J^IBSABW tttMt$it|| of fitlifj^^ta :\ o. yj^^f Shelf Received -^£i^r* PREFACE. This volume lias been issued to meet tlie wishes of those who desire to possess, in a permanent form, letters which once yielded them pleasure and instruction. On their first publica- tion these letters were reprinted by daily and weekly Journals throughout the kingdom, and may, without exaggeration, be affirmed to have been more widely reproduced than any com- munications ever despatched from fields of battle. Of a large proportion of them, it may be said, that they were welcomed by the public as affording the earliest, fullest, and most specific information at critical moments of the campaign, and if it should further be found that these same letters, hastily written in the bivouac, on the field of victory, or in some hovel on the line of retreat, have at the same time the merit of being among the most vivid and truthful pictures of war that have at any time been offered to the public, the popularity they have attained would be accounted for. Owing to the large number of the Special Correspondents whose letters are now republished, and in order that each of them may have credit for his own labours, a conventional sign has been appropriated to each correspondent and prefixed to his letters, by which his writings may be distinguished. "Daily News" Office, Botjverie Street, December, 1877. 73^47 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/dailynewscorrespOOforbrich CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE DIPLOMATIC PERIOD. 1 The Insurrection in tlie Herzegovina. — The Consular Commission. — The And rassy Note. — The Berlin Memorandum. — The Bulgarian Massacres. —The Servian War.— The Conference. —The Protocol.— The Russian Declaration of War. — Lord Derby's Protest CHAPTER II. PEEPARATIONS FOR WAR. The Ottoman Army. — Fortresses of the Danube. — Turkish Line of Defence. — Abdul Kerim, the Ottoman Generalissimo. — The Russians at Kische- neff.— Naval Power of Turkey.— The Russian Black Sea Fleet.— The Emperor Alexander's Address to his Army. — The Defences of Varna . 15 CHAPTER IIL CROSSING THE PROKTIF.RS. Entry of the Russians into Roumania. — Advance of the Army of the Cau- casus. — Seizure of the Barbosch Bridge. — Occupation of Galatz. — Compulsory Departure of Foreign Shipping. — The Cossack of the Don. — Special Character of the Campaign. — Composition of the Army of Occuijation — Greneral Nepokoitchitsky, Chief of the Russian Staff CHAPTER IV. THE RUSSIANS IN ROUMANIA. Destruction of a Turkish Turret Ship on the Danube. — A Torpedo Expedi- tion. — Destruction of another Turkish Ship of War. — Narrative of the Russian Officers concerned. — Speedy Reward of Merit in the Russian Army. — Braila in War-time. — Facilities for a Crossing at Braila. — A Tour with Prince Charles of Roumania. — Russian Regimental Singers. — A Military Improvvisatore. — A Dancing Corporal. — Break-down of a Bridge. — General Skobeleff and his Extraordinary Career. — A Prin'^e in the Ranks.— The Foi-tress of Rustchuk. — Character of the Turkish Common Soldier .......... 61 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. THE ASIATIC CAMPAIGN. PAGE Capture of Ardahan. — Condition of Mukhtar Paclia's Army. — Its Weakness and want of necessary Supplies. — Want of Cavalry. — Circassians and Kurds. — State of the Turkish Fortifications. — A Military Punishment. — A Turkish Village. — An unexpected Visit; — Public Opinion on the War. — Turkish Military Hospital. — Mukhtar Pacha's Intelligence De- partment. — Hairy Moses and his Assistants. — Turkish Expedition to the Abhasian Coast. — Destruction of Sukhura Kaleh. — Landing of ^ Troops. — Insurrection of the Tribes. — The Prince of Mingrelia . . 95 CHAPTER VI. THE EVE OF THE CROSSING. Rustchuk and Giurgevo. — SkobelefF's Straw-cannons. — The Cossacks and their Customs. — A War Observatory. — A Reconnaissance on the Da- nube. — Marching Powers of the Russian Soldiers. — Life under Shell- Fire. — A Hunt for a Spy. — The Russian Artillery. — Russian Light and Heavy Horse. — The Russian Lines of Advance Compared. — Osman Pacha at Widdin 120 CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST PASSAGE OF THE DANUBE. Mystification of the Turks at Rustchuk. — A Successful Torpedo-laying Ex- pedition mistaken for a Repulsed Attack. — Starting for the Campaign. — A Field Equipage. — A Search for the General. — The Russian Soldier on the March. — Brilliant Gathering at Alexandra. — Crossing of the Danube at Galatz. — The Bridge at Braila. — The Departure from Ga- la tz. — Landing at Matchin. — Fighting with Turks and Circassians. — Inspection of a Torpedo- launch. — A Visit to Matchin. — Preparation for the Second Crossing. — The Suite of an Emperor. — A Princely Escort. — Disappearance of the Commander-in-Chief .... 154 CHAPTER VIIL THE CR0S8INQ AT SIMNITZA. The Point of Passage. — Banks of the Danube at Simnitza and Sistova — General Dragomiroff's Plan. — The Turks on the Watch — Embarkation of General Yolchine's Troops.— The Passage opposed. — The Turkish Shell and Rifle Fire. — Russian Losses. — Landing of Yolchine's Brigade. — Tenacity of the Turkish Artillery.— Battle on the Slopes. — Appear- ance of a Turkish Monitor. — Continuance of the Crossing. — An Hour's Fight of a Monitor with Four Torpedo Launches . . . .191 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. THE ADVANCE INTO BULGARIA. Order of tlie Advance. — Negligent Outpost Service. — Sarejar Pavlo. — Plun- dering at Bjela. — The Simnitza Bridge. — From the Danube to the Jantra. — Bjela and its Bridge. — A Cross-Country Ride. — Misbehaviour of Russian Soldiers. — Climate of Bulgaria. — Riches of the Country. — Forbearance of the Turks . . . . . . . .214 CHAPTER X. RUSSIAN OCCUPATION OP TIRNOVA. Festive Reception of the Troops. — Tardiness of the Russian Movements. — The Three Armies of Operation. — Rustchuk, Nicopolis, Tirnova. — General Gourko's March on the Balkans. — His Line of Route. — Reported Russian Barbarities. — The Army of Rustchuk.— Impatience of the Officers. — Hassan Pacha of Nicopolis, and the Emperor. — A Scare at the Emperor's Head- Quarters. — Gourko beyond the Balkans . 240 CHAPTER XI. GENERiL QOURKO'S EXPEDITION. Passage of the Balkans. — The Roads and Scenery. — A Mountain Solitude. — Capture of Kezanlik. — Prince Mirsky's Repulse in the Shipka Pass. — General Gourko's Successful Attack. — Turkish Treachery. — Defeat of the Turks at Yeni Zagra. — Decisive Defeat of the Bulgarian Column by the Turks at Eski Zagra. — Retreat of General Gourko into the Shipka Pass. — Suleiman Pacha the new Turkish Commander in the Balkans 256 CHAPTER XII. THE FIRST CHECK AT PLEVNA. The "Army of Rustchuk." — Russian Train. — Officers. — A Reconnaissance on the Lorn. — An Unpleasant Position. — Baron Kriidener's First Attack on Plevna. — Carelessness of Russian Generals. — Preparations for a new- Attack. — A Ride through the Forepost Line. — General SkobeleflF. — A Council of War. — Types of Russian Officers 280 CHAPTER XIIL THE GREAT RUSSIAN REPULSE BEFORE PLEVNA. The Russian Forces and their Leaders. — The Bivouac on the Eve of Battle. — Faulty Dispositions of the Russian Army. — The Attack. — Capture of the First Turkish Position by Schahofskoy. — Its Recapture by the Turks. — Kriidener unable to Advance. — Disastrous Failure of the Attack. — Advance of the Turks. — The Bashi-Bazouks after the Battle. — Retreat of the Defeated Army ....... 303 VIU CCXTEXTS. CHAPTER XIV. SECOKD PERIOD OF THE CAMPAIGN IN ASIA. PAGE The Tarn of tlie Tide.— Defeat of General Tergukasoff at Eshek Khaliass. And of General Heimann at Zevin. — Retreat of the Russian Lefo Wing to Zeidikan and of the Centre towards Kars. — Mukhtar Pacha's Ad- vance. — Raising of the Siege of Kars. — The Kurds and Circassians. — Terrible Massacre at Bayazid. — Relief of the Bayazid Garrison by General Tergukasoff. — Battle at the Aladja Dagh. — A Turkish Joan of Arc 327 CHAPTER XV. THE RUSSIAN DEADLOCK. Survey of the Bulgarian Campaign. — The Russian Mistakes. — General Levitsky, Assistant Chief of the Staff. — The Russian Generals. — The Regimental Officers. — Apprehensions of a Second Campaign. — The Breech- Loading Rifle and the New Tactics. — Reconnaissance against Loftcha. — General Skobeleff under Fire. — Prospects of the Russians*. — A Bulgarian Winter. — Supply System of the Russian Army. — The Hospital Service. — The Military Situation in the Middle of August. — An unfortunate General. — The Reinforcements. — The Russian Supply System. — A Ride through the Positions. — Tirnova, Drenova, Gabrova. 349 CHAPTER XVI. THE FIGHTING IN THE SHIPKA PASS. Suleiman Pacha's Determined Attack. — Hurried March of Russian Rein- forcements. — The Shipka Position, its Strength and its Weakness.— The Bulgarian Legion under Fire. —The Russians all but Surrounded. — The Critical Moment. —Arrival of Russian Reinforcements. — The Rifle Brigade. — General Radetzky. — The Russians Resuming the Offen- sive. — A Fight in a Wood. — General Dragomiroft^. — Repulse of the Turks. — Anxiety at Head-Quarters. — The Aides-de-Camp Outstripped. — The Emperor and the Correspondent, — A Turkish View of the Fight- ing 406 CHAPTER XVir. THE THIRD ATTACK ON PLEVNA. Sortie by Osman Pacha in Force. — Capture of Loftcha by Imeretinsky and Skobeleff. — Dispositions for the Attack on Plevna. — The Four Days' Cannonade. — The Infautry Attack. — The Mameleon Redoubt South- East of Plevna. — Gallant Advance of the Russians. — Arrival of Turkish Reinforcements. — Repulse of the Russians. — Turkish Attack on the Radisovo Ridge. — Counter Attack by Kriidener and Kriloff and its Repulse — Skobeleff's Attack on the Double Redoubt on the Loftcha Road. — Capture of the Redoubt. — Six Turkish Attacks for its Re- covery. — The Redoubt Recaptured. — Skobeleff returning from the Battle. — Capture of the Grivica Redoubt by the Roumanians. — General Failure of the Third Russian Attack on Plevna . . . 43o CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XVIII. THE SECOND DEADLOCK IN BULGARIA. PAGE Tone of feeling at the Russian Head-Quarters. — The New Plan of Operations against Plevna. — Kriloffs Movement on the Turkish Line of Supply. — General Kriloffs Failure. — Entrance of Convoys into Plevna. — An Ex- pedition in the Black Sea. — Renewed Fighting in the Shipka Pass. — Great Attack by Suleiman Pacha. — Failure of the Turks and subsequent Panic in their Army. — The Russian Army of the Lom. — Retrograde Movement of the Czarewitch. — Battle of Cairkoi. — Retr-at and Dis- missal of Mehemet Ali Pacha. — A Reconnaissance of the Turkish Positions. — The Military Situation in Bulgaria.— Public Feeling at Constautiuople 490 CHAPTER XIX. CRISIS OP THE CAMPAIGN IN ASIA. The Camp of Mukhtar Pacha.— The Turkish Soldier at Prayer.— Two Notable Deserters. — The Russian Camp. — Arrival of Reinforcements. — The Battle of October 2nd.. — Ctipture of the Great Yagni. — Russian Mistakes. — Renewal of the Fighting. — Preparations for a Grand Attack. — General Lazareff's Great Flanking March. — The Field Telegiaph. — The Battle of Aladja Dagh. — Complete Overthrow and Flight of Mukh- tar Pacha. — Large Capture of Prisoners and Guns — Condition of Kars 535 CHAPTER XX. INVESTMENT OP PLEVNA AND FALL OF KARS. Arrival of the Guard before Plevna. — Completion of Divisions from the Reserve. — General Gourko on the Orkanieh-Plevna Road. — Capture of Gorny Dubnik, Teliche aud Dolny Dubnik. — Completion of the Invest- ment. — Osman Pacha's Position. — Turkish Pri&oner ot War. — Couui- f ticn of Kars. — Artillery Attack on the Fortress. — Capture of Fort Hafiz Pacha. — Summons to surrender. — Defiant Retusal. — Grand Assault on Kars. — Capture of the Fojtress and Garribou, Guns and Stores. — Rejoicings at Plevna . . . ' 5S9 CHROXOLOGT OF THE WAR. APRIL 24, TO NOVEMBER 18, 1877. Apr. 24, 1877. Russian declaration of war, and immediate entrance of tbe Czar's troops into Eoumania and Turkish Armenia. Apr. 25. Seizure of the Barbosch Bridge, and occupation of Galatz by a Russian division. Apr. 26. Abandonment of Bayazid to the Russians. Apr. 30. The Queen's proclamation of neutrality. May 1. Lord Derby's despatch to Lord A. Loftus, conveying disapproval of the war begun by Russia. May 6. Lord Derby's despatch to Count Schouvaloff, enumerating the British interests which the war might imperil. May 11. A Turkish three-masted turret-ship blown up near Braila, by a shell fired from a Russian battery. Serious repulse of the Russian Rion detachment by the Turks near Batoum. Bombardment by the Turks of towns on the Russian coast of the Black Sea. May 13. Capture of Sukhum Kaleh by a Turkish squadron, and landing of troops and Circassians in Great Abhasia. May 14. Great revolt of the Mussulman population in Trans- Caucasia. XU CHROXOLOGY OF THE WAR. May 17. Capture of Ardahan by assault. May 26. Destruction of a second Turkish monitor between Matchin and Braila by Russian officers with torpedoes. May 30. Reply of Prince GortschakofF to Lord Derby's letter of May 6 : *' the Russian Government will respect the British interests men- tioned by Lord Derby, as long as England remains neutral." June 2. Investment of Kars. June 8. Sudden evacuation of Olti b}^ the Russians. June 14. Investment of Bayazid by Faik Pacha. June 16. Battle of Taghir and defeat of the right wing of the Turkish Army in Asia. June 19. Surrender of 1,200 Cossacks to Faik Pacha at Bayazid, and instant slaughter of the whole body by Kurdish irregular troops. June 21. Battle of Eshki Khaliass and defeat of the left wing of the Russian Army in Asia. June 22. Passage of the Lower Danube by the Russians, and landing at Matchin. June 25. Defeat of the centre of the Russian Army in Asia at Zevin. June 27. P'-issage of the Danube by the main body of the Russian Army at Simnitza. July 2. Russian bridge completed at Sistova. Retreat of Russian Army in Asia to Kuruk-Dere. CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR. 31111 July 4. Occupation of Bjela by the Russians. Belief of Kars by Mukhtar Pasha. July 8. Capture of Tirnova by General Gourko. July 10. Relief of the garrison of Bayazid by General TergukasofF. July 14. General Gourko debouches into the Tundja Yalley beyond the Balkans. July 15. Capture of Nicopolis by the Russians. July 16. General Gourko defeats a Turkish force after a sharp engage- ment. July 17. General Gourko enters Kezanlik. July 18. General Gourko attacks the Shipka Pass in the rear. July 19. Occupation of the Pass by the Russians. Abdul Kerim Pacha, commander-in-chief of the Ottoman Army in Europe, dismissed. Mehemet Ali Pacha appointed his successor. General Kriidener, with part of the 9th Russian Corps attacks Plevna and is repulsed ; is attacked in turn and defeated. July 20. Sulieman Pacha at Adrianople with 20,000 regular troops. July 21. General Kriidener, having received reinforcements, renews his attack on Plevna, and is again defeated. July 28. Capture of Loftcha by Osman Pacha. July 30. Defeat of the Tarks by General Gourko at Yeni Zagra. XIV CHROXOLOGY OF THE WAR. July 31. Decisive defeat of the right wing of General Gourko's force at Eski Zagra. General Gourko, menaced by the whole force of Suleiman Pacha, returns to the Balkan Passes. The Russians, Tinder General Kriidener and Prince Schahofskoy, attack Osman Pacha at Plevna with 32,000 men, and are defeated with heavy loss. Aug. 2. Retreat of General Gourko into the Shipka Pass. Aug. 19, Suleiman Pacha occupies the village of Shipka. Aug. 21. Suleiman Pacha attacks the Russian position in the Shipka Pass, held by 3,000 men with 40 guns, but only gains the outer lines. Aug. 22. Repulse of a Turkish attack on Selvi. Aug. 23. Determined and prolonged attack on the Shipka Pass by Suleiman Pacha, which is repulsed late in the evening, when the Russians receive timely reinforcements. Turkish attack on Jaslar, retreat of the Russians to Sultankoi. Aug. 24. Renewed and desperate fighting. Aug. 25. Turkish attack on the Russian position near Kuruk Dere in Asia, with heavy loss on both sides. Passage of the Danube by the main body of the Roumanian Army. Aug. 27. Suleiman Pacha having failed to take the Shipka position, tele- graphs for reinforcements. Aug. 29. Turkish attack on Karahassankoi, the Russians driven over the Lom to Popkoi. Aug. 31. Osman Pacha, making a sortie from Plevna, is severely repulsed. CHRONOLOGY OF THK WAR. XV Sept. 3. Capture of Loftclia by General Prince Imeritlnsky. Sept. 5. The Russians defeated by Alimed Eyoub Paclia at Kaceljevo on the Lorn. Turkish attacks rapulsed at Ablava, and Popkoi. Sept. 7. A heavy fire opened upon Plevna from the Russian siege guns, and continued for four days. Sept. 11. Great infantry attack by the Rasso-Roumanian Army : capture of two redoubts by Skobeleff and of the Grivica redoubts by the Roumanians. Repulse of the attack at all other points with enormous loss. Sept. 12. Loss by Skobeleff of the two redoubts captured the day before. Sept. 17. Suleiman Pacha makes another desperate attack on the Russian position in the Shipka Pass, and telegraphs to Constantinople that he has taken Fort St. Nicholas. He is repulsed with great loss, and Fort St. Nicholas remains in Russian possession. Sept. 18. First detachment of the Russian guards passed through Bucharest to the front. Unsuccessful attempt of the Roumanians upon the second Giivica redoubt. Sept. 21. Mehemet Ali attacks the Russians near Cairkoi, and is de- feated. Sept. 22. Entry of Chefket Pacha's reinforcements and convoy into Plevna. Sept. 24. Mehemet All's retreat to the line of the Lorn. Oct. 2. Capture of the Great Yagni position by the Russians in Asia. Oct. 3. Mehemet Ali succeeded bv Suleiman Pacha. XVI CHKOXOLOGY OF THE T^'AR. Oct. 9. Bombardment of Sulina by tlie Eussians. Oct. 12. The bi-idge at Nicopolis carried away by a storm. Oct. 15. Great T)attle at Aladja Dagh between Kars and Alexandropol; overwhelming defeat of Mukhtar Pacha's Army, and large capture of guns and prisoners. Oct. 24. Capture of the Gorny Dubnik position on the Plevna- Orkanieh road, by General Gourko. Oct. 28. Capture of Teliche by the same. Oct. 31. Capture of Tetewen by the Russians. Nov. 1. Occupation by the Eussians of the Dolny Dubnik positions, from which the Turks had withdrawn during the previous night Nov. 4. The Deve-Boyun position before Erzeroum stormed by the Eussians, the Turks losing 42 guns. Nov. 5. Sortie of Turks from Kars, repulsed by the Eussians, and eight guns spiked in Fort Haliz Pacha. Nov. 8. Eussian attack on the outworks of Erzeroum. Nov. 9. Eetreat of the Eussians from the position gained before Erzeroum. Nov. 12. Second unsuccessful Eussian attack upon the forts before Erzeroum. Nov. 17-18. Kars carried by assault, 300 guns and 10,000 prisoners taken. THE WAR CORRESPONDENCE DAILY NEWS." LI 15 II A a V CHAPTER I. THE DIPLOMATIC PERIOD. UN 1 VKUSn V < ^ALIFOUNI The Insurrection in the Herzegovina — The Consular Commission — The Andrassy Note — The Berlin Memorandum — The Bulgarian Massacres — The Servian War — The Conference — The Protocol — The Russian Declaration of War — Lord Derby's Protest. On tlie 24tli of April, 1877, Prince Gortscliakoff addressed to Tavfek Bey, Turkisli Charge d'Affaires at St. Petersburg, a short note, in which was the following passage : — " The earnest negotiations between the Imperial Government and the Porte for a durable pacification of the East not having led to the desired accord, his Majesty, my august master, sees himself compelled, to his regret, to have recourse to force of arms. Be therefore so kind as to inform your Government that from to- day Russia considers herself in a state of war with the Porte." At the same time a Circular N'ote was addressed by the Chan- cellor of the Russian Empire to its Ambassadors at the prin- cipal courts of Europe, stating that, for reasons assigned, the Emperor had resolved to undertake that which he had invited the Great Powers to do in common with him, and had given his armies the order to cross the frontiers of Turkey. By this announcement the Emperor closed a memorable period of active and anxious negotiations between the Great Powers, which had extended over more than a year and a half. The insurrection in the Herzegovina and Bosnia, which had WAR CORRESPONDEXCE. )W- I on- I assumed serious proportions in July, 1875, liad led, in the follow ing montli, to tlie appointment by tlie Grreat Powers of a Con- sular Commission to inquire into the state of the disturbed districts of European Turkey ; a step which was met bj the Porte with a profuse issue of Pirmans and Proclamations full of admissions of shortcomings and promises of reform. These, however, failed to inspire the Sultan's revolted subjects with confidence, and the Austrian, Grerman, and Russian Governments agreed in declaring that the internal dis- orders of Turkey constituted a permanent source of danger to Europe, and resolved to take into their serious consideration the means of removing them. Their deliberations led to the preparation of a letter to the Porte, since known as the Andrassy IN'ote, in which the reforms rendered necessary by the condition of European Turkey w^ere set forth. The principal demands made in this Note were the establishment of complete religious liberty, the abolition of the system of farming the taxes, the granting of facilities to Christian agriculturists to acquire land, the application of direct taxes to local purposes, the indirect taxes going as before into the Imperial Exchequer, and the appointment of a mixed commission of Mussulmans and Christians to ensure the execution of these reforms. This Note, to which the assent of the English Government had been given, was presented on the 3rd day of January, 1876, and on the 13th of February the Porte issued a circular to the Powers agreeing to all the demands except that which limited the application of the direct taxes, promising, however, that a certain sum out of the Imperial revenue should be devoted to Bosnia and Herzego- vina. The insurgents were not, however; assured by the action of the Powers or the promises of the Porte, unguaranteed as were the latter by Europe, and the Note remained without effect. Bands of armed men from Montenegro and Servia crossed the Turkish frontier to aid the insurgents, and the Porte prepared to make war upon the former State, but desisted when its intentions became the subject of joint deliberation on the part of the Great Powers. At the beginning of May, 1876, the Governments of Germany, Austria, and Russia were deliberating upon the further steps necessary to be taken to obtain the pacification of TURKEY AXD THE GREAT POWERS. 8 th6 Christian provinces of Turkey, when an outbreak of Moslem fanaticism at Salonica resulted in the murder of the French and German consuls. The excitement spread to Constantinople, and Sir Henry Elliot, the Queen's ambassador to the Sultan, telegraphed for the English squadron to move to Besika Bay for the protection of the Christians. On the 13th of the same month Prince Bismarck, Count Andrassy, and Prince Gortscha- koff , who had assembled at Berlin, agreed upon a Memorandum on the affairs of Turkey. It pledged the Governments adhering to it, to urge the Sultan to execute the reforms suggested in the Andrassy ]S"ote, and to demand a suspension of hostilities for two months, and it concluded with the declaration that, if the armistice should fail to secure peace, " other and more effectual means " would be resorted to in order to prevent the develop- ment of the war. The Berlin Memorandum received the sup- port of Italy and France, but on the 19th of May Lord Derby informed the other Powers that the English Cabinet declined to agree to it. The French Government expressed their sur- prise and grief at this decision, and their opinion that the atti- tude of the English Government was a "public calamity." But before the five assenting Powers could act upon the Berlin Memorandum, the Sultan, Abdul Aziz, had been dethroned, and the diplomatic Note in w^hich it was to have been embodied was not presented at Constantinople. Early in May troubles, which seemed serious, were heard of in Bulgaria : but, on the 14th of that month, the Ottoman ambassador here received from the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, a telegram, informing him that, although in the dis- trict of Philippopolis disturbances had taken place, they were " far from having the importance which malevolence had tried to attribute to them, by representing them as forming a veritable Bulgarian insurrection," and that, the Government having taken " suitable measures " to suppress them, the dis- turbances were tending to subside. Gradually the facts con- cerning the massacres and outrages in Bulgaria became known, and four hundred public meetings were held in this country to protest against the Turkish atrocities. On the 6th of September Lord Derby wrote to Sir Henry Elliot that ''the outrages and B 2 4 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. ' excesses committed bj the Turkish troops " in Bulgaria W-^ roused a *' universal feeling of indignation in all classes ^^t English society," and that, " in the extreme case of Russia declaring war against Turkey, her Majesty's Grovernment w^ould find it practically impossible to interfere in defence of the Ottoman Empire." On the 21st of the same month Lord Derby directed Sir H. Elliot to demand an audience of the Sultan, and in the name of the Queen to denounce the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, and to call for justice on their perpetra- tors, and for reparation to be made to their surviving victims. At the beginning of July the Government of Servia com- menced hostilities against Turkey, but by the 24th of August it w^as reduced to ask for the mediation of the Six Powers ; Montenegro joined in the same request, to w^hich the Powers assented. On the 14th of September the Porte, objecting to any armistice, proposed six conditions of peace with Servia, and suspended its hostilities until the 25th of the same month. The Powers at ' once declared the Turkish terms to be inad- missible, and at the end of September hostilities were resumed, a large number of Russian volunteers coming to the aid of the Servians. But notwithstanding this foreign assistance, at the end of October, Alexinatz, the great stronghold of the Servians, fell into the power of the enemy. In the meantime diplomacy had not been inactive. On the 26th of September, Count Schouvaloff had informed Lord Derby that in the opinion of the Czar the misrule in Turkey could only be terminated by the interposition of foreign Powers. He proposed that Russian troops should occupy Bulgaria, that Austrian soldiers should be sent into Bosnia, and that the united fleets of the Powders should enter the Bosphorus, adding, however, that the Czar was willing to abandon the idea of military occu- pation if the naval demonstration should be considered sufficient by her Majesty's Grovemment. Lord Derby declined to support the plan of an armed demonstration, but proposed an armistice which Sir H. Elliot was instructed to press upon the Porte, being likewise directed in case of its rejection to leave Constantinople, *' as it would then be evident that all further exertions to save the Porte from ruin w^ould be useless." Lord V THE SERVIAN WAR. Derbj also proposed the meeting of a Conference as soon as tlie armistice should be agreed to. The Turkish Government replied by offering a six months' armistice, and by promulgating a scheme of reform for the whole Empire. The proposal of a six months' armistice was rejected by Russia supported by Italy, as a merely dilatory measure. The negotiations then lagged, until the Servian lines having been forced at Djunis, on the 30th of October, the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople demanded an armistice of six weeks, and an immediate suspen- sion of hostilities. To this demand the Porte gave its consent. Lord Derby's proposals, which were to serve as the basis for the deliberations of the proposed Conference, were the main- tenance of the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Em- pire, and the establishment of a system of local administrative autonomy. Early in l^ovember Lord A. Lof tus sent home an account of a remarkable interview which he had had with the Czar at Livadia. On this occasion his Majesty professed his extreme desire to preserve the good- will of England and " pledged his sacred word of honour, in the most serious and solemn manner, that he had no intention of acquiring Constantinople, and that if necessity should compel him to occupy a portion of Bulgaria it would only be provisionally, and until the peace and safety of the Christian population Avere secured.'* He earnestly requested the Ambassador to do his utmost to dispel the cloud of suspicion and distrust of Russia which had gathered in England. The next day Lord Derby telegraphed to Lord A. Loftus that his Majesty's assurances had been received by the Cabinet with the greatest satisfaction./ At Moscow on the 10th of November, the Czar made a speech in which he said he hoped the Conference would bring peace, but should it fail to do so, and should it prove that no such guarantees as were necessary for carrying out what the Christian Governments had a right to demand from the Porte could be obtained, he was determined " to act independently," convinced that the whole of Russia would respond to his summons should the honour of Russia require it. On the previous day Lord Beaconsfield had made a speech at the Guildhall, in which, after blaming Russia for O WAR CORRESPOIS'DENCE. rejecting the offer of a six montlis' armistice, lie said thatP tliough England's policy was peace, no country was so well prepared for war. The Czar's Moscow speech was supposed to be an answer to that of the English Premier, but erroneously, as it has since been established that when the Czar spoke he had no knowledge of what had been said by Lord Beaconsfield. On the 17th of October the Czar had given orders for the mobi- lization of six corps d'armee. The Conference proposed by the English Government was accepted by the Porte on the 20th of jN^ovember. The Powers appointed their delegates as follows : — Turkey was represented by Safvet Pacha and Edhem Pacha, the former of whom occupied the position of President, the Conference being held in the Turkish capital. The French delegates were Comte Francois de Bourgoing, the resident Ambassador, and the Comte de Chaudordy. Germany had but one representative. Baron Werther. Austria sent Count Zichy, the resident Am- bassador, and Baron Calice, Consul- General in Roumania ; Count Corti represented Italy, and General Ignatieff was deputed by Bussia, whilst the British delegates were Lord Salisbury and Sir Henry Elliot. The delegates of the Six Powders held a number of preliminary meetings, to which the Ottoman Plenipotentiaries were not invited, and in which they deliberated on the proposals which were to be subsequently made to the Porte. The last of these meetings was held on the 17th of December, and on the 21st of that month the Plenary Conferences began. In the preliminary meetings, the Rus- sian Ambassador surprised his colleagues by the facility with which he made one concession after another. The proposal to occupy Bulgaria with Russian troops was at once abandoned, and only reforms and guarantees were included in the scheme which w^as finally prepared for recommendation to the Porte. On the day before the opening of the Plenary Conferences Midjiat Pacha w^as raised to power, ^and when the Plenipotentiaries met, their deliberations were disturbed by salvoes of artillery ; these, they were informed by the representatives of the Porte, celebrated a new Constitution freely granted by the Sultan to all his sub- jects, and which would bring in a new era of peace and good THE CONFERENCE. 7 golvernment tHrougliout tlie empire. It soon appeared that thb Turkish, members of the Conference had instructions to resist all foreign interference with the affairs of Turkey, as both unnecessary and an encroachment upon the independence of the empire. The Pachas knew that the Powers were not agreed to coerce them. Count Andrassy, indeed, on seeing Loi d Derby's proposals for the Conference, had suggested that the Powers should first agree on their terms, and then impose them if the Porte refused; which, he said, " could easily be done by a naval demonstration at Constantinople." " Conditions dictated by a combined fleet at Constantinople would be accepted." But as early as the 22nd of December, Lord Derby had made known the decision of the English Cabinet not to use any kind of coercion if the Porte should decline the pro- posals of the Conference ; and on the 10th of January, 1877, when the attitude of the Turkish Government remained un- changed, he still objected to any kind of " ultimatum " being presented to the Porte. On the 18th of January, the Turkish Government having refused the minimized proposals of the Powers, the Conference broke up. The Porte now showed itself solicitous to make peace with Servia and Montenegro, so as to exclude further foreign inter- ference in the form of mediation ; as far as Servia was con- cerned, it was successful, while Montenegro held out for terms which were not acceptable at Constantinople. Prince Gortscha- koff informed Lord A. Loftus that he considered the result of the Conference to be an insult to Europe, and on the 31st of January issued a Circular despatch to the Great Powers, in- quiring what they severally meant to do under the circumstances. All, however, hesitated to take any immediate measures against the Porte. On the 17th of February Prince Bismarck thought that the time had not come for replying to the Russian Circular, and on the 19th Count Schouvaloff informed Lord Derby, on behalf of his Government, that if the other Powers abstained from further action, Russia must act by herself. Lord Derby said he understood what the Russian Government wanted was to secure an honourable retreat from its present position, and was told, by Prince Gortschakoff's orders, that Russia was ready 8 WAR COEEESPONDEXCE. for action but desired peace. Subsequently, Russia proposed tbat tbe Powers sbould unite to sign a public declaration setting forth, tbeir demands on Turkey, and after mucli negotiation such a document was drawn up. On the 31st of March a Protocol was signed in the Foreign Office bj the Ambassadors of Russia, Germany, Austria, France, and Italy, and by Lord Derby on behalf of our owtl Grovernment. In it the Powers re-affirmed their interest in the settlement of the difficulties in the Turkish provinces, and after announcing their intention to watch carefully over the manner in which the promises of the Ottoman Government were fulfilled, went on to declare that, should their hopes be again disappointed, they reserved to themselves the right " to consider, in common, as to the means best fitted to secure the well-being of the Christian population and the interests of the general peace." As if to show how little the different Powers believed in the efficacy of this proceeding, three of them made separate declarations before signing it. That of Lord Derby protested that, as regarded Eng- land, the Protocol should be null and void in the event of the non-attainment of the object proposed — i.e., reciprocal disarma- ment on the part of Russia and Turkey, and peace between them. Count Schouvaloff stipulated that Turkey should send a special envoy to Russia to treat of disarmament, and added that a renewal of such massacres as those in Bulgaria would of necessity stop demobilisation /whilst Count de Menabrea insisted that Italy should only be bound by the Protocol so long as the agreement which it established between all the Powers was maintained. The Porte was informed of the nature of the Pro- tocol the day after it was sigTied, and treated the w^hole trans- action as highly inimical to its interests. On the 6th of April, Prince Gortschakoff conveyed to Lord Derby his regret that the English separate declaration had been made knoTVTi to the Porte, which might be encouraged to resistance by its language, and stated further, that Russia would make no more concessions, and that, if the Porte should reply in unsatisfactory or evasive language, the time for military action would have arrived. The following letter from the Own Correspondent of the Daily News at Constantinople, dated April 5th, treats of the |L: THE PROTOCOL. 9 political situation immediately after tlie signature of the Protocol : — : : Amid the conflicting discussions concerning the Protocol between England and Russia, the great question of interest to the Christian populations of Turkey is — Are the Powers going to do anything to improve their condition ? So far as we can see at present, almost every other consideration has been carefully discussed but this. How to avoid war ; how to satisfy Austria ; how to baffle Russian designs, have all demanded attention and have obtained it. But, meantime, the primary, fundamental question of all seems to have been lost sight of — how to make the Turkish government a toler- able one for the majority of its subjects. Statesmen who live only from hand to mouth may be content to make arrange- ments for peace at any price in the hope that meantime some- thing will turn up to render their arrangements permanent ; but if they are only covering up a sore, they may have before long to deal with the old disease in a worse form. It seems as if the fact has been forgotten by the English Government that the reason the Eastern Question forces itself upon them is that Turkish oppression had passed the point of human endurance, and that nothing short of the lessening of that oppression can allay that question. The great design to which England seems to have been directing her energies is — not to lessen this oppression, still less to abolish it — but to get rid as soon as possible of the turmoil which has been occasioned by it. To quiet Russia, and above all to take care that she shall not attempt to coerce Turkey into better govern- ment, has apparently been the principal business of our Government during the last three weeks. But assume that Russia, knowing that England will never allow her, and properly so, to seize an acre of European Turkey, and with the fear of Germany and of Austria before her, consents to dis- band her army, and consents for the- hundredth time to trust the cause of the Christians of Turkey to the promises of the Turks — the Eastern Question is neither finished nor shelved for any considerable time. The results w^hich will have been gained are not such as are likely to be satisfactory to the great bulk of the English nation. Peace w^ill have been obtained, and may now be assumed to have been obtained for a short time ; but on the other side of the account will have to be placed, first, the fact that all the sources of the present troubles are still in existence, and are likely to be more fruit- ful of mischief in the future than in the past ; and, second, that Russia will have largely increased her prestige in Turkey, 10 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. while England will have lessened hers. Although war is avoided, all the causes of the recent internal troubles out of which the external ones have gTown remain. It w^ould be bad enough if this were all. The half-starved peasants of Herzegovina and Bosnia, even when subdued, are not likely to be better treated. The relations and friends of the murdered thousands in Bulgaria are not likely to be better subjects than they were a year ago. But unless England and Russia are prepared to do much more than the telegrams which have arrived would lead us to believe, the evils of the future are likely to be much w^orse than those of the past. For eighteen months Turkey has had no European loans upon which to draw. Her war expenditure has been so great that she is heavily in debt to every banker and merchant in the country. Many of her soldiers and public servants are eighteen months in arrears of pay. (xold is rapidly dis- appearing from the country, to be replaced by a paper cur- rency down to twopence. The expenditure of past years has been framed on the supposition that Turkey would be able to pay the interest on her debt and a portion of her expendi- ture out of borrowed capital. In order to float her paper money she has been compelled to allow a large portion of her taxes to be paid in this currency, so that with an expenditure greatly beyond that of former years she has a smaller revenue. To keep herself going she will therefore have to make still further drains upon an exhausted population. As before, this drain will fall most heavily on the Christian communities. It is impossible, therefore, not to conclude that from the financial position alone the situation of the population has become worse instead of better. But in addition, and worse than this, is the fact that the Turk has been induced to believe that he has beaten all Europe, and can do as he likes. From every part of the country at this moment are coming tales of disorder, lawlessness, and oppression. The Moslem population in Thessaly and Epirus believe that they have everything their own way, and are beginning to help them- selves to everything to which they take a fancy in the posses- sion of their Christian neighbours. The Govei'nment is entirely unable or unwilling to check the anarchy w^hich reigns in Bulgaria. Grangs of robbers are beginning to infest all the chief districts of Asia Minor, and in large towns, such as Smyrna, Europeans, as well as the respectable part of the population, have taken to carrying revolvers. The condition of Armenia I am able to show by some extracts from letters I received a day or two ago. Whether, with such a condition of things, the policy which CONDITION OF TURKEY. 11 has for its sole programme that of being the friend of the Turkish Grovernment, and neither coercing it nor allowing any other Power to coerce it into making reforms, is an expedient one, is easily answered. It is essentially the policy of weakness and folly, and, in the interests of England and of Turkey, the worst that could be adopted. It is far worse than the policy which prevailed in the time of the Crimean War. Under Lord Stratford de Redcliffe the Turks were told plainly that England meant to support them, I ut that the price of such support was a tolerably decent government. N'ow we are showing them that we are still their supporters, and that they may do as they like. What can the Turks think of the conduct of England, when, after writing a despatch like the famous one of Lord Derby's, demanding the trial and punishment of the leaders in the Bulgarian atrocities, England has taken no steps whatever to enforce the course she so emphatically enjoined ? What but that either England was either hypocritical when she so w rote, and never intended that her words should be regarded, or that Turkey is so strong, and England so bound by her own interests to support her, that she dare not move a step towards carrying out her wishes. During the time of the Great Elchee, the Turkish Government would have been compelled, by the representative of England, to have brought the Bulgarian murderers to punishment — would have been told that the price of England's support was obedience to England's dictation in such a matter. Now, thanks to the vacillation and weakness which have characterized the deal- ings of the English Government with Turkey during the past year, though England even succeeded in obtaining an agreement among the Powers represented at the Conference, she has left the impression upon the Turks that the country dare not do otherwise than support them, and that Turks may massacre Christians to any extent, so far as England is concerned, without any danger of .losing her friendship or support. The old policy of England ^as to support the Turk, as the ruler of this empire, without specially troubling about questions of internal government ; but the right of intervention, exercised vigorously, kept things tolerably straight, and prevented the most gross forms of outrage. The new policy appears to be to support Turkey and her oppressions, and neither to interfere ourselves nor allow any one else to interfere with the ill-treatment of the subject races. If this official reading of the Treaty of Paris be main- tained, then its principal effect is to condemn the Christian races to hopeless subjection j and as the negotiations, which 12 WAR CORRESPONDEKCE. our Government liave been mainly responsible for, have brought tbis doctrine of non-intervention for the benefit of tbe Christians most prominently into notice, we are to some extent liable for tbe position wbicb I bave maintained — tbat tbe signing of peace, without the taking of guarantees for good government, will make the situation of the Christians of the empire worse than it was two years ago. If Russia's object is to acquire Constantinople, and to that end to gain the sympathies of the Christian populations of Turkey, the situation for her is a satisfactory one. At the Conference she claimed good government and civil and religious equality for the Christians. Hers were the largest demands for reform — demands which history will say were not more than, in the justice of the case, ought to have been made on behalf of the Christians. Anxious to bring about these reforms by the help of Europe, she cut them down first to meet the wishes of England, and then piecemeal, so as, if possible, to ensure the assent of Turkey. When Turkey rejected what the united wisdom of Europe declared to be the minimum of reform which Turkey ought to concede, England refused to join with Russia in enforcing what were now as much England's demands as her own. Russia, still determined to insist upon them, though at a vast expense, increased her army, and made vast preparations for war. At every step she was checked by England, until at length finding that England would not only herself oppose, but would bring other nations to assist her, she consented to the present Protocol. Such, or something very much like it, will be the view which will be generally taken throughout Turkey of the history of the negotiations. Russia will still pose as the friend of the Christians ; England as their , enemy. Russia, thwarted at every step in her endeavours to secure justice for them, will have the sympathy which wise statesmanship at this rare opportunity could have obtained for England. Had we recognized the inevitable, that the Turks are disappearing, decreasing in numbers year by year, becoming poorer, side by side with Christians who are already richer, more intelligent, and better instructed than their Moslem neighbours, and who cannot be kept back except by massacre, who must become the inevitable future rulers of the country, we should have seen that the policy of England is to gain the support of the Christians, in order to keep Russia out of Turkey, and not to drive them into the arms of Russia. Once more we have missed a great opportunity. The hand-to- mouth policy is merely to prevent the outbreak of insurrec- REJECTION OF THE PROTOCOL BY TURKEY. 13 tion and hostilities, without caring to remove tlie causes whicb. cannot fail to reproduce insurrection. The states- manlike policy, even from the Russophobist point of view, is to do our utmost to make a strong nation on the Bos- phorus, and as that nation cannot be strong which has a majority of its own population hostile to the government, while the government itself is in the hands of an intel- lectually inferior race, such policy would indicate the ex- pediency of not throwing in our lot with the effete minority against the rising majority, but of insisting on reforms which, while they would do justice to the Christians, would also tend towards the substitution of a strong govern- ment for a weak one. On the 9th of April the Porte made its formal reply to the Protocol. It was a very angry rejection of that document, and was received by Lord Derby with a strong expression of regret. The Protocol was rejected with indignation, as " destitute of all equity ;" and the clause referring to possible ulterior measures was " a measure of intimidation calculated to deprive the acts of the Porte of any merit of spontaneity." Finally, the Ottoman Government declared that, " strong in the justice of her cause, and trusting in her God , Turkey had determined to ignore what had been decided without her and against her." A fortnight was allowed to elapse between the decisive reply of the Porte and the next move of the Russian Government, but on the 24th of April appeared " A Manifesto of the Emperor of Russia," addressed to his subjects. In this document the Emperor said, — " Our faithful and beloved subjects know the strong interest which we have constantly felt in the destinies of the oppressed Christian population of Turkey. Our desire to ameliorate and assure their lot has been shared by the whole Russian nation, which now shows itself ready to bear fresh sacrifices to alleviate the position of the Christians of the Balkan Peninsula. The blood and the property of our faithful sub- jects have always been dear to us, and our whole reign attests our constant solicitude to preserve to Russia the benefits of peace. This solicitude never failed to actuate us during the deplorable events which occurred in Herzegovina, Bosnia, and Bulgaria. Our object before all was to effect an amelioration in the position of the Christians in the East by means of 14 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. pacific negotiations, and in concert with tlie great European Powers, our allies and friends." After a brief summary of tlie disinterested measures wliicli liad been taken bj tbe Imperial Government, the Manifesto concluded, — " Having exhausted our pacific efforts, we are compelled by the haughty obstinacy of the Porte to proceed to more decisive acts. A feeling of equity and of our own dig-nity enjoins it. By her refusal Turkey places us under the necessity of having recourse to arms. Profoundly convinced of the justice of our cause, and humbly committing ourselves to the grace and help of the Most High, we make known to our faithful subjects that the moment foreseen, when we pronounced words to which all Russia responded with such complete unanimity, has now arrived. We expressed the intention to act independently when we should deem it necessary, and when Russia's honour should demand it. In now invoking the blessing of God upon our valiant armies, we give the order to cross the Turkish frontier." In a Circular Note to the Powders, bearing the same date, Prince Gortschakoff wrote that the rejection of the Protocol by the Porte, and the motives upon which that rejection w^as based, left no hope that the Porte would accede to the wishes and counsels of Europe, and excluded also every guarantee for the execution of the projected reforms for the improvement of the lot of the Christian population. The Emperor of Russia had therefore resolved to undertake that which his Majesty had invited the Great Powers to do in common with him, and had given his armies the order to cross the frontier of Turkey 5^ \ ^ Thus, then, Russia w^as committed to one of the greatest mili- tary enterprises she had ever undertaken. The English Govern- ment, however, while determined to remain neutral, except as its own interests might require, did not allow the allegations in the Circular of Prince Gortschakoff to pass unchallenged. In a despatch dated May 1st Lord Derby wTote that her Majesty's Government had received the information communicated to it with deep regret, and could not accept Prince Gortschakoff's statements and conclusions as justifying the resolution adopted. The Porte, though protesting against the Protocol, had again RUSSIAN DECLARATION OF WAR. 15 affirmed its intention of carrying out the promised reforms, and the British Government could not, therefore, admit that its answer had removed all hope of deference on its part to the wishes and advice of Europe. The despatch then referred to Prince Gortschakoff's assertion of the belief that Russia's action was in accordance with the sentiments and interests of Europe, and pointed out that it was a contravention of the Treaty of Paris (1856), by which Russia and the other signa- tory Powers each engaged to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Lord Derby further declared that the Czar had separated himself from the European concord hitherto maintained, that it was impossible to foresee the consequences of such an act, and that the British Government felt bound to state that the decision of the Czar was not one which could have their concurrence or approval. CHAPTER 11. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR, The Ottoman Araiy — Fortresses of the Danube — Turkish Line of Defence — Abdul Kerim, the Ottoman Oeneralissimo — The Russians at Kischeneflf' — Naval Power of Turkey — The Kussian Black Sea Fleet — The Emperor Alexander's Address to his Army — The Defences of Varna. The masters of armies had not been inactive while the diplo- matists were devising their " solutions " of the Eastern difficulty. The order for the mobilization of six corps of the Russian army preceded, as we have seen, by six months the actual declaration of war, and on the side of the Turks a correspond- ing and perhaps greater activity had been displayed. The following letters, from a Special Correspondent at Rustchuk, show what was being done and hoped for by the Turks in the few weeks before war was declared : — /^ Rustchuk, April 18th. — The Turks here are in high spirits, and think it a mere trifle to vanquish within a few weeks not only the Russians, but the w^hole of Europe. The miraculous victory of Djunis, after their previous despon- 16 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. dencT, lias impressed tliem witli tlie idea tliat tliej are enjoying tlie special protection of Allali and his prophet, who will place them on the pinnacle of glory and pro- sperity. Unless the Great Powers earnestly and unani- mously interfere and enforce peace, war will not fail to devastate the now flourishing fields of Bulgaria and Armenia. All the Turkish reserves in the Danubian pro- vinces have been called to the colours, and are, as fast as they arrive, incorporated in various regiments, filling up the gaps which disease and bullets have made in the ranks. This measure, if strictly carried out, will produce salutary efi^ects, inasmuch as the Roumelian Bashi-Bazouks, with the exception of some gangs of highwaymen and marauders, are likely to disappear. Only the horsemen, especially the terrible Circassians, about 30,000 strong, are to be allowed to follow their own fashions, in which they excel the most savage redskins : before them, anguish and horror ; after them, death, ruin, and despair. The health of the Turkish troops has very much improved since they camped under tents on the hills close to the entrench- ments, at which they are still arduously working. Seven redoubts, Avith a central fort on the uppermost crest, able to protect each other by cross-fire, crown the ridge of heights around Rustchuk towards the land side, and four others defend the plain, stretching along the river side behind the railway station. The parapets of these earthworks, however, are not yet completed, nor are they provided with palisades or other artificial impediments. The number of battalions has increased here already to 26, representing a total of about 18,000 combatants ; others arrive daily, or are on the way to Yarna from Constantinople. The Turks intend to concen- trate here gradually about 60,000 men, with the view to cross the Danube immediately after the declaration of war, and occupy Griurgevo. It is supposed that the Boumanians will offer no serious resistance, because they withdrew their troops from the banks and diminished the garrison to a few com- panies. The Commander-in-Chief, the Serdar Abdul Kerim Pacha, arrived here yesterday evening, coming from Varna, accom- panied by numerous staff officers. He is to proceed to Silistria and other fortified places, in order to inspect the various military positions actually held by the Ottoman troops. It appears that the Russians imagine themselves to be able to finish the struggle within a few weeks by throw- ing overwhelming forces into their enemy's country ; but this idea, practicable where solid roads and railways and thickly THE TURKISH ARMY. 17 sown towns and villages secure tlie supplies, is not easily realized in the Sultan's neglected dominions, where the Turks have already extorted everything the nnhappy inhabi- tants possess. It is of no nse employing large armies in places deprived of the means to sustain them. It is, more- over, obvious that no manoeuvinng of the best strategist in the world will dislodge the Turks from their strongholds on the Danube. Such a result is not to be obtained by storming with swarms of skirmishers, or in dense columns, the well defended parapets ; but only by the military engineers' patient labour, and the heavy artillery, both requiring time to do their work. So it would be, for instance, impossible to force the entrenched camp here, w^hen defended by, perhaps, 30,000 men, and assailed by 80,000 men, and the necessary artillery, in less than six weeks from the beginning of the siege, provided that the passage of the Danube had been previously efPected, and an hermetical blockade established around the whole position. The main task consists especially in conquering the Sary Bair Fort, on the summit of a range of hills. It must be attacked, on account of its deep ditch and scarps in masonry, in a regular way, through a system of trenches, batteries, and mines, until its battlements crumble into pieces, and the storming columns can advance without encountering more substantial impediments than the bodies of the defenders. This fort once taken, the surrender of the remaining entrenchments, and the city itself, would be only a question of days, because the work just mentioned looks over and dominates them all. Reckoning, therefore, from the moment of the declaration of war to that of the final occupation, and supposing that no other obstacles prevent the progress of the operations, at least three months will elapse. Besides this, the other principal fortresses, especially Widdin and Silistria, the strength of which is superior to that of Rustchuk, have to be besieged and taken before a serious attack could be directed against the Balkan line. The supposition that the Russians will employ, at the least, about six months in conquering the Lower Danube, appears not exaggerated. In this persuasion one is at a loss to understand their continual tanying ; notwithstanding that the season is favourable, no sign indicates a determined movement on the left bank of the Pruth. Nature is still favouring the Turks. They have, indeed, reasons to offer thanksgivings to the propitious Danube, as the Egyptians of old did to the Nile. The water was very high during the whole winter, and is still increasing, thus enabling men-of-war of considerable tonnage to cruise from the mouth 18 WAR CORRESPOXDEXC]^ of tlie river up to the Iron Gates, and to throw their shells with ease and effect over the Roumanian lowlands. A further im- portant hindrance consists in the difficulties against which the E/Ussians have to struggle before thej can have an opportunity to build their bridges and put the heavy pieces in position for protecting them, so long as the banks are overflowed to a wide extent, or remain in a swampy condition. A hundred buffaloes could not drag a big gun through the mud, unless a dyke for that purpose were constructed beforehand. Fresh troops arrive here continually — Turks, Kurds, Arabs, and Gipsies ; some of them remain in this fortress, others are conveyed by steamer to various other places on the Danube, denoting thus the Serdar's intention to cover the whole immense line with the 150,000 men actually at his disposal. Strategists of renow-n have a- maxim, that he who tries to cover everything, covers nothing. The troops are busy here arming the detached works with heavy breech-loading cannon. ^ RusTCHUK, April 'Zlst. — The Turkish Commander-in-Chief, Abdul Kerim Pacha, accompanied by the General in command of this fortress, Ahmed Pacha, gave on the 19th instant a mere glance at the w^ork of entrenching, started the same afternoon by steamer for Silistria, and returned hither yesterday morning. He will, it is said, proceed either to Shumla or to Widdin, pending instructions from the War Office, The Commander-in- Chief is a Turk of the good old time, about sixty-seven years old, with w^hite hair and beard, lively round brow^n eyes, and dark complexion. His jovial face and corpulent body do not at all indicate a soldier of nervous disposition, consumed by arduous activity and ambition, but one of passive energy, capable of stubborn resistance. To a man of his stamp, war does not seem to be a complicated game, wherein the lives of hundreds and thousands and the destinies of empires are at stake, but only a disagreeable incident of ordinary life, against w^hich dauntless courage and unshaken equanimity are the best remedies. So we must not expect a brilliant campaign and pitched battles from the Turks, but an obstinate resistance behind parapets and natural bulwarks. On the Russian side, the preparations for war had been carried on with much secrecy, and for months before the declaration of war, the most unfavourable rumours were current in Europe as to the health and organization of their troops. The head- quarters of the Army of the South, ' as that intended for the invasion of Turkey was styled, were at Kischeneff. THE OTTOMAN GENERALISSIMO. 19 t KisCHENEFF, April 17th. — I found Kischeneff a very different- looking place from what it was wlien I paid a visit here in February. Then we were still apparently in the middle of winter. The country was covered with snow, the air was sharp and frosty, the cold severe, and the streets covered with a solid pavement of frozen snow and mud, in lieu of a better. As the greater part of the army was distributed throughout the towns and villages of Bessarabia in comfortable winter quarters, comparatively few troops were seen here, although the place was full of officers, and the town of Kischeneff wore nearly its ordinary aspect of sleepy dulnesa. Now I find everything changed. In the first place, the country has exchanged its winter clothing of white for a summer costume of the freshest green ; and instead of the severe cold and bracing atmosphere of winter, we have the soft, perfumed air of welcome spring. I passed through a violent snow-storm in Moscow on my way to this place, and here I find the peach trees and plum trees already in bloom. There are the snow and ice of winter in St. Petersburg and Moscow ; the warm breath of summer here and in the Crimea. B/Ussia is an out- stretched giant, whose head is covered with Arctic snows, and whose feet are overgrown with summer flowers. Kischeneff besides is swarming with soldiers, who have been assembled for the grand review, and who are in part lodged in the town, and in pai*t camped in the fields outside the town, where the review is to be held. Kischeneff has put on its holiday attire, and a very gay attire it is. Decorations, Chinese lanterns, and transparencies with the letter "A," sur- mounted by the Imperial crown, abound in untold quantities, flags and streamers flying from the houses by the hundred, and by the thousand. The place is adorned, if not with flowers, at least with flags and ribbons that, flying in the wind and the brilliant sunshine, give this homely, ungainly, ill-looking Kischeneff the appearance of a bride on her wedding-day. And the people are all in a flurry of excitement and enthusiasm at the long-looked-for arrival of the Emperor, and the grand review, and the expected declaration of war — the greatest events ever known in the history of Kischeneff. I cannot imagine how people got it into their heads, as they seem to have done, that Bessarabia was only one great marsh, in which the Russian army was encamped, under conditions which insured something like its complete destruction by fever and other dreadful epidemics. I have never heard that the health of the people of Bessarabia was in such a fearful state, and it is certain that the health of the army has been C 2 20 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. exceptionally good all througli tlie winter, and. tliat tlie troops are now in excellent condition. Not more tlian tlie fourth of the beds provided in the hospitals that were established at the time the armj was mobilized have been used, and the fact is, as was natural under the circumstances, that the soldiers distributed throughout the villages of Bessarabia, lodged in warm, comfortable houses, well clothed and well fed, were in better health than when housed in barracks. There will undoubtedly be a great increase of sickness as soon as the army begins to move. The weather is still un- certain, and if a spell of rainy weather should set in, as is very possible, the roads for a couple of weeks will be very bad, and the health of the troops obliged to camp on the wet ground will undoubtedly suffer. But this cannot last more than two or three weeks, and by the time the army reaches the Danube the fine weather will have permanently set in, and the conditions under which the campaign will then pro- gTcss will be very favourable. The following letter from the resident Correspondent at Constantinople presents an estimate of the forces of Russia and Turkey formed on the eve of war : — : : Constantinople, April Vltli. — People here are carefully count- ing up the forces which can be brought together in hostility, and the preparations which have been made on both sides for attack and defence. It is noted that, if the Russians possess an overwhelming force with which to take the field, Turkey has the superiority at sea, and the Turks hope much from attacks upon the southern shores of Russia. As far as can be understood from the disposition of her forces, Russia intends to attack the Ottoman Empire simultaneously in Europe and Asia, whilst the Turks will endeavour to hold their own on land, and create a diversion in their favour by means of the fleet, which will attack the fortified ports along the Russian shore, and harass the enemy in every manner possible. Russia, as well as Turkey, has had to think of defensive measures, though hardly from fear of invasion. All through the winter she has been steadily at work along the Black Sea shores building forts, throwing up earthworks, laying down torpedoes, and training men to the use of submarine weapons. The Russians are trusting to torpedoes and heavy guns, and hope the dread which the former inspire will keep the Ttirkish commanders from venturing with their vessels too near the shore. THE OPPOSING FORCES. 21 The first question for tlie Russians after a declaration of war will be, how to overcome Turkey's first line of defence ; in fact, liow to cross the Danube. Turkey possesses a strong flotilla of armoured gunboats on the river, which, if properly handled, ought to considerably impede any operations carried on for the purpose of constructing a bridge, and to inflict great loss by shelling the enemy from a distance. These vessels will also facilitate the landing of Turkish troops on the Roumanian shore, should it be decided to have a trial of strength on what may be termed enemy's territory, in a fight with the Russian advance guard. The difficulty of crossing the river owing to these gunboats has not been under-estimated by the Russian Government, and with a view of paralyzing their action, and protecting the operations for throwing over a bridge, a number of small torpedo boats have been added to the equip- ment of the invading army. These boats are steam launches about thirty feet long, constructed, with the exception of one, which is of steel, of thin iron plating. They are fitted with engines of 8-horse power and possess great speed. Being specially built with a view to transport by rail, they are ex- ceedingly light for their size, and do not weigh, with their engines and fittings all complete, more than 3j tons. They will probably be fitted with the spar torpedo, and the crews will trust to their speed to carry them alongside an enemy's gunboat and away from it again, before the Turks will have sufficiently recovered their presence of mind to point a gun correctly or even fire one. As a protection against rifle-fire, these boats carry shields at each end, but there is nothing to prevent their being sunk by the fire of a great gun. Well manoeuvred, under the command of bold and enterprising officers, these launches might become very dangerous to the Turks, and, in any case, are likely to prove a valuable auxi- liary force, as they may be used amongst other purposes for carrying over the advance guard. Once at the river, the Russian army will be delayed until the bridge is constructed for the passage of the main body. Materials for a bridge have been collected in abundance at the town of Ismail, on the Kilia branch of the delta, and include both pontoons and boats, as well as the necessary timber. All these, however, will have to be transported to the point fixed upon for attempting the passage, and here again the Turkish gunboats will come into play unless the torpedo boats can drive them away. The Russians, apparently, are feeling their naval inferiority, and would like to get a few larger craft than these launches on the Danube. They have a number of heavily armed gunboats at Nicholaieff all prepared, and ready for sea at a moment's 22 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE. notice. It is probably tbe intention of tbe Russian Govern- ment to try and slip them into one of the months of the Danube immediately it is decided to send the declaration of war. Should this design be carried ont it would materially alter the state of affairs ; but the Turks are taking their measures in time, and to-day a well-chosen squadron of small ironclads has left for the north, with orders to keep the strictest and closest w^atch possible over the delta. This squadron, which is under the command of Mustapha Pacha, consists of two heavily armoured iron corvettes, splendid craft in their way, mounting guns of the heaviest description, 12-^- ton muzzle-loading Armstrongs, in a battery so arranged as to admit of a fire being delivered almost in a line with the keel. These craft are the MuJcademieh Hhair, or Happy Beginning, and the Fethi Bidend, or Grreat Victory, and in addition to them are the Hiftzi Rahman, or Divine Protector, and the Lutfi-Djelil, twin screw ironclad sea-going turret vessels, carrying each of them four 150-pounder Armstrong guns. For the moment, then, this is the naval force outside the river, and now a few words may be said about the squadron in- side, which is under the command of Mustapha Pacha, an officer who has generally obtained credit for energy. The squadron on the river consists of some seven armoured gun- boats and a few^ small wooden steam vessels armed with light guns. The ironclad gunboats are all about 115 feet in length, carry each of them two breech-loading Armstrong guns (80- pounders) in a battery placed on the fore part of the deck, and are protected with 2-inch armour. The remaining two are of very superior construction, carrying their two guns (80-pounder Krupps) in a turret placed forward. They were built at Constantinople, and only launched a few months ago, and are now on their way to join the force under Mustapha Pacha, in company with the squadron which sailed yesterday. The armour of these boats is sufficient to prevent the penetration of projectiles from field pieces, and they will be able, therefore, to move up and down the river, delivering a galling fire at any point almost wdth impunity, unless the measures taken by the Russians to destroy them or keep them at a distance prove successful. I^othing is known as to w^hether the Roumanian authorities have connived at the placing of torpedoes in the river on the part of the Russians, though doubtless the latter wdll have thought of it, seeing how much the Federal gunboats were hampered in the southern rivers during the great war in America by the torpedoes placed by the Confederates. The Turks at one time thought of having 'I DISPOSITION OF THE TURKISH TROOPS. 23 recourse to these weapons, and placing tliem at every point on the Danube at all suitable for crossing, bnt there is reason to believe the idea has been abandoned. The Russian troops are concentrated at Kischeneff, and in view of the great superiority of force on their side, the in- vading army will probably attempt to cross the Danube at two points. Let us examine, then, the disposition of the Turkish troops made to receive them. The numerical strength of the Turkish army, as I have before explained, has been greatly overstated, purposely so on the part of the authorities, and by the European press almost of necessity, from there being few other sources of information on the subject than the * local newspapers. From one of the best authorities, how- ever, I gather that the whole force for the defence of the Danube cannot possibly exceed 100,000 men, in addition to a force of 34,000 south of the Balkans, between Nisch and Sophia. These troops but a very short time ago were distri- buted between the various fortresses on the river, half the force stationed in about equal numbers at Silistria and Rust- chuk ; and the remainder, with the exception of a small reserve force at Shumla, concentrated at Widdin. The Turks have made the mistake, according to the best military authorities on the subject, of attempting too great a line of defence. They will be too weak to offer a successful resist- ance at any point where the Russians may attempt to cross. The bulk of the Turkish army will be shut up within fortresses which the Russians will only blockade, and not regularly besiege. There will thus be nothing to stop the march of the invaders to the plains south of the Balkans, and it may be to the gates of Constantinople. As far as one can judge, the Turks have an idea of commencing resistance before the Russians shall have reached the Danube, of fight- ing a battle on Roumanian soil, for it has been given out that the moment the advance guard of the Russians reach the Pruth the Turks will cross over in face of Silistria and intrench themselves at Kalarash ; whilst the army at Widdin will also take the offensive. The fortresses on the Danube have been repaired lately, and a few new earthworks erected at Silistria, Widdin, and Rustchuk, as well as at one or two places in the Dobrudscha. Their armament has been changed, within the last few months, and most of the batteries on the Danube now mount Krupp guns of considerable calibre. The best chance for the Turks, according to foreign military authorities, would be to let the Russians cross over, while they themselves concentrated all efforts on the defence of the Balkans ; but in their pride the Turks will not believe in the 24 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. possibility of tlie enemy ever reacliing the passes, and so there is reason to imagine that not so much attention has been given to the gates of the R-onmelian plains as, from a Turkish point of view, ought to have been given. E/eturning to the Black Sea, the same necessity does not exist for the Turks to defend their ports as is imposed upon Russia, owing to the former having the command of the Black Sea. They have a fine ironclad fleet, sufficient in number, possibly, when supplemented with their wooden vessels, to blockade, if necessary, the whole of the Russian coast. Properly watched, not a vessel ought to be allowed to escape out of a Russian port ; and though there is a fine fleet of merchant steamers at its disposal, the Turks ought to be able to prevent the Russian Government from sending any supplies to its various corps d'armee except overland. With enemy's vessels stationed here and there, and a squadron of fast- steaming ironclads sweeping round the shore, threatening the sea-coast towns, attacking the fortified posts, and destroy- ing the Government depots, as the Turks if they understand the value of their fleet will certainly do, the Russians will have to retain considerable forces in the south for their own defence. Recent intelligence from Odessa declares that tho army destined for this work consists of at least 270,000 men, of w^hich 200,000 at the present time are in quarters near that town, the remainder being distributed in detachments along the shore to the northward and eastward, as far as the main- land on the other side of the Crimea. This is a large force certainly, but ships have the advantage, in the present day, of steam, and can move about with far greater celerity than troops. Feints and threatened attacks upon certain positions with small portions of the fleet will serve to draw off the troops from other places whilst the main body of war vessels is preparing for a descent upon the towns thus left only partially defended. This is the sort of work which would be undertaken by a British fleet in similar circumstances, and the Turks are supposed to have studied in the same school. They possess amongst the vessels of the ironclad fleet just the sort of craft to suit a dashing commander — vessels of light draught, heavily armoured, mounting guns of large calibre, and steaming well. Two of the vessels in question, as previ- ously mentioned, have already left for the mouth of the Danube, and there are two others of precisely the same de- scription lying at Batoum, the Avni 'Illah and Mouni Zaffir. In addition to these vessels there are four other armoured corvettes, called respectively the IdjlalieJi, Athar TefyJ:, Athar Shefket, and Nedjim Shefket, which carry on the THE OTTOMAN NAVY. 25 average eight lieavj guns eacb., two of wliicli, as a rule, are mounted on revolving platforms on tlie upper decks, for the delivery of " all-round fire." These ships, lying off a battery end on, could pour in a very destructive fire against a battery or other object as a target, whilst from their small size and absence of heavy masts and sailing gear they would present but a very small mark for the enemy. These eight vessels do not form the whole of the strength of the ironclad fleet, as there are lying at the present moment at the mouth of the Bosphorus five large broadside ironclad frigates, one of which is one of the most formidable vessels of her class afloat. She is called the Messoudieh, and having left the building-yard of the Thames Ironworks Company only within the last two years, has had every recent improvement, and is even a finer vessel than our own Sultan^ which she closely resembles. She is protected by a belt of 14-inch armour, and carries fourteen 124 -ton guns, with two indented ports on either side, for firing fore and aft. The guns are protected by armour-plated bulk- heads, and a double bottom ; division into watertight com- partments reduces considerably the risk of her total destruc- tion by the explosion of the enemy's torpedoes. Unfortunately, she consumes an enormous quantity of coal, and so is hardly the ship for such active operations as I have sketched, though she would answer admirably for an attack upon a fortress or the blockade of a port. Another vessel of precisely the same description and size is expected shortly from England ; she is called the Haynidie, in compliment to the Sultan ; and as there are now but a very few thousand pounds to be paid to complete the contract price, she will probably be delivered into the hands of the Turkish authorities in a few days. The four other ironclad frigates I have mentioned are of an old type, and only protected by plates of 4|^ inches in thickness. They are the Mahmoudieh (now stationed at Batoum), the Azizieh, the OrcJianieh, and Osmanieh. They carry each of them sixteen heavy Armstrong muzzle-loaders, and possess very good steaming qualities. The whole strength of the Ottoman navy consists of fifteen ironclads, five wooden steam frigates, eleven wooden corvettes, two wooden gun vessels, and eleven gunboats, of which seven are armoured, and form the Danube flotilla previously described. There are thirteen large transports, six fast despatch vessels, and two Imperial yachts, besides a number of small steamers and wooden hulks. The official report places the total number of vessels of all descrip- tions at 132, manned by some 18,292 officers, seamen, and marines. Turkey, then, has, numerically speaking, one of the finest fleets in the world, and this naval force in other respects 26 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. also is now not so deficient as it was some montlis ago. The sliips are fully manned, armed, and provisioned. The captains handle their vessels fairly, and the crews work the gnns in a smart manner. The weak point of the fleet is in manoeu^a^ing together, but this would only tell in an action with an enemy of anything like equal force, and need enter into no calcula- tion ^nth regard to operations against the enemy's coasts, for there it is rather judgment in placing the vessels for attack, and cool courage and endurance on the part of the officers and men, which are required. The K/Ussian navy cannot compare favourably with the Turkish, for though their official list contains the names of a large number of ironclads, by far the greater portion of them are small turret vessels and monitors, designed for coast defence, and hardly fit for a voyage to the Mediterranean. They have five large frigates, it is true, but there is not one of them to be compared to the Messoudieh ; and in all probability any one of the Turkish corvettes of the Fethi Bulend class would be a match for a Russian ironclad frigate. According to the list in question there are five frigates, one of which is building — one breastwork monitor building, three sea-going batteries, seven turret vessels, ten monitors, and two Popoffkas (circular ironclads). At the present moment the Russians have but one ironclad in the Mediterranean, two wooden frigates, and two gunboats. In case of war, however, this force would doubtless receive considerable additions, not with a view of giving battle to the Turkish fleet, but in order to draw off some of the ironclads from the Black Sea, and thus afford a better chance for the transports to move about. The Turks, in fact, will have to send some vessels to the Mediterranean in order to protect their own transports and merchant steamers, amongst which may be classed the Egyptian mail vessels, as they will of course acquire an enemy's character as far as Russia is concerned, from Egypt's connection with the Otto- man Empire. It has been proposed to divide the fleet into two portions, the one to consist of all the large broadside ironclads, together with a couple of wooden frigates, and a cor- vette or so, and the other of all the armoured corvettes and smaller ironclads ; the first to cruise in the Levant, with the Dardanelles as headquarters, and the other to operate under the command of Hobart Pacha in the Black Sea. It is not likely that the Russian fleet will attempt to meet the Turkish, though if they could do so, and accomplish a victory, there would then be nothing much to prevent their forcing the Dardanelles and appearing at Constantinople. It is true that there are some very respectable forts about the narrows of the THE FORTS OF THE DARDANELLES. 25 Dardanelles, built upon modern principles, and mounting Krupp guns of heavy calibre ; but the American war showed plainly enough that batteries alone would never stop iron- clads. During that memorable struggle the Federal vessels ran past batteries designed to protect channels, with great success on several occasions, and even set the torpedoes at defiance. The forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles are not of much account, being of somewhat ancient type, and though con- structed of masonry, would soon be knocked to pieces by the fire of modern artillery. These batteries contain no very heavy guns, most of the pieces being smooth-bores of an old pattern ; and though of late a few Krupp guns have been added there is nothing which would do much damage to an ironclad passing at a distance. From the entrance to the narrov*s there is nothing in the way of defences ; but here two well planned and constructed forts, the one called the Namazieh battery, at Kilid Bahar, and the other, the Medjidieh, a little to the northward of the town of Chanak, can deliver a cross fire that would make it very warm for a few minutes for any vessels attempting to pass against the will of the Turks. In Fort Medjidieh there are two 12-|-ton Armstrong guns, besides some ten 15-centimetre Krupp guns. The Namazieh battery's armament, too, is very heavy, consisting as it does of some eight 22-centimetre Krupps, These are the strongest forts about the Dardanelles, and the only ones likely to inflict much damage upon a hostile fleet, although there are three others which would still have to be passed. One of them, like the Namazieh, is of modem construction, and mounts a few Krupps of small calibre ; but the others are like those at the entrance, and not much to be feared. The forts of the Bos- phorus are in much the same condition as those of the Darda- nelles. From the Black Sea to the two Kavaks, although there is a battery on almost every point on either side, no great damage could be inflicted upon ironclads forcing a pas- sage, as their armament is not of much value. At the two Kavaks, however, where the channel of the Bosphorus begins to narrow, is a very formidable array of batteries, well arranged for cross fire. "Two of them are of quite recent construction, and mount fourteen very heavy Krupp guns each, quite capable of piercing the armour- plating of most ironclads. As far as torpedoes are concerned, the Turks do not appear to have done much, although the Imperial arsenal at Tophaneh has turned out within the last four months a number of large cases intended for submarine mines. It is said that a number have been placed both in the Bosphorus and at the Darda- nelles, and a notice was issued some time ago respecting tor- 28 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE. pedoes at Batoum. The torpedoes used bj Turkey consist of large iron cases cylindrical in shape, filled with some 1,000 lb. of large grain powder, and so arranged as to float within thirty-five feet of the surface of the water. They are intended to be fired by electricity from the shore. With regard to the defences of the toTsnis along the southern shore of the Black Sea, the Turks are behindhand, as it is only at Batoum that the batteries are in anything like an efficient condition. At Trebizond there is nothing, and this large town, the most important as far as commerce is con- cerned along the w^hole southern shore, the port of Erzeroum, and the landing place of goods for the Persian market, is completely at the mercy of any bold naval commander who with a ship or two, even armed merchant steamers, can manage to sJip past the Turkish fleet. At Sinope batteries for the defence of the harbour have been in the course of construction for years past. They were so far from complete, however, in February last, that not a single gun could be mounted, and it is not likely that they will be finished for months yet. The positions of the batteries have been well chosen with regard to cross fire, and every part of the harbour is well commanded. Batoum is the point to which the Turks have given their greatest attention, for they know how ardently the Russians covet its possession. Lying close to the Russian frontier, it presents such a tempting prize that to acquire it alone the Russians might almost risk a war. It is undoubtedly the natural port of the Caucasus, for there is no other harbour for miles around where vessels can lie in all weathers. Under ordinary circumstances the place presents much more the appearance of a Russian seaport than a Turkish harbour, for, as a rule, there are seven or eight Russian steamers always lying in the port. All goods for the Caucasus have to be transhipped at Batoum into small steamers to be taken inside the bar of the river at Poti, and it is naturally very galling to the Russians that the place should be in the hands of the Turks. Not many years ago they offered a very large sum for its cession, but the Turks would not entertain the proposal to sell it, so the idea was taken up of creating a port at Poti. Vast sums of money have already been spent, and still the moles of Poti are not complete, as each succeeding winter destroys a large portion of the summer's work. The defences of Batoum consist of a battery on the point, mounting 25 guns of various calibre, ranging from 12 to 22-centimetre Krupps, and two other smaller earthworks arranged to fire across the bay. The one to the northward mounts four guns, 15 and 22- THE ASIATIC FRONTIEK. 29 centimetre Krupps, whilst the one at the head of the bay is armed with seven, three of which, however, are smooth-bores of heavy calibre. Although the defences of Batonm seaward are formidable enough, no provision has been made for its protection against an attack in the rear. The Russians would have, however, a tremendous task to come down upon Batoum from behind, for there are high mountain ranges and thick forests to be traversed, and numerous streams to be passed, necessitating months of pioneer work before the army could advance. There is another approach to Batoum, however, from the northward, and if the Russians had the command of the Black Sea it would not be very difficult to capture the place by advancing with a sufficient force from Poti. The extensive plain of Poti is terminated by a spur from the mountain chain at a point about half-way between that town and Batoum. Here at this place, which is called Tsikinzir, the Turks have thrown up a number of redoubts, and armed them with 24-pounder howitzers and mountain guns of small calibre. Their position is, in fact, exceedingly strong, and the redoubts could not be carried but at a great sacrifice of men, for not only would the invading army have to face their fire, but in advancing they would also be exposed to the fire of the Turkish squadron stationed at Batoum for its pro- tection. The Turkish troops at Batoum at the present moment amount to something like 12,000 men, but pre- parations have been made for enrolling the Circassians as light cavalry, so that in case of need a very large auxihary force can be added. It is quite likely that the Turks will, in the event of war, advance upon Poti, resting their left wing upon the fleet. There are no difficulties in the way, as the intervening streams are all fordable and the distance not great. By capturing Poti the Turks could inflict a heavy blow, as the railway to Tiflis would be in their hands, and they could destroy it as well as the harbour works. For the defence of Poti, three earthwork batteries have been thrown up, one near the southern mole mounting four large Krupp guns, another a little south of it mounting two Krupps and twenty mortars, and a third four Krupps and thirty mortars. There is also a long intrenchment for riflemen, and a few torpedoes have been laid down as a " scare" for the Turkish ships. The Russian troops for the invasion of Asiatic Turkey are concentrated at Alexandropol, a large town on the fron- tier, but a very few hours' march from Kars. They are said to have something like 150,000 men, with all the transport arrangements ready for making an advance. Kars is now very strongly fortified, new batteries having been constructed. 30 WAR COREESPOXDENCE. I'rom Poti round to the Crimea tliere are a few small fortified posts, as at Anapa, Suklium Kaleh, and Redout Kaleli ; but thej would offer very slight opposition to the Turkish fleet, as the guns are of no great calibre, and the Russians are trusting not so much to driving off the ironclads with a heavy fire, as to giving a warm reception to any landing parties by having detachments of Cossacks stationed along the coasts, assisted by batteries of light field pieces. It is said also that a very large number of torpedoes have been laid down along the coast, some of them far out at sea. How much has been really done in this way can hardly be known, except to the Russian officers immediately concerned, as the successful use of submarine weapons depends more than any- thing else upon the secrecy with which the operations have been conducted. One thing, however, is known for certain, that the Russians throughout the winter have been most actively employed in manufacturing torpedoes in the arsenal at Nicholaieff, and that a great number have already been laid down in the harbour of Odessa, and the estuary of the Bug River. Odessa is naturally the point to which the greatest attention has been given by the Russian authorities, for they have there so much to lose. It is their great commercial port in the Black Sea, and vast sums of money have been spent upon harbour works. Batteries have been constructed all round the bay, but according to the best judges their sites might have been better chosen, for it is quite possible, under existing circumstances, for a hostile ship to enter the bay and shell the town without being exposed herself to the fire of more than two batteries. Some of the earthworks might even be enfiladed by taking up positions close to the shore, and the depth of the water will allow of the approach of vessels up to a draught of 25 feet. About 70 guns, large and small, are in position, and probably some 400 torpedoes have been placed in the bay. The latest addition to the defence is a battery of light guns on the outer mole intended for the protection of the inner lines of torpedoes. Some of the batteries are placed on the top of the cliff, and others about halfway down. It is said that some of the torpedoes have been laid down as far out at sea as five miles, but if so they are far beyond the range of any of the batteries, and might either be picked up or destroyed by an adventurous enemy not afraid to risk his mem Towards the end of the American war the Federals became so used to the work that they regularly swept the rivers, and picked up hundreds of the Confederate torpedoes with, comparatively speaking, little loss in the way of men. It is true that the torpedoes of that date were ^mr- TORPEDO DEFENCES. 