Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-10-30
STORY OF FIGHTING.
Kehm's Description of the Chinese
Difficulties.
FORElGNERS'SUBSIST ON HORSEFLESH
First Descriptive Letter Received by
Friends of MIR. kehm-A Recent
Communication Intercepted by the
Chinese.

Mrs. S. e. Adler is in receipt of
communication from her brother, Her
man Khem, who was in Peking, China,
during the recent Boxer uprising in
that country. The .etter is nara
tive of some of the difficulties which
the foreigners were compelled to I'M
dergo. 1t is a continuation of q letter
which was written June 16, but which
was never received by Mr.. Kehm's
friends in this city. The letuer OF Sep
TENDER is as follows:
Picking China, Sept. 6 1900.
Mrs. S. E. Adler, Ottumwa, Iowa:
Dear Sister:-Tomorrow at day
break, we start for Tung Chow, on the
Peiho river, and from there we go to
Tien Tsien river. Everything is quiet
at Peking and we can go about with
perfect safety. Each nation has taken
a section of the city and within those
lines the troops of the several powers
preserve law and order. Taking it for
granted that you received my letter of
June 16, shall continue my narrative
from that date. | also wrote you
few lines on August IA.
after our Boxer raid June 1915,
things began to warm up and on June
10, they came to a boil when the
tsung Ii yamen gave us twenty-four
hours in which to leave the capital.
Railway and Geographic communica-
tion had already been stopped and
we were not informed of the unsuccess-
full attempt of Admiral Seymour and
Capt. McCalla to reach and relieve the
| legation. Yet the tsung Ii yamen
| (Cninese foreign office) requested us
! to leave our position and go out into
the open with over 400 men, women
and children of different nationalities,
and over 1000 Christian Chinese, af-
ter our relief party had been repulsed
The ministers replied that they would
remain and it was arranged to meet
the yamen the next day.
Baron Won ketteler, Germany's en-
voy at Picking was the first to start. On
his way to the foreign office his sedan
chair was surrounded and he was shot
thru the head and killed. His inter-
prefer was seriously wounded but
managed to escape. That was on
June 20. On that day all the foreign
population came in and established
! themselves in the English legation, the
/ largest and best legation compound in
| feking. Sir Claude Mcdonald, En-
! glands envoy, was elected command
erin chief, and it was decided that if
| it became necessary the guards would
leave their several legations and make
a last stand in the English legation.
"The enemy's first move was to try
to burn us out. Fires were started all
around us. They succeeded in burning
the Dutch, Belgian and Austrian lega-
tons and later took portion of the
French and German legations.
On June %, things looked blue
for the American legation. While the
fire was raging in the Russian bank
compound, the Chinese on the wall
we're sending showers of bullets into
our compound. We retired to the Rus
sian legation, but returned to our old
position in few minutes, the wind
having changed just in time to save
our legation. 1t became impossible
to remain in our position as long as
the Chinese held the great city wal
that towers over the American lega
ton like hill. The Germans charged
the wall with great loss to the enemy
but were finally driven off by the Chi
nese artillery. This was early in the
morning of June "a. Then it was thai
our brave Captain Myers, with fifteer
Of his men rushed up and drove the
Chinese clear into the Chen Men gate
house. We were about one hundred
and fifty yards from the gate house
and the only way we could get off the
wall was to retreat to the rear of the
American legation. The Chinese il
great numbers were firing at us from
tie gate house and soon they had two
three-inch field pieces playing on us
The fire became too hot and we were
forced to. retire. AS we were leaving
the WALL shell burst near us and
was struck with a piece of the base
infiicting a painful but not dangerou
wound. c. B. King, one Of our guards
was killed in the Russian bank abou
an hour before, and those were tn,
first two casualties.
"Our boys charged the wall fou
times that day and finally got bar
ricade built and from that day unit
, the relief came we held the wall unde
heavy fire. Many were the night
that were spent in a drenching rain
standing with fixed bayonets awaitin;
the enemy to charge u.s. On July
) the enemy did clever piece of work
They barricaded the walls diagonally
. and, foot by foot, brought the end o
!, their barricade within six feet of ours
, All the time this work was going o.
> the Chinese kept up ceaseless fire o.
, our loop holes and made it impossible
: to look thru the holes. much less in
;, terfere with the work. AS soon a
they got near enough they commence
. to hurl rocks into our position. We lie
them have their fun and that night
was decided to take the Chinese barr
cadc by assault. At 2:30 a. M, O.
July 3, our gallant captain, ].
; Myers, again proved equal to the SIT
uation. He led the charge with fiji
: teen Americans, ten Russians an
twenty English. The result, after fiv
minutes engagement. was an ovel
wheIming defeat for the enemy, on
? hundred and fifty of whom were killed
We gained about forty or fifty yard
: more of the wall. Our loss was tw
Americans killed, Privates A. Turne
and r. E. Thomas; one Russian an
one Englishman wounded. Capital
Myers was wounded in the knee by
spear.