Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1905 — SLAV RESERVES IN BATTLE. [ARTICLE]

SLAV RESERVES IN BATTLE.

Soldiers on Way to Seat of War Loot Smolensk and Engage Regular*. Two hundred Russian reservists, on their way to the far East, were killed and hundreds wounded in a battle with the local garrison at Smolensk, Russia. As a result, six officers committed suicide. Reservists, to the number of 3,000, were moving an to the seat of war, when the train stopped at Smolensk. They immediately started to plunder the town. They broke into homes, stole provisions and whatever they could find in the way of valuables. Townspeople formed mobs and tried to stop the onslaught of the soldiers, and riots followed. * The Governor, seeing the local police were helpless to restore order, called out the local garrison. The soldiers attacked the reservists with a rush. Wild fighting between the two forces followed. Before the reservists were conquered, 200 were killed outright, and several hundred wounded. The colonel commanding the reservists and five of liis officers, who had been unable to prevent the outbreak. committed suicide from shame. The battle raged several hours. Tlie streets were filled with a mob of excited people, who were afraid to take part in the conflict either way. The soldiers from the garrison, called suddenly from the post, marched into the city ill double quick step. The reservists prepared for the attack, and when the Czar’s regular aie'.i charged, they were met with stern resistance. Driven back, they renewed their onslaught, and their superior numbers, after several of these movements, bore down on the reservists, and the latter fell back. When the line fell back tbe ground was strewn with dead, dying and injured men. The shattered body of reservists was ordered back on the train, and the journey to the far East resumed.