31 different from those of the present day, in that their ex- plosion depended upon mechanical action, and not upon electricity. The necessity for the employment of conducting cables renders it easier, however, to destroy electrical tor- pedoes, as by creeping with grapnels from boats it is possible to pick up the wires, and when once the latter are cut the mine is useless. The boats naturally run the risk of being destroyed, as the torpedoes being laid down in groups and lines " en echelon," they must at times be hovering over some one or other of them ; but then a torpedo can be used but once, and if fired for the destruction of a boat, a gap will be formed for the passage of the ships. Nicholaieff, where the Russians have their arsenal, is most strongly defended by torpedoes. From the estuary to the town the whole channel is mined, and there is little probability of the Turks attempting to force a passage. The Russian torpedoes are made of thin sheet copper, filled with dynamite, and are to be fired by electricity from the shore. They have been laid down off all the seacoast towns, and the Straits of Kertch are full of them, for the Russians have a lively recollection of what was done by our gunboats round the shores of the Azof during the Crimean war. So far I have spoken of the Turks only as acting upon the offensive in the Black Sea, but it is quite possible that the Russians, who have many enterprising ofi&cers in their navy, will in their turn try to do what injury they can to the Turks by sea. They have in the fleet of the Black Sea Na^agation Company some very fast steamers, which, slipping out of the blockaded ports at night, might run past the Turkish fleet and capture or destroy the Turkish transports. They are all at the disposal of the Government, and most of the officers have served in the navy. Armed with one or two breech- loading rifled guns, and fitted with the Harvey torpedo, they would make famous cruisers for any sort of work, short of encountering regularly armed men-of-war. There is reason to believe that both at Odessa and in the mouth of the Bug River, as well as at Kertch, the Russians have small torpedo boats, intended to operate against blockading ships, and there is little doubt but that this war, if it take place, will exhibit a new phase of torpedo warfare. Before concluding, it should be said that one great advantage possessed by the Turks, which will facilitate considerably the intended operations of their fleet in the Black Sea, is the coal mines of Heraclea. An abundant supply of this most necessary material can be easily obtained, as the distance from any part of the Black Sea to the port of shipment is inconsiderable. 32 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE. Sncli, so far as I can learn, are tlie means of offence and defence possessed by tlie two Powers now face to face witli each other. I have limited myself to giving facts. Those w^ho have followed the course of Turkish history for the last twelve months, or even years, will have little doubt on which side their sympathy ought to lie. War having been declared, and the E/Ussian military prepara- tions having, as was supposed, been completed, the Emperor Alexander had only to give the word to his troops to cross the frontier. This he did in person and in a somewhat imperial manner at Kischenelf, on the 24th of April. t KisCHENEFF, AjjtU 2Brd.- — The Emperor reviewed the troops yesterday (Sunday) at Zineringra and Birzala. After the review he addressed the troops in a speech, in w^hich he said : " I have done everything in my powder to avoid w^ar and bloodshed. Nobody can say we have not been patient, or that the war has been of our seeking. We have practised patience to the last degree, but there comes a time when even patience must end. When that time comes I know that the young Russian army of to-day will not show itself unworthy of the fame which the old army w^on in days gone by." The excitement and enthusiasm of the soldiers were very great. The Emperor passed through here to-day without stopping, on his way to Ungheni, w^hich is situated on the frontier where the railway crosses the Pruth. He will review the troops there, and return here to-night. He is accompanied by the Grand Duke Nicholas and the staff which w^ent yesterday to meet him at Tiraspol, where he passed the night. He is, besides, accompanied by the Czarewitch, Greneral Ignatieff*, M. Milutin, the Minister of War, and many other dignitaries of the Empire. There are great preparations here for the reception of his Majesty at the grand review, which will probably be held the day after to-morrow. There is no con- siderable movement of troops towards the frontier yet, except light cavalry and Cossacks. The weather is fine, and the roads are rapidly drying. According to all appearances, they wall be in very good condition within a week. The enthu- siasm here is immense. The feeling is real, deep, and universal after a long period of suspense, which has been far more trying than an actual state of war. April 2htli. — The Emperor passed through Kischeneff on Monday morning, but without stopping, as he was on his w^ay to A RUSSIAN MILITARY SPECTACLE. 33 Uingheni, on tlie Roumanian frontier, wliere the railway crosses the Pruth, and where a considerable portion of the armj was quartered, impatiently awaiting the signal to advance. He reviewed the troops, addressed them in very nearly the same language as the manifesto, which was only read the next day, and then returned to Kischeneff, where he arrived at twelve -o'clock at night, and where an enthusiastic reception awaited him. As the next day was the anniversary of the death of the late Czarewitch, his eldest son, it was thought that, as he never receives visits on that day nor transacts any business, the review would not be held and the manifesto would not be read. fuesday, the 24th, had however already been fixed upon, as I telegraphed you from St. Petersburg some time ago, and in the morning news soon spread that the review was to be held after all, and soon nearly the whole population of Kischeneff was pouring out of the narrow, filthy, muddy streets of the Jewish quarter, across the little valley of the Briskhova, to the slopes and the fields on the other side, where part of the troops were camped, and where the review was to be held. The spot was well chosen, on a gentle undulating hillside, which enabled the spectators to see the whole army at once, as the lines rose behind each other higher and higher up the slope. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and the bright ■colours of the uniforms, the glitter of thousands of bayonets flashing in the sunshine, and the broad blaze of light reflected from a long line of polished field-pieces, and all set in a frame •of brilliant green that covered the surrounding hills, made a beautiful and striking picture. It was all the more impressive that this was no mere holiday review arranged for show, but a review Avhich everybody knew was the prelude to war. These uniforms, now so bright and fresh-looking, would soon be soiled with mud and dust, blackened and begrimed with the smoke of powder, and bespattered with blood. And those guns, with their brand-new look, whose voices had never yet been heard, would soon be speaking in tones of thunder, and their fiery throats vomiting destruction and death. A review under such circumstances is a solemn sight ; and so the great •crowds of people Avho had assembled to witness it seemed to feel. The troops were already under arms by nine o'clock, and they stood there in long lines and masses, never moving in the slightest, motionless as statues, and as silent too, for an hour and a half, until the arrival of the Emperor. There was something strangely impressive and awful in this prolonged silence and immobility. The crowds looking upon the serried lines so silent and motionless, became themselves silent, and gazed with wonder and awe. Those masses of men, and D 34 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. horses, and cannon, with the power of causing snch a hideous uproar as to make the very earth tremble, were now so still and silent that thej seemed to be held petrified by some mighty spell, and they inspired in the crowd feelings of vague dread. There was none of the laughing, or joking, or chatf of which one usually hears so much in a crowd assembled for a^ holiday sight. They spoke to each other in hushed voices,, and every face wore a serious, earnest look. Nor w^as the • silence broken upon the arrival of the Emperor. The crowd only sw^ayed and opened a passage, taking off their hats as he passed, and not till he mounted his horse, and, accompanied by his brother the Grrand Duke l^icholas and followed by an ' immense staff of more than a hundred officers, began to ride slowly along the lines, was the silence broken by the sound of music and cheers. The review proper lasted nearly an hour, and was over about half-past eleven. Then, w^hen the music ceased, there was silence again ; the soldiers took off their caps, and their example was followed by the crowed. The voice of one man w^as heard, it was that of the Bishop of Kischeneff, saying a grand military mass. This lasted about three-quarters of an hour, during which time everybody, spectators as well as soldiers, remained uncovered, with composed but expectant faces. Finally this came to an end, and then an anxious murmur ran through the crowd. If the Manifesto were to be launched, if war w^ere to be declared, now was the moment when it w^ould be done. In fact, the long-expected, long- hoped-for moment had come. There was a dead silence for an instant, during which I could hear the ticking of my watch ; then a clear strong voice broke the stillness. It was not the voice of the Emperor, but of the Bishop of Kischeneff^ who was reading the manifesto ; and, strange to say, he had not read more than half way through it, when sobs were heard, and people looking about to see whence they proceeded perceived that they were from the Emperor Alexander, and that he was weeping like a child. It had been the pride and glory of his reign that it was one of peace ; it had been his boast and his hope that he would finish it without a war ; and now, in spite of everything he had done to avoid it, the step w^as at last taken, and a war was declared, the conse- quences of which no man can foresee. When they saw how much the Emperor was affected by it, there was probably not a dry eye within the range of the reader's voice ; but no sooner had the Bishop finished than there went up a wild and universal shout, such as I never heard before, and scarcely expect to ever hear again. It was a shout of FORTIFICATIONS OF VARNA. 35 exultation, of trmmpli, and of relief, as thongli a great weight of suspense were lifted from the heart of the multitude. It spread through the army with the rapidity of sound itself, and was instantly taken up by the crowd outside, and repeated over and over again, until the very sky was full of it. The soldiers tossed their caps high in the air and caught them on their bayonets, and twirled them round and round, shouting and yelling as though they would burst their throats. This continued for several minutes, and when silence was again restored the Bishop of Kischeneff addressed the army. His discourse was very effective and telling, and was received very much in the same way as the manifesto itself, with shouts and cheers. Then the ordre du jour of the Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander-in-Chief of this army, was read to every battalion, squadron, and battery. The Emperor and his staff retired, and work for the day was over. A part of the army, I believe, started directly from the review to the frontier, without a moment's pause, and the rest began rapidly preparing for the march. The following letter relates to the defence of the Turkish territory north of the Balkans :■ — /\ EusTCHUK, A2:)')'il 2Sth. — I wrote my last letter from on board the mail steamer lying off Varna. Since then I have been over the fortifications of that town ; and, thanks to the courtesy of the English Consul, have had an opportunity of inspecting the various details of defensive preparation. The Turks have been, ever since their intrusion into Europe, an essentially military nation ; and, however apathetic they may have shown themselves in the work of progress and reform, in all justice it must be said they have not lost a tithe of their quondam military ardour. They have set themselves to work with a will, and the main line of defence, from Varna to Bustchuk and Widdin, bristles with the result of their energy. Varna, as fortified at present, is, if only decently defended, impregnable. The old line of bastioned wall has been put in a thorough state of repair. The embrasures have been opened, and freshly revetted, and guns of heavy calibre put in position, principally in the batteries looking seaward. The six lunettes constructed as advanced works during the memorable defence of 1828-9 are fitted up anew, and, in consonance with the necessities accruing from modern long-range artillery, fourteen forts and redoubts have been constructed on the heights dominating the town at some three miles distance. Turks have always fought well behind forti- D 2 36 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. fications ; and masters of tlie Black Sea littoral for tlie moment, tliiis securing water communications with tlie base of supply, tliey will probably give a warm reception to any force attempting tbe capture or investment of Yarna. At tbis moment seventeen battalions are camped in and about tbe town. Of tbese six are of tbe Egyptian contingent, wbich latter is accompanied by two batteries of Krupp 8-centimetre field guns. The various forts and lines mount over three hundred guns, varying from 10 to 15 centi- metres calibre, and all of the latest model. The supply of ammunition seems unlimited ; and all day long the troops toil unloading the barges crammed with shell and cartridge boxes brought up by the transports. The general military command is in the hands of Ruchdi Pacha, an Egyptian by birth. The artillery is directed by Streker Pacha, a brigade- general, a Prussian officer, who entered the Turkish service many years ago. Everything is conducted with the greatest order; and though so many thousand troops are accumulated in the place, not a single act of violence or irregularity has hitherto occurred as a consequence. The defensive preparations may be said to be completed ; and events would seem to prove that it was not a moment too soon. I can well understand the importance the Turks attach to Yarna. It is the true base of operations in the defence of the Danube lines ; the way by which the supplies of the defending army arrive. Once in the hands of an enemy victorious on sea, not only would the army supplies have to be conveyed by a long and difficult land route, but also Sb hostile expedition could at any moment be launched against the rear of the army of the Danube. This consideration makes the defence of the coast line a consideration of the last importance ; and, apart from the dangers threatening Turkey from the land side, she has also to think of the possibilities of a naval reverse, which would speedily end the struggle. Hobart Pacha, who left Rustchuk yesterday to join his fleet, >seems thoroughly impressed with the necessity of keeping the Russian ships at home. Despite the efforts made in certain quarters to prevent the bombardment of Odessa, the Admiral, I understand, vows that, orders or no orders, he will do his best to leave the place in ruins, and I believe he is a man of his word. But as Odessa is quite as strongly fortified as Yarna, it may be he will come away less confident than he arrived. The train by which I left Yarna was crowded with troops bound for Shumla, the head- quarters of the Danube army. The soldiers seemed in good spirits, and most anxious to come to blows with the enemy. THE DOUBLE INVASION. CHAPTER III. CROSSING THE FRONTIERS. Entry of the Russians into Roumania — Advance of the Army of the Caucasus — Seizure of the Barboseh Bridge — Occupation of Galatz — Compulsory Depar- ture of Foreign Shipping — The Cossack of the Don - Special Character of the Campaign — Composition of the Army of Occupation — General Nepokoit- chitsky, Chief of the Russian Staff. Immediately after tlie issue of the Imperial Manifesto of April 24tli, tlie Russian troops in Europe and Asia crossed the Turkish frontiers. The principal echelons of the European army crossed the frontier at Leovo, Beshtamach, and Kubea, and marched into Moldavia. On April 25th Reni, Galatz, Braila, and the railway bridge over the Sereth at Barboseh were occupied. Fresh echelons coming up, Ismail and Kilia, on the Lower Danube, were taken possession of. The Russian troops thus anticipated the Turks in garrisoning Galatz, the key to the railways of Roumania — a circumstance of the first importance for the con- centration of the army, and the transport of its baggage and train. For a few days some difficulty was experienced in cross- ing the Pruth, in consequence of the inundation at Leovo. The Turks undertook no offensive operations, except that on the night of May 3rd two Turkish ironclads exchanged a few shots with the Russian field artillery at Braila. Simultaneously with these movements, the Russian Cau- casian army crossed the Asiatic frontier of Turkey in three columns. The main force, advancing from Alexandropol, marched upon Kars ; the Rion detachment marched upon Batoum ; and the Erivan detachment upon Bayazid. The Alexandropol corps, under the command of Adjutant- General Loris Melikoff, entered Turkish territory in two columns, and, taking the Turkish outposts prisoners, on the same day reached 38 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. MollaMusa and Basil SliiirageL On April 27tlitlie greater part of tlie corps crossed tlie River Kars Tcliai, and passed tlie night at Knruk Dara, HadsM Yeli, and Subatan. On tlie 29tli tlie corps readied Zaim and Angi Keff, despatching twenty-seven squadrons and sotnias, with sixteen guns, to cut off the commu- nication between Kars and Erzeroum. This cavalry, in their suc- cessful reconnoitring on the 28th, 29th, and 30th, destroyed the telegraph between . Kars and Erzeroum, and pursued a Turkish detachment of eight battalions inarching from Kars to Erze- roum, and commanded by Mukhtar Pacha himself. To support the cavalry, Greneral Loris Melikoff ordered twelve battpJiohs of grenadiers, without knapsacks, accompanied by forty guns and five sotnias, to turn the flank of the enemy at Kars, and proceed rapidly to Yesinkoi. At the same time eight Turkish battalions sallied forth from Kars, and, with some artillery, took up a position under cover of the fortress guns. The artillery which accompanied the Russian cavalry, opening fire, dismounted a Turkish cannon. After this engagement, General Loris Melikoff left the cavalry at Yesinkoi, and, with his remaining forces, returned, on May 1st, to his former camp at Zaim. The troo^^s of the Rion detachment, under the com- mand of Lieutenant- Greneral Oklobjio, marched upon Batoum in two columns. The left column, under the command of Major- Greneral Denibekoff, made for Muchastir, while the other, under Greneral Scheremtieff, proceeded along by the Atchmarum road. On April 25th the left column, after a serious engagement, took the camp of Muchastir, and, on the 26th, fortified this strong position. The other column marched by the Atchmarum road, and likewise had an engagement with the enemy. The troops of the Erivan detachment, under the command of Greneral Tergukassoff, on the morning of April 30th, reached Bayazid, and occupied the town and citadel. The Turkish garrison, 1,700 strong, hastily withdrew to the Allah Dagh hills when the Russian troops approached the place. The neglect of the Turkish military and naval authorities to destroy the bridge over the Pruth was one of many proofs of incapacity which marked the direction of the war for the first three months of the campaign, and did much to produce those SEIZURE OF THE BARBOSCH BRIDGE. 39 impressions under the influence of which, the campaign was iudged, tintil the gallant stand made by Osman Pacha at Plevna. On the 8th of May the special correspondent with the Russians in Roumania thus noticed the events of the first ten days of t The campaign is proceeding slowly on this side of the Black Sea, whatever it may be doing on the other. The weather has decidedly made common cause with the Turks. So late a spring has not been known here for years, and the amount of rain that has fallen since the break-up of winter is some- thing exceptional. It rains every day, sometimes all day long, sometimes for an hour or two, as if persistently to undo all that the sun may have done towards drying the country during the few hours in which it gets a chance to shine. The roads, therefore, remain in a fearful condition, and the progress of that part of the army which is moving forward on foot is but slow. Nevertheless, the Russians have, by "their energy and rapid marching, won the first move in the game just opened, or rather the two first moves — first, in preventing the destruction of the railway bridge near Galatz by a wonderful march ; and secondly, in throwing forward a sufficient number of troops to prevent the occupation of Roumania by the Turks. It was evidently so clearly the proper move of the Turks to cross the Danube, destroy the railways and the bridges of all kinds, skirmish with the advance guard, and retard and harass the march of the army, that the Russians were quite convinced they would do this. The moral effect would have been great, the dissatis- faction of the Roumanians very emphatic, and the consequent loss of prestige to the Russians, unable to prevent the invasion of a friend and ally, a very serious matter. Instead of this, the Turks have remained supinely inactive, and allowed the Russians to occupy Roumania without firing a shot. The expectations of great rapidity of movement on the part of the Russian army, which had been raised by the crossing of the Pruth and the prompt seizure of the Barbosch bridge, were not fulfilled, and the subsequent movements of the Imperial forces were made in a manner which led to the belief that the Russians were not so well prepared for war as had been supposed. 40 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Two montlis were to elapse before the Russian arniY wliicb. was to cross the Danube into Bulgaria, w^onld be ready for that opera- tion. There w^ere marches of many hundred miles to be per- formed by thousands of the troops, for whom the railways were not available. Stores and supplies were to be conveyed over roads and bridges that w^ere constantly breaking down. It was a time of uneasiness and suspense for Europe, of commencing* discredit for the Russians, and of active defensive preparation for the Turks. One of the first objects of .Russian solicitude w^as to get entire command of the Danube, and first of its lower section.. The earlier measures taken for this purpose are the subject of the two following letters : — * Galatz, Ajyril 27th. — About half -past two o'clock this morning- the passengers from Bucharest to Galatz were left standing- on the broad platform of the Barbosch junction, some six miles from the latter place. For a mile at least before reach- ing the station we had seen the watch-fires of the Russian picquets to the north of us on either side of the Sereth River ; and close to the railway bridge, the timbers piled on either bank marked preparations for the construction of a road bridge just alongside the iron structure on which the railway crosses the now flooded Sereth. It Avas natural to expect some bustle, if not confusion, in a railway station which was in the- immediate proximity of a camp, and which was for the time- the terminus of the Russian advance in this neighbourhood ;; but all was quiet and methodical. Perhaps there were a few more goods trucks than usual in the sidings, and the platform was here and there encumbered by accumulations of stores,, while three sentries tramped up and down among the- passengers ; but the refreshment-room waiter was ready with his invitation to hot coffee, and his recommendation of a Galatz hotel, with as much sangfroid as if there had not been a Russian outside Bessarabia. A few Russian officers were drinking tea in the restaurant Avhile they waited for the train for Bucibarest, and at the other end of the long table was a fussy but puny Roumanian major, who could not succeed in his obvious desire to get on terms of comradeship with the^ Russian gentlemen. In the darkness it was not possible, as the train journeyed onward to Galatz, to see anything of the- Russian dispositions flanking the route of the railway.. Among our travelling companions betvreen Barbosch and MILITARY OCCUPATION OF GALATZ. 41 Galatz were several Russian officers, wlio on arrival at the latter hurried off to the Concordia, which from its proximity to the Russian headquarters in a large private house in the town, is the hostelry chiefly affected by the Russian officers. The leading features of Galatz, as impressed on the traveller arriving at the railway station, are bad smells and amphibious- ness. But although the former characteristic cleaves obstinately to Galatz on further acquaintance, one finds him- self at least high and dry on reaching the upper town on the low continuous bluff lying inland from the comparatively small strip of town on the edge of the Danube. I take leave to opine that if all street pavement was like that in Galatz, creation generally would rise in rampant rebellion against the institution, and strenuously demand instead soft mud, if no improvement which did not involve miscellaneous masses of chance-shaped blocks of rock, alternated with water holes capable of drowning a horse, could be contrived. Mercantile Galatz had a rough and busy time of it to-day. It appears that when the Russians first came into the place it was intimated that, although all the merchant vessels here and at Braila would have to leave, a reasonable time would be allowed to enable them to load up and effect a clearance. But this morning there burst on the mercantile community a thunder-clap in the shape of a peremptory edict, transmitted through the Russian Consul, that all ships must be clear of Galatz by six o'clock this evening, no matter whether loaded or not. The blow told perhaps most severely on our country' - men, for there are several British firms here, and a large portion of the trade from the Lower Danube is carried on in British bottoms. It was determined to request the Consuls of the various nationalities interested to use their offices with the Russian general commanding here, from whom the order had emanated, to beg that he would reconsider it, and allow reasonable extension of time. A number of merchants accompanied the Consuls to an interview with Prince Schahofskoy, who received his visitors with great courtesy. But courtesy, as a merchant plaintively remarked to me, will not freight ships. The Prince stated that he had his orders from Kischeneff, and that he had no option in the matter. In reply to one remonstrant he pointed out that the shipping people had been in as good a position as any for reading the signs of the times, which had for some time indicated the imminence of such a step as that which his instructions have compelled him to take. He allowed that a hardship was involved, but, then, did not war always bring hardship and precariousness to mercantile interests ? Pinally, 4)2 WAR COEEESPOXDENCE. lie said, lie himself could do nothing, but would telegTaph to Kischeneff to ask whether an extension of time was permis- sible, warning, however, the deputation not to expect any consideration, and going so closely into detail as to compare the time on his watch to that shown by the watch of one of the deputation. One after another the steamers, ready or not, loosed their moorings, and steamed down the river. Nothing had actually been said on the subject, but it was felt that, in the intimation of the General, there was a latent flavour of torpedoes, and that torpedoes are not affairs to be trifled with. One stubborn Irish captain, whose ship lay at Braila, got his back up, refused to go till he had his cargo aboard — say in the course of a couple of days — and went so far in the civis Bomanus sum direction as to snap his fingers at torpedoes. But he ultimately succumbed to persuasion, and his steamer passed down the Danube opposite Galatz within a few minutes of the hour specified in the notification. On the broad open space of the Gralatz jetty, by the side of the Bourse, had congregated a large proportion of the mercantile people of Galatz to watch the departure of the shipping, which was felt as the stamping upon them of the seal of the coming war. Square-«et honest- faced Britons, sallow-faced soft-eyed Turks, Jews of all types of feature, from the aquiline Arabian to the thick-lipped sen- sual-faced Austrian Jew, here and there an Armenian, a group of Italians, voluble and gesticulatory, a little knot of French- men disposed to cynical humour, even under what in the northern portion of our island w^ould be termed a " dispensa- tion," Germans in fair abundance, with the interstices of the gathering filled up by dark-eyed Boumanians, w^hom it was difficult to distinguish from the Italians — stood by the brown water as its w^avelets washed the quay, and gossiped about cargoes, and charters, and torpedoes, and Turkish gunboats, as the Farnley Hall and the Mary Coverdale came swiftly gliding down stream with their figure-heads pointed for Sulina. Over the marsh land across the river was visible the spread sails of canvas of the sailing craft as they stood the reach of the river that bends away south-east below Galatz. A few still remained clinging to the jetty, w^hether in a hope of the relenting of the Russians, or that their skippers for some reason or other did not care to go, I know not. The Consuls at night handed in to their Russian confrere a formal protest against the shortness of notice accorded, but this measure was felt to be a pure formality ; so the shipbrokers and grain agents of Galatz may close their offices and take a holiday till the dogs of war are muzzled again, and Galatz has the dis- DEPARTURE OF FOREIGN SHIPPING. 43 tiiiction of being the first mercantile place to feel the incidence of war in the total arrestment of its water-borne traffic. The holders of grain may indeed find customers in the Russians for some portion of their vast stock, the accumulated produce of last year; but their purchases cannot compensate for to-day's arrestment of export ; and it is little to be wondered at that this evening the spirits of Galatz are not exuberant. Omelettes, of course, cannot be made without the breaking of eggs, and it is no fault of the Russians that the first eggs to suffer are the interests of the merchants of Galatz. The bridging of the Danube below Galatz might not, indeed, of itself altogether arrest navigation, but it is necessary to cover the work both from above and below by flanking protection and outlying picquets in the shape of torpedoes, since the Turks r. have craft both higher up and lower down, which could impede ~ if not altogether hinder the construction of the bridge, and - which could destroy it even if built without their interference. The Russians have made all their preparations for the con- struction and protection of the bridge which they design to throw across the Danube on this section of their advance. At Ismail a mass of timber and pontooning appliances has been collected. Two days ago there arrived by train at Galatz, and have since been launched, two steam launches, with a full complement of torpedoes — the craft which were described in my colleague's letter from Constantinople, which you pub- lished on one of the early days of the present week. Three more of the same craft are, I understand, already in the Sereth at Barbosch, and yet two others, conveyed thither in carts, are inside the mouth of the Pruth. These vessels will doubtless be used for the double purpose of laying down torpedoes, to cover the bridge or bridges, and of attempting the destruction of the enemy's vessels in case of an effort on their part to interfere with the work. A hundred timber pontoons have been ordered to be made with all speed in Galatz, probably in view of the construction of a second bridge. Lighters have arrived in the Pruth, towed up stream by a Roumanian gunboat, laden — the lighters, I mean — with punts or row-boats, manifestly to be used in the construction of the bridge. That the commencement of this work will be immediate is proved by the short and peremptory notice given to the shipping at Galatz and Braila. It remains to specify the point at which that w^ork is to be undertaken. I cannot claim to have received any authoritative information on this head, but indications are not wanting to serve as guides to what I anticipate will prove an accurate speculation. The Russian military dispositions, so far as they are known, u WAR CORRESPONDENCE. point with, what seems unmistakable precision to the conclii« sion that the force which will cross the Darnibe to the east of Braila will not be the main body, but only the left flank. With our huge modern armies, marching on a broad front is an imperious necessity, and this all the more so when the march will be through territories where the roads are few and bad. The left flank then here, let us say, between Braila and Ismail, commences its operations earliest, because it has prac- tically the furthest distance to go, and must go to work early to get up in line, or thereabout, wdth the rest of the invading army, which, wherever it crosses the river, will have the advantage and greater celerity of railway transport for a more or less great proportion of its journey through E,oumania. The whole of the Dobrudscha to the north of the little rail- way running athwart it from Tchernavoda on the Danube to Kustendjie on the Black Sea, is a promontory running north- ward, and the Bussian left flank must tramp along this pro- montory, south at least as far as the railway I have named, to get on a front approximately in line with the rest of the army reaching the Danube further west. Then its route would lie on Bazardjik, and so south to the Pravadi Pass ; or, in the alternative of a concentration on Shumla, it would turn to the right and follow the Yarna- Shumla highway. With this extra work before it, the left flank must be across the Danube betimes, and ought not to delay an hour in crossing. But a man standing on the heights of Galatz and looking- southward over the Danube may ask himself in vain- the question — Where is it possible for the crossing to be effected ? In the distance, on the Turkish side, no doubt, is high and dry country, a low, broken spur of the Balkans indeed ; but how to reach it across that swamp of bulrushes struggling up through inundation, broken only by casual islets on which a few sheep are grazing, the whole expanse being intersected by deep lagoons of the nature of backwaters ? That broad swamp, in which neither to east nor to w^est seems there any break, could be traversed neither by a Cossack pony nor the garron of a border moss-trooper — it is folly to think of it affording foothold for an army. A month's drought, appa- rently, could scarcely make terra firma of it. But if the reader has a good map, and will look at it, he will see marked on the Turkish side, about midw^ay between Gralatz and Braila, a place called Isatchia. At this point the upland of the Do- brudscha comes very near to the river, and there is a hard strand and a sound road all the way from the water's edge. Nor is this all. From Isatchia there are two very tolerable roads leading southward through the whole length of this POSSIBILITIES OF A CROSSING. 45 Dobiniclsclia promontory. One road bends away toward tlie west, and, without touching Matchin, presently gets on the shoulders of the Balkan spur, where they trend down into the Danube valley, and so goes on southward till the isthmus is reached, across which is drawn the Tchernavoda-Kustendjie Railway. The other road from Isatchia bends away south-east- ward on Babadagh, and then holds a course almost due south, somewhat inland of the coast marshes. On the Roumanian side opposite Isatchia the conditions are as favourable as can be expected. There are two roads direct from Bolgrad, one on either side of the Lake Jalpuch, and there are also two roads from Ismail, only one of which, however, I believe, is out of the water at present. A crossing here would turn both Tulcha and Matchin, both of which have, at least nominally, batteries and guns, but that consideration, of so little account are the defences of these places, is of no moment. In fine, I venture to express the anticipation that the first bridge at least made by the Russians on this section of the Danube will have its end on the Turkish side at Isatchia. In the construction of other bridges the Russians are working hard. They are widening and improving the new bridge near the mouth of the Pruth, which on Sunday last took the place of the old ramshackle structure by which the road crossed the river, and which was used by the first detachment of Cossacks who came over. Another bridge is in course of erection higher up. Two bridges are being made on the Sereth. No further troops in any numbers have come for the last two days over the Pruth through Galatz. Braila was occupied yester- day by a regiment of Cossacks with two field-gun batteries. J this afternoon visited the Pruth, which is distant twelve kilo- metres east of Galatz. In crossing the chaussee, which alone shows above water between the Danube and Lake Brattich, one realizes how easy it would have been for the Turkish tur- ret ship which was cruising off it with ports open on Tuesday evening, when the Russian troops t\^ere crossing, to have arrested their progress by its fire. A few guns are in position on a knoll commanding the mouth of the Pruth. Cossacks are picqueted at the Galatz end of the bridge, and on the further slopes Russian infantry are encamped under canvas. The officer on duty on the bridge was very civil — civility is the m^ot cVordre of the Russian officers in Roumania — and allowed our carriage to pass without hesitation. Time did not permit us to go further than just the other side of the bridge. The road toward Galatz from the bridge was lined by infantry sentries and Cossack vedettes. All the troops I saw seemed in excellent physical case, hard as nails, warmly 46 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. clad ; indeed, I wondered liow in tlie heat they tramped along' so sturdily in their long heavy boots and thick overcoats of dnffle blanketing. Later in the afternoon I paid my respects to Prince Schahofskoy at his headquarters in the town. His Excellency appears charged with administrative functions as well as with the chief command of the advance army. He is a rather thick- set man, with strong shrewd face and iron-grey hair and beard. He possesses no little humour of a dry, sententious character, has a very courteous and genial manner, and speaks English with singular fluency and precision. " I come here," said he^ " with the most pacific intentions." " Towards the Rou- manians, of course, your Excellency," I ventured to reply; " but how about the Turks ?" " Oh, they are different, I admit," was the rejoinder, with a quaint glance from under the grizzled eyebrows. 1 should have been glad to know where the Greneral was to lay his bridge, but the subject was not touched upon. It w^as a pleasant coincidence to find on duty, as Prince Schahofskoy's officer of the day, Count Keller, a young officer of German birth, who had been one of the best men on General Tchemaieff's staff in the Servian war, and who distinguished himself in the command of a separate column in the operations against the Turks in the vicinity of Saitchar immediately before the final catastrophe of Djunis. * Galatz, May hth. — Yesterday afternoon I wxnt again out to where the road from Galatz to Reni crosses the Pruth and enters Bessarabia. There passed me on the chaussee carried along between the waters of Lake Brattich and the Danube a couple of battalions of Russian infantry, proceeding to Galatz in heavy marching order. The regiment was the 44th of the line, and belonged, as all the troops now hereabouts do, to the 11th Army Corps, commanded by Prince Schahofskoy. They came along in loose order, straggling all over the chaussee, at a pace of close on four miles an hour — a long, dogged, steady tramp, clumsy to look at, but undeniably lasting. The rank and file in but few cases were tall men, but were burly, square- set fellows, broad in the shoulders, deep in the chest, but clean in the flanks, as I have noticed most Russians are. They wore a kepi of French shape, blue with red band round it, blue tunic, longer and looser in the skirts than ours or the German tunic, and had their loose blue trousers shoved into long boots, reaching over the calf of the leg quite up to the knee. The knapsack was of the German pattern, neat skin with the hair left on, badly carried by cross-belts over the chest. The rifle was the Kranke, and the men marched with. THE EUSSIAN LINESMAN. 47 fixed bayonets, although, they carried bayonet scabbards. The Russian infantry man carries no sword, as does his German comrade. His belts are of black leather, and so he escapes being a chronic victim to pipeclay. The teyite d'ahri was carried in three pieces, and every man carried his own kettle on the back of his knapsack. A certain proportion of the men carried entrenching tools, and nearly every one had some extra weight dangling about him. One a pair of new boots strapped on his knapsack ; another a bundle containing who knows what ? a third a billet of wood for the camp fire, and so on. They carried their heavy brown great-coats rolled over the left shoulder, in the same manner as the Grermans do theirs. The detachment had marched some fifteen miles in hea\y marching order, as I have described, with three days' rations in their haversacks, and not a man had fallen out. Lord Albemarle says that in Diebitsch's campaign every Russian officer had his caleche, and journeyed luxuriously. With other times it is clearly different habits with the Russian officers now. Each battalion was followed by two large waggons, drawn by four horses harnessed abreast, con- taining the baggage of the officers. There was an ambulance waggon, or rather a carriage, conveying the battalion surgeons* stores, instruments, and medical appliances, a couple of forage- carts, and this was all the train of two battalions marching to commence a campaign that, put the time as low as you will, must be measured l3y months. Of course, I don't include ammunition- waggons in the train in this sense. The men looked hard, brown, and healthy. As they swung along with those great strides of theirs, they made light of their heavy kit, and sang with wonderful taste and great vivacity. In fine, I never saw soldiers in better condition and better heart for the varied phases of a campaign — marching, campaigning, and fighting. A little way further along the road we met a detachment of Cossacks ambling along, one of their number making a noise on a whistle, while the others sang to the not wholly satis- factory accompaniment which this instrument produced. All the Cossacks hereabout until to-day, when a " polk " of Circassian Cossacks marched in, are Cossacks of the Don, descendants of the fellows who in the early years of the century followed the white moustaches of Hetman Platoff into Western Europe, and hobbled their shambling ponies in the glades of the Bois de Boulogne. One Don Cossack is so like another that the idea is difficult to get rid of that they have all been made to order in one mould, and that in case of accident their heads, arms, or legs are interchangeable. The 48 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Cossack is not a very savoury gentleman, but Galatz is a fine place for taking the edge off one's sensibilities regarding smells, and we can get to windward of the Cossack we wish, to inspect, which is more than we can do in regard to the Galatz drains. Friend Cossack is a little chap, about five feet five, even on his high heels, but at once sturdy and wiry. His weather-beaten face is shrewd, knowing, and merry. His eyes are small, but keen ; his mouth large, and between it and his pug nose — rather redder than the rest of his face — is a tuft or w^sp of straw-coloured moustache. His long, thick, straight hair matches his moustache in colour, and is cut sheer round by the nape of his neck. He wears a round oilskin peakless shako with a knowing cock to the right, to maintain which angle there is a strap round his chubby chin. Below the neck the Cossack is all boots and great-coat exteriorly. The great-coat, which is of thick grey blanketing, comes down below his knees ; his boots come up to them. He is more armed than any man of his inches in Europe, is our little Cossack friend, and could afford to lose a Aveapon or two and yet be a very dangerous cus- tomer. Weapon number one is the long black flagless lance, with its venomous head that seems itching to make day- light through somebody. He carries a carbine, slung in an oilcloth cover, on his back, the stock downwards. In his belt is a long and well-made revolver in a leather case, and from the belt hangs a curved sword with no guard over its hilt. Through the chinks in his great-coat are visible glimpses of a sheepskin undercoat with the hair worn inside (to-day at noon the thermometer was over 70 in the sun). His whip completes his personal appurtenances ; he wears no spurs. He rides, cocked up on a high saddle with a leathern band strapiDcd over it, a wiry little rat of a pony, with no middle- piece to speak of, with an ewe neck and a gaunt, projecting head, with ragged flanks, loose hocks, limp fetlocks, shelly feet, and a general aspect of knack erism. — the sort of animal, in fine, for which a costermonger would think twice before he offered " three quid " for it at the northern Tattersall's on the out- skirts of the Metropolitan Cattle Market on a Friday after- noon. But the screw is of indomitable gameness and toughness — lives where most other horses would starve — is fresh when most other horses are knocked up — and is fit to carry its rider across Europe, as Cossack ponies have done before to-day. The Cossacks seem to be used indiscriminately for all sorts of work. They were the first to enter Rou- mania, they ride about alone with despatches, they escort suspected spies, keeping the head of their lance carefully THE COSSACK OF THE DON. 49 within easy distance of tlie small of the suspect's back, to be handy for skewering him if he would attempt escape ; and Cossacks are placed on guard over the ships at the Galatz quay, to prevent their attempting departure. Dismounting and shackling his pony by a hobble on each fore-leg, con- nected by a leather strap with another hobble around the left hind leg above the hock, the Cossack takes up a position on the extreme edge of the jetty, with his lance pointed in the direction of the ship, as if he would transfix it should it attempt to escape, and there he stands, self-contained, affable, alert, and w4th a general aspect conveying the idea that he is patronizing that section of Christendom within his purvicAV. He will accept a cigarette, and tender you a light from his in the friendliest manner, but you will never coax him to take B his eye for a single minute off the ship which he has in B custody. The Circassian Cossacks who marched in to-day W' differ in some respects from the Don Cossacks. They ride "■ larger ponies, they wear busbies of Astrachan fur with a scarlet busby bag, and their great-coat is black, having its bosom slashed with a receptacle for cartridges, while they carry their carbine in a cover of Astrachan fur. At the bridge over the Pruth — to return to our drive — I found a very busy scene. Quite a dozen craft of one kind or other were lying below the bridge, and were being swiftly loaded w^ith torpedoes and their appliances. Detachments of sailors, Avorking with a will, unloaded the waggons, Avhich one at a time were brought across the bridge, and with a cheer and a pull slung their contents down the bank to the water's edge, where small boats were conveying the torpedoes to the larger craft in the stream. Coils of wire cable, electric batteries, red-painted buoys, followed the drum-like cylinders of the torpedoes, while groups of officers stood around and directed the progress of the operations. Already a batch of torpedoes had been laid down, and every night for some time will see theii^ number added to. The chain crosses, I understand, just below the mouth of the Pruth, where the river passage is further guarded by several batteries on the fringe of the low bluff overhanging the spot where the Pruth joins the Danube. Beyond the bridge, in a vineyard under the shelter of some clay cliffs, was the camp of the sailors and torpedo engineers — a couple of row^s of tentes d\ihri, each holding three men, with the cooking-places in rear and the baggage in front. The officers are quartered in the fewcottages about the bridge. I drove on by an excellent road till close on Reni, about twelve miles below Galatz. On the right lay the still available remains of a large earthwork thrown up by the Russians in IS 50 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. 1853 to cover tlie points at whicli thej theii crossed tlie river. One of their bridges was at Isatcliia, another at Galatz, tlie hither end resting on the town quay, and a third at Braila. On the homeward journey I met Prince Schahofskoy, the general commanding the Enssian troops in and about Galatz, driving out in one of the common birzas of the town, accom- panied by a single aide-de-camp and without any escort, to inspect the progress of the work at the Prnth. This morning some Cossacks were sent across the Danube in boats to patrol through the villages on the Turkish bank. On the river edge of the marsh land there are some two or three of these villages, little squalid nests of smugglers, containing rather a mixed handful of inhabitants. There are some Bulgarians, some Roumanians, some Roumanian renegades, deserters from the army, who have fled, and professed Islam- ism, and some Turks proper. It appears that the crew of a Turkish vessel intercepted by the Russians opposite one of these villages went ashore, and, probably having got drunk, began abusing and assaulting some of the Christian inhabi- tants of the place. In this conduct they were, it is said, abetted and assisted by the Mohammedan residents, and the trouble continued till some Christian women, escaping, got into a boat, rowed across the river, and reported the ill-usage to the Russian officer on the other side. It was reported here last night that there had been some firing, but there is, I am assured, no truth in the statement. The Russian troops are now on the Danube from Kilia, near the mouth of the northernmost arm of the river, to west of Braila. Here there must be — that is, between here and Barbosch — quite 15,000 men. Six thousand are now beyond Barbosch toward Braila ; 8,000, with heavy siege guns, are in Ismail ; and at Kilia some 2,000 are reported. To stop the Sulina mouth of the Danube is, however, of more impor- tance than to stop the Ealia mouth. The following letter describes the marching of the Russian soldiers and the composition of the army : — * KisCHENEFF, May 10th. — Although the Bessarabian roads still continue sloughs of despond, owing to the heavy downpours of rain which alternate with warm and dry weather, the Russian advance into the Principalities is further advanced to-day than was anticipated by the less sanguine of the Russian leaders before the declaration of war. The young infantry soldiers, notwithstanding the heavy weight they carry, and the thick mud through which occasionally they THE MARCH TO TiLE DANUBE. 51 have to tramp, are Tindicating the marching repntation of the Russian peasant soldier. Pew finer marches have been exe- cuted in our time than that long, steady, unbroken tramp of the advance-guard of the 11th corps from the frontier across the Pruth, over the Reni-Galatz chaussee, and so onward to the Barbosch bridge; and men who saw the Russian sub- divisions tramp through Galatz tell that, although the Cos- sacks who preceded the infantry men were in many cases asleep in their saddles, the foot soldiers closed up gallantly at the sound of the music, and strode on singing lustily, as if the day's march had only just begun, leaving scarcely a single straggler to bring up the rear. The first infantry troops who marched into Jassy, having moved along worse roads, evinced, it is said, more symptoms of distress, and men were reduced to the necessity of sitting down in the streets from actual exhaustion. But this was the first day's march ; and men who remember how some of our best regi- ments fell temporarily to pieces on the comparatively short stretch from Devonport to Dartmoor at the commencement of the manoeuvres which were mainly memorable for the vacil- lation of Sir Charles Staveley, and for the continuous rainfall, which made a dismal swamp of the theatre of mimic war, will hardly be surprised to leani that at the end of a long first day's march in heavy marching order, some of the weaker vessels should show symptoms of distress. Marching mostly by road, the mass of the Russian twelfth army corps is already in the immediate vicinity of Bucharest, in the neigh- bourhood of which capital, although not within the precincts of the city itself, a preliminary concentration of considerable magnitude will in all probability take place. With the advance of the mass of the army, Kischeneff ceases to have eligibilities as the headquarters, and accordingly on Sunday next the Grand Duke Nicholas is to take his departure for Bucharest. His Highness will be accompanied by Generals Nepokoitchitsky and Levitsky, the chief and second chief of his staff, his own personal staff, the generals on the staff* commanding the cavalry, ai-tillery, engineers, intendance, &c. ; but the bulk of the head- quarter staff will be located in Ployesti. The dispositions which will ensue on this change cannot for the present be dealt with, but soldiers who have acquainted themselves with the military topography of the valley of the Danube, and with the history of previous wars between the Russians and the Turks, will not find material difficulty in drawing their own conclusions. Without venturing to indicate in advance what may be the intentions of the Russian strategists in regard to the crossing E 2 52 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. of the Danube, and without being in possession of smy definite, far less communicable, information respecting the subsequent movements thej may have so far decided on as the plan of the campaign, it may nevertheless not be unseasonable to make a few remarks regarding the initial differences which make themselves apparent between the obstacles which the Russians have had to overcome in pre- vious offensive operations against Turkey, and those which now confront them. It will, I think, be abundantly apparent that the prospects of the campaign now commencing are infinitely more favourable than those to which Wittgenstein had to look forward, when he led his army across the Pruth in Ma}^, 1828. Wittgenstein had under his command three army corps, having a total strength, on the maximum reckon- ing, of 84,000 men. The Grand Duke Nicholas crosses the Pruth in May, 1877, in command of six army corps, having an effective strength of 216,000 soldiers already seasoned by a winter and spring spent practically in the field. Sickness was decimating Wittgenstein's army while as yet it w^as in the Principalities — sickness, the germs of A^^hicl it had carried from Bessarabia — and his sanitary an^angements were of the most feeble and rudimentary character. The Grand Duke's army of to-day underw^ent a special inspection before the frontier was crossed, and the weak and sickly were strictly w^eeded out. The health of the marching army is reported excellent ; surgeons are in full complement, ambulance trains and hospital equipments have taken precedence in the railway, even of munitions of war, and the Roumanian civil and military hospitals open their doors to receive the Russian sick. Wittgenstein's men had to tramp every verst of the way through a country practically roadless, from far in the interior of Russia, down to the pontoon bridges on the Danube ; and every pound of supplies, every load of munitions of war, had to be conveyed by road- transport — ^if the word is applicable to a region where, at that time, the roads w^ere mere tracks. To-day the Russian battalions may travel from the place of their mobilization to the bank of the Danube by railway ; those w'ho march find in Moldavia and Wallachia, on the main routes, chaussees which will compare with our best turnpike roads in England ; on the side routes, roads which are, it is true, deep in mud in wet weather, but afford excellent travelling in dry ; and the rail- way, which has conveyed such of the troops as do not march, is available for the conveyance of provisions and munitions of war, solving, in a great measure, the hardest problem of every offensive war — the difficulty of maintaining that steady THE TURKISH LINE OF DEFENCE. 53 current of supplies which is necessary for the subsistence of an army in an enemy's country. In 1828, Wittgenstein had to •cross the Danube in the face of eleven Turkish fortresses more or less formidable — Widdin, Nicopolis, Rustchuk, Giurgevo, Turtukai, Silistria, Hirsova, Matchin, Braila, Isatchia, and Tulcha, not to mention Turnan, and the tete-du-pont of Kalafat. One of these fortresses, Braila, delayed one of his corps before it from May 11th to June 18th ; but Braila is now a peaceful trading city of Roumania, rather nervous just at present on the subject of shells from Turkish gun- boats. Giurgevo is no longer of Turkey, but of Roumania, and is an open town. To-day at Kalafat no Kuchuk Pacha as in 1828, no Omar Pacha as in 1854, sits watching for his chances on the flank and rear of a force essaying to cross the Danube. Nicopolis, Turtukai, Hirsova, and Isatchia, are fortresses no longer, even of the Turkish type, but practically open places having stuck about them a few crumbling batteries armed with honey- combed guns ; Silistria, till three months ago, stood as when the Russians, repulsed by the efforts mainly of Butler and Glyn, recoiled in 1854 from before its battered ramparts and yawning breaches ; Widdin is a piece of patchwork ; Rust- chuk is indeed formidable if adequately armed, not as a fortress, for the fortress of Rustchuk proper is rotten and -obsolete, but as an intrenched camp, on a fine site, command- . ing, if not indeed forbidding, the crossing of the river on its frontier. Matchin was a place of strength only until rifled cannon came to be used in sieges. Wittgenstein had no siege train, and his men sickened and died waiting in the trenches, while the weary work of mining was sluggishly proceeding. There has gone toward the Danube already, not one, but several siege trains, such as would do credit to any army in Europe. The Turks have a fine and a deserved reputation for the desperate defence of fortified places, and history tells us how at Braila, Varna, and Silistria, the " peaceful inhabitants " manned and fought the breach regarded as defenceless by the " professional soldier." Rifled iirms of offence are sad foes to unscientific heroism, A maid of Saragossa is incompatible with Krupp and Armstrong as contemporaries ; and I do not think it would be rash to hazard the prediction that never more in civilized warfare shall we have occasion to witness the ultima ratio of the .storming of a breach. The history of the Franco- German war is studded with sieges, but the student of it will search in vain for the story of the mustering of a forlorn hoj)e. 54 WAR COERESPONDENCE. Time is everytliing in sucli a campaign, for even under the most favourable circumstances it would be a severe strain on Russia that the mass of her army should have to winter in Bulgaria. Wittgenstein indeed crossed the Pruth in the early part of May; but he did not find himself in condition to cross the Danube till the 9th of June. It was not until the 11th that the whole of his third corps — constituting his- army of invasion — was across the great river. Impeded by the resistance of Braila, Hudjevitsch marched slowly, and had only got seventy-five miles down the Dobrudscha on the 25th of June. There he waited eight days for the fall of Braila^ stayed another week at Bazardjik for the seventh corps, which had been besieging that fortress, to come, and finally was in a position near Yarna only in the middle of July. It took him thus thirty-four days to march the 180 miles between Isatchia and Varna, but, deducting the halts I have named, he did the distance in twenty days ; which is at the rate of nine miles a day, very good marching under the circumstances- But I wdsh more particularly to contrast the time made in 1828 with that on which we may count in 1877. There' can be no doubt that if the Russian left determines to cross at Isatchia, wdth intent to march down through the Dobrudscha,. Schahof skoy will be across at the latest before the 1st of June- He will have no occasion to make the halts which were en- forced on Rudjevitsch till Braila should have fallen and the reinforcements released from its siege should have come up- Sherman on that famous march of his from Atlanta to the sea averaged sixteen miles a day cle die in diem. But assuming that Schahofskoy marches in 1877 at no faster rate than Rudjevitsch in 1828, he would have reached the vicinity of Varna in twenty days, or at the latest about the 20th of June. By all accounts there is little prospect of his en- countering serious opposition from the Turks en route. In twenty days from now, that is by the 1st of June, there can be no doubt that the centre and left of the Russian army will be on the Danube, if not across it. From no point between Kalarash and Giurgevo is the Danube distant so much as a hundred miles from Schumla. There seems no reason appa- rently why the Russian main body, having left investing forces to deal with Silistria and Rustchuk, if needed, should not be in front of Schumla by the same time that the left is- in the neighbourhood of Varna. There would remain then the alternatives of a concentration of centre and left against Schumla, or of the left operating separately, while the centre should "hold" the Turkish army in Schumla, or actively proceed against that intrenched camp, as might be resolved THE RUSSIAN ARMY OF OPERATION. 55 on. Such a position attained by the beginning of Jnly leaves at the command of the Russians four available months for subsequent operations, and the withdrawal across the Danube before winter time of such troops as the exigencies of the situation might not render it expedient to winter in Bulgaria. There is no reason, so far as I can see — for I have no expecta- tion that the Turks will stand up for a day against the Russians in the open field if they ever meet them there — why the Russians in 1877 should not do as did the Russians under Diebitsch in 1829, and concentrate their columns south of the Balkans on the 27th of July, Before then circumstances may have occurred which will materially alter the intentions which they now express respecting their line of action subsequent to the crossing of the Balkans. General Fadeeff holds, in his " Opinions on the Eastern Question," that for 150,000 Russians to reach Constantinople, the number he considers capable of accomplishing that feat, it would be necessary for 250,000 men to cross the Danube. The Russians do not aim at reaching Constantinople, but it seems quite certain that the strength Fadeeff names for cross- ing the Danube is available for that purpose. Six corps are already within reach of the Grand Duke Nicholas's hand, viz., four which constitute the army bearing the technical name of " the army of operation," and two more constituting the army of Odessa. The total strength of these six corps is 216,000 men, 49,200 horses, and 648 cannon. In addition to this great force three more corps are reported fully mobilized, and being drawn down into Bessarabia as the troops of the army of operation march out. This represents a further strength of 108,000 men, so that the Russian army now mobilized available for the invasion of Turkey reaches a total nominal strength of 324,000 men. I am not in possession of particulars respecting the composition of the three corps last named, but the following are the details of the composition of the six corps constituting the army of occupation and the army of Odessa : I.— ARMY OF OPERATION (ROUMANIA). Commander-in-Chief — Archduke Nicholas Nicolaieflf. Chief of Staff — General Adjutant Nepokoitchitsky. Sous Chef — Major General Levitsky. 8th corps. Commander — Lieutenant- General Ra- I Chief of StaiF — Colonel Dmitrowsky. detsky. j 9th Infaktry Division. 1st Brigade— 33rd and 34th Regiments. | 2nd Brigade— 35th and 36th Regiments. 56 WAK CORRESPONDENCE. 14th Infantry Division. 1st Brigade — 53i\l and 54th Regiments. | 2nd Brigade— 55tli and 56tli Regiments. 8th Cavalry Division. 1st Brigade — 8tli Dragoons, SthUlilans. 2nd Brigade — 8th Hussars, 8th Don 14th Brigade— Field Artillery. 9th Brigade— Field Artillery. Oth corps. Commander — Lieutenant- Greneral I Chief of Staff — Major-General Sclinit- Baron Kriidener. j nikow. 5th Infantry Division. 1st Brigade — 1 7th and 1 8th Regiments. | 2nd Brigade — 19th and 20th Regiments. 31st Infantry Division. 1st Brigade— 121st and 122nd Regi- I 2nd Brigade— 123rd and 124th Regi- ments. I ments. 9th Cavalry Division. 1st Brigade — 9th Dragoons and 9th Uhlans. 2nd Brigade — 9th Hussars and 9th Don Cossacks. 5th Brigade — Field Artillen-. 31st Brigade— Field Artillery. 11th corps. Commander — Lieut. -General Prince | Chief of Staff" — Colonel Biskupsky. Schahofskoy. | 11th Infantry Division. 1st Brigade — 41st and 42nd Regiments. | 2nd Brigade— 43rd and 44th Regiments. 32nd Infantry Division. 1st Brigade— 125th and 126th Regi- [ 2nd Brigade— 127th and 128th Regi- ments. I ments. 11th Cavalry Division. 11th Brigade— Field Artillery. 32 nd Brigade — Field Artillery. 1st Brigade — 11th Dragoons, 11th Uhlans. 2nd Brigade — 11th Hussars, 11th Don Cossacks. 12th CORPS. Commander — Lieu tenant- General I Chief of Staff— Major- General Duck- Yannoffski. j masson. 12th Infantry Division. 1st Brigade— 45th and 46th Regiments. | 2nd Brigade — 47th and 4Sth Regiments. 33rd Infantry Division. 1st Brigade— 129th and 130th Regi- 1 2nd Brigade -131st and 132nd Regi- ments. I ments. THE ARMY OF OPERATION. 57 12th Cavalry Division. 1st Brigade — 12tli Dragoons, 12th Uhlans. 2nd Brigade— 12th Hussars, 12th Don Cossacks. 12th Brigade— Field Artillery. 33rd Brigade --Field Artillery. ARMY OF BLACK SEA. Commander-in-Chief— General-Adju- I Chief of Staff — Major-General Gore- tant Temecko. | mykin. 7th corps. Commander — Lieutenant -General I Chief of Staff— Major-General Janobb- Prince Barclay de Tolly- Weimam. | sky. 15th Infantby Division. 1st Brigade--57th and 5Sth Regiments. | 2nd Brigade— 59th and 60th Regiments. 36th Infantry Division. 1st Brigade--141st and 142nd Regi- I 2nd Brigade— 143rd and 144th Regi- ments. I ments. 7th Cavalry Division. 1st Brigade — 7th Dragoons and 7th Uhlans. 2nd Brigade — 7th Hussars and 7th Don Cossacks. 15th Brigade — Field Artillery. 36th Brigade— Field Artillery. ]Oth corps. Commander — Lieutenant-GeneralPrince I Chief of Staff — ^Baron Wolski. Woronsow. | 13th Infantry Division. 1 st Brigade — 49th and 50th Regiments. | 2nd Brigade — 51st and 52nd Regiments. 34th Infantry Division. 1st Brigade—l 33rd and 134th Regi- 1 2nd Brigade— 155th and 156th Regi- ments. J ments. 10th Cavalry Division. 1st Brigade — 10th Dragoons, 10th Uhlans. 2nd Brigade— 10th Hussars, 10th Don Cossacks. 13th Brigade— Field Artillery. 34th Brigade — Field Artillery. An Infantry Division consists of four regiments, eacL. having three battalions, and of three batteries of nine-pounders and three of six-pounders, each of eight guns. A Division is equal to 16,000 men, fortv-eight guns. A Cavalry Division consists of three regiments regulars and one of Don Cossacks. 58 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. The 7tli Cavalry Division has two batteries of regular horse artillery of six guns each, every other division one "battery regular horse artillery, and one battery of Don Cossacks (horse) of six pieces each. Men, Horses. Guns Army of operation (4 Corps) 144,000 32,800 432 2iid Army (2 Corps) 72,000 16,400 216 216,000 49,200 648 There are in addition four battalions of sappers, three battalions of pontoniers, ten regiments of Cossacks of the Caucasus and Ural, one brigade of rifles, one battery of mitrailleuses, three batteries of mountain guns, one company of Marines of the Gruard, and two companies of railway artificers. The following letter introduces us to a very important per* sonage, the Chief of the Russian Staff : — t KisCHENEFF, May 10th. — Kischeneff is the place par excellence for toiling all day, and perchance, after all the toil, gaining nothing. It beats Washington for " magnificent distances,*' and it seems as if everybody one wants lives away on the confines of civilization, where the streets merge into the steppes. The military bureaux are separated from one another by a mile or two of mud or dust, as the case may be. Colonel Romanoff, who lives on the eastern margin of the place, is extremely civil w^hen at last you find him at homCy after calling three times in as many hours. He does what he can for you, but the particular business in hand cannot be completed without the assistance of Greneral Nicolaieff, whose office is in a garden on the extreme western edge of the town. The General is at Ungheni for the day, or is breakfasting with the Grand Duke, or has gone out for a ride. You may spend the afternoon in calling at his office at intervals, and are lucky if you catch him before he sits down to supper. If he is at home, no matter whether at supper or not, the General is most courteous and solicitous to be of service. I believe he would get out of bed if your business was at all urgent. But circumstances are too strong for him or for you ; there is yet another place to be visited, and another officer to be seen, before what the Hindoos call the "bunderbust" is complete. Another day is spent in riding backward and forward in a rattletrap droscki from one bureau to another. . But this delay does not arise from any want of punctuality on the part of Russian officers. If you secure the promise of an appointment, you may rely on its being fulfilled, unless THE RUSSIAN CHIEF OP THE STAFF. 59 indeed very important concerns intervene. Having been tlie bearer of a letter of introduction to General Nepokoitcbitskj, the chief of the Archduke Nicholas's staff, I received an intimation that the General would receive me at half- past two this afternoon, and punctually at the time the chief of the artillery on the general staff quitted his room, and I was summoned to enter. The General is a short, square-set, but active-looking man, hale and hearty, in spite of his seventy years ; he looks as fit to make a campaign as if he were- twenty years younger. He is of Polish extraction, and his- name signifies " the unquiet or restless man," and is singularly inappropriate, for General Nepokoitchitsky is a man of the- most placid manner, and the equanimity of his temper i& proverbial among the officers who have served under him. A classical captain told me yesterday that he very felicitously com- bined the suaviter in modo with t\iQ fortiter in re. The sous-chef of the general staff. General Levitsky, is a man of much more bustling and excitable temperament, and the two officers are happily chosen, as the idiosyncrasy of the one seems to be the complement of that of the other. General Nepokoitschitsky's hair, whiskers, and moustache are snow-white ; but there is a flush of hale colour on his cheek ; his eye is not dim, neither is his natural force abated. He wore a simple undress uniform, with the aiguillettes which distinguish the staff officer, and his only decoration was the cross of St. George. The General has seen more service than most of the Russian leaders, and his experience of staff duty in particular has been long and continuous. He joined the army as an infantry officer, and first saw active service in the Caucasus, where his merit was so conspicuous that he speedily received a staff^ appointment. He held an important and responsible office on the general staff in the army which Russia sent to co-operate with Austria in quelling the Austrian insurrection of 1849. In the Crimean war, or rather in the war which we know conventionally by that name, he was. chief of staff to one of the corps composing the army with which Gortschakoff occupied the Principalities, and took part, under Paskiewitz, in the memorable siege of Silistria. Since 1855 the General has seen no active service, but h^s been continually in military employment of one sort or other. Although chief of the staff of the Army of the South, for which position he was chosen because of his acquaintance with the region of the Danubian Valley derived from his experience in the campaign of 1854, he is not the head of the great general staff* of Russia. That high office is filled by Count Heiden. Before his appointment to the office he now holds. General 00 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Nepokoitcliitsky Avas at tlie liead of the Commission for tlie reorganization of tlie armj on the new system which has replaced the old Russian system, and the operation of which, although its institution is so recent that its full value is as yet not realized, has done much in all respects to improve the Russian army. Although then in years and service the General is unquestionably an old soldier, his position as President of this Commission sufficiently indicates that he is a disciple of the modern school of military organization, and of sti*ategy and tactics. General Levitsky, the sous-chef of the general staff, has, I believe, been a professor in the Military Academy of St. Petersburg, and has also commanded one of the cavalry regiments of the Guards. He has not seen actiA^e service. I believe that, without exception, the generals commanding the army corps of the Army of Operation saw service in the Crimean war. General ^N^epokoitchitsky commenced the conversation by hoping that all the formalities needful for my authorization to accompany the advance of the army had been carried through without difficulty, in accordance with his instructions. He then dilated at some length on the excellent appearance made by the army when recently reviewed by the Emperor, a spectacle which I did not reach Kischeneff in time to witness. He remarked how fortunate it was that the day of the review should have been the only wholly fine day of all this exceptionally rainy spring, and then proceeded to observe that the qualities displayed by the troops in their advance into the Principalities were on a par with the thoroughly serviceable appearance they had presented on the grand parade. All, he said, was progressing quite as favourably and as rapidly as had been anticipated previous to the commencement of the operations ; and this, notwithstanding obstacles which might fairly be regarded as unexpected, produced as they were by unfavourable weather of an exceptional, and indeed almost unprecedented, character. You have already been advised by telegraph of the mobilization of yet another army corps, making up the strength of the Russian army in the field to ten corps, or, in other words, to 360,000 men, exclusive of the army operating in Asia. In order that a comparatively unseasoned and recently mobilized corps should not be hurried into the field, but should have time for thorough consolidation, the 7th Corps, commanded by Prince Barclay de Tolly- Weimam, and hitherto forming part of the Army of the Black Sea, has been sent forward to join the "Army of Operation," and form its extreme left flank, while its place in the Army of the DESTRUCTION OF A TURRET SHIP. 61 Black Sea is taken by one of the more recently mobilized corps, the loth. The Russian army corps now mobilized on a war footing are as follows : — 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th, eleven in all, exclusive of the Guards and the Army of the Caucasus. CHAPTER lY. THE RUSSIANS IN ROUMANIA. Destruction of a Turki.sli Turret Ship on the Danube — A Torpedo Expedition — Destruction of another Turkish Ship of War — Narrative of the Russiai* Officers concerned — Speedy Reward of Merit in the Russian Army — Braila in War-time — Facilities for a Crossing at Braila — A Tour with Prince Charles of Roumania — Russian Regimental Singers — A Military Improvvisji- tore — A Dancing Corjjoral — Break-down of a Bridge — General SkobelefF and his Extraordinary Career — A Prince in the Ranks — The Fortress of Rustchuk — Character of the Turkish Cohimon Soldier, The period of expectation and suspense which lasted throughout the months of May and the greater part of June was not unre- lieved by feats of war, from which the ingenious attempted ta draw inferences as to the military efficiency to be expected of the belligerents. Among these feats was the destruction of two powerful iron- clad Turkish ships of war in the Danube. The circumstances in which the first of these vessels was lost to the Ottoman navy on the 11th of May are described in the following letter : — * Galatz, May IStJi. — The branch of the Danube known as tho Old Danube extends from Hirsova .to opposite Braila. On this branch is situated the Turkish fortress of Matchin, and in it is penned by the Russian batteries at both ends a portion of the Turkish flotilla. On Friday afternoon the Turkish turret ship, the same whose passage up the stream recently terrified Gralatz, steamed out from Matchin, followed by two gunboats, and at half -past three was stationary under cover of the wooded end of the island, with its three masts A isible above the trees. The Russian gunners from the batteries close to Braila, below the Roumanian ban'acks, opened fire from their light guns, the range being abOut four kilometres, but without effect. The general officer present 62 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. gave directions for two eight-inch guns of position, mounted in the battery, to come into action. The first shot had no effect. The second shot, fired at a high elevation with a low charge, dropped on the deck of the turret ship, and must have crushed down into the powder magazine. Immediately a tremendous flash and glare shot up from the interior of the doomed craft, followed by a heavy white smoke which hung like a pall. Through this white cloud there shot up to a great height a spurt of black fragments of all shapes and sizes. When the smoke drifted away all that was visible of the turret ship was her stem, with the mizen-mast standing, whence still fluttered the Turkish flag. The ship had gone down by the head in shallow water. The fore and main masts were blown out at once. Two Russian steam launches put off from Braila, boarded the wreck, gained the flag, gathered some of the debris, and picked up two men, the fireman and the engineer, both severely injured. One has since died. The other is still alive in the hospital. He reports the turret ship to have had a crew of 200 men, under the command of Kezim Bey. Fragments of the w^reckage were picked up down the stream at Gralatz. The Russian enthusiasm in the battery was intense, and the officers embraced each other. The Turkish gunboats hurried away abruptly on the explosion of the turret ship, but returned an hour later, and fired on the Russian launches engaged in the work of humanity. The name of the turret-ship was the Lutfi Djelil. Its armament was five guns, of which two were nine-inch and two five- inch. The captain, a pacha, was on shore. Spies report that the intention was for the turret- ship to lie quiet till next morning, and then bombard Braila. On the 26th of May a second Turkish monitor was destroyed by torpedoes. The following narrative of the exploit was drawn Tip from the statements of the Russian officers who accom- plished it : — t Ployesti, May 31st. — The destruction of a Turkish monitor the other night by torpedoes seems to have been a most brilliant and daring exploit. Two steam launches, with a handful of men, steamed boldly into the midst of the Turkish flotilla, placed tw^o torpedoes under one of the monitors, and succeeded in blowing it up and completely destroying it. This feat, accomplished with impunity, without the loss of a single man, is a very remarkable one, and if it can be shown that it DESTRUCTION OF A SECOND MONITOR. 63 can be repeated with success, monitors and gunboats on inland rivers will be rendered completely useless, and even the modem monster ironclad, built at such expense, will likewise be rendered practically of no avail for any kind of service near an enemy's coasts. An ironclad will not even be safe at sea, for any kind of ship, even a wooden one, can send out half a dozen steam launches in the night, surround an ironclad, and destroy it with impunity. The little expedition which succeeded in blowing up the Turkish monitor was composed of four small steam launches, two of which were to make the attack and the two others to hold themselves in readiness to render assistance in case, as was probable, of an accident to either of the attacking ones. The two launches which were to make the attack were commanded by Lieutenants Dubasoff and Shestakoff, and manned, one by fourteen, the other by nine men. The crews were protected by an iron screen or awning, which covered the boat completely over from stem to stern, and which was sufficiently thick to stop a bullet. This screen, as well as the boat, was painted black, so as to be scarcely distinguishable at night, and the crew were thus protected against the fire of small arms, except the man at the wheel, who directed the movements of the boat, and who was necessarily exposed. The crews embarked in the boats a little after twelve o'clock on Friday night, at a distance of about seven miles from where the Turkish monitors were lying. The night was dark and rainy, and the clouds completely obscured the moon, which nevertheless pre- vented the night from being one of complete pitchy darkness. There was just enough light to enable them to distinguish the dark masses of the Turkish gunboats without themselves being easily seen. After an hour's steaming they came within the immediate neighbourhood of the enemy's flotilla. The engines of the launches were so constructed as to make very little noise, and when they were slowed down all the sound they made was a low dull kind of throbbing noise that was almost drowned by the continual croaking of the frogs, which are very large and very numerous along the marshes of the Danube. ^Nevertheless, the quick ear of a Turkish sentinel caught the unusual sound, and he cried out, " Who goes there ? " in Turkish. The boats advanced without replying. The sentinel again called out and again remained without an answer. He called out the third time, and as it was becoming- evident that the ship would be alarmed Lieutenant Dubasoff replied in Turkish, " Friends ! " and continued to advance. The sentinel, however, was by no means satisfied, and after calling out again two or three times, he finally fired. 64 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Then tlie Russians, wlio were by tliat time very near the doomed monitor, heard a noise in the ship. There was a scuffling of feet, the rushing about of sailors, cries and shouts, and the voice of an officer commanding them to prepare the guns for action. They heard the order given for the gun in the bow to be fired. They heard it given three times, and three times they heard the click of the hammer, showing that an attempt had been made to fire, and that the gun had refused to go off. Finally, the third time the order was given, a globe of flame leaped over the side of the gunboat, and a shell went whistling over their heads. They were evidently seen by the Turks. One of the boats, that of Shestakoff, now drew off, while that of Dubasoff continued to advance. Each boat was armed with two torpedoes, attached to the end of a long spar that projected from the bow. These spars were arranged to move on pivots, and could be sw^ung round so as to describe a. half-circle. The torpedoes were so placed that they could be detached from the spars at any moment, and, in addition to this, long light chains w^ere attached to them by which they were to be tied on to any projecting part of the attacked ship, and they were connected wdth the boat by a fine flexible wire about 100 yards long. The officer in command carried a small electric battery fastened round his chest. A livelv fusilade had now been opened upon the boat by the Turks, but in spite of this, the launch of Dubasoff shot under the bow of the monitor, the chain which was fastened to the torpedo was flung round a chain or rope that was hanging from the bow of the ship, the torpedo w^as dropped from the spar, and the current of the river carried it against the bottom of the ship. The launch then shot away again until the full length of the electric wire had been reached. The officer applied it to the battery round his chest, and at the same instant a huge volume of water rose up into the air, which half filled and nearly swamped Dubasoff"s launch, and a fearful explosion was heard, which completely drowned the shouts and cries and firing of the Turks. In the meantime the other monitors became alarmed, and without knowing the cause fired at random, and a fearful scene of terror and con- fusion ensued. They not only fired on the Russian launches, that still kept dodging about like mosquitoes, but in their panic and confusion fired into each other. The bullets rattled over the iron awnings of the launches, but did them no harm. They were not once struck, although the bow of one was pierced and sunk by a piece of a shell that exploded near it. The two launches were now on opposite sides of the doomed ship. Dubasoff perceived that the monitor was sinking down SUCCESSFUL TORPEDO EXPEDITION. 65 before, but very slowly; wIiIIq the Turks continued to fire away blindly, but incessantly, both with small arms and cannon. Dubasoff cried out to Shestakoff to try and place another torpedo in order to make sure of the ship, and the latter slipped in under the stern and put down another torpedo in the same manner as the previous one. He then shot off until he was at a safe distance, applied the electric battery in the same manner, and a still more terrible explosion followed. Parts of the ship were blown into the air, as was very soon perceived when a large plank a few seconds later -came down endways, driving its way through the iron screen into the boat between two of the sailors who were back to back close to each other, without injuring either of them. Then the monitor sank rapidly, and after a few moments nothing but her masts were visible above water. The crew had all either been drowned or had escaped by swimming. Day now began to break, and the position of the two little launches within the near range of two other Turkish monitors became very critical. To add to the danger of the situation, the screw of one of them got fouled, and the boat became unmanageable; while they perceived a Turkish launch from , one of the other monitors bearing down on them. They opened a fire of small arms on the Turkish launch, which veered off and showed no disposition to come any closer. One of the sailors got out into the water, and after several minutes' exertion succeeded in clearing the screw, and the two launches, having accomplished their mission of destruction, darted off, passed under the fire of the two other Turkish gunboats, escaped unharmed, and, rejoining their two consorts, returned in triumph to their place of starting. The Grand Duke received the news within two or three hours after, and the rejoicing among the Russians was very great. The two officers and the crews of the two boats have all received the Cross of St. George. This is the first instance, I believe, in "vv'hich a vessel has been destroyed in time of war by an enemy's torpedoes, and the ease with which this was accomplished makes it a most important event in naval warfare. What gives it more sig- nificance is that the Turks apparently were not taken by surprise. They had as much warning as a man-of-war could expect under the circumstances, and they found it utterly impossible to arrest or injure the swift and terrible instru- ments of destruction that were flitting about them in the darkness. The Turks are notoriously bad sailors, but it does not appear that even good sailors under such circumstances could have done any better. It is almost impossible to hit 66 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. such, a small and rapidlv moving object as one of these torpedo boats ^\T.tli a shell, especially in the darkness, while the fire of small arms Avas useless. It does not even seem that the torpedo netting which has been lately invented would have protected a ship against an attack of this kind. It should be remembered that unless the netting was so high as to prevent the torpedo at the end of the spar from beina hoisted over it and considerably lower than the keel of tha ship, it would be practically useless. The torpedo was carried to its place, it should be remembered, by the current, and ii could be as easily attached to the netting as to the fon chains, or any, other part of the ship. Once the torpedo should be hoisted or thrown over the netting, even were this netting so high as to prevent the torpedo being thrown ovei it, and so low as to prevent it from reaching the keel, the men on board the launch would apparently have time to cui a hole in it and put the torpedo through. The netting might be a defence against the Whitehead torpedo. It does not appear that it would serve against a bold and daring attack from a torpedo boat. It only remains to be seen whether the exploit can be repeated with equal impunity and success, to enable us to decide whether our whole system of shipbuilding is not radically wrong. As soon as the news arrived the Grand Duke sent for the two ofiicers who had performed the feat, as he wished to hear the story from their own lips and judge for himself how much was to be attributed to luck, how much to skill and science^ and whether it would be possible to repeat the experiment under like circumstances. The two officers soon arrived, and were lionized to an extent that completely overpowered them. They are both young men, both very modest and very un- assuming. It is from their own lips that I have this story. In the third Week in May a report was published, in circum- stances which obtained for it ready acceptance, that the Russians had crossed the Danube into the Dobrudscha. What really had happened was that, under cover of their batteries at Braila, they had taken possession of an island on the Danube and planted their first guns upon the enemy's soil. The following letter shows the military importance of Braila at this time : — * Braila, May 21.9^.— Braila, as we call it nowadays — Ibrailow, I believe, is its correct name — is a historic place. Before the Russians threw up their earthworks on its flanks the BRAILA IN WAR TIME. (j? other day the visitor might have searched in vain aronnd the precincts of Braila for so mnch as the relic of a bastion or a curtain, and its inhabitants of to-day, till the Rnssians came, probably only knew what a cannon was like becanse of occa- sional trips across the water. But Braila was once one of the principal fortresses on the Lower Danube ; and there is a man yet alive — a man w^ho many long years later had gazed from Meudon on the bombardment of Paris — who, when the second quarter of this present century w^as hardly yet begun, heard the sing of the round shot as they sped on to crumble the breaches in the walls of Braila. In 1827, when the Russians swarmed into the Principalities — which were then, by the way, not principalities — there were Turkish fortresses on the north as well as on the south bank of the Danube, and of these Braila w^as one. Around that city fortress a whole Russian army corps, 24,000 strong, stood, and dug, and mined, and fought from May 11th to June 18th. Its commander tried a premature coup de main, with the untow^ard result that of his river face attacking column there came back but a solitary man, a sergeant, who saved himself by swimming. Then he took to mining as w^ell as battering, and by-and-by his engi- neers reported several practicable breaches. But in those old days, when a man's strong arm and stout heart went for something, when war was not a thing of cold science, and when the reduction of a place was not a question of mathe- matical calculation, the Turk had a fine noble habit of ignor- ing the abstract practicability of a breach, and of beginning strenuously to defend a place just at the moment when, ac- cording to the cut-and-dry rules of the warfare of the period, the place ceased to be defensible. Braila, before the Pacha consented to march out, cost the Russians well on to 5,000 men. Of the slaughter among their predecessors in the ranks of the army of the Czar, fche Russian soldiers of to-day are reminded by the huge monument over the great grave w^hich stands in the middle of a pretty garden.where the blossoms of the locust tree dangle close to where the Russians of to-day have their camp on the environs of the town. Braila, although smaller, is a much handsomer town than its neighbour Galatz, and has a snug, prosperous aspect, which tells of good commissions earned by the sale of Moldavian grain. Trade cannot be called lively at present, for ruthless edicts block the Danube, and not even stout merchant Cap- tain Murphy, the Hibernian skipper, who roundly cursed the Russians when all foreign vessels w^ere w^arned to quit at a notice of six hours, and who swore by St. Patrick that he would not slack a hawser till he got his cargo aboard, dares F 2 ()8 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. now to attempt tlie enterprise of dropping down the Daniil)e. There is still a shoAV of shipping alongside the qnay on the- w^ater-side. Some twenty schooners and brigs lie there, but they lie there not to load cargoes and be olf down to Snlina and through the Bosphorns, but becanse they cannot help themselves. They are the victims of war, and here they mnst forlornly remain till the fell dogs are muzzled again. Another cause may possibly tend to detract from the light-heartedness of Braila. Turkish shells now and then come tumbling into the place, and ever and anon there echoes through the streets and squares the din of the Russian cannon hard by, making the window^s rattle in their frames and the spoons jump in the cups on the tables outside the cafe under the locust trees. The shell fire cannot be called ruthless, for the missiles seldom explode, and the casualties have been trivial ; the hotel waiter speaks of cannon fire as he might of the arrival of an extra train on the railway. " Yesterday there came none, day be4 fore one or two. On most days there is some shooting. HeS . or white wine. Sir ? " But to all is not given the insouciance of the hotel w aiter. Ladies' nerves go wrong under the strain^ of cannon thunder, even although there is scarcely any lights ning to speak about in connection wdth that thunder ; and sC it comes to pass that most of the gentlemen one meets are living en gar^on, having sent aw^ay their wives and children The place seems to me more than quite one half empty ; and except for the casual rattle of a vehicle containing a Russian, officer on his way from the camp to the Hotel Restaurant, or for the muffled clatter of Cossack pony hoofs, there reigns in the place a strange, weird silence that is very depressing. Apart from its historic associations, there attaches to Braila not a little interest of to-day. In sight of it befell the Turks the first of the many catastrophes with which this war is preg- nant for them — the explosion of the corvette Lutjl Djelil. Many believe that the Russians intend to follow the precedents of 1827, 1828, and 1853, and throw one of their bridges across the Danube at Braila. Specific predictions are alw^ays rash, and they are sometimes dangerous ; but previous events give an, amount of weight to an anticipation of the kind which may justify me in asking your readers to bear with me w^hile I describe Braila and its vicinity somewhat in detail. Suppose I ask the reader to accompany me to the roof of the house of Mr. Brown, the British Yice-Consul, near the centre of the town. Hence we look down on Braila, and across at Matchin. At our feet in front and to right and left is the town. That red-cross flag half a mile to the left waves over the hospital. A little distance further east is a Russian BOMBARDMENT OF GETCHET. 