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THE
WAR CORRESPONDENCE
THE "DAILY NEWS"
Li \\ K A H \
1877
UNIVKKSITY OJ
WITH A CONNECTING
FORMING A CONTINUOUS HISTORY OF THE
WAE BETWEEN EUSSTA AND TUEKEY
INCLUDING THE LETTERS OF
MR. ARCHIBALD FORBES, MR. J. A. MACGAHAN AND MANY
OTHER SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS IN EUROPE AND ASIA
SECOND EDITION
CONTAINING A
FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE TAKING OF KARS
IrOnHon
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1878
{The Right of Translation and Rep'rod action is Reserved.]
LONDON :
WOODFALL AND KINDER, PRINTERS,
MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.
f
1^ J i.v
i CALIFORNIA. J l?1?>
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 <m
^ CALIFOIJNI A. I
280 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
CHAPTER XII.
THE FIRST CHECK AT PLEYXA.
The "Army of Kustchuk" — Russian Train-Officers — A Reconnaissance on
the Lorn — An Unpleasant Position — Baron Kriidener's First Attack on
Pievna — Carelessness of Russian Generals— Preparations for a New Attack —
A Ride through the Forepost Line — Greneral Skobeleflf — A Council of War
— Types of Russian Officers.
From following tlie narrative of General Goiirko's brilliant but
barren expedition beyond the Balkans, we return to survey tlie
situation of military affairs between that range and tlie Danube,
wbere events were occurring wbicb. were to cbange entirely tbe
cbaracter and prospects of the Russian campaign.
* Headquarters 12th Cavalry Division, Heights above Lom
River, July 22nd. — When I came back to this division
yesterday, I had been absent six days, in the course of
which time I had ridden over three hundred miles, had
wrecked my best horse, had been to Bucharest twice, each
time for only a few hours, and had never taken my clothes
off. There are no pretensions to a postal service in the Rus-
sian army in Bulgaria, and the only way in which the cor-
respondent can forward his communications is simply to act
as a courier as well as a correspondent. At length, the
day before yesterday, having fed the voracious maw of the
telegraph wire, I was free to return for a day or two to my
quarters with the advance division of this army. Quitting
Sistova in the morning, I rode first for Pavlo, where on the
previous day but one I had left the Imperial headquarters,
my subsequent route lying over Bjela, and along the Rust-
chuk road till I should find somewhere or other the people
I was looking for. Pavlo, where two days before there had
been the Emperor's headquarters, with a division encamped
around the farmyard, in which the Czar of All the Russias
had pitched his tent, was now solitary, forlorn, and deso-
late. The headquarters were gone, and nobody w^as left to
tell whither. A calf stood ruminating in the verandah of
the Bulgarian hut under which General Ignatieff was wont
to do his leisurely writing, and dogs were poking about the
ground which the dinner marquee had covered. The only
THE ARMY OF THE CZAREWITCH. 281
relics of the Russian' encampment, whicli had lasted for "over
a fortnight, were profuse straw, some bones, several dead
horses, which the Russians carefully leave unburied, and an
extremely unpleasant smell. I rode on to the bridge at
Bjela, where, in the khan at the end of the bridge, General
Timofeieff used to have his headquarters, and where I had
drunk I should be afraid to say how many glasses of tea.
The downs on which his division had encamped were now
bare ; the khan was occupied now but by a couple of very
reticent telegraph clerks, who varied what used to be the
standing formula of reply before the crossing of the Danube
— " I haven't the faintest idea " — by the blunter " I don't
know." One vaguely opined that Timofeieff might have
gone Tirnova way, which I knew to be untrue. I rode on
by the Rustchuk road, evening gradually coming on.
The wave of soldiers had passed and gone. I had thought the
Rustchuk army was never to pass the Jantra ; and now it
had crossed the Janti^, and left not a detachment behind.
In my haste I avoided the detour into the town of Bjela ;
had I gone there I should have found, as I afterwards
learned, the Imperial staff housed in the pretty half-town
half-village in the glen lying back from the Jantra. At
Monastir it grew dark, it began to rain, and my horse fell
lame. I was on a lonesome stretch of road, with fields on
either side, and I saw no alternative but to strive to get some
shelter among the sheaves of grain, which would also afford
food for my horse, and pass the night there. But holding on
a little to get on somewhat higher ground, I had the good
fortune to chance on a little camp belonging to the train of
two regiments of the 35th Division, which were some dis-
tance in advance. The officers were good enough to take
compassion on my forlorn plight, and to ask me to spend the
night with them. These train officers are invariably men of
mature years ; you find among them grey-haired lieutenants,
men who have long since completed their term of service,
and gone into the reserve ; but have been called out for duty
in this war. They are Russian officers of the old stamp,
rough, uncultivated, illiterate, ignorant of anything but mere
rudimentary soldiering, but worthy-hearted fellows, with a
chronic fondness for raki, and a desire to take things as
easily as possible. In the course of the evening we were
joined by a venerable but gay intendant, a sprightly Hebrew,
who knew a smattering of French, and who had in his
waggon a store of good things, which he dispensed with
great liberality. He was in charge of a drove of requi-
vsitioned cattle for the armv in front — animals of the most
282 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
miscellaneous kind. There were draugiit buffaloes and milcb.
buffaloes, buffalo calves, and old bulls, oxen, cows, sbeep, and
goats. But lie was liard up for fresh meat himself neverthe-
less, and bought a leg of mutton from a predatory Cossack^
who with a leer vouched for the fact that the sheep to which
the leg had belonged had been captured from the Turks. It is
needless to saj that the camp of the train had no night watch
set, and that no military precautions of any kind were taken.
Orders came for the cortege to march at two in the morning.
This I regretted, for I should have to renew my journey long
ere my horse could be rested. But with the officers was a
Prussian, employed as armourer to one of the regiments
w^hich the train follow^ed, and he told me I need have no
concern, for notwithstanding the orders, there w^ould be no
march till daylight at the earliest. He was more than right.
At eight o'clock, when I set forward, the camp of the train
still lingered in the mud of the valley ; the horses harnessed
indeed, but the tents unstruck till the rain should have
passed away.
I had left at Obertenik my division, my comrade, and my
waggon ; but at Obertenik noAV, which I reached about ten^
tramping dismally on foot through the mud, and leading my
lame horse, I found no cavalry division, but a small detach-
ment of Cossacks, the escort of the headquarter staff of the
Cz are witch, in command of the Rustchuk Army. He and
his staff had their tents pitched in a shady garden, and in the
tent of Colonel Dochtouroff, who is sous-chef of the staff, I
found Prince Dolgorouki, one of the aides-de-camp of : the
Emperor, who had the day before brought from the head-
quarters of the latter to the Czare witch some good news
concerning the passage of the Balkans. With Kezanlik in
Russian hands, and the Shipka Pass open, all concern regard-
ing the passing of the Balkans may be dismissed, and with
our know^ledge of the whereabouts of the mass of the Turkish
army, the date of the arrival of the Russians in Adrianople-
becomes merely a question of marching and of supplies. It
must be owned that the Russians are buying their successes
singularly cheap. IN'ot a thousand lost in the crossing of the
Danube. The Balkans crossed at an expenditure of certainly
under a thousand more fighting men ; the environs of Rust-
chuk reached with losses probabl}' under three figures. What
a bagatelle of sacrifice for successes so sweeping and so
important ! In the headquarters of the Czarewitch I failed
to receive any firm assurance as to the immediate prospect
of active measures against Rustchuk, and gathered, indeed,
that the plan of action of the " Rustchuk Army " had not yet
GENERAL VON FIRCK. 283
been definitely settled ; but on this subject I will speak
later.
Tbe whole army was forward toward Rustchuk, beyond Ober-
tenik. On the heights above Damogila, a village to the south-
east of Obertenik, I saw, as I rode onward, the white tents of
the 35th Di^dsion. At Trestenik, a village close to the chaus-
see, about six kilometres beyond Obertenik, I found the head-
quarters of the Archduke Yladimir, commanding the 12th
Army Corps. A division of this Corps — the 12th Division —
was setting out on its march from its bivouac on the plateau
beside Trestenik as I rode by. It is so rare to see a Russian
column march in an orderly manner, that one observed with
all the greater pleasure the marked exception which General
von Firck's division offered to the customary style of march-
ing. In the infantry column no straggling was permitted on
the march ; the men marched at ease, and without being*
locked up, but in order, and at a word the whole column could
have pulled itself together. When a halt was made, always
in the vicinity of water, so many men per company were
allowed to fall out and go to fetch water for their comrades,
so there was no wild straggling around the well or the foun-
tain, as is so often the case, with consequent loss and soiling
of a fluid which is exceptionally precious just now in this
part of Bulgaria. A sentry was placed on the water to pre-
serve order, with a picquet commanded by an officer near by.
As for the reserve artillery and the train of the division, it
followed with the utmost regularity under the superinten-
dence of officers specially detailed for the purpose. The
vehicles were not allowed to straggle all over the road, thus
blocking the way for all waggons coming in an opposite direc-
tion ; they were kept to their own half of the road, the drivers
were made to keep up, so that there was no loss of distance
having to be made up by jerking and fatiguing trots, and the
men on foot accompanying the- waggons were compelled to
march alongside their own vehicles instead of straggling all
along and all about the line of the column. It is curious to
observe the difference between divisions in respect to obser-
vance of such matters of discipline as the preservation of
order on the line of march and the keeping up of an efficient
circle of night watches and field guards. This 12th Division,
for instance, is as smart in these respects as any German
division. I noticed while passing in its rear the other day
near Kriuna that where roads bisected finger-posts were set
up specifying the place to which each road led. Kowhere
else have I seen with the Russian armies the adoption of this
simple expedient, which helps so much orderlies and provi-
284 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
sion trains, and wliicli is imiversal in tlie German army.
There are divisions througli wliicb. any one may ride without
challenge, and to which any force might approach within rifle
shot without observation. There are others which are sur-
rounded by a ring of sentries and picquets — too near in most
instances for purposes of efficient outlook, but still guarding
to some extent at least against surprise. When I give the
name of the general commanding the 12th Division — Baron '
von Firck — a nationality is indicated which renders needless
any further inquiry into the reason of the efficiency of his
command ; but in most cases the chief of the staff is the man
w^ho influences the state of camp and marching discipline
throughout a division, which it must always be remembered
is the true integer of the Russian military organization as it
practically exists, the Army Corps being a thing ad hoc, of
which this war is the first experience. I may mention one
curious circumstance in the Russian army. The generals of
brigade are mostly older than the generals of division. The
reason is, I believe, that generals of division have been chosen
because of either real or fancied efficiency ; generals of brigade,
having less responsibility, are not so carefully selected, and
seniority rather than merit has been the principle of their
appointment.
In the valley in which is situated the little wayside inn, or
what once was an inn, bearing the outlandish name of
Han Col Cisme, about twelve miles from Rustchuk, the 12th
Division halted, and I overtook my waggon. The infantry
had pushed on the cavalry a few versts, and Greneral Driesen's
headquarters were moving on to the heights where I am now
writing. We are within four miles of the Danube at Pirgos,
which is due north from us, and just over the crest of the
slope, on the reverse side of which is our camp, is the valley
of the Lom. We are rather crowded down in this corner
between the Danube and the Lom. Cavalry and infantry
camps are mixed up anyhow, and you might cover almost
with a good-sized towel the bulk of three infantry and one
cavalry divisions. A glance at the map will show that the
main river Lom, the Cerni or Black Lom, entering the
Danube at Rustchuk, flows down through Bulgaria in a
direction nearly due north, bending to the north-east as it
-approaches the Danube. Along its western bank is the
present position of the Russian Army of Rustchuk. It covers
■a broad front, although the principal concentration is near
the Danube. The right flank of its cavalry is at Polomarca,
a village about forty miles south of the Danube in the direc-
tion of Osman Bazar, and regiments are studded among the
THE LINE OF THE LOM. 285
villages on the western bank of the Cerni Lorn, all the way
to Pirgos. The Beli, or White Lorn, with a north-westerly
course, flows into the Cerni Lorn at the village of Kosova,
and the triangular interval between the two rivers is occupied
by detachments of cavalry belonging to the 12th and 8th
Cavalry Divisions. In all, about 40,000 men are now on the
Lorn. This position has been gained Avithout any fighting to
speak of. There was a trivial cavalry skirmish on the height
where I am now writing, and within sight of my tent door
are the graves of a few dragoons who fell in clearing the
crest of the Turkish troops. Two days ago there was a more
serious skirmish down in the Lom Valley. There is a village
called Kadikoi, about midway between the Lom and the
road between Rustchuk and Shumla. There was reason to
believe that Turkish troops were there in some force, and
from the heights on this side the Lom, the Russians opened
fire with one gun, with intent to provoke reprisals from the
enemy, and so gain some idea of his strength. But the
Turks were wise, or at least wily, in their generation. They
replied with one gun. If the Russians had brought two into
action no doubt they would have followed suit ; but in the
meantime a fair exchange was enough for them.
Emboldened by this seeming weakness, a couple of squadrons
of Bilderling's dragoons were pushed across the Lom in the
direction of Kadikoi. They advanced some distance, but not
to glory. They had passed through a swarm of Circassians,
lying in ambush, and suddenly the two squadrons were beset,
surrounded, and assailed with great fury. It remained for
them but to fight their way back, which they did with a hard
hand-to-hand struggle, losing some nine men killed and
twenty-one wounded. The killed were brought into camp
across their horses, for the Russians will not, if they possibly
can help it, leave their dead to the certain fate of being muti-
lated by the Turks. The Circassians followed the dragoons,
across the Lom, hanging on their rear, and trying to cut off
detached parties ; but they came a little too far. A battalion
of infantry had accompanied the cavalry as far as the Lom,
and had remained on this side. So when the cavalry came
back thus sore beset, the infantry were ready to cover them,
and the Circassians found themselves exposed to the wither-
ing rifle-fire which it has since been ascertained caused them
a loss of twenty men killed and fifty wounded. Subsequent
appearances indicated that Kadikoi and its vicinity had been
evacuated by the Turks, and to make this certain a recon-
naissance was conducted in that direction by the Archduke
Vladimir himself, at the head of a squadron of dragoons, a
286 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCTET.
squadron of ,' Cossacks, and a battalion of infantry. He
penetrated to Kadikoi without opposition, and found it empty
and deserted ; so lie determined to take the opportunity that
offered, and make a bold dash at the railway between
Rustchuk and Shumla. His Cossacks rode on through Buzin,
and struck the railway at the Guvemli station. This they
burnt, and blew up with dynamite an adjacent bridge, thus
effectually destroying the railway communication between
Rustchuk and Shumla. N'ot a man was lost in this brilliant
little undertaking.
There can be no doubt that the Turks, having behaved very
well during their retreat so far from Sistova, and throughout
this portion of Bulgaria generally, have at length given rein
to their fury against the Bulgarian inhabitants of the Lom
Yalley. The evidence is overwhelming that this is so. I am
not fond of accepting hearsay evidence in such matters, and
habitually allow a good deal of margin for exaggeration.
But when villages are entered with slaughtered men, women,
and children lying about among the ashes of their houses ;
when Bulgarian husbandmen are found dead in the fields,
shot apparently when labouring at their daily toil ; when at
the well, close to which I am writing, a Bulgarian was found
desperately wounded, with the cross scored by transverse
sword-cuts on his forehead ; when eye^dtnesses tell me all
this, I am bound to believe them. There is a village called
Kaceljevo, some distance up the Lom. In this village was
lying Colonel Bilderling, commanding a regiment of dra-
goons of Arnoldi's brigade. He left the village on a recon-
naissance down the river, and there were then in it about a
hundred live Bulgarian villagers — ^men, women, and chil-
dren. During his absence a detachment of Turks, whom
the Bulgarians who escaped reported to have been under the
command of a superior officer, entered the village. Most of
the helpless inhabitants fled for refuge into the church,
which is a large and handsome edifice. The door of it was
broken open by order of the officer commanding the Turks,
who entered and slew and spared not one of the unfortunate
inmates. I^ot a soul who had taken refuge in the church
escaped. Bilderling came back at night to find Kaceljevo
empty and desolated, and its church a shamble. Then a few
people who had not gone into the church, but had sought
hiding-places in the gardens round the village, came in
scared and trembling, and told him what had happened as
far as they knew. For the rest, the spectacle in the church
told its own story. My informant is Colonel Bilderling him-
self, and his commanding officer, the Baron Driesen, has
SEAUGHTER OT' WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 287
made a report of the occurrence just as I have told it to jou.
I do not see what room there can be for question that this
fearful story is but too true.
There have been occasional indications of an imminent battle
on this front, but they have always faded away into disap-
pointment. I think it may now be taken for certain that the
Turkish troops have broken up from the Lom line, and have
abandoned the cohesion with which they were credited. It
may be assumed that a certain proportion have drawn in
toward the fortified positions of E/Ustchuk — in fact w^e can
see their camps on the slopes of the Levant Tabia — and that
another portion have fallen back in another direction, pro-
bably in the direction of Shumla — it may be, however, in
that of Osman Bazar. They have uniformly declined to
stand, even when the pressure has not been heavy ; and it
cannot be said that any vigorous attempt has been made to
get to close quarters with them. Simply by the vis inertia
of the impending advance of great masses the Turks have
given ground, and the line of the Lom may now be said to
be clear. Et apres ? Well, I am no believer in an early
siege of Rustchuk. I see no indications of a siege. I find
no artillery park on this side the Danube, nor any prepara-
tions being made to bring any across. I believe that for
the immediate future the military policy is simply to mask
Rustchuk, and hold a force in readiness to strike w^her-
ever a blow or a demonstration may be of service in Bul-
garia ; to march east and give the hand to Zimmerman at
i Silistria, should he be threatened from Shumla ; to proceed
against a field force marching from Shumla against the troops
masking Shumla ; in fine, to be available for anything that
might turn up. Just at present, w^ere the enemy any other
enemy than the Turk, a fine chance seems to ofi'er itself
to enterprising leaders of delivering a telling counter-attack
athwart the line of the Russian 'communications. A cavalry
force crossing from Silistria to Kalarash might strike into
Roumania, destroy the village, and do incalculable damage,
and that with but little opposition, for the Russians seem to
have left Roumania strangely bare of troops. But from the
Turks a raid of this kind is not to be expected, and the
Russians seem to have accepted what is said to have been
Prince Bismarck's advice, and put all their eggs into the basket
which they have so successfully carried across the Balkans.
It seems pretty certain they will carry the eggs unbroken into
Adrianople. He would be a rash man who would speculate on
what may result on the Russian occupation of Adrianople.
This afternoon General Driesen came to our tent, aind,
288 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
informing us that] he] intended to ride along, and perhaps out-
side, the foremost line along the river Lom, gave us the oppor-
tunity of accompanying him. Indeed, he carried his kind-
ness so far as to lend me a horse, my steed being hors de
combat from overwork. It appeared that two reconnaissances
were designed : one, consisting of some hussars and Cossacks
and a battalion of infantry, under the command of Prince
Woronzoff, w^as to start from Solenik, on the White Lom, and
push on northward to Pizanca, on the Rustchuk-Shumla
road, which it was then to follow as far as Buzin, behind
Kadikoi, and as much further as the Turks would permit ;
the other, consisting of two squadrons of dragoons, com-
manded by the chief of General Driesen's staff, was to start
from our camp here, and, passing through Pirgos, was to feel
the Turks to the westward of the Rustchuk position, on the
high ground near the river- side. A battery in front of our
position here, and another above Pirgos, were to cover the
latter reconnaissance and reply to any Turkish fire w^hich
might be directed against it. This is rather pottering work
for the front of an army of some 70,000 strong, but it was
at least better than inaction.
We rode aw^ay to the eastward over abruptly undulating downs,
alternated with corn-fields, and got down into the rocky and
tortuous valley of the Lom, at the beautiful village of
Buzisma. The forepost line reached to the river, but did not
cross it. The downs were dotted all over with field watches,
and there was almost a row of sentries along the edge of
the high ground overhanging the river. Behind, admirably
posted, were strong picquets, composed of all three arms of
the service — a squadron of cavalry, a half -battalion of infan-
try, and a battery of artillery constituting the complement
of each. Strangely enough, there were no cavalry vedettes,
and this method of outlook seems sparsely used in the
Russian army. We found a good many of the Bulgarian in-
habitants in the village of Buzisma. The houses were some-
what dismantled, but the harvest w^as gathered into the farm-
yards. All the live stock had been driven away by the Turks,
as was to be expected. We found the inevitable Russian
soldier bathing in the Lom — he w^ould bathe although the
opposite bank might have been lined by Circassians. We did
not cross the river, but rode back on to our heights, and took
a long, careful survey of the ground on the other side. There
lay the w^hite houses of the village of Kadikoi, which,
although occupied yesterday, has not been held. Looking
across the level north-eastward toward Rustchuk there loomed
against the sky-line the elevated position of Said Pacha,
, BETWEEN TWO FIRES. 289
crowned by its earthwork redoubt, and with, its slope clustered
thick with Turkish tents. The redoubt of Said Pacha is one
of the outlying works of the Rustchuk fortified position, and
directly in front of the great centre of that position the lofty
plateau of the Seventh Tabia. But the scene was perfectly
quiet, and there were no signs of Woronzoff's reconnaissance.
So, turning our horses' heads, we rode northwards tow^ards
the chaussee along the forepost line. On the chaussee we
found a Russian battery in emplacements, the gunners waiting
for the order to commence firing, for from the top of the
ridge opposite, on the further side of a deep, bare, and rather
wide valley, a Turkish battery had come into action, firing
at the Russian battery above Pirgos, which had been the
original aggressor in support of a reconnaissance made by
Driesen, chief of the staff. The two batteries were blazing
away at each other vigorously, while behind us all the troops
in the position had formed up and were waiting for orders ;
but no orders came. The affair was confined to a duel between
the two batteries. On the slopes below the Turkish battery
we, looking across the valley at our feet, could see cavalry
manoeuvring. Two clumps stood fast, and small parties and
single horsemen moved about among the main fields without
apparently any very definite purpose. My belief was that
these people were Russian cavalry, operating slowly up the
slopes, and feeling their way beyond the Turkish battery.
Anxious to see how the dragoons were working, I rode through
the infantry forepost line below our battery, and down into
the valley, whence I began to mount the opposite slope with
intent to join the horsemen above. But they were not our
horsemen at all ; they were Circassians circling about there
by way of making a demonstration. I became aware of the
fact that I was approaching a hostile force in no very pleasant
manner. Along the slope which I was mounting, and in front
of the Circassians, ran the Turkish infantry forepost line —
some scattered picquets linked by a few sentries. These were
hidden behind the stacked sheaves of grain, and I did not
perceive that there was any such line until a fellow fired at
me at a range of not beyond three hundred yards. Another
followed suit, and I thought then that I had persevered quite
long enough in that direction, and, having discovered my
mistake, turned and galloped back down into the valley. But
other Turks began to fire, and then the Russian forepost line
set about replying while I was down in the dip between the
two lines, and the bullets of both parties whistled clear over
me. It was not so much an unsafe as an uncomfortable
position, for I could not get back in the face of the Russian
u
290 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
fire, and of course I could not go forward. I remember once
being in a similar fix when travelling in Catalonia, when I
chanced into the heart of a skirmish between the Bjoyalists
and the Carlists. There was no pleasure in remaining in the
awkward locality, so I wriggled ont literally, and reached the
Russian forepost line at a spot where there was no firing,
when, of course, I was promptly taken prisoner as a sus-
picious person apparently coming over from the enemy. By
this time the force in the valley in which I had left (xeneral
Driesen had come into action, and another from the other
side of the river, but the fire died out when the sun went
down, and no bones were broken.
The following letter presents a summary view of the situa-
tion of the Russian army in Bulgaria in the fourth week of
July, and briefly mentions Baron Kriidener's first check at
Plevna, the precursor of so many misfortunes, described in
subsequent communications : —
* Bjela, Jnly 2Srd. — On the 19th the Russians sustained a
severe check, if not an actual defeat, at Plevna. Greneral
Schilder, with a portion of the 9th Corps, consisting of an
infantry brigade with cavalry and artillery, was sent against
the place and seems to have approached it in a slovenly
manner. The Turks took the offensive and repulsed the
Russians with heavy loss. It is understood that Baron Krii-
dener, commanding the 9th Corps, will be superseded, and
it is believed that the 9th and 11th Corps will be formed into
a separate army under Prince Schahofskoy, to operate in the
west against Widdin. Orders have been sent to the 9th
Corps in the meantime to take Plevna, and tidings of the
result of the new operations are now being waited for. The
4th Corps will follow the 8th Corps across the Balkans.
The Russian Army of Rustchuk has advanced to the line of the
Lom River, touching the Danube at Pirgos, and is slowly
wheeling on that pivot to invest that fortress. Nearly forty
thousand men are now jammed into the angle between the
Danube and the Lom. The Turks have abandoned the line
of the Lom without fighting, and one part is believed to
have retired on Rustchuk and another to have fallen back on
Shumla. The Grand Duke Vladimir two days ago pushed a
cavalry reconnaissance through Kadikoi, and on to the
Rustchuk and Shumla Railway at Guvemli, where he cut the
telegraph wires, tore up the rails, and blew up the bridge on
the line with dynamite. Several isolated skirmishes have
INACTIVITY OF THE ARMY OF RUSTCHUK. 291
occurred, in one of wliicL a detachnient of Russian dragoors
was rongUj handled and lost a good many men. There was
some artillery fighting near the Danube yesterday, in which
a battery on the Roumanian side took part, and this morning
the bombardment of Rustchuk from Giurgevo has recom-
menced. When the bombardment from the Bulgarian side
will begin it is difficult to say. The siege train is on its way,
but it crosses at Simnitza, a fearful way round. Supplies
are difficult, as the base of the whole force now in Bulgaria
is still Simnitza, where there still is but one bridge. An
early attempt is expected to drive the Turks now around
Bustchuk into their fortified defences, but the investment of
the place is not yet imminent, as the progress of the troops
destined for that purpose is but slow.
The headquarters of the Grand Duke Nicholas remain in
Tirnova. The Czarewitch has his headquarters at Obertenik.
The Emperor, with his suite, is in Bjela. The Turkish
inhabitants are slowly returning to Bjela and reoccupying
their houses, after having suffered terrible hardships in the
woods. All report that they left their homes on a stringent
order issued from Constantinople. In the Dobrudscha General
Zimmermann has mastered the whole line of the Tchernavoda
Kustendjie Railway after some fighting. His object is
Silistria. The health of the army remains good. In the
12th Corps not two per cent, are sick.
I understand that there are no objections in the councils of the
Russian headquarters to give fair consideration to proposi-
tions for peace made at the present juncture, if they are of a
reasonable and satisfactory tenor; but that there can be no
question as to the direct advance with all due speed on the
Turkish capital if the Turks do not avert this movement
by suing for terms which will give satisfaction to Russia.
Neutral Powers cannot fail to recognize that the present is a
favourable moment for giving strenuous advice to Turkey to
be wise in time. The Bulgarian volunteers are being equipped
with arms and uniform, and drilled to act as gendarmerie all
over the occupied district.
* Obertenik, July 26th. — It was expected that to-day at length
there would have been something of great interest to report
from the Rustchuk Army. All was ready, and to-day was the
day named for the decisive movement, but everything stands
fast in compliance with positive orders from the superior
headquarters in Tirnova. The reason for these restraining
orders as regards the Rustchuk Army is not far to seek. The
11th Corps, having crossed the Danube at Simnitza, was on
u 2
292 ' WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
the marcli in tlie direction of Sliumla, and liad already made
progress in that direction nearly to the Upper Lorn, when the
mischance at Plevna to a portion of the 9th Corps arrested the
advance. Prince Schahofskoj, commanding the 11th Corps,
received orders to march across country from east to west,
and co-operate with the 9th Corps in renewed operations
ao-ainst Plevna, the 9th Corps marching southward from the
direction of Kicopolis. The 11th Corps was last night at
Bnlgareni, two days' march from Plevna. In three days, at
the outside, there must he heavy fighting there.
Plevna is believed to be held by a large portion of the Turkish
army of Widdin, with Osman Pacha himself in command.
Now is the time for the Roumanians to make a serviceable
diversion in favour of the Russians by crossing the Danube
about Widdin, it would be preferable below the fortress, and
threatening the Turkish communications between Widdin and
Plevna. The 4th Corps will support the 8th Corps in the in-
vasion of Turkey beyond the Balkans. In Kezanlik there are
now extensive concentrations proceeding. Between that town
and Eski-Zagra, which is on the Russian line of intended
advance, stand five-and-twenty thousand men who have
crossed the Balkans by different passes, from the Hainkoi
Pass on the east to the Shipka Pass on the west. This is a
mixed mass of regiments from divers corps, under the com-
mand of General Gourko. The 8th Corps has one division.
The 9th is in Shipka. The other is partly through the
Balkans, partly in the passes. Eski-Zagra is in Russian
hands, and Yamboli is so reported also, but this is not certain.
Iso time will be lost in pushing forward, but the delay is
occasioned by the difficulty of getting artillery and supplies
through the passes.
Around Rustchuk the Turks are now committing terrible
atrocities in the Bulgarian villages. In Kadikoi I have
myself seen the bodies of massacred men, women, and chil-
dren. On the other hand, arms have been entrusted to the
Bulgarian mountaineers between Tirnova and the Balkans,
and on the mountains, and they are abusing badly their
new liberty and their unaccustomed weapons. The Russian
Cossacks get the blame of the Bulgarian outrages. Within
the sphere of my observation on the foreposts about Rust-
chuk, the Russian troops are behaving with great self-
restraint. The Turks taken red-handed in outraging and
massacring are brought before a superior officer and then
hanged. At Pirgos this morning a marauding Turk suffered
this fate after having been tried and evidence heard last
night by General Driesen. To-day direct communication by
THE FIRST REVERSE AT PLEVJ^A. 293
pontoon boats, not a bridge, will be opened across tbe Danube
between Pirgos and Parapan. The Emperor remains in
Bjela,
t Bucharest, Juhj 2^tli. — I bave jnst received the following
from jonr Special Correspondent at the Russian head-
quarters : — " I have just come from Tirnova, where the Grand
Duke's headquarters still remain. Preparations are being
made there for the Emperor, whose arrival is expected shortly.
Two triumphal arches had been erected, the materials for
decoration being collected from the inhabitants in the
following manner : — Waggons drawn by oxen and attended
by police were driven through the streets, and received what
contributions were forthcoming, such as carpets, coloured
cloths, &c. The arrival of his Majesty is looked forward to
with great interest by the Bulgarian population. The muni-
cipal organization is going on rapidly. The native police are
already established with a special uniform. The Turkish
inhabitants begin to take heart, and come into the town with
produce from the country round. Cossacks and Bulgarian
patrols bring in Turkish prisoners daily. Last Wednesday
five hundred Turks were brought in from the front, amongst
them several officers, under escort of the Cossacks and Bul-
garian troops. The Grand Duke Nicholas examined the
officers, and was surprised to learn that they had not received
any pay for many months. The Russians seemed to have
pushed on a little too far into the interior without sufficiently
assuring their right flank, and consequently now find it
necessary to rest on their oars a bit before advancing the
main column further. It is probable, however, that the
advance guard of Cossacks may push beyond Jeni-Zagra ; but
no doubt the headquarters of the Grand Duke will remain at
Tirnova until the country on both sides of the Danube road
of communication is thoroughly secured against the enemy.
Last week the Turks evidently had the idea of cutting this
communication from Plevna, where very severe fighting took
place. The Turks are stated to have been nearly 30,000
strong. The Russian loss is reported very heavy. I was told
at Simnitza bridge that 400 Russian wounded passed over on
Thursday. Had this attempt on the part of the Turks
succeeded, it would have placed the Russians in an awkward
position."
The following letter describes the preparations for the second
attack on Plevna, under Baron Kriidener and Prince Schahof-
gkoy :—
294 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
* PoEADiM, July 30th. — Coming into Bjela from tlie foreposts in
front of RnstcL.uk on tlie 27tli inst., I learned of the movement
against Plevna, the details of wliich I have already com-
mnnicated by telegraph. Knowing that nntil the completion
of that operation the movement for the investment of E/iist-
chnk would stand arrested, and realizing of what importance
it was that the right flank of the Russian advance to the
Balkans should be cleared of the danger which undeniably
threatened it by the concentration at Plevna of a large
Turkish force flushed by the success achieved over the
previous unfortunate effort to take and hold that place
made by a portion of the 9th Corps, I at once determined
to join the force moving on Plevna. I was indebted to
General Ignatieff for a note of introduction to Prince Scha-
hofskoy, commanding the 11th Corps, a portion of which
was engaged in the operation, and my companion and myself
started on the long journey in the afternoon of the 27th. We
reached Pavlo the same night, and bivouacked in a Bulgarian
farmyard, w^here milk w^as procurable for ourselves and fodder
for our horses. As far as Pavlo the road was familiar to us,
but next morning we plunged into a terra incognita with
only the map for our guide. Of the maps of Bulgaria w^hich
I have seen all I can say is that the best are bad. They are
but blind guides, and the Bulgarian peasants whom one
questions as to the route have no idea either of distances
or of points of the compass. They reckon by hours, and
with most irritating looseness. " How far to Akcair ? " " Two
hours, sir." " What direction ? " A wave of the hand to
the right, and an indescribable howd, is the answer. You ride
on for an hour, and encounter another peasant. " How far to
Akcair ? " " Three hours ! " " What dirction ? " A wild,
indefinite w^ave of the hand to the left front, and a howl
as indescribable as the previous one, is the reply of this
exponent of local geography. If you desist from inquiries,
and try marching by the map, you find yourself trusting to
a broken reed. The most detailed map of the theatre of war
is the map of the Austrian military staff ; but its details are
too often erroneous. It lays down a road where there is not
even a cart track, and transposes villages in the most free-
and-easy manner.
On all the maps is depicted a broad road, a main highway
running between Plevna on the west, and the Jantra at
Kosovo on the east. It was our aim to strike this main
road ; once on it we could no longer be in doubt as to our
route. We searched for it first in Burunli. It was not
there. Nobody had ever heard of it. The map made it
PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW ATTACK. 295
running through the village of Akcair, but the only roads
about Akcair were mere cart tracks. At Studeni, although
according to the maps that village stood on it, all declared it
to be a myth. We found a road leading from Studeni, and
determining to follow it were comforted by the assurance of
a marketender I met that Tirnova, not Plevna, was its
objective. In despair I made a sort of cast, as a huntsman
might whose hounds are at fault, and quite casually, in the
middle of a plain, I found the road. It had been wonderfully
well made for a Turkish road — a ditch cut on either side,
metalling laid down on its surface, and nothing was wanting
to constitute it a highway but traffic upon it. But tall grass
grew through the stones upon it, and grass obscured the
profile of the ditches. I do not believe that a wheeled vehicle
had ever passed along it. It is a road which to all appearance
has no raison d'etre, carefully avoids the villages, and accom-
modates nothing and nobody. My idea is that the Turks, in
some sudden spurt of ardour for keeping up with the times
in matters military, had been advised that a great military
road athwart Bulgaria, from Widdin to Shumla, would be a
valuable work, and that accordingly the section of it between
Plevna and the Jantra was taken in hand. Made, it has
never been used. Farther on we found that the bridge over
the Osma, the only stream the road encounters, had fallen by
natural decay, and that on the other side the villagers were
reaping a hay crop on the road ; so we lost sight of it for
miles, and only picked it up again within a few kilometres
of the village in Avhich we found Prince Schahofskoy
quartered for the night, the village of Karajac Bugarski.
The 11th Corps, of which he is the chief, has had a chief share
of the hard work of this campaign, with as yet but little of
the glory of the fighting. The 11th Corps was the first to
cross the Pruth and occupy Galatz. War was declared on
the 24th April, and on the afternoon of that day a detach-
ment of the Cossacks, attached to the 11th Corps, and led by
Colonel Strukoff, streamed over the Reni road, and picqueted
their horses on the heights of Barbosch. It seems a year
ago, although only three months, since I called on Prince
Schahofskoy to ask for permission to visit his camps round
about Galatz. The corps stood long at Galatz and Braila
while the invading army streamed round and over it. It
made pontoons for bridges by which it was not to cross. It
made batteries for the siege guns at Braila, whose gunners,
not belonging to it, were to earn honour and glory by the
destruction of the Liitfi Bjelil. It made the preparations
which facilitated the later crossing at Hirsova of troops
296 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
belonging to another corps. It built and armed batteries at
Oltenitza, and stood tbe brunt of the return fire from the
sharpshooters and cannon of Turtukai. It constructed the
siege batteries on either flank of Griurgevo, and conducted
the futile and thankless bombardment of Rustchuk, about
which so much ink has been wasted. Crossing the river at
Simnitza, the corps marched on Tirnova, and hopes rose high
in its ranks that for its soldiers no more would be the function
of hewers of wood and drawers of water, but that they would
cross the Balkans and see fighting and earn glory and crosses
among the rose gardens of the Tundja Valley. These hopes
were shattered. A day's march from Tirnova the corps was
ordered to bend to the east and take up a defensive position
on the line of a Turkish march from Shumla over Osman
Bazar against Tirnova and the Bussian communications be-
tween that place and the Danube. Well, here at least was
the chance of a fight, for the Turks were reported in force at
Osman Bazar, and Schahofskoy had permission to march thus
far in search of an enemy. But on the 20th inst. there came
to the 11th Corps the order for yet another long march.
*' We are the football of the army," said an angry officer to
me whom I met on the road. I tried to console him by the
remark that it was rather an honour than a hardship to be
selected for exceptionally arduous duties ; and that further,
a fight clearly awaited him in this last expedition. The corps
has already earned a marching reputation at least. A glance
at the map will prove what splendid marching it has been to
make the distance from Kosarevac, some twenty miles east of
Tirnova, to the vicinity of Plevna, in six days, and that in the
intense heat of the summer. In the divisional hospital of the
32nd Division, into which I looked at Bulgareni on my way
to Prince Schahofskoy's headquarters, I found evidences of
the severity of the long march. Several men were down
with sunstroke, and there were cases of violent fever accom-
panied by delirium, brought on doubtless by the quick change
of temperature from the burning heat of the days to the cold
chills of the nights.
As I sat under the verandah of a hut talking with Prince
Schahofskoy there came towards us through the dusk of
the evening a form which seemed curiously familiar. There
flashed through my mind the question — Que diable etes-vous
renufaire dans cette galere ? as I instinctively rose to greet one
who seemed to me no other than Colonel Frederick Marshall,
erstwhile chief of the Horse Guards Blue, now one of the
aides-de-camp to the Duke of Cambridge. I was wrong. It
was not my gallant English friend, as good a cricketer as he
SKOBELEFF IN SEARCH OF A BATTLE-FIELD. 297
is a soldier, but his Russian double. There was a good pre-
cedent for my error. Is it not told among the stahvart
troopers of the Blues how, when after the Salisbury Plain
manoeuvres the Count Protassoff-Bachmeteff entered the
Albany-street barracks in plain clothes, the guard turned out
to him under the belief that it was their own colonel who
was entering ? At that time Count Protassoff was the
colonel of the Russian Garde a Cheval as Marshall was
colonel of our Horse Guards ! Another curious link in the
coincidence of the striking resemblance. The Wiltshire
rustics have not till this day forgotten the imposing figure,
clad in scarlet, and wearing a burnished helmet crowned by
a golden eagle, whose splendour eclipsed all the varied glories
of the foreign officers on the day of the great review at
Beacon's-hill which concluded the manoeuvres which were
our first and last attempt at the practical imitation of real
warfare. Count Protassoff is no longer chief of the Garde a
Cheval, he has now the rank of major-general, and he belongs
to the suite of the Emperor, but is attached to the head-
quarters of the 11th Corps for this expedition. To him
belongs much of the merit of having introduced into the Rus-
sian army the system of regimental messes, copied from the
pattern of the English system mutatis mutandis, of the details
of which Count Protassoff made himself master during one
of his visits to England. A long gossip over autumn man-
oeuvres helped to while away the evening.
In the dead of night that extraordinary fellow General Skobeleft*
the younger turned up in Prince Schahofskoy's headquarters.
He is the stormy petrel of the Russian army. If I were
riding along a road in a given direction in expectation of
seeing a fight, and if I chanced to meet young Skobeleff
riding in the opposite direction, without any inquiry or any
hesitation I would wheel my horse and ride in Skobeleff's
tracks, in the full assurance that I was doing the best thing
for myself and your readers. He is in the thick of every-
thing. In the grey dawn of the morning of the crossing I
shook hands with him on the edge of the bank of the Danube
after the bayonet charge in which he had taken part. His
face was black with powder, and he, general as he is, carried
a soldier's rifle, with the bayonet fixed. He was in the
fighting at the Shipka, and led the first column which tra-
versed that pass. There seemed some prospect of quietude
for some days on the other side of the Balkans, and the Plevna
expedition offered a prospect of fighting. Skobeleff is unat-
tached, and can rove from flower to flower, from one fighting
ground to another. He is, I sometimes think, a little mad,
298 WAR CORRESPONDENCE
but a man of real value in a kind of warfare such as tliis. It
would be embarrassing if every general were a Skobeleff ; but
a few Skobeleffs scattered up and do^m tbrougb a great army
bave tbeir uses. They generally end by getting shot, and
earn a short memoir and a good many decorations. But I
hope it will be a long time before Skobeleff meets his inevit-
able doom, for he is a right good fellow, and a stanch com-
rade. He came to us from Baron Kriidener's headquarters,
with instructions that he should take the temporary command
of Colonel Tutolmin's brigade of Circassian Cossacks, who
have also been attached to this expedition, and execute a
reconnaissance in the direction of Loftcha. He rode off in
the darkness, and came back last night, after having ridden
about fifty miles, with the tidings that Loftcha was held by
five battalions of Turkish infantry, and its rayon infested by
Circassians and Bashi-Bazouks.
On the morning of the 29th Prince Schahofskoy and his head-
quarters moved from Karajac Bugarski, and first went forward
some distance on the direct road towards Plevna. We passed
the cavalry f oreposts, and advanced indeed into the vicinity of
Grivica, without seeing anything of the enemy. It surprised
me not a little to find ourselves faithfully followed at a very
short interval by the whole of the headquarter baggage train.
Now, the headquarter baggage train of a Bussian general
commanding an army corps and his staff is no light thing.
Lord Albemarle tells us that in 1828, in the Russian column
which crossed the Balkans under General Diebitsch, every
general officer had his caleche. With the present Russian
army, it is not alone that every general officer has his carriage
— most have more than one — but the larger proportion of field
officers have vehicles also. On this staff there is a baggage
waggon between every two officers, and a surprising number
of miscellaneous vehicles besides. The chief of the artillery
has a travelling chariot drawn by four horses, driven after
the manner of a four-in-hand with us. Servants swarm, and
every servant contrives to find a place in or on a vehicle of
some kind or other. The staff train is half a mile long if it
is a yard, to say nothing of escort, marketenders, and the
priest, who rides in a vehicle of his own. A train such as
this must always be a great embarrassment and impediment ;
in an advance with favourable means of communication it
is an encumbrance ; in retreat, along bad roads, it must be a
nuisance of the most abominable character ; and fancy it
following the staff beyond the foreposts ! One great want in
the Russian army on the march is that of a skilled and
efficient field gendarmerie to regulate the trains, preserve the
MARCH OF THE ELEYE^s^TH CORPS. 299
order of marcli, see tliat intervals are properly maintained,
that ground is not lost, that straggling or irregular practices
do not occur, and to clear the way of civilian traffic in front
of an advancing column. Nothing could be more admirable
than the manner in which these varied and important func-
tions are performed by the German field gendarmerie, a
picked corps, with numerous experienced and carefully
trained officers, and the non-commissioned officers and men
of which consist of stanch and trusty old soldiers who can
be thoroughly depended on in every emergency. There is a
field gendarmerie service in the Russian army. Its men wear
a blue uniform with white aiguillettes. I saw them in con-
siderable strength about the streets of Kischeneft' : I have
seen very few of them since. Now and then a field gendarme
may be found jogging along with a column, but assuming
no responsibility, charging himself apparently with no
duty except that of getting forward, and unheeded by any
one, the meanest waggoner, who in the German army would
tremble at a glance from a field gendarme, taking no account
of the Russian policeman in the blue coat with the white cords.
There is not a single field gendarme with the headquarter
train of Prince Schahofskoy. Order is not its strong point,
and that it is badly superintended, or not superintended at
all, is obvious from the manner in which it wandered after
us on through the forepost line. It was countermarched with
some precipitation when the chief turned his horse's head
and rode backward within his own forepost line. Then we
rode — and it followed us by a zigzag track through some very
pretty country, where w^ere numerous villages, and where
haycocks stood thick in the fields, and corn-stacks in the
village farmyards — to the bivouac ground in one of the tents
of which I am now writing.
All night long we lay on the grass with tents struck and
horses saddled, waiting for an alerte. It was believed that it
was the intention to make the attack to-day, and that the
preliminary positions were to be taken up under cover of the
darkness. Fires were made up as if the army were remaining
in its positions, with intent to delude the enemy, if it were
not too great a compliment to pay to the Turks to suppose
that they would be on the outlook for any such indications.
We waited orders from General Kriidener, but they came
not. About midnight two officers rode to him from Prince
Schahofskoy, and brought back instructions that he meant
to delay the attack, partly because some of the troops had
iiot come up far enough, and partly to rest the whole after
their long and fatiguing marching. So about four o'clock in
300 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
the cold grim morning we pitclied tents again, unsaddled
the horses, and lay down on our cloaks for a long unbroken
welcome sleep. The delay in this case I do not believe to
have been dangerous. Undoubtedly the troops were sorely
worn with incessant marching, and the cavalry horses were
almost exhausted. One great anxiety was relieved. Reports
were brought in that no more Turkish troops were marching
from Plevna on Loftcha. This removed apprehension of a
flank attack in force from Loftcha on the left of the Russian
converging assault upon the Plevna position. Kriidener and
Schahofskoy were now free to concentrate their attention on
the latter place, leaving cavalry to watch Loftcha.
This morning there was a thunderstorm, which broke nearly over
us, and every man had to stand to his horse to pacify him
when the thunder rattled and the lightning flashed. Stam-
pedes are by no means confined to Aldershot. We had one
mth a vengeance the other day on the heights of Obertenik,
among the horses of the Oldenburg regiment of heavy
dragoons, in Baron Driesen's division. It was brought
about by a sudden thunderclap. The Russians do not
picquet their cavalry horses, but merely tie their halter-
, ropes to a continuous cord, stretched on upright stakes.
With one accord, two squadrons on the hill-top broke away,
and dashed at a headlong gallop in the direction of the
Turkish forepost line, which was not above four miles dis-
tant, in the direction of Rustchuk. They galloped through a
battery of artillery, whose guns stood unlimbered on the
crest a little farther on. The artillery horses, used to loud
noises, made no attempt to stampede, but remained quietly
munching their hay under the thunderstorm. The gunners
caught a number of the troop horses, and the infantry fore-
post line secured a number more, but sixty horses got clean
away, and, without slackening speed, galloped right in among
the Turks, who took no measures for their restoration.
Some days later an officer of the regiment, when in Kadikoi
on a reconnaissance, found several of the runaway horses
lying dead there. Apparently they had been overridden,
and not fed at all, and so had fallen down and died. I sup-
pose the picqueting question is by this time a weariness of the
flesh, but I should like to say that, having recently seen
nearly every modern system in practice, including that in
use among our Indian troops, it seems to me that the prac-
tice of the Belgian cavalry is infinitely the simplest. In
their stables and stationary horse-lines they have fixed
picquet pegs with rings at the top. These pegs are morticed
into stone, and it is beyond the power of any horse to draw
A STAMPEDE. 301
them. All young horses are tied up to these, and all manner
of noises are made to scare them. They struggle wildly to
draw their pegs, but in vain, and after efforts more or less
prolonged and energetic according to the nature of the horse,
they recognize the immovable character of the picqnet peg,
and cease to attempt the proved impossibility. When on
manoeuvres a comparatively slight peg is used, and found
quite effectual ; the horse, having once realized that the
picquet peg is not to be drawn, never tries more. It seems
rather a rash experiment to lean upon such a ruse, but
experience proves that it is quite safe. A Belgian cavalry
officer will gather together all the most easily scared horses
in his command, and give you full licence to scare them into
a stampede by any expedient your ingenuity may devise.
You may throw a handful of firework crackers in among
them, and they will be horribly frightened, will snort and
tremble all over, but will make no effort to draw the picquet
pegs, although a comparatively slight effort would have the
effect of doing so. The Russian Cossacks, when they turn
out their horses to graze, tie one fore leg and one hind leg
together ; but when on picquet duty they never tether their
ponies at all, but fasten the bridle over the high pommel of
the saddle, and, thus secured, the Cossack pony would stand
fast till he died of exhaustion. Probably it would take about
a year to starve him. He is so lean, so wiry, and so
thoroughly inured to privation that he must take a deal
of killing. Mr. Weller calls attention to the curious phy-
siological fact of the rarity of dead donkeys. Had Cossack
ponies come within the sphere of his acute observation he
would have coupled them with the donkeys.
This afternoon there has been a regular Council of War. About
one o'clock the generals, staff-officers, colonels, and adjutants
of the force under Prince Schahofskoy began to gather into
this bivouac to receive explanations and instructions respect-
ing the tactics of the offensive operation which is settled for
to-morrow. It was a fine opportunity for observing the
diverse types of Russian officers. Of these there are several
schools : roughly, the old ignorant school, the young ignorant
school, the old refined school, the young cultured and scien-
tific school, and the young dashing, reckless, refined school,
fluent in languages, knowing not much of the art military,
but fine gallant soldiers. The representatives of the first two
schools are rather boorish, give one a general impression of
having been sergeants, and with few exceptions are hearty
fellows with a pronounced liking for vodka, and not very
particular about knives and forks. The officers of the old
302 WAR CORRESPONDENCE ■
refined school are simply cTiarming, full of a spontaneous
courteous bonhomie which at once puts a man at his ease ;
fair linguists, men who have travelled, and mostly know
Courts, and who are full of consideration and kindliness. I
am not sure that modern soldiering is their strong point.
The gentlemen of the young cultured and scientific school,
with the Military Academy badge on their breasts, are very
much of the type of our Engineers ; a little priggish in their
way, slightly mysterious over trifles, which they choose to
regard as secrets, dry in manner for the most part, but when
you come to know them downright good fellows, whose
friendship is a privilege. It is in holiday time, or about the
fag end of an adverse battle, that I should like best to meet
a batch of youngsters belonging to the fifth school T have
roughly designated. They rather interfere with assiduous
letter- writing, but they are dear boys, and if one wishes them
further sometimes, one cannot help loving them.
To-day, on the windy plain, outside the tent, were representa-
tives of all these types : the grey-bearded, hard-faced old
major who, without " protection," has fought his sturdy way
up through the grades with long delays, much hard service, and
many wounds. He was an ensign in the Crimea, and after-
wards was forgotten for Heaven knows how many years in
some odd corner in the Caucasus. He is only a major, but
he has half a dozen decorations, and, please Grod, he will gain
another to-morrow, if he has the luck to stand up. He is as
hard as nails, and would as lief live on biscuit and junk as
on champagne and French cookery. There is little in
common between him and the tall, stately, grizzled general,
an aide-de-camp of the Emperor ; a man of the Court, yet
who has never forsworn the camp ; a man who will discuss
the relative merits of Patti and Lucca, who has yachted in
the Solent and shot grouse in the Highlands ; who wears his
decorations too, some of them earned in the forefront of the
battle, others, honorary distinctions, as marks of Imperial
favour. He can gallop, can this young hussar in the blue
and red ; he can cut the sword exercise, he can sing French
songs of a somewhat improper character, he can pick up a
bottle of champagne between his teeth, and holding it there
let the contents run down his throat ; he would give his last
cigarette either to a comrade or to a stranger like myself ;
he has the portraits of his mother and of a French lionne of
the demi-monde on his bosom, and in his secret heart he has
vowed to earn the St. Greorge to-morrow. I don't know that
I quite like Lieutenant Brutokoff yet. I know the first time
I met him I disliked him down to the ground. His manners
TYPES OF RUSSIAN OFFICERS. 303
-well, lie liad none to speak of — and his voice was a growl,
with a hoarseness in it begotten of schnapps. He did not
look as if he washed copiously, and was the sort of man who
might give some colour to the myth that the Russian has
not yet broken himself of the custom of breakfasting off
tallow candles. But he turns out a good fellow on further
acquaintance, and is no niggard with his raki. There are
in the throng young officers who would be a credit to any
service in Europe. One, the Count Keller, not yet thirty,
but a lieutenant-colonel, I became acquainted with first one
bleak day on the uplands before Saitchar, when he was lead-
ing a little column, of which he had the command, against
a Servian village held by a detachment of Turks, whom he
drove out with skill and daring. Baron Kriidener drives
up and is greeted by Prince Schahofskoy, his brother corps
commander. There is a brief inverval of hand-shaking and
general conversation, and then all stroll toward the farmyard
of a Bulgarian cottage. The generals and leading staff
officers gather close into the wide clay-floored porch, under
the spreading roof, and there, standing in a group, pore
over maps and discuss the plan of operations. The other
officers stand in knots about the farmyard, or sit on the
shafts of a cart, waiting for the detailed instructions to
them which will follow the settlement of the general arrange-
ment. The Turks are reported standing fast ; their positions
are knov^ai to be strong ; the orders to the Russians are to
succeed, cost what it may. Seldom, to alter Macaulay's
line, have I promise seen of such a bloody fray. To-morrow's
sun will set on smoke and fire, and all the lurid grandeur
and horror of a battle-field.
CHAPTER XIII.
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 Schahfoskoy — 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.
The following letter describes the attack on Osman Pacha's
position at Plevna, made by General Kriidener and Prince
Schahofskoy on the 31st July, twelve days after the first Russian
attempt to take that place. The whole of this letter was
304 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
transmitted by telegraph, aud appeared in the Daily Neivs of
August 3rd : —
* PoRADiM, BEFORE Plevna, August 1st. — The previous affair at
Plevna had been the only serious reverse the Russians had
encountered in the European campaign, but it had been very
serious, and as an aggravation it occurred through neglect
of common military precautions. When the commander of
the 9th Corps proceeded against N'icopolis he made the
omission of protecting his flank by not sending cavalry to
occupy Plevna, then only weakly held. Afterwards an easy
chance did not offer. The Turkish column from Widdin,
Inarching too late to succour Nicopolis, turned aside and
occupied Plevna. With intent to repair the blunder Greneral
Kriidener sent three regiments of infantry against Plevna
and without a previous reconnaissance. These, after hard
fighting, actually occupied the town. They had laid aside
their cloaks and packs in the streets, and had quitted the
fighting column formation, believing all was over, and were
singing as they straggled along. I^o patrols had been pushed
into the recesses of the town. !N'o cavalry had been sent
forward beyond. The whole business was slovenly to a degree.
The penalty was paid. Suddenly, from a hundred windows
and balconies, a vehement fire was poured into the troops
straggling along the streets. They were beset on all sides,
and had to retreat. One regiment left its packs where they
had been taken oft' in the street. During the retreat, more
or less precipitate, about 2,900 men were lost. One regiment
lost nearly 2,000 men. The retreating troops witnessed the
butchery of their wounded. On the 22nd Prince Schahofskoy
received orders to leave in position at Osman Bazar two
infantry brigades, and march on Plevna, right across the
theatre of war from east to west, with one cavalry brigade
and one infantry brigade of his corps. The 30th Division of
the 4th Corps, who were crossing the river at Simnitza,
en route for Tirnova, were ordered also on Plevna, to stand
under Schahofskoy's orders. The 9th Corps, about and in
front of Nicopolis, was ordered to co-operate in a combined
movement against Plevna. The regiments which suffered in
the previous affair clamoured to lead the vanguard of the
renewed attack. Riding across the country from the R-ust-
chuk front I overtook Prince Schahofskoy's headquarters,
on the evening of the 28th, in the village of Karajac Bugarski,
about twelve miles due east of Plevna. He had marched
from the foot of the Balkans in six days. Regiments of
infantry streamed through the village in the dusk amid clouds
THE OPPOSING FORCES. 305
of dust, and tramped on to take up their bivouac for the
night on the downs beyond, the cavalry brigade covering
the front further in advance. Reconnaissances had been
pushed forward, w^hich proved that the work in hand was no
child's play. Plevna was reported to be occupied by the whole
of Osman Pacha's army from Widdin, which strengthened by
troops from Sophia and others coming from the late Mon-
tenegrin campaign, was in all believed to be from 35,000
to 40,000 strong. The Turkish intrenchment line ran through
a series of villages lying in a semicircular order round Plevna,
at a distance from it of about five miles and touching the
river Yid on both flanks. A strong Turkish advance force was
reported at Grivica on the road along which lay Schahofskoy's
line of advance. From north to south the villages of the
Turkish forepost position were as follows — Plizitza, Bukova,
Radisovo, Tucenica, and Bogot. Schahofskoy was, as I have
said, in the village of Karajac Bugarski. His brother corps
commander. Baron KrUdener, was for the night in the village
of Kalisovit, on the road from N"icopolis to Plevna, and about
eight miles north-west of Schahofskoy's headquarters. As
senior general Kriidener was nominally in chief command of
the whole of the operations, but he acted under peremptory
instructions from the Grand Duke N^icholas in Tirnova.
In the night of the 28th the younger General Skobeleff reached
Prince Schahofskoy's headquarters from Tirnova, appointed
to the temporary command of the Cossack brigade in the
force of the Prince. He received instructions to march his
brigade to the southward, and occupy, if possible, the town
of Loftcha, an important position between Plevna and the
Balkans — a hazardous expedition, conducted along the face
of a hostile front, and likely to meet with resistance en
route, and also at the point of destination. But Skobelelf
galloped off with a light heart on this dangerous duty. I
spent the night in the house of a. very intelligent Bulgarian
who had been an agent of the American Bible Society in
Plevna. In answer to my remark that the Bulgarians on
this side of the Balkans seemed a thriving people and
not suffering severely from oppression, he stated that until
1866 Turkish rule in Bulgaria was light and tolerant. Then
the Circassian settlers were introduced, and with them came
law^lessness and anarchy. He attributed wholly to the
Circassians the impending ruin of the Turkish power in
Europe. But in quiet times the Bulgarian villagers who
w^ere wise generally found means of averting trouble from
■ the lawless Circassians. They made regular presents — paid a
sort of light tribute — to the priest of their village, who used
X
306 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
his influence with, tlie Circassians to avert tlieir exactions and
lawless acts. It is undeniable that for years past committees
have existed among the Bulgarians in favour of insurrection
and subscriptions made to this end. He himself had been
president of one of these committees. This ramification
coming to a head last year had alarmed the Turks and led to
stern repressive measures, but from these the Bulgarians
north of the Balkans had in a great measure escaped, and to
the last they had remained substantially unharmed.
Cn the morning of the 29th Prince Schahofskoy quitted
Karajac Bugarski, and made a reconnaissance along the road
towards Plevna, in the direction of Grivica, where the
Eussians killed in the previous attempt still lie unburied.
His march lay over beautiful grassy downs and through little
wooded valleys. The Turks were not seen, but cannon fire
was heard to the south in the direction of the march of
Skobeleff on Loftcha. Retracing his steps, and bending to
the southward, Schahofskoy bivouacked for the day on a
plain near the village of Poradim, with a brigade of infantry
in front. Another brigade marched up into line at our
quarters of the previous night. The Russian front was thus
widely extended, aiming at a concentric attack on the Plevna
position, much in the manner practised by the Prussian
Guards in retaking Le Bourget, but of course on a much
larger scale, and including an attempt at wholly enveloping
the enemy's position by cavalry operating on both flanks.
Such dispositions demand time, and accordingly we spent the
remainder of the 29th in a pleasant but anxious inactivity
in the Poradim bivouac, where hay and water were plentiful,
and where the neighbouring village actually afforded wine.
Patrols pushed forward, touching the Turks at Radisova,
Tucenica, Bogot, and Slatina. At night Skobeleff came in
with the intelligence that Loftcha and the intervening
villages were strongly occupied, and the Turkish force there-
abouts apparently being strengthened. About dusk began to
gather near our bivouac a very sorrowful company of Bulga-
rian fugitives from the villages on the road between Loftcha
and Plevna traversed by the Turkish troops. Women
came wailing a mournful dirge for their slaughtered dead
left behind in the abandoned village homes. A waggon rolled
along with a weeping woman in front. Behind was stretched
at length her husband, hacked, and scored, and slashed till I
wondered how a spark of life yet lingered in him. One hand
was half severed at the wrist, not by a sweeping sabre stroke,
but as if dissection had been attempted with a blunt knife.
His throat was hacked in a similar fashion. His forehead
BULGARIAN FUGITIVES. 307
and cliest were scored with, transverse slashes. He was
reported to be a victim of the Circassians. F nrther on, amid
a crowd of weeping women, lay a Bulgarian in the last
agonies. He had been almost scalped, and then an attempt
made to cnt his head off. It was not worth while bringing
him along, for he must have been hopeless from the first, and
he died while we stood looking on. He had come by his
death at the hands of civilian Turks abiding in the same
village. Fugitives narrate numerous slaughters of men, but
that no women or children were touched. I am not fond of
hearsay evidence, and prefer the evidence of my own senses.
It is on this latter evidence that I testify to what I have
written above, and also to the murders in the village of
Kadikoi before Rustchuk. Still, the killing seems excep-
tional, and the regular Turkish troops are never accused of
acts of violence. The blame is always ascribed to the Cir-
cassians and the Bashi-Bazouks.
The night between the 29th and 30th was spent with tents
struck and horses saddled, waiting for the order to advance,
in anticipation of the commencement of fighting at sunrise ;
but Baron Krlidener had determined to wait yet a day longer
to perfect his dispositions and give the troops, fatigued by
severe marching, some rest. The 30th was therefore spent in
inaction, except that the troops were somewhat drawn for-
ward to be within striking distance for the morrow. Tidings
came that no more Turkish troops were marching from Plevna
on Loftcha, which simplified matters, since fewer troops were
required to watch the latter place. A general council of war
was held at Poredin on the afternoon of the 30th, at which
were present Baron Kriidener, Prince Schahofskoy, and the
generals of division and brigades. The colonels of regiments
and staff officers waited to receive instructions as to the final
dispositions. It was settled that the action should begin next
morning at five o'clock by a general concentric advance on the
Turkish positions in front of Plevna, and that Prince Scha-
hofskoy and the general staff should move forward at four
o'clock. Several aides of the Grand Duke Nicholas arrived,
and were detailed to various points to make observations, and
after the battle to carry reports of the results back to Tirnova.
The gravity of the task before the army was fully recognized,
for reconnaissances had proved the Turks to be in greater
force than was at first believed. Twenty thousand regulars
had come from Widdin. The Turkish positions were known
to be strong by nature, and strengthened yet further by art.
The night between the 30th and 31st was very wet, and troops
did not begin to march forward before six instead of four.
X 2
308 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
The number of infantry combatants was actually about
32,000, witb 160 field cannon and three brigades of cavalry.
Baron Krxidener was on the right with the whole of the 31st
Division in his fighting line, and three regiments of the 6th
Division in reserve at Karajac Bugarski. He was to attack
in two columns, a brigade in each. On the left was Schahof-
skoy with a brigade of the 32nd Division and a brigade of
the 30th Division in fighting line. Another brigade of the
30th Division was in reserve at Pelisat. The Turkish position
was convex, somewhat in horseshoe shape, but more pointed.
Baron Kriidener was to attack the Turkish left flank from
Grrivica towards the river Yid. Schahofskoy was to assail
their right from Badisovo, also towards the river Yid. On
the left flank of the attack stood Skobeleff, with a brigade of
Cossacks, a battalion of infantry, and a battery, to cope with
the Turkish troops on the line from Plevna to Loftcha, and
to hinder them from interfering with the development of
Schahofskoy's attack. On the right flank stood Lascareff,
with a brigade of the 9th Cavalry to guard Kriidener from a
counter flank attack.
The main fault of the dispositions was that Kriidener and
Schahofskoy were practically independent of each other, that
the two attacks were too far apart, and without a connecting
link ; but the gravest evil, which did not rest with the com-
manders on the spot, was the weakness of the assailing force.
After the previous reverse nothing should have been left to
chance, and it is tempting Providence to attack the Turks in
a strong defensive position with inferior numbers. The
falseness of the economy stands proved to-day, when yester-
day's defeat makes the Bussian hold in Bulgaria extremely pre-
carious, and must compel the withdrawal of troops from some
other point where they are nearly as badly needed, to beat
the Turks at Plevna ; and beaten they must be, and that
speedily, if the risk is to be averted lest the Bussian army be
forced to retire ingloriously into the Principalities.
Preparation for the infantry was to be made in regular form,
but the artillery preparation loses much of its value when
delivered against constructed positions spread widely. Krii-
dener's blunder had given the Turks time to intrench them-
selves, nor had they neglected the chance.
The morning was gloomy, which the Bussians regarded as a
favourable omen. The troops cheered Adgorously as they
passed the General. Physically there are no finer men in
the world. In the pink of hard condition, and marching
without packs, carrying only great-coat, haversack with
rations, and ammunition, they seemed fit to go anywhere and
TOPOGRAPHY OF PLEVNA. 309
do anytMng. Schahofskoy's right coluinii marclied over
Pelisat and Sgalince. The left column headed straight for
Radisovo. The artillery v^^ere pushed forward from the first,
and w^orked independently. Marching forward, we found the
cavalry foreposts on the sky-line above Pelisat, and on the
sloping downs infantry deployed as they advanced, as the
Russian practice is on open ground. The formation was in
column of double companies, with rifle company in front of
each battalion. The line and rifle companies have the same
weapon, the Kranke. The rifle company is made up of marks-
men whose rifles are sighted up to 1,200 yards, whereas the line
is only to 600, the maximum fire-range of the Prussian infan-
try in the Franco- German war. Kriidener, on the right, opened
the action at half-past nine, bringing a battery into fire from
the ridge on the Turkish redoubt above the village of Grrivica.
At first it seemed as if the Turks were surprised. It was some
time ere they replied, but then they did so vigorously, and
gave quite as good as they got from Kriidener. The objective
of Prince Schahofskoy, with whom I rode, was in the first
instance Radisovo, and it behoved us therefore to bear away
to the left. But before doing so we were for a short time
in a position which afforded a wonderful view of the theatre
of action.
Plevna is in the hollow of a valley, lying north and south. The
ground which intervened between us and this valley was
singularly diversified. Imagine three great solid waves with
their faces set edgeways to the valley of Plevna, and therefore
end on to us also. The central wave is the widest of the three,
and a cheval of it are the main Turkish positions, of which
there seem three, one behind the other. Although the broadest
• wave, it is not the highest. The right and left waves are
both so high that one on the crest of either can look down
across the intervening valleys into the positions of the central
wave. But then the Turks are astride of all three waves.
The crest of our wave, the ridge above Radisovo, they do
not hold in force. Thus far we are fortunate ; but on the
most northerly wave of the three, that against which Baron
Kriidener is operating, and which is broader and flatter than
ours — more like a sloping plateau, if the expression is not a
bull — the Turks have intrenched position behind intrenched
position. Both on top of this ridge and of the central swell we
can discern camps of Turks with tents all standing behind
the earthworks. It is clear they don't intend to move if they
can help it. Their tents stand as if they had taken a lease
of the ground in perpetuity. Baron Krudener's cannon are
in action, not only in front of Grivica, which is the toe of the
310 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
horseslioe, but against its northern flank also, but the return
fire is so heavy that he makes no way, and for the time, at
least, is fast held. We try to aid him from the crest of our
ridge by bringing a battery into action against the Grrivica
earthwork, but the traverse of the redoubt is so high that we
do no harm. We of the left column have our own business to
attend to, and so we leave our casual outlook place among
the plum trees and move on in the direction of Radisovo.
This village lies in a deep valley behind the southern wave or
ridge of the Turkish position, and there is another ridge
behind this valley. On that ridge our cannon, placed by
Colonel Bischofsky, chief of Prince Schahofskoy's staff, w^ere
firing in line on the Turkish guns on the ridge beyond the
valley, mth fine effect. The infantry went down into the
valley under this covering fire and I accompanied the column.
We carried Radisovo with a trivial skirmish, for in the vil-
lage there were only a handful of Bashi-Bazouks, who, stand-
ing their ground, were promptly bayonetted. The Russian
infantry remained under cover of the village. I returned up
the slope to our batteries. These, firing with great rapidity
and accuracy, soon compelled the Turkish cannon to quit the
opposite height. During the last spurt of their firing Prince
Schahofskoy rode along the rear of our batteries, from the
right to the left, under a fire which killed two horses in our
little group. Our cannon playing on the Turkish guns on
the opposite ridge quelled their fire after about half an hour's
cannonade, and it was then practicable for our batteries to cross
the valley passing through Radisovo and come into action in
the position vacated by the Turkish guns ; and following them
our infantry also descended into the hollow, and lay down in
the glades about the village, and on the steep slope behiild
our guns in action.
Presently we had five batteries ranged along the crest of the ridge
beyond Radisovo, directing a converging fire on the Turkish
guns on the central wave or ridge beyond. Notwithstanding
their exposed position their fire was heavy and steady.
The row of cannon in action reminded me of the Grerman
batteries on the crest of Yerneville on the day of Grravelotte,
only that the Germans had ninety cannon engaged and we
had but forty. The staff awaited the result of the preparatory
cannonade on the ridge behind Radisovo. I went forward
again and got up to where our batteries were in action, and
there lay down. On the way I passed through Radisovo, into
which were falling many Turkish shells, which flew over the
ridge occupied by our cannon. It was passing strange to
witness peasant villagers standing in bewildered groups in
FIRST PERIOD OF THE BATTLE. 311
front of their houses while shells were crashing into the
place, while the children played nnconcernedly abont the
dnstheaps, and enjoyed themselves w^ithont misgiving as to
danger. For once Bellona was gracious to non-combatants.
I^ot a single villager was injured by the shell fire, although
several hundred shells must have fallen in the village. From
my point of vantage with our batteries I could look right
down into the Turkish positions. Four batteries were
defending the earthwork about the little village which seemed
to me to be the foremost of their fixed and constructed posi-
tions on the central ridge. It stood on a little knoll, and was
well placed for searching Avith its fire the valleys by which it
could be approached. Beyond were more, and yet more,
earthworks right to the edge of the broad valley, where the
roofs and church towers of Plevna sparkled in the sunshine
from out a circle of verdure. The place had an aspect of
serenity strangely contrasting with the turmoil of the
cannon fire raging in front of it. It seemed so near that a
short ride would have brought me there to breakfast, yet ere
we could reach it many men were to die. Men were dropping
fast around me in the battery already, for the position of the
guns was greatly exposed and the Turkish practice was mostly
very good.
By this time, one o'clock, our infantry had nowhere been
engaged. The operations hitherto were confined to the
artillery. Kriidener on the right flank had scarcely progressed
at all, and his co-operation in a simultaneously combined
attack on both flanks was indispensable to success. Would
that Schahofskoy had but acted on a full recognition of this
fact, which the obvious strength of the Turkish positions
should have impressed on him. Kriidener had gained much
less ground than we. He seemed little farther forward than
at the commencement, whereas we were at comparatively close
quarters, and within striking distance. Kriidener was behind,
either because his attack was not pushed energetically, or
because he was encountering obstacles with which we had
not met. Now Kriidener is regarded as a slow soldier and
unenergetic man. We swore at what seemed his inertness, but
it was not swearing only. Schahofskoy, in his impatience,
determined to act independently, and strike the Turks single-
handed. If Kriidener was slow, Schahofskoy was rash.
If the whole force was too small for the work, how much more
so was one-half that force ? Fearful was the retribution
exacted for that error of judgment.
About half -past two the second period of the battle com-
menced. To ascertain whether the artillery had sufficiently
312 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
prepared the way for the infantry to act Schaliofskoy and his
staff rode on to tlie ridge where our batteries were firing, and
had to dismount precipitately nnder a hurricane of shell-fire
which the Turkish gunners directed against the little group.
A long and anxious inspection seemed to satisfy Schahofskoy
and the chief of his staff that the time had come when the
infantry could strike with effect. This conclusion was arrived
at in the face of the fact that we of the left flank attack had but
three brigades all told, one of which constituted the reserve.
In other w^ords, we were about to launch ten or twelve thou-
sand men against commanding intrenched positions held by
an immensely superior force, and no whit crushed by our
preliminary artillery fire. I will now quit criticism for nar-
rative.
Two brigades of infantry were lying down in the Radisovo valley,
behind the guns ; the 32nd Division — Greneral Tchekoft''s bri-
gade — on the right, the 1st Brigade of the 30th Division on the
left. The leading battalions were ordered to rise up and ad-
vance over the ridge to attack. The order was hailed with glad
cheers, for the infantrymen had been chafing at their inaction,
and the battalions, with a swift, swinging step, streamed
forward through the glen and up the steep slope beyond,
marching in company columns, the rifle companies leading.
The artillery had heralded this movement with increased
rapidity of fire, which was maintained to cover and aid the
infantrymen when the latter had crossed the crest and were
descending the slope and crossing the intervening valley to
the assault of the Turkish position. Just before reaching the
crest the battalions deployed into line at the double, and
crossed it in this formation, breaking to pass through the
intervals between the guns. The Turkish shells whistled
through them as they advanced in line, and men were already
down in numbers, but the long undulating line tramps steadily
over the stubbles of the ridge, and crashes through the under-
growth on the descent beyond. N^o skirmishing line is thrown
out in advance. The fighting line remains the formation for
a time, till, what with impatience and what with men falling,
it breaks into a ragged spray of humanity, and surges on
swiftly, loosely, and with no close cohesion. The supports are
close up, and run up into the fighting line independently and
eagerly. It is a veritable chase of fighting men impelled by
a burning desire to get forward and come to close quarters
with the enemy firing at them there from behind the shelter
of the epaulement.
Presently all along the face of the advancing infantrymen burst
forth flaring volleys of musketry fire. The jagged line
CHARGING THE TURKISH INTRENCHMEXTS. 313
springs onward throngli the maize-fields, gradually assuming
a concave shape. The Turkish position is neared. The roll
of rifle fire is incessant, yet dominated by the fiercer and
louder turmoil of the artillery above. The ammunition wag-
gons gallop up to the cannon with fresh fuel for the fire.
The guns redouble the energy of their cannonade. The crackle
of the musketry fire rises into a sharp continuous peal. The
clamour of the hurrahs of the fighting men comes back to us
on the breeze, making the blood tingle with the excitement of
the fray. A village is blazing on the left. The fell fury of the
battle has entered on its maddest paroxysm. The supports
that had remained behind lying just under the crest of the
slope are pushed forward over the brow of the hill. The
wounded begin to trickle back over the ridge. We can see
the dead and the more severely wounded lying where they fall
on the stubbles and amid the maize. The living wave of
fighting men is pouring over them ever on and on. The
gallant gunners to the right and to the left of us stand to
their work with a will on the shell-swept ridge. The Turkish
cannon-fire begins to waver in that earthwork over against
us. More supports stream down with a louder cheer into the
Russian fighting line. Suddenly the disconnected men are
drawing together. We can discern the officers signalling for
the concentration by the waving of their swords. The dis-
tance is about a hundred yards. There is a wild rush, headed
by the colonel of one of the regiments of the 32nd Division.
The Turks in the shelter trench hold their ground, and fire
steadily, and with terrible effect, into the advancing forces.
The colonel's horse goes down, but the colonel is on his feet in
a second, and, waving his sword, leads his men forward on
foot. But only for a few paces. He staggers and falls. I
heard afterwards he was killed.
We can hear the tempest-gust of wrath, half howl, half yell, with
which his men, bayonets at the charge, rush on to avenge
him. They are over the parapet and shelter trench, and in
among the Turks like an avalanche. Not many Turks get a
chance to run away from the gleaming bayonets swayed by
muscular Russian arms. The outer edge of the first position is
won. The Russians are bad skirmishers. They despise cover,
and give and take fire out in the open. They disdained to
utilize against the main position the cover afforded by the
parapet of this shelter trench, but pushed on in broken order
up the bare slope. In places they hung a little, for the infan-
try fire from the Turks was very deadly, and the slope was
strewn with the fallen dead and wounded ; but for the most
part they advanced nimbly enough. Yet it took them half an
314 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
lioiir from tlie shelter trencli before thej again converged and
made tlieir final rush at the main earthwork. This time the
Turks did not wait for the bayonet points, but with one final
volley abandoned the work. We watched their huddled
mass in the gardens and vineyard behind the position, cram-
ming the narrow track between the trees to gain the shelter
of their batteries in the rear of the second position.
So fell the first position of the Turks. Being a village, it
afforded ample cover, and Schahofskoy would have acted
wisely had he been content to hold it and strengthen it till
Kriidener, on his right, should have carried the Grivica
earthwork, and come up in line with him. But the Grrand
Cross of St. Greorge dangled before his eyes, and tempted
him to rashness. Kriidener was clearly jammed. The Turks
were fighting furiously, and were in unexpected force on that
broad central ridge of theirs, as well as against Kriidener.
The first position in natural as in artificial strength was
child's play to the grim starkness of the second on that
isolated mamelon there with the batteries on the swell
behind it. But Schahofskoy determined to go for it, and his
troops were not the men to balk him. The word was again
" Forward ! " The first rush, however, was out of them.
Many must have been blown. They hung a good deal in the
advance, exposing themselves recklessly, and falling fast, but
not progressing with much speed. It is a dangerous time
when troops sullenly stand still and doggedly fire when the
stationary fit is on them. Wyndham knew what it meant,
and gnashed his teeth in rage over it when the fate of the
Redan hung in the balance which one rush would have
turned for us.
Schahofskoy kept his finger well on the throbbing pulse of
battle. Just in the nick of time half his reserve brigade
was thrown into the fight immediately below us, while the
other half took part in the attack more on our left flank.
The new blood tells at once. There is a move forward, and
no more standing and craning over the fence. The Turks
on the flank in the earthwork are reinforced. I had noticed
some Turkish officers on horseback, standing coolly behind the
bank of the vineyard that serves as a parapet to the prolonga-
tion. They ride off and speedily return, with an addition to
the defending force. I can hardly say how it all happens, but
all of a sudden the white smoke spurts forth all along the
lip of the epaulement, and swarms of dark-clothed men are
scrambling on to it. There is evidently a short but sharp
struggle. Then one sees a swarm of men flying across the
green stretch of the vineyard. But they don't go far, and
DEEBAT OF THE RUSSIANS. 315
prowl around the western and northern faces of the work,
rendering its occupation very precarious. The Turkish cannon
from behind drop shells into it with singular precision. As
a matter of fact, the Russians carried, indeed, this the
second position of the Turks, but never held it. It was all
but empty for a long time, and continuous fighting took
place about its flanks. About six the Turks pressed forward
a heavy mass of infantry for its recapture. Schahofskoy
took a bold step, sending two batteries down into the first
position he had taken to keep them in check. But the Turks
were not to be denied, and in spite of the most determined
fighting of the Russians, had reoccupied their second position
before seven.
The First Brigade of the 30th Division had early inclined to
the left, in the direction where the towers and houses of
Plevna were visible. It was rash, for the brigade was
exposing its right flank to the Turkish cannon astride of
the central ridge, but the goal of Plevna was a keen temp-
tation. There was no thoroughfare, however. They would
not give up, and they could not succeed. They charged
again and again ; and when they could charge no more
from sheer fatigue, they stood and died, for they would not
retire. The reserves came up, but only to swell the slaughter.
And then the ammunition failed, for the carts had been
left far behind, and all hope failed the most sanguine, as the
sun sank in lurid glory behind the smoke-mantled field.
Two companies of Russian infantry did indeed work round the
right flank of the Turkish works, and dodge into the town
of Plevna ; but it was like entering the mouth of hell. On
the heights all round the cannon smoke spurted out, and the
vineyard in the rear of the town was alive with Turks.
They left after a very short visit, and now all hope of success
anywhere was dead, nor did a chance offer to make the best
of the defeat.
Schahofskoy had not a man left to cover the retreat. The
Turks struck at us without stint. They had the upper hand
for once, and were determined to show that they knew how to
make the most of it. They advanced in swarms through the
dusk on their original first position, and recaptured their
three cannon the Russians had previously taken before
these could be withdrawn. The Turkish shells began
once more to whistle over the ridge above Radisovo and
fall into the village behind, now crammed with wounded.
The streams of wounded wending their painful way over
the ridge were incessant. The badly wounded mostly lay
where they fell. Later in the darkness a baleful sort of
316 .WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
KraAkentrager swarmed over tlie battle-field in tlie sbape
of Baslii-Bazouks, wlio smote and spared not. Lingering
tliere on the ridge till the moon rose, the staff could hear
from down below on the still night air the cries of pain, the
entreaties for mercy, and the yells of bloodthirsty fanatical
triumph. It was indeed an hour to wring the sternest heart.
We stayed there long to learn if it might be what troops were
coming out of the Yalley of the Shadow of Death below.
Were there indeed any at all to come ? It did not seem as if
it were so. The Turks had our range before dark, and we
could watch the flash of flame over against us, and then
listen to the scream of the shell as it tore by us. The whizzing
of rifle bullets was incessant, and the escort and the retreat-
ing wounded were often struck. A detachment of cavalry at
length began to come straggling up to take over from the sta-lf
the f orepost duty on the ridge, but it will give an idea of the
disorganization to say that when a company was told off to
cover somewhat the wounded in Radisovo, it had to be made
up of the men of several regiments.
About nine o'clock the staff quitted the ridge, leaving it littered
with groaning men, and moving gently lest we should tread
on the prostrate wounded. We soon lost our way as we had lost
our army. We could find no rest for the soles of our feet,
by reason of the alarms of the Bashi-Bazouks swarming in
•among the scattered and retiring Bussians. At length at
one in the morning, having been in the saddle since six on
the previous morning, we turned into a stubble-field, and,
making beds of the reaped grain. Commander, Correspondent,
and Cossack alike rested under the stars. But we were not
even then allowed to rest. Before four an alarm came that the
Bashi-Bazouks were upon us, and we had to rouse and tramp
away. The only protection of the Chief of what in the morn-
ing was a fine army was now a handful of wearied Cossacks.
About the Bashi-Bazouks there is worse to tell. At night
they w^orked round into Badisovo, and, falling upon the
wounded there, butchered them without mercy.
Kriidener sent word in the morning that he had lost severely,
and could make no headway, and had resolved to fall back on
the line of the river Osma, w^hich falls into the Danube near
Nicopolis. There had been a talk, his troops being fresh, of
renewing the attack to-day with his co-operation ; but it is a
plain statement of fact that we have no troops to attack
with. The most moderate estimate is that we have lost two
regiments — say 5,000 men — out of our three brigades; a
ghastly number, beating Eylau or Friedland. This takes no
account of Kriidener's losses. We, too, are to retire on the
AFTER THE BATTLE. 317
Osma river, about Bulgareni, and, to the best of our weak
strength, cover the bridge at Sistova.
One cannot in this moment of hurried confusion realize all the
possible results of this stroke, so rashly courted. Not a
Russian soldier stands between Tirnova and the victorious
Turkish army in Loftcha and Plevna. Only a weak divi-
sion of the 11th Corps stands between Tirnova and the
Shumla army. I look on Schahofskoy's force as wrecked,
as no longer for these many days to be counted for a fighting
integer. It is not ten days since the 30th Division crossed
the Danube in the pride of superb condition. Now what of
it is left is demoralized and shattered. So on this side of
the Balkans — the 8th Corps being already committed to the
mountains — there virtually remain but the 9th Corps, already
roughly handled, once at Nicopolis and again previously at
Plevna, one division of the 11th Corps, and the E-ustchuk
Army. Now if the Rustchuk Army is marched to the west
against Plevna, then the Turkish Army of Rustchuk is let
loose on the Russian communications to Tirnova. One cannot
avoid the conclusion that the advance over the Balkans is
seriously compromised. The Russian strait is so bad that
the scattered detachments have been called up from out
Roumania, and a Roumanian division, commanded by General
Manu, which crossed a day or two ago at Nicopolis, has been
called up to the line of the Osma River.
An aide-de-camp of the Grand Duke Nicholas was present at
the battle, and at once started for Tirnova with the evil
tidings. We are just quitting this bivouac and falling back
on Bulgareni with all speed, leaving the Bulgarian villages
to the tender mercies of the Turks. As I close I learn that
on our left General Skobeleff was very severely handled,
having lost three hundred men out of his single infantry
battalion.
The following letter describes the state of the defeated
Russians the nig'ht after the battle : — .
«
Bucharest, August 2nd. — It was the evening of the battle of
Plevna. The sun was going down behind the smoke-mantled
heights, in a glow of lurid crimson. The dusk was fast
settling on one of the bloodiest battle-fields of the century —
closing in round the batteries whose guns were still firing,
round detached parties of Russian soldiers who were doggedly
maintaining the fight against the swarms of Turks who formed
a ring around them, firing fiercely into their midst — round the
dead and the wounded lying thick on the stubbles, on the
318 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
grassy slopes, in tlie hollows among the maize plants and the
oak copses — round the knots of wounded who had crawled for
cover to the leeside of the grain stacks on the fields, and who
lay there in the unspeakable agony of waiting for the
inevitable doom which they knew too well was to befall
them — round the groups of miscreants tramping about the
battle-field intent on wreaking that doom on the defenceless
wounded, and stopping ever and anon to perpetrate some
barbarity. Prince Schahofskoy and his staff stood on the
summit of the ridge above the village of Radisovo, which
was crammed with wounded men. The fate of the battle had
hung in the scale for some time, but now all hope of success
had gone. There was no reserve among us in the acknow-
ledgment that the attack had been a failure ; all the concern
now was to do what was possible towards minimizing the
results of that failure. There was no conversation ; men's
hearts were too heavy for talk. We sat about on the knoll,
gazing down into the pandemonium below. The Greneral,
alone and apart, paced up and down a little open space in the
oak copse, gloom settled on his face. All around us the air
was heavy with the low moaning of the wounded, who, having
limped or been aided thus far out of the iight, had cast them-
selves down to gain a little relief from the agony of motion.
There was not even water for them, for Radisovo is all but a
waterless village, and what water trickled in a tiny rill from
the fountain behind the village was struggled for eagerly by
the parched and fevered wounded who crowded around it,
coveting with a longing, the agony of which the reader can
never know, a few drops of the precious fluid. I cannot tell
when I most respect and admire the simple honest Russian
soldier — whether when he is plodding along without a murmur
verst after verst, under a burden just double in weight that
which our soldiers carry, cheering the way as he tramps with
a lusty chorus ; or when, with cheers that ring with sincerity,
and with an alacrity which is genuine, he presses forward
into the battle ; or wl^en he is standing stubbornly confronting
his enemy, conscious of being overmatched, yet never dream-
ing of running away ; or when he is lying wounded but
uncomplaining, helping his neighbour in the same plight
with some trifling act of tender kindness, and waiting for
what God and the Czar shall send him, with a patient, un-
murmuring calm that is surely true heroism.
The darkness closed in around us, and the enemy seemed bent
on following the example of the darkness. We had been on
this ridge for a long time beyond the range of the enemy's
batteries ; but now these were advanced, and we were once
TROOPS LOST IN THE DARKNESS. 319
more under fire. Throngh the darkness we conld see the
flashes of the cannon shots ; thej must be back now in the
position on the knoll below — the position where four hours
ago the Russian soldiers had charged home with the bayonet,
and whence two hours ago the Russian cannon had been
firing. A second more, and nearer and nearer came the
whistle of the shells, with a swiftly gradual crescendo into a
scream as they sped over us and crashed down into the village
in the valley behind us ; and yet nearer there was the flashing
of the musketry fire in the darkness ; one could watch the
streaks of flame foreshortened down in the valley there, and
nerves tried by a long day of f oodlessness, excitement, fatigue,
and exposure to sun and the chances of the battle-field,
quivered under the prolonged tension of endurance, as the
throbbing hum of the bullet sped through or over the strag-
gling group. No man dared to say to that stern lowering
chief, eating his heart there in the bitterness of his disap-
pointment, that it was a bootless tempting of fortune to linger
longer on this exposed spot, nor did any man care to quit
for the sake of greater safety the companionship which had
endured throughout the day. So we lingered on till our
senses became dulled, until some dropped off into slumber,
regardless of the scream of the shells and the hum of the
bullets. It was a humane object which so long detained
the General in a position so exposed. There was no force
available to line the height and cover to ever so little
extent the wounded lying on and behind it from the Bashi-
Bazouks, who too certainly were prowling in the vicinity,
and ever coming nearer and nearer. An attempt had, indeed,
been made to get together a detachment of infantry for this
purpose, and a bugler, at the General's order, persistently
sounded the assembly, but the result was merely to gather a
handful of stragglers from half a dozen different regiments ;
and although but a company was- wanted, that trivial strength
could not be collected, so the General, his staff, and his escort
took up for the time a kind of informal forepost duty, and
there we waited till the pale calm moon rose and poured the
sheen of her white radiance over the battle-field. While it was
yet dark there had been no cessation of the firing, both
artillery and musketry, and now that heaven was holding a
candle to hell, the fire waxed warmer and brisker. Up from
out of it, with broken tramp, came a detachment, silent, jaded,
powder-grimed. There could not have been a company all
told ; a lieutenant marched at its head, and it was the remnant,
so far as could be gathered the sole remnant, of one of the
finest regiments of the 32nd Division, that had crossed the
320 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
ridge over wliicli its debris was now listlessly trailing itself
ttree fine battalions strong.
At length tbe jingle of cavalry accoutrements was beard, and
a squadron of dragoons rode on to the heights, and extending
in skirmishing order relieved the headquarter staff. It was
a poor screen to interpose between a victorious and remorse-
less army and a mass of wounded men ; but nothing more was
available. The Greneral had lost an army, the fragments of
an army had lost their General. We turned the heads of our
jaded horses, and, silent and depressed, rode down the slope
across the valley and up the slope beyond. But on me fell
the burden of a personal anxiety. I had missed my young
friend Yilliers, the artist of the Graphic. He had been with
me till darkness on the ridge. Sorely fatigued, he had
expressed a desire to go away. I had advised him to get on
the slope behind the ridge, and to take some rest. But when
we rode away I could nowhere find him. I quartered the
slope carefully and shouted his name aloud, but without result.
Recumbent men by the dozen I looked into the faces of by
the moonlight, but they were all wounded soldiers. At length
a Russian told me he had met Villiers some time ago in
the bottom of the valley, when he had said he meant
to go into Radisovo and try to be of some use among
the wounded. Then he was with the doctors, and, as
I trusted, would take no harm, although occasional shells
were still falling in Radisovo. So, trying not to think about
him, I rode on with the staff. Our pace was a slow walk,
for there were wounded men everywhere, limping along the
narrow pathway in front of us, prostrate on the grass by
the side of it, or asleep in the very dust. Occasionally we
struck detachments of infantry who had scrambled back out
of the fight, and were lying on their arms in utter ignorance
of the best direction in which to march. Or it might be a
battery of artillery, halted in perplexing dubiety whether if
they went on they might march into the bosom of the
Turkish army. I believe there existed some intention that
we should go for the night to a village called Bogot. But
we got confused as to the road, and bewildered by the crack-
ling spurts of musketry fire that broke out all around in the
most uncomfortable fashion. Were the Turks then wholly
round us, that we heard, and occasionally felt, fire as it
seemed to north, to south, to east, and to west ? Once such
was the confusion that we were fired upon by a detachment
of Russian troops, halted in equal bewilderment with our-
selves, and expecting an enemy from any or every side. We
made halt after halt, but there never was rest for us. A
THE RETREAT. 321
spurt of near firing would stir us, or a Cossack would ride in
with intelligence that the Bashi-Bazouks were prowling near
by, and through all this harassment there yet lingered with
the most sanguine of us the idea that the battle would be
resumed next morning, we affording an artillery support to
the supposedly fresh troops of Kriidener. Where, I asked
myself, is our artillery to take orders for such a purpose ?
We did not know where we were ourselves, much less where
the army was, of which this groping, forlorn, dejected band
were the headquarters. Of Kriidener's experiences or
whereabouts we knew simply nothing. It was useless to
despatch aides-de-camp or orderlies without being able to
give them a direction in which to ride. All we knew was
that ever there were wounded men about us, and that we and
our horses were dead beaten.
Nature will assert herself. About one o'clock in the morning
we turned aside into a field where the barley had been reaped
and piled into small stacks. These we tore down, shook some
sheaves out as fodder for our horses, and others as beds for
ourselves, and, throwing ourselves do^ATi, fell into dead
slumber. But there was no long rest for us. At three
o'clock we were aroused by the tidings that the Bashi-
Bazouks were close to us, and* the near firing told of the
accuracy of the statement. We huddled a number of
wounded into and upon some carts which came up casually,
and started them off, whether in the right direction or not
we had no conception. Ugh, how miserably raw and chill
struck the bleak morn just before the dawn ! But if the
rawness of the air struck to our marrow, hale and sound men
as we were, what must have been the sufferings of the poor
wounded, weakened by loss of blood, faint in the prostration
which follows so inevitably the gunshot Avound ; f oodless,
without water, lying on the damp grass by the wayside in
their blood-clotted clothes! Yet 'happy were they, pitiable
as was their plight, in comparison with their fellows who had
littered the battle-field, and had been left behind in Kadisovo.
