    Position--Kuropatkin's Essential Weakness--Rain Stops
-    Carnage--Oku Rolls up the Russians--Field-Marshal
-    Oyama--Keller's Failure--10th Regiment Ambushed--Desperate
-    Courage against Overwhelming Odds--Kuroki again on the
-    Offensive--Capture of Niuchwang--The Bloodiest Fight so
-    Far--The Death of Count Keller--Kuropatkin's Heavy
-    Loss--Concentration at Liao-yang--Kuropatkin's Urgent
-    Motives--Oyama's Great Resources--Twelve Days' Battle--The
-    Great Armies in Touch--Frightful Scene of Carnage--Costly but
-    Indecisive.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Secrecy of Japanese Strategy]
-
-The signal defeat of the Russian army under General Stackelberg at
-Telissu on the 15th June cleared the way for an advance northwards by
-General Oku's army. It was one of the consequences of the secrecy which
-attended the Japanese strategy from first to last that until this
-moment General Oku's real objective was not guessed either by foreign
-observers or even by the Russians themselves. The general impression
-was, naturally, that the Second Army was destined for the tremendous
-task of storming Port Arthur, but a much larger conception of the
-campaign was present to the minds of the strategists at Tokio. Fresh
-troops in large numbers were poured into the Liao-tung Peninsula, and
-these, under the command of General Nogi were concentrated round Port
-Arthur, while the main body of the Second Army was pushed northwards to
-act in co-operation with the First Army of General Kuroki and the Third
-Army commanded by General Nodzu, which, it will be remembered, had by
-this time landed at Takushan and was being gradually directed upon
-Haicheng. As soon, therefore, as his forces had been restored after
-their tremendous exertions at Telissu, General Oku set out with all
-possible rapidity along the line of railway towards Kaiping. And now
-Kuroki's long wait at Feng-hwang-cheng came to an end. It had, however,
-been well utilized. Not only had it enabled the conqueror of the Yalu
-to concentrate an army of upwards of 100,000 men, but in the interval
-his engineers had been employed in constructing defences, of a
-semi-permanent character, which, in the event of a subsequent retreat
-being rendered necessary, would make the position almost impregnable
-against Russian attack. But on the 23rd June General Kuroki broke camp,
-and, leaving behind him only a rear guard, took the first step in that
-great series of operations which, as they advanced northwards, stained
-the fertile plains of Southern Manchuria with the blood of Japanese and
-Muscovite alike and culminated around Liao-yang and Mukden in the most
-terrific and sanguinary conflicts experienced in the annals of war
-since the great struggle between the Northern and Southern States.
-
-[Sidenote: Geographical Position]
-
-The key to the valley of the Liao River, it will be remembered, lies in
-the three passes of Motienling, Taling, and Fenshuiling; and these were
-all held in force by the Russians. The first of them stands on the main
-road leading from Feng-hwang-cheng to Liao-yang; the second (which must
-not be confused with the pass of the same name situated north of the
-Taitse River at about 60 miles to the east of Liao-yang) commands the
-road between Feng-hwang-cheng and Haicheng; and the third is on the
-road from Siuyen to Tashichao and is about 20 miles southeast from the
-latter place. The situation of the most important posts along the
-railway from Mukden to Kaiping has already been indicated, but for the
-sake of clearness it may be repeated that Liao-yang, where General
-Kuropatkin had concentrated his main army, stands about 40 miles south
-of Mukden; that 30 miles further south again is situated Haicheng; and
-that an interval of 30 miles more separates that town from Kaiping, or
-Kaichau, as it is sometimes called, Tashichao lying half-way between.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin's Essential Weakness]
-
-General Nodzu's troops were now for the first time brought into action,
-and operated in unison with General Kuroki's army in the attack upon
-the passes. A combination of most skilful movements made them masters
-of these important defiles within a few days of one another. In each
-case the tactics were the same. A frontal attack was pushed forward by
-one division, while strong bodies were sent round both to the right and
-left, and, securing ground from which they could enfilade the Russian
-trenches, rendered the position untenable by the defending force.
-General surprise was felt at the ineffective stand made here by General
-Kuropatkin's troops, especially as they had spent at least three months
-in building entrenchments, protected by wire entanglements and all the
-accessories of modern scientific warfare. The fact was, however, that
-the essential weakness of Kuropatkin's army in point of numbers
-compared with its opponents was now made disastrously apparent, and in
-spite of the natural and artificial strength of these passes, he could
-not prevent the superior force which the Japanese invariably contrived
-to bring against him at any given point from turning his flanks. Both
-the Taling Pass and the Motienling Pass, at the latter of which General
-Count Keller, who had superseded General Sassulitch in his command,
-directed the Russian operations, fell an easy prey to Kuroki's
-manoeuvres; but at Fenshuiling General Nodzu met with fierce
-opposition. The defile was defended by fourteen battalions of infantry
-and three regiments of cavalry, supported by thirty guns, and a severe
-engagement took place, lasting for six hours. It was apparent that the
-strength of the Russian entrenchments was such that a direct attack
-would involve an enormous sacrifice of life; but after brilliant
-tactics, carried out during the night of the 26th June and the early
-morning of the 27th, the Japanese outflanked their enemy and drove them
-back in full retreat down the road to Simucheng, leaving ninety dead
-upon the field and losing eighty-eight prisoners, including six
-officers. On the same day a force of three battalions with sixteen guns
-made a desperate effort to recapture the position, but they were hurled
-back with heavy loss, and the pass remained irrevocably in the hands of
-the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Rain Stops the Carnage]
-
-At this stage in the advance further progress was delayed for a few
-days by an agency which at frequent intervals during the campaign rose
-superior to the fiercest energy on the part of either combatant. The
-weather, which renders war in Manchuria practically impossible in
-winter, succeeds in giving it an intermittent character even in summer,
-and now heavy rains brought the operations to a temporary standstill.
-The Japanese who were on the high ground overlooking the valleys did
-not suffer so much from the torrential downpour, but the Russians in
-the plains had to bear its full force, and all movements by any arm of
-the service were rendered impossible by a sea of mud. By the 4th of
-July, however, the rains had stopped, and on that day a sharp fight
-took place at Motien-ling. During a dense fog at dawn, two battalions
-of the Russians attacked the Japanese outposts and endeavored to force
-the position. But Kuroki's soldiers were not to be surprised, and
-reinforcements were hurried up with all speed. Severe hand-to-hand
-fighting took place; but, finally, after three onslaughts by the
-Russians, the Japanese hurled them back in rout and pursued them for a
-distance of four miles to the westward.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER FIVE MONTHS.
-
-Following the railway northwards Oku came into touch with the
-retreating Russians on June 15, and inflicted upon them a crushing
-defeat at the battle of Telissu. His advance was not again opposed
-until he reached Kaiping, which he captured after some fighting on July
-9. Meanwhile the armies under Kuroki and Nodzu had been advancing
-steadily, and the Mo-tien and Fen-shui Passes, commanding the roads to
-Liaoyang and Haicheng, were captured simultaneously. During this month
-the siege of Port Arthur began on land.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-[Sidenote: Oku Rolls up Russians]
-
-Two days later General Oku took up the running for the Japanese, and
-started to roll up the Russian forces from the south. Moving out from
-Erh-tau-ho-tse, which is 12 miles south of Kaiping, he marched upon
-that town along the road westwards of the railway, driving the enemy's
-outposts before him. By noon on the 9th he had forced the Russians, who
-were under General Zarubaieff, Commander of the Fourth Siberian Army
-Corps, back upon their main position at Kaiping itself, and here it
-appeared that General Kuropatkin had ordered a stand to be made.
-Upwards of 30,000 men, with numerous guns, were in the neighborhood at
-the disposal of Zarubaieff and Oku prepared for a stout resistance. But
-as a matter of fact the opposition offered to him turned out to be
-comparatively feeble. After an artillery duel lasting for four hours
-his troops advanced and seized the heights extending from Haishan-chai
-on the west to Shwangtingshan on the east, from both of which eminences
-they could command Kaiping. Reinforcements had been hurried up from the
-Russian rear, but they were soon ordered northward again, and the whole
-body evacuated the town under cover of heavy gun fire on the afternoon
-of the same day. The cause of this ineffectual resistance on the part
-of Zarubaieff was the advance of the Third Army of Japan from
-Fenshuiling, which acted in co-ordination throughout with General Oku's
-columns, and threatened to outflank the Russians. To avoid a great
-disaster General Zarubaieff was compelled to retreat, and as a
-consequence of this skilful manoeuvring, General Oku was enabled to
-occupy the important position of Kaiping with a loss which was almost
-negligible, another big step being thus gained in the progress
-northwards.
-
-[Sidenote: Field-Marshal Oyama]
-
-On the very day which Oku began his advance on Kaiping there occurred
-an event which brought strikingly before the world the fact that these
-movements by the three Japanese generals were only part of one great
-concerted plan, the vastness of which was not yet realized. This was
-the departure from Tokio for the seat of war of Field-Marshal Marquis
-Oyama, the master-mind selected by the Mikado for the supreme command
-of all his armies in the field. A brief description of the career of
-this great general, whose renown in Japan is second only to that of the
-veteran Yamagata, will not be out of place here. Like so many of the
-Japanese leaders who have distinguished themselves in the present war,
-Oyama's first experience of fighting was gained in the old days of the
-Sumatsu rebellion, in which he took part on the revolutionary side,
-achieving considerable distinction for his gallantry. After peace had
-placed the Mikado securely upon the throne of Japan, Oyama was sent to
-Prussia as military attaché, and was present at Moltke's headquarters
-at all the most important operations of the Franco-German War. There
-he, no doubt, gained many of the valuable lessons which have since been
-put in force both in the Chinese War ten years ago and in the present
-campaign. After the Peace of Versailles he devoted himself to a close
-study of the military organizations of France and Switzerland, and
-returning to his own country in 1875 received an appointment on the
-General Staff in Tokio. He was selected for the command of the First
-Army on the outbreak of the war with China in 1894, and directed the
-operations around Port Arthur, which culminated in the storming of that
-powerful fortress. On the retirement of Marshal Yamagata from
-ill-health, General Oyama was appointed to the chief command of all the
-Japanese forces in the field, and carried the campaign to a successful
-conclusion. After the signature of the Treaty of Peace the Mikado
-recognized his great services by conferring upon him the baton of
-Field-Marshal and appointing him Chief of the Staff. In the meanwhile,
-General Oku was preparing for his further advance northwards, where the
-next obstacle in his path was the Russian position at Tashichao. This
-town had been converted into a place of great strength and was
-garrisoned by at least 60,000 men with 105 guns. But before the
-opposing forces could meet here a fresh attack of a much more
-determined character than the last was made upon the Japanese army at
-Motienling, the Russians, under the command of Kuropatkin's most
-trusted lieutenant, General Count Keller, making a desperate attempt to
-regain possession of that important defile. This was the first occasion
-on which Kuropatkin's troops seriously assumed the offensive in the
-course of the war, and the result was a conspicuous success once more
-for the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Keller's Failure]
-
-The Russian Commander-in-Chief entrusted two divisions to Count Keller
-for the purpose of the attack, and that General made dispositions for a
-frontal attack along the main road from Tawan, simultaneously, with
-movements against both of the Japanese flanks. For the main operation
-one division was employed, and the other was divided into two bodies,
-the first marching from Anping upon Hsimatang, where the outposts on
-Kuroki's right were stationed; and the second pushing forward from
-Tienshuitien along the paths which lead through the hills to the south
-of Motienling, where the Japanese left wing was posted. This scheme of
-advance might have had some success if all the parts of the machine had
-worked together with complete smoothness, but in the actual event the
-movements of the several columns were badly co-ordinated, and they came
-into action at different times.
-
-[Illustration: FOOD FOR THE JAPANESE ARMY.]
-
-[Sidenote: 10th Regiment Ambushed]
-
-The frontal attack began at 3 a. m., when, under cover of a dense fog,
-Keller's two leading battalions fell upon the Japanese outpost upon the
-main road some distance to the west of the pass. Notwithstanding the
-shock of the surprise and the formidable disparity of numbers, Kuroki's
-troops held their ground with the utmost gallantry. The foremost files
-of the 10th Siberian Regiment became engaged almost at once in a
-hand-to-hand combat with a small body of about thirty or forty
-Japanese. Several of the latter were bayonetted before they realized
-that the enemy was upon them, but the survivors, taking refuge among
-some Chinese cottages, made a desperate resistance with rifle and cold
-steel. The din and the crack of musketry aroused some companies who
-were bivouacking in the neighboring trenches, and they quickly rushed
-to the support of their comrades. One company, taking up a position in
-an adjacent temple, poured in a murderous fire upon the Russians, and
-another stationed itself on a hill on the opposite side and joined in
-the deadly fusillade. Thus the 10th Regiment, instead of successfully
-surprising its foe, found itself in turn surprised in an ambush, and
-after a hot engagement was compelled to retreat back upon its main
-body. It was five o'clock before the Russians could bring up a
-sufficient force to drive in the Japanese outposts, by which time the
-gallant stand made by these few companies had enabled Kuroki's troops
-entrenched at the Motien Pass itself to prepare fully for the onslaught
-that awaited them. When Keller's soldiery, therefore, came within range
-of the Japanese lines, they were met by a heavy fire both from infantry
-and artillery. Two hours more elapsed before they were properly
-disposed for the attack, and then, although they consisted of a whole
-division of 12,000 men, and were opposed by a force of no more than
-4,000, their tactics proved quite ineffective, and they could not
-succeed in the slightest degree in shaking the hold upon the defile
-which their enemy had gained.
-
-The fire which was directed upon them from the Japanese lines was
-especially galling upon their left wing, and here, shortly before
-eleven o'clock, they began to give way, and ere long the whole force
-fell back in retreat. Their active enemy then sprang forward to the
-attack themselves and attempted to push the repulse home, but a strong
-rear guard held them in check, and prevented the reverse from becoming
-a rout. It afterwards became apparent that the reason for this retreat
-on the part of Count Keller's main body was the complete failure of the
-flanking movements which he had presumably intended to be conducted
-simultaneously.
-
-[Sidenote: Desperate Courage but Overwhelming Odds]
-
-But the attack upon their outposts upon the main road at three in the
-morning had put the whole Japanese army upon the _qui vive_, and both
-on the right and the left flanks preparations were made to meet such a
-manoeuvre as the Russian General had in view. On the left wing, as no
-enemy had appeared in sight by five o'clock, a company of the Japanese
-pushed forward towards Makumenza to wait for their approach. There it
-fell in with a Russian battalion and engaged it at once in a hot
-conflict. A second battalion came to the aid of the first, and for a
-time the little force of Japanese was in danger of being annihilated,
-but reinforcements quickly arrived, and though they were still
-numerically weaker than the Russians, they drove them back with heavy
-loss, and occupied the heights which commanded the approach from this
-point, completing the confusion of the enemy by directing a galling
-fire upon the main body which was now in full retreat along the road to
-Tawan. On the right flank the struggle was more obstinate and
-sanguinary. When the attack began at eight o'clock the Japanese were
-greatly outnumbered, and for a time one company had to hold its own
-against the onslaught of a whole battalion of the Russians, supported
-by a troop of cavalry. In the deadly conflict which ensued, every one
-of the Japanese officers fell upon the field, but notwithstanding their
-terrible losses the little band fought on with desperate courage
-against the overwhelming odds. The arrival of another Russian battalion
-seemed to threaten their complete destruction, but, fortunately, before
-long reinforcements were hurried up to the spot and the contest became
-more even. After a severe conflict, lasting for eight and a half hours,
-the Russians at length gave up the attempt to force the Japanese lines
-as hopeless, and fell back broken and defeated.
-
-[Illustration: MAP SHOWING TERRITORY ADJACENT TO LIAOYANG.]
-
-Thus at every point this attack, from which General Kuropatkin had
-hoped for so much, failed completely, and the superiority of the
-Japanese soldiery over their opponents was once more strikingly
-manifested. Kuroki's casualties amounted to about 300 killed and
-wounded, but the affair was much more expensive to the Russians,
-General Keller putting his losses at over 1,000 men.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Again on the Offensive]
-
-Immediately following upon this success, General Kuroki once again
-assumed the offensive and captured the position of Hsihoyen,
-practically the last stronghold occupied by the Russians on the high
-ground overlooking the plains of the Liao River. This success was the
-work of the Twelfth Division, that division which, it will be
-remembered, decided the battle of the Yalu by its flank attack on
-General Kashtalinsky's left. It now covered itself with fresh glory
-under its skilful commander, General Nishi. The same tactics as had
-been adopted in all these operations against the strongly entrenched
-positions of the Russians were once more employed. The enemy were kept
-busy with a frontal attack while a column marched around their right
-flank and rendered their carefully prepared stronghold untenable. A
-general advance was then made, and the Russians were driven back upon
-Anping in complete rout with more than 1,000 casualties. The Japanese
-killed and wounded amounted only to half that number.
-
-On the 24th of July, Oku resumed his advance northwards and attacked
-the powerful Russian position at Tashichao. The skilful handling of
-Zarubaieff's large force of artillery made it impossible for the
-Japanese to carry the trenches by daylight, but, waiting till
-nightfall, they made a fresh onslaught under the beams of a full moon.
-Point after point fell into their hands, and next morning General
-Zarubaieff, feeling the hopelessness of continuing the defence,
-especially in view of a fresh movement by General Nodzu's army which
-threatened his left, decided to retreat. This unexpectedly easy victory
-was gained by the Japanese at the expense of about 1,000 casualties;
-but the Russians lost twice that number of men, and among the wounded
-were two officers of high rank, Generals Kondratovitch and Skaloff. Two
-days later a detachment of Oku's army entered Yinkow, the port of
-Niuchwang--a highly important prize, for it provided the invaders with
-a new and most valuable base for the advance from the south.
-
-[Sidenote: Capture of Niuchwang]
-
-On July 31st the advance was resumed all along the line of the extended
-front of the Japanese, and each of the three armies was hotly engaged.
-Oku's steady march along the line of the railway drove the retreating
-enemy into Haicheng. On the right, at Tomucheng, a more sanguinary
-battle took place between General Nodzu's army and two divisions of
-Russian infantry, supported by seven batteries of artillery, under the
-command of General Alexeieff. The Russians occupied a strongly
-entrenched position on the hills to the north of Tomucheng, the work of
-fortification having occupied several months. But the result was the
-same here as in every quarter of the theatre of war. The two armies
-were locked together in a deadly struggle for nearly the whole of a
-scorching day, until the Japanese left wing, attacking with desperate
-bravery, carried the heights opposite to them and threatened the rear
-of the Russian centre. During the night, therefore, General Alexeieff
-fell back, leaving more than 150 dead upon the field and abandoning six
-guns, which fell into the hands of the enemy. The result of these
-combined operations of the Second and Third Armies was that Haicheng
-was occupied on August 3rd, and Niuchwang--which must be distinguished
-from the port of the same name--also fell into Oku's grasp.
-
-[Sidenote: The Bloodiest Fight so Far]
-
-It was in the north, however, with the Japanese First Army that the
-bloodiest fighting ensued, and that the Russians met with the most
-signal defeat. On July 31st Kuroki's right wing held Kushulintzu, 4
-miles to the west of Hsihoyen, and his centre occupied Yangtzuling, 6
-miles to the west of Motienling, both places being situated about 25
-miles from Liao-yang. Opposite to Kushulintzu the Russians, who held a
-very strong position on the high ground, consisted of two divisions of
-infantry with well-placed artillery. The attack began at dawn and
-continued all day. The Japanese infantry advanced gradually across the
-open valley undeterred by the murderous fire poured upon them from the
-Russian batteries, and threw themselves recklessly upon the enemy's
-redoubts. It was on the wings that the Russian defence was the weakest,
-and here, by sunset, the impetuous onslaught of the Mikado's troops
-carried all before it, nightfall finding them in possession of some of
-the most important heights. But the strength of the Russian centre was
-too great to be forced easily, and the Japanese therefore bivouacked on
-the field, and waited till daybreak to resume the attack. With the
-first rays of dawn they were ready once more for the fray, and again
-the hills resounded with the roar of artillery. For several hours the
-battle raged, the Russians making a most obstinate defence, but as the
-Japanese captured height after height the enemy could stand their
-ground no longer, and by noon they broke and fled westwards, leaving
-several field guns behind in the victor's hands.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER SIX MONTHS.
-
-Kuroki and Nodzu now called a halt to enable Oku to come into line with
-them. The latter, working his way steadily northwards, drove the
-Russians out of Tashichiao after three days' severe fighting. Newchwang
-was occupied on July 25, and Nodzu, having advanced his forces to
-Si-mu-cheng and driven out the Russians on July 30, the two generals
-joined forces and marched on Haicheng, which they occupied on August 2.
-A general assault was delivered on Port Arthur on July 26, and a few
-days later the Japanese captured Wolf Hill, Green Hill, and Takushan.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Death of Count Keller]
-
-At Yangtzuling the conflict was even more severe. The Russian force
-here consisted of two and a half divisions, with four batteries of
-artillery, and General Count Keller commanded in person. It was
-destined to be that gallant but unfortunate officer's last fight, for
-he fell mortally wounded in the course of the second day's operations.
-The Japanese plan of attack was very much the same as in the case of
-Kushulintzu. In spite of the tropical sun, whose rays beat upon their
-heads without protection, their advance was irresistible, and throwing
-themselves upon the enemy with a fierce _elan_, which carried all
-before it, they captured some of the principal positions by the close
-of the day. Here again, however, a numerous body of Russians held out
-in the centre against the most desperate attacks, and the Japanese were
-therefore compelled to bivouac on the field for the night and resume
-the conflict on the succeeding day. The dawn opened with a terrific
-artillery duel between the opposing batteries, and all the morning the
-guns belched forth flame and death. It was in the course of this
-tremendous bombardment that Count Keller met with his death. He was a
-man of reckless courage, and he insisted on taking his stand to direct
-the operations in a battery which was most heavily exposed to the fire
-of Kuroki's guns. So fiercely did the shells fall all around that his
-staff represented to him that he must be the object himself of the
-enemy's cannonade, but he refused to retire to a less exposed position.
-He had hardly dismounted from his horse when a shrapnel shell burst
-within a few paces from him and hurled him to the ground. A sergeant
-rushed up to him to raise him in his arms, but the general motioned him
-away and expired a few moments afterwards. His wounds were of the most
-terrible nature. Two fragments of shell struck him upon the head and
-three others in the chest, and he had thirty-one shrapnel bullet wounds
-in different parts of his body. The death of their commander threw the
-Russians into final confusion, and they retreated in haste, leaving a
-number of field guns in Kuroki's possession.
-
-[Illustration: DEATH OF COUNT KELLER AT YANG-ZE-LING PASS.]
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin's Heavy Loss]
-
-The loss of Count Keller was a particularly heavy blow to Kuropatkin,
-for he was the most trusted of all his subordinates and was most deeply
-in the confidence of the Commander-in-Chief. His experience, too, of
-war was gained in the Russo-Turkish campaign, on the staff of the same
-famous leader, Skobeleff, and he actually succeeded Kuropatkin as
-Aide-de-Camp to that General when the present Commander-in-Chief was
-wounded at the Shipka Pass in 1877. Besides the signal misfortune he
-sustained by the death of this distinguished officer, General
-Kuropatkin had to add to his already heavy casualty list a further loss
-of 2,000 officers and men. It was an even more significant and
-discouraging fact, however, that among the troops opposed to the
-victorious Kuroki on this occasion were the most recent accessions to
-the Russian army, the 10th and 17th Corps. These forces, which came
-from European Russia and were greatly superior to the Siberian soldiery
-both in physique and discipline, had been counted upon to do much to
-stem the tide of disaster, but though they made a better appearance
-than the troops which had been in action previously, all their prowess
-was unavailing against the impetuous patriotism of the Japanese, who
-had by this time proved themselves to be among the finest infantry in
-the whole world.
-
-[Sidenote: Concentration at Liaoyang]
-
-It now became plain to Kuropatkin that the Japanese could not be
-stopped before Liao-yang itself was reached. He therefore concentrated
-all his available forces at that powerful and highly fortified position
-in preparation for a great pitched battle. During the months which had
-elapsed since the arrival of the Russian Commander-in-Chief at the seat
-of war, Liao-yang had been turned into a great place of arms. Its great
-natural defensive advantages had been skilfully improved upon. Every
-inch of suitable ground had been carefully fortified, and there can be
-little doubt from the character of the dispositions which had been made
-that Kuropatkin hoped to be able not only to make a stand here, but to
-hurl back the armies of the Mikado in disorder, save Southern Manchuria
-for the Czar, and perhaps even march forward afterwards to the relief
-of the beleaguered fortress of Port Arthur.
-
-His armies, indeed, had been tragically reduced in numbers in every
-combat that had yet taken place. The arrival of the Tenth and
-Seventeenth Army Corps had put him in a better position; but against
-this had to be set the loss of nearly 30,000 men killed or wounded
-since the battle of the Yalu proved the magnitude of the task which lay
-before him. Yet he now possessed a force of about 132,000 men, with 400
-guns, and he held a position of enormous strength. All of his troops,
-indeed, had tasted the bitterness and discouragement of defeat in the
-course of the fifteen engagements which had taken place since the
-outbreak of the war, but he himself had not yet been present in person
-upon the field of battle, and he might well hope that the failure which
-had attended all the efforts of his lieutenants would give place to
-victory when he took the direction of affairs into his own hands.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin's Urgent Motives]
-
-At all events, whatever the issue of the battle might be, there could
-be no doubt that a retreat from Liao-yang without fighting was for
-every reason impossible. The Court of St. Petersburg had already been
-rendered restive by the continual withdrawal of the main body of
-Muscovite armies to the north; his enemies were busy with their
-detractions; and the irrepressible Alexeieff was always near to make
-capital out of the difficulties, and to distort and misrepresent the
-actions of his abler rival. But beyond all these personal reasons,
-powerful enough in themselves in the eyes of a man holding such a
-position as Kuropatkin, there were more worthy considerations which
-weighed heavily in the scale in favor of boldly submitting his fortunes
-to the cast of the die and risking all in one mighty struggle. The
-honor of the Russian arms and the prestige of the Empire were at stake;
-a continued retreat without a supreme effort to roll back the tide of
-invasion was politically dangerous to a Dominion which owed its very
-existence in the East to the preservation of a haughty and determined
-front; and, more serious even than the growing restlessness of all
-those Oriental races who yield unwilling allegiance to the Little White
-Father, was the increasing discontent in Russia itself, and the
-uprising once more of the forbidding spectre of Nihilism and
-revolution. A pitched battle on a grand scale was, therefore, for every
-reason unavoidable, and, in spite of all the risks he ran, Kuropatkin
-faced the prospect before him with calm courage and resolution.
-
-[Sidenote: Oyama's Great Resources]
-
-The state of things on the other side was very different. Here there
-was nothing to discourage, but everything to inspire hope.
-Field-Marshal Oyama, who had now reached the scene of operations, found
-at his disposal three great armies upon whose banners victory had
-consistently rested during a now prolonged campaign. The organization
-of the whole of the forces was perfect, and though it was now far from
-its base, its supplies were ample and constant. The natural
-difficulties of the advance were, indeed, great, but they were no
-greater than those which had already been triumphantly overcome. His
-chief lieutenants were men of tried capacity. The subordinate officers
-had proved their efficiency in tactics on many a hard-fought field, and
-the rank and file were inspired, not only with a rare intelligence, but
-with a fanatical patriotism, which made them, perhaps, the most
-formidable instruments of warfare the world has ever seen. And after
-all the inevitable losses of the past three months, he yet had under
-his command a total field force (exclusive of the army of 100,000 men
-engaged in besieging Port Arthur) of 220,000 men and 600 guns. It was
-plain that only the most desperate resistance on the part of the
-Russians could prevent the crowning mercy of a great victory, and
-already foreign critics were anticipating a Russian Sedan upon the
-banks of the Taitse River.
-
-[Illustration: THE SIX DAYS ACTION AROUND LIAOYANG
-    AUG. 29TH-SEPT. 3RD.]
-
-[Sidenote: Twelve Days' Battle]
-
-Torrential rains again delayed operations for upwards of three weeks,
-but by the 24th of August comparatively dry weather had set in, and on
-the 25th the general advance of the Japanese upon Liao-yang began. We
-now enter upon one of the most tremendous dramas ever known in military
-history--the twelve days' battle around Liao-yang. No fighting so
-fierce, so sustained, and so bloody has been experienced since the
-armies of Grant and Lee met in their great death grapple in the
-Wilderness in the Civil War. The terrible conflict raged for the most
-part simultaneously over an enormously extended front, and an adequate
-description can only be given by following in turn the fortunes of the
-separate Japanese armies. But for sake of clearness it will be well to
-attempt, first, a brief and comprehensive account of the main lines of
-the operations and their final result.
-
-[Sidenote: The Great Armies in Touch]
-
-On the 25th Kuroki's army of three divisions advanced upon Anping, and,
-after desperate fighting, drove the Russians back from that place to
-Liao-yang. At the same time the Third Army under General Nodzu,
-manoeuvring with Oku's forces on the left, turned the enemy out of
-their strong position at Anshanchan, situated about 15 miles to the
-south of Liao-yang. The advance of Oku was delayed considerably by the
-efforts of an enterprising rear guard left by Kuropatkin to cover the
-retreat, and by the thick mud, which made the roads almost impassable;
-but on the 29th both he and Nodzu came into touch with the enemy in
-their main position in front of Liao-yang. Here Kuropatkin held an
-entrenched front of about five miles, with three lines of defence
-formed by separate ranges of low hills, fortified with consummate skill.
-
-[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ROUTE OF MARCH AND PRINCIPAL ACTIONS OF THE
-FOUR JAPANESE ARMIES
-    Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th.]
-
-[Sidenote: Frightful Carnage]
-
-To the Japanese, however, no obstacle seemed too great. After a
-prolonged artillery preparation, in which for the first time the
-Russians showed themselves equal, if not superior, to their opponents,
-the superb infantry of Dai Nippon were ordered to the attack. Then
-ensued the most frightful scene of carnage and heroic endurance. For
-five long days the splendid troops of Oku and Nodzu flung themselves
-upon a foe not less gallant than themselves, and time after time they
-were held back with broken ranks, leaving behind great heaps of dead.
-And when at last they did make their bloody passage into the town of
-Liao-yang, it was only to learn the mortifying intelligence that their
-enemy had escaped from the toils so carefully set for him, and that for
-a considerable time their tremendous struggle had been conducted, not
-with the main body of Kuropatkin's army, but with a rear guard.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE ASSAULT ON A RUSSIAN POSITION AT LIAO-YANG.]
-
-[Sidenote: Costly but Indecisive]
-
-For those incalculable factors which so often defeat the best laid
-schemes of strategy had come into play, and had seriously affected the
-success of the great move which Kuroki was endeavoring to carry out on
-the Japanese right. In this case they proved to be the weather, which
-had swollen the Taitse River into a flood, and a sudden display of
-great tactical ability by Kuropatkin, which his previous failures in
-the sphere of strategy had led no one to expect. Upon Kuroki, of
-course, as holding the most advanced position on the Japanese right, it
-depended to envelope the left flank of the Russians and cut off their
-retreat to the north. But, unfortunately for the success of Oyama's
-strategy, the river Taitse, which runs from east to west just north of
-Liao-yang, and which had to be crossed by the Japanese, was so flooded
-that a day or two elapsed before it could be forded, and it was not
-till the 31st that Kuroki's forces were able to take up a position on
-the opposite bank. It was hoped, however, that a rapid march to the
-northwest would place the commander of the First Army astride of the
-railway at Yentai, and that he would thus be able to cut off
-Kuropatkin's retreat and enclose him in another Sedan within a ring of
-steel. But the delay proved fatal, for it gave Kuropatkin time to
-rescue his army from the perilous position in which it was placed. With
-a skill which must always extort the admiration of military critics he
-withdrew the greater part of his forces across the river in the most
-perfect order, unknown to the Japanese, and massed them on his left
-flank. The consequence was that instead of finding a division, or at
-the most two divisions, opposed to him, Kuroki was faced by the greater
-part of the Russian Army, established in strong positions on a range of
-hills between himself and the railway line. It was a masterly piece of
-generalship on the part of the Russian Commander-in-Chief, and it saved
-the situation. Indeed, at one point it threatened Kuroki with
-destruction, for he was almost cut off from support, and for
-twenty-four hours both officers and men were without either drink or
-food except small rations of dried rice. But the extraordinary
-gallantry of the sons of Japan rose superior even to these conditions.
-Again and again they advanced to the attack against powerful positions
-held by superior numbers, and the salient point in the Russian defence,
-the hill of Haiyentai, was heaped with the dead of the heroic
-combatants. Despite every effort, however, Kuroki could not pierce the
-enemy's line, and it was not till a fine forced march by a division
-detached from General Nodzu's army arrived to reinforce him that he was
-able to reach the railway after four days of tremendous combat. But by
-that time it was too late. The skilful dispositions made by the Russian
-General had pulled the bulk of his force out of the trap, and they were
-in full retreat upon Mukden. It would be difficult to describe the
-horrors of that retreat, but the Japanese were too exhausted to make as
-effective a pursuit as they would otherwise have done, and the Russians
-managed to get away without losing a single piece of artillery. The
-losses in this tremendous battle, or rather series of battles, were
-enormous. The Japanese official account places their casualties at
-17,539, but, if we are to believe the correspondents, that is an
-understatement. The exact Russian losses, including those incurred
-during the retreat, are placed by some authorities at 25,000, by others
-as high as 35,000. Unfortunately for the Japanese, all this costly
-expenditure of life was indecisive in its results, and left the main
-object of their strategy unfulfilled. Kuropatkin had been defeated,
-indeed, but he had not been routed, and it was apparent that the
-fighting would have to be resumed once more in the neighborhood of
-Mukden.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-
-  Investment of Port Arthur--Admiral Witoft's Sortie--Tremendous
-    Naval Battle--Harbors of Refuge--International
-    Complications--Insignificant Japanese Losses--The Last Raid
-    from Vladivostock--The Port Arthur Garrison--Fury Unparalleled
-    in History--Kuroki Improves his Reputation--The Grim Reality of
-    War.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Closer Investment of Port Arthur]
-
-While the victorious armies of Oku, Kuroki, and Nodzu were pressing
-northward towards Liao-yang, driving before them the only force from
-which the beleaguered garrison of Port Arthur could look for relief,
-the siege of Russia's "impregnable fortress" proceeded with unabated
-determination and constantly increasing vigor. It was on June 26th that
-the general advance on Port Arthur began; and from that date the lines
-of investment were steadily drawn closer and closer. Siege trains were
-landed at Dalny as well as large reinforcements, but for nearly a month
-complete silence as to the progress of events was maintained at Tokio.
-From time to time sensational and contradictory reports of desperate
-fighting were received from Chifu, where Chinese refugees landed in a
-constant stream; and authentic messages from General Stoessel, the
-heroic commander of the fortress's garrison, reached the outer world at
-intervals through the medium of a wireless telegraphy installation at
-the Russian Consulate in Chifu. Naturally, these messages were of a
-reassuring character, and generally recorded some repulse of the
-Japanese army of investment; but though no word of contradiction was
-uttered at Tokio, the world was hardly inclined to accept the Russian
-stories at their face value. When, for example, in a triumphant
-message, General Stoessel reported that a grand assault on the Russian
-defences had taken place on July 26th, 27th, and 28th, and had been
-repulsed at all points, with great slaughter, cautious observers of
-events waited for confirmation of the news; although the Czar himself
-hastened to dispatch to his gallant representative in Port Arthur a
-telegram of warm congratulation and praise. Hesitation was justified by
-the event; for two days after their alleged decisive repulse they
-captured the dominant position of Wolf Hill, and thereby made the first
-important breach in the defences of Port Arthur. Wolf Hill is an
-eminence half a mile south of the village of Suei-ze-ying, which is
-some three and a half miles along the railway line running due north
-from Port Arthur. The importance of the captured position for the
-Japanese was that it enabled siege guns to command, within easily
-effective range, the anchorage of the Russian squadron on the inside of
-the Tiger's Tail. This meant, of course, either that the fleet must go
-to sea and fight, or must endure impotently the hammering of the 12in.
-shells which soon began to drop from the batteries on Wolf's Hill.
-Within a week of the capture of the position, the Japanese had mounted
-their siege guns; and after a bombardment of two days, the Russian
-decision was taken to attempt another sortie. The last sortie, it will
-be remembered, took place on June 23rd, and ended in the inglorious
-return of the whole fleet; as the Russian Admiral, in spite of the
-advantage which, as we now know, he possessed over his enemy in battle
-strength, did not dare to give battle. This decision which let slip one
-of the best opportunities that the Russian Pacific Squadron ever had of
-favorably modifying the naval situation in the Far East, was
-ill-received at St. Petersburg, where carefully planned dispositions
-were thus brought to nought; and as soon as the contemplation of
-another sortie became immediately necessary, the strictest injunctions
-were sent to Admiral Witoft as to his course of action.
-
-[Sidenote: Admiral Witoft's Sortie]
-
-The Czar emphatically ordered him on no account to return to Port
-Arthur. His object must be to inflict as much damage as possible on the
-enemy's fleet, and, if possible, to effect a junction with the
-Vladivostock Squadron; while, if the latter object were incapable of
-accomplishment, he was to endeavor to reach the German port of
-Kiau-chau. From circumstances that have since transpired, there is
-reason to believe that an understanding had been arrived at between the
-German and Russian Governments as to the reception of the Russian ships
-at the German naval base. Although for the moment the Russian fugitives
-would, by the laws of neutrality, be placed out of action, they would
-be in the hands of a "benevolent" government; and would remain a factor
-to be reckoned with, if in the future Germany were to intervene in the
-settlement of the struggle. Accordingly, on the morning of August 10th,
-the Russian Squadron, in full strength except for the armored-cruiser
-_Bayan_, which was in too injured a condition to take its place in the
-fighting line, began slowly to pass through the narrow channel leading
-from the open sea; and by eleven o'clock the ships were drawn up in
-battle line, and steamed away on a course nearly due south. The gallant
-little _Novik_, the fastest vessel in either fleet, headed the line,
-while the patched-up _Retvisan_ came next, followed by the
-_Czarevitch_, the _Peresveit_, the _Pobieda_, the _Poltava_, and the
-_Sevastopol_, with the cruisers _Askold_, _Diana_, and _Pallada_, and a
-torpedo flotilla of eight vessels. The squadron of Japanese light
-cruisers which had been watching Port Arthur retreated before the
-advancing enemy, and signalled at once to the sleepless Togo, whose
-main battle fleet was lying forty miles away. This consisted of four
-battleships and three armored cruisers--namely, the _Mikasa_, carrying
-Admiral Togo's flag; the _Asahi_, the _Shikishima_, the _Fuji_, the
-_Nishin_, the _Kasuga_, the _Jakumo_, and a number of protected
-cruisers, including the _Kasagi_, the _Chitose_, the _Takasugo_, as
-well as a flotilla of some forty torpedo craft. Thus the Russians had a
-clear superiority in battleships partially discounted by Togo's
-superiority in armored cruisers.
-
-[Sidenote: Tremendous Naval Battle]
-
-Thirty-five miles to the southeast of Port Arthur the opposing fleets
-came within range; and then began the most tremendous naval
-battle--measured by the offensive power of its combatants--that the
-world has yet seen. The naval world had been waiting almost with
-eagerness for the present war to afford the spectacle of a fleet action
-between modern armorclads carrying modern armaments; and this
-unprecedented event had at last come to pass. The Russian ships were
-steering for the south, and the object of the Japanese was evidently to
-head them off. At a range of 6,000 yards, or about three miles and a
-half, the _Mikasa_, the Japanese flagship, opened fire with her 12in.
-guns on the leading Russian battleship and immediately the action
-became general. Admiral Togo concentrated his fire on the Russian
-battleships, leaving the cruisers very much to chance; and so awful was
-the effect of this deadly rain of shell, that when at last the sun went
-down on that eventful day, the Russian fleet was in hopeless disorder,
-and its stoutest ships were almost unmanageable wrecks. The experience
-of the _Czarevitch_ and the _Retvisan_, as recounted by survivors on
-board of those devoted vessels, affords a lurid picture of the
-appalling nature of a modern naval battle. The _Czarevitch_, which
-ultimately reached Kiao-chau, was bombarded at close range by several
-of the Japanese armorclads. In the course of five minutes she was
-struck by three successive 12in. shells, and that fact--which is an
-eloquent testimony to the quality of the Japanese gunnery--practically
-decided her fate. Admiral Witoft was killed by the first shell, and his
-chief of staff was mortally wounded by the second. The steering gear
-was knocked to bits, so that the ship was out of control and began to
-travel in a circle, and the foremast was tumbled over the side; while
-every man in one of the batteries was blown to pieces. The guns' crews
-were annihilated at the work, and the deck gear was twisted into
-fantastic shapes or carried away altogether; and so much of it was
-afterwards picked up that the Japanese supposed that the _Czarevitch_
-had foundered. Poor Witoft--as brave a man as ever sailed--met a
-terrible death. He was blown to pieces by a shell, and of his body only
-one leg was ever found. His last signal was: "Remember the Emperor's
-order not to return to Port Arthur." The decks of the battleship
-presented the appearance of a shambles; her armor-plating was pierced
-in four places; her masts were shattered and bent in the form of a
-cross; her bridge was carried away; and many of her guns were disabled.
-Steering with her propellers she managed, under the cover of night, to
-escape the attacks of the Japanese torpedo-boats, and to reach
-Kiao-chau. Hardly less severe was the mauling which the _Retvisan_
-received. This battleship received such a concentrated fire that when
-she attempted to break from the circle of her enemies, she was
-literally blown out of her course. The other four Russian battleships
-suffered more or less severely. The _Pobieda_, for instance, had her
-masts carried away, and her heavy guns were put out of action. When the
-_Czarevitch_ got out of control, the Russian line was necessarily
-broken, and then the fleet seems to have suffered most severely. The
-command of the squadron passed to Prince Ukhtomsky, as second in rank
-to Admiral Witoft, and that of the cruiser division to Rear-Admiral
-Reitzenstein; and between the two there seem to have been divided
-counsels. The latter decided to cut his way southwards at any cost in
-accordance with the orders of the Czar. With the _Askold_, _Novik_,
-_Pallada_, and _Diana_, he became engaged with the Japanese cruisers,
-and by dint of hard fighting, in which the _Askold_ was badly mauled,
-he managed to get clear of the enemy, and in the early morning of the
-13th reached Shanghai, having lost sight of the other cruisers. The
-_Askold_ had lost two of her five funnels, one of the boilers was
-injured, and her hull had been pierced in more than half a dozen
-places, both above and below the water-line. Prince Ukhtomsky preferred
-another course. When the signal had been displayed from the
-_Czarevitch_ "Admiral transfers command," the Prince, who was next in
-seniority, signalled from his ship, the _Peresviet_, "Follow me"--an
-order which, as we have seen, the cruiser division did not obey. But
-the battleships answered the signal; and the course steered was back to
-Port Arthur. In his dispatch the Prince said: "As my vessel had lost
-many killed and wounded, and her armament, hull and electric apparatus
-were seriously damaged, I decided to return to Port Arthur." Through
-the dark night the six battleships steamed slowly to their haven,
-repeated torpedo attacks compelling them again and again to change
-course, and finally to disperse. The _Czarevitch_, as we have seen,
-reached Kiao-chau almost in a sinking condition, while in the morning
-of the 11th, the _Peresviet_, the _Retvisan_, the _Sevastopol_, the
-_Pobieda_, the _Poltava_, and the cruiser _Pallada_ arrived again at
-the port which they had left twenty-four hours earlier. A list of
-nearly 400 killed and wounded was the witness to the severity of the
-punishment which these vessels had received. But it was evident that
-they were not so damaged as to have been incapable of continuing the
-attempt to break through to the south. Their return to Port Arthur
-rendered all that they had suffered vain. It meant that their situation
-was as precarious as ever, while their condition was less favorable for
-enduring it. The displeasure of the Czar was not long in manifesting
-itself. Hardly had the consternation of defeat subsided, than an
-Imperial order was issued removing the unhappy Prince Ukhtomsky from
-his command. Recalled he could not be, because the means of leaving
-Port Arthur were denied.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIANS RECAPTURING THEIR LOST GUNS AT LIAO-YANG.]
-
-[Sidenote: Harbors of Refuge]
-
-It was some time before the full measure of Russia's disaster could be
-ascertained; for the movements of several of the dispersed vessels had
-been lost sight of. But at last all doubts were resolved. The
-_Czarevitch_ and three destroyers reached Kiao-chau. The _Askold_ and
-one destroyer found refuge at Shanghai. The _Diana_ was able to make
-the French port of Saigon. Two destroyers went ashore near Wei-hai-wei
-and were abandoned; and one destroyer entered Chifu Harbor and was
-there seized by the Japanese and made a prize, in defiance of respect
-for a neutral port. The indomitable little _Novik_ alone of all
-Russia's fleet attempted to make for Vladivostock. This swift cruiser
-had come out of the fight comparatively uninjured; and having put into
-Kiao-chau for coal, she steamed eastward again, and for some days was
-lost sight of. But the Japanese, though full of admiration for the
-exploits of the _Novik_, could not afford to let her escape, and they
-were on the watch for her appearance in the straits through which she
-must pass to reach Vladivostock. The cruisers _Tsushima_ and _Chitose_
-had been searching the Soya Straits, which lie between Saghalien and
-Yezo, when at last the former vessel sighted the little _Novik_ on the
-afternoon of the 20th of August in Korsakovsk Harbor. Immediately the
-attack began, and the _Novik_ was soon compelled to retreat into the
-inner harbor, but not before she had inflicted such damage on the
-_Tsushima_ as to compel her to draw off. Presently, however, the
-_Chitose_ arrived, and next day completed the destruction of the
-_Novik_, whose crew abandoned her after running her on the beach. So
-ended the career of the one ship in the Russian Navy whose handling has
-consistently done credit to Russian seamanship.
-
-[Sidenote: International Complications]
-
-The appearance of fugitive vessels of the Russian squadron in neutral
-ports at once raised international questions of no little anxiety and
-difficulty. The attitude of Germany in particular was jealously watched
-by the Japanese; but, fortunately, in this case the behavior of the
-neutral Power was perfectly correct. The _Czarevitch_ and the three
-destroyers in Kiao-chau were at once ordered to be dismantled, and
-their crews sent home on _parole_. Equally prompt and unimpeachable was
-the action of the French Government in regard to the cruiser _Diana_;
-but the case of the _Askold_ at Shanghai threatened to give much more
-trouble. It was aggravated, too, by the indefensible action of the
-Japanese in the case of the destroyer _Rishitelni_, which reached Chifu
-on the 11th, bearing important dispatches. The Japanese followed the
-_Rishitelni_, and believing that the Chinese would not be able to
-enforce the disarmament of the boat, and their demands for her
-immediate departure having been ignored, a Japanese officer and armed
-guard boarded her. A scuffle between the Japanese and the Russian crews
-followed; and in the result, in spite of the protests of the Chinese,
-the _Rishitelni_ was towed out of the harbor, after an ineffectual
-attempt on the part of her crew had been made to blow her up. The act
-was certainly a violation of Chinese neutrality; but as the
-_Rishitelni_ had remained in the harbor for twenty-seven hours without
-any sign of disarming, the Japanese had good reason to believe that the
-Russian commander was not particularly sensitive to the claims of
-China's neutrality; and how well this belief was founded appeared in
-the case of the _Askold_, which found refuge at Shanghai. In insolent
-defiance of all right and law, the commander of the _Askold_ refused
-either to disarm his vessel or to leave the neutral port. The wretched
-Chinese authorities, squeezed on one side by the Russian Government and
-on the other by the Japanese, could do nothing. One day they issued
-peremptory orders for the Russian vessel to leave; and the next day
-they extended the period of grace. A grave international situation
-threatened; for the Japanese were impatient at the necessity of having
-to detain several of the much-needed cruisers in watching the port, and
-they threatened extreme measures; for all this time the _Askold_ was
-being repaired and put into fighting trim again. But at last the
-British Minister interfered to stop the work of repairs; and then the
-Czar issued instructions that the _Askold_ and the destroyer that
-accompanied her should be dismantled.
-
-[Sidenote: Insignificant Japanese Losses]
-
-In winning this signal victory over the fleet of his enemy, Admiral
-Togo suffered but slight damage to the ships under his command. In
-spite of the heavy fighting at close range, none of the Japanese
-vessels were crippled--a circumstance of the utmost importance to
-Japan, who, unlike her enemy, has no second fleet to draw upon, and
-whose losses were therefore irreparable. The _Mikasa_, in which the
-brunt of the fighting fell, lost 32 killed and 78 wounded; the
-_Yakumo_, 12 killed and 10 wounded; the _Nishin_, 16 killed and 17
-wounded; the _Kasuga_, 10 wounded; and the rest of the fleet a few
-wounded only. These casualties altogether were far exceeded by those
-endured on the _Czarevitch_ or the _Retvisan_ alone; and the difference
-can only be accounted for by the greater accuracy and efficiency of the
-Japanese gun fire. Of the fleet that left Port Arthur on the morning of
-the 10th of August, only a shattered remnant returned again--five
-battleships and two cruisers. But the sum of Russia's disasters had not
-been reached. It was fated that the Vladivostock squadron was to share
-the fate of the Port Arthur fleet.
-
-[Sidenote: The Last Raid from Vladivostock]
-
-So sudden had been Admiral Witoft's resolution to attempt a sortie,
-that no arrangements for concerted action with Admiral Skrydloff at
-Vladivostock had been made. It was the destroyer _Rishitelni_, whose
-arrival at Chifu caused such unpleasantness, that bore the message
-informing Skrydloff of what was happening. Fortunately for themselves
-the Japanese seized the _Rishitelni_ too late to intercept that
-message. Skrydloff on the 12th steamed from Vladivostock with the
-cruisers _Gromoboi_, _Rossia_, and _Rurik_, and made straight for the
-Korean Straits. In the early morning of the 14th of August the Russian
-cruisers reached their old hunting-ground, and the critical point in
-their course--the narrow channel that separates the southernmost
-Japanese islands from the Korean promontory. In their successful raid
-during July the Vladivostock cruisers had reached the same point, and
-by good luck had evaded Kamimura's pursuit. The fortune of war had
-hitherto been all against the gallant Japanese Admiral, to whom had
-been committed the task of watching the Vladivostock squadron, and in
-particular, of guarding the Korean Straits. Even on this last decisive
-occasion that was to avenge his previous disappointments, he nearly
-missed his prey, who had got to southward of his fleet. But a timely
-glint of sunlight revealed the object of his long quest, and
-immediately putting his ships between the enemy and Vladivostock he was
-able to say with Cromwell at Dunbar: "The Lord hath delivered them into
-my hand". Kamimura had with him four armored cruisers of high speed and
-powerful armament--the _Tokiwa_, the _Adzuma_, the _Idzumo_, and the
-_Iwate_. The last two vessels were of 24 knots speed, and the slowest
-was of 21 knots. In gun power all the vessels were practically equal,
-and were much more heavily armed than the Russian cruisers, to which
-they now found themselves opposed. Of these the _Gromoboi_, a huge
-vessel of 12,336 tons displacement, was the latest and the most
-formidable. The _Rossia_ was her equal in every respect except gun
-protection; but the _Rurik_ was of another class altogether in a
-direction that proved fatal to her--namely, speed. Her engines were
-only capable of developing 18 knots, and that made her a terrible
-hindrance to the manoeuvring power of the whole squadron. It was not
-until the Japanese had crossed the course of the Russians that the
-latter became aware of the presence of the enemy, and then they
-immediately put about and steered north. According to the report of the
-Russian Admiral, the fight began at half-past four in the morning a
-little north of the line between Fusan and Tsushima. The Russians
-attempted to make for the open sea northwards, but were headed off,
-mainly owing to the inferior steaming power of the _Rurik_, which was
-in the rear of the line. The Russians were in single column line ahead,
-while the Japanese steering across their course adopted the famous
-T-shaped formation which is associated with the name of Admiral Togo.
-The battle began at a range of five miles, and very soon the superior
-gunnery and heavier armament of the Japanese told its tale. The
-Russians changed course to the east, and immediately the ill-fated
-_Rurik_ began to drop behind, enabling the Japanese cruisers to
-concentrate the fire on her at a range of little more than three miles.
-The steering gear broke down, and the vessel speedily became
-unmanageable, while the havoc wrought by the rain of shells poured into
-her quickly rendered her guns unworkable. With splendid gallantry the
-_Rurik's_ consorts, seeing her desperate plight, returned to her
-assistance, and circled round her in order to draw the enemy's fire and
-to give the crippled cruiser a chance of effecting repairs. They
-suffered heavily in the attempt, and their sacrifice was unavailing.
-The _Rurik_ burst into flames, which her devoted crew could not subdue.
-Her movements became erratic. She developed a heavy list to port, and
-then began to settle down by the stern. At last, after the fight had
-been going on for nearly four hours, it became evident that the _Rurik_
-was doomed; and her consorts, who were in sorry case themselves, left
-her to make their own escape. Both the _Gromoboi_ and the _Rossia_ had
-been struck repeatedly below the water line, and had been fired in
-several places by the Japanese shells, though the fires were got under.
-What finally decided their flight was the arrival of reinforcements for
-the enemy in the shape of the _Noniwa_ and the _Takachiho_--two
-protected cruisers of the second class. These vessels were left to
-finish off the already sinking _Rurik_, while Admiral Kamimura set off
-at full speed in pursuit of the _Gromoboi_ and _Rossia_. For some
-reason, however, which has never yet appeared, this pursuit was not
-persisted in. Both the Russian cruisers were badly damaged, and there
-is no reason to suppose that they could have ever reached Vladivostock,
-as they did a day or two later, if Admiral Kamimura had not drawn off
-his ships. There is, of course, no doubt that there must have been some
-compelling reason to induce the Japanese Admiral to forego the full
-fruits of his opportunity, but that he should have had to do so made
-his victory much less complete and decisive. He returned to the scene
-of battle to discover that the _Rurik_ had gone down, but in time to
-assist in saving the crew, of whom some 600 survivors were rescued.
-This act of humanity was not a solitary instance, but it is one of the
-most striking instances of the magnanimous temper in which the Mikado's
-forces both on land and sea carried on the war. The Russian Commander,
-in his official report, makes it clear that he was much surprised and
-relieved when he found that the pursuit of his cruisers was being
-abandoned. He states that at this stage of the battle three of the
-funnels on the _Rossia_ were holed, and three of her boilers were
-rendered useless, so that she was not able to keep up full steam, while
-eleven holes had been made in the vessel's hull below the water-line.
-The _Gromoboi_ had six holes below her water-line; while on both of the
-cruisers the loss of life had been most severe. More than half the
-total number of officers had been killed or wounded, and quite a
-quarter of the crews. Thirty miles away from the spot where the _Rurik_
-had been left sinking, the _Gromoboi_ and _Rossia_ were able, by the
-mysterious drawing off of the enemy, to stop their engines and effect
-temporary repairs. On the 16th of August they arrived again at
-Vladivostock, and went immediately into dock--with the certainty of
-taking no further part in active operations for some months to come.
-Thus within a single week both squadrons of Russia's navy in the Far
-East suffered signal and overwhelming disaster with the effect of
-immediately and palpably relieving the difficulties of the campaign for
-the invasion of Manchuria. If the dispersal and repulse of the Port
-Arthur fleet was the more momentous event of the two, the shattering of
-the Vladivostock squadron had an immense value in at once restoring
-confidence and immunity to Japan's seaborne trade, and in removing from
-Togo's flank, as it were, a menace which since the opening of the war
-he had never been able wholly to dismiss. As one result of these naval
-victories, the war-worn and storm-beaten ships of the Japanese fleet
-blockading Port Arthur were able in turn to go into dock for the
-execution of those repairs which must have become increasingly
-necessary; while at the same time it was possible to strengthen and
-tighten the blockade, and push on with perfect freedom from risk with
-the preparations for landing men and munitions at the theatre of war.
-
-[Illustration: ON THE DECK OF THE "RURIK."]
-
-[Sidenote: The Port Arthur Garrison]
-
-The fall of Port Arthur, which the Japanese, in the pardonable
-confidence begotten of their uninterrupted victories on sea and land,
-had believed to be imminent long ago, now became the object of renewed
-and desperate endeavor. Dalny Harbor had been cleared of mines, and
-rendered available for the landing of siege trains; and no sooner had
-the ill-fated sortie of the fleet been frustrated, than the Japanese
-settled down again to a fierce assault. As a preliminary, on the 16th
-of August a message was sent to General Stoessel under a flag of truce
-demanding the surrender of the fortress, and proposing that, in case of
-non-compliance, the non-combatants should be allowed to leave. To the
-former of these proposals, General Stoessel, as might have been
-expected of so brave and resolute a soldier, returned an emphatic and
-indignant negative; and the second, with much less reason, he equally
-refused to entertain. Just at this moment all good Russians had been
-gladdened, even in the midst of their disasters, by the long-hoped-for
-birth of an heir to the Imperial Throne, and General Stoessel was able
-to send a congratulatory message to the Czar, while receiving in his
-turn an order appointing him, as a mark of special Imperial favor, an
-aide-de-camp general. The determination of the Russian garrison had
-never abated for a moment; and such assurances that the eyes and hopes
-of all Russia were centred on them, stirred them to the heroic pitch of
-endurance. Shut off from the outer world both by sea and land, with
-provisions and ammunition daily becoming more scanty, and beneath the
-harassment of an incessant bombardment and fierce and desperate
-assaults, they held grimly on to the defences, and defied the worst
-that the enemy could do, in spite of his overwhelming numbers. The
-progress of the siege could not be followed easily by the external
-spectator, because the Japanese strictly kept their own counsel; while
-the reports that were brought to Chifu from time to time by Chinese
-refugees were conflicting and contradictory in the last degree. One
-thing only was undeniably evident--that the Japanese assaults on
-different sections of the main line of defence had been made with
-desperate valor and indifference to loss of life; and that, except in
-unimportant instances, these assaults had not prevailed. Forts were
-indeed captured, but had to be abandoned again, because they were
-exposed to the fire of neighboring forts. Not in vain had the Russian
-engineers exercised their best brains in devising the defences of this
-"impregnable fortress". Mines, wire entanglements, and every other grim
-expedient for checking assault had been constructed with patient
-ingenuity; and, most deadly and cunning device of all, every fort in
-the long chain that shuts in Port Arthur on the land side had been so
-placed as to be dominated by the neighboring forts; so that no enemy
-who succeeded in capturing it could hope to plant his own guns there.
-It is not in question that the Japanese suffered appalling losses in
-the attempts to storm these defences; but they persevered, though for
-weeks together their hostile activities were limited to pouring into
-the Russian lines a tremendous shell fire at long range. The fall of
-Port Arthur which had seemed possible in June, was confidently
-predicted for July. Then August was fixed, and the Japanese forces,
-largely reinforced, undertook another desperate assault in the middle
-of that month. It failed; and though the dogged, impenetrable defence
-and the fierce and reckless struggle went on with few intermissions,
-October came without any perceptible change having been effected in the
-situation of the combatants.
-
-[Sidenote: Fury Unparalleled in History]
-
-Two Russian officers who escaped with dispatches to Chifu, brought
-accounts of the terrible pitch to which the temper of the opposing
-forces had been wrought in their long-drawn and implacable struggle.
-They stated that the Japanese losses during the last attack were
-enormous, and that even several days afterwards wounded men were to be
-seen raising their arms by way of appeal, but that it was impossible to
-help them as the fire was incessant. As for the struggle, it was
-carried on with an amount of fury to which there is no parallel in
-history. The Japanese dashed forward with the bayonet like madmen, and
-in serried columns, in which the shells made terrible furrows. Every
-time that they reached the Russian lines horrible mêlées, in which even
-the wounded fought to the death, took place. No quarter was given.
-Pairs of corpses were found clinging to each other, the teeth of the
-men being buried in their adversaries' throats and their fingers in
-their eyes as they had expired. In the last attack the 9th Japanese
-Division was sent forward in two columns, each composing a brigade, and
-when the first gave way under the avalanche of iron, the general
-commanding the second fired upon and exterminated it. So intense was
-the fury that when they got within hearing of their foes, the Japanese
-shook their fists at and insulted them. The failure of the Japanese to
-make headway with the siege of Port Arthur was the one substantially
-gratifying aspect of the war from the Russian point of view. Russian
-patriotic sentiment had something to be proud of in the courage,
-endurance, and resource of General Stoessel and his troops. But, as a
-matter of fact, the fall of Port Arthur would have been a far better
-service to Russian arms than the heroic resistance of its garrison.
-Because the fortress, which from the first had exercised such a
-benumbing influence on the Russian fleet and such a distracting
-influence on military counsels, still remained as a fatal factor in the
-equation for Russian strategy. The garrison were counting on relief
-from the north, and the honor and pride of Russia were engaged to send
-that relief if possible. Consequently, Kuropatkin never had his hand
-free. He could never review the situation with a single eye to its
-supreme strategical necessities; he must always qualify his
-dispositions and plans by regard for the plight of Port Arthur. It was
-this vitiating influence that brought about the initial reverses of the
-Russian armies; and that prevented any bold and effective plan for
-meeting the Japanese advance. Finally, it was this consideration that
-induced Kuropatkin to give battle at Liao-yang, and to expose his
-entire army to a disaster from which he only escaped by the skin of his
-teeth. Allusion to that tremendous conflict, between forces larger than
-any that have ever before been opposed in modern war, has already been
-made in the last chapter. But the event was so memorable, and has such
-bearing on the future course of the campaign, that it is permissible to
-return to the subject, especially as further light has been thrown on
-it by the detailed narratives of correspondents. Of this great battle,
-by the way, the world has received fuller descriptions than of any
-other feature of the campaign by land or sea; for it so happened that
-the sufferance of the war correspondents under the restriction of the
-Japanese military authorities broke down here, and several of the most
-distinguished representatives of the English press threw up their
-connection with the Japanese army after Liao-yang, and hurried back to
-neutral territory to cable home the full dispatches which the censor
-would not have permitted.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki Improves his Reputation]
-
-It is perfectly evident in the light of these accounts that the
-Japanese, emboldened by their previous successes, rated their enemy too
-lightly, and without any preponderance, and indeed with scarcely an
-equality of numbers, they attempted to take by assault a position
-naturally strong and fortified by all the art and resources of the
-military engineer. The battle did indeed prove the incomparable
-qualities of the Japanese soldier; but it did little to add to the
-reputation of Japanese generalship; while, on the other hand, it
-exhibited General Kuropatkin in a light infinitely more favorable than
-any in which he had previously appeared. If one of Kuropatkin's
-subordinates--General Orloff--had not blundered badly in carrying out
-the movements against Kuroki on the Russian left, it is probable that
-the battle might have resulted in a decisive defeat instead of in a
-nominal victory for the Japanese. That blunder--which cost Orloff his
-command--enabled Kuroki to hold his own at a most critical juncture,
-and so to obviate the dangerous possibilities which the situation had
-developed. It was the peril of Kuroki that compelled Oku and Nodzu, who
-faced the centre and right wing of the Russian position, to press on
-their assaults with redoubled fury, even after they had been fighting
-for five days and losing thousands of men without making appreciable
-headway. In twenty-four hours Oku made three grand assaults upon the
-entrenched hills before him; and, when the last had been beaten back
-with awful loss, the laconic order came from headquarters: "Reinforce
-and attack again at dawn". Such a demand upon the endurance and
-_morale_ of troops is well-nigh unexampled; and that the Japanese
-soldier responded to it speaks volumes for his qualities as a fighting
-man. His persistence prevailed in the end, and the Russian line was
-forced. But even then the retreat was slow and stubborn. While a rear
-guard held the Japanese at bay, all the guns and wounded were safely
-withdrawn, and when at last the Japanese came into possession of
-Liao-yang, it was to find the fruits of their dearly-bought victory
-snatched from them, and their own forces too exhausted to follow
-victory up. The casualties in this awful conflict were enough "to
-stagger humanity", if one may use Mr. Kruger's famous phrase. The
-Japanese losses cannot have been less than 40,000, and those of the
-Russians were perhaps half as many; while the expenditure of ammunition
-on both sides was terrific. More than a thousand guns belched forth
-their deadly missiles continuously for nearly a week, and all
-eye-witnesses agree that never before has such tremendous artillery
-fire been witnessed. Well might it be necessary for both armies to rest
-after such a titanic struggle, and to devote more than a month to
-reforming and reinforcing the shattered ranks and to refilling their
-ammunition trains. The main result of the battle was to drive the grand
-army of the Czar one step further back from the beleaguered fortress
-still counting so confidently on and waiting so anxiously for relief.
-But, as the event showed the contest had been too indecisive to destroy
-finally the Russian hope of a victorious march southwards; and to that
-extent the Japanese might congratulate themselves. As long as the fatal
-fascination of Port Arthur was felt by Russian strategy, the Japanese
-generals could count on an invaluable ally; and very soon that ally was
-to come to their assistance again in a manner which their best hopes
-could not have conjectured.
-
-[Sidenote: The Grim Reality of War]
-
-In order to realize the spectacle that that awful battlefield
-presented, one has only to read the vivid narrative of the London
-_Times'_ correspondent who was attached to General Oku's army. This is
-how he describes the earlier and abortive attempts of Oku's devoted
-troops to penetrate the Russian centre:--
-
-[Illustration: AFTER SEVEN MONTHS.
-
-The time was now ripe for the simultaneous advance of the three
-Japanese armies, and while Oku and Nodzu attacked the Russians at
-Anshanchan, and forced them to retire, Kuroki drove the Russians out of
-Anping. The great battle of Liaoyang began on August 29, and continued
-until September 1, when Kuroki, having crossed the Taitse-Ho,
-threatened the Russian left flank, and forced them to retreat. On
-September 6 the Japanese occupied the Yentai Mines. The army besieging
-Port Arthur captured the Laotishan and Sushiyen Hills on August 15, and
-on the 28th took Palungshan.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-"In spite of the failure of this first attack, another was ordered to
-begin at two on the following morning (August 30th). The cold grey
-morning witnessed another scene of slaughter on the Russian right as
-the defenders again hurled the attack back. The Japanese attacked with
-valor and deserved success, but the enfilading fire on every salient
-swept each rush away before the men could even lay hands on the
-entanglements. But the 5th Division had more success against the
-Russian left. The position here was composed of a brush-covered
-hogsback, sloping to the east, defended by a triple line of trenches
-with a glacis protected by a 10 foot entanglement covering a honeycomb
-of pits containing spikes at the bottom. In the semi-darkness of the
-morning the 41st Regiment carried this underfeature after losing
-seventy-five of the one hundred pioneers who hacked their way through
-the entanglement with axes. The men, rushing through the gap,
-overpowered the sentries in the trenches before the supports, sleeping
-in splinter proofs behind, could reinforce them. But daybreak brought a
-tragedy of the kind which is so common in modern war. Shell fire,
-believed to be from Japanese guns, drove this gallant storming party
-from its hold, filling the Russian trenches with Japanese dead. But now
-for the fighting on the 31st. The weather was now fine, and the energy
-of this southern attack all the morning was concentrated in an
-artillery fire on the bushy hill that had been won and lost. At 10
-o'clock we could see the 5th Division moving up against the Russian
-left. There is a moment of intense excitement while the summit of the
-Russian position is like a miniature Mount Pelée in eruption owing to
-the bursting of dozens of Shimoshi shells. The head of the assault is
-in the gap in the entanglement. The artillery is supporting the
-assault. Three or four ground mines explode in the midst of the leading
-assaulting groups. Then as the smoke clears the black-coated Russians
-are seen leaving the position. In a moment the Japanese are in, and the
-whole of the lines in support on the crest are firing down the slope
-into the retreating Russians. But one swallow does not make a summer.
-Although the underfeature of the bushy hill was carried, the rest of
-the assault failed miserably. No Japanese could live within 500 yards
-of the bastion hill, and though the Japanese came out of the corn until
-the groups were so numerous that I can liken them only to swarming
-bees, it was only to be swept backwards into cover again, leaving
-behind the heavy price of their valor."
-
-[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE "RESHITELNI" AT CHIFU.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XI.
-
-  The Opposing Armies in Manchuria--The Russian
-    Advance--Reinforcements for Both Sides--Battle of the
-    Sha-ho--Two Hundred Hours of Carnage--Awful List of
-    Casualties--Threat and Counterthreat--The Veil Lifted from Port
-    Arthur--Capture of Forts--Devices of the Besiegers--The
-    Undaunted Stoessel--The Gallant Podgorsky--World-Wide
-    Admiration--Uncertain News.
-
-
-[Sidenote: The Opposing Armies in Manchuria]
-
-The great battle of Liao-yang was fought in the last week of August and
-the first week of September; and for nearly five weeks after that
-tremendous struggle the opposing armies remained inactive, or rather
-gathered up their exhausted strength for the next desperate encounter.
-The Japanese had advanced as far as Yentai, a station about one-third
-of the distance--40 miles or so--that separates Liao-yang from Mukden.
-The position was valuable as giving the command of the Yentai coal
-mines--a most important acquisition to any general with a long line of
-railway communication to maintain. The Japanese entrenched themselves
-along a front of some 25 miles, stretching from Yentai on the railway
-to Pensihu, a village in the hilly country which lies north and south
-between the two rivers Taitse and Hun. There they settled down to
-replenishing the exhausted supplies, refilling the depleted ranks, and
-reorganizing the dislocated commands. Above all did they make speed to
-reconstruct the railway behind them, a work which had diligently been
-carried on _pari passu_ with the advance. Early in October through
-trains of the new 3 ft. 6 in. gauge were running from Dalny to Yentai,
-and thus the fighting-line was brought within an easy six days' journey
-of Japan. The Russians, on the other hand, in spite of the completion
-of the Circum-Baikal railway towards the end of September, were still
-from three to five times as distant from their prime base; for if the
-express time from Mukden to Moscow was sixteen days, the ordinary troop
-train's time was much nearer thirty days. In this all-important matter
-of rapidity of communication the Japanese possessed an advantage
-inherent to the situation and of the profoundest strategical influence.
-While they were recuperating thus at Yentai, the Russians were busy
-entrenching themselves behind the Hun-ho, the course of which from
-Mukden follows a line, roughly speaking, due east. At first it was
-asserted by those in the confidence of the Russian General Staff, that
-no determined stand would be made at the Hun-ho, and that Kuropatkin
-would only hold the enemy there until the defences at Tieling were
-completed. But as the days passed, and the Japanese showed no
-disposition to renew their advance, and as reinforcements continued to
-pour over the Siberian railway, counsels were modified. In the last
-week of September General Stackelberg, attending a banquet at Mukden,
-proposed the toast "To the March on Liao-yang"; and this startling
-suggestion of a new development in the Russian plan of campaign was
-speedily confirmed by a remarkable manifesto to his troops which
-General Kuropatkin issued on the 2nd of October. After the usual
-high-flown exordium, in which "the arrogant foe" was described as
-having suffered repeated repulse--a rather daring travesty of the
-facts--Kuropatkin explained that he had not thought the time ripe "to
-take advantage of these successes; but", he added, "the time of retreat
-was now at an end. Hitherto the enemy in operating has relied on his
-great forces and, disposing his armies so as to surround us, has chosen
-as he deemed fit his time for attack; but now the moment to go and meet
-the enemy, for which the whole army has been longing, has come, and the
-time has arrived for us to compel the Japanese to do our will, for the
-forces of the Manchurian army are strong enough to begin the forward
-movement. Bear in mind the importance of victory to Russia, and, above
-all, remember how necessary victory is the more speedily to relieve our
-brothers at Port Arthur, who for seven months have heroically
-maintained the defence of the fortress entrusted to their care."
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Advance]
-
-The world was naturally startled by such a pronouncement--so much
-easier to explain than to justify; but the Russians and their friends
-in France were overjoyed, believing that the time of their tribulation
-was at last over. The Muscovite nature has during this war shown an
-unrivalled capacity for self-deception; and not only the General Staff,
-but Kuropatkin himself seem to have persuaded themselves that the enemy
-had been unable to get over the shock of Liao-yang. The perfectly
-natural delay of the Japanese in advancing was attributed to the
-discouragement caused by the enormous losses sustained in the last
-battle and to inability to make these losses good. There were other
-influences at work, as Kuropatkin's address shows. "The importance of
-victory to Russia", and the necessity of relieving "our brothers in
-Port Arthur", were circumstances that evidently dominated Russian
-counsels; and in Kuropatkin's mind there was probably another
-consideration of a personal nature. After Liao-yang the Czar had
-ordered the formation of a Second Manchurian Army under a separate
-command, on the ground that the active direction in the field of such
-enormous forces as these two armies would represent would be beyond the
-capacity of any one man. General Gripenberg, a tried old soldier, was
-appointed to command the Second Army, and there was talk of sending out
-a Grand Duke to take the supreme direction of the campaign. This would
-have meant in degree the suppression of General Kuropatkin, and that
-capable soldier may well have looked with dissatisfaction on such a
-reward for his signal services. He may have argued with himself that if
-he could only achieve a decisive victory at this moment his prestige
-would be restored and his paramountcy assured; and, according to the
-information which had reached him, that victory was within his grasp.
-But, unfortunately, that information was wholly erroneous. Far from
-being dispirited and exhausted, the Japanese forces were on the very
-point of advancing to the attack again when Kuropatkin formed his
-momentous resolution and issued orders for "the march to Liao-yang". If
-his movement was hailed with almost delirious enthusiasm in St.
-Petersburg, it was observed with hardly less satisfaction at Tokio,
-where it was at once recognized that the enemy were obligingly
-releasing Marshal Oyama from the necessity of a long march and another
-attack on fortified positions.
-
-[Sidenote: Reinforcements for Both Sides]
-
-By this time Kuropatkin's forces--thanks to the completion of the
-Circum-Baikal railway--had reached 250,000, with more than 800 guns.
-The Japanese strength, after reinforcements both from Japan and from
-the army investing Port Arthur, cannot have been much less; though at
-the close of the battle which was about to be fought Marshal Oyama
-asserted that at all points his victorious troops had been outnumbered.
-However that may be, the Japanese had the advantage of a prepared
-position, the key of which was in rugged mountainous country. Unlike
-the battle of Liao-yang, of which minute details have already been
-furnished, the battle of Yentai, as it was first called, or of Sha-ho,
-as it came to be known afterwards, can only be followed in its broad
-outline, mainly because the maps available are utterly inadequate. The
-place-names which mark the direction of the operations in one official
-report rarely agree with those in the other official report, and can
-only be vaguely identified. But a rough sketch-map is at least
-sufficient to give the general bearings of the operations. The Japanese
-front extended in a horseshoe formation from Yentai, on the railway, to
-Pensihu, on the Taitse River, with Oku on the left, Nodzu in the
-centre, and Kuroki on the right. The plan of Kuropatkin--a plan which
-in the light of after events we know to have been beyond the
-possibility of achievement--was to attack the right wing of the
-Japanese army under Kuroki, and roll it back upon Liao-yang, while the
-Japanese left and centre were held in front; then to shut up Oyama and
-his troops in Liao-yang, much as Sir George White was shut up in
-Ladysmith, while a rapid march southwards was made to the relief of
-Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of the Sha-ho]
-
-On the 5th October the Russian advance began on both sides of the
-railway from Mukden, and from Fushan against the Japanese right. The
-flank movement, on the success of which all Kuropatkin's schemes were
-based, was entrusted to Stackelberg and Rennenkampf--Stackelberg
-attacking from the north, and Rennenkampf with his Cossacks, working
-round from the northeast. On Sunday, the 9th October, the first contact
-between the opposing armies was made, and Stackelberg--much to his own
-surprise--was able to occupy Bentsiaputse, a place north of the Yentai
-coalmines, commanding the main roads to Fushan, Mukden, and Liao-yang.
-It had been expected that the Japanese would make a desperate stand
-here, but they retreated after offering only a feeble resistance.
-Meanwhile, Rennenkampf fiercely assailed Kuroki's extreme right at
-Pensihu, while a force of Cossacks some 3,000 strong daringly crossed
-the Taitse River and severed Kuroki's communications in the rear. Up to
-this moment everything had seemed to go well with the Russian plan of
-attack. Several important positions east of Pensihu were taken by
-assault, and Kuroki's situation seemed critical for the moment. But
-Marshal Oyama appears never to have doubted the ability of his
-well-tried lieutenant to hold his own, and no sooner had the whole
-scheme of his enemy been developed than he decided to counter it with a
-vigorous offensive. Kuroki was reinforced on the 10th, while a force of
-cavalry detached to operate against the Cossacks south of the Taitse-ho
-succeeded in driving the enemy off and in restoring the interrupted
-communications. As soon as the reinforcements reached Kuroki at Pensihu
-he put the possibility of his being "rolled up" beyond all doubt by
-fiercely assailing Stackelberg and recapturing the positions which had
-temporarily fallen into Russian hands. Thereafter he remained
-completely master of the situation, and the desperate but futile
-assaults which he sustained in the next few days only resulted in a
-tremendous casualty list for the enemy--a list totalling at least
-20,000. The decisive repulse of the Russian flanking movement involved
-the frustration of the whole of Kuropatkin's plans in advancing from
-the Hun-ho. But the battle had only just begun yet, for the Russian
-right and centre, which had begun their southward march with such
-confidence, now found their _role_ changed from attack to defence; and
-instead of the Japanese being, according to program, forced back upon
-Liao-yang, it became a question whether the Russians would be able to
-make good their retreat on Mukden. General Oku, advancing along the
-railway to the west, after two days' hard fighting drove back
-Kuropatkin's right to the line of the Shi-li-ho; while General Nodzu on
-the east of the railway was equally successful, and signalized his
-victory by a considerable capture of guns. Oyama's object now was to
-drive his enemy eastwards from the railway and back upon the Hun-ho,
-when it would be impossible for him to escape disaster. For some days
-this tremendous issue hung in the balance, and the Japanese forces were
-within an ace of accomplishing their purpose. But thanks to the dogged
-tenacity of the Russian troops, and thanks still more to the terribly
-wasting and exhausting effect of a week's continuous fighting, the
-impetus of the Japanese attack was not quite sufficient to complete the
-promised triumph; and at last the two great armies came to a standstill
-some ten miles south of Mukden, incapable of further action.
-
-[Sidenote: Two Hundred Hours of Carnage]
-
-From the 9th October to the 17th the relentless struggle raged along
-this wide front of more than 20 miles. Day and night the devoted troops
-on either side flung themselves with reckless bravery on the positions
-of their foes; while from nearly 2,000 guns an incessant storm of
-shrapnel and shell burst over the contested ground. Liao-yang had been
-terrible enough; but from all accounts the artillery duel at the battle
-of Sha-ho even eclipsed the terrific incidents of the earlier
-engagements. On the 13th the Russian retreat became general, and Oku,
-capturing twenty-five Russian guns, succeeded in driving the troops
-opposed to him back from the line of the Shi-li-ho to the Sha-ho, where
-behind defences which the forethought of Kuropatkin had provided, they
-prepared to make their last desperate stand. The forces before Kuroki
-had retreated towards Fushan in a northeasterly direction; and those
-before Nodzu in the centre, after suffering losses almost as heavy as
-Stackelberg's columns had sustained, fell back in something approaching
-to disorder on the line of the Sha-ho. The position of Kuropatkin's
-army was now exceedingly critical, and it was not without cause that he
-issued a general order that the ground occupied must be held at all
-costs. It is evident that to make good the retreat Stackelberg's troops
-on the extreme east, which were far in advance of the rest of the
-Russian line, must be withdrawn first, and that the central army under
-Zarubaieff, which again was far in advance of the right wing, must be
-drawn back next; and that during these perilous operations General
-Bilderling, who commanded the Russian right resting behind the Sha-ho,
-must stand firm. By the skin of his teeth, almost, Bilderling just
-managed to hold his ground. On the 13th Oku's impetuous assault upon
-the Russian lines succeeded so far as to break the Russian centre. Had
-that advantage been maintained nothing could have saved the Russian
-army. But by a tremendous effort the last reserves were brought up and
-recaptured the ground that had been lost. For thirty-six hours the
-battle raged with varying fortune at this critical point; but the
-Russians held on, and these thirty-six priceless hours being gained,
-the Russian centre and left were saved. On the 14th, five days after
-the battle had begun, a deluge of rain fell--a deluge precipitated, as
-at Liao-yang, by the heavy and incessant firing--and the already
-sorely-tried troops of Oku found their further movements grievously
-impeded. For several days more, however, the contest on the Sha-ho
-raged with unabated fury. Again and again the Russians made fierce
-counter-attacks on the Japanese, sustaining terrible losses in
-consequence. One position--a dominant elevation on the south bank of
-the Sha-ho, known as Lonely-Tree Hill--was the scene of long-continued
-and desperate fighting, in which both armies alternately captured and
-were driven from the vantage ground. It was here that the one
-substantial success of the Russian arms was achieved in the capture of
-twelve Japanese guns. During Sunday, the 16th of October the Russians
-had delivered no less than seven counter-attacks on Oku's troops, and
-all of them had been beaten back with loss. In these engagements a
-conspicuous part had been played by a force under Brigadier-General
-Yamada, made up of troops from Nodzu's and Oku's commands, which
-succeeded in penetrating the Russian line and in capturing two guns.
-But in returning to camp after this exploit, Yamada's force had
-ventured too far and was enveloped by a Russian division, and was only
-able to win through by the sacrifice of its guns, after a fierce
-hand-to-hand encounter in which the casualties were nearly 1,000.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE OUTPOSTS RELIEVING GUARD NEAR THE SHA-HO.]
-
-Slowly, reluctantly, after fitful recrudescences, the great battle wore
-itself out, and by the 20th October the two armies were left facing
-each other on either side of the Sha-ho--a line 15 miles north of that
-which the Japanese had occupied before the engagement began. The net
-result, therefore, was a decided gain of ground for the Japanese, and
-the infliction of losses greater than had been sustained in any
-previous battle on the Russian army. Telegraphing to Tokio on the 15th,
-Marshal Oyama thus summed up the results of the fighting as far as it
-had gone--a summary which further events did not alter:--
-
-"As a sequel to a fight lasting continuously for five days, we have
-driven back the superior forces of the enemy at every point, pursuing
-him and forcing him to the south bank of the Hun. We have inflicted
-heavy losses, and captured over thirty guns and hundreds of prisoners.
-We have defeated his plans and converted an offensive operation into a
-radical failure."
-
-[Sidenote: Awful List of Casualties]
-
-"Radical failure" in war means far more than defeated plans. It carries
-with it an awful and immediate penalty levied in killed and wounded,
-and when the tale of losses came to be counted it was found to exceed
-even the most pessimistic anticipations. The Russian dead left on the
-field alone numbered no less than 13,333; and as the wounded, at the
-lowest estimate, cannot have been less than four to one, it is apparent
-that the total casualties suffered by General Kuropatkin's troops must
-have been between 60,000 and 70,000. An index to the severity of the
-fighting is afforded by an analysis of these returns, which shows that
-more than 5,000 Russian dead were found before both Oku's army and
-Kuroki's. Even the Russian General Staff, which has shown a decided
-tendency to minimize losses, did not venture to place those sustained
-at Sha-ho at less than 45,000 rank and file and 800 officers. The total
-Japanese losses, on the other hand, though heavy, were but a fraction
-of their foe's. Oyama placing them at 15,879. But the loss in life was
-not the only disastrous result of the battle for the army of the Czar.
-The Japanese captured 709 prisoners and 45 guns, with large quantities
-of arms and ammunition; and against these captures are to be set the
-twelve guns lost at Lonely-Tree Hill, rechristened by the Russians
-Putiloff Hill in honor of the officer who achieved the success, and who
-was immediately decorated by the Czar. In one sense the battle of the
-Sha-ho may be regarded as indecisive, in that it left the two
-contending armies again at a deadlock. At Liao-yang the strategy of
-both generals had failed, and in a less degree the same result was
-reached at Sha-ho; for Oyama's initial success could not be followed up
-to its legitimate and triumphant conclusion. But, on the other hand,
-Kuropatkin's effort to march to Liao-yang and make a diversion in favor
-of Port Arthur had signally failed; and the army which he had
-ostentatiously declared to be strong enough to take the offensive and
-had been hurled back by "the arrogant foe," who were at last to be
-"compelled to do the Russian will." It was in that circumstance that
-the real measure of the Japanese victory was to be found--that after
-eight months of war the armies of the Czar were still unequal to the
-task committed to them. Had Kuropatkin been even in a measure
-successful in this, his first great offensive movement, the moral
-effect could not have failed to be incalculable. As it was, it
-inflicted one more discouragement on troops that had experienced
-nothing but retreats and reverses from the opening of the campaign. The
-temper in which the Japanese accepted the new laurels which their army
-had won was eminently characteristic of a nation which has, in spite of
-all temptations to vainglory and exultation, comforted itself with
-perfect sobriety and self-restraint. The Mikado issued a rescript to
-his people, the terms of which are worth giving, if only for the
-contrast which they offer to some of the addresses issued from St.
-Petersburg and the headquarters of Alexeieff:--
-
-"Since the outbreak of the war our army and our navy have demonstrated
-their bravery and loyalty, while both officials and people have acted
-in unison to support the cause. So far, success has attended our cause,
-but, the ultimate accomplishment being yet far distant, it is necessary
-to be patient and steadfast in the pursuance of our action, and thus
-aim at the final accomplishment of our purpose."
-
-[Sidenote: Threat and Counterthreat]
-
-Another and even more striking testimony to the inflexible
-determination of the Japanese people was supplied by the Army rescript
-issued at the end of September in connection with the expansion of the
-Japanese military system. The Government of the Czar had demonstrated
-its intention to prosecute the war unflinchingly by the creation of a
-second Manchurian Army. Japan's answer to this menace was to extend the
-period of service with the colors in the Japanese army from nine to
-fourteen years, by which act the available reserves for the army in
-Manchuria were increased at a stroke by nearly half a million men. But
-though Japan could answer promptly and adequately the steps which her
-foe had taken to strengthen his armies in the field, it was not so easy
-to recompense herself for the elimination of a source of weakness in
-her enemy's counsels. Admiral Alexeieff, whose fatal influence had been
-as valuable as several battleships and army corps to the Japanese, was
-finally recalled to St. Petersburg at the end of October. On the 26th
-of that month the Viceroy issued an address to the troops, announcing,
-in his usually inflated style, that on his own request he had been
-relieved of the duties of Commander-in-Chief, while being retained in
-the office of Viceroy and assured of the continuance of the Imperial
-confidence and favor. In less than a week from the issue of that
-manifesto, it was announced that Alexeieff and his staff were on the
-way to St. Petersburg by express train, and that there was no
-probability of their return, while Kuropatkin was left in supreme
-command.
-
-[Sidenote: The Veil Lifted from Port Arthur]
-
-No sooner had the echoes of the great battle of the Sha-ho died down
-than the attention of the world was turned again to Port Arthur, where
-the long and desperate siege was continuing with undiminished
-determination on the part of the attack and invincible heroism on the
-part of the defence. For months together little authentic news of the
-progress of events had been allowed to leak out; but suddenly, in the
-beginning of November, the Japanese censor removed his restrictions,
-and a vivid and circumstantial narrative of the operations was allowed
-to come through. By the end of June the Japanese forces of investment
-had occupied a line across the Kwang-tung Peninsula running from
-Ingentsi Bay, on the north, southeastwards to a point on the south
-coast-line some ten miles east of Dalny. After another month's diligent
-assault they had advanced the line nearly five miles--from
-Vostikorablei Bay on the north to Takhe Bay on the south. Another
-advance in the beginning of August brought the extreme right of their
-line down to Louisa Bay on the west, and roughly round in a semicircle
-to Takhe Bay, confronting the main line of the formidable Russian
-defences. The great assault of the 28th August was, on the whole,
-unsuccessful, and achieved nothing on the east. But on the west the
-line of investment was drawn still further south until it rested on
-Pigeon Bay. It is now necessary to understand more exactly the nature
-of the task with which the Japanese army of investment was confronted.
-Port Arthur lies in a sort of amphitheatre formed by ranges of hills
-varying in height from 1,300 feet to 1,500 feet. These hills sweep
-round from Golden Hill--the promontory which on the east commands the
-entrance to the harbor--northwards for a distance of nearly three
-miles. Then, where the railway line and road pass through them, they
-turn westwards and southwards, extending down the toe of the Kwang-tung
-promontory to a point parallel with the base of the Tiger's Tail; while
-further south still is the formidable Liao-tie-shan range, some 1,500
-feet high. On all these hills the Russians had constructed huge
-fortifications strengthened with every device which the military
-engineer's art could suggest, and armed with the most powerful
-artillery. It is true that some of the correspondents who paid hurried
-visits to the great naval fortress before the actual outbreak of
-hostilities were inclined to belittle the strength of the defences.
-Thus Mr. Bennet Burleigh, of the London _Telegraph_, in a most
-interesting account expressed his belief that the Russian stronghold
-was over-fortified, and that it would be possible for those who
-captured outlying defence to command the inner forts. On the other
-hand, it must be remembered that the most skilful engineers in the
-world had been employed by the Russians in the construction of the
-forts, and the fact that such a magnificent and substantial resistance
-was offered to ten times the number of soldiers as cleared out the
-Chinese in a few days, proves that the soundest military principles
-were adhered to. The main positions were defended by advanced works
-surrounded by deep moats, in which were built bombproof defences,
-roofed with steel plates, and by fanfasses, or mines filled with huge
-stones, which could be exploded by the pressure of an electric button.
-The approaches were rendered almost inaccessible by barbed-wire
-entanglements, pits planted with sharpened stakes, and by transverse
-works and trenches which commanded with an enfilading fire every
-possible line of advance. The broad scheme of the fortifications may be
-easily grasped. Fronting Takhe Bay on the east is the Petushan group of
-forts, with the Keekwan-Urlong forts commanding the approaches from the
-north and the northeast, and preventing the Petushan forts from being
-taken in reverse. West of these forts and on the other side of the
-parade-ground and railway are the Antszshan and the Etseshan forts,
-which prevent any attack from the northwest, while a chain of forts
-from Antszshan to Sunghslwo, running southeastwards down to the inner
-harbor, command the parade-ground and railway line. Another line of
-forts stretches due south from Etseshan to White Wolf Hill on the west
-side of the west port, while yet another series of heavy fortifications
-surmounts the high ground along the Tiger's Tail. Well might the
-Russians boast that their fortress was impregnable, for if any place of
-arms could be justly so described, Nature and military ingenuity had
-combined to earn that title for Port Arthur. At the outset of the
-investment, Port Arthur's garrison numbered, all told, some 35,000 men.
-It was made up of the 3rd, 4th and 7th East Siberian Rifle Brigades,
-with part of the 6th, and with the East Siberian Rifle Artillery
-Division, and, of course, with the crews of all the men-o'-war lying
-imprisoned in the harbor. The numbers were none too great to man
-adequately the great chain of works behind which Port Arthur's security
-lay; but the troops were of the best quality, and they had the
-invaluable inspiration of such a leader as General Stoessel, with such
-a capable and gallant lieutenant as General Fock. Stoessel, the hero of
-the Russian army in the present war, is descended from an old military
-family. His grandfather was a general in the Swedish army, who
-afterwards settled in Russia. Stoessel himself, who was born in 1848,
-entered the Russian army as a cadet at the age of ten, and received his
-commission eight years later, at the same time, curiously enough, as
-Kuropatkin. He served with distinction in the Russo-Turkish War, and
-afterwards held important commands in Siberia, while since 1899 he had
-been stationed at Port Arthur. To the assault and investment of the
-fortress, the Japanese, under Nogi, brought up at first 60,000 men,
-and, as the operations advanced, large reinforcements which not only
-made good the enormous losses sustained, but swelled the fighting
-strength to nearly 100,000 men. This number fluctuated to some extent,
-for at least two divisions were drawn off from the siege to reinforce
-Oyama at the battle of the Sha-ho; but at no time can the total forces
-before Port Arthur have been less than 60,000, and then superiority in
-numbers to the defence gradually increased until from a proportion of
-two to one, it had reached the proportion of six or seven to one. This
-growing disparity, of course, was due to the fact that while the
-Japanese could replenish their exhausted ranks, the Russian garrison
-could not fill the gaps caused by wounds and sickness; while a further
-reduction of at least 5,000 men in the forces at Stoessel's command was
-made by the naval sortie on August 10th. That feat, of course, deprived
-Port Arthur of the services of the crews of all the vessels that
-escaped to neutral ports.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE SCALING FORT AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Capture of Forts]
-
-In the great assault of the 19th-26th August the Japanese lost 14,000
-men, and succeeded only in capturing the Banjushan fort, which is east
-of the Urlungshan forts. General Nogi then settled down to steady siege
-operations, drawing his parallels nearer and nearer to the Russian main
-position, and capturing the all-important Kuropatkin fort early in
-September. This fort, which stands on Division Hill half-way between
-Wolf Hill and the harbor, not only commanded the parade-ground, but
-gave the Japanese the possession of the waterworks from which the
-garrison drew the main water supply. Up to this moment General Nogi's
-heaviest guns had been 4.7 and 6in. pieces of the naval type, and they
-had been quite unequal to the heavy guns of the position mounted in the
-Russian works. But now heavy siege guns and 11in. howitzers arrived
-from Japan, and immediately their effect began to make itself felt, so
-that by the 19th September another assault was resolved on. This was
-directed against three points of the ring of defensive works--against
-the metre-hill forts on the west, and (the outworks, as it were of the
-great Etseshan and Antszshan forts) against the advanced works of
-Urlungshan on the northeast, and against the lunettes in the Shuishi
-Valley which connects the Antszshan and the Urlungshan forts. At this
-last point some of the fiercest fighting of the whole siege took place.
-The Shuishi Valley was defended by a series of strong lunettes
-connected by advance works, within fifty yards of which the Japanese
-had advanced their parallels. On the evening of the 19th September four
-desperate assaults were delivered against the westernmost lunette. All,
-however, were beaten back. At dawn the assault was renewed with greater
-strength, and the western lunette was carried, mainly by the employment
-of dynamite grenades. The Russian garrison were driven out of the
-trenches, losing three quick-firers, four machine guns, and two
-mortars, but inflicting on the victors losses amounting to over 400
-killed and wounded. At the same time a determined assault was made on
-203 Metre Hill and the adjoining ridge by three regiments of the right
-division. The assaulting parties reached the dead ground beneath the
-ridge, but there they were compelled to remain during the night. At
-dawn on the 20th a terrific bombardment on the position began and
-continued till evening; and when the night had fallen the Japanese
-rushed the trenches on the eastern extremity of the crest line after a
-fierce hand-to-hand fight in which not only bayonets but even stones
-were used. But only part of the work had been won. The fort on the
-southwestern slopes of the ridges was still untaken, and though a small
-party of the besiegers penetrated the defences here, they were driven
-out again next day, and four more assaults delivered during the next
-two days proved equally unavailing though terribly costly in life--the
-casualty list at this point alone amounting to 2,000. The defences of
-this advance fort on 203 Metre Hill were typical of the obstacles which
-the Japanese had to overcome in the prosecution of their assaults. The
-bomb-proofs connecting the network of trenches which seared the slopes
-of the hill were made of steel plates covered with earth, and a triple
-row of wire entanglements made the ground in front of the trenches
-impassable. In the operations from the 19th to the 26th September the
-Japanese lost more than 4,000 killed and wounded. In the assault at the
-same time on the advanced works of Urlungshan the parallels of the
-Japanese had been carried to within fifty yards of the defences, but
-the assault still proved a costly business. Again and again the
-assaulting rushes were swept back by rifle and machine-gun fire; but
-the indomitable spirit of the Mikado's troops at length prevailed, and
-the redoubt was carried at the point of the bayonet. The position thus
-gained in front of Urlungshan enabled the Japanese to mount their heavy
-howitzers in such a way as to bombard not only the main forts but the
-harbor with great effect; and in the course of a few days several of
-the warships lying at anchor were severely damaged by the high-angle
-fire. By hard fighting and diligent sapping the investing army now
-continued to make steady progress against the Urlungshan forts which
-lie just east of the road and railway and command their approach to
-Port Arthur. On the 10th October the attack managed to establish itself
-on the crest of the East Urlungshan fort, and on the 16th the
-entrenched hill between Urlungshan and Banjushan, the latter of which
-was already in Japanese hands, was taken by storm. On the 25th October
-the glacis of East Urlungshan was stormed and held in spite of repeated
-counter-attacks on the part of the Russians. In front of these forts on
-the northeastern side the fiercest fighting continued all through the
-latter part of October and the early part of November, the general
-result being that the Japanese saps were brought within less than 300
-yards of the main positions while the fire from the howitzers finally
-silenced the great forts of Urlungshan and Shunshusan. But these
-successes, though considerable, were insufficient to make a really
-serious breach in the main lines of the defence, as long as the great
-forts on the west--Antszshan and Etseshan--held out, and forthwith the
-Japanese attack was diverted to the latter of those two strongholds.
-Meanwhile, the heavy and incessant fire directed on the harbor and the
-town had been most destructive. The naval repairing works had to be
-abandoned, and both the old and the new Chinese towns were rendered
-uninhabitable where their buildings were not razed to the ground or
-consumed by the fires started by the bursting shells.
-
-[Sidenote: Devices of the Besiegers]
-
-For the first time in history a fortress constructed according to the
-latest principles of military science, and defended by modern
-long-range artillery, was being besieged; and like the old walled
-cities of the 17th and 18th centuries, its defences could only be
-overcome by sap and mine and parallel. So much the assailants had
-learnt to their cost in their earlier and futile attempts at taking the
-place by storm. The exigencies of these operations led to the adoption
-of many ingenious devices by the forces on both sides--such, for
-instance, as a steel bullet-proof shield to protect the pioneer engaged
-in cutting wire entanglements; and the deadly grenade charged with
-dynamite, flung into the enemy's trenches by the hand or by means of
-wooden mortars bound with bamboo. At first the Japanese had chosen the
-night time for their assaults, but this plan had to be abandoned owing
-to the effective employment by the Russians of searchlights and star
-shells, the former having the effect not only of exposing the
-assaulting troops to the fire of the defenders, but blinding them in
-their advance on their objective. Throughout the siege the defenders
-had shown not only indomitable courage, but inexhaustible resource, and
-in spite of all the discouragement which the steady and inexorable
-advance of the Japanese might have been supposed to inflict, they
-continued equal to every demand on their fortitude. From time to time
-supplies reached them by means of blockade-runners, but this was but a
-precarious and inadequate means of replenishing the stores on which
-such a long and severe strain had been made. And yet, in spite of all
-rumors to the effect that ammunition was running short, the great guns
-continued to hurl their defiance at the Japanese artillery, and never
-in any single instance was the defence weakened by a failure of powder
-and shot. Though the Russians had failed to foresee many things which
-the course of the war has proved to have been fairly obvious, no one
-can pretend that they failed to equip their great stronghold in the Far
-East in a manner worthy of its claim to rank as "the Gibraltar of the
-East." After nearly six months of close investment and almost
-continuous bombardment, the fortress still held at bay an enemy who had
-proved himself, not only before the defences of Port Arthur, but in
-many a stricken field beside, to possess fighting qualities rarely
-equalled and never surpassed in the world's history of warfare--an
-enemy, too, who possessed every resource of military science, and who
-had studied in the best military schools. The fact that the Japanese,
-who had confidently expected to take Port Arthur before the end of the
-summer had not even by the middle of November made a decisive breach in
-its main defences, speaks volumes for the character of those defences.
-But even the strongest fortifications that human ingenuity can
-construct are only formidable when men of high spirit man them; and the
-chief credit for having baffled so long the most desperate efforts of
-Japanese skill and courage must ever be given to General Stoessel and
-the men who, serving under him, became infected with his spirit and
-inspired by his example. By the middle of November the Japanese lines
-had, indeed, been drawn very close round the devoted citadel of the
-Czar. They were in possession of the eastern ridge, and held
-practically at their mercy that great ring of fortified hills which
-shuts in Port Arthur from the Dalny side. They had cut the main water
-supply of the garrison, and they had possessed themselves of important
-ground to the north of the old town, and their siege guns were able to
-render the dockyards and the harbor untenable for ships of war. To the
-west the advance had been less signal, and their foothold on the great
-ridge which commands the fortress on the western side was at best
-slight and precarious; while not even the faintest impression had been
-made on the great chain of fortifications at Liau-tie-shan, in the
-extreme south corner of the peninsula.
-
-[Sidenote: The Undaunted Stoessel]
-
-Tremendous efforts had been made to achieve the capture of the place by
-the 3rd November, the birthday of the Mikado; but that auspicious day
-passed without the fall of Port Arthur seeming to be in any degree
-nearer, while General Stoessel continued to send cheerful and undaunted
-messages to his Imperial master whenever a boat succeeded in running
-the blockade of the Japanese fleet and in reaching Chifu. Through all
-these protracted and strenuous operations, the losses of the Japanese
-had been very severe; they cannot have been less than 40,000 men, and
-they may have been considerably more. The garrison had suffered less
-severely, but in the absence of reserves their losses were even more
-serious, and by the middle of November the total effective force was
-little more than 10,000 men. It will ever be a mystery how a force so
-utterly inferior to its enemy, defending, a wide perimeter of
-fortifications, every point of which was daily liable to fierce assault
-and bombardment, could for so many weeks endure the awful strain to
-which it was subjected. Yet the indomitable garrison was never
-quiescent or passive in its resistance. Besides repelling assault, it
-engaged in continual sorties and counter-attacks, and often, when
-driven from an essential position succeeded in recapturing it at the
-point of the bayonet. A remarkable instance of this offensive capacity
-was furnished in the course of the great assault from the 19th
-September to the 26th September. In operating from the north against
-the defences of the Shuishi Valley, which lies between Antszshan and
-Urlungshan, the Japanese, after their first success, pressed on against
-High Hill, a position of the most vital importance to the defence, as
-it permitted the principal forts on the west of the town to be taken in
-reverse. As any attempt to retake the hill must be a desperate
-enterprise, General Stoessel refused to issue an order for its
-recapture, but called for volunteers. The requisite number were at once
-forthcoming, and led by Lieutenant Podgorsky, they attacked the
-Japanese with grenades and drove them from the position which they had
-already begun to entrench.
-
-In his dispatch of the 23rd September, this is how General Stoessel
-reports the affair:--
-
-[Sidenote: The Gallant Podgorsky]
-
-"The last assault on High Hill was repulsed to-day at 5 o'clock in the
-morning. The enemy had actually occupied some of the defences of the
-High Hill position and had placed machine-guns in them, which they
-directed against our troops. Lieutenant Podgorsky was dispatched to
-this part of the field by General Kondrachenko with a force of
-chasseurs and engineers, who under the direction of Colonel Irmann
-hurled grenades filled with pyroxiline into the works held by the
-Japanese. These exploded among the enemy, who fled in panic. Captain
-Sytcheff, of the 5th Regiment, pursued the flying foe with chasseurs.
-Colonel Irmann attributes the principal share in the work of compelling
-the enemy to withdraw entirely from High Hill to Lieutenant Podgorsky.
-The Japanese lost over 10,000 men. All our troops distinguished
-themselves. General Kondrachenko, Colonel Irmann, Captain Sytcheff, and
-Lieutenant Podgorsky won special distinction. The troops fought
-heroically, particularly the 5th Regiment. The whole garrison down to
-the last man is resolved to defend Russia's bulwark in the Far East to
-the last drop of blood."
-
-[Sidenote: World-wide Admiration]
-
-But even the greatest heroism cannot achieve the impossible; and in
-spite of Stoessel's persistent optimism, it became evident that his
-powers of resistance were daily diminishing. An attempt on the part of
-the Japanese General to induce the garrison to capitulate in spite of
-their leader, met with no response; but throughout the civilized world,
-whose sympathy and admiration had been deeply stirred by the heroic
-stand of Port Arthur's garrison, voices were lifted to urge that no
-more useless sacrifice of noble life should be permitted; and that the
-men who had done so much for the honor of the Czar should be spared at
-least the last mortal agony of the struggle with the inevitable.
-
-[Sidenote: Uncertain News]
-
-On the 15th, however, a Russian torpedo-boat bearing dispatches from
-Stoessel managed to elude the blockade and to reach Chifu, pursued by
-Japanese destroyers. The boat was warned that it must leave the neutral
-harbor within twenty-four hours or be disarmed, and rather than submit
-to either of these alternatives, the officer in command blew his vessel
-up. But his work had been done; and his dispatches containing the
-latest accounts of the position at Port Arthur reached St. Petersburg.
-Immediately afterwards the report arrived that General Kuropatkin had
-been empowered to treat for terms of capitulation for Port Arthur. But
-whether that was in fact the result of Stoessel's message, or whether
-the Czar's Government received from it encouragement in the belief that
-Port Arthur could hold out till the arrival of the Baltic Fleet, is a
-question which is still unanswered.
-
-[Illustration: THE REMNANT OF A REGIMENT--AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE
-SHA-HO.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-
-  The North Sea Outrage--Seizures of Neutrals--The Case of the
-    "Malacca"--The Baltic Fleet--Departure at Last--Russian
-    Alarms--In the North Sea--Bringing Home the News--Russian
-    Allegations--Naval Preparations--Supplementary Information--The
-    Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar.
-
-
-[Sidenote: The North Sea Outrage]
-
-No sooner had the echoes of the terrific battle of the Sha-ho begun to
-subside than the attention of the civilized world, which had so long
-been concentrated on the vicissitudes of the Titanic struggle in the
-Far East, was suddenly focussed on a spot separated from the theatre of
-war by more than half the circumference of the globe, and on an
-incident fraught, as it seemed, with more direful and tremendous
-consequences even than the momentous rupture between Russia and Japan.
-On the 15th of October, Russia's Baltic Fleet--which for many months
-had been preparing as a reinforcement to the Pacific Squadron--at last
-left port on its voyage to the Far East; and within six days of its
-departure it had so effectually asserted itself as a factor in the
-naval situation that Europe, shocked and startled, woke up one morning
-to find itself hanging on the perilous brink of that Armageddon which
-has been the nightmare of statesmen for the last twenty years. In
-passing through the North Sea, the Russian fleet--for causes which have
-yet to be fully elicited--fired on a flotilla of British fishing-boats
-engaged in trawling on the Dogger Bank; killed and wounded several of
-the fishermen; sunk one of the trawlers, and more or less grievously
-injured others. When the news of this amazing outrage was published a
-storm of indignation and resentment swept over England such as has not
-been known for more than a generation; and feeling was embittered and
-intensified to a truly dangerous pitch, first by the callous
-indifference displayed by the perpetrators of the outrage, and next by
-the indisposition of the Russian Government to offer those immediate
-apologies and amends which alone could palliate so wanton a breach of
-the comity of nations. It seemed for the moment that Russia had
-deliberately designed to provoke England to hostilities, in the hope of
-redeeming her own desperate position by extending the area of the
-conflict and by dragging into it first the ally of Japan, and by
-consequence her own ally, France. The prospect, though almost too
-terrible to contemplate, did not for a moment quench the resolution of
-the people of England, where men of all parties were found standing
-shoulder to shoulder in the demand for ample reparation. What made the
-situation especially dangerous was that public patience had at last
-been well-nigh exhausted by the repeated provocations of
-Russia--provocations which the North Sea outrage was only the crown and
-culmination. To understand this fact, it is necessary to go back a
-little.
-
-[Sidenote: Seizures of Neutrals]
-
-When Russia found that she could not hope successfully to contest the
-supremacy of the sea with Japan, she turned her attention to the
-subsidiary enterprise of commerce-raiding. In this task the
-Vladivostock Squadron were particularly active, and, unsated by the
-destruction of such Japanese transports and trading vessels as they
-encountered, seized or sunk many vessels flying neutral flags. On the
-16th of June the Vladivostock cruisers seized the _Allanton_, a British
-steamer, carrying coal from Hokkaido Island to Singapore. There was
-nothing contraband in the cargo or destination of this vessel, as the
-subsequent decision of the St. Petersburg Prize Court proved, yet the
-_Allanton_ was confiscated, and her crew held prisoners at Vladivostock
-for months. The real reason for this high-handed conduct was that the
-_Allanton_ had previously carried a cargo of coal from Cardiff to
-Japan--but she had been chartered for that voyage before the outbreak
-of war. On the 16th of July the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company's
-steamer, the _Hispang_, was wantonly sunk in Pigeon Bay by a Russian
-torpedo-boat. The _Hispang_ was engaged in a lawful trade; there was no
-suggestion that she carried contraband; and indeed no examination of
-her cargo was even attempted. She was flying the British flag, and she
-stopped directly she was ordered to do so. But in spite of these facts,
-a Russian torpedo-boat came straight out to her and sunk her--the
-captain, officers, and passengers being rescued with difficulty. It was
-afterwards confessed by the Russian officer that did this deed that his
-orders were given under the impression that the _Hispang_ was the
-steamer _Haimum_, which was being employed by the London _Times_'
-correspondent. On the 26th of July an equally gross outrage was
-perpetrated by the Vladivostock Squadron, who, besides unjustifiably
-seizing the _Chalcas_, deliberately sunk on the 23rd of July the
-British steamer _Knight Commander_. This vessel was carrying rails for
-Japan; and even if such a cargo could be regarded as contraband, there
-was no excuse for sinking the vessel. Such an act, in the words of Mr.
-Balfour and Lord Lansdowne, constituted "a grave breach of
-international law"; and it was aggravated by the circumstances in which
-it was committed. The captain and crew were ordered to get clear of the
-vessel in ten minutes, and such was the haste with which they were
-compelled to leave the boats in order to save their lives, that nearly
-all the personal effects had to be sacrificed. The growing irritation
-with these acts was brought to a head in England by the famous case of
-the _Malacca_--a P. and O. mail steamship which was seized by Russian
-cruisers in the Red Sea on the 19th July. At the beginning of June two
-vessels of the Russian Volunteer Fleet in the Black Sea--the
-_Petersburg_ and the _Smolensk_--were "designated for Government
-service outside the Black Sea." Even their commanders were kept in the
-dark as to their destination and the nature of the service that they
-were to perform. The two vessels, which, as warships, would not by
-international treaty have been able to leave the Black Sea, passed
-through the Dardanelles under the commercial flag, and then steered
-straight to the Suez Canal, where the non-belligerent character was
-still maintained. But it seems that on reaching Constantinople the
-commanders had been informed that their ships had been raised to the
-rank of second-class cruisers in the Russian fleet; and no sooner had
-the Red Sea been reached than the _Petersburg_ and the _Smolensk_ put
-off their commercial disguise and put on the character of ships of war.
-They flew the naval flag, and mounted the armament of 5in.
-quick-firers, which had been up to that moment securely stowed away.
-The Government service for which they had been designated was that of
-searching for contraband on neutral vessels, and the _soi-disant_
-cruisers lost no time in demonstrating their zeal. All this time, by
-the way, the Russian Admiralty was strenuously denying that the
-_Petersburg_ and the _Smolensk_ had left the Black Sea at all. On the
-15th July the commerce-raiders began operations, rather tactlessly, by
-stopping and seizing the German mail steamer, _Prinz Heinrich_, and by
-confiscating the Japanese mails. The indignation and astonishment of
-the German public had only begun to make itself heard, when it was
-distracted by the intelligence that the P. and O. steamer _Malacca_ had
-also been stopped, and had been actually brought back to Suez in charge
-of a Russian prize crew. The vessel, flying the Russian flag, reached
-Suez on the 19th July, and on the 20th the English Government, moved
-thereto by the clamor which began to be heard both in Parliament and in
-the press, addressed to the Government of the Czar a strongly-worded
-protest against the seizure and a demand that the _Malacca_ should be
-instantly released. The demand was based on the irregular position of
-the _Petersburg_--a vessel which, if a ship of war, ought not to have
-passed the Dardanelles, and which, if not a ship of war, had no right
-to stop and search neutral vessels. This contention was unanswerable;
-for it is evident that if a ship could be permitted to change its
-character at will, it could perform all the functions of a ship of war
-and still enjoy all the privileges of a non-belligerent at neutral
-ports.
-
-[Sidenote: Case of the "Malacca"]
-
-Incidentally it was pointed out in Lord Lansdowne's dispatch that the
-ammunition found on board the _Malacca_ belonged to the British
-Government, and was intended for the China Squadron. It subsequently
-came to light that the seizure of the _Malacca_ was no mere accident;
-but that the vessel had been waited for by the Russian cruisers acting
-on secret information from Russian agents at Antwerp. For several days
-no reply was vouchsafed by the Russian Government, and feeling in this
-country rose to such a height that the situation became dangerous.
-While the whole British nation was chafing under the indignity and
-affront, the _Malacca_ was being navigated by her prize crew, with
-almost deliberate insolence, through the Suez Canal on the way to the
-Baltic port of Libau. A British liner, in the eyes of the whole world,
-was made an ignominious captive, and, like a pickpocket in the clutch
-of a police-constable, was dragged away to judgment. The humiliation of
-the situation was aggravated by the fact that at Suez--a port of the
-English Protectorate of Egypt--the Russian officer in charge of the
-_Malacca_ demanded to be supplied with coal, water, and provisions. In
-spite of the strong representations which had been made by the British
-Government, nothing was done at St. Petersburg to alleviate the
-situation. The _Malacca_ reached Suez on the 19th of July and Port Said
-on the 20th, and on the 21st she sailed unconcernedly for her
-destination, which was ostentatiously announced to be Libau. Then at
-last the Russian Government broke the silence. Having inflicted the
-greatest possible humiliation on this country, they were pleased to
-accept the assurances of the British Government that the prize had no
-contraband on board, and to consent that the _Malacca_ should not be
-brought before a Prize Court. A claim for damages for detention was to
-be admitted, and the vessel was to be handed over to the British
-authorities at "some Mediterranean port," after formal examination in
-the presence of the British Consul. On the 27th July the terms of this
-agreement--so extravagantly indulgent to Russia--were carried out, and
-the incident of the _Malacca_ closed; but there remained still
-unsettled the fundamental question of the status of the volunteer
-cruisers, _Smolensk_ and _Petersburg_. Meanwhile, for the German liner
-_Scandia_, which had been seized on the 23rd July, very different
-treatment was reserved--she was released on the following day. The only
-public recognition of the protests of the British Government which was
-given by the Government of the Czar was the publication on the 3rd
-August of an official communication declaring that "the special
-commission" of the cruisers _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ had "expired;"
-and these vessels promptly disappeared from the Red Sea. But their
-mischievous career was not yet at an end. Although the Russian
-Government had specifically promised that they should not be employed
-in searching neutral shipping any longer, the world was startled at the
-end of August to learn that the British steamer _Comedian_ had been
-stopped 80 miles from East London and 10 miles only from the coast of
-British territory by a mysterious Russian cruiser. The unpleasant
-impression in England was deepened when it was discovered that this
-strange cruiser was no other than the _Smolensk_ of Red Sea fame. Well
-might Mr. Balfour, who received at this moment a deputation of British
-shipowners, declare that the incident had produced "a painful
-impression" in the minds of the English Government. Representations to
-the Russian Government produced the characteristic excuse that the
-messages sent to the _Smolensk_ and _Petersburg_ had not reached their
-destination. There is, indeed, good reason to believe that the Russian
-Admiralty, which had done its best to thwart the Russian Foreign
-Office, had taken particularly good care that the messages should be
-delayed until the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ were out of reach. But
-realizing the gravity of the situation, and protesting their own
-helplessness, the Russian Government now invited the British Government
-itself to communicate to the raiders a cypher message of recall.
-Accordingly the cruisers on the Cape Station were sent out to find the
-delinquents; and on the 5th September they were discovered coaling in
-the territorial waters of Zanzibar with German colliers in attendance.
-Their whereabout was at any rate sufficiently well known for them to
-command the means to replenish their bunkers, and as soon as they saw a
-British warship, they prepared for instant flight. But H.M.S. _Forte_
-managed to communicate to them the orders of their own Government, and
-as these were too unequivocal to be disregarded, the raiding career of
-the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ forthwith came to an end. But they had
-done enough, in conjunction with the Vladivostock Squadron, to rouse
-feeling in England to a high pitch of irritation; and to make it
-ill-prepared to endure with patience or forbearance the greater and
-still more wanton outrage with which the Baltic Fleet was to inaugurate
-its voyage to the Far East.
-
-[Sidenote: The Baltic Fleet]
-
-The dispatch of this fleet had been the feverish pre-occupation of the
-Russian Admiralty from the moment that the first disasters befell the
-Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur. Naval reinforcements were on the way,
-it will be remembered, at the outbreak of war, and had reached the Red
-Sea; but they were recalled when the news of the successful torpedo
-attack on the Port Arthur Fleet reached Europe. It was realized how
-vital must be the command of the sea to the achievement of victory; and
-Russia at once set about preparing an Armada which should restore to
-her the naval preponderance so suddenly lost. At first the intention,
-which was so loudly proclaimed, was not taken quite seriously; but it
-was decidedly encouraged as the weeks went on and as the resisting
-power of Port Arthur to assault gave hopes that the new fleet might
-still find a warm-water port to receive it. At first the departure of
-the Baltic Fleet was announced for June; though everyone knew the
-design, only formed perhaps to reassure public opinion in Russia, was
-incapable of fulfilment. Then June came, and the date of departure was
-again postponed; and in July the world was informed that there was "no
-hurry;" and that it had been thought advisable to "test thoroughly" the
-new ships and to familiarize the officers and crews with their work.
-All through the summer the game of fixing the day of departure and then
-postponing it went merrily on; but on the 15th August Admiral
-Rozhestvensky, on whom supreme command of the fleet had been bestowed,
-went on board the flagship with his staff; and received from the Port
-Admiral at Kronstadt by signal a formal message of farewell. But
-nothing more happened, except that on the 20th August it was announced
-that the Baltic Fleet would not leave before the 28th September.
-
-[Illustration: HUGE SIEGE GUNS BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Departure at Last]
-
-On the 26th August the fleet went for a trial trip with the most
-discouraging results, for several of the new ships broke down and the
-battleship _Orel_ ran aground, inflicting structural injuries on
-herself. Early in September there was another false alarm. Danish
-pilots had been procured, and on the 11th September the fleet again put
-to sea; but it only got as far as the port of Libau, and the next news
-was that it would remain there "some weeks longer" for firing practice
-and manoeuvres. The next definite date fixed was the 7th October; but
-two days later than that the fleet had only got as far as Reval, where
-it was inspected and blessed by the Czar in person. On the 15th
-October, however, the long delay at last came to an end, and the fleet,
-consisting of thirty-six vessels, actually left Russian waters.
-
-It is necessary now to describe the fleet in which Russia had placed so
-many of her hopes. The class and character of the principal vessels is
-best realized from a table:--
-
-                       Displace- Indic'd  Nom'l      Gun      W'ght of
-                        ment in  horse-  speed in  Protec'n  b'side fire
-     BATTLESHIPS.        tons.   power.   knots.  in inches.   in lbs.
-
-     Kniaz Suvaroff
-       (flagship)       13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Alexander III      13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Borodino           13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Orel               13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Ossliabia          12,674   14,500     18       10.5       2,672
-     Sissoi Veliky
-       (flagship)        8,880   10,400     16       12.5       3,186
-     Navarin             9,476   18,206     16       12.5       3,404
-
-                       Displace- Indic'd  Nom'l      Gun      W'ght of
-                        ment in  horse-  speed in  Protec'n  b'side fire
-                         tons.   power.   knots.  in inches.   in lbs.
-
-     ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-     Admiral Nakhimoff   8,500    9,000    16.7       6          944
-     Dmitri Donskoi      5,893    7,000     16       6.2         444
-
-     PROTECTED
-
-     Oleg                6,675   19,500     23        4          872
-     Aurora              6,630   11,600     20       4.5         632
-     Svietlana           3,828    8,500     20        4          476
-     Almaz               3,285    7,500     19        --         184
-     Jemtchug            3,200    7,000     24        --         184
-     Izumrud             3,200    7,000     24        --         184
-
-[Sidenote: Strength of Baltic Fleet]
-
-In addition to these ships there was a torpedo flotilla of 7 destroyers
-of 28 knots speed, and 8 torpedo-boats; the following vessels of the
-Volunteer Fleet: _Kiev_, _Vladimir_, _Voronej_ (each of 10,500 tons and
-with a speed of 12 knots), _Tambov_, and _Yawslar_ (each of 8,640 tons
-and with a speed of 12 knots); 13 transports armed with light guns; and
-a hospital ship, the _Orel_--not to be confused with the battleship of
-the same name. On paper, at least, this was a very formidable fleet;
-but its fighting efficiency appears much reduced on analysis. There
-were four modern battleships of a powerful type and of homogeneous
-design; but their value is much discounted by the fact that some of
-their consorts are distinctly less powerful; and in naval warfare the
-manoeuvring power of a fleet becomes that of its weakest item. This
-was proved very signally on the occasion of the engagement between
-Admiral Kamimura and the Vladivostock Squadron, when the Russian
-cruisers _Gromoboi_ and _Rossia_ suffered most severely from having to
-stand by the _Rurik_, the lame duck of the squadron. The _Ossliabia_,
-it is true was not much inferior to the battleships of the _Kniaz
-Suvaroff_ class. She was a sister ship to the _Peresviet_ and
-_Pobieda_, sunk in the harbor of Port Arthur, and was launched in 1898.
-But the _Sissoi Veliky_ and the _Navarin_ both dated from 1891, and
-were distinctly inferior in the all-important matter of speed, even
-their nominal speed never having been attained. The only armored
-cruisers with the Baltic Fleet--the _Admiral Nakhimoff_ and the _Dmiti
-Donskoi_--were barely entitled to their description, as they have a low
-speed, light armor, and comparatively small gun power. Certainly they
-were not fit, like the best armored cruisers of to-day, to lie in the
-line of battle. Some of the other cruisers were little more than armed
-merchantmen, and none of them were formidable warships. Another
-circumstance that detracted from the fighting value of this fleet was
-the character of the officers and crews. All Russia's best and most
-highly-trained sailors and marine engineers were sent out before the
-war to the Pacific Squadron; and she had no adequate reserve to draw
-on. The modern man-of-war's-man--whether he is in the engine-room or on
-the gun-deck--is a highly specialized product, and he cannot be turned
-out at a moment's notice. Stokers, artificers, engineers, as well as
-torpedo lieutenants, gunners, and even admirals, have to be carefully
-trained for years before they become efficient, and the inefficiency
-and inexperience of the scratch crews and raw officers put on board the
-Baltic Fleet was the main cause of the long delay in that fleet's
-departure and of the disaster that occurred immediately after the start
-had been made, and that nearly brought the voyage to a tragic and
-ignominious conclusion. When all these circumstances were taken into
-consideration, it became obvious that the Baltic Fleet was hopelessly
-inferior to the fleet which, on reaching Far Eastern waters, it would
-have to encounter in order to wrest from the Japanese their command of
-the sea. But one question, even more urgent than that of the fate which
-would befall the fleet on arrival, was how it was to overcome the
-difficulties of the voyage. Russia had no coaling stations; and coaling
-at sea from attendant colliers has not yet become a feasible operation
-for a great fleet. The larger vessels would require from 5,000 to 6,000
-tons of coal each, and the smaller cruisers from 2,000 to 3,000 tons in
-the course of a voyage of nearly 13,000 miles, occupying at least 100
-days, and very possibly 30 days more. But the coaling difficulty proved
-less insuperable than it had appeared, and Russia's energy and
-ingenuity in overcoming it were the first symptoms that she meant the
-Baltic Fleet to be taken seriously. Negotiations for the supply of coal
-were opened with English firms; but our Foreign Office ruled that such
-contracts would be an infringement of neutrality. The Germans, however,
-were much more complaisant; and their attitude of "benevolent
-neutrality," as Count Von Bulow called it, enabled them to meet all
-demands of Russia. Large orders for English coal to be delivered to
-German consignees at neutral ports were received at Cardiff; and this
-coal was then transferred to the ports at which the Baltic Fleet was to
-call. According to the strict interpretation of international law these
-facilities for coaling in port ought not to have been extended to the
-fleet of a belligerent. But Russia was a close neighbor of the Powers
-concerned, and the ally of one of them, while her enemy was a long way
-off; and so it happened that Admiral Rozhdestvensky suffered no more
-inconvenience than if he had been engaged on a yachting cruise. He and
-his fleet put into any port that they fancied, and stayed, practically,
-as long as they had a mind to!
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Alarms]
-
-The Baltic Fleet was divided into three divisions, and on the 16th-18th
-October the first division left Libau. The daring surprise attacks of
-the Japanese torpedo-boats at Port Arthur had filled the minds of the
-Russian naval authorities with every kind of misgiving; and by some
-means not yet disclosed, they had become possessed of the idea that the
-Japanese meditated an attempt on the Baltic Fleet during its passage
-through the narrow waters of the Danish Straits and the North Sea.
-Rumors of mysterious Japanese agents, endeavoring to charter vessels in
-obscure Danish and Norwegian ports filled the Russian newspapers. On
-the 14th October Admiral Wirenius, the Chief of the Russian Admiralty,
-solemnly declared to an interviewer that the narrow waters of the Belt
-and the Sound were particularly favorable for a surprise attack; that
-officers of the Japanese Navy were known to have left for Europe; and
-that there was reason to apprehend an attempt to throw mines in the
-track of the Russian Squadron in the Danish Straits. The state of
-"nerves" to which the Russian naval officers had been reduced by these
-apprehensions was shown when, as the Russian fleet passed through the
-Kattegat, an attempt was made to deliver to the Russian Admiral a
-cypher dispatch that had arrived from St. Petersburg. Two fishermen
-were sent out with the dispatch in a motor-launch, but when their
-vessel approached the flagship the searchlights were turned on, and
-blank charges fired to forbid a nearer approach. The dispatch was taken
-in by a boat launched by the battleship for the purpose.
-
-[Sidenote: In the North Sea]
-
-On the 19th of October the first division of the fleet passed through
-the Kattegat; and by the 21st of October all the ships had left Danish
-waters and entered on their course down the North Sea. Immediately
-followed an occurrence almost without parallel in naval history--an
-occurrence that was only saved from inextinguishable ridicule and
-contempt by the tragic consequences which it unhappily involved. On
-this memorable night of Friday, the 21st of October, some fifty vessels
-of the Hull fishing fleet were engaged in trawling on the Dogger
-Bank--one of the places in the North Sea most frequented by the
-fishermen not only of Great Britain, but of Germany, Denmark, Holland
-and Norway. It is a prominent figure in all charts of the North Sea,
-and to every sailor and seafaring man its situation and character are
-perfectly familiar. The Hull fishermen, of the Gamecock and Great
-Northern Fleets, had their trawls down and were thus deprived of the
-possibility of rapid movement, when about midnight they sighted a
-number of warships steaming from the northeast. At first they did not
-suspect that it was the Russian Baltic Fleet that had come their way,
-because in that event the fleet must have been navigating some 40 miles
-out of the true course; but very soon their ignorance was enlightened.
-While the men were watching the passing warships, searchlights were
-suddenly flashed on the trawlers, and then, to the horror and amazement
-of these innocent fishermen engaged peaceably in their lawful
-occupations, a sudden storm of shot and shell broke upon them from
-unknown men-of-war. The steam-trawler _Crane_ was sunk and its skipper
-and mate were decapitated by a shell, and all but one of the crew were
-injured; while the trawlers _Moulmein_ and _Mino_ were seriously
-damaged, the latter vessel having no fewer than sixteen holes in her.
-From the evidence given at the subsequent inquiries the following facts
-were elicited: All the trawlers had their own lights up--namely, a
-lantern showing a white light ahead, a green light on the starboard
-side, a red light on the port side. Several vessels also had lights in
-the fishing pound so that the men could work on deck. None of the
-trawlers were without lights. As the approaching vessels came nearer
-they were seen to signal to one another in a way that conveyed to the
-minds of the trawlers that they were warships. Some of the vessels were
-in advance of the others. The exact number was very difficult to tell,
-but in the first division there were probably four or five. They passed
-the trawlers to the westward, where the admiral's trawler, the _Ruff_,
-was, and to the eastward of a few of the trawlers. One of them, at any
-rate, showed a searchlight. They passed on, and nothing happened. It
-was noticed that they were signalling to the other vessels behind, and
-that the other vessels were repeating the signals and signalling to
-each other. These other vessels then came on to the eastward of the
-admiral's ship, _Ruff_, but there were trawlers on both sides of them.
-Then, without any warning to the trawlers, these vessels opened fire.
-The crews on the trawlers were at first under the impression that it
-was a sham fight in some manoeuvres, but they soon discovered that it
-was live shot. Some of the warships fired from both port and starboard
-side. After the firing had begun, this second division of vessels came
-more to the west, and there were others which came down more to the
-east. The third division, which came furthest to the eastward, came
-near some of the outlying trawlers, who were more to the south and
-east. They turned their searchlights upon them. A great many of the
-trawlers, in the attempt to get away from the firing when it began,
-lost their trawls or damaged them.
-
-[Illustration: THIRSTY JAPANESE TROOPS CROSSING THE SHA-HO.]
-
-[Sidenote: Bringing Home the News]
-
-On Sunday night, the 23rd of October, two steam trawlers, one of them
-flying her flag at half-mast, and both riddled with shot, entered St
-Andrew's Dock at Hull. Their own condition, and the lifeless and
-mutilated bodies that they brought with them, were ghastly confirmation
-of the amazing tidings that they had to tell; and next morning, not
-only England, but all the world, was ringing with the news of the
-Baltic fleet's first warlike exploit. Amazement quickly gave place to
-indignation--an indignation of passionate intensity; and with one voice
-the people of England cried aloud for retribution at any cost on the
-perpetrators of so wanton an outrage. Nor was this indignation confined
-to the countrymen of the victims. In the United States, in France, and
-even in Germany, unsparing reprobation of a deed so unjustifiable was
-freely uttered; and the belief was confidently expressed that the only
-possible explanation was to be found in the undiscipline and probable
-drunken frenzy of the Russian naval officers. Be it remembered, too,
-that the heinousness of the offence was infinitely increased by the
-fact that the Russian ships, whose commanders must have discovered
-their grievous blunder before leaving the neighborhood of the Dogger
-Bank, made no effort to ascertain the injury they had inflicted, or to
-render help to their innocent victims. Neither did the Russian Admiral
-condescend to make the least report of the circumstances. He and his
-fleet proceeded on their way as if the sinking of fishing-boats and the
-slaughtering of fishermen were too trifling an incident to engage
-serious attention and notice; and when the news of the outrage reached
-London, the Baltic Squadron had already been sighted in the Channel. No
-Government could sit down under such provocation as this, and the
-English ministers, who realized well enough the dangerous pitch to
-which public feeling had been wrought, lost no time in addressing the
-strongest demands for immediate redress to St. Petersburg, accompanied
-by the intimation that the situation was one not admitting of delay.
-Their action was emphasized by that of King Edward himself, who, in
-sending a subscription of 200 guineas for the relief of the sufferers,
-declared that he had heard with profound sorrow of the "unwarrantable
-action" to which the North Sea fishing-fleet had been subjected. The
-principal witnesses of the outrage were summoned at once to the Foreign
-Office, and Lord Lansdowne had long audience of the King, while the
-Prime Minister, who happened to be in Scotland, came back post-haste to
-London. On the 25th of October Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister
-for Foreign Affairs, called at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg
-and requested the British Ambassador, Sir Charles Hardinge, to convey
-to King Edward and the British Government a message from the Czar, who,
-while he had received no message from the Admiral in command of the
-Baltic Fleet, could only attribute "the incident in the North Sea to a
-very regrettable misunderstanding". It was added that the Czar wished
-to express his sincere regret for the sad loss of life that had
-occurred, and to say that he would take steps to afford complete
-satisfaction to the sufferers as soon as the circumstances of the case
-were cleared up. These assurances, though far from adequate, would have
-done something to calm the temper of public opinion in England if they
-had been accompanied by any sign of a similar spirit in the Czar's
-advisers. But the latter seemed inclined to be as intractable as the
-Russian press was impenitent. While the Russian Government pursued a
-policy of delay and evasion, the Russian newspapers roundly denied that
-any blame attached to the Baltic Fleet, and scouted all idea of
-reparation; and all the time Admiral Rozhdestvensky was proceeding
-serenely on his voyage. On the 26th of October his battleships arrived
-at Vigo Harbor, where at last he took the trouble to communicate his
-report of what had happened to St. Petersburg. The statement is such an
-amazing one that it may be given in full. It was communicated to the
-world under the authority of the Russian Naval General Staff, and ran
-as follows:--
-
-"1.--The incident in the North Sea was provoked by two torpedo-boats
-which, without showing any lights, under cover of darkness, advanced to
-attack the vessel steaming at the head of the detachment. When the
-detachment began to sweep the sea with its searchlights and opened
-fire, the presence was also discovered of several small steam vessels
-resembling small steam fishing-boats. The detachment endeavored to
-spare these boats and ceased fire as soon as the torpedo-boats were out
-of sight.
-
-"The English press is horrified at the idea that the torpedo-boats of
-the squadron, left by detachment until the morning on the scene of the
-occurrence, did not render assistance to the victims. Now, there was
-not a single torpedo-boat with the detachment and none were left on the
-scene of the occurrence. In consequence, it was one of the two
-torpedo-boats which was not sunk, but which was only damaged, which
-remained until the morning near the small steam craft. The detachment
-did not assist the small steam craft because it suspected them of
-complicity, in view of their obstinate persistence in cutting the line
-of advance of the warships. Several of them did not show any lights at
-all. The others showed them very late.
-
-"2.--Having met several hundreds of fishing-boats, the squadron showed
-them every consideration, except where they were in company of the
-foreign torpedo-boats, one of which disappeared, while the other,
-according to the evidence of the fishermen themselves, remained among
-them until the morning. They believed her to be a Russian vessel, and
-were indignant that she did not come to the assistants of the victims.
-She was, however, a foreigner, and remained until the morning looking
-for the other torpedo-boat, her companion, either with the object of
-repairing her damage or from fear of betraying herself to those who
-were not accomplices.
-
-"If there were also on the scene of the occurrence fishermen
-imprudently involved in this enterprise, I beg, in the name of the
-whole fleet, to express our sincere regret for the unfortunate victims
-of circumstances in which no warship could, even in time of profound
-peace, have acted otherwise."
-
-[Sidenote: Naval Preparations]
-
-But before this preposterous and long-delayed explanation was
-vouchsafed, the British Government had taken steps to prove that they
-were not in the mood to be trifled with, and that the subjects of the
-greatest naval power in the world were not to be shot down with
-impunity. To the intense satisfaction of the whole nation, an instant
-mobilization of the British fleets in European waters was ordered. The
-Home Fleet, which had been cruising away to the north of Scotland, was
-ordered south; the Channel Fleet, lying at Gibraltar, was warned to be
-in instant readiness for active service; and the Mediterranean Fleet
-was instructed to join up with the Channel Fleet with all speed. The
-naval dockyards were kept working night and day to prepare the reserve
-fleet for commission, and to be ready for the demands which an
-immediate outbreak of war might involve. In forty-eight hours every
-requisite preparation had been completed, and three fleets, any one of
-them capable of dealing faithfully with Admiral Rozhdestvensky's
-squadron, were ready for instant action. Directly in the path of the
-Baltic Fleet, now assembled at Vigo, lay the Channel Fleet under the
-command of Lord Charles Beresford, and so acute was the crisis that it
-seemed as if at any moment that fleet might be ordered to take the sea.
-Among the secret preparations made was the dispatch of four battleships
-from the Channel Squadron at Gibraltar to Portland and the assembly of
-all available submarines at Dover. What made the situation especially
-dangerous was the conflict which in this hour of desperate emergency
-was being waged between the Russian Admiralty and the Russian Foreign
-Office. The former department, which had done so much to aggravate the
-case of the _Malacca_ and to flout the assurances which had been given
-as to the withdrawal of the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_, was now
-determined that no surrender should be made to the British demands for
-satisfaction in the matter of the North Sea outrage; and for several
-days the more pacific Foreign Office wrestled with these fire-eaters in
-vain. War between England and Russia, with the prospect of indefinite
-extension to other countries, seemed inevitable; but thanks largely to
-the friendly offices of the French Government, who, as the ally of
-Russia and the friend of Great Britain, had exceptional claims to act
-as an intermediary between the disputants, a settlement was at length
-arrived at. On the 28th of October, Mr. Balfour was able to announce to
-the world that that morning an agreement had been arrived at which
-averted all further apprehension of the rupture of peaceful relations.
-Great Britain and Russia had consented to refer the case in dispute to
-an impartial International Tribunal of Inquiry; the terms of the
-Convention, which were signed after much further negotiation on the
-24th of November, being as follows:--
-
-1.--The Commission is to consist of five members, namely, officers of
-Great Britain, Russia, the United States, and France. The fifth
-Commissioner is to be selected by agreement between them. If they
-cannot agree, the choice to be entrusted to the king of a country
-subsequently to be determined upon.
-
-2.--The Commission is to report on all the circumstances relating to
-the disaster and to establish the responsibility.
-
-3.--The Commission is to have power to settle all questions of
-procedure.
-
-4.--The parties bind themselves to supply the Commission with all
-necessary information, facilities, &c.
-
-5.--The Commission is to meet at Paris as soon as possible after the
-signature of the Convention.
-
-6.--The report of the Commission is to be officially communicated to
-the respective Governments.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Allegations]
-
-Not the least interesting part of Mr. Balfour's statement was that in
-which he examined and dealt with the justification which Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky had put forward, and in particular with the allegation
-that the Russian fleet had been attacked by torpedo-boats. This
-allegation, as Mr. Balfour pointed out, involved a charge of bad faith
-on the part of Great Britain, and such a charge he indignantly
-resented. If only one torpedo-boat was sunk, what, he pertinently
-asked, had become of the other? The world did not require to be
-convinced of the essential absurdity of this story; but the Russians
-persisted in it with determination. The most circumstantial narratives
-were presently forthcoming from the four officers who had been detained
-to give evidence before the International Commission. One narrator
-stated that information of the presence of Japanese torpedo-boats in
-the Norway fiords, and of the Japanese having hired fishing vessels in
-Hull, Southampton, Hamburg, and Christiania, had been received by the
-Russians. He proceeded as follows: "We lodged information of the
-Japanese intentions with the Governments of those countries where the
-Japanese were making their preparations, but it was only in Denmark and
-Germany that we found any readiness to interfere with them.... Before
-leaving the Scaw the Russians received a number of alarming messages
-from their agents. All these messages agreed in stating that in one
-very deep Norwegian fiord four Japanese torpedo-boats had been seen,
-and that these vessels were afterwards observed a short distance to the
-west of the Scaw. The Russians left the Scaw in the morning, proceeding
-in different divisions. All the torpedo craft went on ahead, in two
-divisions, making for Cherbourg. Next came Admiral Folkersahm with the
-four older battleships making for Tangier. The small cruisers were
-under orders to proceed to Arosa, 40 miles north of Vigo, while the
-large cruisers with the transport _Kamchatka_, under the command of
-Admiral Enquist, had instructions to make for Tangier like Admiral
-Folkersahm.
-
-"Last of all we put to sea with the four best battleships, _Suvaroff_,
-_Alexander III._, _Borodino_, and _Orel_. Our destination was Brest,
-where we were to coal. Observe, therefore, that there was not with us a
-single torpedo-boat or a single small vessel. All such were far ahead
-of us.... On the 8th of October, at 8 o'clock in the evening, when it
-was already quite dark, we received a wireless message stating that 30
-miles behind us was the transport _Kamchatka_, which had fallen behind
-her consorts (the cruisers _Dmitri Donskoi_ and _Aurora_) in
-consequence of an injury to her engines, and that several torpedo-boats
-were following her closely, but had not discharged any torpedoes.
-Admiral Enquist, who was in front with the two cruisers, was at once
-ordered by wireless message to slacken speed and wait for the
-_Kamchatka_, or to continue his course in order not to expose himself
-to the torpedo-boats, which, of course, also received our messages, but
-did not know from what spot they were sent. The Japanese, however,
-attempted to find out our whereabouts. While we were exchanging
-messages with the _Kamchatka_ we suddenly received a succession of
-telegrams, in excellent Russian, purporting to come from the
-_Kamchatka_: 'Where is the squadron?' 'Give your latitude and
-longitude.' 'Where is the _Suvaroff_?' These telegrams appeared to us
-suspicious, and, in order to assure ourselves that they were really
-sent by the _Kamchatka_, instead of answering we asked for the name of
-one of the officers of the _Kamchatka_. To this no answer was returned,
-and we continued our conversation with the _Kamchatka_ in cypher. At
-12.55 A. M. we suddenly saw in front of us ... two long dark
-silhouettes, emitting quantities of smoke and evidently steaming at high
-speed. At the same time we saw a yellow-red rocket, such as is
-generally sent up by vessels in distress. A moment later a searchlight
-was thrown upon us from ahead.... We at once turned our searchlights on
-the torpedo-boats and opened fire on them. As soon as they saw that
-they were discovered, they turned aside, but came under the fire of the
-_Alexander III._, _Borodino_, and _Orel_, which were following us.
-About the same time our searchlights began to fall from time to time on
-some small vessels, apparently fishing craft, whose behavior, however,
-was very suspicious. They showed no lights, there was not a man on
-their decks, and they obstinately remained under the bows of our ships,
-barring their course. They were thus in a position to launch floating
-mines. In spite of this, however, the Admiral, as soon as he caught
-sight of them, ordered that the searchlights on board the _Suvaroff_
-should be turned skywards, which was a signal to cease firing.
-
-"To remain where we were after the torpedo-boats had disappeared in
-order to aid the steamers would have been the height of imprudence. We
-should have risked the most formidable part of our fleet, and as there
-were several steamers they were in a position to aid each other. As far
-as could be perceived, one of the enemy's torpedo-boats was sunk."
-
-The narrator argued that either the fishing vessels were accomplices or
-the Japanese took advantage of their proximity without their knowledge.
-He inclined to the former alternative, and asked, "Why Hull fishing
-boats so far from England--almost off the Danish coast?"
-
-The best commentary on this narrative was supplied by the Russian
-Government themselves, who, six weeks after the North Sea outrage,
-published the following significant admission of facts, which had, of
-course, been perfectly well known to them almost from the first:--
-
-[Sidenote: Supplementary Information]
-
-"According to supplementary information from Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-concerning the North Sea incident of the 21st of October, after the
-_Kniaz Suvaroff_ had ceased firing there suddenly appeared on the left
-of the ironclad division the two searchlights of the cruisers _Dmitri
-Donskoi_ and _Aurora_, lighting up the division. The _Dmitri Donskoi_
-showed her night signals, whereupon for fear lest projectiles from the
-hindmost ships of the division should hit our own vessels, either
-directly or by ricochet, a general signal to cease fire was made from
-the ironclad _Kniaz Suvaroff_, and was at once carried out. The whole
-of the firing lasted less than ten minutes. Communications by wireless
-telegraph stated that five projectiles had struck the cruiser _Aurora_,
-some ricocheting and others hitting her direct. Three were
-75-millimètre and two 47-millimètre shells. The chaplain was seriously
-injured, and a petty officer was slightly wounded. The former
-subsequently succumbed at Tangier."
-
-[Illustration: FIGHT IN STREET OF LIN-SHIN-PU, BATTLE OF SHAK-KE RIVER.]
-
-This communication bears out the theory advanced in the first instance
-that the Russians in the panic had mistaken their own ships for hostile
-torpedo-boats, and had opened fire on the "two long, dark silhouettes
-emitting quantities of smoke" without stopping to ascertain what they
-belonged to.
-
-[Sidenote: The Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar]
-
-After leaving Vigo, the Baltic Fleet divided into two squadrons--one
-proceeding down the West Coast of Africa, and the other through the
-Suez Canal. By the end of December (two months and a half from leaving
-Libau) they had completed barely one-half of their voyage; and by that
-time, not only was Vladivostock frost-bound, but Port Arthur was
-dominated by Japanese guns, and the remnants of the Pacific Fleet lay
-shell-riddled on the mud of the harbor. Before the International
-Commission of Inquiry met for business, all hope of the Baltic Fleet's
-achieving any serious purpose had been dissipated; for while it was
-still mustering at Madagascar, the news arrived that the fall of Port
-Arthur was at last an accomplished fact.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XIII.
-
-  Progress of the Siege--Siege of Port Arthur--The Japanese
-    Progress--The Japs Attack Metre Hill--The Russian Fleet
-    between Two Fires--A Jap Hero--Tunnels and
-    Hand-grenades--The Japs Capture Urlungshan--The Surrender
-    of Port Arthur--"Great Sovereign! Forgive!"--The Japs
-    Occupy the Fortress--Discreditable Surrender--The End of
-    the Siege of Port Arthur.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Progress of the Siege]
-
-In spite of such distractions as the campaign in Manchuria and the
-career of the Baltic Fleet, Port Arthur remained the real focal point
-of the world-wide interest which the tremendous struggle in the Far
-East had aroused. The progress of the siege, which had been veiled in
-obscurity during the earlier months of investment, owing to the
-severity of the censorship, was suddenly and frankly revealed to the
-world in the late autumn, and from that moment the salient incidents of
-this thrilling drama could be followed almost from day to day. Winter's
-icy grip, which had brought to a pause the headlong train of the
-campaign in Manchuria, caused no interruption to the implacable contest
-for mastery between the heroic troops of General Nogi and the dauntless
-garrison commanded by General Stoessel. Not for an instant was there
-the least relaxation of effort on the part of the besiegers or of
-endurance on the part of the besieged. Rather was the resolution of
-both combatants screwed to a higher pitch by the knowledge that time
-might be the deciding factor in the conflict. The departure of the
-Baltic Fleet gave General Stoessel hopes of ultimate relief as the
-reward for holding on, and threatened General Nogi with the
-stultification of all his sacrifices. With Port Arthur remaining in
-Russian hands, the recovery by her of the command of the sea must
-always be a menacing possibility for the Japanese; while the fall of
-Port Arthur meant not only the destruction of the last remnant of the
-Russian Pacific Squadron, but the loss of the only practicable base for
-any future naval operations. The whole Japanese plan of campaign must
-rest on a more or less precarious foundation as long as Russia had a
-fleet in being in Eastern seas, for the vital lines of sea
-communication must be liable to severance. With the Russian flag swept
-from its last refuge, Japan must remain invincible to the mightiest
-armies that Russia could assemble in Manchuria.
-
-[Sidenote: Siege of Port Arthur]
-
-The story of the siege of Port Arthur has already been related in this
-narrative up to the moment immediately preceding the capture of
-203-Metre Hill--an event that marked the turning-point of the whole
-protracted operations, and that proved to be the real beginning of the
-end. Before describing in detail the action that led to this signal
-victory for General Nogi's troops, it may be well to give a brief
-résumé of the situation as it then existed.
-
-[Illustration: PORT ARTHUR AND THE SURROUNDING FORTS.]
-
-The investment may be said to have begun on June 26th, and between that
-date and the end of October a series of more or less desperate and
-costly assaults on the Russian outworks had carried the Japanese lines
-closer and closer to the permanent defences with which the town and the
-harbor of Port Arthur were secured from attack by land. In the great
-attacks of August 28th and September 20th, some progress was made to
-the east and north; but no great impression was made in the formidable
-chain of forts; and even on October 30th, when another assault was
-delivered, on the Keekwan and Urlungshan forts, the Japanese were
-repulsed with the loss of 2,000 men. On September 20th a determined
-assault had been made on 203-Metre Hill--the highest eminence of that
-ridge which runs between Louisa Bay on the west and the great forts,
-Itszshan and Antszshan, dominating the western approaches of Port
-Arthur. The attempt was almost successful, but not quite, and all that
-remained to reward the Japanese for their terrible sacrifice of life
-was the possession of a height, a little to the north, known as
-Namaokoyama, or 180-Metre Hill. This is due east of 174 Metre Hill,
-captured in August. At the same time the Japanese, however, succeeded
-in taking possession of the Sueishi lunettes, which defend the valley
-through which the railway runs, and of Fort Kuropatkin, which commands
-the water supply of Port Arthur. This was the position when, on
-November 26th, General Nogi ordered another assault on the fortress,
-with the especial object of capturing 203 Metre Hill. The possession of
-this height was of immense importance to the besiegers--not because it
-would threaten the great forts of Antszshan and Itszshan, but because
-it would afford a complete view of every corner of the harbor, and
-enable the fire of heavy guns to be directed on the last refuge of the
-Russian fleet. More than that, the position would command the branch
-line running from Port Arthur to Liau-tie-shan, whither the Russians
-were daily conveying stores, as if in preparation for a last stand in
-this inaccessible stronghold. Although not one of the permanent
-fortifications, the defences of 203 Metre Hill were of the most
-formidable kind. On the crest, and cut out of the hill itself, were two
-redoubts on the two distinct peaks, each mounting heavy guns, while the
-slopes leading up to them were traversed with trenches and wire
-entanglements.
-
-[Illustration: HAULING GUNS UP A CAPTURED HILL AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Attack Metre Hill]
-
-After his repulse in September, General Nogi had abandoned all further
-attack on the west; but the importance of effecting a lodgment there,
-together with his equal lack of success in the east, induced him to
-return to his earlier plan. But this time the methods of attack were
-changed. To prevent the concentration of the garrison at one point,
-assaults were delivered simultaneously on the two opposite sides of the
-perimeter of defence; and, instead of trusting to the mere weight of
-numbers to overcome resistance, the resources of the military engineer
-were drawn upon to facilitate approach to the critical points. At the
-last assault the Japanese infantry had moved forward in close formation
-over the open ground separating their forming point from the trenches
-of the enemy, and they had been swept down in hundreds by the
-concentrated fire from a dozen batteries. But early in November the
-Japanese engineers set to work to construct parallels from the low
-hills at the foot of the Metre range across the intervening valley and
-up the southwest corner of 203 Metre Hill, dominated by that one of the
-twin peaks which was known as 210. To construct similar approaches on
-the northeast side was rendered impossible by the fire of the
-neighboring fort Akasakayama. On November 27th fresh troops were
-brought up for the attack, and a tremendous artillery fire was
-concentrated on the summit of the Metre ridge. Field guns, firing
-shrapnel, and naval guns and howitzers, firing enormous shells, poured
-their deadly hail on the forts and trenches; but though they diminished
-they could not utterly subdue the fire of the intrepid defenders, and
-the Japanese casualties were very heavy as soon as their devoted
-infantry, emerging from the parallels, endeavored to climb the steep
-face of the hill. But after nearly seven hours' fighting the crest was
-won, and the southwestern peak fell into the hands of the Japanese.
-This success was the signal for an immediate and determined assault
-upon the 203 peak, but it proved futile. A deadly fire from the
-neighboring forts made the retention of the southwest peak impossible
-for the gallant men who had won it. They were driven down to the
-reverse slope again, and were thus unable to assist in keeping down the
-fire of the garrison of 203 peak. An attack on the Akasakayama works
-also failed, and thus the troops assailing the northeastern face of the
-hill were exposed to a flank fire as well as to a direct fire from
-above, and were driven back with heavy loss. But the Japanese managed
-to retain their position just below the crest of 210, and here they
-constructed trenches which made the reoccupation of the summit by the
-enemy impossible. But the Russians still disputed possession, and the
-opposing forces, behind sandbag defences erected within a stone's throw
-of one another, maintained an incessant fight with bullets, bayonets
-and hand-grenades. The proximity of the combatants compelled the
-artillery on both sides to desist from taking part in the encounter.
-The Japanese guns confined themselves to shelling the crest of 203 peak
-and the reverse slope of 210, in order to prevent reinforcements
-reaching the troops that still disputed the possession of that
-eminence. At this moment occurred one of those tragic incidents which
-throw such an ironic light on the best laid schemes of generals and the
-noblest self-sacrifice of soldiers. A party of Japanese managed at last
-to establish themselves in a trench on the slope of Akasakayama; but no
-sooner had they attained this hard-won position than they found
-themselves exposed to a merciless hail of shrapnel, not from Russian
-guns, but from those of their own countrymen. The Japanese artillerists
-had not observed the lodgment that had been made in the enemy's
-trenches, and they persisted in their bombardment with such deadly
-effect that their luckless comrades were compelled to relinquish the
-advantage they had gained, and to make the best of their way back to
-the main body under a double fire. On December 1st a renewed attack on
-both the 210 and 203 peaks was made, but with no success; and during
-the next few days the Japanese engineers were busy in extending their
-parallels and trenches, in order to allow the assailing troops to
-approach close to their objective before coming under fire; and while
-this work was going on the Russian positions were subjected to a
-furious and incessant bombardment. This bombardment reached its height
-on the morning of the 5th, when every preparation for the renewed
-assault had been completed. The Metre Hill, it is said, resembled a
-smoking volcano under the storm of shell that burst over it. This
-assault was to be a supreme effort, and every Japanese soldier who took
-part in it was conscious of the responsibility devolving on him, as,
-after saluting the regimental standards, he moved forward to take his
-place in the ranks that lined the parallels and advanced trenches.
-Early in the afternoon a simultaneous rush was made towards both of the
-crests of the Metre range. The moment was one of acute suspense, and
-with breathless anxiety the Japanese staff watched the far-off line of
-khaki-clad figures swarming up the hillside and climbing over the
-breastwork of the Russian trenches. The issue was not long in doubt.
-Meeting with scarcely any resistance, the storming parties swept on
-until they reached the crest of both peaks, and found themselves at
-last in undisputed possession of the long-coveted position. The
-explanation of this unexpectedly easy victory was not far to seek. The
-bombardment of the previous three days had been so severe that it had
-been impossible for the defenders to live under it. The 500-lb. shells
-from the howitzers had blown the place to fragments, and except for
-three men taken prisoners, every soul who manned the guns and trenches
-had been killed or forced to fly to the forts in the rear. Torn and
-mutilated bodies, mingled with piles of débris, lay about in hundreds,
-and the scene was rendered the more appalling by the presence of
-corpses, in every stage of decomposition, which had been lying on the
-ground since the attack on September 20th. But the Japanese were not
-left long in undisturbed possession of the ground they had won. General
-Stoessel, realizing as fully as his enemy the importance of 203 Metre
-Hill, made desperate efforts to recapture it. Six separate
-counter-assaults were delivered, and for hours the fiercest and most
-sanguinary hand-to-hand fighting raged. But the Japanese had stronger
-reinforcements than their adversaries, and their numbers and gallantry
-prevailed at last. After losing nearly 3,000 men, the Russian General
-realized that the case was hopeless, and left his enemy in possession
-of the stricken field. Immediately their position was assured the
-Japanese dragged up their guns and proceeded to pound the neighboring
-height Akasakayama, from which the Russians were forced to retire with
-all speed. While this substantial and, as it turned out, decisive
-victory was being won in the west, an equally determined assault was
-proceeding in the east against the great forts of Urlungshan,
-Sungshushan and East Keekwanshan. The Japanese carried their parallels
-within charging distance of the front of the forts, and then began to
-mine. Having reached a point beneath the counterscarp, they exploded
-their mines, and then rushed into the breach thus formed. But the
-Russians, though losing heavily by the explosions, were prepared for
-the emergency. They had machine guns placed in position to command the
-outer defences, and the assailants only gained the breach to be mown
-down by a hail of bullets. In this assault the Japanese had recourse to
-the traditional weapon of their ancient chivalry. Under the lead of
-Generals Nakamura and Saito, trained bodies of swordsmen of the famous
-Samurai, or warrior-caste, charged into the imminent deadly breach,
-endeavoring to close in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter with their
-stubborn foe. But even the traditional gallantry of Japan's knighthood
-was spent in vain in this enterprise, and the parapets of the forts
-remained inaccessible to assault. But the Japanese, whose resource in
-this protracted siege had only been equalled by their indomitable
-determination, had by this time learned the secret of success against
-such tremendous fortifications as those with which Port Arthur was
-begirt. Since gallantry and the sacrifice of life could not prevail,
-patience and ingenuity must be tried, and the engineers were called
-upon to carry further still the sapping operations which had already
-breached the outer works. As in the adoption of those deadly
-hand-grenades, which played so important a part in all the battles of
-the siege, so in the construction of parallels and the tunnelling of
-mines the world saw a return to the practice and methods of the 17th
-century. To find a counterpart to these huge forts of Port Arthur, with
-their scarps and counter-scarps, their glacis and cuponniéres and
-ravelins, one has to go back to the system of the great military
-engineer Vanban, who carried the science of fortification to its
-highest perfection. There was only one assailant to which these mighty
-works were not impregnable--and that assailant was the explosive power
-of dynamite. This resistless auxiliary the Japanese made speed to
-enlist in their service.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Fleet between Two Fires]
-
-Meanwhile, leaving the sappers to their insidious task on the east, the
-Japanese artillerists were swift to take advantage of the new position
-won for them on the west. From the summit of 203 Metre Hill, the whole
-town and harbor of Port Arthur lay revealed, and the remnant of the
-Russian fleet which lay sheltered there could no longer escape the
-searching attentions of the Japanese shells. The great howitzers,
-firing their 500 lb. projectiles, and the big naval guns were quickly
-moved into position, and, directed from the observation station on 203
-Metre Hill, they began to drop shot after shot on the helpless
-men-of-war. So perfect was the command, that it was possible for the
-besiegers to count every day the hits they made, and to specify the
-particular ships against which they had been recorded. One after
-another these mighty vessels succumbed to the incessant pounding that
-they received, and in a few days the four battleships _Retvisan_,
-_Peresviet_, _Pobieda_ and _Poltava_, and the armored cruiser _Bayan_
-were reported sunk or damaged so as to be unseaworthy. Only the
-_Sevastopol_ remained, and she temporarily escaped to the outer
-roadstead, with consequences that will be related presently. These
-ships were the real objective of the siege. Their disablement preserved
-Japan from her most serious menace; but next to that consummation,
-their capture was a point of primary importance. The Japanese naturally
-desired not only to render these powerful vessels useless to their
-adversaries, but to make them useful to themselves. Accordingly, having
-made sure that the ships were injured beyond the power of the Port
-Arthur docks to repair them, the besiegers were careful to inflict no
-further damage on them. By the 12th the Japanese gunners had attained
-their object, and the _Sevastopol_ was the only seaworthy survivor of
-the Russian squadron; and attention was forthwith turned to her from
-another direction. Admiral Togo, whose fleet had been cruising outside
-Port Arthur to shut off the natural avenue of escape for the wretched
-Russian fleet, now directed his torpedo-boats to attack the battleship
-_Sevastopol_ as she lay at her moorings in the outer roadstead. Her
-position was exactly that which the whole Pacific squadron had occupied
-on the fateful night of February 6th, when the first stroke of war was
-delivered, and Russia's best two battleships were put out of action.
-But this time the advantage of a surprise attack was out of the
-question. The commander of the _Sevastopol_ well knew what to expect,
-and had taken his precautions accordingly. An enormous boom had been
-constructed round the hull of the warship, and an elaborate system of
-netting had been hung from it to defy the approach of any torpedo. On
-the other hand, however, the fire of the shore batteries was no longer
-a substantial auxiliary in repelling torpedo attack; and the whole
-organization of the port defences was more or less impaired, if not
-destroyed. On the night of the 12th of December, and thrice again on
-the night of the 13th, the intrepid torpedo-craft of the Japanese fleet
-steamed into the roadstead and fired their terrible engines of
-destruction at the ill-fated battleship. But the boom proved on these
-occasions an impenetrable defence; so the attack was again
-renewed--this time in a blinding snowstorm. Two flotillas were engaged.
-The one lost its direction owing to the snow and the glare of the
-enemy's searchlights; but the second flotilla reached its mark, and
-discharged torpedoes at the _Sevastopol_, on which at least two took
-effect. The boats became separated in the storm, and one never returned
-to the main fleet--being either sunk by a shot or swamped by the very
-high seas that were running. To add to the difficulty of the
-enterprise, the weather was bitterly cold, and the decks of the vessels
-were coated with ice from the freezing of the spray that broke over
-them. When morning broke, those who had been engaged in this desperate
-enterprise were rewarded by the sight of the _Sevastopol_ perceptibly
-down at the stern. A few days later the vessel was so disabled that she
-had to be run aground. The spirit in which this daring attack was
-carried out may be gathered from the following extracts from Admiral
-Togo's official dispatches:--
-
-"While retreating, one torpedo boat was struck several times. Her
-commander, Lieutenant Nakahara, and five other men were killed. The
-boat lost her freedom of motion, and Lieutenant Nakahara's boat went to
-the rescue. Notwithstanding a heavy fire, she continued her effort to
-save the disabled vessel. When she had her in tow, the hawser was
-severed by the enemy's shells, and Lieutenant Nakahara's boat was also
-hit, and one man killed. Subsequently several shells hit and almost
-disabled Lieutenant Nakahara's boat, and forced him to abandon his
-sister ship, which was in a sinking condition. Lieutenant Nakahara,
-however, steamed back and rescued the crew, who were abandoning the
-boat. Commander Kawase's boat, of the same flotilla, was struck by a
-shell, which killed one man and wounded Lieutenant Takahashi and two
-sailors. Lieutenant Shoro's boat was also hit, one man being killed and
-five wounded. The boat was temporarily disabled, but the ships
-commanded by Lieutenants Wataehe and Mori stood by her and rescued all
-the men. The other vessels, bravely facing the enemy's fire, succeeded
-in delivering their attacks without sustaining damage.... It is a
-source of satisfaction that our torpedo attacks were delivered without
-the least confusion; each boat rendered material assistance to her
-comrades. The skill in manoeuvring and the bravery displayed by our
-officers and men inspire me with a deep feeling of satisfaction and
-confidence."
-
-[Sidenote: A Japanese Hero]
-
-Commander Yezoe's flotilla was under repairs when the attack was
-planned. He succeeded in putting one of his torpedo-boats into fighting
-condition, and steamed to the rendezvous, where he found that the other
-flotillas had already left. His entreaty that he should be permitted to
-join in the attack was granted, and steaming alone through the blinding
-snow, he succeeded in locating the _Sevastopol_. Approaching close
-enough to hear the Russians talking, he fired a torpedo, and then,
-going in still closer, he discharged another torpedo at the battleship.
-A shell from the _Sevastopol_ struck Commander Yezoe in the abdomen,
-and cut his body in two. His remains were saved and brought back to the
-fleet.
-
-[Sidenote: Tunnels and Hand Grenades]
-
-The complete destruction or disablement of the remnant of the Russian
-fleet seems to have had a dispiriting effect, as well it might have, on
-the defenders of Port Arthur, for from this moment the vigor of their
-resistance to assault perceptibly waned. In proportion the confidence
-and resolution of the Japanese increased, and before long their
-unremitting exertions were rewarded with another substantial success.
-Hitherto their assaults on the eastern defences of Port Arthur had met
-with but little success. In spite of all their sacrifices the great
-permanent forts stood firm; but by the middle of December their new
-methods of sapping and mining achieved the long-desired breach in the
-iron ring, and East Keekwanshan fort was captured. A mine had been
-tunnelled right up to the parapet of the fort, and in the afternoon of
-December 18th the mine was exploded, bringing down an avalanche of
-earth and masonry that filled up the ditch in its fall, and made a rude
-but practicable staircase up the deep counter-scarp into the interior
-of the fort. The Japanese troops, lying ready in their trenches, sprang
-forward to the breach before the garrison could recover from the
-discomfiture of the explosion, and poured into the inner works,
-flinging their terrible hand-grenades at all who opposed their
-impetuous charge. But after the first surprise, the Russians recovered
-and stood their ground, and by turning machine guns on the assailants,
-held them for a time at bay. While the issue still hung in the balance,
-however, General Samejuna, at the head of the Japanese reserves, flung
-himself into the fighting line, and a last great charge swept the fort
-clear of its dogged defenders. The fight lasted for no less than ten
-hours, and immediately it was won the Japanese entrenched themselves to
-make their hold secure. The attack, in this case, was entrusted to two
-bodies of volunteers, who, in calm anticipation of their probable fate,
-had fastened to their clothing badges of identification, so that the
-corpses should be recognizable in spite of the disfiguring effects of
-the explosion of hand-grenades. One-half of these devoted men charged
-from their trenches too eagerly after the mine had been fired, with the
-result that most of them were buried beneath the falling debris. The
-nature and extent of the mining operations which made the capture of
-East Keekwanshan practicable may be gathered from the fact that two
-tunnels 40 feet long had been dug out, and that both tunnels terminated
-in four branches, in each of which a separate mine was laid. Four
-quick-firers, five field guns, and four machine guns, and a large
-quantity of rifles and ammunition, were among the spoils that fell to
-the victors in this assault. Only twenty men of the garrison escaped
-down a covered way, which they blocked behind them by the explosion of
-mines. The fort captured, though not one of the strongest of those on
-the eastern ridge, was yet of great importance to the besiegers,
-because it opened the way to the greater forts beyond, and this success
-was speedily followed by others on the other side of Port Arthur.
-Operating between Pigeon Bay and the Metre range, the Japanese captured
-several minor heights on which the Russians had mounted guns. Thus they
-continued to advance steadily to the isolation of the western defences;
-and the only comfort which the anxious authorities in St. Petersburg
-could enjoy was that to be derived from a dispatch of General
-Kuropatkin, in which the Commander-in-Chief in Manchuria announced
-that, according to Chinese reports, the garrison of Port Arthur had
-recaptured 203 Metre Hill, "with the guns placed there by the enemy."
-The Chinese do nothing by halves, not even lying.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE ELEVEN-INCH MORTAR BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Capture Urlungshan]
-
-Undismayed by this announcement, the Japanese continued their
-investment with increasing severity, and on December 28th, or four
-weeks after the capture of 203 Metre Hill, they achieved the great
-triumph of wresting the mighty Urlungshan from its stubborn defenders.
-This, the greatest and most formidable of all the eastern forts of Port
-Arthur had defied many previous assaults, and had cost the army of the
-Mikado many hundreds of gallant lives. But like the northern fort of
-East Keekwanshan, it succumbed to the irresistible persuasion of
-dynamite. At 10 o'clock in the morning of December 28th, the mine which
-had been laid beneath the parapet was exploded, and the Japanese rushed
-in through the breach. Under the cover of artillery fire from the rear,
-the assaulters then constructed defensive works; and having thus
-established themselves and received reinforcements, they rushed forward
-again and captured the heavy guns of the fort. From this point another
-charge had to be made before the defenders could be driven out
-completely; but by half-past seven in the evening the task was
-accomplished, and the whole fort was in the hands of the Japanese,
-whose losses amounted to at least 1,000 men. The spoils included four
-big guns, seven smaller guns, thirty quick-firers, and two machine
-guns. The tunnels for the mines which were exploded under the parapet
-had to be cut through the solid rock, and no less than two tons of
-dynamite was used for the exploding charge. The result was that half
-the garrison of 500 men were killed on the spot. Next to the great
-Urlung fort, Sungshushan was the most formidable permanent work on the
-eastern ridge, and three days later this fell to the Japanese in much
-the same way. On the morning of the last day of the expiring year,
-dynamite mines were exploded beneath the parparet of the fort, and
-within an hour the whole fort was in the secure possession of the
-Japanese. Over 300 of the defenders were entombed in one of the
-galleries by the explosion, and of these only a half were rescued by
-the victors, the remainder perishing miserably. Other forts in the
-immediate vicinity fell almost immediately afterwards, and it became
-evident that the whole of the forts on the eastern ridge were
-practically doomed. Nothing now could stay the victorious onslaught of
-the Japanese, and the capitulation of Port Arthur, which but a little
-while before had seemed so remote and conjectural, now loomed in the
-immediate future. But even yet the world was hardly prepared for the
-end which was imminent. Up to the last, General Stoessel's dispatches
-had been confident and defiant, and it was thought to be quite likely
-that even yet he would reveal some hitherto unsuspected resources.
-
-[Sidenote: The Surrender of Port Arthur]
-
-In his somewhat rhetorical dispatches to the Czar, General Stoessel had
-repeatedly declared his determination to fight to the death, and
-although the signal successes of the Japanese during the month of
-December had evidently reduced very largely the resisting power of the
-garrison, the general expectation was that the hopeless struggle would
-still be carried on, and that Stoessel and his troops would in the last
-resort retire to the fastnesses of Liau-tie-shan. While deprecating
-this desperate counsel, as involving the useless shedding of blood, the
-world would have applauded its heroism. But as it happened, other
-counsels prevailed. On the morning of the first day of the new year
-General Nogi received a letter from General Stoessel proposing
-negotiations for capitulation, and the proposal was immediately
-accepted. But operations were not at once suspended. The Japanese
-attacked the same morning the Fort of Wantai on the East Ridge, and
-captured it after only slight resistance, while several of the forts in
-the vicinity were blown up by the defenders. In further recognition of
-the fact that all was lost save honor, the Russians then proceeded to
-explode mines on all the warships in the harbor, in order to ensure
-that they should be useless to the enemy into whose hands they were
-about to fall. Of the destroyer flotilla, only four vessels remained
-serviceable. These put to sea on the night of January 1st, and,
-managing to evade the blockading squadron, reached Chifu, where they
-were immediately dismantled. Then at last a truce was proclaimed, and
-for the first time for six long months the thunder of the great guns
-rolled no longer about Port Arthur. Immediately news of the proposed
-surrender was received in St. Petersburg, the Mikado magnanimously
-expressed his high appreciation of the loyalty and endurance displayed
-by General Stoessel on behalf of his country, and gave orders that all
-the honors of war should be extended to him.
-
-On January 2nd the capitulation agreement was signed, its essential
-terms being as follows:--
-
-The whole fortress, ships, arms, ammunition, military buildings,
-materials and other Government property were to be surrendered. The
-Japanese reserved free action if those objects were considered to have
-been destroyed or injured after the signing of the agreement. Plans of
-forts, torpedoes, mines, military and naval officers' lists, &c. were
-to be delivered over. Soldiers, sailors, volunteers and other officials
-were to be taken prisoners, but, in consideration of the brave defences
-they had made, military and naval officers and civil officials attached
-were to be allowed to bear arms, keep their private property of
-immediate necessity of daily life, and also to return to Russia upon
-parole not to take, till the end of the war, arms or action opposed to
-Japan's interest. Forts Itszshan, Antszshan and the others outstanding
-were to be surrendered to the Japanese before noon, January 3rd, as a
-guarantee.
-
-[Sidenote: "Great Sovereign! Forgive!"]
-
-The whole world was filled with sympathy and admiration for the gallant
-soldiers whose valor and endurance had withstood so long such heavy
-odds and such a fearful strain. These feelings were intensified by the
-lurid accounts which, now that concealment could no longer be of
-service, were published of the awful sufferings of the garrison during
-the later stages of the siege. An officer of one of the destroyers that
-escaped to Chifu on January 1st thus described the conditions which had
-compelled surrender:--
-
-"Port Arthur falls of exhaustion--exhaustion not only of ammunition but
-also of men. The remnant left was doing heroes' work for five days and
-five nights, and yesterday it had reached the limit of human endurance.
-In the casemates of the forts one saw everywhere faces black with
-starvation, exhaustion and nerve strain. You spoke to them and they did
-not answer, but stared dumbly in front of them. Lack of ammunition
-alone would not have prompted any attempt to arrange terms. Lack of
-ammunition has been common in the fortress during the past months. Many
-forts had nothing with which to return the fire of the enemy. The
-Russians sat in the casemates firing no more than one shot to the
-Japanese 200. Then, when the assault came, they repulsed the enemy with
-the bayonet. But the men themselves, feeding for three months on
-reduced rations, were so worn that it is marvelous that they stood the
-final strain so long."
-
-In his last dispatches, written just before the capitulation, General
-Stoessel himself said:--
-
-"The position of the fortress is becoming very painful. Our principal
-enemies are scurvy, which is mowing down the men, and 11-inch shells,
-which know no obstacle and against which there is no protection. There
-only remains a few persons who have not been attacked by scurvy. We
-have taken all possible measures, but the disease is spreading. The
-passive endurance of the enemy's bombardment with 11-inch shells, the
-impossibility of reply for want of ammunition, the outbreak of scurvy,
-and the loss of a mass of officers--all these causes diminish daily the
-defence.
-
-"The tale of losses of higher officers is an indication of the enormous
-losses which we have sustained. Of ten generals, two, Kondrachenko and
-Tserpitsky, have been killed; one, Raznatovsky, is dead; two are
-wounded, myself and General Nadeine; and one Gorbatovsky, is suffering
-from contusions. The percentage of other superior officers who were
-killed or died of disease or were wounded several times is enormous.
-Many companies are commanded by ensigns, and on an average each company
-is at present composed of not more than sixty men."
-
-It was stated that of the original garrison of 35,000 men, no less than
-11,000 had been killed, while 16,000 were sick or wounded, and 8,000
-remained in the forts, of whom, however, 2,000 were unable to fight.
-
-These are the words in which General Stoessel announced to the Czar the
-surrender of Russia's "impregnable stronghold":--
-
-"Great Sovereign! Forgive! We have done all that was humanly possible.
-Judge us, but be merciful. Eleven months of ceaseless fighting have
-exhausted our strength. A quarter only of the defenders, and one-half
-of these invalids, occupy twenty-seven versts of fortifications without
-support and without intervals for even the briefest repose. The men are
-reduced to shadows."
-
-Even the Japanese were at first impressed with the same view of the
-situation, for they reported that of 25,000 combatants, 20,000 were
-sick or wounded.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Occupy the Fortress]
-
-The greatest good feeling prevailed between the two armies after the
-surrender had been completed. The soldiers fraternized freely, and the
-Japanese did all in their power to deprive the situation of all trace
-of humiliation for their vanquished enemy. General Stoessel and General
-Nogi lunched together and exchanged fraternal compliments, but the
-bearing of the two men was strongly contrasted. There was a note of
-theatricality in the Russian's conduct which was significant. Having
-mounted his favorite charger and shown its paces to the Japanese
-victor, he begged to be allowed to present it to him--a proposal which
-General Nogi put by with the matter-of-fact observation that the horse
-already belonged to the Japanese Army, and that he could not accept it
-as a personal gift. But still all the world rang with praises of the
-heroic Russian garrison; and the German Emperor, with characteristic
-impetuosity, constituted himself a sort of supreme umpire, and with a
-great flourish of trumpets presented to the leaders of the two
-contesting forces in this historic siege the Prussian Order, "Pour le
-Merite." The Russians marched out of Port Arthur on the 7th of January,
-and the Japanese entered on the following day; and then the reports as
-to the condition of Port Arthur suddenly underwent a remarkable change.
-It slowly leaked out that the surrendered force amounted not to 20,000,
-most of whom were _hors de combat_ from wounds or disease, but to
-48,000, of whom 878 officers and 32,000 men were still available for
-the defence of the fortress. There were also discovered no less than
-80,000 tons of coal and enough rice and flour to provision the garrison
-for two months. The troops, moreover, discovered no sign of starvation
-or exhaustion. They were found to be in splendid condition and well
-fed. Even the ammunition was very far from being exhausted. For the
-guns in the forts 82,670 rounds remained; 30,000 kilogrammes of powder;
-and 2,266,800 cartridges for rifles. "There are no signs of privation,"
-wrote one correspondent. "The surrender is inexplicable." The town
-itself showed few signs of bombardment; and the only serious deficiency
-in stores was in meat and medical comforts. Then the sinister report
-came that the real weakness of the garrison was in the conduct of many
-of the regimental officers, who habitually applied for leave when
-attacks were expected, and left the command to sergeants. It was also
-declared that General Stoessel, far from having been coerced by his
-staff into surrender, had himself overridden their protests against
-capitulation. The real hero of the siege, it appeared from the same
-account, was not General Stoessel at all, but General Kondrachenko, who
-was killed by a shell on December 18th. After that calamity the spirits
-of the garrison never recovered. One of the Russian Admirals who was
-made prisoner at Port Arthur is responsible for this version of the
-facts, and his view was summarized in the following words: "It is
-difficult for a Russian officer to talk about the end. It was worse
-than a mistake, it was a disgrace. The fortress could easily have held
-out another month. We had food and ammunition sufficient for that
-period, and if Kondrachenko had been alive we should have held out for
-months longer. In Kondrachenko the garrison lost not only a leader, but
-the one man who had the power, through his tremendous earnestness, to
-control General Stoessel."
-
-[Sidenote: Discreditable Surrender]
-
-This view, startling and disconcerting as it is, was strongly confirmed
-by Dr. Morrison, the famous Peking correspondent of the London _Times_,
-to whom special facilities for inspecting Port Arthur were afforded
-immediately after the surrender had taken place. He was immensely
-impressed with the stupendous strength of the positions held by the
-Russians, and of the incredible heroism displayed in their capture, but
-he could find no explanation for the surrender. There were, he said,
-25,000 able-bodied soldiers, and several hundred officers unscathed by
-wound or disease. Only 200 officers were killed all through the siege,
-and of those found in hospital a number were undoubted malingerers. As
-to the failure of ammunition, Dr. Morrison pointed out that thousands
-of rounds were fired off aimlessly for two days before the surrender,
-that thousands more were thrown into the harbor, and that yet a large
-quantity was found in store by the Japanese. The largest of the naval
-magazines was discovered "full to the roof" with all kinds of
-ammunition. Food was plentiful and the new town was uninjured by
-bombardment.
-
-"Those who have witnessed the condition of the fortress," Dr. Morrison
-summed up, "contrasting the evidence of their eyes with the astounding
-misrepresentations of General Stoessel, had their sympathy turned into
-derision, believing that no more discreditable surrender has been
-recorded in history."
-
-[Illustration: THE EVACUATION OF PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The End of the Siege of Port Arthur]
-
-If it is difficult to disbelieve statements of this kind coming from
-several independent and well-accredited sources, it is painful to have
-to accept them. But whatever record leap to light, nothing can detract
-from the splendid gallantry and dogged tenacity of the Russian common
-soldiers who fought in a manner worthy of the greatest traditions of
-their race. Thanks to their qualities, such a redoubtable foe as the
-Japanese had been held at bay for six months, and his victory had only
-been obtained at a cost of life truly appalling. Officially the
-casualties of the besieging army were put at 55,000 from first to last;
-but this number was probably very largely exceeded. Heavy as was the
-price that had been paid, however, it was not too heavy for the
-advantage obtained. First there was the satisfaction to the national
-sentiment of pride in recapturing the fortress which, after having once
-been won by force of arms, had been filched away by diplomatic
-intrigue. Next there was the wresting from the enemy of the emblem of
-his dominion in the Far East, and the only base on which his naval
-power could rest. The loss of Port Arthur was to Russia not only the
-loss of a great fortress but the denial of all access to the sea.
-Finally, and most immediately important, was the capture in a more or
-less battered condition, of five battleships and two first-class
-cruisers, which might at any time have helped to turn the balance of
-naval power against Japan. An examination of the derelict warships
-revealed the fact that in spite of all the hammering they had received,
-four might possibly be repaired and added to the navy of Japan. The
-_Sevastopol_, the _Retvisan_, and the _Pobieda_ were injured beyond
-hope; but the _Peresviet_, the _Poltava_, the _Pallada_ and the _Bayan_
-were possibly recoverable. So ended one of the most memorable sieges in
-the history of the world--to prove that, in spite of all the inventions
-of scientific warfare, no defences that can be constructed by man are
-impregnable to man when he unites, like the Japanese soldier, the
-qualities of fearlessness, discipline, patriotism and high-training.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER TWELVE MONTHS.
-
-The battle of the Sha-Ho, October 10 to 18, began by a Russian advance,
-but ended in a victory for Japan. The rival armies then settled down
-into winter quarters, and, save for an occasional skirmish, remained
-quiet until the end of January, when the Russians made a futile attempt
-to turn the Japanese left at Sandepu. The siege of Port Arthur,
-meantime, was carried on vigorously. High Hill (203 Metre Hill) was
-captured on November 30, East Keekwan Fort on December 18, and
-Erlungshan ten days later. On the last day of the year Sungshushan was
-taken, and on January 1 the fortress surrendered.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-
-  End of First Year--Changes of a Year--Year of Disaster for
-    Russia--The Cause of the War--Japan Acts Swiftly--The Land
-    Campaign--Battle of Liao-yang--Battle of Sha-ho River--The
-    Naval Campaign--Vladivostock Ships Defeated--Siege of Port
-    Arthur--Port Arthur Surrendered--A Campaign Analysis--Gaining
-    Mastery of Sea--Japan's Main Ambition--The Rival Armies--The
-    Cost in Men--The Cost in Dollars--The Cost in
-    Ships--International Incidents--Lessons of the War--Chronology
-    of the First Year of War.
-
-
-[Sidenote: End of First Year]
-
-At this point it may be well to pause long enough to review briefly and
-summarize what had been accomplished in a year of the most tremendous
-fighting the world has ever known. One year of the Japan-Russia War had
-gone into history. On February 5, 1904, diplomatic relations between
-the two nations came suddenly to an end. On February 7, Japan seized
-Masanpho, Korea, as a military base, and on February 8 and 9 were
-delivered Togo's memorable blows to the Russian Asiatic fleet at Port
-Arthur. Thus the curtain went up on what since has proved one of the
-world's greatest war dramas.
-
-The record had been one of uninterrupted triumph for Japan. The year
-had yielded a score of battles, of greater or less importance. The
-story of each had been defeat for Russia. Judged by the objects for
-which Japan entered the struggle, her task was practically complete.
-But Russia, humbled again and again, remained obdurate. The war was not
-ended and could not be ended, declared those who seemed to speak with
-authority, until the tide had turned and Russia was mistress of the
-East, as she believed herself a year before.
-
-What changes had followed Japan's victories, Russia's defeats?
-
-[Sidenote: Changes of a Year]
-
-A year before Russia in addition to her own vast Siberian territory
-across all of Asia to the Pacific, was lessee of Port Arthur and the
-extremity of the Liaotung promontory. Port Arthur had been rebuilt and
-fortified, and the investments plus the value of the fleet in its
-harbor was fully $270,000,000. Dalny had been built and fortified as an
-auxiliary harbor to accommodate developing commerce. Here $100,000,000
-had been expended. From these vantage points Russia looked out over
-China and Japan and claimed dominance over the Orient. Her fleet stood
-sponsor for the claim. For the defenses of Port Arthur impregnability
-was claimed. It seemed that the Slav had completed a peaceable conquest
-and was immovably intrenched, invulnerable against war, irresistible
-for commercial gain.
-
-Further eastward her agents had penetrated to the northern boundaries
-of Korea. Slowly the Slav with his land-thirst was learning to covet
-the Hermit Kingdom. Commercial domination, political preponderance,
-each spreading in force and effectiveness, marked the first steps in
-this direction.
-
-[Sidenote: Year of Disaster for Russia]
-
-This was a year before. A year later Japan's flag was flying over Port
-Arthur and Dalny. Russia's fleet was destroyed. Her armies had been
-driven step by step northward 250 miles to the Sha-ho River. Japan was
-master in Korea. A protectorate had been firmly established, and
-Russia's dream of predominance there had probably been dissipated for
-all time. Japan's fleet was supreme in the Orient. With Russia's
-covetous eyes no longer looking out from Golden Hill toward Pekin,
-toward Seoul, toward Tokio, Japan had come into her own again.
-
-This was the situation as the first year of the war drew to a close.
-Japan's task, on the face of it, seemed accomplished.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cause of the War]
-
-Russia's aggressive policy in Manchuria and growing prestige in Korea
-alarmed Japan. Events which in February, 1904, culminated in war began
-ten years before when Port Arthur, won by Japan from China, was wrested
-away and returned to China by intervention of the Powers, notably
-Russia. The leasing of Port Arthur and vicinity to Russia and the
-granting of railroad concessions completed the wrong which rankled in
-the heart of Japan. Finally the Mikado's Government proposed to Russia
-a settlement by diplomacy of questions of paramountcy and trade
-privileges in Manchuria and Korea. Japan proffered recognition of
-paramountcy in Manchuria for Russia in return for preponderance by
-Japan in Korea. The "open door" in each territory was proposed with
-right of railroad extension through Korea to join the Manchurian and
-thence the Siberian roads.
-
-Russia refused to discuss her attitude in Manchuria and juggled with
-words relating to Korea. Negotiations ended when it became obvious that
-Japan's demands were not to be granted.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Acts Swiftly]
-
-War was the alternative, and Japan acted swiftly. On February 8 and 9,
-at Port Arthur and Chemulpo, the Japanese navy dealt the first blows.
-Korea was invaded by an army at once, and the march to the Yalu was
-begun. Manchuria was invaded after the victory at the Yalu of May 1. A
-dual campaign from that moment was developed. The supreme object was
-the capture of Port Arthur. To facilitate that task the Russian armies
-in Manchuria were prevented from marching to the relief of the garrison
-there. Blow after blow was administered by the Japanese armies,
-culminating in the great battles of Liaoyang and the Sha-ho River, each
-a disastrous defeat for the Russians, each to be numbered among the
-greatest military struggles of history.
-
-[Sidenote: The Land Campaign]
-
-Chronologically, the battle succeeding that of the Yalu, May 1, was
-fought at Pitsewo, May 5. Here the second Japanese army defeated the
-only Russian force opposing an advance on Port Arthur, until at Nanshan
-Hill and Kinchow, May 26-27, the garrison of the fortress was
-encountered in its outermost position. After the defeat at Nanshan Hill
-the Russians withdrew to the outer perimeter of Port Arthur, giving up
-Dalny without a struggle. At Vafangow, June 14-15, the Russian General
-Stackelberg, who had been sent southward by General Kuropatkin to raise
-the siege at Port Arthur, was defeated. His retreat northward amounted
-practically to a rout. The Japanese victory, as succeeding events
-proved, completely isolated Port Arthur, its defenders and the
-besiegers, and the great drama of the siege went on without even an
-attempt at interference on the part of Russia's Manchurian army.
-
-The Japanese fought a brilliant campaign of a score of battles between
-June 17 and July 31, which compelled the concentration of the Russians
-at Liaoyang, and precipitated the great battle there. Motien Pass was
-taken by General Kukori on June 17.
-
-On June 30-31, after a tremendous struggle in the mountainous region
-southeast from Liaoyang, Yangze Pass, likewise, was captured. The
-Japanese armies, through these defiles poured into the vast basin
-drained by the Liao River, and at Haicheng dealt Kuropatkin a severe
-blow, which drove his lines northward to Liaoyang and compelled the
-evacuation of Niuchwang.
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of Liaoyang]
-
-Haichang was a prelude to Liaoyang. After fierce fighting, the actual
-struggle before this strongly fortified position began on August 25.
-The Japanese army numbered 200,000 men against a probable 165,000
-Russians. Generals Oku and Nodzu delivered fierce and incessant frontal
-attacks from the south, while General Kuroki made a wide turning
-movement north to encircle Kuropatkin and to cut off his retreat to
-Mukden. The Russian General ultimately was compelled to meet this
-turning movement by withdrawing his entire army across the Taitse
-River, abandoning Liaoyang to the Japanese. General Kuroki was checked
-and the Russian army was extricated from a grave predicament in a
-masterly manner after a memorable retreat and rearguard battle of more
-than fifty miles. The battle had been designed as a crushing blow to
-the Russians, and would have proved such had Kuroki's turning movement
-been completely successful. As it turned out the Japanese had won a
-costly but indecisive victory. The Japanese losses are estimated at
-30,000 men. The Russian losses were about 20,000 men.
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of Sha-ho River]
-
-General Kuropatkin fell back to Mukden and there rested and reinforced
-his army. On October 4, he began a forward movement against the
-Japanese, which resulted in a new disaster to his army, the battle of
-Sha-ho River, October 8-18. The result of this long, sanguinary
-struggle was again highly indecisive. The Russian advance was checked
-at the Yentai mines, and thereafter Kuropatkin was forced step by step
-to the Sha-ho River. After ten days of battle human endurance reached
-its limit. Almost face to face, the exhausted armies halted.
-Subsequently the opposing lines stretched out along a line, generally
-northeast-southwest, for a distance of forty-five miles. The Russian
-army was reinforced to about 250,000 men, while the Japanese army
-numbered perhaps 300,000 men with reinforcements from Japan and from
-Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: The Naval Campaign]
-
-The opening of the war found the effective ships of Russia's Asiatic
-fleet divided among Port Arthur, Vladivostock and Chemulpo. In the
-battle of Chemulpo, February 8-9, the _Variag_ and _Korietz_ were sunk,
-narrowing naval interest to Port Arthur and Vladivostock. On August 10
-was fought the greatest naval battle of the war. The Russian fleet off
-Port Arthur was defeated and dispersed, and Vice-Admiral Witoft was
-killed on the bridge of the _Czarevitch_. The fragment of the fleet
-which returned to Port Arthur never again assumed the aggressive, while
-from that date until the surrender of the fortress Togo's squadron had
-only blockade duty.
-
-Other naval operations there consisted of desperate dashes to the
-harbor entrance by Japan's smaller craft and the sinking of merchant
-ships in the entrance to the harbor. A sortie by Admiral Makaroff
-resulted only in the flight of the Russians to port without giving
-battle. The disaster to the _Petropavlovsk_ happened just as the flag
-ship sped under the guns of Tiger's Tail and Golden Hill. Japanese
-credited the destruction of the ship to their mine-laying operations.
-
-[Illustration: COSSACKS IN RETREAT AFTER A RECONNAISSANCE NEAR
-LIAO-YANG.]
-
-[Sidenote: Vladivostock Ships Defeated]
-
-The Vladivostock squadron was defeated August 14 in the Sea of Japan.
-The cruiser _Rurik_ was sunk. The two other ships of the squadron
-ultimately reached Vladivostock riddled with shells. Repairs were said
-to have been completed. A renewal of the naval campaign would probably
-involve an attack on the sole survivors of the Russian fleet. A final
-naval engagement was the sinking of the cruiser _Novik_, of the Port
-Arthur Squadron, which escaped after the battle of August 10. Cruisers
-of Kamimura's squadron overtook her off Kamchatka, and the ship was
-beached there, a complete wreck after a fourteen hours' battle. The
-last act of the naval campaign was the destruction of the Russian
-battleship _Sevastopol_ outside the harbor of Port Arthur. The
-_Sevastopol_ took refuge under the Tiger's Tail. Repeated dashes were
-made by Japanese torpedo boat flotillas and the ship was riddled. Her
-final destruction, however, was accomplished by the Russians, who mined
-the ship to prevent possibility of salvage on the fall of Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Siege of Port Arthur]
-
-Japan's greatest and only decisive achievement had been the taking of
-Port Arthur. The investment and actual opening of the siege began May
-30, when the Japanese occupied Dalny, with their lines spreading
-westward to Louisa Bay, completely across the Liao-tung Peninsula.
-Between May 30 and November 30 the Japanese were engaged in taking
-position from which the attack on the main defenses of the fortress
-could be directed. It was tedious work. Probably between 30,000 and
-40,000 Japanese lives were sacrificed. In the meantime Fort Kuropatkin,
-an outer defense north of the Urlung Mountain group of forts, had been
-captured, while on the west the Japanese, after tremendous efforts, had
-stormed and taken 203-Metre Hill. The final assault was delivered from
-saps which had been driven through limestone, up the steep slopes of
-the hill, a task of enormous difficulty which compelled the victors to
-share laurels with the engineers who at prodigious cost in men and
-labor made the assault possible. The capture of 203-Meter Hill gave the
-Japanese an observatory which looked down on most of Port Arthur. Their
-artillery, largely 11-inch howitzers, no longer fired at random.
-Sighting was scientifically directed from the vantage point. Within a
-week the entire Russian fleet had been destroyed and the whole city lay
-at the mercy of the irresistible 11-inch shells flung over the
-mountains with unerring aim.
-
-From Fort Kuropatkin on the north the miner and sapper honeycombed the
-mountain sides with zig-zag trenches, which inched toward the crests,
-slowly, indeed, but surely. Outer works, one after the other, fell, and
-higher and higher the Japanese lines crept upward toward the
-fort-crowned summits. The climax came December 30. Vast mines under the
-main Urlungshan fort were fired. Before the smoke cleared the Japanese
-were flinging themselves over the shattered walls. In one grand climax
-to all the bloody work of the siege they annihilated the defenders of
-the fort and finally flung their flag from its battlements. With
-Urlungshan on the north and 203-Metre Hill on the west in their hands,
-Port Arthur lay completely at the mercy of the besiegers. The entire
-northeastern groups of forts fell in a day.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur Surrendered]
-
-Then came the end. On January 2, General Stoessel surrendered Port
-Arthur to General Nogi. The city, forts and fleet, represented a value
-of $270,000,000. The cost of the siege to Japan was $100,000,000. More
-than 30,000 men were killed, while 70,000 who fell, wounded, increased
-Japan's casualties to 100,000 men. Russia's original garrison of 38,000
-men was cut down during the eight months by 11,500 killed and 17,500
-wounded.
-
-The terms of the surrender were deemed liberal. All officers were
-offered freedom in return for their parole. Others were taken to Japan
-as prisoners of war.
-
-[Sidenote: A Campaign Analysis]
-
-Following the movements of the Japanese armies and fleets, it was easy
-to recognize the objects in view from the start, and to see that the
-campaign had been conducted with singular fidelity to the plan adopted
-at the beginning. The results were quite as complete as could
-reasonably have been looked for. There can be no doubt that a year
-before Russia had no serious thought of war; her policy was clearly one
-of bluff and diplomatic evasion and delay. With great foresight the
-Japanese Government had seen that war was inevitable and the sooner it
-came the better would be the position of Japan in the struggle for
-supremacy in the East. Her preparations had been made as carefully and
-completely as those of Bismarck when he chose his time to force war
-upon Louis Napoleon; and she moved with even greater celerity and skill
-than the Germans showed in the attack upon France.
-
-[Sidenote: Gaining Mastery of Sea]
-
-Japan's initial problem was to gain the mastery of the sea at the
-outset as an absolute essential; without it the employment of land
-forces would either be impossible or carried on at an enormous and
-perhaps fatal risk in the transportation of troops from the Japanese
-islands to the mainland Asia, or in supplying and reinforcing them when
-landed. The sea must be cleared of hostile warships before the war
-could really begin; and the complete success with which this problem
-was solved at surprisingly small cost rivals the brilliant achievements
-of the British navy which deprived the first Napoleon of any chance of
-success in war outside the European mainland, ruined his campaign in
-Egypt and made hopeless an attack upon the British Islands.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Main Ambition]
-
-Reviewing the results of the whole campaign, we can see that the main
-objective was the capture of Port Arthur; this largely from the
-military point of view, still more largely from the standpoint of
-sentiment, national pride, prestige with the world at large, and from
-considerations of statecraft. Japan had taken Port Arthur once before,
-from China, and was obliged to relinquish it to Russia. Its recapture
-this time no doubt meant more to the Mikado's subjects than any other
-result of the war; whatever else might happen, that was triumph enough.
-
-To the outside world Japan could hardly present a more striking proof
-of her prowess than the reduction of this fortress supposed to be
-impregnable; while in the final settlement at the end of the war its
-possession would mean an immensely important diplomatic point of
-vantage. From the strictly military viewpoint, the loss of Port Arthur
-took away from Russia the only hope of an effective naval base to which
-her Baltic fleet could safely resort, and from which she might hope to
-rebuild her shattered sea power. Vladivostock being manifestly
-ineffective, from its position to the north of Japan, as well as
-because it is ice-bound during a great part of the year. Oyama's
-campaign is thus seen to have been chiefly to give General Nogi a free
-hand at Port Arthur, keeping Kuropatkin well away from the chance of
-relieving the fortress. If the Russian army could be destroyed or
-seriously crippled, so much the better; but Oyama had evidently been
-quite content to take no risk of disaster to himself by trying to do
-too much.
-
-This seems to explain the apparent slowness and the ineffectiveness of
-his movements at times. He seems to have been satisfied to keep
-Kuropatkin simply in a position where he could do nothing to raise the
-siege of Port Arthur.
-
-The avowed purpose of Japan in beginning war was simply to drive Russia
-out of the Chinese dominions, which it had agreed to evacuate in the
-autumn of 1903, but had failed to carry out the agreement. The first
-year of war ended with the accomplishment of that purpose in as forward
-a state as could have been reasonably expected.
-
-[Sidenote: The Rival Armies]
-
-It is estimated that during the year Japan in all has had 490,000
-fighting men in her armies and navy. Of these 100,000 invested,
-besieged and captured Port Arthur. Three hundred thousand made up the
-armies in Manchuria. Sixty thousand are along lines of communication
-and in garrison at strategic points, while naval forces at bases and
-with the fleets numbered about 30,000. On land Japan's united armies
-were commanded by Field Marshal Marquis Oyama, while right, centre and
-left--each a completely organized army--were commanded respectively by
-Generals Kuroki, Nodzu and Oku.
-
-The Port Arthur army, then dwindled from 100,000 men to a mere garrison
-and police force, was commanded by General Nogi.
-
-The united Russian armies were commanded by General Kuropatkin.
-Prominent divisional leaders were Generals Stakelberg, Gripenberg,
-Linevitch and Mistchenko, the latter commanding the Cossack forces.
-Port Arthur was defended by General Stoessel, then homeward bound on
-parole to undergo court-martial, though commanding the world's
-admiration for the defense of Port Arthur.
-
-At sea Admiral Togo and Vice-Admiral Kamimura had led the Japanese
-fleets to uninterrupted victory. Russia's naval commanders had been
-Vice-Admirals Makaroff, Wirenius and Witzhdoft, while Rear Admiral
-Rozndestvensky commanded the Baltic squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cost in Men]
-
-The year's fighting had been enormously costly in men, and only
-estimates could be given. The total number of killed was estimated at
-125,000, of whom 65,000 were Japanese and 60,000 were Russians. The
-wounded numbered approximately 265,000, and with the missing the total
-casualties were swelled to 400,000 men. Of the wounded a very large
-percentage recovered. The Japanese losses exceeded the Russian,
-particularly at Port Arthur and in the battle of Liaoyang, the Russians
-being protected by fortifications which the Japanese attacked from the
-open. At the battle of the Sha-ho River the casualties were nearly
-even, the armies fighting under the same conditions. The accuracy of
-the Japanese artillery and rifle fire is accountable for the fact that
-the Russian loss is not far less, proportionately.
-
-Of casualties among her more prominent leaders, Japan has been
-remarkably free, while Russia has suffered heavily. Among her fallen
-leaders were Generals Rutkozsky, Krondrachenko, said to have been the
-real defender of Port Arthur, and General Count Kellar. Admiral
-Makaroff went down with the _Petropavlovsk_ at the entrance to the
-harbor of Port Arthur; Admiral Witoft was killed on his flagship in the
-naval battle of August 10. A loss in which all the world shared was
-that of the Artist Vassili Verestchagin, who perished with Makaroff on
-the _Petropavlovsk_.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cost in Dollars]
-
-The actual outlay of both nations for the first year of the war was
-about $800,000,000. Russian expenses were $500,000,000 and Japan's
-$350,000,000. To Russia's losses must be added the value of
-fortifications, property of all kinds, stores and munitions captured by
-Japan at Port Arthur, Dalny, Niuchwang, Haicheng and Liao-yang. These
-represent an outlay of approximately $500,000,000, in which is included
-the value of the ships destroyed in the harbor of Port Arthur. Russia's
-provisions for war expenses to the end of 1905 comprehended a total
-expenditure of $850,000,000. Japan's total outlay for two years was
-estimated to fall $200,000,000 below that figure. Both countries had
-negotiated foreign loans running from seven to twenty-five years, so
-that another generation would still feel the financial burden of the
-war then in progress.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cost in Ships]
-
-The war had spelled complete disaster for Russia's Asiatic fleet except
-for two patched ships of problematical effectiveness then at
-Vladivostock. Russia had lost thirty-five vessels of war of all
-classes. Of these the chief were: Battleships--_Petropavlovsk_,
-destroyed by mine at Port Arthur; _Retvisan_, _Pobieda_, _Poltava_, and
-_Peresviet_, sunk by guns from 203-Metre Hill; _Czarevitch_, disarmed
-at Shanghai; _Sevastopol_, blown up by the Russians at the fall of Port
-Arthur.
-
-Cruisers--_Boyarin_, _Bayan_, _Pallada_, _Varyag_, _Rurik_, _Rossia_,
-_Lena_, _Novik_, _Giliak_, _Bogatyr_, sunk, beached or destroyed;
-_Askold_, _Diana_, _Gromboi_, disarmed in Chinese ports.
-
-Gunboats, etc.--_Korietz_ and _Yenesei_ and twelve others including
-torpedo boats and destroyers, destroyed.
-
-Japan's losses in battle were confined to torpedo-boats and
-torpedo-boat destroyers, sixteen of such craft having been destroyed in
-attacks on Port Arthur. The battleship _Hatsuse_ was sunk, as were also
-the cruisers _Usiyako_, _Saiyen_ and _Yoshino_. Three transports were
-sunk by ships of the Vladivostock squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: International Incidents]
-
-On the outbreak of the war Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, proposed to the
-Powers that, jointly, they agree to guarantee the neutrality of China
-and call upon the belligerents to restrict the war zone accordingly.
-Counter charges of violations had been made by Russia and Japan. It was
-conceded that China had earnestly striven to fulfil her obligations
-under trying circumstances.
-
-On July 17 Russian auxiliary cruisers stopped, searched and seized
-neutral ships in the Red Sea, precipitating a grave crisis in which
-Great Britain took a conspicuous part. On representations of the
-British Foreign Office, Russia released captive ships and recalled the
-ships. The fact that they had traversed the Dardanelles for a warlike
-purpose was the basis of the protest.
-
-On October 22, the Russian Baltic fleet, passing through the North Sea
-en route to the Indian Ocean, fired on the Hull fishing fleet. Two men
-were killed, a number were wounded and one trawler was sunk.
-
-[Illustration: THE GARRISON OF PORT ARTHUR LEAVING THE FORTRESS.]
-
-The firing was alleged to have resulted from an attack on the Russian
-ships by Japanese torpedo-boats. After a week, in which war seemed
-certain, the question of culpability was entrusted by consent of both
-Governments to an international commission, to sit at Paris. A German
-vessel was also fired on by the Russian fleet, but Germany accepted
-Russian explanations and the owners were indemnified.
-
-[Sidenote: Lessons of the War]
-
-Some of the practical lessons gleaned from the actual warfare were
-these:
-
-(1) That torpedo-boats were craft of immense possibilities, capable of
-even greater development.
-
-(2) That the destroyer had proved a failure; of the 24 vessels of this
-type in and before Port Arthur not one made a hit.
-
-(3) That battleships were necessary to successful naval warfare.
-
-(4) That "team work" in armies, as exemplified in the Japanese
-movements, was a matter of primary importance.
-
-(5) That short range fighting was decidedly not a thing of the past, as
-had been believed.
-
-(6) That the use of hand grenades promised to introduce a new and
-particularly horrid form of attack and defense.
-
-(7) That modern fortifications were impregnable to direct assault,
-however effective a preliminary bombardment.
-
-(8) That the success or failure of sieges of modernly fortified
-positions depended upon the effectiveness of the engineer, miner and
-sapper.
-
-(9) That the floating mine was an instrument of destruction against
-which the most powerful ship was helpless.
-
-(10) Wounds inflicted by modern arms heal readily. While the war had
-demonstrated anew that one man in five was killed in battle, it had
-shown that an amazing proportion of the wounded were soon back on the
-firing line. The clean wound of the steel rifle projectile yielded to
-treatment even when vital organs were pierced. The medical records of
-the war were among its most notable features.
-
-[Sidenote: Chronology of First Year of War]
-
-February 5--Japanese and Russian representatives at St. Petersburg and
-Tokio given their passports.
-
-February 7--Japanese seize Masanpho, Korea as a troop base.
-
-February 8-9--_Varyag_ and _Korietz_ destroyed in Chemulpo harbor, and
-Togo attacks Port Arthur fleet.
-
-February 10--Czar declares war. Japanese occupy Seoul.
-
-February 11--Japan declares war. The United States announces neutrality.
-
-February 12--Sinking of the Russian mineboat _Yenesei_; 96 lives lost
-
-March 1--Kamimura's squadron bombards Vladivostock.
-
-March 27--Kuropatkin reaches Mukden. Japanese take Chongu.
-
-May 1--Kuroki crosses the Yalu, driving back Sassulitch.
-
-May 4--Japanese take Feng-hwang-cheng.
-
-May 5--Japanese land at Pitsewo and begin to invest Port Arthur.
-
-May 11--Russians evacuate Dalny, destroying the town.
-
-May 26-27--Battles of Nanshan Hill and Kinchow; loss, 5130.
-
-May 30--Japanese occupy Port Dalny.
-
-June 14-15--Oku defeats Stackleberg at Vafangow; loss, 11,000.
-
-June 17--Battle of Motien Pass; Russians driven back.
-
-June 18--Japanese take Kinsan Heights.
-
-June 30-31--Battle of Haicheng; loss, 5700.
-
-July 17--Russian cruisers seize neutral vessels in the Red Sea.
-
-July 25--Russian forces driven out of Niuchwang.
-
-July 31--Kuroki wins the Yangze Pass; General Count Keller killed.
-
-August 10--Sorties from Port Arthur harbor. Russian fleet dispersed and
-    in part destroyed. Vice Admiral Witoft killed.
-
-August 14--Kamimura defeats Vladivostock squadron; _Rurik_ sunk.
-
-August 17--Stoessel refuses to surrender Port Arthur.
-
-August 30-September 4--Japanese, under Oyama, defeat Kuropatkin at
-    Liao-yang; 365,000 men engaged; loss, 35,000.
-
-September 11--Baltic fleet sails from Cronstadt under Rozhdestvensky.
-
-October 8-18--Kuroki defeats Kuropatkin at Sha-ho River. Total
-    casualties, 61,000, with 23,000 killed.
-
-October 20--Armies go into winter quarters in and before Mukden.
-
-October 25--Kuropatkin replaces Alexeieff in supreme command.
-
-October 22--"The Doggerbank outrage". Two British fishermen killed.
-
-November 30--Japanese take 203-Metre Hill by storm, losing 12,000.
-
-December 30--Japanese capture Urlungshan fort.
-
-January 2--Stoessel surrenders Port Arthur to Nogi.
-
-The siege of Port Arthur takes high rank in the history of all war. Its
-capture was the most brilliant achievement of Japanese arms, and its
-defense perhaps the most glorious page in Russian annals. Invested on
-May 5, 1904, the fortress held out till failing ammunition forced the
-surrender of January 2, 1905--242 days. Direct attacks opened on August
-19. City, fort and fleet have been valued at $270,000,000; all were
-destroyed, at a cost to the besiegers of $100,000,000 and more than
-30,000 lives; fully 70,000 Japanese were wounded in the various attacks.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XV.
-
-  After Port Arthur--Raids in Manchuria--The Battle of
-    Sandepu--Kuropatkin Asks for Reinforcements--The North Sea
-    Inquiry.
-
-
-[Sidenote: After Port Arthur]
-
-With the fall of Port Arthur, the Russo-Japanese War entered upon an
-entirely new phase. Although the situation of the gigantic armies that
-faced one another across the Sha-ho River remained unchanged, the
-strategic problems to be solved by their instrumentality were in effect
-transformed. The struggle for the possession of the great naval
-fortress had operated as a vitiating factor in the military counsels of
-both belligerents. Japan had sacrificed between 50,000 and 100,000 of
-her best soldiers in bringing the six months' siege to a triumphant
-issue, and in doing so had, by dividing her armies, moreover, forfeited
-the opportunity of dealing a crushing blow at her adversary. The
-magnificent infantry that broke themselves in so many vain assaults
-upon the fortifications of Port Arthur might have enabled Oyama to turn
-the Russian retreat at Liao-yang into a rout, or to drive the Russians,
-after the battle of the Sha-ho, back beyond Mukden. On the other hand,
-Kuropatkin had found himself hampered at every turn by the instructions
-imposed on him from St. Petersburg to attempt the relief of the
-beleaguered fortress, by which was symbolized so much of the pride and
-prestige of the Russian Empire. In the game of chess a strong player,
-to handicap himself against a weaker, will sometimes undertake to mate
-with a certain piece. If the piece is lost, the game is lost, and
-therefore the player's defence is awkwardly compromised by being
-divided in aim--between protecting his vital piece and at the same time
-shielding his king from checkmate. Very similar was the task imposed on
-the unhappy generalissimo of the Czar, who, while trying to baffle
-Oyama's vigorous combination, had to keep one eye always on Port
-Arthur. The fall of Port Arthur at least set free both combatants from
-a distracting preoccupation, and to that degree it was a strength to
-either side. But its ulterior effects were much less evenly balanced.
-The capture of Port Arthur at one stroke deprived Russian arms of the
-possibility of complete triumph, whatever issue future military
-operations might have; and it secured Japan from the last lingering
-fear of disastrous defeat. When the remnant of the once powerful
-Pacific Squadron fell into the hands of the Mikado's soldiers, Russia's
-last hope of recovering, during the present war, the command of the sea
-expired utterly; and without the command of the sea, Kuropatkin's boast
-of "settling the terms of peace at Tokio" could obviously never be
-fulfilled. Even if invincible armies swept Oyama out of Manchuria, out
-of Liao-tung Peninsula, and out of Korea itself, there would still be
-the impassable Straits of Korea to render the victory barren and to
-impose their inexorable "Thus far and no further". As a matter of fact
-it became evident to the whole world that, with Japan supreme by sea,
-the continuance of the war would only be a costly futility for Russia,
-in which she had everything to lose and nothing to gain--a struggle in
-which she was exhausting herself to no possible purpose. Her adversary
-had already won the odd-trick, and the only doubt that remained to be
-solved was how near she would get to making grand slam. But the blind
-arrogance and reckless folly which had precipitated Russia into a
-wanton war for which she was utterly unprepared, were still obdurate to
-conviction even by the logic of such disastrous events. Nothing is more
-stubborn than wounded pride, or more blind than baffled vanity. The
-more desperate the situation, the more perversely bent became the
-bureaucracy of Russia in prolonging it, and in refusing to recognize
-facts which impeached the competence and sagacity of the existing
-régime. Already the strain of maintaining the army in Manchuria had
-begun to have its effect at home in widespread distress and growing
-discontent among the peasant and industrial classes. The characteristic
-remedy of the governing clique was to attempt not a cure, but a
-diversion. Kuropatkin was ordered to renew his activity and to achieve
-something that could be represented as a victory at any cost.
-
-[Illustration: THE BAMBOO GUN AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Raids in Manchuria]
-
-Since the last great battle in October--the battle of the Sha-ho, when
-Kuropatkin's ill-advised offensive had been converted into a perilous
-retreat that almost degenerated into disaster--the two opposing armies
-had been practically quiescent. Before they had either recovered from
-the exhaustion of their last tremendous struggle--before their awful
-losses could be repaired and their depleted stores and supplies could
-be replenished--the inexorable grasp of the Manchurian winter had
-fallen upon them and frozen them into immobility. While the last
-critical acts in the siege of Port Arthur were being enacted, the
-troops of Oyama and Kuropatkin were occupied only in maintaining a
-jealous vigilance on each other, and in digging themselves into their
-winter quarters. In a climate that is almost Arctic in its severity,
-where the temperature is regularly for weeks and months together 30 and
-40 degrees below freezing-point, active campaigning would be
-impossible, even if the deep snow under which the face of the country
-is buried did not make transport impossible. Each army proceeded to
-entrench itself securely and to construct huts or dig out shelters in
-the ground in which the troops could find it possible to sustain life.
-The sufferings of the devoted soldiers during these months of inaction
-must have been intense, and on both sides the roll of casualties from
-exposure and frost-bite was appalling. Week after week went by without
-any incident other than trifling affairs of outposts being recorded in
-the meagre dispatches given to the world by the authorities at Tokio
-and St. Petersburg. It has always been the Russian habit, however, to
-cloak failure in essentials by proclaiming success in trifles; and from
-General Kuropatkin came a steady trickle of trivial information about
-brushes between patrols and pickets, wherein the Japanese were always
-worsted, with the loss of a horse and rifle, or perhaps even of a
-cooking-stove. But on the very day that the negotiations for the
-surrender of Port Arthur were opened, a serious interruption to the
-long inactivity on the Sha-ho occurred. The Russians attempted for the
-first time a raid on the Japanese line of communications. It was an
-attempt that an enterprising enemy would have made long before; for it
-is to be remembered that every mile of the Japanese advance from the
-sea rendered them increasingly dependent on the railway which they had
-taken from the Russians. Their army on the Sha-ho was, roughly
-speaking, more than one hundred miles from the nearest sea-base,
-Niuchwang; and any interruption to that vulnerable line of
-communications must inflict much inconvenience at least on Marshal
-Oyama. The Russians, of course, were exposed to the same risk, and the
-long line between Mukden and Harbin had, in fact, frequently been cut
-by the Chunchuses--roving bands of fierce native horsemen, whose hatred
-for the Muscovite invader had proved a valuable auxiliary to the
-Japanese. Their activity, in many cases organized and directed by
-Japanese officers, compelled Kuropatkin to guard jealously every mile
-of the railway in his rear, and especially every bridge and culvert,
-and this necessity of maintaining large forces on the lines of
-communication seriously detracted from the effective strength of his
-armies in the field. The Russians' idea of giving their enemy tit-tat
-was at first merely tentative, however. A couple of officers,
-practically unattended, managed to make their way southward almost as
-far as Hai-cheng, which is itself some forty or fifty miles south of
-Liao-yang. There they succeeded in blowing up a culvert and tearing up
-some yards of railway line--damage which, though not serious in itself,
-was enough to encourage similar attempts on a larger scale. Kuropatkin
-knew that the bulk of the army which had been engaged in the siege of
-Port Arthur was about to be entrained northward, and that with these
-reinforcements for Oyama were to go the great siege trains which had
-been employed in battering the ships and fortifications of the captured
-fortress into submission. To cut off these reinforcements, perhaps to
-capture train-loads of men and destroy some of the enemy's most
-formidable artillery, would evidently be a great counter-stroke to the
-effect produced by the fall of Port Arthur; and so a great Cossack raid
-was authorized on the Japanese lines of communication. The scheme was
-admirably conceived and organized, and it achieved at least the first
-and most important condition of success--namely, a complete surprise.
-At the outbreak of the war it was predicted in many quarters that what
-must certainly turn the scale in favor of the Russian arms was Russia's
-overwhelming superiority in cavalry. The experience of the Boer War had
-left fresh in every mind the incalculable value of mobility. Now
-Russia, in her hordes of Cossack horse, possessed a cavalry which had
-the reputation of being unique in the world. "Other countries have
-infantry, artillery and cavalry; but Russia is alone in possessing
-Cossacks," said one distinguished general shortly after the outbreak of
-hostilities. But as the campaign progressed, critics began to revise
-their judgments. The terrible Cossack horsemen, for some reason or
-other, failed to play any considerable part in events. They attempted a
-raid in Korea from the northeast, but without any result, and in the
-subsequent fighting they found no opportunity for asserting themselves.
-The campaign was an infantry and artillery campaign entirely; and the
-notorious weakness of the Japanese army in cavalry was no impediment to
-their victorious advance. The war in Manchuria proved in fact that the
-conditions of the war in South Africa had been peculiar and
-exceptional. But at last the Cossacks were to be given an opportunity
-of showing their mettle. On January 8th a force of 6,000 Cossacks under
-General Mistchenko crossed the Hun-ho and began to march rapidly
-southwards. This formidable force, composed of three brigades, was
-accompanied by six batteries of light artillery, and in its
-organization everything had been done to give to it the _maximum_ of
-mobility. The Hun-ho, which Mistchenko's division crossed immediately
-after setting out, is a tributary of the Liao River, into which it
-flows some forty or fifty miles above Niuchwang. While the course of
-the Liao is roughly due north, that of the Hun is northeast, or almost
-directly in the line from Mukden to Niuchwang. The severity of the
-weather had moderated and was most favorable for the movement of such a
-great body of mounted men, who swept down the vast Liao plain on a
-front extending for five miles. By the second night Mistchenko's three
-brigades had reached the confluence of the Liao and the Hun, and there
-they made the first contact with the enemy. A Japanese convoy was
-captured, but the escort succeeded in making its escape, and from that
-moment it was impossible to conceal knowledge of the movement from the
-enemy. With their characteristic thoroughness--which throughout this
-war has left nothing unforeseen and nothing unprovided for--the
-Japanese had organized a plan for giving instant warning of a raid on
-the line to the troops guarding all the depots and the lines of
-communication, in case of any surprise attack such as that devised by
-Mistchenko. Great beacon fires had been laid at intervals up and down
-the country, and the kindling of one of these--the signal of
-approaching danger--was sufficient to set the whole plain from
-Niuchwang to Liao-yang ablaze with warning flame. No sooner had the
-Cossacks made their first capture than a house in the village which
-they had entered suddenly began to emit heavy columns of black smoke,
-followed by leaping tongues of fire; and so well had the house been
-filled with combustibles, that every effort to extinguish the fire was
-vain. Nor had the portent been unobserved. As soon as darkness closed
-on the scene, the horizon north, south and east was illuminated with
-the answerable flash of innumerable beacons that passed on from one to
-another the tidings of the enemy's approach. All hope of surprise being
-now at an end, the only resource left was to strike swiftly before
-troops could be hurried down from the front to the threatened points on
-the railway. Mistchenko's division separated into three bodies--one
-moving due south towards Niuchwang, another making due east for the
-railway above Haicheng, and the third striking southeast towards
-Tashichao, where the branch-line from Niuchwang meets the main line
-running north and south. The third body almost immediately encountered
-a force of Chunchuses, 500 strong, armed with Mausers and led by
-Japanese officers. This force, though overwhelmingly outnumbered,
-fought with desperate bravery until they were cut to pieces. At another
-village, held by 500 Japanese infantry, the raiders again encountered a
-stubborn resistance which they could not overcome; but they swept on
-southwards, and reached Old Niuchwang at noon on January 11th. Here
-some 50 Japanese soldiers, the only garrison, shut themselves in a
-house, and, refusing to surrender, held their own. But they could not
-prevent the enemy from wreaking destruction on the stores which had
-been accumulated in the town; and many large transports were burnt.
-Yinkow, or the port of Niuchwang, had for many months been the
-principal base of supplies for Oyama's army, as being the seaport
-nearest to the front, and to work havoc at this vital depot was the
-principal purpose of Mistchenko's raid. On January 12th the Cossacks
-approached Yinkow Station, where army stores of enormous value had been
-accumulated, and opened fire with their six batteries. But the
-promptitude of the Japanese commanders foiled the attack at this
-critical point. In spite of the cutting of the line north and south of
-Hai-cheng, reinforcements had been got through, and the attack on
-Yinkow Station was resisted by 1,000 riflemen, well entrenched. Against
-their accurate and well-sustained fire Mistchenko's Cossacks, in spite
-of artillery support, could make no headway; and as the casualty list
-mounted up, the Russian general was obliged to draw off, lest the
-mobility of his retreat should be encumbered by too many wounded. Some
-damage was done to the station buildings, but it was trivial compared
-with that which the raiders had set out to effect; and from that moment
-the only concern of Mistchenko was how to make good his escape from the
-forces that were rapidly concentrating upon his line of retreat. He had
-failed not only to destroy the stores of the enemy, but even to inflict
-any serious damage on the railway line. The boast of his detachments
-detailed for the latter purpose that they had torn up 600 yards of line
-north of Hai-cheng, and had blown up the bridge at Tashichao, were
-obvious exaggerations; or it would not have been possible for the
-Japanese to move down the reinforcements that secured the repulse of
-the attack on Yinkow Station. With the whole country roused against
-him, Mistchenko, encumbered as he was with many wounded, might have
-found it difficult to break back over the 80 or 100 miles to be
-traversed before he could count himself in safety. His horses and men
-were both more or less exhausted with the five days' continuous
-marching and fighting; but an easy and convenient resource was open to
-him by simply invading and passing through neutral Chinese territory.
-On the outbreak of the war, the belligerents, at the instigation of the
-Powers, led by the United States, had agreed to respect absolutely the
-neutrality of China, and to confine military operations to the left or
-eastern side of the great Liao River. But necessity knows no law, and
-Mistchenko, finding that his road northward from Niuchwang was blocked
-by a strong force detached by Oku for the purpose of intercepting his
-retreat, promptly wheeled westward and crossed the Liao River some
-miles below its junction with the Hun-ho. Thenceforth his progress was
-easy. It was as if a football player were to run down the field behind
-the touch-lines in order to reach the goal. The flagrancy of the
-stratagem would have called for less remark if Russia had not chosen
-this precise moment to address representations to the Powers
-complaining of acts done by the Japanese in violation of China's
-neutrality. As it was, the casualties suffered were heavy--at least 500
-all told--and though it was ostentatiously announced from St.
-Petersburg that such raids would in future be of frequent occurrence,
-this descent upon Niuchwang remained a solitary as well as a barren
-enterprise.
-
-[Sidenote: The Battle of Sandepu]
-
-But again the inactivity of the armies was to be broken before the
-month of January had come to an end. The second Manchurian army, the
-command of which had been committed to General Gripenberg, had now been
-brought up to strength, and almost immediately proceeded to put itself
-in evidence. On the 25th General Kuropatkin telegraphed to the Czar
-announcing briefly two facts--that the offensive had been begun against
-the enemy on the right (or western) flank; and that the thermometer
-registered 16 degrees of frost. The full significance of this message
-only appeared a few days later, when it was revealed that an attempt in
-force was being made to turn the Japanese left. The main objective of
-the Russian attack was the village of Sandepu, the main northwest
-position of the Japanese left army. It will be remembered that after
-the battle of Yentai or the Sha-ho, which took place in October, the
-Japanese were left holding a front of fifty miles or more along the
-south bank of the Sha-ho, a tributary to the Hun-ho, running roughly
-due east and west at a distance of ten or fifteen miles south of
-Mukden. The Russian position faced the Japanese on the other bank of
-the Sha-ho, and then inclined away northwest in the direction of
-Hsinmintun, a Chinese town on the west bank of the Liao River, from
-which the Russian army had for a long time been drawing large supplies,
-in contempt of the neutrality of China. Sandepu is over thirty miles
-south of Mukden, and lies in the angle made by the Hun River with the
-railway. It consists of some hundred houses, or farmsteads, each
-surrounded by high walls of sun-dried bricks, about three feet thick.
-Loop-holed for musketry, these walls, form an admirable defence,
-especially as the surrounding country is quite open and flat. But at
-this season of the year, the Hun-ho, which is a natural defence to the
-flank of an army resting on Sandepu, is frozen over to a thickness of
-several feet, and can be safely crossed both by men and transport. The
-Russians, 85,000 strong, and with no less than 350 guns, moved
-southwards down the right bank of the Hun-ho until they reached a point
-a few miles southwest of Sandepu, and there they crossed the frozen
-river and occupied two villages in which the Japanese had stationed
-outposts. On the 26th the Russians, who had at the same time crossed
-the Hun at Chang-tau, again advanced, encountering a steadily
-increasing resistance and seized after a fierce fight the village of
-Sha-ho-pu, a few miles northeast of Sandepu, and from that moment the
-action became general. The capture of Sandepu was essential to any
-attempt to roll up the Japanese left, and to this object the Russian
-forces now set themselves with fierce determination. On January 27th,
-after giving an account of much promiscuous fighting, General
-Kuropatkin announced to the Czar that "in the evening, after a
-desperate fight, our troops having, with the help of the sappers,
-surmounted all artificial obstacles entered the village of Sandepu,
-which is large and strongly entrenched." Unfortunately, however, for
-the triumph of the Russian arms, this announcement proved to be
-premature--or rather to be an incomplete version of the actual fact.
