Show WERE WILLING TO DIE Men Did Not Want to Retreat St Petersburg March 14 1230 a am anT m nT The Associated Press has received from tom a correspondent with wih General headquarters descriptions descriptions tons of the operations the difficult retreat on and the te stubborn defense of o the position there by this hardy vanguard of the First Firt armyl army army The following account showing howing the reluctance with wih which the decimated remnant of the command abandoned the position when wh n it i had been beed beI maintained ac ne e enormous ermous cost Is dated d ed the Hun River March HO 1 lO ei q 3 difficult l latuf of or the country through which detachment t was w wa re j tiring Is show Y bythe he fact that it took tooka a messengers three days das to reach Tie TI pass The dispatch follows fol ws J When the evening e ei of March arch 7 the detachment received from the staff of C the t e First Firt army the th or order ordel order der del to retire to positions s on the Hun river east of Fushun the officers at first frt refused to believe that tat the te order was authentic the tb more so as a the Jap Japanese Japanese anese toward evening had begun to retire along the whole front and the troops expected e from moment momEnt to mo moment moment ment meat an order to launch themselves in pursuit So cruelly so bitterly disappointing disappointing pointing was to abandon the thc positions on which w ich about of the whole detachment nt had bad fallen falen that many of the soldiers sobbing knelt knel and kissed the te bloodstained earth and then ten gloomily and unwillingly carried carrie out the te order to retire On every hand privates i yates vates were yere asking aking their leaders leader why wh i and getting no explanation In the depth of the night lines of or troops moved out of the entrenchments leaving leing the bodies of their fellows buried burled and un on unburied unburied buried behind and then burned the stores and provisions which were aban ahan abandoned by the unexpected retreat enor enormous fires fres illuminating the road rad afar The retreat was as executed in perfect or order order order der and the troopers leaving Madya dany to the eastward e fell fel back to the appointed positions on the Hun river Officers and men alike alIk felt fait the blow keenly Why oh why sobbed one did not they let us die in our post positions |