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We have done all
that was humanly possible. Judge us; but be merciful. Eleven months
have exhausted our strength. A quarter only of the defenders, and
one-half of them invalids, occupy twenty-seven versts of
fortifications without supports and without intervals for even the
briefest repose. The men are reduced to shadows!" On the previous day
Stossel had written to General Nogi, declaring that further
resistance would merely entail useless loss of life considering the
conditions within the fortress. The total number of prisoners who
surrendered at the fall of the fortress was 878 officers and 23,491
men, and the captured material included 546 guns; 35,252 rifles; 60
torpedoes; 30,000 kilograms of powder; 82,670 rounds of
gun-ammunition; two and a quarter million rounds of small-arm
ammunition; a number of wagons; 1,920 horses; four battle-ships; two
cruisers; fourteen gunboats and torpedo-craft; ten steamers;
thirty-three steam launches, and various other vessels. These figures
are worthy of study, as one of General Stossel's alleged reasons for
surrendering was scarcity of ammunition.

MISHCHENKO'S RAID

The capture of Port Arthur meant something more than the fall of a
fortress which had been counted impregnable and which had dominated
the strategical situation for fully seven months. It meant, also,
that General Nogi's army would now be free to join their comrades
beyond the Liao River, and that Kuropatkin would find his opponents'
strength increased by four divisions. It became, therefore, important
to ascertain how soon this transfer was likely to be effected, and,
if possible, to interrupt it by tearing up the railway. Accordingly,
on January 8th, General Mishchenko's division of Cossacks,
Caucasians, and Dragoons, mustering six thousand sabres, with six
batteries of light artillery, crossed the Hun River and marched south
on a five-mile front. Throughout the war the Cossacks, of whom a very
large force was with the Russian army, had hitherto failed to
demonstrate their usefulness, and this raid in force was regarded
with much curiosity. It accomplished very little. Its leading
squadrons penetrated as far south as Old Niuchwang, and five hundred
metres of the railway north of Haicheng were destroyed, a bridge also
being blown up. But this damage was speedily restored, and as for the
reconnoitring results of the raid, they seem to have been very
trifling.

THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN

After the battle of Heikautai, which cost the Russians twenty
thousand casualties and exposed the troops to terrible hardships,
Kuropatkin's army did not number more than 260,000 effectives. On the
other hand, he could rely upon a constant stream of re-enforcements
from Europe, as the efficiency of the railway service had been
enormously increased by the genius and energy of Prince Khilkoff,
Russian minister of Ways and Communications. In fact, when all the
forces under orders for Manchuria had reached their destination,
Kuropatkin would have under his command twelve army corps, six
rifle-brigades, and nine divisions of mounted troops, a total of
something like half a million men. Evidently the Japanese would not
have acted wisely in patiently awaiting the coming of these troops.
Moreover, since the break-up of winter would soon render temporarily
impossible all operations in the field, to have deferred any forward
movement beyond the month of March would have merely facilitated the
massing of Russian re-enforcements in the lines on the Shaho, where
the enemy had taken up his position after his defeat at Heikautai.
These considerations induced Marshal Oyama to deliver an attack with
his whole force during the second half of February, and there
resulted a conflict which, under the name of the "battle of Mukden,"
will go down in the pages of history as the greatest fight on record.

It has been claimed by the Russians that Kuropatkin was thinking of
assuming the offensive when the Japanese forced his hand; but however
that may be, the fact is that he fought on the defensive as he had
done throughout the whole war with two exceptions. Nevertheless, we
may confidently assert that at no previous period had the Russians
been so confident and so strong. According to the Japanese estimate,
the accuracy of which may be trusted, Kuropatkin had 376 battalions,
171 batteries, and 178 squadrons; representing 300,000 rifles, 26,000
sabres and 1368 guns, while the defences behind which these troops
were sheltered were of the most elaborate character, superior to
anything that the Japanese had encountered during the previous
battles of the field-campaign. On the other hand, the Japanese also
were in unprecedented strength. Up to the battle of Heikautai,
Kuropatkin had been confronted by only three armies, namely, the
First, Second, and Fourth, under Generals Kuroki, Oku, and Nozu,
respectively. In the middle of February, these numbered three, four,
and two divisions, respectively. But there had now been added a
considerable number of reserve brigades, bringing up the average
strength of most of the divisions to from 22,000 to 25,000 men.
Further, in addition to these armies, two others were in the field,
namely, the Third, under General Nogi, and the Fifth, under General
Kawamura. General Nogi's force had marched up from Port Arthur, but
General Kawamura's was a new army formed of special reservists and
now put in the field for the first time.