-The Russian troops entered Sandepu only to be driven back after a
-desperate struggle; and the indomitable Japanese infantrymen who manned
-the loop-holed walls of the hamlet were never dislodged from their
-position. This successful stand was the turning point of the battle. It
-checked the flank movement of the Russians and gave Oku time to bring
-up his reinforcements and deliver his counter-stroke. The Russian
-attack had been from the west and northwest, the object being to
-envelop the Japanese extreme left. The movement was met by an extension
-of the Japanese left, which in turn threatened to outflank the
-outflankers. On the southwest of Sandepu the Russians were driven back
-along the line of the Hun-ho, and soon the battle centred about the
-village of Heikautai, a few miles southwest of Sandepu. That this was
-no mere affair of outposts may be gathered from the fact that the
-Russian force was made up of two divisions of the Eighth Army Corps,
-two brigades of Russo-European Rifles, one division of the Tenth Army
-Corps, part of a division of reserve infantry, and part of the First
-Siberian Army Corps, and a large force of Cossacks under Mistchenko. On
-the 27th and 28th, the fighting became desperately fierce and after the
-Japanese had succeeded in carrying Heikautai and the surrounding
-positions, they were exposed to repeated night attacks before the
-Russians at last made up their minds to accept defeat. From Russian
-sources came the usually inconsistent story--a story in which a long
-series of unbroken successes culminated inexplicably in an admission of
-failure and retreat. It now appeared that far from capturing Sandepu,
-the Russian column that attacked that place lost twenty-four officers
-and 1,600 men killed and wounded by coming unexpecedly upon "a triple
-row of artificial obstacles" on the ground swept by artillery and
-machine-gun fire which the Russian gunners could not subdue. This
-intelligence came as a severe disappointment to the friends of Russia,
-who had begun to believe that the tide of war had at last begun to
-turn, and that Russian arms were about to secure their first victory.
-Eager strategists in St. Petersburg pointed out that Sandepu was only
-twenty or thirty miles from Liao-yang, and that its retention would be
-such a serious menace to the Japanese line of retreat that the
-evacuation of the whole position on the Sha-ho would be a necessity.
-Alas! while these fascinating speculations were being indulged in, the
-Russian Army of the right was already in full retreat, and was indeed
-suffering appalling losses in the effort to extricate itself from the
-toils of the enemy. The fighting round Heikautai lasted five days, and
-the issue almost to the last hung in doubt. The capture of Heikautai
-had become necessary to the security of the Japanese position, but
-repeated attacks on it had been repulsed. The spirit in which the
-emergency was met is revealed in the laconic words of Marshal Oyama's
-dispatch. "Our object had not been attained, so I encouraged all the
-columns to make night attacks. All the columns of the attacking parties
-expected annihilation. We attempted several attack movements, but
-suffered heavily from the enemy's artillery, and especially from the
-machine-guns, but all the columns continued the attack with all their
-might. The enemy was unable to withstand our vigorous attack, and began
-to retreat at half past five in the morning. Our forces charging into
-Heikautai, occupied the place firmly and entirely by half past nine in
-the morning." The net result of the battle was to give the Japanese
-secure possession of a line east and west of Hun-ho and south of
-Mukden, and to inflict on the Russians casualties which certainly
-exceeded 10,000, and probably reached 15,000. In war especially "the
-attempt and not the deed" confounds. It is not the first step but the
-last that costs--not the attack, but the retreat after repulse. No
-sooner had the failure of this big attempt on the Japanese left been
-fully confirmed than it became known that the movement had been
-directed by General Gripenberg, the commander of the Second Manchurian
-Army. When, after the battle of Liao-yang, the Czar sanctioned the
-formation of this Second Army and committed the command of it to
-General Gripenberg, there was a great flourish of journalistic trumpets
-in the Russian and French press. At last Kuropatkin would have not only
-an "Army worthy of the might and dignity of Russia," but would have a
-lieutenant worthy of himself to share the tremendous strain of
-directing nearly half a million of men. The two Generals exchanged
-cordial messages, and then Gripenberg set out for Harbin to superintend
-the gradual organization of his Second Army. By the end of the year its
-units had been completed, and then the impatience of General Gripenberg
-to assert himself appears to have become uncontrollable. He conceived
-the movement against the Japanese left--a movement that might easily
-have achieved substantial results if the Japanese had not been so well
-prepared for it--and his direct responsibility for it was made patent
-to the world by the angry and undignified recriminations between him
-and Kuropatkin that followed the repulse. General Gripenberg
-immediately asked to be relieved of his command, ostensibly on the
-ground of ill health, but really as he allowed to be perfectly
-manifest, in dudgeon at the treatment which he alleged had been meted
-out to him by his superior officer. He claimed that his flanking
-movement had in fact succeeded, and that he only needed reinforcements
-to maintain the position he had won. He complained loudly that he
-applied very urgently for these reinforcements, but that they were
-withheld, and that he was not even supported in his retreat by a
-diversion in other parts of the field. A great victory had been within
-his grasp, General Gripenberg represented, and it had been snatched
-from him simply by the perverse inactivity of General Kuropatkin. So
-strained were the relations at headquarters that General Gripenberg's
-request to be relieved of his command was immediately complied with,
-and the General set off post-haste back to St. Petersburg to lay his
-complaints personally before the Czar. The quarrel was conducted
-practically in public by the advocates of the two rivals; and General
-Kuropatkin's friends were not slow to put forward his side of the case.
-According to this account, General Gripenberg's costly defeat was
-caused directly by his deliberate disobedience to instructions. He had
-been permitted to embark on his movement against the Japanese left on
-the strict understanding that it was to be only in the nature of a
-reconnaissance in force, and that a general action was not to be
-forced. While nominally accepting these limitations, General Gripenberg
-had in his heart rebelled against them, and had not hesitated to commit
-his army to a pitched battle beyond the reach of support, and in
-conditions of weather which made the movement of troops most
-undesirable. Finally it was contended that General Kuropatkin had done
-all he could to relieve the pressure on General Gripenberg by
-bombarding the Japanese right and centre, and threatening an advance in
-those directions. The wrangle could not but be ignominious, but at
-least more dignity pertained to the disputant who remained at his post
-and strove to repair the blunder that had been committed than to the
-disputant that threw down his responsibilities and went home in a pet.
-This view of the case seems to have prevailed with the Czar himself,
-whose reception of General Gripenberg was not cordial. According to the
-reports that came from well-informed French sources, the Czar took
-General Kuropatkin's part very decidedly, and administered to General
-Gripenberg a severe rebuke for his insubordination. Whatever the
-character of the frequent audiences which the disappointed General had
-of his Sovereign, the fact remained that Kuropatkin was maintained in
-the supreme command of the armies in Manchuria, and that while General
-Gripenberg lingered in St. Petersburg, if not in disgrace, at least in
-inactivity, General Kaulbars was definitely appointed to the command of
-the Second Manchurian Army.
-
-[Illustration: ON THE SLOPES OF OJIKEISHAN, BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Asks for Reinforcements]
-
-If this five days' desperate fighting scarcely affected the position of
-the two armies, it inflicted on the Russian armies the discouragement
-of another defeat at the hands of a numerically inferior force, and the
-moral effect of adding to this unbroken series of reverses is not
-easily computed. With troops less dogged and devoted than those of the
-Czar, demoralization would have set in long before. The anxieties of
-Kuropatkin were now aggravated, too, by circumstances which no
-generalship on his part could alleviate and remove. All through the
-autumn reinforcements had been pouring along the Trans-Siberian
-Railway, the carrying capacity of which had been stretched so
-wonderfully by Prince Khilkoff. But even the resources of engineering
-genius have their limits. They cannot contrive a pint pot in such a way
-that it will hold a quart; and the number of trains that can be run
-over a single line is fixed inexorably by circumstance. Kuropatkin's
-urgent and incessant demands for more and more reinforcements had been
-met in large measure, but only at the expense of the other traffic,
-including the carriage of military stores. The enormous supplies
-required to provision and maintain at war efficiency armies numbering
-half a million of men may be imagined, and for these supplies
-Kuropatkin had become increasingly dependent on the railway. The more
-reinforcements he received the more mouths he had to feed; and the
-longer the campaign endured the less reliance was to be placed on what
-a devastated and exhausted countryside could provide. During the
-earlier months of the war, some relief to the strain on the railway
-could be found by drawing supplies from Vladivostock, which in turn
-could be fed from over-seas; but no sooner had the destruction of the
-Port Arthur fleet been completed, than the inexorable Japanese
-established a strict blockade of Vladivostock, and cut off this last
-resource. While the wretched troops amid all the rigors of the
-Manchurian winter were in need of such ordinary necessities as proper
-clothing, fuel, and even food, vast accumulations of stores, more than
-sufficient to supply all their needs, were lying rotting on the sidings
-of the Siberian Railway, immovable because of the congestion of traffic
-on the already overburdened line. To add to the anxiety of the
-situation came the grave dislocation caused by the riots and strikes
-which broke out in all the great industrial and distributive centres of
-Russia after the fall of Port Arthur, and which revealed an internal
-crisis even more menacing than the military crisis which confronted the
-army in Manchuria. For weeks together, just at the moment that prompt
-and vigorous action was demanded, the whole administrative system of
-Russia was paralyzed, and the energies of its directors were absorbed
-in staving off domestic revolution instead of in organizing the
-measures for conducting a foreign war. On the other hand, the Japanese
-generals had not only the strategic advantage of being within easy
-distance of several sea-bases, but they also were able to rely on a
-system of supply which is perhaps the most perfect that has ever been
-seen in war. The minute prevision with which the necessities of a
-campaign on such an enormous scale had been provided for is well
-exemplified by the organization of the Army Medical Service. In spite
-of all the hardships and exhaustion to which General Oku's army had
-been exposed, for instance, the Chief Surgeon was able to report that
-from the date of its landing on the Liao-tung Peninsula on May 6th to
-the end of January there had only occurred 40 deaths in its ranks from
-disease. The cases of typhoid numbered but 193, and the cases of
-dysentery no more than 342. The marvelous character of this record may
-be realized by remembering how appalling were the ravages of disease
-during the South African campaign. Typhoid and dysentery in that war
-carried off infinitely more victims than shell or bullet; and if
-sometimes in their assaults on fortified positions the Japanese have
-seemed shockingly reckless of human life, it is to be remembered that
-in another and not less important direction they have shown themselves
-infinitely more careful of it. Such were the conditions as the long
-winter months drew to their close, and as silently the Japanese armies
-girded themselves for the great stroke which was in a few weeks' time
-to eclipse both in magnitude and consequence everything that had
-hitherto marked the progress of this epoch-making campaign.
-
-[Sidenote: The North Sea Inquiry]
-
-Meanwhile the unhappy Baltic Fleet protracted its embarrassing sojourn
-in Madagascar waters. Having got so far on the road to its appointed
-revenge, discretion overcame heroic resolution on the part of its
-Admiral. The nearer Rozhdestvensky came to his task of wresting the
-command of the sea from Admiral Togo, the less he appeared to like it;
-and finally the Armada which had begun its voyage with such a
-sensational progress through the North Sea, decided to continue to
-avail itself of French hospitality until it should have received the
-reinforcements of the third Baltic Squadron. While the Russian fleet
-was thus ingloriously hung up at Diego Suarez, the International
-Commission appointed to inquire into the circumstances of its exploits
-in the North Sea met at Paris, and having heard exhaustively the
-evidence in support of the British and Russian cases, at length issued
-its report. In spite of the preliminary rumors that the conduct of the
-Russian Admiral had been vindicated, the event proved that the justice
-of the British case had been as completely sustained as it could be by
-any judgment which was more diplomatic than judicial in character. The
-Admirals of the Commission, with the exception of their Russian
-colleague, found that there were no hostile torpedo boats present on
-the Dogger Bank; that the British trawlers did nothing to provoke
-attack; and that the firing to which they were subjected was
-unjustifiable. To coat this rather unpleasant pill, the Commissioners
-amiably added, in contradiction of the direct implication of their own
-findings, that their report threw no discredit either on the military
-quality or the humane sentiments of Admiral Rozhdestvensky.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI.
-
-  Rigors of Manchurian Winters--In Winter Quarters--Ear Muffs Won
-    by Yankee Thrift--Hot Baths and Hot Meals--Disease Conquered in
-    Camp--Wonderful Sanitary Record--Civil War Comparisons--The
-    Japanese Scientific--No Detail Overlooked--Wounded Rarely Die.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Rigors of Manchurian Winters]
-
-After the Battle of the Sha-ho River the two armies went into winter
-quarters prepared to face a Manchurian season with thermometer readings
-of 35 degrees below zero not uncommon and with a snowfall of enormous
-proportions to contend with. The Russians were better prepared to meet
-the situation than the Japanese since a large proportion of the Russian
-army hailed from Siberia or the northern provinces of Asiatic and
-European Russia and hence were inured to rigorous winters. Some
-thousands of the Japanese had come from the northern provinces of Japan
-and they, too, were well experienced in cold. But a large majority of
-the Japanese troops were from the southern islands of Japan, where
-rigorous winters are unknown. The Japanese army administration was thus
-confronted by a very serious problem. The story of the manner in which
-the problem was met and solved is among the most interesting of the
-chapters of the history of the war.
-
-[Sidenote: In Winter Quarters]
-
-[Sidenote: Ear Muffs Won by Yankee Thrift]
-
-When the positions of the various units of the army had been definitely
-fixed the whole army began, as a preliminary step, to burrow into the
-earth. Before mid-November the Japanese camp was no longer stretched
-over the hills south of the Sha-ho but had vanished from view under the
-hills. Along the whole front that stretched for nearly sixty miles
-underground galleries were excavated barely high enough even for a
-Japanese to stand erect. These were open at one end and at the entrance
-to each a charcoal burning stove was placed. A fire was kept burning
-continually in each of these thousands of stoves. The stove pipe,
-instead of jutting a foot or two into the air was extended along the
-roof of the dug-out to its end, then passed upward through the eight
-feet of soil that formed the roof. Fronting the open end long trenches,
-were dug and over them heavy protective bomb proofs of timber and earth
-were erected as a protection against the shells which with greater or
-less activity were hurled into the Japanese lines by the Russians
-throughout the winter. These underground homes solved much of the
-question of withstanding cold for in them the men were reasonably
-comfortable. Special clothing, too, was provided, and in connection
-with fur ear-muffs with which each man was provided an interesting
-story is told, one typical of the Yankee-like thrift of the Japanese.
-Five years before, the plague had been introduced into Japan from the
-Malay Peninsula. A vigorous fight was made and the disease was finally
-conquered but in the course of the fight the sanitary officials became
-convinced that the germs of the disease were being spread by rats. A
-prize was put upon the heads of the dangerous rodents. Millions were
-killed by the boys of Japan who delivered the rats, collected the
-bounty and gave no thought to what became of the carcasses. Nor did
-anyone, but when the army faced a Manchurian winter those millions of
-rat furs reappeared as warm ear protectors while a smile went around
-the world. So completely, in a thousand ingenious ways did the army
-officials conquer the cold and safeguard the army that throughout the
-winter it was even possible for every man in the army to have two hot
-baths a week. The bath in Japan is almost a religious rite, but the
-trooper bade good-bye to it, as he supposed, when he started for the
-front. Not so. Circular metal tubes were provided. These were sunk in
-the ground level with the surface. Ten feet away at the bottom of a
-trench a stove was placed heating a coil of pipes which went inside,
-around and around the sides of the tube. The tube served as the tub. It
-was filled with water and in a few minutes the hot bath was ready. In
-protected spots all along the lines Nippon could be seen hastily
-stripping beside the steaming hole in the ground. Then he would vanish
-until only his head was visible. As well as he could he scrubbed
-himself. Comrades raised him swiftly from the tube and swathed him in
-heavy blankets, wrapped in which he vanished over the edge of the
-trench and so into his underground home, clean and happy.
-
-[Illustration: A NIGHT ATTACK ON A RUSSIAN POSITION.]
-
-[Sidenote: Hot Baths and Hot Meals]
-
-Hot meals were cooked at the doors of the dugouts for the fifty
-occupants on improved portable camp kitchens. Telephones connected
-every battalion headquarters with its regimental headquarters and so
-throughout the army, every unit with the next largest and all with the
-general headquarters at Liao-yang. Great fur overcoats, pure wool
-underclothing, heavy uniforms well adapted for comfort and warmth; in
-every detail the Japanese were splendidly equipped for the ordeal of
-cold. Thousands of slight cases of frost-bite reached the hospitals
-after occasional sorties demanded by fitful attacks of Russian scouting
-parties, but there was none of this in the normal life of the vast army
-of nearly 300,000 men.
-
-The Japanese medical department during the winter made a wonderful
-fight against disease, that bane of armies, and continued under these
-unrecord of the actual campaign.
-
-[Sidenote: Wonderful Sanitary Record]
-
-Until now disease has always been much more destructive than shot and
-shell. During the brief conflict with Spain 268 Americans died of
-bullets and wounds, while mortality from disease reached the appalling
-number of 3,862, or about fourteen to one. In the Boer War 7,792
-English were killed in action or died of wounds, while 13,250 fell
-victims to disease. Of the Turkish army operating in Thessaly seven
-years ago, 1,000 men were lost in battle, while 19,000 died at the
-front of disease. Twenty-two thousand others were invalided home, and
-of these 8,000 subsequently died. This was a ratio of twenty-seven men
-killed by disease to one by bullets. Even more frightful was the
-experience of the French expedition to Madagascar in 1894. Only 29 were
-killed in action, while over 7,000 perished from disease. Compare these
-frightful experiences with the record of the Japanese. During the last
-nine months of 1904, throughout a difficult campaign, in a country
-noted for lack of sanitation, only forty deaths from disease occurred
-in the immense army in Manchuria commanded by General Oku. It is a
-wonderful lesson in sanitation Japan has taught to the world.
-
-While disease scored but forty victims in nine months among the
-soldiers of General Oku, no fewer than 5,127 officers and men were
-killed and 21,080 wounded. This shows that the period was one of great
-activity, of hard campaigning and severe fighting--which makes the low
-disease death rate all the more astonishing. Soldiers in the field
-cannot be looked after as carefully as those in camp; hygiene and
-sanitary surroundings are only temporary, and, therefore, more crude;
-dietetic regulations are more difficult to enforce. Of course, there
-were many cases of disease in Oku's army--24,642 in all--but the
-majority were of bronchial troubles, resulting from climatic
-conditions. Of beri beri, a malady peculiarly Oriental, 5,070 cases
-were reported. But the progressive Japanese seem to have gotten the
-mastery even of this, once notable, because of its mortality. It is,
-however, in battling with those most dreaded scourges of an
-army--typhoid fever and dysentery--that the Japanese have scored their
-greatest triumphs. Of typhoid fever they have had only 193 cases, and
-of dysentery only 342 cases.
-
-[Sidenote: Civil War Comparisons]
-
-During the first year of the American Civil War typhoid fever attacked
-8 per cent. of the Federal troops, killing 35 per cent. of the white
-and 55 per cent. of the negro soldiers who contracted it. But here is
-an army in the wilds of Manchuria larger than that of McClellan before
-Richmond, which had only forty deaths in nine months. The great
-American conflict was one of the bloodiest in history. In the Federal
-ranks, 110,070 men were killed in battle or died of wounds, while
-249,458 were sent to their graves of disease. Why is it the little
-brown islanders of the East were so successful in fighting the unseen
-foe?
-
-"Every death from preventable disease is an insult to the intelligence
-of the age," says Major Louis L. Seaman, late surgeon in the United
-States Volunteers, who returned from Japan during the war.
-
-"When it occurs in an army, where the units are compelled to submit to
-discipline, it becomes a governmental crime."
-
-"Disease bacteria," asserts another writer, in discussing the medical
-aspects of the Boer War, "are even more dangerous than Mauser bullets
-shot off with smokeless powder. Both hit without giving a sign to the
-eye whence they come, and of the two, the Mausers hit less often and
-hit less hard." It was through prompt recognition of these propositions
-that the Japanese held down their death rate from disease. Major Seaman
-relates that, in conversation with a Japanese officer early in the
-conflict, the subject of Russia's overwhelming numbers was mentioned.
-
-"Yes," admittted the officer, "we are prepared for that. Russia may be
-able to place 2,000,000 men in the field. We can furnish 500,000. You
-know that in war four men die of disease for every one who falls from
-bullets. We propose to eliminate disease as a factor. Every man who
-dies in our army must fall on the field of battle. In this way we shall
-neutralize the superiority of Russian numbers and stand on a
-comparatively equal footing."
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Scientific]
-
-When Japan started out to make war she did so upon a scientific basis.
-For many months in advance the store rooms of Tokio were crowded with
-surgical materials, cots, tents, bedding, ambulances and all kinds of
-hospital supplies, ready for any emergency, and under the personal
-example of the Empress the women of the land made bandages for those
-who might be wounded. Japan realized also that the keystone to the
-health of the army lay in the character of the ration provided for the
-individual soldier. So she set about to master that problem. First of
-all, the ration evolved was suited to the climatic conditions of the
-campaign. It consisted largely of rice, compressed fish, soy, army
-biscuits, a few salted plums, tea--all of which necessitate the
-drinking of large quantities of boiled water--a few ounces of meat and
-some juicy, succulent pickles.
-
-No more thorough or efficient medical preparation could be imagined
-that Japan made for her great conflict. Not only was the ablest of
-medical counsel obtained, but the members of that staff of the army
-were given rank and full authority to enforce their decrees. The
-Japanese had a medical director who ranked as a lieutenant-general. Six
-medical officers ranked as major-general. With every 20,000 men in line
-a surgeon ranking as brigadier-general, and all have power to enforce
-their orders. Every body of moving soldiers, however small, was
-accompanied by one or more medical officers, who were almost
-omnipresent, and were always watchful. Field and line officers and men
-were obliged to obey them without question. The solution of the greater
-problem engaged the attention of the medical corps. This was in
-preserving the health and fighting value of the army. Nothing seemed
-too small to escape the vigilance of the medical officers, or too
-tedious to weary his patience. He was with the first line of scouts,
-with his microscope and chemicals, testing and labelling wells so that
-the army to follow should not drink water that was contaminated. When
-the scouts reached a town, he immediately instituted a thorough
-examination of its sanitary condition. If contagious or infectious
-disease was found, he quarantined and placed a guard around the
-dangerous district. Notices were posted, so that the approaching column
-was warned and no soldiers were located where danger existed.
-Violations of such a notice was as great an offense as disobedience to
-a line officer on a battlefield. An officer with only the rank of a
-lieutenant might post the notice, and yet General Oku himself dared not
-disregard it. No foraging party ever set out to gather supplies unless
-accompanied by a medical officer.
-
-[Sidenote: No Detail Overlooked]
-
-He sampled the various kinds of food, fruit and vegetables sold by the
-natives along the line of march long before the arrival of the army. If
-the food was tainted, or the fruit over ripe, or the water ought to be
-boiled, notice was posted to that effect. In camp, too, the medical
-officer was always busy, lecturing the men on sanitation and the
-hundred and one details of personal hygiene--how to cook, to eat, and
-when not to drink; to bathe, and even to directions as to paring and
-cleansing the finger nails to prevent danger from bacteria. More than
-any other preventive, the boiling of all drinking water was insisted
-upon. Every Japanese soldier carried a small copper camp kettle with a
-double bottom. By the use of it he was enabled to boil water even in a
-gale. Charcoal was burned on the inside, the water being heated between
-two layers of copper. Great kettles for similar use in camps were also
-provided.
-
-Large bathing basins, or kettles, formed an important part of the
-equipment of each company. They were placed upon the ground and are
-ready for use in a few minutes after camp was made. In this way
-personal cleanliness was maintained. A troop might encamp beside a
-small stream, the water of which was needed for several different
-purposes. It was not scooped up indiscriminately, but the flow was
-divided into separate channels--one for drinking or cooking, another
-for bathing, a third for laundry service, and so on.
-
-[Sidenote: Wounded Rarely Died]
-
-Up to July 1, 1106 wounded were taken to Tokio, and of that number not
-a single man died. These men were shot in almost every possible way;
-six had bullets through the brain, nine had bullets through their
-chests, and six had bullets through the abdomen--and yet all got well.
-The medical service of the United States in its war with Spain was not
-any more discreditable when compared with that of Japan than the
-medical service of the English Army during its war with the Boers. The
-report of the English Hospital Commission, which inquired into the
-medical end of that conflict, shows that there was "an immense amount
-of needless suffering and misery." There is no attempt "to hide
-incompetency and unpreparedness under the platitude that 'was is war.'"
-Just as in the Spanish-American War, a large number of civil surgeons
-were employed for army work in South Africa. They had no knowledge of
-military duties nor of military methods and discipline. Consequently,
-they were ineffective, except when accompanied and, to some extent,
-controlled by officers of the service. They were absolutely without
-authority. Perhaps all these lessons were observed and absorbed by the
-keen-eyed Japanese. In any event, they have given the world the most
-pronounced examples of scientific warfare that the hoary old globe has
-ever seen.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE TROOPS CAUGHT IN BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENT.]
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XVII.
-
-  The Greatest Battle of History--Rout and Disaster for Russia--The
-    Ancient City of Mukden--The Tombs of the Manchus--A Flourishing
-    Mart--Betwixt Winter and Spring--The Line of Battle--Lone Tree
-    Hill--The Russian Position--The Japanese Task--Mukden the Real
-    Battleground--Russian Flanks Strongly Protected--Well Protected
-    on the East--Battled for Mountain Passes--Russians Had
-    Advantage of Position--The Outlook for Oyama--Busy Preparations
-    During Winter--Oyama's Plan of Battle--Nogi to Strike
-    Culminating Blow--"Out of the Way for Us"--Master Stroke of the
-    Battle.
-
-
-Not only the climax of the Japan-Russian War, but a climax to all wars
-was reached in the Battle of Mukden, fought February 19-March 13, 1905.
-This memorable struggle, resulting in a sweeping victory for Japan, was
-practically a campaign in itself. The results, a cataclasm which
-overwhelmed the Russian army, were not merely what had been expected
-for this one battle, but comprehended all that the Japanese had hoped
-for a year's campaign. It was more than rout. It remains a grisly
-monument to the potentiality of war to write horror on the pages of
-world history. It was more than defeat, retreat, disaster, it was
-practical annihilation for Russia's power of resistance in the Far
-East. Her vaunted military power was trailed in the dust, was
-obliterated. When the smoke of the contest had rolled away Oyama stood
-master of Manchuria with only a demoralized horde of the enemy "without
-form and void" fleeing in panic with no thought but to shake off a foe
-to whom no resistance could be offered.
-
-[Sidenote: The Greatest Battle of History]
-
-No nation in the world's history has faced a greater blow to its
-military prestige, and from the standpoint of the Japanese--no military
-force has achieved for its nation a more sweeping or more complete
-victory. The Battle of Mukden is destined to occupy a unique place in
-the story of the nations for these and other reasons. In point of the
-territory involved; in point of the number of men engaged; in point of
-the duration of the struggle; in point of the lessons, the authentic
-history of the world has no peer for its record.
-
-General Kuropatkin, the Russian Commander-in-Chief, had at the
-beginning of the struggle an army of 300,000 infantry; 26,700 cavalry,
-and 1,368 guns. This is the estimate of the Japanese intelligence
-bureau. On the other hand the German Military Review credited
-Kuropatkin with a total of 370,790 men of whom 36,790 were cavalry. The
-Germans estimate that the Russians had a total of 1,598 field guns, and
-72 heavy guns. Somewhere between these two estimates the actual
-figures, carefully concealed by the Russians, may be taken to lie.
-Marshal Oyama had 500,000 men of all arms and artillery equal to that
-of the Russians with a preponderating number of big guns, a great many
-having been moved from Port Arthur to the northern battleground. In the
-two armies therefore, there were in round numbers a total of about
-800,000 men.
-
-[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN.]
-
-[Sidenote: Rout and Disaster for Russia]
-
-The battle developed into a struggle for possession of Mukden, the
-ancient Manchu capital, near which lie the Imperial Tombs of the
-founders of the Manchu dynasty, a spot sacred throughout the length and
-breadth of China. The battle lines around this city stretched for one
-hundred miles. The fighting began on February 19. On March 7th the
-Russians already seeing disaster in the advance made by the Japanese
-under General Nogi, toward cutting off the line of retreat north of
-Mukden, fell back from the centre along the Sha-ho River and on March
-10 evacuated Mukden, beginning a retreat that was turned into a
-disastrous rout by the desperate flank attacks of the Japanese from
-both sides.
-
-The Russian losses to March 13, when the Battle of Mukden actually came
-to a close, were 175,000 men, killed, wounded and prisoners; 60 guns;
-25,000 rounds of small arm ammunition and immense quantities of stores.
-The Japanese casualties to March 12 were 41,222 killed, wounded and
-missing and several hundred of the missing were recovered in the
-capture of Mukden. The Japanese sent 43,000 prisoners to Japan as one
-of the results of the victory.
-
-[Sidenote: The Ancient City of Mukden]
-
-Mukden, round which the greatest battle in history raged, is, without
-exception, the most interesting place in the whole of Northern China.
-In the eyes of all Manchurians it is the one holy city in the world,
-for it is here that the tombs of the founders of the Manchu dynasty are
-situated. For this reason the Chinese Government demanded that the
-sacred precincts of the Imperial Tombs must not be violated by foul
-warfare, and both sides engaged in the horrible work of killing,
-entered into solemn undertakings to respect the sanctity of the famous
-burial grounds.
-
-The great city stands in the middle of a vast alluvial plain,
-surrounded by rich and highly cultivated land. The population of Mukden
-is over a quarter of a million, and the city is modelled on a similar
-plan to that of Peking, presenting an imposing appearance, in spite of
-the decay into which many of the ancient buildings have been allowed to
-fall.
-
-The railway, which runs north to Harbin, does not pass within a mile of
-the city, the Chinese having refused to allow the neighborhood of the
-sacred tombs to be desecrated by the construction of an iron road in
-the immediate vicinity. The station is consequently about a mile away
-from the city, but on alighting from the train, one is immediately
-struck by the sight of the tremendous brick walls, 60 feet high, which
-surround the inner town. This is built in the form of a square a mile
-wide, and entrance is gained through eight enormous brick gates,
-surrounded by watch-towers and batteries. Outside this, suburbs extend
-for about a mile in every direction, and the whole is surrounded by a
-mud rampart from ten to twenty feet in height.
-
-A little to the north of the city is the sacred shrine of Na Ta, and a
-mile to the east of this is the Temple of Heaven, where sacrifices of
-black cattle and white sheep are offered up in the Emperor's name. To
-the east of this pagoda, buried in the midst of a grove of fir trees,
-is the famous tomb of the great Chinese conqueror, Tai Tsung. Access to
-the tomb is gained through a great gateway, roofed with red and yellow
-tiles, down a long avenue flanked by colossal stone figures of animals,
-great marble columns, and stretches of high wall.
-
-[Sidenote: The Tombs of the Manchus]
-
-The other great tomb lies due east of the city, in the heart of a great
-forest. Here, amid similar walls, figures of animals, and decayed
-marble columns, lie the remains of Nao Chu, the father of Tai Tsung.
-The fact that both these sacred relics were surrounded by acres of
-forest made it likely that no violation, either by Russians or
-Japanese, would take place, though the possible misdirection of a shell
-from one of their heavy guns might very easily have ruined either of
-them. Such an accident would very probably have stirred the somnolent
-Chinese to their very depths.
-
-For an Eastern city Mukden is extremely clean and well kept. The
-Manchus are well known for their cleanly habits, which are often in
-striking contrast with those of the southern Chinese. The streets are
-well scavengered, and there are many most imposing, if not beautiful,
-private mansions belonging to wealthy mandarins. There are also a great
-number of handsome shops, and the centre of the city is always busy
-with the incessant movement and bustle which are only to be found in
-prosperous trading centres.
-
-[Sidenote: A Flourishing Mart]
-
-For Mukden is the centre of an enormous trade between the north and the
-south of China. From the north come enormous quantities of fur, and
-from the south millions of bushels of all sorts of grain, while in the
-immediate vicinity wheat, barley, tobacco, melons, and cucumbers are
-grown in the fertile plain which stretches away on all sides. The
-silkworm, too, is cultivated all round Mukden, so that there is never
-any lack of trade from one source or another, whatever the season.
-Mukden, in the Manchu language means "flourishing," and for centuries
-the city has lived up to its name.
-
-Two miles to the south of the city is a wide, sandy stretch of ground,
-twenty miles long, through which runs the Hun River, which can be
-forded almost anywhere. This approach to Mukden, forming the Russian
-center, was strongly held with sand-bag batteries. On the west of the
-town the very high railway embankment, running north and south of the
-river for many miles, was used to protect Mukden against attack from
-the west. The most vulnerable point in this line was the bridge over
-the Hun River, against which the Japanese delivered incessant attack.
-Mukden was strongly fortified by General Kuropatkin. The fortifications
-extended for nine miles, with forts and redoubts at intervals of a
-mile. The redoubts were all cleverly masked, and the line of
-fortification was protected by deep ditches and pits, all with stakes
-at the bottom, by wire entanglements, land mines, and a line of felled
-trees.
-
-[Sidenote: Betwixt Winter and Spring]
-
-Winter still howls over Manchuria when February is drawing to a close,
-but the early days of March, just as through the central United States,
-bring the first flush of spring. The ground remains locked in the grip
-of a frost that turns earth to steel to a depth of seven feet. The
-rivers are still securely ice-bound, but overhead the sun begins a
-mastery over the overpowering cold. If the nights remain bitterly cold,
-the days are increasingly warm and throughout the daylight hours
-conditions are ideal for the work of the soldier. The weather,
-therefore, fairly trumpeted a call to arms to the two vast armies that
-confronted each other south of the Sha-ho River. The earliest moves
-were made over whitened plains with snow storms still driving over
-hills and plain out of the bleak north. Marshal Oyama, the Japanese
-commander, evidently realized that the struggle would be long and,
-indeed, before its end winter had, in fact, given place to the opening
-days of spring. The advantages were many. The movement of artillery was
-facilitated by the hard surface of frozen ground and the ease with
-which ice-covered streams and rivers could be crossed. Lack of foliage
-deprived the army of the protection that so greatly aided the advance
-on Liao-yang, and so effectively shielded the artillery in that
-struggle. The broken nature of the country, the heavy calibre guns,
-firing from one to five miles with accuracy, minimized the disadvantage
-of fighting over a bare land and if lack of protection of foliage and
-growing crops added to the Japanese losses it failed to check the vigor
-or relentlessness of the advance once it had begun.
-
-[Sidenote: The Line of Battle]
-
-The lines of the two armies on the eve of the great battle, stretched
-from the Hun River, on the west, in a southeasterly direction south of
-the Sha-ho River, along that stream, then bending more southward,
-across the Taitse River, near Bensihu, at a point thirty-five miles
-east of Yentai Station, on the Harbin--Port Arthur Railroad. These
-lines had been determined by the battle of the Sha-ho River, October
-6-13, the end of the campaign of 1904. Strategically the advantage lay
-with the Russians. Though defeated in the memorable battle along the
-Sha-ho, General Kuropatkin had secured a position south of Mukden far
-superior to any below Tie Pass, the gateway to the great plains around
-Harbin, always regarded as the ultimate decisive battleground of
-Manchuria.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN RETREAT IN MANCHURIA.]
-
-[Sidenote: Lone Tree Hill]
-
-The whole lay of the land was adapted to defensive fighting. Along most
-of the front lay the Sha-ho River, broad enough and deep enough to
-demand bridging except when frozen over. The culminating event of the
-battle of the Sha-ho had been the recapture by the Russians of Lone
-Tree Hill, a mile east of the railroad, just south of the Sha-ho, at
-the very centre of the battlefield. From this point the Russians
-commanded a territory five miles in radius. The hill, naturally adapted
-for defense, was strongly fortified to a point nearer impregnability
-even, than achieved by any of the boasted fortifications of the
-mountains around Port Arthur. Thousands of Japanese were ultimately to
-immolate themselves on the slopes of Lone Tree Hill in vain efforts at
-its capture. It still stood invincible when events elsewhere demanded
-retreat and its abandonment. Westward the Russian line spread across a
-rolling country dotted with Chinese villages. The low, stoned walled
-cottages of these clusters of hamlets formed the basis for defenses
-which were well calculated to offer enormous resistance to troops
-advancing across the wide-stretching flats along the Sha-ho, and the
-east bank of the Hun, the only approach for the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Position]
-
-Eastward from the Sha-ho the defense line followed the foot hills that
-become mountains thirty miles east of the Sha-ho. In front flowed a
-river for twenty miles of the distance, and a vast level plain
-approached the river from the south, over which the Japanese right
-flank must make its advance. The Russian position was enclosed in a
-vast triangle with the upper angle between Mukden and Fushan,
-northward, its base the eighty-mile line from Madyanapu, on the Hun
-River, to Tsenketchen, thirty-five miles east of Yentai. Mountains
-protected the left flank; the Hun River protected the right flank,
-while Lone Tree Hill, and the Sha-ho River were chief elements in the
-strength of the centre. All the genius of the Russian commanders was
-exerted to find the weak spots in this long line. Artillery of the
-heaviest types, ranging through all the grades of siege and field guns,
-and the more mobile and most deadly machine guns were scattered with
-prodigality across the whole vast front then in receding lines to the
-apex of the triangle, where were arranged the defenses of Mukden and
-Fushan. To facilitate communications over the battlefield, two hundred
-miles of light railroad track was laid, and thousands of light cars for
-horse or man propulsion were in constant use carrying munitions,
-provisions, guns or whatever was needed, to depots from which every
-part of the battlefield was readily accessible. Telephone and telegraph
-wires connected the headquarters, just north of the Sha-ho River, with
-every command along the entire line. Crowning all, an army of 350,000
-men rested on its arms, elbow to elbow, along the front, as bulwarks to
-the flanks, and northward, thronging Mukden and Fushan, the reserves.
-This was the immediate situation on the Russian side that confronted
-Marshal Oyama.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Task]
-
-The Japanese task, however, was more than to defeat the Russian army.
-Criticism had followed the victory of Liao-yang because, despite the
-awful defeat administered, the battle had been indecisive. The Russian
-general had been able to extricate his army and by a masterful retreat,
-to realign his forces in a new position with no alternative but to
-follow and prepare to renew the struggle left to the Japanese
-commanders. The Battle of Mukden must be estimated in the light of an
-effort to prevent a recurrence of this feat by the Russians. The chief
-world interest centers about the strategy of Marshal Oyama to encircle
-his foe, to cut off his retreat completely and to force the alternative
-of annihilation or surrender. The geography of the country, its
-strategical features far afield from the actual Russian positions,
-therefore, become matters of moment which must be understood to permit
-a comprehensive understanding of the battle and its results.
-
-[Sidenote: Mukden the Real Battleground]
-
-Marshal Oyama's problem, as has been said, was to envelope the Russian
-armies. It was as though the Russian triangle were a bottle into which
-a cork must be driven. On the neck of the bottle, ten miles apart, are
-Mukden, on the West, and Fushan, on the east. Between these points the
-Russians would be compelled to disgorge in a retreat northward should
-the center be broken and a retreat became necessary. Here, then, was
-the Japanese objective. To take Mukden and Fushan, to drive the forces
-there southward toward the Sha-ho, and to place a force northward to be
-the cork in the bottle, driving back the retreat on the advance of the
-center, right and left armies, thus surrounding the Russians with a
-hoop of men and guns that would make escape or victory impossible. Thus
-it is that a battle that centered twenty-five miles southward on the
-Sha-ho River becomes officially known as the battle of Mukden, for here
-centered the really vital struggle of the whole memorable engagement.
-The Russian line of communication centers at Harbin, where the railroad
-which pierces Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula to Port Arthur,
-branches southward from the Siberian railroad, the artery through which
-flows life from St. Petersburg and European Russia to the Far Eastern
-armies. The whole Manchurian campaign has moved northward along this
-railroad, the salvation of the Russian army always depending on its
-ability to keep open at its rear this means of sustenance, of
-ammunition supply, of reinforcement supply, of transport of every kind,
-whether advancing or retreating. The railroad reached the actual
-Russian lines just west of Mukden and then continued southward to the
-Sha-ho, branching here and there to various field depots convenient to
-the various army units. Marshal Oyama's plan of battle comprehended, as
-its greatest achievement, the cutting of this railroad north of Mukden
-before a retreat could be made. This was the first and most vital
-contribution if the ultimate plan to envelop the Russians was to
-succeed. This plan failed and hence the prize of decisive, final
-victory slipped from the grasp of the Japanese commander, however great
-the blow he dealt to the Russian army.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Flanks Strongly Protected]
-
-General Kuropatkin was fully alive to the dangers on his flanks as well
-as at the front. His right flank rested on Mukden, but the actual lines
-to which were given the task of preventing the turning of the right
-flank were far afield from the actual city. To the southwest they
-extended to the Hun River, thirty-five miles away, while the far
-outpost was within touch of Sinmintin, a Chinese city, thirty-five
-miles westward of Mukden on the banks of the Liao River. Sinmintin is
-actually in the territory which was excluded from the theatre of war by
-the famous agreement proposed to the European Powers by John Hay, the
-American Secretary of State, by which the neutrality of Chinese
-territory was assured. Nevertheless, while not actually occupied by the
-Russians, Sinmintin was to all intents and purposes within their lines
-and was continually used as a receiving point for supplies bought or
-commanded in the Mongolian provinces. Cossacks in large force remained
-in close touch with the city while the road leading from Sinmintin to
-Mukden, a famous caravan route, was occupied by large forces of
-Russians and was regarded as an effective bulwark for the Russian right
-flank.
-
-The Russian defences on the right, or west wing of their army began
-just west of the Sha-ho River, extended thence westward for thirty-five
-miles to the Hun and then bent due northward across the left side of
-the Liao River Valley to a point a few miles east of Sinmintin; thence
-along the Sinmintin-Mukden road to Tatchekiao, five miles northward of
-Mukden; thence due westward until the line intercepted the railroad, a
-few miles north of Mukden. Lieutenant General Baron Kaulbars was
-commander of the army of nearly 100,000 men which made up this wing of
-General Kuropatkin's forces. The left wing's divisional commander was
-General Linevitch, who, with General Rennenkampf, stands among the
-greatest of the Russian commanders. Occupying a position to the Russian
-left flank exactly similar to that of Mukden on the right, is Fushan,
-ten miles east of Mukden. With this position firmly held at center and
-on its flanks it would be impossible for the Japanese to drive in their
-cork in the neck of the bottle between Fushan and Mukden. To the
-average strategist, indeed, universally among strategists, the view
-would prevail after a glance of the battlefield as it lay at the
-opening of the struggle that there was the real vital point to the
-attack as well as to the defense. In the opening days of the battle
-events all shaped themselves to bear out this view. General Kuropatkin
-manifestly thought so. Here he threw the weight of vast numbers of
-troops and thought victory near when the Japanese attack from this
-quarter had been fought to a standstill. Logically, Fushan was the
-chief danger point, and the fact that Marshal Oyama, the Japanese
-commander, chose another strategical solution for the problem is among
-his achievements that have resulted in the appellation of "The Napoleon
-of the Orient."
-
-[Sidenote: Well Protected on the East]
-
-Just as on the west, the Russian lines were far afield from the actual
-key position at Mukden, so on their left, or eastern positions their
-lines formed a far-reaching protective barrier, 20 miles away. As has
-been said, the main front on the east stretched away from the Sha-ho,
-thirty-five miles eastward to the Taitse River, which winds in a
-general northeasterly direction from Liao-yang. The defensive position
-of importance was at Tsinketchen, in the foothills of the Sierras,
-which run across Manchuria, and finally reach the east coast of Korea.
-
-The only practicable path northward for the Japanese army was to skirt
-these foothills to the passes, northeast from Tsinketchen and
-Bentsiaputze and then debouch into the valley of the Hun River and
-fight their way northward to Fushan, the rugged nature of the country
-eastward from that place practically preventing any opportunity for
-play of strategy in a turning movement to strike northeast of the city.
-One of the wonders of the war and one of the most amazing of the feats
-constantly accomplished by the Japanese has been the skill and success
-with which they have attacked and captured mountain positions. General
-Kuroki in the campaign which, after a few months followed the victory
-of the Yalu, repeatedly drove the Russians from veritable Thermopylæs
-and in the fighting on every front which preceded the surrounding of
-the Russian army at Liao-yang the Japanese were constantly confronted
-with the necessity of making frontal attacks on mountain defiles which
-seemed to offer impregnable shelter to the defenders.
-
-[Sidenote: Battled for Mountain Passes]
-
-So also in the campaign on the east in the battle of Mukden. General
-Kuropatkin chose his defensive positions with skill. No pains were
-spared in fortifying the gaps in the mountain ridges through which the
-Japanese must pass. The principal routes open were through Da Pass and
-Gauto Pass. While these were the main defensive positions the Russians
-pushed fifteen miles further southward toward the enemy, and the
-earlier reverses at Tsinketchen were only fairly unimportant preludes
-to the battling at these mountain passes. The Russian line on the east
-had less geometrical regularity than the line of the west owing to the
-nature of the topography. The lines from the front extended to the
-foothills, as has been pointed out, and then were concentrated at the
-passes, the danger points, offering only a limited battle line until
-the fighting had swept over the mountains into the Valley of the Hun.
-What with artillery of a thousand guns and an army of 75,000 men only
-called upon to defend positions of vast natural strength, there was
-little wonder then when the open guns of the battle rolled over the
-plains in the west, General Kuropatkin concentrated his attention to
-the centre and gave little thought to events on his left. As it turned
-out the General's confidence was well founded. In all the war no braver
-or more stubborn or more successful fight has been waged by any Russian
-force than was waged by the army under Lieutenant-General Linevitch and
-General Rennenkampff on this flank. It has been said that the Japanese
-were fought to a standstill. That statement is literally true, and only
-the beginning of the Russian retreat made it possible for General
-Kuroki, the Japanese Commander here, to play any conspicuous part in
-the total disaster which befell the Russian Army.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians Had Advantage of Position]
-
-To summarize, the position in which General Kuropatkin found himself at
-the opening of the battle was an admirable one from every standpoint.
-His defensive lines fitted in well with the topography of the country.
-Broad rivers, rugged mountains, apparently impregnable mountain passes,
-commanding hills on front and flanks promised to aid materially in his
-defence. His army was nearly of equal strength with that of the enemy,
-while superior natural positions compensated for the slight deficiency
-of men. In the long winter months every possible means of communication
-from one to another of the units of his army had been perfected, while,
-apparently unassailable, stretched a great railroad behind him offering
-ready link between the front and the Russian base of supplies for all
-of Manchuria. His army had been recuperated, was eager to fight, and
-would be called upon to defend fortified positions, heavily supplied
-with artillery, a position which, as history plainly proves, brings out
-the best qualities of the Russian soldier. So far as the centre was
-concerned he had no fear. Lone Tree Hill, or, as he renamed it for the
-Russian who led the charge that had recaptured it from the Japanese,
-had been made as nearly impregnable as men and arms could make a
-position made by nature for defensive fighting. So westward, so
-eastward, topography, the condition of his army, the whole aspect of
-the field, spoke only of a repulse to the Japanese attack. Then would
-come the offensive against a worn-out army, then the victory for which
-all Russia was clamoring and upon which depended the future of the
-Commander-in-Chief himself.
-
-So much for the Russian viewpoint.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN SUFFERING AT THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Outlook for Oyama]
-
-When the smoke of the battle of the Sha-ho cleared away it left the
-Japanese armies masters of practically the same territory they had
-occupied at the conclusion of the pursuit of the Russian after the
-victory at Liao-yang. General Kuroki, commanding the Japanese right
-army, had fallen back from Bentsiaputze to Bensihu, a distance of
-twenty miles; but this move had been made to correct the alignment of
-the army with the centre, at the Sha-ho River as a basis. Certainly, no
-great effort was made to advance this force after the initial Russian
-successes on this flank after the battle of the Sha-ho. Some advantages
-attached to the position finally occupied by General Kuroki, hence the
-view that he was impelled by strategic reasons when he had failed to
-advance, rather than by inability to retake the lost positions farther
-north. At the centre, which followed the south bank of the Sha-ho
-River, the Russians had succeeded in retaking Lone Tree Hill in the
-closing hours of the battle, and had a decided advantage. Every
-possible effort was made to retake the position, but when called upon
-for this effort the Japanese were exhausted by twelve days of incessant
-fighting, and they failed. Marshal Oyama, at the centre, therefore, was
-confronted by a practically impregnable position. Westward, on the left
-flank of the Japanese Army, the Russians were less aided by natural
-features of the country than at any other point. Their lines crossed
-the Sha-ho just west of the railroad and then spread northeastward
-through a series of villages dotting a comparatively level plain lying
-between the Sha-ho and the Hun Rivers. Of all the positions on the
-entire Russian front this seemed to offer the best opportunity for
-attack, for while an advance would have to be made over an open
-country, approach to the Russians' positions was facilitated by the
-innumerable villages in this fertile river plain. On the other hand,
-the Japanese were open to the same style of advance, and both
-commanders made unusual preparations to defend this angle of the great
-battlefield.
-
-The Japanese lines along the front were merely a parallel of the
-Russian lines which have been described, except that while on the west
-and on the centre the entrenchments were only a few hundred yards
-separated, the lines farther east, except for outpost positions, were
-separated by distances ranging from five to fifteen miles, as developed
-when the operations of the Battle of Mukden were actually under way.
-
-To the Japanese Commander-in-Chief the general situation could not have
-been particularly reassuring, except that he could count on the
-indomitable efforts of an unbeaten and fanatically brave army. So far
-as the topography was concerned, the enemy had every advantage. In all
-a very difficult and interesting problem was presented as the Mikado's
-hosts settled down for their long winter inaction.
-
-[Sidenote: Busy Preparations During Winter]
-
-Liao-yang was made the Japanese base after the occupation of that city,
-and the Engineer Corps performed a notable feat in the speedy manner in
-which the railroad running northward from Port Arthur was made over for
-the use of Japanese engines and cars. The Russians had a five-foot
-gauge, while the Japanese rolling stock was built to the standard
-measurement. This fact made necessary the relaying of the entire line,
-a task which was promptly completed, thereby affording the inland army
-base ready communication with the general supply base at Dalny and at
-Port Arthur after the capture of that port. In addition to this line of
-communication the Japanese had a line to the Yalu. Stores for the right
-army were landed at the mouth of the Yalu River, and then were
-transported overland on a light railroad for which horses were the
-motive power, to points well in reach of General Kuroki. Both of these
-lines of communication were vital to an army that had now penetrated
-two hundred miles inland and were the first consideration when the
-flanks and protective units were being placed in their winter quarters.
-The Liao-yang-Yalu line proved to have been safeguarded against danger,
-but Cossack raiders in January twice encircled the Japanese left army,
-penetrated to the railroad at Yinkow, and damaged the line. In each
-case the damage done was quickly repaired. The second raiding party was
-so nearly cut off and so nearly annihilated in its flight to the
-Russian lines and activities on a broader scale so soon after were
-begun, that no further attempts of the kind were attempted. Such
-trifling inconvenience resulted from these perilous raids that it would
-seem that the Russians were hardly recompensed for the sacrifice of
-life. Certainly, the vast bulk of all needed stores and ammunition were
-already within the Japanese lines before the attempts were made, and
-Marshal Oyama, in all probability, could have fought the entire battle
-of Mukden without further need of the railroad, particularly as no
-Japanese retreat resulted from that struggle. The incidents only bore
-out the long held reputation of the Cossacks for reckless bravery.
-Indeed, the Japanese have repeatedly expressed their admiration for the
-Cossacks as a foe worthy of their steel.
-
-[Sidenote: Deciding the Way to Strike]
-
-With his front well aligned, and with every possible precaution taken
-to safeguard his lines of communication, the question then before the
-Japanese Commander-in-Chief was the strategy to mark a resumption of
-hostilities. At Liao-yang, despite the sweeping nature of the victory,
-there can be no doubt that the Japanese were bitterly disappointed
-when, despite tremendously determined efforts to prevent their escape,
-practically the whole Russian Army had disentangled itself from a
-well-set net and had escaped to occupy new positions there to be fought
-all over again. The first thought in all of the planning of the new
-campaign that was to succeed the winter of inactivity, was to
-accomplish the actual envelopment of General Kuropatkin, forcing upon
-the Russian Commander a surrender as the only alternative to
-annihilation. The line of action decided upon is fully revealed in the
-details of the battle to be told later. This program of complete
-destruction stands out even more plainly than at Liao-yang. It came far
-nearer realization than in that struggle, and was not concluded with
-the mere taking of Mukden; but like the tentacles of a great octopus,
-Marshal Oyama's grim determination for complete annihilation of the foe
-spread far northward beyond the scene of the initial victory and
-relentlessly realized in large measure all that he had hoped.
-
-[Sidenote: Oyama's Plan of Battle]
-
-In brief, the plan was to hold the Russian centre in a combat which,
-however desperate and bloody, was only a feint. While this struggle
-went on with apparent success to Russian arms, the right and left
-flanks as aligned east and west of the Sha-ho were to press home an
-attack calculated slowly to bend back the Russians toward their line of
-retreat northward from Mukden.
-
-But the culminating fact in the entire plan was an entirely separate
-blow at the Russian rear north of Mukden by an army which, while it no
-doubt figured in the Russian calculations of probabilities, eventually
-burst into the plain eastward from Sinmintin with a fury of surprise
-attack which ultimately crumbled the entire scheme of Russian defence.
-
-[Sidenote: Nogi to Strike Culminating Blow]
-
-That army was made up of the conquerors of Port Arthur. The fall of
-that fortress released a host of 80,000 seasoned fighters, flushed with
-a victory that filled the world with awe and admiration. Just so soon
-as the details of the surrender had been completed this force was under
-way northward to reinforce Marshal Oyama. At its head was the savagely
-brave Nogi, who had just won for himself undying place in the history
-of Japan by successfully reducing the Gibraltar of the Orient. Swift
-from the scene of one great triumph he was speeding to another. It was
-in the disposition of this force that all of the genius of Oyama was
-expended. When he sent Nogi westward in a wide circuit to swing
-completely around the Russian right army, to plunge northward by forced
-marches as far as Simintin and then bend eastward to burst upon the
-Russian rear, sweeping within five miles of their lines before an
-adequate defence could be provided, he settled the fate of Russia's
-great army of nearly a half million men. He struck a blow that made an
-awful rout possible, and the blow that made possible the final
-disaster, the forced abandonment of Tie Pass, that left the Russian
-Army a demoralized horde of panicked troops facing northward into the
-bleak stretches of Northern Manchuria.
-
-By this blow he added the final humiliation to Russia's greatest
-soldier, Kuropatkin, and lost that erstwhile leader with half of a
-century of popular adulation behind him, the command of Russia's Armies
-in Manchuria. He ended every hope of an offensive campaign in
-Manchuria, achieving at a stroke every result that for which a year's
-campaign had been allotted.
-
-[Sidenote: "Out of the Way for Us"]
-
-Nogi's army swept into the ranks of the opposing Russians, shouting,
-"Out of the way for us; we're from Port Arthur". To them fighting in
-the open country face to face with the enemy was as child's play
-compared with the horrors they had faced in scaling the bristling
-mountainsides north of Port Arthur. There they advanced against hidden
-terrors that lurked behind dull gray walls of huge forts; they braved
-the cunningly devised high priests of death that are hidden underground
-and work havoc and disaster when victory seems within grasp. They had
-looked death in the face in a hundred hidden forms unflinchingly, had
-fought and conquered a foe behind vast walls. Here there was only man
-to man. Shells burst overhead, scattering deadly shrapnel, but what was
-that to the rain of ponderous steel from siege guns that tore out the
-face of hillsides and annihilated regiments at a single puff. These
-were the men who, with a strident battle cry of scorn for the ease of
-the task, swept through thirty miles in a single day, trampling Russian
-regiments under foot, storming over fortified towns as though no men or
-guns were there, right up to the gates of Mukden, right where their
-guns could search the huddled ranks of Russians, fleeing from the
-destructible force that was welding a ring around them. Nature finally
-checked them. Up from the Manchurian plains a mighty wind swept a
-blinding simoon that halted their irresistible host at the moment when
-they were driving home the last fatal blow. For a day the whole
-battlefield was wrapped in a blinding curtain of sweeping sand. When
-once again Nogi's men could take up the work they had begun the bulk of
-the Russian force had fled past. Undaunted they swept northward, and
-four days later, when the beaten and dispersed army was reorganizing
-its ranks from the chaos of the flight, it was Nogi's men, springing
-once more out of the west, that set Kuropatkin's whole remnant in
-flight again, leaving behind them the last fortified position in
-Southern Manchuria. Oyama planned, but the palm for the victories of
-Mukden and the further flight from Tie Pass belongs to Nogi and the
-host that took Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Master Stroke of the Battle]
-
-This was indeed the master stroke of the battle, nevertheless a way had
-to be prepared for it by tremendously desperate work on every quarter
-of the long battle line. As vigorous as was the assault made on the
-Russian front, there can be no doubt that this was nothing more than a
-feint. The readiness with which the Japanese Commander-in-Chief
-sacrificed thousands of lives in assaults of a secondary nature is one
-of the significant things of the story of the battle. Such methods are
-reminiscent of Grant's massed attacks in the closing days of the Civil
-War, when life was counted as nothing when in the scale beside the
-value of victory. No pang for the sacrifice reached the heart of Oyama
-or the Generals under him who were directing the assaults. Victory was
-the stake, and the soldiers were there to die, if need be. They died by
-files and ranks and regiments. But victory was won. Over against the
-total of the blood-letting in their own ranks was the awful slaughter
-of the enemy, here, as in every battle of the war, far heavier in the
-Russian totals than with the Japanese. Two generations have come since
-the famous struggle of Gettysburg, yet statisticians are still
-struggling to determine the exact number who fought and died there or
-who remained alive, as victor and vanquished. The actual figures are
-still only approximately known. Multiply the difficulties of accounting
-for the less than two hundred thousand who fought at Gettysburg an
-hundredfold, and something of the difficulty of getting at the actual
-facts of the battle at Mukden begin to be realized. Ultimately, the
-Japanese may give the details, but no actual statement of the number of
-Russians engaged, of the losses in killed, wounded and missing, may be
-expected. The story forms too tragic a page in the history of the
-nation ever to be willingly spread broadcast.
-
-[Illustration: ON BOARD A JAPANESE BATTLESHIP DURING THE BATTLE OF THE
-JAPAN SEA.]
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-  Prelude to the Great Battle--Gripenberg Fails and Quits Army--The
-    Battle Begins--The Struggle on the East Front--The Battle at
-    the Center--Battle Culminates on the West--Village by Village
-    Taken--Russian Artillery Impotent--When the Crushing Blow
-    Fell--A Cloud in the West--Kuropatkin Ignores Danger--Center
-    Positions Abandoned--Japanese Ingenuity Marvelous--Retreat a
-    Carnival of Slaughter--Oyama's Prophecy Fulfilled.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Prelude to the Great Battle]
-
-There was a prelude to the actual battle fought early in January by a
-portion of the Russian right flank under General Gripenberg, which is
-chiefly interesting for its effect in the Russian ranks. Whatever may
-have been the purpose of the attack, it failed. Heiketau, a town in the
-angle of the Hun and Liao Rivers, was the scene of the opening attack.
-Here the Japanese had an outpost in sight of the Russian lines.
-Resistance was made to the advance until it was seen that the Russians
-were in earnest and that a large force was actually about to give
-battle. Thereupon the Japanese outpost fell back on the main position
-at Sandiapu, three miles away, the Russians following. For two days a
-severe fight waged around their position, and General Gripenberg made
-enough gains on the first day to give rise to the belief that he was in
-position to break the entire Japanese line, divide their army, flank
-the centre, and compel a retreat. He sent an urgent representation of
-the situation to General Kuropatkin, asking for reinforcements, and,
-taking for granted that these would be sent, he plunged in on the
-second day to win, at last, a victory for Russia. The force against
-which he had thrown three divisions consisted of a single division of
-the Japanese, who counted on stopping the advance by dint of the
-earthworks protecting Sandiapu. Before morning of the second day
-General Oku, exhibiting the rare initiative and resourcefulness common
-to all of the Japanese generals, was ready to deal a crushing blow to
-Gripenberg, and the Russian General in his eagerness to take advantage
-of the opportunity which he believed had been opened by the apparent
-advantages of the first day of the fight, fell into one of the most
-deadly of the many traps from time to time set for Russian commanders.
-
-[Sidenote: Gripenberg Fails and Quits Army]
-
-To make sure that the Russians would not fail to renew the attack,
-General Oku caused a decoy battery of useless guns to sweep into
-position in full view of the Russian lookouts. The bait was too
-tempting. Gripenberg advanced on the dummy battery into a triangle of
-death. Batteries on three sides held their fire until the Russian lines
-had swept into practically point blank range. Then there burst over
-them a rain of shrapnel and a deadly sweep of rifle fire which spread
-confusion as hundreds were mowed down. Retreat from the death zone
-became rout, and General Gripenberg, with Oku's men in full pursuit,
-left ten thousand dead and wounded behind him in their flight to safety
-within the main Russian lines north of the Sha-ho. The fight was
-unimportant in itself, but it led to a personal encounter between
-Generals Kuropatkin and Gripenberg, which added to the demoralization
-already existing among the officers of the Russian Army. General
-Gripenberg bitterly assailed Kuropatkin for having failed to send
-reinforcements. Kuropatkin declared the only possible value of attack
-at that time and place was to uncover the strength of the enemy and to
-reconnoitre his positions, that a general engagement was folly and
-could not hope to achieve anything. For be it known, the initial
-advance had been made in a driving blizzard. General Gripenberg gave up
-his command and left the front for St. Petersburg to lay charges of
-incapability against the Commander-in-Chief and to join the group at
-the Russian Capital engaged in intrigue for the downfall of Kuropatkin.
-
-In the army the line and staff officers took sides in the bitter
-controversy that followed, and possibly the fight at Sandiapu, itself
-so insignificant, did more in the end to bring the disaster of Mukden
-and Tie Pass than can be estimated. A commander-in-chief, without the
-confidence of the officers of staff and line, can hardly hope to
-command the confidence of the men in the ranks. To say the least, the
-incident, coming so soon before the army was to be locked in a life and
-death struggle, was not calculated to add to the chances that victory
-would crown Russian arms.
-
-[Sidenote: The Battle Begins]
-
-The battle was actually begun on the initiative of the Japanese. By
-February 19, Marshal Oyama believed he was ready to begin the struggle
-for Mukden. He prefaced the battle by the prophecy that Mukden would be
-occupied by his army on March 10, a prophecy which caused only
-merriment in Russia, but which was literally fulfilled. To General
-Kuroki was given the honor of firing the first guns of the renewal of
-the campaign. General Kuroki, after the battle of the Sha-ho River, had
-wintered on the southern bank of the Taitze River, the centre of his
-army resting in the neighborhood of Bensihu, thirty-five miles east of
-Yentai. The Russian line was ten miles north, and the first place to be
-taken was Tsinkhetchen, at a point where the level river country began
-to rise to the Tie range of mountains, running in a generally
-northwest-southeast direction across all of Manchuria, into Mongolia
-northward, and into Korea southward, passing along the eastern side of
-the Russian triangle. The task assigned to Kuroki was to drive the
-Russians from Tsinkhetchen into the foothills to the passes of the
-mountains, then to take these and to debouch his army on the plains of
-the Hun River, twenty miles east of Mukden, and eastward of Fushun,
-then to strike northwestward toward the railroad and line of retreat of
-the Russian Army northward from Mukden, joining at the railroad the
-forces under Oku and Nogi, which were to attack from the west.
-
-Kuroki's army got under way February 19, crossing the first of the
-rivers, the Taitse, without opposition. Then the advance was made
-northward to the Sha-ho, and here the Russian lines were encountered. A
-surprise night attack cleared away the Russians guarding the Sha-ho at
-Vanupudza, ten miles east of the railroad. Kuroki then bent
-northeastward toward the outermost position of the Russian left,
-avoiding the forces commanding the hills north of the Sha-ho.
-
-[Sidenote: The Struggle on the East Front]
-
-On February 24 his army delivered a tremendous assault on the Russian
-positions at Tsinkhetchen, preceding the infantry advance by a
-bombardment of great force and effectiveness. Three lines of
-entrenchments were literally destroyed by the fire of siege guns which
-had been brought from Port Arthur, and despite the tremendous
-difficulty involved had been placed within range of the Tsinkhetchen
-positions. The Russian defence was stubborn, but the Japanese were
-irresistible, and after a few hours of awful carnage General
-Rennenkampff, commanding the Russians, ordered a retreat. Kuroki failed
-in an effort to envelop the position, and the Russians reached in
-safety their main position on this flank at Da Pass. Here one of the
-bloodiest struggles of the war followed, opening on February 28 and
-continuing until March 1, when, despite one of the most gallant
-resistances credited to the Russians, General Kuroki flanked the Pass
-notwithstanding insuperable obstacles offered by the rugged nature of
-the country. Then followed a retreat and pursuit, every step of which
-was marked by fighting of the most desperate nature, thousands of
-bodies carpeting the gradually rolling country, which finally became
-the plains along the Hun. Fushun was the Japanese objective. Kuroki
-bent every energy to roll back the front which Rennenkampff presented,
-but for ten days after the plain had been reached his army was fought
-to a standstill. General Linevitch, commanding the division of which
-Rennenkampff's command was part, checkmated every attempt made to cross
-the Hun and flank him, while at his front he rolled back as many as
-thirteen infantry assaults in a single day. This section of the field
-was remote from the main battle line and few of the details reached the
-world. With the slow filtering of the story of this fighting it has
-become apparent that here was waged a struggle even more desperate than
-that which made history west of Mukden. Kuropatkin appreciated the
-vital necessity of preventing the turning of his left flank at Fushun,
-and it must be said to the credit of the Japanese that they were
-fighting here a force twice the size of their own and one that was
-continually being reinforced by every battalion that could be spared
-from the west. The marvel is that Kuroki's army was not utterly
-annihilated. It was the tremendous fight he made that compelled
-Kuropatkin to weaken his right to support Linevitch, and it was the
-fact that the right had been so weakened that made possible the
-brilliant victories won by the Japanese on the west. Hence, in addition
-to credit for the great fight he made in carrying out his own share in
-the battle, Kuroki stands for credit in drawing strength from other
-positions which materially aided in the ultimate outcome. Nevertheless,
-until fateful March 10, his army had been fought to a standstill within
-five miles of Fushun, its objective. The outcome here even encouraged
-Kuropatkin in the belief that the battle was going his way.
-
-[Sidenote: The Battle at the Center]
-
-It is necessary, in recording the story of the battle, to leave Kuroki,
-still fighting in vain to take Fushun and open the road to the Russian
-rear, and to record events on other parts of the field. The battle
-line, when both armies had actually been joined, extended for a
-distance between eighty and one hundred miles. Every event at every
-position dovetailed into the whole strategy of the battle, yet a vast
-difficulty is imposed in collating all of the scattered events into a
-continuous story. No one observer, possibly not the Generals-in-chief
-themselves, could follow all of the swift moving events, and the best
-and at that a most difficult achievement was to follow the main trend
-of events interpreting separate achievements, advances, retrogressions,
-as they bore on the grand object of each army.
-
-The battle of Mukden was, in fact, four battles in one. One of those
-battles was fought between Kuroki and Linevitch on the east. The second
-battle within the battle of Mukden was fought between the centre armies
-and focussed in the beginning of the conflict at Lone Tree, or Putiloff
-Hill, just east of the railroad, forty-five miles south of Mukden. Here
-General Nodzu commanded the Japanese and General Kuropatkin in person
-and General Zassulitch, divisional commander, directed the Russian
-defence. The battle here began on February 24, the date on which
-General Kuroki delivered the attack on Tsinkhetchen. General Nodzu's
-immediate task was to keep the Russian centre too well occupied and in
-fear of a general assault, thus preventing the sending of
-reinforcements to the flank, where Kuroki was at his important work.
-The artillery duel which waged around the centre positions has never
-been equalled in the history of war. The Russians had at this point
-alone 530 guns, fifty of them siege guns on permanent emplacements
-firing eight-inch shells. Putiloff and Novgorod Hill bristled with
-field and machine guns, and these commanding hills were flanked east
-and west by fortifications upon which five months' work had been
-expended and which are perhaps the finest defensive works ever erected
-on a battlefield.
-
-The Russian centre was the hope of the Russian Commander. He claimed
-impregnability for it, and impregnable it proved. Nevertheless Nodzu
-sent scores of assaults at its steep slopes, and the later advances
-were made by the Japanese over the bodies of comrades who had fallen in
-earlier efforts. The Russian centre resisted without a break, and only
-left its positions March 7, when events elsewhere resulted in the order
-to fall back north of the Sha-ho. The story of the struggle here is an
-exact replica of many which waged in the bloody days of the siege of
-Port Arthur, though here the loss of life was heavier, since none of
-the protective engineering devices used at Port Arthur were resorted
-to. The assaults were simply dashes by Japanese infantry up the bare
-slopes of a hill rising five hundred feet in the air. It was man
-unprotected against steel in armor, and the man lost. Behind the
-Russians was the Sha-ho River. Their second line of defences was sunk
-in the hillsides and hilltops there. With the river in front, the ice
-weakened until it was questionable whether men in any numbers could
-make safe crossing, this position was only a little less strong than
-the first. All in all, it is little wonder that the Japanese Commander
-elected only to feint here and deal his blow at other positions. The
-second line, however, availed the Russians little except to hold in
-check the pursuit and leave General Nodzu to be only a minor factor in
-the culmination of the disaster that finally befell the Russians. The
-centre army, while it played no conspicuous part in the battle, while
-it was not called upon to repel, and was not expected to take the
-Russian positions as a vital part of the Japanese strategy, possibly
-even greater credit belongs to these men who died in droves, knowing
-that they were being sacrificed as a matter of secondary importance,
-that upon others elsewhere, miles and miles away, was falling the
-really great events and upon whom would fall the glory. Whether they
-knew it or not, there was no faltering. With cries of "banzai" they
-stormed up Putiloff Hill, up Novgorod Hill; by regiments they fell, and
-regiments as loyal and heroic took their places, apparently satisfied
-that all the sacrifice was only to prevent reinforcements from the
-centre from being sent to the lines northeast, northwest, where their
-brothers were writing victory in blood across Manchuria's plains. War
-is essentially waste; waste of men, waste of money. Here the spirit of
-waste was fully exemplified, yet the waste was a factor if victory was
-to be won, and Oyama sent his armies to their work bent on victory as
-perhaps never an army was bent on victory.
-
-[Illustration: THE RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA.]
-
-[Sidenote: Battle Culminates on West]
-
-The battle of Mukden, as the whole struggle has been officially called,
-had its climax on the west. The strategy of Marshal Oyama, as has been
-explained, culminated in the attack by the army of Port Arthur
-veterans, commanded by General Nogi. This attack was but part of the
-assault on the Russian right. The actual Japanese left army was
-commanded by General Oku, and during the long winter season had
-occupied a position extending westward from the Sha-ho River to the
-Hun, upon which at the front the Russian right rested, though when the
-battle had gotten under way this line was extended fifteen miles
-farther west to the banks of the Liao River. General Oku's lines and
-also the Russian lines, which he opposed, occupied a series of unmapped
-villages, most of them only occupied during the spring, summer and
-fall, when the fertile river valleys are in cultivation, the products
-of the region being similar to those of the Northern Central United
-States, east and west from Chicago as a centre. The village huts are
-built of rough hewn stone, the walls being of primitive build and
-oftentimes twelve inches thick. Stone walls around fields are of common
-occurrence, so that while the country generally was level, it had in
-these houses and walls many features offering protection to soldiery.
-To-day not a wall or fence in the whole region but shows the signs of
-the struggle that waged around them. Immediately after the battle heaps
-of dead marked every one of these shelters, showing where hand to hand
-struggles had taken place, as the Japanese, foot by foot, from house to
-house, from wall to wall, from village to village, had advanced across
-the plain.
-
-General Oku's attack was ferocious. To him had been assigned the task
-of turning the Russian right back upon Mukden at the centre to make it
-impossible for this force to assume an offensive initiative and swing
-northward to cut off Nogi when the culminating attack had been
-delivered. Sandiapu, that had been the scene of the desperate failure
-of Gripenberg, was the pivot for the Japanese attack. General Oku
-avoided the Russian right centre just left of the railroad, because
-these positions were in part commanded by Putiloff Hill, and the taking
-of the Russian fortifications here would only mean a falling back under
-the protection of Russia's impregnable centre. With Sandiapu as a
-pivot, however, Oku drove the attack in a northeasterly direction,
-rather than northward, parallel to the Russian lines. His assaults
-began simultaneously with Kuroki's attack at Tsinkhetchen, and in one
-tremendous dash the Russian line was broken, crumbled in the plain five
-miles north of Sandiapu, and the struggle had begun which after ten
-days' fighting had doubled the Russian flank back until its line,
-beginning at a point five miles west of the railroad, was bent back at
-right angles to the line it had occupied at the opening of the battle.
-This achievement had been accomplished in the face of a determined
-resistance. Throughout the struggle the artillery was rendered useless
-for hours at a time, while the infantry engaged in hand-to-hand
-struggles. The story of the attack on a single of the score or more of
-villages is typical of all of them.
-
-[Sidenote: Village by Village Taken]
-
-There was a brief lull just at dawn. Then for an hour field guns roared
-all along the line searching for the infantry lines and batteries of
-the enemy. House and walls were the targets. Shells in deadly showers
-ground walls to dust, ploughed the fields, shaved the crowns from
-broken ground that might hide creeping lines of troops. An hour of
-systematic, sweeping bombardment, then the army was ready for the
-business of the hour. From cover on every side little squads of
-Japanese troops dashed into the open. Ten yards they sped then threw
-themselves prone on the ground wherever any approach to protection
-could be found.
-
-Now it was the turn of the Russian guns to bark. From all along their
-lines in the dusk of dawn resounded the din of artillery. The open,
-when the advance had begun, instantly grew lividly aflame with bursting
-shrapnel. It seemed that nothing could live under that awful baptism of
-steel. Then the din subsided before the Japanese, glasses glued to
-their eyes, could catch telltale feathers of smoke that even the
-smokeless powder sends out from big guns. The echoes of the guns are
-still reverberating far away among the foothills, when up from the
-ground again spring those lithe, invincible shadows that speed once
-more ten yards or more and then vanish as they hug the earth. Where
-there were five, three have survived; here and there a single one gets
-up to continue the advance where a group had been. But from behind
-others are making these short dashes, too. The plain finally is fairly
-alive with troops, dashing forward, taking cover, dashing forward
-again. Five hundred yards away when they started, their numbers are
-already thinning when the first hundred yards has been crossed. Others
-fill the gaps and two hundred yards are crossed, and in the growing
-light it can be seen that strewn all along the line of the advance are
-forms that lie stark and still when the living spring to action for
-those unhalting sprints.
-
-Now Russian riflemen are heard from. Rifles crackle from every side,
-and then death begins high carnival. But the advance goes on. No rising
-now and speeding those few yards. The Japanese are crawling. The living
-use the bodies of the dead for protection. Often pushing these before
-them they cover yard by yard, the zone of death. Now only a hundred
-yards divides them from the outermost huts of the village. Hotter and
-hotter becomes the fire of the defenders. In a moment the assault has
-begun. A hundred, two hundred, are on their feet. Bullets eat holes in
-their ranks, but only the dead falter. Presently, with the ring of
-steel on steel, the ranks close. The rifle fire is fitful in the
-disorder of hand-to-hand fighting. Then up from all parts of the open
-rise scores of Japanese. They sweep into the midst of the fray, whole
-companies still coming press the fight. Back through the village from
-house to house, from wall to wall, goes on the hand-to-hand, man to man
-duel. Never once did the Japanese fail in the early days of the
-struggle to drive back the Russian defenders, for when one such attack
-failed there were countless others eager to begin again the same
-tactics.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Artillery Impotent]
-
-The Russians seemed demoralized by the apparent impotency of their
-artillery to prevent these advances. Often the Russian lines suffered
-by their shrapnel, so thoroughly was the ground in front of their
-positions searched by their gunners. Nevertheless, the guns had
-hardly hushed before men seemed to spring from the ground and speed
-on toward them. To the more superstitious there was something uncanny
-about this little foe. The only solution was the open ranks, the
-each-man-for-himself, the use of every fragment of shelter. Russian
-solid formations fairly melted as they rushed into the Japanese
-shrapnel fire. A single shell mowed down a score. It took ten shells
-at least to disable a single Japanese because of the way they
-scattered out over the field.
-
-Just behind the final advance of the main force which never moved until
-the skirmish attack had engaged the Russians too closely for either
-artillery or a destructive rifle fire, came the engineers with
-telegraph and telephone equipment. Bamboo poles were swiftly in place,
-and yard by yard the wire followed the advance. Presently at Oku's
-headquarters, usually the shelter of a hut within a mile of the actual
-fighting, would come the thick click, click of the telegraph or the
-jingle of the telephone. "We have taken the village" was usually the
-message.
-
-Thus village after village was taken in this memorable struggle, until,
-as has been told, the Russian line had been driven from miles of
-positions upon which months of labor had been expended and in the
-closing days of the battle were paralleling the railroad from the
-Sha-ho to a point five miles northwest of Mukden. Oku had done his part.
-
-[Sidenote: When the Crushing Blow Fell]
-
-Thus we have told the story of the battle on the Japanese right, centre
-and rear, up to the time when the assault of the Port Arthur army was
-to be launched. The battle had continued without intermission from
-February 24 to March 5. The Japanese on the right or east front had
-driven back the enemy from his advanced positions across the rugged
-hills of the Tie range and was battling to drive back that flank on the
-railroad and to effect an advance to reach a position in the rear of
-Mukden. At the centre a struggle had gone on without decisive result
-because, largely, the Japanese only planned to keep this part of the
-enemy's line busy with fighting until the flank-attack armies achieved
-positions, either in the rear of Mukden or near enough to strike, and
-strike hard at the foe should he be compelled to retreat. Oku's army,
-we have seen, came nearest to accomplishing this task. So far as the
-actual results of the fighting of these three armies were concerned,
-while the Japanese everywhere had outfought and had outgeneralled the
-Russians, there was nothing accomplished which made the situation
-particularly alarming to Kuropatkin. His left flank, eastward had been
-driven in twenty miles but with the aid of heavy reinforcements he had
-checked the enemy five miles away from Fushan and when March 5 drew to
-a close the reports from that direction to the Commander-in-Chief not
-only recounted that every assault by the Japanese had been repulsed but
-that after thirteen bloody reverses on March 4, Kuroki seemed to be
-drawing away to the south.
-
-Hope rose high in the mind of the Russian General. He believed that
-this attack on the east had been the real strength of the Japanese
-attack. He perceived that the Japanese had not been in earnest at the
-center and he attributed reverses on his right to the fact, that he had
-withdrawn a full division from Lieutenant-General Kaulbars, commanding
-there and he hoped, now that Kuroki seemed to have given up the
-struggle, that he could withdraw a force from the east, throw it into
-the fight west of the railroad, turn the tide against Oku and win a
-negative victory by defeating the manifest purpose of the Japanese to
-drive him from the Sha-ho River positions. While his right flank had
-been bent back through an arc of ninety degrees from the original
-position on the Hun River they still held a strong line five miles west
-of the railroad. The falling back of these troops had resulted in a
-loss of ground but had also resulted in a strong concentration and his
-lines were capable of greater resistance as a result. Then, too, the
-Japanese had been fighting continuously for twelve days and must be
-near the limits of human endurance. Altogether when the sun went down
-on the field the Russian Commander felt that victory was near. He did
-not expect a decisive, positive victory but after so long a series of
-disasters even that sort of victory which consisted only in having
-prevented the enemy from forcing the abandonment of a position, would
-have sent a thrill of joy and hope through the army and the Russian
-nation. It would have inspired the army with confidence for its work.
-It would have been a weapon at home against the revolutionist, the
-opponent of the war, the foes of the dynasty. For the General himself
-it meant a return of confidence in his leadership on the part of the
-army, on the part of the Emperor. It would go far toward wiping out the
-record of unbroken defeat, retreat, disaster which had marked the
-entire campaign. Victory was more vital to Kuropatkin, personally, than
-to Russia. The General was fighting as much for personal vindication as
-for the glory of Russian arms. To him, therefore, the outlook for even
-a negative success was charged with personal happiness.
-
-[Sidenote: A Cloud in the West]
-
-This was the outlook when day dawned, March 5, 1905. By nightfall of
-that same day a cloud, no larger then than a man's hand, was rising in
-the west that was to break in a storm, crushing the Russian defense,
-banishing the dreams of Kuropatkin. That cloud was the army of General
-Nogi.
-
-The tale must be told from the beginning.
-
-Port Arthur capitulated January 2, 1905. A week later General Nogi
-stood within the heart of the Russian settlement there and reviewed
-companies from the various army units that had participated in the
-siege. Out to the world went the message that Nogi's great task was
-accomplished. But there was other work for Nogi. Within three weeks
-after the Gibraltar of the Orient had fallen, 80,000 troops, released
-by that event were bound northward to join the armies under Marshal
-Oyama, then in winter quarters facing Kuropatkin. The army had been
-reinforced largely from Japan with fresh troops who had not known the
-smell of smoke. Enough of these had been sent to equal any possible
-reinforcement that could be sent to Kuropatkin, as nearly as this
-number could be estimated. Nogi's army meant reinforcement of an
-entirely different kind. Here were men inured to the rigors of
-campaigning by eleven months of as arduous fighting as ever fell to
-troops in all of the history of war. By the first week in February the
-entire army had reached its new position west of Liao-yang, ready for
-whatever mission might be assigned to it. That task was the actual
-capture of Mukden. More than that, Nogi's men were called upon to break
-the defence on the east, to strike the railroad north of Mukden, to
-intercept the line of retreat and to join with Kuroki in the enveloping
-of the Russian army. It was the crowning work of the battle. It was a
-tribute to the bravery and skill of the men who had humbled Port
-Arthur. It was one that meant hardship, all but superhuman exertion,
-but if they succeeded it meant that chief credit for another great
-victory would belong to this army of veterans.
-
-Nogi's work did not begin until the battle had been well developed on
-every front. His was to take up the work begun against the Russian
-right flank by Oku and with a fresh army carry it to a conclusion. As
-has been shown, Oku prepared the way in a splendid manner. He broke the
-Russian lines and rolled back the flank from the plains east and west
-of the Hun River. When this had been accomplished Nogi's army got under
-way. Leaving their positions west of Liao-yang, the veterans sped
-northwards. They crossed the Hun at a point a few miles above the
-junction of the Hun and Liao Rivers where two days before Oku had begun
-forcing back the Russians. His army after the crossing, was divided,
-one small detachment, amply supplied with artillery moving swiftly
-northeastward to the Liao; thence northward to Sinmintin, thirty-five
-miles due west of Mukden. This city was outside the limits of the war
-zone as laid down by the Powers in their agreement to preserve the
-neutrality of China. Nevertheless it had been a veritable supply depot
-for the Russians, caravans of foodstuffs of all kinds and even of
-ammunition coming from Chinese points on the Siberian border and from
-southern coast cities to deliver contraband here to waiting bands of
-Cossacks. As a result of this use of the city by the Russians the
-Japanese did not hesitate to enter there. They found a few Cossacks and
-a great horde of Russian civil officials together with great stores of
-supplies most of it in carts as it had reached the city ready to start
-westward for the Russian base at Mukden. Some prisoners were taken but
-no goods that were not actually in the possession of Russian civil and
-military officials were seized.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Ignores Danger]
-
-The detachment then began the dash westward along the Sinmintin-Mukden
-road toward Mukden. On the morning of January 5, they formed a junction
-with the main force that had marched northward on a line parallel with
-the railroad, twenty miles west of the Russians and, of course, had met
-no opposition, so effectively had Oku prepared the way. The news of the
-arrival of the Japanese at Sinmintin, March 5, was the first intimation
-of this movement and General Kuropatkin ignored the news imagining that
-the force had only been a handful of Japanese cavalry raiders. They
-were raiders, in fact, but there were 80,000 of them and they were
-under orders from Marshal Oyama to enter Mukden as conquerors on March
-10.
-
-[Sidenote: Center Positions Abandoned]
-
-In their four days' march northward Nogi's army covered 30 miles the
-first day, 25 miles the second day, 23 miles the third day and 28 miles
-the fourth day, and after that tremendous feat their real work was
-before them. The army turned eastward at the Sinmintin-Mukden road,
-twenty miles from Mukden, and five miles nearer Mukden they met the
-first resistance. As a protection to Mukden, Kuropatkin had thrown
-three lines of protective works eastward. Nogi's army came upon the
-first of these March 6. His troops, swept over the Russian defenders
-like the sea over a sunken wreck, so swiftly had come the overwhelming
-attack. March 7, the veterans covered the distance to the second line
-of defences. In the meantime Kuropatkin had awakened. He saw that he
-was in danger of being overwhelmed from this unexpected quarter. His
-visions of victory of March 4, were already fleeting and only two days
-had gone by. Every available squadron from centre and left were ordered
-post-haste to meet the danger. The Russian lines that up to this time
-had only been called upon to concentrate by orderly retrograde
-movements were called upon to reform the whole line, falling back from
-his impregnable position at the center, south of the Sha-ho. There was
-movement everywhere. On the east regiment after regiment moved out and
-the remaining regiments realigned themselves. This fact is important
-because it brought Kuroki's opportunity to fulfil the mission that had
-been entrusted to him and will be told later. Meantime Nogi's veterans
-rushed on unchecked until March 8, when the Russian resistance showed
-the strength that had come with the reinforcements. Baron General
-Kaulbars took immediate command, met and placed the arriving Russian
-regiments and displayed finer generalship than any general in the
-entire Russian line throughout the battle. On the east Rennenkampf had
-splendid plans for offensive movements until General Kuroki made a
-move, then his plans crumbled like houses of cards and he fought only a
-defensive fight from start to finish, brilliant though his resistance
-may have been. But Kaulbars, when his force had been completed, met
-Nogi manfully and the duel between these great captains forms a notable
-addition to the history of military achievement.
-
-For all the magnificent offensive ability of the Russian General,
-however, Nogi's veterans would not be denied. The first fifteen miles
-of their advance was like the rush of a hurricane. Then came the real
-fighting. This continued March 8, 9, 10, in which time the Russians had
-been forced back literally step by step on Mukden. Calmly the Japanese
-General ordered assault after assault on the Russian lines ignoring the
-heaps of the dead that, when the third day of the battle had brought
-decisive victory, numbered 20,000 choked into the narrow line of
-advance through those last five miles to Mukden. The shells from his
-artillery swept the railroad and the Trade Road that runs beside the
-railroad over which the Russian center was retreating. If Nogi, in
-those three days saw 20,000 of his brave men fall and if this
-imperturbable soldier felt any pang there was balm in the fact that he
-had inflicted a loss on the enemy of three for every one of his own men
-who had fallen.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Ingenuity Marvellous]
-
-In the course of the three days whole new chapters were written into
-books of strategy. The Japanese General and troops answered once for
-all the accusation that they were mere imitators of western methods.
-Among the uncanny tricks that they successfully used many have no equal
-in military annals. Taking advantage of the first dust which began to
-rise on the second day and played an important part in the whole of the
-battle, a Japanese force turned their backs on the Russians and fired
-into the ranks of their own men pushing on behind them. The Russians
-took the force thus engaged for reinforcements and valorously aided
-them in holding off the Japanese pursuit. Meantime, back, back, step by
-step this mock Russian battle line drew nearer and nearer the duped
-Russians. Presently when only a few yards separated them they turned
-with the savage battlecry that had carried them over the ramparts of
-Rihlung fort and practically annihilated the victims of the ruse. This
-was only one of many unheard of acts which marked the path of Nogi to
-victory. When shells from his artillery began to reach the railroad his
-battle front turned as on a pivot around the little town of Tatchekiao
-and the advance was directed not directly toward Mukden but to a point
-five miles north of that city as part of the effort to envelop the
-Russians and more particularly to cut off the retreat. Thereupon the
-Russian resistance was redoubled in fury. With reinforcements that had
-been sent to this danger point the Russians outnumbered the Japanese
-two to one. But just as it was of more and more importance for the
-Russians to hold Nogi in check so it was more and more important for
-Nogi to crush the resistance and to drive his wedge in on Mukden. The
-struggle at every moment was hand to hand. The artillery on both sides
-fired into the indiscriminate masses of struggling men. Absolute frenzy
-marked the struggle as waged on both side.
-
-[Illustration: THE RETREAT FROM MUKDEN.]
-
-[Sidenote: Retreat a Carnival of Slaughter]
-
-Slowly but surely the Russian resistance weakened and with dismay
-Kuropatkin saw that his flank could not withstand the weight of the
-incessant attack. If the flank should be broken it meant annihilation
-or surrender for his entire force. Retreat would be impossible except
-at inhuman sacrifice of life. Already shells were reaching the railroad
-while the battle was swinging northeastward toward the line of retreat
-and every possible man had been thrown into the defence. There was only
-one thing to be done--retreat, and the order went forth on the evening
-of March 7. Under cover of darkness every available car had been loaded
-with stores, guns, whatever could be saved. Troops in Mukden piled into
-miles of box-cars that soon after midnight began the dash northward.
-The rearguard was organized of the troops then opposing Nogi and such
-of those from the center as could be made available. These retreated
-eastward from Mukden leaving as the last of the center army passed
-northward toward Tie Pass, the next station. The flank that had so long
-opposed Kuroki in the last crumbling of the Russian defence was
-completely cut off. The disorder along the front occasioned by the
-hasty withdrawal of reinforcements for the hard pressed right flank
-west of Mukden has been mentioned. Kuroki, who amazed the Russians by
-the readiness with which he interpreted every move that they made, saw
-in this disorder his opportunity. He had been battling for an
-opportunity to pierce the Russian line and join with Nogi, but fairly
-had been checked and held by the tremendous resistance of Rennenkampf.
-A brigade fell back from in front of the left flank of his army.
-Another stood ready to fall into its place. But while the very
-manoeuvre was being carried out Kuroki struck hard directly between
-the two forces. His wedge went deep into the Russian ranks and the
-Japanese General threw in behind them every available unit of his army.
-Desperately the Russians struggled to crush the foe and rejoin their
-broken lines but the Japanese, every man of them, knew that their hour
-had come. Thousands fell but thousands took their places. Mile by mile
-went Kuroki's wedge and by March 10, when on the west Nogi was forcing
-the vanguard of his fighting line into Mukden, Kuroki at last had won a
-position from which to strike the long line of Russians now surging
-northward in a retreat that had now become a rout.
-
-[Sidenote: Oyama's Prophecy Fulfilled]
-
-Mukden had been taken. Nogi had fulfilled Oyama's prophecy. So far as
-the long struggle had been for possession of the Sha-ho River position
-and Mukden it was over. The Japanese had won a momentous victory. Vast
-spoils had fallen into their possession. Fully twenty thousand
-prisoners had surrendered when Kuroki had broken through the Russian
-left, completing the circle of steel around whatever of the Russian
-army had not already made good its escape north of the line from Fushan
-to Mukden. There were hundreds of thousands of shells, millions of
-rounds of small ammunition; there were stores enough to feed the army
-for months, there was Russian property valued at millions, there were
-guns, horses, wagons, railroad material, enough for one hundred and
-fifty miles of track. There was also the knowledge that a loss in men
-had been inflicted three times as great as the Japanese had suffered.
-Mukden and Fushan and a score of smaller towns and cities had been
-taken, invaluable coal mines were now within the Japanese lines
-practically the last upon which the Russians could rely for fuel with
-which to operate the railroad. The victory, indeed, from every
-standpoint, save one, was complete.
-
-The Russian army had escaped.
-
-This escape had been effected, because despite the wonderful extent of
-their victory the Japanese armies had failed to meet across the north
-of the Russian position before the bulk of Kuropatkin's army had swept
-out of the mouth of the bottle. Nature herself saved them. When on the
-evening of March 7, Kuropatkin ordered the retreat the great
-battlefield had already become enveloped in tremendous clouds of
-blinding dust and snow swirled up from the dry plains by a tremendous
-gale. Beginning on March 7, this veritable cyclone increased in fury
-throughout the night of March, 8, and continued with unbroken severity
-during March 9, 10 and 11, days vital to the Russian army. In the main
-the Japanese suffered most from the storm. Their object was to find the
-foe and attack, the Russian object was simply to plunge northward
-toward safety. Ultimately the storm had reached a degree of violence
-which made sight impossible and the Japanese pursuit was halted at a
-moment when it seemed that the full purpose of their Generals' strategy
-was to be realized. When two days later they were able to take up the
-pursuit the possibility of complete success had passed. But there was
-still opportunity to strike the fleeing army and the horrors of that
-flight and pursuit, from March 12 to March 15, will never adequately be
-told. The Japanese forced a way parallel to the line of pursuit on both
-sides and clung relentlessly to the routed army. Here a company was
-annihilated by furious cavalry charge. Here a regiment was cut off,
-surrounded and compelled to surrender after awful slaughter. Forty
-thousand prisoners were taken in the four days of this carnival of
-slaughter and when the remnants of the Russian army had reached Tie
-Pass, forty-three miles away, Kuropatkin had lost 170,000 men, killed,
-wounded and missing. His army had lost fifty per cent. of its strength,
-a slaughter not equalled in the history of civilization. No parallel
-exists until the half mythological days of Asian conflicts are reached.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX.
-
-  Battle of the Japan Sea--Fleet Russia's Last Hope--Tragedy
-    of the North Sea--Reaches Asiatic Waters--On the Eve of
-    the Struggle--Russians in Double Line--Borodino First to
-    Go Down--Russians in Full Flight--Admiral Nebogatoff
-    Surrenders--Togo's Reports of the Battle--Rozhdestvensky
-    a Prisoner--Searching Sea for Remnants--Japan's Loss Only
-    424 Men--Your Utmost for the Empire--Russian Line
-    Enveloped--Destroyers Took Last Thrust--As Sailors Saw
-    the Battle--Blowing up the Izumrud--The News Reaches
-    Russia--Russian Story of Disaster--Why Russians Were
-    Defeated.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of the Japan Sea]
-
-The Japanese-Russian war has added many pages of awe-inspiring
-achievement to the vast volume of the world's valorous records of land
-and sea. Notable, among all of the amazing array, ever will stand the
-naval battle of the Sea of Japan, fought in the Straits of Korea,
-Sunday, May 28; Monday, May 29, and continuing as a pursuit on Tuesday,
-May 30, 1905. Russia's enormous armada of thirty-seven fighting ships,
-and one hundred ships in all, had been sent to the Far East to recover
-command of the sea from Japan, which had been won from her in the naval
-campaign of 1904, when the Russian Port Arthur fleet had been destroyed
-and the Russian Vladivostok squadron had been weakened to a helpless
-condition. The result was overwhelming victory for Japan, achieved at
-the cost to Russia of the annihilation of her entire armada. No naval
-battle of history equals this in the enormous power of the fighting
-array; none exceeds it in the degree of its decisiveness. Trafalgar, a
-hundred years earlier, affords the only possible parallel, and
-Trafalgar, for a century the world's greatest naval struggle, was
-outdone.
-
-The story begins eight months before these thrilling events in the
-Straits of Korea, when the Russian fleet, variously called the Baltic
-Fleet and the Second Pacific Fleet, sailed from Cronstadt, in the
-Baltic, on its 20,000 mile journey, around Africa and by way of the
-Indian Ocean to the Orient.
-
-[Sidenote: Fleet Russia's Last Hope]
-
-The fleet represented every available Russian warship. A half dozen
-others, too old for active service or still in course of building, were
-left in Russian waters, the Czar deciding to leave the home shores
-practically unprotected after securing a secret agreement with Germany,
-which amounted to a temporary offensive and defensive alliance. The
-fighting strength of the squadrons included seven battleships, two
-armored cruisers, six cruisers, with a full complement of torpedo boat
-destroyers, a fleet equal, on paper, to the entire available navy of
-Japan, and in some aspects stronger than any Japan could hope to
-muster. Supreme command of the armada was entrusted to Vice-Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky, with three divisional commanders, Vice-Admiral
-Volkersham, Rear Admiral Nebogatoff, and Rear Admiral Enquist. The
-ultimate task of the fleet was to regain mastery of the sea from Japan,
-in undisputed possession by reason of having destroyed the Russian
-Pacific squadrons at Port Arthur and Vladivostok. Vladivostok, Russia's
-sole remaining port in the Orient, was the destination. From that point
-it was intended to assail Japan on the sea; to interrupt her transport
-service, which was vital to her army then in the midst of a victorious
-campaign, 300 miles from the sea, in the heart of Manchuria, and thus
-cripple and harass the Island Empire until no other course than to sue
-for peace would be open to her. The task was enormous; so vastly
-difficult, indeed, that until the actual departure of the fleet few,
-anywhere, believed that such a plan was seriously contemplated. Even
-when departure had been made, experts rather held to the view that
-Russia, herself, meant to ask for peace and was merely making a
-demonstration that might be counted on to modify Japan's demands.
-
-[Sidenote: Tragedy of the North Sea]
-
-The voyage had hardly been begun when an incident occurred, which has
-been already narrated, and which astonished the entire world and nearly
-led to war between Russia and Great Britain. In the North Sea, at the
-point known as the Dogger Bank, the Russian vessels encountered the
-Gamecock fishing fleet from Hull, England. The Russian admiral mistook
-some of the trawlers for torpedo boats and ordered his vessels to fire.
-One fishing boat was sunk and two men were killed, others being badly
-wounded.
-
-For some days the excitement in England was intense, and British
-official documents published later on showed that the two countries
-were on the point of war, but the crisis was ended by an agreement to
-refer the incident to an international naval tribunal. This board of
-inquiry met in Paris, and after a long investigation reported that the
-Russian contention that hostile torpedo boats were present when the
-firing took place was not justified. Rozhdestvensky, however, was
-acquitted of the charge of conduct unbecoming a sailor, and the
-incident was ultimately closed by the payment of a large money
-indemnity by Russia.
-
-The Dogger Bank affair caused some delay to the Russian ships, though
-not nearly as much as Englishmen expected. After leaving the Straits of
-Gibraltar the fleet divided, one division, under Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky, proceeding by way of the Cape of Good Hope and the
-other, under Admiral Vollkersham, going via the Suez Canal.
-Rozhdestvensky had with him most of the battleships and Voelkersam the
-majority of the cruisers.
-
-Both squadrons proceeded very slowly, and the reports from time to time
-regarding their whereabouts were of the most puzzling character. On
-January 1, however, Rozhdestvensky reached Madagascar, and there he
-awaited the cruiser squadron. The long time spent there led to renewed
-assertions that the Admiralty at St. Petersburg would never order the
-fleet to the Far East. In the middle of March, however, reports were
-printed that the Russians had sailed. These reports were denied, and
-then repeated, and at length it was definitely established that the
-Baltic fleet had sailed.
-
-[Sidenote: Fleet Reaches Asiatic Waters]
-
-Nothing more was heard of it till April 8, when the news came that the
-fleet had passed Singapore and was in the China Sea. On entering the
-China Sea, Admiral Rozhdestvensky sailed directly to Kamranh Bay, on
-the coast of Indo-China, in French territorial waters. The prolonged
-stay of the fleet resulted in a vigorous protest from Japan to France,
-back of which was the possibility that Japan would invoke the
-Anglo-Japanese alliance, calling upon Great Britain to compel respect
-of neutrality by France. France, in addition to instructing her
-representatives in Indo-China to demand that the Russians leave
-territorial waters, forwarded the protest to Russia.
-
-[Sidenote: On the Eve of the Struggle]
-
-Admiral Rozhdestvensky, on the eve of the great struggle, had dismissed
-every unnecessary ship. More than a half hundred colliers and supply
-ships, which had accompanied the fleet or had met it in the China Sea,
-were dismissed after the last ton of coal had been stored on the big
-fighting ships.
-
-                           THE RUSSIAN FLEET.
-
-                      Displace- I. H. P.  Nominal     Gun     Weight of
-    Name                ment               speed   protection broadside
-                       --Tons.            --Knots.   --In.    fire--Lbs.
-
-    Kniaz Suvaroff     13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Alexander III      13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Borodino           13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Orel               13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Oslabya            12,674    14,500     19.0      10.5      2,672
-    Sissoi Veliky       8,880     8,500     16.0      12.5      3,186
-    Navarin             9,476     9,000     16.0      12.5      3,404
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-    Dmitri D'skoi       5,893     7,000     15.0      12.2       444
-    Admiral Nakhimoff   8,500     9,000     19.0      6.0        944
-
-                          PROTECTED CRUISERS.
-
-    Oleg                6,675    19,500     23.0      4.0        872
-    Aurora              6,630    11,000     20.0      4.5        632
-    Svietlana           3,828     8,500     20.0      4.0        476
-    Almaz               3,285     7,500     19.0      184
-    Jemtchug            3,200    17,000     24.0      184
-    Izumrud             3,200    17,000     24.0      184
-
-                          THE JAPANESE FLEET.
-
-    Asahi              15,000    15,000     18.0      14.6      4,232
-    Shikishima         15,000    15,000     18.0      14.6      4,232
-    Mikasa             15,000    16,000     18.0      14.6      4,232
-    Fuji               12,300    13,000     18.0      14.6      4,005
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-    Tokiwa              9,750    18,000     21.5      6.6       1,779
-    Asama               9,750    18,000     21.5      6.6       1,779
-    Yakumo              9,850    16,000     20.0      6.6       1,679
-    Azuma               9,436    17,000     21.0      6.6       1,679
-    Idzuma              9,800    15,000     24.7      6.6       1,779
-    Iwate               9,800    15,000     24.7      6.6       1,779
-    Kasuga              7,853    14,000     20.0      6.6       1,686
-    Nisshin             7,853    14,000     20.0      6.6       1,606
-
-                          PROTECTED CRUISERS.
-
-    Takasago            4,300    15,500     24.0     4-1/2       804
-    Kasagi              4,784    15,500     22.5     4-1/2       804
-    Itsukushima         4,277     5,400     16.7      11.4      1,260
-    Hashidate           4,277     5,400     16.7      11.4      1,260
-    Matsushima          4,277     5,400     16.7      11.4      1,260
-    Naniwa              3,727     7,120     17.3                1,200
-    Takishibo           3,727     7,120     17.3                1,200
-    Atkitsushima        3,150     8,400     19.0                 380
-    Nitaka              3,420     9,500     20.0                 466
-    Tsushima            3,420     9,500     20.0                 466
-    Suma                2,700     8,500     20.0                 335
-    Akashi              2,700     8,500     20.0                 335
-    Idzumi              3,000     6,000     18.0                 335
-
-From the Saddle Islands, a thousand miles stretched away to
-Vladivostok. Coal and stores for the dash there were on every ship.
-Then prows were turned northward, there was a full day when nothing was
-known of the Russians. Then came this word, that the great
-destiny-laden armada was sighted approaching Admiral Togo's lair in the
-Straits of Korea. Forty-eight hours more, and the Japanese admiralty
-was electrified by the characteristically modest announcement from
-Japan's great naval captain:
-
-"The main force of the Russian second and third fleets is nearly
-annihilated. Please feel assured of it."
-
-Between lies a tale marvelous for brilliancy, valor, daring, for all
-that is spectacular and awe-inspiring in war; for all that spells glory
-to the victor; for all that defeat, disaster, can mean to the beaten
-and crushed. In brief, of Russia's seven battleships, five had been
-sunk, and two, captives, were flying the flag of the victor; Of the
-mighty array of cruisers, all but four were at the bottom of the sea.
-Of the destroyers, three were afloat. In the harbor of Vladivostok were
-a single unarmored cruiser, and these three destroyers, the sorry
-fragments of the armada that reached this destination for which the
-flower of Russia's European squadron had set out. Sixty hours after the
-battle three armored cruisers, the _Aurora_, _Oleg_ and _Jemtchug_,
-laden with wounded, riddled with shot and shell, crept into the harbor
-of Manila, there to be interned, with their officers, Admiral Enquist
-among them. As a climax to the victory, Admiral Rozhdestvensky was a
-prisoner, badly wounded, and in the care of Japanese physicians in the
-naval hospital at Sasebo. Admiral Volkersham was dead. He had fallen in
-the first havoc-working broadside from the Japanese fleet. Admiral
-Nebogatoff was a prisoner. Without a fight he had surrendered two
-battleships and two coast defense ironclads, with the result that after
-the battle that had annihilated the Russian fleet, the Japanese fleet
-was even more powerful than when it cleared decks for action.
-
-The Russian fleet had, in truth, sailed into Admiral Togo's lair. The
-Straits of Korea lie between Japan and Korea, and are an average of one
-hundred miles wide. Half way across rise the Tsu Islands, which Japan
-has fortified until they are a veritable Gibraltar. Only twenty-five
-miles wide is the Tsushimi Channel or Strait, between Tsu Island and
-the Japanese coast.
-
-[Sidenote: Under Guns of the Forts]
-
-So narrow indeed is the water that as the Russian ships were pressed
-eastward toward Tsu Island the forts there got range of the battleships
-and sank the _Oslabya_. Togo's base was at Masampho, on the Korean
-coast. Thousands of Japanese knew this fact, but so deeply was the
-necessity for secrecy appreciated by all classes of the islanders that
-throughout the nine months of waiting the entire world never had the
-slightest intimation of the point from which Japan's defensive blow
-would be struck. The general impression was that Formosa, the
-southernmost of the Japanese archipelago, would be chosen. This opinion
-was fostered by show of activity there and by various orders calculated
-to mark this spot as of especial significance in the campaign. When
-Rozhdestvensky had traversed the Straits of Formosa without opposition
-and had reached the China coast north of there, Russians even rejoiced,
-declaring that their admiral had outwitted the Japanese by eluding
-their trap. Meantime Togo waited. His position enabled him to meet the
-enemy should the direct route to Vladivostok via the Straits of Korea
-and the Sea of Japan be chosen, or he was in position to sail northward
-to intercept the Russians should Rozhdestvensky decide to go further
-eastward into the Pacific, circle Japan, and finally approach
-Vladivostok by La Pelouse or another of the channels between the
-northern islands of the Japanese archipelago. When Rozhdestvensky
-headed north from the China coast toward the Straits of Korea he fell
-in with the plan of battle to meet which the whole genius of the
-Japanese admiral had been preparing. Only one detail failed to agree
-with what Togo had expected. He believed that the Russians would shun
-the narrow channel east of Tsu Island, nearer Japan, and would traverse
-the western channel between Tsu Island and Korea. In the latter event
-the blow would have been dealt by a dash from Mesampho. As it happened,
-the fleet had only to round the northern promontory of Tsu Island and
-fall upon the Russians in the most disadvantageous position that could
-have been found in all of the waters of the Orient.
-
-The strength of the fleets as they approached on that fateful Saturday
-morning may be shown in tabular form. The chief units are here given.
-In addition, there were twelve torpedo boat destroyers with the Russian
-fleet and a veritable swarm of destroyers and torpedo boats with the
-Japanese fleet. Nevertheless, the armada, with practically twice the
-number of Japanese battleships, would, on paper, have advantage over a
-large fleet, made up so largely of lighter vessels.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians in Double Line]
-
-The Russian fleet advanced in a double line, the battleships on the
-side away from the Japanese coast; the inner line, nearer Japan, made
-up of cruisers and light craft. Admiral Togo swung northward of Tsu
-Island, then turned sharply toward the southeast, thus moving parallel
-to the line of bows of the Russian ships, opening the broadsides of all
-of his ships, while through practically all of the first day's battle
-the Russians had only available bow and forward guns, a manoeuvre
-which eliminated enough of the effectiveness of the Russian battleships
-to give Togo an advantage despite his weakness in these floating
-fortresses.
-
-It had been planned that the initial attack should be made by the giant
-twelve-inch guns of the Japanese big ships, and that under cover of
-this bombardment the torpedoers and destroyers should dash for the
-leading Russian ships and attempt to throw the enemy's column into
-confusion.
-
-The commanders of the torpedoing flotilla had previously been summoned
-and had been notified in a few words by the admiral of the desperate
-service that was required of them and of the small chance of any of
-them reporting again for duty.
-
-They were told, in fact, that it was a simple case of sacrifice, and
-they accepted it so willingly that the admiral found it difficult to
-detail a torpedo reserve in case the first division failed in its task.
-
-Until sunset the heavy guns of the Japanese battleships and the
-ten-inch battery of the cruiser _Kasuga_ roared and fired at the
-oncoming Russians, while the Russian guns roared in reply.
-
-[Sidenote: Borodino First to Go Down]
-
-First of the Russian battleships in line behind the protected cruiser
-_Jemtchung_ was the 13,000-ton _Borodino_, and these two soon showed
-that they were receiving the brunt of the shelling. The cruiser
-_Nakhimoff_, in the van of the Russian port column, was also observed
-to be in distress, and then, the sun having set and the quick-setting
-darkness having come, the torpedoes were sent out under cover of a
-still heavier cannonade. The flotilla formed into two divisions, one
-heading for the battleship column of the Russians and the other for the
-cruisers.
-
-The searchlights of the Russian fleet threw out their great beams and
-their small gun batteries swept the sea but the swift hornets of the
-sea went wallowing and buzzing on their way. They circled and swept,
-and then came the dull roars and heaving fountains that told that the
-torpedoes had been loosed from their tubes and were doing their deadly
-work.
-
-Again and again came the roars, and as the Japanese searchlights swept
-across the field of fight and then went out it was seen that the great
-battleship _Borodino_ was sinking; that the protected cruiser
-_Svietlana_ was a wreck; that the battleship _Alexander III_ had gone;
-that the two armored cruisers _Dimitri Donskoi_ and _Nakhimoff_ were
-out of the fighting. A far-sailing shell had also reached and sunk the
-supply ship _Kamchatka_. Thus ended the first day's fight.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians in Full Flight]
-
-In the darkness of the night of Saturday, May 27, the shattered Russian
-fleet reformed as well as it might, and once more took up its
-despairing run for the Sea of Japan and the haven of Vladivostok.
-
-Hanging on to the already beaten enemy, an easy matter with his faster
-ships, Togo picked up the Russians all of Saturday night with his
-searchlights, occasionally sending a long-distance shell toward one of
-the shadowy hulls that were racing to get through the straits.
-
-But just as Togo had selected his fighting ground for working out one
-chapter of the tragedy, so now he chose the scene of the second day's
-fighting.
-
-To the northeast of Osino Island lies a dangerous little archipelago
-known as the Liancourt Rocks, and with his battleships and heavily
-armored cruisers the Japanese admiral stood out in crescent form across
-the Korean Strait and drove the enemy toward this dangerous running.
-
-Keeping together in some semblance of order, five Russians, consisting
-of the battleships _Nicolai I_ and _Orel_ and the coast defence vessels
-_Senyanin_ and _Apraxine_ and the protected cruiser _Izumrud_, were
-heading bravely for the Sea of Japan. Seeing a possibility of their
-escape, Togo, who was personally conducting the pursuit, signaled to
-close in and attack.
-
-With their forward turrets blazing and roaring, the Japanese squadron
-dashed on. The Russians replied vigorously for a time, but the gunnery
-of the Japanese was too deadly and accurate; shells were carrying death
-and destruction into the fleeing five, and the fight went out of the
-Russians.
-
-[Sidenote: Admiral Nebogatoff Surrenders]
-
-One after another flew surrender signals, the Japanese ceased firing,
-and the _Nicolai I_, _Orel_, _Senyanin_ and _Apraxine_ were added to
-the Mikado's navy. Only the _Izumrud_ got away. Fleeter than her
-sisters, she steamed boldly to the northwest. But she was doomed. Swift
-pursuing Japanese cruisers followed, hurling after her tons of metal,
-much of it taking effect. The end came when the Russian ship, entering
-Vladimir Bay, went fast on a reef. The Russian captain blew up the ship.
-
-So practically ended the second day's fight, and here again the
-apparently impossible happened--Togo's captains all reported, "No
-damage to men or ships."
-
-Togo's captains, had, however, other things to report, for while the
-main force of the combined squadron was hammering the four Russians
-into subjection off the Liancourt Rocks others of the cruisers were
-chasing scattered Russian ships, while still others were completing the
-work of destruction around Osino Island. Two special service ships and
-a destroyer were captured, and so was the armored cruiser _Monomach_,
-but she foundered soon after transference of flags.
-
-And there were prisoners to report, 3,000 of them, including the
-unhappy Nebogatoff, while up and down the seas the fight between
-pursued and pursuer still went on.
-
-Battles at sea are necessarily fought away from the eyes of neutral
-observers. The active participants are unable to know of more than the
-immediate scene of the drama in which their own ship is engaged. Even
-the admiral of the fleet is unable to see all that occurs. Hence
-detailed, continuous accounts of such occurrences rarely, if ever, are
-written until years later the disconnected stories of here one, there
-another, can be assembled, corrected, dovetailed. Sufficient time has
-not elapsed since this remarkable battle to permit of such assembling
-of facts. But both Japanese and Russians have told of individual
-experiences. These have a graphic interest, coming hot from the scene
-of the great events which, perhaps, a more finished narrative might
-lack. First in interest, come the actual reports from the admiral
-himself. Few great fighters have been men of fewer words than this
-Togo. His reports, and, indeed, all of the Japanese reports, have been
-in marked contrast to the elaborate, verbose messages sent to the
-Emperor of Russia.
-
-The story of the battle, as told by Admiral Togo, follows:
-
-First report, received morning May 27:
-
-[Sidenote: Togo's Reports of the Battle]
-
-"Immediately upon the receipt of report that Russian squadron was in
-sight our combined squadron started for attack. Weather is fine to-day,
-but with heavy seas."
-
-Second report, received night May 27:
-
-"Combined squadron attacked Russian squadron to-day near Okinoshima
-(southeast of Tsushima) and defeated it, sinking at least four ships
-and inflicting heavy damage upon others. Damage to our ships is
-insignificant. Our destroyer and torpedo flotillas delivered attack
-after sunset."
-
-Third report, received Monday, May 29.
-
-"Main force of our combined squadron continued pursuit since the 27th,
-and attacked (28th) near Liancourt Rocks (northeast of Okinoshima) a
-squadron consisting of _Nicolai I_ (battleship), _Orel_ (battleship),
-_Senyanin_, _Apraxin_ and _Izumurud_. _Izumurud_ fled while remaining
-four vessels surrendered. No damage to our ships. According to
-statements of prisoners, vessels sunk in engagement May 27 were
-_Borodino_ (battleship), _Alexandre III_ (battleship), _Jemtchug_ and
-three other ships. Rear Admiral Nebogatoff and about 2,000 other
-Russians were taken prisoners."
-
-The following are damages suffered by enemy in addition to those given
-above since commencement of battle, as reported by commanders not under
-immediate command of Togo and by observation stations:
-
-SUNK--_Admiral Nakhimoff_, _Dmitri Donskoi_, _Svietlana_, _Admiral
-Usakoff_, _Kamchatka_, _Irutshush_ and three destroyers.
-
-_Vladimir Monomach_, foundered after capture. One special service ship,
-whole name unknown, and one destroyer captured.
-
-Russian losses definitely known so far may be classified as follows:
-
-Two battleships, one coast-defence ship, five cruisers, two special
-ships, three destroyers were sunk; two battleships, two coast-defence
-ships, one special service ship, one destroyer were captured. It is not
-yet clear whether three vessels, as stated by prisoners to have been
-sunk, are included or not in above list. There are more than 1,000
-prisoners, besides 2,000 taken by main force of combined squadron.
-
-"The naval engagement is still in progress, so that it will take some
-time before the final results can be known."
-
-Fourth report from Togo received afternoon, May 30:
-
-"The main force of our combined fleet, upon accepting surrender of the
-remaining Russian main force near Liancourt Rocks, in the afternoon of
-May 28, as already reported, stopped pursuit, and while engaged in the
-disposition of surrendered ships found in a southwestern direction the
-_Admiral Ushakoff_, a coast defence ship. Thereupon _Iwate_ and
-_Yakumo_ were immediately dispatched in pursuit and invited her to
-surrender, but she refused and was sunk at 6 P. M. Her crew of over 300
-men were rescued.
-
-"Cruiser _Dimitri Donskoi_ was also found in the northwestern direction
-at 5 P. M. and was immediately overtaken and was fired upon vigorously
-by our fourth division and second destroyer flotilla.
-
-"She was attacked that night by the second destroyer flotilla, and the
-next morning was found aground on the southeastern shore of Urleung
-Island, off the Korean coast.
-
-[Sidenote: Rozhdenstvensky a Prisoner]
-
-"Our destroyer _Sazanami_ captured, toward the evening of May 27, in
-the south of Urleung Island, the Russian destroyer _Biedovy_, wherein
-were found Admiral Rozhdestvensky and another admiral, both severely
-wounded, together with eighty Russians, including staff officers from
-the flagship _Kniaz Suvaroff_, which was sunk at 5.29 P. M. on May 27.
-They were all taken prisoners.
-
-"Our cruiser _Chitose_, while cruising to the northward on the morning
-of May 28, found and sunk another Russian destroyer. Our cruiser
-_Niitaka_ and destroyer _Murakumo_ attacked also at noon on May 28 a
-Russian destroyer, which finally went aground.
-
-"According to various reports hitherto received and statements of
-prisoners, the result of the battle from May 27 to May 29, is as
-follows:
-
-"_Prince Suvaroff_, _Alexander III_, _Borodino_, _Dimitri Donskoi_,
-_Admiral Nachimoff_, _Monomach_, _Zemtchug_, _Admiral Ushakoff_, one
-converted cruiser and two destroyers sunk.
-
-"_Nicolai I_, _Orel_, _Admiral Apraxine_, _Admiral Senyavin_ and
-destroyer _Biedovy captured_. According to the prisoners, the
-_Osliabia_ sunk about 3 P. M., and the _Navarin_ also was sunk.
-
-"_Almaz_, on May 27, was observed in a disabled and sinking condition,
-but her final fate is yet unknown.
-
-"The full particulars regarding the injury to our ships are not yet in
-hand, but as far as I could ascertain none was seriously injured, all
-being still engaged in operations. The whole casualties are not yet
-ascertained. Casualties of first division are a little over four
-hundred. Prince Yorhito is in excellent health; Admiral Misu slightly
-wounded, May 27.
-
-"Fifth report, received the afternoon of May 30:
-
-"Loss of _Osliabia_, _Navarin_, confirmed. _Sissoi-Veliki_ also
-definitely reported to have sunk on the morning of May 28.
-
-"Official statement of Russian losses so far as ascertained: Following
-six battleships sunk: _Prince Suvaroff_, _Imperator_, _Alexander III_,
-_Borodino_, _Osliabia_, _Sissoi-Valiki_ and _Navarin_.
-
-"Following five cruisers sunk: _Admiral Nachimoff_, _Dimitri Donskoi_,
-_Vladimir_, _Monomach_, _Svietlana_ and _Zemtchug_.
-
-"Coast defence ship _Admiral Ushakoff_ sunk.
-
-"Two special service ships, _Kamchatka_ and three destroyers also sunk.
-
-"Two battleships, _Orel_ and _Imperator_, _Nicolai I_; two coast
-defence ships, _General Admiral Apraxine_ and _Admiral Senyanvin_, and
-one destroyer, _Biedovoy_, captured.
-
-"Thus Russians lost altogether twenty-two ships, the aggregate tonnage
-whereof amounting to 153,411 tons, besides cruiser _Almaz_, suspected
-to have sunk.
-
-"Later reports from the different divisions of the fleet engaged in the
-naval battle of May 27 show as follows:
-
-[Sidenote: Havoc Among Battleships]
-
-"The Russian battleship _Oslabya_ was heavily damaged in the early part
-of the fight on Saturday, going down at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
-
-"The first Russian vessel sunk was the battleship _Sissoi Veliky_.
-
-"The armored cruisers _Admiral Nakhimoff_ and _Vladimir Monomach_,
-after being in the general engagement during the daytime, were still
-further damaged by torpedoes during attacks by night, and were
-eventually completely disabled. They drifted into the vicinity of Tsu
-Islands, where they were discovered on Sunday morning, May 28, by the
-auxiliary cruisers _Shilano_, _Yawata_, _Tainan_ and _Sado_, which were
-about to capture them, but they all sank.
-
-"The crews of our auxiliary cruisers rescued 915 of the crew of the
-sunken Russian ships.
-
-"The battleship _Navarin_ was torpedoed four times after sundown on
-Saturday, May 27, and sunk. The survivors of the Navarin's crew confirm
-the story of her destruction.
-
-"The cruisers _Niitaka_ and _Otawa_ discovered the Russian cruiser
-_Svietlana_ at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning in the vicinity of Chappyan
-Bay and immediately attacked and sunk her. The commander of the
-_Niitaka_ reports the fact.
-
-"It is suspected that the Russian cruisers _Almaz_ and _Aurora_ were
-sunk by torpedoes on the night of May 27.
-
-"The former report includes the statement that the Russian cruiser
-_Jemtchug_ was sunk, but as yet this remains unconfirmed, and the
-cruiser's name has been excluded from the revised list of Russian
-vessels destroyed.
-
-"Judging from this and former reports, the enemy's main strength,
-consisting of eight battleships destroyed or captured, three armored
-cruisers and three coast defence ships destroyed or captured, with the
-second-class cruisers and other vessels destroyed, the enemy's fighting
-power is thus annihilated.
-
-"Later reports show that during the night of May 27 our torpedo boats,
-numbered 34, 35 and 69, were sunk by the enemy's fire. Comrades rescued
-the majority of their crews. Besides the above, there was no damage
-worth reporting. No warship nor destroyer suffered any loss of fighting
-or navigating power.
-
-[Sidenote: Searching Sea for Remnants]
-
-"We anticipated a heavy loss of life, but find that our casualties were
-comparatively slight. They do not exceed 800 killed and wounded. The
-casualty reports will be rendered as speedily as possible in order to
-reassure families and friends.
-
-"Nearly the whole strength of both combatants met in battle, and the
-area of the fighting was very wide.
-
-"The first day proved foggy, and even without the smoke and fumes
-resulting from the battle it was impossible to see five miles.
-Consequently, during the day it was impossible to locate or observe all
-the ships under my command. Moreover, the fighting having lasted two
-days, and the ships of my command being scattered for the purpose of
-chasing and attacking the enemy, some having received special orders
-after the battle, it is impossible to collect and frame any detailed
-report covering the whole battle at the same time."
-
-Admiral Togo telegraphed, May 30, as follows:
-
-"The ships sent northward to search for Russian ships returned
-yesterday. The cruisers _Iwate_ and _Yakumo_ and other vessels sent
-southward to find Russian ships, returned to-day. They thoroughly
-searched the Shanghai course from Tsushima and vicinity, but on both
-sides found no trace of the Russians."
-
-Admiral Shimamura, on board the cruiser _Iwate_, reports:
-
-"During the battle on May 27, at 3.07 P. M., the cruiser _Iwate_
-vigorously attacked the protected cruiser _Jemtchug_ at a distance of
-3,000 metres. The _Jemtchug_ sank in one minute. The loss of the
-_Jemtchug_ is, therefore, confirmed.
-
-"During the engagement fire broke out on the _Jemtchug_ and smoke
-concealed the hull of the vessel. Consequently the remainder of our
-fleet were unable to see the ship."
-
-Admiral Togo gave this list of casualties, surprisingly small even to
-himself, for he had estimated his losses as 800 men.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Losses Only 424 Men]
-
-"The Japanese losses in the battle of the Sea of Japan were 113
-officers and men killed and 424 officers and men wounded. The
-completion of the revised list shows that the losses were fewer than
-the original estimates. The flagship _Mikasa_ was the heaviest loser,
-losing 63 killed and wounded. The losses were distributed among the
-ships of the fleet as follows: _Mikasa_, 63; _Adzuma_, 39;
-_Shikishima_, 37; _Asashi_, 31; _Fuji_, 28; _Idzuma_, 26; _Nisshin_,
-27; _Otowa_, 26; _Kasaga_, 26; _Tsushima_, 19; _Asama_, 15; _Naniwa_,
-17; _Tokiwa_, 15; _Yakumo_, 11; _Chitose_, 6; _Idzumi_, 10; _Kasaga_,
-9; _Hashidate_, 5; _Niitaka_, 4."
-
-The casualties on the destroyers and the torpedo boats were 87.
-
-Commander Togo was wounded on the _Adzuma_.
-
-Admiral Togo concluded his series of reports with this absolutely
-accurate statement of the ships that had escaped, in the main a
-remarkable feat, when the conditions of alternating fog and sunshine
-and the natural confusion among the Russians is taken into account.
-
-"The Russian vessels present in the recent battle which were not sunk
-or captured and which are unaccounted for are," Togo's report adds,
-"the protected cruisers _Oleg_, _Aurora_, _Izumrud_ and _Almas_, three
-transports, two torpedo boat destroyers and one towboat. During the
-battle the _Oleg_ and _Aurora_ were within range of our third and
-fourth squadrons and were on fire. They may have escaped, but it will
-take time to restore their fighting power."
-
-A Japanese officer described the battle more connectedly in the
-following words:
-
-[Sidenote: Your Utmost for the Empire]
-
-"At 5.30 Saturday morning a wireless message, reading, 'The enemy's
-squadron is in sight,' reached the naval base. This message was
-transmitted to all our ships by the flagship, with instructions to get
-ready for action. Our squadron left their rendezvous and headed for the
-eastern channel off Tsushima. Our men seemed to be filled with new
-inspiration, and were eager for the long-delayed fight to begin.
-
-"When Tsushima was sighted to the southwest the sea was rough and the
-torpedo boats were forced to run for the shelter of the island. Our
-third fighting squadron, with the _Takashiho_ to port, reconnoitred the
-Russian course, and at 11.30 A. M. informed the main squadron by
-wireless telegraph that the Russian ships were passing into the east
-channel, whereupon our main squadron, changing its course somewhat to
-the southward, came in sight of Okinshima at 1 o'clock in the
-afternoon. The third division arrived later and joined the main
-squadron. The first and second divisions, accompanied by the destroyer
-flotilla, changed to a westerly course, while the third division and
-the fourth destroyer flotilla headed slightly eastward.
-
-"During the manoeuvre the Russian flagship appeared to the southward,
-at 1.45 o'clock. The Russians steamed up in double column. The fleet
-was numerous, but no living being was visible. The Russian ships seemed
-to be in good order. Our ships hoisted the flag of action, the _Mikasa_
-signaling: 'The defence of our empire depends upon this action. You are
-expected to do your utmost.' Our men seemed to silently weigh the
-significance of this signal.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Line Enveloped]
-
-"Our first and second divisions turned to the Russians' starboard,
-while the third division kept in close touch with the preceding two
-divisions. With the Japanese ships proceeding in this order, it was
-2.13 o'clock when the Russians opened fire. The first two shots fell
-short of our line, and it was some minutes later before we commenced
-firing. Then the battle was on, with firing from both sides. Our
-destroyers kept on the port side of the main squadron, and in this
-formation we pressed the Russians against the coast of Kiushiu, and
-they were obliged to change their course to the east.
-
-"We so manoeuvred our ships as to have their bows parallel to the
-north side of the Russian line. The _Mikasa_, of our first division,
-which had been leading, changed to the rear of the line, while the
-_Kasuga_ headed the line. The engagement now became very fierce. The
-_Borodino_ was seen to be on fire. A little later the Russians headed
-west, and we changed our course accordingly. Five ships of our second
-division concentrated their fire on the _Borodino_. Our first division
-now began firing vigorously, proceeding parallel with the Russian line,
-and as we began to press against the head of the Russian line our third
-division veered to the Russian rear, thus enveloping their ships.
-
-"The engagement proceeded hotly. Our second division followed a course
-parallel with the northern side of the Russians, and this movement
-completed the envelopment. The Russian ships were seen trying to break
-through, and our destroyer flotilla intercepted their new course. This
-state of envelopment continued until the following day, with the ships
-at varying distances. Thus enclosed on all sides, the Russians were
-helpless and powerless to escape the circle.
-
-[Sidenote: Destroyers Took Last Thrust.]
-
-"Previous instructions had been given the destroyers and torpedo boats
-to attack the Russian ships. Following instructions, the fifth
-destroyer flotilla advanced against a Russian ship, upon which the
-second division had been concentrating its fire, signaling, 'We are
-going to give the last thrust at them.'
-
-"The Russian ship continued to fight, and seeing the approaching
-torpedo boats, directed its fire on them. Undaunted, our destroyers
-pressed forward, the _Chitose_ meantime continuing its fire. The
-torpedo flotilla arrived within 200 metres of the Russian ship and the
-_Shiranus_ fired the first shot. Two other torpedo boats fired one
-each. The _Shiranus_ received two shells, but the other boats were not
-damaged. The Russian ship was sunk.
-
-"Sundown saw the battle raging furiously. Our shells were evidently
-telling on the Russians, who showed signs of confusion. Our fifth
-torpedo flotilla, after destroying the _Borodino_, followed in the wake
-of our second division, the signal reading, 'Something like the
-Russians' submarines have been sighted. Attack them.'
-
-"The flotilla followed and located the object, which proved to be a
-sinking ship with its overturned bottom showing. Thirty survivors clung
-to the wreck, crying for assistance. Firing ceased with the approach of
-darkness.
-
-"According to orders previously given for a torpedo attack after dark,
-all the destroyer flotilla, dividing into two squadrons, proceeded to
-attack the Russians during the whole night. The Russians frustrated the
-first and second attacks with searchlights. A third attempt was
-carefully made, and the _Yugiri_ sank a ship of the _Borodino_ type,
-and also hit others. During the night the Russians continued to move,
-and we preserved our enveloping movement some distance from the Russian
-position. The Russian ships headed northeast after daybreak, hoping to
-reach Vladivostok. Our officers and men were determined that not a ship
-should escape, and resolved not to relax their efforts until they had
-succeeded in either sinking or capturing every Russian ship.
-
-"Our ships always kept ahead of the Russians. The battle was resumed at
-9 o'clock Sunday morning, twelve miles east of Chiyupyon Bay, and
-lasted all day. Here the Russians suffered their heaviest losses. They
-seemed unprepared to repel night attacks. During our first night attack
-the Russians showed nine searchlights and frustrated the attacks, but
-clearly gave us the location of the fleet, which brought success later."
-
-Still another version has been supplied by Japanese tars, as follows:
-
-[Sidenote: As Sailors Saw the Battle]
-
-"At dawn on Saturday our squadron left its rendezvous and advanced
-through the Tsushima Channel. At 2.08 in the afternoon we sighted the
-Russian fleet. Gradually closing in, we found the _Kniaz Souvaroff_
-leading the line, with the _Borodino_, the _Alexander III_, the _Orel_,
-the _Osliabia_ and the _Navarin_ following in the order named. The
-_Nicolai I_ brought up the rear. Parallel to this line we observed five
-cruisers. After them came the special ships and torpedo boat
-destroyers. We counted thirty-two Russian ships in all.
-
-"Our fleet, with the battleship _Mikasa_ leading, proceeded toward the
-Russians in vertical line formation. The _Souvaroff_ opened fire first
-and then suddenly turned, reversing her course. Almost simultaneously
-the _Mikasa_ opened fire with her big guns, and thus the curtain rose
-on the great sea battle. The hostile fleets gradually closed in toward
-each other, exchanging a vigorous fire. The armored cruiser _Asama_
-approached within 3,000 metres of the Russian fleet and carefully
-observed its action.
-
-"After a short but fierce fight the _Admiral Oushakoff's_ deck was
-observed to be ablaze, and the ship left the line. By 4.30 in the
-afternoon the Russian line was disordered and its fire slackened. The
-_Borodino_ and _Kamchatka_ had been disabled and soon sank. The
-_Borodino_ continued to fire bravely until the ship was submerged.
-
-"The Japanese fleet continued to maintain enveloping positions from
-sundown until dawn. Sunday morning opened misty, but the weather soon
-cleared, and the search for the remnants of the Russian fleet was
-begun. Five Russian ships were discovered in the vicinity of Liancourt
-Island, and they were immediately surrounded. One, supposed to be the
-_Izumrud_, escaped at full speed. The remaining four offered no
-resistance, and hoisted the Japanese flag over the Russian colors,
-apparently offering to surrender. Captain Yashiro, commanding the
-_Asama_, started in a small boat to ascertain the real intentions of
-the Russians, when Admiral Nebogatoff lowered a boat and came on board
-the _Asama_, where he formally surrendered. The prisoners were
-distributed among the Japanese ships, and prize crews were selected to
-take possession of the captured vessels."
-
-[Sidenote: The Capture of Rozhdestvensky]
-
-To have destroyed the Russian armada was, of itself, an amazing feat;
-but to have captured the commander-in-chief, and to have compelled the
-surrender of an admiral of the line, add vastly to the glory of Togo.
-The story of Rozhdestvensky's capture is dramatic.
-
-The destroyers, _Kasumi_, _Usugumo_, _Sazanami_ and _Kagerou_, were
-ordered to attack the Russian warships on the night of May 27 and were
-steaming ahead when they suddenly encountered a number of Russian
-ships. The _Kasumi_ narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian
-cruiser, the closeness of which seems to have saved the destroyers from
-being damaged by the heavy fire which the Russians directed on them.
-
-During the Russian attack the vessels forming the destroyer flotilla
-divided. The _Sazanami_ and _Kagerou_ continued the search for Russian
-ships throughout the night, and in the morning discovered two torpedo
-boat destroyers. One of them steamed away, but the other was unable to
-do so. On approaching the latter the Japanese discerned a white flag
-flying from the foremast and the Red Cross flag astern. She proved to
-be the _Bedovi_ with Admiral Rozhdestvensky and his staff on board. The
-_Bedovi_ signalled that her engines were damaged, and that she was
-short of coal and water. An armed guard was sent on board the _Bedovi_
-to receive her surrender. The Russians requested the Japanese not to
-remove Admiral Rozhdestvensky and the other officers on account of
-their wounds, and the Japanese complied, with the understanding that
-the guard would shoot Rozhdestvensky in the event of the delay leading
-to a meeting with Russian ships, thus running the danger of his
-recapture. The _Sazanami_ ran a line to the _Bedovi_ and began to wing
-her. The line parted twice. In the morning the _Sazanami_ met the
-Japanese cruiser _Akashi_, which convoyed the two destroyers to Sasebo.
-During the trip the destroyers encountered heavy seas, and their decks
-were awash during part of the time.
-
-[Sidenote: Chiefs of Japan's Fleet]
-
-Thirty naval commanders participated in the battle of the Japan Sea.
-Vice Admiral Togo was commander-in-chief, leading the first squadron.
-Vice Admiral Kamamura was in command of the second squadron, and Rear
-Admiral Kataoka led the third squadron.
-
-The chiefs of staff in the order named were Admiral Kato and Captains
-Fujii and Saito. The commanders of the squadron divisions were Vice
-Admirals Dewa, Uriu and Mitsu, acting as rear admirals under Vice
-Admiral Togo, Captains Yamada, Shimamura, Taketomi and Kokura.
-
-[Sidenote: Blowing Up the Izumrud]
-
-The fate of the cruiser _Izumrud_ is a chapter of itself in the story
-of the battle. Baron Ferzen, her captain, with survivors of the ship's
-crew, reached Vladivostok on June 1 and sent a report, which, in
-addition to confirming the disaster to the entire fleet, told the fate
-of his own ship. The Baron reported that before dark, on May 27, the
-_Osliabya_, _Alexander III_ and _Borodino_ had been sunk, and the
-_Kniaz Souvaroff_, the _Kamtchatka and_ the _Urel_ had been seriously
-damaged and were lost to sight. The command then devolved on Rear
-Admiral Nebogatoff.
-
-In the evening the _Nikolai I_, the _Orel_, the _General Admiral
-Apraxine_, the _Admiral Seniavin_, the _Admiral Oughakoff_, the _Sissoi
-Veliky_, the _Nevarin_, the _Admiral Nakhimoff_, and the _Izumrud_
-sailed northeastward, the latter being charged to transmit orders to
-the battleships. Two other cruisers were cut off from the fleet and
-were not again seen.
-
-The battleships, steaming at fourteen knots, were repeatedly attacked
-by the Japanese torpedo boats, especially at the extremities of the
-line.
-
-At dawn it was ascertained that the battleship division consisted of
-the _Nikolai I_, the _Orel_, the _General Admiral Apraxine_ and the
-_Admiral Seniavin_.
-
-At sunrise, May 28, smoke from the Japanese ships reappeared on the
-horizon, whereupon the admiral gave orders for increased speed. The
-_Admiral Seniavin_ and the _General Admiral Apraxine_ dropped behind.
-
-Toward 10 o'clock, the Japanese fleet appeared first to port and then
-to starboard, while the cruiser division manoeuvred behind the
-Russians to starboard. Baron Ferzen's account continues:
-
-[Sidenote: Flight Ends in Disaster]
-
-"I was cut off from the squadron and finding it impossible to rejoin it
-resolved to make for Vladivostok. I put on full speed and the enemy's
-cruisers came on in pursuit. Owing to the insufficiency of my coal
-supply and the certainty of meeting the enemy's cruisers, I
-subsequently altered my course for Vladimir Bay, where I arrived on the
-night of May 29. At 1.30 o'clock next morning, in pitch darkness, the
-_Izumrud_ ran full on a reef at the entrance of the bay. Having only
-ten tons of coal and seeing that it would be impossible to again float
-my vessel, I ordered the crew ashore and blew up the _Izumrud_ to
-prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. Ten of my sailors were
-wounded in the battle, but the officers and the rest of the crew are
-all safe."
-
-[Sidenote: The News Reaches Russia]
-
-Intimations of the extent of the disaster first reached Russia through
-foreign telegrams. The emperor and naval officials hoped against hope
-that their own advices would bring some ray of comfort. It was hoped
-that a portion of the fleet might reach Vladivostok strong enough to
-aid in protecting the fortress against attack from the sea.
-
-One unprotected cruiser and three torpedo boat destroyers were all of
-the splendid fleet that ever were to reach Vladivostok. The cruiser
-_Almaz_, which by reason of her lack of protective sheathing had been
-ordered by Rozhdestvensky to flee in event of battle, got through the
-Japanese lines with a minimum of damage, though well scarred by shots
-that had reached her by chance. Captain Chagir, her commander, speedily
-communicated with the emperor at St. Petersburg through Lieutenant
-General Linevitch, commander-in-chief in the Far East. This was the
-message:
-
-"The cruiser _Almaz_ has arrived at Vladivostok. Her commander reports
-as follows:
-
-"'On May 27, Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky's fleet in the Tsu Strait
-engaged the Japanese in battle. During the day we lost the battleships
-_Kniaz Souvaroff_, _Borodino_, _Osliabya_, and the cruiser _Ural_. The
-battleship _Alexander III_ was seriously damaged at the start of the
-battle.
-
-"'After the separation of the cruiser _Almaz_ from the fleet the battle
-was renewed in the darkness. The result of the night battle is not
-known.'"
-
-The _Almaz_ was cut off from the fleet and reached Vladivostok.
-
-"Supplementary reports of the commander of the _Almaz_, forwarded by
-the post commandant at Vladivostok, state that the transport
-_Kamtchatka_ was seriously damaged."
-
-"The _Almaz_ had Lieutenant Mochalin and four sailors killed and ten
-sailors wounded. There is no news as to those who were saved or those
-who perished on the sunken warships."
-
-The arrival of the _Almaz_ has thus been described by an eye witness at
-Vladivostok:
-
-The _Almaz_, which arrived at her anchorage here Monday evening, May
-29, bore scars of the battle. Her mizzen mast was shot away, and one of
-her smokestacks was pierced by a cannon shot. But the _Grozny_, though
-engaged for several hours in a running fight at short range with a
-large Japanese destroyer, showed no signs of the fray. After her
-commander, Captain Andriffski, had been wounded, and an officer and
-three men had been killed, the _Grozny_ succeeded in sinking her
-opponent with a luckily placed shot, and reached Vladivostok without
-further adventure.
-
-For two days Vladivostok had been buzzing with rumor and excitement.
-The fact that a battle between the rival fleets was imminent, if
-Rozhdestvensky was not already at hand-grips with Togo, was made known
-through telegrams from Europe, and when it was learned Monday morning
-that a Russian cruiser had been sighted off Askold Island, headed for
-the harbor, the city was filled with the wildest reports of every
-nature.
-
-[Sidenote: Story of Russian Survivors]
-
-The inhabitants clustered in the streets, thronged the waterside or
-climbed the frowning hills overlooking the harbor for a better view.
-Finally, toward 6 o'clock in the evening, a graceful cruiser with two
-snowy-white stacks, shot in view at the entrance to the Golden Horn and
-rounded to an anchorage beneath the bristling guns of the curving
-promontory. From afar the broken stump of her mizzen-mast and a shot
-hole showing black upon the white paint of one stack indicated that the
-cruiser had encountered the Japanese. As the anchor chain rattled in
-the hawse holes the vessel wreathed itself in smoke--it was an
-admiral's salute in honor of Rear Admiral Von Jessen. Scarcely had the
-boom of the last cannon begun to echo from the surrounding hills when
-Von Jessen's flagship, the cruiser _Rossia_, answered the salute, and a
-minute later the guns of the fortress took up the cannonade.
-
-Excitement beyond description seized the thronging spectators, who,
-with frantic "huzzas," tossed high their caps.
-
-Citizens embraced each other and danced jubilantly upon the pier, while
-the crews of the ships in the harbor joined in wild cheering.
-
-In a thrice the boats were dropped from the davits, and in a moment the
-officers of the cruisers and torpedo boats in the harbor and the
-military officials from the fortress were swarming on board the _Almaz_
-to learn news of the fight.
-
-[Sidenote: Saw Flagship Go Down]
-
-The story was short. According to the officers of the _Almaz_, the
-fleet under Rozhdestvensky met the Japanese in the Straits of Korea,
-near Tsu Island, and the opposing fleets immediately closed in.
-
-Being lightly armored, the _Almaz_, as had been expected by Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky before the battle, separated itself from the main fleet
-at the first opportunity and headed for Vladivostok soon after the
-commencement of the action, but not too soon to observe that the losses
-on both sides in the titanic combat were great.
-
-Early in the battle an officer of the _Almaz_, while watching
-Rozhdestvensky's flagship, the battleship _Kniaz Souvaroff_, for a
-signal, saw the flagship shudder from stem to stern, as if under a blow
-from a gigantic hammer, and hesitate in her course, while the waves
-rose high from her armored sides. Then she commenced to list and sink.
-
-The officers believe that the debut of the submarine boat as an
-effective agent in naval warfare, or perhaps a large mine caused the
-disaster to the _Kniaz Souvaroff_. The damage, however, was so
-extensive that the flagship soon went down, leaving the deck officers
-and many of the crew struggling in the waves.
-
-One of the Russian torpedo boats, either the destroyer _Buiny_ or the
-_Bravi_, ran in and picked up a number of the swimmers, one of whom was
-recognized through a glass as Admiral Rozhdestvensky.
-
-Under a grueling attack by the Japanese warships, aided by torpedo
-boats, mines and submarines, the _Borodino_, _Osliabia_ and _Ural_ were
-placed out of action and followed the flagship to the bottom.
-
-The fog, which had raised and lowered intermittently during the
-morning, began to settle down again, and the distance of the _Almaz_,
-which now succeeded in disengaging herself in the combat from the
-struggling ships, made it difficult for her to see clearly.
-
-The arrival of the _Grozny_ on the following day was marked by the same
-scenes of excitement as those which characterized the advent of the
-_Almaz_. The wounded commander of the destroyer, Captain Andriffski,
-confirmed the details given by the officers of the _Almaz_. He
-described his combat as a running fight, in which the _Grozny_ was
-engaged for several hours, finally sinking the pursuing Japanese
-destroyer.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Story of Disaster]
-
-From this and further fragmentary reports the Russians pieced together
-a story of the disaster. They figure that Admiral Togo, with his main
-squadron, must have lain somewhere off the coast of Korea, while
-Admirals Kamimura and Uriu held their squadrons further north to head
-off the Russian vessels which might get through Togo's lines or be
-prepared to bar the entrance to the Straits of Tsugaru in case the
-Russians should be reported moving up the east coast of Japan. When
-Togo's scouts reported that Admiral Rozhdestvensky was heading for the
-eastern channel of the Straits of Korea the Japanese Admiral steamed
-around the northern part of the Tsu Islands, and came upon the Russians
-steaming in double column, with the cruisers to port.
-
-Togo enjoyed the great advantage of tactical position when he opened
-fire, having the lightest of the Russian ships between him and
-Rozhdestvensky's heavier vessels, thus smothering the fire of the
-latter. Besides, Togo was able to use all his broadsides, whereas the
-sternmost ships of the Russian columns, coming on in line ahead
-formation, could probably only with difficulty use any guns at all.
-
-When Sunday morning came the Russian fleet was divided. The faster and
-stronger division, under Rozhdestvensky, was met by Kamimura and Uriu,
-while the slower division, under Nebogatoff, renewed the fight with
-Togo. With some of the scattered Russian units it was a case of save
-himself who can. In the running fight the Japanese enjoyed the
-advantage of superior speed, enabling them to concentrate their fire
-and bring every crippled Russian ship to bay. Admiral Nebogatoff's
-battered remnant surrendered off Liancourt Rocks, while Rozhdestvensky,
-with the best remaining battleships, fought on for the honor of the
-Russian navy.
-
-Torpedo attacks were the feature of the Japanese program, which more
-surely than anything else brought disaster. Torpedo boats in night
-attacks launched their deadly missiles within a hundred yards of their
-Russian targets. They completely encircled the Russian ships, swarming
-like angry hornets. Much of the sweeping character of the victory will
-ultimately be traced to these comparatively tiny craft, fighting under
-the shower of shells being hurled from the big guns of the battleships
-and cruisers far away.
-
-Summarizing scattered reports, the results of the battle may be
-accurately stated to be annihilation for Russian sea power in the Far
-East. Thirty-seven Russian warships of all classes entered the Korean
-Straits. Of these, three, a cruiser, and two destroyers, reached
-Vladivostok; three armored cruisers reached Manila; two battleships and
-two coast defence ships were captured and were taken to Sasebo; one
-destroyer, found helpless at sea, was towed to Shanghai; leaving a
-total of twenty-six ships that were sent to the bottom, five of them
-battleships. The Russian loss in life reached a total of 6,500 men, one
-admiral and ten captains among them. The loss to Russia in gold
-amounted to $75,000,000. Japan's loss in ships was three torpedo boats
-and a few more than 400 men. Experts the world around failed to find
-adequate explanation for this amazing disparity. As summarized at
-Tokio, these are reasons which in part contributed to Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky's defeat:
-
-[Sidenote: Why the Russians Were Defeated]
-
-"First. An imperfect reconnaissance and incomplete, faulty and
-misleading intelligence.
-
-"Second. An imperfect battle formation, which indicated that
-Rozhdestvensky did not expect to meet Togo off Tsushima.
-
-"Third. The weather, the direction of the wind and the sunlight were
-unfavorable to the Russians, Togo having the sun behind him and firing
-with the wind, while the Russians had the sunlight in their eyes and
-fired against the wind.
-
-"Fourth. The Russians wasted their ammunition and eventually their
-supply ran short. It is believed that the surrender of Nebogatoff was
-necessary because his ammunition had been expended.
-
-"Fifth. The marked inferiority of the Russian gunnery."
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Honors Togo]
-
-Japan hailed Togo as the nation's hero. A popular subscription will
-raise to him a giant lighthouse on lofty Tsu Island, commanding the sea
-for a radius of eighty miles, the area through which the battle was
-waged.
-
-[Illustration: PEACE ENVOYS IN SESSION AT PORTSMOUTH.
-
-Copyrighted by Brown Bros., New York, 1905.
-
-The Russians, from left to right are C. Berg, M. Pokotiloff, M. Witte,
-Baron Rosen and M. Nabokoff. The Japanese from left to right are Mr.
-Adatchi, Mr. Otchiai, Baron Komura, Minister Takahira and Mr. A. Sato.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XX.
-
-  Aftermath of the Victory of the Sea of Japan--The World Hopes
-    that Peace Will Result--The President of the United States
-    Takes the Initial Step--Meantime the Japanese Decline an
-    Armistice--Operations Begun for the Seizure of Saghalien
-    Island--Japanese Landing Parties Successful--Russians Continue
-    Flight After Series of Conflicts--Japanese Take Chief Town of
-    Island, Alexandrovsk, July 25--Flight of Russians and Pursuit
-    Continued--Governor of Island and Remainder of Garrison
-    Surrender to Japanese, July 30--Russia and Japan Accept
-    President's Proposal to Meet and Discuss Terms of
-    Peace--America Chosen as Scene of Meeting--Envoys
-    Named--Portsmouth, N. H., Selected as Scene of Meeting--Russian
-    and Japanese Envoys Formally Received by the President at
-    Oyster Bay, August 5--Sessions of Peace Conference Begin at
-    Portsmouth, August 9--Conference Adjourns Without Achievement,
-    August 18--President Begins Effort to Effect Compromise, August
-    19--Japan Withdraws Demand for Indemnity and Other Demands on
-    Which There Had Been a Deadlock, August 29--Announcement Made
-    That Peace is Assured--Work of Drafting Treaty Begun--Peace
-    Treaty Signed--The Treaty of Peace.
-
-
-A wave of awe went 'round the word when the full effects of the Battle
-of the Sea of Japan were realized. Russia stood before the world in the
-light of a thoroughly vanquished nation. On land her armies had been
-invariably defeated in a series of battles of stupendous magnitude. Her
-original Asiatic fleet had been annihilated. Her last great effort to
-stem the victories of Japan, the sending of a vast Armada to the
-Orient, had resulted in complete annihilation of that fleet. The
-nations forgot to grieve for the thousands slain in the hope that this
-last crowning disaster to Russia would bring what every civilized land
-had desired for months--an end to the titanic war.
-
-[Sidenote: President Takes Initiative]
-
-While this was the universal wish it remained for the President of the
-United States to take the initiative. The fact that, with the exception
-of a minor campaign for the possession of the Island of Saghalien, off
-the Siberian coast, this was really the closing chapter of the war, has
-added a brilliant feat to the annals of American diplomatic
-achievements and has placed the name of Theodore Roosevelt eternally
-among those of the famous benefactors of humanity.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Take Saghalien]
-
-As has been said, one minor martial enterprise remained for the
-Japanese. Saghalien Island, blanketing the coasts of Siberia for a
-distance of 700 miles, had been secured by Russia from Japan by a
-treaty partaking, it was claimed by the Japanese, the nature of a
-coercive measure. Among the objects for which the Japanese had entered
-upon the war were to secure permanent fishing rights in the waters
-along the Siberian coast and the recession of Saghalien Island to her.
-The seizure of this Island, too, was a necessary corollary of a land
-and sea campaign against Vladivostock, which would have been the next
-step in her military campaign had not the war come to an end. There was
-little surprise, therefore, when the Tokio government, while giving
-consent to a proposal that the belligerent nations meet to talk of
-peace, refused to consent to an armistice. Possession of Saghalien
-Island was still to be gained. The Japanese campaign began when a
-landing was effected on the East coast of the Island on July 8. The
-Russian garrison numbered 8,000 men and while there were defensive
-works of some strength at a number of points, the defenders were
-helpless before the advance of the invaders. The campaign amounted to a
-half dozen engagements, mere skirmishes, when compared with the battles
-of the Manchurian campaign. The Russians made a brave defence, but lost
-position after position and the subjugation of the Island was completed
-on July 30, when the Russian Governor and 3,500 men surrendered "in the
-name of humanity." Five days previously the Japanese had occupied
-Alexandrovsk, the chief town of the Island and co-operative naval
-forces were disposed so that the escape of the garrison from the Island
-to the mainland was impossible. The slaughter of the entire force of
-the defenders could have been the only result of continued resistance.
-The Japanese announced the organization of a civil administration of
-the Island the moment the surrender had been completed, and were thus
-in possession of what was actually Russian territory. This fact was
-important to the Japanese from several standpoints. The Island is rich
-in minerals, it is the centre of the vast fishing industry of the North
-Pacific and has strategic value on account of its position with regard
-to the entire Siberian littoral. More important than any of these
-circumstances, however, was the fact that it had been soil over which
-flew the Russian flag. The Japanese contemplated making a demand for
-indemnity at the forthcoming peace conference. Precedent demanded that
-there should have been the occupation of territory to make valid such a
-claim. The occupation of Saghalien gave this necessary basis for the
-indemnity demand which, ultimately was presented and only withdrawn
-when it became apparent that the war must go on unless Japan withdrew
-her claim.
-
-But the conquest of Saghalien marked the last of actual warfare between
-Japan and Russia. President Roosevelt had sent an identical note to
-Japan and Russia on June 8, calling upon each, in the name of humanity,
-to meet to discuss terms of peace and the whole Saghalien campaign had
-gone on while, following this request, diplomatic machinery had been
-slowly at work preparing the way for the peace conference. The rest of
-the story of the Japan-Russia War has to do with the events which
-finally called permanent truce to the long struggle and caused a
-million fighting men and their auxiliaries to turn their faces from the
-rugged plains of Manchuria, where thousands on thousands had given
-their lives for their Emperors and their Fatherlands.
-
-[Sidenote: Preparing for Peace Parleys]
-
-Russia's acceptance of the President's invitation reached Washington on
-June 12, two days after Japan had announced her assent. A ripple was
-caused by difficulty in choosing a place for the meeting. Russia
-preferred an European capital. Japan would not consent to any that
-could be named. Russia ultimately yielded the point, and on June 15,
-with the consent of both of the belligerents, Washington was named, and
-a day within the first ten days of August was accepted for the
-assembling of the envoys. The Czar named Sergius Witte, greatest
-statesman of the Empire, to head the peace delegation, with Baron
-Rosen, Russian ambassador at Washington, as his associate. The Mikado
-named Baron Komura as chief of the Japanese delegation, and as his
-associate, Mr. Takahira, Japanese Minister to the United States.
-Accompanying each was a suite of a dozen secretarys, legal and military
-experts and interpreters. On July 11, the President named Portsmouth,
-N. H., Navy Yard as the actual place of meeting. It was feared that
-Washington, under the torrid conditions usually prevailing there in
-mid-summer, would prove a too uncomfortable place for the guests of the
-nation to spend the weeks that must necessarily be consumed in the
-negotiations. The Japanese envoys and their suite reached New York on
-July 25. M. Witte, the chief Russian envoy, arrived in New York with
-his suite on August 2, and was joined by Baron Rosen, his associate.
-Both the Japanese and the Russian delegations were informally presented
-to the President at his summer home at Oyster Bay, N. Y., prior to the
-formal reception of the two peace missions which took place on the
-President's yacht, the Mayflower, in Oyster Bay on August 5. The
-President, in a toast to which no reply was given, expressed the hope
-that a "just and lasting peace" might be arranged. The envoys and their
-suites were conveyed in warships to Portsmouth, reaching that city on
-August 7. The envoys were formally welcomed by United States officials
-and the Governor of the State of New Hampshire. The Hotel Wentworth, on
-an island off the mainland was made their place of residence. The newly
-constructed general stores building in the Navy Yard, which had been
-elaborately fitted up with every possible convenience, was designated
-as the scene of the sessions.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Terms]
-
-The first meeting of the envoys was held on August 9. The Japanese
-terms were presented in twelve sections, as follows:
-
-I. Recognition of Japan's "preponderating influence" in Korea.
-
-II. Mutual obligations to evacuate Manchuria, Russia to retrocede to
-China all special privileges.
-
-III. Japanese obligations to restore the sovereignty and administration
-of China in Manchuria.
-
-IV. Mutual obligations to respect the territorial and administrative
-integrity of China and the principle of the "open door."
-
-V. The cession of the Island of Saghalien.
-
-VI. The surrender of the Russian leases in the Liaotung Peninsula,
-including Port Arthur, Dalny and the Blonde and Elliott Islands.
-
-VII. The cession of the branch of the Chinese Eastern Railroad from
-Harbin southward.
-
-VIII. The retention by Russia of that portion of the railroad line
-through northern Manchuria connecting the Transsiberian road with
-Vladivostock.
-
-IX. The reimbursement of Japan for the war--commonly spoken of as the
-indemnity.
-
-X. The surrender of Russian warships which have been interned in
-neutral ports during the war.
-
-XI. The limitation of Russia's naval forces in the Pacific.
-
-XII. The question of fishing rights of Russia and Japan off the
-Siberian coast.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Makes Peace Possible]
-
-These demands, one by one, were discussed by the envoys. It developed
-that Russia absolutely refused to grant an indemnity, to surrender
-warships interned in Chinese and American ports, or to cede to Japan
-the Island of Saghalien. Whatever hope of compromise there seemed to be
-with regard to the other questions at issue it was regarded as
-absolutely essential to the signing of a treaty of peace that Russia
-should yield on the subject of indemnity. The President's efforts were
-directed toward accomplishing this result under some other name than
-indemnity. It was proposed to arrange for the payment of the amount
-demanded as a purchase price for Saghalien, or for the railway rights
-over which Japan had become master. No compromise would be listened to
-by the Czar, "Not a kopeck for indemnity," was the phrase of M. Witte,
-and there was no yielding. By shrewd diplomatic manoeuvring the
-Russian envoy had placed Japan in a position which meant that were the
-war to be continued it would be upon the responsibility of Japan and
-for the sole reason that money must be had. The Tokio government, after
-long discussion, decided upon a magnanimous course, which at once won
-the encomiums of the whole civilized world. She yielded every point in
-dispute, gave up her demand for indemnity, gave up half of Saghalien,
-gave up her claim upon the interned warships and, though triumphantly
-victorious in every step of the war, accepted terms of peace dictated
-by the nation she had conquered, and this "in the name of humanity."
-Russia had won the victory on the face of it, but the historian will
-credit to Japan the greater and the real victory, a victory of vast
-moral and humanitarian significance.
-
-The glad news went out to the world on August 29, that the envoys had
-agreed upon every point and that a treaty of peace would forthwith be
-drafted. To Prof. Maartens, the famous authority of international law
-and to Mr. Dennison, an American, long an adviser of the Japanese
-Foreign Office, was assigned the task of actually drafting the treaty
-in accord with the general agreement that had been reached by the
-envoys. Their work was speedily accomplished and the "Treaty of
-Portsmouth" brought to an end this struggle that had cost hundreds of
-thousands of lives, billions of dollars and had completely changed the
-status of political power in the Far East.
-
-The treaty of peace was finally signed at Portsmouth, N. H., on
-September 5, 1905; Sergius Witte and Baron Rosen signed for Russia,
-while Baron Komura and Mr. Takahira signed for Japan. It was signed by
-the Emperors of Russia and Japan and made public October 16, 1905.
-
-                          TEXT OF THE TREATY.
-
-The text of the treaty is as follows:
-
-The Emperor of Japan, on the one part, and the Emperor of all the
-Russias, on the other part, animated by a desire to restore the
-blessings of peace to their countries, have resolved to conclude
-a treaty of peace, and have for this purpose named their
-plenipotentiaries, that is to say, for his Majesty the Emperor of
-Japan, Baron Komura Jutaro, Jusami, Grand Cordon of the Imperial
-Order of the Rising Sun, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, and
-his Excellency, Takahira Kogoro, Imperial Order of the Sacred
-Treasure, his Minister to the United States, and his Majesty the
-Emperor of all the Russias his Excellency Sergius Witte, his
-Secretary of State and President of the Committee of Ministers of
-the Empire of Russia, and his Excellency Baron Roman Rosen,
-Master of the Imperial Court of Russia, his Majesty's Ambassador
-to the United States, who, after having exchanged their full
-powers, which were found to be in good and due form, have
-concluded the following articles:
-
-                               ARTICLE I.
-
-There shall henceforth be peace and amity between their Majesties the
-Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias, and between their
-respective States and subjects.
-
-                              ARTICLE II.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government, acknowledging that Japan possesses in
-Korea paramount political, military and economical interests, engages
-neither to obstruct nor interfere with measures for guidance,
-protection and control which the Imperial Government of Japan may find
-necessary to take in Korea. It is understood that Russian subjects in
-Korea shall be treated in exactly the same manner as the subjects and
-citizens of other foreign Powers; that is to say, they shall be placed
-on the same footing as the subjects and citizens of the most favored
-nation. It is also agreed that, in order to avoid causes of
-misunderstanding, the two high contracting parties will abstain on the
-Russian-Korean frontier from taking any military measure which may
-menace the security of Russian or Korean territory.
-
-                              ARTICLE III.
-
-Japan and Russia mutually engage:
-
-First.--To evacuate completely and simultaneously Manchuria, except the
-territory affected by the lease of the Liaotung Peninsula, in
-conformity with the provisions of the additional article 1 annexed to
-this treaty, and,
-
-Second.--To restore entirely and completely to the exclusive
-administration of China all the portions of Manchuria now in
-occupation, or under the control of the Japanese or Russian troops,
-with the exception of the territory above mentioned.
-
-The Imperial Government of Russia declares that it has not in Manchuria
-any territorial advantages or preferential or exclusive concessions in
-the impairment of Chinese sovereignty, or inconsistent with the
-principle of equal opportunity.
-
-                              ARTICLE IV.
-
-Japan and Russia reciprocally engage not to obstruct any general
-measures common to all countries which China may take for the
-development of the commerce or industry of Manchuria.
-
-                               ARTICLE V.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government transfers and assigns to the Imperial
-Government of Japan, with the consent of the Government of China, the
-lease of Port Arthur, Talien and the adjacent territory and territorial
-waters, and all rights, privileges and concessions connected with or
-forming part of such lease, and it also transfers and assigns to the
-Imperial Government of Japan all public works and properties in the
-territory affected by the above-mentioned lease.
-
-The two contracting parties mutually engage to obtain the consent of
-the Chinese Government mentioned in the foregoing stipulation.
-
-The Imperial Government of Japan, on its part, undertakes that the
-proprietary rights of Russian subjects in the territory above referred
-to shall be perfectly respected.
-
-                              ARTICLE VI.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government engages to transfer and assign to the
-Imperial Government of Japan, without compensation and with the consent
-of the Chinese Government, the railway between Changchunfu and
-Kuanchangtsu and Port Arthur, and all the branches, together with all
-the rights, privileges and properties appertaining thereto in that
-region, as well as all the coal mines in said region belonging to or
-worked for the benefit of the railway. The two high contracting parties
-mutually engage to obtain the consent of the Government of China
-mentioned in the foregoing stipulation.
-
-                              ARTICLE VII.
-
-Japan and Russia engage to exploit their respective railways in
-Manchuria exclusively for commercial and industrial purposes and nowise
-for strategic purposes. It is understood that this restriction does not
-apply to the railway in the territory affected by the lease of the
-Liaotung Peninsula.
-
-                             ARTICLE VIII.
-
-The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia with the view to promote
-and facilitate intercourse and traffic will as soon as possible
-conclude a separate convention for the regulation of their connecting
-railway services in Manchuria.
-
-                              ARTICLE IX.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government cedes to the Imperial Government of
-Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the southern portion of the
-Island of Saghalin and all the islands adjacent thereto and the public
-works and properties thereon. The fiftieth degree of north latitude is
-adopted as the northern boundary of the ceded territory. The exact
-alignment of such territory shall be determined in accordance with the
-provisions of the additional article II annexed to this treaty.
-
-Japan and Russia mutually agree not to construct in their respective
-possessions on the Island of Saghalin or the adjacent islands any
-fortification or other similar military works. They also respectively
-engage not to take any military measures which may impede the free
-navigation of the Strait of La Perouse and the Strait of Tartary.
-
-                               ARTICLE X.
-
-It is reserved to Russian subjects, inhabitants of the territory ceded
-to Japan, to sell their real property and retire to their country, but
-if they prefer to remain in the ceded territory they will be maintained
-and protected in the full exercise of their industries and rights of
-property on condition of submitting to the Japanese laws and
-jurisdiction. Japan shall have full liberty to withdraw the right of
-residence in or to deport from such territory of any inhabitants who
-labor under political or administrative disability. She engages,
-however, that the proprietary rights of such inhabitants shall be fully
-respected.
-
-                              ARTICLE XI.
-
-Russia engages to arrange with Japan for granting to Japanese subjects
-rights of fishery along the coasts of the Russian possession in the
-Japan, Okhotsk and Bering Seas.
-
-It is agreed that the foregoing engagement shall not affect rights
-already belonging to Russian or foreign subjects in those regions.
-
-                              ARTICLE XII.
-
-The treaty of commerce and navigation between Japan and Russia having
-been annulled by the war the Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia
-engage to adopt as a basis for their commercial relations pending the
-conclusion of a new treaty of commerce and navigation the basis of the
-treaty which was in force previous to the present war, the system of
-reciprocal treatment on the footing of the most favored nation, in
-which are included import and export duties, customs formalities,
-transit and tonnage dues and the admission and treatment of agents,
-subjects and vessels of one country in the territories of the other.
-
-                             ARTICLE XIII.
-
-As soon as possible after the present treaty comes in force all
-prisoners of war shall be reciprocally restored. The Imperial
-Governments of Japan and Russia shall each appoint a special
-commissioner to take charge of the prisoners. All prisoners in the
-hands of one Government shall be delivered to and be received by the
-commissioner of the other Government or by his duly authorized
-representative in such convenient numbers and at such convenient ports
-of the delivering State as such delivering State shall notify in
-advance to the commissioner of the receiving State.
-
-The Governments of Japan and Russia shall present each other as soon as
-possible after the delivery of the prisoners is completed with a
-statement of the direct expenditures respectively incurred by them for
-the care and maintenance of the prisoners from the date of capture or
-surrender and up to the time of death or delivery. Russia engages to
-repay to Japan as soon as possible after the exchange of statement as
-above provided the difference between the actual amount so expended by
-Japan and the actual amount similarly disbursed by Russia.
-
-                              ARTICLE XIV.
-
-The present treaty shall be ratified by their Majesties the Emperor of
-Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias. Such ratification shall be
-with as little delay as possible, and in any case no later than fifty
-days from the date of the signature of the treaty, to be announced to
-the Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia respectively through the
-French Minister at Tokio and the Ambassador of the United States at St.
-Petersburg, and from the date of the latter of such announcements this
-treaty shall in all its parts come into full force. The formal exchange
-of ratifications shall take place at Washington as soon as possible.
-
-                              ARTICLE XV.
-
-The present treaty shall be signed in duplicate in both the English and
-French languages. The texts are in absolute conformity, but in case of
-a discrepancy in the interpretation the French text shall prevail.
-
-                             SUB-ARTICLES.
-
-In conformity with the provisions of articles 3 and 9 of the treaty of
-peace between Japan and Russia of this date the undersigned
-plenipotentiaries have concluded the following additional articles:
-
-                      SUB-ARTICLE TO ARTICLE III.
-
-The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia mutually engage to
-commence the withdrawal of their military forces from the territory of
-Manchuria simultaneously and immediately after the treaty of peace
-comes into operation, and within a period of eighteen months after that
-date the armies of the two countries shall be completely withdrawn from
-Manchuria, except from the leased territory of the Liaotung Peninsula.
-The forces of the two countries occupying the front positions shall
-first be withdrawn.
-
-The high contracting parties reserve to themselves the right to
-maintain guards to protect their respective railway lines in Manchuria.
-The number of such guards shall not exceed fifteen per kilometre and
-within that maximum number the commanders of the Japanese and Russian
-armies shall by common accord fix the number of such guards to be
-employed as small as possible while having in view the actual
-requirements.
-
-The commanders of the Japanese and Russian forces in Manchuria shall
-agree upon the details of the evacuation in conformity with the above
-principles and shall take by common accord the measures necessary to
-carry out the evacuation as soon as possible, and in any case not later
-than the period of eighteen months.
-
-                       SUB-ARTICLE TO ARTICLE IX.
-
-As soon as possible after the present treaty comes into force a
-committee of delimitation composed of an equal number of members is to
-be appointed respectively by the two high contracting parties which
-shall on the spot mark in a permanent manner the exact boundary between
-the Japanese and Russian possessions on the Island of Saghalin. The
-commission shall be bound so far as topographical considerations permit
-to follow the fiftieth parallel of north latitude as the boundary line,
-and in case any deflections from that line at any points are found to
-be necessary compensation will be made by correlative deflections at
-other points. It shall also be the duty of the said commission to
-prepare a list and a description of the adjacent islands included in
-the cession, and finally the commission shall prepare and sign maps
-showing the boundaries of the ceded territory. The work of the
-commission shall be subject to the approval of the high contracting
-parties.
-
-The foregoing additional articles are to be considered ratified with
-the ratification of the treaty of peace to which they are annexed.
-
-In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed and
-affixed seals to the present treaty of peace.
-
-Done at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this fifth day of the ninth month of
-the thirty-eighth year of the Meijei, corresponding to the twenty-third
-day of August, one thousand nine hundred and five. (September 5, 1905.)
-
-
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-Names, italicized phrases, and inconsistencies in capitalization
-and hyphenation have been left as printed. Otherwise, obvious
-typographical errors, punctuation errors, and inconsistencies in
-the punctuation of sidenotes and captions have been corrected.
-
-Illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
-paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not
-match the page number in the List of Illustrations.
-
-On page 278, "Commander-inChief" has been changed
-to "Commander-in-Chief" ("During the months which
-had elapsed since the arrival of the Russian
-Commander-in-Chief at the seat of war").
-
-On page 373, "silhouttes" has been changed to
-"silhouettes" ("two long dark silhouettes, emitting
-quantities of smoke and evidently steaming at high
-speed").
-
-On page 374, "silhouttes" has been changed to
-"silhouettes" ("two long, dark silhouettes emitting
-quantities of smoke").
-
-On page 427, "(9)" has been changed to "(10)" ("(10)
-Wounds inflicted by modern arms heal readily").
-
-On page 433, "mobility" has been changed to
-"immobility" ("the inexorable grasp of the Manchurian
-winter had fallen upon them and frozen them into
-immobility").
-
-On page 458, "unrecord" has been left as printed
-("continued under these unrecord of the actual
-campaign").
-
-On page 507, "tht" has been changed to "the" ("General
-Oku avoided the Russian right centre just left of the
-railroad").
-
-On page 518, "Russians resistance" has been changed to
-"Russian resistance" ("Thereupon the Russian resistance
-was redoubled in fury").
-
-On page 537, counts of ships have been left as printed.
-
-
-
-***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR***
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-<body>
-<h1 class="nf-center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Japan-Russia War, by Sydney Tyler</h1>
-<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
-and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at <a
-href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>.  If you are not
-located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this ebook.</p>
-<p>Title: The Japan-Russia War</p>
-<p>       An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East</p>
-<p>Author: Sydney Tyler</p>
-<p>Release Date: January 28, 2016  [eBook #51066]</p>
-<p>Language: English</p>
-<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
-<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR***</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<h4 class="nf-center">E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Rachel Oei,<br />
-    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
-    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
-    from page images generously made available by<br />
-    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
-    (<a href="https://archive.org/details/americana">https://archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
-  <tr>
-    <td valign="top">
-      Note:
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
-      <a href="https://archive.org/details/japanrussiawaril00tyle">
-      https://archive.org/details/japanrussiawaril00tyle</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class="full" />
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-
-<div id='frontispiece' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic002'>
-<img src='images/frontispiece.jpg' alt='' class='ig002' />
-<p>A SILENCED GUN IN PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div><span class='large'>THE</span></div>
-    <div><span class='xxlarge'>Japan-Russia War</span></div>
-    <div class='c000'><span class='large'>An Illustrated History of</span></div>
-    <div><span class='large'>the War in the Far East</span></div>
-    <div class='c001'><span class='xlarge'>The Greatest Conflict of</span></div>
-    <div><span class='xlarge'>Modern Times</span></div>
-    <div class='c001'>BY</div>
-    <div><span class='large'>SYDNEY TYLER</span></div>
-    <div class='c000'><span class='xsmall'>War Correspondent and Author of</span></div>
-    <div>"The Spanish War," "The War in South Africa," Etc., Etc.</div>
-    <div class='c001'>Illustrated by Photographs and Drawings</div>
-    <div>Made by Eye-Witnesses</div>
-    <div class='c001'>P. W. ZIEGLER CO.</div>
-    <div><span class='small'>PHILADELPHIA</span></div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>Copyright, 1905,</div>
-    <div><span class='small'>by</span></div>
-    <div>SYDNEY TYLER</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c002'>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c003' >The Japan-Russia War goes into history as the greatest
-military struggle the world has known. Its story, therefore, rivals
-in interest those of the great wars of the past which have been an
-unceasing inspiration in every field of art and literature. The political
-machinations of great and little kings, of famed prime ministers,
-of peoples and states have attracted attention in more or less
-limited circles, but the world's wars have appealed to every class
-and rank. The world's vast army of readers have never wearied of
-the classic stories of feats of arms by men and armies told of the
-dawning days of world history; the tales of later map-making struggles
-of Asia, of Europe, of America, have never grown old or dull.
-So in the Orient of to-day. The great political battles which have
-centred about China and Japan for the last half century have interested
-the few. But to-day the attention of the world is centred on
-the lands bordering the Pacific, because a war has waged; because
-the whole human family loves the stories of valorous deeds, of military
-achievement, of the history-making that is done with the
-sword.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The purpose of this volume is to bring American readers face to
-face with the events of the struggle of such stupendous magnitude,
-now drawn to a close. From battlefield to battlefield the author carries
-his thrilling narrative, bringing the scenes before the mind's eye
-as only one could do who stood within sound of the roaring guns,
-within sight of the onrush of resistless battalions, elbow to elbow
-with Japan's brilliant history makers. From the opening of the
-struggle to its close there was never a moment when stupendous
-events were not either in the process of making or so imminent that
-the civilized world held its breath. A single year's campaign in
-Manchuria and around famed Port Arthur furnish three land battles,
-greater in the number engaged in the awful cost of life, in the
-period of duration, than is presented by all of the pages of history.
-The siege of Port Arthur has no duplicate among all recorded military
-achievements. The opening of the second year of the war
-added a battle, that at Mukden, so vast, so brilliant from the standpoint
-of the victors, so disastrous from the standpoint of the defeated,
-that it has been accorded by masters of strategy a niche by
-itself in the chronicles of war. The author saw this wonderful panorama
-of events unfolded. His story bristles with dramatic touches,
-flashes of enlightening description that bring the scene home to the
-reader with a vividness that thrills.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >American readers have a more immediate interest in the struggle
-than the universal love of the stories of battle. With Japan
-victor over Russia, with the great Muscovite Empire deprived of
-a foothold on the Pacific, Japan and America remain the only Powers
-there to divide the rich spoils of Oriental commerce. Our possessions,
-the Philippines, are Japan's nearest neighbors, and their proximity
-to Japan, their bearing upon the Asiatic problem open the
-way for events of more than ordinary importance, if not of seriousness.
-Already the statement has been made that Japan covets these
-Islands. Will the United States, one day be called upon to go to
-war in their behalf? The question is one which no American can
-ignore. The nation must educate itself to decide one day, the
-issue, for or against a struggle with this wonderful little Empire,
-the Great Britain of Asia. The volume, therefore, in addition to
-its value and interest as a chronicle of a marvelous series of bloody
-battles is educational, the pioneer, blazing the way to an appreciation
-of events, of possibilities for our own country which lie in the
-story of Japan's overwhelming success. Will the Mikado come to
-believe that having humbled and crushed what was Europe's mightiest
-Power, he can as readily drive from the Pacific the American
-Republic?</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The author in this volume has even more completely demonstrated
-his genius as a chronicler of war than in any of his earlier
-efforts. Step by step he followed the British in Africa and at the
-conclusion of that struggle contributed to British literature a history
-which was generally conceded to have been more accurate,
-more graphic, less warped by prejudices than any other. Step by
-step he followed the unfolding of our own Spanish war and the
-story of that struggle as told by Mr. Tyler became at once the
-standard not only in Great Britain, but in the several Continental
-countries in which it appeared. With the priceless experience of
-these two wars to ably equip him, Mr. Tyler has contributed
-one more narrative of a great war to military literature and the assertion
-is unhesitatingly made that it will not be equalled by any of
-the hosts of volumes destined to be written of this memorable war.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Along with the author went his camera. To that fact the reader
-is indebted to a series of illustrations never before attempted in the
-portrayal of military campaigns. What little the author has left to
-the imagination is supplied by these graphic pictures that bridge
-nine thousand miles and bring the sights and almost the sounds of
-battle to the reader.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >In brief, this volume as a description of the succeeding struggles
-of the Japan-Russia War, for accuracy, graphic qualities, detail
-and literary finish; for its educational value and significance, for the
-hitherto unattempted excellence of its illustration is presented to the
-American public with confidence that an appreciative reception will
-not possibly be denied.</p>
-
-<div class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Publishers.</span></div>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c002'>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class='c006' summary=''>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER I.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Causes of the War</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch01'>13</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The First Blow</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href = '#ch02'>39</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Korean Campaign</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch03'>69</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Naval Operations</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch04'>101</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Sinking of the "Petropavlovsk"</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch05'>133</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Battle of the Yalu</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch06'>167</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VII.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Cutting off Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch07'>197</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Assault that Failed</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch08'>225</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER IX.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Battle of Liaoyang</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch09'>257</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER X.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Naval Battle off Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch10'>289</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XI.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Battle of the Sha-ho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch11'>317</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XII.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The North Sea Outrage</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch12'>347</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XIII.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Surrender of Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch13'>379</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XIV.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The First Year of the War</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch14'>409</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XV.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch15'>430</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XVI.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>In Winter Quarters</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch16'>453</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XVII.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Battle of Mukden</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch17'>467</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XVIII.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Retreat towards Harbin</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch18'>497</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XIX.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Battle of the Japan Sea</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch19'>523</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER XX.</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Treaty of Peace</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#ch20'>557</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c002'>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class='c006' summary=''>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c009'>Page</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Silenced Gun at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#frontispiece'>Frontispiece</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Infantry Attacking a Chinese Position</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i021'>21</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map Showing the Area Affected by the Dispute</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i025'>25</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Japanese at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i027'>27</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Battle of the Yalu&mdash;Sinking of the Chih-yuen</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i038'>38</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese and Russian Admirals</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i047'>48</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Generals</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i057'>57</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian Generals</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i068'>68</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Harbor of Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i071'>71</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian Fleet Trying to Leave Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i077'>77</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian and Japanese Destroyers at Close Quarters</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i088'>88</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Czar</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i097a'>97</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Mikado</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i097b'>97</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Raid by the Vladivostock Fleet</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i107'>107</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Tokio Military Hospital&mdash;Officers Quarters</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i118'>118</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Sketch Plan of Port Arthur's Main Fortifications</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i121'>121</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Funeral Procession of a Japanese Officer in Yokohama</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i123'>125</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Skirmish Between Japanese and Russian Cavalry</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i129'>129</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Desolation in Manchuria</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i140'>140</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Blowing up of the Petropavlovsk</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i145'>145</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Arrival of a Dispatch for General Kuropatkin</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i152'>152</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian Concentration on the Yalu</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i161'>161</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map Showing the Actions on the Yalu, April 29th-May 1st</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i169'>169</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Hauling a Japanese Howitzer into Position under Fire</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i171'>171</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russians Collecting Wounded on the Night after the Battle</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i182'>182</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Last Gallant Stand of Russian Gunners</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i191'>191</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Three Months</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i199'>199</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>In the Russian Trenches</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i202'>202</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Desperate Encounter at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i211'>211</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>General Stoessel Exhorting his Troops in the Defence of Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i222'>222</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Outside Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i227'>227</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Skirmish on the Manchurian Railway</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i234'>234</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russians Charging Japanese Trenches at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i243'>243</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Four Months</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i247'>247</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian Priest in the Trenches with General Stackelberg's Army</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i250'>250</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>General Nogi before Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i256'>257</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Five Months</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i261'>261</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Food for the Japanese Army</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i265'>265</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map Showing Territory Adjacent to Liaoyang</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i269'>269</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Six Months</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i273'>273</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Death of Count Keller at Yang-Ze-Ling Pass</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i275'>275</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Six Days' Action Around Liaoyang, Aug. 29-Sept. 3d</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i281'>281</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map Showing Route of March and Principal Actions of the Four Japanese Armies, Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i283'>283</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Assault on a Russian Position at Liaoyang</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i286'>286</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russians Recapturing their Lost Guns at Liaoyang</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i295'>295</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>On the Deck of the "Rurik"</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i306'>307</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Seven Months</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i313'>313</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Capture of the "Reshitelni" at Chifu</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i316'>316</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Outpost Relieving Guard near the Sha-ho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i325'>325</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Scaling Fort at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i335'>335</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Remnant of a Regiment After the Battle of the Sha-ho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i346'>347</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Huge Siege Guns before Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i355'>355</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Thirsty Japanese Troops Crossing the Sha-ho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i366'>366</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Fight in Street of Lin-Shin-Pu, Battle of Sha-ke River</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i375'>375</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Port Arthur and the Surrounding Forts</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i381'>381</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Hauling Guns Up a Captured Hill at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i386'>386</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Eleven-Inch Mortar before Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i396'>396</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Evacuation of Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i405'>405</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>After Twelve Months</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i408'>408</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Cossacks in Retreat After a Reconnaissance Near Liaoyang</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i415'>415</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Garrison of Port Arthur&mdash;Leaving the Fortress</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i425'>426</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Bamboo Gun at Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i435'>435</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>On the Slopes of Ojikeishan before Port Arthur</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i446'>446</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Night Attack on a Russian Position</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i455'>455</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Japanese Troops Caught in Barbed Wire Entanglement</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i466'>466</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map of the Battle of Mukden</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i469'>469</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian Retreat in Manchuria</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i475'>475</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Russian Suffering after the Battle of Mukden</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i486'>486</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>On Board a Japanese Battle ship during the Battle of the Japan Sea</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i496'>496</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Russian Fleet in the Battle of the Japan Sea</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i505'>505</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Retreat from Mukden</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i519'>519</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Peace Envoys in Session at Portsmouth</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#i556'>556</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<hr class='pb' />
-
-<div>
-  <h1 class='c011'>The Japan-Russia War</h1>
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <h2 id='ch01' class='c012'>CHAPTER I.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Two Irreconcilable Destinies&mdash;Progress v. Stagnation&mdash;Europe's Danger&mdash;Insatiable
-Russia&mdash;A Warm Water Port&mdash;Japan's Warlike Progress&mdash;The Chino-Japanese
-War&mdash;Russia's "Honor"&mdash;M. Pavloff&mdash;Russia in China&mdash;The Russo-Chinese
-Bank&mdash;The Mailed Fist&mdash;Russian "Leases"&mdash;Benevolent Professions&mdash;Wei-Hai-Wei&mdash;Niuchwang
-Railway&mdash;Pavloff in Korea&mdash;Russia and
-Manchuria&mdash;Russo-Chinese Treaty&mdash;Anglo-Japanese Alliance&mdash;Russians in
-Korea&mdash;Japanese Protests&mdash;Russia's Discourtesy.</p>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_1 c014' >Never since the great Napoleonic wars which convulsed Europe
-a century ago has the world witnessed an appeal to
-arms so momentous in its issues and so tremendous in its
-possibilities as that which has just been tried between
-Russia and Japan in the Far East. The great internecine struggle
-in the United States in the middle of the last century, the disastrous
-duel between France and Germany which followed, and England's
-recently-concluded campaign in South Africa, have each,
-indeed, left a deep mark upon history. But while their
-import was at most Continental, if not local, the conflict
-between Japan and Russia is fraught with consequences
-which must inevitably be world-wide in scope. There is
-no civilized Power in either hemisphere whose interests are not
-more or less directly concerned in the question&mdash;Who shall be the
-dominant Power in the China Seas? For the whole course of the
-world's development in that quarter must depend on whether the
-mastery remains to the obstructive and oppressive Colossus of the
-North or to the progressive and enlightened island-Empire which,
-like Pallas in Pagan myth, has sprung fully armed from an ancient
-civilization into the very van of modern progress. It was no mere
-dynastic jealousy or racial animosity that brought about this fateful
-collision. It was the inevitable antagonism of two irreconcilable
-destinies. "Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere"; and
-the ambitions of Russia and the aspirations of Japan cannot find
-room for fulfilment together. One or the other must be crushed.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Two Irreconcilable Destinies</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For Japan, the question is one of national existence. With
-Russia established in Manchuria and dominating the Yellow Sea,
-the absorption of Korea becomes a mere
-matter of time; and then the very independence
-of Japan would be subject to a
-perpetual and intolerable menace; while
-the new life which has dawned for its wonderfully gifted people
-would be crushed at the outset. But if Japan is fighting for her life,
-Russia is fighting for something almost as precious&mdash;the consummation
-of an ambition which has been the dream and the fixed goal of
-her statesmen for more than a generation. The expansion of the
-Russian Empire has been steadily eastwards; and the further conquest
-and dominion have spread, the more has the necessity been felt
-for an outlet to the navigable seas. Unless all the labor and sacrifices
-of years are to be in vain, and the great Siberian Empire is
-to remain a mere gigantic <i>cul-de-sac</i>, Russia must establish herself
-permanently in the Gulf of Pechili, and find in its ice-free ports that
-natural outlet for her trans-continental railway which will enable the
-life-blood of commerce to circulate through her torpid bulk. The
-struggle, therefore, was one between two irreconcilable destinies.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Progress v. Stagnation</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But if the issue was immediately of such paramount significance
-to the two combatants, it was only less charged with import
-for all Asia, Europe and America. The
-victory of Japan would incontestably give
-her the predominance in the Far East,
-commercially as well as politically. Not only would she be a formidable
-trade rival to the European nations whose methods
-she has so successfully adopted, but she would be able to
-influence the conditions under which that trade was carried on. The
-immensely valuable and as yet imperfectly developed market of
-China would be practically within her control; and European Powers
-would no longer be able with impunity to seize naval bases and
-proclaim exclusive spheres of influence in Chinese territory. On
-the other hand, if Russia were to emerge victorious from the war,
-the whole of China would become a mere vassal state, if indeed its
-integrity could be preserved. Trade would be discouraged and
-finally extinguished by the exclusive methods of Russian policy,
-and except on sufferance no other Power could obtain a footing in
-the Far East. The whole future of this vast region, therefore, hung
-in the balance, for the battle was between freedom, progress and enlightenment,
-as represented by Japan, and obscurantism, oppression
-and stagnation, as represented by Russia.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Europe's Danger</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the anxious concern of the world in this Far Eastern war
-was based not only upon a calculation of material interests. Every
-civilized Government had before its eyes
-the imminent danger of other countries
-being dragged into the conflict. The situation
-was such that at any moment some untoward incident might
-set Europe in a blaze. The specific obligations of France to Russia
-under the terms of the Dual Alliance, and of Great Britain to Japan
-under the Treaty of Alliance concluded in 1901, made the limitation
-of the struggle to the original combatants not only difficult, but even
-precarious. A breach of neutrality by any third Power would at
-once have compelled France to join forces with her Russian ally,
-or Great Britain to come to the assistance of Japan. Such a breach
-might have been merely trivial or technical, and yet sufficient to
-give a hard-pressed belligerent ground for calling her ally to her
-assistance. It might even have been deliberately provoked, in the
-hope of retrieving disaster by extending the area of conflict; and
-if the two Western Powers were once dragged into war, no statesman
-would be bold enough to put a limit to the consequences. Both
-Germany and the United States are profoundly interested in the
-Far East and in the issue of this great struggle for predominance;
-and one or both of them might at any moment have been ranged on
-one side or the other. From such an Armageddon the factors
-which determine the balance of power throughout the world, and
-therefore the development of national destinies, could hardly have
-emerged without profound modification; and the ultimate establishment
-of peace would have found many more international
-rivalries and antagonisms resolved than those which are immediately
-connected with the Far East. Lord Beaconsfield once said
-that there were only two events in history&mdash;the Siege of Troy and
-the French Revolution. It seems more than possible that the
-Russo-Japanese war will have to be reckoned as a third supreme
-factor in the progress of the world.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Insatiable Russia</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The outbreak of the present war became practically inevitable
-as long ago as 1895, when, on the conclusion of peace between
-China and Japan the three European
-Powers&mdash;Russia, France and Germany&mdash;stepped
-in and robbed the Mikado and his
-people of the fruits of their hard-earned victory. From that time up
-to the present Russia has steadily, and without ceasing, tightened her
-grip upon the Northern province of the hapless Chinese Empire,
-and has ended by threatening the independence of Korea, the legitimate
-sphere of influence of Japan, and the indispensable buffer between
-herself and the insatiable and ever-advancing Northern
-Power.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Warm Water Port</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It must be borne in mind that the determining consideration
-which led Russia to cast longing eyes upon Manchuria&mdash;apart from
-that eternal hunger for territory which is
-one of her strongest characteristics&mdash;was
-the necessity of acquiring a warm water
-port as a naval base and commercial harbor. The port of Vladivostock&mdash;which,
-by the way, she acquired from China as early as
-1860 by a truly Russian piece of bluff&mdash;has proved of little use in
-this respect, owing to the fact that during the winter months it is
-almost entirely icebound. A striking illustration of the embarrassment
-such a state of things must cause was afforded in the course
-of the present war by the plight into which the Russian Cruiser
-Squadron stationed there fell. There can be no doubt that the
-ambitions of the Czar's advisers had for years been directed towards
-the acquisition of the fortress and harbor of Port Arthur
-(known to the Chinese as Lu-shun-kau), which situated as it is
-upon the narrow neck of land at the extreme southernmost point
-of the Liao-tung Peninsula, should, if properly served by a strong
-and efficient naval force, dominate the Gulf of Pechili, and prove
-the most powerful strategic post in Northern China.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Warlike Progress</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is not known, of course, what path the development of Russian
-plans in this respect would have followed if they had been
-allowed to proceed without interruption;
-but, as it turned out, they were suddenly
-threatened with a dangerous obstacle in
-the complete and unexpected success of
-Japan over China and her capture of the whole of the Liao-tung Peninsula.
-This short but sanguinary conflict between China and
-Japan is memorable for having first revealed to the world the amazing
-progress which Japan had made in her efforts to engraft and
-assimilate the characteristics of Western civilization. It proved
-that in less than twenty years Japan had earned for herself an established
-position in the community of progressive nations. The war
-also made it possible for the first time to estimate the influence and
-effect in warlike operations of the tremendous engines of destruction
-with which modern science has equipped the fleets and armies of to-day.
-The navy of Japan had been organized on the latest model,
-and her officers had been trained in British schools; and though
-China's equipment was not to be compared with that of her antagonist,
-she possessed several powerful armorclads of the latest type,
-officered and engineered by experienced Europeans.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Chino-Japanese War</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The salient features of the war were, at sea, the battles of
-the Yalu River and of Wei-hai-Wei; and on land, the rout of
-the Chinese at Ping-Yang, the passage of
-the Yalu and storming of Port Arthur.
-The first of these in order of time was the
-battle of Ping-Yang, a town situated near
-the north-west coast of Korea. Here the Chinese troops under
-General Tso attempted to prevent the advance of the Japanese
-towards the Yalu. By a series of skilful movements carried out
-on September 15th and 16th, 1894, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief,
-Marshal Yamagata, completely surrounded the Chinese and
-defeated them with great slaughter, their General himself falling
-dead upon the field. On the next day the Chinese fleet stationed at
-the mouth of the Yalu, which had proved entirely ineffective in preventing
-the landing of the enemy's forces upon Korea, gave battle
-to the Japanese. The ships of the latter Power were mainly
-cruisers, but the extraordinary skill with which they were man&oelig;uvred
-and the rapidity of their fire completely outweighed the
-advantage possessed by the Chinese Admiral in battleships. He
-sustained a crushing defeat, and eight of his best vessels were destroyed.
-In the meanwhile Marshal Yamagata continued his march
-to the North, and after a bloody but indecisive conflict near Wiju
-on October 22nd he succeeded in crossing the Yalu River and driving
-his antagonists in rout before him. The Japanese now proceeded
-to overrun Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula, capturing
-all the principal positions one after the other with unvarying
-success. A great army under Marshal Oyama invested Port Arthur
-in November, and on the 20th and 21st he took that powerful
-fortress by storm, the defenders being massacred to a man. The
-final and decisive act of the war was the bombardment of Wei-hai-Wei
-and the island fortress of Leu-Kung-tan by the combined naval
-and military forces of Admiral Ito and Marshal Oyama. The operations
-lasted from January 30th, 1895, till February 12th, when, unable
-to hold out any longer against the terrific assault, Admiral Ting,
-the Chinese Commander, surrendered his fleet and the forts under
-honors of war. A closing touch of tragedy was the suicide of Ting
-and his principal officers, unable to bear the shame of their defeat.
-On March 19th negotiations for peace were opened at Shimonoseki,
-and the final treaty was signed on April 17th. The Treaty of
-Shimonoseki gave Japan unqualified possession of that Peninsula
-and also, of course, of Port Arthur&mdash;a very moderate territorial
-prize, considering the absolute character of her victory over China,
-and the sacrifices she had made to obtain it. But Russian susceptibilities
-were alarmed, and the Government of St. Petersburg decided
-upon a drastic step to avert the calamity which threatened to
-render its ambitions futile. Gaining the support of both Germany
-and France, it compelled Japan, by threats of force which that
-Power could not resist, to retire from Port Arthur and the Liao-tung
-Peninsula, and to restore the territory to China. The reason
-alleged for this high-handed action was the specious plea that the
-presence of the Japanese on the Asiatic mainland would endanger
-the independence of China and Korea, and would be a constant
-menace to the peace of the Far East. Naturally enough the indignation
-of Japan was intense, but defiance of three such powerful
-antagonists was impossible for her at that moment, isolated as
-she was and exhausted by the exertions of a great war. Great
-Britain was asked by the other three Powers to act jointly with
-them in this matter, but she refused to assist in depriving the gallant
-Island people of their rightful spoils of victory. The attitude of
-Lord Rosebery's Government on this occasion, although it gave no
-positive aid to Japan, undoubtedly led to a better understanding between
-the two countries, and paved the way ultimately to the
-Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance, which, by rescuing Japan from
-her position of isolation, enabled her to enter effectively into the
-momentous and complicated game which the European diplomatists
-were playing, with varying fortunes, at Peking.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia's "Honor"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Meanwhile, however, Japanese aspirations received a check
-from which they were to take several years to recover. The statesmen
-of the Mikado were even unable to
-obtain a pledge from China that the territories
-yielded back to her by Japan would
-never be alienated to a third Power. Russia's delicate sense of honor,
-it appeared, revolted against the imputation implied, and therefore
-China must give no pledge. On the other hand, Russia would be
-so generous as to give an assurance on her own account that she
-had no designs upon Manchuria. Forced to content herself with
-the cold comfort of this empty and meaningless declaration, and
-baffled upon all essential points, Japan sullenly withdrew her troops
-from the mainland and settled down to nurse her just wrath, and
-prepare for the inevitable day of reckoning.</p>
-
-<div id='i021' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic003'>
-<img src='images/i021.jpg' alt='' class='ig003' />
-<p>JAPANESE INFANTRY ATTACKING A CHINESE POSITION.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">M. Pavloff</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The centre of interest was now shifted to Peking, where began
-that amazing scramble among the European Powers for commercial,
-and especially for railway, concessions in China, which, by
-unmasking the ambitions of some countries,
-and revealing the community of interests
-of others, has led ultimately to
-important modifications of international policy, and to a re-arrangement
-of alliances. The complexity of the game, the swiftness of
-the moves, and the ignorance of the average man, not
-only of the issues involved, but even of the main geographical
-and economic features of the immense country
-which was the object of the struggle&mdash;all contrived to puzzle
-the mind and to darken the understanding; but a vague feeling,
-only too clearly justified by the events, arose in this country that
-England and America were not getting the best of the conflict, and
-that Russia and Germany were making all the running. In truth,
-there is no doubt that the skill, or perhaps, to speak more correctly,
-the duplicity, of the Russian diplomatists both in Peking and in
-St. Petersburg left their competitors completely behind. Foremost
-among them there emerges at this time the sinister figure of M.
-Pavloff, the Minister of the Czar at the Chinese Court. The tortuous
-diplomacy of the Muscovite has produced no more characteristic
-tool. M. Pavloff has been the stormy petrel of the Far
-East. Intrepid, resourceful to a degree, unscrupulous beyond the
-average, he is ever in the forefront of the diplomatic battle line.
-His appearance in any part of the field is the signal for new combinations,
-fresh aggressions, the stirring up of bad blood between
-nations, and the unsettlement of apparently settled questions. A
-man whose god is the Czar; a man with whom the expansion of
-the Empire of the Little White Father is an ideal cherished with
-almost religious fervor; a man who indeed in all probability honestly
-regards the extension of the Russian autocracy over the world
-as essential to the due progress of higher civilization&mdash;he is thoroughly
-typical of the class of agents whose devoted services Russia
-has always managed to secure for the spread of her Empire and
-the gradual but steady absorption of fresh territory all over Asia,
-whether in China, Persia, Turkestan or Tibet.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia in China</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Such was the instrument possessed by the Government of the
-Czar at the Court of Peking, and he was not likely to neglect the
-unique opportunity which lay ready to his
-hand. By her action in restoring Port
-Arthur to the nerveless grasp of China,
-Russia naturally assumed the character of a powerful friend
-whose smile was to be courted and whose frown was to
-be proportionately dreaded. What more natural, in the circumstances,
-than that the Emperor should grant to the
-subjects of his brother and ally, the Czar, peculiar commercial
-privileges in the country which had been so generously
-rescued from the grip of Japan and restored to the Empire of the
-King of Heaven?</p>
-
-<div id='i025' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic004'>
-<img src='images/i025.png' alt='' class='ig004' />
-<p>MAP OF THE AREA AFFECTED BY THE WAR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russo-Chinese Bank</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The first result of M. Pavloff's policy of disinterested friendship
-became manifest in 1896, when the Chinese Government concluded
-an agreement with the Russo-Chinese
-Bank, providing for the formation
-of a company to be styled the Eastern
-Chinese Railway Company, the ownership
-of which was to be vested solely in Russian and Chinese subjects and
-which was to construct and work a railway within the confines of
-China, from one of the points on the western borders of the province
-of Heh-Lung-Kiang to one of the points on the eastern borders
-of the province of Kirin; and to the connection of this railway with
-those branches which the Imperial Russian Government would construct
-to the Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the Southern
-Ussuri lines. The institution, which went by the plain, solid,
-commercial name of the Russo-Chinese Bank, was, of course,
-merely a sort of Far Eastern annex of the Finance Bureau of
-M. de Witte, and the line thus modestly announced was the nucleus
-of the great railway which has since played such a large part in
-consolidating the Russian dominion over Manchuria. At the outset
-it was pretended that the line was to be merely a short cut to Vladivostock,
-but the true ambitions at the bottom of the scheme became
-apparent when Russian engineers began to pour into the
-country followed by squadrons of Cossacks, nominally for the protection
-of the new railway, but really in pursuance of Russia's invariable
-policy of impressing the natives with a due sense of her
-enormous military strength.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Mailed Fist</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The construction of the line, however, had not proceeded very
-far when, in 1897, an event occurred which gave the Czar's Government
-the chance for which they had
-long been anxiously looking. The massacre
-of some German missionaries led to
-swift and stern reprisals on the part of the Kaiser. The port of
-Kiao-Chau, in the province of Shantung, was seized until reparation
-was made for the outrage committed upon the majesty of the German
-Empire, and to placate the offended "mailed fist," the feeble
-Government of China were compelled to hand over this important
-position to Germany as a permanent possession, although, by a characteristic
-euphemism of diplomacy, the transaction was conveniently
-styled a "lease." Russia's opportunity was now too good to be neglected.
-Emboldened by the example of Germany, she demanded&mdash;for
-that is what her so-called "request" amounted to in reality&mdash;permission
-from the Chinese Government to winter her fleet at Port Arthur.
-Perhaps it may be imputed to her for righteousness that, unscrupulous
-as she is, she has never found it necessary to employ the
-missionaries of Christ as instruments of aggression; at all events on
-this occasion she had no such excuse at hand. The helpless Chinese
-assented, of course, to her request; but now Great Britain, awake
-at last to the dangers which threatened her Treaty rights, endeavored
-to intervene. Strong representations were made by the English
-Minister to the Tsung-lai-yamen as to the necessity for turning
-the port of Ta-lien-wan&mdash;which lies immediately adjacent to Port
-Arthur&mdash;into a Treaty port; that is to say, throwing it open to the
-trade of the world on the same terms as obtain at Shanghai, Canton,
-Hankau, and other ports of China at which the policy of the
-Open Door prevails.</p>
-
-<div id='i027' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic005'>
-<img src='images/i027.jpg' alt='' class='ig005' />
-<p>THE JAPANESE AT PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Leases</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >English statesmen, however, were no match for the wily Russians,
-who had the ear of the Chinese mandarins. The Government
-of the Czar successfully opposed the suggestion,
-and backed up its representations
-at Peking by significant display of force,
-for a considerable fleet of men-of-war arrived at Port Arthur and
-Ta-lien-wan in the spring of 1898 and practically took possession.
-Then, by a mingled process of terrorism and corruption, the Chinese
-Government were induced to grant the Czar a "lease" of the two
-harbors on the same terms as those on which Germany had been
-granted possession of Kiao-Chau, and, equally important, to permit
-the extension of the line of the Eastern Chinese Railway Company
-to Port Arthur. Thus came into being the Manchurian Railway,
-the construction of which was pushed on with feverish activity.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Benevolent Professions</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The first step towards the complete acquisition and control of
-Manchuria had now been successfully accomplished, and English
-diplomacy sought in vain to wrest
-from Russia the advantage she had
-thus skilfully acquired. Of course
-Russia was prolific of "assurances"
-as she always has been in similar circumstances. The
-Government of the Czar solemnly declared, for the satisfaction
-of any confiding person who was willing to believe
-it, that it had "no intention of infringing the rights
-and privileges guaranteed by existing treaties between China and
-foreign countries," and that the last thing it contemplated was interference
-with Chinese sovereignty over the province of Manchuria.
-The sincerity of these benevolent professions was to be
-judged by the fact that, having once secured a grip of Port Arthur,
-Russia hastened to convert it into a fortified post of great strength
-and magnitude, and closed it absolutely against the commerce of
-the world; and that, while on the one hand she so far met the
-anxious representations of the British Government as to constitute
-Ta-lien-wan a free port in name, on the other hand she deprived
-the concession of all real meaning by an irritating system of passports
-and administrative restrictions upon trade.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Wei-hai-Wei</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Great Britain attempted to neutralize the advantage her rival
-had gained in the Gulf of Pechili by securing a port on her own
-account, and, with the support of Japan, she induced the Chinese
-Government to enter into an agreement for the acquisition "on
-lease" of Wei-hai-Wei, a harbor situated on the southern shore of
-the Gulf and opposite to Port Arthur. It was imagined at the time
-that the port could be turned into a powerful naval base, but the
-naval and military surveys afterwards taken showed that it was of
-little use for strategic purposes, and it has
-consequently sunk into the position of a
-health station for the English China
-Squadron.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Niuchwang Railway</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meantime Russia steadily increased her hold upon Manchuria,
-and large bodies of troops continued to be poured into the
-country. Her position had now become
-so strong in the counsels of the Chinese
-Court that in July, 1898, she openly opposed
-the concession, which British capitalists were seeking, of
-an extension of the Northern Railways of China to the Treaty Port
-of Niuchwang, which lies to the north of Port Arthur, at the extremity
-of the Gulf. The importance of this extension to British
-and American commerce was immense. Niuchwang is the main
-outlet of the trade of Manchuria, and was at that time a busy thriving
-town of about 60,000 inhabitants. Its value from the commercial
-point of view may be estimated from the fact that its total
-trade rose from £1,850,000 in 1881 to £7,253,650 in 1899, the year
-before it fell absolutely into Russian hands. Russia's attempt to
-deprive her commercial rivals of practical access by land to this valuable
-port were, however, on this occasion only partially successful;
-the construction of the Shan-hai-Kwan-Niuchwang Railway was
-finally permitted; but the agreement was greatly modified to suit
-Russian views.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Pavloff in Korea</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Concurrently with these events, significant developments had
-been taking place in Korea, which brought Japan once more upon
-the stage. For some time after the Japanese had been driven from
-Port Arthur, Russia left Korea alone. She even entered into formal
-engagements with Japan, recognizing that Power's peculiar commercial
-rights and interests in Korea. But now M. Pavloff arrived
-upon the scene at Seoul. In March, 1900,
-he gave the Japanese the first taste of his
-quality by endeavoring to obtain a lease of
-the important strategic port of Masampo, situated in the southeast of
-Korea, facing the Japanese coast and dominating the straits between.
-At the same time he stipulated that the Korean Government
-should not alienate to any other Power the island of Kojedo, which
-lies just opposite to Masampo. Japan successfully resisted this bold
-stroke of policy; and matters were in this position when the Boxer
-rising gave Russia a supreme opportunity. Her troops in Manchuria
-were attacked by the rebels, and she at once hurried in reinforcements
-and seized the whole country. Resistance to her arms
-was put down with relentless vigor&mdash;with a vigor, indeed, far
-transcending the necessities of the case, and the Blagovestchensk
-massacres, in which thousands of unarmed Chinamen were offered
-up as a sacrifice to the offended majesty of Russia, will long be a
-stain upon the escutcheon of the Imperial Prophet of Peace. In
-the drastic process of absorption which was now adopted, the treaty
-port of Niuchwang was naturally included, and the interests of other
-Powers there became of very small account indeed.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia and Manchuria</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was evident that the Manchurian question had now assumed
-a more serious form. Of course the Czar's Government was profuse
-in its explanations. No permanent
-territorial advantage was being
-sought, we were told; as soon as lasting
-order had been established in Manchuria, and indispensable measures
-taken for the protection of the railway Russia would not fail
-to recall her troops from the province; above all "the interests of
-foreign Powers and of international companies at the port of
-Niuchwang must remain inviolate." The restoration of lasting
-order, however, appeared to be a very tedious process. More and
-more troops were drafted into the province and on the naval side
-also preparations were made for an imposing demonstration.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russo-Chinese Treaty</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Alexeieff, commanding the Russian fleet, though not
-yet advanced to the dignity of Viceroy of the East, now took charge
-of the Czar's interests, one of his first
-acts being to invite China to resume the
-government of Manchuria "under the
-protection of Russia." On November 11th, 1900, an agreement
-was signed at Port Arthur between the Russian and Chinese representatives.
-The terms of this remarkable document, which were
-promptly disclosed by the able and well-informed correspondent of
-the London <i>Times</i> at Peking, were a startling revelation. They
-provided virtually for a Russian military protectorate over Manchuria.
-Mukden, the ancient capital of Manchuria and the burial-place
-of the Manchu dynasty, was to be the centre of control, and a
-Russian political resident was to be stationed there. This city,
-which now possesses a population of about 250,000, has in modern
-times become a great place of trade. It is situated 110 miles to
-the northeast of Niuchwang, and its position in the centre of the
-Manchurian railway system renders it a place of much strategical
-importance. Not only were these vast concessions made to Russia,
-but the Treaty rights of other Powers at Niuchwang itself were
-disregarded. Great Britain and the United States necessarily entered
-an urgent protest against this singular method of preserving
-their interests inviolate. But Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister
-for Foreign Affairs, declared to our Ambassador that the
-Russo-Chinese Agreement was merely a temporary arrangement.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The value of the solemn assurance of the Foreign Minister was
-exposed to the world almost immediately afterwards by the invaluable
-correspondent of the London <i>Times</i>, who sent to his paper
-the terms of a new and more far-reaching Agreement which the
-Russian diplomatists were trying to force upon the Chinese Court.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Anglo-Japanese Alliance</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The position of affairs was now profoundly altered by the
-conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This important Treaty
-gave Japan the strength and the encouragement
-ultimately to intervene on
-her own account and endeavor to curb
-the restless ambitions of Russia. Russia gave a definite pledge
-that her troops would be withdrawn from Manchuria by instalments
-on the expiration of a certain period. That period expired
-on October 8th, 1903, but the pledge was never redeemed. A show
-of evacuation was made in 1902, but the troops returned, and at
-the end of October of 1903 Mukden was re-occupied in force.
-Never during the whole period did Russia lose her grip upon
-Niuchwang.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russians in Korea</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Notwithstanding the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty
-of Alliance in the beginning of 1902, Japan waited for eighteen
-months before entering into the diplomatic
-lists alone against Russia. But at last, in
-August of 1903, this course was rendered
-imperative upon her, not only by the failure of the Czar's Government
-to carry out their engagements in regard to Manchuria, but
-by their aggressive policy in Korea. M. Pavloff, rebuffed at
-Masampo in 1900, had turned his energies in another direction.
-He secured for his countrymen valuable mining rights in Northern
-Korea, and Russians then began to cross the Yalu River and ultimately
-occupied Yongampo, a town of some importance on the
-southern bank. Not content with railway enterprises, they even
-started to construct fortifications. The Japanese, of course, interposed
-energetically and succeeded in modifying the Russian activity;
-but it now became apparent that, unless some binding arrangement
-could be arrived at, Korea was destined to share the fate of
-Manchuria.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Protests</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Representations were therefore made at St. Petersburg calling
-for a revision of the Treaties of 1896 and 1898, and a friendly
-settlement of the respective rights of the
-two Powers. The story of the negotiations
-which ensued is a simple one. It is
-a story of courteous and moderate representation on the one side, and
-of studied delay and contemptuous refusals on the other. The negotiations
-on behalf of Russia were in the hands of Admiral Alexeieff,
-now elevated to the position of Viceroy of the East, and it is said
-to be mainly due to his influence that his Government adopted such
-an unbending attitude. Japan asked for a repetition by Russia of
-the pledges she had given that she would recognize the integrity and
-independence of China and Korea; and, further, that she should
-recognize the preponderance of Japanese political and commercial
-interests in Korea. Russia haughtily refused to give Japan any
-pledge as to the integrity of China, and contended that her position
-in Manchuria was regulated by treaties with China in which Japan
-had no right to interfere. As to Korea, she proposed the establishment
-of a neutral zone in the north of the province, leaving the
-south of the country to become a sphere of commercial influence
-for Japan, but she expressly stipulated that the latter Power should
-make no use of any portion of Korean territory for strategic purposes.
-The proposal was so absurdly one-sided that Japan returned
-to the charge with the suggestion that a neutral zone should
-be established both on the Manchurian and the Korean sides of
-the frontier. She also reiterated her request for an agreement as
-to the maintenance of the territorial integrity of Manchuria and
-China.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia's Discourtesy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Russia contemptuously delayed reply to these representations
-in spite of the courteous requests of the
-Japanese Government. In the meanwhile
-she kept augmenting her forces in the
-Far East till the situation became impossible of continuance.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Every day that passed threatened to transfer the balance of
-naval power in favor of the European Power, for a powerful fleet
-was being hurried out to the Far East, and the badly-finished warships
-in Port Arthur were being patched up by an army of mechanicians.
-Mr. Kurino, who conducted the negotiations at St. Petersburg,
-pressed for an answer, but was put off with promises no less
-than six times. Such discourtesy could only have one result. The
-dignity of Japan could brook no further insolence, and the Czar
-and his Ministers were politely informed that under such circumstances
-negotiations were useless. It was in vain that hurried telegrams
-were dispatched to Admiral Alexeieff to present a reply to
-the justly incensed Cabinet at Tokio. The die had been cast, and
-the big bully of the North, who had for so long baited the plucky
-little Japanese, realized at last that threats and bluff no longer were
-of any avail, and that the matter was now referred to the God of
-Battles.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On February 7th, 1904, Japan formally broke off the negotiations
-and withdrew her Minister from St. Petersburg. The war
-cloud had burst.</p>
-
-<div id='i038' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic006'>
-<img src='images/i038.jpg' alt='' class='ig006' />
-<p>BATTLE OF THE YALU&mdash;SINKING OF THE CHIH-YUEN.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch02' class='c015'>CHAPTER II.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Russia Bluffing&mdash;Japan's Navy&mdash;"Nisshin" and "Kasaga"&mdash;New and Efficient&mdash;Japan's
-Dockyards&mdash;Opposing Figures&mdash;Russian Navy&mdash;Belated Help&mdash;Japan's
-Superiority&mdash;Russian Harbor&mdash;Japan on Land&mdash;Russia's Army&mdash;East
-of Baikal&mdash;Weak Communications&mdash;Port Arthur&mdash;Korea as Base&mdash;Command
-of the Sea&mdash;The First Blow&mdash;World-Wide Interest&mdash;A Graphic
-Account&mdash;Russian Losses&mdash;The Fight of February 9th&mdash;Russian Bravery&mdash;Japanese
-Modesty&mdash;Damage Understated&mdash;Only One Repairing Dock&mdash;Alexeieff's
-Reason for Casualties&mdash;The Fight at Chemulpo&mdash;The First Shot&mdash;Japanese
-Disembarkation&mdash;A Brave Russian Captain&mdash;A Target for Japanese
-Gunners&mdash;The Plucky "Korietz"&mdash;Wounding and Burning&mdash;Japan's
-Handicap.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia Bluffing</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The growing menace of the situation in the Far East had
-been for months attracting the anxious attention of the
-whole world, and at the beginning of 1904 it became evident
-that war was inevitable, unless one or other of the
-disputants was prepared to make a complete surrender of its essential
-claims. The unlikelihood of this remote possibility being fulfilled
-was confirmed by the steady and, on
-the Russian side at least, the feverish
-preparations for hostilities which were
-carried on as an accompaniment to the repeated protestations of
-pacific intentions by the Czar's Government and its diplomatic
-agents abroad. Those who still believed in peace
-were sustained by the conviction that one of the parties
-to the dispute was bluffing. Sympathizers with Russia
-pointed to the tremendous power and inexhaustible resources of the
-Northern Empire, and asked whether it were possible that a young
-and small country like Japan should dare to try conclusions with so
-gigantic an antagonist. On the other hand, the friends of Japan
-emphasized the weakness of the Russian position in the Far East
-and the well-known financial embarrassments beneath which her
-Exchequer was laboring. It is, therefore, apropos to survey at this
-point the military and strategic position in the Far East which
-revealed itself immediately before the final rupture of diplomatic
-negotiations and the beginning of active hostilities.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Navy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In any conflict between Russia and Japan it was obvious that
-the first struggle must be for the mastery of the sea, and it is, therefore,
-interesting to consider primarily the
-relative naval strength of the two Powers
-in Far Eastern waters. The navy of
-Japan has been built, not only on English models, but for the most
-part in English yards; and since the Chino-Japanese War it has been
-increased by a number of vessels of the latest and most powerful
-type. The result is that the most formidable feature of Japan's naval
-strength is its complete homogeneity. The tabular statement on
-page <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, gives the names and principal characteristics of what may
-be called Japan's first fighting line at sea.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">"Nisshin" and "Kasaga"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Towards the close of 1903 the Japanese Government, with
-great enterprise, managed to secure a powerful accession to this
-fleet by purchasing from Argentina two
-freshly constructed cruisers of the
-most modern and efficient type. These
-two vessels, which have been re-christened the <i>Nisshin</i>
-and <i>Kasaga</i>, were hastily equipped for sea at Genoa, and,
-commanded for the time being by retired English officers and
-manned by English crews, started in January for the long
-voyage to the Far East. Although war had not yet been declared,
-it was clearly imminent, and the Russian squadron in the
-Mediterranean received orders to watch the new cruisers closely,
-with the object, of course, of capturing them in case hostilities broke
-out before the vessels had reached Japan. The taste of their quality,
-however, which the <i>Nisshin</i> and <i>Kasaga</i> were able to give to the
-Russians proved how valuable an addition they were to the Japanese
-navy, for they easily outdistanced their slow-footed pursuers, and
-what promised at one time to be an exciting race degenerated practically
-into a walk over. The new cruisers arrived safely at Yokohama
-on February 16th, and were at once sent into dock to refit
-and prepare for active service. These splendid fighting machines
-must, therefore, be added to the list.</p>
-
-<div class='c016'><a name='Page_41' id='Page_41'></a>JAPAN'S UP-TO-DATE NAVY.</div>
-
-<table class='c017' summary=''>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>BATTLESHIPS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nominal</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Weight of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Name</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displacement</td>
-    <td class='c019'>I.H.P.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Speed</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Protection</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Broadside Fire</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Hatsuse</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,240</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Asahi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,240</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Shikishima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,240</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mikasa</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,225</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Yashima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,300</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Fuji</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,300</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>ARMORED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Tokiwa</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,750</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>21.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,568</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Asama</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,750</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>21.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,568</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Yakuma</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,850</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,368</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Adzuma</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,436</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>21.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,368</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Idzumo</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,568</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Iwate</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,568</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>PROTECTED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Takasago</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,300</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2&mdash;2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>800</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Kasagi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,784</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>22.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>800</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Chitose</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,784</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>22.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>800</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Itsukushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,277</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11&mdash;4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,260</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Hashidate</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,277</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11&mdash;4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,260</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Matsushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,277</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11&mdash;4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,260</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Yoshino</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,180</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,750</td>
-    <td class='c019'>23.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>780</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Naniwa</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,727</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,120</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.8</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,196</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Takachiho</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,727</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,120</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.8</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,196</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Akitsushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,150</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>780</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Niitaka</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,420</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>920</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Tsushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,420</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>920</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Suma</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,700</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>335</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Akashi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>2,700</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>335</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="sidenote">New and Efficient</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The table, it will be observed, does not include a number of
-coast defence vessels, nor&mdash;more important for offensive purposes&mdash;the
-torpedo flotilla, which is of great strength and of remarkable
-efficiency, and includes over a score of 30-knot
-destroyers of the most modern type.
-The first four battleships in the list were
-completed less than two years before the war, while the armored
-cruisers were built between 1899 and 1901. The protected cruisers
-include several of the vessels that defeated the Chinese fleet at the
-battle of the Yalu.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Dockyards</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For the accommodation of her fleet
-Japan possesses four well-equipped dockyards,
-capable not only of repairing damaged
-vessels of any class, but of constructing new ones; and this is,
-perhaps, the greatest advantage which the island kingdom has over
-Russia in the present struggle.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Opposing Figures</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The naval strength of Russia in the Far East at the outbreak
-of hostilities is shown in the tabular statement
-appearing on page <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, which, again,
-does not include vessels of the smallest
-class nor the torpedo-boat flotilla.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Navy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It will be remarked that the Russian battleships offered a great
-variety in design and fighting power&mdash;a serious disadvantage, for in
-man&oelig;uvring the efficiency of the whole
-squadron sinks to the level of that of the
-least effective vessel it contains. The <i>Czarevitch</i>
-and the <i>Retvisan</i>, which were the latest vessels to arrive at
-Port Arthur, were also the most powerful members of the fleet. The
-former vessel was built in France after the latest French model, and
-the latter in Philadelphia. This fleet was divided, at the outbreak
-of war, between Port Arthur and Vladivostock, the four powerful
-cruisers, <i>Gromoboi</i>, <i>Bogatyr</i>, <i>Rossia</i>, and <i>Rurik</i> being stationed at
-the latter port.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Belated Help</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While negotiations were still proceeding, though at a critical
-point, Russia prepared to send out very formidable reinforcements
-to the Far East from her Mediterranean
-Fleet. These reinforcements included
-the <i>Osliabia</i>, a battleship of over 12,000
-tons displacement, with a speed of 19 knots; the <i>Dmitri Donskoi</i>, an
-armored cruiser of 6,000 tons displacement and a speed of 15 knots;
-the <i>Aurora</i>, a swift protected cruiser of the largest class; several
-cruisers of the volunteer fleet, with troops, naval drafts, and supplies;
-and a number of torpedo craft. This squadron had begun to
-assemble at Port Said before the outbreak of war, and the vessels
-at once began to pass through the Canal. But before they were
-ready to sail for the China seas, war broke out, and the departure
-was delayed. The initial Russian reverses at sea made it practically
-impossible for this reinforcing fleet to proceed to the seat of war,
-as it would have been liable to interception by the Japanese fleet in
-overwhelming strength. Accordingly, after cruising aimlessly about
-in the Red Sea for some weeks, the ships were ordered to return to
-the Baltic; and in the beginning of March they passed through the
-Suez Canal again on their way north.</p>
-
-<div class='c016'><a name='Page_44' id='Page_44'></a>RUSSIA'S AVAILABLE NAVY.</div>
-
-<table class='c017' summary=''>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>BATTLESHIPS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nominal</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Weight of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Name</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displacement</td>
-    <td class='c019'>I.H.P.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Speed</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Protection</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Broadside Fire</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Tons</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Knots.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>In.</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Lbs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Poltava</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10,950</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10&mdash;5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,367</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Petropavlovsk</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10,950</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10&mdash;5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,367</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Sevastopol</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10,950</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10&mdash;5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,367</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Peresviet</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,674</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10&mdash;5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>2,672</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Pobieda</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,674</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10&mdash;5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>2,672</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Retvisan</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,700</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10&mdash;5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,434</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Czarevitch</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,100</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,300</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11&mdash;6-3/4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,516</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>ARMORED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nominal</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Weight of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Name</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displacement</td>
-    <td class='c019'>I.H.P.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Speed</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Protection</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Broadside Fire</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Tons</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Knots.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>In.</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Lbs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Bogatyr</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,750</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>23.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5&mdash;4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>872</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Askold</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>23.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>772</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Varyag</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>23.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>510</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Diana</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,630</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,600</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>632</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Pallada</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,630</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,600</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>632</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Boyarin</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>22.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>180</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Novik</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>25.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>180</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>ARMORED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nominal</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Weight of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Name</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displacement</td>
-    <td class='c019'>I.H.P.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Speed</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Protection</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Broadside Fire</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Tons</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Knots.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>In.</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Lbs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Gromoboi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,336</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6&mdash;3/4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,197</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Bayan</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>22.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7&mdash;3</td>
-    <td class='c020'>952</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Rossia</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,348</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Rurik</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10,940</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,345</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Superiority</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Though nominally the fleets of the two Powers were fairly equal,
-Japan possessed several very considerable advantages which, in the
-opinion of experts, changed that paper
-equality to marked superiority on her
-side. In the first place, the Chino-Japanese
-war only ten years ago had given her naval officers and men
-an invaluable experience of fighting on the grand scale under modern
-conditions; in the next place, their fleet was much more of a
-pattern; and in the third place it was operating from a base fully
-capable of providing all the needs and reinforcements entailed by
-losses in war, including a ready coal supply.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia's Harbors</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Russia, on the other hand, had for its only bases Port Arthur
-and Vladivostock, the one inadequate to the multifarious needs of
-her fleet, and the other ice-bound in winter,
-and so situated geographically as to
-be completely isolated from what promised
-to be the main scene of operations. Although Port Arthur had
-been rendered almost impregnable as a fortress, the Russians had
-not had time to complete it as a naval dockyard, and at the outbreak
-of war it possessed only one dry dock, and that not capable of accommodating
-vessels of the largest size. At Vladivostock the channel
-out of the harbor could only be kept free by ice-breakers. In the
-event of naval disasters, Russia, therefore, had no possibility of
-repairing her lame ducks, while the radius of her fleet's activity was
-limited by the fact that her only supplies of coal were to be obtained
-at Port Arthur. In the situation, therefore, which presented itself
-at the outbreak of war, this powerful naval force was practically
-deprived of mobility. It could not leave Port Arthur for more than
-a short cruise; and while it remained there it must be specially vulnerable
-to attack, lying in an open roadstead and huddled together
-in order to enjoy the protection of the guns of the fortress.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan on Land</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >With regard to the land forces of the two belligerent Powers,
-it was only possible to reckon with certainty those of Japan; for it
-remained doubtful, until the progress of
-active operations revealed the facts, how
-much of Russia's enormous military
-strength had been concentrated in the Far East. Broadly speaking,
-Japan could put into the field in the last resort an army of between
-400,000 and 450,000 men. The standing army amounts to almost
-200,000 men, and it was immediately available for mobilization. To
-this number another 35,000 men was added by the reserve, while
-the militia of all arms could be reckoned at 200,000 men. The Japanese
-infantry soldier is armed with the Midji magazine rifle, and
-the artillery with the Arisaka quick-firing gun; but the adoption of
-this latter weapon has been so recent that the whole of the artillery
-is not yet supplied with it, and in this one respect at least the Russian
-gunners are believed to possess a very great advantage. The
-Japanese army has been organized largely on German models. It
-proved its efficiency as a fighting machine in the Chino-Japanese
-War; while the Japanese troops that took part in the relief of the
-Peking Legations earned the unstinted praise of all the military experts
-who watched their behavior. Until the present war, however,
-the Japanese army had never undergone the supreme ordeal of facing
-a European adversary.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russia's Army</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Of the Russian military organization, the strength and weakness
-have long been known to the world, and the great question for
-strategists in contemplating the present
-hostilities was the number of troops which
-the Northern Power could bring into the
-field to confront her foe. Various estimates had been given, from
-the overwhelming army of 400,000 men confidently claimed by Russia's
-partisans, to a force of little more than a quarter of that
-strength. But though the actual figures were in doubt, it was possible
-by collating the information from various sources to arrive at an
-approximate estimate of the truth. At the time of the Boxer outbreak
-in 1900 Russia had 35,000 men in the Far East, and that
-force was, within little more than a year, trebled. Since the possibility
-of trouble with Japan had loomed on the horizon, reinforcements
-had been steadily dribbling over the Trans-Siberian Railway
-and over seas in the volunteer transports, until the army under
-the command of the Viceroy of the Far East could not number much
-less than 150,000 men of all arms, with 286 guns. Of this force,
-at least a half must have been absorbed in the defence of the long
-line of railway communications and in garrisoning fortresses; but
-the troops available for active operations consisted largely of Russia's
-most formidable fighting material&mdash;namely, the Cossacks, who
-possess an endurance and mobility which must be of the utmost
-value in such a country as that in which the present war was to be
-fought out.</p>
-
-<div id='i047' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='c021'>
-<img src='images/i047.jpg' alt='' class='c022' />
-<table class='c023' summary='caption'>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ADMIRAL TOGO.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>ADMIRAL KAMIMURA.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>ADMIRAL MAKAROFF.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ADMIRAL SKRYDLOFF.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>ADMIRAL ROZHDESTVENSKY.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<div class='c016'><p>JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN ADMIRALS.</p></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">East of Baikal</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the latter part of January the well-informed correspondent
-of the London <i>Times</i> at Peking telegraphed an estimate of the Russian
-forces east of Lake Baikal, which,
-in its circumstantiality and exhaustiveness,
-bore the evidence of truth. According
-to this authority, Russia had available at that time a total of
-3,115 officers, 147,479 men, and 266 guns; and these numbers included
-the railway guards over the whole of the Manchurian railways
-and the garrisons of the principal fortresses. The infantry
-of this force numbered 108,000 officers and men, and the cavalry
-22,000 officers and men, of whom nearly the whole were Cossacks.
