The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-01-13
SToESsEL STOUT OF HEART.
Ranks with the Greatest Fortress
Holders of Modern Times
hondnn Innsfrated =


BY his heroic defense Of Port Arthur
General Anatole Michaeiovitch Stoessel
has acquired name which will rank with
that of the greatest fortress holders of
modern times-with Gordon Of KhaTtounl
Wiliiauls of kars- Unrich Of Stra ssbures.
White of Ladysmith. Baden-PcveH of
Niafeking. and. above all with TOdleben
OF Sebastopol- Russian soldiers are sup
poseo 10 DC particularly grand in defense
which suits their stoIid. stubborn. irwin
Clble nature. and when they are COM
7 manded by men who to these military
qualities of the Slav add the brain power.
me sclence and the steady courage of
the Ieuton- the combination may wen
nave produced such shining siege records
as those of the Sebastopol of the Black
sea and its namesake of the Yellow sea.
For Todleben (Death-in-Lffo) was OF
German extraction. and so in his latter
began to cover his name with glory ne
was in turn claimed by the Swiss the
n ungarians the Germans and even by
I the Jews-claims which caused his aunt
TO declare that, on the contrary he was
a full -blooded Russian But in this case
the lady. with her natural bias against
aliens certainly did protest too much. 1t
taxes a good many genera tons of in.
termarrying to make ..full-blooded
| German extraction. and with regard to
/ Stoessel. the process of clinical trans
ton only began seriously with mis-
/ father an officer in the Lancers or the
( Imperial guards, who was the first of his
I race TO embrace the orthodox faith. while
/ fiiS grandfather had stiI adhered TO the
1 Lutheran creed. which he had derived
! from his German ancestors fact which
| stamps the hero of Port Arthur man
! Of TcutOnic extraction no less clearly
/ than his name
This grandfather. Ivan Stoessel. a Lu-
! theran by religion and a German by race.
( returned from the wars with Napoleon
as a lieutenant general and was made
/ governor of Tsarskoe Selo. Anatole Mi
! chaeIOVitch himself who was born fifty
l n Sc-If
war OF 1871, though not distinguishing
I himself in any marked degree. so that
/ by 1900 he had only struggled up to the
/ command of a regiment of Siberian ri
! fies. His earliest chance came to him
/ during the Boxer troubles, when he was
\ the first to enter Tien Tsin. and he re-
: ceiYed the rank of major general for his
share in the advance on Pekin.
AS a tictician in the open. however. he
had never ShOne and at Nan-shan and
/ other battles antecedent TO the invest
| rent of Port Arthur he had even been
/ mis- Japanese opponents This only proved
/ that his character as a soldier has been
rightly estimated by kuropatl<in. who in
1 sisted on Stoessei being appointed to the
/ command of Port Arthur instead of Lin
! ievitch. who was the nominee for the
/ post favored by the cars counseIors.
/ ''Stoessel,'' said Kuropatlxin. lis a bad
! tactician. Put him against equal forces
/ against a Gourko or a SkObeloff. and
you'll find him tricked and eat TO pieces
IN four and twenty hours. But stick him
behind one of his own earthworks. where
! there's no question of maneuverfng. and
] all the forces Of earth and hell VIII not
4 prevail against him
! Little wonder, therefore. that with such
i a character Stoessel treated as "a Joke in
bad taste the united summons OF General
Nogf and Admiral Togo to surrender the
] fortress before their Guns had seriously
begun to thunder against it. His reply
{ recalled the answer which in similar cir
I cumstances was returned to the Prince of
i TO whom Frederick the Great had intrust-
ed the holding OF iselpSiS during the seven
years war. Tell the prince" replied
! summons that, by birth / am a Scots
/ man, by choice and by duty a Prussian,
and that / am determined so 10 defend
/ this town that neither the Scots nor the
! Prussians shall have cause 70 be ashamed
! of me. The king. my master has com
! manded me TO keep the place. and 1 shall
| keep it" For Scot read ''Teuton,' and
for 'Prussian'' Russian. and you have
1 Stoessels reply. in substance. If not IN
1 words. to the summons brought him by
! Nogf's parlementaire-
| For Stoessel showed himself TO be a man
| of sipgularly few words-when in action
1 at least-thOu-h his te deum address &C
| his trooas after the reoulse of Japanese
| assaults. as well as his dispatches TO me
czar were couched in phraseology which
seemed to have been equally borrowed
| from the Psalms OF David and the pages
of Victor Hugo. Otherwise. he was ever
brief and even abrupt OF sneech- this
I fortress holder with the tail. bulky. but
rather ungainly. not to say commonplace
Il figure. ard face so little suggestive OF
the conventional hero He could wire
I fiuxOesque dispatches of victory TO tnt
car. though to the company which sen
word that they could no longer hold il
| post' his only reply was; But YOU car
4 die them And die they did. What
order can be done" was his rule. and al
breaches of discipline We're punished will
the most merciiesS SEVERITY carry ou
the sentence, was his invariable repl,
Il 10 corrtmartial recommendations Z
mercy: 'sit will save lives in the end 4
u dealer who was found 10 be selling putris
timed meat 10 the soldiers he sentenced