The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-04
SUNDAY, SEPT. q, 1904.
THE SLAUGHTER AT LlAu- YANG

] he SGAOGfi Elk Al liAO-YANG
Fifty-five thousand men were killed
or wounded in the sanguinary battle of
Liau-yang on Wednesday and Thurs
day of last week. The casualties ex-
coed those of any of the great battles
Of the world with but a few
exceptions, but it is not likely that the
death list will be as great as in many
battles where the number placed hors
de combat was considerably less. I'm
der the conditions that obtained in
hospital service in the encounters of
the same class in other days, the roll Of
the dead would be immense and Liau-
yang would be ranked Wen at the top
of the fatal battles of any time.
The Russians appear to have lost
30,eee men, and the Japanese 81, coo,
but We have no means Of knowing
what proportion of the casualties were
fatal. We do know that the field hos
pital service is modern and effective,
and it is Impossible that the number OF
dead should approximate the losses at
Gettysburg, the Wilderness or Pleyna.
1t may be that the more deadly ma
ture of the weapons with which the
wounds were inflicted will serve to
bring the percentage Of killed to
wounded UP to the average in the wars
OF the last century. In any event the
list is fearful one and a dread COM
mentary on the cost of war under mod
ern conditions.
In the recorded battles of the world
Liau-yang stands second in the num-
Der of men aged-445, 0e0-Kuropat-
kin having 100000 and Kuroki 295, 900.
High up in the history of the world
there was a greater battle and more
sanguinary event. At Arbela, about
SS1 B. c., Alexander with about 1000
Greeks met and cut to pieces a Persian
army under Darius, the strength of
which was placed by the Greek his
torians at nearly a million men. and
Which probably did actually consist of
$4,000 men. The losses of Darius were
about 100000 men and those Of the
conqueror 1000.
Through the ages of the classic bat
ties, when losses were immense COM
pared to the number of men engaged.
no such dreadful carnage occurred. It
was not until the opening Of the nine
teenth century that another great bat
tie took place which is to be reckoned
so deadly as some of the modern af-
fairs have been. At Borodino in 1872
the French defeated the Russians. the
combined losses reaching $4,000 men.
Waterloo, in 1875, saw an engagement
in which less than 100000 men took
part and $1,000 were left On the field
the percentage Of casualties being
enormous.
The fearful conflict between the
Northern and Southern states set a
new and awful pace in war. Gettys-
burg, the bloodiest in point of casual
ties Of the battles in which great mum
bers of men were engaged, cost As, eee
men-nearly one-third of the total
number in the action. In the battle OF
the Wilderness, with $4,000 on the
field. $4,000 were killed or wounded
At the second Bull Run 23,4Oo men
were lost out of $1,000 engaged.
OF the great battles of the Franco
Prussian war, that of Gravelotte stands
out as the most fatal. the Prussians
sending 100000 into action and the
French 100000, the combined losses be-
ing 1850. AT Sedan $4,000 died OUT
of $4,000 engaged.
In the Russo-Turkish war of 1878
the battle of Pleyna was titanic and