Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1904 — PROGRESS OF THE WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The battle of Shakhe River, as Marshal Oyama officially names it. wore itself out on Get. 20. The bard fighting began on Oct. 9 with an attack on Kuroki, commanding the Japanese right. The battle lasted eleven days. The Russians, by their own reports, lest 12,000 killed and 56,000 wounded. The Japs casualties are not known. Strategically, according to the Chicago Tribune’s view, the battle was an unqualified triumph for the Japs. Kuropatkin started south from Mukden on Oct 4 with the avowed purpose of rolling back the Japanese and relieving Port Arthur. Ills exact words were: “Now the moment to go to meet the enemy has come, and the time has arrived for us to compel the Japanese to do our will, for the forces of the Manchurian army are strong enough for a forward movement.” The outcome of the Russian attempt was that they failed to gain a rood of ground toward Port Arthur. Indeed, the Jap lines are fifteen miles farther northward than were on the day of Kuropatkin’s proclamation. Kuropatkin’s purpose—to relieve Uort Arthur —was utterly defeated. Oyama’s purpose—to prevent the relief of Port Arthur—was entirely successful. Strategically, therefore, the victory indubitably rests with the Nipponese. Tactically the result was not so decisive. On Oct 9 and 10 Kuroki gave ground after a slight resistance. On the 11th the battle raged six miles north of Y'entai and hung In the balance. Hard fighting continued on the 12th. On the 13th the operations distinctly favored the Japanese. Oyama reached his high water mark on the 14th, when the ( Japanese defense stormed across the Shakhe and the Russians seemed about to retreat to the Hun, several miles north. Up to this point the Japs had captured a large number of guns, variously reported at from seventy to 112, and had lost none. Gen. Oku, In command of the Japanese left, was doing the hardest and most successful fighting. Opposite him lay the Russian right, which was desperately clinging to the railroad. If Oku could shove this Muscovite flank off the railroad to the eastward IvuropatkiiFs entire nrmy would lose its main line of communication. Oku bent his nrmy Into the shape of a hook and tried to insert the tiplof the hook across the railroad behind the Russians. Maj. Gen. Yamada’s mixed brigade was the tip of this hook. At first he tore up things on the other side, but the tip was not strong enough, and a sudden Russian blow separated it from the shank. The net result, fourteen Jap guns captured, 1,500 men put out of action, and the remaining 4,000 fighting their way back to tho main body. This exploit occurred on the evening of Oct. 10. Simultaneously the Russians made their gallant attack on Lone Tree hill, a precipitous and tactically valuable eminence on the Shakhe River. The Japanese thereafter failed in several efforts to retake Lone Tree hill. From the evening of the 10th to the end of the fight the current set against the Japs; they gained no further positive advantages, though on the night of the 'l7th they successfully repulsed a general Russian assault on the whole Japanese line. Tactically, therefore, the advantage lies with the Japanese, though not overwhelmingly. They captured a considerably larger number of guns than they lost and at the end of tho fighting they occupied the battlefield from which they pushed their enemy. Why is it that the Japanese, neither in the battle of the Shakhe River nor in that c-f Liaoyang, did not achieve a more complete victory? There was a point in each of those fights wheu the Russians were in a bad way, when it looked as if the Japs could involve

them in disaster by one more-lift. Why was the one more lift not forthcoming? Probably because the Japs did not have one more lift left in them. They had thrown their reserves into the battle line already. They had no more fresh weight to throw into the scale. The Lull in the Fighting. Since the lighting of last Sunday afternoon anil evening we have no news of engagements between the armies of Kouropatkiu and Oyama more serious than occasional skirmishes between outposts, or a little desultory artillery fighting. Both armies seem to be well concentrated, and facing each other at a distance of only two or three miles, except possibly bn the Japanese right, which is the Russian left, where tho hilly country necessitates division of forces. It may be, the Chicago Record-Her-ald says, that the heavy rain, fflooding the rivers, has been the main factor which has occasioned the temporary lull In the lighting. Again, the exhaustion of the men and the need of bringing up fresh supplies of ammunition may have had more to do with it. Neither army seems Inclined to retire, but which will first take the offensive no one can say. The Siberian Railway seems to be given over entirely to troop trains hastening re-enforcements to Kouropatkiu, but if his losses are nearly as great as seems probable It should take perhnps three weeks merely to make them good with new troops. However, a Mukden dispatch says that had it not been for a new. downfall of rain Thursday Kouropatkin would again have taken the aggressive that night. Oyama, it will bo remejnbered, said In one of his dispatches toward the end of the .hard fighting that he had attained Ills first object, leaving It to be inferred that his plans included a second object already definitely determined upon. That ■may be an advance upon Mukden. The weather In Manchuria will not seriously interfere with fighting for at least a month more. Then the rivers will begin to fill with floating ice, making them difficult to ford, especially for transport services. The surface of the ground will freeze about that time and form a crust, which, over soft pnid beneath, will only make teaming more difficult for the time. By Christmas the ground Is usually frozen to a depth tijat makes trenching impossible. The fuel problem will be very serious for both armies, as there are said to be no forests on the hills within the sphere of the present operations, except In the neighborhood of the imperial tombs near Mukden. Port Arthur is steadily weakening. The Investing lines are constantly growing tighter,. The garrison persists in desperate sorties, which are invariably repulsed with slaughter. It is said that the defenders now number less than 5,000. That is below the da tiger line. Such a slender garrison could, with difficulty, man the long perimeter of the Russian defenses. A few more sorties, a few more bloody repulses, and the place must fall of its own weight —because its defenders have been killed off.

MAP OF THE THEATER OF WAR.