Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1904 — SLAUGHTER AT PORT ARTHUR. [ARTICLE]

SLAUGHTER AT PORT ARTHUR.

Stoesssel Recounts Slaying 10,000 Japs * Before Fortress. Emperor Nicholas has received Gen. Stoessel’s official report of the desperate four days* assault of the besiegers upon Port Arthur from Sept. 19 to Sept. 23, from which it appears that the unofficial report from C'hefoo was by no means exaggerated. The Japanese displayed frenzied bravery, Flit they lost 10,000 men and their only success was the capture of two redoubts guarding the water works. The Jauanese prepared for the assault by a general bombardment and then launched their attacks simultaneously from the north and west. Night and day they fought under cover of a continual bombardment from their siege guns and finally reached the redoubts on the north side, but only after the defense there had been completely demolished by shell fire from the west. The Japanese efforts were directed chiefly against the commanding position on High mountain, which faces Pigeon bay, slightly south of Fort Etseshan. The mountain is 500 feet high and if it had fallen its possession would have given t.he Japanese a tremendous lever against the chain of inner defenses. The carnage there was terrible and culminated Sept. 22, when the Japanese succeeded in rqscbing and occupying the Russian armored shelter trenches, whence they expected about the next day to storm the summit. During the night Lieut. Poggorsky of tho navy, at the head of a detachment of volunteers, descended on the trenches und blew them up with pyroxylin bombs, producing a panic among the besciegers, who fled, leaving the mountain side strewn with dead. The loss of the water works was not considered vital, as there is a fresh water lake and numerous wells ns well as a condensing apparatus within the defenses.