69 battery containing two large 8-incli guns and several smaller pieces. This battery is called the Northern Battery. Some- what further to our right, and actually within the barrier of the town, is the Russian Southern Battery, containing four 8-inch cannon, besides smaller 12-pounders. It is made on a wooden bluff of some elevation, which gives it some dominance ; but its position within the town exposes Braila to bombard- ment, as it nullifies its character of an open town. Hobart Pacha promised Mr. Sanderson, the English Consul at Galatz, that his vessels would not interfere with Galatz, Braila, or Reni so long as batteries were not made within them or in their immediate proximity ; but this battery renders it allow- able for Turkish cannon to bum Braila without violating Hobart Pacha's word. Allowable, no doubt ; but I imagine the Russian view is that it is impossible now that their big guns SAveep the Danube, and there is force in the argument. Only a chance shell might questionless fire Braila, and it must be said that the Russians have acted with some recklessness in exposing the place to this chance. Before lies the Danube, sweeping in towards the Black Sea with that steady, swift, ceaseless current which seems the embodiment of power. Opposite the Northern Russian Battery you may see the smoke still rising from the battered and burnt ruins of Getchet, otherwise Port Bender. There was a custom-house here, where the lighters coming down the Old Danube paid toll, and there was a guard house and a khan, and a few cottages — a mean place, all of a tremble with ague and river fever, and not to be chosen as a habitation by any one save of amphibious predilections. The Russians ten days ago battered it about and half burnt it, and sent across and ferried over the coal that had been deposited there for the use of the Turkish gun- boats ; but some irregulars had taken up a precarious position in the ruins, and kept popping away at the Russians on the Braila side in a troublesome manner. What other ultimate motive may have actuated the Russians in -sending a detachment over, and keeping it there where it now is, I do not venture to ask ; only if they have it in mind to cross here, I venture to think that it would have been better policy to have left the few houses standing, as they would furnish the nucleus at least of a tete-de-pont, and give some cover to a force thrown over to guard the pontoniers from molestation. Anyhow, yesterday Getchet was first battered by shell fired from the smaller guns of the Northern Battery, and then occupied by 600 Cossacks, who still remain in occupation. Let us finish off Getchet when we are about it. Practically the place is isolated. Behind it is a wide expanse of swamp, interspersed with /<> WAR CORRESPONDENCE. lagoons and backwaters, which, render the traversing of it impossible. This expanse is about two miles wide, and beyondl it rises the broken picturesque hill country — tlie tail of thatl spur of the Balkans which runs northward through thef Dobrudscha, and forms its backbone. The Danube seems in heavier flood than when I first looked down on it from the Bel- vedere in Galatz nearly a month ago ; and so continuous are the backwaters that I am assured it is possible to go by water from Matchin to Isatchia without ever touching the Danube proper at all. From Gretchet a precarious footpath skirts the bank of the Old Danube to Matchin ; but for long distances it is now under water, and it never is anything but a foot- path. Wherefore, applying the test of common sense, a crossing in force from Braila to Getchet would seem purpose- less, at least for the present, while the waters are out. It is eminently practicable, for the Turks have nothing to interfere with the enterprise ; the Danube is wholly under the sweep of the B;ussian cannon, and at the point named is not above one thousand metres wide. Pontoons abound ; they are being manufactured in the vicinity by the hundred ; but it is essential for an army corps safely landed at Getchet, if indeed about that juicy locality there be terra firma for an army corps, to find standing room on. The making of a raised chaussee to the upland, such as the Russians made in 1827 on the Bessa- rabian side from Salunevo to the w^ater's edge opposite Isatchia, would be a labour which, if its accomplishment were prac- ticable at all, would employ a division for a month, by which time the falling water would render it a useless superfluity. ]^o doubt the Russians crossed here in 1853, but that was in July- August, when the river falls to its summer level. A few hundred yards above Getchet there ends an island which begins at Hirsova, sixty miles higher up the river, and divides it for all this distance into two great branches. Of these the right branch, which flows more or less close to the foot of the hill country of the Dobrudscha, and on which stands the town of Matchin, is known as the " Old Danube ;" the left branch, which spreads and ramifies over the flat Wallachian meadow land, is the Danube proper, of the present day at least. The island formed by these branches belongs to Roumania ; it is low, flat, and intersected with water-courses. Perhaps at this season quite one-half of it is swamp. The tail of it here opposite to us as we look out from the roof of the Consul's house is partly bare, partly covered with low scrubby wood, alders and willows. The Old Danube beyond these alders and willows trends away sharply to the southward, almost, but not quite, at right angles to the main branch which lies at our MATCHIN. 71 feet between us and the island. Follow with the eye the course of the Old Danube. About half way up between the bifurcation and Matchin notice that tall bare spar rising in its nakedness high above the foliage. That is the still- standing mizenmast of the ill-fated Lutfi Djelil, the Turkish corvette which three weeks ago so proudly passed up stream opposite Galatz with ports open and fighting deck cleared, while the burghers glowered on her trim grimness with their hearts in their mouths. I have told in your columns the tragic story of her fate. In the hospital under the red-cross flag their lies torn and mangled the sole survivor of the 200 men who formed lier crew. No flag now waves from that spar ; the crescent and star hung there for two hours after the tragedy, but no Turk- ish craft put out from Matchin so that it might be possible to repeat the words of the chivalrous Francis after the cata- strophe of Pa via. All was lost, and honour was not saved; for a Russian officer, boarding the wreck from one of the steam launches, climbed the mast and took the trophy. Some distance higher up are visible more spars above the trees ; but these are not so lofty as the mournful relic of the corvette. Here, under what shelter the island-bank may afford, lie three Turkish gunboats. It is their masts we see. Their fate does not promise brightly. There is not sufficient water for them, it appears, to emerge from the Old Danube branch upward at the point where it quits the main river. They might indeed pass downward but for these Russian batteries which form across the stream, and which have already wrought the ruin of the fine craft alongside which they were mere cock-boats. They are penned, snared, imprisoned ; their fate is either to be grounding here on their beef bones, while slowly the waters recede from under them and render exit down stream also impossible, or to strike their flag to the Russian gunners. Yesterday the great guns of the Southern Battery west of Oalatz were trj^ng the range in their direction, and with satisfactory^ results ; they may be the .targets of a crushing- cannonade to-morrow. , Looking a little to the right of the topmasts of the gunboats, we trace the outlines of the principal buildings in Matchin. The distance is eight miles, so that even with the glass not a great -deal is to be made out, save that in a slope near the centre stands a mosque, Avith an imposing front, flanked by two minarets. Matchin is said to be fortified after a fashion — that is, the old walls and peppercorn flanking turrets, and crenellated cur- tains, have not wholly crumbled into the moat ; but it has no pretension to be a place of strength in the modern acceptation of the term. There are a few batteries about it, which were 72 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. armed witli large but obsolete small-bore cannon ; but it is^ reported in Braila that some Krupps have reached Matchin, and been placed in position. If this be the case thej have given no sign ; but except when the Russian launches came up about the foundered corvette nothing hostile has been as yet within their range. On that occasion, not the Matchin cannon, but a battery on the edge of the hill country to the^ proper right of Matchin and almost immediately behind Getchet, came into action. Matchin slopes up on the hill« side, and is very pretty from the distance at which Ave look on it, w^hile the sun is dancing on the housetops, and light- ing up the sombreness of the woods on the ridge behind it. Growing gradually paler till it fades away into a faint blue, that ridge recedes in a south-westerly directioB towards Hirsova, sixty miles off at the head of the gTeat island. I don't know^ that there is much more to describe. The Russians have attempted to effect no footing on the island, and from this side of the river their cannon, large as they are, cannot reach to Matchin. Likely enough, that place may wake up some fine morning and find itself in the hands of a Russian force, which, marching by the footpath from Getchet, may haply carry the place by surprise under cover of night, takings advantage of the notoriously bad night watch which the Turks* keep. If we turn our backs on the Danube and look inland beyond the town, we see the tentes d'ahri of the Russians camps half encircling Braila. There are camps of two kinds, standing camps and flying camps. In the former abide a division of the lltli Corps, under the command of General Staloff ; the other division of the same corps (Prince- Schahofskoy's) being in Galatz. This was the first corps to enter Roumania, and it has penetrated the least into that territory. After one day's march from the Pruth it sat down, to hold the exposed left, while the rest of the Army of Operation marched through it, or by it, or round it. The inhabitants of the flying camps are there to-day and gone to-morrow, ^ow a regiment of Skobeleff's Cossacks put up for a day and ask for rations, on their way to Bucharest, Kalarash, Braila, Tuma Magurelle, or Kalaf at, who can tell ? Now it is a brigade of Dragomiroff 's stout fellows of the 8th Corps, with the mud of the Birlat Valley fresh on their long boots ; now the dragoons of Prince Manueloff, surely the finest heavy cavalry of the line ina all broad Europe. As the detachments march, the mass passes, outside Braila, but a battalion, or a squadron, or a sotni-a always makes its way through the town with what bravery of appearance is possible, with band playing or drums beating, PRINCE CHARLES OF ROUMANIA. 7d or leading files thumping the cymbals or obeying the old genial command that has lightened so many a long day's march — " Singers to the front !" Rations are waiting for the in-marching troops, and the out-marching have their haver- sacks made up. At first the intendance contracted with the bakers in Braila for loaves ; now they buy flour — only wheat and rye flour, they will have no other grain — and military bakers bake the bread in the field ovens in the camp. Right good bread it is. I speak from experience, for to-day I lunched mainly off it. Whither do all the pontoons disappear ? They are being turned out here in numbers, and also on the Sereth, but as soon as they are finished they disappear mysteriously under cover of night, some in carts, some by rail. All the world kfiows that pontoons are required for the crossing of the Danube,, but, through me, for the present, no part of the world must know what is the destination of these pontoons. Towards the end of May it became known that the Emperor Alexander was about to visit the army, although at that time no one imagined that he was likely to stay throughout the- summer campaign. The subjoined letter describes a tour of inspection in Walla- chia made by Prince Charles of Roumania : — * PoiANO, near Kalafat, May 27th. — Born a Hohenzollern and reared an officer in the Prussian army, it is little wonder that Prince Charles of Roumania is above all things a soldier. Since his election to the headship of the Principalities, he has sedulously devoted a large share of his energies to the im- provement, or rather, indeed, in the first instance, to the creation of a Roumanian army, and that his labour has not been lost is apparent to any man having any conversance with military matters who has spent the last few weeks in the territory over which Prince Charles holds sway. Two corps of thc^ Roumanian army, each numbering 28,000 men, are now in the field, fully equipped, and ready for immediate action, while the militia, whose strength is close on 100,000 men, is- ready for mobilization at the shortest notice. The first army corps is now in position in Little Wallachia, chiefly in its. more westerly section, and having previously visited other points at which detachments of his troops were on duty^ Prince Charles and his military advisers arranged a tour of inspection of that corps, impelled the more to this course because of the near approach to completion of sundry pre- 74 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. parations which, for some time past have been in progress at Kalafat, over against the Turkish fortress of Widdin. It was settled that his Highness should leave Bucharest yester- day morning, journeying on that day as far as Krajova, and, through the kindness of an old Servian friend, w^hose good offices w^e have experienced in not a few awkw^ard places in the district between Saitchar and Djunis, an invitation to accompany the Prince on this excursion w^as given to Mr. Yilliers, of the Grapliic, and myself. We were strictly non- official. The official members of the party accompanying his Highness were the following : — the Minister of War, Colonel Cernat ; the chief of the headquarters staff of the Roumanian army. Colonel Staniceana ; the Marechal of the Court, Colonel Yacaresco ; Staff Major Lahovari, aide-de-camp of the Prince and commandant of headquarters ; Colonel Greceanu, aide- de-camp of the War Mihister ; Captain Maurocordato ; Colonel Dochtouroff, the Russian Military Commissioner with the Roumanian army ; and Colonel Gaillard, the French military attache with the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army. The party quitted Bucharest at eight o'clock yesterday morning, in carriages attached to the ordinary day train running to Krajova, and on to Turn Severin and the Austrian frontier. This train conveyed also Commodore Demetrescu Maican, the commander of the Roumanian flotilla, with several other naval officers and a number of sailors, on their way to do duty as gunners in the batteries bordering the north bank of the Danube in Little Wallachia. It rained furiously until after midday, and the country for a long distance w^as perfectly flat and dull, so that this portion of the journey w^as far from interesting. It w^as made apparent to me that it is not alone in England that mayors and other local dignitaries insist on asserting their own self- importance by the presentation of addresses whenever oppor- tunity affords. The first gun of the running fire of addresses was fired in Gaesh, a station about half w^ay to Pilesti, where a gentleman in a portentous white tie disregarded the rain and triumphantly read a document, concerning w^hich all that I can say is, that its language was very sonorous. I had the jDleasure of the companionship of a Russian colonel of engineers on his way to Slatina, and thence " to the Danube," which is a pleasant vague expression, w^hich is very frequently in the mouths of the cautious and reticent Russian officers. The colonel gave me much very interesting and valuable information regarding the internal economy of the Russian army, which I must take another opportunity for recounting. A TOUR OF INSPECTION. 75 I found that it pleased hini greatly tliat it was in my power to bear testimony to tlie orderly and decorous manner in which the Russian soldiers had conducted themselves during their march through E-oumania, and casual confirmation on this head came, curiously enough, from a civilian gentleman who happened to share our carriage. It appeared from his narrative that a certain corporal of the Sapper battalion i^o. 6 chanced to break a glass on his billet in the little town of Hemnik. His host, when he offered to pay for the damage, told him he would accept no recompense for what was a pure accident ; but the corporal did not see the matter in this light. Failing to prevail on his host to accept payment for the damage, he went out and bought another glass, and, bringing that back to his billet, compelled the host to take it. The colonel also told me that the name of the officer in the Grand Duke's headquarters commanding the whole artillery of the Army of Operation is General Prince Masalski, and that of the officer commanding the whole engineer force. General Deebh — names which may be worth remembering as likely to recur in the story of the campaign. At Pilesti, where we halted for dejeuner, the station was very beautifully adorned with silvan and floral decorations; the vicinity of the station and the platform were thronged with masses of townspeople and peasants cheering the Prince with the warmest enthusiasm, and on the reverse side of the train a Russian infantry battalion, the contents of a military train which was halted in the station, paraded without arms, and showed to great advantage, the men being clean and neat in spite of their long journey, made under conditions unfa- vourable for opportunities of neatness and cleanliness, while their stalwart, soldierly forms excited the admiration of all capable of appreciating the physical good points of the soldier. While lunching. Prince Charles received from the Grand Duke Nicholas in Ployesti a telegram announcing the destruction by a torpedo of a Turkiah gunboat near Braila, the particulars of which daring and successful attempt I sent you by telegraph last week. It was remarked that at the rate they are now disappearing no long time will elapse before the Turkish flotilla is wholly removed off the face of the Danube ; and the exploit has a far wider significance in the lesson it teaches, or rather, perhaps, the contingencies which it suggests, than in its relation simply to the Turkish war craft on the Danube. Until near Pilesti the train had traversed a region almost per- fectly flat, but now we were in the vicinity of the higher ground, marking the commencement of the picturesquely k 76 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. gradual slope of the Carpathian Monntains, and the terrain became charmingly diversified with fertile swelling, rising grounds, covered with vineyards and broken by beautiful valleys in which pretty villages nestled among the oak trees by the margin of the wimpling brooks. Occasionally the line passes through deep cuttings — rare sights in Roumania — and these, I observed, are levelled by transverse bands of wattles fastened down by stakes, an expedient which seems an effectual, and must be a cheap, preventive of that tendency to fall in which is so common and so troublesome in a friable soil. Long stretches of oak copse alternated with fertile fields and vine-bergs ; and no one could look on the land Avithout acknowledging that it was fair. A country, surely, w^ell w^orth fighting for, and calculated to stir the patriotism even of a people whose stomach for fighting has not hitherto been reputed to be very keen. The Roumanians themselves are conscious that this is the character generally ascribed to them, but the depreciatory estimate does not seem to be justified historically ; and all I can say is, I have already twice seen Roumanian troops under fire without having observed any of the tremor which is not wholly unnatural in young and inexperienced soldiers. At Corbu station, beyond Pilesti, we found paraded on the long platform an unarmed battalion of the 122nd Regiment, part of the 31st Division, now on its march in a westerly direction through Wallachia. The 31st is one of the divisions of the 9th Army Corps, its other division, the 5th, being in the line of march further in the rear. In every case the Russian troops paraded in the railway stations for the inspection of the Prince were unarmed, as they were travelling by military train, and their belts and arms when on such a journey are stowed away in separate carriages till the destination is reached. The Prince was received by the commandant of the battalion, the band playing the Roumanian national air as he alighted. He passed along the front of the battalion, and after exchanging a few words with the officers re-entered his carriage, the band playing the Russian Hymn, a beautiful and solemn melody, with a noble roll and sway in its stately measure. We have heard it often in England on the occasion of visits of members of the Russian Imperial family, but it is music which sounds most appropriate when performed at the head of serried ranks of soldiers. As the train left the sta- tion, the Russian soldiers gave his Highness three ringing rounds of real genuine " Hurrahs," which sounded to me strangely English, till I remembered that the " Hurrah '' w^hich we have come to regard as our own is really indigenous A REGIMENTAL VOCALIST. . 77 among the Cossacks of the Don steppes, and came to us across Europe from them. At Poleovo, which is the last station on the route westward to Slatina, we were detained for several hours. A little distance further forward, there had been an . accident on the line the same morning, and the damage had not been made good sufficiently to admit of the passage of a train. There was no resource but patience. Here, too, was a battalion of the 122nd Regiment, with General Belokopiloff commanding the brigade to which it belongs, and after the Prince had inspected it, the General, to pass away the time, ordered the singing contingent of the battalion to gather on the platform and do their best to gratify the audience chance had sent them. A circle consisting of about two hundred strong-lunged yet sweet-voiced fellows — forming the chorus — was formed, and the open space in the centre of this circle was speedily occupied by the leading vocalist, a stalwart pri- vate, AAdth a grin of curious humour, and a voice both strong and sweet. At a word he struck into a ditty, which evidently was highly comic in the estimation of his audience, among whom the bursts of laughter were frequent. I am unfortu- nately unacquainted with the Russian language, and could not follow the singer's meaning. The song was his own, and, I was told, an improvisation ; but I could make out that there was a good deal in it about Turkey and about Asia, and several times the name of England was mentioned. I was told after- wards by my friend the engineer colonel that the vocalist was not complimentary to our native land, venturing freely on the assertion that England was taking the side of the Turks, but that this circumstance would not in the slightest degree in- terfere with the inevitable Russian triumph. The little colonel chuckled very wickedly as he replied to my question as to the tenor of the allusion, and I have no doubt it found sympathy in the bosoms of most of the officers, while all the privates clearly relished it entirely. " Disraeli," as the Russians still persist in styling my Lord Beaconsfield, is not a favourite in their army, and it is of no avail to attempt to persuade a Russian that England veritably means to be neutral unless •events should occur which in the opinion of the more im- partial Russians themselves would justify, nay compel, a departure from the line of neutrality. But to return to our militaiy vocalists. At the end of each stanza of his song the solo performer demanded the chorus with a jerk of his arm and a nod of his head; and didn't the chorus just comply with the demand ! The first tune was brisk and sprightly, robust and full of verve and go, but its music was by no means uncouth. At the chorus of the last verse a grizzled 78 WAR COERESPONDEXCE. I raip but lissom non-commissioned officer, a terpsicliorean corporal^ as a Russian officer anxious to display his proficiency in the Englisli language called him, burst into a dance of galvanic wildness. Now he was down on his hams, jumping like a frog ; now he was spinning high in air like a saraband. The fantasticality of his pirouettings forcibly reminded me of the weird performances of the Hill-men who danced their native dances before the Prince of Wales, as he and his suite and guests were sitting by the great camp fire out on the plain behind the historic Delhi ridge. Nor were there wholly wanting^ instruments to accompany and accentuate the voices of the soldiers. "Whistles were heard on the outskirts of the throng, and the second song was accompanied by the dulcet melody of a tambourine. Later an accordion was produced, and a very creditable solo executed thereon by a grotesquely senti- mental-looking private. But this was not lively enough for the general taste, so a jig was played on the accordion and tambourine in concert, while two privates enacted a break- down and cellar-flap performance in a style which would have secured them an immediate engagement from the proprietor of a London music-hall, if a gentleman of that enterjDrising order had been among the spectators. They maintained visages of the most preternaturally solemn, not to say lugii- brious, aspect through the whole performance, to which one gave a pleasing variety by turning a series of somersaults backwards, while the other danced upon his hands, keeping time as with a pair of castanets with the heels of his boots, high in air. The finale was a plaintive song, sung with genuine feeling and good taste, and the pathos of the strain, although I could not know the meaning of the words, went far to supply the defect. At length, after long and, spite of the singing, weary delay, the news came that the line was repaired, but that at the place of the accident it was yet unable to bear gTcat weight. So the train was cut in two, and the Prince's special carriages went forward, leaving the rest to follow later. The scene of the accident was a steep slope, in the fall of which is cut the rail- way track, and it seems that under the weight of a heavy material train the outside edge of this had subsided. There had been a great smash, for three trucks lay on the slope more or less wrecked, and their contents had rolled to the little valley down the bottom. Among the massive chains and the bales of cordage were a number of torpedo frames. Had there been " live " torpedoes in the train, what a ghastly catastrophe would have occurred ! We had to alight and walk past the scene of the damage, after which we rattled A DANCING CORPORAL. 79 on merrily to Slatina. On the plateau across wliicli tliat sta- tion is readied, a right pretty sight fixed onr attention — the camp of the cavalry division of the 9th Corps. Alternately the horse-lines and the rows of little tents extended athwart the plain, and above the white tents of the Uhlans fluttered the red and white of their lance pennons. The quarter guard turned out and presented arms to the Prince as the train passed, and in a few minutes more we were in the station, where Baron Kriidener, commanding the 9th Corps, was waiting to receive his Highness in all the splendour of full uniform. The fine band of one of the Russian regiments of the division played on the platform while dinner was being eaten in the restaurant ; after which the Prince took leave of the General, and the train proceeded on the way to Krajova. On the flat beyond the town of Slatina we passed large camps of Russian infantry soldiers, and nearer the crossing of the river Aluta there w^as a camp of Cossacks perched high on one of the blaffs overlooking the valley. This was the last of the Russian camps, but not yet the last of the Russians, for in the gather- ing twilight, just as, passing down a narrow ravine from the table -land, we descended into the broad valley of the Aluta, we saw, moving briskly along a narrow track winding down the same ravine, but far below the railway line, a polk of Cossacks riding forward to take up the forepost line for the night. The Aluta, thrice its ordinary size, came foaming down its bed in a brown flood, studded with ugly snags and dangerous drift timber, but the fine iron bridge was sturdily supporting the strain. Beyond the bridge we passed a series of battery emplacements and shelter trenches which the Rou- manian troops had thrown up for its protection, in the appre- hension of the crossing of the Danube by the Turks at Kalafat, and their advance eastward through the Principality. Fortu- nately these works are now but lost labour. Although the main bridge had withstood the flood, a lesser bridge on one of the many side currents of the swollen Aluta had gone down, its central pier having been undermined, and there lay in the .mud and water below the debris of a train which fortunately carried no passengers, but materials. But the accident was very serious in its character, and still more so in its conse- quences, for it will take weeks to rebuild the bridge, and meanwhile a temporary line is being constructed, similar to that by w^hich the Seine was crossed at Creil by the trains on the Northern Railway of France, before the stone bridge, blown up at the beginning of the war, had been rebuilt. Such a crossing, however, involves delay, and is always more or less troublesome. The Roumanian railway system has 80 WAE CORRESPONDENCE. done its worst persistently to spite tlie Russians, and delay tlieir advance. It is tlie creation of Dr. Stronsberg, and can- not be called a triumpli of good engineering or of conscientious construction. We found a train waiting on the otlier side of tlie ruined bridge, and were led to it by peasants brandishing great torches, for by this time it was quite dark. Soon after- wards we reached Krajova, where we were to halt for the night, and where the reception of the Prince was enthusiastic and hearty. The morning rendezvous was the house occupied by the Prince for the night — the hour, eight. There is no railway beyond Krajova in the direction of Kalafat, and we were to make the journey in waggons, of which had been collected a very miscel- laneous assortment, draivn by smart cobby ponies. The Prince journeyed in a caleche drawn by four horses abreast. Colonel Gailiard and a companion had a regular four-in-hand ; our vehicle was a diligence with three horses abreast as wheelers, and a pair of very wicked leaders. From the rendezvous the party drove to the Greek church for morning prayers. Priests in robes of dazzling splendour stood before the gorgeous ikonostas. The church was filled with the sweet, solemn strains of sacred music, and the fragrance of the incense waved from a silver censer scented the air with its pungency. The Prince occupied a throne opposite the ikonostas ; his suite formed a circle in the centre of the church, and the ornamented Grecian archways were thronged with the people of the place. On the conclusion of the service the priests escorted his Highness to his carriage, and the journey com- menced in earnest. Our coachmen were peasants in white clothes, with round hats ornamented with long streamers of bright-coloured ribbons, and the vehemence with which they cracked their whips was a caution. I should like much to describe in detail the pleasing incidents of this drive through the pretty and fertile territory of Little Wallachia, but there is no time, for as it is I am stealing more than a few hours from the night to write this letter. I should have liked to speak of the statuesque beauty of the people, and the fantastic picturesqueness of their dresses, of their semi- subterranean dwellings, and of their simple enthusiastic delight at seeing their Prince. But there is no time. We galloped on through the beautiful oak glades, with charming glimpses of green sward interspersed, and now and then in a glade there would be waiting for us a picturesque group of peasant-horsemen, with banners flying above them, who with a cheer would fall in behind the Prince's carriage, and gallop on till the limits of their boyard's estate was reached, when they would give ARCADIA ON THE DANUBE. 81 place to another civilian escort of a similar cliaracter; and at a wayside village the strains of music would greet us, and we would find a pretty bower, constructed on the road-side, of green oak branches, shading a cool carpet of new -mown grass strewn with roses and lilacs, and in this bower the Prince would be bidden to rest awhile in a chair whose back twas of rosebuds, and whose arms were masses of locust-tree blossoms, and to partake of refreshments — preserved fruit, the dulczda of Roumania, the slafk:o of Servia — while the solemn fiddlers played a jig on their violins in the centre of a circle of lads and lasses, all in their gayest dresses, with flowers in their hands and wreaths of blossoms round their waists, who deftly footed the Chora — that dance which in name as in character is simply the ^^opEo,- of the ancient Greeks. Then the mayor's pretty daughter, the only damsel in the village possessed of shoon, presents her nosegay of roses to the Prince, and the cortege drives onward to a similar scene in the next village. It was Arcadia, but a precarious Arcadia indeed ; for away across the far- stretching level flat on which sparkle in the sunshine the metal roofs of the churches, and yet a little further, beyond the broad flood of the Danube, whose gleam is visible here and there through the screen of willows, rises the low ridge of the Turkish bank, and behind that, faintly blue in the sunshine, the snow- streaked summits of the Balkan. Arcadia is not a day's ride of a squad of Bashi-Bazouks from that ridge yonder, and these blue moun- tains look down on a Turkish fortress and a Turkish army which lies between Arcadia and their hitherward slopes. We had dejeuner under a shed near Bailesti — not strictly dejeuner a la fourchette, as some one remarked, because there was rather a scarcity of forks. Three hours further on we struck the Danube at Golenz, where the party alighted to inspect a very fine defensive position. Now we had quitted Arcadia, and were quite in a military atmosphere. On either side the road, troops were in camp or ^ in bivouac — regulars, reserve, and militia, or, as they are styled in Roumanian, Doro- bantzen. The broad plateau above Kalafat is encircled by the earthworks of generations of invaders and defenders; the profile of the works raised by Omar Pacha in 1853-4 is still almost perfect. At the entrance to the works the Prince w^as met by General Lupu, commanding the army corps, and by Colonel Tcherkess, commanding the division now in and about Kalafat, with their respective staffs, and escorted to the headquarters in the town. It is impossible for me now to describe in detail Kalafat, its defences, and its enemy — Widdin — opposite to it. Suffice it now to say that at present G 82 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. tliere are four batteries in all, armed, two with field guns on tlie edge of tlie bluff, and two witli long 25-pounder 15- centimetre cannon on the water's edge. After an inspection of these, the Prince drove to the camp, where he found a brigade of infantry drawn up, presenting a most effective and soldierlike appearance. When it was near dusk the partj returned to ISTo. 1 Battery, and there witnessed the effect of a few shots which were thrown into Widdin for the purpose of getting the ranges, this having been the first time the heavy guns were brought into action. The results were all that was desired, and no damage was done by the warm — although tardy — fire which was poured in by the Turks, as well into the town as into the batteries. Three shells exploded in the battery whence the Prince and his party were viewing the practice, and I was struck by the admirable conduct at this time of the Roumanian gunners, who never flinched in the slightest degree under the trying ordeal. Of the few Russian officers who have risen rapidly in reputa- tion during this war, of none is the name now more familiar than that of Greneral Skobeleff. The following letter is a description of him from personal knowledge acquired before he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself in Turkey : — t Ployesti, May 20tJi.- — Among the many officers on the Grand Duke's staff*, there is one who would attract attention any- where, and whose career has been curious and brilliant. He is a tall, handsome man, with a lithe, slender, active figure, a clear blue eye, and a large, prominent, but straight, well- shaped nose, the kind of nose it is said Napoleon used to look for among his officers when he wished to find a general, and a face young enough for a second lieutenant although he is a general — the youngest in the Russian army. It is the famous Greneral Skobeleff, the conqueror of Ferghana, or Khokand. The last time I saw him we were both standing on the banks of the Oxus, in the Khanate of Khiva. He was starting on his way to Tashkent; I on my return to St. Petersburg, in a boat which was to float me down to the mouth of the Oxus into the Aral Sea, where I was to f^nd a Russian steamer. We were the last two who had seen the city of Khiva, for we were the last to leave it. He was then Colonel Skobeleff, and had just returned from a remarkable and daring expedition, for Avhich he afterwards received the Cross of St. Oeorge. It will be remembered that of the five columns which marched on Khiva only four arrived, and that GEOT3RAL SKOBELEIT. 83 one, tliat of Markosoff, was obliged to turn back in the middle of tbe desert for want of water, after having incurred the most imminent danger of destruction from heat and thirst. Kauffmann wished to ascertain whether it would be possible for Markosoif to reach Khiva by that route, but the Turkomans whom we had just been fighting had all fled in that direction. To have explored the route with safety it would have been necessary to send a large column, whicli Kauffmann did not think the importance of the matter justified. The only other alternative was for a small party to make the •attempt at the risk of falling into the hands of the exasperated Turkomans. This Colonel Skobeleff volunteered to do. He took three friendly Turkomans with him, disguised himself in the costume of a Turkoman, and stai*ted on his perilous enter- ' prise. He did not return for ten days, and everybody had given him up for lost, when he finally appeared at Khiva the " day before Kauffmann's evacuation of the capital. He had managed to elude the Turkomans and to reach the point where Markosoff had turned back ; he explored the way, measured the depth of the wells and the amount of water they could , supply, and returned safely, almost exhausted by his long ' ride. He washed, of course, to write his report immediately, but, as the army was moving next day, he determined to stay behind for that purpose in one of the Khan's palaces outside the city which had been Kauffmann's headquarters, and he asked me to keep him company, which I very willingly under- Ptook to do. We remained there a day and a night after the •departure of the army, and thus it came about that we were the last two of the invading expedition to look upon the Khivan capital. 8ince that time I had followed his career in the Russian and other newspapers, and it has been a very extraordinary and brilliant one. First I heard of him as Colonel Skobeleff fight- ing with the Khokandians ; then as General Skobeleff", to whom Kauffmann had entrusted the command of the forces sent against Khokand ; afterwards as General Skobeleff, Governor of Ferghana, the new name of Khokand, the country which he himself conquered and annexed, and which contains a popula- tion of about two millions of inhabitants. Then I heard nothing more of him until I met him in the railway train on his way to Kischeneff to rejoin the Army of the Danube. I see that the papers are continually confounding him with his father, who is likewise in the Army of the Danube, in com- mand of an independent division of Cossacks who were among the troops that made the famous march to Galatz on the day of the declaration of war, to i)rotect the bridge of G 2 84 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Barbosch. The father is by no means an old man ; father and son resemble each other as nearly as two peas, and the two together, both young and both generals, form a very curious instance of early success achieved without protection or favour. A parallel case is offered by that of General Ignatieff ,. the diplomatist, and his father, who is likewise a general in. the Russian army. The war resulting in the conquest of Khokand seems to have^ been altogether a very curious affair. The country of Kho- kand was very much in the same condition at that time as Turkey is at present. The people had been so oppressed and exasperated by the extortions of Khudoyar Khan that they had risen in insurrection against him in favour of his son^ whom they at first succeeded in putting on the throne, form- ing a parallel case with the Bulgarian insurrection and the overthrow of Abdul Aziz. Curiously enough, this insurrec- tion, which was altogether unexpected, broke out on the very day that a Russian Embassy arrived at the capital of Kho- kand. Within twenty-four hours the Khan was obliged to retreat towards the Russian frontier, and the Embassy was of course obliged to retreat with him. Skobeleff accompanied this. Embassy, and his account is very amusing. Only about 200 men of the Khan's whole army remained faithful to him ; all the rest w^ent over to the insurgents and took part wdth the enraged population, w^ho immediately began a pursuit of the retreating monarch. The Russians had about fifty Cossacks,. who were obliged to take part in the defence, otherwise they w^ould have all been killed. The Khan had started in the night wath eighty cartloads of money and treasure, with which he had hoped to reach the Russian frontier. The hope was vain, but at the same time it probably served to save his life, and to prevent the retreating column from being completely cut to pieces, for every time that they w^ere on the point of being overpowered by superior numbers, the Khan ordered a cartload of silver to be dropped, whereupon the whole insurgent army threw itself on the abandoned treasure, and fought for it among themselves, thus giving the retreating party a fresh start. This operation was repeated no fewer than sixty times before they reached the Russian frontier, when the Khan had only tw^enty carts left. The loss of life was comparatively small. The Khan submitted to his pecuniary losses with great equanimity, as he still had enough left, and he is now living in Orenburg on the debris of his fortune in a princely manner, still a very rich man. The insurgents succeeded in placing his son on the throne, and in spite of the fact that the Russian Fmbassy had been tired A BOLD NIGHT ATTACK. 8d upon and liad sustained !iom3 loss, Kauffmann informed the new Khan that he was willing to recognize his authority pro- Tided he would recognize and ratify the treaty which had heen in existence for some years between Khokand and Russia. The people of Central Asia are much like the Turks, and every concession made with a view of avoiding difficulties is re- garded by them as a sign of weakness. This very moderate proposition coming from Kaulfmann after the Russian Em- %)assy had been fired at was regarded as a proof that the Russians were afraid, and their reply to it was to cross the Russian frontier, bum two or three Russian post stations, and kill the post-masters. There was nothing for Kauffmann to do but to send a column to protect the frontier, and put a ^top to these acts of lawlessness. This, of course, very soon resulted in a collision, and the Russians invaded the country. 'They marched to the town of Namangan, which they took by «torm after a few hours' bombardment ; but the detachment was a small one, while the enemy's forces were very numerous tind very brave, with more or less discipline, and the Russians soon found that, although they had taken the town by storm, they would be unable to hold it. They wdthdrew^ from it therefore, and the next day began to retire towards the frontier, or, to put it more plainly, to retreat. They were immediately followed by the Khokandians, who attacked them with great violence and harassed them continually, keeping up a running fire all day long and making their position a very disagreeable one. On the third day of the retreat the Russian infantry had only fifteen cartridges left, the cavalry only three, and they still had three days' march before they could hope for reinforcements and supplies. The situation was a very critical one, and General Trotsky, who was in command of the detachment, decided that something would have to be done to put a stop to this incessant battle. The Russian detachment •numbered only about eight hundred men, with three or four hundred Cossacks ; while the forces of the enemy were some •6,000 or 7,000. The Khokandians had besides considerable experience in war. Their forces were regularly organized into companies and battalions ; they had uniforms, standards, very good arms, and all the elements of a military organiza- tion. General Trotsky decided upon a night attack, and con- fided his plan to Colonel Skobeleff, then his chief of staff. The latter entered into the idea with great enthusiasm, and proposed to lead the attacking column himself ; but, going upon the principle that a night attack should be rather with the view of striking terror into the heart of the enemy than with the hope of doing him any great deal of harm, he 86 WAR COERESPONDENCE. decided to take only 150 Cossacks for the attack. Skobeleff^ having reconnoitred the ground, perceived that the Khokan- dians had encamped within a mile and a half of the Russians, in an open plain, which gave every facility for the manoeu- vring of cavalry. At midnight he took his 150 Cossacks, divided them into three parties, and cautiously surrounded the enemy's camp. The party led by Skobeleff himself managed to pass the enemy's outposts, who were sound asleep. Then he gave the signal for the attack by firing his pistol, and,, followed by his 150 Cossacks, he rode headlong into the- enemy's camp of six or seven thousand men, shouting and. yelling like fiends, and cutting down everything in their passage. The effect was tremendous. For a quarter of an hour the plain resounded with shrieks and yells, shots, the trampling of horses, shouts, and groans, and all the uproar of battle. Then all was silence. SkobelefE assembled his Cossacks, and when morning came he found that the whole army of the enemy had disappeared, leaving on the field about 40 dead, 37 standards,- 2,000 turbans, 2,000 or 3,000 muskets and sabres, all their camp material and baggage. But what was his astonishment on calling the roll to discover that he had not lost a man either killed or wounded. For a small affair it was one of the most brilliant feats ever recorded, for it inflicted a most disastrous defeat on the enemy, saved the Russian detach- ment, and enabled it to reach the frontier and its base in safety. , These kinds of exploits have obtained for Skobeleff the reputation, even among the Russians, of being a kind of madman, who would fling away his own life, and those of his. troops, without the slightest regard to consequences. General Skobeleff* is rather indignant at this view of his character,, and I am convinced it does him a great injustice. There i& method in his madness, or rather Avhat at first appears- madness ; as, for instance, attacking 7,000 men with 150 was,, as he explains it, not only not madness, but a reasonable,, well-conceived plan, with the requisite number of chances on the side of the attacking party, and one that must have had the approval of all military men. His explanation is as. follows : — Irregular troops, even of the ver}^ bravest and best, are peculiarly subject to panics when attacked unexpectedly or from an unlooked-for quarter. N"ow, anybody who has experienced it knows that a night attack is a most terrible and nerve-shaking thing for the army attacked, even when composed of regular troops. For irregular troops it is cer- tain destruction and defeat, if the attacking party can penetrate their lines before they have time to get fairly A PRINCE SERVING AS PRIVATE. 87 awake, as in tlie present case. As to the small number of troops taken by Skobeleff for this attack, he says that the object of his attack was not so much the hope of cutting the enemy to pieces, as to strike terror among them and create a panic, and for this purpose 150 Cossacks in the night, when their number could not be seen, were quite sufficient, as they could make as much noise and produce as great an effect as ten times their number ; while a small party was less liable to confusion, and to the danger of killing each other, the great danger of a night attack for the attacking party ; and finally, if they did not succeed and should all be killed, an eventuality also to be taken into account, the loss would be small, and such as not to seriously weaken the detachment. It will be seen, therefore, it was not such a mad business after all ; and the result proved Skobeleff had really calculated the chances as any prudent general would do, and simply found that they were on his side. Although the new Khan of Khokand, after this campaign, agreed to sign a new treaty of peace, the Russians had no sooner withdrawn from the country than he again opened hostilities, and Kauffmami found himself under the necessity of obtaining permission to conquer and annex the country, and this task he entrusted to Colonel Skobeleff, who, as commander of an independent army, was promoted to the rank of general. The task was accomplished with rapidity and skill, as may be readily understood when it is stated that when the Khan surrendered to General Skobeleff', after a three months' campaign, nearly his first words were, " Before we begin to talk, let me sleep, for I have not had a night's rest nor a sound sleep for more than a month." I have given this sketch of Skobeleff because, although he has not yet received a command in the Army of the Danube, he will probably be heard of more than once before the present campaign is over. The following letter presents a picture of another Russian soldier with no immediate pretension to military distinction, but who was certain to rise in the service of his Emperor : — • t Ployesti, May 20th. — I have just been surprised by a visit from Prince Tserteleff. The Prince will be remembered by many people in London society as the young and clever secretary who accompanied General Ignatieff on his trip to England, and his name is more or less familiar to the public as the second Secretary of the Russian Embassy at Constantinople. 88 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. It will be remembered tbat tbe Prince resigned bis situation in tbe diplomatic service and volunteered for tbe war as a common soldier. He is now serving as a simple cavalry man in tbe Dragoons, altbongb be expects soon to be transferred to tbe Circassian Cossacks under tbe command of Greneral Skobeleff. He bas been on outpost duty along tbe Danube ever since tbe beginning of tbe w^ar, and is so cbangod by bis uniform, by exposure to tbe weatber, and bis face is so sun- burnt and so rougb-looking, tbat I am afraid bis own motber would bardly recognize bim. He, in fact, resembles more a good-looking butcber-boy tban anytbing else I can tbink of — a fact wbicb, witb tbe candour wbicb sbould cbaracterize friends, I did not besitate to communicate to bim. He was extremely flattered by tbe information. His great ambition is to look like a soldier, and tbis be considered as a prelimi- nary accomplisbment in tbe rigbt direction. He is very proud of bis uniform, in spite of its being about as ugly a one as could easily be imagined ; and altbougb tbere was no necessity for it, be put it on at St. Petersburg to make tbe trip to Kiscbeneff, in order, as be said, to sret accustomed to it as soon as possible, and not to look as tbougb be were masquerading. Tbe uniform is dark blue, witb ligbt-blue facings, a grey overcoat of coarse, bea^'y clotb wbicb a London groom would probably not consider respectable enougb for a borse blanket, and v^bicb resembles somewbat tbe material used for convicts' clotbes — a black, bideous-looking leatber cap, witb a brass double-beaded eagle, witb a visor or peak cocked up at a most ridiculous and ungainly angle. Tbe sword is not w^orn attacbed to a belt, but to a strap slung over tbe sboulder. Altbougb tbe Prince was very proud of tbis costume, be found, wben be got to Kiscbeneff, tbat it was a source of great em- barrassment to bim, and resulted in bis getting nearly starved to deatb. According to tbe regulations tben in existence, and wbicb bave only been relaxed since, a soldier cannot go into a tbeatre, restaurant, cafe, club, or any public place wbere be would be liable to meet an officer. He bad not yet been attacbed to bis regiment, and was not tberefore drawing rations. Tbe poor fellow consequently could not go any wbere to get anytbing to eat, except wben be was invited to dinner in a private bouse. He w^ent wandering about tbe streets, a kind of outcast and vagabond, witbout any visible means of existence, like a Constantinople dog, picking up a meal wberever be could find one. He finally found me, and from tbat time forward tbings went better, as be used to come to my botel, order bis breakfast or dinner, and eat it in my DIPLOMACY AND WAR. 89 room. As I happened to be laid up with a sprained ankle at that time, the arrangement suited me very well, and beino* thus isolated, as it were, and cut off from society and the world, we might have been inclined to indulge in wild bacchanalian dissipation, had it not been for the fact that the Hotel du IN'ord, in which I was stopping at Kischeneff, did not offer any materials for exceiss in the way of either eating or drinking. All w^e could get to eat was roast mutton and wild asparagus, while the only thing to drink consisted of some very stale beer, and a villanous kind of decoction, which they called champagne, and which no man in his senses would dream of drinking, unless he were bent upon a painful and lingering suicide. Now, beer and mutton are very good things in themselves, but they do not form a sufficient variety upon which to found a banquet, and although they are quite enough to sustain life, they are not calculated to tempt two young men, fresh from the restaurants of St. Petersburg, to any excess either in eating or drinking, and we were perforce obliged to remain temperate. At last the Prince got his papers enabling him to join his regiment, w^hich had already gone forward, and one cold, wet, rainy morning he mounted his horse at the door of the hotel, and rode away without servant or guide, like G. P. R. James's solitary horseman, to overtake his regiment, which was already two or three days' march in advance. He succeeded in rejoining it, and since that time has been doing duty on the Danube. He said that he likes soldiering better even than he had expected, although he finds it pretty hard w^ork to keep his arms and accoutrements clean ; and he found it rather diffi- cult at first to get on and oft' his horse, which, in addition to himself, carried behind the saddle part of a tent, a sack of oats, a blanket, a frying-pan, a tea-kettle, and a large bundle of hay, together with various other things that are considered useful in a soldier's life. He has' been under fire three or four times already, and has been over the Danube once on a reconnoitring expedition. Everything considered, the Prince may be esteemed as good a soldier, I think, as a diplomatist ; but I hope for the sake of journalism that he will be more communicative in his new than he ever was in his old profession. There was never anything to be got out of him as a diplomatist. IN'ever w^ould he tell you anything that you did not know before, or, if he did, you would'^be pretty sure to find it in some newspaper a week old, that had escaped you. In my opinion, a diploma- tist of this kind is utterly and entirely useless, and the sooner he exchanges it, as the Prince has done, for another profes- 90 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. sion, tlie better for all concerned. He has, I may remark, some pretensions to tlie literary profession besides, and baB written a couple of novels, and was engaged, I believe, on an bistorical w^ork of some kind, wben the sudden cropping up of tbe Eastern Question interrupted it. He bas bitberto kept bis autborsbip a profound secret from bis cbiefs, because it would bave created a great commotion in tbe service bad it been known tbat be was dabbling in literature. A man witb enougb intellect to write anything more tban a despatch, beginning with " I bave the honour," and finishing, " I am, &c., ^c," Avould be regarded as a black sheep in any diplo- matic service in the world, and be dealt witb accordingly. But although the Prince may be a successful soldier, and reap multitudinous laurels on tbe field of battle, bis hands and face bave been comjjletely spoiled, and will never, I fear, recover their pristine freshness. Tbe following letters from Rustchuk were written while the Russian advance was daily expected. The remarks they con- tain on the character of tbe Turkish soldiers are from tbe pen of one who bas long known them well : — ^ RuSTCHUK, May 18th. — We are still lingering here, almost isolated from tbe rest of the world by tbe absence of regular postal and telegraphic communications. We are very quiet, too, not even being interrupted, as in time of peace, by tbe sharp whistling of the steamers on the river, or tbe railway engines. This situation, however, is only the calm before tbe storm. As the soldiers, moreover, who are on the average a mile out of the city, remain in their camps, stretching over tbe grassy plain, and among tbe vineyards on the hills, we bear and see very little of them, to the great satisfaction of the Bulgarians. Whatever may be said respecting their con- duct when they are excited to commit outrages by their modern Byzantine rulers ; it cannot be denied, on tbe other band, that, when it is in the interest of their superiors to control them, they behave well enougb, keep up good disci- pline, and very seldom infringe the regulations to which they are subjected. In consequence of their abstaining from the use of strong liquors, the prominent vice to which European soldiers and sailors are addicted, no brawls or scuffles in taverns take place. Atrocious deeds, due to drink, are com- mitted here sometimes ; but tbe authors are usually the so- called Krays, Turkish rowdies, who live by smuggling salt and tobacco from or to Boumania, and who are, on the whole, the CHARACTER OS THE TURKISH SOLDIER. 91 worst set of rascals and ruffians tliat ever disgraced mankind. It is of them tliat the Christians are justly afraid. The troops are continually occupied in strengthening the intrenchments, in which they are instructed with remarkable zeal by the commanding officers. Their external aspect, it is true, cannot enter into comparison with that of European soldiers, on account of their ragged and slovenly dress. Instead of boots and shoes, for instance, most of them wear a nondescript foot covering, consisting of a piece of felt or coarse cloth, tied round the leg, and sandals of goatskin. Their attitude, moreover, denotes such a careless military spirit that, on parading them, an English sergeant or a German captain would grow exasperated, and declare that such troops could never stand against an enemy. Nevertheless, they are as solid as possible if properly commanded ; and as their arms are excellent, of the latest and best systems, they are likely to prove more than a match for an enemy on equal terms. Their fare is as good as possible under the circumstances, but they have not been paid for many months. Their courage, how- ever, has often been exaggerated by partial or inexperienced observers, and, if not stimulated by fanaticism and blows, has its well-traced limits. Their own officers acknowledge that at the beginning of the late Servian war, when the first shots were exchanged at Saitchar, three battalions threw them- selves on the ground, fi-ightened out of their senses. It was only when the Servians, in a similar state of nervousness, ran for their lives at the first onset of the Circassian horsemen, that their courage returned, and that their officers were enabled to move them ahead, exhorting them in the name of Allah and his prophet. When not on duty, the men cower down in their barracks, or conical tents, smoke, drink coffee, if they can afford it, and relate over and over again fantastical stories, which they have heard in their villages from wise old women and grave imaunis, describiiig the achievements of bold highwaymen, or the doings of benevolent or malicious spirits- inall shapes. Some always think of their families, parents, and relations in their far-off homes, which many of them have no hope of seeing again, and so gradually die of nos- talgia. It is a general error prevailing in Europe to attribute to the Turks an inborn savageness of temper and character. Many examples show that this is not the case as a rule. When, as we witnessed last year, they fall on the Christians, and exult in massacre, rape, and plunder, they are solely actuated by religious hatred, and the fear of being murdered themselves. That feeling had been artfully instilled into their minds by their own ambitious and zealous leaders. 92 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. It is natural tliat a religion proclaiming tlie killing of infidels as a nieritorions act slionld lead its adherents, withont troubling tlieir consciences, to the most abomin- able outrages against all who reject its doctrines. The proof that it is not the race but the religion that pro- duces the inhuman crimes which the Turks are capable of committing, may be deduced from the fact that those here who adopt the mystical creed of Aalv, transfigured into a suffering god, disting-uish themselves by exemplary behaviour in all their actions ; and teaching tolerance, as well as claim- ing it, they never offend a Christian by haughty looks and w^ords, and endure all the injuries and scornful treatment bestowed on them by their Mohammedan countrymen with astonishing self-control and stoic resignation. The captain and some sailors of the ironclad Liitfi^ Djelil, w^hich sank or was blown up off Potbashi, are here all badly bruised or burnt, in the naval hospital, under medical treat- ment. Their deposition throws only a certain light on the accident, inasmuch as it is ascertained by their testimony that the occurrence took place during an engagement with the enemy, and that the powder magazine did not explode, as stated in the official report, w^hich also alleged that the vessel w^as at anchor, and not in action at the time. These men say that they found themselves suddenly in the water, where they recovered their senses ; but that what happened before had entirely been wiped out of their memory. So the Hussians alone can state how the vessel was destroyed. The following letter contains a description of the greatest of the Turkish Danubian fortresses : — j\ RusTCHUK, Ifa?/ 25^/?. — The w^ater is getting higher and higher, and is already washing over the embankment, with the road on it, w^hich borders the Danube. The fishes play in the cellars and yards of the passport office, and the low^er parts of the quarter on the Lom River. This favourable state of things allows the Turks to complete their preparations in such ■a manner that the hope of overcoming their resistance in a single campaign must gradually vanish before the eyes of the most ardent Hotspur in the Emperor's staff'. I have stated that the Russians, under the pressure of the advancing season, cannot hope to finish what they have not commenced , yet — the uncontested occupation of Bulgaria — before winter. Each of the five principal strongholds, in which the Turks, well armed and provided, are waiting for the onset of their vcnemy, is in a state to endure a regular siege of more than THE FORTRESS OF RUSTCHUK. 93 three montlis. It may be admitted tliat one or the other of them might be carried at the point of the bayonet, as some examples, especially Otchakoff and Ismail, have shown • nevertheless, it is difficult to believe that a modern Russian general will ever engage his responsibility so far as to risk on one single chance the glory or the discomfiture of the army he is commanding. Now, supposing that the effective siege operations should begin in August, they are likely to be pro- longed until ISTovember, when horrible weather is sure to prevail here ; and when an alternation of mist, rain, and snow- changes the ground into a tenacious cold mud, with which soldiers, without substantial fare and night shelter, are unable to struggle. Then it may come to pass, as was the case in 1827 before Silistria, that the besiegers will be constrained to leave all their heavy artillery behind them in the flooded trenches, and to retire as quickly as possible to more hospitable cantonments on the other side of the Danube. Only one place affords a certain guarantee against such a mortifying emergency, and this is Rustchuk, on account of a metalled road, and, parallel to it, a railway running from- Bucharest to Giurgevo, the terminus of which is situated on the Danube, permitting thus the transport of ammunition, provisions, and reinforcements to the besiegers, who, relying on this circumstance, can lodge themselves quietly in earth -huts, and may continue working and fighting in the trenches till the surrender of the city rewards their efforts. This course — which the Russians, if success is to be hoped for, are likely to follow^ — renders our fortress peculiarly interesting, and I think a brief description of its present means of defence may be- acceptable to your readers. The city is surrounded on the land side by a simple bastioned rampart and a dry ditch about ten feet in depth and thirty in width, with walled scarps and contrescarps, but without ravelins and coffers. On the Danubie the defences are limited to some unconnected batteries on the edge of the natural clay steep, w^here the high ground drops down towards the water. At the north-eastern part of the bastioned inclosure, where a flat track facilitates the enemy's approach, a crown work was added, some fifty years ago, to the fortifications. It incloses a separate quarter which is inhabited by the poorest section of the Bulgarian population. As those ramparts are of no avail, or at all events not a match for modern rifled cannons, the plan w^as laid down and approved of transforming the environs into an intrenched camp, wherein the city itself was to figure as a secondary shelter for the garrison and the stores. Unhappily, as is always the case here, the project was w^ell 94 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. conceived upon paper, bnt as soon as it liad to be carried ont everything was wanting, especially the necessary money. At the end of last year the Turks had only just commenced the construction of the principal intrenchments on the Sary Bair, called the Levant Tabia, which crowns the uppermost summit of that elevation at a distance of 1,300 yards from the ramparts. It is formed of two pentagonal redoubts, shaped like a butterfly's wrings, with a ravelin turned to the enemy's side before the open angle which they constitute there. It is said to be provided with barracks and casemates for the accommodation of three battalions, or 2,000 soldiers. The outside of the parapets, however, presents only simple earth- works consisting of clay and turf at an incline of 45 degrees, and the ten-feet deep ditches are neither studded wdth pali- sades nor flanked by caissonieres. This fort is heavily armed with Krupp's breechloading cannons. Two lunettes, some 100 yards off, cover very judiciously the approach to it on the road to Rasgrad, which serpentines here over the hills, planted all over with vines and fruit trees. A series of four other redoubts on the ridge of these hills, almost in one line with the Levant Tabia, protect the city to the eastward, and outflank efficaciously the plain underneath, w^iereon the enemy might be tempted to establish himself and drive on his trenches. Three other intrenchments not yet completed and armed cover the fortress on its southern part, two of them being situated on the heights beyond the Lom River. Although they appear to be dominated by still higher ground behind them, this deficiency is not of such great importance now, because if the enemy were bent upon bombarding Rustchuk he could do so with ease already from the opposite bank of the Danube. The iron ring of the fortifications is closed on the flat towards the east by five redoubts of various shape and size, two of which, frowming well armed across the river, are ready to open their fire upon Griurgevo at the first signal. I do not think it proper to give you a minute description of these earthworks, and w^ill confine myself therefore to the remark that each of them is, as to its military position, strength, and armament, far below the aforesaid Levant Tabia. JS'one of them is effectually secured against a surprise or an open assault by artificial obstacles, the want of which is to be pointed out as their cardinal defect. On the other hand, every military man will readily acknowledge that the dauntless courage of the soldiers called forth to defend them is, at all events, of a higher value than the solidity of a w^all or the depth of a ditch. Had the Turks contented themselves with the described line of earthworks they would have done THE WAR IN ASIA. 96 well, inasmucli as they would liave been able to carry tbem out and arm them properly, which is in many instances not yet the case ; but they have recently been inspired with a new, vast, and splendid idea, which, however, it seems too late to fully realize. It is obvious that the plateau behind the hrst range of hills on which the first series of intrenchments had been erected, being on the average considerably higher than those, commands them, and could be used by the aggressor for cannonading the troops and works with good effect. In the prevision of such an occurrence, it had been necessary to secure that plateau also by another series of pentagonal redoubts, of which the Mustapha Pacha and the Iswar Tabias are on the point of being completed. I have already alluded in my last letter to the difficulties which must arise, not only in constructing, but in no less degree in defending, such comprehensive and perfect, but at the same time extensive lines. However that may be, they are eagerly working at the execution of that plan. l!^ear the Mustapha Pacha Tabia, where the Sary Bair plateau gradually slopes toward the distant Lom River, which the road crosses ten miles off in the village of Turlak, seven battalions under the command of a pacha are encamped, and busily occupied in drilling and digging. They form the vanguard, or rather the flying column, of our garrison, and are in consequence expected to repulse the first attack, in case the Russians should select the Shumla road for that purpose. CHAPTER Y. THE ASIATIC CAMPAIGN. Capture of Ardahan— Condition of Mukhtar Pacha's Army— Its Weakness and want of necessary Supplies— -Want of Cavalry— Circassians and Kurds- State of the' Turkish Fortifications— A Military Punishment -A Turkish Village— An unexpected Visit— Public Opinion on the War -Turkish Mili- tary Hospital— Mukhtar Pacha's Intelligence Department— Hairy Moses and his Assistants— Turkish Expedition to the Abhasian Coast— Destruction of Sukhum Kaleh— Landing of Troops— Insurrection of the Tribes— The Prince of Mingrelia. While the Russian Army of the South, under the Grand Duke Mcholas, was toiling across the breadth of Roumania, that of the Caucasus, under the Grand Duke Michael, ordered to operate in Asia Minor, or rather in Armenia, had already threatened Kars, 1)6 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. and liad had niinieroiis minor encounters with the enemy. From the first the operations of this army, the strength of which had' not only been enormonsly exaggerated, but was far below th& work it had to perform, were slow and feeble. When the Russians crossed the Asiatic frontier it was believed that their army numbered 100,000 men, 200 guns, and 15,000 cavalry, that of the Turks being supposed to be about half that strength. This esti- mate of the Russian strength was framed upon an enumeration of the divisions composing the army, and it was not then known that some of those divisions were represented only by a single regiment. The order in which the Czar's forces entered upon the campaign has been stated in a previous chapter. The Turkish army was under the superior command of Mukhtar Pacha, who had, just before his appointment, been employed against the Montenegrins with small success. He had, however, the advan- tage of knowing the country and people of Armenia well, having been Governor of Erzeroum for several years. His Chief of the Staff was a most capable officer, a Hungarian named Kohlmann, who bore the title of Faizi Pacha. The right Russian column, consisting of cavalry only, advanced from Akhaltsik, the centre or main body marching from Alexan- dropol, and the left from Erivan. This movement found the Turks unprepared, and Mukhtar Pacha, fearing that his retreat to Erzeroum would be cut off, left twenty-nine battalions and eight batteries in Kars, and fell back to a plateau on the Soghanli range. General Melikoff, commanding the Russian centre, did not follow Mukhtar Pacha, who had only nine battalions with him, but moved rapidly by Kars to Ardahan, which was captured after two days' bombardment. General Melikoff then returned to Kars, and began to erect siege batteries, Mukhtar Pacha employing himself in strengthening his position in the Soghanli range, and in collecting reinforcements. His right wing, under Mahomed Pacha, had been threatened by the Russian left, under General Tergukasoff, w^ho had taken Bayazid without firing a shot, and pushed his opponent as far as Muli Suleiman. At the end of May a reconnaissance in force on Olti, made by the Russian force at Ardahan, so threatened Mukhtar Pacha's left \Ndng that he ordered it to fall back upon his centre at Zevin, a CAFIURE OF ARDAHAN. 97 position whicli grew stronger every day, and in which the Otto- man Commander remained nntil he found himself in a position to take the offensive. The fortified position of Batoum, guard- ing the important harbour below it, was attacked by a separate force, known as the B/ion detachment, under Greneral Oklobjio. For the first two months this force slowly gained some slight successes at a large cost of life, until it was compelled in June to join in the general retrograde movement of the Czar's forces. The following letter describes the capture of Ardahan accord- ing to the report transmitted to the Emperor Alexander by courier : — t Ployesti, June \2th. — An Imperial courier has just arrived here with full details of the capture of Ardahan. As I believe that nothing but a telegi-aphic summary has appeared up to the present, a detailed description of it may not be without interest. Ardahan was captured on May 17th, twenty-three days after the declaration of war. The Russians marching from Alexandropol had already on May 10th or 12th arrived at Oltchek, near Kars, on the road between that place and Ardahan, and the com- munication between those two places was thus cut off. This detachment seems to have made a demonstration against Kars, and at the same time a real attack against Ardahan. In addi- tion to this, Ardahan was attacked from the opposite side by a detachment marching from Akhaltsik on the frontier, which reached Ardahan at the same time as the column from Kars. They were before Ardahan on May 13th, and Greneral Loris Melikoff immediately began making reconnaissances and com- bining a plan of attack. The column from Kars consisted of two regiments of grenadiers, three batteries of artillery, two regiments of cavalry, and a company of sappers, in all about 7,500 men, under the command of General Dewel. The column from Akhaltsik was composed of two regiments of infantry, two batteries of artillery, one battalion of sappers, half a battery of horse artillery, and three regiments of cavalry, in all about 8,500 men, under the command of General Gaiman. The Commander-in-Chief of the two columns was General Loris Melikoff, under whose direction the attack was made. Ardahan is situated near the head waters of the river Kur, the same which runs through Tiflis and flows into the Caspian. The fortress is comparatively new, and did not exist in 1854. It was strongly fortified, defended by eleven forts constructed on modern plans, and one, it was said, on designs drawn up by 98 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. an English, engineer. On the south defending the road from Kars, distant two and a half miles from the town, was the fort of Gruli-verdi, built upon a mountain and armed with nine guns, and near to it was another fort armed with three or four guns, on a hill dominated by Gruli-verdi, from which it was separated by a valley only two or three hundred yards wide. I^ear the town, on the same side of the river, were three more forts, on the west Makhrab-tabia, in the centre Akhali-tabia, and on the east Singer-tabia. This latter is the one which was supposed to have been designed by an English, engineer, and was of somewhat curious construction. There were three lines of defence, the escarpments were faced with stone, and they were built in a triangular shape, with the points towards the attack, and each line of defence rising terrace-like higher than the one before it. On the north side of the river there was anothqj^fort called Kai-tabia, which was connected with the southern side by two bridges, and on the north of the town, about two miles distant, was another strong fortress, called Ramazan-tabia, built like that of Gruli-verdi, on a steep mountain w^hich overlooks the town. The garrison, destined to defend all these forts, seems to have consisted of about 8,000 men, and all the forts together were armed with 92 guns. The greater part of these guns, however, were of small calibre, besides being eld, and quite unable to compete with modern artillery. There seems to have been only two 24-pounders in all, the rest being principally 12 -pounders, and there is every reason to believe that there was very little ammunition even for tbese guns, such as they were. Greneral Melikoff, after reconnoitring the place, decided to make his real attack on the south against Gruli-verdi, while the Akhaltsik columns made a feigned attack against the fortress of Ramazan-tabia on the north. In the first place, the fortress of Guli-verdi seemed more accessible, and he besides discovered th.at E/amazan-tabia was not armed against the town, and that the guns of this fortress could not be directed against an attack from the south. On the night of May 16th he succeeded in planting four batteries, consisting altogether of sixteen guns, against Guli-verdi on three different points, and on the morn- ing of the 17th the batteries opened on the fort, and poured a well-directed and destructive fire into the Turkish batteries. The Turks scarcely replied, either because the Russian fire dismounted their batteries, or because they had little or no ammunition, or it may have been in part owing to both these causes. However that may be, the whole Russian loss by the Turkish artillery was only six men wounded. About one o'clock the Russians began to perceive the Turks retreating in small CAPTURE OF ARDAHAN. 99 parties from tlie fort to the town. In tlie evening Greneral Dewel led three battalions to the assault of the heights of Guli- verdi, and carried them without losing a man and without firing a shot. The Turks offered little resistance, and, in fact, the fort seems to have been nearly abandoned when the assault was made. They found several of the guns dismounted, and the gunners lying dead beside them, and a considerable number of killed and wounded in the fort. As soon as Guli- verdi was taken, one of the Russian batteries which had been directed against that fortress was now turned towards the town, which was still defended by the forts, already mentioned, of Makhrab-tabia, Akhali-tabia, and Singer-tabia. While this attack was being directed against Gruli-verdi, several other batteries had been planted and directed against the three forts defending the town. By half-past five in the evening of the same day General Melikoif thought that the assault might be delivered, and General Gaiman, who was operating on the left, sent at about the same moment to ask if he should not make an attempt upon the works on his side. The assault was ordered all along the line at the same moment, and, although the fort of Singer-tabia was considered the strongest, it was the one which fell first. The others soon followed, although the Turks, as is usual with them, made a very desperate resistance on the walls, for they seem to have had plenty of ammunition for their small arms. After a desperate fight, in which the principal losses of the Russians occurred, the Turks were finally driven across the river by the two bridges already spoken of, and took refuge in the fort of Kai-tabia, everywhere hotly pursued by the Russians. When the latter, headed by General Gaiman, were a few yards from the oppo- site bank, the bridge gave way before them, but nothing daunted, the Russians sprang into the water, which, fortu- nately, was not very deep, and continued to cross by wading. General Gaiman himself was one of the first to leap into the water. The Russians had now possession of all the forts on the south side of the river ; there remained only the fort of Kai-tabia and the fortress of Ramazan-tabia on the mountain. The Russians immediately attacked Kai-tabia, and the Turks were so discouraged by the Russian success that they scarcely made any resistance and fled. In fact, they had already begun to fly before the Russian attack began, so that by dark the town of Ardahan was in complete possession of the Russians. While this was going on General Dewel was occupying the attention of the garrison in the strong fortress of Ramazan-tabia on the north of the town. He soon succeeded in silencinsr the batteries in this fortress, which only fired H 2 100 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. tliree or four shots in all, and towards evening, about tlie time of the assault on the town, he likewise ordered an assault. But what was the surprise of the Russians, upon entering the fortress, to find that the Turks had all fled. They had evidently become panic-stricken when they perceived that the town was already in the hands of the Russians, and they had retreated to the west by the road towards Batoum. The Russian losses in the whole affair were 67 killed and 293 wounded, besides one officer killed and ten officers wounded, making altogether 370 killed and wounded. The loss of the Turks, owing to the superiority of the Russian arms and the precision of the Russian firing, was immense. The account given by this Russian officer of the Turkish losses seems too absurd to be true. He says that the Russians buried 1,700 dead, and that 200 w^ounded were found in the hospital, besides which the Turks had carried off the greater part of their wounded, as many bodies were found along the roads on which the Turks had retreated, evidently the bodies of the wounded who had died on the way. Among the wounded in the hospital was the constructor of the fort of Singer-tabia. He was found by Colonel Boolmering, the constructor of the Russian batteries, who was anxious to see him and talk with him, but the poor fellow died almost as soon as he was dis- covered. The Russians captured ninety-two guns, an immense number of tents and camp material, also a large supply of flour and provisions, but they do not speak of any ammu- nition, and I suspect that the Turks had little or none. There were very few prisoners taken, and those of the Redifs, or reserves, who had been forced to come in from the surrounding villages, were immediately released and allowed to return to their homes; the l^izams, or regular troops only, were held as prisoners of war. Among the prisoners taken was General Ali Pacha, commander of the Turkish left wing, and several Turkish civil officials, besides many officers who had been wounded or otherwise disabled. The inhabitants, who had fled during the attack, upon being assured by the Russians that no harm should come to them, began to return, and in a very few days the town had resumed very nearly its ordinary aspect. The Turks taken prisoners had a feeble, half- starved look, which showed how long they had been on short rations, and this in spite of the large supply of stores and provisions which had been found in the town. The reason of this the Russians soon discovered. The follo-wdng letter deals with the condition of the Turkish army in Asia, at what was probably the lowest point to which MUKHTAR pacha's ARMY. 101 it had been reduced by neglect, and shortly before it began to receive important assistance from Constantinople : — D Headquarters of the Turkish Army of Asia, Maij 28th. — Since the capture of Ardahan by the Russians the belligerents have maintained an attitude of mutual observation. The Turkish forces abstain absolutely from any attempt to assume the offensive, and content themselves with watching the enemy's movements, occasionally shifting small bodies of troops, as the Russians seem to concentrate or change the position of theirs. There being absolutely no communications with Batoum, I am unable to say how matters stand in that direction. The Turkish army there is under a direction entirely apart from the main forces com- manded by Mukhtar Pacha. Indeed, the only news we get from the coast is that sent to Constantinople, and thence tele- graphed here. When hostilities commenced, Ardahan, Kars, and Bayazid were the three main positions of the Turkish line. Two of these have fallen into the enemy's hands, while Kars still remains. At present the Turks occupy a triangle, of which Kars is the apex. Two days' march from that town, exactly half-way be- tween it and Erzeroum, the centre is encamped. The right wing has its headquarters at Topra-Kaleh, a couple of battalions being advanced close to the Russians at Bayazid. The left wing, which was formerly at Ardahan, and which consisted of eleven battalions and six field guns, may be said practically to exist no longer. The greater portion of these battalions have been taken prisoners and the field guns captured. Even the Commander-in-Chief does not know where the remnant of the force which succeeded in escaping is at present. As the left wing consisted mainly of local forces, he is inclined to think that the survivors, on disbanding, immediately sought their respective homes. In any case we have no news of them ; and it is more than likely that large numbers were picked up by the pursuing Cossacks. This unfortunate affair of Ardahan leaves the Bardes and Olti road entirely in the hands of the invading force, thus turning the position of Erzeroum, and menacing- its communications with the base of operations at Trebizond. According to the latest intelligence, half of the sixty battalions which took part in the attack on Ardahan immediately directed their march before Kars with a view of forming a junction with the new Russian forces encamped at two hours' distance from its walls, in all probability mth the^ design of commencing the investment of the place, or cutting off its communications with Mukhtar Pacha's army. Up to the 102 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. present tliej liave not succeeded in doing so. Probably they have not bad time to arrive as yet, tbe distance between tbe two points being over one bnndred and fourteen miles, and tbe execrable roads preventing tbe rapid passage of artillery and baggage. Only two days ago a brigadier-general, one of tbe Snltan's aides-de-camp, accorapanied by two officers, ar- rived bere from Kars, and reported tbe communications per- fectly open, unmolested even by CosSacks. Telegrapbic com- munication, too, still exists. Tbe otber balf of tbe sixty Russian battalions have made a forward movement ; but tbeir whereabouts is not known as yet. On tbe side of Bayazid tbe Russians are confronted by a couple of battalions, wbo closely follow all tbeir movements, and bave instructions to resist to tbe last any forward movement. Another couple of battalions, stationed at Topra-Kaleb, form the support of the advanced force. Including the garrison of Kars (twenty-two battalions), the army of Mukhtar Pacha consisted, on the outbreak of hostilities, of fifty-two thousand men. Since the fall of Ardahan, eleven battalions must be deducted from this. With the limited force thus left him for the defence of a long line of frontier, and with a lai-ge portion of this shut up in Kars, I don't think the General himself entertains the slightest hope of being able to offer any serious opposition to the enemy's advance — at least in his present position. His left flank is already open, and the trifling force defending the road from Bayazid to Kuprikoi can make no resistance to a determined effort on tbe part of the enemy. Consequently, I believe that on the very first onward movement of the Russian forces, the Turkish army will fall back at once along the valley of the Araxes to the plain of Hassan Kaleh, within a day's march of Erzeroum, w^bere a line of hills, closing the western extremity of the plain, has already been fortified. In thus retiring, Mukhtar Pacha can not only occupy the strong position capable of covering Erzeroum, but also concentrate his forces — picking up on the way the different detachments which guard the road, and being joined by the left wing retiring along the Bayazid road. This, I believe, is the only possible course of action under existing circumstances, and many days may not elapse before it will be put in execution. Should the Russian army succeed in penetrating by Olti to Baiburt, cut- ting off Erzeroum from the sea, it is impossible to foresee what course of action vdll be adopted. Should they feel themselves strong enough, the Turks will probably march northward and risk a decisive battle, or, fearing the issue of such an encoun- ter, make a timely retreat to Trebizond, leaving Kars and Erzeroum to their fate. A USEFUL BRIGAND CHIEF. 