The fate of the former we knew from what we had ourselves
seen; of the latter, it was told to us by scared messengers
that the Bashi-Bazouks had in the dead of night worked
round our left flank, and had fallen upon them and butchered
them in their helplessness. The horror of the news thrilled
us all, but the tidings had for me a special agony of appre-
hension. For it was to join these wounded that Yilliers was
on his way when last seen, and there fell upon me the terrible
fear that he had been with them when they met their cruel
fate. I dared not follow out the reasoning ; I recoiled from
Y
322 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
that witli unutterable horror, and yet I groped around the
edges of the fearful problem to which I was tethered, and
could find no escape. I thought of the quiet London home
under whose roof -tree I had sat and listened to a mother talk
with joy and pride of an only son, of whose safety she pro-
fessed to feel assured while he was with me, and there rose
before me the ghastly horror of the terrible duty that must
devolve upon me to plunge that home into an abyss of
unspeakable woe. There remained but one hope. We had
trysted to meet at the Poradim bivouac, should chance sepa-
rate us. I spent the morning riding about inquiring of every
one I met if my friend had been seen ; the reply was ever in
the negative. I reached Poradim to find the headquarters
camp struck and A\dthdra^Ti, and only a few lagging strag-
glers on the broad common. I waited there long in vain ;
at length the sense of another personal duty asserted itself,
and with hope all but quenched in my heart, I turned my
horse's head and rode away to Sistova. Travelling thence to
Bucharest, I was the bearer of the bitter news to the little
English coterie in the R;Oumanian capital, and there was
cast upon it the shadow of a great sorrow, for Yilliers had
lived there some weeks before we crossed the Danube
together, and to know him was to love him. On the evening
of the day of my arrival some of us were sitting in sad con-
clave, trying to hope against hope, when the lad walked in
among us safe and sound. He had not gone into R-adisovo,
having met outside it a convoy of wounded on the march,
which he had accompanied, and after a night of vicissitude
had followed my example, and struck for Sistova, and so on
to Bucharest. I leave to the reader to imagine our joy and
relief.
* Bucharest, August ord. — Compelled by two reasons, sheer
physical exhaustion and the necessity for procuring another
horse, vice the animal broken down by prolonged exertions in
connection with the Plevna affair, to remain here over to-
day, I regret to be compelled to speculate as to the course
of events on the other side of the Danube, instead of being in
the position to forward tidings of actual facts.
The battle in front of Plevna has without doubt wrought a
houleversenient in the Russian position and prospects of a
character almost unique in the history of modern warfare.
How bright seemed the Russian military future this day
week ! Grourko stretching out his arm almost within clutch-
ing distance of Adrianople ; the Czarewitch waiting but the
word from Tirnova to cast a girdle of stalwart soldiers and
EXTENT OF THE REVERSE. 323
solid eartliworks aroimd Rustcliiik, Sclialaofskoj and Kru-
dener, in the full expectation of Aviping out the slur of
Schilder's failure at Plevna ; Zimmerman swaggering at his
will about Eastern Bulgaria, threatening Silistria, sending a
reconnaissance in force toward Yarna, and within a few
marches of giving the hand to the right flank of the army of
the Czarewitch, wlien that army should have invested Rust-
€huk. One bad day, or rather six hours' hard but disastrous
fighting, and, lo ! the scene changes ; the sunshine is overcast
by black clouds ; the advantages of the Russians crumble like
burnt-out tinder ; the grim question confronts them, whether
their position is not so dangerously compromised as to create
disquietude for their mere safety. Devise what scheme of
action they may, any and every disposition opens up a new
danger. Do the broken forces of Schahofskoy and Kriidener
remain unstrengthened on the line of the lower Osma, or
strengthened but by the other division of the 4th Corps, with.
intent to cover Sistova, and the all-important single link
there between Bulgaria and the Principalities — the bridge
between Simnitza and the Turkish town opposite ? Beaten,
disorganized, and weakened, there can be no certainty that
this force is able to withstand the Turks advancing in force
against it, and the result of another battle that should go
against the Russians would be the clearance for the Turks of
the road to Sistova, and the absolute severance of the whole
Russian force in Bulgaria from its base in Roumania. Do
the Turks in Plevna and Loftcha prefer rather to marcli
against Tirnova, co-operating with Mehemet Ali Pacha's army
of Shumla, already known to have strong advance detach-
ments about Osman Bazar ? There is not a Russian battalion
between Loftcha and Tirnova, and in the latter place there is
a mere handful of the fag end of the 8th Corps, now partly
in, partly through the Balkans. All the Russian force that
t5tands between Osman Bazar and Tirnova is a weak infantry
division. General Ernrot's, the 11th Division of the 11th.
Corps, with a cavalry brigade of the same corps. Isolated,
and with its line of retreat compromised, what stand could
this force be expected to make ? And with Osman Pacha
and Mehemet Ali shaking hands together in Tirnova, or
indeed with either of them there alone, what is the plight of
the 8th Corps and Gourko's people, jammed in the Balkans
or dispersed in reckless raids on the farther side ? Cut off
from their line of retreat, it would only remain for these
forces to draw together into the Balkans and hold out in the
hope of succour coming in the shape of fresh troops fighting
their way up from the Danube. Men aver that it is possible
T 2
324 AYAK CORRESPONDENCE.
for Radetsky and Grourko so to liold out for a montli ; if so
all the luckier for them. The report is here to-day that the
Turks — I know not what Turks, whether from Loftcha or
Osman Bazar — have already retaken Tirnova. It is eminently
possible in the abstract that this is true, but I distrust the
accuracy of the tidjngs ; yet the very existence of the report *
is significant as indicating the general recognition of the-
precarious character of the Russian position.
" Ah, but," says my Russian friend, with whom I am discussing^
the situation, " you are ignoring the existence of the twa
complete army corps which constitute the Army of Rust-
chuk." lN"ot so, oh Utopian strategist, not so ; but pray indicate
to me how you are to utilize them ? Are you going to march
them from east to west, reinforce with them Kriidener and
Schahofskoy, and sweep on against Plevna with this over-
whelming strength ? I agree with you that after hard fight-
ing and terrible loss, this force is strong enough to sweep the
Turks from the Plevna position, and so relieve the pressure
from the west on your line of communications, gTanting always
that they stay in Plevna waiting for the attack. But if you
had undertaken to fence on both sides a line of road of a
certain extent, and if an accident smashed the palisading
for a certain distance on one side of this road of yours, it
seems to me that you would scarcely be carrying out your
duty satisfactorily if you were to repair that gap with a slice
of the i^alisading from the other side. And that is just what
you would be doing were you to remove the Rustchuk army
from its present position and march it westward to co-operate
in an attack on the Plevna positions. The road from Rust-
chuk up the Danube would be oj)en to a column striking^
out from the force now under the guns of the fortress, and
marching on the bridge at Sistova, nor would anything stand
between the Russian line of communications between the
Danube and Tirnova, and th^ Turkish force now echeloned
on the line between Rasgrad and Osman Bazar. Nor is this
all. If the Rustchuk army be removed from its present
position, the condition of Zimmerman, even now far from
safe, becomes eminently precarious. He would be in the
heart of a hornets' nest with no help within hail. It would
be open to the Shumla army to fall upon him and smite him,
aided by diversions from Silistria and Yarna. You suggest
that one corps of the Army of Rustchuk be left in its present
position, and the other withdrawn for operations against
Plevna. One might ask vv^hether the reinforcements for
Schahofskoy and Kriidener of a single corps would insure
the object in view, but, granting that it Avould do so, picture
TEEILS OF THE RUSSIAN POSITION. 325
tlie risks to which the other corps so forlornly left watching
Rustchuk would be liable, and the contingencies were it
unable to hold its ground.
The fact is that to have any assurance of safety in Bulgaria
now, the Russians require there two more army corps. They
are in the position of a man who is urgently pressed for five
pounds, and has only about three pounds ten in his pocket,
without the chance of opportune borrowing. They are
borrowing, it is true. They have brought the E/Oumanian
division under Manu up into the line of the Lom ; and I hear
they are pressing for the other Roumanian division now in
fighting trim either to create a diversion at Widdin, or to
march on Mcopolis, and cross there into the Bulgarian
theatre of war. Of course there is for the present a total
cessation of oifensive operations on the part of the Russians
on this side of the Balkans — we do not know what is happening
on the other side ; but probably paralysis prevails there also,
and I believe that what is regarded as the least evil has been
chosen, the withdrawal of troops from the Rustchuk army to
operate against Plevna. The truth is, Plevna must be taken,
and Osman Pacha's army must be beaten. That is an absolute
sine qua non to the continued stay of the Russians on the
other side of the Danube. The Grand Duke Nicholas has
left Bjela for the Osma, and will himself command in the
pending operations, the preparations for which must consume
some time.
The Russians are frank enough themselves in confessing to
reverses, and I have never known them attempt to throw
dust into one's eyes since the Danube was crossed. They
may occasionally be silent, but they do not lie. I was
-surprised, therefore, knov»'ing Avhat I knew from personal
knowledge, to hear in Bucharest yesterday on all sides that
the Russians had taken Plevna. The story was told with
circumstantiality, and Roumanians assured you that the news
was official. I knew it must be false, and I learned later who
was responsible for it. It was an invention of a high
Roumanian official, its object being to stay the panic which
had set in all over the Principalities with such intensity.
As an instance of the panic-begotten canards, I may mention
that the people asked me, as I drove into G-iurgevo on the
morning of the 1st, how near were the Turks; 'and when I
reached Bucharest, alarmists were proclaiming that the
Turks were already in Alexandria. The Roumanian official
promulgated within his own jurisdiction the tidings of the
taking of Plevna, and he also telegraphed them on to the
Poreign Office in Bucharest. The permanent Under Secre-
326 WAll CORRESPONDENCE.
tarj's impulse was to commnnicate tlie news to tlie Agence
Havas and to tlie Roumanian representatives in other
capitals. But it liad occurred to Mm that he had better first
make a few inquiries at the Russian Consulate, where Grort-
schakoff and Jomini are presently in residence. There he
WRS told that he would do well to remain quiet and so ther
erroneous information has not been officially forwarded out>
side Roumania, but it has appeared in most of the Bucharest
papers. It remains to be seen whether this Plevna reverse
is to diminish or add to the chances of early peace. I fear
the former, because the Turks w411 be naturally encouraged^
and the military honour of the Russians will be at stake.
Just before the Plevna discomfiture, I believe that the frame of
mind at Bjela was eminently pacific. The truth is that, so far
as regards the army, the war has lost its character of a crusade.
And if the army is thus affected by the exercise of the com-
monest faculty of observation, its views must react on Russia,
with which epistolary communication, if slow, is unrestricted..
Any number of officers, many of high rank, and more than
one in the personal suite of his Majesty the Emperor, have
spoken to me without reserve on a topic which is of deep
interest for us all. They declare themselves to have laboured
under the most profound misconception as to the condition
of the Bulgarian Christians. They had believed them op-
pressed, impoverished, impeded in the exercise of their
religion, sure not for an hour of their lives, of the honour of
their women, of their property. It was in this belief that they
thrilled with enthusiasm for a veritable war of liberation.
And, they continue, how do we actually find the Bulgarians ?
They live in the most perfect comfort; the Russian peasant
cannot compare with them in comfort, competence, or pros-
perity. Personally, I may add that I should be glad if the
English peasantry were at all near them in these attributes.
Their grain crops stretch far and wide. Every village has
its teeming herd of cattle, brood mares with foals, goats, and
sheep. The houses are palaces compared with the subterra-
nean hovels of the Roumanian and Wallachian peasants.
Last year's straw is yet in their stackyards. Milk may be
bought in every house. In the villages, for one mosque, there
are half a dozen Christian churches. Ko man experiences
anywhere a difficulty in getting silver for a napoleon. And
the Bulgarian villager is by no means enthusiastic over his
" liberation '' — especially as it entails while in jDrogress a fair
chance of his having his house burnt and his throat cut by
the Turkish irregulars. But while he is spared this fate, and
pending the achievement of his liberation, he has as good a
EUSSIAN REVERSES IN ASIA. 327
notion of turning an honest penny as if lie were a Yankee or
a Scot. He " sticks " tlie Russians unmercifully. So far as
circumstances permit, they pay for all Bulgarian property, in
the way of forage, &c., which they consume. And don't they
have to pay ! The Bulgarian realizes that in this matter he
is the master of the situation, and lines his pocket accor-
dingly — " puts money in his purse."
CHAPTER XIY.
SECOND PERIOD OP THE CAMPAIGN IN ASIA,
The Turn of the Tide — Defeat of General Tergukasoff at Eshek Khaliass — And
of General Heimann at Zevin — Retreat of the Russian Left Wing to Zeidikan
and of the Centre towards Kars — Mukhtar Pacha's Advance— Raising of the
Siege of Kars — The Kurds and Circassians — Terrible Massacre at Bayazid —
Relief of the Bayazid Gan-ison by General Tergukasoff — Battle at the
Aladja Dagh — A Turkish Joan of Arc.
We may take advantage of the interval of suspense between the
second and third Russian attack upon Plevna to survey the
course of events in Asia. When we last noticed them the Russians
still retained the prestige of their early superiority ; but we saw
that the balance of military power was gradually being restored,
and now we shall find that before the month of June was ended
the advantage had been visibly transferred to the Turks. In the
middle of June the Russians were investing Kars in the hope
that its garrison might be reduced by famine. Erzeroum was
threatened by the right wing of the Russian army, under General
Tergukasoff, which defeated the .Turks near Delibaba on the
16th of June. But from that time the fortunes of the Russians
waned. They had begun the campaign with too few men;
the insurrection in the Caucasus, which was aided by the
Turks, necessitated a diversion of troops which might otherwise
have increased their strength in Armenia, and at the same
time the military authorities at Constantinople awoke to the
danger to be apprehended from a continuance of their old neglect.
Mukhtar Pacha received reinforcements, guns, and money, and
began a series of movements by which, without fighting great
battles, he gradually pushed back the enemy. On the 21st of
328 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
June lie collected Ms forces, and defeated Tergukasoft, compelling
liim to fall back to Zeidikan. Tlie most disastrous check, how-
ever, was that sustained hj the Russian centre at Zevin, midway
between Kars and Erzeroum, on the 25th of June. Here General
Melikoff attacked superior forces occupying a very strong
position under a Hungarian who bore the name of Faizi Pacha.
The battle was long, and the Russian losses so great that
Melikoff was compelled to retreat; Mukhtar Pacha was enabled to
order a general advance, and even to raise the siege of Kars
before the demoralized Russians could offer him any effectual
resistance. The following letter is from the Turkish side : —
D Erzeroum, July oth. — After the battle of Alaschkir, some
three hours in front of Delibaba, I deemed it expedient to
move towards surer lines of communication. My experience
of the Soghanli Dagh camp, and the fate of my letters and
despatches there, had made me somewhat less trusting than
before. Besides, I noticed a somewhat unusual movement of
irregular troops, Kurd and Circassian horse. Three battalions
too were already moving from Delibaba towards the centre.
It struck me that I could combine two objects — the despatch
of my news and the chance of witnessing a movement of some
kind at the centre. The Circassians were mounting, and a
picturesque sight it was. The lovely mountain gorge cele-
brated in the annals of brigandism, where but a few days ago
the Teheran courier had a desperate fight for his life, was
thronged with the half-soldier half -robber Circassians. There
were white-headed emirs and Avild-eyed troopers with furred
bonnets and various arms. There were semi-savage Kurds
with preternaturally large eyes and cucumber noses, brandish-
ing their lengthy lances, and saying things a good deal more
complimentary to themselves than to the tea- drinking invaders
on the snow-streaked hill beyond. Myself, my guide, and my
Armenian interpreter, although we would have willingly
chosen other company, took our place in the picturesque
column. There were a couple of hundred of Kurd lancers ; the
Circassians numbered some twelve hundred. As we rode
down into the Tarkbodja Valley towards the banks of the
Araxes, horseman after horseman rode up beside me. They
had a confused notion about an " English Pacha " who was
with the army. Notwithstanding my silk turban, Asiatic
scimitar, and sunburnt face, I w^as immediately singled out,
xind my opinion w^as asked as to w^hether it was likely a
MOUSSA pacha's CIRCASSIANS. 329
considerable English, force would shortly arrive on tlie scene
of action here. I replied in as oracular a fashion as possible,
and rode hurriedly up to the great silk standard round which
were grouped people more or less responsible for the indi-
viduals in the column. Evening was closing in as our long
trailing column neared the marshy banks of the Araxes.
The engineers had planted stakes from bank to bank to
indicate the ford. After floundering half an hour in the
sedgy borders we crossed — almost swimming oar horses — and
then scrambling again over the marshes beyond, got into
Khorassan. I had already made myself comfortable in my
oda — that is to say, the corner of the stable I shared with the
horses and buffaloes. The imaum, a hadji, and a cherif had
come to visit me. My partial knowledge of Arabic enabled
me to talk with the imaum and the pilgrim ; with the other,
the cherif, I communicated through my interpreter. They all
commenced cursing the Circassians. They freely expressed
their opinion that these latter were sons of Sheitan. What the
Padishah was thinking of when he sent such reprobates into
the district they, the imaum, &c., could not imagine. Well,
in the midst of all this, a Circassian liorseman dashed up to
the door, " The Cossacks ! the Giaours ! to horse ! " I must
say I gained my horse in a brief space. My costume was too
Asiatic to permit me to linger when Cossack lances were
nigh. While my horse was being saddled I rushed to the top
of the house. That means I walked up an incline of thirty
degrees. The inhabitants were all "on the housetop," as in
old time, awaiting the advent of news, and I was there, too,
with my field-glass. Every hill around had its group of
watchers. All at once came a general scampering after
horses, and the good Moslems, some fifty in number, marched
in a body out of Khorassan. I lingered, watching the black
band creeping slowly down the broken ground three miles
away. A field gun came lumbering up ; it halted ; and then
I turned bridle and retired with the entire force. It was
close on midnight when a courier rode up from Khorassan
to say the Cossacks had left. So Ave came back, but it was
only for half a day. I had slept late in the afternoon, and
thought all immediate hurry was over. General Kemball
and his staff rode into the village. The General thought he
could sleep calmly in his konak. Moussa Pacha, commanding
the Circassians, was almost peremptory in his request that we
all should leave at once. The enemy was close. As we had
fifteen hundred horse, I suppose the enemy must have been
proportionately strong. We forded the river and climbed
the steep earth-banks beyond, and rode hard along the river
330 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
border, halting for the night at the village of Komatsur. The
snn had not risen as we mounted horse. We were moving
obliqnelj to the Zevin position, for w^e were marching on
Knpri Keni. Again and again w^e turned to look behind. As
daylight came a lengthy w^hite streak, two kilometres long,
marked the blue hill-sides. The tuft-like artillery smoke was
breaking out — everything show^ed that a serious combat had
commenced. In the pale morning light the infantry columns
were already passing us, and three guns went lumbering by.
n Erzeroum, July 12th. — Even at the moment when the
Russian advance threatened to be rapid and decisive, when
Ardahan had fallen, and the entire of the first Turkish line
was broken, I do not think that public uneasiness was at so
great a pitch as at this moment. Erzeroum is being prepared
to withstand a siege ; and extensive works of fortification
are being executed at diiferent points intervening between
this and the front. The great gaps in the ramparts here,
allowed to re7nain up to to-day, are being filled up with
feverish energy. The ramparts, only a short time ago armed
Avith a few indifferent field guns and garrison pieces of the
most primitive type, now bristle with hea^y Krupp artillery.
The road from Trebizond is blocked wdth artillery convoys.
Gruns, both field and position, throng the w^ay, and seriously
embarrass the little commercial trafiic which exists. This
sudden and spasmodic activity, this hurrying up of guns —
sadly needed during the last few^ weeks' fighting, w^hen the
artillery element may be said to have been almost entirely
absent on the Turkish side — speaks eloquently of secret
fears, of hostile movements recognized by the authorities^
though carefully screened from the people.
Apart from the scarce-seen lines of shelter trench, visible
only to the practised eye, along the marly plain and sun-
scorched grass of the hill slope, and here and there a squat
redoubt, easily mistaken for one of the tumulus-like houses
of the country, there is little to tell of the proximity of con-
tending armies. The Armenian peasant sits listlessly among
his flocks, or plods on after the sixteen buffaloes drav/ing his
plough. A troop of Kurd or Circassian horse comes filing
through his village. He lifts his head and stares at them
with the same hopeless discontent as he would at any other
hostile troop that came by — as he would stare at the Cos-
sacks, for instance, should they make their way among his
mud hovels. The licence allowed to the Circassians and
Kurds passes all comprehension. One could perhaps under-
stand the policy of a Government desirous of terrorizing a
THE KURD CAYALRY. 331
rebellious population, but among True BelieYcrs and sub-
missive Armenians and Greeks — the one desirous only of
being allowed to follow their ordinary avocation^s in peace
and tolerable security, the other willing upholders of
Ottoman supremacy — it is difficult to understand why an
unruly mob of undisciplined savages has been unchained.
If the Sublime Porte were desirous of deliberately alienating
the sentiments of its northern Anatolian subjects, it could
not have taken more effective measures to effect its end. I
allude especially to the Mohammedan population ; and when
they are forced to use language such as they have not feared
to use speaking with me, a Giaour and an enemy to the
Prophet, I could scarcely overrate the extent of their irrita-
tion. As regards the Christians of the province of Yan,.
every day brings us fresh details of atrocities which rival if
they do not surpass the doings in Bulgaria. Violation of
female children of a tender age, wholesale pillage of villages^
deliberate torture and mutilation of both sexes, are tales-
which have become hideously familiar to our ears.
The terrorism wrought by the irregulars is such that the autho-
rities counsel every stranger to take with him on the shortest
journey a guard of zaptiehs, lest the Kurds or the Circassians-
should meet him on the road. By nature the Circassian is a
hardy and audacious soldier. Years of strife in the Cau-
casus have inured him to a life and deeds scarcely com-
patible with civilized usages. In exile, along the frontier of
Greece and the plains of the Danube, he has been the petted
protege of the Ottoman Government, and the habits, ex-
cusable perhaps in his own country while fighting an invader,,
he has begun to consider as his inalienable right to practise.
In his capacity as volunteer in the Turkish army, he takes-
fresh liberties, and the result is sad to contemplate. Still,,
there is some germ of good underlying all this ; and though
the Circassian is no match for the more disciplined Cossack,,
at bottom he is brave enough ; and in other hands, and
under different management, would be a capital soldier. With
the Kurd it is different. A troop of Kurd horsemen, with
their barbarous horse trappings, hair-tufted lances, and wild
gestures, might easily be mistaken for a detachment of
Comanche or Sioux Indians. The sausage nose and crocodile
eye, the bloated face seamed wdth lines of brutal sensuality^
bespeak the unmitigated savage, without a single grace of
those barbarous virtues which often more than half redeem
the child of nature in his wildest extravagances. There is a.
chivalry which naturally belongs to most savage races ; it is
totally absent in the hordes which dwell beyond the Araxes,.
S32 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
and the unliappj Armenian Cliristians of the province of
Van can testify bj their hacked limbs and powder-blown
cheeks . that to be a fellow-subject of the Sultan is no pro-
tection from such neighbours wdien atrocities can be practised
wdth impunity.
a Erzeroum, July 19th. — With the exception of the brilliant
E/Ussian exploit at Bajazid on Friday, military operations are
in a state of entire stagnation. That the Russians have
retired to close proximity w^ith their own frontier is indubit-
able ; why they have done so is not equally clear. Mukhtar
Pacha steadily and cautiously follow^ed up the retiring foe,
keeping at a very respectful distance. Arrived at Yeran
Kaleh, three hours on this side of Kars, he commenced
intrenching strongly, and then advanced half a day's march
beyond Kars, where he remains for the present. Along the
way entrenched camps are being constructed, and very large
levies of irregulars are being drilled incessantly. In Erze-
roum a very large force of irregular cavalry, principally
irolunteers from Sivas and the Syrian ]3rovinces, are mounted
and getting ready to join a similar force already at the front.
As I telegraphed some days ago the artillery element has
been enormously increased by the advent of field and garrison
guns from Trebizond ; and, in fine, everything denotes a
settled conviction that the real attack has yet to be made.
That the Russians are only waiting the arrival of reinforce-
ments to renew the offensive no one here doubts, and the
greatest credit must be given to Mukhtar Pacha for the con-
summate skill he displayed in dravring the enemy on step by
step to previously prepared ]3ositions, and to a battle-ground
chosen by himself. Not once even did he venture to assume
the offensive. He utilized the w^ell-known, long-proved
capacity for defensive warfare of the Turkish IS^izams, and
the Russians were forced to see that, though they might force
line after line wdth success, with the troops available at the
moment, they would ultimately arrive close to Erzeroum w^ith
•such diminished forces that, as at Adrianoj)le in the cam-
paign of 1829, they would be impotent for further operations,
far from their base, and liable to be taken in flank by the
every-day increasing irregular cavalry. Between Kars and
this city there are four distinct lines of defence blocking the
way along the wdde valley of the Araxes. One day and a
half's march from Kars, the Soghanli Dagh mountains form
a series of rocky ramparts unassailable in front, but some-
Tv^hat apt to be turned on the Olti flank. Next comes the
^evin] and Meshingerd position, defended with such success
THE MASSACRE AT EAYAZID. 333
during tlie recent figliting. A third line, now strongly in-
trenclied, and armed with artillery, exists at Knpri Koi, at the
junction of tlie Kars and Bayazid roads. Then come the
huge plains of Hassan Kaleh, six hours' ride in extent, closed
by the last bulwark of Erzeroum, the Deve Boyun range of
hills, already long since converted into a triple line of shelter
trenches and redoubts. The forcing of each of these lines
would cost an enemy enormous losses, and no doubt the
Russians consider it the surer and less costly plan to await
the arrival of the necessary reinforcements to enable them to
adopt a series of flank movements, obviating the useless loss
of life inevitably consequent on a front attack.
The following letter describes a deed of treachery com-
mitted by Kurdish armed bands in the Sultan's service at
Bayazid, where General Tergukasoflc had left a small garriso:ft
on his advance to Delibaba. While he w^as fighting near the-
latter place about 20,000 Kurds advanced from Yan and took
possession of the town, the small Russian force retiring to the
citadel. The relief of the beleaguered garrison so heroically
effected was accomplished under the personal command of
General Tergukasoff : —
a Erzeroum, July 24th. — The intelligence brought by each
fresh arrival from Bayazid and the Persian frontier is a con-
firmation of the worst apprehensions entertained by the-
Christians here as to the fate of their co-religionists in that
quarter. This evening I had an opportunity of meeting a
Turkish officer who arrived from Bayazid to-day, and he tells
me that the savagery and cool-blooded cruelty of the Kurds,
passes all bounds. I could give no better illustration of Kurd
peculiarities than the story which the Turkish officer nar-
rated to me to-day about the Bayazid alfair. The Russians^
thinking only of Turkish regulars, had left a slender garrison
of some five hundred men in Bayazid and pushed on towards
Alaschkir with their main forces, with the intention of try-
ing to force Mukhtar's position beyond Delibaba. While-
engaged in this operation an enormous horde of Kurds,:
estimated at 22,000 horsemen, and under the influence, if not
actual guidance, of Sheik Jelaledin, sv/ept down from the
Ararat chain of mountains, and surrounded the little garrison
of Bayazid. The Russians retired within the walls of a
mediaeval building, half fortress, half palace, which occupies
the summit of the hill above the platform on which Bayazid
3o4 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
stands. Provisions were scanty, water still more so ; and
after a couple of days' blockade tlie Russians offered terms.
In Bayazid at tlie time, apart from the twenty-two thousand
Kurds, were seven regular Turkish battalions, under the
command of Faik Pacha. These had arrived subsequent to
the E/ussian failure to carry the Delibaba ridge. The Pacha
willingly received the overtures of surrender, and half the
entire beleaguered garrison, without arms, marched from their
stronghold. Ere the regular troops could take any measures
for their security, w^hich at the time no one had any reason
to doubt, the Kurd horsemen fell on the disarmed and surren-
dered prisoners, massacring every one without exception. On
this the gates of the stronghold were closed, the remaining
portion of the garrison refusing to entertain any proposition
after the untoward event which had just taken place. In
vain the Turkish commander of the regular forces urged on
the besieged the expediency of surrendering rather than die
of hunger and thirst. The Russian colonel had fallen in the
first assault of the Kurds on the town, and his wife, within the
beleaguered stronghold, incited the soldiery to resistance,
taking her share in the defence like any of the troops. Any-
thing was better, the Russians said, than again trusting
themselves to the mercy of a faithless horde of bloodthirsty
savages. And so several days went by. Water was falling
short, but the besieged hit on the plan of mining towards
the town, and thus establishing an unseen connection with
■one of the public fountains. For some time this expedient
was successful, the adventurous water-seekers being almost
entirely hidden from view in the depths of the subterranean
opening. But in an evil day a stray Kurd observed the top
of a Russian's hat protruding in an unaccountable manner
from the soil. He observed, and soon guessed the truth.
An ambuscade was prepared, and day after day the poor
thirsty Russians had to lament one of their number, shot
through the head at the gallery entrance. Twenty-six days'
siege since the massacre had gone by. Provisions had long
since run exceedingly short, and the besieging enemy had
over and over again shouted to the caged foe the intelligence
that artillery was coming up to drive them from their refuge.
Just ten days ago, as if falling from the clouds, five Russian
battalions, wdth six guns, and four thousand cavalry, attacked
the Turkish force. The struggle was short. The twenty-
two thousand Kurds fled at once. The regular battalions
resisted bravely, but were forced to retreat, leaving over a
thousand men and three guns in the assailants' hands. The
lono^-sufferino: detachment in the strono^hold above the town
RELIEF OF BAYAZID. 335
were relieved, and, after passing a niglit in Bayazid .tlie Rus-
sians deliberately retired, taking with, them their relieved
comrades, their prisoners, captured guns, one of them of
heavy calibre, and several families of the town who declared
any exile preferable to further association with the mountain
savages. Many maimed and cruelly mutilated townspeople
were thus escorted from Bayazid ; for when the Kurds and
other irregulars arrived they vented their wrath on the
Christians of the place, accusing them of having willingly
Vy'clcomed the Russians, and proceeding to every extreme by
way of punishment. My informant estimates that over
twelve hundred Christians of both sexes suffered death or
mutilation at the hands of the Kurds.
For some weeks past the advent of regular battalions has
entirely ceased. In their place enormous numbers of irre-
gular cavalry have been pouring in. Horsemen from Bagdad,
from Sivas, from Egypt, from Africa, fill the town and suburbs
with their motley squadrons. Horses have been largely requi-
sitioned to mount them, and some thousands have already
been sent to the front. A very brief period will suffice to
show Vv'hether this somewhat heterogeneous gathering can be
made more useful than their confreres the Circassians and
Kurds.
The following letter from the Russian side treats of the
causes of the Russian retrograde movement : —
/^ TiFLis, July ISth. — It is stated now, beyond doubt, that in
the presence of the Caucasian insurrection on the one hand,
and the war with the Turks on the other, the Russian forces
in Asia Minor are utterly insufficient for operating in the
enemy's country with any chances of success for the moment.
General Tergukasoff, one of the " most distinguished com-
manders, has been compelled to retreat before the Turks
towards Erivan, and is waiting now for reinforcements at
Igdyr, on the Russian territory. They are marching to join
h.im. His victories at Delibaba were of no great avail, on
account of the immense disproportion of the respective
number of troops, which rendered his tactical superiority
useless, and deprived him not only of the hope of forcing his
way to Erzeroum, but also of maintaining his position at
Djadin. Moreover, reliable news having reached him that
strong bodies of irregular Kurdish hordes had invested the
citadel of Bayazid, the garrison of which consisted only of
two battalions, he hastened back with the view to disengage
336 WAR COEPtESPONDENCE.
that place. It would liave been easy enoiigli to scatter tlie
savage horsemen and Baslii-Bazouks, who, more bent upon
plundering than upon fighting, seldom offer serious resistance,
but, unexpectedly, sixteen fresh Arabian battalions had
joined them, advancing directly by Yan to Bayazid, which
they occupied, with the exception of its citadel. So they
were prepared to receive General Tergukasoff in an excellent
position with overwhelming numbers. On the other side
twenty- three battalions, commanded by Ismail Pacha, pursued
him closely on the road from Erzeroum to the above-named
fortress, and harassed his rear, menacing thus to cut him off
and to annihilate his division to the last man. In order to
prevent such a catastrophe Greneral Heimann, accompanied
by the Commander-in-Chief, General Loris Melikoff, was
detached from before Kars and, encountering Faizi Pacha
at Zevin, attacked him without hesitation on the ridge of
rocks where he had intrenched his army. Unhappily
the means at hand were utterly inadequate to the task
imposed upon the soldiers, and finally. General Heimann,
after having experienced severe losses — some say over 3,000
men killed and wounded — was obliged to retire to the point
from which he had come.
The consequence of this defeat was to render General Tergu-
kasoff's situation more critical than ever. He had not the
slightest chance of overcoming the fourfold stronger forces
of his opponents, and had subsequently to avoid all general
and decisive actions, even at the cost of his reputation as
an able commanding officer. He was influenced, moreover,
by another cause of no special military character. More
than 3,000 Armenian families, to whom he had promised aid
and protection in the name of the Emperor, followed his
columns Avith all their domestic animals and movable
household goods. Such an encumbrance completely tied
his hands. ' It is true that he might have abandoned these
unfortunate fugitives on the plea of hard necessity, but he
felt his responsibility so deeply engaged in a moral point of
view that he preferred to appear in the eyes of the world
as defeated rather than dishonoured. And it was no light
matter. Notwithstanding the assurance of the Porte in its
diplomatic notes, nothing is more certain than the preva-
lence of murder, theft, violence, rape, and all sorts of
indescribable outrages, in its Asiatic dominions. It makes
little difference, I fancy, whether Armenian or Bulgarian
throats are cut by merciless brutes, or whether an Armenian
or a Bulgarian child or young girl is outraged or carried off
into slave rv. It is be vend doubt that the same kind of
tergukasoff's retreat. 337
atrocities wliicli were cominitted in Thrace last year are
now going on, or are even being surpassed, in Armenia,
wliere no control is likely to be exercised, and where no
consuls feel called to watch events officially. When the
Russians, yielding before innumerable enemies, found them-
selves under the necessity of rapidly retiring towards their
own frontiers, thousands of bewildered Christian families
joined them with all they had, imploring protection in the
fear that the Turkish troops would not only rob them of
everything, but would murder them after subjecting them
to terrible tortures. That this fear was justified has been
shown by painful experience.
'The very day after General Tergukasoff retreated from a
place called Suleimania five Christian villages near had
been sacked and burned, and every living soul in them
killed. Russian soldiers and ofiicers found women and
babes ripped up and their throats cut on the highway.
From all that has been witnessed it is obvious that Turkish
warfare is in no respect better than that of the Sioux
Indians. What could the Russian General do in such per-
plexity ? He acted like a man of honour and conscience,
and, forming a rearguard with his brigade, conducted the
Armenians, their animals, and property, without losing a
cart or a horse, and without giving the enemy an oppor-
tunity of attacking him, across the Russian frontier. Then
he occupied an excellent position near Igdyr, on the road
to Erivan, about twenty miles distant from Bayazid, where
he is to receive the necessary reinforcements. Some regi-
ments have arrived there already ; others are on their way
from the north. I saw myself, three days ago, two regi-
m.ents coming from Yladikawkas pass this city. Splendid,
courageous -looking, and good-humoured fellows they were,
who certainly are superior in aspect to the best Turkish troops
that I have ever seen. Only the ' Syrians, not the genuine
Turks, or any other Mohammedan race, are a match for
them, as their officers state. Within a fortnight well-nigh
30,000 men are expected to complete the army here, some of
whom are conveyed by steamers to Baku over the Caspian
Sea.
The siege of Kars has been partially abandoned, and the Russian
troops have retired towards Alexandropol in connection with
some military plan, the execution of which, however, vrill
depend on the arrival of fresh troops and the enemy's move-
ments. This is all a mere question of time.
While writing these lines repeated detonations announce to the
people a^victory which General Tergukasoff obtained on the
338 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
lOtb. instant at Bayazid over tlie Turks. After having received
tlie reinforcements sent to meet him from Erivan, lie returned
without losing a moment and attacked the besiegers as soon
as he could reach them. The bulk of the enemy, mounted
Kurds, Arabs, and Bashi-Bazouks, fled in all directions, but
the Arabian regiments resisted, and did not retreat until
heavy losses had been suffered on both sides. Four field-
pieces fell into the hands of the K,ussians, but only ninety
prisoners were made. The main object, however, was the
deliverance of the garrison shut up in the citadel during a
blockade of sixteen days. They suffered very much from the
want of water, and had to depend upon cisterns inside the
fortifications. For all that, they had faith in their comrades,
and were finally rewarded for their endurance. The details
of the engagement are not known yet here. Notwithstand-
ing this brilliant success, the position of the Russians is
a precarious one in Armenia. The Turks there are, in fact,
at least 25,000 men stronger than their adversaries. Mukhtar
Pacha is just now advancing mth 30,000 of his best troops on
the road from Erzeroum to Kars, with the view to disengage
that fortress at any cost. After his victory over General
Heimann near Meshingerd he boldly crossed the Soghanli
mountains, and occupied three days ago a strong position
on their northern slopes. Greneral Loris Melikoff, the B/Ussian
Commander-in-Chief, judging his army too weak to besiege
Kars and resist Mukhtar Pacha simultaneously, ordered the
heavy guns to be withdrawn, and suspended the bombard-
ment, or rather the siege, of that stronghold. Then he pre-
pared for an action in the field, and is at present encamped
at Zaim, where he has decided to w^ait for Mukhtar Pacha's
attack, till the expected reinforcements allow him to push
forward again.
The general impression of this necessary retreat may not be
favourable to the Russian arms and prestige, but ere long all
will be set right again, and in the second part of this cam-
paign it may be supposed that the faults committed before
will be avoided, and especially the most serious one, the
underrating of the enemy's means. The Russian troops con-
tinue to be in excellent spirits. Even the want of food and
water under the scorching sun does not alter their disposition,
and they will stand every hardship to the end with unshaken
courage. The inhuman cruelties of the Turks against in-
offensive persons, women, children, wounded soldiers, and
prisoners, have stirred them. They are so enraged against
the villanous Kurds and Bashi-Bazouks that they give no
quarter to them now, and ask for none.
TURKISH ATTACK NEAR KAES. 339
The following letter from tlie correspondent witli the Russians
describes a battle in wbich the Turks inflicted a defeat on their
enemy, capturing the heights of Kizil Tepe : —
^ Camp Kuruk Dere, August 26tJi. — On the 25th inst. we were
suddenly aroused at about three o'clock in the morning by the
roar of cannon and volleys of musketry. We supposed at
first that only outpost skirmishing was going on between the
Cossacks and Circassians, but the noise growing louder and
more persistent, it soon was evident that the Turks, contrary
to their usual practice, had attacked in the direction of our
other camp, situated at the village of Bashkladnyklar, some
eight miles off to our left. The previous evening I had expressed
my apprehension of a possible sudden aggression on the part
of the Turks, because I knew that a considerable number of
battalions had been detached, in order to reinforce General
Tergukasoft''s division. As excellent spies, even without being
promised any pecuniary reward and out of pure religious zeal,
are not wanting among us, Mukhtar Pacha had, of course,
been well informed of this state of things, and acted accord-
ingly. Nothing, indeed, was more natural ; and when I made
my remarks in that sense, I wondered that what has since
happened had not already taken place. The officer to whom
I spoke smilingly answered that all necessary measures of
precaution had been adopted, and that a Russian army was
never likely to be surprised by any enemy. Well, this feeling
of security has proved to be ill-founded. My fears were really
far from being exaggerated.
The Turkish original position on the Aladja mountain extended
from the neighbourhood of the ancient city of Ani, now
dismal ruins, on the Arpa Tchai River, in the vicinity of Kars,
from which fortress the supplies were drawn. The main force,
however, leans its left wing* on the mountain spur ending
in a high hill called the Yagni, around which the fighting
on the 18th had chiefly been carried on. At that time too,
I had mentioned another steep hill, the Kizil Tepe (Red Hill),
which, in an entirely isolated position, towers above the
Kuruk Dere plateaux, almost in the very centre of the
military positions, but somewhat to the left of us. On this
remarkable eminence our Commander-in-Chief, General Loris
Melikoff, established his headquarters on the 17th inst. It
was usually occupied by a single battalion and four field-
pieces, and was thus considered as almost impregnable. On
account of its commanding position over the surrounding flats
and undulating grounds it was well worth particular attention,
z 2
340 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE.
especially as tlie camp at Baslikladnyklar, wtiicli is under tlie
fire of its artillery, was only abont two miles distant from its
northern slope. When in a recent letter I ventured to assert
that it was not enough now-a-days for a commanding general
to enjoy the reputation of a clever and gallant ofiicer, but that
genius, or in default an imitation of such genius as Hannibal
and N^apoleon possessed, was indispensable for avoiding severe
losses in our breech-loading warfare, I really little dreamt of
lazy self-sufficient Turks being able to illustrate that truth.
This, however, has happened to the extreme surprise of our
generals.
It was a bright moonlight night. The mountains and plains
were almost as distinctly visible as in broad daytime. Avail-
ing themselves of this circumstance, at two or three o'clock
in the morning on the 25th instant, about 7,000 Turks crept
stealthily, in a compact, noiseless mass, through a dark, deep
ravine, without being observed by the careless Lesghian
picquets and patrols, till they arrived at the very foot of the
Kizil Tepe. Here deploying, they made a sudden rush,
savagely yelling their. " Allah-il- Allah," on the eight Russian
companies which were stationed on the summit. These men,
though surprised, defended themselves courageously at the
point of the bayonet without yielding an inch. Hundreds of
Turks who a few seconds before dashed fiercely on with the
rifle in their hands fell to rise no more. At last, however, as
the enemy's fast-increasing force threatened to outflank and
envelop them altogether, the Russians were compelled to
retreat to the camp at Bashkladnyklar, protecting and drag-
ging a'^ay their four cannons. Here the alarm was given,
and, as quickly as possible, infantry and dragoons marched
to the rescue, and stormed the hill with dauntless courage, in
the hope of recovering it in the way in which it had been lost.
In spite of their heroic efforts, however, they were repeatedly
repulsed by overwhelming numbers. The whole hill was like
a beehive, thickly thronged with enemies, and had they per-
sisted in their gallant attempt they would have all been
exterminated. In the meanwhile the principal Russian forces
encamped at Kuruk Here had been roused, and battalions,
squadrons, batteries, with ammunition carts and red-cross
waggons behind, hastened in long columns into the field. At
first a certain consternation prevailed through the camp, and,
moreover, a little confusion. Orders had been issued to strike
tents, pack luggage, and load everything on the numerous
commissariat waggons. As the boom of the artillery thun-
dered louder, and the sharp rattling of the breechloaders went
on incessantly, I thought it best to entrust my baggage to the
CAPTURE OF THE KIZIL TEPE. 341
care of Russian honesty. No Russian soldier will, under any
circumstances, allow himself to take any object not belonging
to liim, should he even find it in the open field, unless he is
expressly permitted to do so by his superiors. After having
satisfied my mind on that point, I had my horses saddled in
a twinkling, and rode alone at full speed to the top of a com-
' manding hill, where the staff officers had established an obser-
vatory. By the aid of two pow^erful telescopes they carefully
watched the enemy's movements, and sent from time to time
written messages down by orderlies to the commanding general.
Here I had a comprehensive and splendid view over the whole
theatre of the fighting.
Three miles from the spot where I found myself, the Kizil
Tepe, or Red Hill, a dwarfy height of about 800 feet above
the plain, was encircled, top and bottom, by two girdles of
smoke and flames. On its rocky, bastionlike summit stood
thickly crowded Turkish soldiers, under the cover of the
opposite slope, and fired their rifles, aiming down into a
ravine across which the Russian Tiflis regiment struggled
heroically, but in vain, to reconquer the lost position. The
very steep, rocky slope of the hill on that side rendered
this task almost impossible. I could distinctly see how in
the Turkish ranks an imaum, with turban and flowing gown,
lifting his hands in fanatical ecstasy above the devoted
children of the faith, seemed to be inciting them to withstand
the arms of the Moscow Giaour, in Allah's and the Prophet's
name. On some other parts of the battle-field Mohammedan
priests were equally observed in the foremost lines, apparently
animating timid recruits by fervent words of faith. One of
these priests was shot. The Turks meant evidently yester-
day to crush their weakened adversaries by a general attack,
and so they employed all imaginable means to secure success.
Many battalions, emerging by scores together, and thousands
of irregular horsemen descended' the mountain, and were
brought at once into action. The whole long line — twelve
miles — from the neighbourhood of Ani up to the Kaback
Tepe, near to the road to Kars, w^as swarming with Mussul-
mans. On the summit of that eminence, situated two miles
to the right of the Yagni Hill, three new battalions and
clusters of cavalry appeared, with the view to outflank the
Russian army, and capture their camp at Kuruk Dere. Their
general advance, however, was thoroughly checked as soon
as the Russian columns of combined arms, the battalions,
squadrons, and batteries which left the camp here, had the
necessary time to march to the enemy's encounter and to
deploy before him. In the Russian order of battle the
342 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
extreme left was lield bj two regiments of dragoons, tlien
followed tlie remaining brigade of General Dewel's division,
and next to it in tlie centre Colonel Komaroff's five valiant
battalions wliicli liave seen bard work ever since Ardaban fell.
Connected wdtb tbem and directing its front line against tlie
Yagui bills, tbe division of grenadiers operated with, one of
its brigades (Greneral Cederbolm) wbile tbe otber remained in
reserve. Tbe extreme rigbt was secured by tbree regiments
of Caucasian regular Cossack cavalry and tbeir borse artil-
lery. JS'umerous troops besides protected tbe camp bere.
It took some bours before tbose masses were all able to meet
tbe enemy's lines, on account of tbe considerable distance
wbicb originally separated tbe combatants. In tbe meantime
tbe now exposed camp at Basbkladnyklar w^as broken up.
Tbousands of carts and waggons transported tbe tents and
tbe baggage to Kuruk Dere. Tbe straw and dung w^ere burnt
on tbe spot. Again and again tbe Hussians tried to reconquer
tbe Kizil Tepe by storming, wbile sbells and sbrapnels were
sbowered upon its ridge ; but again and again tbey were
repelled by tbe defenders, wbo stood, sboulder to sboulder,
bebind its rocky edge. On a sudden, sbortly after tbe last
assault, wbicb was supported and followed by tbe play of two
batteries, tbick wbite smoke rose on tbe summit, and a long
flame carried it to tbe skies. Fragments of carriages, limbs
of borses and men were scattered in all directions, or flew up
in tbe air. It w^as clear tbat stores of ammunition or a
powder cart bad exploded, ignited by a Russian sbell. Joy
and satisfaction ligbted up tbe faces of tbe officers around me,
and one of tbem made tbe sign of tbe cross. A sbort time
afterwards, as regiment after regiment entered successively
tbe line of battle, from tbe left to tbe rigbt, in full array, and
advanced, deployed in company columns, preceded by tbe
usual double cbain of tirailleurs, witb field batteries between
tbem, tbe roar of tbe figbting extended gradually from our
left to tbe centre. It was, bowever, obvious tbat before tbe
Yagni Hill tbe fate of tbe day was to be decided, because from
tbat part of bis position only tbe enemy migbt bave bad a
cbance of forcing tbe camp bere, as it is quite open and
unprotected in tbat direction. Yet long ere tbe tirailleurs tliere
bad mingled tbeir fire witb tbe boom of tbeir cannon and tbe
cracking of tbeir sbells. Colonel Komaroff's brigade in tbe
centre was engaged in sbarp infantry figbting. Steadily tbe
Russians gained ground, and drove tbe Turks over tbe flats
and tbe undulations till tbey reacbed tbe broad ravine of
Subatan, at tbe foot of tbe Aladja mountain. In tbis
narrow valley, studded at its opposite side witb intrencb-
ARAB CAVALRY. 343
ments and batteries, the battle came to a standsti]!. Had it,
not been for an expressly given order to abstain from
advancing beyond, it is highly probable that Mnkhtar Pacha's
camp might have fallen into Colonel Komaroff's hands. All
energy of resistance on the part of the Turks had decidedly
been broken ; they ceased fighting, and retired in disorder.
Their dead lay in rov^^s in the valley, and the survivors were
glad to ge tout of the rifle range. In consequence of this
mutual pause on different gTounds, the fighting died out there
at half-past one o'clock in the afternoon. Unhappily the
gallant brigadier himself v^^as twice wounded, once in his left
hand, and shortly afterwards in his left side. ISTevertheless,
he continued to exercise his command. Prince Tchadjewadtze,
the general in command of the whole cavalry, renowned as one
of the ablest and most energetic leaders in the Russian army,
was also wounded. A fragment of a shell struck him on the
head, but not dangerously, as he is already improving and
sure to recover.
While thus the struggle was going on in the centre, the grena-
diers, under General Heimann's special superintendence, and
led by General Cederholm, fell in with the enemy. After
a brisk cannonade with smart shell and shrapnel practice
the deadly rifle firing was going on in an uninterrupted line
stretching two miles on either side, front against front.
Like a light morning mist the smoke was wafted over the
hostile forces, and prevented them from taking good aim.
The Turks had evidently brought forth their picked men,
several Arabian battalions, which fought with resolute stub-
bornness, as they are accustomed to do on all occasions, thus
constituting beyond doubt the Sultan's best troops. Not-
withstanding their superior numbers, and the bravery they
displayed, they could not hold their ground for moie than a
single hour, and then were compelled to fall bact to their
rifle pits and intrenchments at the foot of the Yagni hills.
Worn out by the want of food and water, having had all day
n sun burning like a red-hot iron over their heads, both
antagonists were at last satisfied to see themselves finally
separated from each other by intervening hillocks. While
the infantry rested, completely exhausted by the heat and
the work, the cannons still thundered continuously over the
whole line, but with considerably less intensity than in the
morning. Finally the Turks, as I have already mentioned,
moved with three fresh battalions, and over a thousand horse,
down the Kaback hill on our extreme right, endeavouring to
outflank the Russians there. The wild, irregular riders, in
their fantastical garments, galloped doT\^ until they came
344 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
unexpectedly in siglit of tlie tliree Cancasian Cossack regi-
ments. Quietly they stood in tlie valley, drawn in separate
lines, with two batteries of horse artillery in the interstices.
The Bashi-Bazouks, one after the other, as they rode on
stopped their horses, fired their rifles at the enem^', w^ho did
not even reply, and turned back at full speed in order to give
to their expectant comrades the dismal news that the time
for plundering the Russian camp at Kuruk Dere had not
come yet. They apparently judged that the Russian cavalry
w^as more than a match for them, and in this conviction they
united again in squadrons, and thought it prudent to wait,
under the cover of a concealed battery, for their enemies'
onset. The Russian regiments, however, w^arned by some
shells from above that they were likely to fall into an ambush
of artillery and infantry, did not stir. So the fighting ceased at
four o'clock P.M. on the whole line in the same succession as it
had begun, from our left to our right. The result w'as nega-
tive. Although the Russian troops had repulsed wdth great
slaughter and remarkable pluck the general attack of the-
Turks, and had remained for four hours on the battle-field,
from which they had victoriously driven the enemy, they had
been, for all that, unable to w^rest the principal position,
the Kizil Tepe hill, out of Turkish hands. Mukhtar Pacha
did not hesitate to avail himself of the advantageous position
w^hich he had obtained, and shifted to-day his whole camp
down to the plain, where his soldiers are not exposed to the-
cold night winds as on the mountain, and find an ample
supply of water. Here, as the Turks have systematically
done during this w^ar, they are intrenching themselves as^
strongly as possible, having one wing protected by the Kizil
Tepe, and the other by the Yagni Hill. The force which
the Turks brought into action consisted, according to trust-
worthy estimates, of thirty battalions of infantry and eight
thousand irregular horsemen, wdth sixty cannons. Th-e
Russian army w^as somewhat inferior in number, but I can-
not mention liow^ much, because I am bound to refrain from
giving any particulars on that subject. The losses amount in
the Russian army, according to the most reliable information^
to two hundred- and eighty men killed and six hundred and
sixty-seven wounded. As the Turks wxre this time th^
aggressors it is evident that their losses must have been more
con-siderable. Spies and deserters affirm that they lost not
less than three thousand men, and I fully believe that there
is no exaggeration in this statement. Their skirmishing lines
were much thicker manned than those of their adversaries,
and when they retreated over the Subatan ravine, heaps of
AN ARABIAN JOAN OF ARC. 345
their dead and wounded covered tlie ground. The Russian
army re-entered the camp only at ten o'clock. Here, after
the work ol the day, I, like everybody else, was not very
agreeably surprised on seeing that all the tents had been
struck, all the luggage packed on waggons, and that I had
not the slightest hope of discovering my property in the dark
among thousands of carriages, horses, and men, all encamped
in confusion over two square miles of ground. Worn out by
fatigue, I went to sleep under the cover of an immense hay-
stack till the dry wind in the morning aroused me with
shivering limbs.
The Grand Duke Michael has arrived in camp to-day, and it is
probable that he will remain there until the campaign leads
to a decisive result. What strikes me here is the slowness ©f
all our military movements. This certainly does not promise
well, although no serious defeat is to be apprehended with
such excellent troops.
The war for Islam had produced a Turkish or rather Arabian
Joan of Arc, who it appears contributed materially to the
Ottoman success of August 25th.
/\ Camp Karajal, August 31.9^. — The partial success obtained
on the 25th inst. by the Turks, inasmuch as they have been
able to maintain their position on the Kizil Tepe, which they
had conquered by a surprise due to the initiative and dashing
valour of a young Arabian woman, Fatima, acting as chieftain
of some Bedouin squadrons, has compelled, or rather induced,
the Russians to change their camp likewise. The position at
Kuruk Dere, on a plateau of a dead level, was by no means
so formidably fortified as some correspondents, who never had
an opportunity of seeing it, have reported. On the contrary,
the undeniable fact is, that neither a lunette, nor a rifle pit^
nor an intenchment of any kind had ever been formed there.
The Russians, either out of military pride or with the view to
allure the Turks to risk a pitched battle in the open field,,
have always scorned to move pickaxe or shovel for the
protection of their armies. With regard to their security,
they used to rely entirely on their trustworthy sharpsighted
Cossacks, who with ever- watchful care are on the look-out
for the enemy, and carry on an incessant patrolling along"
the whole line of picquets. Besides, irregular Caucasian
horsemen carefully patrol the ground between the two
armies, where skirmishing engagements very often follow
an accidental encounter, and sometimes give rise to serious
346 WA]1 COREESPOKDENCE.
alarm. On tliat day, liowever, an unlucky star slione over
tlie Russian destiny. Tlie Cossacks, despite their bravery
and watclifnlness, were outwitted by the clever young
Fatima.
A certain Moussa Paclia, formerly a general in tbe Russian
service, who bad deserted it, accompanied ber. Acting in
conformity with ber plan, be rode witb ber in front of tbe
Turkisb cavalry wben tbe assault on tbe Kizil Tepe bad been
decided on. Tbey soon fell in witb a patrol of Cossacks,
wbo duly stopped tbem, asking for tbe password. Tbe
renegade, wbo bad formerly received bis military education
witb tbe Russians, and was tbus perfectly acquainted witb
tbeir neld service, explained bimself not only fluently in
tbeir language but gave also tbe password, wbicb bad evi-
dently been betrayed to liim by some bribed Mobammedan
deserter. So tbe Cossacks, deceived in tbe dark, bad no
suspicion, and supposing tbe force before tbem to belong to
tbeir own irregulars, permitted it to advance. Tben, of
course, wben tbe enemy bad surrounded tbem, tbey were
disarmed, made prisoners, and killed.
Tbe following is a report of tbe battle of August 25tb, from
tbe correspondent witb Mukbtar Pacba : —
a Headquaetees of Mukhtae Pacha, neae Kizil Tepe Hill,
Septemher 6th. — Since tbe unquestionable Turkisb success of
tbe 2otb August, botb armies bave maintained an attitude of
tbe strictest mutual surveillance, limiting tbemselves to tbe
■cbange of encampment rendered possible on one side and
necessary on tbe otber by tbe capture of Kizil Tepe Hill, tbe
Turkisb objective point in tbe late battle. Tbe Turkisb
position at tbe moment of Mukbtar Pacba's nigbt attack on
tbe Russian advanced lines on tbe 25tb ult. occupied a series
of steeply sloping terraces, descending from tbe summit of
Aladja, 8,800 feet bigb, and constituting tbe soutbern slopes
of tbe Kars valley, bere opening out into tbe Russian plains.
ISTortb in tbe valley-moutb, and eastward over tbe frontier
plains, are a series of low bills rising abruptly from tbe
rolling surface, and evidently, from tbeir conformation and
mineral structure, craters of ancient A'olcanoes. Tbe bill
nearest to our position, Kizil Tepe (tbe red summit), was for a
long time a salient Russian point, occupied by tbe bostile
army at tbe moment tbe Turkisb forces commenced tbeir
marcb from Kars after tbe raising of tbe siege. Tbis bill
bas abruptly sloping sides terminating in four irregular
TURKISH OFFENSIVE TACTICS. 347
conical summits, amid whicli is a crater. It was so near
to our lines that a new-comer could scarcely realize the fact
that main hostile positions could possibly exist in such near
propinquity. To its north, at a distance of some 5,000 yards,
is the larger hill of Kuruk Dere, behind which is the village
of Palderivan, up to the late battle the camping ground of
the main Russian army, having its advanced detachments at
Kizil Tepe. Farther off still is another hill, which, as it has
not come within the sphere of late combats, has not been
named. Due east of Kizil Tepe, and at about six thousand
yards, is the hill of Utch Tepe (the triple summit). Until
after the last engagement this hill was not occupied by either
party. The Russians, seeing the Turkish advance into the
plain right of Kizil Tepe, and fearing an attempt to cut the
Alexandropol road, moved the bulk of their forces, partly to
the plain skirting the banks of the Arpa Tchai directly on the
road itself, and partly to this last-named hill. As I stood on
the knoll occupied by the present Turkish headquarters, on
the afternoon of the 27th ult., I could see long dark columns
defiling from behind Kuruk Dere, and directing their march
towards Utch Tepe. Arrived due east of our advance, these
columns changed direction to the right, and numerous bat-
teries and battalions were visible in line of battle, apparently
marching against Kizil Tepe. Arrived within long cannon
range, they jfialted. Everything was ready on our side ; but
a few minutes' observation showed that this display of military
force was only to cover the transport waggons and stores
generally to the plain behind Utch Tepe. The enemy was
executing what experience has shown to be an excessively
dangerous movement in face of an active enemy — a flank
march. I dare say the Russians still clung to the idea which
the past justified them in, that the Turks, however formidable
in defensive positions, were not to be dreaded in the plain. I
must chronicle my own experiences, that in the last battle the
Turks, disregarding their traditional policy of a generation,
went down into the plain, and not only held their own bravely
against the serried attacks of a redoubtable infantry and
artillery, but also captured by assault an exceedingly strong
position. This departure from the past no doubt inspired
the precautions we witnessed when the Russians changed front
on the 27th. I don't think the Turks had the least idea of
an aggressive movement when they left their old vantage
ground on the hills and camped in the plain.-
Winter is rapidly approaching in these latitudes and at this
elevation. Ere many weeks are over no troops, much less
the mongrel assembly of Southern Asiatics grouped under the
348 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
standard of tlie redoubtable Mulvhtar Paclia, could resist tlie
keen winds that blow across tbe even now snow-clad range
that lies at the foot of Ararat. But in the plain below,
sheltered by the accentuated ridges north and south, tho
conditions change. Water is abundant. The cavalry horses
and mule trains will be no longer served with water painfully
carried in leathern sacs to the steep heights on w^hich we
Avere camped, but can drink in the abundant streams of the
plain below. The failure of the Russian attempt to occupy
the valley has left immense quantities of uncut corn at the
disposition of the army ; and the fatigue of transport has
been in no small degree diminished. Since the last two battles
the Turkish soldiery have gained enormously in spirit, andnow^
I should not be surprised to see them on level ground success-
fully combating an equal hostile attack. Why the Russians
acted as they have done remains to be explained by them-
selves. The Turks, as the early movements of the campaign
show, expected to be overwhelmed by colossal numbers, and
Mukhtar Pacha's hurried abandonment of the frontier, his
leaving Kars to the doubtful issues of a siege, his subsequent
retreat to Zevin, all attested the belief in the impossibility of
resisting the colossal legions of the N^orth. The Marshal
himself told me at an early period of the campaign, that he
had in front of him 100,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry, and
perhaps 10,000 irregulars, supported by a powerful artillery.
At the time his force w^as little, if any, superior to half the
number supposed to attack. Later on we learn that the
Russians -were little if at all superior in numbers, except in
artillery. Why this was so, unless the Russians counted on
what Napoleon I. has stigmatized as one of the gravest
errors a general can make, the actual underrating of the
enemy's power, moral and physical, I cannot say. The latter
theory w^ould now seem to be admissible. The Russians — ■
accustomed to sweep from their path immense hordes of
Asiatics, and encouraged by the remembrance that part of
their troops had successfully resisted during two years the
united military and maritime strength of four nations, during^
the Crimean War — counted but lightly wdth the Turkish army
of Armenia. I will do them the justice to say that from all
appearances they w^ould not have thus counted in vain, were
it not for the presence of the commander-in-chief, Ahmed
Mukhtar Pacha, who has beyond question shown his immense
superiority to his colleagues on the Danube. He commenced
with a retreat, gradually gathering from the rear his forces
as he went, and when the moment had arrived he made head
against the foe, with what success history Avill tell. He has
MUKHTAR PACHA AS A GENERAL. 349
been tlie true Fabius Cunctator of tbe campaign. Had lie at
once faced the enemy at tlie frontier, bis raw recruits, witb
but a slight sprinkling of veterans accustomed to defeat in
Montenegro and Albania, with the historic fear of Muscovite
legions before their eyes, and above all with his scant num-
bers, defeat was inevitable ; defeat meant pursuit, and pursuit
disorganization. I am not now giving my own opinion alone,
but also those of the chief of the staff, an aged Hungarian
officer, well knowTi to fame, whose counsels in no small degree
affected the course of operations.
I can't help wondering at the entire absence of Russian pri-
soners. However indifferent the enemy has shown himself
on the aggressive during this year's Armenian campaign, his
retreats have been masterpieces of their kind. I^ot a gun, not
a horse, not even a wounded man has been left on the plain.
Even the numerous dead were borne away, and it was a rare
exception to meet the corpse of a Russian even where the dead
lay thickest amid the half-mown corn-fields. This fact argues
a perfection of organization, at least in one regard, which
makes sensible Moslems reflect on the chapters of the drama
yet unacted, and the part to be played by the Russian army of
Armenia.
^^ ^ a U A H
CHAPTER XV. I ^^i y K n S ] y y
THE RUSSIAN DEADLOCK.'I^ (A I jl h'{ \^ > u'
\\ ' *-• -^
Survey of the Bulgarian Campaign — The Russian Mistakes-^Greneral- Leritsk j%
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.
The month of August was spent by the Grand Duke IN'icholas
and his staff in preparations for a new attack on Plevna, which,
made with superior forces, would, it was hoped, wipe out the
memory of previous defeats, and make it possible for the Rus-
sians to resume their advance upon Adrianople. Before noticing
the march of events north of the Balkans at this period, it may
be useful to review the military situation as set forth in the
350 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
subjoined letter, publislied under the heading of " The Russian
Mistakes : " —
t Headquarters, Army before Plevna, August 19th. — With the
news of the retreat of General Gourko from Eski-Zagra and
Jeni-Zagra the campaign has come to a standstill, with results
as unexpected as they are remarkable. If the Turks began the
campaign with a series of blunders that were simply inex-
cusable, the Russians have brought it to a momentary halt, if
not to a close, by two or three blunders equally grave, equally
inexcusable, and from certain points of Yiew almost equally
disastrous. The first of these mistakes was the advance of
General Gourko beyond Kezanlik with a force utterly in-
adequate to maintain itself, with the necessary consequence
of defeat and retreat. This movement was made, however, by
General Gourko on his own responsibility, without the orders
of the Grand Duke, and his only excuse is that the movement
was made before the battle of Plevna, and that at the time he
expected to be almost immediately followed by at least an
army corps, a mistake w^hich, on the whole, was excusable ;
for nobody at that date could have supposed a Russian com-
mander-in-chief, or a Russian chief of staff, or a Russian
general capable of committing blunder number two. This
was the neglect to occupy Plevna and Loftcha immediately
upon advancing to Tirnova, blunder the like of which can
only be found in the early stages of the American civil war,
when armies were commanded by lawyers, doctors, merchants,
and politicians.
Perhaps not even an American civilian general would have
committed the blunder of advancing from the Danube to
Philippopolis railway, with an army of fifty or sixty
thousand men on his right flank, without sending something
more than two or three hundred Cossacks to protect that
liank, or without even sending out a cavalry reconnaissance
to find out the exact whereabouts of the army that was known
to be there, and to give timely warning of its approach. The
imbecility displayed in this by educated military men is of
that kind which simply surpasses belief and defies explanation.
A glance at the map will serve to show the most unmilitary
mind the absolute necessity for the Russians to strongly occupy
Plevna when they advanced to Tirnova, and to seize Loftcha
before they reached the passes of the Balkans. The road from
Plevna to Loftcha runs parallel to that between Sistova
and Gabrova, the main line of the Russian advance ; and
Loftcha and Plevna command all the roads from Widdin,
Sofia, and Nish, where the Turks were known to have con-
THE EUSSIANS IN BULGARIA. 351
siderable forces, and the possession of tliose towns by tlie Rus-
sians would have insured the safety of their right flank and
their long line of communications. The necessity of seizing-
these places was so evident to the most casual observer, of
even the most unmilitary turn of mind, that probably not one
military man in a hundred ever thought of ascertaining
whether it had really been done or not. They would as soon
have thought of inquiring whether the Russians were in the
habit of placing outposts and sentinels, or whether the artilleiry'
had wheels. And yet this measure, rudimentary in its sim-
plicity and necessity, w^as neglected by the Russian military
chiefs until it was too late, with, as its result, the battle of
Plevna, and the loss of seven or eight thousand of Russia's
bravest soldiers as uselessly as if they had been simply led
out and shot by their own comrades.
Who is responsible for this disastrous result ? Evidently two
men : General Kriidener, the chief of the 9th Corps, who
commanded the operations on the right flank, who received
the order to occupy Plevna as soon as he crossed the river, and
General Levitsky, the assistant chief of staff of the Grand
Duke, whose business it was to see that the Grand Duke's:
orders were executed. General Kriidener, occupied with the
siege of Kicopolis, not only did not seize Plevna as ordered^
but even withdrew the cavalry that had been sent there for
that purpose to I^icopolis. As cavalry could hardly be used
for the storming of redoubts, his object in doing this can
scarcely be conceived. Had he even occupied Plevna imme-
diately after the fall of Nicopolis all might have been welL
Had he even sent out the cavalry to ascertain where th&
Turkish army was, and give warning of its advance, all
might still have been well. The neglect to occupy Plevna as
long as he positively knew the Turkish army was still far
away would have been of slight consequence. But he did
not send a single squadron to see whether that army was;
approaching Plevna or not, and the first detachment of his-
army marched into Plevna two hours after the Turks arrived
there, without having thrown out a scout or an advance guards
just as though they were marching through the district of
Moscow. This in the enemy's country, within ten miles of
an army of fifty thousand men. But the whole responsibility
in a question so important as this cannot be thrown upon
General Kriidener. It is evident there must be more than one
man to blame. IS'o such important and vital measure as the
occupation of Plevna and the protection of the right flank
should have been or could have been left to the care of one
man already occupied with an important siege.
352 ^'AR COKKESPOXDEXCE.
Evidently tliere was somebody else avIio slionld have looked
after tliis matter, who should have known that the order to
occupy Plevna had not been executed, who should have
known the reason why, and who should have repaired the
necrlect at once, or at least have ascertained that there was
no possibility of the Turks seizing the important strategic
position. That man was General Levitsky. He may be
considered the executive officer of the Grand Duke's staff,
who looks after details, who sees that orders are executed,
who finds the best way of executing them, and who is
besides, it is said, the leading spirit in the military councils
for the direction of the campaign in general. General I^epo-
koitschitsky is old, and does not, I am told, take a very active
part in affairs, so that it is Levitsky who is the real chief of
the staff, and who is mainly responsible for the direction of
affairs. It may not be amiss to say a word about General
Levitsky here.
He is among the youngest generals of the army, and was ap-
pointed to his present high position on account of the talent
he displayed in the peace manoeuvres at St. Petersburg.
Here, on the level plains about the capital, where every inch
of the ground and every road was known to him, where the
fighting was done wdth blank cartridges, and there were
neither killed nor wounded, General Levitsky succeeded in
handling an army corps very well, and usually won consider-
able advantage over his adversaries. Fighting a real war
and handling an army of two hundred thousand men is,
however, a different kind of thing from directing those
peace manoeuvres ; and although the choice of General
Levitsky for his present post may have been the one which
seemed to invite the greatest chances of success, it cannot
be said that it has been justified by the results. Besides the
tift'air at Plevna, for which General Levitsky is in great part
responsible, there are tactical faults in the distribution of
the army for which he is answerable. The army has been,
in fact, disposed of in the most unheard-of manner. Divi-
sions, brigades, and even regiments have been cut up,
parcelled out, and sent to the four points of the compass,
and dispersed so far that it is doubtful whether they will
ever be able to unite again during the war. The 14th
Division, for instance, is an example of this. There is a part
of it on the road to Osman Bazar, a part at or near Elena, a
part at Khaini or Khainkin, as it is improperly called by the
Russians, a part at Selvi, and a part at Tirnova — points that
can have no tactical connection with each other, and which
are so far apart that it is doubtful if the 14th Division, con-
GENERAL LEYITSKY. 353
sidered the best in the army, can ever be brought together
again. General Dragomiroff, its commander, is left at
Tirnova with a battalion or two, and his division has
virtually been taken from him.
If this parcelling out continues much longer, there will be no
tactical unity left, and any required force will have to be
made up of fractions of battalions, regiments, and brigades,
hurriedly tumbled together, without cohesion and without
solidity. The fault has arisen from the assistant-chief of
staff miscalculating the forces required upon given points,
and then remedying the mistake in a hand-to-mouth sort of
way, by seizing troops wherever he could get them — a batta-
lion here and a regiment there — to strengthen the respective
positions. Another mistake has been committed by the staff,
for which General Levitsky cannot alone be held responsible.
When news was received of the occupation of Plevna by the
Turks, Loftcha should have been instantly seized by the
Russians ; and for two very good strategical reasons. In the
first place, with the Turks at Loftcha, it is just as impossible
for the Russians to cross the Balkans as it is with the Turks
in possession of Plevna. The possession of either of these
points effectually checks the Russian advance, and Loftcha,
equally with Plevna, was most important for the Russians as
well as the, Turks.
Rut this is not all. A glance at the map will show that the
road from Plevna to Sophia passes at no great distance from
Loftcha, and that consequently, had the Russians seized
Loftcha as soon as the Turks occupied Ple\Tia, they would
have threatened the Turkish line of communications, and
their best line of retreat. The possession of Loftcha was
almost indispensable for a successful attack upon Plevna, for
it would have enabled the Russians to completely turn the
Turkish positions on the south, and to have brought at least
one more division — the 9th, then ' at Gabrova and Selvi — to
the attack. In fact, the possession of Loftcha was so
necessary to the Russians before attacking Plevna, that, had
the Turks occupied it at the same time as Plevna, the
Russians should have taken it before attacking Plevna at all.
Yet a week or ten days elapsed between the seizure of Plevna
and Loftcha by the Turks, and the Russian General-in-Chief
never thought of profiting by the opportunity thus offered
him. The best military authorities are of opinion that, as
long as the present lines are occupied by the Russians, it will
even yet be necessary to begin the attack upon Plevna by the
capture of Loftcha. The mistake, therefore, of allowing it
to be seized and fortified by the Turks is only less than that
:-]54 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
of allowing Plevna to fall into tlieir hands. The capture o
Plevna bv the Tnrks was a surprise — caused by the most
gTOSs and culpable carelessness and stupidity, it is true — but it
Avas still a surprise for the Russian staff. The same cannot
be said of the capture of Loftcha ; and the fact of their not
having forestalled the Turks looks as though neither Greneral
^epokoitchitsky nor General Levitsky understood the import-
ance of this strategical point until it was too late.
Then, as to the battle of Plevna itself, there was displayed here
an amount of carelessness, recklessness, and incapacity on
the part of the Russians for which very few people were
prepared ; a degree of incapacity which, if it were general,,
and not confined to one or two officers, would simply augur
that the Russians would be beaten in this war by such an
enemy as the Turks, and badly beaten too. I do not think,
for my own part, there is the slightest ]3robability of such a
result ; but if the battle of Plevna were to be taken as a
specimen of Russian military ability, then it must be con-
fessed there would be little hope for a termination of the w^ar
favourable to the Russian arms.
Fortunately for the cause of humanity there is reason to
believe that General Kriidener, w^ho is entirely responsible
for the manner in which the battle was fought, is an exception^
and that no more such affairs will occur. The fact is that
the battle of Plevna is as disgraceful for the Russian generals
as it is glorious for the Russian soldiers. The soldiers knew
their duty, and did it. It was the Russian generals who*
neither knew nor did theirs. The fearful losses sustained
show how well the Russian soldier did his part. Those losses
may be safely estimated at 8,000 in killed and wounded, out
of a force of 24,000 actually engaged in the battle ; that is, a
loss of 33 per cent. The Prussian loss at Gravelotte, the
bloodiest battle of the Franco-Prussian war, did not exceed
8 per cent., and if we wish to find a parallel for the Russian
losses at Plevna we must look to some of the hardly fought
battles of the American Civil "War, Shiloh, Antietam, the
Wilderness, with this difference, that the American troopsi
who fought these battles were veterans, while the greater
part of the Russians at Plevna had never been under fire
before.
In the first place, General Kriidener hesitated and vacillated
four or i^Ye days before attacking, although everything was
ready, and during these four or five days the Turks were
receiving reinforcements hour by hour and digging intrench-
ments. He assembled general councils of war during this
time, composed first of all of his generals, and then of all the
THE MISTAKES AT PLEVNA. 355
colonels and generals, tlian which, a more absnrd proceeding
could hardly be imagined. He was wavering, nndecided, irri-
table, and excited. When, finally, in a paroxysm of energy, he
made up his mind to attack, it was already so late in the
night that the different commanders did not receive the order
to march nntil the hour named in the order for starting — that
is, at five o'clock in the morning. The troops on the left wing-
did not get the order to start nntil six o'clock — that is, an
honr after they should have been already on the way — and
the whole army, therefore, fearful of arriving too late, had to
start without breakfast, with a march of ten miles to make
before going into battle.
With all Greneral Kriidener's hesitation and caution, he does
not seem to have once properly reconnoitred the Turkish
positions. Had he done so he would have made his prin-
cipal attack from the south, where the Turks had not for-
tified themselves, and from whence he might easily have
turned their intrenchments. This was proved by General
Skobeleff, in command of the extreme left, w^ho actually
penetrated into Plevna, and turned the Turkish position, but
with a force too small to be effective. Instead of this. Gene-
ral Kriidener threw his army blindly against the Turkish
intrenchments, like a mad bull going at a stone wall, with
no other idea of taking it but the employment of pure brute
force in the undirected if sublime bravery of the Russian
soldier. If battles were to be fought in this way there would
be no need of officers; the soldiers might do all, and the
generals had better return at once to the cafes of St. Peters-
burg and Moscow. There was one general in this battle,
the commander of the 30th Division, whose fate has been a
sad one. He is an old man — one of the richest men in
Russia — whose career has been a long and an honourable
one, and who has been expelled from the army for — simple
cowardice. He, it seems, did not appear on the field of
battle at all, and nevertheless fled panic-stricken to Bulgareni,
some ten miles in the rear, before halting.
It may not be amiss to say something here of the Russian
army as it exists at present. In the first place all the pre-
dictions about the certain spread of sickness when once the
army was over the Danube have been falsified. The health
of the troops is exceptionally good, better perhaps than if
they were in their barracks in Russia. This is only natural.
The climate of Bulgaria is very healthy, the country con-
siderably higher than the Danube, and rising higher and
higher as it approaches the Balkans. There had been no
rain of any consequence, until five days ago there was a
A A 2
356 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
steady downpour, which lasted two days, and rendered the
roads very muddy, and filled some of the mountain streams
to overflowing. The sky has now cleared again, and we
shall probably have another long spell of dry weather.
The hospital service is well organized, and besides the mili-
tary hospital and ambulance service there is that of the Rus-
sian Red Cross, and others maintained by private societies.
The sick and the wounded are therefore well cared for, and
the mortality is very slight. The commissariat service seems
likewise to be w^ell managed, and I hear no complaints
among the soldiers of insufficient or bad food. I have many
times had occasion to try the soldiers' fare when I could
not easily procure any other, and must say that, for making
a good soup, the Russian soldier is unrivalled. Their rations
are excellent in quality, and sufficient in quantity, and I
have not heard as yet any complaints of their failing, or
of the soldiers going even a single day without food.
There are complaints, I believe, about the Russian artillery.
It is said the gnins have not the range that was expected of
them, owing either to inherent defects in the guns themselves,
or the bad quality of the powder furnished. But the ser^dce
of the artillery is excellent, and capable of making all that is
to be made out of the guns. The horses of both artillery and
cavalry are still in excellent condition, wdth the exception of
some of the Cossack cavalry, which have been overworked.
The Russian engineer service, wath the famous Todleben at
its head, is said to be the best in Europe. If this be true, all
I can say is that the engineer service had better do something
to justify its reputation. I never in my life saw roads and
bridges in the condition in w^hich they are used by the Russian
army. Even the Carlists did better than this. The roads
and bridges literally take care of themselves, and had the
Russians had an ordinary enemy to deal wdth, they might
meet with a disaster from this cause alone. There appears to
be absolutely nobody to look after them. The Russian staff
is of course in a great measure responsible for this state of
things ; and the Russian staff, I should say, is by no means
the best in Europe. Everything that depends upon the
staff is done in a careless slipshod manner that is not to be
mistaken. If the head of the staff can commit such blunders
as I have already pointed out, it is not to be wondered that
the rest should not be up to their work. Of the troops of the
line it is unnecessary to speak. The Russian soldier is beyond
all praise. The officers themselves say, " Ah, if we were half
as good as our soldiers, the Russian army would be the best
in the world. "
RUSSIAN REGIMENTAL OFFICERS. 357
As to the officers of the line, the company officers and heads of
regiments are undoubtedly excellent, and will compare favour-
ably with officers of the same rank in any army in the world
except the Prussian. But the same cannot generally be said
of the battalion commanders, who are proverbially careless,
neglectful, and indifferent. The reason for this difference is
obvious, and is more or less the result of a law decreed some
few years ago. By this law company officers are made more
dependent on their good conduct for their positions and pro-
motion than they formerly were, and more than is possible
with regard to the heads of battalions. The command of a
company may be given to a lieutenant, even when the company
has its captain, should the latter show himself incapable or
negligent ; and as the actual command of a company brings
an addition to the pay of 500 roubles, the lieutenants are very
anxious to show themselves capable of commanding a company,
while the captains who have companies are careful by no
neglect of duty to give occasion for losing their commands
and being simply attached to the regiment.
Once the captain becomes a major, however, and receives the
command of a battalion, the case is different. He then has
little to fear and little to hope for but his retirement and his
pension. Unless he does something very bad, his battalion
cannot be taken from him ; and unless he has some oppor-
tunity to really distinguish himself, or unless he has powerful
friends, it is difficult for him to get a regiment. The result
is that he generally settles down into an apathetic, indifferent
officer, who barely does his duty and no more, with nothing
better to look forward to. The commanders of regiments
are a better class of men. They are either those officers
who distinguished themselves in the lower grades, and were
promoted for bravery, a brilliant action, or great and undis-
puted cleverness, superior education and intelligence; or
else officers from the Guard, men of good families with posi-
tion, education, and fortune, generally a superior class of men.
They are not often either very studious or very much given
to consuming the midnight oil — at least for purposes of study,
but they are brave, clever, active, and intelligent, with honour
and reputation at stake, and, taken all in all, a very good
class of officers.
When we come to the generals we find ourselves for the most
part among a different class of men, especially if we take the
older ones. The period of service of the greater part of these
dates from before the Crimean war, and although there are
many exceptions to this statement, they cannot upon the whole
be considered a superior, or even a moderately good set of men.
358 WAR coreespOkdexce.
Tliej are rather below than above the average, and do not com-
pare favourably with the class of younger officers that are
growing up under them. The reason for this difference may
be attributed in great part to the following circumstances :
At the close of the Crimean war the feelings of the Russian
people were most intensely excited against the Grovernment
and against the army, in consequence of the defeat, and the
conclusion of what was universally regarded as a disgraceful
and dishonourable peace. The violence of this feeling, espe-
cially against the army, may be judged by the following inci-
dent : — There was a regiment, or the remnant of a regiment, that
had lost twice its number in the siege of Sebastopol, that had
distinguished itself among the bravest of the brave, and when
on its way home, passing through the streets of a large town
shattered and broken, reduced to one-tenth of its normal
number, began to play a victorious march ; when the popula-
tion, rich and poor, young and old, noble and peasant, rose
up as one man and began to hurl stones and mud at the poor
fellows, who were expecting a very different reception, to
insult them with cries of " Cowards, " " E/unaways, " and
asking them why they did not play that march when before
the enemy.
The popular feeling was so strong against the army that for two
or three years the G-overnment bent before it, and neglected
the army ; the service became unpopular, and the best and
bravest of the officers who had distinguished themselves in
the war, the men of good families and those who were capable
of profiting by the experience gained, who had become really
splendid officers in the stern ordeal of battle, became dis-
gusted and indignant at the treatment they received, resigned
their commissions, and either retired into private life or
embraced civil professions. These are the men who should
have been the generals of to-day. When they retired, their
places were filled by men of an inferior class, whose want
of means prevented their retiring into private life, or whose
want of education prevented their adopting a civil profession,
or whose want of sensibility made them indifferent to the
contumely heaped upon them. And these are the men who
are the generals of to-day. ISTaturally, there are among them
a few who remained from a sense of duty and a love of their
profession, and one of these is General Nepokoitchitsky.
There are others among the younger officers who have
achieved distinction since the Crimean war, either on the
field of battle, as General Skobeleff; in the Cabinet, as
General Levitsky ; or by their writings on tactics and stra-
tegy, as General Dragomiroff ; but these are few. And even
THE RUSSIAN GENERALS. 359
of these tliere may be some wlio, like General Levitskr, will
not come through the present war without damage to their
laurels.
Such, then, are the generals of the Russian army of to-day.
Of the sixty or seventy generals of brigade, division, and
corps commanders, there is not yet one who has given any
proof of extraordinary talent, who has risen enough above the
level of mediocrity to attract attention, who begins to show
as a figure, still less to whom all eyes are turned as the
Russian Moltke of the future. General Dragomiroff is the
most promising of them all, and he will undoubtedly ere long-
have command of a corps, and should the war continue for
another campaign, as now seems probable, will certainly be
at the head of an independent army. General Skobeleff,
who is the most brilliant of the younger men, and who gives
more promise for the future than any I have yet seen, is still
too young for the command of more than a division, unless
he should have some extraordinary chance of distinguishing
himself, and the headquarter staff should meet with another
reverse which would necessitate their taking the best man
they can find without regard to age or rank. General Baron
Krlidener has been relieved from the command of the army
around Plevna by General Zotoff, the head of the 4tli
Corps, who is his senior in point of service though not in
years. Kriidener still remains, I believe, in command of the
9th Corps. General Zotoff owes his present position to
neither protection nor favour. He has won it solely by his
sword, and something may therefore, I think, be hoped from
him. He appears to be a man of resolution and energy, and
it is he who will command the next attack upon Plevna,
which we are expecting daily.
It may not be uninteresting here to take a glance at the plan of
operations likely to be adopted on both sides. The Turkish
plan is evident. It is to surround the territory now occu-
pied by the Russians with a series of fortresses and fortified
camps, then act entirely on the defensive, in which way alone
they are capable of availing themselves of the splendid
fighting qualities of their troops. They can play the waiting
game better than the Russians, who will of course attack as
soon as they receive reinforcements, and they can hope by an
obstinate resistance, disputing every foot of ground and
covering every square rood with trenches, to prolong the war
into another campaign, if not to surround the Russians with
a circle of iron which they may vainly endeavour to break.
This defensive war of positions is undoubtedly the best they
could have adopted. The want of military knowledge among
360 WAK COEKESPONDEXCE.
tlie Turks, tlie utter lack of good officers, of discipline, of
military skill, and the consequent impossibility of liandling
troops in tlie field, of executing manoeuvres, or even tactical
evolutions, makes it impossible for tlie Turks, even with
triple numbers, to contend witli the Russians in the open
field. But, put a Turk in a ditch, give him a gun, a sackful
of cartridges, a loaf of bread, and a jug of water, he will
remain there a week or a month under the most dreadful
artillery fire that can be directed against him, without flinch-
ing. He can only be dislodged by the bayonet, and with
the rapidity of fire of modern arms it is very difficult to
reach him with the bayonet, as the Russians found ta
their cost at Plevna. And it is only in this way that the
splendid individual courage of the Turk can be utilized —
that is, by acting on the defensive, and fighting in trenches.
This is the plan the Turks have evidently adopted, and had they
not allowed the Russians to seize two passes of the Balkans
they might have rendered it so far successful as to inflict such
fearful losses on the Russians in passing this barrier as to put
the possibility of seriously threatening Constantinople out of
the question. They have on one side Rustchuk, Shumla,,
Osman Bazar, and the Slievno Pass, all fortified and de-
fended by troops who, however despicable they may be in
the open field, are most formidable adversaries buried in
trenches and rifle-pits. On the other side they have splen-
didly retrieved their mistakes made in not defending the
passage of the Danube and Balkans by seizing Plevna and
Loftcha, a masterstroke of strategy, favoured by luck and
Russian stupidity, and backed up by the magnificent conduct
of the Turkish troops. It checked the Russian advance as
effectually as if they had recaptured the passes of the Balkans
themselves with an army of a hundred thousand men. They
are fortifying these places, thus completing the circle, which
is only broken at Shipka and Khaini or Khainkin.
Nevertheless this plan, the best that could possibly have been
adopted by the Turks, although it may retard the end, cannot
avert it. In the first place no army, that is compelled to act
purely on the defensive, tactically as well as strategically, can
ever be victorious in the end. It is destined to be finally
beaten by laws as inevitable and inexorable as that of gravi-
tation. It is merely a question of time, numbers, and mathe-
matics, as a glance at the present situation wdll showv
Supposing the Turks to have three hundred thousand men
here, as is claimed for them— one hundred thousand on the
side of Plevna, one hundred thousand at Rustchuk, Shumla,
and Osman Bazar, and one hundred thousand in the valley of
POSSIBILITIES OF THE CAMPAIGN. . 3(>1
the Tundja, to prevent the Russian advance. This estimate
is a very liberal one for the Turks, but we can allow it for the
sake of illustration. The Russians have already, in the two
armies of the Grand Duke Nicholas and the Czarewitch, six
army corps, without counting* the two corps under the com-
mand of General Zimmerman. These six corps will give an
effective force of 150,000 men, after deducting 12,000 for the
Russian losses up to the present moment. With the arrival
of the Guard, which counts 60,000, and three more divisions
which have been mobilized, which will give a force of 40,000,
the Russians will have in these two armies a force of 250,000,
without counting the army of Zimmerman.
With this force at their disposal, there are two or three plans of
campaign that might be adopted. In the first place, they
might simply leave 75,000 men on the Plevna side, and as
many on the Rustchuk and Shumla side, as mere corps of
observation, and cross the Balkans with 100,000 men. If it is
admitted, as it is on all hands, that the Turks cannot act with
success on the offensive, 150,000 men would be enough, and
more than enough, to hold the Turkish forces at Plevna and
Shumla in check during the forward march of the 100,000
men towards Constantinople. As there are no positions
between the Balkans and Constantinople which cannot be
turned, the Turks would have no opportunity of availing
themselves of the fighting qualities of their soldiers. It is
true they can fortify Adrianople, but that place, situated in
the midst of a broad, open plain, is not naturally a strong
position, and one not easily made so by art. It would require
50,000 troops to defend it, which would only leave 50,000 for
the defence of Constantinople. But in the event of such a
plan being adopted by the Turks, the Russians could employ
the same system I have supposed them to have employed at
Plevna and Shumla ; that is, they could leave a corps of
observation of 25,000 men before Adrianople and attack
Constantinople with 75,000, a force quite sufficient to carry it
against 50,000 defenders.
This plan is not likely to be adopted by the Russians, nor is it
the best one ; but it is one which might be adopted as the
result of a campaign conducted purely on the defensive by
the Turks. The more probable plan of operations will be as
follows. Leaving 100,000 men on the side of Rustchuk and
Shumla to hold the Turks there in check, including the force
required to hold the Shipka and Khaini Passes, they will
fling 100,000 men against Plevna and Loftcha, and crush
the Turkish forces there, and endeavour to annihilate and
destroy them ; then cross the Balkans with the same anny ;
362 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
beat tlie Turkish forces in the valley of the Tundja, before the
remnants of the Plevna army, obliged to go ronnd by Sofia,
can rejoin it ; then follow this beaten army, and not give it a
moment of halt till it reaches the capital. An army thns
pursued from the Balkans to Constantinople is not likely to
make a very formidable defence ; and if the pursuit were
properly followed up, the attacking army would reach Con-
stantinople long before the remnant of the Plevna army could
reach it by way of Sophia. This is apparently the plan the
Russians have adopted, which they are Avaiting to carry out,
and on the rapidity of the execution of AA^hich depends the
question of another campaign.
But the whole of the reinforcements which the Russians are
awaiting cannot arriA^e before the middle of September. If
they wait for the arriA^al of the Guards to begin putting the
plan into execution, they AA^ill then at the best not haA^e more
than six weeks left in Avhich to conclude the campaign, and
they may consider themseh'es fortunate indeed if they have a
month. Last year, it is true, the v/eather held up till the 1st
December, and a campaign might have been prosecuted up to
that time without much difficulty; but that was an excep-
tionally good season, and the E-ussians can hardly hope for so
good a one this year. If the roads are not completely imjDas-
sable by the middle of October, they may consider themselves
indeed fortunate. But even supposing the season to hold out
until the 1st l!^OA^ember, it will be impossible for them to take
Plevna, Loftcha, Rustchuk, cross the Balkans, beat the army
of Suleiman Pacha, besiege and take Adrianople, and then
carry the famous Kujuk Chekmejee before Constantinople, all
during this campaign. Such a task might be accomplished by
the Prussians, but ncA^er by the Russians AA^th the slowness of
movement that has characterized them during this war.
If the Russians await the arrival of the Guard, therefore, they
are doomed to undertake a second campaign, at an expense
which, in the present state of Russian finances, would be
almost equivalent to national bankruptcy. There are indi-
cations that they mean to aAvait the arrival of the Guard, and
if they do it wi\] be a mistake only equalled by that of alloAv-
ing the Turks to quietly seize Plevna and Loftcha. It is only
when confronted with this probability that we begin to under-
stand the full consequences of the Turkish stroke of strategy,
and the profound imbecility of the Russian generals in allow-
ing them to execute it. A second campaign ! A long, dreary
winter passed in the Balkans in the snow and the mud ; the
army decimated by disease, exposure, and perhaps an epide-
mic, perhaps the plague. The long weary months of waiting,
IMPORT OF A SECOND CAMPAIGN. 363
.the expenditure of millions — such is the meaning of a second
campaign.
The fact is, the Russians should have avoided the possibility of
a second campaig-n at almost any risk. Permitting the Turks
to occupy Plevna was a mistake ; the battle of Plevna,
fought in the absurd manner in which it was fought, was a
mistake ; but a greater mistake than either, if they permit it,
will be to allow the w^ar to drag on into a second campaign.
In order to avoid this, the whole plan of action should have
been changed after the battle of Plevna. They have enough
troops across the Danube to take Plevna, and they had enough
after the battle to do so. They had six army corps, giving an
effective, as I have already said, of 150,000 men, after deducting
for losses. They should have provisioned the Shipka and
Khaini Passes for two months, and placed 20,000 men there to
defend and hold them. They .should have placed 20,000 more
in front of Sistova to defend that place, and 20,000 more in
Tirnova ; then abandoned the whole of the line occupied by
the army of the Czarewitch. This would have left them an
effective of 90,000 men, which, by a rapid concentration, they
could have flung against the Turkish army at Plevna and have
crushed it.
It may be objected that I forget the army of Shumla, which
could advance in that case, take the Russian army in the rear
while attacking Plevna, and thus put it in a very dangerous
position. To this I reply, that the Turks having adopted a
purely defensive plan of campaign, to which they have
hitherto adhered with the greatest pertinacity, there is little
. likelihood of their doing this. But if they did move out of
their fortified camp at Shumla, this is the very best thing
for the Russians, the very worst move the Turks could make.
In the first place, the Russians could easily get three days' start
of them, and very probably more, a time quite sufficient for
the affair at Plevna. They could crush the Turkish army
there, and then turn round and beat the Shumla army in its
turn. If the Russians can catch this army anywhere w^est of
the Jantra, they can simply annihilate it, providing they have
first settled accounts with the Plevna army. The Turks, how-
ever strong they may be behind intrenchments, cannot stand
against the Russians in the open field. The country betw^een
the Jantra and Plevna is an open rolling plain, more or less
broken up, it is true, but offering no strong positions for
defence, nor any capable of being rapidly fortified. If the
Turks venture out here they are sure to be beaten, and this is
in fact the very move the Russians have been waiting for and
wishing for all along. But while wishing for and hoping for it,
304* ' WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
they liave not had the conrage to offer the Turks a sufficient
temptation to induce them to do it. And, in fact, up to the
battle of Plevna no good occasion had offered. That battle
furnished the occasion, and one which the Russians should
not have neglected.
Had the Turkish army come out of Shumla, it, as well as the
army of Plevna, would have been crushed in two successive
battles, and the war would be virtually at an end. Had it
remained inactive, then the Russian army could cross the
Balkans, and with the reinforcements which are already
arriving, might now have been on the march to Adrianople.
The Russian generals, however, after having blundered into
the affair of Plevna through negligence, now run to the
other extreme ; and, through an excess of caution, adopt a
safe and slow plan of campaign, that will prolong the war
another year. They intend to crush the Turks by mere
brute force and superiority of numbers, instead of by skill
and generalship, even at the fearful expense of another
campaign. So much for generalship. There is, of course,
another view to be taken of the question. Should this plan
be adopted by the Russians, a considerable portion of terri-
tory now occupied by them would have to be abandoned for
a few days ; and during this time the Turks might come in
and massacre the population, as they invariably do wherever
the Russians have passed.
