Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1904-09-02
CAPTURE OF LIAOYANG.

The Russian army has been driven
from its strong defenses and splendid
position at Liaoyang, and the victorious
japanese have taken the walled city,
with its immense stores. General Kuro-
patkin having his left flank turned by
General Kuroki and his center and
right beaten. and driven back by General
Oku, found himself compelled to evacu-
ate Liaoyang and cross the Taitse river
to the north with his whole army. Dis
patches from Mukden state that railway
service is interrupted, which leads to
the supposition that the railroad has
been cut by Kuroki, and the roads are
we'll nigh impossible. In this situation,
it is believed by some that General
Kuropatkin will be forced to fight and
cannot escape to the northward, while
others think the Russian leader will be
able to retreat fighting to Mukden or be-
yond, following the tactics he has en-
ployed so often before. But in either
case he must lose terribly, provided the
japanese are able TO pursue him with
their usual vigor, unless, of course, he
is still able to defeat the armies of the
Mikado, which are striking him on
every hand. The Taitse river is con-
siderable stream, flowing westward and
crossing the Liaoyang plain just outside
the northern wall of the town.
For General Kuropatkin to have left
the forts with rifle pits. intrenchmenfs
and barbed wire entanglements, of Lao
yang, not to mention the immense stores
said to be stored there, shows that he
considered himself in deadly danger.
Details of the japanese victory be-
yond the most notable results are want
ing, as the line from Liaoyang is held
for Russian official messages and news is
given out in St. Petersburg after being
censored.
The fight at Port Arthur seems to
have been temporarily suspended.
The fighting at Liaoyang has beaten
all records for the desperate valor of the
assailants and the invincible stubborn
ness of the defenders. The whole his
tory of warfare tells of no such lombard
ments, no such carnage and no such
persistency. Day after day the fight has
been resumed at daybreak and kept up,
with hardly a moments intermission,
until after nightfall.
War.scarred veterans scarce believe the
stories which come from the seat of war,
and declare that it is beyond human en-
durance for an army to fight without res
pite for a whole week, each day OF
which has exceeded its predecessor in
intensity of struggle and carnival OF
slaughter. Day after day the thousands
of dead bestrewing the battlefield have
to be removed. The japanese have in
vented new methods to incinerate the
heaps of dead, comrades removing the
ashes for the honors Of burial in Japan.
The wounded present most serious prob
lem, as they tax the transport capacity
on both sides to the uttermost.
The most difficult problem, however,
is the bringing up of supplies of food
and ammunition to every point of the
fighting line, which extends from 10 to
90 miles.
With the view of eventual retirement
from their outer positions the Russians
had dug large number of pits, with
stakes concealed in their bottoms. The
pits we're artfully concealed among the
high, Chinese corn. When the japanese
charged after the Russians they fell into
the pits in hundreds and we're engulfed
and impaled on the stakes and their lines
were thrown into confusion. When the
Russians faced about and returned to
their old positions they found these death
traps filled with dead and dying.