103 It sesms strange that Mnkhtar Pacha should be left thus criti- cally situated with so small a force and without any likelihood of reinforcement, and the more so as he seems convinced that the real attack will be made in Asia, not on the Danube. European jealousies are but too apt to bring the march of Russian conquest in the west to an abrupt halt, while in a remote corner of the empire like this, territorial acquisition would be but feebly protested against, if at all. As matters stand, and unless some of those unforeseen contingencies occur which sometimes set all calculation at nought, the Russians may be already looked upon as masters of Armenia from Kars to Erzingan and Trebizond.. I have had long conversations with Turkish general officers on the state of the army here. The two great wants they com- plain of are cavalry and transport service. . As I mentioned in my last letter, Ahmed Mukhtar Pacha was obliged to make use of the services of a notorious brigand chief and his followers to obtain information about the enemy's movements, his only cavalry consisting of a few mounted troopers, who barely sufficed for orderly and estafette duty. The transport service is in an equally deplorable condition.. A few mules and shaky carts of the locality convey to the front the commissariat and ammunition stores, and are miserably inadequate to the demands upon them. The traveller passing along the road from Erzeroum to the camp, and seeing it so silent and deserted, would never dream it was the main, indeed the only, line of communication betwe'en the army of Armenia and its base. I feel convinced that the necessary provisions are not transported to the camp by the straggling convoys I have met at long intervals struggling over miry roads and floundering in mountain quagmires on the line of march. Requisitions must be largely resorted to ^ and more than once I have heard peasants murmur as loud as they dared about the pressure thus brought to bear on them.. ] know that there are many, very many, persons here who would hail the advent of the Russian troops with delight. That there are such in Erzeroum itself, I hear from the lips of the very highest authority. In view of the fact that a rapid and difficult retreat of the Turkish army seems inevitable, this lack of transport becomes a serious question. The Com- mander-in-Chief himself told me that, in order to be prepared for all contingencies, he had sent to the rear a portion of his . tents, the number of horses and mules at his disposition being entirely inadequate for the transport of the proper number for his troops. As a consequence, the men are inconveniently crowded in the tents ; though at the present moment I don't 104 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. suppose they suffer mucli from this. The keen mountain wind whistling under the tent edges gives much more than the necessary ventilation, and I dare say the close proximity of the men wdien sleeping helps to neutralize to some extent the bitter coldness of the nights. For the past week we have had continued snow and rain storms, and each morning the mountains have been covered with a thick sheet of snow. Apart from this, great glacier-like snow beds remain since last winter, feeding by their gradual melting the already sufficiently swollen rivers. Within ten yards of my tent is one of these snow beds, and the wind passing over it is almost insupport- able at night. If the same weather prevails higher up the country on the spurs of the Ararat chain, I am hardly sur- prised that the iiussian advance is not more rapid, for to an ordinary European army, with its baggage and artillery trains, the country round the camp would be perfectly im- passable. The chief of the staff, Faizi Pacha, an old Hungarian officer who served in the same capacity under Greneral Williams at the siege of Kars during the Crimean war, tells me that many . departments of the Turkish military establishments are as backward as the transport service. Want of the necessary funds is one of the chief causes ; but, besides, there was, he tells me, a singular want of activity for a considerable period preceding the declaration of war. It seems that up to the last moment the Grovernment did not believe in the breaking out of actual hostilities, and neglected to push forward the necessary preparations. The Commander-in- Chief, too, tells me that he was despatched to the scene of action far too late to organize the necessary local supplies and prepare the frontier for a serious resistance. It is true, he says, that some years ago a military commission visited the frontier with a view of examining the points at which fortifi- tions should be erected, and did actually fortify certain points, which at the time were, according to the best authori- ties, sufficient to hold an enemy in check ; but this was in the days of old-fashioned smooth-bore artillery and muzzle-loading muskets ; and before whole nations were put under arms, and colossal armies mobilized. All this work has gone for nothing. Kars and Erzeroum, the two principal strategic points, though almost impregnable twenty years ago, are now, from the want of the necessary outlying forts to keep the enemy's long-range artillery at arm's length, quite at the mercy of a hostile force, the moment the Turkish army in the field retires. Ardahan, said the Greneral, affords an excellent example. Around it are a number of heights, dominating each other as they recede TURKISH WANT OF CAVALRY. 105 from the town ; the nearer ones commanding the place itself. After the Crimean war it was deemed sufficient to fortify the nearer heights, and the redoubts of Emir Oghln and Eamazan Oghln were constructed as supplements to the actual enceinte. The Russians occupied the more distant heights dominating these forts, and speedily silencing their guns took them by assault. Master of these, the town itself was taken after a three days' cannonade, and with it half of the scanty field artillery of the main army. Erzeroum is in an exactly similar position ; and, worse still, its artillery armament is entirely deficient, the hundred and fifty Krupps destined for its ram- parts being yet at Trebizond, 180 miles distant, while the nature of the road and the steepness of the inclines precludes the possibility of a rapid transport. It seems almost incredible that a nation like the Turks, once so renowned for their cavalry, should be now so entirely deficient in that arm. As I have already stated, Mukhtar Pacha finds himself sorely puzzled to conduct his reconnais- sances on this account. He says the Russians have at least fifteen thousand regular cavalry along the frontier, covering their advance, and screening with an impenetrable curtain the movements of the main columns, so that he cannot dis- cover the point at which they are massing for their main attack. A couple of days ago a regiment of five hundred mounted Circassians and a squadron of fifty Kurd horsemen were despatched from Erzeroum by way of mending matters to some extent. But these new troops are essentially irregulars, refusing absolutely to submit to the proper military organization and discipline, and, said the General-in- Chief, " every one knows what such troops are worth." Their main, indeed their only, use is for reconnaissance and vedette duty. In a regular combat they would be more in the way than otherwise. Besides, they are a lawless set of men, who deem the property of friend or foe equally welcome booty. A colony of these mountaineers has been established on the frontier of Greece, and the Sultan's subjects there complain that they are pillaged, both Mussulman and Christian, with the strictest impartiality, by these marauders. Whatever other qualities they may lack, picturesqueness is not one of them. I witnessed their entry into the camp. A battalion with military music was turned out to receive them. They came filing two deep in lengthy column over the hillside, each of the five squadrons having a crimson or parti-coloured red-and- white banner borne at its head, blazoned with white crescent and star. The horses were tolerably fair, but of diminutive stature. The men wore the long Circassian tunic, 106 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. rea^limg to tlie middle calf, and confined at tlie waist by an embroidered belt, supporting tlie nsual guardless scimitar and long dagger with primitive leaf-shaped blade, besides the accustomed supply of highly ornamented pistols, pipes, silver-mounted boxes, &c. The tunics were mostly black or dark olive, though there was a sprinkling of bright saffron, gTeen, and crimson, especially among the chiefs and princes, for I understand there are several such in the regiment. They wore the usual Circassian headdress, a red or white tall cap surrounded by a mop-like covering of bla^k or brown Astrachan fur, concealing all but the top of the inner cap. Both sides of the breast are covered by double horizontal rows of wooden or silver cartridge tubes, according to the social position of the individual. Each man carried at his back a sixteen-shooting Winchester rifle, and many, loth to part with their ancestral weapons, carried in addition the quaint-looking, straight-stocked, silver-ringed flint-lock of his native mountains. As a rule the physiognomies, especially of the older, white-bearded men, were handsome and dignified ; but there was also a fair share- of long upper lips, prognathous jaws, and lowering, murderous brows and eyes. They are commanded by Moussa Pacha (not Zulu Moussa the brigand), and have been sent on two hours in advance of the outposts. Next day came the Kurds, still more picturesque than the Circassians, with their huge bright-tinted turbans, and crimson and blue flowing garments showing through light muslin and silk mantles. Extravagantly (^ide trousers and red-leather boots turned up at the toe complete the attire. The armament consisted of the Winchester rifle, curved scimitar, and long reed-like lance, which they shook and brandishsd till it quivered like a vibrating string. They were much better mounted than the Circassians, each man's horse being his own property. For standard the leading horseman carried a piece of Manchester handkerchief stuff mottled red and green tied on to his lance. On the whole, their ap- pearance was brilliant and dashing ; and if their serviceable qualities are on a par with their warlike exterior great things may be expected of them.. It seems that on the 28th of April the Russians made a' serious attempt to cut off the Turkish army from Erzeroum and shut it up in Kars. This was only defeated by the prompt action of Mukhtar Pacha in issuing from the town and retiring to the position on the Soghanli Dagh where I found him on my arrival. He was closely followed up by the Cossacks in large force, but as he retired in squares and posted his artillery advantagaously, it appears the enemy did not think well to CIRCASSIANS A?fD KURDS. 107 attack ^ liim, but withdrew after destroying a considerable portion of the telegraph line. T have just had an opportunity of witnessing the roll call in camp, accompanied by the corporal punishment of a couple of military offenders. The camp is situated on the northern slopes of an oblong valley, closed to the east by a high ridge, terminating at either extremity in commanding heights over- looking the plain beyond. This ridge is the position to be defended in case of attack. The battalions were drawn up in columns of companies along the slope outside their tents. The report was made in the usual fashion, and then, just before the sun disappeared over the snowy sierras towards Erzeroum, the Imperial salute was rendered. The bands played a long-drawn-out wailing kind of air, the regimental bugles sounded a flourish, the drums rolled, and then simul- taneously from the entire army burst the cry, " Long live my Padishah," while the; troops presented arms. This ceremony was repeated three times, and then the offenders, two in number, were marched from their respective battalions to a point in front of the whole line. Each man placed himself on hands and knees,, and by him stood a soldier holding a stout stick about a yard long. On a signal from the com- manding officer the bands struck up a lively air, and the men with the sticks commenced belabouring the culprits, keeping time to the music with the greatest regularity. At a distance they had the appearance of men beating dust out of carpets. After each had received about fifty blows on the back the music ceased, and the offenders returned to the ranks, after which the ranks were broken. U Karaourgan, May 29th. — Since writing the preceding lines I left the camp and established myself at the above village two hours' march in rear of headquarters. It was impossible to remain in a windy tent during such weather. Besides, there was absolutely nothing to be bought, and the stock of eat- ables I had brought with me was long since consumed. But for the kindness of the staff I should have been without any- thing to eat. What they have for themselves is not much or very varied ; but, under such circumstances, it appears quite regal. A person fresh from Europe would scarcely venture beyond the door of my present quarters ; but to me, by con- trast, it seems a very palace. As there is just now a total absence of military news, I shall try to give some idea of my surroundings and accommodation. The place is a type of a large class, for every village within a hundred miles exactly re- sembles it. Karaourgan is situated in a rocky gorge through 108 WAR COREESPONDENCE. whicli flows tlie torrent-like Clian See. The village occupies the right hank, and climbs to the summit of the rocky slope some three hundred feet high. Seen from a little distance, it resembles one of those scoria heaps one sees around iron- smelting works. Here and there a couple of feet of dry- stone wall and a cave-like entrance suggest the possibility of the existence of human dwellings. Between these dw^ellings the spaces are carpeted wdth an elastic layer of dung and oftal five or six feet thick. Huge ungainly buffaloes, with bodies like bisons and the eye of an octopus, low and moan, standing mid-leg deep in the filthy paths. Turbaned men are perched here and there like storks on the house-tops — pulling their beards, and giving the whole place a singular appearance. Calves, dogs, and fowls wander promiscuously among the chimney-pots, and now and then a dark- eyed, olive-faced woman comes stealing shyly by, her face, half averted from the gaze of the Giaour, partly concealed by the folds of her linen headdress. As the roof-tops have their share of dung and offal as well as the streets, and as their undulations are not more accentuated than the irregularities of the latter, it is well-nigh impossible to distinguish between them. This morning I entered the village, descending the slope of the gorge. I knew from experience the difficulty of confining oneself to the pathway and kept a careful look- out for chimneys, the only beacons by which one can judge whether he is on a house-top or on a road. While thus vigilantly steering my way and believing that I was going all right, I felt my horse suddenly sink beneath me, and in another instant we were enveloped in a cloud of dust and splinters. We had both fallen through the roof of a house into an apartment where a family w^ere at breakfast. Over and over again my horse had put his foot through the earthen roof of a house while I believed I was in the middle of the highway. My dwelling, seen from the outside, is a crude earthheap. You stoop low, enter the hole-like door, and find yourself in a gloomy interior some forty feet in length. It is divided into two compartments by a low boarded partition four feet high. That next the door is devoted to horses and buffaloes, the inner space affords accommodation to travellers. A little terrace of beaten earth, six inches above the floor, flanks both sides of the room. It is covered with coarse rush matting, and constitutes a seat by day, a bed by night. Two square holes in the roof admit light and air. The diet is eminently simple — honey, milk, and unleavened bread in the form and of the consistency of a shoemaker's apron, with an A FALL THROUGH A ROOF. 109 OGcasional egg, is all that tlie larder affords. There is another comestible greatly prized bj the inhabitants, but which I could never appreciate. It is called " yaourt." It is thick sour milk, from which the watery portion has been strained. ~^o coffee, no tea, no meat. The absence of meat surprises me, for there are immense herds of buffaloes, oxen, sheep, and goats feeding over pastures I have rarely seen equalled. There is no exportation of cattle, and I find it difficult to explain what is done with the vast surplus of kine. I write this letter lying on the " divan." From time to time a melancholy ox walks in and looks at me with large mournful eyes. A playful buffalo calf is standing beside me, and I have just defeated him in an attempt to place his big, splay, muddy foot in the middle of my paper, as an initiatory step to settle down beside me on the divan. My attention is triply divided — first, by my work ; secondly, by the cows and playful goats ; thirdly, by the blackbeetles, who take advantage of an unguarded moment to walk into my inkstand. Then there is my host, who is essentially a praying man. IN'ot con- tent with the orthodox prayers four times a day, he takes advantage of every spare moment to repeat his orisons. A pot of water is put on the fire. While it is heating, out comes the praying carpet, and the red-turbaned, blue- trousered man is prostrating himself with unctuous gi'oans. It is not easy to write under the circumstances ; but I do my best. I don't speak Turkish fluently ; but still I can carry on a conversation in a kind of way. For my host, I am the sole and only source of information as to what is going on at the front. "^He brings in a select circle of friends of an evening to hear the news. When I tell them that Ardahan has fallen, that Bayazid has long been in the hands of the " Muscovs," and that the Giaours are advancing swiftly on the road to Olti and Trebizond, there is a chorus of Mussulman expres- sions devoting the said "Muscovs " to " Shaitan," and mur- mured prayers for the army of true believers. These people seem to pin their faith to English succour. They will have it that an English army is advancing to their aid ; and the presence of Sir Arthur Kemball and his staff officer confirm them in this belief. To do them justice, they seem to appre- ciate Englishmen — Englishmen and Hungarians. These two nationalities are for them the embodiment of friendship. D Erzeroum, May 31st. — I rode into Erzeroum with my letter. I could not trust the ordinary modes of conveyance. I crossed so many rivers that I have lost count of the number. I have a vivid recollection of the Araxes— the "swift Araxes " of 110 WAE CORRESPOXDENCE. Xenoplion. Myself and horse fell in a hole, and I rescued the foregoing pages with the greatest difficulty. When I left headquarters all was tranquil. The Commander-in-Chief told me he was awaiting the Russian advance, and that his movements depended on theirs. Since I came in a rumour is spread abroad which I telegraph this evening — that the Russians advancing from Ardahan are within two hours of Olti on the road to Baiburt, threatening communications with Trebizond. If this be true, nothing is left us but a rapid retreat. The following letter, from the headquarters of the Ottoman Commander-in-Chief, is dated from a position in which the Turks were able shortly afterwards to inflict on the enemy a serious defeat, which may be considered the turning point of the war in Asia. Although written under the impression left by a series of defeats, it contains clear intimations of the changing fortunes of the campaign :— a Headquarters of Ahmed Mukhtar Pacha, Zevi^, June V2th. — The retrograde movement of this army corps still con- tinues. Little by little, but surely, it is shortening the distance between it and Erzeroum. From Kars it fell back rather pre- cipitately to avoid being cut off by a formidable flank move- ment. It took up its position on the crests of the Soghanli mountains, a day and a half from Kars. Thence, on the fall of Ardahan, it fell back again to Yenikoi. During my absence on the left flank the Russian expedition to Olti and JSTahriman caused a further withdrawal to the military position of Deli Baba. The six hundred Circassians and I^urds lately added to the Central Army Corps were kept well in front to prevent a surprise. A few days ago this body of irregular cavalry, on whose vigilance and activity such dependence was placed, allowed itself to be surprised at night by a couple of squadrons of Russian dragoons. In the conflict which ensued thirty Cir- cassians were killed, and as many more wounded. The Turk- ish version states that the Russian loss was enormous, but the very significant fact remains that the Circassians at once retired on the main army at Deli Baba, and the main army in its turn hastily withdrew a day's march still further to the rear, two hours on this side of Zevin. The Circassians have not been again sent forward, but remain camped with the main force. The true secret of this continued retiring is to be found in the paucity of numbers of the main army. REINFORCEMENT OF THE TURKISH ARMY. Ill Though now considerably swelled hj reinforcements, the Turkish central force does not come up to thirty battalions, and many of these are at anything but their full complement. A solitary battery represents the artillery element ; though another is at Hassan Kaleh, a day's march to the rear. The slightest flank movement of the enemy threatens to necessitate a general engagement, and is accompanied here by a rapid packing up and retiring to a new rearward position. One of the generals in command explained to me yesterday that the retreat from Deli Baba followed as a necessary consequence of the falling back of the Circassians. On the left flank, and parallel to the main line of communications of the army, is the Sarykamish road. This was covered by the vedettes of ths irregular cavalry. These latter once retired, the army was more or less open to a flank attack, and adopted the system of falling back on the junction of these two roads at their present position in rear of Zevin. From all I can see, the Central Corps, under the command of Mukhtar Pacha, is for the pre- sent merely doing duty as a corps of observation, or at most retaining nominal possession of the ground, and preventing forays of Cossacks in search of provisions. Serious impedi- ment to the advance of the Russian forces it certainly cannot, and does not, offer. Even as it is, the entire ground between Kars and the position of the Turkish army, three days' march, is entirely undefended, even by irregulars. I am told there are Russian troops in the intervening space, but this I can scarcely believe. There are, however, no means of ascer- taining the truth from this side, it being almost certain death to attempt penetrating alone into the terra incognita interven- ing between the two armies. On the Olti side I am informed at headquarters that the Russian expedition of fifteen hundred Cossacks and three infantry battalions have retired before an equal Turkish force despatched against it. This may be so, but when I left that place the Turkish force was in the act of retiring. On the Bayazid side all seems inactive — at least no news has reached us, though a good deal of anxiety prevails as to the state of affairs there. I intend making an expedition in that direction shortly to see with my own eyes how matters stand. Up to the present I have refrained from doing so, the distance (a week's ride) making it an undertaking of no slight gravity. The general opinion prevailing in non-official military circles here is that the Turkish army, while trying to keep up the appearance of holding its ground, is in reality merely temporizing to gain time till Erzeroum be in a state of defence, after which we shall have a final retreat on the fortified 112 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. positions covering tlie place, and in all likelihood a couple of decisive battles. It is believed that the troubles in the Caucasus and the fighting on the Batoum flank, about which w^e know absolutely nothing certain, have a good deal to do with the slowness of the Russian advance. In all probability the difficult nature of the communications by which stores have to be conveyed to the frontier, and, up to a short time ago, the great severity of the weather, w^hich prevented the accumulation of supplies necessary before an advance into an enemy's territory can be safely attempted, have all united to prevent decisive action. But, once these preparations com- pleted, we may look forward to rapid and continuous action. The preparations at Erzeroum seem to be all that is being done to meet the coming storm ; and these preparations are slow and miserably insufficient. People seem to lay great stress on the capacity of the Turks for defending fortresses, and build mag- nificent hopes on the supposed impregnability of Kars and Erzeroum. I scarcely think the Russians will put their defen- sive powers to the test, but will quietly isolate the strong places, and leave famine to do its work. By any one not actu- ally on the ground the difficulty of learning what is going on at either flank or in the centre, if one be at either of the wings, can scarcely be realized. For instance, here at the centre, no one beside the Commander-in-Chief and his staff have the faintest notion of w^hat is going on towards Olti, on the left ; and as for the Bayazid flank, four days' march away, I think even the General is in a fog about the doings there. Immediately on the despatch of this letter by special courier to Erzeroum, I shall post oft' to the right flank, if permitted, for that side seems to be a complete land of mystery just now^ From a few European papers w^hich have reached me here, I see that, as far as the campaign on the Danube is concerned, nearly all the correspondence is communicated by telegraph. Here, such a thing is out of the question. If, on an important occa- sion, one manages to get off a telegram, the briefest of the brief, after forty- eight hours' delay at the bureau, he may think himself fortunate. Between this and Constantinople there is but a single wire, and that is continuously engaged by Government messages. When last in Erzeroum I learned that for ten days previously the instruments had not stopped working night or day, transmitting military messages and instructions. In all that time, the inspector of international telegraphs could only obtain a few minutes, now and again, in all amounting to three-quarters of an hour, to forward the English and French despatches accumulated at the office. What hope, then, of getting oft* a couple of columns such as CIRCASSIAN FORAGERS. 113 are being daily forwarded by our more fortunate colleagnes in Europe ? Tbe military doctors at Erzeroum and Hassan Kaleh are kept busily employed looking after the numerous invalids con- tinuously pouring in from the army. Dysentery, typhoid fever, and aifections of the foot consequent on the miserable condition of the soldiers' compound rag mocassins (I can't call them shoes), are the principal maladies, and the mortality, I am informed by the doctors, is very considerable. Want of hospital accommodation, necessitating the locating of large numbers of the sick in the miserable wigwams of the towns, increases the difficulty of properly attending to the patients, and contributes largely to increase the mortality. The doctors complain sadly, too, of "malingering." Soldiers present themselves for admission to hospital on the slightest pre- tence — "a pain on the top of the nose" being in one instance the claim for exemption from service. For the Circassians, especially the w^ounded proceeding from the late skirmish with the Russian cavalry, and most of whom suffer from sabre and lance wounds, a separate hospital has been estab- lished at Hassan Kaleh. The principal surgeon tells me he has the greatest difficulty in maintaining order among them, owing to their belonging to different tribes, and keeping up their old clan feuds with a persistency scarcely second to their aversion for the common enemy. These Circassians are steadily earning for themselves here the same unenviable repu- tation for violence and thievery which they enjoyed in Servia. Go where you will, your ears are filled with tales of their depre- dations. They quarter themselves on the inhabitants, take everything they fancy, and not only do not pay, but often savagely maltreat their hosts. In one village where I passed the night my host informed me, speaking under his breath, and looking fearfully around him, that only a few days pre- viously they had assassinated a poor man in the place, at whose house four of them had lived free for a month, their host being often obliged to borrow money to meet their demands for tobacco and other extras. One is continually warned along the way to take care of meeting these Cir- cassians, and even the authorities require one to take a mounted policeman as an escort. As bands of these marauders are continually passing and repassing to and from the front the villagers are kept in a constant state of dread for their flocks — all the property they possess. I have seen a Cir- cassian horseman deliberately ride up to a flock of sheep, choose out the best-looking, and heartily curse the pro- prietor for not helping him to sling it before him on his 114 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. horse. "Kaffir," "dog," "villain," were mild names for tlie poor Kurd who wouldn't aid the despoiler. The regular troops, the villagers tell me, aid in oppressing the population. They quarter themselves in the khans and private houses, eat and drink of the best, and then take their leave wdthout even offering a halfpenny in payment. I have myself suffered more than once, indirectly, on account of this system of pro- ceeding. A few days ago I rode in from the camp to the village of Khorassan, some hours in the rear. A deluge of rain was falling, and I was thoroughly soaked through. I went from door to door for over an hour, asking for lodging for the night. The khans closed their doors, the proprietors telling me they were private houses ; and at the private houses I was told there was nothing to eat. All this was be3auge I was taken for a military man, and con- sequently either unable or unwilling to pay. At length, as I stood shivering in the midst of the mud hovels, an old man took pity on me, and, coming forward, asked if I had any money. On proving ocularly that I had, he brought me to his khan, from the door of which I had been turned previously. All necessaries were speedily forth- coming — that iSj as necessaries go here — milk, unleavened bread, and a white stringy kind of cheese. Profuse apologies were offered for the first refusal, my being mistaken for a Turkish captain being considered ample justification for their inhospitable treatment of me. The irregular conduct on the part of the military, and the unpaid requisitions for the army generally, have produced a feeling among the population both Christian and Mussulman anything but favourable to the Government. There are many who recollect the Russian invasions of 1828-9 and during the Crimean war ; and I have repeatedly heard the cash payments of the Russian army alluded to as a contrast to the present state of things. As I m.ention3d in a former letter, there are many, very many, who would welcome the invading army with open arms. No later than yesterday an old man, a Mohammedan, told me he had no intention of retiring with the army, but that on the contrary he would await the advent of the Russians, and willingly supply them with what they required. It may be that the Turkish Grovernment is aware of this feeling. I know the local authorities, civil and militaiy, are, and that they take no pains to conciliate the population, believing that the province is lost to Turkey — much as the Roumanians have been treated. That the Muscovite army will find itself at home here I am quite 3 are. HAIRY MOSES. 115 In a former letter (whicli I now find lias miscarried on its way from tlie camp to Erzeronm) I made some mention of tlie great want of cavalry in tlie Turkish army of Armenia. The Gen3ral- in- Chief repeatedly complained of this want, and told me he was nnable to keep himself au courant of the enemy's move- ments. Fifteen thousand Cossacks, hovering like a cloud in advance of the main Russian columns, effectually screen the movements of these latter, and prevent their points of con- centration from being known. Six hundred mounted Circas- sians and a squadron of Kurd lancers were hurriedly organ- ized to supply the necessary reconnoitring element. Their vigilance and intelligence were counted on to compensate for their paucity of number. The very first time they came in contact with the enemy they proved quite inadequate to the mission assigned them. They were surprised, cut up, and retired on the main army, behind which they are now camped — a terror and a nuisance to all but the enemy. The marshal commanding has had to have recourse to another means to keep himself informed of the Russian movements. Upper Armenia has ever been, and to a certain extent is still, infested by bands of Kurd robbers, who, under various chiefs, and in • detachments of from ten to twenty, lived upon the country, exacting blackmail from the villages, and pillaging travel- lers. One of these men, popularly known as Tulu Moussa, or Hairy Moses, enjoyed an extensive renown for his successes in the brigand line. The General informed me that while governor of this province some years ago he had in vain tried to lay hands on this bandit. When the war broke out Tulu Moussa, stirred by patriotism, entered into negotiations with the military authorities, offering his services in return for a free pardon. His offers were accepted, and he is now the Pacha's main source of information as to the doings of the enemy. Accompanied by half a dozen followers, he scours the country in front, collects information, tracks out the Russian spies, and even ventures in disguise into the enemy's camp. I had the honour of dining with this redoubtable gentleman some days ago. He had just come in from a visit to the hostile lines, and laid before the Turkish Greneral a sum of money given him by the Russian commander as earnest of larger payment for his espionage among the Turks. I believe he means honestly enough to his present employers, though for " a consideration " I daresay his Mussulman scruples might, at a given moment, succumb to the situation. He is a tall spare man of some forty years of age, sallow-faced and hollow- cheeked, his large black lustrous eyes sparkling with energy. I 2 116 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. A heavy moustaclie scarce conceals a half- suppressed hnnior- otis expression about the corners of his mouth, and a dense growth of beard a fortnight old vindicated his title to the sobriquet of " hairy." His attire is brigandishly picturesque in the extreme. A long tunic resembling that of the Cir- cassians, the skirt reaching to the middle calf, of a dark olive tint, and bound at the edges with broad silver lace, is confined round his slender waist by a belt of many silver pieces with . pierced pattern. On either breast is a double row of silver cartridge tubes elaborately chased and ornamented with green enamel. His sabre and broad-bladed Circassian dagger are masterpieces of carving and enamel, the sheaths and hilts of massive silver set with coral and lapis lazuli. Wide dark trousers and high red-leather boots turning up at the toes complete his costume. His companions are attired much in the same manner, though less richly. They are quiet, reso- lute men, but with an unmistakably brigandish air. Such are Mukhtar Pacha's chief of the " intelligence department " and his aides. The Pacha tells me Moussa is worth a whole regiment of cavalry to him, and the information he brings is thoroughly trustworthy. He partly apologized for employing a person of such peculiar antecedents ; but though Moussa, he said, freely " took " whatever he could lay his hands on, he was believed to be free from the stain of blood. When I met him, he had just brought in four compatriots, caught in the act of dogging the retiring army as Russian spies. If appearance alone were sufficient to condemn, these people would have but little chance ; for a more villanous-looking set I never laid eyes on — the foreheads low and compressed, the huge semi- Jewish nose out of all proportion to the small trumpet- shaped mouth and retiring chin, the large black eyes glittering with mingled cunning and ferocity. Huge red or blue turbans, the folds coming down in front and below the ears, left the face only partly visible, as they sat crouching on their haunches in a row, looking uneasily about them like newly captured wild beasts. The following letter from a correspondent with the Russians relates to the attempts of the Turks to raise the tribes of the Caucasus against Russia : — KuTAis, MiNGRELiA, Juue 6th. — Affairs are not going on very well hereabouts, in Mingrelia, where we are at present threatened at two opposite points, one near Batoum, the other towards Sukhum Kaleh. The low country of Min- TURKISH TACTICS IN ASIA. 117 grelia, i.e., the Rion basin, will, on referring to the map, be found to constitute a sort of isosceles triangle, with its base on the sea, between two ranges of very high mountains. At the southern angle, that near Batoum, the Russians, unable to get at the latter place (in consequence of a fort and the fire of the numerous Turkish cruisers) by the road running along the sea-beach, are constructing another through the mountainous country in the interior, by which they propose to attack Batoum in the rear. This work, how- ever, is one of considerable difficulty. Continual skirmishing goes on, and then there are the natural difficulties of the country — steep wooded mountain ranges, ravines and gorges clothed with dense masses of laurel, rhododendron, and azaleas, amongst which the wary Kabouletts, and other warlike Lazistanees, well supplied with arms and ammu- nition by the Turk, can lurk unseen, and by frequent attacks annoy the sappers, and disturb their operations. These Kabouletts are a Lazistanee tribe of the frontiers, originally Christians, but who, like the people round Akhaltsik, were forcibly converted to Islamism by the Turks in the seventeenth century. They were preparing to join the Russians, and had arranged to do so, but symptoms of this appearing, the Turks suddenly marched upon and occupied their villages, capturing the women and children of all the chiefs and principal people, whom they retain as hostages, only releasing them on the production of heads of Russian subjects by their relations, as proof of loyalty to the cause of the Padishah ! In consequence of this policy, the able-bodied and effective fighting men of the tribe are compelled, malgre their ten- dencies to Christianity, to do a great deal of harm to their former friends and neighbours. On the Russian side, the men of Gouriel, being always, in consequence of their know- ledge of the country, at the advanced posts, have to bear the brunt of the guerilla warfare which goes on. The Russian system is (while holding, of course, a strong force in reserve) to march with a nucleus of regulars and artillery, preceded by a cloud of frontier men, foot and horse, under their respective chiefs, all of whom are well acquainted with the language, country, manners, customs, &c., of the enemy. These are thrown out on all sides, at a considerable distance, on the front and flanks of the regulars, forming a great semi- circular line of posts, connected by patrols and picquets with the same in advance. Hassan Pacha, with the ironclads, is threatening the whole coast, cannonading the stations on the shore, and landing bodies of Circassians, who burn villages and devastate on an 118 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE. extended and effectaal scale, causing not only alarm, but the detaclinient of a considerable force to cbeck these operations. Sukhum Kaleh was burnt to the ground ten or twelve days ago in this way, and the Abhasians, who are in full revolt, have retaken the littoral between Sukhum and Pitsounda, and, in conjunction with the Circassians, are threatening Mingrelia along the line of the Kodor. Since then Ardler and Sochu, both open villages on the Circassian coast, have been destroyed, and probably all the estates thereabouts, as far as or beyond Tonapse, the telegraphs cut, &c. Hearing of these events, I left three days ago for Zugdidi, a large bourg some twenty miles from the coast (at Anaklia) , between Poti and Sukhum Kaleh, which, if an advance in force should be contemplated by the Turks, combined with the insurgents and Circassians, would be an important centre of operations. Prince I^icholas, hereditary Dadian, or Prince of Mingrelia, has a country house here, and very large estates all round, shooting preserves, &g. He is constructing a handsome palace. I called soon after my arrival upon Count Rosmorduc, a veteran resident of the Caucasus, who has married into the Prince's family ; and afterwards upon the G-overnor, where I saw Prince Mirsky, who has the command of all the reserved Caucasian forces. They were preparing for a move in advance, and two corps of Imeritian irregulars had been detailed to cross the river that afternoon as advanced guard, to be followed by three battalions of Russian infantry, the artillery, the militia, and the rest of the irregular cavalry and Cossacks — in all some 8,000 strong. This force is to repel the Turks, Circassians, and Abhasian insurgents, should they advance, by holding the line of the Kodor, and eventually to reduce the revolted province. The general in command at Sukhum (Krachenkoif ) has been making a " strategic movement to the rear," with undue precipitation, which, combined with the Abhasian revolt, has encouraged the invaders. Indeed, were it not for the diffi- culties of the Hne of route, three considerable rivers, and ten or twelve deep nullahs having to be crossed, it is probable the latter would by this have been near Zugdidi. As it is, had the Circassians, some 3,000 of whom are believed to have landed, possessed horses, it is probable that the panic here of a few days back would have turned out only too well justified. This alarm — one of those incidents common to the outbreak of hostilities anywhere — did not extend to the military, who, down to the latest raised levies, showed nothing but a commendable desire to come to close quai'ters with the sup- posed enemy. It was caused by the misinterpretation of a THE TURKS IN TRANS-CAUCASIA. 119 telegram from the general commanding at Azurget, on the Turkish frontier, who, having received a despatch advising that the Turks were landing at Anaklia (which they were cannonading), sent a message to Zugdidi, telling them to hold their ground as long as possible, and that he was sending reinforcements. This was interpreted as certain news that the latter position was about to be attacked by a superior force; and the civil and trading population, losing their heads, made a rush from the town, which, should the defenders be compelled to retreat, they of course imagined would speedily become another Batak. The alarm was aggravated tenfold by the local budmashes and loafers, who, foreseeing a rich harvest of loot, did their best by spreading all sorts of canards to precipitate events, so that the shop- keepers, after offering fabulous prices for arabas and conveyances for their goods, which in many cases were not to be had, finally bundled helter-skelter out of the town, leaving their half-emptied stores to the delicate attentions of the above gentlemen. By the time of my arrival, however, the commercial element had, after going half way to Novi- Sevok, and passing two or three nights " al fresco," returned to its senses, and resumed its ordinary course. If the reports respecting the Turks having landed regular troops (Nizam) with artillery to match, and having armed the Abhasian insurgents with Martini-Peabodys and the Circassians with Winchesters, are correct, it is probable that some severe bush-whacking engagements, followed by a small general action, will shortly take place between the Kodor and Nighor ; unless, indeed, the Turks are even stronger than is supposed, and while menacing an advance on the direct line by land between Sukhum and Zugdidi should suddenly descend in force at Anaklia — thus avoiding the passage of the rivers, and strike at the Russian base, in which case the advance of the latter towards ' Batoum would have to be completely suspended, and the greater part of the force at present employed on it have to be recalled for the defence of Kutais, which, as in Omar Pacha's expedition in 1856, would be the point aimed at. There were about 600 irregulars (cavaliy) in Zugdidi alone, besides militia and regular (Russian) soldiers, all, especially the irregulars, fine-looking men. The extraordinary thing was that the resources of the country did not seem in any way overtaxed to support them ; there was no scarcity of anything, in spite of the recent panic. Als an officer, who has served in the French army, observed, there was not enough in the place in the way of meat to satisfy two com- 120 WAE CORRESPONDENCE. panies of Englisb. soldiers, yet liere were 3,000 to 4,000 men, many of theni of the upper classes. Witli a little millet boiled into a pudding, or " pasta," some goat's milk, cheese and onions, and a goblet of " vin du pays," the chiefs even are quite contented, while their retainers make good cheer over cake of Indian corn flour, some curds, a piece of dried fish, or a strip of tough beef among half a dozen. The Russian soldier is happy with his lump of black bread and glass of whisky, or tumbler of weak tea, with, in the evening, perhaps a basin of weak soup, something like the " black broth " of the Spartans. CHAPTER YI. THE EVE OF THE CROSSINa. Rustchuk and Giurgevo — Skobeleff's Straw-cannons— The Cossacks and tlieir Customs — A War Observatory — A Reconnaissance on the Danube —Marching Powers of the Russian Soldiers — Life under Shell-Fire— A Hunt for a Spy — The Russian Artillery — -Russian Light and Heavy Horse — -The Russian Lines of Advance Compared — Osman Pacha at Widdin. By the end of May the belief had become general that the long-suspended Russian blow was about to fall upon Turkey, and keen discussions were held as to the point at which it was most likely to be felt. But day by day it was reported that the Danube was still too high to permit of crossing. Either rain was falling and the river was swollen by the drainage of its vast basin, or the sun was melting the snow on the mountains, and so increasing the volume of the stream. There were those who said that the backward state of the Russian preparations was the sole cause of delay ; but, for whatever reason, the passage of the river did not take place until a month after the time originally announced. In the meanwhile the Russian preparations were gradually approaching completeness. At Constantinople public feeling was turned rather to politics than to war, which every- body seemed inclined to leave to the complacent and all-assuring Abdul Kerim Papha, who had his headquarters at Shumla. The following letter relates to the condition of the Russian army in Roumania : — THE RUSSIANS IN ROUMANIA. 121 * Bucharest, June 1st. — It is hard to credit in gay and frivolous Bucharest that we are on the outskirts of war. It is almost possible to hear on the crest of Philarette the faint din of a heavy bombardment at Ginrgevo or Oltenitza. And, indeed, along the Danube, although there has been as yet no heavy bombardment, the rattle of isolated cannon shots has rolled any day for a month back. But we cannot settle down to the realization that we are conventionally " in the midst of war," when not a wounded man has been dragged through the streets on his road to the hospital. An army stands around us with its sword indeed drawn and raised — we can see the bare blade flashing in the sunshine — but it has fallen nowhere as yet on an enemy, and the brightness of its edge is unsullied by the stain of blood. Russian officers swarm in Bucharest, making the most of the days of ease in the interval between a long march and an arduous campaign. The simple, honest fellows take their fill of w^ell-earned enjoyment in a sedate decorous way which commands one's respect. They like to sit in the sunshine outside the cafe doors, or at the tables in some tree- shaded restaurant-garden, and as they drink tea to listen to music. They form a little queue outside the Turkish baths, waiting for that parboiling which they find so refreshing ; they gather round a casual piano in the salle a manger of an hotel, and if they fight as well as they play and sing, a better army than that with which the Turks oppose them could have no chance against them. They are studiously polite and courteous when occasion calls for intercourse between them and the people of the land they have entered, or others ; but withal, except in some exceptional instances, they do not court such intercourse, and through their courtesy there runs a vein of obvious reserve. The men of the ranks abide in their camps with a calm, sedate content, as if they had been used from their childhood to live under canvas, or crammed into little villages on the broad plains of Roumania, within sight of the spires of its capital. Nowhere is there evident any excitement, any confusion, any bustle, any swagger. But for the occasional clouds of dust in the suburban roads, the strings of troop horses watering in the pools and brooks, the provision trains defiling through the by-streets, and the strange officers in their white coats and caps pervading the town, the chance visitor to Bucharest would find it hard to recognize that his visit was not paid in the piping times of peace. By the time this letter will be printed you will doubtless have heard by telegraph of the arrival of the Russian Emperor at his son's headquarters in Ployesti. The event is regarded 122 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. througliout tlie Russian army as the immediate herald of active offensive operations on a large scale. No doubt the present apparent pause has been, if not absolutely necessary, at all events essentially wise ; but it is well that it should come to a close as early as may be. There are some who argue that time compulsorily spent in inaction a few marches olf the Danube has rather a beneficial effect than otherwise, since it is alleged the enemy is suffering from the tension of the strain. But I question whether time in one sense is not as valuable to the enemy as it is in another sense to the Russians. The Turks are always behindhand ; but every day of respite they gain enables them to be less behindhand. They can reinforce points which seem threatened ; they can throw up or strengthen batteries ; they can drill their rawer troops ; surely it is possible even for a Turkish intendance to accumu- late stores faster than they are being consumed. To this I can at least testify that the Rustchuk of to-day is to the eye a very different place in its potentialities of defence from what it was five weeks ago, when I saw it first. The principle on which the Russians are acting is perfectly clear. They are determined to leave nothing to chance ; they will run no rash risk of sustaining a reverse for want of preparation to avert such a reverse. Of course they might have been across the Danube a fortnight ago, if not sooner. Large as the river is, daring men might have crossed it in boats, made good a footing on the other side, and set themselves to cover the construction of bridges. Possibly, probably, all would have gone w^ell. But then all might not have gone well ; and although in itself a mischance might not have been of very serious import, yet the misfortune would have produced con- sequences which it would have been very unwise to risk. Steadily, really quickly, although seemingly slowly, are the • masses gathering for the invasion. Every day brings its regiment, its brigade, its battery, up into the position chosen for the awaiting of the order to fall in in stern earnest. Gradually the huge wave is gathering. Its mass is slowdy drifting rather than moving forward. But where the weight of it will fall in thunder, still remains concealed with a care and skill that evoke the sincerest admiration. I have visited most of the likely crossing points on the Danube. I have been to and fro among the Russian forces in the front line more than most people. I am almost singular in the possession of exceptional facilities for going in and out unimpeded about the Russian lines. I have not a few friends among Russian officers. But this I declare, that no specific indications are patent to me regarding the crossing points at which the UNUSUAL HEIGHT OF THE DANUBE. 123 serious attempts to pass the Danube will be made. I will not descend to the disingenuous subterfuge of averring that I am in possession of information which I am not at liberty to com- municate ; I frankly own myself wholly devoid of any infor- mation of the kind which, for my own guidance, I should like extremely well to possess. Inferences are open to me as to everybody, but of these inferences I must admit the compara- tive weakness ; and there is a certain ruefulness in the sincerity with w^hich I venture to congratulate the Russian military authorities on the admirable skill and finesse with which, down to a point necessarily so near the denouement, they have succeeded in concealing the details of their plans. There exists a general belief that the Emperor means to be an eye-wdtness of the operation of the crossing of the main column of invasion, and it is averred, indeed, that he has the design of actually making the campaign. You will then, to all appearance, not have long to wait for more interesting tidings from the Danube than the petty details of skirmishing which have constituted hitherto the bulk of the intelligence. The difficulties of the crossing will be materially enhanced by the almost unprecedented height of the Danube at this season. It has been contended that these difficulties are insuperable, and that the Russian armies have no alternative but to remain quiescent until the abating of the waters. But this at least I can state with confidence, that the Russian engineers do not share this conviction. While admitting that the flooded state of the great river renders their task greatly more arduous, they profess their ability to overcome the difficulty in their way, if their orders are to make the attempt. The modus operandi of the crossing is a fair subject on which to specu- late. It may be assumed that no bridge can be thrown across the Danube in the face of a hostile fire of any weight, nor is it easy to see how Russian artillery fire, however strong and steady, can wholly subdue a Turkish fire that should choose to ignore the Russian cannon and confine its attention ex- clusively to the pontpniers and their handiwork. If these assumptions are justifiable, it must be incumbent on the Russians, before throwing their bridge, to gain a footing on the Turkish bank, and carry and establish themselves on its crest, holding the points from which the river at the place about to be bridged can be commanded. In such an operation the Russians must obviously suffer more or less loss, accord- ing to the strength of the Turkish defensive forces and appliances at the respective points selected for crossing. The method which suggests itself to reduce this inevitable loss as low as possible is as follows : — The Russian artillery to come 124 THE WAR CORRESPONDENCE. into action with, great and sustained vigour, showering shells into the Turkish batteries and sweeping the whole face of the opposite slope. This to be maintained after the Turkish return fire should to all appearance have been in a great mea- sure got under, when a detachment of infantry should cross the river in boats under the protecting fire of the batteries, and, having landed, advance to the attack. Simultaneously, or rather so long before as to admit of their attack being- delivered simultaneously "with that of the detachment de- sigTied for the direct attack, two other detachments should be ferried over, one higher up stream, the other lower down, their crossing to be also covered if need were by artillery fire, the mission of these two detachments being to assail the flanks of the Turkish position, while it is attacked in front by the first detachment. Perhaps it might be possible for the two flanking detachments to succeed without this co-operation. Perhaps indeed, as was the case at Isatchia in 1828, a single detachment might elfect a surprise on the Turkish flank, although this is far more unlikely in 1877, looking at the assiduity with which the Turks are picqueting their bank of the Danube, than it was in 1828, when the successful enter- prise was carried out by the co-operation of some renegade dwellers on the Dobrudscha shore. But what I desire now to make apparent is the necessity incumbent on the Russians of driving out the Turks from their river- bank positions and the occupation of these positions as the essential preliminary to the construction of their bridges. It is unlikely, indeed, that this indispensable task will be accompanied by very much bloodshed, since in all probability the points selected for crossing will hardly be those over against which the Turks are in strongest force. Being desirous of paying my respects to General Badetsky, commanding the 8th Corps, who has been good enough to in- vite me to attach myself to that corps when active operations commence, I drove to Jilava, where his headquarters are for the present. Jilava is a village about eight miles from Bucharest, on the main road towards Giurgevo. The General is for the time leading a quiet rural life in a pretty villa situated in the midst of a large garden some distance from the road. The village is chiefly occupied by the stafl: and intendance officers of the corps; the mass of the troops being further distant from Bucharest in a southerly direction, disposed in temporary cantonments in the villages scattered over the face of the country. After some conversation with Colonel Dmitrowsky, the chief of the staff of the 8th Corps, I went on some miles further along the chaussee to visit General Drago- RUSSIAN REGIMENTAL ORGANIZATION. 125 miroff, who commands a division (the 14tli) of the 8th Corps, to which, with the General's kind permission, I mean more closely to attach myself. The division's headquarters are for the present in the pretty hamlet of Kerate, and General Dragomiroif abides in a beautiful and spacious chateau, which once belonged to a Briton. Being closely surrounded by trees and in the centre of a park, his quarters were not easy to find, and it became necessary to inquire the direction of some oflficers in a house at whose gate the green flag — token of the quarters of a "Polkovnik" — a colonel commanding a regiment — was flying. The colonel himself. Colonel Duhonin, chief of the 55th Reg-iment, was civil enough to answer my questions, and in a gossiping conversation which ensued to give me a quantity of very interesting information. He had open before him the regimental money chest, and he and the paymaster were counting out rouleaux of gold five-rouble pieces to pay for sundry current expenditure. He told me that the Russian officers draw their pay monthly, the rank and file being paid every quarter, at the rate of one silver rouble, or four shillings, per month. This is his pocket money, or, as the colonel put it, his " tobacco money," tobacco from his point of view being the only article of luxury on which the Russian soldier need have any call to expend money. This is about the same rate of free pay as accrues to the French soldier of the line, and considerably under the Prussian allowance, which, if I remember rightly, is 2| d. per diem. To illustrate the method of attack in the Russian army, which is as in the German army by the company column, the colonel called four of his orderlies, each one to represent a company, and stationed them in what is called the " cross " formation ; that is, there stood a man representing a company at each of the four points of the figure of the cross. They moved forward maintaining these relative positions : they changed direction to right or to left, still maintaining the same ; in the former case the company which had been the right flanking company becoming the leading company — in other words, marching at the head of the cross ; in the latter case, the previous left flanking company taking the leading position. He told me that in each battalion there was one company of tirailleurs, or light infantry, whose duty it was more especially to skirmish. On occasion the tirailleur com- panies might be massed, if a rifle battalion or brigade were required ; but this, in the nature of things, would be seldom. There is, he said, no cavalry attached to an infantry division of the Russian army, with the exception of a few Cossacks to act as orderlies and carry despatches ; all the cavalry of each 126 WAR COERESPONDENCE. corps is massed into tlie cavalry division of that corps and operates independently. He pointed out tliat the different regiments are known — ^first, by the number of the regiment in front of the cap ; and, secondly, by the facings, as with us, or rather it might be said by the colour of the collar patches. Thus the facings of his regiment, the 55th, are white — those of the twdn regiment in the same brigade, the 56th, are blue. The two following letters from Giurgevo, by different corre- spondents, exhibit the ways of life of soldiers w^aiting for the order to march against the enemy, and of a civil population hourly expecting bombardment : — t GriURGEVO, J^me btJi. — IN'othing could be more delightful than the view I have from my window here on the banks of the Danube. Immediately in front of me is a boulevard with gTavel walks, green trees, benches, and little round tables — the boulevard made by the Russians when they were here in 1854 — with a Russian sentinel now pacing up and do^'sni in front of it. Beyond, at a distance of twenty yards, are five or six small ships moored to the quay, and beyond them the Danube, more than a mile wide, rolling its swift muddy w^aters along, in a noisy, angry, threatening manner, as though deter- mined to remain an impassable barrier for ever to ' the two armies w^aiting on its shores. On the other side are steep, abrupt banks, which here and there, however, melt away into glassy slopes that come down to the water's edge in a gentle incline, offering every facility for the landing of troops. Then a little higher up the river the tall slender minarets and gilded domes of Rustchuk, w^hich glisten and bum in the sunshine in a wonderful way ; and behind the tovm. the green hills of Bulgaria, covered with orchards, vineyards, pasture-fields, and clumps of trees, among which may be seen here and there long lines and hillocks of fresh earth, the newly constructed earth- works and defences of the Turks. The hills rise up against the sky, where their summits are drawn in clear distinct lines ; and along them may be seen thousands of white specks, that look about the size of eggs, that come out bright in the sunlight, and disappear w^hen a cloud darkens the landscape, and which, seen through the field-glass, take the size and shape of tents. They are the tents of the Turkish army, which may be seen here and there all over the slopes half hidden among the gardens and trees, and may be counted by the hundred and the thousand. Far down below me the river widens out to the dimensions of a lake, and covers miles and miles of GIURGIEVO. 127 land, wliicli during ordinaiy seasons is never reaolied hj the liigli waters. Here and there aj-e little islands and clumps of trees standing in the water up to their waists, as if trying to keep cool, and looking in the distance hke mirages I have seen in the desert of the Kizil Koum. The broad swiftly flowing river, the green hills rising behind to the sky, the white tents of the enemy, the slender minarets and glistening domes, the blue sky and the warm sunshine bathing it all in a glorious sea of light, make up a picture such as is rarely seen. There are few of the sights and still fewer of the sounds of war, and a man having heard nothing of the outbreak of hostilities, who should be dropped down here suddenly on the banks of the Danube in the midst of the peaceful picture, would probably see nothing to make him suspect that even amidst this beautiful scene armies are confronting each other, that the storm of battle may break over it and change this slumbering tranquillity into the fierce uproar and din of war. He might be astonished by a Cossack dashing madly through the streets from time to time, and if he looked more closely and knew the uniforms, he might be surprised by observing a post of Russian soldiers just below the town on the banks of the river ; but he might remain here forty-eight hours, as I have done, without seeing anything further to excite his suspicions, and give him the idea that he was in th3 midst of war. What would seem most suspicious is the tran- quillity and absence of ships and boats on the Danube. There are no steamers ploughing their way up and down its muddy waters, no rafts floating lazily down in the warm sunshine, no sailing boats, no fishing boats, no river ships, except three or four moored to the quay in front of the boulevard. The waters of the Danube are for once as untroubled by man as though no human being inhabited its banks and the art of navigation had never been invented. And then there is some- thing suspicious in the mysterious tranquillity of the other shore; -no sound is heard, no human being can be seen even through a magnifying glass. The green hills lie asleep in the golden sunshine, as dreamy and still as though no human being had ever trod their grassy slopes. The town of Giurgevo is nearly deserted. All the people who were able left soon after the declaration of war ; nearly all the shops are closed, and only those remain behind who have nowhere to go and no friends to receive them. The town is a dreary, deserted, lonely-looking place, which, but for an occa- sional Cossack dashing through the streets, reminds one of those dying cities of Belgium and Holland where th3re are more houses than people, and where one may walk about the 128 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. streets for hours without meeting a single soul. But there is a circus here, and the circus remair^s in spite of the flight of the inhabitants and the threats of bombardment. This circus does not seem to have ever been in a very flourishing condition, W' hich will appear from the assertion of the circus people them- selves that they have not left the place for the simple reason that they had not enough money with which to go away. As there are very few soldiers in Giurgevo, the riders are natu- rally even worse off than in their most prosperous days, and the poor people are gradually undergoing extinction by slow starvation. As I believe in encouraging the arts, I have patronized this circus the two nights I have been here, and I may say that I was almost the only spectator. There were certainly not more than fifteen people in the house, and some of these I suspect had not paid for their admission. It was a sorry spectacle to see the poor people exerting themselves to please a handful of persons who had come to be amused. There were two clowns, two young girls who rode very well, and another one who could ride still better, it was said, but w^ho stood by without taking any part in the performance, because she had been injured a few nights previously by a fall. There w^ere a contortionist, a performing horse, a couple of gymnasts, and a ring master, and several other persons, besides half a dozen more horses. How they all managed to get a living out of the fifteen or twenty francs which they received for that night's performance I cannot imagine. The circus people, I am afraid, could imagine it far less than I could, brought as they were face to face with the necessity of the attempt. The laugh of the clown was but a hollow one, the old stale jokes w^ere thrown off in a sad depressed voice which was anything but laughable, and the smile of the girls when w^e applauded them, for we did applaud them with all our hands, w^as but a weak and sickly one. Even the horses had begun to feel the effects of short commons, for their ribs were plainly visible, and their backs and hipbones stuck out in alarming promi- nence. What the poor people are to do if this state of things continues long it is difficult to foresee, for they do not take enough money to live upon, and they have not enough money to get away with. Giurgevo and the banks of the Danube, both above and below, are occupied by the Cossacks of the Kuban, or Circassian Cossacks, under the command of General Skobeleff. These Cossacks, it may be stated, with the exception of one or two regiments, are not Circassians, although they wear the same uniform, the long coat reaching below the knees, with a row of cartridges across the breast, sheepskin cap, a dagger, and THE SKOBELEFFS AT HOME^j 129 the sliuslika, or curved sword, witlioTit a guard. This cos- tume was adopted, before the Caucasus was conquered, by the Cossacks who formed the line of outposts that guarded the frontier, and it seems to have been done in order more readily to deceive the enemy, and enable the Cossacks to employ all those ruses of war for which they are so famous, and which their regular organization and knowledge of the number and whereabouts of all their own troops, enabled them to do with comparative ease. I have already spoken of the two General Skobeleffs in a pre- vious letter, and predicted that we should hear of them again before the war was over. Since then a small and in- dependent army corps, the strength and composition of which I am not allowed to state, has been formed and placed under the command of General Skobeleff, senior, with his son, the conqueror of Khokand, as his chief of staff, and it is they who just now are holding the Danube, near Giurgevo. It is a rather curious fact that these two officers, father and son, have distinguished themselves in almost exactly the same way, by attacking and putting to flight immensely superior numbers by means of cavalry charges, the one in Central Asia against the Khokandians, the other in Asia Minor in 1854, when he attacked with 800 men and completely routed about 5,000 Turks who had fallen upon him in a most unexpected manner. I found them living in a small house just in front of the boule- vard, which had been abandoned by its proprietors. All the furniture had been carried away, and they were encamped rather than lodged, with only their camp baggage to furnish the empty rooms. At the time of my arrival they were dining in a little garden attached to the house, in the shade of some fruit trees, and I was immediately invited to share their repast, after which General Skobeleff senior took me with him on a visit to the advanced post up the river. The road here passes within two or three hundred yards of the Danube through fields partly under cultivation,^ bits of wood, gardens, and orchards. Sometimes on the river bank we passed a post of from three to twenty Cossacks, to whom the General put a question or two or delivered an order as we drove by. All the houses along the road were abandoned, as the people living on the banks of the river have withdrawn into the interior, although they come down and cultivate the fields, and in many places we saw the peasants tilling the ground and preparing for the coming harvest. After three miles' drive we were directly opposite Rustchuk We got out of the carriage and walked down to the river K 130 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. banks. There were several fields liere under tlie Hgliest state of cnltiYation. They were planted with onions, beetroots, and garlic, exceedingly well cared for, and I was astonished to see there was here a system of irrigation, by means of water raised from the Danube. Little streams of water were running everywhere through the fields, and we soon came to a huge irrigation wheel, on the very brink of the water, at which two horses were working, attended by a lazy boy, who lay down in the shade of a shed, and threw stones at the horses when they stopped. We sat down by the side of a small haystack, and proceeded to reconnoitre Rustchuk. The river here was, I suppose, nearly a mile wide, and poured its waters along in a clear, heavy, and solid stream that filled the banks quite full. There were several small steamers moored along the water's edge, at the foot of the town, among which could be distinguished three monitors, lying in close to the shore. General Skobeleff expressed a longing for a steam launch and a few torpedoes, to try his hand at blowing them up. All was the most perfect stillness and quiet in Rustchuk, the only movement visible being that of three flags waving in the wind, on which we could distinguish, through our glasses, the crescent and the star, and three or four times I caught the faint sound of a trumpet borne across to us on the breeze, showing that beneath the calm exterior the Turks were alive and awake. Finally, another sign of life was manifested by one of the steamers getting under way, and moving slowly down towards Griurgevo, closely hugging the shore. She glided down, slipped round a point, and disappeared from our sight. We then proceeded higher up the river to a battery, which stood a couple of hundred yards from the water. The embankments, counterscarp, and every other part was completely overgrown with grass. It was an old earthwork, that had been constructed here in 1864, and had remained intact ever since. There were sentinels pacing up and down before it, and through the embrasures I could see, as we drove by, what appeared to be some very heavy cannon. I was con- siderably surprised and amused on being informed by G-eneral Skobelelf that these heavy guns, which seemed to be threat- ening Rustchuk, were made of straw, and that they had occupied this outwork fully two weeks. This was an idea of G-eneral Skobeleff junior, who, having occupied the position without any artillery, had determined to impose upon the Turks by mounting straw cannon. The ruse had succeeded apparently, for the Turks had not dared to open fire upon them, and, on looking over the English papers, I found tele- grams from Rustchuk a day or two after these straw batteries STRAW CANNON. 131 were mounted, announcing tliat the Russians liad occupied the positions about Giurgevo, and had mounted several l)atteries with very heavy siege guns. The fact is, that the Teal siege guns w^ere only on their way from Galatz to Bucharest, and did not arrive until a few days later. They will already have arrived and been placed in position by the time this letter appears in print, so that there is no indiscretion in my informing the Turks of the trick that has been played upon them. A little higher up we came to a tete-de-pont, grown over with grass, quite green, which had also been con- structed by the Turks in 1854. The Russians had not occu- pied it. Still higher up was a village, where was posted a large detachment of Cossacks. The inhabitants had all retired to the interior, taking their furniture and effects with them, and the Cossacks had the village all to themselves. Some had occupied the houses, while others preferred bivou- acking in the shade of the trees. Some were asleep, some tending and feeding their horses, others cleaning their arms. Here and there, two or three gathered around a fire, cooking the afternoon meal, and others again, stretched out at full length in the shade, fast asleep. The latter were evidently those who had been on picquet duty during the night. We were received here by the colonel of the regiment, a very active and intelligent officer, who, although a full-bred Cos- sack, spoke French perfectly, and knew a little English. He further presented me to several of his officers, three or four more of whom 1 found spoke either French, English, or German, giving one a very different idea of the intelligence and education of the Cossacks from that which is generally entertained. The greater part of these Cossack officers are, in fact, rich men in their owm country, have received a good education, and have travelled, and seen more or less of the world. The men themselves are tall and athletic, and have a very intelligent look, and they are far superior in this respect to the ordinary Russian soldier. As evening was now approaching, the colonel invited us to supper, which was spread in the shade of a large apple-tree in one of the gar- dens; and, although this was an extremely advanced post, the supper he gave us was certainly as good as any which could be obtained in any hotel, either in Ployesti or Giurgevo. The apiece de resistance w^as shashliks or kibobs, roasted on sticks over the fire, than which there is nothing better. While eating and talking I heard of one or two curious inci- dents that occurred here when the Cossacks first came. In the course of reconnoitring the country, five Cossacks, with an under officer, came upon a post of twenty Roumanian K 2 10 J WAR CORRESPOXDENCS. soldiers, likewise under the command of an under officer. The five Cossacks immediately arrested the twenty Rou- manians, brought them into headquarters, and rejDorted them to General Skobeleff as prisoners of some unknown army. The Cossacks were not quite sure apparently whether they w^ere Turks or not, so they thought that they had better bring them in, an operation to which the Roumanians, although vastly superior in numbers, consented wdth not a little murmuring. These Cossacks have some very curious customs, one of which was described to me, and wdiich just now is not without its^ interest. They are all comparatively young men, and nearly all married, of course to young waives. It often happens, as. in the present instance, that they are aw^ay from home during a war for one, or even three or four years, and one unfortunate result is that some of the wives left behind do not prove to be Lucretias. The Cossacks are quite aware of this, and many of them, on returning home, buy a white scarf or handkerchief, w^hich they take with them. Upon entering their villages, the whole population — women, girls, old men,, and children — come out to lueet them, including, of course, the wives of the returning w^anderers. I^ow, those of the^ wives Avho have been unfaithful to their lords, of w^hich there is usually a considerable sprinkling, go forward to their husbands, kneel down before them in the road, put their faces in the dust, and place their husband's foot upon their necks. This is a confession of guilt, and at the same time a prayer for forgiveness. If the husband then covers his wife's head with the white scarf, it means that he forgives her, asks no questions, and obliterates the past. In this case no one has a right ever to reproach the wdfe with her incon- stancy ; and if any one should be rash enough to do so, he w^ould have to count with the husband, wdio is the protector of his wife's honour. If, on the contrary, the white hand- kerchief is not produced, the woman returns straight to her father's house without again entering her husband's dwelling, and a divorce is pronounced. Although, as I have heard, there is generally a considerable sprinkling of w^omen w^ho come for- ward to kneel down and put their faces in the dust, it rarely happens that they are not forgiven. A very tragical case, how^ever, w^as related to me in which the reverse took place. A returning Cossack w^as informed by a malicious neighbour before he reached his home that his wife had been unfaithful, without waiting to see whether the guilty woman would come forward and confess her sins. The comrades of the Cossack perceived that he had all of a sudden taken to drink and SINGULAR COSSACK CUSTOMS. 133 dissipation, althougli lie was not a man given to these vices. When lie reached his village his wife, as he feared, came forward, knelt down, and put her face in the dust at his feet. The spectators saw him look at her as she lay in the dust for a long time. Two ^ or three times he put his hand in his hreast for the white handkerchief, as if he were goino- to cover the repentant woman's head — two or three times^the movement was restrained. Finally, as if driven by a sudden impulse, he all at once drew his shushka, and with one stroke severed her head from her body ! The punishment for the crime was two months' imprisonment ; while the malicious neighbour, who had taken the trouble to inform him beforehand of his wife's misconduct, was sentenced to Siberia for three years. Ey the time supper was over, darkness was already setting in, hastened by dark clouds that began to roll up from the west -and threaten a stormy night. We started back to Giurgevo, where we arrived just in time to escape a severe drenching. The next morning I was called up early, and invited to go down the river to \dsit another Cossack detachment posted four or five miles below Giurgevo. The rain of the night before had cleared and cooled the atmosphere and laid the dust, and a drive down the banks of the Danube in the cool air of the early morning was an exceedingly pleasant one Less than an hour brought us to a spot on the river's bank where another detachment of Cossacks was bivouacking. The Russians had here erected a kind of observatory, about thirty feet high, on which two men were always placed with a field-glass, to watch everything that was going on. I ascended to the top of this observatory, and had a look at the surrounding country. The Danube had here spread out over several miles, and had formed two or three islands, or rather what appeared to be such by the trees, which were jstanding deep in the water ; for the ground in which they were growing was completely subme'rged. We were here on a high piece of ground, and were as far down as we could go along the bank on account of the spread of the waters. To liave gone further we should have been obliged to make a wide detour and pass round what appeared to be a large lake extending three or four miles inland, which encompassed and surrounded a whole forest of trees. The real channel of the Danube, however, was near the bank on which we were standing, and this channel was not more than 300 yards Avide. Beyond this was an island completely submerged, and still beyond, an open lake extending to the foot of the hills on the other side ; and along our shore, for two or three miles further dovrn, was an island of brushwood, vrith a 134 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. narrow cliannel betw^een it and the mainland. Here were moored a number of boats and a large river sloop, w^hicli bad been captured by tbe Russians and brougbt in. These boats w'ere full of Cossacks, who w^ere simply rowing them up and down tbe channel for the purpose of learning to row. There were evidently very few of them who had any skill in the management of a boat, but they were working aw^ay with heart and soul, and were learning rapidly. These Cossacks are capable of doing nearly everything, and there is no doubt they will soon be as much at home on these river boats as on their own little horses. Dowm the river two or three miles was a Turkish post situated on a high bank immediately overlooking the river. Greneral Skobeleff, junior, w^as makings a reconnaissance in this direction, and invited me, as w^ell as two Russian gentlemen, who are now attached to the Diplo- matic Chancery accompanying the army, to go with him. The General took fifteen or twenty Cossacks and three or four small boats, and we all started down the narrow channel leading inside the island of brushwood before mentioned. Proceeding dowm stream about tw^o miles, we entered the brushwood by means of a narrow, tortuous channel, througli which we worked our way with some difficulty, and finally emerged from the brushwood right in front of the Turkish post just mentioned, which w'as only six or seven hundred yards distant. We were within point-blank range of the Turkish sharpshooters, and the white coats of General Skobelefi; and the officers in the first boat offered them a splendid target. The Turks were not long in perceiving us, and it w^as not many seconds before we began to see little puffs of smoke rising from the banks near the house, and soon after began to hear the reports, which were followed immediately by the whistle of bullets that passed over our heads, cut off bits of brushw^ood near us, or dropped into the water before us. The position began to grow rather warm, and we thought w^e saw once the gleam of the barrel of a cannon being brought to bear upon us, but it seems that we w^ere mistaken, for no cannon w^as fired. The other boats now pushed their way through the brushwood, and began firing volleys at the Turkish sharpshooters, which soon put a stop to their fire. We saw a great commotion amongst the people about the house when we began firing, and one of the officers ^ who w^as w^atching them closely through a field-glass, assured us that he saw one of a group stagger and fall, w^hile the rest suddenly disappeared, and he believed that one of the Turks had either been killed or wounded. They disappeared from that moment and fired no more. A EECONNAISSANCE BY WATER. 135 General Skobeleff, whose object was to see tlie state of tlie river, get as close a view as he could of the opposite shore, and observe the Turkish positions, continued the recon- naissance without being disturbed any more by the Turks ; and having obtained all the information that it was possible to get, we put back, entered the brushwood, and worked our way back up the river to the camp. The detachment was com- manded by Colonel Orloff, who, by our return, had prepared breakfast for us, which, as there w^ere no trees in the imme- diate neighbourhood, we took in his tent. The whole length of the Danube through Roumania seems to be covered with earthworks, which have been erected during the numerous wars that have taken place between Russia and Turkey. The Colonel's tent was placed in a small one, which had been constructed in 1854 by the Russians, and it was com- pletely sheltered from the shell fire of the Turks, had they been disposed to throw any in this direction ; but they did not seem so disposed, and the rest of the day passed off tranquilly, without another shot being fired on either side. I do not suppose tha;t up to the present time the Russians in and about Giurgevo have fired in all one hundred shots from their small arms, and they certainly have not fired a single cannon. This tranquillity will not last long, however. The Danube is, I believe, beginning slowly to subside, and pro- bably ere this letter reaches you the stillness which has been reigning here for so many days will be broken by the roar of cannon and the din of battle. * GiUEGEVO, Jime hth. — While these long, weary summer days — not of inaction, indeed, but of preparation — are hanging so heavily on the hands of those whose task it is to detail the incidents of the war, the smallest mercy in the way of powder- burning is a thing to be thankful for. ISTot that life in Rou- mania, even when there is no fighting, is wholly destitute of pleasure. We w^ere making the best of the barren times, a little party of us, inhabiting that excellent hostelry the Hotel Brofft, in Bucharest. I may name its members. The tall, stalwart, fresh- coloured young man, looking so like an English squire, is General Skobeleff, the youngest of all the Russian generals, the youngest that is in years. But although to be a general at thirty-five is a thing almost unprecedented in the Russian army, outside members of the blood-royal, Skobeleff has owed nothing to what in Russia is known as " protection." He owes, indeed, something to luck— that good fortune which has placed him so often w^here opportunity offered to distin- guish himself ; nor has he omitted to make the most of every 136 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. opportunitT. It is something for a man wliilo yet in his joung prime to have added to his country a territory larger than the whole of Great Britain — the Khanate of Khokand. It was but the other day that I met Grenoral Skobeleff for the first time, but another member of the little party and myself are old comrades, in that species of comradeship closer perhaps than any other, the origin of which dates back to dangers and privations shared together. IS'ot once nor twice have Doch- touroff and myself lain in the same cheerless bivouac, and stood together while men were falling and dying around us. The third member of the party is — which descriptive appella- tion shall I put first ? — a prince and a private soldier. This young Cossack private is probably better known throughout Europe than either of the officers I have named. The big house in Constantinople, the eagles on whose gateway were muffled up the other day as M. Nelidoff stepped forth from without its gates, knows well the young Cossack private who in the piping times of peace was the private secretary of General IgTiatieff. It was but the other day that Prince Tzereteleff, visiting England in the same capacity, was Lord Salisbury's guest at Hatfield, and Lady Derby's at her recep- tion in the State rooms of the Foreign Ofiice. Another con- verse reading of the cedant anna togce axiom. The young diplomat volunteered as a private into a Cossack regiment, and to-day, but that he is temporarily attached to General Skobeleif as an orderly, he might be cleaning his own horse and lying asleep in a swamp somewhere in the Danubian marshes. Yesterday there reached us, as the party sat down at lunch, the tidings that there had been the same morning some heavy firing by the Turkish cannon into Giurgevo. 'Now an im- pression, rather than a belief, has prevailed among us that the Turks vv^ere about to display more offensive activity than they had hitherto manifested. The report went that Abdul Kerim Pacha had addressed strenuous representations to the authorities in Constantinople against the continuous inaction, or it may be the masterly inactivity, which has hitherto been the Turkish military attitude. Further, the story went that Abdul Kerim had received carte hlancJie to be as active as he pleased ; as the result of which release from the bonds which had hitherto restrained him, he was now treading in the foot- steps of Mr. Winkle — taking off his coat and announcing that he was about to begin. They had been expecting this beginning of his at Widdin for two days ; now this shell- heaving of yesterday morning might be his commencement in the Eustchuk- Giurgevo position. Anyhow, the journey to ABDUL KBRIM " GOING TO BEGIN." 