-The garrisons of Port Arthur and Vladivostock alone absorbed
-45,000 men, and remembering that the railway line to be guarded,
-east of Lake Baikal, was over 1,500 miles in length, and traverses
-a country of which the inhabitants were more or less hostile, it is
-evident that the troops available to take the field at the end of January
-could not have exceeded, on this estimate, more than 50,000
-men. Lake Baikal is 400 miles in length, and though a railway
-round its southern extremity was in course of construction, it was
-far from completion at the outbreak of hostilities. The lake is
-frozen over during the winter months, when transit has to be
-effected by sledges. But in the emergency the Russians laid railway
-lines across the lake, and thus by the end of February had established
-a through service of sorts. But even then the number of
-reinforcements and the quantity of supplies that could be moved up
-to the theatre of war were strictly limited by the delays inseparable
-from the working of a single track railway, and it is doubtful
-whether more than 25,000 men at the outside had been added to the
-field force by the beginning of March.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Weak Communications</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The strategical problem which presented itself at the outbreak
-of hostilities was a comparatively simple one&mdash;for Japan at any rate.
-The power of Russia in the Far East depended
-on the maintenance of two great
-arteries of communication with the heart
-of the Russian Empire. One of these was the over-sea passage
-from the Black Sea or the Baltic through the Suez Canal and the
-East Indian Archipelago&mdash;a voyage occupying six weeks at least,
-and however feasible in time of peace, rendered particularly difficult
-and even precarious under war conditions owing to the possibility
-of interception and the absence of any intermediate coaling stations.
-The other connecting link between Port Arthur and St. Petersburg
-was the Trans-Siberian Railway, that gigantic enterprise which,
-completed in 1899, brought the capital of Russia within 15 days'
-journey of its furthermost outpost in the Yellow Sea. From Moscow
-to Port Arthur is a distance of some 4,000 miles, but at two-thirds
-of its length the railway is interrupted by the great inland
-sea known as Lake Baikal. At this point transshipment across the
-lake had to take place, a circumstance that offered an insurmountable
-hindrance to rapid transit. In the building of the railway, too,
-soundness had been sacrificed to rapidity of construction; the line
-was only a single track one, with stations and sidings at intervals
-of about 25 miles; and even when the whole service was monopolized
-for military purposes the number of trains that could be passed
-over the railway in one day was a fixed and very limited quantity.
-Even with this line open, therefore, the rate at which Russia could
-reinforce her troops in the Far East had to be determined by other
-circumstances than military urgency, and the number of her reinforcements
-also had to be governed by the capacity of the line to
-bring up not only men, but supplies; for Manchuria itself does not
-provide the means of support for a large army. The experience of
-the American Army in Cuba and of the British Army in South Africa
-proved what tremendous difficulties may be encountered in carrying
-supplies to a large force at a distance much less remote from
-its base than Russia's was. For years past Russia has sent out her
-troops and supplies to the Far East mainly by sea. For twelve
-months before the war broke out a constant stream of transports,
-colliers and supply ships had passed from the Black Sea to the Gulf
-of Pechili, and this stream was only interrupted on the outbreak
-of war&mdash;a significant admission of the incompleteness of the Russian
-preparations, as well as of the inadequacy of the Trans-Siberian
-Railway to supply her needs.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was evident, therefore, that Japan's first object was to shut
-off Port Arthur from the sea, and her next to cut the railway communication
-to the North. This done, the
-Russian fortress, however impregnable to
-assault, must ultimately fall to investment.
-From Port Arthur, which, as a glance at the map will show,
-lies at the very tip of Liao-tung Peninsula, the railway runs due
-north for six hundred miles through Niuchwang and Mukden to
-Harbin, where it joins the branch line to Vladivostock. Though
-Russia has for several years been in occupation of this territory,
-her hold upon it is by no means secure. The population is distinctly
-unfriendly, and for the mere defence of the line thousands of troops
-are necessary. Indeed, it was this necessity that Russia urged as
-an excuse for her military occupation of Manchuria.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Korea as Base</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Within the triangle of which Harbin is the apex, of which the
-lines to Port Arthur and Vladivostock are sides, and of which the
-course of the Yalu River is the base, the
-sphere of immediate military operations
-practically had to be confined, as the ice-bound
-condition of the coast to the west of Port Arthur made a
-landing in force there impossible till the spring. The necessity of
-maintaining communications tied the Russian forces very largely to
-the railway lines. But for either belligerent the helpless kingdom
-of Korea, which lies south of a line drawn between Port Arthur
-and Vladivostock, for aggressive operations, afforded the most convenient
-line of advance. Through Korea Russia could menace
-Japan, and through Korea Japan could most easily march against
-Port Arthur. Naturally, therefore, Russia's first care was to mass
-her available troops on the line of the Yalu, and concentrate reinforcements
-at Harbin ready to be moved to whatever point might
-prove the objective of the Japanese attack.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Command of the Sea</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the command of the sea was the essential condition to attack
-by land by either combatant. With the Russian fleet masked
-or destroyed, Japan could choose as a
-landing-place for her armies any of the
-numerous ports on the western coast of
-Korea, and so approach in force the Yalu River, which divides
-Korea from Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula. With imperfect
-command of the sea, Japan would have a second resource. She
-could land her troops at Masampo, separated only by a hundred
-miles of sea from her own ports, or she could, at a push, land her
-forces on the east coast of Korea, at Yuen San or Gensan. But the
-former plan of operations would have entailed a long overland
-march before the objective was reached, and the latter the maintenance
-of communications over difficult and mountainous country.
-Evidently, then, immeasurable importance attached to the result of
-the first naval engagements, and to their influence in giving the
-command of the sea to the one or the other of the two belligerent
-Powers.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The First Blow</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On February 5th M. Kurino, the Japanese Minister at the
-Court of St. Petersburg, announced to the Government of the Czar
-that Japan could wait no longer for the
-long-delayed Russian reply, and that
-further negotiations were broken off.
-This startling news reached Europe and America on the evening of
-Sunday, February 7th; and while its significance was still being
-anxiously discussed in every capital, and while statesmen and jurists
-were still trying to convince one another that the rupture of diplomatic
-negotiations did not necessarily imply the beginning of war,
-there burst like a thunder-clap the further news that the first grim
-and irretrievable blow had been struck. Having decided that the
-arbitrament of war was inevitable, Japan acted on her decision with
-swift and terrible effect. On the night of Monday, February 8th,
-a daring attack by torpedo-boats was made on the Russian fleet lying
-at anchor in the Port Arthur roadstead, and at one fell swoop the
-boasted might of Russia at sea was hopelessly broken. This astounding
-intelligence was first conveyed to the world in an official
-telegram from Admiral Alexeieff to the Czar, couched in the following
-terms:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"I most devotedly inform your Majesty that about midnight
-between the 26th and 27th of January (February 8th and 9th)
-Japanese torpedo-boats delivered a sudden mine attack on the
-squadron lying in the Chinese roads at Port Arthur, the battleships
-<i>Retvisan</i> and <i>Czarevitch</i> and the cruiser <i>Pallada</i> being holed. The
-degree of seriousness of the holes has to be ascertained. Particulars
-will be forwarded to your Imperial Majesty."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">World-wide Interest</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The stunning effect of this news was only enhanced when fuller
-details of the incident so baldly and laconically announced came to
-hand. No news of the movements of the
-Japanese fleet had been allowed to leak
-out, and its presence before Port Arthur
-was wholly unexpected by others as well as the Russians. On the
-3rd of February the Russian fleet had put to sea, and for twenty-four
-hours the world was agog with the news of so momentous a
-movement. But the speculation died suddenly when it appeared that
-the fleet had returned immediately to its anchorage. The Japanese,
-with characteristic alertness, realized the splendid opportunity which
-the necessarily exposed position of the Russian ships afforded to an
-enterprising enemy.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Graphic Account</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While everything was still tranquil at Port Arthur, and the
-Russian authorities were confidently announcing that the foe could
-not be expected for three or four days,
-the blow fell. According to the graphic
-account of an eye-witness, every one at
-Port Arthur had settled down for the night, when suddenly across
-the bay reverberated the shock of three violent and successive explosions.
-In a moment all was bustle and confusion on the Russian
-warships. Searchlights flashed bewilderingly and without purpose
-across the waters, and quick-firing guns from vessel after vessel
-began a panic fusillade, which Admiral Alexeieff, in his official report,
-euphemistically described as "a well concentrated fire at the
-right time."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Losses</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was midnight, and in the darkness and confusion it was impossible
-for any one to know exactly what was happening; but when
-the morning light broke over Port Arthur
-the two proudest possessions of the Russian
-fleet, the powerful battleships <i>Retvisan</i>
-and <i>Czarevitch</i>, were seen passing slowly towards the harbor entrance,
-across which they presently lay in evidently a badly damaged
-condition. The cruiser <i>Pallada</i> followed, listing heavily to port, and
-she also was grounded outside the entrance to the harbor.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Fight of Feb. 9th</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was at ten o'clock the next day, the 9th of February, that the
-Russians obtained their first glimpse of the enemy. In the distance
-three Japanese cruisers were described
-hanging observant upon the Russian fleet,
-and immediately what remained of that
-once powerful squadron put to sea in pursuit of the audacious enemy.
-But, as before, this bold movement had no result, and the Russian
-ships returned to anchor. Scarcely had they done so when the
-Japanese squadron of sixteen vessels, including six battleships and
-four first-class cruisers, steamed into view in fighting formation.
-As the leading vessels at a distance of some three miles came into
-line with the harbor entrance the flash of their great guns broke
-through the mist, and for nearly an hour the Japanese shells continued
-to burst over the forts, along the beach and among the Russian
-ships, who replied vigorously, and whose fire was assisted by
-that of the powerful land batteries. Again the Russian squadron
-steamed out to meet the enemy.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Bravery</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Some of the cruisers advanced towards the Japanese fleet with
-great gallantry, the <i>Novik</i>, the <i>Diana</i>, and the <i>Askold</i> particularly
-distinguishing themselves, with the result
-that they were all rather seriously hit by
-the Japanese fire and were compelled to
-retire upon the main squadron. Several other of the Russian ships
-were damaged before the Japanese fleet drew off.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Modesty</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The official dispatch of Admiral Togo to his Government upon
-the momentous achievements of his fleet during these two days was
-a model of modesty and self-restraint.
-Dated "February 10th, at Sea," it ran:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"After the combined fleet left Sasebo,
-on the 6th, everything went off as planned. At midnight on
-the 8th the advance squadron attacked the enemy's advance squadron,
-the latter being mostly outside the bay. The <i>Poltava</i>, <i>Askold</i>
-and others were apparently struck by torpedoes.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"At noon on the 9th the fleet advanced to the offing of Port
-Arthur Bay and attacked the enemy for forty minutes, I believe doing
-considerable damage. I believe the enemy were greatly demoralized.
-They stopped fighting at one o'clock, and appeared to retreat
-to the harbor.</p>
-
-<div id='i057' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='c024'>
-<img src='images/i057.jpg' alt='' class='c025' />
-<table class='c026' summary='caption'>
-  <tr>
-    <td>GENERAL KUROKI.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>GENERAL OKU.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>MARSHAL OYAMA.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>GENERAL NODZU.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>GENERAL NOGI.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<div class='c016'><p>JAPANESE GENERALS.</p></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Japanese fleet suffered but very slight damage, and its
-fighting strength is not decreased. Our casualties were 4 killed and
-54 wounded. The Imperial Princes on board suffered no harm.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The conduct of the officers was cool, and not unlike their conduct
-at man&oelig;uvres.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"This morning, owing to heavy south wind, detailed reports
-from the vessels have not been received, so I merely report the above
-fact."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Damage Understated</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This dispatch, as we know both from the Russian official accounts
-and from independent witnesses, really understated the extent
-of the blow which the Japanese Admiral
-had dealt to the Russian fleet; the vessels
-torpedoed were not cruisers only, but the
-two crack battleships upon which Admiral Alexeieff necessarily
-placed peculiar dependence, and the "considerable damage" which
-Admiral Togo believed had been done by the subsequent bombardment
-had put out of action, for the time being, the battleship <i>Poltava</i>
-and the cruisers <i>Diana</i>, <i>Askold</i> and <i>Novik</i>. Of these the <i>Poltava</i>
-and the <i>Novik</i> were badly hit on the water line&mdash;damage the seriousness
-of which needs no comment.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Only One Repairing Dock</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The most significant confession, indeed, of the crushing character
-of the blow which at the very commencement of the war the
-Japanese had succeeded in dealing to their
-powerful adversary was contained in a
-subsequent dispatch from the Viceroy to
-the Czar. Telegraphing on February 11th, Admiral Alexeieff reported
-"the <i>Czarevitch</i> and the <i>Pallada</i> were brought on the 9th
-inst. into the inner harbor. The leak in the <i>Retvisan</i> is being temporarily
-stopped. <i>The repairing of an ironclad is a complicated
-business, the period for the completion of which it is hard to indicate.</i>"
-This guarded language must be read in the light of the fact
-that the Russians had only one repairing dock capable of holding
-a large ship at Port Arthur, and the terrible character of the disaster
-which within forty-eight hours had befallen the naval power of
-the haughty Muscovite in the Far East will be realized. The losses
-in men were not very serious, amounting in all to 10 men killed and
-2 officers and 41 men wounded, but the injury to the fleet was practically
-irreparable. Seven out of Russia's best vessels had been
-placed <i>hors de combat</i>, her battleships' strength being reduced to 4,
-namely, the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>, <i>Peresviet</i>, <i>Pobieda</i> and <i>Sevastopol</i> (the
-last two being themselves under repair when the war broke out),
-and her already small cruiser force being reduced to two, namely,
-the <i>Bayan</i> and the <i>Boyarin</i>. The following is the list of the damaged
-ships:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><i>Czarevitch</i>, battleship, torpedoed.</div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Retvisan</i>, battleship, torpedoed.</div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Poltava</i>, battleship, shelled on the water-line.</div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Novik</i>, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.</div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Askold</i>, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.</div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Diana</i>, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.</div>
-      <div class='line'><i>Pallada</i>, cruiser, torpedoed.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It should be added that the repairs to the <i>Askold</i> were quickly
-executed, and that she was able to take part in the subsequent operations
-a few days later.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Alexeieff's Reason for Casualties</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Alexeieff's dispatch to the Czar stated that the majority
-of the wounded belonged to the <i>Pallada</i>.
-The reason for this was that they
-were "poisoned by gases produced by the
-explosion of the torpedo charged with
-melinite."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese fleet, naturally, did not emerge from such an action
-unscathed. Its losses in men were officially reported as 4 killed
-and 54 wounded; and although the fighting efficiency of the fleet was
-not seriously impaired, two armored cruisers, the <i>Iwote</i> and the
-<i>Yakumo</i>, were injured, and, as the casualties show, several other
-vessels were struck. But the most remarkable circumstance was
-that the torpedo-boats by which the night attack had been delivered
-escaped scot-free.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Fight at Chemulpo</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While the Russian capital was still reeling under the shock of
-this unexpected disaster, there came the news of a fresh blow struck
-by the Japanese arms in another quarter
-of the theatre of war. This was the naval
-engagement at Chemulpo&mdash;a port on the
-northwest coast of Korea&mdash;in which two of the Czar's warships and
-one transport steamer were destroyed. It is true that only one of
-these vessels had any fighting capacity, and that the conflict in itself
-was of much less consequence than the battle at Port Arthur, but
-the incident gave a further and mortifying revelation of the disorganization
-of the naval forces of Russia in the Far East, and of the
-total absence of anything like a bold and definite plan of operations
-from the minds of her commanders. In spite of the critical position
-in which the negotiations between the two Powers had been
-standing for weeks, the Russian fleet in the Yellow Sea was unconcentrated
-and generally unprepared for war. The outbreak of hostilities
-found two vessels, the <i>Varyag</i>, a protected cruiser of 6,500
-tons, and the <i>Korietz</i>, a gunboat, old, indeed, but not without some
-use for coast defence, quietly stationed at Chemulpo, a ready prey
-for a Japanese squadron.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The First Shot</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 8th instant a Russian steamer called the <i>Sungari</i>, which
-was employed for the transport of stores, entered the harbor with
-the news that a large fleet, which her
-captain believed to be Japanese, was fast
-approaching. The <i>Korietz</i> was sent out
-to reconnoitre. The columns of smoke on the horizon did indeed
-come from the funnels of the enemy's ships. The advancing squadron
-consisted of a first-class battleship flying the flag of Admiral
-Uriu, and the cruisers <i>Akashi</i>, <i>Takachiho</i>, <i>Naniwa</i> and <i>Chiyoda</i>, as
-well as seven torpedo-boats, the whole convoying transports with
-2,500 Japanese troops on board. The <i>Korietz</i> cleared her decks for
-action and fired&mdash;one account says that the shot was accidental&mdash;upon
-the rapidly approaching foe. The latter replied by discharging
-two torpedoes at the daring gunboat, which then retreated back
-into harbor. It is interesting to note that, whether the gunner of
-the <i>Korietz</i> acted under orders or not, he fired the first shot in the
-war, for the incident occurred several hours before the torpedo
-attack upon Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Disembarkation</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese took no further notice of the Russian ships until
-the disembarkation of their troops had been carried out, a process
-which was commenced immediately and
-was carried out through the night with
-great celerity and in the most perfect order.
-In this matter, indeed, as in all the preliminary stages of the
-war, the operations of the Mikado's forces showed how carefully
-thought out were the plans of his naval and military advisers. Not
-a detail appeared to have been omitted, every eventuality had been
-skilfully calculated beforehand, and as a result the whole machinery
-of warfare moved like clockwork.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >By four o'clock on the morning of the 9th the process of disembarkation
-had been successfully completed, and the soldiers had
-all found their pre-arranged billets on shore. The Japanese squadron
-then put out to sea once more, and waited for daylight before
-taking any action. At seven o'clock, however, the captain of the
-<i>Varyag</i> was served with an ultimatum from Admiral Uriu declaring
-that hostilities had broken out between Russia and Japan, and summoning
-him to leave the harbor by midday. Should he refuse to
-do so, then the Japanese fleet would be compelled to attack the
-<i>Varyag</i> and the <i>Korietz</i> within the harbor. A correspondent of a
-London paper who was present on the spot states that the commanders
-of the other warships stationed at Chemulpo&mdash;namely, the
-British cruiser <i>Talbot</i>, the Italian <i>Elba</i> and the French <i>Pascal</i>, held
-a meeting and drew up a strong protest addressed to the Japanese
-Admiral against his proposal to attack the Russian vessels in a neutral
-port. The message was sent out in the <i>Talbot's</i> launch.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Brave Russian Captain</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The protest, however, was not needed, for the captain of the
-<i>Varyag</i>, in spite of the overwhelming disparity of forces, determined
-to face his enemies in the open. It was
-an act of conspicuous gallantry, only to
-be expected, it must be said, from the
-representative of a country whose sons, whatever their faults, have
-never been slow to die for her sake. The manner, too, in which the
-<i>Varyag</i> set about her voyage to inevitable destruction was well
-worthy of the finest naval traditions of all countries and all ages.
-We are told that as the drums beat to quarters, and as the doomed
-ship steamed out amid the cheers of the foreign crews in the port,
-the band was massed upon her deck and burst into the strains of
-the Russian Hymn, the National Anthem. It was like that "flourish
-of insulting trumpets" with which Raleigh faced the guns of Cadiz,
-and the bravado of which Stevenson said he liked "better than the
-wisest dispositions to ensure victory; it comes from the heart and
-goes to it." No one, indeed, who is capable of generous emotions
-can fail to be uplifted by the story of the <i>Varyag's</i> passage to
-death. It is well to know that the cold science of modern naval
-warfare and all those mathematical calculations and inventions
-which have displaced the ancient ascendency of brawn and muscle
-at close quarters have not quenched the eager spirit of the sailor,
-or diminished his "heroic superstitions and his strutting and vainglorious
-style of fight." It was with a spirit not less high and
-intrepid that the captain of the little <i>Korietz</i>, disregarding the orders
-of his superior officer to remain within the shelter of the harbor,
-followed in his wake and strove desperately to meet the same fate.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Target for Japanese Gunners</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Slowly but steadily the two ships held on their course towards
-the Polynesian Archipelago, where lay in wait their powerful foe.
-The <i>Varyag</i> had reached Round Island,
-when at a distance of nearly two miles
-the Japanese flagship opened fire with
-one of her big guns. The aim of the
-gunners was true. Right amidships burst the great missile, doing
-terrible execution, and shell after shell followed with relentless
-rapidity. The <i>Varyag</i>, wheeling around in a small circle, responded
-dauntlessly with her 6-inch guns, but with little or no
-effect upon the battleship, and now Admiral Uriu's cruisers joined
-in the cannonade. Within half an hour of this fearful raking fire
-her bridge was shot away and her sides were gaping with holes, but
-she kept afloat and still withstood the onslaught, endeavoring
-heroically but in vain to find an opening by which to break through
-and escape out to sea. At last, after an hour's terrible pounding,
-she was compelled reluctantly to give up the attempt as hopeless,
-and, taking refuge among the islands, with difficulty crept back
-into Chemulpo harbor, disabled beyond repair and with her decks
-reduced to veritable shambles. Her desperate struggle had not left
-the enemy utterly scathless, for there seems no doubt that one of the
-Japanese cruisers received a good deal of damage.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Plucky "Korietz"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meanwhile the little <i>Korietz</i>, with extraordinary bravery,
-but with absolutely pathetic ineffectiveness, had been attempting
-to imitate the man&oelig;uvres of her consort
-and to do some injury to the big ships of
-the enemy. As well might a warrior
-with a popgun try to engage a battery of field artillery. It was
-magnificent, it certainly was not war. The range was hopelessly
-beyond her powers, and perhaps it was the bitterest drop in the cup
-of her commander and crew that the Japanese soon ceased to pay
-her any attention at all, concentrating all their efforts upon the more
-dangerous <i>Varyag</i>. When that vessel retreated at length into harbor,
-the <i>Korietz</i> followed her unharmed but undisgraced.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Wounding and Burning</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The wounded of the <i>Varyag</i>, numbering 4 officers and 214
-men, were removed in boats to the British, Italian and French warships.
-The dead were left on board, for
-it was decided to scuttle the ship. At the
-same time arrangements were made to
-blow up the <i>Korietz</i>. Just as the Japanese fleet again appeared in
-sight the latter vessel blew up, and the shattered hull, after one
-great burst of flame and smoke, sank beneath the waters. The
-<i>Varyag</i> refused to sink so easily, and the Russian sailors therefore
-again boarded her to set her on fire. After a little more than an
-hour she had burned down to the water's edge and, heeling over,
-disappeared. The <i>Sungari</i> was the next to meet its fate, the Russians
-setting fire to it also to prevent its falling into the hands of
-the enemy.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese fleet then steamed out to sea once more, having
-left behind it no further obstacle to the landing of troops on the
-west coast of Korea.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Handicap</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thus within forty-eight hours of the rupture of diplomatic
-relations, the first decisive action in the struggle for sea-supremacy
-had been fought, and the result left to
-the enterprising and intrepid Navy of
-Japan not only the immense moral value
-of a victory well contrived and unerringly accomplished, but the
-solid material advantage of a superiority in fighting strength
-which was incontestable.</p>
-
-<div id='i068' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='c027'>
-<img src='images/i068.jpg' alt='' class='c028' />
-<table class='c023' summary='caption'>
-  <tr>
-    <td>GENERAL LINEVITCH.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>GENERAL GRIPENBERG.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>GENERAL KUROPATKIN.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>GENERAL KAULBARS.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>GENERAL RENNENKAMPFF.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<div class='c016'><p>RUSSIAN GENERALS.</p></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch03' class='c015'>CHAPTER III.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >No Rest for Russia&mdash;Port Arthur&mdash;The Russian Forts&mdash;Another Russian Disaster&mdash;Second
-Night Attack&mdash;Japanese Daring&mdash;Demons of the Storm&mdash;Moral
-Effect&mdash;Bottling up Port Arthur&mdash;The Fireships&mdash;Fire and Searchlight&mdash;Rain
-of Shell&mdash;Russians Still in the Woods&mdash;The Blockade&mdash;Transport
-Problems&mdash;Secrecy of Japanese Movements&mdash;Admirable Arrangements&mdash;A
-Close Censorship&mdash;Japanese Landings&mdash;Terrible Weather&mdash;At Ping-Yang&mdash;Perfect
-Organization&mdash;At Seoul&mdash;The Korean Emperor&mdash;A Japanese
-Protectorate&mdash;Advantage to Japan&mdash;Railway Building&mdash;Japanese Rapidity&mdash;Dismay
-at St. Petersburg&mdash;Alexeieff Criticised&mdash;General Kuropatkin&mdash;Confessions
-of Weakness&mdash;Desperate Efforts&mdash;On the Yalu&mdash;Round
-Niuchwang&mdash;Martial Law Proclaimed.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">No Rest for Russia</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_1 c003'     >If the Russians at Port Arthur imagined that an enemy so resourceful
-as Admiral Togo had shown himself to be would
-rest quietly upon his oars after the conspicuous successes of
-the 8th and 9th of February, they were greatly mistaken.
-The first course of action for the victor in such a case is to
-keep on striking and to give the harassed foe no rest&mdash;in the striking
-words of Captain Mahan, to "benumb the victim." This was
-precisely the plan of campaign adopted
-by the Japanese, who continued to show
-the same remarkable skill and coolness
-of calculation, and the same dash and daring in execution as had
-characterized their naval operations from the first. On the other
-hand, the disorganization of the Russian fleet, and of the defending
-force at Port Arthur generally, showed itself more markedly than
-ever, and the incapacity of the Czar's commanders conspired to aid
-the enterprise of the Japanese.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Before entering, however, upon a narrative of the attacks upon
-Port Arthur which followed in swift succession upon the great
-battle of the 9th, it may be well to give
-some description of that famous stronghold.
-The inner harbor is oval in shape,
-and two miles long from east to west and a mile in breadth from
-north to south. The shores are protected by hills, which the Russians
-had assiduously fortified since they obtained occupation of
-the place. Entrance is afforded from the south by a narrow channel,
-so narrow indeed that while it has the advantage of being
-easily held against an enemy, it has the counteracting disadvantage
-of being somewhat difficult of navigation for the ships of the
-defending fleet. The mouth of this channel is protected on the
-southwest by two dangerous reefs, which would prove a snare to
-an unwary foe; while on the eastern shore there stands the hill of
-Kwang-chin-shan, 250 feet above the sea level, upon which frown
-the guns of several powerful batteries. Upon the lower slopes the
-Russians had established two batteries of Canet quick-firing 5.5in.
-and 7.5mm. guns, with a torpedo and searchlight station. The entrance
-channel is flanked along the northwest by a narrow strip of
-land which goes by the expressive name of the "Tiger's Tail," and
-this strip was fortified with battery of 7 Canet 5.5in. quick-firing
-guns. The distance from the Pinnacle Rock, one of the reefs above
-mentioned as situated at the western corner of the entrance passage,
-to the opposite shore, is nearly 350 yards. In its course the channel
-narrows, till at one point it is only 500 feet in width, but it
-widens out again at the northern end. At the northeastern end lies
-the basin, or East Port. There is accommodation here for about
-a dozen large men-of-war, and on the north side stands the one dry
-dock for repairing large vessels of which Port Arthur can boast.
-On the other side of the channel, which at this point is 430 yards
-in width, lies the mouth of the harbor proper, facing the southeast.
-To enter it, ships have to round the Tiger's Tail, not a particularly
-easy process for men-of-war of the largest size. Nor is the
-harbor itself yet fitted to receive a great fleet. When the Russians
-took it over they found that it was too shallow for berthing vessels
-even of a moderate size; and in spite of the feverish activity of their
-engineers in the last year or two, the dredging operations have not
-proceeded far enough to allow of accommodations for more than
-three battleships, together with minor craft. Hence the Port Arthur
-squadron has generally been disposed either in the East Port,
-or basin, or in the open roadstead outside the entrance channel.
-It was indeed the position of the Russian ships in this latter anchorage
-that gave the Japanese the opportunity for their fatal torpedo
-attack on the 8th.</p>
-
-<div id='i071' class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i071.png' alt='THE HARBOR OF PORT ARTHUR.' class='ig007' />
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russian Forts</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The land defences of Port Arthur were exceptionally strong.
-A range of forts, of which the Kwang-chin Hill already mentioned
-was the most important, commanded the
-harbor entrance; and another range of
-batteries, with the most powerful and up-to-date
-garrison ordnance, surmounted the hills which surround the
-town and protect it on the other side. Another line of forts guards
-the entrance channel on the west side, the most important being
-Wei-yuen. It seemed, indeed, undoubted that Port Arthur was impregnable
-from the sea, though at the beginning of the war European
-experts were not inclined to dogmatize as to the possibilities
-of its being stormed from the land side. As for the fleet, if it were
-lying in the West Harbor or in the East Port under the shadow
-of Kwan-chin, it would probably be perfectly safe from attack;
-but, on the other hand, it will be seen that there was a danger that
-the narrow entrance channel might be blocked up by an enterprising
-enemy, in which case the Czar's ships, even if they were the
-finest in the world, would be useless for all the essential purposes
-of naval warfare. This attempt to "cork up the bottle" was, indeed,
-nearly carried out by Admiral Togo in the course of the
-fortnight following the outbreak of war.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Another Russian Disaster</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Two days after the great attack another disaster befell the
-hapless Russians. With this the Japanese fleet, which had retired
-temporarily to the Elliot Islands in the
-Korean Gulf to refit and repair injuries,
-had nothing to do. It was solely due to
-carelessness and mischance; and while
-illustrating the state of demoralization that existed at Port Arthur,
-it contributed to spread that demoralization still further among the
-already sufficiently harassed forces of the defenders. The mine
-transport <i>Yenesei</i>, which, with her sister ship the <i>Amur</i>, was engaged
-in superintending the mine defences of the harbor entrance,
-observing a submarine mine which had become detached floating
-on the surface of the water, approached it for the purpose of firing
-upon it and thus removing an obvious danger to the ships lying
-at anchor. Unfortunately, in the excitement of the process, Captain
-Stepanoff, who was in command, allowed his ship to drift upon
-a neighboring mine. A terrific explosion followed, and the <i>Yenesei</i>,
-with a yawning hole in her bows, began at once to settle down.
-An attempt was made to lower the boats, but the catastrophe was
-so sudden and unexpected that little could be done. Captain Stepanoff
-went down with his ship, and there perished also, either from
-the direct effects of the explosion or from drowning, the engineer,
-two midshipmen and ninety-two men of lower rank. Not only
-was this terrible disaster damaging to the <i>morale</i> of the fleet, but it
-deprived Admiral Alexeieff of a valuable ship and of stores which
-he could ill spare. The <i>Yenesei</i> was built at Kronstadt in 1898.
-She was of 2,500 tons displacement, with a speed of 17-1/2 knots;
-was armed with five 4.7-inch and six smaller quick-firing guns, and
-was capable of carrying 500 mines. It is, of course, possible that
-she had not that full number on board at the time of the explosion,
-but in any case the loss in this respect alone must have been very
-severe. The accident throws an instructive and rather terrifying
-light upon the possible dangers of submarine mines, not only to
-the enemy who are attacking a fortified port, but also to the defenders
-themselves.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Second Night Attack</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Before the Russians at Port Arthur had recovered from this
-nerve-shaking disaster the tireless foe flew at their throat once
-more. On the night of the 13th a flotilla
-of Japanese torpedo-boat destroyers
-started out to make another dash at the
-survivors of the Czar's fleet, which were still lying in the open
-roadstead, presenting for a daring and resourceful enemy a tempting
-object of attack. The flotilla was under the command of
-Captain Nagai. A blinding snowstorm was raging at the time, and
-it was no wonder in the circumstances that the vessels became separated
-from one another and that some lost their way altogether.
-But two, more fortunate than their fellows, hit the right course.
-These were the <i>Asagiri</i>, under Captain Iakawa, and the <i>Hayatori</i>,
-commanded by Captain Takanouchi. A snowstorm on that coast is
-enough to tax the skill and the courage of the most intrepid sailor,
-but the Japanese officers and crews were equal to the occasion.
-Right in the teeth of the awful blizzard, their decks sheeted with
-ice and snow, but with hearts on board hot with the fire of heroic
-adventure, the gallant little craft held steadily on their way. The
-navigating lieutenants had to find their course more by instinct than
-by calculation, for it was impossible to see anything clearly ahead
-through the pitch-darkness and the relentless snow. On, however,
-they crept through the terrible night, each working independently
-of the other, for under such conditions no concerted plan of attack
-was possible.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Daring</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At three o'clock in the morning of the 14th, the <i>Asagiri</i> reached
-the harbor mouth, and in she dashed regardless of the searchlights,
-which made broad, livid tracks even
-through the storm of snow. A hot fire
-at once broke out from the fortress and
-the ships, but the aim of the gunners was wild, and, undaunted by
-the perils of his situation, Captain Iakawa drove his boat right up
-to the Russian torpedo flotilla, and discharged a torpedo at one
-of the larger vessels, from whose funnels smoke was seen ascending.
-The deadly weapon went home, and after waiting to see that
-it exploded, the <i>Asagiri</i> engaged in a smart exchange of shots with
-the enemy's torpedo boats and destroyers, in the course of which
-she sent a "scout" to the bottom. Then, and not till then, did her
-brave commander withdraw. Turning out to sea once more, and
-still hotly replying to the Russian fire until she was out of range,
-the <i>Asagiri</i> safely escaped, covered with honor.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Demons of the Storm</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Two hours later the <i>Hayatori</i> arrived upon the scene and performed
-the same gallant feat. Still facing the terrors of the storm,
-she approached the harbor entrance and
-stealthily crept up to the fleet, which lay
-helplessly at anchor. At last the audacious
-little destroyer was discovered. Two vessels opened a fierce
-fire upon her, but without hesitation, though at the same time with
-the most deliberate coolness and perfect aim, she discharged a torpedo
-at the nearest ship. The missile was seen to explode, and then,
-like her consort, the <i>Asagiri</i>, fled safely to sea once more, after
-spiritedly returning the hot fusillade directed upon her from all
-quarters.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Moral Effect</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the characteristically restrained dispatch in which Admiral
-Togo described this brilliant feat of arms by the <i>Asagiri</i> and the
-<i>Hayatori</i>, he remarked:&mdash;"It is impossible
-to state the definite material results,
-owing to the darkness, but the moral effect
-was certainly considerable." From other sources, however,
-something was learned of the character of the material damage done
-to the Russian fleet Not only was a scout destroyed, but the
-cruiser <i>Boyarin</i> was injured by one of the torpedoes, and the Volunteer
-Fleet steamer <i>Kayan</i> had her upper works knocked about by
-a shell from one of the Russian guns. The exact amount of the
-damage done was not revealed on the Russian side, but there can
-at all events be no doubt that, in the words of the Japanese Admiral,
-the moral effect was considerable. It is clear from the safe return
-of these two small destroyers out of the very jaws of the enemy,
-that the Russian gunners had become demoralized, and the ineffectiveness
-of Admiral Alexeieff's own torpedo flotilla in the face
-of an attack which it was peculiarly designed to meet points strongly
-in the same direction.</p>
-
-<div id='i077' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic008'>
-<img src='images/i077.jpg' alt='' class='ig008' />
-<p>RUSSIAN FLEET TRYING TO LEAVE PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Bottling up Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But still a third harassing attack was in store for the Russian
-fleet. While one division of his torpedo-boat destroyers was thus
-carrying confusion and dismay into the
-ranks of his opponents, Admiral Togo,
-holding his main fleet within the shelter
-of the Elliot Islands, was quietly preparing for a larger and more
-far-reaching <i>coup</i>. This was to be nothing less than the operation
-of "corking up the bottle," in other words sinking ships at the entrance
-to Port Arthur Harbor, and blocking the fairway against
-passage of the Russian ships. It was an enterprise in some ways
-similar to the famous exploit of Lieutenant Hobson of the <i>Merrimac</i>
-at Santiago-de-Cuba during the Spanish-American War, but in the
-present case the blockading fleet attained less success.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Fire Ships</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Five old steamers were chartered for the purpose. Their
-names were the <i>Tenshin Maru</i>, the <i>Bushu Maru</i>, the <i>Buyo Maru</i>,
-the <i>Hokoku Maru</i>, and the <i>Jinsen Maru</i>.
-Two of these, under the names of the
-<i>Rohilla</i> and the <i>Brindisi</i>, were formerly
-in the service of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. It may here
-be remarked that the spirit animating all ranks of the Japanese
-in this war was shown by the numbers of volunteers who came forward
-for the dangerous task of manning the doomed steamers.
-The difficulty, indeed, was not to find sufficient men, but to select
-the limited force required without giving offence to the remainder
-of the host who sought to share in the glorious risk. At last, however,
-the officers and crews were chosen, and the vessels, having
-been carefully filled with heavy stones and explosives, left for
-Port Arthur on the morning of the 23rd of February, escorted by
-a flotilla of torpedo boats and destroyers.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Fire and Searchlight</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the darkness of the early morning of the 24th, they reached
-the roadstead outside Port Arthur, the <i>Tenshin Maru</i> leading the
-way. The Russians, however, were more
-vigilant than on former occasions, and
-their searchlights soon revealed the renewed
-presence of their insatiable enemy.
-The <i>Tenshin Maru</i>, steering too far to the left, came within the
-fire of the batteries on the Tiger's Tail at close range. She was
-disabled by a shell, ran upon the rocks three miles to the southwest
-of the harbor entrance, and there blew up. The other steamers
-changed their course to the northeast, but the attentions of the
-Russian searchlight operators rendered their progress highly difficult
-and dangerous, and they were soon the object of a positive
-storm of fire from the forts on the Tiger's Tail, Golden Hill, and
-Electric Cliff, and also from the damaged <i>Retvisan</i>, which lay
-grounded at the entrance to the channel. The <i>Bushu Maru</i> was
-the first to suffer from the cannonade. Her steering gear was carried
-away, and, staggering blindly to the west, she grounded close
-to the <i>Tenshin Maru</i>, blew up, and sank. The fate of the <i>Buyo
-Maru</i> was no better. She was raked fore and aft by the Russian
-shells, and before she could reach the coveted entrance she also
-exploded and sank beneath the waters.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rain of Shells</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The <i>Hokoku Maru</i> and the <i>Jinsen Maru</i> were more successful.
-They made a rush together for the harbor channel, and got close
-up to the <i>Retvisan</i>. Disregarding the
-heavy fire directed upon them from the
-disabled but still dangerous monster, the
-adventurous volunteers calmly anchored their vessels upon the spot
-previously selected. Then only did they set the match to the fuses.
-Cheering loudly, but with no undue precipitation, they now took
-to the boats and pulled away in perfect order, in spite of the rain
-of shells and bullets showered around them on every side. The
-abandoned steamers blew up immediately afterwards and sank
-close to the lighthouse at the channel mouth. The activity of the
-Russian searchlights and the hot fire from the guns of the <i>Retvisan</i>
-and the forts compelled the men in the boats to take a very roundabout
-course, and they could not regain the Japanese torpedo fleet,
-which in the meantime had successfully picked up the crews of
-the other sunken ships. But the situation of the sailors of the
-<i>Hokoku Maru</i> and the <i>Jinsen Maru</i> was full of peril. To add to
-their difficulties, the wind rose to a gale towards daybreak, and
-they were driven out of their course. But they struggled bravely
-on, and, after enduring great hardships, they managed to reach
-the main fleet about three o'clock in the afternoon. According to
-the Japanese Admiral's report, all engaged returned in safety from
-this dangerous enterprise, an achievement comparable to the most
-daring "cutting-out" expeditions of olden times. It should be added
-that not a single destroyer or torpedo-boat was injured.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russians Still in the Wood</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Owing to the failure of three of the steamers to reach the entrance
-of the channel, and the insufficient size of the two which were
-successfully sunk there, the main object
-of the scheme was not attained, but it is
-thought that some temporary inconvenience
-was caused to the Russians, especially
-as the position of the grounded <i>Retvisan</i> herself was already
-something of an impediment to navigation. Extraordinary jubilation
-was created in the Czar's dominions, particularly in the Capital,
-by the failure of the Japanese expeditions. It was at first thought
-by the defending force, in the darkness and confusion, that the
-merchant steamers were men-of-war, and a grandiloquent account
-was sent to St. Petersburg by an imaginative correspondent announcing
-no less a disaster to the Japanese than the destruction of
-four of their battleships, after a severe engagement in which the
-wounded <i>Retvisan</i> had covered herself with glory. The news was
-quickly transmitted abroad by the semi-official agency, and the
-greatest excitement was caused in every capital in Europe. Cool-headed
-people, nevertheless, waited for some confirmation of this
-remarkable story, and when the truth came out the partisans of
-Russia were chagrined to find what a different complexion the real
-facts wore. Admiral Alexeieff, however, after the previous disasters
-which had befallen his fleet, was to be pardoned, perhaps, for
-the somewhat exultant tone of his dispatch to the Czar, in which
-he attributed what he called "the complete derangement of the
-enemy's plan" to "the brilliant resistance and destructive fire of the
-<i>Retvisan</i>."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Blockade</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Undiscouraged by the failure of this attempt to bottle up the
-enemy, Admiral Togo continued to maintain a strict blockade of
-the port, and to pursue the policy of alternate
-torpedo attacks and heavy bombardments
-at frequent intervals. But before
-proceeding with the story of these damaging and disconcerting operations,
-it will be convenient to describe the course which events
-were taking in other quarters of the theatre of war.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Transport Problems</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The signal success of Japan at sea had reduced to comparatively
-simple proportion the problem of the transport of her forces
-to the seat of war on land, where the curtain
-was about to rise on the most desperate
-act in the great drama. With half
-the Russian fleet at Port Arthur disabled, with the other half confined
-to the harbor by strict blockade, and with the Vladivistock
-cruiser squadron reduced to ineffective isolation, the Mikado's
-military advisers were able to choose the most convenient landing-places
-in Korea with a freedom which was only limited by the
-difficulties of the winter season. This indeed was a serious impediment
-to the movement of troops in large numbers. Not only
-were most of the available harbors both in Korea and on the Liao-tung
-Peninsula blocked by the ice, but when the invading force
-landed it found the roads in such a state as to render them almost
-impassable. The country was covered with snow several inches deep;
-the frost was biting; and even when milder weather began to
-prevail the conditions did not at once prove more favorable to
-marching operations and to the conveyance of heavy artillery. For
-the time being, in fact, they grew worse rather than better, for the
-thaw produced a perfect sea of mud, which made progress northwards
-a terribly slow and painful business. Anyone who has tried
-to cross a ploughed field during the break up of a prolonged frost
-can form some idea&mdash;faint, however, at the best&mdash;of the pleasures
-of marching in Korea at the beginning of spring.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Secrecy of Japanese Movements</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In spite, nevertheless, of all the natural difficulties of the situation,
-the Japanese proceeded steadily and systematically to "weave
-the crimson web of war." Nothing has
-been more remarkable in the course of
-these operations both by sea and by land
-than the complete secrecy with which the
-Mikado's strategists have veiled all their important movements until
-the calculated blow has been struck. In this, of course, they have
-been aided by their speedy acquisition of the command of the sea.
-All the correspondents who have proceeded to the seat of war
-agree in paying mortified tributes to the thoroughness of the Japanese
-press censorship. For weeks together a great army of "specials"
-were condemned idly to kick their heels at Nagasaki, while
-before their eyes transport after transport, crowded with soldiery,
-was leaving that port for unknown destinations. It was, however,
-generally evident on the face of the broad facts of the situation,
-that the main objective of the Japanese armies at that time was
-the west coast of Korea; for though the ports in the district were
-undoubtedly difficult of access on account of the ice, the condition
-of things on the Liao-tung Peninsula, the other probable place of
-disembarkation, was very much worse.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Admirable Arrangements</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Before the end of February over forty transports sailed from
-Nagasaki, and a still larger embarkation went on at Ujina, near
-Hiroshima, where a great force of horse,
-foot, and artillery were steadily detrained
-every day and sent on board. The admirable
-arrangements made by the Japanese
-directors of mobilization and transport were the theme of
-universal praise among unprejudiced observers. Everything had
-been carefully thought out beforehand; all the necessary material
-was ready; and consequently, when war broke out, there was no
-confusion, no undue haste&mdash;only the ordered bustle of men who
-knew exactly what they had to do and how it was to be done, down
-to the veriest detail. Special wharves had been prepared and
-were in position within a few days, with railway lines laid upon
-them, connecting them with the main lines over which the troops
-travelled from the interior, so that the trains could be brought down
-almost to the water's edge. Here the soldiers were detrained, and,
-after a meal, embarked upon lighters and steam launches, and were
-conveyed swiftly to the ships to which they were assigned. These
-transports averaged 6,000 tons in burden, and were excellently
-fitted up for their purpose. An important part of the vessels' equipment
-in each case was a number of large surf-boats or sampans,
-about the most useful form of boat possible for landing troops in
-the shoal waters of the Korean harbors.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Close Censorship</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >What was taking place in the meanwhile on the other side of
-the channel, and particularly upon the
-western coast of the Hermit Kingdom?
-We now know something of the strength
-and the disposition of the Japanese forces, although right up to the
-last moment before the general advance only the smallest items of
-information were allowed to pass through the narrow-meshed net
-of the censorship.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Landings</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >According to the most trustworthy accounts, however, there
-seems little doubt that the chief point of disembarkation of the
-Mikado's army was Chinampo, a small
-and obscure treaty port situated about
-150 miles north of Chemulpo. We have
-already related the landing of the Japanese advance guard at
-Chemulpo on February 8th, before the naval battle which resulted
-in the destruction of the <i>Varyag</i> and the <i>Korietz</i>. This force, which
-belonged to the 12th Infantry Division under General Inouye, and
-consisted of 2,500 men, was billeted at once in the little town, and
-was followed during the next few days by the remainder of the
-Division, with transport corps, train, and engineers. When the
-Mikado's advisers had been assured of the success of the initial
-naval operations and of Admiral Togo's supremacy at sea, a small
-expedition was immediately landed near Haiju, a place situated
-about half-way between Chemulpo and Chinampo, and sent forward
-by the Seoul-Wiju road to seize Ping-Yang, a strategical point the
-importance of which was amply demonstrated in the Chino-Japanese
-war. The main body of General Inouye's Division followed with
-all possible speed from Chemulpo.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Terrible Weather</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The hardships which these troops had to face were terrible
-indeed. The weather was at its worst. Heavy rain was succeeded
-by frost, and on the top of the frost came
-snow, and cruel blinding blizzards, in the
-teeth of which the little Japs, each man
-burdened with a weight of 100 lbs., had to struggle as best they
-could. In the circumstances the achievement of these forerunners
-of the Mikado's main army did an admirable piece of work. They
-did a steady march of 25 miles a day, bivouacking in the dirty
-Korean villages by night. At last, after four or five days, the force
-reached Ping-Yang and proceeded with all expedition to fortify it
-against possible attack. By the end of February a considerable
-body of troops was in occupation of Ping-Yang, and patrols were
-being pushed northwards to Anju.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">At Ping-Yang</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The seizure of this strong position, providing as it did against
-any immediate danger from the north, enabled the Japanese to land
-higher up the coast than Chemulpo, and
-henceforth the main work of disembarkation
-in this quarter was carried on at
-Chinampo, access to which is gained by an arm of the sea called
-the Ping-Yang Inlet.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Perfect Organization</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Here we find the complement of the operations which at
-Nagasaki and Ujina excited such keen admiration on the part of
-foreign critics. Perfect order and discipline
-characterized the disembarkation
-of the Japanese, as it had characterized
-their embarkation. The Pink-Yang Inlet is difficult of navigation
-at the best of times, but the inherent difficulties were enormously
-enhanced at this period of the year by the drift ice, which rendered
-landing an awkward and, in some cases, a hazardous undertaking.
-But the Japanese showed that admirable forethought which has
-characterized every step they have taken, and the transports
-brought with them large numbers of pontoon wharves, which enabled
-the troops to disembark from the sampans at some distance
-from the shore, and to march easily on to firm land. Here the
-hardy Japanese, in spite of the severe cold, bivouacked for the most
-part in the open, and were then pushed forward with all possible
-rapidity towards Ping-Yang. By the middle of March, as far as
-can be estimated, at least 80,000 men had landed in Korea ready to
-advance northwards as soon as the weather would permit; General
-Kuroki, commanding the 1st Army Corps, assuming the direction
-of affairs until the arrival of Baron Kodama, the Chief of the
-General Staff, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief.</p>
-
-<div id='i088' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic009'>
-<img src='images/i088.jpg' alt='' class='ig009' />
-<p>RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE DESTROYERS AT CLOSE QUARTERS, MARCH 9TH.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">At Seoul</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meanwhile a strong force, under General Inouye, had
-marched upon Seoul, and without difficulty overawed the feeble
-Emperor and his corrupt Court. On the
-12th of February M. Pavloff, whose
-name had for so long been a word to
-conjure with in Korea, left the capital for Chemulpo under the
-humiliating protection of a Japanese guard. M. Pavloff, it is said,
-was thunderstruck by the news of the disasters to the Russian navy,
-and by the sudden revelation of the real strength of the hitherto
-despised Island Empire. It was now clear to the world, and not
-least to his dupes, the Koreans, that the diplomatic bluff in which
-he, in common with his administrative chief, Admiral Alexeieff,
-had been indulging for so long was ludicrously out of proportion
-to the naval and military preparations which would ultimately have
-to support it. But the power of this able man at the Court of Seoul,
-though broken for the moment, was not by any means destroyed. So
-well had he done his work that even in the hour of Japan's triumph
-he still managed to find tools in the corrupt servants of the Emperor,
-and when he had taken his departure for Shanghai more
-than one attempt to communicate with him had to be frustrated by
-the Japanese.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Korean Emperor</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For the time being, however, the star of Japan was unquestionably
-in the ascendant at Seoul. The Emperor
-hastened to congratulate the Mikado
-on the victory of his fleet, and
-assured him that in view of Korea's position her satisfaction
-equalled that of the Japanese. At the same time the Korean local
-officials were ordered by the central Government to give every facility
-to the invading troops.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Japanese Protectorate</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But a more definite acknowledgment of Japanese supremacy
-followed. On February 23rd an important agreement was signed
-at Seoul by M. Hayashi, the Minister of
-the Mikado, and General Yi-Chi-Yong,
-the Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs.
-By the terms of this Protocol, Korea,
-"convinced of Japan's friendship," undertook to adopt the advice
-of the Japanese Government in regard to administrative reform
-"with a view to consolidating the peace of the Orient." On the
-other hand, Japan guaranteed the safety of the Imperial family
-and the independence and territorial integrity of Korea. In pursuance
-of this provision, the fourth Article declared that an encroachment
-by a third Power, or an internal disturbance resulting
-in danger to either of these interests, would justify prompt measures
-on the part of Japan, who would receive assistance from Korea,
-and in order to give effect to such action Japan might occupy
-strategical points in Korea if necessary.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Advantage to Japan</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The object of this agreement was, of course, to regularize
-Japan's position in the eyes of the Powers and at the same time to
-give a sop to the dignity of Korea. Its
-most important point, as far as the future
-was concerned, was the definite guarantee
-on the part of Japan of the independence and territorial integrity
-of the Hermit Kingdom. The significance of this action of the
-Mikado's Government, as foretelling the lines of their permanent
-policy in the event of a final victory over the forces of the Czar,
-was heightened by the visit to Seoul a few weeks afterwards, on a
-special mission, of Japan's most famous statesman, the Marquis
-Ito. The attention was reciprocated by the dispatch of a special
-envoy from the Korean Court to Tokio. The most important immediate
-effect, however, of the complete ascendancy now acquired
-by Japan at Seoul was of military rather than of civil interest. This
-was the granting of a concession to the Japanese under Article 4 of
-the Protocol, for the construction of the projected railway between
-Seoul and Wiju, on the Yalu River, while at the same time arrangements
-were made for the completion of the southern portion
-of the line between Seoul and Fusan, a port at the southern extremity
-of Korea.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Railway Building</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Here the marvelous organization of the Japanese War Office
-came into evidence once more. All the preparations for acting
-upon this concession had already been
-made. The material which had been intended
-for the construction of some unimportant
-railways in Japan was at hand ready to be transferred
-to the seat of war, and the engineer and pioneer corps only waited
-for the conclusion of the necessary formalities to begin operations.
-On March 8th a body of 8,000 men started work on the line between
-Seoul and Wiju, and the enterprise was conducted at high pressure,
-the material being conveyed with all possible speed by steamers from
-Japan. The value of this railway for strategical purposes will be
-obvious to anyone who studies the map; and, more fortunate than
-the Russians, the Japanese, provided that they could hold the northern
-part of Korea at all, were not likely to be faced with the difficulties
-which had proved so embarrassing to their enemy, in the shape
-of brigands and train-wreckers, in Manchuria. The completion of
-the whole line as far as Fusan would furthermore make them practically
-independent of sea transport for men as well as supplies, except,
-of course, as far as the narrow Korean Channel is concerned.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Rapidity</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It will thus be seen that, considering the inevitable delay due
-to the severity of the season, the preparations
-for a general advance by the Japanese
-army had been conducted with remarkable
-celerity and success, and that by the middle of March
-great progress had been made.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >We must now turn to the Russian side of the war.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Dismay at St. Petersburg</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >One of the first consequences of the reverses at Port Arthur was
-a change in the commands. The unexpected collapse of the Russian
-navy under the attacks of the despised
-Japanese caused grave searchings
-of heart at St. Petersburg, and there can
-be no doubt that the Czar himself was
-greatly shocked by the revelation both of the lack of readiness of
-his fleet and of the strange paralysis of enterprise on the part of the
-Admiral in command. It was not long before the Imperial displeasure
-was visited upon this officer, Admiral Starck. On the
-16th of February he was formally superseded, and Admiral Makaroff,
-Commander-in-Chief at Kronstadt, and a sailor of proved
-energy and skill, was appointed to the command of the Pacific
-Fleet in his place. The official reason, indeed, which was given out
-for Admiral Starck's recall was "ill-health," but this ingenious
-euphemism deceived nobody, the less so because the same mysterious
-complaint simultaneously seized hold of Rear-Admiral Molas, his
-second Chief of the Staff, who was recalled in the same Imperial
-Ukase.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Alexeieff Criticized</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Viceroy himself did not escape criticism at the hands of
-the Russian public, and in official circles at St. Petersburg keen
-censure was bestowed upon him for his
-share in the disasters which had befallen
-the fleet under his control; but he still
-appeared to retain the confidence of his master the Czar. It soon
-became apparent, however, that the military problem in Manchuria
-presented difficulties of its own hardly less embarrassing than those
-which were being experienced at sea, and as the magnitude of the
-task dawned upon the Czar and his advisers, it was deemed necessary
-to take drastic measures. On February 21st, therefore, the
-celebrated General Kuropatkin, Minister for War, and the first
-Russian military strategist of the day, was appointed Commander-in-Chief
-of the land forces in the Far East. It was carefully explained
-that Admiral Alexeieff, as a naval officer, could not be expected
-to conduct great operations on land, but it was apparent to
-everyone that as these land operations were now destined finally to
-decide the issue of the great conflict, the direction of the whole war
-on the Russian side had virtually passed to General Kuropatkin.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">General Kuropatkin</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Some slight account of this famous captain may not be out of
-place here. Like so many of Russia's distinguished men, both in
-the past and in the present, Alexis Nikolaievitch
-Kuropatkin has owed his rise
-rather to merit than to influence. His
-family was indeed a noble one, but it was little known, and his early
-advancement in the service was due to his own ability and industry,
-and not to high connections. When quite young, however, he was
-fortunate enough to attract the attention of the celebrated Skobeleff,
-and he became a great favorite as well as a zealous disciple of that
-famous cavalry leader. His opportunity came in the Russo-Turkish
-War, where he displayed notable dash and gallantry, risking his life
-recklessly in the terrible conflict at Plevna. In crossing the Balkans
-he captured a large Turkish force, and was promoted to the command
-of a division. Towards the close of the war he became Chief
-of the Staff to Skobeleff, and in the campaign against the Turkomans,
-which followed, and which resulted in the conquest of Turkestan,
-he served that great General in the same capacity. His rise
-was indeed remarkably rapid; promotion came to him while he was
-young and active enough to make the best use of it; and although he
-had held the highest position in the army&mdash;the Ministry for War&mdash;for
-some years, his age was now only fifty-six. Like most successful
-men, he was not without his critics and detractors&mdash;it was
-said indeed that among these was to be found Admiral Alexeieff
-himself, and that there was no love lost between the two&mdash;but there
-can be no doubt of the General's immense popularity with the army.
-His appointment to the supreme command caused a universal feeling
-of relief to spread not only throughout the Service, but throughout
-all classes of society in Russia, while at the same time it proved
-that the real seriousness of the task which lay then in the Far East
-had at last been grasped by the Czar's Government.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Confessions of Weakness</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For a time indeed the haughty disdain of their puny foe,
-which had characterized Russian official circles before the war, was
-succeeded by a feeling of acute pessimism. To prepare the public
-for the worst, an official <i>communique</i> was issued at St. Petersburg,
-in which, after an outburst of well
-affected indignation against the so-called
-treachery of the enemy, the people were
-warned that much time was necessary in order to strike at Japan
-blows "worthy of the dignity and might of Russia," while the
-state of unpreparedness on land as well as at sea was revealed in
-the phrase, "the distance of the territory now attached and the desire
-of the Czar to maintain peace were the causes of the impossibility of
-preparations for war being made a long time in advance." Simultaneously
-with the issue of this extraordinary confession came the
-news that Admiral Alexeieff with his staff had left Port Arthur and
-proceeded to Harbin, at the junction of the Manchurian railway and
-the branch line to Vladivostock, there to effect a concentration of
-all the available Russian forces.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Desperate Efforts</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >These facts combined were generally taken as indicating the
-intention of the Czar's Government to abandon Port Arthur and
-Southern Manchuria, for the time being, to their fate, and to make
-the first real stand against the enemy on the borders of Eastern
-Siberia. Desperate, however, as the situation appeared to be in
-these early days of the war, it undoubtedly
-improved somewhat in the next few
-weeks, and the delay which the severe
-climatic conditions imposed upon the Japanese advance necessarily
-aided the Russians. General Linevitch, commander of the Siberian
-Army Corps, to whom the direction of military affairs was entrusted
-pending the arrival of General Kuropatkin, made desperate exertions
-to collect an effective force as far south as possible, and it was
-regarded as highly probable, from such scraps of news as were
-allowed to creep through the censorship, that by the third week of
-March he had at his disposal in Southern Manchuria a force of
-about 50,000 men, the bulk of which was concentrated at Liao-Yang,
-some forty or fifty miles below Mukden.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">On the Yalu</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At the same time a smaller body of troops held the Yalu River,
-and patrols were sent southwards. As early as February 28th, one
-of these patrols, consisting of three Cossacks
-under the command of Lieutenant
-Lonchakoff, came into touch with a Japanese
-patrol outside Ping-Yang. The Japanese retreated, and the
-Russians, after advancing within 700 paces of the town, retired
-also before the sharp fire directed upon them from the walls. This
-was the first land skirmish of the war; it was a small affair of outposts
-only; and a long interval was to elapse before a more serious
-conflict could become possible.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Round Niuchwang</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Important, however, as were the events occurring in Korea,
-it was felt by experts in Europe that the most momentous developments
-on land were destined to take place
-on the western shore of the Liao-tung
-Peninsula, and that the advance upon the
-Yalu was really intended to cover a blow at a spot more vital to
-Russia's power. But here, by the nature of things, the movements
-of the Japanese could not be so rapid. As already indicated, the
-ice-bound condition of the Liao-tung coast prevented any landing
-operations in that quarter before the end of March or the beginning
-of April, when the frozen belt usually begins to break up. As
-soon as the advancing spring brought about the changed state of
-affairs it was apparent that a descent in force would become practicable
-to the Japanese both at Kinchau in Society Bay, where the
-peninsula narrows down to a mere neck of land, and, more important
-still, at Niuchwang, the treaty port at the north of the gulf.
-At either of these spots it would be comparatively easy to cut the
-Manchurian railway and sever communication between Port Arthur
-and the Russian headquarters, but the seizure of Niuchwang would
-be of much greater consequence than that of Kinchau, as it would
-place the invading army within easy striking distance of Mukden
-itself. Furthermore, the very process of the break up of the ice
-at Niuchwang, as long as it lasts, is favorable in some respects to
-the landing of an army. In winter the river is frozen out to sea
-for a considerable distance, and thus, when the spring arrives, the
-estuary presents the appearance of several square miles of moving
-ice-floes, tossed hither and thither by the swift and devious currents,
-and rendering the task of laying mines for the defence of the port
-practically impossible. Another advantage possessed by the Japanese
-in attacking from this quarter lay in the physical character
-of the country and in the friendliness of its inhabitants. The boggy
-nature of the land threatened to deprive the Russian cavalry of half
-its usefulness, while it was eminently suited for the movements of
-infantry, in which Japan found her greatest strength; on the other
-hand, the Japanese had made themselves very popular with the inhabitants
-during their war with China, and could depend upon the
-natives for ample supplies.</p>
-
-<div id='i097a' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic010'>
-<img src='images/i097a.jpg' alt='' class='ig010' />
-<p>THE CZAR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='i097b' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic011'>
-<img src='images/i097b.jpg' alt='' class='ig011' />
-<p>THE MIKADO.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Martial Law Proclaimed</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The extreme probability on all these grounds of a Japanese
-descent upon Niuchwang was doubtless evident to the Russians
-themselves, for they made great exertions
-to put the port into a state of defence,
-and their concentration at Liao-Yang,
-fifty miles or so to the north, was clearly designed to meet
-danger from this quarter. Niuchwang itself, however, is not very
-easily defended against a strong force attacking from the sea. The
-forts are of little avail against the guns of powerful men-of-war;
-and therefore, although General Kondrotovitch, the able officer in
-command, had done his best to strengthen the defences of the town,
-and was said to have some twenty or thirty thousand troops at his
-disposal by the end of March, it seemed clear that this was a vitally
-weak spot in Russia's extended front. On Monday, March 28th,
-the Russian authorities at Niuchwang declared martial law in this
-"neutral port" in the following terms:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >According to an order issued by the Viceroy of his Imperial
-Majesty in the Far East, the Port of Ying-kow has been proclaimed
-under martial law. Until the publication of the order the following
-regulations will be enforced, and will be brought into immediate
-operation:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(1) Martial law extends over the town and port of Ying-kow,
-over the whole population, without distinction of nationalities.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(2) All passengers and cargoes arriving must undergo examination.
-For this purpose steamers, sailing vessels and junks,
-having entered the mouth of the river, must anchor at a distance
-of six miles below the fort. A steam-launch, during daylight, with
-a naval and Customs officer on board, will meet the vessels at that
-spot. They will examine the vessels and conduct them to berths
-allotted by the Customs officers.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(3) The import of arms and ammunition is prohibited.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(4) It is prohibited to export to any ports of Japan or Korea
-articles of military contraband.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(5) When exporting articles to neutral ports the shipper must
-deposit with the Customs security equal to the value of the cargo,
-as a guarantee that the cargo shall not be reshipped from a neutral
-port to Japanese or Korean ports.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(6) Lightships and leading marks will temporarily cease to
-be used at the mouth of the river.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(7) When dealing with articles of contraband of war, the
-regulations sanctioned by his Majesty on February 14th, 1904, are
-to serve for the guidance of the military and civil authorities of the
-town and port of Ying-kow, who must be guided by the published
-regulations defending the administration of the provinces.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(8) If beans and beancake are exported, a sum equal to twice
-their value must be deposited with the Customs.</p>
-
-<div class='c005'>(Signed) <span class='sc'>Victor Grosse</span>.</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch04' class='c015'>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Firing on the Unarmed&mdash;Snowstorms and Bitter Frost&mdash;Reconnoitring at Vladivostock&mdash;At
-the Mouth of the Golden Horn&mdash;Careful Japanese Calculation&mdash;Bombardment
-at Long Range&mdash;Russian Ships Lying Low&mdash;Makaroff
-to the Rescue&mdash;A Chance for Russian Torpedoes&mdash;Sea Fight at Close
-Quarters&mdash;Severe Casualties&mdash;Another Hot Fight&mdash;Unprecedented Japanese
-Daring&mdash;Carnage Indescribable&mdash;Makaroff Outpaced&mdash;A Useless Prize&mdash;Bombardment
-by Wireless Telegraphy&mdash;Port Arthur a Hell&mdash;Golden Hill
-Silenced&mdash;Terrific Missiles&mdash;A Vivid Picture&mdash;Blood, Blood Everywhere&mdash;Further
-Naval Movements&mdash;Hoist with its own Petard&mdash;Another Attempt
-to "Bottle"&mdash;Makaroff's Feint&mdash;Wary Enemies&mdash;Russians Taking Heart&mdash;Individual
-Heroism.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Firing on the Unarmed</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >We must now return to the naval operations; but before
-dealing with the proceedings of Admiral Togo's fleet
-off Port Arthur, it will be well perhaps briefly to follow
-the fortunes of the Russian cruiser squadron stationed
-at Vladivostock, of which so much had been expected as an
-agency for the destruction of Japanese commerce on the high seas.
-The first news received of these cruisers
-after the outbreak of war did indeed appear
-to bear out the hopes which the Russians
-had entertained of them in this respect;
-but after one solitary exploit&mdash;the sinking of a Japanese
-merchantman&mdash;the squadron disappeared from view altogether,
-and for several weeks its movements became one of the most remarkable
-mysteries of a mysterious situation. It will be remembered
-that the vessels composing the squadron were the powerful first-class
-cruisers, the <i>Gromoboi</i>, the <i>Bogatyr</i>, the <i>Rossia</i>, and the <i>Rurik</i>,
-and the whole was under the command of Captain Reitzenstein,
-formerly the commander of the <i>Askold</i>. Apparently the orders
-given to the Commodore were to cruise about the coast of Manchuria
-and Japan with the object of picking off stray merchantmen
-belonging to the enemy, and it was while he was acting in pursuance
-of these instructions that Captain Reitzenstein, on February
-11th, fell in with two Japanese steamers&mdash;the <i>Nakonoura Maru</i> and
-the <i>Zensko Maru</i>, off the Tsugaru Straits, which lie between the
-islands of Hondo&mdash;the Japanese mainland&mdash;and Yezo. The larger
-of the two, the <i>Nakonoura Maru</i>, was an old ship, built in 1865,
-and of 1,084 tons burden; the smaller, the <i>Zensko Maru</i>, of only 319
-tons, was quite modern, having been built in 1895. They were
-bound in company from Sokata, in the province of Nizan, to Otaru,
-in Yezo. The older and slower boat fell an easy prey to the Russian
-cruisers; but it would seem that she offered fight, for she was
-surrounded by the men-of-war, bombarded, and sunk, her crew
-being taken on board the Russian ships. This act called forth a
-great outburst of indignation in Japan and also in the United
-States; for though, of course, a merchantman can justifiably be
-captured as a prize of war, it is not usual to destroy an unarmed
-ship out of hand. The official telegrams, however, gave no particulars
-as to the extent of the resistance offered, and it must be
-allowed that if the <i>Nakonoura Maru</i> absolutely refused to surrender,
-the Russian men-of-war would have no option but to fire upon
-her and let her take the inevitable consequences. The <i>Zensko Maru</i>,
-more fortunate than her consort, showed the Russians a clear pair
-of heels and escaped safely to the shelter of the port of Fukuyama,
-in Yezo.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Snowstorms and Bitter Frost</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This insignificant feat of arms was the sole success in the way
-of the destruction of commerce which could be put to the credit
-of Captain Reitzenstein's squadron in the
-early days of the war, and the fates soon
-proved unkind to him. The stormy
-weather which inconvenienced the Mikado's
-fleet off Port Arthur raged in the Japan Sea with peculiar
-severity, and for three days after the destruction of the <i>Nakonoura
-Maru</i> the Russian squadron flew before a heavy gale, aggravated
-by snowstorms and bitter frost. An official message from Admiral
-Alexeieff reporting these facts was the last authentic news of the
-Vladivostock squadron that reached the outside world for many
-weeks. Rumor upon the subject was, of course, busy in Russia.
-Now it was reported that the activity of Captain Reitzenstein had
-reduced the over-sea trade of Japan to a standstill; now it was stated
-(on the best authority, of course) that the squadron had escaped,
-and evading the Mikado's ships in some marvelous fashion, had
-joined the Russian fleet at Port Arthur; still a third and wilder story
-made out that it was on its way to Europe to effect a junction with
-the Baltic fleet, which, it was declared, was to be dispatched to the
-Far East in July. The truth appears to have been that after infinite
-trouble and hardship Captain Reitzenstein managed once more
-to make Vladivostock, and that his storm-tossed ships took refuge
-again in the harbor, into which a free passage was maintained by
-the efforts of the ice-breakers.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Reconnoitring at Vladivostock</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese Commanders, however, were ignorant of the
-whereabouts of this dangerous force, and a strong squadron was
-therefore sent into Japan Sea to search
-it out, and, if possible, destroy it altogether.
-The fleet dispatched for this purpose
-consisted of one battleship and six
-cruisers, with a torpedo-destroyer flotilla. The cruisers, it should
-be observed, included the newly-acquired <i>Nisshin</i> and <i>Kasaga</i>,
-which had just been fitted up for war. Rear-Admiral Kamimura,
-Admiral Togo's second in command at Port Arthur, had direction
-of the operations, no word of which was allowed at the time to leak
-out through the ordinary channels. A careful patrol was made of
-the whole of the coast, both of Manchuria and Japan, several days
-of this close search finally bringing the Japanese squadron to the
-very mouth of Vladivostock Harbor itself. Considerable excitement
-was caused in Russia's northern stronghold when, at 8.50 on
-the morning of March 6th, without any previous warning of the approaching
-danger, the garrison perceived the hulls of seven great
-vessels loom upon the horizon to the south of Askold Island. The
-presence of the enemy so far north was wholly unexpected, and for
-some time the real character of the advancing squadron was in
-doubt. But within an hour all speculation was set at rest and the
-approaching vessels were seen to be flying the Japanese flag. The
-great size and imposing aspect of the new cruisers led the Russians
-to take them for battleships, whence they derived the mistaken idea
-that Admiral Togo was present himself with his main fleet. As a
-matter of fact, of course, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, with
-scarcely diminished forces, was still watching Port Arthur as a
-cat watches a mouse, and the circumstance that he could without
-difficulty spare so powerful a squadron for operations in a far distant
-quarter of the theatre of war was at once a striking demonstration
-of Japan's naval strength and of the straits to which the
-Czar's fleet had been reduced.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">At the Mouth of the Golden Horn</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >By noon Admiral Kamimura's ships were half-way between
-the coast and Askold Island, making straight for Ussuri Bay, which
-lies to the southeast of Vladivostock. At the southern end of the
-peninsula on which the town and fortress of Vladivostock stand,
-and divided from it by a broad channel
-called the Bosphorus Strait, there is situated
-the Island of Kazakavitch. The
-Bosphorus Strait lies in a northwesterly
-direction, and on the north side of it are two spacious inlets, Patroclus
-Bay and Sobol Bay. Beyond these again lies the mouth of the
-Golden Horn, the Harbor of Vladivostock.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Careful Japanese Calculation</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese squadron steamed right on into the Bosphorus
-Strait, and when opposite Patroclus Bay it assumed order of battle.
-Admiral Alexeieff, in his official dispatch
-to the Czar, declared that it took up a
-position 5-1/2 miles from the shore and
-out of range of the batteries; but the
-truth seems to be that, with the skill which so far has characterized
-all the Japanese naval operations, Admiral Kamimura man&oelig;uvred
-to secure a station, which, while it was sufficiently within range
-to enable him to do execution to his foe, was, on the other hand,
-outside any possible line of fire from the fortress guns, with their
-necessarily limited arc of training. These dispositions for attack
-argued not only careful calculation beforehand, but considerable
-knowledge of the construction of the Russian forts and of the
-position occupied by their ordnance.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Bombardment at Long Range</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At half-past one the Japanese ships opened fire with their big
-guns. Forts Suvaroff and Linievitch and the town along the valley
-of the River Obyasseniye were the main
-objects of the cannonade, and over these
-the great shells continued to burst for
-close upon an hour, while the guns of the
-defenders were reduced to inactivity and impotence by the baffling
-tactics of the Japanese Admiral. It is true that the bombardment was
-rather in the nature of a reconnaissance than a serious engagement,
-its aim being to induce the mysterious cruisers which were suspected
-of being within the harbor to issue forth and give battle; but it was
-an uncomfortable reminder to the Russians of the vulnerability of
-their powerful fortress from the sea and of the comparative immunity
-which a resourceful enemy might enjoy while making a dangerous
-attack. The only account which has been received of the damage
-done comes from Russian sources. It does not appear to have
-been serious. A house in the town was knocked to pieces by a 12-inch
-shell, and an unfortunate woman, who was inside at the time,
-was killed; another shell burst in the courtyard of the Siberian
-Fleet Company, slightly wounding five sailors; but this was set
-down as the limit to the depredation committed by the Japanese
-gunners. On the other hand, the Russians consoled themselves for
-the ineffectiveness of their own artillery by calculating that the
-bombardment, by its expenditure of 200 shells, cost their enemy
-at least $100,000, a somewhat minute and peddling method of reckoning
-up the balance of losses and gains in a great war. It should
-be added that the Czar did not fail to send the garrison a rather
-magniloquent telegram of congratulation, in which he spoke of
-their bravery under their baptism of fire.</p>
-
-<div id='i107' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic012'>
-<img src='images/i107.jpg' alt='' class='ig012' />
-<p>RAID BY THE VLADIVOSTOCK FLEET.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Ships Lying Low</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The demonstration failed to disclose the whereabouts of the
-missing cruiser squadron, and a similar result attended the scouting
-operations of the Japanese torpedo destroyers
-which were engaged during the
-bombardment in searching Askold Island
-and the coast along the Ussuri Gulf. It
-seemed undoubted, however, in the light of subsequent events, that
-the Czar's ships were within the harbor at Vladivostock all the
-time, and that they felt unable to cope successfully with the powerful
-fleet which was so eagerly seeking their destruction. Admiral
-Kamimura, who retired southwards after the bombardment, returned
-on the following day to the same position, and attempted
-once more to lure the hidden cruisers into the open; but his blandishments
-were without avail. He then conducted a thorough search
-of Amur Bay, which lies on the west side of the peninsula, and
-finding no traces of the enemy, departed finally southwards, leaving
-Vladivostock, for the time, in peace.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Makaroff to the Rescue</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The interest now shifted once more to Port Arthur, where
-exciting events were on the eve of occurring. Admiral Makaroff,
-the newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief
-of the Pacific Fleet, arrived at
-Port Arthur on the 8th of March. This
-gallant Admiral's reputation stands almost
-as high with the navy as does General Kuropatkin's with the
-army. He has gained the confidence of the men who have served
-under him to an exceptional degree, and the immediate result of his
-presence at the seat of war was the infusion of a new spirit into the
-fleet and into the defending force generally. With immense vigor
-he proceeded to hurry on the repairs of the damaged warships and to
-prepare for active operations as the best means of restoring the
-somewhat shaken <i>morale</i> of the force under his command. The
-effect of this bolder and more enterprising policy soon became
-evident in the movements of the torpedo flotilla, which, under the
-feeble régime of Admiral Starck, had proved such a futile branch
-of the service. An opportunity for the trial of the new tactics came
-almost immediately, for within twenty-four hours after the hoisting
-of Admiral Makaroff's flag on the <i>Askold</i>, a renewed challenge
-came from the unresting enemy. It was destined to lead to one
-of the fiercest and most sanguinary combats yet experienced in the
-course of the war, a combat of such a close and hand-to-hand character
-as to recall the desperate struggles of earlier days, when the
-rival ships were grappled together and the final arbiters of victory
-were the cutlass and the boarding-pike.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Chance for Russian Torpedoes</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At midnight on the 9th two divisions of the Japanese destroyer
-flotilla crept up once more towards the mouth of the entrance channel.
-The first division, consisting of
-three vessels, the <i>Asashio</i>, the <i>Kasumi</i>,
-and the <i>Akatsuki</i>, and under the command
-of Captain Asai, posted itself outside
-the entrance to guard against the approach of the Russian
-flotilla; while the second division occupied itself in laying a number
-of mines of a new pattern in various spots carefully selected beforehand
-for the purpose. These operations were carried out with entire
-coolness and success, in spite of the flashing searchlights and
-the fire from the forts&mdash;fire, however, which, according to Admiral
-Togo's official report, was desultory and ineffective. The fact was
-that on this occasion the Russians were determined to rely upon
-another weapon than garrison ordnance. Admiral Makaroff decided
-to give his torpedo destroyers the chance for which they must have
-longed under the nerveless leadership of Starck, and to send them
-forth to deliver a counter-attack upon the audacious foe.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Sea Fight at Close Quarters</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >A flotilla of six of these vessels, under the command of Captain
-Matoussevitch, accordingly issued from the harbor and went in
-quest of the Japanese. About 4.30 in the
-morning they fell in with Captain Asai's
-Division to the southwest of the Liau-tie-shan
-Peninsula. Though his foes outnumbered
-him by two to one, the Japanese commander did not hesitate
-for an instant, but, confident in the skill and courage of his men,
-he ordered an immediate attack, and the <i>Asashio</i>, the <i>Kasumi</i>, and
-the <i>Akatsuki</i> flew upon the enemy. A fierce struggle now ensued.
-The Japanese were heavily outnumbered, it is true, but their vessels
-were stronger individually than those of the Russians, and whereas
-the latter were armed only with 3-pounders, the former carried
-6-pounders. Moreover, both officers and men had "found themselves"
-in previous conflicts, and were flushed with a consciousness
-of power and the memory of past victories. Their shooting, too
-was superior to that of their opponents, and speedily made its
-impression. On the other hand, the Russians, set free at last from
-the paralyzing influences which had so long cramped their energies,
-leapt to the contest with a glad eagerness, and fought with desperate
-gallantry. The combatants drew closer and closer to one another
-till they were within a few yards' distance, and the execution done
-by the quick-firing guns was terrible. So near did one of the
-Russian destroyers approach that some bluejackets standing on its
-deck were able to throw by hand a charge of explosive onto the
-bridge of a Japanese boat. Fortunately for the latter, it failed to
-explode, and the Japanese poured in a withering fire in revenge.
-Two of the Russian vessels were so severely mauled during the early
-part of the fight that they were compelled to sheer off and retreat
-to Port Arthur. The others kept up the conflict much longer, though
-they were hopelessly outclassed. But a perfect rain of shell and
-small shot fell upon the devoted Muscovites; their engines were
-rapidly becoming disabled; some of them were on fire; and at last
-it became manifest that if they were to be saved at all they must
-retire. Retreat, therefore, they did, fighting hotly all the way, with
-the enemy hanging upon their flanks like hounds upon their quarry.
-At length they came within the protection of the forts, and the
-heavy fire which was directed upon the Japanese from that quarter
-compelled them sullenly to give up their hold and in their turn retire.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Severe Casualties</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The losses suffered by the Russian destroyers, in this hand-to-hand
-conflict, which lasted for about forty minutes, were not made
-public officially, but they must have been
-considerable, if we may judge from the
-damage incurred by their victorious assailants.
-Seven of the Japanese were killed and eight were wounded,
-some of them severely. Prominent among these was Engineer
-Minamisawa, of the <i>Kasumi</i>, who peculiarly distinguished himself,
-and who received injuries which were reported as likely to prove
-mortal. This gallant officer had already covered himself with glory
-in the first torpedo attack upon Port Arthur, and in the heroic but
-fruitless attempt to block the harbor entrance on the 23rd of February.
-The damage done to the Japanese destroyers themselves was
-serious enough, but not such as to unfit them for service in a few
-days. The <i>Akatsuki</i> received a shell in her stokehold, which burst
-a pipe and filled the compartment with scalding steam&mdash;an accident
-which alone accounted for four of the lives which were lost. All
-three destroyers had their hulls and upper works knocked about by
-the Russian shells, but the injuries were above the water-line, and
-were made good with little difficulty.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Another Hot Fight</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >An even hotter and, for the Russians, more disastrous conflict
-took place a few hours later. As the second division of the Japanese
-flotilla, under Captain Tsuehiya, was
-leaving the roadstead at 7 A. M., having
-concluded its work of laying submarine
-mines, it encountered two other Russian
-destroyers which had been further out to sea to reconnoitre, and
-were now returning to Port Arthur. The Japanese at once threw
-themselves across the course of the newcomers to intercept them.
-The Russians, though on this occasion the outnumbered party, were
-nothing loth to face the danger which confronted them, and advanced
-to meet it with unquenchable ardor. An engagement of an
-even more terrible character than that held three hours previously
-now took place, and lasted for upwards of fifty-five minutes. The
-Russians fought with the courage of despair, and succeeded in
-putting one of their formidable opponents out of action for the time,
-though the damage done was not ultimately irreparable. This feat
-was performed by the <i>Stereguschtshi</i>, commanded by Captain Sergueieff,
-which was more heavily armed than her companion, and
-carried a 12-pounder in addition to her ordinary 3-pounders. A
-shell from this weapon struck the Japanese destroyer on the water-line
-and flooded two of her water-tight compartments. The supply
-of quick-firing ammunition was wetted and rendered useless, so that
-the vessel was unable to take any further active share in the conflict.
-Nor was this the only injury she sustained. Another shell burst
-upon her bridge, shivering it to fragments. One man was killed;
-but a lieutenant, a sub-lieutenant, and a signaller, who were on the
-bridge at the time, in some miraculous manner escaped. The terrible
-missile also carried away the binnacle and the engine-room
-telegraph instruments, and sent the davits flying.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Unprecedented Japanese Daring</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was clear that the 12-pounder of the <i>Stereguschtshi</i> was too
-dangerous a weapon to be neglected, and, therefore, the other Japanese
-destroyers concentrated their fire
-upon it, with the result that in a short
-time it was completely dismantled and put
-out of action. In these operations the
-<i>Sazanami</i> played the most conspicuous part. She drew up so close
-upon the <i>Stereguschtshi's</i> quarter that one of her bluejackets with
-extraordinary daring actually leaped on board the Russian vessel,
-cutlass in hand. Just as he landed on the deck Captain Sergueieff
-emerged from his cabin. The impetuous Jap rushed at him like a
-tiger, and, beating down his guard, struck him a fearful blow on the
-head with his cutlass, felling him to the deck. The Russian attempted
-to rise, but before he could do so his terrible opponent
-kicked him overboard and he sank beneath the waves.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Carnage Indescribable</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Undismayed by the death of their captain, the crew of the
-<i>Stereguschtshi</i> still fought on with desperate gallantry against the
-raking fire of the <i>Sazanami</i>. The lieutenant
-took over the command, but immediately
-afterwards a shell carried away
-both his legs, and he fell dead at his post. To him succeeded the
-sub-lieutenant, who endeavored bravely but in vain to bring the
-little vessel, wounded almost to the death as it was, into the shelter
-of the forts. He almost succeeded in his heroic attempt, but the
-implacable foe was not to be shaken off. The man at the wheel fell
-mortally wounded, and as the young lieutenant stepped forward
-to take it from his dying grasp he became himself the target of the
-terrible fusillade and dropped dead among his fallen brothers. Now
-at last, with hardly a man out of her crew of fifty-five still living,
-the <i>Stereguschtshi</i> lay a helpless log upon the waters, awaiting the
-long-deferred capture, but the fire from the forts rendered the task
-of taking her in tow an extremely dangerous one. Nevertheless, a
-Japanese lieutenant and a party of bluejackets from the <i>Sazanami</i>
-boarded her with a rope and made her fast. The deck of the Russian
-destroyer presented a horrible spectacle. Everywhere lay the
-corpses of her gallant crew, in some cases terribly mutilated by shell.
-Even in the few hurried moments at his disposal the Japanese lieutenant
-was able to count thirty bodies; the appearance of the stokehold
-defied description. Two stokers jumped overboard, and were
-picked up by the Japanese. The only other survivors were two
-sailors, who, directly the enemy boarded the vessel, rushed out of
-the conning tower, and, taking refuge in the after cabin, locked
-themselves in and refused absolutely to surrender.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Makaroff Outpaced</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Now began the slow and laborious work of towing the captured
-boat out of range of the shore batteries, whose attentions were becoming
-embarrassing and dangerous.
-Moreover, a new peril threatened the Japanese.
-Admiral Makaroff, perceiving the
-plight of the <i>Stereguschtshi</i>, had hoisted his flag on the <i>Novik</i>, and
-sallied forth with that cruiser and the <i>Bayan</i>, to the rescue. The
-other destroyer, it should be mentioned, thanks to the diversion
-caused by the heroic stand made by her consort, had in the meantime
-managed to reach the harbor. Things began to look black for
-the <i>Sazanami</i>, as the Russian cruisers were rapidly approaching; but
-Admiral Togo was not to be caught napping, and his own cruiser
-squadron was not far away. Several of his ships advanced to the
-assistance of the plucky little destroyer, and finding himself outnumbered
-and outpaced, Makaroff reluctantly abandoned his attempt
-and steamed back to the protection of the forts.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Useless Prize</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The <i>Sazanami</i>, however, was not destined to save her prize.
-The sea was rough, and the Russian destroyer, riddled with holes,
-steadily began to fill with water. After
-two hours' towing it became apparent that
-her condition was desperate, and the Japanese
-were compelled to cut the rope. A few moments afterwards
-the hapless prize gave one last lurch and sank beneath the waves
-with her tragic freight of dead. It was impossible to reach the two
-men in the cabin, and they perished with their ship.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Bombardment by Wireless Telegraphy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thus ended one of the hottest conflicts yet experienced in the
-course of the naval fighting around Port Arthur. But this sanguinary
-affair was only the prelude to
-more important operations. Admiral
-Togo had made his arrangement for a
-bombardment of the town and fortress
-of the heaviest description, arrangements which, like the man&oelig;uvres
-of Admiral Kamimura at Vladivostock, were conceived in the spirit
-of the most scientific warfare. As long as the Russian fleet remained
-undestroyed he was under an imperative necessity to risk his ships
-as little as possible against the great guns of the Port Arthur batteries,
-but to conduct a successful bombardment without coming within
-the range of their fire presented obvious difficulties. An indirect
-cannonade from Pigeon Bay, on the southwest side of the Liau-tie-shan
-Peninsula, would indeed deprive the enemy of any opportunity
-of replying with effect, but on the other hand in ordinary circumstances
-the gunners of the attacking fleet would also have to aim
-very much at random, without being able to judge the results of
-their shooting. Nevertheless this difficulty was cleverly obviated by
-the Japanese Admiral. While stationing his battleships in Pigeon
-Bay he dispatched his cruiser squadron to take a position on the
-east side of Port Arthur Bay, at right angles to the line of fire, to
-observe the effects of the bombardment, and to communicate suggestions
-by wireless telegraphy during its progress. The post of the
-cruisers in turn was adroitly selected so that while they could see
-what was going on, they were outside the angle of fire of the forts.</p>
-
-<div id='i118' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic013'>
-<img src='images/i118.jpg' alt='' class='ig013' />
-<p>THE TOKIO MILITARY HOSPITAL&mdash;OFFICERS QUARTERS.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Port Arthur a Hell</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >These careful dispositions were completed by ten o'clock on
-the morning of the 10th, and at that hour once more "the red fire
-and smouldering clouds out brake." For close upon five hours a
-storm of shells was poured upon the devoted fortress. The defending
-guns attempted to return the fire, but their efforts were intermittent
-and ineffective. On the other
-hand, the great projectiles from the 12-inch
-guns of the Japanese battleships
-wrought immense havoc both in the forts and in the town. A
-shell burst close to the house of a lawyer named Sidorski,
-and wrecked the building; M. Sidorski himself was killed on the
-spot. The wife of Colonel Baron Frank, who was in the house at
-the time, sustained terrible injuries, and her daughter's head was
-blown off. A young lady named Waleritsch was so seriously
-wounded by another shell that she died soon after her removal to
-the hospital. An English advocate, a Mr. Newton, was blown to
-pieces. The house of General Volkoff was completely destroyed,
-and two sentries only just escaped death. A train which was entering
-the town from the North was struck by a 12-inch shell; the
-engine was shattered into a thousand fragments and the driver was
-killed. And now to add to the horrors of the situation, fires began
-to break out in various quarters of the town, and the panic-stricken
-inhabitants fled to the race course, where, behind the shelter of the
-hills, they were able to find some respite from the terrible tornado
-which had burst upon them.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Golden Hill Silenced</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While all this devastation was being hurled upon the town, the
-forts themselves were passing through a hot time. The Japanese,
-assisted by the skilful man&oelig;uvre before
-described, had found the range for their
-high angle fire perfectly, whereas the batteries
-of the defending force could do little
-or nothing in return. The official accounts issued from the Russian
-side, while admitting the severity when the bombardment
-visited the town, said little about the damage to the fortifications or
-the losses sustained by the garrison; but the reports received from
-other and independent sources, while varying a good deal in details,
-agreed in representing the total result as being of the most serious
-character. It is said that twenty soldiers were killed and that many
-more were wounded. The Governor of Port Arthur himself, General
-Stoessel, who was on the batteries during the hottest of the fire,
-had a narrow escape. A shell burst near to the spot on which he
-was standing with his staff, and bespattered the whole party with
-splinters and sand. The forts on Golden Hill suffered severely, and
-two guns were put out of action. Nor did the ships in the harbor
-come off scatheless. Heavy casualties among their crews were
-reported, and it was stated that the unfortunate <i>Retvisan</i>, which had
-already borne so much, received still further damage.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Port Arthur journal, the <i>Novi Krai</i>, gave a terrible picture
-of the scenes on the cruiser <i>Bayan</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The bursting shells," said the writer, "bowled over man after
-man until the decks were slippery with blood. Amidst this hell the
-captain stood unmoved in the conning tower calmly telephoning his
-orders to the captains of the guns. His wonderful coolness had a
-remarkable influence on all the officers. The cockpit was soon
-crowded with wounded, thirty-nine men being brought down before
-the fight ended.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Amid the crash of the guns, the hiss of the flying projectiles,
-and the thunder of their explosions, the smashing of splinters, and
-the din of the working engines, the surgeons labored quietly among
-the wounded on the hospital operating table. Although some of
-the men suffered frightful agony, few groans were heard, in spite
-of the fact that anæsthetics were only administered in one case."</p>
-
-<div id='i121' class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i121.png' alt="SKETCH PLAN OF PORT ARTHUR'S MAIN FORTIFICATIONS." class='ig014' />
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Terrific Missiles</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For hours that to the heart-shaken inhabitants must have appeared
-interminable, the great shells, each of the enormous weight
-of 850 lbs., continued to hurtle through
-the air and to burst over the harassed
-stronghold. The sensations of a garrison
-in such circumstances are well described in a letter which a wounded
-Russian officer wrote from the hospital in Port Arthur to a friend
-in Russia. He is recounting his experiences of the first bombardment,
-but the account is so vivid and would apply so well to the more
-trying ordeal of the 10th of March that it will bear reproduction
-here.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Vivid Picture</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The sea," he says, "is quite white from the falling shells, and
-it is impossible to hear the words of command. I cry out until my
-voice becomes hoarse, but cannot make
-myself heard above the din. There are
-more than 150 cannon belching forth
-smoke, shell and death. There is a wild, choking sound from the
-machine guns. Amid the smoke, steam and dust I hear a groan, it
-is that of a soldier whose nose has been torn away by the fragment
-of a shell. He is surrounded by stretcher bearers. Someone lays
-his hand on my shoulder, and I turn and see at my side a soldier,
-pale, and his lips trembling. He wishes to speak, but his tongue
-refuses to obey. He points with his finger, and I understand what
-has occurred.</p>
-
-<div id='i123' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic015'>
-<img src='images/i123.jpg' alt='' class='ig015' />
-<p>FUNERAL PROCESSION OF A JAPANESE OFFICER IN YOKOHAMA.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Blood&mdash;Blood Everywhere</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"There beneath the cliff I hear a little battery of rapid firing
-guns, very small and elegant. There are 12,000 bullets speeding on
-their errand in sixty seconds. They are
-destined to defend our shores against the
-landing of an enemy. The orgy is at its
-height. The shells are bursting around
-us like fireworks at a feast. A whistle, a hiss, and a sharp ringing
-noise, as they rush through the air, then smoke and a smell of burning,
-while the sand dances from the earth. I turn from the battery
-and see a terrible picture. In the midst of the men a shell bursts.
-One soldier is disemboweled, and another is wounded in the head,
-a third is shrieking in the height of his delirium. One steel cannon
-is broken to pieces as though it were straw. An awful picture, with
-blood&mdash;blood everywhere."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Further Naval Movements</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At last, at two o'clock, the inferno ceased. A great calm succeeded
-to the thunder of the guns and the screams of the shells, and
-the civilians of Port Arthur slowly and
-timidly returned to their ruined homes.
-The separate divisions of the Japanese
-fleet rejoined one another, and after the
-most destructive bombardment yet inflicted upon the land defences
-of the Russian stronghold, they quietly steamed away southwards.
-While these events were taking place at Port Arthur a detached
-squadron of the Mikado's cruisers had proceeded northeast to Dalny,
-or Talienwan, as it used to be called, and destroyed the quarantine
-buildings erected by the Russians on the Sanshan Islands. Outside
-that port the <i>Takasago</i> and the <i>Chihaya</i> scouted the western coast
-of the entrance to Port Arthur in the hope that the bombardment
-would draw Admiral Makaroff's ships into the open; but no enemy
-could be found and the two cruisers then retired in the wake of the
-main squadron.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Hoist With its Own Petard</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was not long before a Russian vessel fell a victim to the
-mines laid by the Japanese destroyers at the harbor entrance on the
-night of March 9th. On the 16th the
-<i>Skori</i>, a torpedo-boat destroyer of the
-newest pattern, was entering the channel
-when she struck upon a contact mine and
-was blown up. Out of her crew of fifty-five men, only four were
-reported to have been saved.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Another Attempt to Bottle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >After an interval of twelve days Admiral Togo made a renewed
-attack upon Port Arthur, the fifth in number since the outbreak of
-hostilities. It was not so serious an assault
-as the last, its real object being to
-tempt the Russian fleet away from the
-protection of the shore batteries and to
-give battle at sea. In this design it was unsuccessful, but incidently
-it was useful, as revealing the strength of the squadron Admiral
-Makaroff had at his disposal after the repairs which had been
-effected upon the damaged ships. At midnight on the 21st two
-Japanese destroyers were discovered by the searchlights approaching
-the outer roadstead. The guns of the batteries at once gave tongue,
-and a violent fire was directed against the daring craft, not only
-from the fortress but from the gunboats <i>Bobe</i> and <i>Otvagni</i>; which,
-according to Admiral Alexeieff's report to the Czar, compelled them
-to retire. A second flotilla crept up at 4 o'clock in the morning,
-and this too, it was claimed by the Viceroy, was repulsed. A different
-complexion, however, was put upon the operation by Admiral
-Togo's dispatch to his Government. The destroyers retired
-indeed, but seemingly not in consequence of the Russian fire, which
-left them unharmed, but as part of a preconceived plan to lure forth
-Admiral Makaroff's fleet. The Japanese Commander-in-Chief's
-words were: "The combined fleet acted according to program.
-Two flotillas of our destroyers were outside Port Arthur, as instructed,
-from the night of the 21st till the morning of the 22nd.
-Although during this time they were under the enemy's fire they
-did not sustain any damage." It is clear from this that the aim of
-the Russian gunners leaves much to be desired, for the attacking
-flotilla were able to cruise about in the roadsteads without being
-touched.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Makaroff's Feint</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At eight o'clock on the morning of the 22nd the main fleet arrived
-off Port Arthur. The same tactics as were employed on the
-10th were adopted on this occasion, but
-with some modification. Only two battleships,
-the <i>Fuji</i> and the <i>Yashima</i>, were
-sent to Pigeon Bay to undertake an indirect bombardment of the
-town; while the Admiral, with his main squadron, took up a position
-more convenient for an attack upon the Russian fleet should it
-put out to sea. The cannonade lasted again for several hours, but
-his main purpose, that of drawing Admiral Makaroff into the open,
-was not successful. At one period, indeed, the hopes of the Japanese
-ran high. The Russian fleet was seen to issue from the harbor
-as if ready for battle, with the cruiser <i>Askold</i>, flying the flag of the
-Commander-in-Chief, at their head. It was now observed that the
-available naval force of the Czar at Port Arthur consisted of five
-battleships and four cruisers, as well as destroyers, gunboats, and
-torpedo-boats. The battleships of course included the <i>Pobieda</i>,
-12,674 tons, and the <i>Sevastopol</i>, 10,950 tons, which were undergoing
-repairs when the first battle took place. None of the five, it
-will be remembered, was equal to the Japanese battleships, either in
-size or in armament, and the cruiser strength was still more disproportionate.
-Nevertheless, they made a gallant show, and for a time
-it seemed as if they were prepared to come to close quarters on blue
-water. Admiral Makaroff, however, bold and enterprising as he is,
-did not feel in a position to take such a strong step, and, to the disappointment
-of the Japanese, he kept his ships well within the zone
-of protection afforded by the shore batteries, while he joined them
-in returning the fire of the enemy.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Wary Enemies</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The objects of the two Admirals were indeed identical. Each
-sought to bring about a battle on his own terms, and each was too
-wary to be persuaded. The Russian attempted
-to lure his enemy within the
-range of the forts; the Japanese endeavored
-to draw the Russian away from the range of the forts; and
-neither was successful in his blandishments. Finally, Admiral Togo
-gave the order to cease firing, and his fleet retired southwards once
-more. The Russians claimed to have struck one of their opponent's
-battleships; but Admiral Togo in his report distinctly stated that his
-ships suffered no damage, though a good many shells fell near the
-<i>Fuji</i> in the course of the indirect bombardment.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russians Taking Heart</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Although Admiral Makaroff did not venture out to sea with
-his smaller squadron when the Japanese fleet was absolutely upon
-the spot, this did not prevent him from
-engaging in active operations of a much
-more daring character than any his predecessor
-had dreamt of. On the 26th,
-for example, he took out the whole of the ships under his command
-for a reconnaissance to the Hwang-Ching-Tau Islands, a
-group situated about thirty miles to the southwest of Port Arthur,
-a proceeding that must have heartened both officers and men considerably.
-No trace of the enemy's warships was discovered, but
-while the fleet was making its way back to Port Arthur, the <i>Novik</i>
-fell in with a small merchant steamer, the <i>Hanien Maru</i>, on board
-of which were a number of Japanese newspaper correspondents.
-The crew were transferred to the warship and the steamer was taken
-in tow and subsequently sunk. The whole Russian squadron returned
-safely to Port Arthur after this excursion without once coming
-in sight of the enemy.</p>
-
-<div id='i129' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic016'>
-<img src='images/i129.jpg' alt='' class='ig016' />
-<p>A SKIRMISH BETWEEN JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN CAVALRY.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Individual Heroism</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But in the meantime the Japanese were busy with fresh plans.
-Unable to draw Admiral Makaroff away from the protection of the
-forts when the whole Japanese fleet was
-lying in wait, Admiral Togo determined
-to use another card in this game of skill.
-The project of corking up the bottle at Port Arthur, though a failure
-on the first attempt, had not by any means been abandoned, and
-on the very night of Admiral Makaroff's cruise to the Hwang-Ching-Tau
-Islands, a fresh effort was made to block the harbor entrance.
-It resulted in operations which, although again only partially
-successful, were most brilliantly executed, and were marked
-not only by consummate skill, but by acts of individual heroism and
-self-sacrifice of the most inspiring kind. Nor was the gallantry
-confined to one side alone. The Russians were not slow to accept
-the opportunities for glory vouchsafed to them by the daring of
-their foe, and one of the features of the conflict was the attack by a
-solitary torpedo-boat upon six of the Japanese flotilla.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch05' class='c015'>CHAPTER V.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Volunteers for Fireships&mdash;A Drama of Searchlights&mdash;The Devil's Caldron&mdash;The
-Sacrifice of Fire&mdash;Heroic Hirose&mdash;Undaunted by Death&mdash;Covering
-Themselves with Glory&mdash;Casualties Few but Terrible&mdash;The Hero of Japan&mdash;Channel
-Still Unclosed&mdash;The Shadows of Fate&mdash;The Great Catastrophe&mdash;The
-Story of the "Petropavlovsk"&mdash;A Double Trap&mdash;Captain Oda and his
-Mines&mdash;The "Bayan" to the Rescue&mdash;Preparing an Ambush&mdash;Makaroff
-Lured Out&mdash;Cutting off the Unwary&mdash;Weather Permitting&mdash;Into the Jaws
-of Death&mdash;Haphazard Fire&mdash;Rescue Work&mdash;The Character of the Explosion&mdash;Accounts
-of Survivors&mdash;Tribute from the Japanese&mdash;On Land&mdash;Chong-Ju&mdash;The
-Advance to the North&mdash;Concentration of Troops&mdash;Kuroki's
-Line of Front&mdash;The Russian Position&mdash;Russian Confidence.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Volunteers for Fireships</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_7 c003'     >As on the occasion of the first effort to block the harbor at
-Port Arthur, so upon the second a spirited competition
-took place among the Japanese officers and men for the
-honor of occupying the post of danger upon the fireships.
-The claim of the gallant men who had charge of the previous attempt
-to finish the work which they had so well begun was finally
-conceded, their Commander-in-Chief
-himself deciding the question. Four
-merchantmen, larger than those already
-sunk, had been filled with stones and explosives
-and were ready for the desperate enterprise. The whole
-fleet left the rendezvous on the 26th of March under the cover of
-night, and accompanied the fireships up to a distance of some miles
-from Port Arthur. There the Admiral gave his final orders, and
-escorted by a flotilla of eleven destroyers and six torpedo-boats,
-which were spread out fanwise in front of them, the doomed vessels
-started upon their last and proudest voyage.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Drama of Searchlights</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was midnight when they set forth, and there was no moon.
-An inky darkness brooded over the waters, which lay still and calm
-like a village pond. No sound was heard,
-no light was shown on the flotilla as,
-steadily and inexorably, it pursued its
-fateful passage over the silent sea. The
-only ray of light visible came from the distant searchlight on Golden
-Hill, set like the eye of a Cyclops, in the forehead of Port Arthur.
-Slowly and monotonously the broad refulgent beam swept backwards
-across the bay, throwing into strong relief every object upon
-which it fell within a radius of more than two miles. Every moment
-it seemed to the tense expectancy of the advancing force that their
-presence must be revealed, but still they held on their course with
-calm and patient courage, and still the slow minutes dragged along
-without any sign of suspicion on the part of the garrison. At
-last, when the Japanese had approached so near that they could
-make out the dim contour of the fortress and the surrounding
-heights, the moving light settled for a moment upon the lines of the
-foremost torpedo-boats. Another instant and a startling change
-had come over the scene. Swiftly the searchlight flashed up and
-down, backwards and forwards it plunged and replunged upon the
-stealthy foe until the whole flotilla, approaching with such grim determination,
-lay exposed to the view of the Russian sentries. The
-trumpets rang out, the garrison sprang to arms, and a storm of
-shot and shell once more burst forth from the great guns of Golden
-Hill.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Devil's Caldron</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >As the gallant Japanese made straight for the harbor entrance
-the batteries on the Tiger's Tail joined in the fierce cannonade, and
-from more than a hundred guns a hail of shells was poured down,
-till the still waters of the bay were torn up into a maelstrom of
-foam, "white as the bitten lip of hate." But the calm resolution of
-the attacking force was undisturbed. The
-fan-like formation of the escorting flotilla
-opened out more widely, and the fireships,
-passing swiftly through, drove straight into the devil's caldron
-in front of them. A mile away stood the point for which
-they aimed, a mile charged every yard of it with destruction and
-death. But setting their teeth dauntlessly, intent only on gaining
-the fateful goal, the picked crews of the merchantmen pressed forward
-upon their desperate errand.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Sacrifice of Fire</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At last they reached the harbor mouth. The leading steamer,
-the <i>Chiyo Maru</i>, drove straight from the east side of the channel,
-heedless of the terrible fire of which she
-was the central target. Everything was
-ready; the anchor was dropped; the fuse
-was set; and swiftly but with precision the crew slipped into the
-boats and made off. A moment later a terrific explosion rent the
-ship from stem to stern, and down she sank through the boiling
-waters.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Heroic Hirose</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The next to take her position was the <i>Fukui Maru</i>, which, edging
-to the port side of the <i>Chiyo Maru</i>, let go her anchor. Now
-occurred one of the most heroic acts
-which had yet characterized the course
-of the war&mdash;an act which for cool and
-devoted gallantry has never been surpassed in the annals of European
-seamanship. Waiting until the vessel was securely anchored,
-the boatswain, Sujino, went calmly down to the magazine to light
-the fuse. Just at that moment the Russian torpedo-boat <i>Silni</i> approached
-and discharged a Whitehead torpedo, which struck the
-<i>Fukui Maru</i> full in the bows and tore a gaping hole in her below the
-water-line. Sujino was killed, but his comrades on deck were unaware
-of his fate. All they knew was that the Russians themselves
-had done their work for them and that the vessel was settling down
-on the very spot designed for its destruction by Admiral Togo.
-Commander Hirose, therefore, ordered his men to take to the boats,
-but before he left the ship himself he determined to find the brave
-Sujino if possible and save him from death. The steamer was fast
-sinking; the water was pouring in at her bows like a mill race; and
-she was the target of a perfect tornado of fire from the forts; but
-the gallant commander searched through her three times for the
-missing man before he would give up the quest. At last it became
-clear that further search was useless. The vessel was on the point
-of going down, and reluctantly Hirose clambered into one of the
-boats. As the crew pushed off the <i>Fukui Maru</i> went down by the
-head. Success, however, was dearly purchased. The delay had
-enabled the Russians to concentrate their fire upon the boats with
-deadly effect. The chief victim himself was Commander Hirose. A
-shell struck him on the head, carrying away the greater part of his
-body, and leaving in the boat only a shapeless fragment of torn and
-blackened flesh.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Undaunted by Death</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meanwhile, the other steamers were taking up their stations
-in the order provided beforehand. The <i>Yihiko Maru</i>, regardless
-of the terrible fire from the forts,
-steamed in on the port side of the <i>Fukui
-Maru</i> and cast anchor in her turn. The
-fuse was duly set and lighted; officers and crew set off in the boats;
-and the ship blew up like her fellows and sank in the channel. Now
-came the opportunity of the fourth and last of this devoted fleet,
-the <i>Yoneyama Maru</i>. The difficulties of the channel and the violence
-of the enemy's fire led her to take a devious course, but the
-skill with which she was steered excited universal admiration. Her
-commander drove her through on the starboard side of the sunken
-<i>Chiyo Maru</i> and then she was compelled to turn back and slip between
-that ship and the <i>Fukui Maru</i>. On her way she ran right
-upon a Russian destroyer and engaged it at close quarters for a few
-moments, but her duty was not to fight but to sink at a spot selected.
-Escaping therefore, from the clutches of the enemy, she
-rounded the <i>Fukui Maru</i> and the <i>Yahiko Maru</i> and finally brought
-up in the very centre of the fairway. There her crew prepared to send
-her to the bottom, and if the operation could have been carried out
-successfully there can be little doubt that the whole enterprise would
-have gained its object, and that the channel would, at least temporarily,
-have been completely blocked. But the Russian torpedo-boats
-were active. One of their deadly engines of destruction struck the
-<i>Yoneyama Maru</i> just as the crew were about to cast anchor, and she
-drifted somewhat to the westward before she sank, her bow pointing
-towards the Tiger's Tail. Her crew escaped safely, but this accident
-left too wide a space between the <i>Yoneyama Maru</i> and the
-<i>Yahiko Maru</i> to effect a total obstruction of the channel.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Covering Themselves With Glory</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >All this time the torpedo-boat and destroyer flotilla had been
-far from idle. The destroyers consisted of the <i>Shirakumo</i>, <i>Kasumi</i>,
-<i>Asashio</i>, <i>Akatsuki</i>, <i>Akebono</i>, <i>Oboro</i>, <i>Inayuma</i>,
-<i>Ikadsuchi</i>, <i>Usugomo</i>, <i>Sayanami</i>,
-and <i>Shinonome</i>, while the torpedo-boats
-were the following: the <i>Karigane</i>, <i>Aotaka</i>,
-<i>Misasagi</i>, <i>Tsubame</i>, <i>Managuru</i>, and <i>Hato</i>. Several of these,
-it will be remembered, had already covered themselves with glory
-in previous combats. On this occasion they fully maintained their
-high reputation. The hot cannonade which was directed from the
-fortress upon the fireships so far from deterring the escorting vessels
-acted rather as an attraction to them, for while one division of
-the flotilla stood by the doomed steamers in order to pick up their
-crews, the other approached well within range of the garrison artillery
-in order to divert its fire from the main operation which was
-proceeding in the channel. Here it was that the <i>Silni</i>, under Lieutenant
-Krinizki, came into contact with the Japanese torpedo-boats.
-Without a moment's hesitation that gallant commander engaged the
-whole six at once. The unequal combat could not be long maintained,
-but it was fierce while it lasted. Lieutenant Krinizki himself
-was wounded, Engineer Artificer Swyereff and six seamen were
-killed and twelve other men were wounded. But still, the remainder
-fought gallantry on till a shell burst one of the little vessel's steam
-pipes and destroyed her steering-gear. Her power to continue in
-action was gone, and she was beached upon the shore below Golden
-Hill.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The work of the Japanese expeditions was now done. The
-survivors of the fireships were by this time all picked up and the several
-vessels of the flotilla were concentrated and retired out to sea.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Casualties Few But Terrible</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In this remarkable operation the Japanese lost in all four killed
-and nine wounded. Of these latter Lieutenant Hatsuzo sustained
-very severe injuries; the wounds of the others, including Lieutenant
-Masaki and Engineer Awada, being of a
-slighter character. In the circumstances
-it was surprising that the casualties were
-so few, and one more illustration was
-given of the comparative impunity with which torpedo attacks can
-be made in harbor under cover of night. The smallness, however,
-of the Japanese losses in this species of fighting in the present war,
-must, of course, be largely attributable to bad shooting on the part
-of the Russian gunners, and it would be unwise to draw too general
-a lesson from it.</p>
-
-<div id='i140' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic017'>
-<img src='images/i140.jpg' alt='' class='ig017' />
-<p>DESOLATION IN MANCHURIA.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Hero of Japan</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The most severe loss sustained by the Japanese was that of the
-gallant Commander Hirose, whose death, while it inflamed his comrades
-with pride, caused universal mourning.
-He had only recently been promoted
-for the skill and courage which he
-had displayed in the previous attempt to block the harbor. He was
-then in command of the <i>Hokoku Maru</i>, and regardless of the appalling
-fire directed upon her, he managed to rush his ship further than
-any of her companions up the channel before he blew her up and
-sent her to the bottom. An act of particularly cool, almost reckless,
-daring on his part on that occasion was now fondly recalled by his
-men. The ship was sinking, she was the target of all the Russian
-batteries, and the crew had taken refuge in the boats; but Commander
-Hirose had forgotten something. It was nothing less important
-than his sword, which he had left on the bridge. So, in spite
-of the imminent peril of the situation, he coolly went back to recover
-it, buckled it on, and escaped into the boat just in time, for the ship
-went down a moment afterwards. Commander Hirose was well
-known in naval circles in England, for he was a visitor to those
-shores a few years before on business for the Japanese Admiralty,
-and had made many friends. His remains were conveyed to Japan
-and accorded a public funeral, and the Mikado only expressed the
-feelings of the whole nation when he posthumously conferred upon
-the fallen hero the Order of the Kite and the Order of the Rising
-Sun.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Channel Still Unclosed</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The exact amount of obstruction caused in the channel by the
-sinking of the fireships could not be ascertained. It is, however, apparent
-from subsequent events that whatever inconvenience to navigation,
-temporary or permanent, may have resulted, it was not sufficient
-to prevent the passage of Admiral Makaroff's ships. At daybreak
-on the very morning of the attack
-he led his whole fleet out and lined it up
-in the roadstead in readiness to meet the
-Japanese fleet, which was in sight ten miles out at sea. Seeing, however,
-that his enemy had no intention of coming outside the range
-of the forts, Admiral Togo was not to be tempted nearer, and retired
-with the whole of his force to the southward. For several days he
-did not give any outward signs of activity, and his ships were not
-sighted off Port Arthur, a fact which gave rise to the impression that
-he was engaged in covering the transport of fresh Japanese troops to
-the west coast of Korea. On the other hand, the vigilance of Admiral
-Makaroff showed no indication of abating. On the 6th of April the
-steamer <i>Haimun</i>, specially chartered for the service of the London
-<i>Times</i>, was overhauled by the cruiser <i>Bayan</i> an at a distance of thirty-five
-miles to the southeast of Port Arthur. A shot fired across the
-<i>Haimun's</i> bows brought her to, and two lieutenants put off with a
-boat's crew and boarded her. The greatest politeness was shown,
-and after an examination of the <i>Haimun's</i> papers she was allowed to
-proceed. The <i>Times'</i> correspondent was able to observe that the
-<i>Bayan</i>, which was flying the flag of the Admiral himself, showed
-signs of injuries received in the recent fighting. Marks produced by
-splinters of shell were visible all over her, and a large hole had been
-rent in one of her smoke-stacks. This fact seems to bear out the
-story published in the <i>Port Arthur Journal</i> of the destruction
-wrought upon the <i>Bayan</i> by the high-angle fire of the Japanese in
-the bombardment of the 10th of March. The correspondent added
-that the officers and men who boarded his steamer "were a little fine
-drawn, but nevertheless looked good material." Some indication can
-be gathered from this statement of the strain which Admiral Togo's
-repeated attacks had involved upon his opponents. The constant
-anxiety had necessarily begun to tell upon the defending force, and
-many more than the officers and crew of the <i>Bayan</i> must have
-acquired that gaunt, tense appearance that comes from a sense of
-ever-impending danger heightened by a past experience of tragedy
-and disaster. No better illustration, indeed, of the watchfulness entailed
-on the Russians by the perpetual menace of their foe could be
-given than the case of Admiral Makaroff himself, who sent the
-following telegram to the President of the War Relief Society at
-Kronstadt on March 29th:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Last night was a very hot one, but we cannot hope for a very
-quiet time now or in the near future. I sleep without undressing
-in order that I maybe ready for any emergency. Consequently, I
-cannot observe your medical advice to take care of myself; nevertheless,
-I feel splendid."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Shadows of Fate</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >These words were destined soon to receive a fulfilment more
-heart-shaking than any that can have presented itself as possible
-to the mind either of the writer of the
-letter or of its recipient. For even then
-stern Fate was standing ready with the
-abhorred shears; the shadows were gathering round the head of
-the devoted Makaroff; and his weary watch, pursued so bravely, so
-unflinchingly, and, alas for him and his country, so unavailingly,
-was moving swiftly towards its tragic close.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Great Catastrophe</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For on April 13th the telegraph wires flashed all over the
-world the news of a blow to Russia's might in the Far East, more
-appallingly dramatic in its suddenness
-and more fatal in its consequences
-than any that had yet befallen her in the
-preceding two months of bungling and misfortune. The stunning
-intelligence was conveyed to the Czar in the following telegram
-from Rear-Admiral Grigorovitch, Naval Commandant at Port
-Arthur:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The battleship <i>Petropavlovsk</i> struck a mine, which exploded
-and the vessel capsized.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Our squadron is lying under Golden Hill and the Japanese
-squadron is approaching.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Admiral Makaroff apparently perished with the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Grand Duke Cyril, who was saved, was slightly wounded.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"I beg humbly to report to your Majesty that those saved from
-the <i>Petropavlovsk</i> up to the present are Grand Duke Cyril, six
-officers, 32 sailors, all wounded. The bodies of four officers, a surgeon,
-and 12 sailors have been found.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Japanese fleet has disappeared. Details will be supplied
-by Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtomsky, who has assumed provisional
-command of the fleet."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Swiftly upon the track of this first message there followed the
-brief account of a further disaster, which placed another of Russia's
-finest battleships <i>hors de combat</i>. Prince Ukhtomsky telegraphed
-that "during some man&oelig;uvring of the battleship squadron,
-the <i>Pobieda</i> was struck by a mine amidships on the starboard side.
-She was able to gain the port by herself and none on board were
-killed or wounded."</p>
-
-<div id='i145' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic018'>
-<img src='images/i145.jpg' alt='' class='ig018' />
-<p>BLOWING UP OF THE PETROPAVLOVSK.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Story of the "Petropavlovsk"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The news of this fearful <i>debacle</i> created a paralyzing effect in
-official circles at St. Petersburg, and
-spread consternation among Russia's
-sympathizers throughout Europe. The
-first brief reports left room for speculation
-as to the cause of the disaster, and an accident was conjectured
-such as that which had destroyed the <i>Yenesei</i>; but the later accounts
-and the dispatches of Admiral Togo to his Government speedily
-put the real facts beyond doubt. It then became known to the
-world that Admiral Makaroff had fallen a victim to the deeply-laid
-plans of his brilliant adversary, and, moreover, that the whole
-Russian fleet had only narrowly escaped capture or complete destruction.
-The story of the operations which practically gave the
-<i>coup de grace</i> to the Czar's maritime power in the Far East is a
-remarkable one. It shows what a revolutionary effect the discoveries
-of modern science have had upon naval warfare, and it
-proves, too, how completely the lessons of that science have been
-assimilated by the Japanese.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 11th of April Admiral Makaroff, still pursuing his
-policy of activity, took the whole of his effective squadron out to
-sea, for a distance of six miles to the south of Port Arthur and exercised
-it in man&oelig;uvres. No sign of the enemy was perceived,
-and the fleet returned to the harbor in safety.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Double Trap</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But Admiral Togo was not far away. Despairing of ordinary
-means of tempting Admiral Makaroff into the open to meet his
-more powerful fleet, he was preparing a
-double trap in which to catch his wary
-foe. He hoped, by the display of a markedly
-inferior force, to entice him beyond the range of the forts
-and then rush in with his battleships and capture or destroy the
-whole of the Russian fleet. But in the event of failure in this
-man&oelig;uvre, he had ready another scheme. The course taken by the
-Russian ships on leaving and returning to the harbor on the occasion
-of the frequent excursions which they had made of late
-had been carefully noted by the Japanese officers, and Togo had
-determined to mine the passage extensively, so that even if the
-enemy eluded a decisive battle at sea, he still hoped to do damage
-to their ships by driving them in the hurry and confusion of a headlong
-flight upon the hidden perils of his mine field. As it turned
-out, this part of his plan succeeded, and the result was probably
-even more startlingly effective than he expected; but it was only by
-a mere chance, as already mentioned, that the other and grander
-portion of his scheme failed of realization. If he had managed to
-interpose his powerful fleet between the Russian Squadron and Port
-Arthur, there can be little doubt that, although he himself would
-probably have sustained some severe losses, the Czar's naval force
-in the Pacific, already weakened by its former disasters, would
-have been practically eliminated. As it was, indeed, the success
-he attained was sufficiently striking. By it he secured the decisive
-supremacy of the sea in the Gulf of Pechili, and rendered possible
-at last the important movements on land which the strategists at
-Tokio were waiting to initiate.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Captain Oda and His Mines</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The arrangements of the Japanese were carried out with their
-usual thoroughness. At midnight on the 12th of April, the fourth
-and fifth destroyer flotillas and the fourteenth
-torpedo flotilla reached Port Arthur
-roadstead, having with them under
-escort the mining ship, the <i>Koryo Maru</i>.
-The <i>Koryo Maru</i> was a new vessel of 2,700 tons burden, specially
-constructed for torpedo and mining work. Captain Oda, the officer
-in command, was one of the ablest experts in this branch of
-warfare in the Japanese navy, and he had only recently been decorated
-for his distinguished services. He had invented a new type
-of mine of a particularly deadly description, and it was now to be
-tried for the first time in actual warlike operations. The work
-of laying the mines was entered upon without delay, and with all
-the customary daring and resource exhibited by the Mikado's sailors
-in this dangerous class of service. Notwithstanding the relentless
-glare of the searchlights, which threw the vessel into strong
-relief and made her the target for two hundred guns, Captain
-Oda and his men calmly went about their work unheeding. The
-torpedo-boats and destroyers in the meantime took up a position
-on the flanks of the <i>Koryo</i> and endeavored to attract the fire of the
-fortress to themselves, while their escort was doing her deadly work
-unsuspected. The enterprise was aided by a renewal of the extraordinary
-feebleness and lack of skill which had so often been characteristic
-of the Russian defense in the past. Not only were the
-garrison gunners unable to hit the mark so plainly presented to
-them, but the torpedo flotilla, which, despite its recent losses, still
-constituted a formidable force, did nothing to interfere with operations
-which threatened so vitally the safety of the fleet. Even Admiral
-Makaroff seems to have been at fault on this occasion. It is
-almost inconceivable that the true nature of the <i>Koryo's</i> proceedings
-was not guessed by him, and that the most active measures
-were not taken to put a stop to them. Whatever may have been
-the reason, however, nothing effective was done, and Captain Oda
-was able to complete his work unharmed in spite of the shells which
-were churning up the water all round him. It must be remembered,
-nevertheless, that the immunity which the <i>Koryo</i> actually
-enjoyed is no measure of the risk that she ran. No more heroic
-and devoted act illumines the long history of naval warfare than
-the laying of these mines close to the harbor, and under the full
-fire of the enemy's guns, any one of whose missiles, by exploding
-the dangerous cargo, might have sent the ship to destruction in a
-moment. But, as it turned out, the <i>Koryo</i> was saved by the bad
-gunnery of the Russians, and having performed his duty well and
-thoroughly, Captain Oda withdrew to the open sea.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">"Bayan" to the Rescue</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meanwhile, the torpedo-boats and destroyers, besides
-distracting the attention of the defending force from the work of
-the mine transport, were engaged in more active operations on their
-own account. At dawn the second division fell in with one of the
-enemy's destroyers, the <i>Strashni</i>, which was creeping stealthily
-towards the harbor mouth from the direction of Dalny. The Japanese
-were on her track in a moment,
-and, cutting off her retreat, bombarded
-her with their 6-pounders, until in a few
-minutes she became a total wreck and sank. An attempt was made
-to save her crew, but the work of rescue was interrupted by the appearance
-on the scene of the Russian cruiser <i>Bayan</i>. Admiral
-Togo's destroyers sheered off upon the approach of this formidable
-adversary, and left to her the task of picking up the drowning men,
-but the <i>Bayan</i> was too late to be of much service, and only five men
-could be recovered. At about the same time as this incident, a
-second Russian destroyer was encountered by the Japanese coming
-from the direction of Liau-tie-shan. A strong effort was made
-to capture her, but she was more fortunate than the <i>Strashni</i>, and
-managed to escape to Port Arthur in safety.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Preparing an Ambush</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But now began the larger and more important operations which
-were destined to end so disastrously for Admiral Marakoff and his
-fleet. Admiral Togo had ordered a weak
-squadron, consisting of the first-class
-cruisers <i>Tokiwa</i> and <i>Asama</i> and four
-second-class cruisers, to act as a support to the destroyers, if attacked,
-and at the same time to serve as a lure to the Russians,
-and tempt them away from the protection of Port Arthur. He,
-himself, with his main fleet, lay in hiding thirty miles away to the
-southeast, waiting for an opportunity to dash in and cut off
-Makaroff's retreat. The day was not unsuitable for such an enterprise.
-Rain was falling, and a mist hung heavy over the sea, disguising
-the smoke of his great warships.</p>
-
-<div id='i152' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic019'>
-<img src='images/i152.jpg' alt='' class='ig019' />
-<p>ARRIVAL OF A DISPATCH FOR GENERAL KUROPATKIN.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Makaroff Lured Out</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >By eight o'clock on the morning of the 13th, the Japanese
-cruiser squadron appeared on the offing and engaged in a long-range
-fire with the <i>Bayan</i>, which had
-not returned to the harbor. Admiral
-Makaroff, seeing the smallness of the
-force opposed to him, gave the order to his fleet to steam out in
-column formation and attack the venturesome enemy. Hoisting
-his flag on the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>, the Russian Commander-in-Chief
-led the way himself, followed by the battleships <i>Poltava</i> and <i>Pobieda</i>,
-the cruisers <i>Diana</i>, <i>Askold</i>, and <i>Novik</i>, and the destroyer
-flotilla. In the roadstead the fleet was joined by the <i>Bayan</i>, and the
-whole force then set forth majestically to engage the Japanese.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Cutting Off the Unwary</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the orders of Admiral Togo were well observed by Admiral
-Dewa, commander of the cruiser squadron. Gradually the
-Japanese began to retire before the superior
-force opposed to them, drawing
-Makaroff onwards, further and further
-out to sea. The Russian fleet began a hot fire at long range, to
-which the Japanese ships replied at intervals, just sufficiently to
-keep their opponents occupied and to lure them on to greater
-efforts by the display of a manifest disparity of strength. By this
-skillful man&oelig;uvring they succeeded in enticing Makaroff out a
-distance of fifteen miles to the southeast of Port Arthur. Now was
-the time to communicate with Admiral Togo. Wireless telegraphy
-flashed the news of the success of the ruse to the Commander-in-Chief.
-His great battleships were waiting with steam up and cleared
-for action. Directly he received the message from the retreating
-squadron he signalled to the new cruisers, the <i>Nisshin</i> and <i>Kasuga</i>,
-to join him, and then advanced at full speed with eight powerful
-vessels to cut off the unwary Russians.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Weather Permitting</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The plan had been well laid and it seemed on the brink of
-success, but that incalculable factor, the weather, intervened and
-brought Togo's calculations to naught.
-The wind suddenly freshened, and, blowing
-away the mist under cover of which
-the Japanese men-of-war were approaching, disclosed the smoke of
-their funnels to Admiral Makaroff. In a flash he saw the trap
-into which he had nearly led his fleet, and gave orders to retreat to
-Port Arthur with all haste. Back, therefore, the Russians scurried
-with the Japanese in full cry at their heels. Steam as they might
-Togo's ships were too late to catch their enemy, and great must
-have been the disappointment of the gallant Admiral and his men
-when they saw the prey slip from their grasp. But the curtain had
-not yet fallen upon the drama. Makaroff's ships had emerged from
-Port Arthur and passed over the mine field in safety; by a singular
-stroke of luck they had eluded the Japanese battle fleet, but they
-had still a third danger to encounter&mdash;they had once more to pass
-over the deadly engines of war which Captain Oda had placed in
-their path. And here it was that the blow fell.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Into the Jaws of Death</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >By about half-past nine the fleet, with the <i>Petropavlovsk</i> at its
-head regained the roadstead and the protection of the fortress guns.
-Signalling to the torpedo flotilla to enter
-the harbor, Admiral Makaroff turned his
-own vessel towards the east and ordered
-the cruisers to follow him. The battleship
-<i>Pobieda</i> was to the stern of the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>, on the starboard
-quarter. Close behind her again came the <i>Poltava</i>. The
-Commander-in-Chief was on the bridge of his ship with the Grand
-Duke Cyril, son of the Grand Duke Vladmir, and cousin of the
-Czar; Captain Yakovleff, and some other officers. Suddenly the
-horrified spectators on shore saw a great white column of foam
-rise on the right side of the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>. A dull report was
-heard, followed by another and more terrific explosion under the
-bridge. A huge thick cloud of greenish yellow smoke rose around
-the doomed vessel, a topmast, a funnel, a turret and the bridge were
-hurled into the air, and the huge monster heeled over on her starboard
-side. Her poop rose up, showing the propeller working in
-the air. Fire burst out in every part, and in a moment the ship
-was a mass of flame. A few seconds more and the whole fearful
-spectacle was torn from the eyes of the paralyzed onlookers, for
-with a tremendous lurch the vessel turned further on her side, the
-waters rushed in upon her in torrents, and with a roar and a hiss
-the mighty mass plunged beneath the foaming surface of the sea.
-The <i>Petropavlovsk</i> had gone to her death carrying with her the
-gallant Admiral himself, his staff, and full six hundred officers
-and men.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Haphazard Fire</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This terrible catastrophe threw the whole squadron into the
-utmost confusion. The other ships began a rapid haphazard fire
-in all directions to destroy the mines
-which they knew lurked in every direction,
-but their shots were purposeless;
-there was no mark at which to aim, and no effect was produced.
-And then, to carry further dismay to the already nerve-shaken
-fleet, a mine exploded on the starboard side of the <i>Pobieda</i>. She
-listed at once, but her fate was happier than that of the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>.
-No second explosion followed; the watertight bulkheads
-were shut to, and sorely wounded though she was she managed to
-keep afloat and to crawl into the harbor with the cruisers crowding
-behind her.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rescue Work</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The <i>Poltava</i> in the meanwhile had remained upon the scene
-of the disaster, and her boats put out to save any of the crew of
-the flagship who could be found. In this
-work they were aided by the torpedo
-gunboat <i>Gaidamak</i>, and their combined
-efforts succeeded in rescuing the Grand Duke Cyril, seven officers,
-and seventy-three seamen. These were the only survivors.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Character of the Explosion</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The difference in the effect of the mine explosions upon the
-<i>Petropavlovsk</i> and the <i>Pobieda</i> was due to causes which could not
-have been foreseen. The terrible character
-of the disaster which befell the flagship
-was due to the fact that the mine
-exploded underneath her boilers, and that
-when these burst the explosion of the ammunition magazine,
-which was in the same part of the ship, immediately followed. The
-whole affair was over in less than a minute and a half. On the
-other hand, the explosion at the side of the <i>Pobieda</i> did not touch
-the boilers, and seriously&mdash;indeed for the purposes of immediate
-warfare, irremediable&mdash;damaged as she was, the same appalling results
-did not follow in her case as in the other.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Accounts by Survivors</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The accounts of the survivors of the <i>Petropavlovsk</i> all confirm
-this view. But so swift indeed was the tragedy that there was not
-much time or opportunity for the formation
-of correct conclusions upon this or
-upon any point. The narratives of the
-men who were picked up were of the kind usually met with on the
-occasion of a sudden catastrophe. They were mainly confined to
-their own personal experiences and miraculous escape. Upon the
-memories of some, however, certain outstanding incidents were
-sharply and indelibly photographed. One of the last things which
-a signalman saw upon the bridge before he was hurled off was the
-figure of an officer lying weltering in his blood. It was Admiral
-Makaroff himself. Captain Yakovleff, the commander of the vessel,
-was hurled against a stanchion with such force that he was
-thought to be killed, but he was afterwards picked up alive. The
-Grand Duke Cyril had an escape just as marvelous. He, too, was
-knocked on the head, but he was not rendered unconscious, and
-when he was thrown into the sea he fell clear of the sinking vessel.
-He was an excellent swimmer, and in spite of the shock and injury
-he had sustained, he managed to keep afloat until he was picked
-up. Rear-Admiral Molas, Makaroff's chief of staff, was in his
-cabin when the explosion occurred, and was drowned. His body
-was one of the few that were afterwards washed ashore. Another
-picture which some of the survivors retained in their mind was that
-of "an old man with a beautiful white beard," who was standing
-on the deck just before the disaster with a book in his hand sketching.
-This was the famous war artist, Verestchagin. Only that
-morning his friend Makaroff had invited him to share the hospitality
-of the flagship and so gain further material for his realistic
-pictures of the horrors of war!</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Tribute from the Japanese</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The full magnitude of the success which his plans had gained
-was not revealed to the Japanese Admiral till the Russian dispatches
-made it public to the world. He
-saw a vessel, as he phrased it, "of the
-<i>Petropavlovsk</i> type" strike a mine and
-sink, and he thought also that another
-ship&mdash;he was referring to the <i>Pobieda</i>&mdash;lost freedom of movement;
-but he did not know that with the <i>Petropavlovsk</i> perished
-the brain of the Russian defence, a brain which, if it had been employed
-from the first by its master, the Czar, might have given a
-totally different character to the war. The death of Makaroff in
-itself brought no rejoicing to the Japanese in their hour of victory,
-but only that feeling of almost personal sorrow which brave and
-chivalrous men feel for the death of a gallant foe. No finer or
-more generous tributes indeed could have been paid even in the
-western world than were paid to the memory of the brave but
-unfortunate Makaroff by the members of this so-called yellow race.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">On Land</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 14th Admiral Togo once more brought his fleet before
-Port Arthur, and by means of an indirect bombardment, silenced
-the new forts on Liau-tie-shan. He then
-retired again to prepare for a further attempt
-to cork up the harbor, which
-should finally reduce the Russian fleet to a state of ineffectiveness,
-and leave the sea clear for the transport of the great army which
-was to be launched against the Liao-tung Peninsula and southern
-Manchuria. Already General Kuroki, with the First Army, was
-encamped on the south bank of the Yalu River prepared for an
-advance upon the Russian position at Khiu-lien-cheng.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Chong-Ju</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But before dealing with the momentous events which now occurred
-in rapid succession, both on land and sea, it will be necessary
-to return for a few moments to the
-earlier fortunes of the First Army, whose
-advance through Korea as far as Ping-Yang
-was described in Chapter III. It will be remembered that
-a small skirmish took place between Russian and Japanese patrols
-to the north of that town on February 28th. A month elapsed before
-the opposing forces came seriously into touch with one another
-again. During that period General Kuroki slowly but steadily
-continued his advance in the face of terrible difficulties arising
-from the weather and the state of the roads. The mud on these
-north Korean highways in the spring makes them almost impassable,
-but the Japanese had thought of everything, and brought
-large supplies of wood with which they practically relaid the road,
-and made it admit even of the passage of heavy artillery. The Cossack
-patrols retired before this persistent advance, and no real attempt
-to dispute it was made till the vanguard of the Japanese
-neared Chong-ju, a little town about thirty miles north of Anju
-and fifty south of Wiju. Here, on March 28th, they found six
-squadrons of Cossacks belonging to General Mishtchenko's Brigade,
-posted on an adjacent hill, prepared to dispute the forward movement.
-A brisk engagement ensued. The small force of Japanese
-which first appeared upon the scene, according to the testimony of
-General Mishtchenko himself, gallantly held their ground in spite
-of the commanding position occupied by the Russians and the raking
-cross fire which they maintained, and it was only after half an
-hour of fierce fighting that they gave way and fell back upon their
-supports which were hastening to the front. Reinforcements now
-rapidly arrived, and the Russians, finding their position untenable,
-retired along the road to the north, yielding up possession of the
-town to the Japanese. In this smart little affair the Russians, according
-to their account, lost three killed and twelve wounded, the
-Japanese casualties amounting to five killed, including one officer,
-and twelve wounded, including two officers.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Advance to the North</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >After the capture of Chong-ju General Kuroki moved forward
-rapidly, finding no resistance. On April 2nd he occupied Syoush-kou,
-a place eighteen miles west of Chong-ju, and forty miles south
-of Wiju, and two days afterwards his scouts entered Wiju itself,
-an important town on the south bank of
-the Yalu. The Russians did not find
-themselves strong enough to oppose the
-Japanese advance in Korea, and determined
-instead to resist it on the north bank of the Yalu. General
-Kuroki therefore occupied Wiju without firing a shot, and
-set to work busily to consolidate his forces for the great enterprise
-of crossing the Yalu.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Concentration of Troops</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The month of April was occupied by General Kuroki in the
-steady concentration of his troops and in the collection of war
-material. Pontoons were conveyed to
-the front in readiness for the operation
-of forcing the river; heavy guns were
-transported over the Korean roads with, in the circumstances, really
-marvelous rapidity; and masses of cavalry and infantry arrived at
-Wiju every day. By the end of the month the First Japanese Army
-had been brought up to its full strength, amounting probably to
-between 60,000 and 70,000 men of all arms. It was divided into
-three divisions, the 12th, the 2nd and the Guards. The 12th Division,
-it will be remembered, was the first section of the army to
-put foot on Korean soil, being landed at Chemulpo during the first
-days of the war, after the destruction of the <i>Varyag</i> had left that
-part of the coast clear for the Japanese disembarkation. It may be
-well to record its composition exactly, as it is typical of all the
-Japanese divisions. It was made up as follows:&mdash;Infantry, 12,000
-(four regiments of three battalions each); cavalry, 500 (one regiment);
-artillery, 900 (one regiment, 36 guns, two field batteries,
-two mountain batteries); engineers, 700; transport corps, 600;
-hospital corps, 700; ammunition column, 500; post office corps,
-veterinary corps, pontoon corps and balloon corps, 1,000; total,
-16,900. Attached to these combatant troops were a force of 5,500
-coolies for transport purposes, bringing the grand total of the
-division, combatant and non-combatant, up to 22,400. The whole
-was under the command of Lieutenant-General Inouye, whose chief
-subordinates were Major-Generals Kigoshi and Otani.</p>
-
-<div id='i161' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic020'>
-<img src='images/i161.jpg' alt='' class='ig020' />
-<p>RUSSIAN CONCENTRATION ON THE YALU.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuroki's Line of Front</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >As his army arrived at the front, General Kuroki began gradually
-to occupy a wider front on the south bank of the Yalu, his
-left wing operating at the mouth of the
-river in conjunction with a naval force
-under the command of Admiral Hosoya,
-and his right extending to a distance of
-twenty or twenty-five miles up the river, past Sukuchin.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russian Position</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While the Japanese were thus concentrating on the left bank
-of the Yalu the Russians were gradually strengthening their positions
-on the right bank, the centre and
-key of which was formed by the village
-of Kiu-lien-cheng. During all these
-weeks the greatest secrecy was observed on both sides in regard to
-their numbers and dispositions&mdash;as far, at least, as the outside
-world was concerned. It seems probable from after events that the
-Russians themselves were largely ignorant of the strength of the
-force which General Kuroki had at his disposal; but, on the other
-hand, that able commander appears to have been thoroughly well
-informed in every detail as to the position occupied by his enemy.
-There was the greatest diversity of statement on the Russian side
-after the battle of the Yalu upon the question of the real intentions
-of General Kuropatkin in holding as he did the right bank of the
-river. When the disastrous result of the conflict of May 1st became
-known in Europe the friends of the Commander-in-Chief in
-the press declared that it was due to the failure of the officer in immediate
-command, General Sassulitch, to follow his instructions,
-which were to offer only a strategical resistance to the enemy and
-to withdraw slowly before the advance of a superior force upon
-Feng-haung-cheng, a position about thirty miles distant upon the
-Liau-yang road. If this explanation is correct, the activity shown
-by the Russians for weeks in constructing earthworks on the
-heights around Kiu-lien-cheng is rendered very remarkable, and
-equally difficult to understand is the size and importance of the
-force to which was apportioned the task of thus keeping in touch
-with the advancing Japanese army and conducting a mere strategic
-defeat. For General Sassulitch was commander of the 2nd Siberian
-Army Corps, and though the actual body of troops engaged in
-the fighting-line in resisting the passage of the Yalu by the Japanese
-did not amount to that strength, there is no doubt that General
-Sassulitch had under him in the near neighborhood a force of not
-less than 30,000 men. All the evidence, in fact, points to the conclusion
-that the Russian Generals, including the Commander-in-Chief
-himself, wholly underestimated the fighting power of the
-Japanese and the skill with which they would be led when the opposing
-armies came to close quarters.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Confidence</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The kind of talk which responsible military men in St. Petersburg
-indulged in before the battle of the Yalu all goes to strengthen
-this impression. On April 25th, the day
-before General Kuroki began that series
-of movements which were to culminate
-in his crossing the Yalu and driving the Russians before him in
-headlong rout, there appeared in the <i>Echo de Paris</i> the report of an
-interview which its St. Petersburg correspondent had had with
-Colonel Vannovsky, of the Russian General Staff, and formerly
-military attache in Japan. The utterances of this sapient officer
-are amusing reading in view of what happened so shortly afterwards.
-He thought it would still be some time before serious military
-operations could begin on the Yalu, for the Japanese, in his
-opinion, were far from having completed their concentration in
-Korea. They probably, he said, had three divisions of from 12,000
-to 15,000 men between Ping-Yang and the Yalu; and, including
-the Second Army then disembarking, they had not more than
-85,000 men near the front. Then followed a valuable criticism of
-General Kuroki and his colleague, General Oku, the commander
-of the Second Army. Both, he reminded the interviewer, served
-in the Chino-Japanese War; but "he looked for nothing extraordinary
-from them, both were more than sixty years of age." On
-the whole, he thought that the Japanese would establish themselves
-in Korea; if they crossed the Yalu it would be only to satisfy public
-opinion at Tokio. Colonel Vannovsky soon had reason to be sorry
-that he had spoken so disdainfully of General Kuroki, and with
-such sublime assurance of the Japanese plans. If the crossing of
-the Yalu was mainly dictated by a desire to satisfy public opinion
-at Tokio, it must be said that public opinion at Tokio had its
-wishes very amply gratified before many days had expired. It is
-a remarkable fact that in the history of nearly every war the greatest
-disasters follow the greatest self-confidence. And yet it can
-easily be understood how the armies that had proved successful
-against those famous fighters the Turks in the war of the seventies
-should despise the little dwarfish Japanese, who had hitherto
-only faced the undisciplined hordes of China.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch06' class='c015'>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Kuroki Completes his Plans&mdash;The Scene of Battle&mdash;General Sassulitch's Defences&mdash;The
-Russian Dispositions&mdash;The Attacking Army&mdash;Clearing the Islands&mdash;Guards
-Half-way Across&mdash;Parallel Movements&mdash;The Searching
-Japanese Fire&mdash;Bridging the Yalu&mdash;Confusion in the Russian Councils&mdash;Kuroki's
-Consummate Strategy&mdash;Futile Russian Opposition&mdash;Masked Batteries
-at Work&mdash;Serpentine Line of Dark Forms&mdash;Two Thousand Deadly
-Thunderbolts&mdash;Inferno Let Loose&mdash;Howitzer High-Angle Fire&mdash;Co-operation
-of Gunboats&mdash;Miserable Array of Russians&mdash;Four Miles of Japanese&mdash;A
-Moment of Tense Expectancy&mdash;The General Attack Begins&mdash;Ridges
-Alive with Flame&mdash;Surprise of the Russians&mdash;The Plunge Across the Ai&mdash;Overwhelming
-Legions&mdash;The Circling Ring of Fate&mdash;Devastating Artillery
-Bombardment&mdash;Black Mass of Human Figures&mdash;The Blood-Red Banner&mdash;Fight
-Desperately Against Fate&mdash;General Sassulitch's Retreat&mdash;The Japanese
-Chase&mdash;The Last Gallant Stand&mdash;Rifle Fire and Cold Steel.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuroki Completes his Plans</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The numerous small skirmishes between outposts which took
-place on the Yalu and its tributaries during the earlier part
-of the month of April need not detain us. They were
-mainly encounters between small reconnoitering parties,
-and though there were losses on both sides, fortune on the whole
-leaned in favor of the Japanese. The results of these reconnaissances
-in locating the positions occupied
-by the Russians, combined with the success
-of the Japanese transport arrangements,
-which, as stated already, placed an
-army of 60,000 to 70,000 men at General Kuroki's disposal, enabled
-him to complete his preparations for the great task before him by
-the beginning of the last week in April. The night of the 25th
-found him ready at all points, and on the morrow his army entered
-upon the preliminary stages of a series of operations which, culminating
-in the crossing of the river and the capture of the Russian
-position, first revealed to an astonished world the hitherto undreamt-of
-potentialities of Japan as a military power.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Scene of Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Some study of the map of the scene of battle is necessary for a
-perfect understanding of the movements of the contending forces.
-It will be seen on reference to our map
-(page <a href='#i169'>169</a>) that just above Wiju the
-waters of the Yalu are joined from the
-northwest by an important tributary, the Ai River, the stream
-here taking the form of a fork. At the apex of the
-triangular wedge of land which divides the Ai from the Yalu
-is situated the Hosan, or Tiger Hill, an important strategical position
-commanding the south bank of the main river. Opposite Tiger Hill,
-and running some way past it up the Yalu, is the Island of Kulido,
-which divides the river at this point into two streams, both of them
-fordable. The Ai also is fordable at a point near the hill of Yulchasan,
-which is north of Tiger Hill and on the same bank of the
-tributary. Opposite Wiju itself the main river is two miles wide
-and is divided into three streams by two islands. Of these the larger
-Cheun-song-do, is near the right bank, and lies stretched alongside
-it for a distance of about thirteen miles, starting from a spot close
-to Antung, lower down the river, and finishing at a little distance
-up the Ai. It can be reached from the right bank at this end by a
-ford, and there is another ford lower down, opposite to Chiu-lien-cheng.
-The stream dividing the other island from the left bank is
-also fordable waist-deep, but the central stream can only be crossed
-by means of a bridge. These islands are really low, flat, sandy
-deltas, with occasional clumps of small trees and patches of shrub
-dotting their surface, which provide some cover for the concealment
-of troops.</p>
-
-<div id='i169' class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i169.png' alt='MAP SHOWING THE ACTIONS ON THE YALU APRIL 29TH-MAY 1ST.' class='ig021' />
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">General Sassulitch's Defences</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian position extended for a distance of upwards of
-twenty miles along the right bank of the Yalu and Ai, from Niang-ning-chin
-in the south, to Yushukau in
-the north. Yushukau is a hill opposite
-to Yulchasan, and lower down is another
-hill which General Sassulitch had
-fortified, named Makau (or Potientzy). Then comes the village of
-Chiu-lien-cheng itself, which formed the centre of his position, standing
-at a height of about 180 feet above the river. From Chiu-lien-cheng
-a road runs in a westerly direction to Hamatan or Hoh-mu-tang,
-a distance of about five or six miles; and another road runs
-down parallel with the bank of the Yalu to Antung. A further road
-runs from Hoh-mu-tang in a northerly direction, the most important
-post on which is Tang-lang-fang, almost due west of Yushukau.
-Westward of Hoh-mu-tang stretches the main road to Feng-whang-cheng
-and Liao-yang. South of Antung is the hill of Antushan,
-and a continual ridge of hills connects this eminence with
-Niang-ning-chin, already mentioned. It will be observed that the
-high ground which the Russians occupied gives a defending force a
-great advantage in meeting an attack from the Yalu, as it easily
-commands the low-lying positions on the left bank. On the other
-hand, Makau, Shiu-lien-cheng, and the positions to the southward
-are commanded by Tiger Hill and Yulchasan, and it is therefore obvious
-that if once the Japanese succeeded in occupying those heights
-they must necessarily render the rest of General Sassulitch's defences
-along the river bank untenable.</p>
-
-<div id='i171' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic022'>
-<img src='images/i171.jpg' alt='' class='ig022' />
-<p>HAULING A JAPANESE HOWITZER INTO POSITION UNDER FIRE.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russian Dispositions</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >As far as can be gathered from the Japanese accounts and from
-the more obscure dispatches of the Russian Generals, the distribution
-of the Czar's forces at the beginning
-of the operations was as follows: Tiger
-Hill was occupied by part of the 22nd
-Siberian Regiment under the command
-of General Kashtalinsky. The right wing, in the neighborhood of
-Antung, was formed of the 9th and 10th Regiments supported by
-two batteries of artillery; while the centre, at Chiu-lien-cheng, was
-held by the 12th Regiment. The Reserve was formed of the 11th
-Regiment. The artillery were distributed at carefully-chosen positions
-along the whole front, but were massed in especial strength at Makau
-and Chiu-lien-cheng. Advanced outposts drawn from the 22nd,
-23rd, and 27th Regiments of Eastern Siberian Sharpshooters occupied
-the islands of Kulido and Cheun-song-do. A Russian regiment,
-it should be explained, consists of three battalions, each of which,
-when brought up to its full strength, numbers about 1,000 men.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Attacking Army</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the night of the 25th the Japanese army was massed on
-the left bank of the river in the following order: On the left, facing
-the island of Cheun-song-do, was stationed
-the 2nd Division; the centre, occupying
-a position to the north of Wiju,
-was composed of the Imperial Guards' Division; and on the right,
-still further up the river, the 12th Division was concentrated, in
-concealment behind some hilly ground, and in readiness for an important
-move upon the enemy's left, which will be described later.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Clearing the Islands</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At dawn on the 26th a sharp rattle of musketry told the Russians
-that the attack had begun. Detachments from the Guards'
-Division were firing upon General Sassulitch's
-sharpshooters stationed on the Island
-of Kulido. The Russians replied
-briskly, but the Japanese rifle fire was heavy and well-directed, and
-at last their position became untenable, in face not only of this
-infantry attack, but of a searching bombardment opened by some
-batteries of Kuroki's artillery, which were established on a hill in
-the rear of Wiju. They therefore retreated to the mainland for
-shelter.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Guards Half-way Across</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >No sooner had this retirement been effected than the Japanese
-prepared to cross over to the island in boats. These craft were all
-in readiness, and before long a considerable force of the Guards
-had landed on the island. When this
-movement was perceived the enemy returned
-to dispute it; but they were not in
-large force, and were easily repulsed. A
-squadron of Cossacks came to their assistance, but the hot fire with
-which they were received by the Japanese infantry was too much
-for them, and they were driven back in confusion to the bank below
-Tiger Hill. The Mikado's Guards continued the pursuit across
-the ford, and a smart encounter ensued beneath the hill. The fighting
-was not of long duration, however; the Russians retired; and
-it became evident that there was no intention seriously to dispute
-the possession of the island. The attempt made by General Sassulitch's
-batteries to drive the daring Japanese off the island by shrapnel
-fire was quite unsuccessful, and the whole defence on this side
-revealed an unexpected weakness. The Guards' skirmishers occupied
-all night the ground they had so easily gained.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Parallel Movements</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meantime, the advance guard of the 2nd Division had
-carried through the same operations with equal success on the Island
-of Cheun-song-do. The Russian sharpshooters
-were driven off in the direction
-of Chiu-lien-cheng, and the Japanese
-seized the delta with a small force preparatory to constructing a
-bridge over the central stream for the passage of the main body of
-the division.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Searching Japanese Fire</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In these small but useful engagements the Guards suffered some
-slight casualties, nine men being slightly and sixteen seriously
-wounded. The 2nd Division sustained
-no casualties at all. The Russians, on the
-other hand, lost more heavily. They were
-seen to carry off a considerable number
-of dead and wounded, and they left behind them ninety-five dead
-horses, which, in itself, is significant of the searching character of
-the Japanese fire. The body of Lieutenant Senyoloff, commanding
-the Mounted Scouts of the 22nd Regiment, which his comrades had
-not time to remove, was buried at Wiju by the Japanese themselves
-with all honor.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Bridging the Yalu</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the following day the work of bridging the stream both at
-Kulido and Cheun-song-do was carried out, in spite of the intermittent
-fire which the Russian guns maintained
-upon the corps engaged. So ineffective
-indeed was this cannonade that the
-Japanese artillery did not even reply to it, and their engineers
-pursued their enterprise calmly and without substantial
-interruption. On the same day the naval squadron under
-Rear-Admiral Hosoya rendered valuable assistance to General Kuroki
-by its co-operation in the Yalu estuary. Two gunboats, two
-torpedo-boats, and two armed steamers ascended the river as far
-as Antushan and effected a useful diversion in the quarter by shelling
-the Russian entrenchments. The bombardment must have proved
-destructive, for after making a brisk reply for some time, which,
-however, did no damage to the Japanese ships, the Muscovite batteries
-were finally silenced.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Confusion in the Russian Councils</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On Thursday, the 28th, the same tactics were displayed, and
-the position seized by the Guards' Division and the 2nd Division on
-the Islands of Kulido and Cheun-song-do
-was consolidated. Two companies of the
-former, indeed, crossed over to the mainland
-and reconnoitred Tiger Hill, encouraged
-by the silence of the enemy on that commanding eminence. To
-their surprise they found that the post had been evacuated by the
-Russians. No explanation has been offered of this remarkable step;
-the only conclusion possible&mdash;a conclusion, indeed, strengthened by
-subsequent events&mdash;is that confusion reigned in the councils of the
-Russian commanders, and that no definite and coherent plan had
-been thought out by them. For on the next day General Kashtalinsky
-was again ordered to occupy the hill, which the Japanese themselves,
-having other plans in view, were not yet in a position to
-seize effectively.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuroki's Consummate Strategy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On Friday, the 29th, General Kuroki began the important move
-on his extreme right, for which the 12th Division had been all this
-time kept in reserve. The operations of
-the Guards and the 2nd Division, useful,
-and indeed necessary, as they were for
-the purposes of a general advance, had
-acted as a screen for his consummate piece of strategy by which the
-Japanese Commander turned General Sassulitch's flank and finally
-captured the position. To the north of Wiju, about thirteen miles
-higher up the stream of the Yalu, stands the small village of Sukuchin.
-Here it was that the Japanese effected a crossing in October,
-1894, in their war with China. On that occasion the movement
-enabled them to outflank a force of 30,000 men, and it is one of the
-remarkable features of General Kuroki's dispositions for attack that
-they repeated in all essential particulars the tactics which proved so
-successful ten years ago. Still more remarkable is it that the Russians
-appear to have learned none of the lessons of the war of 1894,
-and to have fallen just as readily into the trap as did the Chinese.
-Early then on the 29th the engineer corps of the 12th Division
-started to construct two pontoon bridges over the Yalu at Sukuchin.
-Here, as in every other department of the Japanese arrangements,
-the organization was perfect. Not a detail had been omitted
-and the work proceeded smoothly and with dispatch. By the next
-morning both bridges were completed and the troops prepared
-to cross.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Futile Russian Opposition</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian Commander, who had at last got wind of the
-man&oelig;uvre which was taking place at this point, had detached a
-small force to oppose the passage of the
-river, and when at 10.40 the vanguard
-of General Inouye's Division began to
-march on to the pontoons, a fierce fire was directed upon it from
-the opposite bank. The Japanese, however, retorted both with
-rifle fire and artillery, and the fusillade of the Russians was soon
-checked, with the result that by the afternoon the whole of the
-12th Division had gained the right bank of the Yalu with the loss
-of only two men killed and twenty-seven men wounded. General
-Inouye then marched forward to seize Yulchasan and Tiger Hill,
-which positions, after their first evacuation, had again been occupied
-by the Russians under General Kashtalinsky.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Masked Batteries at Work</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the meantime, the Guards' Division, assisted by a heavy
-bombardment from the batteries below Wiju, was pressing an attack
-upon Tiger Hill from the Island of
-Kulido, an attack which successfully diverted
-the attention of General Kashtalinsky
-from the advance upon his left, and prevented him from
-offering it any formidable resistance. The Japanese artillery in
-particular distinguished itself. Never was superiority of generalship
-more strikingly displayed than it was by General Kuroki in
-this case. The position was admirably selected by him; the work
-of placing the batteries was carried out with such skill that the
-Russians were kept in entire ignorance of their whereabouts; and
-finally when they opened fire on the morning of the 30th the heavy
-character of the guns employed took the enemy absolutely by surprise.
-On the delta immediately below Wiju was a belt of trees
-of which the Japanese General had at once seen the potentialities;
-and behind its screen his engineers had constructed gun pits, in
-which were concealed several batteries of howitzers. These pieces
-of ordnance did terrible execution in the Russian lines in the course
-of the day.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Serpentine Line of Dark Forms</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >To the onlookers standing on the hills behind Wiju the wide
-field of battle spread before them presented a highly picturesque
-spectacle, and as the attack developed the
-interest became intense. Hardly had the
-advance of the Guards begun upon the
-Island of Kulido when a long serpentine
-line of dark forms could be seen winding in and out of the heights
-on the right bank of the river to the north of Tiger Hill. They
-were the men of the 12th Division slowly but surely creeping upon
-the Russian left. For miles they pressed forward without coming
-into view of the Russian artillerymen on Tiger Hill, but at last
-the first detachments, rounding the shoulder of one of the nearer
-hills, were exposed to the enemy. Instantly a terrific burst of
-shrapnel fire broke out from General Kashtalinsky's field batteries.
-Steadily, however, and without a check the brave Japanese advanced
-from height to height, and at the same time the batteries on
-the left bank above Wiju came to their aid. The fire of the Russians
-had unmasked the position of their guns on the hill, and the
-Japanese artillerymen rained upon them a terrible hail of shells
-which soon reduced them to silence and effectually covered the advance
-of the infantry.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Two Thousand Deadly Thunderbolts</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But now the Guards, who were engaged in effecting a lodgement
-on the lower slopes of Tiger Hill, came in for the attentions
-of General Sassulitch's field batteries at
-Makau and Chiu-lien-cheng. Believing
-that the Japanese possessed only guns of
-the same calibre, and totally ignorant of
-the deadly engines of warfare which Kuroki had so skillfully concealed
-behind the innocent-looking belt of trees on the delta, the
-Russian Commander took no pains to mask his ordnance. Therefore
-when his shrapnel swept the Island of Kulido and played
-havoc among the Guards, his whole position in this part of the
-field lay exposed. At once the howitzers on the delta close to the
-opposite shore began to belch forth a terrible fire of shrapnel and
-common shell, which tore up the ground all around the Russians,
-killing their gunners and dismounting their guns. This bombardment
-was afterwards described by General Kashtalinsky, in a dispatch
-to the Commander-in-Chief, as "extraordinarily violent and
-prolonged," and he added that in its course more than 2,000 shells
-were fired upon the defenders' position. The fearfully destructive
-and demoralizing effect of this cannonade was indeed patent at
-once to the observers upon the left bank of the river. The Makau
-Hill was described by one correspondent as transformed in appearance
-into an active volcano, from which belched forth clouds of
-grey-black smoke.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Inferno Set Loose</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was Inferno let loose. The sides of the hill were riddled and
-scored, solid rocks were smashed like crockery, as the screaming
-missiles of death burst among the
-trenches and filled them with dead and
-wounded. Yet amid it all the Russian
-artillerymen stood steadily to their guns as long as their guns were
-left in their places, and as long as any men remained to work them.
-But the best troop in the world could not endure such a murderous
-fire for long. The heavy pieces of field ordnance were knocked from
-their carriages like ninepins, the soldiers fell around them in scores,
-and at last the batteries sank into silence and the dark forms of the
-defenders were seen from afar fleeing for refuge behind the further
-line of the heights.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Howitzer High-Angle Fire</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This fierce artillery engagement lasted about half an hour,
-and while it produced such deadly and demoralizing effects on the
-enemy it left the Japanese practically unharmed
-behind their screen of trees.
-Their howitzers, unlike the Russian field
-guns, could do the maximum of execution by means of high-angle
-fire and their battery emplacements were so carefully and skilfully
-masked that the shrapnel of the enemy, effective as it may have appeared
-to be from the right bank, did them scarcely any damage.
-Their casualties, indeed, were only two men killed and twenty-five
-wounded. It was a remarkable triumph of scientific warfare, and
-proved that in the artillery branch of the service at all events the
-Japanese had nothing further to learn from European models.</p>
-
-<div id='i182' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic023'>
-<img src='images/i182.jpg' alt='' class='ig023' />
-<p>RUSSIANS COLLECTING WOUNDED ON THE NIGHT AFTER THE BATTLE.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Co-operation of Gunboats</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While this bombardment was engaging the Russian centre and
-diverting its attention from the enveloping movement of the 12th
-Division on the left, and from the advance
-of the Guards upon Tiger Hill, the
-gunboat flotilla of Admiral Hosoya
-again operated with great effect against the Russian lines lower
-down the river at Antushan and Niang-ning-chin. This simultaneous
-attack along the whole of his front placed General Sassulitch
-in a position of the utmost difficulty. He was unable to tell from
-which part of the field the real danger would come. It is clear,
-however, from the dispatches of his subordinate, General Kashtalinsky,
-that that officer appreciated the true nature of the Japanese
-operations, and that he recognized the impossibility of holding
-Chiu-lien-cheng after his flank had been turned by General Inouye's
-Division. Early on the 30th he ordered the 22nd Regiment back
-from Tiger Hill to the right bank of the Ai River and endeavored
-to strengthen the position on Makau and Yukushau, and his dispatch
-to General Kuropatkin indicates that he represented to General
-Sassulitch the difficulty with which even that line of defence
-could be maintained, and urged a retreat to Hoh-mu-tang. At night,
-however, he received orders from his superior to remain and accept
-battle at the hands of the Japanese, and he had nothing for it
-but to obey.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Miserable Array of Russians</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was with a miserably inadequate force that he was thus
-compelled to oppose the advance of a foe which had already proved
-itself so determined and so resourceful.
-At the ford on his extreme left he stationed
-two battalions of the 22nd Regiment.
-The 12th Regiment of the East
-Siberian Rifles held the hills behind, from Yukushan to Makau,
-supported by the 3rd Battery of the 6th Brigade of Artillery and
-a number of machine guns. General Sassulitch himself was in
-command of the 9th and 10th Regiments occupying Chiu-lien-cheng
-and the chain of hills stretching down to Antung, and the 11th
-Regiment was kept in the rear as a reserve. General Mishchenko's
-Brigade of Cossacks, though in the neighborhood, does not appear
-to have been actually engaged in the battle at all.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Four Miles of Japanese</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the Japanese side all was in readiness for the great advance
-by the night of the 30th, and General Kuroki telegraphed to
-the General Staff at Tokio that the
-attack would begin at dawn. On the
-left, the 2nd Division, under General
-Nishi, occupied the southern end of Cheun-song-do; the Imperial
-Guards, under General Hasegawa, held the northern end of that
-island, as well as Tiger Hill; and on their right was stationed the
-12th Division, facing the Ai, on a wide front extending for over
-four miles. In these positions the Army bivouacked for the night.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Moment of Tense Expectancy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >By five o'clock on the morning of Sunday, May 1st, the whole
-force from north to south was on foot, and prepared to move
-like one mighty machine to the execution
-of the great task before it. As the
-grey dawn lifted the curtain upon the
-tremendous drama which was about to
-unfold itself before them, the watchers behind Wiju saw the long
-lines of black forms marshalling upon the islands and taking cover
-behind the scrub and in the hollows of the low sand hills. Far
-out beyond Tiger Hill and along the left bank of the River Ai
-the lines extended, moving out of the shelter of the adjacent hills.
-It was a moment of tense expectancy. Now for the first time were
-Japanese Infantry to be pitted against European troops armed with
-modern weapons, in a conflict on the grand scale. Would they
-come out of the ordeal with triumph? Would they in their sphere
-of warfare rival the great achievements of their naval brethren?</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The General Attack Begins</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But before the infantry could move forward it was necessary
-to search the Russian batteries once more and reduce them, if possible,
-to ineffectiveness. The howitzers
-and field artillery, therefore, again
-opened their terrible fire of shell and
-shrapnel upon the heights opposite, the
-storm raging with especial severity over Chiu-lien-cheng and the
-Makau and Yushukau ridge. But to this the enemy made no reply.
-After the awful experience of the previous day, they had been compelled
-to withdraw many of their guns, and the front of their position
-was, as it afterwards appeared, deprived of this defence altogether.
-General Kashtalinsky, as already stated, had with him
-one battery of field artillery, but taught by past lessons he declined
-to unmask its whereabouts until the advance of the Mikado's
-troops made it absolutely necessary. After half an hour, therefore,
-the Japanese ceased their bombardment for the time being, and at
-last General Kuroki gave the eagerly-expected order for a general
-attack along the whole line. Gladly the soldiery of Dai Nippon
-answered the call, burning as one man to plant the flag of the
-Rising Sun upon the soil of the territory from which ten years ago
-they had been so contemptuously driven out by the haughty Muscovite.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Ridges Alive with Flame</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >To the 12th Division fell the perilous glory of crossing first,
-in the teeth of the Russian guns. The skirmishing line advanced
-first over a wide front, keeping up a
-harassing fire upon the enemy's trenches.
-A smart response was made, but the opportunity
-of the Russians was yet to come; for it was apparent
-that the actual crossing of the river by General Inouye's main body
-would have to be performed in much closer formation, presenting
-an admirable target for artillery and rifle fire. Slowly but steadily
-the skirmishers pressed forward, taking advantage of every scrap
-of cover, and soon the whole plain was dotted with puffs of white
-smoke as the bullets sped on their way. Behind them came line
-after line of the main storming force. At last the fords were
-reached, and forming into two columns the 12th Division rushed
-forward to gain their passage. At once the ridges opposite became
-alive with flame, and a withering blast of shrapnel and rifle
-bullets swept across their path. The column formation which the
-Japanese were compelled to adopt gave the Russian marksmen
-every chance, and terrible loss of life occurred at this point. The
-leading files were mown down like grass under the sickle; for a
-moment the head of the column wavered under the storm and
-stood still.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Surprise of the Russians</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But now the Japanese artillery found the opening they wanted.
-The exact position of the Russian guns was revealed, and at once
-they were enfiladed by a demoralizing
-fire from the terrible howitzers near
-Wiju while at the same time they were
-attacked by General Inouye's field batteries
-in front. Once again the fierce and destructive character
-of the cannonade is revealed by the dispatches of the Russian commanders.
-Just as General Kashtalinsky, referring to the bombardment
-of April 30th, described it as "extraordinarily violent and
-prolonged," so General Sassulitch used similar terms in regard to
-this new bombardment. Before the day was over the Russian
-Commander had more opportunities of appreciating the "extraordinary"
-quality of the troops whose powers he, in common with
-more highly placed officers in the service of the Czar, had so
-fatally despised; but it seems clear from the use of the same phrase
-independently by the two generals that the artillery tactics of General
-Kuroki caused them more surprise than almost anything else
-in the whole of these surprising operations. It goes to prove that
-the Intelligence Department on the Russian side was not well
-equipped, for the possession by their enterprising foe of heavy
-guns so far north in Korea seems never to have been suspected
-by them.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Plunge Across the Ai</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Supported by this tremendous cannonade, the infantry of
-the 12th Division pressed steadily forward. The survivors of the
-first line melted into the second line,
-which was advancing quickly behind,
-and careless of death, the gallant little
-Japs plunged into the waters of the Ai
-up to their breasts, and waded across the ford. Notwithstanding
-the raking fire, however, from General Kuroki's batteries, the Russians
-stuck to their posts like heroes, and the field guns of the 3rd
-Battery, assisted by a number of machine guns, ploughed up the
-ranks of the Mikado's troops, doing terrible execution. But the
-Japanese were in overwhelming force, and though men were falling
-on every hand, the main body pressed resistlessly forward,
-crossed the river, and took up a position on the right bank, at
-the base of the hills. Not a moment was wasted. As the column
-reached the shore, it diverged regiment by regiment to right and
-left, spreading out in wider formation for the task of scaling the
-heights. The evolution was executed with great speed, but with
-the precision and steadiness of parade; and if anything could be
-more impressive than the gallantry of the Japanese rank and file,
-it was the skill and coolness of their officers from General down
-to company commander. Though it was exposed to a withering
-fire at comparatively close quarters, the movements of the whole
-force were executed like those of a machine.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Overwhelming Legions</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It will be remembered that there are two fords over the Ai
-river, the one leading from a position near Yulchasan, on the left
-bank, to a position slightly north of
-Yukushan, on the right bank; the other
-opposite to Tiger Hill, and a little to
-the north of Makau. It was opposite to this latter ford that the
-bulk of General Kashtalinsky's force was stationed, and here in
-consequence, the greatest losses befell the Japanese. But while
-a fierce engagement was raging at Makau, the decisive movement
-was taking place on the extreme left of the Russians at Yushukau.
-The defence at that spot was entrusted to only one battalion of
-the 22nd Regiment of Sharpshooters, and it was impossible for
-such a small contingent, gallantly as it held its ground for a time,
-finally to withstand the overwhelming legions which were hurled
-against it.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Circling Ring of Fate</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For slowly but steadily the Japanese lines encircled the hills
-with a ring of fate, creeping up the sides with infinite nimbleness
-and dexterity, pausing now to take
-cover and return the Russian fire, then
-up again and climbing from rock to
-rock with indomitable courage and
-resolution. On the other hand, General Kashtalinsky bravely
-fought on against his advancing foe. With the force at his command,
-it was obviously a desperate undertaking, and he had sent
-for reinforcements. But they came not, and for hours he had
-to do the best he could without them. The fact was, of course,
-that General Sassulitch himself was so busily engaged both on
-the right wing and at the centre that he could spare little assistance
-to his subordinate.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Devastating Artillery Bombardment</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For almost simultaneously with the advance of the 12th
-Division across the Ai the Imperial Guards under General Hasegawa
-had forced the passage of the
-stream on the left, at the foot of the slope
-which led up to the village of Chiu-lien-cheng,
-while the 2nd Division, led by General
-Nishi, crossed lower down and menaced the Russian right.
-Four batteries of howitzers had been ferried across the stream from
-the left bank of the Yalu to the Island of Cheun-song-do, and as the
-skirmishing line of both divisions moved forward in a fan-like
-formation these powerful pieces of ordnance opened a destructive
-fire upon the enemy. A sharp rattle of musketry was the first
-sign that the Russians were prepared to contest the passage of
-the river in this quarter, but their field artillery remained silent,
-and it turned out afterwards that all the guns which had survived
-the bombardment of the previous day had been removed to the
-rear, or to strengthen General Kashtalinsky's position. As it
-was, the rifle fire from the trenches was very galling, and the
-Japanese lost a great many men, but the devastating effects of
-General Kuroki's artillery bombardment were beyond anything
-that the Russians could produce in return.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Black Mass of Human Figures</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was in one of these trenches on the ridge of the hills to
-the northeast of Chiu-lien-cheng that the greatest damage was
-wrought. As the Japanese infantry
-steadily advanced, General Sassulitch
-ordered forward a body of his supports
-from the immediate rear to occupy this
-trench. In order to obey this command they had to round a
-small spur of the hill and pass across the open. Their appearance
-against the sky-line provided a target which the Japanese
-gunners were not likely to neglect. Instantly a rain of shell and
-shrapnel was directed upon the black mass of human figures.
-Men were seen falling thick and fast under this withering fire;
-but still the Russians pressed on indomitably, and at the expense
-of great loss of life occupied the trench, whence they in turn
-poured a fierce rifle-fire upon the enemy below them. By this
-time, however, the Guards were swarming over the lower slopes
-of the hills around Chiu-lien-cheng, and General Hasegawa sent
-a strong force to the left of the Russian position to turn General
-Sassulitch's flank. At the same time General Nishi's men were
-climbing steadily up the ridge further south, and were threatening
-the Russian right.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Blood-Red Banner</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is interesting to note that the somewhat drab aspect of warfare
-which many of the operations in the South African war assumed,
-accustoming us to the idea that
-all picturesqueness had departed from
-modern combat, and that the ancient
-gauds and trappings so dear to the soldier's
-heart had been abandoned for ever, was entirely absent from
-this great battle in the Far East. The opposing forces were not
-separated from one another by illimitable distances of rolling veldt
-and brown hills. They were, on the contrary, so near as to recall
-the fighting in the Franco-German War, or the bloody combats
-around Plevna in the great struggle between Turkey and Russia
-nearly thirty years ago. And more remarkable still, the regimental
-colors which in our army are kept for ceremonial purposes
-in times of peace, and do not accompany the troops into the field,
-were carried by the Japanese in the front of the fighting line.
-Their presence must have assisted the fire of the enemy considerably;
-but there can be no doubt, on the other hand, of the inspiriting
-effect on the Mikado's men of seeing the blood-red banner of
-their race floating in the van and beckoning them forward to
-victory.</p>
-
-<div id='i191' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic024'>
-<img src='images/i191.jpg' alt='' class='ig024' />
-<p>A LAST GALLANT STAND OF RUSSIAN GUNNERS.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Steadily indeed, and without pause, those flaming banners
-advanced upon the doomed Russian position. The swing round
-of General Hasewaga's troops to the left of Chiu-lien-cheng decided
-the fate of General Sassulitch's centre, and after four hours'
-fighting the Japanese, climbing up the ridges like cats, charged
-into the Russian trenches. All the defenders who remained to
-contest the charge were bayonetted or taken prisoners, but the
-main body of the 9th and 10th Siberian Regiments retreated
-stubbornly towards Hoh-mu-tang, contesting every inch of the
-ground. The heights, however, in this part of the field were won,
-and at 9 o'clock a great shout of "Banzai"&mdash;the Japanese form of
-"hurrah"&mdash;went up all along the line, as the banners of the Rising
-Sun were planted upon the ridge and waved proudly in the
-breeze.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Fight Desperately Against Fate</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On their left the Russians under General Kashtalinsky were,
-as we have shown, making a more desperate resistance; but unable
-to obtain reinforcements in time,
-that gallant officer was compelled to
-retire before the advance of General Inouye's
-Division, which, by driving the
-battalion of the 22nd Regiment in rout before it at Yushukau, had
-completely crumpled up his flank. He therefore fell back slowly
-towards Hoh-mu-tang, fighting desperately against overwhelming
-odds opposed to him. It was not till noon, seven hours after
-the battle began, that reinforcements were at last sent to him.
-Then General Sassulitch ordered to his assistance the 11th Regiment,
-which all this time had been held in reserve well in the rear
-together with the 2nd Battery of the 6th Brigade of Field Artillery,
-under Lieutenant-Colonel Mouravsky.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">General Sassulitch's Retreat</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >With this new force General Kashtalinsky set about the
-heavy task of covering the retreat of the 12th and the 22nd Regiments,
-or as much of them as was left,
-and also of checking the Japanese advance
-if possible until the 9th and 10th
-Regiments had made sure of their communications along the road
-to Feng-hwang-cheng. It was now that the fiercest and bloodiest
-fighting of the day took place, and that the Russians in
-particular suffered their heaviest losses. For no sooner had General
-Kuroki captured the whole ridge from Antung and Antushan
-in the south to Yukushan in the north than he ordered his
-force, strengthened by the reserves, to hasten at full speed along
-three lines in the direction of the Feng-whang-cheng road to cut
-off General Sassulitch's retreat.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Chase</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >A strong detachment from General Inouye's Division, therefore,
-crossed westwards to Tan-lang-fang; the Imperial Guards
-marched rapidly along the main road
-from Chiu-lien-cheng; and the 2nd Division
-spread out towards Antung and
-pursued the retiring 9th and 10th Regiments. It was the Guards
-Division and the 12th Division with whom General Kashtalinsky
-had to deal in this last brave stand. He ordered the 11th
-Regiment under his chief of staff to assume a commanding position
-in the rear, from which they could fire upon the enemy from
-two sides. Lieutenant-Colonel Mouravsky's battery he held in
-reserve; and then he ordered the wearied troops of the 12th
-Regiment, the 22nd Regiment, and the 3rd Battery of the 6th
-Brigade to retire under cover of the fire of the 11th.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Last Gallant Stand</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But before this man&oelig;uvre could be effected the fierce pursuit
-of the Japanese had gained its object. Both the Guards and the
-12th Division reached the spot by 1
-o'clock, and approaching from opposite
-sides, surrounded the hapless Russians.
-An enfilading fire made it impossible for the 3rd Battery to retire.
-Its horses were killed, and, therefore, Colonel Mouravsky, who
-assumed the command, ordered the gunners to take up a position
-where they stood and return the Japanese fire at close quarters.
-This they did with the greatest gallantry. They fought on steadily
-till not a man was left standing, their brave commander, Colonel
-Mouravsky, himself being among the last to fall. In the meanwhile,
-a company with machine guns had been ordered up to the
-assistance of the 3rd Battery. The officer in command, seeing
-the difficult situation of Colonel Mouravsky, took up a position,
-in the words of General Kashtalinsky's dispatch, "on his own initiative."
-He was no more fortunate than his superior officer.
-He, too, had entered the fatal ring of fire, and half his men and
-horses were shot down before he could render any effective service.
-An attempt to bring away his guns by hand and to take
-them under shelter of the hills under the terrible cross fire to
-which he was exposed, was no more successful, and the guns
-ultimately fell into the hands of the enemy. The case being evidently
-hopeless, the 2nd Battery, which had been brought up as a
-reinforcement to the 11th Regiment, was ordered back to rejoin
-the reserve by another road, but half its horses, too, were killed,
-and, finding it impossible to ascend the slopes without them, the
-officer in command brought his guns back to their original position,
-and there bravely, but unavailingly, received the Japanese
-attack.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rifle Fire and Cold Steel</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Now ensued a fierce and bloody hand-to-hand combat, in
-which the utmost heroism was displayed on both sides. Closer
-and closer pressed the Japanese till the
-opposing forces were almost looking
-into one another's eyes, and rifle-fire
-was abandoned for cold steel. Again
-and again the Japanese desperately dashed themselves upon the
-serried ranks opposed to them, and again and again, in spite of
-the fearful execution wrought by each charge, they were hurled
-back. But bayonet charge followed bayonet charge, and at last
-the devoted band of Russians could hold out no more. In some
-quarters of the field the white flag was hoisted and numbers of
-men surrendered. But the main body, shattered as it was and
-a mere shadow of its former strength, fought its way through.
-A broken remnant of the 12th Regiment cut its way through and
-carried off the colors in safety, torn and riddled indeed, but not
-disgraced. The same fate befell the 11th Regiment, a small body
-of which, after several hours' fighting, forced a passage out of
-the melee and retreated to Hoh-mu-tang with its colors preserved.
-But the losses of this regiment were enormous. Colonel
-Laming, the Colonel Commandant, Lieutenant-Colonels Dometti
-and Raievsky, and forty subordinate officers were left dead upon
-the field, and 5,000 non-commissioned officers and men were killed
-or wounded. More than 30 officers and 400 men surrendered.
-The casualties sustained by the Japanese were nearly 1,000 killed
-and wounded.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch07' class='c015'>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Russian Demoralization&mdash;On the Heels of the Enemy&mdash;Remarkable Japanese
-Strategy&mdash;The Paper Army&mdash;The Thin Black Line of Reinforcements&mdash;Position
-of the Russian Army&mdash;Kuropatkin Tied to his Railway&mdash;The Second
-Scheme of Attack&mdash;A Model of Organization&mdash;Perfect Secrecy of
-Plans&mdash;Cutting off Port Arthur&mdash;Alexeieff's Command of Language&mdash;And
-the Sober Truth&mdash;Third Blocking Attempt&mdash;Lurid Flashing of Searchlights&mdash;On
-the Bones of their Predecessors&mdash;Half the Passage Blocked&mdash;Honored
-but Unarmed&mdash;Russian Acknowledgements&mdash;Terrific Casualties&mdash;Togo
-for Liao-tung&mdash;The Japanese Landings&mdash;Escape of Alexeieff&mdash;Port
-Arthur Isolated.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Demoralization</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The signal victory of the despised Japanese at the Yalu
-River filled official circles in St. Petersburg with the
-liveliest dismay and shook that determined optimism
-which had survived even the unexampled series of
-naval disasters sustained by the power of the Czar in the Far
-East. There seems never to have been the least doubt among the
-Grand Dukes and the Bureaucrats by
-whom the Emperor was surrounded
-that whatever fate might befall the
-fleet, the "yellow monkeys," as they elegantly called their foes,
-would fly headlong before the onslaught of the Russian soldiery,
-accustomed as it was to victory on many a bloody field in Europe.
-The fatuity of this overweening confidence now stood revealed,
-and it was at last tardily recognized that as stern a task awaited
-the Russian forces on land as at sea. But St. Petersburg officialdom,
-wounded in pride and shaken in nerve as it was, still preserved
-a bold front to the world, and excuses for the disaster that
-had befallen the Russian arms were as prolific as ever. The army
-at the disposal of General Sassulitch, it was explained, was but
-a small one; that commander had blundered, and by giving battle
-to an overwhelmingly superior force, had disobeyed or misunderstood
-the orders of General Kuropatkin; and in any case, although
-severe losses were admitted, the main body had retreated
-in good order to Feng-hwang-cheng, and the <i>morale</i> of the troops
-was unshaken. The plea that General Sassulitch was solely responsible
-for the defeat which had befallen the Muscovite arms,
-and that he had failed to follow the instructions of his superior,
-has already been dealt with, and its extreme improbability has been
-demonstrated, though, even if it were accurate, it would throw
-a very unflattering light upon the powers of Russian leadership
-in the higher commands. It was soon, however, to be shown that
-the suggestion that the army of the Yalu had retired in good order
-and with unshaken <i>morale</i> was equally devoid of truth. As a
-matter of fact, the fierce pursuit of the Japanese and the heavy
-losses which they inflicted upon the retreating Russians at Hoh-mu-tang
-and elsewhere on the road to Feng-hwang-cheng reduced
-the defeat to an utter rout, and it became impossible for Sassulitch
-to make a stand at the latter point, naturally strong as it was and
-admirably calculated to resist an attack.</p>
-
-<div id='i199' class='c016'>
-<div class='c029'>
-<img src='images/i199.png' alt='' class='c030' />
-<p class='c007'>AFTER THREE MONTHS.</p>
-
-<p>The war began with the night attack on Port Arthur on February 8, but it
-was not until two months later that the Japanese appeared on the south-eastern
-border of Manchuria. On April 4 they occupied Wiju, on the 21st troops began
-to land at Tatungkau, and on May 1 took place the first great battle of the
-campaign, when the Japanese forced the passage of the Yalu, and drove the Russians
-back upon Feng-wang-cheng. On May 6 the latter place was occupied without
-resistance.</p>
-
-<p>The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">On the Heels of the Enemy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >After a day or two spent in recuperating his tired troops,
-whose tremendous exertions during the previous week must have
-tested their powers of endurance to the
-utmost, and also in bringing his heavy
-guns and supply train across the river
-from Wiju, in preparation for the
-march General Kuroki began a forward movement into Manchuria
-with his whole army. The cavalry led the advance, operating over
-a wide area of country and sweeping the scattered units of the
-Russians before it. Some sharp skirmishes took place at Erh-tai-tsu
-and San-tai-tsu, but no real difficulty was interposed in the way
-of the victorious Japanese, who drove the enemy in flight before
-them. On May 6th the foremost cavalry vedettes reached Feng-hwang-cheng,
-and instead of finding the strongly held entrenchments
-which the Russian press was even then busily assuring a
-sceptical Europe would prevent any further advance on the part of
-the presumptuous foe, they discovered that the troops of General
-Sassulitch had been withdrawn, and they entered the deserted town
-without having to fire a shot. The leading columns of the infantry,
-following quickly behind, marched in and took possession on the
-same day. Before his hurried departure General Sassulitch had
-ordered the magazine to be blown up, but large quantities of hospital
-and other stores fell into the hands of the Japanese. General Kuroki's
-main body was not far in the rear, and the position of the whole
-army was soon securely established at this important point. Feng-hwang-cheng
-is situated at a mountain pass on the Liao-yang road,
-at a distance of about 25 miles from the Yalu. As already stated, it
-possesses great strategical importance. It is the centre at which the
-roads meet, coming from Liao-yang, Haicheng, and Kaiping, places
-which are situated at about equal distances from one another along
-the Manchurian railway from north to south, and it therefore constitutes
-a <i>point d'appui</i> from which a force could be thrown against
-any of them, while it is itself a position of great strength. General
-Kuroki immediately began to entrench himself strongly at this spot
-and to consolidate his forces, while he waited for the highly important
-developments which were now to take place in other quarters of
-the theatre of war.</p>
-
-<div id='i202' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic025'>
-<img src='images/i202.jpg' alt='' class='ig025' />
-<p>IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Remarkable Japanese Strategy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >A wide view of the position of affairs as they now stood over
-the entire field of operations is necessary at this point in order to
-make clear the remarkable events that followed,
-and to throw into full relief the extraordinary
-qualities of the Japanese
-strategy&mdash;a strategy conceived after the
-most patient study of all the conditions of the problems and worked
-out in practice with almost machine-like regularity and precision.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Paper Army</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >When General Kuropatkin arrived at Mukden at the end of
-March and took over the command from General Linevitch, he had
-on paper an army of over 250,000 men. It
-was made up as follows: 223,000 infantry;
-21,764 cavalry; 4,000 engineers; and
-artillery consisting of 496 field guns, 30 horse artillery guns, and 24
-machine guns. This large force was organized in four Army Corps,
-each with divisions of infantry and its quota of artillery and cavalry;
-while there were also two independent divisions of Cossacks, four
-brigades of Frontier Guards, railway troops, fortress artillery and a
-number of small units not allotted. The First Army Corps was under
-the command of General Baron Stackelberg, the Second under
-General Sassulitch, the Third under General Stoessel, and the
-Fourth under General Zarubaieff. It was an imposing force, this
-army of Manchuria, calculated to strike terror into the hearts of an
-Oriental enemy, but unfortunately for the Russians it lacked one
-thing, and that was reality. The actual position of affairs was indeed
-very different. To begin with, the greater part of the troops
-were not near the front at all when the Commander-in-Chief appeared
-upon the scene to direct operations, but were being pushed
-along the Siberian Railway with a feverish haste which at the same
-time did not denote proportionate speed. When they did arrive
-they arrived in detached fragments, and the desperate necessities
-of the case did not admit of adherence to the paper arrangements.
-For instance, the 7th and 8th Divisions, which should have formed
-part of the Second Army Corps under General Sassulitch, were, as
-a matter of fact, sent to assist in garrisoning Port Arthur and
-Vladivostock. Port Arthur, it will be remembered, was by this time
-under the command of General Stoessel, who was therefore unable
-to direct the operations of the Third Army Corps, which properly
-should have been entrusted to him. On the other hand, the 3rd East
-Siberian Rifle Division, which belonged to that Corps, and the 6th
-East Siberian Rifle Division, which should have been attached to the
-First Army Corps, were sent to the Yalu, where, as we have already
-seen, they took part in the ill-fated conflict of the 1st of May. It
-will be observed from these shifts&mdash;only a few of the most noticeable
-out of many&mdash;that the Army Corps system of the Manchurian Army
-had completely broken down, and that the ideal of a coherent fighting
-force, with officers and men trained together in peace under the
-conditions to which they would be subjected in war, had not been
-attained in the slightest degree. The lack of organization which
-prevailed in the distribution of the larger commands was equally
-manifest in the mobilization of the units of which they were composed.
-Regiments were not complete; hastily-formed levies had to
-be added to bring them up to their nominal strength; and the ranks
-of the officers had to be filled up in many cases with volunteers from
-regiments in other parts of the Empire. The result was a composite
-force very different indeed in fighting power from the splendid machine
-which the Mikado's strategists had been carefully perfecting
-in time of peace in readiness for the struggle which they had so long
-foreseen.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Thin Black Line of Reinforcements</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In bringing even this haphazard collection of unco-ordinated
-units to the front in Manchuria, the greatest difficulties had been experienced.
-All that European observers
-had predicted about the working capacity
-of a railway like the Trans-Siberian for
-the conveyance of a huge army for thousands
-of miles came true to the letter. Prince Khilkoff, the Director-General
-of Russian Railways, undoubtedly did wonders, and the
-tremendous efforts which he and his staff put forth, especially in surmounting
-the great natural obstacle presented by Lake Baikal, were
-worthy of all praise. But to carry an army of 250,000 men, with all
-its necessary supplies and munitions of war, into Manchuria in the
-time required for the purpose of striking an effective blow at an
-enemy like the Japanese was a task beyond the powers of any railway
-staff in the world. The rickety single line, with infrequent
-sidings, which stretches across the steppes of Siberia from Harbin
-to the Urals was quite inadequate for such a feat of transport. By
-the middle of May, therefore, the position in which General Kuropatkin
-found himself&mdash;a position partly created by himself, as Minister
-of War, and partly created for him by the ineptitude of others&mdash;was
-widely different from that which the easy and thoughtless
-optimists in St. Petersburg had anticipated when the war broke out.
-The Fourth Army Corps was not across Lake Baikal; 30,000 or 40,000
-men were shut up in the fortresses of Port Arthur and Vladivostock,
-and were not only useless for field operations, but were
-themselves liable to siege and capture; and, allowing the highest
-possible estimate, the Russian Commander-in-Chief had at his disposal
-for assuming the offensive in Manchuria no more than 100,000
-men with 260 guns.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Position of the Russian Army</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >With this army he was holding the railway line from Mukden
-to Port Arthur, a distance of about 230 miles. His headquarters
-were at Liao-yang, and he held Haicheng
-and Kaiping in force, while a detachment
-was thrown out to the south-west and occupied
-Niuchwang. In the extreme south
-Port Arthur, though closely blockaded from the sea by the watchful
-Togo, was as yet open to communication by land, and no attempt
-had hitherto been made by the Japanese to secure a footing
-on the Liao-tung Peninsula. On the east of the Liao-yang&mdash;Kaiping
-line the Russian troops occupied three important passes, namely,
-Ta-ling, about 50 miles distant, in a northeasterly direction, from
-Liao-yang; the Motien-ling, about 25 miles away on the main road
-to Feng-hwang-cheng; and Fen-chu-ling, half way on the road from
-Tashihchao to Siuyen. Tashihchao is on the railway midway between
-Haicheng and Kaiping. The Motien-ling Pass was the
-scene of a sanguinary combat between the Chinese and the Japanese
-in the war of 1894, and on that occasion the Mikado's forces had the
-greatest trouble in capturing it. Besides holding these passes General
-Kuropatkin had pushed forward his Cossack patrols to scour
-the country as far as Feng-hwang-cheng, and constant small encounters
-took place between them and General Kuroki's outposts during
-the ensuing six weeks.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin Tied to His Railway</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is clear from this brief statement of the Russian position
-that the Japanese, always provided that they could retain the command
-of the sea, were placed at a great
-strategical advantage compared with
-their enemy. Holding their First Army
-poised at Feng-hwang-cheng, they could
-throw their Second and Third Armies upon the coast at any point
-that suited them best for the purpose of making a great combined
-movement. On the other hand, Kuropatkin was practically tied to
-the railway, and, with the inadequate force at his disposal, could
-not advance against Kuroki to destroy him in detail before the
-arrival of fresh armies from Japan. He was liable to attack at
-any point, and it was the peculiar difficulty of his situation that he
-could not tell which point would be selected. As a matter of fact,
-when the blow fell, as it soon did with crushing effect, he was powerless
-to prevent it.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Second Scheme of Attack</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The chapter of strategy which now opens is a fascinating one
-to any student of war, and fortunately its main features can be
-readily appreciated also by any layman
-who makes an intelligent study of a map
-of Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula.
-The prime object of the Japanese
-plainly was to cut General Kuropatkin's extended line of communications,
-isolate Port Arthur, and then attempt to envelope his main
-force by advancing simultaneously from the south, the east, and the
-northeast. It was consequently necessary, as a preliminary, to establish
-the First Army securely in Manchuria, it being clear that
-with this menace on his left flank, General Kuropatkin would not
-be able to detach many troops to the south to prevent the investment
-of Port Arthur. Everything, therefore, depended on the fortune
-that would attend the advance of General Kuroki across the Yalu,
-and the Moltkes at Tokio, after a patient study of all the conditions
-of an intricate problem, had thought out two great alternative
-schemes to meet the eventuality either of victory or defeat. In case
-of General Kuroki's finding the task of crossing the Yalu unaided
-to be an insuperable one, the Second Army, under General Oku,
-was to be landed at Takushan, a port on the coast some miles to the
-west of the mouth of the river, and thence to strike a blow at
-General Sassulitch's right flank. On the other hand, if Kuroki
-met with success, Oku's army was to be landed at a point on the
-Liao-tung Peninsula to cut Kuropatkin's communications and invest
-Port Arthur. As we have seen, General Kuroki's signal triumph
-at the Yalu River rendered the first alternative unnecessary, and
-opened the way for the more decisive and dramatic stroke involved
-in the second scheme.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Model of Organization</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But before anything could be done to land the Second Army,
-either at Takushan or on the Liao-tung Peninsula, it was imperatively
-necessary to disarm the Russian
-Fleet at Port Arthur, and prevent even
-the remotest possibility of its interfering
-with the operations. Here, as always, the
-two services, the army and the navy, had to work in close correspondence
-and interdependence. From the beginning of the war
-these separate branches of the Japanese forces had fitted into one
-another like parts of the same piece of machinery, the whole directed
-by one uniform purpose and striving towards one great common
-end. The joint schemes of the naval and military strategists at
-Tokio will ever provide an invaluable object-lesson to all students
-of the art of war; and it may be predicted that they will prove of
-valuable assistance to the strategists of our own army and navy.
-One of the most remarkable features of the war has been the certainty
-and precision with which the Japanese have worked out
-their complex plans; it is no less remarkable, and affords a further
-striking evidence of their efficiency, that they felt able, absolutely,
-to count upon that certainty and precision, and to make arrangements
-long beforehand, which with a less carefully organized scheme
-and less trustworthy commanders to carry it out would have been
-foolhardy, or at least wasteful. Failure in any real sense does not
-seem to have entered into their calculations. One portion of the
-plan, indeed, might miscarry, but, as we have seen, partial failure
-had been provided against, and a rapid modification of strategy
-to meet the case would have been possible. It was, in fact, one of
-the most interesting examples of the application of brains to war
-that have ever been seen in the history of the world.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Perfect Secrecy of Plans</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the action and inter-action, then, of this great double machine,
-the army had done all that it was possible for it to do for
-the moment; and once again it came
-round to the turn of the navy to make
-the next decisive move. Upon the success
-of this move may be said to have depended
-the whole success of the after operations, but, calculating
-with absolute confidence upon the skill of Admiral Togo, the Mikado's
-strategists had already put the Second Army into a state of
-complete preparation, and had even ordered it to be conveyed to a
-place from which it could be transferred to the front at any quarter
-at a moment's notice. Arrangements for its embarkation were begun
-as soon as General Kuroki reached Wiju with the First Army
-in the early days of April. When that commander was able to report
-that his dispositions for the attack upon the Russian entrenchments
-on the right bank of the Yalu were well advanced, the process
-of embarking General Oku's troops was started at once. Not
-a hint was allowed to escape as to their destination; even if the press
-correspondents, chafing under their enforced inaction at Tokio, had
-learnt the name, the censor would not have let it pass to the outer
-world; but, as a matter of fact, it is safe to say that the secret was
-safely locked in the breasts of half a dozen men. By April 22nd
-the whole army with its transports, commissariat, ammunition train,
-and hospital corps, had been put on board ship, and said farewell to
-the shores of Japan, vanishing, for all the world could tell, into the
-inane. For more than a fortnight nothing further was heard of it
-No one could report its landing anywhere, no one could say what it
-was doing, and day by day the mystery grew more mysterious.
-Only on May 7th was the veil lifted, when this great army fell upon
-the coast of Liao-tung as if from the heavens, and proceeded to the
-investment of Port Arthur. The truth was that during this fortnight
-it had been lying <i>perdu</i> on some small islands close to the
-west coast of Korea, called the Sir James Hall group, and distant
-160 miles in a southeastern direction from the shores of Liao-tung.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Cutting off Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Here, briefly stated, is the manner in which the scheme worked
-out. On May 1st General Kuroki triumphantly crossed the Yalu
-and stormed the heights above Chiu-lien-cheng.
-On May 2nd Admiral Togo descended
-once more upon Port Arthur, and
-blocked the harbor completely by sinking
-eight steamers at the entrance to the channel. On the afternoon of
-May 3rd, having made sure of the thoroughness of the work, he
-set off at full speed for the Sir James Hall Islands, reaching his
-destination by early morning on the 4th. Everything there was
-in readiness for the expedition, and within a few hours the whole of
-the transports, escorted by the fleet, set sail for the east coast of
-Liao-tung. At dawn the next day they reached the point on the
-peninsula which had been selected for the landing&mdash;Yentoa Bay&mdash;and
-in a few short hours a considerable portion of the force had
-been disembarked, the resistance offered by a small detachment of
-Cossacks, the only force possessed by the Russians in the neighborhood,
-being entirely negligible. On the 6th the railway line was
-severed, and in a few days more the Japanese were sitting securely
-astride of the peninsula, and Port Arthur was cut off from the
-world. The scheme had been carried out like the combinations of a
-skilful chess player, or like the successive steps of a mathematical
-problem.</p>
-
-<div id='i211' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic026'>
-<img src='images/i211.jpg' alt='' class='ig026' />
-<p>A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Alexeieff's Command of Language</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is necessary now to follow the development of these operations
-more in detail. The first that falls to be described is the successful
-attempt, the third of the series, to
-block the entrance to the harbor of Port
-Arthur. But before giving the real version
-of this thrilling enterprise it may be
-interesting to quote the report sent to the Grand Admiral
-unconquerable Alexeieff, whose optimism rose superior to every
-disaster and the alchemy of whose dispatches could still transmute
-defeat into signal victory. Here is the message, so soothing to the
-nerves of his fellow-countrymen, in which he announced the event
-that enabled the Japanese to land troops at any point they desired
-up their enemy's coasts:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"I respectfully report to your Highness that a fresh attack
-made by the enemy last night with the object of obstructing the
-entrance to the port was successfully repelled.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"At 1 o'clock in the morning five torpedo-boats were perceived
-near the coast from the eastern batteries. Under the fire of our batteries
-and warships they retreated southward.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"At 1.45 the first fireship, escorted by several torpedo-boats,
-came in sight. We opened fire upon it from our batteries and
-warships. Three-quarters of an hour afterwards our searchlights
-revealed a number of fireships making for the entrance to the harbor
-from the east and southeast. The <i>Otvajni</i>, the <i>Giliak</i>, the
-<i>Gremiashtchi</i>, and the batteries on the shore repulsed each Japanese
-ship by a well-directed fire.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Altogether eight ships were sunk by our vigorous cannonade,
-by Whitehead torpedoes launched from our torpedo-boats, and by
-the explosion of several submarine mines.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Further, according to the reports of the officers commanding
-the batteries and the warship <i>Giliak</i>, two Japanese torpedo-boats
-were destroyed.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"After 4 a. m., the batteries and gunboats ceased fire, subsequently
-firing only at intervals on the enemy's torpedo-boats, which
-were visible on the horizon.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"All the fireships carried quick-firing guns, with which the
-enemy maintained a constant fire.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Up to the present thirty men, including two mortally wounded
-officers who sought refuge in the launches, or were rescued from the
-fireships by us, have been picked up. The inspection of the roadstead
-and the work of saving drowning men are hindered by the
-heavy sea which is running.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"We suffered no casualties with the exception of a seaman
-belonging to the torpedo-boat destroyer <i>Boevoi</i>."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">And the Sober Truth</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >No one reading this remarkable account could imagine that it
-described an operation which ultimately sealed the doom of Port
-Arthur. For a more sober but a more
-accurate narrative we must turn to the
-dispatches of Admiral Togo. On May
-2nd, as already recounted, the Japanese Naval Commander-in-Chief
-received the news of the successful crossing of the Yalu. His plans
-were already laid and his preparations were complete. Eight merchant
-steamers this time had been secured for the service, and upwards
-of 20,000 men volunteered for the glorious duty of manning
-them and dying for their country. Of these, 159 were ultimately
-selected. The names of the steamers were the <i>Mikawa</i>, <i>Sakura</i>,
-<i>Totomi</i>, <i>Yedo</i>, <i>Otaru</i>, <i>Sagami</i>, <i>Aikoku</i>, and <i>Asagawo</i>. The vessels
-ordered to escort the doomed hulks were the gunboats <i>Akagi</i> and
-<i>Chokai</i>, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th destroyer flotillas, and the 9th,
-10th, and 14th torpedo-boat flotillas. The whole force, which
-was under the command of Commander Hayashi, started for its
-destination on the night of May 2nd.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Third Blocking Attempt</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is a melancholy circumstance, typical of the sombre, but
-ofttimes splendid, tragedy of war, that of this third and most successful
-attempt to block the harbor the
-narrative is necessarily the most fragmentary
-and obscure, owing to the loss
-of life which it entailed. On the two
-previous occasions, reckless as was the gallantry of the Japanese
-and enormous as were the risks they ran, the casualties were surprisingly
-small, and the majority of the men engaged were able to
-return to their ships and tell the story of their enterprise. On this
-night, however, everything was against success; the Russians were
-more fully prepared to meet attack than they had ever been before;
-their shooting was more effective; and worse still, the weather
-turned out wholly unfavorable, the ships had to proceed singly upon
-their way; and when they were sunk the difficulties in the way of
-recovering their crews proved more than usually arduous, and most
-of them were either shot or drowned or taken prisoner. In spite
-of all these adverse circumstances a splendid success was achieved,
-but it was achieved under conditions which largely obliterated the
-record, and leaves but sparse material for the historian.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Lurid Flashing of Searchlights</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The broad outlines of the story, however, are clear. When
-the steamers with their accompanying
-flotillas were well on their way, a strong
-southeasterly breeze sprang up, which
-rapidly freshened into a gale. It was impossible
-in the circumstances to keep the vessels together, and,
-fearing that the attack would in consequence be ineffective, Commander
-Hayashi signalled to his subordinates to abandon the expedition
-for the time being. But the weather and the heavy seas
-prevented his signals from being observed, and the gallant enterprise
-therefore proceeded unchecked. By one in the morning the 14th
-torpedo-boat flotilla reached the roadstead and pressed steadily towards
-the eastern side of the harbor mouth. The little vessels were
-soon exposed to the glare of the searchlights, and at once a furious
-bombardment broke out upon them from the Russian gunboats
-and the shore batteries. For the moment they retreated, drawing
-the enemy's fire upon them, while the leading steamer, which was
-close behind, made a dash for the channel. This vessel was the
-<i>Mikawa</i>, under the command of Lieut. Sosa. The Russians, as we
-have said, were much better prepared to resist attack than on previous
-occasions. Piles of combustibles, stationed at various points
-on the shore on each side of the harbor mouth, were set on fire,
-and cast a lurid light on the scene, throwing into strong relief the
-dark forms of the advancing ships, while the searchlights flashed
-backwards and forwards over the unquiet surface of the sea, and
-made every movement of the Japanese fatally visible to the defenders
-on the fortress. A storm of missiles burst over the devoted expedition,
-but undeterred, intent only on reaching the centre of
-the channel, Lieut. Sosa pushed his vessel forward at the top of her
-speed. Nothing could stop him or his crew&mdash;nor raging sea, nor
-searchlight, nor even the rain of shot and shell. The <i>Mikawa</i> stuck
-bravely to her course, and, breaking through the boom which
-stretched across the mouth, anchored right in the middle of the
-channel. In a moment the fuse was lighted, and as the commander
-and his crew pushed off in the boats the ship blew up and sank in the
-fairway. The <i>Sakura</i>, which was not far behind, was less lucky
-than her companion. She was driven upon a rock at the eastern side
-of the entrance, and blew up outside the channel.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">On the Bones of their Predecessors</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >There was a short pause, and then came a fresh contingent of
-fireships, rushing upon destruction. The aim of the Russian gunners
-had much improved; in the fierce
-glare of the searchlights and the flaming
-beacons every detail of the steamers was
-distinctly visible, and that they should
-have succeeded in advancing into the channel in the face of such a
-withering blast as swept across their course was little short of a
-miracle. The waters, too, were thickly sown with mines, in readiness
-for such an assault as this, and they did serious execution. The
-<i>Aikoku</i> was distant only five cables from the mouth when she struck
-one of these deadly engines and blew up, her race cut short just when
-the goal was at hand. Her commander, Lieut. Uchida, the chief
-engineer, Aoki, and eight of the crew were killed or drowned. The
-<i>Asagawo</i> was riddled with shot, her rudder was smashed, and drifting
-upon the shore beneath Golden Hill, she blew up and sank where
-the bones of so many of her predecessors were already reposing.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Half the Passage Blocked</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the other vessels were more successful. The <i>Otaru</i> and the
-<i>Sagami</i> reached the harbor mouth before they were sunk, and contributed
-a large share to the obstruction
-of the entrance. The <i>Yedo</i> did better
-still, for she got further up than these
-two others. Just as her anchor was being
-got ready her gallant commander, Lieut. Takayanagi, fell dead,
-shot through the stomach; but there was no pause in the operations.
-Sub-Lieut. Nagatu at once stepped into his superior's place, and,
-anchoring the ship with the utmost coolness, sank her in the fairway.
-The <i>Totomi</i> did best of all, for, like the <i>Mikawa</i>, she burst through
-the boom in the teeth of the Russian guns, got well inside, and
-turning right across the channel from east to west, sank in that position,
-blocking up at least half the passage.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Honored, but Unarmed</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Togo, in his brief and dignified way, thus referred
-to the magnificent services rendered by the men who had fallen in
-this great enterprise:&mdash;"The undertaking,
-when compared with the last two attempts,
-involved a heavier casualty on our
-side owing to the inclemency of the weather and increased preparation
-for defence of the enemy. We could not save any of the officers
-and men of the <i>Otaru</i>, <i>Sagami</i>, <i>Sakura</i> and <i>Asagawo</i>, and I regret
-that nothing particular could be learned about the gallant way in
-which they discharged their duties, although the memory of their
-exemplary conduct will long survive in the Imperial navy."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Acknowledgments</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But though the Japanese Commander-in-Chief could learn
-nothing particular about the gallant way in which his men had performed
-their duties, the gap in our knowledge
-can fortunately be supplied, to some
-extent at all events, by the Russians, who
-bore ample and chivalrous testimony to
-the splendid heroism displayed by their foes. They acknowledged,
-said a telegram from St. Petersburg, "that the enemy attacked in
-brilliant style, seeming never to notice the murderous fire which
-greeted them." One incident in particular struck upon their minds
-and extorted from them the warmest expressions of admiration. "On
-board the fireships," they remarked, "were a number of Japanese
-cadets, who displayed extraordinary bravery. As the ships were
-sinking several of these lads rushed aloft, and sitting on the cross-trees
-of the topmasts, fired their revolvers before they plunged into
-the sea." The account ends with a sentence of terse significance:
-"It is believed that none were saved."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Terrific Casualties</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Of the total of 159 men engaged in this work of desperate
-heroism only 36 returned in safety, and of these 28 were wounded.
-Two officers (both mortally wounded)
-and 30 men were picked up by the Russians
-and taken prisoners. The number
-of the killed was 75. They had not died in vain. The harbor of
-Port Arthur was now securely blocked&mdash;not permanently indeed,
-for while divers and dynamite can be obtained no harbor in the
-world can be obstructed for ever in this way; but blocked to such
-an extent that the Russians could not get any big ships through for
-weeks, even given the most advantageous conditions in which to
-carry on the work of removing the obstacles. And for the momentous
-operations that were to follow the Japanese required not so
-much weeks as days.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Togo for Liao-tung</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The fleet remained off Port Arthur till the afternoon to make
-sure that all the rescue work possible had been accomplished. In
-this duty the destroyer and torpedo-boat
-flotillas rendered admirable service. Once
-again, happy to relate, they emerged
-themselves from the dangerous enterprise with singularly slight
-damages, and lost only two men killed. At last, having realized that
-no more remained to be done in saving life, and having made sure
-that the "bottle" had finally been "corked," Admiral Togo leaving
-behind a small squadron to watch Port Arthur, set off at full steam
-with his main fleet for the Sir James Hall Islands. There he was
-joined by the gunboat squadron under Rear-Admiral Hosoya, which
-had rendered such effective service in the lower reaches of the river
-at the battle of the Yalu. The transports, with the Second Army
-on board, were practically ready for departure, and on the morning
-of the 4th of May the whole expedition set out for the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. At daybreak on the 5th Yentoa Bay was sighted.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Landings</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Yentoa Bay is admirably suited for the landing of a large
-force, for the shelving shore, with shallow waters, presents no difficulty
-to the approach of boats such as the
-Japanese use for this purpose. Furthermore,
-it possesses great strategical advantages.
-It is within easy striking distance of the railway, while
-the country in the immediate neighborhood favors the advance of
-an attacking force and gives little opportunity for defence. The
-likelihood of a landing here, however, does not seem to have occurred
-to the Russians, who had prepared instead for a descent upon
-Niuchwang. The whole affair is an excellent illustration of the
-advantages conferred upon a combatant by the command of the
-sea, especially when the openings for attack are numerous, as they
-are in the case of the Liao-tung Peninsula. General Kuropatkin
-could not tell where the descent of the enemy would be made, and
-though he could defend some of the possible points, he could not defend
-all. The Japanese, on the other hand, could select the spot
-that suited them best without any serious risk of interference.
-Yentoa Bay was therefore practically undefended when Admiral
-Togo's fleet arrived convoying the Second Army. A troop of about
-100 Cossacks was patrolling the shore, but the gunboat squadron
-quickly dispersed it with a few shells, and the work of landing could
-then be carried through without interruption.</p>
-
-<div id='i222' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic027'>
-<img src='images/i222.jpg' alt='' class='ig027' />
-<p>GENERAL STOESSEL EXHORTING HIS TROOPS IN THE DEFENSE OF PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Escape of Alexeieff</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The first to make for the shore was a force of marines, two battalions
-of whom waded through the shallows
-and occupied the rising ground
-above the shore. Within an hour the advance
-guard of the army itself had been disembarked, and the rest of
-General Oku's troops quickly followed; the whole process being carried
-out with the smoothness and dispatch which characterized all
-the operations of this kind on the Japanese side. On the 6th, a flying
-column was sent to the northwards to seize the small port of Pitszewo,
-and more important still, another column moved across the
-neck of the peninsula with great rapidity and, occupying Pulantien,
-broke up the railway and cut off all communication between General
-Kuropatkin and Port Arthur. But before this was done one notable
-train load of passengers managed to escape from the beleaguered
-fortress. Chief among them were the Viceroy of the Far East,
-Admiral Alexeieff himself, and the Grand Duke Boris. They left
-only just in time. The gallant Admiral of the inventive pen had at
-last discovered that the repulse of the Japanese naval attack on
-which he had prided himself in his grandiloquent dispatch to the
-authorities at St. Petersburg was in reality no repulse at all; that as
-a matter of fact the Japanese had done just what they wanted to do;
-and that they were now able to proceed, in their methodical way, to
-land troops on the peninsula and invest Port Arthur. That the
-Viceroy should be shut up in the fortress, too, was not to be thought
-of&mdash;though probably it would have been better for the success of
-General Kuropatkin's strategy if his troublesome colleague had been
-safely removed out of the way for the rest of the campaign&mdash;and so
-by a desperate effort the gallant Admiral burst through the gradually
-tightening cordon.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Port Arthur Isolated</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >After the first interruption of communications the Japanese
-force temporarily withdrew, and the success of the Russians in relaying
-the line and in running a train
-loaded with ammunition through to Port
-Arthur revived the drooping spirits of
-the official classes in St. Petersburg. The act was one of extreme
-gallantry, and reflected the highest credit on Colonel Spiridonoff,
-the officer in command, but beyond giving the garrison some greatly
-needed supplies it did not materially alter the situation. The line
-was again broken up, the Japanese occupied the neck of land in
-force, and in a few days Port Arthur was completely cut off from
-the outer world.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch08' class='c015'>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >The First Japanese Disaster&mdash;The "Hatsuse" Strikes a Mine&mdash;Admiral Togo
-Undaunted&mdash;Rammed in the Fog&mdash;Renewed Russian Hopes&mdash;The Vladivostock
-Squadron&mdash;A Thrill Through the Civilized Globe&mdash;Skrydloff the
-Raider&mdash;Kamimura on the Track&mdash;Approaching Port Arthur&mdash;The Importance
-of Nanshan&mdash;Japanese Dispositions&mdash;General Oku's Attack&mdash;Terrific
-Carnage&mdash;A General Bombardment&mdash;Chances of Defeat&mdash;Rushing the
-Trenches&mdash;The Russians in Flight&mdash;Tremendous Moral Effect&mdash;Terrific Casualties&mdash;Alarm
-in St. Petersburg&mdash;Fatal Russian Strategy&mdash;Old Tactics
-versus New&mdash;The Veil over the Tragedy.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The First Japanese Disaster</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The Japanese fleet, as we have seen in the last chapter, had
-once again done its work thoroughly. The Russian fleet,
-crippled in the early days of the war and harried incessantly
-ever since, was now for weeks to come securely shut
-up in the harbor of Port Arthur, and could do nothing seriously to
-affect the course of events. Admiral Togo, with his six powerful
-battleships and his splendid cruisers, had
-absolute command of the Gulf of Pechili,
-and the transports from Japan were able
-to pour troops with perfect safety upon
-the shores of the Liao-tung Peninsula. It was at this moment of
-conspicuous success that the first serious calamity of the war overtook
-the Japanese Navy, and two terrible accidents occurred which
-filled the Russians with hope, as appearing to betoken a turn at last
-in the tide of fortune and to threaten the forces of the Mikado with
-something like the cloud of misfortune that had so far hung over
-their opponents. There was, however, this notable difference between
-the two cases. The losses suffered by the Russians at sea
-were almost all due to their own lack of forethought or of skill; they
-seemed to court defeat, and defeat came to them in full measure.
-But the blow which now befell the Japanese fleet was of a kind
-which the utmost ability and precaution could hardly have prevented,
-and, moreover, serious as it was, it did not materially affect the
-main course of the campaign, although undoubtedly it compelled
-the Commander-in-Chief in some degree to modify his plan of
-operations.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The disaster was a double one. On one and the same day, the
-15th of May, the magnificent battleship, the <i>Hatsuse</i>, was blown up
-by mines and sunk with fully 500 men; and the protected cruiser,
-<i>Yoshino</i>, colliding with the <i>Kasuga</i> in a dense fog, was totally lost,
-only 90 of her crew being saved.</p>
-
-<div id='i227' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic028'>
-<img src='images/i227.jpg' alt='' class='ig028' />
-<p>OUTSIDE PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The "Hatsuse" Strikes a Mine</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was at a spot ten miles southeast of Liaotishan promontory
-that the <i>Hatsuse</i> met her fate. With the <i>Shikishima</i>, the <i>Yashima</i>,
-and two cruisers, she was engaged in
-watching Port Arthur and protecting the
-landing of troops on the peninsula. Heavy
-fogs come off the land in the Gulf of
-Pechili at this period of the year, and during the morning navigation
-had been rendered difficult owing to this reason, but by 11 o'clock
-the weather had changed and the sky was clear. No enemy was in
-sight, when suddenly, without any warning, a shock was felt under
-the stern of the <i>Hatsuse</i> and a heavy explosion took place, damaging
-her steering gear. She signalled to the other ships at once to stand
-by and give assistance, but before anything could be done another
-mine exploded under her and tore a great yawning hole in her plates.
-The water rushed into her in torrents, and at once the great ship
-began to settle down. In a few moments, with appalling swiftness,
-she sank like a stone, with all her freight of humanity. Had the
-catastrophe occurred during the night hardly a man could have been
-saved, but fortunately in the broad daylight something could be
-done to lessen the tale of death. The boats of the other battleships
-and the cruisers were quickly upon the spot and succeeded in picking
-up 300 officers and men out of a total complement of about 800.
-Among these were Rear-Admiral Nashiba and Captain Nakao, the
-commander of the vessel. The list of the drowned included some
-of the brightest officers of the Japanese Navy, including Commander
-Tsukamoto, Commander Count Nire, and Commander Arimori.
-Besides these, five second lieutenants, five engineers, two surgeons,
-six midshipmen, four engineer cadets, and ten non-commissioned
-officers perished.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >While the work of rescue was proceeding, sixteen of the Russian
-torpedo-boat destroyers seized the opportunity to come out of
-the harbor and effect a diversion, but the Japanese destroyer flotillas
-engaged them hotly, and other cruisers from Togo's fleet coming
-up with all speed, drove them back into Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Admiral Togo Undaunted</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The <i>Hatsuse</i>, which was built at Elswick in 1899 after the type
-of the English ship <i>Majestic</i>, was a ship of 15,000 tons displacement,
-and 15,000 indicated horse-power.
-She could steam 18 knots, her armor was
-14.6 inches, and the weight of her broadside
-fire was 4,240 lbs. Her destruction
-of course meant a serious weakening of Togo's first fighting line, for
-six battleships were by no means too large a force for the work he
-had to do. Moreover, the <i>Hatsuse</i>, with the <i>Asahi</i>, <i>Shikishima</i>, and
-<i>Mikasa</i>, were the most modern and up-to-date ships of their class
-in the fleet; the <i>Yashima</i> and the <i>Fuji</i>, which completed the list,
-being older and less heavily armed vessels. Nevertheless the grip
-of the Japanese Admiral upon the beleaguered port never slackened
-one whit, and in the event his five battleships, with their accompanying
-cruisers, were destined to prove more than a match for the navy
-of the Czar in the great battle in blue water which took place three
-months afterwards.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The sinking of the <i>Yoshino</i> was not so heavy a blow, but it was
-serious enough in the circumstances, and the loss of life was in itself
-greatly to be deplored. This second-class protected cruiser was also
-built at Messrs. Armstrong's famous works on the Tyne. She was
-of 4,180 tons displacement, and her engines had an indicated horse-power
-of 15,750, with a speed of 23 knots, and a weight of broadside
-fire of 780 lbs. She was quite an old ship, as modern men-of-war
-go, having been launched in 1892, and taking an honorable part in
-the Chino-Japanese war of 1895.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rammed in the Fog</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the fatal 15th of May she formed one of the cruiser squadron
-which, under the command of Rear-Admiral Dewa, was engaged
-in the blockading operations outside Port
-Arthur. The squadron had been standing
-off the harbor during the night of
-the 14th, and early in the morning steamed southwards.
-An impenetrable fog concealed everything from view, and
-the big ships had to proceed with the utmost caution. But
-in such difficult circumstances the utmost caution is sometimes
-unavailing, and at 1.40 the <i>Kasuga</i>, one of the twin ships recently
-purchased from the Argentine Government, rammed the <i>Yoshino</i> on
-the port stern. A terrible gap was torn in the hull of the unfortunate
-cruiser, and at once she began to settle down to starboard.
-From the meagre accounts furnished by the survivors, it is clear,
-as indeed might have been expected, that the most perfect discipline
-prevailed on board the doomed vessel. Collision mats were quickly
-got out and placed over the hole, but the injury was too severe to be
-dealt with by such means, and the swift inrush of water made all
-efforts to save the vessel vain. Captain Sayegi, the commander of
-the ship, ordered all the crew onto the upper deck, and the boats
-were lowered without delay, but the disaster was too sudden for
-them to be of any use. Five were lowered on the starboard side
-and one on the port, but before they could get clear the cruiser listed
-heavily to starboard and went down, smashing all the five boats on
-that side to pieces. The cutter, which was lowered on the port side,
-was the only boat that escaped. With perfect coolness and self-devotion
-the captain remained on the bridge and shouted encouragement
-to his men as they were getting into the boats. When last seen
-he was shaking hands with his second in command, Commander
-Hirowateri. In another moment both officers had gone down with
-their ship. The boats of the <i>Kasuga</i> were on the spot with all possible
-speed, and succeeded in picking up 90 of the crew, but the rest,
-numbering upwards of 270, perished with their captain.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Renewed Russian Hopes</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >When this two-fold disaster became known, the Russians were
-naturally elated and even filled with renewed hope. Its true proportions,
-too, were greatly exaggerated, and
-in the expectation that the Japanese would
-be seriously hindered in their landing operations
-on the coast of Liao-tung, General
-Kuropatkin countermanded the evacuation of Niuchwang,
-which had already partly taken place, and his forces once again
-occupied that port. However, as we have already stated, the loss
-he had sustained did not lessen the grip maintained by Admiral Togo
-upon Port Arthur. His weakened condition did, indeed, at a later
-period give the Russian fleet, after it had been patched up with
-infinite pains and difficulty, an admirable opportunity to break
-through the cordon, but the attempt was made with singular feebleness,
-and the admiral in command took his ships back to the refuge
-of the harbor without effecting anything. On the other hand, the
-destruction of the <i>Hatsuse</i> and the <i>Yoshino</i>, by necessitating the
-withdrawal of some ships from Admiral Kamimura, who was guarding
-the Korean Straits, indirectly gave the Vladivostock squadron
-a chance of raiding the coast of Japan for some time with impunity,
-of destroying a great deal of merchant shipping, and incidentally of
-bringing about the most serious international complications, in which
-Great Britain, as the chief trading country of the world, was the
-power principally involved.</p>
-
-<div id='i234' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic029'>
-<img src='images/i234.jpg' alt='' class='ig029' />
-<p>A SKIRMISH ON THE MANCHURIAN RAILWAY.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Vladivostock Squadron</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It will be convenient at this point briefly to advert to the exploits
-of this squadron, which have necessarily been put on one side
-in the recent course of the narrative by
-the claims of the more important events.
