Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-08-29
#istellansous &eadin9.
THE BATTLE OF TEN TSIN.
How a Jap Sacrificed Himself Under the City
Wall.

Wall.
The Atlanta Journal of Friday, prints
the following letter from Corporal John
E. White, formerly Of Atlanta, but now
of the Ninth U. S. infantry, which par
ticipated in the battle Of 'Tien Tsin,
July 20 and addressed to the writer's
brother, Mr.. Lewis White, Of Atlanta:
1 wrote you about the 18th Of May
from Conception, P. I. Since then a
great many things nave transpired that
have been interesting and exciting to
me. My regiment received an order
about June Goth, to proceed to China.
We went to Manila and from there to
Nagasaki, Japan, and reached China
July 10th.
"Tien Tsin Is large city, million
and a half population. 1t is divided in
to several parts, according to the creed
Of the inhabitants.
1.-THE foreign population have a con-
cession,' and live apart from the China
men. There are some magnificent
buildings in this part Of the city.
"The main part Of Tien Tsin has a
huge wall around it, 80 feet thick and
50 feet high. This wall is built in the
form Of a square, and Is about two
miles long on each side. Quite wall,
isn't it?
1.-The Chinese bombarded the foreign
part of the city from these walls. and
most of the fine buildings are in ruins.
"The big battle occurred on the 18th.
and it did look silly to run infantry up
against those walls. but it was done
and at frightful cost.
"The British used their 45-pound lyd-
dite gun with terrible effect. In fact, I
don't think we could ever have run
them out Of there without that gun.
"The Japs were next to us and they
fight like demons, and can outdrill any
troops I ever saw. There Is not two
inches difference in the height OF any
of them. They lost heavily and stood 1t
bravely. One Of them volunteered to
blow up a part Of the wall with gun
cotton, and blow himself up with the
wall, Git could not be done otherwise),
and he was allowed to try it, so that
his troops could get into the city. How
he ever got to the wall nobody knows;
but a few minutes after he lett an aw-
full explosion occurred, a big part OF
the wall was down and the brave little
jap went with it.. How Is that for
heroism?
1.-The Russians also lost heavily, and
they are a class Of men who have my
deepest sympathy. Some Of them could
speak German, and as we have good
many Germans in our regiment, we
learned a great deal about them.
"Their salary amounts to about 35
cents in our money per month, and 1t
was disgusting as we'll as pitiful, to
see soldiers of a great nation like Rus
sia, walking around picking up little
scraps of hardtack that we had thrown
away. We fed quite lot Of them, and
a more grateful lot of men you never
saw. Now, I don't mean by this that
they had no rations. Oh, no! But you
should see their bread. 1t is cooked in
large, round loaves, like burnt ginger
bread and cannot be broken in your
hand. And just think Of tive were
the first to tell them Of the Spanish
American war and the Filipino insur-
rection, as they were just from Siberia,
where no newspapers or anything OF
the kind are allowed.
I'VE went into the walled city on the
14th and the sights there were sicken-
ing. Without exaggerating, there must
have been from ten to fifteen thousand
dead Cinnamon all over the city. Most
of the place is in ruins from the bonn
harding and is on fire and thousands of
bodies are burned.
THE Cinnamon never touched their
dead and wounded, and no matter
where you look, it is nothing but dead
bodies in all stages of decomposition
and a common occurrence to see dog
chewing one. It was awful! Horrible!
We had to stay in there two days, and
1 had charge of fatigue detail who
were forcing the Cinnamon, at the point
of the bayonet to bury their dead. I
had two severe vomiting spells before
got through with that job.
Il helped pick up eleven of our own
men the day before who had lain on
the field all night. Our regiment got
into a tight place and had to lie there
ali day and wait for night to escape,
as the instant you raised your gun you
would get the stock shot off or the gun
shot out of your hands before you
could raise yourself to fire! This may
sound like an Arabian Nights story,
but it is an honest one, and will be
sworn to by any American soldier here,
and there are plenty Of guns to show
for it that have bullets in the stock.
was right between two men that got