The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1904-10-14
SOME MIGHTY BATTLES.
THAT OF LIO-YANG is RECORD
BREAKER.
No Fight of the NapoIeonic Era Rival
led the Struggle Between the Jap
anese and the Russians-Battles
of the Civil War.


fare has there been battle between
armies of greater magnitude than
those that have been struggling for
supremacy upon the Manchurian plain
about Liao-Yang, if the numbers
ascribed to the combatants are cor
rect. To find a parallel to the num-
bers of japanese and Russians one
has to turn back to the days of Alaric
the Goth, Atilla the Hun, Xerxes the
Persian or Genghis Khan the Mon
gol These, however, led unframed
and undisciplined nations rather than
armies. While the army with which
Napoleon started for Moscow, num-
bering over four hundred thousand
men, exceeded in total that of either
combating force at Liao-Yang, no bat
tie of the Napoleonic era rivalled the
present struggle. The Franco-Prns-
sian War offers no rival, while Gettys-
burg, Chickamauga, and even the des-
perate battle in the Wilderness, from
the Rapidan to Petersburg, in the
Civil War, seem inconsiderate in COM
parison.
Two conflicts in the nineteenth cen
fury, however, both in the magnitude
of the contest and in their actual ply
steal surroundings, suggest the strug-
gle in Manchuria. One was the bat
tie of Leipsic, where Napoleon en-
dured his first great defeat and the
grande armee its first route. 1t was
waged for week about the old city
of Leipsic, in Saxony. Russians,
Swedes, Prussians, Austrians and
numberless. contingents of smaller
States overwhelmed the French in
the battle, which is still known as
"the Combat of the Nations" In
the several battles of Leipsic 100000
French and over 100000 allies were
engaged. The battles were fought
for several days on several fields,
from October 16 to 1S, 1918. In the
end the French were driven through
the city, thousands captured, more
were drowned in the untimely des-
truction of a bridge across the Elbe,
and the total French loss in killed,
wounded and. captured exceeded 49,
WV, WhiiO LAO diiiCo lOott luOlO imam
$4,000. The results of the battle.
while not Immediately conclusive,
since Napoleon managed to extricate
the wreck of his army and retreat to
France, practically marked the end
of his empire.
The other example of warfare about
a city situated like Liao-Yang was the
struggle about Metz in 1871, when
the French, under Bazaine, were
forced back into the city by flank
ing movement similar to that prac-
tised by the Japanese. Marshal
Bazaine was driven back from the
road to Paris and finally captured.
In Gravelotte, the deciding battle of
this campaign, the Prussians over
whelmed the French by force of num-
bers, the forces engaged in this fight
comparing favorably with those en-
gagged in Manchuria. The French
numbered nearly 100000, while the.
Prussians exceeded 100000. The
French loss amounted to $4,000, the
Prussians to mere than $1,000.
AS direct consequence of this
fight, Bazaine was penned up in Metz,
as many experts expected Kuropat-
kin would be at Liao-Yang. and two
months later surrendered over 49,
600 men, the entire regular army of
France, together with vast number
of cannon and huge supplies. The
battle of Sedan, which ended similar
ly, was not dissimilar in gecgraphi-
cal conditions; and the French army
under Marshal MacMahon, with Ma
poleon III. by his side, was surround
ed and captured after bloody battle
lasting single day. Hero Won
Moltke and the Prussian army sue
ceeded in driving the French into the
valley of the Mouse, surrounded on
three sides by heights occupied by
Germans, and on the fourth by the
Belgian frontier. The numbers en-
gagged here were smaller than at
Metz.
The Civil War presents few in
stances of huge numbers meeting in
battle. AT Gettysburg less than 49,
900 were engaged on both sides,
while in the battle of the Wilderness,
where fought the largest number of
men in the war, the Confederates
numbered only $4,000, while Grant
had 10000, total less than half the
number believed to have fought at
Iaao-Yang. The Confederate less
exceeded $4,000, and that of the
Union forces was over $4,000. I'm
like the other battles mentioned, it
was drawn fight, both forces leav-
ing the field soon after the fight at
Spottsylvania. Sherman IN his march
to the sea, had little more than u.s.
600 men with him.
In the Napoleonic era, although
the armies were larger than those of
the previous century, and far greater
than in the Civil War, the numbers
were comparatively small. At Aus
terlitz, the nest famous of the earlier
victories of Napoleon, the French had
only 10000, while the Russian and