-After the destruction of two small Japanese
-merchantmen on the 11th of February
-nothing more was heard of Captain Reitzenstein's cruisers
-for more than two months. In April, however, the command was
-taken over by a more highly-placed officer, Rear-Admiral Jessen,
-and a sudden burst of activity took place. With the <i>Rossia</i>, the
-<i>Rurik</i>, and the <i>Gromoboi</i>, and a flotilla of torpedo-boats and destroyers,
-the new commander made a raid upon the east coast of Korea
-at Gensan. At that very time Admiral Kamimura's squadron
-started on a voyage northwards to search for the Russians, and
-there can be no doubt that the two would have met, but by a stroke
-of the most perverse ill-luck one of those dense spring fogs, which
-descend upon the Sea of Japan like a pall, intervened and the opposing
-squadrons passed close to one another without discovering their
-proximity. When, totally baffled by these weather conditions,
-Kamimura returned to Gensan after a three days' cruise, he found
-to his chagrin that the Russians had visited the port in his absence
-and had even sunk a small merchant steamer called the <i>Goyo Maru</i>.
-But of more serious importance still was the destruction of the
-<i>Kinshiu Maru</i>, a transport with 124 soldiers of the 37th Regiment
-of Infantry on board. She fell in with the enemy's ships on the
-night of the 25th while they were on their way back to Vladivostock.
-A summons to surrender was met by a haughty refusal. An hour's
-grace was given, at the end of which a torpedo was discharged
-against the doomed vessel, striking her amidships. Under the orders
-of their officers the men fell in upon the deck, as calmly and steadily
-as if on parade, to wait for inevitable death. The officers themselves,
-five in number, following the stern traditions of the ancient Samurai
-clan, went below and committed suicide; but the rank and file
-determined that they would strike one blow at the enemy before they
-died, and so they opened a gallant but ineffective fire upon the Russians
-with their rifles. The cruisers made a deadly reply with their
-machine guns, tearing great gaps in the masses of men thickly
-gathered together on the deck of the transport. Still, however, the
-soldiers fought on with desperate bravery, until another torpedo
-brought the tragic drama to a swift conclusion, sinking the ship in
-a few seconds. Undaunted even at the moment of death, the Japanese
-went down with triumphant shouts of "Banzai" upon their lips.
-Seventy-four of the rank and file perished, but forty-five others
-escaped by means of the steamer's boats, which they found floating
-on the sea, and on the 29th they arrived at Gensan with their thrilling
-story.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Thrill Through the Civilized Globe</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was a story mournful indeed in one aspect, but in all others
-glorious and inspiring. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any
-one event which had hitherto occurred in
-the whole course of the war so
-inflamed the martial ardor of the Japanese
-and filled them with such high hopes
-for a successful issue from the great conflict upon which they had
-entered, as the splendid heroism and calm self-sacrifice with which
-the soldiers and bluejackets on board the <i>Kinshiu Maru</i> met their
-death. Who could withhold the conviction that if this was the spirit
-in which the sons of Dai Nippon advanced to the work that lay before
-them, no misfortune, no temporary defeat could in the end
-prevent victory from resting upon the banners of the Rising Sun?
-Nor was the moral effect of the deed confined to Japan. The story
-sent a thrill through the whole civilized globe, and taught the nations
-of Europe and the masters of the New World that, accustomed as
-they were to acts of daring and devotion among their own people,
-a race had arisen in the Far East whose dauntless bearing in war
-they could not hope to surpass.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Skrydloff the Raider</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Another month elapsed before the Vladivostock squadron
-proved troublesome again. It had then come directly under the
-control of the new Commander-in-Chief
-of the Pacific fleet, Admiral Skrydloff,
-who had been appointed to succeed the
-ill-fated Makaroff, and whose reputation in the Russian navy was
-second only to that of his distinguished predecessor. Unfortunately
-for Russia, Admiral Skrydloff arrived in the Far East too late to
-reach his main fleet. At Harbin he learnt that Port Arthur was invested
-both by land and sea, and that it was impossible for him to
-assume the command at the place where his services were most
-needed. He was, therefore, compelled to go on to Vladivostock instead
-and direct the operations of the cruiser squadron there in the
-desperate hope that at a later period an opportunity might occur
-of effecting a junction with his Port Arthur fleet. A further piece
-of bad news awaited him at the northern port. One of the four
-cruisers which were all that now furnished his attenuated command
-had gone ashore in a fog a few days previously, and had become
-a total wreck. This was the <i>Bogatyr</i>. She was, indeed, the
-smallest ship in the squadron, being a second-class protected cruiser
-of 6,750 tons, but her speed was high, and her loss in the dark circumstances
-of the hour was a serious blow. However, the gallant
-Admiral proceeded to make the best of the material which lay at his
-disposition, and in the course of the next two months he pursued
-most vigorous tactics, venturing southwards with great frequency,
-harrying the coasts of Japan, and bringing maritime commerce in
-that part of the world almost to a standstill.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kamimura on the Track</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Kamimura with his cruisers made the most strenuous
-efforts to catch his elusive enemy, but the bad luck which had visited
-him at Gensan at the end of April continued
-to dog him still for a long time.
-Again and again a convenient fog intervened
-to favor the escape of the Russians;
-moreover, the Japanese squadron had to be depleted in order to furnish
-aid to the main fleet which was blockading Port Arthur, and
-assisting in the landing of troops; and furthermore, the strategic
-necessity of closely guarding the Straits between Japan and Korea
-and preventing the possibility of a junction between the two Russian
-fleets, severely limited the area of Kamimura's activity. In
-these circumstances Admiral Skrydloff's cruisers had an almost uncheckered
-run of success for a period of two months. The Japanese
-Admiral came in for some sharp criticism at the hands of the general
-public in Japan for his apparent lack of energy, but the authorities
-at Tokio, who had all the conditions of the campaign before them in
-their true proportions, trusted him thoroughly, and their trust was
-magnificently vindicated on the 14th of August, when he at last
-managed to trap the Russians into his net, and administered to them
-a signal defeat in a pitched battle on the high seas.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Approaching Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >A return must now be made to the land operations upon the
-Liao-tung Peninsula. Undeterred by the loss of the <i>Hatsuse</i> and the
-<i>Yoshino</i>, the Japanese continued to pour
-in troops at Yentoa Bay and Pitszewo.
-At the same time the 3rd Army, under
-General Nodzu, began to disembark at Takushan. But it was to
-General Oku and the 2nd Army that the honor fell of striking
-the next blow for the Mikado. This was the capture of Kinchau and
-the storming of the Russian entrenchments on Nanshan Hill, which,
-after preliminary operations lasting over some days, was finally
-effected on the 26th of May.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Importance of Nanshan</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The narrow neck of land, a mile and three-quarters in breadth,
-running between Kinchau Bay on the west and Hand Bay&mdash;a small
-inlet of Talienwan Bay&mdash;on the east, possesses
-great strategical importance. The
-high ground to the south of it, of which
-the salient point is the Nanshan Hill, completely commands the approach
-to Port Arthur from the north, and, as it cannot be outflanked
-by any ordinary method, it gives an admirable opportunity,
-to a defending force to resist an attack from that quarter. It is,
-indeed, commanded in its turn by an eminence called Mount Sampson,
-which lies to the northeast; but in this instance the disadvantage
-was more than counterbalanced by the fact that the Japanese
-could only oppose to the heavy fortress guns which the Russians had
-mounted on Nanshan, field artillery of an inferior calibre. After
-the landing of the enemy at Yentoa and the cutting of the railway
-had made clear the imminence of the peril which threatened Port
-Arthur, the governor of the fortress, General Stoessel, wasted no
-time in erecting powerful defences at this naturally strong position.
-During the ensuing weeks the Russian engineers went feverishly
-to work constructing entrenchments on Nanshan and the connecting
-chains of hills, and also on a second line of eminences further
-to the south, the chief of which is named Nankuenling. These
-careful preparations might well seem to have rendered the position
-impregnable. Ten forts almost permanent in character were established
-on Nanshan, and at every available point trenches and rifle
-pits were dug and concealed with the greatest skill, and their approaches
-guarded by barbed wire entanglements, while at convenient
-places mines were laid to entrap an unwary foe. Over 70 guns,
-many of them pieces of fortress artillery of heavy calibre, were
-placed in position here, and the whole was manned by a force of
-12,000 men; the utmost number of troops that could with advantage
-be employed in such a confined area. Altogether, with the exception
-of Port Arthur itself, no more formidable obstacle has ever been
-presented to the advance of an invading army in modern times than
-was offered by General Stoessel at Kinchau. The village of Kinchau
-itself, it should be explained, though it gave the name to the
-battle, was of comparatively small strategical importance, lying as
-it does on the low ground to the northeast of the isthmus and offering
-an easy prey, but at the same time no particular advantage, to
-the enemy.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan Dispositions</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The concentration of the Japanese army proceeded in the circumstances
-with great rapidity. On the
-21st of May, the whole force, consisting
-of three divisions, or about 60,000 men,
-was established to the north of Hand Bay. Under the protection
-of the angle formed by the range of hills to the south of Mount
-Sampson, the troops were formed up for battle, and General Oku
-explained to his chief subordinates his dispositions for the attack.
-Careful reconnaissances during the next two days, by drawing the
-fire of the enemy, revealed the strength of the Russian position,
-which stretched from Nanshan to the west to Hushangtao on the
-east. At this latter point eight guns were stationed, commanding
-the waters of Hand Bay, so that co-operation by the Japanese gunboats
-from this side was impossible. On the other hand, the Russians
-had a gunboat themselves stationed in the bay, and this was
-able to render valuable assistance to the defending force when the
-attack developed. On the west the waters of Kinchau Bay were too
-shallow to admit of the approach of vessels of any but the smallest
-draught, but four of the Japanese gunboats were able to enter close
-up to the shore, and gave conspicuous aid to General Oku in the
-course of the operations.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">General Oku's Attack</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 25th of May the Russian positions at Kinchau and Nanshan
-were heavily bombarded, and General Oku extended his line
-to the north as well as to the east. At
-dawn on the next day the attack began in
-earnest. A fierce and sustained bombardment,
-lasting for five hours, prepared the way for the advance, after
-which the Japanese made an onslaught upon the village of Kinchau,
-and drove the Russians at the point of the bayonet back upon their
-main line of defence, Nanshan. In this attack they were greatly assisted
-by the gunboats, the <i>Tsukushi</i>, <i>Saiyen</i>, <i>Akagi</i> and <i>Chiokai</i>,
-which brought their fire to bear upon the enemy's batteries at
-Suchiatun and Nanshan, and kept them hotly engaged. The capture
-of Kinchau, however, was only the first step in the fiery progress
-which lay before the Mikado's troops. To dislodge the Russians
-from Nanshan itself was a work of much greater magnitude. It was
-to the 4th Division that the main part of this honorable duty was
-assigned, the centre of the Japanese line being held by the 1st Division,
-and the extreme left by the 3rd.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Terrific Carnage</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Another fierce artillery duel preluded the general advance. By
-11 o'clock the Russian batteries appeared to have been silenced, and
-the Japanese pressed forward to storm
-the heights. But it turned out that General
-Stoessel was only reserving his fire.
-No sooner did the Japanese debouch into the open upon the slopes
-which led up to the hill than a storm of missiles swept across their
-path, mowing them down in serried masses. The wire entanglements,
-too, proved a deadly obstacle. Rush after rush was made
-by the gallant Japanese, but every attempt to get near to the trenches
-was vain. The carnage was terrific. The officers fell in all directions,
-the rank and file lay in piles of dead at the foot of the hill,
-and the advance came for a time to an absolute standstill.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A General Bombardment</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was clear that further artillery preparation was necessary,
-and therefore General Oku ordered a general bombardment once
-more. For hours his field batteries, supplemented
-by the gunboats, rained shot
-and shell upon the Russian positions,
-searching the whole range of forts and trenches, and doing terrible
-execution. The Russian fire slackened under this fearful cannonade,
-but still the Japanese continued their bombardment.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Chances of Defeat</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >And now came the crucial moment of the day. The artillery
-ammunition of the attacking force began
-to give out. To bring up fresh supplies
-from far in the rear meant that before
-the bombardment could be resumed night would have fallen upon the
-scene, for it was by this time late in the afternoon. When this untoward
-intelligence was brought to him, General Oku was presented
-with a problem of the utmost difficulty and a responsibility which
-might well have seemed overwhelming. He must either hazard
-another infantry attack at once, fraught with all the possibility of
-failure, or he must temporarily withdraw his forces and wait for
-further ammunition and perhaps heavier guns. The second course
-meant only delay; the first, in the event of a repulse, meant not
-merely delay, but the possibility of a crushing defeat as well. It
-must be remembered, moreover, that the troops had been close upon
-sixteen hours in the field. In these circumstances a commander of
-less resolution and with less confidence in his men would have been
-under a strong temptation to choose the alternative which offered
-the smaller risk, but General Oku was made of different mettle.
-He knew that delay would upset the general arrangements of the
-campaign; he knew, too, that it might give a fatal opportunity for
-the advance of a relief force from the north. He therefore at once
-accepted the tremendous responsibility of ordering a resumption of
-the attack all along the line. Fortunately, a weak point in the Russian
-defences had been discovered. The shallow waters of Kinchau
-Bay allowed men to wade in and approach Nanshan from the southwest,
-at a point at which, owing to the angle of emplacement of the
-Russian guns, they could do comparatively little damage to an advancing
-force. It was resolved to try this plan.</p>
-
-<div id='i243' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic030'>
-<img src='images/i243.jpg' alt='' class='ig030' />
-<p>RUSSIANS CHARGING JAPANESE TRENCHES AT PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rushing the Trenches</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Once again, then, the bugles rang out for attack, and the Japanese
-threw themselves with desperate bravery upon the Russian entrenchments.
-The wire entanglements
-gave as much difficulty as ever, and the
-slopes of the hill were one blinding sheet
-of flame; but still the Japanese pressed forward, climbing over their
-own dead and working their way gradually through the obstacles
-placed in their path. By a piece of good fortune the electric wires
-connected with a large mine field were discovered just in time and
-cut, and thus a dreadful disaster was averted. But brilliant as was
-the dash of the 1st and 3rd Divisions on the Russian right, the defence
-of the Czar's troops was stubborn and hardly contested, and
-it was not till the 4th Division on the extreme left had carried
-through their flanking operation that the issue of the day was put
-beyond doubt. Here the gunboats in the bay rendered invaluable
-service. They steamed close in and poured in a heavy fire upon
-the Russian batteries, covering the advance of the infantry through
-the shallows. In this gallant operation the commander of the
-<i>Chiokai</i>, Captain Hayashi, was killed, and several other casualties
-were sustained by the crews engaged. But the work was accomplished.
-Climbing the hill like cats, the Japanese soldiery broke
-through the entanglements in face of a galling fire and rushed the
-trenches, bayonetting the defenders where they stood. Nothing
-could stop that mad onslaught, and after a fierce hand-to-hand conflict
-on the summit the flag of the Rising Sun floated triumphantly
-over the position which the Russians had so fondly, and indeed so
-naturally, deemed to be impregnable.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russians in Flight</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >General Stoessel, finding that there was no use in continuing
-the sanguinary conflict now that his flank was turned, ordered a general
-retreat. The Japanese, however, in
-spite of the tremendous fatigues to which
-they had already been subjected since
-dawn, fiercely pursued their retiring enemy, with the result that the
-Russians found it impossible to make a stand at their second line of
-defence at Nankuenling, and were compelled to flee as far as the
-immediate neighborhood of Port Arthur itself.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Tremendous Moral Effect</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The moral effect of this great victory of the Japanese was tremendous.
-The Russians, and with them a great many Continental
-critics, had attempted to minimize the importance
-of the battle of the Yalu. The
-Japanese, they said, were in overwhelming
-numbers, the position was one that could be easily turned, and
-General Sassulitch ought never to have tried to stand his ground.
-But such criticisms were silenced by Kinchau. The little Japs were
-seen to be equal, if not superior, man for man, to their Russian
-opponents, and the fierce, almost fanatical, fervor of their patriotism
-proved a factor in the struggle the importance of which few people
-had properly estimated. It was felt at once by military men in
-Europe, that if 12,000 Russians, armed with heavy guns, could not
-hold such a post as that of Nanshan against the onslaught of the
-Japanese, the fall of Port Arthur itself, provided there were no effective
-diversion from the north, was merely a question of time.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Terrific Casualties</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Nor were the material fruits of General Oku's success less
-striking. His losses in <i>personnel</i>, of course, were heavy, amounting
-to 133 officers, and 4,062 non-commissioned
-officers and men killed and
-wounded. The casualties of the defenders
-were naturally not so great, but over 500 Russians were left dead
-upon the field, and it is estimated that their total losses in killed and
-wounded must have numbered over 2,000. Sixty-eight pieces of artillery
-and ten machine-guns fell into the hands of the victors.</p>
-
-<div id='i247' class='c016'>
-<div class='c031'>
-<img src='images/i247.png' alt='' class='c032' />
-<p class='c007'>AFTER FOUR MONTHS.</p>
-
-<p>Continuing their advance, the first Japanese Army, under Kuroki occupied
-Kuan-tien on May 14. In the meantime the second Japanese Army, under Oku,
-had effected a landing on the Liaotung Peninsula at Pitzuwo. On May 16 they
-seized the Kinchau heights, and ten days later defeated the Russians at the battle
-of Nanshan. Dalny was occupied on May 30. The third Japanese Army,
-under Nodzu, began landing at Takushan on May 19, and on June 8 occupied
-Siu-yen.</p>
-
-<p>The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Four days afterwards the Japanese entered Dalny and occupied
-that important station. With the exception of the great pier, all
-those enormous works upon which the Russians had been expending
-vast sums for years were found to be intact, and the invaders
-were able henceforth to use the port as an invaluable base for their
-operations against Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Alarm in St. Petersburg</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This series of disasters caused the greatest alarm in St. Petersburg.
-The seriousness of the danger that threatened Port Arthur
-was realized in all its fulness at last, and
-the lofty assurance which had hitherto
-reigned supreme among the Imperial
-<i>entourage</i> gave place to feelings of panic. The result was that desperate
-measures were embarked upon which only led to fresh misfortunes.
-General Kuropatkin himself had seen from the first the
-impossibility of relieving Port Arthur from the north until he had
-a larger force at his disposal than he was likely to secure for months
-to come. His plan had always been to concentrate his main army at
-Liao-yang, or, if necessary, at Mukden, and wait till the arrival of
-large reinforcements enabled him to advance against the Japanese
-with some hope of success. If the Commander-in-Chief had been
-left to himself it is possible that this plan would have been pursued
-consistently and a great <i>debacle</i> might have been avoided. Port Arthur,
-indeed, would have been almost certain to fall, but in the opinion
-of nearly every strategist who had studied the problem, nothing
-short of a miracle could now save the so-called Gibraltar of the East.
-The only sound policy for the Russians was one of retirement and
-concentration until a more favorable opportunity presented itself.
-But now the Evil Genius of Russia interposed with his fatal counsels.
-To Admiral Alexeieff it was unthinkable that Port Arthur, at
-which for so long he had held his haughty Viceregal state, should be
-abandoned without a mighty effort. Ever since the arrival of General
-Kuropatkin in Manchuria had reduced him to a position of comparative
-inferiority, he had been intriguing against that commander
-with varying success, but on this occasion he received powerful
-backing amongst the Czar's advisers in St. Petersburg. The heaviest
-pressure was brought to bear upon General Kuropatkin to induce
-him to dispatch a strong force southwards to the relief of Port
-Arthur, and in an evil hour for his country and his own reputation
-the Commander-in-Chief weakly consented to be overruled. Lieut.-General
-Baron Stackelberg, the commander of the 1st Army Corps,
-with an army 35,000 strong was ordered to advance by forced
-marches into the Liao-tung Peninsula and lead a forlorn hope to save
-the doomed fortress.</p>
-
-<div id='i250' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic031'>
-<img src='images/i250.jpg' alt='' class='ig031' />
-<p>RUSSIAN PRIEST IN THE TRENCHES, WITH GENERAL STAKELBERG'S ARMY.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Fatal Russian Strategy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The folly of this course is obvious to the veriest tyro in military
-science. Kuropatkin's line was already too far extended for safety.
-On his left flank, creeping gradually
-closer and working round to the northeast
-to effect a wide turning movement, was
-General Kuroki, with the 1st Army; General Nodzu, with the 3rd
-Army, was advancing from Takushan in the direction of Kaichau;
-while in the extreme south General Oku, having received large reinforcements,
-was able to hold Port Arthur securely invested and to
-march northwards with forces numbering 60,000 men, flushed with
-recent victory. The southward march of Baron Stackelberg, therefore,
-was doomed to disaster from the first. Not only was it highly
-improbable that he would ever succeed in getting through to Port
-Arthur, but in case he had to retreat, he ran a grave risk of being
-cut off by General Nodzu, and imperilling the position of General
-Kuropatkin himself. This was exactly what happened in actual
-fact.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Old Tactics versus New</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The ill-fated expedition, after some preliminary skirmishing,
-met General Oku's main body at Wafangkau or Telissu on the 15th
-of June. Telissu is a village situated to the east of the railway line
-about 20 miles north of Port Adams.
-Nothing could better prove the superiority
-of the Japanese over the Russians in the
-matter of tactics than the dispositions which were made for this battle
-by Oku and Stackelberg respectively. Kuropatkin's lieutenant
-fought in the old-fashioned style, with his men closely packed together
-over a narrow front. The Japanese, on the other hand, advanced
-in an open formation over a widely extended area. At dawn
-General Oku ordered his troops to attack. They advanced in two
-columns, the main body proceeding along the railway line against
-the enemy's centre and right, while a second and more mobile force
-worked round to the west to turn Stackelberg's right flank. The
-Russians threw themselves fiercely upon the Japanese right and
-centre, and for some hours the battle was hotly contested. But in
-the meantime the turning movement to the west was proceeding with
-entire success. Before he realized the imminence of the danger,
-Stackelberg found that his right flank was driven in, and that his
-rear was threatened. He withdrew troops from his left and centre
-to meet this new danger; but it was too late, and he merely weakened
-his position in one part of the field without strengthening it in another.
-From three sides the Japanese now pressed their attack
-home, gradually encircling the Russians with a ring of fire. The
-terrible effectiveness of Oku's artillery was borne witness to afterwards
-by the Russians themselves. Their positions were heaped
-with dead. General Stackelberg in his dispatch describing the battle
-said that the 3rd and 4th batteries of the 1st Artillery Brigade were
-literally cut to pieces by the Japanese shells, and thirteen out of sixteen
-guns were rendered completely useless. A large number of
-officers were killed, and among the wounded was Major-General
-Gerngross. In spite of this tremendous pounding the Russians held
-their ground with great gallantry; but, as the Japanese attack developed,
-General Stackelberg saw that if he maintained his position
-much longer, he would be altogether surrounded. Therefore, just
-in the nick of time, he ordered a retreat. Slowly and painfully the
-retirement was conducted over difficult, mountainous country. The
-Japanese, exhausted by forced marches and two days' fighting, were
-unable to cut off Stackelberg's escape entirely, but they inflicted
-terrible losses on his retreating troops, and he only succeeded in
-reaching Kaichau some days afterwards with a shattered remnant
-of his force. The Japanese casualties in this great battle were not
-more than 1,000. On the other hand, upwards of 2,000 Russians
-were found dead upon the field and buried by the victors, and the
-total losses sustained by General Stackelberg's army, including
-prisoners taken, amounted to about 10,000. Large numbers of guns
-and regimental colors were captured.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Veil over the Tragedy</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thus ended this ill-advised attempt to relieve Port Arthur.
-Henceforth all hopes of succor from the north had to be abandoned.
-In fact, General Kuropatkin, instead of
-being able to render assistance to the
-beleaguered garrison, was himself threatened
-with irremediable disaster, largely in
-consequence of this ill-fated operation. And now for upwards of
-two months almost complete darkness fell upon the tragedy that was
-being enacted round the doomed fortress. Rumors reached the outer
-world from time to time of the sanguinary combats by which the
-besiegers slowly fought their way nearer and nearer to the heart of
-the stronghold; but rumors they remained; and the Japanese, true to
-their policy of silence while important events were in progress,
-allowed no authentic news to percolate through the censorship. At
-last, however, the veil was partially lifted. When in the early days
-of August the Russian fleet, threatened with ignoble destruction by
-the fire of the rapidly approaching batteries of the Japanese, made an
-unsuccessful dash for freedom, it was recognized on all hands that
-the end was near.</p>
-
-<div id='i256' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic032'>
-<img src='images/i256.jpg' alt='' class='ig032' />
-<p>GENERAL NOGI BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch09' class='c015'>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Secrecy of Japanese Strategy&mdash;The Geographical Position&mdash;Kuropatkin's Essential
-Weakness&mdash;Rain Stops Carnage&mdash;Oku Rolls up the Russians&mdash;Field-Marshal
-Oyama&mdash;Keller's Failure&mdash;10th Regiment Ambushed&mdash;Desperate
-Courage against Overwhelming Odds&mdash;Kuroki again on the Offensive&mdash;Capture
-of Niuchwang&mdash;The Bloodiest Fight so Far&mdash;The Death of Count
-Keller&mdash;Kuropatkin's Heavy Loss&mdash;Concentration at Liao-yang&mdash;Kuropatkin's
-Urgent Motives&mdash;Oyama's Great Resources&mdash;Twelve Days' Battle&mdash;The
-Great Armies in Touch&mdash;Frightful Scene of Carnage&mdash;Costly but
-Indecisive.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Secrecy of Japanese Strategy</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The signal defeat of the Russian army under General Stackelberg
-at Telissu on the 15th June cleared the way for an advance
-northwards by General Oku's army. It was one of
-the consequences of the secrecy which attended the Japanese
-strategy from first to last that until this moment General Oku's
-real objective was not guessed either by foreign observers or even
-by the Russians themselves. The general
-impression was, naturally, that the Second
-Army was destined for the tremendous
-task of storming Port Arthur, but a much
-larger conception of the campaign was present to the minds of the
-strategists at Tokio. Fresh troops in large numbers were poured
-into the Liao-tung Peninsula, and these, under the command of
-General Nogi were concentrated round Port Arthur, while the main
-body of the Second Army was pushed northwards to act in co-operation
-with the First Army of General Kuroki and the Third Army
-commanded by General Nodzu, which, it will be remembered, had by
-this time landed at Takushan and was being gradually directed upon
-Haicheng. As soon, therefore, as his forces had been restored after
-their tremendous exertions at Telissu, General Oku set out with all
-possible rapidity along the line of railway towards Kaiping. And
-now Kuroki's long wait at Feng-hwang-cheng came to an end. It
-had, however, been well utilized. Not only had it enabled the conqueror
-of the Yalu to concentrate an army of upwards of 100,000
-men, but in the interval his engineers had been employed in constructing
-defences, of a semi-permanent character, which, in the
-event of a subsequent retreat being rendered necessary, would make
-the position almost impregnable against Russian attack. But on the
-23rd June General Kuroki broke camp, and, leaving behind him only
-a rear guard, took the first step in that great series of operations
-which, as they advanced northwards, stained the fertile plains of
-Southern Manchuria with the blood of Japanese and Muscovite
-alike and culminated around Liao-yang and Mukden in the most
-terrific and sanguinary conflicts experienced in the annals of war
-since the great struggle between the Northern and Southern States.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Geographical Position</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The key to the valley of the Liao River, it will be remembered,
-lies in the three passes of Motienling, Taling, and Fenshuiling; and
-these were all held in force by the Russians.
-The first of them stands on the
-main road leading from Feng-hwang-cheng
-to Liao-yang; the second (which must not be confused with
-the pass of the same name situated north of the Taitse River at about
-60 miles to the east of Liao-yang) commands the road between
-Feng-hwang-cheng and Haicheng; and the third is on the road from
-Siuyen to Tashichao and is about 20 miles southeast from the latter
-place. The situation of the most important posts along the railway
-from Mukden to Kaiping has already been indicated, but for the
-sake of clearness it may be repeated that Liao-yang, where General
-Kuropatkin had concentrated his main army, stands about 40 miles
-south of Mukden; that 30 miles further south again is situated
-Haicheng; and that an interval of 30 miles more separates that
-town from Kaiping, or Kaichau, as it is sometimes called, Tashichao
-lying half-way between.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin's Essential Weakness</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >General Nodzu's troops were now for the first time brought
-into action, and operated in unison with General Kuroki's army in
-the attack upon the passes. A combination
-of most skilful movements made
-them masters of these important defiles
-within a few days of one another. In
-each case the tactics were the same. A frontal attack was pushed
-forward by one division, while strong bodies were sent round both
-to the right and left, and, securing ground from which they could
-enfilade the Russian trenches, rendered the position untenable by
-the defending force. General surprise was felt at the ineffective
-stand made here by General Kuropatkin's troops, especially as they
-had spent at least three months in building entrenchments, protected
-by wire entanglements and all the accessories of modern scientific
-warfare. The fact was, however, that the essential weakness of
-Kuropatkin's army in point of numbers compared with its opponents
-was now made disastrously apparent, and in spite of the natural
-and artificial strength of these passes, he could not prevent the
-superior force which the Japanese invariably contrived to bring
-against him at any given point from turning his flanks. Both the
-Taling Pass and the Motienling Pass, at the latter of which General
-Count Keller, who had superseded General Sassulitch in his command,
-directed the Russian operations, fell an easy prey to Kuroki's
-man&oelig;uvres; but at Fenshuiling General Nodzu met with fierce opposition.
-The defile was defended by fourteen battalions of infantry
-and three regiments of cavalry, supported by thirty guns, and a
-severe engagement took place, lasting for six hours. It was apparent
-that the strength of the Russian entrenchments was such that a
-direct attack would involve an enormous sacrifice of life; but after
-brilliant tactics, carried out during the night of the 26th June and
-the early morning of the 27th, the Japanese outflanked their enemy
-and drove them back in full retreat down the road to Simucheng,
-leaving ninety dead upon the field and losing eighty-eight prisoners,
-including six officers. On the same day a force of three battalions
-with sixteen guns made a desperate effort to recapture the position,
-but they were hurled back with heavy loss, and the pass remained
-irrevocably in the hands of the Japanese.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rain Stops the Carnage</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At this stage in the advance further progress was delayed for a
-few days by an agency which at frequent intervals during the campaign
-rose superior to the fiercest energy
-on the part of either combatant. The
-weather, which renders war in Manchuria
-practically impossible in winter, succeeds in giving it an intermittent
-character even in summer, and now heavy rains brought the operations
-to a temporary standstill. The Japanese who were on the high
-ground overlooking the valleys did not suffer so much from the
-torrential downpour, but the Russians in the plains had to bear its
-full force, and all movements by any arm of the service were rendered
-impossible by a sea of mud. By the 4th of July, however, the
-rains had stopped, and on that day a sharp fight took place at Motien-ling.
-During a dense fog at dawn, two battalions of the Russians
-attacked the Japanese outposts and endeavored to force the position.
-But Kuroki's soldiers were not to be surprised, and reinforcements
-were hurried up with all speed. Severe hand-to-hand fighting took
-place; but, finally, after three onslaughts by the Russians, the Japanese
-hurled them back in rout and pursued them for a distance
-of four miles to the westward.</p>
-
-<div id='i261' class='c016'>
-<div class='c033'>
-<img src='images/i261.png' alt='' class='c034' />
-<p class='c007'>AFTER FIVE MONTHS.</p>
-
-<p>Following the railway northwards Oku came into touch with the retreating
-Russians on June 15, and inflicted upon them a crushing defeat at the battle of
-Telissu. His advance was not again opposed until he reached Kaiping,
-which he captured after some fighting on July 9. Meanwhile the armies under
-Kuroki and Nodzu had been advancing steadily, and the Mo-tien and Fen-shui
-Passes, commanding the roads to Liaoyang and Haicheng, were captured simultaneously.
-During this month the siege of Port Arthur began on land.</p>
-
-<p>The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Oku Rolls up Russians</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Two days later General Oku took up the running for the Japanese,
-and started to roll up the Russian forces from the south.
-Moving out from Erh-tau-ho-tse, which
-is 12 miles south of Kaiping, he marched
-upon that town along the road westwards
-of the railway, driving the enemy's outposts before him. By noon
-on the 9th he had forced the Russians, who were under General
-Zarubaieff, Commander of the Fourth Siberian Army Corps, back
-upon their main position at Kaiping itself, and here it appeared that
-General Kuropatkin had ordered a stand to be made. Upwards of
-30,000 men, with numerous guns, were in the neighborhood at the
-disposal of Zarubaieff and Oku prepared for a stout resistance. But
-as a matter of fact the opposition offered to him turned out to be
-comparatively feeble. After an artillery duel lasting for four hours
-his troops advanced and seized the heights extending from Haishan-chai
-on the west to Shwangtingshan on the east, from both of which
-eminences they could command Kaiping. Reinforcements had been
-hurried up from the Russian rear, but they were soon ordered northward
-again, and the whole body evacuated the town under cover of
-heavy gun fire on the afternoon of the same day. The cause of this
-ineffectual resistance on the part of Zarubaieff was the advance of
-the Third Army of Japan from Fenshuiling, which acted in co-ordination
-throughout with General Oku's columns, and threatened to
-outflank the Russians. To avoid a great disaster General Zarubaieff
-was compelled to retreat, and as a consequence of this skilful man&oelig;uvring,
-General Oku was enabled to occupy the important position
-of Kaiping with a loss which was almost negligible, another big
-step being thus gained in the progress northwards.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Field-Marshal Oyama</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the very day which Oku began his advance on Kaiping there
-occurred an event which brought strikingly before the world the fact
-that these movements by the three Japanese
-generals were only part of one great
-concerted plan, the vastness of which was
-not yet realized. This was the departure from Tokio for the seat of
-war of Field-Marshal Marquis Oyama, the master-mind selected
-by the Mikado for the supreme command of all his armies in the
-field. A brief description of the career of this great general, whose
-renown in Japan is second only to that of the veteran Yamagata, will
-not be out of place here. Like so many of the Japanese leaders who
-have distinguished themselves in the present war, Oyama's first experience
-of fighting was gained in the old days of the Sumatsu
-rebellion, in which he took part on the revolutionary side, achieving
-considerable distinction for his gallantry. After peace had placed
-the Mikado securely upon the throne of Japan, Oyama was sent to
-Prussia as military attaché, and was present at Moltke's headquarters
-at all the most important operations of the Franco-German
-War. There he, no doubt, gained many of the valuable lessons
-which have since been put in force both in the Chinese War ten years
-ago and in the present campaign. After the Peace of Versailles he
-devoted himself to a close study of the military organizations of
-France and Switzerland, and returning to his own country in 1875
-received an appointment on the General Staff in Tokio. He was
-selected for the command of the First Army on the outbreak of the
-war with China in 1894, and directed the operations around Port
-Arthur, which culminated in the storming of that powerful fortress.
-On the retirement of Marshal Yamagata from ill-health, General
-Oyama was appointed to the chief command of all the Japanese
-forces in the field, and carried the campaign to a successful conclusion.
-After the signature of the Treaty of Peace the Mikado recognized
-his great services by conferring upon him the baton of Field-Marshal
-and appointing him Chief of the Staff. In the meanwhile,
-General Oku was preparing for his further advance northwards,
-where the next obstacle in his path was the Russian position at
-Tashichao. This town had been converted into a place of great
-strength and was garrisoned by at least 60,000 men with 105 guns.
-But before the opposing forces could meet here a fresh attack of a
-much more determined character than the last was made upon the
-Japanese army at Motienling, the Russians, under the command of
-Kuropatkin's most trusted lieutenant, General Count Keller, making
-a desperate attempt to regain possession of that important defile.
-This was the first occasion on which Kuropatkin's troops seriously
-assumed the offensive in the course of the war, and the result was a
-conspicuous success once more for the Japanese.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Keller's Failure</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian Commander-in-Chief entrusted two divisions to
-Count Keller for the purpose of the attack, and that General made
-dispositions for a frontal attack along the
-main road from Tawan, simultaneously,
-with movements against both of the Japanese
-flanks. For the main operation one division was employed,
-and the other was divided into two bodies, the first marching from
-Anping upon Hsimatang, where the outposts on Kuroki's right were
-stationed; and the second pushing forward from Tienshuitien along
-the paths which lead through the hills to the south of Motienling,
-where the Japanese left wing was posted. This scheme of advance
-might have had some success if all the parts of the machine had
-worked together with complete smoothness, but in the actual event
-the movements of the several columns were badly co-ordinated, and
-they came into action at different times.</p>
-
-<div id='i265' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic033'>
-<img src='images/i265.jpg' alt='' class='ig033' />
-<p>FOOD FOR THE JAPANESE ARMY.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">10th Regiment Ambushed</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The frontal attack began at 3 a. m., when, under cover of a
-dense fog, Keller's two leading battalions fell upon the Japanese outpost
-upon the main road some distance to
-the west of the pass. Notwithstanding
-the shock of the surprise and the formidable
-disparity of numbers, Kuroki's troops held their ground with
-the utmost gallantry. The foremost files of the 10th Siberian Regiment
-became engaged almost at once in a hand-to-hand combat with
-a small body of about thirty or forty Japanese. Several of the latter
-were bayonetted before they realized that the enemy was upon them,
-but the survivors, taking refuge among some Chinese cottages,
-made a desperate resistance with rifle and cold steel. The din and
-the crack of musketry aroused some companies who were bivouacking
-in the neighboring trenches, and they quickly rushed to the support
-of their comrades. One company, taking up a position in an
-adjacent temple, poured in a murderous fire upon the Russians, and
-another stationed itself on a hill on the opposite side and joined in
-the deadly fusillade. Thus the 10th Regiment, instead of successfully
-surprising its foe, found itself in turn surprised in an ambush,
-and after a hot engagement was compelled to retreat back upon its
-main body. It was five o'clock before the Russians could bring up a
-sufficient force to drive in the Japanese outposts, by which time the
-gallant stand made by these few companies had enabled Kuroki's
-troops entrenched at the Motien Pass itself to prepare fully for the
-onslaught that awaited them. When Keller's soldiery, therefore,
-came within range of the Japanese lines, they were met by a heavy
-fire both from infantry and artillery. Two hours more elapsed before
-they were properly disposed for the attack, and then, although
-they consisted of a whole division of 12,000 men, and were opposed
-by a force of no more than 4,000, their tactics proved quite ineffective,
-and they could not succeed in the slightest degree in shaking
-the hold upon the defile which their enemy had gained.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The fire which was directed upon them from the Japanese lines
-was especially galling upon their left wing, and here, shortly before
-eleven o'clock, they began to give way, and ere long the whole force
-fell back in retreat. Their active enemy then sprang forward to
-the attack themselves and attempted to push the repulse home, but
-a strong rear guard held them in check, and prevented the reverse
-from becoming a rout. It afterwards became apparent that the
-reason for this retreat on the part of Count Keller's main body was
-the complete failure of the flanking movements which he had presumably
-intended to be conducted simultaneously.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Desperate Courage but Overwhelming Odds</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the attack upon their outposts upon the main road at three
-in the morning had put the whole Japanese army upon the <i>qui vive</i>,
-and both on the right and the left flanks
-preparations were made to meet such a
-man&oelig;uvre as the Russian General had in
-view. On the left wing, as no enemy had
-appeared in sight by five o'clock, a company of the Japanese pushed
-forward towards Makumenza to wait for their approach. There it
-fell in with a Russian battalion and engaged it at once in a hot
-conflict. A second battalion came to the aid of the first, and for a
-time the little force of Japanese was in danger of being annihilated,
-but reinforcements quickly arrived, and though they were still numerically
-weaker than the Russians, they drove them back with heavy
-loss, and occupied the heights which commanded the approach from
-this point, completing the confusion of the enemy by directing a
-galling fire upon the main body which was now in full retreat along
-the road to Tawan. On the right flank the struggle was more obstinate
-and sanguinary. When the attack began at eight o'clock the
-Japanese were greatly outnumbered, and for a time one company
-had to hold its own against the onslaught of a whole battalion of the
-Russians, supported by a troop of cavalry. In the deadly conflict
-which ensued, every one of the Japanese officers fell upon the field,
-but notwithstanding their terrible losses the little band fought on
-with desperate courage against the overwhelming odds. The arrival
-of another Russian battalion seemed to threaten their complete destruction,
-but, fortunately, before long reinforcements were hurried
-up to the spot and the contest became more even. After a severe
-conflict, lasting for eight and a half hours, the Russians at length
-gave up the attempt to force the Japanese lines as hopeless, and fell
-back broken and defeated.</p>
-
-<div id='i269' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic034'>
-<img src='images/i269.png' alt='' class='ig034' />
-<p>MAP SHOWING TERRITORY ADJACENT TO LIAOYANG.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thus at every point this attack, from which General Kuropatkin
-had hoped for so much, failed completely, and the superiority of the
-Japanese soldiery over their opponents was once more strikingly
-manifested. Kuroki's casualties amounted to about 300 killed and
-wounded, but the affair was much more expensive to the Russians,
-General Keller putting his losses at over 1,000 men.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin Again on the Offensive</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Immediately following upon this success, General Kuroki once
-again assumed the offensive and captured the position of Hsihoyen,
-practically the last stronghold occupied
-by the Russians on the high ground overlooking
-the plains of the Liao River.
-This success was the work of the Twelfth
-Division, that division which, it will be remembered, decided the battle
-of the Yalu by its flank attack on General Kashtalinsky's left.
-It now covered itself with fresh glory under its skilful commander,
-General Nishi. The same tactics as had been adopted in all these
-operations against the strongly entrenched positions of the Russians
-were once more employed. The enemy were kept busy with a frontal
-attack while a column marched around their right flank and rendered
-their carefully prepared stronghold untenable. A general
-advance was then made, and the Russians were driven back upon
-Anping in complete rout with more than 1,000 casualties. The
-Japanese killed and wounded amounted only to half that number.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 24th of July, Oku resumed his advance northwards and
-attacked the powerful Russian position at Tashichao. The skilful
-handling of Zarubaieff's large force of artillery made it impossible
-for the Japanese to carry the trenches by daylight, but, waiting till
-nightfall, they made a fresh onslaught under the beams of a full
-moon. Point after point fell into their hands, and next morning
-General Zarubaieff, feeling the hopelessness of continuing the defence,
-especially in view of a fresh movement by General Nodzu's
-army which threatened his left, decided to retreat. This unexpectedly
-easy victory was gained by the Japanese at the expense of about
-1,000 casualties; but the Russians lost twice that number of men,
-and among the wounded were two officers of high rank, Generals
-Kondratovitch and Skaloff. Two days later a detachment of Oku's
-army entered Yinkow, the port of Niuchwang&mdash;a highly important
-prize, for it provided the invaders with a new and most valuable
-base for the advance from the south.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Capture of Niuchwang</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On July 31st the advance was resumed all along the line of the
-extended front of the Japanese, and each of the three armies was
-hotly engaged. Oku's steady march along
-the line of the railway drove the retreating
-enemy into Haicheng. On the
-right, at Tomucheng, a more sanguinary battle took place between
-General Nodzu's army and two divisions of Russian infantry, supported
-by seven batteries of artillery, under the command of General
-Alexeieff. The Russians occupied a strongly entrenched position on
-the hills to the north of Tomucheng, the work of fortification having
-occupied several months. But the result was the same here as in
-every quarter of the theatre of war. The two armies were locked
-together in a deadly struggle for nearly the whole of a
-scorching day, until the Japanese left wing, attacking with
-desperate bravery, carried the heights opposite to them
-and threatened the rear of the Russian centre. During the
-night, therefore, General Alexeieff fell back, leaving more than 150
-dead upon the field and abandoning six guns, which fell into the
-hands of the enemy. The result of these combined operations of the
-Second and Third Armies was that Haicheng was occupied on
-August 3rd, and Niuchwang&mdash;which must be distinguished from the
-port of the same name&mdash;also fell into Oku's grasp.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Bloodiest Fight so Far</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was in the north, however, with the Japanese First Army
-that the bloodiest fighting ensued, and that the Russians met with
-the most signal defeat. On July 31st
-Kuroki's right wing held Kushulintzu, 4
-miles to the west of Hsihoyen, and his
-centre occupied Yangtzuling, 6 miles to
-the west of Motienling, both places being situated about 25 miles
-from Liao-yang. Opposite to Kushulintzu the Russians, who held
-a very strong position on the high ground, consisted of two divisions
-of infantry with well-placed artillery. The attack began at
-dawn and continued all day. The Japanese infantry advanced
-gradually across the open valley undeterred by the murderous fire
-poured upon them from the Russian batteries, and threw themselves
-recklessly upon the enemy's redoubts. It was on the wings
-that the Russian defence was the weakest, and here, by sunset, the
-impetuous onslaught of the Mikado's troops carried all before it,
-nightfall finding them in possession of some of the most important
-heights. But the strength of the Russian centre was too great to
-be forced easily, and the Japanese therefore bivouacked on the
-field, and waited till daybreak to resume the attack. With the first
-rays of dawn they were ready once more for the fray, and again
-the hills resounded with the roar of artillery. For several hours
-the battle raged, the Russians making a most obstinate defence,
-but as the Japanese captured height after height the enemy could
-stand their ground no longer, and by noon they broke and fled
-westwards, leaving several field guns behind in the victor's hands.</p>
-
-<div id='i273' class='c016'>
-<div class='c035'>
-<img src='images/i273.png' alt='' class='c036' />
-<p class='c007'>AFTER SIX MONTHS.</p>
-
-<p>Kuroki and Nodzu now called a halt to enable Oku to come into line with
-them. The latter, working his way steadily northwards, drove the Russians out
-of Tashichiao after three days' severe fighting. Newchwang was occupied on
-July 25, and Nodzu, having advanced his forces to Si-mu-cheng and driven out
-the Russians on July 30, the two generals joined forces and marched on Haicheng,
-which they occupied on August 2. A general assault was delivered on
-Port Arthur on July 26, and a few days later the Japanese captured Wolf Hill,
-Green Hill, and Takushan.</p>
-
-<p>The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Death of Count Keller</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At Yangtzuling the conflict was even more severe. The Russian
-force here consisted of two and a half divisions, with four
-batteries of artillery, and General Count
-Keller commanded in person. It was destined
-to be that gallant but unfortunate
-officer's last fight, for he fell mortally
-wounded in the course of the second day's operations.
-The Japanese plan of attack was very much the same as
-in the case of Kushulintzu. In spite of the tropical sun,
-whose rays beat upon their heads without protection, their advance
-was irresistible, and throwing themselves upon the enemy with a
-fierce <i>elan</i>, which carried all before it, they captured some of the
-principal positions by the close of the day. Here again, however,
-a numerous body of Russians held out in the centre against the
-most desperate attacks, and the Japanese were therefore compelled
-to bivouac on the field for the night and resume the conflict on the
-succeeding day. The dawn opened with a terrific artillery duel between
-the opposing batteries, and all the morning the guns belched
-forth flame and death. It was in the course of this tremendous
-bombardment that Count Keller met with his death. He was a
-man of reckless courage, and he insisted on taking his stand to
-direct the operations in a battery which was most heavily exposed
-to the fire of Kuroki's guns. So fiercely did the shells fall all
-around that his staff represented to him that he must be the object
-himself of the enemy's cannonade, but he refused to retire to
-a less exposed position. He had hardly dismounted from his horse
-when a shrapnel shell burst within a few paces from him and
-hurled him to the ground. A sergeant rushed up to him to raise
-him in his arms, but the general motioned him away and expired
-a few moments afterwards. His wounds were of the most terrible
-nature. Two fragments of shell struck him upon the head
-and three others in the chest, and he had thirty-one shrapnel bullet
-wounds in different parts of his body. The death of their commander
-threw the Russians into final confusion, and they retreated
-in haste, leaving a number of field guns in Kuroki's possession.</p>
-
-<div id='i275' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic035'>
-<img src='images/i275.jpg' alt='' class='ig035' />
-<p>DEATH OF COUNT KELLER AT YANG-ZE-LING PASS.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin's Heavy Loss</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The loss of Count Keller was a particularly heavy blow to
-Kuropatkin, for he was the most trusted of all his subordinates
-and was most deeply in the confidence
-of the Commander-in-Chief. His experience,
-too, of war was gained in the
-Russo-Turkish campaign, on the staff of the same famous leader,
-Skobeleff, and he actually succeeded Kuropatkin as Aide-de-Camp
-to that General when the present Commander-in-Chief was
-wounded at the Shipka Pass in 1877. Besides the signal misfortune
-he sustained by the death of this distinguished officer, General
-Kuropatkin had to add to his already heavy casualty list a further
-loss of 2,000 officers and men. It was an even more significant
-and discouraging fact, however, that among the troops opposed to
-the victorious Kuroki on this occasion were the most recent accessions
-to the Russian army, the 10th and 17th Corps. These
-forces, which came from European Russia and were greatly superior
-to the Siberian soldiery both in physique and discipline, had
-been counted upon to do much to stem the tide of disaster, but
-though they made a better appearance than the troops which had
-been in action previously, all their prowess was unavailing against
-the impetuous patriotism of the Japanese, who had by this time
-proved themselves to be among the finest infantry in the whole
-world.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Concentration at Liaoyang</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It now became plain to Kuropatkin that the Japanese could not
-be stopped before Liao-yang itself was reached. He therefore concentrated
-all his available forces at that
-powerful and highly fortified position
-in preparation for a great pitched battle.
-During the months which had elapsed
-since the arrival of the Russian Commander-in-Chief at the seat of
-war, Liao-yang had been turned into a great place of arms. Its
-great natural defensive advantages had been skilfully improved
-upon. Every inch of suitable ground had been carefully fortified,
-and there can be little doubt from the character of the dispositions
-which had been made that Kuropatkin hoped to be able not only to
-make a stand here, but to hurl back the armies of the Mikado in
-disorder, save Southern Manchuria for the Czar, and perhaps even
-march forward afterwards to the relief of the beleaguered fortress
-of Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >His armies, indeed, had been tragically reduced in numbers
-in every combat that had yet taken place. The arrival of the Tenth
-and Seventeenth Army Corps had put him in a better position;
-but against this had to be set the loss of nearly 30,000 men killed
-or wounded since the battle of the Yalu proved the magnitude of
-the task which lay before him. Yet he now possessed a force of
-about 132,000 men, with 400 guns, and he held a position of enormous
-strength. All of his troops, indeed, had tasted the bitterness
-and discouragement of defeat in the course of the fifteen engagements
-which had taken place since the outbreak of the war, but
-he himself had not yet been present in person upon the field of battle,
-and he might well hope that the failure which had attended
-all the efforts of his lieutenants would give place to victory when
-he took the direction of affairs into his own hands.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin's Urgent Motives</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >At all events, whatever the issue of the battle might be, there
-could be no doubt that a retreat from Liao-yang without fighting
-was for every reason impossible. The
-Court of St. Petersburg had already
-been rendered restive by the continual
-withdrawal of the main body of
-Muscovite armies to the north; his enemies were busy
-with their detractions; and the irrepressible Alexeieff was
-always near to make capital out of the difficulties, and
-to distort and misrepresent the actions of his abler rival. But
-beyond all these personal reasons, powerful enough in themselves
-in the eyes of a man holding such a position as Kuropatkin, there
-were more worthy considerations which weighed heavily in the
-scale in favor of boldly submitting his fortunes to the cast of the
-die and risking all in one mighty struggle. The honor of the
-Russian arms and the prestige of the Empire were at stake; a
-continued retreat without a supreme effort to roll back the tide of
-invasion was politically dangerous to a Dominion which owed
-its very existence in the East to the preservation of a haughty
-and determined front; and, more serious even than the growing
-restlessness of all those Oriental races who yield unwilling allegiance
-to the Little White Father, was the increasing discontent in
-Russia itself, and the uprising once more of the forbidding spectre
-of Nihilism and revolution. A pitched battle on a grand scale
-was, therefore, for every reason unavoidable, and, in spite of all
-the risks he ran, Kuropatkin faced the prospect before him with
-calm courage and resolution.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Oyama's Great Resources</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The state of things on the other side was very different. Here
-there was nothing to discourage, but everything to inspire hope.
-Field-Marshal Oyama, who had now
-reached the scene of operations, found at
-his disposal three great armies upon
-whose banners victory had consistently rested during a now prolonged
-campaign. The organization of the whole of the forces
-was perfect, and though it was now far from its base, its supplies
-were ample and constant. The natural difficulties of the advance
-were, indeed, great, but they were no greater than those which
-had already been triumphantly overcome. His chief lieutenants
-were men of tried capacity. The subordinate officers had proved
-their efficiency in tactics on many a hard-fought field, and the
-rank and file were inspired, not only with a rare intelligence, but
-with a fanatical patriotism, which made them, perhaps, the most
-formidable instruments of warfare the world has ever seen. And
-after all the inevitable losses of the past three months, he yet had
-under his command a total field force (exclusive of the army of
-100,000 men engaged in besieging Port Arthur) of 220,000 men
-and 600 guns. It was plain that only the most desperate resistance
-on the part of the Russians could prevent the crowning mercy of a
-great victory, and already foreign critics were anticipating a Russian
-Sedan upon the banks of the Taitse River.</p>
-
-<div id='i281' class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i281.png' alt='THE SIX DAYS ACTION AROUND LIAOYANG AUG. 29TH-SEPT. 3RD.' class='ig036' />
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Twelve Days' Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Torrential rains again delayed operations for upwards of three
-weeks, but by the 24th of August comparatively dry weather had
-set in, and on the 25th the general advance
-of the Japanese upon Liao-yang
-began. We now enter upon one of the
-most tremendous dramas ever known in military history&mdash;the
-twelve days' battle around Liao-yang. No fighting so fierce, so
-sustained, and so bloody has been experienced since the armies of
-Grant and Lee met in their great death grapple in the Wilderness
-in the Civil War. The terrible conflict raged for the most part
-simultaneously over an enormously extended front, and an adequate
-description can only be given by following in turn the fortunes
-of the separate Japanese armies. But for sake of clearness
-it will be well to attempt, first, a brief and comprehensive account
-of the main lines of the operations and their final result.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Great Armies in Touch</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 25th Kuroki's army of three divisions advanced upon
-Anping, and, after desperate fighting, drove the Russians back from
-that place to Liao-yang. At the same
-time the Third Army under General
-Nodzu, man&oelig;uvring with Oku's forces
-on the left, turned the enemy out
-of their strong position at Anshanchan, situated about 15
-miles to the south of Liao-yang. The advance of Oku
-was delayed considerably by the efforts of an enterprising
-rear guard left by Kuropatkin to cover the retreat, and
-by the thick mud, which made the roads almost impassable; but on
-the 29th both he and Nodzu came into touch with the enemy in
-their main position in front of Liao-yang. Here Kuropatkin held
-an entrenched front of about five miles, with three lines of defence
-formed by separate ranges of low hills, fortified with consummate
-skill.</p>
-
-<div id='i283' class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i283.png' alt='MAP SHOWING ROUTE OF MARCH AND PRINCIPAL ACTIONS
-OF THE FOUR JAPANESE ARMIES Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th.' class='ig037' />
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Frightful Carnage</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >To the Japanese, however, no obstacle seemed too great. After
-a prolonged artillery preparation, in which for the first time the
-Russians showed themselves equal, if not
-superior, to their opponents, the superb
-infantry of Dai Nippon were ordered to
-the attack. Then ensued the most frightful scene of carnage and
-heroic endurance. For five long days the splendid troops of Oku
-and Nodzu flung themselves upon a foe not less gallant than themselves,
-and time after time they were held back with broken ranks,
-leaving behind great heaps of dead. And when at last they did make
-their bloody passage into the town of Liao-yang, it was only to
-learn the mortifying intelligence that their enemy had escaped from
-the toils so carefully set for him, and that for a considerable time
-their tremendous struggle had been conducted, not with the main
-body of Kuropatkin's army, but with a rear guard.</p>
-
-<div id='i286' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic038'>
-<img src='images/i286.jpg' alt='' class='ig038' />
-<p>JAPANESE ASSAULT ON A RUSSIAN POSITION AT LIAO-YANG.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Costly but Indecisive</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For those incalculable factors which so often defeat the best
-laid schemes of strategy had come into play, and had seriously affected
-the success of the great move
-which Kuroki was endeavoring to carry
-out on the Japanese right. In this case
-they proved to be the weather, which had swollen the Taitse River
-into a flood, and a sudden display of great tactical ability by Kuropatkin,
-which his previous failures in the sphere of strategy had
-led no one to expect. Upon Kuroki, of course, as holding the most
-advanced position on the Japanese right, it depended to envelope
-the left flank of the Russians and cut off their retreat to the north.
-But, unfortunately for the success of Oyama's strategy, the river
-Taitse, which runs from east to west just north of Liao-yang,
-and which had to be crossed by the Japanese, was so flooded that a
-day or two elapsed before it could be forded, and it was not till the
-31st that Kuroki's forces were able to take up a position on the opposite
-bank. It was hoped, however, that a rapid march to the
-northwest would place the commander of the First Army astride of
-the railway at Yentai, and that he would thus be able to cut off
-Kuropatkin's retreat and enclose him in another Sedan within a
-ring of steel. But the delay proved fatal, for it gave Kuropatkin
-time to rescue his army from the perilous position in which it was
-placed. With a skill which must always extort the admiration of
-military critics he withdrew the greater part of his forces across
-the river in the most perfect order, unknown to the Japanese, and
-massed them on his left flank. The consequence was that instead of
-finding a division, or at the most two divisions, opposed to him,
-Kuroki was faced by the greater part of the Russian Army, established
-in strong positions on a range of hills between himself and
-the railway line. It was a masterly piece of generalship on the part
-of the Russian Commander-in-Chief, and it saved the situation.
-Indeed, at one point it threatened Kuroki with destruction, for he
-was almost cut off from support, and for twenty-four hours both
-officers and men were without either drink or food except small
-rations of dried rice. But the extraordinary gallantry of the sons
-of Japan rose superior even to these conditions. Again and again
-they advanced to the attack against powerful positions held by superior
-numbers, and the salient point in the Russian defence, the
-hill of Haiyentai, was heaped with the dead of the heroic combatants.
-Despite every effort, however, Kuroki could not pierce the
-enemy's line, and it was not till a fine forced march by a division
-detached from General Nodzu's army arrived to reinforce him that
-he was able to reach the railway after four days of tremendous
-combat. But by that time it was too late. The skilful dispositions
-made by the Russian General had pulled the bulk of his force out
-of the trap, and they were in full retreat upon Mukden. It would
-be difficult to describe the horrors of that retreat, but the Japanese
-were too exhausted to make as effective a pursuit as they would
-otherwise have done, and the Russians managed to get away without
-losing a single piece of artillery. The losses in this tremendous
-battle, or rather series of battles, were enormous. The Japanese
-official account places their casualties at 17,539, but, if we are to
-believe the correspondents, that is an understatement. The exact
-Russian losses, including those incurred during the retreat, are
-placed by some authorities at 25,000, by others as high as 35,000.
-Unfortunately for the Japanese, all this costly expenditure of life
-was indecisive in its results, and left the main object of their strategy
-unfulfilled. Kuropatkin had been defeated, indeed, but he had
-not been routed, and it was apparent that the fighting would have
-to be resumed once more in the neighborhood of Mukden.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch10' class='c015'>CHAPTER X.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Investment of Port Arthur&mdash;Admiral Witoft's Sortie&mdash;Tremendous
-Naval Battle&mdash;Harbors of Refuge&mdash;International Complications&mdash;Insignificant
-Japanese Losses&mdash;The Last Raid from Vladivostock&mdash;The Port Arthur
-Garrison&mdash;Fury Unparalleled in History&mdash;Kuroki Improves his Reputation&mdash;The
-Grim Reality of War.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Closer Investment of Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >While the victorious armies of Oku, Kuroki, and Nodzu
-were pressing northward towards Liao-yang, driving
-before them the only force from which the beleaguered
-garrison of Port Arthur could look for relief, the siege
-of Russia's "impregnable fortress" proceeded with unabated determination
-and constantly increasing vigor. It was on June 26th
-that the general advance on Port Arthur
-began; and from that date the lines of
-investment were steadily drawn closer
-and closer. Siege trains were landed at
-Dalny as well as large reinforcements, but for nearly a month complete
-silence as to the progress of events was maintained at Tokio.
-From time to time sensational and contradictory reports of desperate
-fighting were received from Chifu, where Chinese refugees
-landed in a constant stream; and authentic messages from General
-Stoessel, the heroic commander of the fortress's garrison, reached
-the outer world at intervals through the medium of a wireless telegraphy
-installation at the Russian Consulate in Chifu. Naturally,
-these messages were of a reassuring character, and generally recorded
-some repulse of the Japanese army of investment; but
-though no word of contradiction was uttered at Tokio, the world
-was hardly inclined to accept the Russian stories at their face value.
-When, for example, in a triumphant message, General Stoessel
-reported that a grand assault on the Russian defences had taken
-place on July 26th, 27th, and 28th, and had been repulsed at all
-points, with great slaughter, cautious observers of events waited
-for confirmation of the news; although the Czar himself hastened
-to dispatch to his gallant representative in Port Arthur a telegram
-of warm congratulation and praise. Hesitation was justified by the
-event; for two days after their alleged decisive repulse they captured
-the dominant position of Wolf Hill, and thereby made the
-first important breach in the defences of Port Arthur. Wolf Hill
-is an eminence half a mile south of the village of Suei-ze-ying,
-which is some three and a half miles along the railway line running
-due north from Port Arthur. The importance of the captured
-position for the Japanese was that it enabled siege guns to command,
-within easily effective range, the anchorage of the Russian
-squadron on the inside of the Tiger's Tail. This meant, of course,
-either that the fleet must go to sea and fight, or must endure impotently
-the hammering of the 12in. shells which soon began to
-drop from the batteries on Wolf's Hill. Within a week of the
-capture of the position, the Japanese had mounted their siege guns;
-and after a bombardment of two days, the Russian decision was
-taken to attempt another sortie. The last sortie, it will be remembered,
-took place on June 23rd, and ended in the inglorious return
-of the whole fleet; as the Russian Admiral, in spite of the advantage
-which, as we now know, he possessed over his enemy in battle
-strength, did not dare to give battle. This decision which let
-slip one of the best opportunities that the Russian Pacific Squadron
-ever had of favorably modifying the naval situation in the Far
-East, was ill-received at St. Petersburg, where carefully planned
-dispositions were thus brought to nought; and as soon as the contemplation
-of another sortie became immediately necessary, the
-strictest injunctions were sent to Admiral Witoft as to his course
-of action.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Admiral Witoft's Sortie</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Czar emphatically ordered him on no account to return
-to Port Arthur. His object must be to inflict as much damage as
-possible on the enemy's fleet, and, if possible,
-to effect a junction with the Vladivostock
-Squadron; while, if the latter object
-were incapable of accomplishment, he was to endeavor to reach
-the German port of Kiau-chau. From circumstances that have since
-transpired, there is reason to believe that an understanding had
-been arrived at between the German and Russian Governments as
-to the reception of the Russian ships at the German naval base.
-Although for the moment the Russian fugitives would, by the laws
-of neutrality, be placed out of action, they would be in the hands
-of a "benevolent" government; and would remain a factor to be
-reckoned with, if in the future Germany were to intervene in the
-settlement of the struggle. Accordingly, on the morning of August
-10th, the Russian Squadron, in full strength except for the
-armored-cruiser <i>Bayan</i>, which was in too injured a condition to
-take its place in the fighting line, began slowly to pass through the
-narrow channel leading from the open sea; and by eleven o'clock the
-ships were drawn up in battle line, and steamed away on a course
-nearly due south. The gallant little <i>Novik</i>, the fastest vessel in
-either fleet, headed the line, while the patched-up <i>Retvisan</i> came
-next, followed by the <i>Czarevitch</i>, the <i>Peresveit</i>, the <i>Pobieda</i>, the
-<i>Poltava</i>, and the <i>Sevastopol</i>, with the cruisers <i>Askold</i>, <i>Diana</i>, and
-<i>Pallada</i>, and a torpedo flotilla of eight vessels. The squadron of
-Japanese light cruisers which had been watching Port Arthur retreated
-before the advancing enemy, and signalled at once to the
-sleepless Togo, whose main battle fleet was lying forty miles away.
-This consisted of four battleships and three armored cruisers&mdash;namely,
-the <i>Mikasa</i>, carrying Admiral Togo's flag; the <i>Asahi</i>, the
-<i>Shikishima</i>, the <i>Fuji</i>, the <i>Nishin</i>, the <i>Kasuga</i>, the <i>Jakumo</i>, and a
-number of protected cruisers, including the <i>Kasagi</i>, the <i>Chitose</i>, the
-<i>Takasugo</i>, as well as a flotilla of some forty torpedo craft. Thus
-the Russians had a clear superiority in battleships partially discounted
-by Togo's superiority in armored cruisers.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Tremendous Naval Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thirty-five miles to the southeast of Port Arthur the opposing
-fleets came within range; and then began the most tremendous
-naval battle&mdash;measured by the offensive
-power of its combatants&mdash;that the world
-has yet seen. The naval world had been
-waiting almost with eagerness for the
-present war to afford the spectacle of a fleet action between modern
-armorclads carrying modern armaments; and this unprecedented
-event had at last come to pass. The Russian
-ships were steering for the south, and the object of the
-Japanese was evidently to head them off. At a range of 6,000
-yards, or about three miles and a half, the <i>Mikasa</i>, the Japanese
-flagship, opened fire with her 12in. guns on the leading Russian
-battleship and immediately the action became general. Admiral
-Togo concentrated his fire on the Russian battleships, leaving the
-cruisers very much to chance; and so awful was the effect of this
-deadly rain of shell, that when at last the sun went down on that
-eventful day, the Russian fleet was in hopeless disorder, and its
-stoutest ships were almost unmanageable wrecks. The experience
-of the <i>Czarevitch</i> and the <i>Retvisan</i>, as recounted by survivors on
-board of those devoted vessels, affords a lurid picture of the appalling
-nature of a modern naval battle. The <i>Czarevitch</i>, which
-ultimately reached Kiao-chau, was bombarded at close range by
-several of the Japanese armorclads. In the course of five minutes
-she was struck by three successive 12in. shells, and that fact&mdash;which
-is an eloquent testimony to the quality of the Japanese gunnery&mdash;practically
-decided her fate. Admiral Witoft was killed by the
-first shell, and his chief of staff was mortally wounded by the second.
-The steering gear was knocked to bits, so that the ship was
-out of control and began to travel in a circle, and the foremast was
-tumbled over the side; while every man in one of the batteries
-was blown to pieces. The guns' crews were annihilated at the
-work, and the deck gear was twisted into fantastic shapes or carried
-away altogether; and so much of it was afterwards picked
-up that the Japanese supposed that the <i>Czarevitch</i> had foundered.
-Poor Witoft&mdash;as brave a man as ever sailed&mdash;met a terrible death.
-He was blown to pieces by a shell, and of his body only one leg
-was ever found. His last signal was: "Remember the Emperor's
-order not to return to Port Arthur." The decks of the battleship
-presented the appearance of a shambles; her armor-plating was
-pierced in four places; her masts were shattered and bent in the
-form of a cross; her bridge was carried away; and many of her
-guns were disabled. Steering with her propellers she managed,
-under the cover of night, to escape the attacks of the Japanese
-torpedo-boats, and to reach Kiao-chau. Hardly less severe was
-the mauling which the <i>Retvisan</i> received. This battleship received
-such a concentrated fire that when she attempted to break from the
-circle of her enemies, she was literally blown out of her course.
-The other four Russian battleships suffered more or less severely.
-The <i>Pobieda</i>, for instance, had her masts carried away, and her
-heavy guns were put out of action. When the <i>Czarevitch</i> got out
-of control, the Russian line was necessarily broken, and then the
-fleet seems to have suffered most severely. The command of the
-squadron passed to Prince Ukhtomsky, as second in rank to Admiral
-Witoft, and that of the cruiser division to Rear-Admiral
-Reitzenstein; and between the two there seem to have been divided
-counsels. The latter decided to cut his way southwards at any cost
-in accordance with the orders of the Czar. With the <i>Askold</i>, <i>Novik</i>,
-<i>Pallada</i>, and <i>Diana</i>, he became engaged with the Japanese cruisers,
-and by dint of hard fighting, in which the <i>Askold</i> was badly mauled,
-he managed to get clear of the enemy, and in the early morning
-of the 13th reached Shanghai, having lost sight of the other cruisers.
-The <i>Askold</i> had lost two of her five funnels, one of the boilers was
-injured, and her hull had been pierced in more than half a dozen
-places, both above and below the water-line. Prince Ukhtomsky
-preferred another course. When the signal had been displayed from
-the <i>Czarevitch</i> "Admiral transfers command," the Prince, who was
-next in seniority, signalled from his ship, the <i>Peresviet</i>, "Follow
-me"&mdash;an order which, as we have seen, the cruiser division did
-not obey. But the battleships answered the signal; and the course
-steered was back to Port Arthur. In his dispatch the Prince said:
-"As my vessel had lost many killed and wounded, and her armament,
-hull and electric apparatus were seriously damaged, I decided
-to return to Port Arthur." Through the dark night the six
-battleships steamed slowly to their haven, repeated torpedo attacks
-compelling them again and again to change course, and finally to
-disperse. The <i>Czarevitch</i>, as we have seen, reached Kiao-chau
-almost in a sinking condition, while in the morning of the 11th,
-the <i>Peresviet</i>, the <i>Retvisan</i>, the <i>Sevastopol</i>, the <i>Pobieda</i>, the <i>Poltava</i>,
-and the cruiser <i>Pallada</i> arrived again at the port which they
-had left twenty-four hours earlier. A list of nearly 400 killed and
-wounded was the witness to the severity of the punishment which
-these vessels had received. But it was evident that they were not
-so damaged as to have been incapable of continuing the attempt to
-break through to the south. Their return to Port Arthur rendered
-all that they had suffered vain. It meant that their situation
-was as precarious as ever, while their condition was less favorable
-for enduring it. The displeasure of the Czar was not long in manifesting
-itself. Hardly had the consternation of defeat subsided,
-than an Imperial order was issued removing the unhappy Prince
-Ukhtomsky from his command. Recalled he could not be, because
-the means of leaving Port Arthur were denied.</p>
-
-<div id='i295' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic039'>
-<img src='images/i295.jpg' alt='' class='ig039' />
-<p>RUSSIANS RECAPTURING THEIR LOST GUNS AT LIAO-YANG.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Harbors of Refuge</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was some time before the full measure of Russia's disaster
-could be ascertained; for the movements of several of the dispersed
-vessels had been lost sight of. But at
-last all doubts were resolved. The <i>Czarevitch</i>
-and three destroyers reached Kiao-chau.
-The <i>Askold</i> and one destroyer found refuge at Shanghai.
-The <i>Diana</i> was able to make the French port of Saigon. Two destroyers
-went ashore near Wei-hai-wei and were abandoned; and
-one destroyer entered Chifu Harbor and was there seized by the Japanese
-and made a prize, in defiance of respect for a neutral port. The
-indomitable little <i>Novik</i> alone of all Russia's fleet attempted to make
-for Vladivostock. This swift cruiser had come out of the fight
-comparatively uninjured; and having put into Kiao-chau for coal,
-she steamed eastward again, and for some days was lost sight of.
-But the Japanese, though full of admiration for the exploits of the
-<i>Novik</i>, could not afford to let her escape, and they were on the
-watch for her appearance in the straits through which she must
-pass to reach Vladivostock. The cruisers <i>Tsushima</i> and <i>Chitose</i>
-had been searching the Soya Straits, which lie between Saghalien
-and Yezo, when at last the former vessel sighted the little <i>Novik</i> on
-the afternoon of the 20th of August in Korsakovsk Harbor. Immediately
-the attack began, and the <i>Novik</i> was soon compelled to retreat
-into the inner harbor, but not before she had inflicted such damage
-on the <i>Tsushima</i> as to compel her to draw off. Presently, however,
-the <i>Chitose</i> arrived, and next day completed the destruction of the
-<i>Novik</i>, whose crew abandoned her after running her on the beach.
-So ended the career of the one ship in the Russian Navy whose
-handling has consistently done credit to Russian seamanship.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">International Complications</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The appearance of fugitive vessels of the Russian squadron in
-neutral ports at once raised international questions of no little
-anxiety and difficulty. The attitude of
-Germany in particular was jealously
-watched by the Japanese; but, fortunately,
-in this case the behavior of the
-neutral Power was perfectly correct. The <i>Czarevitch</i> and the three
-destroyers in Kiao-chau were at once ordered to be dismantled, and
-their crews sent home on <i>parole</i>. Equally prompt and unimpeachable
-was the action of the French Government in regard to the
-cruiser <i>Diana</i>; but the case of the <i>Askold</i> at Shanghai threatened to
-give much more trouble. It was aggravated, too, by the indefensible
-action of the Japanese in the case of the destroyer <i>Rishitelni</i>,
-which reached Chifu on the 11th, bearing important dispatches. The
-Japanese followed the <i>Rishitelni</i>, and believing that the Chinese
-would not be able to enforce the disarmament of the boat, and their
-demands for her immediate departure having been ignored, a Japanese
-officer and armed guard boarded her. A scuffle between the
-Japanese and the Russian crews followed; and in the result, in spite
-of the protests of the Chinese, the <i>Rishitelni</i> was towed out of the
-harbor, after an ineffectual attempt on the part of her crew had been
-made to blow her up. The act was certainly a violation of Chinese
-neutrality; but as the <i>Rishitelni</i> had remained in the harbor for
-twenty-seven hours without any sign of disarming, the Japanese
-had good reason to believe that the Russian commander was not
-particularly sensitive to the claims of China's neutrality; and how
-well this belief was founded appeared in the case of the <i>Askold</i>, which
-found refuge at Shanghai. In insolent defiance of all right and law,
-the commander of the <i>Askold</i> refused either to disarm his vessel
-or to leave the neutral port. The wretched Chinese authorities,
-squeezed on one side by the Russian Government and on the other
-by the Japanese, could do nothing. One day they issued peremptory
-orders for the Russian vessel to leave; and the next day they extended
-the period of grace. A grave international situation threatened;
-for the Japanese were impatient at the necessity of having to
-detain several of the much-needed cruisers in watching the port, and
-they threatened extreme measures; for all this time the <i>Askold</i> was
-being repaired and put into fighting trim again. But at last the
-British Minister interfered to stop the work of repairs; and then
-the Czar issued instructions that the <i>Askold</i> and the destroyer that
-accompanied her should be dismantled.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Insignificant Japanese Losses</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In winning this signal victory over the fleet of his enemy, Admiral
-Togo suffered but slight damage to the ships under his command.
-In spite of the heavy fighting at close
-range, none of the Japanese vessels were
-crippled&mdash;a circumstance of the utmost
-importance to Japan, who, unlike her
-enemy, has no second fleet to draw upon, and whose losses were
-therefore irreparable. The <i>Mikasa</i>, in which the brunt of the fighting
-fell, lost 32 killed and 78 wounded; the <i>Yakumo</i>, 12 killed and 10
-wounded; the <i>Nishin</i>, 16 killed and 17 wounded; the <i>Kasuga</i>, 10
-wounded; and the rest of the fleet a few wounded only.
-These casualties altogether were far exceeded by those
-endured on the <i>Czarevitch</i> or the <i>Retvisan</i> alone; and the difference
-can only be accounted for by the greater accuracy and
-efficiency of the Japanese gun fire. Of the fleet that left Port Arthur
-on the morning of the 10th of August, only a shattered remnant
-returned again&mdash;five battleships and two cruisers. But the sum of
-Russia's disasters had not been reached. It was fated that the
-Vladivostock squadron was to share the fate of the Port Arthur fleet.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Last Raid from Vladivostock</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >So sudden had been Admiral Witoft's resolution to attempt a
-sortie, that no arrangements for concerted action with Admiral
-Skrydloff at Vladivostock had been made.
-It was the destroyer <i>Rishitelni</i>, whose arrival
-at Chifu caused such unpleasantness,
-that bore the message informing Skrydloff
-of what was happening. Fortunately for themselves the Japanese
-seized the <i>Rishitelni</i> too late to intercept that message. Skrydloff
-on the 12th steamed from Vladivostock with the cruisers
-<i>Gromoboi</i>, <i>Rossia</i>, and <i>Rurik</i>, and made straight for the Korean
-Straits. In the early morning of the 14th of August the Russian
-cruisers reached their old hunting-ground, and the critical point in
-their course&mdash;the narrow channel that separates the southernmost
-Japanese islands from the Korean promontory. In their successful
-raid during July the Vladivostock cruisers had reached the same
-point, and by good luck had evaded Kamimura's pursuit. The fortune
-of war had hitherto been all against the gallant Japanese
-Admiral, to whom had been committed the task of watching the
-Vladivostock squadron, and in particular, of guarding the Korean
-Straits. Even on this last decisive occasion that was to avenge his
-previous disappointments, he nearly missed his prey, who had got
-to southward of his fleet. But a timely glint of sunlight revealed
-the object of his long quest, and immediately putting his ships
-between the enemy and Vladivostock he was able to say with Cromwell
-at Dunbar: "The Lord hath delivered them into my hand".
-Kamimura had with him four armored cruisers of high speed and
-powerful armament&mdash;the <i>Tokiwa</i>, the <i>Adzuma</i>, the <i>Idzumo</i>, and the
-<i>Iwate</i>. The last two vessels were of 24 knots speed, and the slowest
-was of 21 knots. In gun power all the vessels were practically equal,
-and were much more heavily armed than the Russian cruisers, to
-which they now found themselves opposed. Of these the <i>Gromoboi</i>,
-a huge vessel of 12,336 tons displacement, was the latest and the
-most formidable. The <i>Rossia</i> was her equal in every respect except
-gun protection; but the <i>Rurik</i> was of another class altogether in a
-direction that proved fatal to her&mdash;namely, speed. Her engines
-were only capable of developing 18 knots, and that made her a terrible
-hindrance to the man&oelig;uvring power of the whole squadron.
-It was not until the Japanese had crossed the course of the Russians
-that the latter became aware of the presence of the enemy, and then
-they immediately put about and steered north. According to the
-report of the Russian Admiral, the fight began at half-past four in
-the morning a little north of the line between Fusan and Tsushima.
-The Russians attempted to make for the open sea northwards, but
-were headed off, mainly owing to the inferior steaming power of
-the <i>Rurik</i>, which was in the rear of the line. The Russians were in
-single column line ahead, while the Japanese steering across their
-course adopted the famous T-shaped formation which is associated
-with the name of Admiral Togo. The battle began at a range of
-five miles, and very soon the superior gunnery and heavier armament
-of the Japanese told its tale. The Russians changed course to the
-east, and immediately the ill-fated <i>Rurik</i> began to drop behind, enabling
-the Japanese cruisers to concentrate the fire on her at a range
-of little more than three miles. The steering gear broke down, and
-the vessel speedily became unmanageable, while the havoc wrought
-by the rain of shells poured into her quickly rendered her guns unworkable.
-With splendid gallantry the <i>Rurik's</i> consorts, seeing her
-desperate plight, returned to her assistance, and circled round her
-in order to draw the enemy's fire and to give the crippled cruiser a
-chance of effecting repairs. They suffered heavily in the attempt,
-and their sacrifice was unavailing. The <i>Rurik</i> burst into flames,
-which her devoted crew could not subdue. Her movements became
-erratic. She developed a heavy list to port, and then began to settle
-down by the stern. At last, after the fight had been going on for
-nearly four hours, it became evident that the <i>Rurik</i> was doomed;
-and her consorts, who were in sorry case themselves, left her to make
-their own escape. Both the <i>Gromoboi</i> and the <i>Rossia</i> had been
-struck repeatedly below the water line, and had been fired in several
-places by the Japanese shells, though the fires were got under. What
-finally decided their flight was the arrival of reinforcements for the
-enemy in the shape of the <i>Noniwa</i> and the <i>Takachiho</i>&mdash;two protected
-cruisers of the second class. These vessels were left to finish
-off the already sinking <i>Rurik</i>, while Admiral Kamimura set off at
-full speed in pursuit of the <i>Gromoboi</i> and <i>Rossia</i>. For some reason,
-however, which has never yet appeared, this pursuit was not persisted
-in. Both the Russian cruisers were badly damaged, and there
-is no reason to suppose that they could have ever reached Vladivostock,
-as they did a day or two later, if Admiral Kamimura had not
-drawn off his ships. There is, of course, no doubt that there must
-have been some compelling reason to induce the Japanese Admiral
-to forego the full fruits of his opportunity, but that he should have
-had to do so made his victory much less complete and decisive. He
-returned to the scene of battle to discover that the <i>Rurik</i> had gone
-down, but in time to assist in saving the crew, of whom some 600
-survivors were rescued. This act of humanity was not a solitary
-instance, but it is one of the most striking instances of the magnanimous
-temper in which the Mikado's forces both on land and sea
-carried on the war. The Russian Commander, in his official report,
-makes it clear that he was much surprised and relieved when he
-found that the pursuit of his cruisers was being abandoned. He
-states that at this stage of the battle three of the funnels on the
-<i>Rossia</i> were holed, and three of her boilers were rendered useless,
-so that she was not able to keep up full steam, while eleven holes
-had been made in the vessel's hull below the water-line. The <i>Gromoboi</i>
-had six holes below her water-line; while on both of the cruisers
-the loss of life had been most severe. More than half the total
-number of officers had been killed or wounded, and quite a quarter
-of the crews. Thirty miles away from the spot where the <i>Rurik</i>
-had been left sinking, the <i>Gromoboi</i> and <i>Rossia</i> were able, by the
-mysterious drawing off of the enemy, to stop their engines and effect
-temporary repairs. On the 16th of August they arrived again at
-Vladivostock, and went immediately into dock&mdash;with the certainty
-of taking no further part in active operations for some months to
-come. Thus within a single week both squadrons of Russia's navy
-in the Far East suffered signal and overwhelming disaster with the
-effect of immediately and palpably relieving the difficulties of the
-campaign for the invasion of Manchuria. If the dispersal and repulse
-of the Port Arthur fleet was the more momentous event of the
-two, the shattering of the Vladivostock squadron had an immense
-value in at once restoring confidence and immunity to Japan's seaborne
-trade, and in removing from Togo's flank, as it were, a
-menace which since the opening of the war he had never been able
-wholly to dismiss. As one result of these naval victories, the war-worn
-and storm-beaten ships of the Japanese fleet blockading Port
-Arthur were able in turn to go into dock for the execution of those
-repairs which must have become increasingly necessary; while at
-the same time it was possible to strengthen and tighten the blockade,
-and push on with perfect freedom from risk with the preparations
-for landing men and munitions at the theatre of war.</p>
-
-<div id='i306' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic040'>
-<img src='images/i306.jpg' alt='' class='ig040' />
-<p>ON THE DECK OF THE "RURIK."</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Port Arthur Garrison</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The fall of Port Arthur, which the Japanese, in the pardonable
-confidence begotten of their uninterrupted victories on sea and land,
-had believed to be imminent long ago,
-now became the object of renewed and
-desperate endeavor. Dalny Harbor had
-been cleared of mines, and rendered
-available for the landing of siege trains; and no sooner had the ill-fated
-sortie of the fleet been frustrated, than the Japanese settled
-down again to a fierce assault. As a preliminary, on the 16th of
-August a message was sent to General Stoessel under a flag of
-truce demanding the surrender of the fortress, and proposing that,
-in case of non-compliance, the non-combatants should be allowed
-to leave. To the former of these proposals, General Stoessel, as
-might have been expected of so brave and resolute a soldier, returned
-an emphatic and indignant negative; and the second, with much
-less reason, he equally refused to entertain. Just at this moment all
-good Russians had been gladdened, even in the midst of their disasters,
-by the long-hoped-for birth of an heir to the Imperial Throne,
-and General Stoessel was able to send a congratulatory message
-to the Czar, while receiving in his turn an order appointing him,
-as a mark of special Imperial favor, an aide-de-camp general. The
-determination of the Russian garrison had never abated for a moment;
-and such assurances that the eyes and hopes of all Russia
-were centred on them, stirred them to the heroic pitch of endurance.
-Shut off from the outer world both by sea and land, with provisions
-and ammunition daily becoming more scanty, and beneath the
-harassment of an incessant bombardment and fierce and desperate
-assaults, they held grimly on to the defences, and defied the worst
-that the enemy could do, in spite of his overwhelming numbers. The
-progress of the siege could not be followed easily by the external
-spectator, because the Japanese strictly kept their own counsel;
-while the reports that were brought to Chifu from time to time by
-Chinese refugees were conflicting and contradictory in the last
-degree. One thing only was undeniably evident&mdash;that the Japanese
-assaults on different sections of the main line of defence had been
-made with desperate valor and indifference to loss of life; and that,
-except in unimportant instances, these assaults had not prevailed.
-Forts were indeed captured, but had to be abandoned again, because
-they were exposed to the fire of neighboring forts. Not in
-vain had the Russian engineers exercised their best brains in devising
-the defences of this "impregnable fortress". Mines, wire entanglements,
-and every other grim expedient for checking assault had
-been constructed with patient ingenuity; and, most deadly and cunning
-device of all, every fort in the long chain that shuts in Port
-Arthur on the land side had been so placed as to be dominated by
-the neighboring forts; so that no enemy who succeeded in capturing
-it could hope to plant his own guns there. It is not in question that
-the Japanese suffered appalling losses in the attempts to storm these
-defences; but they persevered, though for weeks together their
-hostile activities were limited to pouring into the Russian lines a
-tremendous shell fire at long range. The fall of Port Arthur which
-had seemed possible in June, was confidently predicted for July.
-Then August was fixed, and the Japanese forces, largely reinforced,
-undertook another desperate assault in the middle of that month.
-It failed; and though the dogged, impenetrable defence and the
-fierce and reckless struggle went on with few intermissions, October
-came without any perceptible change having been effected in the
-situation of the combatants.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Fury Unparalleled in History</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Two Russian officers who escaped with dispatches to Chifu,
-brought accounts of the terrible pitch to which the temper of the
-opposing forces had been wrought in their long-drawn and implacable
-struggle. They stated that the Japanese
-losses during the last attack were
-enormous, and that even several days afterwards
-wounded men were to be seen
-raising their arms by way of appeal, but that it was impossible to
-help them as the fire was incessant. As for the struggle, it was carried
-on with an amount of fury to which there is no parallel in history.
-The Japanese dashed forward with the bayonet like madmen,
-and in serried columns, in which the shells made terrible furrows.
-Every time that they reached the Russian lines horrible mêlées, in
-which even the wounded fought to the death, took place. No quarter
-was given. Pairs of corpses were found clinging to each other,
-the teeth of the men being buried in their adversaries' throats and
-their fingers in their eyes as they had expired. In the last attack
-the 9th Japanese Division was sent forward in two columns, each
-composing a brigade, and when the first gave way under the
-avalanche of iron, the general commanding the second fired upon
-and exterminated it. So intense was the fury that when they got
-within hearing of their foes, the Japanese shook their fists at and
-insulted them. The failure of the Japanese to make headway with
-the siege of Port Arthur was the one substantially gratifying aspect
-of the war from the Russian point of view. Russian patriotic sentiment
-had something to be proud of in the courage, endurance, and
-resource of General Stoessel and his troops. But, as a matter of
-fact, the fall of Port Arthur would have been a far better service
-to Russian arms than the heroic resistance of its garrison. Because
-the fortress, which from the first had exercised such a benumbing
-influence on the Russian fleet and such a distracting influence on
-military counsels, still remained as a fatal factor in the equation for
-Russian strategy. The garrison were counting on relief from the
-north, and the honor and pride of Russia were engaged to send that
-relief if possible. Consequently, Kuropatkin never had his hand
-free. He could never review the situation with a single eye to its
-supreme strategical necessities; he must always qualify his dispositions
-and plans by regard for the plight of Port Arthur. It was this
-vitiating influence that brought about the initial reverses of the
-Russian armies; and that prevented any bold and effective plan for
-meeting the Japanese advance. Finally, it was this consideration
-that induced Kuropatkin to give battle at Liao-yang, and to expose
-his entire army to a disaster from which he only escaped by the
-skin of his teeth. Allusion to that tremendous conflict, between
-forces larger than any that have ever before been opposed in modern
-war, has already been made in the last chapter. But the event
-was so memorable, and has such bearing on the future course of the
-campaign, that it is permissible to return to the subject, especially
-as further light has been thrown on it by the detailed narratives of
-correspondents. Of this great battle, by the way, the world has
-received fuller descriptions than of any other feature of the campaign
-by land or sea; for it so happened that the sufferance of the
-war correspondents under the restriction of the Japanese military
-authorities broke down here, and several of the most distinguished
-representatives of the English press threw up their connection with
-the Japanese army after Liao-yang, and hurried back to neutral territory
-to cable home the full dispatches which the censor would not
-have permitted.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuroki Improves his Reputation</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is perfectly evident in the light of these accounts that the
-Japanese, emboldened by their previous successes, rated their enemy
-too lightly, and without any preponderance,
-and indeed with scarcely an equality
-of numbers, they attempted to take by
-assault a position naturally strong and
-fortified by all the art and resources of the military engineer. The
-battle did indeed prove the incomparable qualities of the Japanese
-soldier; but it did little to add to the reputation of Japanese generalship;
-while, on the other hand, it exhibited General Kuropatkin in
-a light infinitely more favorable than any in which he had previously
-appeared. If one of Kuropatkin's subordinates&mdash;General Orloff&mdash;had
-not blundered badly in carrying out the movements against
-Kuroki on the Russian left, it is probable that the battle might have
-resulted in a decisive defeat instead of in a nominal victory for the
-Japanese. That blunder&mdash;which cost Orloff his command&mdash;enabled
-Kuroki to hold his own at a most critical juncture, and so to obviate
-the dangerous possibilities which the situation had developed. It
-was the peril of Kuroki that compelled Oku and Nodzu, who faced
-the centre and right wing of the Russian position, to press on their
-assaults with redoubled fury, even after they had been fighting for
-five days and losing thousands of men without making appreciable
-headway. In twenty-four hours Oku made three grand assaults
-upon the entrenched hills before him; and, when the last had been
-beaten back with awful loss, the laconic order came from headquarters:
-"Reinforce and attack again at dawn". Such a demand upon
-the endurance and <i>morale</i> of troops is well-nigh unexampled; and
-that the Japanese soldier responded to it speaks volumes for his
-qualities as a fighting man. His persistence prevailed in the end,
-and the Russian line was forced. But even then the retreat was
-slow and stubborn. While a rear guard held the Japanese at bay, all
-the guns and wounded were safely withdrawn, and when at last the
-Japanese came into possession of Liao-yang, it was to find the fruits
-of their dearly-bought victory snatched from them, and their own
-forces too exhausted to follow victory up. The casualties in this
-awful conflict were enough "to stagger humanity", if one may use
-Mr. Kruger's famous phrase. The Japanese losses cannot have
-been less than 40,000, and those of the Russians were perhaps half
-as many; while the expenditure of ammunition on both sides was
-terrific. More than a thousand guns belched forth their deadly missiles
-continuously for nearly a week, and all eye-witnesses agree
-that never before has such tremendous artillery fire been witnessed.
-Well might it be necessary for both armies to rest after such a
-titanic struggle, and to devote more than a month to reforming and
-reinforcing the shattered ranks and to refilling their ammunition
-trains. The main result of the battle was to drive the grand army
-of the Czar one step further back from the beleaguered fortress still
-counting so confidently on and waiting so anxiously for relief. But,
-as the event showed the contest had been too indecisive to destroy
-finally the Russian hope of a victorious march southwards; and to
-that extent the Japanese might congratulate themselves. As long
-as the fatal fascination of Port Arthur was felt by Russian strategy,
-the Japanese generals could count on an invaluable ally; and very
-soon that ally was to come to their assistance again in a manner
-which their best hopes could not have conjectured.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Grim Reality of War</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In order to realize the spectacle that that awful battlefield presented,
-one has only to read the vivid narrative of the London <i>Times'</i>
-correspondent who was attached to General
-Oku's army. This is how he describes
-the earlier and abortive attempts
-of Oku's devoted troops to penetrate the
-Russian centre:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div id='i313' class='c016'>
-<div class='c029'>
-<img src='images/i313.png' alt='' class='c030' />
-<p class='c007'>AFTER SEVEN MONTHS.</p>
-
-<p>The time was now ripe for the simultaneous advance of the three Japanese
-armies, and while Oku and Nodzu attacked the Russians at Anshanchan, and
-forced them to retire, Kuroki drove the Russians out of Anping. The great
-battle of Liaoyang began on August 29, and continued until September 1, when
-Kuroki, having crossed the Taitse-Ho, threatened the Russian left flank, and
-forced them to retreat. On September 6 the Japanese occupied the Yentai
-Mines. The army besieging Port Arthur captured the Laotishan and Sushiyen
-Hills on August 15, and on the 28th took Palungshan.</p>
-
-<p>The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"In spite of the failure of this first attack, another was ordered
-to begin at two on the following morning (August 30th). The cold
-grey morning witnessed another scene of slaughter on the Russian
-right as the defenders again hurled the attack back. The Japanese
-attacked with valor and deserved success, but the enfilading fire on
-every salient swept each rush away before the men could even
-lay hands on the entanglements. But the 5th Division had more
-success against the Russian left. The position here was composed
-of a brush-covered hogsback, sloping to the east, defended by a triple
-line of trenches with a glacis protected by a 10 foot entanglement
-covering a honeycomb of pits containing spikes at the bottom. In
-the semi-darkness of the morning the 41st Regiment carried this
-underfeature after losing seventy-five of the one hundred pioneers
-who hacked their way through the entanglement with axes. The
-men, rushing through the gap, overpowered the sentries in the
-trenches before the supports, sleeping in splinter proofs behind, could
-reinforce them. But daybreak brought a tragedy of the kind which
-is so common in modern war. Shell fire, believed to be from Japanese
-guns, drove this gallant storming party from its hold, filling
-the Russian trenches with Japanese dead. But now for the fighting
-on the 31st. The weather was now fine, and the energy of this
-southern attack all the morning was concentrated in an artillery
-fire on the bushy hill that had been won and lost. At 10 o'clock we
-could see the 5th Division moving up against the Russian left.
-There is a moment of intense excitement while the summit of the
-Russian position is like a miniature Mount Pelée in eruption owing
-to the bursting of dozens of Shimoshi shells. The head of the assault
-is in the gap in the entanglement. The artillery is supporting the
-assault. Three or four ground mines explode in the midst of the
-leading assaulting groups. Then as the smoke clears the black-coated
-Russians are seen leaving the position. In a moment the
-Japanese are in, and the whole of the lines in support on the crest
-are firing down the slope into the retreating Russians. But one
-swallow does not make a summer. Although the underfeature of the
-bushy hill was carried, the rest of the assault failed miserably. No
-Japanese could live within 500 yards of the bastion hill, and though
-the Japanese came out of the corn until the groups were so numerous
-that I can liken them only to swarming bees, it was only to be
-swept backwards into cover again, leaving behind the heavy price
-of their valor."</p>
-
-<div id='i316' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic041'>
-<img src='images/i316.jpg' alt='' class='ig041' />
-<p>CAPTURE OF THE "RESHITELNI" AT CHIFU.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch11' class='c015'>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >The Opposing Armies in Manchuria&mdash;The Russian Advance&mdash;Reinforcements
-for Both Sides&mdash;Battle of the Sha-ho&mdash;Two Hundred Hours of Carnage&mdash;Awful
-List of Casualties&mdash;Threat and Counterthreat&mdash;The Veil Lifted from
-Port Arthur&mdash;Capture of Forts&mdash;Devices of the Besiegers&mdash;The Undaunted
-Stoessel&mdash;The Gallant Podgorsky&mdash;World-Wide Admiration&mdash;Uncertain
-News.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Opposing Armies in Manchuria</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The great battle of Liao-yang was fought in the last week of
-August and the first week of September; and for nearly
-five weeks after that tremendous struggle the opposing
-armies remained inactive, or rather gathered up their exhausted
-strength for the next desperate encounter. The Japanese
-had advanced as far as Yentai, a station about one-third of the distance&mdash;40
-miles or so&mdash;that separates
-Liao-yang from Mukden. The position
-was valuable as giving the command of
-the Yentai coal mines&mdash;a most important
-acquisition to any general with a long line of railway communication
-to maintain. The Japanese entrenched themselves along a front of
-some 25 miles, stretching from Yentai on the railway to Pensihu,
-a village in the hilly country which lies north and south between
-the two rivers Taitse and Hun. There they settled down to replenishing
-the exhausted supplies, refilling the depleted ranks, and
-reorganizing the dislocated commands. Above all did they make
-speed to reconstruct the railway behind them, a work which had
-diligently been carried on <i>pari passu</i> with the advance. Early in
-October through trains of the new 3 ft. 6 in. gauge were running
-from Dalny to Yentai, and thus the fighting-line was brought within
-an easy six days' journey of Japan. The Russians, on the other
-hand, in spite of the completion of the Circum-Baikal railway
-towards the end of September, were still from three to five times as
-distant from their prime base; for if the express time from Mukden
-to Moscow was sixteen days, the ordinary troop train's time was
-much nearer thirty days. In this all-important matter of rapidity
-of communication the Japanese possessed an advantage inherent
-to the situation and of the profoundest strategical influence. While
-they were recuperating thus at Yentai, the Russians were busy entrenching
-themselves behind the Hun-ho, the course of which from
-Mukden follows a line, roughly speaking, due east. At first it was
-asserted by those in the confidence of the Russian General Staff, that
-no determined stand would be made at the Hun-ho, and that Kuropatkin
-would only hold the enemy there until the defences at Tieling
-were completed. But as the days passed, and the Japanese
-showed no disposition to renew their advance, and as reinforcements
-continued to pour over the Siberian railway, counsels were modified.
-In the last week of September General Stackelberg, attending a
-banquet at Mukden, proposed the toast "To the March on Liao-yang";
-and this startling suggestion of a new development in the
-Russian plan of campaign was speedily confirmed by a remarkable
-manifesto to his troops which General Kuropatkin issued on the
-2nd of October. After the usual high-flown exordium, in which
-"the arrogant foe" was described as having suffered repeated repulse&mdash;a
-rather daring travesty of the facts&mdash;Kuropatkin explained
-that he had not thought the time ripe "to take advantage of these
-successes; but", he added, "the time of retreat was now at an end.
-Hitherto the enemy in operating has relied on his great forces and,
-disposing his armies so as to surround us, has chosen as he deemed
-fit his time for attack; but now the moment to go and meet the
-enemy, for which the whole army has been longing, has come, and
-the time has arrived for us to compel the Japanese to do our will,
-for the forces of the Manchurian army are strong enough to begin
-the forward movement. Bear in mind the importance of victory to
-Russia, and, above all, remember how necessary victory is the more
-speedily to relieve our brothers at Port Arthur, who for seven
-months have heroically maintained the defence of the fortress
-entrusted to their care."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russian Advance</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The world was naturally startled by such a pronouncement&mdash;so
-much easier to explain than to justify; but the Russians and their
-friends in France were overjoyed, believing
-that the time of their tribulation was
-at last over. The Muscovite nature has
-during this war shown an unrivalled capacity
-for self-deception; and not only the General Staff, but Kuropatkin
-himself seem to have persuaded themselves that the enemy
-had been unable to get over the shock of Liao-yang. The perfectly
-natural delay of the Japanese in advancing was attributed to the
-discouragement caused by the enormous losses sustained in the last
-battle and to inability to make these losses good. There were other
-influences at work, as Kuropatkin's address shows. "The importance
-of victory to Russia", and the necessity of relieving "our
-brothers in Port Arthur", were circumstances that evidently dominated
-Russian counsels; and in Kuropatkin's mind there was
-probably another consideration of a personal nature. After Liao-yang
-the Czar had ordered the formation of a Second Manchurian
-Army under a separate command, on the ground that the active
-direction in the field of such enormous forces as these two armies
-would represent would be beyond the capacity of any one man.
-General Gripenberg, a tried old soldier, was appointed to command
-the Second Army, and there was talk of sending out a Grand Duke
-to take the supreme direction of the campaign. This would have
-meant in degree the suppression of General Kuropatkin, and that
-capable soldier may well have looked with dissatisfaction on such
-a reward for his signal services. He may have argued with himself
-that if he could only achieve a decisive victory at this moment
-his prestige would be restored and his paramountcy assured; and,
-according to the information which had reached him, that victory
-was within his grasp. But, unfortunately, that information was
-wholly erroneous. Far from being dispirited and exhausted, the
-Japanese forces were on the very point of advancing to the attack
-again when Kuropatkin formed his momentous resolution and issued
-orders for "the march to Liao-yang". If his movement was hailed
-with almost delirious enthusiasm in St. Petersburg, it was observed
-with hardly less satisfaction at Tokio, where it was at once recognized
-that the enemy were obligingly releasing Marshal Oyama from
-the necessity of a long march and another attack on fortified positions.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Reinforcements for Both Sides</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >By this time Kuropatkin's forces&mdash;thanks to the completion of
-the Circum-Baikal railway&mdash;had reached 250,000, with more than
-800 guns. The Japanese strength, after
-reinforcements both from Japan and from
-the army investing Port Arthur, cannot
-have been much less; though at the close
-of the battle which was about to be fought Marshal Oyama asserted
-that at all points his victorious troops had been outnumbered. However
-that may be, the Japanese had the advantage of a prepared position,
-the key of which was in rugged mountainous country. Unlike
-the battle of Liao-yang, of which minute details have already been
-furnished, the battle of Yentai, as it was first called, or of Sha-ho,
-as it came to be known afterwards, can only be followed in its
-broad outline, mainly because the maps available are utterly inadequate.
-The place-names which mark the direction of the operations
-in one official report rarely agree with those in the other official report,
-and can only be vaguely identified. But a rough sketch-map
-is at least sufficient to give the general bearings of the operations.
-The Japanese front extended in a horseshoe formation from Yentai,
-on the railway, to Pensihu, on the Taitse River, with Oku on the
-left, Nodzu in the centre, and Kuroki on the right. The plan of
-Kuropatkin&mdash;a plan which in the light of after events we know to
-have been beyond the possibility of achievement&mdash;was to attack the
-right wing of the Japanese army under Kuroki, and roll it back upon
-Liao-yang, while the Japanese left and centre were held in front;
-then to shut up Oyama and his troops in Liao-yang, much as Sir
-George White was shut up in Ladysmith, while a rapid march
-southwards was made to the relief of Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Battle of the Sha-ho</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 5th October the Russian advance began on both sides
-of the railway from Mukden, and from Fushan against the Japanese
-right. The flank movement, on the
-success of which all Kuropatkin's schemes
-were based, was entrusted to Stackelberg
-and Rennenkampf&mdash;Stackelberg attacking from the north, and Rennenkampf
-with his Cossacks, working round from the northeast. On
-Sunday, the 9th October, the first contact between the opposing
-armies was made, and Stackelberg&mdash;much to his own surprise&mdash;was
-able to occupy Bentsiaputse, a place north of the Yentai coalmines,
-commanding the main roads to Fushan, Mukden, and Liao-yang.
-It had been expected that the Japanese would make a desperate
-stand here, but they retreated after offering only a feeble resistance.
-Meanwhile, Rennenkampf fiercely assailed Kuroki's extreme
-right at Pensihu, while a force of Cossacks some 3,000 strong daringly
-crossed the Taitse River and severed Kuroki's communications
-in the rear. Up to this moment everything had seemed to go well
-with the Russian plan of attack. Several important positions east
-of Pensihu were taken by assault, and Kuroki's situation seemed critical
-for the moment. But Marshal Oyama appears never to have
-doubted the ability of his well-tried lieutenant to hold his own, and
-no sooner had the whole scheme of his enemy been developed than he
-decided to counter it with a vigorous offensive. Kuroki was reinforced
-on the 10th, while a force of cavalry detached to operate
-against the Cossacks south of the Taitse-ho succeeded in driving
-the enemy off and in restoring the interrupted communications.
-As soon as the reinforcements reached Kuroki at Pensihu he put the
-possibility of his being "rolled up" beyond all doubt by fiercely assailing
-Stackelberg and recapturing the positions which had temporarily
-fallen into Russian hands. Thereafter he remained completely
-master of the situation, and the desperate but futile assaults which
-he sustained in the next few days only resulted in a tremendous
-casualty list for the enemy&mdash;a list totalling at least 20,000. The decisive
-repulse of the Russian flanking movement involved the frustration
-of the whole of Kuropatkin's plans in advancing from the
-Hun-ho. But the battle had only just begun yet, for the Russian
-right and centre, which had begun their southward march with such
-confidence, now found their <i>role</i> changed from attack to defence;
-and instead of the Japanese being, according to program, forced
-back upon Liao-yang, it became a question whether the Russians
-would be able to make good their retreat on Mukden. General Oku,
-advancing along the railway to the west, after two days' hard fighting
-drove back Kuropatkin's right to the line of the Shi-li-ho; while
-General Nodzu on the east of the railway was equally successful, and
-signalized his victory by a considerable capture of guns. Oyama's
-object now was to drive his enemy eastwards from the railway and
-back upon the Hun-ho, when it would be impossible for him to escape
-disaster. For some days this tremendous issue hung in the
-balance, and the Japanese forces were within an ace of accomplishing
-their purpose. But thanks to the dogged tenacity of the Russian
-troops, and thanks still more to the terribly wasting and exhausting
-effect of a week's continuous fighting, the impetus of the
-Japanese attack was not quite sufficient to complete the promised
-triumph; and at last the two great armies came to a standstill some
-ten miles south of Mukden, incapable of further action.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Two Hundred Hours of Carnage</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >From the 9th October to the 17th the relentless struggle raged
-along this wide front of more than 20 miles. Day and night the
-devoted troops on either side flung themselves
-with reckless bravery on the positions
-of their foes; while from nearly
-2,000 guns an incessant storm of shrapnel
-and shell burst over the contested ground. Liao-yang had been
-terrible enough; but from all accounts the artillery duel at the battle
-of Sha-ho even eclipsed the terrific incidents of the earlier engagements.
-On the 13th the Russian retreat became general, and Oku,
-capturing twenty-five Russian guns, succeeded in driving the troops
-opposed to him back from the line of the Shi-li-ho to the Sha-ho,
-where behind defences which the forethought of Kuropatkin had
-provided, they prepared to make their last desperate stand. The
-forces before Kuroki had retreated towards Fushan in a northeasterly
-direction; and those before Nodzu in the centre, after suffering
-losses almost as heavy as Stackelberg's columns had sustained, fell
-back in something approaching to disorder on the line of the Sha-ho.
-The position of Kuropatkin's army was now exceedingly
-critical, and it was not without cause that he issued a general order
-that the ground occupied must be held at all costs. It is evident
-that to make good the retreat Stackelberg's troops on the extreme
-east, which were far in advance of the rest of the Russian line, must
-be withdrawn first, and that the central army under Zarubaieff,
-which again was far in advance of the right wing, must be drawn
-back next; and that during these perilous operations General Bilderling,
-who commanded the Russian right resting behind the Sha-ho,
-must stand firm. By the skin of his teeth, almost, Bilderling just
-managed to hold his ground. On the 13th Oku's impetuous assault
-upon the Russian lines succeeded so far as to break the Russian
-centre. Had that advantage been maintained nothing could have
-saved the Russian army. But by a tremendous effort the last reserves
-were brought up and recaptured the ground that had been
-lost. For thirty-six hours the battle raged with varying fortune at
-this critical point; but the Russians held on, and these thirty-six
-priceless hours being gained, the Russian centre and left were saved.
-On the 14th, five days after the battle had begun, a deluge of rain
-fell&mdash;a deluge precipitated, as at Liao-yang, by the heavy and incessant
-firing&mdash;and the already sorely-tried troops of Oku found their
-further movements grievously impeded. For several days more,
-however, the contest on the Sha-ho raged with unabated fury.
-Again and again the Russians made fierce counter-attacks on the
-Japanese, sustaining terrible losses in consequence. One position&mdash;a
-dominant elevation on the south bank of the Sha-ho, known as
-Lonely-Tree Hill&mdash;was the scene of long-continued and desperate
-fighting, in which both armies alternately captured and were driven
-from the vantage ground. It was here that the one substantial success
-of the Russian arms was achieved in the capture of twelve
-Japanese guns. During Sunday, the 16th of October the Russians
-had delivered no less than seven counter-attacks on Oku's troops,
-and all of them had been beaten back with loss. In these engagements
-a conspicuous part had been played by a force under Brigadier-General
-Yamada, made up of troops from Nodzu's and Oku's commands,
-which succeeded in penetrating the Russian line and in capturing
-two guns. But in returning to camp after this exploit,
-Yamada's force had ventured too far and was enveloped by a
-Russian division, and was only able to win through by the sacrifice
-of its guns, after a fierce hand-to-hand encounter in which the
-casualties were nearly 1,000.</p>
-
-<div id='i325' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic042'>
-<img src='images/i325.jpg' alt='' class='ig042' />
-<p>JAPANESE OUTPOSTS RELIEVING GUARD NEAR THE SHA-HO.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Slowly, reluctantly, after fitful recrudescences, the great battle
-wore itself out, and by the 20th October the two armies were left
-facing each other on either side of the Sha-ho&mdash;a line 15 miles north
-of that which the Japanese had occupied before the engagement began.
-The net result, therefore, was a decided gain of ground for the
-Japanese, and the infliction of losses greater than had been sustained
-in any previous battle on the Russian army. Telegraphing to Tokio
-on the 15th, Marshal Oyama thus summed up the results of the
-fighting as far as it had gone&mdash;a summary which further events did
-not alter:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"As a sequel to a fight lasting continuously for five days, we
-have driven back the superior forces of the enemy at every point,
-pursuing him and forcing him to the south bank of the Hun. We
-have inflicted heavy losses, and captured over thirty guns and hundreds
-of prisoners. We have defeated his plans and converted an
-offensive operation into a radical failure."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Awful List of Casualties</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Radical failure" in war means far more than defeated plans.
-It carries with it an awful and immediate penalty levied in killed
-and wounded, and when the tale of losses
-came to be counted it was found to exceed
-even the most pessimistic anticipations.
-The Russian dead left on the field alone numbered no less
-than 13,333; and as the wounded, at the lowest estimate, cannot
-have been less than four to one, it is apparent that the total casualties
-suffered by General Kuropatkin's troops must have been between
-60,000 and 70,000. An index to the severity of the fighting
-is afforded by an analysis of these returns, which shows that more
-than 5,000 Russian dead were found before both Oku's army and
-Kuroki's. Even the Russian General Staff, which has shown a decided
-tendency to minimize losses, did not venture to place those sustained
-at Sha-ho at less than 45,000 rank and file and 800 officers.
-The total Japanese losses, on the other hand, though heavy, were
-but a fraction of their foe's. Oyama placing them at 15,879. But
-the loss in life was not the only disastrous result of the battle for the
-army of the Czar. The Japanese captured 709 prisoners and 45
-guns, with large quantities of arms and ammunition; and against
-these captures are to be set the twelve guns lost at Lonely-Tree Hill,
-rechristened by the Russians Putiloff Hill in honor of the officer
-who achieved the success, and who was immediately decorated by
-the Czar. In one sense the battle of the Sha-ho may be regarded
-as indecisive, in that it left the two contending armies again at a
-deadlock. At Liao-yang the strategy of both generals had failed,
-and in a less degree the same result was reached at Sha-ho; for
-Oyama's initial success could not be followed up to its legitimate and
-triumphant conclusion. But, on the other hand, Kuropatkin's effort
-to march to Liao-yang and make a diversion in favor of Port Arthur
-had signally failed; and the army which he had ostentatiously
-declared to be strong enough to take the offensive and had been
-hurled back by "the arrogant foe," who were at last to be "compelled
-to do the Russian will." It was in that circumstance that the real
-measure of the Japanese victory was to be found&mdash;that after eight
-months of war the armies of the Czar were still unequal to the task
-committed to them. Had Kuropatkin been even in a measure successful
-in this, his first great offensive movement, the moral effect
-could not have failed to be incalculable. As it was, it inflicted one
-more discouragement on troops that had experienced nothing but
-retreats and reverses from the opening of the campaign. The temper
-in which the Japanese accepted the new laurels which their
-army had won was eminently characteristic of a nation which has,
-in spite of all temptations to vainglory and exultation, comforted
-itself with perfect sobriety and self-restraint. The Mikado issued
-a rescript to his people, the terms of which are worth giving, if only
-for the contrast which they offer to some of the addresses issued
-from St. Petersburg and the headquarters of Alexeieff:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Since the outbreak of the war our army and our navy have
-demonstrated their bravery and loyalty, while both officials and people
-have acted in unison to support the cause. So far, success has
-attended our cause, but, the ultimate accomplishment being yet far
-distant, it is necessary to be patient and steadfast in the pursuance of
-our action, and thus aim at the final accomplishment of our purpose."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Threat and Counterthreat</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Another and even more striking testimony to the inflexible determination
-of the Japanese people was supplied by the Army
-rescript issued at the end of September in
-connection with the expansion of the
-Japanese military system. The Government
-of the Czar had demonstrated its intention to prosecute the war
-unflinchingly by the creation of a second Manchurian Army. Japan's
-answer to this menace was to extend the period of service with
-the colors in the Japanese army from nine to fourteen years, by
-which act the available reserves for the army in Manchuria were
-increased at a stroke by nearly half a million men. But though
-Japan could answer promptly and adequately the steps which her
-foe had taken to strengthen his armies in the field, it was not so easy
-to recompense herself for the elimination of a source of weakness
-in her enemy's counsels. Admiral Alexeieff, whose fatal influence
-had been as valuable as several battleships and army corps to the
-Japanese, was finally recalled to St. Petersburg at the end of October.
-On the 26th of that month the Viceroy issued an address to
-the troops, announcing, in his usually inflated style, that on his own
-request he had been relieved of the duties of Commander-in-Chief,
-while being retained in the office of Viceroy and assured of the continuance
-of the Imperial confidence and favor. In less than a week
-from the issue of that manifesto, it was announced that Alexeieff
-and his staff were on the way to St. Petersburg by express train,
-and that there was no probability of their return, while Kuropatkin
-was left in supreme command.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Veil Lifted from Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >No sooner had the echoes of the great battle of the Sha-ho died
-down than the attention of the world was turned again to Port
-Arthur, where the long and desperate
-siege was continuing with undiminished
-determination on the part of the attack
-and invincible heroism on the part of the
-defence. For months together little authentic news of the progress
-of events had been allowed to leak out; but suddenly, in the beginning
-of November, the Japanese censor removed his restrictions, and
-a vivid and circumstantial narrative of the operations was allowed
-to come through. By the end of June the Japanese forces of investment
-had occupied a line across the Kwang-tung Peninsula
-running from Ingentsi Bay, on the north, southeastwards to a point
-on the south coast-line some ten miles east of Dalny. After another
-month's diligent assault they had advanced the line nearly five miles&mdash;from
-Vostikorablei Bay on the north to Takhe Bay on the south.
-Another advance in the beginning of August brought the extreme
-right of their line down to Louisa Bay on the west, and roughly
-round in a semicircle to Takhe Bay, confronting the main line of
-the formidable Russian defences. The great assault of the 28th
-August was, on the whole, unsuccessful, and achieved nothing on
-the east. But on the west the line of investment was drawn still
-further south until it rested on Pigeon Bay. It is now necessary to
-understand more exactly the nature of the task with which the
-Japanese army of investment was confronted. Port Arthur lies in
-a sort of amphitheatre formed by ranges of hills varying in height
-from 1,300 feet to 1,500 feet. These hills sweep round from Golden
-Hill&mdash;the promontory which on the east commands the entrance to
-the harbor&mdash;northwards for a distance of nearly three miles. Then,
-where the railway line and road pass through them, they turn westwards
-and southwards, extending down the toe of the Kwang-tung
-promontory to a point parallel with the base of the Tiger's
-Tail; while further south still is the formidable Liao-tie-shan range,
-some 1,500 feet high. On all these hills the Russians had constructed
-huge fortifications strengthened with every device which
-the military engineer's art could suggest, and armed with the most
-powerful artillery. It is true that some of the correspondents who
-paid hurried visits to the great naval fortress before the actual outbreak
-of hostilities were inclined to belittle the strength of the defences.
-Thus Mr. Bennet Burleigh, of the London <i>Telegraph</i>, in a
-most interesting account expressed his belief that the Russian
-stronghold was over-fortified, and that it would be possible for those
-who captured outlying defence to command the inner forts. On the
-other hand, it must be remembered that the most skilful engineers
-in the world had been employed by the Russians in the construction
-of the forts, and the fact that such a magnificent and substantial
-resistance was offered to ten times the number of soldiers as cleared
-out the Chinese in a few days, proves that the soundest military principles
-were adhered to. The main positions were defended by advanced
-works surrounded by deep moats, in which were built bombproof
-defences, roofed with steel plates, and by fanfasses, or mines
-filled with huge stones, which could be exploded by the pressure of
-an electric button. The approaches were rendered almost inaccessible
-by barbed-wire entanglements, pits planted with sharpened
-stakes, and by transverse works and trenches which commanded with
-an enfilading fire every possible line of advance. The broad scheme
-of the fortifications may be easily grasped. Fronting Takhe Bay
-on the east is the Petushan group of forts, with the Keekwan-Urlong
-forts commanding the approaches from the north and the northeast,
-and preventing the Petushan forts from being taken in reverse.
-West of these forts and on the other side of the parade-ground and
-railway are the Antszshan and the Etseshan forts, which
-prevent any attack from the northwest, while a chain of
-forts from Antszshan to Sunghslwo, running southeastwards
-down to the inner harbor, command the parade-ground and railway
-line. Another line of forts stretches due south from Etseshan to
-White Wolf Hill on the west side of the west port, while yet another
-series of heavy fortifications surmounts the high ground along the
-Tiger's Tail. Well might the Russians boast that their fortress was
-impregnable, for if any place of arms could be justly so described,
-Nature and military ingenuity had combined to earn that title for
-Port Arthur. At the outset of the investment, Port Arthur's garrison
-numbered, all told, some 35,000 men. It was made up of the
-3rd, 4th and 7th East Siberian Rifle Brigades, with part of the
-6th, and with the East Siberian Rifle Artillery Division, and, of
-course, with the crews of all the men-o'-war lying imprisoned in the
-harbor. The numbers were none too great to man adequately the
-great chain of works behind which Port Arthur's security lay; but
-the troops were of the best quality, and they had the invaluable inspiration
-of such a leader as General Stoessel, with such a capable
-and gallant lieutenant as General Fock. Stoessel, the hero of the
-Russian army in the present war, is descended from an old military
-family. His grandfather was a general in the Swedish army, who
-afterwards settled in Russia. Stoessel himself, who was born in
-1848, entered the Russian army as a cadet at the age of ten, and
-received his commission eight years later, at the same time, curiously
-enough, as Kuropatkin. He served with distinction in the Russo-Turkish
-War, and afterwards held important commands in Siberia,
-while since 1899 he had been stationed at Port Arthur. To the assault
-and investment of the fortress, the Japanese, under Nogi,
-brought up at first 60,000 men, and, as the operations advanced,
-large reinforcements which not only made good the enormous losses
-sustained, but swelled the fighting strength to nearly 100,000 men.
-This number fluctuated to some extent, for at least two divisions
-were drawn off from the siege to reinforce Oyama at the battle of
-the Sha-ho; but at no time can the total forces before Port Arthur
-have been less than 60,000, and then superiority in numbers to the
-defence gradually increased until from a proportion of two to one,
-it had reached the proportion of six or seven to one. This growing
-disparity, of course, was due to the fact that while the Japanese
-could replenish their exhausted ranks, the Russian garrison could
-not fill the gaps caused by wounds and sickness; while a further reduction
-of at least 5,000 men in the forces at Stoessel's command
-was made by the naval sortie on August 10th. That feat, of course,
-deprived Port Arthur of the services of the crews of all the vessels
-that escaped to neutral ports.</p>
-
-<div id='i335' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic043'>
-<img src='images/i335.jpg' alt='' class='ig043' />
-<p>JAPANESE SCALING FORT AT PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Capture of Forts</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the great assault of the 19th-26th August the Japanese lost
-14,000 men, and succeeded only in capturing the Banjushan fort,
-which is east of the Urlungshan forts.
-General Nogi then settled down to steady
-siege operations, drawing his parallels
-nearer and nearer to the Russian main position, and capturing the
-all-important Kuropatkin fort early in September. This fort, which
-stands on Division Hill half-way between Wolf Hill and the harbor,
-not only commanded the parade-ground, but gave the Japanese
-the possession of the waterworks from which the garrison drew the
-main water supply. Up to this moment General Nogi's heaviest
-guns had been 4.7 and 6in. pieces of the naval type, and they had
-been quite unequal to the heavy guns of the position mounted in the
-Russian works. But now heavy siege guns and 11in. howitzers arrived
-from Japan, and immediately their effect began to make itself
-felt, so that by the 19th September another assault was resolved on.
-This was directed against three points of the ring of defensive works&mdash;against
-the metre-hill forts on the west, and (the outworks, as it
-were of the great Etseshan and Antszshan forts) against the advanced
-works of Urlungshan on the northeast, and against the lunettes
-in the Shuishi Valley which connects the Antszshan and the
-Urlungshan forts. At this last point some of the fiercest fighting
-of the whole siege took place. The Shuishi Valley was defended
-by a series of strong lunettes connected by advance works, within
-fifty yards of which the Japanese had advanced their parallels. On
-the evening of the 19th September four desperate assaults were
-delivered against the westernmost lunette. All, however, were
-beaten back. At dawn the assault was renewed with greater
-strength, and the western lunette was carried, mainly by the employment
-of dynamite grenades. The Russian garrison were driven out
-of the trenches, losing three quick-firers, four machine guns, and two
-mortars, but inflicting on the victors losses amounting to over 400
-killed and wounded. At the same time a determined assault was
-made on 203 Metre Hill and the adjoining ridge by three regiments
-of the right division. The assaulting parties reached the dead
-ground beneath the ridge, but there they were compelled to remain
-during the night. At dawn on the 20th a terrific bombardment on
-the position began and continued till evening; and when the night
-had fallen the Japanese rushed the trenches on the eastern extremity
-of the crest line after a fierce hand-to-hand fight in which not
-only bayonets but even stones were used. But only part of the
-work had been won. The fort on the southwestern slopes of the
-ridges was still untaken, and though a small party of the besiegers
-penetrated the defences here, they were driven out again next day,
-and four more assaults delivered during the next two days proved
-equally unavailing though terribly costly in life&mdash;the casualty list
-at this point alone amounting to 2,000. The defences of this advance
-fort on 203 Metre Hill were typical of the obstacles which the
-Japanese had to overcome in the prosecution of their assaults.
-The bomb-proofs connecting the network of trenches which seared
-the slopes of the hill were made of steel plates covered with earth,
-and a triple row of wire entanglements made the ground in front of
-the trenches impassable. In the operations from the 19th to the
-26th September the Japanese lost more than 4,000 killed and
-wounded. In the assault at the same time on the advanced works of
-Urlungshan the parallels of the Japanese had been carried to within
-fifty yards of the defences, but the assault still proved a costly business.
-Again and again the assaulting rushes were swept back by
-rifle and machine-gun fire; but the indomitable spirit of the Mikado's
-troops at length prevailed, and the redoubt was carried at the
-point of the bayonet. The position thus gained in front of Urlungshan
-enabled the Japanese to mount their heavy howitzers in such a
-way as to bombard not only the main forts but the harbor with
-great effect; and in the course of a few days several of the warships
-lying at anchor were severely damaged by the high-angle fire. By
-hard fighting and diligent sapping the investing army now continued
-to make steady progress against the Urlungshan forts which lie
-just east of the road and railway and command their approach to
-Port Arthur. On the 10th October the attack managed to establish
-itself on the crest of the East Urlungshan fort, and on the 16th the
-entrenched hill between Urlungshan and Banjushan, the latter of
-which was already in Japanese hands, was taken by storm. On the
-25th October the glacis of East Urlungshan was stormed and held
-in spite of repeated counter-attacks on the part of the Russians. In
-front of these forts on the northeastern side the fiercest fighting continued
-all through the latter part of October and the early part of
-November, the general result being that the Japanese saps were
-brought within less than 300 yards of the main positions while the
-fire from the howitzers finally silenced the great forts of Urlungshan
-and Shunshusan. But these successes, though considerable, were
-insufficient to make a really serious breach in the main lines of the
-defence, as long as the great forts on the west&mdash;Antszshan and Etseshan&mdash;held
-out, and forthwith the Japanese attack was diverted to
-the latter of those two strongholds. Meanwhile, the heavy and incessant
-fire directed on the harbor and the town had been most
-destructive. The naval repairing works had to be abandoned, and
-both the old and the new Chinese towns were rendered uninhabitable
-where their buildings were not razed to the ground or consumed by
-the fires started by the bursting shells.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Devices of the Besiegers</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For the first time in history a fortress constructed according to
-the latest principles of military science, and defended by modern
-long-range artillery, was being besieged;
-and like the old walled cities of the
-17th and 18th centuries, its defences could
-only be overcome by sap and mine and parallel. So much the assailants
-had learnt to their cost in their earlier and futile attempts at
-taking the place by storm. The exigencies of these operations led
-to the adoption of many ingenious devices by the forces on both
-sides&mdash;such, for instance, as a steel bullet-proof shield to protect the
-pioneer engaged in cutting wire entanglements; and the deadly
-grenade charged with dynamite, flung into the enemy's trenches by
-the hand or by means of wooden mortars bound with bamboo. At
-first the Japanese had chosen the night time for their assaults, but
-this plan had to be abandoned owing to the effective employment by
-the Russians of searchlights and star shells, the former having the
-effect not only of exposing the assaulting troops to the fire of the defenders,
-but blinding them in their advance on their objective.
-Throughout the siege the defenders had shown not only indomitable
-courage, but inexhaustible resource, and in spite of all the discouragement
-which the steady and inexorable advance of the Japanese
-might have been supposed to inflict, they continued equal to every
-demand on their fortitude. From time to time supplies reached
-them by means of blockade-runners, but this was but a precarious
-and inadequate means of replenishing the stores on which such a
-long and severe strain had been made. And yet, in spite of all
-rumors to the effect that ammunition was running short, the great
-guns continued to hurl their defiance at the Japanese artillery, and
-never in any single instance was the defence weakened by a failure
-of powder and shot. Though the Russians had failed to foresee
-many things which the course of the war has proved to have been
-fairly obvious, no one can pretend that they failed to equip their
-great stronghold in the Far East in a manner worthy of its claim to
-rank as "the Gibraltar of the East." After nearly six months of
-close investment and almost continuous bombardment, the fortress
-still held at bay an enemy who had proved himself, not only before
-the defences of Port Arthur, but in many a stricken field beside, to
-possess fighting qualities rarely equalled and never surpassed in the
-world's history of warfare&mdash;an enemy, too, who possessed every
-resource of military science, and who had studied in the best military
-schools. The fact that the Japanese, who had confidently expected
-to take Port Arthur before the end of the summer had not
-even by the middle of November made a decisive breach in its main
-defences, speaks volumes for the character of those defences. But
-even the strongest fortifications that human ingenuity can construct
-are only formidable when men of high spirit man them; and the
-chief credit for having baffled so long the most desperate efforts of
-Japanese skill and courage must ever be given to General Stoessel
-and the men who, serving under him, became infected with his spirit
-and inspired by his example. By the middle of November the Japanese
-lines had, indeed, been drawn very close round the devoted
-citadel of the Czar. They were in possession of the eastern ridge,
-and held practically at their mercy that great ring of fortified hills
-which shuts in Port Arthur from the Dalny side. They had cut the
-main water supply of the garrison, and they had possessed themselves
-of important ground to the north of the old town, and their
-siege guns were able to render the dockyards and the harbor untenable
-for ships of war. To the west the advance had been less
-signal, and their foothold on the great ridge which commands the
-fortress on the western side was at best slight and precarious; while
-not even the faintest impression had been made on the great chain
-of fortifications at Liau-tie-shan, in the extreme south corner of the
-peninsula.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Undaunted Stoessel</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Tremendous efforts had been made to achieve the capture of
-the place by the 3rd November, the birthday of the Mikado; but that
-auspicious day passed without the fall of
-Port Arthur seeming to be in any degree
-nearer, while General Stoessel continued
-to send cheerful and undaunted messages to his Imperial
-master whenever a boat succeeded in running the blockade of the
-Japanese fleet and in reaching Chifu. Through all these protracted
-and strenuous operations, the losses of the Japanese had been very
-severe; they cannot have been less than 40,000 men, and they may
-have been considerably more. The garrison had suffered less severely,
-but in the absence of reserves their losses were even more
-serious, and by the middle of November the total effective force was
-little more than 10,000 men. It will ever be a mystery how a force
-so utterly inferior to its enemy, defending, a wide perimeter of fortifications,
-every point of which was daily liable to fierce assault and
-bombardment, could for so many weeks endure the awful strain to
-which it was subjected. Yet the indomitable garrison was never
-quiescent or passive in its resistance. Besides repelling assault, it
-engaged in continual sorties and counter-attacks, and often, when
-driven from an essential position succeeded in recapturing it at the
-point of the bayonet. A remarkable instance of this offensive capacity
-was furnished in the course of the great assault from the 19th
-September to the 26th September. In operating from the north
-against the defences of the Shuishi Valley, which lies between
-Antszshan and Urlungshan, the Japanese, after their first success,
-pressed on against High Hill, a position of the most vital importance
-to the defence, as it permitted the principal forts on the west of the
-town to be taken in reverse. As any attempt to retake the hill must
-be a desperate enterprise, General Stoessel refused to issue an order
-for its recapture, but called for volunteers. The requisite number
-were at once forthcoming, and led by Lieutenant Podgorsky, they
-attacked the Japanese with grenades and drove them from the position
-which they had already begun to entrench.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >In his dispatch of the 23rd September, this is how General
-Stoessel reports the affair:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Gallant Podgorsky</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The last assault on High Hill was repulsed to-day at 5
-o'clock in the morning. The enemy had actually occupied some of
-the defences of the High Hill position and
-had placed machine-guns in them, which
-they directed against our troops. Lieutenant
-Podgorsky was dispatched to this part of the field by General
-Kondrachenko with a force of chasseurs and engineers, who under
-the direction of Colonel Irmann hurled grenades filled with pyroxiline
-into the works held by the Japanese. These exploded among
-the enemy, who fled in panic. Captain Sytcheff, of the 5th Regiment,
-pursued the flying foe with chasseurs. Colonel Irmann attributes
-the principal share in the work of compelling the enemy to
-withdraw entirely from High Hill to Lieutenant Podgorsky. The
-Japanese lost over 10,000 men. All our troops distinguished themselves.
-General Kondrachenko, Colonel Irmann, Captain Sytcheff,
-and Lieutenant Podgorsky won special distinction. The troops
-fought heroically, particularly the 5th Regiment. The whole garrison
-down to the last man is resolved to defend Russia's bulwark in
-the Far East to the last drop of blood."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">World-wide Admiration</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But even the greatest heroism cannot achieve the impossible;
-and in spite of Stoessel's persistent optimism, it became evident that
-his powers of resistance were daily diminishing.
-An attempt on the part of the
-Japanese General to induce the garrison
-to capitulate in spite of their leader, met with no response; but
-throughout the civilized world, whose sympathy and admiration had
-been deeply stirred by the heroic stand of Port Arthur's garrison,
-voices were lifted to urge that no more useless sacrifice of noble life
-should be permitted; and that the men who had done so much for the
-honor of the Czar should be spared at least the last mortal agony of
-the struggle with the inevitable.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Uncertain News</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 15th, however, a Russian torpedo-boat bearing dispatches
-from Stoessel managed to elude the blockade and to reach
-Chifu, pursued by Japanese destroyers.
-The boat was warned that it must leave
-the neutral harbor within twenty-four
-hours or be disarmed, and rather than submit to either of these alternatives,
-the officer in command blew his vessel up. But his work
-had been done; and his dispatches containing the latest accounts of
-the position at Port Arthur reached St. Petersburg. Immediately
-afterwards the report arrived that General Kuropatkin had been
-empowered to treat for terms of capitulation for Port Arthur. But
-whether that was in fact the result of Stoessel's message, or whether
-the Czar's Government received from it encouragement in the belief
-that Port Arthur could hold out till the arrival of the Baltic
-Fleet, is a question which is still unanswered.</p>
-
-<div id='i346' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic044'>
-<img src='images/i346.jpg' alt='' class='ig044' />
-<p>THE REMNANT OF A REGIMENT&mdash;AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE SHA-HO.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch12' class='c015'>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >The North Sea Outrage&mdash;Seizures of Neutrals&mdash;The Case of the "Malacca"&mdash;The
-Baltic Fleet&mdash;Departure at Last&mdash;Russian Alarms&mdash;In the North Sea&mdash;Bringing
-Home the News&mdash;Russian Allegations&mdash;Naval Preparations&mdash;Supplementary
-Information&mdash;The Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The North Sea Outrage</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >No sooner had the echoes of the terrific battle of the Sha-ho
-begun to subside than the attention of the civilized world,
-which had so long been concentrated on the vicissitudes
-of the Titanic struggle in the Far East, was suddenly
-focussed on a spot separated from the theatre of war by more than
-half the circumference of the globe, and on an incident fraught, as
-it seemed, with more direful and tremendous
-consequences even than the momentous
-rupture between Russia and Japan.
-On the 15th of October, Russia's Baltic
-Fleet&mdash;which for many months had been preparing as a reinforcement
-to the Pacific Squadron&mdash;at last left port on its voyage to the
-Far East; and within six days of its departure it had so effectually
-asserted itself as a factor in the naval situation that Europe,
-shocked and startled, woke up one morning to find itself hanging on
-the perilous brink of that Armageddon which has been the nightmare
-of statesmen for the last twenty years. In passing through
-the North Sea, the Russian fleet&mdash;for causes which have yet to be
-fully elicited&mdash;fired on a flotilla of British fishing-boats engaged in
-trawling on the Dogger Bank; killed and wounded several of the
-fishermen; sunk one of the trawlers, and more or less grievously
-injured others. When the news of this amazing outrage was published
-a storm of indignation and resentment swept over England
-such as has not been known for more than a generation; and feeling
-was embittered and intensified to a truly dangerous pitch, first by
-the callous indifference displayed by the perpetrators of the outrage,
-and next by the indisposition of the Russian Government to offer
-those immediate apologies and amends which alone could palliate
-so wanton a breach of the comity of nations. It seemed for the
-moment that Russia had deliberately designed to provoke England
-to hostilities, in the hope of redeeming her own desperate position
-by extending the area of the conflict and by dragging into it first
-the ally of Japan, and by consequence her own ally, France. The
-prospect, though almost too terrible to contemplate, did not for a
-moment quench the resolution of the people of England, where men
-of all parties were found standing shoulder to shoulder in the demand
-for ample reparation. What made the situation especially
-dangerous was that public patience had at last been well-nigh exhausted
-by the repeated provocations of Russia&mdash;provocations which
-the North Sea outrage was only the crown and culmination. To
-understand this fact, it is necessary to go back a little.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Seizures of Neutrals</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >When Russia found that she could not hope successfully to
-contest the supremacy of the sea with Japan, she turned her attention
-to the subsidiary enterprise of commerce-raiding.
-In this task the Vladivostock
-Squadron were particularly active,
-and, unsated by the destruction of such
-Japanese transports and trading vessels as they encountered, seized
-or sunk many vessels flying neutral flags. On the 16th of June the
-Vladivostock cruisers seized the <i>Allanton</i>, a British steamer, carrying
-coal from Hokkaido Island to Singapore. There was nothing
-contraband in the cargo or destination of this vessel, as the subsequent
-decision of the St. Petersburg Prize Court proved, yet the
-<i>Allanton</i> was confiscated, and her crew held prisoners at Vladivostock
-for months. The real reason for this high-handed conduct
-was that the <i>Allanton</i> had previously carried a cargo of coal from
-Cardiff to Japan&mdash;but she had been chartered for that voyage before
-the outbreak of war. On the 16th of July the Indo-China Steam
-Navigation Company's steamer, the <i>Hispang</i>, was wantonly sunk in
-Pigeon Bay by a Russian torpedo-boat. The <i>Hispang</i> was engaged
-in a lawful trade; there was no suggestion that she carried contraband;
-and indeed no examination of her cargo was even attempted.
-She was flying the British flag, and she stopped directly she was
-ordered to do so. But in spite of these facts, a Russian torpedo-boat
-came straight out to her and sunk her&mdash;the captain, officers,
-and passengers being rescued with difficulty. It was afterwards
-confessed by the Russian officer that did this deed that his orders
-were given under the impression that the <i>Hispang</i> was the steamer
-<i>Haimum</i>, which was being employed by the London <i>Times</i>' correspondent.
-On the 26th of July an equally gross outrage was
-perpetrated by the Vladivostock Squadron, who, besides unjustifiably
-seizing the <i>Chalcas</i>, deliberately sunk on the 23rd of July the
-British steamer <i>Knight Commander</i>. This vessel was carrying rails
-for Japan; and even if such a cargo could be regarded as contraband,
-there was no excuse for sinking the vessel. Such an act, in
-the words of Mr. Balfour and Lord Lansdowne, constituted "a
-grave breach of international law"; and it was aggravated by the
-circumstances in which it was committed. The captain and crew
-were ordered to get clear of the vessel in ten minutes, and such
-was the haste with which they were compelled to leave the boats in
-order to save their lives, that nearly all the personal effects had to
-be sacrificed. The growing irritation with these acts was brought
-to a head in England by the famous case of the <i>Malacca</i>&mdash;a P.
-and O. mail steamship which was seized by Russian cruisers in the
-Red Sea on the 19th July. At the beginning of June two vessels
-of the Russian Volunteer Fleet in the Black Sea&mdash;the <i>Petersburg</i>
-and the <i>Smolensk</i>&mdash;were "designated for Government service outside
-the Black Sea." Even their commanders were kept in the
-dark as to their destination and the nature of the service that they
-were to perform. The two vessels, which, as warships, would
-not by international treaty have been able to leave the Black Sea,
-passed through the Dardanelles under the commercial flag, and then
-steered straight to the Suez Canal, where the non-belligerent character
-was still maintained. But it seems that on reaching Constantinople
-the commanders had been informed that their ships had been
-raised to the rank of second-class cruisers in the Russian fleet; and
-no sooner had the Red Sea been reached than the <i>Petersburg</i> and
-the <i>Smolensk</i> put off their commercial disguise and put on the
-character of ships of war. They flew the naval flag, and mounted
-the armament of 5in. quick-firers, which had been up to that moment
-securely stowed away. The Government service for which
-they had been designated was that of searching for contraband on
-neutral vessels, and the <i>soi-disant</i> cruisers lost no time in demonstrating
-their zeal. All this time, by the way, the Russian Admiralty
-was strenuously denying that the <i>Petersburg</i> and the <i>Smolensk</i> had
-left the Black Sea at all. On the 15th July the commerce-raiders
-began operations, rather tactlessly, by stopping and seizing the
-German mail steamer, <i>Prinz Heinrich</i>, and by confiscating the
-Japanese mails. The indignation and astonishment of the German
-public had only begun to make itself heard, when it was distracted
-by the intelligence that the P. and O. steamer <i>Malacca</i> had also
-been stopped, and had been actually brought back to Suez in charge
-of a Russian prize crew. The vessel, flying the Russian flag,
-reached Suez on the 19th July, and on the 20th the English Government,
-moved thereto by the clamor which began to be heard both in
-Parliament and in the press, addressed to the Government of the
-Czar a strongly-worded protest against the seizure and a demand
-that the <i>Malacca</i> should be instantly released. The demand was
-based on the irregular position of the <i>Petersburg</i>&mdash;a vessel which,
-if a ship of war, ought not to have passed the Dardanelles, and
-which, if not a ship of war, had no right to stop and search neutral
-vessels. This contention was unanswerable; for it is evident that if
-a ship could be permitted to change its character at will, it could
-perform all the functions of a ship of war and still enjoy all the
-privileges of a non-belligerent at neutral ports.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Case of the "Malacca"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Incidentally it was pointed out in Lord Lansdowne's dispatch
-that the ammunition found on board the <i>Malacca</i> belonged to the
-British Government, and was intended
-for the China Squadron. It subsequently
-came to light that the seizure of the
-<i>Malacca</i> was no mere accident; but that the vessel had been waited
-for by the Russian cruisers acting on secret information from Russian
-agents at Antwerp. For several days no reply was vouchsafed
-by the Russian Government, and feeling in this country rose to
-such a height that the situation became dangerous. While the
-whole British nation was chafing under the indignity and affront,
-the <i>Malacca</i> was being navigated by her prize crew, with almost
-deliberate insolence, through the Suez Canal on the way to the
-Baltic port of Libau. A British liner, in the eyes of the whole
-world, was made an ignominious captive, and, like a pickpocket in
-the clutch of a police-constable, was dragged away to judgment.
-The humiliation of the situation was aggravated by the fact that at
-Suez&mdash;a port of the English Protectorate of Egypt&mdash;the Russian
-officer in charge of the <i>Malacca</i> demanded to be supplied with coal,
-water, and provisions. In spite of the strong representations which
-had been made by the British Government, nothing was done at
-St. Petersburg to alleviate the situation. The <i>Malacca</i> reached
-Suez on the 19th of July and Port Said on the 20th, and on the 21st
-she sailed unconcernedly for her destination, which was ostentatiously
-announced to be Libau. Then at last the Russian Government
-broke the silence. Having inflicted the greatest possible humiliation
-on this country, they were pleased to accept the assurances
-of the British Government that the prize had no contraband on
-board, and to consent that the <i>Malacca</i> should not be brought before
-a Prize Court. A claim for damages for detention was to be admitted,
-and the vessel was to be handed over to the British authorities
-at "some Mediterranean port," after formal examination in
-the presence of the British Consul. On the 27th July the terms of
-this agreement&mdash;so extravagantly indulgent to Russia&mdash;were carried
-out, and the incident of the <i>Malacca</i> closed; but there remained
-still unsettled the fundamental question of the status of the volunteer
-cruisers, <i>Smolensk</i> and <i>Petersburg</i>. Meanwhile, for the German
-liner <i>Scandia</i>, which had been seized on the 23rd July, very
-different treatment was reserved&mdash;she was released on the following
-day. The only public recognition of the protests of the British
-Government which was given by the Government of the Czar was
-the publication on the 3rd August of an official communication declaring
-that "the special commission" of the cruisers <i>Petersburg</i> and
-<i>Smolensk</i> had "expired;" and these vessels promptly disappeared
-from the Red Sea. But their mischievous career was not yet at an
-end. Although the Russian Government had specifically promised
-that they should not be employed in searching neutral shipping any
-longer, the world was startled at the end of August to learn that
-the British steamer <i>Comedian</i> had been stopped 80 miles from East
-London and 10 miles only from the coast of British territory by a
-mysterious Russian cruiser. The unpleasant impression in England
-was deepened when it was discovered that this strange
-cruiser was no other than the <i>Smolensk</i> of Red Sea fame. Well
-might Mr. Balfour, who received at this moment a deputation of
-British shipowners, declare that the incident had produced "a painful
-impression" in the minds of the English Government. Representations
-to the Russian Government produced the characteristic
-excuse that the messages sent to the <i>Smolensk</i> and <i>Petersburg</i> had
-not reached their destination. There is, indeed, good reason to believe
-that the Russian Admiralty, which had done its best to thwart
-the Russian Foreign Office, had taken particularly good care that
-the messages should be delayed until the <i>Petersburg</i> and <i>Smolensk</i>
-were out of reach. But realizing the gravity of the situation, and
-protesting their own helplessness, the Russian Government now invited
-the British Government itself to communicate to the raiders
-a cypher message of recall. Accordingly the cruisers on the Cape
-Station were sent out to find the delinquents; and on the 5th September
-they were discovered coaling in the territorial waters of
-Zanzibar with German colliers in attendance. Their whereabout
-was at any rate sufficiently well known for them to command the
-means to replenish their bunkers, and as soon as they saw a British
-warship, they prepared for instant flight. But H.M.S. <i>Forte</i> managed
-to communicate to them the orders of their own Government,
-and as these were too unequivocal to be disregarded, the raiding
-career of the <i>Petersburg</i> and <i>Smolensk</i> forthwith came to an end.
-But they had done enough, in conjunction with the Vladivostock
-Squadron, to rouse feeling in England to a high pitch of irritation;
-and to make it ill-prepared to endure with patience or forbearance
-the greater and still more wanton outrage with which the Baltic
-Fleet was to inaugurate its voyage to the Far East.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Baltic Fleet</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The dispatch of this fleet had been the feverish pre-occupation
-of the Russian Admiralty from the moment that the first disasters
-befell the Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur.
-Naval reinforcements were on the
-way, it will be remembered, at the outbreak
-of war, and had reached the Red Sea; but they were recalled
-when the news of the successful torpedo attack on the Port Arthur
-Fleet reached Europe. It was realized how vital must be the command
-of the sea to the achievement of victory; and Russia at once
-set about preparing an Armada which should restore to her the
-naval preponderance so suddenly lost. At first the intention,
-which was so loudly proclaimed, was not taken quite seriously;
-but it was decidedly encouraged as the weeks went on and as the
-resisting power of Port Arthur to assault gave hopes that the new
-fleet might still find a warm-water port to receive it. At first the
-departure of the Baltic Fleet was announced for June; though
-everyone knew the design, only formed perhaps to reassure public
-opinion in Russia, was incapable of fulfilment. Then June came,
-and the date of departure was again postponed; and in July the
-world was informed that there was "no hurry;" and that it had
-been thought advisable to "test thoroughly" the new ships and to
-familiarize the officers and crews with their work. All through
-the summer the game of fixing the day of departure and then postponing
-it went merrily on; but on the 15th August Admiral
-Rozhestvensky, on whom supreme command of the fleet had been
-bestowed, went on board the flagship with his staff; and received
-from the Port Admiral at Kronstadt by signal a formal message
-of farewell. But nothing more happened, except that on the 20th
-August it was announced that the Baltic Fleet would not leave before
-the 28th September.</p>
-
-<div id='i355' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic045'>
-<img src='images/i355.jpg' alt='' class='ig045' />
-<p>HUGE SIEGE GUNS BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Departure at Last</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 26th August the fleet went for a trial trip with the
-most discouraging results, for several of the new ships broke down
-and the battleship <i>Orel</i> ran aground, inflicting
-structural injuries on herself.
-Early in September there was another
-false alarm. Danish pilots had been procured, and on the 11th
-September the fleet again put to sea; but it only got as far as the
-port of Libau, and the next news was that it would remain there
-"some weeks longer" for firing practice and man&oelig;uvres. The
-next definite date fixed was the 7th October; but two days later
-than that the fleet had only got as far as Reval, where it was inspected
-and blessed by the Czar in person. On the 15th October,
-however, the long delay at last came to an end, and the fleet, consisting
-of thirty-six vessels, actually left Russian waters.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is necessary now to describe the fleet in which Russia had
-placed so many of her hopes. The class and character of the principal
-vessels is best realized from a table:&mdash;</p>
-
-<table class='c017' summary=''>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displace-</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Indic'd</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nom'l</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>W'ght of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>ment in</td>
-    <td class='c019'>horse-</td>
-    <td class='c019'>speed in</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Protec'n</td>
-    <td class='c020'>b'side fire</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>BATTLESHIPS.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>tons.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>power.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>knots.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>in inches.</td>
-    <td class='c020'>in lbs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Kniaz Suvaroff</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c037'></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c038'>(flagship)</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Alexander III</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Borodino</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Orel</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Ossliabia</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,674</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>2,672</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Sissoi Veliky</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c037'></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c038'>(flagship)</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,880</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,186</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Navarin</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,476</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,206</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,404</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displace-</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Indic'd</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nom'l</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>W'ght of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>ment in</td>
-    <td class='c019'>horse-</td>
-    <td class='c019'>speed in</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Protec'n</td>
-    <td class='c020'>b'side fire</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>tons.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>power.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>knots.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>in inches.</td>
-    <td class='c020'>in lbs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>ARMORED CRUISERS.</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c037'></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Admiral Nakhimoff</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>944</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Dmitri Donskoi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,893</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>444</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>PROTECTED</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c037'></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Oleg</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,675</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>23</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>872</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Aurora</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,630</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,600</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>632</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Svietlana</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,828</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>476</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Almaz</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,285</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>184</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jemtchug</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>184</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Izumrud</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;</td>
-    <td class='c020'>184</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Strength of Baltic Fleet</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In addition to these ships there was a torpedo flotilla of 7 destroyers
-of 28 knots speed, and 8 torpedo-boats; the following vessels
-of the Volunteer Fleet: <i>Kiev</i>,
-<i>Vladimir</i>, <i>Voronej</i> (each of 10,500 tons
-and with a speed of 12 knots), <i>Tambov</i>,
-and <i>Yawslar</i> (each of 8,640 tons and with a speed of 12 knots);
-13 transports armed with light guns; and a hospital ship, the <i>Orel</i>&mdash;not
-to be confused with the battleship of the same name. On
-paper, at least, this was a very formidable fleet; but its fighting
-efficiency appears much reduced on analysis. There were four
-modern battleships of a powerful type and of homogeneous design;
-but their value is much discounted by the fact that some of
-their consorts are distinctly less powerful; and in naval warfare
-the man&oelig;uvring power of a fleet becomes that of its weakest item.
-This was proved very signally on the occasion of the engagement
-between Admiral Kamimura and the Vladivostock Squadron, when
-the Russian cruisers <i>Gromoboi</i> and <i>Rossia</i> suffered most severely
-from having to stand by the <i>Rurik</i>, the lame duck of the squadron.
-The <i>Ossliabia</i>, it is true was not much inferior to the battleships
-of the <i>Kniaz Suvaroff</i> class. She was a sister ship to the
-<i>Peresviet</i> and <i>Pobieda</i>, sunk in the harbor of Port Arthur, and
-was launched in 1898. But the <i>Sissoi Veliky</i> and the <i>Navarin</i> both
-dated from 1891, and were distinctly inferior in the all-important
-matter of speed, even their nominal speed never having been attained.
-The only armored cruisers with the Baltic Fleet&mdash;the <i>Admiral
-Nakhimoff</i> and the <i>Dmiti Donskoi</i>&mdash;were barely entitled to
-their description, as they have a low speed, light armor, and comparatively
-small gun power. Certainly they were not fit, like the
-best armored cruisers of to-day, to lie in the line of battle. Some
-of the other cruisers were little more than armed merchantmen,
-and none of them were formidable warships. Another circumstance
-that detracted from the fighting value of this fleet was the
-character of the officers and crews. All Russia's best and most
-highly-trained sailors and marine engineers were sent out before
-the war to the Pacific Squadron; and she had no adequate reserve
-to draw on. The modern man-of-war's-man&mdash;whether he is in
-the engine-room or on the gun-deck&mdash;is a highly specialized product,
-and he cannot be turned out at a moment's notice. Stokers,
-artificers, engineers, as well as torpedo lieutenants, gunners, and
-even admirals, have to be carefully trained for years before they
-become efficient, and the inefficiency and inexperience of the scratch
-crews and raw officers put on board the Baltic Fleet was the main
-cause of the long delay in that fleet's departure and of the disaster
-that occurred immediately after the start had been made, and that
-nearly brought the voyage to a tragic and ignominious conclusion.
-When all these circumstances were taken into consideration, it became
-obvious that the Baltic Fleet was hopelessly inferior to the
-fleet which, on reaching Far Eastern waters, it would have to encounter
-in order to wrest from the Japanese their command of the
-sea. But one question, even more urgent than that of the fate
-which would befall the fleet on arrival, was how it was to overcome
-the difficulties of the voyage. Russia had no coaling stations;
-and coaling at sea from attendant colliers has not yet become
-a feasible operation for a great fleet. The larger vessels
-would require from 5,000 to 6,000 tons of coal each, and the
-smaller cruisers from 2,000 to 3,000 tons in the course of a voyage
-of nearly 13,000 miles, occupying at least 100 days, and very
-possibly 30 days more. But the coaling difficulty proved less insuperable
-than it had appeared, and Russia's energy and ingenuity
-in overcoming it were the first symptoms that she meant the Baltic
-Fleet to be taken seriously. Negotiations for the supply of coal
-were opened with English firms; but our Foreign Office ruled that
-such contracts would be an infringement of neutrality. The Germans,
-however, were much more complaisant; and their attitude
-of "benevolent neutrality," as Count Von Bulow called it, enabled
-them to meet all demands of Russia. Large orders for English
-coal to be delivered to German consignees at neutral ports were
-received at Cardiff; and this coal was then transferred to the ports
-at which the Baltic Fleet was to call. According to the strict interpretation
-of international law these facilities for coaling in port
-ought not to have been extended to the fleet of a belligerent. But
-Russia was a close neighbor of the Powers concerned, and the
-ally of one of them, while her enemy was a long way off; and
-so it happened that Admiral Rozhdestvensky suffered no more inconvenience
-than if he had been engaged on a yachting cruise. He
-and his fleet put into any port that they fancied, and stayed, practically,
-as long as they had a mind to!</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Alarms</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Baltic Fleet was divided into three divisions, and on the
-16th-18th October the first division left Libau. The daring surprise
-attacks of the Japanese torpedo-boats
-at Port Arthur had filled the
-minds of the Russian naval authorities
-with every kind of misgiving; and by some means not yet disclosed,
-they had become possessed of the idea that the Japanese meditated
-an attempt on the Baltic Fleet during its passage through the narrow
-waters of the Danish Straits and the North Sea. Rumors of
-mysterious Japanese agents, endeavoring to charter vessels in obscure
-Danish and Norwegian ports filled the Russian newspapers.
-On the 14th October Admiral Wirenius, the Chief of the Russian
-Admiralty, solemnly declared to an interviewer that the narrow
-waters of the Belt and the Sound were particularly favorable for
-a surprise attack; that officers of the Japanese Navy were known
-to have left for Europe; and that there was reason to apprehend
-an attempt to throw mines in the track of the Russian Squadron
-in the Danish Straits. The state of "nerves" to which the Russian
-naval officers had been reduced by these apprehensions was shown
-when, as the Russian fleet passed through the Kattegat, an attempt
-was made to deliver to the Russian Admiral a cypher dispatch that
-had arrived from St. Petersburg. Two fishermen were sent out
-with the dispatch in a motor-launch, but when their vessel approached
-the flagship the searchlights were turned on, and blank
-charges fired to forbid a nearer approach. The dispatch was taken
-in by a boat launched by the battleship for the purpose.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">In the North Sea</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the 19th of October the first division of the fleet passed
-through the Kattegat; and by the 21st of October all the ships had
-left Danish waters and entered on their
-course down the North Sea. Immediately
-followed an occurrence almost
-without parallel in naval history&mdash;an occurrence that was only saved
-from inextinguishable ridicule and contempt by the tragic consequences
-which it unhappily involved. On this memorable night of
-Friday, the 21st of October, some fifty vessels of the Hull fishing
-fleet were engaged in trawling on the Dogger Bank&mdash;one of the
-places in the North Sea most frequented by the fishermen not only
-of Great Britain, but of Germany, Denmark, Holland and Norway.
-It is a prominent figure in all charts of the North Sea, and to every
-sailor and seafaring man its situation and character are perfectly
-familiar. The Hull fishermen, of the Gamecock and Great Northern
-Fleets, had their trawls down and were thus deprived of the possibility
-of rapid movement, when about midnight they sighted a
-number of warships steaming from the northeast. At first they did
-not suspect that it was the Russian Baltic Fleet that had come their
-way, because in that event the fleet must have been navigating some
-40 miles out of the true course; but very soon their ignorance was
-enlightened. While the men were watching the passing warships,
-searchlights were suddenly flashed on the trawlers, and then, to the
-horror and amazement of these innocent fishermen engaged peaceably
-in their lawful occupations, a sudden storm of shot and shell
-broke upon them from unknown men-of-war. The steam-trawler
-<i>Crane</i> was sunk and its skipper and mate were decapitated by a shell,
-and all but one of the crew were injured; while the trawlers <i>Moulmein</i>
-and <i>Mino</i> were seriously damaged, the latter vessel having no
-fewer than sixteen holes in her. From the evidence given at the
-subsequent inquiries the following facts were elicited: All the trawlers
-had their own lights up&mdash;namely, a lantern showing a white
-light ahead, a green light on the starboard side, a red light on the
-port side. Several vessels also had lights in the fishing pound so
-that the men could work on deck. None of the trawlers were without
-lights. As the approaching vessels came nearer they were seen
-to signal to one another in a way that conveyed to the minds of the
-trawlers that they were warships. Some of the vessels were in
-advance of the others. The exact number was very difficult to tell,
-but in the first division there were probably four or five. They
-passed the trawlers to the westward, where the admiral's trawler,
-the <i>Ruff</i>, was, and to the eastward of a few of the trawlers. One
-of them, at any rate, showed a searchlight. They passed on, and
-nothing happened. It was noticed that they were signalling to the
-other vessels behind, and that the other vessels were repeating the
-signals and signalling to each other. These other vessels then came
-on to the eastward of the admiral's ship, <i>Ruff</i>, but there were trawlers
-on both sides of them. Then, without any warning to the
-trawlers, these vessels opened fire. The crews on the trawlers were
-at first under the impression that it was a sham fight in some
-man&oelig;uvres, but they soon discovered that it was live shot. Some
-of the warships fired from both port and starboard side. After the
-firing had begun, this second division of vessels came more to the
-west, and there were others which came down more to the east. The
-third division, which came furthest to the eastward, came near some
-of the outlying trawlers, who were more to the south and east. They
-turned their searchlights upon them. A great many of the trawlers,
-in the attempt to get away from the firing when it began, lost their
-trawls or damaged them.</p>
-
-<div id='i366' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic046'>
-<img src='images/i366.jpg' alt='' class='ig046' />
-<p>THIRSTY JAPANESE TROOPS CROSSING THE SHA-HO.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Bringing Home the News</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On Sunday night, the 23rd of October, two steam trawlers, one
-of them flying her flag at half-mast, and both riddled with shot,
-entered St Andrew's Dock at Hull. Their
-own condition, and the lifeless and mutilated
-bodies that they brought with them,
-were ghastly confirmation of the amazing
-tidings that they had to tell; and next morning, not only England,
-but all the world, was ringing with the news of the Baltic fleet's first
-warlike exploit. Amazement quickly gave place to indignation&mdash;an
-indignation of passionate intensity; and with one voice the people
-of England cried aloud for retribution at any cost on the perpetrators
-of so wanton an outrage. Nor was this indignation confined to
-the countrymen of the victims. In the United States, in France,
-and even in Germany, unsparing reprobation of a deed so unjustifiable
-was freely uttered; and the belief was confidently expressed
-that the only possible explanation was to be found in the undiscipline
-and probable drunken frenzy of the Russian naval officers. Be it
-remembered, too, that the heinousness of the offence was infinitely
-increased by the fact that the Russian ships, whose commanders
-must have discovered their grievous blunder before leaving the
-neighborhood of the Dogger Bank, made no effort to ascertain the
-injury they had inflicted, or to render help to their innocent victims.
-Neither did the Russian Admiral condescend to make the least report
-of the circumstances. He and his fleet proceeded on their way as
-if the sinking of fishing-boats and the slaughtering of fishermen
-were too trifling an incident to engage serious attention and notice;
-and when the news of the outrage reached London, the Baltic
-Squadron had already been sighted in the Channel. No Government
-could sit down under such provocation as this, and the English ministers,
-who realized well enough the dangerous pitch to which public
-feeling had been wrought, lost no time in addressing the strongest
-demands for immediate redress to St. Petersburg, accompanied by
-the intimation that the situation was one not admitting of delay.
-Their action was emphasized by that of King Edward himself, who,
-in sending a subscription of 200 guineas for the relief of the sufferers,
-declared that he had heard with profound sorrow of the
-"unwarrantable action" to which the North Sea fishing-fleet had been
-subjected. The principal witnesses of the outrage were summoned
-at once to the Foreign Office, and Lord Lansdowne had long
-audience of the King, while the Prime Minister, who happened to be
-in Scotland, came back post-haste to London. On the 25th of October
-Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs,
-called at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg and requested the
-British Ambassador, Sir Charles Hardinge, to convey to King Edward
-and the British Government a message from the Czar, who,
-while he had received no message from the Admiral in command
-of the Baltic Fleet, could only attribute "the incident in the North
-Sea to a very regrettable misunderstanding". It was added that the
-Czar wished to express his sincere regret for the sad loss of life that
-had occurred, and to say that he would take steps to afford complete
-satisfaction to the sufferers as soon as the circumstances of the case
-were cleared up. These assurances, though far from adequate,
-would have done something to calm the temper of public opinion in
-England if they had been accompanied by any sign of a similar
-spirit in the Czar's advisers. But the latter seemed inclined to be
-as intractable as the Russian press was impenitent. While the Russian
-Government pursued a policy of delay and evasion, the Russian
-newspapers roundly denied that any blame attached to the
-Baltic Fleet, and scouted all idea of reparation; and all the time
-Admiral Rozhdestvensky was proceeding serenely on his voyage.
-On the 26th of October his battleships arrived at Vigo Harbor,
-where at last he took the trouble to communicate his report of what
-had happened to St. Petersburg. The statement is such an amazing
-one that it may be given in full. It was communicated to the world
-under the authority of the Russian Naval General Staff, and ran as
-follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"1.&mdash;The incident in the North Sea was provoked by two torpedo-boats
-which, without showing any lights, under cover of
-darkness, advanced to attack the vessel steaming at the head of the
-detachment. When the detachment began to sweep the sea with its
-searchlights and opened fire, the presence was also discovered of
-several small steam vessels resembling small steam fishing-boats.
-The detachment endeavored to spare these boats and ceased fire as
-soon as the torpedo-boats were out of sight.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The English press is horrified at the idea that the torpedo-boats
-of the squadron, left by detachment until the morning on the
-scene of the occurrence, did not render assistance to the victims.
-Now, there was not a single torpedo-boat with the detachment and
-none were left on the scene of the occurrence. In consequence, it
-was one of the two torpedo-boats which was not sunk, but which
-was only damaged, which remained until the morning near the small
-steam craft. The detachment did not assist the small steam craft
-because it suspected them of complicity, in view of their obstinate
-persistence in cutting the line of advance of the warships. Several
-of them did not show any lights at all. The others showed them
-very late.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"2.&mdash;Having met several hundreds of fishing-boats, the squadron
-showed them every consideration, except where they were in
-company of the foreign torpedo-boats, one of which disappeared,
-while the other, according to the evidence of the fishermen themselves,
-remained among them until the morning. They believed her
-to be a Russian vessel, and were indignant that she did not come to
-the assistants of the victims. She was, however, a foreigner, and
-remained until the morning looking for the other torpedo-boat, her
-companion, either with the object of repairing her damage or from
-fear of betraying herself to those who were not accomplices.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"If there were also on the scene of the occurrence fishermen
-imprudently involved in this enterprise, I beg, in the name of the
-whole fleet, to express our sincere regret for the unfortunate victims
-of circumstances in which no warship could, even in time of profound
-peace, have acted otherwise."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Naval Preparations</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But before this preposterous and long-delayed explanation was
-vouchsafed, the British Government had taken steps to prove that
-they were not in the mood to be trifled with, and that the subjects
-of the greatest naval power in the world were not to be shot down
-with impunity. To the intense satisfaction of the whole nation,
-an instant mobilization of the British fleets in European waters was
-ordered. The Home Fleet, which had been cruising away to the
-north of Scotland, was ordered south;
-the Channel Fleet, lying at Gibraltar, was
-warned to be in instant readiness for active
-service; and the Mediterranean Fleet
-was instructed to join up with the Channel Fleet with all speed.
-The naval dockyards were kept working night and day to prepare
-the reserve fleet for commission, and to be ready for the demands
-which an immediate outbreak of war might involve. In forty-eight
-hours every requisite preparation had been completed, and three
-fleets, any one of them capable of dealing faithfully with Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky's squadron, were ready for instant action. Directly
-in the path of the Baltic Fleet, now assembled at Vigo, lay the
-Channel Fleet under the command of Lord Charles Beresford, and
-so acute was the crisis that it seemed as if at any moment that fleet
-might be ordered to take the sea. Among the secret preparations
-made was the dispatch of four battleships from the Channel Squadron
-at Gibraltar to Portland and the assembly of all available submarines
-at Dover. What made the situation especially dangerous was
-the conflict which in this hour of desperate emergency was being
-waged between the Russian Admiralty and the Russian Foreign
-Office. The former department, which had done so much to aggravate
-the case of the <i>Malacca</i> and to flout the assurances which had
-been given as to the withdrawal of the <i>Petersburg</i> and <i>Smolensk</i>,
-was now determined that no surrender should be made to the
-British demands for satisfaction in the matter of the North Sea
-outrage; and for several days the more pacific Foreign Office
-wrestled with these fire-eaters in vain. War between England and
-Russia, with the prospect of indefinite extension to other countries,
-seemed inevitable; but thanks largely to the friendly offices of the
-French Government, who, as the ally of Russia and the friend of
-Great Britain, had exceptional claims to act as an intermediary
-between the disputants, a settlement was at length arrived at. On
-the 28th of October, Mr. Balfour was able to announce to the world
-that that morning an agreement had been arrived at which averted
-all further apprehension of the rupture of peaceful relations. Great
-Britain and Russia had consented to refer the case in dispute to an
-impartial International Tribunal of Inquiry; the terms of the Convention,
-which were signed after much further negotiation on the
-24th of November, being as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >1.&mdash;The Commission is to consist of five members, namely,
-officers of Great Britain, Russia, the United States, and France.
-The fifth Commissioner is to be selected by agreement between them.
-If they cannot agree, the choice to be entrusted to the king of a
-country subsequently to be determined upon.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >2.&mdash;The Commission is to report on all the circumstances relating
-to the disaster and to establish the responsibility.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >3.&mdash;The Commission is to have power to settle all questions
-of procedure.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >4.&mdash;The parties bind themselves to supply the Commission with
-all necessary information, facilities, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >5.&mdash;The Commission is to meet at Paris as soon as possible
-after the signature of the Convention.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >6.&mdash;The report of the Commission is to be officially communicated
-to the respective Governments.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Allegations</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Not the least interesting part of Mr. Balfour's statement was
-that in which he examined and dealt with the justification which
-Admiral Rozhdestvensky had put forward,
-and in particular with the allegation
-that the Russian fleet had been attacked
-by torpedo-boats. This allegation, as Mr. Balfour pointed
-out, involved a charge of bad faith on the part of Great Britain, and
-such a charge he indignantly resented. If only one torpedo-boat
-was sunk, what, he pertinently asked, had become of the other? The
-world did not require to be convinced of the essential absurdity of
-this story; but the Russians persisted in it with determination. The
-most circumstantial narratives were presently forthcoming from the
-four officers who had been detained to give evidence before the
-International Commission. One narrator stated that information
-of the presence of Japanese torpedo-boats in the Norway fiords, and
-of the Japanese having hired fishing vessels in Hull, Southampton,
-Hamburg, and Christiania, had been received by the Russians. He
-proceeded as follows: "We lodged information of the Japanese
-intentions with the Governments of those countries where the Japanese
-were making their preparations, but it was only in Denmark
-and Germany that we found any readiness to interfere with them....
-Before leaving the Scaw the Russians received a number of
-alarming messages from their agents. All these messages agreed
-in stating that in one very deep Norwegian fiord four Japanese torpedo-boats
-had been seen, and that these vessels were afterwards
-observed a short distance to the west of the Scaw. The Russians
-left the Scaw in the morning, proceeding in different divisions. All
-the torpedo craft went on ahead, in two divisions, making for Cherbourg.
-Next came Admiral Folkersahm with the four older battleships
-making for Tangier. The small cruisers were under orders
-to proceed to Arosa, 40 miles north of Vigo, while the large cruisers
-with the transport <i>Kamchatka</i>, under the command of Admiral Enquist,
-had instructions to make for Tangier like Admiral Folkersahm.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Last of all we put to sea with the four best battleships, <i>Suvaroff</i>,
-<i>Alexander III.</i>, <i>Borodino</i>, and <i>Orel</i>. Our destination was
-Brest, where we were to coal. Observe, therefore, that there was
-not with us a single torpedo-boat or a single small vessel. All such
-were far ahead of us.... On the 8th of October, at 8 o'clock in the
-evening, when it was already quite dark, we received a wireless message
-stating that 30 miles behind us was the transport <i>Kamchatka</i>,
-which had fallen behind her consorts (the cruisers <i>Dmitri Donskoi</i>
-and <i>Aurora</i>) in consequence of an injury to her engines, and that
-several torpedo-boats were following her closely, but had not discharged
-any torpedoes. Admiral Enquist, who was in front with
-the two cruisers, was at once ordered by wireless message to slacken
-speed and wait for the <i>Kamchatka</i>, or to continue his course in order
-not to expose himself to the torpedo-boats, which, of course, also
-received our messages, but did not know from what spot they were
-sent. The Japanese, however, attempted to find out our whereabouts.
-While we were exchanging messages with the <i>Kamchatka</i>
-we suddenly received a succession of telegrams, in excellent Russian,
-purporting to come from the <i>Kamchatka</i>: 'Where is the squadron?'
-'Give your latitude and longitude.' 'Where is the <i>Suvaroff</i>?' These
-telegrams appeared to us suspicious, and, in order to assure ourselves
-that they were really sent by the <i>Kamchatka</i>, instead of answering
-we asked for the name of one of the officers of the <i>Kamchatka</i>. To
-this no answer was returned, and we continued our conversation
-with the <i>Kamchatka</i> in cypher. At 12.55 A. M. we suddenly saw
-in front of us ... two long dark silhouettes, emitting quantities of
-smoke and evidently steaming at high speed. At the same time we
-saw a yellow-red rocket, such as is generally sent up by vessels in
-distress. A moment later a searchlight was thrown upon us from
-ahead.... We at once turned our searchlights on the torpedo-boats
-and opened fire on them. As soon as they saw that they were discovered,
-they turned aside, but came under the fire of the <i>Alexander
-III.</i>, <i>Borodino</i>, and <i>Orel</i>, which were following us. About the same
-time our searchlights began to fall from time to time on some small
-vessels, apparently fishing craft, whose behavior, however, was very
-suspicious. They showed no lights, there was not a man on their
-decks, and they obstinately remained under the bows of our ships,
-barring their course. They were thus in a position to launch floating
-mines. In spite of this, however, the Admiral, as soon as he
-caught sight of them, ordered that the searchlights on board the
-<i>Suvaroff</i> should be turned skywards, which was a signal to cease
-firing.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"To remain where we were after the torpedo-boats had disappeared
-in order to aid the steamers would have been the height of
-imprudence. We should have risked the most formidable part of
-our fleet, and as there were several steamers they were in a position
-to aid each other. As far as could be perceived, one of the enemy's
-torpedo-boats was sunk."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The narrator argued that either the fishing vessels were accomplices
-or the Japanese took advantage of their proximity without
-their knowledge. He inclined to the former alternative, and asked,
-"Why Hull fishing boats so far from England&mdash;almost off the Danish
-coast?"</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The best commentary on this narrative was supplied by the
-Russian Government themselves, who, six weeks after the North
-Sea outrage, published the following significant admission of facts,
-which had, of course, been perfectly well known to them almost
-from the first:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Supplementary Information</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"According to supplementary information from Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-concerning the North Sea incident of the 21st of
-October, after the <i>Kniaz Suvaroff</i> had
-ceased firing there suddenly appeared on
-the left of the ironclad division the two
-searchlights of the cruisers <i>Dmitri Donskoi</i>
-and <i>Aurora</i>, lighting up the division. The <i>Dmitri Donskoi</i>
-showed her night signals, whereupon for fear lest projectiles from
-the hindmost ships of the division should hit our own vessels, either
-directly or by ricochet, a general signal to cease fire was made from
-the ironclad <i>Kniaz Suvaroff</i>, and was at once carried out. The
-whole of the firing lasted less than ten minutes. Communications
-by wireless telegraph stated that five projectiles had struck the
-cruiser <i>Aurora</i>, some ricocheting and others hitting her direct.
-Three were 75-millimètre and two 47-millimètre shells. The chaplain
-was seriously injured, and a petty officer was slightly wounded.
-The former subsequently succumbed at Tangier."</p>
-
-<div id='i375' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic047'>
-<img src='images/i375.jpg' alt='' class='ig047' />
-<p>FIGHT IN STREET OF LIN-SHIN-PU, BATTLE OF SHAK-KE RIVER.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This communication bears out the theory advanced in the first
-instance that the Russians in the panic had mistaken their own ships
-for hostile torpedo-boats, and had opened fire on the "two long,
-dark silhouettes emitting quantities of smoke" without stopping to
-ascertain what they belonged to.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >After leaving Vigo, the Baltic Fleet divided into two squadrons&mdash;one
-proceeding down the West Coast of Africa, and the other
-through the Suez Canal. By the end of
-December (two months and a half from
-leaving Libau) they had completed barely
-one-half of their voyage; and by that
-time, not only was Vladivostock frost-bound, but Port Arthur was
-dominated by Japanese guns, and the remnants of the Pacific Fleet
-lay shell-riddled on the mud of the harbor. Before the International
-Commission of Inquiry met for business, all hope of the Baltic
-Fleet's achieving any serious purpose had been dissipated; for while
-it was still mustering at Madagascar, the news arrived that the fall
-of Port Arthur was at last an accomplished fact.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch13' class='c015'>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Progress of the Siege&mdash;Siege of Port Arthur&mdash;The Japanese Progress&mdash;The
-Japs Attack Metre Hill&mdash;The Russian Fleet between Two Fires&mdash;A Jap
-Hero&mdash;Tunnels and Hand-grenades&mdash;The Japs Capture Urlungshan&mdash;The
-Surrender of Port Arthur&mdash;"Great Sovereign! Forgive!"&mdash;The Japs Occupy
-the Fortress&mdash;Discreditable Surrender&mdash;The End of the Siege of Port
-Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Progress of the Siege</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0 c003'     >In spite of such distractions as the campaign in Manchuria and
-the career of the Baltic Fleet, Port Arthur remained the real
-focal point of the world-wide interest which the tremendous
-struggle in the Far East had aroused. The progress of the
-siege, which had been veiled in obscurity during the earlier months
-of investment, owing to the severity of the censorship, was suddenly
-and frankly revealed to the world in the
-late autumn, and from that moment the
-salient incidents of this thrilling drama
-could be followed almost from day to day.
-Winter's icy grip, which had brought to a pause the headlong train
-of the campaign in Manchuria, caused no interruption to the implacable
-contest for mastery between the heroic troops of General Nogi
-and the dauntless garrison commanded by General Stoessel. Not
-for an instant was there the least relaxation of effort on the part of
-the besiegers or of endurance on the part of the besieged. Rather
-was the resolution of both combatants screwed to a higher pitch by
-the knowledge that time might be the deciding factor in the conflict.
-The departure of the Baltic Fleet gave General Stoessel hopes of
-ultimate relief as the reward for holding on, and threatened General
-Nogi with the stultification of all his sacrifices. With Port Arthur
-remaining in Russian hands, the recovery by her of the command
-of the sea must always be a menacing possibility for the Japanese;
-while the fall of Port Arthur meant not only the destruction of the
-last remnant of the Russian Pacific Squadron, but the loss of the
-only practicable base for any future naval operations. The whole
-Japanese plan of campaign must rest on a more or less precarious
-foundation as long as Russia had a fleet in being in Eastern seas,
-for the vital lines of sea communication must be liable to severance.
-With the Russian flag swept from its last refuge, Japan must remain
-invincible to the mightiest armies that Russia could assemble in
-Manchuria.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Siege of Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The story of the siege of Port Arthur has already been related
-in this narrative up to the moment immediately preceding the capture
-of 203-Metre Hill&mdash;an event that
-marked the turning-point of the whole
-protracted operations, and that proved to
-be the real beginning of the end. Before
-describing in detail the action that led to this signal victory for General
-Nogi's troops, it may be well to give a brief résumé of the
-situation as it then existed.</p>
-
-<div id='i381' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic048'>
-<img src='images/i381.png' alt='' class='ig048' />
-<p>PORT ARTHUR AND THE SURROUNDING FORTS.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The investment may be said to have begun on June 26th, and
-between that date and the end of October a series of more or less
-desperate and costly assaults on the Russian outworks had
-carried the Japanese lines closer and closer to the permanent defences
-with which the town and the harbor of Port
-Arthur were secured from attack by land. In the great
-attacks of August 28th and September 20th, some progress
-was made to the east and north; but no great impression was made
-in the formidable chain of forts; and even on October 30th, when
-another assault was delivered, on the Keekwan and Urlungshan
-forts, the Japanese were repulsed with the loss of 2,000 men. On
-September 20th a determined assault had been made on 203-Metre
-Hill&mdash;the highest eminence of that ridge which runs between Louisa
-Bay on the west and the great forts, Itszshan and Antszshan, dominating
-the western approaches of Port Arthur. The attempt was
-almost successful, but not quite, and all that remained to reward the
-Japanese for their terrible sacrifice of life was the possession of a
-height, a little to the north, known as Namaokoyama, or 180-Metre
-Hill. This is due east of 174 Metre Hill, captured in August. At
-the same time the Japanese, however, succeeded in taking possession
-of the Sueishi lunettes, which defend the valley through which the
-railway runs, and of Fort Kuropatkin, which commands the water
-supply of Port Arthur. This was the position when, on November
-26th, General Nogi ordered another assault on the fortress, with the
-especial object of capturing 203 Metre Hill. The possession of this
-height was of immense importance to the besiegers&mdash;not because it
-would threaten the great forts of Antszshan and Itszshan, but because
-it would afford a complete view of every corner of the harbor,
-and enable the fire of heavy guns to be directed on the last refuge
-of the Russian fleet. More than that, the position would command
-the branch line running from Port Arthur to Liau-tie-shan, whither
-the Russians were daily conveying stores, as if in preparation for
-a last stand in this inaccessible stronghold. Although not one of
-the permanent fortifications, the defences of 203 Metre Hill were
-of the most formidable kind. On the crest, and cut out of the hill
-itself, were two redoubts on the two distinct peaks, each mounting
-heavy guns, while the slopes leading up to them were traversed with
-trenches and wire entanglements.</p>
-
-<div id='i386' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic049'>
-<img src='images/i386.jpg' alt='' class='ig049' />
-<p>HAULING GUNS UP A CAPTURED HILL AT PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Attack Metre Hill</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >After his repulse in September, General Nogi had abandoned
-all further attack on the west; but the importance of effecting a lodgment
-there, together with his equal lack
-of success in the east, induced him to
-return to his earlier plan. But this time
-the methods of attack were changed. To
-prevent the concentration of the garrison at one point, assaults were
-delivered simultaneously on the two opposite sides of the perimeter
-of defence; and, instead of trusting to the mere weight of numbers
-to overcome resistance, the resources of the military engineer were
-drawn upon to facilitate approach to the critical points. At the last
-assault the Japanese infantry had moved forward in close formation
-over the open ground separating their forming point from the
-trenches of the enemy, and they had been swept down in hundreds
-by the concentrated fire from a dozen batteries. But early in November
-the Japanese engineers set to work to construct parallels
-from the low hills at the foot of the Metre range across the intervening
-valley and up the southwest corner of 203 Metre Hill, dominated
-by that one of the twin peaks which was known as 210. To construct
-similar approaches on the northeast side was rendered impossible
-by the fire of the neighboring fort Akasakayama. On November
-27th fresh troops were brought up for the attack, and a tremendous
-artillery fire was concentrated on the summit of the Metre
-ridge. Field guns, firing shrapnel, and naval guns and howitzers,
-firing enormous shells, poured their deadly hail on the forts and
-trenches; but though they diminished they could not utterly subdue
-the fire of the intrepid defenders, and the Japanese casualties were
-very heavy as soon as their devoted infantry, emerging from the
-parallels, endeavored to climb the steep face of the hill. But after
-nearly seven hours' fighting the crest was won, and the southwestern
-peak fell into the hands of the Japanese. This success was the signal
-for an immediate and determined assault upon the 203 peak,
-but it proved futile. A deadly fire from the neighboring forts made
-the retention of the southwest peak impossible for the gallant men
-who had won it. They were driven down to the reverse slope again,
-and were thus unable to assist in keeping down the fire of the garrison
-of 203 peak. An attack on the Akasakayama works also failed,
-and thus the troops assailing the northeastern face of the hill were
-exposed to a flank fire as well as to a direct fire from above, and
-were driven back with heavy loss. But the Japanese managed to
-retain their position just below the crest of 210, and here they constructed
-trenches which made the reoccupation of the summit by the
-enemy impossible. But the Russians still disputed possession, and
-the opposing forces, behind sandbag defences erected within a stone's
-throw of one another, maintained an incessant fight with bullets,
-bayonets and hand-grenades. The proximity of the combatants
-compelled the artillery on both sides to desist from taking part in
-the encounter. The Japanese guns confined themselves to shelling
-the crest of 203 peak and the reverse slope of 210, in order to prevent
-reinforcements reaching the troops that still disputed the possession
-of that eminence. At this moment occurred one of those tragic
-incidents which throw such an ironic light on the best laid schemes
-of generals and the noblest self-sacrifice of soldiers. A party of
-Japanese managed at last to establish themselves in a trench on the
-slope of Akasakayama; but no sooner had they attained this hard-won
-position than they found themselves exposed to a merciless hail
-of shrapnel, not from Russian guns, but from those of their own
-countrymen. The Japanese artillerists had not observed the lodgment
-that had been made in the enemy's trenches, and they persisted
-in their bombardment with such deadly effect that their luckless
-comrades were compelled to relinquish the advantage they had
-gained, and to make the best of their way back to the main body
-under a double fire. On December 1st a renewed attack on both
-the 210 and 203 peaks was made, but with no success; and during
-the next few days the Japanese engineers were busy in extending
-their parallels and trenches, in order to allow the assailing troops to
-approach close to their objective before coming under fire; and while
-this work was going on the Russian positions were subjected to a
-furious and incessant bombardment. This bombardment reached
-its height on the morning of the 5th, when every preparation for the
-renewed assault had been completed. The Metre Hill, it is said,
-resembled a smoking volcano under the storm of shell that burst
-over it. This assault was to be a supreme effort, and every Japanese
-soldier who took part in it was conscious of the responsibility devolving
-on him, as, after saluting the regimental standards, he
-moved forward to take his place in the ranks that lined the parallels
-and advanced trenches. Early in the afternoon a simultaneous rush
-was made towards both of the crests of the Metre range. The moment
-was one of acute suspense, and with breathless anxiety the
-Japanese staff watched the far-off line of khaki-clad figures swarming
-up the hillside and climbing over the breastwork of the Russian
-trenches. The issue was not long in doubt. Meeting with scarcely
-any resistance, the storming parties swept on until they reached the
-crest of both peaks, and found themselves at last in undisputed possession
-of the long-coveted position. The explanation of this
-unexpectedly easy victory was not far to seek. The bombardment
-of the previous three days had been so severe that it had been
-impossible for the defenders to live under it. The 500-lb.
-shells from the howitzers had blown the place to fragments,
-and except for three men taken prisoners, every soul who
-manned the guns and trenches had been killed or forced to fly to
-the forts in the rear. Torn and mutilated bodies, mingled with piles
-of débris, lay about in hundreds, and the scene was rendered the
-more appalling by the presence of corpses, in every stage of decomposition,
-which had been lying on the ground since the attack on
-September 20th. But the Japanese were not left long in undisturbed
-possession of the ground they had won. General Stoessel, realizing
-as fully as his enemy the importance of 203 Metre Hill, made desperate
-efforts to recapture it. Six separate counter-assaults were
-delivered, and for hours the fiercest and most sanguinary hand-to-hand
-fighting raged. But the Japanese had stronger reinforcements
-than their adversaries, and their numbers and gallantry prevailed
-at last. After losing nearly 3,000 men, the Russian General realized
-that the case was hopeless, and left his enemy in possession of the
-stricken field. Immediately their position was assured the Japanese
-dragged up their guns and proceeded to pound the neighboring
-height Akasakayama, from which the Russians were forced to retire
-with all speed. While this substantial and, as it turned out, decisive
-victory was being won in the west, an equally determined assault
-was proceeding in the east against the great forts of Urlungshan,
-Sungshushan and East Keekwanshan. The Japanese carried their
-parallels within charging distance of the front of the forts, and then
-began to mine. Having reached a point beneath the counterscarp,
-they exploded their mines, and then rushed into the breach thus
-formed. But the Russians, though losing heavily by the explosions,
-were prepared for the emergency. They had machine guns placed
-in position to command the outer defences, and the assailants only
-gained the breach to be mown down by a hail of bullets. In this
-assault the Japanese had recourse to the traditional weapon of their
-ancient chivalry. Under the lead of Generals Nakamura and Saito,
-trained bodies of swordsmen of the famous Samurai, or warrior-caste,
-charged into the imminent deadly breach, endeavoring to
-close in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter with their stubborn foe.
-But even the traditional gallantry of Japan's knighthood was spent
-in vain in this enterprise, and the parapets of the forts remained
-inaccessible to assault. But the Japanese, whose resource in this
-protracted siege had only been equalled by their indomitable determination,
-had by this time learned the secret of success against such
-tremendous fortifications as those with which Port Arthur was
-begirt. Since gallantry and the sacrifice of life could not prevail,
-patience and ingenuity must be tried, and the engineers were called
-upon to carry further still the sapping operations which had already
-breached the outer works. As in the adoption of those deadly hand-grenades,
-which played so important a part in all the battles of the
-siege, so in the construction of parallels and the tunnelling of mines
-the world saw a return to the practice and methods of the 17th century.
-To find a counterpart to these huge forts of Port Arthur,
-with their scarps and counter-scarps, their glacis and cuponniéres
-and ravelins, one has to go back to the system of the great military
-engineer Vanban, who carried the science of fortification to its highest
-perfection. There was only one assailant to which these mighty
-works were not impregnable&mdash;and that assailant was the explosive
-power of dynamite. This resistless auxiliary the Japanese made
-speed to enlist in their service.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russian Fleet between Two Fires</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Meanwhile, leaving the sappers to their insidious task on the
-east, the Japanese artillerists were swift to take advantage of the
-new position won for them on the west.
-From the summit of 203 Metre Hill, the
-whole town and harbor of Port Arthur
-lay revealed, and the remnant of the Russian
-fleet which lay sheltered there could no longer escape the
-searching attentions of the Japanese shells. The great howitzers,
-firing their 500 lb. projectiles, and the big naval guns were quickly
-moved into position, and, directed from the observation station on
-203 Metre Hill, they began to drop shot after shot on the helpless
-men-of-war. So perfect was the command, that it was possible for
-the besiegers to count every day the hits they made, and to specify
-the particular ships against which they had been recorded. One
-after another these mighty vessels succumbed to the incessant
-pounding that they received, and in a few days the four battleships
-<i>Retvisan</i>, <i>Peresviet</i>, <i>Pobieda</i> and <i>Poltava</i>, and the armored cruiser
-<i>Bayan</i> were reported sunk or damaged so as to be unseaworthy.
-Only the <i>Sevastopol</i> remained, and she temporarily escaped to the
-outer roadstead, with consequences that will be related presently.
-These ships were the real objective of the siege. Their disablement
-preserved Japan from her most serious menace; but next to that
-consummation, their capture was a point of primary importance.
-The Japanese naturally desired not only to render these powerful
-vessels useless to their adversaries, but to make them useful to
-themselves. Accordingly, having made sure that the ships were
-injured beyond the power of the Port Arthur docks to repair them,
-the besiegers were careful to inflict no further damage on them.
-By the 12th the Japanese gunners had attained their object, and the
-<i>Sevastopol</i> was the only seaworthy survivor of the Russian squadron;
-and attention was forthwith turned to her from another direction.
-Admiral Togo, whose fleet had been cruising outside Port
-Arthur to shut off the natural avenue of escape for the wretched
-Russian fleet, now directed his torpedo-boats to attack the battleship
-<i>Sevastopol</i> as she lay at her moorings in the outer roadstead.
-Her position was exactly that which the whole Pacific squadron had
-occupied on the fateful night of February 6th, when the first stroke
-of war was delivered, and Russia's best two battleships were put out
-of action. But this time the advantage of a surprise attack was out
-of the question. The commander of the <i>Sevastopol</i> well knew what
-to expect, and had taken his precautions accordingly. An enormous
-boom had been constructed round the hull of the warship, and an
-elaborate system of netting had been hung from it to defy the
-approach of any torpedo. On the other hand, however, the fire of
-the shore batteries was no longer a substantial auxiliary in repelling
-torpedo attack; and the whole organization of the port defences was
-more or less impaired, if not destroyed. On the night of the 12th of
-December, and thrice again on the night of the 13th, the intrepid
-torpedo-craft of the Japanese fleet steamed into the roadstead and
-fired their terrible engines of destruction at the ill-fated battleship.
-But the boom proved on these occasions an impenetrable defence;
-so the attack was again renewed&mdash;this time in a blinding snowstorm.
-Two flotillas were engaged. The one lost its direction
-owing to the snow and the glare of the enemy's searchlights; but
-the second flotilla reached its mark, and discharged torpedoes at the
-<i>Sevastopol</i>, on which at least two took effect. The boats became
-separated in the storm, and one never returned to the main fleet&mdash;being
-either sunk by a shot or swamped by the very high seas that
-were running. To add to the difficulty of the enterprise, the weather
-was bitterly cold, and the decks of the vessels were coated with ice
-from the freezing of the spray that broke over them. When morning
-broke, those who had been engaged in this desperate enterprise were
-rewarded by the sight of the <i>Sevastopol</i> perceptibly down at the
-stern. A few days later the vessel was so disabled that she had to
-be run aground. The spirit in which this daring attack was carried
-out may be gathered from the following extracts from Admiral
-Togo's official dispatches:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"While retreating, one torpedo boat was struck several times.
-Her commander, Lieutenant Nakahara, and five other men were
-killed. The boat lost her freedom of motion, and Lieutenant Nakahara's
-boat went to the rescue. Notwithstanding a heavy fire, she
-continued her effort to save the disabled vessel. When she had her
-in tow, the hawser was severed by the enemy's shells, and Lieutenant
-Nakahara's boat was also hit, and one man killed. Subsequently
-several shells hit and almost disabled Lieutenant Nakahara's boat,
-and forced him to abandon his sister ship, which was in a sinking
-condition. Lieutenant Nakahara, however, steamed back and rescued
-the crew, who were abandoning the boat. Commander
-Kawase's boat, of the same flotilla, was struck by a shell, which
-killed one man and wounded Lieutenant Takahashi and two sailors.
-Lieutenant Shoro's boat was also hit, one man being killed and five
-wounded. The boat was temporarily disabled, but the ships commanded
-by Lieutenants Wataehe and Mori stood by her and rescued
-all the men. The other vessels, bravely facing the enemy's fire,
-succeeded in delivering their attacks without sustaining damage....
-It is a source of satisfaction that our torpedo attacks were delivered
-without the least confusion; each boat rendered material assistance
-to her comrades. The skill in man&oelig;uvring and the bravery displayed
-by our officers and men inspire me with a deep feeling of satisfaction
-and confidence."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Japanese Hero</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Commander Yezoe's flotilla was under repairs when the attack
-was planned. He succeeded in putting one of his torpedo-boats into
-fighting condition, and steamed to the
-rendezvous, where he found that the other
-flotillas had already left. His entreaty
-that he should be permitted to join in the attack was granted, and
-steaming alone through the blinding snow, he succeeded in locating
-the <i>Sevastopol</i>. Approaching close enough to hear the Russians
-talking, he fired a torpedo, and then, going in still closer, he discharged
-another torpedo at the battleship. A shell from the <i>Sevastopol</i>
-struck Commander Yezoe in the abdomen, and cut his body in
-two. His remains were saved and brought back to the fleet.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Tunnels and Hand Grenades</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The complete destruction or disablement of the remnant of the
-Russian fleet seems to have had a dispiriting effect, as well it might
-have, on the defenders of Port Arthur,
-for from this moment the vigor of their
-resistance to assault perceptibly waned.
-In proportion the confidence and resolution
-of the Japanese increased, and before long their unremitting
-exertions were rewarded with another substantial success. Hitherto
-their assaults on the eastern defences of Port Arthur had met with
-but little success. In spite of all their sacrifices the great permanent
-forts stood firm; but by the middle of December their new
-methods of sapping and mining achieved the long-desired breach
-in the iron ring, and East Keekwanshan fort was captured. A mine
-had been tunnelled right up to the parapet of the fort, and in the
-afternoon of December 18th the mine was exploded, bringing down
-an avalanche of earth and masonry that filled up the ditch in its fall,
-and made a rude but practicable staircase up the deep counter-scarp
-into the interior of the fort. The Japanese troops, lying ready in
-their trenches, sprang forward to the breach before the garrison
-could recover from the discomfiture of the explosion, and poured
-into the inner works, flinging their terrible hand-grenades at all who
-opposed their impetuous charge. But after the first surprise, the
-Russians recovered and stood their ground, and by turning machine
-guns on the assailants, held them for a time at bay. While the issue
-still hung in the balance, however, General Samejuna, at the head
-of the Japanese reserves, flung himself into the fighting line, and a
-last great charge swept the fort clear of its dogged defenders. The
-fight lasted for no less than ten hours, and immediately it was won
-the Japanese entrenched themselves to make their hold secure. The
-attack, in this case, was entrusted to two bodies of volunteers, who,
-in calm anticipation of their probable fate, had fastened to their
-clothing badges of identification, so that the corpses should be recognizable
-in spite of the disfiguring effects of the explosion of hand-grenades.
-One-half of these devoted men charged from their
-trenches too eagerly after the mine had been fired, with the result
-that most of them were buried beneath the falling debris. The nature
-and extent of the mining operations which made the capture
-of East Keekwanshan practicable may be gathered from the fact that
-two tunnels 40 feet long had been dug out, and that both tunnels terminated
-in four branches, in each of which a separate mine was laid.
-Four quick-firers, five field guns, and four machine guns, and a
-large quantity of rifles and ammunition, were among the spoils that
-fell to the victors in this assault. Only twenty men of the garrison
-escaped down a covered way, which they blocked behind them by
-the explosion of mines. The fort captured, though not one of the
-strongest of those on the eastern ridge, was yet of great importance
-to the besiegers, because it opened the way to the greater forts beyond,
-and this success was speedily followed by others on the other
-side of Port Arthur. Operating between Pigeon Bay and the
-Metre range, the Japanese captured several minor heights on which
-the Russians had mounted guns. Thus they continued to advance
-steadily to the isolation of the western defences; and the only comfort
-which the anxious authorities in St. Petersburg could enjoy was
-that to be derived from a dispatch of General Kuropatkin, in which
-the Commander-in-Chief in Manchuria announced that, according
-to Chinese reports, the garrison of Port Arthur had recaptured 203
-Metre Hill, "with the guns placed there by the enemy." The Chinese
-do nothing by halves, not even lying.</p>
-
-<div id='i396' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic050'>
-<img src='images/i396.jpg' alt='' class='ig050' />
-<p>JAPANESE ELEVEN-INCH MORTAR BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Capture Urlungshan</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Undismayed by this announcement, the Japanese continued
-their investment with increasing severity, and on December 28th,
-or four weeks after the capture of 203
-Metre Hill, they achieved the great triumph
-of wresting the mighty Urlungshan
-from its stubborn defenders. This, the
-greatest and most formidable of all the eastern forts of Port Arthur
-had defied many previous assaults, and had cost the army of the
-Mikado many hundreds of gallant lives. But like the northern fort
-of East Keekwanshan, it succumbed to the irresistible persuasion
-of dynamite. At 10 o'clock in the morning of December 28th, the
-mine which had been laid beneath the parapet was exploded, and
-the Japanese rushed in through the breach. Under the cover of
-artillery fire from the rear, the assaulters then constructed defensive
-works; and having thus established themselves and received
-reinforcements, they rushed forward again and captured the heavy
-guns of the fort. From this point another charge had to be made
-before the defenders could be driven out completely; but by half-past
-seven in the evening the task was accomplished, and the whole
-fort was in the hands of the Japanese, whose losses amounted to at
-least 1,000 men. The spoils included four big guns, seven smaller
-guns, thirty quick-firers, and two machine guns. The tunnels for the
-mines which were exploded under the parapet had to be cut through
-the solid rock, and no less than two tons of dynamite was used for
-the exploding charge. The result was that half the garrison of
-500 men were killed on the spot. Next to the great Urlung fort,
-Sungshushan was the most formidable permanent work on the
-eastern ridge, and three days later this fell to the Japanese in much
-the same way. On the morning of the last day of the expiring year,
-dynamite mines were exploded beneath the parparet of the fort,
-and within an hour the whole fort was in the secure possession of
-the Japanese. Over 300 of the defenders were entombed in one of
-the galleries by the explosion, and of these only a half were rescued
-by the victors, the remainder perishing miserably. Other forts in the
-immediate vicinity fell almost immediately afterwards, and it became
-evident that the whole of the forts on the eastern ridge were
-practically doomed. Nothing now could stay the victorious onslaught
-of the Japanese, and the capitulation of Port Arthur, which
-but a little while before had seemed so remote and conjectural, now
-loomed in the immediate future. But even yet the world was hardly
-prepared for the end which was imminent. Up to the last, General
-Stoessel's dispatches had been confident and defiant, and it was
-thought to be quite likely that even yet he would reveal some hitherto
-unsuspected resources.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Surrender of Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In his somewhat rhetorical dispatches to the Czar, General
-Stoessel had repeatedly declared his determination to fight to the
-death, and although the signal successes
-of the Japanese during the month of December
-had evidently reduced very largely
-the resisting power of the garrison, the
-general expectation was that the hopeless struggle would still be
-carried on, and that Stoessel and his troops would in the last resort
-retire to the fastnesses of Liau-tie-shan. While deprecating this
-desperate counsel, as involving the useless shedding of blood, the
-world would have applauded its heroism. But as it happened, other
-counsels prevailed. On the morning of the first day of the new
-year General Nogi received a letter from General Stoessel proposing
-negotiations for capitulation, and the proposal was immediately
-accepted. But operations were not at once suspended. The Japanese
-attacked the same morning the Fort of Wantai on the East
-Ridge, and captured it after only slight resistance, while several of
-the forts in the vicinity were blown up by the defenders. In further
-recognition of the fact that all was lost save honor, the Russians
-then proceeded to explode mines on all the warships in the harbor,
-in order to ensure that they should be useless to the enemy into whose
-hands they were about to fall. Of the destroyer flotilla, only four
-vessels remained serviceable. These put to sea on the night of January
-1st, and, managing to evade the blockading squadron, reached
-Chifu, where they were immediately dismantled. Then at last a
-truce was proclaimed, and for the first time for six long months the
-thunder of the great guns rolled no longer about Port Arthur.
-Immediately news of the proposed surrender was received in St.
-Petersburg, the Mikado magnanimously expressed his high appreciation
-of the loyalty and endurance displayed by General Stoessel
-on behalf of his country, and gave orders that all the honors of war
-should be extended to him.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On January 2nd the capitulation agreement was signed, its
-essential terms being as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The whole fortress, ships, arms, ammunition, military buildings,
-materials and other Government property were to be surrendered.
-The Japanese reserved free action if those objects
-were considered to have been destroyed or injured after
-the signing of the agreement. Plans of forts, torpedoes,
-mines, military and naval officers' lists, &amp;c. were to be
-delivered over. Soldiers, sailors, volunteers and other officials
-were to be taken prisoners, but, in consideration of the brave defences
-they had made, military and naval officers and civil officials attached
-were to be allowed to bear arms, keep their private property of
-immediate necessity of daily life, and also to return to Russia upon
-parole not to take, till the end of the war, arms or action opposed to
-Japan's interest. Forts Itszshan, Antszshan and the others outstanding
-were to be surrendered to the Japanese before noon, January
-3rd, as a guarantee.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">"Great Sovereign! Forgive!"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The whole world was filled with sympathy and admiration for
-the gallant soldiers whose valor and endurance had withstood so
-long such heavy odds and such a fearful
-strain. These feelings were intensified
-by the lurid accounts which, now that
-concealment could no longer be of service,
-were published of the awful sufferings of the garrison during the
-later stages of the siege. An officer of one of the destroyers that
-escaped to Chifu on January 1st thus described the conditions which
-had compelled surrender:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Port Arthur falls of exhaustion&mdash;exhaustion not only of ammunition
-but also of men. The remnant left was doing heroes' work
-for five days and five nights, and yesterday it had reached the limit
-of human endurance. In the casemates of the forts one saw everywhere
-faces black with starvation, exhaustion and nerve strain.
-You spoke to them and they did not answer, but stared dumbly in
-front of them. Lack of ammunition alone would not have prompted
-any attempt to arrange terms. Lack of ammunition has been common
-in the fortress during the past months. Many forts had nothing
-with which to return the fire of the enemy. The Russians sat
-in the casemates firing no more than one shot to the Japanese 200.
-Then, when the assault came, they repulsed the enemy with the bayonet.
-But the men themselves, feeding for three months on reduced
-rations, were so worn that it is marvelous that they stood the final
-strain so long."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >In his last dispatches, written just before the capitulation, General
-Stoessel himself said:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The position of the fortress is becoming very painful. Our
-principal enemies are scurvy, which is mowing down the men, and
-11-inch shells, which know no obstacle and against which there is no
-protection. There only remains a few persons who have not been
-attacked by scurvy. We have taken all possible measures, but the
-disease is spreading. The passive endurance of the enemy's bombardment
-with 11-inch shells, the impossibility of reply for want of
-ammunition, the outbreak of scurvy, and the loss of a mass of
-officers&mdash;all these causes diminish daily the defence.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The tale of losses of higher officers is an indication of the
-enormous losses which we have sustained. Of ten generals, two,
-Kondrachenko and Tserpitsky, have been killed; one, Raznatovsky,
-is dead; two are wounded, myself and General Nadeine; and one
-Gorbatovsky, is suffering from contusions. The percentage of other
-superior officers who were killed or died of disease or were wounded
-several times is enormous. Many companies are commanded by
-ensigns, and on an average each company is at present composed
-of not more than sixty men."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >It was stated that of the original garrison of 35,000 men, no
-less than 11,000 had been killed, while 16,000 were sick or wounded,
-and 8,000 remained in the forts, of whom, however, 2,000 were
-unable to fight.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >These are the words in which General Stoessel announced to
-the Czar the surrender of Russia's "impregnable stronghold":&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Great Sovereign! Forgive! We have done all that was
-humanly possible. Judge us, but be merciful. Eleven months of
-ceaseless fighting have exhausted our strength. A quarter only of
-the defenders, and one-half of these invalids, occupy twenty-seven
-versts of fortifications without support and without intervals for
-even the briefest repose. The men are reduced to shadows."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Even the Japanese were at first impressed with the same view
-of the situation, for they reported that of 25,000 combatants, 20,000
-were sick or wounded.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Occupy the Fortress</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The greatest good feeling prevailed between the two armies
-after the surrender had been completed. The soldiers fraternized
-freely, and the Japanese did all in their
-power to deprive the situation of all
-trace of humiliation for their vanquished
-enemy. General Stoessel and General
-Nogi lunched together and exchanged fraternal compliments, but the
-bearing of the two men was strongly contrasted. There was a note
-of theatricality in the Russian's conduct which was significant. Having
-mounted his favorite charger and shown its paces to the Japanese
-victor, he begged to be allowed to present it to him&mdash;a proposal
-which General Nogi put by with the matter-of-fact observation that
-the horse already belonged to the Japanese Army, and that he could
-not accept it as a personal gift. But still all the world rang with
-praises of the heroic Russian garrison; and the German Emperor,
-with characteristic impetuosity, constituted himself a sort of supreme
-umpire, and with a great flourish of trumpets presented to the leaders
-of the two contesting forces in this historic siege the Prussian
-Order, "Pour le Merite." The Russians marched out of Port
-Arthur on the 7th of January, and the Japanese entered on the following
-day; and then the reports as to the condition of Port Arthur
-suddenly underwent a remarkable change. It slowly leaked out that
-the surrendered force amounted not to 20,000, most of whom were
-<i>hors de combat</i> from wounds or disease, but to 48,000, of whom
-878 officers and 32,000 men were still available for the defence of
-the fortress. There were also discovered no less than 80,000 tons of
-coal and enough rice and flour to provision the garrison for two
-months. The troops, moreover, discovered no sign of starvation or
-exhaustion. They were found to be in splendid condition and well
-fed. Even the ammunition was very far from being exhausted.
-For the guns in the forts 82,670 rounds remained; 30,000 kilogrammes
-of powder; and 2,266,800 cartridges for rifles. "There
-are no signs of privation," wrote one correspondent. "The surrender
-is inexplicable." The town itself showed few signs of
-bombardment; and the only serious deficiency in stores was in meat
-and medical comforts. Then the sinister report came that the real
-weakness of the garrison was in the conduct of many of the regimental
-officers, who habitually applied for leave when attacks were
-expected, and left the command to sergeants. It was also declared
-that General Stoessel, far from having been coerced by his staff into
-surrender, had himself overridden their protests against capitulation.
-The real hero of the siege, it appeared from the same account,
-was not General Stoessel at all, but General Kondrachenko, who
-was killed by a shell on December 18th. After that calamity the
-spirits of the garrison never recovered. One of the Russian Admirals
-who was made prisoner at Port Arthur is responsible for this
-version of the facts, and his view was summarized in the following
-words: "It is difficult for a Russian officer to talk about the end.
-It was worse than a mistake, it was a disgrace. The fortress could
-easily have held out another month. We had food and ammunition
-sufficient for that period, and if Kondrachenko had been alive we
-should have held out for months longer. In Kondrachenko the
-garrison lost not only a leader, but the one man who had the power,
-through his tremendous earnestness, to control General Stoessel."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Discreditable Surrender</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This view, startling and disconcerting as it is, was strongly
-confirmed by Dr. Morrison, the famous Peking correspondent of
-the London <i>Times</i>, to whom special facilities
-for inspecting Port Arthur were afforded
-immediately after the surrender
-had taken place. He was immensely impressed with the stupendous
-strength of the positions held by the Russians, and of the incredible
-heroism displayed in their capture, but he could find no explanation
-for the surrender. There were, he said, 25,000 able-bodied soldiers,
-and several hundred officers unscathed by wound or disease. Only
-200 officers were killed all through the siege, and of those found in
-hospital a number were undoubted malingerers. As to the failure
-of ammunition, Dr. Morrison pointed out that thousands of rounds
-were fired off aimlessly for two days before the surrender, that
-thousands more were thrown into the harbor, and that yet a large
-quantity was found in store by the Japanese. The largest of the
-naval magazines was discovered "full to the roof" with all kinds
-of ammunition. Food was plentiful and the new town was uninjured
-by bombardment.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Those who have witnessed the condition of the fortress," Dr.
-Morrison summed up, "contrasting the evidence of their eyes with
-the astounding misrepresentations of General Stoessel, had their
-sympathy turned into derision, believing that no more discreditable
-surrender has been recorded in history."</p>
-
-<div id='i405' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic051'>
-<img src='images/i405.jpg' alt='' class='ig051' />
-<p>THE EVACUATION OF PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The End of the Siege of Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >If it is difficult to disbelieve statements of this kind coming
-from several independent and well-accredited sources, it is painful
-to have to accept them. But whatever record leap to light, nothing
-can detract from the splendid gallantry and dogged tenacity of the
-Russian common soldiers who fought
-in a manner worthy of the greatest traditions
-of their race. Thanks to their qualities,
-such a redoubtable foe as the Japanese
-had been held at bay for six months, and his victory had only
-been obtained at a cost of life truly appalling. Officially the casualties
-of the besieging army were put at 55,000 from first to last; but
-this number was probably very largely exceeded. Heavy as was the
-price that had been paid, however, it was not too heavy for the
-advantage obtained. First there was the satisfaction to the national
-sentiment of pride in recapturing the fortress which, after having
-once been won by force of arms, had been filched away by diplomatic
-intrigue. Next there was the wresting from the enemy of the
-emblem of his dominion in the Far East, and the only base on
-which his naval power could rest. The loss of Port Arthur was to
-Russia not only the loss of a great fortress but the denial of all
-access to the sea. Finally, and most immediately important, was the
-capture in a more or less battered condition, of five battleships and
-two first-class cruisers, which might at any time have helped to turn
-the balance of naval power against Japan. An examination of the
-derelict warships revealed the fact that in spite of all the hammering
-they had received, four might possibly be repaired and added to the
-navy of Japan. The <i>Sevastopol</i>, the <i>Retvisan</i>, and the <i>Pobieda</i> were
-injured beyond hope; but the <i>Peresviet</i>, the <i>Poltava</i>, the <i>Pallada</i> and
-the <i>Bayan</i> were possibly recoverable. So ended one of the most
-memorable sieges in the history of the world&mdash;to prove that, in
-spite of all the inventions of scientific warfare, no defences that can
-be constructed by man are impregnable to man when he unites, like
-the Japanese soldier, the qualities of fearlessness, discipline, patriotism
-and high-training.</p>
-
-<div id='i408' class='c016'>
-<div class='c033'>
-<img src='images/i408.png' alt='' class='c034' />
-<p class='c007'>AFTER TWELVE MONTHS.</p>
-
-<p>The battle of the Sha-Ho, October 10 to 18, began by a Russian advance,
-but ended in a victory for Japan. The rival armies then settled down into winter
-quarters, and, save for an occasional skirmish, remained quiet until the end
-of January, when the Russians made a futile attempt to turn the Japanese left
-at Sandepu. The siege of Port Arthur, meantime, was carried on vigorously.
-High Hill (203 Metre Hill) was captured on November 30, East Keekwan Fort
-on December 18, and Erlungshan ten days later. On the last day of the year
-Sungshushan was taken, and on January 1 the fortress surrendered.</p>
-
-<p>The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch14' class='c015'>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >End of First Year&mdash;Changes of a Year&mdash;Year of Disaster for Russia&mdash;The
-Cause of the War&mdash;Japan Acts Swiftly&mdash;The Land Campaign&mdash;Battle of
-Liao-yang&mdash;Battle of Sha-ho River&mdash;The Naval Campaign&mdash;Vladivostock
-Ships Defeated&mdash;Siege of Port Arthur&mdash;Port Arthur Surrendered&mdash;A
-Campaign Analysis&mdash;Gaining Mastery of Sea&mdash;Japan's Main Ambition&mdash;The
-Rival Armies&mdash;The Cost in Men&mdash;The Cost in Dollars&mdash;The Cost in
-Ships&mdash;International Incidents&mdash;Lessons of the War&mdash;Chronology of the
-First Year of War.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">End of First Year</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_7 c003'     >At this point it may be well to pause long enough to review
-briefly and summarize what had been accomplished in
-a year of the most tremendous fighting the world has
-ever known. One year of the Japan-Russia War had
-gone into history. On February 5, 1904, diplomatic relations between
-the two nations came suddenly to an end. On February 7,
-Japan seized Masanpho, Korea, as a military
-base, and on February 8 and 9
-were delivered Togo's memorable blows
-to the Russian Asiatic fleet at Port Arthur. Thus the curtain went
-up on what since has proved one of the world's greatest war
-dramas.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The record had been one of uninterrupted triumph for Japan.
-The year had yielded a score of battles, of greater or less importance.
-The story of each had been defeat for Russia. Judged
-by the objects for which Japan entered the struggle, her task was
-practically complete. But Russia, humbled again and again, remained
-obdurate. The war was not ended and could not be ended,
-declared those who seemed to speak with authority, until the tide had
-turned and Russia was mistress of the East, as she believed herself
-a year before.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >What changes had followed Japan's victories, Russia's defeats?</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Changes of a Year</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >A year before Russia in addition to her own vast Siberian territory
-across all of Asia to the Pacific, was lessee of Port Arthur
-and the extremity of the Liaotung
-promontory. Port Arthur had been
-rebuilt and fortified, and the investments
-plus the value of the fleet in its harbor was fully
-$270,000,000. Dalny had been built and fortified as an
-auxiliary harbor to accommodate developing commerce. Here
-$100,000,000 had been expended. From these vantage points Russia
-looked out over China and Japan and claimed dominance over
-the Orient. Her fleet stood sponsor for the claim. For the defenses
-of Port Arthur impregnability was claimed. It seemed that
-the Slav had completed a peaceable conquest and was immovably
-intrenched, invulnerable against war, irresistible for commercial
-gain.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Further eastward her agents had penetrated to the northern
-boundaries of Korea. Slowly the Slav with his land-thirst was
-learning to covet the Hermit Kingdom. Commercial domination,
-political preponderance, each spreading in force and effectiveness,
-marked the first steps in this direction.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Year of Disaster for Russia</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This was a year before. A year later Japan's flag was flying
-over Port Arthur and Dalny. Russia's fleet was destroyed.
-Her armies had been driven step by step
-northward 250 miles to the Sha-ho
-River. Japan was master in Korea. A
-protectorate had been firmly established,
-and Russia's dream of predominance there had probably been dissipated
-for all time. Japan's fleet was supreme in the Orient.
-With Russia's covetous eyes no longer looking out from Golden
-Hill toward Pekin, toward Seoul, toward Tokio, Japan had come
-into her own again.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >This was the situation as the first year of the war drew to a
-close. Japan's task, on the face of it, seemed accomplished.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Cause of the War</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Russia's aggressive policy in Manchuria and growing prestige
-in Korea alarmed Japan. Events which in February, 1904, culminated
-in war began ten years before
-when Port Arthur, won by
-Japan from China, was wrested away
-and returned to China by intervention of the Powers, notably
-Russia. The leasing of Port Arthur and vicinity to Russia and
-the granting of railroad concessions completed the wrong which
-rankled in the heart of Japan. Finally the Mikado's Government
-proposed to Russia a settlement by diplomacy of questions of paramountcy
-and trade privileges in Manchuria and Korea. Japan
-proffered recognition of paramountcy in Manchuria for Russia
-in return for preponderance by Japan in Korea. The "open door"
-in each territory was proposed with right of railroad extension
-through Korea to join the Manchurian and thence the Siberian
-roads.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Russia refused to discuss her attitude in Manchuria and juggled
-with words relating to Korea. Negotiations ended when it
-became obvious that Japan's demands were not to be granted.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan Acts Swiftly</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >War was the alternative, and Japan acted swiftly. On February
-8 and 9, at Port Arthur and Chemulpo,
-the Japanese navy dealt the
-first blows. Korea was invaded by an
-army at once, and the march to the Yalu was begun. Manchuria
-was invaded after the victory at the Yalu of May 1. A
-dual campaign from that moment was developed. The supreme
-object was the capture of Port Arthur. To facilitate that task
-the Russian armies in Manchuria were prevented from marching
-to the relief of the garrison there. Blow after blow was administered
-by the Japanese armies, culminating in the great battles
-of Liaoyang and the Sha-ho River, each a disastrous defeat
-for the Russians, each to be numbered among the greatest military
-struggles of history.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Land Campaign</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Chronologically, the battle succeeding that of the Yalu, May
-1, was fought at Pitsewo, May 5. Here the second Japanese army
-defeated the only Russian force opposing
-an advance on Port Arthur, until
-at Nanshan Hill and Kinchow, May
-26-27, the garrison of the fortress was encountered in its outermost
-position. After the defeat at Nanshan Hill the Russians
-withdrew to the outer perimeter of Port Arthur, giving up Dalny
-without a struggle. At Vafangow, June 14-15, the Russian General
-Stackelberg, who had been sent southward by General Kuropatkin
-to raise the siege at Port Arthur, was defeated. His retreat
-northward amounted practically to a rout. The Japanese
-victory, as succeeding events proved, completely isolated Port Arthur,
-its defenders and the besiegers, and the great drama of the
-siege went on without even an attempt at interference on the part
-of Russia's Manchurian army.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese fought a brilliant campaign of a score of battles
-between June 17 and July 31, which compelled the concentration
-of the Russians at Liaoyang, and precipitated the great battle
-there. Motien Pass was taken by General Kukori on June 17.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On June 30-31, after a tremendous struggle in the mountainous
-region southeast from Liaoyang, Yangze Pass, likewise, was
-captured. The Japanese armies, through these defiles poured into
-the vast basin drained by the Liao River, and at Haicheng dealt
-Kuropatkin a severe blow, which drove his lines northward to
-Liaoyang and compelled the evacuation of Niuchwang.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Battle of Liaoyang</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Haichang was a prelude to Liaoyang. After fierce fighting,
-the actual struggle before this strongly fortified position began
-on August 25. The Japanese army
-numbered 200,000 men against a probable
-165,000 Russians. Generals Oku and
-Nodzu delivered fierce and incessant frontal attacks from the south,
-while General Kuroki made a wide turning movement north to encircle
-Kuropatkin and to cut off his retreat to Mukden. The Russian
-General ultimately was compelled to meet this turning movement
-by withdrawing his entire army across the Taitse River,
-abandoning Liaoyang to the Japanese. General Kuroki was
-checked and the Russian army was extricated from a grave predicament
-in a masterly manner after a memorable retreat and
-rearguard battle of more than fifty miles. The battle had been designed
-as a crushing blow to the Russians, and would have proved
-such had Kuroki's turning movement been completely successful.
-As it turned out the Japanese had won a costly but indecisive victory.
-The Japanese losses are estimated at 30,000 men. The
-Russian losses were about 20,000 men.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Battle of Sha-ho River</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >General Kuropatkin fell back to Mukden and there rested and
-reinforced his army. On October 4, he began a forward movement
-against the Japanese, which resulted
-in a new disaster to his army,
-the battle of Sha-ho River, October 8-18.
-The result of this long, sanguinary struggle was again highly
-indecisive. The Russian advance was checked at the Yentai
-mines, and thereafter Kuropatkin was forced step by step to the
-Sha-ho River. After ten days of battle human endurance reached
-its limit. Almost face to face, the exhausted armies halted. Subsequently
-the opposing lines stretched out along a line, generally
-northeast-southwest, for a distance of forty-five miles. The Russian
-army was reinforced to about 250,000 men, while the Japanese
-army numbered perhaps 300,000 men with reinforcements
-from Japan and from Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Naval Campaign</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The opening of the war found the effective ships of Russia's
-Asiatic fleet divided among Port Arthur, Vladivostock and Chemulpo.
-In the battle of Chemulpo,
-February 8-9, the <i>Variag</i> and <i>Korietz</i>
-were sunk, narrowing naval interest to
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock. On August 10 was fought the
-greatest naval battle of the war. The Russian fleet off Port Arthur
-was defeated and dispersed, and Vice-Admiral Witoft was
-killed on the bridge of the <i>Czarevitch</i>. The fragment of the
-fleet which returned to Port Arthur never again assumed the aggressive,
-while from that date until the surrender of the fortress
-Togo's squadron had only blockade duty.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Other naval operations there consisted of desperate dashes to
-the harbor entrance by Japan's smaller craft and the sinking of
-merchant ships in the entrance to the harbor. A sortie by Admiral
-Makaroff resulted only in the flight of the Russians to
-port without giving battle. The disaster to the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>
-happened just as the flag ship sped under the guns of Tiger's
-Tail and Golden Hill. Japanese credited the destruction of the
-ship to their mine-laying operations.</p>
-
-<div id='i415' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic052'>
-<img src='images/i415.jpg' alt='' class='ig052' />
-<p>COSSACKS IN RETREAT AFTER A RECONNAISSANCE NEAR LIAO-YANG.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Vladivostock Ships Defeated</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Vladivostock squadron was defeated August 14 in the
-Sea of Japan. The cruiser <i>Rurik</i> was sunk. The two other ships of
-the squadron ultimately reached Vladivostock
-riddled with shells. Repairs were said
-to have been completed. A renewal of the
-naval campaign would probably involve an
-attack on the sole survivors of the Russian fleet. A final naval
-engagement was the sinking of the cruiser <i>Novik</i>, of the Port
-Arthur Squadron, which escaped after the battle of August 10.
-Cruisers of Kamimura's squadron overtook her off Kamchatka,
-and the ship was beached there, a complete wreck after a fourteen
-hours' battle. The last act of the naval campaign was the destruction
-of the Russian battleship <i>Sevastopol</i> outside the harbor
-of Port Arthur. The <i>Sevastopol</i> took refuge under the Tiger's
-Tail. Repeated dashes were made by Japanese torpedo boat flotillas
-and the ship was riddled. Her final destruction, however,
-was accomplished by the Russians, who mined the ship to prevent
-possibility of salvage on the fall of Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Siege of Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Japan's greatest and only decisive achievement had been the
-taking of Port Arthur. The investment and actual opening of
-the siege began May 30, when the
-Japanese occupied Dalny, with their lines
-spreading westward to Louisa Bay,
-completely across the Liao-tung Peninsula.
-Between May 30 and November 30 the Japanese were engaged
-in taking position from which the attack on the main defenses
-of the fortress could be directed. It was tedious work.
-Probably between 30,000 and 40,000 Japanese lives were sacrificed.
-In the meantime Fort Kuropatkin, an outer defense north
-of the Urlung Mountain group of forts, had been captured, while
-on the west the Japanese, after tremendous efforts, had stormed
-and taken 203-Metre Hill. The final assault was delivered from
-saps which had been driven through limestone, up the steep slopes
-of the hill, a task of enormous difficulty which compelled the victors
-to share laurels with the engineers who at prodigious cost in
-men and labor made the assault possible. The capture of 203-Meter
-Hill gave the Japanese an observatory which looked down
-on most of Port Arthur. Their artillery, largely 11-inch howitzers,
-no longer fired at random. Sighting was scientifically directed
-from the vantage point. Within a week the entire Russian
-fleet had been destroyed and the whole city lay at the mercy
-of the irresistible 11-inch shells flung over the mountains with unerring
-aim.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >From Fort Kuropatkin on the north the miner and sapper
-honeycombed the mountain sides with zig-zag trenches, which inched
-toward the crests, slowly, indeed, but surely. Outer works, one
-after the other, fell, and higher and higher the Japanese lines crept
-upward toward the fort-crowned summits. The climax came December
-30. Vast mines under the main Urlungshan fort were
-fired. Before the smoke cleared the Japanese were flinging themselves
-over the shattered walls. In one grand climax to all the
-bloody work of the siege they annihilated the defenders of the
-fort and finally flung their flag from its battlements. With Urlungshan
-on the north and 203-Metre Hill on the west in their
-hands, Port Arthur lay completely at the mercy of the besiegers.