The Emperor is, it is understood, very much against such a
plan if it can be avoided, for this very reason. But the
number of villages that w^ould have to be abandoned are,
after all, comparatively few, and the population of these
might retreat into Tirnova and Sistova for a few days, where
they would be quite safe until the battle would be over ; and
although those villages would undoubtedly be burnt, this
would after all cause less misery than the prolongation of
the war another year. Everything considered, therefore^
the Russians seem to be managing badly ; and their generals,
with one of the finest armies in the world at their command,
are showing neither military science nor skill. They will
undoubtedly crush the Turks in the end, but it will be by
mere brute force and overpowering numbers, and that too
against an enemy unable to take the offensive. They began
their advance as though they had no enemy at all, and since
the battle of Plevna they have been acting with as much
caution as though they were fighting the Prussians. What
would it be if they were fighting the Prussians or even any
ordinary enemy as capable as themselves of taking the
offensive ?
VALUE OF IXTRENCHMENTS. 365
One most important fact has been made manifest by the battle
of Plevna, of wliicli the Russians must take account in the
future ; that is, the advantage given by modern firearms to
raw undisciplined troops fighting in intrenchments on the
defensive. In former days, v^^hen only two or three rounds
could be fired against a bayonet charge, regular soldiers had
an immense advantage over raw, undisciplined troops fighting
in even the strongest positions. The rapidity of modem
firearms, and the steady shower of bullets that even the
rawest troops can pour against a bayonet charge or an
assault, put them nearly on an equality with veterans, as
long as they can fight from behind breastworks. This is a
fact which the Russians left altogether out of account when
they threw their masses against the Turkish intrenchments.
If the Russians attack the intrenchments of Plevna in the
way they did before, they are sure to be beaten. With
modern firearms, a simple mob, individually brave men,
without discipline and without organization, with moderately
good marksmen, can hold intrenchments against even supe-
rior numbers of the best troops in the world, as long as they
are only attacked in front. The thing has been done more
than once, even with old-fashioned muzzle-loaders ; and the
Turks have shown at Plevna how easily it can be done with
breech-loaders. And it stands to reason.
The knowledge that he can reload his piece, even after his
enemy is within twenty paces, will give the rawest recruit a
steadiness that can be obtained in no other way, and he is in
a very different moral condition from the man who has
discharged his weapon and knows he cannot reload it again
before the cold steel will be into him. Then he has other
advantages. His enemy arrives, if he arrives at all, with
thinned ranks, the men out of breath after a run of half a
mile or perhaps a mile, or a climb up a steep ascent. They
cannot fire with the least accuracy running, and even if they
«top to fire their hearts are beating with the violence of their
exertions, and their hands are unsteady. They are in a very
different condition from men posted in trenches with steady
eyes and hands, and a rest before them upon which to take
deliberate aim at an advancing foe. In my opinion, the
whole system of attack upon even the simplest trenches will
have to be completely changed in the future. Assaults,
properly speaking, will have to be abandoned. Where such
positions cannot be turned, then the attack must have
recourse to the same means as the defence. Earth will have
to fight earth. The attack will have to approach keeping as
much under cover as the defence. They will have to take
366 WAK CORRESPONDEXCE.
advantage of every shelter offered by the nature of the
ground, and where the ground does not offer shelter, then
shelter must be artificially created. The attack will likewise
have to dig trenches — narrow, shallow ones — a foot or
eighteen inches deep, along which they can crawl, and they
must keep up a fire as incessant and well-directed as that
of the defence. Strategically, they must be working on the
offensive, tactically on the defensive ; and not till they have
arrived within a few yards of the enemy's trenches, should
they think of trying the bayonet. Their progress must
necessarily be slow, but it will be sure, and the loss of life
will be moderate. The B/Ussians, for instance, instead of
trying to take Plevna in a single day, as they did before,
if they find thej cannot turn the Turkish intrenchments,
should devote at least a week to it, working gradually up to
each position, under cover, day after day, until the last is
carried, or abandoned, as would be most likely, by its
defenders.
In my opinion this is the only way trenches defended by steady
troops — and there are none steadier in trenches than the
Turks — can be taken without a loss of life so great as to very
soon destroy an army. For be it remembered that artillery
is practically powerless to dislodge troops from these deep,
narrow trenches, even at the distance of a mile, which is as
close as artillery dare approach without having the gunners
23icked off as fast as they appear ; for unless the shells fall
exactly in the trench they hurt nolDody, and even then a shell
will not hurt more than one man, or at the most two. The
difficulty of hitting a trench fifteen inches wide, which in
perspective is, at the distance of a mile, almost of less than an
inch, may easily be imagined. General Concha, at the battle
of Abarzuza, shelled the Carlist trenches three days with
eighty pieces of artillery at the distance of less than a mile,
and inflicted a loss of only eighty men in killed and wounded.
The fact is that the effect of modern artillery and its value have
been greatly over-estimated. The moral effect of shell-fire
upon raw troops is of course very great, but its material
effect is very slight, and upon good troops its moral effect is,
of course, nearly lost. A shell traversing a thin line of
infantry may carry away a man or it may not, but it is rarely
that the harm done is greater than that caused by a bullet.
A shell exploding in soft ground never does any harm unless
it happens to strike somebody before exploding. The French,
in the late w^ar with Germany, made a great deal of the fact
that German artillery was so much superior to theirs that
they w^ere under the shell-fire of the enemy long before their
IMPORTANCE OF SMALL-ARMS. 367
artillery could reply, and yet of the losses sustained by the
French in this war it has been found that not more than five
per cent, were inflicted by the Prussian artillery, with all its
boasted superiority. In my opinion, in the wars of N'apo-
leon artillery was a far more effective arm on the field of
battle than modern artillery with all its improvements. When
fifty pieces of cannon, massed into line, belched forth a storm
of grape and canister into the enemy's ranks at the distance
of five hundred yards, the effect must have been very different
from that of shells fired at the distance of two or three miles,
and smothering" themselves in the soft ground without doing
anybody any harm.
The improvement in small arms has rendered the old-fashioned
artillery quite out of the question, just as it has made cavalry,
as cavalry, nearly useless, except for outpost and scouting
duty, and rendered bayonet and cavalry charges impossible ;
but our highly improved modern artillery does not adequately
replace the old-fashioned cannon beloved of Kapoleon. At
any rate, the next battle of Plevna will not be decided by
artillery. Both Turks and Russians have shown how little
they care for shell-fire, and besides, the Russians, it seemfe,
can bring very few pieces to bear, owing to the peculiarity of
the ground, while the Turks have not shown themselves to be
very skilful in the management of their artillery. The battle
will be fought almost entirely with the bullet, and it will be
one of the most terrible, if not the most terrible, of the
century. The Turks will fight with all the desperation given
by the knowledge that they are really defending the passage
of the Balkans, and that if completely victorious here they
will have brought the campaign to a successful conclusion.
The Russians will fight animated by a knowledge of the same
facts, all the bitterness of defeat, and the desire for ven-
geance upon the barbarians who mutilate prisoners, wounded
and dead alike.
The Turks are supposed to have 70,000 men here, and the
Russians will bring to the attack at least 100,000, with
which force the Turkish positions may be attacked in front,
flank, and rear at the same time. If the minimum of
skill and generalship is displayed by the Russian generals,
more than which we cannot hope for, the result cannot be
doubtful — the Turks are sure to be beaten; but if they
conduct the attack with the sort of imbecile neglect which
allowed the Turks to get possession of Plevna — Avith the
hesitation, want of decision, carelessness, and disorder which
marked Kriidener's attack, then I should say the Russians
are sure to be beaten. Everything considered, however, I
368 WAR CORKESPONDEXCE.
must say I trihik tlie result not doubtful. The Russian
generals will display at least a minimum of military skill,
and they will inflict a crushing defeat upon the Turks.
1^0 sooner had the E/Ussians taken breath after their severe
defeat before Plevna, than Greneral Skobeleff sought permission
to do something to restore the spirit of the troops. His chief,
however, would hear of nothing more than a reconnaissance,
which was carried out in the manner described in the following:
letter : —
t Heights neaeLoftcha, August 6tJi. — General Skobeleff pushed
a strong reconnaissance to-day against Loftcha. Leaving the
Grand Duke's headquarters three days ago he took five bat-
talions of infantry, his own brigade of cavalry, and two
batteries of horse artillery, and came out on the Selvi road
half way between Selvi and Loftcha. His right wing, com-
posed entirely of cavalry, advanced and occupied several
villages encircling Loftcha, from the Plevna road to the Selvi
road. He then advanced his artillery on the Selvi road to
the heights a mile distant from Loftcha overlooking the
town, opened fire with sixteen pieces of artillery, and pushed
forward his infantry.
It was evident from the moment the heights were reached that
the reconnaissance could not be turned into an attack.
From fifteen to twenty thousand troops could be seen camped
in and about the town, while the low hills immediately sur-
rounding the town were strongly intrenched. There is a
strong redoubt on a low hill overlooking the Plevna road,
while a high, steep hill on the Selvi side is covered with
trenches. There were twelve guns in jDosition and a consider-
able number in reserve visible.
General Skobeleff nevertheless resolved to feel the enemy, and
the hills soon resounded with the roar of artillery and the
noise of shells. The Turks replied at once, and for a time
there was a lively artillery fire. The Turkish artillery prac-
tice was very fair. Several shells fell near the Russian guns,
but as the ground was very soft — we were planted in a vine-
yard — they rarely exploded, and when they did explode they
only threw up the earth a little, doing no harm. General
Skobeleff only lost one man by the shell-fire.
I observed the same fact on the right flank, where the cavalry
advanced within point-blank range of the Turkish guns and
opened fire with two small pieces of horse artillery. The
Turks replied, and shells fell continually among the horses
RECONNAISSANCE OF LOFTCHA. 369
and men of the battery without doing any harm, owing to
their not exploding until too deep in the ground. There was
a panic on the Turkish skirmishing line at first, but they soon
perceived they had only cavalry to deal with, and were not
long in recovering their positions. But they did not attack,
nevertheless.
In the meantime General Skobeleff had pushed forward his
infantry, and my attention was soon directed to his side by a
heavy fusillade. From where his guns were placed the road
leads down a narrow hollow, whose sides were covered with
woods, down to the foot of the steep hill which was occupied
by the Turks in intrenchments. The infantry went down
partly under cover of the woods, but not unperceived by the
Turks, who poured a heavy fire into the woods. The Russians
pushed forward, however, and in much less time than I
could have thought had reached the foot of the hill. They
announced their arrival with a shout, and to my surprise,
Knowing no attack was intended, I saw them begin to dodge
up the hill two or three at a time under cover of the bushes
and little hollows with which such hills are usually covered.
It began to look like a real attack. The Turkish fire grew
heavier and heavier, until it was one continuous roll, far more
terrible than the heaviest artillery fire, because a hundred
times more destructive.
It was evident from this fire that the Turks were three times
as numerous as the Russians. An assault under such circum-
stances would be madness, and I was beginning to wonder
if Skobeleff could really be madman enough to attempt it.
Suddenly I saw a small party of horsemen dashing down the
road within full view of the Turks, and within easy range of
their fire, and perceived in a moment Skobeleff. He was
mounted on a white horse, and wore a white coat, offering a
splendid target for sharpshooters. As I afterwards learned,
he, like myself, began to perceive that the attack was growing
far too serious, in spite of his orders, and was now going for-
ward to stop it. The soldiers were, it seems, determined on
an assault, and the officers maintained, when reproached by
Skobeleff, that they could not restrain them. I saw Skobeleff
stop apparently to give an order, then saw him dismount, get
on another horse, while the white Arabian was led back.
He had received a bullet. His escort, which had been com-
posed of six Cossacks, was now reduced to three, the others
having been more or less seriously wounded, one mortally.
The fire was still raging along the Turkish intrenchments, and
the Russians were still pushing forward. Skobeleff, mount-
ing another horse, a sorrel this time, again galloped forward.
B B
370 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
He readied tlie foot of tlie hill eviclentlj sliouting and gesti-
culating, wliile liis trumpeter sounded the retreat, apparently
with effect, for the skirmishers began to T\4thdraw. Then I
saw him go down, horse and man together, and I said to
myself, " He has got it this time. " He had had two horses
killed under him at Ple^Tia. If it is the horse onlv, it makes
the fourth within ten days. It is impossible for him to go on
in this way long without getting killed. He is fairly under
the Turkish intrenchments, and within easy range of the
Turkish fire, which is growing stronger and stronger. They
are evidently getting reinforcements from the other side,
where they are only threatened with cavalry. The roar is
continuous, and rolls up and down the hollow like one con-
tinuous crash of thunder, only broken by the heavier booming
!)f the artillery. The bullets must be falling about there like
hail. It will be a miracle if Skobeleff comes out of it alive.
Here a cloud of dust and smoke gathered for a moment, and
was swept away by the wind two or three minutes later. I
then saw Skobeleff again on another horse, fresh as ever,
coming back up the road at a trot. He had not received a
scratch. The reconnaissance was now over. The troops retired
as they came through the wood under the Turkish fire, which
was not here very effective. The Avhole loss was five killed
and twenty wounded on this side — rather heavy for a mere
reconnaissance. Had the troops not been stopped in time,
they would simply have been annihilated, as several battalions
and regiments were at Plevna. It is impossible to attack the
Turks in fortifications without greatly superior forces, unless
the positions can be turned.
Skobeleff retired about two miles, camped, and made his report.
I do not know what was its nature, but it is very evident no
attack can be made on Loftcha until the Russians are ready
for an attack on Plevna likewise ; and no attempt can be made
on Plevna until the arrival of more troops from Russia. The
Turks greatly outnumber the Russians all along the right
bank, and, according to all military rules, ought to attack.
A successful attack upon the Russian forces before Plevna
would necessitate the evacuation of Tirnova, and either the
abandonment of the Shipka and Kezanlik Passes, or the isola-
tion of the forces holding those passes. If the Turks could
fight as well on the offensive as on the defensive, they would
soon bring the campaign to an end, for this year at least. As
seems likely, the Russians will attempt nothing against either
Plevna or Loftcha for a month at least. The reconnaissance
to-day can have no other object but to annoy the Turks.
When we returned to camp I found the Kirghiz whom Skobeleff
SKOBELEPT UXDER FIRE, 371
brought witli him from Khokand sitting on tlie ground crying
over Skobeleff's horse, which he had also brought from
Khokand — a splendid animal that did eighty miles the other
day without feeling it apparently, while a tine English mare
Skobeleff had was completely knocked up, and had to be
killed. The Earghiz, although himself slightly wounded, had
brought the horse back from under fire, and finding there was
no hope of saving him, killed him, skinned him, cut off his
hoofs, came into camp, sat down, and had a good cry without
paying the slightest attention to his wound. He had been
utterly indifferent when other horses were killed ; but this one,
he said, was his countryman and brother — the only thing he
had to remind him of his far-away home. I saw tears roll-
ing down the poor fellow's cheeks in a stream. He got
two bullets through his clothes, one of which made a flesh
wound in his arm. He likewise had two horses shot under
him at Plevna.
This reconnaissance has been the most thorough and bast con-
ducted of the war. Had there been such a one pushed
against Plevna before the battle the result would undoubt-
edly have been dift'erent.
f Bktweex Selvi and Loftcha, August 7th. — General Skobeleff
purposely camped yesterday in dangerous positions near
Loftcha in order if possible to induce the Turks to attack.
The right wing, composed of cavalry, was to the left of the
Selvi road, about four miles from Loftcha. What made the
position tempting for the Turks to attack was that there
were three roads from Loftcha, which rejoin the Selvi road
about three miles behind us, making it the most natural
thing for the Turks to attempt to cut us off from Selvi by
turning either the right or left flank, or both.
This morning it looked as though the Turks were disposed to
profit by the opportunity to undertake something against
us. First a large number of troops, nearly a division, were
reported moving along the road towards Plevna from Loft-
cha, which at first looked as though the Turks were
abandoning Loftcha. A more likely explanation, however,
was that this was a body of troops on its way to Plevna
from the south, having stopped overnight at Loftcha. The
Turks, it seems, are still concentrating at Plevna, and they
are right, for there will be fought the decisive battle of the
war. An hour later, information was received that a strong
demonstration of cavalry and infantry was being made
against our right flank, which was obliged to withdraw
slowly. Two hours later, Colonel Orloff reported that a
B B 2
372 ^VAK cor.r.ESPOXDExcL\
strong force of infantry and cavalry was still driving tiin
back. As this movement, if continued, would result in our
being cut off from Selvi, where there is a strong Kussian
force, it became necessary to withdraw, and about noon the
General gave orders to march. About this time w^e received
informatfon that the Turks were advancing upon us by the
Selvi road likewise. Although this report proved to be
incorrect, Skobeleff determined to make a counter demon-
stration in order to give his baggage plenty of time to
withdraw.
He took two cannon, protected by two squadrons of cavalry,,
and advanced again towards Lof tcha, expecting to meet their
advanced guard, to which he intended to give a warm
reception. We advanced along the road without meeting
anybody until we reached the position where the guns were
planted yesterday. The Turks had either changed their
minds or else the movement was only a stratagem. So the
General planted his two guns on the same spot as yesterday,
and opened fire a second time, to which the Turks instantly
replied. We sent them a dozen shells by way of informing
them we cared nothing for their demonstration on our right
flank, and then, as the main part of the detachment had got
fairly under way, we withdrew.
As we retired we saw a number of troops with a broad red band
round their caps, who looked suspiciously like Turks. It was
the road by which the Turks would advance in case the right
wing were completely driven back, and if the rest of our army
had gone on — as was possible — then these were Turks. In
that case our two squadrons and two guns were completely
cut off from the rest of the detachment. Our little column
was tightened up, and everything made ready for a desperate
stand until the rest of the detachment, warned by the roar
of the cannon, should come back to our relief. The result
showed how well the General had taken his dispositions for
retreat. These troops proved to be our own, placed there to
hold the road until we should get back.
We are camped here in a beautiful spot, awaiting events-
The General proposes meantime to employ his cavalry to
disperse the gathering Bashi-Bazouks, who are beginning to
form in considerable numbers since the Russian defeat at
Plevna.
-•' Bjkla, August 9th. — I am well aware that efforts have been
made to depreciate the significance and importance of the
Plevna reverse. Military critics of experience and position
have been inclined to make light of it, and hold the view that
CONSEQUENCES OF THE PLEVNA DEFEAT. 373
the Russians miglit with impunitj disregard Turkish forces
looming ominously on both their flanks on this side of the
Balkans, and pursue their advance on Adrianople regardless
of their threatened communications.
I do not care to discuss the quixotry of abstract ^possibilities.
There are rules of w^arfare for vrhich experience has given
warrant, and respecting which experience proves that their
disregard, in nine cases out of ten, results in disaster. I
formed my estimate of the results of the Plevna reverse on
the battle-field. It was a forecast ; and amid the groaning of
the w^ounded and the whistling of the shells, the calm pulse
demanded for a deliberate and passionless realization of the
position, and its bearing on future events, is liable to fail a
man ; but the results have shown that I correctly estimated
the significance of the reverse.
It has been said that two days after the defeated attack the
Russians had so recovered their organization as to be able to
renew it. It was for them of paramount importance to do so,
had it been possible ; but they stand waiting for the necessary
reinforcements, thankful to fortune that they are not assailed
in their defensive positions. My forecast of the gravity of
the results of the Plevna reverse has been borne out to the
letter by the Russian appreciation thereof. That reverse has
altered the whole plan of the campaign.
'No more reckless, if victorious, raids now\ No more advances,
regardless of threatening concentrations on the flanks. The
Russians have virtually abandoned the expectation of pressing
the war successfully across the Balkans for this year. It will
suffice them if during the three months still available for
fighting they can sweep Bulgaria north of the Balkans clear
of the Turkish armies. The Crescent must wave over the
towers of Adrianople and the waters of the Golden Horn for
yet another winter. The Russians, will, indeed, continue to
hold the Balkan passes which they have w^on. A man does
not throw away the keys which open the door of the treasure
<?hamber. But the orders are to withdraw from all the trans-
Balkan positions occupied, and to draw in around the Shipka
Pass, this from no direct pressure of the Turkish forces beyond
the Balkans, but because of the intrinsic risk always attending
unsupported advances when they cease to have a definite
object. Eski-Zagra has been abandoned by the retiring
Russians. It is averred that there was no battle and no
defeat there ; that the Russians simply marched out and then
the Turks marched in, and a bad time ensued for the Bulgarian
portion of Eski-Zagra. Everywhere it must fare badly with
the Bulgarians who, wdien the Russians came, cheered, and
374 WAR COERESPOXDEXCE.
shouted, and clamoured for arms to assail the Turks where-
Avithal. Xow thej are left to the tender mercies of the
Circassians and Bashi-Bazouks.
Now to speak of this side the Balkans. The paralysis brought
about by the Plevna reverse still endures. The Russian
attitude for the time is perfectly passive till the reinforce-
ments arrive. Seven fresh divisions, not formed into army
corps, are now on the march. Some are still in Russia, others
are pressing on through Roumania. One hundred thousand
men more are wanted, and are forthcoming, but they will
have to be waited for. The first brigade of reinforcements is
expected to cross the l)anube in a few days. It is hoped
that once the tide sets in a brigade will cross daily. The
offensive will, no doubt, be recommenced before all the
reinforcements are to hand. But a large proportion of them
are indispensable for a renewed offensive. Plevna must fall,
and Osman Pacha must be struck with a decisive blow. At
present he can be only watched with intent to hinder fui^ther
intrusion.
The Gi'and Duke Nicholas is in Bulgareni, in rear of the
intrenched positions of Schahofskoy and Kriidener, con-
fronting Plevna. Part of Mirsky's division stands between
Timova and Loftcha to hinder a Turkish advance in the
direction of the former important centre. Thus are stopped
the gaps through which was threatened the right flank of
the Russian communications, and the defensive protection is
probably sufficient, but the means are utterly inadequate for
a renewed offensive. It is estimated that now from sixty to-
seventy thousand Turks stand on the Loftcha-Plevna line,
and they will take a deal of beating.
On the left flank equally a strictly defensive attitude is enforced
by circumstances. There are available for holding the line
from the Danube to the Balkans on this flank the two corps
constituting the army of the Czarewitch, and the 1st Division
of the 11th Corps, left behind by Schahofskoy when he
marched on Plevna, in all about 60,000 men, necessarily
attenuated over a long front, so as to leave no gap for the
Turks to creep through.
The Turks are probably of about the same strength, but theirs i&
the advantage of choosing where to strike if they care to
strike at all. Mehemet Ali Pacha may concentrate at Rust-
chuk or Rasgrad or Osman Bazar. The Russians must
be ready to face him everywhere. They dare not take the
offensive and leave tracts of unguarded flank. They are
not strong enough to guard a continuous flank and take
the offensive as well. There remains for them only the
SICKNESS AT HEADQUARTERS. 375
role of the strict defensive. The investraent of Rustchuk
must wait. The troops designed for that duty are needed
elsewhere. The siege cannon are not ready if the troops were
available. The River Lom still virtually constitutes the line
of the E/Ustchuk Army, but the headquarters of the 12th
Corps have been moved beyond it, from Trestenik to Kadikoi.
The headquarters of the Czarewitch, with the 13th Corps about
them, have advanced from Obertenik to Kaceljevo, thus con-
fronting E-asgrad, while between Osman Bazar and Tirnova
the 11th Division stands with its headquarters in Kosarevac.
Zimmerman is where he was, no further south than Trajan's
Wall. It is stalemate with him. He is guarding the Do-
brudscha against an enemy who does not threaten it. He
cannot push forward with his thirty thousand men lest
enemies from Varna and Shumla should converge upon him.
The Russian army begins to suffer in health owing in some
corps to irregular rations, in others to hard marching, in all
to heat ; but the greatest predisposing cause is the total
neglect of all sanitary precautions. They never bury dead
horses or oxen, or the entrails of slaughtered cattle. They
never dream seemingly of the wisdom of the latrine
system. The result is a general tainting of the air, which
poisons men predisposed to fall ill by reason of lassitude from
over-fatigue or long abstinence from food, although men in
stalwart health escape. Strangely enough, the greatest pro-
portion of illness has manifested itself in the personnel of the
Imperial suite, whose members are comparatively nursed in
the downy lap of ease and fare sumptuousJy every day.
General Ignatieff for three days was dangerously ill from a
species of gastric fever, and is still confined to his room.
Prince Galatzin has been equally ill from the same disorder,
and is still in bed. The Emperor has five high officers known
as general-adjutants on personal service about him. Of these
but one is now fit for duty ; the other four are ill. Nearly
everybody is more or less sick, squeamish, and out of sorts.
The reason is not far to seek. When I first came to Bjela it
was fresh and sweet ; now it has more stinks than Cologne,
and the slums of Strasburg are a nosegay to it. The air is
tainted thick and heavy with filth and rotting offal. Even
tobacco smoke and brandy are powerless to avert nausea.
* SiSTOVA, August 10th. — The official return of the loss at
Plevna is 1,000 killed and about 4,500 wounded. The
severity of the first estimate is mitigated by the coming in of
individual stragglers days after the battle. ^ It must, how-
ever, be impossible to distinguish between the killed, wounded,
376 WAR COERESPOXDEXCE.
and missing of sucli a battle, where the field remained with
the enemy, and it is wiser to put the total loss at five thou-
sand five hundred, if the ofiicial returns are to be relied on.
It may be remembered that my estimate on the evening of
the battle was between six and seven thousand. This was
lower considerably than that of the Russians themselves,
while Grerman eye-Avitnesses have called it ten to eleven
thousand.
The first brigade of the reinforcements is a splendid rifle brigade
of four battalions. It is now at Simnitza, and will cross to-
morrow. Its destination is the Ple^ma front. The resolution
has been at last definitely taken to bridge the Danube at
Pirgos also.
Between the bridge-head and Sistova the correspondent of the
Agence Havas was last night assailed by a Russian soldier,
who felled him with a bludgeon, filled his mouth with sand,
and attempted to rob him. He was rescued by four marines,
who apprehended the soldier. The correspondent is lying in
the hospital at Simnitza. The soldier was punctually shot
here at noon to-day. This is an isolated case of ruffianism
which might occur anywhere, day or night. I have journeyed
alone and unarmed among the Russian soldiers, and so far
from being injured and insulted have always experienced cour-
tesy. I do not attribute this to the fact that I am a full-
sized kind of man, but to the innate docility and acquired
discipline of the Russian soldier, and a single instance of
ruffianism must not be allowed to tell against him.
* Sistova, August 10th. — I keep asking myself the question
whether it is well or ill for the Russians that the Turks on their
flanks in Bulgaria remain so fixedly in their intrenched positions
instead of playing the bold and strong game of the offensive.
I confess I find myself unable to answer with any degree of
confidence the question which I thus put to myself. That it was
well for the Russians that Osman Pacha did not take the
offensive immediately after the battle of Plevna I can unhesi-
tatingly affirm. Probably he did not lose heavily in that
combat, stubborn and hard-fought as it was, and I can
scarcely suppose there was much, in an abstract military sense,
to prevent him from moving forward on say the 1st of August
— the day on which the Russians, having pulled themselves
somewhat together after the first crushing shock of the
reverse, had been countermanded by their leaders from the
half- eff'ec ted retreat on the line of the Osma, had recovered
some cohesion in the positions they had occupied pre-
vious to advancing to the attack, and were engaged in
RUSSIAN DANGERS. 377
adding bj intrencliinents to the strength of their foothold
there.
That, although the attitude was not a cheerful one, the stout
soldiers of Schahofskoy and Kriidener would have fought a
hard fight, had Osman Pacha assailed them on that daj, I make
no doubt. The Russian soldier, so far as I have seen, may be
relied upon to make a good fight of it whenever he is asked.
But I cannot convince myself that, shaken by previous reverse,
attenuated in strength by the losses incurred therein, and with
their original great numerical inferiority, the Russian troops
would have been able to hold their ground on the Trestenik-
Poradim front against a determined attack made on a broad
front by the whole force of Osman Pacha. Had they been
broken by that attack, no practical soldier will deny that the
recovery of Nicopolis would scarcely have been difficult for
the Turkish general, and that there could have been not very
much to prevent his grasp closing on the very neck of the
Russian communications — the bridge at Sistova — if he had
pursued his advantage with energy and promptitude. Be-
tween the line formed by Schahofskoy's and Kriidener's men
and the bridge-head under the knoll below Sistova, there
stood not a single Russian battalion.
Once beaten and broken in the Poradim-Trestenik position, it
would have been impossible for the Russian troops to have so
pulled themselves together as to make a stand on the line of
the Osma against a renewed attack followed up briskly ; it
would have been exceptional good fortune and a highly credit-
able exploit could they have so retarded the Turkish advance
as to have given time for the Russian army of Rustchuk to
m.ove from its positions on the Lom, and fall back on Sistova
in time either to interpose between Osman Pacha and the
bridge, or so to threaten his flank by their approach as to make
him arrest his progress out of consideration for his own safety.
Regarding all these things — and Ihey must be regarded, for it
is the acme of rash folly to contend that all military rules and
cautions may be thrown to the wind, because of a foregone
conclusion that the Turks will never take the offensive — I say
then that there can be no sort of doubt it was eminently well
for the Russians that Osman Pacha contented himself with
despatching to Constantinople hyperbolical telegrams respect-
ing his success, instead of following up that success by a
swift and determined advance.
But this is no answer to my self-put and self -unanswered ques-
tion, whether it is well or ill for the Russians that the Turks are
still continuing passive in their positions. That these are too
strong to be assailed the Russians confess by the maintenance
378 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
on their part of a passive attitude pending the arrival of re-
inforcements. It is not that the ardour for the fray is
quenched in them. On the contrary, they would desire
nothing better than a pitched battle on each flank, if only a
pitched battle could be compassed. They are confident of
beating their enemy in the open field. But when that enemy
firmly "and respectfully declines to come out into the open, the
affair assumes another aspect. If the Russians under these
circumstances were to take the offensive, they would be fighting
against soldiers and earthworks as well, and the task with
their present strength is simply too much for them. So they
are waiting while every nerve is being strained to hurry up .
reinforcements. The flower of the Russian army, the Gruard
Corps, is on the way, and Roumania is experiencing another
inundation. I do not for a moment question the ability of a
Russian army, even if of considerably inferior strength, to
conquer a Turkish army in a battle fought out fairly in the
open. Such a trial of strength, I apprehend, would be great
luck for the Russians. But how unlikely is it to befall them !
How impossible, rather, while standing on the defensive along*
a line long drawn out ! The axiom that a chain is no stronger
than its weakest link is true also of an army in the position I
describe. Convergence is almost impracticable — wholly so, if
the attacking force should strike promptly, strongly, and
without affording previous indications of its intention.
And then comes the question whether the Turks are acting*
wisely by standing still as they are doing on what may be
called the menacing defensive, instead of trying actively to
improve the opportunities which undoubtedly lie open to
them. No doubt they would risk much by becoming the
assailants. They must know themselves better than we know
them, and it may be the outcome of that knowledge that
keeps them stationary in their positions, with spades as well
as swords in their hands. Were they to take the off'ensive
and succeed, great indeed would be their success. We should
all say then that the game had been worth the candle. But-
were they to be defeated, great indeed would be the defeat
and its consequences, and the world, following its time-
honoured practice, would call them rash fools who had thrown
away the splendid chances which Fabian tactics offered.
Well, it is certain that so far the Fabian tactics have prospered
not a little. There can be little doubt that when the seven divi-
sions now on the way to reinforce the Russian armies arrive, the
Grand Duke Nicholas will have men enough at his disposal to
clear Bulgaria proper before the winter — that is, Bulgaria north
of the Balkans — of Turkish armies in the field. Before the time
WINTER ACROSS THE DANUBE. 379
comes for going into winter quarters, Rustchuk ought almost
certainly to have fallen, and probably Silistria and Widdin
also ; there would then remain only Shumla as a Turkish foot-
hold on this side of the Balkans. But this is the full measure of .
the Russian expectations now, and they have to face the
terrible difficulty and cost of wintering on this side the
Balkans, and of renewing the campaign in the spring. They
have to take note of any number of series of contingencies
apart from inevitable difficulties and expenses. Pestilence
may break out among their dense masses. Political compli-
cations may interfere to hamper military dispositions. There
are strong indications that the war may become unpopular
in Russia. In the army already nostalgia is becoming a power.
Probably few of your readers have so much as attempted to
realize how^ terribly severe must be the strain on the resources
of Russia, of her armies wintering on and across the Danube.
We know something of a strain of a similar character, although
our army in the Crimea was a handful compared wdth the
Russian hosts, and we could land supplies within a few miles
of its front. The army will have to be housed — it cannot
abide in tents during the inclemency of a Bulgarian winter.
Kow, in Bulgaria the villages are few and far between ; they
afford the scantiest accommodation. Wood is so scarce that
none is available for hutting purposes ; it will not even suffice
for furnishing fuel for cooking, let alone for w\armth.
The crops in Bulgaria have this year been good, but much of
the grain has been left unreaped on the fields, and probably
on an average not above half a harvest has been garnered.
Including flocks and herds, Bulgaria probably is not equal
to the task of furnishing more than a month's subsistence
for the Russian armies. Roumania cannot wholly supply
the deficiency. The Danube is no longer a high road. The
roads through the Carpathians from Transylvania and the
Bukovina are impassable in winter. There must be long
periods of broken weather, when communications all over the
country, from the Russian base up to the army, will be w^hoUy
impracticable. If the winter is an open one, as w^as last
winter, the Danube will not be wdiolly frozen over, so as
to admit of traffic on the ice, while the floating ice will
necessitate the removal of the bridges. The cost of main-
taining for five months 300,000 men at a distance of several
hundred miles from their base in Russia might well give
infinite concern to the richest country in the w^orld.
* SiSTOVA, August l?ttli. — Two days of continual rain have so
cut up the roads in Roumania as for the time almost w^holly
380 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
to arrest commtmications and stop tlie march of the troops
between Alexandria and Simnitza. The country is one huge
morass, and the road a Slough of Despond. Therefore the
reinforcements needed for a renewed attack on Plevna are
jrreatly retarded on the march. One division crossed some
days ago. Three regiments of cavalry passed yesterday. A
regiment of the 2nd Division is crossing to-day, the rest of
the division being in the Roumanian mud behind. The
Grand Duke Mcholas sent an officer yesterday to Simnitza
from the headquarters in Studen to order the reinforce-
ments on reaching the Danube to be pushed forward on
Ple\ma with all possible speed, directing that only half a
day's halt should be allowed at Simnitza before crossing the
river.
The weather has now again become rather more settled ; but
the rain has injured an immense quantity of stores left
unprotected. I have seen a huge heap of bread sodden into
mouldy pulp, and utterly useless, save to feed pigs. Some
days must to all appearance elapse before you need expect
any important tidings from the Plevna direction. Consider-
able numbers of Turkish prisoners have been crossing the
Danube into Roumania during the last few days, chiefly sent
down from about Tirnova, where there had been an accumu-
lation of them.
The Grrand Duke's headquarters remain at Grorny Studen, about
twenty kilometres from Sistova, where he has been joined by
the Emperor and the Imperial headquarters from Bjela.
Studen is a mere village, affording the scantiest accommo-
dation. I understand that for the future it is intended that
the Army and the Imperial headquarters shall remain united,
which seems to imply that the Emperor will encourage his
soldiers by actual presence on the battle-field.
«
Sistova, August 16ih. — I am a prisoner. The Turks have
not come swarming over the intrenched battalions of
Kriidener and Schahofskoy out there in their bivouacs at
Poradim and Trestenik, and I am no captive of the bow and
spear of Osman Pacha. I am a prisoner, not of war, but of
weather. Ye gods, how it rains ! It has been raining hard
now, with but little intermission, for three days ; and when
it rains on the Danube it rains in torrents. Never have I
seen such rain, except at the commencement of the monsoon
in Bengal, when the sky seems to open and empty on the
earth in one terrific downpour the vast contents of some
huge celestial reservoir. It is impossible to travel. Even
if horses could act, the traveller would require to set forth
THE WEATHER AND THE SUiTLIES. 381
in a Boyton suit. N'evertheless, tlie Russian train waggons
are on the move ; for troops in the front must be fed, be the
weather wet or dry. They come crawling over the bridge,
and essay the steep hill leading from the river- side, up on to
the high ground. The liquid mud at the bottom of the hill
reaches to the axles. The waggons stick fast ; men soaked
to the marrow yell and scream, and belabour the horses,
which reply by threatening to lie down in the sea of mud.
Then the horses from other waggons are brought, and double
and treble teams are hitched on. There is a wild scramble,
and the waggons are on the level, the horses trembling and
panting.
Xow look at the waggons and their contents. Some ar&
laden with sacks of bread and biscuits. These are soaked to
a pulp, and brown water, thickened and coloured with the
coarse flour, is streaming from the bottoms of the uncovered
carts. Others carry boxes of tea. Some of these have
burst because of the swelling of the tea, which has absorbed
the wet ; and from all a cold infusion of tea-leaves is drip-
ping fast into the mud below. The sugar-loaves with which
others are laden are slowly crumbling ; " loaf " is becoming
" moist " with a vengeance, and a Frenchman might rejoice
in the unlimited supply of eau sucree which the profuse
drippings of the wag'gons afford. But the rain is impartial ;
it does not content itself with sweetening in this way the
knee-deep slush ; it is bent also on imparting to it a pleasant
admixture of a saline character. Some carts are laden with
rough salt in sacks, others with huge lumps of rock salt.
The latter are stabbom. They wane, but, not so absorbent
as the loaves of sugar, they do not become wholly demora-
lized, but retain their form. But the salt in the sacks is
rapidly disappearing bodily. You may watch the rough
canvas gradually collapsing as the thick dirty-white fluid
oozes through the pores of it. ' Before the train reaches its
destination I reckon that quite two-thirds of the stores it
conveys will have been absolutely destroyed.
Fancy troops out in the open in such weather ! Our men
had a little taste of mud and rain at Dartmoor, and
later in the swamps near Pirbrook, but the rain there was
child's play to this. And the Russian tents are not like the
stout bell-tents of the British army, while many of the
Russian troops — the Cossacks for instance — have no tents at
all. You may, indeed, trust in God in such weather ; but it
is impossible to keep your powder dry, and fighting is a
physical impracticability. The reinforcements, nevertheless,
under the pressure of extreme necessity, are trying to press
382 ^VAft CORKESPOXDEXCE.
onward tlirough Eoumania, but their progress is very slow,
and their plight is pitiable. One day's good heavy rain
Avould have been of service to the Russian army in Bulgaria.
It would have purified the atmosphere, laid the dust, cooled
the air, and washed away the mass of impurity which makes
so noxious the purlieus of a Russian camp. With sunshine on
the following day, the men w^ould have dried their clothes,
relit their fires, opened up their tents to the sun, and been
not a w^hit the worse. But it is very different under the
conditions of this continuous deluge. Everything becomes
soddened ; the men, hardy as they are, sink in physique, and
become soddened like their belongings. Diarrhoea sets in
and lapses into dysentery. The weak points of men not
w^hoUy sound are found out, and sound men become unsound.
The spirits suffer, despondency and nostalgia make them-
selves felt. The hospitals fill up. If infectious disease once
breaks out, it speads with fell rapidity.
I am not theorizing. I speak from w^ell-remembered expe-
rience of the army of Prince Frederick Charles, engaged in the
siege of Metz, in the Avet autumn of 1870 — and be it remem-
bered that his army w^as housed in the French villages, and
had a supply base at Courcelles, whither the railway brought
provisions to within sound of the firing of Fort St. Jullien.
It appears that rain is not common in the month of August
in Roumania and Bulgaria, so that the exceptionally bad
fortune of the Russians with regard to weather still pursues
them. But the inhabitants concur in saying that w'hen at
this season the w^eather does break, the rain endures for a
fortnight at a stretch, and that the weather remains unset-
tled throughout the month of September. In compensation
October is dry and fine, and when there has been rain in the
.summer the winter is late in coming. Last year, in Servia
snow fell in the last week of October, and by the first w^eek
in November military operations had become impossible.
This rain now may give the Russians a longer term for
marching and fighting later in the season.
In the meantime military operations are wholly at a standstill.
Of course both sides are doing their best in the way of
preparation for future work, but the pause in actual fighting
for the present seems universal. With the army headquarters
within an easy ride of the Danube, and with quietude reigning
everywhere, a good many of the officers of the general staif
are running across to Bucharest on a short visit of business or
pleasure. I saw yesterday on his way back Prince Canta-
cuzene, who well earned a brief respite from toil and exposure
by the gallantry and industry which he displayed throughout
RUSSIAX CARE rOR THE ^YOL'XD£D. 383
the livelong day of the disastrous fighting in front of Plevna.
One may be sure there is no fighting in the wind when one sees
Prince Wittgenstein for ever so short a time away from the
army. There is no more eager fighting man in all the host of
the Czar than this bearer of a name so well known in military
annals. General Stern, the commandant of the Grand Duke's
headquarters, has been to Bucharest for a day, — it may safely
be reckoned more on business than on pleasure.
The Turkish quarter of Sistova is now a hospital. All the
abandoned houses have been cleared out, furnished with beds
and hospital appliances, and filled with wounded men as they
came in from about Plevna. I have no great faith in the
operating skill of the E/Ussian surgeons. I remember that in
Servia, when a difficult case occurred, there was always anxiety
to have the services of Mr. MacKellar, Mr. AttwoocI, or Mr.
Hume, the professional representatives of the British Society
of the Order of St. John. But in care for their wounded the
Russians surpass any nation of whose war making I have had
any experience. A great proportion, by far indeed the larger
proportion, of the service is voluntary, and tendered with an
untiring devotion and free-handed liberality which excite the
highest admiration and respect. Ladies of rank forswear
comfort and the pleasures of society to come with the army
and minister to the wounded. There is no arriere pensee in
their devotion to this duty. They do not write letters to the
Russian papers detailing their experiences, exalting themselves
by inferential self-praise, and attitudinizing before the world
as paragons of self-abnegation. If you want to know of them
and their work, you must seek for them and it. They dress
with the most studied plainness — I can recall other scenes
where the coif of a comely " sister " has been made to assume
a wonderfully coquettish aspect, and where a little flirtation
was not unacceptable as the interlude to playing at nursing —
and they fare very hard, without a thought of self. They
tend Turkish and Russian wounded wdth equal care, and are
zealots in their duties day and night.
One cannot say as much for the supply system of the Russian
army as for its hospital arrangements. The subject of the
Russian supply is extremely complicated ; I have been asking
about it ever since I joined the army, and I confess I don't
nearly understand it yet. There is a duplex organization —
a civilian and a quasi-military organization. A Jewish
company, consisting of three brothers named Horovitch, are
the contractors for the supply of food to the Russian army,
including forage for the horses. They convey supplies, as I
understand, to certain central depots which are specified from
384 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
time to time, wlience the supplies are conveyed by the train
carts of the respective divisions or brigades. But there is
also a concurrent system of supply from the base in Russia,
which is of a military character. The waggons are driven
by soldiers, their movements are directed by intendants in
uniform, and they are accompanied by escorts. Further,
intendants go about purchasing supplies for their own
divisions in the same territory where the civilian agents of
the Company Horovitch are buying supplies to enable that
company to fulfil its contract. This must create mischief by
producing competition.
But the duplex system produces confusion as well as competi-
tion. But for the absence of red tape among the Russian
officials, the realization of the fact that, if men are hungry ,
they must be fed, and that if cattle are wanted, and are in a
neighbouring field, and there is money in the regimental
treasury, or, in fact, forthcoming from any source, these
cattle are to be purchased — but for this common-sense
recognition of the truth that, come what will, men are not to
be allowed to starve, there would have been an incalculable
amount of distress. If Commissary- General Stiffneck had
" declined to take the responsibility " of issuing stores on the
requisition of blunt Colonel Straightforward, who saw that
his men were hungry and had indented on the nearest
depository of rations, and required the authority of the
commissary of the brigade to which Colonel Straightforward
happened to belong, and the endorsement of Greneral
Stubborn, commanding the brigade ; and if the commissary
of the brigade had returned Colonel Straightforward'^
requisition as informal because the quantity of pepper
required for his regiment Avas miscalculated by one thirty-
seventh part of an ounce, or because the salt needed was
entered in the wrong column ; and if General Stubborn had
refused his endorsement because the commissary sent a clerk
for it instead of coming himself ; and if, after all formality had
been complied with. Commissary- General Stiffneck had still
"declined the responsibility of issue," because he had no
definite authorization to dispense the stores in his possession,
and insisted on a reference to the chief of the department at
headquarters — then I believe that among Russian men and
horses there would have been a large mortality. The
Russians imitate our own army service supply system
in its notorious absence of red tape in emergency, and so
the soldiers do not starve. But I should not like to have
the work of setting straight and systematizing the supply
accounts of the campaign in which provisioning has gone on
THE EMPEROR IN CAMP. 385
in a manner so varied and miscellaneous. Messrs. Turquand,
Young, and Company would find the " European " liquidation
with, all its complicated ramifications the merest child's play
of calculation to such a herculean task as this.
I understand that Colonel Brackenburj, R.A., who has been
acting as the Military Correspondent of the Times, does not
continue his functions, but is going home, recalled by
other duties. In one sense I envy him his experiences, in
another I commiserate him. He had the good luck to
accompany General Gourko throughout the whole of that
wonderful raid of his across the Balkans ; he had the bad
fortune to be unable to forward with any regularity or
reasonable dispatch his narrations of the episodes of that
romantic ride. It is not from Colonel Brackenbury, but from
the officers whom he accompanied, that I have gathered
particulars of his experiences in the Balkans. They are loud
in their praise of his cheerful endurance of extraordinary
liardships, his British coolness under fire, the sagacity as well
•as the frankness of his comments, and his hearty camaraderie.
They tell me that his horse died soon after leaving Tirnova ;
that he made the march on a casual pony; that he had
neither baggage nor supplies, neither blanket, tent, nor even
macintosh ; that he, shared the fare of the common soldiers,
black bread and apricots, and slept with them on the dew-
laden grass. The Russians just now are not fond of us as a
nation, but I have never found them backward in according
warm appreciation to individual merit, especially when that
merit is of a kind that recommends itself to the practical
soldier. General Ignatiett' said to me the other day that
^' Colonel Brackenbury had earned the respect and admiration
of every officer and soldier in General Gourko's command," —
praise which I regard as a compliment to the British army. It
is fortunate that Colonel Brackenbury's narrative, although
delayed by circumstances impossible for him to conquer, is
not lost, and it cannot fail to be a valuable contribution to
our military literature.
'* Imperial and Army Headquarters, Gornt Studen, August 17th.
— The Emperor is pleasantly quartered in a good house on a
slope outside the village, with his suite in tents around. The
air is pure in contrast with the stenches of Bjela. The
health of the suite is much improved, but General Ignatieff is
still ailing, and Prince Galatzin has been obliged to leave for
Karlsbad. The Emperor to-day, with the Grand Duke
JSTicholas, reviewed the 4th Rifle Brigade as it marched
from its encampment here toward Plevna. His Majesty
386 WAli CORRESPONDENCE.
eeemed in excellent liealtli and spirits. The reports as to hi^
illness and despondency are utterly baseless. The rifle
brigade he reviewed consisted of four battalions of admirable
lio-ht infantry armed with Berdans. It will constitute a
Taluable reinforcement for the Plevna forepost work which
threatens, pending serious operations, to become rather warm.
The reinforcements are taking a somewhat circuitous route in
order to leave the direct thoroughfare open for supplies.
The Second division has camped on the downs above Akcair.
The Third division is on the march about Simnitza or-
Sistova.
The stream of reinforcement is flowing now steadily dowm
through E/Oumania. It is expected that both the Gruard
Corps and the Grrenadier Corps, comprising the picked soldiers
of Russia, will be in Bulgaria by the first week in September.
The staff here calculate that 180,000 men are now actually
on the march to reinforce the army. The next battle about
Plevna is meant to be decisive, and hence the delay for the-
sake of ensuring success so far as numbers are concerned.
Meanwhile Ceneral Zotoff, chief of the 4th Corps, is in
command of the Russian troops holding position in front of
Plevna, which is now strongly entrenched and armed with
artillery. The Grand Duke in person will take the command
when active operations begin.
The 4th Cavalry Division has been detached on an independent
expedition, for the purpose of stopping the Turkish communi-
cation with Sophia across the Balkans, by blocking the
Orkhanieh Pass, the main thoroughfare and the easiest march-
ing route over the Balkans. It is felt here that this should
Aave been done earlier, but if successful it will still have good
results, and its value in the event of a crushing Turkish:
defeat at Plevna does not need to be pointed out. It would
go far to make another Sedan. The expedition is obviously
hazardous, and its fortunes will be watched with great
interest.
The Turks at Plevna seem manifesting some intention of
taking the offensive, to judge by their pushing cavalry recon-
naissances in more than one direction, presumably as feelers^.
With one of these there was a smart skirmish on the 15th
near Tucenica, a village south-east of Plevna, close to the
Russian forepost line.
The Russian military authorities think there is some proba-
bility that General Zimmermann will be attacked in his
position in the Dobrudscha. They have learned that the
Turks have withdrawn numerous forces from Asia, and have
evacuated Sukhum-Kaleh, bringing away the troops occupying
RUSSIAN CANDOUR. 387
it, along with large detachments of revolted Abhasians, and,
having landed these troops at Yarna, are concentrating them
and others about Bazardjik, which certainly portends opera-
tions against General Zimmermann. The command of the
sea is invaluable to the Turks, who now enjoy the advantage
which substantially enabled General Diebitsch to achieve the
success of 1828. General Zimmermann will be reinforced.
There was a bombardment from Giurgevo against the Rust-
chuk position on the 14th and 15th. It came about by
reason of the construction by the Turks of new batteries
facing Slobosia and Malarus, the intention being to discover
the extent of their armament, and if possible destroy them.
The Turkish return fire is reported to be silenced, but earth-
works are not easily destroyed by a few hours' shell fire.
The mills which grind meal for the Rustchuk garrison were
burnt by the shell fire.
General Gourko has left Bulgaria altogether, and gone back to
the Russian frontier to resume the command of his own
division of the Cavalry Guard, now on the march to the seat
of war. His Balkan work has materially enhanced his
already high reputation as a dashing cavalry leader. General
Radetsky, commanding the 8th Corps, is now in chief com-
mand at Tirnova and beyond. The weather is now fine again,
and the roads are rapidly changing from mud to dust. I am
informed that the recent rains have not materially affected
the health of the troops.
Let me give an instance of the manly candour of the Russian
military authorities. It cannot be said that my telegram
narrating the Battle of Plevna was not perfectly plainspoken.
It strove to tell the truth without fear or favour. I may
confess to apprehensions that my plain speaking would not
altogether be taken in good part, and good-natured friends
have freely predicted my expulsion from the scene of ope-
rations. I have been sent for by General Nepokoitchitsky,
and formally told that telegraphic instructions had been sent
from the headquarters to the official newspapers in Russia,
to the effect that, pending the preparation of the official
report of the Plevna battle, the telegram in question was to
be reprinted by them, and accepted as substantially accurate
as regards details and results. It is naturally much more
pleasant for a Correspondent to chronicle a triumph than
the reverse, and I look forward with hope at no distant date
to transmit intelligence of a Russian victory.
The following letter presents a summary view of the state of
Russian military affairs in the third week in August : —
c c 2
388 ^^'AR COREESPOKDEXCE.
* RussiAX Headquarters, GorxyStudex, A^cgust 22nd, morning.—
A very interesting crisis seems impending in the war, a crisis
of extreme teclmical interest to the student of war and of
momentous consequence in a general sense, whatever be its
issne. The Russians since the Battle of Plevna have been
tied to the defensive, and not always the snccessfnl defensive,
but as they are invaders it behoves them to resume the offen-
sive, whatever be the hazard, or stand confessed as thwarted in
their scheme of invasion. The Turks are standing also
substantially on the defensive, but it is a threatening defen-
sive, with occasional and ominous strokes of the offensive.
Theoretically, at least, their situation is the better one, since
they have the choice of alternatives. They may strike if
they consider the chances justify their striking ; they may
adhere to the defensive if the defensive promises better
results ; but appearances would indicate that they mean to
take the offensive, and as the Russians are tied to this course,
the question of the next few days is which side will anticipate
the other in taking the offensive. A fortnight should suffice
to solve the problem.
According to information on which I am entitled to rely, it is
certain that the Russians will not be in an advantageous
position to resume the offensive for a week, and it is certain
that they will, indeed that they must, do so as soon as they
are ready. What an interesting climax of a most interesting
period it would be were both sides simultaneously to abandon
the defensive and strike blow for bloAV ! Only this must be
considered, that the first offensive action of the Russians
must necessarily be concentrated against the Turkish Plema
fi'ont, while it is in the power of the Turks to strike at the
Russians simultaneously all round the edge of the broad oval
now in Russian occupation in Bulgaria. It is a nervous time
for the Russians till their strength increases sufficiently to
put them comparatively at their ease. Any day the blow
may fall and strain their resources to the utmost. The Turks
by no means allow them to build on the assurance that there
will be no hard fighting till the Grand Duke Nicholas gives
the signal for his stout fellows to fall on. On the contrary,
their attitude is actively menacing all the way round.
On the 16th there was a general reconnaissance in some
force by the Turks all along the Russian left flank. From
the Danube to beyond the Balkans ; from under the guns of
Rustchuk, from Rasgrad, from Osman-Bazar towards
Bebrova, and at half-a-dozen intermediate places, the soldiers
of Mehemet Ali Pacha beat up the Russian positions con-
fronting them. There was not much hard fighting, and
THE RUSSIAN REINFORCEMENTS. 389
probably little loss on eitlier side, but tbe significance of the
business was that the Turks took the initiative.
From the Tundja Yalley on the same day a column of Suleiman
Pacha's force attempted strenuously to force the Hankoi
Pass. It has been reported that success attended this effort,
but I am officially assured that this was not so. A Turkish
column did indeed force its vv'ay into the defile, but was there
so roughly handled by the Russian artillery in position, and
by a regiment of the 9th Division holding the pass, that
it was compelled to retire.
A day or two later a Turkish division made a threatening demon-
stration from Grivica, a strong Turkish position in front of
Plevna. The Turks are by no means resting after this work,
now some days past. Up till now they continue to display a
modified activity. They struck out from Rustchuk the day
before yesterday. On the same day there was fighting,
although not serious, before Osman-Bazar. I myself, riding
along the Plevna front on the same day, was witness of an
artillery skirmish in front of Skobeleff 's position near Lof tcha,
where the Turks began the ball, and the Cossacks under
Skobeleff's command are harassed day and night by forepost
work. ISTow, all this may portend the close approach of
the Turkish offensive. On the other hand, it may mean
simply the determination of the Turkish generals so to
employ the Russians all round the semicircle as to hinder
concentration on any particular point. Whatever their
intentions, it is certain that Turkish policy disturbs the
Russian dispositions.
In a recent telegram I told you that the 2nd Division, having
crossed the Danube, was massed here preparatory to marching
in the Plevna direction. Suleiman Pacha is threatening to
attack the Shipka Pass with forty battalions. The defenders
of the Pass consist of but twenty companies under General
Stoletoff, consisting of the relics' of the Bulgarian Legion
and three battalions of the 9th Russian Division. The
2nd Division has therefore been diverted from its intended
destination, and is being marched on Selvi to relieve a
brigade of the 9th Division, ordered to the Shipka. In a
recent visit to the Plevna front I was surprised to find that
so few reinforcements as yet had reached the Russian troops
holding it. Compared with before the battle there is but
the addition of the Roumanians, and the 16th Division ; but
to-day are crossing the Danube eight thousand reserves to fill
up the gaps made by the war in the ranks of the 9th Corps
which, when these join in a few days, will restore that corps
to its full strength. On the other hand, Schahofskoy has
390 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
marched Ms brigade of tlie 32nd Infantry Division back to
his original pos'ition at Kosarevac, confronting Osman-Bazar,
and he will meddle no more with the work he found so hard.
Thus on the Plevna front, when the 9th Corps gets its comple-
ment, the Russians will have two full army corps, the Fourth
and ^NTinth — the former is nearly complete, the latter will be
wholly so — at least, nominally — two Roumanian divisions of
infantry and the llth Cavalry Division. Skobeleff's detach-
ment, consisting of a brigade of Circassian Cossacks, with
some infantry and artillery, is watching Loftcha. There is
to be included also the 9th Cavalry Division, and I roughly
estimate the whole Russo- Roumanian force confronting
Plevna at from sixty-five to seventy thousand men. In this
estimate I do not include the 4th Cavalry Division, whose
line of detached operation is toward the road through the
Balkans from Sophia. The Russians before Plevna are
unquestionably inferior in numerical strength to Osman
Pacha's army.
To my thinking, the Russians have over-fortified their semi-
circle of environment. Roughly, they have three lines of
spadework, and great indulgence in spadework, or rather in
the shelter of spadework, is apt to detract from the prompt,
vivacious fighting impulse in the open. The works are rough
enough, and the redoubts sometimes are faultily placed on
slopes leaning toward the enemy's cannon, and so needlessly
exposing their interior instead of crowning the ridge, at once
a better protected and more wide-ranging position. But it
must be said that the troops have been very industrious, and
there can be no question of their anxious eagerness to be
allowed to fight again. Indeed, they do not smother their
murmurs at the delay, which I do not think will be so long
now as most people imagine.
The Russian authorities are greatly pleased with the appearance
and apparent efficiency of the Roumanian artillery. Indeed,
the Roumanian troops are everywhere now spoken of with a
consideration not previously evinced. Information has reached
the Russian headquarters that the Turks were organizing a
sweeping massacre of Christians in the Bebrova district,
between Osman-Bazar and the Balkans, and a cavalry
regiment has been sent thither to afford protection.
The Russian corps, brigades, and divisions are curiously split
up and intermixed. ISTo importance is apparently attached to
the cohesion of any of these integers, and the service does not
seem to suffer from this dispersion. The 3rd Division now
near here goes forward to Plevna. In my summary of the
Ple\Tia force 1 omitted the 4th Rifle Brio-ade, now on the
THE PLEVNA FRONT. 391,
marcli thither from here. The bulk of the reinforcements
are somewhat delayed on the way from the Russian base, but
the Guard Cavalry Division is expected to cross the Danube
in a fortnight, and a brigade per day to follow in a steady
stream.
The water is bad here. The Emperor has been slightly indis-
posed, but is now quite recovered.
The following two letters describe a visit to a number of the
E/Ussian positions : —
* TiRNOVA, August 22nd. — I had wasted some days at Sistova
waiting to witness the crossing of reinforcements which
never came, and at length I determined on a sort of roving
•cruise round the edge of the ground held by the Russians in
Bulgaria, terminable at any moment by the prospect of more
interesting work turning up.
In the first instance I went westward along the familiar road
to the Plevna front. The position of the army there I have
already treated of by telegram, and need not recapitulate.
In Karajac Bugarski, which village was the headquarters
of General Prince Schahofskoy two days before the battle of
Plevna, I found established the headquarters of Baron
Kriidener. He himseK was not at home, having gone to
Nicopolis to witness the crossing of the Roumanian cavalry.
The chief of his stalf was good enough to give me what
information I wanted, and I rode on toward Poradim. The
reserves, which are arriving to fill up the blanks in the ranks
of the 9th Corps, will he very acceptable. One regiment in
it can hardly be said to exist, having lost 2,000 men in the
first discreditable mischance at Plevna, and others are very
much attenuated by the hard fortune of war. All along the
fall of the swell between Karajac and Poradim, the Russians
have constructed continuous shelter trenches, with any
number of little rifle pits in front of them. This is now
nominally their third line of defence ; it was their first,
when on the day after the battle General Zotoff arrived,
countermanded the order for the retreat on the line of the
Osma, gathered what troops he could find together, and har-
•ilened his heart to stand fast. Since then he has wonderfully
improved his position and gained a deal of ground, having
his forepost line quite closely embracing the Turkish posi-
tions. The utility of this will be found when the next battle
comes to be fought.
On the 31st July most of the troops under Schahofskoy's
command had to march some ten miles before they reached
392 WAR CORKESPONDEXCE.
striking distance of tlie enemy, and althongli good soldiers
will figlit under any conditions, however untoward, a wise
commander will ever try to bring his men into action as
fresh as possible, and, moreover, to let them have their break-
fasts before they begin to fight — a precaution which, I under-
stand, was neglected throughout the troops under Schah-
ofskoy's command. It may be said that to see that the men had
their breakfasts is scarcely the duty ^ of a general in com-^
mand of an army, and that if the regimental chiefs are good
for anything they must be good enough for seeing to this.
I know no better regimental chiefs in the wide world tham
those of the German army, but nevertheless in his orders,
issued the evening before Grravelotte Prince Frederick
Charles did not omit to ordain that his men should not gO'
into action with empty bellies. " The — corps, quitting its
bivouac at — o'clock, will march over — to — and will there
halt and cook its food, marching forward on — at — o'clock.""
I quote from memory the exact form of the order, leaving
blank the details ; but the Crown Prince's orders at Sedan
contained similar instructions, and everywhere the Germans,
recognized that it is not the Englishman alone who " fights,
best on a full stomach."
As I rode down into Poradim past the yard where the forlorn
staff of Schahofskoy gathered for orders and consultation ou
the morning after the battle, I passed some companies of the
30th Division tramping down towards the big kettles by the
side of the brook, to obtain each man his portion of soup.
The companies did not muster strong, for the regiment
belonged to that brigade of the division which suffered
heaviest at Plevna. I feel very deeply for poor General
Powzanoff, the general who then commanded this division,
and has suffered disgrace and discredit since for his conduct
in the battle. It is an unhappy story, and I prefer avoiding
details, but this I would aver with some confidence, that it
was not cowardice which prompted General Powzanoff 's-
withdrawal from the field of battle. I believe that he lost
his head, but not that his heart failed him. He came into
our tent on the afternoon before the battle, and having intro-
duced himself, spoke in a very soldier-like manner of the
impending battle. I remember his last remark as he left us r
" I hope God will'give us all strength to do our duty as beseems
Russian soldiers." He is an old man, he had never seen war
in earnest before, they took both his brigades out of his
hands, and I suppose he went to pieces. The stoiy goes
that the Grand Duke sent him away v/ith a fine mixture of
arbitrary assumption of profound medical knowledge and of
AN UNFORTUNATE RUSSIAN GENERAL. 393
gemiine kindly feeling for a soldier in misfortune. " I
observe that yon are very ill, and that there is no chance of
your recovering your health without returning to Russia."
" But, your Imperial Highness, I am not ill at all. I never
was better in my life !" " Allow me, please, to know better.
I can. see you are ailing seriously, and I must recommend
you to recover your health in the bosom of your family.'*
Such is reported to have been the dialogue.
With the war correspondent the aphorism oimie ignotum pro
magnifico undergoes a modification into omne invisum pro
parvo. He finds human nature too strong for him, and under-
values that of which he himself has not had the good fortune
to have been the eye-witness. There were war correspondents
with the Russian army who opined that the battle of Plevna
was but a " check " — not a reverse. I remember having
heard a funny story reported as having been told by a quaint
old Scotch divine. Koah, having embarked his cargo, was.
engaged in navigating his bark when he Avas accosted in a
friendly and aifable manner by the Devil, paddling around in
a canoe on the surface of the flood. The point of the story
lay in the terms of his Satanic Majesty's gTeeting to the
aquatic patriarch. " Moist weather, Mr. Koah !" were the
words which the Scotch parson put in the mouth of Lucifer,
and they describe the Flood about as accurately as the term
" a check " characterizes the defeat of Plevna. But be it
what you will, it will not be through the default of corre-
spondents that the next Battle of Plevna is not described in
full detail in probably every land boasting a newspaper.
Several congregated prematurely, others came later, but still
too early, and Poradim is almost as strongly garrisoned by
correspondents as by soldiers.
Greneral Zotoft*, who has command of the whole Army of Plevna,,
has his headquarters there. I had not the advantage of
making the general's acquaintance, and, therefore, cannot say
whether his leading characteristic appears to be wiliness ; but
there is one indication that such is the case. The field tele-
graph wire from the great headquarters in Grorny Studen ter-
minates in Karajac Bugarski, and has not been carried on to
Poradim, whither from the previous place all telegrams have
to be sent by Cossacks. The electric telegraph is a nuisance
always, but is, perhaps, the worst of all nuisances when it
communicates between an anxious headquarter and an out-
lying general. Despatches arrive just as he is dining,
messages come even while he is enjoying slumber. Tcher-
naielf used to say at Deligrad that if any kind friend would
abolish the telegraph wire between Belgrade and him he
394 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
would give a year of his life. But if a general in command
elects to be cut off from direct communication with the chief
headquarters, there seems no reason why he should neglect to
be thus en rapport with the several headquarters of the
divisions under his command. I have said that the telegraph
is a nuisance, as I suppose not a few of your readers have
reason to know. It is an instrument in warfare worth many
rifles and sabres. But here is this Plevna army with its
headquarters unconnected by wire w4th a single subsidiary
headquarters. It is wearisome to speak even in terms of com-
parison — ever odious — of the German army as contrasted
with the Russian army, but at least I may urge that the
German army is the Russian model, and I cannot resist the
impulse to say that I have seen a telegram expedited from the
headquarters of a Prussian general ten minutes after they
were fixed at the end of a twenty-mile march, the setting up
of the field-telegraph having kept pace practically with the
march of the troops. Every Russian division has a tele-
graph train attached to it, whose drums contain a hundred
versts of wire, yet the Czarewitch was days at Obertenik on
the road to Rustchuk, without telegraph communication with
the Imperial headquarters at Bjela, barely fifteen miles in his
rear.
In the Plevna Army I found a strong belief existing that there
would be no Russian action for a fortnight at least. I have
since heard that the term named may probably be shortened,
but if I were to venture my own individual opinion it would
be to the effect that quite a fortnight will elapse before there
is fighting at Plevna, if the initiative is permitted to remain
with the Russians. I believe that twelve heavy siege guns
are about to be brought up — whether for defence or for offence
i know not. I only know that about Plevna I have seen nothing
to bombard with as the term is distinguishable from the
term to shell. If the Russians are to begin bombarding field
works with heavy siege guns, the Turks may show a front
before Plevna till you in England are cooking your Christmas
puddings, and longer. The road to Plevna is in through the
back door, while a continuous rat-tat is being kept up on the
front door.
Of the strength of the Plevna force I have this morning sent
you an estimate, which is, perhaps, on second thoughts, some-
what overstated. One may speculate in vain as to the
thoughts of Uriah the Hittite when he found himself placed
in the fore part of the battle, since he has left us no record
of his emotions ; but I imagine they must not have differed
materially from those now felt by the Roumanian cavalry
RUSSIAN SLOWNESS. 395
division in tlie singularlr hazardons excursion across the
River Yid, on wMcli by order they have embarked. In a
very short time, as a sententious Russian put it to me, the
Roumanian cavalry will be either heroes or mincemeat.
Poradim was very drowsy when I left it late in the afternoon,
to ride eastward through Bulgareni, to the head-quarters at
Gorny Studen, there to gather some details concerning a
movement of which a hint had reached me. In a previous
letter I tried to describe the devious course of the river Osma
about Bulgareni. On the main chaussee (conventionally)
running east and west, the bridge over the river had gone,
and a long detour had been necessary to reach a high peaked
stone bridge crossing the river a little to the north-west of
Bulgareni. As I rode across this bridge on the morning after
the battle, when a surging mass of vehicles was struggling
for the precedence of single file, it struck me how disastrous
would have been the result had the Turks pursued. The
river Osma, although narrow, is a deep trench, seldom
fordable, and this bridge, eight feet wide at the most, and
with a very lofty and difficult pitch, w^as the sole means of
crossing it in Schahofskoy's rear. Bulgareni is not twenty
miles from Sistova, and a couple of pontoons might have
been brought in a few hours — there are plenty of surplus
ones on the Danube noAV. But such a precaution at facilitat-
ing the means of retreat, should retreat be necessary, did not
appear to have occurred to anybody, and the neglect might
have produced a catastrophe equal in its degree, as it would
have been similar in character, to the concluding scenes of
the tragedies of the Beresina and Koniggratz.
With other men, other counsels, is no unfair assumption, and I
certainly anticipated that, to ease the passage of supplies,
and facilitate the march of reinforcements, to say nothing of
wise precaution, there would by this time have been other
means of crossing the Osma at Bulgareni than the old
high-keyed bridge. But the anticipation was not justified,
although three weeks have elapsed since the battle was
fought. The approaches have indeed been dug for two
additional bridges, and the military carpenters are chopping
away at the massive obsolete structures intended as central
piers, and gradually taking such form as enables one to judge
that the woodwork of bridges is in preparation. On my
return journey, travelling towards Grorny Studen, I suffered
for the belief I had dared to cherish that it w^as impossible
but that the Russians should have repaired the bridge
on the main chaussee on the main line of march from
the headquarters of concentration to the headquarters
396 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
of operation. I would not cross the old stone bridge,
and rode straight into the heart of the deceitful peninsula.
There were troops around the villages studding its fertile
bosom — it was not possible that they had been marched round
by the stone bridge to reach these camping grounds 1 But
when I gained the bank of the Osma, opposite the gap in the
hills through which the chaussee route strikes away eastward
to Gorny Studen, I found no bridge ready. The men were
working at one cumbrous, primitive aifair, which will pro-
bably *be ready in a few days — a commencement had just
been made on a second bridge. Such is the progress achieved
during three weeks of so-called preparation for another
attack on Plevna ! Too disgusted to go back, I swam my
riding horse across the ugly, sullen Osma ; but my waggon
had ignominiously to return, and effect the crossing at the
original stone bridge.
At Grorny Studen this morning, I w^as told that Suleiman
Pacha is threatening the Shipka Pass, and that the 2nd
Division, under the command of Prince Imeretinski, had
been sent away to release from Selvi reinforcements
for the scanty body of defenders — only about some twenty
companies — with which Greneral Stoletoff was holding
the Pass. It would be eminently worth while to be there
if the threatened attack should actually be made, and I
determined to start at once ; but, on the other hand, I was
cautioned that I would do well to be back at Grorny Studen
by the 27th inst., if I wished to witness still more important
operations from their commencement. My only hope then
was that if there was to be fighting at the Shipka, it should
occur on the only day which I had available for witnessing
it — the 24th, since it would be necessary for me to quit the
Balkans on my return journey to Grorny Studen on the 25th.
It was rather a forlorn hope on which to set out on a four
days' ride ; but then I have never been beyond Tirnova, and
a man who is interested in this war ought to see the Shipka
Pass simply as the gratification of a legitimate curiosity.
My companions and myself, leaving Grorny Studen this morn-
ing before the heat of the day acquired its full intensity,
struck almost due south by mere cart tracks linking together
the pretty villages in the leafy hollows. No prettier country
can well be imagined. It undulates fantastically, and pre-
sents continual surprises of diversified surface ; but every-
where trees are dotted singly or in clumps, which gives the
scene a park-like aspect. There are no soldiers anywhere,
save an occasional post of some half-dozen men encamped in
a clump of trees on the outskirts of a village, and peace and
THE ZAYRADA PASS. 397
plenty reign without alloy. On the threshing-floors in their
farmyards, the peasants — if peasant is indeed the proper
term for a man who owns land, and cattle, and horses — are
winnowing the barley-grain from the straw by the time-
honoured plan of driving a team of ponies round and round
over the straw. Some use the fore-carriage of an ox-waggon
with a mass of weighted branches trailing behind ; but the
ponies are most common in this actual " treading of " the
threshing-floor. It is clear that the sufferings under which
the Bulgarians north of the Balkans professed to labour at
the hands of the Turks could not have been of a kind aifect-
ing their material prosperity, for we find them as the Turks
left them, wealthy in agricultural possessions beyond any
farmer-peasantry of whom I have any cog*nisance.
The beautiful and romantic Zavrada Pass, which constitutes a
natural approach of surpassing grandeur to Tirnova — that
surely most picturesque of all towns — can never lose its charm.
The combination of water, rock, and foliage is perfect, and
every turn in the winding road affords a fresh joy. But while
we felt the beauty of the scene, we felt, too, how different
from now were the auspices under which we first traversed
that pass. We were Avith the cortege of the Grand Duke
when he rode into Tirnova amid the plaudits and the glad
weeping of a population beside themselves with joy. Flowers
were showered down from the windows, and strewed his path ;
priests and girls struggled for the honour of kissing his hand.
To be with the Russians in Tirnova then was to be a welcome
guest, for every door stood open. The strains of triumphal
music swept along the quaint narrow streets, and the preci-
pices, amid which the town hangs rather than is built, sent
back a melodious echo.
How strong the contrast now ! The road up the steep into the town
was blocked by a double row of vehicles, one driven by weary
and somewhat irritable Russian soldiers, the other by sullen
Bulgarians, who have found out with great alacrity that they
have rights since the Russians came, and are not only no
longer subservient, but even in a tentative way inclined to be
uncivil if they can but harden their nerves. The place was
never clean, but it is fouler now than ever. Above the
entrance stands, gaunt and ugly, the skeleton of a triumphal
arch, to which no more clings the last shred of decoration :
it looked like the gallows mourning the abolition of capital
punishment. The narrow street was a disheartening chaos
of vehicles, whose horses scrambled about over the filthy
stones ; of miserable fugitives squatting listlessly wherever
they could find a corner, or trying to push through with their
398 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
donkeys laden witli clotlies and children ; of Bulgarian civilians
foolishly drunk and reeling about over the stones, amid the
jeers of the Russian soldiers ; of limp Bulgarian lads in
uniform, of whom the Russians will persist in trying to make
soldiers, a service for which they lack alike heart and stamina ;
of time-worn men of the original Bulgarian Legion, who
havino- come somehow out of the pandemonium of Eski-Zagra
with uncut throats, haA^e drifted back hither demoralized
and disgusted ; of German- Jew chapmen, selling everything
from bad champagne to rubbishing boots ; of marketenders
seeking shops whereat to replenish their waggons, and of
Bulgarian priests walking about in long petticoats.
I went to the house to which on my previous visit I had been
welcomed with open arms, and now found some difficulty in
getting in — I think, indeed, that I should have been refused
altogether had I not recalled to the memory of the landlady
the fact that I paid well for my previous entertainment. As
for my horses, the only place I could find for them was a
wretched subterranean stable under a loathsome khan — a
stable reached by successive tiers of rotten and foul stone
steps, and when there neither hay nor corn was to be had for
them ; they had to be fed on bread. It was too late to call
on General Radetzky or General Dragomiroff , who I had been
told had been both resident in the place. All I could learn
was that a mass of troops had marched off the day before in
the direction of Gabrova, and that further detachments had
gone on later.
* Gabrova, August 2Srd. — I was heartily glad at an early hour
this morning to say adieu to the smells and vermin of Tirnova.
It was unpleasant riding for the first mile, but soon we cleared
the purlieus of standing camps, and leaving the picturesquely
impracticable town behind, entered on the sublime defile by
the side of the Jantra, under the shadow of great impending
precipices. Presently we quitted the Jantra, no more to see
it till we reached the vicinity of Gabrova, and we threaded
glen after glen, climbed steep after steep, passed through
sweetly- situated village after village, all embowered in foliage,.
till we reached the Valley of the Drenova, and suddenly found
ourselves looking down into the snug-lying town of Drenova.
We abandoned for most part of the way the chaussee, with
its clouds of dust and long trains of rattling provision waggons,
and rode by the narrow hill tracks, which at once shortened
the way and made it pleasanter. We rode through thick
woods, where dense foliage shaded from the blistering sun-
rays, by wimpling streams on which were gurgling mill-races,
BULGARIAN FUGITIVES. 399
and tlien came the cool splash, of the water over the mill-
wheel and the scent of the balsams and the thyme from the
miller's garden, fringed by willows whose tresses laved them-
selves in the stream. We rode through verdant meadows,
our horses' hoofs whisking aside the rich lush-grass, by bab-
bling fountains, where from the face of a hoary wall which
the Romans might have built, but on which the Turks have
carved an inscription, springs a crystal jet of clear water,
transparent as glass, cold as ice, grateful alike to the parched
throat and the burning temples. We skirted vineyards where
the heavy masses of dark green foliage but half screened the
pale green clusters of grapes just beginning to soften inta
ripeness, by orchards over whose walls the plum-branches
nodded heavy with yellow and purple globes, by detached
farm- steadings, each one the habitation of several families,,
united to each other by the ties of relationship.
The ride would have been an unadulterated pleasure but for
the heat and the miserable fugitives. Let me speak first of
the minor detraction from our enjoyment. I may claim ta
know something of heat. I have been in the Red Sea in.
July. I have ridden with Sir Richard Temple across the
parched maidans of Bengal in the month of May, when the
thermometer in the dead of night never fell below 106, and
when two indigo planters betted among themselves which of
the two of us would the earlier succumb to sunstroke. I know
how the Kepaul Terai reeks in the hot season, and I know
the hot closeness of a Highland glen in August ; but for
fierce, cruel, blazing, burning, scorching heat, I have never-
felt anything to compare with the last ten days in Bulgaria.
Somehow, ragingly hot as it is, the heat does not enervate
one greatly, for it is a dry heat ; but it melts one, it burns-
one, it so blisters the face that the skin of it becomes painful
to the touch. As I write, I look across at my companion,,
and I can compare him, so far as' colour goes, to nothing so
truly as a boiled lobster ; he returns the compliment with the
aggravation that the boiled lobster I resemble in tint must
have been boiled in a decoction of burnt sienna.
And now let me speak of those unfortunate creatures who,,
warned by the fate of their neighbours, have hurried across.
the Balkans to escape the fell retribution of the Turks. It
is not for me now to inquire closely whether when Gourko's
Cossacks were in their villages and Leuchtenberg's dragoons
clanked along their streets, these Bulgarians were themselves
full of nothing save the milk of human kindness toward — or
should I say against ? — their Turkish co-inhabitants, against
whom the current of the fortune of war seemed to be settinof so
400 WAE CORRESPONDENCE.
swiftly and steadily. Let us take them as we find tliem. The
whole road from Tirnova to Gabrova, but perhaps more espe-
cially between Drenova and Grabrova, seemed one great picnic ;
but it was an inexpressibly mournful picnic. My artist com-
panion revelled in the picturesqueness of the vivid colours of
the women's dresses, but he had no heart to sketch the
bivouacs in their profound misery. We were the witnesses
not of a few handsful of casual flightlings, but of the general
exodus of the inhabitants of a whole territory. There were
peasants, but there were also families of a better class —
families whose women dressed, not in Turkish trousers, in
gaudy-patterned petticoats, and bodices of all the hues of
the rainbow, but as the Englishwoman of to-day dresses.
There were women to whom you felt it not quite the thing
to speak without an introduction, and whose habitation was
under a tree ; whose means of conveyance was a donkey, on
which they sat with a child in front of them, and another
clinging behind them. Many had no means of conveyance
at all save what God had given them, and one saw women
plodding painfully, carrying children in their arms, whom
they tried to shade with parasols, poor fond things — the
tender folly of motherhood, when homes were blazing behind
them, and misery about them and before them.
In Ser\da last year I had witnessed scenes which faintly fore-
shadowed those of to-day ; but as I rode along, what rose to
my mind most vividly were the woeful stories of our own
British women in the terrible times of the great Mutiny,
when there passed away, all in a moment, the accustomed care
for tatties, and punkahs, and thermantodotes, and darkened
rooms, and all the manifold appliances of Anglo-Indian civi-
lization ; and there suddenly confronted them — and they rose
to the occasion — the stern task of striving, under the burning
sun, to save the lives of their dear ones. Most of the better-
class fugitives told me that they had fled from Kezanlik ; but,
indeed, the whole population of the southern slope of the
Balkans have crossed the ridge, and are now drifting slow^ly
down the northern slope . Many are stationary. They are waiting
events. They are not the victims of panic, to whom assurance
will only come when a sight of the Danube is attained. They
are flying before a near, a tangible, and a fearful danger, but
they hail any indication of a prospect of safety for them in
returning. The march of troops to-day, of which I shall
presently speak, has arrested the flight of great masses of the
fugitives. It has done more. I passed a goodly number
actually tramping back in the wake of the column. They
believed in the safety of Russian bayonets. But then it must
FEOM DEENOVA TO GABROVA. 401
be said tliat most of these came from the villages on this side
of the Shipka Pass.
The aspect of Drenova made me long for time to linger over its
quaintnesses. It is as picturesque as is Tirnova, but quite in
a different style. It owes little of its picturesqueness to its
situation. But the houses ! They are almost without excep-
tion built with fronts of dark wood, elaborately carved and
projecting storey over storey, till the third tier is reached,
with outward sloping shutter flaps on the ground floor ; in the
storeys above, massively grated windows, cut in the woodwork.
What adds so much to the effect of houses so built is that
along the face of many are carried trailing vine boughs, laden
with rich clusters of fruit, which dangle in front of the win-
dows, and give a charming freshness to the street. The archi-
tecture has a curious resemblance to that of many houses in
the principal street in the Kative town of Bombay, and the
resemblance is heightened by the circumstance that several of
the houses have their fronts rudely but brilliantly painted in
fanciful and allegorical designs, chiefly of figures of a wildly
impossible type in the present circumscribed condition of the
animal kingdom.
I can do what it has never previously been in my power
to do in respect to any place of public entertainment in Bul-
garia. I can recommend the khan of Drenova as reasonably
clean and fairly comfortable. Only it was full — crammed to
the ceiling with fugitive families who could afford to pay for
a room, or part of a room, pending events. But it was a
great thing to get hay and corn for the horses, and a seat or
cushion in a passage while we ate the soup and roast fowl
which a pretty Bulgarian cook prepared for us. The road
from Drenova to Gabrova, although a fair specimen of engin-
eering skill, must be hard work for horses drawing vehicles.
But we could not feel for the horses, for admiring the wonder-
ful surprises of the scenery. The only road I know to com-
pare to it in this respect is the route up into the Black Forest
from Hausich, on the great Baden plain, to Freiburg, near the
ridge where the waters of the Kinsig, flowing into the Rhine,
and of the Danube, spring from two fountains not ten paces
apart on the slope above St. Georges. During our journey we
had seen but few soldiers. Certainly the Russians had left
scanty supports between Tirnova and the " twenty companies "
of whom my valued informant in Gorny Studen had spoken
as constituting for the time the sole garrison of the Shipka
Pass fortifications. But in a deep guUey about six miles from
Gabrova, we came on the reserve artillery train of two bri-
gades of the 8th Army Corps. The waggons were being
402 "^'AIl CORRESPONDENCE.
dragged up tlie steep singly by spare teams of horses located
there for tlie purpose.
We descended once more into the Yalley of the Jantra, and in a
meadow about two miles from Tirnova we found two infantry
battalions just recommencing their march after^ a short halt.
Their colonel rode to the rear to give some directions as to
the ambulance waggons following, and I recognized an old
friend. The first time I met Colonel Duhonin, chief of the
55th, the Podolsk Eegiment, was at Jilava, near Bucharest,
when he was engaged in paying his men ; the second time was
on the Turkish bank of the Danube, on the morning of the
crossing from Simnitza to Sistova. The blood was then flow.
ing down the blade of his drawn sword from a bayonet wound
in the right wrist, which he had received in leading the assault
on the height above the ridge. He had wrapped it up, and
said nothing about it, but retained his place at the head of his
regiment, and now I was pleased to see the Cross of St.
Greorge on his broad breast.
Colonel Duhonin and we rode on together into Gabrova, and he
told me about the dispositions. The Russians were paying
the penalty, in forced marching in broiling weather, of disre-
garding eventualities. They had determined to hold the
Balkan passes they had won — a wise determination, but they
had neglected to have troops within easy distance in case they
were threatened. Now, Suleiman Pacha is in Kezanlik and
looking very grimly at the Shipka, and it is found necessary
to reinforce " at the double" the '' twenty companies" holding
the pass. The 2nd Division had been diverted to Selvi, to
relieve a brigade of the 9th Division and be handy for
Loftcha. To reinforce the garrison of the Shipka there has been
hastily gathered together the 2nd Brigade of the 14th Division
— Dragomiroff's — of the 8th Corps, the 2nd Brigade of the
9th Division — Mirsky's — of the same corps, and the sorely
reduced Rifle Brigade, which has been across the Balkans with
General Gourko, and has earned splendid renown, and suffered
fearful losses in a dozen fights from Hainkoi to Karabunar.
The first brigade named is commanded by General Petroceni,
the second by General Derozinski, and the chief of the gallant
riflemen is General Tzwilzinski. Petroceni's brigade has been
gathered partly from about Elena, partly from the villages
below Tirnova, and Colonel Duhonin told me so fast and stead-
fastly had his men marched that they had neither slept nor
cooked for two days and two nights. And yet the stalwart
fellows were not nearly beaten, but took the road again at a
Bwinging pace and with a hearty chorus. They were march-
iiic^ without knapsacks and without baggage ; they had
THE SHIPKA PASS MENACED. 403
abandoned everything by the way that no delay should occur
in their obedience to the peremptory and urgent summons.
The colonel was much troubled because his men had insisted
in giving away their bread to the hungry refugees, and he
did not know where they were to find more. But he has a
kind heart himself. At a short halt some refugee women
begged him and his officers to take their children and educate
them in Russia, where there were not Turks. " All in good
time," was his reply. " We are going to fight now. When the
Czar wills that we go home to Russia, then we may think of
your children. God knows we are thinking of our own
now."
As the column tramped through Gabrova the people gave
bouquets of sweet flowers and wild thyme to the soldiers,
and crowded on the flanks with copious supplies of water.
Duhonin and his men went on. I have stayed for the night
in the town, where I am told are General Radetzky, com-
manding the 8th Corps, and General Dragomiroff, command-
ing the 14th Division ; but I have been unable to find either.
Most of the houses in Gabrova have been emptied of furni-
ture to facilitate the quick flight of the inhabitants. I am
in quite a mansion, but it contains not so much as a rug.
* Gabrova, August 24^th, Evening. — Since I wrote the above, I
have visited the Shipka Pass, and seen a battle. There is no
time to write letters which the telegraph will supersede, and
the necessity for reaching an available wire compels me
to arrest at this point my intended ride round the Russian
positions.
The following letter from another correspondent gives further
details respecting the situation before Plevna and elsewhere.
f Headquartees of the Army before Plevna. Poradim, August
2Srd. — The mistake made by the Russians after the Battle of
Plevna in not concentrating the whole army against Plevna,
and taking it, is already beginning to produce its result.
The Turks have been receiving reinforcements more rapidly
and in greater numbers than the Russians, and are beginning
to take the offensive all along the line. News was received
here two days ago that large Turkish forces were concentra-
ting in the valley of the Tundja against the Shipka Pass ;
and an order was immediately sent by the Grand Duke for
the Shipka Pass to be reinforced. I am not allowed to say
whence these reinforcements were taken, but the fact seems
to be that this movement on the part of the Turks was not
calculated upon, and was not provided for.
D D 2
404 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
To-daj news has arrived that the Turks are driving the
Russians back on the road between Osman Bazar and
Tirnova, though it is not yet stated whether anything like a
decisive battle has taken place there. Simultaneously with
this, the information has arrived that 30,000 men under
Suleiman Pacha, already spoken of as concentrating before
Shipka, had attacked the Eussian positions in the Pass with
great vigour and resolution, and that this attack had been
repulsed three times, after a struggle, with great losses on
both sides. It is not known here whether the reinforcements
sent off reached in time to take part in the battle, and the
Russian position is now so critical everywhere that I do not
mention how many troops there were to defend the Shipka
Pass.
I^ot only have the Turks been taking the offensive at Osman
Bazar and Shipka, but it has also been reported here that
the Russians have sustained a defeat somewhere near
Rasgrad, or somewhere between there and Rustchuk, the
details of which are unknown here. For two days there has
been considerable firing on our advanced posts, as though the
Turks were preparing to take the offensive, and great move-
ments of Turkish troops have taken place about Plevna.
The day before yesterday artilleiy was moved out on the
high road from Plevna towards Sistova and ]N"icopolis,
together with ammunition trains and large numbers of
infantry, as though they were preparing to attack ; and the
Russians have been on the alert, expecting an attack at any
moment. However, no attack has taken place here up to the
present, but to-day we hear the thunder of artillery on the
right, between the Russian right wing and Nicopolis, where
the Roumanians are holding the line ; and to conclude all, a
strong Turkish detachment has marched out on the road
from Loftcha towards Selvi, evidently with the intention of
attacking that place. This movement is so serious that
General Zotoff has sent a detachment under Greneral
Skobeleff' from his left wing to take this Turkish force on
the flank, and force it to draw back on the right in that
disadvantageous position. I am also obliged to avoid men-
tioning the strength of this detachment.
Reinforcements are arriving very slowly, and although it is
known that three out of four divisions have crossed the
Danube since the Battle of Plevna, I have not yet been able
to ascertain where they have gone, nor can I see any indica-
tions of the Russians taking the offensive for a long time yet.
What object there may be for thus remaining apathetically
on the defensive when they have such imperative reasons for
RUSSIAN STRATEGY. 405
pusliiiig on the war to a rapid conclusion, I cannot imagine,
but mismanagement in some quarter is evidently at the
"bottom of it. It is not likely that the Turkish offensive will
produce any great result. I do not believe in the capacity of
the Turks to direct an army on the offensive, but always
have acknowledged the cohesion of the Turkish troops when
fighting behind entrenchments. The mistake made by the
E/Ussians after the Battle of Plevna was in not continuing the
attack on that place. They should have garrisoned the two
Balkan passes and Tirnova and Sistova, abandoned the whole
line occupied by the army of the Czarewitch, and then, by
rapidly concentrating both armies against Plevna, have
■crushed it at a blow. They had six army corps even then
across the Danube. Of these corps five have scarcely been
Tinder fire. Only one, the 9th, has severely suffered ; but this
corps would have amply sufficed for the defence of Sistova.
The other five army corps will give an effective of 125,000
<3ombatants, of which 40,000 might have been used for the
defence of the Balkan j)asses and Tirnova, leaving 85,000 men
who would have been concentrated against Plevna, and at that
time would have sufficed to take it. Had the Turkish army
at Shumla moved across the Jantra to attack the Russian
army in the rear it would have been too late, for the Russians
would have had time to crush Plevna, and then turn round
and crush the Shumla Army in its turn on the open glacis
west of the Jantra. Two hard-fought battles would have
rapidly crushed both the Turkish armies in succession. There
would then have been nothing but the army of Suleiman
Pacha south of the Balkans to prevent the onward march,
which the Russians could have easily undertaken with the
reinforcements now arriving. The result of not adopting this
plan will evidently be a second campaign, the winter passed
in Bulgaria and the Balkans amidst snow and mud, and the loss
by sickness of half the army, and the expenditure of millions.
jiugust 23?yZ, Evening. — The cannonade heard to-day on our
right wing does not seem to have been on the side of the
Roumanians. I can only account for it in this way. Three
or four days ago General Zotoff sent a strong detachment of
cavalry round behind Plevna to reconnoitre the country, bum
any stores that might fall into their hands, and destroy bridges
and the telegraph. This detachment crossed the road between
Loftcha and Plevna. It must be somewhere behind Plevna
TLOw, w^orking round, towards the right wing. This cavalry
jnay have engaged the Turks somewhere, which would account
for the cannonade we have heard.
406 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
Russian public feeling is sliowing itself verj mucli dissatisfied
with the military operations. The Russian papers, while
admitting the courage of the soldiers generally, speak with
contempt of their generals, and include them all in one
universal condemnation.
It has been announced that the reconnaissance made by Greneral
Skobeleff against Loftcha some days ago, an account of which
I have already sent you by telegraph, was an attack in which
Skobeleff was repulsed with the loss of four hundred men.
The fact is, the affair was merely a reconnaissance. Skobeleff*
had orders not to attack under any circumstances, and his
loss was five men killed and twenty-five wounded. Skobeleff
reported that a division and a half would be required to take
the place, whereas he had only five battalions, and expected
that orders would be given to take Loftcha. Indeed, this-
was the original intention of the Russian Commander-in-
Chief, but a sudden spell of rainy weather caused delay in
the attack, and when the roads became passable the off'ensive
was taken up by the Turks everywhere. This induced the
Russian Commander-in-Chief to postpone the attack upon
Loftcha for the present. I may remark that in the great
battle at Plevna Skobeleff, who had the command of the
extreme left wing, actually penetrated into the town, and
in spite of this fact was the only general who succeeded in
carrying off all his wounded, not losing a single man.
LI Bi( /v .. i
J N 1 V 1-: H S I T Y O F i CHAPTER XVI.
(^ \ 1 I I'^O ' * N i '^^^, FlyHTING IN THE SHIPKA PASS.
-Su leiman Pacha's Detel&iined Attack — Hurried March of Russian Keinforce-
ments — The Shipka Position, its Strength and its Weakness — The Bulgarian
Legion under Fire — The Kussians all but Suri'ounded — The Critical Moment
— Arrival of Russian Reinforcements — The Rifle Brigade — General Radet-
zky — The Russians Resuming the Offensive — A Fight in a Wood — General
Dragomiroff — Repulse of the Turks — Anxiety at Head-Quarters — The Aides-
de-Camp Outstripped — The Emperor and the Correspondent — A Turkish View
of the Fighting.
The third Russian attack on Plevna, delayed by the slowness,
with which reinforcements arrived, was destined not to
take place before a series of most determined attempts had
been made by Suleiman Pacha, who commanded the Ottoman
troops south of the Balkans, to break through the Eussian
SULEIMAN pacha's ATTACK. 407
defences of the Sliipka Pass. It was a serious question for
the Russians whether, with the troops at their disposal, they
could at the same time keep at bay the Shumla Army under
Mehemet Ali Pacha, on their left, prepare a new assault upon
Osman Pacha at Plevna, and resist the efforts of Suleiman
Pacha in the Balkans. The following letter, the whole of
which was transmitted by telegraph, describes a visit to the
Shipka Pass and a hard-fought battle there, the cause of the
abandonment of the tour round the Russian positions, of
which a description was given in one of the letters comprised
in the preceding chapter : —
* Shipka Pass, August 24:th. — On the morning of the 22nd I was
informed at the Imperial headquarters at Grorny Studen that
Suleiman Pacha, with an army of forty battalions, having been
foiled in an attempt to force the Hainkoi Pass, was noAv
threatening the Shipka. Acting on the maxim given by Prince
Frederick Charles to his officers, I at once rode in the
direction of the cannon thunder.
