The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-06-23

- oA0oA ltt AC
Russians out. They came boldly in pur-
suit. and when they had teamed out
nfteen miles a wireless message was
sent to Togo. who moved forward to
engage the enemy.
u~nluckily for him the mist lifted; the
Russian squadron saw him In time and
steamed back to port, but, as they en-
tered, their flagship, the Petropav.
lovsk. carrying Admiral Makaroff. his
whole STAFF, and a crew of $50 men
struck a mine and Immediately found.
cred. A lew men were saved, including
the young Grand Duke Cyril, but the
gallant admiral was drowned.
kuroki lnvadss Manchuria.
Once more the interest in the wal
centered upon Kuroki's army. BY April
rs kuroki had completed the c%oncentra.
ton Of IN first army at Wiju, and be.
gan his preparations to force a passage
General Zassulitch, as to his real inten-
tons, by a feint in the direction Ct An.
tung, six miles below With, Kuroki
threw a division across the river, -four
miles above the town, on the night OF
theta2eth. and turned, the left OF the
Russian line.
On the Soth q great artillery duel
Russian artillery was completely sub
dued and put out Of action. During the
night the other two divisions OF the
First army crossed the Yalu.
On May 1 General Kuroki attacked
the Russian position at C~huliencheng
on the right bank. and inflicted the first
land defeat of the campaign on the
and men killed and wounded, prisoners,
n twenty-nine field and machine
guns. The Russians retreated in con-
fusion, ~evacuating h strong position
at Fenghauncheng, which was. imme-
diately occupied by the Japanese.
The first trial OF strength by land had
ended like h first sea fight, in a strik-
ing victory for Japan. She had won by
reason OF three things-by the strength
of her artillery fire, by her power of
concentrating strong forces where the
defense was weak, n by rapidity and
reckless bravery in attack. 1t was sig
nificant that the Russians believed
their enemy to be possessed only of field
artillery, and had made no preparations
for anything heavier, nor even taken
care to mask their guns.
Five days after the victory on the
Yalu h Japanese landed in force or
the Liaotang peninsula. Closely follow
ing the precedent Of 1894, they chose
Pitsewo for their place of disembarka-
ton; a spot some fifty miles to the
north OF the narrow neck which joins
the little peninsula Of Port Arthur and
Dalny to the mainland. Pitsewo is a
bad landing place, for the ships have to
lie of at a distance OF three or four
miles. and, as the first party Of sailors
began their operations at low dde, they
had to wade ashore for a thousand
battery of quick firers might have made
the achievement almost impossible,
but there was no battery and no oppos-
ing force except a few patrols, which
quickly disappeared, and by night Ad-
miral Hosoya had succeeded in landing
10000 men, the formidable vanguard of
the Second army.
kuroki, with the First army, was
meantime advancing ,northward, and
occupied Fenghuancheng, on the road
to Liaoyang, and the whole plan Of
campaign began to. be clear to every
one. even to the Russians. About this
moment the Russians began to leave
~Newchwang. hastily anticipating what
happened only some weeks later-the
landing Of another army in that quar-
ter to cooperate with Kuroki in his
advance northward.
Raid by Vladivostok Fleet.
At sea. however, during these weeks
two great misfortunes befell the Japa-
nese. Some Russian cruisers and tor
pedo boats under Admiral Jensen, COM
ing south, from V%ladivostok, met the
transport Kinshiu Maru on the way to
| Gensan, attacked 1t, and sank 1t, only
the coolies and crew being saved. The
soldiers, in obedience to the rigid Japa-
nese COO of honor, refused to surren-
der n sank with h vessel, the Off
GERS having committed suicide, and the
men, according to the most credible &C
counts, being mostly shot down by Rus
sian rifles and quickfires.
This was a disaster, but it was not
~ a or1x y ca Cnvs1y,c n % ~ ~ which F11IorryA3
on May Is, when h battleship Hatsuse
and the cruiser Yoshino were lost of
Port Arthur. The cruiser vas rammed.
1t SO happened, by n of the two ships,
the kasuga, that had been built at
Genoa and delivered to h Japanese
only a few weeks before the outbreak of
the war; while the loss of the Hatsuse
mine ten miles from shore-a fact
which caused much perturbation among
~shipowners all over the world, and not
a little among international lawyers.
Battle Of Nanshan Hill.
These events on land and sea brought
the conflict to the eve Of the first seri.
GUS, hard fought battle of the war. BY
May 81 General Oku, in command OF
the second army, was ready to attack
the Russian position at Kinchau, on
the narrow neck of land that ties the
Liaotung peninsula to Manchuria.
General Stoessel had fortified the 18TH
mus, and especially the high ground of
Nanshan, with works nearly OF a per-
manent nature" in front the ground
was mined and covered with wire en-
t~anglements; the defenders had about
10000 men in position and some eighty
guns. The japanese army under Cen
eral Oku was far more numerous, but
the task set them was such as no other
troops in the world could or would
have performed in the same way.
h General Oku attacked the Russian po-
sitions at kinchau and Nanshan on
May rs. Desperate fighting continued
for five days, the japanese attacks be.
ing repeatedly, repulsed. AT length q
picked body OF troops, belonging to the
First japanese division, forced its way
through the wire entanglements with
which the Russians had protected their
trenches and carried the position al
the point of the bayonet.
S~eventy-eight guns were captured
and enormous losses were inflicted or
the Russians. But the Japanese paid
a high price for their victory, the killed
and wounded amounting to over $500
officers n lei
The battle of Kinchau, or Nanshan,
was followed by the retreat Of the
Russians within the defenses of Por,
Arthur and by the immediate and un.
opposed occupation of Dalny, where
the Japanese found the docks, piers and
warehouses uninjured and about 29(