-The entire northeastern groups of forts fell in a day.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Port Arthur Surrendered</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Then came the end. On January 2, General Stoessel surrendered
-Port Arthur to General Nogi. The
-city, forts and fleet, represented a value of
-$270,000,000. The cost of the siege to
-Japan was $100,000,000. More than 30,000 men were
-killed, while 70,000 who fell, wounded, increased Japan's casualties
-to 100,000 men. Russia's original garrison of 38,000 men
-was cut down during the eight months by 11,500 killed and 17,500
-wounded.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The terms of the surrender were deemed liberal. All officers
-were offered freedom in return for their parole. Others were
-taken to Japan as prisoners of war.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Campaign Analysis</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Following the movements of the Japanese armies and fleets,
-it was easy to recognize the objects in view from the start, and
-to see that the campaign had been conducted
-with singular fidelity to the plan
-adopted at the beginning. The results
-were quite as complete as could reasonably have been looked for.
-There can be no doubt that a year before Russia had no serious
-thought of war; her policy was clearly one of bluff and diplomatic
-evasion and delay. With great foresight the Japanese Government
-had seen that war was inevitable and the sooner it came the
-better would be the position of Japan in the struggle for supremacy
-in the East. Her preparations had been made as carefully
-and completely as those of Bismarck when he chose his time to
-force war upon Louis Napoleon; and she moved with even greater
-celerity and skill than the Germans showed in the attack upon
-France.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Gaining Mastery of Sea</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Japan's initial problem was to gain the mastery of the sea
-at the outset as an absolute essential; without it the employment
-of land forces would either be impossible
-or carried on at an enormous and
-perhaps fatal risk in the transportation
-of troops from the Japanese islands to the mainland
-Asia, or in supplying and reinforcing them when
-landed. The sea must be cleared of hostile warships before the
-war could really begin; and the complete success with which this
-problem was solved at surprisingly small cost rivals the brilliant
-achievements of the British navy which deprived the first Napoleon
-of any chance of success in war outside the European
-mainland, ruined his campaign in Egypt and made hopeless an attack
-upon the British Islands.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Main Ambition</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Reviewing the results of the whole campaign, we can see
-that the main objective was the capture of Port Arthur; this
-largely from the military point of view,
-still more largely from the standpoint
-of sentiment, national pride, prestige
-with the world at large, and from considerations of statecraft.
-Japan had taken Port Arthur once before, from China, and was
-obliged to relinquish it to Russia. Its recapture this time no
-doubt meant more to the Mikado's subjects than any other result
-of the war; whatever else might happen, that was triumph
-enough.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >To the outside world Japan could hardly present a more
-striking proof of her prowess than the reduction of this fortress
-supposed to be impregnable; while in the final settlement at the
-end of the war its possession would mean an immensely important
-diplomatic point of vantage. From the strictly military viewpoint,
-the loss of Port Arthur took away from Russia the only
-hope of an effective naval base to which her Baltic fleet could
-safely resort, and from which she might hope to rebuild her shattered
-sea power. Vladivostock being manifestly ineffective, from
-its position to the north of Japan, as well as because it is ice-bound
-during a great part of the year. Oyama's campaign is thus
-seen to have been chiefly to give General Nogi a free hand at Port
-Arthur, keeping Kuropatkin well away from the chance of relieving
-the fortress. If the Russian army could be destroyed or seriously
-crippled, so much the better; but Oyama had evidently been
-quite content to take no risk of disaster to himself by trying to
-do too much.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >This seems to explain the apparent slowness and the ineffectiveness
-of his movements at times. He seems to have been satisfied
-to keep Kuropatkin simply in a position where he could do
-nothing to raise the siege of Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The avowed purpose of Japan in beginning war was simply
-to drive Russia out of the Chinese dominions, which it had agreed
-to evacuate in the autumn of 1903, but had failed to carry out
-the agreement. The first year of war ended with the accomplishment
-of that purpose in as forward a state as could have been
-reasonably expected.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Rival Armies</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is estimated that during the year Japan in all has had
-490,000 fighting men in her armies and navy. Of these 100,000
-invested, besieged and captured Port Arthur.
-Three hundred thousand made up
-the armies in Manchuria. Sixty thousand
-are along lines of communication and in garrison at strategic points,
-while naval forces at bases and with the fleets numbered about
-30,000. On land Japan's united armies were commanded by Field
-Marshal Marquis Oyama, while right, centre and left&mdash;each a
-completely organized army&mdash;were commanded respectively by
-Generals Kuroki, Nodzu and Oku.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Port Arthur army, then dwindled from 100,000 men to
-a mere garrison and police force, was commanded by General
-Nogi.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The united Russian armies were commanded by General Kuropatkin.
-Prominent divisional leaders were Generals Stakelberg,
-Gripenberg, Linevitch and Mistchenko, the latter commanding
-the Cossack forces. Port Arthur was defended by General Stoessel,
-then homeward bound on parole to undergo court-martial,
-though commanding the world's admiration for the defense of
-Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >At sea Admiral Togo and Vice-Admiral Kamimura had led
-the Japanese fleets to uninterrupted victory. Russia's naval commanders
-had been Vice-Admirals Makaroff, Wirenius and Witzhdoft,
-while Rear Admiral Rozndestvensky commanded the Baltic
-squadron.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Cost in Men</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The year's fighting had been enormously costly in men, and
-only estimates could be given. The total number of killed was
-estimated at 125,000, of whom 65,000
-were Japanese and 60,000 were
-Russians. The wounded numbered approximately
-265,000, and with the missing the total casualties were
-swelled to 400,000 men. Of the wounded a very large percentage
-recovered. The Japanese losses exceeded the Russian,
-particularly at Port Arthur and in the battle of Liaoyang, the
-Russians being protected by fortifications which the Japanese attacked
-from the open. At the battle of the Sha-ho River the casualties
-were nearly even, the armies fighting under the same conditions.
-The accuracy of the Japanese artillery and rifle fire is
-accountable for the fact that the Russian loss is not far less, proportionately.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Of casualties among her more prominent leaders, Japan has
-been remarkably free, while Russia has suffered heavily. Among
-her fallen leaders were Generals Rutkozsky, Krondrachenko, said
-to have been the real defender of Port Arthur, and General Count
-Kellar. Admiral Makaroff went down with the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>
-at the entrance to the harbor of Port Arthur; Admiral Witoft
-was killed on his flagship in the naval battle of August 10. A
-loss in which all the world shared was that of the Artist Vassili
-Verestchagin, who perished with Makaroff on the <i>Petropavlovsk</i>.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Cost in Dollars</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The actual outlay of both nations for the first year of the
-war was about $800,000,000. Russian expenses were $500,000,000
-and Japan's $350,000,000. To
-Russia's losses must be added the value
-of fortifications, property of all kinds,
-stores and munitions captured by Japan at Port Arthur, Dalny, Niuchwang,
-Haicheng and Liao-yang. These represent an outlay of approximately
-$500,000,000, in which is included the value of the ships
-destroyed in the harbor of Port Arthur. Russia's provisions for
-war expenses to the end of 1905 comprehended a total expenditure
-of $850,000,000. Japan's total outlay for two years was estimated
-to fall $200,000,000 below that figure. Both countries
-had negotiated foreign loans running from seven to twenty-five
-years, so that another generation would still feel the financial burden
-of the war then in progress.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Cost in Ships</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The war had spelled complete disaster for Russia's Asiatic
-fleet except for two patched ships of problematical effectiveness then
-at Vladivostock. Russia had lost thirty-five
-vessels of war of all classes.
-Of these the chief were: Battleships&mdash;<i>Petropavlovsk</i>,
-destroyed by mine at Port Arthur; <i>Retvisan</i>, <i>Pobieda</i>,
-<i>Poltava</i>, and <i>Peresviet</i>, sunk by guns from 203-Metre Hill;
-<i>Czarevitch</i>, disarmed at Shanghai; <i>Sevastopol</i>, blown up by the
-Russians at the fall of Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Cruisers&mdash;<i>Boyarin</i>, <i>Bayan</i>, <i>Pallada</i>, <i>Varyag</i>, <i>Rurik</i>, <i>Rossia</i>,
-<i>Lena</i>, <i>Novik</i>, <i>Giliak</i>, <i>Bogatyr</i>, sunk, beached or destroyed; <i>Askold</i>,
-<i>Diana</i>, <i>Gromboi</i>, disarmed in Chinese ports.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Gunboats, etc.&mdash;<i>Korietz</i> and <i>Yenesei</i> and twelve others including
-torpedo boats and destroyers, destroyed.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Japan's losses in battle were confined to torpedo-boats and torpedo-boat
-destroyers, sixteen of such craft having been destroyed
-in attacks on Port Arthur. The battleship <i>Hatsuse</i> was sunk, as
-were also the cruisers <i>Usiyako</i>, <i>Saiyen</i> and <i>Yoshino</i>. Three
-transports were sunk by ships of the Vladivostock squadron.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">International Incidents</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On the outbreak of the war Mr. Hay, Secretary of State,
-proposed to the Powers that, jointly, they agree to guarantee the
-neutrality of China and call upon the
-belligerents to restrict the war zone accordingly.
-Counter charges of violations
-had been made by Russia and Japan. It was conceded that
-China had earnestly striven to fulfil her obligations under trying
-circumstances.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On July 17 Russian auxiliary cruisers stopped, searched and
-seized neutral ships in the Red Sea, precipitating a grave crisis
-in which Great Britain took a conspicuous part. On representations
-of the British Foreign Office, Russia released captive ships
-and recalled the ships. The fact that they had traversed the
-Dardanelles for a warlike purpose was the basis of the protest.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >On October 22, the Russian Baltic fleet, passing through the
-North Sea en route to the Indian Ocean, fired on the Hull fishing
-fleet. Two men were killed, a number were wounded and one
-trawler was sunk.</p>
-
-<div id='i425' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic053'>
-<img src='images/i425.jpg' alt='' class='ig053' />
-<p>THE GARRISON OF PORT ARTHUR LEAVING THE FORTRESS.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The firing was alleged to have resulted from an attack on
-the Russian ships by Japanese torpedo-boats. After a week, in
-which war seemed certain, the question of culpability was entrusted
-by consent of both Governments to an international commission,
-to sit at Paris. A German vessel was also fired on by
-the Russian fleet, but Germany accepted Russian explanations
-and the owners were indemnified.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Lessons of the War</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Some of the practical lessons gleaned from the actual warfare
-were these:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(1) That torpedo-boats were craft
-of immense possibilities, capable of
-even greater development.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(2) That the destroyer had proved a failure; of the 24 vessels
-of this type in and before Port Arthur not one made a hit.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(3) That battleships were necessary to successful naval warfare.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(4) That "team work" in armies, as exemplified in the
-Japanese movements, was a matter of primary importance.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(5) That short range fighting was decidedly not a thing of
-the past, as had been believed.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(6) That the use of hand grenades promised to introduce a
-new and particularly horrid form of attack and defense.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(7) That modern fortifications were impregnable to direct
-assault, however effective a preliminary bombardment.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(8) That the success or failure of sieges of modernly fortified
-positions depended upon the effectiveness of the engineer,
-miner and sapper.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(9) That the floating mine was an instrument of destruction
-against which the most powerful ship was helpless.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >(10) Wounds inflicted by modern arms heal readily. While
-the war had demonstrated anew that one man in five was killed in
-battle, it had shown that an amazing proportion of the wounded
-were soon back on the firing line. The clean wound of the steel
-rifle projectile yielded to treatment even when vital organs were
-pierced. The medical records of the war were among its most
-notable features.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Chronology of First Year of War</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >February 5&mdash;Japanese and Russian
-representatives at St. Petersburg and
-Tokio given their passports.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >February 7&mdash;Japanese seize Masanpho,
-Korea as a troop base.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >February 8-9&mdash;<i>Varyag</i> and <i>Korietz</i> destroyed in Chemulpo harbor,
-and Togo attacks Port Arthur fleet.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >February 10&mdash;Czar declares war. Japanese occupy Seoul.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >February 11&mdash;Japan declares war. The United States announces
-neutrality.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >February 12&mdash;Sinking of the Russian mineboat <i>Yenesei</i>; 96 lives
-lost</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >March 1&mdash;Kamimura's squadron bombards Vladivostock.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >March 27&mdash;Kuropatkin reaches Mukden. Japanese take Chongu.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >May 1&mdash;Kuroki crosses the Yalu, driving back Sassulitch.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >May 4&mdash;Japanese take Feng-hwang-cheng.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >May 5&mdash;Japanese land at Pitsewo and begin to invest Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >May 11&mdash;Russians evacuate Dalny, destroying the town.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >May 26-27&mdash;Battles of Nanshan Hill and Kinchow; loss, 5130.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >May 30&mdash;Japanese occupy Port Dalny.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >June 14-15&mdash;Oku defeats Stackleberg at Vafangow; loss, 11,000.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >June 17&mdash;Battle of Motien Pass; Russians driven back.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >June 18&mdash;Japanese take Kinsan Heights.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >June 30-31&mdash;Battle of Haicheng; loss, 5700.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >July 17&mdash;Russian cruisers seize neutral vessels in the Red Sea.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >July 25&mdash;Russian forces driven out of Niuchwang.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >July 31&mdash;Kuroki wins the Yangze Pass; General Count Keller
-killed.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >August 10&mdash;Sorties from Port Arthur harbor. Russian fleet dispersed
-and in part destroyed. Vice Admiral Witoft killed.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >August 14&mdash;Kamimura defeats Vladivostock squadron; <i>Rurik</i> sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >August 17&mdash;Stoessel refuses to surrender Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >August 30-September 4&mdash;Japanese, under Oyama, defeat Kuropatkin
-at Liao-yang; 365,000 men engaged; loss, 35,000.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >September 11&mdash;Baltic fleet sails from Cronstadt under Rozhdestvensky.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >October 8-18&mdash;Kuroki defeats Kuropatkin at Sha-ho River. Total
-casualties, 61,000, with 23,000 killed.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >October 20&mdash;Armies go into winter quarters in and before Mukden.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >October 25&mdash;Kuropatkin replaces Alexeieff in supreme command.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >October 22&mdash;"The Doggerbank outrage". Two British fishermen
-killed.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >November 30&mdash;Japanese take 203-Metre Hill by storm, losing 12,000.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >December 30&mdash;Japanese capture Urlungshan fort.</p>
-
-<p class='c039' >January 2&mdash;Stoessel surrenders Port Arthur to Nogi.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The siege of Port Arthur takes high rank in the history of all
-war. Its capture was the most brilliant achievement of Japanese
-arms, and its defense perhaps the most glorious page in Russian
-annals. Invested on May 5, 1904, the fortress held out till failing
-ammunition forced the surrender of January 2, 1905&mdash;242 days.
-Direct attacks opened on August 19. City, fort and fleet have been
-valued at $270,000,000; all were destroyed, at a cost to the besiegers
-of $100,000,000 and more than 30,000 lives; fully 70,000 Japanese
-were wounded in the various attacks.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch15' class='c015'>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >After Port Arthur&mdash;Raids in Manchuria&mdash;The Battle of Sandepu&mdash;Kuropatkin
-Asks for Reinforcements&mdash;The North Sea Inquiry.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">After Port Arthur</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >With the fall of Port Arthur, the Russo-Japanese War entered
-upon an entirely new phase. Although the situation
-of the gigantic armies that faced one another across
-the Sha-ho River remained unchanged, the strategic
-problems to be solved by their instrumentality were in effect transformed.
-The struggle for the possession of the great naval fortress
-had operated as a vitiating factor in the
-military counsels of both belligerents.
-Japan had sacrificed between 50,000 and
-100,000 of her best soldiers in bringing the six months' siege to a
-triumphant issue, and in doing so had, by dividing her armies, moreover,
-forfeited the opportunity of dealing a crushing blow at her
-adversary. The magnificent infantry that broke themselves in so
-many vain assaults upon the fortifications of Port Arthur might
-have enabled Oyama to turn the Russian retreat at Liao-yang into
-a rout, or to drive the Russians, after the battle of the Sha-ho, back
-beyond Mukden. On the other hand, Kuropatkin had found himself
-hampered at every turn by the instructions imposed on him from
-St. Petersburg to attempt the relief of the beleaguered fortress, by
-which was symbolized so much of the pride and prestige of the
-Russian Empire. In the game of chess a strong player, to handicap
-himself against a weaker, will sometimes undertake to mate with a
-certain piece. If the piece is lost, the game is lost, and therefore the
-player's defence is awkwardly compromised by being divided in
-aim&mdash;between protecting his vital piece and at the same time shielding
-his king from checkmate. Very similar was the task imposed
-on the unhappy generalissimo of the Czar, who, while trying to
-baffle Oyama's vigorous combination, had to keep one eye always
-on Port Arthur. The fall of Port Arthur at least set free both combatants
-from a distracting preoccupation, and to that degree it was
-a strength to either side. But its ulterior effects were much less
-evenly balanced. The capture of Port Arthur at one stroke deprived
-Russian arms of the possibility of complete triumph,
-whatever issue future military operations might have; and it secured
-Japan from the last lingering fear of disastrous defeat. When the
-remnant of the once powerful Pacific Squadron fell into the hands of
-the Mikado's soldiers, Russia's last hope of recovering, during the
-present war, the command of the sea expired utterly; and without
-the command of the sea, Kuropatkin's boast of "settling the terms
-of peace at Tokio" could obviously never be fulfilled. Even if invincible
-armies swept Oyama out of Manchuria, out of Liao-tung
-Peninsula, and out of Korea itself, there would still be the impassable
-Straits of Korea to render the victory barren and to impose
-their inexorable "Thus far and no further". As a matter of fact it
-became evident to the whole world that, with Japan supreme by
-sea, the continuance of the war would only be a costly futility for
-Russia, in which she had everything to lose and nothing to gain&mdash;a
-struggle in which she was exhausting herself to no possible purpose.
-Her adversary had already won the odd-trick, and the only
-doubt that remained to be solved was how near she would get to
-making grand slam. But the blind arrogance and reckless folly
-which had precipitated Russia into a wanton war for which she
-was utterly unprepared, were still obdurate to conviction even by
-the logic of such disastrous events. Nothing is more stubborn than
-wounded pride, or more blind than baffled vanity. The more desperate
-the situation, the more perversely bent became the bureaucracy
-of Russia in prolonging it, and in refusing to recognize facts which
-impeached the competence and sagacity of the existing régime.
-Already the strain of maintaining the army in Manchuria had
-begun to have its effect at home in widespread distress and growing
-discontent among the peasant and industrial classes. The characteristic
-remedy of the governing clique was to attempt not a cure, but
-a diversion. Kuropatkin was ordered to renew his activity and to
-achieve something that could be represented as a victory at any cost.</p>
-
-<div id='i435' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic054'>
-<img src='images/i435.jpg' alt='' class='ig054' />
-<p>THE BAMBOO GUN AT PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Raids in Manchuria</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Since the last great battle in October&mdash;the battle of the Sha-ho,
-when Kuropatkin's ill-advised offensive had been converted into a
-perilous retreat that almost degenerated
-into disaster&mdash;the two opposing armies
-had been practically quiescent. Before
-they had either recovered from the exhaustion of their last tremendous
-struggle&mdash;before their awful losses could be repaired and their
-depleted stores and supplies could be replenished&mdash;the inexorable
-grasp of the Manchurian winter had fallen upon them and frozen
-them into immobility. While the last critical acts in the siege of Port
-Arthur were being enacted, the troops of Oyama and Kuropatkin
-were occupied only in maintaining a jealous vigilance on each other,
-and in digging themselves into their winter quarters. In a climate
-that is almost Arctic in its severity, where the temperature is regularly
-for weeks and months together 30 and 40 degrees below
-freezing-point, active campaigning would be impossible, even if the
-deep snow under which the face of the country is buried did not
-make transport impossible. Each army proceeded to entrench itself
-securely and to construct huts or dig out shelters in the ground in
-which the troops could find it possible to sustain life. The sufferings
-of the devoted soldiers during these months of inaction must have
-been intense, and on both sides the roll of casualties from exposure
-and frost-bite was appalling. Week after week went by without
-any incident other than trifling affairs of outposts being recorded
-in the meagre dispatches given to the world by the authorities at
-Tokio and St. Petersburg. It has always been the Russian habit,
-however, to cloak failure in essentials by proclaiming success in
-trifles; and from General Kuropatkin came a steady trickle of trivial
-information about brushes between patrols and pickets, wherein the
-Japanese were always worsted, with the loss of a horse and rifle,
-or perhaps even of a cooking-stove. But on the very day that the
-negotiations for the surrender of Port Arthur were opened, a serious
-interruption to the long inactivity on the Sha-ho occurred. The
-Russians attempted for the first time a raid on the Japanese line
-of communications. It was an attempt that an enterprising enemy
-would have made long before; for it is to be remembered that every
-mile of the Japanese advance from the sea rendered them increasingly
-dependent on the railway which they had taken from the
-Russians. Their army on the Sha-ho was, roughly speaking, more
-than one hundred miles from the nearest sea-base, Niuchwang; and
-any interruption to that vulnerable line of communications must
-inflict much inconvenience at least on Marshal Oyama. The Russians,
-of course, were exposed to the same risk, and the long line
-between Mukden and Harbin had, in fact, frequently been cut by
-the Chunchuses&mdash;roving bands of fierce native horsemen, whose
-hatred for the Muscovite invader had proved a valuable auxiliary
-to the Japanese. Their activity, in many cases organized and
-directed by Japanese officers, compelled Kuropatkin to guard jealously
-every mile of the railway in his rear, and especially every
-bridge and culvert, and this necessity of maintaining large forces
-on the lines of communication seriously detracted from the effective
-strength of his armies in the field. The Russians' idea of giving
-their enemy tit-tat was at first merely tentative, however. A couple
-of officers, practically unattended, managed to make their way
-southward almost as far as Hai-cheng, which is itself some forty
-or fifty miles south of Liao-yang. There they succeeded in blowing
-up a culvert and tearing up some yards of railway line&mdash;damage
-which, though not serious in itself, was enough to encourage similar
-attempts on a larger scale. Kuropatkin knew that the bulk of the
-army which had been engaged in the siege of Port Arthur was
-about to be entrained northward, and that with these reinforcements
-for Oyama were to go the great siege trains which had been
-employed in battering the ships and fortifications of the captured
-fortress into submission. To cut off these reinforcements, perhaps
-to capture train-loads of men and destroy some of the enemy's most
-formidable artillery, would evidently be a great counter-stroke to
-the effect produced by the fall of Port Arthur; and so a great Cossack
-raid was authorized on the Japanese lines of communication.
-The scheme was admirably conceived and organized, and it achieved
-at least the first and most important condition of success&mdash;namely,
-a complete surprise. At the outbreak of the war it was predicted
-in many quarters that what must certainly turn the scale in favor
-of the Russian arms was Russia's overwhelming superiority in
-cavalry. The experience of the Boer War had left fresh in every
-mind the incalculable value of mobility. Now Russia, in her hordes
-of Cossack horse, possessed a cavalry which had the reputation of
-being unique in the world. "Other countries have infantry, artillery
-and cavalry; but Russia is alone in possessing Cossacks," said one
-distinguished general shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. But
-as the campaign progressed, critics began to revise their judgments.
-The terrible Cossack horsemen, for some reason or other, failed to
-play any considerable part in events. They attempted a raid in
-Korea from the northeast, but without any result, and in the subsequent
-fighting they found no opportunity for asserting themselves.
-The campaign was an infantry and artillery campaign entirely; and
-the notorious weakness of the Japanese army in cavalry was no impediment
-to their victorious advance. The war in Manchuria proved
-in fact that the conditions of the war in South Africa had been
-peculiar and exceptional. But at last the Cossacks were to be given
-an opportunity of showing their mettle. On January 8th a force of
-6,000 Cossacks under General Mistchenko crossed the Hun-ho and
-began to march rapidly southwards. This formidable force, composed
-of three brigades, was accompanied by six batteries of light
-artillery, and in its organization everything had been done to give
-to it the <i>maximum</i> of mobility. The Hun-ho, which Mistchenko's
-division crossed immediately after setting out, is a tributary of the
-Liao River, into which it flows some forty or fifty miles above Niuchwang.
-While the course of the Liao is roughly due north, that of
-the Hun is northeast, or almost directly in the line from Mukden to
-Niuchwang. The severity of the weather had moderated and was
-most favorable for the movement of such a great body of mounted
-men, who swept down the vast Liao plain on a front extending for
-five miles. By the second night Mistchenko's three brigades had
-reached the confluence of the Liao and the Hun, and there they made
-the first contact with the enemy. A Japanese convoy was captured,
-but the escort succeeded in making its escape, and from that moment
-it was impossible to conceal knowledge of the movement from the
-enemy. With their characteristic thoroughness&mdash;which throughout
-this war has left nothing unforeseen and nothing unprovided for&mdash;the
-Japanese had organized a plan for giving instant warning of a
-raid on the line to the troops guarding all the depots and the lines
-of communication, in case of any surprise attack such as that devised
-by Mistchenko. Great beacon fires had been laid at intervals up and
-down the country, and the kindling of one of these&mdash;the signal of
-approaching danger&mdash;was sufficient to set the whole plain from
-Niuchwang to Liao-yang ablaze with warning flame. No sooner
-had the Cossacks made their first capture than a house in the village
-which they had entered suddenly began to emit heavy columns of
-black smoke, followed by leaping tongues of fire; and so well had
-the house been filled with combustibles, that every effort to extinguish
-the fire was vain. Nor had the portent been unobserved.
-As soon as darkness closed on the scene, the horizon north, south and
-east was illuminated with the answerable flash of innumerable
-beacons that passed on from one to another the tidings of the enemy's
-approach. All hope of surprise being now at an end, the only resource
-left was to strike swiftly before troops could be hurried down
-from the front to the threatened points on the railway. Mistchenko's
-division separated into three bodies&mdash;one moving due south towards
-Niuchwang, another making due east for the railway above Haicheng,
-and the third striking southeast towards Tashichao, where
-the branch-line from Niuchwang meets the main line running north
-and south. The third body almost immediately encountered a force
-of Chunchuses, 500 strong, armed with Mausers and led by Japanese
-officers. This force, though overwhelmingly outnumbered, fought
-with desperate bravery until they were cut to pieces. At another
-village, held by 500 Japanese infantry, the raiders again encountered
-a stubborn resistance which they could not overcome; but they swept
-on southwards, and reached Old Niuchwang at noon on January
-11th. Here some 50 Japanese soldiers, the only garrison, shut themselves
-in a house, and, refusing to surrender, held their own. But
-they could not prevent the enemy from wreaking destruction on the
-stores which had been accumulated in the town; and many large
-transports were burnt. Yinkow, or the port of Niuchwang, had for
-many months been the principal base of supplies for Oyama's army,
-as being the seaport nearest to the front, and to work havoc at this
-vital depot was the principal purpose of Mistchenko's raid. On January
-12th the Cossacks approached Yinkow Station, where army
-stores of enormous value had been accumulated, and opened fire
-with their six batteries. But the promptitude of the Japanese commanders
-foiled the attack at this critical point. In spite of the cutting
-of the line north and south of Hai-cheng, reinforcements had been
-got through, and the attack on Yinkow Station was resisted by
-1,000 riflemen, well entrenched. Against their accurate and well-sustained
-fire Mistchenko's Cossacks, in spite of artillery support,
-could make no headway; and as the casualty list mounted up, the
-Russian general was obliged to draw off, lest the mobility of his
-retreat should be encumbered by too many wounded. Some damage
-was done to the station buildings, but it was trivial compared with
-that which the raiders had set out to effect; and from that moment
-the only concern of Mistchenko was how to make good his escape
-from the forces that were rapidly concentrating upon his line of
-retreat. He had failed not only to destroy the stores of the enemy,
-but even to inflict any serious damage on the railway line. The boast
-of his detachments detailed for the latter purpose that they had torn
-up 600 yards of line north of Hai-cheng, and had blown up the
-bridge at Tashichao, were obvious exaggerations; or it would not
-have been possible for the Japanese to move down the reinforcements
-that secured the repulse of the attack on Yinkow Station.
-With the whole country roused against him, Mistchenko, encumbered
-as he was with many wounded, might have found it difficult to
-break back over the 80 or 100 miles to be traversed before he could
-count himself in safety. His horses and men were both more or less
-exhausted with the five days' continuous marching and fighting; but
-an easy and convenient resource was open to him by simply invading
-and passing through neutral Chinese territory. On the outbreak of
-the war, the belligerents, at the instigation of the Powers, led by the
-United States, had agreed to respect absolutely the neutrality of
-China, and to confine military operations to the left or eastern side of
-the great Liao River. But necessity knows no law, and Mistchenko,
-finding that his road northward from Niuchwang was blocked by a
-strong force detached by Oku for the purpose of intercepting his
-retreat, promptly wheeled westward and crossed the Liao River
-some miles below its junction with the Hun-ho. Thenceforth his
-progress was easy. It was as if a football player were to run down
-the field behind the touch-lines in order to reach the goal. The
-flagrancy of the stratagem would have called for less remark if
-Russia had not chosen this precise moment to address representations
-to the Powers complaining of acts done by the Japanese in violation
-of China's neutrality. As it was, the casualties suffered were
-heavy&mdash;at least 500 all told&mdash;and though it was ostentatiously announced
-from St. Petersburg that such raids would in future be of
-frequent occurrence, this descent upon Niuchwang remained a solitary
-as well as a barren enterprise.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Battle of Sandepu</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >But again the inactivity of the armies was to be broken before
-the month of January had come to an end. The second Manchurian
-army, the command of which had been
-committed to General Gripenberg, had
-now been brought up to strength, and
-almost immediately proceeded to put itself in evidence. On the 25th
-General Kuropatkin telegraphed to the Czar announcing briefly two
-facts&mdash;that the offensive had been begun against the enemy on the
-right (or western) flank; and that the thermometer registered 16
-degrees of frost. The full significance of this message only appeared
-a few days later, when it was revealed that an attempt in force was
-being made to turn the Japanese left. The main objective of the
-Russian attack was the village of Sandepu, the main northwest position
-of the Japanese left army. It will be remembered that after
-the battle of Yentai or the Sha-ho, which took place in October, the
-Japanese were left holding a front of fifty miles or more along the
-south bank of the Sha-ho, a tributary to the Hun-ho, running
-roughly due east and west at a distance of ten or fifteen miles south
-of Mukden. The Russian position faced the Japanese on the other
-bank of the Sha-ho, and then inclined away northwest in the direction
-of Hsinmintun, a Chinese town on the west bank of the Liao
-River, from which the Russian army had for a long time been drawing
-large supplies, in contempt of the neutrality of China. Sandepu
-is over thirty miles south of Mukden, and lies in the angle made by
-the Hun River with the railway. It consists of some hundred
-houses, or farmsteads, each surrounded by high walls of sun-dried
-bricks, about three feet thick. Loop-holed for musketry, these walls,
-form an admirable defence, especially as the surrounding country is
-quite open and flat. But at this season of the year, the Hun-ho,
-which is a natural defence to the flank of an army resting on Sandepu,
-is frozen over to a thickness of several feet, and can be safely
-crossed both by men and transport. The Russians, 85,000 strong,
-and with no less than 350 guns, moved southwards down the right
-bank of the Hun-ho until they reached a point a few miles southwest
-of Sandepu, and there they crossed the frozen river and occupied two
-villages in which the Japanese had stationed outposts. On the 26th
-the Russians, who had at the same time crossed the Hun at Chang-tau,
-again advanced, encountering a steadily increasing resistance
-and seized after a fierce fight the village of Sha-ho-pu, a few miles
-northeast of Sandepu, and from that moment the action became general.
-The capture of Sandepu was essential to any attempt to roll
-up the Japanese left, and to this object the Russian forces now set
-themselves with fierce determination. On January 27th, after giving
-an account of much promiscuous fighting, General Kuropatkin
-announced to the Czar that "in the evening, after a desperate fight,
-our troops having, with the help of the sappers, surmounted all artificial
-obstacles entered the village of Sandepu, which is large and
-strongly entrenched." Unfortunately, however, for the triumph of
-the Russian arms, this announcement proved to be premature&mdash;or
-rather to be an incomplete version of the actual fact. The Russian
-troops entered Sandepu only to be driven back after a desperate
-struggle; and the indomitable Japanese infantrymen who manned
-the loop-holed walls of the hamlet were never dislodged from their
-position. This successful stand was the turning point of the battle. It
-checked the flank movement of the Russians and gave Oku time to
-bring up his reinforcements and deliver his counter-stroke. The
-Russian attack had been from the west and northwest, the object
-being to envelop the Japanese extreme left. The movement was met
-by an extension of the Japanese left, which in turn threatened to outflank
-the outflankers. On the southwest of Sandepu the Russians
-were driven back along the line of the Hun-ho, and soon the battle
-centred about the village of Heikautai, a few miles southwest of
-Sandepu. That this was no mere affair of outposts may be gathered
-from the fact that the Russian force was made up of two divisions
-of the Eighth Army Corps, two brigades of Russo-European Rifles,
-one division of the Tenth Army Corps, part of a division of reserve
-infantry, and part of the First Siberian Army Corps, and a large
-force of Cossacks under Mistchenko. On the 27th and 28th, the
-fighting became desperately fierce and after the Japanese had succeeded
-in carrying Heikautai and the surrounding positions, they
-were exposed to repeated night attacks before the Russians at last
-made up their minds to accept defeat. From Russian sources came
-the usually inconsistent story&mdash;a story in which a long series of
-unbroken successes culminated inexplicably in an admission of failure
-and retreat. It now appeared that far from capturing Sandepu,
-the Russian column that attacked that place lost twenty-four officers
-and 1,600 men killed and wounded by coming unexpecedly upon "a
-triple row of artificial obstacles" on the ground swept by artillery and
-machine-gun fire which the Russian gunners could not subdue. This
-intelligence came as a severe disappointment to the friends of Russia,
-who had begun to believe that the tide of war had at last begun
-to turn, and that Russian arms were about to secure their first victory.
-Eager strategists in St. Petersburg pointed out that Sandepu
-was only twenty or thirty miles from Liao-yang, and that its retention
-would be such a serious menace to the Japanese line of retreat
-that the evacuation of the whole position on the Sha-ho would be a
-necessity. Alas! while these fascinating speculations were being
-indulged in, the Russian Army of the right was already in full retreat,
-and was indeed suffering appalling losses in the effort to
-extricate itself from the toils of the enemy. The fighting round
-Heikautai lasted five days, and the issue almost to the last hung in
-doubt. The capture of Heikautai had become necessary to the
-security of the Japanese position, but repeated attacks on it had been
-repulsed. The spirit in which the emergency was met is revealed in
-the laconic words of Marshal Oyama's dispatch. "Our object had
-not been attained, so I encouraged all the columns to make night
-attacks. All the columns of the attacking parties expected annihilation.
-We attempted several attack movements, but suffered heavily
-from the enemy's artillery, and especially from the machine-guns,
-but all the columns continued the attack with all their might. The
-enemy was unable to withstand our vigorous attack, and began to
-retreat at half past five in the morning. Our forces charging into
-Heikautai, occupied the place firmly and entirely by half past nine in
-the morning." The net result of the battle was to give the Japanese
-secure possession of a line east and west of Hun-ho and south of
-Mukden, and to inflict on the Russians casualties which certainly
-exceeded 10,000, and probably reached 15,000. In war especially
-"the attempt and not the deed" confounds. It is not the first step
-but the last that costs&mdash;not the attack, but the retreat after repulse.
-No sooner had the failure of this big attempt on the Japanese left
-been fully confirmed than it became known that the movement
-had been directed by General Gripenberg, the commander of the
-Second Manchurian Army. When, after the battle of Liao-yang,
-the Czar sanctioned the formation of this Second Army and committed
-the command of it to General Gripenberg, there was a great
-flourish of journalistic trumpets in the Russian and French press.
-At last Kuropatkin would have not only an "Army worthy of
-the might and dignity of Russia," but would have a lieutenant
-worthy of himself to share the tremendous strain of directing nearly
-half a million of men. The two Generals exchanged cordial messages,
-and then Gripenberg set out for Harbin to superintend the
-gradual organization of his Second Army. By the end of the year
-its units had been completed, and then the impatience of General
-Gripenberg to assert himself appears to have become uncontrollable.
-He conceived the movement against the Japanese left&mdash;a movement
-that might easily have achieved substantial results if the Japanese
-had not been so well prepared for it&mdash;and his direct responsibility
-for it was made patent to the world by the angry and undignified
-recriminations between him and Kuropatkin that followed the repulse.
-General Gripenberg immediately asked to be relieved of his
-command, ostensibly on the ground of ill health, but really as he allowed
-to be perfectly manifest, in dudgeon at the treatment which he
-alleged had been meted out to him by his superior officer. He claimed
-that his flanking movement had in fact succeeded, and that he only
-needed reinforcements to maintain the position he had won. He complained
-loudly that he applied very urgently for these reinforcements,
-but that they were withheld, and that he was not even supported in
-his retreat by a diversion in other parts of the field. A great victory
-had been within his grasp, General Gripenberg represented, and it
-had been snatched from him simply by the perverse inactivity of
-General Kuropatkin. So strained were the relations at headquarters
-that General Gripenberg's request to be relieved of his command
-was immediately complied with, and the General set off post-haste
-back to St. Petersburg to lay his complaints personally before the
-Czar. The quarrel was conducted practically in public by the advocates
-of the two rivals; and General Kuropatkin's friends were not
-slow to put forward his side of the case. According to this account,
-General Gripenberg's costly defeat was caused directly by his deliberate
-disobedience to instructions. He had been permitted to embark
-on his movement against the Japanese left on the strict understanding
-that it was to be only in the nature of a reconnaissance in force,
-and that a general action was not to be forced. While nominally
-accepting these limitations, General Gripenberg had in his heart
-rebelled against them, and had not hesitated to commit his army to a
-pitched battle beyond the reach of support, and in conditions of
-weather which made the movement of troops most undesirable.
-Finally it was contended that General Kuropatkin had done all he
-could to relieve the pressure on General Gripenberg by bombarding
-the Japanese right and centre, and threatening an advance in those
-directions. The wrangle could not but be ignominious, but at least
-more dignity pertained to the disputant who remained at his post
-and strove to repair the blunder that had been committed than to
-the disputant that threw down his responsibilities and went home
-in a pet. This view of the case seems to have prevailed with the
-Czar himself, whose reception of General Gripenberg was not cordial.
-According to the reports that came from well-informed French
-sources, the Czar took General Kuropatkin's part very decidedly, and
-administered to General Gripenberg a severe rebuke for his insubordination.
-Whatever the character of the frequent audiences
-which the disappointed General had of his Sovereign, the fact remained
-that Kuropatkin was maintained in the supreme command
-of the armies in Manchuria, and that while General Gripenberg
-lingered in St. Petersburg, if not in disgrace, at least in inactivity,
-General Kaulbars was definitely appointed to the command of the
-Second Manchurian Army.</p>
-
-<div id='i446' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic055'>
-<img src='images/i446.jpg' alt='' class='ig055' />
-<p>ON THE SLOPES OF OJIKEISHAN, BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin Asks for Reinforcements</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >If this five days' desperate fighting scarcely affected the position
-of the two armies, it inflicted on the Russian armies the discouragement
-of another defeat at the hands of a
-numerically inferior force, and the moral
-effect of adding to this unbroken series
-of reverses is not easily computed. With
-troops less dogged and devoted than those of the Czar, demoralization
-would have set in long before. The anxieties of Kuropatkin
-were now aggravated, too, by circumstances which no generalship
-on his part could alleviate and remove. All through the autumn
-reinforcements had been pouring along the Trans-Siberian Railway,
-the carrying capacity of which had been stretched so wonderfully
-by Prince Khilkoff. But even the resources of engineering
-genius have their limits. They cannot contrive a pint pot in such a
-way that it will hold a quart; and the number of trains that can be
-run over a single line is fixed inexorably by circumstance. Kuropatkin's
-urgent and incessant demands for more and more reinforcements
-had been met in large measure, but only at the expense of the
-other traffic, including the carriage of military stores. The enormous
-supplies required to provision and maintain at war efficiency
-armies numbering half a million of men may be imagined, and for
-these supplies Kuropatkin had become increasingly dependent on the
-railway. The more reinforcements he received the more mouths he
-had to feed; and the longer the campaign endured the less reliance
-was to be placed on what a devastated and exhausted countryside
-could provide. During the earlier months of the war, some relief to
-the strain on the railway could be found by drawing supplies from
-Vladivostock, which in turn could be fed from over-seas; but no
-sooner had the destruction of the Port Arthur fleet been completed,
-than the inexorable Japanese established a strict blockade of
-Vladivostock, and cut off this last resource. While the
-wretched troops amid all the rigors of the Manchurian
-winter were in need of such ordinary necessities as proper
-clothing, fuel, and even food, vast accumulations of stores,
-more than sufficient to supply all their needs, were lying
-rotting on the sidings of the Siberian Railway, immovable
-because of the congestion of traffic on the already overburdened
-line. To add to the anxiety of the situation came the grave dislocation
-caused by the riots and strikes which broke out in all the
-great industrial and distributive centres of Russia after the fall of
-Port Arthur, and which revealed an internal crisis even more menacing
-than the military crisis which confronted the army in Manchuria.
-For weeks together, just at the moment that prompt and
-vigorous action was demanded, the whole administrative system
-of Russia was paralyzed, and the energies of its directors were
-absorbed in staving off domestic revolution instead of in organizing
-the measures for conducting a foreign war. On the other hand, the
-Japanese generals had not only the strategic advantage of being
-within easy distance of several sea-bases, but they also were able
-to rely on a system of supply which is perhaps the most perfect that
-has ever been seen in war. The minute prevision with which the
-necessities of a campaign on such an enormous scale had been provided
-for is well exemplified by the organization of the Army Medical
-Service. In spite of all the hardships and exhaustion to which
-General Oku's army had been exposed, for instance, the Chief
-Surgeon was able to report that from the date of its landing on the
-Liao-tung Peninsula on May 6th to the end of January there had
-only occurred 40 deaths in its ranks from disease. The cases of
-typhoid numbered but 193, and the cases of dysentery no more than
-342. The marvelous character of this record may be realized by
-remembering how appalling were the ravages of disease during the
-South African campaign. Typhoid and dysentery in that war carried
-off infinitely more victims than shell or bullet; and if sometimes
-in their assaults on fortified positions the Japanese have
-seemed shockingly reckless of human life, it is to be remembered
-that in another and not less important direction they have shown
-themselves infinitely more careful of it. Such were the conditions
-as the long winter months drew to their close, and as silently the
-Japanese armies girded themselves for the great stroke which was
-in a few weeks' time to eclipse both in magnitude and consequence
-everything that had hitherto marked the progress of this epoch-making
-campaign.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The North Sea Inquiry</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Meanwhile the unhappy Baltic Fleet protracted its embarrassing
-sojourn in Madagascar waters. Having got so far on the road
-to its appointed revenge, discretion overcame
-heroic resolution on the part of
-its Admiral. The nearer Rozhdestvensky
-came to his task of wresting the command of the sea from Admiral
-Togo, the less he appeared to like it; and finally the Armada which
-had begun its voyage with such a sensational progress through the
-North Sea, decided to continue to avail itself of French hospitality
-until it should have received the reinforcements of the third Baltic
-Squadron. While the Russian fleet was thus ingloriously hung up
-at Diego Suarez, the International Commission appointed to inquire
-into the circumstances of its exploits in the North Sea met at
-Paris, and having heard exhaustively the evidence in support of the
-British and Russian cases, at length issued its report. In spite
-of the preliminary rumors that the conduct of the Russian Admiral
-had been vindicated, the event proved that the justice of the British
-case had been as completely sustained as it could be by any judgment
-which was more diplomatic than judicial in character. The
-Admirals of the Commission, with the exception of their Russian
-colleague, found that there were no hostile torpedo boats present on
-the Dogger Bank; that the British trawlers did nothing to provoke
-attack; and that the firing to which they were subjected was unjustifiable.
-To coat this rather unpleasant pill, the Commissioners
-amiably added, in contradiction of the direct implication of their
-own findings, that their report threw no discredit either on the military
-quality or the humane sentiments of Admiral Rozhdestvensky.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch16' class='c015'>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Rigors of Manchurian Winters&mdash;In Winter Quarters&mdash;Ear Muffs Won by Yankee
-Thrift&mdash;Hot Baths and Hot Meals&mdash;Disease Conquered in Camp&mdash;Wonderful
-Sanitary Record&mdash;Civil War Comparisons&mdash;The Japanese Scientific&mdash;No
-Detail Overlooked&mdash;Wounded Rarely Die.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rigors of Manchurian Winters</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_7 c003'     >After the Battle of the Sha-ho River the two armies went
-into winter quarters prepared to face a Manchurian season
-with thermometer readings of 35 degrees below
-zero not uncommon and with a snowfall of enormous proportions
-to contend with. The Russians were better prepared to
-meet the situation than the Japanese since a large proportion of the
-Russian army hailed from Siberia or the
-northern provinces of Asiatic and European
-Russia and hence were inured to
-rigorous winters. Some thousands of
-the Japanese had come from the northern provinces of Japan and
-they, too, were well experienced in cold. But a large majority of the
-Japanese troops were from the southern islands of Japan, where
-rigorous winters are unknown. The Japanese army administration
-was thus confronted by a very serious problem. The story of the
-manner in which the problem was met and solved is among the
-most interesting of the chapters of the history of the war.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">In Winter Quarters</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Ear Muffs Won by Yankee Thrift</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >When the positions of the various units of the army had been
-definitely fixed the whole army began, as a preliminary step, to burrow
-into the earth. Before mid-November
-the Japanese camp was no longer
-stretched over the hills south of the Sha-ho
-but had vanished from view under the hills. Along the whole
-front that stretched for nearly sixty miles underground galleries
-were excavated barely high enough even for a Japanese to stand
-erect. These were open at one end and at the entrance to each a
-charcoal burning stove was placed. A fire was kept burning continually
-in each of these thousands of stoves. The stove pipe, instead
-of jutting a foot or two into the air was extended along the roof of
-the dug-out to its end, then passed upward through the eight feet of
-soil that formed the roof. Fronting the open end long trenches,
-were dug and over them heavy protective bomb proofs of timber
-and earth were erected as a protection against the shells which with
-greater or less activity were hurled into the Japanese lines by the
-Russians throughout the winter. These underground homes solved
-much of the question of withstanding cold for in them the men were
-reasonably comfortable. Special clothing,
-too, was provided, and in connection
-with fur ear-muffs with which each
-man was provided an interesting story
-is told, one typical of the Yankee-like thrift of the Japanese. Five
-years before, the plague had been introduced into Japan from the
-Malay Peninsula. A vigorous fight was made and the disease was
-finally conquered but in the course of the fight the sanitary officials
-became convinced that the germs of the disease were being spread by
-rats. A prize was put upon the heads of the dangerous rodents.
-Millions were killed by the boys of Japan who delivered the rats,
-collected the bounty and gave no thought to what became of the
-carcasses. Nor did anyone, but when the army faced a Manchurian
-winter those millions of rat furs reappeared as warm ear protectors
-while a smile went around the world. So completely, in a
-thousand ingenious ways did the army officials conquer the cold and
-safeguard the army that throughout the winter it was even possible
-for every man in the army to have two hot baths a week. The bath
-in Japan is almost a religious rite, but the trooper bade good-bye to
-it, as he supposed, when he started for the front. Not so. Circular
-metal tubes were provided. These were sunk in the ground level
-with the surface. Ten feet away at the bottom of a trench a stove
-was placed heating a coil of pipes which went inside, around and
-around the sides of the tube. The tube served as the tub. It was
-filled with water and in a few minutes the hot bath was ready. In
-protected spots all along the lines Nippon could be seen hastily stripping
-beside the steaming hole in the ground. Then he would vanish
-until only his head was visible. As well as he could he scrubbed himself.
-Comrades raised him swiftly from the tube and swathed him
-in heavy blankets, wrapped in which he vanished over the edge of the
-trench and so into his underground home, clean and happy.</p>
-
-<div id='i455' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic056'>
-<img src='images/i455.jpg' alt='' class='ig056' />
-<p>A NIGHT ATTACK ON A RUSSIAN POSITION.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Hot Baths and Hot Meals</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Hot meals were cooked at the doors of the dugouts for the fifty
-occupants on improved portable camp kitchens. Telephones connected
-every battalion headquarters with its regimental headquarters and so
-throughout the army, every unit with the
-next largest and all with the general headquarters at Liao-yang.
-Great fur overcoats, pure wool underclothing, heavy uniforms well
-adapted for comfort and warmth; in every detail the Japanese were
-splendidly equipped for the ordeal of cold. Thousands of slight
-cases of frost-bite reached the hospitals after occasional sorties demanded
-by fitful attacks of Russian scouting parties, but there was
-none of this in the normal life of the vast army of nearly 300,000
-men.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese medical department during the winter made a
-wonderful fight against disease, that bane of armies, and continued
-under these unrecord of the actual campaign.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Wonderful Sanitary Record</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Until now disease has always been much more destructive than
-shot and shell. During the brief conflict with Spain 268 Americans
-died of bullets and wounds, while mortality
-from disease reached the appalling
-number of 3,862, or about fourteen to
-one. In the Boer War 7,792 English were killed in action or died
-of wounds, while 13,250 fell victims to disease. Of the Turkish
-army operating in Thessaly seven years ago, 1,000 men were lost
-in battle, while 19,000 died at the front of disease. Twenty-two
-thousand others were invalided home, and of these 8,000 subsequently
-died. This was a ratio of twenty-seven men killed by disease
-to one by bullets. Even more frightful was the experience of
-the French expedition to Madagascar in 1894. Only 29 were killed
-in action, while over 7,000 perished from disease. Compare these
-frightful experiences with the record of the Japanese. During the
-last nine months of 1904, throughout a difficult campaign, in a country
-noted for lack of sanitation, only forty deaths from disease occurred
-in the immense army in Manchuria commanded by General
-Oku. It is a wonderful lesson in sanitation Japan has taught to the
-world.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >While disease scored but forty victims in nine months among
-the soldiers of General Oku, no fewer than 5,127 officers and men
-were killed and 21,080 wounded. This shows that the period was
-one of great activity, of hard campaigning and severe fighting&mdash;which
-makes the low disease death rate all the more astonishing.
-Soldiers in the field cannot be looked after as carefully as those in
-camp; hygiene and sanitary surroundings are only temporary, and,
-therefore, more crude; dietetic regulations are more difficult to enforce.
-Of course, there were many cases of disease in Oku's
-army&mdash;24,642 in all&mdash;but the majority were of bronchial troubles,
-resulting from climatic conditions. Of beri beri, a malady peculiarly
-Oriental, 5,070 cases were reported. But the progressive Japanese
-seem to have gotten the mastery even of this, once notable, because
-of its mortality. It is, however, in battling with those most dreaded
-scourges of an army&mdash;typhoid fever and dysentery&mdash;that the Japanese
-have scored their greatest triumphs. Of typhoid fever they have
-had only 193 cases, and of dysentery only 342 cases.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Civil War Comparisons</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >During the first year of the American Civil War typhoid fever
-attacked 8 per cent. of the Federal troops, killing 35 per cent. of the
-white and 55 per cent. of the negro
-soldiers who contracted it. But here is
-an army in the wilds of Manchuria
-larger than that of McClellan before Richmond, which had only
-forty deaths in nine months. The great American conflict was one
-of the bloodiest in history. In the Federal ranks, 110,070 men were
-killed in battle or died of wounds, while 249,458 were sent to their
-graves of disease. Why is it the little brown islanders of the East
-were so successful in fighting the unseen foe?</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Every death from preventable disease is an insult to the intelligence
-of the age," says Major Louis L. Seaman, late surgeon
-in the United States Volunteers, who returned from Japan during
-the war.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"When it occurs in an army, where the units are compelled
-to submit to discipline, it becomes a governmental crime."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Disease bacteria," asserts another writer, in discussing the
-medical aspects of the Boer War, "are even more dangerous than
-Mauser bullets shot off with smokeless powder. Both hit without
-giving a sign to the eye whence they come, and of the two, the
-Mausers hit less often and hit less hard." It was through prompt
-recognition of these propositions that the Japanese held down their
-death rate from disease. Major Seaman relates that, in conversation
-with a Japanese officer early in the conflict, the subject of Russia's
-overwhelming numbers was mentioned.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Yes," admittted the officer, "we are prepared for that. Russia
-may be able to place 2,000,000 men in the field. We can furnish
-500,000. You know that in war four men die of disease for
-every one who falls from bullets. We propose to eliminate disease
-as a factor. Every man who dies in our army must fall on the
-field of battle. In this way we shall neutralize the superiority of
-Russian numbers and stand on a comparatively equal footing."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Scientific</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >When Japan started out to make war she did so upon a scientific
-basis. For many months in advance the store rooms of Tokio
-were crowded with surgical materials,
-cots, tents, bedding, ambulances and all
-kinds of hospital supplies, ready for any
-emergency, and under the personal example of the Empress the
-women of the land made bandages for those who might be
-wounded. Japan realized also that the keystone to the health of
-the army lay in the character of the ration provided for the individual
-soldier. So she set about to master that problem. First of
-all, the ration evolved was suited to the climatic conditions of the
-campaign. It consisted largely of rice, compressed fish, soy, army
-biscuits, a few salted plums, tea&mdash;all of which necessitate the drinking
-of large quantities of boiled water&mdash;a few ounces of meat and
-some juicy, succulent pickles.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >No more thorough or efficient medical preparation could be
-imagined that Japan made for her great conflict. Not only was
-the ablest of medical counsel obtained, but the members of that
-staff of the army were given rank and full authority to enforce
-their decrees. The Japanese had a medical director who ranked
-as a lieutenant-general. Six medical officers ranked as major-general.
-With every 20,000 men in line a surgeon ranking as
-brigadier-general, and all have power to enforce their orders. Every
-body of moving soldiers, however small, was accompanied by one or
-more medical officers, who were almost omnipresent, and were
-always watchful. Field and line officers and men were obliged to
-obey them without question. The solution of the greater problem
-engaged the attention of the medical corps. This was in preserving
-the health and fighting value of the army. Nothing seemed
-too small to escape the vigilance of the medical officers, or too
-tedious to weary his patience. He was with the first line of scouts,
-with his microscope and chemicals, testing and labelling wells so
-that the army to follow should not drink water that was contaminated.
-When the scouts reached a town, he immediately instituted
-a thorough examination of its sanitary condition. If contagious
-or infectious disease was found, he quarantined and
-placed a guard around the dangerous district. Notices were posted,
-so that the approaching column was warned and no soldiers were
-located where danger existed. Violations of such a notice was as
-great an offense as disobedience to a line officer on a battlefield.
-An officer with only the rank of a lieutenant might post the notice,
-and yet General Oku himself dared not disregard it. No foraging
-party ever set out to gather supplies unless accompanied by a medical
-officer.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">No Detail Overlooked</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >He sampled the various kinds of food, fruit and vegetables
-sold by the natives along the line of march long before the arrival
-of the army. If the food was tainted,
-or the fruit over ripe, or the water ought
-to be boiled, notice was posted to that effect.
-In camp, too, the medical officer was always busy, lecturing
-the men on sanitation and the hundred and one details of personal
-hygiene&mdash;how to cook, to eat, and when not to drink; to bathe, and
-even to directions as to paring and cleansing the finger nails to prevent
-danger from bacteria. More than any other preventive, the boiling
-of all drinking water was insisted upon. Every Japanese soldier
-carried a small copper camp kettle with a double bottom. By the use
-of it he was enabled to boil water even in a gale. Charcoal was
-burned on the inside, the water being heated between two layers of
-copper. Great kettles for similar use in camps were also provided.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Large bathing basins, or kettles, formed an important part of
-the equipment of each company. They were placed upon the
-ground and are ready for use in a few minutes after camp was
-made. In this way personal cleanliness was maintained. A troop
-might encamp beside a small stream, the water of which was
-needed for several different purposes. It was not scooped up indiscriminately,
-but the flow was divided into separate channels&mdash;one
-for drinking or cooking, another for bathing, a third for
-laundry service, and so on.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Wounded Rarely Died</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Up to July 1, 1106 wounded were taken to Tokio, and of
-that number not a single man died. These men were shot in almost
-every possible way; six had bullets
-through the brain, nine had bullets
-through their chests, and six had bullets
-through the abdomen&mdash;and yet all got well. The medical service
-of the United States in its war with Spain was not any more
-discreditable when compared with that of Japan than the medical
-service of the English Army during its war with the Boers. The
-report of the English Hospital Commission, which inquired into
-the medical end of that conflict, shows that there was "an immense
-amount of needless suffering and misery." There is no attempt
-"to hide incompetency and unpreparedness under the platitude that
-'was is war.'" Just as in the Spanish-American War, a large
-number of civil surgeons were employed for army work in South
-Africa. They had no knowledge of military duties nor of military
-methods and discipline. Consequently, they were ineffective, except
-when accompanied and, to some extent, controlled by officers
-of the service. They were absolutely without authority. Perhaps
-all these lessons were observed and absorbed by the keen-eyed Japanese.
-In any event, they have given the world the most pronounced
-examples of scientific warfare that the hoary old globe has
-ever seen.</p>
-
-<div id='i466' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic057'>
-<img src='images/i466.jpg' alt='' class='ig057' />
-<p>JAPANESE TROOPS CAUGHT IN BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENT.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch17' class='c015'>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >The Greatest Battle of History&mdash;Rout and Disaster for Russia&mdash;The Ancient
-City of Mukden&mdash;The Tombs of the Manchus&mdash;A Flourishing Mart&mdash;Betwixt
-Winter and Spring&mdash;The Line of Battle&mdash;Lone Tree Hill&mdash;The
-Russian Position&mdash;The Japanese Task&mdash;Mukden the Real Battleground&mdash;Russian
-Flanks Strongly Protected&mdash;Well Protected on the East&mdash;Battled
-for Mountain Passes&mdash;Russians Had Advantage of Position&mdash;The Outlook
-for Oyama&mdash;Busy Preparations During Winter&mdash;Oyama's Plan of Battle&mdash;Nogi
-to Strike Culminating Blow&mdash;"Out of the Way for Us"&mdash;Master
-Stroke of the Battle.</p>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >Not only the climax of the Japan-Russian War, but a climax
-to all wars was reached in the Battle of Mukden, fought
-February 19-March 13, 1905. This memorable struggle,
-resulting in a sweeping victory for Japan, was practically
-a campaign in itself. The results, a cataclasm which overwhelmed
-the Russian army, were not merely what had been expected for this
-one battle, but comprehended all that the Japanese had hoped for a
-year's campaign. It was more than rout. It remains a grisly monument
-to the potentiality of war to write horror on the pages of world
-history. It was more than defeat, retreat, disaster, it was practical
-annihilation for Russia's power of resistance in the Far East. Her
-vaunted military power was trailed in the dust, was obliterated.
-When the smoke of the contest had rolled away Oyama stood master
-of Manchuria with only a demoralized horde of the enemy
-"without form and void" fleeing in panic with no thought but to
-shake off a foe to whom no resistance could be offered.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Greatest Battle of History</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >No nation in the world's history has faced a greater blow to
-its military prestige, and from the standpoint of the Japanese&mdash;no
-military force has achieved for its nation
-a more sweeping or more complete victory.
-The Battle of Mukden is destined
-to occupy a unique place in the story
-of the nations for these and other reasons. In point of the territory
-involved; in point of the number of men engaged; in point
-of the duration of the struggle; in point of the lessons, the authentic
-history of the world has no peer for its record.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >General Kuropatkin, the Russian Commander-in-Chief, had at
-the beginning of the struggle an army of 300,000 infantry; 26,700
-cavalry, and 1,368 guns. This is the estimate of the Japanese intelligence
-bureau. On the other hand the German Military Review
-credited Kuropatkin with a total of 370,790 men of whom 36,790
-were cavalry. The Germans estimate that the Russians had a total
-of 1,598 field guns, and 72 heavy guns. Somewhere between these
-two estimates the actual figures, carefully concealed by the Russians,
-may be taken to lie. Marshal Oyama had 500,000 men of
-all arms and artillery equal to that of the Russians with a preponderating
-number of big guns, a great many having been moved
-from Port Arthur to the northern battleground. In the two armies
-therefore, there were in round numbers a total of about 800,000
-men.</p>
-
-<div id='i469' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic058'>
-<img src='images/i469.png' alt='' class='ig058' />
-<p>MAP OF THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rout and Disaster for Russia</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The battle developed into a struggle for possession of Mukden,
-the ancient Manchu capital, near which lie the Imperial Tombs
-of the founders of the Manchu dynasty,
-a spot sacred throughout the length and
-breadth of China. The battle lines
-around this city stretched for one hundred
-miles. The fighting began on February 19. On March 7th
-the Russians already seeing disaster in the advance made by the
-Japanese under General Nogi, toward cutting off the line of retreat
-north of Mukden, fell back from the centre along the Sha-ho
-River and on March 10 evacuated Mukden, beginning a retreat
-that was turned into a disastrous rout by the desperate flank attacks
-of the Japanese from both sides.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian losses to March 13, when the Battle of Mukden
-actually came to a close, were 175,000 men, killed, wounded and
-prisoners; 60 guns; 25,000 rounds of small arm ammunition and
-immense quantities of stores. The Japanese casualties to March
-12 were 41,222 killed, wounded and missing and several hundred
-of the missing were recovered in the capture of Mukden. The
-Japanese sent 43,000 prisoners to Japan as one of the results of
-the victory.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Ancient City of Mukden</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Mukden, round which the greatest battle in history raged, is,
-without exception, the most interesting place in the whole of
-Northern China. In the eyes of all Manchurians
-it is the one holy city in the
-world, for it is here that the tombs of
-the founders of the Manchu dynasty are situated. For this reason
-the Chinese Government demanded that the sacred precincts of
-the Imperial Tombs must not be violated by foul warfare, and both
-sides engaged in the horrible work of killing, entered into solemn
-undertakings to respect the sanctity of the famous burial grounds.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The great city stands in the middle of a vast alluvial plain,
-surrounded by rich and highly cultivated land. The population of
-Mukden is over a quarter of a million, and the city is modelled on
-a similar plan to that of Peking, presenting an imposing appearance,
-in spite of the decay into which many of the ancient buildings
-have been allowed to fall.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The railway, which runs north to Harbin, does not pass within
-a mile of the city, the Chinese having refused to allow the neighborhood
-of the sacred tombs to be desecrated by the construction
-of an iron road in the immediate vicinity. The station is consequently
-about a mile away from the city, but on alighting from the
-train, one is immediately struck by the sight of the tremendous
-brick walls, 60 feet high, which surround the inner town. This is
-built in the form of a square a mile wide, and entrance is gained
-through eight enormous brick gates, surrounded by watch-towers
-and batteries. Outside this, suburbs extend for about a mile in
-every direction, and the whole is surrounded by a mud rampart
-from ten to twenty feet in height.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >A little to the north of the city is the sacred shrine of Na Ta,
-and a mile to the east of this is the Temple of Heaven, where sacrifices
-of black cattle and white sheep are offered up in the Emperor's
-name. To the east of this pagoda, buried in the midst of a
-grove of fir trees, is the famous tomb of the great Chinese conqueror,
-Tai Tsung. Access to the tomb is gained through a great
-gateway, roofed with red and yellow tiles, down a long avenue
-flanked by colossal stone figures of animals, great marble columns,
-and stretches of high wall.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Tombs of the Manchus</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The other great tomb lies due east of the city, in the heart
-of a great forest. Here, amid similar walls, figures of animals,
-and decayed marble columns, lie the remains
-of Nao Chu, the father of Tai
-Tsung. The fact that both these sacred
-relics were surrounded by acres of forest made it likely that no
-violation, either by Russians or Japanese, would take place, though
-the possible misdirection of a shell from one of their heavy guns
-might very easily have ruined either of them. Such an accident
-would very probably have stirred the somnolent Chinese to their
-very depths.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >For an Eastern city Mukden is extremely clean and well kept.
-The Manchus are well known for their cleanly habits, which are
-often in striking contrast with those of the southern Chinese. The
-streets are well scavengered, and there are many most imposing,
-if not beautiful, private mansions belonging to wealthy mandarins.
-There are also a great number of handsome shops, and the centre
-of the city is always busy with the incessant movement and bustle
-which are only to be found in prosperous trading centres.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Flourishing Mart</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >For Mukden is the centre of an enormous trade between the
-north and the south of China. From the north come enormous
-quantities of fur, and from the south
-millions of bushels of all sorts of grain,
-while in the immediate vicinity wheat,
-barley, tobacco, melons, and cucumbers are grown in the fertile
-plain which stretches away on all sides. The silkworm, too, is cultivated
-all round Mukden, so that there is never any lack of trade
-from one source or another, whatever the season. Mukden, in the
-Manchu language means "flourishing," and for centuries the city
-has lived up to its name.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Two miles to the south of the city is a wide, sandy stretch of
-ground, twenty miles long, through which runs the Hun River,
-which can be forded almost anywhere. This approach to Mukden,
-forming the Russian center, was strongly held with sand-bag batteries.
-On the west of the town the very high railway embankment,
-running north and south of the river for many miles, was
-used to protect Mukden against attack from the west. The most
-vulnerable point in this line was the bridge over the Hun River,
-against which the Japanese delivered incessant attack. Mukden
-was strongly fortified by General Kuropatkin. The fortifications
-extended for nine miles, with forts and redoubts at intervals of a
-mile. The redoubts were all cleverly masked, and the line of fortification
-was protected by deep ditches and pits, all with stakes at
-the bottom, by wire entanglements, land mines, and a line of
-felled trees.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Betwixt Winter and Spring</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Winter still howls over Manchuria when February is drawing
-to a close, but the early days of March, just as through the
-central United States, bring the first
-flush of spring. The ground remains
-locked in the grip of a frost that turns
-earth to steel to a depth of seven feet. The rivers are still securely
-ice-bound, but overhead the sun begins a mastery over the overpowering
-cold. If the nights remain bitterly cold, the days are increasingly
-warm and throughout the daylight hours conditions are
-ideal for the work of the soldier. The weather, therefore, fairly
-trumpeted a call to arms to the two vast armies that confronted
-each other south of the Sha-ho River. The earliest moves were
-made over whitened plains with snow storms still driving over
-hills and plain out of the bleak north. Marshal Oyama, the Japanese
-commander, evidently realized that the struggle would be
-long and, indeed, before its end winter had, in fact, given place
-to the opening days of spring. The advantages were many. The
-movement of artillery was facilitated by the hard surface of frozen
-ground and the ease with which ice-covered streams and rivers
-could be crossed. Lack of foliage deprived the army of the protection
-that so greatly aided the advance on Liao-yang, and so effectively
-shielded the artillery in that struggle. The broken nature
-of the country, the heavy calibre guns, firing from one to five miles
-with accuracy, minimized the disadvantage of fighting over a bare
-land and if lack of protection of foliage and growing crops added
-to the Japanese losses it failed to check the vigor or relentlessness
-of the advance once it had begun.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Line of Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The lines of the two armies on the eve of the great battle,
-stretched from the Hun River, on the west, in a southeasterly direction
-south of the Sha-ho River, along
-that stream, then bending more southward,
-across the Taitse River, near Bensihu,
-at a point thirty-five miles east of Yentai Station, on the
-Harbin&mdash;Port Arthur Railroad. These lines had been determined
-by the battle of the Sha-ho River, October 6-13, the end of the
-campaign of 1904. Strategically the advantage lay with the Russians.
-Though defeated in the memorable battle along the Sha-ho,
-General Kuropatkin had secured a position south of Mukden
-far superior to any below Tie Pass, the gateway to the great plains
-around Harbin, always regarded as the ultimate decisive battleground
-of Manchuria.</p>
-
-<div id='i475' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic059'>
-<img src='images/i475.jpg' alt='' class='ig059' />
-<p>RUSSIAN RETREAT IN MANCHURIA.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Lone Tree Hill</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The whole lay of the land was adapted to defensive fighting.
-Along most of the front lay the Sha-ho River, broad enough and
-deep enough to demand bridging except
-when frozen over. The culminating
-event of the battle of the Sha-ho had
-been the recapture by the Russians of Lone Tree Hill, a mile east
-of the railroad, just south of the Sha-ho, at the very centre of the
-battlefield. From this point the Russians commanded a territory
-five miles in radius. The hill, naturally adapted for defense, was
-strongly fortified to a point nearer impregnability even, than
-achieved by any of the boasted fortifications of the mountains around
-Port Arthur. Thousands of Japanese were ultimately to immolate
-themselves on the slopes of Lone Tree Hill in vain efforts at its
-capture. It still stood invincible when events elsewhere
-demanded retreat and its abandonment. Westward the Russian
-line spread across a rolling country dotted with Chinese villages.
-The low, stoned walled cottages of these clusters of hamlets
-formed the basis for defenses which were well calculated to offer
-enormous resistance to troops advancing across the wide-stretching
-flats along the Sha-ho, and the east bank of the Hun, the only
-approach for the Japanese.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Russian Position</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Eastward from the Sha-ho the defense line followed the foot
-hills that become mountains thirty miles east of the Sha-ho. In
-front flowed a river for twenty miles of
-the distance, and a vast level plain approached
-the river from the south, over
-which the Japanese right flank must make its advance. The Russian
-position was enclosed in a vast triangle with the upper angle
-between Mukden and Fushan, northward, its base the eighty-mile
-line from Madyanapu, on the Hun River, to Tsenketchen, thirty-five
-miles east of Yentai. Mountains protected the left flank; the
-Hun River protected the right flank, while Lone Tree Hill, and
-the Sha-ho River were chief elements in the strength of the centre.
-All the genius of the Russian commanders was exerted to find the
-weak spots in this long line. Artillery of the heaviest types,
-ranging through all the grades of siege and field guns, and the
-more mobile and most deadly machine guns were scattered with
-prodigality across the whole vast front then in receding lines to the
-apex of the triangle, where were arranged the defenses of Mukden
-and Fushan. To facilitate communications over the battlefield, two
-hundred miles of light railroad track was laid, and thousands of
-light cars for horse or man propulsion were in constant use carrying
-munitions, provisions, guns or whatever was needed, to depots
-from which every part of the battlefield was readily accessible.
-Telephone and telegraph wires connected the headquarters, just
-north of the Sha-ho River, with every command along the entire
-line. Crowning all, an army of 350,000 men rested on its arms,
-elbow to elbow, along the front, as bulwarks to the flanks, and
-northward, thronging Mukden and Fushan, the reserves. This was
-the immediate situation on the Russian side that confronted Marshal
-Oyama.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Task</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese task, however, was more than to defeat the
-Russian army. Criticism had followed the victory of Liao-yang
-because, despite the awful defeat administered,
-the battle had been indecisive.
-The Russian general had been able to extricate
-his army and by a masterful retreat, to realign his forces in
-a new position with no alternative but to follow and prepare to
-renew the struggle left to the Japanese commanders. The Battle
-of Mukden must be estimated in the light of an effort to prevent a
-recurrence of this feat by the Russians. The chief world interest
-centers about the strategy of Marshal Oyama to encircle his foe,
-to cut off his retreat completely and to force the alternative of annihilation
-or surrender. The geography of the country, its strategical
-features far afield from the actual Russian positions, therefore,
-become matters of moment which must be understood to permit a
-comprehensive understanding of the battle and its results.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Mukden the Real Battleground</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Marshal Oyama's problem, as has been said, was to envelope the
-Russian armies. It was as though the Russian triangle were a bottle
-into which a cork must be driven. On
-the neck of the bottle, ten miles apart,
-are Mukden, on the West, and Fushan,
-on the east. Between these points the
-Russians would be compelled to disgorge in a retreat
-northward should the center be broken and a retreat became
-necessary. Here, then, was the Japanese objective. To
-take Mukden and Fushan, to drive the forces there southward toward
-the Sha-ho, and to place a force northward to be the cork
-in the bottle, driving back the retreat on the advance of the center,
-right and left armies, thus surrounding the Russians with a hoop of
-men and guns that would make escape or victory impossible. Thus
-it is that a battle that centered twenty-five miles southward on the
-Sha-ho River becomes officially known as the battle of Mukden,
-for here centered the really vital struggle of the whole memorable
-engagement. The Russian line of communication centers at Harbin,
-where the railroad which pierces Manchuria and the Liao-tung
-Peninsula to Port Arthur, branches southward from the Siberian
-railroad, the artery through which flows life from St.
-Petersburg and European Russia to the Far Eastern armies. The
-whole Manchurian campaign has moved northward along this
-railroad, the salvation of the Russian army always depending on
-its ability to keep open at its rear this means of sustenance, of
-ammunition supply, of reinforcement supply, of transport of every
-kind, whether advancing or retreating. The railroad reached the
-actual Russian lines just west of Mukden and then continued
-southward to the Sha-ho, branching here and there to various field
-depots convenient to the various army units. Marshal Oyama's
-plan of battle comprehended, as its greatest achievement, the cutting
-of this railroad north of Mukden before a retreat could be made.
-This was the first and most vital contribution if the ultimate plan
-to envelop the Russians was to succeed. This plan failed and hence
-the prize of decisive, final victory slipped from the grasp of the
-Japanese commander, however great the blow he dealt to the Russian
-army.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Flanks Strongly Protected</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >General Kuropatkin was fully alive to the dangers on his
-flanks as well as at the front. His right flank rested on Mukden,
-but the actual lines to which were given
-the task of preventing the turning of the
-right flank were far afield from the actual
-city. To the southwest they extended
-to the Hun River, thirty-five miles away, while the far outpost
-was within touch of Sinmintin, a Chinese city, thirty-five miles
-westward of Mukden on the banks of the Liao River. Sinmintin
-is actually in the territory which was excluded from the theatre of
-war by the famous agreement proposed to the European Powers
-by John Hay, the American Secretary of State, by which the neutrality
-of Chinese territory was assured. Nevertheless, while not
-actually occupied by the Russians, Sinmintin was to all intents and
-purposes within their lines and was continually used as a receiving
-point for supplies bought or commanded in the Mongolian provinces.
-Cossacks in large force remained in close touch with the
-city while the road leading from Sinmintin to Mukden, a famous
-caravan route, was occupied by large forces of Russians and was
-regarded as an effective bulwark for the Russian right flank.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian defences on the right, or west wing of their
-army began just west of the Sha-ho River, extended thence westward
-for thirty-five miles to the Hun and then bent due northward
-across the left side of the Liao River Valley to a point a few miles
-east of Sinmintin; thence along the Sinmintin-Mukden road to
-Tatchekiao, five miles northward of Mukden; thence due westward
-until the line intercepted the railroad, a few miles north of Mukden.
-Lieutenant General Baron Kaulbars was commander of the
-army of nearly 100,000 men which made up this wing of General
-Kuropatkin's forces. The left wing's divisional commander was
-General Linevitch, who, with General Rennenkampf, stands among
-the greatest of the Russian commanders. Occupying a position to
-the Russian left flank exactly similar to that of Mukden on the
-right, is Fushan, ten miles east of Mukden. With this position
-firmly held at center and on its flanks it would be impossible for the
-Japanese to drive in their cork in the neck of the bottle between
-Fushan and Mukden. To the average strategist, indeed, universally
-among strategists, the view would prevail after a glance of
-the battlefield as it lay at the opening of the struggle that there
-was the real vital point to the attack as well as to the defense. In
-the opening days of the battle events all shaped themselves to bear
-out this view. General Kuropatkin manifestly thought so. Here
-he threw the weight of vast numbers of troops and thought victory
-near when the Japanese attack from this quarter had been
-fought to a standstill. Logically, Fushan was the chief danger
-point, and the fact that Marshal Oyama, the Japanese commander,
-chose another strategical solution for the problem is among his
-achievements that have resulted in the appellation of "The Napoleon
-of the Orient."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Well Protected on the East</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Just as on the west, the Russian lines were far afield from the
-actual key position at Mukden, so on their left, or eastern positions
-their lines formed a far-reaching protective
-barrier, 20 miles away. As has
-been said, the main front on the east
-stretched away from the Sha-ho, thirty-five miles eastward to the
-Taitse River, which winds in a general northeasterly direction from
-Liao-yang. The defensive position of importance was at Tsinketchen,
-in the foothills of the Sierras, which run across Manchuria,
-and finally reach the east coast of Korea.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The only practicable path northward for the Japanese army
-was to skirt these foothills to the passes, northeast from Tsinketchen
-and Bentsiaputze and then debouch into the valley of the Hun
-River and fight their way northward to Fushan, the rugged nature
-of the country eastward from that place practically preventing any
-opportunity for play of strategy in a turning movement to strike
-northeast of the city. One of the wonders of the war and one of
-the most amazing of the feats constantly accomplished by the Japanese
-has been the skill and success with which they have attacked
-and captured mountain positions. General Kuroki in the campaign
-which, after a few months followed the victory of the Yalu,
-repeatedly drove the Russians from veritable Thermopylæs and
-in the fighting on every front which preceded the surrounding of
-the Russian army at Liao-yang the Japanese were constantly confronted
-with the necessity of making frontal attacks on mountain
-defiles which seemed to offer impregnable shelter to the defenders.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Battled for Mountain Passes</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >So also in the campaign on the east in the battle of Mukden.
-General Kuropatkin chose his defensive positions with skill. No
-pains were spared in fortifying the gaps
-in the mountain ridges through which
-the Japanese must pass. The principal
-routes open were through Da Pass and
-Gauto Pass. While these were the main defensive positions the
-Russians pushed fifteen miles further southward toward the enemy,
-and the earlier reverses at Tsinketchen were only fairly unimportant
-preludes to the battling at these mountain passes. The Russian line
-on the east had less geometrical regularity than the line of the west
-owing to the nature of the topography. The lines from the front
-extended to the foothills, as has been pointed out, and then were
-concentrated at the passes, the danger points, offering only a limited
-battle line until the fighting had swept over the mountains into the
-Valley of the Hun. What with artillery of a thousand guns and an
-army of 75,000 men only called upon to defend positions of vast natural
-strength, there was little wonder then when the open guns of
-the battle rolled over the plains in the west, General Kuropatkin
-concentrated his attention to the centre and gave little thought to
-events on his left. As it turned out the General's confidence was
-well founded. In all the war no braver or more stubborn or more
-successful fight has been waged by any Russian force than was
-waged by the army under Lieutenant-General Linevitch and General
-Rennenkampff on this flank. It has been said that the Japanese
-were fought to a standstill. That statement is literally true,
-and only the beginning of the Russian retreat made it possible for
-General Kuroki, the Japanese Commander here, to play any conspicuous
-part in the total disaster which befell the Russian Army.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russians Had Advantage of Position</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >To summarize, the position in which General Kuropatkin found
-himself at the opening of the battle was an admirable one from
-every standpoint. His defensive lines fitted
-in well with the topography of the
-country. Broad rivers, rugged mountains,
-apparently impregnable mountain passes,
-commanding hills on front and flanks promised to aid materially in
-his defence. His army was nearly of equal strength with that of
-the enemy, while superior natural positions compensated for the
-slight deficiency of men. In the long winter months every possible
-means of communication from one to another of the units of his
-army had been perfected, while, apparently unassailable, stretched
-a great railroad behind him offering ready link between the front
-and the Russian base of supplies for all of Manchuria. His army
-had been recuperated, was eager to fight, and would be called upon
-to defend fortified positions, heavily supplied with artillery, a position
-which, as history plainly proves, brings out the best qualities
-of the Russian soldier. So far as the centre was concerned he had
-no fear. Lone Tree Hill, or, as he renamed it for the Russian who
-led the charge that had recaptured it from the Japanese, had been
-made as nearly impregnable as men and arms could make a position
-made by nature for defensive fighting. So westward, so eastward,
-topography, the condition of his army, the whole aspect of the field,
-spoke only of a repulse to the Japanese attack. Then would come
-the offensive against a worn-out army, then the victory for which
-all Russia was clamoring and upon which depended the future of
-the Commander-in-Chief himself.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >So much for the Russian viewpoint.</p>
-
-<div id='i486' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic060'>
-<img src='images/i486.jpg' alt='' class='ig060' />
-<p>RUSSIAN SUFFERING AT THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Outlook for Oyama</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >When the smoke of the battle of the Sha-ho cleared away it
-left the Japanese armies masters of practically the same territory
-they had occupied at the conclusion of the
-pursuit of the Russian after the victory
-at Liao-yang. General Kuroki, commanding
-the Japanese right army, had fallen
-back from Bentsiaputze to Bensihu, a distance of twenty miles; but
-this move had been made to correct the alignment of the army with
-the centre, at the Sha-ho River as a basis. Certainly, no great
-effort was made to advance this force after the initial Russian successes
-on this flank after the battle of the Sha-ho. Some advantages
-attached to the position finally occupied by General Kuroki,
-hence the view that he was impelled by strategic reasons when he
-had failed to advance, rather than by inability to retake the lost
-positions farther north. At the centre, which followed the south
-bank of the Sha-ho River, the Russians had succeeded in retaking
-Lone Tree Hill in the closing hours of the battle, and had a decided
-advantage. Every possible effort was made to retake the position,
-but when called upon for this effort the Japanese were exhausted by
-twelve days of incessant fighting, and they failed. Marshal Oyama,
-at the centre, therefore, was confronted by a practically impregnable
-position. Westward, on the left flank of the Japanese Army, the
-Russians were less aided by natural features of the country than at
-any other point. Their lines crossed the Sha-ho just west of the
-railroad and then spread northeastward through a series of villages
-dotting a comparatively level plain lying between the Sha-ho and
-the Hun Rivers. Of all the positions on the entire Russian front
-this seemed to offer the best opportunity for attack, for while an
-advance would have to be made over an open country, approach to
-the Russians' positions was facilitated by the innumerable villages
-in this fertile river plain. On the other hand, the Japanese were
-open to the same style of advance, and both commanders made
-unusual preparations to defend this angle of the great battlefield.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Japanese lines along the front were merely a parallel of
-the Russian lines which have been described, except that while on
-the west and on the centre the entrenchments were only a few hundred
-yards separated, the lines farther east, except for outpost positions,
-were separated by distances ranging from five to fifteen miles,
-as developed when the operations of the Battle of Mukden were
-actually under way.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >To the Japanese Commander-in-Chief the general situation
-could not have been particularly reassuring, except that he could
-count on the indomitable efforts of an unbeaten and fanatically
-brave army. So far as the topography was concerned, the enemy
-had every advantage. In all a very difficult and interesting problem
-was presented as the Mikado's hosts settled down for their long
-winter inaction.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Busy Preparations During Winter</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Liao-yang was made the Japanese base after the occupation of
-that city, and the Engineer Corps performed a notable feat in the
-speedy manner in which the railroad running
-northward from Port Arthur was
-made over for the use of Japanese engines
-and cars. The Russians had a five-foot
-gauge, while the Japanese rolling stock was built to the standard
-measurement. This fact made necessary the relaying of the entire
-line, a task which was promptly completed, thereby affording the
-inland army base ready communication with the general supply
-base at Dalny and at Port Arthur after the capture of that port.
-In addition to this line of communication the Japanese had a line
-to the Yalu. Stores for the right army were landed at the mouth
-of the Yalu River, and then were transported overland on a light
-railroad for which horses were the motive power, to points well in
-reach of General Kuroki. Both of these lines of communication
-were vital to an army that had now penetrated two hundred miles
-inland and were the first consideration when the flanks and protective
-units were being placed in their winter quarters. The Liao-yang-Yalu
-line proved to have been safeguarded against danger, but
-Cossack raiders in January twice encircled the Japanese left army,
-penetrated to the railroad at Yinkow, and damaged the line. In
-each case the damage done was quickly repaired. The second raiding
-party was so nearly cut off and so nearly annihilated in its
-flight to the Russian lines and activities on a broader scale so soon
-after were begun, that no further attempts of the kind were attempted.
-Such trifling inconvenience resulted from these perilous
-raids that it would seem that the Russians were hardly recompensed
-for the sacrifice of life. Certainly, the vast bulk of all needed stores
-and ammunition were already within the Japanese lines before the
-attempts were made, and Marshal Oyama, in all probability, could
-have fought the entire battle of Mukden without further need of
-the railroad, particularly as no Japanese retreat resulted from that
-struggle. The incidents only bore out the long held reputation of
-the Cossacks for reckless bravery. Indeed, the Japanese have
-repeatedly expressed their admiration for the Cossacks as a foe
-worthy of their steel.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Deciding the Way to Strike</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >With his front well aligned, and with every possible precaution
-taken to safeguard his lines of communication, the question then
-before the Japanese Commander-in-Chief
-was the strategy to mark a resumption
-of hostilities. At Liao-yang, despite the
-sweeping nature of the victory, there can
-be no doubt that the Japanese were bitterly disappointed when, despite
-tremendously determined efforts to prevent their escape, practically
-the whole Russian Army had disentangled itself from a
-well-set net and had escaped to occupy new positions there to be
-fought all over again. The first thought in all of the planning of
-the new campaign that was to succeed the winter of inactivity, was
-to accomplish the actual envelopment of General Kuropatkin, forcing
-upon the Russian Commander a surrender as the only alternative
-to annihilation. The line of action decided upon is fully revealed
-in the details of the battle to be told later. This program of complete
-destruction stands out even more plainly than at Liao-yang.
-It came far nearer realization than in that struggle, and was not
-concluded with the mere taking of Mukden; but like the tentacles
-of a great octopus, Marshal Oyama's grim determination for complete
-annihilation of the foe spread far northward beyond the
-scene of the initial victory and relentlessly realized in large measure
-all that he had hoped.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Oyama's Plan of Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In brief, the plan was to hold the Russian centre in a combat
-which, however desperate and bloody, was only a feint. While this
-struggle went on with apparent success
-to Russian arms, the right and left flanks
-as aligned east and west of the Sha-ho
-were to press home an attack calculated slowly to bend back the
-Russians toward their line of retreat northward from Mukden.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the culminating fact in the entire plan was an entirely
-separate blow at the Russian rear north of Mukden by an army
-which, while it no doubt figured in the Russian calculations of
-probabilities, eventually burst into the plain eastward from Sinmintin
-with a fury of surprise attack which ultimately crumbled
-the entire scheme of Russian defence.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Nogi to Strike Culminating Blow</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >That army was made up of the conquerors of Port Arthur.
-The fall of that fortress released a host of 80,000 seasoned fighters,
-flushed with a victory that filled the
-world with awe and admiration. Just
-so soon as the details of the surrender
-had been completed this force was under
-way northward to reinforce Marshal Oyama. At its head was the
-savagely brave Nogi, who had just won for himself undying place
-in the history of Japan by successfully reducing the Gibraltar of
-the Orient. Swift from the scene of one great triumph he was
-speeding to another. It was in the disposition of this force that all
-of the genius of Oyama was expended. When he sent Nogi westward
-in a wide circuit to swing completely around the Russian right
-army, to plunge northward by forced marches as far as Simintin
-and then bend eastward to burst upon the Russian rear, sweeping
-within five miles of their lines before an adequate defence could be
-provided, he settled the fate of Russia's great army of nearly a half
-million men. He struck a blow that made an awful rout possible,
-and the blow that made possible the final disaster, the forced abandonment
-of Tie Pass, that left the Russian Army a demoralized
-horde of panicked troops facing northward into the bleak stretches
-of Northern Manchuria.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >By this blow he added the final humiliation to Russia's greatest
-soldier, Kuropatkin, and lost that erstwhile leader with half of a
-century of popular adulation behind him, the command of Russia's
-Armies in Manchuria. He ended every hope of an offensive campaign
-in Manchuria, achieving at a stroke every result that for
-which a year's campaign had been allotted.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">"Out of the Way for Us"</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Nogi's army swept into the ranks of the opposing Russians,
-shouting, "Out of the way for us; we're from Port Arthur". To
-them fighting in the open country face to
-face with the enemy was as child's play
-compared with the horrors they had faced
-in scaling the bristling mountainsides
-north of Port Arthur. There they advanced against hidden terrors
-that lurked behind dull gray walls of huge forts; they braved the
-cunningly devised high priests of death that are hidden underground
-and work havoc and disaster when victory seems within grasp. They
-had looked death in the face in a hundred hidden forms unflinchingly,
-had fought and conquered a foe behind vast walls. Here
-there was only man to man. Shells burst overhead, scattering
-deadly shrapnel, but what was that to the rain of ponderous steel
-from siege guns that tore out the face of hillsides and annihilated
-regiments at a single puff. These were the men who, with a strident
-battle cry of scorn for the ease of the task, swept through
-thirty miles in a single day, trampling Russian regiments under
-foot, storming over fortified towns as though no men or guns were
-there, right up to the gates of Mukden, right where their guns
-could search the huddled ranks of Russians, fleeing from the destructible
-force that was welding a ring around them. Nature
-finally checked them. Up from the Manchurian plains a mighty
-wind swept a blinding simoon that halted their irresistible host at
-the moment when they were driving home the last fatal blow. For
-a day the whole battlefield was wrapped in a blinding curtain of
-sweeping sand. When once again Nogi's men could take up the
-work they had begun the bulk of the Russian force had fled past.
-Undaunted they swept northward, and four days later, when the
-beaten and dispersed army was reorganizing its ranks from the
-chaos of the flight, it was Nogi's men, springing once more out of
-the west, that set Kuropatkin's whole remnant in flight again,
-leaving behind them the last fortified position in Southern Manchuria.
-Oyama planned, but the palm for the victories of Mukden and
-the further flight from Tie Pass belongs to Nogi and the host that
-took Port Arthur.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Master Stroke of the Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This was indeed the master stroke of the battle, nevertheless
-a way had to be prepared for it by tremendously desperate work
-on every quarter of the long battle line.
-As vigorous as was the assault made on
-the Russian front, there can be no doubt
-that this was nothing more than a feint.
-The readiness with which the Japanese Commander-in-Chief sacrificed
-thousands of lives in assaults of a secondary nature is one of
-the significant things of the story of the battle. Such methods are
-reminiscent of Grant's massed attacks in the closing days of the
-Civil War, when life was counted as nothing when in the scale
-beside the value of victory. No pang for the sacrifice reached the
-heart of Oyama or the Generals under him who were directing the
-assaults. Victory was the stake, and the soldiers were there to die,
-if need be. They died by files and ranks and regiments. But victory
-was won. Over against the total of the blood-letting in their
-own ranks was the awful slaughter of the enemy, here, as in every
-battle of the war, far heavier in the Russian totals than with the
-Japanese. Two generations have come since the famous struggle
-of Gettysburg, yet statisticians are still struggling to determine the
-exact number who fought and died there or who remained alive, as
-victor and vanquished. The actual figures are still only approximately
-known. Multiply the difficulties of accounting for the less
-than two hundred thousand who fought at Gettysburg an hundredfold,
-and something of the difficulty of getting at the actual facts
-of the battle at Mukden begin to be realized. Ultimately, the Japanese
-may give the details, but no actual statement of the number
-of Russians engaged, of the losses in killed, wounded and missing,
-may be expected. The story forms too tragic a page in the history
-of the nation ever to be willingly spread broadcast.</p>
-
-<div id='i496' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic061'>
-<img src='images/i496.jpg' alt='' class='ig061' />
-<p>ON BOARD A JAPANESE BATTLESHIP DURING THE BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch18' class='c015'>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Prelude to the Great Battle&mdash;Gripenberg Fails and Quits Army&mdash;The Battle
-Begins&mdash;The Struggle on the East Front&mdash;The Battle at the Center&mdash;Battle
-Culminates on the West&mdash;Village by Village Taken&mdash;Russian Artillery
-Impotent&mdash;When the Crushing Blow Fell&mdash;A Cloud in the West&mdash;Kuropatkin
-Ignores Danger&mdash;Center Positions Abandoned&mdash;Japanese Ingenuity
-Marvelous&mdash;Retreat a Carnival of Slaughter&mdash;Oyama's Prophecy
-Fulfilled.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Prelude to the Great Battle</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >There was a prelude to the actual battle fought early in
-January by a portion of the Russian right flank under
-General Gripenberg, which is chiefly interesting for its
-effect in the Russian ranks. Whatever may have been the
-purpose of the attack, it failed. Heiketau, a town in the angle of
-the Hun and Liao Rivers, was the scene of the opening attack.
-Here the Japanese had an outpost in sight
-of the Russian lines. Resistance was made
-to the advance until it was seen that the
-Russians were in earnest and that a large
-force was actually about to give battle. Thereupon the Japanese
-outpost fell back on the main position at Sandiapu, three miles
-away, the Russians following. For two days a severe fight waged
-around their position, and General Gripenberg made enough gains
-on the first day to give rise to the belief that he was in position to
-break the entire Japanese line, divide their army, flank the centre,
-and compel a retreat. He sent an urgent representation of the situation
-to General Kuropatkin, asking for reinforcements, and,
-taking for granted that these would be sent, he plunged in on the
-second day to win, at last, a victory for Russia. The force against
-which he had thrown three divisions consisted of a single division
-of the Japanese, who counted on stopping the advance by dint of
-the earthworks protecting Sandiapu. Before morning of the second
-day General Oku, exhibiting the rare initiative and resourcefulness
-common to all of the Japanese generals, was ready to deal a crushing
-blow to Gripenberg, and the Russian General in his eagerness to
-take advantage of the opportunity which he believed had been
-opened by the apparent advantages of the first day of the fight,
-fell into one of the most deadly of the many traps from time to time
-set for Russian commanders.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Gripenberg Fails and Quits Army</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >To make sure that the Russians would not fail to renew the
-attack, General Oku caused a decoy battery of useless guns to sweep
-into position in full view of the Russian lookouts. The bait was
-too tempting. Gripenberg advanced on the dummy battery into a
-triangle of death. Batteries on three sides held their fire until the
-Russian lines had swept into practically point blank range. Then
-there burst over them a rain of shrapnel and a deadly sweep of rifle
-fire which spread confusion as hundreds were mowed down. Retreat
-from the death zone became rout, and
-General Gripenberg, with Oku's men in
-full pursuit, left ten thousand dead and
-wounded behind him in their flight to
-safety within the main Russian lines north of the Sha-ho. The
-fight was unimportant in itself, but it led to a personal encounter
-between Generals Kuropatkin and Gripenberg, which added to the
-demoralization already existing among the officers of the Russian
-Army. General Gripenberg bitterly assailed Kuropatkin for having
-failed to send reinforcements. Kuropatkin declared the only possible
-value of attack at that time and place was to uncover the
-strength of the enemy and to reconnoitre his positions, that a general
-engagement was folly and could not hope to achieve anything. For
-be it known, the initial advance had been made in a driving blizzard.
-General Gripenberg gave up his command and left the front for St.
-Petersburg to lay charges of incapability against the Commander-in-Chief
-and to join the group at the Russian Capital engaged in
-intrigue for the downfall of Kuropatkin.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the army the line and staff officers took sides in the bitter
-controversy that followed, and possibly the fight at Sandiapu, itself
-so insignificant, did more in the end to bring the disaster of Mukden
-and Tie Pass than can be estimated. A commander-in-chief, without
-the confidence of the officers of staff and line, can hardly hope to
-command the confidence of the men in the ranks. To say the least,
-the incident, coming so soon before the army was to be locked in
-a life and death struggle, was not calculated to add to the chances
-that victory would crown Russian arms.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Battle Begins</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The battle was actually begun on the initiative of the Japanese.
-By February 19, Marshal Oyama believed he was ready to begin
-the struggle for Mukden. He prefaced the battle by the prophecy
-that Mukden would be occupied by his army on March 10, a prophecy
-which caused only merriment in Russia,
-but which was literally fulfilled. To
-General Kuroki was given the honor of
-firing the first guns of the renewal of the campaign. General
-Kuroki, after the battle of the Sha-ho River, had wintered on the
-southern bank of the Taitze River, the centre of his army resting
-in the neighborhood of Bensihu, thirty-five miles east of Yentai.
-The Russian line was ten miles north, and the first place to be
-taken was Tsinkhetchen, at a point where the level river country
-began to rise to the Tie range of mountains, running in a generally
-northwest-southeast direction across all of Manchuria, into Mongolia
-northward, and into Korea southward, passing along the eastern side
-of the Russian triangle. The task assigned to Kuroki was to drive
-the Russians from Tsinkhetchen into the foothills to the passes of
-the mountains, then to take these and to debouch his army on the
-plains of the Hun River, twenty miles east of Mukden, and eastward
-of Fushun, then to strike northwestward toward the railroad
-and line of retreat of the Russian Army northward from Mukden,
-joining at the railroad the forces under Oku and Nogi, which were
-to attack from the west.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Kuroki's army got under way February 19, crossing the first
-of the rivers, the Taitse, without opposition. Then the advance
-was made northward to the Sha-ho, and here the Russian lines
-were encountered. A surprise night attack cleared away the Russians
-guarding the Sha-ho at Vanupudza, ten miles east of the railroad.
-Kuroki then bent northeastward toward the outermost
-position of the Russian left, avoiding the forces commanding the
-hills north of the Sha-ho.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Struggle on the East Front</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >On February 24 his army delivered a tremendous assault on
-the Russian positions at Tsinkhetchen, preceding the infantry advance
-by a bombardment of great force and effectiveness. Three
-lines of entrenchments were literally
-destroyed by the fire of siege guns which
-had been brought from Port Arthur, and
-despite the tremendous difficulty involved
-had been placed within range of the Tsinkhetchen positions. The
-Russian defence was stubborn, but the Japanese were irresistible,
-and after a few hours of awful carnage General Rennenkampff,
-commanding the Russians, ordered a retreat. Kuroki failed in an
-effort to envelop the position, and the Russians reached in safety
-their main position on this flank at Da Pass. Here one of the
-bloodiest struggles of the war followed, opening on February 28
-and continuing until March 1, when, despite one of the most gallant
-resistances credited to the Russians, General Kuroki flanked the
-Pass notwithstanding insuperable obstacles offered by the rugged
-nature of the country. Then followed a retreat and pursuit, every
-step of which was marked by fighting of the most desperate nature,
-thousands of bodies carpeting the gradually rolling country, which
-finally became the plains along the Hun. Fushun was the Japanese
-objective. Kuroki bent every energy to roll back the front which
-Rennenkampff presented, but for ten days after the plain had been
-reached his army was fought to a standstill. General Linevitch,
-commanding the division of which Rennenkampff's command was
-part, checkmated every attempt made to cross the Hun and flank
-him, while at his front he rolled back as many as thirteen infantry
-assaults in a single day. This section of the field was remote from
-the main battle line and few of the details reached the world. With
-the slow filtering of the story of this fighting it has become apparent
-that here was waged a struggle even more desperate than that
-which made history west of Mukden. Kuropatkin appreciated the
-vital necessity of preventing the turning of his left flank at Fushun,
-and it must be said to the credit of the Japanese that they were
-fighting here a force twice the size of their own and one that was
-continually being reinforced by every battalion that could be spared
-from the west. The marvel is that Kuroki's army was not utterly
-annihilated. It was the tremendous fight he made that compelled
-Kuropatkin to weaken his right to support Linevitch, and it was
-the fact that the right had been so weakened that made possible the
-brilliant victories won by the Japanese on the west. Hence, in addition
-to credit for the great fight he made in carrying out his own
-share in the battle, Kuroki stands for credit in drawing strength
-from other positions which materially aided in the ultimate outcome.
-Nevertheless, until fateful March 10, his army had been fought to
-a standstill within five miles of Fushun, its objective. The outcome
-here even encouraged Kuropatkin in the belief that the battle was
-going his way.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Battle at the Center</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >It is necessary, in recording the story of the battle, to leave
-Kuroki, still fighting in vain to take Fushun and open the road to
-the Russian rear, and to record events on other parts of the field.
-The battle line, when both armies had
-actually been joined, extended for a distance
-between eighty and one hundred
-miles. Every event at every position
-dovetailed into the whole strategy of the battle, yet a vast difficulty
-is imposed in collating all of the scattered events into a continuous
-story. No one observer, possibly not the Generals-in-chief themselves,
-could follow all of the swift moving events, and the best and at
-that a most difficult achievement was to follow the main trend of
-events interpreting separate achievements, advances, retrogressions,
-as they bore on the grand object of each army.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The battle of Mukden was, in fact, four battles in one. One
-of those battles was fought between Kuroki and Linevitch on the
-east. The second battle within the battle of Mukden was fought
-between the centre armies and focussed in the beginning of the
-conflict at Lone Tree, or Putiloff Hill, just east of the railroad,
-forty-five miles south of Mukden. Here General Nodzu commanded
-the Japanese and General Kuropatkin in person and General Zassulitch,
-divisional commander, directed the Russian defence. The
-battle here began on February 24, the date on which General Kuroki
-delivered the attack on Tsinkhetchen. General Nodzu's immediate
-task was to keep the Russian centre too well occupied and in fear of
-a general assault, thus preventing the sending of reinforcements to
-the flank, where Kuroki was at his important work. The artillery
-duel which waged around the centre positions has never been
-equalled in the history of war. The Russians had at this point alone
-530 guns, fifty of them siege guns on permanent emplacements
-firing eight-inch shells. Putiloff and Novgorod Hill bristled with
-field and machine guns, and these commanding hills were flanked
-east and west by fortifications upon which five months' work had
-been expended and which are perhaps the finest defensive works
-ever erected on a battlefield.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian centre was the hope of the Russian Commander.
-He claimed impregnability for it, and impregnable it proved. Nevertheless
-Nodzu sent scores of assaults at its steep slopes, and the
-later advances were made by the Japanese over the bodies of comrades
-who had fallen in earlier efforts. The Russian centre resisted
-without a break, and only left its positions March 7, when events
-elsewhere resulted in the order to fall back north of the Sha-ho. The
-story of the struggle here is an exact replica of many which waged
-in the bloody days of the siege of Port Arthur, though here the loss
-of life was heavier, since none of the protective engineering devices
-used at Port Arthur were resorted to. The assaults were simply
-dashes by Japanese infantry up the bare slopes of a hill rising five
-hundred feet in the air. It was man unprotected against steel in
-armor, and the man lost. Behind the Russians was the Sha-ho
-River. Their second line of defences was sunk in the hillsides and
-hilltops there. With the river in front, the ice weakened until it
-was questionable whether men in any numbers could make safe
-crossing, this position was only a little less strong than the first.
-All in all, it is little wonder that the Japanese Commander elected
-only to feint here and deal his blow at other positions. The second
-line, however, availed the Russians little except to hold in check
-the pursuit and leave General Nodzu to be only a minor factor in
-the culmination of the disaster that finally befell the Russians. The
-centre army, while it played no conspicuous part in the battle,
-while it was not called upon to repel, and was not expected to take
-the Russian positions as a vital part of the Japanese strategy, possibly
-even greater credit belongs to these men who died in droves,
-knowing that they were being sacrificed as a matter of secondary
-importance, that upon others elsewhere, miles and miles away, was
-falling the really great events and upon whom would fall the glory.
-Whether they knew it or not, there was no faltering. With cries
-of "banzai" they stormed up Putiloff Hill, up Novgorod Hill; by
-regiments they fell, and regiments as loyal and heroic took their
-places, apparently satisfied that all the sacrifice was only to prevent
-reinforcements from the centre from being sent to the lines northeast,
-northwest, where their brothers were writing victory in blood
-across Manchuria's plains. War is essentially waste; waste of men,
-waste of money. Here the spirit of waste was fully exemplified, yet
-the waste was a factor if victory was to be won, and Oyama sent
-his armies to their work bent on victory as perhaps never an army
-was bent on victory.</p>
-
-<div id='i505' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic062'>
-<img src='images/i505.jpg' alt='' class='ig062' />
-<p>THE RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Battle Culminates on West</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The battle of Mukden, as the whole struggle has been officially
-called, had its climax on the west. The strategy of Marshal Oyama,
-as has been explained, culminated in the attack by the army of Port
-Arthur veterans, commanded by General Nogi. This attack was
-but part of the assault on the Russian
-right. The actual Japanese left army was
-commanded by General Oku, and during
-the long winter season had occupied a
-position extending westward from the Sha-ho River to the Hun,
-upon which at the front the Russian right rested, though when the
-battle had gotten under way this line was extended fifteen miles
-farther west to the banks of the Liao River. General Oku's lines
-and also the Russian lines, which he opposed, occupied a series of
-unmapped villages, most of them only occupied during the spring,
-summer and fall, when the fertile river valleys are in cultivation,
-the products of the region being similar to those of the Northern
-Central United States, east and west from Chicago as a centre. The
-village huts are built of rough hewn stone, the walls being of
-primitive build and oftentimes twelve inches thick. Stone walls
-around fields are of common occurrence, so that while the country
-generally was level, it had in these houses and walls many features
-offering protection to soldiery. To-day not a wall or fence in the
-whole region but shows the signs of the struggle that waged around
-them. Immediately after the battle heaps of dead marked every
-one of these shelters, showing where hand to hand struggles had
-taken place, as the Japanese, foot by foot, from house to house,
-from wall to wall, from village to village, had advanced across the
-plain.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >General Oku's attack was ferocious. To him had been assigned
-the task of turning the Russian right back upon Mukden at
-the centre to make it impossible for this force to assume an offensive
-initiative and swing northward to cut off Nogi when the culminating
-attack had been delivered. Sandiapu, that had been the scene of
-the desperate failure of Gripenberg, was the pivot for the Japanese
-attack. General Oku avoided the Russian right centre just left of
-the railroad, because these positions were in part commanded by
-Putiloff Hill, and the taking of the Russian fortifications here would
-only mean a falling back under the protection of Russia's impregnable
-centre. With Sandiapu as a pivot, however, Oku drove the
-attack in a northeasterly direction, rather than northward, parallel
-to the Russian lines. His assaults began simultaneously with
-Kuroki's attack at Tsinkhetchen, and in one tremendous dash the
-Russian line was broken, crumbled in the plain five miles north of
-Sandiapu, and the struggle had begun which after ten days' fighting
-had doubled the Russian flank back until its line, beginning at a
-point five miles west of the railroad, was bent back at right angles
-to the line it had occupied at the opening of the battle. This
-achievement had been accomplished in the face of a determined
-resistance. Throughout the struggle the artillery was rendered useless
-for hours at a time, while the infantry engaged in hand-to-hand
-struggles. The story of the attack on a single of the score or more
-of villages is typical of all of them.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Village by Village Taken</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >There was a brief lull just at dawn. Then for an hour field
-guns roared all along the line searching for the infantry lines and
-batteries of the enemy. House and walls
-were the targets. Shells in deadly showers
-ground walls to dust, ploughed the
-fields, shaved the crowns from broken
-ground that might hide creeping lines of troops. An hour of systematic,
-sweeping bombardment, then the army was ready for the
-business of the hour. From cover on every side little squads of
-Japanese troops dashed into the open. Ten yards they sped then
-threw themselves prone on the ground wherever any approach to
-protection could be found.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Now it was the turn of the Russian guns to bark. From all
-along their lines in the dusk of dawn resounded the din of artillery.
-The open, when the advance had begun, instantly grew lividly aflame
-with bursting shrapnel. It seemed that nothing could live under
-that awful baptism of steel. Then the din subsided before the
-Japanese, glasses glued to their eyes, could catch telltale feathers
-of smoke that even the smokeless powder sends out from big guns.
-The echoes of the guns are still reverberating far away among the
-foothills, when up from the ground again spring those lithe, invincible
-shadows that speed once more ten yards or more and then
-vanish as they hug the earth. Where there were five, three have
-survived; here and there a single one gets up to continue the advance
-where a group had been. But from behind others are making these
-short dashes, too. The plain finally is fairly alive with troops,
-dashing forward, taking cover, dashing forward again. Five hundred
-yards away when they started, their numbers are already
-thinning when the first hundred yards has been crossed. Others fill
-the gaps and two hundred yards are crossed, and in the growing
-light it can be seen that strewn all along the line of the advance
-are forms that lie stark and still when the living spring to action
-for those unhalting sprints.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Now Russian riflemen are heard from. Rifles crackle from
-every side, and then death begins high carnival. But the advance
-goes on. No rising now and speeding those few yards. The Japanese
-are crawling. The living use the bodies of the dead for
-protection. Often pushing these before them they cover yard by
-yard, the zone of death. Now only a hundred yards divides them
-from the outermost huts of the village. Hotter and hotter becomes
-the fire of the defenders. In a moment the assault has begun. A
-hundred, two hundred, are on their feet. Bullets eat holes in their
-ranks, but only the dead falter. Presently, with the ring of steel
-on steel, the ranks close. The rifle fire is fitful in the disorder of
-hand-to-hand fighting. Then up from all parts of the open rise
-scores of Japanese. They sweep into the midst of the fray, whole
-companies still coming press the fight. Back through the village
-from house to house, from wall to wall, goes on the hand-to-hand,
-man to man duel. Never once did the Japanese fail in the early
-days of the struggle to drive back the Russian defenders, for when
-one such attack failed there were countless others eager to begin
-again the same tactics.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Artillery Impotent</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russians seemed demoralized by the apparent impotency
-of their artillery to prevent these advances. Often the Russian lines
-suffered by their shrapnel, so thoroughly
-was the ground in front of their positions
-searched by their gunners. Nevertheless,
-the guns had hardly hushed before men
-seemed to spring from the ground and speed on toward them. To
-the more superstitious there was something uncanny about this little
-foe. The only solution was the open ranks, the each-man-for-himself,
-the use of every fragment of shelter. Russian solid formations
-fairly melted as they rushed into the Japanese shrapnel fire. A
-single shell mowed down a score. It took ten shells at least to disable
-a single Japanese because of the way they scattered out over
-the field.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Just behind the final advance of the main force which never
-moved until the skirmish attack had engaged the Russians too
-closely for either artillery or a destructive rifle fire, came the engineers
-with telegraph and telephone equipment. Bamboo poles were
-swiftly in place, and yard by yard the wire followed the advance.
-Presently at Oku's headquarters, usually the shelter of a hut within
-a mile of the actual fighting, would come the thick click, click of the
-telegraph or the jingle of the telephone. "We have taken the village"
-was usually the message.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thus village after village was taken in this memorable struggle,
-until, as has been told, the Russian line had been driven from miles
-of positions upon which months of labor had been expended and
-in the closing days of the battle were paralleling the railroad from
-the Sha-ho to a point five miles northwest of Mukden. Oku had
-done his part.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">When the Crushing Blow Fell</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thus we have told the story of the battle on the Japanese
-right, centre and rear, up to the time when the assault of the Port
-Arthur army was to be launched. The
-battle had continued without intermission
-from February 24 to March 5. The Japanese
-on the right or east front had
-driven back the enemy from his advanced positions across the
-rugged hills of the Tie range and was battling to drive back that
-flank on the railroad and to effect an advance to reach a position
-in the rear of Mukden. At the centre a struggle had gone on without
-decisive result because, largely, the Japanese only planned to
-keep this part of the enemy's line busy with fighting until the flank-attack
-armies achieved positions, either in the rear of Mukden or
-near enough to strike, and strike hard at the foe should he be compelled
-to retreat. Oku's army, we have seen, came nearest to accomplishing
-this task. So far as the actual results of the fighting of
-these three armies were concerned, while the Japanese everywhere
-had outfought and had outgeneralled the Russians, there was nothing
-accomplished which made the situation particularly alarming
-to Kuropatkin. His left flank, eastward had been driven in twenty
-miles but with the aid of heavy reinforcements he had checked the
-enemy five miles away from Fushan and when March 5 drew to a
-close the reports from that direction to the Commander-in-Chief
-not only recounted that every assault by the Japanese had been repulsed
-but that after thirteen bloody reverses on March 4, Kuroki
-seemed to be drawing away to the south.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Hope rose high in the mind of the Russian General. He believed
-that this attack on the east had been the real strength of the
-Japanese attack. He perceived that the Japanese had not been in
-earnest at the center and he attributed reverses on his right to the
-fact, that he had withdrawn a full division from Lieutenant-General
-Kaulbars, commanding there and he hoped, now that Kuroki seemed
-to have given up the struggle, that he could withdraw a force from
-the east, throw it into the fight west of the railroad, turn the tide
-against Oku and win a negative victory by defeating the manifest
-purpose of the Japanese to drive him from the Sha-ho River positions.
-While his right flank had been bent back through an arc of
-ninety degrees from the original position on the Hun River they still
-held a strong line five miles west of the railroad. The falling back
-of these troops had resulted in a loss of ground but had also resulted
-in a strong concentration and his lines were capable of greater resistance
-as a result. Then, too, the Japanese had been fighting continuously
-for twelve days and must be near the limits of human endurance.
-Altogether when the sun went down on the field the
-Russian Commander felt that victory was near. He did not expect
-a decisive, positive victory but after so long a series of disasters even
-that sort of victory which consisted only in having prevented the
-enemy from forcing the abandonment of a position, would have sent
-a thrill of joy and hope through the army and the Russian nation.
-It would have inspired the army with confidence for its work. It
-would have been a weapon at home against the revolutionist, the opponent
-of the war, the foes of the dynasty. For the General himself
-it meant a return of confidence in his leadership on the part of
-the army, on the part of the Emperor. It would go far toward wiping
-out the record of unbroken defeat, retreat, disaster which had
-marked the entire campaign. Victory was more vital to Kuropatkin,
-personally, than to Russia. The General was fighting as much for
-personal vindication as for the glory of Russian arms. To him, therefore,
-the outlook for even a negative success was charged with personal
-happiness.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">A Cloud in the West</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >This was the outlook when day dawned, March 5, 1905. By
-nightfall of that same day a cloud, no larger then than a man's
-hand, was rising in the west that was to
-break in a storm, crushing the Russian defense,
-banishing the dreams of Kuropatkin.
-That cloud was the army of General Nogi.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The tale must be told from the beginning.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Port Arthur capitulated January 2, 1905. A week later General
-Nogi stood within the heart of the Russian settlement there and
-reviewed companies from the various army units that had participated
-in the siege. Out to the world went the message that Nogi's
-great task was accomplished. But there was other work for Nogi.
-Within three weeks after the Gibraltar of the Orient had fallen,
-80,000 troops, released by that event were bound northward to join
-the armies under Marshal Oyama, then in winter quarters facing
-Kuropatkin. The army had been reinforced largely from Japan with
-fresh troops who had not known the smell of smoke. Enough of
-these had been sent to equal any possible reinforcement that could
-be sent to Kuropatkin, as nearly as this number could be estimated.
-Nogi's army meant reinforcement of an entirely different kind.
-Here were men inured to the rigors of campaigning by eleven
-months of as arduous fighting as ever fell to troops in all of the
-history of war. By the first week in February the entire army had
-reached its new position west of Liao-yang, ready for whatever mission
-might be assigned to it. That task was the actual capture of
-Mukden. More than that, Nogi's men were called upon to break the
-defence on the east, to strike the railroad north of Mukden, to intercept
-the line of retreat and to join with Kuroki in the enveloping of
-the Russian army. It was the crowning work of the battle. It was
-a tribute to the bravery and skill of the men who had humbled Port
-Arthur. It was one that meant hardship, all but superhuman exertion,
-but if they succeeded it meant that chief credit for another
-great victory would belong to this army of veterans.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Nogi's work did not begin until the battle had been well developed
-on every front. His was to take up the work begun against
-the Russian right flank by Oku and with a fresh army carry it to
-a conclusion. As has been shown, Oku prepared the way in a splendid
-manner. He broke the Russian lines and rolled back the flank
-from the plains east and west of the Hun River. When this had
-been accomplished Nogi's army got under way. Leaving their positions
-west of Liao-yang, the veterans sped northwards. They crossed
-the Hun at a point a few miles above the junction of the Hun and Liao
-Rivers where two days before Oku had begun forcing back the
-Russians. His army after the crossing, was divided, one small detachment,
-amply supplied with artillery moving swiftly northeastward
-to the Liao; thence northward to Sinmintin, thirty-five miles
-due west of Mukden. This city was outside the limits of the war
-zone as laid down by the Powers in their agreement to preserve the
-neutrality of China. Nevertheless it had been a veritable supply
-depot for the Russians, caravans of foodstuffs of all kinds and even
-of ammunition coming from Chinese points on the Siberian border
-and from southern coast cities to deliver contraband here to waiting
-bands of Cossacks. As a result of this use of the city by the Russians
-the Japanese did not hesitate to enter there. They found a few
-Cossacks and a great horde of Russian civil officials together with
-great stores of supplies most of it in carts as it had reached the city
-ready to start westward for the Russian base at Mukden. Some
-prisoners were taken but no goods that were not actually in the
-possession of Russian civil and military officials were seized.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Kuropatkin Ignores Danger</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The detachment then began the dash westward along the
-Sinmintin-Mukden road toward Mukden. On the morning of
-January 5, they formed a junction with
-the main force that had marched northward
-on a line parallel with the railroad,
-twenty miles west of the Russians and, of course, had met no opposition,
-so effectively had Oku prepared the way. The news of the
-arrival of the Japanese at Sinmintin, March 5, was the first intimation
-of this movement and General Kuropatkin ignored the news
-imagining that the force had only been a handful of Japanese cavalry
-raiders. They were raiders, in fact, but there were 80,000 of
-them and they were under orders from Marshal Oyama to enter
-Mukden as conquerors on March 10.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Center Positions Abandoned</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In their four days' march northward Nogi's army covered 30
-miles the first day, 25 miles the second day, 23 miles the third day
-and 28 miles the fourth day, and after that tremendous feat their
-real work was before them. The army turned eastward at the Sinmintin-Mukden
-road, twenty miles from Mukden, and five miles
-nearer Mukden they met the first resistance. As a protection to
-Mukden, Kuropatkin had thrown three lines of protective works eastward.
-Nogi's army came upon the first of these March 6. His
-troops, swept over the Russian defenders like the sea over a sunken
-wreck, so swiftly had come the overwhelming attack. March 7, the
-veterans covered the distance to the second line of defences. In
-the meantime Kuropatkin had awakened. He saw that he was in
-danger of being overwhelmed from this unexpected quarter. His
-visions of victory of March 4, were already fleeting and only two days
-had gone by. Every available squadron
-from centre and left were ordered post-haste
-to meet the danger. The Russian
-lines that up to this time had only been called upon to concentrate by
-orderly retrograde movements were called upon to reform the whole
-line, falling back from his impregnable position at the center, south
-of the Sha-ho. There was movement everywhere. On the east
-regiment after regiment moved out and the remaining regiments
-realigned themselves. This fact is important because it brought
-Kuroki's opportunity to fulfil the mission that had been entrusted
-to him and will be told later. Meantime Nogi's veterans rushed on
-unchecked until March 8, when the Russian resistance showed the
-strength that had come with the reinforcements. Baron General
-Kaulbars took immediate command, met and placed the arriving
-Russian regiments and displayed finer generalship than any general
-in the entire Russian line throughout the battle. On the east Rennenkampf
-had splendid plans for offensive movements until General
-Kuroki made a move, then his plans crumbled like houses of
-cards and he fought only a defensive fight from start to finish, brilliant
-though his resistance may have been. But Kaulbars, when his
-force had been completed, met Nogi manfully and the duel between
-these great captains forms a notable addition to the history
-of military achievement.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >For all the magnificent offensive ability of the Russian General,
-however, Nogi's veterans would not be denied. The first fifteen
-miles of their advance was like the rush of a hurricane. Then
-came the real fighting. This continued March 8, 9, 10, in which
-time the Russians had been forced back literally step by step on
-Mukden. Calmly the Japanese General ordered assault after assault
-on the Russian lines ignoring the heaps of the dead that, when
-the third day of the battle had brought decisive victory, numbered
-20,000 choked into the narrow line of advance through those last
-five miles to Mukden. The shells from his artillery swept the railroad
-and the Trade Road that runs beside the railroad over which
-the Russian center was retreating. If Nogi, in those three days
-saw 20,000 of his brave men fall and if this imperturbable soldier
-felt any pang there was balm in the fact that he had inflicted a
-loss on the enemy of three for every one of his own men who had
-fallen.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Ingenuity Marvellous</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the course of the three days whole new chapters were written
-into books of strategy. The Japanese General and troops answered
-once for all the accusation that they were
-mere imitators of western methods.
-Among the uncanny tricks that they
-successfully used many have no equal
-in military annals. Taking advantage of the first dust which
-began to rise on the second day and played an important
-part in the whole of the battle, a Japanese force turned
-their backs on the Russians and fired into the ranks of their
-own men pushing on behind them. The Russians took the force thus
-engaged for reinforcements and valorously aided them in holding off
-the Japanese pursuit. Meantime, back, back, step by step this mock
-Russian battle line drew nearer and nearer the duped Russians.
-Presently when only a few yards separated them they turned with
-the savage battlecry that had carried them over the ramparts of
-Rihlung fort and practically annihilated the victims of the ruse.
-This was only one of many unheard of acts which marked the path
-of Nogi to victory. When shells from his artillery began to reach
-the railroad his battle front turned as on a pivot around the little
-town of Tatchekiao and the advance was directed not directly toward
-Mukden but to a point five miles north of that city as part of
-the effort to envelop the Russians and more particularly to cut off
-the retreat. Thereupon the Russian resistance was redoubled in
-fury. With reinforcements that had been sent to this danger point
-the Russians outnumbered the Japanese two to one. But just as it
-was of more and more importance for the Russians to hold Nogi in
-check so it was more and more important for Nogi to crush the
-resistance and to drive his wedge in on Mukden. The struggle at
-every moment was hand to hand. The artillery on both sides fired
-into the indiscriminate masses of struggling men. Absolute frenzy
-marked the struggle as waged on both side.</p>
-
-<div id='i519' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='ic063'>
-<img src='images/i519.png' alt='' class='ig063' />
-<p>THE RETREAT FROM MUKDEN.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Retreat a Carnival of Slaughter</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Slowly but surely the Russian resistance weakened and with
-dismay Kuropatkin saw that his flank could not withstand the
-weight of the incessant attack. If the
-flank should be broken it meant annihilation
-or surrender for his entire force.
-Retreat would be impossible except at
-inhuman sacrifice of life. Already shells were reaching the railroad
-while the battle was swinging northeastward toward the line
-of retreat and every possible man had been thrown into the defence.
-There was only one thing to be done&mdash;retreat, and the order went
-forth on the evening of March 7. Under cover of darkness every
-available car had been loaded with stores, guns, whatever could be
-saved. Troops in Mukden piled into miles of box-cars that soon
-after midnight began the dash northward. The rearguard was organized
-of the troops then opposing Nogi and such of those from
-the center as could be made available. These retreated eastward
-from Mukden leaving as the last of the center army passed northward
-toward Tie Pass, the next station. The flank that had so long
-opposed Kuroki in the last crumbling of the Russian defence was
-completely cut off. The disorder along the front occasioned by the
-hasty withdrawal of reinforcements for the hard pressed right
-flank west of Mukden has been mentioned. Kuroki, who amazed
-the Russians by the readiness with which he interpreted every
-move that they made, saw in this disorder his opportunity. He had
-been battling for an opportunity to pierce the Russian line and join
-with Nogi, but fairly had been checked and held by the tremendous
-resistance of Rennenkampf. A brigade fell back from in
-front of the left flank of his army. Another stood ready to fall
-into its place. But while the very man&oelig;uvre was being carried out
-Kuroki struck hard directly between the two forces. His wedge
-went deep into the Russian ranks and the Japanese General threw
-in behind them every available unit of his army. Desperately the
-Russians struggled to crush the foe and rejoin their broken lines
-but the Japanese, every man of them, knew that their hour had
-come. Thousands fell but thousands took their places. Mile by
-mile went Kuroki's wedge and by March 10, when on the west Nogi
-was forcing the vanguard of his fighting line into Mukden, Kuroki
-at last had won a position from which to strike the long line of
-Russians now surging northward in a retreat that had now become
-a rout.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Oyama's Prophecy Fulfilled</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Mukden had been taken. Nogi had fulfilled Oyama's prophecy.
-So far as the long struggle had been for possession of the Sha-ho
-River position and Mukden it was over.
-The Japanese had won a momentous victory.
-Vast spoils had fallen into their
-possession. Fully twenty thousand prisoners had surrendered when
-Kuroki had broken through the Russian left, completing the circle
-of steel around whatever of the Russian army had not already
-made good its escape north of the line from Fushan to Mukden.
-There were hundreds of thousands of shells, millions of rounds of
-small ammunition; there were stores enough to feed the army for
-months, there was Russian property valued at millions, there were
-guns, horses, wagons, railroad material, enough for one hundred
-and fifty miles of track. There was also the knowledge that a loss
-in men had been inflicted three times as great as the Japanese had
-suffered. Mukden and Fushan and a score of smaller towns and
-cities had been taken, invaluable coal mines were now within the
-Japanese lines practically the last upon which the Russians could
-rely for fuel with which to operate the railroad. The victory, indeed,
-from every standpoint, save one, was complete.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian army had escaped.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >This escape had been effected, because despite the wonderful
-extent of their victory the Japanese armies had failed to meet
-across the north of the Russian position before the bulk of Kuropatkin's
-army had swept out of the mouth of the bottle. Nature
-herself saved them. When on the evening of March 7, Kuropatkin
-ordered the retreat the great battlefield had already become enveloped
-in tremendous clouds of blinding dust and snow swirled up
-from the dry plains by a tremendous gale. Beginning on March 7,
-this veritable cyclone increased in fury throughout the night of
-March, 8, and continued with unbroken severity during March 9,
-10 and 11, days vital to the Russian army. In the main the Japanese
-suffered most from the storm. Their object was to find the
-foe and attack, the Russian object was simply to plunge northward
-toward safety. Ultimately the storm had reached a degree of violence
-which made sight impossible and the Japanese pursuit was
-halted at a moment when it seemed that the full purpose of their
-Generals' strategy was to be realized. When two days later they
-were able to take up the pursuit the possibility of complete success
-had passed. But there was still opportunity to strike the fleeing
-army and the horrors of that flight and pursuit, from March 12 to
-March 15, will never adequately be told. The Japanese forced a
-way parallel to the line of pursuit on both sides and clung relentlessly
-to the routed army. Here a company was annihilated by
-furious cavalry charge. Here a regiment was cut off, surrounded
-and compelled to surrender after awful slaughter. Forty thousand
-prisoners were taken in the four days of this carnival of slaughter
-and when the remnants of the Russian army had reached Tie Pass,
-forty-three miles away, Kuropatkin had lost 170,000 men, killed,
-wounded and missing. His army had lost fifty per cent. of its
-strength, a slaughter not equalled in the history of civilization. No
-parallel exists until the half mythological days of Asian conflicts
-are reached.</p>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch19' class='c015'>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Battle of the Japan Sea&mdash;Fleet Russia's Last Hope&mdash;Tragedy of the North Sea&mdash;Reaches
-Asiatic Waters&mdash;On the Eve of the Struggle&mdash;Russians in Double
-Line&mdash;Borodino First to Go Down&mdash;Russians in Full Flight&mdash;Admiral
-Nebogatoff Surrenders&mdash;Togo's Reports of the Battle&mdash;Rozhdestvensky a
-Prisoner&mdash;Searching Sea for Remnants&mdash;Japan's Loss Only 424 Men&mdash;Your
-Utmost for the Empire&mdash;Russian Line Enveloped&mdash;Destroyers Took Last
-Thrust&mdash;As Sailors Saw the Battle&mdash;Blowing up the Izumrud&mdash;The News
-Reaches Russia&mdash;Russian Story of Disaster&mdash;Why Russians Were Defeated.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Battle of the Japan Sea</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_2 c003'     >The Japanese-Russian war has added many pages of
-awe-inspiring achievement to the vast volume of
-the world's valorous records of land and sea.
-Notable, among all of the amazing array, ever
-will stand the naval battle of the Sea of Japan, fought
-in the Straits of Korea, Sunday, May 28; Monday, May
-29, and continuing as a pursuit on Tuesday, May 30,
-1905. Russia's enormous armada of thirty-seven fighting
-ships, and one hundred ships in all, had been sent to
-the Far East to recover command of the sea from Japan,
-which had been won from her in the naval
-campaign of 1904, when the Russian Port
-Arthur fleet had been destroyed and the
-Russian Vladivostok squadron had been weakened to a helpless condition.
-The result was overwhelming victory for Japan, achieved
-at the cost to Russia of the annihilation of her entire armada. No
-naval battle of history equals this in the enormous power of the
-fighting array; none exceeds it in the degree of its decisiveness.
-Trafalgar, a hundred years earlier, affords the only possible parallel,
-and Trafalgar, for a century the world's greatest naval struggle, was
-outdone.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The story begins eight months before these thrilling events in
-the Straits of Korea, when the Russian fleet, variously called the
-Baltic Fleet and the Second Pacific Fleet, sailed from Cronstadt, in
-the Baltic, on its 20,000 mile journey, around Africa and by way
-of the Indian Ocean to the Orient.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Fleet Russia's Last Hope</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The fleet represented every available Russian warship. A half
-dozen others, too old for active service or still in course of building,
-were left in Russian waters, the Czar deciding
-to leave the home shores practically
-unprotected after securing a secret agreement
-with Germany, which amounted to
-a temporary offensive and defensive alliance. The fighting strength
-of the squadrons included seven battleships, two armored cruisers,
-six cruisers, with a full complement of torpedo boat destroyers, a
-fleet equal, on paper, to the entire available navy of Japan, and in
-some aspects stronger than any Japan could hope to muster. Supreme
-command of the armada was entrusted to Vice-Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky, with three divisional commanders, Vice-Admiral
-Volkersham, Rear Admiral Nebogatoff, and Rear Admiral Enquist.
-The ultimate task of the fleet was to regain mastery of the sea from
-Japan, in undisputed possession by reason of having destroyed the
-Russian Pacific squadrons at Port Arthur and Vladivostok. Vladivostok,
-Russia's sole remaining port in the Orient, was the destination.
-From that point it was intended to assail Japan on the sea; to
-interrupt her transport service, which was vital to her army then
-in the midst of a victorious campaign, 300 miles from the sea, in the
-heart of Manchuria, and thus cripple and harass the Island Empire
-until no other course than to sue for peace would be open to her.
-The task was enormous; so vastly difficult, indeed, that until the
-actual departure of the fleet few, anywhere, believed that such a plan
-was seriously contemplated. Even when departure had been made,
-experts rather held to the view that Russia, herself, meant to ask
-for peace and was merely making a demonstration that might be
-counted on to modify Japan's demands.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Tragedy of the North Sea</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The voyage had hardly been begun when an incident occurred,
-which has been already narrated, and which astonished the entire
-world and nearly led to war between Russia
-and Great Britain. In the North Sea,
-at the point known as the Dogger Bank,
-the Russian vessels encountered the
-Gamecock fishing fleet from Hull, England. The Russian admiral
-mistook some of the trawlers for torpedo boats and ordered his
-vessels to fire. One fishing boat was sunk and two men were killed,
-others being badly wounded.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >For some days the excitement in England was intense, and
-British official documents published later on showed that the two
-countries were on the point of war, but the crisis was ended by an
-agreement to refer the incident to an international naval tribunal.
-This board of inquiry met in Paris, and after a long investigation
-reported that the Russian contention that hostile torpedo boats were
-present when the firing took place was not justified. Rozhdestvensky,
-however, was acquitted of the charge of conduct unbecoming a
-sailor, and the incident was ultimately closed by the payment of a
-large money indemnity by Russia.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Dogger Bank affair caused some delay to the Russian
-ships, though not nearly as much as Englishmen expected. After
-leaving the Straits of Gibraltar the fleet divided, one division, under
-Admiral Rozhdestvensky, proceeding by way of the Cape of Good
-Hope and the other, under Admiral Vollkersham, going via the Suez
-Canal. Rozhdestvensky had with him most of the battleships and
-Voelkersam the majority of the cruisers.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Both squadrons proceeded very slowly, and the reports from
-time to time regarding their whereabouts were of the most puzzling
-character. On January 1, however, Rozhdestvensky reached Madagascar,
-and there he awaited the cruiser squadron. The long time
-spent there led to renewed assertions that the Admiralty at St.
-Petersburg would never order the fleet to the Far East. In the
-middle of March, however, reports were printed that the Russians
-had sailed. These reports were denied, and then repeated, and at
-length it was definitely established that the Baltic fleet had sailed.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Fleet Reaches Asiatic Waters</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Nothing more was heard of it till April 8, when the news came
-that the fleet had passed Singapore and was in the China Sea. On
-entering the China Sea, Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-sailed directly to Kamranh Bay,
-on the coast of Indo-China, in French
-territorial waters. The prolonged stay of
-the fleet resulted in a vigorous protest from Japan to France, back
-of which was the possibility that Japan would invoke the Anglo-Japanese
-alliance, calling upon Great Britain to compel respect of
-neutrality by France. France, in addition to instructing her representatives
-in Indo-China to demand that the Russians leave territorial
-waters, forwarded the protest to Russia.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">On the Eve of the Struggle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Rozhdestvensky, on the eve of the great struggle, had
-dismissed every unnecessary ship. More than a half hundred colliers
-and supply ships, which had accompanied
-the fleet or had met it in the China Sea,
-were dismissed after the last ton of coal
-had been stored on the big fighting ships.</p>
-
-<table class='c017' summary=''>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>THE RUSSIAN FLEET.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>Displace-</td>
-    <td class='c019'>I. H. P.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Nominal</td>
-    <td class='c019'>Gun</td>
-    <td class='c020'>Weight of</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Name</td>
-    <td class='c019'>ment</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>speed</td>
-    <td class='c019'>protection</td>
-    <td class='c020'>broadside</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c010'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;Tons.</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;Knots.</td>
-    <td class='c019'>&mdash;In.</td>
-    <td class='c020'>fire&mdash;Lbs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Kniaz Suvaroff</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Alexander III</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Borodino</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Orel</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,516</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Oslabya</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,674</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>10.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>2,672</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Sissoi Veliky</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,880</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,186</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Navarin</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,476</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>3,404</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>ARMORED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Dmitri D'skoi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,893</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12.2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>444</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Admiral Nakhimoff</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.0</td>
-    <td class='c020'>944</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>PROTECTED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Oleg</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,675</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>23.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4.0</td>
-    <td class='c020'>872</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Aurora</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,630</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4.5</td>
-    <td class='c020'>632</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Svietlana</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,828</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4.0</td>
-    <td class='c020'>476</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Almaz</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,285</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c020'>184</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jemtchug</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.0</td>
-    <td class='c020'>184</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Izumrud</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,200</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.0</td>
-    <td class='c020'>184</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>THE JAPANESE FLEET.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Asahi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,232</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Shikishima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,232</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mikasa</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,232</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Fuji</td>
-    <td class='c019'>12,300</td>
-    <td class='c019'>13,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>4,005</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>ARMORED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Tokiwa</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,750</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>21.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,779</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Asama</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,750</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>21.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,779</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Yakumo</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,850</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,679</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Azuma</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,436</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>21.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,679</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Idzuma</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,779</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Iwate</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,800</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,779</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Kasuga</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,853</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,686</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Nisshin</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,853</td>
-    <td class='c019'>14,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6.6</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,606</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td class='c007' colspan='6'>PROTECTED CRUISERS.</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Takasago</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,300</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>24.0</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>804</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Kasagi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,784</td>
-    <td class='c019'>15,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>22.5</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4-1/2</td>
-    <td class='c020'>804</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Itsukushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,277</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,260</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Hashidate</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,277</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,260</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Matsushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>4,277</td>
-    <td class='c019'>5,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>16.7</td>
-    <td class='c019'>11.4</td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,260</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Naniwa</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,727</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,120</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.3</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Takishibo</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,727</td>
-    <td class='c019'>7,120</td>
-    <td class='c019'>17.3</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>1,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Atkitsushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,150</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,400</td>
-    <td class='c019'>19.0</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>380</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Nitaka</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,420</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>466</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Tsushima</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,420</td>
-    <td class='c019'>9,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>466</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Suma</td>
-    <td class='c019'>2,700</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>335</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Akashi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>2,700</td>
-    <td class='c019'>8,500</td>
-    <td class='c019'>20.0</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>335</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Idzumi</td>
-    <td class='c019'>3,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>6,000</td>
-    <td class='c019'>18.0</td>
-    <td class='c018'></td>
-    <td class='c020'>335</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='c004' >From the Saddle Islands, a thousand miles stretched away to Vladivostok.
-Coal and stores for the dash there were on every ship.
-Then prows were turned northward, there was a full day when
-nothing was known of the Russians. Then came this word, that
-the great destiny-laden armada was sighted approaching Admiral
-Togo's lair in the Straits of Korea. Forty-eight hours more, and
-the Japanese admiralty was electrified by the characteristically modest
-announcement from Japan's great naval captain:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The main force of the Russian second and third fleets is nearly
-annihilated. Please feel assured of it."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Between lies a tale marvelous for brilliancy, valor, daring, for
-all that is spectacular and awe-inspiring in war; for all that spells
-glory to the victor; for all that defeat, disaster, can mean to the
-beaten and crushed. In brief, of Russia's seven battleships, five
-had been sunk, and two, captives, were flying the flag of the victor;
-Of the mighty array of cruisers, all but four were at the bottom
-of the sea. Of the destroyers, three were afloat. In the harbor of
-Vladivostok were a single unarmored cruiser, and these three
-destroyers, the sorry fragments of the armada that reached this
-destination for which the flower of Russia's European squadron had
-set out. Sixty hours after the battle three armored cruisers, the
-<i>Aurora</i>, <i>Oleg</i> and <i>Jemtchug</i>, laden with wounded, riddled with shot
-and shell, crept into the harbor of Manila, there to be interned, with
-their officers, Admiral Enquist among them. As a climax to the
-victory, Admiral Rozhdestvensky was a prisoner, badly wounded,
-and in the care of Japanese physicians in the naval hospital at Sasebo.
-Admiral Volkersham was dead. He had fallen in the first havoc-working
-broadside from the Japanese fleet. Admiral Nebogatoff
-was a prisoner. Without a fight he had surrendered two battleships
-and two coast defense ironclads, with the result that after the battle
-that had annihilated the Russian fleet, the Japanese fleet was even
-more powerful than when it cleared decks for action.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian fleet had, in truth, sailed into Admiral Togo's
-lair. The Straits of Korea lie between Japan and Korea, and are
-an average of one hundred miles wide. Half way across rise the
-Tsu Islands, which Japan has fortified until they are a veritable
-Gibraltar. Only twenty-five miles wide is the Tsushimi Channel or
-Strait, between Tsu Island and the Japanese coast.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Under Guns of the Forts</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >So narrow indeed is the water that as the Russian ships were
-pressed eastward toward Tsu Island the forts there got range of
-the battleships and sank the <i>Oslabya</i>.
-Togo's base was at Masampho, on the
-Korean coast. Thousands of Japanese
-knew this fact, but so deeply was the necessity for secrecy appreciated
-by all classes of the islanders that throughout the nine months
-of waiting the entire world never had the slightest intimation of
-the point from which Japan's defensive blow would be struck. The
-general impression was that Formosa, the southernmost of the
-Japanese archipelago, would be chosen. This opinion was fostered
-by show of activity there and by various orders calculated to mark
-this spot as of especial significance in the campaign. When Rozhdestvensky
-had traversed the Straits of Formosa without opposition
-and had reached the China coast north of there, Russians even
-rejoiced, declaring that their admiral had outwitted the Japanese
-by eluding their trap. Meantime Togo waited. His position
-enabled him to meet the enemy should the direct route to Vladivostok
-via the Straits of Korea and the Sea of Japan be chosen, or he was
-in position to sail northward to intercept the Russians should
-Rozhdestvensky decide to go further eastward into the Pacific, circle
-Japan, and finally approach Vladivostok by La Pelouse or another
-of the channels between the northern islands of the Japanese archipelago.
-When Rozhdestvensky headed north from the China coast
-toward the Straits of Korea he fell in with the plan of battle to meet
-which the whole genius of the Japanese admiral had been preparing.
-Only one detail failed to agree with what Togo had expected. He
-believed that the Russians would shun the narrow channel east of
-Tsu Island, nearer Japan, and would traverse the western channel
-between Tsu Island and Korea. In the latter event the blow would
-have been dealt by a dash from Mesampho. As it happened, the
-fleet had only to round the northern promontory of Tsu Island and
-fall upon the Russians in the most disadvantageous position that
-could have been found in all of the waters of the Orient.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The strength of the fleets as they approached on that fateful
-Saturday morning may be shown in tabular form. The chief units
-are here given. In addition, there were twelve torpedo boat destroyers
-with the Russian fleet and a veritable swarm of destroyers and
-torpedo boats with the Japanese fleet. Nevertheless, the armada,
-with practically twice the number of Japanese battleships, would,
-on paper, have advantage over a large fleet, made up so largely
-of lighter vessels.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russians in Double Line</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The Russian fleet advanced in a double line, the battleships on
-the side away from the Japanese coast; the inner line, nearer Japan,
-made up of cruisers and light craft. Admiral
-Togo swung northward of Tsu
-Island, then turned sharply toward the
-southeast, thus moving parallel to the
-line of bows of the Russian ships, opening the broadsides of all of
-his ships, while through practically all of the first day's battle the
-Russians had only available bow and forward guns, a man&oelig;uvre
-which eliminated enough of the effectiveness of the Russian battleships
-to give Togo an advantage despite his weakness in these
-floating fortresses.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >It had been planned that the initial attack should be made by
-the giant twelve-inch guns of the Japanese big ships, and that under
-cover of this bombardment the torpedoers and destroyers should
-dash for the leading Russian ships and attempt to throw the enemy's
-column into confusion.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The commanders of the torpedoing flotilla had previously been
-summoned and had been notified in a few words by the admiral of
-the desperate service that was required of them and of the small
-chance of any of them reporting again for duty.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >They were told, in fact, that it was a simple case of sacrifice,
-and they accepted it so willingly that the admiral found it difficult
-to detail a torpedo reserve in case the first division failed in its task.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Until sunset the heavy guns of the Japanese battleships and
-the ten-inch battery of the cruiser <i>Kasuga</i> roared and fired at the
-oncoming Russians, while the Russian guns roared in reply.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Borodino First to Go Down</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >First of the Russian battleships in line behind the protected
-cruiser <i>Jemtchung</i> was the 13,000-ton <i>Borodino</i>, and these two soon
-showed that they were receiving the brunt
-of the shelling. The cruiser <i>Nakhimoff</i>,
-in the van of the Russian port column,
-was also observed to be in distress, and
-then, the sun having set and the quick-setting darkness having come,
-the torpedoes were sent out under cover of a still heavier cannonade.
-The flotilla formed into two divisions, one heading for the battleship
-column of the Russians and the other for the cruisers.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The searchlights of the Russian fleet threw out their great
-beams and their small gun batteries swept the sea but the swift
-hornets of the sea went wallowing and buzzing on their way. They
-circled and swept, and then came the dull roars and heaving fountains
-that told that the torpedoes had been loosed from their tubes
-and were doing their deadly work.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Again and again came the roars, and as the Japanese searchlights
-swept across the field of fight and then went out it was seen
-that the great battleship <i>Borodino</i> was sinking; that the protected
-cruiser <i>Svietlana</i> was a wreck; that the battleship <i>Alexander III</i> had
-gone; that the two armored cruisers <i>Dimitri Donskoi</i> and <i>Nakhimoff</i>
-were out of the fighting. A far-sailing shell had also reached and
-sunk the supply ship <i>Kamchatka</i>. Thus ended the first day's fight.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russians in Full Flight</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the darkness of the night of Saturday, May 27, the shattered
-Russian fleet reformed as well as it might, and once more took up
-its despairing run for the Sea of Japan
-and the haven of Vladivostok.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Hanging on to the already beaten enemy,
-an easy matter with his faster ships, Togo picked up the
-Russians all of Saturday night with his searchlights, occasionally
-sending a long-distance shell toward one of the shadowy hulls that
-were racing to get through the straits.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >But just as Togo had selected his fighting ground for working
-out one chapter of the tragedy, so now he chose the scene of the
-second day's fighting.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >To the northeast of Osino Island lies a dangerous little archipelago
-known as the Liancourt Rocks, and with his battleships and
-heavily armored cruisers the Japanese admiral stood out in crescent
-form across the Korean Strait and drove the enemy toward this dangerous
-running.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Keeping together in some semblance of order, five Russians,
-consisting of the battleships <i>Nicolai I</i> and <i>Orel</i> and the coast defence
-vessels <i>Senyanin</i> and <i>Apraxine</i> and the protected cruiser <i>Izumrud</i>,
-were heading bravely for the Sea of Japan. Seeing a possibility
-of their escape, Togo, who was personally conducting the pursuit,
-signaled to close in and attack.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >With their forward turrets blazing and roaring, the Japanese
-squadron dashed on. The Russians replied vigorously for a time,
-but the gunnery of the Japanese was too deadly and accurate; shells
-were carrying death and destruction into the fleeing five, and the
-fight went out of the Russians.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Admiral Nebogatoff Surrenders</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >One after another flew surrender signals, the Japanese ceased
-firing, and the <i>Nicolai I</i>, <i>Orel</i>, <i>Senyanin</i> and <i>Apraxine</i> were added
-to the Mikado's navy. Only the <i>Izumrud</i>
-got away. Fleeter than her sisters, she
-steamed boldly to the northwest. But she
-was doomed. Swift pursuing Japanese
-cruisers followed, hurling after her tons of metal, much of it taking
-effect. The end came when the Russian ship, entering Vladimir
-Bay, went fast on a reef. The Russian captain blew up the ship.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >So practically ended the second day's fight, and here again the
-apparently impossible happened&mdash;Togo's captains all reported, "No
-damage to men or ships."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Togo's captains, had, however, other things to report, for while
-the main force of the combined squadron was hammering the four
-Russians into subjection off the Liancourt Rocks others of the
-cruisers were chasing scattered Russian ships, while still others were
-completing the work of destruction around Osino Island. Two
-special service ships and a destroyer were captured, and so was the
-armored cruiser <i>Monomach</i>, but she foundered soon after transference
-of flags.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >And there were prisoners to report, 3,000 of them, including
-the unhappy Nebogatoff, while up and down the seas the fight
-between pursued and pursuer still went on.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Battles at sea are necessarily fought away from the eyes of
-neutral observers. The active participants are unable to know of
-more than the immediate scene of the drama in which their own
-ship is engaged. Even the admiral of the fleet is unable to see all
-that occurs. Hence detailed, continuous accounts of such occurrences
-rarely, if ever, are written until years later the disconnected
-stories of here one, there another, can be assembled, corrected, dovetailed.
-Sufficient time has not elapsed since this remarkable battle
-to permit of such assembling of facts. But both Japanese and
-Russians have told of individual experiences. These have a
-graphic interest, coming hot from the scene of the great events
-which, perhaps, a more finished narrative might lack. First in
-interest, come the actual reports from the admiral himself. Few
-great fighters have been men of fewer words than this Togo. His
-reports, and, indeed, all of the Japanese reports, have been in marked
-contrast to the elaborate, verbose messages sent to the Emperor
-of Russia.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The story of the battle, as told by Admiral Togo, follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >First report, received morning May 27:</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Togo's Reports of the Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Immediately upon the receipt of report that Russian squadron
-was in sight our combined squadron started for attack. Weather
-is fine to-day, but with heavy seas."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Second report, received night May 27:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Combined squadron attacked Russian
-squadron to-day near Okinoshima (southeast
-of Tsushima) and defeated it, sinking at least four ships and
-inflicting heavy damage upon others. Damage to our ships is insignificant.
-Our destroyer and torpedo flotillas delivered attack after
-sunset."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Third report, received Monday, May 29.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Main force of our combined squadron continued pursuit since
-the 27th, and attacked (28th) near Liancourt Rocks (northeast of
-Okinoshima) a squadron consisting of <i>Nicolai I</i> (battleship), <i>Orel</i>
-(battleship), <i>Senyanin</i>, <i>Apraxin</i> and <i>Izumurud</i>. <i>Izumurud</i> fled
-while remaining four vessels surrendered. No damage to our ships.
-According to statements of prisoners, vessels sunk in engagement
-May 27 were <i>Borodino</i> (battleship), <i>Alexandre III</i> (battleship),
-<i>Jemtchug</i> and three other ships. Rear Admiral Nebogatoff and
-about 2,000 other Russians were taken prisoners."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The following are damages suffered by enemy in addition to
-those given above since commencement of battle, as reported by
-commanders not under immediate command of Togo and by observation
-stations:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' ><span class='sc'>Sunk</span>&mdash;<i>Admiral Nakhimoff</i>, <i>Dmitri Donskoi</i>, <i>Svietlana</i>, <i>Admiral
-Usakoff</i>, <i>Kamchatka</i>, <i>Irutshush</i> and three destroyers.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' ><i>Vladimir Monomach</i>, foundered after capture. One special
-service ship, whole name unknown, and one destroyer captured.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Russian losses definitely known so far may be classified as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Two battleships, one coast-defence ship, five cruisers, two
-special ships, three destroyers were sunk; two battleships, two coast-defence
-ships, one special service ship, one destroyer were captured.
-It is not yet clear whether three vessels, as stated by prisoners to
-have been sunk, are included or not in above list. There are more
-than 1,000 prisoners, besides 2,000 taken by main force of combined
-squadron.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The naval engagement is still in progress, so that it will take
-some time before the final results can be known."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Fourth report from Togo received afternoon, May 30:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The main force of our combined fleet, upon accepting surrender
-of the remaining Russian main force near Liancourt Rocks, in
-the afternoon of May 28, as already reported, stopped pursuit, and
-while engaged in the disposition of surrendered ships found in a
-southwestern direction the <i>Admiral Ushakoff</i>, a coast defence ship.
-Thereupon <i>Iwate</i> and <i>Yakumo</i> were immediately dispatched in pursuit
-and invited her to surrender, but she refused and was sunk at
-6 P. M. Her crew of over 300 men were rescued.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Cruiser <i>Dimitri Donskoi</i> was also found in the northwestern
-direction at 5 P. M. and was immediately overtaken and was fired
-upon vigorously by our fourth division and second destroyer flotilla.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"She was attacked that night by the second destroyer flotilla,
-and the next morning was found aground on the southeastern shore
-of Urleung Island, off the Korean coast.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Rozhdenstvensky a Prisoner</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Our destroyer <i>Sazanami</i> captured, toward the evening of May
-27, in the south of Urleung Island, the Russian destroyer <i>Biedovy</i>,
-wherein were found Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-and another admiral, both severely
-wounded, together with eighty Russians,
-including staff officers from the flagship
-<i>Kniaz Suvaroff</i>, which was sunk at 5.29 P. M. on May 27. They
-were all taken prisoners.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Our cruiser <i>Chitose</i>, while cruising to the northward on the
-morning of May 28, found and sunk another Russian destroyer.
-Our cruiser <i>Niitaka</i> and destroyer <i>Murakumo</i> attacked also at noon
-on May 28 a Russian destroyer, which finally went aground.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"According to various reports hitherto received and statements
-of prisoners, the result of the battle from May 27 to May 29, is as
-follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"<i>Prince Suvaroff</i>, <i>Alexander III</i>, <i>Borodino</i>, <i>Dimitri Donskoi</i>,
-<i>Admiral Nachimoff</i>, <i>Monomach</i>, <i>Zemtchug</i>, <i>Admiral Ushakoff</i>, one
-converted cruiser and two destroyers sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"<i>Nicolai I</i>, <i>Orel</i>, <i>Admiral Apraxine</i>, <i>Admiral Senyavin</i> and
-destroyer <i>Biedovy captured</i>. According to the prisoners, the <i>Osliabia</i>
-sunk about 3 P. M., and the <i>Navarin</i> also was sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"<i>Almaz</i>, on May 27, was observed in a disabled and sinking
-condition, but her final fate is yet unknown.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The full particulars regarding the injury to our ships are not
-yet in hand, but as far as I could ascertain none was seriously
-injured, all being still engaged in operations. The whole casualties
-are not yet ascertained. Casualties of first division are a little over
-four hundred. Prince Yorhito is in excellent health; Admiral Misu
-slightly wounded, May 27.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Fifth report, received the afternoon of May 30:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Loss of <i>Osliabia</i>, <i>Navarin</i>, confirmed. <i>Sissoi-Veliki</i> also definitely
-reported to have sunk on the morning of May 28.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Official statement of Russian losses so far as ascertained:
-Following six battleships sunk: <i>Prince Suvaroff</i>, <i>Imperator</i>, <i>Alexander
-III</i>, <i>Borodino</i>, <i>Osliabia</i>, <i>Sissoi-Valiki</i> and <i>Navarin</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Following five cruisers sunk: <i>Admiral Nachimoff</i>, <i>Dimitri
-Donskoi</i>, <i>Vladimir</i>, <i>Monomach</i>, <i>Svietlana</i> and <i>Zemtchug</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Coast defence ship <i>Admiral Ushakoff</i> sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Two special service ships, <i>Kamchatka</i> and three destroyers
-also sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Two battleships, <i>Orel</i> and <i>Imperator</i>, <i>Nicolai I</i>; two coast
-defence ships, <i>General Admiral Apraxine</i> and <i>Admiral Senyanvin</i>,
-and one destroyer, <i>Biedovoy</i>, captured.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Thus Russians lost altogether twenty-two ships, the aggregate
-tonnage whereof amounting to 153,411 tons, besides cruiser <i>Almaz</i>,
-suspected to have sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Later reports from the different divisions of the fleet engaged
-in the naval battle of May 27 show as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Havoc Among Battleships</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Russian battleship <i>Oslabya</i> was heavily damaged in the
-early part of the fight on Saturday, going
-down at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The first Russian vessel sunk was the
-battleship <i>Sissoi Veliky</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The armored cruisers <i>Admiral Nakhimoff</i> and <i>Vladimir Monomach</i>,
-after being in the general engagement during the daytime,
-were still further damaged by torpedoes during attacks by night,
-and were eventually completely disabled. They drifted into the
-vicinity of Tsu Islands, where they were discovered on Sunday
-morning, May 28, by the auxiliary cruisers <i>Shilano</i>, <i>Yawata</i>, <i>Tainan</i>
-and <i>Sado</i>, which were about to capture them, but they all sank.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The crews of our auxiliary cruisers rescued 915 of the crew
-of the sunken Russian ships.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The battleship <i>Navarin</i> was torpedoed four times after sundown
-on Saturday, May 27, and sunk. The survivors of the
-Navarin's crew confirm the story of her destruction.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The cruisers <i>Niitaka</i> and <i>Otawa</i> discovered the Russian cruiser
-<i>Svietlana</i> at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning in the vicinity of Chappyan
-Bay and immediately attacked and sunk her. The commander
-of the <i>Niitaka</i> reports the fact.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"It is suspected that the Russian cruisers <i>Almaz</i> and <i>Aurora</i>
-were sunk by torpedoes on the night of May 27.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The former report includes the statement that the Russian
-cruiser <i>Jemtchug</i> was sunk, but as yet this remains unconfirmed, and
-the cruiser's name has been excluded from the revised list of Russian
-vessels destroyed.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Judging from this and former reports, the enemy's main
-strength, consisting of eight battleships destroyed or captured, three
-armored cruisers and three coast defence ships destroyed or captured,
-with the second-class cruisers and other vessels destroyed, the
-enemy's fighting power is thus annihilated.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Later reports show that during the night of May 27 our
-torpedo boats, numbered 34, 35 and 69, were sunk by the enemy's
-fire. Comrades rescued the majority of their crews. Besides the
-above, there was no damage worth reporting. No warship nor
-destroyer suffered any loss of fighting or navigating power.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Searching Sea for Remnants</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"We anticipated a heavy loss of life, but find that our casualties
-were comparatively slight. They do not
-exceed 800 killed and wounded. The casualty
-reports will be rendered as speedily
-as possible in order to reassure families
-and friends.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Nearly the whole strength of both combatants met in battle,
-and the area of the fighting was very wide.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The first day proved foggy, and even without the smoke and
-fumes resulting from the battle it was impossible to see five miles.
-Consequently, during the day it was impossible to locate or observe
-all the ships under my command. Moreover, the fighting having
-lasted two days, and the ships of my command being scattered for
-the purpose of chasing and attacking the enemy, some having received
-special orders after the battle, it is impossible to collect and
-frame any detailed report covering the whole battle at the same
-time."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Togo telegraphed, May 30, as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The ships sent northward to search for Russian ships returned
-yesterday. The cruisers <i>Iwate</i> and <i>Yakumo</i> and other vessels sent
-southward to find Russian ships, returned to-day. They thoroughly
-searched the Shanghai course from Tsushima and vicinity, but on
-both sides found no trace of the Russians."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Shimamura, on board the cruiser <i>Iwate</i>, reports:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"During the battle on May 27, at 3.07 P. M., the cruiser <i>Iwate</i>
-vigorously attacked the protected cruiser <i>Jemtchug</i> at a distance of
-3,000 metres. The <i>Jemtchug</i> sank in one minute. The loss of the
-<i>Jemtchug</i> is, therefore, confirmed.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"During the engagement fire broke out on the <i>Jemtchug</i> and
-smoke concealed the hull of the vessel. Consequently the remainder
-of our fleet were unable to see the ship."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Togo gave this list of casualties, surprisingly small
-even to himself, for he had estimated his losses as 800 men.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan's Losses Only 424 Men</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Japanese losses in the battle of the Sea of Japan were 113
-officers and men killed and 424 officers and men wounded. The
-completion of the revised list shows that
-the losses were fewer than the original
-estimates. The flagship <i>Mikasa</i> was the
-heaviest loser, losing 63 killed and
-wounded. The losses were distributed among the ships of the fleet
-as follows: <i>Mikasa</i>, 63; <i>Adzuma</i>, 39; <i>Shikishima</i>, 37; <i>Asashi</i>, 31;
-<i>Fuji</i>, 28; <i>Idzuma</i>, 26; <i>Nisshin</i>, 27; <i>Otowa</i>, 26; <i>Kasaga</i>, 26; <i>Tsushima</i>,
-19; <i>Asama</i>, 15; <i>Naniwa</i>, 17; <i>Tokiwa</i>, 15; <i>Yakumo</i>, 11; <i>Chitose</i>,
-6; <i>Idzumi</i>, 10; <i>Kasaga</i>, 9; <i>Hashidate</i>, 5; <i>Niitaka</i>, 4."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The casualties on the destroyers and the torpedo boats were 87.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Commander Togo was wounded on the <i>Adzuma</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Admiral Togo concluded his series of reports with this absolutely
-accurate statement of the ships that had escaped, in the main
-a remarkable feat, when the conditions of alternating fog and sunshine
-and the natural confusion among the Russians is taken into
-account.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Russian vessels present in the recent battle which were not
-sunk or captured and which are unaccounted for are," Togo's report
-adds, "the protected cruisers <i>Oleg</i>, <i>Aurora</i>, <i>Izumrud</i> and <i>Almas</i>,
-three transports, two torpedo boat destroyers and one towboat.
-During the battle the <i>Oleg</i> and <i>Aurora</i> were within range of our
-third and fourth squadrons and were on fire. They may have
-escaped, but it will take time to restore their fighting power."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >A Japanese officer described the battle more connectedly in the
-following words:</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Your Utmost for the Empire</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"At 5.30 Saturday morning a wireless message, reading, 'The
-enemy's squadron is in sight,' reached the naval base. This message
-was transmitted to all our ships by the
-flagship, with instructions to get ready
-for action. Our squadron left their rendezvous
-and headed for the eastern channel
-off Tsushima. Our men seemed to be filled with new inspiration,
-and were eager for the long-delayed fight to begin.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"When Tsushima was sighted to the southwest the sea was
-rough and the torpedo boats were forced to run for the shelter of
-the island. Our third fighting squadron, with the <i>Takashiho</i> to port,
-reconnoitred the Russian course, and at 11.30 A. M. informed the
-main squadron by wireless telegraph that the Russian ships were
-passing into the east channel, whereupon our main squadron, changing
-its course somewhat to the southward, came in sight of Okinshima
-at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. The third division arrived
-later and joined the main squadron. The first and second divisions,
-accompanied by the destroyer flotilla, changed to a westerly course,
-while the third division and the fourth destroyer flotilla headed
-slightly eastward.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"During the man&oelig;uvre the Russian flagship appeared to the
-southward, at 1.45 o'clock. The Russians steamed up in double column.
-The fleet was numerous, but no living being was visible. The
-Russian ships seemed to be in good order. Our ships hoisted the
-flag of action, the <i>Mikasa</i> signaling: 'The defence of our empire
-depends upon this action. You are expected to do your utmost.'
-Our men seemed to silently weigh the significance of this signal.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Line Enveloped</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Our first and second divisions turned to the Russians' starboard,
-while the third division kept in close touch with the preceding
-two divisions. With the Japanese ships
-proceeding in this order, it was 2.13
-o'clock when the Russians opened fire.
-The first two shots fell short of our line,
-and it was some minutes later before we commenced firing. Then
-the battle was on, with firing from both sides. Our destroyers kept
-on the port side of the main squadron, and in this formation we
-pressed the Russians against the coast of Kiushiu, and they were
-obliged to change their course to the east.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"We so man&oelig;uvred our ships as to have their bows parallel
-to the north side of the Russian line. The <i>Mikasa</i>, of our first
-division, which had been leading, changed to the rear of the line,
-while the <i>Kasuga</i> headed the line. The engagement now became
-very fierce. The <i>Borodino</i> was seen to be on fire. A little later the
-Russians headed west, and we changed our course accordingly.
-Five ships of our second division concentrated their fire on the
-<i>Borodino</i>. Our first division now began firing vigorously, proceeding
-parallel with the Russian line, and as we began to press against
-the head of the Russian line our third division veered to the Russian
-rear, thus enveloping their ships.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The engagement proceeded hotly. Our second division followed
-a course parallel with the northern side of the Russians, and
-this movement completed the envelopment. The Russian ships were
-seen trying to break through, and our destroyer flotilla intercepted
-their new course. This state of envelopment continued until the
-following day, with the ships at varying distances. Thus enclosed
-on all sides, the Russians were helpless and powerless to escape the
-circle.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Destroyers Took Last Thrust.</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Previous instructions had been given the destroyers and torpedo
-boats to attack the Russian ships. Following instructions, the
-fifth destroyer flotilla advanced against a
-Russian ship, upon which the second
-division had been concentrating its fire,
-signaling, 'We are going to give the last
-thrust at them.'</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Russian ship continued to fight, and seeing the approaching
-torpedo boats, directed its fire on them. Undaunted, our destroyers
-pressed forward, the <i>Chitose</i> meantime continuing its fire. The
-torpedo flotilla arrived within 200 metres of the Russian ship and
-the <i>Shiranus</i> fired the first shot. Two other torpedo boats fired one
-each. The <i>Shiranus</i> received two shells, but the other boats were
-not damaged. The Russian ship was sunk.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Sundown saw the battle raging furiously. Our shells were
-evidently telling on the Russians, who showed signs of confusion.
-Our fifth torpedo flotilla, after destroying the <i>Borodino</i>, followed
-in the wake of our second division, the signal reading, 'Something
-like the Russians' submarines have been sighted. Attack them.'</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The flotilla followed and located the object, which proved to
-be a sinking ship with its overturned bottom showing. Thirty survivors
-clung to the wreck, crying for assistance. Firing ceased
-with the approach of darkness.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"According to orders previously given for a torpedo attack after
-dark, all the destroyer flotilla, dividing into two squadrons, proceeded
-to attack the Russians during the whole night. The Russians
-frustrated the first and second attacks with searchlights. A third
-attempt was carefully made, and the <i>Yugiri</i> sank a ship of the
-<i>Borodino</i> type, and also hit others. During the night the Russians
-continued to move, and we preserved our enveloping movement
-some distance from the Russian position. The Russian ships headed
-northeast after daybreak, hoping to reach Vladivostok. Our officers
-and men were determined that not a ship should escape, and resolved
-not to relax their efforts until they had succeeded in either sinking
-or capturing every Russian ship.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Our ships always kept ahead of the Russians. The battle
-was resumed at 9 o'clock Sunday morning, twelve miles east of
-Chiyupyon Bay, and lasted all day. Here the Russians suffered
-their heaviest losses. They seemed unprepared to repel night attacks.
-During our first night attack the Russians showed nine searchlights
-and frustrated the attacks, but clearly gave us the location of the
-fleet, which brought success later."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Still another version has been supplied by Japanese tars, as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">As Sailors Saw the Battle</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"At dawn on Saturday our squadron left its rendezvous and
-advanced through the Tsushima Channel. At 2.08 in the afternoon
-we sighted the Russian fleet. Gradually
-closing in, we found the <i>Kniaz Souvaroff</i>
-leading the line, with the <i>Borodino</i>, the
-<i>Alexander III</i>, the <i>Orel</i>, the <i>Osliabia</i> and
-the <i>Navarin</i> following in the order named. The <i>Nicolai I</i> brought
-up the rear. Parallel to this line we observed five cruisers. After
-them came the special ships and torpedo boat destroyers. We counted
-thirty-two Russian ships in all.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Our fleet, with the battleship <i>Mikasa</i> leading, proceeded
-toward the Russians in vertical line formation. The <i>Souvaroff</i>
-opened fire first and then suddenly turned, reversing her course.
-Almost simultaneously the <i>Mikasa</i> opened fire with her big guns,
-and thus the curtain rose on the great sea battle. The hostile fleets
-gradually closed in toward each other, exchanging a vigorous fire.
-The armored cruiser <i>Asama</i> approached within 3,000 metres of the
-Russian fleet and carefully observed its action.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"After a short but fierce fight the <i>Admiral Oushakoff's</i> deck
-was observed to be ablaze, and the ship left the line. By 4.30 in
-the afternoon the Russian line was disordered and its fire slackened.
-The <i>Borodino</i> and <i>Kamchatka</i> had been disabled and soon sank.
-The <i>Borodino</i> continued to fire bravely until the ship was submerged.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The Japanese fleet continued to maintain enveloping positions
-from sundown until dawn. Sunday morning opened misty, but the
-weather soon cleared, and the search for the remnants of the Russian
-fleet was begun. Five Russian ships were discovered in the
-vicinity of Liancourt Island, and they were immediately surrounded.
-One, supposed to be the <i>Izumrud</i>, escaped at full speed. The remaining
-four offered no resistance, and hoisted the Japanese flag
-over the Russian colors, apparently offering to surrender. Captain
-Yashiro, commanding the <i>Asama</i>, started in a small boat to ascertain
-the real intentions of the Russians, when Admiral Nebogatoff
-lowered a boat and came on board the <i>Asama</i>, where he formally
-surrendered. The prisoners were distributed among the Japanese
-ships, and prize crews were selected to take possession of the captured
-vessels."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Capture of Rozhdestvensky</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >To have destroyed the Russian armada was, of itself, an amazing
-feat; but to have captured the commander-in-chief, and to have
-compelled the surrender of an admiral of
-the line, add vastly to the glory of Togo.
-The story of Rozhdestvensky's capture
-is dramatic.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The destroyers, <i>Kasumi</i>, <i>Usugumo</i>, <i>Sazanami</i> and <i>Kagerou</i>,
-were ordered to attack the Russian warships on the night of May
-27 and were steaming ahead when they suddenly encountered a
-number of Russian ships. The <i>Kasumi</i> narrowly avoided a collision
-with a Russian cruiser, the closeness of which seems to have saved
-the destroyers from being damaged by the heavy fire which the
-Russians directed on them.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >During the Russian attack the vessels forming the destroyer
-flotilla divided. The <i>Sazanami</i> and <i>Kagerou</i> continued the search
-for Russian ships throughout the night, and in the morning discovered
-two torpedo boat destroyers. One of them steamed away, but
-the other was unable to do so. On approaching the latter the Japanese
-discerned a white flag flying from the foremast and the Red
-Cross flag astern. She proved to be the <i>Bedovi</i> with Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-and his staff on board. The <i>Bedovi</i> signalled that her
-engines were damaged, and that she was short of coal and water.
-An armed guard was sent on board the <i>Bedovi</i> to receive her surrender.
-The Russians requested the Japanese not to remove Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky and the other officers on account of their wounds,
-and the Japanese complied, with the understanding that the guard
-would shoot Rozhdestvensky in the event of the delay leading to a
-meeting with Russian ships, thus running the danger of his recapture.
-The <i>Sazanami</i> ran a line to the <i>Bedovi</i> and began to wing her.
-The line parted twice. In the morning the <i>Sazanami</i> met the Japanese
-cruiser <i>Akashi</i>, which convoyed the two destroyers to Sasebo.
-During the trip the destroyers encountered heavy seas, and their
-decks were awash during part of the time.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Chiefs of Japan's Fleet</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Thirty naval commanders participated in the battle of the Japan
-Sea. Vice Admiral Togo was commander-in-chief, leading the
-first squadron. Vice Admiral Kamamura
-was in command of the second squadron,
-and Rear Admiral Kataoka led the third
-squadron.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The chiefs of staff in the order named were Admiral Kato
-and Captains Fujii and Saito. The commanders of the squadron
-divisions were Vice Admirals Dewa, Uriu and Mitsu, acting as rear
-admirals under Vice Admiral Togo, Captains Yamada, Shimamura,
-Taketomi and Kokura.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Blowing Up the Izumrud</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The fate of the cruiser <i>Izumrud</i> is a chapter of itself in the
-story of the battle. Baron Ferzen, her captain, with survivors of the
-ship's crew, reached Vladivostok on June
-1 and sent a report, which, in addition to
-confirming the disaster to the entire fleet,
-told the fate of his own ship. The Baron
-reported that before dark, on May 27, the <i>Osliabya</i>, <i>Alexander III</i>
-and <i>Borodino</i> had been sunk, and the <i>Kniaz Souvaroff</i>, the <i>Kamtchatka
-and</i> the <i>Urel</i> had been seriously damaged and were lost to
-sight. The command then devolved on Rear Admiral Nebogatoff.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >In the evening the <i>Nikolai I</i>, the <i>Orel</i>, the <i>General Admiral
-Apraxine</i>, the <i>Admiral Seniavin</i>, the <i>Admiral Oughakoff</i>,
-the <i>Sissoi Veliky</i>, the <i>Nevarin</i>, the <i>Admiral Nakhimoff</i>, and the
-<i>Izumrud</i> sailed northeastward, the latter being charged to transmit
-orders to the battleships. Two other cruisers were cut off from the
-fleet and were not again seen.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The battleships, steaming at fourteen knots, were repeatedly
-attacked by the Japanese torpedo boats, especially at the extremities
-of the line.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >At dawn it was ascertained that the battleship division consisted
-of the <i>Nikolai I</i>, the <i>Orel</i>, the <i>General Admiral Apraxine</i> and
-the <i>Admiral Seniavin</i>.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >At sunrise, May 28, smoke from the Japanese ships reappeared
-on the horizon, whereupon the admiral gave orders for increased
-speed. The <i>Admiral Seniavin</i> and the <i>General Admiral Apraxine</i>
-dropped behind.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Toward 10 o'clock, the Japanese fleet appeared first to port and
-then to starboard, while the cruiser division man&oelig;uvred behind the
-Russians to starboard. Baron Ferzen's
-account continues:</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Flight Ends in Disaster</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"I was cut off from the squadron and
-finding it impossible to rejoin it resolved to make for Vladivostok.
-I put on full speed and the enemy's cruisers came on in pursuit.
-Owing to the insufficiency of my coal supply and the certainty of
-meeting the enemy's cruisers, I subsequently altered my course for
-Vladimir Bay, where I arrived on the night of May 29. At 1.30
-o'clock next morning, in pitch darkness, the <i>Izumrud</i> ran full on a
-reef at the entrance of the bay. Having only ten tons of coal and
-seeing that it would be impossible to again float my vessel, I ordered
-the crew ashore and blew up the <i>Izumrud</i> to prevent her falling into
-the hands of the enemy. Ten of my sailors were wounded in the
-battle, but the officers and the rest of the crew are all safe."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The News Reaches Russia</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Intimations of the extent of the disaster first reached Russia
-through foreign telegrams. The emperor and naval officials hoped
-against hope that their own advices would
-bring some ray of comfort. It was hoped
-that a portion of the fleet might reach
-Vladivostok strong enough to aid in protecting
-the fortress against attack from the sea.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >One unprotected cruiser and three torpedo boat destroyers were
-all of the splendid fleet that ever were to reach Vladivostok. The
-cruiser <i>Almaz</i>, which by reason of her lack of protective sheathing
-had been ordered by Rozhdestvensky to flee in event of battle, got
-through the Japanese lines with a minimum of damage, though well
-scarred by shots that had reached her by chance. Captain Chagir,
-her commander, speedily communicated with the emperor at St.
-Petersburg through Lieutenant General Linevitch, commander-in-chief
-in the Far East. This was the message:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The cruiser <i>Almaz</i> has arrived at Vladivostok. Her commander
-reports as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"'On May 27, Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky's fleet in the Tsu
-Strait engaged the Japanese in battle. During the day we lost the
-battleships <i>Kniaz Souvaroff</i>, <i>Borodino</i>, <i>Osliabya</i>, and the cruiser
-<i>Ural</i>. The battleship <i>Alexander III</i> was seriously damaged at the
-start of the battle.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"'After the separation of the cruiser <i>Almaz</i> from the fleet the
-battle was renewed in the darkness. The result of the night battle is
-not known.'"</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The <i>Almaz</i> was cut off from the fleet and reached Vladivostok.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Supplementary reports of the commander of the <i>Almaz</i>, forwarded
-by the post commandant at Vladivostok, state that the
-transport <i>Kamtchatka</i> was seriously damaged."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"The <i>Almaz</i> had Lieutenant Mochalin and four sailors killed
-and ten sailors wounded. There is no news as to those who were
-saved or those who perished on the sunken warships."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The arrival of the <i>Almaz</i> has thus been described by an eye
-witness at Vladivostok:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The <i>Almaz</i>, which arrived at her anchorage here Monday evening,
-May 29, bore scars of the battle. Her mizzen mast was shot
-away, and one of her smokestacks was pierced by a cannon shot.
-But the <i>Grozny</i>, though engaged for several hours in a running
-fight at short range with a large Japanese destroyer, showed no signs
-of the fray. After her commander, Captain Andriffski, had been
-wounded, and an officer and three men had been killed, the <i>Grozny</i>
-succeeded in sinking her opponent with a luckily placed shot, and
-reached Vladivostok without further adventure.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >For two days Vladivostok had been buzzing with rumor and
-excitement. The fact that a battle between the rival fleets was
-imminent, if Rozhdestvensky was not already at hand-grips with
-Togo, was made known through telegrams from Europe, and when
-it was learned Monday morning that a Russian cruiser had been
-sighted off Askold Island, headed for the harbor, the city was filled
-with the wildest reports of every nature.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Story of Russian Survivors</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The inhabitants clustered in the streets, thronged the waterside
-or climbed the frowning hills overlooking the harbor for a better
-view. Finally, toward 6 o'clock in the
-evening, a graceful cruiser with two
-snowy-white stacks, shot in view at the
-entrance to the Golden Horn and rounded
-to an anchorage beneath the bristling guns of the curving promontory.
-From afar the broken stump of her mizzen-mast and a shot
-hole showing black upon the white paint of one stack indicated that
-the cruiser had encountered the Japanese. As the anchor chain rattled
-in the hawse holes the vessel wreathed itself in smoke&mdash;it was
-an admiral's salute in honor of Rear Admiral Von Jessen. Scarcely
-had the boom of the last cannon begun to echo from the surrounding
-hills when Von Jessen's flagship, the cruiser <i>Rossia</i>, answered the
-salute, and a minute later the guns of the fortress took up the cannonade.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Excitement beyond description seized the thronging spectators,
-who, with frantic "huzzas," tossed high their caps.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Citizens embraced each other and danced jubilantly upon the
-pier, while the crews of the ships in the harbor joined in wild
-cheering.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >In a thrice the boats were dropped from the davits, and in a
-moment the officers of the cruisers and torpedo boats in the harbor
-and the military officials from the fortress were swarming on board
-the <i>Almaz</i> to learn news of the fight.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Saw Flagship Go Down</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The story was short. According to the officers of the <i>Almaz</i>,
-the fleet under Rozhdestvensky met the Japanese in the Straits of
-Korea, near Tsu Island, and the opposing
-fleets immediately closed in.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Being lightly armored, the <i>Almaz</i>, as
-had been expected by Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-before the battle, separated itself from the main fleet at the
-first opportunity and headed for Vladivostok soon after the commencement
-of the action, but not too soon to observe that the losses
-on both sides in the titanic combat were great.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Early in the battle an officer of the <i>Almaz</i>, while watching
-Rozhdestvensky's flagship, the battleship <i>Kniaz Souvaroff</i>, for a signal,
-saw the flagship shudder from stem to stern, as if under a blow
-from a gigantic hammer, and hesitate in her course, while the waves
-rose high from her armored sides. Then she commenced to list
-and sink.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The officers believe that the debut of the submarine boat as an
-effective agent in naval warfare, or perhaps a large mine caused the
-disaster to the <i>Kniaz Souvaroff</i>. The damage, however, was so
-extensive that the flagship soon went down, leaving the deck officers
-and many of the crew struggling in the waves.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >One of the Russian torpedo boats, either the destroyer <i>Buiny</i>
-or the <i>Bravi</i>, ran in and picked up a number of the swimmers, one
-of whom was recognized through a glass as Admiral Rozhdestvensky.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Under a grueling attack by the Japanese warships, aided by
-torpedo boats, mines and submarines, the <i>Borodino</i>, <i>Osliabia</i> and
-<i>Ural</i> were placed out of action and followed the flagship to the
-bottom.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The fog, which had raised and lowered intermittently during
-the morning, began to settle down again, and the distance of the
-<i>Almaz</i>, which now succeeded in disengaging herself in the combat
-from the struggling ships, made it difficult for her to see clearly.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The arrival of the <i>Grozny</i> on the following day was marked by
-the same scenes of excitement as those which characterized the
-advent of the <i>Almaz</i>. The wounded commander of the destroyer,
-Captain Andriffski, confirmed the details given by the officers of the
-<i>Almaz</i>. He described his combat as a running fight, in which the
-<i>Grozny</i> was engaged for several hours, finally sinking the pursuing
-Japanese destroyer.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Russian Story of Disaster</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >From this and further fragmentary reports the Russians pieced
-together a story of the disaster. They figure that Admiral Togo,
-with his main squadron, must have lain
-somewhere off the coast of Korea, while
-Admirals Kamimura and Uriu held their
-squadrons further north to head off the
-Russian vessels which might get through Togo's lines or be prepared
-to bar the entrance to the Straits of Tsugaru in case the Russians
-should be reported moving up the east coast of Japan. When
-Togo's scouts reported that Admiral Rozhdestvensky was heading
-for the eastern channel of the Straits of Korea the Japanese Admiral
-steamed around the northern part of the Tsu Islands, and came upon
-the Russians steaming in double column, with the cruisers to port.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Togo enjoyed the great advantage of tactical position when he
-opened fire, having the lightest of the Russian ships between him
-and Rozhdestvensky's heavier vessels, thus smothering the fire of
-the latter. Besides, Togo was able to use all his broadsides, whereas
-the sternmost ships of the Russian columns, coming on in line ahead
-formation, could probably only with difficulty use any guns at all.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >When Sunday morning came the Russian fleet was divided.
-The faster and stronger division, under Rozhdestvensky, was met
-by Kamimura and Uriu, while the slower division, under Nebogatoff,
-renewed the fight with Togo. With some of the scattered
-Russian units it was a case of save himself who can. In the running
-fight the Japanese enjoyed the advantage of superior speed, enabling
-them to concentrate their fire and bring every crippled Russian ship
-to bay. Admiral Nebogatoff's battered remnant surrendered off
-Liancourt Rocks, while Rozhdestvensky, with the best remaining
-battleships, fought on for the honor of the Russian navy.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Torpedo attacks were the feature of the Japanese program,
-which more surely than anything else brought disaster. Torpedo
-boats in night attacks launched their deadly missiles within a hundred
-yards of their Russian targets. They completely encircled
-the Russian ships, swarming like angry hornets. Much of the sweeping
-character of the victory will ultimately be traced to these comparatively
-tiny craft, fighting under the shower of shells being hurled
-from the big guns of the battleships and cruisers far away.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >Summarizing scattered reports, the results of the battle may be
-accurately stated to be annihilation for Russian sea power in the
-Far East. Thirty-seven Russian warships of all classes entered
-the Korean Straits. Of these, three, a cruiser, and two destroyers,
-reached Vladivostok; three armored cruisers reached Manila; two
-battleships and two coast defence ships were captured and were
-taken to Sasebo; one destroyer, found helpless at sea, was towed to
-Shanghai; leaving a total of twenty-six ships that were sent to the
-bottom, five of them battleships. The Russian loss in life reached
-a total of 6,500 men, one admiral and ten captains among them.
-The loss to Russia in gold amounted to $75,000,000. Japan's loss
-in ships was three torpedo boats and a few more than 400 men.
-Experts the world around failed to find adequate explanation for
-this amazing disparity. As summarized at Tokio, these are reasons
-which in part contributed to Admiral Rozhdestvensky's defeat:</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Why the Russians Were Defeated</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >"First. An imperfect reconnaissance and incomplete, faulty
-and misleading intelligence.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Second. An imperfect battle formation,
-which indicated that Rozhdestvensky
-did not expect to meet Togo off Tsushima.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Third. The weather, the direction of
-the wind and the sunlight were unfavorable to the Russians, Togo
-having the sun behind him and firing with the wind, while the
-Russians had the sunlight in their eyes and fired against the wind.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Fourth. The Russians wasted their ammunition and eventually
-their supply ran short. It is believed that the surrender of
-Nebogatoff was necessary because his ammunition had been expended.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >"Fifth. The marked inferiority of the Russian gunnery."</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan Honors Togo</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Japan hailed Togo as the nation's hero. A popular subscription
-will raise to him a giant lighthouse on
-lofty Tsu Island, commanding the sea
-for a radius of eighty miles, the area
-through which the battle was waged.</p>
-
-<div id='i556' class='figcenter'>
-<div class='c040'>
-<img src='images/i556.jpg' alt='' class='c041' />
-<p>PEACE ENVOYS IN SESSION AT PORTSMOUTH.</p>
-<p><span class='small'>Copyrighted by Brown Bros., New York, 1905.</span></p>
-<p>The Russians, from left to right are C. Berg, M. Pokotiloff, M. Witte, Baron Rosen and M. Nabokoff. The Japanese from left to right are Mr. Adatchi, Mr. Otchiai, Baron Komura, Minister Takahira and Mr. A. Sato.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 id='ch20' class='c015'>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013' >Aftermath of the Victory of the Sea of Japan&mdash;The World Hopes that Peace
-Will Result&mdash;The President of the United States Takes the Initial Step&mdash;Meantime
-the Japanese Decline an Armistice&mdash;Operations Begun for the
-Seizure of Saghalien Island&mdash;Japanese Landing Parties Successful&mdash;Russians
-Continue Flight After Series of Conflicts&mdash;Japanese Take Chief Town
-of Island, Alexandrovsk, July 25&mdash;Flight of Russians and Pursuit Continued&mdash;Governor
-of Island and Remainder of Garrison Surrender to
-Japanese, July 30&mdash;Russia and Japan Accept President's Proposal to Meet
-and Discuss Terms of Peace&mdash;America Chosen as Scene of Meeting&mdash;Envoys
-Named&mdash;Portsmouth, N. H., Selected as Scene of Meeting&mdash;Russian
-and Japanese Envoys Formally Received by the President at Oyster Bay,
-August 5&mdash;Sessions of Peace Conference Begin at Portsmouth, August 9&mdash;Conference
-Adjourns Without Achievement, August 18&mdash;President Begins
-Effort to Effect Compromise, August 19&mdash;Japan Withdraws Demand for
-Indemnity and Other Demands on Which There Had Been a Deadlock,
-August 29&mdash;Announcement Made That Peace is Assured&mdash;Work of Drafting
-Treaty Begun&mdash;Peace Treaty Signed&mdash;The Treaty of Peace.</p>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0 c003'     >A wave of awe went 'round the word when the full effects
-of the Battle of the Sea of Japan were realized. Russia
-stood before the world in the light of a thoroughly vanquished
-nation. On land her armies had been invariably
-defeated in a series of battles of stupendous magnitude. Her
-original Asiatic fleet had been annihilated. Her last great effort to
-stem the victories of Japan, the sending of a vast Armada to the
-Orient, had resulted in complete annihilation of that fleet. The
-nations forgot to grieve for the thousands slain in the hope that
-this last crowning disaster to Russia would bring what every civilized
-land had desired for months&mdash;an end to the titanic war.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">President Takes Initiative</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >While this was the universal wish it remained for the President
-of the United States to take the
-initiative. The fact that, with the exception
-of a minor campaign for the possession
-of the Island of Saghalien, off
-the Siberian coast, this was really the closing chapter of the war,
-has added a brilliant feat to the annals of American diplomatic
-achievements and has placed the name of Theodore Roosevelt
-eternally among those of the famous benefactors of humanity.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japanese Take Saghalien</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >As has been said, one minor martial enterprise remained for
-the Japanese. Saghalien Island, blanketing the coasts of Siberia for
-a distance of 700 miles, had been secured by Russia from Japan
-by a treaty partaking, it was claimed by the Japanese, the nature of
-a coercive measure. Among the objects for which the Japanese
-had entered upon the war were to secure permanent fishing rights
-in the waters along the Siberian coast and the recession of Saghalien
-Island to her. The seizure of this Island, too, was a necessary
-corollary of a land and sea campaign against Vladivostock,
-which would have been the next step in her military campaign had
-not the war come to an end. There was little surprise, therefore,
-when the Tokio government, while giving consent to a proposal
-that the belligerent nations meet to talk of peace, refused to consent
-to an armistice. Possession of Saghalien Island was still to
-be gained. The Japanese campaign began when a landing was
-effected on the East coast of the Island
-on July 8. The Russian garrison numbered
-8,000 men and while there were
-defensive works of some strength at a
-number of points, the defenders were helpless before the advance
-of the invaders. The campaign amounted to a half dozen engagements,
-mere skirmishes, when compared with the battles of the
-Manchurian campaign. The Russians made a brave defence, but
-lost position after position and the subjugation of the Island was
-completed on July 30, when the Russian Governor and 3,500 men
-surrendered "in the name of humanity." Five days previously the
-Japanese had occupied Alexandrovsk, the chief town of the Island
-and co-operative naval forces were disposed so that the escape of
-the garrison from the Island to the mainland was impossible. The
-slaughter of the entire force of the defenders could have been the
-only result of continued resistance. The Japanese announced the
-organization of a civil administration of the Island the moment
-the surrender had been completed, and were thus in possession of
-what was actually Russian territory. This fact was important to
-the Japanese from several standpoints. The Island is rich in minerals,
-it is the centre of the vast fishing industry of the North
-Pacific and has strategic value on account of its position with regard
-to the entire Siberian littoral. More important than any of
-these circumstances, however, was the fact that it had been soil
-over which flew the Russian flag. The Japanese contemplated
-making a demand for indemnity at the forthcoming peace conference.
-Precedent demanded that there should have been the occupation
-of territory to make valid such a claim. The occupation of
-Saghalien gave this necessary basis for the indemnity demand
-which, ultimately was presented and only withdrawn when it became
-apparent that the war must go on unless Japan withdrew her claim.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >But the conquest of Saghalien marked the last of actual warfare
-between Japan and Russia. President Roosevelt had sent an
-identical note to Japan and Russia on June 8, calling upon each, in
-the name of humanity, to meet to discuss terms of peace and the
-whole Saghalien campaign had gone on while, following this request,
-diplomatic machinery had been slowly at work preparing the
-way for the peace conference. The rest of the story of the Japan-Russia
-War has to do with the events which finally called permanent
-truce to the long struggle and caused a million fighting men
-and their auxiliaries to turn their faces from the rugged plains of
-Manchuria, where thousands on thousands had given their lives
-for their Emperors and their Fatherlands.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Preparing for Peace Parleys</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >Russia's acceptance of the President's invitation reached Washington
-on June 12, two days after Japan had announced her assent.
-A ripple was caused by difficulty
-in choosing a place for the meeting.
-Russia preferred an European capital.
-Japan would not consent to any that
-could be named. Russia ultimately yielded the point, and on June
-15, with the consent of both of the belligerents, Washington was
-named, and a day within the first ten days of August was accepted
-for the assembling of the envoys. The Czar named Sergius Witte,
-greatest statesman of the Empire, to head the peace delegation, with
-Baron Rosen, Russian ambassador at Washington, as his associate.
-The Mikado named Baron Komura as chief of the Japanese delegation,
-and as his associate, Mr. Takahira, Japanese Minister to
-the United States. Accompanying each was a suite of a dozen
-secretarys, legal and military experts and interpreters. On July
-11, the President named Portsmouth, N. H., Navy Yard as the
-actual place of meeting. It was feared that Washington, under the
-torrid conditions usually prevailing there in mid-summer, would
-prove a too uncomfortable place for the guests of the nation to
-spend the weeks that must necessarily be consumed in the negotiations.
-The Japanese envoys and their suite reached New York on
-July 25. M. Witte, the chief Russian envoy, arrived in New York
-with his suite on August 2, and was joined by Baron Rosen, his
-associate. Both the Japanese and the Russian delegations were informally
-presented to the President at his summer home at Oyster
-Bay, N. Y., prior to the formal reception of the two peace missions
-which took place on the President's yacht, the Mayflower, in Oyster
-Bay on August 5. The President, in a toast to which no reply was
-given, expressed the hope that a "just and lasting peace" might
-be arranged. The envoys and their suites were conveyed in warships
-to Portsmouth, reaching that city on August 7. The envoys
-were formally welcomed by United States officials and the Governor
-of the State of New Hampshire. The Hotel Wentworth, on
-an island off the mainland was made their place of residence. The
-newly constructed general stores building in the Navy Yard, which
-had been elaborately fitted up with every possible convenience, was
-designated as the scene of the sessions.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">The Japanese Terms</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >The first meeting of the envoys was held on August 9. The
-Japanese terms were presented in twelve sections, as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >I. Recognition of Japan's "preponderating
-influence" in Korea.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >II. Mutual obligations to evacuate
-Manchuria, Russia to retrocede to China
-all special privileges.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >III. Japanese obligations to restore the sovereignty and administration
-of China in Manchuria.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >IV. Mutual obligations to respect the territorial and administrative
-integrity of China and the principle of the "open door."</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >V. The cession of the Island of Saghalien.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >VI. The surrender of the Russian leases in the Liaotung
-Peninsula, including Port Arthur, Dalny and the Blonde and Elliott
-Islands.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >VII. The cession of the branch of the Chinese Eastern Railroad
-from Harbin southward.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >VIII. The retention by Russia of that portion of the railroad
-line through northern Manchuria connecting the Transsiberian road
-with Vladivostock.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >IX. The reimbursement of Japan for the war&mdash;commonly
-spoken of as the indemnity.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >X. The surrender of Russian warships which have been interned
-in neutral ports during the war.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >XI. The limitation of Russia's naval forces in the Pacific.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >XII. The question of fishing rights of Russia and Japan off
-the Siberian coast.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">Japan Makes Peace Possible</div>
-
-<p class='c004' >These demands, one by one, were discussed by the envoys.
-It developed that Russia absolutely refused to grant an indemnity,
-to surrender warships interned in Chinese and American ports,
-or to cede to Japan the Island of Saghalien. Whatever hope of
-compromise there seemed to be with regard to the other questions
-at issue it was regarded as absolutely essential to the signing of a
-treaty of peace that Russia should yield on the subject of indemnity.
-The President's efforts were directed toward accomplishing this result
-under some other name than indemnity. It was proposed to
-arrange for the payment of the amount demanded as a purchase
-price for Saghalien, or for the railway rights over which Japan had
-become master. No compromise would be listened to by the Czar,
-"Not a kopeck for indemnity," was the phrase of M. Witte, and
-there was no yielding. By shrewd diplomatic man&oelig;uvring the
-Russian envoy had placed Japan in a position which meant that
-were the war to be continued it would be upon the responsibility
-of Japan and for the sole reason that money must be had. The
-Tokio government, after long discussion, decided upon a magnanimous
-course, which at once won the encomiums of the whole civilized
-world. She yielded every point in dispute, gave up her demand
-for indemnity, gave up half of Saghalien,
-gave up her claim upon the interned
-warships and, though triumphantly
-victorious in every step of
-the war, accepted terms of peace dictated by the nation
-she had conquered, and this "in the name of humanity."
-Russia had won the victory on the face of it, but the historian will
-credit to Japan the greater and the real victory, a victory of vast
-moral and humanitarian significance.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The glad news went out to the world on August 29, that the
-envoys had agreed upon every point and that a treaty of peace would
-forthwith be drafted. To Prof. Maartens, the famous authority
-of international law and to Mr. Dennison, an American, long an
-adviser of the Japanese Foreign Office, was assigned the task of
-actually drafting the treaty in accord with the general agreement
-that had been reached by the envoys. Their work was speedily
-accomplished and the "Treaty of Portsmouth" brought to an end
-this struggle that had cost hundreds of thousands of lives, billions
-of dollars and had completely changed the status of political power
-in the Far East.</p>
-
-<p class='c004' >The treaty of peace was finally signed at Portsmouth, N. H.,
-on September 5, 1905; Sergius Witte and Baron Rosen signed for
-Russia, while Baron Komura and Mr. Takahira signed for Japan.
-It was signed by the Emperors of Russia and Japan and made public
-October 16, 1905.</p>
-
-<div class='c042'>TEXT OF THE TREATY.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The text of the treaty is as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Emperor of Japan, on the one part, and the Emperor of all the Russias,
-on the other part, animated by a desire to restore the blessings of peace
-to their countries, have resolved to conclude a treaty of peace, and have for
-this purpose named their plenipotentiaries, that is to say, for his Majesty the
-Emperor of Japan, Baron Komura Jutaro, Jusami, Grand Cordon of the Imperial
-Order of the Rising Sun, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, and his Excellency,
-Takahira Kogoro, Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure, his Minister
-to the United States, and his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias
-his Excellency Sergius Witte, his Secretary of State and President of the
-Committee of Ministers of the Empire of Russia, and his Excellency Baron
-Roman Rosen, Master of the Imperial Court of Russia, his Majesty's Ambassador
-to the United States, who, after having exchanged their full powers,
-which were found to be in good and due form, have concluded the following
-articles:</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE I.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >There shall henceforth be peace and amity between their Majesties the
-Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias, and between their respective
-States and subjects.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE II.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Russian Government, acknowledging that Japan possesses in
-Korea paramount political, military and economical interests, engages neither
-to obstruct nor interfere with measures for guidance, protection and control
-which the Imperial Government of Japan may find necessary to take in Korea.
-It is understood that Russian subjects in Korea shall be treated in exactly
-the same manner as the subjects and citizens of other foreign Powers; that is
-to say, they shall be placed on the same footing as the subjects and citizens
-of the most favored nation. It is also agreed that, in order to avoid causes
-of misunderstanding, the two high contracting parties will abstain on the Russian-Korean
-frontier from taking any military measure which may menace the
-security of Russian or Korean territory.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE III.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >Japan and Russia mutually engage:</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >First.&mdash;To evacuate completely and simultaneously Manchuria, except the
-territory affected by the lease of the Liaotung Peninsula, in conformity with
-the provisions of the additional article 1 annexed to this treaty, and,</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >Second.&mdash;To restore entirely and completely to the exclusive administration
-of China all the portions of Manchuria now in occupation, or under the
-control of the Japanese or Russian troops, with the exception of the territory
-above mentioned.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Government of Russia declares that it has not in Manchuria
-any territorial advantages or preferential or exclusive concessions in the impairment
-of Chinese sovereignty, or inconsistent with the principle of equal
-opportunity.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE IV.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >Japan and Russia reciprocally engage not to obstruct any general measures
-common to all countries which China may take for the development of
-the commerce or industry of Manchuria.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE V.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Russian Government transfers and assigns to the Imperial
-Government of Japan, with the consent of the Government of China, the lease
-of Port Arthur, Talien and the adjacent territory and territorial waters, and
-all rights, privileges and concessions connected with or forming part of such
-lease, and it also transfers and assigns to the Imperial Government of Japan
-all public works and properties in the territory affected by the above-mentioned
-lease.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The two contracting parties mutually engage to obtain the consent of the
-Chinese Government mentioned in the foregoing stipulation.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Government of Japan, on its part, undertakes that the proprietary
-rights of Russian subjects in the territory above referred to shall be perfectly
-respected.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE VI.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Russian Government engages to transfer and assign to the
-Imperial Government of Japan, without compensation and with the consent of
-the Chinese Government, the railway between Changchunfu and Kuanchangtsu
-and Port Arthur, and all the branches, together with all the rights, privileges
-and properties appertaining thereto in that region, as well as all the coal
-mines in said region belonging to or worked for the benefit of the railway.
-The two high contracting parties mutually engage to obtain the consent of the
-Government of China mentioned in the foregoing stipulation.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE VII.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >Japan and Russia engage to exploit their respective railways in Manchuria
-exclusively for commercial and industrial purposes and nowise for strategic
-purposes. It is understood that this restriction does not apply to the railway
-in the territory affected by the lease of the Liaotung Peninsula.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE VIII.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia with the view to promote
-and facilitate intercourse and traffic will as soon as possible conclude a separate
-convention for the regulation of their connecting railway services in
-Manchuria.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE IX.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Russian Government cedes to the Imperial Government of
-Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the southern portion of the Island
-of Saghalin and all the islands adjacent thereto and the public works and properties
-thereon. The fiftieth degree of north latitude is adopted as the northern
-boundary of the ceded territory. The exact alignment of such territory
-shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of the additional article
-II annexed to this treaty.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >Japan and Russia mutually agree not to construct in their respective possessions
-on the Island of Saghalin or the adjacent islands any fortification or
-other similar military works. They also respectively engage not to take any
-military measures which may impede the free navigation of the Strait of La
-Perouse and the Strait of Tartary.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE X.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >It is reserved to Russian subjects, inhabitants of the territory ceded to
-Japan, to sell their real property and retire to their country, but if they prefer
-to remain in the ceded territory they will be maintained and protected in the
-full exercise of their industries and rights of property on condition of submitting
-to the Japanese laws and jurisdiction. Japan shall have full liberty to
-withdraw the right of residence in or to deport from such territory of any
-inhabitants who labor under political or administrative disability. She engages,
-however, that the proprietary rights of such inhabitants shall be fully
-respected.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE XI.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >Russia engages to arrange with Japan for granting to Japanese subjects
-rights of fishery along the coasts of the Russian possession in the Japan, Okhotsk
-and Bering Seas.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >It is agreed that the foregoing engagement shall not affect rights already
-belonging to Russian or foreign subjects in those regions.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE XII.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The treaty of commerce and navigation between Japan and Russia having
-been annulled by the war the Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia engage
-to adopt as a basis for their commercial relations pending the conclusion
-of a new treaty of commerce and navigation the basis of the treaty which
-was in force previous to the present war, the system of reciprocal treatment
-on the footing of the most favored nation, in which are included import and
-export duties, customs formalities, transit and tonnage dues and the admission
-and treatment of agents, subjects and vessels of one country in the territories
-of the other.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE XIII.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >As soon as possible after the present treaty comes in force all prisoners
-of war shall be reciprocally restored. The Imperial Governments of Japan
-and Russia shall each appoint a special commissioner to take charge of the
-prisoners. All prisoners in the hands of one Government shall be delivered
-to and be received by the commissioner of the other Government or by his duly
-authorized representative in such convenient numbers and at such convenient
-ports of the delivering State as such delivering State shall notify in advance
-to the commissioner of the receiving State.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Governments of Japan and Russia shall present each other as soon
-as possible after the delivery of the prisoners is completed with a statement
-of the direct expenditures respectively incurred by them for the care and maintenance
-of the prisoners from the date of capture or surrender and up to the
-time of death or delivery. Russia engages to repay to Japan as soon as possible
-after the exchange of statement as above provided the difference between
-the actual amount so expended by Japan and the actual amount similarly
-disbursed by Russia.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE XIV.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The present treaty shall be ratified by their Majesties the Emperor of
-Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias. Such ratification shall be with as
-little delay as possible, and in any case no later than fifty days from the date
-of the signature of the treaty, to be announced to the Imperial Governments
-of Japan and Russia respectively through the French Minister at Tokio and
-the Ambassador of the United States at St. Petersburg, and from the date
-of the latter of such announcements this treaty shall in all its parts come into
-full force. The formal exchange of ratifications shall take place at Washington
-as soon as possible.</p>
-<div class='c042'>ARTICLE XV.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The present treaty shall be signed in duplicate in both the English and
-French languages. The texts are in absolute conformity, but in case of a
-discrepancy in the interpretation the French text shall prevail.</p>
-<div class='c042'>SUB-ARTICLES.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >In conformity with the provisions of articles 3 and 9 of the treaty of
-peace between Japan and Russia of this date the undersigned plenipotentiaries
-have concluded the following additional articles:</p>
-<div class='c042'>SUB-ARTICLE TO ARTICLE III.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia mutually engage to commence
-the withdrawal of their military forces from the territory of Manchuria
-simultaneously and immediately after the treaty of peace comes into operation,
-and within a period of eighteen months after that date the armies of the two
-countries shall be completely withdrawn from Manchuria, except from the
-leased territory of the Liaotung Peninsula. The forces of the two countries
-occupying the front positions shall first be withdrawn.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The high contracting parties reserve to themselves the right to maintain
-guards to protect their respective railway lines in Manchuria. The number of
-such guards shall not exceed fifteen per kilometre and within that maximum
-number the commanders of the Japanese and Russian armies shall by common
-accord fix the number of such guards to be employed as small as possible
-while having in view the actual requirements.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The commanders of the Japanese and Russian forces in Manchuria shall
-agree upon the details of the evacuation in conformity with the above principles
-and shall take by common accord the measures necessary to carry out the evacuation
-as soon as possible, and in any case not later than the period of eighteen
-months.</p>
-<div class='c042'>SUB-ARTICLE TO ARTICLE IX.</div>
-
-<p class='c043' >As soon as possible after the present treaty comes into force a committee
-of delimitation composed of an equal number of members is to be appointed
-respectively by the two high contracting parties which shall on the spot mark
-in a permanent manner the exact boundary between the Japanese and Russian
-possessions on the Island of Saghalin. The commission shall be bound so far
-as topographical considerations permit to follow the fiftieth parallel of north
-latitude as the boundary line, and in case any deflections from that line at
-any points are found to be necessary compensation will be made by correlative
-deflections at other points. It shall also be the duty of the said commission to
-prepare a list and a description of the adjacent islands included in the cession,
-and finally the commission shall prepare and sign maps showing the
-boundaries of the ceded territory. The work of the commission shall be subject
-to the approval of the high contracting parties.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >The foregoing additional articles are to be considered ratified with the ratification
-of the treaty of peace to which they are annexed.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed and affixed
-seals to the present treaty of peace.</p>
-
-<p class='c043' >Done at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this fifth day of the ninth month of
-the thirty-eighth year of the Meijei, corresponding to the twenty-third day of
-August, one thousand nine hundred and five. (September 5, 1905.)</p>
-
-<div class='pbb'></div>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class='pb' />
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<div class='c016'>Transcriber's Note:</div>
-<p class='c044' >Names, italicized phrases, and
-inconsistencies in capitalization and hyphenation have been left as printed.
-Otherwise, obvious typographical errors, punctuation errors, and inconsistencies in the punctuation
-of sidenotes and captions have been corrected.</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >Illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs, thus the
-page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the List of
-Illustrations. Links in the List of Illustration lead to the images.</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 278, "Commander-inChief" has been changed to "Commander-in-Chief" ("During
-the months which had elapsed since the arrival of the Russian Commander-in-Chief
-at the seat of war").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 373, "silhouttes" has been changed to "silhouettes" ("two long dark
-silhouettes, emitting quantities of smoke and evidently steaming at high speed").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 374, "silhouttes" has been changed to "silhouettes" ("two long,
-dark silhouettes emitting quantities of smoke").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 427, "(9)" has been changed to "(10)" ("(10) Wounds inflicted by modern
-arms heal readily").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 433, "mobility" has been changed to "immobility" ("the inexorable grasp
-of the Manchurian winter had fallen upon them and frozen them into immobility").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 458, "unrecord" has been left as printed ("continued under these unrecord
-of the actual campaign").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 507, "tht" has been changed to "the" ("General Oku avoided the Russian right
-centre just left of the railroad").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 518, "Russians resistance" has been changed to "Russian resistance"
-("Thereupon the Russian resistance was redoubled in fury").</p>
-
-<p class='c044' >On page 537, counts of ships have been left as printed.</p>
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class="full" />
-<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR***</p>
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@@ -1,14214 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Japan-Russia War, by Sydney Tyler
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: The Japan-Russia War
-       An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East
-
-
-Author: Sydney Tyler
-
-
-
-Release Date: January 28, 2016  [eBook #51066]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR***
-
-
-E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Rachel Oei, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
-(https://archive.org/details/americana)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
-      file which includes the original illustrations.
-      See 51066-h.htm or 51066-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51066/51066-h/51066-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51066/51066-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
-      https://archive.org/details/japanrussiawaril00tyle
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: A SILENCED GUN IN PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-
-THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR
-
-An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East
-
-The Greatest Conflict of Modern Times
-
-by
-
-SYDNEY TYLER
-
-War Correspondent and Author of
-"The Spanish War," "The War in South Africa," Etc., Etc.
-
-Illustrated by Photographs and Drawings Made by Eye-Witnesses
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-P. W. Ziegler Co.
-Philadelphia
-
-Copyright, 1905,
-by
-Sydney Tyler
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                             INTRODUCTION.
-
-
-The Japan-Russia War goes into history as the greatest military
-struggle the world has known. Its story, therefore, rivals in interest
-those of the great wars of the past which have been an unceasing
-inspiration in every field of art and literature. The political
-machinations of great and little kings, of famed prime ministers, of
-peoples and states have attracted attention in more or less limited
-circles, but the world's wars have appealed to every class and rank.
-The world's vast army of readers have never wearied of the classic
-stories of feats of arms by men and armies told of the dawning days of
-world history; the tales of later map-making struggles of Asia, of
-Europe, of America, have never grown old or dull. So in the Orient of
-to-day. The great political battles which have centred about China and
-Japan for the last half century have interested the few. But to-day the
-attention of the world is centred on the lands bordering the Pacific,
-because a war has waged; because the whole human family loves the
-stories of valorous deeds, of military achievement, of the
-history-making that is done with the sword.
-
-The purpose of this volume is to bring American readers face to face
-with the events of the struggle of such stupendous magnitude, now drawn
-to a close. From battlefield to battlefield the author carries his
-thrilling narrative, bringing the scenes before the mind's eye as only
-one could do who stood within sound of the roaring guns, within sight
-of the onrush of resistless battalions, elbow to elbow with Japan's
-brilliant history makers. From the opening of the struggle to its close
-there was never a moment when stupendous events were not either in the
-process of making or so imminent that the civilized world held its
-breath. A single year's campaign in Manchuria and around famed Port
-Arthur furnish three land battles, greater in the number engaged in the
-awful cost of life, in the period of duration, than is presented by all
-of the pages of history. The siege of Port Arthur has no duplicate
-among all recorded military achievements. The opening of the second
-year of the war added a battle, that at Mukden, so vast, so brilliant
-from the standpoint of the victors, so disastrous from the standpoint
-of the defeated, that it has been accorded by masters of strategy a
-niche by itself in the chronicles of war. The author saw this wonderful
-panorama of events unfolded. His story bristles with dramatic touches,
-flashes of enlightening description that bring the scene home to the
-reader with a vividness that thrills.
-
-American readers have a more immediate interest in the struggle than
-the universal love of the stories of battle. With Japan victor over
-Russia, with the great Muscovite Empire deprived of a foothold on the
-Pacific, Japan and America remain the only Powers there to divide the
-rich spoils of Oriental commerce. Our possessions, the Philippines, are
-Japan's nearest neighbors, and their proximity to Japan, their bearing
-upon the Asiatic problem open the way for events of more than ordinary
-importance, if not of seriousness. Already the statement has been made
-that Japan covets these Islands. Will the United States, one day be
-called upon to go to war in their behalf? The question is one which no
-American can ignore. The nation must educate itself to decide one day,
-the issue, for or against a struggle with this wonderful little Empire,
-the Great Britain of Asia. The volume, therefore, in addition to its
-value and interest as a chronicle of a marvelous series of bloody
-battles is educational, the pioneer, blazing the way to an appreciation
-of events, of possibilities for our own country which lie in the story
-of Japan's overwhelming success. Will the Mikado come to believe that
-having humbled and crushed what was Europe's mightiest Power, he can as
-readily drive from the Pacific the American Republic?
-
-The author in this volume has even more completely demonstrated his
-genius as a chronicler of war than in any of his earlier efforts. Step
-by step he followed the British in Africa and at the conclusion of that
-struggle contributed to British literature a history which was
-generally conceded to have been more accurate, more graphic, less
-warped by prejudices than any other. Step by step he followed the
-unfolding of our own Spanish war and the story of that struggle as told
-by Mr. Tyler became at once the standard not only in Great Britain, but
-in the several Continental countries in which it appeared. With the
-priceless experience of these two wars to ably equip him, Mr. Tyler has
-contributed one more narrative of a great war to military literature
-and the assertion is unhesitatingly made that it will not be equalled
-by any of the hosts of volumes destined to be written of this memorable
-war.
-
-Along with the author went his camera. To that fact the reader is
-indebted to a series of illustrations never before attempted in the
-portrayal of military campaigns. What little the author has left to the
-imagination is supplied by these graphic pictures that bridge nine
-thousand miles and bring the sights and almost the sounds of battle to
-the reader.
-
-In brief, this volume as a description of the succeeding struggles of
-the Japan-Russia War, for accuracy, graphic qualities, detail and
-literary finish; for its educational value and significance, for the
-hitherto unattempted excellence of its illustration is presented to the
-American public with confidence that an appreciative reception will not
-possibly be denied.
-
-                                                         THE PUBLISHERS.
-
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-
-
-
-
-                           TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-                  Causes of the War                 13
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-                  The First Blow                    39
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-                  The Korean Campaign               69
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-                  Naval Operations                 101
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-                  Sinking of the "Petropavlovsk"   133
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-                  Battle of the Yalu               167
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-                  Cutting off Port Arthur          197
-
-                             CHAPTER VIII.
-                  The Assault that Failed          225
-
-                              CHAPTER IX.
-                  Battle of Liaoyang               257
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-                  Naval Battle off Port Arthur     289
-
-                              CHAPTER XI.
-                  Battle of the Sha-ho             317
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-                  The North Sea Outrage            347
-
-                             CHAPTER XIII.
-                  Surrender of Port Arthur         379
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-                  The First Year of the War        409
-
-                              CHAPTER XV.
-                  After Port Arthur                430
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI.
-                  In Winter Quarters               453
-
-                             CHAPTER XVII.
-                  The Battle of Mukden             467
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII.
-                  Retreat towards Harbin           497
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX.
-                  The Battle of the Japan Sea      523
-
-                              CHAPTER XX.
-                  The Treaty of Peace              557
-
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-
-
-
-
-                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
-                                                                   Page
-  A Silenced Gun at Port Arthur                            Frontispiece
-  Japanese Infantry Attacking a Chinese Position                     21
-  Map Showing the Area Affected by the Dispute                       25
-  The Japanese at Port Arthur                                        27
-  Battle of the Yalu--Sinking of the Chih-yuen                       38
-  Japanese and Russian Admirals                                      48
-  Japanese Generals                                                  57
-  Russian Generals                                                   68
-  The Harbor of Port Arthur                                          71
-  Russian Fleet Trying to Leave Port Arthur                          77
-  Russian and Japanese Destroyers at Close Quarters                  88
-  The Czar                                                           97
-  The Mikado                                                         97
-  Raid by the Vladivostock Fleet                                    107
-  The Tokio Military Hospital--Officers Quarters                    118
-  Sketch Plan of Port Arthur's Main Fortifications                  121
-  Funeral Procession of a Japanese Officer in Yokohama              125
-  A Skirmish Between Japanese and Russian Cavalry                   129
-  Desolation in Manchuria                                           140
-  Blowing up of the Petropavlovsk                                   145
-  Arrival of a Dispatch for General Kuropatkin                      152
-  Russian Concentration on the Yalu                                 161
-  Map Showing the Actions on the Yalu, April 29th-May 1st           169
-  Hauling a Japanese Howitzer into Position under Fire              171
-  Russians Collecting Wounded on the Night after the Battle         182
-  A Last Gallant Stand of Russian Gunners                           191
-  After Three Months                                                199
-  In the Russian Trenches                                           202
-  A Desperate Encounter at Port Arthur                              211
-  General Stoessel Exhorting his Troops in the Defence of
-      Port Arthur                                                   222
-  Outside Port Arthur                                               227
-  A Skirmish on the Manchurian Railway                              234
-  Russians Charging Japanese Trenches at Port Arthur                243
-  After Four Months                                                 247
-  Russian Priest in the Trenches with General Stackelberg's
-      Army                                                          250
-  General Nogi before Port Arthur                                   257
-  After Five Months                                                 261
-  Food for the Japanese Army                                        265
-  Map Showing Territory Adjacent to Liaoyang                        269
-  After Six Months                                                  273
-  Death of Count Keller at Yang-Ze-Ling Pass                        275
-  The Six Days' Action Around Liaoyang, Aug. 29-Sept. 3d            281
-  Map Showing Route of March and Principal Actions of the
-      Four Japanese Armies, Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th                      283
-  Japanese Assault on a Russian Position at Liaoyang                286
-  Russians Recapturing their Lost Guns at Liaoyang                  295
-  On the Deck of the "Rurik"                                        307
-  After Seven Months                                                313
-  Capture of the "Reshitelni" at Chifu                              316
-  Japanese Outpost Relieving Guard near the Sha-ho                  325
-  Japanese Scaling Fort at Port Arthur                              335
-  The Remnant of a Regiment After the Battle of the Sha-ho          347
-  Huge Siege Guns before Port Arthur                                355
-  Thirsty Japanese Troops Crossing the Sha-ho                       366
-  Fight in Street of Lin-Shin-Pu, Battle of Sha-ke River            375
-  Port Arthur and the Surrounding Forts                             381
-  Hauling Guns Up a Captured Hill at Port Arthur                    386
-  Japanese Eleven-Inch Mortar before Port Arthur                    396
-  The Evacuation of Port Arthur                                     405
-  After Twelve Months                                               408
-  Cossacks in Retreat After a Reconnaissance Near Liaoyang          415
-  The Garrison of Port Arthur--Leaving the Fortress                 426
-  The Bamboo Gun at Port Arthur                                     435
-  On the Slopes of Ojikeishan before Port Arthur                    446
-  A Night Attack on a Russian Position                              455
-  Japanese Troops Caught in Barbed Wire Entanglement                466
-  Map of the Battle of Mukden                                       469
-  Russian Retreat in Manchuria                                      475
-  Russian Suffering after the Battle of Mukden                      486
-  On Board a Japanese Battle ship during the Battle of the
-      Japan Sea                                                     496
-  The Russian Fleet in the Battle of the Japan Sea                  505
-  The Retreat from Mukden                                           519
-  Peace Envoys in Session at Portsmouth                             556
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-                          The Japan-Russia War
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-
-  Two Irreconcilable Destinies--Progress v.
-    Stagnation--Europe's Danger--Insatiable Russia--A Warm
-    Water Port--Japan's Warlike Progress--The Chino-Japanese
-    War--Russia's "Honor"--M. Pavloff--Russia in China--The
-    Russo-Chinese Bank--The Mailed Fist--Russian
-    "Leases"--Benevolent Professions--Wei-Hai-Wei--Niuchwang
-    Railway--Pavloff in Korea--Russia and
-    Manchuria--Russo-Chinese Treaty--Anglo-Japanese
-    Alliance--Russians in Korea--Japanese Protests--Russia's
-    Discourtesy.
-
-Never since the great Napoleonic wars which convulsed Europe a century
-ago has the world witnessed an appeal to arms so momentous in its
-issues and so tremendous in its possibilities as that which has just
-been tried between Russia and Japan in the Far East. The great
-internecine struggle in the United States in the middle of the last
-century, the disastrous duel between France and Germany which followed,
-and England's recently-concluded campaign in South Africa, have each,
-indeed, left a deep mark upon history. But while their import was at
-most Continental, if not local, the conflict between Japan and Russia
-is fraught with consequences which must inevitably be world-wide in
-scope. There is no civilized Power in either hemisphere whose interests
-are not more or less directly concerned in the question--Who shall be
-the dominant Power in the China Seas? For the whole course of the
-world's development in that quarter must depend on whether the mastery
-remains to the obstructive and oppressive Colossus of the North or to
-the progressive and enlightened island-Empire which, like Pallas in
-Pagan myth, has sprung fully armed from an ancient civilization into
-the very van of modern progress. It was no mere dynastic jealousy or
-racial animosity that brought about this fateful collision. It was the
-inevitable antagonism of two irreconcilable destinies. "Two stars keep
-not their motion in one sphere"; and the ambitions of Russia and the
-aspirations of Japan cannot find room for fulfilment together. One or
-the other must be crushed.
-
-[Sidenote: Two Irreconcilable Destinies]
-
-For Japan, the question is one of national existence. With Russia
-established in Manchuria and dominating the Yellow Sea, the absorption
-of Korea becomes a mere matter of time; and then the very independence
-of Japan would be subject to a perpetual and intolerable menace; while
-the new life which has dawned for its wonderfully gifted people would
-be crushed at the outset. But if Japan is fighting for her life, Russia
-is fighting for something almost as precious--the consummation of an
-ambition which has been the dream and the fixed goal of her statesmen
-for more than a generation. The expansion of the Russian Empire has
-been steadily eastwards; and the further conquest and dominion have
-spread, the more has the necessity been felt for an outlet to the
-navigable seas. Unless all the labor and sacrifices of years are to be
-in vain, and the great Siberian Empire is to remain a mere gigantic
-_cul-de-sac_, Russia must establish herself permanently in the Gulf of
-Pechili, and find in its ice-free ports that natural outlet for her
-trans-continental railway which will enable the life-blood of commerce
-to circulate through her torpid bulk. The struggle, therefore, was one
-between two irreconcilable destinies.
-
-[Sidenote: Progress v. Stagnation]
-
-But if the issue was immediately of such paramount significance to the
-two combatants, it was only less charged with import for all Asia,
-Europe and America. The victory of Japan would incontestably give her
-the predominance in the Far East, commercially as well as politically.
-Not only would she be a formidable trade rival to the European nations
-whose methods she has so successfully adopted, but she would be able to
-influence the conditions under which that trade was carried on. The
-immensely valuable and as yet imperfectly developed market of China
-would be practically within her control; and European Powers would no
-longer be able with impunity to seize naval bases and proclaim
-exclusive spheres of influence in Chinese territory. On the other hand,
-if Russia were to emerge victorious from the war, the whole of China
-would become a mere vassal state, if indeed its integrity could be
-preserved. Trade would be discouraged and finally extinguished by the
-exclusive methods of Russian policy, and except on sufferance no other
-Power could obtain a footing in the Far East. The whole future of this
-vast region, therefore, hung in the balance, for the battle was between
-freedom, progress and enlightenment, as represented by Japan, and
-obscurantism, oppression and stagnation, as represented by Russia.
-
-[Sidenote: Europe's Danger]
-
-But the anxious concern of the world in this Far Eastern war was based
-not only upon a calculation of material interests. Every civilized
-Government had before its eyes the imminent danger of other countries
-being dragged into the conflict. The situation was such that at any
-moment some untoward incident might set Europe in a blaze. The specific
-obligations of France to Russia under the terms of the Dual Alliance,
-and of Great Britain to Japan under the Treaty of Alliance concluded in
-1901, made the limitation of the struggle to the original combatants
-not only difficult, but even precarious. A breach of neutrality by any
-third Power would at once have compelled France to join forces with her
-Russian ally, or Great Britain to come to the assistance of Japan. Such
-a breach might have been merely trivial or technical, and yet
-sufficient to give a hard-pressed belligerent ground for calling her
-ally to her assistance. It might even have been deliberately provoked,
-in the hope of retrieving disaster by extending the area of conflict;
-and if the two Western Powers were once dragged into war, no statesman
-would be bold enough to put a limit to the consequences. Both Germany
-and the United States are profoundly interested in the Far East and in
-the issue of this great struggle for predominance; and one or both of
-them might at any moment have been ranged on one side or the other.
-From such an Armageddon the factors which determine the balance of
-power throughout the world, and therefore the development of national
-destinies, could hardly have emerged without profound modification; and
-the ultimate establishment of peace would have found many more
-international rivalries and antagonisms resolved than those which are
-immediately connected with the Far East. Lord Beaconsfield once said
-that there were only two events in history--the Siege of Troy and the
-French Revolution. It seems more than possible that the Russo-Japanese
-war will have to be reckoned as a third supreme factor in the progress
-of the world.
-
-[Sidenote: Insatiable Russia]
-
-The outbreak of the present war became practically inevitable as long
-ago as 1895, when, on the conclusion of peace between China and Japan
-the three European Powers--Russia, France and Germany--stepped in and
-robbed the Mikado and his people of the fruits of their hard-earned
-victory. From that time up to the present Russia has steadily, and
-without ceasing, tightened her grip upon the Northern province of the
-hapless Chinese Empire, and has ended by threatening the independence
-of Korea, the legitimate sphere of influence of Japan, and the
-indispensable buffer between herself and the insatiable and
-ever-advancing Northern Power.
-
-[Sidenote: A Warm Water Port]
-
-It must be borne in mind that the determining consideration which led
-Russia to cast longing eyes upon Manchuria--apart from that eternal
-hunger for territory which is one of her strongest characteristics--was
-the necessity of acquiring a warm water port as a naval base and
-commercial harbor. The port of Vladivostock--which, by the way, she
-acquired from China as early as 1860 by a truly Russian piece of
-bluff--has proved of little use in this respect, owing to the fact that
-during the winter months it is almost entirely icebound. A striking
-illustration of the embarrassment such a state of things must cause was
-afforded in the course of the present war by the plight into which the
-Russian Cruiser Squadron stationed there fell. There can be no doubt
-that the ambitions of the Czar's advisers had for years been directed
-towards the acquisition of the fortress and harbor of Port Arthur
-(known to the Chinese as Lu-shun-kau), which situated as it is upon the
-narrow neck of land at the extreme southernmost point of the Liao-tung
-Peninsula, should, if properly served by a strong and efficient naval
-force, dominate the Gulf of Pechili, and prove the most powerful
-strategic post in Northern China.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Warlike Progress]
-
-It is not known, of course, what path the development of Russian plans
-in this respect would have followed if they had been allowed to proceed
-without interruption; but, as it turned out, they were suddenly
-threatened with a dangerous obstacle in the complete and unexpected
-success of Japan over China and her capture of the whole of the
-Liao-tung Peninsula. This short but sanguinary conflict between China
-and Japan is memorable for having first revealed to the world the
-amazing progress which Japan had made in her efforts to engraft and
-assimilate the characteristics of Western civilization. It proved that
-in less than twenty years Japan had earned for herself an established
-position in the community of progressive nations. The war also made it
-possible for the first time to estimate the influence and effect in
-warlike operations of the tremendous engines of destruction with which
-modern science has equipped the fleets and armies of to-day. The navy
-of Japan had been organized on the latest model, and her officers had
-been trained in British schools; and though China's equipment was not
-to be compared with that of her antagonist, she possessed several
-powerful armorclads of the latest type, officered and engineered by
-experienced Europeans.