In reality Suleiman Pacha had already on the 19th occupied
the village of Shipka, and had commenced an attack on the
21st on the Russian positions at the head of the Pass.
Fighting has lasted almost continually from then until now,
and it is only about an hour ago that an apparently decisive
result was obtained. I had been advised at headquarters to
overtake the 2nd Division, commanded by Prince Imeretihski,
which had been dispatched from Gorny Studen to strengthen
the extremely weak force left in the redoubts of the Pass ;
but later I had learned that the division had been diverted
to Selvi to fill the blank left there by the earlier march of
the brigade of the 9th Division that had been in position
there, to strengthen the Shipka garrison. The 2nd Division
at Selvi will also be available for its share in the impending
attack on the Plevna-Loftcha line still held by Osman Pacha.
I also learned at Tirnova that General Radetzky, com-
manding the 8th Corps, and General Dragomiroff, commanding
the 14th Division of that corps, had gone forward to Gabrova
with hurriedly gathered reinforcements for the hard-pressed
people in the Shipka Pass.
All the way from Tirnova to Gabrova the country was one vast
melancholy encampment, and the road one continuous mourn-
ful procession of miserable fugitive families from Kezanlik
and the villages on the southern slopes of the Balkans, where
the Turks had regained their fell sway of rapine and murder
408 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
on the withdrawal of General Gonrko's force. Most liad fled
so hurriedly as to have left everything behind, and the abject
misery of the women of the better class in the squalid encamp-
ments is not to be described.
On the evening of the 23rd, near Gabrova, I overtook the
Podolsk Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the 14th Division.
The Colonel told me that his regiment had been so hurriedly
pressed forward that his men had not cooked or slept for two
days and two nights, and he knew not when they would do
either. He marched straight on through Gabrova. I stayed
there for the night. In Gabrova I was told that the fighting
had been raging in the Shipka Pass for three days, and that
the Turks continued to push their attacks with extraordinary
pertinacity and determination. In the dead of night came
rumbling over the stony streets long convoys of ambulance
waggons laden with wounded men, and another of empty
ammunition waggons, both indications of serious work the
day before.
Before daylight this morning the sound of the renewed can-
nonade came down the passes, and along the quaint old street
of Gabrova, where the townspeople collected in anxious
groups, and whispered with pale lips. It had volumes of
terrible significance for them, that sullen booming of cannon
up in the Shipka there, not three hours' march from their
doors. While the Russians stood their ground there the
pale citizens were safe ; but let them be worsted, and three
short hours would see the leaders of the swarms of murderous
Circassians riding down the old main street, with its pro-
jecting fronts, and its resemblance to Cairo. For the Russians
to be worsted meant letting loose a horde of savages on that
vast aggregate of fugitives who were camped in every field,
and beneath every tree, from Gabrova to Drenova. For the
Bulgarians, then, each moment was an agony of suspense.
I^or is it easy to realize how deeply the Russian chiefs must
have felt the sense of responsibility weighing upon them. A
leader may see his soldiers falling around him. They go
down in fair fight. They die, so to speak, in the way of
business; but to know that on their staunchness and skill
hang the lives of countless women and tender babes must be
terrible. Yet how glorious to realize and be equal to the
burden of responsibility ! I am sure the Russian soldiers
fought none the less stoutly because for two days before they
reached the scene of action they had been marching with
pitying hearts and cheering words through the miserable
fugitives cowering along their path. I saw the noble-hearted
fellows empty their havresacks of bread into the laps of the
HASTENING TO THE BATTLE. 409
starving Bulgarian women and children, althougli tlie act
left themselves foodless, without a guess when they should
eat next. I saw them with infinite patience groping into
corners of recondite pockets, fish out the poor coppers which
they had been saving for schnapps and tobacco, or perchance
to take home to their young ones in the humble cabin in far-
off Russia, and bestow them instead on the gaunt children of
the fugitives, with some expression of rough jocularity which
was but a cloak for a tear and a blessing.
Leaving Gabrova in the pale half-light of the moon and of the
dawn, we made forward along the beautiful romantic valley
of the Jantra, through beech forests interspersed with clear-
ings around tiny villages. Here we passed a long column of
Cossacks, each man with a led horse. These were the horses
on which the advanced guard of the Rifle Brigade was hurried
forward last night, reaching the ridge and coming into action
just in the nick of time to avert a very serious, if not disas-
trous result. The roar of cannon high above us — it seemed
in the very clouds — swelled louder and louder in volume as
we drew nearer, and wounded men were already trickling to
the rear, a sure sign that the fighting had been warm and
close from its very commencement.
Suddenly the road left the Jantra valley, and bending sharp to
the left, struck up the mountain side. There was no cessation
in the steep ascent for about five kilometres. The road was
extremely tortuous, having to twist, and turn, and wriggle
to take advantage of any available ground. But although in
places terribly steep it was quite practicable for vehicles,
being broad and smooth. This is the road which the Russian
pioneers have constructed during the Russian occupation,
and so long as this road remains undestroyed, to cross the
Balkans in peace time will be little greater exertion than to
drive from Blairgowrie to Braemar. Patches of the old track
Temain. It must have been no road'at all, but a simple avalanche
of boulders hurled miscellaneously over fixed jagged rocks.
About five kilometres from the bottom stands on the hill face
a hut used by the Turks as custom-house and guard-house.
It was on a knoll about this where the Russians of Mirsky's
original advance first came into action against the Turks on a
hillock higher up, on which stands a dismantled little khan.
On that occasion the Grrand Duke Mcholas the younger com-
manded a detachment. He is perhaps the most practical
soldier, in his steady faith in the wisdom of getting to close
quarters with the enemy, of all the many soldier members of
the great Imperial House.
At the custom house we passed a provision train. At the Khan
410 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
was tlie dressing place of tlie third line, whither, after having
had their wounds bound up in the field, came such soldiers as
were able to walk. Although a steady evacuation further to
the rear had been practised, this place and its vicinity were
thronged with the severely wounded men, among whom was
an extraordinary proportion of officers. Two colonels were
brought in while I passed. The Shipka will be known as
par excellence the officers' battle of the war.
On my way to the scene of action, and while surveying it before
following closely the movement of the troops engaged, I was
much impressed by the peculiarity of the ground. The
Shipka Pass is not a pass at all in the proper sense of the
term. There is no gorge, no defile ; there is no spot where
300 men could make a new Thermopylse ; no deep-scored
trench as in the Kyber Pass, where an army might be
annihilated without coming to grips with its adversary. It
has its name simply because at this point there ha^Dpens to be
a section of the Balkans of less than the average height, the
surface of which, from the Jantra Yalley on the north to the
Tundja Valley on the south, is sufficiently continuous, althougli
having an extremely broken and serrated contour, to afford
a foothold for a practicable track, for the Balkans generally
present a wild jumble of mountain and glen, neither having
any continuity. Under such circumstances, such a crossing-
place as the Shipka Pass affords is a godsend, although under
other circumstances a road over it would be regarded as
impossible. What was a mere track is now a really good and
practicable, although steep, high road. The ground on either
side of the ridge is depressed sometimes into shallow hollows,
sometimes into cavernous gorges; but these lateral
depressions are broken, and have no continuity, otherwise
they w^ould clearly afford a better track for a road than the
high ground above.
The highest peak is flanked on either side behind the lateral
depressions by a mountainous spur higher than itself, and
therefore commanding it, and having as well the command of
the ridge behind. The higher one, that is to say, the westmost
of these two spurs, can rake the road leading up to the
Russian positions. These spurs break off abruptly and
precipitously on their northern edge, and therefore afford
no access into the valley north of the Balkans. Their sole
use to the Turks, therefore, was in affording positions w^hence
to flank the central Shipka ridge. It is possible also for troops
to descend from them, struggle through the intervening glens,
and climbing the steep slopes of the Shipka ridge, give the hand
to each other on the road which runs along its backbone to its
THE SHIPKA POSITION. 411
summit. This done, tlie Shipka position would of course be
turned, but the advantage would be of little avail till the road
had been opened by carrying the fortified positions on it.
Without the command of the road an enemy might indeed
send bands down the road on to which he had scrambled,
into the lower country about Grabrova, to burn and plunder,
but I repeat that the road over the Shipka constitutes for an
army the only practicable line of communication in this
section of the Balkans.
Much has been said of the strength of the Shipka position. In
these opinions I do not concur. It seems to me that unless
strongly held with wide extending arms of defence, it is easy
to be attacked and very difficult to be held with any security.
The strength of a position does not depend wholly on its.
elevation or even pn the difficulties of access to a direct
attack, but on the clear range around it which its fire can
sweep, and its ability to concentrate its fire on critical points.
Herein lies the defect of the Shipka as a defensive position.
It cannot search with its fire the jumble of lateral valleys and
reverse slopes which hem it in. A brigade of light infantry
might mass in a hollow within one hundred yards of the
Russian first position without exposing itself to the artillery
fire of that position.
The troops engaged in to-day's battle were as follows : — The
Bulgarians and a regiment of the 1st Brigade of the 9th Division
under General Stoletoff ; the 2nd Brigade of the 9th Divi-
sion, under General Derozinsky; the Rifle Brigade under
General Tzwilzwinski. The 2nd Brigade of the 14th Divi-
sion, commanded by General Petroceni, arrived at nine in the
morning, brought up by the commander of the division.
General Dragomiroft', the whole force being under the chief
command of General Radetzky, commanding the 8th Corps,
which is composed of the 9th and 14th Divisions, in all twenty
battalions, which if full would give an aggregate of about
seventeen thousand men ; but every regiruent engaged had
already fought, and lost. The Tirailleurs and Bulgarians
shared the fortunes and misfortunes of General Gourko.
The 14th Division fought hard in crossing the Danube. The
stones of the Shipka had already been splashed with the
blood of Mirsky's gallant fellows of the 9th Division. I set
down the total strength as not above thirteen thousand.
The operations had commenced at daybreak. An attack was
made on the Turkish commanding position on the Russian
right flank, by the Tirailleur Brigade and the Brianski
Regiment of the 9th Division. Almost at the same moment
the Turks from that position renewed their turning effort.
412 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
extending their left witli intent to pnsli across the intervening
deep valley and gain the top ridge of the ground in the rear
of the Russian positions, and so hem in the Russian forces.
These simultaneous attacks met in the valley separating
the parallel ridges held by the Russians and Turks. The
fighting became at once fierce and stubborn. I had been told
about eight o'clock that in half an hour the Turks v>^ould be
driven back. When I reached the crest of the Russian ridge
I was forced to confess I saw no immediate prospect of this.
A furious infantry fire was raging in the valley between our
bare central ridge and the Turkish higher wooded ridge. The
bareness of our slope brought it about that our men went doTVTi
into battle without cover, blistered by the Turkish infantry
fire from their wooded slope, and by the shell fire of the
mountain batteries on the summit. The Russian battery in
the first position confronting the Turkish summit fired, but at
rare intervals. It is true it is waste of ammunition to shower
shells into trees, but the Turkish battery on the sky line
unquestionably afforded a mark, and it would have been
worth while to throw a few shells to help to cover with their
moral effect the advance of our infantry. I fancy there was
a long period when the battery was short of ammunition.
The road is so exposed that fetching ammunition was ex-
tremely dangerous. The Turks had detachments of marks-
men detailed with seemingly no other duty than to sweep the
Russian road at the exposed points of its course, and, indeed,
to fire at everything and everybody exposed on the Russian
ridge. To see anything and to attain shelter from the rifle
fire were incompatible objects.
I went up on to the sky line once and sat down to study the
interesting scene below, and my white cap- cover in an instant
drew fire from half a dozen rifles. We were all under rifle
fire continually the whole day, from the commencement of
the action till the Turkish position was finally carried. From
staff officers who had been on the ground during the whole
period of operations I received details of the forces engaged
and the character of the fighting on the previous days.
The Turks began the attack on the 21st, pushing on directly
up the steeps above the village of Shipka. The Russian
garrison in the works of the pass then consisted of the
Bulgarian Legion and one regiment of the 9th Division, both
weakened by previous hard fighting, and probably reckoning
little more than three thousand bayonets, with about forty
cannon. 'No supports were nearer than Tirnova, a distance of
forty miles, — a grave omission. The garrison fought hard and
hindered the Turks from gaining any material advantage.
A PERILOUS MOMENT. 413
tHongli the latter forced the outer line of the Russian shelter
trenches on the slopes below the position of Mount St.
Nicholas, the highest peak of the Shipka crossing. The
Russians had laid mines in front of their trenches, which
were exploded just as the head of the Turkish assaulting
parties were massed above them, and it is reported that a
large number of Moslems were blown up into the air in
fragments. The loss to the Russians on the first day's attack
was but two hundred, chiefly of the Bulgarian Legion. On
the second day, the 22nd, the fighting was not heavy, the
Turks being engaged in making a wide turning movement on
the right and left flanks of the Russian position, and these
attacks were next day developed with great fierceness and
pertinacity.
Yesterday the Turks assailed the Russian position on the front
and flanks, and drove in the defenders from their outlying
ground. The radical defects of the position became painfully
apparent — its narrowness, its exposure, its liability to be
outflanked and isolated. Fortunately reinforcements had
arrived, which averted the mischief which had otherwise, to
my thinking, imminently impended. Stoletoff hit his hardest,
and a right good fighting man he is, full of energy and force
after four long days of intense mental and physical strain ;
but he could not perform impossibilities with thirty thousand
men thundering on his front and flanks. But there had come
to him, swiftly marching from Selvi, a brigade of the 9th
Division, commanded by another valiant soldier. General
Derozinski, and this timely succour had been of material
value to Stoletoff. The fight lasted all day, and at length, as
the sun grew lower, the Turks had so worked round on both the
Russian flanks that it seemed as though the claws of the crab
were about momentarily to close behind the Russians, and
that the Turkish columns climbing either face of the Russian
ridge would give a hand to each other on the road in the
rear of the Russian position.
The moment was dramatic with an intensity to which the tame-
ness of civilian life can furnish no parallel. The two Russian
generals, expecting momentarily to be environed, had sent,
between the closing claws of the crab, a last telegram to the
Czar, telling what they expected, how they had tried to prevent
it, and how that, please Grod, driven into their positions and
beset, they would hold these till reinforcements should arrive.
At all events, they and their men would hold their ground to
the last drop of their blood.
It was six o'clock ; there was a lull in the fighting, of which the
Russians could take no advantage, since the reserves were all
414 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
engaged. The grimed, sun. blistered men were beaten out
with heat, fatigue, hunger, and thirst. There had been no
cooking for three days, and there was no water within the
Russian lines. The poor fellows lay panting on the bare
ridge, reckless that it was swept by the Turkish rifle fire.
Others doggedly fought on down among the rocks, forced to
give ground, but doing so grimly and sourly. The cliffs and
valleys send back the triumphant Turkish shouts of " Allah il
Allah ! "
The two Russian generals were on the peak which the first
position half encloses. Their glasses anxiously scanned the
visible glimpses of the steep brown road leading up there
from the Jantra valley, through thick copses of sombre
green, and yet more sombre dark rock. Stoletoff cries
aloud in sudden access of excitement, clutches his brother
general by the arm, and points down the pass. The head of a
long black column was plainly visible against the reddish-
brown bed of the road. " Now God be thanked ! " says
Stoletoff, solemnly. Both generals bare their heads. The
troops spring to their feet. They descry the long black
serpent coiling up the brown road. Through the green
copses a glint of sunshine flashes, banishes the sombreness,
and dances on the glittering bayonets.
Such a gust of Russian cheers whirls and eddies among the
mountain tops that the Turkish war cries are wholly drowned
in the glad welcome which the Russian soldiers sent to the
comrades coming to help them. Some time elapses. The
head of the column draws near the Karaula, and is on the
little plateau in front of the khan. But they are mounted
men. The horses are easily discernible. Has Radetzky,
then, been so left to himself, or so hard pushed, that he has
sent cavalry to cope with infantry among the precipices of
the Balkans ? Be they what they may, they carry a tongue
that can speak, for on the projection to the right of the khan
a mountain battery has just come into action against the
Turkish artillery on the wooded ridge, by the occupation of
which the Turks are flanking the right of the Russian
position. There are no riders on the horses now, and they
are on their way down hill. But a column of Russian
infantry are on the swift tramp uphill till they get within
firing distance of the Turks on the right, and then they break,
scatter, and from behind every stone and bush spurt white
jets of smoke.
It is a battalion of the Rifle Brigade, hurried up on Cossack
ponies, the brigade itself is not three kilometres behind,
and it is a rifle brigade that needs no more fighting in
TIMELY ARRIVAL OF REINFORCEMENTS. 415
the Balkans to link its name with, the great monntain
chain. It is the same rifle brigade which followed General
Gourko in his victorious advance and chequered retreat.
The brigade has marched fifty-five kilometres straight on end
without cooking or sleeping, and now is in action without
so much as a breathing halt. Such is the stuff of which
thorough good soldiers are made. Their general, the gallant
Radetzkv, accompanies them, and pushes an attack on the
enemy's position on that wooded ridge on the Russian right.
Bat Badetzky, who himself brought up the tirailleurs, and so
at the least reckoning saved the day, marches on up the road
with his staff at his back, runs the triple gauntlet of the
Turkish rifle fire, and joins the other two generals on the
peak hard by the batteries of the first position. As senior
and highest officer present, he at once took command, compli-
menting General Stoletoff, whom he relieved, on the excel-
lence of his dispositions and stubbornness of defence.
In the night the renewed attempt to carry the Turkish positions
threatening the right flank might well have been spared. But
it was felt that there was no safety, far less elbow-room, for the
Russians, until the Turks should be driven off that dominating
wooded ridge looming so ugly on the right flank. The left
flank, which the Turks assailed the previous day, was now
comparatively safe. So to-day's fighting began at daybreak
with a renewed attack of the Russians on the position specified.
The Bulgarian peasant boys displayed singular gallantry in
the same work as that in which the despised Indian bheestie
has so often done good service to our soldiers, by going dovm
into the actual battle, right into the first line, with stone
crocks full of water for the fighting men. This water was
fetched from far in the rear, along a bullet-swept road, — for
there is no water on the position itself. One lad had his
crock smashed by a bullet as he passed me, and he wept, not
for joy at his fortunate escape, but for sorrow at the loss of
the article which enabled him to be of service.
The fighting hung very much in the valley, and the reinforce-
ments of the 9th Division sent down effected not much percep-
tible good. About nine Dragomiroff arrived with two regiments
of the 2nd Brigade of his own division. The Podolsk Regiment,
he left in reserve near the khan ; with the Jitomer Regiment,
he marched up the road to the first position. There was no
alternative but to traverse that fearfully-dangerous road, for
the lower broken ground on its left was impracticable, and
reported besides to be swarming with Bashi-Bazouks. The
Jitomer men lost heavily while making this promenade, and
having reached the peak, found no safe shelter, for the Turkish
416 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE.
rifle fire was coming from two quarters simultaneously. So
the infantry were stowed away till wanted in the ditch of the
redoubt. Radetzky and his staff remained on the slope of the
peak, and here Dragomiroff joined, and was welcomed by his
chief.
The firing in the valley waxed and waned fitfully as the morn-
ing wore on to near noon. The Turks were very strongly
established in their wooded position, and there was an evident
intention on their part to work round their left and edge in
across the narrowed throat of the valley towards our rear.
About eleven the firing in the valley swelled in volume. It
was almost wholly musketry fire, be it remembered. Taking off
my white hat I crejDt up to the edge of the ridge and looked
down upon the scene below. The Russians had their tirailleurs
in among the trees of the Turkish slope, leaving the bare
ground behind strewn with killed and wounded. The ambu-
lance men were behaving admirably, picking up the wounded
under the hottest fire, and indeed not a few were themselves
among the wounded. As to the progress of the Russians in
the wood little could be seen, the cover was so thick, but it
was clear that the battle waged to and fro, now the Russians,
now the Turks, gaining ground. Occasionally the Russians
at some point would be hurled clean back out of the wood
altogether, and with my glass I could mark the Turks follow-
ing them eagerly to its edge, and lying down while pouring
out a galling fire. It seemed an even match ; the Turks and
Russians alike accepted valiantly the chances of battle. The
Russian tirailleurs, finely-trained skirmishers, looked out
dexterously for cover, and the Turks displayed fine skirmish-
ing ability, but the soldiers of the Brianski line regiment were
not so good at finding cover. There was clearly no thought
among them of quailing, but they stood up in the open as I
have seen our Guards do in a sham fight, and took what came.
As a natural result, this fine regiment showed the greatest
proportion of casualties.
There is something terrible in a fight in a wood. You can see
nothing save an occasional flash of dark colour among the
sombre foliage, and the white clouds of smoke rising above
it like soap bubbles. Hoarse cries come back to you on the
wind from out the mysterious inferno. How is it to go ?
Are the strong-backed Muscovites, with these ready bayonet
points of theirs, to end the long drawn out fight with one
short, impetuous, irresistible rush ; or are the more lissom
Turks to drive their northern adversaries out of the wood
backwards into the fire-blistered open ? Who can tell ?
The fire rages still. The mad clamour of the battle still surges
A FIGHT IN A WOOD. 417
up around into tlie serene blue heavens. Wounded men come
staggering out from among the swarthy trunks and sit down
in a heap, or crawl on to the ambulance men. I leave the
edge of the ridge soon after eleven, and pick my way up
towards the peak, on the slope of which the generals and
»staff are surveying the scene. The bullets here are singing-
like a nest of angry wasps. One bullet strikes on the right
knee Greneral Dragomiroff, w^ho has been standing calmly in
the face of the fire, looking dowra upon the battle. One of
the best generals in the Russian army is liors de coinhat. He
is as brave as he is skilful. He never so much as takes his
spectacles off, but when we have borne him into comparative
shelter quietly sits down, and, ripping up his trouser-leg,
binds a handkerchief round the w^ound. Surgeons gather
round him ; but, like the true soldier he is, he says he
will take his turn when it comes. He is carried further
• out of the line of fire, his boot removed, and the limb ban-
daged. Then he is placed on a stretcher, and is borne away.
The last words on the noble soldier's lips are a fervent wish
for good fortune to the arms of the Czar.
The Tirailleurs and Brianski Regiment were not making headway
in their difficult enterprise of attacking direct in front the
steep Turkish slope, with its advantage of wooded cover,
although they have foiled the efforts of the Turks to work
round by their ow^n left into our rear. We can see on the
sky-line the Turkish reinforcements as they come up out of
the valley by the road close to their mountain battery, on the
bare spot near the edge of their left flank. It is determined at
twelve o'clock to deliver a counter flank attack on the right
edge of the Turkish ridge, simultaneously with a renewed
strenuous attack of the Tirailleurs and the Brianski men from
below. The two battalions of the Jitomer Regiment, each
leaving one company behind as supports, emerge from the
partial shelter of the peak of the Russian first position, and
march in company columns across the more level grass land
at the head of the intervening valley. They have no great
dip to traverse, and their way is good marching ground, but
the Turkish mountain guns, from the battery high up on the
Avooded peak of the Turkish position, are ready for them,
as also is the Turkish infantry on the Turkish right edge of
the ridge. The fire sweeps through them, and many a gallant
fellow dyes the grass with his blood. But the battalions
press steadily on, and dash into the wood at the double. The
Russian artillery had done its best to prepare the way, for
their battery on the peak had fired hard while they were
crossing over, and a reserve battery near the khan down
E E
418 WAR CORKESPONDEXCE.
below liad come into action. But now tlie artillery had to
cease, for there was danger in blind firing into the wood when
our men were in it. The arbitrement had to be left to rifle
and bayonet.
The crisis of the battle had now arrived. It remained for ii&
but to gaze into the perplexing mystery of forest, and to hope
fervently. The fighting of the infantry on the Turkish front
and flank lasted for a long hour, andraged with great fury, but
it was clear that the Russians were gradually gaining ground.
The Turks were seen withdrawing their battery of mountain
guns near their right flank, a sure sign that danger menaced
it if it stayed longer. Then the left battery followed their
example, a sure sign too that the Tirailleurs and Brianskis
were gaining the ridge on the Turkish left also. There
remained but the central peak of the Turkish position. That
carried, the ridge was ours, and our right flank would be set
free from the dangerous pressure on it.
The fight was on the balance. The Russians as they stood
could all but succeed, but not quite. It was an intensely
exciting period, and Badetzky was equal to the occasion. I
have mentioned that the Jitomer battalions had left two
companies in reserve when they marched out from behind
the peak. Badetzky realized that fortune was not unkind ; but
that she needed just a little more wooing. He himself took
one of these companies ; the Colonel of the Jitomer Regiment
placed himself at the head of the other ; and thus led, the
two companies set forward to throw themselves into the
fray. Military critics will say that the chief of an army
corps should not be at the head of a company. The abstract
truth of the criticism may be owned ; but there are times
when specific advantages outweigh conventional and general
objections ; and a brave leader, with a cool head, may be left
to judge for himself if the opportunity has come to commit
an error that he may gain a victory. To be headed by the
General in command would have inspired the least spirited
troops. The soldiers of the Czar want no adventitious
encouragement to stimulate in them the ardour for the fray.
The Jitomers had been chafing at their inaction, but it was
clear that the leadership of their chief thrilled them with
increased zeal. Their ringing cheers rose high above the
rattle of musketry as they dashed across the grassy slope at
the head of the valley, and precipitated themselves into the
wood.
Fortune, thus energetically wooed, yielded. There was a con-
centric rush on the peak. Its rude breastworks were
surmounted ; there was some hot bayonet work, and then
EEPULSE OF THE TUEKS. 419
a tremendous volley of E-nssian hurrahs told that the
Turkish ridge was cleared and the position won. This was
at two o'clock to the moment. The Turk, if unspeakable, is
also irrepressible. All day he had fought with stubborn
valour, and would not yet own himself beaten. He came on
again out of the valley beyond his late ridge, and strove to
retake it ; but the Russian soldiers are not fond of relinquish-
ing positions earned by the price of blood, and the Turks
were repulsed. By three o'clock they had abandoned the
effort for the time, and the fire hereabouts had all but died
out.
Radetzky now came back to the peak of his first position,
panting, but content. He had fought a good fight and won
it. Kow he determined to strike while the iron was hot,
and attempt to recover the outlying positions in [his front
towards Shipka, on which the Turks had encroached on the
first day of the fighting. The Podolsk Regiment was called
up from reserve, and went down to the attack under cover of
a heavy fire of artillery from the Russian batteries around and
beyond the position on Mount St. Nicholas. This attack also
was partly successful, and Radetzky increased his elbow-room
in front as well as on the flank. The Turks will no doubt
renew the attack to-morrow with fresh troops, probably both
in front and on the flanks. They are reported as pressing
on through the narrow and difficult pass on the east of the
Shipka, and leading down into Triavna. But I know that
the Grand Duke has ordered a brigade to that point, with
more troops to follow. I know that reinforcements are
streaming on to the Shipka position. As I write, the 1st
Brigade of the 14th Division is arriving. Radetzky lias
broken up the dangerous pressure on his flanks. He means
to hold the ridge whence he has expelled the Turks, and he
certainly ought to be able to hold it. All danger is not yet
over, but the atmosphere looks so much clearer that I think
myself safe in leaving here to despatch this long telegram,
notwithstanding that the Turks are recommencing their
efforts to regain the lost position.
The Turkish troops engaged were nearly all Nizams — trained
regulars, who fought admirably. There are very few Turkish
prisoners. One avers that Suleiman Pacha has one hundred
thousand men, which must be an exaggeration, even if they
included the swarms of Circassians and Bashi-Bazouks
collected to ravage the country north of the Balkans. I put
down the Russian loss to-day at over 1,500 killed and
wounded — a large proportion of the small force engaged.
The Turks lost perhaps fewer to-day, but in the previous
E E 2
420 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
days, when they were attacked, they must have suffered
heavily.
During the fighting I spent some time with the surgeons
workino- in the most advanced positions, and should like to
bear testimony to their admirable devotion to duty and their
skilled dexterity. In their eagerness to assist the wounded,
the Russian surgeons somehow neglect the axiom that their
quarters should be in a sheltered spot ; but indeed on all the
ridge it was hard to find a sheltered spot. The Turkish bullets
whistled over and through the little group. Indeed, one
patient received a fresh wound while the earlier one was
being dressed ; but the surgeons pursued their duties with a
noble courage and disregard of risk. Their kind attention
to the wounded, and their attention to trifles — such as
supplying water, laving burning faces, and administering
restoratives — filled me with admiration. As I leave the
position at six o'clock comparative quietude reigns.
* Russian Headquarters, Gorny Studen, August 2hth. — Riding
backward from Shipka through the night, I passed masses of
reinforcements, artillery and infantry, burying forward to
Shipka. It would be improper to specify their strength, but
it is such as ought to secure the safety of the all-important
position. Riding hard all night long, and to-day also, with-
out either rest or food, I w^as fortunate enough to reach the
headquarters here in advance of any of the aides-de-camp
whom the Grand Duke had sent to the fighting region to
report the progress of events. All news previously reaching
the headquarters had come by telegraph, and chiefs hard
pi'essed by fighting functions, have no leisure to telegraph
copiously.
Having communicated some details to the officers of my
acquaintance on the Imperial staff. General Ignatieff acquainted
the Emperor with my arrival, and His Majesty did me the
honour to desire that he should hear what I had to tell from
my own lips. The concern of the Emperor was not less
strongly evinced than was his thorough conversance with the
military art, and the promptitude with which he com-
prehended my details was more, I fear, owing to the trained
skill of his perception than to my lucidity. He expressed an
anxious desire that every effort should be made to supply his
noble soldiers with the food they so much needed, and
expressed great gratification when I was able to tell him I
had seen camp kettles bubbling even amid the whiz of bullets.
The simplicity of His Majesty's habit of life is apparent at a
glance. He carries no luxury with him, and I have seen a
THE CORRESPONDENT AND THE EMPEROR. 421
snbaltern's tent at Wimbledon far more sumptuously accoutred
tkan the campaigning residence of the Czar of All the Russias.
His Majesty desired that, on leaving him, I should go to his
brother, the Grand Duke commanding-in-chief.
Answering the questions of His Imperial Highness was like
going through a competitive examination. He was fully
master of the subject, and if I had not taken pains in gather-
ing my facts from a wide area, T should have felt extremely
foolish. As it was, I was able to draw for the Grand Duke
a plan of the operations, and to illustrate my unskilful
draughtsmanship by verbal explanations which I trust His
Imperial Highness found of some value. He had received
telegrams to-day from General Radetzky to the effect that,
as I had anticipated, the Turks had renewed the combat with
great energy this morning, and that hard fighting was
raging, the flanks as well as the front being threatened.
I expected no less ; but none the less do I hold to my impression
that Radetzky, having so far widened his area to the right
and left yesterday as to prevent the dominance thence of the
Shipka position, will be able now to hold his ground against
all comers, especially with the reinforcements arriving. I
take it for granted that he utilized last night by making such
dispositions as shall prevent the Turks from regaining the
positions from which he yesterday drove them. It is a
military axiom that it is easier to hold a position than to
carry it. The Grand Duke had received a telegram that
General Petroceni, the gallant chief of the 2nd Brigade,
14th Division, was this morning in action. Another tele-
gram from Gabrova from General Stoletotf told that General
Radetzky had ordered that fine officer to take his Bulgarians
down into Gabrova for a little rest after five days' continuous
fighting, with no food save dry bread. It is a good sign that
they can be spared. The Bulgarian Legion has proved that
the despised Bulgarians can fight like lions.
* Bucharest, August 26th, — Information follows me here that
the fighting at the Shipka Pass is still raging, having been
again renewed to-day, but that Radetzky continues to hold
his own. It is now a question of endurance, and the Turks
may add to the difficulties of the Russian position by taking
the offensive on the left and right flanks. Indeed, Mehemet
Ali Pacha has already been striking out against the
Ozarewitch ; but I adhere to my impression that the Shipka
Pass, as now held by Radetzky, is safe, and that unless
Suleiman Pacha can run a column through another pass,
regarding the practicability or the contrary of which. I know
4,22 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
nothing, lie will wreck his army by thus dashing it continually
against the rock of Shipka.
The subjoined letter, dated a day later than that commencing
on page 407, is from another Correspondent, who arrived
subsequently to the departure of the writer of the previous
despatch : —
t Shipka Pass, August 26th. — The fight is still raging here with
unabated fury. The arrival of Eadetzky with reinforcements
saved the situation for the moment and drove back, the Turks,
who were on the point of seizing the Pass ; but the Russian
position is still most critical. The Turks had not only turned
both the Russian flanks by seizing Berdek on the left and the
mountains on the right, but had constructed a redoubt and
planted a battery on the right which commands the road
leading up to the Pass. This gives them possession of the
ridge running parallel to that up w^hicli the road winds, one
thousand five hundred yards distant as the crow flies. The
redoubt enfilades the road in several places, and the Turkish
infantry, by extending along this ridge, which is thickly
wooded, can practically render the road impassable.
How true this is may be judged by the fact that it was on this
road that Greneral Dragomiroff was wounded, and that to-day
General Petroceni, the commander of the 1st Brigade of the
9th Division of the 8th Corps, was killed on this road, fully
a mile on our side of the summit of the Pass, by a bullet
which traversed his lungs, killing him almost instantly. Men
are picked off by the Turkish skirmishers two miles behind
the Pass, where the road is exposed, and even where the road
passes on the other side of the ridge the men are killed and
w^ounded by the bullets dropping over from random firing.
Men are killed and wounded all round the point where I
found Radetzky and his staff to-day, although sheltered
behind the brow of the ridge, which rose thirty to fifty feet
above them. It will be seen, therefore, that the Russian
position still remains most critical, in spite of the arrival of
reinforcements. Greneral Radetzky, indeed, informed the
commandant of Gabrova the day after his arrival that he had
better warn the inhabitants to be ready to fly at a moment's
notice. The fact is that until the Turkish redoubt spoken of
is taken it is impossible to say what will be the result of the
Turkish attack on the Shipka Pass. The road up to the Shipka
would have already been rendered impassable but for the fact
that the Turks have been so busy defending the redoubt that
ATTACK ON A REDOUBT. 423
tliej have not jet had time to tarn it to its proper use by
shelling the Shipka road from the battery at the foot.
General Radetzky had no sooner arrived than he began making
dispositions in earnest. From the highest point of the Pass
there is a high short narrow ridge extending to the right at
nearly right angles to the road. At a distance of half a mile
it rises into a sharp peak, which is crowned by a Unssian
redoubt, effectually protecting the Russian batteries from
that side. Half a mile farther, or perhaps less, the ridge rises
into another peak, which, with the first one, forms a perfect
saddle -back. This peak is crowned by the Turkish redoubt,
already spoken of, and it is the head of the ridge mentioned
Avhich curves round on our right until parallel with the road,
thus enabling the Turkish infantry to command it.
The Russian commander should have occupied this second peak,
and would undoubtedly have done so had he had enough
men, but he only had one regiment, three thousand men, and
the debris of the Bulgarian Legion — only enough to defend
the direct approaches to the Pass. It is true that another
regiment was sent from Selvi to reinforce him as soon as it
was known that the Turks were preparing to attack, but it
was then too late, as the Turks seem to have occupied this
position the first day. Besides, it was soon demonstrated
that two regiments were required to protect the direct
approaches against Suleiman's violent onset.
The two peaks occupied by the Russian and Turkish redoubts
are thickly wooded, as well as the connecting ridge between.
General Radetzky advanced his troops along this ridge under
cover of the woods, and opened fire on the redoubt with two
or three batteries. He at the same time sent troops across
the deep hollow from the road to take the Turkish redoubt
on the Gabrova side, by advancing up the steep mountain
flank. Soon a terrible musketry-fire told that the troops were
in contact, and the attack fairly begun : and for hours the
mountains re-echoed with the continuous roll of musketry
and the thunder of cannon.
"The Russians advanced like Indians under cover of the trees,
which w^ere, however, too small to afford good shelter, firing
as they went. In a short time they had reached within fifty
yards of the redoubt. Here they found obstacles which for
the moment were quite insurmountable. The Turks had cut
down the trees around the redoubt, making an abattis over
which the Russians found it almost impossible to pass. They
gathered around the edge under cover of the trees, and sud-
denly made a rush for it, but were driven back with fearful
loss. The soldiers became entano^led in the masses of brush-
424 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
wood, trunks, and limbs of tlie trees over which they were
obliged to scramble, while the Turks poured in a terrible fire
upon them at this short distance, and mowed them down like
grass. Of the first assault launched against the redoubt I am
afraid very few got back under cover to tell the tale. It was
very evident that the assault under such conditions could
not succeed. Only one battalion had been sent to attack.
The force was insufficient, and of this one company sent to
the assault was nearly destroyed. Reinforcements were sent
by Eadetzky. The attack began again, but dispositions were
made to place a large force in such positions that it could
pour a heavy fire into the redoubt to cover the assault until
the assaulters were almost up to the parapet.
This attack seemed almost on the point of success, for the-
colonel in command, whose name I forget, said that if
reserves were given to him he could take it. The officer
in command of the reserves let them go ; but they were
nevertheless repulsed. Then Rad.etzky mounted and rode ta
the ground, folloAved by part of his staff. The chief of the
staff, General Dimitriofsky, on foot, bareheaded, and sup-
ported by two men, with an expression of extreme suffering
on his face, had put himself at the head of a battalion to
lead the assault. A shell had struck the ground beside him,
covering him with earth, knocking him down, and rendering
him senseless for a few minutes. The attack still went on.
The fire became terrible. From among the trees rose a large
column of smoke, marking the place of the Turkish redoubt,
w^hich was dimly seen through it, while the thick woods were
full of the roll of the Russian musketry fire.
The Russians advanced steadily. They rushed over, or through,,
the abattis ; they even got into the battery, and actually held
it for a few seconds, but were driven out again. They sur-
rounded the place on all sides, pouring into it a terrible fire,,
but were again driven back. In the meantime the Turks, ta
support the defence, began to attack in front and rear-
Musketry and artillery were heard coming up from towards
Shipka mingling with the nearer din around the redoubt in
a most sinister way. The wounded came trooping steadily
back with wounds in their heads, arms, and bodies. Some
were on litters. One was carried by his companions. Some
were limping along by themselves, presenting a most pitiable
spectacle, covered with dust, smoke-begrimed, haggard,,
wretched. I don't know yet what are the losses, but they
must be very heavy, for the fight continued until late at
night. The wounded were coming back steadily all the time-
Besides these were the poor fellows, too severely wounded ta
A DANGEROUS MILITARY EXPERIMENT. 42-5
be moved, who will probably fall into the hands of the Turks,
to be murdered, tortured, and mutilated.
To sum up, the attack has been unsuccessful. Reinforcements are
arriving, and the fight will probably be continued to-morrow.
* SiSTOVA, August 27th. — Fighting is still going on upon the
flanks of the Shipka Pass positions, but Radetzky continues
to maintain his ground, although his losses are serious.
If I remember rightly, Richie Moniplies, in the " Fortunes of
Nigel," tore his cloak in his endeavours to conceal the rents
in his clothing covered by that garment. That is what has
very nearly happened to the Russians. The military leaders,
in their early burst of success, gained possession of a certain
area of Bulgaria. To that area they have clung pertinaciously.
They had only so many men to hold the ground in Bulgaria
pending the arrival of reinforcements, rendered necessary by
the unexpected development of the Turkish fighting strength,
and these they have disposed round the edge of the area
occupied after the manner of a fence. Now the strength of
the fence is only equal to the weakest portion of it, and
realizing this, and dreading Turkish attacks from right and
left on Timova, they kept thereabouts a body of troops
belonging to the 8th Corps, available to strengthen any weak
position that might be threatened. There was reason in this,
but it was a very dangerous experiment to leave a handful of
men to hold the all-important Shipka position beyond easy
hailing distance of support. When Suleiman Pacha took the
village of Shipka there was not a Russian soldier between
the handful on the exposed Shipka position and Tirnova,
forty miles away. Reinforcements arrived in the nick of
time, but, as explained in my telegram, the safety of the
Shipka position was an affair of minutes, and if the Turks had
struck all round the Russian area simultaneously, either the
Shipka position must have been left to its fate, or some other
section of the fence line must have been seriously endangered.
I think it would have been better policy if the principle of
protecting the area once occupied had been abandoned, and
the idea of using the Russian forces as a palisade had been
abandoned also. They should have been concentrated into
one or two central positions, say one strong army at Gorny
Studen, another at Timova, with a strong detachment
thrown forward into Gabrova to answer the menace of the
Shipka Pass position. A mobile army at Gorny Studen could
have struck right or left at the Turkish forces showing them-
selves in the open, just as in 1814 Napoleon struck out at
Schwarzenberg and Blucher. The aim of the Russian army
426 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
ouglit not to be to hem the Turkish armies in defensive
positions, but to tempt them to adventure into the open, and
then in pitched battles conquer them, in accordance with the
invariable precedent. I think, however, that the crisis is
virtually past, for let us hope that tinkering tactics have been
abandoned. The arrival of reinforcements, now flowing in in
a steady stream, should enable the Grand Duke to breathe
more freely.
I hold to my conviction that the Shipka is safe, and that thus is
defeated the great strategic scheme of the Turkish leaders to
hem the Russians within the large tete-de-pont in Bulgaria
with the ultimate intent of driving them over the Danube.
How narrow was the escape of the Shipka need not be now
closely inquired into, nor what would have been the conse-
quences if the Russians had lost their hold of that critically
important point. The next few days will be full of interest.
These past I shall expect the Russians to take the initiative in
a vigorous offensive policy on both flanks, and so relieve them-
selves from the existing pressure, and having done so, pursue
their design of sweeping Bulgaria proper clear of the Turkish
armies in the field. It behoves the Grrand Duke to rely with
greater confidence on the unquestionable excellence of his
troops as acting fighting men, not alone as mere pieces of
palisading, and to pursue a bold and vigorous line of action,
even at some risk. The Balkan passes need not be held by
strong garrisons, if troops are maintained within easy hail, say
at Grabrova, to ensure the safety of the Shipka ; at Elena to
do the same ofiice by the Hainkoi. The role of invader is
vigorous, offensive action, not inactive defence. The spirit
and condition of the Russian soldiers are high and satisfactory.
They may be relied on to fight a good fight. Let them have
their innings.
Oeneral Dragomiroff has telegraphed to the Emperor that in six
weeks he expects to be fit for duty again.
Colonel Wellesley returns to the Imperial headquarters to-day.
* Gabrova, August '61 st. — This day week I despatched you a tele-
gram describing the long and obdurate fighting in the Shipka
Pass up to that date, the 24th instant, and said that the
Turks would certainly renew strenuously their effort to attain
the object for which Suleiman Pacha had already expended
so much blood. I nevertheless was impressed with the con-
faction that Radetzky firmly held the position. So strong
was that conviction, that I thought the circumstance justified
me in quitting the scene of action for the purpose of reaching
the telegraph base.
SULEIMAN pacha's DEFEAT. 427
It was a serions thing for a Military Correspondent to adventure
sucli a prediction while as yet the fighting zeal of the Turks
remained unbroken, and in making it I was conscious of the
responsibility I incurred to your readers. Since the despatch
of my message I have reason to believe that telegrams, giving
quite another colour to the course of events, have been trans-
mitted to England, but never in my experience have
sensational telegrams availed to alter stem facts. I have to-
day visited the Shipka Pass to find my prediction amply
verified. All is now quiet there. Radetzky has been left in
comparative peace ever since the desperate fighting of
Saturday last. So far from his position being impinged on it
has been extended. There are no Turks now on his left. The
wooded mountain on his right wing, which he cleared of the
Turks on the 24th, he had to quit for want of water, and the
Turks came back. But now again the Turks have abandoned
that position, and solitude reigns among the trees under
which furious fighting raged. You may walk along the road
from the khan in the rear of Radetzky's position right along
to the final peak of the Balkans on Mount St. Mcholas, and
thence down into the shelter- trenches, without once hearing
the whistle of a bullet, where once the air vibrated with the
hum of them.
The truth is that Suleiman Pacha has had enough for the time
of the Shipka Pass. For five days he beat out the brains
of his gallant stubborn soldiers against its defences and its
defenders. Let no man after Shipka venture to assert that
the Turkish soldiers are only good men behind earthworks.
I respect a fine soldier wherever I find him, be he Grreek or
Jew, Gentile or Barbarian, and the irrepressible dash and
obdurate indomitable valour of the Turkish troops, in assault-
ing day after day this Shipka position, may claim to rank
with any evidence of soldierhood with which I am acquainted.
But their valour proved unavailing. Suleiman Pacha has
abandoned the attempt, and marched away from the neigh-
bourhood of Shipka. Some say that he is still in Kezan-
lik ; others that he is searching for another pass. My own
belief is that he is engaged in trying to re-organize his shat-
tered forces. Five thousand Turkish corpses fester in
the blazing sunshine between the Shipka village and the
fringes of Mount St. Nicholas. All his Montenegrin
soldiers have been removed. There remain still formally
confronting the Russians a few battalions of Egyptians, with
some cannon on the heights, and a few more miscellaneous
battalions in Shipka.
The Imperial and Grrand Ducal headquarters were singularly
428 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
pessimist. *' The Sliipka smells very bad," was a remark
made to me in several quarters as I passed the day before
yesterday. But yesterday, between here and Drenova, I met
General N"epokoitchitsky on his way back to Gorny Studen.
He had come to choose new positions — an ominous errand ;
but he found the old ones available and satisfactory, and
went back relieved.
This morning a large mass of superfluous reinforcements, which
had been hurried up to make a fight of it all the way from
Shipka to Tirnova, had the Pass been forced, started on their
march back whence they came. The tendency of the Russian
military authorities is always to extremes. The danger the
Russian fortunes underwent at the Shipka Pass, owing almost
wholly to the folly of leaving unsupported a handful of men
to hold that Pass, was so great that when the storm burst
and the peril was realized, every available man, down to the
brigade guarding the Emperor, was hurried pell-mell towards
the position, where there was only standing room for a
limited number of men. The 2nd Division has to-day re-
turned whence it came. It is the same with the detachment
of the 11th Division. Radetzky still has all the 14th
Division, a brigade of the 9th Division, the Tirailleurs, the
Bulgarians, and a detachment of foot Cossacks, with strong
artillery, to hold the Pass against all comers.
It is not a pleasant position. All the water is brought from a
spring near the foot of the ascent. For lack of wood most
of the cooking is done down by the Jantra, and the food is
brought up in great kettles. The effluvium from the un-
buried dead and the unsanitary camp taints the freshness of
the mountain atmosphere. All the troops bivouac. Radetzky
inhabits a domicile which is a place between a bower and a
cavern. He says that the Turks made upwards of one
hundred distinct attacks. God willing, says the stout old
chief, he can and will stay there, come Turk or devil, till he
gets relieved. The Russian loss during the fighting is set
down at eight hundred killed and two thousand eight
hundred and odd wounded. The figures are official. I
should have thought the number considerably greater.
Now that this danger is averted, it behoves the Russians to do
something more than merely move their troops to and fro
to block the Turkish onslaughts. For the assailed, the policy
of passive defence is a foolish and fatal policy, but it is simply
the reductio ad ahsurdum of an invasion ; nor is it probable
that the Turks for their part, although they have not been
successful at the Shipka, will fall in with a prolonged period
of mutual inactivity.
THE TURKISH SHIPKA POSITION. 429
The following letter describing tlie figliting in the Shipka
Pass is from the Correspondent with the Turks : —
C Adrianople, August 26th. — The Shipka Pass is being most
obstinately defended, and, notwithstanding the utmost bravery
which Suleiman Pacha's troops have shown, victory as yet has
been withheld, although on one occasion it has been almost
within his grasp. His bold method of pushing his enemy
hard after striking a blow, instead of losing half its value by
pausing to recover himself, has brought him at one bound, as
it were, to within 500 yards of the Russians. The Balkan
road runs through the village of Shipka (now almost burnt
to the ground), and creeps along and along the bare mountain,
on the summit of which is the chief Russian position. The
highest point nearest this, as well as every ridge before reach-
ing it, is thickly entrenched by the Turks, and it will be
impossible for an enemy of ten times his strength to attempt
to make a descent. The mountains to the right and left, both
of which are wooded, and form excellent cover to the attack-
ing parties, have batteries established upon them, altogether
numbering sixteen guns ; those on the right (three batteries),
being of higher elevation, effectually command the Russian
side before them, where the Balkan road runs at their feet.
The left has not such an advantage, and the ascent from the
bottom of the defile is exceedingly precipitous, and almost
inaccessible.
On Thursday and Friday last the severest fighting which Sulei-
man's army has had occurred — the first day's fighting being
on the right — and towards the close of the day the Russians
were actually forced to beat a retreat, and the Turks gained
momentary possession of a trench. By some strange error
they were not properly supported, and had in their turn to
retire, to the intense mortification of their commander, who,
it is said, had fully determined th^t the battle should be won
before the day closed. On Friday a change of tactics occurred,
and the firing was entirely on the left, and went briskly on
the whole day, without any advantage, however, excepting
the loss it has inflicted on the already weakened garrison.
Your Correspondent on the other side will doubtless have
given you correct information of the numerical strength of
the Russians before us. We hear they do not exceed 7,000
men, with twelve or sixteen guns, but these are all heavy
Krupps, whilst we have only at present brought up sixteen
mountain pieces. Suleiman's army is variously estimated at
from 30,000 to 50,000 men — a happy medium may or may not
represent the correct figures. Who knows ? I doubt if the
430 WAE COERESPOXDEKCE.
general Hmself conld saj, in its present condition, -with fight-
ing going on vigorously on all sides, and a large extent of
country to defend. An army more suited to tlie task before
it, or a general more fitted to tlie command in mountain war-
fare, there could not be.
The telegraph will have informed you whether the Muscovite
is stilf master of the Balkans ; if not, he will have a hard time
of it on the other side, for Osman Pacha is not far distant.
As to the poor peasantry, God help them ! Those on our side
are in a pitiable state, but how much worse must they be if
the Turks descend upon them. It must not be supposed that
the Eussians, even if they lost their position on the stony
ridge above referred to, could not hold those adjoining,
although at a lower elevation ; vStill, they are regular forts,
and will stand a very strong attack. By threatening to cut
off their retreat we may — should the first position fall — hear
of surrender, but unless the Russian general is extremely
unfortunate, he will make a hard fight until ample reinforce-
ments arrive.
The entire Turkish system of care for the wounded is in a most
lamentable state, and were it not for the English doctors, the
condition of things would be incredible ; hundreds of wounded,
even as it is, have to shift for themselves, whilst the English
ambulance is crowded with the poor soldiers in dreadful
suffering, waiting their turn for relief. In the hospital, or
rather houses, of Kezanlik, there are at this moment no less
than 800 wounded left to the care of two Turkish surgeons.
August 26th. — Matters looked rather differently in Suleiman's
camp on Saturday. A lull in the din of battle had taken
place, that hot, drowsy morning, and for a few hours the
unwonted silence was almost unbroken, occasional shells only
being exchanged as mere matters of courtesy. Just when
the general himself, aud not a few of his soldiers, were snatch-
ing a welcome doze on the plain at the Pass foot, the whirr
of a shell aimed near headquarters broke the pleasant stillness.
As if to prove there was no mistake about it, another and
another fell ; but this time aimed apparently directly at a long-
train of covered bullock waggons toiling slowly across the
plain, freighted with the wounded from the left Turkish
position, where their losses had been particularly heavy. A
white flag with the crescent was carried at the head of this
sad procession, but justice must be done to the Russians on
this occasion against wilfully firing on it, for the small size of
the flag prevented its being easily distinguishable at the
distance from which they fired, their batteries on the main
ENGLISH SURGEONS WITH THE ARMY. 431
Balkan road to the spot in question being not mucli less tlian
4,000 yards off. Two bullock waggons were broken by the
frantic efforts of the drivers to get away. The shelling went
on even after the string of Avaggons had passed from view
at such a pace as few bullocks ever went before. The
Russians could hardly have seen the fall of their shells, o wing-
to the proximity of the foot of the mountain, and it may
charitably be supposed that they imagined some battalions of
troops were massed at the place in reserve.
It transpired afterwards that the Turkish troops on the left
had met with a check, and had retired precipitately from a
position which they had succeeded in occupying, and the
E/Ussians, wishing, no doubt, to make the most of the occa-
sion, had lost no time in endeavouring to increase what
threatened to be a panic with their foe on this side. Suleiman
awoke to the sense of danger, and promptly ordered three
batteries of his heaviest field artillery and three battalions of
troops to form line across the plain at the mouth of the Pass,
so as to ensure the Russians a warm reception if they should
have had the temerity to advance. His precautions were well
taken, and he has since continued them as a precautionary
measure against any contingency.
The English Societies of the Red Crescent have established them-
selves in conjunction with one of the Turkish ambulances and
the Surgeon-in-Chief of the army, on the roadside, in a shady
place, with a clear stream of water running beside it, and 5,000
yards from the nearest Russian battery. The number of wounded
increases daily, and by an arrangement easy to understand, the
Turkish surgeons have taken in hand the slighter cases, leaving
the heavier ones and amputations entirely to their English
confreres. A Turkish officer of rank was dangerously wounded
a day or two since, and instantly placed himself under the
care of the Englishmen in preference to his own countrymen.
The fact is worth noting, and is -by no means an isolated
instance of the same kind. The opinion of Dr. Leslie Hume
and Dr. Sandwith, who are in charge (Dr. Attwood doing good
service in directing the hospital arrangements at Adrianople),
from the numbers passing through their hands, from those
whose wounds are dressed in other quarters, and from what
they can learn, is that there have been at least 6,000 in killed
and w^ounded up to the afternoon of the 26th — a heavy price
to pay for the positions gained, but as nothing in comparison
to the importance of establishing the foothold he has obtained
from which to drive out the Russians. The enemy's losses
cannot fall far short of the same total.
The night of Saturday will not soon be forgotten by either side
4S2 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
as that of the heaviest and most prolonged of any previous
fighting,. It commenced at nine o'clock with a sharp rifle
fire on the Turkish left, and proved to be a night attack by
the Russians on a battery which had been effecting great
damage in the trenches on the face of the main Russian
centre or rock position. The flash of the Turkish rifles as
they met the ascending Russians could be easily distinguished,
sparkling through the trees, from the plain, and their vividness
and frequency showed only too well how hotly the contest
was proceeding. Hour after hour passed thus with varying
success, and it was not until six in the morning that silence
reigned again, and the news circulated throughout the camp
that severe as had been the Russian attempt, it had been
resolutely held at bay, and by a greatly inferior numerical
force, without the advantage which the Russians had of drawing
upon their immediate reserves to an almost unlimited extent.
The losses on both sides must have been enormous, for the
firing did not cease for one moment in its violence throughout
the night. The Turkish loss was heavier, owing to a sad
error in the regular troops imagining, in the obscurity of the
night, that the dismounted Circassians and Bashi-Bazouks
were Russians ; a mistake natural enough as regards the
former, excepting that they are not always to be met with in
the front, at least w^hen fighting is going on ; in their turn
they fired into the regulars also.
It is subject of remark that during the whole night the
Turkish batteries on the right did absolutely nothing to help
matters by way of diversion, as they might easily have done
by shelling the Russian batteries in the front and such of
their enemy's troops as w^ere within range. The position was
held unsupported, and the glory of its defence is alone due
to its own scanty battalions, and their slight reserves. With
the heavy losses which Suleiman's army has now sustained,
and notwithstanding the admirable manner in which they
fight, it is somewhat doubtful if any general attack will be
made for a few days. The Russians, with their telegraphic
communications open from the positions themselves to their
main body, can call up, as they evidently have already been
compelled to do, any amount of reinforcements on the instant,
whereas those of the Turks are far behind.
NEW ATTACK ON OSMAN PACHA. 433
CHAPTER XYII.
THE THIRD ATTACK ON PLEVNA.
Sortie by Osman Pacha in Force — Capture of Loftcha by Imeretinsky and Skobe-
leff — Dispositions for the Attack on Plevna — The Four Days' Cannonade —
The Infantry Attack — The Mameleon Redoubt South-East of Plevna — GFallant
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— Skobeleffs Attack on the Double
Redoubt on the Loftcha Road — Capture of the Redoubt — Six Turkish Attacks
for its Recovery — The Redoubt Recaptured — Skobeleff returning from the
Battle — Capture of the Grrivica Redoubt by the Roumanians — G-eneral
Failure of the Third Russian Attack on Plevna.
By the end of the month of August the Russians were looking
forward to a new attack on Plevna as an event near at hand.
Their preparations, however, were not completed, and on the
last day of that month Osman Pacha anticipated the blow by
making a sortie in considerable force against the Russian posi-
tions. He was repulsed with loss. Four days afterwards the
Russians gained an important success by wresting the town of
Loftcha from the Turks. The long-expected attack on Plevna
was commenced on the 7th of September by a cannonade, and
was succeeded on the 11th by the infantry assault by which the
Russians hoped to restore the fortunes of the campaign. The
following letter gives a summary view of military aifairs at the
end of August : —
* GoRNY Studen, September \st. — Following upon his recent
short visit to the Imperial headquarters here, Prince Charles
of Roumania has been appointed to the chief command of the
Russo-Roumanian Army before Plevna. General Zotoff takes
the post of second in command. Yesterday Osman Pacha
inaugurated the new appointment by assuming the offensive,
and directed a serious and well- sustained attack against the
Russian left centre, almost directly in front of Poradim.
At six o'clock in the morning a large force of Turkish cavalry
advanced beyond the Turkish f oreposts between Radisovo
and Grivica, and drove in the Russian advanced posts on the
line between the villages of Pelisat and Sgalince. This done,
434 WAR CORRESPONDENCE,
at eight o'clock the Turkish leader developed a regular attack
in force in a direction already prepared by his cavalry. The
Turkish infantry engaged were estimated by the Russians at
25,000 men, with more than a proportionate quantity of
artillery. The Russian force engaged consisted of three
regiments of the 16th Division, which was not engaged in
the previous Plevna battle, and two battalions of the 30th
Division in reserve, which division took part in the battle of
the 30th July. The Uhlans and Hussars of the 4th Cavalry
Division arrived in time to be of some service.
The Turkish attack was in some degree a surprise. General
Zotoff was away from Poradim, making a formal visit to
Prince Charles, and in his absence nobody was in a position
to make comprehensive dispositions, but he returned in time
to take the direction of affairs before the fighting was over.
It was stubborn, and in places desperate. The village of
Sgalince, and the hollow near it, the weak point in the
Russian defence, four times changed hands, but they are
stated to have altimately remained in possession of the Rus-
sians. The Turkish attack then was thus far repulsed, but
the previous forepost line of the Russians was not wholly
recovered, and the Turks have thus established an indentation
on the semicircle of the Russian environment. The Russians
state their loss in the day's fighting at 800 killed and wounded,
which figures indicate the seriousness of the affair.
To-day the Turks are reported to be remaining quiet. There
is every indication that within the next few days the Plevna
district will be the scene of momentous events. If Osman
Pacha is working on a plan, a strong blow at the Russian
centre, such as that delivered yesterday, can have no other
result than to precipitate the long postponed crisis. I may
mention a curious belief current among the less well-informed
officers of the Russian army, that Osman Pacha is no other
than Marshal Bazaine.
The return of the 2nd Division from the reserve position behind
the Shipka to Selvi was very opportune. Yesterday there
was lively work on the Russian left flank also. Early in the
morning a Turkish force, consisting, according to the Russian
reports, of eight battalions of infantry and four squadrons of
cavalry, advanced from Rustchuk to the village of Kadikoi,
between the Black and White Loms, and the scene of pre-
vious fighting detailed in my letters from the Rustchuk
army. Kadikoi was occupied only by a Cossack regiment of
the 12th Division, which withdrew in the face of superior
force, and the Turks occupied it. Later in the day, however,
they were attacked by the Ukraine infantry regiment of the
SORTIE FROM PLEYXA. 435
12tli Division, wliicli, the Archduke Yladimir reports, drove
them out and forced them to retire under the guns of the
Rustchuk position.
Commencing on Thursday, and continuing yesterday, there was
general fighting along the front of the centre and right flank
army of the Czarewitch from J^isova on the White Lom
southward over Solenik, Gagovo, Sultankoi, Popkoi, Mehe-
medkoi, and beyond, in front of Osman Bazar. Here it is
believed Mehemet Ali Pacha was personally in command.
Oreat masses of Turks everywhere drove in the Russian fore-
post line. An important battle is imminent, but the tactics
of the Turks resemble those of the combatants in the Ame-
rican civil war. When they gain any ground they sit and
fortify themselves in it by entrenchments before moving to
acquire any more. There is obvious caution in this policy.
The Russians have abandoned the Popkoi position, after
having entrenched themselves in it. The reason is stated to
be the discovery of its ineligibility as being commanded by
higher ground within cannon range. The new position is
behind the old one. I have not learned whether the Turks
have occupied the Popkoi position. A parlementaire from
Mehemet Ali Pacha on the subject of the treatment of the
wounded and the Bulgarian civil population has been here.
He is singularly incoherent as to the objects of his mission,
has no definite proposals to make, and there are suspicions
that in reality he is a spy. On some subjects he is charm-
ingly frank. Speaking to him of the Bashi-Bazouks the
Grand Duke called them "wild beasts." "Oh," said the
envoy, " I am not expected to defend them. I always take
an escort myself when I must pass through their camp."
The Emperor presents to Radetzky a sword set with diamonds
and inscription engraved upon it, "For the defence of the
Shipka Pass."
The new week promises to be bloody. Summer wanes, and
decisive results become every day of more importance to the
Russians, for there are indications not to be disregarded —
financial, political, and social — which point against the
probability of the continuance of the war into another
campaign.
The following is a fuller account of Osman Pacha's sortie by
an eye-witness : —
t PORADIM, August Zlst. — Another Battle of Plevna has just
been fought. The Turks this morning at eight o'clock made
a furious attack on the Russian positions here, which resulted
in one of the most hardly fought combats of the war.
F F 2
436 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
The Turks some time ago made some feeble reconnaissance's,
which resulted in one or two slight cavalry skirmishes,
a most unusual thing for the Turks, and about the time the
attack was made on the Shipka they made a demonstration
here which kept us on the alert, but which resulted in
nothing else. It seemed so certain that the Turks would not
attack here, and it was so evident that the Russians were not
ready to resume the offensive for some days, perhaps for some
weeks, that most of the Correspondents had gone away in
despair. I had saddled my horse to follow their example,,
when, about eight o'clock, my ear caught a dull, scarcely
audible thumping that sounded more like a horse stamping
at flies than the booming of artillery. Artillery it proved to
be nevertheless, for in a few minutes it grew louder and
clearer ; and looking towards the line of low hills in the
direction of Plevna, some four miles distant, we saw several
columns of white smoke rising behind them, showing where
the artillery was already hard at work. The indistinctness
of the sound was caused by a slight breeze blowing towards
Plevna — for the distance from Poradim to our extreme front-
is scarcely five miles. Was the attack real or feigned ? and
would not the real battle take place on our right wing,
formed by the Roumanian troops ? were the questions which
occurred to everybody.
The co-operation between the Russians and Roumanians, I may
remark, is not very good. A few days ago Greneral Zotoff
changed the position of the troops of the right wing, which
movement left the regiment of the Roumanians quite
exposed. He informed the commander of the regiment of
this fact, requesting him to make a corresponding movement,,
to which the Roumanian colonel replied that he had no
orders to receive from General Zotoff. In like manner the
Roumanians, contrary to the w^ishes of the Russian
Commander-in-Chief, insisted upon finding another crossing-
of the Danube, and have crossed at the mouth of the Isker
with two divisions, where they are so far away from the
Russian army that they are be^^ond the reach of help from
the Russians in case of a sudden attack by the Turks. The
Turks have really enough troops to make a demonstration
against Zotoff, and at the same time, by a sudden movement,
to fall upon the Roumanians at the mouth of the Isker, and
drive them into the Danube. General Zotoff could not of
course know whether he was threatened with a real or only
a feigned attack until it would be too late to help the
Roumanians.
When the battle began this morning everybody was of opinion
OSMAN pacha's ATTACK. 437
tlint it would prove to be only a demonstration here on our
centre, and that we should soon hear of something very
sei'ious on our right wing. What made an attack here seem
-still more improbable was that tw^o days ago it was reported
that Osman Pacha had sent 20,000 men from Plevna to
Loftcha, either to attack Skobeleff on the Selvi road, or to
reinforce Suleiman Pacha by way of Trojan. I waited a few
minutes to hear whether there were any reports of an attack
. on either wung, and what report would be made from the
front. The report from the front was a long time coming ;
so long that I grew impatient, and mounting, rode to the
left wing, some three miles distant, in order to see for myself
what the attack might mean.
As I rode out towards Pelisat I met great crowds of Bulgarian
refugees, some of whom had fled from the Turkish advance
in front of the Russian lines, others from the village of
Pelisat itself, w^here there would probably be hard fighting in
case of a battle. The whole population had put all their
movable effects into waggons and carts, wdth the women and
children, and w^ere driving their live stock before them. The
•country behind the Russian lines everywhere, I may remark,
is covered with refugees camped in waggons, and in hastily-
constructed straw huts. They retreat with the Russians,
and again move forward with them, show^ing unabated con-
fidence when the Russians make even a slight movement in
advance.
In a few minutes I had passed over the level plain between
Poradim and Pelisat, a plain planted with Indian corn and
vines. The ambulance waggons w^ere already coming back
wdth wounded. The vine hills between Pelisat and Sgalince
- were covered wath clouds of smoke, which rose up in great
white flecked balls that rolled off and disappeared in the
■direction of Plevna, while the deep savage roar of small-arms
mingled with the thunder of artillery in a way which showed
that if the Turks w^ere making a demonstration it was a very
violent one, to say the least of it.
Just to the right of Pelisat was a Russian battery throwing
shells that went skimming along over the hill that rose
beyond, and exploded out of sight, right in the direction of
a Russian redoubt which I knew was about a mile in front of
Pelisat. This was a most alarming circumstance. If the
R^ussians were shelling their own redoubt it could only be by
a fearful mistake, or else because the Turks had taken it,
in which case our left wing must have already been driven
back on Pelisat, and in danger of being turned. But strange
to say, there were very few^ balls falling here, w^hile the fight
438 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
seemed to grow more terrible towards tlie centre in tlie
direction of Sgalince.
Full of anxiety, I galloped forward to tlie liill just to the left
of Pelisat, which promised a view of what was going on at
the fi^ont. I fonnd a squadron of dragoons hovering just
behind the crest of this hill, and with half-a-dozen officers on
the top watching the progress of events. I w^as now on the
extreme Russian left and, as I soon ascertained, on tho
extreme front likewise. In front and beyond Pelisat the
ground rose in a lazy incline for a distance of a mile. About
the point where the Russian redoubt stood, which was not,
however, visible, a mile and a-lialf to the right, was the
village of Sgalince, the Russian centre, before which was
another redoubt, and a series of trenches. Forward towards
Plevna the ground still rose higher, so that the Russian
positions were and are commanded by the positions taken by
the Turks in their forward movement. The disadvantage
cannot be avoided by the Russians without falling back
several miles. The Russian redoubt a mile in front of
Pelisat had been taken by the Turks early in the fight. The
Russian left wing had been driven back on Pelisat, in front
of which trenches had been dug and lined with troops.
The battle began to look like a serious one indeed. It had been
raging more than an hour since we heard the first gun fired,
and in that time the redoubt had been taken by the Turks,
. retaken by the Russians, and retaken again by the Turks.
This accounted for the strange firing of the battery in the
centre in the direction of Sgalince to the right of Pelisat,
which was still blazing away, sending its shells screaming
along the ground as they rose with the hill before us and
exploded beyond.
I had not been at my new standpoint more than five minutes,
when the crest of the hill, a mile in front, suddenly grew
black as with a line of ink drawn across the sky. What was
it ? We applied our glasses, and soon made it out to be the
enemy who had just crowned the hill after taking the redoubt
behind, and was now preparing for an assault on the Russian
centre. Their presence there showed that the redoubt must
have been again captured by the Turks, though for a minute
we could not make out whether they were infantry or cavalry.
In less than a minute they began to descend the hill right in
our direction, as though determined to drive our left out of
Pelisat, and turn it. The battery to the right of the village
now limbered up, and retreated back on the plain about a
quarter of a mile, and again took up position. My own
position, with a handful of cavalry behind the hill, now
REPULSE OF THE TURKS. 489
became rather disagreeable. If we were pressed back on the
plain we could see nothing. If we remained where we were
there was an extreme probability of being cut off and obliged
to make a wide circuit to rejoin the army, not to speak of the
probability of being directly in the line of fire. In less than
five minutes the Turks began to descend the hill in our
direction, not with a rush, but leisurely, and without firing,
not in masses nor lines, but scattered and diffused. They
came down about half-way in this manner, the Russian
artillery tearing up the groups among them all the time in
the most savage manner.
I w^as just beginning to think of the expediency of clearing out
when there was a change. The Russian infantry fire, which
had for the last five minutes been very heavy about Sgalince,
now began to roll along the hill-crest in our direction, and
the Turks, who were just coming into range, began to drop
rapidly. I do not know whether the Turks originally in-
tended to attack our left or not, but the fact is that there
was a change in the direction of the attack. The advance
now veered to the left, and went at the Russian trenches on
the crest of the hills, half way between Pelisat and Sgalince,
with a shout, opening fire at the same time. When they
descended into the little hollow and were lost to sight for a
time, while the Russian trenches flamed and smoked, a storm
of balls was poured into the advancing Turks. This
lasted from fifteen to twenty minutes, during which time a
fearful loss of life must have occurred. Then we saw them
begin to withdraw, as they went carrying off the wounded.
But they had not yet had enough.
Encouraged by their success in taking the redoubt, and believing
they could also take this line, they had no sooner withdrawn
from the Russian fire than they formed and went at it again.
They dived down into the Yalley of Death to struggle there
amid smoke and fire, a death struggle of giants ; for there is
nothing to choose between Russian and Turk on the score of
bravery. Many bodies of Turks were found within ten feet
of the Russian trenches. The little slope, on the crest of
which the trenches were situated, was literally covered with
dead. I counted seven on a space of not more than ten feet
square. The battle here was terrible, but the Turks were
again repulsed, and again they retreated up the hill. It will
hardly be believed that they went at it again ; and yet they
did so. To us who had watched the two preceding assaults
it seemed madness, because we could see that the Russian
fire never slackened an instant, and that the Russian line
never wavered, while we knew the Russian reserves
440 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
were waiting behind ready to fall in at the least sign of
wavering.
The scene of carnage was again repeated, but it only lasted a
moment. The Tnrks, completely broken, Avithdrew, sullenly
firing, and taking time to carry off their wounded and many
of their dead. Still they held the redoubt, upon which they
fell back apparently with the intention of holding it ; but they
were not allowed to remain long there. The attack on the
redoubt in the Kussian centre had been equally unsuccessful
vdth that on the Kussian trenches on the left. The Russians
pursued them with a murderous fire, and then six companies
went at them with the bayonet and swept them out of the
redoubt like a whirlwind. At four o'clock the Turks were in
retreat everywhere. The Russians occupied the w^hole of
their first positions, besides pursuing the Turks a short dis-
tance with cavalry. The Russians were about 20,000. Their
loss is estimated at 500, and the Turkish loss at 2,000 killed
and wounded.
t PoRADiM, Se^ptemher \st. — I rode over the battle-field when the
affair was over. The Sanitary Corps had already carried ofi: the
wounded, both Russian and Turkish ; but the Turks left very
few of the latter, and only about 300 dead on the field.
Their losses could be better judged by the number of knap-
sacks left on the ground, which vras strewn with them. The
Russians had already begun to assemble and bury their dead.
They were laid out in rows, Russians and Turks side by side.
From the Russian point of view I look upon the whole system
of fighting in fortifications as a mistake. It would have been
much better for General Zotolf to have retreated upon the
Bulgarians, and drawn the Turks out into the open country,
where their want of military science, good officers, and the
impossibility of executing manoeuvres on the field of battle,
would have put them at a great disadvantage with the well-
drilled Russian troops. The Russians have always been
wanting the Turks to come out and fight in the open field,
yet they entrench themselves in such a manner that the
Turks have no temptation to come out, and find it impossible
to do so when they try. If the Russians wish to fight them
in the open field they should offer temptations to them to
come out in the open field, and not meet them everywhere
with fortifications. We have no news from Skobeleft, who
may have been attacked yesterday likewise. The Turkish
wounded say that an attack was meditated all along the line.
Skobeleff is on the Selvi road, half way between that place
and Loftcha.
CAPTURE OF LOFTCHA. 441
On the ground between the left redoubt and Pelisat the
Russian and Turkish dead were Ijing side bj side. This
ground had been fought over twice. The little hollow breaks
through the crest of the hill of Sgalince and curves to the
left in the direction of Pelisat for a distance of a quarter of a
mile. It was along the brow of the low banks of Pelisat, by
the side of the hollow, that the Russian trenches had been
dug, among low brushwood two or three feet high, which
partially hid them. It was here that the battle had raged
hottest. Here, half way between Pelisat and Sgalince, the
Turkish attack was made with the greatest violence and
persistence. The Turkish dead w^ere lying here so close
to the trenches that they might have shaken hands
with the Russians lying inside. It was certainly a desperate
attack and a desperate resistance ; but had the Turks even
carried these trenches, as seemed possible, they would have
been driven out by the Russian reserves lying in wait
behind. The Turks, I observed, fired comparatively little,
for what reason I know not, and they evidently hoped to
win the day with the bayonet alone. It was in this little
hollow I saw the Turks descend three times.
Everything considered, the attack seems to have been well
directed. It was made so suddenly, and with such violence,
that the Russian redoubt was taken almost by surprise. The
first time it was in fact taken almost before General ZotofP
knew the attack had begun ; but I look upon both the attack
and the defence as useless expenditure of blood. The capture
of these positions would have been of comparatively little
importance to the Turks, unless they had follow^ed it up by
an attack on the positions behind Poradim, which General
Zotoif has fortified as his second line of defence, and they did
not bring forward enough troops to have followed up the
advantage had they gained one. They should have attacked
with fifty thousand men instead' of twenty thousand ; or,
better still, have attacked the Roumanians while only making
a strong demonstration against General ZotofP, which every-
body thought they would do.
* GoRNY Stude^s^ September 4ith. — The Russians yesterday suc-
ceeded in defeating the Turkish force holding Loftcha,
and driving it from a defensive position west of the place.
The Russian force engaged consisted of the 2nd Division and
a rifle brigade which had returned from Gabrova, marching
ninety kilometres, one brigade of the 3rd Division, and
Skobeleff's Brigade of Circassians Cossacks. IS'one of the
Russian troops, except the last brigade, had been previously
442 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
engaged, and their strength may be reckoned at about 22,000
m^n. The Turks cannot be estimated at more than 7,000. .
Skobeleff on the previous evening marched from Kakrind, his
previous defensive position, and carried a position on the
north-east of Loftcha, which rendered the place virtually
untenable. In the night, therefore, the Turks fell back on
the fortified range of heights behind the town, and there
awaited the attack. This was begun with artillery at sunrise,
and the Russians' advance was so conducted that their
artillery, passing south of Loftcha, took up a position
enfilading the range of heights held by the Turks, and also
cut off their retreat into the Balkans over the Trojan.
E'evertheless the Turks resisted stubbornly, and were only
driven out by hard infantry fighting, which lasted till near
sundown.
The Eussians underwent several repulses before they were
finally successful. The Turks tried to retire upon Plevna ;
but Skobeleff's Cossack horse artillery stopped the way, and
they went away due west, pursued by Skobeleff's Cossacks
and part of the Imperial escort.
The followin'g letter was written on the evening before the
commencement of the third attack on Plevna : —
PoRADiM, Se2Jtemher 6th. — Leaving Gomy Studen yesterday
morning, the headquarters of the Grand Duke went on to the
village of Radenica, a few kilometres behind this place, where
they now remain. Coming on to Poradim I found here Prince
Charles of Roumaaaia in chief command of the whole Army o£
Plevna, with his staff and escort. Here also was General
Zotoff, who has the nominal position of chief of staff to the
Prince. To-day Prince Charles paid a lengthened visit to the
Grand Duke Nicholas, and the final arrangements were
perfected. To-morrow morning at dawn of day a momentous
battle will commence, but it will last more than one day.
E/iding out this afternoon in the direction of Bogot, I found the
troops advancing everyAvhere. The mistake of the last battle
will not be committed of having troops half exhausted by a
long march before attaining striking distance. The whole
force, except the reserves, to-night bivouac close up to the
forepost line. The scene was singularly impressive. Here a
long column of cavalry, with dancing pennons, Avound up the
gentle green slope of the downs. Here a whole regiment
stood in dense black square waiting for the command to
march. Here another deployed into line swept briskly
forward, with bayonets flashing in the sunshine. As the
STRENGTH OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY. 443
soldiers returned the greeting of tlie general they cheered
lustily. In that cheer lingered no nndernote of the sentiment
conveyed in the greeting of the Roman gladiators. Battery
after battery passed onward, the rattle of the wheels muffled
by the grassy carpet. Slowly and with infinite labour the ox-
trains lumbered forward, drawing the big siege-guns and
their ammunition on the way to the prepared position whence
to-morrow the huge projectiles will whistle into the Grivica
redoubt. The hospital waggons, empty now, were pouring
forward by the score. To-morrow night will see them full
enough, for, to quote King Henry of Xavarre, " Kever saw I
promise yet of such a bloody fray."
The following is an enumeration of the troops on the ground,
with my estimate of their strength : — The 9th Corps, Baron
Kriidener, comprising the 5th and 31st Divisions, 18,000 men.
The 4th Corps, General KrilofP, containing the 16th and 30th
Divisions, 20,000 men. One Brigade of the 2nd Division,
Prince Imeretinsky, 6,000 men. One Brigade of the 3rd
Division, 6,000 men. One Rifle Brigade, 3,000 men. The 1st
Roumanian Division, Colonel George Angelescu, 14,000 men.
The 2nd Roumanian Division, 14,000 men, Colonel Alexander
Angelescu. In all say 80,000 infantry. The following are the
cavalry details : — The 4th Cavalry Division, 2,000 sabres.
The 9th Cavalry Division, 2,000. One Brigade of the 11th
Cavalry Division, 1,000. One Brigade of Circassian Cossacks,
1,000. A portion of the Imperial escort, 200. The 1st Rou-
manian Division, 2,000 ; the 2nd Roumanian Division, 2,000.
Total of cavalry, say 10,000. In all a compact and well-
equipped army of about 90,000 men, with 250 field guns and
20 siege guns of 15 centimetre, an army the greater part of
which had already been under fire, although this circumstance
goes for but little with Russian soldiers. The Roumanians
have not previously been seriously engaged, but are in fine
condition and good heart, and seasoned by long camping and
marching. The general in command of them under Prince
Charles is General Cernat, previously War Minister, an officer
with a high reputation for organization.
The arrangements for to-morrow do not appear of a complicated
character. There has been a talk of elaborate strategy and
of turning movements, passing both north and south of
Plevna and falling on the rear of Osman Pacha. Some
indication of a turning movement was suggested when Prince
Imeretinsky took Loftcha, but the suggestion was deceptive.
The course of attack promises to be almost identical with that
pursued on the previous occasion. I have explained, I fear
losque ad nauseam, that the Turkish positions were roughly
444 WAR COERESPOXDEXCE.
in tlie form of a horseshoe, the convexity pointing toward the
east, and the to^\Ti of Plevna standing about the centre of the
base. The Russians have been environing this horseshoe
leaving the base open. To-night they simply move up closer,
and to-morrow they will attack on the line of environment
straight to their own front. Grrivica stands in the toe of the
horseshoe, and opposite the horseshoe is the Russo-Rou-
manian centre, in the rear of which is the place where I now
-write.
Here are fixed for the day the army headquarters, and here
Prince Charles will probably be joined by the Grrand Duke
^N'icholas with his staff. The Russians have the ground to the
left, the ground of Schahofskoy in the previous battle. The
Roumanians have the section of the environment to the
right of the centre, being the ground on which Ej-iidener
fought so stubbornly, although ineffectually, on the 30th of
July. The front of each section is of about equal extent. The
Turkish positions opposite the Roumanian section are the
stronger both by nature and art. But there are but 28,000
Roumanians to 50,000 Russians. It seems logically to follow
that the function of the Roumanians is intended to be chiefly
of a demonstrative character. They will doubtless assail the
Turkish positions opposite to them, and take advantage of
opportunities should such offer. But they will do good
service if they, to use a technical term, " hold " the Turks
confronting them while the centre and left are delivering
blow upon blow on the weaker sections of the Turkish front
opposite them.
It cannot, indeed, be said that Grivica is a weak point, but it
will not be quite so strong as it is now, after siege cannon have
battered its earthworks for several hours. Opposite to it stands
the Russian 5th Division, which will fall on after the artillery
preparation. The line is prolonged toward the left flank by
the 31st Division. On the downs above Sgalince and Pelisat,
where General Kriidener, commanding the 9th Corps, made
Tip by the two divisions just named, will have his head-
quarters, the alignment is yet further prolonged by the 30th
Division and the 16th Division, reaching from the touch of
the 31st Division to Bogot, where the 16th Division is chiefly
massed, and where General Kriloff, commanding the 4tii
Corps, will have his headquarters. Prince Imeretinsky, from
Loftcha, has detached one brigade south to Trojan to
guard against trouble from that region, and to-day has
marched north along the chaussee in the direction of Plevna
with three brigades, viz., one brigade of the 2nd Division,
one brigade of the 3rd Division, and the Tirailleur Brigade.
THE EVE OF BATTLE. 445
Of the details of liis dispositions I am unaware, except tliat he
touches General Kriloff near Bogot, and that his force is
a cheval of the Chanssee, and constitutes the Russians' extreme
left flank, which is very strong either for direct attack or for
outflanking the Turkish position.
* Near Radisovo, Septemher 7th. — General Zotoff left Poradim
last night, and spent the night in personally seeing to the
disposition of the troops, returning no more to Poradim.
From no point is it possible to witness the whole of a battle
extending over so wide an extent of front, and it remains for
a Correspondent to choose the locality he considers likely ta
be most interesting. General ZotofP overnight had named te
me as a rendezvous-place for the morning the heights between
Sgalince and Pelisat, and thither, in the first instance, setting
forward while it was yet dark, I directed my way. The
morning was cold, but fine, with no clammy drizzle as on the
morning of the previous battle. There was a weird impressive-
ness in the period of waiting up there among the long grass,
watching the east for the light wherewithal to begin the fell
game of battle. There had been a sharp frost during the
night, and as the sun began to rise the whole surface of the
earth was covered with a dense frost fog, which hung
until dispelled by the sun's rays. About Pelisat I found the
light brigade of the 4th Cavalry Division standing in reserve,
along with a regiment of the Roumanian infantry and some
Roumanian militia. I followed the road from Pelisat to
Plevna in the direction of Radisovo along the high ground
which had constituted the line of Schahofskoy's adv^ance. We
were on a broad saddle with undulations on either side of us.
On the road we passed several battalions of the 30th and 5tli
Divisions, who had been working all night making battery
emplacements for big guns, and were now going back towards
Pelisat to constitute the reserve. We found ourselves just in
the rear of the line of our batteries. On the slopes on our
right were twelve of the big guns. On the slope on the other
side were eight more, singularly close to the village of
Grivica. In position in front of the great guns were the field
batteries. The two on the right fired against the Grivica
redoubt above the village. Three more were blazing away at
what, in my narrative of the previous battle, I called the first
Turkish j)osition on the lower central ridge in front of
Plevna.
The firing began about half -past six, it being now eight. There
was no artillery firing apparent elsewhere than from the
batteries whose position I have described. In the hollows in
446 WAU CORRESPOXDEXCE.
front, behind, and on the flanks of tlie batteries, were stowed
awaj the infantry of the 5th and 31st Divisions, constituting
the 9th Corps. Radisovo on our left front, held by the
Turks yesterday, was reported evacuated overnight by them,
and we had batteries, not indeed quite on the height before
it, where in the previous battles Schahofskoy's cannon stood
and fired so long, but on the slope to the right of it, almost in
in a line with, but retired from the height I have named.
The firing waxes and wanes. A few of the siege guns on the
right which can get sight of the towers of Plevna down the
long hollow are pitching shells in that direction, and the field
guns fire in gusts and then are almost still. The indomitable
Grivica redoubt now fires, now is still with an almost comical
nonchalance. Now and then a man is wounded in the batteries
in our immediate front, but as yet the work is child's play,
and the work of the day can hardly be said to have begun.
Affairs not progressing rapidly here, we rode away due south
across the fields behind the Radisovo hills and valley to
Tucenica. Mounting the slope beyond we looked back north-
west toward the reserve on the slope of the height behind
Radisovo, and observed there a large mass of infantry and
artillery belonging to the Turkish division ; while above them
on the ridge a battery was in action. Radisovo itself we
could not see, because it stands imbedded in a curious fold of
the valley. Whether it was held by the Turks or not we
could not tell. We saw a few horsemen moving about, but
whether Russian or Turkish patrols it was impossible to see
on this slope. No mass of troops was visible, nor any artillery.
A column of infantry and artillery was marching through
Tucenica on the southward to Bogot, and this we followed,
although it took us somewhat further away from Plevna,
because by going towards Bogot it would be possible to learn
what, if anything, was doing on our left flank. So far as
regards the right opposite Grivica there was as yet nothing
save artillery fire. On the plateau above Bogot troops stood
ready to march. They were in battle array, and although
their uniforms were sombre, still they made an imposing show.
As we came up the slope by Bogot we passed a battalion of
the 9th Division, an isolated battalion, marching down toward
Tucenica, followed by a sotnia of wild-looking Kubanski
Cossacks.
Putting our horses to feed in a deserted farmyard, we moved up
through the massed troops, horse, foot and artillery, toward
where the staff of General Zotoff stood on the hilltop. As
we tramped Skobeleff dashed past us at the head of a
sotnia of Circassian Cossacks with whom he had been making
ARTILLERY ATTACK ON PLEYNA. 447
a reconnaissance along tlie Loftcha- Plevna clianssee, and was on
tlie way back to make a report. Prince Imeretinsky, fresh, from
Ms victory at Lof tcha, was here above Botok, and his regiments
were tramping down the slope, steadily up the hill, and down
the slope again, on their way over Tncenica towards the ridge
about Radisovo. After a brief halt we followed the great
column, a curious mixture of regiments of the 2nd Division,
the 11th Division, and even the 12th Division, and followed
on to the height behind Radisovo, the spot where Schahofskoy
delayed awhile to enable Kriidener to come up in co-opera-
tion.
The battle had as yet hung fire, but now it was certainly
warming. Our cannon, great and small, on the Russian right
flank, where we had been in the morning, were firing furiously,
whether still against Grivica or not we could not as yet tell.
Another battery on the left of us, above Radisovo, was
shelling what was called the Turkish first position. The
well-remembered scene lay stretched before me. The village
of Radisovo at my feet, where the wounded died at the
hands of the Bashi-Bazouks, the ridge above so swept
erstwhile by the Turkish shells that I had to dismount,
with now once again its slope occupied by masses of Russian
infantry, the white smoke hanging in the valley and on the
low central ridge behind, the further ridge crowned with the
Turkish camps, the towers of Plevna doAVTi among the green
trees in the valley behind the town where the Russian dead
lay so thickly. It was much the old thing. We were work-
ing round on our left flank, but there was that indomitable
Grivica redoubt blazing away as hard as ever.
There seemed no hurry. We sat doYm contentedly on the slope
above the village and looked down into the place so peaceful-
seeming there with its low roofs amid the setting of greenery.
How history repeats itself ! Here again are the shells crashing
into Radisovo or exploding against the slope on which we
rest. Here again are Russian infantry men lying doYni on
the reverse slope beyond Radisovo, waiting for the word to
cross the crest and sally down into that valley already littered
with so many Russian dead. Here again are the Russian
gnins on that crest belching their thunder against the Turkish
positions. Still through all this turmoil, as through the last,
the white towers and sparkling roofs of Plevna smile serenely
in the sunshine.
We lie here hour after hour and watch the scene. It is impos-
sible to tell the progress of the fight, for it makes no progress.
Still hour after hour the batteries which first opened in the
morning blaze away. The batteries on the crest above
448 WAR COKEESPONDENCE.
Eadisovo fire steadily if less swiftly. The battery on our
left hand more slowly still. The Turkish shells burst with
great clouds of smoke and dust on the crest on the reverse
slope and village of Radisovo. The Grivica redoubt holds
its own with its fire. N'owhere does the Turkish artillery
seem in the least degree dominated. The village of Radisovo
is blazing at our feet. It has at length caught fire after so
many hair-breadth escapes. The sun sinks, and the situation
remains unaltered. Scarcely a rifle has been fired to-day, all
the work done has been with artillery, and the Russian loss is
a mere handful. Probably the Turkish is not much greater.
In every material sense Plevna is as far off being taken as
ever. The Russians are taking two bites at a cherry. Will
they do it at two ?
* Before Plevna, Se^ptemher 8tk. — Wlien the fighting, or rather
cannonade, recommenced this morning, it w^as not easy at
first sight to recognize that the Russians had gained any advan-
tage by their profuse powder-burning of the day before.
Last night the parapet of the Grrivica redoubt had seemed a
good deal jagged by the Russian shell fire ; but, under cover
of night, all its defects had been made good, and it looked as
trim as if never a shot had been fired at it. But the Russians
had been at work also during the night. They had gained a
large slice of ground in the direction of Grivica, that is, their
working parties had been pushed forward in the fortunate
darkness, and a battery of siege guns had been built and
armed on an elevation comparatively close to and overhanging
Grivica village, and within easy battery range of the irre-
pressible redoubt.
As soon as the sun rose that battery came into action against
the redoubt, supported by isolated big guns. Away to the
right, and further to the rear on the left in rear of the
advanced battery, the original battery of siege guns sent its fire
sweeping down the valley and over traversing undulations-
into what in the previous battle was called the Turkish first
position, the redoubt and entrenched village in the central
swell. This position was also receiving the fire of two or
three batteries of field guns stationed on the heights beyond
Radisovo, the height where Schahofskoy's cannon stood so
long. The redoubt could not reply to the siege battery, the
range of the latter being too long, so it accepted punishment
from that quarter, and pounded away in reply to the field
batteries on the ridge. The practice was not good. I don't
fancy there were ten casualties on that ridge throughout the
day.
THE ARTILLERY ATTACK. 449
The Eussian siege battery firing into the Grrivica Redoiibt made
admirable practice : shell after shell, as I sat watching
through my glass, burst in the parapet or went slap into the
redoubt. Every now and then the guns were silent for ten
minutes or so at a time, and sanguine people began to think
that the stubborn defence had been abandoned, and that the
defenders had departed bag and baggage. But when the
Turk is in a place and means to stop there, he is a difiicult
customer to dislodge. The pause had been but a short inter-
val to repair damages, and presently the Grivica gun-fire
would recommence in its old jaunty fashion. It is not the
key to the position, but its reduction would be a valuable
gain ; and instead of spreading their fire as they have done,
the Russians should have concentrated upon it the whole
weight of their bombardment, and made it untenable by
dint of a hailstorm of shells. As it is they may bombard
it for a week, sacrifice a brigade of infantry, and then after
all not succeed in taking it. The assault was intended to
have been begun yesterday afternoon at five, but the Russian
clock is always more or less slow, and it came to pass that,
owing to late starting and delays by the way, the troops were
not quite all in position by the appointed time, and so the
attack was postponed. Everywhere now the infantry are in
position waiting for the word.
The scene from my commanding elevation is singularly
interesting. Behind every swell, in the hollow of every
depression, lying down behind the screen of Indian corn, are
soldiers, some far away out beyond the batteries, and the
Russian shells and Turkish shells whistle over their heads
without disturbing them. Others are snugly stowed to the
right and left of the batteries, lying on the reverse slopes so as
to be clear of the hostile shells. All round the edge of the
horizon, from the River Yid on the north, to the Loftcha-
Plevna road on the south, rises up against the pale blue sky
the white smoke of the cannon-fire. The Turkish horseshoe
is girdled by a cincture of cannon-fire and armed men ; but
the Turk hardens his heart and gives back shell for shell, as
in the impending fight he will return cheer for cheer, rifle-
shot for rifle-shot, and bayonet-stab for bayonet-stab.
It is a curiously lazy moment for a Correspondent. After he has
written down dry facts he has little to record. A regiment
rises out of one hollow and marches through the tall Indian
com to another hollow, which is thought a better place. The
villagers of Grivica down there in the hollow between the
batteries, with shells interminably whistling over their heads,
are actually engaged treading out their barley, on the primi-
450 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
tive threshing floor of hardened mud, the men shaking the
straw, the women driving the ponies in the endless round.
Stoicism, or fatalism, or indifference, or despair, which are
we to call it ? Old Baron Kriidener, with his staff about him,
looks down on the scene from behind the battery overhanging
Grivica. The veteran has slept upon the field, and there is
a look on his face that would indicate that he is no longer the
victim of peremptory commands to do what his personal judg-
ment condemns.
Some K/Oumanian guns are firing steadily into the Grivica
Redoubt from the position at the corner of the wood on
KrUdener's right, but it is a long range, and the shells are falling
short of the redoubt on to the slope more to the left instead.
Going down into a little valley and ascending then a little hill
we find ourselves in the rear of the Russian great battery of
the right flank, a battery containing twelve siege guns. The
emplacement in which these are lodged is rough enough, but
strong. The guns are fired en barbette. The battery has
three faces : One armed with six guns looks down the valley
towards Plevna and gives its fire to the redoubt and fortified
village known as the Turkish first position. The centre face
with three guns looks toward a Turkish redoubt behind the
Grivica Redoubt, and connecting it with the great Plitzitza
position on the due north flank of Plevna. The right face,
armed with three guns, looks across at the Grivica Redoubt
itself.
There are those among the spectators who think that Osman
Pacha has virtually evacuated the position, and has left to hold
it only a few thousand men with guns of position. To my
thinking this view is utterly fallacious. The Turks are to-day
developing a wider range of artillery fire than they did on that
dreadful day when Schahof skoy and Kriidener in vain dashed
against their positions. The Turks are adepts in marking
time. They fire no harder than they find necessary. They
are firing now steadily and deliberately in reply to a fire which,
to all appearance, is not materially injuring them. If needful
they could, I think, fire harder. Let the word be given to
attack with infantry, and I venture to predict for the attack-
ing Russians a mighty warm reception.
