The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1917-04-05
FAILURE TURNED
into A VICTORY
Capture of Bagdad Marks Climax
OF One of Most Dramatic
Phases of War.
ONCE FIRST CITY OF WORLD
Known History Of City Reaches Back
to Shadowy Times Of Nebuchad-
nezzar-Story Of Failure Of
Townshend.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS capture marks
the climax to one of the most dramatic
and picturesque phases Of the worlds
war. The city which has fallen to Brit
lsh arms links the present 90 past SO
distant 1T is semi-fabulous.
The known history Of Bagdad
reaches back for more than four thou
sand years to the shadowy times Of
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a
quay built by the scriptural monarch
still existing, submerged in the Tigris.
Within It's precincts also there still
stand the tombs Of the Jewish DroDh-
cts, Joshua, EZru, and Ezekiel, and tie
well OF Daniel.
Long after the Babylonian dynasty
had ceased to be more than men,
ory Bagdad rose to splendor as the ar-
tistic, literary, scientific, and religious
capital Of the world. The heart of the
great Islamic empire of the caliphs for
hundreds Of years, it was known
throughout the world as "the Glorious
City," and was the scene Of the fnntas-
tic exploits Of Haroun-al- -Raschid, the
potcntate whose magnificence, is i'm
mortalized in the Arabian Nights.
Once Had 100000 Souls.
In 500 B. G. Bagdad was credited
with population of 100000 inhabi-
tants, and was easily the first city In
the world in wealth and commerce.
With the fall of the caliphs before
the Turkish sultans, the decline OF Bag
dad commenced. 1t was successively
the prey of Turks. MongOls, Tartars.
and Pcrsians, but 1t was not until 1G3S
that the city became definitely n part
Of the Turkish empire
| Its ancient Importance was largely
due to the fact that 1t stood ut the
center of the lines of communication
between India and Persia and the west,
but the opening of new routes by way
OF TrcbiZond and through Armenia di-
vertcd its trade and was n vital factor
In It's decline.
The British campaign against Bag
dad was opened early in 1915 when an
Anglo Indian force under Maj Gen.
Charles We're Ferrers T0wnshend was
landed at the head of the Persian gulf
and moved rapidly up the Tigrls.
General TOwnshend commanded n
force of about 10000 men and at first
he pushed forward with amazing speed.
Early In June, 1915, he captured Kut-el
Amara, about $50 miles from the
mouth Of the Tigris and 100 miles from
Bagdad. On the ODD of the following
November he reached Ctesiphon, 20
miles from his goal, where he was at-
tackled by an overwhelming force of
Ottoman troops. His water supply
a I,
Fighting Il continuous rcar-guard .ac:
tion, the British expedition reguined
kut-el-Amara on December 8. Here
General TOwnShcnd determined to
make stand with a portion of his
forces and cntrcnchcd with about 1O.-
600 men, while the remainder Of his
troops continued to fall back along the
Tigris In order to join hands with the
relief army that was hurredly dis.
patched from France and India after
the defeat at Ctcsiphon.
Relief Comes Too Late.
! For three months Gen. Sir Percy
Lake, the relief commander, fought his
way up the Tlgris and was within
eight miles of his besieged comrades
when on April 13. 1916, General Town
shcnd his food supply exhausted, was
compelled to surrender.
In the meantime additional rc-en
! forcements had been sent from Egypt
| But after the disaster at Kut-el-Amara
! the British abandoned the offensive fol
| several months.
The resumption Of British operations
on n major scale did not occur unit
December, 1916, when an advance or
| Kul-cl-Amara was made from the Baby
lonian plains, while second force
again moved up the Tigrls. Gen. Fred
erick Stanley Maude was In command
Of the new campaign and was unoni
cially reported to have 10000 men a
his disposal.
| From the time Of the opening Of the
new campaign the British progres.
was steady and uninterrupted and, IN
its last phases, Of remarkable rapidlty