Arizona republican., 1904-12-09
flow Americans Fight.

So soon do people forget great histor- ical events. even when they take place in their own country, that there has been general acceptance of the state ments that the Japanese losses in at tacking Port Arthur have been without a precedent. Some of the correspond ents in the far east, in commenting on the Japanese mortality list, have in sisted that the Japs have set a new high-water mark for valor, and that not even American soldiers would stand up and face the music and sus- tain such losses as have befallen the Japanese in some of their charges. But the Providence Journal points out that the American soldier is not yet eclipsed by any Asiatic and it needs to cite but single instance.
 "In one of the recent assaults on Port Arthur, according to an English correspondent who is not given to wild exaggeTation, the Japanese lost four thousand men in one hours fight ing. That is a fearful rate Of loss indeed, but it is only remotely com parable with the union loss in the attack on Lees entrenchments at Cold
  when not less than seven thousand were killed, wounded or missing at the end of the first hour. There have per haps been no bloodier ten minutes in all the history of warfare than the first ten minutes of the charge on the Cold Harbor Notifications, when Grant saw his soldiers beaten back with such terrible losses that when he came to review his military career late in life he said that the one mistake which he deeply regretted was the ordering of that assault. It is probable that three thousand and possibly four thousand union soldiers fell in the first quarter hour of that ill-advised attack on entrenchments that were too strong to be taken by storm. In the present Russo-Japanese war larger forces may in one or two instances have been brought into action than any that met in the American civil war, but in pro- portion to the numbers engaged and the duration of the conflicts 1t has yet to be proved that the losses equal the destruction wrought in several of the more desperate combats of the struggle | between the north and south.''
 And if additional proof had been. nec- essary, the Journal might have men, 1 tioned the battle of Franklin, or Pick ett's charge at Gettysburg.
 The battle of Franklin, Tennessee, considering the number of troops en- gagged and the duration of the battle | was one of the bloodiest in the history | of civilized warfare. In that struggle, | between 25,OOO federal soldiers under | General Schof1eld and 40,OOO confeder- ates under General Hood such bravery | and determination were exhibited as | the wsrld has rarely witnessed Much | Of the fighting was at the closest quar- rs-hand-to-hand, and the slaughter was frightful. The engagement did not begin until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and the greatest losses were in the first hour, although the battle did not cease altogether until nearly midnight. The federals had hastily thrown ID strong entrenchments, and against these the confederates repeatedly hl.rl- ed themselves. only to fail each time. On the union side about 2,40O were killed or wounded. On the confader- ate side the killed and wounded num- bered 5000.
 And if Pickett's immortal charge on Cemetery Ridge, at Gettysburg. had occurred in ancient times, it would have been the theme of song and story for all time. Against one hundred and fifty guns on Cemetery Ridge, support ed by the flower of the federal infar- try, Pickett with 15,OOO gallant confed- crates charged across a plain of half a mile. Pickett's immediate division consisted of 5000 men, and on his right were 5000 under Wilcox, while on his left were 5000 under Pettigrew. These three columns advanced steadily against a terrific artillery fire, and aI- though the federal grape and canister cut great gaps in their ranks they con- tinued unhinchingly until they were within three hundred yards of the fed eral lines There they met the mus ketry fire of Hancock's veterans, which had been withheld. The divisions un- der Wilcox and Pettigrew were thrown into confusion and hurled back but Pickett and his men pressed forward, dashed into the federal lines and en- gagged in a hand-to-hand struggle But the enveloping federal troops drove them back, at last. Pickett lost two- thirds of the men who started with him on that charge. and the Japanese will never be able to surpass t in Valor.