Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-16
A BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Hando Hand Fighting in Polish Jungle Remarkable Descrp
ton of Scenes During and After a Conflict Fiercer
Than Any in Our Civil War.
By STANLEY WASHBURN
(By Special Arrangement with the Review of Revlews)

try west of the wood the hotter was the
contest waged; for each man in his own
mind must have known how matters
would fare with the retreat once the open
country without shelter should be reached.
The last two kilometers of the woody belt
something incredible to behold; there
seems hardly an acre that Is not sown like
the scene of a paper chase-only here with
bloody bandages and bits of uniform. Still
there was meagre use for the artillery, but
the rifle and the bayonet played the leading
role. Men fighting hand to hand with
clubbed muskets and bayonets contested
each tree and ditch. But ever did the Rus
slams Systematically, patiently. steadily feed
in the troops at their side of the wood
The end was, of course, inevitable. The
troops of the dual alliance could not sup
pose, fill their losses and the Russians could
Their army was under way, and as one sees
them these days one feels that they would
have taken that belt of wood IL the entire
peasant population of the Gear had been
necessary to feed to the NAV of that CHASTITY
monster of carnage in the forest. But at
last came the day when the dirty grimy,
bloody soldiers of the Car pushed their an
tagonsts out of the far side of the belt Of
woodand-and what a scene there must have
the quaint little village of Augustow at the
crossroads. Once out in the open the hun
CRY guns of the Russians, so long yapping
ineffectively without knowing what their
shells were doing, had their chance Down
every road through the forest came the six
horse teams with the guns jumping and
jlngling behind with their accompanying
caissons heavy with death charged shrapnei,
ha In fha I'll
these batteries, eight guns TO unit were
unlimbered on the fringe of the wood and
pouring out their death and destruction on
the wretched enemy now retreating hastily
across the open. And the place where ths
Russians first turned loose on tho retreat 10
place to remember. Dead horses. bits OF
men. blue uniforms. shattered transport,
overturned gun carriages. bones. broken
skulls and grizzly bits of humanity strew
every acre of the ground.
The Battle is Over
Russian officer who seemed to be in au-
thority on this gruesome spot volunteered
the information that already they had buried
at kozlenice in the wood and on this open
spot, 10000 dead and as far as / could make
out the job was long way from completed
when ! was on the field. Those that had
$500 - ''V "PSh anu aiohs lhe Eoao hs4
been deeently inferred, as the forests Of.
crosses for 10 miles along that bloody way
clearly Indicated; but back in the woods
themselves were hundreds and hundreds OF
bodies that lay as they had fallen. sixteen
thousand dead means at least 10000 casual
ties all told, or $4,000 on a side II losses were
equally distributed. And this figured on ths
basis of the $4,000 dead already buried. with
out allowing for fha numhAra NJ tha fallen
that still lie about In the woods. And yet
here Is battle the name OF which Is, dare
say hardly more than known IN the United
States yet the losses on both sides amount
TO more than the entire army that Meade
commanded at the Battle OF Gettysburg.
Copyright. Review Of Reviews company.l