The Washington times., 1905-03-15

which the ftgftiveS must pass.
Russians Fire on Wounded.
a japanese officer is quoted as saying:
| - have seen wounded men being car
ried across a plain shelled by the Rus
slams. This morning they shelIed a large
party of stretcher-bearers till they Were
out of range. Yesterday hospital carts
crossing the field were plainly followed
with a fire OF shrapnel for over mile.
Military attaches can testify to this
a dispatch from japanese headquar-
ters to Tokyo today tells of the taking
of large additional quantities of stores.
md saws:
In the direction of the Sha river all
of our forces are continuing the pursuit
of the remnant of the enemy, and many
Russian officers and men are surrender
ing to our train guards in the mountain
Gus districts east of the Tie Pass road,
The Flight From Mukden.
1t is possible now to give a general
view of the battle. the connected story
emerging out of the COM asinn incident
to the evacuation of Mukden and the
forced retreat to Tie Pass.
On February "a all was ready for an
attack on the westward, Various por-
tions of the army had been disposed for
an advance on the right flank.
Suddenly, in the evening of that day
| the order to advance was Cancelled, and
| fer of General RennenkamDff 8 First
Siberian Corps and several other organ
| cations to the left flank, which was be-
| ing pressed heavily by a large force Of
| japanese.
| From that time forward the Japanese.
who were well informed as to all the
= Russian movements, began heavy at
| tacks along the whole front.
/ After almost constant fighting up 20
March 7, the continued extension of The
japanese lines northward and the con-
| centration which their superiority in
numbers enabled them to effect against
the northern and northwestern fronts.
Russian lines, and a withdrawal from
! the Slla river to positions on the Hun
/ river was determined upon.
| This was in no sense the beginning OF
| the general retreat, and Kuropa1ksf. and
| the generals commanding the armies
were Ear from regarding the battle as
! lost The first army to retire from the
| fortified positions east and southeast of
| MulSden was the Third army, which fell
| back to positions similarly fortified in
| advance on the north bank of the Hun
river.
Chaos Ensued.
The burning OF abandoned stores. pro
visions and forage disclosed the Rus
sian retirement. and the japanese fol-
| lowed closely. A confusion in orders and
| retirement IN inpenetrabie darkness
| q cross the country were responsible for
| the failure of some organizations to
occupy the positions to which they
| had been assigned, and a remarka BILE
duststorm the following day made it
| impossible to verify the alignment and
| I'll the, breaches, which, however, the
Japanese were lucky enough to find and
| skillful enough to turn to their ad-
! vantage.
! The Russian positions now formed a
! boot. the toe at Madyapu and the heel
! on the Hun river at Fishtin, about five
| miles wide To meet the apparent dan
ger that the Japanese might plug the
! top Of the boot Kuropatkin sent @thither
forty battalions from the command of
General MiloT. which were rendered
available by the shortening of the line.
The Russians began to slowly force
the Japanese back at this critical point,
| but the Japanese in turn We're ve-enforc-
co on the extreme right, and General
| Kuropat tkin, seeing all apparently going
| well at the ether positions, and deter
mining to stake all on decisive blow.
| collected the remainder of the strategic
reserves, strengthened by several other
| units. and led them personally on March
| 9 TO the north front and threw them on
the tank of the japanese, who were at
/ tacktag Santaitse and endeavoring to
cut the railway.
The scale of weight was all on the
Russian side The japanese then re-
tired. abandoning a battery of eight
guns. success apparently crowning the
Russian arms,
Dust Storm Blinded Russians
At this moment two sets of rerorts
were received, the first that column
of japanese was moving farther north
around the right flank, and the second