-
-[Sidenote: The Chino-Japanese War]
-
-The salient features of the war were, at sea, the battles of the Yalu
-River and of Wei-hai-Wei; and on land, the rout of the Chinese at
-Ping-Yang, the passage of the Yalu and storming of Port Arthur. The
-first of these in order of time was the battle of Ping-Yang, a town
-situated near the north-west coast of Korea. Here the Chinese troops
-under General Tso attempted to prevent the advance of the Japanese
-towards the Yalu. By a series of skilful movements carried out on
-September 15th and 16th, 1894, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, Marshal
-Yamagata, completely surrounded the Chinese and defeated them with
-great slaughter, their General himself falling dead upon the field. On
-the next day the Chinese fleet stationed at the mouth of the Yalu,
-which had proved entirely ineffective in preventing the landing of the
-enemy's forces upon Korea, gave battle to the Japanese. The ships of
-the latter Power were mainly cruisers, but the extraordinary skill with
-which they were manoeuvred and the rapidity of their fire completely
-outweighed the advantage possessed by the Chinese Admiral in
-battleships. He sustained a crushing defeat, and eight of his best
-vessels were destroyed. In the meanwhile Marshal Yamagata continued his
-march to the North, and after a bloody but indecisive conflict near
-Wiju on October 22nd he succeeded in crossing the Yalu River and
-driving his antagonists in rout before him. The Japanese now proceeded
-to overrun Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula, capturing all the
-principal positions one after the other with unvarying success. A great
-army under Marshal Oyama invested Port Arthur in November, and on the
-20th and 21st he took that powerful fortress by storm, the defenders
-being massacred to a man. The final and decisive act of the war was the
-bombardment of Wei-hai-Wei and the island fortress of Leu-Kung-tan by
-the combined naval and military forces of Admiral Ito and Marshal
-Oyama. The operations lasted from January 30th, 1895, till February
-12th, when, unable to hold out any longer against the terrific assault,
-Admiral Ting, the Chinese Commander, surrendered his fleet and the
-forts under honors of war. A closing touch of tragedy was the suicide
-of Ting and his principal officers, unable to bear the shame of their
-defeat. On March 19th negotiations for peace were opened at
-Shimonoseki, and the final treaty was signed on April 17th. The Treaty
-of Shimonoseki gave Japan unqualified possession of that Peninsula and
-also, of course, of Port Arthur--a very moderate territorial prize,
-considering the absolute character of her victory over China, and the
-sacrifices she had made to obtain it. But Russian susceptibilities were
-alarmed, and the Government of St. Petersburg decided upon a drastic
-step to avert the calamity which threatened to render its ambitions
-futile. Gaining the support of both Germany and France, it compelled
-Japan, by threats of force which that Power could not resist, to retire
-from Port Arthur and the Liao-tung Peninsula, and to restore the
-territory to China. The reason alleged for this high-handed action was
-the specious plea that the presence of the Japanese on the Asiatic
-mainland would endanger the independence of China and Korea, and would
-be a constant menace to the peace of the Far East. Naturally enough the
-indignation of Japan was intense, but defiance of three such powerful
-antagonists was impossible for her at that moment, isolated as she was
-and exhausted by the exertions of a great war. Great Britain was asked
-by the other three Powers to act jointly with them in this matter, but
-she refused to assist in depriving the gallant Island people of their
-rightful spoils of victory. The attitude of Lord Rosebery's Government
-on this occasion, although it gave no positive aid to Japan,
-undoubtedly led to a better understanding between the two countries,
-and paved the way ultimately to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance,
-which, by rescuing Japan from her position of isolation, enabled her to
-enter effectively into the momentous and complicated game which the
-European diplomatists were playing, with varying fortunes, at Peking.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's "Honor"]
-
-Meanwhile, however, Japanese aspirations received a check from which
-they were to take several years to recover. The statesmen of the Mikado
-were even unable to obtain a pledge from China that the territories
-yielded back to her by Japan would never be alienated to a third Power.
-Russia's delicate sense of honor, it appeared, revolted against the
-imputation implied, and therefore China must give no pledge. On the
-other hand, Russia would be so generous as to give an assurance on her
-own account that she had no designs upon Manchuria. Forced to content
-herself with the cold comfort of this empty and meaningless
-declaration, and baffled upon all essential points, Japan sullenly
-withdrew her troops from the mainland and settled down to nurse her
-just wrath, and prepare for the inevitable day of reckoning.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE INFANTRY ATTACKING A CHINESE POSITION.]
-
-[Sidenote: M. Pavloff]
-
-The centre of interest was now shifted to Peking, where began that
-amazing scramble among the European Powers for commercial, and
-especially for railway, concessions in China, which, by unmasking the
-ambitions of some countries, and revealing the community of interests
-of others, has led ultimately to important modifications of
-international policy, and to a re-arrangement of alliances. The
-complexity of the game, the swiftness of the moves, and the ignorance
-of the average man, not only of the issues involved, but even of the
-main geographical and economic features of the immense country which
-was the object of the struggle--all contrived to puzzle the mind and to
-darken the understanding; but a vague feeling, only too clearly
-justified by the events, arose in this country that England and America
-were not getting the best of the conflict, and that Russia and Germany
-were making all the running. In truth, there is no doubt that the
-skill, or perhaps, to speak more correctly, the duplicity, of the
-Russian diplomatists both in Peking and in St. Petersburg left their
-competitors completely behind. Foremost among them there emerges at
-this time the sinister figure of M. Pavloff, the Minister of the Czar
-at the Chinese Court. The tortuous diplomacy of the Muscovite has
-produced no more characteristic tool. M. Pavloff has been the stormy
-petrel of the Far East. Intrepid, resourceful to a degree, unscrupulous
-beyond the average, he is ever in the forefront of the diplomatic
-battle line. His appearance in any part of the field is the signal for
-new combinations, fresh aggressions, the stirring up of bad blood
-between nations, and the unsettlement of apparently settled questions.
-A man whose god is the Czar; a man with whom the expansion of the
-Empire of the Little White Father is an ideal cherished with almost
-religious fervor; a man who indeed in all probability honestly regards
-the extension of the Russian autocracy over the world as essential to
-the due progress of higher civilization--he is thoroughly typical of
-the class of agents whose devoted services Russia has always managed to
-secure for the spread of her Empire and the gradual but steady
-absorption of fresh territory all over Asia, whether in China, Persia,
-Turkestan or Tibet.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia in China]
-
-Such was the instrument possessed by the Government of the Czar at the
-Court of Peking, and he was not likely to neglect the unique
-opportunity which lay ready to his hand. By her action in restoring
-Port Arthur to the nerveless grasp of China, Russia naturally assumed
-the character of a powerful friend whose smile was to be courted and
-whose frown was to be proportionately dreaded. What more natural, in
-the circumstances, than that the Emperor should grant to the subjects
-of his brother and ally, the Czar, peculiar commercial privileges in
-the country which had been so generously rescued from the grip of Japan
-and restored to the Empire of the King of Heaven?
-
-[Illustration: MAP OF THE AREA AFFECTED BY THE WAR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Russo-Chinese Bank]
-
-The first result of M. Pavloff's policy of disinterested friendship
-became manifest in 1896, when the Chinese Government concluded an
-agreement with the Russo-Chinese Bank, providing for the formation of a
-company to be styled the Eastern Chinese Railway Company, the ownership
-of which was to be vested solely in Russian and Chinese subjects and
-which was to construct and work a railway within the confines of China,
-from one of the points on the western borders of the province of
-Heh-Lung-Kiang to one of the points on the eastern borders of the
-province of Kirin; and to the connection of this railway with those
-branches which the Imperial Russian Government would construct to the
-Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the Southern Ussuri lines. The
-institution, which went by the plain, solid, commercial name of the
-Russo-Chinese Bank, was, of course, merely a sort of Far Eastern annex
-of the Finance Bureau of M. de Witte, and the line thus modestly
-announced was the nucleus of the great railway which has since played
-such a large part in consolidating the Russian dominion over Manchuria.
-At the outset it was pretended that the line was to be merely a short
-cut to Vladivostock, but the true ambitions at the bottom of the scheme
-became apparent when Russian engineers began to pour into the country
-followed by squadrons of Cossacks, nominally for the protection of the
-new railway, but really in pursuance of Russia's invariable policy of
-impressing the natives with a due sense of her enormous military
-strength.
-
-[Sidenote: The Mailed Fist]
-
-The construction of the line, however, had not proceeded very far when,
-in 1897, an event occurred which gave the Czar's Government the chance
-for which they had long been anxiously looking. The massacre of some
-German missionaries led to swift and stern reprisals on the part of the
-Kaiser. The port of Kiao-Chau, in the province of Shantung, was seized
-until reparation was made for the outrage committed upon the majesty of
-the German Empire, and to placate the offended "mailed fist," the
-feeble Government of China were compelled to hand over this important
-position to Germany as a permanent possession, although, by a
-characteristic euphemism of diplomacy, the transaction was conveniently
-styled a "lease." Russia's opportunity was now too good to be
-neglected. Emboldened by the example of Germany, she demanded--for that
-is what her so-called "request" amounted to in reality--permission from
-the Chinese Government to winter her fleet at Port Arthur. Perhaps it
-may be imputed to her for righteousness that, unscrupulous as she is,
-she has never found it necessary to employ the missionaries of Christ
-as instruments of aggression; at all events on this occasion she had no
-such excuse at hand. The helpless Chinese assented, of course, to her
-request; but now Great Britain, awake at last to the dangers which
-threatened her Treaty rights, endeavored to intervene. Strong
-representations were made by the English Minister to the
-Tsung-lai-yamen as to the necessity for turning the port of
-Ta-lien-wan--which lies immediately adjacent to Port Arthur--into a
-Treaty port; that is to say, throwing it open to the trade of the world
-on the same terms as obtain at Shanghai, Canton, Hankau, and other
-ports of China at which the policy of the Open Door prevails.
-
-[Illustration: THE JAPANESE AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Leases]
-
-English statesmen, however, were no match for the wily Russians, who
-had the ear of the Chinese mandarins. The Government of the Czar
-successfully opposed the suggestion, and backed up its representations
-at Peking by significant display of force, for a considerable fleet of
-men-of-war arrived at Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan in the spring of 1898
-and practically took possession. Then, by a mingled process of
-terrorism and corruption, the Chinese Government were induced to grant
-the Czar a "lease" of the two harbors on the same terms as those on
-which Germany had been granted possession of Kiao-Chau, and, equally
-important, to permit the extension of the line of the Eastern Chinese
-Railway Company to Port Arthur. Thus came into being the Manchurian
-Railway, the construction of which was pushed on with feverish activity.
-
-[Sidenote: Benevolent Professions]
-
-The first step towards the complete acquisition and control of
-Manchuria had now been successfully accomplished, and English diplomacy
-sought in vain to wrest from Russia the advantage she had thus
-skilfully acquired. Of course Russia was prolific of "assurances" as
-she always has been in similar circumstances. The Government of the
-Czar solemnly declared, for the satisfaction of any confiding person
-who was willing to believe it, that it had "no intention of infringing
-the rights and privileges guaranteed by existing treaties between China
-and foreign countries," and that the last thing it contemplated was
-interference with Chinese sovereignty over the province of Manchuria.
-The sincerity of these benevolent professions was to be judged by the
-fact that, having once secured a grip of Port Arthur, Russia hastened
-to convert it into a fortified post of great strength and magnitude,
-and closed it absolutely against the commerce of the world; and that,
-while on the one hand she so far met the anxious representations of the
-British Government as to constitute Ta-lien-wan a free port in name, on
-the other hand she deprived the concession of all real meaning by an
-irritating system of passports and administrative restrictions upon
-trade.
-
-[Sidenote: Wei-hai-Wei]
-
-Great Britain attempted to neutralize the advantage her rival had
-gained in the Gulf of Pechili by securing a port on her own account,
-and, with the support of Japan, she induced the Chinese Government to
-enter into an agreement for the acquisition "on lease" of Wei-hai-Wei,
-a harbor situated on the southern shore of the Gulf and opposite to
-Port Arthur. It was imagined at the time that the port could be turned
-into a powerful naval base, but the naval and military surveys
-afterwards taken showed that it was of little use for strategic
-purposes, and it has consequently sunk into the position of a health
-station for the English China Squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: Niuchwang Railway]
-
-In the meantime Russia steadily increased her hold upon Manchuria, and
-large bodies of troops continued to be poured into the country. Her
-position had now become so strong in the counsels of the Chinese Court
-that in July, 1898, she openly opposed the concession, which British
-capitalists were seeking, of an extension of the Northern Railways of
-China to the Treaty Port of Niuchwang, which lies to the north of Port
-Arthur, at the extremity of the Gulf. The importance of this extension
-to British and American commerce was immense. Niuchwang is the main
-outlet of the trade of Manchuria, and was at that time a busy thriving
-town of about 60,000 inhabitants. Its value from the commercial point
-of view may be estimated from the fact that its total trade rose from
-L1,850,000 in 1881 to L7,253,650 in 1899, the year before it fell
-absolutely into Russian hands. Russia's attempt to deprive her
-commercial rivals of practical access by land to this valuable port
-were, however, on this occasion only partially successful; the
-construction of the Shan-hai-Kwan-Niuchwang Railway was finally
-permitted; but the agreement was greatly modified to suit Russian views.
-
-[Sidenote: Pavloff in Korea]
-
-Concurrently with these events, significant developments had been
-taking place in Korea, which brought Japan once more upon the stage.
-For some time after the Japanese had been driven from Port Arthur,
-Russia left Korea alone. She even entered into formal engagements with
-Japan, recognizing that Power's peculiar commercial rights and
-interests in Korea. But now M. Pavloff arrived upon the scene at Seoul.
-In March, 1900, he gave the Japanese the first taste of his quality by
-endeavoring to obtain a lease of the important strategic port of
-Masampo, situated in the southeast of Korea, facing the Japanese coast
-and dominating the straits between. At the same time he stipulated that
-the Korean Government should not alienate to any other Power the island
-of Kojedo, which lies just opposite to Masampo. Japan successfully
-resisted this bold stroke of policy; and matters were in this position
-when the Boxer rising gave Russia a supreme opportunity. Her troops in
-Manchuria were attacked by the rebels, and she at once hurried in
-reinforcements and seized the whole country. Resistance to her arms was
-put down with relentless vigor--with a vigor, indeed, far transcending
-the necessities of the case, and the Blagovestchensk massacres, in
-which thousands of unarmed Chinamen were offered up as a sacrifice to
-the offended majesty of Russia, will long be a stain upon the
-escutcheon of the Imperial Prophet of Peace. In the drastic process of
-absorption which was now adopted, the treaty port of Niuchwang was
-naturally included, and the interests of other Powers there became of
-very small account indeed.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia and Manchuria]
-
-It was evident that the Manchurian question had now assumed a more
-serious form. Of course the Czar's Government was profuse in its
-explanations. No permanent territorial advantage was being sought, we
-were told; as soon as lasting order had been established in Manchuria,
-and indispensable measures taken for the protection of the railway
-Russia would not fail to recall her troops from the province; above all
-"the interests of foreign Powers and of international companies at the
-port of Niuchwang must remain inviolate." The restoration of lasting
-order, however, appeared to be a very tedious process. More and more
-troops were drafted into the province and on the naval side also
-preparations were made for an imposing demonstration.
-
-[Sidenote: Russo-Chinese Treaty]
-
-Admiral Alexeieff, commanding the Russian fleet, though not yet
-advanced to the dignity of Viceroy of the East, now took charge of the
-Czar's interests, one of his first acts being to invite China to resume
-the government of Manchuria "under the protection of Russia." On
-November 11th, 1900, an agreement was signed at Port Arthur between the
-Russian and Chinese representatives. The terms of this remarkable
-document, which were promptly disclosed by the able and well-informed
-correspondent of the London _Times_ at Peking, were a startling
-revelation. They provided virtually for a Russian military protectorate
-over Manchuria. Mukden, the ancient capital of Manchuria and the
-burial-place of the Manchu dynasty, was to be the centre of control,
-and a Russian political resident was to be stationed there. This city,
-which now possesses a population of about 250,000, has in modern times
-become a great place of trade. It is situated 110 miles to the
-northeast of Niuchwang, and its position in the centre of the
-Manchurian railway system renders it a place of much strategical
-importance. Not only were these vast concessions made to Russia, but
-the Treaty rights of other Powers at Niuchwang itself were disregarded.
-Great Britain and the United States necessarily entered an urgent
-protest against this singular method of preserving their interests
-inviolate. But Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister for Foreign
-Affairs, declared to our Ambassador that the Russo-Chinese Agreement
-was merely a temporary arrangement.
-
-The value of the solemn assurance of the Foreign Minister was exposed
-to the world almost immediately afterwards by the invaluable
-correspondent of the London _Times_, who sent to his paper the terms of
-a new and more far-reaching Agreement which the Russian diplomatists
-were trying to force upon the Chinese Court.
-
-[Sidenote: Anglo-Japanese Alliance]
-
-The position of affairs was now profoundly altered by the conclusion of
-the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This important Treaty gave Japan the
-strength and the encouragement ultimately to intervene on her own
-account and endeavor to curb the restless ambitions of Russia. Russia
-gave a definite pledge that her troops would be withdrawn from
-Manchuria by instalments on the expiration of a certain period. That
-period expired on October 8th, 1903, but the pledge was never redeemed.
-A show of evacuation was made in 1902, but the troops returned, and at
-the end of October of 1903 Mukden was re-occupied in force. Never
-during the whole period did Russia lose her grip upon Niuchwang.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians in Korea]
-
-Notwithstanding the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance
-in the beginning of 1902, Japan waited for eighteen months before
-entering into the diplomatic lists alone against Russia. But at last,
-in August of 1903, this course was rendered imperative upon her, not
-only by the failure of the Czar's Government to carry out their
-engagements in regard to Manchuria, but by their aggressive policy in
-Korea. M. Pavloff, rebuffed at Masampo in 1900, had turned his energies
-in another direction. He secured for his countrymen valuable mining
-rights in Northern Korea, and Russians then began to cross the Yalu
-River and ultimately occupied Yongampo, a town of some importance on
-the southern bank. Not content with railway enterprises, they even
-started to construct fortifications. The Japanese, of course,
-interposed energetically and succeeded in modifying the Russian
-activity; but it now became apparent that, unless some binding
-arrangement could be arrived at, Korea was destined to share the fate
-of Manchuria.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Protests]
-
-Representations were therefore made at St. Petersburg calling for a
-revision of the Treaties of 1896 and 1898, and a friendly settlement of
-the respective rights of the two Powers. The story of the negotiations
-which ensued is a simple one. It is a story of courteous and moderate
-representation on the one side, and of studied delay and contemptuous
-refusals on the other. The negotiations on behalf of Russia were in the
-hands of Admiral Alexeieff, now elevated to the position of Viceroy of
-the East, and it is said to be mainly due to his influence that his
-Government adopted such an unbending attitude. Japan asked for a
-repetition by Russia of the pledges she had given that she would
-recognize the integrity and independence of China and Korea; and,
-further, that she should recognize the preponderance of Japanese
-political and commercial interests in Korea. Russia haughtily refused
-to give Japan any pledge as to the integrity of China, and contended
-that her position in Manchuria was regulated by treaties with China in
-which Japan had no right to interfere. As to Korea, she proposed the
-establishment of a neutral zone in the north of the province, leaving
-the south of the country to become a sphere of commercial influence for
-Japan, but she expressly stipulated that the latter Power should make
-no use of any portion of Korean territory for strategic purposes. The
-proposal was so absurdly one-sided that Japan returned to the charge
-with the suggestion that a neutral zone should be established both on
-the Manchurian and the Korean sides of the frontier. She also
-reiterated her request for an agreement as to the maintenance of the
-territorial integrity of Manchuria and China.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's Discourtesy]
-
-Russia contemptuously delayed reply to these representations in spite
-of the courteous requests of the Japanese Government. In the meanwhile
-she kept augmenting her forces in the Far East till the situation
-became impossible of continuance.
-
-Every day that passed threatened to transfer the balance of naval power
-in favor of the European Power, for a powerful fleet was being hurried
-out to the Far East, and the badly-finished warships in Port Arthur
-were being patched up by an army of mechanicians. Mr. Kurino, who
-conducted the negotiations at St. Petersburg, pressed for an answer,
-but was put off with promises no less than six times. Such discourtesy
-could only have one result. The dignity of Japan could brook no further
-insolence, and the Czar and his Ministers were politely informed that
-under such circumstances negotiations were useless. It was in vain that
-hurried telegrams were dispatched to Admiral Alexeieff to present a
-reply to the justly incensed Cabinet at Tokio. The die had been cast,
-and the big bully of the North, who had for so long baited the plucky
-little Japanese, realized at last that threats and bluff no longer were
-of any avail, and that the matter was now referred to the God of
-Battles.
-
-On February 7th, 1904, Japan formally broke off the negotiations and
-withdrew her Minister from St. Petersburg. The war cloud had burst.
-
-[Illustration: BATTLE OF THE YALU--SINKING OF THE CHIH-YUEN.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-
-  Russia Bluffing--Japan's Navy--"Nisshin" and "Kasaga"--New and
-    Efficient--Japan's Dockyards--Opposing Figures--Russian
-    Navy--Belated Help--Japan's Superiority--Russian
-    Harbor--Japan on Land--Russia's Army--East of Baikal--Weak
-    Communications--Port Arthur--Korea as Base--Command of the
-    Sea--The First Blow--World-Wide Interest--A Graphic
-    Account--Russian Losses--The Fight of February 9th--Russian
-    Bravery--Japanese Modesty--Damage Understated--Only One
-    Repairing Dock--Alexeieff's Reason for Casualties--The Fight
-    at Chemulpo--The First Shot--Japanese Disembarkation--A Brave
-    Russian Captain--A Target for Japanese Gunners--The Plucky
-    "Korietz"--Wounding and Burning--Japan's Handicap.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Russia Bluffing]
-
-The growing menace of the situation in the Far East had been for months
-attracting the anxious attention of the whole world, and at the
-beginning of 1904 it became evident that war was inevitable, unless one
-or other of the disputants was prepared to make a complete surrender of
-its essential claims. The unlikelihood of this remote possibility being
-fulfilled was confirmed by the steady and, on the Russian side at
-least, the feverish preparations for hostilities which were carried on
-as an accompaniment to the repeated protestations of pacific intentions
-by the Czar's Government and its diplomatic agents abroad. Those who
-still believed in peace were sustained by the conviction that one of
-the parties to the dispute was bluffing. Sympathizers with Russia
-pointed to the tremendous power and inexhaustible resources of the
-Northern Empire, and asked whether it were possible that a young and
-small country like Japan should dare to try conclusions with so
-gigantic an antagonist. On the other hand, the friends of Japan
-emphasized the weakness of the Russian position in the Far East and the
-well-known financial embarrassments beneath which her Exchequer was
-laboring. It is, therefore, apropos to survey at this point the
-military and strategic position in the Far East which revealed itself
-immediately before the final rupture of diplomatic negotiations and the
-beginning of active hostilities.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Navy]
-
-In any conflict between Russia and Japan it was obvious that the first
-struggle must be for the mastery of the sea, and it is, therefore,
-interesting to consider primarily the relative naval strength of the
-two Powers in Far Eastern waters. The navy of Japan has been built, not
-only on English models, but for the most part in English yards; and
-since the Chino-Japanese War it has been increased by a number of
-vessels of the latest and most powerful type. The result is that the
-most formidable feature of Japan's naval strength is its complete
-homogeneity. The tabular statement on page 41, gives the names and
-principal characteristics of what may be called Japan's first fighting
-line at sea.
-
-[Sidenote: "Nisshin" and "Kasaga"]
-
-Towards the close of 1903 the Japanese Government, with great
-enterprise, managed to secure a powerful accession to this fleet by
-purchasing from Argentina two freshly constructed cruisers of the most
-modern and efficient type. These two vessels, which have been
-re-christened the _Nisshin_ and _Kasaga_, were hastily equipped for sea
-at Genoa, and, commanded for the time being by retired English officers
-and manned by English crews, started in January for the long voyage to
-the Far East. Although war had not yet been declared, it was clearly
-imminent, and the Russian squadron in the Mediterranean received orders
-to watch the new cruisers closely, with the object, of course, of
-capturing them in case hostilities broke out before the vessels had
-reached Japan. The taste of their quality, however, which the _Nisshin_
-and _Kasaga_ were able to give to the Russians proved how valuable an
-addition they were to the Japanese navy, for they easily outdistanced
-their slow-footed pursuers, and what promised at one time to be an
-exciting race degenerated practically into a walk over. The new
-cruisers arrived safely at Yokohama on February 16th, and were at once
-sent into dock to refit and prepare for active service. These splendid
-fighting machines must, therefore, be added to the list.
-
-                        JAPAN'S UP-TO-DATE NAVY.
-
-                              BATTLESHIPS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-     Hatsuse          15,000    15,000  18.0     14--6        4,240
-     Asahi            15,000    15,000  18.0     14--6        4,240
-     Shikishima       15,000    15,000  18.0     14--6        4,240
-     Mikasa           15,200    16,000  18.0     14--6        4,225
-     Yashima          12,300    13,000  18.0     14--6        4,000
-     Fuji             12,300    13,000  18.0     14--6        4,000
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-     Tokiwa           9,750     18,000  21.5      6--6        3,568
-     Asama            9,750     18,000  21.5      6--6        3,568
-     Yakuma           9,850     16,000  20.0      6--6        3,368
-     Adzuma           9,436     17,000  21.0      6--6        3,368
-     Idzumo           9,800     15,000  24.7      6--6        3,568
-     Iwate            9,800     15,000  24.7      6--6        3,568
-
-                          PROTECTED CRUISERS.
-
-     Takasago         4,300     15,500  24.0    4-1/2--2       800
-     Kasagi           4,784     15,500  22.5     4-1/2         800
-     Chitose          4,784     15,500  22.5     4-1/2         800
-     Itsukushima      4,277     5,400   16.7     11--4        1,260
-     Hashidate        4,277     5,400   16.7     11--4        1,260
-     Matsushima       4,277     5,400   16.7     11--4        1,260
-     Yoshino          4,180     15,750  23.0       --          780
-     Naniwa           3,727     7,120   17.8       --         1,196
-     Takachiho        3,727     7,120   17.8       --         1,196
-     Akitsushima      3,150     8,400   19.0       --          780
-     Niitaka          3,420     9,500   20.0       --          920
-     Tsushima         3,420     9,500   20.0       --          920
-     Suma             3,700     8,500   20.0       --          335
-     Akashi           2,700     8,500   20.0       --          335
-
-[Sidenote: New and Efficient]
-
-The table, it will be observed, does not include a number of coast
-defence vessels, nor--more important for offensive purposes--the
-torpedo flotilla, which is of great strength and of remarkable
-efficiency, and includes over a score of 30-knot destroyers of the most
-modern type. The first four battleships in the list were completed less
-than two years before the war, while the armored cruisers were built
-between 1899 and 1901. The protected cruisers include several of the
-vessels that defeated the Chinese fleet at the battle of the Yalu.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Dockyards]
-
-For the accommodation of her fleet Japan possesses four well-equipped
-dockyards, capable not only of repairing damaged vessels of any class,
-but of constructing new ones; and this is, perhaps, the greatest
-advantage which the island kingdom has over Russia in the present
-struggle.
-
-[Sidenote: Opposing Figures]
-
-The naval strength of Russia in the Far East at the outbreak of
-hostilities is shown in the tabular statement appearing on page 44,
-which, again, does not include vessels of the smallest class nor the
-torpedo-boat flotilla.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Navy]
-
-It will be remarked that the Russian battleships offered a great
-variety in design and fighting power--a serious disadvantage, for in
-manoeuvring the efficiency of the whole squadron sinks to the level
-of that of the least effective vessel it contains. The _Czarevitch_ and
-the _Retvisan_, which were the latest vessels to arrive at Port Arthur,
-were also the most powerful members of the fleet. The former vessel was
-built in France after the latest French model, and the latter in
-Philadelphia. This fleet was divided, at the outbreak of war, between
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock, the four powerful cruisers, _Gromoboi_,
-_Bogatyr_, _Rossia_, and _Rurik_ being stationed at the latter port.
-
-[Sidenote: Belated Help]
-
-While negotiations were still proceeding, though at a critical point,
-Russia prepared to send out very formidable reinforcements to the Far
-East from her Mediterranean Fleet. These reinforcements included the
-_Osliabia_, a battleship of over 12,000 tons displacement, with a speed
-of 19 knots; the _Dmitri Donskoi_, an armored cruiser of 6,000 tons
-displacement and a speed of 15 knots; the _Aurora_, a swift protected
-cruiser of the largest class; several cruisers of the volunteer fleet,
-with troops, naval drafts, and supplies; and a number of torpedo craft.
-This squadron had begun to assemble at Port Said before the outbreak of
-war, and the vessels at once began to pass through the Canal. But
-before they were ready to sail for the China seas, war broke out, and
-the departure was delayed. The initial Russian reverses at sea made it
-practically impossible for this reinforcing fleet to proceed to the
-seat of war, as it would have been liable to interception by the
-Japanese fleet in overwhelming strength. Accordingly, after cruising
-aimlessly about in the Red Sea for some weeks, the ships were ordered
-to return to the Baltic; and in the beginning of March they passed
-through the Suez Canal again on their way north.
-
-                        RUSSIA'S AVAILABLE NAVY.
-
-                              BATTLESHIPS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-                       Tons            Knots.     In.          Lbs.
-     Poltava          10,950    11,200  17.0     10--5        3,367
-     Petropavlovsk    10,950    11,200  17.0     10--5        3,367
-     Sevastopol       10,950    11,200  17.0     10--5        3,367
-     Peresviet        12,674    14,500  19.0     10--5        2,672
-     Pobieda          12,674    14,500  19.0     10--5        2,672
-     Retvisan         12,700    16,000  18.0     10--5        3,434
-     Czarevitch       13,100    16,300  18.0   11--6-3/4      3,516
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-                       Tons            Knots.     In.          Lbs.
-     Bogatyr          6,750     19,500  23.0      5--4         872
-     Askold           6,500     9,500   23.0       --          772
-     Varyag           6,500     20,000  23.0       5           510
-     Diana            6,630     11,600  20.0     4-1/2         632
-     Pallada          6,630     11,600  20.0     4-1/2         632
-     Boyarin          3,200     11,500  22.0       --          180
-     Novik            3,000     18,000  25.0       --          180
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-                                       Nominal    Gun       Weight of
-     Name          Displacement I.H.P.  Speed  Protection Broadside Fire
-                       Tons            Knots.     In.          Lbs.
-     Gromoboi         12,336    18,000  20.0     6--3/4       1,197
-     Bayan            7,800     17,000  22.0      7--3         952
-     Rossia           12,200    18,000  20.0       2          1,348
-     Rurik            10,940    3,500   18.0       3          1,345
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Superiority]
-
-Though nominally the fleets of the two Powers were fairly equal, Japan
-possessed several very considerable advantages which, in the opinion of
-experts, changed that paper equality to marked superiority on her side.
-In the first place, the Chino-Japanese war only ten years ago had given
-her naval officers and men an invaluable experience of fighting on the
-grand scale under modern conditions; in the next place, their fleet was
-much more of a pattern; and in the third place it was operating from a
-base fully capable of providing all the needs and reinforcements
-entailed by losses in war, including a ready coal supply.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's Harbors]
-
-Russia, on the other hand, had for its only bases Port Arthur and
-Vladivostock, the one inadequate to the multifarious needs of her
-fleet, and the other ice-bound in winter, and so situated
-geographically as to be completely isolated from what promised to be
-the main scene of operations. Although Port Arthur had been rendered
-almost impregnable as a fortress, the Russians had not had time to
-complete it as a naval dockyard, and at the outbreak of war it
-possessed only one dry dock, and that not capable of accommodating
-vessels of the largest size. At Vladivostock the channel out of the
-harbor could only be kept free by ice-breakers. In the event of naval
-disasters, Russia, therefore, had no possibility of repairing her lame
-ducks, while the radius of her fleet's activity was limited by the fact
-that her only supplies of coal were to be obtained at Port Arthur. In
-the situation, therefore, which presented itself at the outbreak of
-war, this powerful naval force was practically deprived of mobility. It
-could not leave Port Arthur for more than a short cruise; and while it
-remained there it must be specially vulnerable to attack, lying in an
-open roadstead and huddled together in order to enjoy the protection of
-the guns of the fortress.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan on Land]
-
-With regard to the land forces of the two belligerent Powers, it was
-only possible to reckon with certainty those of Japan; for it remained
-doubtful, until the progress of active operations revealed the facts,
-how much of Russia's enormous military strength had been concentrated
-in the Far East. Broadly speaking, Japan could put into the field in
-the last resort an army of between 400,000 and 450,000 men. The
-standing army amounts to almost 200,000 men, and it was immediately
-available for mobilization. To this number another 35,000 men was added
-by the reserve, while the militia of all arms could be reckoned at
-200,000 men. The Japanese infantry soldier is armed with the Midji
-magazine rifle, and the artillery with the Arisaka quick-firing gun;
-but the adoption of this latter weapon has been so recent that the
-whole of the artillery is not yet supplied with it, and in this one
-respect at least the Russian gunners are believed to possess a very
-great advantage. The Japanese army has been organized largely on German
-models. It proved its efficiency as a fighting machine in the
-Chino-Japanese War; while the Japanese troops that took part in the
-relief of the Peking Legations earned the unstinted praise of all the
-military experts who watched their behavior. Until the present war,
-however, the Japanese army had never undergone the supreme ordeal of
-facing a European adversary.
-
-[Sidenote: Russia's Army]
-
-Of the Russian military organization, the strength and weakness have
-long been known to the world, and the great question for strategists in
-contemplating the present hostilities was the number of troops which
-the Northern Power could bring into the field to confront her foe.
-Various estimates had been given, from the overwhelming army of 400,000
-men confidently claimed by Russia's partisans, to a force of little
-more than a quarter of that strength. But though the actual figures
-were in doubt, it was possible by collating the information from
-various sources to arrive at an approximate estimate of the truth. At
-the time of the Boxer outbreak in 1900 Russia had 35,000 men in the Far
-East, and that force was, within little more than a year, trebled.
-Since the possibility of trouble with Japan had loomed on the horizon,
-reinforcements had been steadily dribbling over the Trans-Siberian
-Railway and over seas in the volunteer transports, until the army under
-the command of the Viceroy of the Far East could not number much less
-than 150,000 men of all arms, with 286 guns. Of this force, at least a
-half must have been absorbed in the defence of the long line of railway
-communications and in garrisoning fortresses; but the troops available
-for active operations consisted largely of Russia's most formidable
-fighting material--namely, the Cossacks, who possess an endurance and
-mobility which must be of the utmost value in such a country as that in
-which the present war was to be fought out.
-
-[Illustration:
-         ADMIRAL TOGO.                         ADMIRAL KAMIMURA.
-                          ADMIRAL MAKAROFF.
-       ADMIRAL SKRYDLOFF.                   ADMIRAL ROZHDESTVENSKY.
-
-                     JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN ADMIRALS.]
-
-[Sidenote: East of Baikal]
-
-In the latter part of January the well-informed correspondent of the
-London _Times_ at Peking telegraphed an estimate of the Russian forces
-east of Lake Baikal, which, in its circumstantiality and
-exhaustiveness, bore the evidence of truth. According to this
-authority, Russia had available at that time a total of 3,115 officers,
-147,479 men, and 266 guns; and these numbers included the railway
-guards over the whole of the Manchurian railways and the garrisons of
-the principal fortresses. The infantry of this force numbered 108,000
-officers and men, and the cavalry 22,000 officers and men, of whom
-nearly the whole were Cossacks. The garrisons of Port Arthur and
-Vladivostock alone absorbed 45,000 men, and remembering that the
-railway line to be guarded, east of Lake Baikal, was over 1,500 miles
-in length, and traverses a country of which the inhabitants were more
-or less hostile, it is evident that the troops available to take the
-field at the end of January could not have exceeded, on this estimate,
-more than 50,000 men. Lake Baikal is 400 miles in length, and though a
-railway round its southern extremity was in course of construction, it
-was far from completion at the outbreak of hostilities. The lake is
-frozen over during the winter months, when transit has to be effected
-by sledges. But in the emergency the Russians laid railway lines across
-the lake, and thus by the end of February had established a through
-service of sorts. But even then the number of reinforcements and the
-quantity of supplies that could be moved up to the theatre of war were
-strictly limited by the delays inseparable from the working of a single
-track railway, and it is doubtful whether more than 25,000 men at the
-outside had been added to the field force by the beginning of March.
-
-[Sidenote: Weak Communications]
-
-The strategical problem which presented itself at the outbreak of
-hostilities was a comparatively simple one--for Japan at any rate. The
-power of Russia in the Far East depended on the maintenance of two
-great arteries of communication with the heart of the Russian Empire.
-One of these was the over-sea passage from the Black Sea or the Baltic
-through the Suez Canal and the East Indian Archipelago--a voyage
-occupying six weeks at least, and however feasible in time of peace,
-rendered particularly difficult and even precarious under war
-conditions owing to the possibility of interception and the absence of
-any intermediate coaling stations. The other connecting link between
-Port Arthur and St. Petersburg was the Trans-Siberian Railway, that
-gigantic enterprise which, completed in 1899, brought the capital of
-Russia within 15 days' journey of its furthermost outpost in the Yellow
-Sea. From Moscow to Port Arthur is a distance of some 4,000 miles, but
-at two-thirds of its length the railway is interrupted by the great
-inland sea known as Lake Baikal. At this point transshipment across the
-lake had to take place, a circumstance that offered an insurmountable
-hindrance to rapid transit. In the building of the railway, too,
-soundness had been sacrificed to rapidity of construction; the line was
-only a single track one, with stations and sidings at intervals of
-about 25 miles; and even when the whole service was monopolized for
-military purposes the number of trains that could be passed over the
-railway in one day was a fixed and very limited quantity. Even with
-this line open, therefore, the rate at which Russia could reinforce her
-troops in the Far East had to be determined by other circumstances than
-military urgency, and the number of her reinforcements also had to be
-governed by the capacity of the line to bring up not only men, but
-supplies; for Manchuria itself does not provide the means of support
-for a large army. The experience of the American Army in Cuba and of
-the British Army in South Africa proved what tremendous difficulties
-may be encountered in carrying supplies to a large force at a distance
-much less remote from its base than Russia's was. For years past Russia
-has sent out her troops and supplies to the Far East mainly by sea. For
-twelve months before the war broke out a constant stream of transports,
-colliers and supply ships had passed from the Black Sea to the Gulf of
-Pechili, and this stream was only interrupted on the outbreak of war--a
-significant admission of the incompleteness of the Russian
-preparations, as well as of the inadequacy of the Trans-Siberian
-Railway to supply her needs.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur]
-
-It was evident, therefore, that Japan's first object was to shut off
-Port Arthur from the sea, and her next to cut the railway communication
-to the North. This done, the Russian fortress, however impregnable to
-assault, must ultimately fall to investment. From Port Arthur, which,
-as a glance at the map will show, lies at the very tip of Liao-tung
-Peninsula, the railway runs due north for six hundred miles through
-Niuchwang and Mukden to Harbin, where it joins the branch line to
-Vladivostock. Though Russia has for several years been in occupation of
-this territory, her hold upon it is by no means secure. The population
-is distinctly unfriendly, and for the mere defence of the line
-thousands of troops are necessary. Indeed, it was this necessity that
-Russia urged as an excuse for her military occupation of Manchuria.
-
-[Sidenote: Korea as Base]
-
-Within the triangle of which Harbin is the apex, of which the lines to
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock are sides, and of which the course of the
-Yalu River is the base, the sphere of immediate military operations
-practically had to be confined, as the ice-bound condition of the coast
-to the west of Port Arthur made a landing in force there impossible
-till the spring. The necessity of maintaining communications tied the
-Russian forces very largely to the railway lines. But for either
-belligerent the helpless kingdom of Korea, which lies south of a line
-drawn between Port Arthur and Vladivostock, for aggressive operations,
-afforded the most convenient line of advance. Through Korea Russia
-could menace Japan, and through Korea Japan could most easily march
-against Port Arthur. Naturally, therefore, Russia's first care was to
-mass her available troops on the line of the Yalu, and concentrate
-reinforcements at Harbin ready to be moved to whatever point might
-prove the objective of the Japanese attack.
-
-[Sidenote: Command of the Sea]
-
-But the command of the sea was the essential condition to attack by
-land by either combatant. With the Russian fleet masked or destroyed,
-Japan could choose as a landing-place for her armies any of the
-numerous ports on the western coast of Korea, and so approach in force
-the Yalu River, which divides Korea from Manchuria and the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. With imperfect command of the sea, Japan would have a second
-resource. She could land her troops at Masampo, separated only by a
-hundred miles of sea from her own ports, or she could, at a push, land
-her forces on the east coast of Korea, at Yuen San or Gensan. But the
-former plan of operations would have entailed a long overland march
-before the objective was reached, and the latter the maintenance of
-communications over difficult and mountainous country. Evidently, then,
-immeasurable importance attached to the result of the first naval
-engagements, and to their influence in giving the command of the sea to
-the one or the other of the two belligerent Powers.
-
-[Sidenote: The First Blow]
-
-On February 5th M. Kurino, the Japanese Minister at the Court of St.
-Petersburg, announced to the Government of the Czar that Japan could
-wait no longer for the long-delayed Russian reply, and that further
-negotiations were broken off. This startling news reached Europe and
-America on the evening of Sunday, February 7th; and while its
-significance was still being anxiously discussed in every capital, and
-while statesmen and jurists were still trying to convince one another
-that the rupture of diplomatic negotiations did not necessarily imply
-the beginning of war, there burst like a thunder-clap the further news
-that the first grim and irretrievable blow had been struck. Having
-decided that the arbitrament of war was inevitable, Japan acted on her
-decision with swift and terrible effect. On the night of Monday,
-February 8th, a daring attack by torpedo-boats was made on the Russian
-fleet lying at anchor in the Port Arthur roadstead, and at one fell
-swoop the boasted might of Russia at sea was hopelessly broken. This
-astounding intelligence was first conveyed to the world in an official
-telegram from Admiral Alexeieff to the Czar, couched in the following
-terms:--
-
-"I most devotedly inform your Majesty that about midnight between the
-26th and 27th of January (February 8th and 9th) Japanese torpedo-boats
-delivered a sudden mine attack on the squadron lying in the Chinese
-roads at Port Arthur, the battleships _Retvisan_ and _Czarevitch_ and
-the cruiser _Pallada_ being holed. The degree of seriousness of the
-holes has to be ascertained. Particulars will be forwarded to your
-Imperial Majesty."
-
-[Sidenote: World-wide Interest]
-
-The stunning effect of this news was only enhanced when fuller details
-of the incident so baldly and laconically announced came to hand. No
-news of the movements of the Japanese fleet had been allowed to leak
-out, and its presence before Port Arthur was wholly unexpected by
-others as well as the Russians. On the 3rd of February the Russian
-fleet had put to sea, and for twenty-four hours the world was agog with
-the news of so momentous a movement. But the speculation died suddenly
-when it appeared that the fleet had returned immediately to its
-anchorage. The Japanese, with characteristic alertness, realized the
-splendid opportunity which the necessarily exposed position of the
-Russian ships afforded to an enterprising enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: A Graphic Account]
-
-While everything was still tranquil at Port Arthur, and the Russian
-authorities were confidently announcing that the foe could not be
-expected for three or four days, the blow fell. According to the
-graphic account of an eye-witness, every one at Port Arthur had settled
-down for the night, when suddenly across the bay reverberated the shock
-of three violent and successive explosions. In a moment all was bustle
-and confusion on the Russian warships. Searchlights flashed
-bewilderingly and without purpose across the waters, and quick-firing
-guns from vessel after vessel began a panic fusillade, which Admiral
-Alexeieff, in his official report, euphemistically described as "a well
-concentrated fire at the right time."
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Losses]
-
-It was midnight, and in the darkness and confusion it was impossible
-for any one to know exactly what was happening; but when the morning
-light broke over Port Arthur the two proudest possessions of the
-Russian fleet, the powerful battleships _Retvisan_ and _Czarevitch_,
-were seen passing slowly towards the harbor entrance, across which they
-presently lay in evidently a badly damaged condition. The cruiser
-_Pallada_ followed, listing heavily to port, and she also was grounded
-outside the entrance to the harbor.
-
-[Sidenote: The Fight of Feb. 9th]
-
-It was at ten o'clock the next day, the 9th of February, that the
-Russians obtained their first glimpse of the enemy. In the distance
-three Japanese cruisers were described hanging observant upon the
-Russian fleet, and immediately what remained of that once powerful
-squadron put to sea in pursuit of the audacious enemy. But, as before,
-this bold movement had no result, and the Russian ships returned to
-anchor. Scarcely had they done so when the Japanese squadron of sixteen
-vessels, including six battleships and four first-class cruisers,
-steamed into view in fighting formation. As the leading vessels at a
-distance of some three miles came into line with the harbor entrance
-the flash of their great guns broke through the mist, and for nearly an
-hour the Japanese shells continued to burst over the forts, along the
-beach and among the Russian ships, who replied vigorously, and whose
-fire was assisted by that of the powerful land batteries. Again the
-Russian squadron steamed out to meet the enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Bravery]
-
-Some of the cruisers advanced towards the Japanese fleet with great
-gallantry, the _Novik_, the _Diana_, and the _Askold_ particularly
-distinguishing themselves, with the result that they were all rather
-seriously hit by the Japanese fire and were compelled to retire upon
-the main squadron. Several other of the Russian ships were damaged
-before the Japanese fleet drew off.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Modesty]
-
-The official dispatch of Admiral Togo to his Government upon the
-momentous achievements of his fleet during these two days was a model
-of modesty and self-restraint. Dated "February 10th, at Sea," it ran:--
-
-"After the combined fleet left Sasebo, on the 6th, everything went off
-as planned. At midnight on the 8th the advance squadron attacked the
-enemy's advance squadron, the latter being mostly outside the bay. The
-_Poltava_, _Askold_ and others were apparently struck by torpedoes.
-
-"At noon on the 9th the fleet advanced to the offing of Port Arthur Bay
-and attacked the enemy for forty minutes, I believe doing considerable
-damage. I believe the enemy were greatly demoralized. They stopped
-fighting at one o'clock, and appeared to retreat to the harbor.
-
-[Illustration:
-               GENERAL KUROKI.                GENERAL OKU.
-                               MARSHAL OYAMA.
-               GENERAL NODZU.                 GENERAL NOGI.
-
-                            JAPANESE GENERALS.]
-
-"The Japanese fleet suffered but very slight damage, and its fighting
-strength is not decreased. Our casualties were 4 killed and 54 wounded.
-The Imperial Princes on board suffered no harm.
-
-"The conduct of the officers was cool, and not unlike their conduct at
-manoeuvres.
-
-"This morning, owing to heavy south wind, detailed reports from the
-vessels have not been received, so I merely report the above fact."
-
-[Sidenote: Damage Understated]
-
-This dispatch, as we know both from the Russian official accounts and
-from independent witnesses, really understated the extent of the blow
-which the Japanese Admiral had dealt to the Russian fleet; the vessels
-torpedoed were not cruisers only, but the two crack battleships upon
-which Admiral Alexeieff necessarily placed peculiar dependence, and the
-"considerable damage" which Admiral Togo believed had been done by the
-subsequent bombardment had put out of action, for the time being, the
-battleship _Poltava_ and the cruisers _Diana_, _Askold_ and _Novik_. Of
-these the _Poltava_ and the _Novik_ were badly hit on the water
-line--damage the seriousness of which needs no comment.
-
-[Sidenote: Only One Repairing Dock]
-
-The most significant confession, indeed, of the crushing character of
-the blow which at the very commencement of the war the Japanese had
-succeeded in dealing to their powerful adversary was contained in a
-subsequent dispatch from the Viceroy to the Czar. Telegraphing on
-February 11th, Admiral Alexeieff reported "the _Czarevitch_ and the
-_Pallada_ were brought on the 9th inst. into the inner harbor. The leak
-in the _Retvisan_ is being temporarily stopped. _The repairing of an
-ironclad is a complicated business, the period for the completion of
-which it is hard to indicate._" This guarded language must be read in
-the light of the fact that the Russians had only one repairing dock
-capable of holding a large ship at Port Arthur, and the terrible
-character of the disaster which within forty-eight hours had befallen
-the naval power of the haughty Muscovite in the Far East will be
-realized. The losses in men were not very serious, amounting in all to
-10 men killed and 2 officers and 41 men wounded, but the injury to the
-fleet was practically irreparable. Seven out of Russia's best vessels
-had been placed _hors de combat_, her battleships' strength being
-reduced to 4, namely, the _Petropavlovsk_, _Peresviet_, _Pobieda_ and
-_Sevastopol_ (the last two being themselves under repair when the war
-broke out), and her already small cruiser force being reduced to two,
-namely, the _Bayan_ and the _Boyarin_. The following is the list of the
-damaged ships:--
-
-           _Czarevitch_, battleship, torpedoed.
-           _Retvisan_, battleship, torpedoed.
-           _Poltava_, battleship, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Novik_, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Askold_, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Diana_, cruiser, shelled on the water-line.
-           _Pallada_, cruiser, torpedoed.
-
-It should be added that the repairs to the _Askold_ were quickly
-executed, and that she was able to take part in the subsequent
-operations a few days later.
-
-[Sidenote: Alexeieff's Reason for Casualties]
-
-Admiral Alexeieff's dispatch to the Czar stated that the majority of
-the wounded belonged to the _Pallada_. The reason for this was that
-they were "poisoned by gases produced by the explosion of the torpedo
-charged with melinite."
-
-The Japanese fleet, naturally, did not emerge from such an action
-unscathed. Its losses in men were officially reported as 4 killed and
-54 wounded; and although the fighting efficiency of the fleet was not
-seriously impaired, two armored cruisers, the _Iwote_ and the _Yakumo_,
-were injured, and, as the casualties show, several other vessels were
-struck. But the most remarkable circumstance was that the torpedo-boats
-by which the night attack had been delivered escaped scot-free.
-
-[Sidenote: The Fight at Chemulpo]
-
-While the Russian capital was still reeling under the shock of this
-unexpected disaster, there came the news of a fresh blow struck by the
-Japanese arms in another quarter of the theatre of war. This was the
-naval engagement at Chemulpo--a port on the northwest coast of
-Korea--in which two of the Czar's warships and one transport steamer
-were destroyed. It is true that only one of these vessels had any
-fighting capacity, and that the conflict in itself was of much less
-consequence than the battle at Port Arthur, but the incident gave a
-further and mortifying revelation of the disorganization of the naval
-forces of Russia in the Far East, and of the total absence of anything
-like a bold and definite plan of operations from the minds of her
-commanders. In spite of the critical position in which the negotiations
-between the two Powers had been standing for weeks, the Russian fleet
-in the Yellow Sea was unconcentrated and generally unprepared for war.
-The outbreak of hostilities found two vessels, the _Varyag_, a
-protected cruiser of 6,500 tons, and the _Korietz_, a gunboat, old,
-indeed, but not without some use for coast defence, quietly stationed
-at Chemulpo, a ready prey for a Japanese squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: The First Shot]
-
-On the 8th instant a Russian steamer called the _Sungari_, which was
-employed for the transport of stores, entered the harbor with the news
-that a large fleet, which her captain believed to be Japanese, was fast
-approaching. The _Korietz_ was sent out to reconnoitre. The columns of
-smoke on the horizon did indeed come from the funnels of the enemy's
-ships. The advancing squadron consisted of a first-class battleship
-flying the flag of Admiral Uriu, and the cruisers _Akashi_,
-_Takachiho_, _Naniwa_ and _Chiyoda_, as well as seven torpedo-boats,
-the whole convoying transports with 2,500 Japanese troops on board. The
-_Korietz_ cleared her decks for action and fired--one account says that
-the shot was accidental--upon the rapidly approaching foe. The latter
-replied by discharging two torpedoes at the daring gunboat, which then
-retreated back into harbor. It is interesting to note that, whether the
-gunner of the _Korietz_ acted under orders or not, he fired the first
-shot in the war, for the incident occurred several hours before the
-torpedo attack upon Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Disembarkation]
-
-The Japanese took no further notice of the Russian ships until the
-disembarkation of their troops had been carried out, a process which
-was commenced immediately and was carried out through the night with
-great celerity and in the most perfect order. In this matter, indeed,
-as in all the preliminary stages of the war, the operations of the
-Mikado's forces showed how carefully thought out were the plans of his
-naval and military advisers. Not a detail appeared to have been
-omitted, every eventuality had been skilfully calculated beforehand,
-and as a result the whole machinery of warfare moved like clockwork.
-
-By four o'clock on the morning of the 9th the process of disembarkation
-had been successfully completed, and the soldiers had all found their
-pre-arranged billets on shore. The Japanese squadron then put out to
-sea once more, and waited for daylight before taking any action. At
-seven o'clock, however, the captain of the _Varyag_ was served with an
-ultimatum from Admiral Uriu declaring that hostilities had broken out
-between Russia and Japan, and summoning him to leave the harbor by
-midday. Should he refuse to do so, then the Japanese fleet would be
-compelled to attack the _Varyag_ and the _Korietz_ within the harbor. A
-correspondent of a London paper who was present on the spot states that
-the commanders of the other warships stationed at Chemulpo--namely, the
-British cruiser _Talbot_, the Italian _Elba_ and the French _Pascal_,
-held a meeting and drew up a strong protest addressed to the Japanese
-Admiral against his proposal to attack the Russian vessels in a neutral
-port. The message was sent out in the _Talbot's_ launch.
-
-[Sidenote: A Brave Russian Captain]
-
-The protest, however, was not needed, for the captain of the _Varyag_,
-in spite of the overwhelming disparity of forces, determined to face
-his enemies in the open. It was an act of conspicuous gallantry, only
-to be expected, it must be said, from the representative of a country
-whose sons, whatever their faults, have never been slow to die for her
-sake. The manner, too, in which the _Varyag_ set about her voyage to
-inevitable destruction was well worthy of the finest naval traditions
-of all countries and all ages. We are told that as the drums beat to
-quarters, and as the doomed ship steamed out amid the cheers of the
-foreign crews in the port, the band was massed upon her deck and burst
-into the strains of the Russian Hymn, the National Anthem. It was like
-that "flourish of insulting trumpets" with which Raleigh faced the guns
-of Cadiz, and the bravado of which Stevenson said he liked "better than
-the wisest dispositions to ensure victory; it comes from the heart and
-goes to it." No one, indeed, who is capable of generous emotions can
-fail to be uplifted by the story of the _Varyag's_ passage to death. It
-is well to know that the cold science of modern naval warfare and all
-those mathematical calculations and inventions which have displaced the
-ancient ascendency of brawn and muscle at close quarters have not
-quenched the eager spirit of the sailor, or diminished his "heroic
-superstitions and his strutting and vainglorious style of fight." It
-was with a spirit not less high and intrepid that the captain of the
-little _Korietz_, disregarding the orders of his superior officer to
-remain within the shelter of the harbor, followed in his wake and
-strove desperately to meet the same fate.
-
-[Sidenote: A Target for Japanese Gunners]
-
-Slowly but steadily the two ships held on their course towards the
-Polynesian Archipelago, where lay in wait their powerful foe. The
-_Varyag_ had reached Round Island, when at a distance of nearly two
-miles the Japanese flagship opened fire with one of her big guns. The
-aim of the gunners was true. Right amidships burst the great missile,
-doing terrible execution, and shell after shell followed with
-relentless rapidity. The _Varyag_, wheeling around in a small circle,
-responded dauntlessly with her 6-inch guns, but with little or no
-effect upon the battleship, and now Admiral Uriu's cruisers joined in
-the cannonade. Within half an hour of this fearful raking fire her
-bridge was shot away and her sides were gaping with holes, but she kept
-afloat and still withstood the onslaught, endeavoring heroically but in
-vain to find an opening by which to break through and escape out to
-sea. At last, after an hour's terrible pounding, she was compelled
-reluctantly to give up the attempt as hopeless, and, taking refuge
-among the islands, with difficulty crept back into Chemulpo harbor,
-disabled beyond repair and with her decks reduced to veritable
-shambles. Her desperate struggle had not left the enemy utterly
-scathless, for there seems no doubt that one of the Japanese cruisers
-received a good deal of damage.
-
-[Sidenote: The Plucky "Korietz"]
-
-In the meanwhile the little _Korietz_, with extraordinary bravery, but
-with absolutely pathetic ineffectiveness, had been attempting to
-imitate the manoeuvres of her consort and to do some injury to the
-big ships of the enemy. As well might a warrior with a popgun try to
-engage a battery of field artillery. It was magnificent, it certainly
-was not war. The range was hopelessly beyond her powers, and perhaps it
-was the bitterest drop in the cup of her commander and crew that the
-Japanese soon ceased to pay her any attention at all, concentrating all
-their efforts upon the more dangerous _Varyag_. When that vessel
-retreated at length into harbor, the _Korietz_ followed her unharmed
-but undisgraced.
-
-[Sidenote: Wounding and Burning]
-
-The wounded of the _Varyag_, numbering 4 officers and 214 men, were
-removed in boats to the British, Italian and French warships. The dead
-were left on board, for it was decided to scuttle the ship. At the same
-time arrangements were made to blow up the _Korietz_. Just as the
-Japanese fleet again appeared in sight the latter vessel blew up, and
-the shattered hull, after one great burst of flame and smoke, sank
-beneath the waters. The _Varyag_ refused to sink so easily, and the
-Russian sailors therefore again boarded her to set her on fire. After a
-little more than an hour she had burned down to the water's edge and,
-heeling over, disappeared. The _Sungari_ was the next to meet its fate,
-the Russians setting fire to it also to prevent its falling into the
-hands of the enemy.
-
-The Japanese fleet then steamed out to sea once more, having left
-behind it no further obstacle to the landing of troops on the west
-coast of Korea.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Handicap]
-
-Thus within forty-eight hours of the rupture of diplomatic relations,
-the first decisive action in the struggle for sea-supremacy had been
-fought, and the result left to the enterprising and intrepid Navy of
-Japan not only the immense moral value of a victory well contrived and
-unerringly accomplished, but the solid material advantage of a
-superiority in fighting strength which was incontestable.
-
-[Illustration:
-       GENERAL LINEVITCH.                      GENERAL GRIPENBERG.
-                          GENERAL KUROPATKIN.
-       GENERAL KAULBARS.                      GENERAL RENNENKAMPFF.
-
-                            RUSSIAN GENERALS]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-
-  No Rest for Russia--Port Arthur--The Russian Forts--Another
-    Russian Disaster--Second Night Attack--Japanese Daring--Demons
-    of the Storm--Moral Effect--Bottling up Port Arthur--The
-    Fireships--Fire and Searchlight--Rain of Shell--Russians Still
-    in the Woods--The Blockade--Transport Problems--Secrecy of
-    Japanese Movements--Admirable Arrangements--A Close
-    Censorship--Japanese Landings--Terrible Weather--At
-    Ping-Yang--Perfect Organization--At Seoul--The Korean
-    Emperor--A Japanese Protectorate--Advantage to Japan--Railway
-    Building--Japanese Rapidity--Dismay at St.
-    Petersburg--Alexeieff Criticised--General
-    Kuropatkin--Confessions of Weakness--Desperate Efforts--On the
-    Yalu--Round Niuchwang--Martial Law Proclaimed.
-
-
-[Sidenote: No Rest for Russia]
-
-If the Russians at Port Arthur imagined that an enemy so resourceful as
-Admiral Togo had shown himself to be would rest quietly upon his oars
-after the conspicuous successes of the 8th and 9th of February, they
-were greatly mistaken. The first course of action for the victor in
-such a case is to keep on striking and to give the harassed foe no
-rest--in the striking words of Captain Mahan, to "benumb the victim."
-This was precisely the plan of campaign adopted by the Japanese, who
-continued to show the same remarkable skill and coolness of
-calculation, and the same dash and daring in execution as had
-characterized their naval operations from the first. On the other hand,
-the disorganization of the Russian fleet, and of the defending force at
-Port Arthur generally, showed itself more markedly than ever, and the
-incapacity of the Czar's commanders conspired to aid the enterprise of
-the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur]
-
-Before entering, however, upon a narrative of the attacks upon Port
-Arthur which followed in swift succession upon the great battle of the
-9th, it may be well to give some description of that famous stronghold.
-The inner harbor is oval in shape, and two miles long from east to west
-and a mile in breadth from north to south. The shores are protected by
-hills, which the Russians had assiduously fortified since they obtained
-occupation of the place. Entrance is afforded from the south by a
-narrow channel, so narrow indeed that while it has the advantage of
-being easily held against an enemy, it has the counteracting
-disadvantage of being somewhat difficult of navigation for the ships of
-the defending fleet. The mouth of this channel is protected on the
-southwest by two dangerous reefs, which would prove a snare to an
-unwary foe; while on the eastern shore there stands the hill of
-Kwang-chin-shan, 250 feet above the sea level, upon which frown the
-guns of several powerful batteries. Upon the lower slopes the Russians
-had established two batteries of Canet quick-firing 5.5in. and 7.5mm.
-guns, with a torpedo and searchlight station. The entrance channel is
-flanked along the northwest by a narrow strip of land which goes by the
-expressive name of the "Tiger's Tail," and this strip was fortified
-with battery of 7 Canet 5.5in. quick-firing guns. The distance from the
-Pinnacle Rock, one of the reefs above mentioned as situated at the
-western corner of the entrance passage, to the opposite shore, is
-nearly 350 yards. In its course the channel narrows, till at one point
-it is only 500 feet in width, but it widens out again at the northern
-end. At the northeastern end lies the basin, or East Port. There is
-accommodation here for about a dozen large men-of-war, and on the north
-side stands the one dry dock for repairing large vessels of which Port
-Arthur can boast. On the other side of the channel, which at this point
-is 430 yards in width, lies the mouth of the harbor proper, facing the
-southeast. To enter it, ships have to round the Tiger's Tail, not a
-particularly easy process for men-of-war of the largest size. Nor is
-the harbor itself yet fitted to receive a great fleet. When the
-Russians took it over they found that it was too shallow for berthing
-vessels even of a moderate size; and in spite of the feverish activity
-of their engineers in the last year or two, the dredging operations
-have not proceeded far enough to allow of accommodations for more than
-three battleships, together with minor craft. Hence the Port Arthur
-squadron has generally been disposed either in the East Port, or basin,
-or in the open roadstead outside the entrance channel. It was indeed
-the position of the Russian ships in this latter anchorage that gave
-the Japanese the opportunity for their fatal torpedo attack on the 8th.
-
-[Illustration: _THE HARBOR OF PORT ARTHUR._]
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Forts]
-
-The land defences of Port Arthur were exceptionally strong. A range of
-forts, of which the Kwang-chin Hill already mentioned was the most
-important, commanded the harbor entrance; and another range of
-batteries, with the most powerful and up-to-date garrison ordnance,
-surmounted the hills which surround the town and protect it on the
-other side. Another line of forts guards the entrance channel on the
-west side, the most important being Wei-yuen. It seemed, indeed,
-undoubted that Port Arthur was impregnable from the sea, though at the
-beginning of the war European experts were not inclined to dogmatize as
-to the possibilities of its being stormed from the land side. As for
-the fleet, if it were lying in the West Harbor or in the East Port
-under the shadow of Kwan-chin, it would probably be perfectly safe from
-attack; but, on the other hand, it will be seen that there was a danger
-that the narrow entrance channel might be blocked up by an enterprising
-enemy, in which case the Czar's ships, even if they were the finest in
-the world, would be useless for all the essential purposes of naval
-warfare. This attempt to "cork up the bottle" was, indeed, nearly
-carried out by Admiral Togo in the course of the fortnight following
-the outbreak of war.
-
-[Sidenote: Another Russian Disaster]
-
-Two days after the great attack another disaster befell the hapless
-Russians. With this the Japanese fleet, which had retired temporarily
-to the Elliot Islands in the Korean Gulf to refit and repair injuries,
-had nothing to do. It was solely due to carelessness and mischance; and
-while illustrating the state of demoralization that existed at Port
-Arthur, it contributed to spread that demoralization still further
-among the already sufficiently harassed forces of the defenders. The
-mine transport _Yenesei_, which, with her sister ship the _Amur_, was
-engaged in superintending the mine defences of the harbor entrance,
-observing a submarine mine which had become detached floating on the
-surface of the water, approached it for the purpose of firing upon it
-and thus removing an obvious danger to the ships lying at anchor.
-Unfortunately, in the excitement of the process, Captain Stepanoff, who
-was in command, allowed his ship to drift upon a neighboring mine. A
-terrific explosion followed, and the _Yenesei_, with a yawning hole in
-her bows, began at once to settle down. An attempt was made to lower
-the boats, but the catastrophe was so sudden and unexpected that little
-could be done. Captain Stepanoff went down with his ship, and there
-perished also, either from the direct effects of the explosion or from
-drowning, the engineer, two midshipmen and ninety-two men of lower
-rank. Not only was this terrible disaster damaging to the _morale_ of
-the fleet, but it deprived Admiral Alexeieff of a valuable ship and of
-stores which he could ill spare. The _Yenesei_ was built at Kronstadt
-in 1898. She was of 2,500 tons displacement, with a speed of 17-1/2
-knots; was armed with five 4.7-inch and six smaller quick-firing guns,
-and was capable of carrying 500 mines. It is, of course, possible that
-she had not that full number on board at the time of the explosion, but
-in any case the loss in this respect alone must have been very severe.
-The accident throws an instructive and rather terrifying light upon the
-possible dangers of submarine mines, not only to the enemy who are
-attacking a fortified port, but also to the defenders themselves.
-
-[Sidenote: Second Night Attack]
-
-Before the Russians at Port Arthur had recovered from this
-nerve-shaking disaster the tireless foe flew at their throat once more.
-On the night of the 13th a flotilla of Japanese torpedo-boat destroyers
-started out to make another dash at the survivors of the Czar's fleet,
-which were still lying in the open roadstead, presenting for a daring
-and resourceful enemy a tempting object of attack. The flotilla was
-under the command of Captain Nagai. A blinding snowstorm was raging at
-the time, and it was no wonder in the circumstances that the vessels
-became separated from one another and that some lost their way
-altogether. But two, more fortunate than their fellows, hit the right
-course. These were the _Asagiri_, under Captain Iakawa, and the
-_Hayatori_, commanded by Captain Takanouchi. A snowstorm on that coast
-is enough to tax the skill and the courage of the most intrepid sailor,
-but the Japanese officers and crews were equal to the occasion. Right
-in the teeth of the awful blizzard, their decks sheeted with ice and
-snow, but with hearts on board hot with the fire of heroic adventure,
-the gallant little craft held steadily on their way. The navigating
-lieutenants had to find their course more by instinct than by
-calculation, for it was impossible to see anything clearly ahead
-through the pitch-darkness and the relentless snow. On, however, they
-crept through the terrible night, each working independently of the
-other, for under such conditions no concerted plan of attack was
-possible.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Daring]
-
-At three o'clock in the morning of the 14th, the _Asagiri_ reached the
-harbor mouth, and in she dashed regardless of the searchlights, which
-made broad, livid tracks even through the storm of snow. A hot fire at
-once broke out from the fortress and the ships, but the aim of the
-gunners was wild, and, undaunted by the perils of his situation,
-Captain Iakawa drove his boat right up to the Russian torpedo flotilla,
-and discharged a torpedo at one of the larger vessels, from whose
-funnels smoke was seen ascending. The deadly weapon went home, and
-after waiting to see that it exploded, the _Asagiri_ engaged in a smart
-exchange of shots with the enemy's torpedo boats and destroyers, in the
-course of which she sent a "scout" to the bottom. Then, and not till
-then, did her brave commander withdraw. Turning out to sea once more,
-and still hotly replying to the Russian fire until she was out of
-range, the _Asagiri_ safely escaped, covered with honor.
-
-[Sidenote: Demons of the Storm]
-
-Two hours later the _Hayatori_ arrived upon the scene and performed the
-same gallant feat. Still facing the terrors of the storm, she
-approached the harbor entrance and stealthily crept up to the fleet,
-which lay helplessly at anchor. At last the audacious little destroyer
-was discovered. Two vessels opened a fierce fire upon her, but without
-hesitation, though at the same time with the most deliberate coolness
-and perfect aim, she discharged a torpedo at the nearest ship. The
-missile was seen to explode, and then, like her consort, the _Asagiri_,
-fled safely to sea once more, after spiritedly returning the hot
-fusillade directed upon her from all quarters.
-
-[Sidenote: Moral Effect]
-
-In the characteristically restrained dispatch in which Admiral Togo
-described this brilliant feat of arms by the _Asagiri_ and the
-_Hayatori_, he remarked:--"It is impossible to state the definite
-material results, owing to the darkness, but the moral effect was
-certainly considerable." From other sources, however, something was
-learned of the character of the material damage done to the Russian
-fleet Not only was a scout destroyed, but the cruiser _Boyarin_ was
-injured by one of the torpedoes, and the Volunteer Fleet steamer
-_Kayan_ had her upper works knocked about by a shell from one of the
-Russian guns. The exact amount of the damage done was not revealed on
-the Russian side, but there can at all events be no doubt that, in the
-words of the Japanese Admiral, the moral effect was considerable. It is
-clear from the safe return of these two small destroyers out of the
-very jaws of the enemy, that the Russian gunners had become
-demoralized, and the ineffectiveness of Admiral Alexeieff's own torpedo
-flotilla in the face of an attack which it was peculiarly designed to
-meet points strongly in the same direction.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN FLEET TRYING TO LEAVE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Bottling up Port Arthur]
-
-But still a third harassing attack was in store for the Russian fleet.
-While one division of his torpedo-boat destroyers was thus carrying
-confusion and dismay into the ranks of his opponents, Admiral Togo,
-holding his main fleet within the shelter of the Elliot Islands, was
-quietly preparing for a larger and more far-reaching _coup_. This was
-to be nothing less than the operation of "corking up the bottle," in
-other words sinking ships at the entrance to Port Arthur Harbor, and
-blocking the fairway against passage of the Russian ships. It was an
-enterprise in some ways similar to the famous exploit of Lieutenant
-Hobson of the _Merrimac_ at Santiago-de-Cuba during the
-Spanish-American War, but in the present case the blockading fleet
-attained less success.
-
-[Sidenote: The Fire Ships]
-
-Five old steamers were chartered for the purpose. Their names were the
-_Tenshin Maru_, the _Bushu Maru_, the _Buyo Maru_, the _Hokoku Maru_,
-and the _Jinsen Maru_. Two of these, under the names of the _Rohilla_
-and the _Brindisi_, were formerly in the service of the Peninsular and
-Oriental Company. It may here be remarked that the spirit animating all
-ranks of the Japanese in this war was shown by the numbers of
-volunteers who came forward for the dangerous task of manning the
-doomed steamers. The difficulty, indeed, was not to find sufficient
-men, but to select the limited force required without giving offence to
-the remainder of the host who sought to share in the glorious risk. At
-last, however, the officers and crews were chosen, and the vessels,
-having been carefully filled with heavy stones and explosives, left for
-Port Arthur on the morning of the 23rd of February, escorted by a
-flotilla of torpedo boats and destroyers.
-
-[Sidenote: Fire and Searchlight]
-
-In the darkness of the early morning of the 24th, they reached the
-roadstead outside Port Arthur, the _Tenshin Maru_ leading the way. The
-Russians, however, were more vigilant than on former occasions, and
-their searchlights soon revealed the renewed presence of their
-insatiable enemy. The _Tenshin Maru_, steering too far to the left,
-came within the fire of the batteries on the Tiger's Tail at close
-range. She was disabled by a shell, ran upon the rocks three miles to
-the southwest of the harbor entrance, and there blew up. The other
-steamers changed their course to the northeast, but the attentions of
-the Russian searchlight operators rendered their progress highly
-difficult and dangerous, and they were soon the object of a positive
-storm of fire from the forts on the Tiger's Tail, Golden Hill, and
-Electric Cliff, and also from the damaged _Retvisan_, which lay
-grounded at the entrance to the channel. The _Bushu Maru_ was the first
-to suffer from the cannonade. Her steering gear was carried away, and,
-staggering blindly to the west, she grounded close to the _Tenshin
-Maru_, blew up, and sank. The fate of the _Buyo Maru_ was no better.
-She was raked fore and aft by the Russian shells, and before she could
-reach the coveted entrance she also exploded and sank beneath the
-waters.
-
-[Sidenote: Rain of Shells]
-
-The _Hokoku Maru_ and the _Jinsen Maru_ were more successful. They made
-a rush together for the harbor channel, and got close up to the
-_Retvisan_. Disregarding the heavy fire directed upon them from the
-disabled but still dangerous monster, the adventurous volunteers calmly
-anchored their vessels upon the spot previously selected. Then only did
-they set the match to the fuses. Cheering loudly, but with no undue
-precipitation, they now took to the boats and pulled away in perfect
-order, in spite of the rain of shells and bullets showered around them
-on every side. The abandoned steamers blew up immediately afterwards
-and sank close to the lighthouse at the channel mouth. The activity of
-the Russian searchlights and the hot fire from the guns of the
-_Retvisan_ and the forts compelled the men in the boats to take a very
-roundabout course, and they could not regain the Japanese torpedo
-fleet, which in the meantime had successfully picked up the crews of
-the other sunken ships. But the situation of the sailors of the _Hokoku
-Maru_ and the _Jinsen Maru_ was full of peril. To add to their
-difficulties, the wind rose to a gale towards daybreak, and they were
-driven out of their course. But they struggled bravely on, and, after
-enduring great hardships, they managed to reach the main fleet about
-three o'clock in the afternoon. According to the Japanese Admiral's
-report, all engaged returned in safety from this dangerous enterprise,
-an achievement comparable to the most daring "cutting-out" expeditions
-of olden times. It should be added that not a single destroyer or
-torpedo-boat was injured.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians Still in the Wood]
-
-Owing to the failure of three of the steamers to reach the entrance of
-the channel, and the insufficient size of the two which were
-successfully sunk there, the main object of the scheme was not
-attained, but it is thought that some temporary inconvenience was
-caused to the Russians, especially as the position of the grounded
-_Retvisan_ herself was already something of an impediment to
-navigation. Extraordinary jubilation was created in the Czar's
-dominions, particularly in the Capital, by the failure of the Japanese
-expeditions. It was at first thought by the defending force, in the
-darkness and confusion, that the merchant steamers were men-of-war, and
-a grandiloquent account was sent to St. Petersburg by an imaginative
-correspondent announcing no less a disaster to the Japanese than the
-destruction of four of their battleships, after a severe engagement in
-which the wounded _Retvisan_ had covered herself with glory. The news
-was quickly transmitted abroad by the semi-official agency, and the
-greatest excitement was caused in every capital in Europe. Cool-headed
-people, nevertheless, waited for some confirmation of this remarkable
-story, and when the truth came out the partisans of Russia were
-chagrined to find what a different complexion the real facts wore.
-Admiral Alexeieff, however, after the previous disasters which had
-befallen his fleet, was to be pardoned, perhaps, for the somewhat
-exultant tone of his dispatch to the Czar, in which he attributed what
-he called "the complete derangement of the enemy's plan" to "the
-brilliant resistance and destructive fire of the _Retvisan_."
-
-[Sidenote: The Blockade]
-
-Undiscouraged by the failure of this attempt to bottle up the enemy,
-Admiral Togo continued to maintain a strict blockade of the port, and
-to pursue the policy of alternate torpedo attacks and heavy
-bombardments at frequent intervals. But before proceeding with the
-story of these damaging and disconcerting operations, it will be
-convenient to describe the course which events were taking in other
-quarters of the theatre of war.
-
-[Sidenote: Transport Problems]
-
-The signal success of Japan at sea had reduced to comparatively simple
-proportion the problem of the transport of her forces to the seat of
-war on land, where the curtain was about to rise on the most desperate
-act in the great drama. With half the Russian fleet at Port Arthur
-disabled, with the other half confined to the harbor by strict
-blockade, and with the Vladivistock cruiser squadron reduced to
-ineffective isolation, the Mikado's military advisers were able to
-choose the most convenient landing-places in Korea with a freedom which
-was only limited by the difficulties of the winter season. This indeed
-was a serious impediment to the movement of troops in large numbers.
-Not only were most of the available harbors both in Korea and on the
-Liao-tung Peninsula blocked by the ice, but when the invading force
-landed it found the roads in such a state as to render them almost
-impassable. The country was covered with snow several inches deep; the
-frost was biting; and even when milder weather began to prevail the
-conditions did not at once prove more favorable to marching operations
-and to the conveyance of heavy artillery. For the time being, in fact,
-they grew worse rather than better, for the thaw produced a perfect sea
-of mud, which made progress northwards a terribly slow and painful
-business. Anyone who has tried to cross a ploughed field during the
-break up of a prolonged frost can form some idea--faint, however, at
-the best--of the pleasures of marching in Korea at the beginning of
-spring.
-
-[Sidenote: Secrecy of Japanese Movements]
-
-In spite, nevertheless, of all the natural difficulties of the
-situation, the Japanese proceeded steadily and systematically to "weave
-the crimson web of war." Nothing has been more remarkable in the course
-of these operations both by sea and by land than the complete secrecy
-with which the Mikado's strategists have veiled all their important
-movements until the calculated blow has been struck. In this, of
-course, they have been aided by their speedy acquisition of the command
-of the sea. All the correspondents who have proceeded to the seat of
-war agree in paying mortified tributes to the thoroughness of the
-Japanese press censorship. For weeks together a great army of
-"specials" were condemned idly to kick their heels at Nagasaki, while
-before their eyes transport after transport, crowded with soldiery, was
-leaving that port for unknown destinations. It was, however, generally
-evident on the face of the broad facts of the situation, that the main
-objective of the Japanese armies at that time was the west coast of
-Korea; for though the ports in the district were undoubtedly difficult
-of access on account of the ice, the condition of things on the
-Liao-tung Peninsula, the other probable place of disembarkation, was
-very much worse.
-
-[Sidenote: Admirable Arrangements]
-
-Before the end of February over forty transports sailed from Nagasaki,
-and a still larger embarkation went on at Ujina, near Hiroshima, where
-a great force of horse, foot, and artillery were steadily detrained
-every day and sent on board. The admirable arrangements made by the
-Japanese directors of mobilization and transport were the theme of
-universal praise among unprejudiced observers. Everything had been
-carefully thought out beforehand; all the necessary material was ready;
-and consequently, when war broke out, there was no confusion, no undue
-haste--only the ordered bustle of men who knew exactly what they had to
-do and how it was to be done, down to the veriest detail. Special
-wharves had been prepared and were in position within a few days, with
-railway lines laid upon them, connecting them with the main lines over
-which the troops travelled from the interior, so that the trains could
-be brought down almost to the water's edge. Here the soldiers were
-detrained, and, after a meal, embarked upon lighters and steam
-launches, and were conveyed swiftly to the ships to which they were
-assigned. These transports averaged 6,000 tons in burden, and were
-excellently fitted up for their purpose. An important part of the
-vessels' equipment in each case was a number of large surf-boats or
-sampans, about the most useful form of boat possible for landing troops
-in the shoal waters of the Korean harbors.
-
-[Sidenote: A Close Censorship]
-
-What was taking place in the meanwhile on the other side of the
-channel, and particularly upon the western coast of the Hermit Kingdom?
-We now know something of the strength and the disposition of the
-Japanese forces, although right up to the last moment before the
-general advance only the smallest items of information were allowed to
-pass through the narrow-meshed net of the censorship.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Landings]
-
-According to the most trustworthy accounts, however, there seems little
-doubt that the chief point of disembarkation of the Mikado's army was
-Chinampo, a small and obscure treaty port situated about 150 miles
-north of Chemulpo. We have already related the landing of the Japanese
-advance guard at Chemulpo on February 8th, before the naval battle
-which resulted in the destruction of the _Varyag_ and the _Korietz_.
-This force, which belonged to the 12th Infantry Division under General
-Inouye, and consisted of 2,500 men, was billeted at once in the little
-town, and was followed during the next few days by the remainder of the
-Division, with transport corps, train, and engineers. When the Mikado's
-advisers had been assured of the success of the initial naval
-operations and of Admiral Togo's supremacy at sea, a small expedition
-was immediately landed near Haiju, a place situated about half-way
-between Chemulpo and Chinampo, and sent forward by the Seoul-Wiju road
-to seize Ping-Yang, a strategical point the importance of which was
-amply demonstrated in the Chino-Japanese war. The main body of General
-Inouye's Division followed with all possible speed from Chemulpo.
-
-[Sidenote: Terrible Weather]
-
-The hardships which these troops had to face were terrible indeed. The
-weather was at its worst. Heavy rain was succeeded by frost, and on the
-top of the frost came snow, and cruel blinding blizzards, in the teeth
-of which the little Japs, each man burdened with a weight of 100 lbs.,
-had to struggle as best they could. In the circumstances the
-achievement of these forerunners of the Mikado's main army did an
-admirable piece of work. They did a steady march of 25 miles a day,
-bivouacking in the dirty Korean villages by night. At last, after four
-or five days, the force reached Ping-Yang and proceeded with all
-expedition to fortify it against possible attack. By the end of
-February a considerable body of troops was in occupation of Ping-Yang,
-and patrols were being pushed northwards to Anju.
-
-[Sidenote: At Ping-Yang]
-
-The seizure of this strong position, providing as it did against any
-immediate danger from the north, enabled the Japanese to land higher up
-the coast than Chemulpo, and henceforth the main work of disembarkation
-in this quarter was carried on at Chinampo, access to which is gained
-by an arm of the sea called the Ping-Yang Inlet.
-
-[Sidenote: Perfect Organization]
-
-Here we find the complement of the operations which at Nagasaki and
-Ujina excited such keen admiration on the part of foreign critics.
-Perfect order and discipline characterized the disembarkation of the
-Japanese, as it had characterized their embarkation. The Pink-Yang
-Inlet is difficult of navigation at the best of times, but the inherent
-difficulties were enormously enhanced at this period of the year by the
-drift ice, which rendered landing an awkward and, in some cases, a
-hazardous undertaking. But the Japanese showed that admirable
-forethought which has characterized every step they have taken, and the
-transports brought with them large numbers of pontoon wharves, which
-enabled the troops to disembark from the sampans at some distance from
-the shore, and to march easily on to firm land. Here the hardy
-Japanese, in spite of the severe cold, bivouacked for the most part in
-the open, and were then pushed forward with all possible rapidity
-towards Ping-Yang. By the middle of March, as far as can be estimated,
-at least 80,000 men had landed in Korea ready to advance northwards as
-soon as the weather would permit; General Kuroki, commanding the 1st
-Army Corps, assuming the direction of affairs until the arrival of
-Baron Kodama, the Chief of the General Staff, who had been appointed
-Commander-in-Chief.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE DESTROYERS AT CLOSE QUARTERS, MARCH
-9TH.]
-
-[Sidenote: At Seoul]
-
-In the meanwhile a strong force, under General Inouye, had marched upon
-Seoul, and without difficulty overawed the feeble Emperor and his
-corrupt Court. On the 12th of February M. Pavloff, whose name had for
-so long been a word to conjure with in Korea, left the capital for
-Chemulpo under the humiliating protection of a Japanese guard. M.
-Pavloff, it is said, was thunderstruck by the news of the disasters to
-the Russian navy, and by the sudden revelation of the real strength of
-the hitherto despised Island Empire. It was now clear to the world, and
-not least to his dupes, the Koreans, that the diplomatic bluff in which
-he, in common with his administrative chief, Admiral Alexeieff, had
-been indulging for so long was ludicrously out of proportion to the
-naval and military preparations which would ultimately have to support
-it. But the power of this able man at the Court of Seoul, though broken
-for the moment, was not by any means destroyed. So well had he done his
-work that even in the hour of Japan's triumph he still managed to find
-tools in the corrupt servants of the Emperor, and when he had taken his
-departure for Shanghai more than one attempt to communicate with him
-had to be frustrated by the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: The Korean Emperor]
-
-For the time being, however, the star of Japan was unquestionably in
-the ascendant at Seoul. The Emperor hastened to congratulate the Mikado
-on the victory of his fleet, and assured him that in view of Korea's
-position her satisfaction equalled that of the Japanese. At the same
-time the Korean local officials were ordered by the central Government
-to give every facility to the invading troops.
-
-[Sidenote: A Japanese Protectorate]
-
-But a more definite acknowledgment of Japanese supremacy followed. On
-February 23rd an important agreement was signed at Seoul by M. Hayashi,
-the Minister of the Mikado, and General Yi-Chi-Yong, the Korean
-Minister for Foreign Affairs. By the terms of this Protocol, Korea,
-"convinced of Japan's friendship," undertook to adopt the advice of the
-Japanese Government in regard to administrative reform "with a view to
-consolidating the peace of the Orient." On the other hand, Japan
-guaranteed the safety of the Imperial family and the independence and
-territorial integrity of Korea. In pursuance of this provision, the
-fourth Article declared that an encroachment by a third Power, or an
-internal disturbance resulting in danger to either of these interests,
-would justify prompt measures on the part of Japan, who would receive
-assistance from Korea, and in order to give effect to such action Japan
-might occupy strategical points in Korea if necessary.
-
-[Sidenote: Advantage to Japan]
-
-The object of this agreement was, of course, to regularize Japan's
-position in the eyes of the Powers and at the same time to give a sop
-to the dignity of Korea. Its most important point, as far as the future
-was concerned, was the definite guarantee on the part of Japan of the
-independence and territorial integrity of the Hermit Kingdom. The
-significance of this action of the Mikado's Government, as foretelling
-the lines of their permanent policy in the event of a final victory
-over the forces of the Czar, was heightened by the visit to Seoul a few
-weeks afterwards, on a special mission, of Japan's most famous
-statesman, the Marquis Ito. The attention was reciprocated by the
-dispatch of a special envoy from the Korean Court to Tokio. The most
-important immediate effect, however, of the complete ascendancy now
-acquired by Japan at Seoul was of military rather than of civil
-interest. This was the granting of a concession to the Japanese under
-Article 4 of the Protocol, for the construction of the projected
-railway between Seoul and Wiju, on the Yalu River, while at the same
-time arrangements were made for the completion of the southern portion
-of the line between Seoul and Fusan, a port at the southern extremity
-of Korea.
-
-[Sidenote: Railway Building]
-
-Here the marvelous organization of the Japanese War Office came into
-evidence once more. All the preparations for acting upon this
-concession had already been made. The material which had been intended
-for the construction of some unimportant railways in Japan was at hand
-ready to be transferred to the seat of war, and the engineer and
-pioneer corps only waited for the conclusion of the necessary
-formalities to begin operations. On March 8th a body of 8,000 men
-started work on the line between Seoul and Wiju, and the enterprise was
-conducted at high pressure, the material being conveyed with all
-possible speed by steamers from Japan. The value of this railway for
-strategical purposes will be obvious to anyone who studies the map;
-and, more fortunate than the Russians, the Japanese, provided that they
-could hold the northern part of Korea at all, were not likely to be
-faced with the difficulties which had proved so embarrassing to their
-enemy, in the shape of brigands and train-wreckers, in Manchuria. The
-completion of the whole line as far as Fusan would furthermore make
-them practically independent of sea transport for men as well as
-supplies, except, of course, as far as the narrow Korean Channel is
-concerned.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Rapidity]
-
-It will thus be seen that, considering the inevitable delay due to the
-severity of the season, the preparations for a general advance by the
-Japanese army had been conducted with remarkable celerity and success,
-and that by the middle of March great progress had been made.
-
-We must now turn to the Russian side of the war.
-
-[Sidenote: Dismay at St. Petersburg]
-
-One of the first consequences of the reverses at Port Arthur was a
-change in the commands. The unexpected collapse of the Russian navy
-under the attacks of the despised Japanese caused grave searchings of
-heart at St. Petersburg, and there can be no doubt that the Czar
-himself was greatly shocked by the revelation both of the lack of
-readiness of his fleet and of the strange paralysis of enterprise on
-the part of the Admiral in command. It was not long before the Imperial
-displeasure was visited upon this officer, Admiral Starck. On the 16th
-of February he was formally superseded, and Admiral Makaroff,
-Commander-in-Chief at Kronstadt, and a sailor of proved energy and
-skill, was appointed to the command of the Pacific Fleet in his place.
-The official reason, indeed, which was given out for Admiral Starck's
-recall was "ill-health," but this ingenious euphemism deceived nobody,
-the less so because the same mysterious complaint simultaneously seized
-hold of Rear-Admiral Molas, his second Chief of the Staff, who was
-recalled in the same Imperial Ukase.
-
-[Sidenote: Alexeieff Criticized]
-
-The Viceroy himself did not escape criticism at the hands of the
-Russian public, and in official circles at St. Petersburg keen censure
-was bestowed upon him for his share in the disasters which had befallen
-the fleet under his control; but he still appeared to retain the
-confidence of his master the Czar. It soon became apparent, however,
-that the military problem in Manchuria presented difficulties of its
-own hardly less embarrassing than those which were being experienced at
-sea, and as the magnitude of the task dawned upon the Czar and his
-advisers, it was deemed necessary to take drastic measures. On February
-21st, therefore, the celebrated General Kuropatkin, Minister for War,
-and the first Russian military strategist of the day, was appointed
-Commander-in-Chief of the land forces in the Far East. It was carefully
-explained that Admiral Alexeieff, as a naval officer, could not be
-expected to conduct great operations on land, but it was apparent to
-everyone that as these land operations were now destined finally to
-decide the issue of the great conflict, the direction of the whole war
-on the Russian side had virtually passed to General Kuropatkin.
-
-[Sidenote: General Kuropatkin]
-
-Some slight account of this famous captain may not be out of place
-here. Like so many of Russia's distinguished men, both in the past and
-in the present, Alexis Nikolaievitch Kuropatkin has owed his rise
-rather to merit than to influence. His family was indeed a noble one,
-but it was little known, and his early advancement in the service was
-due to his own ability and industry, and not to high connections. When
-quite young, however, he was fortunate enough to attract the attention
-of the celebrated Skobeleff, and he became a great favorite as well as
-a zealous disciple of that famous cavalry leader. His opportunity came
-in the Russo-Turkish War, where he displayed notable dash and
-gallantry, risking his life recklessly in the terrible conflict at
-Plevna. In crossing the Balkans he captured a large Turkish force, and
-was promoted to the command of a division. Towards the close of the war
-he became Chief of the Staff to Skobeleff, and in the campaign against
-the Turkomans, which followed, and which resulted in the conquest of
-Turkestan, he served that great General in the same capacity. His rise
-was indeed remarkably rapid; promotion came to him while he was young
-and active enough to make the best use of it; and although he had held
-the highest position in the army--the Ministry for War--for some years,
-his age was now only fifty-six. Like most successful men, he was not
-without his critics and detractors--it was said indeed that among these
-was to be found Admiral Alexeieff himself, and that there was no love
-lost between the two--but there can be no doubt of the General's
-immense popularity with the army. His appointment to the supreme
-command caused a universal feeling of relief to spread not only
-throughout the Service, but throughout all classes of society in
-Russia, while at the same time it proved that the real seriousness of
-the task which lay then in the Far East had at last been grasped by the
-Czar's Government.
-
-[Sidenote: Confessions of Weakness]
-
-For a time indeed the haughty disdain of their puny foe, which had
-characterized Russian official circles before the war, was succeeded by
-a feeling of acute pessimism. To prepare the public for the worst, an
-official _communique_ was issued at St. Petersburg, in which, after an
-outburst of well affected indignation against the so-called treachery
-of the enemy, the people were warned that much time was necessary in
-order to strike at Japan blows "worthy of the dignity and might of
-Russia," while the state of unpreparedness on land as well as at sea
-was revealed in the phrase, "the distance of the territory now attached
-and the desire of the Czar to maintain peace were the causes of the
-impossibility of preparations for war being made a long time in
-advance." Simultaneously with the issue of this extraordinary
-confession came the news that Admiral Alexeieff with his staff had left
-Port Arthur and proceeded to Harbin, at the junction of the Manchurian
-railway and the branch line to Vladivostock, there to effect a
-concentration of all the available Russian forces.
-
-[Sidenote: Desperate Efforts]
-
-These facts combined were generally taken as indicating the intention
-of the Czar's Government to abandon Port Arthur and Southern Manchuria,
-for the time being, to their fate, and to make the first real stand
-against the enemy on the borders of Eastern Siberia. Desperate,
-however, as the situation appeared to be in these early days of the
-war, it undoubtedly improved somewhat in the next few weeks, and the
-delay which the severe climatic conditions imposed upon the Japanese
-advance necessarily aided the Russians. General Linevitch, commander of
-the Siberian Army Corps, to whom the direction of military affairs was
-entrusted pending the arrival of General Kuropatkin, made desperate
-exertions to collect an effective force as far south as possible, and
-it was regarded as highly probable, from such scraps of news as were
-allowed to creep through the censorship, that by the third week of
-March he had at his disposal in Southern Manchuria a force of about
-50,000 men, the bulk of which was concentrated at Liao-Yang, some forty
-or fifty miles below Mukden.
-
-[Sidenote: On the Yalu]
-
-At the same time a smaller body of troops held the Yalu River, and
-patrols were sent southwards. As early as February 28th, one of these
-patrols, consisting of three Cossacks under the command of Lieutenant
-Lonchakoff, came into touch with a Japanese patrol outside Ping-Yang.
-The Japanese retreated, and the Russians, after advancing within 700
-paces of the town, retired also before the sharp fire directed upon
-them from the walls. This was the first land skirmish of the war; it
-was a small affair of outposts only; and a long interval was to elapse
-before a more serious conflict could become possible.
-
-[Sidenote: Round Niuchwang]
-
-Important, however, as were the events occurring in Korea, it was felt
-by experts in Europe that the most momentous developments on land were
-destined to take place on the western shore of the Liao-tung Peninsula,
-and that the advance upon the Yalu was really intended to cover a blow
-at a spot more vital to Russia's power. But here, by the nature of
-things, the movements of the Japanese could not be so rapid. As already
-indicated, the ice-bound condition of the Liao-tung coast prevented any
-landing operations in that quarter before the end of March or the
-beginning of April, when the frozen belt usually begins to break up. As
-soon as the advancing spring brought about the changed state of affairs
-it was apparent that a descent in force would become practicable to the
-Japanese both at Kinchau in Society Bay, where the peninsula narrows
-down to a mere neck of land, and, more important still, at Niuchwang,
-the treaty port at the north of the gulf. At either of these spots it
-would be comparatively easy to cut the Manchurian railway and sever
-communication between Port Arthur and the Russian headquarters, but the
-seizure of Niuchwang would be of much greater consequence than that of
-Kinchau, as it would place the invading army within easy striking
-distance of Mukden itself. Furthermore, the very process of the break
-up of the ice at Niuchwang, as long as it lasts, is favorable in some
-respects to the landing of an army. In winter the river is frozen out
-to sea for a considerable distance, and thus, when the spring arrives,
-the estuary presents the appearance of several square miles of moving
-ice-floes, tossed hither and thither by the swift and devious currents,
-and rendering the task of laying mines for the defence of the port
-practically impossible. Another advantage possessed by the Japanese in
-attacking from this quarter lay in the physical character of the
-country and in the friendliness of its inhabitants. The boggy nature of
-the land threatened to deprive the Russian cavalry of half its
-usefulness, while it was eminently suited for the movements of
-infantry, in which Japan found her greatest strength; on the other
-hand, the Japanese had made themselves very popular with the
-inhabitants during their war with China, and could depend upon the
-natives for ample supplies.
-
-[Illustration: THE CZAR.]
-[Illustration: THE MIKADO.]
-
-[Sidenote: Martial Law Proclaimed]
-
-The extreme probability on all these grounds of a Japanese descent upon
-Niuchwang was doubtless evident to the Russians themselves, for they
-made great exertions to put the port into a state of defence, and their
-concentration at Liao-Yang, fifty miles or so to the north, was clearly
-designed to meet danger from this quarter. Niuchwang itself, however,
-is not very easily defended against a strong force attacking from the
-sea. The forts are of little avail against the guns of powerful
-men-of-war; and therefore, although General Kondrotovitch, the able
-officer in command, had done his best to strengthen the defences of the
-town, and was said to have some twenty or thirty thousand troops at his
-disposal by the end of March, it seemed clear that this was a vitally
-weak spot in Russia's extended front. On Monday, March 28th, the
-Russian authorities at Niuchwang declared martial law in this "neutral
-port" in the following terms:
-
-According to an order issued by the Viceroy of his Imperial Majesty in
-the Far East, the Port of Ying-kow has been proclaimed under martial
-law. Until the publication of the order the following regulations will
-be enforced, and will be brought into immediate operation:
-
-(1) Martial law extends over the town and port of Ying-kow, over the
-whole population, without distinction of nationalities.
-
-(2) All passengers and cargoes arriving must undergo examination. For
-this purpose steamers, sailing vessels and junks, having entered the
-mouth of the river, must anchor at a distance of six miles below the
-fort. A steam-launch, during daylight, with a naval and Customs officer
-on board, will meet the vessels at that spot. They will examine the
-vessels and conduct them to berths allotted by the Customs officers.
-
-(3) The import of arms and ammunition is prohibited.
-
-(4) It is prohibited to export to any ports of Japan or Korea articles
-of military contraband.
-
-(5) When exporting articles to neutral ports the shipper must deposit
-with the Customs security equal to the value of the cargo, as a
-guarantee that the cargo shall not be reshipped from a neutral port to
-Japanese or Korean ports.
-
-(6) Lightships and leading marks will temporarily cease to be used at
-the mouth of the river.
-
-(7) When dealing with articles of contraband of war, the regulations
-sanctioned by his Majesty on February 14th, 1904, are to serve for the
-guidance of the military and civil authorities of the town and port of
-Ying-kow, who must be guided by the published regulations defending the
-administration of the provinces.
-
-(8) If beans and beancake are exported, a sum equal to twice their
-value must be deposited with the Customs.
-
-                                                 (Signed) VICTOR GROSSE.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-
-  Firing on the Unarmed--Snowstorms and Bitter Frost--Reconnoitring
-    at Vladivostock--At the Mouth of the Golden Horn--Careful
-    Japanese Calculation--Bombardment at Long Range--Russian Ships
-    Lying Low--Makaroff to the Rescue--A Chance for Russian
-    Torpedoes--Sea Fight at Close Quarters--Severe
-    Casualties--Another Hot Fight--Unprecedented Japanese
-    Daring--Carnage Indescribable--Makaroff Outpaced--A Useless
-    Prize--Bombardment by Wireless Telegraphy--Port Arthur a
-    Hell--Golden Hill Silenced--Terrific Missiles--A Vivid
-    Picture--Blood, Blood Everywhere--Further Naval
-    Movements--Hoist with its own Petard--Another Attempt to
-    "Bottle"--Makaroff's Feint--Wary Enemies--Russians Taking
-    Heart--Individual Heroism.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Firing on the Unarmed]
-
-We must now return to the naval operations; but before dealing with the
-proceedings of Admiral Togo's fleet off Port Arthur, it will be well
-perhaps briefly to follow the fortunes of the Russian cruiser squadron
-stationed at Vladivostock, of which so much had been expected as an
-agency for the destruction of Japanese commerce on the high seas. The
-first news received of these cruisers after the outbreak of war did
-indeed appear to bear out the hopes which the Russians had entertained
-of them in this respect; but after one solitary exploit--the sinking of
-a Japanese merchantman--the squadron disappeared from view altogether,
-and for several weeks its movements became one of the most remarkable
-mysteries of a mysterious situation. It will be remembered that the
-vessels composing the squadron were the powerful first-class cruisers,
-the _Gromoboi_, the _Bogatyr_, the _Rossia_, and the _Rurik_, and the
-whole was under the command of Captain Reitzenstein, formerly the
-commander of the _Askold_. Apparently the orders given to the Commodore
-were to cruise about the coast of Manchuria and Japan with the object
-of picking off stray merchantmen belonging to the enemy, and it was
-while he was acting in pursuance of these instructions that Captain
-Reitzenstein, on February 11th, fell in with two Japanese steamers--the
-_Nakonoura Maru_ and the _Zensko Maru_, off the Tsugaru Straits, which
-lie between the islands of Hondo--the Japanese mainland--and Yezo. The
-larger of the two, the _Nakonoura Maru_, was an old ship, built in
-1865, and of 1,084 tons burden; the smaller, the _Zensko Maru_, of only
-319 tons, was quite modern, having been built in 1895. They were bound
-in company from Sokata, in the province of Nizan, to Otaru, in Yezo.
-The older and slower boat fell an easy prey to the Russian cruisers;
-but it would seem that she offered fight, for she was surrounded by the
-men-of-war, bombarded, and sunk, her crew being taken on board the
-Russian ships. This act called forth a great outburst of indignation in
-Japan and also in the United States; for though, of course, a
-merchantman can justifiably be captured as a prize of war, it is not
-usual to destroy an unarmed ship out of hand. The official telegrams,
-however, gave no particulars as to the extent of the resistance
-offered, and it must be allowed that if the _Nakonoura Maru_ absolutely
-refused to surrender, the Russian men-of-war would have no option but
-to fire upon her and let her take the inevitable consequences. The
-_Zensko Maru_, more fortunate than her consort, showed the Russians a
-clear pair of heels and escaped safely to the shelter of the port of
-Fukuyama, in Yezo.
-
-[Sidenote: Snowstorms and Bitter Frost]
-
-This insignificant feat of arms was the sole success in the way of the
-destruction of commerce which could be put to the credit of Captain
-Reitzenstein's squadron in the early days of the war, and the fates
-soon proved unkind to him. The stormy weather which inconvenienced the
-Mikado's fleet off Port Arthur raged in the Japan Sea with peculiar
-severity, and for three days after the destruction of the _Nakonoura
-Maru_ the Russian squadron flew before a heavy gale, aggravated by
-snowstorms and bitter frost. An official message from Admiral Alexeieff
-reporting these facts was the last authentic news of the Vladivostock
-squadron that reached the outside world for many weeks. Rumor upon the
-subject was, of course, busy in Russia. Now it was reported that the
-activity of Captain Reitzenstein had reduced the over-sea trade of
-Japan to a standstill; now it was stated (on the best authority, of
-course) that the squadron had escaped, and evading the Mikado's ships
-in some marvelous fashion, had joined the Russian fleet at Port Arthur;
-still a third and wilder story made out that it was on its way to
-Europe to effect a junction with the Baltic fleet, which, it was
-declared, was to be dispatched to the Far East in July. The truth
-appears to have been that after infinite trouble and hardship Captain
-Reitzenstein managed once more to make Vladivostock, and that his
-storm-tossed ships took refuge again in the harbor, into which a free
-passage was maintained by the efforts of the ice-breakers.
-
-[Sidenote: Reconnoitring at Vladivostock]
-
-The Japanese Commanders, however, were ignorant of the whereabouts of
-this dangerous force, and a strong squadron was therefore sent into
-Japan Sea to search it out, and, if possible, destroy it altogether.
-The fleet dispatched for this purpose consisted of one battleship and
-six cruisers, with a torpedo-destroyer flotilla. The cruisers, it
-should be observed, included the newly-acquired _Nisshin_ and _Kasaga_,
-which had just been fitted up for war. Rear-Admiral Kamimura, Admiral
-Togo's second in command at Port Arthur, had direction of the
-operations, no word of which was allowed at the time to leak out
-through the ordinary channels. A careful patrol was made of the whole
-of the coast, both of Manchuria and Japan, several days of this close
-search finally bringing the Japanese squadron to the very mouth of
-Vladivostock Harbor itself. Considerable excitement was caused in
-Russia's northern stronghold when, at 8.50 on the morning of March 6th,
-without any previous warning of the approaching danger, the garrison
-perceived the hulls of seven great vessels loom upon the horizon to the
-south of Askold Island. The presence of the enemy so far north was
-wholly unexpected, and for some time the real character of the
-advancing squadron was in doubt. But within an hour all speculation was
-set at rest and the approaching vessels were seen to be flying the
-Japanese flag. The great size and imposing aspect of the new cruisers
-led the Russians to take them for battleships, whence they derived the
-mistaken idea that Admiral Togo was present himself with his main
-fleet. As a matter of fact, of course, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief,
-with scarcely diminished forces, was still watching Port Arthur as a
-cat watches a mouse, and the circumstance that he could without
-difficulty spare so powerful a squadron for operations in a far distant
-quarter of the theatre of war was at once a striking demonstration of
-Japan's naval strength and of the straits to which the Czar's fleet had
-been reduced.
-
-[Sidenote: At the Mouth of the Golden Horn]
-
-By noon Admiral Kamimura's ships were half-way between the coast and
-Askold Island, making straight for Ussuri Bay, which lies to the
-southeast of Vladivostock. At the southern end of the peninsula on
-which the town and fortress of Vladivostock stand, and divided from it
-by a broad channel called the Bosphorus Strait, there is situated the
-Island of Kazakavitch. The Bosphorus Strait lies in a northwesterly
-direction, and on the north side of it are two spacious inlets,
-Patroclus Bay and Sobol Bay. Beyond these again lies the mouth of the
-Golden Horn, the Harbor of Vladivostock.
-
-[Sidenote: Careful Japanese Calculation]
-
-The Japanese squadron steamed right on into the Bosphorus Strait, and
-when opposite Patroclus Bay it assumed order of battle. Admiral
-Alexeieff, in his official dispatch to the Czar, declared that it took
-up a position 5-1/2 miles from the shore and out of range of the
-batteries; but the truth seems to be that, with the skill which so far
-has characterized all the Japanese naval operations, Admiral Kamimura
-manoeuvred to secure a station, which, while it was sufficiently
-within range to enable him to do execution to his foe, was, on the
-other hand, outside any possible line of fire from the fortress guns,
-with their necessarily limited arc of training. These dispositions for
-attack argued not only careful calculation beforehand, but considerable
-knowledge of the construction of the Russian forts and of the position
-occupied by their ordnance.
-
-[Sidenote: Bombardment at Long Range]
-
-At half-past one the Japanese ships opened fire with their big guns.
-Forts Suvaroff and Linievitch and the town along the valley of the
-River Obyasseniye were the main objects of the cannonade, and over
-these the great shells continued to burst for close upon an hour, while
-the guns of the defenders were reduced to inactivity and impotence by
-the baffling tactics of the Japanese Admiral. It is true that the
-bombardment was rather in the nature of a reconnaissance than a serious
-engagement, its aim being to induce the mysterious cruisers which were
-suspected of being within the harbor to issue forth and give battle;
-but it was an uncomfortable reminder to the Russians of the
-vulnerability of their powerful fortress from the sea and of the
-comparative immunity which a resourceful enemy might enjoy while making
-a dangerous attack. The only account which has been received of the
-damage done comes from Russian sources. It does not appear to have been
-serious. A house in the town was knocked to pieces by a 12-inch shell,
-and an unfortunate woman, who was inside at the time, was killed;
-another shell burst in the courtyard of the Siberian Fleet Company,
-slightly wounding five sailors; but this was set down as the limit to
-the depredation committed by the Japanese gunners. On the other hand,
-the Russians consoled themselves for the ineffectiveness of their own
-artillery by calculating that the bombardment, by its expenditure of
-200 shells, cost their enemy at least $100,000, a somewhat minute and
-peddling method of reckoning up the balance of losses and gains in a
-great war. It should be added that the Czar did not fail to send the
-garrison a rather magniloquent telegram of congratulation, in which he
-spoke of their bravery under their baptism of fire.
-
-[Illustration: RAID BY THE VLADIVOSTOCK FLEET.]
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Ships Lying Low]
-
-The demonstration failed to disclose the whereabouts of the missing
-cruiser squadron, and a similar result attended the scouting operations
-of the Japanese torpedo destroyers which were engaged during the
-bombardment in searching Askold Island and the coast along the Ussuri
-Gulf. It seemed undoubted, however, in the light of subsequent events,
-that the Czar's ships were within the harbor at Vladivostock all the
-time, and that they felt unable to cope successfully with the powerful
-fleet which was so eagerly seeking their destruction. Admiral Kamimura,
-who retired southwards after the bombardment, returned on the following
-day to the same position, and attempted once more to lure the hidden
-cruisers into the open; but his blandishments were without avail. He
-then conducted a thorough search of Amur Bay, which lies on the west
-side of the peninsula, and finding no traces of the enemy, departed
-finally southwards, leaving Vladivostock, for the time, in peace.
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff to the Rescue]
-
-The interest now shifted once more to Port Arthur, where exciting
-events were on the eve of occurring. Admiral Makaroff, the
-newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, arrived at
-Port Arthur on the 8th of March. This gallant Admiral's reputation
-stands almost as high with the navy as does General Kuropatkin's with
-the army. He has gained the confidence of the men who have served under
-him to an exceptional degree, and the immediate result of his presence
-at the seat of war was the infusion of a new spirit into the fleet and
-into the defending force generally. With immense vigor he proceeded to
-hurry on the repairs of the damaged warships and to prepare for active
-operations as the best means of restoring the somewhat shaken _morale_
-of the force under his command. The effect of this bolder and more
-enterprising policy soon became evident in the movements of the torpedo
-flotilla, which, under the feeble regime of Admiral Starck, had proved
-such a futile branch of the service. An opportunity for the trial of
-the new tactics came almost immediately, for within twenty-four hours
-after the hoisting of Admiral Makaroff's flag on the _Askold_, a
-renewed challenge came from the unresting enemy. It was destined to
-lead to one of the fiercest and most sanguinary combats yet experienced
-in the course of the war, a combat of such a close and hand-to-hand
-character as to recall the desperate struggles of earlier days, when
-the rival ships were grappled together and the final arbiters of
-victory were the cutlass and the boarding-pike.
-
-[Sidenote: A Chance for Russian Torpedoes]
-
-At midnight on the 9th two divisions of the Japanese destroyer flotilla
-crept up once more towards the mouth of the entrance channel. The first
-division, consisting of three vessels, the _Asashio_, the _Kasumi_, and
-the _Akatsuki_, and under the command of Captain Asai, posted itself
-outside the entrance to guard against the approach of the Russian
-flotilla; while the second division occupied itself in laying a number
-of mines of a new pattern in various spots carefully selected
-beforehand for the purpose. These operations were carried out with
-entire coolness and success, in spite of the flashing searchlights and
-the fire from the forts--fire, however, which, according to Admiral
-Togo's official report, was desultory and ineffective. The fact was
-that on this occasion the Russians were determined to rely upon another
-weapon than garrison ordnance. Admiral Makaroff decided to give his
-torpedo destroyers the chance for which they must have longed under the
-nerveless leadership of Starck, and to send them forth to deliver a
-counter-attack upon the audacious foe.
-
-[Sidenote: Sea Fight at Close Quarters]
-
-A flotilla of six of these vessels, under the command of Captain
-Matoussevitch, accordingly issued from the harbor and went in quest of
-the Japanese. About 4.30 in the morning they fell in with Captain
-Asai's Division to the southwest of the Liau-tie-shan Peninsula. Though
-his foes outnumbered him by two to one, the Japanese commander did not
-hesitate for an instant, but, confident in the skill and courage of his
-men, he ordered an immediate attack, and the _Asashio_, the _Kasumi_,
-and the _Akatsuki_ flew upon the enemy. A fierce struggle now ensued.
-The Japanese were heavily outnumbered, it is true, but their vessels
-were stronger individually than those of the Russians, and whereas the
-latter were armed only with 3-pounders, the former carried 6-pounders.
-Moreover, both officers and men had "found themselves" in previous
-conflicts, and were flushed with a consciousness of power and the
-memory of past victories. Their shooting, too was superior to that of
-their opponents, and speedily made its impression. On the other hand,
-the Russians, set free at last from the paralyzing influences which had
-so long cramped their energies, leapt to the contest with a glad
-eagerness, and fought with desperate gallantry. The combatants drew
-closer and closer to one another till they were within a few yards'
-distance, and the execution done by the quick-firing guns was terrible.
-So near did one of the Russian destroyers approach that some
-bluejackets standing on its deck were able to throw by hand a charge of
-explosive onto the bridge of a Japanese boat. Fortunately for the
-latter, it failed to explode, and the Japanese poured in a withering
-fire in revenge. Two of the Russian vessels were so severely mauled
-during the early part of the fight that they were compelled to sheer
-off and retreat to Port Arthur. The others kept up the conflict much
-longer, though they were hopelessly outclassed. But a perfect rain of
-shell and small shot fell upon the devoted Muscovites; their engines
-were rapidly becoming disabled; some of them were on fire; and at last
-it became manifest that if they were to be saved at all they must
-retire. Retreat, therefore, they did, fighting hotly all the way, with
-the enemy hanging upon their flanks like hounds upon their quarry. At
-length they came within the protection of the forts, and the heavy fire
-which was directed upon the Japanese from that quarter compelled them
-sullenly to give up their hold and in their turn retire.
-
-[Sidenote: Severe Casualties]
-
-The losses suffered by the Russian destroyers, in this hand-to-hand
-conflict, which lasted for about forty minutes, were not made public
-officially, but they must have been considerable, if we may judge from
-the damage incurred by their victorious assailants. Seven of the
-Japanese were killed and eight were wounded, some of them severely.
-Prominent among these was Engineer Minamisawa, of the _Kasumi_, who
-peculiarly distinguished himself, and who received injuries which were
-reported as likely to prove mortal. This gallant officer had already
-covered himself with glory in the first torpedo attack upon Port
-Arthur, and in the heroic but fruitless attempt to block the harbor
-entrance on the 23rd of February. The damage done to the Japanese
-destroyers themselves was serious enough, but not such as to unfit them
-for service in a few days. The _Akatsuki_ received a shell in her
-stokehold, which burst a pipe and filled the compartment with scalding
-steam--an accident which alone accounted for four of the lives which
-were lost. All three destroyers had their hulls and upper works knocked
-about by the Russian shells, but the injuries were above the
-water-line, and were made good with little difficulty.
-
-[Sidenote: Another Hot Fight]
-
-An even hotter and, for the Russians, more disastrous conflict took
-place a few hours later. As the second division of the Japanese
-flotilla, under Captain Tsuehiya, was leaving the roadstead at 7 A.
-M., having concluded its work of laying submarine mines, it
-encountered two other Russian destroyers which had been further out
-to sea to reconnoitre, and were now returning to Port Arthur. The
-Japanese at once threw themselves across the course of the newcomers
-to intercept them. The Russians, though on this occasion the
-outnumbered party, were nothing loth to face the danger which
-confronted them, and advanced to meet it with unquenchable ardor. An
-engagement of an even more terrible character than that held three
-hours previously now took place, and lasted for upwards of fifty-five
-minutes. The Russians fought with the courage of despair, and
-succeeded in putting one of their formidable opponents out of action
-for the time, though the damage done was not ultimately irreparable.
-This feat was performed by the _Stereguschtshi_, commanded by Captain
-Sergueieff, which was more heavily armed than her companion, and
-carried a 12-pounder in addition to her ordinary 3-pounders. A shell
-from this weapon struck the Japanese destroyer on the water-line and
-flooded two of her water-tight compartments. The supply of
-quick-firing ammunition was wetted and rendered useless, so that the
-vessel was unable to take any further active share in the conflict.
-Nor was this the only injury she sustained. Another shell burst upon
-her bridge, shivering it to fragments. One man was killed; but a
-lieutenant, a sub-lieutenant, and a signaller, who were on the bridge
-at the time, in some miraculous manner escaped. The terrible missile
-also carried away the binnacle and the engine-room telegraph
-instruments, and sent the davits flying.
-
-[Sidenote: Unprecedented Japanese Daring]
-
-It was clear that the 12-pounder of the _Stereguschtshi_ was too
-dangerous a weapon to be neglected, and, therefore, the other Japanese
-destroyers concentrated their fire upon it, with the result that in a
-short time it was completely dismantled and put out of action. In these
-operations the _Sazanami_ played the most conspicuous part. She drew up
-so close upon the _Stereguschtshi's_ quarter that one of her
-bluejackets with extraordinary daring actually leaped on board the
-Russian vessel, cutlass in hand. Just as he landed on the deck Captain
-Sergueieff emerged from his cabin. The impetuous Jap rushed at him like
-a tiger, and, beating down his guard, struck him a fearful blow on the
-head with his cutlass, felling him to the deck. The Russian attempted
-to rise, but before he could do so his terrible opponent kicked him
-overboard and he sank beneath the waves.
-
-[Sidenote: Carnage Indescribable]
-
-Undismayed by the death of their captain, the crew of the
-_Stereguschtshi_ still fought on with desperate gallantry against the
-raking fire of the _Sazanami_. The lieutenant took over the command,
-but immediately afterwards a shell carried away both his legs, and he
-fell dead at his post. To him succeeded the sub-lieutenant, who
-endeavored bravely but in vain to bring the little vessel, wounded
-almost to the death as it was, into the shelter of the forts. He almost
-succeeded in his heroic attempt, but the implacable foe was not to be
-shaken off. The man at the wheel fell mortally wounded, and as the
-young lieutenant stepped forward to take it from his dying grasp he
-became himself the target of the terrible fusillade and dropped dead
-among his fallen brothers. Now at last, with hardly a man out of her
-crew of fifty-five still living, the _Stereguschtshi_ lay a helpless
-log upon the waters, awaiting the long-deferred capture, but the fire
-from the forts rendered the task of taking her in tow an extremely
-dangerous one. Nevertheless, a Japanese lieutenant and a party of
-bluejackets from the _Sazanami_ boarded her with a rope and made her
-fast. The deck of the Russian destroyer presented a horrible spectacle.
-Everywhere lay the corpses of her gallant crew, in some cases terribly
-mutilated by shell. Even in the few hurried moments at his disposal the
-Japanese lieutenant was able to count thirty bodies; the appearance of
-the stokehold defied description. Two stokers jumped overboard, and
-were picked up by the Japanese. The only other survivors were two
-sailors, who, directly the enemy boarded the vessel, rushed out of the
-conning tower, and, taking refuge in the after cabin, locked themselves
-in and refused absolutely to surrender.
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff Outpaced]
-
-Now began the slow and laborious work of towing the captured boat out
-of range of the shore batteries, whose attentions were becoming
-embarrassing and dangerous. Moreover, a new peril threatened the
-Japanese. Admiral Makaroff, perceiving the plight of the
-_Stereguschtshi_, had hoisted his flag on the _Novik_, and sallied
-forth with that cruiser and the _Bayan_, to the rescue. The other
-destroyer, it should be mentioned, thanks to the diversion caused by
-the heroic stand made by her consort, had in the meantime managed to
-reach the harbor. Things began to look black for the _Sazanami_, as the
-Russian cruisers were rapidly approaching; but Admiral Togo was not to
-be caught napping, and his own cruiser squadron was not far away.
-Several of his ships advanced to the assistance of the plucky little
-destroyer, and finding himself outnumbered and outpaced, Makaroff
-reluctantly abandoned his attempt and steamed back to the protection of
-the forts.
-
-[Sidenote: A Useless Prize]
-
-The _Sazanami_, however, was not destined to save her prize. The sea
-was rough, and the Russian destroyer, riddled with holes, steadily
-began to fill with water. After two hours' towing it became apparent
-that her condition was desperate, and the Japanese were compelled to
-cut the rope. A few moments afterwards the hapless prize gave one last
-lurch and sank beneath the waves with her tragic freight of dead. It
-was impossible to reach the two men in the cabin, and they perished
-with their ship.
-
-[Sidenote: Bombardment by Wireless Telegraphy]
-
-Thus ended one of the hottest conflicts yet experienced in the course
-of the naval fighting around Port Arthur. But this sanguinary affair
-was only the prelude to more important operations. Admiral Togo had
-made his arrangement for a bombardment of the town and fortress of the
-heaviest description, arrangements which, like the manoeuvres of
-Admiral Kamimura at Vladivostock, were conceived in the spirit of the
-most scientific warfare. As long as the Russian fleet remained
-undestroyed he was under an imperative necessity to risk his ships as
-little as possible against the great guns of the Port Arthur batteries,
-but to conduct a successful bombardment without coming within the range
-of their fire presented obvious difficulties. An indirect cannonade
-from Pigeon Bay, on the southwest side of the Liau-tie-shan Peninsula,
-would indeed deprive the enemy of any opportunity of replying with
-effect, but on the other hand in ordinary circumstances the gunners of
-the attacking fleet would also have to aim very much at random, without
-being able to judge the results of their shooting. Nevertheless this
-difficulty was cleverly obviated by the Japanese Admiral. While
-stationing his battleships in Pigeon Bay he dispatched his cruiser
-squadron to take a position on the east side of Port Arthur Bay, at
-right angles to the line of fire, to observe the effects of the
-bombardment, and to communicate suggestions by wireless telegraphy
-during its progress. The post of the cruisers in turn was adroitly
-selected so that while they could see what was going on, they were
-outside the angle of fire of the forts.
-
-[Illustration: THE TOKIO MILITARY HOSPITAL--OFFICERS QUARTERS.]
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur a Hell]
-
-These careful dispositions were completed by ten o'clock on the morning
-of the 10th, and at that hour once more "the red fire and smouldering
-clouds out brake." For close upon five hours a storm of shells was
-poured upon the devoted fortress. The defending guns attempted to
-return the fire, but their efforts were intermittent and ineffective.
-On the other hand, the great projectiles from the 12-inch guns of the
-Japanese battleships wrought immense havoc both in the forts and in the
-town. A shell burst close to the house of a lawyer named Sidorski, and
-wrecked the building; M. Sidorski himself was killed on the spot. The
-wife of Colonel Baron Frank, who was in the house at the time,
-sustained terrible injuries, and her daughter's head was blown off. A
-young lady named Waleritsch was so seriously wounded by another shell
-that she died soon after her removal to the hospital. An English
-advocate, a Mr. Newton, was blown to pieces. The house of General
-Volkoff was completely destroyed, and two sentries only just escaped
-death. A train which was entering the town from the North was struck by
-a 12-inch shell; the engine was shattered into a thousand fragments and
-the driver was killed. And now to add to the horrors of the situation,
-fires began to break out in various quarters of the town, and the
-panic-stricken inhabitants fled to the race course, where, behind the
-shelter of the hills, they were able to find some respite from the
-terrible tornado which had burst upon them.
-
-[Sidenote: Golden Hill Silenced]
-
-While all this devastation was being hurled upon the town, the forts
-themselves were passing through a hot time. The Japanese, assisted by
-the skilful manoeuvre before described, had found the range for their
-high angle fire perfectly, whereas the batteries of the defending force
-could do little or nothing in return. The official accounts issued from
-the Russian side, while admitting the severity when the bombardment
-visited the town, said little about the damage to the fortifications or
-the losses sustained by the garrison; but the reports received from
-other and independent sources, while varying a good deal in details,
-agreed in representing the total result as being of the most serious
-character. It is said that twenty soldiers were killed and that many
-more were wounded. The Governor of Port Arthur himself, General
-Stoessel, who was on the batteries during the hottest of the fire, had
-a narrow escape. A shell burst near to the spot on which he was
-standing with his staff, and bespattered the whole party with splinters
-and sand. The forts on Golden Hill suffered severely, and two guns were
-put out of action. Nor did the ships in the harbor come off scatheless.
-Heavy casualties among their crews were reported, and it was stated
-that the unfortunate _Retvisan_, which had already borne so much,
-received still further damage.
-
-The Port Arthur journal, the _Novi Krai_, gave a terrible picture of
-the scenes on the cruiser _Bayan_.
-
-"The bursting shells," said the writer, "bowled over man after man
-until the decks were slippery with blood. Amidst this hell the captain
-stood unmoved in the conning tower calmly telephoning his orders to the
-captains of the guns. His wonderful coolness had a remarkable influence
-on all the officers. The cockpit was soon crowded with wounded,
-thirty-nine men being brought down before the fight ended.
-
-"Amid the crash of the guns, the hiss of the flying projectiles, and
-the thunder of their explosions, the smashing of splinters, and the din
-of the working engines, the surgeons labored quietly among the wounded
-on the hospital operating table. Although some of the men suffered
-frightful agony, few groans were heard, in spite of the fact that
-anaesthetics were only administered in one case."
-
-[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF PORT ARTHUR'S MAIN FORTIFICATIONS.]
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Missiles]
-
-For hours that to the heart-shaken inhabitants must have appeared
-interminable, the great shells, each of the enormous weight of 850
-lbs., continued to hurtle through the air and to burst over the
-harassed stronghold. The sensations of a garrison in such circumstances
-are well described in a letter which a wounded Russian officer wrote
-from the hospital in Port Arthur to a friend in Russia. He is
-recounting his experiences of the first bombardment, but the account is
-so vivid and would apply so well to the more trying ordeal of the 10th
-of March that it will bear reproduction here.
-
-[Sidenote: A Vivid Picture]
-
-"The sea," he says, "is quite white from the falling shells, and it is
-impossible to hear the words of command. I cry out until my voice
-becomes hoarse, but cannot make myself heard above the din. There are
-more than 150 cannon belching forth smoke, shell and death. There is a
-wild, choking sound from the machine guns. Amid the smoke, steam and
-dust I hear a groan, it is that of a soldier whose nose has been torn
-away by the fragment of a shell. He is surrounded by stretcher bearers.
-Someone lays his hand on my shoulder, and I turn and see at my side a
-soldier, pale, and his lips trembling. He wishes to speak, but his
-tongue refuses to obey. He points with his finger, and I understand
-what has occurred.
-
-[Illustration: FUNERAL PROCESSION OF A JAPANESE OFFICER IN YOKOHAMA.]
-
-[Sidenote: Blood--Blood Everywhere]
-
-"There beneath the cliff I hear a little battery of rapid firing guns,
-very small and elegant. There are 12,000 bullets speeding on their
-errand in sixty seconds. They are destined to defend our shores against
-the landing of an enemy. The orgy is at its height. The shells are
-bursting around us like fireworks at a feast. A whistle, a hiss, and a
-sharp ringing noise, as they rush through the air, then smoke and a
-smell of burning, while the sand dances from the earth. I turn from the
-battery and see a terrible picture. In the midst of the men a shell
-bursts. One soldier is disemboweled, and another is wounded in the
-head, a third is shrieking in the height of his delirium. One steel
-cannon is broken to pieces as though it were straw. An awful picture,
-with blood--blood everywhere."
-
-[Sidenote: Further Naval Movements]
-
-At last, at two o'clock, the inferno ceased. A great calm succeeded to
-the thunder of the guns and the screams of the shells, and the
-civilians of Port Arthur slowly and timidly returned to their ruined
-homes. The separate divisions of the Japanese fleet rejoined one
-another, and after the most destructive bombardment yet inflicted upon
-the land defences of the Russian stronghold, they quietly steamed away
-southwards. While these events were taking place at Port Arthur a
-detached squadron of the Mikado's cruisers had proceeded northeast to
-Dalny, or Talienwan, as it used to be called, and destroyed the
-quarantine buildings erected by the Russians on the Sanshan Islands.
-Outside that port the _Takasago_ and the _Chihaya_ scouted the western
-coast of the entrance to Port Arthur in the hope that the bombardment
-would draw Admiral Makaroff's ships into the open; but no enemy could
-be found and the two cruisers then retired in the wake of the main
-squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: Hoist With its Own Petard]
-
-It was not long before a Russian vessel fell a victim to the mines laid
-by the Japanese destroyers at the harbor entrance on the night of March
-9th. On the 16th the _Skori_, a torpedo-boat destroyer of the newest
-pattern, was entering the channel when she struck upon a contact mine
-and was blown up. Out of her crew of fifty-five men, only four were
-reported to have been saved.
-
-[Sidenote: Another Attempt to Bottle]
-
-After an interval of twelve days Admiral Togo made a renewed attack
-upon Port Arthur, the fifth in number since the outbreak of
-hostilities. It was not so serious an assault as the last, its real
-object being to tempt the Russian fleet away from the protection of the
-shore batteries and to give battle at sea. In this design it was
-unsuccessful, but incidently it was useful, as revealing the strength
-of the squadron Admiral Makaroff had at his disposal after the repairs
-which had been effected upon the damaged ships. At midnight on the 21st
-two Japanese destroyers were discovered by the searchlights approaching
-the outer roadstead. The guns of the batteries at once gave tongue, and
-a violent fire was directed against the daring craft, not only from the
-fortress but from the gunboats _Bobe_ and _Otvagni_; which, according
-to Admiral Alexeieff's report to the Czar, compelled them to retire. A
-second flotilla crept up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and this too, it
-was claimed by the Viceroy, was repulsed. A different complexion,
-however, was put upon the operation by Admiral Togo's dispatch to his
-Government. The destroyers retired indeed, but seemingly not in
-consequence of the Russian fire, which left them unharmed, but as part
-of a preconceived plan to lure forth Admiral Makaroff's fleet. The
-Japanese Commander-in-Chief's words were: "The combined fleet acted
-according to program. Two flotillas of our destroyers were outside Port
-Arthur, as instructed, from the night of the 21st till the morning of
-the 22nd. Although during this time they were under the enemy's fire
-they did not sustain any damage." It is clear from this that the aim of
-the Russian gunners leaves much to be desired, for the attacking
-flotilla were able to cruise about in the roadsteads without being
-touched.
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff's Feint]
-
-At eight o'clock on the morning of the 22nd the main fleet arrived off
-Port Arthur. The same tactics as were employed on the 10th were adopted
-on this occasion, but with some modification. Only two battleships, the
-_Fuji_ and the _Yashima_, were sent to Pigeon Bay to undertake an
-indirect bombardment of the town; while the Admiral, with his main
-squadron, took up a position more convenient for an attack upon the
-Russian fleet should it put out to sea. The cannonade lasted again for
-several hours, but his main purpose, that of drawing Admiral Makaroff
-into the open, was not successful. At one period, indeed, the hopes of
-the Japanese ran high. The Russian fleet was seen to issue from the
-harbor as if ready for battle, with the cruiser _Askold_, flying the
-flag of the Commander-in-Chief, at their head. It was now observed that
-the available naval force of the Czar at Port Arthur consisted of five
-battleships and four cruisers, as well as destroyers, gunboats, and
-torpedo-boats. The battleships of course included the _Pobieda_, 12,674
-tons, and the _Sevastopol_, 10,950 tons, which were undergoing repairs
-when the first battle took place. None of the five, it will be
-remembered, was equal to the Japanese battleships, either in size or in
-armament, and the cruiser strength was still more disproportionate.
-Nevertheless, they made a gallant show, and for a time it seemed as if
-they were prepared to come to close quarters on blue water. Admiral
-Makaroff, however, bold and enterprising as he is, did not feel in a
-position to take such a strong step, and, to the disappointment of the
-Japanese, he kept his ships well within the zone of protection afforded
-by the shore batteries, while he joined them in returning the fire of
-the enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: Wary Enemies]
-
-The objects of the two Admirals were indeed identical. Each sought to
-bring about a battle on his own terms, and each was too wary to be
-persuaded. The Russian attempted to lure his enemy within the range of
-the forts; the Japanese endeavored to draw the Russian away from the
-range of the forts; and neither was successful in his blandishments.
-Finally, Admiral Togo gave the order to cease firing, and his fleet
-retired southwards once more. The Russians claimed to have struck one
-of their opponent's battleships; but Admiral Togo in his report
-distinctly stated that his ships suffered no damage, though a good many
-shells fell near the _Fuji_ in the course of the indirect bombardment.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians Taking Heart]
-
-Although Admiral Makaroff did not venture out to sea with his smaller
-squadron when the Japanese fleet was absolutely upon the spot, this did
-not prevent him from engaging in active operations of a much more
-daring character than any his predecessor had dreamt of. On the 26th,
-for example, he took out the whole of the ships under his command for a
-reconnaissance to the Hwang-Ching-Tau Islands, a group situated about
-thirty miles to the southwest of Port Arthur, a proceeding that must
-have heartened both officers and men considerably. No trace of the
-enemy's warships was discovered, but while the fleet was making its way
-back to Port Arthur, the _Novik_ fell in with a small merchant steamer,
-the _Hanien Maru_, on board of which were a number of Japanese
-newspaper correspondents. The crew were transferred to the warship and
-the steamer was taken in tow and subsequently sunk. The whole Russian
-squadron returned safely to Port Arthur after this excursion without
-once coming in sight of the enemy.
-
-[Illustration: A SKIRMISH BETWEEN JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN CAVALRY.]
-
-[Sidenote: Individual Heroism]
-
-But in the meantime the Japanese were busy with fresh plans. Unable to
-draw Admiral Makaroff away from the protection of the forts when the
-whole Japanese fleet was lying in wait, Admiral Togo determined to use
-another card in this game of skill. The project of corking up the
-bottle at Port Arthur, though a failure on the first attempt, had not
-by any means been abandoned, and on the very night of Admiral
-Makaroff's cruise to the Hwang-Ching-Tau Islands, a fresh effort was
-made to block the harbor entrance. It resulted in operations which,
-although again only partially successful, were most brilliantly
-executed, and were marked not only by consummate skill, but by acts of
-individual heroism and self-sacrifice of the most inspiring kind. Nor
-was the gallantry confined to one side alone. The Russians were not
-slow to accept the opportunities for glory vouchsafed to them by the
-daring of their foe, and one of the features of the conflict was the
-attack by a solitary torpedo-boat upon six of the Japanese flotilla.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-
-  Volunteers for Fireships--A Drama of Searchlights--The Devil's
-    Caldron--The Sacrifice of Fire--Heroic Hirose--Undaunted by
-    Death--Covering Themselves with Glory--Casualties Few but
-    Terrible--The Hero of Japan--Channel Still Unclosed--The
-    Shadows of Fate--The Great Catastrophe--The Story of the
-    "Petropavlovsk"--A Double Trap--Captain Oda and his Mines--The
-    "Bayan" to the Rescue--Preparing an Ambush--Makaroff Lured
-    Out--Cutting off the Unwary--Weather Permitting--Into the Jaws
-    of Death--Haphazard Fire--Rescue Work--The Character of the
-    Explosion--Accounts of Survivors--Tribute from the Japanese--On
-    Land--Chong-Ju--The Advance to the North--Concentration of
-    Troops--Kuroki's Line of Front--The Russian Position--Russian
-    Confidence.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Volunteers for Fireships]
-
-As on the occasion of the first effort to block the harbor at Port
-Arthur, so upon the second a spirited competition took place among the
-Japanese officers and men for the honor of occupying the post of danger
-upon the fireships. The claim of the gallant men who had charge of the
-previous attempt to finish the work which they had so well begun was
-finally conceded, their Commander-in-Chief himself deciding the
-question. Four merchantmen, larger than those already sunk, had been
-filled with stones and explosives and were ready for the desperate
-enterprise. The whole fleet left the rendezvous on the 26th of March
-under the cover of night, and accompanied the fireships up to a
-distance of some miles from Port Arthur. There the Admiral gave his
-final orders, and escorted by a flotilla of eleven destroyers and six
-torpedo-boats, which were spread out fanwise in front of them, the
-doomed vessels started upon their last and proudest voyage.
-
-[Sidenote: A Drama of Searchlights]
-
-It was midnight when they set forth, and there was no moon. An inky
-darkness brooded over the waters, which lay still and calm like a
-village pond. No sound was heard, no light was shown on the flotilla
-as, steadily and inexorably, it pursued its fateful passage over the
-silent sea. The only ray of light visible came from the distant
-searchlight on Golden Hill, set like the eye of a Cyclops, in the
-forehead of Port Arthur. Slowly and monotonously the broad refulgent
-beam swept backwards across the bay, throwing into strong relief every
-object upon which it fell within a radius of more than two miles. Every
-moment it seemed to the tense expectancy of the advancing force that
-their presence must be revealed, but still they held on their course
-with calm and patient courage, and still the slow minutes dragged along
-without any sign of suspicion on the part of the garrison. At last,
-when the Japanese had approached so near that they could make out the
-dim contour of the fortress and the surrounding heights, the moving
-light settled for a moment upon the lines of the foremost
-torpedo-boats. Another instant and a startling change had come over the
-scene. Swiftly the searchlight flashed up and down, backwards and
-forwards it plunged and replunged upon the stealthy foe until the whole
-flotilla, approaching with such grim determination, lay exposed to the
-view of the Russian sentries. The trumpets rang out, the garrison
-sprang to arms, and a storm of shot and shell once more burst forth
-from the great guns of Golden Hill.
-
-[Sidenote: The Devil's Caldron]
-
-As the gallant Japanese made straight for the harbor entrance the
-batteries on the Tiger's Tail joined in the fierce cannonade, and from
-more than a hundred guns a hail of shells was poured down, till the
-still waters of the bay were torn up into a maelstrom of foam, "white
-as the bitten lip of hate." But the calm resolution of the attacking
-force was undisturbed. The fan-like formation of the escorting flotilla
-opened out more widely, and the fireships, passing swiftly through,
-drove straight into the devil's caldron in front of them. A mile away
-stood the point for which they aimed, a mile charged every yard of it
-with destruction and death. But setting their teeth dauntlessly, intent
-only on gaining the fateful goal, the picked crews of the merchantmen
-pressed forward upon their desperate errand.
-
-[Sidenote: The Sacrifice of Fire]
-
-At last they reached the harbor mouth. The leading steamer, the _Chiyo
-Maru_, drove straight from the east side of the channel, heedless of
-the terrible fire of which she was the central target. Everything was
-ready; the anchor was dropped; the fuse was set; and swiftly but with
-precision the crew slipped into the boats and made off. A moment later
-a terrific explosion rent the ship from stem to stern, and down she
-sank through the boiling waters.
-
-[Sidenote: Heroic Hirose]
-
-The next to take her position was the _Fukui Maru_, which, edging to
-the port side of the _Chiyo Maru_, let go her anchor. Now occurred one
-of the most heroic acts which had yet characterized the course of the
-war--an act which for cool and devoted gallantry has never been
-surpassed in the annals of European seamanship. Waiting until the
-vessel was securely anchored, the boatswain, Sujino, went calmly down
-to the magazine to light the fuse. Just at that moment the Russian
-torpedo-boat _Silni_ approached and discharged a Whitehead torpedo,
-which struck the _Fukui Maru_ full in the bows and tore a gaping hole
-in her below the water-line. Sujino was killed, but his comrades on
-deck were unaware of his fate. All they knew was that the Russians
-themselves had done their work for them and that the vessel was
-settling down on the very spot designed for its destruction by Admiral
-Togo. Commander Hirose, therefore, ordered his men to take to the
-boats, but before he left the ship himself he determined to find the
-brave Sujino if possible and save him from death. The steamer was fast
-sinking; the water was pouring in at her bows like a mill race; and she
-was the target of a perfect tornado of fire from the forts; but the
-gallant commander searched through her three times for the missing man
-before he would give up the quest. At last it became clear that further
-search was useless. The vessel was on the point of going down, and
-reluctantly Hirose clambered into one of the boats. As the crew pushed
-off the _Fukui Maru_ went down by the head. Success, however, was
-dearly purchased. The delay had enabled the Russians to concentrate
-their fire upon the boats with deadly effect. The chief victim himself
-was Commander Hirose. A shell struck him on the head, carrying away the
-greater part of his body, and leaving in the boat only a shapeless
-fragment of torn and blackened flesh.
-
-[Sidenote: Undaunted by Death]
-
-In the meanwhile, the other steamers were taking up their stations in
-the order provided beforehand. The _Yihiko Maru_, regardless of the
-terrible fire from the forts, steamed in on the port side of the _Fukui
-Maru_ and cast anchor in her turn. The fuse was duly set and lighted;
-officers and crew set off in the boats; and the ship blew up like her
-fellows and sank in the channel. Now came the opportunity of the fourth
-and last of this devoted fleet, the _Yoneyama Maru_. The difficulties
-of the channel and the violence of the enemy's fire led her to take a
-devious course, but the skill with which she was steered excited
-universal admiration. Her commander drove her through on the starboard
-side of the sunken _Chiyo Maru_ and then she was compelled to turn back
-and slip between that ship and the _Fukui Maru_. On her way she ran
-right upon a Russian destroyer and engaged it at close quarters for a
-few moments, but her duty was not to fight but to sink at a spot
-selected. Escaping therefore, from the clutches of the enemy, she
-rounded the _Fukui Maru_ and the _Yahiko Maru_ and finally brought up
-in the very centre of the fairway. There her crew prepared to send her
-to the bottom, and if the operation could have been carried out
-successfully there can be little doubt that the whole enterprise would
-have gained its object, and that the channel would, at least
-temporarily, have been completely blocked. But the Russian
-torpedo-boats were active. One of their deadly engines of destruction
-struck the _Yoneyama Maru_ just as the crew were about to cast anchor,
-and she drifted somewhat to the westward before she sank, her bow
-pointing towards the Tiger's Tail. Her crew escaped safely, but this
-accident left too wide a space between the _Yoneyama Maru_ and the
-_Yahiko Maru_ to effect a total obstruction of the channel.
-
-[Sidenote: Covering Themselves With Glory]
-
-All this time the torpedo-boat and destroyer flotilla had been far from
-idle. The destroyers consisted of the _Shirakumo_, _Kasumi_, _Asashio_,
-_Akatsuki_, _Akebono_, _Oboro_, _Inayuma_, _Ikadsuchi_, _Usugomo_,
-_Sayanami_, and _Shinonome_, while the torpedo-boats were the
-following: the _Karigane_, _Aotaka_, _Misasagi_, _Tsubame_, _Managuru_,
-and _Hato_. Several of these, it will be remembered, had already
-covered themselves with glory in previous combats. On this occasion
-they fully maintained their high reputation. The hot cannonade which
-was directed from the fortress upon the fireships so far from deterring
-the escorting vessels acted rather as an attraction to them, for while
-one division of the flotilla stood by the doomed steamers in order to
-pick up their crews, the other approached well within range of the
-garrison artillery in order to divert its fire from the main operation
-which was proceeding in the channel. Here it was that the _Silni_,
-under Lieutenant Krinizki, came into contact with the Japanese
-torpedo-boats. Without a moment's hesitation that gallant commander
-engaged the whole six at once. The unequal combat could not be long
-maintained, but it was fierce while it lasted. Lieutenant Krinizki
-himself was wounded, Engineer Artificer Swyereff and six seamen were
-killed and twelve other men were wounded. But still, the remainder
-fought gallantry on till a shell burst one of the little vessel's steam
-pipes and destroyed her steering-gear. Her power to continue in action
-was gone, and she was beached upon the shore below Golden Hill.
-
-The work of the Japanese expeditions was now done. The survivors of the
-fireships were by this time all picked up and the several vessels of
-the flotilla were concentrated and retired out to sea.
-
-[Sidenote: Casualties Few But Terrible]
-
-In this remarkable operation the Japanese lost in all four killed and
-nine wounded. Of these latter Lieutenant Hatsuzo sustained very severe
-injuries; the wounds of the others, including Lieutenant Masaki and
-Engineer Awada, being of a slighter character. In the circumstances it
-was surprising that the casualties were so few, and one more
-illustration was given of the comparative impunity with which torpedo
-attacks can be made in harbor under cover of night. The smallness,
-however, of the Japanese losses in this species of fighting in the
-present war, must, of course, be largely attributable to bad shooting
-on the part of the Russian gunners, and it would be unwise to draw too
-general a lesson from it.
-
-[Illustration: DESOLATION IN MANCHURIA.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Hero of Japan]
-
-The most severe loss sustained by the Japanese was that of the gallant
-Commander Hirose, whose death, while it inflamed his comrades with
-pride, caused universal mourning. He had only recently been promoted
-for the skill and courage which he had displayed in the previous
-attempt to block the harbor. He was then in command of the _Hokoku
-Maru_, and regardless of the appalling fire directed upon her, he
-managed to rush his ship further than any of her companions up the
-channel before he blew her up and sent her to the bottom. An act of
-particularly cool, almost reckless, daring on his part on that occasion
-was now fondly recalled by his men. The ship was sinking, she was the
-target of all the Russian batteries, and the crew had taken refuge in
-the boats; but Commander Hirose had forgotten something. It was nothing
-less important than his sword, which he had left on the bridge. So, in
-spite of the imminent peril of the situation, he coolly went back to
-recover it, buckled it on, and escaped into the boat just in time, for
-the ship went down a moment afterwards. Commander Hirose was well known
-in naval circles in England, for he was a visitor to those shores a few
-years before on business for the Japanese Admiralty, and had made many
-friends. His remains were conveyed to Japan and accorded a public
-funeral, and the Mikado only expressed the feelings of the whole nation
-when he posthumously conferred upon the fallen hero the Order of the
-Kite and the Order of the Rising Sun.
-
-[Sidenote: Channel Still Unclosed]
-
-The exact amount of obstruction caused in the channel by the sinking of
-the fireships could not be ascertained. It is, however, apparent from
-subsequent events that whatever inconvenience to navigation, temporary
-or permanent, may have resulted, it was not sufficient to prevent the
-passage of Admiral Makaroff's ships. At daybreak on the very morning of
-the attack he led his whole fleet out and lined it up in the roadstead
-in readiness to meet the Japanese fleet, which was in sight ten miles
-out at sea. Seeing, however, that his enemy had no intention of coming
-outside the range of the forts, Admiral Togo was not to be tempted
-nearer, and retired with the whole of his force to the southward. For
-several days he did not give any outward signs of activity, and his
-ships were not sighted off Port Arthur, a fact which gave rise to the
-impression that he was engaged in covering the transport of fresh
-Japanese troops to the west coast of Korea. On the other hand, the
-vigilance of Admiral Makaroff showed no indication of abating. On the
-6th of April the steamer _Haimun_, specially chartered for the service
-of the London _Times_, was overhauled by the cruiser _Bayan_ an at a
-distance of thirty-five miles to the southeast of Port Arthur. A shot
-fired across the _Haimun's_ bows brought her to, and two lieutenants
-put off with a boat's crew and boarded her. The greatest politeness was
-shown, and after an examination of the _Haimun's_ papers she was
-allowed to proceed. The _Times'_ correspondent was able to observe that
-the _Bayan_, which was flying the flag of the Admiral himself, showed
-signs of injuries received in the recent fighting. Marks produced by
-splinters of shell were visible all over her, and a large hole had been
-rent in one of her smoke-stacks. This fact seems to bear out the story
-published in the _Port Arthur Journal_ of the destruction wrought upon
-the _Bayan_ by the high-angle fire of the Japanese in the bombardment
-of the 10th of March. The correspondent added that the officers and men
-who boarded his steamer "were a little fine drawn, but nevertheless
-looked good material." Some indication can be gathered from this
-statement of the strain which Admiral Togo's repeated attacks had
-involved upon his opponents. The constant anxiety had necessarily begun
-to tell upon the defending force, and many more than the officers and
-crew of the _Bayan_ must have acquired that gaunt, tense appearance
-that comes from a sense of ever-impending danger heightened by a past
-experience of tragedy and disaster. No better illustration, indeed, of
-the watchfulness entailed on the Russians by the perpetual menace of
-their foe could be given than the case of Admiral Makaroff himself, who
-sent the following telegram to the President of the War Relief Society
-at Kronstadt on March 29th:--
-
-"Last night was a very hot one, but we cannot hope for a very quiet
-time now or in the near future. I sleep without undressing in order
-that I maybe ready for any emergency. Consequently, I cannot observe
-your medical advice to take care of myself; nevertheless, I feel
-splendid."
-
-[Sidenote: The Shadows of Fate]
-
-These words were destined soon to receive a fulfilment more
-heart-shaking than any that can have presented itself as possible to
-the mind either of the writer of the letter or of its recipient. For
-even then stern Fate was standing ready with the abhorred shears; the
-shadows were gathering round the head of the devoted Makaroff; and his
-weary watch, pursued so bravely, so unflinchingly, and, alas for him
-and his country, so unavailingly, was moving swiftly towards its tragic
-close.
-
-[Sidenote: The Great Catastrophe]
-
-For on April 13th the telegraph wires flashed all over the world the
-news of a blow to Russia's might in the Far East, more appallingly
-dramatic in its suddenness and more fatal in its consequences than any
-that had yet befallen her in the preceding two months of bungling and
-misfortune. The stunning intelligence was conveyed to the Czar in the
-following telegram from Rear-Admiral Grigorovitch, Naval Commandant at
-Port Arthur:--
-
-"The battleship _Petropavlovsk_ struck a mine, which exploded and the
-vessel capsized.
-
-"Our squadron is lying under Golden Hill and the Japanese squadron is
-approaching.
-
-"Admiral Makaroff apparently perished with the _Petropavlovsk_.
-
-"The Grand Duke Cyril, who was saved, was slightly wounded.
-
-"I beg humbly to report to your Majesty that those saved from the
-_Petropavlovsk_ up to the present are Grand Duke Cyril, six officers,
-32 sailors, all wounded. The bodies of four officers, a surgeon, and 12
-sailors have been found.
-
-"The Japanese fleet has disappeared. Details will be supplied by
-Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtomsky, who has assumed provisional command of
-the fleet."
-
-Swiftly upon the track of this first message there followed the brief
-account of a further disaster, which placed another of Russia's finest
-battleships _hors de combat_. Prince Ukhtomsky telegraphed that "during
-some manoeuvring of the battleship squadron, the _Pobieda_ was struck
-by a mine amidships on the starboard side. She was able to gain the
-port by herself and none on board were killed or wounded."
-
-[Illustration: BLOWING UP OF THE PETROPAVLOVSK.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Story of the "Petropavlovsk"]
-
-The news of this fearful _debacle_ created a paralyzing effect in
-official circles at St. Petersburg, and spread consternation among
-Russia's sympathizers throughout Europe. The first brief reports left
-room for speculation as to the cause of the disaster, and an accident
-was conjectured such as that which had destroyed the _Yenesei_; but the
-later accounts and the dispatches of Admiral Togo to his Government
-speedily put the real facts beyond doubt. It then became known to the
-world that Admiral Makaroff had fallen a victim to the deeply-laid
-plans of his brilliant adversary, and, moreover, that the whole Russian
-fleet had only narrowly escaped capture or complete destruction. The
-story of the operations which practically gave the _coup de grace_ to
-the Czar's maritime power in the Far East is a remarkable one. It shows
-what a revolutionary effect the discoveries of modern science have had
-upon naval warfare, and it proves, too, how completely the lessons of
-that science have been assimilated by the Japanese.
-
-On the 11th of April Admiral Makaroff, still pursuing his policy of
-activity, took the whole of his effective squadron out to sea, for a
-distance of six miles to the south of Port Arthur and exercised it in
-manoeuvres. No sign of the enemy was perceived, and the fleet
-returned to the harbor in safety.
-
-[Sidenote: A Double Trap]
-
-But Admiral Togo was not far away. Despairing of ordinary means of
-tempting Admiral Makaroff into the open to meet his more powerful
-fleet, he was preparing a double trap in which to catch his wary foe.
-He hoped, by the display of a markedly inferior force, to entice him
-beyond the range of the forts and then rush in with his battleships and
-capture or destroy the whole of the Russian fleet. But in the event of
-failure in this manoeuvre, he had ready another scheme. The course
-taken by the Russian ships on leaving and returning to the harbor on
-the occasion of the frequent excursions which they had made of late had
-been carefully noted by the Japanese officers, and Togo had determined
-to mine the passage extensively, so that even if the enemy eluded a
-decisive battle at sea, he still hoped to do damage to their ships by
-driving them in the hurry and confusion of a headlong flight upon the
-hidden perils of his mine field. As it turned out, this part of his
-plan succeeded, and the result was probably even more startlingly
-effective than he expected; but it was only by a mere chance, as
-already mentioned, that the other and grander portion of his scheme
-failed of realization. If he had managed to interpose his powerful
-fleet between the Russian Squadron and Port Arthur, there can be little
-doubt that, although he himself would probably have sustained some
-severe losses, the Czar's naval force in the Pacific, already weakened
-by its former disasters, would have been practically eliminated. As it
-was, indeed, the success he attained was sufficiently striking. By it
-he secured the decisive supremacy of the sea in the Gulf of Pechili,
-and rendered possible at last the important movements on land which the
-strategists at Tokio were waiting to initiate.
-
-[Sidenote: Captain Oda and His Mines]
-
-The arrangements of the Japanese were carried out with their usual
-thoroughness. At midnight on the 12th of April, the fourth and fifth
-destroyer flotillas and the fourteenth torpedo flotilla reached Port
-Arthur roadstead, having with them under escort the mining ship, the
-_Koryo Maru_. The _Koryo Maru_ was a new vessel of 2,700 tons burden,
-specially constructed for torpedo and mining work. Captain Oda, the
-officer in command, was one of the ablest experts in this branch of
-warfare in the Japanese navy, and he had only recently been decorated
-for his distinguished services. He had invented a new type of mine of a
-particularly deadly description, and it was now to be tried for the
-first time in actual warlike operations. The work of laying the mines
-was entered upon without delay, and with all the customary daring and
-resource exhibited by the Mikado's sailors in this dangerous class of
-service. Notwithstanding the relentless glare of the searchlights,
-which threw the vessel into strong relief and made her the target for
-two hundred guns, Captain Oda and his men calmly went about their work
-unheeding. The torpedo-boats and destroyers in the meantime took up a
-position on the flanks of the _Koryo_ and endeavored to attract the
-fire of the fortress to themselves, while their escort was doing her
-deadly work unsuspected. The enterprise was aided by a renewal of the
-extraordinary feebleness and lack of skill which had so often been
-characteristic of the Russian defense in the past. Not only were the
-garrison gunners unable to hit the mark so plainly presented to them,
-but the torpedo flotilla, which, despite its recent losses, still
-constituted a formidable force, did nothing to interfere with
-operations which threatened so vitally the safety of the fleet. Even
-Admiral Makaroff seems to have been at fault on this occasion. It is
-almost inconceivable that the true nature of the _Koryo's_ proceedings
-was not guessed by him, and that the most active measures were not
-taken to put a stop to them. Whatever may have been the reason,
-however, nothing effective was done, and Captain Oda was able to
-complete his work unharmed in spite of the shells which were churning
-up the water all round him. It must be remembered, nevertheless, that
-the immunity which the _Koryo_ actually enjoyed is no measure of the
-risk that she ran. No more heroic and devoted act illumines the long
-history of naval warfare than the laying of these mines close to the
-harbor, and under the full fire of the enemy's guns, any one of whose
-missiles, by exploding the dangerous cargo, might have sent the ship to
-destruction in a moment. But, as it turned out, the _Koryo_ was saved
-by the bad gunnery of the Russians, and having performed his duty well
-and thoroughly, Captain Oda withdrew to the open sea.
-
-[Sidenote: "Bayan" to the Rescue]
-
-In the meanwhile, the torpedo-boats and destroyers, besides distracting
-the attention of the defending force from the work of the mine
-transport, were engaged in more active operations on their own account.
-At dawn the second division fell in with one of the enemy's destroyers,
-the _Strashni_, which was creeping stealthily towards the harbor mouth
-from the direction of Dalny. The Japanese were on her track in a
-moment, and, cutting off her retreat, bombarded her with their
-6-pounders, until in a few minutes she became a total wreck and sank.
-An attempt was made to save her crew, but the work of rescue was
-interrupted by the appearance on the scene of the Russian cruiser
-_Bayan_. Admiral Togo's destroyers sheered off upon the approach of
-this formidable adversary, and left to her the task of picking up the
-drowning men, but the _Bayan_ was too late to be of much service, and
-only five men could be recovered. At about the same time as this
-incident, a second Russian destroyer was encountered by the Japanese
-coming from the direction of Liau-tie-shan. A strong effort was made to
-capture her, but she was more fortunate than the _Strashni_, and
-managed to escape to Port Arthur in safety.
-
-[Sidenote: Preparing an Ambush]
-
-But now began the larger and more important operations which were
-destined to end so disastrously for Admiral Marakoff and his fleet.
-Admiral Togo had ordered a weak squadron, consisting of the first-class
-cruisers _Tokiwa_ and _Asama_ and four second-class cruisers, to act as
-a support to the destroyers, if attacked, and at the same time to serve
-as a lure to the Russians, and tempt them away from the protection of
-Port Arthur. He, himself, with his main fleet, lay in hiding thirty
-miles away to the southeast, waiting for an opportunity to dash in and
-cut off Makaroff's retreat. The day was not unsuitable for such an
-enterprise. Rain was falling, and a mist hung heavy over the sea,
-disguising the smoke of his great warships.
-
-[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF A DISPATCH FOR GENERAL KUROPATKIN.]
-
-[Sidenote: Makaroff Lured Out]
-
-By eight o'clock on the morning of the 13th, the Japanese cruiser
-squadron appeared on the offing and engaged in a long-range fire with
-the _Bayan_, which had not returned to the harbor. Admiral Makaroff,
-seeing the smallness of the force opposed to him, gave the order to his
-fleet to steam out in column formation and attack the venturesome
-enemy. Hoisting his flag on the _Petropavlovsk_, the Russian
-Commander-in-Chief led the way himself, followed by the battleships
-_Poltava_ and _Pobieda_, the cruisers _Diana_, _Askold_, and _Novik_,
-and the destroyer flotilla. In the roadstead the fleet was joined by
-the _Bayan_, and the whole force then set forth majestically to engage
-the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Cutting Off the Unwary]
-
-But the orders of Admiral Togo were well observed by Admiral Dewa,
-commander of the cruiser squadron. Gradually the Japanese began to
-retire before the superior force opposed to them, drawing Makaroff
-onwards, further and further out to sea. The Russian fleet began a hot
-fire at long range, to which the Japanese ships replied at intervals,
-just sufficiently to keep their opponents occupied and to lure them on
-to greater efforts by the display of a manifest disparity of strength.
-By this skillful manoeuvring they succeeded in enticing Makaroff out
-a distance of fifteen miles to the southeast of Port Arthur. Now was
-the time to communicate with Admiral Togo. Wireless telegraphy flashed
-the news of the success of the ruse to the Commander-in-Chief. His
-great battleships were waiting with steam up and cleared for action.
-Directly he received the message from the retreating squadron he
-signalled to the new cruisers, the _Nisshin_ and _Kasuga_, to join him,
-and then advanced at full speed with eight powerful vessels to cut off
-the unwary Russians.
-
-[Sidenote: Weather Permitting]
-
-The plan had been well laid and it seemed on the brink of success, but
-that incalculable factor, the weather, intervened and brought Togo's
-calculations to naught. The wind suddenly freshened, and, blowing away
-the mist under cover of which the Japanese men-of-war were approaching,
-disclosed the smoke of their funnels to Admiral Makaroff. In a flash he
-saw the trap into which he had nearly led his fleet, and gave orders to
-retreat to Port Arthur with all haste. Back, therefore, the Russians
-scurried with the Japanese in full cry at their heels. Steam as they
-might Togo's ships were too late to catch their enemy, and great must
-have been the disappointment of the gallant Admiral and his men when
-they saw the prey slip from their grasp. But the curtain had not yet
-fallen upon the drama. Makaroff's ships had emerged from Port Arthur
-and passed over the mine field in safety; by a singular stroke of luck
-they had eluded the Japanese battle fleet, but they had still a third
-danger to encounter--they had once more to pass over the deadly engines
-of war which Captain Oda had placed in their path. And here it was that
-the blow fell.
-
-[Sidenote: Into the Jaws of Death]
-
-By about half-past nine the fleet, with the _Petropavlovsk_ at its head
-regained the roadstead and the protection of the fortress guns.
-Signalling to the torpedo flotilla to enter the harbor, Admiral
-Makaroff turned his own vessel towards the east and ordered the
-cruisers to follow him. The battleship _Pobieda_ was to the stern of
-the _Petropavlovsk_, on the starboard quarter. Close behind her again
-came the _Poltava_. The Commander-in-Chief was on the bridge of his
-ship with the Grand Duke Cyril, son of the Grand Duke Vladmir, and
-cousin of the Czar; Captain Yakovleff, and some other officers.
-Suddenly the horrified spectators on shore saw a great white column of
-foam rise on the right side of the _Petropavlovsk_. A dull report was
-heard, followed by another and more terrific explosion under the
-bridge. A huge thick cloud of greenish yellow smoke rose around the
-doomed vessel, a topmast, a funnel, a turret and the bridge were hurled
-into the air, and the huge monster heeled over on her starboard side.
-Her poop rose up, showing the propeller working in the air. Fire burst
-out in every part, and in a moment the ship was a mass of flame. A few
-seconds more and the whole fearful spectacle was torn from the eyes of
-the paralyzed onlookers, for with a tremendous lurch the vessel turned
-further on her side, the waters rushed in upon her in torrents, and
-with a roar and a hiss the mighty mass plunged beneath the foaming
-surface of the sea. The _Petropavlovsk_ had gone to her death carrying
-with her the gallant Admiral himself, his staff, and full six hundred
-officers and men.
-
-[Sidenote: Haphazard Fire]
-
-This terrible catastrophe threw the whole squadron into the utmost
-confusion. The other ships began a rapid haphazard fire in all
-directions to destroy the mines which they knew lurked in every
-direction, but their shots were purposeless; there was no mark at which
-to aim, and no effect was produced. And then, to carry further dismay
-to the already nerve-shaken fleet, a mine exploded on the starboard
-side of the _Pobieda_. She listed at once, but her fate was happier
-than that of the _Petropavlovsk_. No second explosion followed; the
-watertight bulkheads were shut to, and sorely wounded though she was
-she managed to keep afloat and to crawl into the harbor with the
-cruisers crowding behind her.
-
-[Sidenote: Rescue Work]
-
-The _Poltava_ in the meanwhile had remained upon the scene of the
-disaster, and her boats put out to save any of the crew of the flagship
-who could be found. In this work they were aided by the torpedo gunboat
-_Gaidamak_, and their combined efforts succeeded in rescuing the Grand
-Duke Cyril, seven officers, and seventy-three seamen. These were the
-only survivors.
-
-[Sidenote: The Character of the Explosion]
-
-The difference in the effect of the mine explosions upon the
-_Petropavlovsk_ and the _Pobieda_ was due to causes which could not
-have been foreseen. The terrible character of the disaster which befell
-the flagship was due to the fact that the mine exploded underneath her
-boilers, and that when these burst the explosion of the ammunition
-magazine, which was in the same part of the ship, immediately followed.
-The whole affair was over in less than a minute and a half. On the
-other hand, the explosion at the side of the _Pobieda_ did not touch
-the boilers, and seriously--indeed for the purposes of immediate
-warfare, irremediable--damaged as she was, the same appalling results
-did not follow in her case as in the other.
-
-[Sidenote: Accounts by Survivors]
-
-The accounts of the survivors of the _Petropavlovsk_ all confirm this
-view. But so swift indeed was the tragedy that there was not much time
-or opportunity for the formation of correct conclusions upon this or
-upon any point. The narratives of the men who were picked up were of
-the kind usually met with on the occasion of a sudden catastrophe. They
-were mainly confined to their own personal experiences and miraculous
-escape. Upon the memories of some, however, certain outstanding
-incidents were sharply and indelibly photographed. One of the last
-things which a signalman saw upon the bridge before he was hurled off
-was the figure of an officer lying weltering in his blood. It was
-Admiral Makaroff himself. Captain Yakovleff, the commander of the
-vessel, was hurled against a stanchion with such force that he was
-thought to be killed, but he was afterwards picked up alive. The Grand
-Duke Cyril had an escape just as marvelous. He, too, was knocked on the
-head, but he was not rendered unconscious, and when he was thrown into
-the sea he fell clear of the sinking vessel. He was an excellent
-swimmer, and in spite of the shock and injury he had sustained, he
-managed to keep afloat until he was picked up. Rear-Admiral Molas,
-Makaroff's chief of staff, was in his cabin when the explosion
-occurred, and was drowned. His body was one of the few that were
-afterwards washed ashore. Another picture which some of the survivors
-retained in their mind was that of "an old man with a beautiful white
-beard," who was standing on the deck just before the disaster with a
-book in his hand sketching. This was the famous war artist,
-Verestchagin. Only that morning his friend Makaroff had invited him to
-share the hospitality of the flagship and so gain further material for
-his realistic pictures of the horrors of war!
-
-[Sidenote: Tribute from the Japanese]
-
-The full magnitude of the success which his plans had gained was not
-revealed to the Japanese Admiral till the Russian dispatches made it
-public to the world. He saw a vessel, as he phrased it, "of the
-_Petropavlovsk_ type" strike a mine and sink, and he thought also that
-another ship--he was referring to the _Pobieda_--lost freedom of
-movement; but he did not know that with the _Petropavlovsk_ perished
-the brain of the Russian defence, a brain which, if it had been
-employed from the first by its master, the Czar, might have given a
-totally different character to the war. The death of Makaroff in itself
-brought no rejoicing to the Japanese in their hour of victory, but only
-that feeling of almost personal sorrow which brave and chivalrous men
-feel for the death of a gallant foe. No finer or more generous tributes
-indeed could have been paid even in the western world than were paid to
-the memory of the brave but unfortunate Makaroff by the members of this
-so-called yellow race.
-
-[Sidenote: On Land]
-
-On the 14th Admiral Togo once more brought his fleet before Port
-Arthur, and by means of an indirect bombardment, silenced the new forts
-on Liau-tie-shan. He then retired again to prepare for a further
-attempt to cork up the harbor, which should finally reduce the Russian
-fleet to a state of ineffectiveness, and leave the sea clear for the
-transport of the great army which was to be launched against the
-Liao-tung Peninsula and southern Manchuria. Already General Kuroki,
-with the First Army, was encamped on the south bank of the Yalu River
-prepared for an advance upon the Russian position at Khiu-lien-cheng.
-
-[Sidenote: Chong-Ju]
-
-But before dealing with the momentous events which now occurred in
-rapid succession, both on land and sea, it will be necessary to return
-for a few moments to the earlier fortunes of the First Army, whose
-advance through Korea as far as Ping-Yang was described in Chapter III.
-It will be remembered that a small skirmish took place between Russian
-and Japanese patrols to the north of that town on February 28th. A
-month elapsed before the opposing forces came seriously into touch with
-one another again. During that period General Kuroki slowly but
-steadily continued his advance in the face of terrible difficulties
-arising from the weather and the state of the roads. The mud on these
-north Korean highways in the spring makes them almost impassable, but
-the Japanese had thought of everything, and brought large supplies of
-wood with which they practically relaid the road, and made it admit
-even of the passage of heavy artillery. The Cossack patrols retired
-before this persistent advance, and no real attempt to dispute it was
-made till the vanguard of the Japanese neared Chong-ju, a little town
-about thirty miles north of Anju and fifty south of Wiju. Here, on
-March 28th, they found six squadrons of Cossacks belonging to General
-Mishtchenko's Brigade, posted on an adjacent hill, prepared to dispute
-the forward movement. A brisk engagement ensued. The small force of
-Japanese which first appeared upon the scene, according to the
-testimony of General Mishtchenko himself, gallantly held their ground
-in spite of the commanding position occupied by the Russians and the
-raking cross fire which they maintained, and it was only after half an
-hour of fierce fighting that they gave way and fell back upon their
-supports which were hastening to the front. Reinforcements now rapidly
-arrived, and the Russians, finding their position untenable, retired
-along the road to the north, yielding up possession of the town to the
-Japanese. In this smart little affair the Russians, according to their
-account, lost three killed and twelve wounded, the Japanese casualties
-amounting to five killed, including one officer, and twelve wounded,
-including two officers.
-
-[Sidenote: The Advance to the North]
-
-After the capture of Chong-ju General Kuroki moved forward rapidly,
-finding no resistance. On April 2nd he occupied Syoush-kou, a place
-eighteen miles west of Chong-ju, and forty miles south of Wiju, and two
-days afterwards his scouts entered Wiju itself, an important town on
-the south bank of the Yalu. The Russians did not find themselves strong
-enough to oppose the Japanese advance in Korea, and determined instead
-to resist it on the north bank of the Yalu. General Kuroki therefore
-occupied Wiju without firing a shot, and set to work busily to
-consolidate his forces for the great enterprise of crossing the Yalu.
-
-[Sidenote: Concentration of Troops]
-
-The month of April was occupied by General Kuroki in the steady
-concentration of his troops and in the collection of war material.
-Pontoons were conveyed to the front in readiness for the operation of
-forcing the river; heavy guns were transported over the Korean roads
-with, in the circumstances, really marvelous rapidity; and masses of
-cavalry and infantry arrived at Wiju every day. By the end of the month
-the First Japanese Army had been brought up to its full strength,
-amounting probably to between 60,000 and 70,000 men of all arms. It was
-divided into three divisions, the 12th, the 2nd and the Guards. The
-12th Division, it will be remembered, was the first section of the army
-to put foot on Korean soil, being landed at Chemulpo during the first
-days of the war, after the destruction of the _Varyag_ had left that
-part of the coast clear for the Japanese disembarkation. It may be well
-to record its composition exactly, as it is typical of all the Japanese
-divisions. It was made up as follows:--Infantry, 12,000 (four regiments
-of three battalions each); cavalry, 500 (one regiment); artillery, 900
-(one regiment, 36 guns, two field batteries, two mountain batteries);
-engineers, 700; transport corps, 600; hospital corps, 700; ammunition
-column, 500; post office corps, veterinary corps, pontoon corps and
-balloon corps, 1,000; total, 16,900. Attached to these combatant troops
-were a force of 5,500 coolies for transport purposes, bringing the
-grand total of the division, combatant and non-combatant, up to 22,400.
-The whole was under the command of Lieutenant-General Inouye, whose
-chief subordinates were Major-Generals Kigoshi and Otani.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN CONCENTRATION ON THE YALU.]
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki's Line of Front]
-
-As his army arrived at the front, General Kuroki began gradually to
-occupy a wider front on the south bank of the Yalu, his left wing
-operating at the mouth of the river in conjunction with a naval force
-under the command of Admiral Hosoya, and his right extending to a
-distance of twenty or twenty-five miles up the river, past Sukuchin.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Position]
-
-While the Japanese were thus concentrating on the left bank of the Yalu
-the Russians were gradually strengthening their positions on the right
-bank, the centre and key of which was formed by the village of
-Kiu-lien-cheng. During all these weeks the greatest secrecy was
-observed on both sides in regard to their numbers and dispositions--as
-far, at least, as the outside world was concerned. It seems probable
-from after events that the Russians themselves were largely ignorant of
-the strength of the force which General Kuroki had at his disposal;
-but, on the other hand, that able commander appears to have been
-thoroughly well informed in every detail as to the position occupied by
-his enemy. There was the greatest diversity of statement on the Russian
-side after the battle of the Yalu upon the question of the real
-intentions of General Kuropatkin in holding as he did the right bank of
-the river. When the disastrous result of the conflict of May 1st became
-known in Europe the friends of the Commander-in-Chief in the press
-declared that it was due to the failure of the officer in immediate
-command, General Sassulitch, to follow his instructions, which were to
-offer only a strategical resistance to the enemy and to withdraw slowly
-before the advance of a superior force upon Feng-haung-cheng, a
-position about thirty miles distant upon the Liau-yang road. If this
-explanation is correct, the activity shown by the Russians for weeks in
-constructing earthworks on the heights around Kiu-lien-cheng is
-rendered very remarkable, and equally difficult to understand is the
-size and importance of the force to which was apportioned the task of
-thus keeping in touch with the advancing Japanese army and conducting a
-mere strategic defeat. For General Sassulitch was commander of the 2nd
-Siberian Army Corps, and though the actual body of troops engaged in
-the fighting-line in resisting the passage of the Yalu by the Japanese
-did not amount to that strength, there is no doubt that General
-Sassulitch had under him in the near neighborhood a force of not less
-than 30,000 men. All the evidence, in fact, points to the conclusion
-that the Russian Generals, including the Commander-in-Chief himself,
-wholly underestimated the fighting power of the Japanese and the skill
-with which they would be led when the opposing armies came to close
-quarters.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Confidence]
-
-The kind of talk which responsible military men in St. Petersburg
-indulged in before the battle of the Yalu all goes to strengthen this
-impression. On April 25th, the day before General Kuroki began that
-series of movements which were to culminate in his crossing the Yalu
-and driving the Russians before him in headlong rout, there appeared in
-the _Echo de Paris_ the report of an interview which its St. Petersburg
-correspondent had had with Colonel Vannovsky, of the Russian General
-Staff, and formerly military attache in Japan. The utterances of this
-sapient officer are amusing reading in view of what happened so shortly
-afterwards. He thought it would still be some time before serious
-military operations could begin on the Yalu, for the Japanese, in his
-opinion, were far from having completed their concentration in Korea.
-They probably, he said, had three divisions of from 12,000 to 15,000
-men between Ping-Yang and the Yalu; and, including the Second Army then
-disembarking, they had not more than 85,000 men near the front. Then
-followed a valuable criticism of General Kuroki and his colleague,
-General Oku, the commander of the Second Army. Both, he reminded the
-interviewer, served in the Chino-Japanese War; but "he looked for
-nothing extraordinary from them, both were more than sixty years of
-age." On the whole, he thought that the Japanese would establish
-themselves in Korea; if they crossed the Yalu it would be only to
-satisfy public opinion at Tokio. Colonel Vannovsky soon had reason to
-be sorry that he had spoken so disdainfully of General Kuroki, and with
-such sublime assurance of the Japanese plans. If the crossing of the
-Yalu was mainly dictated by a desire to satisfy public opinion at
-Tokio, it must be said that public opinion at Tokio had its wishes very
-amply gratified before many days had expired. It is a remarkable fact
-that in the history of nearly every war the greatest disasters follow
-the greatest self-confidence. And yet it can easily be understood how
-the armies that had proved successful against those famous fighters the
-Turks in the war of the seventies should despise the little dwarfish
-Japanese, who had hitherto only faced the undisciplined hordes of China.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-
-  Kuroki Completes his Plans--The Scene of Battle--General
-    Sassulitch's Defences--The Russian Dispositions--The
-    Attacking Army--Clearing the Islands--Guards Half-way
-    Across--Parallel Movements--The Searching Japanese
-    Fire--Bridging the Yalu--Confusion in the Russian
-    Councils--Kuroki's Consummate Strategy--Futile Russian
-    Opposition--Masked Batteries at Work--Serpentine Line of
-    Dark Forms--Two Thousand Deadly Thunderbolts--Inferno Let
-    Loose--Howitzer High-Angle Fire--Co-operation of
-    Gunboats--Miserable Array of Russians--Four Miles of
-    Japanese--A Moment of Tense Expectancy--The General Attack
-    Begins--Ridges Alive with Flame--Surprise of the
-    Russians--The Plunge Across the Ai--Overwhelming
-    Legions--The Circling Ring of Fate--Devastating Artillery
-    Bombardment--Black Mass of Human Figures--The Blood-Red
-    Banner--Fight Desperately Against Fate--General
-    Sassulitch's Retreat--The Japanese Chase--The Last Gallant
-    Stand--Rifle Fire and Cold Steel.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki Completes his Plans]
-
-The numerous small skirmishes between outposts which took place on the
-Yalu and its tributaries during the earlier part of the month of April
-need not detain us. They were mainly encounters between small
-reconnoitering parties, and though there were losses on both sides,
-fortune on the whole leaned in favor of the Japanese. The results of
-these reconnaissances in locating the positions occupied by the
-Russians, combined with the success of the Japanese transport
-arrangements, which, as stated already, placed an army of 60,000 to
-70,000 men at General Kuroki's disposal, enabled him to complete his
-preparations for the great task before him by the beginning of the last
-week in April. The night of the 25th found him ready at all points, and
-on the morrow his army entered upon the preliminary stages of a series
-of operations which, culminating in the crossing of the river and the
-capture of the Russian position, first revealed to an astonished world
-the hitherto undreamt-of potentialities of Japan as a military power.
-
-[Sidenote: The Scene of Battle]
-
-Some study of the map of the scene of battle is necessary for a perfect
-understanding of the movements of the contending forces. It will be
-seen on reference to our map (page 169) that just above Wiju the waters
-of the Yalu are joined from the northwest by an important tributary,
-the Ai River, the stream here taking the form of a fork. At the apex of
-the triangular wedge of land which divides the Ai from the Yalu is
-situated the Hosan, or Tiger Hill, an important strategical position
-commanding the south bank of the main river. Opposite Tiger Hill, and
-running some way past it up the Yalu, is the Island of Kulido, which
-divides the river at this point into two streams, both of them
-fordable. The Ai also is fordable at a point near the hill of
-Yulchasan, which is north of Tiger Hill and on the same bank of the
-tributary. Opposite Wiju itself the main river is two miles wide and is
-divided into three streams by two islands. Of these the larger
-Cheun-song-do, is near the right bank, and lies stretched alongside it
-for a distance of about thirteen miles, starting from a spot close to
-Antung, lower down the river, and finishing at a little distance up the
-Ai. It can be reached from the right bank at this end by a ford, and
-there is another ford lower down, opposite to Chiu-lien-cheng. The
-stream dividing the other island from the left bank is also fordable
-waist-deep, but the central stream can only be crossed by means of a
-bridge. These islands are really low, flat, sandy deltas, with
-occasional clumps of small trees and patches of shrub dotting their
-surface, which provide some cover for the concealment of troops.
-
-[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE ACTIONS ON THE YALU
-    APRIL 29TH-MAY 1ST.]
-
-[Sidenote: General Sassulitch's Defences]
-
-The Russian position extended for a distance of upwards of twenty miles
-along the right bank of the Yalu and Ai, from Niang-ning-chin in the
-south, to Yushukau in the north. Yushukau is a hill opposite to
-Yulchasan, and lower down is another hill which General Sassulitch had
-fortified, named Makau (or Potientzy). Then comes the village of
-Chiu-lien-cheng itself, which formed the centre of his position,
-standing at a height of about 180 feet above the river. From
-Chiu-lien-cheng a road runs in a westerly direction to Hamatan or
-Hoh-mu-tang, a distance of about five or six miles; and another road
-runs down parallel with the bank of the Yalu to Antung. A further road
-runs from Hoh-mu-tang in a northerly direction, the most important post
-on which is Tang-lang-fang, almost due west of Yushukau. Westward of
-Hoh-mu-tang stretches the main road to Feng-whang-cheng and Liao-yang.
-South of Antung is the hill of Antushan, and a continual ridge of hills
-connects this eminence with Niang-ning-chin, already mentioned. It will
-be observed that the high ground which the Russians occupied gives a
-defending force a great advantage in meeting an attack from the Yalu,
-as it easily commands the low-lying positions on the left bank. On the
-other hand, Makau, Shiu-lien-cheng, and the positions to the southward
-are commanded by Tiger Hill and Yulchasan, and it is therefore obvious
-that if once the Japanese succeeded in occupying those heights they
-must necessarily render the rest of General Sassulitch's defences along
-the river bank untenable.
-
-[Illustration: HAULING A JAPANESE HOWITZER INTO POSITION UNDER FIRE.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Dispositions]
-
-As far as can be gathered from the Japanese accounts and from the more
-obscure dispatches of the Russian Generals, the distribution of the
-Czar's forces at the beginning of the operations was as follows: Tiger
-Hill was occupied by part of the 22nd Siberian Regiment under the
-command of General Kashtalinsky. The right wing, in the neighborhood of
-Antung, was formed of the 9th and 10th Regiments supported by two
-batteries of artillery; while the centre, at Chiu-lien-cheng, was held
-by the 12th Regiment. The Reserve was formed of the 11th Regiment. The
-artillery were distributed at carefully-chosen positions along the
-whole front, but were massed in especial strength at Makau and
-Chiu-lien-cheng. Advanced outposts drawn from the 22nd, 23rd, and 27th
-Regiments of Eastern Siberian Sharpshooters occupied the islands of
-Kulido and Cheun-song-do. A Russian regiment, it should be explained,
-consists of three battalions, each of which, when brought up to its
-full strength, numbers about 1,000 men.
-
-[Sidenote: The Attacking Army]
-
-On the night of the 25th the Japanese army was massed on the left bank
-of the river in the following order: On the left, facing the island of
-Cheun-song-do, was stationed the 2nd Division; the centre, occupying a
-position to the north of Wiju, was composed of the Imperial Guards'
-Division; and on the right, still further up the river, the 12th
-Division was concentrated, in concealment behind some hilly ground, and
-in readiness for an important move upon the enemy's left, which will be
-described later.
-
-[Sidenote: Clearing the Islands]
-
-At dawn on the 26th a sharp rattle of musketry told the Russians that
-the attack had begun. Detachments from the Guards' Division were firing
-upon General Sassulitch's sharpshooters stationed on the Island of
-Kulido. The Russians replied briskly, but the Japanese rifle fire was
-heavy and well-directed, and at last their position became untenable,
-in face not only of this infantry attack, but of a searching
-bombardment opened by some batteries of Kuroki's artillery, which were
-established on a hill in the rear of Wiju. They therefore retreated to
-the mainland for shelter.
-
-[Sidenote: Guards Half-way Across]
-
-No sooner had this retirement been effected than the Japanese prepared
-to cross over to the island in boats. These craft were all in
-readiness, and before long a considerable force of the Guards had
-landed on the island. When this movement was perceived the enemy
-returned to dispute it; but they were not in large force, and were
-easily repulsed. A squadron of Cossacks came to their assistance, but
-the hot fire with which they were received by the Japanese infantry was
-too much for them, and they were driven back in confusion to the bank
-below Tiger Hill. The Mikado's Guards continued the pursuit across the
-ford, and a smart encounter ensued beneath the hill. The fighting was
-not of long duration, however; the Russians retired; and it became
-evident that there was no intention seriously to dispute the possession
-of the island. The attempt made by General Sassulitch's batteries to
-drive the daring Japanese off the island by shrapnel fire was quite
-unsuccessful, and the whole defence on this side revealed an unexpected
-weakness. The Guards' skirmishers occupied all night the ground they
-had so easily gained.
-
-[Sidenote: Parallel Movements]
-
-In the meantime, the advance guard of the 2nd Division had carried
-through the same operations with equal success on the Island of
-Cheun-song-do. The Russian sharpshooters were driven off in the
-direction of Chiu-lien-cheng, and the Japanese seized the delta with a
-small force preparatory to constructing a bridge over the central
-stream for the passage of the main body of the division.
-
-[Sidenote: The Searching Japanese Fire]
-
-In these small but useful engagements the Guards suffered some slight
-casualties, nine men being slightly and sixteen seriously wounded. The
-2nd Division sustained no casualties at all. The Russians, on the other
-hand, lost more heavily. They were seen to carry off a considerable
-number of dead and wounded, and they left behind them ninety-five dead
-horses, which, in itself, is significant of the searching character of
-the Japanese fire. The body of Lieutenant Senyoloff, commanding the
-Mounted Scouts of the 22nd Regiment, which his comrades had not time to
-remove, was buried at Wiju by the Japanese themselves with all honor.
-
-[Sidenote: Bridging the Yalu]
-
-On the following day the work of bridging the stream both at Kulido and
-Cheun-song-do was carried out, in spite of the intermittent fire which
-the Russian guns maintained upon the corps engaged. So ineffective
-indeed was this cannonade that the Japanese artillery did not even
-reply to it, and their engineers pursued their enterprise calmly and
-without substantial interruption. On the same day the naval squadron
-under Rear-Admiral Hosoya rendered valuable assistance to General
-Kuroki by its co-operation in the Yalu estuary. Two gunboats, two
-torpedo-boats, and two armed steamers ascended the river as far as
-Antushan and effected a useful diversion in the quarter by shelling the
-Russian entrenchments. The bombardment must have proved destructive,
-for after making a brisk reply for some time, which, however, did no
-damage to the Japanese ships, the Muscovite batteries were finally
-silenced.
-
-[Sidenote: Confusion in the Russian Councils]
-
-On Thursday, the 28th, the same tactics were displayed, and the
-position seized by the Guards' Division and the 2nd Division on the
-Islands of Kulido and Cheun-song-do was consolidated. Two companies of
-the former, indeed, crossed over to the mainland and reconnoitred Tiger
-Hill, encouraged by the silence of the enemy on that commanding
-eminence. To their surprise they found that the post had been evacuated
-by the Russians. No explanation has been offered of this remarkable
-step; the only conclusion possible--a conclusion, indeed, strengthened
-by subsequent events--is that confusion reigned in the councils of the
-Russian commanders, and that no definite and coherent plan had been
-thought out by them. For on the next day General Kashtalinsky was again
-ordered to occupy the hill, which the Japanese themselves, having other
-plans in view, were not yet in a position to seize effectively.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki's Consummate Strategy]
-
-On Friday, the 29th, General Kuroki began the important move on his
-extreme right, for which the 12th Division had been all this time kept
-in reserve. The operations of the Guards and the 2nd Division, useful,
-and indeed necessary, as they were for the purposes of a general
-advance, had acted as a screen for his consummate piece of strategy by
-which the Japanese Commander turned General Sassulitch's flank and
-finally captured the position. To the north of Wiju, about thirteen
-miles higher up the stream of the Yalu, stands the small village of
-Sukuchin. Here it was that the Japanese effected a crossing in October,
-1894, in their war with China. On that occasion the movement enabled
-them to outflank a force of 30,000 men, and it is one of the remarkable
-features of General Kuroki's dispositions for attack that they repeated
-in all essential particulars the tactics which proved so successful ten
-years ago. Still more remarkable is it that the Russians appear to have
-learned none of the lessons of the war of 1894, and to have fallen just
-as readily into the trap as did the Chinese. Early then on the 29th the
-engineer corps of the 12th Division started to construct two pontoon
-bridges over the Yalu at Sukuchin. Here, as in every other department
-of the Japanese arrangements, the organization was perfect. Not a
-detail had been omitted and the work proceeded smoothly and with
-dispatch. By the next morning both bridges were completed and the
-troops prepared to cross.
-
-[Sidenote: Futile Russian Opposition]
-
-The Russian Commander, who had at last got wind of the manoeuvre
-which was taking place at this point, had detached a small force to
-oppose the passage of the river, and when at 10.40 the vanguard of
-General Inouye's Division began to march on to the pontoons, a fierce
-fire was directed upon it from the opposite bank. The Japanese,
-however, retorted both with rifle fire and artillery, and the fusillade
-of the Russians was soon checked, with the result that by the afternoon
-the whole of the 12th Division had gained the right bank of the Yalu
-with the loss of only two men killed and twenty-seven men wounded.
-General Inouye then marched forward to seize Yulchasan and Tiger Hill,
-which positions, after their first evacuation, had again been occupied
-by the Russians under General Kashtalinsky.
-
-[Sidenote: Masked Batteries at Work]
-
-In the meantime, the Guards' Division, assisted by a heavy bombardment
-from the batteries below Wiju, was pressing an attack upon Tiger Hill
-from the Island of Kulido, an attack which successfully diverted the
-attention of General Kashtalinsky from the advance upon his left, and
-prevented him from offering it any formidable resistance. The Japanese
-artillery in particular distinguished itself. Never was superiority of
-generalship more strikingly displayed than it was by General Kuroki in
-this case. The position was admirably selected by him; the work of
-placing the batteries was carried out with such skill that the Russians
-were kept in entire ignorance of their whereabouts; and finally when
-they opened fire on the morning of the 30th the heavy character of the
-guns employed took the enemy absolutely by surprise. On the delta
-immediately below Wiju was a belt of trees of which the Japanese
-General had at once seen the potentialities; and behind its screen his
-engineers had constructed gun pits, in which were concealed several
-batteries of howitzers. These pieces of ordnance did terrible execution
-in the Russian lines in the course of the day.
-
-[Sidenote: Serpentine Line of Dark Forms]
-
-To the onlookers standing on the hills behind Wiju the wide field of
-battle spread before them presented a highly picturesque spectacle, and
-as the attack developed the interest became intense. Hardly had the
-advance of the Guards begun upon the Island of Kulido when a long
-serpentine line of dark forms could be seen winding in and out of the
-heights on the right bank of the river to the north of Tiger Hill. They
-were the men of the 12th Division slowly but surely creeping upon the
-Russian left. For miles they pressed forward without coming into view
-of the Russian artillerymen on Tiger Hill, but at last the first
-detachments, rounding the shoulder of one of the nearer hills, were
-exposed to the enemy. Instantly a terrific burst of shrapnel fire broke
-out from General Kashtalinsky's field batteries. Steadily, however, and
-without a check the brave Japanese advanced from height to height, and
-at the same time the batteries on the left bank above Wiju came to
-their aid. The fire of the Russians had unmasked the position of their
-guns on the hill, and the Japanese artillerymen rained upon them a
-terrible hail of shells which soon reduced them to silence and
-effectually covered the advance of the infantry.
-
-[Sidenote: Two Thousand Deadly Thunderbolts]
-
-But now the Guards, who were engaged in effecting a lodgement on the
-lower slopes of Tiger Hill, came in for the attentions of General
-Sassulitch's field batteries at Makau and Chiu-lien-cheng. Believing
-that the Japanese possessed only guns of the same calibre, and totally
-ignorant of the deadly engines of warfare which Kuroki had so
-skillfully concealed behind the innocent-looking belt of trees on the
-delta, the Russian Commander took no pains to mask his ordnance.
-Therefore when his shrapnel swept the Island of Kulido and played havoc
-among the Guards, his whole position in this part of the field lay
-exposed. At once the howitzers on the delta close to the opposite shore
-began to belch forth a terrible fire of shrapnel and common shell,
-which tore up the ground all around the Russians, killing their gunners
-and dismounting their guns. This bombardment was afterwards described
-by General Kashtalinsky, in a dispatch to the Commander-in-Chief, as
-"extraordinarily violent and prolonged," and he added that in its
-course more than 2,000 shells were fired upon the defenders' position.
-The fearfully destructive and demoralizing effect of this cannonade was
-indeed patent at once to the observers upon the left bank of the river.
-The Makau Hill was described by one correspondent as transformed in
-appearance into an active volcano, from which belched forth clouds of
-grey-black smoke.
-
-[Sidenote: Inferno Set Loose]
-
-It was Inferno let loose. The sides of the hill were riddled and
-scored, solid rocks were smashed like crockery, as the screaming
-missiles of death burst among the trenches and filled them with dead
-and wounded. Yet amid it all the Russian artillerymen stood steadily to
-their guns as long as their guns were left in their places, and as long
-as any men remained to work them. But the best troop in the world could
-not endure such a murderous fire for long. The heavy pieces of field
-ordnance were knocked from their carriages like ninepins, the soldiers
-fell around them in scores, and at last the batteries sank into silence
-and the dark forms of the defenders were seen from afar fleeing for
-refuge behind the further line of the heights.
-
-[Sidenote: Howitzer High-Angle Fire]
-
-This fierce artillery engagement lasted about half an hour, and while
-it produced such deadly and demoralizing effects on the enemy it left
-the Japanese practically unharmed behind their screen of trees. Their
-howitzers, unlike the Russian field guns, could do the maximum of
-execution by means of high-angle fire and their battery emplacements
-were so carefully and skilfully masked that the shrapnel of the enemy,
-effective as it may have appeared to be from the right bank, did them
-scarcely any damage. Their casualties, indeed, were only two men killed
-and twenty-five wounded. It was a remarkable triumph of scientific
-warfare, and proved that in the artillery branch of the service at all
-events the Japanese had nothing further to learn from European models.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIANS COLLECTING WOUNDED ON THE NIGHT AFTER THE
-BATTLE.]
-
-[Sidenote: Co-operation of Gunboats]
-
-While this bombardment was engaging the Russian centre and diverting
-its attention from the enveloping movement of the 12th Division on the
-left, and from the advance of the Guards upon Tiger Hill, the gunboat
-flotilla of Admiral Hosoya again operated with great effect against the
-Russian lines lower down the river at Antushan and Niang-ning-chin.
-This simultaneous attack along the whole of his front placed General
-Sassulitch in a position of the utmost difficulty. He was unable to
-tell from which part of the field the real danger would come. It is
-clear, however, from the dispatches of his subordinate, General
-Kashtalinsky, that that officer appreciated the true nature of the
-Japanese operations, and that he recognized the impossibility of
-holding Chiu-lien-cheng after his flank had been turned by General
-Inouye's Division. Early on the 30th he ordered the 22nd Regiment back
-from Tiger Hill to the right bank of the Ai River and endeavored to
-strengthen the position on Makau and Yukushau, and his dispatch to
-General Kuropatkin indicates that he represented to General Sassulitch
-the difficulty with which even that line of defence could be
-maintained, and urged a retreat to Hoh-mu-tang. At night, however, he
-received orders from his superior to remain and accept battle at the
-hands of the Japanese, and he had nothing for it but to obey.
-
-[Sidenote: Miserable Array of Russians]
-
-It was with a miserably inadequate force that he was thus compelled to
-oppose the advance of a foe which had already proved itself so
-determined and so resourceful. At the ford on his extreme left he
-stationed two battalions of the 22nd Regiment. The 12th Regiment of the
-East Siberian Rifles held the hills behind, from Yukushan to Makau,
-supported by the 3rd Battery of the 6th Brigade of Artillery and a
-number of machine guns. General Sassulitch himself was in command of
-the 9th and 10th Regiments occupying Chiu-lien-cheng and the chain of
-hills stretching down to Antung, and the 11th Regiment was kept in the
-rear as a reserve. General Mishchenko's Brigade of Cossacks, though in
-the neighborhood, does not appear to have been actually engaged in the
-battle at all.
-
-[Sidenote: Four Miles of Japanese]
-
-On the Japanese side all was in readiness for the great advance by the
-night of the 30th, and General Kuroki telegraphed to the General Staff
-at Tokio that the attack would begin at dawn. On the left, the 2nd
-Division, under General Nishi, occupied the southern end of
-Cheun-song-do; the Imperial Guards, under General Hasegawa, held the
-northern end of that island, as well as Tiger Hill; and on their right
-was stationed the 12th Division, facing the Ai, on a wide front
-extending for over four miles. In these positions the Army bivouacked
-for the night.
-
-[Sidenote: A Moment of Tense Expectancy]
-
-By five o'clock on the morning of Sunday, May 1st, the whole force from
-north to south was on foot, and prepared to move like one mighty
-machine to the execution of the great task before it. As the grey dawn
-lifted the curtain upon the tremendous drama which was about to unfold
-itself before them, the watchers behind Wiju saw the long lines of
-black forms marshalling upon the islands and taking cover behind the
-scrub and in the hollows of the low sand hills. Far out beyond Tiger
-Hill and along the left bank of the River Ai the lines extended, moving
-out of the shelter of the adjacent hills. It was a moment of tense
-expectancy. Now for the first time were Japanese Infantry to be pitted
-against European troops armed with modern weapons, in a conflict on the
-grand scale. Would they come out of the ordeal with triumph? Would they
-in their sphere of warfare rival the great achievements of their naval
-brethren?
-
-[Sidenote: The General Attack Begins]
-
-But before the infantry could move forward it was necessary to search
-the Russian batteries once more and reduce them, if possible, to
-ineffectiveness. The howitzers and field artillery, therefore, again
-opened their terrible fire of shell and shrapnel upon the heights
-opposite, the storm raging with especial severity over Chiu-lien-cheng
-and the Makau and Yushukau ridge. But to this the enemy made no reply.
-After the awful experience of the previous day, they had been compelled
-to withdraw many of their guns, and the front of their position was, as
-it afterwards appeared, deprived of this defence altogether. General
-Kashtalinsky, as already stated, had with him one battery of field
-artillery, but taught by past lessons he declined to unmask its
-whereabouts until the advance of the Mikado's troops made it absolutely
-necessary. After half an hour, therefore, the Japanese ceased their
-bombardment for the time being, and at last General Kuroki gave the
-eagerly-expected order for a general attack along the whole line.
-Gladly the soldiery of Dai Nippon answered the call, burning as one man
-to plant the flag of the Rising Sun upon the soil of the territory from
-which ten years ago they had been so contemptuously driven out by the
-haughty Muscovite.
-
-[Sidenote: Ridges Alive with Flame]
-
-To the 12th Division fell the perilous glory of crossing first, in the
-teeth of the Russian guns. The skirmishing line advanced first over a
-wide front, keeping up a harassing fire upon the enemy's trenches. A
-smart response was made, but the opportunity of the Russians was yet to
-come; for it was apparent that the actual crossing of the river by
-General Inouye's main body would have to be performed in much closer
-formation, presenting an admirable target for artillery and rifle fire.
-Slowly but steadily the skirmishers pressed forward, taking advantage
-of every scrap of cover, and soon the whole plain was dotted with puffs
-of white smoke as the bullets sped on their way. Behind them came line
-after line of the main storming force. At last the fords were reached,
-and forming into two columns the 12th Division rushed forward to gain
-their passage. At once the ridges opposite became alive with flame, and
-a withering blast of shrapnel and rifle bullets swept across their
-path. The column formation which the Japanese were compelled to adopt
-gave the Russian marksmen every chance, and terrible loss of life
-occurred at this point. The leading files were mown down like grass
-under the sickle; for a moment the head of the column wavered under the
-storm and stood still.
-
-[Sidenote: Surprise of the Russians]
-
-But now the Japanese artillery found the opening they wanted. The exact
-position of the Russian guns was revealed, and at once they were
-enfiladed by a demoralizing fire from the terrible howitzers near Wiju
-while at the same time they were attacked by General Inouye's field
-batteries in front. Once again the fierce and destructive character of
-the cannonade is revealed by the dispatches of the Russian commanders.
-Just as General Kashtalinsky, referring to the bombardment of April
-30th, described it as "extraordinarily violent and prolonged," so
-General Sassulitch used similar terms in regard to this new
-bombardment. Before the day was over the Russian Commander had more
-opportunities of appreciating the "extraordinary" quality of the troops
-whose powers he, in common with more highly placed officers in the
-service of the Czar, had so fatally despised; but it seems clear from
-the use of the same phrase independently by the two generals that the
-artillery tactics of General Kuroki caused them more surprise than
-almost anything else in the whole of these surprising operations. It
-goes to prove that the Intelligence Department on the Russian side was
-not well equipped, for the possession by their enterprising foe of
-heavy guns so far north in Korea seems never to have been suspected by
-them.
-
-[Sidenote: The Plunge Across the Ai]
-
-Supported by this tremendous cannonade, the infantry of the 12th
-Division pressed steadily forward. The survivors of the first line
-melted into the second line, which was advancing quickly behind, and
-careless of death, the gallant little Japs plunged into the waters of
-the Ai up to their breasts, and waded across the ford. Notwithstanding
-the raking fire, however, from General Kuroki's batteries, the Russians
-stuck to their posts like heroes, and the field guns of the 3rd
-Battery, assisted by a number of machine guns, ploughed up the ranks of
-the Mikado's troops, doing terrible execution. But the Japanese were in
-overwhelming force, and though men were falling on every hand, the main
-body pressed resistlessly forward, crossed the river, and took up a
-position on the right bank, at the base of the hills. Not a moment was
-wasted. As the column reached the shore, it diverged regiment by
-regiment to right and left, spreading out in wider formation for the
-task of scaling the heights. The evolution was executed with great
-speed, but with the precision and steadiness of parade; and if anything
-could be more impressive than the gallantry of the Japanese rank and
-file, it was the skill and coolness of their officers from General down
-to company commander. Though it was exposed to a withering fire at
-comparatively close quarters, the movements of the whole force were
-executed like those of a machine.
-
-[Sidenote: Overwhelming Legions]
-
-It will be remembered that there are two fords over the Ai river, the
-one leading from a position near Yulchasan, on the left bank, to a
-position slightly north of Yukushan, on the right bank; the other
-opposite to Tiger Hill, and a little to the north of Makau. It was
-opposite to this latter ford that the bulk of General Kashtalinsky's
-force was stationed, and here in consequence, the greatest losses
-befell the Japanese. But while a fierce engagement was raging at Makau,
-the decisive movement was taking place on the extreme left of the
-Russians at Yushukau. The defence at that spot was entrusted to only
-one battalion of the 22nd Regiment of Sharpshooters, and it was
-impossible for such a small contingent, gallantly as it held its ground
-for a time, finally to withstand the overwhelming legions which were
-hurled against it.
-
-[Sidenote: The Circling Ring of Fate]
-
-For slowly but steadily the Japanese lines encircled the hills with a
-ring of fate, creeping up the sides with infinite nimbleness and
-dexterity, pausing now to take cover and return the Russian fire, then
-up again and climbing from rock to rock with indomitable courage and
-resolution. On the other hand, General Kashtalinsky bravely fought on
-against his advancing foe. With the force at his command, it was
-obviously a desperate undertaking, and he had sent for reinforcements.
-But they came not, and for hours he had to do the best he could without
-them. The fact was, of course, that General Sassulitch himself was so
-busily engaged both on the right wing and at the centre that he could
-spare little assistance to his subordinate.
-
-[Sidenote: Devastating Artillery Bombardment]
-
-For almost simultaneously with the advance of the 12th Division across
-the Ai the Imperial Guards under General Hasegawa had forced the
-passage of the stream on the left, at the foot of the slope which led
-up to the village of Chiu-lien-cheng, while the 2nd Division, led by
-General Nishi, crossed lower down and menaced the Russian right. Four
-batteries of howitzers had been ferried across the stream from the left
-bank of the Yalu to the Island of Cheun-song-do, and as the skirmishing
-line of both divisions moved forward in a fan-like formation these
-powerful pieces of ordnance opened a destructive fire upon the enemy. A
-sharp rattle of musketry was the first sign that the Russians were
-prepared to contest the passage of the river in this quarter, but their
-field artillery remained silent, and it turned out afterwards that all
-the guns which had survived the bombardment of the previous day had
-been removed to the rear, or to strengthen General Kashtalinsky's
-position. As it was, the rifle fire from the trenches was very galling,
-and the Japanese lost a great many men, but the devastating effects of
-General Kuroki's artillery bombardment were beyond anything that the
-Russians could produce in return.
-
-[Sidenote: Black Mass of Human Figures]
-
-It was in one of these trenches on the ridge of the hills to the
-northeast of Chiu-lien-cheng that the greatest damage was wrought. As
-the Japanese infantry steadily advanced, General Sassulitch ordered
-forward a body of his supports from the immediate rear to occupy this
-trench. In order to obey this command they had to round a small spur of
-the hill and pass across the open. Their appearance against the
-sky-line provided a target which the Japanese gunners were not likely
-to neglect. Instantly a rain of shell and shrapnel was directed upon
-the black mass of human figures. Men were seen falling thick and fast
-under this withering fire; but still the Russians pressed on
-indomitably, and at the expense of great loss of life occupied the
-trench, whence they in turn poured a fierce rifle-fire upon the enemy
-below them. By this time, however, the Guards were swarming over the
-lower slopes of the hills around Chiu-lien-cheng, and General Hasegawa
-sent a strong force to the left of the Russian position to turn General
-Sassulitch's flank. At the same time General Nishi's men were climbing
-steadily up the ridge further south, and were threatening the Russian
-right.
-
-[Sidenote: The Blood-Red Banner]
-
-It is interesting to note that the somewhat drab aspect of warfare
-which many of the operations in the South African war assumed,
-accustoming us to the idea that all picturesqueness had departed from
-modern combat, and that the ancient gauds and trappings so dear to the
-soldier's heart had been abandoned for ever, was entirely absent from
-this great battle in the Far East. The opposing forces were not
-separated from one another by illimitable distances of rolling veldt
-and brown hills. They were, on the contrary, so near as to recall the
-fighting in the Franco-German War, or the bloody combats around Plevna
-in the great struggle between Turkey and Russia nearly thirty years
-ago. And more remarkable still, the regimental colors which in our army
-are kept for ceremonial purposes in times of peace, and do not
-accompany the troops into the field, were carried by the Japanese in
-the front of the fighting line. Their presence must have assisted the
-fire of the enemy considerably; but there can be no doubt, on the other
-hand, of the inspiriting effect on the Mikado's men of seeing the
-blood-red banner of their race floating in the van and beckoning them
-forward to victory.
-
-[Illustration: A LAST GALLANT STAND OF RUSSIAN GUNNERS.]
-
-Steadily indeed, and without pause, those flaming banners advanced upon
-the doomed Russian position. The swing round of General Hasewaga's
-troops to the left of Chiu-lien-cheng decided the fate of General
-Sassulitch's centre, and after four hours' fighting the Japanese,
-climbing up the ridges like cats, charged into the Russian trenches.
-All the defenders who remained to contest the charge were bayonetted or
-taken prisoners, but the main body of the 9th and 10th Siberian
-Regiments retreated stubbornly towards Hoh-mu-tang, contesting every
-inch of the ground. The heights, however, in this part of the field
-were won, and at 9 o'clock a great shout of "Banzai"--the Japanese form
-of "hurrah"--went up all along the line, as the banners of the Rising
-Sun were planted upon the ridge and waved proudly in the breeze.
-
-[Sidenote: Fight Desperately Against Fate]
-
-On their left the Russians under General Kashtalinsky were, as we have
-shown, making a more desperate resistance; but unable to obtain
-reinforcements in time, that gallant officer was compelled to retire
-before the advance of General Inouye's Division, which, by driving the
-battalion of the 22nd Regiment in rout before it at Yushukau, had
-completely crumpled up his flank. He therefore fell back slowly towards
-Hoh-mu-tang, fighting desperately against overwhelming odds opposed to
-him. It was not till noon, seven hours after the battle began, that
-reinforcements were at last sent to him. Then General Sassulitch
-ordered to his assistance the 11th Regiment, which all this time had
-been held in reserve well in the rear together with the 2nd Battery of
-the 6th Brigade of Field Artillery, under Lieutenant-Colonel Mouravsky.
-
-[Sidenote: General Sassulitch's Retreat]
-
-With this new force General Kashtalinsky set about the heavy task of
-covering the retreat of the 12th and the 22nd Regiments, or as much of
-them as was left, and also of checking the Japanese advance if possible
-until the 9th and 10th Regiments had made sure of their communications
-along the road to Feng-hwang-cheng. It was now that the fiercest and
-bloodiest fighting of the day took place, and that the Russians in
-particular suffered their heaviest losses. For no sooner had General
-Kuroki captured the whole ridge from Antung and Antushan in the south
-to Yukushan in the north than he ordered his force, strengthened by the
-reserves, to hasten at full speed along three lines in the direction of
-the Feng-whang-cheng road to cut off General Sassulitch's retreat.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Chase]
-
-A strong detachment from General Inouye's Division, therefore, crossed
-westwards to Tan-lang-fang; the Imperial Guards marched rapidly along
-the main road from Chiu-lien-cheng; and the 2nd Division spread out
-towards Antung and pursued the retiring 9th and 10th Regiments. It was
-the Guards Division and the 12th Division with whom General
-Kashtalinsky had to deal in this last brave stand. He ordered the 11th
-Regiment under his chief of staff to assume a commanding position in
-the rear, from which they could fire upon the enemy from two sides.
-Lieutenant-Colonel Mouravsky's battery he held in reserve; and then he
-ordered the wearied troops of the 12th Regiment, the 22nd Regiment, and
-the 3rd Battery of the 6th Brigade to retire under cover of the fire of
-the 11th.
-
-[Sidenote: The Last Gallant Stand]
-
-But before this manoeuvre could be effected the fierce pursuit of the
-Japanese had gained its object. Both the Guards and the 12th Division
-reached the spot by 1 o'clock, and approaching from opposite sides,
-surrounded the hapless Russians. An enfilading fire made it impossible
-for the 3rd Battery to retire. Its horses were killed, and, therefore,
-Colonel Mouravsky, who assumed the command, ordered the gunners to take
-up a position where they stood and return the Japanese fire at close
-quarters. This they did with the greatest gallantry. They fought on
-steadily till not a man was left standing, their brave commander,
-Colonel Mouravsky, himself being among the last to fall. In the
-meanwhile, a company with machine guns had been ordered up to the
-assistance of the 3rd Battery. The officer in command, seeing the
-difficult situation of Colonel Mouravsky, took up a position, in the
-words of General Kashtalinsky's dispatch, "on his own initiative." He
-was no more fortunate than his superior officer. He, too, had entered
-the fatal ring of fire, and half his men and horses were shot down
-before he could render any effective service. An attempt to bring away
-his guns by hand and to take them under shelter of the hills under the
-terrible cross fire to which he was exposed, was no more successful,
-and the guns ultimately fell into the hands of the enemy. The case
-being evidently hopeless, the 2nd Battery, which had been brought up as
-a reinforcement to the 11th Regiment, was ordered back to rejoin the
-reserve by another road, but half its horses, too, were killed, and,
-finding it impossible to ascend the slopes without them, the officer in
-command brought his guns back to their original position, and there
-bravely, but unavailingly, received the Japanese attack.
-
-[Sidenote: Rifle Fire and Cold Steel]
-
-Now ensued a fierce and bloody hand-to-hand combat, in which the utmost
-heroism was displayed on both sides. Closer and closer pressed the
-Japanese till the opposing forces were almost looking into one
-another's eyes, and rifle-fire was abandoned for cold steel. Again and
-again the Japanese desperately dashed themselves upon the serried ranks
-opposed to them, and again and again, in spite of the fearful execution
-wrought by each charge, they were hurled back. But bayonet charge
-followed bayonet charge, and at last the devoted band of Russians could
-hold out no more. In some quarters of the field the white flag was
-hoisted and numbers of men surrendered. But the main body, shattered as
-it was and a mere shadow of its former strength, fought its way
-through. A broken remnant of the 12th Regiment cut its way through and
-carried off the colors in safety, torn and riddled indeed, but not
-disgraced. The same fate befell the 11th Regiment, a small body of
-which, after several hours' fighting, forced a passage out of the melee
-and retreated to Hoh-mu-tang with its colors preserved. But the losses
-of this regiment were enormous. Colonel Laming, the Colonel Commandant,
-Lieutenant-Colonels Dometti and Raievsky, and forty subordinate
-officers were left dead upon the field, and 5,000 non-commissioned
-officers and men were killed or wounded. More than 30 officers and 400
-men surrendered. The casualties sustained by the Japanese were nearly
-1,000 killed and wounded.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-
-  Russian Demoralization--On the Heels of the Enemy--Remarkable
-    Japanese Strategy--The Paper Army--The Thin Black Line of
-    Reinforcements--Position of the Russian Army--Kuropatkin Tied
-    to his Railway--The Second Scheme of Attack--A Model of
-    Organization--Perfect Secrecy of Plans--Cutting off Port
-    Arthur--Alexeieff's Command of Language--And the Sober
-    Truth--Third Blocking Attempt--Lurid Flashing of
-    Searchlights--On the Bones of their Predecessors--Half the
-    Passage Blocked--Honored but Unarmed--Russian
-    Acknowledgements--Terrific Casualties--Togo for Liao-tung--The
-    Japanese Landings--Escape of Alexeieff--Port Arthur Isolated.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Demoralization]
-
-The signal victory of the despised Japanese at the Yalu River filled
-official circles in St. Petersburg with the liveliest dismay and shook
-that determined optimism which had survived even the unexampled series
-of naval disasters sustained by the power of the Czar in the Far East.
-There seems never to have been the least doubt among the Grand Dukes
-and the Bureaucrats by whom the Emperor was surrounded that whatever
-fate might befall the fleet, the "yellow monkeys," as they elegantly
-called their foes, would fly headlong before the onslaught of the
-Russian soldiery, accustomed as it was to victory on many a bloody
-field in Europe. The fatuity of this overweening confidence now stood
-revealed, and it was at last tardily recognized that as stern a task
-awaited the Russian forces on land as at sea. But St. Petersburg
-officialdom, wounded in pride and shaken in nerve as it was, still
-preserved a bold front to the world, and excuses for the disaster that
-had befallen the Russian arms were as prolific as ever. The army at the
-disposal of General Sassulitch, it was explained, was but a small one;
-that commander had blundered, and by giving battle to an overwhelmingly
-superior force, had disobeyed or misunderstood the orders of General
-Kuropatkin; and in any case, although severe losses were admitted, the
-main body had retreated in good order to Feng-hwang-cheng, and the
-_morale_ of the troops was unshaken. The plea that General Sassulitch
-was solely responsible for the defeat which had befallen the Muscovite
-arms, and that he had failed to follow the instructions of his
-superior, has already been dealt with, and its extreme improbability
-has been demonstrated, though, even if it were accurate, it would throw
-a very unflattering light upon the powers of Russian leadership in the
-higher commands. It was soon, however, to be shown that the suggestion
-that the army of the Yalu had retired in good order and with unshaken
-_morale_ was equally devoid of truth. As a matter of fact, the fierce
-pursuit of the Japanese and the heavy losses which they inflicted upon
-the retreating Russians at Hoh-mu-tang and elsewhere on the road to
-Feng-hwang-cheng reduced the defeat to an utter rout, and it became
-impossible for Sassulitch to make a stand at the latter point,
-naturally strong as it was and admirably calculated to resist an attack.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER THREE MONTHS.
-
-The war began with the night attack on Port Arthur on February 8, but
-it was not until two months later that the Japanese appeared on the
-south-eastern border of Manchuria. On April 4 they occupied Wiju, on
-the 21st troops began to land at Tatungkau, and on May 1 took place the
-first great battle of the campaign, when the Japanese forced the
-passage of the Yalu, and drove the Russians back upon Feng-wang-cheng.
-On May 6 the latter place was occupied without resistance.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-[Sidenote: On the Heels of the Enemy]
-
-After a day or two spent in recuperating his tired troops, whose
-tremendous exertions during the previous week must have tested their
-powers of endurance to the utmost, and also in bringing his heavy guns
-and supply train across the river from Wiju, in preparation for the
-march General Kuroki began a forward movement into Manchuria with his
-whole army. The cavalry led the advance, operating over a wide area of
-country and sweeping the scattered units of the Russians before it.
-Some sharp skirmishes took place at Erh-tai-tsu and San-tai-tsu, but no
-real difficulty was interposed in the way of the victorious Japanese,
-who drove the enemy in flight before them. On May 6th the foremost
-cavalry vedettes reached Feng-hwang-cheng, and instead of finding the
-strongly held entrenchments which the Russian press was even then
-busily assuring a sceptical Europe would prevent any further advance on
-the part of the presumptuous foe, they discovered that the troops of
-General Sassulitch had been withdrawn, and they entered the deserted
-town without having to fire a shot. The leading columns of the
-infantry, following quickly behind, marched in and took possession on
-the same day. Before his hurried departure General Sassulitch had
-ordered the magazine to be blown up, but large quantities of hospital
-and other stores fell into the hands of the Japanese. General Kuroki's
-main body was not far in the rear, and the position of the whole army
-was soon securely established at this important point. Feng-hwang-cheng
-is situated at a mountain pass on the Liao-yang road, at a distance of
-about 25 miles from the Yalu. As already stated, it possesses great
-strategical importance. It is the centre at which the roads meet,
-coming from Liao-yang, Haicheng, and Kaiping, places which are situated
-at about equal distances from one another along the Manchurian railway
-from north to south, and it therefore constitutes a _point d'appui_
-from which a force could be thrown against any of them, while it is
-itself a position of great strength. General Kuroki immediately began
-to entrench himself strongly at this spot and to consolidate his
-forces, while he waited for the highly important developments which
-were now to take place in other quarters of the theatre of war.
-
-[Illustration: IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES.]
-
-[Sidenote: Remarkable Japanese Strategy]
-
-A wide view of the position of affairs as they now stood over the
-entire field of operations is necessary at this point in order to make
-clear the remarkable events that followed, and to throw into full
-relief the extraordinary qualities of the Japanese strategy--a strategy
-conceived after the most patient study of all the conditions of the
-problems and worked out in practice with almost machine-like regularity
-and precision.
-
-[Sidenote: The Paper Army]
-
-When General Kuropatkin arrived at Mukden at the end of March and
-took over the command from General Linevitch, he had on paper an army
-of over 250,000 men. It was made up as follows: 223,000 infantry;
-21,764 cavalry; 4,000 engineers; and artillery consisting of 496
-field guns, 30 horse artillery guns, and 24 machine guns. This large
-force was organized in four Army Corps, each with divisions of
-infantry and its quota of artillery and cavalry; while there were
-also two independent divisions of Cossacks, four brigades of Frontier
-Guards, railway troops, fortress artillery and a number of small
-units not allotted. The First Army Corps was under the command of
-General Baron Stackelberg, the Second under General Sassulitch, the
-Third under General Stoessel, and the Fourth under General
-Zarubaieff. It was an imposing force, this army of Manchuria,
-calculated to strike terror into the hearts of an Oriental enemy, but
-unfortunately for the Russians it lacked one thing, and that was
-reality. The actual position of affairs was indeed very different. To
-begin with, the greater part of the troops were not near the front at
-all when the Commander-in-Chief appeared upon the scene to direct
-operations, but were being pushed along the Siberian Railway with a
-feverish haste which at the same time did not denote proportionate
-speed. When they did arrive they arrived in detached fragments, and
-the desperate necessities of the case did not admit of adherence to
-the paper arrangements. For instance, the 7th and 8th Divisions,
-which should have formed part of the Second Army Corps under General
-Sassulitch, were, as a matter of fact, sent to assist in garrisoning
-Port Arthur and Vladivostock. Port Arthur, it will be remembered, was
-by this time under the command of General Stoessel, who was therefore
-unable to direct the operations of the Third Army Corps, which
-properly should have been entrusted to him. On the other hand, the
-3rd East Siberian Rifle Division, which belonged to that Corps, and
-the 6th East Siberian Rifle Division, which should have been attached
-to the First Army Corps, were sent to the Yalu, where, as we have
-already seen, they took part in the ill-fated conflict of the 1st of
-May. It will be observed from these shifts--only a few of the most
-noticeable out of many--that the Army Corps system of the Manchurian
-Army had completely broken down, and that the ideal of a coherent
-fighting force, with officers and men trained together in peace under
-the conditions to which they would be subjected in war, had not been
-attained in the slightest degree. The lack of organization which
-prevailed in the distribution of the larger commands was equally
-manifest in the mobilization of the units of which they were
-composed. Regiments were not complete; hastily-formed levies had to
-be added to bring them up to their nominal strength; and the ranks of
-the officers had to be filled up in many cases with volunteers from
-regiments in other parts of the Empire. The result was a composite
-force very different indeed in fighting power from the splendid
-machine which the Mikado's strategists had been carefully perfecting
-in time of peace in readiness for the struggle which they had so long
-foreseen.
-
-[Sidenote: The Thin Black Line of Reinforcements]
-
-In bringing even this haphazard collection of unco-ordinated units to
-the front in Manchuria, the greatest difficulties had been experienced.
-All that European observers had predicted about the working capacity of
-a railway like the Trans-Siberian for the conveyance of a huge army for
-thousands of miles came true to the letter. Prince Khilkoff, the
-Director-General of Russian Railways, undoubtedly did wonders, and the
-tremendous efforts which he and his staff put forth, especially in
-surmounting the great natural obstacle presented by Lake Baikal, were
-worthy of all praise. But to carry an army of 250,000 men, with all its
-necessary supplies and munitions of war, into Manchuria in the time
-required for the purpose of striking an effective blow at an enemy like
-the Japanese was a task beyond the powers of any railway staff in the
-world. The rickety single line, with infrequent sidings, which
-stretches across the steppes of Siberia from Harbin to the Urals was
-quite inadequate for such a feat of transport. By the middle of May,
-therefore, the position in which General Kuropatkin found himself--a
-position partly created by himself, as Minister of War, and partly
-created for him by the ineptitude of others--was widely different from
-that which the easy and thoughtless optimists in St. Petersburg had
-anticipated when the war broke out. The Fourth Army Corps was not
-across Lake Baikal; 30,000 or 40,000 men were shut up in the fortresses
-of Port Arthur and Vladivostock, and were not only useless for field
-operations, but were themselves liable to siege and capture; and,
-allowing the highest possible estimate, the Russian Commander-in-Chief
-had at his disposal for assuming the offensive in Manchuria no more
-than 100,000 men with 260 guns.
-
-[Sidenote: Position of the Russian Army]
-
-With this army he was holding the railway line from Mukden to Port
-Arthur, a distance of about 230 miles. His headquarters were at
-Liao-yang, and he held Haicheng and Kaiping in force, while a
-detachment was thrown out to the south-west and occupied Niuchwang. In
-the extreme south Port Arthur, though closely blockaded from the sea by
-the watchful Togo, was as yet open to communication by land, and no
-attempt had hitherto been made by the Japanese to secure a footing on
-the Liao-tung Peninsula. On the east of the Liao-yang--Kaiping line the
-Russian troops occupied three important passes, namely, Ta-ling, about
-50 miles distant, in a northeasterly direction, from Liao-yang; the
-Motien-ling, about 25 miles away on the main road to Feng-hwang-cheng;
-and Fen-chu-ling, half way on the road from Tashihchao to Siuyen.
-Tashihchao is on the railway midway between Haicheng and Kaiping. The
-Motien-ling Pass was the scene of a sanguinary combat between the
-Chinese and the Japanese in the war of 1894, and on that occasion the
-Mikado's forces had the greatest trouble in capturing it. Besides
-holding these passes General Kuropatkin had pushed forward his Cossack
-patrols to scour the country as far as Feng-hwang-cheng, and constant
-small encounters took place between them and General Kuroki's outposts
-during the ensuing six weeks.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Tied to His Railway]
-
-It is clear from this brief statement of the Russian position that the
-Japanese, always provided that they could retain the command of the
-sea, were placed at a great strategical advantage compared with their
-enemy. Holding their First Army poised at Feng-hwang-cheng, they could
-throw their Second and Third Armies upon the coast at any point that
-suited them best for the purpose of making a great combined movement.
-On the other hand, Kuropatkin was practically tied to the railway, and,
-with the inadequate force at his disposal, could not advance against
-Kuroki to destroy him in detail before the arrival of fresh armies from
-Japan. He was liable to attack at any point, and it was the peculiar
-difficulty of his situation that he could not tell which point would be
-selected. As a matter of fact, when the blow fell, as it soon did with
-crushing effect, he was powerless to prevent it.
-
-[Sidenote: The Second Scheme of Attack]
-
-The chapter of strategy which now opens is a fascinating one to any
-student of war, and fortunately its main features can be readily
-appreciated also by any layman who makes an intelligent study of a map
-of Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula. The prime object of the
-Japanese plainly was to cut General Kuropatkin's extended line of
-communications, isolate Port Arthur, and then attempt to envelope his
-main force by advancing simultaneously from the south, the east, and
-the northeast. It was consequently necessary, as a preliminary, to
-establish the First Army securely in Manchuria, it being clear that
-with this menace on his left flank, General Kuropatkin would not be
-able to detach many troops to the south to prevent the investment of
-Port Arthur. Everything, therefore, depended on the fortune that would
-attend the advance of General Kuroki across the Yalu, and the Moltkes
-at Tokio, after a patient study of all the conditions of an intricate
-problem, had thought out two great alternative schemes to meet the
-eventuality either of victory or defeat. In case of General Kuroki's
-finding the task of crossing the Yalu unaided to be an insuperable one,
-the Second Army, under General Oku, was to be landed at Takushan, a
-port on the coast some miles to the west of the mouth of the river, and
-thence to strike a blow at General Sassulitch's right flank. On the
-other hand, if Kuroki met with success, Oku's army was to be landed at
-a point on the Liao-tung Peninsula to cut Kuropatkin's communications
-and invest Port Arthur. As we have seen, General Kuroki's signal
-triumph at the Yalu River rendered the first alternative unnecessary,
-and opened the way for the more decisive and dramatic stroke involved
-in the second scheme.