I note the Turkish camps on their most northernly ridge full of
men all the way back from the Grivica Redoubt to the Plitzitza
scarped height. On the central swell, I can see masses of their
infantry men lying in the hollows, having turned out for the
sake of safety from the shell- scourged redoubts. Leaving the
great battery I ride round more to the left and more forward,
coming over the level and descending a little way down the
THE TURKISH POSITIONS. 451
slope into tlie shell-fire. Tlie theatre of the defence, and a large
portion of the offence, the whole, indeed, of its right and
centre, lie displayed before me. Directly opposite me is the
Grivica Redoubt. Almost directly to the left of me is Plevn^.
Almost directly on the right is the Russian great battery.
On my left front there are the Turkish positions — the main
positions in fact before Plevna — those positions assailed by
Schahofskoy on the 30th July. Their guns by this time are in
full action, for the plot thickens towards noon. The Russian
infantry has been pushed forward in skirmishing order, a
tirailleur leading them, and the Archangel and Uglaskosky
regiments following through the maize fields on the centre
swell, driving back the outlying Turks. The artillery follow
them, and come into action at short range against a Turkish
redoubt. The Russians have now three lines of fire — the first,
the field guns down in the maize ; the second, also field guns,
on the lower undulation behind at medium range ; and the great
cannon behind. The Turkish return fire, chiefly directed at
the Russian first line of artillery, is very heavy. The ground
is ploughed in all directions with their shells. Hardly any
harm is done. The infantry lie quiet in the hollows along the
fields ; the gunners take their chance among the maize, and the
enemy's shells mostly fly over them. Indeed, it is open to
doubt whether the aim of the Turkish fire be not partly to
search the reverse slopes.
For an hour and more there was very little change in the aspect
of affairs hereabouts, so I moved still farther to our left to
the crest of the range beyond and above Radisovo, where
Schahofskoy's cannon stood so long. When I first arrived the
crest was one array of field batteries, and the firing was very
heavy, the Turkish shells doing great damage among the
gunners, and falling behind among the infantry on the reverse
slopes, and in Radisovo. But between two and three o'clock
the guns advanced from the crest down the slope towards the
Turkish positions, and continued to fire somewhat slackly at
this shortened range. The fire of the guns on the left of this
range of batteries must have reached into Plevna, and the
reply came not alone from the Turkish batteries of the outer
redoubts, but also from the cannon on the flanks of the town.
This despatch leaves the field at five o'clock. There are no
indications of the assault to-day, and I believe it will not be
commenced till to-morrow afternoon, although a redoubt may
be earlier assaulted. The cincture of Russian cannon is draw-
ing close round the Turkish positions ; but the test will be not
with cannon, but with prowess of men with arms in their
hands. The Emperor, Prince Charles, and the Grand Duke
G G 2
452 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
were all on tlie battle-field both yesterday and to-day. The
losses are much heavier to-day than yesterday.
* Before Plevna, Septemher 9th. — The attack by the column of
Prince Imeretinsky's command, headed by Greneral SkobelefF,
from the Russian left flank beyond the Loftcha-Plevna road,
against one of the redoubts on the south-western side of Plevna,
wsiS witnessed and has been chronicled by one of my colleagues.
It was being prepared for when my despatch of yesterday left
the field, and the result proved the truth of my belief that so
far from the Turks having entirely abandoned the Plevna
position, they are there in force, and mean to resist to
the bitter end. There was heavy artillery fire during most
of the night, for the Russians were determined to give no
respite to the Turkish gunners in the redoubts. Last
night and this morning there have been occasional spurts
of infantry fire as well on the front of the horseshoe. As I
begin to write, at nine a.m., there is evidence that the situa-
tion is materially changed from where my narrative yesterday
left it.
The Roumanian batteries on the Russian right have been pushed
forward more against the Grivica Redoubt, which is now
assailed with cannon-fire from north-east and south. A
battery has come right out into the open in front of the
redoubt, and is maintaining its position there very obstinately
in spite of the fire of the redoubt, which, now materially
reduced, seems concentrated upon it. The Russian advanced
batteries of what may be called the centre are still in the
maize fields, and the heights in front of Radisovo is firing
steadilv into what I have all along called the first Turkish
position on the broad low central swell. They are very close
up, but between them and the Turkish position is a broad
sloping natural glacis affording no cover for attacking infantry,
and the fire of the redoubt continues so strong that an assault
on it would entail, if not sure failure, at least certain terrible
loss. The Russian infantry is hidden everywhere around the
concave, but is in readiness for the attack when the proper
time is judged to have arrived. The siege guns in the Russian
great battery have ceased firing, except those on the face
looking towards Grrivica, the range being somewhat uncertain.
The firing on both sides is extremely languid, save occasional
spurts. Apparently both are tired out. There is no use in
staying here any longer. We go along to the ridge above
and beyond Radisovo, and survey the scene from the exact
spot where Schahofskoy stood and witnessed the early suc-
cesses and final discomfiture of his men. We are now quite
STRENGTH OF PLEVKA. 453
on the right flank front of the redoubt constituting the
first Turkish position, and, looking across the valley, once
strewn with Russian corpses, can see with a glass the Turkish
gunners going coolly about their work amid the bursting of
shells. Plevna lies on our left front. There comes now no
Turkish fire on to the ridge where we stand, hot place as it
was yesterday. The Russians have infantry massed on its
reverse slope, waiting for the attack. They keep their guns
silent just here, although the batteries on the same ridge to
the right and left give and take.
Surveying the scene leisurely, I can discern how much stronger
than at the time of the last battle Plevna is now. On the
south and south-west of the town are several wholly new
redoubts. There is one very large one on. a detached knoll
due south of the town, and on the long wooded ridge
stretching up from it towards the Yid there is quite a chain
of redoubts linked together by a covered way, and making a
good line of Turkish cover on their right flank, and indeed
partly in their rear as far as the river Yid. It was against
the farthest of these redoubts that General Skobeleff went
last night. Through the glass I can see little knots of
Russian soldiers among the trees, and a few Turkish soldiers
out on the stubble behind the works. These new redoubts
command also the Loftcha-Selvi road, and they cover the
side road coming into Plevna from out of the valley of the Yid,
which otherwise might be utilized in a turning movement.
On this southern face of which I speak are three strong
redoubts connected by a covered way, with battery emplace-
ments at intervals and rows of shelter-trenches. In front, on.
the central swell, I discern eight separate redoubts, besides a
line of defence on the downs immediately covering the town,
of Plevna, and this is wholly exclusive of the great northern
ridge. Its summit and slopes are one great entrenched camp,
studded with redoubts and battery emplacements. The longer
one looks at the place the more thoroughly does one come to
feel the toughness of the work taken in hand by the Rus-
sians. The position must be attacked as a whole and taken
as a whole. Granted that the northern ridge is taken and
occupied in its integrity, the position of the central swell is
not materially impaired. Suppose a lodgment effected on.
the central swell, that lodgment would be commanded by the
northern ridge and the redoubts on the south of the town.
All that is wanted to make the Turkish position virtually
impregnable was the occupation and fortification of the ridge
in front of Radisovo, that ridge on the exposed crest of which
I am now writing. Probably this was not undertaken owing
454 .WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
to a conviction that the force available was not strong enongli
to hold so wide an area.
Where is the Turkish force, be it great or small ? I sweep the
scene with mj glass, and the only living things visible are the
gunners on the slopes under the entrenched camps. But there
are no moving figures around them ; no soldier treads the brown
sward between the redoubts ; and yet it is said that in the en-
trenched camps on the northern ridge alone are quite 30,000
Turks, and I venture to aver that let the Russian infantry advance
and very soon from the edge of the shelter- trenches and redoubts
would burst out white jets of musketry fire. Toward the
afternoon the cannon-firing has been much heavier than in the
early part of the day. There has been some forepost skirmish-
ing fire. The field-guns were within 800 paces of the Turkish
redoubts, which as night fell offered great temptation to the
Turkish infantry. In the afternoon a battery was constructed
on the height above Radisovo. This battery will be armed
in the night with six or eight siege cannon from the great
battery, and the fire of these will fall at a short range on the
first Turkish position. All the preparations are being made
for the assault to-morrow. Kriidener moved at dusk to the
Radisovo height with the 31st Division, to be closer for the
assault upon the Turkish first position. Everything portends
for to-morrow a bloody day.
*
Before Plevna, tnejptemher lOtJi. — Still this long drawn-out
artillery duel continues, and it is still doubtful whether the
assault will be made to-day. In my telegram yesterday I
mentioned a movement forward to the height before Radi-
sovo of a portion of the siege guns of the Russian great
battery, and of three regiments of the 31st Division. There
was no cessation of cannon-fire until after nightfall, but after
my message left the field occurred several interesting episodes.
The Grand Duke, with Prince Charles and General Zotoff,
came forward into the line of the batteries on and upon
either side of the prolongation of the ridge on which stands
the Grivica Redoubt, in order to watch the effect of the infantry
fire against the Turkish gunners working the cannon of the
redoubt. Already indeed the Roumanian infantry had occupied
a species of natural shelter-trench in front of their advanced
battery, and had been doing their best to pick off the Turkish
gunners ; but much effect had not been apparent. A couple
of companies of Russian infantry, just as the sun was sink-
ing, quitted some brushwood about half up the slope between
the village of Grivica and the redoubt. They had lain in
this brushwood all day. They advanced in skirmishing order
COSSACK ENTEEPRISE. 466
up the slope towards the redoubt, firing' as they advanced.
They got up pretty close, and were not without hopes of
entering the redoubt without much opposition. The impres-
sion had prevailed that the Turks were evacuating the
redoubt, and the ofiicers thought that they had seen the
Turkish guns going back from out of the redoubt towards
the entrenched camp. A Cossack officer with nine men left
the advancing skirmishers, and pushed on towards the
glacis. They got within a hundred yards of the foot of it,
but then there confronted them a row of Turkish rifle
muzzles, and a row of Turkish heads above the crest of the
shelter- trench, a little way in front of the outward slope of
the parapet of the redoubt. The Cossack did not, under
these circumstances, think it advisable to persevere, and
retired on his supports, who remained where they were until
nightfall, exchanging a desultory fire with the Turkish skir-
mishers in the shelter- trench. During the night there were
several outbursts of infantry fire, but none of importance.
This morning, the field guns in the valley against the Turkish
first position in the central swell are moved somewhat farther
forward, and the field guns which were yesterday on the
heights in front of Radisovo, have given up that position to
the siege guns, and have themselves moved forward down the
slope, where they are now in action against the southern flank
of the Turkish first position at a very short range ; but the
cannonade languishes. The time would seem to have come
for delivering the assault, if it ever is to be delivered ; but I
understand that once again there is a postponement. The
Turks are to have another day of shell-fire, and then to-
morrow, reckoned as an auspicious day, as it is the Emperor's
name-day, the great effort with the infantry is to be made.
It may be worth noting that the bombardment began on the
anniversary of the Emperor's coronation. It is a dull day.
We look, for instance, to vary the monotony, to Prince
Tcherkasky, who has abandoned for a time the reorganization
of Bulgaria. He is riding about the field at the head of a
train of ambulance waggons, anxious to discover the best
place at which to station them. Yesterday I advised him to
go to Imeretinsky, on our left flank, and there he found a
harvest. To-day I ventured" to suggest to him that he will
do well to place his vehicles on the heights behind Radisovo,
as one of Kriidener's divisions will there be in his front
under fire. He rides on in the direction indicated, unmindful
that that part of the road he must traverse is swept by
the Turkish shell-fire.
It was very monotonous here, and I ventured once more on the
456 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
height in front of Radisovo, althongli, owing to the removal
thither of some siege suns, the return fire from the Turks
made that position far from an elysium of safety. I found
on the reserve slope three of Kriidener's regiments ; on the
crest itself, the Greneral of Artillery, with his staff, sitting down
to save exposure. On our left, nearer Plevna, was the siege
battery, sending shells right over the Turkish central swell into
the entrenched camp on the northern ridge ; while at our feet,
on the slope, and also in front of the Turkish first position
on the central swell, the Russian field-guns were firing at the
redoubt. The Artillery- General told me that in it there had
been four guns yesterday which had been dismounted, and
that during the night four more had been brought up into it,
which were now replying. They were making sad and slow
work of it in the midst of the hurricane of shells poured into
the redoubt, and every now and then many minutes elapsed
when the fire therefrom was altogether silent, and when it
seemed that the redoubt had been silenced. But the Turk
dies hard ; and ever after a pause came back a shell or two.
The central ridge w^as being heavily bombarded by the
Russian field batteries to the left of the great gun battery,
and was answering with spirit, aided by the guns in the
redoubt. Due south of Plevna the Russian batteries on the
ridge were also firing at the church of Plevna, which had
been converted into a powder magazine. From this summit
it was clear that the Russian fire was gradually beating down
the fire of the Turks. The Roumanians on the right flank
had worked very far round, so as to reach behind Rahovo,
and the cannon of their right attack were now shelling the
Turkish entrenched camp on the northern ridge, which the
siege guns beside us were also pounding into. Imeretinsky w^as
thundering on our left flank, although he did not appear to
have got any closer than when Skobeleff went for the
redoubt the evening before last. The day wore away with
no further incident.
To-night the Emperor and the Grand Duke sleep in Poradim,
so as to be near at hand for to-morrow's work. If nothing
unforeseen occurs, the assault will be made ere to-morrow's
sun sets. It is time Plevna was over and done with, for the
Czarewitch has been compelled to fall back from the line of
the Lom. To-night it rains and thunders.
The following letter, describing Skobeleff's attack upon the
Turkish redoubt, is from another Correspondent : —
t Before Plevna, Saturday, Sepiemher 8tli. — This attack upon
THE GRIVICA EEDOUBT. 457
Plevna resembles a siege more than anything else. So far
there does not seem to have been a single shot exchanged by
the infantry. After a hard day's work yesterday the big
battery of twelve siege gnns opened fire this morning at day-
break, and has been pounding away ever since nntil now,
twelve o'clock. I observe a considerable escape of gas from
the heavy steel guns of 13 centimetres calibre, of which there
are four. Behind this battery is an observatory, consisting
of a ladder about 60 feet high, sustained by ropes, on the
top of which is generally a soldier with a field-glass, watching
the result of the firing. The position of this man when a
shell comes along, as it does every now and then, threatening
to cut the ladder in two and bring him down with a rash,
must be very disagreeable.
The Roumanian batteries away to the right can be heard pound-
ing away on their side, and from our position in the big
batteries smoke can be seen to the left overlooking Radisovo,
where the Russian guns are blazing away in exactly the same
position they were in yesterday ; and although yesterday
evening the necessity of advancing the batteries nearer the
Turkish positions was admitted on all hands, we found this
morning on looking at the position that nothing of the kind
had been done. The fire of the Turkish redoubt of Grivica
does not seem to have slackened in the least, in spite of the
number of shells thrown into it yesterday ; and although we
can see the earth flying into the air in the middle of the
redoubt, and now and then pieces of the parapet are carried
away, the Turkish guns reply to the Russian as regularly as
clockwork. Whatever loss may have been inflicted upon
them in men, certainly we do not seem to have succeeded in
dismounting any of their guns. It is very probable that the
Turks have not many men in the redoubt, but they are
hidden in the trenches and low places in the ground outside,
and beyond that, a few only are kept in the redoubt for the
management of the guns, who as fast as they are killed are
replaced by others. Were it otherwise, if the Turks kept the
redoubt full of men, the loss would be terrible, for an enor-
mous number of shells have been thrown into it by the
Russians and Roumanians.
Part of the guns of the big battery are fired upon this redoubt,
part on the entrenched camp away to the left of the redoubt
overlooking Plevna, and part on the Turkish batteries in the
hollow between Grivica and Plevna. The fire of these bat-
teries is less steady, more irregular, and not so well sustained
as yesterday. It is probable that some of the guns have been
dismounted. The firing, nevertheless, is still kept up. I
458 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
must say I do not believe much in tlie effect of this artillery
fire. There were to be mounted altogether four hundred guns
bearing upon the Turkish positions; but, so far, not more
than one hundred or a hundred and twenty seem to have
been brought into position ; and, as far as may be judged, the
effect to the present moment has been very slight. They
will have to come to much closer quarters than at present
before the artillery fire can be made to tell.
If on the Russian right and centre the attack maintains its
character of a siege, such is not the case on the left, where
General Zotoff has ordered an advance. Leaving the big
siege battery about noon, which was slowly pounding away
with sledge-hammer blows on the Grrivica redoubt and the
lower batteries, I rode along the line to the left, passing
behind the whole series of batteries, from the centre past
Radisovo, almost to the Loftcha road. We found a battery
behind Radisovo, throwing shells into one of the Turkish
redoubts in frcnt of the town. No embankments had been
thrown up here, but the guns simply placed in line along the
brown hill, were worked very rapidly, and I observed that
there was no escape of gas from the breeches of these guns.
This battery was behind, and to the left of Radisovo, on the
ridge which runs parallel to the little hollow which goes down
through Plevna from Grivica. In front of Radisovo is
another ridge running parallel to this, and on this ridge was
placed one more Russian battery, while the side opposite to
the Turks was covered with infantry lying behind cover on
the crest. This battery was also pouring a well-sustained fire
into the lower Turkish redoubts before Plevna.
We passed behind the battery, proceeded farther to the left,
where the hillside was covered with cornfields, vineyards,
and a number of trees, threw ourselves down under the shade
of the trees to lunch with the aid of some delicious grapes
just ripe, and watch the battle from this point. Plevna was
quite visible, and we could have been little more than two
miles distant from it. And far down before us, distant about
a mile, was a line of troops still lying under cover of the
ridge, apparently waiting for the moment to begin the attack.
These troops could not have been more than a mile from
Plevna, and from our standpoint seemed not more than two
or three hundred yards from the town.
The view from here is exceedingly fine. Down in what
seemed a narrow valley or gorge, we could perceive the
town of Plevna, with its masses of green foliage, from which
rose the slender spires of two or three minarets. On the
mountain behind Plevna, some distance above the town, we
The TURKISH ENTRENCHED CAMPS. 459
conld distingnish two redoubts on the other side of the
Loftcha road, from which rose two columns of smoke. Behind
and above these redoubts were high wooded mountains ex-
tending round towards the right. On the other side of this
valley is a ridge beginning behind Plevna, and extending to
the right as far as Grivica. It is on this ridge that the
principal Turkish defences are built — two entrenched camps
and two or three redoubts, the last of which, behind Grivica,
is the one against which Kriidener's forces were broken, and
against which the Roumanian batteries, and part of the heavy
siege batteries, are now playing. From the hills all around
rose columns and columns of white smoke, and there was not
an instant when these hills were not echoing with the thunder
of a hundred and fifty guns, Turkish and Russian, that were
roaring at each other.
Then again on our left, on a ridge this side of the Loftcha road,
at a distance of a mile and a half or two miles, was another
Russian battery pounding away at some invisible foe on the
other side. The sun is hot, and a veil of smoke hangs over
hill, valley, and mountain, which often makes it difficult to
distinguish with certainty anything but a sudden flash of fire
and a huge ball of white smoke that rises from each discharge
of the line described by the Russian and Roumanian positions
round Plevna, which begins opposite Bukova, extending
nearly parallel with the Sistova road until beyond Grivica,
then curving round past Radisovo until within two miles of
Plevna, nearly on the Loftcha road, then extending along the
Loftcha road on the ridge as far as opposite Krishine. The
line thus described is exactly in the form of a reaping-hook,
with the point opposite Bukova, the middle of the curve
opposite Grivica, the junction of the handle close into Plevna,
and the end of the handle at Krishine. The point nearest
Plevna, it will be perceived, is near the Loftcha road, at the
junction of the handle with the blade.
We had not been in our position under the trees more than ten
minutes when we were evidently perceived by a look-out in
one of the Turkish redoubts below Radisovo, and probably
believing that the Indian cornfield by the side of us, inter-
spersed here and there with trees, was very likely filled with
troops, they began to shell us. After they had thrown three
shells, all of which fell within twenty yards of us, and the
last considerably nearer, we thought it was time to decamp,
and withdrew behind the ridge, where a considerable number
of soldiers were lying. We finished our lunch under the
shade of another tree in a less advantageous position for sight-
seeing, and when I again mounted the top of the ridge I was
460 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
surprised to see two more Russian batteries far down tlie
ridge, in the direction of Plevna, just to the right of the spot
where we had seen the Russian troops previously. These
batteries were now within a mile of Plevna, and were shelling
one of the redoubts behind Plevna in a corner formed by the
course of the Sofia road. Columns of white smoke w^ere
rising to the sky, and the sharp whip-like cracks of these
field pieces were mingling angrily with the dull heavy roar
of the siege guns in the big battery above. I pushed dowm
through the vineyards and cornfields and trees farther and
farther towards the Lof tcha road, following the ridge down to
where it ends in the deep narrow ravine running almost
parallel to the Lof tcha road.
I had here climbed up into a tree to get a better view of the
situation, when a Cossack came and informed us that there
w^as something more interesting going on on our left, that the
Russians were advancing there, with " hurrahs." We w^ent
back across the ridge a short distance and saw what it was.
The Russians under Imeretinsky and Skobeleff, the same
who took Loftcha the other day, were advancing rapidly
along the ridge bordering on the Loftcha road towards Ple\Tia.
The Loftcha road, before entering Plevna, passes over the
high round of a hill covered with trees, which are not so
thick, however, as to be called a wood. The summit of this
hill is about a mile and a half distant from the Turkish
redoubts in the bend of the Sofia road. The Russians were
advancing over this mountain in loose order, with cavalry
ahead, for we saw a number of horsemen making their way
through the trees, and a few minutes later perceived a couple
of squadrons of dragoons advancing along the Loftcha road,
cautiously treading their way as they went. They were
already over the top of the hill, probably half a mile, when we
saw the dragoons, in skirmishing line, turn their horses' heads
back, and begin firing as they slowly retired. Then there was
considerable firing from the skirmishing line on both sides,
although I could not distinguish the Turks from the Russians
among the trees. Then the Turks began throwing shells
towards where the dragoons were massed under the trees.
They must have been able to see these dragoons, for the
shells fell directly in the line. Each successive shell fell
closer and closer, so that the dragoons began to shift their
position.
This lasted perhaps twenty minutes. Then from the whole side
of the mountain began to be heard the rattle of small-arms,
which grew heavier and heavier, and the mountain and trees
w^ere soon covered with clouds of thin blue smoke. It was
skobeleff's attack on a redoubt. 461
the infantry arriving in line and beginning the attack. The
Turks were posted in the trees at the foot of this mountain,
and probably half a mile in front of the redoubt, and replied
to the Russian fire with vigour. The Russians gradually
advanced down the side of the mountain through the trees,
driving back the Turks, part of whom seemed to retire upon
Plevna, but the greater part upon the redoubt. The Russians
pushed down to almost the bottom of the hill, and we saw
the Turks retreating up the smooth slope leading towards the
redoubt by hundreds, and from the redoubt itself began to
be poured forth a heavy fire upon the Russians on the opposite
slope. The Russians pushed down steadily nevertheless in
loose order, firing as they came ; but as they neared the foot
of the slope the Turkish fire became terrible. From the
parapets of the redoubt poured forth a steady wave of flame,
and the redoubt itself was soon hidden in the thick fog of
white smoke that rose over it. The roar of this tremendous
fire was simply fearful. I do not remember to have ever
heard anything like it, or to have ever seen in any battle
anything like so well -sustained a fire.
This also lasted about twenty minutes. Then the Russian
skirmishing line, which had already reached the foot of the
slope, began to withdraw, and in a few minutes they had
retired to a position half way up the slope, where they halted,
and the slackening of the fire told that for the moment the
attack upon the redoubt, if attack it was, had failed. We
now saw the Turks coming down again from the redoubt, and
re-entering the trees at the foot of the slope where the
Russians had been, and likewise those who had retreated
towards Plevna seemed to come out again, for we saw them
in the maize fields, just on the other side of the . ravine
between us and them, pushing along as though they would
turn the right of the Russian attack. This was impossible,
because the infantry on our side were lying close behind the
ridge, and would have eft'ectually prevented any movement
of this kind.
During all the time this fight lasted our batteries, which I have
already spoken of as having advanced so far down towards
Plevna, were quite silent ; why I cannot understand, for just
at this moment when the attack was going on they should
have concentrated their whole fire upon the redoubt, and I
cannot understand why the infantry, which was lying in
masses near these batteries, did not take part in the attack.
The whole burden was on the left column advancing by the
Loftcha road, nor was there any attack made anywhere else
at the same time, nor on any other of the Turkish positions.
462 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
The artillery fire had ceased everywhere. Everybody seemed
to be waiting the result of this attack. This was just the
very way to make the attack a failure, even if it had any
chances of success, for the whole army to stand still and look
idly on while one small detachment was trying to attack the
redoubt. It is a very strange proceeding. Not a single shot
was fired at the small body of skirmishers who came out from
Plevna, and annoyed the right of the attack, although they
were within easy range both of the artillery and infantry.
The attack had begun about five, too late in the day to accom-
plish anything if the capture of the redoubt had been
intended. This was probably not hoped for to-day. The
Russians remained in the positions to which they had with-
drawn on the slope of the mountain, and the Turks began to
swarm out of the redoubt down to the foot of the slope.
They were evidently attacking in their turn, and bent upon
driving the Russians back to the point which they had
originally occupied in the morning. Although it was not
light enough to see, I imagine that the Russians had already
been strengthening their positions by digging, for they now
poured a fire from the line they had occupied, which in
steadiness and fury w^as only equalled by the Turks from
their redoubt. The Turks had already advanced a consider-
able way up the slope before the Russians opened fire, and
they did not stand a moment under it. They retreated
through the trees, and again up the slope to the redoubt,
hotly pursued by the Russians, who followed them to the
foot of the slope.
The fire on both sides was now dreadful, and the Russians
seem to have received a considerable number of reinforce-
ments, for their advance was far more steady and swift, more
self-confident than the previous one had been. They swept
down into the little hollow between the opposite slopes,
and then poured a terrible fire on the Turkish redoubt
from behind the trees, and under cover of the banks, stones,
earth, and anything they could find to shelter themselves.
This time the attack was moreover supported by our batteries
on the right, which now advanced still nearer Plevna, and
concentrated their fire on the Turkish redoubt.
At the time the Russians were advancing down the hill, the
whole valley was filled with smoke. The town of Plevna,
as well as the Turkish redoubts and even part of the wood
where the Russians were, • had become invisible. The sun
was now just setting behind a mass of clouds, but it was
seen for a few minutes like a fiery blood- shot eye, which
tinged the smoke hanging over everything with the colour of
TERRIBLE INFANTRY FIRE. 463
blood. Then it suddenly disappeared behind the mountain,
and darkness settled down over the scene. The fire con-
tinued for some few minutes longer, and from the redoubt, as
from the foot of the slope and the foot of the mountains,
sprang forth thousands upon thousands of jets of flame
like fireflies. Then the fire suddenly ceased. The fight
for the night was over. The Russians remained in their
positions at the foot of the slope which leads up to the
redoubt, about a quarter of a mile from the parapet. It
could not have been their hope or intention to advance any
farther.
To-day's attack was begun too late to have carried the redoubt,
unless it could have been done by a simple assault with the
bayonet — a manner of attack which, I think, the Russians
have abandoned against the trenches held by the Turks.
They will probably dig trenches here in the night so as to
shelter themselves from the fire of the redoubt, and then
either work gradually up to the redoubt by means of shallow
trenches, which could be dug very rapidly, and which would
enable them to reach the parapet in the day, or, choosing a
favourable moment to-morrow morning, make a rush for it.
Of the two plans, the former, in my opinion, has the better
chance of success. The distance from the Russian positions
to the redoubt is probably something over a quarter of a
mile, up a smooth even slope, where there is not cover for a
rabbit. The glacis is a quarter of a mile, or perhaps a little
more, in extent. The loss of an assaulting column rushing up
over this glacis under the fire the Turks poured out of the
redoubt yesterday, would be something terrible. If the
Turks stood to their positions and fired with anything like
precision, not one man would probably reach the parapets ;
but then it is also possible that the defenders of the redoubt,
seeing the Russians close, would lose their presence of mind,
and fire wildly over the heads of the assaulting party.
I now retired from the position which I had occupied during
the whole fight ; and although it was almost dark, and I did
not think I could be seen from the Turkish redoubt, I soon
found out my mistake. I and my comrade had not been
under cover for more than three or four minutes, when a
shell was fired at us, which passed over our heads, and
exploded not more than forty feet before us, exactly in the
road which we were following. As there was no battery
anywhere near here, and no Russian troops either, the shot
could only have been fired at us, and it was the last fired by
that redoubt this evening.
We made our way back to the top of the plateau behind
464 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Kadisovo, but the night now became so dark that it was
impossible to find one's way across the fields. There was no
water here for our horses but that contained in a muddy,
stinking pool, which, however, they drank greedily. For
ourselves, we obtained a drink from an ambulance, and then,
coming upon a heap of unthrashed wheat, we gave a few
bundles of it to our horses, and made the rest into a bed and
a house for the night. The greater part of this telegram was
written here in the fields by the light of a spluttering candle
blown about by the wind. All around us we see the flickering
of lights and camp fires in the distance, and every now and
then flashes of fire in the direction of the battel y of Russian
siege guns, or the Turkish redoubt at Grrivica, followed by a
dull booming like thunder, show that here neither Turk nor
Russian is asleep.
t Left Wing, near the Loftcha Road, Sept. 9tJi, 9 a.m. — The
night passed off quietly enough. About ten o'clock there was
a sudden outburst of musketry fire, which lasted a few minutes,
and which was probably a false alarm on the part of the
Russians or Turks. Then, again, we were awakened about
twelve o'clock by loud cheering away somewhere on our left.
I jumped up and looked about me. All was darkness, with
here and there in the distance a smouldering camp fire burn-
ing dimly. There was no other light but that of the stars,
and intermittent flashes now and then on the horizon that
seemed like sheet lightning, followed by a heavy boom that
in the stillness of the night made the air vibrate strangely.
I lay down again, and went to sleep.
This morning the artillery fire began at daybreak all along the
line, but in a desultory manner. Just before sunrise there
was a sharp musketry fire somewhere down before Radisovo,
which lasted perhaps twenty minutes, then ceased. Shortly
after sunrise the fusillade began again with violence towards
the Loftcha road, but it seemed to come from considerably
behind where it should have been, if it were a renewal of the
attack of yesterday. The Turks were shelling this place so
hotly, probably under the supposition that the trees and
Indian corn concealed Russian troops, that I had to decamp.
I retired to a point next the ridge, where I still had an
excellent view of the two Turkish redoubts in the bend of the
Sophia road, the positions where the attack occurred yester-
day, and the whole length of the ridge, behind which lies the
Loftcha road. I then perceived that, so far from renewing
the attack this morning, the Russians had withdi'awn in the
night from the foot of the slope which leads up to the Turkish
THE ROAR OF BATTLE. 465
redoubt, and were back on tbe summit of the low woody
mountain or hill whence they had attacked yesterday.
This hill or ridge, as it seems from here, is cut in two by a
depression of considerable depth, through which passes the
Loftcha road. The Russians on their side of the road were
not long perceiving that the Turks were on the other occupy-
ing the place, where I saw the dragoons first advancing
yesterday. Imeretinsky's artillery is where it was yesterday,
about a mile back from the present Russian position on the
hill, and fully two and a half miles from the redoubts which
he was attacking yesterday, and which cannot be even visible
to his artillerymen.
Imeretinsky does not seem to have brought a single gun nearer
to the attack than this point. The Russians seem to be very
much afraid of losing their artillery. I have already spoken
of the unaccountable conduct of their artillery in stopping fire
upon the Turkish redoubts when the attack began, and when
it ought to have been hottest. I can so far find no excuse
for this inaction unless they suddenly ran short of ammunition
at that critical moment, for the Russians were never so near
the redoubt as to make it necessary for the artillery to cease
firing. The attack was not sustained by the artillery, and was
begun far too late in the day to succeed. The five o'clock
attack, as I said, was led by Skobeleff. When I arrived at
my new standpoint, there was a lively artillery fight going on
between Imeretinsky and the Turkish batteries which had
advanced during the night on the hill on the other side of
the Loftcha road. Suddenly there arose in front of the hill
against the black thunder- cloud which hung over it an
immense pyramid of flame, that seemed to rend the sky to
the zenith. Then followed a long volume of smoke that rose
white as snow against the blackness of the cloud. Then there
came a series of startling reports all in a second, as though
a battery of a hundred guns had been fired. Then there
arose on the Russian hill a long, loud shout. They had
exploded a Turkish magazine.
I now learned from an officer here on observation, who was
sending reports to General Kriloff every few minutes of the
progress of events, that Skobeleff was on the ridge before me,
and I was about starting to join him, when the sudden din and
uproar of battle, like a thunder-clap, held me spell-bound
with admiration. The crest of this ridge suddenly began to
vomit flame and smoke. Above this ridge, far higher up,
were balls of flames that flashed and disappeared, each
leaving a small round fleece of white smoke. The Turkish
shrapnel exploding over the heads of the Russians was
466 WAR COREESPONDENCE.
deafeninsr ; and tlie heavy booming of the distant siege guns
slowly pounding away at short regular intervals, as though
keeping time, produced a sublime effect. The Turks were in
their turn attacking the Russians from the other side, and the
Russians had evidently reserved their fire until the Turks
•were very near, which accounted for the sudden furious
outburst. " That Skobeleff," said the officer near me, " how
he is giving it to them !" and three or four Cossacks watching
with intense excitement depicted on their faces, expressed
their satisfaction, convinced that he was there in the middle
of the fight, with that charmed life of his, ordering and
directing.
In the meantime the Turkish skirmishers coming from Plevna
pushed along our side of the ridge on the other side of the
deep ravine, as though going to take Skobeleff in the rear.
To-day our artillery seems to be more wide-awake than
yesterday, for a battery now came galloping down through
the vines and corn, and unlimbering in a moment, began
shelling these skirmishers, while the Turkish redoubt
instantly opened on this new battery. The latter, however,
paid no attention to the redoubt, but concentrated its whole
fire on the skirmishers, and, as it was taking them in rear
and flank, they soon began to retire. The Turkish shells
fired from the redoubt all passed over the battery and
exploded in a little hollow behind, about fifty yards to the
right of where we were, and all nearly on the same spot.
The Turks never seem to correct their aim. In a few
minutes the fire began to slacken, and tw^o or three minutes
later a loud shout swept along the ridge before us, followed
by prolonged cheering. The Turks were evidently beaten
back. Then the fire ceased, but the shouting continued, going
farther and farther away. Skobeleff was evidently going at
the flying Turks with the bayonet, l^ow the fighting is over
for the present, but the big guns are still pounding away on
our right.
The great infantry assault was made by the Russians on the
11th of September, the fifth day of the bombardment. The
following letter, the whole of which was transmitted by
telegraph, describes the operations directed against the
redoubts of the first and second Turkish positions, and the
redoubt on the detached mameloii south-east of the town,
considered by the Russians to be the weakest point of the
Turkish line of defence : —
THE GREAT INFANTRY ASSAULT. 467
* Before Plevna, Tuesday, September 11th. — I have to record
the events of to-daj, the results of which it is not possible
dispassionately to estimate with the din of battle still ringing
in one's ears.
To-day was the fifth day of the bombardment. After the
thunder of last night the morning broke with rain, which
settled down into a dense mist through which objects were
invisible at a distance of one hundred yards. We lost our way
several times in riding from the place where we had snatched
a few hours' sleep to our old position of the day before on
the heights in front of Radisovo, which exposed position
the Artillery- Greneral of the 9th Corps, Colonel Wellesley,
a Prussian Correspondent, and myself, had all to ourselves.
Affairs did not seem much altered since yesterday. About
10 A.M. the fog lifted somewhat, and let us have a partial
view of the scene before us. The guns of the redoubt of the
Turkish first position on the central swell still replied to the fire
of the Russian batteries in the valley to the east of it. The
Grivica Redoubt was still alive, although its fire could not
be called brisk. To our left, near the Loftcha-Plevna road,
there were occasional bursts of infantry fire, but these were
very intermittent, and always died out after a few minutes.
The Turks were visible out in the open between their first
and second positions, on the central swell, toiling away at
spade work under the shell-fire of the Russian batteries.
The Russian siege- gun battery near us was occasionally firing
over the central swell at the entrenched camps on the northern
ridge of the Turkish position, and occasionally throwing shells
into the town of Plevna.
Soon after ten almost total silence prevailed, only a single
report echoing sullenly among the heights at rare intervals.
There grew somehow upon one the impression that this was
but the calm before the storm. Of -this lull the Turks jauntily
took advantage to come out from behind the parapets of the
earthworks and stroll about the glacis with the utmost non-
chalance. Everybody spoke in whispers, as if afraid or loth
to break the universal unnatural stillness, interrupted only
feebly by the far-off cannonade and musketry fire of
Imeretinsky, round on the extreme left, near the Yalley of the
Yid. The drizzling fog came down again, and veiled alike
friend and foe.
At eleven precisely, a furious musketry fire suddenly burst out
on our left. We could judge that it came from the soldiers
pushing their way out of the gap through which passes the
Loftcha-Plevna road, but the fog hid everything from us.
Onlv the sound told us that the attack must be on the
^ H H 2
468 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
redoubt on tlie summit of tlie isolated mamelon south-east of
the town of Plevna. It was impossible to see twenty yards
in front of one. Everywhere the cannon opened a heavy fire,
and their smoke made the obscurity denser. It must be the
assault at last, and, alas! it is invisible. Louder and louder
swells the roll of the hidden musketry. We reckon that Skobe-
leff must be at work down there on our left, but we can hardly
discern each other as we lie upon the crest of the ridge. We
are in the thick of the din, but we might as well have no eyes.
It is the most mysterious, weird situation possible to conceive.
It is impossible to tell how the fighting is going. The
musketry fire seems to advance but little, but its roll unques-
tionably swells in volume. The hiddenness of the whole thing
is intensely torturing. The thick air above us, as we are
lying down, is torn by the whistle of bullets, and the yell
and scream of shells. In vain we chafe for the merest glimpse
down into the hollow on our left. The thick waves of fog
and smoke swathe everything as with a huge dingy pall. The
Artillery- General is almost mad with irritation at his inability
to see anything. We can do nothing, however, but possess
our souls in patience ; but as the minutes wear on, we can
discern by ear that the Russians must be gaining ground.
It seems to us here at one moment, to judge by the sound
of the firing and of the cheering, that they had actually
carried the redoubt on the summit of the isolated mamelon.
Will they then assail the redoubts of the central swell, or
make a dash for the town of Plevna, or do both ? It must be
a terrible time for the Turks thus assailed by invisible foes,
and in ignorance whence the next blow is to be struck and
where it is to fall. So far as I can make out, they seem to be
reserving their fire till their foes come to close quarters. As
for the Russians, although they are firing heavily as they
advance, it must be firing at random. It is certain that they
can see no enemy. In one sense the fog is an advantage for
them, because by it they are being somewhat spared in the
rush forward. But the sound of their firing must indicate
some mark to their enemies, and in the obscurity the direct-
ness of their advance must be impaired. The Turks make
little response to the furious shell fire of the Russian batteries
on their positions, perhaps because many of their guns have
been dismounted, or because they are short of ammunition, or
because they feel that it would be in a great measure labour
lost in the thick fog. We know nothing, save that the air is full
of noise and of missiles, that we are a prey to a suspense
which would be insupportable were it not that it must be
endured.
FIGHTIiN-G IN A FOG. 469
About twelve the fog begins to lift, almost as dramatically as it
fell. We can see the line of tbe Tnrkisb northern heights,
but the intervening valley is full of dense v^hite smoke.
Then presently we get a glimpse into, as it were, the inter-
stices of smoke, and discern the Russian field batteries in the
valley, blazing away with all their might at the Turkish first
and second positions on the central swell, but the fog and
smoke still obstinately hang round and above those positions
themselves, and utterly obscure for the time the region of the
attack on our left.
At one moment it seems as if the roll of the Russian musketry
fire were wavering and receding. Then the sound swells
again. There is an evident rally, and the noise moves for-
ward. Just for a moment in the break of the smoke 1 get a
glimpse through the obscurity at the Turkish second position
on the central swell, and note that its cannon, disregarding
the Russian fire poured into it, are firing hard in the
direction of the hostile musketry fire. So mysterious is the
situation that a Russian oSicer sitting by us starts the theory
that it is an attack not by the Russians at all, but by the
Turks ; and it is certainly impossible to adduce any evidence
to the contrary. We can make nothing of it, and are fain, in
the language of Lord Dundreary, to give it up.
One thing is certain now, as the time passes on, that if the
sound of firing be any indication, the infantry fighting has a
tendency to retrograde from the Turkish front. It is coming
nearer and nearer to us, and if it indeed be an attack on the
part of the Turks they are storming the western verge of the
ridge on which we lie. In utter desperation we abandon our
position, walk westward along the ridge farther to our left,
and nearer to the fighting just above the western edge of
the village of Radisovo, exactly along the space held by
Schahofskoy's staff as forepost line on the night of the 30th
July. I found several batteries of Russian field artillery of
the 31st Division in steady action against the first and second
Turkish position on the central swell, and only a little to the
right and rear of the infantry men still engaged in desultory
fighting, as evidenced by the maintenance of a dropping fire.
The colonel in command of the battery told us with an
assumption of indifference, which I am sure was feigned, that
the fighting dying out was merely forepost work, to clear the
way for the grand assault against the redoubt on the isolated
mamelon, which was to be made in the afternoon. He may,
indeed, have believed what he said, but another tale was told,
when for an instant a sharp eddy of wind blew fog and smoke
away from the mamelon and slopes leading up. There was
470 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
no fighting there now, but with my glass I could discern the
Eussian dead and wounded lying about sadly thick. As for
the Turks, some of them were dispersed at random, in among
the wounded on the slopes. We could divine their fell
purpose. Successive bodies of Turks were streaming down
the slope of the mamelon against the huddled mass of Russians
retiring seemingly on their shelter- trenches athwart the mouth
of the road ravine and ascending the slopes to our immediate
right. There could be but one inference, that the Russian
infantry had unsuccessfully assailed the mamelon redoubt, and
that its garrison was taking the counter offensive. It was also
clear that Skobeleff had attacked the redoubt and covered
way due east from the isolated mamelon. My artillery friend
stated further that all the four-pounders of his division had
been sent to the left on towards the Sophia road with intent, he
believed, to hinder the Turks from any attempt to retreat in
that direction ; an attempt which did not seem to be probable.
It was edifying to witness the composure with which those
soldiers of the battery who were off duty slept steadily while
the cannon were being fired close to their ears, and while the
shells were whistling over their heads.
Anxious to command the position a little more fully, we went
yet farther to the left on the extreme westward peak of the
Radisovo ridge, and thence, since the fog had now in a great
measure cleared away, we looked down upon the whole scene.
A regiment of the 16th Division was languidly plying its
musketry fire down the valley traversed by the Loftcha-
Plevna road, and appeared to have half a mind to emerge
therefrom for the purpose of attacking again the redoubt on
the isolated mamelon. But the place was scored by the Turkish
shelter-trenches, and the Turks there blazed away, steadily
but not ardently. Near to us the skirmishers of a brigade of
the 30th Division were dodging their way down to the base
of the south-eastern face of the mamelon. This was at two
o'clock, and for nearly two hours little forepost affairs of no
consequence went on.
Uvemng. — I spent the greater portion of the afternoon in
and about the battery on the height directly in front of
Radisovo. This battery was on the extreme left of Kriidener's
position, and points its fire partly against the redoubts
of the first and second Turkish positions and partly against
the redoubt on the detached mamelon south-east of the
town. It was this last redoubt which the Russian chiefs
clearly considered the weakest point of the Turkish
position. The heavy firing at eleven o'clock on our left,
ASSAULT UPON A REDOUBT. 471
whicli the artillery colonel told me liad been mere forepost
work, was in reality an assault on this redoubt by three
regiments of the 4th Corps, pushed home in the fog right up
to the Turkish shelter- trenches outside the ditch of the
redoubt. In spite of the spirit with which the attack was
made it failed, and Kriloff's men had to fall back up the
valley traversed by the Loftcha-Plevna road, and on to the
slopes over against the Turkish redoubt. I also learned that
a curious order had been given to all the artillery to fire each
alternate hour hard and gently.
It was observable from this elevation that the Roumanian
cannon on our right had actually passed by the Grivica
Redoubt still held by the Turks, and had come into action
against the redoubts on the central swell, with the two guns
left in the Grivica Redoubt as armament, firing into their rear.
This was gallant but inexplicable till one learned that the
redoubt and the entrenched camp behind it were full of
Turkish infantry. To anticipate, let me state that these at
sundown compelled the Roumanian guns to retire in a line
with the village of Grivica. At half-past three all the
Russian batteries began to fire with great swiftness, and
continued till it was necessary for the gunners to hold their .
hand, lest the missiles should fall among the Russian stormers
once more assaulting the redoubt on the detached mamelon
of which I have already spoken.
At four o'clock a mass of infantry in loose order, preceded by a
skirmishing line, and followed by supports and reserves, came
up out of the chaussee valley, drove the Turks out of their
shelter-trenches at the foot of the mamelon, and pressed on
vivaciously up its southern slope. This was a Brigade, or
thereabouts, of the 16th Division. Simultaneously, down the
slopes of the heights which are a prolongation of that on
which we stood, another Brigade advanced. This one belonged
to the 30th Division. The Brigade crossed the intervening
valley at full speed, and began to advance up the south-
eastern and eastern sections of the slope of the mamelon,
while on the lower slopes they hung somewhat, and it seemed
did not quite like the work cut out for them. They extended
to the right under shelter, and then after a moment's linger-
ing the skirmishing line dashed out of shelter and began
swiftly to ascend the wide natural glacis lying below the
redoubt. This glacis was already dotted with the dead of the
morning.
The mass deploying steadily, followed the skirmishers, with the
suppoi'ts behind them, the reserves lying down under shelter
behind. At that moment the shell-fire from the guns of the
472 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
first and second Turkish positions crashed in among the
advancing Russians. From tier above tier of continuous
shelter- trenches lining the outside of the ditch of the redoubt
streamed a torrent of musketry fire from the Turkish infantry
lining them. Still the Russians laboured doggedly onwards
and upwards in the teeth of these impediments. But the
slope was steep, and the ground slippery from the drizzling
rain. Just at this moment we descried at first a slender column,
then heavier, on the edge of the reverse slope of the mamelon,
making for the redoubt from the direction opposite to the
Russian advance. This proved to be Turkish reinforcements
coming up to strengthen the garrison of the redoubt. To
deal with this new enemy on the right flank, the Russians
with great promptitude threw back their right, the soldiers
lying down and firing into the advancing Turks, while the
mass, with which the supports had by this time mingled,
pressed on towards the Turkish shelter- trenches outside the
redoubt.
Here for the first time came ringing back to us, through the
thick moist air, the volleys of Russian cheers. That the
leaders with that cheer actually gained the first Turkish
shelter-trench, I can testify from my own eyesight. For
about five minutes the fate of the redoubt hung in the balance.
Then, tortured by the fire on the front and flank, the Russians
began to fall back, at first slowly, but presently at a run.
The reserves took no part in the attack.
The Russians had fallen fast as they advanced. Perhaps they
fell faster as they retired. The Turkish infantry promptly
followed up their advantage, sallying out with flaming volleys
down the slope after the Russians, and driving them to the
shelter of their own trenches, over ground studded with
Russian dead and wounded. The second assault was thus,
like the first, a failure ; and as the dusk was coming on I
anticipated no more fighting for the day, and was walking
back out of the exposed battery to find my horse and ride to
such shelter as the battle-field affords. The Turkish infantry,
regardless of the fire of the Russian batteries, were streaming
into their redoubts for night duty. The artillery fire was
gradually waning. Suddenly it swelled again. Yet another
desperate effort, followed hard on the last, was in course of
being made, on that stubborn isolated redoubt there.
The troops engaged were three fresh regiments drawn from the
same divisions as those composing the previous attacking
force. The previous attack from the opening to the finish
had occupied just half an hour. This one was disposed of in
the gloaming m a similar manner after twenty minutes. The
FAILURE OF THE ATTACK. 473
mamelon redoubt of the Turkish Plevna position remains
intact. .
The Emperor with the Grand Duke was on the battle-field till
nine o'clock. Of the Russian losses I know no details, but
they must have been heavy. Many of the wounded cannot
be removed. The weather is abominable. There was about
sundown hard fighting around the G-rivica Redoubt, and it is
reported to have been taken.
Septe77iherl2tk, morning. — The Emperor returned to headquarters
here late last night. The battle-field of the last five days is
silent this morning. There is a talk of submitting the Turkish
Plevna position to a regular siege, sapping up to the redoubts,
while a close blockage is instituted, with intent to starve
Osman Pacha's army. The villages enclosed within his lines
are full of supplies for the simple wants of the Turkish
soldiers, and the fields groan with heavy crops of maize. The
losses this morning are spoken of here as about 5,000 to
6,000, but there are no details. The Grivica Redoubt was
taken yesterday after sundown.
The Emperor this morning has gone back to the battle-field to
visit his soldiers.
The subjoined letter, in which the same great battle is described
by another Correspondent, relates chiefly to Kriloff's repulse,
and to Skobeleff's capture of the double redoubt, with his sub-
sequent repulse after a terrible struggle and with enormous
f Left Wing, Loftcha Road, Septemher 12th. — I was with General
Zotolf when the battle of Tuesday began. It was eleven
o'clock. The General and his staff were on the ridge behind
Radisovo. They had just lunched. A moderate artillery fire
was going on, and the General had informed me that the
attack would begin between two and three o'clock, when
suddenly a lively fire was heard on the skirmish line away to
the left in the direction of the Loftcha road, followed by a
heavy fusillade, which soon swept the road to the foot of the
Radisovo ridge, and streamed up its crest nearly to Radisovo
itself.
Everybody was surprised. General Zotoff looked at his watch
and said, " It's not yet time. What can it be? " Mounting
my horse I rode down the ridge behind Radisovo, where the
fire seemed raging hottest, to try and make out what was
going on. For some time it was impossible to ascertain
474 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
whether the Turks or Russians were attacking. The fog and
smoke were so thick that nothing could be seen. It was only
by the fusillade that the progress of the fight could be judged.
For nearly an hour General Zotoff did not learn what it was
or how it had begun. As the time for the Russian attack had
been fixed for between two and three o'clock, it was soon
evident that it must be a Turkish attack, and as I afterwards
ascertained, it began in this wise :
Skobelefi' and Imeretinsky, in order to begin the attack on their
side upon the redoubt, had to advance their troops on to the
hill immediately fronting the redoubts in the bend of the
Sophia road. It was *from this hill that the attack had been
made upon Skobeleif four days before, and the hill had since
been abandoned by the Turks except a few skirmishers.
Skobeleff advanced at eleven o'clock to take possession of this
hill. The Turks immediately opened fire upon him. This
was the beginning of it. I have not yet been able to learn
whether the Turks meant a general attack upon the whole
Russian line, or whether it was a sudden movement caused
by Skobelelf's advance. At any rate, the Turkish attack
spread from the Loftcha road over Plevna, and up the
Radisovo ridge, a position which has already been described.
In the middle of this ridge is a low hill or hump. From this
point dow^n to the end of the ridge, which is scarcely a mile
from Plevna, the Russians had planted twenty- eight guns, the
greater part of which were not more than 1,000 or 1,200 yards
from the Turkish redoubts and trenches, and were a continual
menace and danger to the Turks. It seems that they had
suddenly decided to try and carry the Radisovo ridge, and
the attack here was directed principally against the hump
or hill already spoken of, opposite one of their own redoubts.
It was impossible, owing to the fog and smoke, to see the
position of the combatants on either side. The fight lasted
until nearly two o'clock. The Turks made three attacks upon
Skobeleif, which were successfully repulsed, and two on the
Radisovo ridge.
The three fights with Skobeleff were short, quick, and sharp,
neither lasting more than five or ten minutes. This was
owing to Skobeleff 's manner of defence. He ordered his
troops to reserve their fire until the Turks came within a
hundred yards, then to open upon them a sudden and terrible
fusillade against which no troops could stand. This drove
them back almost immediately. Three times they came to
the charge, and three times were they repulsed in the same
sudden and furious manner.
The two attacks upon the Radisovo ridge lasted longer, and
TURKISH INFANTRY ATTACKS. 475
appeared to be repulsed with less ease. IN'ot until about two
o'clock did the fire die away, showing that the fight for
the moment was over. Then the fog lifted slightly, and the
position on both sides could be seen. The Turks in the
trenches down towards Plevna were trying occasional shots,
distinguished by little puffs of smoke, with masses here and
there in the redoubts showing with an occasional shot from
their cannon that they had been repulsed with heavy loss —
how much it is impossible to state, but as the loss of the
Russians fighting under cover, was more than five hundred,
that of the Turks must have been between two and three
thousand. The three days' artillery fire had evidently done
them, however, very little harm, and it showed how strong
they felt themselves to risk a repulse, knowing to a certainty
that it would be followed almost immediately by a Russian
attack. Indeed, in my opinion, this repulse did more to
prepare the way for the Russian attack than the whole three
days' artillery fire had done. They had suffered severely, and
must have been more or less discouraged and demoralized, as
troops, even the best, always are at such a moment. It was
most favourable, therefore, for the Russian attack, which was
begun almost immediately, so that the fire had hardly ceased
half an hour when it began again with unexampled fury.
I took my stand on the old position near the Loftcha road,
between Kriidener's left and Skobeleff's right, from which
point I had as good a view as could be obtained for the fog
and smoke at the bottom of the Radisovo ridge. Immediately
to the right of Plevna, where Kriloff commanded, and round
the redoubts in the bend of the Sophia road, where Skobeleff
was attacking, the fog was so thick that the greater part of
the time I could only follow the attack by the sound and the
smoke. Most of what I now relate I saw with my own eyes,
and part I have learned from S"kobeleff himself, and the
officers who took part in the combat.
It has been said that nobody ever saw a battle. The soldier is
too much excited with the passions of the fight as well as
enveloped in smoke to see far around him. The general is
too far away from the actual conflict, too much busied with
the news arriving from different parts of the field, and
with giving orders, to see the battle, although he knows it
better than any one. It is only the Correspondent who is
daring enough to take and hold a good position who really
sees a battle ; but to-day, owing to the dense fog, no Corre-
spondent can say he saw more than an occasional scene or
episode in this terrible struggle. At most he could only hear
and follow by the dense volume of smoke, and thickening
476 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
fog Changing its colour, the crasL. of miisketry and the
thnnder of artiller j. Here is what I saw.
A little to m J right, where Greneral Kriloff attacked the redoubts
down near Plevna, invisible from the point where mj colleague
took his stand, the fire had been i^ging with fury for nearly
two hours, a steady, continuous roll and crash, intermingled
with the louder thunder of cannon, which filled the air with
th-e uproar of the bullets and shells. During all this time
there was little to be seen along the crest of the Radisovo
ridge, where the Russian guns could be perceived at work,
with figures flitting round them, dimly seen through the
smoke, strangely magnified by the intervention of the fog,
until the gunners appeared like giants, and the guns them-
selves, enlarged and distorted by the same medium, appeared
like huge uncouth monsters, from whose throats at every
instant leaped forth globes of flame. There were moments
when these flashes seemed to light up everything around
them. Then the guns and gunners appeared for an instant
with fearful distinctness, red and lurid, as though tinged with
blood. Then they sank back again in shadowy indistinctness.
The uproar of the battle rose and swelled until it became
fearful to hear — ^like the continuous roar of an angry sea beating
against a rock-bound coast, combined with that of a thunder-
storm, with the strange unearthly sounds heard on board a
ship when labouring in a gale.
This terrible storm of battle continued without ceasing for
nearly two hours. The E-ussian guns were pouring their fire
into the redoubt, and the Russian infantry into the trenches,
while the attacking columns were advancing cautiously under
cover of the smoke and fog and standing corn to get a
position as near as possible before making the final rush. At
about five o'clock the smoke lifted again, carried away by a
gust of wind. At this moment I saw before the redoubt,
down near Plevna, a mass of Russian soldiers rise up in a
field of Indian corn, and push forward with a shout. The
Turkish fire just then seemed to have been dominated, nearly
silenced, by the terrible storm of shot and shell poured in by
the Russians. The moment seemed favourable for the assault.
Either the Turks were abandoning these redoubts or they
were lying behind the parapet awaiting the attack. Which
was it ? we asked. The question was soon answered. The
Russian shout had scarcely died away when there flashed
along the parapet of the redoubt a stream of fire that swayed
backwards and forwards, while the smoke rose over the
redoubt in one heavy white mass. One continuous crash
filled the air with bullets, from w^hich to the spectator
USELESS SLAUGHTER.
looking on it did not seem possible for even a ribbit to . /
escape. ^ f^ ' ^ - /* ^^
Into this storm of bullets plunged the Russians', ^^/tlL a sho'i^/ . <
as though of jo j, and then disappeared into a lit€l^^(Vllow, ' ]-
and for the moment were lost to view. Then they emepfe^^ f j
again, disappeared in the low ground at the foot of tRe^ 'y ^
glacis, rushing onward as though the bullets were but paper . \
pellets ; but, alas ! sadly diminished in number. Would it be
possible for them to reach the parapet ? Was it possible for
flesh and blood to break that circle of fire ? To me it seemed
utterly out of the question. Did but one bullet in ten find
its billet, not one of these gallant fellows would return
through that cornfield. While waiting to see them emerge
from this little hollow, my excitement was so great, my hand
trembled so, that I could not hold the field- glass to my eyes,
and for the moment was obliged to trust my naked vision.
They were evidently very near the redoubt. A rush might
do it. Victory was almost within their grasp, but they
required a fresh accession of strength ; a rush of new men
from behind; another wave coming forward with new
impetus to carry the first up over the glacis ; a second wave,
and perhaps a third, each bringing new impulsion, new
strength. I looked for this wave of reserves. I looked to
see if reinforcements were coming up — if the General was
doing anything to help the gallant fellows struggling there
against that circle of fire.
I looked in vain. My heart sank within me, for I saw that all
this bravery, all this loss of life, would be useless. While
these poor fellows were madly fighting their lives away by
hundreds in a desperate struggle — when the victory was
trembling in the balance — not a man was sent to help them.
They were left to die overwhelmed, broken, vanquished. It
was sublime, and was pitiful. I see a few of them struggle
up the glacis one by one. They- drop. They are not
followed, and here they come again, a confused mass of
human beings rushing madly back across that cornfield, less
than half of those who went forward. When this disorderly
remnant was seen flying back — broken, destroyed — two more
battalions were sent to pick them up, and carry them back
to the assault. Two more battalions ! they might as well
have sent a corporal and two more men. Two more regi-
ments were what was required, and they should have been
sent at the moment when that mass of men rose up in the
cornfield, and went on with a cheer. The new troops would
have reached the glacis just as the assault began to waver,
would have carried the hesitating mass onward, and all
478 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE.
would have gone into the redoubt together. Instead of this,
General Kriloff sent two battalions, and that when it was
too late. The poor fellows went over the hill singing gaily,
and disappeared in the fog and smoke. I could have cried
for pity, for I knew that most of them went uselessly to
simple slaughter. It w^as impossible for these fresh batta-
lions to renew the assault with the slightest chance of
success. These two battalions, like the rest, were doomed to
almost certain destruction.
The fog again settled down over the redoubt, hiding Turks and
Russians alike. I could tell by that fearful rifle-fire that
they were going at it again, and I turned away. Soon the
cessation of firing told that it was all over ; but the second
attack was more easily repulsed than the first, and I
perceived likewise that the whole Russian attack made from
the Radisovo ridge by Kriidener and KriloJ3: w^as repulsed all
along the line. It was inevitable ; I foresaw it from the
first. The mistake was made and repeated continually by
the Russians of sending too few men against such positions,
according to old rules made before breech-loading days. In
those days a fixed number of men were considered enough
to carry a position, and sending more w^as only increasing the
chances of loss without increasing the chances of success ;
but the number required to carry a position defended by
breech-loaders is about four or five times as great as against
muzzle-loaders — a fact which the Russians have not yet
learned, but which is all the more important when the
breech-loaders are in the hands of soldiers like the Turks.
I will now relate the events which occurred on the Russian
extreme left, commanded by Prince Imeretinsky and General
Skobeleff. Here the attack was conducted in a very
different manner. While the battle was raging in front and
to the right of me, it raged with no less fury round the
redoubts and on the other side of the Loftcha road, but up
to the moment of the second repulse of Kriloff, Skobeleff
had not yet made his assault. He had well prepared the
ground, however. At four o'clock he had brought down
twenty pieces of artillery to the spur of the ridge overlook-
ing Plevna. Not more than a thousand yards distant from
the redoubt I saw an immense volume of smoke rising, and
heard a terrible thunder, which was not more than five or
six hundred yards away on my left. It w^as evident that
Skobeleff, risking his artillery in this advanced position, was
determined to make a desperate effort to capture the redoubt
in front of him.
I have already described the positions here, and now only need
skobeleff's attack. 479
refer to tliem to make tlie description understood. The
redoubt Skobeleff was attacking was a double redoubt in the
bend of the Loftcha road down near Plevna. He had
advanced his troops down the slope of the mountain to
within easv range. As the Turks immediately opened fire
upon him from the redoubt he returned the fire with steadi-
ness and precision, putting his men under cover as much as
possible, his cannon pouring a steady stream of shell and
canister into the redoubt as well. In fact he worked his
cannon so much that several pieces have been spoiled. He
had evidently determined to risk everything to capture this
redoubt, and if Plevna were not taken it would not be his
fault. For three hours he kept up this fire, and just after
Kriloff's second repulse, the Turkish fire having somewhat
relaxed, dominated by the Russian, he thought the moment
had come for making the assault.
He had four regiments of the line, and four battalions of sharp-
shooters. Still keeping up his murderous fire, he formed under
its cover two regiments in the little hollow at the foot of the
low hill on which was built the redoubt, together with two
battalions of sharpshooters, not more than twelve hundred
yards from the scarp. Then placing himself in the best position
for watching the result, he ceased fire and ordered the advance.
He ordered the assaulting party not to fire, and they rushed
forward with their guns on their shoulders, with music
playing and banners flying, and disappeared in the fog and
smoke. Skobeleff is the only general who places himself near
enough to feel the pulse of a battle. The advancing column
was indistinctly seen, a dark mass in the fog and smoke.
Feeling, as it were, every throb of the battle, he saw this line
begin to waver and hesitate. Upon the instant he hurled
forward a rival regiment to support, and again watched the
result. This new force carried the' mass farther on with its
momentum, but the Turkish redoubt flamed and smoked, and
poured forth such a torrent of bullets that the line was again
shaken. Skobeleff stood in this shower of balls unhurt. All
his escort were killed or wounded, even to the little Kirghiz,
who received a bullet in the shoulder. Again he saw the
line hesitate and waver, and he flung his fourth and last
regiment, the Libansky, on the glacis. Again this new wave
carried the preceding ones forward, until they were almost on
the scarp ; but that deadly shower of bullets poured upon
them ; men dropped by hundreds, and the result still
remained doubtful. The line once more wavered and
hesitated, l^ot a moment was to be lost, if the redoubt was
to be carried.
430 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
Skobeleff had now only two battalions of sharpshooters left,
the best in his detachments. Putting himself at the head of
these, he dashed forward on horseback. He picked up the
stragglers ; he reached the wavering, fluctuating mass, and
gave it the inspiration of his own courage and instruction.
He picked the whole mass up and carried it forward with a
rush and a cheer. The whole redoubt was a mass of flame
and smoke, from which screams, shouts, and cries of agonj
and defiance arose, with the deep-mouthed bellowing of the
cannon, and above all the steady, awful crash of that deadly
rifle-flre. Skobelefl's sword was cut in two in the middle.
Then a moment later, when just on the point of leaping the
ditch, horse and man rolled together to the ground, the horse
dead or wounded, the rider untouched. Skobeleff sprang to
his feet with a shout, then with a formidable, savage yell the
whole mass of men streamed over the ditch, over the scarp
and counter-scarp, over the parapet, and swept into the
redoubt like a hurricane. Their bayonets made short work
of the Turks still remaining. Then a joyous cheer told that
the redoubt was captured, and that at last one of the defences
of Plevna was in the hands of the Russians.
Having seen as much as I have seen of the Turkish infantry fire
from behind trenches and walls, I thought it was beyond flesh
and blood to break it, — a belief which had been strengthened
by Kriloff's repulse, which I had just witnessed. Skobeleft*
2:)royed the contrary, but at what a sacrifice ! In that short
rush of a few hundred yards, three thousand men had been
left on the hill-side on the glacis, the scarp, and the ditch —
one-fourth of his whole force. I believe that Skobeleif looks
"upon such attacks upon such positions as almost criminal,
and disapproved highly the whole plan of attack on Plevna ;
but he believes that if an attack is to be made it can only be
done in this manner, and that, although the loss of men may
be great, it is better that the loss should be incurred and the
victory won, than half the loss with a certainty of defeat.
Skobeleff seems to be the only one among the Russian
generals w^ho has studied the American war with profit. He
knows it by heart, and it will be seen by those who have
studied the great civil war, that in this assault Skobeleff fol-
lowed the plan of the American generals on both sides when
attempting to carry such positions, to follow up the assaulting
column with fresh troops without waiting for the first column
to be repulsed. If the position proves too strong for the first
column, then reinforcements are at hand before they have
time to break and run.
Skobeleff had the redoubt. The question now was how to hold
ENORMOUS RUSSIAN LOSSES. 481
it. It was dominated hj the redoubt of Krisliiiie on tlie left
already spoken of. It was exposed at the Plevna side to the
fire of the sharpshooters, and to the Turkish forces in the wood
bordering on the Sophia road, and open to the fire of the
entrenched camp. There was a cross fire coming from three
different points. At daylight next morning the Turks opened
fire from all sides. The distance from the redoubt at Kri-
ehine had of course been accurately measured, and the guns
dropped shells into the redoubt with the utmost precision on
the exposed sides. The back of the redoubt was a solid rock
on which it was impossible to erect a parapet. All the earth
had been used for the construction of the parapets on the
other side. It was evident that the position was untenable
unless the entrenched camp on the other side of the Plevna
and the Krishine Redoubt could be taken. Skobeleff renewed
his demand for reinforcements made the evening before.
Although his losses had been great, the spirit of his troops
was so good that with another regiment he was willing to
undertake to capture the redoubt and the entrenched camp,
or he would undertake to hold the positions until something
could be attempted in some other quarter. Could one or two
nrore positions be carried during Wednesday, say the Krishine
Redoubt, and one entrenched camp on the same ridge as the
Grivica Redoubt, the fall of Plevna might be considered
certain. At sunrise the Turks began an attack upon the
captured redoubt, and the storm of battle again raged with
fury here while all was quiet everywhere else. The despe-
rate attack of the Turks was repulsed. Another attack was
made and another repulse, and this continued all day long,
until the Turks had attacked and been beaten five successive
times.
The Russian losses were becoming fearful. General Skobeleff
had lost, he thinks, 2,000 men in attacking the redoubt. By
the afternoon he had lost 3,000 more in holding it, while his
battalions shrivelled up and shrank away as if by magic.
One battalion of sharpshooters had been reduced to 160 men.
A company which had been 150 was now forty. An
immense proportion of officers were killed, or wounded only.
Only one commander of a regiment is alive ; scarcely a head
of a battalion is left. Two officers of the staff are killed, one
of whom vv^as Yerastchagine, brother of the great artist.
Another brother was w^ounded. General Dobrovolsky, com-
mander of sharpshooters, was killed. One officer was blown
to pieces by the explosion of a caisson. Captain Kurapatkin,
chief of the staff, standing beside this officer, had his hair
singed and suffered a severe contusion. Only General
482 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Skobeleff himself remained nntouclied. He seems to bear a
cliarmed life. He visited the redoubt three or four tim.es
during the day, encouraging the soldiers, telling them help
would soon arrive ; Plevna would soon be taken ; victory
would soon crown their efforts ; telling them it was the final
decisive blow struck for their country ; for the honour and
^ glory of the Russian arms ; and they always replied with
the same cheery shouts, while their numbers were dwindling-
away by hundreds. He again and again sent for reinforce-
ments, and again and again informed the Commander-in-
Chief that the position was untenable. The afternoon wore
away and no reinforcements came. ,
General Levitsky, as I have been informed, formally refused
reinforcements, either because he thought the position, in
spite of G-eneral Skobeleff's representations, w^as tenable, or
because he had no reinforcements to give. G-eneral Kriloff,
on his own responsibility, sent the remnant of a regiment
which had attacked the redoubt, which I saw rush forward
and then back through the Indian cornfield. Of the 2,500
there were barely 1,000 left, so it was utterly incapable of going
into action that day, and even this regiment arrived too late.
General Skobeleif had left the redoubt at four o'clock to go
to his tent on a woody hill opposite. He had been there
scarcely an hour when h& was informed that the Turks were
again attacking the right flank on the Loftcha road imme-
diately above Plevjia. He galloped forward to see, and was
met by an orderly with the news that the Turks were also
attacking the redoubt a sixth time. He dashed forward towards
the redoubt in hopes of reaching it in time, but was met by
a stream of his own men flying back. They w^ere exhausted
by forty-eight hours' incessant fighting, and were worn out,,
hungry, and dying of thirst and fatigue. Owing to the
inactivity of the Russians during the day, the Turks had
been enabled to collect an overwhelming force, which had
made one last desperate effort and had succeeded in driving
Skobeleff's force out. One bastion w^as held till the last by a
young officer, whose name I regret I have forgotten, with a
handful of men. They refused to fly, and were slaughtered
to the last man.
It was just after this that I met General Skobeleff, the first
time that day. He was in a fearful state of excitement and
fury. His uniform was covered with mud and filth; his
sword broken ; his Cross of St. George twisted round on his
shoulder ; his face black with powder and smoke ; his eyes
haggard and blood-shot, and his voice quite gone. He spoke
in a hoarse whisper. I never before saw such a picture o£
A LIVING PICTURE OF BATTLE. 483
battle as lie presented. I saw him again in his tent at night.
He was quite calm and collected. He said, " I have done my
best ; I could do no more. My detachment is half destroyed;
my regiments do not exist ; I have no officers left ; they sent
me no reinforcements, and I have lost three guns." They
were three of the four guns which he placed in the redoubt
upon taking it, only one of which his retreating troops had
been able to carry off. " Why did they refuse you reinforce-
ments?" I asked. "Who was to blame?" "I blame
nobody," he replied. " It is the will of God."
t Bucharest, September 14th. — I left the battle-field ^before
Plevna at noon yesterday. The two redoubts taken by
General Skobeleff on Monday evening were held by him for
twenty-four hours. During Tuesday the Turks made six
attacks, and finally, about six o'clock in the evening, drove
him out. He lost three cannon which he had placed in the
redoubt. He asked for reinforcements several times, but
General Levitsky refused them, thinking Skobeleff had enough
men to hold the redoubt. Finally, General Kriloff, on his
own responsibility, sent the remnant of a regiment which had
attacked the lower redoubt near Plevna, and whose effective
strength was reduced to 1,000 men utterly unfit to go ijito
battle. Even this regiment arrived a few minutes too late,
and another regiment sent from the Headquarter Staff to
reinforce him arrived when Skobeleff had already retreated.
The loss of this redoubt is disastrous for the Russian attack,
as it seems that the Russians in possession of these two
redoubts and the Grivica Redoubt had counted upon recom-
mencing the offensive immediately. This is now impossible
until the arrival of reinforcements. When I left the battle-
field all was quiet except a light artillery fire. The Russians
are still in possession of the Grivica Redoubt, which was
under a continual heavy fire from the Turks. This redoubt
was visited by Colonel Wellesley, who says it is heaped full of
dead Russians and Roumanians.
The campaign against Plevna has been a severe one for Corre-
spondents. A Correspondent, the brother of the famous
artist, Yerastchagine, has been killed. The great artist him-
self, as is well known, is seriously wounded. Two more
Correspondents — one representing the Scotsman, and the
other the St. Fetershurg Exchange Gazette — have been
wounded ; while others — nearly all — come back seriously ill,
or completely knocked up. A Correspondent of the Times
has succumbed to the unhealthy weather. The day the attack
began on Plevna he was for several hours at the point of
I I 2
4S4 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
death, but happilj now is out of danger. Lieutenant von
Huhn, a Prussian Military Correspondent for a German paper,
has just returned very ill. Severe though the campaign has
been to Correspondents, it has not been so fatal as that of
Servia, in which, out of twenty who were at the front, three
were killed and one wounded.
The following letter describes the taking of the Grivica
E/cdoubt : —
* Bucharest, September Uth. — A friend whom I left at the
Plevna front has been kind enough to forward to me the
following particulars of a later date than my last despatch
covered. He writes from Poradim on the evening of the
12th :—
As you may remember, when we rode to the rear last night, we
saw no reason to doubt that the Grivica Redoubt was still in
Turkish hands, knowing as we did that the assault made upon
it at three o'clock had been repulsed, and we set down the
smoke rising round below it to an attempt on the part of the
Turks to drive back the Roumanian artillery which had
passed the redoubt, and were in action absolutely in its front.
In reality, however, the Grivica Redoubt fell last night before
the determined bravery of the Roumanians. I forward you
detailed information concerning the protracted struggle.
It appears that at half- past two p.m. the redoubt was attacked
by two Roumanian brigades, each consisting of four battalions,
and three battalions of Russians. The Roumanians attacked
from the east and south-east, the Russians from the south
and south-west. The attack was made in the following
manner : — First a line of skirmishers, with men carrying
scaling ladders, gabions, and fascines among them. The latter
had their rifles slung on their backs, and were ordered in no
case to fire, but merely to run forward, fill up the ditch, and
place their ladders behind. Then followed the second line in
company column formation for the attack, followed by the
third line to sujDport the assault.
At half-past two p.m. the attack was made by the Roumanians, and
it is said that by some mistake the Russians arrived half an hour
too late. Be that as it may, the assault was repulsed, and all
retired except two companies of infantry, which rallied, and,
keeping under cover, maintained a brisk fire against the
work.
At half-past five the attack was renewed by a battalion of the
Roumanian Militia, followed by two Russian battalions of the
17th and 18th Regiments. The redoubt was then ca<rried,
CAPTURE OF THE GRIYICA REDOUBT. 485
and the Turks withdrew to the other redoubt, a little to the
north of the captured work. But it was soon apparent that
the redoubt could not be held without reinforcements, and
three Roumanian battalions, with a battery of artillery, were
ordered forward. They lost their way, however, in the fog,
and were thus precluded from rendering the required assis-
tance, consequently when the Turks returned to the attack the
allies were driven out.
The third assault soon followed, and the work was finally
captured at seven p.m. Four guns and a standard were the
trophies of the feat of arms. More than once during the
night did the Turks advance with shouts of " Allah ! " but
no serious attack was made. Thus, to my surprise, when I
reached the Plevna Valley this morning, I beheld a flag- staff
up, defiantly exposing the Roumanian flag, in that hitherto
dreaded Grivica Redoubt. I was given to understand that
preparations were in progress for an attack on the Turkish
entrenched camp on the Turkish northern ridge about 2,000
metres west of the Grrivica Redoubt.
I found the village of Grivica full of ambulance waggons and
wounded-bearers, and in a line running from the top of the
hill in front of the redoubt down into the valley in front of
the village was a line of field batteries just coming into
action. In the rear of the village, and also lying down the
slope of the hill, was a line of Roumanian infantry under
the shelter of the cover-trenches ; and in their rear again
was a reserve of field batteries. The infantry force in this
advanced line amounted in all to about 4,000 Roumanian
troops.
By this time it was past ten o'clock. As the position we
occupied yesterday on the height above Radisovo had the
double advantage of the best view of any assault on the
entrenched camp opposite, and also' of anything occurring on
the Russian left flank nearer Plevna, I rode thither, passing
under a very heavy cross fire as I traversed the valley and the
way between the Turkish and Russian batteries. Reaching
the Russian positions, I rode along the reverse slope of the
Radisovo height until I came behind our old observatory of
yesterday, and I remounted the ridge to find our old friend
Kriidener's left flank battery still in position. Just before I
arrived a shell from this battery had caused a great explosion
in the redoubt forming the second Turkish position on the
central swell, much to my intense regret that I was not in
time to see this fortunate shot. Having satisfied myself that
I might safely push on a little nearer Plevna without missing
the attack on the Turkish entrenched camp opposite, I made
486 WAR COREESPONDENCE.
my way still farther to tlie left to the tree beneath which we
yesterday witnessed the Russian unsuccessful assaults on the
Turkish mamelon redoubt. The guns of Imeretinsky and
Skobeleff, which half encircle the western half of the valley,
were pounding away as yesterday, but did not appear to
have made much advance, if any. There soon, however,
became visible a long line of fitful puffs of bluish smoke out
of the wood which faces the covered way connecting the two
redoubts covering the town towards the south-west. This rifle
fire was speedily answered by a line of Turkish fire from behind
the covered way, as well as a hot fire from some shelter
trenches in the middle of the valley which separated the
combatants.
Having watched this apparently harmless duel for some time,
we came under the notice of the Turkish skirmishers in the
valley too closely to render it advisable to remain here any
longer. I therefore remounted and returned east along the
reverse flank of the Radisovo height, with intent to cross the
valley, and, if possible, get into the Grrivica Redoubt. On my
way every now and then I had a glimpse of the slowly
progressing, or indeed almost stationary, attack on the Turkish
entrenched camp opposite. I descended the slope into the
valley, crossed it, and made my way up through the village of
Grivica towards the redoubt. On mounting the plateau above
I soon found myself under cover of the transverse hillock
running down into the valley from the height above, and
sheltered behind it from the fire of the Turkish camp were
massed a few battalions of Roumanians, with a battery or
two, constituting the reserves intended to support the attack
on the entrenched camp.
I was here told that it would be impossible to ride up into the
redoubt, for as soon as I left the covered way by the hillock
I should come on to an open gap between it and the redoubt,
which is continually swept by two Turkish guns. Intent on
persevering, I observed a short way off a ditch running up
the hill in the direction of the redoubt. This I determined
to avail myself of as far as it reached, and leaving my horse,
I commenced my way up the ditch, which was filled with
Roumanian infantry. After meandering about in all directions
I found that the ditch soon ended in a cul-de-sac. Between
me and the redoubt, a distance of about six hundred yards,
there was a small Roumanian battery, and for this I ran at
speed, the ground I traversed being literally strewn with
dead Roumanians and Russians. The fire seemed to become
heavier as I neared the battery, which, however, I reached in
safety. There was nothing .for it now but to commence
INSIDE THE REDOUBT. 487
running again as soon as I had caught my breath in the little
battery. The Roumanian officers squatting in the entrance of
the redoubt shouted to me to run in their direction. This I
did, and was thankful when, in rushing in among them, and
picking my way through the dead, they pulled me down to
the ground and made me squat beside them for security
against the continuous shower of lead.
I had now time to look about me, and examine the work. It
has a ditch all round it, and the parapets are high and thick.
The only entrance, curiously enough, is a narrow opening
facing to the south, it having been constructed for defence
towards the north. Presently I asked leave to enter the
redoubt, which was granted with the advice to make a bolt
of it, as there was a dangerous corner to pass. This I did,
and pray I may be spared ever again witnessing the sight
which met my eyes.
The interior of this large work was piled up not only with dead,
but with wounded, forming one ghastly undistinguishable
mass of dead and living bodies, the wounded being as little
heeded as the dead. The fire had hindered the doctors from
coming up to attend to the wounded, and the same cause had
kept back the wounded-bearers. There were not even com-
rades to moisten the lips of their wretched fellow- soldiers, or
give them a word of consolation. There they lie writhing
and groaning. I think some attempt might have been made,
at whatever risk, to aid these poor fellows, for they v^ere the
gallant men who twenty-four hours before had so valiantly
and successfully struggled for the conquest of that long
uncaptured redoubt, and it was sad now to see them dying
without any attempt being made to attend to them.
I could fill pages with a description of this harrowing scene and
others near it which I witnessed, but the task would be
equally a strain on my own nerVes and on those of your
readers. I am aware that Colonel "Wellesley, the English
military attache, having visited this redoubt and witnessed
the spectacle it presented, spoke of it to a Roumanian officer,
who explained that the doctors were obliged to take cases in
the order of their occurrence, and since the Roumanians had
suffered not a little two days before, the doctors had still not
been released from their attention upon those early cases. ^
In the centre of the redoubt is a kind of traverse and a curious
covered corridor runs around it. In this I imagine the Turks
sought protection from the shells which fell into it uninter-
mittently for so many days before its capture. An incessant
rain of bullets poured over the work as I made my way over
the bodies on the ground. I was naturally deeply interested
488 WAP. CORRESrONDE:N'CE.
to know whence tlie Turks were firing, and liaving readied tlie
parapet I crawled up, and taking oii' my cap, peeped over.
To my immense astonisliment I saw another Turkish, redoubt
not more than two hundred and fifty yards from us,
to the north-west, from which this fire was being maintained.
The Roumanians, it appears, had failed to capture this
redoubt yesterday ; but it is absolutely necessary that they
should become masters of it, as their position is rendered
almost untenable by its remaining in the hands of the Turks.
The fire had not diminished as I returned from the redoubt
down hill towards the village, and the Correspondent of the
Scotsman, who had joined me, was struck by a bullet on the
ankle, which luckily did little harm, only grazing the ankle
bone.
We rested a little behind the hillock where the Roumanian
reserves were lying, and then pushed back in order to see
what progress was being made, towards the Turkish entrenched
camp. We had scarcely left the Roumanians when a
tremendous Turkish shrapnell fire, which searched most
thoroughly the reverse slope of the hill where they were, was
opened against them, and maintained until they were com-
pelled slightly to change their position, and the skirmish line
had also to fall back. Since by this time it was 6 p.m., I
knew that the attack had been abandoned for that day, and
therefore returned to quarters.
The Russians estimate their losses on the 11th at 125 officers
and 5,000 men. I estimate the Grivica losses at about 1,500
killed and wounded.
* Bucharest, September 17 fh. — It is incomprehensible to me
that nobody in England appears to realize that the third
Battle of Plevna was in effect fought out on Tuesday, the 11th
inst., and that the Russian failure was then consummated in
virtue of the defeat of the successive Russian assaults on the
redoubt crowning the mamelon to the south-east of the
to^vn.
These assaults, categorically described by me, were the important
and crucial events of the day. The mamelon redoubt is the
key to the position. The Russians were free to choose their
own time for the attack. It was open to them to make the
attack with the strength which seemed to them most appro-
priate. They attacked three times during the day, and
failed. Can the hope, then, be strong, that it is possible
for them ever to succeed ?
The Russian official telegrams are by no means joyous docu-
ments, as assuredly they would have been had any sub-
QUALITIES OF THE TURKISH SOLDIERS. 489
stantial success been won. The Russians were definitely
thwarted, and finally paralyzed on the 11th instant.
I find, nevertheless, the English journals up to the 15th instant
so utterly ignoring the reality as to write of the Russian
partial successes. The Russians have lost before Plevna this
time more than 20,000 men. For the first time in my know-
ledge has the w^ork overwhelmed the Russian medical and
sanitary staff, and great numbers of the wounded are literally
rotting and festering unfed, their wounds undressed, their clean-
liness disregarded. As for the Roumanian army, its surgical
arrangements are utterly inadequate. The surgeons make no
concealment of the grim fact that a Y>^ounded man's time for
being looked at comes on an average two days after he has
been struck.
The Russo- Roumanian army has abandoned now even the pre-
tence of prosecuting the attempt against Plevna, and has
fallen back into the positions occupied before the commence-
ment of the bombardment. The field artillery remain still in
some of the positions of the bombardment. The intention is
announced of a third renewal of the attempt in a fortnight
with the arrival of the Guard. I have great doubts whether
another attempt will be made on Plevna, and very much
stronger doubts whether such an attempt, if made, can
succeed.
The Turks are better soldiers individually than the Russians.
Of that, after seeing not a few battles, I stand assured. The
strategy of both, perhaps, is equally bad ; but as regards both
major and minor tactics the Turks are simply immeasurably
superior. The Turks are better armed than the Russians,
both in great and small arms. The Turks have engineers
who can design admirable defensive positions. The Russian
engineers seem incapable of repairing a hole in a bridge.
The Turks seem as well provisioned as the Russians. The
Turks are flushed with success. The Russians are depressed
by failure after failure.
]N"or is this all that impairs the Russian soldiers' dash, for that
it is becoming impaired my reluctant personal observation of
the war can testify. There is no braver man alive than the
Russian soldier, but a brave soldier cannot continually face
more than the fair chances of war. The Russian soldier is
called on to face these, and dangers in addition which appeal
with infinitely greater intensity of horror to his imagination.
He knows that if he but receives a bullet in the ankle joint
when he is in the front of an unsuccessful attack, the chances
are even that he will die a death of torture, humiliation, and
mutilation. No moral courage, no mental hardihood, can
490 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
stand against this horrible consciousness, and in tlie attack
on the 11th I distinctly observed his reluctance to begin the
storming part of the attack.
CHAPTER XYIII.
THE SECOND DEADLOCK IN BULGARIA.
Tone of feeling at the Russian Head -Quarters — The New Plan of Operations
against Plevna — Kriloflfs movement on the Turkish Line of Supply —
General Kriloflf's Failure — Entrance of Convoys into Plevna — An Expedition
in the Black Sea — Renewed Fighting in the Shipka Pass — Grreat Attack by
Suleiman Pacha — Failure of the Turks and subsequent Panic in their Army
— The Russian Army of the Lom — Retrograde Movement of the Czare-
witch — Battle of Cairkoi — Retreat and Dismissal of Mehemet Ali Pacha —
A Reconnaissance of the Turkish Positions — The Military Situation in Bul-
garia — Public Feeling at Constantinople.
The failure of the third attack on Plevna profonndlj dis-
couraged the Russian Army, from the Commander-in-Chief
to the private, and lowered immensely the estimation in which
the military power of the empire had previously been held in
Europe. The Emperor, however, on this occasion showed the
tenacity of his family. He ordered up very large reinforcements
and prepared for a winter campaign. The following is a letter
from the Russian Headquarters, written six days after the
defeat : —
t G-ORNY Studen, S&ptemher 19th. — I find the feeling here not
so gloomy as I had expected. Military men acknowledge that
they have been beaten, but as much by their own errors as by
the bravery of the Turks, and there is not the slightest sign
of hesitation, or weakening of the determination to fight it out.
The idea of peace is not entertained. Everybody feels that
it is a death struggle in which Turkey or Russia must go to
the ground irretrievably, and the final issue is not doubted
for an instant. Although the struggle must be hard, and
may be long, Russia must ultimately crush her adversary, it
is held, if only by mere brute force, in default of science,
skill, and generalship.
Every preparation is being made for a winter campaign. A
military railway from Fratesti to Simnitza is to be
POSITION OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY. 491
constructed, wMcli will, it is hoped, be ready by tbe end of
October, but I predict not before Christmas. Steam ice-
boats have been ordered in view of the freezing of the
Danube, with intent to keep the river open. A contract has
been taken for warm clothing and housing for the troops
during the winter campaign. Everything indicates the
Russian determination to carry on the war to the end.
Anybody knowing the feeling, not only of the Russian
nation but of the army, knows that no other policy is
possible ; but the men on whom lies the responsibility
for that mismanagement of the campaign which has so
complicated the future may expect a stem reckoning.
General Ignatieff is just now under a cloud. The generals
who have muddled the war now complain that he did not
give them to understand that the Turks would fight so hard,
and misled them as to the number of men needed to make a
successful invasion. As well might they say that they did not
know the Turks were going to shoot with bullets. All the
facts about the Turks were common property before the war ;
their war-strength, their bull-dog courage behind earthworks,
their tenacity, their ferocity. Only one element was left out
of the calculation — the profound incapacity of some of the
Russian generals.
The Roumanians yesterday again attacked the redoubt from
which a fire is so steadily maintained on the Grivica Redoubt.
After displaying much gallantry they had to abandon the
attempt. It is said that they will renew it, and there is
certainly plenty of fight in Prince Charles's gallant young
army, but in my opinion little chance of success unless they
work up to the hostile redoubt by sap.
It was foreseen that a long time must elapse before the
Russian Army would be in a positi6n to renew its attack upon
Osman Pacha with any chance of success. General Todleben,
the engineer who, twenty-three years before, had defended
Sebastopol with so much skill, was sent for, to advise upon the
best means of effecting the reduction of Plevna. The follow-
ing letters describe the state of affairs before Plevna towards
the end of September : —
t Sgalince (before Plevna), September 2Srd. — The position of
affairs has little changed here. The attack on Plevna has
settled into a siege. Since the day when Skobeleff was driven
from the redoubts he had captured there has been no fighting
492 WAR COTiRESPONDENCE.
of serious consequence. The Roumanians, however, have
persisted in making attempts against the second Grivica
Redoubt. They are now steadily pushing forward by flying
sap. The Russians mean to pursue the same tactics on their
side as soon as they can get spades and shovels. The head-
quarter staff have succeeded in understanding that these
implements are occasionally useful in war, and have ordered
a supply of them. If everything goes well, that supply may
be expected in a month or six weeks, and then the siege may
begin in earnest, provided the Roumanians, who have shovels,
have not already taken the place. Regular approaches and
the cutting off of the supplies are the means now adopted for
the reduction of Plevna. This course was as open on the 1st
of August as on the 1st of October.
General Kriloff, who now commands the cavalry, is in the rear
of Plevna on the Sophia road for the purpose of cutting off the
Turkish supplies. As the Turks have few cavalry, and that
not good, General Kriloff should have it all his own way.
The country is open, well adapted for cavalry movements,
and an active leader with cavalry and horse artillery should
make the passage of convoys difficult. As the Turks must have
more than 60,000 men in the Plevna position, the question
of supplies must be an urgent one with them, unless, as has
been alleged, they have accumulated them for several months.
This seems improbable, and the magazines surely must require
replenishing. There has been no news from General Kriloff
since he left, but distant cannon-fire was heard to-day coming
from far behind Plevna, which would indicate that he is at
work.
ISTews has been received here that more Turkish forces are
coming from Sophia. As they can only be Mustaphis, not
Nizams, it is hoped that Kriloff will meet and drive them
back ; though, if there be really a possibility of starving out
Plevna, it might be better to let these additional mouths to
feed come in, and confine attention to the destruction of
trains. Prince Charles remains at Poradim ; General Zotoff 's
headquarters are at Sgalince. The general staff is at Gorny
Studen. News has just been received of Hifzi Pacha's
arrival at Plevna with a small escort. It is supposed that he
avoided Kriloff by taking the by-ways. The approaching
Turkish forces are at Lucovatz. General Kriloff is some-
where between that place and Teliche. Lascaroff must have
joined Kriloff ere now. I should have stated that Kriloff
passed round the north of Plevna, starting from the
Roumanian right. If Hifzi's arrival means that the Turks
are taking the offensive, it will probably be against Loftcha.
NEW RUSSIAN PLANS. 493
t Yerbica, Septemher 2Uh. — The Roumanians ara advancing
steadily against the second Griyica Iledoubt by trenches.
They are now only eighty yards from it, the distance between
the two redoubts being about 250 yards. Their fio-htino-
spirit and cheerful endurance of hardships are admirable.
This redoubt taken, there is another about half a mile dis-
tant. Then two, or perhaps three, entrenched camps along
the northern ridge, whose western termination is an eleyated
position oyerhanging the Riyer Yid. The Turks are not
pushing counter saps, and if the assault be deliyered with
resolution the redoubt should certainly fall.
Great yolumes of cannon smoke were seen about Loftclia
yesterday, indicating fighting there, but up to midnight
General Zotoff had no news from that quarter, or from General
Kriloff. I am now starting to join General Kriloff behind
Pleyna, on the Sophia road.
-j- Etropol, near Sophia road, in rear of Plevna, September
26th. — The Russian attempt to cut off Turkish supplies so far
has not been successful. In spite of a large force of cayalry
and artillery we haye here, the Turks haye succeeded in push-
ing two conyoys through under our yery nose. The first w^as
a conyoy of about 2,000 waggons, accompanied by reinforce-
ments for Pleyna, consisting of ten tabors of infantry, one
battery of artillery, and three regiments of cayalry.
General Kriloff, who is in command here, did not discover them
until they had arrived at Teliche, where he went to attack
them. He found them already entrenched with guns in
position and mounted in a battery. An artillery fight ensued
which lasted all day, with no result, Kriloff being unable, of
course, to attack so large a force of infantry with his cavalry.
That night he retired to the previous position he occupied at
Dubnik, on the Sophia road, and nearer Plevna. 'Next day
the Turks advanced upon Dubnik, and attacked him in turn.
Another artillery fight ensued, w^hich lasted all day. Towards
evening, however, two columns of infantry came out of
Plevna, and taking Kriloff in the rear obliged him to with-
draw, thus leaving the road open for the passage of the rein-
forcements and convoy. He retired upon Tristenik, while
General Lascaroff, who had only then succeeded in forming a
junction wdth Kriloff, was obliged to retreat further back
across the Loftcha road to Bogot. The Turks, therefore,
passed the conyoy without the loss of a single waggon.
The whole affair was very feebly managed, partly, I believe, be-
cause General Kriloff's instructions vrere unsuited to the force
under his command. He was told to hold the Sophia road at
494 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
1
Dubnik, a thing whicli was manifestly impossible against
infantry, especially at a point so near Plevna, where he could
be attacked in the rear. A general in command of such
detachments shonld have no definite instructions except to do
as much harm as possible to the enemy, choosing his own time
and place. Convoys shonld be attacked forty or fifty miles
beyond Plevna, and the attack kept np if necessary nntil
Tinder the very guns of the place. In a running fight of this
kind, extending over forty or fifty miles, even with a convoy
protected by infantry, the greater part of the carriages would
be smashed by the artillery, the draught horses and oxen
killed, and the drivers frightened away. As the Turks have
little cavalry, and that only of the very poorest kind, the Rus-
sian cavalry can range the whole district between Plevna,
Widdin, the Danube, and the Balkans with impunity, the
country being so open that there is not the slightest danger of
being cut ofl: by infantry. General Kriloff is not a cavalry
man at all, and he handles cavalry as if it were infantry, is
afraid of being cut off, and thinks he must keep his com-
munications open, forgetting that cavalry in such an open
country as this can only be cut off by cavalry, of which the
Turks have none worth speaking of. The Bashi-Bazouks and
Circassians never attempt to make a stand even against one-
fourth of their numbers. Greneral Kriloff, instead of retiring
upon Tristenik to keep his communications open, should, on
the contrary, have cut loose from the Roumanian right wing,
and advanced on the Sophia road to the Balkans with half his
forces to meet the next convoy, while the other half might
have moved in the direction of Widdin to meet supplies
coming from there. In this way only can cavalry be made
useful here.