137 Giurgevo, as an alternative to vegetating in Bacliarest, seemed worth making on tlie chance ; and we arranged to rendezvous at the railway station for the start of the six p.m. train. You go to a bombardment by train now-a-days, and reach a battle- field in a first-class carriage, with a right to grumble if time is not kept. We all kept tryst, but later telegrams had brought tidings of the cessation of the Turkish fire. Abdul Kerim, if he had ever taken off his coat, which from previous experience of that Greneral's inexplicably Fabian tactics, I take leave to doubt, had put it on again. Skobelelf wanted to buy a horse and would stay the night in Bucharest. Tzereteleff, as his orderly, would remain with him. Doch- touroff also determined to put off his journey to the morning, and evacuated the railway carriage after he had taken his seat in it. I had nothing to do in Bucharest ; I had taken my ticket, and so I came on, not without a lurking hope that by not following the example of postponement I might be in the way of something in the early morning which would be missed by those spending the night at Bucharest. My travelling companion was a fine soldierly warrior of the Caucasus, Major-Greneral Yolchine, commanding the 1st Brigade of the 14th Division of the 8th Army Corps. He gave me statistics proving what I had already heard concern- ing the excellent health of the Russian soldiers. His division has marched the whole way from Kischeneff, after having been in cantonments near that horrible town all the winter. The men about the Pruth had to wade for miles together up to their waists in water, and there were occasions when officers had to strip with the men and give themselves to the task of extricating the waggons of the column from swampy sloughs of despond. Notwithstanding these hardships and the long march, the average of sick men in the regiments of the division — each regiment numbering close on 3,000 soldiers — was not above fifty men. The three prevalent causes of in- efficiency are fevers — not infectious, but of an aguish type — sore eyes and footsoreness. Only the fever cases, and of these only the most severe, are left behind ; the other cases come on with their respective regiments in the ambulance waggons, of which two, each conveying twelve men, are attached to each battalion. The General laughed as he gave me details respect- ing the spirit ration of the Russian army. On the march from Kischeneff', each man has received a dram ^ four times in the week ; when not marching the allowance is two drams of raki monthly. The food ration is three pounds of bread daily, with half a pound of meat, beans, &c., for making of the soup, of which the Russian soldiers partake 138 WAR COERESPONDENCE. twice a day, eating ever so many of tliem out of tlie same big" camp kettle. As we came to a station a company of tlie General's brigade was encamped close by, acting as a picquet for tbe protection of tlie line, and most of the men were on the platform of the station. The General put his head out of carriage, and called out, " Good day, lads !" The soldiers responded, " Good day, father !" with one voice, and that a sufficiently loud one. The General left me at Fratesti, and pointed out to me his house, a little way across the plain, quite as if he had settled down there for good, expressing a hope that I would look in upon him should I happen to pass that way. Giurgevo, of course, is in face of the enemy, a place of which every house is within easy range from the other side ; a place which a day's heavy bombardment would probably lay in ashes ; a place from which, when I landed in it six weeks ago, the inhabitants were flying pell-mell in a body. But threatened men live long, and Giurgevo's motto is diun vivimus vivamus. The birja driveis fought for me eagerly when I came outside the station. The air throbbed with the full-volumed sound of the chant of the Russian soldiers in their camp. In the streets light streamed from the windows of every house ; groups of civilians gossiped at the street comers ; women sat on the stoops outside the doors. I drove through the town to its extreme end, my destination being the Hotel Bellevue close to the headquarters of General Skobeleff the elder, who is in command of the place, which is mainly occupied by his Cossacks. As I turned the corner to the hotel I caught a glimpse of the Danube at my feet, and of the Turkish bivouac fires over the way. Rooms were ready for me, and supper ; for accommodation had been telegraphed for for the whole party. " Oh, yes," said the chambermaid, as she showed me my bedroom, " there came lots of shells hereabouts this morning, quite close to the hotel. Why, there is nothing but the Danube between us and the Turkish batteries;" and then she desired to know whether I wanted slippers, and cared to buy a fragment of a shell which had fallen and burst in the back yard. I went out to call on the General, but I found that he was taking his evening siesta, and looked in upon the chief of his staff instead, who remarked in an in- cidental way that that morning about fifty shells had fallen about the place, in a tone which suggested that it might have been his habit from early childhood to take shells in his cafe au lait instead of sugar. He had not heard of anybody being hurt, and clearly regarded people in Bucha^rest as irrational alarmists. When I get up in the morning, the first thing I LIFE UNDER SHELL-FIRE. 139 do is to look out of window, and beyond tlie few trees on wWcli the birds are singing flows the broad even stream of tbe Danube, with, the Turkish bank in clear view beyond. In the clear morning air it looks strangely near. With the naked eye I can see the sentries walking about on the parapets of the earthworks, the peasants driving their cattle to water, the women washing clothes on the edge of the stream. With the glass I can see into the mouths of the cannon frowning through the revetted embrasures. A train comes along the river face down into the terminus, which is half hidden by the trees of the intervening island. With the glass I can discern the profiles of the passengers as they show at the windows of the carriages. I w^onder whether they know that they are actually within range of the rifle of the sentry walking to and fro on the little quay below me. It is so, for Turkish rifle bullets have reached as far as the quarters of the general staff, next door to the hotel, and one has broken a window in the pavilion in the garden. The waiter comes and tells me it is pleasanter to drink coffee in the garden in front than in the salle a manger. A sweet place is this public garden, with seats and walks overhung with the white blossoms of the locust trees, and the fresh, tender green of the sycamores. Most of it is on the flat summit of a little bluff, but it slopes dow^n to the water's edge close by. In the garden I find officers and civilians sunning themselves and gossiping lazily. A little group at a table under the big tree are playing dominoes. Inside the pavilion is a buffet, and a girl from the hotel, who says that Turkish shells don't at all frighten her, is acting as dame du comptoir. She points out to you the pane broken by the Turkish bullet, and laughs if you suggest that what happened once may happen again. I£ you stroll round the garden among the roses and the acacia shrubs, you may chance on a few ugly holes with jagged edges, which are not in accord with the trimness of the sur- roundings. These are holes made by shells which fell yester- day ; there is no reason in the world, seemingly, why others to-day should not follow those of yesterday ; but it is time to think about them when they come. Meanwhile the coffee is ready, and the lady of the counter pours out a ]Jetit verre with as much insouciance as if big shells were bonbons. Later there come a few children into the garden, and two of them gather flowers and throw them into one of the shell- holes. Then the gardener comes and begins his task of watering : to-morrow the site of the garden may be required for a Russian battery, but the gardener has a fine sense of dutv, and waters his plants as assiduously as if he were paid 140 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. by a percentage on the number of bucketfuls of water be uses. Tbe beat increases, but tbe sbade is grateful, and loungers come in and fall asleep stretcbed on tbe bencbes under tbe trees. Presently tbere is a little bustle, and a crowd gatbers on tbe garden esplanade overbanging tbe river. Tbey are watcbing a Turkisb monitor, wbicb, A\T.tb tbe wbite flag crescent- centred at its main, glides swiftly out from bebind tbe island and beads down stream. Wbat are to be its movements ? If it bends across stream towards Giurgevo Ave may look out, we bere on tbe esplanade, for yesterday tbese were tbe tactics of tbe monitor, wbicb assisted witb its fire tbat of tbe battery over tbe way. Are we to bave a repe- tition of yesterday's performance ? Have I gained an advantage by coming on last nigbt w^bile tbe otbers stayed bebind ? Tbe monitor, it seems, is not bellicose tbis morning. Sbe is bound on a cruise down stream, to bave a look at our friends at Oltenitza no doubt, and make tbe attempt to find wbetber tbere are any big guns in tbe batteries tbereabouts. Sbe glides on bebind anotber low bulrusb- covered island, and we see no more of ber. Ere sbe passes out of sigbt I bave discerned tbrougb tbe glass ber captain standing on tbe quarterdeck under tbe awning. Don't I wisb tbere were an awning over tbe esplanade ! As tbere is not, we go back to tbe seats under tbe sbade of tbe trees, and sit tbere gossiping listlessly wbile tbe bours drag on. A boy comes round witb bills of tbe circus wbicb is nigbtly open somewbere in tbe centre of tbe town. Wbat would tbe Russians say if a boat- load of Turks were to come from Hustcbuk to attend it ? Rustcbuk, by all accounts, is not at present a very lively . place. But sbells are likely to be tbe only visitors from tbe Turkisb side yet awbile, and tbe Russians will reverse tbe usual etiquette, and break tbe ice by paying tbe Turks tbe first call. Tbe languor of tbe afternoon is diversified by a little excite- ment, but of an internal cbaracter. Looking up from my book as I sit under a tree, I find tbat tbe garden is surrounded by a cordon of Russian infantrymen. I look across at tbe botel and I observe tbat it too is in military occupation. Cossack sentries watcb its various outlets, and permit neitber ingress nor egress. It is amusing to watcb people essaying in vain to go in to tbeir dinner, or trying witbout success to get out in order to catcb tbe train. But it is not quite so funny wben all w^e people in tbe garden find tbat we are virtually prisoners for tbe time. Tbe sentries are inexorable. A stout burgber, wbo migbt be tbe mayor, rolls pompously up to tbe ;gate, only to be turned back by a peremptory wave of tbe STRENGTH OF RUSTCHUK. 141 hand. I liave no better success, and the sentry will not look at a " legitimation." At length a staff officer whom I know passes, and releases me. There had been a hunt for a spy. The setting sun gilds the broad bosom of the Danube, and lights up the white-tented camps along the foliage on the gradually swelling slope of the other side. As the heat of the day wanes, some ladies come to promenade within the range of the bullet fire. Yerestchagine, the Russian painter, who is here with the staff, leans against a tree on the esplanade,, and watches the sun-tints on the water. Yesterday from the same spot he was sketching the aspect presented by the falling and occasional bursting of shells in the water. He came hither the other day direct from Paris, in obedience to a commission from the Emperor of Russia. Yerestchagine has earned laurels in other fields than that in which the pencil and brush are the weapons ; he wears the cross of St. George- at his button-hole — the reward for an act of singular personal valour at Tashkend, in rallying beaten troops and retaking a captured cannon, although he himself then no longer wore the uniform of the Czar. As the twilight thickens a band of gipsies begin to play on the esplanade, the lamps are lit which dangle from the trees, beer-mugs glance on the little tables,, officers and civilians fraternize; and so the evening glides away. It is easily discernible by me that in the matter of earthworks. Rustchuk is much stronger than it was when I saw it first six weeks ago. A great work near the extreme right of the Turkish position, which at the time I speak of was only begun, is now being finished, and it was from the guns in it that the shells came which fell in Rustchuk yesterday. The works on the lower ground, in the immediate vicinity of the town, are also evidently greatly strengthened, and on the slope of the bank, near the margin of the river, stretches an almost continuous line of shelter trenches for infantry. On the other hand, fewer troops seeni visible, although I am well aware that the size of camj)s that can be seen from hostile positions is no serious criterion of the actual strength. But troops have been observed leaving Rustchuk, doubtless for the field army which Abdul Kerim Pacha is said to be organiz- ing for operating between Shumla and Rustchuk, and this forenoon I saw two battalions quit Rustchuk marching along the river- side road which leads in the direction of Mcopohs. In Rustchuk as in Widdin, the hospital, denoted by the red cross or the red-crescent-flag, I know not which, is the most prominent building in the place — a large and lofty house in the heart of the town, and to all appearance immediately in the rear of a battery. It would seem as if the Turks chose such 142 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. localities for tlieir hospitals on purpose to gain pretexts for protests. The following letter contains a description of Russian Cossack artillery, and a discussion of the qualities of the cavalry of the army generally : — * Bucharest, June 9th. — It was nearly dark when I reached Turna Magurelle, a flourishing and well-built town of about seven thousand inhabitants, with • a great deal of commerce, chiefly in fish and grain, which are exported by the Danube steamers touching at the landing-place connected with the town by a chaussee about two-and-a-half kilometres long. Like most Roumanian towns, Turna has several public gar- dens, and although the town is within range of the cannon in the Nicopolis batteries, I found quite a concourse of people of both sexes sitting under the trees and listening to the sprightly music of a Hungarian band. I found Prince Manueloff quartered in the house of an Englishman on the edge of the town nearest the Danube. He told me of the many uses to which he had had to put his troopers ; how they were acting as infantrymen, had done a little sailor duty, and had served as engineers in the building of the batteries. There are hardly any infantry as yet in Turna, they remaining at present in reserve, and hence the variety of duties w^hich has devolved upon Prince Manueloff's horsemen. His Highness, learning from me that I took a special interest in the cavalry arm of the service, was good enough to direct that a battery of Cossack horse artillery and a detachment of dragoons should parade next morning for my inspection, and I gratefully accepted the courteous offer. Accordingly, at ten o'clock yesterday morning, an officer of the Prince's staff came to me with the information that these representative detachments were in the square near the Prince's quarters. We first looked at the Cossack battery ; explanations regard- ing it being given by its commanding officer, Lieutenant- Colonel Zotoff. The battery was the 9th battery Circassian Cossacks. The guns are bronze, of Russian make, fitted with range-finders ; they are equivalent to our six-pounders ; there are six guns in each horse battery, eight in each field battery, the pieces in the latter being equal in Aveight of projectile to our field twelve-pounders. The gun carriage is stout and well finished, the trail is rather shorter than with us, and considerably more weighty. The gun-team consists of six horses of medium size and quality ; they are requisitioned for this purpose on the issue of the mobilization order, the COSSACK ARTILLERY. 143 Cossack batteries being for the most part skeletons in peace time. As in every army except our own, in which shafts are used, the wheel horses are fastened to a pole, and thus divide the work of bearing back the gun going down hill, and the strain of pulling up. The rope traces are certainly too long, and even without kicking a horse must very often be over a trace when the gear is not taut. The harness is of black leather, strong, plain, and serviceable. There is not a bright buckle or link in the whole set, therefore there can be neither burnish nor rust. The splinter bars which the use of a pole renders necessary are of iron, somewhat heavy, and they must occasionally hit hocks pretty hard. The drivers, who wear the long black coat and the Astrachan busby of the Circassian Cossacks, are smart, well-set-up fellows, armed with sabres and revolvers ; they drive with great expertness and plenty of dash. The detachment ride their own horses, the teams only being found by Government. They are armed in the same manner as the drivers. To each gun are two under oJSicers — in action one is with the gun, the other with the team. Colonel Zotoff ordered one of the guns to unlimber, and come into " action front." With great quickness and precision the team wheeled and halted. There was no question as to the agility with which the detachment dismounted and un- limbered. Away to the rear went the team and the detach- ment horses, leaving standing beside the piece four men and the under officer ready to commence firing. I ought to have mentioned that one of the detachment rode with the sponge carried lancewise, an arrangement which does not seem a happy one. Altogether this Cossack battery, if it had not the dash and trim dexterity of one of our batteries of horse artillery, appeared perfectly up to its work, and had a wear and tear appearance calculated to commend it to the practical soldier. To each battery there are six officers — one lieutenant- colonel, one captain, two lieutenants, and two sub-lieutenants. The rank of major does not exist in the Russian artillery. Each cavalry division has two of these horse batteries — one battery being of regulars, the other of Cossacks. The artillery moved off and the detachment of dragoons came up. The Russians do not claim to have any technically "heavy" cavalry of the line. There used to be a whole division of cuirassiers which were very heavy cavalry, but there remain of cuirassiers now but three regiments, and these belong to the Imperial Gruard. But the dragoons I saw yes- terday were virtually heavy cavalry — cavalry indeed as heavy as any in Europe. I am an old heavy cavalry man myself, and have naturally given special attention to this arm of the 144 WAR CORRESPOIN^DEXCE. service. Tliere was a time wlien I used to think tliere was no grander spectacle in tlie world than when good old General Parlbj would bid his trumpeter sound " Grallop," and the E/oyals and the Greys abreast — Wardlaw at the head of one regiment, Darby Griffith in front of the other — would come sweeping over the springy green turf of the Curragh until the firm sod quaked again under the hoofs of the massive war horses. Were the glad chance given to me to participate in a cavalry charge in stern earnest I would ask no better place than on the flank of the leading squadron of the dear old Royals- But there came to me in 1870-71 the realization that there were heavier cavalry regiments in Europe than the Royals and the Greys. The cuirassiers and dragoons whom Bredow and Wedel led in that fierce ride on the French cannon on the red day of Yionville were, man for man, horse for horse, more massive than my own old fellow troopers ; and now yesterday I realized that the Russian dragoons were heavier cavalry than the stout sw^ordsmen of Bredow and Wedel. Horses seven- teen hands high, neither clumsy nor weedy, strong-boned^ close-coupled, powerful-quartered, noble- crested, with small well-bred heads, and the stamp of immense power and leonine courage pervading the whole frame. Men tall, square- shouldered, clean-flanked, rather heavy-limbed perhaps, but without clumsiness — men, in fine, of the stamp of our dales- men, who furnish the best troopers to our household cavalry, only for the most part of gTeater breadth of shoulder and massiveness of limb. I will frankly aver that it has never yet befallen me to see troop horses so grand. Then I saw a handful of Uhlans — the men, take them as a whole, running^ a little smaller and lighter than the dragoons, but only a trifle so — the horses of equal substance ; and another handful of hussars, the men perceptibly slighter and shorter than the dragoons, yet still big men, the horses scarcely so tall, but with almost as much power. The Russians, as they have technically no heavy cavalry of the line, so they have techni- cally no light cavalry of the line ; the Cossacks constitute their light cavalry. It is a fair question for discussion whether it is wise or the reverse to have all the regular cavalry thus massive, for really no other expression conveys so truthful an idea of their character. To my humble thinking it is merely a question of horse power. Some years ago we had a craze for light cavalry, and the expression "light men on light horses" Avas the watchword with many military reformers. Even in our heavy cavalry, which was cut down to four regiments, the maximum standard was 6 ft. 11 in., and in the hussars and "light bobs" the maximum height YALTJE OF HEAVY CAVALRY. 145 was 5 ft. 8 in. ISTow tlie tendency of our cavalry is to greater height and weight — -weight of man I mean — and I think wisely so. A big horse, if he is well bred, is as active as a little one. Valentine Baker's smart lads of the 10th Hnssars did not get much change out of the "tin bellies" in the ■autumn manoeuvres, which unfortunately seem now to be memories of the past. It was sheer weight of man and horse that sent the Prussian dragoons crashing through the Austrian Hussars in that test-fight in the narrow street of Trautenau. It was in virtue of their weight giving pith to their impetuosity that the cuirassiers of Caulaincourt, smashing their indomitable way through and over masses of infantrymen, forced their way through the gorge of the great redoubt on the slope of Borodino. What but weight giving effect to impetus sent the Prussian cuirassier through the [French Hussars, uphill though they charged, on the swell that rises from the north-east of Mars-la-Tour ? Could "light men on light horses" have followed Scarlett and Elliot through that dense-packed mass of Russian horsemen that came lum- bering down on our heavy cavalry on the day of Balaklava ? The hunting man knows how useful it is when the going is heavy, that his mount is up to a stone or two more than his weight. And this is exactly what you bring about if you put men that are not too heavy and too heavily equipped on the most powerful horses that can be procured. I should say of these Russian Hussar horses that there is not one of them but is up to a lot more weight than he carries, having thus, in other words, a reserve fund of power. In the dragoon regiments the margin is smaller, in consequence of the greater weight of the men, yet by reason of the singular power of the horses a margin does exist. A big horse requires no more food to keep him in condition than does a small one ; indeed the biggest feeder of the equine species I know is a twelve- hands high pony down Sydenham way. The Russian field ration for all cavalry horses alike are four "gamitz," i.e., large double handf uls of grain, 101b. of hay, and olb. straw ; no doubt supplemented by pickings, for the Russian cavalry- men are admirable horsemasters. On this ration the Division Manueloff marched 700 versts in eighteen days, with several halt days. It rained most of the journey, and the roads were cruelly heavy. Nevertheless, 1 have never seen horses in better working condition, and at the end of the march barely five horses per squadron, or about 2^ per cent., were temporarily unfit for duty, the chief casualties being sore backs from the constant soaking rain. The artillery and waggon horses receive a larger ration than do the troop 146 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. horses, on tlie ground that their work is considered harder. The Cossacks at home feed their horses themselves ; the j are now drawing the same ration as that supplied to the regular cavalry horses. The Russian cavalry saddle is a very rudimentary, yet service- able, article for practical work. It consists simply of a^ wooden frame raised on two wooden panels, which fit tho horse's back lying lengthwise on either side of the backbone. The only leather about the saddle. are the flaps, which come- only a little way down, but extend the full length of the panels. Both pommel and cantle are high and cut out, so as to allow a current of air to circulate along the backbone between the panels. In front are a pair of immense wallets, which are stuffed with belongings of man and horse. Abovo the wallets is carried a sheepskin pea-coat, above that again the cloak neatly folded, not rolled, and the whole is covered by the horse-rug, which envelops the wallets and their super- structure, and, being carried backward to the cantle, furnishes also the seat of the saddle, there being no leather seat, as in our military saddles, above the wooden frame. Behind the wallets, or rather, perhaps, behind the top of the pommel, tho dragoon carries rations for two days, bread, rice, salt, &c., in canvas bags made for the purpose. Behind him, across tho cantle, hang also in canvas bags on either side his horse's ra- tion of grain for two days, with two days' allowance of hay^ packed very close in hay nets, hanging down on either flank. On the panel-ends behind the cantle is carried a small round valise, much of the same shape as that used by our cavalry,, but without a flap. In this and in the wallets the dragoon carries the following kit : — One uniform tunic, one w^hite tunic, three shirts, tAVO pairs drawers, one sleeping comforter covering head and neck, one pair of boots, and one pair of leathers for making new legs to boots. Each third man carries a copper cooking-pot, which fits exactly over one end of his valise. Above the valise is half a tente cVahri, with one of the stakes. I should have said that above everything in front are strapped the picquet pegs and ropes, which, how- ever, seemed to be very little used. Underneath the saddle frame is a felt blanket folded fourfold, which does duty for our numnah. It is re-folded daily, so that a fresh surface is always next the horse's back, an admirable preventive of chafing. A one-inch broad leather girth maintains the saddle in its place with the aid of another passing under the horse's belly some distance further back. A surcingle keeps the rug in position, and straps it down on to the frame. There is no breast-plate or crupper to the Russian saddle, but a leather THE EUSSIAN DRAGOON. 147 band crosses the horse's chest to keep the saddle in position. The headstall is simple, strong, and eminently practicable ; there is no gimcrackerj of shinj buckles or brasses. The - dragoon, who wears a kepi, a blue tunic, and pantaloons, with boots coming up to the knee, carries a breech-loading Kranke short rifle, not a carbine, in a leather case slung on his back, with the butt on the right side and the muzzle over the left shoulder. The non-commissioned ofiicers carry no rifles, but are armed with revolvers. The private dragoon has no pistols. He carries a sabre, without a basket hilt, indeed in the Russian army there are few basket-hilted swords, in a leather scabbard lined with wood and tipped with brass, and bound by brass rings. On the sword scabbard is also the leathern sheath of a bayonet, for use with the rifle when the dragoon is fighting on foot. For the Russian dragoon is a dragoon proper, according to the original acceptation of the term. He is armed and trained to fight indifferently on foot or on horse- back ; you may call him a mounted infantryman when he is on horseback, but I should prefer to call him a dismounted cavalryman when he is on foot. The Russian dragoons march in sections of threes, and at the order to fight on foot, the centre of threes takes charge of the horses of his two com- rades, the sous-capitaine of the squadron taking charge of the horse detachment, and while striving to avail himself of as much cover as possible, keeping also as near as possible to the force fighting dismounted. To sum up, the Russian dra- goon has nothing about him that jingles as he rides — nothing that by sparkling could show his whereabouts afar off. He is a plainly dressed, workman-like, practical-looking soldier, with a genuine love for his horse, and, it appears, a real pride in his profession. There are no studs as in Russia, for the supply of horses to the cavalry. Each regiment has a remount officer, who has the duty of buying young horses and of taking charge of the remount depot, where thirty-six men of the regiment are stationed to look after the youngsters. The remount officer buys horses between the ages of one and three years. He has all Russia to select from ; but the horses for the most part are brought by owners and dealers to the depots, which are located chiefly in the governments of Tambof and Yaronish, on the Yolga, since in these governments horses suited for cavalry purposes are more plentiful than in other parts of Russia. The limit of price permitted to the remount officer is 133 roubles for horses destined for the cavalry of the line ; for the Imperial Guards the limit rises to 300 roubles. At the age of four the young horses, which have previously been L 2 148 WAR COHRESPONDENCE. handled but not broken in, are drafted into tbe reserve squad- ron, where they remain for a year, during which time they are broken in ; and at the age of five join the regiment for service. A horse is supposed to last seven years from the date of his joining the regiment, so that the remount officer has to furnish young horses yearly to the amount of one- seventh of the total service-strength. The reserve squadron in peace time is about one hundred strong, but in war time it is increased to twice or thrice this strength to meet the drafts made upon it to supply vacancies of men and horses in the field squadrons. Cavalry recruits who come from all parts of Russia, but are chiefly drawn from Little Russia, the people of which are extremely good horse-masters and fond of riding, are sent direct to their respective regiments, and are considered fit to be dismissed from recruit drill in three months. Formerly the period of training was nine months, but now they work harder, it seems, and are sent to duty sooner. I think a man is likelier to be a good duty- soldier at the end of nine months' fair training than at the end of three months' forcing ; but then it appears tuition is sedulously kept up after the dragoon is sent into the ranks, and the accelerated training is of course a desideratum in war time, or w4ien it is desired quickly to increase the strength of an army. The cavalry soldier's term of active service is nomi- nally ten years, w^ith five years in the reserve, but in practice he is sent home after having served four or five years, mth liability to be recalled from this long furlough at a day's notice. I^on-commissioned officers may go down or remain with the regiment at their option ; if they engage for a second term of service they receive additional pay. Private soldiers are not allowed to re-engage. I have left myself but little space to describe the Turna-Mco- polis position. The town of Turna Magurelle is on the edge of a low bank, just high enough to raise it out of the inun- dation. As I stood on the edge of this bank the inundation reached to my feet, spreading far and wide, so that it seemed *' one water " all the way to the foot of the rock on the top of which is the fortress of Mcopolis. But it is not altogether so. From Turna Magurelle a chaussee runs across the inundation to a narrow strip of land which represents the true north bank of the Danube, all that is left of it sticking up out of the water, with a few houses on it, which are the buildings connected with the port and steamboat stopping station. The Danube proper is just now about one and a half kilometre broad, and the Turkish bank, almost as far as the eye can reach, is steep and in places precipitous. But just opposite RUSSIAN DELAYS. 149 Turna is a little break in tlie crag, a narrow ravine, down the bottom of wbich conies a little stream to the Danube. Just at the mouth of this little stream is the port of ISTicopolis. The toTVTi lies behind and stretches up the steep slope to the upper town, in front of which, on a semi-isolated rock, stands the citadel. A wall surrounds the area on which the town stands, and there are batteries, not only inside the space enclosed by this wall, but on and under the crags to right and to left. It is not a nice-looking place to carry by a coup de main, and if the Russians mean to cross here they will have to batter down the fortress and crush the batteries by the weight of superior fire from the lower ground, with the Turkish gunners able from their dominant position to look into the Russian batteries. In the following letter the lines of advance of the entire Russian army south of the Danube are compared : — * Bucharest, June 19th. — In one of my earlier letters, while as yet the plan of the Russian advance into the Principalities remained undeveloped, I ventured to foreshadow a scheme of strategical action on the part of the Russians which appeared to me to bear the impress of probability. Of that scheme the keynote was the value of time, or, to speak more explicitly, the wisdom of taking time by the forelock. That it was pos- sible to cross the Danube a month ago at Isatchia, below Braila, cannot well be denied. A march through the Do- brudscha was scarcely perhaps a pleasant prospect, but it had obvious elements of advantage which I strove at the time to put forward. With their preponderance in cavalry the Rus- sians might have by this time overrun the greater part of Bulgaria north of the Balkans, keeping clear of the fortresses and avoiding close quarters with such field force as the Turks were able to spare from their forti^esses and standing camps, if such field force seemed too formidable to cope with. It would have been perfectly practicable that a large Russian force should have by this time swept the Do- brudscha, and be now in position about Bazardjik to accomplish whatever purpose it might have seemed expedient to assign to it. The question would have arisen, and the answer to that question would have depended on the strength of the force accumulated on the position I have named, whether Shumla should have been the first objective, or whether, one detachment having been detailed to watch Shumla, another to observe Varna, the main column should have pressed on through the Pravada Pass. 150 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Doubtless there would liave been risks attending tlie carrying out of such, a scheme, although I venture to think they would have been smaller than at first sight might appear But, be this as it may, the Russian chiefs have chosen not to incur these risks ; it remains to be seen w^hether in the doing so they may not have exposed themselves to greater. Their plan of campaign has been devised on the basis of leaving as little as possible to chance, and in view of this they have been compelled in a great measure to disregard the value of time. The swollen state of the Danube has had but little influence on the Russian dispositions. Had the Danube been going down, as is its normal wont in the month of June, no doubt they might have pressed on their preparations for the crossing of it ; but looking to the magnitude of their arrangements, and their choice of crossing places, it is doubtful w^hether, even if the Danube had been practicable earlier, the prepara- tions would have been sufticiently far advanced to admit of the crossing in force being accomplished sooner than now. Where that crossing is to take place, and when, of course it is not for me to anticipate, although, looking at the date at which this letter can be published, I imagine the revelation would do no harm to anybody. But one may localize the point wT-thin limits narrow enough for my present purpose. From the Aluta w^estwards the Russians have given the Danube line to the Roumanian army, therefore no Russians will cross higher up than the mouth of that river. Let us assume that the Russian main advance has effected its passage, and is disposed on the other bank of the Danube somewhere between Nicopolis and Rustchuk. What are likely to be its subsequent movements ? The point might be discussed by a person writing in Fleet-street wdth to the full as many data for the consideration of the question as are at my disposal here ; I confine myself to regarding the abstract possibilities and probabilities. Shumla cannot well be the preliminary objective of this main advance, because if such were the case, it is feasible to hold that the crossing would have been made at some point or points nearer to Shumla. Rustchuk is hardly a factor in the problem, because it is reasonable to suppose that it will be made safe, and the army there, unless it makes for the open, will be with all the greater nimbleness surrounded by a ring of iron. There remain three lines of advance to be considered. A march to Timova, and thence through the Balkans to Slievno, whence the descent in the great Roumelian valley is easy. Let me call this line of advance No. 1. Another more westerly route through the Balkans, conducts from Timova to Kezanlik, whence the THE RUSSIAN LINES OF ADVANCE. 151 great valley is yet more easily accessible than from Slievno. Let us call this line of advance I^o. 2. It may be stated that the pass tbrougli the Balkans by this route is perhaps the easiest of all the passes. There remains the manoeuvre of turning the Balkans altogether, by taking the route to Sophia, which stands at the head of the great Eoumelian valley. This let us call line of advance ]^o. 3. The strate- gical conditions of each line of advance may be succinctly set forth. Lines of advance N'os. 1 and 2 are chiefly influenced by the com- parative proximity of Shumla, and the possible operations of the Turkish army understood to be concentrated in its vici- nity. Were a Bussian force operating in Central Bulgaria to advance from the Danube, and devote itself to the observa- tion of the Shumla army, the influence of that army on the lines of advance open to the Russians would be sensibly diminished. In this case the routes IN'os. 1 and 2, both of which, with a force so large as that which will probably constitute the Rus- sian main advance, would be likely to be utilized, would have obvious advantages as involving a shorter march, a speedier passage through the dangerous mountain region, a more direct line of communication with the base on the Danube, and an earlier advent into the great Roumelian valley, whether to rest there in a comparatively hospitable region, or to go further, as the case might be. But the risks of such a movement are not to be ignored. If the Shumla army be not watched, or be insufficiently observed, there would be little to hinder it from falling on the flank and rear of the Russian advance on the Tirnova- Slievno road, after the column had committed itself to the mountainous regions, or, indeed, after the Balkans had been passed. The other seeming danger that the Shumla army, striking southward through the Shumla- Karnabat pass, might take in reverse the Russian army on its march towards Adrianople, may be disregarded, since the Russians would, no doubt, detail de- tachments to observe the debouchment of the passes. Line of advance No. 3, md Sophia, affords many temptations. A march by it would avoid the difliculties of the Balkan passes, and once at Sophia the march down the great valley would present but fevf obstacles. But this route is greatly longer than any other, and the season is far advanced. And what about the Widdin army under Osman Pacha, whom the Servian campaign showed to be a capable man, if he had been allowed to prove his capacity ? It is said that he chafes fiercely at not having been allovfed to follow the footsteps of Omar Pacha in 1853, by crossing the river, and establishing 152 WAR COERESrONDENCE. himself in tli9 commanding position of Kalafat, from wMcli splendid strategic position Omar Pacha so long loomed ont threateningly on the Russian flank, and menaced their communications in the Principalities. Although baulked in this aspiration, Osman Pacha at Widdin to-day holds a position only less commanding than that occupied at Kalafat in 1853-4 by Omar Pacha. While Osman Pacha remains there with a large and reputedly well-appointed force, leaning upon a fortress of respectable strength, there must, in the nature of things, be extreme danger to a Russian column marching from the Danube on Sophia. This column so marching must show a flank to the Widdin army, and must leave its communications seriously at its mercy. This con- stitutes the great complication of the Sophia line of advance. Large as is the Russian force, it cannot afford to detail columns of observation to every point, and pursue its march with a main body of overwhelming strength. The problem would be solved if Osman Pacha could be tempted away from under the guns of Widdin. If he chose, he might be at Sophia before the Russians could be there, and then they could fight him, and break him, and sweep him out of their w^ay ; but will he move ? It may be that he will do so, under the apprehension of being cut off in the dead angle of Bul- garia, where he now is, and reaching Sophia before the Russians, not wait there to give them the chance of smash- ing him, but retire before them down the great Sophia- Philippopolis-Adrianople valley, in the hopes of effecting somewhere a concentration with the Shumla force, and in the event of the worst, holding himself available for the occupation of the "last ditch," the Kutchuk-Chekmedge line, across the throat of the Constantinople peninsula. Assuming that the Russian main advance be by Sophia, it would then appear indis]3ensable that the Widdin arm;f should be decisively disposed of before the march through the hill country was entered upon. If Osman Pacha should not choose to come forth and fight the Russians, and in all probability he Avould not, there would remain no alternative but that the Russians should press in upon him where he harbours. True, the whole force of their main column would not be required ; but at least the main column would have to wait while Osman Pacha and Widdin were being crushed.. It has been suggested that the Widdin army might be left ta the disposal of the Roumanians, strengthened by a detach- ment — perhaps a division — of Russians, and that the Bul- garian legion might also be utilized for this purpose. It is not for me to say that the Roumanians and Bulgarians so- MILITARY POLICY OF THE RUSSIANS. 153 supported could not give a good account of Osman Paclia and his army. But I do not think a prudent general, with a sense of responsibility, would feel exactly easy with that army on his flank, and contingently on his rear, with the force in question as the only buffer. The military policy of the Russians will be no doubt directed keenly towards the opportunities of fighting the Turks whenever and wherever they can get the chance, knowing by past experience that the Turk is not good at standing before the Russian in the open field. And if this were so of yore, questionless it must be- more so now, even if the martialism of the Turk may not have been deteriorated. There never in war has been so great a strain put upon men in the field as that to which it is pos- sible now to subject them under a sustained converging fire of artillery. What says Moltke of the fighting character- istics of the Turks : — " An impetuous attack may be expected from the Turks, but not a lasting and obstinate defence. Against Orientals it is no use keeping troops in reserve. The best cards should be played out at once. A few hours always- decide the fate of the engagement; and Turkish history affords no example of battles fought from sunrise to sunset, like those of the west of Europe." But it is quite possible, perhaps I ought to say probable, that the Turks, if they can avoid it, will never give the Russians a chance to get grips of them in the open. It is known to me that in the Russian headquarters sagacious and far-seeing men looked forward to the contingency that the Turks, after making as stout a defence on the Danube as opportunity may offer, may draw off with their forces as little broken as pos- sible, and leaving but mere garrisons in their fortresses, fall back uninterruptedly before the Russian advance till they gain the last shelter of the defensive position outside Con- stantinople, their design in this ignoble movement being the hope of forcing English armed intervention in the defence of Constantinople against a Russian attempt to take the capital. This idea will appear to most impartial persons as somewhat far-fetched, but without for a moment admitting it as worth considering, it is likely enough that the Turks will exercise extreme caution in giving battle in the open to, or accepting- it from, their northern adversaries when the latter are in any respectable force. The correspondents who have received permission to join the army are for the time detained in Bucharest by a vexatious change of the style of insignia by which they are indicated. We were, in the first instance, supplied with a huge brass, brassard which was supremely ugly, but answered the purpose 154 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE. well enough. Some gentlemen of delicate sensibilities found, it appears, that this ticket imparted to the wearer a colourable resemblance to a railway porter, and suggested the alteration which is now being carried out. If I miss the crossing, what will it avail me that my arm be girt by a badge of gold lace with silver letters on it, and for the which I shall have myself to pay ? CHAPTER YII. THE FIRST PASSAGE OF THE DANUBE. Mystification of the Turks at Eustcliuk — A Successful Torpedo-laying Expedi- ^ tion mistaken for a Repulsed Attack — Starting for tlie Campaign — A Field Equipage — A Searcli for the Greneral — The Russian Soldier on the March — Brilliant Gfathering at Alexandra — Crossing o! the Danube at Gralatz — The Bridge at Braila — The Departure from Gralatz — Landing at Matchin — Fight- ing with Turks and Circassians — Inspection of a Torpedo-launch — A Visit to Matchin — Preparation for the Second Crossing — The Suite of an Emperor — A Princely Escort — Disappearance of the Commander-in-Chief. The period of mere preparation was now rapidly drawing to a close, and on all sides were apparent signs of movements, any one of which might issue in events of the first importance. As Tisnal false alarms were raised, feints were taken seriously, and reconnaissances interpreted as attacks ; meanwhile the Russian troops stood ready to advance to half a dozen points of crossing as they might be directed. The following letter from Rustchuk shows the kind of activity which was kept up by the Russians to the eve of the passage of the Danube : — j\ E/UBTCHUK, Ju7iG 2Srd. — The Russians have made an attempt this week to cross the Danube in the direction of Kiritach, above Pirgos, between the Ottoman picquets Nos. 6 and 8, at a distance of about two hours and a half from Rustchuk. Protected by the Wallachian forts at Parapan, the Russians advanced at seven o'clock on Wednesday morning upon the Roumanian island indicated on the map by the name of Gura-Kame. Their object was to fortify themselves on this island, in order to protect the invading column. In my opinion this movement was not a mere demonstration, or trap to draw on their adversary, but a serious attack upon a point which, compared with other defences upon or near the right FIRST ENCOUNTER ON THE DANUBE. 156 "bank, was certainly weak. Tlie enemy aimed at a surprise, reckoning npon the skilful and effective fire of tlie batteries at Parapan, wHcli, however, is very inferior to that of the Tnrks, whose gnns, having a longer range, have caused terrible destruction, while the Eussian shot scarcely reach the Turkish shore. ISfevertheless, the struggle assumed larger proportions, and the situation was becoming extremely serious, for the Russian reinforcements were constantly arriv- ing on the island, which it was the object of the Turks, by every means in their power, to prevent them occupying. Once for- tified, the island of Gura-Kame would have commanded a strategical point of importance for the protection of their tete-de-pont and the passage of the Danube. The Turks quickly perceived the object of the movement, and were not slow in adopting measures which seriously impeded the enemy's advance. While awaiting reinforcements the Turkish artillery directed their batteries upon the fortifications of Parapan ; at the same time the Ottoman monitors Seareth and Haireddin, and two armed tugs, attacked the enemy's flank upon the island, pouring in shell which almost all burst. At half-past ten a strong detachment of Circassians and frontier guards mingled their musketry fire with this artil- lery duel while advancing upon Gura-Kame, in order to take the island by assault and disperse the enemy. From this moment the combat became very brisk on each side, nor was either combatant wanting in dash or courage. Victory was for some time doubtful. The Turks, inferior in numbers, saw themselves exposed to the danger of a retreat; but, emboldened by their faith that they are fighting for a just cause, and encouraged by that verse of the Koran which promises them felicity in another world, they faced the enemy's fire with coolness. At noonday a reinforcement of regular troops took part in the struggle ; and, protected still by the fire of the Turkish monitors, succeeded in triumph- antly dislodging the Russians, who, notwithstanding that superiority in numbers to which I have already referred, pre- cipitately evacuated the island of Gura-Kame, falling back under shelter of the forts of the village of Parapan, and carrying with them their dead and wounded. In this encounter, which is certainly the most serious we have had upon the Danube since the commencement of hostilities, it would be unfair to omit to acknowledge the courage and audacity of the Turkish troops, who throughout this affair exhibited the utmost firmness. At four o'clock that afternoon the Russians, intending to make their enemy pay dearly for their defeat, suddenly directed five torpedo launches at full 156 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE. speed toward tlie Ottoman monitors, which, had taken up a posi- tion not far from the island ; but this enterprise failed, for once more the vigilance of the Turks baffled the terrible engines of their enemies. Having been an eye-witness of this incident, as well as of the combat in the morning, I was able to perceive that two of these torpedo vessels were serionslj injured ; one of them in particular had manifestly suffered some damage to her machinery. This struggle of a whole day, which marks the commencement of active hostilities on the part of the Turkish army on the Danube, may seem at first sight of trifling moment; but, on glancing at the map and noting the strategic importance to the enemy of this position on the right bank, it must be admitted that the Turks in repulsing their redoubtable enemy have achieved a not insignificant victory. The largest share in the triumph of this day belongs of right to Brigadier- General Hassan Tewfik Pacha, and to Lieutenant- Colonel Enim Bey, chief of the staff — the latter of whom in particular was enabled by his reconnaissances to choose the most favourable points for securing the success of the Ottoman troops. At sunset the Turks, having perceived behind the Wallachian village of Slobosia a column of the enemy's troops, directed upon this point a heavy fire from the forts of Hizir- Baba, at Bustchuk, while one of the lunettes of this fort destroyed the fortifications of Slobosia. The steady aim of the Ottoman artillery, and the precipitate flight of the enemy, gave reason to suppose that the latter had sustained serious losses. At half -past seven that evening four Russian steam vessels, having been observed in the act of coming out of the- channel at Giurgevo, were bombarded by the batteries of the fort of Inhudjuk and compelled to return. One of them was greatly damaged by two shells. At ten o'clock in the evening a torpedo boat, which had lain concealed during the day behind the scrubs of the great island opposite to Giurgevo,. darted swiftly in the direction of a vessel of the Turkish flotilla ; but the frontier guards and the sailors who were keeping strict watch received their assailants with a brisk fire of musketry, their efforts being seconded by a couple of cannon shot. The torpedo boat, thanks to the darkness, was not hit^ and she succeeded in making her escape at full speed. By the 23rd of June it was w^ell understood that the Russian army was in movement with a view to the passage of the river, but correspondents were left to find out for themselves where the crossing of the Danube was most likely to take place. CONCENTRATION OF THE ARMY. 157 * Alexandria (Wallachia), June 23r(i. — On the afternoon of the 21st inst. my companion and myself finally cut adrift from the civilization of Bucharest, and set forth to join the army. It may be said we should have done so earlier ; but it has been my invariable experience that a person belonging to or ^accompanying any part of an army, save its principal head- quarters, knows rather less of the doings of that army as a whole, and has less information concerning the general pro- gress of events, than is at the disposal of any community in Europe who care to read. When, therefore, the specific section of an army to which one belongs or is attached is actively engaged in its portion of the task of making history, it is good to be with it, because you have first-hand know- ledge — often the knowledge that eyesight brings — of what is going on, whereas the rest of the world can have at the best but secondhand knowledge. But while your division or army corps is doing nothing of importance, and when what of importance in reference to the future it may be engaged in the correspondent is prohibited from writing about, there is open to him only the role of vegetating, if he joins himself to it thus prematurely. It appeared that the crisis of action was so near that there would be little opportunity for vegetating to a correspondent now linking himself for the campaign to a specific section of the army in the field. Our equipment may be worth a few words of description. I had found a carriage which, when covered with leather and fitted with sundry wells, makes a sufficient habitation for two m.en who can pack tight and can give and take one with the other. By a simple arrangement the floor of this vehicle becomes at night a bedplace, the cushions doing duty for a mattress. In case of rain, there is a projection from the tilt of the waggon which enables us to sleep perfectly diy ; when the weather is fine our moveable bed-chamber is open to the front. In the wells is an assortment of provisions — tea, coffee, tinned meats, &c., with cooking appliances of extreme simplicity, for no inns are to be expected on the other side of the Danube, and it is not wise to trust wholly to hospitality, however generous you know it to be. ^ With a covered receptacle for luggage behind, the waggon is complete. ^ It is drawn by two sturdy grey horses, one of which is blmd—a characteristic which his vendor cited as an important merit, since it made him steadier in a crowd. I have a riding-horse besides ; a big, rather violent bay who has a will of his own, which yields only to force majeure. The horses are looked after by the coachman, a Roumanian Jew of exemplary stupidity, and we two are taken care of by Andreas, my old 158 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. servant of tlie Servian campaign, wlio seems to speak a little of every known language, and lias a wonderful faculty for finding fellow-countrymen in tlie most unlikely places. But tlie waggon I have described is not a waggon only. Cun- ningly contrived in a roll on the roof of it is a canvas house. All that one has to do is to unloose a couple of buckles and there unrolls itself a wide spread of canvas roofing. In the centre of the rolls are a couple of poles, and so when the con- trivance is fixed there is a pleasant canvas drawing-room as a lateral appendage to the waggon. What does one want more than this for occupation by day, with a little table and a couple of stools, the waggon for a bed-chamber, and for kitchen a hole in the turf on the lee-side of the " eligible modern residence " ? I think of taking the affair back to England with me after the war, and saving house rent during the summer months by inhabiting it, if only I could secure a good " pitch " for it — say the garden of Grrosvenor Square, or in the inner circle of the Regent's Park. My companion in the waggon, myself on horseback, we made our start, bidding farewell to friends military and civil, all bound later on the same errand, but probably along different paths, and jogged gently along the Griurgevo road. We passed Jilava, where three weeks ago General Radetsky, chief of the 8th Corps, had his headquarters, and a little further on Kerate, w^here at the same time abode Greneral Dragomiroff, whose division, the 14th, we were on the way to join. Now Jilava and Kerate had lapsed into their wonted stillness, for the wave of the Russian advance had passed over the pretty villages, and Radetsky and Dragomiroff are — well where they are is just what I should like to know. A little beyond Ke- rate the road crosses the Argis River, and as we came round the turn to the bridge there came to us the sound of many voices joined in song. From the shadowy alluvial plain by the river's brink there was streaming on to the road the head of a column of Russian infantry — a brigade of the 32nd Division of the 11th Corps. I had made the acquaintance of this division and corps six weeks ago in Galatz, while they were lying there on the plateau above the bridge of Barbosch and on the broad plain behind Braila, deluged fifty years ago with the blood of Russian soldiers. The white caps showed in a dense mass among the willow trees of the Argis ; it was as if a mighty host was pouring through the little plain, so far stretched the concourse of stalwart soldiers. This army is a white army now, white to the last shred, save facings and boots. Officers and men wear a loose white canvas blouse, which is the perfection of a campaigning garment for warm CONDITION OF THE EUSSIAN ARMY. 159 weather. Tlie white of it is not so pronounced as to dazzle in tlie sunsliine, nor do tlie dust of the road and the stains of the bivouac foul it into absolute dinginess. It can be washed and dried in an hour ; it is loose enough to allow thick under- clothing to be worn under it, when in this unaccountable cli- mate burning heat turns suddenly into searching chilliness; it allows the freest ventilation, and withal is becoming, when once the conventional idea of military clothing is got rid of. I do not know whether it is an advantage or the reverse that when the soldier is thus clothed in white canvas it is impos- sible to tell to what regiment or division he belongs. The only indication of this is found in the number engraved on the gold or silver shoulder-straps of the ofl&cers, which they transfer from their cloth tunics to their canvas blouses. Since the hot weather set in, the- marching of the Russian soldiers has been done as much as possible in the early mornings and late evenings, and frequently indeed in the dead of night. Bucharest people used to ride out in the afternoon to see a regiment or a brigade under canvas in the picturesque glade there behind the big unfinished chateau. Morning parties have been made up to go and visit the camp, reported so picturesque by the visitor of the previous day. But the excursionists found themselves disappointed of the spectacle they had got up to witness. There would be nothing left in the leafy glade but smouldering ashes, a few rags and bones, and a bad smell. These men of the 32nd Division had done a good march while the day was yet you.ng, had halted to cook and sleep in the noonday heat on the bank of the Argis, and now in the cool of the after-day were recommencing a tramp of several miles more. The sun was yet very hot, and they were heavily laden, but they swung along with a brisk, long, firm pace in which there was no sign of falter or f ootsoreness. These Russian infantrymen, in the course of their long march from Russia and their camping ill Roumania, have got into the very perfection of condition. Originally stout, hardy, well-built fellows, they have got rid of every ounce of super- fluous flesh, are as hard as nails, and as brown as berries. Marching heavily laden at the rate of four miles an hour does not afford them sufficient vent for their energies ; they must needs caper as they go when marching at ease, and when they halt there is always a dance. They sing the livelong day, and by night as well, when they are marching by night. ISTor is their song a mincing, half-hearted strain. They sing as strongly as they march, as they dance, as they shout in social converse, as they indulge in horseplay, and as they will doubt- less fight. They are physically a very masterful people, imbued 160 WAR COERESPONDENCE. witli a vast force of energy that is neitlier fitful nor evanes- cent, yet withal, unlike most strong races, gifted with habitual patience, sweetness of temper and self-restraint, and their civility is as marked as is their sense of duty. In front of the infantrymen we overtook several batteries of field artillery belonging to the same division. There is a want of finish in the aspect of the Russian artillery which probably interferes no whit with its practical efiiciency. The traces are very long, so that the interval seems immense between the pairs of each team, and the pole almost trails on the ground when the draught is not on it. There is a cumbersome and heavy arrangement of swingle bars, and the attachments of the harness are clumsy. But the horses are good, and in tough, wiry condition, and the men seem smart enough. On ' each gun and waggon is carried a pile of hay, the evening's ration for the teams. The ammunition waggons are two- wheeled vehicles, drawn by three horses abreast, and on each is carried a bundle of branches lashed tightly together, doubtless to be used as impromptu fascines for filling up a rut or mending a bridge. At Kalugareni, on the banks of a little river about eight miles south of the Argis, we found already a large encampment of the same division, and an under-officer and two men from each com- pany of the detachment still on the march, sent forward to take up ground for its camp for the night. These were already in position, waiting with little bannerets at the end of their bayonets. In this encampment no tents had been pitched ; so fine was the weather that the men preferred to lie under the beautiful stars. Till the stars should come out they were cooking, bathing, mending their clothes, fetching their rations. The Russian soldier, contrary to received opinion, is a cleanly animal. He takes to the water like a duck. Sooner than not bathe at all, he will bathe in uninvit- ing water. At the baths in Gralatz there was constantly a long queue of Russian common soldiers waiting patiently for their turn to rid themselves of the dirt of the march and bivouac. In this little river the other night hundreds of naked men were splashing among the weeds and the frogs. Naked Cossacks were swimming about on their ponies, diving under them, hanging on by the tail, lying face upwards on their backs, and going through a series of antics that proved their aquatic expertness. Yet other Cossacks were coming in from the grass fields, their ponies laden with cut grass. In peace the Cossacks feed their own horses. Now this is not possible, and they draw supplies from the contractors ; but the w^orst hay is thought good enough for Cossack horses, w^hich LOOKING FOR THE GENERAL. 161 are not tlie property of tlie State; and tlie patient fellows supplement tlie rations of tlieir four-footed property by cutting grass in tlie fields and by the ditch-sides. We should have been wiser to have gone on into Griurgevo for the night, but our way lay west of that town, and we were loth to go out of our road for the sake of a night's quarters. Near Fratesti we found a little wayside house, in the garden of which we located our waggon and horses, finding sleepino- accommodation for ourselves in one of the two rooms of the cabin. Ere the night was out we heartily wished we had camped in the garden, for the mosquitoes made our lives temporarily miserable. We had other nocturnal visitors in the shape of the officers of a battalion of the 32nd Division, on its march into Giurgevo. The battalion had halted for an hour in a field close to us, and the officers thronged into the cabin for a short rest. Not a man of them could speak any- thing save Russian, so our conversational intercourse was limited, but we were able to give them some tea, and effusive handshaking was indulged in. Outside the cabin a private soldier accosted me in German; the subject of his query, whether the Turks or the Russians were the stronger. Like all, or nearly all, the private soldiers of the Russian army who speak German, he was a Polish Jew, and like all the Polish Jews with whom I have spoken, he did not fancy the prospect of fighting at all, still less of fighting with the Turks. I think the Russians would have done better to have left behind the Hebrews in their ranks. There has been much trouble with them in Roumania, for two reasons— their pro- pensity to desert and their addiction to theft ; they have no stomach for fighting, and will run when they can get a chance. With a chorus of farewells the officers took their departure, rousing the battalion with a few loud words of command, and away it went striding through the white moonlight, the still- ness of the midnight air broken by the strains of its marching Next morning at six o'clock we started on our search after General Dragomiroff, who had invited us to make the cam- paign in his headquarters. It is not easy in these times to gain information beforehand respecting the whereabouts of a Russian general who happens to be anywhere near the Danube. The general commanding an army corps hangs a red flag over the door of his headquarters, and a division general a blue flag. If you can only find the flag you have hit the general off, but one is reminded of Mrs. Glass's recipe, beginning : " First catch your hare." I had, from information received, a strong idea that Dragomiroff was to be found in some village M 162 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE. of the angle between Giurgevo and the Vede Eiver, but there are many villages in this flat, fertile, uninteresting angle, and it w?s like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay. We struck the Giurgevo-Alexandria road at the village of Yieru, about six miles west of Giurgevo, and there, in a charming little encampment, we found Colonel Orloff's regiment of Cossacks belonging to the division of General Skobeleff. It was Colonel Orlofli's camp and regiment which, when it lay at Malarus, below Giurgevo, the Turks had shelled so persistently from the right flank of their Rustchuk position. He told me that some two hundred shells in all had fallen in his camp without hurt to man or beast. But although Orloff was delightful, dispensing his Cossack hospitality under a parti- coloured awning as he sat on Circassian matting, he was unsatisfactory on one point. He asked me if I knew where was Dragomiroif , before I had the opportunity to put the same question to him. He knew nothing save that he had been ordered to the village of Yieru to wait there for orders, and that there had been heavy firing the day before at a place called Parapan, on the Danube, due south from his position, and within sight of it. From what I have learned since, I incline to think that the firing at Parapan represented Dragomiroff's presence there, throwing dust into the eyes of the Turks with a flying recon- naissance. Orloff would fain we had stayed and witnessed some of the manoeuvres of his gallant Cossacks, but I would not dally in my quest after Dragomiroff. After drawing in vain several villages further to the south-west, in which I found, indeed, men of Dragomiroif's division, but no Drago- miroff, we reached the village of Putinein, whence several roads radiate ; and here it seemed, if anywhere, I could obtain tidings of the man I sought. We applied to the major of a battalion stationed there, who told us that he knew where Dragomiroff was ; that he knew where Radetsky was ; but that he was sorry he was compelled to decline imparting that knowledge to me or any one else. I knew the officer was simply doing his duty, and he certainly was as courteous as he could be. His advice was to go to Alexandria, where I might probably find some one in authority who would consider himself, under the circumstances, justified in giving me the information I desired. Kow, from Putinein to Alexandria there are two roads, one the main road, the other more direct, but not so good, along a valley whose entrance is close to Putinein, but, as it were, round a corner. I had previously travelled this latter road, and knew how much more near it was than by the former, besides which I had just seen a general oiBficer with two ladies drive THE IMPERIAL STAFF. 163 in a carriage into the montli of the valley. It occurred to me that this might be the General, for I knew that his wife had been with him a short time before, and might be with him still — so I determined on the valley road. So sooner had we turned the corner and were inside the mouth of it than I found myself among the carriages of a huge pontoon train snugly stowed away in this well-chosen hiding-place. I may write of it now, for before these lines are in print the pontoons will be on the waters of the Danube. There was a road left open through the centre of the mass of waggons, and our vehicle was traversing this, when a soldier followed at a full gallop, and, riding in front, stopped it. We had to turn back, and the officer in command told us that the valley road was " defendu pour cause," nor had he any information to give of Dragomiroff. So with tired horses we disconsolately jogged on toward Alexandria. On the upland which overhangs the left bank of the little river Yede, on the right bank of which stands the town of Alexandria, we found a very large camp, containing the whole, or nearly the whole, of the 9th Division, the sister division of the 14th, Dragomiroff's, the two together making up the 8th Corps. As we came down the hill to the bridge we passed a number of officers belonging to the staff of the Emperor, and among them rode Count Schouvaloff, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor and the nephew of the Russian Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. The Count gave me some intelligence which has already gone forward by telegram, and added that, if circumstances rendered it impracticable for us to find General Dragomiroff at once, he would speak con- cerning us to Prince Mirsky, the general commanding the 9th Division. Later he was good enough to come to me with the information that General Dragomiroff was for the present engaged in a reconnaissance in which it was impossible that we could join him, but that Prince Mirsky would be glad to see us in the morning. Alexandria swarms with troops of all arms. Its streets resound with the clank of sabres and the tramp of armed men. Here is the staff of the Emperor ; here is the mass of the staff of the Grand Duke, the Commander-in-Chief ; here are grand- dukes, excellencies, and the staffs of half a score of generals. Every house is billeted full to the doorstep^I had almost said to the garden gate. Cossacks cram the shops, and grumble good-humouredly at the bad exchange for their paper roubles. Waggon trains an inch thick with dust grind continually along the broad streets, heading to the south and south-west. There is no getting a seat at the principal — and I should say the worst — restaurant : and as for a hack- carriage, all in the M 2 164 WAE CORRESPONDENCE. place are engaged three deep. But withal, singular order and system jDrevail. There is the very acme of bustle, but it is not the convulsive bustle of confusion ; the huge machine is working with wonderful smoothness, and, let me add, with wonderful quietude and secrecy. This morning, at eight o'clock, the 35th Division, constituting half of the 13th Corps, began its march through Alexandria. The most adverse critic could not take exception to the condition and appearance of the men and their equipment. Of some the boots were much worn and occasionally dilapidated, but then a second pair hung on the back of the knapsacks. Bands played and men sang, and the fellows marched with a swing and a swagger that were eloquent of conscious power and well-assured confi- dence. The division, which continued its march apparently by one road, took a south-westerly direction on leaving Alexandria, following the road which leads to Simnitza. But that does not imply that Simnitza is necessarily its objective. Prince Mirsky, when we called on him, told us he was marching on Monday to a point thirty versts from Alexandria, there to rendezvous with the other division of the 8th Corps. Of that other division Dragomiroff is the commander. The Prince courteously invited us to march thus far with him, and then either join Dragomiroff or continue for the campaign with himself, adding that as the 8th Corps was to constitute the advance, it would be the pleasantest to campaign with for more than one reason. It would have the brunt of the fight- ing when that should occur ; it would have the first fruits of what supplies the Turks might leave in the country. So we settled to start with him on Monday, only we don't in the least know where we are going. After all, however, it was not the active and vigilant corre- spondent above Rusfcchuk who was to witness the first Russian passage of the Danube, but his colleague near Gralatz, whose telegraphic letter is here subjoined : — t Bratla, June 1%id. — -The Russians have at last begun to cross the Danube. Contrary to expectation, the great move com- menced at Gralatz. Everybody supposed that it would be some- where between Giurgevo and Turna Magurelle. That the Turks were of the same opinion is shown by the fact that they had concentrated nearly their whole army between Rustchuk and Nicopolis, their line diminishing in strength towards Siiistria, while the Dotrudscha was almost deprived of THE FIRST CROSSING. 165 troops. The manner of crossing was equally unexpected and nnforeseen both bj the Turks and the spectators. On this side of the river during the last four days the Kussians have been industriously constructing a bridge near Braila, just below the confluence of the old and new channels of the Danube. This work has been done within sight of the Turkish forces at Matchin and on the heights beyond ; yet the Russians have been allowed to construct the bridge in peace and quiet. It was finished last night except a narrow space left open for the passage of boats. The Danube is still very high here. A great part of the valley is still under water, which, however, is rapidly subsiding. The bridge was constructed from both sides of the river at once, for the Turks allowed the Russians to cross over and begin the bridge on the Turkish shore at the same time as it was begun on the Roumanian. A great part was constructed on trestles, and it is only in the real channel, where the water is swift and deep, consisting of a space of perhaps a thousand yards wide, that pontoons have been used. The pontoons had been floated to their places, anchored to trestle work constructed on both sides at the same time. The trestle work is continued along the old channel towards Matchin on the road to the latter place. A glance at the map will show two channels of the Danube, running nearly parallel to each other, from Hirsova, where they first separate, to Braila^ where they unite, the old channel making a sudden turn to the left just below Matchin, forming a right angle. It is along the north or right bank of this stream that the road runs from Matchin to Braila, and along this road, still submerged, the Russians are advancing by means of the trestle work. How deep the water is along here I am unable to say, but the Russians are evidently going to push a bridge along this road until they meet with serious resistance from the Turks. That resistance they have not yet encountered, and how far they will be allowed to continue without opposition from the Turks it is impossible to say ; but the fact is it was expected last night that all would be ready for the passage. This seems to indicate that the Russians mean to take to the water, which cannot be more than a few inches deep, when they come to the end of their bridge. The Emperor and his staff, and the Grand Duke Nicholas and his staff, were to come here last night, and the passage was to begin this morning at daybreak ; but, owing to news yesterday from Ployesti, the departure both of the Emperor and the Grand Duke was postponed until to-day, and it was under- stood that the passage of the river was likewise postponed owing to the fact that a large force of Turkish troops had 166 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. been discovered lying in ambiish not far from tlie end of the bridge, where they were waiting quietly for the Russians to advance. However this may be, Greneral Zimmerman, who is in com- mand of the operations here, suddenly disappeared from Braila during the night, and this morning, a little after day- break, the people of Braila were awakened by the sound of artillery and musketry fire on the other side of the river, showing that the Danube must have been crossed, and that a fight w^as proceeding on the other side. The Turks had for some time occupied the line of the heights where the battle was raging. Greneral Zimmerman had gone to Galatz, and crossed the Danube with two regiments of infantry, and a proportionate amount of artillery and cavalry, in a number of boats towed over by steam launches. The distance traversed in the boats seems to have been over three miles. That he should have succeeded, and have effected a landing in the face of the Turkish troops, is not a little remarkable. He had immediately attacked the height in front of Garbina and Yakareni, and the battle had been raging along the summit of these heights since daylight until now, tw^o o'clock, when the Russians seem to have advanced as far as Zizila, about five miles from Matchin. The object evidently is to advance as ne^r Matchin as possible in order to turn the Turkish positions and protect the long bridge and partly inundated road over which a larger Rus- sian force will probably soon make the passage. They will undoubtedly fortify themselves near Zizila, maintain them- selves in this kind of detached bridgehead, and protect the passage of the main body, which will of course rapidly move to their assistance. The Turks probably were taken by sur- prise as usual, and although there was a good deal of artil- lery and musketry fire they do not seem to have made a very stubborn resistance on these heights, a fact which may be easily appreciated when we remember that the Rus- sians made an advance from daylight until two o'clock of twelve miles, crossing a wide river, fighting their way, carry- ing the Turkish positions, and occupying the heights. The > view from this side of the river has been splendid. From an early hour the inhabitants gathered on the river bank to watch the progress of the conflict. It is a beautiful sunny day. Nothing could be finer than the landscape seen from the Russian batteries just below Braila. Beneath us are a number of tall-masted ships and boats, among which are several Russian gunboats, and beyond is the low- lying valley of the Danube, half submerged, with islands of EXPEDITION TO MATCH IN. 167 trees and brushwood rising out of the water all over it. Then beyond, the houses and minarets of Matchin are dis- tinctly seen, and behind them rise the heights occupied by the Turkish forces, here and there along which a few tents may be seen. To the left of Zizila white clouds of smoke are suddenly leaping out from the hill-side, rolling away on the breeze, mixed here and there with the cloud of dust marking the rapid movements of the artillery or cavalry, while the heavy booming of the guns, and the sharp crashing musketry fire, come borne to us, softened by distance, on the still summer air. We could not distinguish the infantry, even with our glasses, though cavalry and artillery were easily made out, and we could only follow the progress of the Russians by the rising smoke which marked the line of the advance. The battle seems over for the moment. I have just made out what appear to be two or three batteries of artillery, and perhaps a couple of regiments of cavalry, dashing rapidly down the heights from Zizila towards Matchin, raising immense clouds of dust. I suppose them to be part of the Turkish forces retreating to the latter place. We have no details of the fighting yet. Greneral Zimmerman has not returned, and his chief of the staff here, who is expecting him momentarily, knows nothing more of the movement than what he has followed by means of a field-glass. As soon as the General arrives I hope to give you full details of the affair. 10 P.M. — I have not been able to ascertain the number of killed and wounded on either the Russian or Turkish side, but reports are flying about which say that the Russian loss is heavy. A Russian doctor who crossed with the first detach- ment of eight hundred men informs me that he does not believe out of this number twenty men are left who have not been either killed or wounded. The Turks do not seem to have been taken by surprise at all, and appear to have made a very despe- rate resistance. They were seen before the troops crossed to bring down towards the spot where the troops would land mountain guns on horseback, and seem to have been aware of the Russian movement almost as soon as it began. Refugees coming in from the other side of the river this evening say that the Turks have abandoned Matchin and withdrawal to the heights above it, and that the Circassians and Bashi- Bazouks have pillaged the place. As I write the troops are marching through the streets, evidently on their way to the bridge, in order to be ready for crossing at daybreak. 168 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Braila, June 24th. — Tlie long-expected moye upon tlie Danube lias at last begnn. The great barrier to the Russian advance— the first Turkish line of defence^ — bas at last been crossed, and tbe campaign has fairly opened. Although the river has been falling very slowly, and is but a few inches lower than it was a month ago, it had been evident during the last eight or ten days that the Russians would w^ait no longer^ and- that the advance w^as about to begin. In spite of the secrecy with which the Russian staff has attempted to surround its movements, it w^as a secret for nobody here that the passage was soon to be made, and many people besides, including the Turks, seem to have known the exact spot, or spots, w^here the crossing was to be effected. The pretence of secrecy at the Russian head- quarters is, to say the least of it, amusing. ISTo one on the staff would tell you a word regarding the intended move- ments and dispositions, and although a very clever officer, Colonel Hasenkampf, has been detached for the service of the press, for the purpose of giving information to journalists, the information obtained from him in the course of the last month might be written by a skilful caligraphist on his thumb-nail. This mattered little to the journalist, because you only had to go out into the street, and ask the first man you met for any information you wanted, about the movements of the Russian army, in order to be fully satisfied. The whole Roumanian people knows, and reports the move- ments of the troops with the most punctual exactitude, and Colonel Hasenkampf's caution in this respect was of little consequence. Besides, as correspondents were not allowed to telegTaph anything they knew, it mattered still less whether they knew anything or not; but the amount of secrecy, caution, mystery, and obscurity in which everything relating to the army was enshrouded, w^as highly impressive. Everybody went alDout nodding and winking to everybody else, held whispering conversations in retired corners, giving mysterious glances of intelligence with an air of conscious knowledge of tremendous facts, that was highly edifying, no doubt. But, alas, our secrets are, I am afraid, stage secrets, and it is only the actors w^ho go about oppressed by the mysterious knowledge we possess of the hidden things that are known to all the world, and especially to the Turks. Like the famous Greneral Boum, in " The Duchess of Grerol- stein," we stand aghast when the first ragamuffin in the street tells us the exact position of the army, where the crossings are to be made, and shows us that " the plan has been discovered." RUSSIAN SECRECY. 109 It is difficult for an ordinary mortal to understand wliy this pretence of secrecy should be kept up any longer by tbe Russian headquarters. It is a great annoyance to corre- spondents not to be allowed to telegraph anything, even of the most harmless character, relating to the army, and it certainly makes not the slightest difference to the Turks, who, in the Roumanian people, have thousands upon thou- sands of conscious and unconscious spies. The Roumanian papers can say anything regarding the movements of the army, and a Turkish spy can send his information over the Austrian frontier, there to be telegraphed with impunity, with a delay of only one day, without speaking of those private telegrams which seem to be relating to business, weather, politics, and many other subjects, and which are really nothing but ciphered messages in disguise. The fact is, that as long as the Russian army remains in Roumania, and until it has crossed the Danube, it is simply impossible to keep its movements secret, and if Greneral Nepokoitschitsky thinks the Turks are in any way deceived with respect to his plans and intentions, then the General will himself be greatly deceived. It had been imparted to me several days ago, as a dark and terrible secret, that the Emperor was going to Braila to be present at the passage of the river, as also the fact that the headquarters was to be transported to Alexan- dria ; but within the next twenty-four hours after this dread information had been conveyed to me I met at least two hundred people, and among them the bitterest enemies of Russia, who were quit^ conversant with all the details. The amusing part of it is that Colonel Hasenkampf, in imparting no information to the correspondents, seems to be labouring under the delusion that he is preventing the correspondents from obtaining information. Colonel Hasenkampf is, I am sure, a most competent military ri^an, but I am afraid he is not deep and subtle enough to deal with modern journalists, who are by no means the innocent, confiding persons for whom the Russian staff evidently take them. For the last ten days the Russians have been building a bridge at Braila in full view of the Turks, who watched the operation with that calmness and tranquillity for which they are so much admired and so much praised^ without firing a single shot. Correspondents were requested not to mention the fact that the bridge was being built, for fear it would be giving information to the enemy, and, as far as I know, they all kept their word until the last moment, in spite of the fact that they would have been informing the Euro- pean public of nothing that the Turks could not see with 170 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. their own eyes. However this may be, whether the Turks were blind, asleep, or wide awake, it mattered little ; the passage of the river has been effected in the most brilliant and successful manner, and the first great difficulty which the Russians had to encounter has been virtually over- come, for the passage of the river, which has been effected here, is of far greater importance than has generally been sup- posed. When I arrived in Braila on Friday morning, I found that operations had already been begun. At five o'clock in the morning the inhabitants were already on the alert, gathering in crow ds on the river bank, to watch the fight that was going on at the other side of the valley, w^hich could be followed very distinctly by the smoke and the firing. The scene, when I arrived on the spot, w^as a most interesting and animated one. The left bank of the Danube, at Braila, is 30 or 40 feet high. Below us lay the river gleaming brightly in the sunshine, covered here with boats, ships, steamers, and barges, which were unable to escape during the time of grace that was allowed to them after the declaration of war, and which the Russians have seized and turned to account for military operations. Further down was the bridge, lying low upon the water, stretching far across the wide, swiftly rolling stream, and losing itself apparently among the marshes and reeds on the other side ; beyond were marshes, trees, brushwood, tall grass, waving reeds, and rushes, through which could be seen everywhere the gleam of water, showing that the whole valley was still submerged ; still further in the distance, and nearly ten miles away, w^as the tow^n of Matchin, lying at the foot of a mountain slope, with a confused mass of houses, and two tall white minarets, rising from amongst them, and clearly defined against the low range of mountains beyond. Down the river, the water, growing broader and wider and deeper, spread over the entire valley, until it seemed to take the dimensions of a lake, where, in the far-off distance, lay Gralatz, dim and indistinct in a luminous haze, looking like a mirage city in a mirage ocean. On that range of mountains running dow^n from Matchin, in the direction of Galatz, puffs and long lines of white smoke rose up from the mountain side, and were borne away on the air in thin fleecy clouds. The dull, booming, heavy sound of cannon, a distant roar of artillery, and the continued and rattling crash of small arms were borne to us in a softened kind of roll on the still, sunny air. It was there that the battle was going on ; the Russians were already on the other side, and were attacking the THE BRAILA BRIDGE. 171 Turks on tHose heights, and the long lines and fleeces of white smoke marked the progress of the conflict. A battle fought under such circumstances — one army advancing and carrying successive positions, the other retreating but defending the ground inch by inch — is a long affair. Slowly the two lines of smoke advanced along the range of hills towards Matchin, one pursuing the other, and marking the progress of the battle. Slowly the Russians drove back the Turks, following them from rock to rock, from point to point, from summit to summit, from hill to valley, and from valley to hill, over the irregular and uneven ground ; and the roll of musketry continued from daylight until two o'clock in the afternoon, until they had reached the heights above the village of Zizila, where the Russians halted, satisfied with their day's work and the ground already gained. The roar of cannon in' the early morning was the first intimation that the people of Braila had that the Russians were already over the river, and the manner as well as the place of crossing was altogether unexpected and surprising. Everybody had been deceived by the construction of the bridge already spoken of. This bridge had been in process of construction for about ten days. It had been nearly completed on Thursday evening, and everybody supposed that the passage would be attempted on the bridge itself, and the idea of an army crossing over in boats was one which had not occurred to anybody but to the general in command. I do not know yet whether it was ever intended that the passage should be effected by this bridge. It does not seem probable that it should have been the case, unless it had been the intention of the Russians to wait several days or weeks longer for the water to subside, for the road to Matching with which it was connected, is still so deeply submerged that it would be very difficult to cross in the face of a determined resistance ; in fact, the road is so deeply under water in some places that even a horse could not pass without swimming. All these places must necessarily have been bridged, while trestle-work must have been con- structed nearly the whole way, a distance of nearly eight or nine miles. It seems probable, therefore, that the bridge was constructed partly with a view of attracting the attention of the Turks to this side, and partly in order to serve for the purpose of transport across the river later on, when the real crossing should have been effected. If it was begun in the hope that by the time it should be finished the river would have sufficiently fallen to allow the passage of troops over the road on the other side, this hope had been abandoned when it was seen that the water was falling so slowly that possibly 172 WAR COERBSPONDENCE. weeks w^ould have to elapse before the road w^onld be in a passable condition, and another plan had to be adopted. It became necessary to effect the passage in boats, and possibly in the hope that the attention of the Turks would be attracted to the bridge, it was determined to make the attempt at Galatz, where, although a great distance had to be traversed, the water was deeper and more navigable, and less obstructed by bulrushes and reeds. General Zimmerman, having assembled a great number of boats of all kinds, shapes, and sizes at Galatz, suddenly left Braila, where he had hitherto kept his headquarters, and went to Galatz. He had a sufficient number of boats to carry over about 1,800 men at a time, and at daybreak on Friday morning that number of troops was embarked and started across on the perilous adventure. The distance to be traversed in boats was nearly three miles, and when land was finally reached it was not terra firma at all, for the ground here on the edge of the water was a mere marsh overgrown with reeds and rushes, wdth the water all over it, too shallow for boats, but deep enough to make the further progress most difficult on foot. It had been hoped that the boats might manage to cross two or three times before the Turks received warning, but the latter apparently had received correct information of the projected movement, and when the first boat-load of Russians arrived they met with a warm reception. Although I have already given a description of the positions by telegxaph, the transmission is so uncertain, and subject to so many errors, that I had better describe them again, at the risk of repeating some parts of my telegram. A glance at the map will show the Danube running in two separate channels from Hirsova to Braila. The old channel, the one on the right, makes a sharp turn just opposite Braila at Matchin, and runs at right angles with its former course, until it rejoins what is now the main stream, three or four hundred yards below Braila. It was just below the point where the two streams unite that the bridge had been constructed ; the road from Matchin running along the low^er banks of the old channel reaches the river at this point, and in fact the bridge has been built on the spot where the crossing is usually effected by means of a ferry. The whole valley of the Danube here, as well as this road, is still for the most part under water. Behind Matchin, supposing the observer to be standing at Braila, will be seen the range of low mountains or hills extending from Matchin in the direction of Galatz, opposite which place they diminish to a low narrow point, or promontory, which, rising out of the water, appears THE FIGHTING AT MATCHIN. 