The Russians occupied a front forty-four miles in extent and from
five to six miles in depth. They did not know, apparently, that
General Kawamura's army had joined Oyama's forces, nor did they know
where Nogi's army was operating. The Japanese programme was to hold
the Russian centre; to attack their left flank with Kawamura's army,
and to sweep round their right flank with Nogi's forces. The latter
were therefore kept in the rear until Kawamura's attack had developed
fully on the east and until the two centres were hotly engaged. Then
"under cover of the smoke and heat generated by the conflict of the
other armies on an immense front, and specially screened by the
violent activity of the Second Army, Nogi marched in echelon of
columns from the west on a wide, circling movement; swept up the Liao
valley, and bending thence eastward, descended on Mukden from the
west and northwest, giving the finishing blow of this gigantic
encounter; severing the enemy's main line of retreat, and forcing him
to choose between surrender and flight. To launch, direct, and
support four hundred thousand men engaged at such a season over a
front one hundred miles in length was one of the most remarkable
tasks ever undertaken on the field of battle by a modern staff."

Of course, all these events did not move exactly as planned, but the
main feature of the great fight was that Kuropatkin, deceived by
Kawamura's movement, detached a large force to oppose him, and then
recalled these troops too late for the purpose of checking General
Nogi's flanking operation. The fighting was continuous for almost two
weeks, and on the morning of March 16th, the Russians had been driven
out of Mukden and forced northward beyond Tiehling. In fact, they did
not pause until March 20th, when Linievitch, who had succeeded
Kuropatkin in the chief command, was able to order a halt at
Supingchieh, seventy miles to the north of Mukden. "The Russian
losses in this most disastrous battle included, according to Marshal
Oyama's reports, 27,700 killed and 110,000 wounded," while an immense
quantity of war material fell into the hands of the victors. The
Japanese losses, up to the morning of March 12th, were estimated at
41,222.

THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA

From the outset, both sides had appreciated the enormous
preponderance that would be conferred by command of the sea. It was
in obedience to this conviction that the Russian authorities were in
the act of taking steps to increase largely their Pacific squadron
when the outbreak of war compelled them to suspend the despatch of
re-enforcements. They did not, however, relinquish their
preparations. Evidently, any vessels sent to the scene of combat
after fighting had begun must be competent to defend themselves
against attack, which condition entailed strength to form an
independent squadron. The preparations to acquire this competence
involved a long delay, and it was not until the 16th of October,
1904, that Admiral Rozhdestvensky left Libau with some forty ships.
The world watched this adventure with astonished eyes. Thitherto
Great Britain, equipped as she is with coaling-stations all round the
globe, had been the only power thought capable of sending a large
fleet on an ocean voyage. Rozhdestvensky's squadron consumed over
three thousand tons of coal daily when steaming at a reduced speed,
and how this supply was to be kept up in the absence of ports of
call, no one was able to conjecture. The difficulty was ultimately
overcome by the very benevolent character which the neutrality of
certain powers assumed, and in May, 1905, the Baltic squadron, as the
vessels under Rozhdestvensky were called, made its appearance in Far
Eastern waters.

It had been supposed that the Russians would seek to envelop their
movements in obscurity, but they seem to have appreciated, from the
outset, the absurdity of endeavouring to conceal the traces of a
fleet of forty vessels steaming along the routes of the world's
commerce. They therefore proceeded boldly on their way, slowly but
indomitably overcoming all obstacles. It will be observed that the
date of their departure from Libau was just two months after the
last attempt of the Port Arthur squadron to escape to Vladivostok.
Doubtless, this sortie, which ended so disastrously for the
Russians, was prompted in part by anticipation of the Baltic
fleet's approaching departure, and had the Port Arthur squadron,
or any considerable portion of it, reached Vladivostok before
Rozhdestvensky's coming, Admiral Togo might have been caught between
two fires. The result of the sortie, however, dispelled that hope.
Long before Rozhdestvensky reached the Far East, he fell into touch
with Japanese scouts, and every movement of his ships was flashed to
the enemy.