Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1896 — SOME NOTABLE SIEGES OF IS TORY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOME NOTABLE SIEGES OF IS TORY

BY FELIXL. OSWALD

IT is said to be a noticeable fact all along the course of memorable historical sieges that about the second month several legions of demons get 4nto the besieged, as well as the besiegers. And when the latter happen rto be barbarians, the result is often jnltra-infernal. as after the capture of [Kherson, where Gougar Khan, the leader of the Mongol invaders, ordered the (survivors to be flung into a pit that had [been loaded with explosives, and then put fire to the fuse. Hence also the sensation of horror (that thrilled the civilized world at the (report that the mining town oL.Buluwayo had been surrounded by the vindictive nice of ttte Dark.-Continent. Sir jtlaiupel Baker mentions a case where .that same tribe of savages disdained do make use of their spears, but leaped inpon their prisoners like wild beasts >to tear them with their claws and rteeth. The trouble is that protracted sieges are always apt to rouse the beast under ithe skin of every male human being. The loss of relatives and friends turns political adversaries into personal enemies. The besiegers feel that every day of unsuccessful effort increases the *lur upon their prowess, and long to be ■revenged. Alexander the Great was in •oltcr moods anything but a savage, but rthe seven months’ siege of Tyre exhausted his reserve funds of generosity, and when the city had been taken ■by storm he answered the appeals for mercy by showing the spokesman of the deputation a list of his own loss in dead and wounded, and then ordered an equal number of the captives to be crucified. The yells of the thousands of victims writhing on crosses and trees could be heard at Sadurbal, at a distance of a league and a half. Another instance of barbarian severity attended the last siege of Carthage. The Romans were not satisfied with the complete demolition of the city, but Employed several thousand carts for a week to scatter the many ruins, and then plowed up the site of the main

town 'and covered the ground with eoarse salt, to diminish its attractlveaess Jo future settlers. The, barbarity of those ages has been equalled, if not excelled, by some Of the JiorroES of modern sieges. The storming of Bagdad was an instance where ithe fierce onslaught of ravenous Huns iwas faet by all the obstacles, missiles and projectiles that desperation could suggest. and later at the storming of .the ba stile. In Paris, it semeed as if (brute ’ frenzy had taken the place of iutmaa iiisfincts, driving the outside (participants to rend stone front stone, and ty.ush, mutilate and disfigure every enemy. Of all the sieges of late times, (however, none can show such marvelous enduYanbe, such ferocious determination as that attending the ten ■norths' siege and inch-by-inch capture of Saragossa, tn December, ISOB, MorAier and Monsey Invested the city with an army of 33,000 regulars, 8,000 auxiliaries, besides teamsters and sappers and an artillery train of hundreds of anortars apd siege guns. The outside (walls crumbled like brick, but thousands ot volunteers closed every breach (with hillock of rubbish, even when the shotted their advanced batteries with grape and cannister. “Gravel or bones, ’tis all the same,” as long as the gaps get promptly closed, yelled the Cannon balls showered into these ramparts of debris, but could ji&ver demolish them altogether. Like tbesand bulwarks of Fort Fisher in our eivll war, rubbish heaps proved more Inexpugnable than granite. The collapse of some lofty buildings like the convent of San Jose opened, however, * gate of access, and the division of (Geh. Dujardin rushed up, dragging itheir cannon across stones and corpses and thep opened fire into the gathering mob with such effect that the ground ponld be held till two additional brigades entered the city and instantly entrenched themselves among the smoking ruins. But all that they had nhus gained was the change of operations to a close range fight. Missiles of all spjrts descended from the windows, lalcoales and doors of the next street

I buildings In ceaseless volleys. The I defenders appeared to have no end of I ammunition, and had, indeed, stored ■ up sulphur and saltpetre enough to 1 manufacture all the powder they need- ! ed. They also improvised howitzers, I and every now and then a gang of i youngsters would emerge from some I attic trap upon the top of a flat roof, ’ Naze a bushel of stones from a strange- . looking carronade and vanish the way they had come. These volleys bad a ; limited range, but fired squarely Into a : crowd of trench digging soldiers they ' did terrible execution, t.’l the French devised a plan to checkmate that game, I and kept eannister-shotted guns of their own ready aimed, to be fired the mo- | ment a group of amateur cannoneers I ventured to show themselves on the 1 housetops. Incessant night alarms wore out the I advance corps of the besiegers. For | the first few weeks hostile surprise pari ties were foiled by the plan of keeping | up blazing watch fires, but that expe- [ dient, too, had its disadvantages, since | the glare of the flames revealed the wherabouts of sentries and patrols and made them an easy prey to sharpshooters prowling in the dusk of surrounding ruins. Besides the woodwork of the captured buildings had all been consumed, and the inclemency of the weather was aggravated by a fuel famine. In the fourth week of the siege the French at last pushed their outworks to the threshold of the Cosso, and coupled their summons of surrender with the threat of blowing up the principal buildings of the city. “War to the knife and to the last shanty wall,’’ was the reply of Gen.' Palafos. Many of the hopelessly wounded shammed paralysis, and on being carried to the improvised hospitals suddenly rose upon their knee's to attack the French surgeons with dagger knives. In the beginning of February the French sapeurs discovered the subterranean galleries of the defenders,'and to the havoc of the siege were now added the horrors of an underground war;

whole blacks of buildings were shattered by the forces of volcano-like explosions that often hurled mangled corpses to the top of the highest steeples. When finally surrender was. made the dead list had’reached the portentious tqtal of 53.727, and the work of murder never ceased till 'the skull-bones of the last infant had been shattered on the breast of the last womaq—as an eternal and eternally unanswerable argument against the fortifications of large cities. >

BAGDAD STORMED BY THE HUNS.