173 to be probably considerably bigber tban it really is. It was just opposite tbis point tbat tbe Russians landed, and tbe Turks were posted bere on tbis narrow range of bills, in front of tbe very spot wbicb tbe Russians bad cbosen, and as soon as tbey came witbin range tbe Turks opened upon tbem a well-directed fire. Tbey bad only two pieces of artillery, bowever, and tbe Russians were sufficiently well protected by tbick plank bulwarks tbat bad been constructed on tbe side of tbe boats, and it was not until tbey began to disembark, and wade tbrougb tbe water knee-deep, tbat tbe fire of tbe Turks commenced to tell. Tben tbe figbt became a close and desperate one. Tbe first 1,800 Russians wbo arrived were obliged to maintain tbemselves against a very superior number of Turks until tbe return of tbe boats witb a second lot, wbicb tbey did by taking sbelter wberever tbey could find it, by advancing part of tbe way up tbe beigbts and taking cover bebind rocks, and otberwise availing tbemselves of every advantage wbicb tbe ground offered. It is difficult to account for tbe fact tbat tbis inferior force of Russians was not over- powered and driven back into tbe water by tbe superior numbers of tbe Turks, but tbe fact is tbat tbey managed to bold tbeir ground until tbey were reinforced by tbe return of tbe boats. Wben it is remembered tbat tbe distance to be traversed was sometbing like tbree miles, tbat tbe only means of locomotion was rowing across tbe deep water, and using poles to pusb tbe boats along wbere tbe water is sballow, as it was for a great part of tbe distance, tbe courage and tenacity of tbe Russians will be tborougbly appreciated. It seems tbat tbe bardest part of tbe figbting, and tbe greatest loss of tbe Russians, occurred at tbis time, and tbeir position must bave been a most critical and trying one, as tbey bad absolutely no means of retreat ; tbey bad eitber to figbt or to surrender. Tbe Turks seem to bave cbarged tbem witb tbe bayonet, and tbe figbt became a close and a bot one, tbougb tbe small numbers engaged on botb sides accounts for tbe small loss suffered by tbe Russians. Several Russians were killed and wounded by bayonets, and it is said tbat even tbe two or tbree bund red Turkisb cavalry cbarged, or attempted to cbarge tbem, and some of tbe wounded bad sabre cuts, to sbow bow close bad been tbe contact witb tbe daring Turkisb borsemen. Tbese latter seem to bave been Circassians, and tbe Russians say tbey fougbt like tigers. Tbey succeeded in isolating and surrounding an advanced detacbment of some fifteen or twenty Russians, and cutting tbem off to tbe last man, and in spite of a fire tbat was poured in upon tbem, and wbicb caused tbem very severe losses, tbey got down from 174 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. tlieir horses in order to mutilate tlie dead by cutting off their noses and ears and hacking the bodies into as many pieces as they possibly could. Altogether the Russians say that the Turks behaved with the utmost bravery and resolution, but the fact that an inferior number of Russians was enabled to effect a landing and maintain its ground in the face of more than twice the number of Turks would not seem to confirm this assertion. At any rate, as soon as the boats arrived with a second lot the tide of battle began to turn, and the Turks from acting upon the offensive were soon obliged to defend themselves. Altogether two regiments, or about 6,000 Russians, crossed over in the morning wdth four pieces of artillery, and the Turks soon began to give w^ay. The Russian artillery, however, proved to be useless, owing to the nature of the ground, which was so marshy that it was impossible to bring the cannon into action until it was no longer needed. As soon as the two regiments had landed they began to push the Turks hard, and, climbing up the heights on both sides, soon succeeded in carrying them. The Turks only retreated to the next hill, and again made a stand, and they w^ere again pursued by the Russians, until, after driving them from hill to hill, they gained the heights above Zizila, where the combat ceased, the Russians having lost 200 men in killed and wounded. The Turks seem to have had only 3,000 men here, with half a battery of artillery, and about 300 cavalry. The Russians advanced no further than Zizila on Friday, but it soon became evident that as soon as- they wished to advance to Matchin they would meet with little or no resistance. About three o'clock I perceived the Turkish cavalry and artillery retreating from the last position, opposite the heights of Zizila, down the hillside towards Matchin, at full gallop, and I judged by the rate they were going that they would not stop even at Matchin. In the night, people coming over from that to^Ti informed the Russians that the Turks had abandoned the place, and during the night the Cossacks entered and took possession. Matchin was in the hands of the Russians, and the passage "of the two arpiy corps stationed about here was thus secured. JS'othing further of any interest occurred during the night at Braila. The cafes and the restaurants, and the cafe concerts — for there is a cafe con- cert in every hotel — were full of people, Russian officers and inhabitants of the town, all discussing the events of the day in a most animated and lively manner. The streets were alive wdth people, the tread of troops marching through the town, as we believed, on their way to the bridge, to begin THE ROUMANIAN TELEGRAPHS. 175 the crossing at daybreak. The people of Braila did not know that the road beyond the bridge was as yet quite impracticable for either cavalry, artillery, or infantry. A hard fight was looked for the next day, when the Russians should begin the passage, and everybody was on the alert at daylight to watch the splendid spectacle which would then be spread out before them. Daylight came, however, and no troops were seen about the bridge. The sun rose and grew hot; ten o'clock came, and there was no sign of troops. Then the arrival of the Emperor drew everybody's attention for a while in the opposite direction. He had passed through Braila at three o'clock in the morning, without stopping, had gone on to Galatz, visited the hospitals there, looked up the positions, assured himself that the detachment across the river was quite safe, and then came back to Braila to visit the positions there. He went away again at twelve o'clock, and people again began watching the bridge, and the river, and the boats. I had not been able to find General Zimmer- man the whole of the previous day, and he did not return to Braila until about seven o'clock on the morning of Saturday. I managed to catch him about eleven, and was received in the most cordial manner. He immediately gave me permission to telegraph anything I chose about the events of the preceding day, for, owing to the obstinate stupidity of the Roumanian telegraph officials, no one was allowed to telegraph, even to announce a Russian victory, simply because they had received a general order, forbidding the transmission of any- thing about the movements of troops. I may remark that the stupidity of the Roumanian officials does not stop even here. N^o telegrams are allowed to be sent in the English language, although the English newspapers use the telegraph wires here more than all the other papers in the world put together. A correspondent is obliged not only to make a translation of his telegram, but to send the translation and not the original. The reason given is that there is nobody in the employ of the telegraphs who understands English. The idea of employing some man who does understand English is, of course, far beyond their intelligence. The General informed me that he had not a moment to spare, as he was just going to start over to Matchin, whereupon I immediately asked permission, as a means of prolonging the interview, to accompany him. He laughed at the request, and observed that he suspected that it was rather to see Matchin than to see him that I wished to go ; but he granted permission nevertheless, and put me in charge of an officer. Captain John Rogouly, of the Imperial Kussian I^avy, who conducted me down to the river-side, showed me everything 176 WAR COERESPONDEXCE. tliat was to be seen there, and among others presented me to Lieutenants Shestakoif and Dubasoff, tbe two jonng ofl&cers who blew np the Turkish monitor with a torpedo. I was in luck that day, for Lieutenant Shestakoff invited me to go to Matchin with him in his torpedo launch, an invitation which I was very glad to accept, as I wished to see these famous boats, and observe their machinery and the manner of handling the torpedoes. I was soon on board, and Lieutenant Shestakolf , while swallowing a hurried dinner of roast mutton and salad, gave me an account of how the monitor had been destroyed. The launch was only about twenty-five feet long, with about four feet beam. The torpedo spars, of which each boat carried two, were about thirty feet long. They were placed one on each side of the boat in large iron rings fore and aft, which maintained them in a horizontal position when not being used. The torpedo is attached of course to the forward end of the spar. The torpedoes were taken off before we started, and I had no very great wish to look too closely into the mechanism of them, but I observed that they were about twenty inches in length by probably fifteen inches in diameter, covered apparently with wood. When used, the torpedo bar is thrust forward through the rings until it is only supported by one, and the torpedo on the end of the spar may then be hoisted up and down as on the end of a lever. As it would be difficult to steady it in this position, as soon as it enters the water, as it must do before it strikes the enemy's ship, there is a very simple contrivance arranged for this purpose. Across the bow of the boat, a couple of feet behind the stern, is placed a horizontal piece of wood, which projects about eighteen inches over the sides. Descending from this perpendicularly into the water nearly to the depth of the keel are two bars of wood placed just the distance apart to allow the torpedo spar to work freely up and down . between them. These bars, with the aid of the forward ring, enable the operator to run the spar out at the proper moment to strike the bottom of an enemy's ship. It is well known that the force of a torpedo only acts within a radius of ten feet, and as the spar is thirty feet long the boat is thus at a safe distance from the explosion, except the danger of its being filled and swamped by the column of water which the torpedo inevitably throws up. The launch is an ordinary wooden one, covered over with a wooden deck, supported by very slight wooden or iron uprights. The sides from a little above the water are protected by plates of iron, a quarter of an inch thick, loosely fastened on to the uprights, and sufficient to stop a bullet, leaving exposed about four inches THE RUSSIAN TORPEDO. 177 just below tlie deck for a crew to fire tliroiigli in case of need. Weitlier the bow nor tlie stern, however, were protected in this way, and the launch coming end on would be exposed to be traversed from stem to stern by the enemy's bullets. As is well known, not a single bullet had ever penetrated the boat or wounded a man, although the launch must have been for several seconds within twenty feet of the monitor, and the Turks had fired probably more than 100 shots at her at that distance. The reason was that it had not occurred to them to fire down through the deck, which was only of wood, and all their bullets had been expended on the iron plates, which were of course impenetrable. In the course of an interesting conversation with Lieutenant Dubasoff I found that a couplp of errors had crept into the account which I have already given of the destruction of the Turkish monitor. In the first place the electric battery was not attached to a belt round the ofiicer's body, but it was simply fixed in a little box in the stern of the boat. The system I have mentioned exists likewise, but it was not used upon this occasion by either Dubasoff or Shestakoff. In the next place, the torpedo was made to explode by contact, but it was arranged to be fired likewise by an electric battery in case the shock should not have been sufficient to explode the torpedo. The wire, too, which seems to have been used, was much larger than I had supposed to be necessary, being com- posed of a number of wires twisted together, forming a small cable more than a quarter of an inch thick. The first torpedo which was fired by Dubasoff was exploded by contact, while that of Shestakoff was fired by means of the electric battery. I find that the working of the engine made a great deal more noise than I had expected, and learned that it could be worked either at a very high rate of speed, or almost noiselessly, at a great expenditure, however, of steam. The expenditure of steam is so great that it cannot ba kept up more than twenty minutes at a time, and as the time required to steam from Braila up to where the monitors were lying was nearly two hours, they had to stop several times to get up steam. The result was that daylight had almost come upon them before they had reached the vicinity of the monitors, and they finally decided not to attempt approaching silently, but to bear down with full head of steam, making as much noise as on ordinary occasions. This was the reason that their approach had been detected by the Turkish sentinel. Steaming round the point at the confluence of the two streams, which point looks like a green woody island, but is completely submerged, we were soon rushing gaily up the old channel of the Danube towards 178 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Matcliin. In an hour we came to tlie monitor wliicli liad been sunk first bj the batteries at Braila. The mizenmast is still erect about twenty feet out of the water, and the mizen shrouds still retain their proper positions, which would seem to indicate that the stern of the ship at least had not gone to pieces. The only other part visible is the jibboom, which is broken back and projects eight or ten feet out of the water. A mile further on we came to the second monitor which had been blown up by the torpedo, with the mizenmast like the other one still standing, and no other part of the ship visible. We steamed gaily over the wreck, and I think that Lieutenant Shestakoff takes a grim delight in passing over it every time he goes by, as he does two or three times every day, and it seemed to me there was a thrill of exultation in the throb of the engines as the little boat glided over the body of the mighty monster that lay crushed and vanquished beneath. General Zimmerman took with him three steamers loaded with men, each steamer towing two barges, which were lashed one on each side of it. These barges were protected on the side opposite the steamer by huge wooden bulwarks, built up to the height of a man, with loopholes through them, quite thick and strong enough for protection against a bullet. But a shell striking them would, I fear, have made sorry havoc among the men on board. Besides these three steamers and six barges, there were any number of small rowing boats which had started some hours before, and which we met near Matchin. In all Greneral Zimmerman took over on this ex- pedition about 2,000 men, with four pieces of artillery. No caution was used in coming up to the place, as Matchin was already full of Russian troops, and as we approached we saw the Russian sentinel on a little knoll overlooking the town and the river, where only twenty hours before had been seen a Turk. As soon as the inhabitants saw the boats coming they formed into a procession, and came down to the shore to meet us with banners, holy pictures taken from the churches, and various other religious emblems. They were led by three priests and some other Church dignitaries in full canonical robes, who met us chanting a hymn. General Zimmerman took off his cap and kissed the little wooden cross that was presented to him, while with a bunch of green leaves they splashed any amount of holy water over his head, and in fact almost drenched him. Each of those who followed were treated with the same copious shower-bath, and as the day was hot and we were all in a terrible perspiration, the ordeal, to which I submitted with as much grace as possible, was by no means an unpleasant one. The people then greeted us CAPTURE OF MATCHIN. 179 with lond liurralis, and marclied after ns, manifesting tlie most extravagant joj, especially the boys, whose delight was as unbounded as it was troublesome. Nevertheless, in spite of something that was grotesque about it, all this reception of the conquerors by the conquered, of the invaders by the invaded, has a profound political significance which the Turco- philes, if there be any such people left, would do well to ponder. These people, instead of looking upon the Russians as enemies, and conquerors, and invaders, and oppressors, hail them with delight and satisfaction as their deliverers from a degrading and terrible bondage, which Europe has condoned and sustained too long. These same people would have hailed Englishmen with the same delight as the Russians, had English help but come in time. To-day the inhabitants of Matchin are all Christians ; the Turkish population, who were in a small minority, fled soon after the declaration of war, carrying away all their worldly goods. A great part of the inhabitants, too, are Russians, of the sect known as the Old Believers, who emigrated from their own country, and settled here on the banks of the Danube more than a hundred years ago. They still speak Russian, and wear the costume of the Russian peasant. The rest of the inhabitants are Bulgarians and Wallachians. We took a walk through the town. It had a strange, lonely, deserted, dilapi- dated look, partly owing to the fact that the houses formerly occupied by the Turkish population were quite untenanted, that the shops had not yet been opened after the previous day's scare, and partly because a Turkish town always has this dreary, tumble- down, unkempt appearance. We looked into the windows of many of the Turkish houses, and saw the empty, abandoned rooms which had so lately been in- habited, and which looked all the sadder and more melancholy because of the thought that came unconsciously into one's mind, that their owners would never come back again. We looked into the mosque. The doors were wide open as usual, and the floors strewn with dirty matting, dust, and litter, showing that it had not been used for many weeks ; but there had been no desecration on the part of the Russian soldiers, no defilement of the house of worship, no insult flung at Allah. I remarked this particularly ; I, who had seen so many Christian churches defiled and desecrated in Bulgaria. The verses of the Koran were still written on bits of board or paper, and hung round the walls as though they were expect- ing the Mussulman worshippers of Allah back again ; but high up in the minaret beside it, whence the mullah was wont to call all good Mohammedans to prayer, stands N 2 180 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. a Russian sentinel — emblematic, perhaps, of tlie long struggle between Mohammedanism and Cbristianity, and ominous of the end. From tbe mosque we went to the Konak, the residence of the Kaimakan of Matchin. It was rather a large, fine, well- looking house, one of the best Konaks of the Kaimakan that I remember ever having seen in Turkey. But not a stick of furniture of any kind had been left ; all had been carried off in the hurried flight of the Turks. The floor of nearly every room was almost a foot deep with papers written in Turkish, torn to pieces and trampled about on the floor. They were the archives of Matchin, the records of titles and deeds of probably all the property in the district. The Turks, it is well known, keep their archives and records on scraps of paper which are tumbled promiscuously into bags that are hung on nails around the walls, and these papers may have been emptied out here on the floor and destroyed for the sake of getting the bags in which they were contained. Everything, in fact, about the place looks as though the Turks themselves had gone away never expecting to come back again. The Russian soldiers found something which pleased them mightily here. This was a room filled half way up to the ceiling with tobacco, old, musty, and partly rotten, which they carried oft' in armfuls, like hay, with the greatest glee and satisfaction. The detachment here will now for some days have no lack of tobacco, such as it is. We walked about the streets, and finally sat down under the porch or pavilion belonging to one of the Russian inhabitants, who gave us excellent Turkish coffee, preserved rose-leaves, and Turkish tobacco, from which we rolled and smoked any number of cigarettes, and right glad I was to have once more the taste of real Turkish coffee, compared with which coffee in the Euro- pean style is but a drug and a medicine. Then General Zim- merman held a review of all the troops there, and afterwards we got into a boat and steamed back to Braila. On the way back I was introduced to the young officer who had built the bridge, Captain Klemenka, and as he offered to take me over it and show it to me, I accepted the invitation. It is a splendid piece of work, strong enough to carry over the heaviest artillery, and is evidently made to last a long time. The first 1,600 feet from the Roumanian shore is trestle-work, built along over the railway, which before the inundation ran down to the edge of the river, where it was met by the ferry-boat. Part of the railway has been swept away, and even that which remains is still under water, and the bridge is now some five feet higher than the railway track under OCCUPATION OF THE DOBRUDSCHA. 181 it. The bridge is made of immense wooden trestles on benches, exceedingly strong and solid, and they are put down on sleepers which lie along on the ground. Over this is laid a roadway of planks which is only wide enough for one waggon or cannon to pass. At the end of this trestle-work we come to the bridge proper, which is not constructed on pontoons, but on immense rafts. The length of this part of the bridge is 1,760 feet, and there are 50 rafts in all. These rafts are composed of long pieces of beautiful timber, whole trunks of ti'ees from 60 to 80 feet long and from 16 to 20 inches in diameter at the large end. From eight to ten pieces compose each raft, and they are solidly bolted and fastened together, and anchored with strong hemp cables to heavy iron anchors dropped in the bottom of the river. The roadway is laid over this, as over the trestles. At the Turkish end we come to what was formerly the village of Gretchet, which is a village no more. It was a place of probably 26 or 60 houses, not one of which is left standing. It was first demolished by the Russian batteries to drive away the Turkish outpost that was stationed there, and when Captain Klemenka began his bridge he found it necessary to continue the roadway to the other end, which was for the most part under water, in the best way he could. He simply used the debris and rubbish of these houses and walls to make a road, which is built right over the foundation of the houses. In no other way could he get a sufficiently solid foundation on which to build. The road, therefore, goes zigzagging about from house to house, with a piece of bridge here and a piece of trestle-work there, pieced into the chaussee in the most curious manner ; but this new roadway has not been continued up over the old road for more than a mile, and there remain some five or six miles to be made yet before troops can pass over it. Altogether it is a most creditable piece of work so far, and does Captain Klemenka great honour. It will be ready, however, in four or five days probably, and then the 14th Corps, as well as the 4th, which is up in the direction of Reni, will perhaps cross over here. This crossing is of far more importance than it was at first supposed it would be. As the Turks have retreated to the Kustendjie Railway, the Russians are now in virtual possession of the whole of the Dobrudscha. It is impossible to understand Turkish strategy in thus leaving the Dobrudscha almost entirely unprotected. They do not seem to have had altogether more than 8,000 or 10,000 men here, and they must either have been convinced that the Russians would not attempt a passage at this place, or they must have decided to completely abandon the Dobrudscha, and allow the 182 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Ilussians to cross with comparatively little opposition, in the hope of being able to crush them later when a Russian force, advancing- from this side, should have reached the dangerous quadrilateral of Silistria, Rustchuk, Yarna, and Shumla. A few more troops here would have made the passage of the Russians a most difficult matter, and although the great bulk of the Russian army is certainly between Griurgevo and Turna Magurelle, they still have two army corps about G-alatz, Reni, and Braila, a force of about 70,000 men — an army quite large enough to make the Turkish positions about Rustchuk most critical, as soon as it should be able to get so far. It is, of course, impossible -to say what the Turkish plan may be, but it certainly looks as though they had no plan at all, and that, as usual with the Turks, everything is left to the care of Allah. It remains to be seen now what task will be set the 14th and 4th Corps — whether they will march on to Yarna and Shumla, or w^hether they will begin the siege of Silistria. As it would take at least three weeks for those corps to march down and turn the positions of Rustchuk, it does not seem likely that the Russian armies between Griurgevo and Turna Magurelle would wait for the assistance that might thus be rendered to them. It is more likely that they will attempt the passage at once, and that ere this reaches you the telegraph will have recorded another passage of the Danube. As soon as time for reflection had been allowed, it was per- ceived that, important as Greneral Zimmerman's advance might be, it was not into the Dobrudscha that the Grrand Duke I^icholas would be likely to lead the main body of his army, and attention was again therefore directed to the middle section of the Danube. Two days before the crossing the position of this force was described in the following letter : — * LissA, Wallachia, Jmie 2^th. — Our camp in Alexandria was in a garden nearly opposite the headquarters of Prince Mirsky, the general commanding the 9th Division of the 8th Corps. The 7yiot d^ordre from his Highness, who had been so kind as to allow Mr. Yilliers and myself to accompany his head- quarters, was that we should be ready for a start early this morning. While we were striking the tent and packing the waggon, while as yet the sun was low in the sky, clouds of dust on the adjacent road told us that a great cortege was passing. This was by no means the first cloud of dust that had risen this mornino^ on that much-trodden road. Long THE SUITE OF AN EMPEROR. 183 before sunrise tlie cheering from the camp of the 9th Division, on the bluff over against the town, had told ns that the regi- ments composing it were beginning their long day's march, and, as each marched out, that it was answering the kindly greeting of the general who was watching the outmarching in the chill grey dawn. Later the long column had defiled along the road through the town, bands playing and men sing- ing with that fervour which the Russian soldier, no matter how heavily laden, always throws into the marching song. Behind the regiments or interspersed between them had rolled the heavy wheels of the cannon, and there had followed the column and the waggons of the telegraph train and the miscel- laneous articles of the baggage and provision convoys. The division had passed on, bag and baggage, with no show or glitter, but with an appearance of genuine efficiency that be- tokened readiness for whatever fortune might send — a march across Europe, or a fight before the next meal. But this later cortege had a certain splendour and pretension. At its head rode staff officers gay with aiguillettes, horses prancing, and sword scabbards glittering in the sunshine. Then came an escort of mixed cavalry, Cossacks of the Gruard in blue and gold ; hussars, blue, brown, red, and green ; lancers, with pennons of vivid hues ; field gendarmes, and strange- visaged Asiatic servants. Behind the escort came a long cavalcade of handsome led horses, chargers of noble proportions and high mettle, and there were fourgons and caleches of wondrous size and multitudinous compartments, all designed to make campaigning a luxury instead of a hardship to which adventure gives the zest. Coachmen in plumes of peacocks' feathers ; English grooms ; valets, smiling sublimely from luxurious depth of cushions ; cooks contemplating nature from the box seats of portable kitchens — all betokened something of much higher pretension than the headquarter equipage of a cam- paigning general. It was the suite of the Emperor on the march, but without the Emperor at its head. I^ow that actual war is imminent, the Imperial suite is a little forlorn. It does not belong to the field army, as does the less imposing suite of his Imperial Highness the Commander-in-Chief ; in point of fact it does not seem to belong to anything in par- ticular, but to be a cumbersome waif and stray. The Emperor is travelling with a modest personal accompaniment, consisting of Count Adlerberg and a practical general or two ; his suite of Princes and Archdukes have been living for the last three days under canvas, in a wood somewhere on the environs of Alexandria, out of range of acquaintance with the progress of events. ]N"ow, they were on the road to take a similar camp 184 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. nearer tlie Danube, whereabouts it was not my business to inquire. I bave come to a resolution in relation to tbis war to ask no questions. Wbat I see I sball try to describe, and with tbe description of wbat I see, I sball regard my work as done. Presently Prince Mirsky sent a servant across to our garden to say tbat bis little personal train was ready, and we fell in bebind tbe waggon wbicb contained tbe camp kit of bis Higb- ness. A soldier rode up to our carriage, and told us in excel- lent Englisb tbat be was commanded by tbe general to serve as our escort. Russian private soldiers are not commonly conversant witb Englisb ; yet tbis man, judging by bis uni- form, seemed nothing more tban a " simple soldier " — an infantry man of tbe first regiment of tbe 9tb Division, mounted on a nice little wbite borse. He wore tbe wbite blouse of tbe private soldier, witb tbe red sboulder straps of tbe regiment ; a bayonet bung from bis waist belt. His loose trousers were tucked into bis long boots. " Ob, yes, be bad been in England several times ; merely pleasure visits ; be knew a number of people tbere, but was not good at remem- bering names ; Lord Carington be bad met several times." Here was a puzzling private soldier, truly. I left tbe carriage, mounted my borse, and joined bim. We talked all tbe way to Piatra, and tbe more we talked tbe more I wondered to find in a private soldier a man wbo knew most of tbe capitals of Europe, wbo bad seen in Berlin Count Seckendorff's w^ater- colours, and wbo knew tbe details of tbe stampede of tbe troop borses of our Household Cavalry from their picquet pegs among the sands of Cove Common, who criticised tbe cookery of tbe Cafe Anglais, and whose brother is an aide-de-camp of tbe Emperor and the governor of a province. I am not good at asking people for their names, but as we rode down the hill into Piatra he casually mentioned that his name was Dol- gorouki. I have had some strange experiences in my time, but never before has it fallen to my lot to have a Prince acting as tbe escort of my baggage waggon. Our road lay at first down the right bank of tbe Yede River, and I imagined our destination w^as to be somewhere behind Simnitza. It must be understood that no information bad been given to me respecting our halting-place, and tbat I bad refrained from asking. All I was told was that the march was to be about eighteen miles long. But presently tbe Cossack, who was our guide, found himself slightly at fault, and there was a halt. Then I said that I knew the country, having made an excursion to Turna Magurelle, which I have described in a previous letter. So it was told to me that we GROPING FOR A DESTINATION. 185' were bound for Piatra. I liad been to Piatra before, so I was able to supersede our guide. After leaving the river on our left rear, we readied a broad level plateau, cultivated to the last foot. Luxuriant crops of barley waved in the light breeze, already beginning to whiten unto harvest. To the south, beyond the verge of our green plateau, rose the shadowy dark blue of the high ground behind the Turkish bank of the great river. My companion gazed on it with interest, for it was his first view of the territory over which the Russian legions are soon to sweep. Journeying onward we overtook the rearguard of the division. It was high noon of a swel- tering summer day, and the men had been marching since daybreak. We had passed but three men who had fallen out by the wayside, but it was clear that not a few were struggling hard not to fall out, and that nothing but pluck, and perhaps shame, kept them from succumbing. They trudged heavily along with bared throats, flushed faces, and parched lips. A few seemed on the point of having sunstroke, and were all but past replying to questions. Others, stronger and better inured, swung along more easily, and several carried the rifles of their less stalwart comrades in addition to their own. All the waggons were piled high with knapsacks, but there were few men in the ambulance waggons. There was quite a rush to a wayside well, and there was something almost terrible in the feverish eagerness with which the men drank. But there was no selfish struggling for the grateful water — ^no, the fellows took their turn contentedly, and some there were whose thirst was yet unquenched when the bugle sounded the " fall in," and who obeyed the signal wofully indeed, but without hesitation. At length we had crossed the plateau, and there opened up at our feet the pretty valley in which lies so snugly the strag- gling village of Piatra. There were camps on every grassy slope, and in every meadow down in the green bottom. When I was last in Piatra a couple of dragoons sauntered leisurely up its broad street, and a village maid was washing linen at the fountain of clear water in the centre of its little Place. Kow about the fountain was a concourse of thirsty soldiers ; now dust filled the air raised by the tramp of a thousand men ; now the throng in front of the little inn extended half across the road. There is but one house in Piatra, in our accepta- tion of the term ; all the other habitations are mere huts, for the. most part of wattle and mud. I had been looking forward to quarters in this one house, which belongs to a local boyard, and which is quite a palace in its way. When last in Piatra I had been courteously entreated in its dining-room, and had 18G WAR CORRESPONDENCE. made tlie acquaintance of tlie ladies of the boyard's family. But, alas ! as we neared the mansion, we saw that there waved from its gate the significant red flag. This betokened that the house was already occupied by a higher power, the general commanding the army corps. Greneral Radetsky, as such, takes the precedence for quarters of Greneral Prince Mirsky, w^ho commands but a division, and we had to find our quarters further afield. We rode through the camps covering the green face of the plain that intervenes between Piatra and this village, our mark being the village church of Lissa, and hard by the church we found a little white farmhouse, sur- rounded by a wattled fence. Here w^ere the headquarters of Prince Mirsky, who, indeed, travelling more swiftly by another route, had already arrived and taken possession. He occupies the only spare chamber of the little dwelling ; his staff are in tents in the compound, in a snug corner of which also is our canvas habitation, under the shade of which I am now writing. A great army lies around us. How great I am unable to tell. Serried batteries of artillery score the green slopes above us, the stoppered mouths of their cannon looking towards the Danube, the common objective of us all. Masses of white- bloused infantrymen are trampling up to the cooking places to eat their soup out of the huge camp kettles which hold each enough for half a company. The men have laid aside their arms, their fatigue has left them., their weapon now is but a spoon, they laugh and sing and gambol as they make for the steaming flesh-pots. "Let us taste the soup," says the Prince, and we go out of our inclosure, and down among the soldiers. The Greneral has a kind w^ord for his fellows, and they reply with frank, respectful manliness. The under- oflticer on duty over one of the kettles takes an extra suck at his wooden spoon by way of cleaning it, and hands it to me. The soup — well, I am not exactly sure that I shall send the recipe to my club and consider myself entitled to a vote of thanks from the committee. It is thick, and hot, and sour — and, what shall I say ? — miscellaneous. It is not a dainty, but I suppose that many a time before the campaign is over we shall be glad to borrow the honest corporal's spoon, and take a turn with the others at the big camp kettle. In the meantime I prefer the recondite mess which Andreas has con- cocted over our little fire in the corner of the compound, and w^hich amply consoles Yilliers for the abandonment of the flesh-pots of Egypt, in the shape of the delicate, if costly, cookery of the Hotel Brofft in Bucharest. In Alexandria last night I met General Skobeleff the younger, who gave me a WHERE CAN THE GRAND DUKE BE ? 187 detailed account of tlie affair at Parapan some tlaree days ago, to wliick I believe I cursorily referred in my last letter. Parapan is a village on the Roumanian shore about eight or ten miles west of Giurgevo. In view of the intention of pontooning the Danube still further west, it was thought ex- pedient to set up a sunken hedge of torpedoes in the Danube to hinder the monitors which lie ordinarily at Rustchuk from interfering with the bridge. It was determined to lay down this hedge from Parapan to a point opposite on the Turkish bank. The night was spent in getting down through the marshes and bulrushes to the water's edge, and the real work of laying the torpedoes did not begin until daylight. It was a tedious process, for several islands at this point encumber the bed of the stream ; but it was successfully carried out, and for a time Skobeleff and his little party stood on the Turkish bank. The work was interfered with by the Turkish, gun- boats which had steamed up from Rustchuk, and it was in dealing with one of them that Lieutenant Stridlin, in a' tiny steam launch, displayed the conspicuous gallantry which I have already described in a telegram, in which however, owing to erroneous information, I laid the scene of his ex- ploit at Rustchuk itself. After his dashing attempt the two gunboats sheered off, and the work was completed. But after it had been done, and when as yet Skobeleff's fellows had not - got out of range, a couple of Turkish field batteries arrived at a trot from Rustchuk and opened fire on them. Their tardy arrival did not indicate much alertness ; at the latest the alarm must have been given by daybreak, and they did not fire their first shot until after two. Owing to the presence of the gunboats on the watch lower down stream, it was thought well to get the little steam launch through the bulrushes to the bank, and to bring it away on an ox-cart. This operation had to be carried out under the fire of the Turkish field-guns, and the casualties were one officer killed and seven men wounded. Up to the present, even including the crossing of the Danube at Braila, the tidings of which reached us in Alexandria yesterday, the butcher's bill of the war is singularly light. The problem of the day is, where can the Grand Duke be ? I suppose Prince Mirsky knows, but it seems to me that nobody else does. The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, if his ability is only equal to his energy, ought to make himself a name among leaders. He is at once cunning and active. When he left Ployesti I came into Bucharest by the same train in which he travelled. He had not an ounce of baggage with him and drove away from the station in a hack carriage. 188 WAR COEEESPONDENCE. It was given out, as I telegraplied at tlie time, tliat lie would return to Plojesti either that night or the following morning. He never did return. At three o'clock next morning, he started for Alexandria in a caleche with one companion. The four Roumanian ponies brought him the ninety miles without stopping, except for a drink twice on the road. He reached Alexandria at 1 p.m. of the following day, lunched with Prince Mirskj, and departed at 3 p.m. with a fresh team. Whither he went and where he is now are unsolved problems. But one problem is slowly but surely solving itself. It is certain now that the main column will cross to the west of the lake Jezeru, which projects into Roumania, and practically thus widens the stream of the Danube directly south of this place. Between the Bellona Picquet and the mouth of the Aluta is a distance of not greater than twelve miles, and between these two points it is now certain that the crossing must be made. The Danube is said to have fallen very much. Some people are never content, and I heard a general complain that it was too small, and that the miasma which the drying marshes are evolving will poison the troops. He has, perhaps, got fever on the brain, for during a thirteen years' service in the Caucasus he had fever twenty-one times. But if it is not so now, I fear that later the Danube will take its revenge in its own way on the nation which essays to pass its broad stream. The people of Eastern Europe talk of the Danube fever in much the same strain as the planters of Northern Tirhoot speak of the "Terai" fever, which for months in the year isolates l!^epaul from British India. The practice, which is irrepressible, of the Hussian soldiers to plunge into cold water when heated is a provocative of fever in itself, and all the more so when the surface of that water has an impalpable layer of malarious emanations upon it. Of every war it is true that where battle slays its thousands, disease slays its tens of thousands, and there is no likelihood that in this campaign there will be any respite from the inexorable law. 26th. — Heavy rain all night; heavy cannon fire at Turna Magurelle against JSTicopolis, and as heavy reply. We are just on the move ; crossing probably to-night or, at all events, to-morrow night. The following letter notices the reception of the news from Matchin at Constantinople : — : : Constantinople, June 29th. — A vague rumour prevailed here for some days before the Russians crossed the Danube — namely, PUBLIC FEELING AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 189 that tliey liad ^e^OIlIlced all intention of attempting the passage of tlie river. That the Czar had come all the way from St. Petersburg merely to go back as he came, was a story which could only find credence in a city like this, where the most extravagant statement finds many eager believers. The delay on the part of the Russians to pass over into Bulgaria was never attributed to the real cause — the high state of the water, and the determination of the Russian military authorities to have everything in the most perfect order before risking the passage. It was more convenient in Constantinople to say that the Muscovites were afraid, and shrank from the task they had set themselves to perform. When at length it was supposed concealment of the truth could no longer serve any purpose whatever, the Government thought fit to issue an official bulletin twenty hours after the Russians were on this side, as follows : " It is known that the Russians have for some time past been preparing to cross the Danube ; and it is likewise known that the Ottoman military authorities attached no importance in a strategical point of view to the Dobrudscha, ha^dng only left there a small movable force, it having been impossible to concen- trate a large body of troops in that part of the empire. From telegrams received here we learn that the Russians crossed the river on Friday night at Cara-Agatch- — between Matchin and Isatchia. Although our troops did their duty, the Russians, regardless of the heavy losses inflicted on them, effected the passage in boats, coming over in successive groups, while our corps de garde retreated in good order." Such is the official version of this most important event, and since its publication the Government has followed its usual line of procedure — that is, to give no details whatever concerning the movement of the troops on the Danube. Brilliant vic- tories are of course notified from Montenegro, and we are told of the recapture of Bayazid by' the Ottoman forces, but of what most interests people here, whether the Russians are approaching this way or not, we are in complete ignorance. The streets of Constantinople were surely never so full of strange faces and costumes as at this moment. Representatives of all the Mussulman tribes of Asia Minor, Arabia, and Egypt crowd the narrow streets and alarm timid visitors from Europe. Many of them are rascally looking fellows, and have already distinguished themselves by their cowardly behaviour. The police, however, keep a sharp look-out upon them, the Government knowing how dangerous it would be to have a repetition in the capital of the acts by which the Bashi-Bazouks are known in Bulgaria. That might offend 190 WAR COERESPONDENCE. tlie diplomatists of Pera. Therefore tliese men are sent off to the seat of war as rapidly as possible. The Egyptian con- tingent, comprising 6,000 infantry and 1,000 artillery men, arrived in the Bosphorus on Saturday. Eight steamers con- veyed the men here from Alexandria, seven Turkish ironclads having acted on the voyage the part of protector as far as the Dardanelles to the Khedive's steamers and troops. Prince Hassan, who is the second son of the Viceroy, and who is also Egyptian Minister of War, is commander-in-chief of the contingent, and has for the time being taken up his abode in his father's palace on the Upper Bosphorus. In entering the straits from the Sea of Marmora the vessels were covered with flags, the sailors manned the yards, regimental bands struck up the Turkish Anthem, and considerable excitement prevailed amongst the Turks on shore as they continued for some time to shout, " Long life to the King of Kings ! " When Prince Hassan stepped on shore he and his suite were at once conveyed -in Court carriages to Yildiz-Kiosque, where the Sultan was awaiting his arrival. The Prince, it is said, will follow his troops to the field after a few days' rest here. He has already made one start, but has returned. If, how- ever, his Highness be no more successful on this occasion than he was in the Abyssinian campaign, he might just as well have remained at home. A Minister of War at twenty-four years of age is hardly likely to make a brilliant display any- where, even though he be a prince. If he had the genius of his ancestor, Mehemet Ali, much would naturally be expected from such exceptional gifts ; but notwithstanding all the advantages he has derived from education and travel, he has up to the present moment displayed very little indeed of the military capacity of him to whom he owes his rank and for- tune. The Abyssinian defeat is a sufficient measure of Prince Hassan's ability as a soldier. The Turks, too, at this moment are by no means rich in military talent, so far as commanders are concerned, and their friends ought rather to regret than behold with satisfaction another appointment which is ex- ceedingly unlikely to enhance the military glory of the Otto- mans. Along with the 7,000 auxiliaries, the Khedive sent 1,000 Eemington rifles, 1,000,000 cartridges, one battery of cannon, and three steam launches for service on the Danube. With the exception of one vessel, all the others, with the con- tingent on board, left on Sunday for the Black Sea amidst a tremendous downpour of rain. Indeed, from the moment the vessels came to anchor in the Bosphorus, the rain hardly ceased coming down in torrents — a most unusual occurrence at this season. The Turks say the floods on the Danube have THE CROSSING AT SIMNITZA. 191 been caused by the Prophet's intercession, so that the enemy should not be able to cross. Whether the same agent sent thirty hours' continued rain here in honour of the Egyptians, it would, perhaps, be difficult for the most devoted adherent of the prophet to determine. The Sheik-ul-Islam, the Grand Vizier, the Minister of War, and others have been in constant attendance on Prince Hassan since his arrival. CHAPTER YIII. ^' ^ ^ ^ ^'^ ^» S r T V ( ) THE CROSSING AT SIMNITzit, OAJifP()j>V! \ The Point of Passage — Banks of the Danube at Simnitza andf Sistova — General Dragomiroff's Plan — The Turks on the "Watch — Embarkation of General Yolchine's Troops — The Passage opposed— The Turkish Shell and Rifle Fire — Russian Losses — Landing of Yolchine's Brigade — Tenacity of the Turkish Artillery — Battle on the Slopes — Appearance of a Turkish Monitor — Con- tiauance of the Crossing — An Hour's Fight of a Monitor with Four Torpedo Launches. The passage of the Danube by the advance guard of the main body of the Russian army was effected at Simnitza, on the 27th of June. The following letters describing this operation were transmitted by telegraph : — * Simnitza, June 27th. — Returning yesterday evening to the headquarters of the 9th Division in Lissa, I received some information which led me to ride direct to Simnitza. I was told there would be two attempts at crossing the Danube, one at Turna Magurelle, the other from Simnitza to Sistova. The latter was understood to be more important, and I chose it. . Reaching Simnitza, I found there the whole of the 14th Division, commanded by Greneral Dragomiroff. The 14th is a division of the 8th Army Corps, commanded by General Radetsky. Greneral Dragomiroff was in the midst of the preparations for crossing. Let me first describe the locality. Simnitza is almost opposite the long straggling Turkish town of Sistova, which lies in a plateau above and in the hollows of a precipice overhanging the Danube. Below Sistova, for a distance of two miles, the Turkish bank is steep, in places quite precipitous, with here and there little hollows, and above the river- side are steep wooded slopes, covered with gardens and vineyards, leading to a bare ridge forming the sky-line. Two -miles below Sistova is a narrow, 192 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. marked depression in tlie Turkisli bank, leading up from a little cove, formed by the affluents of a small stream. Above, and to the right of this cove was a small camp of Turkish soldiers, fixed there, doubtless, in consciousness of the weak- ness of the point ; and above the camp on the sky-line was a battery of heaw guns. Between the cove and Sistova several cannon were disposed under cover of the trees, and imme- diately on the proper right of the toAvn was a small open earthwork, armed with a few field guns. Sistova is an open town. Probably in and about it there was not more than a brigade of Turkish troops, but then it is not distant more than a long day's march from either Rustchuk or Nieopolis. So much for the Turkish side. About Simnitza the Rou- manian bank is high ; but between it and the Danube proper, which flows close to the Turkish bank, is a broad tract, partly of green meadow, partly of sand, partly of tenacious mud, the whole just emerging from inundation. This flat is cut off fi'om Simnitza by a narrow arm of the Danube, so that it is really an island. A raised road and bridge leading from the town across the flats, to the landing-place on the Danube, have been wrecked by the floods. It was necessary, there- fore, for the Russians to gain access to the flats by a short pontoon bridge. These flats are still in many places under water, are scored by intersecting streams, and studded with impracticable swamps, so that the road through them is now difficult and tortuous. They are quite bare, except that at the lower end, exactly opposite the cove on the Turkish side of which I have spoken, there is a wood of willows and alders of considerable extent, and capable of affording a good deal of cover. The Danube all along the Sistova position is about sixteen hundred paces ^sade, and flows very rapidly. There is a low island opposite Sistova, but it has no interest in the present narrative. The ground on the Roumanian side shows a sloping face to the higher Turkish bank, so that it is impos- sible to bring troops into Simnitza unobserved. Hence, probably, the Turkish preparedness, such as it was. The attempt was. as far as possible, to be of the nature of a sur- prise, and it was necessary, therefore, to postpone the disposi- tions till after nightfall. The Division Dragomiroff had the post of honour, and w^as expected to make a footing on the Turkish side by early morning. The Division Mirsky, in support, was to make a night march from Lissa, and be in position at Simnitza at seven a.m., to follow its sister division across in the event of the latter's success. In the event of failure, it was to take up the fighting, and force a passage at all sacrifices ; for the Archduke Nicholas had announced that THE 8TBUGGLE JOE THE BIGHT BA5K. 193 he would take no denial. The river had to be crossed at Simnitza, cost what it might. Other divisions stood within call if need were. The waterg might be reddened, but they mnst be crossed. With the darkness General Dragomiroff had began his disposi- tions. The first work was to plant in made emplacements a row of field guns all along the edge of the flats, to ffweep with fire the opposite banks. This was while his infantry was beinc' marched over the flats down into the cover of the willow wood. The darkness and the obstructions were both so great that all was not ready till the first glimmer of grey dawn. There was no bridge, but a number of pontoon boats, capable of holding from fifteen to forty men each. These were dragged on carriages through the mud, and launched in the darkness from under the spreading boughs of the willow trees. The troops embarked, and pushed across as the craft arrived. Dragomiroff stood on the slimy margin to bid his gallant fellows " God speed." He would fain have shown the way, for he is a fighting as well as a scientific soldier, but it was his duty to remain till later. The grateful task devolved on ^lajor- General Yolchine, whose brigade con- sisted of the regiments of Valnisk and Minsk, the 53rd and 54th of the line. The boats put off singly, rowing across for the little cove, and later the little steam-tug Annette was brought into requisition. For once, the Turks had not spent the night watches in heavy sleep. Their few cannon at once opened fire on the boats, on the hidden masses among the willows, and on the columns marching across the flat. Nor was this all. From the slopes above the cove there came at the boats a smart infantry fire. The Turkish rifle- men were holding the landing-place. Yolchine has not gained experience and credit in Caucasian warfare for nothing. His boat was leading. The Turkish riflemen were in position about fifty yards from the shore. He landed his handful, and bade them lie down in the mud. Several were down pre- viously with Turkish bullets. He opened a skirmishing fire to cover the landing of the boats that followed. One by one these landed their freights, who followed the example of the first boatload. At length enough had accumulated. Young Skobeleff was there, a host in himself. Yolchine bade his men fix bayonets, stand up, and follow their ofl&cers. There was a rush and a cheer that rang louder in the grey dawn than the Turkish volley that answered it. That volley was not fired in vain ; but the Turks scarcely waited for cold steel. Yolchine's skirmishers followed them doggedly some distance up the slope, but for the time could not press on far from the o 194 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. base. Busily, yet slowly, tlie craft moved to and fro from sliore to sL^ore. Tlie Russian guns had at once opened when the Turkish fire showed that there was no surprise ; but how- ever heavy a fire may be, it will not all at once crush another fire. The Turkish shells kept falling in the water, whistling through the willows, and bursting among the columns on the flat. One shell from a mountain gun fell into a boat con- taining two guns, their gunners, and the commandant of the battery. The boat was swamped at once, and all on board perished. This was the only serious casualty ; but numerous Russian soldiers were falling on both sides of the river. Nevertheless, the w^ork was going steadily on, and w^hen, soon after seven, I returned to meet Prince Mirsky on the high ground before Simnitza, the report was, that already the whole brigade of Yolchine had reached the other side, that a Russian battery was there, and that Dragomiroff himself had crossed. We stood for some time surveying the scene. Cast your eye down there to your left front, athwart the flats, and note the masses of troops waiting there, or marching on towards the cover of the willows. See the long row of guns in action there by the water's edge, covered by the battalions of infantry, in this case a mischievous conventionality, owing to the exposure, for the Turkish cannon will not just yet be wholly silenced. Note how deftly the Russian shells pitch into that earthw^ork on the verge of Sistova. But the gallant gunners stubbornly fight their guns under the rain of fire, and when one gun is quiet, another gives tongue. And what a mark ! Half an army corps out there on the flat, wdth no speck of cover save that patch of willows down there. Hark to the crackle of musketry fire on the wooded slopes rising- out from the cove. 'No wonder Yolchine's skirmishers are moving, for that Turkish battery on the sky-line is dropping shells with fell swiftness among the willow trees. Sistova seems stark empty. It might be a city of the dead. But the Turkish gunners cling to their posts and their guns with wonderful stanchness, amidst clouds of dust thrown up by the shells which burst around them. Nor are the single pieces among the trees wholly quiet. Shells are dropping* among the troops on the flat, and the ambulance men are hurrying about with brancards, or plodding towards the Yerbandplatz, with heavy blood-sodden burdens. You may watch the shells drop into the water, starring its surface as they fall, as if it had been glass. What a wonder that one and all should miss those clumsy, heavy-laden craft which stud the water so thickly ! A shell in one of those boats w^ould produce fearful results among the closely packed SINKING OF A TRANSPORT. 195 freight. Not less fell havoc would it work among tliose soldiers further on, massed there under the shelter of the clay-bank. One realizes how great would have been the Russian loss if the Turks had been in any great force in the Sistova position, and how, after all, the Commander-in- Chief might have been forced to take a denial, accepting the inevitable. But as the affair stands, the whole thing might have been a spectacle specially got up for the gratification of the people of Simnitza, enjoying the effect from the platform high ground overhanging the flats. The laughter and bustle there are in strange contrast with the apparent absence of human life in Sistova opposite. But then Sistova was a victim lashed to the stake. The spectators on Simnitza bluff knew their skins were safe. Prince Mirsky has received his reports and final instructions. He gives word to his division to move down on to the flats, to be in readiness to cross. Previously, their march finished, they had been resting on the grassy uplands behind Simnitza. As we leave the plateau the cry rises that a Turkish monitor is coming down the Danube. Sure enough near the head of the island is visible what seems to be a large vessel with two funnels moving slowly down the stream. Now the ferry-boats may look out. Now is the opportunity for some dashing torpedo practice. But the Russian officers evince no alarm — rather, indeed, satisfaction. The fact is, as we presently discern with the glass, that the seeming monitor is really two large lighters lashed together, which the Russians are drifting down to assist in transporting the troops. No person is visible on board, yet some one must be steering, and the course held is a bold one. Slowly the lighters forge ahead past the very mouths of the Turkish cannon in the Sistova Battery, and are barely noticed by a couple of shells. They bring to at the Roumanian shore higher up than the crossing place, and wait there for their freight. Prince Mirsky takes his stand at the pontoon bridge to watch his division file past, and greet the regiments as they pass him. But in front of the 9th Division comes a regiment of the brigade of riflemen formed specially for this war, and attached to no army corps. This brigade is armed with Berdan rifles, and comprises the finest marksmen of the whole army. Prince Mirsky's division is made up of four historic regiments which suffered most heavily in Sebastopol during the great siege. They are the regiments of Yeletsk, of Sefsk, of Orloff, and of Brianski, the 33rd, 34th, 35th, and 36th of the Russian line. Very gallantly they march down the steep slope and across the bridge on to the swampy flats. Soon there greets them a 2 196 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. scarcely enlivening spectacle, the Yerbandplatz of the second line where the more serious cases were being dealt with before forwarding them to the honse hospitals in Simnitza. As we passed, about twenty shattered creatures were lying there on blood-stained stretchers waiting their turn at the hands of , the doctors. More than one I noticed required no further treatment than to be consigned to a soldier's grave. Beyond the first swamp we met a fine young officer of the Guards, carried on a stretcher with a shattered leg. But the plucky youngster raised himself jauntily on his elbow to salute the General, and wrote a telegram in my note-book to acquaint his friends that he was not much hurt. A little further on, as we were passing the rear of the guns, the Grand Duke Nicholas, the younger son of the Commander-in-Chief, rode out from the battery to greet our general. The members of the Imperial Family of Bussia do not spare themselves when other subjects of the Czar are exposing themselves on the battle-field. In Russia it is not the fashion that lofty station gives exemption from the more dangerous tasks of patriotism. The youug Grand Duke had been across the Danube, and was in high spirits at the success of the enterprise. Some distance further on we passed the second Verbandplatz whither many wounded had been brought. It was within range of the Turkish batteries about Sistova, and the mud around w^as pitted with shell-holes. But the Turkish fire by this time was nearly crushed by the steady cannonade of the Russians. Here I may speak of the very efficient work of the R-ussian ambulance service belonging to the army. The ambulance force is strong, and the casualties were well within its com- pass, so that the work went like clockwork. The younger surgeons and the ambulance men were continually up among the fighting men, and the moment a soldier was struck he was attended to. If severely injured he was put upon a stretcher and carried off after simple bandaging. If lightly wounded he left the field on foot, assisted by one or two of the ambulance men. The first destination of all was the Verband- platz of the first line, where the ambulance waggons were always waiting. The slighter cases went away sitting in the waggons. The severe cases were put on stretchers and taken* to the Yerbandplatz of the second line. The only hindrance was the deep sand and the deeper mud which impeded all movement and sorely distressed the wounded retiring on foot. Amateur help was present in plenty towards the end of the day, but, if not a nuisance, was at least a superfluity so far as concerned the work in the field. The wounds were severe in a large proportion. The Turkish shell practice was remarkably good. FIGHTIXG ON THE HEIGHTS. 197 Going still forward towards the willows we all but stuck, horses and all, in the deep holding mud. It was admirable to see the energy with which the heavily laden soldiers of the infantry- column battled on doggedly through obstruction. I should have said earlier that the troops were in complete marching order, and that for this day they had discarded their cool white clothing, and were crossing in heavy blue clothing. Two reasons were assigned for this. One, the greater warmth to the wounded in case of lying exposed to the night chills. The other, that white clothing was too conspicuous. The latter reason is rubbish. Blue on the light ground of the Danube sand is more conspicuous than white. Everywhere British scarlet is more conspicuous than any other. The true fighting colour is the dingy kharki of our Indian irregulars. After the mud we met a batch of prisoners under escort. Most were Turkish irregulars, defiant-looking, ruffianly, splendid fellows, a few were nizams of the Turkish regulars, gaunt-faced, but resolute-looking, and there was a squad of miscellaneous civilians, Turks and Bulgarians. Just outside the willows was a place where the dead who had fallen there had been collected. The bodies were already swelling and blackening under the fierce heat. The living soldiers stood around the corpses, looking at their dead comrades with con- cern, but with no fear or horror. The grass under the willows was littered with rags of the linen and bits of clothing, showing that the shells had not fallen thereabout for nothing among the masses of men gathered there in the early morning. One or two shells were still dropping as we reached the water's edge. All the Turkish opposition had seemed crushed, but it was not so. There was a regular little battle raging on the slopes above the cove where the landing had been made. The Turks, it appears, had rallied and concentrated on the upper slopes in front of their battery on the sky-line, and, gathering heart, had come down on thepicquets of the brigade Yolchine, whose line had perhaps been scarcely sufficiently fed by reinforcements, as they landed at first. The Turks had made some headway and may have encouraged themselves with the hope of driving their northern foe into the Danube ; but only for a moment. Men fell fast in Yolchine's skirmishing line, but it pressed upwards irresistibly. We saw the Turks falling back in trickling little streams, and the battery ceased to fire, and no doubt was removed for fear of capture. For soon after noon the Russian infantry had crowned the heights and settled themselves there, looking down into the interior of Bulgaria, with the Danube conquered in their rear. The Turkish infantry detachment tried to work round and do^Ti 198 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. upon Sistova, but was thwarted hj an intercepting skirmisliing force, which, got into position a cheval of the road from Sistova, and thus it would appear cut off the Turkish guns, which had been in the earthwork near the town. lN"o attempt was made to occupy Sistova. That work is reserved for to-night. And what of the Turkish monitor ? She had been hemmed in hj a cordon of torpedoes within the side channel to the south of the island of Yardim. Although she was puffing and blowing furiously in her circumscribed area, a Russian battery moving down the river bank on the Roumanian side shelled her into a melancholy victim of the acknowledged su- premacy of the newest war machine. So the resistance termi- nated, and what followed is mere routine work. Iron pontoons began casually to make their appearance both from up stream and down stream, and accumulated about the crossing place, being used for the time as ferry-boats. A complete pontoon train is in reserve at Simnitza, and will be on the water's edge to-night and be laid to-morrow. Probably there will be two bridges, for this is the crossing place of the main column, and wdll be the great Russian thoroughfare to and from Turkey. Simultaneously with the pontoon boats appeared on the scene the EmjDcror's brother, the Grrand Duke Nicholas, with General Nepokoitchitsky, and spoiled my prospects of dinner by requisitioning the whole hotel. The Emperor did not turn up. The crossing has been effected by a coup de 'inain with marvellous skill and finesse. Until the last moment no hint was given. The foreign attaches were nearly all abroad. The Emperor and suite were ostentatiously at Turna Magurelle, and yet further to promote the delusion, the Nicopolis position was assiduously bombarded the day before. The successful effort has probably cost only a thousand men killed and wounded. By to-night, or at furthest to-morrow morning, the w^hole of the 8th Corps will be across, and the brigade of riflemen as well. To-morrow follows the 35th Division, and later come the whole of the 12th Army Corps, the whole of the Cavalry Division of Skobeleff, the whole Cavalry Divisions of the 8th and 12th Corps, and probably the 13th Corps, to stand in reserve near the Danube, while the column pushes on over Tirnova. One hundred thousand men at the lowest computation will march in this column, practically an irresistible force. Kicopolis yesterday was laid in ashes. It is reported that an attempt was made at Turna simultaneously with that at Sistova, but I believe that the real attempt there was to be made last night by the 31st Division of the 9th Corps. The Grand OCCUPATION OF SISTOVA. 199 Duke Nicholas and Greneral Kepokoitcliitskj liave received the Grand Cordon and Cross of St. George from the Emperor. "* SiMNiTZA, June 2^tli, — I take up my narrative of the crossing operations at the time when my telegram of the 27th was despatched. During the whole afternoon, evening, and night, the troops kept crossing as quickly as circumstances would permit. The number of boats was augmented in the course of the day to about three hundred. General DragomirofE followed up the retiring Turkish infantry, who fell back in the direction of Rustchuk. Their rear maintained a desultory skirmish till the summit of the heights was reached, and then they ran for it, pursued for a short distance by the Russians, both infantry and Cossacks, the latter being in but scanty numbers. Just as night fell General Dragomiroff brought up a battery of horse artillery in pursuit, which kept up a brisk fire for some little time. Since then perfect quietude has reigned. The great camp of the Russian troops is now on the plateau behind the sky-line of the heights. Up to the present time the following is the strength now across the Danube — three infantry divisions, the 8th, 14th, and 35th ; the artillery of two divisions ; one brigade of riflemen ; two regiments of Cossacks, and miscellaneous detachments. Sistova was occupied on the afternoon of the 27th. A detach- ment of Cossacks wound up the glen of Jerkir-Dere, at the mouth of which was the landing-place. It then inclined to the right, scouting along the footpaths, among the fields and gardens, poking its way cautiously along. The strongest -detachment crept cautiously westward on Sistova. The leading files first peered into the shattered earthworks, where two dismounted field guns were found, and then gradually felt their way into the town, peering round the corners of the streets, and patrolling onward by twos And threes, until, with infinite patient circumspection, -they had gone through the whole place. Some few houses which presented a suspicious aspect were entered. Sistova was found to be evacuated; scarcely any Turks were left, l^o cruelties had been perpe- trated by the troops before withdrawing. The conduct of the Cossacks was most exemplary. JN'o attempt was made at pillaging. Presently smoke began to rise from their little encampments in the gardens of the town, and they formed another camp on the slope over against Sistova. Some infantry followed the Cossacks into Sistova, but it remains with few troops quartered there. An infantry regiment is camped about midway between the town and the landing- cove to guard the Turkish end of the bridge which is being 200 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. constructed further up the stream than the crossing-point of boats. Yesterday about noon the proceedings of the crossing were temporarily interrupted by the sudden appearance of a monitor steaming sloAvly up the stream. It appears that she worked her way out through the lower end of the channel behind the island of Yardim, and had run the risk of torpedoes. Puffs of smoke rose from the Russian field battery^ opposite the western end of that island, and more distant reports betokened the return fire of the monitor. She passed the battery, taking its fire in so doing. This lasted about an hour and a half. There was a general rush back from the- water's edge of the pontoon w^aggons. The infantry waiting to cross fell back for cover into the willows. The columns- leaving Simnitza reversed their march, and there was some- thing like a stampede of the baggage waggons. The bridge had already been begun, and it was felt that the monitor might do infinite harm. Her smoke drew^ nearer as sha slowly steamed up the stream until at length she was in the- same reach as the crossing place. There she stopped, and there she supinely waited for nearly two hours, neither moving nor firing a shot. The Russians made no attempt to dislodge her, so far as w^as apparent, but she inexplicably withdrew of her own accord, steaming away slowly down the river. All this arrested the crossing, the boats huddling up against either bank, and the construction of the bridge was also delayed, but it is just being finished as I w^rite. The Emperor, with the Czarewitch, arrived yesterday morning, at eleven o'clock. His Majesty immediately visited the- wounded, who number about 400, some in tents, some in houses. They are to be sent back by the Giurgevo and Bucharest Railway. At Fratesti two fully fitted-up sanitary^ trains are waiting,--one from Dresden, the other from Moscow,, under the charge of the Countess Orloff and a staff of trained lady nurses. The hospitals here are under the direction of Prince Tolstoi, w^orking under Prince Tcherkasky, the head of the Red Cross organization. Several of the wounded died yesterday and to-day. In the afternoon the Emperor crossed the Danube, and went round the troops on Turkish soil^ where he was received with tremendous enthusiasm. He visited Sistova, and returned at seven. He was urgent for the speedy completion of the bridge, and inspected the pro- gress of construction both going and returning. In the evening he sent an aide-de-camp round the hospitals to dis^ tribute thirty crosses of St. George to the most valiant of the wounded. The Imperial head-quarters are in the chateau THE CZAR IN BULGARIA. 201 of the boyard of Simnitza, on the right of the town, and directly opposite Sistova. General Dragomiroff, who dis- played skill and courage in no ordinary degree, will receive special distinction. The eminent Russian painter Yerestchagine, who was reported killed at Parapan, has only received a severe flesh wound^ and is in the hospital at Fratesti. We are starving in Simnitza, but the Russian troops on this side are regularly rationed. Those crossing carried food for three days. A Cossack raid against the Bashi-Bazouks is said to be im- pending. Some particulars respecting the visit of the Emperor to the- trans-Danubian position may be interesting. He found the 9th Division on the left, the Rifle Brigade in the centre, tho 8th Division to the right, and the 35th Division in reserve. He embraced General Dragomiroff, hailed him as the hero of the crossing, an honour shared by Yolchine and youngs Skobeleff, and gave him the 3rd Class Cross of St. George,, the highest honour a division general can obtain. The Brigade Yolchine, as the first to cross, lined the Emperor's road into Sistova, and he addressed his valiant soldiers with a thankful greeting and warm praises of their valour. A Bulgarian priest received him at the entrance with a cross,, and with bread and salt. The Czar kissed the cross, and tasted the bread and salt. He then went straight to th& Bulgarian church, the Bulgarian women and children of Sistova strewing his path with flowers, and in the sacred edifice listened to a Te Deum and took the Sacrament. Much satisfaction is expressed at the pure Russian-hood of the Commanders of the crossing operations. General Radetsky, Prince Mirsky, and General Dragomiroff are of pure Rus- sian birth. No crossing at Turna Magurelle was actually attempted, the resistance expected rendering the attempt unadvisable, but the plan obviously included the alternative. At Turna there was concentrated the same force as at Simnitza, one army corps and a half, and the Emperor, the- Grand Duke, and the staff, were in the former neighbour^ hood. The weather is terribly hot. Midnight. — I learn that a report has just arrived to the effect that a Turkish army has left Rustchuk, and is on its march towards Sistova, the position of the Russians. Prince Mirsky's division, which is on the flank next to Rustchuk, is. intrenching itself as a precautionary measure, but it is the purpose and policy of the Russians to take the offensive- and play out the bold game already begun by crossing the river 202 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. midway between two armies, neither distant more than a long day's march. t TuRNA Magurelle, June 29th. — I^o crossing has taken place here, and probably none will take place. I always thought that the real attempt would not be made here. The report was so persistently spread that it mnst have come to the knowledge of the Turks, who concentrated a large number of troops at this point. The Russians, learning this, chose another way, made a serious demonstration against Turna, which they would have changed into a real attack had a fair chance of success offered, and up to the last moment it was, I believe, uncertain which point would be the real crossing — Simnitza or Turna Magurelle. The Emperor and his staff and the Grand Duke and his staff came here — a fact which soon became know^n to the Turks, who took it, together with other indications — the building of a bridge; collecting a great number of boats, &c. — as evidence that this would be the real point; but the Russian forces had been so placed in the villages in the neighbourhood that they could with equal ease fall upon Simnitza or Turna Magurelle. Before the astonished Turks could concentrate, the Russians had effected a landing at Sistova, and secured the passage. The Russians built a bridge here, as at Braila and Griurgevo. They had besides collected a large number of boats above the town at the mouth of the Aluta, and as there was a spot very favourable for passing by boats the feint w^ould have been turned into a real attempt had it not been discovered that the Turks had already concentrated 30,000 men at this point, thereby neces- sarily weakening Sistova. The Russian plan of action was this — to make a number of feints at crossing with sufficient material and number of men to turn each one of these feints into a real crossing should occasion offer. This forced the Turks to divide their forces to cover the whole line of the Danube, thereby rendering it weak at every point. They never really meant to cross in more than tw^o or perhaps three places. The construction of the bridge was of very much the same kind of work as at Braila, w^ith the exception that the trestle-work and road were con- structed on the Roumanian side instead of on the Turkish. The materials for the bridge were collected, and on Wednesday night, at the same time as the passage at Simnitza, a demon- stration was made w^hich turned out to be only a demonstration, but it had all the appearance of a real attack. Hurrying from Braila, where I witnessed the passage, I arrived at Turna Magurelle about ten* o'clock at night, and a strange terrible THE FEINT AT TURNA MAGURELLE. 203 Spectacle met my view as I came in sight of tlie town. When I began to descend into the valley of the Danube the first thing I perceived was the red flame of burning houses on the opposite shore at Nicopolis, of which there were several standing in a row, each looking in the distance like an angry burning coal, while there hung over the town of Turna what first appeared to be a monster comet with its head on the horizon, and its tail reaching to the zenith, extending across the sky in a broad flashy white light. It was an electric light employed by the Russians, or which was to have been employed by them, to light the other shore, show the positions of the Turks, and thus enable the Russian fire protecting the passage to be properly directed. Its pure white light formed a strange contrast with the red glare of the burning houses. As we approached the town the roar of artillery and the boom of guns became more audible, until the whole valley of the Danube rang and echoed with the contending fire of the Russians and Turks. The hills on the Turkish side seemed to possess peculiar acoustic properties, for I observed that each report there seemed to be repeated a hundred times, growing in volume for several seconds, until even the report of small cannon produced an effect greater than the heaviest battery would under ordinary circumstances. My first im- pression on hearing this continuous roar, which seemed to be beyond the hills on the other side of the Danube, was that the Russians had already got across, and that a battle was going on on the other side of the river. It was not for some time that I perceived the real cause of this fearful uproar. The noise would have been deafening enough without this multiplication. The Russians were firing from three bat- teries above the town, composed two of mortars and one of heavy breech-loading 24-pounders. The Turks answered with might and main, supposing they were preventing the passage, while this passage was being quietly effected at Simnitza with scarcely more difficulty than at Braila. I believe some attempt was made to throw across a bridge to the right in front of Nicopolis, which bridge the Turks promptly destroyed. A move also was made above the town, as if to cross in number in the boats collected there. The €orps marched down to the river-side. I myself was for the moment convinced that a crossing was really to be attempted. At twelve o'clock four batteries drove down to the road already made opposite Nicopolis, a considerable amount of infantry having preceded them earlier in the evening, and I thought a great effort was about to be made. But all resulted in nothing. The Turks showed in such force on the opposite 204 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. side, and were evidently so well prepared there, tliat tiie risk was deemed too great, too serious a sacrifice of life being required to effect a passage. It was decided to w^ait tlie result of tlie affair at Simnitza. Tliat liaving proved successful, tlie 9tli Corps lias received orders to marcli from this place to Simnitza, only a few troops remaining here to protect the positions and batteries. It is said that a real attempt will be made to effect a passage to-morrow night ; but I do not believe it. The passage once secured at Simnitza, there is no neces- sity for another one here. Sistova is, in fact, an excellent point, as a road leads directly to the Tirnova Pass in the Balkans. The boats from the mouth of the river Aluta being floated down stream, under the Turkish guns, to Simnitza, to assist in the crossing there, the Turks fire upon them inces- santly, but the great part succeed in getting through. t TuRNA Magurelle, June SOth. — A most interesting affair occurred on the Danube here during the operations attending the passage of the Danube — a fight between a Turkish monitor and four Russian torpedo boats. It was somewhere near the mouth of the Aluta. This monitor had been giving the Russians a good deal of trouble, and showed an amount of activity and energy very unusual with the Turks, continually shelling the Russian batteries, and destroying the boats. The Russians accordingly determined to destroy it. Four torpedo boats were prepared, and sent against the monitor. Hiding behind an island, they laid in wait, and when the vessel was steaming past suddenly darted out from their hiding-place, and bore downi on her in broad daylight. This- monitor, it soon became evident, was handled and commanded in a very different manner from others with Avhich the Russians have had to deal here. With wonderful quickness and skill she was prepared for action, and, nothing daunted by the fate of others, made a successful defence against her four terrible enemies, a defence of which the Russians speak with the greatest admiration. Her commander began by like- wise thrusting out torpedoes on the end of long spars, thus threatening the boats with the danger of being blown into the air first, at the same time opening a terrible fire on them with small arms and mitrailleuse. He besides mancBuvred his- boat in a most skilful manner, with a dexterity and address which, with the torpedoes protecting, made it impossible for the Russian boats to approach sufficiently near. He besides tried to run them down, and very nearly succeeded in doing so. The reason soon became evident. The commander was a European, and, as the Russians believe, an Englishman, GALLANT FIGHT WITH TORPEDO BOATS. 205 who directed the movements from the deck. He w^as plainly visible all the time, and was a tall man, with a long blonde beard parted in the middle. He stood with his hands in his pockets, giving orders in the calmest manner possible. The torpedo boats continued their attempts for more than an hour, flitting round the monitor and seeking the opportunity to get at her, but without success. The monitor was equally active in trying to run them down, avoiding a collision by quick and skilful movements, backing and advancing, turning, and ploughing the water into foam as she pursued or avoided her tiny but dangerous adversaries — a lion attacked by rats. At one moment one launch, in rapid manoeuvres, found itself between the monitor and the shore, with no great distance between them. The monitor's head was in the other direction, but her commander instantly began backing her down on the torpedo boat, with the intention of crushing it against the bank. Just at this moment the engineer of the launch was wounded. There was some confusion and delay in starting the engines, while the current carried her head aground in such a position as to render escape impossible. One of the crew sprang out into the water and pushed from the ground, while another started the engines just in time for her to escape, but the shave was very close. One Russian officer sprang ashore, and seeing the captain of the monitor coolly standing on the deck with his hands in his pockets, emptied his revolver at him, three shots, at a distance of not more than forty feet. The captain of the monitor, in answer, took off his hat and bowed, not having received even a scratch. Later, however, the gallant fellow seems to have been killed or wounded, for he suddenly disappeared from the] deck. The monitor im- mediately afterwards retired precipitately from the scene of action. Since that time she has kept out of the way like the others. The Russians suppose that she i& no longer commanded by the same man. The fight was conducted with wonderful skill on both sides. The Russian boats were commanded by Lieu- tenant Niloff , and the attack was a most daring and tenacious one. His loss was only four or five wounded, in spite of the incessant fire of the small arms and mitrailleuse which poured into them. This shows how well-handled the boats were. They were, however, considerably damaged by the mitrailleuse fire, ^o attempt was made by the commander to use his guns, he evidently believing it impossible to hit such a small and rapidly moving object as a steam launch. That the boats should have suffered so little loss in one hour's fight shows how difficult it is to hit these launches. They were, I believe, # 206 WAR COERESPONDENCE. fitted out in the" same manner as those whicli blew up the monitor at Braila, but tbis attempt, as well as tbe one at Giurgevo, was made in broad dayligbt, neither of which suc- ceeded. This monitor has since been surrounded hj torpedoes, so that it is believed she fcannot escape. All the monitors now on the Danube are surrounded by torpedoes. It is believed that those at Nicopolis have been abandoned by the Turks, as no sign of life has been seen on them for two or three days. SiMNiTZA, June 30^^.— Since my last despatch little of interest has occurred, although nothing has interfered with the work of the bridge, not yet completed. If three days are required to construct a bridge interrupted by no opposition, it may fairly be asked what would have been the Russian chances of crossing in face of a respectable resistance ? I must ow^n to much disappointment at the Russian tactics and methods of procedure since the morning of the crossing. That operation was indeed conducted with skill, but it was an imperative duty at all cost to keep sight of the retreating eneiny, to ascertain their line of retreat, to liearn whether they were receiving reinforcements, and what were the indications of their line of action. This course does not appear to have been pursued, and it is only to-day that young Skobeleff with a sotnia of Cossacks has gone on a scouting expedition to gather intelli- gence of the whereabouts of the Turks. This tardiness is all the more injudicious w^h6n it is remembered that the force now across the river has opposition on either flank, Hustchuk and Nicopolis. An advatice is rendered precarious by the con- sequent threatening of communications, and in the absence of a completed bridge there is no line of retreat save by the hazard- ous recourse to boats. It is possible to despise an enemy too much. The minor arrangements, too, of the Russians are somewhat faulty. Access from Simnitza to the place of em- barkation was and still is by a difficult track, which is not a road, down the bluff, over a single pontoon bridge, and by a tortuous sandy path through swamps and shallow patches of inundation on the flats. No attempt has been made to better these imperfect communications. The Grermans would not have occupied a similar position for twenty-four hours without cutting half a dozen practicable roads down the face of the bluff, throwing at least two bridges over the branch of the stream, and making a good straight and firm track across the flats. They would have thrown up and fortified a bridge-head ^n the farther side. Their Uhlans would be within view of Rustchuk on the one side and Kicopolis on the other ; their mass would have been on its march toward whatever objective RUSSIAN OMISSIONS AND DELAYS. 207 points miglit have been decided, instead of coquetting witli time at a season of tlie year when every hour is valuable, if the campaign is to be triumphantly ended before the winter. The Germans would not have taken three days to build a bridge, the appliances for which were all prepared and at hand. Their troops on the other side would not be living from hand to mouth, so that a general's dinner has to be sent to him from his baggage waggon on this side. The Germans by this time would have accumulated in Sistova a depot of provisions and ammunition, and surrounded this virtual base with a cordon of fortified redoubts. To desist from comparisons, it may be said that in the Russian camps the sanitary arrangements are conspicuous by their absence. The atmosphere of this place is already poisonous. This neglect in a mere marching column might matter little, but when it is remembered that Simnitza, until Rustchuk falls, must be the leading point on the line of communications, that troops must succeed troops in the same camps here, and that a large resident staff must constantly occupy the place during the summer heat, to disregard rudimentary cleanliness is simply to tempt Providence. The water supply of Simnitza is abominable. The wells are sucked nearly dry, and the men are drinking now semi-fluid mud, but there are neither filters nor Abyssinian tube wells in the army. I have never seen a finer army, but the very fineness of it adds point to comment which candid criticism enforces. It is said that the interior of Bulgaria has been explored to a distance of 20 miles with a very trivial pretence at resistance, but I doubt the distance. Skobeleff's division of Cossacks, who ere now should have overrun a wide semicircle, are still on this side, except a com- parative handful. The division is to be broken up into detach- ments, which are respectively to be entrusted to the command of officers illustrious for rank rather than military experience. The Czarewitch will have one ; Prince Eugene of Leuchten- berg, who saw some fighting in Khiva, another ; the Grand Duke Nicholas the younger, probably a third. An attempt to swim a detachment of Cossacks across the Danube resulted disastrously, and recourse must be had to a more certain method of crossing. Official returns give the number of the dead at 240, and of the wounded at 410, on Wednesday, very close to my hurried reckoning on the ground. The crossing of the Danube in 1827 cost 12,000 men ! in 1853 it cost 15,000 men ! a significant comment on the resisting capacity of the Turks. Evening. — I have just learned that a detachment of Turkish infantry from Nicopolis has approached within six versts of 208 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Sistova, and lias tliere intrenclied itself ; but the move- ment is regarded as a diversion to distract the attention of the Russians from a supposed march of the Nicopolis force on Rustchuk by a circuitous route, penetrating into the interior. The Grand Duke Nicholas has to-day crossed the river to make arrangements for the extension of the E/Ussian rayons. * Sistova, Juhj 1st. — This morning the Grand Duke Nicholas, with General Nepokoitchitsky and a portion of the staff, crossed the Danube on a visit of inspection of the troops. Where the bridge is made the river is divided into two nearly equal parts by a long island covered with low-growing trees. Prom the Roumanian bank to the island the bridge is finished, and the Grand Duke used it. The bridge is fairly made, partly of iron, partly of wooden pontoons. Five entire pontoon trains were used for the construction of this portion only. The reason of the delay is the high wind of yesterday and the previous day, when five of the pontoons broke loose and were lost. The freeboard of the iron pontoons was found to be too low, and the water entered them. The portion of the bridge over the Turkish arm of the river is not yet finished, and the Grand Duke crossed this branch in a boat. Communications from the water- side on the Turkish bank are extremely difficult, and the work of improving them is extremely tardy. The Grand Duke rode into Sistova, where are the headquarters of the 8th Corps, General Radetsky, and of the 14th Division, General Dragomiroff. Picking up these officers, his Imperial Highness rode out several miles to the camps of the 14th and 35th Divisions, south-west from Sistova, and thence rode on some distance into the interior, now overrun by the Cos- sacks. His Highness reached a point where a splendid view of the Balkan slopes was obtained, and returning through Sistova visited the battery on its eastern edge, whence the Turks so obstinately maintained their fire. The number of shell-holes in and about it proved how searching was the fire of the Russian batteries. The Grand Duke did not visit the headquarters of the 9th Division, Prince Mirsky, which are at Yardim, about seven versts due east from Sistova on the Rustchuk road. It is reported that the Cossacks are far into the interior, and I have been told they have already reached near Timova without seeing a Turkish soldier. General Skobeleff, junior, has returned from his reconnaissance. Sistova is a charmingly situated little town of some eight thou- sand inhabitants, of whom the Bulgarians say one-half were Turks. Probably this is an exaggeration. Most of the houses SISTOVA. 