Upon retiring, Kriloff left two regiments of Cossacks at Etropol
to watch the Sophia road, and another convoy slipped through
the fingers of this detachment yesterday. Etropol is too far
from the Sophia road, in the first place. Then they did not
place outposts sufficiently advanced to give warning in time.
This convoy, besides, did not come along the Sophia road, but
on another alongside it, which we have only lately discovered.
By the time we received information of its coming and had
reached the scene of action, the convoy was almost under the
guns of a protected bridge on the Sophia road over the
river Yid.
Had we charged even then we might have captured the greater
part of the convoy, as it was only protected by cavalry that
ran away. We waited several minutes for the artillery to
come up, and then the officer in charge lost about fifteen
KRILOFF AND THE TURKISH SUPPLIES. 495
minutes in writing a report to General Kriloff, to say that lie
meant to attack. By this time the convoy for the most part
had got safely over the Yid, either by the bridge or by a
ford, so that the report was superfluous. We threw a few
shells at them, to which the guns protecting the bridge
instantly answered. Then, as it was quite dark, we retired to
Etropol, our whole spoil being a pair of oxen.
Evidently things must be managed better than this if the Turkish
supplies are to be cut off.
t Tristenik, September 26th. — Upon returning here this
morning we found Greneral Kriloff gone with his whole
detachment to Kreza, over the Isker. It seems that a recon-
naissance he sent to Mahaleta yesterday reported that there is
a Turkish officer, high in rank, at Kreza, organizing a force of
cavalry from the Circassian villages in the neighbourhood,
and likewise obtaining recruits for the infantry. Kriloff has
gone off there in hopes of taking the officer prisoner and
stopping the recruiting business. The whole force at his
command is hardly necessary for this, and this is not the way to
prevent the arrival of supplies along the Sophia road. It is
raining fearfully, and the population of several abandoned
villages is camped around Tristenik in the mud, presenting a
sad spectacle.
t Verbica, Roumanian Headquarters, September 26t7i, evening,
— The Roumanians are pushing forward their works against
the second redoubt with a perseverance and a pluck worthy
all praise, and which is the more remarkable as the Russians
are doing absolutely nothing on their side. The rain is con-
tinuous, the mud in the trenches is fearful, and it is very cold
besides, but officers and men alike stick to their posts in spite
of this with a pluck and resolution which excites my admira-
tion. They evidently mean to take the second redoubt, or
have a desperate try at it. They are now within sixty yards
with their third parallel, and they are just beginning the
fourth parallel, which they mean to push within thirty yards
of the redoubt before giving assault. At this short distance
the terrible Turkish fire is reduced to a minimum, as the
Turks will not be able to fire more than two rounds before
they come to the bayonet. The Roumanian soldiers seem to
be stout fellows, and I think they are sure to get this redoubt.
Were the Russians advancing as rapidly on their side Plevna
would fall before two weeks. But from all I can make out
the Russians are completely at sea. They seem to have no
• plan, no idea, no head, and not to know what to do next.
496 Wx\.R COF.RESPOXDEXCE.
They are T\'aitmp^ for reinforcements, whicli are arriving
slowly, and wMcli, wlien thej are all here, will hardly more
than cover the losses by battle and by sickness during the
' last two months. I think history offers no such example of
a splendid army in such an utterly helpless condition. The
Eoumanian generals are showing far more pluck and energy.
The Turks are pushing no counter works against the Roumanian
advance, and apparently content themselves with repairing
the damages caused by the Roumanian artillery. There is a
possibility that they have mined the redoubt, and mean to
blow it up when driven out.
Their defeat before Plevna had not relaxed the firmness with
which the Russians held the Shipka Pass, by which they
hoped one day to re-enter Roumelia. The two next following
letters are from the Turkish side, the first relating to a most
determined attack made by Suleiman Pacha on the 17th of
September : —
a Shipka Pass, September 19th. — The attempt to carry the for-
midable Russian positions in the Shipka Pass has for the
moment proved unsuccessful. Fort St. Nicholas, the high rock
frowning upon the mouth of the pass, which to the Czar and
Sultan is of equal importance, had an exceedingly narrow
escape of changing owners on the 17th instant. At one
time, indeed, soon after the attack commenced, which w^as
shortly before daybreak (" the darkest hour before the dawn"
being well chosen as best for all night attacks), it was fully
believed that it had fallen. Had the attacking force been
supported by the efforts of those upon whom devolved the
duty of co-operation, all might have been well with the
Turks, and the standard of the Prophet have again assumed
its place on the entire range of forts, at present forming so
insuperable an obstacle to the capture of the now celebrated
Suleiman Pacha has waited until he has succeeded in forming
as handy an army as any of his brother generals can boast
of, and, from all that can be gathered, it is no fault of his that
he is not at this moment crowned with the success which the
plan he had formed appears fully to warrant. The causes
have not yet been fully ascertained, but there can be no
doubt it was in no way his intention to dream of capturing
the Russian positions by a direct attack upon the principal
one of them. A threatening demonstration on some or one
of the chain of forts in the rear of Fort St. Nicholas and
FIGHTING IN THE SHIPKA PASS. 497
parallel with, the main road througli tlie pass, miglit stand a
very fair chance of success, and this would appear to have
been intended on the present occasion.
The troops told off to commence the attack (nearly 3,000 ic
number) did their duty admirably, and succeeded in obtain-
ing a firm foothold upon the rocky fort, a considerable
portion of which soon fell into their possession. Exposed for
hour after hour to a galling fire on their front and on both
flanks, it is marvellous how they stood their ground so long,
seeing, even with their then advantage in point of numbers
over the enemy in their immediate front, that they could not,
unless a diversion were made in their behalf, hope to main-
tain their ground, even if the entire fort fell into their
possession. Upon whose shoulders the blame rests (and
certainly Suleiman himself ought to be freed from it) is not
an easy matter to ascertain. The only reason which can be
assigned for the failure is that the points chosen by the right
and left attack were found to be too strong ; still, to capture
them was one matter, but to make an important auxiliary
movement is a far easier one.
Very feeble flank attempts were made by the generals to whom
the duty was assigned, and scarcely credible accounts have
been bruited about of the inefficiency, and even absence
altogether from the fight, of the officers with these troops.
The action lasted until nearly mid- day, when the unsupported
troops in the centre, having no hope of co-operation from
east or west, and having actually seen a large body of the
enemy rapidly coming up to attack them, were very properly
ordered to retire. Disappointed and galled as they were, it
was not to be wondered at that they fled in disorder down the
side of the steep rock, which it had cost them so much to
gain ; and great is Suleiman Pacha's good fortune that the
fear occasioned by their flight did not communicate itself to
the rest of his army. A useless sacrifice of life and limb is
alone the result of the day's work ; about 1,000 were killed,
wounded, and missing, and there is scant hope of the Turks
finding the latter taken prisoners, the bayonet having been
actively employed during the retreat.
We shall doubtless not have to wait long before the next attack
is made, as the weather in the Balkan range will soon be
breaking. When that movement is commenced, it will, at
the least, be with the knowledge of why the present attack
failed ; and costly as has been the acquirement of that know-
ledge, it may in the end save disasters still greater.
<l Shipka Pass, Sejptemher ^^nd. — ^After a defeat, the next
E E
498 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
thing naturally to be expected is a panic among the troops to
whom the fortune of war has been unfavourable. Such was
the case on the night of Tuesday last, when, from some
unknown cause — possibly owing to the soughing of the wind,
which had risen high as the sun went down, and predisposed
the nerves of the picquets to believe every crackling branch
a Russian footstep — the alarm was given, and the greatest
excitement prevailed amongst the horde of irregulars who
form the rear in advance and the van in retreat of Suleiman
Pacha's numerous army. They cared not to wait until the
cause could be ascertained — the fact of the alarm being given
was enough, and the Russians might be on their heels. At
every step as they rushed pell-mell down (generally laden
with the booty they had succeeded in plundering on the march),
they added to the confusion, especially amongst the swarms of
camp-followers, and the great numbers of Bulgarian peasants
who are enforcedly employed in the transport service.
It was not for more than an hour after the panic had arisen that
any signs of its being allayed could be observed, though the
admirable conduct of the regular troops in calmly taking up
their assigned positions should have put to the blush even
such poltroons as those who had been the first to fly. A little
reflection might soon have convinced the most chicken-hearted
of Bashi-Bazouks, with his waist stuck full of an armoury of
pistols and daggers, that something more than a few stray
shots would herald the Russian advance. He did not, how-
ever, give himself the time for thinking, but joined his
comrades in the rush to the rear, till he discovered himself to
be alone and without a following, even of the class who are to
be found with all armies in the field.
Something ought to be done to efface both Monday's misfortune
and Tuesday's disgrace, or the morale of a large portion
of this army will be seriously deteriorated. Upwards of a
month has elapsed since Suleiman Pacha occupied the
heights which have given him such a powerful advan-
tage over the Russians, who are cooped up in the rock
and the earthworks behind which lie across the pass, and yet
nothing has been effected towards the capture of what has
now become a veritable stronghold. His telegrams have
announced the closing of every inlet of the besieged with the
exception of the main road from Gabrova ; and why this is
not attempted to be blocked whilst a sufiicient portion of the
army keeps the garrison at bay, is by no means apparent.
Suleiman's next step is looked for with the liveliest interest,
as upon it depends the continuance of that confidence which
hi good name has hitherto inspired, and a change of generals
THE 'army of the czarewitch. 499
is not always attended with advantage in an army situated as
is that of the Balkans.
Ten thousand men is a very moderate estimate of the number
placed hors de comhat since the 20th August saw the
Russians retiring to their rocky fortress before the onward
march of the hitherto victorious Turks, and what is the
result beyond the infliction of perhaps a similar loss on their
enemy, who has had time to display his skill, and has
effectively done so, in marvellously strengthening his pre-
viously weak defences ? The fighting going on as I write in
the main army near Bjela cannot fail to have its effect here,
and a victory on the north may in an instant do for Suleiman
what a month has not enabled him to effect.
The sweeping condemnation at Philippopolis of between three
and four hundred unfortunate Bulgarian insurgents — taken
with arms and without — may strike terror to the hearts
of those of the Sultan's subjects of that nationality who
remain faithful or are wavering in their allegiance, but it
certainly strikes one as a ruthless display of what may be
expected if the Crescent again shines over this unhappy land.
The failure to take the Pass on the 17th was the more annoying
as Suleiman Pacha, anticipating the issue of the struggle, had
telegraphed to the Seraskier that he had captured Fort St.
IS'icholas, and the good news had been transmitted by the
Porte to all its Ambassadors at Foreign Courts.
The duties which had been assigned by the force of cir-
cumstances to the army under the Czarewitch, designated
at its formation the Army of Rustchuk, had from the first,
as we have seen, a defensive character. This force had to
guard a line extending from the Danube to the foot of the
Balkans, and prevent the interference of the Turkish Army
of Shumla with the Russian line of- communication with
Tirnova, or with the operations about Plevna. The line was
moved backwards and forwards from time to time, but it was
never broken through. Early in September, the Czarewitch had
taken up a position between the Kara Lorn and the Ak Lorn,
which rendered it possible for the Turks to make a turning
movement, as his line extended from Elena through Djulin to
Cairkoi, leaving the country between Cairkoi and the Kara Lorn
open to the enemy. It was therefore decided to fall back, and,
instead of Schahofskoy advancing to join the Czarewitch, the
latter relied upon his own forces. At this time the Turks were
K K 2
500 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
preparing for a forward moyement, and when the Czarewitclt
fell back, the Turks followed up, engaging his rearguard at
Karahassankoi, Popkoi, Opaka, and Kaceljevo. These affairs
were all treated as great victories by the Turkish reports,
but they were regarded in the Eussian camp as of comparatively
small importance, so far as their strategic results were con-
cerned. Many losses were sustained on both sides, with no
compensating result. The Porte, however, considered that
Mehemet Ali ought to be able to do more than he had done, and
under its pressing orders he fought the Battle of Cairkoi, on
September 21st, and having failed, retreated on the 24th. This,
failure cost him his command. To an English Correspondent
at Varna he said, "he had been dismissed because he had
refused to break his neck against a stone wall." He has since
stated that he had only 40,000 men at his disposal.
-r Headquarters of the Army of the Czarewitch, Dolny
MoNASTiE, October 1st. — ^A whole week has passed since the
unsuccessful attack of the Turks on the Russian positions at
Cairkoi, and they have made no other offensive movements.
It has long been apparent to me, as I have frequently hinted
in previous despatches, that the army of Mehemet Ali is
comparatively small. It has shown itself only at one point
at a time, and although occasionally ostentatiously displaying
tents on hill tops, and executing manoeuvres in plains in sight
of the Russian positions, it has nevertheless failed to give me
any impression of large numbers. At headquarters it is
believed to consist of 40,000 men, but this number is cer-
certainly exaggerated.
Within the past two or three days the enemy has renewed the
tactics he has. diligently practised since the withdraw^al of the
army of the Czarewitch from the Banicka Lom, and, after
having made vigorous but unsuccessful attempts to turn the
left of the 11th Corps at Cairkoi, he has disappeared quickly
from the positions he held one week ago. According to the
reports of our scouts, he has re-crossed the Lom, and is now
concentrated near Kaceljevo. The Russian outposts are now
at Polomarca, Opaka, Ablava, Ostrica, and Strobko, all along
the west bank of the Lom, occupying very nearly the same
positions as they held before the retrograde movement.
It will be remembered that the army of the Czarewitch with-
drew after three battles along the line, in each of which the
Turkish losses were very great, and the Russian comparatively
THE BATTLE OF CAIRKOI. 501
little, because our troops had the advantage of holding good
defensive positions in cover, and only attacked the Turks in
order to follow up a repulse. At the Battle of Cairkoi the
Turkish loss was over three thousand, increasing the sum
total oE dead and wounded since the attack on our line a month
ago to between nine and ten thousand men. This loss is
evidently too great for the resources of Mehemet Ali, and he
has found himself obliged to evacuate the territory he had
gained with so much difficulty, for the same reason that the
B/Ussians withdrew, — namely, a lack of corps to hold the
entire line.
We now have before us the rather serious spectacle of two
armies occupying a line sixty miles long, Avhich neither has
force enough to hold against an advance of the other. The
all-important role of the army of the Czare witch has been to
cover the line of communications to the Balkans, and to keep
the Danube from Sistova downwards. Events have proved
that the advance beyond the Jantra was useless, since it was
delayed until the Turks recovered from the panic which the
crossing of the Danube caused among them. By assuming
the offensive the Russians have gained nothing whatever.
The positions along the Bjela-Rustchuk chaussee (high road)
are strongly fortified, and Bjela itself may be said to be
impregnable. It will be understood that the Jantra is far in
the rear of the actual positions held by the army of the
Czarewitch, for his advance posts are from fifteen to twenty
miles to the eastward of the river, and his corps are
concentrated at about two-thirds that distance toward
Rustchuk and Rasgrad.
In the upper valley of the Lom no advance has yet been made.
The weather continues clear and cool. Snow lies on the
summits of the Balkans. The roads are hard and dry again,
and the effects of the recent severe attack have vanished.
4- Kara Yerbovka, October 4ith. — The sudden and unexpected
withdrawal of Turkish forces across the river Lom, which
began on Sunday, opposite the right wing of the 13th Corps
and the left of the 11th, is as inexplicable as it is complete
and positive. The tactics of Mehemet Ali, since his brisk
and successful aggressive movement a month since, have been
to keep in sight at some point of his line a sufficient force to
make it seem evident that an attack was meditated, and, by
quickly moving this force from one side to the other of the
semicircle occupied, he has kept the attention of the Russians
alive along the whole line. There is no question of the truth
of the statement, made in my last despatch, that both armies^
502 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
althoiigli continually making demonstrations more or less
important, have found themselves mueli too weak in numbers
to undertake a serious attack. ISTeitlier army has force enough
to defend its line if the enemy made an attack in earnest.
On this account the campaign of the Rustchuk armies has
been a succession of small battles and lively skirmishes,
resulting in considerable total loss for both sides, and without
the least final advantage to either in positions gained or
territory occupied.
Several times in previous despatches I have mentioned the
rapidity with which a strong Turkish force would disappear
from the hills along the Banicka Lom. By successive similar
sudden movements, the whole Turkish army has in three days
completely vanished from before us. On Monday the Cossacks
found the camps about Sinankoi deserted, and the enemy
completely withdrawn from the territory between the Banicka
Lom and the Lom. On Tuesday morning, at five o'clock,
the great camps about Kaceljevo, where the enemy was dis-
covered strongly fortified and concentrated from positions on
either side held the day before, were quiet, and to all appear-
ances no movement was meditated. Two hours later not a
soldier was visible, only a few Circassian outposts and Bashi-
Bazouks. In the afternoon the whole army paraded along
the road leading over the hill to Kadikoi, with music playing^
drums beating, and colours flying in full sight of the Russian
outposts. They left strongly entrenched positions directly
along the east bank of the Lom from Kadikoi southward to
Popkoi, evacuating the heights still farther south around the
village of Cerkovna, where the battle took place ten days
ago, and leaving every foot of the ground which they have
occupied during the past month. They posted themselves
somewhere to the eastward, as much lost to the Russians as
if they were a hundred miles away.
It is a curious, if not a ridiculous, system of warfare where
the outpost and scouting service is conducted with so little
enterprise that a force of 20,000 of the enemy can disappear
and be entirely lost for several days, when they have, in
reality, only retired a few miles, and have posted themselves
in new positions like the old one. This is, nevertheless, an
event of very common occurrence with the Bustchuk armies,
and sometimes during several days neither force will feel the
other. The conformation of the ground is well adapted to
the easy concealment of small camps, and even of the move-
ments of troops, for the country is undulating, and everywhere
there are large tracts of a small growth of oak trees, crossed by
frequent paths, and practicable for cavalry and light artillery.
A RECONNAISSANCE. 503
I have just returned to Kara Yerbovka from a reconnaissance
made to discover the whereabouts of the enemy. This is a
village situated on the Lom, nearly opposite Kaceljevo, which
occupies a narrow little valley half a mile east of the river.
For two days this has been neutral ground, and small bands
of Turkish marauders have been scouring the valley for
meagre plunder. With a small force of cavalry under the
command of Prince Manueloff and Baron Kaulbars, we left
the village, where we had assembled under cover of a dense
mist, and defiled into the green valley of the Lom. A cold
rain, which had drenched us all night, continued at
intervals as we began our march, and the fog gradually dis-
appeared as we descended the slope, disclosing the whole
landscape, the hillsides across the valley, and the dotted rows
of straw huts which the Turks build wherever they pass a
day. Not a living thing was visible in the valley, not a sign
was there of an occupied camp. A regiment of hussars was
sent along the road to Opaka and Polomarca, while Cossacks
and lancers took possession of the village of Kaceljevo and
surrounding heights. Two Bashi-Bazouks were captured,
who reported that the enemy were 35,000 strong in
the immediate vicinity of Kaceljevo. Therefore we pro-
ceeded with some caution. Arriving at the summit of a hill
to the east of the village, we found strong batteries, freshly
made ; an outpost camp just deserted, with garments and
utensils left behind in hasty flight ; and still farther on a
large deserted camp, with artillery hidden in the bushes.
Two miles beyond the village we came out on an open field, and
there lay before us a panorama of the whole Turkish encamp-
ment miles away, extending along the farther side of the
valley on the east branch of the Lom, around Solenik and
Kostankza, in front of Pizanca, Turlak and Esirdje. We
could count seven distinct camps, with great droves
of cattle feeding on the adjacent hillsides, and far
away on the horizon two or three isolated rows of large
square tents. There seemed to be very little artillery, but
considerable regular cavalry, and a force perhaps of 15,000
infantry, who were mostly Egyptians. From the hill, and
just across a valley dividing us from the Turkish camp, could
be seen, lying flat in the furze, a strong detachment of infantry
ready to welcome us. A few Cossacks dashed down into the
valley and exchanged some shots with the outposts. The
cattle were hurriedly driven away as the lances of our three
squadrons bristled on the hill-top, and there was a stir of
preparation visible in the camps, but we only looked on
until dusk, and then retired. Meantime, the hussars on our
504 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
right had found a small camp, and charged down upon it,
capturing a number of horses and cattle, and killing a score
of Bashi-Bazouks and Circassians. Thej report the enemy
strong at Karahassankoi and Sadina. The result of the
reconnaissance is to prove that the whole Turkish force,
retired along the line of railway between Rasgrad and Rust-
chuk, is strongly concentrated at several points, especially near
Kadikoi, and has now re-occu]3ied almost the same line as that
held before the advance of a month ago.
The cold storm continues, and the roads are impassable for
artillery. If there be an engagement of importance it must
take place in the immediate vicinity of Rustchuk, but I
doubt if the Turkish army will attack for some time, as it
has evidently chosen strongly defensive positions with the
intention of discontinuing its attempts to break through the
Czarewitch's forces.
+ Headquarters of the Army of the Czarewitch, Dolny Monas-
TiR, Octoher Srd. — We are still playing at the old game of
hide and seek on a large scale, and the oft-repeated story of
the sudden disappearance of the Turks is again told at head-
quarters, and commented on with more gravity than it is
possible for any one to command who appreciates the ludicrous
side of the situation. Imagine two large armies, forty or fifty
thousand strong, losing each other every day or two ! It is
a farce which, if it were not serious, would be in the highest
degree ridiculous. A long irregular line from the Danube
to Timova is held by opposing forces, neither of which thinks
itself strong enough to make a serious attempt to break the
line of the other, but both manoeuvre about on the hills,
wearying the soldiers in rapid marches, and wasting them in
small engagements which result in considerable loss of life,
but in no advantage to either side. I doubt if there has ever
been such a grand farce enacted since the invention of gun-
powder.
Even the advance of the army of Mehemet Ali a month ago I
have ceased to regard as a serious attempt to break the line
of the Czarewitch's army. Beginning at Karahassankoi,
where General LeonofE on the left and centre of the position,
and Baron Kaulbars at Haidarkoi on the right, made a most
gallant resistance, which was rivalled by the defence of Ablava
and Kadikoi a few days later, the advance was unchecked by
the least opposition, and had the Turks made their appearance
on the hillsides along the Jantra I have not the slightest doubt
but they would have easily taken Bjela and probably reached
Pavlo, only a few hours from Gorny Studen. What is more,
PATIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER. 505
it is evident to every one who knows tlie positions that at any
time within two or three weeks after the attack on Kara-
hassankoi it was an easy matter to break the line at almost
any point. Mehemet Ali did not follow np his advantages ;
he sauntered across to the Banicka Lorn, saw plainly the
Knssian organization very much broken np, and knew that
the force was very much weakened by the drafts from Plevna ;
nevertheless, he pansed lazily in the snnny grain fields along
the plateau east of the Banicka Lom, and let his enemy
recover and pull himself together again, and stand on the
defensive concentrated in a little half circle scarcely ten miles
across.
One must come to one of two conclusions — either there was very
bad generalship on the Turkish side, which the well-directed
attack partly disproves, or the advance was only a demonstra-
tion on a large scale. For my own part, I am much inclined
to cling to the latter opinion, considering the facilities the
Turks have for knowing the numbers and dispositions of the
Russian forces, and the superiority of tactics of the Turkish
generals, proved by their skiKul manoeuvring in the face of
the enemy. Of the generalship on the Russian side it is
unnecessary to speak, for it is a matter of universal comment
and criticism, and I need only refer to the descriptions of the
different movements which I have sent from time to time by
telegraph, and let every one judge for himself.
Here on the field it is with the brave, patient private soldier
that one must sympathize the most. Armed with a rifle which
has a range a third shorter than the Turkish weapon, he is
obliged to stand fire for a long time before he can return a
shot. Ordered to march squarely into a rain of bullets with-
out any cover, he never for a moment hesitates longer than
to cross himself, but is oif cheerfully, and enthusiastically con-
vinced that he is serving God and his country when he is
fighting the Turk. Wounded, he still goes on until he falls,
and then never loses his pluck even to the last. What a
pitiable sight it is to see the long trains of ox- carts of the
rudest description, their octagonal wheels grinding, screech-
ing, and jolting over the rough roads a mile and a half an
hour, every one with two or three wounded men whose groans
almost drown the squeaking of the axles. A soldier is
wounded at the front. Possibly he gets attention from the
courageous attendants of the Red Cross under fire, and then
is carried by his comrades miles to the rear and is put into
one of these torture carts, to be pounded and jolted for three
days until he reaches a hospital.
While I relate the experience of almost every soldier wounded
506 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
at a distance from the main hospitals, I do not intend to imply
that as far as it goes the ambulance service is defective ; the
trouble is that it doesn't begin to go half far enough, but is
on the same cumbersome scale as the supply trains, with far
too little force to properly attend to the wounded which come
to the rear after any large battle, and a certain ease and
deliberation of movement which is agonizing to one accustomed
to see the duties of the ambulance corps attended to with
enthusiastic promptitude. It is in human nature to get careless
of the life and callous to tlie sufferings of the wounded if it
be impossible properly to attend to them. Those who have
no anaesthetics to give get accustomed to the groans of the un-
fortunates, and mthout being aware of it become hard-hearted,
and to the outsider appear even cruel. This is the experience
of every one. I must say that I have seen more to horrify
me in the treatment of the w^ounded here than ever before,
and in every case there was a good reason for the neglect.
But no one will pardon a neglect which is the result of lack
of hospital supplies on a field where all other supplies are
over- abundant.
One thing the private soldier certainly has, and that is food, and
plenty of it, and of excellent quality; but the clothing is
scanty for this cold season that has so suddenly come upon us.
In the summer the soldiers wore their coarse white shirts as
blouses and carried their coats in their knapsacks. N^ow the
sacks are light, and everything is put on to resist the cold.
The thin linen shelter-tents are only an apology for sleeping
under the sky ; wind and rain penetrate everywhere ; boots
torn and thin after months of almost constant marching
become soaked and full of mud, and the long days and longer
nights are spent in fruitless attempts to get dry. The private
soldier rarely solaces himself with a good grumble, the recog-
nized prerogative of all soldiers, but stands patiently and
takes it as he takes the fire of the Turks, as he toiled along
the dusty tracks in the intense heat of summer — always
without a word. Supplies of clothing are already on the
way here, the bootmakers are busy on all sides making up the
leather which arrived a few days ago, and before winter fairly
sets in every one will be comfortably clothed.
Side by side with the men in the ranks, sharing with them
all their hardships, having scarcely greater comforts and
luxuries, are the officers of the line, most of them intelligent
and even cultivated men, who have all the merits of the
private soldier. They are the strong buttresses of the army,
and deserve every sympathy and encouragement. Often,
very often, I have seen a detachment left in a position by
RUSSIAN OFFICERS OF THE LINE. 507
itself with only tlie officers of tlie line to direct its movements.
On one occasion a squadron of cavalry held the wing of a
position. It was fiercely attacked by an overwhelming force
of infantry. Without a word from the staff, the line officers
took charge of the whole left wing and saved the day. Com-
pare the life of the gallant colonels and brigadiers who sleep
night after night at the forepost, personally superintending-
every detail of placing the vedettes and protecting the fronts
with the existence of the generals, so far away that they learn
of a battle after it has been lost, drinking champagne to the
sound of music, — and the sympathies must go with those who
do the work. Perhaps in this descending scale of merit in
the Russian Army is to be found the reason why the front
of the line is not better protected, why the Turks get lost
to us now and then, and why a severe fight results only in
loss of life and not in any change of position.
The long line of the Czarewitch's army has been exposed to
attack constantly for months. From the headquarters, when-
ever a battle occurs, a member of the staff is sent away post
haste to advise and assist the general in command at the point
in question, and the position is considered safe, I suppose,
because this combination of practical and theoretical know-
ledge must necessarily cover all possible turns and crooks of
military science. It is true that such a line has been difficult
to keep with a force so limited. It has been about fifty miles
long, with scarcely as many thousand men to hold it ;
but notwithstanding unaccountable movements and wild
manoeuvres the line has been kept to the present time, and
half of the original plan of the Russians has succeeded. Of
course this plan was to make two walls of men from the river
to the Balkans, in order to permit the safe passage of troops
towards Adrianople. Both armies on the flanks were to be
strictly defensive ones, and the active force was to be over
the Balkans.
The naivete of this plan of campaign is apparent, and Plevna
has proved how much easier it was to draw the lines of these
walls on the map than to build them and keep them unbroken.
Ko one could imagine the fierceness of the fire from the
breech-loading rifles, which is far hotter than any ever before
experienced by soldiers. From a thin skirmish line of Turks
comes a pelting of bullets that in muzzle-loading times a
regimental line in close order could never equal. A successful
charge is a physical impossibility. To look ahead a little, I
venture to say that no one in the Russian Army can think of
the winter campaign with complacency. Forage is already
short. After a day's rain the roads are ankle-deep with mud.
508 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
and it is difficult to get about on liorseback, almost impossible
with wheels. Fuel is not over-abundant. Thus far we have
burned the fences about the houses and the timbers of the
houses themselves. In cold weather, in a territory already
pretty well scoured of every scrap of straw and hay, and with
absolutely nothing to support life, a good day's ride in fine
weather from the base of supplies, life will be a constant
struggle. The cold wind from the Balkans is now a great
discomfort and a source of much sickness. Yet the soldiers
look remarkably strong and may support the rigours of winter
with the same remarkable endurance which they have shown
in the heat of summer. But there is all the diSerence in the
w^orld between a close warm room in a hut in Russia with the
thermometer below zero, and the same temperature in Bul-
garia in a shaky cabin or a thin tent.
4-Damogilo, October 7th. — The same officer who proposed a
plan for the taking of the grand redoubt in Plevna, by loading
a cannon with »St. Greorge's crosses, and firing them into the
enclosure, has suggested that it might have been well to
advertise for the Turkish armies of the past few weeks, for
they have been most of the time quite lost to us. But we
have found them now, and are likely to keep track of them
in the future, because it looks very much as if they intend
to stay where they are, considering they have behind them
the line of the Rustchuk-Yarna railway. Without stopping
to discuss the Cossack, whom I regard as the most ineffective
cavalryman in the world for scouting service, I will briefly
refer to the topography of the country, in order to make
clear the position of both armies, if not partly to account for
the ease with which the Turkish camps disappear like soap-
bubbles in the very face of the Russian forces.
The valley of the Lom is broad and open, with the river wind-
ing about in a fertile interval between very high hills, for the
most part covered with a dense growth of scrub oak, quite
impassable except by frequent cart paths, which cross them
in all directions. The valley is much broader, and the hiDs
are higher on the upper part of the river towards Popkoi,
while near Rustchuk the river runs between steep cliffs in a
gorge-like bed. It is a stream scarcely more than a rod wide,
while both of its branches— the Banicka Lom and the Beli
Lom — are rivulets a yard or two broad only, and are crossed
at frequent intervals by bridges and fords. West of the Lom
and the Banicka Lom the hills are broad and flat-topped,
with little wood, and the Tirnova-Rustchuk chaussee runs
along the summits in a straight line north-east to Rustchuk.
THE COUNTRY OF THE LOM. 509
From this cliaiissee one can overlook the whole country, and
the Russian camps are all visible, nestled in the grain fields
near the villages.
East of the Lom the country is quite similar in character, but
more broken by small valleys, and near Rasgrad is much
wooded. Between the Lom and Banicka Lom is a plateau
of irregular horseshoe form, full of villages, interrupted by
frequent deep valleys ; but in general terms a high plateau.
This was entirely occupied by the Turks in their recent
advance, but they penetrated among the hills farther west at
only one or two points, and confined their demonstrations to
the positions along this line. The small ridges with the
patches of w^oodland formed a succession of screens, behind
which it was easy to manoeuvre large forces without their
being seen by the enemy, and the network of roads, more or
less good, made concentration at different points an easy matter.
There were the two armies facing one another across a valley
perhaps half a mile wide ; the foreposts kept up an almost
. constant guerilla fight ; several attacks were made of more or
less importance ; and then suddenly nothing remained on the
hill- tops but empty straw huts and bush shelters ; and the
Cossacks leisurely wandered off to find where the Turks were
gone.
But for the fact that the Circassians are about as dangerous to
the Turks as they are to the Russians, they would be excellent
soldiers, for they protect the front quite perfectly. As it is
they are quite as likely to shoot the Turkish officers for the
sake of booty as they are the Cossacks. An officer who came
to Popskoi with a flag of truce begged for a large sheet to
display when he returned to the lines, and had a Cossack
sent on in advance to announce his arrival, for he was in great
fear of his own foreposts, declaring they w^ere quite sure to
shoot him if he did not take great precautions.
When on Tuesday last the right wing of the Rustchuk army
was seen marching along the hills across the Lom, to the
music of drum and bands, with colours flying and arms flash-
ing in the sunlight, it seemed very much like bravado, and
w^as a fitting flourish at the end of an aggressive campaign of
a month without a result. Word came in that there was na
one in the valley of the Lom, so a reconnaissance was planned,
and the order was given for three regiments of cavalry tO'
assemble in the little village Kara Yerbovka, on the west bank
of the river, on Wednesday evening. I was invited to accom-
pany the expedition, which was commanded by Prince Man-
ueloff and Baron Kaulbars. The result of the reconnaissance
I have announced by telegram, but the details of the expedition
510 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
and of the trip across the river to send the despatch to
Bucharest, are worth mentioning.
As we left the corps headquarters at dusk on the evening named
it was warm and agreeable. We looked forward to a pleasant
picknicing between the lines of the two armies, and trotted
away — a few Cossacks, two officers, myself and servant—
towards the village, passing the Russian positions along the
Banicka Lorn at about nine o'clock. We had a couple of
Bulgars for guides who, although born and brought up in the
neighbourhood, knew nothing of the country, and lost us
entirely before we reached the top of the hills across the river.
On we went, always ascending, and it began to rain drearily
long before we got to the summit of the range. At last we
ran across a deserted Turkish battery with plenty of wood
lying about, built a fire, lay down in the ditch and slept an
hour, and woke up to find that the rain had extinguished the
fire. We knew that the Turks always build huts v/herever
they camp, so we searched in the darkness until we found
some bush shelters, crawled under them, and slept until day-
break, completely drenched by the cold rain, which flooded
the ground and entered the hut in a dozen streams.
A dense fog covered the earth, hiding the landscape completely,
and after building a fire with straw dried with the heat of our
bodies and warming ourselves thoroughly, we started away
through the mist and rain to find the village, and at last came
to the rendezvous just before the regiments assembled there.
When we came into the village there was not a living thing in
sight ; the fog canopy made the silence most oppressive, and
we listened in vain for a sound. A most mournful sight was this
village, full of pretty little Turkish cottages half hidden among
the trees. The doors standing wide open, the paper windows
all broken, the furniture destroyed, and the gardens trampled,
with not so much as a stray dog to bark at the approach of a
stranger. There had been plenty of marauders about, so we
searched the village thoroughly, and the Cossacks found a
couple of Bashi-Bazouks hidden away in the fields near by.
Both had Peabody-Martini rifles, were tall, square-shouldered
fellows, well dressed in the ordinary Turkish peasant's
costume, and carried a great quantity of ammunition. The
thought naturally occurred to me that they would be imme-
diately shot, but they were treated with marked gentleness,
interrogated at length, and sent away to the rear. I was told
that no officer was willing to take the responsibility of
ordering the execution of men in cold blood, yet I believe that
no other people in the world would have let these fellows off,
for they were simply murderers caught with their arms in
AI? ABANDONED CAMP. 511
their hands. In all probability they will be set free, as they
don't wear any uniform, and will find their way back to the
Turkish lines again. It is said that a great many have done
this, and I cannot doubt it.
When the fog lifted we filed down the gentle slope into the
valley of the Lom, and crossed the river by a ford, then
quickly up the hill to the village of Kaceljevo, near at hand,
which was quite as lifeless as the one we had just left. Here
the Cossacks, who are supposed to know the way always, took
the ^vrong path and delayed the advance an hour or more, for
they were to go forward in the centre, the Lancers on the left
and the Hussars on the right. At last we climbed the great
hill back of the town, and had the whole country for miles
around under us like a map. To the south was the great
mountain near Karahassankoi, and beyond, a glimpse of
distant Popskoi in the intervale ; east in the horizon was the
ridge where the railway runs ; north, the hills about Butschuk ;
and west, the valley of the Lom, and the summits far beyond.
Cruising about in the low oak-trees on the hill-top we came
suddenly upon a deserted battery, and a camp near by,
evidently just left, for, notwithstanding the recent rain, dry
clothing was lying about, and quantities of utensils were
strewn along the road. Equipments left behind showed that
regular cavalry had occupied the post, and scattered clothing
of Bulgar women proved that the marauders had made this
their headquarters as well. The Bashi-Bazouks had told us
that the hills about Solenik were covered with camps, so we
were not surprised to see from the east side of the summit
white tents all along across the valley of the Beli Lom.
We approached until we could see the uniforms of the soldiers
in the camps, and the only unusual movement there was when
the Cossacks came out in full sight, and then we saw the
Turks driving away over the hills the great herds of cattle
which were feeding on the slopes. There were but few
soldiers in the camps, but a cautious advance to the edge of
the hill overlooking Solenik showed the infantry lying in the
edge of the furze to receive us. Of course we could not
attack. The Cossacks went down and had a brush with the
Circassians in the edge of the valley, and when darkness came
on we retired and met the Hussars, who had been successful
in breaking up a camp they had found, killing twenty-five
Bashi-Bazouks and Circassians, and not losing a man.
In the rain and darkness we found our way near midnight to the
positions again, having made an advance in the twenty-four
hours of only about twenty-five miles from headquarters.
When we ca;me near the spot where we left our luggage the
512 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
dar before, we two separated from tlie force and went to the
camp, expecting to find some one to welcome us. Not a tent,
not a soldier was there ; all had disappeared during the da,y,
having been ordered off to some position we were unable to
discover. It was midnight ; we had neither eaten nor drunk
since the evening of the day before, for no one carried rations
on the expedition on account of the heavy roads and the
necessity of going light weight. There was nothing to do
but to stable the horses in a ruined house and turn in there
ourselves and sleep. The next day, before taking the despatch
and letters I was about to send to Bucharest, we made an
effort of a few hours to find the spot where we had left our
luggage ; but after having fasted forty-two hours I gave up
the search and rode for Batin, arriving towards dark. Leav-
ing our horses in the village, we had a mile and a half to walk
to the Danube, and landed at last on the island a mile above
the new bridge an hour after sunset. We knew there was a
path across the island where the bridge is being built, so we
fought our way through the tangled undergrowth in the rain
and darkness until we reached the muddy track and followed
it northwards until it came plump into the Danube on the
other side. Not a boat was to be found, not a soldier was
within hail. At last we found some Bulgars, who guided us
to a camp of marines, who kindly set us over the stream,
and we were landed in the marshes, three or four miles from
the solid land, where the lights of Petrosani twinkled in the
distance.
A brisk cold wind drove across the marsh, and the rain ceased
for a time, but it was as dark as a pocket. On we trudged,
scarcely able to walk after our excursion, stumbling about over
the track, at times knee- deep in the muddy water, and after
great difficulty reached the lagoon which separates the marsh
from the high land. To find the bridge was a problem which
we only solved after a half -hour's blind search, and at the
other side of the bridge was a not over-intelligent soldier,
who was with difficulty persuaded to let us pass. At two in
the morning we were sound asleep on the floor of a dirty
little Grreek restaurant, with Russians, Greeks, Moldavians,
and Bulgars singing choruses over the cheap wine, and fillings
the room with vile smoke.
I have given a meagre description of a trip in Bulgaria in bad
weather to show what the difficulties are, and how it is quite
out of the power of any one to make even a short journey
except at great personal discomfort, and with no little fatigue.
It seems as if our picnic days are over now. Sleeping in a
tent in the hot weather was rather to be avoided, but now
RESULTS OF FOUR MONTHS' FIGHTING. 513
even this miserable shelter is welcome. Bulgar houses, which
we shunned as we would the pest, on account of the myriads
of insects that swarm within the walls, we now look upon
as a luxurious refuge from the damp, chill atmosphere.
To give a brief resume of the new positions : The Russians
are now concentrated nearer the Danube than before, opposite
the strong force of Turks at Kadikoi, a village about ten miles
from E/Ustchuk. The line still lies along the Banicka Lom,
but cavalry occupies the whole territory west of the Lom.
The positions of the Russian right are about fifteen miles
from those of the Turkish left, along the railway near Ras-
grad, while the 12th Corps and part of the 13th are in the
immediate neighbourhood of the Lom, near Rustchuk. The
11th Corps has not greatly changed its positions during the
past two weeks.
In the following letter, a Correspondent who had followed
the campaign from its commencement reviews the errors and
failures of the Russian generals.
t Bucharest, Oct. Ibth. — The rain has been pouring down for a
week — steadily, persistently, obstinately, with scarcely a
respite ; the sun has not looked out once ; the sky is a dark
grey spongy blanket, hung low down over our heads, which
is dripping, running over, and discharging itself in bucketfuls.
The weather god has positively taken sides with the Turks,
and having delayed the opening of the campaign for more
than a month, now seems determined to bring it to a close a
month or six weeks earlier than was to be expected. For
should this weather continue the campaign is at an end, and
nothing can be done but wait for the ground to freeze and a
fall of snow, when possibly a winter campaign may be
attempted. There is still hope that this may not be the case,
that the rain may cease, and that we may yet have a month,
and perhaps even six weeks, during which something may be
done. Everything therefore depends upon the weather, and
the prospect is not encouraging. The results of the campaign
so far, may be summed up as follows : — The Russians have
crossed the Danube, they have taken the fortress of Nicopolis,
and they have lost 50,000 men in killed and wounded.
For a campaign undertaken with such high hopes, with every-
thing requisite to bring it to a victorious conclusion except
military talent — begun with two most important operations
brilliantly and successfully carried out, this is a result as
unexpected as it is discouraging. For be it remembered that
the only real conquests of the campaign, the passage of the
514 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Danube and the capture of ISTicopolis, were made witli a loss
of less than three thousand ; and we have absolutely nothing
to show in exchange for the rest of this immense loss of 47,000
men. Had the Russians sat quietly down after the capture
of ISTicopolis and not moved a foot, or had they gone to sleep
and slept all summer, they would have been in exactly the
same position they are in to-day, and they would have been
47,000 men richer ; that is, nearly one-third of the force with
which they first crossed the Danube at Sistova. One-third
of the army lost and nothing to show for it but three defeats
— such is the result of Greneral Levitsky's military science —
Levitsky, the Moltke of Eussia. ^
There is another point worth noting in reference to this campaign,
which is that the two great Russian successes, the passage of
the Danube and the passage of the Balkans, were accomplished
by a lucky chance, in which good luck and Turkish incapacity
counted for a good deal more than Russian skill and general-
ship. At Sistova, as Greneral Dragomiroff very truly remarked,
the Turks were asleep ; at Shipka they were unprepared. If
we look, on the other hand, at the successes of the Turks, we
see that they have been accomplished, first, by a splendid
stroke of strategy ; second, by the most desperate valour ;
third, by consummate skill in engineering. The Russian
successes were the result of chance and unforeseen cir-
cumstances ; the Turkish victories, on the contrary, were
won by downright good generalship, military skill, and
science — elements which may be calculated, estimated, and
counted upon in the future.
These are the facts, let Generals Levitsky and Nepokoitchitsky
digest them as they may. Their excuse is, I believe, that
they had not enough troops, and that they did not know
the Turks were so strong. The excuse is a very feeble one.
In the first place, the Russian mobilisation began and the
Russian stafE was formed last November, five months before
the declaration of war, seven months before the fighting
actually began. Where were their spies during all this time,
and why did they not have correct information with regard
to the force, armaments, organization, and numbers of the
Turks ? And if they had not enough troops there were
plenty more, and the Emperor was ready to give them had
they been asked for. Again, why did they not know of the
march of Ovsman Pacha from Widdin to Plevna ? There w^as
a month during which Osman Pacha was marching upon
Plevna, and Generals Levitsky and Nepokoitchitsky never
knew it and never found it out. Why did they not know,
and why did they not find it out ? And having given such
THE RUSSIAN MISTAKES. 515
proofs of incapacity as these, wliy do they not, if they have
any patriotism left, resign and go home ? These are questions
which not only the Russian people but the Russian army is
asking, without receiving any satisfactory answer.
It is true that the Russians began the war with an
insufficient number of troops — that is, with an insufficient
number to take Constantinople, or even to reach the capital,
and I am willing to admit that it is doubtful whether they
had enough to take Adrianople, though I am convinced they
had enough in the beginning to have crossed the Balkans and
occupied the country to the very gates of that place. But
from saying they have not enough troops to take Constan-
tinople to the assertion that they have not enough to take
Plevna there is an immense difference. It is a difference the
importance of which the headquarter staff have probably not
even perceived. It simply means this — that they began a
war with the avowed intention of capturing Constantinople
with a force which they find, after having been increased by
half, is still too weak to capture an unfortified village twenty
miles from the Danube. For although Plevna is fortified
now, it was not fortified when the march on Constantinople
was begun.
Such a mistake, such a miscalculation, avowed and acknowledged,
and even offered as an excuse, is a confession of imbecility
beyond what even could have been expected. The Russians
had across the Danube at the time of the last attack upon
Plevna, including the Roumanians, about 200,000 men. If
this force is not capable of taking Plevna, what force, it may
be asked, will be required over the Danube before a sufficient
number of troops can be sent against Plevna to ensure its
capture ? What force will be required to cross the Balkans ?
How many more troops must we have to take Adrianople ?
And, above all, what force will be required to reach Constan-
tinople ? Evidently, at this rate we shall soon be into the
millions ; and if the Emperor means to prosecute the war
with the present headquarter staff, he had better call out two
million men at once.
It may not be without interest here to take another glance at
the last Battle of Plevna, and see what military lessons can
be drawn from it. In the first place, the lesson already
taught by the previous affair, which was only too clear to
anybody who had eyes to see — the madness of attacking
trenches defended by breechloaders by assault — has been
enforced and confirmed, and the Russian generals have at last
learned it at an expense of 15,000 more men. But there are
other things which they may learn from it which they ought
L L 2
516 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
to have learned in school. In the first place they should
know that artillery fire, to be effective against such positions,
should be directed, not against earth, but against men. I^ow,
the four days during which the Russians shelled the Turkish
positions they never once advanced their infantry. The con-
sequence was, that the Turks were not obliged to advance
theirs. They kept their troops stowed comfortably out of the
way of the shells, and only put them forward when they saw
the Russians were preparing for the assault. Naturally the
Russian shell-fire did them very little harm, and for all the
effect it had upon the result, they might as well have made
the assault the first day. The Russian infantry should have
been advanced as if to attack ; this would have compelled the
Turkish infantry to occupy their trenches, where they would
have been exposed to the fire of the Russian shrapnel. I do
not believe much in modem artillery anyhow, except where
the fire of a large number of guns can be concentrated on a
small space ; but if it is to be of any use at all, it must be by
directing it against men and not heaps of earth.
With the recapture of the redoubts taken by Skobeleff the
attack upon Plevna ended. Up to that moment, there was
still a hope that the attack might be continued, and that
success might finally crown so many heroic efforts. The
Russians had taken three strong positions ; could they get two or
three more equally important, Plevna would inevitably be
theirs. There seems to have been some idea of renewing the
attack, for Skobeleff, I am told, on Wednesday afternoon was
requested to hold his position a fe1v hours longer, even after
he had reported several times that the place was untenable.
Only a few hours longer ! When men were going down by
the hundreds, and companies and battalions under the terrible
fire of the Turks were shrivelling up like green leaves in a
furnace flame.
The melancholy part of it is, that generals who send men by
the thousand to perish under fire have themselves no idea of
what fire is. They have no grip of the battle, no feel of the
fire, and they have no other way of discovering that a position
is untenable, or a line of resistance too strong, but in seeing
their soldiers in flight after having performed perhaps pro-
digies of heroism and of valour. So Skobeleff was requested
to wait a few hours, while the headquarter staff would reflect
on the situation. The situation was as follows : — The redoubts
taken by Skobeleff were untenable, but they, as well as the
redoubt of Grivica, offered a foothold from which the other
positions might have been attacked with success. Skobeleff
asked for reinforcements, but not to hold the redoubt, for so
INCAPACITY OF GENERALS. 517
far as the redoubt was tenable be had enongh troops to hold
it as long as it could be held. He asked for troops to con-
tinue the attack upon the redoubt of Krishine, or upon the
entrenched camp on the other side of Ple^ma, or he would
undertake to hold the place while something was attempted
on some other point ; only whatever was to be done would
have to be done quickly. But the morning wore away with
the continued attacks of the Turks, continually repulsed and
continually renewed, and the wbole Russian army lay quiet
all day long and watched that heroic struggle and did nothing.
This inactivity of the Russians allowed the Turks to finally
concentrate in the evening an overwhelming force against
Skobeleff and to overpower him. The headquarter staff could
not make up its mind what to do, and while meditating on
the subject the redoubts were lost.
It is true, as I have already stated, that Greneral KrilofP took the
responsibility of sending a regiment which had made the
unsuccessful assault of the day before, and which was reduced
from 2,600 to 1,000 men, a regiment utterly unfit to go into
action ; and even it arrived too late. It is likewise true that
a fresh regiment was sent, which arrived an hour after the
redoubts were lost, and thus just in time to assure the retreat.
But sending these regiments, even had they arrived in time,
was a mistake. They would, of course, have enabled Skobeleff
to hold the redoubts a few hours longer ; but this would only
have resulted in a still greater loss of men, without any
object. Unless it was intended to continue the attack from
this side, the redoubts should have been abandoned as soon
as the attack failed on other points, for holding them these
twenty-four hours resulted in a loss of some 4,000 men. If, on
the contrary, it was intended to continue the attack from this
side, then a division, and not a regiment, should have been
sent to Skobeleff. The whole plan of attack was a mistake ;
but there is little doubt that the attack, having been begun,
might have been, and should have been, continued the next
morning. The line of defence had been broken in two places.
Had the Russians concentrated all their strength on these two
points early next morning, and renewed the assault with
vigour, they would, in my opinion, have carried the place.
Their loss would have been fearful, but the army of Osman
Pacha would have been destroyed, and the way would have
been open to Adrianople. As it is, 15,000 men have been
lost, and, because they have been lost, the Russians are not
quite so near Adrianople as they were before.
All the mistakes of the campaign have been repeated in
miniature in the attack upon Plevna, with a fidelity which
518 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
shows liow little the headquarter staff have profited from
previous blunders. Their first intention was to await the
arrival of the Gruard before beginning the attack, and unless
the J had adopted the plan I had already sketched out,'! of
abandoning the line of the Jantra, and making a rapid
concentration of the whole force of both armies upon Plevna,
this was the only possible thing to do ; for to attack Plevna
with less than one hundred thousand men was simply folly.
Suddenly it occurred to them, that if they waited for the
arrival of the Guard they would be thrown into another
campaign. This was a consideration that might have occurred
to them at first, and which should have necessitated a complete
change in the whole plan of campaign. When it finally did
occur to them, it resulted in a spasmodic fit of energy and
this last attack upon Plevna. But instead of bringing
together a force sufficient for the purpose, that is, a hundred
thousand men, they hurriedly scrape together what they
could without interfering with the army of the Cz are witch,
and make the attack with 65,000 bayonets in the forlorn hope
of taking Plevna, and thus being able to reach Adrianople
this year.
It was a forlorn hope only, and not even General Levitsky
believed in success. It was a plan that did not merit success,
and it was only the unexpected valour of the Koumanians — an
element nobody had counted upon, the sublime bravery of the
Russian soldier, and the splendid dash and generalship of
Skobeleff, that ever made the result doubtful for a moment.
I know that the forces brought up during this last attack
have been estimated at a hundred thousand, but I also know
that the estimate is greatly exaggerated. I know that the
whole force of General Zotoff , up to the time of the arrival of
the 2nd and 3rd Divisions, did not amount to 30,000 men ;
that these two divisions between them, after the loss incurred
by the second in the affair of Lof tcha, did not add an effective
of more than 15,000 men, thus making the Russian force
45,000. As to the Roumanians, I know that their army is
estimated at 32,000 men — on paper : but, when you deduct
from this the cavalry, the sick, the men detached for guarding
communications and foi various other duties, and last, but not
least, the difference between the complement on paper and the
actual number of bayonets, their effective did not give more
than 20,000— or 65,000 bayonets in all.
Th3 attack, therefore, was made in the first place with an
insufficient number of troops, for the Turks had an equal or
perhaps a greater number. But the question is not in war to
have a numerical superiority upon every point, but to have it
THE PLEVNA PROBLEM. 619
upon one or two important points. An inferior force, skil-
fully handled, will often suffice to beat a much superior force,
and the Russians who had, when we consider the advantages
of the position held by the Turks, an inferior force or power,
should have endeavoured to make up for this by concentra-
tion against one or two points, only making at the same
time demonstrations on the whole line. This would have
given them the required numerical superiority on the given
points. In a conversation I had with Skobeleff before the
battle, he agreed with me that the plan of a general attack
was a mistake, and the result proved it. Had the attack
been confined to the Grivica redoubt and the redoubts on the
Loftcha road, and demonstrations made by Kriidener and
Kriloff, instead of those furious attacks, repulsed in such a
bloody manner, the loss incurred by Kriidener and Krilofl:
would have been avoided, and the 9th and 4th Corps would
have been fresh for the renewal of the attack next day on the
points of the Turkish line which gave way.
The plan of a general attack was in short the reproduction in
miniature of the general plan of the campaign, — instead of
concentration, the distribution of forces already too small.
That the Russian staff should have adhered to this plan, and
should still adhere to it after the repeated disasters of Plevna,
shows that they are simply incapable of profiting by the
lessons of the war, and that the Russians, with one of the
best armies in the world, will be beaten as long as the present
staff remains in command, by what may be technically con-
sidered one of the worst.
In my opinion there are, besides the plan of a siege and starva-
tion, two ways of taking such a place as Plevna. The first is
the plan of an assault, made with about three times as many
men as the Russians had in the last affair, that is about
120,000, and handled in the manner of Skobeleff by hurling
them against the positions, brigade after brigade, until by
mere force of momentum and bravery they sweep everything
before them like the waves of a rapidly rising sea. The loss to
be incurred in such a plan is fearful, but the loss of the enemy
would be greater still, for the reason that wherever there is a
crossing of bayonets, the beaten side must be simply annihi-
lated. Had the Russians attacked Plevna in this manner,
they would have lost 30,000 men, but the army of Osman
Pacha would have been destroyed. Not 5,000 would have
escaped to tell the tale.
The other plan is more slow, and perhaps not more sure, but it
requires a far smaller force for its execution. It is that of
advancing by means of flying saps — narrow shallow trenches,
520 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
rapidly constnicted nnder cover of night, or a heavy rifle fire.
A man can, with a shovel in ordinary ground, and stimulated
by an enemy's fire, put himself under cover in three minutes,
and he will make himself a comfortable rifle-pit in five. G-ive
the Russian army shovels, and they will dig their way into
Plevna in a week at the outside. The trouble is, that while
in the Roumanian army every two men out of three have
shovels, in the Russian army there are only five hundred
shovels to the division, or about one to every twenty men, and
this in a war against the Turks, which the whole military
history of the Russians might have taught them was destined
from the first to become a war of sieges, a kind of war in
which the shovel plays a no less important role than the rifle !
This plan I have every reason to believe was under discussion,
and had to be laid aside owing to the want of shovels.
So far it must be acknowledged that the Turkish generals
have shown far more skill in the conduct of the campaign
than the Russian. Their plan consists simply in placing
their soldiers in trenches and supplying them with cartridges,
bread, and rice. But true generalship after all consists, not
in carrying out a theoretical plan by a theoretical army, but
in adapting existing means to required ends. In this, which
is really the highest kind of generalship, the Turks have
excelled ; and they have taught a bitter lesson to the French
generals, who during the late war with Germany showed
their incapacity, and not only their incapacity, but their un-
willingness, to fight with anything but the army of their
dreams.
I have spoken of Russian generals in a previous letter, and I
may add another reason to the ones I then gave for the want
of capacity and talent displayed among them. In the first
place, all those high in command are very old men. They are
men who studied the military art forty and even fifty years
ago, since which time the science of war has undergone most
im.portant changes and developments — a revolution, in short.
In addition to this, they are men who, for the most part, never
look in a book, and who rarely read a newspaper, and appear
to be utterly oblivioas of the march of progress and of
science, especially in the military art. Their whole lives may
be said to have been passed in one occupation ; their whole
minds, whatever they ever had, concentrated on one object,
and that one of the most trivial to w^hich the human mind
can descend — card-playing. They have done nothing else,
thought of nothing else, for years. Their minds have rusted
until they are as dull, as heavy, and as incapable of receiving
new impressions as the veriest clodhopper. Called from their
NEW TURKISH COMMAIS^DER-IN-CHIEF. 521
card-tables bj the trumpet of war, they rise, rub their eyes,
look round them completely bewildered, and are as thoroughly
out of the current of modern war as if they had been asleep
for forty years. 'Not even Rip van Winkle, with his rusty
gun dropping to pieces after his long sleep, was more
bewildered and lost than the majority of these poor old
generals suddenly thrown into the campaign at the heads of
their brigades, divisions, and corps.
It may be asked why the Emperor does not send these old
dotards back to their card-tables, and replace them by
younger men and men of talent, of which, after all, the
Russian army is not destitute. Well, in the first place, there
is the tradition, according to which no functionary must be
removed or disgraced as long as it can be helped — from some
absurd idea that the prestige of the Government would
suffer. The Grovernment would be acknowledging its own
fallibility. The result is that the Government, instead of
renouncing, assumes the responsibility of all the stupidity,
of all the idiocy, all the perversity, and all the dishonesty of
the functionary. Then it must be confessed, the kind heart of
the Emperor has much to do in retaining these old incapables
in their positions. He cannot bear the idea of depriving an
old, and as he considers a faithful, public servant of his
position, and thus disgracing him, and so unconsciously
prefers to sacrifice the lives of thousands of brave fellows to
this misplaced feeling of kindness.
One more fact while I am on the subject, illustrative of the
way things are managed in the Russian army, for which the
headquarter staff must be held responsible. At the time of
Suleiman Pacha's attack upon the Shipka Pass, although the
pass had then been in the hands of the Russians for some-
thing like six weeks, the plan of the pass and positions had
not been made. This is a fact which, for military men,
speaks volumes. And yet such men as these have dared to
take the direction and command of an army of 300,000 men.
It is simply madness.
The following letter treats of the posture of military and
political affairs in October, as seen from a Turkish point of
view : —
: ; Constantinople, October 7th. — It was officially announced on
Wednesday that Suleiman Pacha is to replace Mehemet Ali
as the Serdar Ekrem, or Commander-in-Chief. Every one
has been trying to guess the reason why Suleiman is thus
honoured. That Mehemet Ali would be removed has been
522 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
considered probable for several days. He has not shown
bimself specially active, nor displayed remarkable military
ability, and no doubt failed signally in the action of tbe 21st
lilt. Above all lie is of Griaonr origin ; and unless he could
have been uniformly successful, he was pretty sure to arouse
the jealousy of the generals under him. But that Suleiman
should be his successor is difficult to understand.
Suleiman is not a coward, nor is he destitute of energy. But
his previous services are not of a kind one would have
thought to warrant his promotion to the most important post
in the Turkish army. In Montenegro he showed himself
altogether incapable of defeating an army much smaller than
his own. When he was recalled, and sent to oppose General
Gourko, he pushed on rapidly to the front, and made the
successive attempts to force the Shipka Pass, which your
readers know so well. But both in Montenegro and in the
Shipka his one great rule in war seems to have been to pound
away at whatever opposed him, whether an army or a stone
wall. If the war between Russia and Turkey is to be con-
ducted on the pounding principle, and each party is ready to
sacrifice any number of men, provided that the enemy can be
made to lose at least an equal number, there can be little
doubt, I fancy, which army will soonest be exhausted. In
Montenegro and at the Shipka, Suleiman can hardly have
lost less than 40,000 men, and these beyond a doubt among
the best soldiers which the Sultan possesses — war, in fact,
under him, has been mere butchery.
Notwithstanding the successes of the Turks at Plevna, the
depression in the capital during the past fortnight has been
very great. It is noticed as a significant fact, that Turkish
consolides have fallen whenever there has been a report of a
Turkish victory, and have risen when on the contrary the
telegraph has given us news of a Turkish defeat. It is not
merely that the Christians of the capital — Greeks, Armenians
and Bulgarians alike — have no stomach for the war, that was
to be expected ; nor is it only that the stoppage of commerce
with Russia has put an end to the Black Sea trade, upon
which a considerable portion of the population of the capital
lives ; that the increased taxes upon an impoverished people
have brought thousands to the verge of starvation ; that the
large mass of Government officials — most of whom are
Turks — have been unpaid for months, and have had all of
them to submit to very large reductions in their salaries ;
that the issue of caime, or paper money, has reduced the
earnings of boatmen, porters, and day-labourers generally to
nearly half what it was before the war; and that native
TURKISH OPINION OF THE WAE. 523
merchants, as well as foreigners, can get no money out of the
Government for goods which they have supplied.
These are the incidents, in great part the natural incidents, of
war ; and, provided the war should be successful, would be
borne usually by a people as inevitable ills worth bearing for
the sake of the benefits which were to be derived from the
struggle. But among the Turks themselves there is the
feeling that the war, beyond preventing their immediate
destruction, or causing a lessening of their territory, can only
be disastrous. As one of the most thoughtful among the
Turks said a few days ago : — " We know that Europe will
never allow us to increase our tei'ritory, no matter what our
success. Servia, K/Oumania, Montenegro, and Greece, can
never again be added to Turkey, be our success what it may.
The struggle, too, is between us and the rest of the inhabi-
tants of the Empire. We have to supply all the fighting
men ; and the thousands who have already been killed are a
terrible drain on the fighting population of the Empire."
The Turks themselves feel that it is, to say the least, very
improbable that at the end of the war they will be in a better
position, even though they win, than they were before the
war began. England, it is clear, or nearly so, is not going to
help them, and every victory they gain is so much loss merely
to preserve the status quo of their country before the war.
They, too, have an inkling, I fancy, of what M. Thiers meant
when he said, that he had more dread of Russia defeated than
of Russia defeating. Let me say also, in passing, as I have
often said before, that none of. the inhabitants of European
Turkey wish to call Russia master. The argument I have
often used from the analogy of the hatred of Greece towards
Russia is sound — that if the Christians of the Empire were
decently governed, or, better still, governed themselves, they
would be hostile to Russia too. Roumania and Servia are the
tools, willing or unwilling, of Russia, because their dread of
being absorbed by Turkey overcomes their dread of being
annexed by Russia. Take away the first, as Europe did for
Greece, and the latter becomes at once prominent. Russia
defeated means Russia making the war one of life or death,
and playing the game of sacrificing man for man.
Turks know that by Russia warfare has always been conducted
with an almost wanton disregard of life, and that she has
always shown herself a dogged and an obstinate enemy. If
the war is to be conducted through one, or two, or three more
campaigns, such as that which is now drawing to a close,
while the drain of men upon Russia will be terrible, it will be
proportionately very much greater upon the Turks. Russia,
524 WAR COREESPOXDENCE.
bankrupt, will even then only be in tbe condition in wbicli
Turkey has been for tbe last two years. Unless, therefore,
Europe interferes, the endurance of Russia is likely to be far
greater than that of Tnrkey, and the terms which will be
exacted by her heavier than those which she would have
required had the war been finished this autumn. Such, I believe
are the opinions of the most thoughtful among the Turks,
among whom I would class the Sultan himself, who is reputed
to have been always opposed to the war, and who deeply feels
the enormous sacrifices which have already had to be made,
and the small amount of benefits which can be derived there-
from.
Yesterday's Turkish papers announce that the Government has
decided to call out all the remaining reserves which have not
yet been summoned. Most of us were under the impression
that this had already been done, but it is asserted that there
are yet 160,000 men who can be added to the army. The
redifs or militia have long been called out, including a large
body of men who have served their terms in the army.
Those who remain, the mustafez, and who are said to form so
large a body, are the Landsturm or last reserve. When it is
remembered that the Turkish army comprises the whole of
the male Moslem population between certain ages, it may be
. understood how terrible is the drain upon the population of
which I have spoken. That which makes the matter worse,
not only for the Turks, but for the country, is that while the
Christian villages may have a redundant population, or may
at least be able to spare a considerable number of men, nearly
the whole male population of hundreds of Moslem villages
has thus been taken away. Harvests are neglected, culti-
vation is at a standstill, and the deepest distress prevails in
many places, because the whole of the bread-winners are away.
In estimating the surprises of the war, the fact should be taken
into account that the failure of the Turks in putting down
the insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in fighting with
Montenegro, and to a less extent in fighting with Servia, was
a failure with Turks drawn mainly from European Turkey.
, With the exception of a not very large detachment from the
district round about Beyrout, the Turkish army eighteen
months ago was hardly recruited at all from Asiatic Turkey.
After the beginning of the war with Russia, Asia Minor, Syria,
and Egypt were drawn upon for a supply of men. The
Egyptians may be dismissed, since by all accounts they are
worth little as soldiers, even during a summer campaign, and
in winter will probably be worth still less.
The men from Asia Minor are not merely the best soldiers
TURKISH RECRUITING GROUNDS. 525
Turkey can produce, but form as good material for m.aking
soldiers as any in the world. Many of tliem are mountaineers,
all of them have been inured to hardship, and have, indeed,
known little else. Most of them come from the occupations
of the country rather than from those of towns, and even
those who have lived in the to^vns have been porters or boat-
men, or camel-drivers, or engaged in some other out-of-door
occupation, which has helped to make them strong and hardy.
The great majority are agriculturists, and as shepherds or
farm labourers have been used to roughing it. They have
moreover all been trained more or less to the use of arms.
The result of their previous training is, that men who have
not been put into uniform before have been converted into
fair soldiers after a few days* drill, and when sent to the front
have proved cool soldiers and good shots. The very want of
success which the Turks everywhere encounter when brought
face to face in business with keen Arabs or Grreeks or
Armenians, has driven the Turks, or kept them, to the land
and to occupations which are the best training for such
soldiers as the Turkish Grovernment has need of. The result
has been that the successes gained lately have been such as
could not have been foreseen by those who judged only from
the failures I have mentioned. The mountaineers of Anatolia
and Armenia have done that which their co-religionists from
European Turkey entirely failed to do. These men will,
I apprehend, stand a winter as well as Russians. What
the Syrians and Egyptians will be able to do remains to be
seen.
We are now in the midst of the month of Ramazan. One of
the five precepts of the Mohammedan religion is the keeping
of this month as a fast. It is kept strictly except, I believe,
by soldiers, who are permitted by Moslem law to disregard it.
The Turkish day consists of the evening and the morning ;
in other words, lasts from sunrise to the following sunset.
During this period in the whole of the month of Ramazan no
true believer either eats, drinks, or smokes. The result is that
a very much smaller amount of business is transacted during
this month than during any other of the year. Eating com-
mences at sunset, and is usually followed by a certain amount
of festivity, after which come a few hours' sleep. In the
Turkish quarters, two hours before daylight, the rattle of
harsh drums, accompanied by harsher voices, and the sound
of nondescript instruments, awakes the faithful to the fact
that the time has come to eat enough to last them until sunset.
This meal is concluded just before the sunrise gun, and then
the faithful again betake themselves to sleep. Practically
526 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
they are good for notliing in the way of work during tlie rest
of the day.
This fact is recognized, and in the public offices and in the law
courts there is a general suspension of business, as Turkish
officials, like other mortals, are incapable of work upon an
empty stomach. In justice, howeyer, to the poorer class of
of Turks, I ought to add that they manage to do a fair share
of hard work, eyen during Ramazan. I haye seen wood-
cutters whom either good will or necessity has compelled to
work during these days, notwithstanding the fact that they
could not eyen take a draught of w^ater, while the perspiration
w^as streaming from eyery pore. It was impossible not to feel
kindly towards these poor fellows as they asked, time after
time, how the day Was proceeding, and as at the last they
rolled up their cigarettes and got their matches ready to haye
their longed-for smoke the instant the twelye o'clock gun
(Turkish time) announced that the sun had sunk below the
horizon.
Yesterday morning, at about ten o'clock, four yery loud and
almost simultaneous explosions greatly alarmed the inhabitants
of this city and the yicinity, and all sorts of rumours were
immediately afloat as to the cause. The utmost excitement
preyailed, crowds of people congregated in almost eyery street,
and many of them were pale with terror. The explosions
were caused by a yery alarming accident which took place at
the Goyemment powder-mills at Zeitounlik (the Place of
Oliyes), close to Makrikeny, about fiye miles from the capital.
Four pug-mills situated near to each other blew up at almost
the same instant through the explosion of some grains of
powder while the stone used in working the powder was turn-
ing. The four mills were in a moment destroyed, and a great
number of liyes, yariously estimated at from 50 to 200, were
lost. It is impossible as yet to ascertain the precise number,
but I fear that the latter is more likely to be nearer the truth.
^ A gi*eat quantity of machinery and powder was destroyed,
though the Turkish Groyernment estimates the loss at only
£10,000, and says that it feels confident that the loss can be
repaired within a fortnight at the latest. The Imperial cart-
ridge manufactory is close by the scene of the explosion, and
had that building also blown up the loss to the Groyernment
at the present moment would haye been almost irreparable.
The greatest promptitude was exhibited in hurrying to the
rescue of the sufferers. The medical staff of the Stafford-
house Committee instantly proceeded ,to the scene of the
accident. The Goyemment has already giyen orders for the
immediate reconstruction of the mills, and the wounded haye
A MOSLEM PROFESSOR. 527
been taken nnder the Sultan's protection, whatever that may
imply, and are to be cared for at the expense of the State.
Great anxiety was manifested amongst the British colony on
the accident becoming known, as several Englishmen in the
Ottoman service are employed in the neighbourhood. Only
one Englishman, however, was near the spot at the time, and
he was not seriously wounded. The sufferers are mostly
Mussulmans and Armenians. I happened to be on the
Marmora at the time, and not more than three miles from the
mills, which are on the sea shore. My attention was suddenly
aroused by a sound which startled all on board the small
steamer by which I was a passenger, for we took it to be an
explosion on board. This was almost immediately followed
by another, and then again by two others in rapid succession.
Men and women ran to and fro in an excited state for an
instant, half expecting to find themselves blown up. Some
of the passengers on the bridge had, however, seen the explo-
sion on shore, and the word was at once passed that the
powder factory had blown up. We then all saw a huge pear-
shaped mass of smoke shooting up into the sky, and knew
that we were safe. I learn at the last moment from a medical
man who had just returned from the spot, and who
was there yesterday shortly after the accident, that there
were probably not less than 150 persons killed. Though he
Avas among the first to arrive after the accident, many bodies
had already been hurried into hastily prepared graves, and at
one containing Armenians a service was being as hastily read
over by an Armenian priest.
The following letter, which appeared yBsterdayin the Stamhoul,
is from Ali Suavi Effendi, who is at the head of the chief
Turkish college here : —
" I have received many letters. Some ask me to preach in
the Mosque of Sheik Zade-Bachi ; others to give my appre-
ciation of the situation. I am going, therefore, to give
you my appreciation on this subject, because next week
may witness great events. All my appreciations of European
policy may be summed up in the following words. [The
italics are in the orginal] : — The source of every political
evil, of every crime, is the English Government. Those
who can understand this phrase will have no difficulty to
overcome. In Europe there is no policy, there is no justice,
there is no humanity. These words I have not taken from
any book, nor from the newspapers. I have studied the
events, and it is the events themselves that have inspired me.
Neither must it be believed that I thus expressed myself
against my friends who are in Europe, and who can have no
528 WAE CORRESPONDENCE.
knowledge of wliat I write. While I was in Europe I told
tliem, " You don't know ; you don't understand." Many
men read, but few understand. Find me ten men able
to understand, and all the difficulties will disappear. To
make the English understand their ignorance would benefit
everybody, but especially the Ottomans. This is why I
don't give up my correspondence with Englishmen. They
say, " England ought to help us ; she has not done so, and she
will not do so." What do these words mean ? Where is
England, and what is she ? I have studied England ; there-
fore I know well that all the evils from which the world
suffers come from the English Government. I believe that if
England reforms herself the world will equally reform itself.
If the English, cause of every ill, were really bad people, I
would not trouble about them ; they are good enough ; but
the reason why they are the tools of Russia is ignorance.
England cannot make war, for she possesses nothing. Eng-
land possesses altogether 12,000 cavalry ; she has only 6,000
horses. England does not possess more than fifty ironclads ;
seven only can make war. Her mines of coal and of iron, &c.,
are used up. The manufactories of England are cut out by
those of Brussels. England is henceforth a porter (hamal),
who, in order to live, must carry goods and merchandise from
one to another. Why has England fallen so low ? England
has plunged herself into the abyss of debt in order to aggran-
dize Russia. England has attempted the dismemberment of
Turkey and of three other States in favour of Russia and of
herself. England has undergone very material losses. The
knowledge which I possess upon these attempts is drawn
from English official documents. If these documents had
attracted your attention you would have comprehended too.
These documents are printed, but you and the English don't
understand. If ignorance were blotted out from England the
blood of thousands of men, leaving thousands of orphans and
widows, would not have been shed, and milliards would not
have been added to the national debt. . . . It is necessary
to say that our conduct, if it does service to the Ottoman
Empire, will also render service to the rest of the world —
that is to say, with our wish to put the whole world in
order. . . . There are Englishmen w^ho work with us.
In consequence, and in order to make you understand what I
have said in the beginning of my letter — to wit, that every
evil springs from England, and that if she does not take care she
will end by ruining herself, both to the profit of Russia, and
in order to show the ignorance of those who lend their ears
to her declarations — I intend to give lectures, as I have
A BLACK SEA EXPEDITION. 529
already done, at Galata Serai. Yon must, therefore, atten-
tively read and understand these lessons."
The only importance which can be attached to this letter arises
from the fact that it comes from the Director of the Imperial
Lyceum. Eyen the last paragraph is not so absurd as it
seems.
While the Russian army had done so little to distinguish
itself either in Europe or Asia, and the small Black Sea fleet
could not venture to put to sea, many feats of individual
officers showed what might be expected of the Navy under
more favourable circumstances. The expedition described in
the following letter, most merciful in its object, was made at
a time when fast and powerful Turkish ironclads held unchal-
lenged possession of the Black Sea.
Sebastopol, September 11th. — I returned yesterday from the
expedition which I told you the Vesta and VladiTnir were
about to undertake. The result has been most successful,
and at the same time bloodless. Considering the danger of
the voyage, and the skill with which Captain Baranolf has
executed it, I think it will be allowed to equal anything in
the history of blockade running.
We left Sebastopol at midnight yesterday week, the Vesta
leading as senior. Every light had been carefully covered,
and even the port-holes of our cabins plastered over with
felt, so as to exclude any possibility of a gleam of light dis-
covering our whereabouts to the enemy. Our vessel was
painted a bluish grey, so like the colour of the sea that at a
hundred yards it was barely distinguishable. In this phantom
guise, on one of the darkest nights that can be imagined, we
glided in silence into the open sea, the only sounds being the
steady throb of our screw, and about every ten minutes the
call of the officer on watch to the men stationed in the f oretop.
This call, which for eight days and nights has never ceased,
will long remain impressed on my memory. " Foretop, keep
a good look-out," still rang in my ears, as last night, for the
first time during a week, I slept for more than an hour at a
time.
When clear of the land the captain informed us of our destina-
tion, which was Kertch. This port has not been entered
since the war began, and though, of course, the movements
of the Turkish fleet are only to be conjectured from telegrams,
the captain told me he fully expected to have a battle before
arriving, for several ironclads were supposed to be in that
M M
530 WAE CORRESPONDENCE.
part of the Black Sea. As tlie daj broke tlie lovely sontli
coast stood out in all its grandeur. At sunrise we were
rushing past Aloupka Castle, whose towers and terraces,
flooded in light, contrasted well with the surrounding
scenery. Here man has exhausted his ingenuity in rearing
a fabric unique and unrivalled ; but even this grandest effort
of human genius, situated as it is, serves only to mark how
insignificant is the work of our hands when compared with
that of nature. Towering in the background of the castle,
Ai Petri looks down from a height of 4,500 feet, and seems
in its rugged majesty to frown at the toy which the vanity
of man has carved for its footstool. On past Orianda,
Livadia, Yalta, and Massandra, the Vesta and her consort
sped. At breakfast time we were half-way on our journey,
and as the sun was sinking I had the pleasure of con-
gratulating the captain on having successfully accomplished
the first step of the expedition, and on our being the first
Russian steamer that had entered Kertch since the war
broke out.
As the captain told me he should only land for his orders I did
not go on shore, and in a few hours the throbbing of the
screw and the call to the foretop brought me on deck to find
that we were once more on the sullen Euxine. The captain
now explained to me the object of the expedition. A large
number of wounded men were at a place called Gragri, not
far from Sukhum-Kaleh, and the admiral had asked Baranoff
if he would endeavour to embark them and convey them to
Novorosiska where there was an hospital. The odds were con-
siderably against our ever getting there, mach less returning,
but brave men do not calculate odds when their comrades are
in want of help. If the whole Turkish fleet had been known
to be at anchor in Gagri Bay, Baranofl would only have
altered his plans, but not his course. His plans at present
were to proceed direct to Gragri, to offer battle to any single
ironclad he met ; and if attacked by several, to endeavour to
escape, failing which he should take to the boats and blow
the Vesta up. Fortune favours the brave, and after thirty
hours of excitement we dropped anchor in Gragri Bay.
" Heaven grant we may find all ready for us," was the prayer
of the captain as the armed boats left for the shore, a prayer
which from the desolate appearance of the place, and the fact
that not a soul was visible, I feared would not be granted.
As we neared the shore the sign manual of the Turk was
plainly to be distinguished. Every house had been burnt to
the ground, a few dogs, a cat, and a Cossack boy inhabited
or rather perambulated the ruins ; the Anglo-Indian telegraph
PRINCE GALITZIN GALOVKIN. 521
had been torn down for at least a mile on the southern side
of the town, and no sig-ns of our being expected were to be
found. About half-a-mile to the north a Russian telegraph
officer was engaged in arranging communication with Europe,
and he told us there were neither wounded nor unwounded
soldiers nearer than Gadabout, a coast village about half-way
between Gagri and Sukhum-Kaleh ; so, after spending some
hours in the vain hope that news would arrive, our captain
recalled the boats, and we steamed on to Gadabout, before
which interesting village we dropped anchor about half-an-
hour previous to sunset.
I will now mention two of the officers of the Vestsi, whose
names, if the war continues, will be public property. The
second in command on board the Vesta is Prince Galitzin
Galovkin. This officer, who is of immense size and strength,
is the inheritor of more than one princely title and has also
a large fortune. When the war broke out he rejoined the
navy and was appointed to his present position. His escape
from death during the late battle is almost miraculous, and
his coolness and courage from beginning to end of that trying
five hours were as remarkable as his escape.
At about 10 p.m. on Thursday night lights in front of us and
at sea were visible, and we prepared for action. The Prince,
as second in command, had determined if an expedition with
the torpedo boats became necessary to take the command of
it, and now, to all appearance, the hour was come, for even
the phosphoric light, indicative of some immense body mov-
ing rapidly, was plainly visible, and the order to prepare the
torpedo launches went forth. With as little noise as possible
these small boats, with their heroic crews, were in the water,
and with the Prince as leader they had left for what was very
probably a fatal task. As I stood on the bridge trying to
make out the arrangement of the expedition, I could hear
Galitzin's voice giving his orders as Coolly as if he were super-
intending the capture of a shoal of herrings or sprats, instead
of conducting a forlorn hope against perhaps several monster
ironclads. The boats had scarcely left the side when the sky
darkened and a storm arose. The captain at once recalled the
expedition, and under cover of what was now a small tempest
we ploughed onward in safety, and for ought I or any one
else can tell, we may have passed within 100 yards of the
whole Turkish fleet. Next to Prince Galitzin on this expedi-
tion should be mentioned the torpedo officer, Eugene Romano-
vitch, a youth in years, and when off duty the leader in every-
thing savouring of fun and mischief. He speaks English, and
we have fraternized greatly.
M M 2
532 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
As soon as we liad anchored I went on sliore with the Prince,
our crew, of course, being armed. On landing the only signs
of life were some miserable-looking curs picnicking on horse
bones and sheepskins. Bullock carts, empty boxes, old
clothes, &c., were strewed in every direction, but what had
been the fate of their owners, or who those owners were, was left
to our imagination. A few yards from the wharf a felucca,
about thirty feet long, was anchored, but in our anxiety to
land we postponed to ourselves the pleasure of visiting it,
more especially as we believed the village to be in Russian
possession. The houses were only about 100 yards from the
shore, and to these we now approached. At the entrance to the
main street we found a Russian soldier, who at first we thought
was wounded, as he could not speak, and looked dreadfully
ill. It happily appeared afterwards that he had only lost the
use of his tongue, and not the member itself. We then pro-
ceeded to call at several of the houses, but found no one at
home ; and as it was now getting dark, and Ave had to visit
the felucca, the Prince gave the order to retire. As we were
pulling to the felucca we heard firing — first, a few straggling
shots, and then a fusillade — ^but concluding it was some
skirmish inland we took no notice, and boarded our prize
from both sides. On going below we found it freighted with
firearms, and amongst them some very nice repeating rifles of
the Winchester system. As it was now nearly dark, the
captain recalled us and at once put to sea, steering direct for
Constantinople. I asked him his reasons, and he told me he
felt sure that no ironclads would be looking for him in that
direction, and that if he was seen his course would perhaps
prevent his being interfered with, the Turks not having
yet realized the consummate impudence of these little
cruisers.
The captain's clever plan met with complete success, and having
given all the ironclads the slip, at about one a.m., he headed
again for Gadabout, having determined to make a descent
with all the boats and search the place thoroughly. At six
a.m. we were at anchor, and now the scene was exciting. A
mitrailleuse was mounted in the launch, and about 100 sailors,
commanded by Prince Gralitzin, were ready. The captain's
boy, Terracuta, a fine lad of fifteen, was armed to the teeth,
and giggling with joy as I tumbled into the launch alongside
of him, and I verily believe there was not a man left on board
who was not hoping that reinforcements would soon be
needed. As we approached the shore a few men appeared, at
first in rather a hostile attitude ; but soon perceiving that we
were Russians a wild hurrah was given, and in an instant
A BOLD ADVENTURE. 533
from beliind every rock and hvLsh, men wlio, for tlie last few
minutes had been covering us with their rifles, rushed down
to the beach, and the scene as we landed could not easily be
described. It appeared that the day before, only some hours
previous to our arrival, a Turkish steamer painted grey like
ourselves, and doubtless one of the ironclads in search of us,
had put into Gadabout Bay, but had left almost immediately.
The small Russian detachment, seeing another grey steamer
accompanied by a black one arriving about sunset, naturally
concluded that it was the Turkish vessel returned with a rein-
forcement, and consequently when they saw we were landing
they all hid themselves. I asked one soldier to show me
where he had been hidden, and he took me to a ruined house
next door to one I had entered the night before with two
sailors. I asked him if he had seen me before. He grinned,
did that ingenuous youth, and answered, '^kakniett," which
may be rendered " rather." The shots we had heard were
fired at us, for it turned out that the felucca was their prize
first, and their feelings became too strong for them when they
saw what they thought was the Moslem boarding it. We were
now informed by the officer that if we returned to Gragri we
should find the troops and the wounded all ready for us ; so
after transferring on board their wounded — I think about
half a dozen, and a Turkish prisoner, who evidently found
himself in clover — we returned to Gagri, towing the felucca
with us for the purpose of utilizing it for the transport of
the wounded, &c.
We anchored in Gagri Bay about noon, and now a change had
indeed taken place. The martial strains of a band were heard,
and on landing we found a force of about 2,000 of as fine-
. looking fellows as one could wish to see. The shore, which
yesterday was desolate, to-day teemed with life ; herds of
oxen, bullock carts, native conveyances of every description,
groups of mountaineers in their picturesque dresses and gipsy-
like encampments were visible as far as the eye could reach.
The commanding officer had everything ready, not only for
the embarkation of about 100 wounded men, but also for that
of a battalion of about 600 men, whom the general required
transport for as far as Taopse, a march of ten days through
the mountain passes, but only about twelve hours by sea. Our
captain was quite alive to the danger of crowded decks, but
with the usual celerity and silence boats arrive and depart,
the mountains of heavy baggage melt away from the landing
place, a long file of wounded are carefully accommodated in
the felucca which has been forced up against the ricketty old
wharf, and in about four hours from the time we anchored
534 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
every man was on board, and even the commissariat depart-
ment liad sent the beef and other necessaries for the troops.
There remains now only to embark the Greneral Shalkoonikoif,
who was coming with ns, and we had to proceed to a place
some twelve miles further np the coast to meet him.
The signalman on one of the highest posts on shore now
announced the smoke of a steamer to the north of us and the
masts of another to the south. With the pleasant prospect of
being rammed behind and before, we slipped out of Gragri Bay
and were soon enveloped in our usual gloom. About ten p.m.
Prince Gralitzin went on shore at a place called Sandripsh for
the Greneral, and having returned shortly with his Excellency,
we steamed on for Taopse, arriving about six in the morning,
when the disembarking of the troops was carried out with the
same admirable ease that distinguished the embarkation. I
have had a great deal of experience in embarking and disem-
barking troops in peace and war time, and in almost all parts
of our dominion, but I never saw anything to equal the
rapidity and ease with which the Russian overcomes appa-
rantly insurmountable difficulties. It must be remembered
also that a Russian soldier carries a heavier weight than ours ;
that he is a larger man, and consequently takes up more space
in a boat ; and, finally, that the camp equipage of 600 men
in its lightest marching order is about as vast as that of
an English division under similar circumstances. We left
Taopse early in the day, and at sunset steamed into Novo-
rosiska, where the General and the wounded were landed.
After this, the work of the gallant little cruisers having been
so successfully accomplished, we passed for the last time into
the open sea, and challenged the blockade of the powerful
navy of Turkey by sweeping it from the Caucasus to Sebas-
topol, and from thence to Odessa.
It may be interesting to the admiral in command of the iron-
clads to learn that the little Vesta and her consort have
during the last 200 hours steamed over 1,807 miles of the
Black Sea, and during that time they have only twice entered
a port — Gragri, Taopse, and Gradahout being open roadsteads.
Having observed frequent mention of the Russian Black Sea
fleet in English papers, and as many of your readers may be
under the impression that such a force exists, I will describe
it — three old cargo-boats of the Russian Steam IS^avigation
Company and the Emperor's yacht : none of these are plated
or defended by armour, and with the exception of the yacht
they might almost serve as launches to Turkey's powerful
ironclads. Their want of armour is, however, balanced by
the devoted courage of the officers and men, and though it
TURKISH LOSSES IN ASIA. 535
can hardly be expected that they will be able to continue to
defy with impunity the monster ironclads everywhere on the
look-out for them, I think it by no means improbable that
before they are sent to the bottom the navy of Turkey may
have still further proof that the race is not always to the swift,
or the battle to the strong, and that the little cargo -boats of
the company will again challenge with success tho much
vaunted blockade and supremacy of the Black Sea.
CHAPTER XIX.
CRISIS OF THE CAMPAIGN IN ASIA.
The Camp of Mukhtar Paclia — The Turkish Soldier at Prayer— Two Notable
Deserters — The Russian Camp — Arrival of Reinforcements — The Battle of
October 2nd — Capture of the Grreat Yagni — Russian Mistakes — Renewal of
the Fighting — Preparations for a Grand Attack — General Lazareff's Great
Flanking March— The Field Telegraph— The Battle of Aladja Dagh—
Complete Overthrow and Flight of Mukhtar Pacha — Large Capture of
Prisoners and Guns— Condition of Kars.
Having driven the Russians from all the posts they had
occupied between Kars and Erzeroum on the one line, and
Bayazid and Erzeroum on the other, — having reduced the
main body of the Russian army to a defensive position before
Alexandropol and compelled its left wing to stand helplessly
by while one of the least competent of Turkish commanders
actually crossed the Russian frontier in the direction of Erivan,
— Mukhtar Pacha had reached the measure of his allotted
success. From this time his arrangements began to lose the
impress of his former prudence, although weeks were to elapse
before their character was to be brought to a decisive test, and
to be exposed by his utter and irreparable defeat. The following
letters show the course of military events until the Turkish
Arn^y was broken in pieces almost under the walls of Kars : —
D Headquarters, Army of Mukhtar Pacha, Sept. 17th. — ISTow
that Ramazan has arrived, people seem more intent on their
religion than on their military exercises. I don't mean to
say that the latter are neglected. Mukhtar Pacha, as rigid a
536 . WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Moslem as exists in tlie Sultan's dominions, is too good a
soldier to allow that. But the interval is well taken up with
the prolonged prayers which at this season seem to make the
Turkish soldier forget his empty stomach, his parched throat,
and unlighted cigarette. Whatever may be said of the Turks,
they are in their way a strictly religious people, and scrupulous
,to the last degree in adhering to the external forms of their
worship.
At this austere season, from the moment the dawn colours the
eastern sky until the Ramazan gun booms out into the
evening air, not a morsel of food crosses the lips of the
soldiers, not even a drop of water, and over and over again,
when, seeing the wistful eye of a trooper turned towards my
lighted chibouk, I have proffered my tobacco pouch, it has
been motioned away with a self-denial worthy of an eremite
of the wilderness. And each of the many times a day as the
long-dawn, wailing cry of the Muezzin rises above the
murmur of the camp, soldiers are to be seen hurrying eagerly
to prayer as to a banquet, and unhappy seems the man on
duty who cannot join the seried rows of worshippers who, in .
company, sometimes in battalion, face toward Mecca and
follow the orisons and genuflexions of the Imaum who stands
before their centre. Each man takes his place in the ranks,
his hands hanging close by his sides. Then he lifts them to
his ears, as if to shut out all worldly sounds. Then he lays
them on his knees, and bowing his head forward seems lost in
contemplation. After a few seconds he sinks to his knees,
and leans back upon his heels, and then bowing with his
forehead to the earth, exclaims, or rather chants, "Allah
Akhbar" (God is great). Three times he thus bows and
chants, and then he stands up, bowing forward, chanting three
times " La Allah il Allah " (there is no God but God). The
remainder of the somewhat tedious prayers which follow
consists principally, as far as I can make out, of long verses of
the " Koran."
In all his simple religious exercises the Turkish soldier is
deyoutness and attention itself, and it is perhaps most in
privacy that this is most apparent. I have frequently come
unexpectedly upon some rugged soldier in one of the wild,
lonely ravines that gash the hillsides around, standing before
the ragged overcoat which served him for a praying carpet,
and going through his rather active religious motions with a
zeal which would do credit to the most self-conscious Pharisee.
The stranger who for the first time witnesses the united
prayer of Turkish soldiers in camp is considerably puzzled by
the selection of heterogeneous articles brought forward to the
THE MOSLEM SOLDIER AT PRATER. 537
place of worship, when the Muezzin's call has concluded.
Religions custom requires that each man be provided with a
praying carpet of one description or another, and that he take
off his shoes as well. One man brings a jagged sheep-skin,
another a goat-hide, a third the saddle-cloth of his horse, a
fourth, mayhap, his jacket ; every one has something or
another on which he may kneel. To see some hundred men
thus hurrying to the spot where the blue-robed, white-turbaned
Imaum stands, a stranger to their ways might be easily led
to imagine them so many persons eager to dispose of super-
fluous garments, and taking advantage of the fortuitous
presence of a dealer of Israeltish nationality.
The Russians, too, have been lately celebrating national festivals.
On the 9th ult. we were startled by the thunder of cannon
from Karajal, the fortified hill on which their right flank
rests. The Marshal's long brass telescope was at once put in
position, and every field-glass was directed against the
frowning heights along which the heavy white smoke-clouds
clung in the morning air. We looked in vain for the little
secondary smoke-bursts that should have indicated exploding
shells. In our advanced positions men ran to their arms and
the parapets were black with eager, puzzled soldiers. It was
only a salute of twenty-one guns in honour of the anniversary
of the Czar's coronation. " May Allah destroy him," was the
appropriate Moslem exclamation, when after due search in a
Russian military calendar the cause of the salute was
discovered and conveyed to the soldiery. Three or four days
after another blank salute sent us again to our almanack.
This time it was an Imperial birthday, that of the Emperor
or CzareAvitch, I forget which. Whichever it was, the object
of the salute had the same Turkish good wishes as on the
former occasion. Sometimes we have a light cavalry skirmish
out in the plain, and on such occasions a good deal of artillery
fire is apt to take place as the comba-tants come within range
of the guns on either side. As a rule some five or six men
are killed and twice as many wounded. Rarely does the
affair go further.
Three days ago Said Bey, a nephew of the celebrated Schamyl,
of Caucasian memory, got knocked over in one of these
desultory fights. He lies in his tent shot through the breast.
Dr. Casson, an English surgeon out here^ tells me he has but
little chance of life. Occasionally the monotony of camp life
is stirred by the arrival of a deserter, usually a Pole or a
Mahommedan Circassian, or a Tartar. The advent of one of
these last has begun to cease to charm. At first their
arrival was hailed as a sign of great things and a wholesale
538 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE.
desertion of the similar element in the opposing armj.
However, as it seems that quite as many go over from our side
as come to ns from the opposite, and as the gravest doubts are
entertained about the genuineness of the sentiment prompting
the change of sides, we begin to look rather coldly on these
allies, and to receive with a certain amount of scepticism the
wonderful and oft-repeated stories of Russian discontent and
demoralization they bring us.
