The Washington times., 1905-01-08

o'clock in the morning he was reused
by an orderly, who reported that his
men had been driven from the P Fort
He was then half mile as the crow
flies. but nearly one and half miles
by zig-zag line of the trenches, afford
ing protection across the valley before
reaching the slope of the redoubt-
Leaping from his couch, he called his
staff officers. issued hurried orders TO
the reserves, and at the head of his i'm
mediate followers ran through the zig
gag trenches Reaching the foremost
line. now hot under the fire OF Russian
machine guns, he found his command
not demolished, bnt surprised. outnum-
bered, and being sulIenly driven back
Called Fort After Him.
Drawing his sabre he thrust the ranks
aside, passed through, and at the head
of his men charged up the slope into the
contested redoubt- With his own hand
he killed five Russians. When dawn
came, his brigade occupied The p Re
doubt
Oshima, had an account OF the exploit
telegraphed to the Emperor at Tokyo.
That afternoon an imperial order reach
ed the army, christening the fort 'Ichi-
nobe." On the map TO-DAY and in the dis
patches. one may read of Ichinobe Fort
as a critical position on the main east
ern line of defense.
1t was still nearly another month,
that is. December IS, before that bat
terry against which Takagagi and his
heroic regiment lost their lives, namely,
the north battery of the east Keekwan
Fort, was finally taken.
Storm of "Stink Pots"
In the first assault, on August 81, the
few men who reached the parapet re-
ceived in their faces storms of what the
Chinese call stink pots"-that is, balls
| of fresh dung. This assault failed
| wholly. The dead were left to rot where
| they lay, and the wounded r.ere shot as
/ they lay, the stencil of the corpses beine
used as a weapon of offense against thu
Japanese. trying to maintain the advan
tage they had gained at the foot of tn.
slope.
The next time they assaulted. which
was on September 19, the Japanese wer.
met with hand grenades cs gun cotton
| 1t was not a grand assault. but merel,
! a demonstration 1t also failed
/ Fr1ghtful Traps Of Caponieres.
In the third assault. on October c
half way up the hill the advance STUN
bled over a mine, and the entire lowe
shoulder of the mountain was blow
into the air, taking with il some twenty
hve men. heads awry. legs and arm
twisted. trunks shattered.
New volunteers advanced through til
crater thus formed, up the glacis of tn
redoubt. until they reached a ira
which they had been unable TO distir
gufsh from the valley below, owing I
its cunning concealment under the para
pet. level with an innocent height tEa
, looked precisely similar to every othe
furze-covered height In othe vicinity
II was a moat The Japanese did M
hesitate to leap in. That leap was
death
Foes Were Protected.
AT each corner of the moat. at eac
turn that II made as it worked II
way under the parapet of the redoub
was masonry projection called, by tn
cunning men who devise such traps, a caI
oniere. These caponieres rose out OF II
bed of the moat several feet and eac
was large enough to shield three or fol
= I
under perfect protection and with the
. foes trapped like woodchucks in a hoI
unable 10 escape, the Russians dealt OIL
whistiing steel at their leisure
Surprising and overpowering as tn
was. the Japanese did not falter @
that third grand assault they made the
stand, and Were able. by sacrifices n,
large in numbers (for the total 10.
in that moat was less than one hun
dred). but beyond computation fro
the standpoint of individual heroisrn,
capture and 10 hold ever since. the tw
northern caponieres.
!. Under the parapet of this fort, dom
t mated by all the artillery of the tW
| armies, has occurred some OF the grin
NEST fighting that history records or in
, agination can compass.
Meet and Fight as Beasts.
The second night of the occupation
e Japanese lieutenant, by name Oda. asl
ed for a volunteer party. called "Kei
sheitaf.' an expression which In Engli: