Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1894 — COREA AND UNCLE SAM. [ARTICLE]

COREA AND UNCLE SAM.

Trouble Which Ended in a Naval Engagement. Corea, about which the two nations are now at war, once -had a slight difficulty with a portion of the navy of the United States. It resulted in the destruction of five Corean forts, the capture, of 481 pieces of artillery and fifty flags, and the loss of about 850 Corean soldiers. The Americans lost three men, one of whom was Lieutenant Hugh W. McKee, of Kentucky. Three of the Corean guns are now at the Naval Academy, with a large number of tlie flags. The guns are of curious pattern, and, while the dates of their manufacture are said to be 1313, 1665 and 1680, they are breech-loaders. Tlie arrangement for loading at the brech is, however, of the crudest kind, and such as would seem to make them more dangerous to those using them than to those against whom they were used. The flags are of curious design, and ornamented with all sorts of figures, reptiles and birds. Some of the flagstaffs,to which they are attached are ornamented with strangelooking tufts of feathers, said to bo the insignia of royalty, but which resemble in a marked degree the plebian feather duster of modern date. The largest of the flags and the one which was floating over tho strongest fort captured by the American marines and sailors, is twelve feet square, of yellow cotton cloth, on which are singularly-shaped blue characters. A tag shows that it was captured by Captain of Marines MeLane Tilton, Corporal Brown, of the ship Colorado, and Private Hugh Purvis, of the Alaska. Captain Tilton is now Colonel Tilton, and is at the Naval Academy in command of the marines there. Hugh Purvis is the academy’s armorer. The fight took place on June 11, 1871, twenty-three years ago, and was the first and last engagement United States forces had with Coreaus. It is also said to have been the first time a Western force spent a niglit on the soil of Corea. The engagement grew out of an attempt of ex-Governor Low, of California, then Arqerican. Minister to China, to arrange, if possible, a convention with Corea for the protection of sailors and others shipwjecked on the shores of that country, He had tho consent of China, to which Corea was then, as now, tributary, and with Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, in the flagship Colorado, and with the ships Alaska and Bernica, Mcnocaey and Palos, he ascended the Sal.ee river, in Corea, to the Boisee anchorage. <— The ascent of the river had been with the implied consent of the local authorities. A surveying party in two steam launches passed further up the river until it reached a point above the Corean forts, when it was fired upon, and two Americans were injured. The party got back to the ship in safely, and an explanation was at once demanded. Ten days passed, but no explanation was'forthcoming.) Then*the attack ordered.—[Baltimore Sun. Capetown, in South Africa, is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.