-
-[Sidenote: A Model of Organization]
-
-But before anything could be done to land the Second Army, either at
-Takushan or on the Liao-tung Peninsula, it was imperatively necessary
-to disarm the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur, and prevent even the
-remotest possibility of its interfering with the operations. Here, as
-always, the two services, the army and the navy, had to work in close
-correspondence and interdependence. From the beginning of the war these
-separate branches of the Japanese forces had fitted into one another
-like parts of the same piece of machinery, the whole directed by one
-uniform purpose and striving towards one great common end. The joint
-schemes of the naval and military strategists at Tokio will ever
-provide an invaluable object-lesson to all students of the art of war;
-and it may be predicted that they will prove of valuable assistance to
-the strategists of our own army and navy. One of the most remarkable
-features of the war has been the certainty and precision with which the
-Japanese have worked out their complex plans; it is no less remarkable,
-and affords a further striking evidence of their efficiency, that they
-felt able, absolutely, to count upon that certainty and precision, and
-to make arrangements long beforehand, which with a less carefully
-organized scheme and less trustworthy commanders to carry it out would
-have been foolhardy, or at least wasteful. Failure in any real sense
-does not seem to have entered into their calculations. One portion of
-the plan, indeed, might miscarry, but, as we have seen, partial failure
-had been provided against, and a rapid modification of strategy to meet
-the case would have been possible. It was, in fact, one of the most
-interesting examples of the application of brains to war that have ever
-been seen in the history of the world.
-
-[Sidenote: Perfect Secrecy of Plans]
-
-In the action and inter-action, then, of this great double machine, the
-army had done all that it was possible for it to do for the moment; and
-once again it came round to the turn of the navy to make the next
-decisive move. Upon the success of this move may be said to have
-depended the whole success of the after operations, but, calculating
-with absolute confidence upon the skill of Admiral Togo, the Mikado's
-strategists had already put the Second Army into a state of complete
-preparation, and had even ordered it to be conveyed to a place from
-which it could be transferred to the front at any quarter at a moment's
-notice. Arrangements for its embarkation were begun as soon as General
-Kuroki reached Wiju with the First Army in the early days of April.
-When that commander was able to report that his dispositions for the
-attack upon the Russian entrenchments on the right bank of the Yalu
-were well advanced, the process of embarking General Oku's troops was
-started at once. Not a hint was allowed to escape as to their
-destination; even if the press correspondents, chafing under their
-enforced inaction at Tokio, had learnt the name, the censor would not
-have let it pass to the outer world; but, as a matter of fact, it is
-safe to say that the secret was safely locked in the breasts of half a
-dozen men. By April 22nd the whole army with its transports,
-commissariat, ammunition train, and hospital corps, had been put on
-board ship, and said farewell to the shores of Japan, vanishing, for
-all the world could tell, into the inane. For more than a fortnight
-nothing further was heard of it No one could report its landing
-anywhere, no one could say what it was doing, and day by day the
-mystery grew more mysterious. Only on May 7th was the veil lifted, when
-this great army fell upon the coast of Liao-tung as if from the
-heavens, and proceeded to the investment of Port Arthur. The truth was
-that during this fortnight it had been lying _perdu_ on some small
-islands close to the west coast of Korea, called the Sir James Hall
-group, and distant 160 miles in a southeastern direction from the
-shores of Liao-tung.
-
-[Sidenote: Cutting off Port Arthur]
-
-Here, briefly stated, is the manner in which the scheme worked out. On
-May 1st General Kuroki triumphantly crossed the Yalu and stormed the
-heights above Chiu-lien-cheng. On May 2nd Admiral Togo descended once
-more upon Port Arthur, and blocked the harbor completely by sinking
-eight steamers at the entrance to the channel. On the afternoon of May
-3rd, having made sure of the thoroughness of the work, he set off at
-full speed for the Sir James Hall Islands, reaching his destination by
-early morning on the 4th. Everything there was in readiness for the
-expedition, and within a few hours the whole of the transports,
-escorted by the fleet, set sail for the east coast of Liao-tung. At
-dawn the next day they reached the point on the peninsula which had
-been selected for the landing--Yentoa Bay--and in a few short hours a
-considerable portion of the force had been disembarked, the resistance
-offered by a small detachment of Cossacks, the only force possessed by
-the Russians in the neighborhood, being entirely negligible. On the 6th
-the railway line was severed, and in a few days more the Japanese were
-sitting securely astride of the peninsula, and Port Arthur was cut off
-from the world. The scheme had been carried out like the combinations
-of a skilful chess player, or like the successive steps of a
-mathematical problem.
-
-[Illustration: A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Alexeieff's Command of Language]
-
-It is necessary now to follow the development of these operations more
-in detail. The first that falls to be described is the successful
-attempt, the third of the series, to block the entrance to the harbor
-of Port Arthur. But before giving the real version of this thrilling
-enterprise it may be interesting to quote the report sent to the Grand
-Admiral unconquerable Alexeieff, whose optimism rose superior to every
-disaster and the alchemy of whose dispatches could still transmute
-defeat into signal victory. Here is the message, so soothing to the
-nerves of his fellow-countrymen, in which he announced the event that
-enabled the Japanese to land troops at any point they desired up their
-enemy's coasts:--
-
-"I respectfully report to your Highness that a fresh attack made by the
-enemy last night with the object of obstructing the entrance to the
-port was successfully repelled.
-
-"At 1 o'clock in the morning five torpedo-boats were perceived near the
-coast from the eastern batteries. Under the fire of our batteries and
-warships they retreated southward.
-
-"At 1.45 the first fireship, escorted by several torpedo-boats, came in
-sight. We opened fire upon it from our batteries and warships.
-Three-quarters of an hour afterwards our searchlights revealed a number
-of fireships making for the entrance to the harbor from the east and
-southeast. The _Otvajni_, the _Giliak_, the _Gremiashtchi_, and the
-batteries on the shore repulsed each Japanese ship by a well-directed
-fire.
-
-"Altogether eight ships were sunk by our vigorous cannonade, by
-Whitehead torpedoes launched from our torpedo-boats, and by the
-explosion of several submarine mines.
-
-"Further, according to the reports of the officers commanding the
-batteries and the warship _Giliak_, two Japanese torpedo-boats were
-destroyed.
-
-"After 4 a. m., the batteries and gunboats ceased fire, subsequently
-firing only at intervals on the enemy's torpedo-boats, which were
-visible on the horizon.
-
-"All the fireships carried quick-firing guns, with which the enemy
-maintained a constant fire.
-
-"Up to the present thirty men, including two mortally wounded officers
-who sought refuge in the launches, or were rescued from the fireships
-by us, have been picked up. The inspection of the roadstead and the
-work of saving drowning men are hindered by the heavy sea which is
-running.
-
-"We suffered no casualties with the exception of a seaman belonging to
-the torpedo-boat destroyer _Boevoi_."
-
-[Sidenote: And the Sober Truth]
-
-No one reading this remarkable account could imagine that it described
-an operation which ultimately sealed the doom of Port Arthur. For a
-more sober but a more accurate narrative we must turn to the dispatches
-of Admiral Togo. On May 2nd, as already recounted, the Japanese Naval
-Commander-in-Chief received the news of the successful crossing of the
-Yalu. His plans were already laid and his preparations were complete.
-Eight merchant steamers this time had been secured for the service, and
-upwards of 20,000 men volunteered for the glorious duty of manning them
-and dying for their country. Of these, 159 were ultimately selected.
-The names of the steamers were the _Mikawa_, _Sakura_, _Totomi_,
-_Yedo_, _Otaru_, _Sagami_, _Aikoku_, and _Asagawo_. The vessels ordered
-to escort the doomed hulks were the gunboats _Akagi_ and _Chokai_, the
-2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th destroyer flotillas, and the 9th, 10th, and 14th
-torpedo-boat flotillas. The whole force, which was under the command of
-Commander Hayashi, started for its destination on the night of May 2nd.
-
-[Sidenote: Third Blocking Attempt]
-
-It is a melancholy circumstance, typical of the sombre, but ofttimes
-splendid, tragedy of war, that of this third and most successful
-attempt to block the harbor the narrative is necessarily the most
-fragmentary and obscure, owing to the loss of life which it entailed.
-On the two previous occasions, reckless as was the gallantry of the
-Japanese and enormous as were the risks they ran, the casualties were
-surprisingly small, and the majority of the men engaged were able to
-return to their ships and tell the story of their enterprise. On this
-night, however, everything was against success; the Russians were more
-fully prepared to meet attack than they had ever been before; their
-shooting was more effective; and worse still, the weather turned out
-wholly unfavorable, the ships had to proceed singly upon their way; and
-when they were sunk the difficulties in the way of recovering their
-crews proved more than usually arduous, and most of them were either
-shot or drowned or taken prisoner. In spite of all these adverse
-circumstances a splendid success was achieved, but it was achieved
-under conditions which largely obliterated the record, and leaves but
-sparse material for the historian.
-
-[Sidenote: Lurid Flashing of Searchlights]
-
-The broad outlines of the story, however, are clear. When the steamers
-with their accompanying flotillas were well on their way, a strong
-southeasterly breeze sprang up, which rapidly freshened into a gale. It
-was impossible in the circumstances to keep the vessels together, and,
-fearing that the attack would in consequence be ineffective, Commander
-Hayashi signalled to his subordinates to abandon the expedition for the
-time being. But the weather and the heavy seas prevented his signals
-from being observed, and the gallant enterprise therefore proceeded
-unchecked. By one in the morning the 14th torpedo-boat flotilla reached
-the roadstead and pressed steadily towards the eastern side of the
-harbor mouth. The little vessels were soon exposed to the glare of the
-searchlights, and at once a furious bombardment broke out upon them
-from the Russian gunboats and the shore batteries. For the moment they
-retreated, drawing the enemy's fire upon them, while the leading
-steamer, which was close behind, made a dash for the channel. This
-vessel was the _Mikawa_, under the command of Lieut. Sosa. The
-Russians, as we have said, were much better prepared to resist attack
-than on previous occasions. Piles of combustibles, stationed at various
-points on the shore on each side of the harbor mouth, were set on fire,
-and cast a lurid light on the scene, throwing into strong relief the
-dark forms of the advancing ships, while the searchlights flashed
-backwards and forwards over the unquiet surface of the sea, and made
-every movement of the Japanese fatally visible to the defenders on the
-fortress. A storm of missiles burst over the devoted expedition, but
-undeterred, intent only on reaching the centre of the channel, Lieut.
-Sosa pushed his vessel forward at the top of her speed. Nothing could
-stop him or his crew--nor raging sea, nor searchlight, nor even the
-rain of shot and shell. The _Mikawa_ stuck bravely to her course, and,
-breaking through the boom which stretched across the mouth, anchored
-right in the middle of the channel. In a moment the fuse was lighted,
-and as the commander and his crew pushed off in the boats the ship blew
-up and sank in the fairway. The _Sakura_, which was not far behind, was
-less lucky than her companion. She was driven upon a rock at the
-eastern side of the entrance, and blew up outside the channel.
-
-[Sidenote: On the Bones of their Predecessors]
-
-There was a short pause, and then came a fresh contingent of fireships,
-rushing upon destruction. The aim of the Russian gunners had much
-improved; in the fierce glare of the searchlights and the flaming
-beacons every detail of the steamers was distinctly visible, and that
-they should have succeeded in advancing into the channel in the face of
-such a withering blast as swept across their course was little short of
-a miracle. The waters, too, were thickly sown with mines, in readiness
-for such an assault as this, and they did serious execution. The
-_Aikoku_ was distant only five cables from the mouth when she struck
-one of these deadly engines and blew up, her race cut short just when
-the goal was at hand. Her commander, Lieut. Uchida, the chief engineer,
-Aoki, and eight of the crew were killed or drowned. The _Asagawo_ was
-riddled with shot, her rudder was smashed, and drifting upon the shore
-beneath Golden Hill, she blew up and sank where the bones of so many of
-her predecessors were already reposing.
-
-[Sidenote: Half the Passage Blocked]
-
-But the other vessels were more successful. The _Otaru_ and the
-_Sagami_ reached the harbor mouth before they were sunk, and
-contributed a large share to the obstruction of the entrance. The
-_Yedo_ did better still, for she got further up than these two others.
-Just as her anchor was being got ready her gallant commander, Lieut.
-Takayanagi, fell dead, shot through the stomach; but there was no pause
-in the operations. Sub-Lieut. Nagatu at once stepped into his
-superior's place, and, anchoring the ship with the utmost coolness,
-sank her in the fairway. The _Totomi_ did best of all, for, like the
-_Mikawa_, she burst through the boom in the teeth of the Russian guns,
-got well inside, and turning right across the channel from east to
-west, sank in that position, blocking up at least half the passage.
-
-[Sidenote: Honored, but Unarmed]
-
-Admiral Togo, in his brief and dignified way, thus referred to the
-magnificent services rendered by the men who had fallen in this great
-enterprise:--"The undertaking, when compared with the last two
-attempts, involved a heavier casualty on our side owing to the
-inclemency of the weather and increased preparation for defence of the
-enemy. We could not save any of the officers and men of the _Otaru_,
-_Sagami_, _Sakura_ and _Asagawo_, and I regret that nothing particular
-could be learned about the gallant way in which they discharged their
-duties, although the memory of their exemplary conduct will long
-survive in the Imperial navy."
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Acknowledgments]
-
-But though the Japanese Commander-in-Chief could learn nothing
-particular about the gallant way in which his men had performed their
-duties, the gap in our knowledge can fortunately be supplied, to some
-extent at all events, by the Russians, who bore ample and chivalrous
-testimony to the splendid heroism displayed by their foes. They
-acknowledged, said a telegram from St. Petersburg, "that the enemy
-attacked in brilliant style, seeming never to notice the murderous fire
-which greeted them." One incident in particular struck upon their minds
-and extorted from them the warmest expressions of admiration. "On board
-the fireships," they remarked, "were a number of Japanese cadets, who
-displayed extraordinary bravery. As the ships were sinking several of
-these lads rushed aloft, and sitting on the cross-trees of the
-topmasts, fired their revolvers before they plunged into the sea." The
-account ends with a sentence of terse significance: "It is believed
-that none were saved."
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Casualties]
-
-Of the total of 159 men engaged in this work of desperate heroism only
-36 returned in safety, and of these 28 were wounded. Two officers (both
-mortally wounded) and 30 men were picked up by the Russians and taken
-prisoners. The number of the killed was 75. They had not died in vain.
-The harbor of Port Arthur was now securely blocked--not permanently
-indeed, for while divers and dynamite can be obtained no harbor in the
-world can be obstructed for ever in this way; but blocked to such an
-extent that the Russians could not get any big ships through for weeks,
-even given the most advantageous conditions in which to carry on the
-work of removing the obstacles. And for the momentous operations that
-were to follow the Japanese required not so much weeks as days.
-
-[Sidenote: Togo for Liao-tung]
-
-The fleet remained off Port Arthur till the afternoon to make sure that
-all the rescue work possible had been accomplished. In this duty the
-destroyer and torpedo-boat flotillas rendered admirable service. Once
-again, happy to relate, they emerged themselves from the dangerous
-enterprise with singularly slight damages, and lost only two men
-killed. At last, having realized that no more remained to be done in
-saving life, and having made sure that the "bottle" had finally been
-"corked," Admiral Togo leaving behind a small squadron to watch Port
-Arthur, set off at full steam with his main fleet for the Sir James
-Hall Islands. There he was joined by the gunboat squadron under
-Rear-Admiral Hosoya, which had rendered such effective service in the
-lower reaches of the river at the battle of the Yalu. The transports,
-with the Second Army on board, were practically ready for departure,
-and on the morning of the 4th of May the whole expedition set out for
-the Liao-tung Peninsula. At daybreak on the 5th Yentoa Bay was sighted.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Landings]
-
-Yentoa Bay is admirably suited for the landing of a large force, for
-the shelving shore, with shallow waters, presents no difficulty to the
-approach of boats such as the Japanese use for this purpose.
-Furthermore, it possesses great strategical advantages. It is within
-easy striking distance of the railway, while the country in the
-immediate neighborhood favors the advance of an attacking force and
-gives little opportunity for defence. The likelihood of a landing here,
-however, does not seem to have occurred to the Russians, who had
-prepared instead for a descent upon Niuchwang. The whole affair is an
-excellent illustration of the advantages conferred upon a combatant by
-the command of the sea, especially when the openings for attack are
-numerous, as they are in the case of the Liao-tung Peninsula. General
-Kuropatkin could not tell where the descent of the enemy would be made,
-and though he could defend some of the possible points, he could not
-defend all. The Japanese, on the other hand, could select the spot that
-suited them best without any serious risk of interference. Yentoa Bay
-was therefore practically undefended when Admiral Togo's fleet arrived
-convoying the Second Army. A troop of about 100 Cossacks was patrolling
-the shore, but the gunboat squadron quickly dispersed it with a few
-shells, and the work of landing could then be carried through without
-interruption.
-
-[Illustration: GENERAL STOESSEL EXHORTING HIS TROOPS IN THE DEFENSE OF
-PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Escape of Alexeieff]
-
-The first to make for the shore was a force of marines, two battalions
-of whom waded through the shallows and occupied the rising ground above
-the shore. Within an hour the advance guard of the army itself had been
-disembarked, and the rest of General Oku's troops quickly followed; the
-whole process being carried out with the smoothness and dispatch which
-characterized all the operations of this kind on the Japanese side. On
-the 6th, a flying column was sent to the northwards to seize the small
-port of Pitszewo, and more important still, another column moved across
-the neck of the peninsula with great rapidity and, occupying Pulantien,
-broke up the railway and cut off all communication between General
-Kuropatkin and Port Arthur. But before this was done one notable train
-load of passengers managed to escape from the beleaguered fortress.
-Chief among them were the Viceroy of the Far East, Admiral Alexeieff
-himself, and the Grand Duke Boris. They left only just in time. The
-gallant Admiral of the inventive pen had at last discovered that the
-repulse of the Japanese naval attack on which he had prided himself in
-his grandiloquent dispatch to the authorities at St. Petersburg was in
-reality no repulse at all; that as a matter of fact the Japanese had
-done just what they wanted to do; and that they were now able to
-proceed, in their methodical way, to land troops on the peninsula and
-invest Port Arthur. That the Viceroy should be shut up in the fortress,
-too, was not to be thought of--though probably it would have been
-better for the success of General Kuropatkin's strategy if his
-troublesome colleague had been safely removed out of the way for the
-rest of the campaign--and so by a desperate effort the gallant Admiral
-burst through the gradually tightening cordon.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur Isolated]
-
-After the first interruption of communications the Japanese force
-temporarily withdrew, and the success of the Russians in relaying the
-line and in running a train loaded with ammunition through to Port
-Arthur revived the drooping spirits of the official classes in St.
-Petersburg. The act was one of extreme gallantry, and reflected the
-highest credit on Colonel Spiridonoff, the officer in command, but
-beyond giving the garrison some greatly needed supplies it did not
-materially alter the situation. The line was again broken up, the
-Japanese occupied the neck of land in force, and in a few days Port
-Arthur was completely cut off from the outer world.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  The First Japanese Disaster--The "Hatsuse" Strikes a
-    Mine--Admiral Togo Undaunted--Rammed in the Fog--Renewed
-    Russian Hopes--The Vladivostock Squadron--A Thrill Through the
-    Civilized Globe--Skrydloff the Raider--Kamimura on the
-    Track--Approaching Port Arthur--The Importance of
-    Nanshan--Japanese Dispositions--General Oku's Attack--Terrific
-    Carnage--A General Bombardment--Chances of Defeat--Rushing the
-    Trenches--The Russians in Flight--Tremendous Moral
-    Effect--Terrific Casualties--Alarm in St. Petersburg--Fatal
-    Russian Strategy--Old Tactics versus New--The Veil over the
-    Tragedy.
-
-
-[Sidenote: The First Japanese Disaster]
-
-The Japanese fleet, as we have seen in the last chapter, had once again
-done its work thoroughly. The Russian fleet, crippled in the early days
-of the war and harried incessantly ever since, was now for weeks to
-come securely shut up in the harbor of Port Arthur, and could do
-nothing seriously to affect the course of events. Admiral Togo, with
-his six powerful battleships and his splendid cruisers, had absolute
-command of the Gulf of Pechili, and the transports from Japan were able
-to pour troops with perfect safety upon the shores of the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. It was at this moment of conspicuous success that the first
-serious calamity of the war overtook the Japanese Navy, and two
-terrible accidents occurred which filled the Russians with hope, as
-appearing to betoken a turn at last in the tide of fortune and to
-threaten the forces of the Mikado with something like the cloud of
-misfortune that had so far hung over their opponents. There was,
-however, this notable difference between the two cases. The losses
-suffered by the Russians at sea were almost all due to their own lack
-of forethought or of skill; they seemed to court defeat, and defeat
-came to them in full measure. But the blow which now befell the
-Japanese fleet was of a kind which the utmost ability and precaution
-could hardly have prevented, and, moreover, serious as it was, it did
-not materially affect the main course of the campaign, although
-undoubtedly it compelled the Commander-in-Chief in some degree to
-modify his plan of operations.
-
-The disaster was a double one. On one and the same day, the 15th of
-May, the magnificent battleship, the _Hatsuse_, was blown up by mines
-and sunk with fully 500 men; and the protected cruiser, _Yoshino_,
-colliding with the _Kasuga_ in a dense fog, was totally lost, only 90
-of her crew being saved.
-
-[Illustration: OUTSIDE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The "Hatsuse" Strikes a Mine]
-
-It was at a spot ten miles southeast of Liaotishan promontory that the
-_Hatsuse_ met her fate. With the _Shikishima_, the _Yashima_, and two
-cruisers, she was engaged in watching Port Arthur and protecting the
-landing of troops on the peninsula. Heavy fogs come off the land in the
-Gulf of Pechili at this period of the year, and during the morning
-navigation had been rendered difficult owing to this reason, but by 11
-o'clock the weather had changed and the sky was clear. No enemy was in
-sight, when suddenly, without any warning, a shock was felt under the
-stern of the _Hatsuse_ and a heavy explosion took place, damaging her
-steering gear. She signalled to the other ships at once to stand by and
-give assistance, but before anything could be done another mine
-exploded under her and tore a great yawning hole in her plates. The
-water rushed into her in torrents, and at once the great ship began to
-settle down. In a few moments, with appalling swiftness, she sank like
-a stone, with all her freight of humanity. Had the catastrophe occurred
-during the night hardly a man could have been saved, but fortunately in
-the broad daylight something could be done to lessen the tale of death.
-The boats of the other battleships and the cruisers were quickly upon
-the spot and succeeded in picking up 300 officers and men out of a
-total complement of about 800. Among these were Rear-Admiral Nashiba
-and Captain Nakao, the commander of the vessel. The list of the drowned
-included some of the brightest officers of the Japanese Navy, including
-Commander Tsukamoto, Commander Count Nire, and Commander Arimori.
-Besides these, five second lieutenants, five engineers, two surgeons,
-six midshipmen, four engineer cadets, and ten non-commissioned officers
-perished.
-
-While the work of rescue was proceeding, sixteen of the Russian
-torpedo-boat destroyers seized the opportunity to come out of the
-harbor and effect a diversion, but the Japanese destroyer flotillas
-engaged them hotly, and other cruisers from Togo's fleet coming up with
-all speed, drove them back into Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Admiral Togo Undaunted]
-
-The _Hatsuse_, which was built at Elswick in 1899 after the type of the
-English ship _Majestic_, was a ship of 15,000 tons displacement, and
-15,000 indicated horse-power. She could steam 18 knots, her armor was
-14.6 inches, and the weight of her broadside fire was 4,240 lbs. Her
-destruction of course meant a serious weakening of Togo's first
-fighting line, for six battleships were by no means too large a force
-for the work he had to do. Moreover, the _Hatsuse_, with the _Asahi_,
-_Shikishima_, and _Mikasa_, were the most modern and up-to-date ships
-of their class in the fleet; the _Yashima_ and the _Fuji_, which
-completed the list, being older and less heavily armed vessels.
-Nevertheless the grip of the Japanese Admiral upon the beleaguered port
-never slackened one whit, and in the event his five battleships, with
-their accompanying cruisers, were destined to prove more than a match
-for the navy of the Czar in the great battle in blue water which took
-place three months afterwards.
-
-The sinking of the _Yoshino_ was not so heavy a blow, but it was
-serious enough in the circumstances, and the loss of life was in itself
-greatly to be deplored. This second-class protected cruiser was also
-built at Messrs. Armstrong's famous works on the Tyne. She was of 4,180
-tons displacement, and her engines had an indicated horse-power of
-15,750, with a speed of 23 knots, and a weight of broadside fire of 780
-lbs. She was quite an old ship, as modern men-of-war go, having been
-launched in 1892, and taking an honorable part in the Chino-Japanese
-war of 1895.
-
-[Sidenote: Rammed in the Fog]
-
-On the fatal 15th of May she formed one of the cruiser squadron which,
-under the command of Rear-Admiral Dewa, was engaged in the blockading
-operations outside Port Arthur. The squadron had been standing off the
-harbor during the night of the 14th, and early in the morning steamed
-southwards. An impenetrable fog concealed everything from view, and the
-big ships had to proceed with the utmost caution. But in such difficult
-circumstances the utmost caution is sometimes unavailing, and at 1.40
-the _Kasuga_, one of the twin ships recently purchased from the
-Argentine Government, rammed the _Yoshino_ on the port stern. A
-terrible gap was torn in the hull of the unfortunate cruiser, and at
-once she began to settle down to starboard. From the meagre accounts
-furnished by the survivors, it is clear, as indeed might have been
-expected, that the most perfect discipline prevailed on board the
-doomed vessel. Collision mats were quickly got out and placed over the
-hole, but the injury was too severe to be dealt with by such means, and
-the swift inrush of water made all efforts to save the vessel vain.
-Captain Sayegi, the commander of the ship, ordered all the crew onto
-the upper deck, and the boats were lowered without delay, but the
-disaster was too sudden for them to be of any use. Five were lowered on
-the starboard side and one on the port, but before they could get clear
-the cruiser listed heavily to starboard and went down, smashing all the
-five boats on that side to pieces. The cutter, which was lowered on the
-port side, was the only boat that escaped. With perfect coolness and
-self-devotion the captain remained on the bridge and shouted
-encouragement to his men as they were getting into the boats. When last
-seen he was shaking hands with his second in command, Commander
-Hirowateri. In another moment both officers had gone down with their
-ship. The boats of the _Kasuga_ were on the spot with all possible
-speed, and succeeded in picking up 90 of the crew, but the rest,
-numbering upwards of 270, perished with their captain.
-
-[Sidenote: Renewed Russian Hopes]
-
-When this two-fold disaster became known, the Russians were naturally
-elated and even filled with renewed hope. Its true proportions, too,
-were greatly exaggerated, and in the expectation that the Japanese
-would be seriously hindered in their landing operations on the coast of
-Liao-tung, General Kuropatkin countermanded the evacuation of
-Niuchwang, which had already partly taken place, and his forces once
-again occupied that port. However, as we have already stated, the loss
-he had sustained did not lessen the grip maintained by Admiral Togo
-upon Port Arthur. His weakened condition did, indeed, at a later period
-give the Russian fleet, after it had been patched up with infinite
-pains and difficulty, an admirable opportunity to break through the
-cordon, but the attempt was made with singular feebleness, and the
-admiral in command took his ships back to the refuge of the harbor
-without effecting anything. On the other hand, the destruction of the
-_Hatsuse_ and the _Yoshino_, by necessitating the withdrawal of some
-ships from Admiral Kamimura, who was guarding the Korean Straits,
-indirectly gave the Vladivostock squadron a chance of raiding the coast
-of Japan for some time with impunity, of destroying a great deal of
-merchant shipping, and incidentally of bringing about the most serious
-international complications, in which Great Britain, as the chief
-trading country of the world, was the power principally involved.
-
-[Illustration: A SKIRMISH ON THE MANCHURIAN RAILWAY.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Vladivostock Squadron]
-
-It will be convenient at this point briefly to advert to the exploits
-of this squadron, which have necessarily been put on one side in the
-recent course of the narrative by the claims of the more important
-events. After the destruction of two small Japanese merchantmen on the
-11th of February nothing more was heard of Captain Reitzenstein's
-cruisers for more than two months. In April, however, the command was
-taken over by a more highly-placed officer, Rear-Admiral Jessen, and a
-sudden burst of activity took place. With the _Rossia_, the _Rurik_,
-and the _Gromoboi_, and a flotilla of torpedo-boats and destroyers, the
-new commander made a raid upon the east coast of Korea at Gensan. At
-that very time Admiral Kamimura's squadron started on a voyage
-northwards to search for the Russians, and there can be no doubt that
-the two would have met, but by a stroke of the most perverse ill-luck
-one of those dense spring fogs, which descend upon the Sea of Japan
-like a pall, intervened and the opposing squadrons passed close to one
-another without discovering their proximity. When, totally baffled by
-these weather conditions, Kamimura returned to Gensan after a three
-days' cruise, he found to his chagrin that the Russians had visited the
-port in his absence and had even sunk a small merchant steamer called
-the _Goyo Maru_. But of more serious importance still was the
-destruction of the _Kinshiu Maru_, a transport with 124 soldiers of the
-37th Regiment of Infantry on board. She fell in with the enemy's ships
-on the night of the 25th while they were on their way back to
-Vladivostock. A summons to surrender was met by a haughty refusal. An
-hour's grace was given, at the end of which a torpedo was discharged
-against the doomed vessel, striking her amidships. Under the orders of
-their officers the men fell in upon the deck, as calmly and steadily as
-if on parade, to wait for inevitable death. The officers themselves,
-five in number, following the stern traditions of the ancient Samurai
-clan, went below and committed suicide; but the rank and file
-determined that they would strike one blow at the enemy before they
-died, and so they opened a gallant but ineffective fire upon the
-Russians with their rifles. The cruisers made a deadly reply with their
-machine guns, tearing great gaps in the masses of men thickly gathered
-together on the deck of the transport. Still, however, the soldiers
-fought on with desperate bravery, until another torpedo brought the
-tragic drama to a swift conclusion, sinking the ship in a few seconds.
-Undaunted even at the moment of death, the Japanese went down with
-triumphant shouts of "Banzai" upon their lips. Seventy-four of the rank
-and file perished, but forty-five others escaped by means of the
-steamer's boats, which they found floating on the sea, and on the 29th
-they arrived at Gensan with their thrilling story.
-
-[Sidenote: A Thrill Through the Civilized Globe]
-
-It was a story mournful indeed in one aspect, but in all others
-glorious and inspiring. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any one
-event which had hitherto occurred in the whole course of the war so
-inflamed the martial ardor of the Japanese and filled them with such
-high hopes for a successful issue from the great conflict upon which
-they had entered, as the splendid heroism and calm self-sacrifice with
-which the soldiers and bluejackets on board the _Kinshiu Maru_ met
-their death. Who could withhold the conviction that if this was the
-spirit in which the sons of Dai Nippon advanced to the work that lay
-before them, no misfortune, no temporary defeat could in the end
-prevent victory from resting upon the banners of the Rising Sun? Nor
-was the moral effect of the deed confined to Japan. The story sent a
-thrill through the whole civilized globe, and taught the nations of
-Europe and the masters of the New World that, accustomed as they were
-to acts of daring and devotion among their own people, a race had
-arisen in the Far East whose dauntless bearing in war they could not
-hope to surpass.
-
-[Sidenote: Skrydloff the Raider]
-
-Another month elapsed before the Vladivostock squadron proved
-troublesome again. It had then come directly under the control of the
-new Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific fleet, Admiral Skrydloff, who had
-been appointed to succeed the ill-fated Makaroff, and whose reputation
-in the Russian navy was second only to that of his distinguished
-predecessor. Unfortunately for Russia, Admiral Skrydloff arrived in the
-Far East too late to reach his main fleet. At Harbin he learnt that
-Port Arthur was invested both by land and sea, and that it was
-impossible for him to assume the command at the place where his
-services were most needed. He was, therefore, compelled to go on to
-Vladivostock instead and direct the operations of the cruiser squadron
-there in the desperate hope that at a later period an opportunity might
-occur of effecting a junction with his Port Arthur fleet. A further
-piece of bad news awaited him at the northern port. One of the four
-cruisers which were all that now furnished his attenuated command had
-gone ashore in a fog a few days previously, and had become a total
-wreck. This was the _Bogatyr_. She was, indeed, the smallest ship in
-the squadron, being a second-class protected cruiser of 6,750 tons, but
-her speed was high, and her loss in the dark circumstances of the hour
-was a serious blow. However, the gallant Admiral proceeded to make the
-best of the material which lay at his disposition, and in the course of
-the next two months he pursued most vigorous tactics, venturing
-southwards with great frequency, harrying the coasts of Japan, and
-bringing maritime commerce in that part of the world almost to a
-standstill.
-
-[Sidenote: Kamimura on the Track]
-
-Admiral Kamimura with his cruisers made the most strenuous efforts to
-catch his elusive enemy, but the bad luck which had visited him at
-Gensan at the end of April continued to dog him still for a long time.
-Again and again a convenient fog intervened to favor the escape of the
-Russians; moreover, the Japanese squadron had to be depleted in order
-to furnish aid to the main fleet which was blockading Port Arthur, and
-assisting in the landing of troops; and furthermore, the strategic
-necessity of closely guarding the Straits between Japan and Korea and
-preventing the possibility of a junction between the two Russian
-fleets, severely limited the area of Kamimura's activity. In these
-circumstances Admiral Skrydloff's cruisers had an almost uncheckered
-run of success for a period of two months. The Japanese Admiral came in
-for some sharp criticism at the hands of the general public in Japan
-for his apparent lack of energy, but the authorities at Tokio, who had
-all the conditions of the campaign before them in their true
-proportions, trusted him thoroughly, and their trust was magnificently
-vindicated on the 14th of August, when he at last managed to trap the
-Russians into his net, and administered to them a signal defeat in a
-pitched battle on the high seas.
-
-[Sidenote: Approaching Port Arthur]
-
-A return must now be made to the land operations upon the Liao-tung
-Peninsula. Undeterred by the loss of the _Hatsuse_ and the _Yoshino_,
-the Japanese continued to pour in troops at Yentoa Bay and Pitszewo. At
-the same time the 3rd Army, under General Nodzu, began to disembark at
-Takushan. But it was to General Oku and the 2nd Army that the honor
-fell of striking the next blow for the Mikado. This was the capture of
-Kinchau and the storming of the Russian entrenchments on Nanshan Hill,
-which, after preliminary operations lasting over some days, was finally
-effected on the 26th of May.
-
-[Sidenote: Importance of Nanshan]
-
-The narrow neck of land, a mile and three-quarters in breadth, running
-between Kinchau Bay on the west and Hand Bay--a small inlet of
-Talienwan Bay--on the east, possesses great strategical importance. The
-high ground to the south of it, of which the salient point is the
-Nanshan Hill, completely commands the approach to Port Arthur from the
-north, and, as it cannot be outflanked by any ordinary method, it gives
-an admirable opportunity, to a defending force to resist an attack from
-that quarter. It is, indeed, commanded in its turn by an eminence
-called Mount Sampson, which lies to the northeast; but in this instance
-the disadvantage was more than counterbalanced by the fact that the
-Japanese could only oppose to the heavy fortress guns which the
-Russians had mounted on Nanshan, field artillery of an inferior
-calibre. After the landing of the enemy at Yentoa and the cutting of
-the railway had made clear the imminence of the peril which threatened
-Port Arthur, the governor of the fortress, General Stoessel, wasted no
-time in erecting powerful defences at this naturally strong position.
-During the ensuing weeks the Russian engineers went feverishly to work
-constructing entrenchments on Nanshan and the connecting chains of
-hills, and also on a second line of eminences further to the south, the
-chief of which is named Nankuenling. These careful preparations might
-well seem to have rendered the position impregnable. Ten forts almost
-permanent in character were established on Nanshan, and at every
-available point trenches and rifle pits were dug and concealed with the
-greatest skill, and their approaches guarded by barbed wire
-entanglements, while at convenient places mines were laid to entrap an
-unwary foe. Over 70 guns, many of them pieces of fortress artillery of
-heavy calibre, were placed in position here, and the whole was manned
-by a force of 12,000 men; the utmost number of troops that could with
-advantage be employed in such a confined area. Altogether, with the
-exception of Port Arthur itself, no more formidable obstacle has ever
-been presented to the advance of an invading army in modern times than
-was offered by General Stoessel at Kinchau. The village of Kinchau
-itself, it should be explained, though it gave the name to the battle,
-was of comparatively small strategical importance, lying as it does on
-the low ground to the northeast of the isthmus and offering an easy
-prey, but at the same time no particular advantage, to the enemy.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Dispositions]
-
-The concentration of the Japanese army proceeded in the circumstances
-with great rapidity. On the 21st of May, the whole force, consisting of
-three divisions, or about 60,000 men, was established to the north of
-Hand Bay. Under the protection of the angle formed by the range of
-hills to the south of Mount Sampson, the troops were formed up for
-battle, and General Oku explained to his chief subordinates his
-dispositions for the attack. Careful reconnaissances during the next
-two days, by drawing the fire of the enemy, revealed the strength of
-the Russian position, which stretched from Nanshan to the west to
-Hushangtao on the east. At this latter point eight guns were stationed,
-commanding the waters of Hand Bay, so that co-operation by the Japanese
-gunboats from this side was impossible. On the other hand, the Russians
-had a gunboat themselves stationed in the bay, and this was able to
-render valuable assistance to the defending force when the attack
-developed. On the west the waters of Kinchau Bay were too shallow to
-admit of the approach of vessels of any but the smallest draught, but
-four of the Japanese gunboats were able to enter close up to the shore,
-and gave conspicuous aid to General Oku in the course of the operations.
-
-[Sidenote: General Oku's Attack]
-
-On the 25th of May the Russian positions at Kinchau and Nanshan were
-heavily bombarded, and General Oku extended his line to the north as
-well as to the east. At dawn on the next day the attack began in
-earnest. A fierce and sustained bombardment, lasting for five hours,
-prepared the way for the advance, after which the Japanese made an
-onslaught upon the village of Kinchau, and drove the Russians at the
-point of the bayonet back upon their main line of defence, Nanshan. In
-this attack they were greatly assisted by the gunboats, the _Tsukushi_,
-_Saiyen_, _Akagi_ and _Chiokai_, which brought their fire to bear upon
-the enemy's batteries at Suchiatun and Nanshan, and kept them hotly
-engaged. The capture of Kinchau, however, was only the first step in
-the fiery progress which lay before the Mikado's troops. To dislodge
-the Russians from Nanshan itself was a work of much greater magnitude.
-It was to the 4th Division that the main part of this honorable duty
-was assigned, the centre of the Japanese line being held by the 1st
-Division, and the extreme left by the 3rd.
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Carnage]
-
-Another fierce artillery duel preluded the general advance. By 11
-o'clock the Russian batteries appeared to have been silenced, and the
-Japanese pressed forward to storm the heights. But it turned out that
-General Stoessel was only reserving his fire. No sooner did the
-Japanese debouch into the open upon the slopes which led up to the hill
-than a storm of missiles swept across their path, mowing them down in
-serried masses. The wire entanglements, too, proved a deadly obstacle.
-Rush after rush was made by the gallant Japanese, but every attempt to
-get near to the trenches was vain. The carnage was terrific. The
-officers fell in all directions, the rank and file lay in piles of dead
-at the foot of the hill, and the advance came for a time to an absolute
-standstill.
-
-[Sidenote: A General Bombardment]
-
-It was clear that further artillery preparation was necessary, and
-therefore General Oku ordered a general bombardment once more. For
-hours his field batteries, supplemented by the gunboats, rained shot
-and shell upon the Russian positions, searching the whole range of
-forts and trenches, and doing terrible execution. The Russian fire
-slackened under this fearful cannonade, but still the Japanese
-continued their bombardment.
-
-[Sidenote: Chances of Defeat]
-
-And now came the crucial moment of the day. The artillery ammunition of
-the attacking force began to give out. To bring up fresh supplies from
-far in the rear meant that before the bombardment could be resumed
-night would have fallen upon the scene, for it was by this time late in
-the afternoon. When this untoward intelligence was brought to him,
-General Oku was presented with a problem of the utmost difficulty and a
-responsibility which might well have seemed overwhelming. He must
-either hazard another infantry attack at once, fraught with all the
-possibility of failure, or he must temporarily withdraw his forces and
-wait for further ammunition and perhaps heavier guns. The second course
-meant only delay; the first, in the event of a repulse, meant not
-merely delay, but the possibility of a crushing defeat as well. It must
-be remembered, moreover, that the troops had been close upon sixteen
-hours in the field. In these circumstances a commander of less
-resolution and with less confidence in his men would have been under a
-strong temptation to choose the alternative which offered the smaller
-risk, but General Oku was made of different mettle. He knew that delay
-would upset the general arrangements of the campaign; he knew, too,
-that it might give a fatal opportunity for the advance of a relief
-force from the north. He therefore at once accepted the tremendous
-responsibility of ordering a resumption of the attack all along the
-line. Fortunately, a weak point in the Russian defences had been
-discovered. The shallow waters of Kinchau Bay allowed men to wade in
-and approach Nanshan from the southwest, at a point at which, owing to
-the angle of emplacement of the Russian guns, they could do
-comparatively little damage to an advancing force. It was resolved to
-try this plan.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIANS CHARGING JAPANESE TRENCHES AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Rushing the Trenches]
-
-Once again, then, the bugles rang out for attack, and the Japanese
-threw themselves with desperate bravery upon the Russian entrenchments.
-The wire entanglements gave as much difficulty as ever, and the slopes
-of the hill were one blinding sheet of flame; but still the Japanese
-pressed forward, climbing over their own dead and working their way
-gradually through the obstacles placed in their path. By a piece of
-good fortune the electric wires connected with a large mine field were
-discovered just in time and cut, and thus a dreadful disaster was
-averted. But brilliant as was the dash of the 1st and 3rd Divisions on
-the Russian right, the defence of the Czar's troops was stubborn and
-hardly contested, and it was not till the 4th Division on the extreme
-left had carried through their flanking operation that the issue of the
-day was put beyond doubt. Here the gunboats in the bay rendered
-invaluable service. They steamed close in and poured in a heavy fire
-upon the Russian batteries, covering the advance of the infantry
-through the shallows. In this gallant operation the commander of the
-_Chiokai_, Captain Hayashi, was killed, and several other casualties
-were sustained by the crews engaged. But the work was accomplished.
-Climbing the hill like cats, the Japanese soldiery broke through the
-entanglements in face of a galling fire and rushed the trenches,
-bayonetting the defenders where they stood. Nothing could stop that mad
-onslaught, and after a fierce hand-to-hand conflict on the summit the
-flag of the Rising Sun floated triumphantly over the position which the
-Russians had so fondly, and indeed so naturally, deemed to be
-impregnable.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russians in Flight]
-
-General Stoessel, finding that there was no use in continuing the
-sanguinary conflict now that his flank was turned, ordered a general
-retreat. The Japanese, however, in spite of the tremendous fatigues to
-which they had already been subjected since dawn, fiercely pursued
-their retiring enemy, with the result that the Russians found it
-impossible to make a stand at their second line of defence at
-Nankuenling, and were compelled to flee as far as the immediate
-neighborhood of Port Arthur itself.
-
-[Sidenote: Tremendous Moral Effect]
-
-The moral effect of this great victory of the Japanese was tremendous.
-The Russians, and with them a great many Continental critics, had
-attempted to minimize the importance of the battle of the Yalu. The
-Japanese, they said, were in overwhelming numbers, the position was one
-that could be easily turned, and General Sassulitch ought never to have
-tried to stand his ground. But such criticisms were silenced by
-Kinchau. The little Japs were seen to be equal, if not superior, man
-for man, to their Russian opponents, and the fierce, almost fanatical,
-fervor of their patriotism proved a factor in the struggle the
-importance of which few people had properly estimated. It was felt at
-once by military men in Europe, that if 12,000 Russians, armed with
-heavy guns, could not hold such a post as that of Nanshan against the
-onslaught of the Japanese, the fall of Port Arthur itself, provided
-there were no effective diversion from the north, was merely a question
-of time.
-
-[Sidenote: Terrific Casualties]
-
-Nor were the material fruits of General Oku's success less striking.
-His losses in _personnel_, of course, were heavy, amounting to 133
-officers, and 4,062 non-commissioned officers and men killed and
-wounded. The casualties of the defenders were naturally not so great,
-but over 500 Russians were left dead upon the field, and it is
-estimated that their total losses in killed and wounded must have
-numbered over 2,000. Sixty-eight pieces of artillery and ten
-machine-guns fell into the hands of the victors.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER FOUR MONTHS.
-
-Continuing their advance, the first Japanese Army, under Kuroki
-occupied Kuan-tien on May 14. In the meantime the second Japanese Army,
-under Oku, had effected a landing on the Liaotung Peninsula at Pitzuwo.
-On May 16 they seized the Kinchau heights, and ten days later defeated
-the Russians at the battle of Nanshan. Dalny was occupied on May 30.
-The third Japanese Army, under Nodzu, began landing at Takushan on May
-19, and on June 8 occupied Siu-yen.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-Four days afterwards the Japanese entered Dalny and occupied that
-important station. With the exception of the great pier, all those
-enormous works upon which the Russians had been expending vast sums for
-years were found to be intact, and the invaders were able henceforth to
-use the port as an invaluable base for their operations against Port
-Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Alarm in St. Petersburg]
-
-This series of disasters caused the greatest alarm in St. Petersburg.
-The seriousness of the danger that threatened Port Arthur was realized
-in all its fulness at last, and the lofty assurance which had hitherto
-reigned supreme among the Imperial _entourage_ gave place to feelings
-of panic. The result was that desperate measures were embarked upon
-which only led to fresh misfortunes. General Kuropatkin himself had
-seen from the first the impossibility of relieving Port Arthur from the
-north until he had a larger force at his disposal than he was likely to
-secure for months to come. His plan had always been to concentrate his
-main army at Liao-yang, or, if necessary, at Mukden, and wait till the
-arrival of large reinforcements enabled him to advance against the
-Japanese with some hope of success. If the Commander-in-Chief had been
-left to himself it is possible that this plan would have been pursued
-consistently and a great _debacle_ might have been avoided. Port
-Arthur, indeed, would have been almost certain to fall, but in the
-opinion of nearly every strategist who had studied the problem, nothing
-short of a miracle could now save the so-called Gibraltar of the East.
-The only sound policy for the Russians was one of retirement and
-concentration until a more favorable opportunity presented itself. But
-now the Evil Genius of Russia interposed with his fatal counsels. To
-Admiral Alexeieff it was unthinkable that Port Arthur, at which for so
-long he had held his haughty Viceregal state, should be abandoned
-without a mighty effort. Ever since the arrival of General Kuropatkin
-in Manchuria had reduced him to a position of comparative inferiority,
-he had been intriguing against that commander with varying success, but
-on this occasion he received powerful backing amongst the Czar's
-advisers in St. Petersburg. The heaviest pressure was brought to bear
-upon General Kuropatkin to induce him to dispatch a strong force
-southwards to the relief of Port Arthur, and in an evil hour for his
-country and his own reputation the Commander-in-Chief weakly consented
-to be overruled. Lieut.-General Baron Stackelberg, the commander of the
-1st Army Corps, with an army 35,000 strong was ordered to advance by
-forced marches into the Liao-tung Peninsula and lead a forlorn hope to
-save the doomed fortress.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN PRIEST IN THE TRENCHES, WITH GENERAL
-STAKELBERG'S ARMY.]
-
-[Sidenote: Fatal Russian Strategy]
-
-The folly of this course is obvious to the veriest tyro in military
-science. Kuropatkin's line was already too far extended for safety. On
-his left flank, creeping gradually closer and working round to the
-northeast to effect a wide turning movement, was General Kuroki, with
-the 1st Army; General Nodzu, with the 3rd Army, was advancing from
-Takushan in the direction of Kaichau; while in the extreme south
-General Oku, having received large reinforcements, was able to hold
-Port Arthur securely invested and to march northwards with forces
-numbering 60,000 men, flushed with recent victory. The southward march
-of Baron Stackelberg, therefore, was doomed to disaster from the first.
-Not only was it highly improbable that he would ever succeed in getting
-through to Port Arthur, but in case he had to retreat, he ran a grave
-risk of being cut off by General Nodzu, and imperilling the position of
-General Kuropatkin himself. This was exactly what happened in actual
-fact.
-
-[Sidenote: Old Tactics versus New]
-
-The ill-fated expedition, after some preliminary skirmishing, met
-General Oku's main body at Wafangkau or Telissu on the 15th of June.
-Telissu is a village situated to the east of the railway line about 20
-miles north of Port Adams. Nothing could better prove the superiority
-of the Japanese over the Russians in the matter of tactics than the
-dispositions which were made for this battle by Oku and Stackelberg
-respectively. Kuropatkin's lieutenant fought in the old-fashioned
-style, with his men closely packed together over a narrow front. The
-Japanese, on the other hand, advanced in an open formation over a
-widely extended area. At dawn General Oku ordered his troops to attack.
-They advanced in two columns, the main body proceeding along the
-railway line against the enemy's centre and right, while a second and
-more mobile force worked round to the west to turn Stackelberg's right
-flank. The Russians threw themselves fiercely upon the Japanese right
-and centre, and for some hours the battle was hotly contested. But in
-the meantime the turning movement to the west was proceeding with
-entire success. Before he realized the imminence of the danger,
-Stackelberg found that his right flank was driven in, and that his rear
-was threatened. He withdrew troops from his left and centre to meet
-this new danger; but it was too late, and he merely weakened his
-position in one part of the field without strengthening it in another.
-From three sides the Japanese now pressed their attack home, gradually
-encircling the Russians with a ring of fire. The terrible effectiveness
-of Oku's artillery was borne witness to afterwards by the Russians
-themselves. Their positions were heaped with dead. General Stackelberg
-in his dispatch describing the battle said that the 3rd and 4th
-batteries of the 1st Artillery Brigade were literally cut to pieces by
-the Japanese shells, and thirteen out of sixteen guns were rendered
-completely useless. A large number of officers were killed, and among
-the wounded was Major-General Gerngross. In spite of this tremendous
-pounding the Russians held their ground with great gallantry; but, as
-the Japanese attack developed, General Stackelberg saw that if he
-maintained his position much longer, he would be altogether surrounded.
-Therefore, just in the nick of time, he ordered a retreat. Slowly and
-painfully the retirement was conducted over difficult, mountainous
-country. The Japanese, exhausted by forced marches and two days'
-fighting, were unable to cut off Stackelberg's escape entirely, but
-they inflicted terrible losses on his retreating troops, and he only
-succeeded in reaching Kaichau some days afterwards with a shattered
-remnant of his force. The Japanese casualties in this great battle were
-not more than 1,000. On the other hand, upwards of 2,000 Russians were
-found dead upon the field and buried by the victors, and the total
-losses sustained by General Stackelberg's army, including prisoners
-taken, amounted to about 10,000. Large numbers of guns and regimental
-colors were captured.
-
-[Sidenote: The Veil over the Tragedy]
-
-Thus ended this ill-advised attempt to relieve Port Arthur. Henceforth
-all hopes of succor from the north had to be abandoned. In fact,
-General Kuropatkin, instead of being able to render assistance to the
-beleaguered garrison, was himself threatened with irremediable
-disaster, largely in consequence of this ill-fated operation. And now
-for upwards of two months almost complete darkness fell upon the
-tragedy that was being enacted round the doomed fortress. Rumors
-reached the outer world from time to time of the sanguinary combats by
-which the besiegers slowly fought their way nearer and nearer to the
-heart of the stronghold; but rumors they remained; and the Japanese,
-true to their policy of silence while important events were in
-progress, allowed no authentic news to percolate through the
-censorship. At last, however, the veil was partially lifted. When in
-the early days of August the Russian fleet, threatened with ignoble
-destruction by the fire of the rapidly approaching batteries of the
-Japanese, made an unsuccessful dash for freedom, it was recognized on
-all hands that the end was near.
-
-[Illustration: GENERAL NOGI BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IX.
-
-  Secrecy of Japanese Strategy--The Geographical
-    Position--Kuropatkin's Essential Weakness--Rain Stops
-    Carnage--Oku Rolls up the Russians--Field-Marshal
-    Oyama--Keller's Failure--10th Regiment Ambushed--Desperate
-    Courage against Overwhelming Odds--Kuroki again on the
-    Offensive--Capture of Niuchwang--The Bloodiest Fight so
-    Far--The Death of Count Keller--Kuropatkin's Heavy
-    Loss--Concentration at Liao-yang--Kuropatkin's Urgent
-    Motives--Oyama's Great Resources--Twelve Days' Battle--The
-    Great Armies in Touch--Frightful Scene of Carnage--Costly but
-    Indecisive.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Secrecy of Japanese Strategy]
-
-The signal defeat of the Russian army under General Stackelberg at
-Telissu on the 15th June cleared the way for an advance northwards by
-General Oku's army. It was one of the consequences of the secrecy which
-attended the Japanese strategy from first to last that until this
-moment General Oku's real objective was not guessed either by foreign
-observers or even by the Russians themselves. The general impression
-was, naturally, that the Second Army was destined for the tremendous
-task of storming Port Arthur, but a much larger conception of the
-campaign was present to the minds of the strategists at Tokio. Fresh
-troops in large numbers were poured into the Liao-tung Peninsula, and
-these, under the command of General Nogi were concentrated round Port
-Arthur, while the main body of the Second Army was pushed northwards to
-act in co-operation with the First Army of General Kuroki and the Third
-Army commanded by General Nodzu, which, it will be remembered, had by
-this time landed at Takushan and was being gradually directed upon
-Haicheng. As soon, therefore, as his forces had been restored after
-their tremendous exertions at Telissu, General Oku set out with all
-possible rapidity along the line of railway towards Kaiping. And now
-Kuroki's long wait at Feng-hwang-cheng came to an end. It had, however,
-been well utilized. Not only had it enabled the conqueror of the Yalu
-to concentrate an army of upwards of 100,000 men, but in the interval
-his engineers had been employed in constructing defences, of a
-semi-permanent character, which, in the event of a subsequent retreat
-being rendered necessary, would make the position almost impregnable
-against Russian attack. But on the 23rd June General Kuroki broke camp,
-and, leaving behind him only a rear guard, took the first step in that
-great series of operations which, as they advanced northwards, stained
-the fertile plains of Southern Manchuria with the blood of Japanese and
-Muscovite alike and culminated around Liao-yang and Mukden in the most
-terrific and sanguinary conflicts experienced in the annals of war
-since the great struggle between the Northern and Southern States.
-
-[Sidenote: Geographical Position]
-
-The key to the valley of the Liao River, it will be remembered, lies in
-the three passes of Motienling, Taling, and Fenshuiling; and these were
-all held in force by the Russians. The first of them stands on the main
-road leading from Feng-hwang-cheng to Liao-yang; the second (which must
-not be confused with the pass of the same name situated north of the
-Taitse River at about 60 miles to the east of Liao-yang) commands the
-road between Feng-hwang-cheng and Haicheng; and the third is on the
-road from Siuyen to Tashichao and is about 20 miles southeast from the
-latter place. The situation of the most important posts along the
-railway from Mukden to Kaiping has already been indicated, but for the
-sake of clearness it may be repeated that Liao-yang, where General
-Kuropatkin had concentrated his main army, stands about 40 miles south
-of Mukden; that 30 miles further south again is situated Haicheng; and
-that an interval of 30 miles more separates that town from Kaiping, or
-Kaichau, as it is sometimes called, Tashichao lying half-way between.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin's Essential Weakness]
-
-General Nodzu's troops were now for the first time brought into action,
-and operated in unison with General Kuroki's army in the attack upon
-the passes. A combination of most skilful movements made them masters
-of these important defiles within a few days of one another. In each
-case the tactics were the same. A frontal attack was pushed forward by
-one division, while strong bodies were sent round both to the right and
-left, and, securing ground from which they could enfilade the Russian
-trenches, rendered the position untenable by the defending force.
-General surprise was felt at the ineffective stand made here by General
-Kuropatkin's troops, especially as they had spent at least three months
-in building entrenchments, protected by wire entanglements and all the
-accessories of modern scientific warfare. The fact was, however, that
-the essential weakness of Kuropatkin's army in point of numbers
-compared with its opponents was now made disastrously apparent, and in
-spite of the natural and artificial strength of these passes, he could
-not prevent the superior force which the Japanese invariably contrived
-to bring against him at any given point from turning his flanks. Both
-the Taling Pass and the Motienling Pass, at the latter of which General
-Count Keller, who had superseded General Sassulitch in his command,
-directed the Russian operations, fell an easy prey to Kuroki's
-manoeuvres; but at Fenshuiling General Nodzu met with fierce
-opposition. The defile was defended by fourteen battalions of infantry
-and three regiments of cavalry, supported by thirty guns, and a severe
-engagement took place, lasting for six hours. It was apparent that the
-strength of the Russian entrenchments was such that a direct attack
-would involve an enormous sacrifice of life; but after brilliant
-tactics, carried out during the night of the 26th June and the early
-morning of the 27th, the Japanese outflanked their enemy and drove them
-back in full retreat down the road to Simucheng, leaving ninety dead
-upon the field and losing eighty-eight prisoners, including six
-officers. On the same day a force of three battalions with sixteen guns
-made a desperate effort to recapture the position, but they were hurled
-back with heavy loss, and the pass remained irrevocably in the hands of
-the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Rain Stops the Carnage]
-
-At this stage in the advance further progress was delayed for a few
-days by an agency which at frequent intervals during the campaign rose
-superior to the fiercest energy on the part of either combatant. The
-weather, which renders war in Manchuria practically impossible in
-winter, succeeds in giving it an intermittent character even in summer,
-and now heavy rains brought the operations to a temporary standstill.
-The Japanese who were on the high ground overlooking the valleys did
-not suffer so much from the torrential downpour, but the Russians in
-the plains had to bear its full force, and all movements by any arm of
-the service were rendered impossible by a sea of mud. By the 4th of
-July, however, the rains had stopped, and on that day a sharp fight
-took place at Motien-ling. During a dense fog at dawn, two battalions
-of the Russians attacked the Japanese outposts and endeavored to force
-the position. But Kuroki's soldiers were not to be surprised, and
-reinforcements were hurried up with all speed. Severe hand-to-hand
-fighting took place; but, finally, after three onslaughts by the
-Russians, the Japanese hurled them back in rout and pursued them for a
-distance of four miles to the westward.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER FIVE MONTHS.
-
-Following the railway northwards Oku came into touch with the
-retreating Russians on June 15, and inflicted upon them a crushing
-defeat at the battle of Telissu. His advance was not again opposed
-until he reached Kaiping, which he captured after some fighting on July
-9. Meanwhile the armies under Kuroki and Nodzu had been advancing
-steadily, and the Mo-tien and Fen-shui Passes, commanding the roads to
-Liaoyang and Haicheng, were captured simultaneously. During this month
-the siege of Port Arthur began on land.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-[Sidenote: Oku Rolls up Russians]
-
-Two days later General Oku took up the running for the Japanese, and
-started to roll up the Russian forces from the south. Moving out from
-Erh-tau-ho-tse, which is 12 miles south of Kaiping, he marched upon
-that town along the road westwards of the railway, driving the enemy's
-outposts before him. By noon on the 9th he had forced the Russians, who
-were under General Zarubaieff, Commander of the Fourth Siberian Army
-Corps, back upon their main position at Kaiping itself, and here it
-appeared that General Kuropatkin had ordered a stand to be made.
-Upwards of 30,000 men, with numerous guns, were in the neighborhood at
-the disposal of Zarubaieff and Oku prepared for a stout resistance. But
-as a matter of fact the opposition offered to him turned out to be
-comparatively feeble. After an artillery duel lasting for four hours
-his troops advanced and seized the heights extending from Haishan-chai
-on the west to Shwangtingshan on the east, from both of which eminences
-they could command Kaiping. Reinforcements had been hurried up from the
-Russian rear, but they were soon ordered northward again, and the whole
-body evacuated the town under cover of heavy gun fire on the afternoon
-of the same day. The cause of this ineffectual resistance on the part
-of Zarubaieff was the advance of the Third Army of Japan from
-Fenshuiling, which acted in co-ordination throughout with General Oku's
-columns, and threatened to outflank the Russians. To avoid a great
-disaster General Zarubaieff was compelled to retreat, and as a
-consequence of this skilful manoeuvring, General Oku was enabled to
-occupy the important position of Kaiping with a loss which was almost
-negligible, another big step being thus gained in the progress
-northwards.
-
-[Sidenote: Field-Marshal Oyama]
-
-On the very day which Oku began his advance on Kaiping there occurred
-an event which brought strikingly before the world the fact that these
-movements by the three Japanese generals were only part of one great
-concerted plan, the vastness of which was not yet realized. This was
-the departure from Tokio for the seat of war of Field-Marshal Marquis
-Oyama, the master-mind selected by the Mikado for the supreme command
-of all his armies in the field. A brief description of the career of
-this great general, whose renown in Japan is second only to that of the
-veteran Yamagata, will not be out of place here. Like so many of the
-Japanese leaders who have distinguished themselves in the present war,
-Oyama's first experience of fighting was gained in the old days of the
-Sumatsu rebellion, in which he took part on the revolutionary side,
-achieving considerable distinction for his gallantry. After peace had
-placed the Mikado securely upon the throne of Japan, Oyama was sent to
-Prussia as military attache, and was present at Moltke's headquarters
-at all the most important operations of the Franco-German War. There
-he, no doubt, gained many of the valuable lessons which have since been
-put in force both in the Chinese War ten years ago and in the present
-campaign. After the Peace of Versailles he devoted himself to a close
-study of the military organizations of France and Switzerland, and
-returning to his own country in 1875 received an appointment on the
-General Staff in Tokio. He was selected for the command of the First
-Army on the outbreak of the war with China in 1894, and directed the
-operations around Port Arthur, which culminated in the storming of that
-powerful fortress. On the retirement of Marshal Yamagata from
-ill-health, General Oyama was appointed to the chief command of all the
-Japanese forces in the field, and carried the campaign to a successful
-conclusion. After the signature of the Treaty of Peace the Mikado
-recognized his great services by conferring upon him the baton of
-Field-Marshal and appointing him Chief of the Staff. In the meanwhile,
-General Oku was preparing for his further advance northwards, where the
-next obstacle in his path was the Russian position at Tashichao. This
-town had been converted into a place of great strength and was
-garrisoned by at least 60,000 men with 105 guns. But before the
-opposing forces could meet here a fresh attack of a much more
-determined character than the last was made upon the Japanese army at
-Motienling, the Russians, under the command of Kuropatkin's most
-trusted lieutenant, General Count Keller, making a desperate attempt to
-regain possession of that important defile. This was the first occasion
-on which Kuropatkin's troops seriously assumed the offensive in the
-course of the war, and the result was a conspicuous success once more
-for the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: Keller's Failure]
-
-The Russian Commander-in-Chief entrusted two divisions to Count Keller
-for the purpose of the attack, and that General made dispositions for a
-frontal attack along the main road from Tawan, simultaneously, with
-movements against both of the Japanese flanks. For the main operation
-one division was employed, and the other was divided into two bodies,
-the first marching from Anping upon Hsimatang, where the outposts on
-Kuroki's right were stationed; and the second pushing forward from
-Tienshuitien along the paths which lead through the hills to the south
-of Motienling, where the Japanese left wing was posted. This scheme of
-advance might have had some success if all the parts of the machine had
-worked together with complete smoothness, but in the actual event the
-movements of the several columns were badly co-ordinated, and they came
-into action at different times.
-
-[Illustration: FOOD FOR THE JAPANESE ARMY.]
-
-[Sidenote: 10th Regiment Ambushed]
-
-The frontal attack began at 3 a. m., when, under cover of a dense fog,
-Keller's two leading battalions fell upon the Japanese outpost upon the
-main road some distance to the west of the pass. Notwithstanding the
-shock of the surprise and the formidable disparity of numbers, Kuroki's
-troops held their ground with the utmost gallantry. The foremost files
-of the 10th Siberian Regiment became engaged almost at once in a
-hand-to-hand combat with a small body of about thirty or forty
-Japanese. Several of the latter were bayonetted before they realized
-that the enemy was upon them, but the survivors, taking refuge among
-some Chinese cottages, made a desperate resistance with rifle and cold
-steel. The din and the crack of musketry aroused some companies who
-were bivouacking in the neighboring trenches, and they quickly rushed
-to the support of their comrades. One company, taking up a position in
-an adjacent temple, poured in a murderous fire upon the Russians, and
-another stationed itself on a hill on the opposite side and joined in
-the deadly fusillade. Thus the 10th Regiment, instead of successfully
-surprising its foe, found itself in turn surprised in an ambush, and
-after a hot engagement was compelled to retreat back upon its main
-body. It was five o'clock before the Russians could bring up a
-sufficient force to drive in the Japanese outposts, by which time the
-gallant stand made by these few companies had enabled Kuroki's troops
-entrenched at the Motien Pass itself to prepare fully for the onslaught
-that awaited them. When Keller's soldiery, therefore, came within range
-of the Japanese lines, they were met by a heavy fire both from infantry
-and artillery. Two hours more elapsed before they were properly
-disposed for the attack, and then, although they consisted of a whole
-division of 12,000 men, and were opposed by a force of no more than
-4,000, their tactics proved quite ineffective, and they could not
-succeed in the slightest degree in shaking the hold upon the defile
-which their enemy had gained.
-
-The fire which was directed upon them from the Japanese lines was
-especially galling upon their left wing, and here, shortly before
-eleven o'clock, they began to give way, and ere long the whole force
-fell back in retreat. Their active enemy then sprang forward to the
-attack themselves and attempted to push the repulse home, but a strong
-rear guard held them in check, and prevented the reverse from becoming
-a rout. It afterwards became apparent that the reason for this retreat
-on the part of Count Keller's main body was the complete failure of the
-flanking movements which he had presumably intended to be conducted
-simultaneously.
-
-[Sidenote: Desperate Courage but Overwhelming Odds]
-
-But the attack upon their outposts upon the main road at three in the
-morning had put the whole Japanese army upon the _qui vive_, and both
-on the right and the left flanks preparations were made to meet such a
-manoeuvre as the Russian General had in view. On the left wing, as no
-enemy had appeared in sight by five o'clock, a company of the Japanese
-pushed forward towards Makumenza to wait for their approach. There it
-fell in with a Russian battalion and engaged it at once in a hot
-conflict. A second battalion came to the aid of the first, and for a
-time the little force of Japanese was in danger of being annihilated,
-but reinforcements quickly arrived, and though they were still
-numerically weaker than the Russians, they drove them back with heavy
-loss, and occupied the heights which commanded the approach from this
-point, completing the confusion of the enemy by directing a galling
-fire upon the main body which was now in full retreat along the road to
-Tawan. On the right flank the struggle was more obstinate and
-sanguinary. When the attack began at eight o'clock the Japanese were
-greatly outnumbered, and for a time one company had to hold its own
-against the onslaught of a whole battalion of the Russians, supported
-by a troop of cavalry. In the deadly conflict which ensued, every one
-of the Japanese officers fell upon the field, but notwithstanding their
-terrible losses the little band fought on with desperate courage
-against the overwhelming odds. The arrival of another Russian battalion
-seemed to threaten their complete destruction, but, fortunately, before
-long reinforcements were hurried up to the spot and the contest became
-more even. After a severe conflict, lasting for eight and a half hours,
-the Russians at length gave up the attempt to force the Japanese lines
-as hopeless, and fell back broken and defeated.
-
-[Illustration: MAP SHOWING TERRITORY ADJACENT TO LIAOYANG.]
-
-Thus at every point this attack, from which General Kuropatkin had
-hoped for so much, failed completely, and the superiority of the
-Japanese soldiery over their opponents was once more strikingly
-manifested. Kuroki's casualties amounted to about 300 killed and
-wounded, but the affair was much more expensive to the Russians,
-General Keller putting his losses at over 1,000 men.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Again on the Offensive]
-
-Immediately following upon this success, General Kuroki once again
-assumed the offensive and captured the position of Hsihoyen,
-practically the last stronghold occupied by the Russians on the high
-ground overlooking the plains of the Liao River. This success was the
-work of the Twelfth Division, that division which, it will be
-remembered, decided the battle of the Yalu by its flank attack on
-General Kashtalinsky's left. It now covered itself with fresh glory
-under its skilful commander, General Nishi. The same tactics as had
-been adopted in all these operations against the strongly entrenched
-positions of the Russians were once more employed. The enemy were kept
-busy with a frontal attack while a column marched around their right
-flank and rendered their carefully prepared stronghold untenable. A
-general advance was then made, and the Russians were driven back upon
-Anping in complete rout with more than 1,000 casualties. The Japanese
-killed and wounded amounted only to half that number.
-
-On the 24th of July, Oku resumed his advance northwards and attacked
-the powerful Russian position at Tashichao. The skilful handling of
-Zarubaieff's large force of artillery made it impossible for the
-Japanese to carry the trenches by daylight, but, waiting till
-nightfall, they made a fresh onslaught under the beams of a full moon.
-Point after point fell into their hands, and next morning General
-Zarubaieff, feeling the hopelessness of continuing the defence,
-especially in view of a fresh movement by General Nodzu's army which
-threatened his left, decided to retreat. This unexpectedly easy victory
-was gained by the Japanese at the expense of about 1,000 casualties;
-but the Russians lost twice that number of men, and among the wounded
-were two officers of high rank, Generals Kondratovitch and Skaloff. Two
-days later a detachment of Oku's army entered Yinkow, the port of
-Niuchwang--a highly important prize, for it provided the invaders with
-a new and most valuable base for the advance from the south.
-
-[Sidenote: Capture of Niuchwang]
-
-On July 31st the advance was resumed all along the line of the extended
-front of the Japanese, and each of the three armies was hotly engaged.
-Oku's steady march along the line of the railway drove the retreating
-enemy into Haicheng. On the right, at Tomucheng, a more sanguinary
-battle took place between General Nodzu's army and two divisions of
-Russian infantry, supported by seven batteries of artillery, under the
-command of General Alexeieff. The Russians occupied a strongly
-entrenched position on the hills to the north of Tomucheng, the work of
-fortification having occupied several months. But the result was the
-same here as in every quarter of the theatre of war. The two armies
-were locked together in a deadly struggle for nearly the whole of a
-scorching day, until the Japanese left wing, attacking with desperate
-bravery, carried the heights opposite to them and threatened the rear
-of the Russian centre. During the night, therefore, General Alexeieff
-fell back, leaving more than 150 dead upon the field and abandoning six
-guns, which fell into the hands of the enemy. The result of these
-combined operations of the Second and Third Armies was that Haicheng
-was occupied on August 3rd, and Niuchwang--which must be distinguished
-from the port of the same name--also fell into Oku's grasp.
-
-[Sidenote: The Bloodiest Fight so Far]
-
-It was in the north, however, with the Japanese First Army that the
-bloodiest fighting ensued, and that the Russians met with the most
-signal defeat. On July 31st Kuroki's right wing held Kushulintzu, 4
-miles to the west of Hsihoyen, and his centre occupied Yangtzuling, 6
-miles to the west of Motienling, both places being situated about 25
-miles from Liao-yang. Opposite to Kushulintzu the Russians, who held a
-very strong position on the high ground, consisted of two divisions of
-infantry with well-placed artillery. The attack began at dawn and
-continued all day. The Japanese infantry advanced gradually across the
-open valley undeterred by the murderous fire poured upon them from the
-Russian batteries, and threw themselves recklessly upon the enemy's
-redoubts. It was on the wings that the Russian defence was the weakest,
-and here, by sunset, the impetuous onslaught of the Mikado's troops
-carried all before it, nightfall finding them in possession of some of
-the most important heights. But the strength of the Russian centre was
-too great to be forced easily, and the Japanese therefore bivouacked on
-the field, and waited till daybreak to resume the attack. With the
-first rays of dawn they were ready once more for the fray, and again
-the hills resounded with the roar of artillery. For several hours the
-battle raged, the Russians making a most obstinate defence, but as the
-Japanese captured height after height the enemy could stand their
-ground no longer, and by noon they broke and fled westwards, leaving
-several field guns behind in the victor's hands.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER SIX MONTHS.
-
-Kuroki and Nodzu now called a halt to enable Oku to come into line with
-them. The latter, working his way steadily northwards, drove the
-Russians out of Tashichiao after three days' severe fighting. Newchwang
-was occupied on July 25, and Nodzu, having advanced his forces to
-Si-mu-cheng and driven out the Russians on July 30, the two generals
-joined forces and marched on Haicheng, which they occupied on August 2.
-A general assault was delivered on Port Arthur on July 26, and a few
-days later the Japanese captured Wolf Hill, Green Hill, and Takushan.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Death of Count Keller]
-
-At Yangtzuling the conflict was even more severe. The Russian force
-here consisted of two and a half divisions, with four batteries of
-artillery, and General Count Keller commanded in person. It was
-destined to be that gallant but unfortunate officer's last fight, for
-he fell mortally wounded in the course of the second day's operations.
-The Japanese plan of attack was very much the same as in the case of
-Kushulintzu. In spite of the tropical sun, whose rays beat upon their
-heads without protection, their advance was irresistible, and throwing
-themselves upon the enemy with a fierce _elan_, which carried all
-before it, they captured some of the principal positions by the close
-of the day. Here again, however, a numerous body of Russians held out
-in the centre against the most desperate attacks, and the Japanese were
-therefore compelled to bivouac on the field for the night and resume
-the conflict on the succeeding day. The dawn opened with a terrific
-artillery duel between the opposing batteries, and all the morning the
-guns belched forth flame and death. It was in the course of this
-tremendous bombardment that Count Keller met with his death. He was a
-man of reckless courage, and he insisted on taking his stand to direct
-the operations in a battery which was most heavily exposed to the fire
-of Kuroki's guns. So fiercely did the shells fall all around that his
-staff represented to him that he must be the object himself of the
-enemy's cannonade, but he refused to retire to a less exposed position.
-He had hardly dismounted from his horse when a shrapnel shell burst
-within a few paces from him and hurled him to the ground. A sergeant
-rushed up to him to raise him in his arms, but the general motioned him
-away and expired a few moments afterwards. His wounds were of the most
-terrible nature. Two fragments of shell struck him upon the head and
-three others in the chest, and he had thirty-one shrapnel bullet wounds
-in different parts of his body. The death of their commander threw the
-Russians into final confusion, and they retreated in haste, leaving a
-number of field guns in Kuroki's possession.
-
-[Illustration: DEATH OF COUNT KELLER AT YANG-ZE-LING PASS.]
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin's Heavy Loss]
-
-The loss of Count Keller was a particularly heavy blow to Kuropatkin,
-for he was the most trusted of all his subordinates and was most deeply
-in the confidence of the Commander-in-Chief. His experience, too, of
-war was gained in the Russo-Turkish campaign, on the staff of the same
-famous leader, Skobeleff, and he actually succeeded Kuropatkin as
-Aide-de-Camp to that General when the present Commander-in-Chief was
-wounded at the Shipka Pass in 1877. Besides the signal misfortune he
-sustained by the death of this distinguished officer, General
-Kuropatkin had to add to his already heavy casualty list a further loss
-of 2,000 officers and men. It was an even more significant and
-discouraging fact, however, that among the troops opposed to the
-victorious Kuroki on this occasion were the most recent accessions to
-the Russian army, the 10th and 17th Corps. These forces, which came
-from European Russia and were greatly superior to the Siberian soldiery
-both in physique and discipline, had been counted upon to do much to
-stem the tide of disaster, but though they made a better appearance
-than the troops which had been in action previously, all their prowess
-was unavailing against the impetuous patriotism of the Japanese, who
-had by this time proved themselves to be among the finest infantry in
-the whole world.
-
-[Sidenote: Concentration at Liaoyang]
-
-It now became plain to Kuropatkin that the Japanese could not be
-stopped before Liao-yang itself was reached. He therefore concentrated
-all his available forces at that powerful and highly fortified position
-in preparation for a great pitched battle. During the months which had
-elapsed since the arrival of the Russian Commander-in-Chief at the seat
-of war, Liao-yang had been turned into a great place of arms. Its great
-natural defensive advantages had been skilfully improved upon. Every
-inch of suitable ground had been carefully fortified, and there can be
-little doubt from the character of the dispositions which had been made
-that Kuropatkin hoped to be able not only to make a stand here, but to
-hurl back the armies of the Mikado in disorder, save Southern Manchuria
-for the Czar, and perhaps even march forward afterwards to the relief
-of the beleaguered fortress of Port Arthur.
-
-His armies, indeed, had been tragically reduced in numbers in every
-combat that had yet taken place. The arrival of the Tenth and
-Seventeenth Army Corps had put him in a better position; but against
-this had to be set the loss of nearly 30,000 men killed or wounded
-since the battle of the Yalu proved the magnitude of the task which lay
-before him. Yet he now possessed a force of about 132,000 men, with 400
-guns, and he held a position of enormous strength. All of his troops,
-indeed, had tasted the bitterness and discouragement of defeat in the
-course of the fifteen engagements which had taken place since the
-outbreak of the war, but he himself had not yet been present in person
-upon the field of battle, and he might well hope that the failure which
-had attended all the efforts of his lieutenants would give place to
-victory when he took the direction of affairs into his own hands.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin's Urgent Motives]
-
-At all events, whatever the issue of the battle might be, there could
-be no doubt that a retreat from Liao-yang without fighting was for
-every reason impossible. The Court of St. Petersburg had already been
-rendered restive by the continual withdrawal of the main body of
-Muscovite armies to the north; his enemies were busy with their
-detractions; and the irrepressible Alexeieff was always near to make
-capital out of the difficulties, and to distort and misrepresent the
-actions of his abler rival. But beyond all these personal reasons,
-powerful enough in themselves in the eyes of a man holding such a
-position as Kuropatkin, there were more worthy considerations which
-weighed heavily in the scale in favor of boldly submitting his fortunes
-to the cast of the die and risking all in one mighty struggle. The
-honor of the Russian arms and the prestige of the Empire were at stake;
-a continued retreat without a supreme effort to roll back the tide of
-invasion was politically dangerous to a Dominion which owed its very
-existence in the East to the preservation of a haughty and determined
-front; and, more serious even than the growing restlessness of all
-those Oriental races who yield unwilling allegiance to the Little White
-Father, was the increasing discontent in Russia itself, and the
-uprising once more of the forbidding spectre of Nihilism and
-revolution. A pitched battle on a grand scale was, therefore, for every
-reason unavoidable, and, in spite of all the risks he ran, Kuropatkin
-faced the prospect before him with calm courage and resolution.
-
-[Sidenote: Oyama's Great Resources]
-
-The state of things on the other side was very different. Here there
-was nothing to discourage, but everything to inspire hope.
-Field-Marshal Oyama, who had now reached the scene of operations, found
-at his disposal three great armies upon whose banners victory had
-consistently rested during a now prolonged campaign. The organization
-of the whole of the forces was perfect, and though it was now far from
-its base, its supplies were ample and constant. The natural
-difficulties of the advance were, indeed, great, but they were no
-greater than those which had already been triumphantly overcome. His
-chief lieutenants were men of tried capacity. The subordinate officers
-had proved their efficiency in tactics on many a hard-fought field, and
-the rank and file were inspired, not only with a rare intelligence, but
-with a fanatical patriotism, which made them, perhaps, the most
-formidable instruments of warfare the world has ever seen. And after
-all the inevitable losses of the past three months, he yet had under
-his command a total field force (exclusive of the army of 100,000 men
-engaged in besieging Port Arthur) of 220,000 men and 600 guns. It was
-plain that only the most desperate resistance on the part of the
-Russians could prevent the crowning mercy of a great victory, and
-already foreign critics were anticipating a Russian Sedan upon the
-banks of the Taitse River.
-
-[Illustration: THE SIX DAYS ACTION AROUND LIAOYANG
-    AUG. 29TH-SEPT. 3RD.]
-
-[Sidenote: Twelve Days' Battle]
-
-Torrential rains again delayed operations for upwards of three weeks,
-but by the 24th of August comparatively dry weather had set in, and on
-the 25th the general advance of the Japanese upon Liao-yang began. We
-now enter upon one of the most tremendous dramas ever known in military
-history--the twelve days' battle around Liao-yang. No fighting so
-fierce, so sustained, and so bloody has been experienced since the
-armies of Grant and Lee met in their great death grapple in the
-Wilderness in the Civil War. The terrible conflict raged for the most
-part simultaneously over an enormously extended front, and an adequate
-description can only be given by following in turn the fortunes of the
-separate Japanese armies. But for sake of clearness it will be well to
-attempt, first, a brief and comprehensive account of the main lines of
-the operations and their final result.
-
-[Sidenote: The Great Armies in Touch]
-
-On the 25th Kuroki's army of three divisions advanced upon Anping, and,
-after desperate fighting, drove the Russians back from that place to
-Liao-yang. At the same time the Third Army under General Nodzu,
-manoeuvring with Oku's forces on the left, turned the enemy out of
-their strong position at Anshanchan, situated about 15 miles to the
-south of Liao-yang. The advance of Oku was delayed considerably by the
-efforts of an enterprising rear guard left by Kuropatkin to cover the
-retreat, and by the thick mud, which made the roads almost impassable;
-but on the 29th both he and Nodzu came into touch with the enemy in
-their main position in front of Liao-yang. Here Kuropatkin held an
-entrenched front of about five miles, with three lines of defence
-formed by separate ranges of low hills, fortified with consummate skill.
-
-[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ROUTE OF MARCH AND PRINCIPAL ACTIONS OF THE
-FOUR JAPANESE ARMIES
-    Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th.]
-
-[Sidenote: Frightful Carnage]
-
-To the Japanese, however, no obstacle seemed too great. After a
-prolonged artillery preparation, in which for the first time the
-Russians showed themselves equal, if not superior, to their opponents,
-the superb infantry of Dai Nippon were ordered to the attack. Then
-ensued the most frightful scene of carnage and heroic endurance. For
-five long days the splendid troops of Oku and Nodzu flung themselves
-upon a foe not less gallant than themselves, and time after time they
-were held back with broken ranks, leaving behind great heaps of dead.
-And when at last they did make their bloody passage into the town of
-Liao-yang, it was only to learn the mortifying intelligence that their
-enemy had escaped from the toils so carefully set for him, and that for
-a considerable time their tremendous struggle had been conducted, not
-with the main body of Kuropatkin's army, but with a rear guard.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE ASSAULT ON A RUSSIAN POSITION AT LIAO-YANG.]
-
-[Sidenote: Costly but Indecisive]
-
-For those incalculable factors which so often defeat the best laid
-schemes of strategy had come into play, and had seriously affected the
-success of the great move which Kuroki was endeavoring to carry out on
-the Japanese right. In this case they proved to be the weather, which
-had swollen the Taitse River into a flood, and a sudden display of
-great tactical ability by Kuropatkin, which his previous failures in
-the sphere of strategy had led no one to expect. Upon Kuroki, of
-course, as holding the most advanced position on the Japanese right, it
-depended to envelope the left flank of the Russians and cut off their
-retreat to the north. But, unfortunately for the success of Oyama's
-strategy, the river Taitse, which runs from east to west just north of
-Liao-yang, and which had to be crossed by the Japanese, was so flooded
-that a day or two elapsed before it could be forded, and it was not
-till the 31st that Kuroki's forces were able to take up a position on
-the opposite bank. It was hoped, however, that a rapid march to the
-northwest would place the commander of the First Army astride of the
-railway at Yentai, and that he would thus be able to cut off
-Kuropatkin's retreat and enclose him in another Sedan within a ring of
-steel. But the delay proved fatal, for it gave Kuropatkin time to
-rescue his army from the perilous position in which it was placed. With
-a skill which must always extort the admiration of military critics he
-withdrew the greater part of his forces across the river in the most
-perfect order, unknown to the Japanese, and massed them on his left
-flank. The consequence was that instead of finding a division, or at
-the most two divisions, opposed to him, Kuroki was faced by the greater
-part of the Russian Army, established in strong positions on a range of
-hills between himself and the railway line. It was a masterly piece of
-generalship on the part of the Russian Commander-in-Chief, and it saved
-the situation. Indeed, at one point it threatened Kuroki with
-destruction, for he was almost cut off from support, and for
-twenty-four hours both officers and men were without either drink or
-food except small rations of dried rice. But the extraordinary
-gallantry of the sons of Japan rose superior even to these conditions.
-Again and again they advanced to the attack against powerful positions
-held by superior numbers, and the salient point in the Russian defence,
-the hill of Haiyentai, was heaped with the dead of the heroic
-combatants. Despite every effort, however, Kuroki could not pierce the
-enemy's line, and it was not till a fine forced march by a division
-detached from General Nodzu's army arrived to reinforce him that he was
-able to reach the railway after four days of tremendous combat. But by
-that time it was too late. The skilful dispositions made by the Russian
-General had pulled the bulk of his force out of the trap, and they were
-in full retreat upon Mukden. It would be difficult to describe the
-horrors of that retreat, but the Japanese were too exhausted to make as
-effective a pursuit as they would otherwise have done, and the Russians
-managed to get away without losing a single piece of artillery. The
-losses in this tremendous battle, or rather series of battles, were
-enormous. The Japanese official account places their casualties at
-17,539, but, if we are to believe the correspondents, that is an
-understatement. The exact Russian losses, including those incurred
-during the retreat, are placed by some authorities at 25,000, by others
-as high as 35,000. Unfortunately for the Japanese, all this costly
-expenditure of life was indecisive in its results, and left the main
-object of their strategy unfulfilled. Kuropatkin had been defeated,
-indeed, but he had not been routed, and it was apparent that the
-fighting would have to be resumed once more in the neighborhood of
-Mukden.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-
-  Investment of Port Arthur--Admiral Witoft's Sortie--Tremendous
-    Naval Battle--Harbors of Refuge--International
-    Complications--Insignificant Japanese Losses--The Last Raid
-    from Vladivostock--The Port Arthur Garrison--Fury Unparalleled
-    in History--Kuroki Improves his Reputation--The Grim Reality of
-    War.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Closer Investment of Port Arthur]
-
-While the victorious armies of Oku, Kuroki, and Nodzu were pressing
-northward towards Liao-yang, driving before them the only force from
-which the beleaguered garrison of Port Arthur could look for relief,
-the siege of Russia's "impregnable fortress" proceeded with unabated
-determination and constantly increasing vigor. It was on June 26th that
-the general advance on Port Arthur began; and from that date the lines
-of investment were steadily drawn closer and closer. Siege trains were
-landed at Dalny as well as large reinforcements, but for nearly a month
-complete silence as to the progress of events was maintained at Tokio.
-From time to time sensational and contradictory reports of desperate
-fighting were received from Chifu, where Chinese refugees landed in a
-constant stream; and authentic messages from General Stoessel, the
-heroic commander of the fortress's garrison, reached the outer world at
-intervals through the medium of a wireless telegraphy installation at
-the Russian Consulate in Chifu. Naturally, these messages were of a
-reassuring character, and generally recorded some repulse of the
-Japanese army of investment; but though no word of contradiction was
-uttered at Tokio, the world was hardly inclined to accept the Russian
-stories at their face value. When, for example, in a triumphant
-message, General Stoessel reported that a grand assault on the Russian
-defences had taken place on July 26th, 27th, and 28th, and had been
-repulsed at all points, with great slaughter, cautious observers of
-events waited for confirmation of the news; although the Czar himself
-hastened to dispatch to his gallant representative in Port Arthur a
-telegram of warm congratulation and praise. Hesitation was justified by
-the event; for two days after their alleged decisive repulse they
-captured the dominant position of Wolf Hill, and thereby made the first
-important breach in the defences of Port Arthur. Wolf Hill is an
-eminence half a mile south of the village of Suei-ze-ying, which is
-some three and a half miles along the railway line running due north
-from Port Arthur. The importance of the captured position for the
-Japanese was that it enabled siege guns to command, within easily
-effective range, the anchorage of the Russian squadron on the inside of
-the Tiger's Tail. This meant, of course, either that the fleet must go
-to sea and fight, or must endure impotently the hammering of the 12in.
-shells which soon began to drop from the batteries on Wolf's Hill.
-Within a week of the capture of the position, the Japanese had mounted
-their siege guns; and after a bombardment of two days, the Russian
-decision was taken to attempt another sortie. The last sortie, it will
-be remembered, took place on June 23rd, and ended in the inglorious
-return of the whole fleet; as the Russian Admiral, in spite of the
-advantage which, as we now know, he possessed over his enemy in battle
-strength, did not dare to give battle. This decision which let slip one
-of the best opportunities that the Russian Pacific Squadron ever had of
-favorably modifying the naval situation in the Far East, was
-ill-received at St. Petersburg, where carefully planned dispositions
-were thus brought to nought; and as soon as the contemplation of
-another sortie became immediately necessary, the strictest injunctions
-were sent to Admiral Witoft as to his course of action.
-
-[Sidenote: Admiral Witoft's Sortie]
-
-The Czar emphatically ordered him on no account to return to Port
-Arthur. His object must be to inflict as much damage as possible on the
-enemy's fleet, and, if possible, to effect a junction with the
-Vladivostock Squadron; while, if the latter object were incapable of
-accomplishment, he was to endeavor to reach the German port of
-Kiau-chau. From circumstances that have since transpired, there is
-reason to believe that an understanding had been arrived at between the
-German and Russian Governments as to the reception of the Russian ships
-at the German naval base. Although for the moment the Russian fugitives
-would, by the laws of neutrality, be placed out of action, they would
-be in the hands of a "benevolent" government; and would remain a factor
-to be reckoned with, if in the future Germany were to intervene in the
-settlement of the struggle. Accordingly, on the morning of August 10th,
-the Russian Squadron, in full strength except for the armored-cruiser
-_Bayan_, which was in too injured a condition to take its place in the
-fighting line, began slowly to pass through the narrow channel leading
-from the open sea; and by eleven o'clock the ships were drawn up in
-battle line, and steamed away on a course nearly due south. The gallant
-little _Novik_, the fastest vessel in either fleet, headed the line,
-while the patched-up _Retvisan_ came next, followed by the
-_Czarevitch_, the _Peresveit_, the _Pobieda_, the _Poltava_, and the
-_Sevastopol_, with the cruisers _Askold_, _Diana_, and _Pallada_, and a
-torpedo flotilla of eight vessels. The squadron of Japanese light
-cruisers which had been watching Port Arthur retreated before the
-advancing enemy, and signalled at once to the sleepless Togo, whose
-main battle fleet was lying forty miles away. This consisted of four
-battleships and three armored cruisers--namely, the _Mikasa_, carrying
-Admiral Togo's flag; the _Asahi_, the _Shikishima_, the _Fuji_, the
-_Nishin_, the _Kasuga_, the _Jakumo_, and a number of protected
-cruisers, including the _Kasagi_, the _Chitose_, the _Takasugo_, as
-well as a flotilla of some forty torpedo craft. Thus the Russians had a
-clear superiority in battleships partially discounted by Togo's
-superiority in armored cruisers.
-
-[Sidenote: Tremendous Naval Battle]
-
-Thirty-five miles to the southeast of Port Arthur the opposing fleets
-came within range; and then began the most tremendous naval
-battle--measured by the offensive power of its combatants--that the
-world has yet seen. The naval world had been waiting almost with
-eagerness for the present war to afford the spectacle of a fleet action
-between modern armorclads carrying modern armaments; and this
-unprecedented event had at last come to pass. The Russian ships were
-steering for the south, and the object of the Japanese was evidently to
-head them off. At a range of 6,000 yards, or about three miles and a
-half, the _Mikasa_, the Japanese flagship, opened fire with her 12in.
-guns on the leading Russian battleship and immediately the action
-became general. Admiral Togo concentrated his fire on the Russian
-battleships, leaving the cruisers very much to chance; and so awful was
-the effect of this deadly rain of shell, that when at last the sun went
-down on that eventful day, the Russian fleet was in hopeless disorder,
-and its stoutest ships were almost unmanageable wrecks. The experience
-of the _Czarevitch_ and the _Retvisan_, as recounted by survivors on
-board of those devoted vessels, affords a lurid picture of the
-appalling nature of a modern naval battle. The _Czarevitch_, which
-ultimately reached Kiao-chau, was bombarded at close range by several
-of the Japanese armorclads. In the course of five minutes she was
-struck by three successive 12in. shells, and that fact--which is an
-eloquent testimony to the quality of the Japanese gunnery--practically
-decided her fate. Admiral Witoft was killed by the first shell, and his
-chief of staff was mortally wounded by the second. The steering gear
-was knocked to bits, so that the ship was out of control and began to
-travel in a circle, and the foremast was tumbled over the side; while
-every man in one of the batteries was blown to pieces. The guns' crews
-were annihilated at the work, and the deck gear was twisted into
-fantastic shapes or carried away altogether; and so much of it was
-afterwards picked up that the Japanese supposed that the _Czarevitch_
-had foundered. Poor Witoft--as brave a man as ever sailed--met a
-terrible death. He was blown to pieces by a shell, and of his body only
-one leg was ever found. His last signal was: "Remember the Emperor's
-order not to return to Port Arthur." The decks of the battleship
-presented the appearance of a shambles; her armor-plating was pierced
-in four places; her masts were shattered and bent in the form of a
-cross; her bridge was carried away; and many of her guns were disabled.
-Steering with her propellers she managed, under the cover of night, to
-escape the attacks of the Japanese torpedo-boats, and to reach
-Kiao-chau. Hardly less severe was the mauling which the _Retvisan_
-received. This battleship received such a concentrated fire that when
-she attempted to break from the circle of her enemies, she was
-literally blown out of her course. The other four Russian battleships
-suffered more or less severely. The _Pobieda_, for instance, had her
-masts carried away, and her heavy guns were put out of action. When the
-_Czarevitch_ got out of control, the Russian line was necessarily
-broken, and then the fleet seems to have suffered most severely. The
-command of the squadron passed to Prince Ukhtomsky, as second in rank
-to Admiral Witoft, and that of the cruiser division to Rear-Admiral
-Reitzenstein; and between the two there seem to have been divided
-counsels. The latter decided to cut his way southwards at any cost in
-accordance with the orders of the Czar. With the _Askold_, _Novik_,
-_Pallada_, and _Diana_, he became engaged with the Japanese cruisers,
-and by dint of hard fighting, in which the _Askold_ was badly mauled,
-he managed to get clear of the enemy, and in the early morning of the
-13th reached Shanghai, having lost sight of the other cruisers. The
-_Askold_ had lost two of her five funnels, one of the boilers was
-injured, and her hull had been pierced in more than half a dozen
-places, both above and below the water-line. Prince Ukhtomsky preferred
-another course. When the signal had been displayed from the
-_Czarevitch_ "Admiral transfers command," the Prince, who was next in
-seniority, signalled from his ship, the _Peresviet_, "Follow me"--an
-order which, as we have seen, the cruiser division did not obey. But
-the battleships answered the signal; and the course steered was back to
-Port Arthur. In his dispatch the Prince said: "As my vessel had lost
-many killed and wounded, and her armament, hull and electric apparatus
-were seriously damaged, I decided to return to Port Arthur." Through
-the dark night the six battleships steamed slowly to their haven,
-repeated torpedo attacks compelling them again and again to change
-course, and finally to disperse. The _Czarevitch_, as we have seen,
-reached Kiao-chau almost in a sinking condition, while in the morning
-of the 11th, the _Peresviet_, the _Retvisan_, the _Sevastopol_, the
-_Pobieda_, the _Poltava_, and the cruiser _Pallada_ arrived again at
-the port which they had left twenty-four hours earlier. A list of
-nearly 400 killed and wounded was the witness to the severity of the
-punishment which these vessels had received. But it was evident that
-they were not so damaged as to have been incapable of continuing the
-attempt to break through to the south. Their return to Port Arthur
-rendered all that they had suffered vain. It meant that their situation
-was as precarious as ever, while their condition was less favorable for
-enduring it. The displeasure of the Czar was not long in manifesting
-itself. Hardly had the consternation of defeat subsided, than an
-Imperial order was issued removing the unhappy Prince Ukhtomsky from
-his command. Recalled he could not be, because the means of leaving
-Port Arthur were denied.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIANS RECAPTURING THEIR LOST GUNS AT LIAO-YANG.]
-
-[Sidenote: Harbors of Refuge]
-
-It was some time before the full measure of Russia's disaster could be
-ascertained; for the movements of several of the dispersed vessels had
-been lost sight of. But at last all doubts were resolved. The
-_Czarevitch_ and three destroyers reached Kiao-chau. The _Askold_ and
-one destroyer found refuge at Shanghai. The _Diana_ was able to make
-the French port of Saigon. Two destroyers went ashore near Wei-hai-wei
-and were abandoned; and one destroyer entered Chifu Harbor and was
-there seized by the Japanese and made a prize, in defiance of respect
-for a neutral port. The indomitable little _Novik_ alone of all
-Russia's fleet attempted to make for Vladivostock. This swift cruiser
-had come out of the fight comparatively uninjured; and having put into
-Kiao-chau for coal, she steamed eastward again, and for some days was
-lost sight of. But the Japanese, though full of admiration for the
-exploits of the _Novik_, could not afford to let her escape, and they
-were on the watch for her appearance in the straits through which she
-must pass to reach Vladivostock. The cruisers _Tsushima_ and _Chitose_
-had been searching the Soya Straits, which lie between Saghalien and
-Yezo, when at last the former vessel sighted the little _Novik_ on the
-afternoon of the 20th of August in Korsakovsk Harbor. Immediately the
-attack began, and the _Novik_ was soon compelled to retreat into the
-inner harbor, but not before she had inflicted such damage on the
-_Tsushima_ as to compel her to draw off. Presently, however, the
-_Chitose_ arrived, and next day completed the destruction of the
-_Novik_, whose crew abandoned her after running her on the beach. So
-ended the career of the one ship in the Russian Navy whose handling has
-consistently done credit to Russian seamanship.
-
-[Sidenote: International Complications]
-
-The appearance of fugitive vessels of the Russian squadron in neutral
-ports at once raised international questions of no little anxiety and
-difficulty. The attitude of Germany in particular was jealously watched
-by the Japanese; but, fortunately, in this case the behavior of the
-neutral Power was perfectly correct. The _Czarevitch_ and the three
-destroyers in Kiao-chau were at once ordered to be dismantled, and
-their crews sent home on _parole_. Equally prompt and unimpeachable was
-the action of the French Government in regard to the cruiser _Diana_;
-but the case of the _Askold_ at Shanghai threatened to give much more
-trouble. It was aggravated, too, by the indefensible action of the
-Japanese in the case of the destroyer _Rishitelni_, which reached Chifu
-on the 11th, bearing important dispatches. The Japanese followed the
-_Rishitelni_, and believing that the Chinese would not be able to
-enforce the disarmament of the boat, and their demands for her
-immediate departure having been ignored, a Japanese officer and armed
-guard boarded her. A scuffle between the Japanese and the Russian crews
-followed; and in the result, in spite of the protests of the Chinese,
-the _Rishitelni_ was towed out of the harbor, after an ineffectual
-attempt on the part of her crew had been made to blow her up. The act
-was certainly a violation of Chinese neutrality; but as the
-_Rishitelni_ had remained in the harbor for twenty-seven hours without
-any sign of disarming, the Japanese had good reason to believe that the
-Russian commander was not particularly sensitive to the claims of
-China's neutrality; and how well this belief was founded appeared in
-the case of the _Askold_, which found refuge at Shanghai. In insolent
-defiance of all right and law, the commander of the _Askold_ refused
-either to disarm his vessel or to leave the neutral port. The wretched
-Chinese authorities, squeezed on one side by the Russian Government and
-on the other by the Japanese, could do nothing. One day they issued
-peremptory orders for the Russian vessel to leave; and the next day
-they extended the period of grace. A grave international situation
-threatened; for the Japanese were impatient at the necessity of having
-to detain several of the much-needed cruisers in watching the port, and
-they threatened extreme measures; for all this time the _Askold_ was
-being repaired and put into fighting trim again. But at last the
-British Minister interfered to stop the work of repairs; and then the
-Czar issued instructions that the _Askold_ and the destroyer that
-accompanied her should be dismantled.
-
-[Sidenote: Insignificant Japanese Losses]
-
-In winning this signal victory over the fleet of his enemy, Admiral
-Togo suffered but slight damage to the ships under his command. In
-spite of the heavy fighting at close range, none of the Japanese
-vessels were crippled--a circumstance of the utmost importance to
-Japan, who, unlike her enemy, has no second fleet to draw upon, and
-whose losses were therefore irreparable. The _Mikasa_, in which the
-brunt of the fighting fell, lost 32 killed and 78 wounded; the
-_Yakumo_, 12 killed and 10 wounded; the _Nishin_, 16 killed and 17
-wounded; the _Kasuga_, 10 wounded; and the rest of the fleet a few
-wounded only. These casualties altogether were far exceeded by those
-endured on the _Czarevitch_ or the _Retvisan_ alone; and the difference
-can only be accounted for by the greater accuracy and efficiency of the
-Japanese gun fire. Of the fleet that left Port Arthur on the morning of
-the 10th of August, only a shattered remnant returned again--five
-battleships and two cruisers. But the sum of Russia's disasters had not
-been reached. It was fated that the Vladivostock squadron was to share
-the fate of the Port Arthur fleet.
-
-[Sidenote: The Last Raid from Vladivostock]
-
-So sudden had been Admiral Witoft's resolution to attempt a sortie,
-that no arrangements for concerted action with Admiral Skrydloff at
-Vladivostock had been made. It was the destroyer _Rishitelni_, whose
-arrival at Chifu caused such unpleasantness, that bore the message
-informing Skrydloff of what was happening. Fortunately for themselves
-the Japanese seized the _Rishitelni_ too late to intercept that
-message. Skrydloff on the 12th steamed from Vladivostock with the
-cruisers _Gromoboi_, _Rossia_, and _Rurik_, and made straight for the
-Korean Straits. In the early morning of the 14th of August the Russian
-cruisers reached their old hunting-ground, and the critical point in
-their course--the narrow channel that separates the southernmost
-Japanese islands from the Korean promontory. In their successful raid
-during July the Vladivostock cruisers had reached the same point, and
-by good luck had evaded Kamimura's pursuit. The fortune of war had
-hitherto been all against the gallant Japanese Admiral, to whom had
-been committed the task of watching the Vladivostock squadron, and in
-particular, of guarding the Korean Straits. Even on this last decisive
-occasion that was to avenge his previous disappointments, he nearly
-missed his prey, who had got to southward of his fleet. But a timely
-glint of sunlight revealed the object of his long quest, and
-immediately putting his ships between the enemy and Vladivostock he was
-able to say with Cromwell at Dunbar: "The Lord hath delivered them into
-my hand". Kamimura had with him four armored cruisers of high speed and
-powerful armament--the _Tokiwa_, the _Adzuma_, the _Idzumo_, and the
-_Iwate_. The last two vessels were of 24 knots speed, and the slowest
-was of 21 knots. In gun power all the vessels were practically equal,
-and were much more heavily armed than the Russian cruisers, to which
-they now found themselves opposed. Of these the _Gromoboi_, a huge
-vessel of 12,336 tons displacement, was the latest and the most
-formidable. The _Rossia_ was her equal in every respect except gun
-protection; but the _Rurik_ was of another class altogether in a
-direction that proved fatal to her--namely, speed. Her engines were
-only capable of developing 18 knots, and that made her a terrible
-hindrance to the manoeuvring power of the whole squadron. It was not
-until the Japanese had crossed the course of the Russians that the
-latter became aware of the presence of the enemy, and then they
-immediately put about and steered north. According to the report of the
-Russian Admiral, the fight began at half-past four in the morning a
-little north of the line between Fusan and Tsushima. The Russians
-attempted to make for the open sea northwards, but were headed off,
-mainly owing to the inferior steaming power of the _Rurik_, which was
-in the rear of the line. The Russians were in single column line ahead,
-while the Japanese steering across their course adopted the famous
-T-shaped formation which is associated with the name of Admiral Togo.
-The battle began at a range of five miles, and very soon the superior
-gunnery and heavier armament of the Japanese told its tale. The
-Russians changed course to the east, and immediately the ill-fated
-_Rurik_ began to drop behind, enabling the Japanese cruisers to
-concentrate the fire on her at a range of little more than three miles.
-The steering gear broke down, and the vessel speedily became
-unmanageable, while the havoc wrought by the rain of shells poured into
-her quickly rendered her guns unworkable. With splendid gallantry the
-_Rurik's_ consorts, seeing her desperate plight, returned to her
-assistance, and circled round her in order to draw the enemy's fire and
-to give the crippled cruiser a chance of effecting repairs. They
-suffered heavily in the attempt, and their sacrifice was unavailing.
-The _Rurik_ burst into flames, which her devoted crew could not subdue.
-Her movements became erratic. She developed a heavy list to port, and
-then began to settle down by the stern. At last, after the fight had
-been going on for nearly four hours, it became evident that the _Rurik_
-was doomed; and her consorts, who were in sorry case themselves, left
-her to make their own escape. Both the _Gromoboi_ and the _Rossia_ had
-been struck repeatedly below the water line, and had been fired in
-several places by the Japanese shells, though the fires were got under.
-What finally decided their flight was the arrival of reinforcements for
-the enemy in the shape of the _Noniwa_ and the _Takachiho_--two
-protected cruisers of the second class. These vessels were left to
-finish off the already sinking _Rurik_, while Admiral Kamimura set off
-at full speed in pursuit of the _Gromoboi_ and _Rossia_. For some
-reason, however, which has never yet appeared, this pursuit was not
-persisted in. Both the Russian cruisers were badly damaged, and there
-is no reason to suppose that they could have ever reached Vladivostock,
-as they did a day or two later, if Admiral Kamimura had not drawn off
-his ships. There is, of course, no doubt that there must have been some
-compelling reason to induce the Japanese Admiral to forego the full
-fruits of his opportunity, but that he should have had to do so made
-his victory much less complete and decisive. He returned to the scene
-of battle to discover that the _Rurik_ had gone down, but in time to
-assist in saving the crew, of whom some 600 survivors were rescued.
-This act of humanity was not a solitary instance, but it is one of the
-most striking instances of the magnanimous temper in which the Mikado's
-forces both on land and sea carried on the war. The Russian Commander,
-in his official report, makes it clear that he was much surprised and
-relieved when he found that the pursuit of his cruisers was being
-abandoned. He states that at this stage of the battle three of the
-funnels on the _Rossia_ were holed, and three of her boilers were
-rendered useless, so that she was not able to keep up full steam, while
-eleven holes had been made in the vessel's hull below the water-line.
-The _Gromoboi_ had six holes below her water-line; while on both of the
-cruisers the loss of life had been most severe. More than half the
-total number of officers had been killed or wounded, and quite a
-quarter of the crews. Thirty miles away from the spot where the _Rurik_
-had been left sinking, the _Gromoboi_ and _Rossia_ were able, by the
-mysterious drawing off of the enemy, to stop their engines and effect
-temporary repairs. On the 16th of August they arrived again at
-Vladivostock, and went immediately into dock--with the certainty of
-taking no further part in active operations for some months to come.
-Thus within a single week both squadrons of Russia's navy in the Far
-East suffered signal and overwhelming disaster with the effect of
-immediately and palpably relieving the difficulties of the campaign for
-the invasion of Manchuria. If the dispersal and repulse of the Port
-Arthur fleet was the more momentous event of the two, the shattering of
-the Vladivostock squadron had an immense value in at once restoring
-confidence and immunity to Japan's seaborne trade, and in removing from
-Togo's flank, as it were, a menace which since the opening of the war
-he had never been able wholly to dismiss. As one result of these naval
-victories, the war-worn and storm-beaten ships of the Japanese fleet
-blockading Port Arthur were able in turn to go into dock for the
-execution of those repairs which must have become increasingly
-necessary; while at the same time it was possible to strengthen and
-tighten the blockade, and push on with perfect freedom from risk with
-the preparations for landing men and munitions at the theatre of war.
-
-[Illustration: ON THE DECK OF THE "RURIK."]
-
-[Sidenote: The Port Arthur Garrison]
-
-The fall of Port Arthur, which the Japanese, in the pardonable
-confidence begotten of their uninterrupted victories on sea and land,
-had believed to be imminent long ago, now became the object of renewed
-and desperate endeavor. Dalny Harbor had been cleared of mines, and
-rendered available for the landing of siege trains; and no sooner had
-the ill-fated sortie of the fleet been frustrated, than the Japanese
-settled down again to a fierce assault. As a preliminary, on the 16th
-of August a message was sent to General Stoessel under a flag of truce
-demanding the surrender of the fortress, and proposing that, in case of
-non-compliance, the non-combatants should be allowed to leave. To the
-former of these proposals, General Stoessel, as might have been
-expected of so brave and resolute a soldier, returned an emphatic and
-indignant negative; and the second, with much less reason, he equally
-refused to entertain. Just at this moment all good Russians had been
-gladdened, even in the midst of their disasters, by the long-hoped-for
-birth of an heir to the Imperial Throne, and General Stoessel was able
-to send a congratulatory message to the Czar, while receiving in his
-turn an order appointing him, as a mark of special Imperial favor, an
-aide-de-camp general. The determination of the Russian garrison had
-never abated for a moment; and such assurances that the eyes and hopes
-of all Russia were centred on them, stirred them to the heroic pitch of
-endurance. Shut off from the outer world both by sea and land, with
-provisions and ammunition daily becoming more scanty, and beneath the
-harassment of an incessant bombardment and fierce and desperate
-assaults, they held grimly on to the defences, and defied the worst
-that the enemy could do, in spite of his overwhelming numbers. The
-progress of the siege could not be followed easily by the external
-spectator, because the Japanese strictly kept their own counsel; while
-the reports that were brought to Chifu from time to time by Chinese
-refugees were conflicting and contradictory in the last degree. One
-thing only was undeniably evident--that the Japanese assaults on
-different sections of the main line of defence had been made with
-desperate valor and indifference to loss of life; and that, except in
-unimportant instances, these assaults had not prevailed. Forts were
-indeed captured, but had to be abandoned again, because they were
-exposed to the fire of neighboring forts. Not in vain had the Russian
-engineers exercised their best brains in devising the defences of this
-"impregnable fortress". Mines, wire entanglements, and every other grim
-expedient for checking assault had been constructed with patient
-ingenuity; and, most deadly and cunning device of all, every fort in
-the long chain that shuts in Port Arthur on the land side had been so
-placed as to be dominated by the neighboring forts; so that no enemy
-who succeeded in capturing it could hope to plant his own guns there.
-It is not in question that the Japanese suffered appalling losses in
-the attempts to storm these defences; but they persevered, though for
-weeks together their hostile activities were limited to pouring into
-the Russian lines a tremendous shell fire at long range. The fall of
-Port Arthur which had seemed possible in June, was confidently
-predicted for July. Then August was fixed, and the Japanese forces,
-largely reinforced, undertook another desperate assault in the middle
-of that month. It failed; and though the dogged, impenetrable defence
-and the fierce and reckless struggle went on with few intermissions,
-October came without any perceptible change having been effected in the
-situation of the combatants.
-
-[Sidenote: Fury Unparalleled in History]
-
-Two Russian officers who escaped with dispatches to Chifu, brought
-accounts of the terrible pitch to which the temper of the opposing
-forces had been wrought in their long-drawn and implacable struggle.
-They stated that the Japanese losses during the last attack were
-enormous, and that even several days afterwards wounded men were to be
-seen raising their arms by way of appeal, but that it was impossible to
-help them as the fire was incessant. As for the struggle, it was
-carried on with an amount of fury to which there is no parallel in
-history. The Japanese dashed forward with the bayonet like madmen, and
-in serried columns, in which the shells made terrible furrows. Every
-time that they reached the Russian lines horrible melees, in which even
-the wounded fought to the death, took place. No quarter was given.
-Pairs of corpses were found clinging to each other, the teeth of the
-men being buried in their adversaries' throats and their fingers in
-their eyes as they had expired. In the last attack the 9th Japanese
-Division was sent forward in two columns, each composing a brigade, and
-when the first gave way under the avalanche of iron, the general
-commanding the second fired upon and exterminated it. So intense was
-the fury that when they got within hearing of their foes, the Japanese
-shook their fists at and insulted them. The failure of the Japanese to
-make headway with the siege of Port Arthur was the one substantially
-gratifying aspect of the war from the Russian point of view. Russian
-patriotic sentiment had something to be proud of in the courage,
-endurance, and resource of General Stoessel and his troops. But, as a
-matter of fact, the fall of Port Arthur would have been a far better
-service to Russian arms than the heroic resistance of its garrison.
-Because the fortress, which from the first had exercised such a
-benumbing influence on the Russian fleet and such a distracting
-influence on military counsels, still remained as a fatal factor in the
-equation for Russian strategy. The garrison were counting on relief
-from the north, and the honor and pride of Russia were engaged to send
-that relief if possible. Consequently, Kuropatkin never had his hand
-free. He could never review the situation with a single eye to its
-supreme strategical necessities; he must always qualify his
-dispositions and plans by regard for the plight of Port Arthur. It was
-this vitiating influence that brought about the initial reverses of the
-Russian armies; and that prevented any bold and effective plan for
-meeting the Japanese advance. Finally, it was this consideration that
-induced Kuropatkin to give battle at Liao-yang, and to expose his
-entire army to a disaster from which he only escaped by the skin of his
-teeth. Allusion to that tremendous conflict, between forces larger than
-any that have ever before been opposed in modern war, has already been
-made in the last chapter. But the event was so memorable, and has such
-bearing on the future course of the campaign, that it is permissible to
-return to the subject, especially as further light has been thrown on
-it by the detailed narratives of correspondents. Of this great battle,
-by the way, the world has received fuller descriptions than of any
-other feature of the campaign by land or sea; for it so happened that
-the sufferance of the war correspondents under the restriction of the
-Japanese military authorities broke down here, and several of the most
-distinguished representatives of the English press threw up their
-connection with the Japanese army after Liao-yang, and hurried back to
-neutral territory to cable home the full dispatches which the censor
-would not have permitted.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuroki Improves his Reputation]
-
-It is perfectly evident in the light of these accounts that the
-Japanese, emboldened by their previous successes, rated their enemy too
-lightly, and without any preponderance, and indeed with scarcely an
-equality of numbers, they attempted to take by assault a position
-naturally strong and fortified by all the art and resources of the
-military engineer. The battle did indeed prove the incomparable
-qualities of the Japanese soldier; but it did little to add to the
-reputation of Japanese generalship; while, on the other hand, it
-exhibited General Kuropatkin in a light infinitely more favorable than
-any in which he had previously appeared. If one of Kuropatkin's
-subordinates--General Orloff--had not blundered badly in carrying out
-the movements against Kuroki on the Russian left, it is probable that
-the battle might have resulted in a decisive defeat instead of in a
-nominal victory for the Japanese. That blunder--which cost Orloff his
-command--enabled Kuroki to hold his own at a most critical juncture,
-and so to obviate the dangerous possibilities which the situation had
-developed. It was the peril of Kuroki that compelled Oku and Nodzu, who
-faced the centre and right wing of the Russian position, to press on
-their assaults with redoubled fury, even after they had been fighting
-for five days and losing thousands of men without making appreciable
-headway. In twenty-four hours Oku made three grand assaults upon the
-entrenched hills before him; and, when the last had been beaten back
-with awful loss, the laconic order came from headquarters: "Reinforce
-and attack again at dawn". Such a demand upon the endurance and
-_morale_ of troops is well-nigh unexampled; and that the Japanese
-soldier responded to it speaks volumes for his qualities as a fighting
-man. His persistence prevailed in the end, and the Russian line was
-forced. But even then the retreat was slow and stubborn. While a rear
-guard held the Japanese at bay, all the guns and wounded were safely
-withdrawn, and when at last the Japanese came into possession of
-Liao-yang, it was to find the fruits of their dearly-bought victory
-snatched from them, and their own forces too exhausted to follow
-victory up. The casualties in this awful conflict were enough "to
-stagger humanity", if one may use Mr. Kruger's famous phrase. The
-Japanese losses cannot have been less than 40,000, and those of the
-Russians were perhaps half as many; while the expenditure of ammunition
-on both sides was terrific. More than a thousand guns belched forth
-their deadly missiles continuously for nearly a week, and all
-eye-witnesses agree that never before has such tremendous artillery
-fire been witnessed. Well might it be necessary for both armies to rest
-after such a titanic struggle, and to devote more than a month to
-reforming and reinforcing the shattered ranks and to refilling their
-ammunition trains. The main result of the battle was to drive the grand
-army of the Czar one step further back from the beleaguered fortress
-still counting so confidently on and waiting so anxiously for relief.
-But, as the event showed the contest had been too indecisive to destroy
-finally the Russian hope of a victorious march southwards; and to that
-extent the Japanese might congratulate themselves. As long as the fatal
-fascination of Port Arthur was felt by Russian strategy, the Japanese
-generals could count on an invaluable ally; and very soon that ally was
-to come to their assistance again in a manner which their best hopes
-could not have conjectured.
-
-[Sidenote: The Grim Reality of War]
-
-In order to realize the spectacle that that awful battlefield
-presented, one has only to read the vivid narrative of the London
-_Times'_ correspondent who was attached to General Oku's army. This is
-how he describes the earlier and abortive attempts of Oku's devoted
-troops to penetrate the Russian centre:--
-
-[Illustration: AFTER SEVEN MONTHS.
-
-The time was now ripe for the simultaneous advance of the three
-Japanese armies, and while Oku and Nodzu attacked the Russians at
-Anshanchan, and forced them to retire, Kuroki drove the Russians out of
-Anping. The great battle of Liaoyang began on August 29, and continued
-until September 1, when Kuroki, having crossed the Taitse-Ho,
-threatened the Russian left flank, and forced them to retreat. On
-September 6 the Japanese occupied the Yentai Mines. The army besieging
-Port Arthur captured the Laotishan and Sushiyen Hills on August 15, and
-on the 28th took Palungshan.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-"In spite of the failure of this first attack, another was ordered to
-begin at two on the following morning (August 30th). The cold grey
-morning witnessed another scene of slaughter on the Russian right as
-the defenders again hurled the attack back. The Japanese attacked with
-valor and deserved success, but the enfilading fire on every salient
-swept each rush away before the men could even lay hands on the
-entanglements. But the 5th Division had more success against the
-Russian left. The position here was composed of a brush-covered
-hogsback, sloping to the east, defended by a triple line of trenches
-with a glacis protected by a 10 foot entanglement covering a honeycomb
-of pits containing spikes at the bottom. In the semi-darkness of the
-morning the 41st Regiment carried this underfeature after losing
-seventy-five of the one hundred pioneers who hacked their way through
-the entanglement with axes. The men, rushing through the gap,
-overpowered the sentries in the trenches before the supports, sleeping
-in splinter proofs behind, could reinforce them. But daybreak brought a
-tragedy of the kind which is so common in modern war. Shell fire,
-believed to be from Japanese guns, drove this gallant storming party
-from its hold, filling the Russian trenches with Japanese dead. But now
-for the fighting on the 31st. The weather was now fine, and the energy
-of this southern attack all the morning was concentrated in an
-artillery fire on the bushy hill that had been won and lost. At 10
-o'clock we could see the 5th Division moving up against the Russian
-left. There is a moment of intense excitement while the summit of the
-Russian position is like a miniature Mount Pelee in eruption owing to
-the bursting of dozens of Shimoshi shells. The head of the assault is
-in the gap in the entanglement. The artillery is supporting the
-assault. Three or four ground mines explode in the midst of the leading
-assaulting groups. Then as the smoke clears the black-coated Russians
-are seen leaving the position. In a moment the Japanese are in, and the
-whole of the lines in support on the crest are firing down the slope
-into the retreating Russians. But one swallow does not make a summer.
-Although the underfeature of the bushy hill was carried, the rest of
-the assault failed miserably. No Japanese could live within 500 yards
-of the bastion hill, and though the Japanese came out of the corn until
-the groups were so numerous that I can liken them only to swarming
-bees, it was only to be swept backwards into cover again, leaving
-behind the heavy price of their valor."
-
-[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE "RESHITELNI" AT CHIFU.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XI.
-
-  The Opposing Armies in Manchuria--The Russian
-    Advance--Reinforcements for Both Sides--Battle of the
-    Sha-ho--Two Hundred Hours of Carnage--Awful List of
-    Casualties--Threat and Counterthreat--The Veil Lifted from Port
-    Arthur--Capture of Forts--Devices of the Besiegers--The
-    Undaunted Stoessel--The Gallant Podgorsky--World-Wide
-    Admiration--Uncertain News.
-
-
-[Sidenote: The Opposing Armies in Manchuria]
-
-The great battle of Liao-yang was fought in the last week of August and
-the first week of September; and for nearly five weeks after that
-tremendous struggle the opposing armies remained inactive, or rather
-gathered up their exhausted strength for the next desperate encounter.
-The Japanese had advanced as far as Yentai, a station about one-third
-of the distance--40 miles or so--that separates Liao-yang from Mukden.
-The position was valuable as giving the command of the Yentai coal
-mines--a most important acquisition to any general with a long line of
-railway communication to maintain. The Japanese entrenched themselves
-along a front of some 25 miles, stretching from Yentai on the railway
-to Pensihu, a village in the hilly country which lies north and south
-between the two rivers Taitse and Hun. There they settled down to
-replenishing the exhausted supplies, refilling the depleted ranks, and
-reorganizing the dislocated commands. Above all did they make speed to
-reconstruct the railway behind them, a work which had diligently been
-carried on _pari passu_ with the advance. Early in October through
-trains of the new 3 ft. 6 in. gauge were running from Dalny to Yentai,
-and thus the fighting-line was brought within an easy six days' journey
-of Japan. The Russians, on the other hand, in spite of the completion
-of the Circum-Baikal railway towards the end of September, were still
-from three to five times as distant from their prime base; for if the
-express time from Mukden to Moscow was sixteen days, the ordinary troop
-train's time was much nearer thirty days. In this all-important matter
-of rapidity of communication the Japanese possessed an advantage
-inherent to the situation and of the profoundest strategical influence.
-While they were recuperating thus at Yentai, the Russians were busy
-entrenching themselves behind the Hun-ho, the course of which from
-Mukden follows a line, roughly speaking, due east. At first it was
-asserted by those in the confidence of the Russian General Staff, that
-no determined stand would be made at the Hun-ho, and that Kuropatkin
-would only hold the enemy there until the defences at Tieling were
-completed. But as the days passed, and the Japanese showed no
-disposition to renew their advance, and as reinforcements continued to
-pour over the Siberian railway, counsels were modified. In the last
-week of September General Stackelberg, attending a banquet at Mukden,
-proposed the toast "To the March on Liao-yang"; and this startling
-suggestion of a new development in the Russian plan of campaign was
-speedily confirmed by a remarkable manifesto to his troops which
-General Kuropatkin issued on the 2nd of October. After the usual
-high-flown exordium, in which "the arrogant foe" was described as
-having suffered repeated repulse--a rather daring travesty of the
-facts--Kuropatkin explained that he had not thought the time ripe "to
-take advantage of these successes; but", he added, "the time of retreat
-was now at an end. Hitherto the enemy in operating has relied on his
-great forces and, disposing his armies so as to surround us, has chosen
-as he deemed fit his time for attack; but now the moment to go and meet
-the enemy, for which the whole army has been longing, has come, and the
-time has arrived for us to compel the Japanese to do our will, for the
-forces of the Manchurian army are strong enough to begin the forward
-movement. Bear in mind the importance of victory to Russia, and, above
-all, remember how necessary victory is the more speedily to relieve our
-brothers at Port Arthur, who for seven months have heroically
-maintained the defence of the fortress entrusted to their care."
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Advance]
-
-The world was naturally startled by such a pronouncement--so much
-easier to explain than to justify; but the Russians and their friends
-in France were overjoyed, believing that the time of their tribulation
-was at last over. The Muscovite nature has during this war shown an
-unrivalled capacity for self-deception; and not only the General Staff,
-but Kuropatkin himself seem to have persuaded themselves that the enemy
-had been unable to get over the shock of Liao-yang. The perfectly
-natural delay of the Japanese in advancing was attributed to the
-discouragement caused by the enormous losses sustained in the last
-battle and to inability to make these losses good. There were other
-influences at work, as Kuropatkin's address shows. "The importance of
-victory to Russia", and the necessity of relieving "our brothers in
-Port Arthur", were circumstances that evidently dominated Russian
-counsels; and in Kuropatkin's mind there was probably another
-consideration of a personal nature. After Liao-yang the Czar had
-ordered the formation of a Second Manchurian Army under a separate
-command, on the ground that the active direction in the field of such
-enormous forces as these two armies would represent would be beyond the
-capacity of any one man. General Gripenberg, a tried old soldier, was
-appointed to command the Second Army, and there was talk of sending out
-a Grand Duke to take the supreme direction of the campaign. This would
-have meant in degree the suppression of General Kuropatkin, and that
-capable soldier may well have looked with dissatisfaction on such a
-reward for his signal services. He may have argued with himself that if
-he could only achieve a decisive victory at this moment his prestige
-would be restored and his paramountcy assured; and, according to the
-information which had reached him, that victory was within his grasp.
-But, unfortunately, that information was wholly erroneous. Far from
-being dispirited and exhausted, the Japanese forces were on the very
-point of advancing to the attack again when Kuropatkin formed his
-momentous resolution and issued orders for "the march to Liao-yang". If
-his movement was hailed with almost delirious enthusiasm in St.
-Petersburg, it was observed with hardly less satisfaction at Tokio,
-where it was at once recognized that the enemy were obligingly
-releasing Marshal Oyama from the necessity of a long march and another
-attack on fortified positions.
-
-[Sidenote: Reinforcements for Both Sides]
-
-By this time Kuropatkin's forces--thanks to the completion of the
-Circum-Baikal railway--had reached 250,000, with more than 800 guns.
-The Japanese strength, after reinforcements both from Japan and from
-the army investing Port Arthur, cannot have been much less; though at
-the close of the battle which was about to be fought Marshal Oyama
-asserted that at all points his victorious troops had been outnumbered.
-However that may be, the Japanese had the advantage of a prepared
-position, the key of which was in rugged mountainous country. Unlike
-the battle of Liao-yang, of which minute details have already been
-furnished, the battle of Yentai, as it was first called, or of Sha-ho,
-as it came to be known afterwards, can only be followed in its broad
-outline, mainly because the maps available are utterly inadequate. The
-place-names which mark the direction of the operations in one official
-report rarely agree with those in the other official report, and can
-only be vaguely identified. But a rough sketch-map is at least
-sufficient to give the general bearings of the operations. The Japanese
-front extended in a horseshoe formation from Yentai, on the railway, to
-Pensihu, on the Taitse River, with Oku on the left, Nodzu in the
-centre, and Kuroki on the right. The plan of Kuropatkin--a plan which
-in the light of after events we know to have been beyond the
-possibility of achievement--was to attack the right wing of the
-Japanese army under Kuroki, and roll it back upon Liao-yang, while the
-Japanese left and centre were held in front; then to shut up Oyama and
-his troops in Liao-yang, much as Sir George White was shut up in
-Ladysmith, while a rapid march southwards was made to the relief of
-Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of the Sha-ho]
-
-On the 5th October the Russian advance began on both sides of the
-railway from Mukden, and from Fushan against the Japanese right. The
-flank movement, on the success of which all Kuropatkin's schemes were
-based, was entrusted to Stackelberg and Rennenkampf--Stackelberg
-attacking from the north, and Rennenkampf with his Cossacks, working
-round from the northeast. On Sunday, the 9th October, the first contact
-between the opposing armies was made, and Stackelberg--much to his own
-surprise--was able to occupy Bentsiaputse, a place north of the Yentai
-coalmines, commanding the main roads to Fushan, Mukden, and Liao-yang.
-It had been expected that the Japanese would make a desperate stand
-here, but they retreated after offering only a feeble resistance.
-Meanwhile, Rennenkampf fiercely assailed Kuroki's extreme right at
-Pensihu, while a force of Cossacks some 3,000 strong daringly crossed
-the Taitse River and severed Kuroki's communications in the rear. Up to
-this moment everything had seemed to go well with the Russian plan of
-attack. Several important positions east of Pensihu were taken by
-assault, and Kuroki's situation seemed critical for the moment. But
-Marshal Oyama appears never to have doubted the ability of his
-well-tried lieutenant to hold his own, and no sooner had the whole
-scheme of his enemy been developed than he decided to counter it with a
-vigorous offensive. Kuroki was reinforced on the 10th, while a force of
-cavalry detached to operate against the Cossacks south of the Taitse-ho
-succeeded in driving the enemy off and in restoring the interrupted
-communications. As soon as the reinforcements reached Kuroki at Pensihu
-he put the possibility of his being "rolled up" beyond all doubt by
-fiercely assailing Stackelberg and recapturing the positions which had
-temporarily fallen into Russian hands. Thereafter he remained
-completely master of the situation, and the desperate but futile
-assaults which he sustained in the next few days only resulted in a
-tremendous casualty list for the enemy--a list totalling at least
-20,000. The decisive repulse of the Russian flanking movement involved
-the frustration of the whole of Kuropatkin's plans in advancing from
-the Hun-ho. But the battle had only just begun yet, for the Russian
-right and centre, which had begun their southward march with such
-confidence, now found their _role_ changed from attack to defence; and
-instead of the Japanese being, according to program, forced back upon
-Liao-yang, it became a question whether the Russians would be able to
-make good their retreat on Mukden. General Oku, advancing along the
-railway to the west, after two days' hard fighting drove back
-Kuropatkin's right to the line of the Shi-li-ho; while General Nodzu on
-the east of the railway was equally successful, and signalized his
-victory by a considerable capture of guns. Oyama's object now was to
-drive his enemy eastwards from the railway and back upon the Hun-ho,
-when it would be impossible for him to escape disaster. For some days
-this tremendous issue hung in the balance, and the Japanese forces were
-within an ace of accomplishing their purpose. But thanks to the dogged
-tenacity of the Russian troops, and thanks still more to the terribly
-wasting and exhausting effect of a week's continuous fighting, the
-impetus of the Japanese attack was not quite sufficient to complete the
-promised triumph; and at last the two great armies came to a standstill
-some ten miles south of Mukden, incapable of further action.
-
-[Sidenote: Two Hundred Hours of Carnage]
-
-From the 9th October to the 17th the relentless struggle raged along
-this wide front of more than 20 miles. Day and night the devoted troops
-on either side flung themselves with reckless bravery on the positions
-of their foes; while from nearly 2,000 guns an incessant storm of
-shrapnel and shell burst over the contested ground. Liao-yang had been
-terrible enough; but from all accounts the artillery duel at the battle
-of Sha-ho even eclipsed the terrific incidents of the earlier
-engagements. On the 13th the Russian retreat became general, and Oku,
-capturing twenty-five Russian guns, succeeded in driving the troops
-opposed to him back from the line of the Shi-li-ho to the Sha-ho, where
-behind defences which the forethought of Kuropatkin had provided, they
-prepared to make their last desperate stand. The forces before Kuroki
-had retreated towards Fushan in a northeasterly direction; and those
-before Nodzu in the centre, after suffering losses almost as heavy as
-Stackelberg's columns had sustained, fell back in something approaching
-to disorder on the line of the Sha-ho. The position of Kuropatkin's
-army was now exceedingly critical, and it was not without cause that he
-issued a general order that the ground occupied must be held at all
-costs. It is evident that to make good the retreat Stackelberg's troops
-on the extreme east, which were far in advance of the rest of the
-Russian line, must be withdrawn first, and that the central army under
-Zarubaieff, which again was far in advance of the right wing, must be
-drawn back next; and that during these perilous operations General
-Bilderling, who commanded the Russian right resting behind the Sha-ho,
-must stand firm. By the skin of his teeth, almost, Bilderling just
-managed to hold his ground. On the 13th Oku's impetuous assault upon
-the Russian lines succeeded so far as to break the Russian centre. Had
-that advantage been maintained nothing could have saved the Russian
-army. But by a tremendous effort the last reserves were brought up and
-recaptured the ground that had been lost. For thirty-six hours the
-battle raged with varying fortune at this critical point; but the
-Russians held on, and these thirty-six priceless hours being gained,
-the Russian centre and left were saved. On the 14th, five days after
-the battle had begun, a deluge of rain fell--a deluge precipitated, as
-at Liao-yang, by the heavy and incessant firing--and the already
-sorely-tried troops of Oku found their further movements grievously
-impeded. For several days more, however, the contest on the Sha-ho
-raged with unabated fury. Again and again the Russians made fierce
-counter-attacks on the Japanese, sustaining terrible losses in
-consequence. One position--a dominant elevation on the south bank of
-the Sha-ho, known as Lonely-Tree Hill--was the scene of long-continued
-and desperate fighting, in which both armies alternately captured and
-were driven from the vantage ground. It was here that the one
-substantial success of the Russian arms was achieved in the capture of
-twelve Japanese guns. During Sunday, the 16th of October the Russians
-had delivered no less than seven counter-attacks on Oku's troops, and
-all of them had been beaten back with loss. In these engagements a
-conspicuous part had been played by a force under Brigadier-General
-Yamada, made up of troops from Nodzu's and Oku's commands, which
-succeeded in penetrating the Russian line and in capturing two guns.
-But in returning to camp after this exploit, Yamada's force had
-ventured too far and was enveloped by a Russian division, and was only
-able to win through by the sacrifice of its guns, after a fierce
-hand-to-hand encounter in which the casualties were nearly 1,000.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE OUTPOSTS RELIEVING GUARD NEAR THE SHA-HO.]
-
-Slowly, reluctantly, after fitful recrudescences, the great battle wore
-itself out, and by the 20th October the two armies were left facing
-each other on either side of the Sha-ho--a line 15 miles north of that
-which the Japanese had occupied before the engagement began. The net
-result, therefore, was a decided gain of ground for the Japanese, and
-the infliction of losses greater than had been sustained in any
-previous battle on the Russian army. Telegraphing to Tokio on the 15th,
-Marshal Oyama thus summed up the results of the fighting as far as it
-had gone--a summary which further events did not alter:--
-
-"As a sequel to a fight lasting continuously for five days, we have
-driven back the superior forces of the enemy at every point, pursuing
-him and forcing him to the south bank of the Hun. We have inflicted
-heavy losses, and captured over thirty guns and hundreds of prisoners.
-We have defeated his plans and converted an offensive operation into a
-radical failure."
-
-[Sidenote: Awful List of Casualties]
-
-"Radical failure" in war means far more than defeated plans. It carries
-with it an awful and immediate penalty levied in killed and wounded,
-and when the tale of losses came to be counted it was found to exceed
-even the most pessimistic anticipations. The Russian dead left on the
-field alone numbered no less than 13,333; and as the wounded, at the
-lowest estimate, cannot have been less than four to one, it is apparent
-that the total casualties suffered by General Kuropatkin's troops must
-have been between 60,000 and 70,000. An index to the severity of the
-fighting is afforded by an analysis of these returns, which shows that
-more than 5,000 Russian dead were found before both Oku's army and
-Kuroki's. Even the Russian General Staff, which has shown a decided
-tendency to minimize losses, did not venture to place those sustained
-at Sha-ho at less than 45,000 rank and file and 800 officers. The total
-Japanese losses, on the other hand, though heavy, were but a fraction
-of their foe's. Oyama placing them at 15,879. But the loss in life was
-not the only disastrous result of the battle for the army of the Czar.
-The Japanese captured 709 prisoners and 45 guns, with large quantities
-of arms and ammunition; and against these captures are to be set the
-twelve guns lost at Lonely-Tree Hill, rechristened by the Russians
-Putiloff Hill in honor of the officer who achieved the success, and who
-was immediately decorated by the Czar. In one sense the battle of the
-Sha-ho may be regarded as indecisive, in that it left the two
-contending armies again at a deadlock. At Liao-yang the strategy of
-both generals had failed, and in a less degree the same result was
-reached at Sha-ho; for Oyama's initial success could not be followed up
-to its legitimate and triumphant conclusion. But, on the other hand,
-Kuropatkin's effort to march to Liao-yang and make a diversion in favor
-of Port Arthur had signally failed; and the army which he had
-ostentatiously declared to be strong enough to take the offensive and
-had been hurled back by "the arrogant foe," who were at last to be
-"compelled to do the Russian will." It was in that circumstance that
-the real measure of the Japanese victory was to be found--that after
-eight months of war the armies of the Czar were still unequal to the
-task committed to them. Had Kuropatkin been even in a measure
-successful in this, his first great offensive movement, the moral
-effect could not have failed to be incalculable. As it was, it
-inflicted one more discouragement on troops that had experienced
-nothing but retreats and reverses from the opening of the campaign. The
-temper in which the Japanese accepted the new laurels which their army
-had won was eminently characteristic of a nation which has, in spite of
-all temptations to vainglory and exultation, comforted itself with
-perfect sobriety and self-restraint. The Mikado issued a rescript to
-his people, the terms of which are worth giving, if only for the
-contrast which they offer to some of the addresses issued from St.
-Petersburg and the headquarters of Alexeieff:--
-
-"Since the outbreak of the war our army and our navy have demonstrated
-their bravery and loyalty, while both officials and people have acted
-in unison to support the cause. So far, success has attended our cause,
-but, the ultimate accomplishment being yet far distant, it is necessary
-to be patient and steadfast in the pursuance of our action, and thus
-aim at the final accomplishment of our purpose."
-
-[Sidenote: Threat and Counterthreat]
-
-Another and even more striking testimony to the inflexible
-determination of the Japanese people was supplied by the Army rescript
-issued at the end of September in connection with the expansion of the
-Japanese military system. The Government of the Czar had demonstrated
-its intention to prosecute the war unflinchingly by the creation of a
-second Manchurian Army. Japan's answer to this menace was to extend the
-period of service with the colors in the Japanese army from nine to
-fourteen years, by which act the available reserves for the army in
-Manchuria were increased at a stroke by nearly half a million men. But
-though Japan could answer promptly and adequately the steps which her
-foe had taken to strengthen his armies in the field, it was not so easy
-to recompense herself for the elimination of a source of weakness in
-her enemy's counsels. Admiral Alexeieff, whose fatal influence had been
-as valuable as several battleships and army corps to the Japanese, was
-finally recalled to St. Petersburg at the end of October. On the 26th
-of that month the Viceroy issued an address to the troops, announcing,
-in his usually inflated style, that on his own request he had been
-relieved of the duties of Commander-in-Chief, while being retained in
-the office of Viceroy and assured of the continuance of the Imperial
-confidence and favor. In less than a week from the issue of that
-manifesto, it was announced that Alexeieff and his staff were on the
-way to St. Petersburg by express train, and that there was no
-probability of their return, while Kuropatkin was left in supreme
-command.
-
-[Sidenote: The Veil Lifted from Port Arthur]
-
-No sooner had the echoes of the great battle of the Sha-ho died down
-than the attention of the world was turned again to Port Arthur, where
-the long and desperate siege was continuing with undiminished
-determination on the part of the attack and invincible heroism on the
-part of the defence. For months together little authentic news of the
-progress of events had been allowed to leak out; but suddenly, in the
-beginning of November, the Japanese censor removed his restrictions,
-and a vivid and circumstantial narrative of the operations was allowed
-to come through. By the end of June the Japanese forces of investment
-had occupied a line across the Kwang-tung Peninsula running from
-Ingentsi Bay, on the north, southeastwards to a point on the south
-coast-line some ten miles east of Dalny. After another month's diligent
-assault they had advanced the line nearly five miles--from
-Vostikorablei Bay on the north to Takhe Bay on the south. Another
-advance in the beginning of August brought the extreme right of their
-line down to Louisa Bay on the west, and roughly round in a semicircle
-to Takhe Bay, confronting the main line of the formidable Russian
-defences. The great assault of the 28th August was, on the whole,
-unsuccessful, and achieved nothing on the east. But on the west the
-line of investment was drawn still further south until it rested on
-Pigeon Bay. It is now necessary to understand more exactly the nature
-of the task with which the Japanese army of investment was confronted.
-Port Arthur lies in a sort of amphitheatre formed by ranges of hills
-varying in height from 1,300 feet to 1,500 feet. These hills sweep
-round from Golden Hill--the promontory which on the east commands the
-entrance to the harbor--northwards for a distance of nearly three
-miles. Then, where the railway line and road pass through them, they
-turn westwards and southwards, extending down the toe of the Kwang-tung
-promontory to a point parallel with the base of the Tiger's Tail; while
-further south still is the formidable Liao-tie-shan range, some 1,500
-feet high. On all these hills the Russians had constructed huge
-fortifications strengthened with every device which the military
-engineer's art could suggest, and armed with the most powerful
-artillery. It is true that some of the correspondents who paid hurried
-visits to the great naval fortress before the actual outbreak of
-hostilities were inclined to belittle the strength of the defences.
-Thus Mr. Bennet Burleigh, of the London _Telegraph_, in a most
-interesting account expressed his belief that the Russian stronghold
-was over-fortified, and that it would be possible for those who
-captured outlying defence to command the inner forts. On the other
-hand, it must be remembered that the most skilful engineers in the
-world had been employed by the Russians in the construction of the
-forts, and the fact that such a magnificent and substantial resistance
-was offered to ten times the number of soldiers as cleared out the
-Chinese in a few days, proves that the soundest military principles
-were adhered to. The main positions were defended by advanced works
-surrounded by deep moats, in which were built bombproof defences,
-roofed with steel plates, and by fanfasses, or mines filled with huge
-stones, which could be exploded by the pressure of an electric button.
-The approaches were rendered almost inaccessible by barbed-wire
-entanglements, pits planted with sharpened stakes, and by transverse
-works and trenches which commanded with an enfilading fire every
-possible line of advance. The broad scheme of the fortifications may be
-easily grasped. Fronting Takhe Bay on the east is the Petushan group of
-forts, with the Keekwan-Urlong forts commanding the approaches from the
-north and the northeast, and preventing the Petushan forts from being
-taken in reverse. West of these forts and on the other side of the
-parade-ground and railway are the Antszshan and the Etseshan forts,
-which prevent any attack from the northwest, while a chain of forts
-from Antszshan to Sunghslwo, running southeastwards down to the inner
-harbor, command the parade-ground and railway line. Another line of
-forts stretches due south from Etseshan to White Wolf Hill on the west
-side of the west port, while yet another series of heavy fortifications
-surmounts the high ground along the Tiger's Tail. Well might the
-Russians boast that their fortress was impregnable, for if any place of
-arms could be justly so described, Nature and military ingenuity had
-combined to earn that title for Port Arthur. At the outset of the
-investment, Port Arthur's garrison numbered, all told, some 35,000 men.
-It was made up of the 3rd, 4th and 7th East Siberian Rifle Brigades,
-with part of the 6th, and with the East Siberian Rifle Artillery
-Division, and, of course, with the crews of all the men-o'-war lying
-imprisoned in the harbor. The numbers were none too great to man
-adequately the great chain of works behind which Port Arthur's security
-lay; but the troops were of the best quality, and they had the
-invaluable inspiration of such a leader as General Stoessel, with such
-a capable and gallant lieutenant as General Fock. Stoessel, the hero of
-the Russian army in the present war, is descended from an old military
-family. His grandfather was a general in the Swedish army, who
-afterwards settled in Russia. Stoessel himself, who was born in 1848,
-entered the Russian army as a cadet at the age of ten, and received his
-commission eight years later, at the same time, curiously enough, as
-Kuropatkin. He served with distinction in the Russo-Turkish War, and
-afterwards held important commands in Siberia, while since 1899 he had
-been stationed at Port Arthur. To the assault and investment of the
-fortress, the Japanese, under Nogi, brought up at first 60,000 men,
-and, as the operations advanced, large reinforcements which not only
-made good the enormous losses sustained, but swelled the fighting
-strength to nearly 100,000 men. This number fluctuated to some extent,
-for at least two divisions were drawn off from the siege to reinforce
-Oyama at the battle of the Sha-ho; but at no time can the total forces
-before Port Arthur have been less than 60,000, and then superiority in
-numbers to the defence gradually increased until from a proportion of
-two to one, it had reached the proportion of six or seven to one. This
-growing disparity, of course, was due to the fact that while the
-Japanese could replenish their exhausted ranks, the Russian garrison
-could not fill the gaps caused by wounds and sickness; while a further
-reduction of at least 5,000 men in the forces at Stoessel's command was
-made by the naval sortie on August 10th. That feat, of course, deprived
-Port Arthur of the services of the crews of all the vessels that
-escaped to neutral ports.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE SCALING FORT AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Capture of Forts]
-
-In the great assault of the 19th-26th August the Japanese lost 14,000
-men, and succeeded only in capturing the Banjushan fort, which is east
-of the Urlungshan forts. General Nogi then settled down to steady siege
-operations, drawing his parallels nearer and nearer to the Russian main
-position, and capturing the all-important Kuropatkin fort early in
-September. This fort, which stands on Division Hill half-way between
-Wolf Hill and the harbor, not only commanded the parade-ground, but
-gave the Japanese the possession of the waterworks from which the
-garrison drew the main water supply. Up to this moment General Nogi's
-heaviest guns had been 4.7 and 6in. pieces of the naval type, and they
-had been quite unequal to the heavy guns of the position mounted in the
-Russian works. But now heavy siege guns and 11in. howitzers arrived
-from Japan, and immediately their effect began to make itself felt, so
-that by the 19th September another assault was resolved on. This was
-directed against three points of the ring of defensive works--against
-the metre-hill forts on the west, and (the outworks, as it were of the
-great Etseshan and Antszshan forts) against the advanced works of
-Urlungshan on the northeast, and against the lunettes in the Shuishi
-Valley which connects the Antszshan and the Urlungshan forts. At this
-last point some of the fiercest fighting of the whole siege took place.
-The Shuishi Valley was defended by a series of strong lunettes
-connected by advance works, within fifty yards of which the Japanese
-had advanced their parallels. On the evening of the 19th September four
-desperate assaults were delivered against the westernmost lunette. All,
-however, were beaten back. At dawn the assault was renewed with greater
-strength, and the western lunette was carried, mainly by the employment
-of dynamite grenades. The Russian garrison were driven out of the
-trenches, losing three quick-firers, four machine guns, and two
-mortars, but inflicting on the victors losses amounting to over 400
-killed and wounded. At the same time a determined assault was made on
-203 Metre Hill and the adjoining ridge by three regiments of the right
-division. The assaulting parties reached the dead ground beneath the
-ridge, but there they were compelled to remain during the night. At
-dawn on the 20th a terrific bombardment on the position began and
-continued till evening; and when the night had fallen the Japanese
-rushed the trenches on the eastern extremity of the crest line after a
-fierce hand-to-hand fight in which not only bayonets but even stones
-were used. But only part of the work had been won. The fort on the
-southwestern slopes of the ridges was still untaken, and though a small
-party of the besiegers penetrated the defences here, they were driven
-out again next day, and four more assaults delivered during the next
-two days proved equally unavailing though terribly costly in life--the
-casualty list at this point alone amounting to 2,000. The defences of
-this advance fort on 203 Metre Hill were typical of the obstacles which
-the Japanese had to overcome in the prosecution of their assaults. The
-bomb-proofs connecting the network of trenches which seared the slopes
-of the hill were made of steel plates covered with earth, and a triple
-row of wire entanglements made the ground in front of the trenches
-impassable. In the operations from the 19th to the 26th September the
-Japanese lost more than 4,000 killed and wounded. In the assault at the
-same time on the advanced works of Urlungshan the parallels of the
-Japanese had been carried to within fifty yards of the defences, but
-the assault still proved a costly business. Again and again the
-assaulting rushes were swept back by rifle and machine-gun fire; but
-the indomitable spirit of the Mikado's troops at length prevailed, and
-the redoubt was carried at the point of the bayonet. The position thus
-gained in front of Urlungshan enabled the Japanese to mount their heavy
-howitzers in such a way as to bombard not only the main forts but the
-harbor with great effect; and in the course of a few days several of
-the warships lying at anchor were severely damaged by the high-angle
-fire. By hard fighting and diligent sapping the investing army now
-continued to make steady progress against the Urlungshan forts which
-lie just east of the road and railway and command their approach to
-Port Arthur. On the 10th October the attack managed to establish itself
-on the crest of the East Urlungshan fort, and on the 16th the
-entrenched hill between Urlungshan and Banjushan, the latter of which
-was already in Japanese hands, was taken by storm. On the 25th October
-the glacis of East Urlungshan was stormed and held in spite of repeated
-counter-attacks on the part of the Russians. In front of these forts on
-the northeastern side the fiercest fighting continued all through the
-latter part of October and the early part of November, the general
-result being that the Japanese saps were brought within less than 300
-yards of the main positions while the fire from the howitzers finally
-silenced the great forts of Urlungshan and Shunshusan. But these
-successes, though considerable, were insufficient to make a really
-serious breach in the main lines of the defence, as long as the great
-forts on the west--Antszshan and Etseshan--held out, and forthwith the
-Japanese attack was diverted to the latter of those two strongholds.
-Meanwhile, the heavy and incessant fire directed on the harbor and the
-town had been most destructive. The naval repairing works had to be
-abandoned, and both the old and the new Chinese towns were rendered
-uninhabitable where their buildings were not razed to the ground or
-consumed by the fires started by the bursting shells.
-
-[Sidenote: Devices of the Besiegers]
-
-For the first time in history a fortress constructed according to the
-latest principles of military science, and defended by modern
-long-range artillery, was being besieged; and like the old walled
-cities of the 17th and 18th centuries, its defences could only be
-overcome by sap and mine and parallel. So much the assailants had
-learnt to their cost in their earlier and futile attempts at taking the
-place by storm. The exigencies of these operations led to the adoption
-of many ingenious devices by the forces on both sides--such, for
-instance, as a steel bullet-proof shield to protect the pioneer engaged
-in cutting wire entanglements; and the deadly grenade charged with
-dynamite, flung into the enemy's trenches by the hand or by means of
-wooden mortars bound with bamboo. At first the Japanese had chosen the
-night time for their assaults, but this plan had to be abandoned owing
-to the effective employment by the Russians of searchlights and star
-shells, the former having the effect not only of exposing the
-assaulting troops to the fire of the defenders, but blinding them in
-their advance on their objective. Throughout the siege the defenders
-had shown not only indomitable courage, but inexhaustible resource, and
-in spite of all the discouragement which the steady and inexorable
-advance of the Japanese might have been supposed to inflict, they
-continued equal to every demand on their fortitude. From time to time
-supplies reached them by means of blockade-runners, but this was but a
-precarious and inadequate means of replenishing the stores on which
-such a long and severe strain had been made. And yet, in spite of all
-rumors to the effect that ammunition was running short, the great guns
-continued to hurl their defiance at the Japanese artillery, and never
-in any single instance was the defence weakened by a failure of powder
-and shot. Though the Russians had failed to foresee many things which
-the course of the war has proved to have been fairly obvious, no one
-can pretend that they failed to equip their great stronghold in the Far
-East in a manner worthy of its claim to rank as "the Gibraltar of the
-East." After nearly six months of close investment and almost
-continuous bombardment, the fortress still held at bay an enemy who had
-proved himself, not only before the defences of Port Arthur, but in
-many a stricken field beside, to possess fighting qualities rarely
-equalled and never surpassed in the world's history of warfare--an
-enemy, too, who possessed every resource of military science, and who
-had studied in the best military schools. The fact that the Japanese,
-who had confidently expected to take Port Arthur before the end of the
-summer had not even by the middle of November made a decisive breach in
-its main defences, speaks volumes for the character of those defences.
-But even the strongest fortifications that human ingenuity can
-construct are only formidable when men of high spirit man them; and the
-chief credit for having baffled so long the most desperate efforts of
-Japanese skill and courage must ever be given to General Stoessel and
-the men who, serving under him, became infected with his spirit and
-inspired by his example. By the middle of November the Japanese lines
-had, indeed, been drawn very close round the devoted citadel of the
-Czar. They were in possession of the eastern ridge, and held
-practically at their mercy that great ring of fortified hills which
-shuts in Port Arthur from the Dalny side. They had cut the main water
-supply of the garrison, and they had possessed themselves of important
-ground to the north of the old town, and their siege guns were able to
-render the dockyards and the harbor untenable for ships of war. To the
-west the advance had been less signal, and their foothold on the great
-ridge which commands the fortress on the western side was at best
-slight and precarious; while not even the faintest impression had been
-made on the great chain of fortifications at Liau-tie-shan, in the
-extreme south corner of the peninsula.
-
-[Sidenote: The Undaunted Stoessel]
-
-Tremendous efforts had been made to achieve the capture of the place by
-the 3rd November, the birthday of the Mikado; but that auspicious day
-passed without the fall of Port Arthur seeming to be in any degree
-nearer, while General Stoessel continued to send cheerful and undaunted
-messages to his Imperial master whenever a boat succeeded in running
-the blockade of the Japanese fleet and in reaching Chifu. Through all
-these protracted and strenuous operations, the losses of the Japanese
-had been very severe; they cannot have been less than 40,000 men, and
-they may have been considerably more. The garrison had suffered less
-severely, but in the absence of reserves their losses were even more
-serious, and by the middle of November the total effective force was
-little more than 10,000 men. It will ever be a mystery how a force so
-utterly inferior to its enemy, defending, a wide perimeter of
-fortifications, every point of which was daily liable to fierce assault
-and bombardment, could for so many weeks endure the awful strain to
-which it was subjected. Yet the indomitable garrison was never
-quiescent or passive in its resistance. Besides repelling assault, it
-engaged in continual sorties and counter-attacks, and often, when
-driven from an essential position succeeded in recapturing it at the
-point of the bayonet. A remarkable instance of this offensive capacity
-was furnished in the course of the great assault from the 19th
-September to the 26th September. In operating from the north against
-the defences of the Shuishi Valley, which lies between Antszshan and
-Urlungshan, the Japanese, after their first success, pressed on against
-High Hill, a position of the most vital importance to the defence, as
-it permitted the principal forts on the west of the town to be taken in
-reverse. As any attempt to retake the hill must be a desperate
-enterprise, General Stoessel refused to issue an order for its
-recapture, but called for volunteers. The requisite number were at once
-forthcoming, and led by Lieutenant Podgorsky, they attacked the
-Japanese with grenades and drove them from the position which they had
-already begun to entrench.
-
-In his dispatch of the 23rd September, this is how General Stoessel
-reports the affair:--
-
-[Sidenote: The Gallant Podgorsky]
-
-"The last assault on High Hill was repulsed to-day at 5 o'clock in the
-morning. The enemy had actually occupied some of the defences of the
-High Hill position and had placed machine-guns in them, which they
-directed against our troops. Lieutenant Podgorsky was dispatched to
-this part of the field by General Kondrachenko with a force of
-chasseurs and engineers, who under the direction of Colonel Irmann
-hurled grenades filled with pyroxiline into the works held by the
-Japanese. These exploded among the enemy, who fled in panic. Captain
-Sytcheff, of the 5th Regiment, pursued the flying foe with chasseurs.
-Colonel Irmann attributes the principal share in the work of compelling
-the enemy to withdraw entirely from High Hill to Lieutenant Podgorsky.
-The Japanese lost over 10,000 men. All our troops distinguished
-themselves. General Kondrachenko, Colonel Irmann, Captain Sytcheff, and
-Lieutenant Podgorsky won special distinction. The troops fought
-heroically, particularly the 5th Regiment. The whole garrison down to
-the last man is resolved to defend Russia's bulwark in the Far East to
-the last drop of blood."
-
-[Sidenote: World-wide Admiration]
-
-But even the greatest heroism cannot achieve the impossible; and in
-spite of Stoessel's persistent optimism, it became evident that his
-powers of resistance were daily diminishing. An attempt on the part of
-the Japanese General to induce the garrison to capitulate in spite of
-their leader, met with no response; but throughout the civilized world,
-whose sympathy and admiration had been deeply stirred by the heroic
-stand of Port Arthur's garrison, voices were lifted to urge that no
-more useless sacrifice of noble life should be permitted; and that the
-men who had done so much for the honor of the Czar should be spared at
-least the last mortal agony of the struggle with the inevitable.
-
-[Sidenote: Uncertain News]
-
-On the 15th, however, a Russian torpedo-boat bearing dispatches from
-Stoessel managed to elude the blockade and to reach Chifu, pursued by
-Japanese destroyers. The boat was warned that it must leave the neutral
-harbor within twenty-four hours or be disarmed, and rather than submit
-to either of these alternatives, the officer in command blew his vessel
-up. But his work had been done; and his dispatches containing the
-latest accounts of the position at Port Arthur reached St. Petersburg.
-Immediately afterwards the report arrived that General Kuropatkin had
-been empowered to treat for terms of capitulation for Port Arthur. But
-whether that was in fact the result of Stoessel's message, or whether
-the Czar's Government received from it encouragement in the belief that
-Port Arthur could hold out till the arrival of the Baltic Fleet, is a
-question which is still unanswered.
-
-[Illustration: THE REMNANT OF A REGIMENT--AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE
-SHA-HO.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-
-  The North Sea Outrage--Seizures of Neutrals--The Case of the
-    "Malacca"--The Baltic Fleet--Departure at Last--Russian
-    Alarms--In the North Sea--Bringing Home the News--Russian
-    Allegations--Naval Preparations--Supplementary Information--The
-    Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar.
-
-
-[Sidenote: The North Sea Outrage]
-
-No sooner had the echoes of the terrific battle of the Sha-ho begun to
-subside than the attention of the civilized world, which had so long
-been concentrated on the vicissitudes of the Titanic struggle in the
-Far East, was suddenly focussed on a spot separated from the theatre of
-war by more than half the circumference of the globe, and on an
-incident fraught, as it seemed, with more direful and tremendous
-consequences even than the momentous rupture between Russia and Japan.
-On the 15th of October, Russia's Baltic Fleet--which for many months
-had been preparing as a reinforcement to the Pacific Squadron--at last
-left port on its voyage to the Far East; and within six days of its
-departure it had so effectually asserted itself as a factor in the
-naval situation that Europe, shocked and startled, woke up one morning
-to find itself hanging on the perilous brink of that Armageddon which
-has been the nightmare of statesmen for the last twenty years. In
-passing through the North Sea, the Russian fleet--for causes which have
-yet to be fully elicited--fired on a flotilla of British fishing-boats
-engaged in trawling on the Dogger Bank; killed and wounded several of
-the fishermen; sunk one of the trawlers, and more or less grievously
-injured others. When the news of this amazing outrage was published a
-storm of indignation and resentment swept over England such as has not
-been known for more than a generation; and feeling was embittered and
-intensified to a truly dangerous pitch, first by the callous
-indifference displayed by the perpetrators of the outrage, and next by
-the indisposition of the Russian Government to offer those immediate
-apologies and amends which alone could palliate so wanton a breach of
-the comity of nations. It seemed for the moment that Russia had
-deliberately designed to provoke England to hostilities, in the hope of
-redeeming her own desperate position by extending the area of the
-conflict and by dragging into it first the ally of Japan, and by
-consequence her own ally, France. The prospect, though almost too
-terrible to contemplate, did not for a moment quench the resolution of
-the people of England, where men of all parties were found standing
-shoulder to shoulder in the demand for ample reparation. What made the
-situation especially dangerous was that public patience had at last
-been well-nigh exhausted by the repeated provocations of
-Russia--provocations which the North Sea outrage was only the crown and
-culmination. To understand this fact, it is necessary to go back a
-little.
-
-[Sidenote: Seizures of Neutrals]
-
-When Russia found that she could not hope successfully to contest the
-supremacy of the sea with Japan, she turned her attention to the
-subsidiary enterprise of commerce-raiding. In this task the
-Vladivostock Squadron were particularly active, and, unsated by the
-destruction of such Japanese transports and trading vessels as they
-encountered, seized or sunk many vessels flying neutral flags. On the
-16th of June the Vladivostock cruisers seized the _Allanton_, a British
-steamer, carrying coal from Hokkaido Island to Singapore. There was
-nothing contraband in the cargo or destination of this vessel, as the
-subsequent decision of the St. Petersburg Prize Court proved, yet the
-_Allanton_ was confiscated, and her crew held prisoners at Vladivostock
-for months. The real reason for this high-handed conduct was that the
-_Allanton_ had previously carried a cargo of coal from Cardiff to
-Japan--but she had been chartered for that voyage before the outbreak
-of war. On the 16th of July the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company's
-steamer, the _Hispang_, was wantonly sunk in Pigeon Bay by a Russian
-torpedo-boat. The _Hispang_ was engaged in a lawful trade; there was no
-suggestion that she carried contraband; and indeed no examination of
-her cargo was even attempted. She was flying the British flag, and she
-stopped directly she was ordered to do so. But in spite of these facts,
-a Russian torpedo-boat came straight out to her and sunk her--the
-captain, officers, and passengers being rescued with difficulty. It was
-afterwards confessed by the Russian officer that did this deed that his
-orders were given under the impression that the _Hispang_ was the
-steamer _Haimum_, which was being employed by the London _Times_'
-correspondent. On the 26th of July an equally gross outrage was
-perpetrated by the Vladivostock Squadron, who, besides unjustifiably
-seizing the _Chalcas_, deliberately sunk on the 23rd of July the
-British steamer _Knight Commander_. This vessel was carrying rails for
-Japan; and even if such a cargo could be regarded as contraband, there
-was no excuse for sinking the vessel. Such an act, in the words of Mr.
-Balfour and Lord Lansdowne, constituted "a grave breach of
-international law"; and it was aggravated by the circumstances in which
-it was committed. The captain and crew were ordered to get clear of the
-vessel in ten minutes, and such was the haste with which they were
-compelled to leave the boats in order to save their lives, that nearly
-all the personal effects had to be sacrificed. The growing irritation
-with these acts was brought to a head in England by the famous case of
-the _Malacca_--a P. and O. mail steamship which was seized by Russian
-cruisers in the Red Sea on the 19th July. At the beginning of June two
-vessels of the Russian Volunteer Fleet in the Black Sea--the
-_Petersburg_ and the _Smolensk_--were "designated for Government
-service outside the Black Sea." Even their commanders were kept in the
-dark as to their destination and the nature of the service that they
-were to perform. The two vessels, which, as warships, would not by
-international treaty have been able to leave the Black Sea, passed
-through the Dardanelles under the commercial flag, and then steered
-straight to the Suez Canal, where the non-belligerent character was
-still maintained. But it seems that on reaching Constantinople the
-commanders had been informed that their ships had been raised to the
-rank of second-class cruisers in the Russian fleet; and no sooner had
-the Red Sea been reached than the _Petersburg_ and the _Smolensk_ put
-off their commercial disguise and put on the character of ships of war.
-They flew the naval flag, and mounted the armament of 5in.
-quick-firers, which had been up to that moment securely stowed away.
-The Government service for which they had been designated was that of
-searching for contraband on neutral vessels, and the _soi-disant_
-cruisers lost no time in demonstrating their zeal. All this time, by
-the way, the Russian Admiralty was strenuously denying that the
-_Petersburg_ and the _Smolensk_ had left the Black Sea at all. On the
-15th July the commerce-raiders began operations, rather tactlessly, by
-stopping and seizing the German mail steamer, _Prinz Heinrich_, and by
-confiscating the Japanese mails. The indignation and astonishment of
-the German public had only begun to make itself heard, when it was
-distracted by the intelligence that the P. and O. steamer _Malacca_ had
-also been stopped, and had been actually brought back to Suez in charge
-of a Russian prize crew. The vessel, flying the Russian flag, reached
-Suez on the 19th July, and on the 20th the English Government, moved
-thereto by the clamor which began to be heard both in Parliament and in
-the press, addressed to the Government of the Czar a strongly-worded
-protest against the seizure and a demand that the _Malacca_ should be
-instantly released. The demand was based on the irregular position of
-the _Petersburg_--a vessel which, if a ship of war, ought not to have
-passed the Dardanelles, and which, if not a ship of war, had no right
-to stop and search neutral vessels. This contention was unanswerable;
-for it is evident that if a ship could be permitted to change its
-character at will, it could perform all the functions of a ship of war
-and still enjoy all the privileges of a non-belligerent at neutral
-ports.
-
-[Sidenote: Case of the "Malacca"]
-
-Incidentally it was pointed out in Lord Lansdowne's dispatch that the
-ammunition found on board the _Malacca_ belonged to the British
-Government, and was intended for the China Squadron. It subsequently
-came to light that the seizure of the _Malacca_ was no mere accident;
-but that the vessel had been waited for by the Russian cruisers acting
-on secret information from Russian agents at Antwerp. For several days
-no reply was vouchsafed by the Russian Government, and feeling in this
-country rose to such a height that the situation became dangerous.
-While the whole British nation was chafing under the indignity and
-affront, the _Malacca_ was being navigated by her prize crew, with
-almost deliberate insolence, through the Suez Canal on the way to the
-Baltic port of Libau. A British liner, in the eyes of the whole world,
-was made an ignominious captive, and, like a pickpocket in the clutch
-of a police-constable, was dragged away to judgment. The humiliation of
-the situation was aggravated by the fact that at Suez--a port of the
-English Protectorate of Egypt--the Russian officer in charge of the
-_Malacca_ demanded to be supplied with coal, water, and provisions. In
-spite of the strong representations which had been made by the British
-Government, nothing was done at St. Petersburg to alleviate the
-situation. The _Malacca_ reached Suez on the 19th of July and Port Said
-on the 20th, and on the 21st she sailed unconcernedly for her
-destination, which was ostentatiously announced to be Libau. Then at
-last the Russian Government broke the silence. Having inflicted the
-greatest possible humiliation on this country, they were pleased to
-accept the assurances of the British Government that the prize had no
-contraband on board, and to consent that the _Malacca_ should not be
-brought before a Prize Court. A claim for damages for detention was to
-be admitted, and the vessel was to be handed over to the British
-authorities at "some Mediterranean port," after formal examination in
-the presence of the British Consul. On the 27th July the terms of this
-agreement--so extravagantly indulgent to Russia--were carried out, and
-the incident of the _Malacca_ closed; but there remained still
-unsettled the fundamental question of the status of the volunteer
-cruisers, _Smolensk_ and _Petersburg_. Meanwhile, for the German liner
-_Scandia_, which had been seized on the 23rd July, very different
-treatment was reserved--she was released on the following day. The only
-public recognition of the protests of the British Government which was
-given by the Government of the Czar was the publication on the 3rd
-August of an official communication declaring that "the special
-commission" of the cruisers _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ had "expired;"
-and these vessels promptly disappeared from the Red Sea. But their
-mischievous career was not yet at an end. Although the Russian
-Government had specifically promised that they should not be employed
-in searching neutral shipping any longer, the world was startled at the
-end of August to learn that the British steamer _Comedian_ had been
-stopped 80 miles from East London and 10 miles only from the coast of
-British territory by a mysterious Russian cruiser. The unpleasant
-impression in England was deepened when it was discovered that this
-strange cruiser was no other than the _Smolensk_ of Red Sea fame. Well
-might Mr. Balfour, who received at this moment a deputation of British
-shipowners, declare that the incident had produced "a painful
-impression" in the minds of the English Government. Representations to
-the Russian Government produced the characteristic excuse that the
-messages sent to the _Smolensk_ and _Petersburg_ had not reached their
-destination. There is, indeed, good reason to believe that the Russian
-Admiralty, which had done its best to thwart the Russian Foreign
-Office, had taken particularly good care that the messages should be
-delayed until the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ were out of reach. But
-realizing the gravity of the situation, and protesting their own
-helplessness, the Russian Government now invited the British Government
-itself to communicate to the raiders a cypher message of recall.
-Accordingly the cruisers on the Cape Station were sent out to find the
-delinquents; and on the 5th September they were discovered coaling in
-the territorial waters of Zanzibar with German colliers in attendance.
-Their whereabout was at any rate sufficiently well known for them to
-command the means to replenish their bunkers, and as soon as they saw a
-British warship, they prepared for instant flight. But H.M.S. _Forte_
-managed to communicate to them the orders of their own Government, and
-as these were too unequivocal to be disregarded, the raiding career of
-the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ forthwith came to an end. But they had
-done enough, in conjunction with the Vladivostock Squadron, to rouse
-feeling in England to a high pitch of irritation; and to make it
-ill-prepared to endure with patience or forbearance the greater and
-still more wanton outrage with which the Baltic Fleet was to inaugurate
-its voyage to the Far East.
-
-[Sidenote: The Baltic Fleet]
-
-The dispatch of this fleet had been the feverish pre-occupation of the
-Russian Admiralty from the moment that the first disasters befell the
-Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur. Naval reinforcements were on the way,
-it will be remembered, at the outbreak of war, and had reached the Red
-Sea; but they were recalled when the news of the successful torpedo
-attack on the Port Arthur Fleet reached Europe. It was realized how
-vital must be the command of the sea to the achievement of victory; and
-Russia at once set about preparing an Armada which should restore to
-her the naval preponderance so suddenly lost. At first the intention,
-which was so loudly proclaimed, was not taken quite seriously; but it
-was decidedly encouraged as the weeks went on and as the resisting
-power of Port Arthur to assault gave hopes that the new fleet might
-still find a warm-water port to receive it. At first the departure of
-the Baltic Fleet was announced for June; though everyone knew the
-design, only formed perhaps to reassure public opinion in Russia, was
-incapable of fulfilment. Then June came, and the date of departure was
-again postponed; and in July the world was informed that there was "no
-hurry;" and that it had been thought advisable to "test thoroughly" the
-new ships and to familiarize the officers and crews with their work.
-All through the summer the game of fixing the day of departure and then
-postponing it went merrily on; but on the 15th August Admiral
-Rozhestvensky, on whom supreme command of the fleet had been bestowed,
-went on board the flagship with his staff; and received from the Port
-Admiral at Kronstadt by signal a formal message of farewell. But
-nothing more happened, except that on the 20th August it was announced
-that the Baltic Fleet would not leave before the 28th September.
-
-[Illustration: HUGE SIEGE GUNS BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Departure at Last]
-
-On the 26th August the fleet went for a trial trip with the most
-discouraging results, for several of the new ships broke down and the
-battleship _Orel_ ran aground, inflicting structural injuries on
-herself. Early in September there was another false alarm. Danish
-pilots had been procured, and on the 11th September the fleet again put
-to sea; but it only got as far as the port of Libau, and the next news
-was that it would remain there "some weeks longer" for firing practice
-and manoeuvres. The next definite date fixed was the 7th October; but
-two days later than that the fleet had only got as far as Reval, where
-it was inspected and blessed by the Czar in person. On the 15th
-October, however, the long delay at last came to an end, and the fleet,
-consisting of thirty-six vessels, actually left Russian waters.
-
-It is necessary now to describe the fleet in which Russia had placed so
-many of her hopes. The class and character of the principal vessels is
-best realized from a table:--
-
-                       Displace- Indic'd  Nom'l      Gun      W'ght of
-                        ment in  horse-  speed in  Protec'n  b'side fire
-     BATTLESHIPS.        tons.   power.   knots.  in inches.   in lbs.
-
-     Kniaz Suvaroff
-       (flagship)       13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Alexander III      13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Borodino           13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Orel               13,516   16,800     18       11.6       4,426
-     Ossliabia          12,674   14,500     18       10.5       2,672
-     Sissoi Veliky
-       (flagship)        8,880   10,400     16       12.5       3,186
-     Navarin             9,476   18,206     16       12.5       3,404
-
-                       Displace- Indic'd  Nom'l      Gun      W'ght of
-                        ment in  horse-  speed in  Protec'n  b'side fire
-                         tons.   power.   knots.  in inches.   in lbs.
-
-     ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-     Admiral Nakhimoff   8,500    9,000    16.7       6          944
-     Dmitri Donskoi      5,893    7,000     16       6.2         444
-
-     PROTECTED
-
-     Oleg                6,675   19,500     23        4          872
-     Aurora              6,630   11,600     20       4.5         632
-     Svietlana           3,828    8,500     20        4          476
-     Almaz               3,285    7,500     19        --         184
-     Jemtchug            3,200    7,000     24        --         184
-     Izumrud             3,200    7,000     24        --         184
-
-[Sidenote: Strength of Baltic Fleet]
-
-In addition to these ships there was a torpedo flotilla of 7 destroyers
-of 28 knots speed, and 8 torpedo-boats; the following vessels of the
-Volunteer Fleet: _Kiev_, _Vladimir_, _Voronej_ (each of 10,500 tons and
-with a speed of 12 knots), _Tambov_, and _Yawslar_ (each of 8,640 tons
-and with a speed of 12 knots); 13 transports armed with light guns; and
-a hospital ship, the _Orel_--not to be confused with the battleship of
-the same name. On paper, at least, this was a very formidable fleet;
-but its fighting efficiency appears much reduced on analysis. There
-were four modern battleships of a powerful type and of homogeneous
-design; but their value is much discounted by the fact that some of
-their consorts are distinctly less powerful; and in naval warfare the
-manoeuvring power of a fleet becomes that of its weakest item. This
-was proved very signally on the occasion of the engagement between
-Admiral Kamimura and the Vladivostock Squadron, when the Russian
-cruisers _Gromoboi_ and _Rossia_ suffered most severely from having to
-stand by the _Rurik_, the lame duck of the squadron. The _Ossliabia_,
-it is true was not much inferior to the battleships of the _Kniaz
-Suvaroff_ class. She was a sister ship to the _Peresviet_ and
-_Pobieda_, sunk in the harbor of Port Arthur, and was launched in 1898.
-But the _Sissoi Veliky_ and the _Navarin_ both dated from 1891, and
-were distinctly inferior in the all-important matter of speed, even
-their nominal speed never having been attained. The only armored
-cruisers with the Baltic Fleet--the _Admiral Nakhimoff_ and the _Dmiti
-Donskoi_--were barely entitled to their description, as they have a low
-speed, light armor, and comparatively small gun power. Certainly they
-were not fit, like the best armored cruisers of to-day, to lie in the
-line of battle. Some of the other cruisers were little more than armed
-merchantmen, and none of them were formidable warships. Another
-circumstance that detracted from the fighting value of this fleet was
-the character of the officers and crews. All Russia's best and most
-highly-trained sailors and marine engineers were sent out before the
-war to the Pacific Squadron; and she had no adequate reserve to draw
-on. The modern man-of-war's-man--whether he is in the engine-room or on
-the gun-deck--is a highly specialized product, and he cannot be turned
-out at a moment's notice. Stokers, artificers, engineers, as well as
-torpedo lieutenants, gunners, and even admirals, have to be carefully
-trained for years before they become efficient, and the inefficiency
-and inexperience of the scratch crews and raw officers put on board the
-Baltic Fleet was the main cause of the long delay in that fleet's
-departure and of the disaster that occurred immediately after the start
-had been made, and that nearly brought the voyage to a tragic and
-ignominious conclusion. When all these circumstances were taken into
-consideration, it became obvious that the Baltic Fleet was hopelessly
-inferior to the fleet which, on reaching Far Eastern waters, it would
-have to encounter in order to wrest from the Japanese their command of
-the sea. But one question, even more urgent than that of the fate which
-would befall the fleet on arrival, was how it was to overcome the
-difficulties of the voyage. Russia had no coaling stations; and coaling
-at sea from attendant colliers has not yet become a feasible operation
-for a great fleet. The larger vessels would require from 5,000 to 6,000
-tons of coal each, and the smaller cruisers from 2,000 to 3,000 tons in
-the course of a voyage of nearly 13,000 miles, occupying at least 100
-days, and very possibly 30 days more. But the coaling difficulty proved
-less insuperable than it had appeared, and Russia's energy and
-ingenuity in overcoming it were the first symptoms that she meant the
-Baltic Fleet to be taken seriously. Negotiations for the supply of coal
-were opened with English firms; but our Foreign Office ruled that such
-contracts would be an infringement of neutrality. The Germans, however,
-were much more complaisant; and their attitude of "benevolent
-neutrality," as Count Von Bulow called it, enabled them to meet all
-demands of Russia. Large orders for English coal to be delivered to
-German consignees at neutral ports were received at Cardiff; and this
-coal was then transferred to the ports at which the Baltic Fleet was to
-call. According to the strict interpretation of international law these
-facilities for coaling in port ought not to have been extended to the
-fleet of a belligerent. But Russia was a close neighbor of the Powers
-concerned, and the ally of one of them, while her enemy was a long way
-off; and so it happened that Admiral Rozhdestvensky suffered no more
-inconvenience than if he had been engaged on a yachting cruise. He and
-his fleet put into any port that they fancied, and stayed, practically,
-as long as they had a mind to!
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Alarms]
-
-The Baltic Fleet was divided into three divisions, and on the 16th-18th
-October the first division left Libau. The daring surprise attacks of
-the Japanese torpedo-boats at Port Arthur had filled the minds of the
-Russian naval authorities with every kind of misgiving; and by some
-means not yet disclosed, they had become possessed of the idea that the
-Japanese meditated an attempt on the Baltic Fleet during its passage
-through the narrow waters of the Danish Straits and the North Sea.
-Rumors of mysterious Japanese agents, endeavoring to charter vessels in
-obscure Danish and Norwegian ports filled the Russian newspapers. On
-the 14th October Admiral Wirenius, the Chief of the Russian Admiralty,
-solemnly declared to an interviewer that the narrow waters of the Belt
-and the Sound were particularly favorable for a surprise attack; that
-officers of the Japanese Navy were known to have left for Europe; and
-that there was reason to apprehend an attempt to throw mines in the
-track of the Russian Squadron in the Danish Straits. The state of
-"nerves" to which the Russian naval officers had been reduced by these
-apprehensions was shown when, as the Russian fleet passed through the
-Kattegat, an attempt was made to deliver to the Russian Admiral a
-cypher dispatch that had arrived from St. Petersburg. Two fishermen
-were sent out with the dispatch in a motor-launch, but when their
-vessel approached the flagship the searchlights were turned on, and
-blank charges fired to forbid a nearer approach. The dispatch was taken
-in by a boat launched by the battleship for the purpose.
-
-[Sidenote: In the North Sea]
-
-On the 19th of October the first division of the fleet passed through
-the Kattegat; and by the 21st of October all the ships had left Danish
-waters and entered on their course down the North Sea. Immediately
-followed an occurrence almost without parallel in naval history--an
-occurrence that was only saved from inextinguishable ridicule and
-contempt by the tragic consequences which it unhappily involved. On
-this memorable night of Friday, the 21st of October, some fifty vessels
-of the Hull fishing fleet were engaged in trawling on the Dogger
-Bank--one of the places in the North Sea most frequented by the
-fishermen not only of Great Britain, but of Germany, Denmark, Holland
-and Norway. It is a prominent figure in all charts of the North Sea,
-and to every sailor and seafaring man its situation and character are
-perfectly familiar. The Hull fishermen, of the Gamecock and Great
-Northern Fleets, had their trawls down and were thus deprived of the
-possibility of rapid movement, when about midnight they sighted a
-number of warships steaming from the northeast. At first they did not
-suspect that it was the Russian Baltic Fleet that had come their way,
-because in that event the fleet must have been navigating some 40 miles
-out of the true course; but very soon their ignorance was enlightened.
-While the men were watching the passing warships, searchlights were
-suddenly flashed on the trawlers, and then, to the horror and amazement
-of these innocent fishermen engaged peaceably in their lawful
-occupations, a sudden storm of shot and shell broke upon them from
-unknown men-of-war. The steam-trawler _Crane_ was sunk and its skipper
-and mate were decapitated by a shell, and all but one of the crew were
-injured; while the trawlers _Moulmein_ and _Mino_ were seriously
-damaged, the latter vessel having no fewer than sixteen holes in her.
-From the evidence given at the subsequent inquiries the following facts
-were elicited: All the trawlers had their own lights up--namely, a
-lantern showing a white light ahead, a green light on the starboard
-side, a red light on the port side. Several vessels also had lights in
-the fishing pound so that the men could work on deck. None of the
-trawlers were without lights. As the approaching vessels came nearer
-they were seen to signal to one another in a way that conveyed to the
-minds of the trawlers that they were warships. Some of the vessels were
-in advance of the others. The exact number was very difficult to tell,
-but in the first division there were probably four or five. They passed
-the trawlers to the westward, where the admiral's trawler, the _Ruff_,
-was, and to the eastward of a few of the trawlers. One of them, at any
-rate, showed a searchlight. They passed on, and nothing happened. It
-was noticed that they were signalling to the other vessels behind, and
-that the other vessels were repeating the signals and signalling to
-each other. These other vessels then came on to the eastward of the
-admiral's ship, _Ruff_, but there were trawlers on both sides of them.
-Then, without any warning to the trawlers, these vessels opened fire.
-The crews on the trawlers were at first under the impression that it
-was a sham fight in some manoeuvres, but they soon discovered that it
-was live shot. Some of the warships fired from both port and starboard
-side. After the firing had begun, this second division of vessels came
-more to the west, and there were others which came down more to the
-east. The third division, which came furthest to the eastward, came
-near some of the outlying trawlers, who were more to the south and
-east. They turned their searchlights upon them. A great many of the
-trawlers, in the attempt to get away from the firing when it began,
-lost their trawls or damaged them.
-
-[Illustration: THIRSTY JAPANESE TROOPS CROSSING THE SHA-HO.]
-
-[Sidenote: Bringing Home the News]
-
-On Sunday night, the 23rd of October, two steam trawlers, one of them
-flying her flag at half-mast, and both riddled with shot, entered St
-Andrew's Dock at Hull. Their own condition, and the lifeless and
-mutilated bodies that they brought with them, were ghastly confirmation
-of the amazing tidings that they had to tell; and next morning, not
-only England, but all the world, was ringing with the news of the
-Baltic fleet's first warlike exploit. Amazement quickly gave place to
-indignation--an indignation of passionate intensity; and with one voice
-the people of England cried aloud for retribution at any cost on the
-perpetrators of so wanton an outrage. Nor was this indignation confined
-to the countrymen of the victims. In the United States, in France, and
-even in Germany, unsparing reprobation of a deed so unjustifiable was
-freely uttered; and the belief was confidently expressed that the only
-possible explanation was to be found in the undiscipline and probable
-drunken frenzy of the Russian naval officers. Be it remembered, too,
-that the heinousness of the offence was infinitely increased by the
-fact that the Russian ships, whose commanders must have discovered
-their grievous blunder before leaving the neighborhood of the Dogger
-Bank, made no effort to ascertain the injury they had inflicted, or to
-render help to their innocent victims. Neither did the Russian Admiral
-condescend to make the least report of the circumstances. He and his
-fleet proceeded on their way as if the sinking of fishing-boats and the
-slaughtering of fishermen were too trifling an incident to engage
-serious attention and notice; and when the news of the outrage reached
-London, the Baltic Squadron had already been sighted in the Channel. No
-Government could sit down under such provocation as this, and the
-English ministers, who realized well enough the dangerous pitch to
-which public feeling had been wrought, lost no time in addressing the
-strongest demands for immediate redress to St. Petersburg, accompanied
-by the intimation that the situation was one not admitting of delay.
-Their action was emphasized by that of King Edward himself, who, in
-sending a subscription of 200 guineas for the relief of the sufferers,
-declared that he had heard with profound sorrow of the "unwarrantable
-action" to which the North Sea fishing-fleet had been subjected. The
-principal witnesses of the outrage were summoned at once to the Foreign
-Office, and Lord Lansdowne had long audience of the King, while the
-Prime Minister, who happened to be in Scotland, came back post-haste to
-London. On the 25th of October Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister
-for Foreign Affairs, called at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg
-and requested the British Ambassador, Sir Charles Hardinge, to convey
-to King Edward and the British Government a message from the Czar, who,
-while he had received no message from the Admiral in command of the
-Baltic Fleet, could only attribute "the incident in the North Sea to a
-very regrettable misunderstanding". It was added that the Czar wished
-to express his sincere regret for the sad loss of life that had
-occurred, and to say that he would take steps to afford complete
-satisfaction to the sufferers as soon as the circumstances of the case
-were cleared up. These assurances, though far from adequate, would have
-done something to calm the temper of public opinion in England if they
-had been accompanied by any sign of a similar spirit in the Czar's
-advisers. But the latter seemed inclined to be as intractable as the
-Russian press was impenitent. While the Russian Government pursued a
-policy of delay and evasion, the Russian newspapers roundly denied that
-any blame attached to the Baltic Fleet, and scouted all idea of
-reparation; and all the time Admiral Rozhdestvensky was proceeding
-serenely on his voyage. On the 26th of October his battleships arrived
-at Vigo Harbor, where at last he took the trouble to communicate his
-report of what had happened to St. Petersburg. The statement is such an
-amazing one that it may be given in full. It was communicated to the
-world under the authority of the Russian Naval General Staff, and ran
-as follows:--
-
-"1.--The incident in the North Sea was provoked by two torpedo-boats
-which, without showing any lights, under cover of darkness, advanced to
-attack the vessel steaming at the head of the detachment. When the
-detachment began to sweep the sea with its searchlights and opened
-fire, the presence was also discovered of several small steam vessels
-resembling small steam fishing-boats. The detachment endeavored to
-spare these boats and ceased fire as soon as the torpedo-boats were out
-of sight.
-
-"The English press is horrified at the idea that the torpedo-boats of
-the squadron, left by detachment until the morning on the scene of the
-occurrence, did not render assistance to the victims. Now, there was
-not a single torpedo-boat with the detachment and none were left on the
-scene of the occurrence. In consequence, it was one of the two
-torpedo-boats which was not sunk, but which was only damaged, which
-remained until the morning near the small steam craft. The detachment
-did not assist the small steam craft because it suspected them of
-complicity, in view of their obstinate persistence in cutting the line
-of advance of the warships. Several of them did not show any lights at
-all. The others showed them very late.
-
-"2.--Having met several hundreds of fishing-boats, the squadron showed
-them every consideration, except where they were in company of the
-foreign torpedo-boats, one of which disappeared, while the other,
-according to the evidence of the fishermen themselves, remained among
-them until the morning. They believed her to be a Russian vessel, and
-were indignant that she did not come to the assistants of the victims.
-She was, however, a foreigner, and remained until the morning looking
-for the other torpedo-boat, her companion, either with the object of
-repairing her damage or from fear of betraying herself to those who
-were not accomplices.
-
-"If there were also on the scene of the occurrence fishermen
-imprudently involved in this enterprise, I beg, in the name of the
-whole fleet, to express our sincere regret for the unfortunate victims
-of circumstances in which no warship could, even in time of profound
-peace, have acted otherwise."
-
-[Sidenote: Naval Preparations]
-
-But before this preposterous and long-delayed explanation was
-vouchsafed, the British Government had taken steps to prove that they
-were not in the mood to be trifled with, and that the subjects of the
-greatest naval power in the world were not to be shot down with
-impunity. To the intense satisfaction of the whole nation, an instant
-mobilization of the British fleets in European waters was ordered. The
-Home Fleet, which had been cruising away to the north of Scotland, was
-ordered south; the Channel Fleet, lying at Gibraltar, was warned to be
-in instant readiness for active service; and the Mediterranean Fleet
-was instructed to join up with the Channel Fleet with all speed. The
-naval dockyards were kept working night and day to prepare the reserve
-fleet for commission, and to be ready for the demands which an
-immediate outbreak of war might involve. In forty-eight hours every
-requisite preparation had been completed, and three fleets, any one of
-them capable of dealing faithfully with Admiral Rozhdestvensky's
-squadron, were ready for instant action. Directly in the path of the
-Baltic Fleet, now assembled at Vigo, lay the Channel Fleet under the
-command of Lord Charles Beresford, and so acute was the crisis that it
-seemed as if at any moment that fleet might be ordered to take the sea.
-Among the secret preparations made was the dispatch of four battleships
-from the Channel Squadron at Gibraltar to Portland and the assembly of
-all available submarines at Dover. What made the situation especially
-dangerous was the conflict which in this hour of desperate emergency
-was being waged between the Russian Admiralty and the Russian Foreign
-Office. The former department, which had done so much to aggravate the
-case of the _Malacca_ and to flout the assurances which had been given
-as to the withdrawal of the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_, was now
-determined that no surrender should be made to the British demands for
-satisfaction in the matter of the North Sea outrage; and for several
-days the more pacific Foreign Office wrestled with these fire-eaters in
-vain. War between England and Russia, with the prospect of indefinite
-extension to other countries, seemed inevitable; but thanks largely to
-the friendly offices of the French Government, who, as the ally of
-Russia and the friend of Great Britain, had exceptional claims to act
-as an intermediary between the disputants, a settlement was at length
-arrived at. On the 28th of October, Mr. Balfour was able to announce to
-the world that that morning an agreement had been arrived at which
-averted all further apprehension of the rupture of peaceful relations.
-Great Britain and Russia had consented to refer the case in dispute to
-an impartial International Tribunal of Inquiry; the terms of the
-Convention, which were signed after much further negotiation on the
-24th of November, being as follows:--
-
-1.--The Commission is to consist of five members, namely, officers of
-Great Britain, Russia, the United States, and France. The fifth
-Commissioner is to be selected by agreement between them. If they
-cannot agree, the choice to be entrusted to the king of a country
-subsequently to be determined upon.
-
-2.--The Commission is to report on all the circumstances relating to
-the disaster and to establish the responsibility.
-
-3.--The Commission is to have power to settle all questions of
-procedure.
-
-4.--The parties bind themselves to supply the Commission with all
-necessary information, facilities, &c.
-
-5.--The Commission is to meet at Paris as soon as possible after the
-signature of the Convention.
-
-6.--The report of the Commission is to be officially communicated to
-the respective Governments.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Allegations]
-
-Not the least interesting part of Mr. Balfour's statement was that in
-which he examined and dealt with the justification which Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky had put forward, and in particular with the allegation
-that the Russian fleet had been attacked by torpedo-boats. This
-allegation, as Mr. Balfour pointed out, involved a charge of bad faith
-on the part of Great Britain, and such a charge he indignantly
-resented. If only one torpedo-boat was sunk, what, he pertinently
-asked, had become of the other? The world did not require to be
-convinced of the essential absurdity of this story; but the Russians
-persisted in it with determination. The most circumstantial narratives
-were presently forthcoming from the four officers who had been detained
-to give evidence before the International Commission. One narrator
-stated that information of the presence of Japanese torpedo-boats in
-the Norway fiords, and of the Japanese having hired fishing vessels in
-Hull, Southampton, Hamburg, and Christiania, had been received by the
-Russians. He proceeded as follows: "We lodged information of the
-Japanese intentions with the Governments of those countries where the
-Japanese were making their preparations, but it was only in Denmark and
-Germany that we found any readiness to interfere with them.... Before
-leaving the Scaw the Russians received a number of alarming messages
-from their agents. All these messages agreed in stating that in one
-very deep Norwegian fiord four Japanese torpedo-boats had been seen,
-and that these vessels were afterwards observed a short distance to the
-west of the Scaw. The Russians left the Scaw in the morning, proceeding
-in different divisions. All the torpedo craft went on ahead, in two
-divisions, making for Cherbourg. Next came Admiral Folkersahm with the
-four older battleships making for Tangier. The small cruisers were
-under orders to proceed to Arosa, 40 miles north of Vigo, while the
-large cruisers with the transport _Kamchatka_, under the command of
-Admiral Enquist, had instructions to make for Tangier like Admiral
-Folkersahm.
-
-"Last of all we put to sea with the four best battleships, _Suvaroff_,
-_Alexander III._, _Borodino_, and _Orel_. Our destination was Brest,
-where we were to coal. Observe, therefore, that there was not with us a
-single torpedo-boat or a single small vessel. All such were far ahead
-of us.... On the 8th of October, at 8 o'clock in the evening, when it
-was already quite dark, we received a wireless message stating that 30
-miles behind us was the transport _Kamchatka_, which had fallen behind
-her consorts (the cruisers _Dmitri Donskoi_ and _Aurora_) in
-consequence of an injury to her engines, and that several torpedo-boats
-were following her closely, but had not discharged any torpedoes.
-Admiral Enquist, who was in front with the two cruisers, was at once
-ordered by wireless message to slacken speed and wait for the
-_Kamchatka_, or to continue his course in order not to expose himself
-to the torpedo-boats, which, of course, also received our messages, but
-did not know from what spot they were sent. The Japanese, however,
-attempted to find out our whereabouts. While we were exchanging
-messages with the _Kamchatka_ we suddenly received a succession of
-telegrams, in excellent Russian, purporting to come from the
-_Kamchatka_: 'Where is the squadron?' 'Give your latitude and
-longitude.' 'Where is the _Suvaroff_?' These telegrams appeared to us
-suspicious, and, in order to assure ourselves that they were really
-sent by the _Kamchatka_, instead of answering we asked for the name of
-one of the officers of the _Kamchatka_. To this no answer was returned,
-and we continued our conversation with the _Kamchatka_ in cypher. At
-12.55 A. M. we suddenly saw in front of us ... two long dark
-silhouettes, emitting quantities of smoke and evidently steaming at high
-speed. At the same time we saw a yellow-red rocket, such as is
-generally sent up by vessels in distress. A moment later a searchlight
-was thrown upon us from ahead.... We at once turned our searchlights on
-the torpedo-boats and opened fire on them. As soon as they saw that
-they were discovered, they turned aside, but came under the fire of the
-_Alexander III._, _Borodino_, and _Orel_, which were following us.
-About the same time our searchlights began to fall from time to time on
-some small vessels, apparently fishing craft, whose behavior, however,
-was very suspicious. They showed no lights, there was not a man on
-their decks, and they obstinately remained under the bows of our ships,
-barring their course. They were thus in a position to launch floating
-mines. In spite of this, however, the Admiral, as soon as he caught
-sight of them, ordered that the searchlights on board the _Suvaroff_
-should be turned skywards, which was a signal to cease firing.
-
-"To remain where we were after the torpedo-boats had disappeared in
-order to aid the steamers would have been the height of imprudence. We
-should have risked the most formidable part of our fleet, and as there
-were several steamers they were in a position to aid each other. As far
-as could be perceived, one of the enemy's torpedo-boats was sunk."
-
-The narrator argued that either the fishing vessels were accomplices or
-the Japanese took advantage of their proximity without their knowledge.
-He inclined to the former alternative, and asked, "Why Hull fishing
-boats so far from England--almost off the Danish coast?"
-
-The best commentary on this narrative was supplied by the Russian
-Government themselves, who, six weeks after the North Sea outrage,
-published the following significant admission of facts, which had, of
-course, been perfectly well known to them almost from the first:--
-
-[Sidenote: Supplementary Information]
-
-"According to supplementary information from Admiral Rozhdestvensky
-concerning the North Sea incident of the 21st of October, after the
-_Kniaz Suvaroff_ had ceased firing there suddenly appeared on the left
-of the ironclad division the two searchlights of the cruisers _Dmitri
-Donskoi_ and _Aurora_, lighting up the division. The _Dmitri Donskoi_
-showed her night signals, whereupon for fear lest projectiles from the
-hindmost ships of the division should hit our own vessels, either
-directly or by ricochet, a general signal to cease fire was made from
-the ironclad _Kniaz Suvaroff_, and was at once carried out. The whole
-of the firing lasted less than ten minutes. Communications by wireless
-telegraph stated that five projectiles had struck the cruiser _Aurora_,
-some ricocheting and others hitting her direct. Three were
-75-millimetre and two 47-millimetre shells. The chaplain was seriously
-injured, and a petty officer was slightly wounded. The former
-subsequently succumbed at Tangier."
-
-[Illustration: FIGHT IN STREET OF LIN-SHIN-PU, BATTLE OF SHAK-KE RIVER.]
-
-This communication bears out the theory advanced in the first instance
-that the Russians in the panic had mistaken their own ships for hostile
-torpedo-boats, and had opened fire on the "two long, dark silhouettes
-emitting quantities of smoke" without stopping to ascertain what they
-belonged to.
-
-[Sidenote: The Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar]
-
-After leaving Vigo, the Baltic Fleet divided into two squadrons--one
-proceeding down the West Coast of Africa, and the other through the
-Suez Canal. By the end of December (two months and a half from leaving
-Libau) they had completed barely one-half of their voyage; and by that
-time, not only was Vladivostock frost-bound, but Port Arthur was
-dominated by Japanese guns, and the remnants of the Pacific Fleet lay
-shell-riddled on the mud of the harbor. Before the International
-Commission of Inquiry met for business, all hope of the Baltic Fleet's
-achieving any serious purpose had been dissipated; for while it was
-still mustering at Madagascar, the news arrived that the fall of Port
-Arthur was at last an accomplished fact.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XIII.
-
-  Progress of the Siege--Siege of Port Arthur--The Japanese
-    Progress--The Japs Attack Metre Hill--The Russian Fleet
-    between Two Fires--A Jap Hero--Tunnels and
-    Hand-grenades--The Japs Capture Urlungshan--The Surrender
-    of Port Arthur--"Great Sovereign! Forgive!"--The Japs
-    Occupy the Fortress--Discreditable Surrender--The End of
-    the Siege of Port Arthur.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Progress of the Siege]
-
-In spite of such distractions as the campaign in Manchuria and the
-career of the Baltic Fleet, Port Arthur remained the real focal point
-of the world-wide interest which the tremendous struggle in the Far
-East had aroused. The progress of the siege, which had been veiled in
-obscurity during the earlier months of investment, owing to the
-severity of the censorship, was suddenly and frankly revealed to the
-world in the late autumn, and from that moment the salient incidents of
-this thrilling drama could be followed almost from day to day. Winter's
-icy grip, which had brought to a pause the headlong train of the
-campaign in Manchuria, caused no interruption to the implacable contest
-for mastery between the heroic troops of General Nogi and the dauntless
-garrison commanded by General Stoessel. Not for an instant was there
-the least relaxation of effort on the part of the besiegers or of
-endurance on the part of the besieged. Rather was the resolution of
-both combatants screwed to a higher pitch by the knowledge that time
-might be the deciding factor in the conflict. The departure of the
-Baltic Fleet gave General Stoessel hopes of ultimate relief as the
-reward for holding on, and threatened General Nogi with the
-stultification of all his sacrifices. With Port Arthur remaining in
-Russian hands, the recovery by her of the command of the sea must
-always be a menacing possibility for the Japanese; while the fall of
-Port Arthur meant not only the destruction of the last remnant of the
-Russian Pacific Squadron, but the loss of the only practicable base for
-any future naval operations. The whole Japanese plan of campaign must
-rest on a more or less precarious foundation as long as Russia had a
-fleet in being in Eastern seas, for the vital lines of sea
-communication must be liable to severance. With the Russian flag swept
-from its last refuge, Japan must remain invincible to the mightiest
-armies that Russia could assemble in Manchuria.
-
-[Sidenote: Siege of Port Arthur]
-
-The story of the siege of Port Arthur has already been related in this
-narrative up to the moment immediately preceding the capture of
-203-Metre Hill--an event that marked the turning-point of the whole
-protracted operations, and that proved to be the real beginning of the
-end. Before describing in detail the action that led to this signal
-victory for General Nogi's troops, it may be well to give a brief
-resume of the situation as it then existed.
-
-[Illustration: PORT ARTHUR AND THE SURROUNDING FORTS.]
-
-The investment may be said to have begun on June 26th, and between that
-date and the end of October a series of more or less desperate and
-costly assaults on the Russian outworks had carried the Japanese lines
-closer and closer to the permanent defences with which the town and the
-harbor of Port Arthur were secured from attack by land. In the great
-attacks of August 28th and September 20th, some progress was made to
-the east and north; but no great impression was made in the formidable
-chain of forts; and even on October 30th, when another assault was
-delivered, on the Keekwan and Urlungshan forts, the Japanese were
-repulsed with the loss of 2,000 men. On September 20th a determined
-assault had been made on 203-Metre Hill--the highest eminence of that
-ridge which runs between Louisa Bay on the west and the great forts,
-Itszshan and Antszshan, dominating the western approaches of Port
-Arthur. The attempt was almost successful, but not quite, and all that
-remained to reward the Japanese for their terrible sacrifice of life
-was the possession of a height, a little to the north, known as
-Namaokoyama, or 180-Metre Hill. This is due east of 174 Metre Hill,
-captured in August. At the same time the Japanese, however, succeeded
-in taking possession of the Sueishi lunettes, which defend the valley
-through which the railway runs, and of Fort Kuropatkin, which commands
-the water supply of Port Arthur. This was the position when, on
-November 26th, General Nogi ordered another assault on the fortress,
-with the especial object of capturing 203 Metre Hill. The possession of
-this height was of immense importance to the besiegers--not because it
-would threaten the great forts of Antszshan and Itszshan, but because
-it would afford a complete view of every corner of the harbor, and
-enable the fire of heavy guns to be directed on the last refuge of the
-Russian fleet. More than that, the position would command the branch
-line running from Port Arthur to Liau-tie-shan, whither the Russians
-were daily conveying stores, as if in preparation for a last stand in
-this inaccessible stronghold. Although not one of the permanent
-fortifications, the defences of 203 Metre Hill were of the most
-formidable kind. On the crest, and cut out of the hill itself, were two
-redoubts on the two distinct peaks, each mounting heavy guns, while the
-slopes leading up to them were traversed with trenches and wire
-entanglements.
-
-[Illustration: HAULING GUNS UP A CAPTURED HILL AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Attack Metre Hill]
-
-After his repulse in September, General Nogi had abandoned all further
-attack on the west; but the importance of effecting a lodgment there,
-together with his equal lack of success in the east, induced him to
-return to his earlier plan. But this time the methods of attack were
-changed. To prevent the concentration of the garrison at one point,
-assaults were delivered simultaneously on the two opposite sides of the
-perimeter of defence; and, instead of trusting to the mere weight of
-numbers to overcome resistance, the resources of the military engineer
-were drawn upon to facilitate approach to the critical points. At the
-last assault the Japanese infantry had moved forward in close formation
-over the open ground separating their forming point from the trenches
-of the enemy, and they had been swept down in hundreds by the
-concentrated fire from a dozen batteries. But early in November the
-Japanese engineers set to work to construct parallels from the low
-hills at the foot of the Metre range across the intervening valley and
-up the southwest corner of 203 Metre Hill, dominated by that one of the
-twin peaks which was known as 210. To construct similar approaches on
-the northeast side was rendered impossible by the fire of the
-neighboring fort Akasakayama. On November 27th fresh troops were
-brought up for the attack, and a tremendous artillery fire was
-concentrated on the summit of the Metre ridge. Field guns, firing
-shrapnel, and naval guns and howitzers, firing enormous shells, poured
-their deadly hail on the forts and trenches; but though they diminished
-they could not utterly subdue the fire of the intrepid defenders, and
-the Japanese casualties were very heavy as soon as their devoted
-infantry, emerging from the parallels, endeavored to climb the steep
-face of the hill. But after nearly seven hours' fighting the crest was
-won, and the southwestern peak fell into the hands of the Japanese.
-This success was the signal for an immediate and determined assault
-upon the 203 peak, but it proved futile. A deadly fire from the
-neighboring forts made the retention of the southwest peak impossible
-for the gallant men who had won it. They were driven down to the
-reverse slope again, and were thus unable to assist in keeping down the
-fire of the garrison of 203 peak. An attack on the Akasakayama works
-also failed, and thus the troops assailing the northeastern face of the
-hill were exposed to a flank fire as well as to a direct fire from
-above, and were driven back with heavy loss. But the Japanese managed
-to retain their position just below the crest of 210, and here they
-constructed trenches which made the reoccupation of the summit by the
-enemy impossible. But the Russians still disputed possession, and the
-opposing forces, behind sandbag defences erected within a stone's throw
-of one another, maintained an incessant fight with bullets, bayonets
-and hand-grenades. The proximity of the combatants compelled the
-artillery on both sides to desist from taking part in the encounter.
-The Japanese guns confined themselves to shelling the crest of 203 peak
-and the reverse slope of 210, in order to prevent reinforcements
-reaching the troops that still disputed the possession of that
-eminence. At this moment occurred one of those tragic incidents which
-throw such an ironic light on the best laid schemes of generals and the
-noblest self-sacrifice of soldiers. A party of Japanese managed at last
-to establish themselves in a trench on the slope of Akasakayama; but no
-sooner had they attained this hard-won position than they found
-themselves exposed to a merciless hail of shrapnel, not from Russian
-guns, but from those of their own countrymen. The Japanese artillerists
-had not observed the lodgment that had been made in the enemy's
-trenches, and they persisted in their bombardment with such deadly
-effect that their luckless comrades were compelled to relinquish the
-advantage they had gained, and to make the best of their way back to
-the main body under a double fire. On December 1st a renewed attack on
-both the 210 and 203 peaks was made, but with no success; and during
-the next few days the Japanese engineers were busy in extending their
-parallels and trenches, in order to allow the assailing troops to
-approach close to their objective before coming under fire; and while
-this work was going on the Russian positions were subjected to a
-furious and incessant bombardment. This bombardment reached its height
-on the morning of the 5th, when every preparation for the renewed
-assault had been completed. The Metre Hill, it is said, resembled a
-smoking volcano under the storm of shell that burst over it. This
-assault was to be a supreme effort, and every Japanese soldier who took
-part in it was conscious of the responsibility devolving on him, as,
-after saluting the regimental standards, he moved forward to take his
-place in the ranks that lined the parallels and advanced trenches.
-Early in the afternoon a simultaneous rush was made towards both of the
-crests of the Metre range. The moment was one of acute suspense, and
-with breathless anxiety the Japanese staff watched the far-off line of
-khaki-clad figures swarming up the hillside and climbing over the
-breastwork of the Russian trenches. The issue was not long in doubt.
-Meeting with scarcely any resistance, the storming parties swept on
-until they reached the crest of both peaks, and found themselves at
-last in undisputed possession of the long-coveted position. The
-explanation of this unexpectedly easy victory was not far to seek. The
-bombardment of the previous three days had been so severe that it had
-been impossible for the defenders to live under it. The 500-lb. shells
-from the howitzers had blown the place to fragments, and except for
-three men taken prisoners, every soul who manned the guns and trenches
-had been killed or forced to fly to the forts in the rear. Torn and
-mutilated bodies, mingled with piles of debris, lay about in hundreds,
-and the scene was rendered the more appalling by the presence of
-corpses, in every stage of decomposition, which had been lying on the
-ground since the attack on September 20th. But the Japanese were not
-left long in undisturbed possession of the ground they had won. General
-Stoessel, realizing as fully as his enemy the importance of 203 Metre
-Hill, made desperate efforts to recapture it. Six separate
-counter-assaults were delivered, and for hours the fiercest and most
-sanguinary hand-to-hand fighting raged. But the Japanese had stronger
-reinforcements than their adversaries, and their numbers and gallantry
-prevailed at last. After losing nearly 3,000 men, the Russian General
-realized that the case was hopeless, and left his enemy in possession
-of the stricken field. Immediately their position was assured the
-Japanese dragged up their guns and proceeded to pound the neighboring
-height Akasakayama, from which the Russians were forced to retire with
-all speed. While this substantial and, as it turned out, decisive
-victory was being won in the west, an equally determined assault was
-proceeding in the east against the great forts of Urlungshan,
-Sungshushan and East Keekwanshan. The Japanese carried their parallels
-within charging distance of the front of the forts, and then began to
-mine. Having reached a point beneath the counterscarp, they exploded
-their mines, and then rushed into the breach thus formed. But the
-Russians, though losing heavily by the explosions, were prepared for
-the emergency. They had machine guns placed in position to command the
-outer defences, and the assailants only gained the breach to be mown
-down by a hail of bullets. In this assault the Japanese had recourse to
-the traditional weapon of their ancient chivalry. Under the lead of
-Generals Nakamura and Saito, trained bodies of swordsmen of the famous
-Samurai, or warrior-caste, charged into the imminent deadly breach,
-endeavoring to close in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter with their
-stubborn foe. But even the traditional gallantry of Japan's knighthood
-was spent in vain in this enterprise, and the parapets of the forts
-remained inaccessible to assault. But the Japanese, whose resource in
-this protracted siege had only been equalled by their indomitable
-determination, had by this time learned the secret of success against
-such tremendous fortifications as those with which Port Arthur was
-begirt. Since gallantry and the sacrifice of life could not prevail,
-patience and ingenuity must be tried, and the engineers were called
-upon to carry further still the sapping operations which had already
-breached the outer works. As in the adoption of those deadly
-hand-grenades, which played so important a part in all the battles of
-the siege, so in the construction of parallels and the tunnelling of
-mines the world saw a return to the practice and methods of the 17th
-century. To find a counterpart to these huge forts of Port Arthur, with
-their scarps and counter-scarps, their glacis and cuponnieres and
-ravelins, one has to go back to the system of the great military
-engineer Vanban, who carried the science of fortification to its
-highest perfection. There was only one assailant to which these mighty
-works were not impregnable--and that assailant was the explosive power
-of dynamite. This resistless auxiliary the Japanese made speed to
-enlist in their service.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Fleet between Two Fires]
-
-Meanwhile, leaving the sappers to their insidious task on the east, the
-Japanese artillerists were swift to take advantage of the new position
-won for them on the west. From the summit of 203 Metre Hill, the whole
-town and harbor of Port Arthur lay revealed, and the remnant of the
-Russian fleet which lay sheltered there could no longer escape the
-searching attentions of the Japanese shells. The great howitzers,
-firing their 500 lb. projectiles, and the big naval guns were quickly
-moved into position, and, directed from the observation station on 203
-Metre Hill, they began to drop shot after shot on the helpless
-men-of-war. So perfect was the command, that it was possible for the
-besiegers to count every day the hits they made, and to specify the
-particular ships against which they had been recorded. One after
-another these mighty vessels succumbed to the incessant pounding that
-they received, and in a few days the four battleships _Retvisan_,
-_Peresviet_, _Pobieda_ and _Poltava_, and the armored cruiser _Bayan_
-were reported sunk or damaged so as to be unseaworthy. Only the
-_Sevastopol_ remained, and she temporarily escaped to the outer
-roadstead, with consequences that will be related presently. These
-ships were the real objective of the siege. Their disablement preserved
-Japan from her most serious menace; but next to that consummation,
-their capture was a point of primary importance. The Japanese naturally
-desired not only to render these powerful vessels useless to their
-adversaries, but to make them useful to themselves. Accordingly, having
-made sure that the ships were injured beyond the power of the Port
-Arthur docks to repair them, the besiegers were careful to inflict no
-further damage on them. By the 12th the Japanese gunners had attained
-their object, and the _Sevastopol_ was the only seaworthy survivor of
-the Russian squadron; and attention was forthwith turned to her from
-another direction. Admiral Togo, whose fleet had been cruising outside
-Port Arthur to shut off the natural avenue of escape for the wretched
-Russian fleet, now directed his torpedo-boats to attack the battleship
-_Sevastopol_ as she lay at her moorings in the outer roadstead. Her
-position was exactly that which the whole Pacific squadron had occupied
-on the fateful night of February 6th, when the first stroke of war was
-delivered, and Russia's best two battleships were put out of action.
-But this time the advantage of a surprise attack was out of the
-question. The commander of the _Sevastopol_ well knew what to expect,
-and had taken his precautions accordingly. An enormous boom had been
-constructed round the hull of the warship, and an elaborate system of
-netting had been hung from it to defy the approach of any torpedo. On
-the other hand, however, the fire of the shore batteries was no longer
-a substantial auxiliary in repelling torpedo attack; and the whole
-organization of the port defences was more or less impaired, if not
-destroyed. On the night of the 12th of December, and thrice again on
-the night of the 13th, the intrepid torpedo-craft of the Japanese fleet
-steamed into the roadstead and fired their terrible engines of
-destruction at the ill-fated battleship. But the boom proved on these
-occasions an impenetrable defence; so the attack was again
-renewed--this time in a blinding snowstorm. Two flotillas were engaged.
-The one lost its direction owing to the snow and the glare of the
-enemy's searchlights; but the second flotilla reached its mark, and
-discharged torpedoes at the _Sevastopol_, on which at least two took
-effect. The boats became separated in the storm, and one never returned
-to the main fleet--being either sunk by a shot or swamped by the very
-high seas that were running. To add to the difficulty of the
-enterprise, the weather was bitterly cold, and the decks of the vessels
-were coated with ice from the freezing of the spray that broke over
-them. When morning broke, those who had been engaged in this desperate
-enterprise were rewarded by the sight of the _Sevastopol_ perceptibly
-down at the stern. A few days later the vessel was so disabled that she
-had to be run aground. The spirit in which this daring attack was
-carried out may be gathered from the following extracts from Admiral
-Togo's official dispatches:--
-
-"While retreating, one torpedo boat was struck several times. Her
-commander, Lieutenant Nakahara, and five other men were killed. The
-boat lost her freedom of motion, and Lieutenant Nakahara's boat went to
-the rescue. Notwithstanding a heavy fire, she continued her effort to
-save the disabled vessel. When she had her in tow, the hawser was
-severed by the enemy's shells, and Lieutenant Nakahara's boat was also
-hit, and one man killed. Subsequently several shells hit and almost
-disabled Lieutenant Nakahara's boat, and forced him to abandon his
-sister ship, which was in a sinking condition. Lieutenant Nakahara,
-however, steamed back and rescued the crew, who were abandoning the
-boat. Commander Kawase's boat, of the same flotilla, was struck by a
-shell, which killed one man and wounded Lieutenant Takahashi and two
-sailors. Lieutenant Shoro's boat was also hit, one man being killed and
-five wounded. The boat was temporarily disabled, but the ships
-commanded by Lieutenants Wataehe and Mori stood by her and rescued all
-the men. The other vessels, bravely facing the enemy's fire, succeeded
-in delivering their attacks without sustaining damage.... It is a
-source of satisfaction that our torpedo attacks were delivered without
-the least confusion; each boat rendered material assistance to her
-comrades. The skill in manoeuvring and the bravery displayed by our
-officers and men inspire me with a deep feeling of satisfaction and
-confidence."
-
-[Sidenote: A Japanese Hero]
-
-Commander Yezoe's flotilla was under repairs when the attack was
-planned. He succeeded in putting one of his torpedo-boats into fighting
-condition, and steamed to the rendezvous, where he found that the other
-flotillas had already left. His entreaty that he should be permitted to
-join in the attack was granted, and steaming alone through the blinding
-snow, he succeeded in locating the _Sevastopol_. Approaching close
-enough to hear the Russians talking, he fired a torpedo, and then,
-going in still closer, he discharged another torpedo at the battleship.
-A shell from the _Sevastopol_ struck Commander Yezoe in the abdomen,
-and cut his body in two. His remains were saved and brought back to the
-fleet.
-
-[Sidenote: Tunnels and Hand Grenades]
-
-The complete destruction or disablement of the remnant of the Russian
-fleet seems to have had a dispiriting effect, as well it might have, on
-the defenders of Port Arthur, for from this moment the vigor of their
-resistance to assault perceptibly waned. In proportion the confidence
-and resolution of the Japanese increased, and before long their
-unremitting exertions were rewarded with another substantial success.
-Hitherto their assaults on the eastern defences of Port Arthur had met
-with but little success. In spite of all their sacrifices the great
-permanent forts stood firm; but by the middle of December their new
-methods of sapping and mining achieved the long-desired breach in the
-iron ring, and East Keekwanshan fort was captured. A mine had been
-tunnelled right up to the parapet of the fort, and in the afternoon of
-December 18th the mine was exploded, bringing down an avalanche of
-earth and masonry that filled up the ditch in its fall, and made a rude
-but practicable staircase up the deep counter-scarp into the interior
-of the fort. The Japanese troops, lying ready in their trenches, sprang
-forward to the breach before the garrison could recover from the
-discomfiture of the explosion, and poured into the inner works,
-flinging their terrible hand-grenades at all who opposed their
-impetuous charge. But after the first surprise, the Russians recovered
-and stood their ground, and by turning machine guns on the assailants,
-held them for a time at bay. While the issue still hung in the balance,
-however, General Samejuna, at the head of the Japanese reserves, flung
-himself into the fighting line, and a last great charge swept the fort
-clear of its dogged defenders. The fight lasted for no less than ten
-hours, and immediately it was won the Japanese entrenched themselves to
-make their hold secure. The attack, in this case, was entrusted to two
-bodies of volunteers, who, in calm anticipation of their probable fate,
-had fastened to their clothing badges of identification, so that the
-corpses should be recognizable in spite of the disfiguring effects of
-the explosion of hand-grenades. One-half of these devoted men charged
-from their trenches too eagerly after the mine had been fired, with the
-result that most of them were buried beneath the falling debris. The
-nature and extent of the mining operations which made the capture of
-East Keekwanshan practicable may be gathered from the fact that two
-tunnels 40 feet long had been dug out, and that both tunnels terminated
-in four branches, in each of which a separate mine was laid. Four
-quick-firers, five field guns, and four machine guns, and a large
-quantity of rifles and ammunition, were among the spoils that fell to
-the victors in this assault. Only twenty men of the garrison escaped
-down a covered way, which they blocked behind them by the explosion of
-mines. The fort captured, though not one of the strongest of those on
-the eastern ridge, was yet of great importance to the besiegers,
-because it opened the way to the greater forts beyond, and this success
-was speedily followed by others on the other side of Port Arthur.
-Operating between Pigeon Bay and the Metre range, the Japanese captured
-several minor heights on which the Russians had mounted guns. Thus they
-continued to advance steadily to the isolation of the western defences;
-and the only comfort which the anxious authorities in St. Petersburg
-could enjoy was that to be derived from a dispatch of General
-Kuropatkin, in which the Commander-in-Chief in Manchuria announced
-that, according to Chinese reports, the garrison of Port Arthur had
-recaptured 203 Metre Hill, "with the guns placed there by the enemy."
-The Chinese do nothing by halves, not even lying.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE ELEVEN-INCH MORTAR BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Capture Urlungshan]
-
-Undismayed by this announcement, the Japanese continued their
-investment with increasing severity, and on December 28th, or four
-weeks after the capture of 203 Metre Hill, they achieved the great
-triumph of wresting the mighty Urlungshan from its stubborn defenders.
-This, the greatest and most formidable of all the eastern forts of Port
-Arthur had defied many previous assaults, and had cost the army of the
-Mikado many hundreds of gallant lives. But like the northern fort of
-East Keekwanshan, it succumbed to the irresistible persuasion of
-dynamite. At 10 o'clock in the morning of December 28th, the mine which
-had been laid beneath the parapet was exploded, and the Japanese rushed
-in through the breach. Under the cover of artillery fire from the rear,
-the assaulters then constructed defensive works; and having thus
-established themselves and received reinforcements, they rushed forward
-again and captured the heavy guns of the fort. From this point another
-charge had to be made before the defenders could be driven out
-completely; but by half-past seven in the evening the task was
-accomplished, and the whole fort was in the hands of the Japanese,
-whose losses amounted to at least 1,000 men. The spoils included four
-big guns, seven smaller guns, thirty quick-firers, and two machine
-guns. The tunnels for the mines which were exploded under the parapet
-had to be cut through the solid rock, and no less than two tons of
-dynamite was used for the exploding charge. The result was that half
-the garrison of 500 men were killed on the spot. Next to the great
-Urlung fort, Sungshushan was the most formidable permanent work on the
-eastern ridge, and three days later this fell to the Japanese in much
-the same way. On the morning of the last day of the expiring year,
-dynamite mines were exploded beneath the parparet of the fort, and
-within an hour the whole fort was in the secure possession of the
-Japanese. Over 300 of the defenders were entombed in one of the
-galleries by the explosion, and of these only a half were rescued by
-the victors, the remainder perishing miserably. Other forts in the
-immediate vicinity fell almost immediately afterwards, and it became
-evident that the whole of the forts on the eastern ridge were
-practically doomed. Nothing now could stay the victorious onslaught of
-the Japanese, and the capitulation of Port Arthur, which but a little
-while before had seemed so remote and conjectural, now loomed in the
-immediate future. But even yet the world was hardly prepared for the
-end which was imminent. Up to the last, General Stoessel's dispatches
-had been confident and defiant, and it was thought to be quite likely
-that even yet he would reveal some hitherto unsuspected resources.
-
-[Sidenote: The Surrender of Port Arthur]
-
-In his somewhat rhetorical dispatches to the Czar, General Stoessel had
-repeatedly declared his determination to fight to the death, and
-although the signal successes of the Japanese during the month of
-December had evidently reduced very largely the resisting power of the
-garrison, the general expectation was that the hopeless struggle would
-still be carried on, and that Stoessel and his troops would in the last
-resort retire to the fastnesses of Liau-tie-shan. While deprecating
-this desperate counsel, as involving the useless shedding of blood, the
-world would have applauded its heroism. But as it happened, other
-counsels prevailed. On the morning of the first day of the new year
-General Nogi received a letter from General Stoessel proposing
-negotiations for capitulation, and the proposal was immediately
-accepted. But operations were not at once suspended. The Japanese
-attacked the same morning the Fort of Wantai on the East Ridge, and
-captured it after only slight resistance, while several of the forts in
-the vicinity were blown up by the defenders. In further recognition of
-the fact that all was lost save honor, the Russians then proceeded to
-explode mines on all the warships in the harbor, in order to ensure
-that they should be useless to the enemy into whose hands they were
-about to fall. Of the destroyer flotilla, only four vessels remained
-serviceable. These put to sea on the night of January 1st, and,
-managing to evade the blockading squadron, reached Chifu, where they
-were immediately dismantled. Then at last a truce was proclaimed, and
-for the first time for six long months the thunder of the great guns
-rolled no longer about Port Arthur. Immediately news of the proposed
-surrender was received in St. Petersburg, the Mikado magnanimously
-expressed his high appreciation of the loyalty and endurance displayed
-by General Stoessel on behalf of his country, and gave orders that all
-the honors of war should be extended to him.
-
-On January 2nd the capitulation agreement was signed, its essential
-terms being as follows:--
-
-The whole fortress, ships, arms, ammunition, military buildings,
-materials and other Government property were to be surrendered. The
-Japanese reserved free action if those objects were considered to have
-been destroyed or injured after the signing of the agreement. Plans of
-forts, torpedoes, mines, military and naval officers' lists, &c. were
-to be delivered over. Soldiers, sailors, volunteers and other officials
-were to be taken prisoners, but, in consideration of the brave defences
-they had made, military and naval officers and civil officials attached
-were to be allowed to bear arms, keep their private property of
-immediate necessity of daily life, and also to return to Russia upon
-parole not to take, till the end of the war, arms or action opposed to
-Japan's interest. Forts Itszshan, Antszshan and the others outstanding
-were to be surrendered to the Japanese before noon, January 3rd, as a
-guarantee.
-
-[Sidenote: "Great Sovereign! Forgive!"]
-
-The whole world was filled with sympathy and admiration for the gallant
-soldiers whose valor and endurance had withstood so long such heavy
-odds and such a fearful strain. These feelings were intensified by the
-lurid accounts which, now that concealment could no longer be of
-service, were published of the awful sufferings of the garrison during
-the later stages of the siege. An officer of one of the destroyers that
-escaped to Chifu on January 1st thus described the conditions which had
-compelled surrender:--
-
-"Port Arthur falls of exhaustion--exhaustion not only of ammunition but
-also of men. The remnant left was doing heroes' work for five days and
-five nights, and yesterday it had reached the limit of human endurance.
-In the casemates of the forts one saw everywhere faces black with
-starvation, exhaustion and nerve strain. You spoke to them and they did
-not answer, but stared dumbly in front of them. Lack of ammunition
-alone would not have prompted any attempt to arrange terms. Lack of
-ammunition has been common in the fortress during the past months. Many
-forts had nothing with which to return the fire of the enemy. The
-Russians sat in the casemates firing no more than one shot to the
-Japanese 200. Then, when the assault came, they repulsed the enemy with
-the bayonet. But the men themselves, feeding for three months on
-reduced rations, were so worn that it is marvelous that they stood the
-final strain so long."
-
-In his last dispatches, written just before the capitulation, General
-Stoessel himself said:--
-
-"The position of the fortress is becoming very painful. Our principal
-enemies are scurvy, which is mowing down the men, and 11-inch shells,
-which know no obstacle and against which there is no protection. There
-only remains a few persons who have not been attacked by scurvy. We
-have taken all possible measures, but the disease is spreading. The
-passive endurance of the enemy's bombardment with 11-inch shells, the
-impossibility of reply for want of ammunition, the outbreak of scurvy,
-and the loss of a mass of officers--all these causes diminish daily the
-defence.
-
-"The tale of losses of higher officers is an indication of the enormous
-losses which we have sustained. Of ten generals, two, Kondrachenko and
-Tserpitsky, have been killed; one, Raznatovsky, is dead; two are
-wounded, myself and General Nadeine; and one Gorbatovsky, is suffering
-from contusions. The percentage of other superior officers who were
-killed or died of disease or were wounded several times is enormous.
-Many companies are commanded by ensigns, and on an average each company
-is at present composed of not more than sixty men."
-
-It was stated that of the original garrison of 35,000 men, no less than
-11,000 had been killed, while 16,000 were sick or wounded, and 8,000
-remained in the forts, of whom, however, 2,000 were unable to fight.
-
-These are the words in which General Stoessel announced to the Czar the
-surrender of Russia's "impregnable stronghold":--
-
-"Great Sovereign! Forgive! We have done all that was humanly possible.
-Judge us, but be merciful. Eleven months of ceaseless fighting have
-exhausted our strength. A quarter only of the defenders, and one-half
-of these invalids, occupy twenty-seven versts of fortifications without
-support and without intervals for even the briefest repose. The men are
-reduced to shadows."
-
-Even the Japanese were at first impressed with the same view of the
-situation, for they reported that of 25,000 combatants, 20,000 were
-sick or wounded.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Occupy the Fortress]
-
-The greatest good feeling prevailed between the two armies after the
-surrender had been completed. The soldiers fraternized freely, and the
-Japanese did all in their power to deprive the situation of all trace
-of humiliation for their vanquished enemy. General Stoessel and General
-Nogi lunched together and exchanged fraternal compliments, but the
-bearing of the two men was strongly contrasted. There was a note of
-theatricality in the Russian's conduct which was significant. Having
-mounted his favorite charger and shown its paces to the Japanese
-victor, he begged to be allowed to present it to him--a proposal which
-General Nogi put by with the matter-of-fact observation that the horse
-already belonged to the Japanese Army, and that he could not accept it
-as a personal gift. But still all the world rang with praises of the
-heroic Russian garrison; and the German Emperor, with characteristic
-impetuosity, constituted himself a sort of supreme umpire, and with a
-great flourish of trumpets presented to the leaders of the two
-contesting forces in this historic siege the Prussian Order, "Pour le
-Merite." The Russians marched out of Port Arthur on the 7th of January,
-and the Japanese entered on the following day; and then the reports as
-to the condition of Port Arthur suddenly underwent a remarkable change.
-It slowly leaked out that the surrendered force amounted not to 20,000,
-most of whom were _hors de combat_ from wounds or disease, but to
-48,000, of whom 878 officers and 32,000 men were still available for
-the defence of the fortress. There were also discovered no less than
-80,000 tons of coal and enough rice and flour to provision the garrison
-for two months. The troops, moreover, discovered no sign of starvation
-or exhaustion. They were found to be in splendid condition and well
-fed. Even the ammunition was very far from being exhausted. For the
-guns in the forts 82,670 rounds remained; 30,000 kilogrammes of powder;
-and 2,266,800 cartridges for rifles. "There are no signs of privation,"
-wrote one correspondent. "The surrender is inexplicable." The town
-itself showed few signs of bombardment; and the only serious deficiency
-in stores was in meat and medical comforts. Then the sinister report
-came that the real weakness of the garrison was in the conduct of many
-of the regimental officers, who habitually applied for leave when
-attacks were expected, and left the command to sergeants. It was also
-declared that General Stoessel, far from having been coerced by his
-staff into surrender, had himself overridden their protests against
-capitulation. The real hero of the siege, it appeared from the same
-account, was not General Stoessel at all, but General Kondrachenko, who
-was killed by a shell on December 18th. After that calamity the spirits
-of the garrison never recovered. One of the Russian Admirals who was
-made prisoner at Port Arthur is responsible for this version of the
-facts, and his view was summarized in the following words: "It is
-difficult for a Russian officer to talk about the end. It was worse
-than a mistake, it was a disgrace. The fortress could easily have held
-out another month. We had food and ammunition sufficient for that
-period, and if Kondrachenko had been alive we should have held out for
-months longer. In Kondrachenko the garrison lost not only a leader, but
-the one man who had the power, through his tremendous earnestness, to
-control General Stoessel."
-
-[Sidenote: Discreditable Surrender]
-
-This view, startling and disconcerting as it is, was strongly confirmed
-by Dr. Morrison, the famous Peking correspondent of the London _Times_,
-to whom special facilities for inspecting Port Arthur were afforded
-immediately after the surrender had taken place. He was immensely
-impressed with the stupendous strength of the positions held by the
-Russians, and of the incredible heroism displayed in their capture, but
-he could find no explanation for the surrender. There were, he said,
-25,000 able-bodied soldiers, and several hundred officers unscathed by
-wound or disease. Only 200 officers were killed all through the siege,
-and of those found in hospital a number were undoubted malingerers. As
-to the failure of ammunition, Dr. Morrison pointed out that thousands
-of rounds were fired off aimlessly for two days before the surrender,
-that thousands more were thrown into the harbor, and that yet a large
-quantity was found in store by the Japanese. The largest of the naval
-magazines was discovered "full to the roof" with all kinds of
-ammunition. Food was plentiful and the new town was uninjured by
-bombardment.
-
-"Those who have witnessed the condition of the fortress," Dr. Morrison
-summed up, "contrasting the evidence of their eyes with the astounding
-misrepresentations of General Stoessel, had their sympathy turned into
-derision, believing that no more discreditable surrender has been
-recorded in history."
-
-[Illustration: THE EVACUATION OF PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: The End of the Siege of Port Arthur]
-
-If it is difficult to disbelieve statements of this kind coming from
-several independent and well-accredited sources, it is painful to have
-to accept them. But whatever record leap to light, nothing can detract
-from the splendid gallantry and dogged tenacity of the Russian common
-soldiers who fought in a manner worthy of the greatest traditions of
-their race. Thanks to their qualities, such a redoubtable foe as the
-Japanese had been held at bay for six months, and his victory had only
-been obtained at a cost of life truly appalling. Officially the
-casualties of the besieging army were put at 55,000 from first to last;
-but this number was probably very largely exceeded. Heavy as was the
-price that had been paid, however, it was not too heavy for the
-advantage obtained. First there was the satisfaction to the national
-sentiment of pride in recapturing the fortress which, after having once
-been won by force of arms, had been filched away by diplomatic
-intrigue. Next there was the wresting from the enemy of the emblem of
-his dominion in the Far East, and the only base on which his naval
-power could rest. The loss of Port Arthur was to Russia not only the
-loss of a great fortress but the denial of all access to the sea.
-Finally, and most immediately important, was the capture in a more or
-less battered condition, of five battleships and two first-class
-cruisers, which might at any time have helped to turn the balance of
-naval power against Japan. An examination of the derelict warships
-revealed the fact that in spite of all the hammering they had received,
-four might possibly be repaired and added to the navy of Japan. The
-_Sevastopol_, the _Retvisan_, and the _Pobieda_ were injured beyond
-hope; but the _Peresviet_, the _Poltava_, the _Pallada_ and the _Bayan_
-were possibly recoverable. So ended one of the most memorable sieges in
-the history of the world--to prove that, in spite of all the inventions
-of scientific warfare, no defences that can be constructed by man are
-impregnable to man when he unites, like the Japanese soldier, the
-qualities of fearlessness, discipline, patriotism and high-training.
-
-[Illustration: AFTER TWELVE MONTHS.
-
-The battle of the Sha-Ho, October 10 to 18, began by a Russian advance,
-but ended in a victory for Japan. The rival armies then settled down
-into winter quarters, and, save for an occasional skirmish, remained
-quiet until the end of January, when the Russians made a futile attempt
-to turn the Japanese left at Sandepu. The siege of Port Arthur,
-meantime, was carried on vigorously. High Hill (203 Metre Hill) was
-captured on November 30, East Keekwan Fort on December 18, and
-Erlungshan ten days later. On the last day of the year Sungshushan was
-taken, and on January 1 the fortress surrendered.
-
-The shaded portion shows the Japanese advance.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-
-  End of First Year--Changes of a Year--Year of Disaster for
-    Russia--The Cause of the War--Japan Acts Swiftly--The Land
-    Campaign--Battle of Liao-yang--Battle of Sha-ho River--The
-    Naval Campaign--Vladivostock Ships Defeated--Siege of Port
-    Arthur--Port Arthur Surrendered--A Campaign Analysis--Gaining
-    Mastery of Sea--Japan's Main Ambition--The Rival Armies--The
-    Cost in Men--The Cost in Dollars--The Cost in
-    Ships--International Incidents--Lessons of the War--Chronology
-    of the First Year of War.
-
-
-[Sidenote: End of First Year]
-
-At this point it may be well to pause long enough to review briefly and
-summarize what had been accomplished in a year of the most tremendous
-fighting the world has ever known. One year of the Japan-Russia War had
-gone into history. On February 5, 1904, diplomatic relations between
-the two nations came suddenly to an end. On February 7, Japan seized
-Masanpho, Korea, as a military base, and on February 8 and 9 were
-delivered Togo's memorable blows to the Russian Asiatic fleet at Port
-Arthur. Thus the curtain went up on what since has proved one of the
-world's greatest war dramas.
-
-The record had been one of uninterrupted triumph for Japan. The year
-had yielded a score of battles, of greater or less importance. The
-story of each had been defeat for Russia. Judged by the objects for
-which Japan entered the struggle, her task was practically complete.
-But Russia, humbled again and again, remained obdurate. The war was not
-ended and could not be ended, declared those who seemed to speak with
-authority, until the tide had turned and Russia was mistress of the
-East, as she believed herself a year before.
-
-What changes had followed Japan's victories, Russia's defeats?
-
-[Sidenote: Changes of a Year]
-
-A year before Russia in addition to her own vast Siberian territory
-across all of Asia to the Pacific, was lessee of Port Arthur and the
-extremity of the Liaotung promontory. Port Arthur had been rebuilt and
-fortified, and the investments plus the value of the fleet in its
-harbor was fully $270,000,000. Dalny had been built and fortified as an
-auxiliary harbor to accommodate developing commerce. Here $100,000,000
-had been expended. From these vantage points Russia looked out over
-China and Japan and claimed dominance over the Orient. Her fleet stood
-sponsor for the claim. For the defenses of Port Arthur impregnability
-was claimed. It seemed that the Slav had completed a peaceable conquest
-and was immovably intrenched, invulnerable against war, irresistible
-for commercial gain.
-
-Further eastward her agents had penetrated to the northern boundaries
-of Korea. Slowly the Slav with his land-thirst was learning to covet
-the Hermit Kingdom. Commercial domination, political preponderance,
-each spreading in force and effectiveness, marked the first steps in
-this direction.
-
-[Sidenote: Year of Disaster for Russia]
-
-This was a year before. A year later Japan's flag was flying over Port
-Arthur and Dalny. Russia's fleet was destroyed. Her armies had been
-driven step by step northward 250 miles to the Sha-ho River. Japan was
-master in Korea. A protectorate had been firmly established, and
-Russia's dream of predominance there had probably been dissipated for
-all time. Japan's fleet was supreme in the Orient. With Russia's
-covetous eyes no longer looking out from Golden Hill toward Pekin,
-toward Seoul, toward Tokio, Japan had come into her own again.
-
-This was the situation as the first year of the war drew to a close.
-Japan's task, on the face of it, seemed accomplished.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cause of the War]
-
-Russia's aggressive policy in Manchuria and growing prestige in Korea
-alarmed Japan. Events which in February, 1904, culminated in war began
-ten years before when Port Arthur, won by Japan from China, was wrested
-away and returned to China by intervention of the Powers, notably
-Russia. The leasing of Port Arthur and vicinity to Russia and the
-granting of railroad concessions completed the wrong which rankled in
-the heart of Japan. Finally the Mikado's Government proposed to Russia
-a settlement by diplomacy of questions of paramountcy and trade
-privileges in Manchuria and Korea. Japan proffered recognition of
-paramountcy in Manchuria for Russia in return for preponderance by
-Japan in Korea. The "open door" in each territory was proposed with
-right of railroad extension through Korea to join the Manchurian and
-thence the Siberian roads.
-
-Russia refused to discuss her attitude in Manchuria and juggled with
-words relating to Korea. Negotiations ended when it became obvious that
-Japan's demands were not to be granted.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Acts Swiftly]
-
-War was the alternative, and Japan acted swiftly. On February 8 and 9,
-at Port Arthur and Chemulpo, the Japanese navy dealt the first blows.
-Korea was invaded by an army at once, and the march to the Yalu was
-begun. Manchuria was invaded after the victory at the Yalu of May 1. A
-dual campaign from that moment was developed. The supreme object was
-the capture of Port Arthur. To facilitate that task the Russian armies
-in Manchuria were prevented from marching to the relief of the garrison
-there. Blow after blow was administered by the Japanese armies,
-culminating in the great battles of Liaoyang and the Sha-ho River, each
-a disastrous defeat for the Russians, each to be numbered among the
-greatest military struggles of history.
-
-[Sidenote: The Land Campaign]
-
-Chronologically, the battle succeeding that of the Yalu, May 1, was
-fought at Pitsewo, May 5. Here the second Japanese army defeated the
-only Russian force opposing an advance on Port Arthur, until at Nanshan
-Hill and Kinchow, May 26-27, the garrison of the fortress was
-encountered in its outermost position. After the defeat at Nanshan Hill
-the Russians withdrew to the outer perimeter of Port Arthur, giving up
-Dalny without a struggle. At Vafangow, June 14-15, the Russian General
-Stackelberg, who had been sent southward by General Kuropatkin to raise
-the siege at Port Arthur, was defeated. His retreat northward amounted
-practically to a rout. The Japanese victory, as succeeding events
-proved, completely isolated Port Arthur, its defenders and the
-besiegers, and the great drama of the siege went on without even an
-attempt at interference on the part of Russia's Manchurian army.
-
-The Japanese fought a brilliant campaign of a score of battles between
-June 17 and July 31, which compelled the concentration of the Russians
-at Liaoyang, and precipitated the great battle there. Motien Pass was
-taken by General Kukori on June 17.
-
-On June 30-31, after a tremendous struggle in the mountainous region
-southeast from Liaoyang, Yangze Pass, likewise, was captured. The
-Japanese armies, through these defiles poured into the vast basin
-drained by the Liao River, and at Haicheng dealt Kuropatkin a severe
-blow, which drove his lines northward to Liaoyang and compelled the
-evacuation of Niuchwang.
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of Liaoyang]
-
-Haichang was a prelude to Liaoyang. After fierce fighting, the actual
-struggle before this strongly fortified position began on August 25.
-The Japanese army numbered 200,000 men against a probable 165,000
-Russians. Generals Oku and Nodzu delivered fierce and incessant frontal
-attacks from the south, while General Kuroki made a wide turning
-movement north to encircle Kuropatkin and to cut off his retreat to
-Mukden. The Russian General ultimately was compelled to meet this
-turning movement by withdrawing his entire army across the Taitse
-River, abandoning Liaoyang to the Japanese. General Kuroki was checked
-and the Russian army was extricated from a grave predicament in a
-masterly manner after a memorable retreat and rearguard battle of more
-than fifty miles. The battle had been designed as a crushing blow to
-the Russians, and would have proved such had Kuroki's turning movement
-been completely successful. As it turned out the Japanese had won a
-costly but indecisive victory. The Japanese losses are estimated at
-30,000 men. The Russian losses were about 20,000 men.
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of Sha-ho River]
-
-General Kuropatkin fell back to Mukden and there rested and reinforced
-his army. On October 4, he began a forward movement against the
-Japanese, which resulted in a new disaster to his army, the battle of
-Sha-ho River, October 8-18. The result of this long, sanguinary
-struggle was again highly indecisive. The Russian advance was checked
-at the Yentai mines, and thereafter Kuropatkin was forced step by step
-to the Sha-ho River. After ten days of battle human endurance reached
-its limit. Almost face to face, the exhausted armies halted.
-Subsequently the opposing lines stretched out along a line, generally
-northeast-southwest, for a distance of forty-five miles. The Russian
-army was reinforced to about 250,000 men, while the Japanese army
-numbered perhaps 300,000 men with reinforcements from Japan and from
-Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: The Naval Campaign]
-
-The opening of the war found the effective ships of Russia's Asiatic
-fleet divided among Port Arthur, Vladivostock and Chemulpo. In the
-battle of Chemulpo, February 8-9, the _Variag_ and _Korietz_ were sunk,
-narrowing naval interest to Port Arthur and Vladivostock. On August 10
-was fought the greatest naval battle of the war. The Russian fleet off
-Port Arthur was defeated and dispersed, and Vice-Admiral Witoft was
-killed on the bridge of the _Czarevitch_. The fragment of the fleet
-which returned to Port Arthur never again assumed the aggressive, while
-from that date until the surrender of the fortress Togo's squadron had
-only blockade duty.
-
-Other naval operations there consisted of desperate dashes to the
-harbor entrance by Japan's smaller craft and the sinking of merchant
-ships in the entrance to the harbor. A sortie by Admiral Makaroff
-resulted only in the flight of the Russians to port without giving
-battle. The disaster to the _Petropavlovsk_ happened just as the flag
-ship sped under the guns of Tiger's Tail and Golden Hill. Japanese
-credited the destruction of the ship to their mine-laying operations.
-
-[Illustration: COSSACKS IN RETREAT AFTER A RECONNAISSANCE NEAR
-LIAO-YANG.]
-
-[Sidenote: Vladivostock Ships Defeated]
-
-The Vladivostock squadron was defeated August 14 in the Sea of Japan.
-The cruiser _Rurik_ was sunk. The two other ships of the squadron
-ultimately reached Vladivostock riddled with shells. Repairs were said
-to have been completed. A renewal of the naval campaign would probably
-involve an attack on the sole survivors of the Russian fleet. A final
-naval engagement was the sinking of the cruiser _Novik_, of the Port
-Arthur Squadron, which escaped after the battle of August 10. Cruisers
-of Kamimura's squadron overtook her off Kamchatka, and the ship was
-beached there, a complete wreck after a fourteen hours' battle. The
-last act of the naval campaign was the destruction of the Russian
-battleship _Sevastopol_ outside the harbor of Port Arthur. The
-_Sevastopol_ took refuge under the Tiger's Tail. Repeated dashes were
-made by Japanese torpedo boat flotillas and the ship was riddled. Her
-final destruction, however, was accomplished by the Russians, who mined
-the ship to prevent possibility of salvage on the fall of Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Siege of Port Arthur]
-
-Japan's greatest and only decisive achievement had been the taking of
-Port Arthur. The investment and actual opening of the siege began May
-30, when the Japanese occupied Dalny, with their lines spreading
-westward to Louisa Bay, completely across the Liao-tung Peninsula.
-Between May 30 and November 30 the Japanese were engaged in taking
-position from which the attack on the main defenses of the fortress
-could be directed. It was tedious work. Probably between 30,000 and
-40,000 Japanese lives were sacrificed. In the meantime Fort Kuropatkin,
-an outer defense north of the Urlung Mountain group of forts, had been
-captured, while on the west the Japanese, after tremendous efforts, had
-stormed and taken 203-Metre Hill. The final assault was delivered from
-saps which had been driven through limestone, up the steep slopes of
-the hill, a task of enormous difficulty which compelled the victors to
-share laurels with the engineers who at prodigious cost in men and
-labor made the assault possible. The capture of 203-Meter Hill gave the
-Japanese an observatory which looked down on most of Port Arthur. Their
-artillery, largely 11-inch howitzers, no longer fired at random.
-Sighting was scientifically directed from the vantage point. Within a
-week the entire Russian fleet had been destroyed and the whole city lay
-at the mercy of the irresistible 11-inch shells flung over the
-mountains with unerring aim.
-
-From Fort Kuropatkin on the north the miner and sapper honeycombed the
-mountain sides with zig-zag trenches, which inched toward the crests,
-slowly, indeed, but surely. Outer works, one after the other, fell, and
-higher and higher the Japanese lines crept upward toward the
-fort-crowned summits. The climax came December 30. Vast mines under the
-main Urlungshan fort were fired. Before the smoke cleared the Japanese
-were flinging themselves over the shattered walls. In one grand climax
-to all the bloody work of the siege they annihilated the defenders of
-the fort and finally flung their flag from its battlements. With
-Urlungshan on the north and 203-Metre Hill on the west in their hands,
-Port Arthur lay completely at the mercy of the besiegers. The entire
-northeastern groups of forts fell in a day.
-
-[Sidenote: Port Arthur Surrendered]
-
-Then came the end. On January 2, General Stoessel surrendered Port
-Arthur to General Nogi. The city, forts and fleet, represented a value
-of $270,000,000. The cost of the siege to Japan was $100,000,000. More
-than 30,000 men were killed, while 70,000 who fell, wounded, increased
-Japan's casualties to 100,000 men. Russia's original garrison of 38,000
-men was cut down during the eight months by 11,500 killed and 17,500
-wounded.
-
-The terms of the surrender were deemed liberal. All officers were
-offered freedom in return for their parole. Others were taken to Japan
-as prisoners of war.
-
-[Sidenote: A Campaign Analysis]
-
-Following the movements of the Japanese armies and fleets, it was easy
-to recognize the objects in view from the start, and to see that the
-campaign had been conducted with singular fidelity to the plan adopted
-at the beginning. The results were quite as complete as could
-reasonably have been looked for. There can be no doubt that a year
-before Russia had no serious thought of war; her policy was clearly one
-of bluff and diplomatic evasion and delay. With great foresight the
-Japanese Government had seen that war was inevitable and the sooner it
-came the better would be the position of Japan in the struggle for
-supremacy in the East. Her preparations had been made as carefully and
-completely as those of Bismarck when he chose his time to force war
-upon Louis Napoleon; and she moved with even greater celerity and skill
-than the Germans showed in the attack upon France.
-
-[Sidenote: Gaining Mastery of Sea]
-
-Japan's initial problem was to gain the mastery of the sea at the
-outset as an absolute essential; without it the employment of land
-forces would either be impossible or carried on at an enormous and
-perhaps fatal risk in the transportation of troops from the Japanese
-islands to the mainland Asia, or in supplying and reinforcing them when
-landed. The sea must be cleared of hostile warships before the war
-could really begin; and the complete success with which this problem
-was solved at surprisingly small cost rivals the brilliant achievements
-of the British navy which deprived the first Napoleon of any chance of
-success in war outside the European mainland, ruined his campaign in
-Egypt and made hopeless an attack upon the British Islands.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Main Ambition]
-
-Reviewing the results of the whole campaign, we can see that the main
-objective was the capture of Port Arthur; this largely from the
-military point of view, still more largely from the standpoint of
-sentiment, national pride, prestige with the world at large, and from
-considerations of statecraft. Japan had taken Port Arthur once before,
-from China, and was obliged to relinquish it to Russia. Its recapture
-this time no doubt meant more to the Mikado's subjects than any other
-result of the war; whatever else might happen, that was triumph enough.
-
-To the outside world Japan could hardly present a more striking proof
-of her prowess than the reduction of this fortress supposed to be
-impregnable; while in the final settlement at the end of the war its
-possession would mean an immensely important diplomatic point of
-vantage. From the strictly military viewpoint, the loss of Port Arthur
-took away from Russia the only hope of an effective naval base to which
-her Baltic fleet could safely resort, and from which she might hope to
-rebuild her shattered sea power. Vladivostock being manifestly
-ineffective, from its position to the north of Japan, as well as
-because it is ice-bound during a great part of the year. Oyama's
-campaign is thus seen to have been chiefly to give General Nogi a free
-hand at Port Arthur, keeping Kuropatkin well away from the chance of
-relieving the fortress. If the Russian army could be destroyed or
-seriously crippled, so much the better; but Oyama had evidently been
-quite content to take no risk of disaster to himself by trying to do
-too much.
-
-This seems to explain the apparent slowness and the ineffectiveness of
-his movements at times. He seems to have been satisfied to keep
-Kuropatkin simply in a position where he could do nothing to raise the
-siege of Port Arthur.
-
-The avowed purpose of Japan in beginning war was simply to drive Russia
-out of the Chinese dominions, which it had agreed to evacuate in the
-autumn of 1903, but had failed to carry out the agreement. The first
-year of war ended with the accomplishment of that purpose in as forward
-a state as could have been reasonably expected.
-
-[Sidenote: The Rival Armies]
-
-It is estimated that during the year Japan in all has had 490,000
-fighting men in her armies and navy. Of these 100,000 invested,
-besieged and captured Port Arthur. Three hundred thousand made up the
-armies in Manchuria. Sixty thousand are along lines of communication
-and in garrison at strategic points, while naval forces at bases and
-with the fleets numbered about 30,000. On land Japan's united armies
-were commanded by Field Marshal Marquis Oyama, while right, centre and
-left--each a completely organized army--were commanded respectively by
-Generals Kuroki, Nodzu and Oku.
-
-The Port Arthur army, then dwindled from 100,000 men to a mere garrison
-and police force, was commanded by General Nogi.
-
-The united Russian armies were commanded by General Kuropatkin.
-Prominent divisional leaders were Generals Stakelberg, Gripenberg,
-Linevitch and Mistchenko, the latter commanding the Cossack forces.
-Port Arthur was defended by General Stoessel, then homeward bound on
-parole to undergo court-martial, though commanding the world's
-admiration for the defense of Port Arthur.
-
-At sea Admiral Togo and Vice-Admiral Kamimura had led the Japanese
-fleets to uninterrupted victory. Russia's naval commanders had been
-Vice-Admirals Makaroff, Wirenius and Witzhdoft, while Rear Admiral
-Rozndestvensky commanded the Baltic squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cost in Men]
-
-The year's fighting had been enormously costly in men, and only
-estimates could be given. The total number of killed was estimated at
-125,000, of whom 65,000 were Japanese and 60,000 were Russians. The
-wounded numbered approximately 265,000, and with the missing the total
-casualties were swelled to 400,000 men. Of the wounded a very large
-percentage recovered. The Japanese losses exceeded the Russian,
-particularly at Port Arthur and in the battle of Liaoyang, the Russians
-being protected by fortifications which the Japanese attacked from the
-open. At the battle of the Sha-ho River the casualties were nearly
-even, the armies fighting under the same conditions. The accuracy of
-the Japanese artillery and rifle fire is accountable for the fact that
-the Russian loss is not far less, proportionately.
-
-Of casualties among her more prominent leaders, Japan has been
-remarkably free, while Russia has suffered heavily. Among her fallen
-leaders were Generals Rutkozsky, Krondrachenko, said to have been the
-real defender of Port Arthur, and General Count Kellar. Admiral
-Makaroff went down with the _Petropavlovsk_ at the entrance to the
-harbor of Port Arthur; Admiral Witoft was killed on his flagship in the
-naval battle of August 10. A loss in which all the world shared was
-that of the Artist Vassili Verestchagin, who perished with Makaroff on
-the _Petropavlovsk_.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cost in Dollars]
-
-The actual outlay of both nations for the first year of the war was
-about $800,000,000. Russian expenses were $500,000,000 and Japan's
-$350,000,000. To Russia's losses must be added the value of
-fortifications, property of all kinds, stores and munitions captured by
-Japan at Port Arthur, Dalny, Niuchwang, Haicheng and Liao-yang. These
-represent an outlay of approximately $500,000,000, in which is included
-the value of the ships destroyed in the harbor of Port Arthur. Russia's
-provisions for war expenses to the end of 1905 comprehended a total
-expenditure of $850,000,000. Japan's total outlay for two years was
-estimated to fall $200,000,000 below that figure. Both countries had
-negotiated foreign loans running from seven to twenty-five years, so
-that another generation would still feel the financial burden of the
-war then in progress.
-
-[Sidenote: The Cost in Ships]
-
-The war had spelled complete disaster for Russia's Asiatic fleet except
-for two patched ships of problematical effectiveness then at
-Vladivostock. Russia had lost thirty-five vessels of war of all
-classes. Of these the chief were: Battleships--_Petropavlovsk_,
-destroyed by mine at Port Arthur; _Retvisan_, _Pobieda_, _Poltava_, and
-_Peresviet_, sunk by guns from 203-Metre Hill; _Czarevitch_, disarmed
-at Shanghai; _Sevastopol_, blown up by the Russians at the fall of Port
-Arthur.
-
-Cruisers--_Boyarin_, _Bayan_, _Pallada_, _Varyag_, _Rurik_, _Rossia_,
-_Lena_, _Novik_, _Giliak_, _Bogatyr_, sunk, beached or destroyed;
-_Askold_, _Diana_, _Gromboi_, disarmed in Chinese ports.
-
-Gunboats, etc.--_Korietz_ and _Yenesei_ and twelve others including
-torpedo boats and destroyers, destroyed.
-
-Japan's losses in battle were confined to torpedo-boats and
-torpedo-boat destroyers, sixteen of such craft having been destroyed in
-attacks on Port Arthur. The battleship _Hatsuse_ was sunk, as were also
-the cruisers _Usiyako_, _Saiyen_ and _Yoshino_. Three transports were
-sunk by ships of the Vladivostock squadron.
-
-[Sidenote: International Incidents]
-
-On the outbreak of the war Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, proposed to the
-Powers that, jointly, they agree to guarantee the neutrality of China
-and call upon the belligerents to restrict the war zone accordingly.
-Counter charges of violations had been made by Russia and Japan. It was
-conceded that China had earnestly striven to fulfil her obligations
-under trying circumstances.
-
-On July 17 Russian auxiliary cruisers stopped, searched and seized
-neutral ships in the Red Sea, precipitating a grave crisis in which
-Great Britain took a conspicuous part. On representations of the
-British Foreign Office, Russia released captive ships and recalled the
-ships. The fact that they had traversed the Dardanelles for a warlike
-purpose was the basis of the protest.
-
-On October 22, the Russian Baltic fleet, passing through the North Sea
-en route to the Indian Ocean, fired on the Hull fishing fleet. Two men
-were killed, a number were wounded and one trawler was sunk.
-
-[Illustration: THE GARRISON OF PORT ARTHUR LEAVING THE FORTRESS.]
-
-The firing was alleged to have resulted from an attack on the Russian
-ships by Japanese torpedo-boats. After a week, in which war seemed
-certain, the question of culpability was entrusted by consent of both
-Governments to an international commission, to sit at Paris. A German
-vessel was also fired on by the Russian fleet, but Germany accepted
-Russian explanations and the owners were indemnified.
-
-[Sidenote: Lessons of the War]
-
-Some of the practical lessons gleaned from the actual warfare were
-these:
-
-(1) That torpedo-boats were craft of immense possibilities, capable of
-even greater development.
-
-(2) That the destroyer had proved a failure; of the 24 vessels of this
-type in and before Port Arthur not one made a hit.
-
-(3) That battleships were necessary to successful naval warfare.
-
-(4) That "team work" in armies, as exemplified in the Japanese
-movements, was a matter of primary importance.
-
-(5) That short range fighting was decidedly not a thing of the past, as
-had been believed.
-
-(6) That the use of hand grenades promised to introduce a new and
-particularly horrid form of attack and defense.
-
-(7) That modern fortifications were impregnable to direct assault,
-however effective a preliminary bombardment.
-
-(8) That the success or failure of sieges of modernly fortified
-positions depended upon the effectiveness of the engineer, miner and
-sapper.
-
-(9) That the floating mine was an instrument of destruction against
-which the most powerful ship was helpless.
-
-(10) Wounds inflicted by modern arms heal readily. While the war had
-demonstrated anew that one man in five was killed in battle, it had
-shown that an amazing proportion of the wounded were soon back on the
-firing line. The clean wound of the steel rifle projectile yielded to
-treatment even when vital organs were pierced. The medical records of
-the war were among its most notable features.
-
-[Sidenote: Chronology of First Year of War]
-
-February 5--Japanese and Russian representatives at St. Petersburg and
-Tokio given their passports.
-
-February 7--Japanese seize Masanpho, Korea as a troop base.
-
-February 8-9--_Varyag_ and _Korietz_ destroyed in Chemulpo harbor, and
-Togo attacks Port Arthur fleet.
-
-February 10--Czar declares war. Japanese occupy Seoul.
-
-February 11--Japan declares war. The United States announces neutrality.
-
-February 12--Sinking of the Russian mineboat _Yenesei_; 96 lives lost
-
-March 1--Kamimura's squadron bombards Vladivostock.
-
-March 27--Kuropatkin reaches Mukden. Japanese take Chongu.
-
-May 1--Kuroki crosses the Yalu, driving back Sassulitch.
-
-May 4--Japanese take Feng-hwang-cheng.
-
-May 5--Japanese land at Pitsewo and begin to invest Port Arthur.
-
-May 11--Russians evacuate Dalny, destroying the town.
-
-May 26-27--Battles of Nanshan Hill and Kinchow; loss, 5130.
-
-May 30--Japanese occupy Port Dalny.
-
-June 14-15--Oku defeats Stackleberg at Vafangow; loss, 11,000.
-
-June 17--Battle of Motien Pass; Russians driven back.
-
-June 18--Japanese take Kinsan Heights.
-
-June 30-31--Battle of Haicheng; loss, 5700.
-
-July 17--Russian cruisers seize neutral vessels in the Red Sea.
-
-July 25--Russian forces driven out of Niuchwang.
-
-July 31--Kuroki wins the Yangze Pass; General Count Keller killed.
-
-August 10--Sorties from Port Arthur harbor. Russian fleet dispersed and
-    in part destroyed. Vice Admiral Witoft killed.
-
-August 14--Kamimura defeats Vladivostock squadron; _Rurik_ sunk.
-
-August 17--Stoessel refuses to surrender Port Arthur.
-
-August 30-September 4--Japanese, under Oyama, defeat Kuropatkin at
-    Liao-yang; 365,000 men engaged; loss, 35,000.
-
-September 11--Baltic fleet sails from Cronstadt under Rozhdestvensky.
-
-October 8-18--Kuroki defeats Kuropatkin at Sha-ho River. Total
-    casualties, 61,000, with 23,000 killed.
-
-October 20--Armies go into winter quarters in and before Mukden.
-
-October 25--Kuropatkin replaces Alexeieff in supreme command.
-
-October 22--"The Doggerbank outrage". Two British fishermen killed.
-
-November 30--Japanese take 203-Metre Hill by storm, losing 12,000.
-
-December 30--Japanese capture Urlungshan fort.
-
-January 2--Stoessel surrenders Port Arthur to Nogi.
-
-The siege of Port Arthur takes high rank in the history of all war. Its
-capture was the most brilliant achievement of Japanese arms, and its
-defense perhaps the most glorious page in Russian annals. Invested on
-May 5, 1904, the fortress held out till failing ammunition forced the
-surrender of January 2, 1905--242 days. Direct attacks opened on August
-19. City, fort and fleet have been valued at $270,000,000; all were
-destroyed, at a cost to the besiegers of $100,000,000 and more than
-30,000 lives; fully 70,000 Japanese were wounded in the various attacks.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XV.
-
-  After Port Arthur--Raids in Manchuria--The Battle of
-    Sandepu--Kuropatkin Asks for Reinforcements--The North Sea
-    Inquiry.
-
-
-[Sidenote: After Port Arthur]
-
-With the fall of Port Arthur, the Russo-Japanese War entered upon an
-entirely new phase. Although the situation of the gigantic armies that
-faced one another across the Sha-ho River remained unchanged, the
-strategic problems to be solved by their instrumentality were in effect
-transformed. The struggle for the possession of the great naval
-fortress had operated as a vitiating factor in the military counsels of
-both belligerents. Japan had sacrificed between 50,000 and 100,000 of
-her best soldiers in bringing the six months' siege to a triumphant
-issue, and in doing so had, by dividing her armies, moreover, forfeited
-the opportunity of dealing a crushing blow at her adversary. The
-magnificent infantry that broke themselves in so many vain assaults
-upon the fortifications of Port Arthur might have enabled Oyama to turn
-the Russian retreat at Liao-yang into a rout, or to drive the Russians,
-after the battle of the Sha-ho, back beyond Mukden. On the other hand,
-Kuropatkin had found himself hampered at every turn by the instructions
-imposed on him from St. Petersburg to attempt the relief of the
-beleaguered fortress, by which was symbolized so much of the pride and
-prestige of the Russian Empire. In the game of chess a strong player,
-to handicap himself against a weaker, will sometimes undertake to mate
-with a certain piece. If the piece is lost, the game is lost, and
-therefore the player's defence is awkwardly compromised by being
-divided in aim--between protecting his vital piece and at the same time
-shielding his king from checkmate. Very similar was the task imposed on
-the unhappy generalissimo of the Czar, who, while trying to baffle
-Oyama's vigorous combination, had to keep one eye always on Port
-Arthur. The fall of Port Arthur at least set free both combatants from
-a distracting preoccupation, and to that degree it was a strength to
-either side. But its ulterior effects were much less evenly balanced.
-The capture of Port Arthur at one stroke deprived Russian arms of the
-possibility of complete triumph, whatever issue future military
-operations might have; and it secured Japan from the last lingering
-fear of disastrous defeat. When the remnant of the once powerful
-Pacific Squadron fell into the hands of the Mikado's soldiers, Russia's
-last hope of recovering, during the present war, the command of the sea
-expired utterly; and without the command of the sea, Kuropatkin's boast
-of "settling the terms of peace at Tokio" could obviously never be
-fulfilled. Even if invincible armies swept Oyama out of Manchuria, out
-of Liao-tung Peninsula, and out of Korea itself, there would still be
-the impassable Straits of Korea to render the victory barren and to
-impose their inexorable "Thus far and no further". As a matter of fact
-it became evident to the whole world that, with Japan supreme by sea,
-the continuance of the war would only be a costly futility for Russia,
-in which she had everything to lose and nothing to gain--a struggle in
-which she was exhausting herself to no possible purpose. Her adversary
-had already won the odd-trick, and the only doubt that remained to be
-solved was how near she would get to making grand slam. But the blind
-arrogance and reckless folly which had precipitated Russia into a
-wanton war for which she was utterly unprepared, were still obdurate to
-conviction even by the logic of such disastrous events. Nothing is more
-stubborn than wounded pride, or more blind than baffled vanity. The
-more desperate the situation, the more perversely bent became the
-bureaucracy of Russia in prolonging it, and in refusing to recognize
-facts which impeached the competence and sagacity of the existing
-regime. Already the strain of maintaining the army in Manchuria had
-begun to have its effect at home in widespread distress and growing
-discontent among the peasant and industrial classes. The characteristic
-remedy of the governing clique was to attempt not a cure, but a
-diversion. Kuropatkin was ordered to renew his activity and to achieve
-something that could be represented as a victory at any cost.
-
-[Illustration: THE BAMBOO GUN AT PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Raids in Manchuria]
-
-Since the last great battle in October--the battle of the Sha-ho, when
-Kuropatkin's ill-advised offensive had been converted into a perilous
-retreat that almost degenerated into disaster--the two opposing armies
-had been practically quiescent. Before they had either recovered from
-the exhaustion of their last tremendous struggle--before their awful
-losses could be repaired and their depleted stores and supplies could
-be replenished--the inexorable grasp of the Manchurian winter had
-fallen upon them and frozen them into immobility. While the last
-critical acts in the siege of Port Arthur were being enacted, the
-troops of Oyama and Kuropatkin were occupied only in maintaining a
-jealous vigilance on each other, and in digging themselves into their
-winter quarters. In a climate that is almost Arctic in its severity,
-where the temperature is regularly for weeks and months together 30 and
-40 degrees below freezing-point, active campaigning would be
-impossible, even if the deep snow under which the face of the country
-is buried did not make transport impossible. Each army proceeded to
-entrench itself securely and to construct huts or dig out shelters in
-the ground in which the troops could find it possible to sustain life.
-The sufferings of the devoted soldiers during these months of inaction
-must have been intense, and on both sides the roll of casualties from
-exposure and frost-bite was appalling. Week after week went by without
-any incident other than trifling affairs of outposts being recorded in
-the meagre dispatches given to the world by the authorities at Tokio
-and St. Petersburg. It has always been the Russian habit, however, to
-cloak failure in essentials by proclaiming success in trifles; and from
-General Kuropatkin came a steady trickle of trivial information about
-brushes between patrols and pickets, wherein the Japanese were always
-worsted, with the loss of a horse and rifle, or perhaps even of a
-cooking-stove. But on the very day that the negotiations for the
-surrender of Port Arthur were opened, a serious interruption to the
-long inactivity on the Sha-ho occurred. The Russians attempted for the
-first time a raid on the Japanese line of communications. It was an
-attempt that an enterprising enemy would have made long before; for it
-is to be remembered that every mile of the Japanese advance from the
-sea rendered them increasingly dependent on the railway which they had
-taken from the Russians. Their army on the Sha-ho was, roughly
-speaking, more than one hundred miles from the nearest sea-base,
-Niuchwang; and any interruption to that vulnerable line of
-communications must inflict much inconvenience at least on Marshal
-Oyama. The Russians, of course, were exposed to the same risk, and the
-long line between Mukden and Harbin had, in fact, frequently been cut
-by the Chunchuses--roving bands of fierce native horsemen, whose hatred
-for the Muscovite invader had proved a valuable auxiliary to the
-Japanese. Their activity, in many cases organized and directed by
-Japanese officers, compelled Kuropatkin to guard jealously every mile
-of the railway in his rear, and especially every bridge and culvert,
-and this necessity of maintaining large forces on the lines of
-communication seriously detracted from the effective strength of his
-armies in the field. The Russians' idea of giving their enemy tit-tat
-was at first merely tentative, however. A couple of officers,
-practically unattended, managed to make their way southward almost as
-far as Hai-cheng, which is itself some forty or fifty miles south of
-Liao-yang. There they succeeded in blowing up a culvert and tearing up
-some yards of railway line--damage which, though not serious in itself,
-was enough to encourage similar attempts on a larger scale. Kuropatkin
-knew that the bulk of the army which had been engaged in the siege of
-Port Arthur was about to be entrained northward, and that with these
-reinforcements for Oyama were to go the great siege trains which had
-been employed in battering the ships and fortifications of the captured
-fortress into submission. To cut off these reinforcements, perhaps to
-capture train-loads of men and destroy some of the enemy's most
-formidable artillery, would evidently be a great counter-stroke to the
-effect produced by the fall of Port Arthur; and so a great Cossack raid
-was authorized on the Japanese lines of communication. The scheme was
-admirably conceived and organized, and it achieved at least the first
-and most important condition of success--namely, a complete surprise.
-At the outbreak of the war it was predicted in many quarters that what
-must certainly turn the scale in favor of the Russian arms was Russia's
-overwhelming superiority in cavalry. The experience of the Boer War had
-left fresh in every mind the incalculable value of mobility. Now
-Russia, in her hordes of Cossack horse, possessed a cavalry which had
-the reputation of being unique in the world. "Other countries have
-infantry, artillery and cavalry; but Russia is alone in possessing
-Cossacks," said one distinguished general shortly after the outbreak of
-hostilities. But as the campaign progressed, critics began to revise
-their judgments. The terrible Cossack horsemen, for some reason or
-other, failed to play any considerable part in events. They attempted a
-raid in Korea from the northeast, but without any result, and in the
-subsequent fighting they found no opportunity for asserting themselves.
-The campaign was an infantry and artillery campaign entirely; and the
-notorious weakness of the Japanese army in cavalry was no impediment to
-their victorious advance. The war in Manchuria proved in fact that the
-conditions of the war in South Africa had been peculiar and
-exceptional. But at last the Cossacks were to be given an opportunity
-of showing their mettle. On January 8th a force of 6,000 Cossacks under
-General Mistchenko crossed the Hun-ho and began to march rapidly
-southwards. This formidable force, composed of three brigades, was
-accompanied by six batteries of light artillery, and in its
-organization everything had been done to give to it the _maximum_ of
-mobility. The Hun-ho, which Mistchenko's division crossed immediately
-after setting out, is a tributary of the Liao River, into which it
-flows some forty or fifty miles above Niuchwang. While the course of
-the Liao is roughly due north, that of the Hun is northeast, or almost
-directly in the line from Mukden to Niuchwang. The severity of the
-weather had moderated and was most favorable for the movement of such a
-great body of mounted men, who swept down the vast Liao plain on a
-front extending for five miles. By the second night Mistchenko's three
-brigades had reached the confluence of the Liao and the Hun, and there
-they made the first contact with the enemy. A Japanese convoy was
-captured, but the escort succeeded in making its escape, and from that
-moment it was impossible to conceal knowledge of the movement from the
-enemy. With their characteristic thoroughness--which throughout this
-war has left nothing unforeseen and nothing unprovided for--the
-Japanese had organized a plan for giving instant warning of a raid on
-the line to the troops guarding all the depots and the lines of
-communication, in case of any surprise attack such as that devised by
-Mistchenko. Great beacon fires had been laid at intervals up and down
-the country, and the kindling of one of these--the signal of
-approaching danger--was sufficient to set the whole plain from
-Niuchwang to Liao-yang ablaze with warning flame. No sooner had the
-Cossacks made their first capture than a house in the village which
-they had entered suddenly began to emit heavy columns of black smoke,
-followed by leaping tongues of fire; and so well had the house been
-filled with combustibles, that every effort to extinguish the fire was
-vain. Nor had the portent been unobserved. As soon as darkness closed
-on the scene, the horizon north, south and east was illuminated with
-the answerable flash of innumerable beacons that passed on from one to
-another the tidings of the enemy's approach. All hope of surprise being
-now at an end, the only resource left was to strike swiftly before
-troops could be hurried down from the front to the threatened points on
-the railway. Mistchenko's division separated into three bodies--one
-moving due south towards Niuchwang, another making due east for the
-railway above Haicheng, and the third striking southeast towards
-Tashichao, where the branch-line from Niuchwang meets the main line
-running north and south. The third body almost immediately encountered
-a force of Chunchuses, 500 strong, armed with Mausers and led by
-Japanese officers. This force, though overwhelmingly outnumbered,
-fought with desperate bravery until they were cut to pieces. At another
-village, held by 500 Japanese infantry, the raiders again encountered a
-stubborn resistance which they could not overcome; but they swept on
-southwards, and reached Old Niuchwang at noon on January 11th. Here
-some 50 Japanese soldiers, the only garrison, shut themselves in a
-house, and, refusing to surrender, held their own. But they could not
-prevent the enemy from wreaking destruction on the stores which had
-been accumulated in the town; and many large transports were burnt.
-Yinkow, or the port of Niuchwang, had for many months been the
-principal base of supplies for Oyama's army, as being the seaport
-nearest to the front, and to work havoc at this vital depot was the
-principal purpose of Mistchenko's raid. On January 12th the Cossacks
-approached Yinkow Station, where army stores of enormous value had been
-accumulated, and opened fire with their six batteries. But the
-promptitude of the Japanese commanders foiled the attack at this
-critical point. In spite of the cutting of the line north and south of
-Hai-cheng, reinforcements had been got through, and the attack on
-Yinkow Station was resisted by 1,000 riflemen, well entrenched. Against
-their accurate and well-sustained fire Mistchenko's Cossacks, in spite
-of artillery support, could make no headway; and as the casualty list
-mounted up, the Russian general was obliged to draw off, lest the
-mobility of his retreat should be encumbered by too many wounded. Some
-damage was done to the station buildings, but it was trivial compared
-with that which the raiders had set out to effect; and from that moment
-the only concern of Mistchenko was how to make good his escape from the
-forces that were rapidly concentrating upon his line of retreat. He had
-failed not only to destroy the stores of the enemy, but even to inflict
-any serious damage on the railway line. The boast of his detachments
-detailed for the latter purpose that they had torn up 600 yards of line
-north of Hai-cheng, and had blown up the bridge at Tashichao, were
-obvious exaggerations; or it would not have been possible for the
-Japanese to move down the reinforcements that secured the repulse of
-the attack on Yinkow Station. With the whole country roused against
-him, Mistchenko, encumbered as he was with many wounded, might have
-found it difficult to break back over the 80 or 100 miles to be
-traversed before he could count himself in safety. His horses and men
-were both more or less exhausted with the five days' continuous
-marching and fighting; but an easy and convenient resource was open to
-him by simply invading and passing through neutral Chinese territory.
-On the outbreak of the war, the belligerents, at the instigation of the
-Powers, led by the United States, had agreed to respect absolutely the
-neutrality of China, and to confine military operations to the left or
-eastern side of the great Liao River. But necessity knows no law, and
-Mistchenko, finding that his road northward from Niuchwang was blocked
-by a strong force detached by Oku for the purpose of intercepting his
-retreat, promptly wheeled westward and crossed the Liao River some
-miles below its junction with the Hun-ho. Thenceforth his progress was
-easy. It was as if a football player were to run down the field behind
-the touch-lines in order to reach the goal. The flagrancy of the
-stratagem would have called for less remark if Russia had not chosen
-this precise moment to address representations to the Powers
-complaining of acts done by the Japanese in violation of China's
-neutrality. As it was, the casualties suffered were heavy--at least 500
-all told--and though it was ostentatiously announced from St.
-Petersburg that such raids would in future be of frequent occurrence,
-this descent upon Niuchwang remained a solitary as well as a barren
-enterprise.
-
-[Sidenote: The Battle of Sandepu]
-
-But again the inactivity of the armies was to be broken before the
-month of January had come to an end. The second Manchurian army, the
-command of which had been committed to General Gripenberg, had now been
-brought up to strength, and almost immediately proceeded to put itself
-in evidence. On the 25th General Kuropatkin telegraphed to the Czar
-announcing briefly two facts--that the offensive had been begun against
-the enemy on the right (or western) flank; and that the thermometer
-registered 16 degrees of frost. The full significance of this message
-only appeared a few days later, when it was revealed that an attempt in
-force was being made to turn the Japanese left. The main objective of
-the Russian attack was the village of Sandepu, the main northwest
-position of the Japanese left army. It will be remembered that after
-the battle of Yentai or the Sha-ho, which took place in October, the
-Japanese were left holding a front of fifty miles or more along the
-south bank of the Sha-ho, a tributary to the Hun-ho, running roughly
-due east and west at a distance of ten or fifteen miles south of
-Mukden. The Russian position faced the Japanese on the other bank of
-the Sha-ho, and then inclined away northwest in the direction of
-Hsinmintun, a Chinese town on the west bank of the Liao River, from
-which the Russian army had for a long time been drawing large supplies,
-in contempt of the neutrality of China. Sandepu is over thirty miles
-south of Mukden, and lies in the angle made by the Hun River with the
-railway. It consists of some hundred houses, or farmsteads, each
-surrounded by high walls of sun-dried bricks, about three feet thick.
-Loop-holed for musketry, these walls, form an admirable defence,
-especially as the surrounding country is quite open and flat. But at
-this season of the year, the Hun-ho, which is a natural defence to the
-flank of an army resting on Sandepu, is frozen over to a thickness of
-several feet, and can be safely crossed both by men and transport. The
-Russians, 85,000 strong, and with no less than 350 guns, moved
-southwards down the right bank of the Hun-ho until they reached a point
-a few miles southwest of Sandepu, and there they crossed the frozen
-river and occupied two villages in which the Japanese had stationed
-outposts. On the 26th the Russians, who had at the same time crossed
-the Hun at Chang-tau, again advanced, encountering a steadily
-increasing resistance and seized after a fierce fight the village of
-Sha-ho-pu, a few miles northeast of Sandepu, and from that moment the
-action became general. The capture of Sandepu was essential to any
-attempt to roll up the Japanese left, and to this object the Russian
-forces now set themselves with fierce determination. On January 27th,
-after giving an account of much promiscuous fighting, General
-Kuropatkin announced to the Czar that "in the evening, after a
-desperate fight, our troops having, with the help of the sappers,
-surmounted all artificial obstacles entered the village of Sandepu,
-which is large and strongly entrenched." Unfortunately, however, for
-the triumph of the Russian arms, this announcement proved to be
-premature--or rather to be an incomplete version of the actual fact.
-The Russian troops entered Sandepu only to be driven back after a
-desperate struggle; and the indomitable Japanese infantrymen who manned
-the loop-holed walls of the hamlet were never dislodged from their
-position. This successful stand was the turning point of the battle. It
-checked the flank movement of the Russians and gave Oku time to bring
-up his reinforcements and deliver his counter-stroke. The Russian
-attack had been from the west and northwest, the object being to
-envelop the Japanese extreme left. The movement was met by an extension
-of the Japanese left, which in turn threatened to outflank the
-outflankers. On the southwest of Sandepu the Russians were driven back
-along the line of the Hun-ho, and soon the battle centred about the
-village of Heikautai, a few miles southwest of Sandepu. That this was
-no mere affair of outposts may be gathered from the fact that the
-Russian force was made up of two divisions of the Eighth Army Corps,
-two brigades of Russo-European Rifles, one division of the Tenth Army
-Corps, part of a division of reserve infantry, and part of the First
-Siberian Army Corps, and a large force of Cossacks under Mistchenko. On
-the 27th and 28th, the fighting became desperately fierce and after the
-Japanese had succeeded in carrying Heikautai and the surrounding
-positions, they were exposed to repeated night attacks before the
-Russians at last made up their minds to accept defeat. From Russian
-sources came the usually inconsistent story--a story in which a long
-series of unbroken successes culminated inexplicably in an admission of
-failure and retreat. It now appeared that far from capturing Sandepu,
-the Russian column that attacked that place lost twenty-four officers
-and 1,600 men killed and wounded by coming unexpecedly upon "a triple
-row of artificial obstacles" on the ground swept by artillery and
-machine-gun fire which the Russian gunners could not subdue. This
-intelligence came as a severe disappointment to the friends of Russia,
-who had begun to believe that the tide of war had at last begun to
-turn, and that Russian arms were about to secure their first victory.
-Eager strategists in St. Petersburg pointed out that Sandepu was only
-twenty or thirty miles from Liao-yang, and that its retention would be
-such a serious menace to the Japanese line of retreat that the
-evacuation of the whole position on the Sha-ho would be a necessity.
-Alas! while these fascinating speculations were being indulged in, the
-Russian Army of the right was already in full retreat, and was indeed
-suffering appalling losses in the effort to extricate itself from the
-toils of the enemy. The fighting round Heikautai lasted five days, and
-the issue almost to the last hung in doubt. The capture of Heikautai
-had become necessary to the security of the Japanese position, but
-repeated attacks on it had been repulsed. The spirit in which the
-emergency was met is revealed in the laconic words of Marshal Oyama's
-dispatch. "Our object had not been attained, so I encouraged all the
-columns to make night attacks. All the columns of the attacking parties
-expected annihilation. We attempted several attack movements, but
-suffered heavily from the enemy's artillery, and especially from the
-machine-guns, but all the columns continued the attack with all their
-might. The enemy was unable to withstand our vigorous attack, and began
-to retreat at half past five in the morning. Our forces charging into
-Heikautai, occupied the place firmly and entirely by half past nine in
-the morning." The net result of the battle was to give the Japanese
-secure possession of a line east and west of Hun-ho and south of
-Mukden, and to inflict on the Russians casualties which certainly
-exceeded 10,000, and probably reached 15,000. In war especially "the
-attempt and not the deed" confounds. It is not the first step but the
-last that costs--not the attack, but the retreat after repulse. No
-sooner had the failure of this big attempt on the Japanese left been
-fully confirmed than it became known that the movement had been
-directed by General Gripenberg, the commander of the Second Manchurian
-Army. When, after the battle of Liao-yang, the Czar sanctioned the
-formation of this Second Army and committed the command of it to
-General Gripenberg, there was a great flourish of journalistic trumpets
-in the Russian and French press. At last Kuropatkin would have not only
-an "Army worthy of the might and dignity of Russia," but would have a
-lieutenant worthy of himself to share the tremendous strain of
-directing nearly half a million of men. The two Generals exchanged
-cordial messages, and then Gripenberg set out for Harbin to superintend
-the gradual organization of his Second Army. By the end of the year its
-units had been completed, and then the impatience of General Gripenberg
-to assert himself appears to have become uncontrollable. He conceived
-the movement against the Japanese left--a movement that might easily
-have achieved substantial results if the Japanese had not been so well
-prepared for it--and his direct responsibility for it was made patent
-to the world by the angry and undignified recriminations between him
-and Kuropatkin that followed the repulse. General Gripenberg
-immediately asked to be relieved of his command, ostensibly on the
-ground of ill health, but really as he allowed to be perfectly
-manifest, in dudgeon at the treatment which he alleged had been meted
-out to him by his superior officer. He claimed that his flanking
-movement had in fact succeeded, and that he only needed reinforcements
-to maintain the position he had won. He complained loudly that he
-applied very urgently for these reinforcements, but that they were
-withheld, and that he was not even supported in his retreat by a
-diversion in other parts of the field. A great victory had been within
-his grasp, General Gripenberg represented, and it had been snatched
-from him simply by the perverse inactivity of General Kuropatkin. So
-strained were the relations at headquarters that General Gripenberg's
-request to be relieved of his command was immediately complied with,
-and the General set off post-haste back to St. Petersburg to lay his
-complaints personally before the Czar. The quarrel was conducted
-practically in public by the advocates of the two rivals; and General
-Kuropatkin's friends were not slow to put forward his side of the case.
-According to this account, General Gripenberg's costly defeat was
-caused directly by his deliberate disobedience to instructions. He had
-been permitted to embark on his movement against the Japanese left on
-the strict understanding that it was to be only in the nature of a
-reconnaissance in force, and that a general action was not to be
-forced. While nominally accepting these limitations, General Gripenberg
-had in his heart rebelled against them, and had not hesitated to commit
-his army to a pitched battle beyond the reach of support, and in
-conditions of weather which made the movement of troops most
-undesirable. Finally it was contended that General Kuropatkin had done
-all he could to relieve the pressure on General Gripenberg by
-bombarding the Japanese right and centre, and threatening an advance in
-those directions. The wrangle could not but be ignominious, but at
-least more dignity pertained to the disputant who remained at his post
-and strove to repair the blunder that had been committed than to the
-disputant that threw down his responsibilities and went home in a pet.
-This view of the case seems to have prevailed with the Czar himself,
-whose reception of General Gripenberg was not cordial. According to the
-reports that came from well-informed French sources, the Czar took
-General Kuropatkin's part very decidedly, and administered to General
-Gripenberg a severe rebuke for his insubordination. Whatever the
-character of the frequent audiences which the disappointed General had
-of his Sovereign, the fact remained that Kuropatkin was maintained in
-the supreme command of the armies in Manchuria, and that while General
-Gripenberg lingered in St. Petersburg, if not in disgrace, at least in
-inactivity, General Kaulbars was definitely appointed to the command of
-the Second Manchurian Army.
-
-[Illustration: ON THE SLOPES OF OJIKEISHAN, BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.]
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Asks for Reinforcements]
-
-If this five days' desperate fighting scarcely affected the position of
-the two armies, it inflicted on the Russian armies the discouragement
-of another defeat at the hands of a numerically inferior force, and the
-moral effect of adding to this unbroken series of reverses is not
-easily computed. With troops less dogged and devoted than those of the
-Czar, demoralization would have set in long before. The anxieties of
-Kuropatkin were now aggravated, too, by circumstances which no
-generalship on his part could alleviate and remove. All through the
-autumn reinforcements had been pouring along the Trans-Siberian
-Railway, the carrying capacity of which had been stretched so
-wonderfully by Prince Khilkoff. But even the resources of engineering
-genius have their limits. They cannot contrive a pint pot in such a way
-that it will hold a quart; and the number of trains that can be run
-over a single line is fixed inexorably by circumstance. Kuropatkin's
-urgent and incessant demands for more and more reinforcements had been
-met in large measure, but only at the expense of the other traffic,
-including the carriage of military stores. The enormous supplies
-required to provision and maintain at war efficiency armies numbering
-half a million of men may be imagined, and for these supplies
-Kuropatkin had become increasingly dependent on the railway. The more
-reinforcements he received the more mouths he had to feed; and the
-longer the campaign endured the less reliance was to be placed on what
-a devastated and exhausted countryside could provide. During the
-earlier months of the war, some relief to the strain on the railway
-could be found by drawing supplies from Vladivostock, which in turn
-could be fed from over-seas; but no sooner had the destruction of the
-Port Arthur fleet been completed, than the inexorable Japanese
-established a strict blockade of Vladivostock, and cut off this last
-resource. While the wretched troops amid all the rigors of the
-Manchurian winter were in need of such ordinary necessities as proper
-clothing, fuel, and even food, vast accumulations of stores, more than
-sufficient to supply all their needs, were lying rotting on the sidings
-of the Siberian Railway, immovable because of the congestion of traffic
-on the already overburdened line. To add to the anxiety of the
-situation came the grave dislocation caused by the riots and strikes
-which broke out in all the great industrial and distributive centres of
-Russia after the fall of Port Arthur, and which revealed an internal
-crisis even more menacing than the military crisis which confronted the
-army in Manchuria. For weeks together, just at the moment that prompt
-and vigorous action was demanded, the whole administrative system of
-Russia was paralyzed, and the energies of its directors were absorbed
-in staving off domestic revolution instead of in organizing the
-measures for conducting a foreign war. On the other hand, the Japanese
-generals had not only the strategic advantage of being within easy
-distance of several sea-bases, but they also were able to rely on a
-system of supply which is perhaps the most perfect that has ever been
-seen in war. The minute prevision with which the necessities of a
-campaign on such an enormous scale had been provided for is well
-exemplified by the organization of the Army Medical Service. In spite
-of all the hardships and exhaustion to which General Oku's army had
-been exposed, for instance, the Chief Surgeon was able to report that
-from the date of its landing on the Liao-tung Peninsula on May 6th to
-the end of January there had only occurred 40 deaths in its ranks from
-disease. The cases of typhoid numbered but 193, and the cases of
-dysentery no more than 342. The marvelous character of this record may
-be realized by remembering how appalling were the ravages of disease
-during the South African campaign. Typhoid and dysentery in that war
-carried off infinitely more victims than shell or bullet; and if
-sometimes in their assaults on fortified positions the Japanese have
-seemed shockingly reckless of human life, it is to be remembered that
-in another and not less important direction they have shown themselves
-infinitely more careful of it. Such were the conditions as the long
-winter months drew to their close, and as silently the Japanese armies
-girded themselves for the great stroke which was in a few weeks' time
-to eclipse both in magnitude and consequence everything that had
-hitherto marked the progress of this epoch-making campaign.
-
-[Sidenote: The North Sea Inquiry]
-
-Meanwhile the unhappy Baltic Fleet protracted its embarrassing sojourn
-in Madagascar waters. Having got so far on the road to its appointed
-revenge, discretion overcame heroic resolution on the part of its
-Admiral. The nearer Rozhdestvensky came to his task of wresting the
-command of the sea from Admiral Togo, the less he appeared to like it;
-and finally the Armada which had begun its voyage with such a
-sensational progress through the North Sea, decided to continue to
-avail itself of French hospitality until it should have received the
-reinforcements of the third Baltic Squadron. While the Russian fleet
-was thus ingloriously hung up at Diego Suarez, the International
-Commission appointed to inquire into the circumstances of its exploits
-in the North Sea met at Paris, and having heard exhaustively the
-evidence in support of the British and Russian cases, at length issued
-its report. In spite of the preliminary rumors that the conduct of the
-Russian Admiral had been vindicated, the event proved that the justice
-of the British case had been as completely sustained as it could be by
-any judgment which was more diplomatic than judicial in character. The
-Admirals of the Commission, with the exception of their Russian
-colleague, found that there were no hostile torpedo boats present on
-the Dogger Bank; that the British trawlers did nothing to provoke
-attack; and that the firing to which they were subjected was
-unjustifiable. To coat this rather unpleasant pill, the Commissioners
-amiably added, in contradiction of the direct implication of their own
-findings, that their report threw no discredit either on the military
-quality or the humane sentiments of Admiral Rozhdestvensky.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI.
-
-  Rigors of Manchurian Winters--In Winter Quarters--Ear Muffs Won
-    by Yankee Thrift--Hot Baths and Hot Meals--Disease Conquered in
-    Camp--Wonderful Sanitary Record--Civil War Comparisons--The
-    Japanese Scientific--No Detail Overlooked--Wounded Rarely Die.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Rigors of Manchurian Winters]
-
-After the Battle of the Sha-ho River the two armies went into winter
-quarters prepared to face a Manchurian season with thermometer readings
-of 35 degrees below zero not uncommon and with a snowfall of enormous
-proportions to contend with. The Russians were better prepared to meet
-the situation than the Japanese since a large proportion of the Russian
-army hailed from Siberia or the northern provinces of Asiatic and
-European Russia and hence were inured to rigorous winters. Some
-thousands of the Japanese had come from the northern provinces of Japan
-and they, too, were well experienced in cold. But a large majority of
-the Japanese troops were from the southern islands of Japan, where
-rigorous winters are unknown. The Japanese army administration was thus
-confronted by a very serious problem. The story of the manner in which
-the problem was met and solved is among the most interesting of the
-chapters of the history of the war.
-
-[Sidenote: In Winter Quarters]
-
-[Sidenote: Ear Muffs Won by Yankee Thrift]
-
-When the positions of the various units of the army had been definitely
-fixed the whole army began, as a preliminary step, to burrow into the
-earth. Before mid-November the Japanese camp was no longer stretched
-over the hills south of the Sha-ho but had vanished from view under the
-hills. Along the whole front that stretched for nearly sixty miles
-underground galleries were excavated barely high enough even for a
-Japanese to stand erect. These were open at one end and at the entrance
-to each a charcoal burning stove was placed. A fire was kept burning
-continually in each of these thousands of stoves. The stove pipe,
-instead of jutting a foot or two into the air was extended along the
-roof of the dug-out to its end, then passed upward through the eight
-feet of soil that formed the roof. Fronting the open end long trenches,
-were dug and over them heavy protective bomb proofs of timber and earth
-were erected as a protection against the shells which with greater or
-less activity were hurled into the Japanese lines by the Russians
-throughout the winter. These underground homes solved much of the
-question of withstanding cold for in them the men were reasonably
-comfortable. Special clothing, too, was provided, and in connection
-with fur ear-muffs with which each man was provided an interesting
-story is told, one typical of the Yankee-like thrift of the Japanese.
-Five years before, the plague had been introduced into Japan from the
-Malay Peninsula. A vigorous fight was made and the disease was finally
-conquered but in the course of the fight the sanitary officials became
-convinced that the germs of the disease were being spread by rats. A
-prize was put upon the heads of the dangerous rodents. Millions were
-killed by the boys of Japan who delivered the rats, collected the
-bounty and gave no thought to what became of the carcasses. Nor did
-anyone, but when the army faced a Manchurian winter those millions of
-rat furs reappeared as warm ear protectors while a smile went around
-the world. So completely, in a thousand ingenious ways did the army
-officials conquer the cold and safeguard the army that throughout the
-winter it was even possible for every man in the army to have two hot
-baths a week. The bath in Japan is almost a religious rite, but the
-trooper bade good-bye to it, as he supposed, when he started for the
-front. Not so. Circular metal tubes were provided. These were sunk in
-the ground level with the surface. Ten feet away at the bottom of a
-trench a stove was placed heating a coil of pipes which went inside,
-around and around the sides of the tube. The tube served as the tub. It
-was filled with water and in a few minutes the hot bath was ready. In
-protected spots all along the lines Nippon could be seen hastily
-stripping beside the steaming hole in the ground. Then he would vanish
-until only his head was visible. As well as he could he scrubbed
-himself. Comrades raised him swiftly from the tube and swathed him in
-heavy blankets, wrapped in which he vanished over the edge of the
-trench and so into his underground home, clean and happy.
-
-[Illustration: A NIGHT ATTACK ON A RUSSIAN POSITION.]
-
-[Sidenote: Hot Baths and Hot Meals]
-
-Hot meals were cooked at the doors of the dugouts for the fifty
-occupants on improved portable camp kitchens. Telephones connected
-every battalion headquarters with its regimental headquarters and so
-throughout the army, every unit with the next largest and all with the
-general headquarters at Liao-yang. Great fur overcoats, pure wool
-underclothing, heavy uniforms well adapted for comfort and warmth; in
-every detail the Japanese were splendidly equipped for the ordeal of
-cold. Thousands of slight cases of frost-bite reached the hospitals
-after occasional sorties demanded by fitful attacks of Russian scouting
-parties, but there was none of this in the normal life of the vast army
-of nearly 300,000 men.
-
-The Japanese medical department during the winter made a wonderful
-fight against disease, that bane of armies, and continued under these
-unrecord of the actual campaign.
-
-[Sidenote: Wonderful Sanitary Record]
-
-Until now disease has always been much more destructive than shot and
-shell. During the brief conflict with Spain 268 Americans died of
-bullets and wounds, while mortality from disease reached the appalling
-number of 3,862, or about fourteen to one. In the Boer War 7,792
-English were killed in action or died of wounds, while 13,250 fell
-victims to disease. Of the Turkish army operating in Thessaly seven
-years ago, 1,000 men were lost in battle, while 19,000 died at the
-front of disease. Twenty-two thousand others were invalided home, and
-of these 8,000 subsequently died. This was a ratio of twenty-seven men
-killed by disease to one by bullets. Even more frightful was the
-experience of the French expedition to Madagascar in 1894. Only 29 were
-killed in action, while over 7,000 perished from disease. Compare these
-frightful experiences with the record of the Japanese. During the last
-nine months of 1904, throughout a difficult campaign, in a country
-noted for lack of sanitation, only forty deaths from disease occurred
-in the immense army in Manchuria commanded by General Oku. It is a
-wonderful lesson in sanitation Japan has taught to the world.
-
-While disease scored but forty victims in nine months among the
-soldiers of General Oku, no fewer than 5,127 officers and men were
-killed and 21,080 wounded. This shows that the period was one of great
-activity, of hard campaigning and severe fighting--which makes the low
-disease death rate all the more astonishing. Soldiers in the field
-cannot be looked after as carefully as those in camp; hygiene and
-sanitary surroundings are only temporary, and, therefore, more crude;
-dietetic regulations are more difficult to enforce. Of course, there
-were many cases of disease in Oku's army--24,642 in all--but the
-majority were of bronchial troubles, resulting from climatic
-conditions. Of beri beri, a malady peculiarly Oriental, 5,070 cases
-were reported. But the progressive Japanese seem to have gotten the
-mastery even of this, once notable, because of its mortality. It is,
-however, in battling with those most dreaded scourges of an
-army--typhoid fever and dysentery--that the Japanese have scored their
-greatest triumphs. Of typhoid fever they have had only 193 cases, and
-of dysentery only 342 cases.
-
-[Sidenote: Civil War Comparisons]
-
-During the first year of the American Civil War typhoid fever attacked
-8 per cent. of the Federal troops, killing 35 per cent. of the white
-and 55 per cent. of the negro soldiers who contracted it. But here is
-an army in the wilds of Manchuria larger than that of McClellan before
-Richmond, which had only forty deaths in nine months. The great
-American conflict was one of the bloodiest in history. In the Federal
-ranks, 110,070 men were killed in battle or died of wounds, while
-249,458 were sent to their graves of disease. Why is it the little
-brown islanders of the East were so successful in fighting the unseen
-foe?
-
-"Every death from preventable disease is an insult to the intelligence
-of the age," says Major Louis L. Seaman, late surgeon in the United
-States Volunteers, who returned from Japan during the war.
-
-"When it occurs in an army, where the units are compelled to submit to
-discipline, it becomes a governmental crime."
-
-"Disease bacteria," asserts another writer, in discussing the medical
-aspects of the Boer War, "are even more dangerous than Mauser bullets
-shot off with smokeless powder. Both hit without giving a sign to the
-eye whence they come, and of the two, the Mausers hit less often and
-hit less hard." It was through prompt recognition of these propositions
-that the Japanese held down their death rate from disease. Major Seaman
-relates that, in conversation with a Japanese officer early in the
-conflict, the subject of Russia's overwhelming numbers was mentioned.
-
-"Yes," admittted the officer, "we are prepared for that. Russia may be
-able to place 2,000,000 men in the field. We can furnish 500,000. You
-know that in war four men die of disease for every one who falls from
-bullets. We propose to eliminate disease as a factor. Every man who
-dies in our army must fall on the field of battle. In this way we shall
-neutralize the superiority of Russian numbers and stand on a
-comparatively equal footing."
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Scientific]
-
-When Japan started out to make war she did so upon a scientific basis.
-For many months in advance the store rooms of Tokio were crowded with
-surgical materials, cots, tents, bedding, ambulances and all kinds of
-hospital supplies, ready for any emergency, and under the personal
-example of the Empress the women of the land made bandages for those
-who might be wounded. Japan realized also that the keystone to the
-health of the army lay in the character of the ration provided for the
-individual soldier. So she set about to master that problem. First of
-all, the ration evolved was suited to the climatic conditions of the
-campaign. It consisted largely of rice, compressed fish, soy, army
-biscuits, a few salted plums, tea--all of which necessitate the
-drinking of large quantities of boiled water--a few ounces of meat and
-some juicy, succulent pickles.
-
-No more thorough or efficient medical preparation could be imagined
-that Japan made for her great conflict. Not only was the ablest of
-medical counsel obtained, but the members of that staff of the army
-were given rank and full authority to enforce their decrees. The
-Japanese had a medical director who ranked as a lieutenant-general. Six
-medical officers ranked as major-general. With every 20,000 men in line
-a surgeon ranking as brigadier-general, and all have power to enforce
-their orders. Every body of moving soldiers, however small, was
-accompanied by one or more medical officers, who were almost
-omnipresent, and were always watchful. Field and line officers and men
-were obliged to obey them without question. The solution of the greater
-problem engaged the attention of the medical corps. This was in
-preserving the health and fighting value of the army. Nothing seemed
-too small to escape the vigilance of the medical officers, or too
-tedious to weary his patience. He was with the first line of scouts,
-with his microscope and chemicals, testing and labelling wells so that
-the army to follow should not drink water that was contaminated. When
-the scouts reached a town, he immediately instituted a thorough
-examination of its sanitary condition. If contagious or infectious
-disease was found, he quarantined and placed a guard around the
-dangerous district. Notices were posted, so that the approaching column
-was warned and no soldiers were located where danger existed.
-Violations of such a notice was as great an offense as disobedience to
-a line officer on a battlefield. An officer with only the rank of a
-lieutenant might post the notice, and yet General Oku himself dared not
-disregard it. No foraging party ever set out to gather supplies unless
-accompanied by a medical officer.
-
-[Sidenote: No Detail Overlooked]
-
-He sampled the various kinds of food, fruit and vegetables sold by the
-natives along the line of march long before the arrival of the army. If
-the food was tainted, or the fruit over ripe, or the water ought to be
-boiled, notice was posted to that effect. In camp, too, the medical
-officer was always busy, lecturing the men on sanitation and the
-hundred and one details of personal hygiene--how to cook, to eat, and
-when not to drink; to bathe, and even to directions as to paring and
-cleansing the finger nails to prevent danger from bacteria. More than
-any other preventive, the boiling of all drinking water was insisted
-upon. Every Japanese soldier carried a small copper camp kettle with a
-double bottom. By the use of it he was enabled to boil water even in a
-gale. Charcoal was burned on the inside, the water being heated between
-two layers of copper. Great kettles for similar use in camps were also
-provided.
-
-Large bathing basins, or kettles, formed an important part of the
-equipment of each company. They were placed upon the ground and are
-ready for use in a few minutes after camp was made. In this way
-personal cleanliness was maintained. A troop might encamp beside a
-small stream, the water of which was needed for several different
-purposes. It was not scooped up indiscriminately, but the flow was
-divided into separate channels--one for drinking or cooking, another
-for bathing, a third for laundry service, and so on.
-
-[Sidenote: Wounded Rarely Died]
-
-Up to July 1, 1106 wounded were taken to Tokio, and of that number not
-a single man died. These men were shot in almost every possible way;
-six had bullets through the brain, nine had bullets through their
-chests, and six had bullets through the abdomen--and yet all got well.
-The medical service of the United States in its war with Spain was not
-any more discreditable when compared with that of Japan than the
-medical service of the English Army during its war with the Boers. The
-report of the English Hospital Commission, which inquired into the
-medical end of that conflict, shows that there was "an immense amount
-of needless suffering and misery." There is no attempt "to hide
-incompetency and unpreparedness under the platitude that 'was is war.'"
-Just as in the Spanish-American War, a large number of civil surgeons
-were employed for army work in South Africa. They had no knowledge of
-military duties nor of military methods and discipline. Consequently,
-they were ineffective, except when accompanied and, to some extent,
-controlled by officers of the service. They were absolutely without
-authority. Perhaps all these lessons were observed and absorbed by the
-keen-eyed Japanese. In any event, they have given the world the most
-pronounced examples of scientific warfare that the hoary old globe has
-ever seen.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE TROOPS CAUGHT IN BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENT.]
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XVII.
-
-  The Greatest Battle of History--Rout and Disaster for Russia--The
-    Ancient City of Mukden--The Tombs of the Manchus--A Flourishing
-    Mart--Betwixt Winter and Spring--The Line of Battle--Lone Tree
-    Hill--The Russian Position--The Japanese Task--Mukden the Real
-    Battleground--Russian Flanks Strongly Protected--Well Protected
-    on the East--Battled for Mountain Passes--Russians Had
-    Advantage of Position--The Outlook for Oyama--Busy Preparations
-    During Winter--Oyama's Plan of Battle--Nogi to Strike
-    Culminating Blow--"Out of the Way for Us"--Master Stroke of the
-    Battle.
-
-
-Not only the climax of the Japan-Russian War, but a climax to all wars
-was reached in the Battle of Mukden, fought February 19-March 13, 1905.
-This memorable struggle, resulting in a sweeping victory for Japan, was
-practically a campaign in itself. The results, a cataclasm which
-overwhelmed the Russian army, were not merely what had been expected
-for this one battle, but comprehended all that the Japanese had hoped
-for a year's campaign. It was more than rout. It remains a grisly
-monument to the potentiality of war to write horror on the pages of
-world history. It was more than defeat, retreat, disaster, it was
-practical annihilation for Russia's power of resistance in the Far
-East. Her vaunted military power was trailed in the dust, was
-obliterated. When the smoke of the contest had rolled away Oyama stood
-master of Manchuria with only a demoralized horde of the enemy "without
-form and void" fleeing in panic with no thought but to shake off a foe
-to whom no resistance could be offered.
-
-[Sidenote: The Greatest Battle of History]
-
-No nation in the world's history has faced a greater blow to its
-military prestige, and from the standpoint of the Japanese--no military
-force has achieved for its nation a more sweeping or more complete
-victory. The Battle of Mukden is destined to occupy a unique place in
-the story of the nations for these and other reasons. In point of the
-territory involved; in point of the number of men engaged; in point of
-the duration of the struggle; in point of the lessons, the authentic
-history of the world has no peer for its record.
-
-General Kuropatkin, the Russian Commander-in-Chief, had at the
-beginning of the struggle an army of 300,000 infantry; 26,700 cavalry,
-and 1,368 guns. This is the estimate of the Japanese intelligence
-bureau. On the other hand the German Military Review credited
-Kuropatkin with a total of 370,790 men of whom 36,790 were cavalry. The
-Germans estimate that the Russians had a total of 1,598 field guns, and
-72 heavy guns. Somewhere between these two estimates the actual
-figures, carefully concealed by the Russians, may be taken to lie.
-Marshal Oyama had 500,000 men of all arms and artillery equal to that
-of the Russians with a preponderating number of big guns, a great many
-having been moved from Port Arthur to the northern battleground. In the
-two armies therefore, there were in round numbers a total of about
-800,000 men.
-
-[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN.]
-
-[Sidenote: Rout and Disaster for Russia]
-
-The battle developed into a struggle for possession of Mukden, the
-ancient Manchu capital, near which lie the Imperial Tombs of the
-founders of the Manchu dynasty, a spot sacred throughout the length and
-breadth of China. The battle lines around this city stretched for one
-hundred miles. The fighting began on February 19. On March 7th the
-Russians already seeing disaster in the advance made by the Japanese
-under General Nogi, toward cutting off the line of retreat north of
-Mukden, fell back from the centre along the Sha-ho River and on March
-10 evacuated Mukden, beginning a retreat that was turned into a
-disastrous rout by the desperate flank attacks of the Japanese from
-both sides.
-
-The Russian losses to March 13, when the Battle of Mukden actually came
-to a close, were 175,000 men, killed, wounded and prisoners; 60 guns;
-25,000 rounds of small arm ammunition and immense quantities of stores.
-The Japanese casualties to March 12 were 41,222 killed, wounded and
-missing and several hundred of the missing were recovered in the
-capture of Mukden. The Japanese sent 43,000 prisoners to Japan as one
-of the results of the victory.
-
-[Sidenote: The Ancient City of Mukden]
-
-Mukden, round which the greatest battle in history raged, is, without
-exception, the most interesting place in the whole of Northern China.
-In the eyes of all Manchurians it is the one holy city in the world,
-for it is here that the tombs of the founders of the Manchu dynasty are
-situated. For this reason the Chinese Government demanded that the
-sacred precincts of the Imperial Tombs must not be violated by foul
-warfare, and both sides engaged in the horrible work of killing,
-entered into solemn undertakings to respect the sanctity of the famous
-burial grounds.
-
-The great city stands in the middle of a vast alluvial plain,
-surrounded by rich and highly cultivated land. The population of Mukden
-is over a quarter of a million, and the city is modelled on a similar
-plan to that of Peking, presenting an imposing appearance, in spite of
-the decay into which many of the ancient buildings have been allowed to
-fall.
-
-The railway, which runs north to Harbin, does not pass within a mile of
-the city, the Chinese having refused to allow the neighborhood of the
-sacred tombs to be desecrated by the construction of an iron road in
-the immediate vicinity. The station is consequently about a mile away
-from the city, but on alighting from the train, one is immediately
-struck by the sight of the tremendous brick walls, 60 feet high, which
-surround the inner town. This is built in the form of a square a mile
-wide, and entrance is gained through eight enormous brick gates,
-surrounded by watch-towers and batteries. Outside this, suburbs extend
-for about a mile in every direction, and the whole is surrounded by a
-mud rampart from ten to twenty feet in height.
-
-A little to the north of the city is the sacred shrine of Na Ta, and a
-mile to the east of this is the Temple of Heaven, where sacrifices of
-black cattle and white sheep are offered up in the Emperor's name. To
-the east of this pagoda, buried in the midst of a grove of fir trees,
-is the famous tomb of the great Chinese conqueror, Tai Tsung. Access to
-the tomb is gained through a great gateway, roofed with red and yellow
-tiles, down a long avenue flanked by colossal stone figures of animals,
-great marble columns, and stretches of high wall.
-
-[Sidenote: The Tombs of the Manchus]
-
-The other great tomb lies due east of the city, in the heart of a great
-forest. Here, amid similar walls, figures of animals, and decayed
-marble columns, lie the remains of Nao Chu, the father of Tai Tsung.
-The fact that both these sacred relics were surrounded by acres of
-forest made it likely that no violation, either by Russians or
-Japanese, would take place, though the possible misdirection of a shell
-from one of their heavy guns might very easily have ruined either of
-them. Such an accident would very probably have stirred the somnolent
-Chinese to their very depths.
-
-For an Eastern city Mukden is extremely clean and well kept. The
-Manchus are well known for their cleanly habits, which are often in
-striking contrast with those of the southern Chinese. The streets are
-well scavengered, and there are many most imposing, if not beautiful,
-private mansions belonging to wealthy mandarins. There are also a great
-number of handsome shops, and the centre of the city is always busy
-with the incessant movement and bustle which are only to be found in
-prosperous trading centres.
-
-[Sidenote: A Flourishing Mart]
-
-For Mukden is the centre of an enormous trade between the north and the
-south of China. From the north come enormous quantities of fur, and
-from the south millions of bushels of all sorts of grain, while in the
-immediate vicinity wheat, barley, tobacco, melons, and cucumbers are
-grown in the fertile plain which stretches away on all sides. The
-silkworm, too, is cultivated all round Mukden, so that there is never
-any lack of trade from one source or another, whatever the season.
-Mukden, in the Manchu language means "flourishing," and for centuries
-the city has lived up to its name.
-
-Two miles to the south of the city is a wide, sandy stretch of ground,
-twenty miles long, through which runs the Hun River, which can be
-forded almost anywhere. This approach to Mukden, forming the Russian
-center, was strongly held with sand-bag batteries. On the west of the
-town the very high railway embankment, running north and south of the
-river for many miles, was used to protect Mukden against attack from
-the west. The most vulnerable point in this line was the bridge over
-the Hun River, against which the Japanese delivered incessant attack.
-Mukden was strongly fortified by General Kuropatkin. The fortifications
-extended for nine miles, with forts and redoubts at intervals of a
-mile. The redoubts were all cleverly masked, and the line of
-fortification was protected by deep ditches and pits, all with stakes
-at the bottom, by wire entanglements, land mines, and a line of felled
-trees.
-
-[Sidenote: Betwixt Winter and Spring]
-
-Winter still howls over Manchuria when February is drawing to a close,
-but the early days of March, just as through the central United States,
-bring the first flush of spring. The ground remains locked in the grip
-of a frost that turns earth to steel to a depth of seven feet. The
-rivers are still securely ice-bound, but overhead the sun begins a
-mastery over the overpowering cold. If the nights remain bitterly cold,
-the days are increasingly warm and throughout the daylight hours
-conditions are ideal for the work of the soldier. The weather,
-therefore, fairly trumpeted a call to arms to the two vast armies that
-confronted each other south of the Sha-ho River. The earliest moves
-were made over whitened plains with snow storms still driving over
-hills and plain out of the bleak north. Marshal Oyama, the Japanese
-commander, evidently realized that the struggle would be long and,
-indeed, before its end winter had, in fact, given place to the opening
-days of spring. The advantages were many. The movement of artillery was
-facilitated by the hard surface of frozen ground and the ease with
-which ice-covered streams and rivers could be crossed. Lack of foliage
-deprived the army of the protection that so greatly aided the advance
-on Liao-yang, and so effectively shielded the artillery in that
-struggle. The broken nature of the country, the heavy calibre guns,
-firing from one to five miles with accuracy, minimized the disadvantage
-of fighting over a bare land and if lack of protection of foliage and
-growing crops added to the Japanese losses it failed to check the vigor
-or relentlessness of the advance once it had begun.
-
-[Sidenote: The Line of Battle]
-
-The lines of the two armies on the eve of the great battle, stretched
-from the Hun River, on the west, in a southeasterly direction south of
-the Sha-ho River, along that stream, then bending more southward,
-across the Taitse River, near Bensihu, at a point thirty-five miles
-east of Yentai Station, on the Harbin--Port Arthur Railroad. These
-lines had been determined by the battle of the Sha-ho River, October
-6-13, the end of the campaign of 1904. Strategically the advantage lay
-with the Russians. Though defeated in the memorable battle along the
-Sha-ho, General Kuropatkin had secured a position south of Mukden far
-superior to any below Tie Pass, the gateway to the great plains around
-Harbin, always regarded as the ultimate decisive battleground of
-Manchuria.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN RETREAT IN MANCHURIA.]
-
-[Sidenote: Lone Tree Hill]
-
-The whole lay of the land was adapted to defensive fighting. Along most
-of the front lay the Sha-ho River, broad enough and deep enough to
-demand bridging except when frozen over. The culminating event of the
-battle of the Sha-ho had been the recapture by the Russians of Lone
-Tree Hill, a mile east of the railroad, just south of the Sha-ho, at
-the very centre of the battlefield. From this point the Russians
-commanded a territory five miles in radius. The hill, naturally adapted
-for defense, was strongly fortified to a point nearer impregnability
-even, than achieved by any of the boasted fortifications of the
-mountains around Port Arthur. Thousands of Japanese were ultimately to
-immolate themselves on the slopes of Lone Tree Hill in vain efforts at
-its capture. It still stood invincible when events elsewhere demanded
-retreat and its abandonment. Westward the Russian line spread across a
-rolling country dotted with Chinese villages. The low, stoned walled
-cottages of these clusters of hamlets formed the basis for defenses
-which were well calculated to offer enormous resistance to troops
-advancing across the wide-stretching flats along the Sha-ho, and the
-east bank of the Hun, the only approach for the Japanese.
-
-[Sidenote: The Russian Position]
-
-Eastward from the Sha-ho the defense line followed the foot hills that
-become mountains thirty miles east of the Sha-ho. In front flowed a
-river for twenty miles of the distance, and a vast level plain
-approached the river from the south, over which the Japanese right
-flank must make its advance. The Russian position was enclosed in a
-vast triangle with the upper angle between Mukden and Fushan,
-northward, its base the eighty-mile line from Madyanapu, on the Hun
-River, to Tsenketchen, thirty-five miles east of Yentai. Mountains
-protected the left flank; the Hun River protected the right flank,
-while Lone Tree Hill, and the Sha-ho River were chief elements in the
-strength of the centre. All the genius of the Russian commanders was
-exerted to find the weak spots in this long line. Artillery of the
-heaviest types, ranging through all the grades of siege and field guns,
-and the more mobile and most deadly machine guns were scattered with
-prodigality across the whole vast front then in receding lines to the
-apex of the triangle, where were arranged the defenses of Mukden and
-Fushan. To facilitate communications over the battlefield, two hundred
-miles of light railroad track was laid, and thousands of light cars for
-horse or man propulsion were in constant use carrying munitions,
-provisions, guns or whatever was needed, to depots from which every
-part of the battlefield was readily accessible. Telephone and telegraph
-wires connected the headquarters, just north of the Sha-ho River, with
-every command along the entire line. Crowning all, an army of 350,000
-men rested on its arms, elbow to elbow, along the front, as bulwarks to
-the flanks, and northward, thronging Mukden and Fushan, the reserves.
-This was the immediate situation on the Russian side that confronted
-Marshal Oyama.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Task]
-
-The Japanese task, however, was more than to defeat the Russian army.
-Criticism had followed the victory of Liao-yang because, despite the
-awful defeat administered, the battle had been indecisive. The Russian
-general had been able to extricate his army and by a masterful retreat,
-to realign his forces in a new position with no alternative but to
-follow and prepare to renew the struggle left to the Japanese
-commanders. The Battle of Mukden must be estimated in the light of an
-effort to prevent a recurrence of this feat by the Russians. The chief
-world interest centers about the strategy of Marshal Oyama to encircle
-his foe, to cut off his retreat completely and to force the alternative
-of annihilation or surrender. The geography of the country, its
-strategical features far afield from the actual Russian positions,
-therefore, become matters of moment which must be understood to permit
-a comprehensive understanding of the battle and its results.
-
-[Sidenote: Mukden the Real Battleground]
-
-Marshal Oyama's problem, as has been said, was to envelope the Russian
-armies. It was as though the Russian triangle were a bottle into which
-a cork must be driven. On the neck of the bottle, ten miles apart, are
-Mukden, on the West, and Fushan, on the east. Between these points the
-Russians would be compelled to disgorge in a retreat northward should
-the center be broken and a retreat became necessary. Here, then, was
-the Japanese objective. To take Mukden and Fushan, to drive the forces
-there southward toward the Sha-ho, and to place a force northward to be
-the cork in the bottle, driving back the retreat on the advance of the
-center, right and left armies, thus surrounding the Russians with a
-hoop of men and guns that would make escape or victory impossible. Thus
-it is that a battle that centered twenty-five miles southward on the
-Sha-ho River becomes officially known as the battle of Mukden, for here
-centered the really vital struggle of the whole memorable engagement.
-The Russian line of communication centers at Harbin, where the railroad
-which pierces Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula to Port Arthur,
-branches southward from the Siberian railroad, the artery through which
-flows life from St. Petersburg and European Russia to the Far Eastern
-armies. The whole Manchurian campaign has moved northward along this
-railroad, the salvation of the Russian army always depending on its
-ability to keep open at its rear this means of sustenance, of
-ammunition supply, of reinforcement supply, of transport of every kind,
-whether advancing or retreating. The railroad reached the actual
-Russian lines just west of Mukden and then continued southward to the
-Sha-ho, branching here and there to various field depots convenient to
-the various army units. Marshal Oyama's plan of battle comprehended, as
-its greatest achievement, the cutting of this railroad north of Mukden
-before a retreat could be made. This was the first and most vital
-contribution if the ultimate plan to envelop the Russians was to
-succeed. This plan failed and hence the prize of decisive, final
-victory slipped from the grasp of the Japanese commander, however great
-the blow he dealt to the Russian army.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Flanks Strongly Protected]
-
-General Kuropatkin was fully alive to the dangers on his flanks as well
-as at the front. His right flank rested on Mukden, but the actual lines
-to which were given the task of preventing the turning of the right
-flank were far afield from the actual city. To the southwest they
-extended to the Hun River, thirty-five miles away, while the far
-outpost was within touch of Sinmintin, a Chinese city, thirty-five
-miles westward of Mukden on the banks of the Liao River. Sinmintin is
-actually in the territory which was excluded from the theatre of war by
-the famous agreement proposed to the European Powers by John Hay, the
-American Secretary of State, by which the neutrality of Chinese
-territory was assured. Nevertheless, while not actually occupied by the
-Russians, Sinmintin was to all intents and purposes within their lines
-and was continually used as a receiving point for supplies bought or
-commanded in the Mongolian provinces. Cossacks in large force remained
-in close touch with the city while the road leading from Sinmintin to
-Mukden, a famous caravan route, was occupied by large forces of
-Russians and was regarded as an effective bulwark for the Russian right
-flank.
-
-The Russian defences on the right, or west wing of their army began
-just west of the Sha-ho River, extended thence westward for thirty-five
-miles to the Hun and then bent due northward across the left side of
-the Liao River Valley to a point a few miles east of Sinmintin; thence
-along the Sinmintin-Mukden road to Tatchekiao, five miles northward of
-Mukden; thence due westward until the line intercepted the railroad, a
-few miles north of Mukden. Lieutenant General Baron Kaulbars was
-commander of the army of nearly 100,000 men which made up this wing of
-General Kuropatkin's forces. The left wing's divisional commander was
-General Linevitch, who, with General Rennenkampf, stands among the
-greatest of the Russian commanders. Occupying a position to the Russian
-left flank exactly similar to that of Mukden on the right, is Fushan,
-ten miles east of Mukden. With this position firmly held at center and
-on its flanks it would be impossible for the Japanese to drive in their
-cork in the neck of the bottle between Fushan and Mukden. To the
-average strategist, indeed, universally among strategists, the view
-would prevail after a glance of the battlefield as it lay at the
-opening of the struggle that there was the real vital point to the
-attack as well as to the defense. In the opening days of the battle
-events all shaped themselves to bear out this view. General Kuropatkin
-manifestly thought so. Here he threw the weight of vast numbers of
-troops and thought victory near when the Japanese attack from this
-quarter had been fought to a standstill. Logically, Fushan was the
-chief danger point, and the fact that Marshal Oyama, the Japanese
-commander, chose another strategical solution for the problem is among
-his achievements that have resulted in the appellation of "The Napoleon
-of the Orient."
-
-[Sidenote: Well Protected on the East]
-
-Just as on the west, the Russian lines were far afield from the actual
-key position at Mukden, so on their left, or eastern positions their
-lines formed a far-reaching protective barrier, 20 miles away. As has
-been said, the main front on the east stretched away from the Sha-ho,
-thirty-five miles eastward to the Taitse River, which winds in a
-general northeasterly direction from Liao-yang. The defensive position
-of importance was at Tsinketchen, in the foothills of the Sierras,
-which run across Manchuria, and finally reach the east coast of Korea.
-
-The only practicable path northward for the Japanese army was to skirt
-these foothills to the passes, northeast from Tsinketchen and
-Bentsiaputze and then debouch into the valley of the Hun River and
-fight their way northward to Fushan, the rugged nature of the country
-eastward from that place practically preventing any opportunity for
-play of strategy in a turning movement to strike northeast of the city.
-One of the wonders of the war and one of the most amazing of the feats
-constantly accomplished by the Japanese has been the skill and success
-with which they have attacked and captured mountain positions. General
-Kuroki in the campaign which, after a few months followed the victory
-of the Yalu, repeatedly drove the Russians from veritable Thermopylaes
-and in the fighting on every front which preceded the surrounding of
-the Russian army at Liao-yang the Japanese were constantly confronted
-with the necessity of making frontal attacks on mountain defiles which
-seemed to offer impregnable shelter to the defenders.
-
-[Sidenote: Battled for Mountain Passes]
-
-So also in the campaign on the east in the battle of Mukden. General
-Kuropatkin chose his defensive positions with skill. No pains were
-spared in fortifying the gaps in the mountain ridges through which the
-Japanese must pass. The principal routes open were through Da Pass and
-Gauto Pass. While these were the main defensive positions the Russians
-pushed fifteen miles further southward toward the enemy, and the
-earlier reverses at Tsinketchen were only fairly unimportant preludes
-to the battling at these mountain passes. The Russian line on the east
-had less geometrical regularity than the line of the west owing to the
-nature of the topography. The lines from the front extended to the
-foothills, as has been pointed out, and then were concentrated at the
-passes, the danger points, offering only a limited battle line until
-the fighting had swept over the mountains into the Valley of the Hun.
-What with artillery of a thousand guns and an army of 75,000 men only
-called upon to defend positions of vast natural strength, there was
-little wonder then when the open guns of the battle rolled over the
-plains in the west, General Kuropatkin concentrated his attention to
-the centre and gave little thought to events on his left. As it turned
-out the General's confidence was well founded. In all the war no braver
-or more stubborn or more successful fight has been waged by any Russian
-force than was waged by the army under Lieutenant-General Linevitch and
-General Rennenkampff on this flank. It has been said that the Japanese
-were fought to a standstill. That statement is literally true, and only
-the beginning of the Russian retreat made it possible for General
-Kuroki, the Japanese Commander here, to play any conspicuous part in
-the total disaster which befell the Russian Army.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians Had Advantage of Position]
-
-To summarize, the position in which General Kuropatkin found himself at
-the opening of the battle was an admirable one from every standpoint.
-His defensive lines fitted in well with the topography of the country.
-Broad rivers, rugged mountains, apparently impregnable mountain passes,
-commanding hills on front and flanks promised to aid materially in his
-defence. His army was nearly of equal strength with that of the enemy,
-while superior natural positions compensated for the slight deficiency
-of men. In the long winter months every possible means of communication
-from one to another of the units of his army had been perfected, while,
-apparently unassailable, stretched a great railroad behind him offering
-ready link between the front and the Russian base of supplies for all
-of Manchuria. His army had been recuperated, was eager to fight, and
-would be called upon to defend fortified positions, heavily supplied
-with artillery, a position which, as history plainly proves, brings out
-the best qualities of the Russian soldier. So far as the centre was
-concerned he had no fear. Lone Tree Hill, or, as he renamed it for the
-Russian who led the charge that had recaptured it from the Japanese,
-had been made as nearly impregnable as men and arms could make a
-position made by nature for defensive fighting. So westward, so
-eastward, topography, the condition of his army, the whole aspect of
-the field, spoke only of a repulse to the Japanese attack. Then would
-come the offensive against a worn-out army, then the victory for which
-all Russia was clamoring and upon which depended the future of the
-Commander-in-Chief himself.
-
-So much for the Russian viewpoint.
-
-[Illustration: RUSSIAN SUFFERING AT THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN.]
-
-[Sidenote: The Outlook for Oyama]
-
-When the smoke of the battle of the Sha-ho cleared away it left the
-Japanese armies masters of practically the same territory they had
-occupied at the conclusion of the pursuit of the Russian after the
-victory at Liao-yang. General Kuroki, commanding the Japanese right
-army, had fallen back from Bentsiaputze to Bensihu, a distance of
-twenty miles; but this move had been made to correct the alignment of
-the army with the centre, at the Sha-ho River as a basis. Certainly, no
-great effort was made to advance this force after the initial Russian
-successes on this flank after the battle of the Sha-ho. Some advantages
-attached to the position finally occupied by General Kuroki, hence the
-view that he was impelled by strategic reasons when he had failed to
-advance, rather than by inability to retake the lost positions farther
-north. At the centre, which followed the south bank of the Sha-ho
-River, the Russians had succeeded in retaking Lone Tree Hill in the
-closing hours of the battle, and had a decided advantage. Every
-possible effort was made to retake the position, but when called upon
-for this effort the Japanese were exhausted by twelve days of incessant
-fighting, and they failed. Marshal Oyama, at the centre, therefore, was
-confronted by a practically impregnable position. Westward, on the left
-flank of the Japanese Army, the Russians were less aided by natural
-features of the country than at any other point. Their lines crossed
-the Sha-ho just west of the railroad and then spread northeastward
-through a series of villages dotting a comparatively level plain lying
-between the Sha-ho and the Hun Rivers. Of all the positions on the
-entire Russian front this seemed to offer the best opportunity for
-attack, for while an advance would have to be made over an open
-country, approach to the Russians' positions was facilitated by the
-innumerable villages in this fertile river plain. On the other hand,
-the Japanese were open to the same style of advance, and both
-commanders made unusual preparations to defend this angle of the great
-battlefield.
-
-The Japanese lines along the front were merely a parallel of the
-Russian lines which have been described, except that while on the west
-and on the centre the entrenchments were only a few hundred yards
-separated, the lines farther east, except for outpost positions, were
-separated by distances ranging from five to fifteen miles, as developed
-when the operations of the Battle of Mukden were actually under way.
-
-To the Japanese Commander-in-Chief the general situation could not have
-been particularly reassuring, except that he could count on the
-indomitable efforts of an unbeaten and fanatically brave army. So far
-as the topography was concerned, the enemy had every advantage. In all
-a very difficult and interesting problem was presented as the Mikado's
-hosts settled down for their long winter inaction.
-
-[Sidenote: Busy Preparations During Winter]
-
-Liao-yang was made the Japanese base after the occupation of that city,
-and the Engineer Corps performed a notable feat in the speedy manner in
-which the railroad running northward from Port Arthur was made over for
-the use of Japanese engines and cars. The Russians had a five-foot
-gauge, while the Japanese rolling stock was built to the standard
-measurement. This fact made necessary the relaying of the entire line,
-a task which was promptly completed, thereby affording the inland army
-base ready communication with the general supply base at Dalny and at
-Port Arthur after the capture of that port. In addition to this line of
-communication the Japanese had a line to the Yalu. Stores for the right
-army were landed at the mouth of the Yalu River, and then were
-transported overland on a light railroad for which horses were the
-motive power, to points well in reach of General Kuroki. Both of these
-lines of communication were vital to an army that had now penetrated
-two hundred miles inland and were the first consideration when the
-flanks and protective units were being placed in their winter quarters.
-The Liao-yang-Yalu line proved to have been safeguarded against danger,
-but Cossack raiders in January twice encircled the Japanese left army,
-penetrated to the railroad at Yinkow, and damaged the line. In each
-case the damage done was quickly repaired. The second raiding party was
-so nearly cut off and so nearly annihilated in its flight to the
-Russian lines and activities on a broader scale so soon after were
-begun, that no further attempts of the kind were attempted. Such
-trifling inconvenience resulted from these perilous raids that it would
-seem that the Russians were hardly recompensed for the sacrifice of
-life. Certainly, the vast bulk of all needed stores and ammunition were
-already within the Japanese lines before the attempts were made, and
-Marshal Oyama, in all probability, could have fought the entire battle
-of Mukden without further need of the railroad, particularly as no
-Japanese retreat resulted from that struggle. The incidents only bore
-out the long held reputation of the Cossacks for reckless bravery.
-Indeed, the Japanese have repeatedly expressed their admiration for the
-Cossacks as a foe worthy of their steel.
-
-[Sidenote: Deciding the Way to Strike]
-
-With his front well aligned, and with every possible precaution taken
-to safeguard his lines of communication, the question then before the
-Japanese Commander-in-Chief was the strategy to mark a resumption of
-hostilities. At Liao-yang, despite the sweeping nature of the victory,
-there can be no doubt that the Japanese were bitterly disappointed
-when, despite tremendously determined efforts to prevent their escape,
-practically the whole Russian Army had disentangled itself from a
-well-set net and had escaped to occupy new positions there to be fought
-all over again. The first thought in all of the planning of the new
-campaign that was to succeed the winter of inactivity, was to
-accomplish the actual envelopment of General Kuropatkin, forcing upon
-the Russian Commander a surrender as the only alternative to
-annihilation. The line of action decided upon is fully revealed in the
-details of the battle to be told later. This program of complete
-destruction stands out even more plainly than at Liao-yang. It came far
-nearer realization than in that struggle, and was not concluded with
-the mere taking of Mukden; but like the tentacles of a great octopus,
-Marshal Oyama's grim determination for complete annihilation of the foe
-spread far northward beyond the scene of the initial victory and
-relentlessly realized in large measure all that he had hoped.
-
-[Sidenote: Oyama's Plan of Battle]
-
-In brief, the plan was to hold the Russian centre in a combat which,
-however desperate and bloody, was only a feint. While this struggle
-went on with apparent success to Russian arms, the right and left
-flanks as aligned east and west of the Sha-ho were to press home an
-attack calculated slowly to bend back the Russians toward their line of
-retreat northward from Mukden.
-
-But the culminating fact in the entire plan was an entirely separate
-blow at the Russian rear north of Mukden by an army which, while it no
-doubt figured in the Russian calculations of probabilities, eventually
-burst into the plain eastward from Sinmintin with a fury of surprise
-attack which ultimately crumbled the entire scheme of Russian defence.
-
-[Sidenote: Nogi to Strike Culminating Blow]
-
-That army was made up of the conquerors of Port Arthur. The fall of
-that fortress released a host of 80,000 seasoned fighters, flushed with
-a victory that filled the world with awe and admiration. Just so soon
-as the details of the surrender had been completed this force was under
-way northward to reinforce Marshal Oyama. At its head was the savagely
-brave Nogi, who had just won for himself undying place in the history
-of Japan by successfully reducing the Gibraltar of the Orient. Swift
-from the scene of one great triumph he was speeding to another. It was
-in the disposition of this force that all of the genius of Oyama was
-expended. When he sent Nogi westward in a wide circuit to swing
-completely around the Russian right army, to plunge northward by forced
-marches as far as Simintin and then bend eastward to burst upon the
-Russian rear, sweeping within five miles of their lines before an
-adequate defence could be provided, he settled the fate of Russia's
-great army of nearly a half million men. He struck a blow that made an
-awful rout possible, and the blow that made possible the final
-disaster, the forced abandonment of Tie Pass, that left the Russian
-Army a demoralized horde of panicked troops facing northward into the
-bleak stretches of Northern Manchuria.
-
-By this blow he added the final humiliation to Russia's greatest
-soldier, Kuropatkin, and lost that erstwhile leader with half of a
-century of popular adulation behind him, the command of Russia's Armies
-in Manchuria. He ended every hope of an offensive campaign in
-Manchuria, achieving at a stroke every result that for which a year's
-campaign had been allotted.
-
-[Sidenote: "Out of the Way for Us"]
-
-Nogi's army swept into the ranks of the opposing Russians, shouting,
-"Out of the way for us; we're from Port Arthur". To them fighting in
-the open country face to face with the enemy was as child's play
-compared with the horrors they had faced in scaling the bristling
-mountainsides north of Port Arthur. There they advanced against hidden
-terrors that lurked behind dull gray walls of huge forts; they braved
-the cunningly devised high priests of death that are hidden underground
-and work havoc and disaster when victory seems within grasp. They had
-looked death in the face in a hundred hidden forms unflinchingly, had
-fought and conquered a foe behind vast walls. Here there was only man
-to man. Shells burst overhead, scattering deadly shrapnel, but what was
-that to the rain of ponderous steel from siege guns that tore out the
-face of hillsides and annihilated regiments at a single puff. These
-were the men who, with a strident battle cry of scorn for the ease of
-the task, swept through thirty miles in a single day, trampling Russian
-regiments under foot, storming over fortified towns as though no men or
-guns were there, right up to the gates of Mukden, right where their
-guns could search the huddled ranks of Russians, fleeing from the
-destructible force that was welding a ring around them. Nature finally
-checked them. Up from the Manchurian plains a mighty wind swept a
-blinding simoon that halted their irresistible host at the moment when
-they were driving home the last fatal blow. For a day the whole
-battlefield was wrapped in a blinding curtain of sweeping sand. When
-once again Nogi's men could take up the work they had begun the bulk of
-the Russian force had fled past. Undaunted they swept northward, and
-four days later, when the beaten and dispersed army was reorganizing
-its ranks from the chaos of the flight, it was Nogi's men, springing
-once more out of the west, that set Kuropatkin's whole remnant in
-flight again, leaving behind them the last fortified position in
-Southern Manchuria. Oyama planned, but the palm for the victories of
-Mukden and the further flight from Tie Pass belongs to Nogi and the
-host that took Port Arthur.
-
-[Sidenote: Master Stroke of the Battle]
-
-This was indeed the master stroke of the battle, nevertheless a way had
-to be prepared for it by tremendously desperate work on every quarter
-of the long battle line. As vigorous as was the assault made on the
-Russian front, there can be no doubt that this was nothing more than a
-feint. The readiness with which the Japanese Commander-in-Chief
-sacrificed thousands of lives in assaults of a secondary nature is one
-of the significant things of the story of the battle. Such methods are
-reminiscent of Grant's massed attacks in the closing days of the Civil
-War, when life was counted as nothing when in the scale beside the
-value of victory. No pang for the sacrifice reached the heart of Oyama
-or the Generals under him who were directing the assaults. Victory was
-the stake, and the soldiers were there to die, if need be. They died by
-files and ranks and regiments. But victory was won. Over against the
-total of the blood-letting in their own ranks was the awful slaughter
-of the enemy, here, as in every battle of the war, far heavier in the
-Russian totals than with the Japanese. Two generations have come since
-the famous struggle of Gettysburg, yet statisticians are still
-struggling to determine the exact number who fought and died there or
-who remained alive, as victor and vanquished. The actual figures are
-still only approximately known. Multiply the difficulties of accounting
-for the less than two hundred thousand who fought at Gettysburg an
-hundredfold, and something of the difficulty of getting at the actual
-facts of the battle at Mukden begin to be realized. Ultimately, the
-Japanese may give the details, but no actual statement of the number of
-Russians engaged, of the losses in killed, wounded and missing, may be
-expected. The story forms too tragic a page in the history of the
-nation ever to be willingly spread broadcast.
-
-[Illustration: ON BOARD A JAPANESE BATTLESHIP DURING THE BATTLE OF THE
-JAPAN SEA.]
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-  Prelude to the Great Battle--Gripenberg Fails and Quits Army--The
-    Battle Begins--The Struggle on the East Front--The Battle at
-    the Center--Battle Culminates on the West--Village by Village
-    Taken--Russian Artillery Impotent--When the Crushing Blow
-    Fell--A Cloud in the West--Kuropatkin Ignores Danger--Center
-    Positions Abandoned--Japanese Ingenuity Marvelous--Retreat a
-    Carnival of Slaughter--Oyama's Prophecy Fulfilled.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Prelude to the Great Battle]
-
-There was a prelude to the actual battle fought early in January by a
-portion of the Russian right flank under General Gripenberg, which is
-chiefly interesting for its effect in the Russian ranks. Whatever may
-have been the purpose of the attack, it failed. Heiketau, a town in the
-angle of the Hun and Liao Rivers, was the scene of the opening attack.
-Here the Japanese had an outpost in sight of the Russian lines.
-Resistance was made to the advance until it was seen that the Russians
-were in earnest and that a large force was actually about to give
-battle. Thereupon the Japanese outpost fell back on the main position
-at Sandiapu, three miles away, the Russians following. For two days a
-severe fight waged around their position, and General Gripenberg made
-enough gains on the first day to give rise to the belief that he was in
-position to break the entire Japanese line, divide their army, flank
-the centre, and compel a retreat. He sent an urgent representation of
-the situation to General Kuropatkin, asking for reinforcements, and,
-taking for granted that these would be sent, he plunged in on the
-second day to win, at last, a victory for Russia. The force against
-which he had thrown three divisions consisted of a single division of
-the Japanese, who counted on stopping the advance by dint of the
-earthworks protecting Sandiapu. Before morning of the second day
-General Oku, exhibiting the rare initiative and resourcefulness common
-to all of the Japanese generals, was ready to deal a crushing blow to
-Gripenberg, and the Russian General in his eagerness to take advantage
-of the opportunity which he believed had been opened by the apparent
-advantages of the first day of the fight, fell into one of the most
-deadly of the many traps from time to time set for Russian commanders.
-
-[Sidenote: Gripenberg Fails and Quits Army]
-
-To make sure that the Russians would not fail to renew the attack,
-General Oku caused a decoy battery of useless guns to sweep into
-position in full view of the Russian lookouts. The bait was too
-tempting. Gripenberg advanced on the dummy battery into a triangle of
-death. Batteries on three sides held their fire until the Russian lines
-had swept into practically point blank range. Then there burst over
-them a rain of shrapnel and a deadly sweep of rifle fire which spread
-confusion as hundreds were mowed down. Retreat from the death zone
-became rout, and General Gripenberg, with Oku's men in full pursuit,
-left ten thousand dead and wounded behind him in their flight to safety
-within the main Russian lines north of the Sha-ho. The fight was
-unimportant in itself, but it led to a personal encounter between
-Generals Kuropatkin and Gripenberg, which added to the demoralization
-already existing among the officers of the Russian Army. General
-Gripenberg bitterly assailed Kuropatkin for having failed to send
-reinforcements. Kuropatkin declared the only possible value of attack
-at that time and place was to uncover the strength of the enemy and to
-reconnoitre his positions, that a general engagement was folly and
-could not hope to achieve anything. For be it known, the initial
-advance had been made in a driving blizzard. General Gripenberg gave up
-his command and left the front for St. Petersburg to lay charges of
-incapability against the Commander-in-Chief and to join the group at
-the Russian Capital engaged in intrigue for the downfall of Kuropatkin.
-
-In the army the line and staff officers took sides in the bitter
-controversy that followed, and possibly the fight at Sandiapu, itself
-so insignificant, did more in the end to bring the disaster of Mukden
-and Tie Pass than can be estimated. A commander-in-chief, without the
-confidence of the officers of staff and line, can hardly hope to
-command the confidence of the men in the ranks. To say the least, the
-incident, coming so soon before the army was to be locked in a life and
-death struggle, was not calculated to add to the chances that victory
-would crown Russian arms.
-
-[Sidenote: The Battle Begins]
-
-The battle was actually begun on the initiative of the Japanese. By
-February 19, Marshal Oyama believed he was ready to begin the struggle
-for Mukden. He prefaced the battle by the prophecy that Mukden would be
-occupied by his army on March 10, a prophecy which caused only
-merriment in Russia, but which was literally fulfilled. To General
-Kuroki was given the honor of firing the first guns of the renewal of
-the campaign. General Kuroki, after the battle of the Sha-ho River, had
-wintered on the southern bank of the Taitze River, the centre of his
-army resting in the neighborhood of Bensihu, thirty-five miles east of
-Yentai. The Russian line was ten miles north, and the first place to be
-taken was Tsinkhetchen, at a point where the level river country began
-to rise to the Tie range of mountains, running in a generally
-northwest-southeast direction across all of Manchuria, into Mongolia
-northward, and into Korea southward, passing along the eastern side of
-the Russian triangle. The task assigned to Kuroki was to drive the
-Russians from Tsinkhetchen into the foothills to the passes of the
-mountains, then to take these and to debouch his army on the plains of
-the Hun River, twenty miles east of Mukden, and eastward of Fushun,
-then to strike northwestward toward the railroad and line of retreat of
-the Russian Army northward from Mukden, joining at the railroad the
-forces under Oku and Nogi, which were to attack from the west.
-
-Kuroki's army got under way February 19, crossing the first of the
-rivers, the Taitse, without opposition. Then the advance was made
-northward to the Sha-ho, and here the Russian lines were encountered. A
-surprise night attack cleared away the Russians guarding the Sha-ho at
-Vanupudza, ten miles east of the railroad. Kuroki then bent
-northeastward toward the outermost position of the Russian left,
-avoiding the forces commanding the hills north of the Sha-ho.
-
-[Sidenote: The Struggle on the East Front]
-
-On February 24 his army delivered a tremendous assault on the Russian
-positions at Tsinkhetchen, preceding the infantry advance by a
-bombardment of great force and effectiveness. Three lines of
-entrenchments were literally destroyed by the fire of siege guns which
-had been brought from Port Arthur, and despite the tremendous
-difficulty involved had been placed within range of the Tsinkhetchen
-positions. The Russian defence was stubborn, but the Japanese were
-irresistible, and after a few hours of awful carnage General
-Rennenkampff, commanding the Russians, ordered a retreat. Kuroki failed
-in an effort to envelop the position, and the Russians reached in
-safety their main position on this flank at Da Pass. Here one of the
-bloodiest struggles of the war followed, opening on February 28 and
-continuing until March 1, when, despite one of the most gallant
-resistances credited to the Russians, General Kuroki flanked the Pass
-notwithstanding insuperable obstacles offered by the rugged nature of
-the country. Then followed a retreat and pursuit, every step of which
-was marked by fighting of the most desperate nature, thousands of
-bodies carpeting the gradually rolling country, which finally became
-the plains along the Hun. Fushun was the Japanese objective. Kuroki
-bent every energy to roll back the front which Rennenkampff presented,
-but for ten days after the plain had been reached his army was fought
-to a standstill. General Linevitch, commanding the division of which
-Rennenkampff's command was part, checkmated every attempt made to cross
-the Hun and flank him, while at his front he rolled back as many as
-thirteen infantry assaults in a single day. This section of the field
-was remote from the main battle line and few of the details reached the
-world. With the slow filtering of the story of this fighting it has
-become apparent that here was waged a struggle even more desperate than
-that which made history west of Mukden. Kuropatkin appreciated the
-vital necessity of preventing the turning of his left flank at Fushun,
-and it must be said to the credit of the Japanese that they were
-fighting here a force twice the size of their own and one that was
-continually being reinforced by every battalion that could be spared
-from the west. The marvel is that Kuroki's army was not utterly
-annihilated. It was the tremendous fight he made that compelled
-Kuropatkin to weaken his right to support Linevitch, and it was the
-fact that the right had been so weakened that made possible the
-brilliant victories won by the Japanese on the west. Hence, in addition
-to credit for the great fight he made in carrying out his own share in
-the battle, Kuroki stands for credit in drawing strength from other
-positions which materially aided in the ultimate outcome. Nevertheless,
-until fateful March 10, his army had been fought to a standstill within
-five miles of Fushun, its objective. The outcome here even encouraged
-Kuropatkin in the belief that the battle was going his way.
-
-[Sidenote: The Battle at the Center]
-
-It is necessary, in recording the story of the battle, to leave Kuroki,
-still fighting in vain to take Fushun and open the road to the Russian
-rear, and to record events on other parts of the field. The battle
-line, when both armies had actually been joined, extended for a
-distance between eighty and one hundred miles. Every event at every
-position dovetailed into the whole strategy of the battle, yet a vast
-difficulty is imposed in collating all of the scattered events into a
-continuous story. No one observer, possibly not the Generals-in-chief
-themselves, could follow all of the swift moving events, and the best
-and at that a most difficult achievement was to follow the main trend
-of events interpreting separate achievements, advances, retrogressions,
-as they bore on the grand object of each army.
-
-The battle of Mukden was, in fact, four battles in one. One of those
-battles was fought between Kuroki and Linevitch on the east. The second
-battle within the battle of Mukden was fought between the centre armies
-and focussed in the beginning of the conflict at Lone Tree, or Putiloff
-Hill, just east of the railroad, forty-five miles south of Mukden. Here
-General Nodzu commanded the Japanese and General Kuropatkin in person
-and General Zassulitch, divisional commander, directed the Russian
-defence. The battle here began on February 24, the date on which
-General Kuroki delivered the attack on Tsinkhetchen. General Nodzu's
-immediate task was to keep the Russian centre too well occupied and in
-fear of a general assault, thus preventing the sending of
-reinforcements to the flank, where Kuroki was at his important work.
-The artillery duel which waged around the centre positions has never
-been equalled in the history of war. The Russians had at this point
-alone 530 guns, fifty of them siege guns on permanent emplacements
-firing eight-inch shells. Putiloff and Novgorod Hill bristled with
-field and machine guns, and these commanding hills were flanked east
-and west by fortifications upon which five months' work had been
-expended and which are perhaps the finest defensive works ever erected
-on a battlefield.
-
-The Russian centre was the hope of the Russian Commander. He claimed
-impregnability for it, and impregnable it proved. Nevertheless Nodzu
-sent scores of assaults at its steep slopes, and the later advances
-were made by the Japanese over the bodies of comrades who had fallen in
-earlier efforts. The Russian centre resisted without a break, and only
-left its positions March 7, when events elsewhere resulted in the order
-to fall back north of the Sha-ho. The story of the struggle here is an
-exact replica of many which waged in the bloody days of the siege of
-Port Arthur, though here the loss of life was heavier, since none of
-the protective engineering devices used at Port Arthur were resorted
-to. The assaults were simply dashes by Japanese infantry up the bare
-slopes of a hill rising five hundred feet in the air. It was man
-unprotected against steel in armor, and the man lost. Behind the
-Russians was the Sha-ho River. Their second line of defences was sunk
-in the hillsides and hilltops there. With the river in front, the ice
-weakened until it was questionable whether men in any numbers could
-make safe crossing, this position was only a little less strong than
-the first. All in all, it is little wonder that the Japanese Commander
-elected only to feint here and deal his blow at other positions. The
-second line, however, availed the Russians little except to hold in
-check the pursuit and leave General Nodzu to be only a minor factor in
-the culmination of the disaster that finally befell the Russians. The
-centre army, while it played no conspicuous part in the battle, while
-it was not called upon to repel, and was not expected to take the
-Russian positions as a vital part of the Japanese strategy, possibly
-even greater credit belongs to these men who died in droves, knowing
-that they were being sacrificed as a matter of secondary importance,
-that upon others elsewhere, miles and miles away, was falling the
-really great events and upon whom would fall the glory. Whether they
-knew it or not, there was no faltering. With cries of "banzai" they
-stormed up Putiloff Hill, up Novgorod Hill; by regiments they fell, and
-regiments as loyal and heroic took their places, apparently satisfied
-that all the sacrifice was only to prevent reinforcements from the
-centre from being sent to the lines northeast, northwest, where their
-brothers were writing victory in blood across Manchuria's plains. War
-is essentially waste; waste of men, waste of money. Here the spirit of
-waste was fully exemplified, yet the waste was a factor if victory was
-to be won, and Oyama sent his armies to their work bent on victory as
-perhaps never an army was bent on victory.
-
-[Illustration: THE RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA.]
-
-[Sidenote: Battle Culminates on West]
-
-The battle of Mukden, as the whole struggle has been officially called,
-had its climax on the west. The strategy of Marshal Oyama, as has been
-explained, culminated in the attack by the army of Port Arthur
-veterans, commanded by General Nogi. This attack was but part of the
-assault on the Russian right. The actual Japanese left army was
-commanded by General Oku, and during the long winter season had
-occupied a position extending westward from the Sha-ho River to the
-Hun, upon which at the front the Russian right rested, though when the
-battle had gotten under way this line was extended fifteen miles
-farther west to the banks of the Liao River. General Oku's lines and
-also the Russian lines, which he opposed, occupied a series of unmapped
-villages, most of them only occupied during the spring, summer and
-fall, when the fertile river valleys are in cultivation, the products
-of the region being similar to those of the Northern Central United
-States, east and west from Chicago as a centre. The village huts are
-built of rough hewn stone, the walls being of primitive build and
-oftentimes twelve inches thick. Stone walls around fields are of common
-occurrence, so that while the country generally was level, it had in
-these houses and walls many features offering protection to soldiery.
-To-day not a wall or fence in the whole region but shows the signs of
-the struggle that waged around them. Immediately after the battle heaps
-of dead marked every one of these shelters, showing where hand to hand
-struggles had taken place, as the Japanese, foot by foot, from house to
-house, from wall to wall, from village to village, had advanced across
-the plain.
-
-General Oku's attack was ferocious. To him had been assigned the task
-of turning the Russian right back upon Mukden at the centre to make it
-impossible for this force to assume an offensive initiative and swing
-northward to cut off Nogi when the culminating attack had been
-delivered. Sandiapu, that had been the scene of the desperate failure
-of Gripenberg, was the pivot for the Japanese attack. General Oku
-avoided the Russian right centre just left of the railroad, because
-these positions were in part commanded by Putiloff Hill, and the taking
-of the Russian fortifications here would only mean a falling back under
-the protection of Russia's impregnable centre. With Sandiapu as a
-pivot, however, Oku drove the attack in a northeasterly direction,
-rather than northward, parallel to the Russian lines. His assaults
-began simultaneously with Kuroki's attack at Tsinkhetchen, and in one
-tremendous dash the Russian line was broken, crumbled in the plain five
-miles north of Sandiapu, and the struggle had begun which after ten
-days' fighting had doubled the Russian flank back until its line,
-beginning at a point five miles west of the railroad, was bent back at
-right angles to the line it had occupied at the opening of the battle.
-This achievement had been accomplished in the face of a determined
-resistance. Throughout the struggle the artillery was rendered useless
-for hours at a time, while the infantry engaged in hand-to-hand
-struggles. The story of the attack on a single of the score or more of
-villages is typical of all of them.
-
-[Sidenote: Village by Village Taken]
-
-There was a brief lull just at dawn. Then for an hour field guns roared
-all along the line searching for the infantry lines and batteries of
-the enemy. House and walls were the targets. Shells in deadly showers
-ground walls to dust, ploughed the fields, shaved the crowns from
-broken ground that might hide creeping lines of troops. An hour of
-systematic, sweeping bombardment, then the army was ready for the
-business of the hour. From cover on every side little squads of
-Japanese troops dashed into the open. Ten yards they sped then threw
-themselves prone on the ground wherever any approach to protection
-could be found.
-
-Now it was the turn of the Russian guns to bark. From all along their
-lines in the dusk of dawn resounded the din of artillery. The open,
-when the advance had begun, instantly grew lividly aflame with bursting
-shrapnel. It seemed that nothing could live under that awful baptism of
-steel. Then the din subsided before the Japanese, glasses glued to
-their eyes, could catch telltale feathers of smoke that even the
-smokeless powder sends out from big guns. The echoes of the guns are
-still reverberating far away among the foothills, when up from the
-ground again spring those lithe, invincible shadows that speed once
-more ten yards or more and then vanish as they hug the earth. Where
-there were five, three have survived; here and there a single one gets
-up to continue the advance where a group had been. But from behind
-others are making these short dashes, too. The plain finally is fairly
-alive with troops, dashing forward, taking cover, dashing forward
-again. Five hundred yards away when they started, their numbers are
-already thinning when the first hundred yards has been crossed. Others
-fill the gaps and two hundred yards are crossed, and in the growing
-light it can be seen that strewn all along the line of the advance are
-forms that lie stark and still when the living spring to action for
-those unhalting sprints.
-
-Now Russian riflemen are heard from. Rifles crackle from every side,
-and then death begins high carnival. But the advance goes on. No rising
-now and speeding those few yards. The Japanese are crawling. The living
-use the bodies of the dead for protection. Often pushing these before
-them they cover yard by yard, the zone of death. Now only a hundred
-yards divides them from the outermost huts of the village. Hotter and
-hotter becomes the fire of the defenders. In a moment the assault has
-begun. A hundred, two hundred, are on their feet. Bullets eat holes in
-their ranks, but only the dead falter. Presently, with the ring of
-steel on steel, the ranks close. The rifle fire is fitful in the
-disorder of hand-to-hand fighting. Then up from all parts of the open
-rise scores of Japanese. They sweep into the midst of the fray, whole
-companies still coming press the fight. Back through the village from
-house to house, from wall to wall, goes on the hand-to-hand, man to man
-duel. Never once did the Japanese fail in the early days of the
-struggle to drive back the Russian defenders, for when one such attack
-failed there were countless others eager to begin again the same
-tactics.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Artillery Impotent]
-
-The Russians seemed demoralized by the apparent impotency of their
-artillery to prevent these advances. Often the Russian lines suffered
-by their shrapnel, so thoroughly was the ground in front of their
-positions searched by their gunners. Nevertheless, the guns had
-hardly hushed before men seemed to spring from the ground and speed
-on toward them. To the more superstitious there was something uncanny
-about this little foe. The only solution was the open ranks, the
-each-man-for-himself, the use of every fragment of shelter. Russian
-solid formations fairly melted as they rushed into the Japanese
-shrapnel fire. A single shell mowed down a score. It took ten shells
-at least to disable a single Japanese because of the way they
-scattered out over the field.
-
-Just behind the final advance of the main force which never moved until
-the skirmish attack had engaged the Russians too closely for either
-artillery or a destructive rifle fire, came the engineers with
-telegraph and telephone equipment. Bamboo poles were swiftly in place,
-and yard by yard the wire followed the advance. Presently at Oku's
-headquarters, usually the shelter of a hut within a mile of the actual
-fighting, would come the thick click, click of the telegraph or the
-jingle of the telephone. "We have taken the village" was usually the
-message.
-
-Thus village after village was taken in this memorable struggle, until,
-as has been told, the Russian line had been driven from miles of
-positions upon which months of labor had been expended and in the
-closing days of the battle were paralleling the railroad from the
-Sha-ho to a point five miles northwest of Mukden. Oku had done his part.
-
-[Sidenote: When the Crushing Blow Fell]
-
-Thus we have told the story of the battle on the Japanese right, centre
-and rear, up to the time when the assault of the Port Arthur army was
-to be launched. The battle had continued without intermission from
-February 24 to March 5. The Japanese on the right or east front had
-driven back the enemy from his advanced positions across the rugged
-hills of the Tie range and was battling to drive back that flank on the
-railroad and to effect an advance to reach a position in the rear of
-Mukden. At the centre a struggle had gone on without decisive result
-because, largely, the Japanese only planned to keep this part of the
-enemy's line busy with fighting until the flank-attack armies achieved
-positions, either in the rear of Mukden or near enough to strike, and
-strike hard at the foe should he be compelled to retreat. Oku's army,
-we have seen, came nearest to accomplishing this task. So far as the
-actual results of the fighting of these three armies were concerned,
-while the Japanese everywhere had outfought and had outgeneralled the
-Russians, there was nothing accomplished which made the situation
-particularly alarming to Kuropatkin. His left flank, eastward had been
-driven in twenty miles but with the aid of heavy reinforcements he had
-checked the enemy five miles away from Fushan and when March 5 drew to
-a close the reports from that direction to the Commander-in-Chief not
-only recounted that every assault by the Japanese had been repulsed but
-that after thirteen bloody reverses on March 4, Kuroki seemed to be
-drawing away to the south.
-
-Hope rose high in the mind of the Russian General. He believed that
-this attack on the east had been the real strength of the Japanese
-attack. He perceived that the Japanese had not been in earnest at the
-center and he attributed reverses on his right to the fact, that he had
-withdrawn a full division from Lieutenant-General Kaulbars, commanding
-there and he hoped, now that Kuroki seemed to have given up the
-struggle, that he could withdraw a force from the east, throw it into
-the fight west of the railroad, turn the tide against Oku and win a
-negative victory by defeating the manifest purpose of the Japanese to
-drive him from the Sha-ho River positions. While his right flank had
-been bent back through an arc of ninety degrees from the original
-position on the Hun River they still held a strong line five miles west
-of the railroad. The falling back of these troops had resulted in a
-loss of ground but had also resulted in a strong concentration and his
-lines were capable of greater resistance as a result. Then, too, the
-Japanese had been fighting continuously for twelve days and must be
-near the limits of human endurance. Altogether when the sun went down
-on the field the Russian Commander felt that victory was near. He did
-not expect a decisive, positive victory but after so long a series of
-disasters even that sort of victory which consisted only in having
-prevented the enemy from forcing the abandonment of a position, would
-have sent a thrill of joy and hope through the army and the Russian
-nation. It would have inspired the army with confidence for its work.
-It would have been a weapon at home against the revolutionist, the
-opponent of the war, the foes of the dynasty. For the General himself
-it meant a return of confidence in his leadership on the part of the
-army, on the part of the Emperor. It would go far toward wiping out the
-record of unbroken defeat, retreat, disaster which had marked the
-entire campaign. Victory was more vital to Kuropatkin, personally, than
-to Russia. The General was fighting as much for personal vindication as
-for the glory of Russian arms. To him, therefore, the outlook for even
-a negative success was charged with personal happiness.
-
-[Sidenote: A Cloud in the West]
-
-This was the outlook when day dawned, March 5, 1905. By nightfall of
-that same day a cloud, no larger then than a man's hand, was rising in
-the west that was to break in a storm, crushing the Russian defense,
-banishing the dreams of Kuropatkin. That cloud was the army of General
-Nogi.
-
-The tale must be told from the beginning.
-
-Port Arthur capitulated January 2, 1905. A week later General Nogi
-stood within the heart of the Russian settlement there and reviewed
-companies from the various army units that had participated in the
-siege. Out to the world went the message that Nogi's great task was
-accomplished. But there was other work for Nogi. Within three weeks
-after the Gibraltar of the Orient had fallen, 80,000 troops, released
-by that event were bound northward to join the armies under Marshal
-Oyama, then in winter quarters facing Kuropatkin. The army had been
-reinforced largely from Japan with fresh troops who had not known the
-smell of smoke. Enough of these had been sent to equal any possible
-reinforcement that could be sent to Kuropatkin, as nearly as this
-number could be estimated. Nogi's army meant reinforcement of an
-entirely different kind. Here were men inured to the rigors of
-campaigning by eleven months of as arduous fighting as ever fell to
-troops in all of the history of war. By the first week in February the
-entire army had reached its new position west of Liao-yang, ready for
-whatever mission might be assigned to it. That task was the actual
-capture of Mukden. More than that, Nogi's men were called upon to break
-the defence on the east, to strike the railroad north of Mukden, to
-intercept the line of retreat and to join with Kuroki in the enveloping
-of the Russian army. It was the crowning work of the battle. It was a
-tribute to the bravery and skill of the men who had humbled Port
-Arthur. It was one that meant hardship, all but superhuman exertion,
-but if they succeeded it meant that chief credit for another great
-victory would belong to this army of veterans.
-
-Nogi's work did not begin until the battle had been well developed on
-every front. His was to take up the work begun against the Russian
-right flank by Oku and with a fresh army carry it to a conclusion. As
-has been shown, Oku prepared the way in a splendid manner. He broke the
-Russian lines and rolled back the flank from the plains east and west
-of the Hun River. When this had been accomplished Nogi's army got under
-way. Leaving their positions west of Liao-yang, the veterans sped
-northwards. They crossed the Hun at a point a few miles above the
-junction of the Hun and Liao Rivers where two days before Oku had begun
-forcing back the Russians. His army after the crossing, was divided,
-one small detachment, amply supplied with artillery moving swiftly
-northeastward to the Liao; thence northward to Sinmintin, thirty-five
-miles due west of Mukden. This city was outside the limits of the war
-zone as laid down by the Powers in their agreement to preserve the
-neutrality of China. Nevertheless it had been a veritable supply depot
-for the Russians, caravans of foodstuffs of all kinds and even of
-ammunition coming from Chinese points on the Siberian border and from
-southern coast cities to deliver contraband here to waiting bands of
-Cossacks. As a result of this use of the city by the Russians the
-Japanese did not hesitate to enter there. They found a few Cossacks and
-a great horde of Russian civil officials together with great stores of
-supplies most of it in carts as it had reached the city ready to start
-westward for the Russian base at Mukden. Some prisoners were taken but
-no goods that were not actually in the possession of Russian civil and
-military officials were seized.
-
-[Sidenote: Kuropatkin Ignores Danger]
-
-The detachment then began the dash westward along the Sinmintin-Mukden
-road toward Mukden. On the morning of January 5, they formed a junction
-with the main force that had marched northward on a line parallel with
-the railroad, twenty miles west of the Russians and, of course, had met
-no opposition, so effectively had Oku prepared the way. The news of the
-arrival of the Japanese at Sinmintin, March 5, was the first intimation
-of this movement and General Kuropatkin ignored the news imagining that
-the force had only been a handful of Japanese cavalry raiders. They
-were raiders, in fact, but there were 80,000 of them and they were
-under orders from Marshal Oyama to enter Mukden as conquerors on March
-10.
-
-[Sidenote: Center Positions Abandoned]
-
-In their four days' march northward Nogi's army covered 30 miles the
-first day, 25 miles the second day, 23 miles the third day and 28 miles
-the fourth day, and after that tremendous feat their real work was
-before them. The army turned eastward at the Sinmintin-Mukden road,
-twenty miles from Mukden, and five miles nearer Mukden they met the
-first resistance. As a protection to Mukden, Kuropatkin had thrown
-three lines of protective works eastward. Nogi's army came upon the
-first of these March 6. His troops, swept over the Russian defenders
-like the sea over a sunken wreck, so swiftly had come the overwhelming
-attack. March 7, the veterans covered the distance to the second line
-of defences. In the meantime Kuropatkin had awakened. He saw that he
-was in danger of being overwhelmed from this unexpected quarter. His
-visions of victory of March 4, were already fleeting and only two days
-had gone by. Every available squadron from centre and left were ordered
-post-haste to meet the danger. The Russian lines that up to this time
-had only been called upon to concentrate by orderly retrograde
-movements were called upon to reform the whole line, falling back from
-his impregnable position at the center, south of the Sha-ho. There was
-movement everywhere. On the east regiment after regiment moved out and
-the remaining regiments realigned themselves. This fact is important
-because it brought Kuroki's opportunity to fulfil the mission that had
-been entrusted to him and will be told later. Meantime Nogi's veterans
-rushed on unchecked until March 8, when the Russian resistance showed
-the strength that had come with the reinforcements. Baron General
-Kaulbars took immediate command, met and placed the arriving Russian
-regiments and displayed finer generalship than any general in the
-entire Russian line throughout the battle. On the east Rennenkampf had
-splendid plans for offensive movements until General Kuroki made a
-move, then his plans crumbled like houses of cards and he fought only a
-defensive fight from start to finish, brilliant though his resistance
-may have been. But Kaulbars, when his force had been completed, met
-Nogi manfully and the duel between these great captains forms a notable
-addition to the history of military achievement.
-
-For all the magnificent offensive ability of the Russian General,
-however, Nogi's veterans would not be denied. The first fifteen miles
-of their advance was like the rush of a hurricane. Then came the real
-fighting. This continued March 8, 9, 10, in which time the Russians had
-been forced back literally step by step on Mukden. Calmly the Japanese
-General ordered assault after assault on the Russian lines ignoring the
-heaps of the dead that, when the third day of the battle had brought
-decisive victory, numbered 20,000 choked into the narrow line of
-advance through those last five miles to Mukden. The shells from his
-artillery swept the railroad and the Trade Road that runs beside the
-railroad over which the Russian center was retreating. If Nogi, in
-those three days saw 20,000 of his brave men fall and if this
-imperturbable soldier felt any pang there was balm in the fact that he
-had inflicted a loss on the enemy of three for every one of his own men
-who had fallen.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Ingenuity Marvellous]
-
-In the course of the three days whole new chapters were written into
-books of strategy. The Japanese General and troops answered once for
-all the accusation that they were mere imitators of western methods.
-Among the uncanny tricks that they successfully used many have no equal
-in military annals. Taking advantage of the first dust which began to
-rise on the second day and played an important part in the whole of the
-battle, a Japanese force turned their backs on the Russians and fired
-into the ranks of their own men pushing on behind them. The Russians
-took the force thus engaged for reinforcements and valorously aided
-them in holding off the Japanese pursuit. Meantime, back, back, step by
-step this mock Russian battle line drew nearer and nearer the duped
-Russians. Presently when only a few yards separated them they turned
-with the savage battlecry that had carried them over the ramparts of
-Rihlung fort and practically annihilated the victims of the ruse. This
-was only one of many unheard of acts which marked the path of Nogi to
-victory. When shells from his artillery began to reach the railroad his
-battle front turned as on a pivot around the little town of Tatchekiao
-and the advance was directed not directly toward Mukden but to a point
-five miles north of that city as part of the effort to envelop the
-Russians and more particularly to cut off the retreat. Thereupon the
-Russian resistance was redoubled in fury. With reinforcements that had
-been sent to this danger point the Russians outnumbered the Japanese
-two to one. But just as it was of more and more importance for the
-Russians to hold Nogi in check so it was more and more important for
-Nogi to crush the resistance and to drive his wedge in on Mukden. The
-struggle at every moment was hand to hand. The artillery on both sides
-fired into the indiscriminate masses of struggling men. Absolute frenzy
-marked the struggle as waged on both side.
-
-[Illustration: THE RETREAT FROM MUKDEN.]
-
-[Sidenote: Retreat a Carnival of Slaughter]
-
-Slowly but surely the Russian resistance weakened and with dismay
-Kuropatkin saw that his flank could not withstand the weight of the
-incessant attack. If the flank should be broken it meant annihilation
-or surrender for his entire force. Retreat would be impossible except
-at inhuman sacrifice of life. Already shells were reaching the railroad
-while the battle was swinging northeastward toward the line of retreat
-and every possible man had been thrown into the defence. There was only
-one thing to be done--retreat, and the order went forth on the evening
-of March 7. Under cover of darkness every available car had been loaded
-with stores, guns, whatever could be saved. Troops in Mukden piled into
-miles of box-cars that soon after midnight began the dash northward.
-The rearguard was organized of the troops then opposing Nogi and such
-of those from the center as could be made available. These retreated
-eastward from Mukden leaving as the last of the center army passed
-northward toward Tie Pass, the next station. The flank that had so long
-opposed Kuroki in the last crumbling of the Russian defence was
-completely cut off. The disorder along the front occasioned by the
-hasty withdrawal of reinforcements for the hard pressed right flank
-west of Mukden has been mentioned. Kuroki, who amazed the Russians by
-the readiness with which he interpreted every move that they made, saw
-in this disorder his opportunity. He had been battling for an
-opportunity to pierce the Russian line and join with Nogi, but fairly
-had been checked and held by the tremendous resistance of Rennenkampf.
-A brigade fell back from in front of the left flank of his army.
-Another stood ready to fall into its place. But while the very
-manoeuvre was being carried out Kuroki struck hard directly between
-the two forces. His wedge went deep into the Russian ranks and the
-Japanese General threw in behind them every available unit of his army.
-Desperately the Russians struggled to crush the foe and rejoin their
-broken lines but the Japanese, every man of them, knew that their hour
-had come. Thousands fell but thousands took their places. Mile by mile
-went Kuroki's wedge and by March 10, when on the west Nogi was forcing
-the vanguard of his fighting line into Mukden, Kuroki at last had won a
-position from which to strike the long line of Russians now surging
-northward in a retreat that had now become a rout.
-
-[Sidenote: Oyama's Prophecy Fulfilled]
-
-Mukden had been taken. Nogi had fulfilled Oyama's prophecy. So far as
-the long struggle had been for possession of the Sha-ho River position
-and Mukden it was over. The Japanese had won a momentous victory. Vast
-spoils had fallen into their possession. Fully twenty thousand
-prisoners had surrendered when Kuroki had broken through the Russian
-left, completing the circle of steel around whatever of the Russian
-army had not already made good its escape north of the line from Fushan
-to Mukden. There were hundreds of thousands of shells, millions of
-rounds of small ammunition; there were stores enough to feed the army
-for months, there was Russian property valued at millions, there were
-guns, horses, wagons, railroad material, enough for one hundred and
-fifty miles of track. There was also the knowledge that a loss in men
-had been inflicted three times as great as the Japanese had suffered.
-Mukden and Fushan and a score of smaller towns and cities had been
-taken, invaluable coal mines were now within the Japanese lines
-practically the last upon which the Russians could rely for fuel with
-which to operate the railroad. The victory, indeed, from every
-standpoint, save one, was complete.
-
-The Russian army had escaped.
-
-This escape had been effected, because despite the wonderful extent of
-their victory the Japanese armies had failed to meet across the north
-of the Russian position before the bulk of Kuropatkin's army had swept
-out of the mouth of the bottle. Nature herself saved them. When on the
-evening of March 7, Kuropatkin ordered the retreat the great
-battlefield had already become enveloped in tremendous clouds of
-blinding dust and snow swirled up from the dry plains by a tremendous
-gale. Beginning on March 7, this veritable cyclone increased in fury
-throughout the night of March, 8, and continued with unbroken severity
-during March 9, 10 and 11, days vital to the Russian army. In the main
-the Japanese suffered most from the storm. Their object was to find the
-foe and attack, the Russian object was simply to plunge northward
-toward safety. Ultimately the storm had reached a degree of violence
-which made sight impossible and the Japanese pursuit was halted at a
-moment when it seemed that the full purpose of their Generals' strategy
-was to be realized. When two days later they were able to take up the
-pursuit the possibility of complete success had passed. But there was
-still opportunity to strike the fleeing army and the horrors of that
-flight and pursuit, from March 12 to March 15, will never adequately be
-told. The Japanese forced a way parallel to the line of pursuit on both
-sides and clung relentlessly to the routed army. Here a company was
-annihilated by furious cavalry charge. Here a regiment was cut off,
-surrounded and compelled to surrender after awful slaughter. Forty
-thousand prisoners were taken in the four days of this carnival of
-slaughter and when the remnants of the Russian army had reached Tie
-Pass, forty-three miles away, Kuropatkin had lost 170,000 men, killed,
-wounded and missing. His army had lost fifty per cent. of its strength,
-a slaughter not equalled in the history of civilization. No parallel
-exists until the half mythological days of Asian conflicts are reached.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX.
-
-  Battle of the Japan Sea--Fleet Russia's Last Hope--Tragedy
-    of the North Sea--Reaches Asiatic Waters--On the Eve of
-    the Struggle--Russians in Double Line--Borodino First to
-    Go Down--Russians in Full Flight--Admiral Nebogatoff
-    Surrenders--Togo's Reports of the Battle--Rozhdestvensky
-    a Prisoner--Searching Sea for Remnants--Japan's Loss Only
-    424 Men--Your Utmost for the Empire--Russian Line
-    Enveloped--Destroyers Took Last Thrust--As Sailors Saw
-    the Battle--Blowing up the Izumrud--The News Reaches
-    Russia--Russian Story of Disaster--Why Russians Were
-    Defeated.
-
-
-[Sidenote: Battle of the Japan Sea]
-
-The Japanese-Russian war has added many pages of awe-inspiring
-achievement to the vast volume of the world's valorous records of land
-and sea. Notable, among all of the amazing array, ever will stand the
-naval battle of the Sea of Japan, fought in the Straits of Korea,
-Sunday, May 28; Monday, May 29, and continuing as a pursuit on Tuesday,
-May 30, 1905. Russia's enormous armada of thirty-seven fighting ships,
-and one hundred ships in all, had been sent to the Far East to recover
-command of the sea from Japan, which had been won from her in the naval
-campaign of 1904, when the Russian Port Arthur fleet had been destroyed
-and the Russian Vladivostok squadron had been weakened to a helpless
-condition. The result was overwhelming victory for Japan, achieved at
-the cost to Russia of the annihilation of her entire armada. No naval
-battle of history equals this in the enormous power of the fighting
-array; none exceeds it in the degree of its decisiveness. Trafalgar, a
-hundred years earlier, affords the only possible parallel, and
-Trafalgar, for a century the world's greatest naval struggle, was
-outdone.
-
-The story begins eight months before these thrilling events in the
-Straits of Korea, when the Russian fleet, variously called the Baltic
-Fleet and the Second Pacific Fleet, sailed from Cronstadt, in the
-Baltic, on its 20,000 mile journey, around Africa and by way of the
-Indian Ocean to the Orient.
-
-[Sidenote: Fleet Russia's Last Hope]
-
-The fleet represented every available Russian warship. A half dozen
-others, too old for active service or still in course of building, were
-left in Russian waters, the Czar deciding to leave the home shores
-practically unprotected after securing a secret agreement with Germany,
-which amounted to a temporary offensive and defensive alliance. The
-fighting strength of the squadrons included seven battleships, two
-armored cruisers, six cruisers, with a full complement of torpedo boat
-destroyers, a fleet equal, on paper, to the entire available navy of
-Japan, and in some aspects stronger than any Japan could hope to
-muster. Supreme command of the armada was entrusted to Vice-Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky, with three divisional commanders, Vice-Admiral
-Volkersham, Rear Admiral Nebogatoff, and Rear Admiral Enquist. The
-ultimate task of the fleet was to regain mastery of the sea from Japan,
-in undisputed possession by reason of having destroyed the Russian
-Pacific squadrons at Port Arthur and Vladivostok. Vladivostok, Russia's
-sole remaining port in the Orient, was the destination. From that point
-it was intended to assail Japan on the sea; to interrupt her transport
-service, which was vital to her army then in the midst of a victorious
-campaign, 300 miles from the sea, in the heart of Manchuria, and thus
-cripple and harass the Island Empire until no other course than to sue
-for peace would be open to her. The task was enormous; so vastly
-difficult, indeed, that until the actual departure of the fleet few,
-anywhere, believed that such a plan was seriously contemplated. Even
-when departure had been made, experts rather held to the view that
-Russia, herself, meant to ask for peace and was merely making a
-demonstration that might be counted on to modify Japan's demands.
-
-[Sidenote: Tragedy of the North Sea]
-
-The voyage had hardly been begun when an incident occurred, which has
-been already narrated, and which astonished the entire world and nearly
-led to war between Russia and Great Britain. In the North Sea, at the
-point known as the Dogger Bank, the Russian vessels encountered the
-Gamecock fishing fleet from Hull, England. The Russian admiral mistook
-some of the trawlers for torpedo boats and ordered his vessels to fire.
-One fishing boat was sunk and two men were killed, others being badly
-wounded.
-
-For some days the excitement in England was intense, and British
-official documents published later on showed that the two countries
-were on the point of war, but the crisis was ended by an agreement to
-refer the incident to an international naval tribunal. This board of
-inquiry met in Paris, and after a long investigation reported that the
-Russian contention that hostile torpedo boats were present when the
-firing took place was not justified. Rozhdestvensky, however, was
-acquitted of the charge of conduct unbecoming a sailor, and the
-incident was ultimately closed by the payment of a large money
-indemnity by Russia.
-
-The Dogger Bank affair caused some delay to the Russian ships, though
-not nearly as much as Englishmen expected. After leaving the Straits of
-Gibraltar the fleet divided, one division, under Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky, proceeding by way of the Cape of Good Hope and the
-other, under Admiral Vollkersham, going via the Suez Canal.
-Rozhdestvensky had with him most of the battleships and Voelkersam the
-majority of the cruisers.
-
-Both squadrons proceeded very slowly, and the reports from time to time
-regarding their whereabouts were of the most puzzling character. On
-January 1, however, Rozhdestvensky reached Madagascar, and there he
-awaited the cruiser squadron. The long time spent there led to renewed
-assertions that the Admiralty at St. Petersburg would never order the
-fleet to the Far East. In the middle of March, however, reports were
-printed that the Russians had sailed. These reports were denied, and
-then repeated, and at length it was definitely established that the
-Baltic fleet had sailed.
-
-[Sidenote: Fleet Reaches Asiatic Waters]
-
-Nothing more was heard of it till April 8, when the news came that the
-fleet had passed Singapore and was in the China Sea. On entering the
-China Sea, Admiral Rozhdestvensky sailed directly to Kamranh Bay, on
-the coast of Indo-China, in French territorial waters. The prolonged
-stay of the fleet resulted in a vigorous protest from Japan to France,
-back of which was the possibility that Japan would invoke the
-Anglo-Japanese alliance, calling upon Great Britain to compel respect
-of neutrality by France. France, in addition to instructing her
-representatives in Indo-China to demand that the Russians leave
-territorial waters, forwarded the protest to Russia.
-
-[Sidenote: On the Eve of the Struggle]
-
-Admiral Rozhdestvensky, on the eve of the great struggle, had dismissed
-every unnecessary ship. More than a half hundred colliers and supply
-ships, which had accompanied the fleet or had met it in the China Sea,
-were dismissed after the last ton of coal had been stored on the big
-fighting ships.
-
-                           THE RUSSIAN FLEET.
-
-                      Displace- I. H. P.  Nominal     Gun     Weight of
-    Name                ment               speed   protection broadside
-                       --Tons.            --Knots.   --In.    fire--Lbs.
-
-    Kniaz Suvaroff     13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Alexander III      13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Borodino           13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Orel               13,516    16,800     18.0      11.6      4,426
-    Oslabya            12,674    14,500     19.0      10.5      2,672
-    Sissoi Veliky       8,880     8,500     16.0      12.5      3,186
-    Navarin             9,476     9,000     16.0      12.5      3,404
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-    Dmitri D'skoi       5,893     7,000     15.0      12.2       444
-    Admiral Nakhimoff   8,500     9,000     19.0      6.0        944
-
-                          PROTECTED CRUISERS.
-
-    Oleg                6,675    19,500     23.0      4.0        872
-    Aurora              6,630    11,000     20.0      4.5        632
-    Svietlana           3,828     8,500     20.0      4.0        476
-    Almaz               3,285     7,500     19.0      184
-    Jemtchug            3,200    17,000     24.0      184
-    Izumrud             3,200    17,000     24.0      184
-
-                          THE JAPANESE FLEET.
-
-    Asahi              15,000    15,000     18.0      14.6      4,232
-    Shikishima         15,000    15,000     18.0      14.6      4,232
-    Mikasa             15,000    16,000     18.0      14.6      4,232
-    Fuji               12,300    13,000     18.0      14.6      4,005
-
-                           ARMORED CRUISERS.
-
-    Tokiwa              9,750    18,000     21.5      6.6       1,779
-    Asama               9,750    18,000     21.5      6.6       1,779
-    Yakumo              9,850    16,000     20.0      6.6       1,679
-    Azuma               9,436    17,000     21.0      6.6       1,679
-    Idzuma              9,800    15,000     24.7      6.6       1,779
-    Iwate               9,800    15,000     24.7      6.6       1,779
-    Kasuga              7,853    14,000     20.0      6.6       1,686
-    Nisshin             7,853    14,000     20.0      6.6       1,606
-
-                          PROTECTED CRUISERS.
-
-    Takasago            4,300    15,500     24.0     4-1/2       804
-    Kasagi              4,784    15,500     22.5     4-1/2       804
-    Itsukushima         4,277     5,400     16.7      11.4      1,260
-    Hashidate           4,277     5,400     16.7      11.4      1,260
-    Matsushima          4,277     5,400     16.7      11.4      1,260
-    Naniwa              3,727     7,120     17.3                1,200
-    Takishibo           3,727     7,120     17.3                1,200
-    Atkitsushima        3,150     8,400     19.0                 380
-    Nitaka              3,420     9,500     20.0                 466
-    Tsushima            3,420     9,500     20.0                 466
-    Suma                2,700     8,500     20.0                 335
-    Akashi              2,700     8,500     20.0                 335
-    Idzumi              3,000     6,000     18.0                 335
-
-From the Saddle Islands, a thousand miles stretched away to
-Vladivostok. Coal and stores for the dash there were on every ship.
-Then prows were turned northward, there was a full day when nothing was
-known of the Russians. Then came this word, that the great
-destiny-laden armada was sighted approaching Admiral Togo's lair in the
-Straits of Korea. Forty-eight hours more, and the Japanese admiralty
-was electrified by the characteristically modest announcement from
-Japan's great naval captain:
-
-"The main force of the Russian second and third fleets is nearly
-annihilated. Please feel assured of it."
-
-Between lies a tale marvelous for brilliancy, valor, daring, for all
-that is spectacular and awe-inspiring in war; for all that spells glory
-to the victor; for all that defeat, disaster, can mean to the beaten
-and crushed. In brief, of Russia's seven battleships, five had been
-sunk, and two, captives, were flying the flag of the victor; Of the
-mighty array of cruisers, all but four were at the bottom of the sea.
-Of the destroyers, three were afloat. In the harbor of Vladivostok were
-a single unarmored cruiser, and these three destroyers, the sorry
-fragments of the armada that reached this destination for which the
-flower of Russia's European squadron had set out. Sixty hours after the
-battle three armored cruisers, the _Aurora_, _Oleg_ and _Jemtchug_,
-laden with wounded, riddled with shot and shell, crept into the harbor
-of Manila, there to be interned, with their officers, Admiral Enquist
-among them. As a climax to the victory, Admiral Rozhdestvensky was a
-prisoner, badly wounded, and in the care of Japanese physicians in the
-naval hospital at Sasebo. Admiral Volkersham was dead. He had fallen in
-the first havoc-working broadside from the Japanese fleet. Admiral
-Nebogatoff was a prisoner. Without a fight he had surrendered two
-battleships and two coast defense ironclads, with the result that after
-the battle that had annihilated the Russian fleet, the Japanese fleet
-was even more powerful than when it cleared decks for action.
-
-The Russian fleet had, in truth, sailed into Admiral Togo's lair. The
-Straits of Korea lie between Japan and Korea, and are an average of one
-hundred miles wide. Half way across rise the Tsu Islands, which Japan
-has fortified until they are a veritable Gibraltar. Only twenty-five
-miles wide is the Tsushimi Channel or Strait, between Tsu Island and
-the Japanese coast.
-
-[Sidenote: Under Guns of the Forts]
-
-So narrow indeed is the water that as the Russian ships were pressed
-eastward toward Tsu Island the forts there got range of the battleships
-and sank the _Oslabya_. Togo's base was at Masampho, on the Korean
-coast. Thousands of Japanese knew this fact, but so deeply was the
-necessity for secrecy appreciated by all classes of the islanders that
-throughout the nine months of waiting the entire world never had the
-slightest intimation of the point from which Japan's defensive blow
-would be struck. The general impression was that Formosa, the
-southernmost of the Japanese archipelago, would be chosen. This opinion
-was fostered by show of activity there and by various orders calculated
-to mark this spot as of especial significance in the campaign. When
-Rozhdestvensky had traversed the Straits of Formosa without opposition
-and had reached the China coast north of there, Russians even rejoiced,
-declaring that their admiral had outwitted the Japanese by eluding
-their trap. Meantime Togo waited. His position enabled him to meet the
-enemy should the direct route to Vladivostok via the Straits of Korea
-and the Sea of Japan be chosen, or he was in position to sail northward
-to intercept the Russians should Rozhdestvensky decide to go further
-eastward into the Pacific, circle Japan, and finally approach
-Vladivostok by La Pelouse or another of the channels between the
-northern islands of the Japanese archipelago. When Rozhdestvensky
-headed north from the China coast toward the Straits of Korea he fell
-in with the plan of battle to meet which the whole genius of the
-Japanese admiral had been preparing. Only one detail failed to agree
-with what Togo had expected. He believed that the Russians would shun
-the narrow channel east of Tsu Island, nearer Japan, and would traverse
-the western channel between Tsu Island and Korea. In the latter event
-the blow would have been dealt by a dash from Mesampho. As it happened,
-the fleet had only to round the northern promontory of Tsu Island and
-fall upon the Russians in the most disadvantageous position that could
-have been found in all of the waters of the Orient.
-
-The strength of the fleets as they approached on that fateful Saturday
-morning may be shown in tabular form. The chief units are here given.
-In addition, there were twelve torpedo boat destroyers with the Russian
-fleet and a veritable swarm of destroyers and torpedo boats with the
-Japanese fleet. Nevertheless, the armada, with practically twice the
-number of Japanese battleships, would, on paper, have advantage over a
-large fleet, made up so largely of lighter vessels.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians in Double Line]
-
-The Russian fleet advanced in a double line, the battleships on the
-side away from the Japanese coast; the inner line, nearer Japan, made
-up of cruisers and light craft. Admiral Togo swung northward of Tsu
-Island, then turned sharply toward the southeast, thus moving parallel
-to the line of bows of the Russian ships, opening the broadsides of all
-of his ships, while through practically all of the first day's battle
-the Russians had only available bow and forward guns, a manoeuvre
-which eliminated enough of the effectiveness of the Russian battleships
-to give Togo an advantage despite his weakness in these floating
-fortresses.
-
-It had been planned that the initial attack should be made by the giant
-twelve-inch guns of the Japanese big ships, and that under cover of
-this bombardment the torpedoers and destroyers should dash for the
-leading Russian ships and attempt to throw the enemy's column into
-confusion.
-
-The commanders of the torpedoing flotilla had previously been summoned
-and had been notified in a few words by the admiral of the desperate
-service that was required of them and of the small chance of any of
-them reporting again for duty.
-
-They were told, in fact, that it was a simple case of sacrifice, and
-they accepted it so willingly that the admiral found it difficult to
-detail a torpedo reserve in case the first division failed in its task.
-
-Until sunset the heavy guns of the Japanese battleships and the
-ten-inch battery of the cruiser _Kasuga_ roared and fired at the
-oncoming Russians, while the Russian guns roared in reply.
-
-[Sidenote: Borodino First to Go Down]
-
-First of the Russian battleships in line behind the protected cruiser
-_Jemtchung_ was the 13,000-ton _Borodino_, and these two soon showed
-that they were receiving the brunt of the shelling. The cruiser
-_Nakhimoff_, in the van of the Russian port column, was also observed
-to be in distress, and then, the sun having set and the quick-setting
-darkness having come, the torpedoes were sent out under cover of a
-still heavier cannonade. The flotilla formed into two divisions, one
-heading for the battleship column of the Russians and the other for the
-cruisers.
-
-The searchlights of the Russian fleet threw out their great beams and
-their small gun batteries swept the sea but the swift hornets of the
-sea went wallowing and buzzing on their way. They circled and swept,
-and then came the dull roars and heaving fountains that told that the
-torpedoes had been loosed from their tubes and were doing their deadly
-work.
-
-Again and again came the roars, and as the Japanese searchlights swept
-across the field of fight and then went out it was seen that the great
-battleship _Borodino_ was sinking; that the protected cruiser
-_Svietlana_ was a wreck; that the battleship _Alexander III_ had gone;
-that the two armored cruisers _Dimitri Donskoi_ and _Nakhimoff_ were
-out of the fighting. A far-sailing shell had also reached and sunk the
-supply ship _Kamchatka_. Thus ended the first day's fight.
-
-[Sidenote: Russians in Full Flight]
-
-In the darkness of the night of Saturday, May 27, the shattered Russian
-fleet reformed as well as it might, and once more took up its
-despairing run for the Sea of Japan and the haven of Vladivostok.
-
-Hanging on to the already beaten enemy, an easy matter with his faster
-ships, Togo picked up the Russians all of Saturday night with his
-searchlights, occasionally sending a long-distance shell toward one of
-the shadowy hulls that were racing to get through the straits.
-
-But just as Togo had selected his fighting ground for working out one
-chapter of the tragedy, so now he chose the scene of the second day's
-fighting.
-
-To the northeast of Osino Island lies a dangerous little archipelago
-known as the Liancourt Rocks, and with his battleships and heavily
-armored cruisers the Japanese admiral stood out in crescent form across
-the Korean Strait and drove the enemy toward this dangerous running.
-
-Keeping together in some semblance of order, five Russians, consisting
-of the battleships _Nicolai I_ and _Orel_ and the coast defence vessels
-_Senyanin_ and _Apraxine_ and the protected cruiser _Izumrud_, were
-heading bravely for the Sea of Japan. Seeing a possibility of their
-escape, Togo, who was personally conducting the pursuit, signaled to
-close in and attack.
-
-With their forward turrets blazing and roaring, the Japanese squadron
-dashed on. The Russians replied vigorously for a time, but the gunnery
-of the Japanese was too deadly and accurate; shells were carrying death
-and destruction into the fleeing five, and the fight went out of the
-Russians.
-
-[Sidenote: Admiral Nebogatoff Surrenders]
-
-One after another flew surrender signals, the Japanese ceased firing,
-and the _Nicolai I_, _Orel_, _Senyanin_ and _Apraxine_ were added to
-the Mikado's navy. Only the _Izumrud_ got away. Fleeter than her
-sisters, she steamed boldly to the northwest. But she was doomed. Swift
-pursuing Japanese cruisers followed, hurling after her tons of metal,
-much of it taking effect. The end came when the Russian ship, entering
-Vladimir Bay, went fast on a reef. The Russian captain blew up the ship.
-
-So practically ended the second day's fight, and here again the
-apparently impossible happened--Togo's captains all reported, "No
-damage to men or ships."
-
-Togo's captains, had, however, other things to report, for while the
-main force of the combined squadron was hammering the four Russians
-into subjection off the Liancourt Rocks others of the cruisers were
-chasing scattered Russian ships, while still others were completing the
-work of destruction around Osino Island. Two special service ships and
-a destroyer were captured, and so was the armored cruiser _Monomach_,
-but she foundered soon after transference of flags.
-
-And there were prisoners to report, 3,000 of them, including the
-unhappy Nebogatoff, while up and down the seas the fight between
-pursued and pursuer still went on.
-
-Battles at sea are necessarily fought away from the eyes of neutral
-observers. The active participants are unable to know of more than the
-immediate scene of the drama in which their own ship is engaged. Even
-the admiral of the fleet is unable to see all that occurs. Hence
-detailed, continuous accounts of such occurrences rarely, if ever, are
-written until years later the disconnected stories of here one, there
-another, can be assembled, corrected, dovetailed. Sufficient time has
-not elapsed since this remarkable battle to permit of such assembling
-of facts. But both Japanese and Russians have told of individual
-experiences. These have a graphic interest, coming hot from the scene
-of the great events which, perhaps, a more finished narrative might
-lack. First in interest, come the actual reports from the admiral
-himself. Few great fighters have been men of fewer words than this
-Togo. His reports, and, indeed, all of the Japanese reports, have been
-in marked contrast to the elaborate, verbose messages sent to the
-Emperor of Russia.
-
-The story of the battle, as told by Admiral Togo, follows:
-
-First report, received morning May 27:
-
-[Sidenote: Togo's Reports of the Battle]
-
-"Immediately upon the receipt of report that Russian squadron was in
-sight our combined squadron started for attack. Weather is fine to-day,
-but with heavy seas."
-
-Second report, received night May 27:
-
-"Combined squadron attacked Russian squadron to-day near Okinoshima
-(southeast of Tsushima) and defeated it, sinking at least four ships
-and inflicting heavy damage upon others. Damage to our ships is
-insignificant. Our destroyer and torpedo flotillas delivered attack
-after sunset."
-
-Third report, received Monday, May 29.
-
-"Main force of our combined squadron continued pursuit since the 27th,
-and attacked (28th) near Liancourt Rocks (northeast of Okinoshima) a
-squadron consisting of _Nicolai I_ (battleship), _Orel_ (battleship),
-_Senyanin_, _Apraxin_ and _Izumurud_. _Izumurud_ fled while remaining
-four vessels surrendered. No damage to our ships. According to
-statements of prisoners, vessels sunk in engagement May 27 were
-_Borodino_ (battleship), _Alexandre III_ (battleship), _Jemtchug_ and
-three other ships. Rear Admiral Nebogatoff and about 2,000 other
-Russians were taken prisoners."
-
-The following are damages suffered by enemy in addition to those given
-above since commencement of battle, as reported by commanders not under
-immediate command of Togo and by observation stations:
-
-SUNK--_Admiral Nakhimoff_, _Dmitri Donskoi_, _Svietlana_, _Admiral
-Usakoff_, _Kamchatka_, _Irutshush_ and three destroyers.
-
-_Vladimir Monomach_, foundered after capture. One special service ship,
-whole name unknown, and one destroyer captured.
-
-Russian losses definitely known so far may be classified as follows:
-
-Two battleships, one coast-defence ship, five cruisers, two special
-ships, three destroyers were sunk; two battleships, two coast-defence
-ships, one special service ship, one destroyer were captured. It is not
-yet clear whether three vessels, as stated by prisoners to have been
-sunk, are included or not in above list. There are more than 1,000
-prisoners, besides 2,000 taken by main force of combined squadron.
-
-"The naval engagement is still in progress, so that it will take some
-time before the final results can be known."
-
-Fourth report from Togo received afternoon, May 30:
-
-"The main force of our combined fleet, upon accepting surrender of the
-remaining Russian main force near Liancourt Rocks, in the afternoon of
-May 28, as already reported, stopped pursuit, and while engaged in the
-disposition of surrendered ships found in a southwestern direction the
-_Admiral Ushakoff_, a coast defence ship. Thereupon _Iwate_ and
-_Yakumo_ were immediately dispatched in pursuit and invited her to
-surrender, but she refused and was sunk at 6 P. M. Her crew of over 300
-men were rescued.
-
-"Cruiser _Dimitri Donskoi_ was also found in the northwestern direction
-at 5 P. M. and was immediately overtaken and was fired upon vigorously
-by our fourth division and second destroyer flotilla.
-
-"She was attacked that night by the second destroyer flotilla, and the
-next morning was found aground on the southeastern shore of Urleung
-Island, off the Korean coast.
-
-[Sidenote: Rozhdenstvensky a Prisoner]
-
-"Our destroyer _Sazanami_ captured, toward the evening of May 27, in
-the south of Urleung Island, the Russian destroyer _Biedovy_, wherein
-were found Admiral Rozhdestvensky and another admiral, both severely
-wounded, together with eighty Russians, including staff officers from
-the flagship _Kniaz Suvaroff_, which was sunk at 5.29 P. M. on May 27.
-They were all taken prisoners.
-
-"Our cruiser _Chitose_, while cruising to the northward on the morning
-of May 28, found and sunk another Russian destroyer. Our cruiser
-_Niitaka_ and destroyer _Murakumo_ attacked also at noon on May 28 a
-Russian destroyer, which finally went aground.
-
-"According to various reports hitherto received and statements of
-prisoners, the result of the battle from May 27 to May 29, is as
-follows:
-
-"_Prince Suvaroff_, _Alexander III_, _Borodino_, _Dimitri Donskoi_,
-_Admiral Nachimoff_, _Monomach_, _Zemtchug_, _Admiral Ushakoff_, one
-converted cruiser and two destroyers sunk.
-
-"_Nicolai I_, _Orel_, _Admiral Apraxine_, _Admiral Senyavin_ and
-destroyer _Biedovy captured_. According to the prisoners, the
-_Osliabia_ sunk about 3 P. M., and the _Navarin_ also was sunk.
-
-"_Almaz_, on May 27, was observed in a disabled and sinking condition,
-but her final fate is yet unknown.
-
-"The full particulars regarding the injury to our ships are not yet in
-hand, but as far as I could ascertain none was seriously injured, all
-being still engaged in operations. The whole casualties are not yet
-ascertained. Casualties of first division are a little over four
-hundred. Prince Yorhito is in excellent health; Admiral Misu slightly
-wounded, May 27.
-
-"Fifth report, received the afternoon of May 30:
-
-"Loss of _Osliabia_, _Navarin_, confirmed. _Sissoi-Veliki_ also
-definitely reported to have sunk on the morning of May 28.
-
-"Official statement of Russian losses so far as ascertained: Following
-six battleships sunk: _Prince Suvaroff_, _Imperator_, _Alexander III_,
-_Borodino_, _Osliabia_, _Sissoi-Valiki_ and _Navarin_.
-
-"Following five cruisers sunk: _Admiral Nachimoff_, _Dimitri Donskoi_,
-_Vladimir_, _Monomach_, _Svietlana_ and _Zemtchug_.
-
-"Coast defence ship _Admiral Ushakoff_ sunk.
-
-"Two special service ships, _Kamchatka_ and three destroyers also sunk.
-
-"Two battleships, _Orel_ and _Imperator_, _Nicolai I_; two coast
-defence ships, _General Admiral Apraxine_ and _Admiral Senyanvin_, and
-one destroyer, _Biedovoy_, captured.
-
-"Thus Russians lost altogether twenty-two ships, the aggregate tonnage
-whereof amounting to 153,411 tons, besides cruiser _Almaz_, suspected
-to have sunk.
-
-"Later reports from the different divisions of the fleet engaged in the
-naval battle of May 27 show as follows:
-
-[Sidenote: Havoc Among Battleships]
-
-"The Russian battleship _Oslabya_ was heavily damaged in the early part
-of the fight on Saturday, going down at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
-
-"The first Russian vessel sunk was the battleship _Sissoi Veliky_.
-
-"The armored cruisers _Admiral Nakhimoff_ and _Vladimir Monomach_,
-after being in the general engagement during the daytime, were still
-further damaged by torpedoes during attacks by night, and were
-eventually completely disabled. They drifted into the vicinity of Tsu
-Islands, where they were discovered on Sunday morning, May 28, by the
-auxiliary cruisers _Shilano_, _Yawata_, _Tainan_ and _Sado_, which were
-about to capture them, but they all sank.
-
-"The crews of our auxiliary cruisers rescued 915 of the crew of the
-sunken Russian ships.
-
-"The battleship _Navarin_ was torpedoed four times after sundown on
-Saturday, May 27, and sunk. The survivors of the Navarin's crew confirm
-the story of her destruction.
-
-"The cruisers _Niitaka_ and _Otawa_ discovered the Russian cruiser
-_Svietlana_ at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning in the vicinity of Chappyan
-Bay and immediately attacked and sunk her. The commander of the
-_Niitaka_ reports the fact.
-
-"It is suspected that the Russian cruisers _Almaz_ and _Aurora_ were
-sunk by torpedoes on the night of May 27.
-
-"The former report includes the statement that the Russian cruiser
-_Jemtchug_ was sunk, but as yet this remains unconfirmed, and the
-cruiser's name has been excluded from the revised list of Russian
-vessels destroyed.
-
-"Judging from this and former reports, the enemy's main strength,
-consisting of eight battleships destroyed or captured, three armored
-cruisers and three coast defence ships destroyed or captured, with the
-second-class cruisers and other vessels destroyed, the enemy's fighting
-power is thus annihilated.
-
-"Later reports show that during the night of May 27 our torpedo boats,
-numbered 34, 35 and 69, were sunk by the enemy's fire. Comrades rescued
-the majority of their crews. Besides the above, there was no damage
-worth reporting. No warship nor destroyer suffered any loss of fighting
-or navigating power.
-
-[Sidenote: Searching Sea for Remnants]
-
-"We anticipated a heavy loss of life, but find that our casualties were
-comparatively slight. They do not exceed 800 killed and wounded. The
-casualty reports will be rendered as speedily as possible in order to
-reassure families and friends.
-
-"Nearly the whole strength of both combatants met in battle, and the
-area of the fighting was very wide.
-
-"The first day proved foggy, and even without the smoke and fumes
-resulting from the battle it was impossible to see five miles.
-Consequently, during the day it was impossible to locate or observe all
-the ships under my command. Moreover, the fighting having lasted two
-days, and the ships of my command being scattered for the purpose of
-chasing and attacking the enemy, some having received special orders
-after the battle, it is impossible to collect and frame any detailed
-report covering the whole battle at the same time."
-
-Admiral Togo telegraphed, May 30, as follows:
-
-"The ships sent northward to search for Russian ships returned
-yesterday. The cruisers _Iwate_ and _Yakumo_ and other vessels sent
-southward to find Russian ships, returned to-day. They thoroughly
-searched the Shanghai course from Tsushima and vicinity, but on both
-sides found no trace of the Russians."
-
-Admiral Shimamura, on board the cruiser _Iwate_, reports:
-
-"During the battle on May 27, at 3.07 P. M., the cruiser _Iwate_
-vigorously attacked the protected cruiser _Jemtchug_ at a distance of
-3,000 metres. The _Jemtchug_ sank in one minute. The loss of the
-_Jemtchug_ is, therefore, confirmed.
-
-"During the engagement fire broke out on the _Jemtchug_ and smoke
-concealed the hull of the vessel. Consequently the remainder of our
-fleet were unable to see the ship."
-
-Admiral Togo gave this list of casualties, surprisingly small even to
-himself, for he had estimated his losses as 800 men.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan's Losses Only 424 Men]
-
-"The Japanese losses in the battle of the Sea of Japan were 113
-officers and men killed and 424 officers and men wounded. The
-completion of the revised list shows that the losses were fewer than
-the original estimates. The flagship _Mikasa_ was the heaviest loser,
-losing 63 killed and wounded. The losses were distributed among the
-ships of the fleet as follows: _Mikasa_, 63; _Adzuma_, 39;
-_Shikishima_, 37; _Asashi_, 31; _Fuji_, 28; _Idzuma_, 26; _Nisshin_,
-27; _Otowa_, 26; _Kasaga_, 26; _Tsushima_, 19; _Asama_, 15; _Naniwa_,
-17; _Tokiwa_, 15; _Yakumo_, 11; _Chitose_, 6; _Idzumi_, 10; _Kasaga_,
-9; _Hashidate_, 5; _Niitaka_, 4."
-
-The casualties on the destroyers and the torpedo boats were 87.
-
-Commander Togo was wounded on the _Adzuma_.
-
-Admiral Togo concluded his series of reports with this absolutely
-accurate statement of the ships that had escaped, in the main a
-remarkable feat, when the conditions of alternating fog and sunshine
-and the natural confusion among the Russians is taken into account.
-
-"The Russian vessels present in the recent battle which were not sunk
-or captured and which are unaccounted for are," Togo's report adds,
-"the protected cruisers _Oleg_, _Aurora_, _Izumrud_ and _Almas_, three
-transports, two torpedo boat destroyers and one towboat. During the
-battle the _Oleg_ and _Aurora_ were within range of our third and
-fourth squadrons and were on fire. They may have escaped, but it will
-take time to restore their fighting power."
-
-A Japanese officer described the battle more connectedly in the
-following words:
-
-[Sidenote: Your Utmost for the Empire]
-
-"At 5.30 Saturday morning a wireless message, reading, 'The enemy's
-squadron is in sight,' reached the naval base. This message was
-transmitted to all our ships by the flagship, with instructions to get
-ready for action. Our squadron left their rendezvous and headed for the
-eastern channel off Tsushima. Our men seemed to be filled with new
-inspiration, and were eager for the long-delayed fight to begin.
-
-"When Tsushima was sighted to the southwest the sea was rough and the
-torpedo boats were forced to run for the shelter of the island. Our
-third fighting squadron, with the _Takashiho_ to port, reconnoitred the
-Russian course, and at 11.30 A. M. informed the main squadron by
-wireless telegraph that the Russian ships were passing into the east
-channel, whereupon our main squadron, changing its course somewhat to
-the southward, came in sight of Okinshima at 1 o'clock in the
-afternoon. The third division arrived later and joined the main
-squadron. The first and second divisions, accompanied by the destroyer
-flotilla, changed to a westerly course, while the third division and
-the fourth destroyer flotilla headed slightly eastward.
-
-"During the manoeuvre the Russian flagship appeared to the southward,
-at 1.45 o'clock. The Russians steamed up in double column. The fleet
-was numerous, but no living being was visible. The Russian ships seemed
-to be in good order. Our ships hoisted the flag of action, the _Mikasa_
-signaling: 'The defence of our empire depends upon this action. You are
-expected to do your utmost.' Our men seemed to silently weigh the
-significance of this signal.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Line Enveloped]
-
-"Our first and second divisions turned to the Russians' starboard,
-while the third division kept in close touch with the preceding two
-divisions. With the Japanese ships proceeding in this order, it was
-2.13 o'clock when the Russians opened fire. The first two shots fell
-short of our line, and it was some minutes later before we commenced
-firing. Then the battle was on, with firing from both sides. Our
-destroyers kept on the port side of the main squadron, and in this
-formation we pressed the Russians against the coast of Kiushiu, and
-they were obliged to change their course to the east.
-
-"We so manoeuvred our ships as to have their bows parallel to the
-north side of the Russian line. The _Mikasa_, of our first division,
-which had been leading, changed to the rear of the line, while the
-_Kasuga_ headed the line. The engagement now became very fierce. The
-_Borodino_ was seen to be on fire. A little later the Russians headed
-west, and we changed our course accordingly. Five ships of our second
-division concentrated their fire on the _Borodino_. Our first division
-now began firing vigorously, proceeding parallel with the Russian line,
-and as we began to press against the head of the Russian line our third
-division veered to the Russian rear, thus enveloping their ships.
-
-"The engagement proceeded hotly. Our second division followed a course
-parallel with the northern side of the Russians, and this movement
-completed the envelopment. The Russian ships were seen trying to break
-through, and our destroyer flotilla intercepted their new course. This
-state of envelopment continued until the following day, with the ships
-at varying distances. Thus enclosed on all sides, the Russians were
-helpless and powerless to escape the circle.
-
-[Sidenote: Destroyers Took Last Thrust.]
-
-"Previous instructions had been given the destroyers and torpedo boats
-to attack the Russian ships. Following instructions, the fifth
-destroyer flotilla advanced against a Russian ship, upon which the
-second division had been concentrating its fire, signaling, 'We are
-going to give the last thrust at them.'
-
-"The Russian ship continued to fight, and seeing the approaching
-torpedo boats, directed its fire on them. Undaunted, our destroyers
-pressed forward, the _Chitose_ meantime continuing its fire. The
-torpedo flotilla arrived within 200 metres of the Russian ship and the
-_Shiranus_ fired the first shot. Two other torpedo boats fired one
-each. The _Shiranus_ received two shells, but the other boats were not
-damaged. The Russian ship was sunk.
-
-"Sundown saw the battle raging furiously. Our shells were evidently
-telling on the Russians, who showed signs of confusion. Our fifth
-torpedo flotilla, after destroying the _Borodino_, followed in the wake
-of our second division, the signal reading, 'Something like the
-Russians' submarines have been sighted. Attack them.'
-
-"The flotilla followed and located the object, which proved to be a
-sinking ship with its overturned bottom showing. Thirty survivors clung
-to the wreck, crying for assistance. Firing ceased with the approach of
-darkness.
-
-"According to orders previously given for a torpedo attack after dark,
-all the destroyer flotilla, dividing into two squadrons, proceeded to
-attack the Russians during the whole night. The Russians frustrated the
-first and second attacks with searchlights. A third attempt was
-carefully made, and the _Yugiri_ sank a ship of the _Borodino_ type,
-and also hit others. During the night the Russians continued to move,
-and we preserved our enveloping movement some distance from the Russian
-position. The Russian ships headed northeast after daybreak, hoping to
-reach Vladivostok. Our officers and men were determined that not a ship
-should escape, and resolved not to relax their efforts until they had
-succeeded in either sinking or capturing every Russian ship.
-
-"Our ships always kept ahead of the Russians. The battle was resumed at
-9 o'clock Sunday morning, twelve miles east of Chiyupyon Bay, and
-lasted all day. Here the Russians suffered their heaviest losses. They
-seemed unprepared to repel night attacks. During our first night attack
-the Russians showed nine searchlights and frustrated the attacks, but
-clearly gave us the location of the fleet, which brought success later."
-
-Still another version has been supplied by Japanese tars, as follows:
-
-[Sidenote: As Sailors Saw the Battle]
-
-"At dawn on Saturday our squadron left its rendezvous and advanced
-through the Tsushima Channel. At 2.08 in the afternoon we sighted the
-Russian fleet. Gradually closing in, we found the _Kniaz Souvaroff_
-leading the line, with the _Borodino_, the _Alexander III_, the _Orel_,
-the _Osliabia_ and the _Navarin_ following in the order named. The
-_Nicolai I_ brought up the rear. Parallel to this line we observed five
-cruisers. After them came the special ships and torpedo boat
-destroyers. We counted thirty-two Russian ships in all.
-
-"Our fleet, with the battleship _Mikasa_ leading, proceeded toward the
-Russians in vertical line formation. The _Souvaroff_ opened fire first
-and then suddenly turned, reversing her course. Almost simultaneously
-the _Mikasa_ opened fire with her big guns, and thus the curtain rose
-on the great sea battle. The hostile fleets gradually closed in toward
-each other, exchanging a vigorous fire. The armored cruiser _Asama_
-approached within 3,000 metres of the Russian fleet and carefully
-observed its action.
-
-"After a short but fierce fight the _Admiral Oushakoff's_ deck was
-observed to be ablaze, and the ship left the line. By 4.30 in the
-afternoon the Russian line was disordered and its fire slackened. The
-_Borodino_ and _Kamchatka_ had been disabled and soon sank. The
-_Borodino_ continued to fire bravely until the ship was submerged.
-
-"The Japanese fleet continued to maintain enveloping positions from
-sundown until dawn. Sunday morning opened misty, but the weather soon
-cleared, and the search for the remnants of the Russian fleet was
-begun. Five Russian ships were discovered in the vicinity of Liancourt
-Island, and they were immediately surrounded. One, supposed to be the
-_Izumrud_, escaped at full speed. The remaining four offered no
-resistance, and hoisted the Japanese flag over the Russian colors,
-apparently offering to surrender. Captain Yashiro, commanding the
-_Asama_, started in a small boat to ascertain the real intentions of
-the Russians, when Admiral Nebogatoff lowered a boat and came on board
-the _Asama_, where he formally surrendered. The prisoners were
-distributed among the Japanese ships, and prize crews were selected to
-take possession of the captured vessels."
-
-[Sidenote: The Capture of Rozhdestvensky]
-
-To have destroyed the Russian armada was, of itself, an amazing feat;
-but to have captured the commander-in-chief, and to have compelled the
-surrender of an admiral of the line, add vastly to the glory of Togo.
-The story of Rozhdestvensky's capture is dramatic.
-
-The destroyers, _Kasumi_, _Usugumo_, _Sazanami_ and _Kagerou_, were
-ordered to attack the Russian warships on the night of May 27 and were
-steaming ahead when they suddenly encountered a number of Russian
-ships. The _Kasumi_ narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian
-cruiser, the closeness of which seems to have saved the destroyers from
-being damaged by the heavy fire which the Russians directed on them.
-
-During the Russian attack the vessels forming the destroyer flotilla
-divided. The _Sazanami_ and _Kagerou_ continued the search for Russian
-ships throughout the night, and in the morning discovered two torpedo
-boat destroyers. One of them steamed away, but the other was unable to
-do so. On approaching the latter the Japanese discerned a white flag
-flying from the foremast and the Red Cross flag astern. She proved to
-be the _Bedovi_ with Admiral Rozhdestvensky and his staff on board. The
-_Bedovi_ signalled that her engines were damaged, and that she was
-short of coal and water. An armed guard was sent on board the _Bedovi_
-to receive her surrender. The Russians requested the Japanese not to
-remove Admiral Rozhdestvensky and the other officers on account of
-their wounds, and the Japanese complied, with the understanding that
-the guard would shoot Rozhdestvensky in the event of the delay leading
-to a meeting with Russian ships, thus running the danger of his
-recapture. The _Sazanami_ ran a line to the _Bedovi_ and began to wing
-her. The line parted twice. In the morning the _Sazanami_ met the
-Japanese cruiser _Akashi_, which convoyed the two destroyers to Sasebo.
-During the trip the destroyers encountered heavy seas, and their decks
-were awash during part of the time.
-
-[Sidenote: Chiefs of Japan's Fleet]
-
-Thirty naval commanders participated in the battle of the Japan Sea.
-Vice Admiral Togo was commander-in-chief, leading the first squadron.
-Vice Admiral Kamamura was in command of the second squadron, and Rear
-Admiral Kataoka led the third squadron.
-
-The chiefs of staff in the order named were Admiral Kato and Captains
-Fujii and Saito. The commanders of the squadron divisions were Vice
-Admirals Dewa, Uriu and Mitsu, acting as rear admirals under Vice
-Admiral Togo, Captains Yamada, Shimamura, Taketomi and Kokura.
-
-[Sidenote: Blowing Up the Izumrud]
-
-The fate of the cruiser _Izumrud_ is a chapter of itself in the story
-of the battle. Baron Ferzen, her captain, with survivors of the ship's
-crew, reached Vladivostok on June 1 and sent a report, which, in
-addition to confirming the disaster to the entire fleet, told the fate
-of his own ship. The Baron reported that before dark, on May 27, the
-_Osliabya_, _Alexander III_ and _Borodino_ had been sunk, and the
-_Kniaz Souvaroff_, the _Kamtchatka and_ the _Urel_ had been seriously
-damaged and were lost to sight. The command then devolved on Rear
-Admiral Nebogatoff.
-
-In the evening the _Nikolai I_, the _Orel_, the _General Admiral
-Apraxine_, the _Admiral Seniavin_, the _Admiral Oughakoff_, the _Sissoi
-Veliky_, the _Nevarin_, the _Admiral Nakhimoff_, and the _Izumrud_
-sailed northeastward, the latter being charged to transmit orders to
-the battleships. Two other cruisers were cut off from the fleet and
-were not again seen.
-
-The battleships, steaming at fourteen knots, were repeatedly attacked
-by the Japanese torpedo boats, especially at the extremities of the
-line.
-
-At dawn it was ascertained that the battleship division consisted of
-the _Nikolai I_, the _Orel_, the _General Admiral Apraxine_ and the
-_Admiral Seniavin_.
-
-At sunrise, May 28, smoke from the Japanese ships reappeared on the
-horizon, whereupon the admiral gave orders for increased speed. The
-_Admiral Seniavin_ and the _General Admiral Apraxine_ dropped behind.
-
-Toward 10 o'clock, the Japanese fleet appeared first to port and then
-to starboard, while the cruiser division manoeuvred behind the
-Russians to starboard. Baron Ferzen's account continues:
-
-[Sidenote: Flight Ends in Disaster]
-
-"I was cut off from the squadron and finding it impossible to rejoin it
-resolved to make for Vladivostok. I put on full speed and the enemy's
-cruisers came on in pursuit. Owing to the insufficiency of my coal
-supply and the certainty of meeting the enemy's cruisers, I
-subsequently altered my course for Vladimir Bay, where I arrived on the
-night of May 29. At 1.30 o'clock next morning, in pitch darkness, the
-_Izumrud_ ran full on a reef at the entrance of the bay. Having only
-ten tons of coal and seeing that it would be impossible to again float
-my vessel, I ordered the crew ashore and blew up the _Izumrud_ to
-prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. Ten of my sailors were
-wounded in the battle, but the officers and the rest of the crew are
-all safe."
-
-[Sidenote: The News Reaches Russia]
-
-Intimations of the extent of the disaster first reached Russia through
-foreign telegrams. The emperor and naval officials hoped against hope
-that their own advices would bring some ray of comfort. It was hoped
-that a portion of the fleet might reach Vladivostok strong enough to
-aid in protecting the fortress against attack from the sea.
-
-One unprotected cruiser and three torpedo boat destroyers were all of
-the splendid fleet that ever were to reach Vladivostok. The cruiser
-_Almaz_, which by reason of her lack of protective sheathing had been
-ordered by Rozhdestvensky to flee in event of battle, got through the
-Japanese lines with a minimum of damage, though well scarred by shots
-that had reached her by chance. Captain Chagir, her commander, speedily
-communicated with the emperor at St. Petersburg through Lieutenant
-General Linevitch, commander-in-chief in the Far East. This was the
-message:
-
-"The cruiser _Almaz_ has arrived at Vladivostok. Her commander reports
-as follows:
-
-"'On May 27, Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky's fleet in the Tsu Strait
-engaged the Japanese in battle. During the day we lost the battleships
-_Kniaz Souvaroff_, _Borodino_, _Osliabya_, and the cruiser _Ural_. The
-battleship _Alexander III_ was seriously damaged at the start of the
-battle.
-
-"'After the separation of the cruiser _Almaz_ from the fleet the battle
-was renewed in the darkness. The result of the night battle is not
-known.'"
-
-The _Almaz_ was cut off from the fleet and reached Vladivostok.
-
-"Supplementary reports of the commander of the _Almaz_, forwarded by
-the post commandant at Vladivostok, state that the transport
-_Kamtchatka_ was seriously damaged."
-
-"The _Almaz_ had Lieutenant Mochalin and four sailors killed and ten
-sailors wounded. There is no news as to those who were saved or those
-who perished on the sunken warships."
-
-The arrival of the _Almaz_ has thus been described by an eye witness at
-Vladivostok:
-
-The _Almaz_, which arrived at her anchorage here Monday evening, May
-29, bore scars of the battle. Her mizzen mast was shot away, and one of
-her smokestacks was pierced by a cannon shot. But the _Grozny_, though
-engaged for several hours in a running fight at short range with a
-large Japanese destroyer, showed no signs of the fray. After her
-commander, Captain Andriffski, had been wounded, and an officer and
-three men had been killed, the _Grozny_ succeeded in sinking her
-opponent with a luckily placed shot, and reached Vladivostok without
-further adventure.
-
-For two days Vladivostok had been buzzing with rumor and excitement.
-The fact that a battle between the rival fleets was imminent, if
-Rozhdestvensky was not already at hand-grips with Togo, was made known
-through telegrams from Europe, and when it was learned Monday morning
-that a Russian cruiser had been sighted off Askold Island, headed for
-the harbor, the city was filled with the wildest reports of every
-nature.
-
-[Sidenote: Story of Russian Survivors]
-
-The inhabitants clustered in the streets, thronged the waterside or
-climbed the frowning hills overlooking the harbor for a better view.
-Finally, toward 6 o'clock in the evening, a graceful cruiser with two
-snowy-white stacks, shot in view at the entrance to the Golden Horn and
-rounded to an anchorage beneath the bristling guns of the curving
-promontory. From afar the broken stump of her mizzen-mast and a shot
-hole showing black upon the white paint of one stack indicated that the
-cruiser had encountered the Japanese. As the anchor chain rattled in
-the hawse holes the vessel wreathed itself in smoke--it was an
-admiral's salute in honor of Rear Admiral Von Jessen. Scarcely had the
-boom of the last cannon begun to echo from the surrounding hills when
-Von Jessen's flagship, the cruiser _Rossia_, answered the salute, and a
-minute later the guns of the fortress took up the cannonade.
-
-Excitement beyond description seized the thronging spectators, who,
-with frantic "huzzas," tossed high their caps.
-
-Citizens embraced each other and danced jubilantly upon the pier, while
-the crews of the ships in the harbor joined in wild cheering.
-
-In a thrice the boats were dropped from the davits, and in a moment the
-officers of the cruisers and torpedo boats in the harbor and the
-military officials from the fortress were swarming on board the _Almaz_
-to learn news of the fight.
-
-[Sidenote: Saw Flagship Go Down]
-
-The story was short. According to the officers of the _Almaz_, the
-fleet under Rozhdestvensky met the Japanese in the Straits of Korea,
-near Tsu Island, and the opposing fleets immediately closed in.
-
-Being lightly armored, the _Almaz_, as had been expected by Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky before the battle, separated itself from the main fleet
-at the first opportunity and headed for Vladivostok soon after the
-commencement of the action, but not too soon to observe that the losses
-on both sides in the titanic combat were great.
-
-Early in the battle an officer of the _Almaz_, while watching
-Rozhdestvensky's flagship, the battleship _Kniaz Souvaroff_, for a
-signal, saw the flagship shudder from stem to stern, as if under a blow
-from a gigantic hammer, and hesitate in her course, while the waves
-rose high from her armored sides. Then she commenced to list and sink.
-
-The officers believe that the debut of the submarine boat as an
-effective agent in naval warfare, or perhaps a large mine caused the
-disaster to the _Kniaz Souvaroff_. The damage, however, was so
-extensive that the flagship soon went down, leaving the deck officers
-and many of the crew struggling in the waves.
-
-One of the Russian torpedo boats, either the destroyer _Buiny_ or the
-_Bravi_, ran in and picked up a number of the swimmers, one of whom was
-recognized through a glass as Admiral Rozhdestvensky.
-
-Under a grueling attack by the Japanese warships, aided by torpedo
-boats, mines and submarines, the _Borodino_, _Osliabia_ and _Ural_ were
-placed out of action and followed the flagship to the bottom.
-
-The fog, which had raised and lowered intermittently during the
-morning, began to settle down again, and the distance of the _Almaz_,
-which now succeeded in disengaging herself in the combat from the
-struggling ships, made it difficult for her to see clearly.
-
-The arrival of the _Grozny_ on the following day was marked by the same
-scenes of excitement as those which characterized the advent of the
-_Almaz_. The wounded commander of the destroyer, Captain Andriffski,
-confirmed the details given by the officers of the _Almaz_. He
-described his combat as a running fight, in which the _Grozny_ was
-engaged for several hours, finally sinking the pursuing Japanese
-destroyer.
-
-[Sidenote: Russian Story of Disaster]
-
-From this and further fragmentary reports the Russians pieced together
-a story of the disaster. They figure that Admiral Togo, with his main
-squadron, must have lain somewhere off the coast of Korea, while
-Admirals Kamimura and Uriu held their squadrons further north to head
-off the Russian vessels which might get through Togo's lines or be
-prepared to bar the entrance to the Straits of Tsugaru in case the
-Russians should be reported moving up the east coast of Japan. When
-Togo's scouts reported that Admiral Rozhdestvensky was heading for the
-eastern channel of the Straits of Korea the Japanese Admiral steamed
-around the northern part of the Tsu Islands, and came upon the Russians
-steaming in double column, with the cruisers to port.
-
-Togo enjoyed the great advantage of tactical position when he opened
-fire, having the lightest of the Russian ships between him and
-Rozhdestvensky's heavier vessels, thus smothering the fire of the
-latter. Besides, Togo was able to use all his broadsides, whereas the
-sternmost ships of the Russian columns, coming on in line ahead
-formation, could probably only with difficulty use any guns at all.
-
-When Sunday morning came the Russian fleet was divided. The faster and
-stronger division, under Rozhdestvensky, was met by Kamimura and Uriu,
-while the slower division, under Nebogatoff, renewed the fight with
-Togo. With some of the scattered Russian units it was a case of save
-himself who can. In the running fight the Japanese enjoyed the
-advantage of superior speed, enabling them to concentrate their fire
-and bring every crippled Russian ship to bay. Admiral Nebogatoff's
-battered remnant surrendered off Liancourt Rocks, while Rozhdestvensky,
-with the best remaining battleships, fought on for the honor of the
-Russian navy.
-
-Torpedo attacks were the feature of the Japanese program, which more
-surely than anything else brought disaster. Torpedo boats in night
-attacks launched their deadly missiles within a hundred yards of their
-Russian targets. They completely encircled the Russian ships, swarming
-like angry hornets. Much of the sweeping character of the victory will
-ultimately be traced to these comparatively tiny craft, fighting under
-the shower of shells being hurled from the big guns of the battleships
-and cruisers far away.
-
-Summarizing scattered reports, the results of the battle may be
-accurately stated to be annihilation for Russian sea power in the Far
-East. Thirty-seven Russian warships of all classes entered the Korean
-Straits. Of these, three, a cruiser, and two destroyers, reached
-Vladivostok; three armored cruisers reached Manila; two battleships and
-two coast defence ships were captured and were taken to Sasebo; one
-destroyer, found helpless at sea, was towed to Shanghai; leaving a
-total of twenty-six ships that were sent to the bottom, five of them
-battleships. The Russian loss in life reached a total of 6,500 men, one
-admiral and ten captains among them. The loss to Russia in gold
-amounted to $75,000,000. Japan's loss in ships was three torpedo boats
-and a few more than 400 men. Experts the world around failed to find
-adequate explanation for this amazing disparity. As summarized at
-Tokio, these are reasons which in part contributed to Admiral
-Rozhdestvensky's defeat:
-
-[Sidenote: Why the Russians Were Defeated]
-
-"First. An imperfect reconnaissance and incomplete, faulty and
-misleading intelligence.
-
-"Second. An imperfect battle formation, which indicated that
-Rozhdestvensky did not expect to meet Togo off Tsushima.
-
-"Third. The weather, the direction of the wind and the sunlight were
-unfavorable to the Russians, Togo having the sun behind him and firing
-with the wind, while the Russians had the sunlight in their eyes and
-fired against the wind.
-
-"Fourth. The Russians wasted their ammunition and eventually their
-supply ran short. It is believed that the surrender of Nebogatoff was
-necessary because his ammunition had been expended.
-
-"Fifth. The marked inferiority of the Russian gunnery."
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Honors Togo]
-
-Japan hailed Togo as the nation's hero. A popular subscription will
-raise to him a giant lighthouse on lofty Tsu Island, commanding the sea
-for a radius of eighty miles, the area through which the battle was
-waged.
-
-[Illustration: PEACE ENVOYS IN SESSION AT PORTSMOUTH.
-
-Copyrighted by Brown Bros., New York, 1905.
-
-The Russians, from left to right are C. Berg, M. Pokotiloff, M. Witte,
-Baron Rosen and M. Nabokoff. The Japanese from left to right are Mr.
-Adatchi, Mr. Otchiai, Baron Komura, Minister Takahira and Mr. A. Sato.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XX.
-
-  Aftermath of the Victory of the Sea of Japan--The World Hopes
-    that Peace Will Result--The President of the United States
-    Takes the Initial Step--Meantime the Japanese Decline an
-    Armistice--Operations Begun for the Seizure of Saghalien
-    Island--Japanese Landing Parties Successful--Russians Continue
-    Flight After Series of Conflicts--Japanese Take Chief Town of
-    Island, Alexandrovsk, July 25--Flight of Russians and Pursuit
-    Continued--Governor of Island and Remainder of Garrison
-    Surrender to Japanese, July 30--Russia and Japan Accept
-    President's Proposal to Meet and Discuss Terms of
-    Peace--America Chosen as Scene of Meeting--Envoys
-    Named--Portsmouth, N. H., Selected as Scene of Meeting--Russian
-    and Japanese Envoys Formally Received by the President at
-    Oyster Bay, August 5--Sessions of Peace Conference Begin at
-    Portsmouth, August 9--Conference Adjourns Without Achievement,
-    August 18--President Begins Effort to Effect Compromise, August
-    19--Japan Withdraws Demand for Indemnity and Other Demands on
-    Which There Had Been a Deadlock, August 29--Announcement Made
-    That Peace is Assured--Work of Drafting Treaty Begun--Peace
-    Treaty Signed--The Treaty of Peace.
-
-
-A wave of awe went 'round the word when the full effects of the Battle
-of the Sea of Japan were realized. Russia stood before the world in the
-light of a thoroughly vanquished nation. On land her armies had been
-invariably defeated in a series of battles of stupendous magnitude. Her
-original Asiatic fleet had been annihilated. Her last great effort to
-stem the victories of Japan, the sending of a vast Armada to the
-Orient, had resulted in complete annihilation of that fleet. The
-nations forgot to grieve for the thousands slain in the hope that this
-last crowning disaster to Russia would bring what every civilized land
-had desired for months--an end to the titanic war.
-
-[Sidenote: President Takes Initiative]
-
-While this was the universal wish it remained for the President of the
-United States to take the initiative. The fact that, with the exception
-of a minor campaign for the possession of the Island of Saghalien, off
-the Siberian coast, this was really the closing chapter of the war, has
-added a brilliant feat to the annals of American diplomatic
-achievements and has placed the name of Theodore Roosevelt eternally
-among those of the famous benefactors of humanity.
-
-[Sidenote: Japanese Take Saghalien]
-
-As has been said, one minor martial enterprise remained for the
-Japanese. Saghalien Island, blanketing the coasts of Siberia for a
-distance of 700 miles, had been secured by Russia from Japan by a
-treaty partaking, it was claimed by the Japanese, the nature of a
-coercive measure. Among the objects for which the Japanese had entered
-upon the war were to secure permanent fishing rights in the waters
-along the Siberian coast and the recession of Saghalien Island to her.
-The seizure of this Island, too, was a necessary corollary of a land
-and sea campaign against Vladivostock, which would have been the next
-step in her military campaign had not the war come to an end. There was
-little surprise, therefore, when the Tokio government, while giving
-consent to a proposal that the belligerent nations meet to talk of
-peace, refused to consent to an armistice. Possession of Saghalien
-Island was still to be gained. The Japanese campaign began when a
-landing was effected on the East coast of the Island on July 8. The
-Russian garrison numbered 8,000 men and while there were defensive
-works of some strength at a number of points, the defenders were
-helpless before the advance of the invaders. The campaign amounted to a
-half dozen engagements, mere skirmishes, when compared with the battles
-of the Manchurian campaign. The Russians made a brave defence, but lost
-position after position and the subjugation of the Island was completed
-on July 30, when the Russian Governor and 3,500 men surrendered "in the
-name of humanity." Five days previously the Japanese had occupied
-Alexandrovsk, the chief town of the Island and co-operative naval
-forces were disposed so that the escape of the garrison from the Island
-to the mainland was impossible. The slaughter of the entire force of
-the defenders could have been the only result of continued resistance.
-The Japanese announced the organization of a civil administration of
-the Island the moment the surrender had been completed, and were thus
-in possession of what was actually Russian territory. This fact was
-important to the Japanese from several standpoints. The Island is rich
-in minerals, it is the centre of the vast fishing industry of the North
-Pacific and has strategic value on account of its position with regard
-to the entire Siberian littoral. More important than any of these
-circumstances, however, was the fact that it had been soil over which
-flew the Russian flag. The Japanese contemplated making a demand for
-indemnity at the forthcoming peace conference. Precedent demanded that
-there should have been the occupation of territory to make valid such a
-claim. The occupation of Saghalien gave this necessary basis for the
-indemnity demand which, ultimately was presented and only withdrawn
-when it became apparent that the war must go on unless Japan withdrew
-her claim.
-
-But the conquest of Saghalien marked the last of actual warfare between
-Japan and Russia. President Roosevelt had sent an identical note to
-Japan and Russia on June 8, calling upon each, in the name of humanity,
-to meet to discuss terms of peace and the whole Saghalien campaign had
-gone on while, following this request, diplomatic machinery had been
-slowly at work preparing the way for the peace conference. The rest of
-the story of the Japan-Russia War has to do with the events which
-finally called permanent truce to the long struggle and caused a
-million fighting men and their auxiliaries to turn their faces from the
-rugged plains of Manchuria, where thousands on thousands had given
-their lives for their Emperors and their Fatherlands.
-
-[Sidenote: Preparing for Peace Parleys]
-
-Russia's acceptance of the President's invitation reached Washington on
-June 12, two days after Japan had announced her assent. A ripple was
-caused by difficulty in choosing a place for the meeting. Russia
-preferred an European capital. Japan would not consent to any that
-could be named. Russia ultimately yielded the point, and on June 15,
-with the consent of both of the belligerents, Washington was named, and
-a day within the first ten days of August was accepted for the
-assembling of the envoys. The Czar named Sergius Witte, greatest
-statesman of the Empire, to head the peace delegation, with Baron
-Rosen, Russian ambassador at Washington, as his associate. The Mikado
-named Baron Komura as chief of the Japanese delegation, and as his
-associate, Mr. Takahira, Japanese Minister to the United States.
-Accompanying each was a suite of a dozen secretarys, legal and military
-experts and interpreters. On July 11, the President named Portsmouth,
-N. H., Navy Yard as the actual place of meeting. It was feared that
-Washington, under the torrid conditions usually prevailing there in
-mid-summer, would prove a too uncomfortable place for the guests of the
-nation to spend the weeks that must necessarily be consumed in the
-negotiations. The Japanese envoys and their suite reached New York on
-July 25. M. Witte, the chief Russian envoy, arrived in New York with
-his suite on August 2, and was joined by Baron Rosen, his associate.
-Both the Japanese and the Russian delegations were informally presented
-to the President at his summer home at Oyster Bay, N. Y., prior to the
-formal reception of the two peace missions which took place on the
-President's yacht, the Mayflower, in Oyster Bay on August 5. The
-President, in a toast to which no reply was given, expressed the hope
-that a "just and lasting peace" might be arranged. The envoys and their
-suites were conveyed in warships to Portsmouth, reaching that city on
-August 7. The envoys were formally welcomed by United States officials
-and the Governor of the State of New Hampshire. The Hotel Wentworth, on
-an island off the mainland was made their place of residence. The newly
-constructed general stores building in the Navy Yard, which had been
-elaborately fitted up with every possible convenience, was designated
-as the scene of the sessions.
-
-[Sidenote: The Japanese Terms]
-
-The first meeting of the envoys was held on August 9. The Japanese
-terms were presented in twelve sections, as follows:
-
-I. Recognition of Japan's "preponderating influence" in Korea.
-
-II. Mutual obligations to evacuate Manchuria, Russia to retrocede to
-China all special privileges.
-
-III. Japanese obligations to restore the sovereignty and administration
-of China in Manchuria.
-
-IV. Mutual obligations to respect the territorial and administrative
-integrity of China and the principle of the "open door."
-
-V. The cession of the Island of Saghalien.
-
-VI. The surrender of the Russian leases in the Liaotung Peninsula,
-including Port Arthur, Dalny and the Blonde and Elliott Islands.
-
-VII. The cession of the branch of the Chinese Eastern Railroad from
-Harbin southward.
-
-VIII. The retention by Russia of that portion of the railroad line
-through northern Manchuria connecting the Transsiberian road with
-Vladivostock.
-
-IX. The reimbursement of Japan for the war--commonly spoken of as the
-indemnity.
-
-X. The surrender of Russian warships which have been interned in
-neutral ports during the war.
-
-XI. The limitation of Russia's naval forces in the Pacific.
-
-XII. The question of fishing rights of Russia and Japan off the
-Siberian coast.
-
-[Sidenote: Japan Makes Peace Possible]
-
-These demands, one by one, were discussed by the envoys. It developed
-that Russia absolutely refused to grant an indemnity, to surrender
-warships interned in Chinese and American ports, or to cede to Japan
-the Island of Saghalien. Whatever hope of compromise there seemed to be
-with regard to the other questions at issue it was regarded as
-absolutely essential to the signing of a treaty of peace that Russia
-should yield on the subject of indemnity. The President's efforts were
-directed toward accomplishing this result under some other name than
-indemnity. It was proposed to arrange for the payment of the amount
-demanded as a purchase price for Saghalien, or for the railway rights
-over which Japan had become master. No compromise would be listened to
-by the Czar, "Not a kopeck for indemnity," was the phrase of M. Witte,
-and there was no yielding. By shrewd diplomatic manoeuvring the
-Russian envoy had placed Japan in a position which meant that were the
-war to be continued it would be upon the responsibility of Japan and
-for the sole reason that money must be had. The Tokio government, after
-long discussion, decided upon a magnanimous course, which at once won
-the encomiums of the whole civilized world. She yielded every point in
-dispute, gave up her demand for indemnity, gave up half of Saghalien,
-gave up her claim upon the interned warships and, though triumphantly
-victorious in every step of the war, accepted terms of peace dictated
-by the nation she had conquered, and this "in the name of humanity."
-Russia had won the victory on the face of it, but the historian will
-credit to Japan the greater and the real victory, a victory of vast
-moral and humanitarian significance.
-
-The glad news went out to the world on August 29, that the envoys had
-agreed upon every point and that a treaty of peace would forthwith be
-drafted. To Prof. Maartens, the famous authority of international law
-and to Mr. Dennison, an American, long an adviser of the Japanese
-Foreign Office, was assigned the task of actually drafting the treaty
-in accord with the general agreement that had been reached by the
-envoys. Their work was speedily accomplished and the "Treaty of
-Portsmouth" brought to an end this struggle that had cost hundreds of
-thousands of lives, billions of dollars and had completely changed the
-status of political power in the Far East.
-
-The treaty of peace was finally signed at Portsmouth, N. H., on
-September 5, 1905; Sergius Witte and Baron Rosen signed for Russia,
-while Baron Komura and Mr. Takahira signed for Japan. It was signed by
-the Emperors of Russia and Japan and made public October 16, 1905.
-
-                          TEXT OF THE TREATY.
-
-The text of the treaty is as follows:
-
-The Emperor of Japan, on the one part, and the Emperor of all the
-Russias, on the other part, animated by a desire to restore the
-blessings of peace to their countries, have resolved to conclude
-a treaty of peace, and have for this purpose named their
-plenipotentiaries, that is to say, for his Majesty the Emperor of
-Japan, Baron Komura Jutaro, Jusami, Grand Cordon of the Imperial
-Order of the Rising Sun, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, and
-his Excellency, Takahira Kogoro, Imperial Order of the Sacred
-Treasure, his Minister to the United States, and his Majesty the
-Emperor of all the Russias his Excellency Sergius Witte, his
-Secretary of State and President of the Committee of Ministers of
-the Empire of Russia, and his Excellency Baron Roman Rosen,
-Master of the Imperial Court of Russia, his Majesty's Ambassador
-to the United States, who, after having exchanged their full
-powers, which were found to be in good and due form, have
-concluded the following articles:
-
-                               ARTICLE I.
-
-There shall henceforth be peace and amity between their Majesties the
-Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias, and between their
-respective States and subjects.
-
-                              ARTICLE II.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government, acknowledging that Japan possesses in
-Korea paramount political, military and economical interests, engages
-neither to obstruct nor interfere with measures for guidance,
-protection and control which the Imperial Government of Japan may find
-necessary to take in Korea. It is understood that Russian subjects in
-Korea shall be treated in exactly the same manner as the subjects and
-citizens of other foreign Powers; that is to say, they shall be placed
-on the same footing as the subjects and citizens of the most favored
-nation. It is also agreed that, in order to avoid causes of
-misunderstanding, the two high contracting parties will abstain on the
-Russian-Korean frontier from taking any military measure which may
-menace the security of Russian or Korean territory.
-
-                              ARTICLE III.
-
-Japan and Russia mutually engage:
-
-First.--To evacuate completely and simultaneously Manchuria, except the
-territory affected by the lease of the Liaotung Peninsula, in
-conformity with the provisions of the additional article 1 annexed to
-this treaty, and,
-
-Second.--To restore entirely and completely to the exclusive
-administration of China all the portions of Manchuria now in
-occupation, or under the control of the Japanese or Russian troops,
-with the exception of the territory above mentioned.
-
-The Imperial Government of Russia declares that it has not in Manchuria
-any territorial advantages or preferential or exclusive concessions in
-the impairment of Chinese sovereignty, or inconsistent with the
-principle of equal opportunity.
-
-                              ARTICLE IV.
-
-Japan and Russia reciprocally engage not to obstruct any general
-measures common to all countries which China may take for the
-development of the commerce or industry of Manchuria.
-
-                               ARTICLE V.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government transfers and assigns to the Imperial
-Government of Japan, with the consent of the Government of China, the
-lease of Port Arthur, Talien and the adjacent territory and territorial
-waters, and all rights, privileges and concessions connected with or
-forming part of such lease, and it also transfers and assigns to the
-Imperial Government of Japan all public works and properties in the
-territory affected by the above-mentioned lease.
-
-The two contracting parties mutually engage to obtain the consent of
-the Chinese Government mentioned in the foregoing stipulation.
-
-The Imperial Government of Japan, on its part, undertakes that the
-proprietary rights of Russian subjects in the territory above referred
-to shall be perfectly respected.
-
-                              ARTICLE VI.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government engages to transfer and assign to the
-Imperial Government of Japan, without compensation and with the consent
-of the Chinese Government, the railway between Changchunfu and
-Kuanchangtsu and Port Arthur, and all the branches, together with all
-the rights, privileges and properties appertaining thereto in that
-region, as well as all the coal mines in said region belonging to or
-worked for the benefit of the railway. The two high contracting parties
-mutually engage to obtain the consent of the Government of China
-mentioned in the foregoing stipulation.
-
-                              ARTICLE VII.
-
-Japan and Russia engage to exploit their respective railways in
-Manchuria exclusively for commercial and industrial purposes and nowise
-for strategic purposes. It is understood that this restriction does not
-apply to the railway in the territory affected by the lease of the
-Liaotung Peninsula.
-
-                             ARTICLE VIII.
-
-The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia with the view to promote
-and facilitate intercourse and traffic will as soon as possible
-conclude a separate convention for the regulation of their connecting
-railway services in Manchuria.
-
-                              ARTICLE IX.
-
-The Imperial Russian Government cedes to the Imperial Government of
-Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the southern portion of the
-Island of Saghalin and all the islands adjacent thereto and the public
-works and properties thereon. The fiftieth degree of north latitude is
-adopted as the northern boundary of the ceded territory. The exact
-alignment of such territory shall be determined in accordance with the
-provisions of the additional article II annexed to this treaty.
-
-Japan and Russia mutually agree not to construct in their respective
-possessions on the Island of Saghalin or the adjacent islands any
-fortification or other similar military works. They also respectively
-engage not to take any military measures which may impede the free
-navigation of the Strait of La Perouse and the Strait of Tartary.
-
-                               ARTICLE X.
-
-It is reserved to Russian subjects, inhabitants of the territory ceded
-to Japan, to sell their real property and retire to their country, but
-if they prefer to remain in the ceded territory they will be maintained
-and protected in the full exercise of their industries and rights of
-property on condition of submitting to the Japanese laws and
-jurisdiction. Japan shall have full liberty to withdraw the right of
-residence in or to deport from such territory of any inhabitants who
-labor under political or administrative disability. She engages,
-however, that the proprietary rights of such inhabitants shall be fully
-respected.
-
-                              ARTICLE XI.
-
-Russia engages to arrange with Japan for granting to Japanese subjects
-rights of fishery along the coasts of the Russian possession in the
-Japan, Okhotsk and Bering Seas.
-
-It is agreed that the foregoing engagement shall not affect rights
-already belonging to Russian or foreign subjects in those regions.
-
-                              ARTICLE XII.
-
-The treaty of commerce and navigation between Japan and Russia having
-been annulled by the war the Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia
-engage to adopt as a basis for their commercial relations pending the
-conclusion of a new treaty of commerce and navigation the basis of the
-treaty which was in force previous to the present war, the system of
-reciprocal treatment on the footing of the most favored nation, in
-which are included import and export duties, customs formalities,
-transit and tonnage dues and the admission and treatment of agents,
-subjects and vessels of one country in the territories of the other.
-
-                             ARTICLE XIII.
-
-As soon as possible after the present treaty comes in force all
-prisoners of war shall be reciprocally restored. The Imperial
-Governments of Japan and Russia shall each appoint a special
-commissioner to take charge of the prisoners. All prisoners in the
-hands of one Government shall be delivered to and be received by the
-commissioner of the other Government or by his duly authorized
-representative in such convenient numbers and at such convenient ports
-of the delivering State as such delivering State shall notify in
-advance to the commissioner of the receiving State.
-
-The Governments of Japan and Russia shall present each other as soon as
-possible after the delivery of the prisoners is completed with a
-statement of the direct expenditures respectively incurred by them for
-the care and maintenance of the prisoners from the date of capture or
-surrender and up to the time of death or delivery. Russia engages to
-repay to Japan as soon as possible after the exchange of statement as
-above provided the difference between the actual amount so expended by
-Japan and the actual amount similarly disbursed by Russia.
-
-                              ARTICLE XIV.
-
-The present treaty shall be ratified by their Majesties the Emperor of
-Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias. Such ratification shall be
-with as little delay as possible, and in any case no later than fifty
-days from the date of the signature of the treaty, to be announced to
-the Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia respectively through the
-French Minister at Tokio and the Ambassador of the United States at St.
-Petersburg, and from the date of the latter of such announcements this
-treaty shall in all its parts come into full force. The formal exchange
-of ratifications shall take place at Washington as soon as possible.
-
-                              ARTICLE XV.
-
-The present treaty shall be signed in duplicate in both the English and
-French languages. The texts are in absolute conformity, but in case of
-a discrepancy in the interpretation the French text shall prevail.
-
-                             SUB-ARTICLES.
-
-In conformity with the provisions of articles 3 and 9 of the treaty of
-peace between Japan and Russia of this date the undersigned
-plenipotentiaries have concluded the following additional articles:
-
-                      SUB-ARTICLE TO ARTICLE III.
-
-The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia mutually engage to
-commence the withdrawal of their military forces from the territory of
-Manchuria simultaneously and immediately after the treaty of peace
-comes into operation, and within a period of eighteen months after that
-date the armies of the two countries shall be completely withdrawn from
-Manchuria, except from the leased territory of the Liaotung Peninsula.
-The forces of the two countries occupying the front positions shall
-first be withdrawn.
-
-The high contracting parties reserve to themselves the right to
-maintain guards to protect their respective railway lines in Manchuria.
-The number of such guards shall not exceed fifteen per kilometre and
-within that maximum number the commanders of the Japanese and Russian
-armies shall by common accord fix the number of such guards to be
-employed as small as possible while having in view the actual
-requirements.
-
-The commanders of the Japanese and Russian forces in Manchuria shall
-agree upon the details of the evacuation in conformity with the above
-principles and shall take by common accord the measures necessary to
-carry out the evacuation as soon as possible, and in any case not later
-than the period of eighteen months.
-
-                       SUB-ARTICLE TO ARTICLE IX.
-
-As soon as possible after the present treaty comes into force a
-committee of delimitation composed of an equal number of members is to
-be appointed respectively by the two high contracting parties which
-shall on the spot mark in a permanent manner the exact boundary between
-the Japanese and Russian possessions on the Island of Saghalin. The
-commission shall be bound so far as topographical considerations permit
-to follow the fiftieth parallel of north latitude as the boundary line,
-and in case any deflections from that line at any points are found to
-be necessary compensation will be made by correlative deflections at
-other points. It shall also be the duty of the said commission to
-prepare a list and a description of the adjacent islands included in
-the cession, and finally the commission shall prepare and sign maps
-showing the boundaries of the ceded territory. The work of the
-commission shall be subject to the approval of the high contracting
-parties.
-
-The foregoing additional articles are to be considered ratified with
-the ratification of the treaty of peace to which they are annexed.
-
-In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed and
-affixed seals to the present treaty of peace.
-
-Done at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this fifth day of the ninth month of
-the thirty-eighth year of the Meijei, corresponding to the twenty-third
-day of August, one thousand nine hundred and five. (September 5, 1905.)
-
-
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-Names, italicized phrases, and inconsistencies in capitalization
-and hyphenation have been left as printed. Otherwise, obvious
-typographical errors, punctuation errors, and inconsistencies in
-the punctuation of sidenotes and captions have been corrected.
-
-Illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
-paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not
-match the page number in the List of Illustrations.
-
-On page 278, "Commander-inChief" has been changed
-to "Commander-in-Chief" ("During the months which
-had elapsed since the arrival of the Russian
-Commander-in-Chief at the seat of war").
-
-On page 373, "silhouttes" has been changed to
-"silhouettes" ("two long dark silhouettes, emitting
-quantities of smoke and evidently steaming at high
-speed").
-
-On page 374, "silhouttes" has been changed to
-"silhouettes" ("two long, dark silhouettes emitting
-quantities of smoke").
-
-On page 427, "(9)" has been changed to "(10)" ("(10)
-Wounds inflicted by modern arms heal readily").
-
-On page 433, "mobility" has been changed to
-"immobility" ("the inexorable grasp of the Manchurian
-winter had fallen upon them and frozen them into
-immobility").
-
-On page 458, "unrecord" has been left as printed
-("continued under these unrecord of the actual
-campaign").
-
-On page 507, "tht" has been changed to "the" ("General
-Oku avoided the Russian right centre just left of the
-railroad").
-
-On page 518, "Russians resistance" has been changed to
-"Russian resistance" ("Thereupon the Russian resistance
-was redoubled in fury").
-
-On page 537, counts of ships have been left as printed.
-
-
-
-***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR***
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