The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-06-28
SOME HISTORIC SlEGES
OF GREAT CONFLICTS

General Townsend's gallant defense
of Kut for 143 days against overwhelm-
ing odds will go down to history as
one of the most magnificent episodes
of the great war. In the war between
Russia and Japan, Port Arthur only
gave in after siege of 210 days.
BY far the longest of modern times
commenced on June 81, 1879, and end
ed in February, 1888. 1t thus lasted
for the long period of three years and
eight months, or more than 300 days.
The besieged were the British gar
rison, under the command of General
G. A. Elliott, n most abstemious and
methodical man, who never slept more
than four hours at a time. The be-
siegers were a Joint French and Span
ish force, 10000 strong, who attacked
from land and sea. The siege utterly
failed, and Britain still clings to the
Rock which held out so valiantly and
for such an unparalleled length of
time.
Perhaps the most desperate siege
was that endured by Potchefstroom in
the Boer war of 1SS0-1SS1. In that
handful of British, 800 strong, held
out for three months in an area of
only twenty-five square yards.
The town itself had to be abandoned.
and 'the small garrison, which could
muster only 105 rifles and two nine
Founders, retired with the British
civilians, to the tiny fort of the limited
dimensions above stated. With meal
sacks, biscuit boxes, and tins of beef
the walls were strengthened, but with
the exception of trenches which were
dug, there were no other means of de-
fense.
Yet for ninety-four days the garrison
held out. 1t was not till death from
starvation stared him in the face that
the commander, Colonel Winslow, felt
constrained to surrender. On certain
Sunday in March, 1881, the remnant of
the garrison marched out with all the
honors of war, only to learn that a
truce had been long before declared.
knowledge of it had been kept from
them until they were starved into sur
render.
The siege of Plevna lasted exactly as
long as that of Potchefstroom. For
ninety-four days, from September Z to
December TO- 1877, the Turks, under
the redoubtable Osman Pasha, held
back the flower of the Russian army.
During that time they made repeated
sorties, inflicting serious losses upon
the Russians, and this while suffering
the keenest pangs of hunger.
Indeed, they were practically with
out food throughout the siege, and
| even when the last scrap had been
consumed there was no question of
giving in. They essayed to cut their
way through the besieging forces, but
the latter were too many for them. 1t
| is no eXaggeration to say that in the
siege of Plevna the Turks astonished
the world.
No town in Spain ever covered itself
with more glory than did Saragossa
when invested by the French for the
second time in 1909 After being de-
| feated just outside the town, the citi-
zens, under their leader, PalafoX, pre-
pared a desperate resistance within.
Street by street, house by house,
room by room, was most fiercely con-
tested for, being, like the outworks OF
a fortress, frequently lost and recov'
cred The French found this method
of progression far too costly, so they
abandoned it in favor of mining.
After they had become masters of a
very small portion of the city, they re-
ceived the help of an irresistible ally
in the shape of an epidemic of fever,
which broke out among the besieged.
BY this Palafox himself was stricken
down, and ultimately the whole town
was forced to capitulate. No fewer than
$4,000 of the besieged had perished,
amongst whom were nearly $4,000 sol
| diers.-Tit-Bits.
| Nearly everybody reads The Ard
moreite. Do you?