The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-07

TOI 1 lC -4CoSCAScl.
A recent issue of the Philadelphia
Record contained an article, headed
The Worlds Bloodiest Battle, of
which the following are extracts:
the estimate by a correspondent
who is with General KurOpatkin, that
the losses on both sides at the battle
of ,Mukden were not less than 200, Coo
mep, make it appear that this combat
was by far the Dloodiest ever known
The largest number of troops ever
before engaged in battle was at Arbela,
in 52l 4. c., when 80, 1000 Greeks, Under
Alexander, put to 0 u a horde of TN
disciplined P~ersians, believed to have
numbered $50, 900.
The number of men engaged at
.Mukden is variously estimated at from
100000 to Zoo, 900. The percentage OF
loss appears to have been between 20
and % per cent"
/ have no little h~esitancy, with al
most a feeling of being presumptucus,
in taking issue with a newspaper
staining SO high in journalism as the
Philadelphia Record; but | do not be-
lieve that history will pea out either
it's contention that Mukden was the
worlds "blOOdiest combat, "Or it's state
ment that the greatest number OF
men ever before engaged in battle"
was at Arbela, where, according to it's
figures, the total of cOmbatants was
$50, 900. Certainly we ave no right to
assume that the records which have
come down to us from Arbela are
reliable han those of other ancient
fields of strife; and giving to equally
trustworthy historians equal credence,
there were more than one battle Of
ancient times and the Middle Ages
where more men were engaged than at
Arbela.
On the field of Ancyra or Angora, the
central city Of ~CappadOcla, in the early
part of the year 1902, was fought one
of the blOOdiest n most mGmentOUs
battles of ancient or modern times. On
the same field, more than half a cen
fury before the dawn of the Christian
era, PODpey was victOriuS over NTH
ridates. Commenting on this cOinci-
dence, Lamartine says: 1T seems that
the instinct of war conducts, from age
to age, the armies of successive en-
pireS to the same rendezvous OF con-
test, and that geography has laid eff
in advance certain fields of battle as
a sort of arena for those great immO-
lations of humanity" Our American
writer, John Esten Cooke, has express
ed the same idea far more graphically
than the polished Frenchman.
On the field of Angora, then, at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, the
power of the great Sultan Of Turkey,
Bajazet II, derim (the ThunderbOlt),
was utterly broken by a greater than
he, the Tartar cOnquerer, TInlour Lenk
(TimOur the Lance more generally
knQwn in history as TamerFane. The
evidence seems to be inconteStable that
when the declaration OF war was made,
after the rude and informal fashion
of the time, between b WI combat
ants, Timour had marshaled on the
field of Karabagh SOC, 00G fighting men,
with whom he invaded Asia Minor, de-
f1ecting from his advance to storm and
take in succession the fortified cities
of Siwas, AleppO and Damascus. When
he came upon the field Of AngOra fCr
his supreme struggle with Bajazet, he
had left around the walls of those Ge-
vastated towns and On his line Of
march, in killed, wounded and missing,
zoo, 900 of his forces, confronting his
antagonist with 600 900 fighting men.
In this vast host were 40 divisions Of
select cavalry and a hundred of ele.
phauts, bearing towers filled with
spearsmen, while 40 generals of as
many principalities of Persia and Tar.
tary led the different bands of infantry
and cavalry, all under the command
of TimOur Lenk.
On the other side Bajazet, realizing
that the crisis of his fortunes was up
on aim, had placed himself to quote
from the Ottoman chrOnicler, lat the
head of all the men who could bear a
apo throughout his whole domin-
IONS" and stood, barring the further
invasion of the Tatar horde, with an
immense army OF 800 900 soldiers, max
ing the aggregate of combatantB on the
field Of Angora $4,000 10 men-on this
estimate Greek, Arabian and Ottoman
historians are agreed. AS to the losses
sustained on each side, the figures vary
for T1mOur, from 10000 to 1900;
for BajaZet, from 10000 to 100000.
On one thing all the chronicIers OF the
time are in accord:-That on that part
of he bloody field where the Sultan
BajaZet fought all day for his kingdom
his liberty and his life 10000 deaf
bodies lay IN heaps of his picked body
guard of Janissaries alone.
1t must be remembered that this was
no dashing against each other of undiS-
ciplined bands, of unframed tribes.
'TimOur was a cOnsummate warrior aud
barbarian as he was, and
his savage and tempestuous army had
subjugated people and countries; BaJa-
yet, cruel, f%erocious despot, was yet 6
conQuerer and a leader of men, and his
had attesIed their valor on aa
hundred fields. Bajazet died in captiv- !
ity at the court Of his victorious foe in
the opulent city of Samarcand.
Abou the middle of the fifth century
of the Christian era Attila at the head
a great body of Huns, Goths and
Gepidians-"both king and follow
in the words of the French his
tprian Guizot, already famous for their