Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 244, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1914 — SOME FAMOUS SIEGES [ARTICLE]

SOME FAMOUS SIEGES

INVESTED TOWNS THAT LONG HELD OUT AGAINST FOE. That of Greatest Duration Was at Richmond, Which the Confederates Defended for Four Years Gibraltar’s Great Exploit. „ The defense of Liege by 30,000 Belgians against three German army corps numbering 125,000 will go down to history as one of the most brilliant feats of arms in the annals of war, says London Tit-Bits. •- The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 was remarkable for ltS sieges. Bazaine held out at Metz against the Germans for nearly two months, and finally surrendered with 6,000 officers and 173,000 men. For this he had to submit to court-martial, and was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment- Afterward came, the siege $f Paris, which lasted six months. Thousands of shells were ralned on the city every day by the Germans, and no fewer than 40,000 of the inhabitants succumbed to disease and hunger. That lengthy sieges are quite possible even in these days of huge guns is Illustrated by Chukrl Pasha’s gallant defense of Adrianople last year for 155 days. Then there was the comparatively recent great siege of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese war In 1904-05, which 'finally capitulated after being blockaded by Admiral Togo for 210 days. The name of general Stoessel will rank with those of the great soldiers of modern times. In * Ottoman and Russian military history there has never been a siege like that of Plevna in 1877, when Osman Pasha defied the Russians for 144 days, and finally surrendered on December 10, with 30,000 men and 100 guns, owing to provisions and ammunition running short. In the same year Kars, long the bulwark of the Ottoman empire in Asia, was stormed by the Russians after a siege of five months. * Twenty-two years earlier the fortress had been brilliantly defended for eight months against the Russians by the Turks under General Williams, who had but 15,000 men against 50,000. Even these sieges, however, are somewhat insignificant when compared with some others. The longest siege occurred in the American Civil war, when the Confederates defended the town of Richmond for 1,485 days, or just over four years. Sebastopol, in the Crimean war, held out for 11 months, while General Gordon defended Khartum against the Sudanese for 300 days. The sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking, in the South African war, lasted 120, 123 and 264 days, respectively. • There is probably, however, no siege which Britishers like to read about so much as that carried out by France and Spain in their endeavors to carry the Rock of Gibraltar, 1779-83. Altogether the siege lasted nearly four years, and, as the world knows, resulted in a complete triumph of British arms in spite of the fact that the enemy numbered 30,000 to 40,000 men, while the defenders could only muster 7,000.