Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1904 — PROGRESS OF THE FASTERN WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROGRESS OF THE FASTERN WAR

The great battle of last week took place on a line between fifty-five and sixty miles long, and the line of battle proper, where the fighting was most severe and continuous, was twentyfive or thirty miles long. Thb Hun river on the north and west and the Taltse on the east and south mark out the field In a general way. The Schill river, frequently mentioned in the dispatches, bisects this field on an east an<J xyest line, and most of the fighting thus far has been south of it. The battle may possibly be known as the battle of the Schill river. Gen. Kuropatkin brought Into play every pound of military strength that Russia has available In the far East. Since the battle of Llaoyang he has been re-enforced by the First and Sixth corps, and possibly also by tho Fourth Don Cossack division. A low estimate of his strength is 200,000 men. It may be 250,000. " With all that he has been gradually but surely beaten back, and the chances are greater now than they were at a Corresponding stage of the battle of Llaoyang that his army will be partially dismembered. Then his divisions were closely concentrated for mutual support. Now they are much Wore widely spread out. On the last day of September correspondents at Mukden made note of great military activity, but their predlction of a movement southward was not credited. Oct. 2 Gen. Kuropatkin Issued his famous order for the advance, though it was not till a week later that Europe learned of It. In the meantime the Russians had been engaged In pushing In the Japanese outposts. This preliminary stage of the struggle culminated with the driving of the Japanese outposts out of Bentsiaputze. “ The small nap gives a roughly accurate Idea of the battle field strategy. Three heavy black lines are to be seen on the map marked “Oct. 8 (Jap screen),” “Oct 10,” and “Oct 14.”

These lines Indicate the respective positions of the hostile armies at different stages of the battle. The jagged, triangle including Yental, Llaoyang and Sykwantun marks the heart of Oyama’s position, the three points being heavily fortified and garrisoned. North of his triangle Oyama had advanced a heavy line of outposts at the position Indicated by the line of Oct 8. But he was not north of Yental in great force.

The Russian advance from Mukden began on Oct. 6. Two days later it came in contact with the Japanese outposts. In two days’ fighting the Japanese scouts were forced back toward their main positions. At the same time re-enforcements were sent forward from the triangle. The retreating outposts and re-enforcements met at the line marked “Oct. 10.” On the following day the heavy fighting began. We can most easily get an idea of the fighting by considering the Kuroki, Nodzu and Oku armies separately. Kuroki has the right, occupying the region at the bend of the Taltse, where that river turns from a southerly to a westerly course. Nodzu is in the center, holding the region from th® Yental station on the railroad. Oku is west of the railroad, holding both sides of the Hun river. Monday Kuropatkin in full force crossed the Hun river where it flows easterly just south of Mukden. His advance guards on the same day crossed the Schill and attacked Yentai, but were driven back in the evening. Tuesday a larger force crossed the Sehili, and the fighting that day was very severe to the north of Yentai, Gen. Danieloff receiving his wounds in that engagement. Gen. Nodzu took the offensive that same day and began to force the Russians back. The struggle was extremely fierce here every day, and probably the great part of the losses are in this region. Farther to the east Gen. Kuroki met the main force of the attack at his chosen positions near Benlshu. The Russians attempted to outflank him. however, or at least made a feint of that nature, by sending several thou-

sand men across the Taltse farther north to work around to the Japanese rear. Gen. Kuroki seemed to expect to bag this expedition bodily, but if he did it no report has yet arrived. The country here is broken with small hills, and there seems to have been a large number of separate engagements on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday Kuroki received re-enforcements, and Thursday he sent a strong force under Prince Kanin to cut off the Russians north of Benslhu. This force formed a wedge between the Russian left anl center, but the left seems to have escaped from it, and the center was too hard pressed itself to strike a counter blow. West of the railroad the fighting was more distinctly favorable to the Japanese. Here it was that thirty-five Russian guns were captured. West of the Hun Gen. Oku seems to have cleared the country of Russians to a point within ten or twelve miles of Mukden. In the number of men engaged, in the casualties of both sides, and in the decisiveness of the Japanese victory the battle at Yental surpasses that at Llaoyang. But it does not anywhere equal the first conflict in interest. Liaoyang was the first squire stand up fight on a big scale with equal numbers and modern weapons between the yellow men and the white. When the

Japs won that fight the great lesson was taught—that education, study, training and patriotism will achieve just as great results for a yellow man as for a white man.

EDDYINGS OF THE BATTLE OF YENTAI.

SCENE IN A RUSSIAN HOSPITAL CAMP.

GENERAL GRIPPENBERG.