I have, however, met with a couple of genuine deserters, and
that, too, of no inconsiderable rank. One is a Mohammedan
Circassian, who, when the Servian war broke out, held the
position of aide-de-camp to the Emperor of Russia. A staff
officer in the camp here, and who had been for manv years one
of the Turkish military attaches at St. Petersburg, told me
he had there been intimate with this Circassian, who had on
more than one occasion assured him that in case of war he
w^ould take the earliest opportunity of changing sides. He
has kept his word, and I see him often in the tent of the
etat-major, with his splendid uniform of the Russian
Circassian Guard — a long tunic of fine white cloth, heavily
laced with silver — his belt, sword sheath and hilt, as well as
the various pouches and secondary articles such persons think
fit to hang around their persons, of magnificently wrought and
enamelled silver and gold. The second of these more notable
deserters is a person of much greater importance. It is but a
few days since he arrived at headquarters, where I saw him
in the tent of Mukhtar Pacha. He is called Eeyoub Aga, and
comes from the neighbourhood of Erivan. At home his rank
is little short of princely. He commands the fighting men
of 6,000 families. His brother was a cavalry divisional
general in the Russian army, and was killed, or died (as^
Mukhtar Pacha told me in a significant manner), shortly before
the defection of his brother. This Eeyoub Aga passed over
to the Turks at Bayazid and thence came on here. He is a
tall, gaunt man, with an expression of face very much
reminding me of the late Tulu Moussa (bearded Moses), the
Persian bandit chief, about whom I have had occasion to
write some time since. As a reward for his change of side,
Eeyoub Aga has been decorated by the Marshal with the
Medjidie of a high class, and has had three other orders given
him for his uncle and nephews.
The Polish deserters to the Turkish army are few and far
between, notwithstanding the measures taken by their com-
patriots here to attract them. I dare say it is not generally
known that a " Polish Legion" exists as a component part of
the Turkish army of Armenia. We have one of forty men,
A POLISH LEGION. 539
nineteen of wliom are cavalry, tlie rest infantry. The history
of the formation of this body, designed at its inception to be
the nucleus of an imposing force, is curious enough. The men,
principally residents in Constantinople, volunteered for the
Army of the Danube. Among them was a considerable
sprinkling of ex- Austrian and Russian officers, who under-
took, by the distribution of Polish revolutionary proclamations,
to cause the wholesale desertion of the Polish element in the
regiments opposed to them, and subsequently to organize
these deserters into a Turko-Polish Legion. For some in-
scrutable reason the Constantinople authorities decided on
inducing this handful of adventurers to come here. They were
told that immense numbers of prisoners had been taken,
among them several thousand Poles, who were at Trebizond,
awaiting officers to organize them. The forty Poles and their
two officers at once abandoned the Danube mission and hurried
away to Armenia. At Trebizond they were feted by the
inhabitants, and informed that the Polish prisoners and
deserters were still at Baiburt. At Baiburt the future
legion was believed to be at Erzeroum, and at Erzeroum the
authorities had good reason to think that the mass of the
prisoners were still at headquarters. Thus the gentlemen
composing the unfortunate " nucleus" were led on step by step
to the heart of Armenia, where they still remain.
Such is the tale as told to me by the two officers commanding
the cavalry and infantry sections of the " nucleus, " and
confirmed by the statements of their men. They took part
in the battles of the 18th and 25th of August, in the latter of
which the infantry lost one man killed, and two wounded.
Since their advent here they have been busy scattering litho-
graphed revolutionary documents about the field in every
locality where Russo-Polish troops might be apt to meet with
them, the only fruit secured up to the present being two
rather dilapidated-looking Poles, -who would in any case
probably have taken the first opportunity of coming over.
Of course the whole story about the immense band of prisoners
awaiting organization was a fable, not a single prisoner of any
kind having been taken by the Turks up to that moment.
Indeed, from the commencement of the campaign here up to
to-day the entire number of prisoners would not exceed a dozen.
The Polish nucleus is now on the point of breaking up. Tlie
men are dissatisfied with their food, and with their treatment
generally. They declare they originally volunteered for the
Danube, and only undertook to do exceptional " organizing
duty " here during three months. The time has elapsed, and
540 WAR. CORRESPONDENCE.
they declare they will disband unless Government keeps to its
original promises.
What the next move of the contending armies on the frontier
will be is hard to say. N'either party shows the least inclina-
tion to make a move — at least at the centre. But from either
flank come rumours of proximate action. Mukhtar Pacha
told me he was informed that the Russians were gradually
sending off their heavy baggage from Ardahan ; and it is a
fact that their troops no longer occupy the town itself,
confining themselves to the two commanding forts of Emir
Oghlou and Ramazan Oghlou, the capture of which at the
commencement of the campaign secured for them the speedy
possession of the place itself. Considerable Turkish forces,
partly drawn from the Erzeroum garrison, are gradually
drawing in that direction, and action of one kind or another
seems probable.
The following letter is from the Correspondent in the Russian
camp : —
/^ Camp Karajal, Sejptemher 27th. — A more dismal place than
that in which our headquarters are established cannot be
easily imagined. Death itself must lose its horrors for people
condemned to vegetate in such a spot, and so it is not difficult
to explain why our officers and men long for a murderous bat-
tle, in the hope of getting away from this life-wearying site.
Instead of pondering here over the achievements which we
should be able to accomplish if we had only 20,000 men and
100 cannon more, we ought to try our strength in turning and
storming Mukhtar Pacha's position at once. Then we should
have a chance of conquering good winter quarters in Erzeroum.
There is obviously plenty of room for daring strategy. At all
events it seems, at the worst, to be less disadvantageous, and
more honourable even, to recede before the Turks, after having
experienced a loss of some 3,000 men in a determined assault,
than before the cold season, with perhaps double that loss.
Moreover, defeat is unavoidable in the second case, whereas
in the first, if our men have but pluck and our leaders ability,
we have more chances of success than of discomfiture.
We are not so weak now as we were months ago, when General
Heimann dashed his head against the rocks of Zevin. Two
complete divisions have reinforced us since. At first the 40th
arrived, and now we have also the Moscow Grenadiers, the last
battalions of which joined our army only three days ago.
These new troops are composed of keen-looking, well-armed,
RUSSIAN IMPATIENCE. 541
and well-accoutred young men, who, provided they are skilfully
conducted, and have not their courage wasted in pitiful
skirmishing engagements, are certainly capable of turn-
ing the Turks out of any position accessible to human
feet. Yesterday His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
Michael paraded them and bade them welcome. He was
highly satisfied with the inspection and had reason to con-
gratulate their leaders as well as himself, for they are a
body of first-rate soldiers.
Everybody is now inclined to predict that a sharp stroke at
Mukhtar Pacha's position is near at hand. The Pacha himself
seems to be of a similar opinion. He was very busy on
Monday about the Kizil Tepe entrenchments, examining them
closely and ordering the construction of additional earthworks.
I don't doubt that something has been planned here, but I am
also led to suppose that nothing definitive has been fixed.
As an excuse for the continual frittering away of time, it is
alleged that the new chief of staff. General Gurtchine, of
whose skill and energy great things are reported, is obliged
to study the situation, and to review the links of the com-
plicated chain with which our army is trying to fetter its
opponent. What has been done during the course of this
. summer was little more than a groping in the dark with
regard to the enemy's strength and resources, the final know-
ledge of which has been bought by bitter experience. It may
be that the Bulgarian campaign is still absorbing the main
interest and solicitude of the Russian Government. For all
that it cannot be denied that a decisively victorious campaign
here would bring the Russians more easily to Constantinople
through Asia Minor than through the Danubian and Balkan
stronghold. In Armenia, moreover, Russia has prospects of
indemnifying herself for her enormous sacrifices in men and
money; but she scorns the chance of acquiring substantial
. advantages in the hope of rehabilitating her military fame
in the European theatre of war. We are thus confined to an
otherwise incomprehensible inactivity. We are spellbound to
the most objectionable place on earth. The fighting which
has gone on has never had a very serious character. The
losses sustained during the whole present campaign in dead
and wounded do not amount to more than 5,000 men — that is
to say, they are of less importance than those of a single day's
battle before Plevna. Our soldiers have not been earnestly
put to the test yet, although they enjoy the renown of being
the very best in all Russia.
In the following letter, the same Correspondent with the
542 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Russians describes the first battle of Aladja Dagli, the prelude
to tlie memorable battles of October 14tli and 15tli : —
^ Camp Karajal, October 4ith. — Altbougb exceptionally fatigned
throngb riding all day on horseback, witliont anything but a
dry biscuit, I shall endeavour to give a full and accurate
account of the battle which was fought on the 2nd inst. and
the following day around the Aladja mountain, and which is
likely to be renewed every hour.
After long waiting for reinforcements, these at last arrived in
the shape of the first division of the Moscow Grrenadiers, six-
teen battalions, each full 1,000 men strong, together with
forty-eight field-pieces, and two regiments of cavalry. After
almost equally long deliberations it was decided to make a
general attack on Mukhtar Pacha's position on the Aladja
mountain and its dependencies of spurs and isolated hills,
forming — from the Arpa Tchai river, in the neighbourhood of
Ani, to Kars — a continuity of natural strongholds, entrench-
ments, and batteries. The day before yesterday was fixed for
its commencement. Although deep secrecy had apparently
been kept among the superior generals on the subject, enough
of the plan of operations transpired beforehand to leave no
doubt about the general features of the impending operations.
Everybody in the camp knew what was about to go on, to the
gTeat astonishment of our staff. At last they became aware
that a man of certain consideration, who was in the habit of
sneaking through the camps, without professing to follow any
honest vocation or business, had disappeared on the very eve
of the day of action. Though no conclusive proof of his guilt
has hitherto been brought forward, public opinion adjudges
him guilty of being a Turkish spy. He has not returned
since, warned perhaps by a bad presentiment or some accom-
plice.
The general plan of operations was as follows : — General Sholko-
waikoft', who, in the absence of General Dewel, is in command
of the 40th Division on our left, was ordered to turn the
Aladja Dagh from Ani with five battalions and a battery.
He was expected to reach its summit, and, descending from
it, to fall on Mukhtar Pacha's rear. A brigade of the same
division was to keep the enemy at bay on his right wing,
assisted by a heavy battery established there some days before,
which, as a mere demonstration, had to cannonade the Kisil
Tepe. Here no assault was premeditated, and the object was
only to draw the enemy's attention to this point, important
for him, but not for the Russians. To General Heimann,
with the Circassian Division of Grenadiers, w^as entrusted
FIRST BATTLE OF ALADJA DAGH. 543
the task of closing in with the enemy's centre and main
force, so as to prevent him from withdrawing his troops from
Subatan, in order to reinforce other positions which we
intended to take, if possible. To his right, the first division
of the Moscow G-renadiers, at G-eneral Loris Melikoff's direct
disposal, had to act against the Yagni hills. I believe I have
stated already in my former letters that Grreat Yagni, situated
about ten miles from our camp, is a very regular conical hill,
Tvdth a plateau at the top, towering 750 feet over the plains and
smooth undulations stretching from Kurukdere to Kars. A
direct assault on that hill, which on former occasions had cost
the Russians a good deal of blood, was now considered as
likely to lead to no good result, and in consequence its capture
did not enter into the original disposition.
The real and most important point, according to the views of
our staff, against which all our efforts had to be concentrated,
was Little Yagni, an entirely isolated, bulky elevation, with
a comparatively extensive platform on the top. Though of
considerably less height than its namesake, its sides are qui^e
as steep, while a rocky crest, very much like that of the Kizil
Tepe, borders its extended summit. This, however, does
not consist of a uniform level, but is separated by an intervening-
flat depression, so as to form three distinct terraces, of
which the southern one is about 200 feet higher than the
northern. This hill, situated at a distance of about nine miles
from Kars and two from the Grreat Yagni, completely stops
the road from Kurukdere to that fortress. It is very pro-
bable that the information upon which it had not only been
strongly fortified and garrisoned by Turkish infantry, but was
also armed with twenty cannon of heavy calibre, was received
from spies. The honour of taking by assault this commanding
point was conferred upon the 2nd Brigade of the Moscow
Grenadiers, under Major- General Count Grabbe, and eight
battalions detached from Ardahan-for that purpose, under
General Komaroff . This gallant officer, who had been slightly
wounded on the 25th of August, has since recovered. His
fellow- sufferer, General Tshadtchewadze, wounded on the
same day, had also reassumed his command of our whole
cavalry. Three battalions, which, as a rule, garrison the
fortress of Alexandropol, had also been ordered to Karajal,
to cover the camp and headquarters, and to form the reserve
of the 2nd Brigade of the 70th Division, which, as I have
stated above, had nothing to do but to check an improbable
offensive movement of the Turks against our left wing oppo-
site the Kizil and the Yagni Tepes.
Tlie general object apparently was to carry out a complete turn-
544 WAE CORRESPONDENCE.
ino- movement on both hostile wings, either to surround
Mukhtar Pacha entirely or to cut off his communication with
Kars. Could this have "been effectually managed, no doubt
he would have been compelled to surrender with his army
within a few days, for, his supplies of ammunition and pro-
visions being in danger of immediate exhaustion, he must
either have broken through the Russian lines, or tried to
make his way with disbanded troops across the Russian
territory, in the hope of joining his comrade, Ismael Hakki
Pacha, who is still entrenched before Igdyr.
After this explanation, let me come to the events which I
witnessed in following General Loris Melikoff's staff. The
troops ordered for the advance started from their camps at
eio-ht o'clock in the evening of the 1st inst. At three o'clock
precisely the next morning yve followed, riding at a moderate
speed, to the south-west on a country track over the vast
plain. Our way was lit by the waning moon and countless
stars shining with intense brilliancy. A cold wind made our
trip by no means pleasant, as it brought the temperature near
to the freezing-point. The staff consisted of about fifty
persons — general officers, aides-de-camp, and servants —
escorted by three sotnias of Cossacks from the Caucasus, not
armed with lances, but accoutred and dressed like genuine
Circassians. The ground, in appearance almost level, is in
fact cut through at intervals by a few rocky ravines, between
which lie long- stretching undulations rising gradually towards
the south. After two hours and a half of wearisome riding, we
arrived at dawn of day at an eminence some 150 feet above
the flat-topped ridge of the rising ground called the Kaback
Tepe (Pumpkin Hill).
Hitherto no reports of firearms had reached us. But from the
top of this commanding point, at half -past five, sharp and
general firing suddenly struck our ear. To our right and left
the roar of the cannons, and the sharp, dry, knocking, rat-
tling of the musketry came down, sounding in the distance like
the noise produced by the w^ork of some hundred road-makers,
breaking flint-stones in a re-echoing hall. The principal
object of attack, the Little Yagni, rising now clear in sight,
frowned over the plains of Kars like an impregnable fortress.
Its summit was surrounded with breastworks, ditches, rifle-
pits, and blinded batteries. The Moscow Grenadiers and the
Ardahan Division were already supposed to be at work. I
say supposed, because in fact they were not. On seeing from
the Kaback Tepe some forty guns firing with a range of three
miles, at earthworks which were prudently left empty by the
Turks, it seemed to me that the attack lacked the character
LIMITED UTILITY OF SHELL-FIRE. 545
whicli was likely to secure victory. Had the infantry been
led immediately to the assault in tirailleur lines before the
dawn of day, without firing a single round they would have
carried that hill, I am sure, within half an hour. In the way
the attack was conducted it was obvious that the enemy, who,
judging by the number of his tents, had there about 3,000
men, had time to bring all his available means to the
defences.
I have not the slightest doubt that the twelve hours' cannonad-
ing did no harm whatever to the earthworks, and inflicted
only trifling losses on the garrison, for they had for the most
part retired to the sides of the hill that were out of range.
To our left, the impetuous General Heimann had already
hurled his division in skirmishing lines against the Aladja
mountain, and its southern continuation, the Awly-yer hill,
separated from it by the upper part of the Subatan ravine.
The incessant sharp volleys gave evidence that the Turkish
main force had been concentrated there. It was soon clear
also that a direct assault on those rocky steeps and terraces,
strengthened by numerous entrenchments and stone barri-
cades, had no better chance of succeeding to-day than on
previous occasions. Within the first half an hour it was
clear that the carefully elaborated plan of operations again
combined all the faults of previous tactics, magnified,
moreover, by the absence of that dash which, at the be-
ginning of the present campaign, was characteristic of this
army.
Some one seems to have suggested, and brought others to believe,
that in this breech-loading time an assault by infantry is
obsolete and unnecessary, and that all war might, with less
effusion of blood, be just as well, or better, done by the
artillery alone. Such, unhappily, seems to be the erroneous
idea at headquarters. Yet, of all the shells which I have
had the opportunity of watching here, fired on our own or
on the Turkish side, not a single one caused damage worth the
pains and the powder. When they burst in the earth it was
at such a depth that their weak charges were unable to over-
come its resistance, and, consequently, the fragments did not
fly off. They only exploded properly when the shell hap-
pened to strike on a rock or other hard substance. I have
not even heard that a single one of our soldiers has been killed
by the famous shrapnels, which, at all events, are much more
efficacious than simple grenades. At ridiculous distances of
above three miles they, too, are likely to produce little more
than an innocent shower of leaden drops. Anyhow, artillery
alone is not capable of dislodging such stubborn soldiers
546 ^VAR CORRESPONDENCE.
as the Turks are from the bottom of their deep rifle-jDits.
Further discussion on the subject would be preposterous, in
the face of a series of experiments which are everywhere
conclusive in favour of my assertion.
Our cannon still boomed at the rocks and the earth, while masses
of infantry were either idling as reserves in the depressions
of the ground, or were employed in a disastrous but useless
skirmishing with the enemy. For hours each tirailleur lay
behind a heap of stones, which he had previously piled up for
his shelter, and took a deliberate aim at some similarly pro-
tected adversary. Such fighting only kills and wounds, with-
out the hope of a useful result. At six o'clock in the morning
this state of things was on both wrings as clear as the rising
sun, whose rays gilded the glorious white crown of Mount
Ararat. In the centre before us stood, three miles off, cutting
the blue sky with its regular conical profile, Grreat Yagni. It
covered the front of Mukhtar Pacha's centre and left wing,
commanding the plain before them, and enjoyed the repu-
tation of impregnability, since at different times various
Russian assaults on its steep slopes had been repulsed with
considerable loss. From its foot to its top it was covered
with rifle-pits and ditches in three superposed rows, cut in
conformity with the configuration of the ground in projecting
and re-entering angles.
The prospects of success there appeared, indeed, so very ^Door,
that it was considered by the Russian staff useless to attempt
the conquest of that natural fortress. Therefore only a
demonstration, supported by a brigade and two batteries, Avas
intended against it, calculated to distract the enemy's attention
from the more serious attacks on the Little Yagni. On
examining through our glasses the greater hill, we found that
its garrison vf as exceedingly feeble. The breastworks on its
base and its middle were not manned at all, and even the
fortifications bordering the top plateau were only very insuf-
ficiently armed, as was proved by the spasmodic and uncon-
nected rifle firing and the apparent absence of cannon. On
learning this Greneral Loris Melikoff ordered a general assault
on the hill. From three sides the troops advanced merrily in
skirmishing lines, with supports and reserves, cheering as they
passed their commanding Greneral, who spoke to them some
encouraging words. The cannons, redoubling their firing,
flung shrapnel after shrapnel to the top. An hour afterwards
the whole hill was swarming with grenadiers, who steadily
climbed up its steeps, despite the frantic firing of its
defenders. At eight o'clock the Turkish battalion on the
summit of the Great Yagni had ceased to exist. Our men
CAPTURE OF THE GREAT YAGXI. 647
had entirely occupied the impregnable hill, and were waving-
joyonsly their caps and muskets.
While this was being accomplished, the indifferent cannonading
on the right, between our batteries and those on the Little
Yagni, was still going on. It might have continued for a
century, and nothing would have come of it. As soon as it
bacame evident that the men on the top of Great Yagni were
genuine Russians and not Turks, as some of us still supposed,
the staff rode off in order to inspect the conquered position,
and to decide the further course of operations now possible
through so brilliant a beginning. The hill was rather too
steep for our horses, and we rode round it to the right, over
the plain two miles wide which separates it from Little Yagni.
What in the world had we to do with that Little Yagni ?
Had it been blocked up after the defeat of Mukhtar Pacha's
main army, its defenders must have surrendered within three
days from want of water. The opinions on that point were
nnanimous among all the officers. The task of shutting in
the garrison of Kars — at the utmost 6,000 men — ought to have
been entrusted to a single brigade, which might have occu-
pied and fortified the heights contiguous to Grreat Yagni, and
opposite to Little Yagni. When our staff passed by, one of
our infantry regiments had already been deployed in skir-
mishing order, and was engaged with that garrison. Besides,
strong bodies of our numerous cavalry, commanding that
plain, challenged in vain the Turkish irregular horsemen. All
their ferocious Circassians, disgusted on account of their
receiving neither pay nor food, had left Mukhtar's camp
in a wholesale desertion a fortnight ago. Only worth-
less, cowardly Kurds remained for the sake of murder and
plundering.
All of a sudden the Turkish heavy battery on the top of Little
Yagni changed its mark. Cutting the air with portentous
howling', a well-aimed shell struck in 'the very midst of the
squad of Cossacks forming our vanguard, throwing the earth
high up. A horse with empty saddle sprang about bewildered,
but his stunned rider, recovering his senses, caught him,
quickly mounted, and joined his troop at a gallop. Old
General Loris Melikoff, keeping his horse in the same steady
pace as before, did not seem to care for such trifles as shells
and the stray rifle-bullets humming around us. Taking the
lead of his staff, with his green Mohammedan standard
embroidered with red inscriptions in Arabic letters flying
before him, he gave an example of cold-blooded courage to his
officers. Almost immediately a shell whizzed by and struck
the ground, bursting some twenty yards behind our partv.
i\ N 2
548 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Then came another and another, all passing over ns, till at
last one fell only five yards off the very centre of our crowd.
The officers, hnddling together nevertheless, received the
noisy failure with a scornful hurrah.
A few seconds more, and another big shell burst right amidst
our staff, perhaps only one yard behind General Loris
Melikoff's horse. Earth and small stones flew about. For an
instant, as the foremost part of the crowd disappeared in the
dust, I thought the commanding General killed. He, how-
ever, rode quietly on and smiled, as a somewhat fainter
hurrah accompanied the bursting of the iron monster. It
had grazed the right side of Lieutenant Petroff's face, and
the pressure of the air made him deaf on that side. His
cheek became swollen, and severe headache ensued. This
was the only accident we had to complain of. No other
officer was wounded or contused. Some of the horses, how-
ever, were scratched or bruised a little by the earth and the
pebbles. The shell itself produced no effect in the middle of
such a crowd of horsemen, and the fragments found their
grave on the spot where they intended to dig ours. A few
minutes afterwards we were out of dangerous range.
As we wheeled round into the valley, 400 yards wide^
which separates Great Yagni from the bulk of the Aladja
Mountain, two regiments of cavalry dashed at full speed into
the plain, where the Turkish battalions from Kars were
engaged with our skirmishers. Of course, I expected that
they would sweep like an avalanche over that dry, level
ground, and cut down in a gallant charge the enemy's scat-
tered soldiers. As far as I could see no such thing happened.
The cautious warriors, when the bullets began to tell on
them, lost much of their pluck, and placing their confidence
I'ather in their muskets than their broadswords, indulged in a
skirmishing entertainment. Afterwards I heard of their
achievements, and how they had slain hundreds of Nizams and
Bashi-Bazouks, but I had not the good fortune to see this
feat of arms. Presently, four Red- Cross men carried a man
on a litter to the ambulance in the rear. We went up to the
patient and discovered that he was not, as we thought, a
Russian, but a wounded Turk. All our soldiers are well
acquainted with the fact that the Turks kill, torture, and
mutilate every Russian prisoner, yet they cannot murder in
stupid, fanatic hatred, a helpless suffering wretch, although
the inexorable law of retaliation seems to demand it. All
the Turkish prisoners, some 140 — wounded and unwounded
— were kindly treated and well attended to in my presence.
At the time when we had reached about the middle of the
A LOST OPPORTUNITY. 549
valley, from which a road, cut in zigzags, leads to the summit
of Great Yagni, Yictorj turned her smiling face towards the
Hussian commander, but he disdained the opportunity, and
listened to Greneral Heimann's opinion.
Opposite Great Yagni runs a high barren ridge, sloping gradu-
ally upward to a fiat-topped summit called the Awly-Yer,
which is severed from the Aladja Mountain by the Subatan
ravine, about two miles above the village of Hadji Veli Koi.
This commanding point — the most important of the whole
Turkish position, and subsequently well fortified — was lite-
rally inaccessible from the plain at the foot of the Aladja,
towards which it falls off some 1,500 feet in a succession of
■ steep gradients and perpendicular rocks. At its base the
Turks had concentrated their main force ; and Mukhtar,
relying on the strength of Great Yagni, had neglected to
occupy with the necessary troops the summit of the Awly-
Yer. This fact had been ascertained by our cavalry patrols.
Two squadrons of Cossacks had even remained for two
hours at Yeli Koi, a village situated to the south of that
^elevation, right across Mukhtar's only line of retreat, where
they met not a single Turkish soldier. The Pacha, moreover,
was utterly unable to send a sufficient force quickly enough
to the Awly-Yer, because he was closely pressed in front by
the 2nd Brigade of the Caucasian Grenadiers, under Major-
General von Schack, a Prussian by birth and education. Six
of our battalions had just descended the Great Yagni, six
others were near at hand, and had they been momentarily
withdrawn from the superfluous attack on the Little Yagni,
it is probable that they would have taken the Awly-Yer
almost without loss from the side of its totally unoccupied
southern ridge. Possibly such movements did not enter the
original plan ; but plans are worthless when the fighting
has once begun, and all depends on the capacity to seize
favourable opportunity.
It seems that General Loris Melikoff asked an officer whether
he knew the road to Yezin Koi. The Awly-Yer was obviously
the only tactical object worth storming at any cost ; it was
the magic point from which the fate of the day was suspended
by a thread. Its occupation by the Russians would have
unavoidably led to the destruction of Mukhtar Pacha's entire
army. Its very key, the Great Yagni, was already in our
hands. At this moment, unhappily. General Heimann, in an
interview with Loris Melikoff, was pleased to assert formally
that his troops, advancing from the Subatan plain, were
quite able to finish taking the Awly-Yer, as they had done
with the Great Yagni, and that, therefore, our available force
550 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
miglit be advantageously employed against tlie Little Yagni
and the garrison of Kars. This strange opinion prevailed.
General Loris Melikoff's genius was impaired by pernicious
advice. His whole staff recognized it, but nobody ventured
to utter an objection. Greneral Heimann, of course, did not
take the Awly-Yer as he had promised, in his sanguine
fashion, but was, on the contrary, repulsed with considerable
loss ; while the three brigades ordered to assail tlie Little
Yagni had no better chance. Even had we had a reserve of
50,000 men more they too would never have succeeded in the
attempt of taking those fortifications and works by assaulting
them. This was conspicuous enough at nine o'clock in the
morning, and the wisest plan Avould have been then to-
withdraw the troops, for the opportunity had been missed.
The staff turned its back to the Awly-Yer, and followed the
zigzags of the road which the Turks had recently made for
the convenience of the garrison on the summit of the Grreat
Yagni. Company after company, as they passed us descending,
cheered the commanding Greneral, who wished them good luck.
On the hillside, as we went up, lay a young gi'enadier, moaning
as he tried to lift his head and rest on his elbow to answer
the questions and receive the consolations of the GeneraL
Overcome, however, by weakness and pain, he fell back and
shut his eyes, while the blood still gushed from the wound in
his side. Higher up a dead Turk, stretched across the narrow
track on his face, compelled us to make a circuit. On reaching
at last the level top of Great Yagni a ghastly sight struck our
eyes. All the pits and ditches around were filled Avith the
corpses of Turks. The dead were almost all shot through the
head, because the remaining parts of their bodies had been
sheltered by the parapets. Here they lay as they fell, on
their backs or faces, side by side, or one above the other. A
negro with grinning teeth hung right across a white soldier^
and his long arms stretched out over the rocky abyss. Some
preserved the ferocious expression which they had borne
when still alive, and lay with clenched fists and distorted
limbs ; others, calm and quiet, looked like stone. In a pit^
opposite each other, sat two softas. Though in the uniform
of soldiers, they were easily recognized as religious students
by the white muslin band tied around their fezzes. One had
his skull laid open by a shell fragment, the other was shot
through the temple. Both had obviously been killed by the
same shrapnel. Some hundred dead bodies encumbered the
trenches ; others lay strewn over the hillside.
When we came to the top the Russians had already buried
their own killed, and had removed all the wounded and
SCENE IN A CAPTURED REDOUBT. 551
prisoners. About 140 Turks had. been taken alive. We
learnt from a soldier that the famous Kara Fatima, the Turkish
heroine, had met with a fatal end. They said that she lay in
one of the captured tents, shot through the heart. Together
with an officer I sought her all over the hill, but I did not
find her ; but some asserted that, on the persistent entreaty
of the Turkish prisoners, she had been buried immediately
by compassionate Russian soldiers. The number of tents on
the hill justified the supposition that it had only been
defended by about 450 men. Two Turkish officers were
among the dead. One stood still upright in the trenches,
leaning over the breastwork, with his right arm stretched out
as if in the action of firing a revolver. The other, a stout,
obese fellow, lay on his back before his own tent. He had
been killed before he had time to get on his coat, which he
had slung over his huge shoulders.
We had a magnificent look-out from the Great Yagni over the
whole field of battle. Kars, a grey heap of stones, uninviting
like the remainder of this melancholy country, rose in sight.
From one of its northern detached works — I believe Fort
Mouchlis — a monster cannon thundered at intervals, sending
its shots in the direction of the Little Yagni. The troops were
still wasting their forces against well-armed natural strong-
holds, when it would have been a comparatively easy thing
to cut the army off from their supplies. I cannot account for
the persistence with which our General always engages the
enemy's whole front line, with the result that we are every-
where too weak, and have nowhere strong reserves at hand
which alone are likely to secure victory at the favourable
moment. So the battle, very similar to previous ones which
had been fought on the same ground, was protracted from
hour to hour to no purpose. It was the accustomed style
of tirailleur engagements at respectable distances, without
moving, accompanied by the annoying but harmless noise of
200 cannon. We descended the Great Yagni on the opposite
side, resting at an eminence at its foot. As I knew before-
hand that nothing would come of our supreme efforts,
because the same causes must necessarily bring about the
same results, the same faults the same failures, I did not
wonder when General Heimann asked for reinforcements,
while the Little Yagni blunder neutralized about 16,000 men.
At last, in the afternoon, the smoke of cannons was seen on the
ridge of the Aladja Dagh itself. It came from General
Sholkownikoff's brigade, Avhich had thus succeeded in threat-
ening the rear of Mukhtar Pacha's camp near Subatan ; and,
in the case of his discomfiture, was ready to prevent his
552 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
escape across that mountain. Mnklitar's very existence was
threatened by this dangerous turning movement. As he,
however, does not lack experience with regard to unexpected
surprises in the mountains, to which he had been accustomed
during his prolonged struggle with the Montenegrins, he was
able to parry the stroke with remarkable skill and success.
It may be, too, that he knew, through the instrumentality of
his spies, the whole Russian plan. Only so can it be explained
that he paid little attention to the important Great Yagni
position, while he covered the Little Yagni with men and
guns in profusion. As he was also well acquainted with the
fact that General Sholkownikoff's movement had no serious
purport, and was meant to be a mere demonstration, he not
only took no heed of it, but planned a counter-action which
was likely to compel a less circumspect adversary to surrender.
As it was, however. General Sholkownikoft* retired without
losing a prisoner.
The day came to an end, and with it the battle. Weary after a
sleepless night, the members of the staft' sat down and talked
together, or endeavoured to slumber a little with the earth as
a mattress, and the rocks as pillows. We had nothing to eat
and drink, but nobody was very hungry, because of the
fatigue and nervous excitement. Waiting for a result, but
despairing of success, we were longing for an end, when, on a
sudden, a well-known howl broke the air above us. A second
afterwards, a smash and crack amidst our browsing horses
and yawning Cossacks announced that we were within range
of the enemy's guns. A few minutes elapsed, and there was
another howl and another smash and burst. These shots
came from the invisible summit of the Little Yagni, at least
four miles off. Everybody thought it wise to retreat from so
inhospitable a spot. The whole army was ordered to bivouac
that night on the positions which had been conquered or
occupied during the day, in order to renew the battle on the
following morning. Not admiring this plan, I left the staff,
and made my way back to the Karajal camp. The poor staff'
officers, a polite and interesting body of princes, counts,
barons, generals, and colonels, made themselves as comfort-
able as possible in the cold air, on the hard, stony ground,
without shelter, water, and fuel. Moreover, the poor horses
had not been watered for the last twenty-four hours. There
is 'not a drop of water to be found for ten miles around Great
Yagni, with the exception of the Subatan streamlet still in
Mukhtar's grasp.
General Loris Melikoff sent two battalions as a garrison to
Great Yagni, ordering them and the sappers to strengthen
A TURKISH ATTACK. 553
the entrencliineiits with additional earthworks. In case of
need, two divisions were near at hand to support the troops
on its summit. I could not but suppose that, despite all
hindrances, the Russians would keep their dearly bought
conquest at any cost. The water question was a very serious
"--^one indeed, especially as the road on the other side was
exposed to the Turkish firing. Still we had plenty of beasts
of burden, including thousands of camels, especially fitted for
this sort of transport. On the following morning, the 3rd
instant, I rode to the Karajal observatory, to examine the
battle-field of the previous day on our left wing, which I had
not seen yet. There the Grand Duke, his son, and his
brilliant staff, with the field-telegraph office at their imme-
diate disposal, had been waiting some hours. Hitherto
nothing remarkable had occurred. The outposts of the 40th
Division, under General Lazareff's able command, had had a
little indifferent skirmishing at the Kizil Tepe.
At half- past two o'clock, p.m., I saw through my field-glass
three strong lines of Turkish tirailleurs, one behind the
other, advancing, rifles in hand, at a quick pace. They occu-
pied a front of at least three miles in length, w^ere preceded
by two batteries, and followed by compact supports and
reserves, all arranged in perfect order. The whole force must
have consisted of about 15,000 men, having their right wing
covered by the Kizil Tepe. It was obviously their intention
to make a desperate attack on the Karajal camp, and they
seem to have supposed that the whole Russian forces had been
brought over to our right wing. They were the more led to
believe this as on the jDrevious day no signs of troops had
been shown here. General Lazareff, with the 40th Division,
backed by a regiment of the garrison of Alexandropol and
numerous horsemen, lay in ambush for them during the
course of that day. The Russians were quite prepared to
receive the assaulting foe. Their soldiers lay in rows con-
cealed in the folds of the ground, or behind pyramidal heaps
of loose stones. Ostensibly, only two battalions and a battery,
together with some cavalry, leaving the Karajal position,
marched to the fight. The Turks, encouraged by this appa-
rent weakness, hastened their steps. Their batteries galloped
ahead, and opened a brisk shell-fire on those of the Russians,
who replied steadily with only eight guns. At the same
time, the Kizil Tepe flung shell after shell at all moving
objects on the field — ammunition carts. Red Cross waggons,
cavalry, herds, and labourers — fortunately without hurting
anything but the soil. The skirmishers, too, rattled away
while the Turkish infantry drew nearer and nearer, withou.t
554 WAR CORRESPONDEXCE.
firing a round. Thej dived down into tlie ravines and re-
appeared, always resolutely advancing against the Russian
cannons, which had in the meanwhile been reinforced by
another battery of eight pieces. Although both were
exposed to the bullets, they made no preparations for limber-
ing up, but continued their slow firing. The Turkish
batteries were soon silenced by the advance of their own men,
who masked them.
Then at last the enemy saw the sunbeams dancing on the levelled
rifle barrels peeping behind stones and sods. Now, at once,
he began firing with frantic rapidity, but did not slacken his
BGLOving ahead. Only stray shots from sharpshooters answered
the challenge. Finally, however, the Russians lost their
temper, and, returning the fire volley for volley, showed a line
of battle of no less extent and power than that of their adver-
saries. Then they rose together and faced the shower of lead,
advancing and firing, firing and advancing, line after line,
running from cover to cover, but always moving ahead, right
down on the enemy. Every soldier seemed to believe that
the Grand Duke's eyes were especially fixed on him. It was re-
freshing to see how this division, in contrast with the monotonous
unproductive skirmishing of their comrades on the previous,
day, went on without a moment's hesitation, with admirable
and matchless courage. The Turks became demoralized by
this unexpected resistance, supported by forces quite equal to
theirs. Their advance was checked, and came to a standstill.
Soon they retrograded slowly, but always firing. It was of no
avail. They were driven back irresistibly from undulation to
undulation, till at last they turned their backs and ran, seeking
shelter behind their pits and breastworks. But again and
again the Russians followed and dislodged them at a rush with
the bayonet, compelling them to recede, either step by step
or in short runs. The Turks became, from minute to minute,
more disheartened. Soon they had had enough of the game,
and shortly after nightfall were in precipitous flight towards
their fortified camp around Subatan, at the foot of the Aladja
Dagh. Greneral Lazareff pursued them fast, even through the
dark. His lanterns were the incessant sparkling of the long
line of firing rifles, and the occasional broad flash of the
cannons. When he had lost sight and feeling of the
frightened enemy in that pitch-dark night, the firing died
gradually out, and the slaughter came to an end.
The Turks, completely routed, took refuge behind their entrench-
ments, while the Russians, after having thrown up breast-
works and pits, passed the night on the ground they had so
[ gallantly conquered. Their losses were severe. The 40th
A RUSSIAN AMBUSH. OOO
Division had nearly 700 killed and wounded in this three
hours' fighting, whereas the Turks had left about 400 dead on
that part of the field which the Russians chose to occupy.
I was at a loss to understand why General Heimann, who
commanded to the right of Greneral Lazareif, did not assist
him. Two regiments of cavalry could have outflanked and
annihilated the scattered enemy at the proper moment. Be
this as it may, I have not yet witnessed here a more judiciously
combined and a more brilliantly conducted affair than that of
the afternoon of the 3rd instant. It was carried on in the
true military style. Careful plans and brave troops concurred
in bringing it to a very satisfactory result. It is to be regretted
that the time was too short for a full display of the General's
abilities and his soldier's courage, as otherwise I do not doubt
the camp at Subatan and the Kizil Tepe would both have
been taken. On both sides there was no interminable, never-
progressing cannonading, no timid skirmishing. The guns
did not fire a minute longer than was necessary to introduce
the action, and the tirailleurs, with most laudable pluck, were
eager to settle the question of victory or defeat at once.
Every single man had visibly made up his mind either to die
or to conquer.
General Lazareff must be proclaimed the hero of the battle, and
the Grand Duke was highly gratified with this striking proof
of his ability. For the 4th a general renewed assault on the
Little Yagni was announced. This seemed incredible after
the bitter experiments on the 2nd. Luckily the rumour has
not been confirmed by events. As the sta:^ had not returned
yet, I presumed that something important was in view. I at
first intended to ride directly to the foot of the Great Yagni,
but learned that our headquarters had been transferred to the
Kaback Tepe. Everybody in the camp laboured under the
belief that the Great Yagni had, once for all, remained in the
possession of the Russian troops, and that the line of com-
munication of the Turkish Army with Kars had been
efficaciously interrupted. My astonishment was, therefore^
equal to my disappointment on being informed at the Kaback
Tepe bivouac that the Great Yagni hill and all the surround-
ing valuable positions, which the Russians had conquered on
the 2nd with so considerable an effusion of blood, had been
finally given up on the plea that it was difficult, if not
impossible, to provide the troops and animals there with
water. It is true that both had undergone, during the last
two days,- extreme hardships and privations. On the other
hand, however, it would be difficult to deny that the incon-
venience might have been mitigated easily enough, as thou-
556 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
sands of carriages and baasts of burden, camels and others, in
the Commissariat Service, are at the General's disposal. The
Turks, moreover, had made, two months since, the necessary
arrangement for the proper sustenance of their garrison on
the summit of the Great Yagni. What they had managed
to overcome the Russians might have overcome too. I don't
know why the system of digging Abyssinian wells has never
been tried in this barren countiy, where water must be found
at a certain depth. The rich cold springs spouting out of the
Kurukdere ravine indicate the presence of large supplies,
filtered down from the high mountains all around. The
question, anyhow, is worth an attempt.
At the Kaback Tepe a little shelling and skirmishing was going
on without visible effect. Mukhtar Pacha stood triumphantly
with his staff on the top of the Great Yagni, which he was
allowed to occupy without spending a single drop of his
soldiers' blood. He has, after a narrow escape, due only to
unaccountable blunders, the right to boast that he has succeeded
in stopping the Russian advance. The Russian staff has since
returned home to headquarters. Whether another effort will
be made on the Turks, whether it will be more wisely planned
and conducted than the previous ones, and arrive at any sub-
stantial result, nobody can tell yet. Bad weather has now set
in, the troops have been withdrawn to their former quarters,
with the exception of General Cotint Grabbe's brigade, which
is still waiting on the Kaback Tepe for further orders. I
believe that something grand is projected, and then only
it wdll be decided whether the actual campaign will come to a
premature conclusion or not. Should, however, the previous
very conspicuous faults be repeated, I cannot anticipate much
glory and success.
The system of scattering all available troops, say 60,000 men, over
a length of eighteen miles, cannot but lead to discomfiture in
tactics as well as strategy. No sufficient reserves are at hand,
and, if they were, would be too far off to act immediately on
the enemy's weak point. Two such points were discovered in
the course of the late battle : Yezinkoi and the rear of the
Aladja position, where General Skolkownikoff operated.
Both advantages if followed up would have led, no doubt, to
an entire victory. Where was the coup cVoeil ? Where were
the reserves ? Why was the pluck shown on the next day by
General Lazareft* only ? No concentrated action of artillery,
no sweeping dash of the cavalry on the broad plain, and, for
all that, heavy losses. We had, according to the latest
accounts, 3,360 men hors de combat^ among them 960 killed
and 2,400 wounded. We lost only two prisoners. Fifty-four
i
THE DECISIVE BATTLE BEFORE KARS. 557
officers were wounded, a small and insignificant proportion
compared with the loss of men as the result of other engage-
ments. One colonel of the artillery has been killed.
Whether other officers were killed and how many, I have not
ascertained jet. Spies and deserters, whose accounts, how-
ever, are subject to suspicion because they want to procure a
flattering reception for themselves, declare the losses of the
Turks to amount to about 8,000 men. Two hundred and
forty of their prisoners are in our hands. Reinforcements
are again demanded, but only locally.
The experience of the fighting on the 2nd and 3rd of October
was not, however, lost. It was resolved by General Melikoff to
attack the Awly-Yer (the Acolias Hill of the Russians, the
Evliatepisse of the Turkish despatches, and the Olya Tepe of
many maps), indicated in the preceding letter of our Corre-
spondent as the real key to the Turkish position, and to prepare
for that operation by sending General Lazareff to the rear of
Mukhtar Pacha's left. With this object General Lazareff
accomplished a march of forty miles by the ruins of Ani, until
he had reached the heights of Orlok, thus out-flanking the
Turks. On the 14th of October General Lazareff attacked the
Turkish left in the rear, compelling it to fall back in the direc-
tion of Kars and Yezinkoi. This done, it was decided on the next
day to assail in front the positions of Ahmed Mukhtar Pacha, of
which the fortified hill of Acolias formed the key. After prepar-
ing the way by a well-directed cannonade, the Russians advanced
to the assault. In the afternoon General Heimann, with three
regiments and a battalion of riflemen, made a brilliant attack
upon Mount Acolias, which he succeeded in carrying. By the
Russian occupation of this position, Ahmed Mukhtar Pacha's
army was cut in two. That part of his army which retreated
in the direction of Kars was attacked by the troops under
General Lazareff and subsequently pursued by General Heimann.
Towards five o'clock in the afternoon the whole Turkish Army
was completely defeated, leaving an enormous number of killed,
seven thousand prisoners, and four guns. The three Turkish
divisions forming the Turkish right wing were entirely sur-
rounded and driven out of their positions on the Aladja Dagh
with great loss, and at eight o'clock in the evening were com-
5o8 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
pelled to surrender. Thirty- tAvo guns and an immense quantity
of war material were captured. Ahmed Mnkhtar fled to
Kars.
The following letter from the Correspondent at the Russian
headquarters describes the preparations for the battle of the 15th
of October : —
^ Camp Karajal, Octoher ISth. — Since the 2nd instant con-
tinuous fighting has been going on here. After the sanguinary '
engagement at Subatan on the 3rd, however, the encounters
have not been of a serious character, and are, on either side,
mere demonstrations, intended to draw the enemy's attention
from the real object of operations. In opposition to our former
inactivity during the best part of the season, due chiefly to the
insufficient number of troops, a busy military spirit now pre-
vails in our army, and judicious combinations are on the point
of being carried into effect with the view of outwitting
Mukhtar Pacha ; though it certainly must be admitted that he
is not the man to be circumvented by ordinary means, espe-
cially while he sticks with unshaken tenacity to his stronghold
on the rocks. Still one crushing power is brought forth against
him, w^hich to counterbalance is a difficult task even for a
great genius — overwhelming numbers.
Mukhtar Pacha's once considerable host is fast melting away,
because his Government are bending the bow of enduring-
patience, peculiar to their enthralled populations, to the point of
breaking it. The Circassians, unable to find anything worth
plundering in the locality with which to sustain themselves and
their horses, constrained by hunger, have long ago left the
camp in crowd. The mustafiz and redif s, most of them men who
were the only support of their families, have either openly done
the same, or, asking for a short leave of absence, on the plea of
fetching their own provisions, have never again returned. The
Turks, besides, it is well known, can endure anything but cold,
which is likely to tell severely on them in a fortnight hence,
if, as is probable, this reckless system of compelling the army
to provide for its wants at the expense of the country where
it is quartered should be continued, it is easy to foresee that
their resistance must very soon crumble to pieces. Still the
Russian Commander-in-Chief is not at all willing to leave
things as they are and to entrust to fate or General Winter
the reduction of the Turkish forces. Although the attack on
the 3rd instant may be called in a certain sense a failure,
inasmuch as the routing and dislodging of Mukhtar Pacha
yalup: of the field-telegraph. 559
did not directly follow, as had been confidently hoped by
our leading strategists, yet that battle and the following
series of engagements have led to a state of things synony-
mous with victory.
The total losses of Mukhtar Pacha are estimated by spies at
above 8,000 men, owing particularly to the several desperate
assaults on General Sholkownikoff's brigade, which had
occupied the summit of Mount Aladja, in the rear of his very
headquarters, and to the discomfiture inflicted on him by
General Lazareff before Subatan on the 3rd. During the
night between the 9th and 10th instant the Mushir secretly
withdrew from his fortified advanced position in the plain,
together with the Kizil Tepe and Great Yagni hills, and retired
to his former entrenched encampments, half way up the Aladja.
It may be that the turning movement which the dashing
General Lazareff, with twenty-six battalions, forty-eight field-
pieces, and six regiments of cavalry, is directing from the south-
east on Mukhtar's line of communication with Kars, and even-
tually Erzeroum, has induced him to concentrate his scattered
and diminished troops. On the other hand, it can hardly be
supposed that he had been fully informed by his spies, never
paid as they are, of that hazardous, but certainly very daring
and efficient operation, on the date of his retreat, when it was
in its very beginning, and even if he knew of it he may have
considered it as a mere cavalry raid.
The startling fact that a field- telegraph line has been established
without interruption from the Karajal headquarters to
General Lazareff's division, following him all along his cir-
cuitous march of at least forty miles through a mountainous,
hostile country, completely in the rear of the actual Turkish
position, gives ample proof of the fact that the Pacha is
ignorant of that double-edged move on this great chessboard.
The telegTaphic communication was indeed once inter-
rupted, and much anxiety was felt about it, but within two
hours it was re-established. The wind, and not mali-
cious Turks, had thrown down some of the poles. This
inference seems correct, therefore, that the Pacha's hasty
retreat was rather prompted by the comparatively enormous
losses he had sustained, either from the relentless fighting
during the week previous to his withdrawal, or from whole-
sale desertions, than by General Lazareff's intrepid interpo-
sition. Had his valuable Circassian scouts not disappeared,
driven away in despair and disgust, they would have assuredly
succeeded in fathoming the Russian design, or at least in
destroying the telegraph line, which now enables a simul-
taneous movement of our two columns to be carried out, the
560 WAR CORRESPOyDEXCE.
object of wliicli is to envelop Muklitar Pacha and compel liim
either to starve on his barren cold summits or to surrender.
Should Greneral Lazareff, whose whereabouts is still kept
secret, be directed to attack and occupy the Orlok summit
and Yezinkoi, while we assail the same points from this side
of the mountains, victory is probable, and Mukhtar Pacha
will then have to fight for his existence. If, on the contrary,
these operations should turn out to be only a sort of affected
strategy, without being followed by a tactical decisive stroke^
nothing can come out of it but a retreat in the mud when the
impending bad w^eather sets in here.
I hope that this time Greneral Lazareff's movements will not
be arrested or impaired by half -measure instructions, w'hich
render success impossible. Should the Mushir, despite his
circumspection and general sharpsightedness, be caught in
the meshes of the extensive strategic network thrown around
him, the siege of Kars and the loss of Armenia might be the
consequence. At all events, the Pacha's prospects are bad —
worse indeed than they have ever been before. The task of
extricating himself out of his internal and external difficulties,
without yielding his ground, is w^orthy of the highest military
talent, and, if successfully accomplished, Avould be a title to
glory for him. I have, how^ever, full faith in General Laza-
reff''s ability, courage, and resources.
The Kizil Tepe, on the conquest of w^hich Mukhtar Pacha, on the
25th of August, based a claim of victory, is now" again in
Russian hands. The entrenchments there are all of very neat
and careful workmanship, and prove the peculiar aptitude of
the Turks, or their advisers, for this branch of w^arfare.
Their guns — withdrawn, of course, before the surrender —
had all been placed in deep cuttings, and covered in
with double crossed rows of strong timber, with a
thick bed of earth on the top. How the Russian artil-
lerists could dream of dismantling such blindages and dis-
mounting the guns by firing at them from their favourite
distance of three or four miles, one is at a loss to understand.
The Russian staff, it seems, has come at last to a better
knowledge of the tactical importance of the Great Yagni,
and is now determined to keep it. Since the day before
yesterday a redoubt has been erected at its foot opposite the
Awly-Yer summit, and has been armed w4th cannon of heavy
calibre for the purpose of bombarding the enemy's camps
night and day. I hear them firing now. Mukhtar Pacha,
deeply disappointed at the constant progress of the Russian
earthworks, which proves on the Grand Duke's part a firm
resolution to maintain his hold there, had recourse to a
HIGH EXPECTATIONS. ^61
desperate assault. Before daybreak this morning lie marclied
out six battalions of volunteers, supported by reserves and
artillery, and hurled them against the Great Yagni. This
brigade stealthily advanced towards the new redoubt, and
would have surprised and taken it but for an accident. The
Russians, inconceivably careless as they sometimes are, had
not only neglected their outpost service, but had not even a
squad of Cossacks at hand for scouting and other useful pur-
poses. But, fortunately for them, at the very moment of the
Turkish attack, two other battalions arrived which had been
told off to relieve those on working duty. So three battalions
instead of one were able to act. Posted partly behind the
entrenchments, they received the assailants with a well-aimed,
quick fire, and compelled them, after an hour's fighting, to
retire in disorder, charging them wdth the bayonet. General
von Schack states that, had he had at his disposal a regiment
of cavalry, he would have annihilated them to the last man.
The Russian losses amount to only twenty-four men killed
and wounded. The Turks left 123 corpses on the field, and
may, in consequence, be estimated to have lost some 400 men.
Such engagements and tactical movements are only the
prelude to what is expected to take place when General
Lazareff shall have reached his destination, the Orlok sum-
mits or Yezinkoi. Then we hope the question of our invad-
ing or not invading Armenia will be definitely settled. His
horses are much fatigued by their long and difficult journey
across those mountains, and it is on these grounds that he is
advancing slowly. To-morrow, or the day after to-morrow,
however, we confidently expect a result. Whether it will
involve a great decisive battle, or will lead only to a series of
minor engagements, or to Mukhtar's retreat without his
accepting the challenge, will soon be decided.
P.S. — I have just spoken to one of the Turkish wounded
prisoners, a captain, aged about 45, who was taken this
morning before the Great Yagni Hill. His name is Osman,
and he is a native of Adrianople, which place he left six
years ago. He was struck on the thigh by a fragment of
stone, and suffered at first great pain. S'ow he feels a good
deal better, owing to the excellent medical treatment and the
careful attendance he is enjoying. As I know Adrianople
well, I had no difficulty in getting into his confidence. His
statement is as follows : — The Mushir had for a time made
up his mind to remain where he was around Subatan during
the coming winter, and had ordered for that purpose the
erection of earth huts for the troops, which were being built.
562 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
On seeing, however, the fast increasing number of Russians
threatening his flanks and rear, he thought it advisable to
concentrate his forces by retiring to the summits of the
Aladja, and abandoning all his advanced positions in the
plain. Mukhtar is well aware of General Lazareff's turning
movement, and has detached to meet him the Ferik (Lieu-
tenant- General) Selim Pacha, with fifteen battalions, who is
now occupied in fortifying the Orlok Mountain and Yezinkoi.
The Pacha's decision as to his eventual retreat to Kars will
depend upon the issue of the expected battle. The Turkish
lieutenant- colonel commanding the column of attack to-daj
has likewise been wounded, but was carried out of the turmoil
by some of his soldiers.
The following is a description by the same Correspondent of
the great Battle of Aladja Dagh, which at length decisively
and irrevocably determined the character of the campaign in
Armenia. It is followed by another account of the same battle
by the Special Correspondent with the Turks.
•^ Camp Karajal, Octoher 17th. — Mukhtar Pacha's army has
ceased to exist, I can state this truth on personal knowledge
of the operations by which the dissolution of the Turkish
force has been accomplished before my own eyes. The Otto-
man General, who had proudly kept his position for months
on the almost inaccessible mountains and hills opposite
Kurukdere, has been shattered against his own rocks.
I stated in my last letter from Karajal that General Lazareff, at
the head of 27 battalions, 40 guns, and six regiments of
cavalry, had directed a turning movement against Mukhtar
Pacha's rear with the view of cutting him off from Kars and
Erzeroum, and crushing him thus, once for all, between the
two principal portions of our army. His march across the
mountains was, of course, somewhat hampered by his cannons
and military train, which compelled him to seek and follow a
rather circuitous carriage road. He was at first guided by the
Arpa Tchai River down to Kotchiran. From here he passed
over to Dighur, where he left two battalions, and then,
wheeling round to the north-west, he chose for his mark the
Orlok Hill and Yezinkoi. This village, strongly entrenched,
secured Mukhtar's position and his communications with
Kars. I stated in my last letter that the Mushir, on hearing
of General Lazareff's serious movement, detached Selim
Pacha with fifteen battalions to meet him. It seems,
however, that he had reinforced a few days later these troops
lazareff's flank march. 563
with another division, entrusting the whole corps to the
command of his lieutenant, Raschid Pacha, President of the
Military Council, and now our prisoner.
Mukhtar's obvious intent was to weigh with all his available
forces on General Lazareff, trying to crush him or to compel
him to retreat whence he came, and then fall on the other
fraction of our army here. That he had this idea is ascertained
by the unanimous evidence of the prisoners, and it is, more-
over, in accordance with common sense. General Lazareff,
however, had in the meantime occupied on the 13th the
Oghur Hill, after a sharp engagement. Then he telegraphed
to the Grand Duke's headquarters that Mukhtar was before
him with superior forces, and he urged, therefore, that from
our side a simultaneous attack might be directed against the
Turkish lines. This message reached here precisely at three
o'clock on the morning of the 14th. The Commander-in-
Chief at once complied with Lazareff's request. I have already
pointed out the remarkable circumstance that a field telegraph
had been established with laudable celerity and regularity
throughout the length of that circuitous line of operations.
j Although it was only protected by Cossack picquets, it had
never been interrupted but once, by a mere accident, and for
two hours.
Our whole strategic plan was suspended on that thin wire. On
its strength depended the fate of this campaign in Armenia,
because it alone rendered an harmonious tactical action
possible which secured success, and without which we could
not hope to dislodge the enemy from his strongholds. The
Pacha, ignoring either this state of things, or, in his Turkish
prejudice against all innovations, scorning that peculiarly useful
modern contrivance, laid no stress on its establishment. He
found out subsequently that that wire was in fact around his
neck ready to strangle him at a moment's notice. And so it
did. The battle on the 2nd instant was, it seems, the most
efficient practical lesson taught to our strategists. They
recognized at last their former capital faults and blunders,
both with regard to general conception and to tactical details.
Generals Obruteneff and Gurstchin were yet experimenting
on the 2nd instant, when, in reference to the available force,
their plan was too complicated and extended. The visible
good effect of General Sholkownikoff's turning movement
then rendered it obvious in which direction it was best to act.
So that operation was again performed, but judiciously on a
larger scale, and aiming at more important points.
We had no unnecessary trouble, bloodshed, and neutralizing of
our forces before the impregnable Little Yagni Hill. We had
• 2
564 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
not abandoned again the Great Yagni, tlie guardian bastion
of Mnkhtar's front, but kept and fortified it. We did not
rely on Moliammedan cavalry scouts for the security of our
army and the watching of the enemy's doings, but closed
him in with two divisions, which established a solid curtain
of infantry double posts, with guards and regulars patrolling
before their encampments. It was at last universally
acknowledged that the Awly-Yer Hill was the enemy's centre
. pivot, and that the Grreat l^agni was doubtless the key to his
position. Its possession alone enabled us to attack that all-
important point. I have already stated in my last letter how
stupid it was on the part of the Turks to evacuate it. General
Heimann was charged to carry the Awly-Yer at any cost, and
had for that purpose the gallant division of the Caucasian
Grenadiers and 56 cannon at his disposal. The Moscow
Grenadiers, posted on his left, received orders to refrain
from acting until that hill was taken. They formed
the reserve, and observed the enemy's movenients on the
Aladja Dagh. Opposite this mountain a heavy battery of
24-pounders had since the 12th bombarded the enemy's camp
there night and day, at intervals of fifteen minutes, in order
to disturb it and harass the Turks. Our right wing was
covered by the Ardahan Brigade, under General Komaroff,
and some regiments of cavalry, which were intended to check
the garrison of Kars, and that of the Little Yagni.
Early in the morning of the 15th, at about five o'clock, his Imperial
Highness the Grand Duke and General Loris Melikoff left
with their staffs the Karajal camp, and proceeded to the
environs of Subatan, where the Moscow Division of Grena-
diers had their position. I was not ready to accompany
them, not having been informed in time of the news con-
cerning General Lazareff's message and the subsequent
intentions, thus I was only able to start about two hours later
together with the Russian Consul, Mr. Obermiiller, who
formerly exercised his functions in Erzeroum. We rode over
the well-known plain, stretching from the Karajal hills to the
Aladja Dagh, towards Subatan. We had no time to spare,
for sharp firing at the Awly-Yer attracted our attention.
There, I well knew, the fate of the day would be decided,
and therefore we were determined to reach that point as
quickly as possible. Distances here, though they appear
insignificant, are in fact enormous, because objects for esti-
mating them, such as trees, houses, &c., are utterly wanting.
One sees a hill before him of apparently small size, and is thus
inclined to judge it only a walk of an hour from the point of
observation, but on trying the distance one finds that it takes
THE RIDE TO THE BATTLE FIELD. oQo
three or four hours' fast riding to reach it. Then the little
hillock turns out to be a bulky cluster of plateaus and sum-
mits of some miles in extent.
We followed the foot of the Aladja. The guns placed on its
terraces flung from time to time some shells at our reserves
and the heavy battery, without doing any harm. None the
less they became somewhat annoying on account of their
disagreeable howl and the dry crack of their bursting. The
Awly- Yer, which soon stood threatening before us, had a more
serious, warlike aspect than its big neighbour. It was
encircled by two broad rings of white smoke — one around iis
basis, produced by the incessant firing of fifty- six cannons, and
the other, on its summit, by the musketry and artillery of the
Turks, and the bursting Russian projectiles. This time the
Russian gunners behaved well. They had placed their pieces
at the reasonable distance of 1,800 yards, and laying aside
the inefficient shells, concentrated a shrapnel shower on that
part of the enemy's front which had been selected to be assailed
by the storming battalions. Balls of white smoke, waving for
awhile in the calm air like balloons, indicated that the terrible
messengers of death and destruction had burst at the proper
point for sending fragments and bullets among the lines of the
defenders.
I observed how at once the musketry ceased after the bursting
on a certain spot, and only a few minutes afterwards it began
again, when living men had replaced the dead and wounded.
Three strong columns of Grenadiers lay in clusters on the
steepest parts of the northern side of the hill, as though
riveted to it. They were waiting there for final orders, in com-
parative security, because the Turks behind the breast- works
were unable to hit them. The latter could not venture to
stoop forward for that purpose without the risk of being shot
immediately by the Russian artillerymen or tirailleurs. In
this manner the fighting continued for three mortal hours, and
had apparently come to a standstill. Already the suspicion rose
in my mind that this engagement, like the former ones which
I had the opportunity of witnessing, would end without any
other result than that of mere slaughter. We thought it
convenient to rest awhile, and had some breakfast. Its
principal ingredient was the Russian black rye bread, which
is hard enough to be used instead of cannon-balls in case of
need.
The fighting on all other points than the Awly- Yer was insig-
nificant. The Aladja and the Little Yagni continued their
indifferent cannonading, aiming at random. All my attention
was of course drawn to the Awly- Yer, where perhaps the
$QQ WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
future destiny of the Turkish Empire was at stake. Seeing
no advance, I thought that General Heimann might again have
failed to understand the full importance of the task entrusted
to him. Why did those Grenadiers not move, although sure
to be badly dealt with if they finally had to retire before
the enemy's pursuit ? It was a moment of anxiety and disap-
pointment. The idea that Mukhtar had evidently neglected
to fortify and garrison that hill with the utmost care, was,
however, somewhat comforting. Then, on a sudden, three
Turkish cannons boomed to our left beyond the Subatan
streamlet and ravine, which separate the Awly-Yer from the
Aladja. From this mountain descended, towards the Awly-
Yer, a strong line of Turkish tirailleurs, coming obviously to
the rescue of that hard-pressed position. But before they
could even cross the ravine their advance was arrested by a
Russian line which compelled them to withdraw. At the
same time the three columns of Russian grenadiers told
off for the assault on the Awly-Yer moved onward up that
hill.
We were in our saddles in a twinkling, and galloped ahead,
with the view of witnessing this supreme achievement. A
rocky ravine, however, with perpendicular borders, only
visible when about ten yards off its margin, checked our
speed, and compelled us to make a circuit. Finally, we found
a path leading down and up again. There we discovered the
naked bodies of apparently Russian soldiers in an advanced
state of decay. They were not mutilated or disfigured.
Unluckily, we had at that moment no leisure to ascertain
whether other victims of Turkish brutality lay unburied on
that dismal spot ; so we hurried on. Then, again, large tracts
of the dry grass which uniformly covers the fields and
pastures were burning before us, ignited by the Turkish
shells. Our horses snorted, frightened by the approach of
the flames, but we forced the animals through. The
black Grenadiers swarmed on all sides over the yellow
hill. Steadily they climbed towards the summit, always
firing, in face of the desperate resistance of the Turks, who
disappeared in the smoke. Onward the Russians stormed,
crowding more and more together as they approached the cone,
towards the enemy, while their batteries covered the top level
with shells and shrapnels. When we passed one of them, a
colonel ceased firing, and said with proud satisfaction : — " Go
and look at the work we have done up there. I think we
have served them well." At that moment repeated hurrahs
sounded through the air, and the Grenadiers jumped in
crowds over the enemy's ditches and parapets. Then the
THE GREAT FRONT ATTACK. B67
baffled Turks, relinquishing all hope, ran for their lives, pur-
sued by bullets and bayonets.
The fonnidable redoubt was at last taken by that gallant
onslaught. When we arrived at the foot of the steep, shell
after shell was still fired at the middle part by a Turkish
battery on the slope of the Aladja next to the Awly-Yer, and
by cannons on the top of a commanding mountain opposite
it, bursting behind and before us. But when all our men
had arrived at the summit, that firing stopped on a sudden,
and the terrible hill which, ten minutes before, was all fire,
smoke, and noise, was once more silent. To our right we
saw General Heimann riding to the top with his staff. We
reached it about the same time as he, and I believe I was the
first to have the honour of congratulating him on so brilliant
a victory. General Heimann, losing no time, paraded his
soldiers, and ordered immediately a sharp pursuit, which was
carried out in a clever manner. They met with only a feeble
resistance on the part of the Turks, who hastily withdrew in
disorder.
The next fortified plateau to the south-west, situated just
before that of Yezinkoi, was also stormed within an hour.
In the meantime we saw the white smoke rise on the opposite
side of that village. There General Lazareff assailed the
enemy from his rear, and barred his retreat to Kars. The
batteries also closed in with the scattered Turks wherever
they perceived them, and covered them with a hailstorm of
projectiles. The vanquished foe tried to rally and escape in
all directions, but found no issue, and was soon close
hedged in by infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Here it is
said that Mukhtar himself was wounded in the hand, and
sought for attendance and shelter in Kars, abandoning thus
his doomed army. In truth, however, he had not received a
scratch. He had commanded the battle from the summit of
a mountain, the name of which I do • not remember just now,
next to the east of the Awly-Yer, from which a couple of
guns still continued to molest us. I saw him there through
my field-glass, together with General Kemball, if I am not
mistaken. AVhen the Awly-Yer was conquered by the
Russians, those gentlemen disappeared, and had a narrow
escape to Kars, by availing themselves of the opening
between us and General Lazareff.
Another party of Turks — the bulk of the garrison of the Awly-
Yer and its environs — were pursued through a pretty large
valley, which is formed by the upper part of the Subatan
streamlet and its tributaries. The battle had been won in a
brilliant style, but yet the trophies had not been counted, and
oGS WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
still separate Turkish brigades on the Aladja and the Little
Yagni made a show of resistance. The parapets and ditches
of the Awlv-Yer redoubt looked indeed very much like those
of the Great Yagni twelve days before, after it had just been
stormed. Rows of dead Turks, some horribly disfigured by
shell fragments, were to be seen upon the earthworks and at
the bottom of the ditches. Some were literally torn to pieces
by the shrapnels. I think most of them were killed by the
artillery, which indeed had done its duty this time. An
officer of high rank lay dead on his back in the ditch. He
was a pacha or colonel, perhaps ; but it could not be made
out because the soldiers had stripped him of his overcoat and
boots. The contracted brow and the fierce expression of his
lips proved that he had met with a sudden death. His fine
Arab horse lay dead by his side. Yery few wounded remained
on the field when we came up.
]. don't think that the Russians have sustained great losses by
that assault, because, in the first place, the shrapnels had told
terribly on the Turks, and had greatly diminished their number
and demoralized them before the storming began ; and, in the
second place, the hill itself w^as too steep to permit them to
fire over the earthworks with good effect. Most of their rifle
shots were aimed too high. The inside of the redoubt, com-
prising the whole natural platform of the hill, was ploughed
with shells, and strewn with their fragments and bullets
flattened on the stones. Three Krupp guns, with the manu-
facturer's name on them, together with their carriages and
ammunition, were captured there. One of them had its
right wheel broken by a shell, but the other two were in
serviceable condition, so the Russian ofiicers tried their range
at the fugitives. The first shot, however, fired without the
necessary elevation, nearly fell among a column of their own
soldiers.
The Turks are evidently not in want of rifle ammunition yet.
About a railway truckload of cartridges, partly in their
original boxes, partly in loose heaps, or strewn singly over the
ground, might have afforded the means for annihilating a
whole army. Some empty two-wheeled bullock-carts and
tents, almost in rags, constituted the remainder of the booty.
The tents were immediately cut into strips by the Russian
soldiers, who wrapped them around their feet as an excellent
substitute for stockings. Lines of cavalry, with their horse
artillery, now trotted up betAveen us and*^ the Great Yagni,
riding towards Kars, in order to cut off the enemy's retreat.
It was now four o'clock ; the w eather was fine and rather hot ;
but notwithstanding my curiosity I resisted the temptation to
THE EUSSIAN TROPHIES. 569
follow Tip the advancing columns to Yezinkoi, wliere General
Lazareff, descending from the Orlok Mountain, had begun a
decisive attack. The day before he had already repulsed a
reconnaissance directed against him by Raschid Pacha. To him
and to General Heimann — especially to the latter — the promi-
nent part of this day's glory is due. The Emperor will perhaps
create him Count of Awly-Yer — at least he has deserved such
a distinction.
On riding back to the Karajal camp, I had the good fortune to
witness a sharp engagement between the Moscow Grenadiers
and the Turks in the Aladja I)ag;ia. The Grand Duke, who
observed that attack from tbo licavy battery, which was now
useless and silent, had ordered another regiment to the
advance. The Turks answered with spasmodic cannon and
rifle firing, but were gradually driven from terrace to terrace
beyond their camp to the summit of the mountain. About
half-past four they gave up further resistance, and retired to
the opposite side, leaving everything they had in the hands
of the Russians, with the exception of some of their guns.
They hovered there in the wilderness for a while, without
water, food, fuel, or shelter, and then despairing, surrendered
at about half -past eight the same evening. They denied that
they had cannons, but they had, and it is likely that they have
hidden them in the recesses of the Aladja. Hitherto the
Russians have had no time to seek for them, but they will do
so, I hope, before the snow is likely to cover that mountain.
Thus well-nigh the entire Turkish host had been swept away.
Unfortunately, the garrison of the Little Yagni, watching their
time, when everybody's attention was drawn to Yezinkoi,
escaped with stores, cannons, and ammunition to Kars. This,
I regret to say, was the fault of our cavalry, which did nothing
to prevent the retreat, on the plea of its being dark already,
else it would have been literally impossible for the Turks to slip
through our lines, as the hill is surrounded on all sides by dry and
level ground. Colonel Kavalinsky, chief of the staff of the
cavalry, reported at nine o'clock to the Grand Duke that seven
pachas, thirty-six cannons, and twenty-six battalions had sur-
rendered and laid down their arms. On the following day also
many prisoners and some guns were captured. The exact number
of the enemy's loss has not been recorded yet, but, at all events
its total will amount to nearly three-quarters of its original
strength. That is to say, his entire army has been scattered,
destroyed, or captured. Among the captives we had the
doubtful honour of seeing here at the Karajal camp the
seven pachas and some colonels. We remarked among them
Raschid Pacha, Lieutenant- General and President of the
o70 WAK COERESPOXDEXCE.
Military Council; Hussein Kyazim Pacha, chief of Mukhtar's
staff ; Mustafa Pacha, and the so-called Madjar Omer Pacha.
The last-named, a genuine Russian by birth, educated in a
military school at St. Petersburg, and a former Russian officer,
took an active part in the Hungarian revolution in 1849, and,
coming over to Turkey with Kossuth and the other refugees,
embraced Islamism. Thenceforward he distinguished him-
self as a fervent adherent of the Prophet. As years have
elapsed since that time he has nothing to fear from the
resentment of his countrymen, and will be considered and
treated like the other Turkish generals. By the Grrand
Duke's orders each of these gentlemen received a good deal of
money for his travelling expenses.
The Russian losses are about 50 officers and 1,600 men killed
and wounded, numbers quite insignificant as compared with
the result of the battle. The consequences are uncertain yet,
but some hope that Kars may be induced to surrender is still
entertained, and negotiations for that purpose are said to be
going on. I do not believe, however, that the Turkish com-
mander there is inclined to give the fortress over without
fighting for it. In the meantime General Heimann is march-
ing across the Soghanli Dagh (Onion Mountain), towards
Erzeroum, the garrison of w^hich is exceedingly feeble.
Should, as there can be little doubt. General Lazarefl: be sharp
and lucky enough to shut out Ismail Pacha from Erzeroum,
and crush him between his own force and that of Tergukasoff,
that fortress cannot then be defended. Its chief source of
weakness, as I have said, is its extent. It requires an army of
at least 50,000 men to garrison its numerous detached forts,
and the central enceinte. The Russians, therefore, must make
it their principal object to prevent all succour of men and
material from entering the city, and then it cannot fail to suc-
cumb to a general escalade. If even Dervish Pacha should
advance with the greatest imaginable despatch from Batoum
via Trebizond, he cannot reach Erzeroum before General
Heimann. It is true that the weather, which is as bad as
possible, there being continuous rain, may prove a more
serious hindrance to the progress of the Russians than all the
Turkish forces together. The Battle of Aladja Dagh will,
of course, redound to the honour of his Imperial High-
ness the Grand Duke Michael in the Russian annals. We
hardly expected so brilliant a victory after the series of
inconceivable blunders committed since the opening of the
campaign. The camp is being removed from here to Wladi
Kars, but very slowly, because the means of transport are
insufficient.
TURKISH VIEW OF THE DEFEAT. 571
The following letters are from tlie Correspondent who liad
iDeen with Mukhtar Pacha throughout the campaign, and who,
besides witnessing, may be said to have shared the defeat of
that commander. For some of the details, which only the Staff
could know, the Correspondent was indebted to the General
himself : —
a Erzkroum, October 24^/i. — The tide of fortune has turned, and
I find myself here part of the crowd that fled in disorder
before the Russian attack of the 14th and 15th inst. It
was a terrible disaster for the Turkish arms, all the more so
that sanguine expectations were entertained as to the power
of resistance of the Ottoman Army acting on the defensive.
To understand the catastrophe it is necessary to go back a
couple of weeks. We, that is the Correspondents of Euro-
pean journals, tried in vain to telegraph the situation. We
were met by that passive resistance which characterizes the
Ottoman Government. A telegram had first to be translated
into Turkish at the headquarters, and modified at will by the
young staff officers who had a smattering of French. Even
then the authorities at Stamboul often took exception to the
mild messages sent ; but it was only three weeks after that
the Correspondent was notified that, by " order of the superior
authority," his message of such and such a date w^as inter-
cepted. Over and over again, when the crisis w^as imminent,
I tried to communicate the fact by telegraph. All to no
purpose. Ko one who has not lived in countries like this
can imagine the systematic obstruction which mars the best
efforts of a Correspondent.
I have already telegraphed via Syra some details of the initial
fighting in the plain north of the Turkish positions on the
Aladja mountains. During three days fierce attacks were
made by the Russians on the two hills — the Greater and
Lesser Yagni, which block the passage to Kars. We estimated
the Russian loss at 12,000 hors de combat on the occasion.
This w^as on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of October. Then came
a pause. Turkish officers told me confidentially the day on
which we were to enter Gumri (Alexandropol), and soldiers
ate their maigre pilaff all the more cheerfully, thinking over
the flesh pots that awaited them beyond the Arpa Tchai.
The capture of Kizil Tepe and our advance into the plain had
filled every one with hope ; but dark was the disappointment
which followed the order of the 8th to abandon the hard- won
heights, and retire to our old bleak quarters on the slopes of
Aladja. Mukhtar Pacha's spies had brought him intelligence
1)72 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
of the arrival of heavy Russian reinforcements, and others
were said to be en route for the camp. Our position was
deemed too extended to resist a serious attack from superior
numbers ; and hence the order to retire. It was ten o'clock
on a bleak stormy night, and after the Marshal's tent had
been already struck, that the rest of us at headquarters were
notified that a move was necessary. Even General Kemball
had no earlier warning. I myself, at half -past ten, wrote, at
the dictation of a staff officer, the note which warned him to
get ready. The camp fires still blazed in the plain, though
the troops were already marching for their new quarters. Not
a musket shot announced that the enemy's outposts had cog-
nizance of the retreat ; and, on the whole, as regards secrecy,
the retrograde movement was admirably conducted. ISTot so,
however, from the point of view of order. It has rarely
been my chance to witness such utter confusion. No one
seemed to know where the new position was. I met
battalions stumbling about in the Cimmerian darkness of the
mountain side, commanding officers demanding in vain
whither they should conduct the men. I found Dr. Casson
and his ambulance in a state of hopeless despair. The train
of rude ox-carts sent to transport the w^ounded and hospital
material had disappeared in the darkness. The tents w^ere
still standing, and Dr. Casson and his young colleague, ill
with typhoid, were literally " left alone." The Doctor prayed
me, as I, too, rode by in hopeless search of the new head-
quarters, to send him back his arabas ; but as at least five
hundred of these vehicles were groaning and creaking over
the Cyclopean rock masses, T was soon obliged to give up my
search. I rode on up the slopes of Mount Aladja, meeting
everywhere parties of troops and transport waggons, every
one asking every one else where they were supposed to go.
After three hours of weary search I resigned myself to
destiny, and, dismounting from my horse, lay dow^n on the
scanty grass, crisp with hoar frost. I tried to sleep in vain —
people stumbled over me in the dark. Bewildered soldiers
roused me a hundred times to ask the way, and camels and
mules gi'oaned and grumbled around me all the livelong night.
When dawn came stealing over the ghostly summit of Ararat^
I looked around. Headquarters were established half a mile
off, but as yet no tents had been pitched. I found the Marshal
eating his breakfast outside his tent door. The staff officers
were Avandering about looking for their tents, mislaid
during the night. Mine w^as nowhere to be found, so I
camped under shelter of a rock. There I indited the telegram
which I hope has reached you. I took the precaution of
MUKHTAR pacha's ANXIETIES. 573
sending tliree simultaneously. One I got translated into
Turkish and sent from the camp. Another I sent hj special
messenger to Kars, to be forwarded to a friend in Erzeroum,
and thence to London ; and a third I sent by courier to
Trebizond and Syra, to be thence sent on. From old expe-
rience I know what Turkish ti'anslations are, especially w^hen
made by an interested staff officer expressly told off to take the
sting out of unfavourable messages. Consequently I didn't
rely much on my camp despatch. Via Erzeroum I had better
hopes, as an intelligent agent there would at once perceive
the gist of my message and re-establish its meaning when
translated into French.
On the morning of the 9th October it was evident, from the
movements of the Russian patrols, that they were infinitely
astonished at our nocturnal retreat. They couldn't apparently
understand the thing, and their manoeuvres showed they were
fearful of a stratagem. Towards eight o'clock the entire
Russian Army was in movement, advancing straight towards
us. Seven squadrons of Cossacks, preceded by a long line of
cavalry skirmishers, came first, closely f ollow^ed by an ominous-
looking line of batteries. It was a moment of intense anxiety
for us. We believed the enemy was about to make a general
assault. The Cossacks entered Subatan, a village w^e had
held previously, in front of our centre. Five minutes after
eight guns were in position on the ridge above the village.
Hadji Veli, another village to the left, was next occupied,
and simultaneously a column of infantry scaled the isolated
hill of Kizil Tepe, the capture of which had earned for Mukh-
tar Pacha the title of " Ghazi," or " Yictorious," conferred
by the Sultan, together with a sabre of honour, a decoration
in diamonds, and a present of two horses from the Imperial
stables. About eleven o'clock the entire Russian line had
advanced close under our positions, and the eight guns at
Subatan opened fire. We sent out three battalions in skir-
mishing order to check the advance. A battery of Krupps
took up its position on a rocky knoll and replied to the
Russian fire. At one p.m. the infantry w^ere engaged, and
five Russian batteries added their fire to that first in action.
The Russian batteries are of eight guns each, and the forty-
eight pieces thus brought forward, formed in semicircle,
literally deluged our advanced line with projectiles, especially
directed against the Turkish batteries. Fortunately for the
Turkish gunners, the enemy's fire was execrable. The vast
majority of the shells burst two or three hundred yards
short or over. Now and then a shell burst almost on the
Turkish guns, but these were the exceptions. The musketry
574 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
fire, extending over a line of about three miles, for nearly all
our force was engaged at this hour, was violent in the extreme,
especially on the Turkish side, where the soldiers plied their
Martini- Peabody rifles with an absurd rapidity. The enemy's
fire was much more deliberate, and I noticed their officers
galloping to and fro to check any excessive outbreak of
m.usketry fire which might occur. Long after sunset the
scintillations of rifle-fire continued, emphasized by the broad
gleam of the artillery.
After much reflection I am still unable to make out since
w^hat was the object of this engagement. We had aban-
doned deliberately certain positions, and certainly we did not
try to retake them. JS'either did the Russians seem disposed to
push their occupation farther up the Aladja. We lost nearly one
thousand hors de combat on that day, and it was pitiable to see
the state of the wounded. In the Turkish Army here there
is absolutely no provision made for carrying the wounded off
the field. Those who can limp away struggle on often for
hours seeking help, and those more severely hit often rest
forty-eight hours on the field. I had been unable to find my
tent, and was obliged to bivouac a second night on the hill-
side. All night long moaning crowds of woujided came
issuing out of the darkness like troubled phantoms, asking
feebly for the "basta bane " (the ambulance). No one knew
where it was, and the miserable sufferers w^ent on groaning
and complaining into the darkness. I afterwards discovered
that the ambulances were just three miles away on our left
flank. I venture to say that not one of those poor fellows
found relief that night, and all of them must have passed the
long cold night, like myself, freezing amid the rocks.
On the 10th all was still. Not a shot from either side, except
from one large position gun which the Russians had esta-
blished on Kizil Tepe, and from which they threw occasional
shells against the redoubt on Lakiridgi Tepe, a conical hill on
our extreme right. Large masses of Russian troops moved
over the plain by Kaback Tepe, ultimately occupying the
greater Yagni hill ; and long columns were seen defiling
towards our right, marching in the direction of the ruined
city of Ani, on the banks of the Arpa Tchai River. These
latter subsequently disappeared, and we were at a loss to
account for their destination. In the afternoon the Marshal
and his staff rode to the summit of Aladja to reconnoitre ; but
nothing could be made out. The 11th passed without incident
save the continued shelling of Lakiridgi Tepe by the heavy
gun on Kizil Tepe. On the 13th the Russians made a recon-
naissance towards Kars, and some heavy firing took place in
THE TURKISH WOUNDED. 575
that direction. The enemy was evidently trying how far
he could venture without drawing us from our positions;
and the knowledge thus they gained proved fatal in the
end. Mukhtar Pacha was evidently resolved,, coute-qiii-coute,
to stand on the defensive. Towards sunset the same evening
we were most disagreeably surprised by the range of two
siege guns placed in position near S iibatan. The headquarters
were concealed from view behind a rocky ledge, from the
crest of which the Marshal was in the habit of observing the
plain with a large telescope. I was sitting at my tent door,
for by this time I had managed to find a tent. A loud
whirring noise attracted my attention, and next moment a
sixteen-centimetre shell burst with a crash not twenty yards
from the Greneral and his staff. The range was enormous.
From the flash of the gun till the arrival of the shell seventeen
seconds elapsed. The enemy's guns were at a distance of seven
thousand yards, and, besides, our position was some eight
hundred feet above the plain. As a first shot at an unknown
distance, the correctness of the aim was remarkable in the
extreme. Shell after shell followed in rapid succession, some
directed against headquarters, the position of which must
have been indicated by spies, as the tents were hidden behind
rocks, and some against the fortified hill of Evliatepessi, on
our extreme left. All night long this shelling continued ; and
for my personal safety I was obliged to pack up and move to
the ambulance, situated, as I have said before, some three
miles to the left. This was a fortunate move for me, as it
gave me an opportunity of witnessing the turning movement
of the enemy, which resulted in our total defeat. Dr. Casson's
ambulance was pitched in a narrow^ go^g® close by the Turkish
one. A troop of Arab horse watched the plain below and
guarded the ravine which ran close by. It was midnight as I
established myself in the tent kindly given me by the doctor.
He seemed very uneasy about his wounded. The ambulance
flags flying beside the tents were about as big as an ordinary
pocket-handkerchief, and there was every reason to fear that
they might not be visible to the artillerists below. It was
decided to move from this dangerous spot higher up the hill ;
and accordingly next morning the change was effected. The
tents we pitched on the brow of the long slope of Aladja
stretching towards Kars, w^hence we commanded a view of
both plains, north and south.
To render the battles of the 14th and 15th instant intelligible a
slight description of the ground is necessary. Aladja is a moun-
tain 8,800 feet in height, its base of an elongated oval form,
running east and west. The summit, of a conical form, is
576 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
towards tlie south-eastern extremity of the oval. At the same
point it throws out a large spur to the southward. Both the
summit and this spur were strongly entrenched, and occupied
by eight or ten battalions and some batteries of field artillery.
The bulk of the Turkish forces occupied the lower portions
of the northern slope, and numbered from thirty-five to forty
thousand regular troops. On the extreme right (east) is a
fiat- topped hill, named Lakiridgi Tepe, and on the left a similar
one, Evliatepessi (the Awlis Hill), which, as will be seen later
on, played an important part in the fighting. To the north
of Aladja is an immense plain, the mouth of the Kars Yalley.
To the east of this plain are the isolated hills of Karajal,
Kizil Tepe, and TJtch Tepe, all three in the possession of the
enemy at the commencement of the fighting. Towards Kars,
that is westward, the plain is bounded by two hills, the
greater and lesser Yagni. The greater Yagni is midway
between Evliatepessi and the lesser Yagni, and, as I have
already stated, w^as occupied by the Russians after our retro-
grade movement of the 8th instant. The other two hills were
in our hands, and strongly entrenched. Continuing the line
formed by these three hills, to the south of the western ex-
tremity of Aladja are three similar isolated hills, one exactly
opposite the long end of the Aladja oval. Then comes a large
plain-like valley, and beyond, at some eight miles distance, a
chain of mountains, gradually lessening in height towards
Kars, and slightly oblique to Aladja.
I passed the 14th in comparative tranquillity, watching the
huge shells from the Russian guns of position burst on the
devoted crest of Evliatepessi and in the Marshal's group of
tents. The enemy's troops were swarming below — moving
incessantly. The insects of a disturbed ant-hill could not
have shown greater activity. Far out in the long dreamy
plain, where distance seemed annihilated by the glassy atmo-
sphere, the Cossacks trooped and trained towards the wide
opening between the Yagni hills, evidently watching the
Kars valley lest any unforeseen advent of reinforcements
might derange the storm about to burst on us. It was half-
past two in the afternoon as, field-glass in hand, I strolled
leisurely on the hill-crest above the ambulance. The eye
ranged far and wide over a tract of plain on either side, which
it would be a long day's journey to traverse. The boom of a
gun from one of the mamelons to the south of Aladja
attracted my attention. " Some stray Cossacks," I said to
myself, and I turned my glass to the northern plain. Another
boom, and another, and then the long rattle of musketry.
This time my accustomed eye perceived the long white line
THE RUSSIA:?^ PLAN OF ATTACK. 577
of drifting vapour wliich nothing but constant practice could
distinguish from the mist lines of these lofty hills. Another
look, and slender creeping lines were visible on the distant
slopes. Here was the explanation of the disappearance of
the Russian reinforcements. The enemy, having made a
long detour from the camp of Karaja], turning our right
flank by Ani and Dighur, had marched parallel to the rear
of our position, and were actually attacking the rear of our
left flank. The Marshal and his staff were already on the
hill whence proceeded the cannonade. The Russians had
occupied a lofty hill to the north-west, where they had placed
a couple of batteries. Some Turkish battalions despatched
across the valley were furiously assailing the flank of the
enemy's line of march, and the latter were replying from
their upper positions. It was easy to distinguish the lines
of fire. The Turks, as usual, plied their Martini- Peabody
rifles with a zeal that streaked the hill with one snowy line
of palpitating smoke. The Russians, as usual, fired with
deliberation. I could almost count the rifle shots on their
side, though the force they deployed was fully equal to that
of the attack. The enemy's artilleiy was principally engaged
shelling Turkish forces further on towards what turned out
to be the objective point. Till near sunset the combat con-
tinued, the Russian columns still streaming onward, apparently
heedless of the serried volleys and file-firing of their adver-
siries. The Turks, who it seemed numbered eight battalions,
together with seven despatched from Bayazid, and three
squadrons of irregular cavalry, finding themselves worsted,
commenced retiring towards the extremity of the hill range
next Kars. The sun set redly beyond the distant summits,
and with its rays the fire of the combatants died out.
The Russians had advanced half way from the higher hill
whence they had commenced to the final conical hill which
terminated abruptly in the flat valley. Mukhtar Pacha,
deeming the day's fighting over, turned rein and rode Avith
his staff over the long slopes leading to his headquarters. I,
too, was tired. I turned my horse to graze, and, lying down
on the scant yellow grass, gazed on the scene of conflict. A
quarter of an hour passed, and streaks of fire were seen
issuing from the point to which the Russians had advanced.
I couldn't make it out at first. Little by little these streaks
increased in number, and the terminal hill seemed all ablaze
with bursting projectiles. But there was no sound of artillery.
The enemy was bombarding the position with Congreve
rockets. The fire was so rapid that the sky was all ablaze.
At least sixty per minute were discharged. To me they
p p
578 WAH CORRESPOKDEXCE.
seemed to burst mucli too higli to do any execution unless
tlie heads wei-e cliarged with bullets. Then I saw long lines
of flickering fire go up the hill, parallel to the crest of flame
that crowned the crest. Half a dozen times these fiery lines
approached and recoiled. Then they mingled ; then came a
pause. Rocket and musketry tire ceased. I judged that the
Russians had taken the hill. Turkish officers laughed at me ;
told me the position was impregnable ; but I retired to my
tent with sad misgivings. I ordered everything to be packed,
and the horses saddled ready for any contingency. I said to
myself, if the enemy has captured that hill, they are between
us and Kars, and to-morrow's dawn must see a desperate
conflict. I couldn't sleep. I went to the tent of Dr. Casson,
where he watched beside his sick colleague. We talked over
the immediate prospects. He was very uneasy. I told him
I believed a retreat was imminent, and that should the
Russians have captured the terminal hill behind us, we should
have to retreat on the morrow over a slender strip of ground
swept by the enemy's fire. While we were speaking two
battalions went by in the dark, followed by long trains of
waggons. Then came artillery fourgons and pack mules, and
long lines of baggage camels succeeded. It was a procession
without end. Long into the night the cavalcade passed us
by. It was evident a retreat had commenced, and yet no
orders for the ambulance had arrived. Dr. Casson called up
the officer attached to the ambulance, and sent him with his
dragoman to headquarters to know what should be done. In
half an hour the man returned to say that the headquarters
had shifted its place under the incessant shell-fire of the two
heavy guns in the plain, and that it now occupied the place
of the commissariat department already retiring. Mules were
being waited for to bear off the baggage of the officers, and
then the staff would retire. Timely notice would be given.
We waited on through the dreary hours of the night. No
one could sleep, for it was evident a crisis was imminent.
Night hung darkly over the long weird mountain slopes.
Not a star was visible in the inky expanse above. All was
still, save the faint jingling of the artillery horses going by,
and when from time to time the thundering roll of the
Russian heavy guns followed the lightning-like flash in the
plain below, and the heavy shells went screaming hoarsely to
Evliatepessi, and the former site of the staff.
I had retired to my tent and sunk into an uneasy slumber. A
thundering detonation roused me. A heavy shell had burst
within twenty yards of my tent. I sprang to my feet and
rushed from the tent. The white smoke was still curlino-
FIRING ON AN AMBULANCE. 579
upwards from the frosty turf, torn into a black circle by the
sjiell. Another projectile whistled over my head and burst
against the rocks beyond. Every one in the ambulance was
astir. We were being deliberately shelled. Dr. Casson,
half dressed, was having his sick and wounded carried on
litters higher up the mountain, out of range of the 16-
centimetre projectiles. His colleague, the young volunteer
doctor, was prostrate after the reaction of a severe typhoid
attack. I had leaped to horse as the second projectile burst,
and never shall I forget that poor feeble young man lying*
among the bare, bleak rocks in the grey mountain air, as I
galloped by. If the Russians fired deliberately on the
ambulance, it was a piece of atrocity. I can scarce believe
it was so. For four days the ambulance was in the same
place and was respected, although well in range of the heavy
guns. On the morning in question the ambulances were still
in the same place, but the ridiculously small flags against
which I had remonstrated the day before, hung heavily
against the masts. It may be that the officers and gunners
of the battery were relieved, and that the new comers were
unaware of the nature of our camp. If not, the thing was a
piece of unparalleled barbarism.
Seeing that the projectiles continued to fall within the ambulance,
I rode hurriedly away to get out of range. Mukhtar Pacha,
accompanied by General Sir Arnold Kemball, came sweeping
by. I rode after them, and together we mounted the steep hill
at the western extremity of Aladja. A battalion already occu-
pied the heights, sheltering behind some scanty earthworks.
The Marshal sat under cover of a parapet and ate his frugal
breakfast. Already in the plain below, to the east towards
Subatan, the enemy was swarming in thousands, and still the
heavy guns fired incessantly on Evliatepessi. Twenty times
the ground on the top of this unfortunate hill was ploughed
up in a manner to render it difficult to understand how any
troops could exist within the crowning redoubt. It was
seven o'clock when the Russian attack developed itself.
Some ten battalions were seen advancing between the two
deep ravines which seam the plain. In advance came two
batteries of eight guns each, a third in reserve. At half-past
seven the artillery opened fire on Evliatepessi, the shells
falling with an accuracy which contrasted strongly with
previous artillery fire. The two heavy guns near Hadji Yeli
continued their terrible fire, each shell falling right in the
middle of the redoubt. On Evliatepessi, an isolated hill
blocking the road between the two ravines, the shells rained
incessantly. Behind the Russian guns the attacking force
p p 2
580 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
opened out, and presently took tlie advance of tlie guns. At
the same time another column, with one battery, passed
between the assailed position and the greater Yagni Hill,
attacking at right angles to the main force. At half-past
nine the first musketry fire was heard, and from that moment
the dull roar of small arms was continuous. The entire
plateau on the summit of Evliatepessi was one cloud of dense
white smoke, which reeled and palpitated with bursting
shells and the fire of the three guns of the defence. Four
battalions — some two thousand men — ^held the trenches below
the crest. The B/Ussian columns crept nearer and nearer,
and the artillery was close enough to be under musketry fire.
At last came a moment when the gradually lessening fire of
the defence {showed how fatally the Russian fire was telling.
Mukhtar Pacha ordered up a battery from the rear to sweep
the front of the hill with its fire.
The critical moment had arrived. We had at least twenty
battalions in the old positions and on the summits of Aladja.
