The San Francisco call., 1905-03-20
AFTERMATH OF BATTLE.
Belated Dispatches Give Incidents OF
Fighting and Retreat.

ST. PETERSBURG, March 20.-A
sheaf Of beIated press dispatches filed
at Mukden, Tie Pass and Kaiyuan
reached ST. Petersburg last evening,
having been discovered among other
papers committed to the censor at the
front, where they had lain from week
to twelve days.
Writing under date of March 8, the
correspondent mentions that General
Kuropatkin's confident declaration OF
satisfaction with the situation had
steadied and encouraged the army
after eight days battle until the
wounded, exceeding in number those of
the battle of Liaoyang. were crowding
the station and the Russian settlement,
and in the settlement cemetery chap
lains were conducting funeral ceremo-
nies. A few quotations from the corre-
spondent's note book indicate the grew
someness of the scene:
Everywhere are pale faces of corpses sleep
ing among dead horses. slaughtered animals
ard abandoned quarters of beef. Bloody band
ages which had fallen OF strew the roads.
There is bursting shrapnel everywhere. A
wagon train ahead had stopped, and two
soldiers are quarreling about horse feed. Dead
and wounded are passing on the shoulders OF
soldiers or In mule carts or Chinese vehicles
Here Russian and one Japanese wounded
side by side feed each other; there lie seven
Japanese wounded to whom big Russians are
are at work on all the roadways. Japanese
officers who had been taken prisoners are seen
in the streets. Everywhere are evidences that
the two great armies have come closer than
ever before.
In the concluding portion of a dis
patch from Tie Pass, the first part of
which was published March II, the cor
respondent states that, according to in
formation, the Japanese strength at
Mukden was eighty battalions less than
that of the Russians. The Japanese
also were inferior in guns at many
places. The number of men at the be-
ginning Of the battle was 100000 man
ming the greatest field works ever con-
structed. Not only in duration and
number of troops and guns engaged did
the battle exceed all former contests,
but also in expenditure of ammunition.
Describing the retreat, the dispatch
pictures debris strewn along the road,
marching soldiers increasing their
loads by Spearing bread, vegetables or
fruit on their bayonets, at the same
time discarding heavy boots, Chinese
garments, knapsacks and blankets The
correspondent then continues:
After the initial excitement at Tava. where
few wagoners plunged without reason over
impossible gulches, the entire body arrived at
the steep banks of the Pu River. where heavy
artillery hastened down upon the ice. which
slowly gave way and tremendous exertion was
required in getting the guns out and up the
bank.
The passage of a division through the re-
treating column en- route to the southwest to
strengthen the right flank gave confidence of
short duration, for Japanese cavalry overlook
at Santatze.
The road and fields are a solid mass of
transports and the dust is so formidable that
ii is impossible to see hundred yards jap
anese grenades gave the initial impression OF
shrapnel and with rifle fire set the jammed
mass into confusion. Daybreak disclosed the
plain covered with riderless horses horseess
vehicles, fragments of harness and heaps of
stores and furniture. Night found the army
bravely bivouacking on bare plain swept by a
cold. searching wind, with not single dug
out TO shelter 1t. but preparing new position
Under date Of Kaiyuan, March Is, the
correspondent says:
The Russian army east Of the point where
the Japanese pierced the line at Fu Pass was
entirely unaffected by confusion during March
TO- Fully two battalions of mixed troops es-
capped north by rail and were found at Gunshu
Pass, 165 miles northward
The Japanese in battle employed phenomenal
Innovations unknown to European military
practice, showing that they not mere copy
lists One Japanese detachment had the Rus
slams beaten near the northern tombs and
could have entered Mukden two days earlier
but retreated simultaneously with the oppos-
ing Russian regiments