209 are embowered in gardens. Tlie ground on whicli the town stands is separated by abrupt ravines, whicli cut tb.e place into several sections. Tbe town standing on tbe slope is very- clean. Its tortuous and narrow streets are bardlj worthy of the name. The business part of the town is on a little flat by the edge of the Danube, where are the warehouses and build- ings of the Danube Navigation Company. Business is almost exclusively in the hands of the Bulgarians. The doors, and shutters of all their houses are marked with crosses of chalk, and over the portals of some are decorations of flowers and leaves. They afford a contrast to the houses inhabited by the Turkish population. Those Turks who had not previously left, fled on the night between Tuesday and "Wednesday, a clear indication that the place and date of crossing were no secret to the Turks, and this knowledge makes all the more contemptible the Turkish dispositions to resist the crossing, the feebleness of which might have been excusable had the operation been a surprise, but which was unaccountably miser- able as an outcome of foreknowledge. Between the period of the flight of the Turks and the entry of the Russian troops the Bulgarians sacked and wrecked the Turkish houses with- out a single exception. The pillage and destruction are as sweeping and universal as if the place had been sacked by a victorious army after storming. There is not a whole pane of glass in the window of any Turkish house in all Sistova. The wrecked interiors present an indescribable chaos of des- truction. Cupboards are smashed, floors torn up, shelves torn down, stoves broken, in search of secreted money. The floors are strewn with miscellaneous debris and torn books printed in curious characters. Judging from the number of these in the better houses, the wealthier Turks of Sistova seem to have been a reading people. The furniture was broken in sheer wantonness, and the plaster shattered. The divans were broken up ; in fine, the ruin is thorjough and universal so far as the interiors of the houses are concerned. Nor has the destruction been confined to the habitations. There are eight mosques in Sistova, and all are wrecked. Their interiors are scenes of indescribable destruction. The very railings are broken into small pieces, as if in the keen zest and gloating enjoyment of laying waste. But they have not been defiled in the foul manner I have seen the Christian churches in Servia defiled by Turkish invaders. The few Turkish shops and stores in Sistova have been pillaged of everything valu- able, and the fixtures of the interiors have been smashed into fragments and splinters. Nothing Turkish in the place has escaped wreck, and the aspect of uninjured dwellings inter- 210 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. mingled with, others reduced to the extremity of dilapidation is strange and significant. It shonld be stated that no w^hit of this pillage and destruction lies at the door of the Russian soldiery. Their conduct has been exemplary in the highest degree. In the heat of fighting they gave quarter and took prisoners in the true spirit of civilized warfare. They protected the prisoners from the con- tumely of the rabble of Sistova. On entering the place they at once directed their efforts to stop the wreckage ; but the Bulgarians had made the best use of their time, and desisted the readier because there was nothing more left to destroy. Still in quiet corners the Bulgarian youths of Sistova are slaying the slain. To-day I chanced on an outlying Turkish house, directed thereto by the crash of splintering timber, and '< found a gang of lads breaking up the doors and shutters with eager zeal. I have seen heaps of Turkish, plunder in Bul- garian houses, but the Russian soldiers are wholly free from the stain. The Bulgarians have discarded red fezzes and taken to wearing white ones, wearing also white armlets, with a cross of gold-leaf fastened on them. They are naturally on the best terms with the Russian soldiers, and the Bulgarian and Russian languages are so near akin that they understand each other w^ell enough. The Turks of Sistova, to judge by the wrecks of their residences, appear to have been a thriving people in a lazy, easy-going way. The Bulgarians show few indications of having been materially oppressed, or perhaps have thriven wonderfully on oppression. Many of their houses are large and handsome. Paris fashions are not unknowTi to, or unstudied by, the Bul- garian ladies, whose beauty in many cases is as remarkable as their intelligence. The Konak of Sistova is a ramshackle structure, with a ruined harem behind over a stable. It is being swept and garnished for the occupation of the Russian local administrative functionaries. Prince Tcherkassky will presently cross the river, and commence the work of re- organization which has been entrusted to his able hands. There was no conflict between the departing Turks and the Bulgarians. The former, as the Bulgarians aver, tried hard to persuade the latter also to quit the place. Even the Turkish women resorted to unwonted blandishments to this end, but in vain. There is a story of two Turkish women having de- fended their houses against marauding Bulgarians, and having been found with muskets in their hands, but I cannot trace it to a reliable source. The Bulgarians assert that the Turks are committing atrocities in the interior as they retire, in which case Sistova is to be congratulated on its happy and THE CIRCASSIAN COSSACKS. 211 certainly thorougli escape. Sistova flows with, milk and lionej in comparison with Simnitza, wliere the people in the hotel are living on dry bread and bad water, and where a Mrs. Seacole is very badly wanted. With the completion of the bridge, supplies will stream across for the Russian army, and then doubtless the advance will at once begin. The flats are now black with waggons waiting to cross. Meanwhile the ofii- cers of the troops on the Turkish side have been pinched for supplies, having parted company from their stores. A general to-day sent across the Danube the modest request for a box of sardines and a clean shirt. The weather is fine, and a cool wind tempers the heat. * Simnitza, July 2nd. — Eearrangements are in progress here prior to the general advance. An advanced division, to cover the front and lead the way, is being formed, under the com- mand of General Gourko, who has not yet arrived. It will consist of a brigade of riflemen, the Bulgarian legion, and four cavalry brigades, made up of divisions formerly commanded by Prince Manueloff and General Skobeleff, senior, who have been attached to the Grand Duke's headquarters. The first cavalry brigade, consisting of dragoons, will be commanded by Prince Eugene of Leuchtenberg ; the second brigade, of two regiments of Don Cossacks, commanded by General Cherkasof, himself a Cossack ; the third brigade, of Circas- sian Cossacks, commanded by Colonel Tutolmin ; the fourth brigade, of a regiment of Don Cossacks and a regiment of hussars, commanded by Duke IN'icholas of Leuchtenberg, chief of stafl: to General Gourko. These brigades are now crossing the Danube. To-day the Emperor visited the camp of the Circassian Cossacks. These troops, whether in camp or on the march, are the most picturesque in the army. Each sotnia, or squadron, has a large banner, variously emblazoned. All wear long black frocks, or tcherkesskas, for the sake of uniformity ; but each regiment wears a different coloured silk under-frock, to which corresponds the colour of the top of the fur cap. In warm weather they habitually discard their black tcherkesskas. The effect of the varied bright colours is very picturesque. The Osetiny Cossacks, of which there are two squadrons, are the only Mussulmans now remaining with the Russian army of the Danube. Their banner is green. Originally they wore whatever colours they chose ; now all wear a black tcherkesska to distinguish them from the Turkish Circassians. They inhabit the uplands of Cis- Caucasia. No Circassian Cossacks in the Russian army carry lances. Their arms are p 2 212 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. a sword, dagger, and carbine. Should Circassian meet Cir- cassian in tlie Balkans, the contest will have special interest. The Russian Circassians will have the benefit of discipline and better arms, without, to all appearance, having sacrificed dash. The Russian regulars, with the recollection of the long struggle in the Caucasus against the indomitable Cir- cassians, evince some nervousness at the prospect of their being found guarding the Balkan passes. The better classes of the Bulgarians of Sistova profess shame and sorrow for the pillage and wreck of the Turkish houses of the place, and blame the Wallachs and gipsies, inhabiting the poorest quarter of the town, for most of the mischief. They plead in excuse the hatred following four centuries of ruthless oppression, and say that the wrecking was first com-^ menced without any felonious intent. The pillage came afterwards. Steps are being taken to palliate the stigma. Yesterday in the churches an edict was read that all stolen property should be given into the hands of the police for eventual restitution to the owners. A committee has been formed, on which, by the w^ay, are two women as experts, for the identification of the Turkish property and its complete restoration ; and penal enactments are promulgated against all persons retaining it. A difficulty wall probably present itself in inducing the Turks to return and claim their effects. It is^ believed that many of the Sistova Turks are still lingering in a village some twenty miles distant, and a deputation is being sent thither to beg them to return and resume their habita- tions on assurances of being unmolested, and having their property restored. This is not enough. Compensation should be forthcoming for the damage done to the houses. It is extremely problematical whether the Turks will return to dwell amid circumstances so altered, and perhaps the best thing would be to afford facilities to them for the most advan- tageous disposal of their effects and holdings. That the Turks deliberately meditated flight is proved by the fact that for many days before the blow fell, several hundred carts were in readiness to remove their families and movable effects. The Bulgarians say that had the Turks remained neither they nor their property would have suffered damage. Some colour to this assertion is given by the fact that the Turkish Cadi and his brother did remain, and were unmolested. The old gentleman was a popular man, and had exerted himself to protect the Christian refugees from recent massacres. He and his brother are free to walk about the town with a soldier in attendance, and it is hoped their influence may have the effect of reassuring their countrymen. The Bulgarians of BREAKING OF THE RUSSIAN BRIDGE. 213 Sistova, in their penitence, express an eager liope that their example will not be followed in other towns nnder similar conditions, and profess an intention of notifying to their countrymen the wisdom of abstaining from lawless violence. It is impossible, however, not to apprehend that the occur- rences at Sistova will be productive of evil, and afford a handle to the Turks for excesses prior to evacuation. Colonel Wellesley has at length joined the army. He arrived to-day at the headquarters of the Emperor, to which he is attached, previous circumstances having too far strained re- • lations to admit pleasantly of his joining the headquarters of the Grand Duke Nicholas. The whole of the Imperial equi- page left behind by the Emperor at Ployesti in his recent rapid movements arrived here this evening. Its extent may be judged from the fact that the Emperor ordered sixty new carriages for the campaign. The bridge across the Danube was completed last night. Since then troops and vehicles have been passing in a continuous stream. i* SiMNiTZA, July bth. — The army is moving steadily across the river without intermission. Horses, ambulances, fourgons, caissons, infantry baggage waggons, are pouring down across the flats day and night, raising clouds of dust and making Simnitza scarcely habitable. The great number of cavalry accompanying the army, necessitating the transport of enor- mous quantities of forage, makes the train immense. The bridge, which is already spoken of as weak, does not seem equal to the strain. It has already given way twice, causing ^ delay of a few hours. I believe it is scarcely strong enough for the passage of the siege train without considerable strengthening. The Russian advance is about half-way to "Tirnova, which the Turks seem to have abandoned and re- occupied. The report that the Russians have already occupied 'Tirnova is without foundation. It is impossible to push so far without cavalry. The Russians will not be there for some days. The Grrand Dake Nicholas and Colonel Wellesley are now on excellent terms. Everybody here is treated in the most cordial manner by the Emperor. It is said here that his Majesty in conversation with Colonel Wellesley again touched •on the political situation, and reiterated his promises with regard to Constantinople made in conversation with Lord Aue^ustus Loftus. 214 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. LI v> a A i. i f jv i:i;> i i ^ ok I! CHAPTER IX. THE ADVANCE INTO BULGARIA. Order of the Advance — Negligent Outpost Service — Sarejar Pavlo — Plundering at Bjela — -Thk Simnitza Bridge — From the Danube to the Jantra — Bjela and its Bridge — A Cross-Country Ride— Misbehaviour of Russian Soldiers — Cli- mate of Bulgaria — Riches of the Country — Forbearance of the Turks. Sareyica, Jidy 7th. — The army is not all over the river yet. The bridge is continually giving way. The 9th Corps only crossed to-day. General Dragomiroff, with the 14th Division of the 8th Corps, is at Sistova, but he moves to-morrow. General Mirsky, of the 9th Division of the 8th Corps, is ai Vardim. He moves in this direction to-morrow. The 5th Division of the 9th Corps marched through Sistova to-day towards Nicopolis or Plevna. There are indications that this corps, which, with the eighth, forms the army of the Grand Duke ^Nicholas, will march to Plevna, and thence to Loftcha,, reaching that place about the same time as the eighth reaches Tirnova. The 35th Division is already at Batak, on the road to Tirnova. The advance guard of the cavalry is along the river Rusitza ; the right wing is at MadregOy the left at Dragonova. The Turks still hold Nicopolis^ but the Russians will probably take it with the 9th Corps before crossing the Balkans. It seems impossible to leave it untaken in the rear, especially as one column seems destined to march by Plevna. There will be a few shots between the advance posts, but probably no serious fightings for a few days. The Grand Duke, with his staff, arrived this, afternoon, but the baggage did not come till late at night,, because the Grand Duke would not stop the passage of the troops that the baggage might pass. There were no cooking utensils and nothing to eat, and the whole party, including the Grand Duke himself, began cooking shashliks, or bits of mutton held on sticks over the fire. The Grand Duke enjoys roughing it. He is a true soldier. Carevica is a delightful place. The water is excellent. The health of the troops remains excellent. The cavalry finds plenty of hay and grass. The Turks in some places seem disposed to take the proclama- tion of the Emperor in good faith. At Batak, for instance^ nearly the whole population, which is Turkish, remains at home unmolested. The Emperor remains at Simnitza, but ADVANCE TO BJELA. 215 will probably not stay there long. Colonel Wellesley accom- panies bim. Their relations are most friendly. The Emperor treats him with the greatest distinction and consideration. . It is not true that the Emperor ever informed Lord A. Loftns that if another officer but Colonel Wellesley were sent he would invite him to accompany the army. The Emperor did invite Colonel Wellesley in the most cordial terms. * Bjela, July htli. — Bjela, pronounced Biela, is a little strag- gling Turko-Bulgarian town on the river Jantra, about twenty miles south of the Danube, on the main road from Rustchuk to Tirnova, and nearly equidistant from Sistova and Rustchuk. It wal occupied by a brigade of Russian cavalry this after- noon, and I think the narrative of the occupation may have - some interest for the reader. I must begin a little way back. I telegraphed yesterday to the Daily News nominally from Sarejar ; the message was written there, some ten miles in- land from Sistova, but I had to bring it myself across the Danube to Simnitza. Returning, I accompanied part of the way to Sarevica General Yannovsky, who commands the 12th Corps, and his headquarter staff. He was about to establish his headquarters for the night in Sarevica. I only hope he found cover somewhere. There was but one edifice in the village with any claims to the appellation of house, and that was already occupied by General Radetsky, commanding the 8th Corps, which remains in position, it appears, for the time, on the Danube, with Dragomiroff's headquarters in Sistova, and Prince Mirsky's in Yardim, so that the 12th Corps will have the jpas of it in the advance. The Russian military authorities are singularly impartial in giving to respective commands the opportunity of distinguish- ing themselves. It is not with them always " The 42nd to the front ! " as was the standing comtnand in Ashantee. The 8th Corps had its innings at the crossing of the river, and now to all appearance other corps, the 12th, the 9th, and the 13th, will have openings to gain renown and earn decorations for their generals. At Sarejar there is, or was last night, encamped the 35th Division, and I am bound to say that it kept by no means a good watch. Outside every village occupied by troops during the Franco- German war, no matter how far from the front, there was always a double post at every exit, who demanded to know the business of every wayfarer not of their own nationality. There was a countersign which was rigorously exacted after sundown, and I have often known instances of German officers being 216 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. prohibited from passing wlio were not in possession of it. I remember being myself prohibited froin appear- ing at a dinner to which. I had been bidden by the chief of an army, since the sentry would not allow me to enter the park gates of the chateau which he occupied because I was not in possession of the watchword. But anybody and everybody passed without challenge or interference along the road which traversed the centre of General Baranoff's camp. It is true that some distance on this road beyond the camp there were a couple of outlying picquets, each with a sentry, but there was no chain of posts round the camp, or even on the side of it next to the unexplored region, which was very near, as the sequel will show, and which might have been swarming with Turkish soldiers. Troops of any energy would certainly have found it no diffi- cult task to surprise this camp ; and even a few men could easily have caused an alarm which would have produced great confusion. The more I see of it, the more do I recog- nize that the Russian army, with its capital soldiers, its excellent equipment, and its thorough soldierly spirit, has m.uch to learn even of the rudiments of the art military. It will readily be understood that I speak in no unkindly spirit, but I cannot conceal from myself, and therefore it is my duty not to conceal from your readers, that a surprising slackness seems to pervade the army in regard to the every- day duties of modern warfare. This was no paltry case of a captain and a couple of companies, where attention to the supreme duty of watchful alertness might be lax without demanding more than a passing comment. It was the camp of a whole division — a mass of men as large as we have been able to put into the field for the summer manoeuvres at Alder- shot, and a spy might have lounged through it without challenge ; the Circassians might have been in its lines before the alarm had been given. I did not wish to linger with the infantry, but to push on to overtake any one of the four brigades of cavalry which, as I have more than once mentioned, had been sent forward to constitute the advance. Only I did not know quite where- abouts any of them were. They were forward, and I could do no better than go forward in search of them. N'ow, Sarejar is on a main road — after a fashion — from Sistova to Timova. The Turkish recipe for a high road is apparently to level a section of ground, strew it with big stones, dig sundry trenches to serve as ruts, and powder the whole pro- fusely with dust. This was the kind of road by which I had come from Sistova to Sarejar, and it ought to have been A LOST CONVOY. 217 the road wliicli I should have followed beyond Sarejar. But I lost it, or rather never found it, and set forth contentedly on a track going left from the direction of this main road at right angles — a track, in other v^^ords, leading due east instead of due south. I did not return from Simnitza till the after- noon, and so it was rather late before we started from Sarejar. In the first mile or two we travelled without company, but presently struck into the trail of a column of waggons pre- ceding us on the same road. Its escort consisted of a mere handful of dragoons, mounted and on foot, and the column as a whole seemed in a very unhappy way. It was the train of Tutolmin's brigade of Circassian Cossacks, and on its way to find and join the brigade ; but where Tutolmin was nobody had the remotest conception. Nor indeed was there any certainty that any force, any f oreposts, any curtain of cavalry was between it and the enemy, or, at all events, the unex- plored territory in which the enemy might be. At the foot of every little swell the waggons halted while the men escort- ing it on foot crept up and peered over the crest. At length, with darkness, this expedient was no more available, and so the convoy took its chance and did its own scouting, with not a few mutterings among the men about the Circassians, of whose prowess they have a mighty high opinion. At length some camp-fires were seen in the dark distance, and about eleven o'clock we found ourselves on the edge of a camp belonging to a regiment of Don Cossacks, forming part of the second brigade of the cavalry division of the 12th Corps. JSTo outlying picquet challenged us, no sentry sang out the com- plicated Russian for " Who goes there ? " the provision column simply formed up and halted for the night without a question from anybody in the Cossack camp. We pitched outside the line of waggons, and then, seeing a light in what was obvi- ously an officer's tent, went to pay our respects to its occupant. I have occasionally been curtly,- never uncivilly, treated by B/Ussian staff officers, in whom the sense of responsibility no doubt had blunted innate courtesy, but from officers of the line I have uniformly experienced the most genial friendliness. The Cossack colonel proved to be an extremely pleasant fellow. He told me that he had one squadron in a hollow on in front, and that with this exception there was nothing Russian between him and Bjela, which he believed some Turks still occupied. We remained overnight in his camp, which was close to the Bulgarian village of Pavlo. In the morning I went into the village, where I found a few inhabitants. The place, like all Bulgarian villages, is divided by a pronounced line of demar- 218 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. cation — on one side the Turkish portion of the village, on the other the Bulgarian. The Turkish side of Pavlo consists of about thirty mean cottages, surrounded by small tobacco gardens. Its inhabitants were Tartars, who, the Bulgarians report, chiefly lived on contributions from them, keeping a few horses on the grass-grown undulating country around, and cultivating but little except tobacco. The Bulgarian side has about a hundred and fifty houses, some of which are farmhouses, whose owners have quite a large stock of cattle and sheep. These had not been driven off by the Tartars, who left about ten days ago, regretting that they had no fire- arms with which to slay a few of the Bulgarians. Most of the latter had emigrated to Sistova when the Russians crossed, to be under their wing, and are only now returning to their homes, in the knowledge that the Russian cavalry has thus far overrun the territory. A convoy of them, men, women, and children, in waggons, came in when I was visit- ing the village, and heartily happy were they to find them- selves again in their homes, and to find that these homes Avere undesolated by the retiring Turks. But when they saw how few were the Russian cavalry, they could not quell the expression of their fears that all was not yet safe, and I believe that one or two waggonloads actually returned. The Cossack colonel had sent back to the division general for orders, which he hoped would instruct him to advance ; and we waited on the chance that this would be so, intending in that case to accompany him. While we lay on the grass waiting, there came down the winding grassy road into the little hollow the dashing array of a regiment of Russian hussars. The front rank men of a Russian hussar regiment all carry lances ; and the pink and yellow lance pennons fluttered gaily in the wdnd. The purple flag at the head of the gallant column denoted that there marched with it a general of brigade. In fact the hussar regiment was the sister regiment of our Don Cossacks, the two making up the second brigade of the cavalry division of the 12th Corps, commanded by Greneral Baron Driezen. The brigade-general was General Stahl von Holstein. After a short talk with our colonel, the hussar regiment moved on, going down into the dip, and then winding up the steep green slope over which passed the country track to Bjela. Here I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the oldest lieutenant I have ever seen on active service. The age of this venerable subaltern is 73, and he does his duty with as much zeal and energy as the youngest of his brother officers. He bears an historic name. It was to his father, General Count Rastapchin, that the 1 A VENERABLE SUBALTERN. 219 burning of Moscow was confided wlien IN'apoleon's legions were nearing the venerable capital. And how thoronghly he fulfilled his sad duty its smouldering ashes but too well testified. The present Count Rastapchin, the sprightly lieu- tenant of 73, is chamberlain to the Emperor, with the relative rank of general; but he has taken service in the Achtirski Regiment of Hussars, in the capacity I have mentioned, considering his military knowledge not compatible with a higher grade, but determined to serve in this veritable crusade. He sits his Cossack horse like a man of thirty, and has not ridden a yard in a carriage since the regiment crossed the Pruth. Yet another column of cavalry came down the slope toward our Cossack camp. This time there were two flags in advance ; one, the brigade purple, the other blue, denoting the presence of the general of division — Baron Driezen. He halted with the Cossacks, while the brigade general, Greneral Arnoldi, went forward. He had invited us to accompany him. The brigade which this worthy old soldier commands consists of the Olden- burg Regiment of Dragoons, the finest dragoon regiment in the Russian service, and the regiment of Belgarski Uhlans ; he had with him only the dragoon regiment, the Uhlans being a short distance behind. With the dragoons he had the divisional artillery, consisting of two horse batteries. The- colonel of the dragoons, who rode with the General, is a very young man, barely thirty, and I was given to understand that Colonel Bilderling owes his early promotion entirely to merit. General Arnoldi had served many years, and had retired from active military employ, but came back in answer to the summons of the war. We rode away up the green slope and over the breezy uplands, where the yellow barley waved ripe in the wind. The General told me that his commission was to occupy the town of Bjela, where it was believed there still remained some Turkish soldiers. The hussar regiment Avas still in front of us, but it was to halt in support at Kosna, while the dragoons and artillery went on against Bjela. The time passed swiftly,, although the pace was slow and the route circuitous, for we were going along two sides of a triangle in order to strike as early as possible the chaussee between Rustchuk and Tirnova, on which Bjela stands. We passed the beautifully situated village of Burunli, lying in a deep grassy hollow, and the Bulgarian inhabitants crowded out with joy in their faces and words of welcome on their lips, carrying brimming pitchers of clear cold spring water, which in the boiling heat was preferable to nectar. Here in a camp, knee deep in 220 WAR CORRESPOJ^DENCE. natural grass, we left two squadrons of tlie hussars, and in lialf an hour more we were on tlie chaussee, and in sight of the swift flowing stream of the Jantra, overhung hj dark umbrage. A patrol galloped out, and cut the wires of the telegraph line running along the chaussee, thereby interrupting telegraphic communication between Rustchuk and Tirnova, J^icopolis, Widdin, and indeed the whole north-western sec- tion of Bulgaria. If General Arnoldi had served in the American war, he might have learned to tap the wires instead of cutting them, and then perchance we might have gained some intelligence, which is wanted badly enough. But in all probability the Turks had abandoned the use of the line before the patrol cut the wires. At the junction with the chaussee we left all the hussars, except the advance guard, which still continued in front of us, and our way lay up the steep slope of a ridge which shut out from us the view beyond. As we topped it, the rich valley of the Jantra, waving with golden barley, lay at our feet, intersected by the sparkling river, and in the mouth of a little cross valley on the other side of the Jantra were the red-tiled roofs of Bjela, half hidden in foliage. But we were not yet in Bjela. It was a smooth slope down through the barley to the river brink from the ridge on which we stood. But beyond the river, flanking Bjela on its proper right, rose the steep marl heights, with abrupt grass -grown slopes beyond, of a position which at once arrested the eye of every trained soldier in the little band. If it were defended the carrying of it must cost dear. On our side, on the gentle slope, there was no greater cover than that afforded by a casual stock of barley. Then the river would have to be crossed — it would be necessary to search for a ford — and then these marl heights must be stormed, for there was no way of turning the position. It was a sight to stir the deepest interest — the loveliness of the scene, the gleaming river with the overshadowing masses of dark verdure above Bjela, the dusky red roofs recessed in the little valley, the golden slopes, the country village of Stirmana across the river on our left, where the marl steeps softened into green slopes — all this delighted the eye of him who looked at it in the spirit of the love of a sweet scene. And then how different the feeling of him who looked at it with a soldier's eye. If there be Turks on that crest opposite, ere it be taken the barley must wave over many a corpse ; the silvery sheen of the Jantra must be dulled wi^li blood ; on the dazzling white marl must be dabbled many a red stain. The umbrage may hold sharpshooters ; the pretty Stirmana may be a network of barricades ; the bridge down there may be mined ; among A WILD BULGARIAN. 221 the red-roofed houses may be masses of infantrymen ; behind these dark objects on the slopes, so like battery emplacements, may be lurking Krnpp cannon. We took a long steady look at it, all standing there on the little conical knoll on the ridge — -a knoll on which a battery had begun to be built evidently not a week before, and a flanking shelter trench dug. General Stahl von Holstein had come on thus far with General Arnoldi, and the two held some talk apart, and then the former went off to have his hussars at hand for support if need should be. And so Arnoldi, taking his place at the head of the column, gave the word to march, and the dragoons began to descend the straight road leading through the barley-fields to the bridge. Till now it seemed to me that the duty of scouting had been very much neglected, looking at the fact that we were marching through a country presumedly hostile, and with an enemy known to be close.. Arnoldi and his staff had constituted the advance guard; there were no flankers, and patrols were not thought of. But now the old soldier pulled himself together ; out on the slopes to right and to left galloped flankers to peer down into the side valleys. A patrol trotted along the road in front. There was a cloud of dust, and three Cossacks came galloping up from the right front. They had poked their way across the river, but neither into the town nor on to the heights. The only information they brought was that some Turks were reported near Bjela, and their only capture was a Turkish pony. Who is this galloping ventre a terre, with a gun carried by the muzzle across his shoulder ? A wild scared Bulgarian, with the intelligence that there are some Turks^ plundering in Stirmana, whence he had come ; he could tell nothing about the heights or about Bjela. Half a dozen Cossacks are sent scouting away to the left toward Stirmana, and I accompany them — all of us led by the wild Bulgarian with the gun over his shoulder. . He shouts and gesticulates, with the maddest energy ; he is in a paroxysm of furious rage and crazy terror, and yet he rides straight enough on his rat of a pony. We sweep down at a hand gallop, riding- straight through the standing barley, and taking the banks and ditches in our stride. We lost no time, as my horse's heaving flanks testified; but the Cossacks were not quick enough for the light-heeled rascals of Bashi-Bazouks. As we dashed into the stream, I just caught sight of a very volu- minous pair of blue unmentionables vanishing round the corner of a house, and that was all. The river turned out too deep to ford, and only one Cossack swam it ; mine respectfully declined. So we went about, and as we were cantering back 222 WAR COERESPONDENCE. a single gun-sliot sounded from above tlie village, as if in mockery. I rode for tlie bridge, and struck tbe cavalry column close to it. It was reported that some Turks were prowling about the heights, but not in force, and the informants could not tell precisely of their whereabouts. Colonel Bilderling and myself rode forward to the bridge to find by the wayside there a company of Bulgarian people who had come out to welcome their deliverers. At their head stood their venerable priest. With streaming eyes the old man tendered the cross for Bin- derling to kiss as we stood there with bared heads in the presence of supreme emotion. Well might the old man weep in the glad agony of joy, and his primitive flock join their tears with his ! I have known on the confines of Servia something of the feeling inspired by Turkish rule, but till now I have never realized how thoroughly a people can become sodden, as it were, with suffering and oppression, till they have come to look upon suffering and oppression as a matter of course — as thmgs inevitable and to be accepted without remonstrance and almost without remark. They are cowards, these crouching Bulgars ; but who shall reproach them for their cowardice ? So terrible has been the crushing weight of the oppression that it has worked in them the saddest degradation that can overtake humanity. It has beaten them down so abjectly that the deepest extremity of cowardice has not found its recoil in the recklessness of despair. Oppression has so crushed them as to falsify the proverb that even a worm will turn. Amidst sobbing and tears and kissing of hands, the attention of the General is not to be distracted from the w^ork he has to do. He draws the back of his hand across his shaggy eyebrows, and the next moment his keen grey eye is scanning the white heights. He gives an order, and we ride across and stand at the feet of them and note how they rise steeply, yet in flaky strata, the crumbling of which gives a foothold to the climber. Suddenly there is heard the quick, steady tramp of armed men on foot marching across the bridge. Whence came they ? 1^0 infantrymen followed our column of dragoons. But there is the gleam of bayonets ! Surely infantrymen must have come up somehow. Listen narrowly a second, and the ear detects through the duller sound of the feet-fall the jingle of spurs. The Russian dragoons are dragoons proper in the original signification of the term, and as, when occasion might offer, they would show that they are heavy cavalry- men of the right stamp, now they w^ere to show that they could act as infantrymen as well as the best foot soldiers who REJOICINGS AT BJELA. 223 ever tramped. The outside men of threes in the first squadron had dismounted, giving over their horses to the centre men. They had drawn their short rifles from their leathern sheaths slung over their backs, and had taken their bayonets from the sheaths fastened on the sword scabbards. Their officers carry rifles like the men, all save the captain ; and a fine, upstanding stalwart set of fellows they look, fit to go anywhere and do anything. Amoldi points at the marl precipice, and they go at the face straight, extending to right and to left in skirmish- ing order as they climb. In splendid training, as hard as nails, and in the flower of agile youth, they climb up the cliff with a speed that winds me, unencumbered though I am with weight of rifle and sword. More follow the foremost. The top of the crag is reached, and we are on the steep green slopes. A moment's halt to get breath, and there is a run at the unfinished battery emplacements, which, to the great dis- appointment of the Russians, are found empty. The skirmish- ing line extends into the brushwood on the sky-line. A few snap shots are fired at skulking fugitives. There is hardly any reply. A prisoner is taken. Then I get tired of amateur skirmishing, and come down the marl cliff again. At the bottom I find the General some distance on the road towards the town, alone as regards his own people, and surrounded by a swarm of Bulgarians, male and female, greeting him with profuse humility of gladness. I do not know how often he has to kiss the cross tendered by different priests. The head of the column comes up, and he wheels it up the road leading towards Rustchuk, and not onward into the town, to the intense unhappiness of the Bulgarians, whose evident belief it is that they are to be left to the tender mercies of the Circassians, who are reported to be hovering on the other side of the town. The General goes on to the heights and detaches small parties in pursuit of the flying Turks, while he camps somewhere within convenient distance of the town. I accompanied him only a short distance, for I wished to see the town and the people before the Russians should enter the place; so, turning back along the chaussee, I reached the bend leading into the town, and followed the road which con- ducted into it. The whole population, to all appearance, accompanied me. They evidently regarded me as a Russian officer of high degree. Encountering a young Bulgarian who spoke French, I disabused them of this conception ; but when I stated that I was a correspondent of the Baily News, they were more effusive than before. I was conducted to the best house in the town and given the best chamber in it, where I was compelled to hold a levee and shake hands with a large 224 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. assortment of the principal inhabitants. Their great fear was that although the Russians had appeared, yet as they had passed without entering the place, a night incursion of the Circassians might still occur. They seemed to have little fear of the Turks proper, but to stand in terrible terror of the Circassians. I confess I did not myself greatly admire the situation, for, although the Russians had passed on one side of the town, the other was quite open, and fringed by woods, in which it w^as averred the Circassians were harbouring. However, I assured the people that the town would presently be full of Russians. I began as the day passed, however, to believe that the heading of this letter — "the occupation of Bjela " — would apply only to your correspondent ; but as tmlight began the clank of sabres was heard in the streets, and Amoldi's dragoons swarmed into the place in the quiet, persistent search for schnapps. They further diverted them- selves by hunting for hiding Turks, breaking open the shutters of suspected houses in these endeavours. Some four or five were thus captured. They were not at all maltreated, but simply conveyed as prisoners to the Konak, to be dealt with as superior authority shall dictate. In Bjela the Sistova example has been little followed. Few Turkish houses have been wrecked or plundered. There were comparatively few Turks in the place ; the great mass of the population is pure Bulgarian. For the present they are a sufficiently abject people, but full of intelligence, and I do not know how to characterize the eagerness of their hospitality. The cavalry of the 12th Division, follow^ed by the infantry, are to pursue the chaussee route on Rustchuk. The cavalry of the four special brigades, the details of which I have already given, have not advanced very far on the road to Tirnova ; some of their camps we saw to-day in the distance. The conduct of the Russian soldiers is most exemplary, but an example is made of the Turkish villages in which resistance has been made to the Russian advance. These are not numerous. One was burnt to-day on the right flank of our advance. It is impossible to understand why the Turks did not at least destroy the bridge over the Jantra. This would have retarded the Russian advance a couple of days. Three days ago the correspondent of a contemporary with the Turks was here from Rustchuk. It is a pity he did not leave a letter behind him ; I should have had great pleasure in forwarding it. * SiMNiTZA, July] 6th. — I believe that there is as yet no postal organization of any kind in the Russian army on the A DANGEROUS RIDE. 225 soutliern side of the Danube. In Roumania nominally there is a Russian post, but I have never known anybody to receive a letter by it. General Arnoldi told me yesterday that lie bad not received a letter from bis wife for four months, while he knows for a certainty she writes every week. A corre- spondent without means of communication is a contradiction in terms. But in this war I foresee that correspondents will have to be couriers as well. It was under this conviction that I started this morning to ride the thirty miles from Bjela back to Simnitza with the above letter and a short telegram. I took a bee-line, holding a course nearer the Danube than the road by which we had travelled to Bjela, and I never saw a Russian soldier between the camp above Bjela and the fields beyond the ridge covering Sistova, where the foragers of the 9th and 14th Divisions were gathering hay for the horses. My route lay over alternate ridge and down into alternate hollow, through a solitude which was only interrupted by two or three villages passed on the way, and by a couple of very truculent gentlemen, who were marauders if not Bashi-Bazouks proper, and who had their quarters in an abandoned shepherd's hut in the throat of one of the loneliest villages. Never before in all my experience of war correspondence have I carried a revolver before this morning, when, as I left Bjela, I borrowed a weapon with which my servant has chosen to encumber himself, and I had some reason to be pleased that I had taken this precaution. One of the villages in my route I rode round, because of the information given me by Bulgarian peasants on its confines that a small party of plundering Circassians were in the place. I gathered that they had made booty of the wine-shop of the village, and owing to circumstances following thereon were not for the moment actively hostile. But the Russian troops sweep through this territory on their way to a given object, and, while they regard nothing to the right or left of their march, leave no posts in their rear to hold the villages and the country they have traversed. !N^ow the glens and some villages hold Bashi-Bazouks, who lie quiet while the great wave passes over them, and start up to do a spell of looting after it has passed. The scoundrels are as protean as were the gentlemen whom it is the conventional duty of myself as a Scottish Highlander to reverence as chivalrous ancestors. When the brigade is passing they are peaceful agriculturists reaping the grain on the hillside — as like as not somebody else's grain, but who is to know? When it is passed, to a couple of stragglers or to a peaceful wayfarer like myself they are extremely dangerous and Q 226 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. unpleasant. I foresee tliat in this war tlie danger to corre- spondents will be in keeping up communications, not in action. * Bjela, July 7th. — When yesterday morning I left this place to ride to Simnitza, wdth the letter which I trust has safely reached you, I left my companion in the comfortable quarters of the town which he had taken up when General Arnoldi's cavalry spread themselves out on the crests of the ridge overhanging the place. In camp on that ridge I also left Arnoldi and his brigade when I rode out of Bjela in the early dawn. I returned to Bjela this morning, to find that during my absence occurrences had taken place the absence of my personal cognizance of which I have reason to regret. Yesterday forenoon Mr. Yilliers went up on to the heights to pay his respects to Greneral Arnoldi, whom he expected to find in his tent in the midst of his men. Instead of this, the Greneral was there indeed, but mounted and on the watchful outlook, his brigade was invisible, and only his outposts stood their ground in the position of the previous night. The G-eneral was not a little troubled. He had expected infantry to have arrived for his support before this time ; the infantry had not come, and in his front the Turks were showing in very formidable force, and threatening an immediate attack. This, with a handful of cavalry, and his flank uncovered, he could not sustain, and he had withdrawn his camp and baggage and the mass of his brigade behind the Jantra River, which we had crossed the day before ; maintaining a sort of attitude of defence on the heights, with a chain of picquets and vedettes, but having no other intention or alternative but to fall back immediately he should be attacked. He had definitely resolved, wdth perhaps an excess of caution, to withdraw altogether behind the Jantra for the night, if the supporting infantry should not have arrived by five in the afternoon. He blamed Villiers and myself very much for having slept in the town the previous night, seeing that it was quite unprotected from raids from the woods on its right, that he had not been able to send into it any force to cover it, and that some Turks must certainly have remained in it overnight, siiice one of his men who had remained in the town after dark as a straggler had been shot in the course of the night. He warned Yilliers how precarious would be his position in the town should circumstances compel a retire- ment of the cavalry f oreposts across the river, and advised him at once to quit the place and remove himself and our joint belongings into the camp. On this information and advice Villiers determined to quit the town at five o'clock, • BJELA IN DANGER. 227 if before tliat liour tlie expected infantry should not have come up. Comment on this cavalry advance on to the heights above Bjela cannot be of a favourable character. The advance of Arnoldi's brigade, unsupported by infantry, could effect no good purpose that was not open to half a dozen scouting parties, each consisting of an officer and a few men ; and it might have been followed by very unpleasant consequences. The Russians complain of the advance of the British fleet to Besika Bay, as a direct encouragement to the Turks, and it is difficult not to agree with them ; but there would have been scarcely less encouragement for them in the compulsory retreat of a brigade of Russian cavalry from a position deliberately taken up. The advance of Arnoldi, while his dispositions by no means included the protection of the town of Bjela, even while he camped on the heights close to it, compromised that place in a manner which its inhabitants would have had occasion bitterly to realize, if the retreat, which he regarded as almost inevitable, had ax^tually been carried out. The Turks had quitted Bjela without working there any injury ; but had they come back — and if their pressure had led Arnoldi to retire, they would of course have come back — they would hardly have practised the same moderation as before. They would have found some Turkish houses wrecked; they would have found the mosque not quite in the state in which they had left it ; they would have learned that the Bulgarian inhabitants had hailed the Russian troops with enthusiasm, and guided Russian soldiers in their hunt after Turks who had remained behind. Turks are certainly human, and it would have demanded more than human self-restraint on their part if, under the circumstances, Bjela should not have had reason to mourn the hour that Arnoldi's cavalry rode over the bridge, without first making sure that infantry supports were within easy distance. I say then that their advance compromised unjustifiably the safety, if not the existence, of a friendly town. But Bjela later had occasion to realize that in war-time friends are often nearly as cruel as foes. Indeed, a cynical inhabi- tant of Bjela might say that he had found friends more cruel than foes, for the Turks have left the place without doing any mischief. At five o'clock yesterday afternoon, some infantry of the 33rd Division arrived on the heights and relieved Arnoldi's mind. Leaving his forepost line standing, he withdrew to his camp on the Jantra, and the infantry and artillery took up the position on the heights he had occupied, and also on others covering the town. Bjela was thus safe Q 2 228 WAR CORREBPONDEXCE. from the Turks, at least until they should have defeated the Russian infantry on the heights in front, and having an easy mind on this score, Villiers serenely resolved to retain his comfortable quarters in the town. It is certain that he w^ould have passed a pleasanter night in the camp ; but it was a good thing for some of the people of Bjela that he remained in their midst. The infantry column began to pass through the town at six o'clock. The soldiers composing it did not break ranks, but marched through with that steadiness which characterizes the Russian soldier w^hen under the eyes of his officers. But the march had been a long one, and there were many stragglers, who in straggling had escaped from under the eyes of the officers. What follows I relate as told me by Yilliers and my servant, on w^hose w^ord, through long experience of his truthfulness, I can implicitly rely, confirmed by the evidence furnished by the broken shop-fronts and the wrecked interiors. No doubt there are extenuating circum- stances which may be urged. Gruards should have been left in the place, and patrols should have been detailed to deal with stragglers, and protect the effects of the inhabitants from the instinctive impulse of unrestrained soldiery of any and every nationality to do a little plundering, when the chance offers of doing it with impunity. And it may be said for the plunderers themselves, that they found themselves in what is technically at least an enemy's country, and that they in their ignorance had few means of knowing — as doubtless as little care to know — whether the houses they were sacking were those of Bulgarians or Turks. I have read in one of your contemporaries, the assertion that no newspaper correspon- dent has been permitted to accompany the Russian army, except at the price of the sacrifice of his independence. Cer- tainly I am aware of no such exaction having been attempted. It was definitely stated to me when my application to accom- pany the Russian army was granted, that correspondents were free to speak well or to speak ill of the Russians as might seem to them their duty, the only stipulation being that stipulation which does not require to be inculcated on a war correspondent who realizes his responsibilities, that pending events should not be prematurely written of. During some experience as a war correspondent, I have never sub- mitted to the sacrifice of my independence, nor have I found that the maintenance on my part of an honest independence has injured me in the eyes of j)ersons w^hose regard is worth having. About eight o'clock yesterday evening a number of infantry stragglers w^ere buying bread outside a shop near our quar- PLUNDERING RUSSIAN SOLDIERS. 229 ters. They were not supplied witli the quickness thej desired, so they broke into and plundered the shop. This was witnessed by Yilliers and a Russian cavalry officer who was sitting conversing with him at the window of our room. The officer at once went and drove away the plunderers, thrashing them soundly with the flat of his scabbard. Another cavalry officer joined the first, and the two, with my companion, walked down the street. A Bulgarian came up to them, wringing his hands, and complaining that his house was being robbed. They heard a tumult near, and shrieks of women, and as they approached a number of soldiers jumped out from windows, and through doors, laden with portable loot. The officers at once chastised these fel- lows with all imaginable vigour, and each took two soldiers prisoners ; of the onlooking soldiers they organized an informal police patrol, and all plunderers subsequently caught they handed over to this body, after having pre- viously thrashed them soundly. The officers took their prisoners, who were infantrymen, to the cavalry camp, whence, no doubt, they were forwarded to their regiment. The officers in the cavalry camp who were made aware of the circumstances, expressed great anger at the conduct of the soldiers ; but the precaution was strangely neglected of sending protecting patrols into the town, probably because no cavalry soldiers were concerned in the mif3chief . About one o'clock Yilliers, sleeping in his room, was roused by the noise of woodwork being smashed in the street outside. Looking out, he saw by the light of the broken pieces of blazing wood carried torchwise by the soldiers that the work of plundering was going on apace to right and to left. Women were shrieking, not because of any violence offered to them, but because of the ruin to their property. Men were revelling in a liquor shop which had been broken open, and wine was running from the casks. On the other side of the way a butcher's shop was being cleared out, fellows tearing at the meat to make it part. The women of the house came into the room occupied by Yilliers, and with tears besought his protection. But what could he do ? There was no authority in the place — no man to whom appeal could be made. All was licence, and for the time the Eussian soldier, ordinarily quiet, orderly, and respectful to superiors, was not himself. Yilliers sat at the window, for a long time expectant of an attempt to break into the house we occupied. At length came the challenge, " Is that a Turkish or a Christian house ? " My servant replied in Russian that it was a Christian house, and occupied by gentlemen accom- 230 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. panjing the armT. Ttie soldiers no further attempted to gain an entrance, and apparently went away. But presently a knocking was heard below, and the people of the house said they w^ere breaking into the cellar, which, as in most Bulgarian houses, has its opening direct into the street. Presently there was a wild tumult about the door and a hammering for admittance, which quickly brought Villiers and my servant down to the door. And now came the comic element in a scene that was surely grim and lurid enough. The proverb that ill-gotten goods never prosper had come home to the Russian soldiers with more than ordinary swiftness. As Villiers opened the door, there stood four of them in the torchlight, clamouring wildly, with bottles in their hands, a strange blackness about their lips, and a curious smell per- vading the group w^liich was certainly not the bouquet of any potable fluid known to my interesting young friend, who is not wholly destitute of experience in this department of practical knowledge. The owner of the house had in his cellar a number of bottles full of vitriol used for the purification of wool in the manu- facture and dyeing of woollen stuffs, which, it appears, is the man's business. These the Russian soldiers, who, although they did not invade the house, took the liberty of breaking into the cellar, promptly annexed, and having extracted the corks began to drink. The drink did not exactly meet their views ; on the contrary, tiey must have had cast-iron mouths and throats, and the vitriol must have been greatly diluted, or they would have paid with their lives the penalty of their lawless conduct. As it "was they had fared pretty badly. Their lips and mouths were burnt black, their clothes, hands, and boots were burnt, and they were half mad with rage and pain. They had rushed to the conclusion that the house must be a Turkish house, and the cellar a Turkish cellar, that the proprietor had purposely stored a quantity of devil's drink in wine-bottles, wherewithal to poison his Russian enemies, and that they were the victims. They insisted on regarding my servant as the Turkish proprietor, and strove to revenge themselves by forcing him to drink as they believed he had brewed. With wild cries and threats they forced bottles into his hands, and swore that he should drink. Now Andreas is always a sober man ; he drinks only when he is thirsty ; he has a will of his own, and would no doubt resent being made to drink under compulsion ; still more recalcitrant would he questionless be if the proffered fluid were vitriol. He it appears objected to the beverage in the most emphatic manner. He imitated the unwilling horse in that they could not make RESTORATION OF DISCIPLTXE. 231 him drink, but in tlie struggle lie got his hands and clothes very much burnt with the vitriol . Yilliers interfered physically in protection of one who is as much a comrade as a servant, and for the second time in this singular night he was in the hands of the Philistines. Still they had some sense of dis- cipline and order left. They wonld not deal condignly with Yilliers, although they professed to believe him a Turk and a spy. They whirled him up to a solitary under-officer who was addressed as the " Patrol," and who appeared to be serenely superintending the operations which I have attempted to describe. The patrol recognised the correspondent badge on Yilliers's arm, and ordered the soldiers to unhand him, where- upon the victims of vitriol retired, probably in search of a less fiery fluid as an alterative. After break of day the work of plundering flourished with greater vivacity than ever, and again our temporary residence was threatened. N'ow that there was daylight, and that he could see whither he was going, Yilliers determined no longer to let the mischief continue without an effort to stop it. So he walked up to the infantry camp on the heights, found the colonel in command of the regiment, reported the proceedings to him, and asked for a guard to prevent further outrages. The colonel at once granted the request. He said he had already heard of the disgraceful conduct of the soldiery in the town, and was taking measures to stop it when Yilliers came with confirmation of the discreditable fact. All his officers professed much disgust and regret. In a few minutes a strong guard was marching down into the little place with Yilliers as guide. The officers commanding it at all events did their duty thoroughly. Every marauder met on his way to the camp from the town was searched. If his pannikin contained wine it was spilled upon the ground. The officer thrashed him, and then made him a prisoner. In the town a strategic movement bagged the plunderers of a whole street, some thirty-five in number, who were duly searched, thrashed, and made prisoners. The guard has ever since remained per- manently on duty, a police officer has been appointed, as also a commandant de place, and now all is order and quietness. But the evil has been wrought, the scandal sticks like a blister. I believe there is an intention to give compensation for the damage done, but the entente cordiale between the Bulgarians and Russians has suffered. To descend to par- ticulars, I will give the Russian soldier credit for being quite as expeditious and sweeping, if not so quiet and methodicala plunderer as the French " forager," as I believe he prefers to be termed. When I left there was in the place abundance of 232 WAR COREESPONDENCE. bread, meat, coffee, srigar, tobacco, cigarette paper, and writing paper, underclothing, boots, &c. When I came back there remained but the memory of these products of nature and art. The Russian officers feel deeply the discreditable conduct of a portion of their soldiers. The blame is not with the soldiers. It is in the nature of a soldier to plunder when he can see a chance to do so with impunity. The only soldiery I have ever seen who could be trusted to restrain this im- pulse are the [N'orth Germans proper. ^ 13jela, July 11th. — We are, according to universal belief, bound for Rustchuk in the first instance, but we cer- tainly are in no hurry to get there. This place was first reached by the cavalry advanced division on the 5th inst., and now on the 11th there has reached here, thus far on the road, but one infantry division, the 33rd, belonging to the 12th Corps. The 12th Division, belonging to the same corps, is behind a few versts at Pavlo with the Czarewitch, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the newly formed army, and the Grand Duke Vladimir, who is the new commander of the 12th Corps. Of the 13th Corps, which with the 12th makes up the army of Rustchuk, one division, the 35th, w^hich was among the earliest troops to cross the river, was in the first instance sent on to Ovca Mojila, a village in a south-westerly direction from Sistova, has had to march across country, and will reach Kosna, Avhich is close to Bjela, this afternoon. I believe that the 1st Division, the other division of the 13th Corps, is now in a valley to the south of Pavlo, so that the whole infantry of the army of Hustchuk is now within a few hours' march of Bjela. Bjela is two days^ march from Hust- chuk, but I have reason to believe that some days will elapse before the infantry will push onward from the present positions. As for the cavalry division, the headquarters of the division general. Baron Driezen, are at Monastir, about eight miles in advance of Bjela, on the road to Hustchuk, while the brigades Arnoldi and Stahl von Holstein are more forward and spread out over a considerable extent of country. Cossacks are also forward to the east and north-east of the Bjela position, sweeping the country, and driving in the scattered handfuls of Turks who have been lurking in the woods. The delay may be attributed to several causes, but the principal reason is the necessity which is believed to exist for accumu- lating supplies to feed the troops before the advance shall begin in earnest. Precaution in this respect is wise, but it may be carried to an undue extent, and to cart supplies all the THE SIMNITZA BRIDGE. 233 way round by tlie Simnitza bridge for an army beleagnerino- ilnstclmk seems a needlessly circuitous process when a rail- way base is available at Fratesti, the station next Giurgevo, on the railway between tbat place and Bucbarest, and wben the Danube up to the margin of the range of the Rustchuk cannon, both above and below the fortress, must in a few days be free to be used by the Russians. The Simnitza route for the supplies as well as the troops having been chosen, inevit- able delay would occur with but one bridge available for all purposes, even if that bridge were continuously available. But much as it has to do, the storm on the night of the 9th temporarily threw it out of working order, and the whole of yesterday was occupied in repairing it. The accident should impress the Russian military authorities with the necessity of having another string to their bow in the shape of another bridge. The strain on a single bridge is immense even with the best system, and Greneral Richter, in whose charge is the traffic across the bridge, does his best to ensure that as little time as possible is lost in the crossing. Remember that it is not a bridge in the sense in which people accustomed to London Bridge and Westminster Bridge are wont to think of a bridge. The Simnitza bridge is considerably more than a mile long, and its traffic way is about seven feet wide. Troops marching in column of fours fill it from rail to rail. An ordinary vehicle leaves just space for a foot passenger coming the other way to scrape past at the risk of misfortune to his toes. Horses pass it by files ; there is no room for three abreast. If an accident happens to a waggon in crossing, the stream is dammed till that accident is repaired. If you take your carriage or your horses over to the Sistova side, it is as yet nulla vestigia retrorsum. You may go back dodgingly to Simnitza on foot, but your equipage must remain on the further side. Try to imagine the difficulties and delays of taking across such a bridge a hjindred and forty thousand men, with horses, with provision columns, with the multi- tudinous impedimenta of a great army. And imagine further the confusion and inconvenience which must arise from an accident which renders the bridge useless for a day. Greneral Hastytemperovitz was across before the accident, but his tent, his baggage waggon, containing his personal suppHes, and his servants were at the tail of the column, and while he is shelter- ing himself from the storm under the lee of the Sistova bank, they are fast among the sand on the Simnitza shore. The Onety-oneth Regiment has crossed under orders to push on as fast as possible to Tirnova to support the cavalry, who are waiting there for supports. The regiment has crossed, 234 WAP. COREESPOXDEXCE. but its train, without wliicli no regiment can march, is on the Roumanian bank, and a hundred yards of the bridge has foundered. The 33rd Division, which is commanded by General Timofeieff, was visited yesterday by the Grrand Duke Yladimir, the new commander of the corps of which it forms a part. A portion of the division is forward, occupying the heights beyond Bjela, but its mass is camped on the slope of a beautiful grassy down, at the foot of which flows the clear stream of the Jantra. One brigade is on a little grassy plain at the foot of the slope, and quite close to the river. All day long the soldiers are bathing in the broad expanse of water into which the stream is here dammed, or squatting under the lasher below the dam, enjoying a capital douche bath. In this part of Bul- garia there are great expanses of these delightful undulating grassy downs dipping into little intersecting valleys, in the bottom of which may lie a straggling agricultural village, fixed there by the presence of water which comes gushing forth from a rich spring, at the head of which there is always a massively built stone fountain, with a stretch of stone troughs for cattle and horses. I can find no warrant for the alleged unhealthiness of Bulgaria in the later summer months. It is all upland ; there are no marshes ; there is no standing water to breed miasma, and assuredly no fault can be found with the climate. The heat in the daytime, from nine till about five, is no doubt great, but it is not a relaxing heat like the heat of India. There is always a puff of wind from one quarter to another to fan the faces heated by the strong sun, and except in the vicinity of Sistova there is no dust, that pest and curse of marching in Roumania. The troops march along grassy paths over the downs and between the cornfields, and along paths which are not made roads at all, although quite practicable for vehicles, and indeed infinitely superior to the chaussees, but of which the surface has not been pul- verized by the traffic of years. And the water is simply superb. It is not very plentiful— that is, there is not a brook in every valley, but it may be said that there is a spring and a watering place in every valley, and numerous wells dotted about the country. And the delight of a long drink of pure cold water from the gushing crystal stream of one of these springs is a joy unspeakable after the tepid, mud-thickened abomination which in Simnitza passed under the name of water. But I am wander- ing away from the visit of the Grand Duke Yladimir to the camp of one of his divisions. He found one battalion, with the divisional colours and his own banner, drawn up along the road leading down to the bridge of Bjela, and was received RECEPTION OF THE GRAND DUKE. 235 witli that entliusiasm with which the Russian soldiers always receive any raember of the blood Imperial. Greneral Timofeieff inhabits the khan at the bridge-head, and here he met the Grand Duke and accompanied him in a ride through the camp on the slope and by the river- side. On the bridge across the Jantra the Grand Duke was met by a deputation of the inhabitants of Bjela, headed by the priests. His Highness alighted, kissed and was kissed by the priests, partook of bread, wine, and salt, tbe typical offering of the Bulgarian inhabitants, and escorted by the whole population of the place rode through the straggling town, ^ear the church a triumphal arch of green stuff had been erected, under the auspices mainly of my Servian servant Andreas, who has become quite a leading character in Bjela during the few days he has been in residence there. From the town the Grand Duke rode on to the heights to visit the battalions there, and after dejeuner in a tent outside General Timofeieff's quarters returned to Pavlo. The trouble of which I wrote three days ago between the Bulgarian inhabitants of Bjela and the Rus- sian soldiers has passed away. Compensation was awarded by the General for the damage done, which after all was laid at the door of a comparative handful of men, who were severely punished. Since then, although the place is full of troops, the most perfect order has been maintained, and very genial relations exist between the townspeople and the troops. The latter are willing to pay for what they have, and the people of Bjela might drive an extensive trade if they only had any supplies worth speaking of to sell. They are harvesting serenely in the midst of the camping troops, who are very careful, whether on the march or in camp, not to injure crops on the ground, and whatever hay or grain they require the intendance pays for scrupulously. My colleague with the Tirnova advance will speak in greater detail with regard to its object"; but I may say that I have been given to understand its intended route across the Balkans is through the Gabrova Yalley on to the Shipka Pass, and thence to Tatar Bazardjik, as well as by Kezanlik, and so into the Maritza Yalley. The future of this army is somewhat indefinite. It is true that it is designated the Army of Rust- chuk, and that Rustchuk is its immediate objective. But it is believed that Rustchuk contains now but a comparatively small garrison of from ten to thirteen thousand men, the rest of the troops which had been accumulated there having retired on Shumla. In this case a very large army employed in the reduction of Rustchuk would seem a waste of power. The mass of the 11th Corps I believe to be still at and about the 236 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Giurgevo-Oltenitza position, and to be designed to co-operate against Rastchnk. The Russians here have the strongest belief that Rustchnk will hold out but a very short time. Judging from the strength of its natural position, from the pains which by all accounts have been taken in fortifying that position, and from what we know of the weight and extent of its armament ; taking into account furthermore the traditional stanchness of the Turks in defensive positions — whatever this tradition may count for in the altered conditions of modern warfare, and after the experience of Ardahan — I should be inclined to set down this anticipation as sanguine, to say the least of it. But I am bound to say I have heard the opinion expressed with singular confidence in quarters not given to confidence without reason, and the Russians have in former times more than once found a golden key the easiest way to unlock the gates of a Turkish fortress, nor can it be said that the Turk of to-day is more incorruptible than the Turk of 1828. If, then, Rustchuk should fall after a short defence, this army would be free for further operations. If Rustchuk should hold out, there is no apparent reason why two out of the three corps — I include the 11th — after the parallels have been made and the batteries armed, should not equally be available for further operations, leaving a corps to devote its attention to Rustchuk. The objective in either case would be Shumla, if the Turkish army is to pursue the policy on which it appears at present acting, and decline any offen- sive in the open. An army marching against Shumla from the north-west would no doubt co-operate with Zimmerman's force coming southward from the Dobrudscha, and either the combined host might lay siege to Shumla, or one section of it mask Shumla, while another performed the same office for Yarna, and a third struck southward through the Pravadi Pass and over Aides in the direction of Adrianople. There certainly would seem a sufficiency of troops available for all three objects. The era of " shaves " has set in already with considerable vigour. I own to some slight respect for shaves, on the principle that where there is smoke there must always be fire. So I am going to recount two of the current shaves, which you may take for what they are worth. I noticed in an English paper about the end of last month that a Council of War had met in Constantinople and had a conversation with Abdul Kerim Pacha as to the state of matters on the Danube. That vener- able personage had reassured the sages of the Constantinople Council with the prospect of a battle of Bjela which would probably last several days. I have told the story of the FLIGHT OF THE TURKISH POPULATION. 237 *' battle " of Bjela, in the course of wMdi perliaps some twenty shots were fired. Now the story, gravely recounted to me by an aide-de-camp of the General, is this : that the Turkish troops retiring from about Bjela were met a long way off by the troops marching from Shumla. The troops marching from Shumla abused the troops marching from Bjela for not making a stand, and for falling back in such a pusillanimous manner without having spent more than a drop or two of blood. The troops from Bjela, on the other hand, objurgated the troops from Shumla for their tardiness in not coming to their support, so as to enable them to make a stand with some chance of success. The dispute grew into a quarrel, and, as the officer quaintly put it in his English, " a civil war was made." The other story is that the day after the Danube was crossed Prince Gortschakoff proposed to the Emperor that if the Turks should ask for peace then, they should have it on condition of granting autonomy to that portion of Bul- garia — strict geogTaphers would call it Bulgaria proper — which lies to the north of the Balkans ; but that the Great White Czar, having hardened his heart, and the initial difficulty overcome with so great comparative ease, declined utterly to listen to any such contingent terms, and avowed his determination not to conclude peace except on the basis of " freedom " for the whole of the Bulgarians on the south as well as on the north side of the Balkans. The great problem of autonomy — the difficulty of bringing it about that Turk and Bulgarian should live together on equal terms — seems in swift course of sol\T^ng itself in the manner which Mr. Gladstone's words " bag and baggage," con- strued literally, most accurately indicate. The "unspeakable" Turk is taking himself off " bag and baggage," self, wives, children, effects, flocks and herds, from before the advancing Russian. The instances that have come under my notice of Turks remaining to await events,' or returning to their homes after a temporary abandonment, may be counted on the fingers of one hand. The old cadi of Sistova and his brother stayed behind ; at Ovca Mojila a few families came in from the copses and begged to be allowed to resume the occupation of their dwelling-places. I have heard of no others. A number of Turkish families of the poorer classes are in the woods beyond this place, and keep shifting backwards as the troops push on. It is a pity that some assurance of safety on good behaviour should not somehow be conveyed to them. At present, so far as I can understand, they despair of good treatment, and act as if there were no hope. The men take up the role of Bashi-Bazouk — probably enough most of them^ 238 WAE CORRESPONDENCE. were already BasM-Bazouks, for your Bashi-Bazouk is nothing but an armed peasant, and the women are reported to have armed themselves. An unfortunate inhabitant of Bjela, going to a village beyond Monastir to discover whether the Turks had left it, and therefore whether its Bulgarian inhabitants were free to return to it, was killed in the woods, it is said by Turkish women. He was buried here to-day. All this is miserable work. The Russian chiefs, in compli- ance with the proclamation of the Emperor, are anxious to protect the Turkish civilian population if these would only remain to be protected, or, if already gone, if they would come back, and intimate their desire to live quietly and peaceably under whatever regime they may find themselves. I do not know what may be thought with you, but, speaking as a man who tries to the best of his power to disabuse himself of prejudices, it seems to me that the conduct of the Turks, as they evacuate Bulgaria step by step, has a claim to the admiration of the civilized world. We hear once and again of isolated acts of cruelty — there are two Bulgarians with broken heads in the hospital in Simnitza. But what did the world anticipate ? Was it not that the retiring Turks would make Bulgaria a wilderness and a solitude ? And how has this anticipation been justified ? In Sistova no Turk touched the hair of the head of a Bulgarian, handled no scrap of the property of a Bulgarian. In the intervening villages the Bulgarian inhabitants abide under their un- harmed roof -trees with their flocks and herds around them, fearful only in the apprehension of the visits from the Cossacks, which they have already learned are not simple visits of politeness. The crops, uninjured, wave rich and ripe in the fields ; the hay stands in cocks in the fields ; there is corn, and wine, and oil, and meal in the land. What the people of Bjela have suffered in property has been at the hands of lawless Bussian straggling soldiers, not at the hands of the Turk, " unspeakable " though he may be. It is not my place to draw inferences, but it is my duty to state facts. It may be that the Turks simply went without doing damage or committing atrocities because of a consuming desire to get away without waste of time in any divertisse- ments which might occasion delay. It may be that they went as they have done because they are not ferocious except under provocation, or fancied provocation, which they may have considered to justify ferocity. It may be that, being natu- rally ferocious, and having been guilty of fearful atrocities, they were determined to prove to Europe that for once, when they set themselves to it, they could practise self-restraint. FORBEARANCE OF THE TURKS. 239 Bat waiving speculation on motives, I will aver tMs nmch, that whatever has been their sentiment or impnlse, let what name soever be given to their actuating feeling, thej have acted erroneously, speaking in a purely military sense. If their military policy has been that of retreat, the complement of that policy was to have left desolation behind them, not to leave a land flowing with milk and honey for the behoof of the invader. When Kutsoff and Barclay de Tolly retreated from- Minsk to the Beresina, and from Beresina to Smolensk, and from Smolensk to Moscow, before the legions of I^apoleon, did they leave behind them a fat land, villages teeming with flocks and herds, growing crops asking for the sickle, granaries for the replenishment of the provision trains ? We all know that they left desolation and ashes, and that the desolation and the ashes have counted to Russia for heroism and patriotism, and, what is more to the purpose in my argu- ment, for sound military strategy. But let the Turk have his due. If he has been deficient in the legitimate resources of the military art, he has for once, and from whatever motive, erred on the side of humanity. And I cannot say that the Bulgarians have appreciated his forbear- ance. I have told the story of the wreck of the Turkish quarter of Sistova. Bulgarian Bjela has not been quite so rough on Turkish Bjela, but it has wrought not a little mis- chief on the latter nevertheless. The Turkish Bey here was a good man, held in high esteem among the Christians, for he consistently protected them fi'om the lawless exactions of the Circassians to the best of his power. The Bulgarian inhabi- tants besought him to remain, assuring him that they would speak of him in such terms to the Russians that no evil could befall him. But the Bey did not relish the outlook, and departed with the people of his own nationality. One would have thought that the least the Bulgarians could have done would have been to have ' respected the good man's house. Well, it is not a pretty sight now. Not alone has it been sacked, the very floor has been wantonly broken through. To-day was a fast-day, and the Russian soldiers have been going to church in batches all day long. He is a pious man, the Russian soldier, according to his lights. Before he dips his spoon into the big soup kettle, he chants a grace in chorus with his fellows. Fancy a grace in a British barrack-room ! He says his prayers regularly in the morning, not in a comer, but coram jpuhlico. He dofl^s his cap and crosses himself when he enters a churchyard. He crosses himself before he bolts a dram of vodki. Every regiment has its field pastor with 240 WAR COERESPONDENCE. it, wlio commands as much, respect among the soldiers as if lie were an officer — more indeed, in a sense, for they salute the latter ; they take off their caps to the priest. CHAPTER X. -I' RUSSIAN OCCUPATION OF TIRNOVA. Festive Reception of the Troops — Tardiness of the Russian Movements — The Three Armies of Operation — Rnstchuk, Nicopolis, Tirnova — Greneral Grourko's March on the Balkans — His Line of Route — Reported Russian Barbarities — The Army of Rustchuk — Impatience of the Officers — Hassan Pacha of Nicopolis, and the Emperor — A Scare at the Emperor's Headquarters — Grourko beyond the Balkans. Once in Bulgaria the Russians divided their forces, turning both to the right and the left, and pushing onward. One of their columns was directed towards Mcopolis and Plevna, another towards Rustchuk, by Bjela and Pavlo, and a third southwards towards Tirnova and Gabrova, to prepare for the passage of the Balkans. The two following letters describe the occupation of Tirnova. t Sarevica, July 8th. — A courier has just arrived here from the front with news. The Russian advance has occupied Tirnova, with two brigades of cavalry and artillery, encountering little or no resistance. About 2,000 Redifs were there, who simply with- drew as the Russians advanced. Tirnova is a place of about 16,000 inhabitants, and is a convenient point for a base of operations in crossing the Balkans, but otherwise is not of great strategical importance, being too far away from the Balkans to give the command of the passes which converge upon it. It is not fortified, and would require immense works to render it tenable as a fortress. It is, however, beautifully situated. The Turkish population is about one-third. The infantry is pushing rapidly forward to support the cavalry. The plan of the Turks, probably, is to let the Russian army advance thus far, then marching from Shumla take it in flank and rear. The Russians hope for this, as they can then measure their strength with the Turks in the open field instead of behind fortifications. In presence of any other enemy but the Turks, the Russian advance on Tirnova before Rustchuk and Nicopolis had been taken would be a fearful blunder. It would simply be impossible ; but with the Turks to deal ■ FESTIVITIES AT TIRNOVA. 241 Tvitli, tlie E/Ussians can do almost anytliing. If, for instance, the Turks were now to advance a column rapidly from Shumla, and take the Russian column now marchins: to Tirnova in flank, it might prove disastrous to the Russian column marching from the Danube to Tirnova. It would be impossible to concentrate at any particular spot where the Turks might strike in time. They could cut it in two in the middle without the slightest difficulty, and beat it in detail. But there is not the most remote probability that they will do so. The Russians extend their line with impunity over some forty miles in length. t Tirnova, July 12th. — This has been a great day for Tirnova. The Grand Duke arrived to-day at noon, with the greater part of the 8th Corps, so that now the town may be con- sidered really occupied by the Russians. The march from Sistova was rather like a military promenade or a triumphal procession than a forced march, which it really was. Every- where the people came out to meet us, offering bread and salt and the most friendly greetings ; while the women and girls offered fruit, and pelted us with flowers. At the entrance of many of the villages, arches were erected, covered with leaves and flowers. Processions, headed by priests, came out singing to meet us, with pictures from the churches, standards, and banners. There were deafening cheers, and the most extra- vagant joy. They insisted on shaking hands with us, would have kissed our hands had we allowed it, and sometimes they even shed tears. At the entrance of the village of Zavada, which is at the beginning of the gorge that leads to Tirnova, a rude arch was constracted of branches of trees. The whole population of the village gathered at the roadside near it. The soldiers, without orders from their officers, uncovered as they passed under, to the great delight of the people ; while a huge bar of iron beaten by a mallet gave forth the first sound resembling a bell heard here for four hundred years. Just inside this gorge or hollow are two very ancient monasteries, built one on each side of a steep mountain side. The priests from these monasteries came down to meet us with banners and pictures, and a large beautiful Bible, which as many of the soldiers as could kissed as they passed, the people of these monasteries hoisting old bells which had lain hidden in the basements for four hundred years, and the voices of which will soon again be heard rolling up and down the hollows and gorges of the mountains. The reception at Tirnova was splendid. The appearance of the town to-day presented a striking contrast with what I saw R 242 WAR correspo>:dexce ■Vihen liere last summer. Then, not a woman was to be seen in the streets nor at the Avindows of the houses, and men went about with a frightened, ciinging air that show^ed the state of terror in which the people were kept. The zaptiehs were the only people who did not appear afraid of their own shadow^s. Now, all is changed. The zaptiehs are replaced by Russian soldiers. The streets are full of women, girls, and children, who mingle with the soldiers on the most friendly and sociable terms. The windows are teeming with the faces of pretty girls, flags, and streamers. The narrow, crooked streets are choked up by crowds of people, soldiers, horses, and waggons, and the town is ringing with excitement and joy. Such is the greeting the invaders receive at all hands. The G-rand Duke arrived about noon. He was met at the usual entrance to the town by priests in robes chanting prayers in the old Sclavonic tongue, and by immense crowds of people. With deafening cheers he was conducted to the church, where he attended a short service, then passed through the streets, where several arches had been erected with the inscription upon them of " Welcome," followed by a crowd of girls singing. The women and girls at the windows literally covered him with flowers, while Christo Ignatieff with the enormous moustache was quite buried in the carriage under the leaves, flowers, and wreaths showered upon him. The Grand Duke then went to the qrarters already prepared for him. The people have opened their houses to the Russians. There is no trouble about getting billets. The ofticers have only to inquire at the first house, and if not already occupied they are sure to be received. I obtained a room in the first house I asked at. The people are all smiles and words of wel- come. I can only hope that the Russians will not cause them to change their ideas before they go away. In only one village had we a cool reception. That was Akchair, where the people showed a disinclination to sell anything, either because they were afraid the Russians would go aw^ay and the Turks come back, or because some flying band of Russians had taken things without payment. The Turkish population fled everywhere. We passed through several villages which had been abandoned, the Turks carrying off all their effects that they had not been plundered of. I have been told that some of these villages had been fired by the Cossacks. I am inclined to think this a mistake. I saw myself an occasional outhouse or heap of straw burning that may have been fired by accident ; but when I passed there was not the slightest indication of an intention to burn any village ; nor do I think any has been burnt. The country along the road is very POPULAR EXCESSES AT TIRNOYA. 