The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-14
HAND TO HAND FIGHTING.
Russian Attempt to OverwheIm smal
 Force of Japa.

Russian Attempt to OvervheIm Small
 Force of Japa.
 At the Front with General Kuroki's Force, July {, via Seoul, Korea, July IF. The brief and disastrous attempts of the Russians to overwhelm the small Japanese forces which guarded the en- trance to the Mo Tien. Pass was a bloody affair. The Japanese troops again exhibited their resourcesfulness and courage and the Russians again threw away many lives. The losses cannot be ascertained until the battle- field has been searched. The Japanese are still driving the enemy up the val ley.
 The correspondent of the Associated Press saw enough to justify tho esti- mate that the Russians had more than 200 men killed or wounded and that the Japanese casualties probably will amount to sixty. The Russians left thirty dead in front of and in the trench where the attack begun. The Japanese took several prisoners and captured one hundred rifles. The Rus sians were seen cafrying away two Japanese who had been either killed or wounded. Mo Tien passes up a fun nel shaped slope which rises for a quar- ter of a mile from the valley and which Is fianked by hills. Thirty-six Japa- nese were quartered on a Chinese house near the bottom of the hill and two companies of Japanese soldiers were in trench hundred yards long. located on the summit of the hill which com manded the approach. The other com panies of soldiers slept near this trench.
 Between and { o'clock in the morn- ing in complete darkness and with Q heavy fog enshrouding the hills, the two batta1ions of the 10th and 24th East Siberian regiments, together with 100 cavalrymen, approached the Japa- nese positions. They surrounded the pickets and outposts in the house and gained a position from which to rush the trench. Several other Russian conn panies were so disposed that they could attempt a fianking movement on both the Japanese right and left.
 When the fighting began the build> ing where the outposts were quartered became a slaughter house. The Japa- nese aroused from their sleep by the enemy. set their swords and bayonets to resist the attack. The Russians were at such close quarters with the Japanese that it was impossible for them to use their rifles.
 The fighting in the trenches and in front of the trench was hand to hand and the Japanese who ran out to man the trench were but half clothed. The first Russian onslaught was repelied but the Russians charged twice again within half an hour The remainder of the Japanese regiment. however, to which the outposts and the companies in the trenches belonged. reinforced their comrades and began to drive the Russians back As soon as it was suf :. ficientiy light to Distinguish the enemy two hours after the beginning of the lf fight, the Jape.nese forced the Russians to retreat one mife down the valiey.Th trenches were covered with dead and wounded. The<blood bespattered stones and grass everywhere testified to the hotness of the fighting.
 Chinese stretcher bearers, impassive under dropping bullets, collected the wounded and carting them to an irn- provised hospital In a road side temple they were laid out in rows under huge painted and plassed gods. The details in the trenches with spades were bury ing the dead where they fell. the Japa- nese soldiers were bringing water to their own and the Russian wounded, and impartially giving them aid.
 The battle continued during the after noon but gradually died away in the evening, the Russians still retreating.