The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-09-15

weakening the enemy by enormous
losses. Thanks to the sufficient num-
Der of bridges and the manner in
which the roads leading to them had
been laid out, all the troops destined to
take the offensive were safely on the
right bank Of the river on the morn
ing of Sept 1. The enemy did not oc-
cupy our abandoned advance positions
until the evening of Sept 1, when they
opened an artillery fire upon Liaoyang
No trophies Of war fell into the hands
of the enemy.
Il adopted the following plan of op-
erations; Having crossed to the right
bank of the river. the army had taken
up a position between the village of
Sykwantm and heights near the Yen
tai mines, which it was intended to oc
cupy with all our detachments, com
posed of thirteen battalions. Taking
the position near Sykwantun as
pivot it was intended that the army
effect a movement to flank the Japa.
nese positions. which extended from
the Taitse river near the village Of
Kwantun toward the Yentai collieries.
Offensive operations began when all
the troops had taken up their allotted
positions.
'The night of Sept the commander
of the corps on the right flank sent
dispatch stating that the japanese hav
ing taken the offensive and occupied
the district northwestward of our Syk
wantun position, which was of great
Importance to us the Russian regiment
holding the district was forced to re
tire, and | was obliged to change my
plans In order to retake the lost ground
the following day. 1t was not until
the evening of Sept that the entire
mountain village of Sykwantun was in
our hands.
AT first our attacks did not succeed,
but the fighting was continued with
unabated vigor even after darkness
had set in. We repeatedly gained pos
session of the heights, but were finally
compelled to withdraw temporarily
Many of onr detachmcnts became
mixed up, ard in the disorder Unity II
command was rendered very oHier t.
LeadeyS oi individual deacA4ents,
loweyer continued the atucEs time
afttr time and at last succeeded in Oc-
cupyiug the desired position. thereby
attaining the object Of the operations
of our right flank. As soon aS the left
flank in the vicinity of the Nentai
mines on Sept. (Orloffs dctachment
hA 20 hn nf
the mines, holding strong position
facing south. he opened fire with two
batteries end engaged the enemy in an
artillery duel. Orloff's right flank was
then four miles from the left flank and
the remainder of the army. In order
to aid our troops holding positions near
| Sykwantun Orloff sent part of his
force from the hills and attacked the
enemy in the direction of the village Of
| Sakhumoon. This movement was car
ried out in cornfelds. Our men met
with q frontal and flank fire and, los
ing their bearings in the cornfields, be-
gan to retire. The troops remaining in
the hills also retired westward.
by that time Orloff's detachment
was within mile and third of our
other forces. OrloH himself was
wounded as also was General Fomin,
who subsequently died.
after the evacuation OF the position
which had been intended to serve as a
basis for our attack the Japanese ex-
| tended northward and occupied the
! whole range of hills and the Yentai
mines. Samsonoffs sotnia of Cossacks
| dismounted and defended our positions
with the utmost courage, but We're
! gradually driven back.
"The enemy was now established in
an extremely strong position on the
| hills, and 1t would have been too haz-
ardous for our left flank to attack
them in view of the losses sustained
i'm the previous five days. We there
fore Withdrew to the village of Talien-
ko, and | decided to retire to Mukden,
the retreat being accomplished on Sept.
! Z. The evacuation of Liaoyang began
and was concluded the morning of
Sept. 4. All our equipment was re
moved. but there was no time to save
sufficient to last the whole army eight
days. These were all destroyed. The
pontoon bridges were diSmantled and
carried off by the troops, while tenn
porary pontoons were burned and the
| railway bridge wrecked. The army re
tired in perfect order. The enemy at
tempted to pursue, but were repulsed.
Precautions were taken on Sept. 3
and 4 TO prevent a turning movement
from the east. The japanese to the
southwark took no vigorous initiative,
but General Kuroki assumed the of
fensive to the eastward. Our detach-
ments holding positions at Talienko
sustained furious night attack,
which was particularly desperate on
Sept 5. We retained our position, but
suffered heavy losses, one regiment.
| which borp the hrunt of the fight los