243 rich, but little under cultivation. Most of it is grass land, offering abundance of forage for horses. Nearly the whole Turkish population fled from Tirnova, carrying off their goods and chattels. The houses of those who fled were more or less damaged by the Bulgarian juvenile population. Windows and doors were smashed, as at Sistova. The most needy part of the population helped themselves to what the Turks left behind, which was not much. These acts were committed during the day or two of anarchy which followed the departure of the Turks and preceded Russian rule. They are repudiated by the better class of Bulgarians, who express great chagrin at them, but who are powerless to prevent them. There appears to be a disposition to attach more importance to these acts of Vandalism than they deserve. The breaking of a few doors and windows is, after all, but a slight vengeance for the oppression which culminated in the horrible massacres last May. These acts besides were not committed in the houses of Turks who remained at home. Fifty Turkish families have remained here quite undisturbed and unmolested. Had the Turkish population remained quietly at home none of these things would have happened. The conduct of the retreating Turks deserves mention. I have heard of isolated cases of outrage and murder and violence, but these are rare. They drive off all the Bulgarian live stock — sheep, horses, and cattle — they can lay their hands on, but do not go further. Several villages we passed through had not one four-footed beast, left. This measure, however justifiable upon military grounds, naturally exasperates the Bulgarians greatly. As far as can be ascertained, very few troops are in the Balkans. I have just seen a young man from Elena whom I saw there last summer, who came here yester- day and goes back to-morrow. He tells me there are no Turks in the vicinity. Yet this place is on the direct road to Sliveno, from which point Yamboli on the railway is soon reached. General Gourko has gpne forward in that direction to-day with cavalry and artillery and the Bulgarian legion. It is not likely that the Grand Duke will leave here under a week or ten days. His march so far has been remarkable for its rapidity when once begun, and for the complete absence of opposition or even annoyance by the Turks. Not a single alarm, not a single shot fired. When we consider the distance penetrated into the enemy's country, it is remarkable. It is not easy to understand the plan of the Turks, if indeed they have a plan at all. I do not know how many troops there are before us, nor what force is destined for the defence of Constantinople; but unless they impede the march of this R 2 244 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. army more tlian liitlierto it will be in sight of Saint Sophia within a month, whether Rnstchuk falls or not. The Russian plan is very evident. They mean to imitate the Prussians in the Franco- German war, carry on the siege of a fortress, and attack the enemy's capital at the same time. Unless the Turks make a more stubborn defence than hitherto, this army may dictate peace at Constantinople possibly before Shumla and Varna have fallen. The Turks so far have shown them- selves as incapable in war and as feeble against regular sol- diers as they are savage and ferocious in fighting women and children. Such is one view of the commencement of the Russian campaign. But there were observers on the spot Avho Avere by no means impressed with the military capacity it disclosed. A correspondent, dating from Simnitza on the 9th of July, wrote : — * The Russians to-day celebrated here the taking of Tirnova by a Te Deum. Viewed as an isolated exploit no doubt the taking of Tirnova w^as a very fine thing, so far as we have yet information about it, and if a Te Deum was to the taste of the Russian headquarters nobody will grudge them the in- dulgence in the sacred triumphal music ; but as a feat of expedition the advance of the Russians on Tirnova cannot take a high place. Let me review the position. The crossing occurred on Wednesday week, 27th ultimo. On the evening of that day the Grand Duke commanding in chief telegraphed that already an army corps, the 8th, was on the other side of the Danube. To-day is the 9th of July. Twelve days have elapsed since the day of the crossing. Tirnova is not more than fifty miles from Sistova. The Russian troops encountered no opposition between Sistova and the confines of Tirnova. Before crossing they had ample time to make their preparations, and a cavalry division might have crossed the day after the first crossing if the customary alacrity had been used in the construction of the pontoon bridge. That, how- ever, was made good on the 30th, and cavalry crossed that night and the following morning. Tirnova has been taken by cavalry. It follows that it took a brigade of cavalry — -a flying brigade be it remembered, a brigade specially designed to make a cavalry raid — no less than eight days to reach and occupy Tirnova, a place distant only fifty miles from the starting point of that brigade. This is marching at the rate of about six miles a day, allowing for no marching having been done on the day of the fighting against Tirnova. SLOWXESS OF THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE. 245 The procedure of the Russian armj in its marcli from the brido-e- head at Sistova resembles the gradual unfolding of the flower which is the central figure of a transformation scene. The leaves fall to right and to left and reveal the heart of the blossom. The stamens projected earlier probably, but the corolla is only visible after the petals droop outward. Now this flov/er has been blossoming since the 27th ult., the day on the evening of which the 8th Corps stood on the Sistova side. But the progress of the blossoming has been wondrous slow. One petal droops toward Rustchuk, another toward Nicopolis. IS'ow Rustchuk, even by the way the Russians are marching, is not more than fifty miles from Sistova. The petal that droops towards Rustchuk consists of the force on which has been conferred the name of the "Army of Rustchuk" — made up of the 12th and 13th Army Corps. The cavalry of the former has got three-fourths of the road, the 12th Corps itself is to-day behind Bjela, not half way on the road, the 13th Corps is yet further in the rear and only in part beyond Sistova. The Germans fought Gravelotte on the 18th of August and invested Metz on the 19th. Now Gravelotte is nearer Metz than is Rustchuk to Simnitza ; but, on the other hand, there was a tremendous battle at Gravelotte and only a skirmish at Simnitza. It is not easy to see why Rustchuk should not have been invested in five days at the outside after the crossing of the Danube ; instead of which the investing army is not yet half way on to the spot where its task of investment shall commence. The other petal drooped towards Nicopolis. The objective of the 9th Corps is that fortress. It marched from opposite Nicopolis round by Simnitza, and crossed the Danube on the 6th inst. ; it has not yet commenced the investment of Nicopolis. From Turna Magurelle to Nicopolis, round by Simnitza, is a distance of about forty miles — that distance has not yet been traversed wholly, but twelve days have elapsed since the crossing of the Danube at Simnitza. Now for the corolla. I have already spoken of the stamens — how one, the brigade Leuchtenberg, is already actually fifty miles away from its base after eight days' marching, and how the others, the remaining cavalry brigades, the tirailleur brigade, and the Bulgarian legion, are probably by this time nearly as far on. But the corolla proper consists of the head of the great infantry column — that is, the 8th Army Corps. That corps, as the Grand Duke has testified, crossed the Danube on the 27th ult. One division, the 9th, went east to Yardim, on the Danube bank ; the other, the 14th, went west into Sistova. Both divisions quitted these positions to-day, 246 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE. to penetrate into the interior. In other words, they have remain 3d within actual view of the point at which thej crossed the Danube for the period of twelve days, exclusive of the day on which they crossed. I am not mathematician enough to calculate by w'hat time at this rate of progress, and ex- cluding all artificial obstacles, such as broken bridges and lions in the path, they are to reach Adrianople. Th jre was reason in the deliberation which the Russians exercised in their advance on the Danube and their preparations for crossing. Soldiers gave them credit for what is the best piece of soldiering after all — the determination to leave as little as possible to chance. But soldiers expected that, every precaution having been taken, every preparation elaborated, every button on every gaiter sewn firmly on, when the first blow was once struck, there should be no delay in striking home. But the delay in getting ready to strike home has been simply be- wildering. There is forced upon us the apprehension that in their previous delay the Russians were exercising no option for the purpose of preparation and elaboration, but that they struck for the crossing of the Danube actually before they were ready to utilize the gain of the successful passage of it. It is not easy to discern the cause of the delay. As for supplies the whole Russian army might live a month in Bulgaria without bringing an ounce of supplies across the Danube, if pre-organization w^ere to be brought properly into eifect, if intendants or contractors, or whoever they may be, who are charged with the furnishing of supplies, were simply to follow in rear of the advance and buy w^hat they find on the spot. But supplies bear the blame, nevertheless. My own belief is that a great part of the reason is to be assigned to the pottering rearrangements of the commands in order that young gentle- men of the blood imperial may gain military fame and St. George's Crosses. But this is not all. There is a lack of go, of energy, of system,- of purpose, about the direction of the army. The machine is a very fine one, the material is admirable, the workmanship is good, the finishing is fair — but there is not motive power sufficient to bring out its excellences and to do it justice. I do not know whether there is a reserve of steam power anywhere, but, if so, it is kept strictly in reserve, and is not turned on with sufficient pressure to bring nearly all the good out of the machine which it is capable of yielding. * Obertenik, July 15th. — When I visited Tirnova on the 13th instant, General Gourko's advance command had gone for- ward forty-eight hours previously. A brigade was making a GENERAL GOURKO'S EXPEDITION. 247 reconnaissance on the SHnmla road, where soJie Tnrks were reported in position, supported by some infantry and artillery of tlie 9tli Division. Colonel Tntolmin's Circassian Cossacks were leading tlie advance of General Gonrko's column, which has taken the bold, and perhaps even rashj course of marching direct on Kezanlik, whence Yamboli and the railway, as also the valley of the Tundja, leading straight down on Adrianople, are easily accessible. Of course, the march. has its dangers. So bad are the tracks through the passes of the Elena Balkans that General Gourko's column of infantry, as well as cavalry, have resigned their waggon transport, and convey the bag- gage and provisions upon pack horses. Reports have come from Elena that there is not a Turkish soldier between Tirnova and that place, and that, indeed, no force bars the way over the Balkans. It is difficult to ascertain anything respect- ing the whereabouts of the Turkish troops in force ; but some evidence exists that Abdul Kerim's field army, drawn from B/Ustchuk and Shumla, is echeloned on the line from Basgrad over the Lom to Osman Bazar, apparently with the intent to^ cover the western face of the so-called quadrilateral. If this be so, General Gourko's daring crossing of the Balkans need apprehend no interruption, for Kezanlik is nearer to Tir- nova, Avhence he started, than it is to Osman Bazar, whence the Turkish intercepting column might be expected to start. General Gourko need have no fear of the Turks breaking in upon the line of his communications, for he has cut himself adrift so far as regards the space between Elena and Kezanlik, and can operate nimbly as a detached force in the great Rou- melian valley till joined there by the main force of the Russian invading column, marching by the more practicable, but more circuitous route through the Balkans, over Drenova, Gabrova, Shipka, and Eski Zagra. The head of this main column will consist of the 8th Corps, of which one division, the 9th, was already in Tirnova on the 13th -inst., while the other, the 14th, was a day's march behind. The 8th Corps will be sup- ported by the great bulk of the 11th Corps, now partly on the march on Tirnova, partly crossing the river, and probably the 9th Corps will spare one of its divisions, the 5th, to take part in the grand advance, which would thus consist of five divisions, or 80,000 men, not including General Gourko's advance contingent of some 15,000 more. There are, indeed, more troops to spare for this purpose. The 30th Division, belonging to the 4th Corps, the other half of which is reported with General Zimmermann in the Dobrudscha, is now on the road between Bucharest and Giurgevo. Its destination may be to co-operate in the siege of Rustchuk, wholly relieving the 11th 248 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. Corps at Ginrgevo, or its role may be to marcli to Simnitza, and, advancing on Tirnova, act as a reserve to the main invading column. In any case, after muzzling tlie fortresses of the quadrilateral, and neutralizing Nicopolis and its troops, quite one hundred thousand men are immediately available for the crossing of the Balkans by the western line of invasion, over Tirnova, putting out of the calculation General Zimmerman's army on the eastern section of the theatre of war. General Gourko's celerity is an exception to the general de- liberation of the advance. It was not expected that the 8th Corps would move forward in force till about the 20th, and other portions of the advance would be later. So far as regards supplies, the Russians are determined to leave nothing to chance, with Bucharest as a great central depot, where there are stores of meal, to which the supplies of rice for the relief of the Bengal famine were a mere bagatelle. Sistova will be an intermediate depot, and Tirnova the advanced depot. To facilitate the conveyance of stores another bridge of very substantial construction has been commenced between Sim- nitza and Sistova, higher up the stream than the one now existing. The key of the Balkans, Tirnova, is in Russian hands. Russian soldiers are climbing the Balkans. Russian cavalry have scoured Bulgaria till within sight of Rustchuk on the east, and up to Plevna on the west. All this has been done, not with dashing promptitude, but with prudent, careful deliberation, allowing full time for the concentration of opposition. Yet there has been no opposition worthy of the name. Referring to the report of Russian barbarities practised on the Turkish inhabitants of Bulgaria, I may simply mention that about fifty Turkish families of Tirnova remained behind after the general exodus, and are living unharmed under the special protection of the Russian military authorities. The Bul- garians of Tirnova are drawing their supplies of firewood from abandoned Turkish houses. Speaking as a perfectly impartial man, who would have no hesitation in bearing testi- mony to the contrary, were the contrary true, and who has had exceptional opportunities for observation, I do not believe that in Bulgaria there has been a single instance of personal maltreatment of a Turkish civilian at the hands of Russian soldiers. I turn now to the Army of Rustchuk. Activity hitherto has not been permitted to this force. It has simply stood fencing on one side of the broad lane along which the Balkan column has marched up the country to Tirnova. Of the 12th Corps, THE RUSSIANS ON THE JANTRA. 249 one division, the 12t]i, is at the confluence of tlie Jantra witli the Danube. Tlie otlier, the 33rd, remains still in position at Bjela. The 13th Corps has one of its divisions, the 35th, at Kosovo, a little distance higher up the Jantra than Bjela ; while the other, the 1st Division, is at Pavlo, where still remain the headquarters of the Czarewitch and his brother Yladimir. I believe permission at last has been accorded to cross the Jantra, but a rapid advance on Rustchuk does not seem imminent. The front of this army is covered by three cavalry divisions, the 12th, the 13th, and the 8th, the latter not being needed with its own corps. The front of the three . divisions extends from the Danube, about twelve miles west of Rustchuk, for some forty miles inland in a direction due south, their front facing the Turkish forepost position on the river Lom. The 12th Cavalry Division is on the left, with its headquarters here in Obertenik, the 13th in the centre, and the 8th on the right, with its headquarters in the village of Cairkoi. Small reconnaissances are pushed forward, but the mass of the divisions has been stationary for nearly a week. Yesterday I accompanied a patrolling party along the road towards Rustchuk. At Trestenik we found a large abandoned camp, probably of the troops commanded by Ahmed Eyoub Pacha. Still nearer Rustchuk, within a few versts of the fortress and close to the Lom River, at a place called on the map Han Gol Cisme, we found an abandoned intrenched posi- tion which appeared to have been occupied by a body of from ten to fourteen thousand troops. Pushing on toward the Lom we were stopped by the Turks, and had a little brush ; but there are no Turks between the Rustchuk road and the Danube so near to the fortress as Pirgos. There crowd into the Russian camps the Bulgarian inhabitants of the villages along the River Lom, who report that their effects are despoiled by the Turkish soldiers, who are, doubt- less, destitute of supplies, and take what they can find ; but I hear no instance of personal violence, nor does smoke testify to the burning of villages. The Turks appear to be convey- ing supplies from their abandoned positions on the Rustchuk road along their front toward their left flank. Three days ago Prince Manueloff, commanding the 8th Cavalry Division, caught a Turkish convoy at the village of Cairkoi, in the act of executing this manoeuvre, and at once fell upon it, met with resistance from the escort, and had to bring up artillery. He ultimately captured a mass of baggage, provisions, ammu- nition, and over a thousand head of cattle. But these things are mere divertissements. The Army of Rustchuk is burning for the opportunity of justifying its name. 250 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.. * Pavlo, July 16th. — The inactivity of the Rnstcliiik Army is naturally creating great dissatisfaction among the officers eager for an opportunity to distinguish themselves. Earnest entreaties have been persistently sent to the headquarters begging for a relaxation of the strict injunction that the infantry mass of the army was not to cross the ^ Jantra for a long time, but without effect. Yet the Czarewitch and his brother Vladimir were among the supplicants. General Nepo- koitchitsky — that silent, determined little man — was obdu- rate in the maintenance of the prohibition against anything save a defensive and preventive attitude. The policy of this attitude was obvious. While two corps stood lining the road, of advance on Tirnova, no attempt to intercept that advance, or to disturb its communications, could be made. Nor was this all. The Turkish field army, reported to extend from Rasgrad to Osman Bazar, could not change its front and, marching to its left, move off into the Balkans to interfere with the passage of the Russians through the defiles without showing a flank, and, indeed, its rear, to this threatening mass of men, purposely motionless foi* the time, but ready to march quickly and far when the opportunity for doing good by so doing should offer.- The policy was obvious, but it was cautious. It was not in accord with Prince Frederick Charles's standing orders — " Find your enemy, and fight him when- ever and wherever you find him." The restriction against crossing the Jantra has at length given way. The Army of Rustchuk is to move on towards Rust- chuk, and in course of doing so its right flank should come into contact with the positions of the Turkish field army on the River Lom. Still, the advance will be a measured one. The headquarters move only to a village called Beleova, on the east bank of the Jantra, about midway between Bjela and tha Danube, and the centre of the new position will be about Damogila, a village near Obertenik, the present headquarters of the cavalry division of the 12th Corps. Although the advance will be slow, to all appearance, yet I believe that the masking policy is abandoned, and that Rustchuk and Shumla will be besieged. We may expect a bridge across the Danube somewhere about Pirgos, to convey the siege train to a place where it can be of use. Then will be found some practical employment for that immense accumulation of large shells, weighing thousands of tons, collected at Banyasa, a station on the Bucharest and Giurgevo Railway, about ten miles north of Giurgevo. In the meantime the infantry advance will enable the cavalry to move forward and tm-ow a circle of observation close around the rayon of the fortress, and thus THE TURKISH DEFENDER OF NICOPOLIS. 251 isolate it from tka rest of, tlie world. It is oE iniii3iis3 value to the Russians that thej have obtained possession of Nico- polis thus early, setting free, as it does, quite a division, if not indeed a whole army corps. * Faylo, July ISth. — The staff of the Czarewitch has left here this morning, and crossed the Jantra in preparation for the advance on the Lorn River and the investment of Rustchuk, with the army composed as already described. The Emperor and the Imperial headquarters, which arrived on Monday, remain until the 20th, and then proceed to Tirnova. The 4th Corps will cross the Danube at Simnitza, and advance towards the Balkans in support of the column crossing the mountains. Yesterday was brought to the Imperial headquarters Hassan Pacha, the valiant Turkish defender of Nicopolis, of whose fighting prowess the Russians speak with generous apprecia- tion. As he fought when free, so Hassan Pacha acted when a prisoner, bearing himself before the Great White Czar with true Turkish nonchalance. When asked why he capitulated, he said his ammunition was all gone, and he had been obliged to kill with his own hand three or four soldiers who left their duty. He said it was a stupid war, into which the Turks had been mainly led by the attitude of England, and the nation would be glad when it was over. He spoke as rank folly of the conduct of a Russian at-tillery officer who, when one position was barely carried, rode his guns in among the still undefeated Turks, and, unlimbering, came into action against other positions as yet uninjured. The Pacha left for Russia last night. The Russian losses at JS'icopolis are not yet wholly ascertained. They are estimated at one thousand two hundred killed and wounded. The gain of the fortress frees the Russians from the threat of attack on their right flank. Of the 9th Corps which gained the success one division, the 31st, will, for the present, remain on the line of Plevna- Nicopolis to protect communications and guard against any trouble fr^m the- Widdiri direction. The other, the 6th, will form a portion of the Balkan advance, which will comprise several columns operating in different directions. On Sunday night, when the Emperor was camped at Sarevica, a few miles south of Sistova, there was a sudden alarm. A Cossack rode in with a hurriedly scribbled despatch from a telegraph clerk at the bridge across' the Danube to the effect that the Turks were marching from Nicopolis on Sistova, and threatening to sever the Russian communications, destroy the bridge, and compromise the safety of the Emperor. Imme- diate steps had to be taken. One brigade of the 11th Corps 252 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCB. was in Sarevica. The other brigades of the same corps w^ere forwarded. Dispositions were made w^ith the artillery and infantr J covering the line of the heights protecting the line of approach from Nicopolis. The Emperor himself assnmed the chief direction of affairs, and is said to have shown at once the most perfect coolness and competent military ability. The scouts sent out brought back the intelligence that the country in the direction of Nicopolis was quiet, and presently arrived intelligence from Baron Kriidener, commanding the 9th Corps, respecting his success at Mcopolis. It w^as ultimately discovered that the telegraph clerk had become confused and alarmed by the noise of firing at Nicopolis and concern for the Emperor's safety. The incident seems trivial, but shows on w^hat thin ice the Russians have been treading with hostile forces left on both flanks. The news of Greneral Grourko having crossed the Balkans has been received with extreme satisfaction at headquarters, and at once produced a determination in favour of prompt action on the part of the Rustchuk Army. Bustchuk is to be at once invested, and if there is a Turkish army on the Lorn iiiver, it will have to fight or retreat. * Headquarters, Pavlo, July 18th, — While half the w^orld is speculating on the chances and method of its solution, the great problem of the war has already been solved. General Grourko has crossed the Balkans. He is in the valley of the Tundja ; he has passed the difficulties of the main Balkan range, the passage of the lesser Balkans intervening between the valley of the Tundja and the great Roumelian valley through which flows the River Maritza. Greneral Grourko's exploit is a romance of warfare. I can recall no expedition more brilliant, more successful. Stonew^all Jackson's raids must henceforth resign their pride of place. Grourko has raided across the Balkans, but he has done more. He has burst open the lock of the door that closed Turkey against invasion. For the full details the reader must wait for the despatches from my colleague, who rides with Greneral Gourko. The sketch I now give is compiled from General Gourko's own official despatch, a copy of which has been communicated to me, and from the narrative of officers who accompanied him and have brought back his accounts of his s\\dft and successful progress. General Gourko marched out from Tirnova on the morning of the 12th instant at the head of eight regiments of cavalry and six battalions of the tirailleur brigade. His main body marched apon Elena, a place south-east of Tirnova, but it GOUEKO'S MAECH. 253 was necessary to ascertain liow far the Tiirkisli concentration, said to exist about Osman Bazar, was in force, and wlietlier the alignment of the enemy was prolonged from Osman Bazar in. a southerly direction through the Balkans. Accordingly Greneral Gourko led a cavalry reconnaissance on the Shumla road in the direction of Osman Bazar, and pushed it home with considerable determination. He suffered loss, and the Turks, no doubt, say they repulsed him. What concerned him was, that he found out what he wanted to know. He learned that there were some 6,000 Turks in the Osman Bazar district, which however constituted the left flank of the Turkish alignment between the Danube and the Balkans. Their position did not prolong itself into the mountains, so, leaving a detachment of the 8th Corps, which had followed him, to watch the Turkish position about Osman Bazar, he coolly turned his back on the Turks and headed due south for the Balkans. About Elena he picked up the mass of his detachment, and in two forced marches, each of nearly thirty versts, he was in the heart of the Balkans, striking that section of the range known as the Elena Balkans. Through these there are three passes into the valley of the Tundja, nearly parallel with each other. One, which I believe is the central of the three, is called the Hainkoi Pass, from the name of the village at its southern exit. The most easterly pass of the three is called the Zupanci Mesari Pass. The name of the third I do not know. Greneral Gourko had as guides the Christian inhabitants of the inti-i- cate valleys of the Balkan ranges, who have never wholly bowed to Turkish rule. Led by them, with long-extended and swiftly stretched- out arm, he clutched a grip of the throats of these three passes. Through each he passed a detachment, but he himself, and the mass of his command, penetrated the defile of the Hainkoi Pass,^ described as narrow, with precipitous rocks on either side in places, and somewhat tortuous. The gradients of the track are surprisingly easy, but the track was too narrow for the wheels of the gun carriages and mountain batteries which accompanied the column. In the most difficult part of the pass General Gourko's eclaireurs came on a fortified position held by a battalion of Turkish !Nizams, who appeared taken utterly by surprise by the sudden appearance of the daring Cossacks. Many were killed and wounded, and the Nizams, who never had recoA^ered from the confusion of the surprise, bolted precipitately. Here, as in the two other passes, battery emplacements were found in judiciously chosen positions ; but they had remained unarmed. General Gourko had been too nimble for the 2,U WAR COREESPONDEIS'CE. slow-paced, unmethodical Turks. Wlien they were sitting still saying " Bismillah," he was riding through their un- armed earthworks. When Greneral Grourko had traversed this Hainkoi Pass he found himself, as I have stated, in the valley of the Tundja, and he came out of the mountains into that valley at a singularly advantageous point, the village of Esekei, nearly equidistant from the three important places Kezanlik, Jeni Zagra, and Eski Zagra. The importance of Kezanlik consists in its being at the; mouth of the Shipka Pass, the main trans-Balkan thoroughfare between Gabrova and Kezanlik. Jeni Zagra is on the branch railway to Yamboli. Eski Zagra is quite beyond the Balkans, on the higher slopes of the Maritza Valley, and is the focus of good roads leading to all points of the valley. General Gourko knew that reinforcements were following him, and, seemingly believing in the axiom that nothing succeeds like success, struck at all three places. He sent a detachment of Cossacks to cut the railw^ay at Jeni Zagra. He sent ■ a small body of cavalry to occupy Eski Zagra, and collect transport materials. -As for Kezanlik, information reached him that it and the Shipka Pass w^ere strongly held by the Turkish troops. As- suming that these belonged to the same army he had already touched at Osman Bazar, his march had cut them off. He had traversed the line of communication between them and their main body. If so, they would the more easily be dealt wdth. If, on the other hand, they belonged to troops in force further west, or were simply an independent command, the daring wisdom of attacking them seemed to General Gourko equally obvious. So, instead of setting his face in a south- easterly direction dowm into the valley, with the glittering spires of Adrianople as his objective, he turned westward, and marched up the Tundja Yalley on Kezanlik. On the 16th he w^as one day's march on the road. To-day come reports that his advanced detachments are already in Kezan- lik. He may be there by this time, but if so I do not believe there has been time for intelligence to reach Elena to that effect. By this time he certainly must be anx prises with the Turks in Kezanlik, if they have waited there for him. His intention was, as soon as Kezanlik was occupied, to strike the defenders of the Shipka Pass, and before marching he sent instructions that a column should march into the same pass from the northw^ard and attack its defences in front. It is reported to be very strongly fortified and held. Thus at present stands the position. The subtlety of the Turkish defence is a pricked bladder. The Turks have held the Balkan line no more firmly than they held the Danube line. NEGLECT OF THE TURKISH OFFICERS. 255 They liave thrown away the chances and opportunities offered them with reckless and even contemptuous lavishness. The Russians earn few laurels in overcoming a foe thus unworthy. It remains untested whether the errors they commit arise from accurate gauging of Turkish imbecility, or are the result of shortcomings in military knowledge. It seems probable that General Gourko would have had a harder struggle in the Hainkoi Pass had it been held by Ashantees than with its defenders of the Turkish regulars. IN^umbers of pioneers are engaged in widening the Hainkoi Pass road, which will be practicable for the transport of vehicles in two days. Already the batteries of field artillery have gone through. General Gourko keeps his communications quite open with the base at Tirnova. The Emperor has sent him a message, of warm con- gratulation. . We shall have an opportunity- of tracing the march of General Gourko in the letters of the (t) correspondent who accompanied that officer. It will be seen in the sequel that the army of the Czarewitch on the left and that of General KrUdener- on the right were intended to be used primarily to secure the advance across the Balkans to Adrianople, and that this was why the Czarewitch was temporarily hindered from committing himself to the invest- ment of Rustchuk. It was when Kriidener's single oorps proved itself too weak or too slow to secure the advance of the Tirnova column, and Plevna was occupied by Osman Pacha, that Gourko's advance was suddenly stopped, and the whole pro- gress of the invasion arrested. This, however, is anticipating. In the following chapter we shall see the , development of the movement south of the Bjilkans. Lin n \ K V UNJVKIiSlTY OF \- CALIFOILXIA. 2ob WAR COURESPONUENCE. CHAPTER XI. GENERAL GOURKO'S EXPEDITION. Passage of the Balkans — The Roads and Scenery — A Mountain Solitude — Cap- ture of Kezanlik— Prince Mirsky's Eepulse in the Shipka Pass— General Gourko's Successful Attack — Turkish Treachery — Defeat of the Turks at Yeni Zagra — Decisive Defeat of the Bulgarian Column by the Turks at Eski Zagra — Ketreat of General Gourko into the Shipka Pass— Suleiman Pacha the new Turkish Commander in the Balkans. We have seen in wliat relation tlie advance npon Tirnova and tlie passage of tlie Balkans stood to tlie attitude of the Army of E;ustcliuk and the Western Corps, under General Krli- doner. We now turn to the letters describing General Gourko's advance. The following is a siiinmarj view of that officer's operations, which are subsequently more fully described in the letters of the correspondent who accompanied him : — ■ * Bjela, July 23?tZ. — A recent telegram of mine recounted the progress of General Gourko through the Balkans into the valley of the Tundja, at the mouth of the Hainkoi Pass. I take up the narrative of subsequent events in the Balkans as com- municated by the commanding officer to the Grand Duke Nicholas, and by him transmitted to the Imperial headquarters here. It was on the 14th that the Hainkoi Pass was forced. The Turks retreated westward on Konaro, but next day, having received reinforcements, they attacked General Gourko's vanguard, a rifle battalion, as the column marched on Konaro. " After some sharp fighting the Turks were repulsed, Konaro occupied, and two of their camps taken. On the same day a column of Cossacks sent to Jeni Zagi^a success- fully cut the telegraph and railway. Il^ext day, the 16th, General Gourko marched on Maglish. His troops formed in three columns, one consisting of infantry, close to the mountains. The middle column was cavalry and infantry, and the left column cavalry only, with orders to cover the flank, and if possible to turn that of the enemy. At Uflami he was stopped by a strong position, and had to cope with the Turkish artillery, cavalry, and infantry. When he was pushing them hard, five battalions of Anatolian Nizams came up as rein- forcements, and behaved very well. Their fire, begun as it GOURKA BEYOND THE BALKANS. 257 was at 2,000 paces, caused tlie Russians considerable loss. The Russian orders are not to open fire till within 600 paces of the enemy, and it was in the interval that the Russians suffered. But when their distance was reached they poured in a fire which soon compelled the Anatolians to give ground. The Russian direct attacking force was four battalions of rifies and two sotnias of infantry Cossacks, whom the Turks call " priests," because of the cross they wear to distino-uish them from the Circassian Turks. While the direct attack was being delivered the Russian hussars and dragoons charged the Turkish flank. There was very hot fighting, sabre and bayonet both being used freely. The Turks were at length driven from their position with loss : 400 were left dead at one point. The Turks fought very hard here, but their defeat at Uflami seemed to destroy their morale, and subsequently they did not fight so stoutly. On the 17th General Gourko approached Kezanlik. There was terrible heat, and it was fearfully severe marching. The infantry waded into little streams to become soaked and so gain coolness. There was fighting more or less all day. On the evening of the 17th General Gourko entered Kezanlik. The Turks had detailed from the force holding the Shipka Pass a column to occupy the heights flanking the entrance to Kezanlik and hinder General Gourko's advance ; l)ut his riflemen were beforehand in occupying these heights, and the Turks retired disappointed. It had been designed that Gourko should reach Kezanlik on the 16th, and on the 17th be free to assail in the rear the Turks holding the Shipka Pass, w^hile Prince Mirsky with the 9th Division attacked them in front. But he was delayed by hard fighting, and the troops were too much fatigued to move further on the same day after the occupation of Kezanlik. So there was no co-operation between General Gourko and Prince Mirsky in attacking the Shipka Pass, but the latter nevertheless delivered an attack on that position marching southward from Gabrova. He sent against the Turks but one regiment, that of Orloff, which he divided into three columns. The pass was strongly fortified wdth six successive tiers of intrenchments and batteries, and defended by picked Turkish troops, Circassians and Egyptians. The latter fought very hard. Of Prince Mirsky's three columns, that on the right encountered little opposition and went on some distance, till it missed the support of the centre column, fought five or six hours, and then made good its lodgment in the hostile lines. The left column, consisting of two companies, missed its way, and was beset by twelve companies of Turkish soldiers. s 258 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE. It fought a retreating combat for four hours against terrible odds, losing eight officers killed and wounded and about 150 men. It was brought out of action by the only officer left standing, and he was wounded. On the 1 8th General Gourko, his men refreshed, advanced to the attack of the Shipka position from the rear. Two battalions of rifles formed his advance. As they neared the rear of the position a flag of truce came oui with a parlementaire. The rifles at once halted, and an officer acting as escort went forward to meet the parlementaire. While negotiations were going on, the Russian riflemen in their curiosity quitted their extended formation, and drew together into a mass behind where the officer was communing with the 'parlementaire. Suddenly volleys of rifle fire were poured in upon them from the Turkish position. The parlementaire took to his heels at a signal w^hich the Russians heard but did not com- prehend. So sudden and fierce was the fire that in their two- battalions the Russians lost one hundred and forty-two men killed and wounded in a few minutes. The survivors in their fury waited for no order to attack, nor regarded any forma- tion. With one common impulse and with yells of wrath they rushed on. It was a bad quarter of an hour for the Turks, but the riflemen, finding no signs of co-operation in the attack from the north by Prince Mirsky, contented them- selves with driving back the Turks some distance, and occupied the abandoned Turkish camp in the rear of the forti- fications. On the same night, in reply to General Gourko's summons to the Turks to surrender and abandon the further unavailing defence of the pass, there came a letter from the Turkish commander, Mehemet Pacha, offering to surrender, j^egotiations were entered into, and the hour for the surrender of the Turks was fixed for twelve o'clock the next day. An- armistice was arranged, and early on that morning the sani- tary detachments Avent forward to bring in the wounded which the rifle battalions had been forced to leave behind. They sent back word that the Turks had fled and vacated the position. The offer of surrender was a ruse to gain time. Meanwhile, on the 18th, Prince Mirsky had remained quiet,, waiting for further information about Gourko's move- ments. But on the 19th, young Skobeleff, taking some troops of Mirsky 's, had pushed forward a reconnaissance into the pass from the north. To his surprise he met with no opposition as he passed line after line of fortifications, and the hastily abandoned Turkish camps, with fires yet burning, rations half cooked, and half- written telegi^ams. At length he reached the crest of the pass, and the view to the south opened before him. In THE SHIPKA PASS. 259 a liollow at his feet lie saw troops in camp. "Were they Turks or Russians ? The tents seemed Turkish, but the soldiers looked like Russians. Skobeleff tried the Kussiali hurrah as a test, but it was not replied to. At length he saw the red- cross flag of the ambulance staff, and he knew that the men in the valley were his own people. A junction was imme- diately effected. All the Turkish camps and baggage, twelve cannon, four of them guns of position, and four hundred Turkish prisoners were taken. The Shipka position is chiefly in a forest, and very difficult. The fortifications are very skilfully designed, and are alleged to have been constructed by an English engineer officer. General Gourko reports that all his wounded had been killed on the field where they fell, and the dead and wounded were found headless, and otherwise fearfully mutilated. There had been apparent deliberation, for the fallen Russians had been gathered together into groups. Some Turkish wounded were found who, in expectation of a similar fate, drew their daggers when the Russians approached, and prepared to sell their lives dearly. Their lives were spared, and they were attended to. General Gourko remains in Kezanlik till the 8th Corps, now occupying the defiles of the Balkans, shall have passed through them and massed, with supplies, for further progress. The road at present is only practicable for vehicles drawn by bullocks ; but large numbers of men are engaged in improving it. Several days will elapse before the onward move is made. Even the cavalry expeditions are susj)ended for the moment. The Turks sacrificed their chances of defence by continually dribbling forward reinforcements of " two or three battalions at a time, instead of either attacking in force, or keeping the bulk of their troops in hand for a strongly sustained defensive effort. Their treachery respect- ing the flag of truce and their mutilation of the wounded are barbarities which place them beyond the pale of civilized warfare. The following letters are from the correspondent who rode with General Gourko :— t Parovgi, July Ihth. — Deep in a gorge of the Balkans, in a dark, narrow little dell, whose sides are so steep that the dozen houses which make up the village seem to be holding on with hooks and claws, to keep from slipping down into the deep ravine beneath them, lies Parovci, from which this letter is written. It is night, and a thick veil of darkness s 2 260 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. covers mountains, trees, rocks, and forests. Almost per- fect silence reigns, and tlie occasional cry of some bird, startled in its slumbers, ecboes fearfully distinct and alarm- ing. Other sounds may be heard if one listens closely ; an occasional hnm of voices, the impatient stamp of a horse's hoof, and the rattle of harness. The fact is, that jnst beneath the little house where I have found refuge, stands a battery of artillery, and that extending two miles further up, and three or four miles further down the dark, crooked, rocky little hollow, lies an army asleep on its arms, without fire or supper, waiting the first ray of daylight to resume its march. It would be madness to attempt taking the artillery along this road in the darkness, and there are artillery and cavalry here trying to make their way over this almost impassable road, as well as infantry. We are in one of the most difficult defiles of the Balkans, at the entrance to a pass which the Turks have left unguarded, a pass which we hope to get through early in the morning, and this is the reason of our secrecy and silence, the absence of camp fires and supper, and the usual sights and sounds of a bivouac. The glare of camp fires reflected on the sky, and seen from the other side of the mountains, might give the alarm to the Turks, and a very small force, a very little thing, would stop the way, and even result in the destruction of the column. We are less than ten thousand men, and we are extended along this narrow, crooked defile a distance of probably seven or eight miles. Should the Turks get wind of our advance they could concentrate on the other side and cut us off in detail as we came out, as easily as you can catch water coming out of a bunghole. There are other dangers to be thought of too. One thunderstorm w^ould render the road, already so difficult, quite impassable. Then should we succeed in getting out on the other side there is still the possibility, though a remote one, of the Turks rapidly concentrating twenty-five or thirty thousand men, and crushing us before we can get reinforcements. It is a hazardous undertaking, but one which, if successful, will ensure the passage of the Balkans to the main army, while, if we are lost,.the loss after all is not very great. It is the detachment of General Gourko which left Tirnova yesterday for an unknown destination, and whose advance guard, after two days' march, has just reached and camped in the summit of the pass of Parovci. To-morrow the army will be over, and will pour out into the broad fertile valley of the Tundja like a torrent, to the great surprise of the Turks, who are watching for us in a very different place. THE GABROVA ROAD. 261 I left Tirnova the day after tHs cletacliinent, and cauglit it up liere in the night after a hard ride and search, during which I was astonished to find how completely so large a detach- ment could disappear in a single day, and leave no trace and no indication of the route it had taken. I knew, or thought I knew, it must have taken the direction of Elena or Grabrova, and it seemed at first a very easy matter to ascer- tain which it was. I first went out the road towards Elena, inquiring of the peasants coming from that direction whether they had seen the Russians, and where they were. I soon learned in this Avay, not only that the detachment of Gourko had not gone this road, but that the small Russian force in Elena had left that place, and gone across country in the direction of Gabrova. Very good, I thought, the detach- ment has gone to Gabrova, and I have only to take that road in order soon to overtake it. My disappointment and astonish- ment were great, however, upon turning back and trying the Gabrova road, to find the detachment I was in search of had not been over this road either. It seemed to me at first as though the whole detachment must have vanished into thin air, for it did not appear possible it could have taken any other road. I knew it could not have gone further to the right than Gabrova, which leads to Kezanlik, nor further to the left than Elena, which leads to Slievno. And as it must have gone somewhere, it occurred to me it might have gone by some road between the two places. I determined to try, and striking across country through the fields, pulled up after an hour's ride at the village of Aplakova, between the Elena and Gabrova roads. Here 1 soon learned that there was another road, leading over the Balkans between those of Gabrova and Elena, and that a strong Russian detachment — a large army, the peasants said — had passed through the village yesterday, going by this road. This was evidently my detach- ment ; and having found the trail, I knew I should have no difficulty in following it. The road, I learned, led through the villages of Yoinis, Raikovci, and Parovci, and the pass began at near the latter place. None of these places are marked on the Russian staff map, and although they are on the Austrian map, there are no indications of any road, which shows how little, after all, is known of the passes of the Balkans. The fact is, the road is a carriage road — if the lumbering wooden vehicles of the peasants drawn by oxen can be called carriages — and not a mere donkey path, as might be supposed. &ow it is well known that light field artillery can always be taken over such roads, not to speak of mountain guns carried on horses or mules ; and that conse- 262 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. quentlj sncli a road is practicable for an armj, altliough it may be difficult. Tbat tlie Turks should bave neglected sucb a road, supposing it impracticable, is only one more evidence of their incapacity. Leaving Aplakova, I found the road led through a narrow, crooked little hollow, shut in on both sides by low, steep, rocky hills, that were covered with a thick growth of wood, and offering the most wonderful positions for defence that could be imagined ; and I thought what a curious thing it was that I — to all intents and pur- poses one of the invaders — should thus be passing through the enemy's country alone, unattended, and unarmed, by such a road without fear of molestation. This is, in fact, one of the characteristics of this war. I knew that if there had been a single Bashi-Bazouk, Circassian, or Turk in the vicinity, I should have immediate warning from the Bul- garian peasants whom I met every few minutes. The ordi- nary position of invaders and invaded in this war is reversed. The Bussians are among friends who receive them every- where with open arms, who bring them correct information, who tell them exactly where the Turks are, their numbers, where they go and whence they come, who do all the work of spies, as well as the service of outposts ; while the Turks, who should be among friends, are among enemies, as much as the Prussians were in France ; and thus, while playing the part of the invaded, have to fight at all the disadvantage of invaders. Thus I pushed on without fear of meeting flying bands of the enemy, knowing well I should hear of them long before seeing them, and thus have time to avoid them. The road emerged from the crooked little hollow, led up over some hills that were covered with orchards and vineyards, then descended again into a wild narrow little hollow, down which poured a little stream over a rocky bed that just left room for the road beside it. A couple of miles of this, and I came to a very small house and a very small mill, where there was a single Cossack hobnobbing Tvdth the miller, his lance stuck in the ground, and his horse wandering about at will, filling himself with grass. Here the road again left the hollow and climbed over some low hills, through a dense dark oak forest, through which I pursued my way, finding nothing more alarming to startle me than three or four great heavy black ^niltures that arose at my approach with a great flapping of wings, and sailed off through the trees like a shadow. Then we emerged from the forest upon a high narrow ridge that seemed to be a watershed, where we had the most splendid view of the Balkans " I have ever seen. There was first a low uneven THE MILLER AND THE COSSACK. 263 liilly country, full of green little valleys and hollows, rich, and luxuriant with orchards, trees, and growing grain, that almost hid the \dllages of fifteen or twenty houses which they surrounded. Then, beyond, the range of the great Balkans, their huge round forms rising up against the sky, in glorious robes of misty purple, and extending far away to the west until they mingled imperceptibly high up in the sky with the golden-edged, many-tinted clouds. Here and there,, they are still covered with snow, that gleams white in the sun, and brings out the purple with more beautiful effect, and seems to offer coolness, calm, and repose, high up there in the sky, far above the dust and heat and sweat of the earth. Now the road again descends into a delightful little valley, full of wheat-fields, and gardens, and fruit-trees, completely surrounded by high, steep mountains covered with forests, and we are in the village of Yoinis, a cosy, isolated, primitive little place. Here we came upon the rear- ward of the detachment, and here we halted to bait our horses, and get something to eat. We went into the first liouse we came to, and had no difficulty in obtaining barley for our horses, milk, bread, and a roast chicken for ourselves. A tall, handsome peasant woman waited upon us, who wore a very curious headdress, such as I had never before seen in Bulgaria, and which I observed was worn by all the women in this village. A little round cylindrical cap set on top of the head, with a projecting brim on the top, to which was attached a long white veil that fell down over the shoulders and was wound about the neck and chin, and in the presence of Turks probably the lower part of the face. The cap itself is a thin brass shell set with some cheap kind of coloured stones. From this village the road began to grow rough and wild, and we soon entered a deep narrow gorge, the sides of which were covered with short scraggy trees," and the bottom by a mass of stones and boulders, where no sign of a road was visible ; a wild, desolate, forbidding-looking place, where there was no sign that the foot of man had ever trod. Here about sun- down we came upon the rear of the column, a regiment of hussars under the Grand Duke JS'icholas of Leuchtenberg, moving slowly forward. I determined to reach the head of the oolumn if possible, and I pushed on past as rapidly as I could. This was not fast. It is no easy thing to pass an army on a narrow road, and at ten o'clock at night when I drew rein here, not yet having reached further than the middle of the column, which had finally halted, the advance guard had already reached and crossed the pass, and was lying like our- 26-4 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. selves witliout light and without fire, silently awaiting the first streak of day to ponr out into the valley of the Tundja. This pass and this road I may say w^ere discovered by Prince Tserteleff , to whom had been confided the w^hole business of obtaining information about the roads, the movements of the enemy, their numbers, dispositions, and so on. He soon ascertained that the Turks had fortified the Slievno and Gabrova Passes in such a way as to render the forcing of a passage at either of them a very difficult matter, and he determined to look for another. Count Moltke in his book refers to a pass between those of Gabrova and Slievno, but speaks of it as only a path not practicable for an army. Prince TsertelefE decided to investigate this pass, in the hope that it might lead to something. He soon ascertained that it had a very bad reputation — a place that was generally frequented by brigands, and rarely used either by Bulgarians or Turks. Among the Turks he found it had even a worse reputation than among the Bulgarians. It w^as a kind of tradition among them that this pass was in the clouds, that the defiles leading to it w^ere so Avild, so savage and barren, as to be unfrequented by either bird or beast — a kind of mountain- desert w^here nothing could live. Pursuing his investigations, the Prince heard of a man who had been through this pass^ and, finding him, he learned that he had been through in fact, but that was two years ago, and the road might have become impassable since then. But wdiat made the infor- mation really important was that he had been through with one of the ox-carts of the country. If an ox-cart could go through, very probably a cannon might be got through some- how^, and it was determined to reconnoitre and explore. Three days before the arrival of the Grand Duke at Tirnova, General Bauch w^ent forward wdth 200 Cossacks for this pur- pose, taking with him Bulgarian guides. Without waiting to explore the road to the end, he immediately began preparing it for the passage of artillery, a task which, as far as the pass itself was concerned, turned out to be no very difficult matter,, as the worst part of the road Avas on the south side. The most wonderful part of it though, which forcibly illustrates what I was saying about the Russians being among friends, w^as this r that, although these 200 Cossacks were w^orking three days on this road, with the Bulgarian peasantry coming and going all the time freely, the Turks never got a w^hisper of their presence here, nor any intimation of the evident intention of the Russians to try this pass. They even sent three battalions from Kezanlik to Slievno to strengthen the positions before the latter place, and these three battalions passed by Khaini DISCOVERY OF A PASS. 265 tlie day before tlie Russians issued out. These three battalions were just where they ought to have been had they knov^-n it, and they could have prevented the success of the movement. And yet, although the w^hole Bulgarian population of a dozen mountain villages knew the Russians were there, not one man was found among them to inform the Turks. Such is the advantage possessed by an army operating among a friendly population. The Turkish staff either did not know of this pass at all, or, knowing it, believed it to be so impracticable that they did not even think it worth while to place a corps of observation to watch it. The small body of troops men- tioned in my telegram as being here turn out to have not been placed here, as I supposed, to watch the place. They were merely a small body whose retreat had been cut off by the Russians at Elena, and who had retreated by this road two or three days before the Russians came, without thinking it worth while to leave a single man to guard the pass. The only danger, therefore, that the Russians had to fear was that some wandering party of Bashi-Bazouks or marauders should pass that way and discover what they were at, or that the noise made by the Cossacks in repairing the road should excite the curiosity of the small Turkish force which it was known was at Khaini, at the outlet of the defile. They did not dare to use powder for blasting the rocks, by which they might have made the road passable in several places where it could hardly be called so for artillery in the condition in which it was left by the Cossacks. Prince Tserteleff, who has greatly distinguished himself during the passage, and to whom must be given the honour not only of discovering the pass but of conducting and piloting the advance guard through it, went forward continually with one or two Bulgarians, reconnoitring the route far in advance of even the advance guard. He even disguised himself in a Bulgarian peasant's clothes, and went forward on foot, anxious to see if the road were really practicable, before the whole column should advance to what might, after all, be only a sheep-path over which it would be impossible to take artillery ; and he was the first man of the Russian army and his the first horse to cross the summit, and the first to open out the defile a.t Khaini. For a diplomatist turned soldier, still a non- commissioned officer, the Prince is not doing badly. t Kezanlik, July 19tJi. — The road from Parovci to the top of the pass was not nearly so bad as I had supposed. Indeed,, the road all the way up to this point has been much better than I could have imagined. It has been rough, to be sure. 266 WAE CORKESPOXDEXCE. full of lioles and stones, in some places passing for a liundred yards at a time over mere heaps of stones tliat covered the whole bottom of the hollow ; at other times through the fields hy gates that we opened as we passed ; but there have been but two or three places as far as Parovci where it has been at all steep. With help from the men in these two or three places, the horses have been able to draw the artillery through T\dth ease. At Parovci the road began to grow steep, and from here to the summit, a distance of about two miles, the men had to help the horses nearly the whole way. But even here the great difficulty of mountain roads, their narro^Tiess, does not seem to have been encountered at all. The road all the way to the summit was made wide enough for the wide- tracked artillery waggons T\dthout any difficulty. It leads up the side of the little hollow which is thickly wooded to the very top, and brings us out on a long narrow ridge, shaped like a saddle, and not more than fifty or sixty feet wide. This is the summit of the pass, and the descent on the south side is, we perceive, far more precipitous than the ascent has been. Here the men will have to help to hold the artillery back instead of pushing it forward. We are 200 Cossacks drawn up on this ridge, with our horses' heads turned south, looking away over the interminable laby- rinth of mountains, hills, ridges, valleys, hollows, and gorges, through which we still have to bore our way to the valley of the Tundja before our passage can be assured. The first streak of day is just growing visible in the east, and a long fiash of rosy light is climbing slowly up the sky. Before and beneath us is a dark narrow gorge, still a pool of blackness, into which we slowly descend. We are soon down into the depths of the dark defile. The first three or four hundred yards are very steep ; but at the end of that time we have come fairly into the little hollow, and the descent the rest of the way is gentle and easy, although the road is rough. The hollow is narrower even than the one on the other side, and the trees here are large, the branches completely uniting over- head, making it as dark as a cavern. We move on as silently as we can, for, to tell the truth, it is, for aught we know, a most perilous venture. The Turks might choose to lay an ambush for us — to let us pass, and place a small force on the road behind us — and a hundred or even fifty infantry would quite suffice to bar the way, and render retreat impossible. So we push on cautiously, watching for any indication of the presence of the enemy. Daylight soon begins to spread everywhere, even down in the bottom of this narrow gorge, in spite of the thickly overhanging trees that do their best to MILITARY ROAD-MAKING. 267 keep it out. General Kaneli, wlio is in command, detaches here and there eight or ten men to repair the road where it appears necessary, and pushes on. This operation is repeated so often, that finally we have very few men left, and so we halt and wait for the detachment to come together again ; and still there is no sign of the Turks. The little force at the end of the defile evidently does not dream of a Russian being nearer them than Timova. Slowly we work down the hollow, repairing the road as we go, and by evening we have arrived at a place where the hollow spreads out into a little valley where there is plenty of grass for the horses, and here we camp for the night. As it turns out, we have made just half the distance between the pass and the outlet of the defile, and have likewise made the road passable for the army to this point. But we still have five or six miles before us to do to-morrow, and as the Turks are now so near no fires are lighted, no suppers are cooked, no tea is made. We eat a piece of hard bread and whatever bits of cold meat we have left about us, make shift to smoke a cigarette, wrap our blankets about us, and lie down on the ground for a sleep, expecting to hear the alarm sounded at any moment. But the night passes quietly without even a false alarm, and at break of day we are again in the saddle, without breakfast and without tea. We begin the work of the day before, push- ing cautiously forward, repairing the road, watching for the enemy, who may appear at any moment, but who does not. The really most difficult and dangerous part of the road had still, as it turned out, to be discovered and repaired. The character of the country had quite changed since yesterday. Instead of the one high, steep, wooded mountain rising on either hand high above us, we were flanked on both sides by a labyrinth of low, sharp, rocky, steep hills and ridges, through which the road wound in the most tortuous manner, sometimes down deep in the bottoms of the gorge; sometimes skirting along the rocks two or three hundred feet from the bottom. It would have been a more dangerous place to meet an enemy even than higher up between the two great wooded mountains. A small force of infantry posted along these sharp rugged heights could have kept at bay almost any number of troops, for the reason that but a small number could advance at a time, and it was for the most part impossible to scale these rugged heights to turn the positions once they were occupied by a resolute enemy. General Ranch paid less attention to the road here than hitherto, partly because of the necessity of pushing rapidly forward and seizing the outlet of the defile, partly because it would 268 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. have required powder and blasting to repair the road in the places most needing it, and this wonld have given the Turks the alarm. We pushed cautiously forward, therefore, and about nine o'clock we turned sharp round a projecting bluff that a moment before seemed to completely bar the way, and found the defile suddenly open out to the width of half a mile and beheld beyond the valley of the Tundja, and here, not more than half a mile distant, we saw a Turkish camp. Greneral Ranch had already learned from the Bulgarians that there were only a couple of companies here, and counting upon the effect of the surprise and the certainty that the Turks could not know that the Avhole Russian army was not at our heels, he determined to attack and clear the outlet at once. For two hundred Cossacks to attack two companies of infantry would be the height of absurdity in any other country in the w^orld but Turkey. Here, however, it seems the most natural thing to do imaginable, and we accordingly began to advance, firing. We did not attempt to charge them, as our object was rather to drive them away than to come to close quarters, where we should certainly have got the worst of it. The Turks were, as usual, completely taken by surprise. It is not a little remarkable that outpost service should be often the very last thing learned, and that it should never be learned at all by some nations, as by the Spaniards and the Turks, in spite of their having everything else — arms, equipments, organization — appertaining to modern Y^'arf are. I have seen a Spanish army march boldly within the enemy's lines, billet the troops in a village in a little hollow sur- rounded by hills half a mile distant, without putting out a single picquet, with the usual result of surprise and defeat. The military history of Turkey is full of surprises and defeats caused by the neglect of the outpost service, and yet they have learned no more on this simple point during the last four hundred years than on any other. So the force here watching a most important point had put out no picquets, it was taken by surprise, thrown into consternation at the near approach of the Russians, and instantly began to retreat — two com- panies of infantry of the regular army before 200 Cossacks. I could hardly have believed it if I had not seen it. They fired upon us as they fled, and we pursued, firing upon them, but there was little harm done on either side, our loss being five or six wounded. We drove them out on the Slievno road beyond the village of Khaini and waited the approach of reinforcements. In the course of the day General Grourko arrived with six battalions of Russian sharpshooters number- ing about 2,000 men, and towards evening the Bulgarian THE START OJf KEZANLIK. 269 legion, tlie dragoons, tlie hussars, the rest of the Cossacks, and the artillery arrived, making up the whole detachment, and the outlet of the defile was made safe. The force under General Gourko's command now consisted of seven battalions of Bulgarians, about 5,000 men; six battalions of sharp- shooters, about 2,000 men, the battalion of sharpshooters being very small; a brigade of dragoons, 1,000 men; a regiment of hussars, 500 ; and three regiments of Cossacks, 2,500 nien ; three batteries of field pieces of six, and a battery of mountain guns light enough to be carried on horses — in all about 11,000 men. With this force, half of which were raw recruits not yet four months under arms, and one-fourth more (the Cossacks) irregulars, the Russians made and secured the passage of the Balkans, one of the most formidable bulwarks ever raised by nature for the defence of a country. And they did it mth a loss of six men wounded. For the pas^ge was secured from this moment. Even had the attempt to force the pass at Kezanlik proved unsuccessful, the whole army could have crossed this pass with ease. The next day there was some appearance of the Turks con- centrating to attack us. The three battalions that had passed on the way to Slievno two days before seemed to have returned, and made a show as if they would attack. General Gourko took the dragoons and started to meet them, giving orders for the Bulgai-ian troops to follow, as he wished to try them once under fire. But the three battalions of Turks retired so rapidly before the two regiments of dragoons that the Bulgarians could not get up to them. The dragoons drove them some ten miles in the direction of Slievno, and then returned to Khaini. This retreat of three battalions of infantry, 2,000 to 3,000 men, before 1,000 cavalry, was almost as bad as the flight of two companies before 200 Cossacks. The next day after this affair, or the third after the arrival at Khaini, General Gourko, leaving the Bulgarians to guard the place, took the rest of the detachment, and started for Kezanlik. We met a small force a short distance from Kliaini, which fled before us firing a few shots. This force retreating before us proved to be a most unfortunate circum- stance for four or five Turkish villages on the way to Kezanlik. They took refuge in these villages, and either they or the inhabitants fired on us from the houses. The result was that we set fire to every house from which we had been fired at, •and, the fire spreading, these villages were for the most part destroyed. The Turks seem to have the faculty of always doing the wrong thing and never the right one. Had they fired at us from behind the rocks and trees in the defiles of 270 WAR COBEESPOXDEXCE. tlie Balkans it would liave aimoyed ns very considerably, delayed onr progress, and have done the Tnrldsh population no harm. Instead of that, they fire at us from \illages in the plain in the most senseless and useless manner, ^vhere this kind of resistance could not delay our march an hour, with the natural result of getting these villages burned. They leave no mistake uncommitted that perversity, ignorance, and stupidity can commit. In the meantime the news of our arrival had spread to Kezanlik, and the Turkish commander there detached three battalions from the force guarding the Shipka Pass, and sent them to meet us. We met this force near Maglis, when we had made about two-thirds of the distance to Kezanlik, and the fight began at once. The Turks had taken position in the gardens, and opened fire upon us as soon as we came iNithin range. Without hesitating a moment, the Russians formed in order of battle, and advanced firing, and the Turks instantly began to withdraw. A running fight ensued, which was kept up all the way to Kezanlik, a distance of six or seven miles. That the resistance opposed by the Turks was not very stubborn may be judged by the fact that we made our usual march that day, and reached Kezanlik in the evening, having made the whole distance from Khaini in two days. The Russian loss in this running fight was some sixty killed and wounded, nearly the whole of which took place near Maglis, when the Turkish positions were first carried. We got into Kezanlik in the evening, and were most enthu- siastically greeted by the Bulgarian population. The Turkish inhabitants had withdrawn into their houses, frightened nearly to death. They had been kept in ignorance of the real progress of the Russians by the Turkish papers, which had been announcing a continued succession of victories for the Turkish arms. Their relief upon finding that the Russians passed through the town without molesting them was very gTcat. But they still had the lower classes of their Bulgarian neighbours to deal with, and this proved to be a far more diffi- cult matter than appeasing the Russians. These Bulgarians had many an old score to settle up, and they proceeded to call the Turks to account with a promptitude and decision which showed how firmly they believed that Turkish rule and Turkish domination were things of the past. Getting a Cossack or two, of whom there are always a number every- where without any very absorbing occupation, to go along with them, they would go into a Turkish house and rifle it of as many valuables as they could conveniently carry off. DISORDER AT KEZANLIK. 271 Money where it was to be obtained, jewellery, trinkets, orna- ments, linen, clothing, carpets were the things that were seized. No house was, however, thoroughly pillaged and ruined, except a very ieyy that had been abandoned by their owners, and those owners were men who, owing to their mis- deeds of last year, did not dare to remain and allow them- selves to fall into the hands of the Russians. One of these was a Sadoullah Bey, a namesake of the present Turkish Minister at Berlin, whose house was filled with plunder taken from the Bulgarians last year, and whose fields were likewise filled with cattle obtained from the same source. You may be very sure this man's house was thoroughly pillaged and wrecked, as were the houses of half a dozen others of the same class. The fault of it all must be fixed upon General Gourko, who for two days allowed the town to take care of itself, so intent was he upon carrying out the task which had been entrusted to him. Until the pass of Shipka was taken, his position was, of course, a most precarious and critical one. With a small force, completely cut off from the main army, and separated from it by the Balkans, against which the Turks might have rapidly concentrated their whole army south of the Balkans, he was, of course, justified in trying to get possession of the pass, and thus secure his own safety, before looking after the property of the Turks. !N"evertheless, I must say the Prussians managed things better. They did not appear in a village half an hour until there were proclamations on the walls, telling the inhabitants exactly what they were to do and not to do, with the penalty of dis- obedience printed in very large characters indeed. That penalty was usually Death. Dura le.c, sed lex, and a hard law is, after all, perhaps better than no law at all. But to those people who may wish to prove by what occurred here that the Bulgarians are just as bad as the Turks — as I have no doubt there are people who will — I should like to observe that there were no houses burnt here, that there were no Turks murdered, that no Turkish women were outraged, that no Turk was roasted alive, and that no Turkish children were spitted on bayonets and carried about the streets. Let it further be remembered that many of the Turks living here now were engaged in the massacres of last year, and we have the measure of difference between the Turk and the Bulgarian. I should have been glad if the Bulgarians had shown themselves free from stain in this business, but I fear that perfection is not to be found in human nature, and the Bulgarians must take their chance with the rest. The greater part of the Russian officers did all in their power to i)ut a 272 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. stop to the looting, thougli tlie fact of tliere being no regular government organized, and that it was nobody's business, made it difficnlt. Among others I saw Prince Tseretleif lajino- about with his nagaika, or Cossack's w^hip, in the most un- merciful manner. Among others who had the misfortune to fall into his hands was the interpreter to one of the brigade com- manders, a Grreek or Italian, who had been received and treated as a gentleman. The Prince found him in a Turkish house dividing spoil with some Cossacks, and without any more ado, struck him a savage blow across the face with his riding whip, and ordered him under arrest, thus bringing his career as a gentleman interpreter to a close ; an undiplomatic measure, but just for that reason effective and necessary. To return to the military operations. Greneral Gourko, having reconnoitred the positions of the Turks in the Shipka Pass, determined upon an immediate attack. The village of Shipka is some six or seven miles north from Kezanlik, right at the foot of the mountains. A peculiarity of the Balkans is that, while on the north side there is a long series of hills, lesser mountains before you come to the main range, here on the south they stop off short, wdthout any foothills at all, unless the other range south of the Tundja Yalley may be considered such. As you ride along the valley of the Tundja you see those monster masses of earth and rock and forest rising abruptly out of the plain without any intermediate hills or irregularities, like a row of sugar-loaves placed along a floor and rounded off at the top. The pass is therefore only a couple of miles from the foot of the mountain on this side, and the road up to it is very steep and difficult. The Turks had fortified it in the most thorough and effective manner, and had the Russians been obliged to attack it from the other side it would have cost them a fearful loss of life. As it was, it has cost the Russians something like four hundred killed and w^ounded. But the Turks w^ere discouraged when they found their positions were turned, and did not fight with any hope or chance of success. A Russian force had advanced on the Gabrova side, and it had been arranged that a combined attack was to be made on the pass from both sides at once ; but, OA^ang to the difficulty of communication, the combina- tion failed. The attack from the Gabrova side was made a day earlier than it ought to have been, or the one from this side a day later, I do not know which, and both were re- pulsed. The Turks might have held out a long time had they but had a supply of water ; but although they had victualled the fortress, they forgot w^hat was more necessary than food and that was water. It soon became evident, therefore, that TdEKISH TREACHERY. 273 they would liave to fly or surrender. N'evertlieless, in spite of this necessity, which was self-e\ddent, and of the certainty that a great many of them must inevitably fall into the hands of the Russians, they committed first an act of treachery and then acts of brutal atrocity, that would justify the Rus- sians in putting them without the pale of civilized warfare. During the attack made by General Gourko they raised the white flag, and when the Russians ceased firing, and sent for- ward a flag of truce, they seized the bearer of the flag, mur- dered him, and opened fire upon the Russians without warning. The whole business is so barbarous and so savage that the story would probably not be believed if it rested on Russian authority alone. Fortunately it does not. There was a Prus- sian officer present. Major Liegnitz, on whose authority, as well as on that of many Russian officers, the truth of the story rests. The Russian sharpshooters were pushing up the heights, gradually approaching the batteries, when suddenly a number of white flags were seen, and the Turkish trumpets were heard ordering the cessation of the firing. The Russians immediately ceased firing, and the whole line uncovered itself in what proved to be a very careless manner. A large white flag was then waved from the Turkish batteries, and a Russian went forward with a white flag to parley. During this time there seems to have been a general relaxation of vigilance, and Major Liegnitz went near enough the Turkish lines to open a conversation with a Turkish soldier. ISTo sooner had the bearer of the flag of truce gone into the fort than fire was opened by the Turks without warning of any kind ; and it Avas opened, Major Liegnitz assures, not accidentally by the soldiers, but by the sound of the trumpet, showing the order was given by the commander of the fort. The next day, when the Russians entered the fort, they found the body of the bearer of the flag of truce decapitated and horribly mutilated, together with the bodies of a number of other Russian soldiers who had fallen in the affair either^ killed or wounded, and whom their comrades had not been able to carry off. Most of the Russian loss in this affair was caused by the treacherous fire of the Turks after raising the white flag. What could have been the object of the Turkish commander in thus deliberately decoying a flag of truce into his lines and then murdering the bearer ? Evidently a pure- outburst of savage ferocity ; . the rage of the savage who finds himself beaten on all hands by a civilized enemy, and flings a deliberate defiance at civilized modes of warfare and , revenges himself in the only way his barbarous nature can find satisfELction, by violating the most sacred law of civilized 274 WAR CORRESPO:?fDENCE. warfare — the inviolability of a flag of truce. It is even believed by those who have seen the body, from the marks of bleeding, that the bearer of the flag was first mutilated and afterwards killed. * SisTOVA, August 8th. — The following is a narrative of Greneral Gourko's advance from Kezanlik on Jeni-Zagra : His force consisted of three columns, with orders to converge on Jeni-Zagra as follows : — The right column, consisting of the Bulgarian Legion, two batteries of artillery, and three regiments of cavalry, were to march from Eski-Zagra ; the central column, under Grourko himself, consisting of the Rifle Brigade, a regiment of Cossacks, and four bat- teries of artillery, marched from Kezanlik ; the left column, of five battalions of infantry, two batteries, and some Cossacks, marched from Hainkoi, the objective of all three columns being Jeni-Zagra. Grourko marched from Kezanlik on the 29tli July a terrible march of forty miles long. ]N"evertheless his troops came into action next morning on the left flank of the Turkish intrenchments in front of the railway station at Jeni-Zagra to support the attack of the left column on their right flank. The Turks fought desperately, and bayonet fighting was long and strenuous, but after midday the Russians forced the position, drove out the Turks, took Jeni-Zagra, captured three guns, blew up the railway station, and destroyed an immense mass of Turkish ammunition and stores. For want of cavalry, jio pursuit was then possible ; but next day the Cossacks fell on the retreating Turks. In the afternoon came tidings, by a circuitous route, that the right column was seriously com- promised in an attempt to force its way from Eski-Zagra, and General Gourko determined to march westward to its succour. That night (the 30th) he reached Karabunar, where he arrived in darkness, but the whole valley was illuminated by blazing villages. Next morning he marched onward upon Dzuranli, on the road to Eski-Zagra, ignorant of the fact that some 30,000 Turks confronted him, and stopped the road into the latter place. The Turkish batteries swept the road with persistent fire ; nevertheless General Gourko came into action, sending forward five battalions of infantry, covered by artillery. He had forty-eight horses killed in one battery, and eight in another. Later the Turkish masses strove to turn the Russian left. The opera- tion was resisted by the Tirailleur Brigade, supported by two regiments of the 9th Division. The attack was repelled, but with heavy fighting.. Still later a column of Circassian RirSSrAX IXEFEAT AT ESKI-ZAGRA. 275 cavalry strove to tnm the Rnssian right on the mountain slopes, and the attack was succeeding, when there appeared on the scene Lenchtenberg's cavahy, which had cut its way from Eski-Zagra, and which repelled the movement of the Circassians and saved the right wing. Greneral Gourko then bored on forward, and reached a position which afforded him a distant view of Eski-Zagra. Here there came to him an orderly who had evaded the Turks and brought him in- telligence that his right column, consisting of the Bulgarian Legion, was beset in Eski-Zagra by a force of Turks estimated nt twenty thousand men. General Gourko, small as was his force, resolved on an attempt to succour them, and in the meantime determined to maintain his position, but his resolu- tion quailed before the appearance of two massive columns of Turks marching on his flank and rear. He had to leave the Bulgarians to shift for themselves, and make good his own retreat through the difficult and narrow Dalboka Pass, tind thence through the Hainkoi Pass, accomplishing his retreat on Thursday, 2nd August, amid cruel hardships. In the retreat the wounded died like flies from jolting and exposure. Hale men succumbed from fatigue and sunstroke. As for the Bulgarian Legion composing Gourko's right column, they, after advancing from Eski-Zagra ten kilometres towards Karabunar, found the enemy and were driven in. On the 31st July, after very hard fighting, the Bulgarians had to retire into the defile north of Eski-Zagra, and thence effect their retreat through the Shipka Pass, Of the severity of the fighting a judgment may be formed from the fact that of the Bulgarian Legion, which began sixteen hundred strong, only between four and five hundred reached Shipka. The Russian cavalry is now all on this side of the Balkans. The Shipka Pass is strongly fortified and armed with twenty- eight guns and garrisoned by a regiment of the 9th Division. Two regiments hold the Hainkoi Pass, which presents a series of formidable defences. There are few troops for the present at Drenova and Gabrova. A brigade of the 14th Division is at Tirnova. Reinforcements are moving south to strengthen the detachments holding the passes. Cavalry is also advanc- ing against Osman Bazar. In the fighting of the 30th and 31st July, General Gourko lost three thousand men, exclud- . ing the Bulgarian loss. The Turkish Government, alarmed by the appearance of a Russian force south of the Balkans, summoned Suleiman Pacha, with the troops which had been operating against Montenegro, T 2 276 WAR CORRESPONDENCE. and made him commander-in- chief of the army which was to defend Adrianople. The following letter, describing the new Turlvish general, is from the correspondent accompanying his army : — C Adrianople, July 24:th. — The hero of the hour in European Turkey at this crisis of the country's danger is, without doubt, the victor of Montenegro, Suleiman Pacha. The difficulties thrown in the way of correspondents at Shumla following the mihtary operations of the Commander-in-Chief are such that I naturally inferred similar restrictions would be imposed with the army of Adrianople ; but I am glad to find, in an interview with Suleiman Pacha himself, this will not be the case. Fortified by a good introduction, I called upon him here, and he instantly relieved me of any other restraint than such a position would of necessity entail, and invited me to accompany him in the forthcoming operations. He was in the midst of soldiers encamped on the northern outskirts of the city near the old palace of the Sultans of Adrianople, which was until very recently the pride and boast of the place. Now it is in rapid progress of demolition, the materials as I write being carted away to aid in the fortifica- tions around, which are fast being raised. Some fifty batta- lions are already collected here, the grass on the river's bank forming their bed, and the clear summer's sky above their only covering. The (xeneral is hardly forty years old, a man of middle height, and for a wonder not inclined to corpulency, as appears to be the almost invariable effect of high command in Tiirkey. To look at his fair complexion, sandy beard and whiskers, and his grey eyes, one would almost imagine oneself in the pre- sence of a migratory Scotchman bent upon amassing wealth in a foreign land, and that pure English with an unmistak- able accent would proceeed from out of his mouth ; but no such phenomenon, unluckily for me, occurred, and instead the conversation was carried on in French. The General told me he was hard at work incorporating the new troops, whom he found on his arrival here, with his old soldiers from Monte- negro, and forwarding them up to Jeni-Zagra, near the terminus of the railway at Yamboli, where Reouf Pacha was at the moment. The news of the withdrawal from Eski- Zagra and Kezanlik, and the Shipka Pass, on the approach of the Russian advanced guard, had come in, and did not seem in the least to give cause for any anxiety, or to be unexpected by him. Various versions of the number of the ADVENT OF SULEIMAN PACHA. 277 enemy who liad up to this moment crossed the Balkans had reached him, extending from 8,000 to 30,000, but the latter seemed to be in excess of the real figure, and was extended over a A\dde area. That atrocities had been committed did not admit of a doubt, but they occurred out of the main body, and w^ere committed, it was said, by isolated bands of foraging Cossacks, w^ho were not the easiest of troops to tame •and civilize, and also by Bulgarian Christians upon their Mohammedan fellows. Nothing of the kind had occurred at Kezanlik or Eski-Zagra, and as regards his own army and the Turkish troops in general, the strongest orders of which language was capable (and that is not without meaning in the land of the Sultan) had been issued to prevent the ■slightest excesses of the men, who were fully aware that the eyes of all Europe were upon them. In a very few days im- portant operations would assuredly take place, in which the army of this part w^ould bear a foremost part. More infor- mation was given which it would be imprudent to reveal, and the Greneral invited me to accompany him to witness the march out of camp of ten battalions which were on the point of being sent by the railway to Jeni-Zagra. More than three- fourths of the men bore unmistakable symptoms of having gone through the campaign of Montenegro ; the faces of the majority, naturally embrowned with the toil of the fields, had assumed a far deeper dye, comparing strongly with those r)f the half-drilled recruits — much so in face, but more still in uniform ; the smartness, in comparison, of the one so recently turned out of the tailor's hands rendering still more marked the utter discoloration and dilapidated appearance of the other. The original colour and material were lost to all possible recognition, and many articles of attire — especially those considered by most nations as indispensable — had been attempted to be supplied wholly or in parts by any material which came nearest to hand. The dress of the officers shared in the toil-stained and tattered appearance of the men : but in many instances not the slightest attempts at uniform were made. One officer, and a most active and indefatigable one, on the General's own staff — a German by nationality — was fain to be content with a suit of brown holland, a counterpart of which may be met with in the shop-window of any cheap, but perhaps not fashionable, tailor at 15s. 6d. The officers' call brought this incongruity of appearance into still greater prominence — in fact, one had reason to doubt if uniform, properly understood, existed in this portion of the Turkish army — and when they in their turn had assembled iheir men around them to communicate the orders of the 278 WAR COREESPOXDEXCE. General, tlie variety of knapsacks, rugs, and general impedi- menta of a soldier on campaign became another source of wondciment. When we liear of pay being an almost iinbeard-of novelty, clothing is a secondary consideration, and can well afford to be overlooked, especially when the large majority of the men are decorated for the two campaigns in Montenegro* — the unsuccessful nature of the first being far more than counterbalanced by the brilliancy of the second. They are- good soldiers, and tried indeed by every hardship, extremes of weather, and the utmost amount of privation. Proud indeed' the General has reason to be of them, and he can rely on their making themselves a name amongst the myriads of the Czar now beginning to pour through the Balkans. But the order to march is given, the band plays its few wild notes as- a prelude to the soldiers' shout — thrice uttered by the whole as one man — of " Long live the Padishah ! " and onward they go to the defence of Islam. The massacres which followed Suleiman Pacha's first successes; exceeded even those committed upon the Bulgarians in May, 1876, and have made Eski-Zagra a name which will call uj> memories more terrible than those of Batak. ([ Headquarters of Suleiman Pacha's Army, Karabunar, July 29 til. — Up to the present time no military operations have taken place, but instead we have had a feast of horrors and atrocities, l^ot a day passes but reports arrive of excesses of every kind, and if even a tithe of them are true the war will soon become one of extermination, and the Eastern Question will have solved itself. The villages between this little station on the Yamboli line and Eski-Zagra appear likely to become as infamous in history as those in which the Turkish name will be branded to the end of time. The passion of revenge once let loose amongst a barbarous people is not to be stayed by military mandates, no matter how severe the language in which they may be couched. It is to be hoped that the B-ussian Commander-in-Chief is in earnest in his desire to- carry on the war in a civilized manner; and it certainly appears almost incredible to find the Turkish side professing*^ to be horror-stricken at outrages which they have so lately been doing their utmost to palliate. The first object I was taken to see on my arrival here was the severed head of a Bulgarian peasant which had just been brought in by a Turkish soldier who had himself j^erformed the horrid operation in revenge for being fired at. The head was thrown into a ditch close to the station, and there CRUELTIES AXD REPRISALS. 279 reraained a ghastly object" enough, until some charitable person covered it with earth. Next seven spies, as we at first heard, but afterwards a civil staff officer informed us they were not spies, but Bulgarian insurgents who had been charged with having blown up a railway bridge across the river here, were brought to the place of execution, which happened, much to my disgust, to be two stunted trees — the only ones growing near — adjoining the modest shed in which I happened to be quartered. None of the unfortunate beings appeared to show the least emotion as they stood surrounded by a few dozen soldiers and bullock-drivers ; and a rough but ready set of volunteer Calcrafts tied the ropes to the sparse branches of the trees, slipped the knots round their necks (excepting the last, an old man, who quietly performed that duty for himself, and sat down cross-legged on the ground, his eyes shut, murmuring what appeared to be a prayer, and patiently awaiting his turn), and, hauling them up, the end came almost without a struggle. Human life in Turkey, as in all other Oriental countries, is certainly taken and lost in a different manner to our own ; but I never could imagine such a scene possible as this that I most reluctantly was called upon to witness. The train just starting for Adrianople has in it the body of a . Mussulman split in halves, and otherwise mutilated in the most frightful manner, which Suleiman Pacha has sent to the Consuls there as a terrible proof of what the Russians and their followers are capable. A telegram from E/Couf Pacha has just been shown to me stating that the inhabitants of five villages near Eski-Zagra have been slaughtered, man, woman, and child, three hundred and forty in number, by the retreat- ing Russians. Within the next few days I shall have an opportunity, I trust, of making inquiries from the few survivors who have made their way in a lamentable state to Jeni-Zagra, whither our headquarters are now moving. Burning villages of the Christians are to be seen rdarking the line of march, and a spirit of ferocity has been stirred which will make the war a byword and reproach for many a year. The whole population is flying, and can be seen in countless thousands between here and Adrianople, with their miles of bullock waggons, containing their families and household goods, their cattle and sheep in common droves and flocks toiling painfully along in a vain hope of finding rest in a peaceful country. LI u IvA i; UNlV^:K^^^l'v