Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1904-09-15
mountain village of sylxwantun was Il.

mountain village of SySwantun was n.
our hands.
'sAt 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 our detachments became
mixed up, and in the disorder unity of
command was rendered very difficult.
Leaders of individual detachments,
however, continued the attacks time
after time and at last succeeded in oc-
cupying 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 Yentai
mines en- Sept. 2 (Orloff's detachment)
occupied the heights to the north of
the mines, holding a strong position.
facing south, he opened fire with two
batteries and engaged the enemy in an
artillery dael Orloffs 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 frontal and a flank fire and, los
ing their bearings in the cornfelds, be-
gan to retire. The troops remaining in
the hills also retired westward.
"By that time Orloff's detachment
was within a mile and a third of our
other forces. Orloff himself was
wounded, as also was General Fornin,
who subsequently died.
after the evacuation of the position
which had been intended to serve as q
basis for our attack the Japanese ex-
tended northward and occupied the
whole range of hills and the Yentai
mines. Samsonoff's sotnia of Cossacks
dismounted and defended our positions
with the utmost courage, but were
gradually driven back.
THE enemy was now established In
an extremely strong position on the
hills, and it would have been too haz-
ardous for our left flank to attack
them in view Of the losses sustained
in 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
the commissariat reserves, which were
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 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 a furious night attack,
which was particularly desperate on
Sept. 5. We retained our position, but
suffered heavy losses, one regiment,
which bore the brunt of the fight, los
ing 500 in killed or wounded.
by evening of Sept. 5 the danger OF
q simultaneous attack on our front
and left flank had disappeared. The
removal of our artillery, transport and
baggage trains was effected in the face
of immense difficulties, but was sue
cessfully concluded. Our retirement
on Mukden on Sept. z was covered by
a strong rear guard Of cavalry.
1--WE abandoned nothing from Aug.
30 up to the time of our arrival at
Mukden. Our engineers worked with
the greatest devotion. Throughout all
the fighting they rendered invaluable
service in making and repairing roads
and assisting in the railway traffic.
Was Coming to Her.