The insurgents assembled in Kagoshima now numbered some 15,000 picked _samurai_ of desperate courage and great skill in the use of their weapons. At the head of this force Saigō set out for Kumamoto on February 15, 1876, and on the 22d of that month he sat down with his whole army before Kumamoto castle, an error of strategy which ultimately enabled the government to confine the insurrection to the Island of Kiushū. Major General Tani Tateki, who held command of the garrison, made a stubborn resistance, though many of the _samurai_ among his troops went over to the rebels. The imperial army arriving in the province of Higo, endeavored to reach Kumamoto from the northwest via Takase. Severe fighting look place, but the forces of the government pushed steadily on. At point after point the rebels made obstinate stands, especially in the strong position of Tawara-saka, where a great number of lives were lost by both sides, and the whole district was devastated. The government troops, though victorious, found themselves seriously weakened, and the insurgents fought with undiminished desperation. Shortly before this, Yanagiwara Sakimitsu, a senator, was sent by the emperor to Kagoshima to warn Shimazu Hisamitsu, the former feudal chief of Satsuma, and his son, Tadayoshi, against connecting themselves with the insurgents. He was accompanied on this mission by Lieutenant General Kuroda Kiyotaka, an influential member of the Satsuma fief, and the two labored so successfully that the dockyard and arsenal, which had been dismantled by the rebels, were restored to a defensible condition. It now became possible to advance upon the rear of the rebels, and General Kuroda, being appointed chief of the staff, landed a body of troops at Yatsushiro in order to attack Saigō from the south. The insurgents were now assaulted from two directions, but they fought so well that the imperial army could not yet effect the relief of Kumamoto castle, which, having been besieged for over fifty days, was being reduced to straits for want of provisions. The commander of the garrison now managed to send an officer through the besieging army with intelligence of his perilous condition, and on receipt of the message General Kuroda set all his troops in rapid motion, and forced his way to Kumamoto on April 14, the insurgents breaking up into two bodies, one of which retreated into the province of Bungo and the other into the Hitoyoshi valley in Higo, where the country offered excellent facilities for resistance. Upon the retreat of the rebels from Kumamoto, Vice Minister Kawamura Sumiyoshi was sent to Kagoshima, at the head of 8000 men, to attack the rebellion at its root, whereupon Saigō, who was with the Hitoyoshi branch of the rebels, learning that Kagoshima had fallen into the hands of the government's troops, issued orders for a retreat in the directions of Satsuma and Osumi. The Hitoyoshi insurgents then effected their escape with much adroitness into Hiuga province,