The hill attacked, Evliatepessi, commanded the line of
retreat : this once lost, the forces on Aladja were cut off.
Seeing the gradually lessening fire of Evliatepessi, and
deeming its capture inevitable, as we had not a single batta-
lion to send to its relief, I determined to leave the hill where
the Greneral and his staff were placed,, and seek safer quar-
ters. I rode across the stony plain towards Sivritepe, a
triple hill to the rear, strongly intrenched and armed with
artillery. As I rode towards this point, I noticed that the
enemy, from the positions in rear of our left, where they had
established themselves on the preceding evening, were already
firing on the road yet cumbered with w^aggons and mules. I
turned to the right to get out of range of the shells, and
there in the plain met an enormous crowd of Bashi-Bazouks
on horseback, Circassians, Kurds, and Arabs. They were
brandishing their lances, whirling their matchlock guns, and
otherwise conducting themselves in a seemingly warlike
manner. I halted among them on the ridge which divides
the Kars plain at this point. At one o'clock the Russians
carried Evliatepessi by assault, after four hours and a half o£
infantry combat. At this juncture the Marshal left the hill
on which he had stood since morning. Scarce five minutes
elapsed after the capture of Evliatepessi, when the Russian
field batteries, covered by a cloud of Cossacks, dashed
forward between the captured position and the greater
Yagni Hill. The fire of the two or three batteries thus
brought into action swept obliquely the only line of retreat
left to the Aladja troops ; and at the same moment the
EOUT OF THE TURKISH ARMY. 581
Russians established in rear of onr left fiank opened fire.
The line of retreat was all tut impassable. Lingering
convoys still struggled over the stony surface ; and a couple
of battalions, with a haste scarcely dignified, were making for
Sirritepe. I must here state that through all the confusion
which followed, Mukhtar Pacha bore himself like a true
soldier, retiring only when his soldiers left him no other
choice. The irregular cavalry, principally composed of
Arabs from Orfa and Aleppo, fled in disorder as the first
shells burst over them, retiring pele-mele behind Sivritepe.
At this juncture the Russians made a general advance in front
by Evliatepessi, and on our right flank from the positions won
on the preceding evening. There was no further resistance.
The battalions occupying the forts on Sivritepe fled in dis-
order. As I looked on them from a distance, I could scarce
believe it was infantry I saw in such a disordered crowd. I
supposed for the moment the fugitives were spectators or
else Bashi-Bazouks. A few minutes undeceived me. They
were Nizams, the infantry of the line, l^earer and nearer
advanced the Russian batteries in front and flank. I left the
commanding ridge of the plain on which I stood, and made
for our last position, the hill of Yezinkoi, not far from Kars.
This is an isolated hill in the plain, and takes its name from
a ruined Armenian village close under its brow. Here,
around a large water reservoir, were accumulated the
waggons, mules, and camels of the commissariat sent off the
night before from Aladja. Some four thousand irregular
cavalry and panic-stricken infantry were mixed up with the
ox- waggons and camels. It was a scene of utter confusion.
A reserve battalion of regular troops, deployed in open order
with fixed bayonets, prevented the runaways from flying to
Xars. Nearer and nearer thundered the Russian guns, and
each detonation thrilled the disorganized mass with terror.
It was only by a stratagem I got through the blocking line of
infantry. The road to Kars was cumbered with ox- waggons,
baggage, mules, and what Avas supposed to be their escort.
All were running at full speed. The oxen galloped like
horses. The mules careered madly ; and often when their
burdens slipped from their backs, the frightened conductors
went on, not daring to lose time in picking up their charge.
The panic was complete. A mile farther on was a line of
infantry with levelled rifles, threatening all runaways ; and,
as I myself saw, firing repeatedly on those who sought to get
oft' by a side movement. It was with the greatest difficulty
I got through this second line.
As I neared Kars the guns of the lower forts were firing on
582 WAR COREESrO^DEXCE.
bands of fugitive cavalry. At first I believed it Avas on
adventuroiis Cossacks, and my belief was strengthened on
seeing sabres flashing in the setting sun, plied amid tlie liurry-
ing crowd. The idea crossed my mind that the confused
column of fugitives had been assailed by the enemy's cavalry.
My field-glass, however, showed me the red fezzes of the
cavaliers, and I rode on a hundred paces, and v> as abreast
with the cavalry. A revolver was thrust into my face, and I
was commanded to turn again to the field of battle. It was
the Colonel Hussein Bey w^ho thus threatened me. He is a^
man of considerable animal courage, if I can believe the
stories which reach me ; but on this occasion seemed to have
lost his head altogether. " Colonel," I said in French, "don't
you know me ? I am an Englishman and a newspaper cor-
respondent." " I don't care w^ho you are ; it is perfectly equal
to me," he said ; " turn, or I blow your brains out." A dozen
bayonets were at my breast, as many soldiers struck my horse
with their musket butts. Of course I turned. It was not a
time for explanation. Still, I turned again, and remembering
that Hussein Bey had received English hospitality for seven
years, I added, " Colonel, you will have reason to remember
this. Your coward troops are flying before the Russians, and
you wish to force me back into the panic-stricken crowd.*^
Same answer as before — and, knowing from hearsay the temper
of the man, I said no more, but went on into the dire tumult
where Kurd lancer and Arab cavalry were mixed together in
hopeless confusion. An officer, a major, came dashing by
carrying despatches. He was one of Mukhtar Pacha's aides-
de-camp. I appealed to him. A few explanatory words
followed with the colonel. " Pass, English correspondent,"
he said ; " one of those people who come to earn money in
our country." Some bitter words rose to my lips, but in view
of the situation I held my tongue and rode on towards Kars..
At the gate was a double guard. " I^o one enters here," was-
the word. " Where is the Pacha ? " I demanded furiously v
utterly worn out with imbecile Turkish foolery. The word
Pacha is enough to bring most Moslems to their knees, and
I was shown into a neighbouring fort, where a half- blind
old man, who scarcely looked at me, told me I might go.
Colonel Hussein Bey, five minutes after our meeting, fled for
his life. When he bullied me he had no idea the Russian
battalions were so near.
The confusion within Kars was indescribable. I believe that if
the enemy had assaulted at that moment the town was his
without even the semblance of a struggle. A heavy slumber,
consequent on the weary watching of preceding nights, fol-
A EIDE FOR LIFE. 583
lowed. At dawn I was on foot. Patrols lined tlie narrow
streets, seeking to collect the scattered soldiery. The Marshal
dared not show himself in the streets. Some feven said he
was killed. By midday I had made up my mind. It was
evident that Kars was about to be besieged, and that not a
moment was to be lost if I wished to escape. Long before
daybreak on the following morning I was on my way, accom-
panied by my old companion, M. Le May, of the Paris Temps.
Before I leave Kars I must mention the parting words of Dr.
Casson, w^ho remained behind to take care of his sick colleague.
"Will you," he, said, "thank the Stafford House Committee
for their aid ? — but I wish you to say that the supplies sent
by Colonel Loyd-Lindsay were by far the most practical and
best selected of any I have received." The doctor seemed to
take the idea of the siege lightly enough. He had something
to do, and that seemed for him an all-sufficing reason. For
just the same reason, and because a blockade in Kars would
have left me with all the news for myself, and without oc-
cupation for the readers of the Daily News, I resolved on an
immediate retreat. I chose a trusty Moslem guide, who looked
upon every Russian as a son of Sheitan. " On my head and
my eyes be it," he said, "if I do not bring you through the
Russian lines." Before daylight, away over the hills towards
the opening of the Olti valley. Every kilometre the anxious
question was heard, " Have you met the Cossacks ? " Answer
— " There is cavalry ahead, we don't know what they are."
Three hours' ride and a long gorge opens away towards the flat
of the Kars valley. Horsemen dot the plain. " Cossacks !" every
one exclaimed, and we hurry away, ventre a terre, hotly pursued.
Three men are hard at my heels. Seeing the crescents glitter-
ing on the pursuers' housings, " Selam alik," I said, turning
rein. " Ou alikoum el Selam," was the reply. They were
Circassians, as much on the look-out for the Russians as
myself. To say that we were fatigued would be nought. For
fourteen hours and a half we toiled over rocky summits, for
we dared not go down into the plain below. I made the last
couple of miles on foot, amid a storm of thunder and sleet and
rain. I staggered into the village of Bashkoi, beyond the
village of Hadja Kake. The latter is the important village of
the district, but w^e dare not halt there for fear of the Cossacks,
who, the villagers told us, were sure to come that evening for
forage. I was announced in the village as the " English
Pacha," and the best hovel of the place was put at my dis-
posal. The poor Kurd villagers (who, by the way, under
other circumstances, would have complacently cut one's throat)
swarmed round me for protection and information. I was
o84 WAU COERESPOXDEXCE.
tired to deatli Avitli mj fourteen hours' ride, but I managed
by the light of the blazing fire logs to indite the copy from
which this letter is written. The pen had dropped from my
hand, I was utterly overcome with weariness, when loud
noises were heard outside. Every one was afoot grasping his
arms. My impression was that we were surprised by the
enemy's cavalry. I rushed towards the door. Judge of my
surprise — I almost upset Mukhtar Pacha himself. Behind
him stalked General Sir Arnold Kemball, as gi^ave us usual
"What, you here ?" the Marshal said. " Your Excellency," I
replied, "I am a fugitive, before the bad weather and tie
fortune of war." The night was glacial. A great fire of pine
logs from the Soghanli Dagh blazed on the primitive hearth.
How strange was that night. Some cold meat was produced
and a kettle of tea was made. A general silence pervaded
the ocla. l!^o one wished to be the first to speak. It was the
respect one naturally pays to misfortune. Mukhtar Pacha
turned to me abruptly and said, " What do you think of the
enemy's artillery fire during the battle ? " " Excellency," I
said, and I felt a little shy about giving my true opinion, " I
think the Russian artillery fire was very good indeed." "Yes,"
said the Marshal, " that was the gi^and point where they beat
us. It was the old story of France and Prussia. Two days
before the battle I sent spies into the Russian camp. They
told me that one hundred and thirty young ofiicers had arrived.
I don't know to what nationality they belonged, but to them
I attribute the excellence of the fire which beat us." The
Marshal paused, and then with a smile he said to me, " This
is the second time you have seen me beaten. You remember
Yerbitza ? " I certainly did remember Yerbitza, in Herze-
j^ovina, when the Montenegrins almost destroyed the Turkish
army. " Excellency," I ventured to ask, " what may be our
losses in the late fight ? " The Marshal replied immediately,
"We have lost twelve thousand prisoners ; the loss in killed
and wounded I don't know." Since then I have learned our
losses. Over twelve thousand infantry prisoners, five thousand
killed and wounded. Twenty-five guns captured, with seven
Pachas, named as follows : — Hadji Rechid Pacha, command-
ing 1st Division ; Hassan Pacha, Chief of Staff; Omer Pacha,
General of Division, 3rd Division ; Shefket Pacha, command-
ing 2ncl Division ; Nadjeb Pacha, General of Brigade ; Mus-
tapha Pacha, Division General ; Omer Pacha, Hungarian
Brigade General. At dawn we continued our dreary retreat
over the dark mountain slopes, where the poor wearied
soldiers had slept all night long amid the Avet grass. Two
thousand eight hundred men constituted the remnant of the
MUKHTAR pacha's EEFLECTIOXS. 585
army of Kars. Eleven tlionsand men liad been left at Kars,
with the few field pieces remaining ; and we were retiring
with what was left of the army in the field, dragging ten
mountain gnns over the mnddj ways. I left Mukhtar Pacha
with his scanty force on the slopes of the Soghanli Dagh.
He seemed to hope to be able to effect a junction with Ismail
Pacha coming from Bayazid. Meantime, all is panic here.
The Avaggons for Trebizond are so laden with fugitive women
that no place is left for men.
a Erzeroum, November Srd. — I am not a Turk, and yet I can't
help echoing the talk of a good many Mussulmans here.
" Why were we defeated at Aladja ? " they ask. That, I take
it, is a question few could answer, perhaps not even the Com-
mander-in-Chief. I know the General intimately. He excuses
his want of success by the runaway conduct of his soldiers.
^' I could see no reason for their flight," he said to me on the
memorable evening when, at the village of Bashkoi, we sat
together all the night long. Yet it seems pretty simple. The
Russians were numerous ; our flank was turned ; and
nothing remained but retreat. For me, as well as for many
other spectators, the question was why the retreat was com-
menced only at ten o'clock p.m. And then, why were the
baggage and artillery horses sent away ? One would have
said, under such peculiar circumstances as surrounded that
total defeat, why not send off that which was most precious,
the army iirst, and afterAvards the sacks of corn of the
Idaret (Commissariat). It matters but little now why all
this was not done. There are other considerations still more
important. I have already described the fight as I saw it,
standing side by side with the Commander-in-Chief ; and
afterwards as I saAV it from a point Avhich, from prudential
reasons, I thought it best to occupy, when the critical
moment had arrived, and when nothing but desperation could
have retained a general on such ground as Mukhtar Pacha
occupied that day. Now that all is comparatively OA^er, and
that the Russians are at the very gates of Erzeroum, people
begin to find fault with Ghazi (Victorious) Mukhtar Pacha.
They ask why, during the decisiA^e combat, Avere the batta-
lions of our army left behind on the summit of Aladja. Why
did we lose scA^en generals and forty-two pieces of artillery —
not twenty-five, as I Avrote in my last letter, not wishing to
oxceed the possible loss ? All this is incomprehensible for
the moment. The fact remains, that of an army of eighty-
five battalions and some scA^enty-two guns, we have only
straggling, disorganized troops and stray cannon. Ko one
586 WAR COREESPOXDEXCE.
can say what was the idea of the Commander-in-Chief. It is
to be hoped he had an idea ; at present, however, all is obs(inre.
Together with the remnant of the army, 2,800 men and ten
mountain guns, yre fled from Kars. I left the General at
Yenikoi, a village not far from the celebrated field of Kho-
rumdusi. It was a sad wet day. The long white fog-clouds
veiled the surrounding hills, and the yT:*etched, barefooted
soldiers, drenched to the skin, came straggling in, no one
knowing where to go for his quarters. The Russians might
have been close on our heels for aught any one knew to the
contrary ; and yet the Turkish troops were pele-mele in the
village, without an idea of defensive preparations. It didn't
matter much, perhaps. Two thousand eight hundred men
more or less couldn't be of gTeat importance in such a
struggle.
I found the Marshal occupying my old quarters in the Konak^
or principal house of the village. He was tranquil and com-
posed as ever. The idea of " Kismet " never deserted him. I
came to ask an order for some house in which I could remain
for a couple of hours to dry my soaked garments and partake
of a little food. The troops filled nearly every available hovel>
and I was more than delighted when an aide-de-camp found
me a kind of hay-loft where I could eat the thick sour milk and
leathery bread which was the only food obtainable. Knowing
the free-and-easy proceedings of the troops, the inhabitants had
hidden away everything in the shape of eatables, save that
which they could not deny, their every-day food. It was three
o'clock in the afternoon as I mounted my horse amid a down-
pour of rain. General Sir Arnold Kemball and his aide-de-camp
rode by, telling me they were en route for a village twenty
miles farther on. Two hours' weary stumbling over moun-
tain gullies, and along the banks of a flooded river, brought
me to the village of Kara Urgau. Not a soul was left in the
place, and amid the falling shades of night I pushed on to
Zevin. There every one was packing up, and I was glad to
find shelter in a kind of aboriginal hut, and luxuriate on a
supper of sour milk and honeycomb. Then two days' ride to-
Erzeroum. Meantime Mukhtar Pacha retained his position
at Yenikoi, sending two aides-de-camp to discover the where-
abouts of Ismail Pacha retreating from Bayazid. They
brought back word that the latter General, who on the 24th
had left of Zeidikan, was menaced by a considerable Russian
force coming from the north. A slight encounter took place,
and Ismail succeeded in reaching Kuprikoi, uniting his eight
thousand men mth the three battalions at that place. On the
28th, Mukhtar, ascertaining that the Russians were advancing-
THE LAST DEFENCE OF ERZEROUM. 587
in force over tlie plateau of IQioriiindusi, retreated with all Lis
force to tlie plain of Hassan Kaleh. The same night his rear-
guard was assailed, and he was forced to fall back on the
position of Deve-Bojun (the Camel's-neck Defile), the last
line covering Erzeroum. On the morning of the 29th the
Russians were camped in the plain at the village of Khored-
juka, within cannon-shot of the guns of position in the Turkish
redoubts. Only yesterday I counted their tents, and saw the
Cossacks roving over the plain within three hours' march of
Erzeroum.
At the commencement of the campaign I gave a resume of the
Turkish lines of defence. To show the present situation I
recapitulate briefly. After Kars and its positions further east
■ — those of Aladja, the scene of the terrible fighting and defeat
on the 15th — come three distinct positions, Avhere an army
can make head against considerably superior forces — Khorum-
dusi (the scene of Mukh tar's victory), a plateau adjoining the
village of Zevin, and two long days' march from Erzeroum, the
lines of Kuprikoi, commanding the junction of the Bayazid, Kars,
and Erzeroum roads, and the Deve-Boyun heights covering the
last pass leading to the capital of Armenia. We were driven
from Aladja; we fled past Khorumdusi, and we abandoned Kup-
rikoi for want of sufficient men to defend it. The enemy is at
the very gates of Erzeroum. Deve-Boyun once lost, Erzeroum
must soon go with it. The population of the town, JMussulmans-
as well as Christians, say plainly they don't want a bombard-
ment, and will make no defence. The army, such as it is, some
fifteen thousand demoralized soldiers, with a crowd of motley
Bashi-Bazouks from Bayazid and Toprakaleh, cannot shut
itself up here. That would be to leave the whole of Armenia in
the invaders' hands, and to entail its own inevitable surrender.
Hence the energy with which the all-important pass is being
fortified. The one spare field battery has been sent from
Erzeroum, and is being distributed among the difierent re-
doubts. Some batteries of mountain guns make a fair show
at advanced points, and the hill-sides are being furrowed with
intrenchments. The pass of Deve-Boyun is a narrow valley,,
leading due east from Erzeroum to the wide plain of Hassan
Kaleh, the latter an old-fashioned Turkish town, near which
are the fountains of the Araxes. The pass is skirted by
rounded hills, and near its eastern extremity is crossed by a
ridge which constitutes the second line of defence. Then
comes a deep, precipitous ravine, and immediately beyond
another ridge. On this is situated the headquarters of the
army. It is the link between the hills vfhich form the first
and principal lines. Opposite its centre, slightly to the left^
o88 WAR COllEESPONDENCE.
is a long Mil, crowned by a steeply bounded plateau, narrow
like the bill itself. It is strongly intrenched, and forms the
centre of the defence. To its right are two conical hills,
somew^hat oblique to the front, on which are two redoubts,
armed with gnins of position, and occupied by several
battalions. To the left of the long hill is a rounded mamelon,
]:>rojecting spur-like from the lofty mountains which fringe
the plain. From this mamelon long trenches extend further
east, intended to secure our left flank. In front of all run
two rivulets, which, uniting, form one of the tributaries of the
Araxes. In case of need, a large portion of the front could be
inundated by blocking the course of these streams. From
every point of view^ the line is exceedingly strong, and, unless
I am much mistaken, the Russians wdll not try to carry it by
<lirect attack. But it has its w^eak points, w^hich, to my mind, are
fatal. To the north is the valley of 01 ti, parallel to the pass ;
to the south, another similar valley coming from the direction
of Bayazid, and both debouching into the plain before Erze-
roum. These valleys are separated from the plain of Hassan
Kaleh by lofty mountains, at this season heavily covered with
«now. By either of the valleys the enemy can turn the
formidable barrier in their path ; and our latest intelligence
informs us that they are doing so. During my visit to the
positions of Deve-Boyun yesterday, I had a conversation with
Faizi Pacha, chief of the staff. He admitted the danger of
the situation, while informing me that both these avenues of
^attack were occupied by our troops. "We hope too," he
said, "to be able to link these forces on our flank with the
*(3entre." I am afraid, however, that the scanty Turkish army,
fronted as it is by a formidable Russian force camped wdthin
cannon-shot on the plain in front, can scarcely afford the
necessary troops to guard the lateral avenues. Conscious of
this weakness, we are taking measures to inundate the
opening of the Olti valley at a point close to the city named
Oiurji Boghas, close to the village of Hindsk. The Cossacks,
coming by way of Olti and Nahriman, are already reported
within view of these new defences. Then, again, there is the
road leading from the Olti valley to Baiburt, by which,
without the necessity of striking a blow, the enemy can cut
our com.munications with Trebizond and the Black Sea coast.
It is probably with a view of hindering this movement, for
which a few squadrons of cavalry alone would sufiice, that the
long-promised reinforcements, if they really exist, haA^e, as w^e
^re told, arrested their march at Baiburt. Meantime, wdth
our fourteen or fifteen thousand men, the sum of the united
fragments of Mukhtar's and Ismail's armies, we await our
THE SITUATION AT PLCYXA. 58 1>
fate. In Erzeroum a panic prevails. A large number of
persons refuse to open their shops, all business is at a stand-
still, and every day hundreds of women crowd the waggons
going to Erzingan and Trebizond.
CHAPTER XX.
INVESTMENT OF PLEVNA AND FALL OF KARS.
Arrival of tlie Guard before Plevna — Completion of Divisions from the Reserve —
General Gourko on the Orkanieh-PIevna Road — Capture of Gorny Dubnik,
Teliche and Dolny Dubnik — Completion of the Investment — Osman Pacha's
Position — Turkish Prisoners of War — Condition of Kars — Artillery Attack
on the Fortress — Capture of Fort Hafiz Pacha — Summons to surrender —
Defiant Refusal — Grand Assault on Kars — Capture of the Fortress and
Garrison, Guns and Stores — Rejoicings at Plevna.
The failure of the third attack on Plevna had convinced the
Grand Duke Nicholas that he had no longer anything to hope
from a repetition of those headlong front attacks upon earth-
Tvorks in which, until that time, all the art of his staff had
consisted, while it was only too evident thai the tremendous
losses sustained before Plevna were seriously a-ffecting the morale
of the soldiers. It was therefore resolved to call for the aid
of the skilful oflB.cer of engineers who had designed the defence
of Sebastopol, and also to await the arrival of the new troops
who were by this time well on their way. Whether the neces-
sity of completing the investment of Plevna was foreseen when
General Todleben was sent for is uncertain, but it was recog-
nized soon after he arrived in the camp, when also the weekly
appearance of new troops promised to furnish before long the
means of completing the blockade. Osman Pacha, having
repulsed the last and greatest attack upon his position, showed
himself anxious for the despatch of supplies and reinforcements.
General Kriloff, as we have already seen, had been sent with a
strong body of cavalry to guard the road from Orkhanieh to
Plevna, but proved lamentably unequal to the task. On the
21st September Ahmed Hifzi Pacha set out from Orkhanieh
with a convoy of fifteen battalions, a battery of eight guns,
590 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
ition. ™
and a long train loaded with provisions and ammunition.
Tlie train advanced slowly, but Kriloff so little understood
wliat lie had to do that it entered Plevna without the loss
of a single waggon, Kriloff taking credit in his report for
not having lost a man in opposing its progress. A second
convoy reached Osman Pacha in like manner, as a third would
have done, had not the Roumanians interfered and captured it.
An end, however, was soon to be put to these displays of Russian
helplessness. The Guard had arrived, and the ranks of the
battalions which had fought during the summer had been filled
up. Grcneral Grourko, who since his retreat to the Sliipka
Pass had not been actively employed, now received orders to
assume the command of a strong cavalry force, and to take
possession of the Orkhanieh road. His arrival on the scene was
the signal for activity of a most productive kind. The first
intimation of his advent was the announcement that he had
captured the position of Gorny Dubnik, the centre of the prin-
cipal Turkish defences on the Orkhanieh road. The place
was strongly intrenched with a large redoubt of four hun-
dred yards, flanked by two smaller works. It was held by
twelve battalions of Turks, and was attacked by twenty-
four battalions, with sixty-four guns, and a regiment of cavalry.
The fighting lasted from six a.m. to six p.m., when the Turks
hoisted the Avhite flag ; five of their battalions escaped to Plevna,
while seven surrendered. This success cost the Russians 154
officers and 3,000 men. On the same day a division of the Guards
sent against Teliche, a fortified position west of Gorny Dubnik, ■
suffered a severe repulse. Teliche, however, was captured on ^
the 29th of October, when five battalions surrendered after a
feeble resistance. On the 1st of November, Dolny Dubnik, east
of Gorny Dubnik, was taken. It was held by 5,000 Turks
under a Pacha, and was fairly intrenched, but when General
Gourko advanced against it with a division and a half and
sixty -four guns, and opened a cannonade, followed by rifle firing,
the Turks, having the road to Plevna open to them, abandoned
the place, General Gourko not losing a man. With the occu-
pation of Dolny Dubnik, the road from Plevna to Sofia
through Orkhanieh was closed, and the investment of Plevna was
1
THE OllKHAXIEH IJOAD. 591
regarded as complete. Tlie Russian cavalry now made excur-
sions over a large extent of country soutli of Plevna, captur-
ing the Turks' supplies, who since the loss of the road to
Plevna had been counting on an army of relief to be formed at
Orkhanieh. They took Teteven, near Orkhanieh, and Yratza,
and then Etropol, within ten miles of Orkhanieh itself. The
following letters relate to these transactions : —
t Bucharest, Octoher 26tJi. — The news has just been received
here of the fight on the Sofia road. The Turks had forti-
fied a position there between Grorny Dubnik and Telichc,
and it was here, it will be remembered, that General Krilofi;
tried to stop Chefket Pacha's convoy by attacking a fortified
position with cavalry and artillery instead of the convoy itself.
The Turks have evidently been trying to reopen their com-
munications by establishing a number of small forts along
the Sofia road. This was one of them, and as it was probably
too near the Russian line to be convenient they took it, as
they will undoubtedly take any others there may be this
side of the Balkans. The Russians have 3,000 prisoners, one
regiment of cavalry, and four guns. The fighting, it is said,
v^^as hard, and the Russian losses considerable.
A Russian ofiicer just returned from the positions before Plevna
gives me the following account of affairs there. It is untrue
that the Turks have succeeded in getting any supplies of pro-
visions into Plevna lately. No convoy has succeeded in
getting through since about the time that General Gourko
took command of the cavalry. The investment of Plevna has
been complete now for about a week ; that is, an investment
with the aid of infantry. As fast as the soldiers of the Im-
perial Guard arrived they took up their position on the
- Russian left, where General Skobeleff stands with the
16th Division, continuing the line- of investment over the
Loffccha road, on to the Sofia road, and further round as
fast as the troops arrived.
There is a large force of infantry on and near this road, and the
line is continued from here to the Roumanian right by the
Russian and Roumanian cavalry under the command of
General Gourko. The investment is therefore complete, and
it is evident from the manner in which it has been done, and
from so much infantry being sent behind Plevna, that the
Russian plan looks farther than merely obliging Osman Pacha
to withdraw from Plevna. In fact, if it were merely a ques-
tion of stopping supplies, a large force of cavalry unde]'
General Gourko would have sufficed. It is true he could noi
592 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
have prevented the arrival of reinforcements, "but with his
artillery he could always smash the waggons, kill the horses
of the train, and destroy the supplies, even if he could not
capture them. Infantry was, therefore, not absolutely necessary
on the other side of Plevna, and that such a strong force has
been sent seems to point to the intention of the Russians not
only to starve out Osman Pacha, but to cut off his retreat like-
wise. It is impossible to ascertain for exactly how long
Plevna is provisioned, and it is probable that the Turks them-
selves do not know ; but it is evident that, unless their
supplies are sufficient for the Avhole winter, Ghazi Osman
Pacha will soon be in a most critical position, one resembling
somewhat that of Bazaine at Metz. We may suppose that
Osman will show more patriotism, more generalship, and
especially more tenacity than Bazaine ; but it is evident that
unless he has a much larger supply of provisions than is be-
lieved, he will soon be in a bad way.
The Russians are receiving reinforcements every day, and thero
is every appearance that they intend to surround Plevna as
the Grermans did Paris with a series of works, through which
Osman will find as much difficulty in breaking as General
Trochu did with the German intrenchments around Paris.
Osman will have to fight his way out or surrender sooner or
later, for the Russians will soon have enough troops to com^
plete the investment by infantry, and make a circle of resist-
ance as solid as that of the Germans around Paris. The only
question is for how long is Osman Pacha supplied with pro-
visions. As the Turks have had all summer in which to store
iip provisions in Plevna, there is really no good reason, except
Turkish improvidence, why they should not have enough
to last them until next spring ; but there is every reason to
believe that they have not so much. My informant thinks
that the fact of the Turks having sent fifteen or twenty thou-
sand men as reinforcements into Plevna some weeks ago, is
evidence that they do not fear running short of supplies.
But this by no means follows. In the first place, the rein-
forcements escorted large convoys of supplies, which would
not have got through without an escort. Then, besides, the
Turks could not know that a complete investment would be
attempted, and may have hoped to prevent it. The arrival
of these reinforcements, therefore, is no proof that there are
plenty of provisions in Plevna. The appearances are that
Osman will attempt to force out his way through the Russian
lines sooner or later, and that the attempt will end in a
disaster as complete as that of Mukhtar Pacha.
I must say, now that the question of a second campaign is reso-
I
INVESTMENT OF PLEVNA. 593
lutely faced, the prospect is more hopeful for the Russians
than at any time since General Kriidener's defeat in July.
t Bucharest, October 28tJi. — The battle at Gorny Dubnik seems
to have been a more serious affair as regards fighting than I
could at first have supposed. When General Kriloff Avas there
there was only a small earthwork, which the Turks appeared
to have constructed in haste as a sufficient obstacle to cavalry,
but one that would not have stopped a strong force more
than a few minutes. The Turks must have strengthened
and reinforced it since then. It is situated near the road in
the middle of a plain, on a very slight eminence, and pos-
sesses no natural advantages of position. As the Turks have
established a line of these posts to keep open the road, they
cannot put a large number of troops in any one of them
without weakening the army in Plevna. They probably had
five or six thousand men here, yet the Russians acknow-
ledge a loss of twenty-five hundred men, which shows the
terrible eff'ects of breech-loading arms properly handled.
I^evertheless the Russians took it, and as they surrounded
the place before attacking it no part of the garrison could
escape. All were either killed or taken prisoners.
As the Russians report that two thousand prisoners were taken,
the Turkish loss would probably be between three and four
thousand killed. The result of the affair is to show that the
Turks cannot keep the road open by this system of small
detached forts. There has been a rumour here that the Turks
have recaptured part of the positions ; but this I do not
credit. The Turks could not have a large force near there,
and, as there are two divisions of the Guard over the River
Yid, it is not likely that the Turks could have recaptured any-
thing from them.
f BoGOT, Noveriiber 4^tli. — The belief here that Plevna cannot
hold out more than a few days longer is very sfcrong. No
supplies have reached the place for more than a month, and
it is invested by a circle of earthworks manned by forces that
are growing stronger every day with the arrival of troops from
Russia.
The question now is, What will Osman Pacha do ? It is pretty
certain that he has no great amount of supplies, that his troops
are suffering severe privations from hunger and cold, and that
much depression and discontent prevail is evident from the
number of deserters who come in daily. The easy surrender
of Teliche after five hours of artillery fire is an ominous event
which points to the same conclusion — that is, a scarcity of
Q Q
594 WAK CORRESrONDENCE.
provisions. Thej probably never tbouglit tliat tlie Russians
could completely invest Plevna, or only thought so lately, as
was shown by their feeble attempt to keep open communica-
tions by building a line of small detached forts. Osman
Pacha has no ho23e of relief from outside, and if he is as short
of supplies as is believed here, he must ere long choose
between surrendering at discretion or cutting his way through
the Russian lines.
The Russians seem to think he will surrender, but I for my part
have no doubt he will attempt to cut his way out. Which-
ever he chooses, the result will be a disaster to the Turkish
arms. He can undoubtedly succeed in escaping with part of
his army, if he does not allov/ his troops to become too much
weakened by hunger before making the attempt ; but he will
lose his artillery, which may not after all be worth much, as
a great deal of it is disabled ; and will lose more than half
his army. His effective is now estimated at 45,000 men. After
deducting for losses and sickness, if he reached Sofia with
20,000 he would be lucky ; for it should be remembered that
the Russians hold not only one point on the Sofia road but the
whole road up to the summit of the Orkhanieh Pass, which is
practicable, it seems, for an army. He will have to break
through three lines of intrenchments, and although his troops
are good in defending trenches, they are not so good in attack-
ing them. If the Turks in trenches can repulse the Russians,
the latter can much more easily repulse the Turks under the
same circumstances.
The Russian lines are completely connected by a telegraph
encircling the place, so that the Russians can concentrate
immediately upon the point of the circle that is attacked.
This is further facilitated by the peculiarity of the gTound,
which enables the Russians to see every part of the Turkish
positions from some point in the Russian lines. Any concen-
tration of the Turkish troops can therefore be seen and the
numbers estimated, unless sach concentration be made at
night. Even then the exact numbers could be seen at day-
light, as soon as the movement began, so that it is im-
possible for Osman Pacha to gain time by making feints.
He will simply have to gather his troops together daring the
night, and throw them in a mass upon some point of the
Russian lines at daylight, and get through. The result can
hardly be less than disastrous, though less so, perhaps, than
capitulation.
Much speculation is indulged in as to the direction in which
Osman Pacha will try to break through. It seems more than
likely he will attempt it by the Widdin road, where the
THE RUSSIAN STRENGTH. 595
Russian line is Aveakest ; but altliougli this appears his '
greatest chance of success, perhaps that success, if attained,
would be of little use ; for while one half of the
Russian army pursued him, the other half could cross the
Balkans, and crush Chefket's small force at Sofia. Osman
Pacha's object upon getting out should be to effect a junction
with either Chef ket, Reouf , or Suleiman, which would be
impossible if he broke through on the Widdin side. The
Sofia road and the line from the Loftcha road are held by
the Guard, The Loftcha road is held by Skobeleff, on
ground which he has fought over twice. The passage cannot
be eiiected except by the most desperate fighting and the
most fearful losses. Should he attempt on the east to effect
a junction with Suleiman, he would, supposing he succeeded
in breaking through the Russian lines and earthworks, still
have with the remnant of his army to meet the Army of the
Jantra with the Grand Duke Mcholas on his back. Every-
thing considered, I think Osman Pacha's chances are bad,
unless he has three or four months' supply of provisions.
jSTevertheless, skill and energy might do wonders, if seconded
by incapacity and stupidity on the other side. At any rate,
the result of this Plevna campaign must be a great militaiy
event, and one of the highest interest. The weather is fairly
good. There is rain and sunshine every day. The sky is
clear nearly every night ; the weather is warm ; the roads are
moderately good. Three days of rain or three days of sun-
shine would make them very bad or very good. There has
been ten days of cold weather, during which the troops
suft'ered severely, but now they are not badly off. The season
of sickness has not yet begun, nor will it until the weather
finally breaks up. This may not be until the first of
December. Even then, should we be favoured by extreme
cold and snow instead of i^in, the health of the army would
not suffer much.
The Russian reserve system seems to be working very well.
General Skobeleff tells me his division, which suffered so
severely in Krlidener's defeat, and which also lost heavily at
Pelisat and in the last Plevna affair, numbers 11,500 men.
Little is doing here in the way of bombardment. Three or
four times only during the day a great crash breaks against
the sky, and comes rolling back to us in muffled thunder. It
is caused by one hundred to three hundred guns speaking in
I unison, and concentrated upon a single spot. General Tod^
leben has had all the distances divided into small sections.
There are about four hundred guns in position around Plevna.
From one hundred to all the four hundred can be concen-
Q Q 2
596 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
1
^r^^ "«
trated on any point of tlie Turkisli positions ; and wlienever
the Turkish reserves or any masses of troops can be detected
anywhere, the guns are directed upon that spot, and a simul-
taneous fire is ordered by telegraph. For two or three
hundred shells to fall in a small space, wdthin a few seconds
of each other, is fearful. This is the only way modem
artillery can be made effective. The fire is sometimes con-
centrated on the redoubts, sometimes on the town in the same
way. Had the artillery been handled in this way when assault-
ing the redoubts, it would have been useful. As no assault is
intended now, it does little good, except w^hen masses of
troops are caught.
The Emperor arrived here yesterday, and went to Dorny
Dubnik, on the Sofia road, accompanied by the Grand Duke
Nicholas. They are to return to-morrow. ,
4-BoGOT, November 4thj livening. — Three detachments of prisoners
passed through here to-day, counting in all perhaps 5,000 men.
They were captured at the recent engagement on the Sofia
road. One batch of officers came under a special guard, and
bivouacked here for the night. There are 250 of them, includ-
ing some who are said to be pachas, and one Englishman, who
insists that he is a surgeon, but who is generally believed to
have been an officer. His name I could not learn. Many of
the officers are mounted. Some have pack horses, with
. quantities of effects. All are well dressed, and have no lack
of warm clothing. They have plenty of money, which they
spend freely for bread and tobacco, and seem, on the whole,
to be gratified w4th their fortune, which has brought them
into the hands of the Russians. The soldiers are comfortably
clothed, and appear well-fed and healthy. These prisoners
will be sent to Sistova, as was the batch of 3,000 which passed
here two or three days ago. A very small escort accompanies
them — almost ridiculously small, in fact — but they are quiet,
and manifest no disposition to cause trouble.
t DoLNY Dubnik, November 6th. — The Turks abandoned this
place, lost the position they held on the Sofia road, and
retreated into Plevna without firing a shot. The Russians
were making dispositions to surround and capture the place
as they did at Gorny Dubnik and Teliche. The Turks, seeing
this, evacuated it at midnight. When the Russians advanced
the next morning they did not find a soul.
It was the best thing the Turks could do, as it was evident the
position could not be held. The capture of this place has
enabled the Russians to shorten their line of investment con-
OSMAX pacha's tenacity. 597
siderablj. Tlieir line has now been drawn riglit round the
Turkish works everywhere, and the investment is more com-
plete and effective than I had thought, as every part is
occupied by infantry, no part being left to cavalry. From
Grivica round to the Loftcha road the line is just where it
was at the moment of giving the assault at the last attack on
Plevna. The artillery occupies the ridge before Radisovo,
with the guns extended down the line towards the Loftcha
road to not more than a mile from Plevna. On the Loftcha
road General Skobeleff is not as far advanced as he was at the
time he made his assault. The Turks, taking advantage of
the moment after the battle Avhen the Russians had with-
drawn, and warned that they were not invulnerable here, have
constructed four new redoubts, so that Skobeleff now, instead
of three redoubts, has seven before him. When Skobeleff:
first attacked here, when Kriidener was defeated, he found no
defences at all, and he entered Plevna but with only one
battalion. His line is now considerably in front of a village
called Brestovec. From here the line extends to the Yid.
It then crosses the Sofia road about a mile from the bridge
over the Yid. From here it passes parallel to the river until
just below Opanes, where it again crosses the Yid, and curves
round to the Grivica redoubt, about a mile in front of
Grivica. The Russian line of investment is thirty miles long.
The Turkish position measures from the Grivica redoubt to
the bridge over the Yid eight miles; from the Krishine
redoubt to the Bukova redoubt is about five miles. The line is
is of an irregular, oval shape, with a circumference of about
twenty miles.
With the force the Russians have here now, 120,000 men, they
can fill two lines of continuous trenches around the Avhole line
of investment as full as it is convenient for men to lie in
trenches. It will be seen, therefore, that Osman Pacha is
surrounded by a circle which it will not be easy to break
through. As to the supply of provisions, accounts continue to
be contradictory, but since my last telegram a herd of about
five or six thousand head of cattle, whose existence was not
known before, has been discovered, by having been driven
out to feed on the hills. Other indications point to the pro-
bability that Osman may hold out thirty or forty days yet,
though not longer. His army is already on short i-ations,
however. Ten soldiers receive two and a half pounds of meat
daily between them, and the supply of corn and flour is not
thought to be great. At any rate, whether Osman has supplies
for one month or for three, the result must be the same
in the end. He will have to surrender or cut his way out,
598 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
either of whicli will be such a disaster for the Turkish aiins
that Russia will be enabled to bring the war to a rapid con-
clusion. Turkey can never raise such another army as that
of Osman Pacha, and the loss of this army is now only a
question of some weeks more or less. The Russians will
stay here till Plevna falls, and we think we already see the
beginning of the end.
The soldiers have built for themselves veiy comfortable huts all
along the line of positions, and although they will undoubtedly
suffer in case of a rainy winter, they ivdll be able to keep up
the investment with ease. As to supplies, the army on the
west side of the Vid can live on the country between the
Danube and the Balkans nearly up to the Servian frontier by
means of their cavalry. The country is rich in Indian com,
wheat, barley, hay, and straw. On the other side, they will
be supplied from Roumania, and this can be done with ease.
Everything considered, the Russian prospects are brighter
than they have been since last July, and everybody feels it.
The change of feeling since I was here last is very gi*eat
Much of this cheerfulness is, I believe, owing to the fact that
such men as Todleben, Gourko, Skobeleff, and Imeritinsky
have come to the front, and, althcrugh not forming part of the
staff, have active parts in the direction of the war. But the
great fact is that Osman is caught in his own net and cannot
escape.
The inherent weakness of an army such as the Turkish, that can
only act on the defensive, now becomes glaringly evident. If
Osman's army could manoeuvre on the field of battle ; if
it had discipline, good officers, tactical education, enabling
Osman to handle it as an army should be handled, he Avould
not undoubtedly allow his communications to be cut and him-
self to be shut up like a monster spider in his ovm. web. He
would have retired from Plevna before it was too late, have
refused battle against superior numbers, but have hovered
on the Russian right flank ready to strike at a favourable
moment — a continual menace to the .Kussian communications.
• The enemy could never cross the Balkans as long as this army
remained anywhere between Plevna and Widdin ; and with
its back to the Balkans it could always have defied attack, as
easily as at Plevna. Such might have been the development
of the campaign if Osman Pacha's army were like a European
one, capable of acting on the offensive, of manoeuvring in the
open country, of executing rapid movements, of striking
swift, heavy blows. As it is, his troops can only sit in the
trenches and shoot until they are all starved out lijke wild
beasts.
I
THE .RESTLESS SKOBELEFF. 599
Bj the beginning of ]S"oYeniber the Russian army had not
only been joined by all the new corps which had been summoned
from Russia, but all the battalions before Plevna had been
brought up to their full strength. Their girdle of investment
was tightened by the Russians whenever any ground was to be
gained. The following letter describes a struggle which grew
out of a successful attempt in this direction made by General
Skobeleff : —
t General Skobeleff's Headquarters, Brestoyec, Loftcha
Road, November 10th. — The monotony of the last few days
has at last been broken by an affair which, although not of
very great importance, has nevertheless kept us employed for
the last twenty-four hours. As might be expected, the break
in the monotony of our existence came from Skobeleff, who is
one of those restless spirits that cannot keep quiet. How-
ever, he had very good cause for action in the present case.
I have already described the Russian line of investment, men-
tioning with the rest Skobeleff occupying his old positions on
the Loftcha road. This is the only point on the line where
the Russians do not hold the same ground as at the moment
of the assault. After the battle of Plevna it was thought
unsafe to remain here, and Skobeleff was ordered to fall back
on Tucenica, completely abandoning the Loftcha road, and
placing an impassable ravine, which runs parallel to the road
about a quarter of a mile distant from it, between him and the
Turks. When he again advanced to occupy his old positions
he found, as I have already stated, that the Turks had con-
siderably advanced theirs, and had constructed four new
redoubts. He succeeded, however, in occupying Brestovec,
on the left of the road, and in constructing a redoubt in front
and on the left of the village, and the line of trenches across
the road to the i^vine already mentioned. The Brestovec
redoubt is just opposite the Turkish Krishine redoubt, from
which it is distant about 1,300 yards. But this Brestovec
redoubt forms a kind of angle projecting into the Turkish
lines, and was somewhat exposed and dangerous. It became
necessary to strengthen the Russian line. This could be done
by seizing the small wooded hill immediately in front of the
right wing between the Loftcha road and the ravine already
spoken of.
It was most unfortunate for the Russians that these positions were
ever abandoned, for they are about as high as the E^rishine
redoubt, they completely command Plevna, and the two
WAR COREESPOTsTDENCE.
redoubts captured by Skobeleff in the last affair, and fortine
would bave rendered the Russian positions bere mucb
stronger tban tbej can now be made. Tbe Turks bave now
constructed a strong redoubt on tbe summit of tbe bill between
tbe Krisbine redoubt and tbe Loftcba road, tbe very spot
wbere Skobeleff planted two batteries during tbe last affair.
It was not tbe bill witb tbe redoubt wbicb Skobeleff resolved
to capture, but one between tbe Loftcba road and tbe ravine.
It was defended by trencbes, and beld by about fourteen
tabors, perbaps 7,000 men, tbougb Todleben believed tbere
were a gTeat many more, as tbe position was most important.
Tbe combined movement was arranged witb Greneral Grourko,
wbo was to open fire all along tbe line, and likewise advance
and occupy tbe position in front of bim towards tbe bridge
over tbe Yid, in order to sborten bis line likewise. Tbe
weatber, wbicb for several days bad been very fine, became
foggy last nigbt, and a tbick beavy fog bung over us all day
yesterday, reminding me very mucb of tbe day we last attacked
Plevna ; but tbe fog was neitber so wxt nor so cold. It was so>
tbick tbat one could not see more tban fifty feet. M\
Tbe attack was fixed for five o'clock. By tbat time it was so dark «
tbat notbing could be seen more tban five feet off. Skobeleff*
reviewed bis troops tbat w^ere destined for tbe attack —
tbe battalion of sbarpsbooters. He tben got down from bis
borse, went about among tbe men, talked to tbem, told tbem,.
especially tbe Qnder-officers, just wbat tbey w^ere to do, and
finisbed by informing tbem be w^ould lead tbe assault in
person. Tbis regiment, I may remark, was one wbicb attackee!
and carried tbese same beigbts during tbe last affair of Plevna
on tbe second day of tbe bombardment. Tbe regiment, baving^
taken tbese beigbts, slipped out of tbe bands of its officers, and
pursued tbe Turks to tbe foot of tbe glacis of tbe redoubt after-
wards captured by Skobeleff', witb tbe result tbat two-tbirds-
of tbe regiment were destroyed. Tbe regiment is now full again
witb reserves tbat bave come up. It was tbe recollection of s
tbis event tbat decided Skobeleff to lead tbe attack bimself. fl
It was important tbat tbe men sbould be stopped at tbe rigbt
moment and at tbe rigbt place, and tbat tbe intrencbments
Avbicb be intended to tbrow up sbould be properly laid, as a
little mistake easily made migbt end disastrously. It was
not, tberefore, mere bravado wbicb made bim decide to lead
tbe assault bimself .
^t balf-past four be mounted bis borse, put bimself at tbe bead
of bis troops, and disappeared in tbe fog. At five o'clock tbe
fog began to turn dark, sbowing tbe approacb of nigbt. Tbe
Turks must bave tbougbt tbere would be little call for furtber
I'HE TURKS SURl'llISED. 601
Yigilance that day. On the approach of darkness the roar of
eighty guns was heard that vomited splashes of flame upon the
murky fog, and then were silent. Then came the scream of
eighty shells seeking their destination in the obscurity. Then
there was the crash of the infantry lire along the whole line
except on the point of the attack, for it was Skobeleff's design
to use the fog for cover and take the Turks by surprise. The
infantry fire rolled along in front of Brestovec, where I had
taken my station, and soon the bullets began singing over-
head, telling that the Turks were replying; but we could hear
as yet little firing, on the right wing, where the attack was to
take place. Finally, after about a quarter of an hour, there
were two or three volleys in this direction, followed by a
Russian shout, and we knew the position was carried.
As it turned out, the Turks were surprised, and did not discover
the approach of the Russians until they were within one
hundred yards. By the time they had seized their arms and
fired two rounds, the Russians were on them with the bayonet,
and it w^as all over. In a moment those who did not fly were
bayoneted. The attack was led by two companies of sharp-
shooters, followed closely by the 9th Battalion and the Vladi-
mirsky regiment. Every man was provided with a shovel, and
immediately began making trenches, as indicated by Skobelelf .
In a very few minutes they were under cover from a heavy
but ill-directed fire poured into them from the next hill, not
distant more than 250 yards. Skobeleff stayed until about
ten o'clock, when he thought the men had made the place
secure, and returned to Brestovec to supper. He had scarcely
washed when the fire broke out again with fury on the right
flank. Skobeleff mounted again, disappeared in the darkness
and fog, and did not return till this morning. He found the-
Turks making a desperate attempt to recapture the position,
and arrived on the ground in the nick of time, as some confusion
had ensued, for the reserves, who lost their way in the fog„
coming in the wrong direction, got fired into from their own
side. There was also a report that Skobeleff was killed, which
discouraged the troops. He arrived in the middle of the
Turkish assault, one fellow having leaped into the trench with
the cry of " Allah ! " where he was bayoneted. The attack was.
repulsed, but the Turks made a second and third one, and
each time were driven back with ease.
The position, if not taken within the next twenty-four hours,,
may be considered secure. The Russian loss was comparatively
small, only 250 killed and wounded, among whom were two-
or three officers, one being Captain DombroAvsky, of the sharp-
shooters, of whom Skobeleff speaks in the highest terms^
602 WAll CORRESPOXDEXCE.
The Turkish, loss, of course, was mucli lieavier, as the Russians
were under cover almost immediately on getting possession of
the hill, and lost less than a hundred in the assault itself . The
weather is line again to-day.
Bucharest, Novemher Wth, Niglit. — A Russian success is reported
here to-day — the occupation of Yi-atza by Greneral Gourko.
This victory is evidently of some importance. Yratza, or
"Vraca, as spelt on the Austrian map, is situated some fifty
kilometres west of Plevna, and although only occupied by
1,500 Turks, mostly irregulars, still formed a considerable
depot of ammunition and provisions, which, I hear, are now
safely in the hands of the Russians. The loss on the Russian
side is reported small.
-f Headquarters of General Skobeleff, Brestovec, Novemher
10th. — This village has been in Russian hands only three or
four days, and even now is in the ragged edge of the Turkish
infantry fire from the rifle-pits in front of the Ki^ishine redoubt
which crowns the summit of the smooth hill to the north.
Stray shells make the empty houses re-echo with a musical
prolongation of the noise of the whizzing bits, and the sing-
ing of the Peabody-Martini bullets is heard at short intervals
day and night through. The village is not an agreeable place
of residence, for it occupies a little valley onlv a few hundred
yards from the Turkish works, and the dip seems to be just
at the right angle to pick up all the odd bits of lead and iron
that come anywhere in this direction. The casualties are
perhaps more numerous here than in the trenches, on account
of the peculiar conformation of the gTOund ; but, then, to be
anywhere in the neighbourhood of General Skobeleff is always
to be in dangerous quarters. The trenches run along the
northern edge of the village, behind the garden hedges, and
out across the open slope to the left, into a battery on the
hill directly opposite the Krishine redoubt. The former
position was back on the Loftcha road, but a young officer of
the 16th Division saw a good op^Dortunity of flanking the
Turks who held this point three or four days ago, and with a
hundred men drove them out of the place, and occupied their
lines himself. This village, by the way, is just where the
village of Krishine is marked on the Austrian map, a half-
mile north-west of the hill where the Loftcha road descends
into the valley towards Plevna. This new position of General
Skobelelf not only brings him nearer to the Turks, but
shortens the line of investment materially. There is a certain
green hill to the north of the line, thinly wooded, and not
over five hundred paces from the battery on the Loftcha road ;
1
I
I
A MILITAEY CAYALGADE. 603
on the slope of tliis liill lias been stationed tlie advanced
picquets of the Turks, wlio have made it at times decidedly
nncomf ortable for passers between the battery and this village,
and have sent a multitude of compliments in this direction.
General Skobelelf has been meditating for some days the
capture of this territory, and it was decided to attempt the
advance last evening, in conjunction with a forward move-
ment of General Gourko on the left.
We had been basking in the warm sunshine for a day or two,
and had begun to believe that it was the real Indian summer
after all, but yesterday morning the sun rose pale and feeble,
no warmth penetrated the thick curtain of fog that clung
to the earth, and as the day advanced the mist gi-ew more
and more dense, until, by the middle of the afternoon, it was
impossible to see the distance of a hundred yards. All the
forenoon the troops were moving in small detachments toward
the place of concentration near the Loftcha road, and every-
one knew that an attack was arranged for five o'clock in the
afternoon. The fog effectually concealed the hostile lines
from one another, and the batteries were silent. To us who
were waiting this silence was ominous, for it was broken by
the muffled tramp of men and words of command as the
detachments went away into the fog. At three o'clock the
ragged red and yellow flag was taken from its place by the
side of the door of the low mud hovel occupied by General
Skobeleff, and the staff assembled to inspect the troops and
to accompany the General, who was to conduct the attack in
person. It was a most picturesque and romantic cavalcade
that filed out of the yard and followed the young leader out
to certain danger and possible death. General Skobeleff,
alike heedless of cold and damp and whizzing missiles, was
the only one who was not bundled up in overcoat and capu-
chon. He led the way through the narrow alleys of the
village, mounted on a w^hite horse — ^the soldiers look for the
white horse as much as for their beloved commander — confi-
dent, cheerful, inspiriting to look upon. Behind him a motley
retinue ; Circassians with long surtout and silver-mounted
harness and weapons ; blonde youths already scarred and
covered with decorations, correspondents in civil dress, Cos-
sacks half hidden in their grey-coats and hoods, and in the
middle of the group a picturesque Circassian on a white
horse, bearing the tattered banner, quite like an old crusader,
with his quaint arms and curious dress. The flag, too, is
quite mediaBA^al in appearance, and completed the illusion to
perfection. It is a square silk banner, fastened to a Cossack's
lance, and has on the one side the white cross of St. George,
604 WAK COREESPONDENCE.
and on tlie other the letters M.C. (Michael Skobeleff), ani
' the date 1875, in yellow on a red ground. The tattered silk
. was carried through the Khokand campaign, and has fluttered
in all the hard fights which have made the yonng General so
famous. We went on, losing our way a dozen times, and at
last reached the spot where the troops were massed near an
encampment of straw huts, all drawn up in order, with arms
in hands and with spades to intrench the ground they were
about to take ; stretcher-bearers in a group at the rear, a
suggestive but unpleasant sight; a battery of mitrailleuses
bundled up like so many human beings to keep out the damp,
and in front of the troops, the little body of picked men,
each with his shovel, his rations, and plenty of ammunition,
who were to make the first rush across, use the bayonet, and
then throw it aside for the spade, and endeavour to cover in
time to resist the attack of the returning Turks.
It was a dramatic and intensely impressive scene, these square-
masses of earnest men, every one with his eyes fixed on the
face of the Greneral, who passed before them all with the
customary greeting, which was answered with a will like one
voice from the battalion, in turn. Against the backgi^ound
of grey mists which had now settled down so thick that
objects were not visible the length of a company front, came
out the forms of men and horses in exaggerated relief, and
made wonderfully picturesque the groups and masses of
expectant soldiers. General Skobeleft' dismounted and told
the men just what he expected of them — that they were not
to storm the works of Plevna, but only to run forward and
take the piece of ground they knew perfectly well in front of
the road, and to hold it until they had works throw^n up. He
cautioned them, as many were young soldiers sent out from the
reserves to fill the gTeat gaps in the ranks, not to advance too
far, but to mind exactly what the officers told them. He
would be with them himself, and would direct the movements
personally. Surely a finer lot of men never went into a fight ;
young, healthy, devoted, and confident, every face wore an
expression that was a proof of courage and earnestness and
even religious zeal. As we stood there the darkness rapidly
increased, and it was nearly five o'clock as the troops moved
forT\^ard at quick pace in front of the General and stafP. As
the men passed they all received encouraging words, and they
went by smiling at the good-natured chaff from the General,,
who called to them by name, remarked on their new boots,,
which he said were like those of a Spanish don, and told the
musicians they would play a waltz in the new redoubts on
the morrow.
■
no
A SUCCESSFUL ATTACK. 605
The perfect confidence of the soldiers, inspired by tlie presence
of the man whom they regard as a protector, infallible leader,
and beloved friend at the same time, made the success of the
undertaking assured, and as they went down over the hill to
the trenches, to await the opening salvo of artillery, we took
our place — a little knot of non-combatants — in the trenches
on the hill alongside the battery which was to give the signal
for the assault. The hot breath of sixteen field pieces scorched
our faces as the opening salvo shook the heavy air, then came
ii cheer on the right, just down in the hollow, and the singing
of bullets filled the air over our heads. We were seated in
the trench of the picquet line, and when the bullets began to
chip off the twigs on the top of the breastwork, and plump
into the earth at our feet, we began to look about us to see
what we were depending on for support. Only a thin line of
men were lying against the dirt, rifle in hand, anxiously trying
to see some object in front to shoot at. An officer came along
-and extinguished all the fires, and kept cautioning and
encouraging the men, ordering them to stop firing and to
watch. The musketry rattled and roared in the hollow and
off on the green hill on the right, and sounded like the surging
of a storm. The battery alongside kept banging away, deafen-
ing us, and blinding us with the flash. In the dense fog every
noise was magnified, and as the shells screamed past us and
exploded with a sharp, ringing sound behind us in the village,
it seemed as if they were ten times the ordinary' size. The
darkness was impenetrable, An officer or a couple of stretcher-
bearers loomed up occasionally through the fog, and dodged
and jumped into the ditch as the leaden shower came over us.
Down beloAV in the hollow we could see no flash, only from
that darkness came a hot spitting of lead that made it almost
certain death to face. The fog began to condense and gather
on the ground, and the cold increased, and still the battle
roared, and rose and fell, ceased and began again. At last
it w^as evident from the firing that the position was taken,
and we retired to the village to the music of the shells and
bullets, and up to our little camp as quickly as possible, for
we were anxious for men and horses. We found all safe, but
tent and waggon riddled with bullets, and only one soldier's
horse limping with a wound. We put the waggon in such
shelter as we could easily find behind a straw stack, and
awaited the next burst of battle, which we knew was sure to
come. At a quarter-past ten it broke again, and the same
fiendish noise and rattle went on as before, and the bullets
and shells kept singing about our ears for a long half -hour,
and all was silent, with an occasional cannon report, until day-
006 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
break, when we were awakened bj a new ^^eal of artillery, and
had the same continnous rattle of bullets among the twigs.
Then we learned the details of the occupation of the ridge,
which have reached the public long before this by telegraph.
As I write the popping of rifles is heard on the ridge, for the
Turks do not seem satisfied Avith the loss of the position, and
make frequent but ineffectual attempts to regain it. A visit
to the ground gained showed me what they had done in the
few hours of darkness. An irregular zigzag trench runs
across the hill to the further side toward the Tucenica ravine,
where there is a square battery for the Gatling guns. Along
the trenches and among the trees there is no sign of the
struggle. The sights of a battle-field are only horrible after
the affair is over, and it was a relief to find no dead man, no
wounded man, no marks of a scuffle or a bayonet fight, even
on the gTound where the struggle had taken place. Now we
are waiting the final result, and occupy our time in skirmishing
about between the shelter and the fire for tea and food, and
spend the moments of lull in the shower of bullets in arrang-
ing for the next burst of the lead mine. The penetration of
the Peabody-Martini bullet is simply remarkable. At the
distance of two thousand yards from the Turkish lines I have
dug them out of a foot of solid earth of a threshing-floor.
At the distance we are novf from those who hold the rifles
nothing short of a thick earthwork will stop them, for they
skip merrily through the roofs of the houses and through the
mud fences, and bury themselves deep in the earth. During
the fight which has just taken place I have heard for the first
time the new falconets at work. In a telegTam I spoke of the
use of these demi-cannon, as I called them for want of a
better word. They are simply short rifles of about "80
bore, breech-loading, and carrying a ball heavy enough to
penetrate an ordinary breastwork and kill the man behind
it at 250 yards. The report sounds more like the bursting of
a small shell in the lines than like a gun, for it is just between
the rifle and cannon report in volume. A telescopic rifle,
with a good marksman to use it, w^ould do more damage to
the Turks than a thousand of the falconets, and put a stop to
all circulation of soldiers in the open opposite the Russian lines.
I have given the notes of one day at Skobeleff's camp and head-
quarters. This is the treat he generally gives his visitors.
The General himself is asleep on a stretcher in the trenches,
and will not come up again until the occupation of the
ridge is a settled fact, and there is no more danger of the
Turks retaking it. It is no wonder that the soldiers of such
a general fight well.
PLEVNA INVESTED. 607
4- Headquarters, Dolny Dubnik, November 16th. — The position
here remains nnclianged. Since tlie seizure of the Green
Hill by Skobelelf, already described in a previous telegram,
no important movement lias been undertaken by the Russians,
The Turks have made three attacks upon Skobeleff's position
on three successive nights, but were each time repulsed with
heavy loss. The defence of this new position is most successful
and brilliant, and the position itself is of more importance than
I was at first disposed to acknowledge. SkobelefE remains
night after night in the trenches, and has succeeded in
pushing his lines up to within one hundred yards of the
Turks. They are indeed so close to each other that scarcely
a night passes without heavy firing. Fire is opened all
along the line upon tlie slightest alarm. At the same time
that Skobeleff advanced, the Gruards pushed forward to a
position directly under the Krishine redoubt, where the
outposts now are, and the line extends back over the hills
to near the bridge over the Vid. The village of Krishine
remains neutral ground. Two days later the Koumanians
and Guards advanced to within rifle-shot of the bridge.
The circle of investment is now drawn as close as can be with-
out actually besieging the Turkish positions. Nevertheless,
in only two places, at the Grivica redoubt and on Skobeleff's
position, are they within speaking distance of each other.
There has been very little artillery fire during the last two
days, and Todleben seems to have abandoned his plan of
concentrated volley firing upon specified points, and only
puts it in practice once in forty-eight hours. Deserters
coming in from the front of Plevna report that the soldiers
receive three-quarters of a pound of bread daily, and a small
piece of meat twice a week. They complain bitterly of the
privations to which they are subjected.
At the same time that a million and a half of Turkish rations
were captured at Yraca the families of several Bashi-Bazouks
and seamen were taken. They passed through here yester-
day, escorted by Lancers and Guards, on their way to
Plevna, whither they are sent as a retaliatory measure for
the Bulgarians who are driven from Plevna. They were
looking very miserable, but were transported in ox- waggons .
filled with straw. They were treated here with the greatest
kindness by the officers, who took them to their quarters,
and gave them food and even money, in spite of the fact that
one of the women shot a Russian sergeant in the streets of
Yraca some time after the occupation. It seems like a
severe measure as regards the women and children, but in
all such cases the measure depends for its justification on its
{jOS WAR COKKESPOXDENCE.
success. The lex talionis is a hard law. ISTevertheless, it
may prevent more suffering than it causes if it stops the
Turks from driving Bulgarian women and children from
their homes.
The weather still continues fine. There has been no rain since
. the 1st of the month, and if vv^e are to judge bj appearances
it may still hold fine another month. J^othing new has
transpired relating to the amount of s applies Osman has.
It is believed he will be able to hold out for another month.
The Russian troops are in excellent health, and, indeed, the
weather is so fine that the oflBcers who have indoor quarters
prefer dining in the open air. There has been no attack to
relieve Osman by a force coming from Sofia. There has been
no fighting since the fall of Teliche, and the Turks have not
shown themselves on this side the Balkans. Bulgarian spies
have latterly reported that forces are on the march from
Sofia estimated variously from 15,000 to 40,000 men, but
these reports have little credit here. As the Bussian cavalry
is considerably advanced, we should have timely warning of
their approach should any attempt be made.
The army of the Czarewitch had little occupation, besides
that of making reconnaissances in the latter part of October
and the first half of lN"ovcmber. In one of these Prince
Sergius Leuchtenberg, third son of the Grand Duchess Marie, fl
sister of the Czar, was killed. He was attached to the staff of ™
the Czarewitch, and had participated in several of the battles
along the Lom, on every occasion showing himself courageous
even to recklessness. He was out with his troops when a ball
struck him in the forehead, death being instantaneous. fl
Before noting the rapid and critical development of the
campaign in Asia, we may glance at the effect which the recent
successes had produced in the Turkish capital : —
: Constantinople, November 9th. — A movement has been going
on in the capital during the last week about which I have found
it difficult to get at the truth. Some of the mosques have
been placarded with denunciations of Mahmoud Damat, the
brother-in-law of the Sultan, attributing to him the misfortunes
of the war, and charging him with having sold his country to
Russia. All sorts of rum.ours have been current about him.
Two days ago it was asserted that he had been poisoned.
1
DISSATISFACTIOX AT CONSTAXTINOPLE. 609
Yesterday the Turkisli newspapers stated tliat lie had liad a fit
of apoplexy. I have reason to know, however, that he is well,
and that if he has had any fit it must have been of a mild
character. There is evidence, however, of dissension among
the Pachas which may lead in a few days to important events.
Hitherto Mahmond Damat's influence at the palace has been
sufficiently great to keep his enemies in check, but his de-
served unpopularity is, I think, at last likely to bring about
his dow^nfall. He is unpopular alike wdth the Pachas and the
people, and would no doubt have been got rid of long since but
for the personal influence of the Sultan. The favour of the
Sovereign, however, has, I believe, now been withdrawn, and
Mahmoud may be considered in disgrace.
The outcry against Mahmoud is only one of the phases of the
movement of which I have spoken. The party of Murad has
been stirring, and on Friday and Saturday last the Govern-
ment took the precaution of surrounding the Palace of
Cheragan, where the late Sultan is confined, wdth soldiers.
This movement is attributed to the Young Turkey party,
though it is difficult to see what they would be at. There is
no doubt a party, but I believe a very small one, in favour of
Republicanism, of the meaning of which, except that it is
government without a Sultan, they probably know nothing,
and it may be well that some of the Pachas who are out may
have been willing to use some of the hot-brained fanatics to
get rid of the Sultan and the Pachas who are in, and take
their places. It would be absurd to suppose that there was
any patriotism in washing to return to Murad. The present
Sultan has done nothing which ought to make the Turks
discontented with him, while Murad still continues in weak
health. Another explanation attributes the movement in
favour of Murad entirely to Mahmoud Damat, the theory
being that it is of his creation, in order to gain the credit of
himself bringing it to the notice of- the Sovereign, and of
showing him that he, Mahmoud, is still the only man who can
render his seat on the throne secure.
It is fair to regard these signs of dissatisfaction and dissension
as the result of the Turkish defeats in Asia Minor and about
Plevna. The depression among the Turks of all classes is
really very great, and is given expression to on every hand
Notwithstanding that telegrams have been issued by Govern-
ment concealing the real facts, the truth has none the less
become known. Perhaps even the constant repetition of
warnings to the newspapers that they will be suspended, the
last of which appeared only yesterday, if they publish " false
news," that is, news unpleasant to the Turks, or, in the words
(510 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
of the communication, " of a nature to trouble men's minds,"
makes tlie public believe the news to be worse than it actually
is. Twice a week we receive our English papers, and a larger
section of the receive community the newspapers of Athens.
It is unnecessary to say that the latter represent nothing in a
favourable light for the Turks, and yet it is from them rather
than from the Turkish papers under a strict censorship that
the general impression of the progress of the war is derived.
Not only is the war going against the Turks, not only do they
see a large amount of destitution, misery, and poverty in the
capital and in the provinces, but most of them have come to
understand that in spite of the bravery of their soldiers Turkey
can gain nothing by the war which she. has undertaken. I
have spoken in previous letters of the enormous drain upon
the Turkish population which the war has made, and I men-
tioned a fortnight ago that the last reserves have been called
out. These men have been arriving during the last week,
and yesterday I saw some hundreds of the latest arrivals
drawn up in line to be marched up to the Seraskierate or War
Department to obtain their uniforms and to be drilled. It
v/as a sad sight. There could hardly have been a man among
them under forty years of age, probably hardly a man who
was not the father of a family or the supporter of one. But
while such a sight to a European was sad, the effect could not
be otherwise than depressing to a Turk. He knows that the
chances against his winning have always been great, and are
perhaps now greater than ever. But the more thoughtful
among them know a fact which makes them more despondent
still ; that every month of war, whether they win or lose, is
weighting them the more heavily in their struggle with the
Christian races of the empire. For Europe the Eastern
Question may mean a struggle simply between Hussia and
Turkey. The Turks know well that when the present war is
over the silent, inevitable struggle which has been going on
during the last thirty years for wealth, education, and
supremacy must be resumed, and resumed with largely
diminished numbers on the side of the Turks. In short, in
this war the Turks have everything to lose and nothing to
win, the greatest success that they can hope for being to
lessen the terms which Hussia will exact. The result of this
knowledge is to increase the party in favour of peace, at the
head of which is the Sultan himself. In a country where one
set of Pachas is perpetually intriguing against another, and
where defeat by the opposing party usually means banish-
ment, there will always be a party which will encourage the
outcry for prolonging the war, if the Pachas who are in
PRIVILEGED BLOCKADE-RUNNERS. 611
attempt to make peace. Still, in spite of tliem, the peace
party is growing stronger, and is daily increased by the
belief, which M. Thiers also entertained, that the longer the
war lasts the more exacting will be the terms of peace.
It was announced yesterday that the Porte, in consequence of
urgent requests, has consented to allow neutral vessels still
remaining in the Sea of Azof to pass through the Black Sea,
the Bosphorus, and the Dardanelles, to the Archipelago, on
the sole condition of stopping to sell their cargoes in Con-
stantinople, when such cargoes consist of grain. Whether
there are any neutral vessels now in the Sea of Azof may, I
believe, be reasonably doubted. This much, however, is
certain — that several vessels have left Constantinople with
the connivance of the Government, have run the blockade, if
one may speak of running a blockade where the permission
of the blockaders is given ; have returned with Russian
cargoes to the Bosphorus, and have, of course, not been
molested by the authorities. This is in Constantinople a
matter of notoriety ; the names of the vessels are known to
everybody who cares to make inquiries, and the motives of
the special permission given to their charterers are freely
spoken of. The fact possesses this importance — that per-
mission being gi'anted to vessels under the Grreek flag, a
similar permission ought to be granted to English and other
foreign vessels. Indeed, if any English vessel should be
caught in attempting to run the blockade, the fact of per-
mission having been granted to certain vessels raises the
entire question of the existence of the blockade.
The two Geshoffs have now been in prison at Philippopolis over
seventy days. Up to the present hour they have neither
been interrogated nor subjected to any form of trial. No
charge whatever has been communicated to them or to any-
body else, except, possibly, Mr, Layard. It seems now that
their detention has been further increased by a difference
between the civil and military governors. Ibrahim Pacha,
the military governor, has, however, now been removed ; and
a telegram has, it is stated, been sent by the Grand Yizier to
bring the prisoners to Constantinople. After this they are to
be exiled ; why or wherefore, except that they are wealthy
and influential Bulgarians who have not bribed sufficiently
high, nobody can tell.
After his rapid flight from the battle-field of Aladja Dagh and
from Kars, described by a correspondent in the preceding chap-
ter, Mukhtar Pacha effected a junction with the forces of Kurd
R R 2
612 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
I
Ismail Paclia, commanding tlie right wing of liis army at
Kuprikoi. Although, this place had been fortified with a view
to such danger as that which had now emerged, it was not
deemed prudent to stay there ; and the retreat of the united
forces was continued through Hassan Kaleh to the Deve-
Boyun heights covering Erzeroum, at a distance of six
miles east of the city. There, thanks to the foresight of
Mukhtar Pacha's Chief of the Staff, Faiza Pacha (a Hun-
garian named Kohlman), a strong position had been prepared ;
and there the army rested until the 4th of I^ovember, when
General Heimann, who had been joined by General Tergu-
kasoff, carried the position by assault after nine hours' fighting.
The Turks lost forty-two guns, including guns of position and
the whole of their field artillery.
The following letter describes the storming of the formidable
Deve-Boyun position east of Erzeroum by the R/Ussians under
General Heimann : —
D Erzeroum, November htJt. — When I closed my last letter by
saying that I thought the position of Deve-Boyun impregnable
when attacked in front, and that in all likelihood the enemy
Avould in preference try a turning movement, I little calculated
on Russian elan and the dogged obstinacy of their attack.
Yesterday they attacked us frankly in front, and took all our
positions, after a hard day's fighting. The third and last
barrier has been passed, and at the moment I write the
Russian siege guns are being pointed on the town. We have
been summoned to surrender, and Mukhtar Pacha's reply, as I
telegraph to-night, is that he will defend the town while a
single man remains.
The Russians, following up the disastrous retreat from Kars,
had camped in the plain of Hassan Kaleh, at the village of
Khoredjuka, about »n hour and a quarter from the
Turkish positions at Deve-Boyun. At this last-mentioned
point the mountains girding the Hassan Kaleh plain on the
north and south close in, forming a narrow pass leading to
Erzeroum immediately beyond. From its peculiar form, and
the curve which it describes, it has been named the " Camel's
Neck." Its eastern entrance is guarded by three military
positions, which on the occasion of the battle constituted our
centre, right, and left. The centre is a long hill crowned by
a narrow plateau strongly intrenched, and was defended by
sixteen field-guns. The right, at the other side of a shallow
STORMING THE DEVE-BOTUN POSITION. 613
valley, giving access to the pass, consisted of two conical
hills, one dominating the other ; behind them obliquely were
two other mamelons occupied militarily. The right was com-
manded by Ismail Pacha, Yali of Erzeroum, and for some time
past commanding the army corps of the right at Bayazid.
The left of the position of Deve-Boyun consisted of a
rounded hill, a spur thrown off by the higher mountains
on that side. It was crowned by a redoubt, and lines of
trenches stretched further west along the slopes of the
adjoining hills. Thus the position, slightly concave towards
the front, commanded all access to the pass. Its entire length
was some three hours' march. To defend it we had an army
of about 15,000 men. This consisted of 2,800 men, the
remnant of the Army of Kars, which accompanied Mukhtar
Pacha in his flight from that town; of 1,500 picked up at
Kuprikoi ; of 4,500 from Ismail Pacha's army, retiring from
Bayazid ; of stragglers who came up ; of troops from the gar-
rison, and of four battalions arrived from Trebizond. Faizi
Pacha, an old Hungarian officer, chief of the staff, worked
hard at the defences.
It was believed that the Russians would never dare attack in
front the tremendous heights which fronted them. Our only
care was the guarding of the valleys by which our flank
could be turned. The Russians, with a rare ability, seem to
have calculated on the general situation, the demoralized
condition of the army, and the want of artillery which must
necessarily have followed the capture of the forty- two guns at
the battle of Aladja, took the bull by the horns, and stormed the
position. The French courier coming from Persia had passed
through the Russian lines on the previous evening, and had
brought word that all the Russian generals were present, and
with them the French military attache. General de Courcey.
This led us to imagine that something serious was pending,
but all the same we never dreamt of the audacious coup in
store for us. Bashi-Bazouks and Arabs from Orfa and
Aleppo flaunted their tawdry rags in the muddy streets of
Erzeroum, and universal confidence reigned throughout
the town. At last the day of combat arrived. On Sunday,
ISTovember 4th, the Russians launched their entire force against
Deve-Boyun. This consisted of forty-eight battalions. (I give
the statement of Mukhtar Pacha, commanding-in-chief the
Turkish army.) Between eight and nine in the morning the
long dark Russian lines were seen opening out in the wide
dim plain that stretches away to Hassan Kaleh. The
Russians are so given to an almost perpetual military move-
ment that not much attention Avas attracted by the long lines
614 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
of infantiy in the plain. I had seen the same thing so often
from the heights of Aladja that I turned away mj fiekl-
glass, convinced that it was only a Snndaj parade. Later on
I found out my mistake. Gradually the long black parallel
lines crept closer, so quietly that if one were not observing
attentively, the shortening of the distance might pass for an
optical illusion. But the Turkish gunners had more accus-
tomed eyes, and the long white curdled smoke-cloud that
breaks from the central battery announces that the fight has
begun. Gun after gun puffs out without any apparent
impression on the menacing lines. In fact, they are at long
range, and at best Turkish artillery fire is far from excellent.
Not so the enemy's artillery fire. Shell after shell is planted
in our midst with a precision which recalls the battle of
Aladja. " I don't believe," said one old Moslem officer at my
side, "that Russian officers direct those guns ; they are
English or they are Prussian." I had seen the changed
character of the artillery fire when the Russians drove us
from before Kars backwards on the Soghanli Dagh. The
Marshal himself, Mukhtar Pacha, called my attention to this
extreme accuracy of fire, as he had done on a former occasion
when the Russians stormed Evliatepessi Hill. An attack on
the centre seems evident, but yet the Turks make no move-
ment. Every one is at his post, and an ominous silence
broods along the line, save when from the right the heavy
guns thunder out at intervals. Suddenly the Russians open
right and left, directing their dividing forces outside our ex-
treme flanks ; on one side towards the glens leading to the
valley of Olti, on the other to the flank of the mountains
south of Erzeroum. A stubborn resistance follows, for the
Turks have had time to march battalions to the threatened
points. All day long the dull roar of musketry reached us
from the lateral valleys. On the left, Mehemet Ali Pacha, the
bravest soldier in the Army of Anatolia, holds his ground.
At the centre, Moussa Pacha, a Circassian chief, commands ;
on the right, two Pachas have already fallen, Rufat Pacha
and Hakif Pacha. Hussein Pacha, the old artillery com-
mander, takes their place, and the fight goes on. It is evi-
dent the Russians are getting the worst of it, for their fire
begins to recoil along the dun hill slopes on both right and
left flank. I believed it was a Turkish victory, and that we
wei-e sure of at least a month's fighting before Erzeroum
could be even menaced.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when we saw the enemy
on both flanks retiring, to rally out of cannon-shot of our
positions. During the side attacks the Russian artillery was
MUKHTAR PACHA DESPAIRS. 615
hard plied, and of eigliteen guns at our centre fourteen were
dismounted or useless. Then a sudden inspiration seemed
to seize the Russian General. His rallied battalions were
hurled against the long hill which formed our left centre.
Arrived at its base, a steep slope screens the assaulting
columns from the fire of the defenders. Russian reserves
are pouring steadily forward. The artillery of the attack
continues its deadly fire. The Turks on the long hill waver
■ — they fly. The Russians are already on the plateau.
Mukhtar Pacha, with several battalions, dashes at once to
the critical point. Too late ! The officers of the battalions
fall dead, and flight ensues. The centre is carried. " I
remained there," said the Marshal to me afterwards ; "I
wished to die." But people came round him, and he was
carried away. Then came a hurried retreat on Erzeroum.
The darkness only saved the army from annihilation or
capture. We lost forty-two field-guns and pieces of position,
and about 4,500 men killed, wounded, and prisoners. The
Marshal himself admits 1,000 killed. We are for the moment
blocked in Erzeroum. To the Russian summons to sur-
render, the Marshal, after demanding twenty-four hours' grace,
replied that while a stone of the fortress remained erect he
would hold Erzeroum. We have 12,000 troops in garrison,
much provisions, and plenty of ammunition. It is from the
plain west of the town that we fear assault. I write these
lines hurriedly, just before the departure of an unexpected
Consular courier, as welcome as unforeseen. The Cossacks
already rove over the Erzeroum plain, and it may be this will
be my last letter from the Turkish lines. Whether the
Russians will let me write remains to be seen.
November lOtJi. — Yesterday at three o'clock a.m., the Russians
surprised Azizieh Fort, which w^as retaken by the Turks
after severe fighting, continuing all day.
The Russians are advancing along the mountains south of
the plain to interrupt our communications with Trebizond.
Heavy cannonading from forts and rampart continues.
Orders from Constantinople forbid newspaper telegrams.
To-morrow the town will probably be completely invested.
The losses on both sides are exceedingly heavy. The popula-
tion undoubtedly wishes to surrender.
On the night of the 9th of JSTovember, two battalions of the
Elizabethpol Regiment surprised Mount Azizieh, w^hich overlooks
Erzeroum on the east, and which was defended by three great
redans. They took 500 men and 20 officers prisoners, spiked
616 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
20 guns, and tlien retired, as Fort Medjidieli, commanding
Azizieh, rendered the position untenable. The E-ussian loss
was about 400. The attack was intended to have a far more
important character, but according to Greneral Heimann's
official report several columns of the attacking force lost
their way in the darkness, and thus the principal operation
fell through.
On the night of the 12th of N'ovember another attack was
made, but without success, and the Russian commander then
determined to wait for reinforcements, in the meantime sending
his cavaliy out to cut off the commnnications of the city.
General Melikoff, who had convinced himself that the
fortress of Kars might be captured by a skilful use of the means
at his disposal, had remained before that city, removing his
headquarters to Yeran Kaleh, and kept up a lively cannonade
against that place. On the 28th of October the correspondent
with the Russians there wrote —
^ Camp Boyuk Tekme, before Kars, Octoher 28t'h. — Since the
headquarters were removed from the Karajal Hills, subse-
quently to the battle on the 15th, fifty miles olf and nine miles
to the south-west of Kars, I have not had the opportunity of
telegraphing or vrriting. We have no telegraph office yet at
our disposal, and several days may still elapse before one is
likely to be established anywhere near. My own transfer to this
. place was connected with much trouble. As I was unable to
load my big tent and sundry luggage on a single pack-horse, I
w^as obliged to apply for a bullock- cart. It was not an easy
thing to obtain one, though it was understood that I should
pay for it as liberally as possible. Only after urgent entreaty
the governor of the conquered country, a good-natured old
general, condescended to allow me the accommodation. Before
obtaining it we lived at the Karajal camp as though we were
out of the world. Officers passing occasionally knew either
nothing about what was going on at the front, or narrated
impossible events the coinage of their own fancy.
The removal of the Turkish prisoners was the last act performed
in the great drama of the 15th instant. Now the curtain is
lowered, but on the stage a new play is prepared — the siege of
Kars and the attack on Erzeroum. Meanwhile, let me relate
an episode of the victory of the 15th. General Gubski, the
able and scientific head of the artillery before the Awli- Yer,
THE RUIN AROUND EARS. 617
on advancing after the storming of tlie hill towards Yezinkoi,
was stunned by a rifle bullet, which grazed the top of his
forehead, without wounding him. He fell senseless from his
horse, but recbvered half an hour afterwards, and then con-
tinued his duties incommoded only by a slight headache.
A few minutes later, while in conversation with Greneral
Heimann and the young Prince Mirsky, a Turkish shell burst
right between the party, covering them all over with earth,
which filled their overcoat pockets ; but not one of the three
was even scratched by the fragments of the projectile.
On the 22nd I was gratified at last by obtaining the much-
desired bullock- cart, on which the bulk of my household
goods were placed. This two-wheeled vehicle has a close
resemblance to those used by the Aryans in their migrations
towards the West thousands of years ago. The axle-tree,
turning round with the block-wheels, supports two long
beams, joining at the fore part at a sharp angle with the thole
for the bullocks by means of a wooden bolt. The bottom of
'this triangular construction is formed by three cross-beams
and some hurdle-work. This primitive machine ploughs
through the muddy country at the rate of two miles an hour.
For all that I was as glad to hire it as though I had
obtained a Pullman saloon. The journey was far from being
a pleasant one. We reached at first Subatan, still distinguished
by its solitary poplar tree, the branches of which have been
badly dealt with by the bullets. At nightfall we reached Hadji
Veli Koi. Both villages have witnessed a series of sanguinary
engagements, and their lanes have been reddened with human
blood. Now they lay in ruins deserted by the inhabitants.
Only three or four of the larger semi- subterranean houses
have been spared for the benefit of the military authorities,
who make use of them as post stations, hospitals, or depots.
All the remaining huts have been destroyed by pulling down
the timber supporting their flat roofs, which is indiscriminately
used as fuel by the soldiers encamped here. The Turkish
peasants have thus literally lost everything which they could
not manage to take away in their carts. Only the rough
Cyclopean black walls and the excavations give evidence that
people lived here a fortnight ago in comparative security,
under the protection of their own soldiery. We found
piteous accommodation there for the night in one of their
hospital tents which had just been pitched, and underneath
which the cold wind blew in. On the following day we
passed slowly over the late battle-field, having on our right the
Awli-Yer Hill, and on our left the hill from the summit of
which Mukhtar Pacha had witnessed the discomfiture of his
618 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
armj. Here and tliere we met with the carcases of dead
horses, or a still unburied corpse. All these jDlaces, which
some days ago re-echoed with the roar of battle, were calm
enough now. Only endless strings of bnllock-carts and horse-
waggons, conveying the Russian camp implements, moved
towards Yezinkoi. Three heavy 24-ponnders were equally
on their way to Kars ; each of them was dragged along over
the steep track by a team of twenty-two buffaloes, while
numerous vehicles conveyed their ammunition and parapher-
nalia. These formidable engines of war throw their projec-
tiles a distance of six miles. They will be brought to bear
against Kars, in the hope that the inhabitants will finally
impress upon the military authorities the necessity of sur-
rendering that fortress. I don't suppose that the fanatics
inside care much about their hovels being knocked over. As
I have heard since, they have not the slightest doubt of
Ismail Pacha joining Mukhtar with 30,000 men somewhere,
and of their coming quickly to the rescue of the beleaguered
city. They may be grossly mistaken in their calculations.
Independently of the fact that Mukh tar's troops are demora-
lized and very weak in numbers, Ismail too is not in a posi-
tion to make a bold resistance. When he heard the news of
the battle on the 15th, he took, on the 20th inst., to flight,
pursued by sixteen battalions under General Tergukasoff's
command. In his disorderly haste he has in the first place
left about 4,500 of his sick and wounded behind, entrusting
them to the generosity of his adversary, perhaps with the
cunning view of hampering him. In the second place, hun-
dreds of his soldiers desert daily, and others throw away
their arms, ammunition, and knapsacks, with which the road
to Erzeroum is strewn. These facts do not speak much for
the efficiency of his forces, should he even be lucky enough
to reach Mukhtar or Erzeroum before the Russians. In case,
however, the two Pachas should succeed in entering Erzeroum
with their hosts, by one way or another, the Russian generals
will most probably fail to take this important place by
surprise, and then, as they have no heavy guns at their com-
mand, their situation may become awkward when the cold
weather sets in, which we expect from day to day. While
writing, I am informed that Generals Heimann and Tergu-
kasoff effected their junction yesterday at Kuprikoi, only
about twenty-five miles distant from Erzeroum, and are
now pursuing Mukhtar and Ismail Pacha. The Turkish
generals are not now capable of resisting the Russians an
instant in the open field, but the danger is that they may find
shelter, food, provisions, arms, ammunition, and new courage
THE CAMP AT VEZINKOI. G19
within the walls of Erzeroum, till Ali Pacha from Batoum,
and reinforcements from Constantinople, come np via Tre-
bizond.
As to mj further journey to headquarters, I have little of
interest to narrate. The succession of dreary hills and table-
lands, all uniformly carpeted with withered grass, bore
a repulsive aspect, and the carcases of horses and bullocks
were far from giving the landscape a touch of the picturesque.
Moreover the whole scenery w^as veiled in mist, and the
temperature was not quite intertropical. We reached Yezin-
koi, on the heights of which Generals Heimann and Lazareff
had met on the day of the memorable battle with their
victorious troops. Here a camp was established belonging to
a brigade ordered to invest Kars on this side. The plateau
behind, and the rocky conical hill close by, vomited no more
iron and lead from their numerous intrenchments, which one
by one had been stormed with irresistible pluck on the 16tb
inst. On examining those formidable positions I could not
help thinking that if the Turks had shown their ordinary
stubbornness it would have been doubtful whether the Rus-
sians, with their comparatively small attacking forces, could
have carried the day. As I am well acquainted with the
environs of Plevna, I can say that here was a more difficult
piece of work to be achieved than on those soft, sloping hills.
Stupid pride had ruffled Ghazi Mukhtar, or he would have
retired from his useless position on the Aladja, from which
winter would have driven him anyhow, and would have kept
the plateaux of Yezinkoi only, with a hrm hold on Kars. He
might still have been the Ghazi, whom he is no longer but
in name. In fact, the Turks were demoralized by the belief
current among them that they were surrounded by a force
of 100,000 men. In magnifying thus their enemy's numbers
they fought with a faint heart, and ran much quicker than
they ought. Their wounded and dead cannot be therefore
so very numerous as was at first supposed, and some of the
gallant cavalry charges mentioned in the official report,
especially those on the troops retreating from the Little
Yagni, did not at all bear the epic character attributed to
them. As to the number of prisoners, either at first gross
exaggeration was indulged in by the staff officers, or most of the
captured Turks ran away again, hidden by the darkness.
Now it is avowed that only seven thousand were taken alive.
Vezinkoi had some thirty Greek families among its population.
These descendants of Xenophon's deserted or captured soldiers,
perhaps, were driven away by their Turkish fellow-citizens
some months ago, and their houses destroyed.
620 WAR COREESPOXDEXCE.
We rested here but a few hours, waiting for the carts, and then
moved on again over the hills and table-lands bordering the
plains of Kars, some 1,000 feet be]ow\ That fortress, loom-
ing at the foot of the opposite range of mountains, was
rendered conspicuous bj the sunlight which had managed to
pierce the heavy clouds. The town has a semi-amphitheatrical
site between two spurs, on the slopes of which the cubiform
black houses are clustered. The difficalty of attacking it in
a regular w^aj consists chiefly in the rocky ground before the
forts, which does not permit sapping, unless wdth sandbags.
About nightfall we reached, three miles to the west of
Yezinkoi, the small Turkish village of Teknely, w^here we
sought and found hospitality under the roof of the head man.
The spacious dw^elling-room, vaulted wdth heavy timber, w^as
separated from the stables by a railing only and its higher
floor. A cheerful fire blazing in the chimney had an alluring
aspect, and promised us a comfortable rest after our tiresome
journey in the dull, drizzling atmosphere. We — that is to
say, a consul, a volunteer captain, a rich proprietor and
marshal of the nobility of Kazan, and myself — congratulated
ourselves on having met with this rather unexpected good
fortune. I stretched my aching bones on the carpet which the
obliging Turkish landlord had spread over the floor. But lo !
a frightful deception w^as in store for us. The fear of having
one's throat cut w^hile slumbering, and being thrown into the
deep well inside the house, vanished w^hen legions of vermin
began crawling over our bodies. The feeling of comfort dis-
appeared as by enchantment, and gave place to that of utter
disappointment. Then a Turkish woman, decently veiled
with an old towel, rushed in bewildered, crying for assistance.
On inquiry it soon turned out that a stack of straw belonging
to her absent husband had been partly pilfered by passing
teamsters and Armenian irregulars, for the benefit of their
hungry horses. We settled the dispute as well as we could,
and it was agreed that the unw^elcome customers should be
liable to pay the price of the straw, in conformity w^ith the
regulations of the Grand Duke on that head. On the w^hole, the
damage done before our interference was not so important as
the excited lady endeavoured to make us believe. We returned
to our hotbed of parasitical insects, where Cossacks, Armenians,
and Turks had already gone to rest, and slept the sleep of the
just, despite the countless legions of vermin. With us sleep was
out of the question. We were indeed glad to leave at dawn
of day this intolerable cavern of torture. The people there
had assured us that the headquarters w^ere only six miles
beyond Teknely. So we entrusted our luggage to the care of
GENERAL DESOLATION. 621
an irregular Armenian rider, and adopted a quicker pace for
our horses. We passed another Russian camp and depot,
and a little later the ruins of an Armenian village, which had
been utterly destroyed by the Turks. Whether its population
had been murdered or not we could not ascertain, as nobody
living was visible on that dismal spot. We rode on, up and
down, for miles. Ascending a slope in a straight line, in
order to avoid the circuitous carriage road, my horse jumped
suddenly over a muddy, suspicious-looking rivulet, instead of
walking through it, as I expected him to do. Being thus
taken by surprise, I was thrown off the saddle on my back.
On recovering my senses I found my head comfortably lodged
on the soft turf just between two fragments of rock, each of
which was only a few inches from my temples. I was neither
hurt, nor stunned, nor bruised, and therefore, knotting the
broken bridle together, I followed my companions, who had
believed me dead. The six miles were gradually lengthened
to no less than twenty-five, and only late in the evening did
we arrive at the headquarters, established on the Kars R-iver
around the village of Boyuk Tekme. The carts, of course,
could not follow us up such a dstance, and the consequence
was that I was compelled to pass another luckless night on the
floor of a suttler's tent, covered Avith my rough felt capot. On
the following day the carts arrived, and I was thus enabled to
set myself up again.
The camp here is now complete, with the exception of the most
essential thing for a newspaper correspondent, the European
telegraph. Every day they say that to-morrow the line is
sure to be established, but when the to-morrow has become
to-day no signs of activity in that direction can be made out.
I believe that this untoward delay is caused by the want of the
necessary poles, which must be fetched from the wooded
mountains between Tiflis and Alexandropol. Time is of no
value in Russia. The grand- ducal camp here stretches on
both sides of the Kars Tchai, a river which is on the average
thirty yards wide and one in depth. Here the watering of
the animals and the supply for the men is easy enough, but
the drawback is likely to be fever and diarrhoea on account of
the pools of stagnant water which here and there are spread
over the valley, and have all the appearance of breeding foul
and unhealthy miasma. It is true that the heat is over now,
and the pestilential exhalations are less to be feared ; never-
theless, the sun has a good deal of power occasionally.
Despite of all that has been said about the rigour of an
Armenian winter, I find the climate here much milder and
622 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
more genial than tliat of Bulgaria, notwithstanding onr 5,5'
feet of altitude.
The commander of Kars has, as usual, been summoned to
surrender. The Council of War which was thereupon held
returned a negative answ^er. Before the garrison rejected the
E/Ussian proposal a Turkish colonel of artillery, a certain
Hussein Bey, who had been trained for eight years at
Woolwich, visited, with his aide-de-camp, our headquarters,
and was politely received. His object, however, was not to
sign a capitulation, but only to obtain as much information
as possible about our strength and doings. The blockade
of Kars is a very effective one. Some Turks tried to get
through our lines, but the endeavour was frustrated by
vigilant Cossacks. The day before yesterday two English
doctors, too, one of w^hom had just recovered from typhoid
fever, w^ere escorted to our camp. On the eve of being shut
up for perhaps many months in Kars, they thought it
practicable to proceed under a flag of truce to Erzeroum,
where they had left their depot, baggage, and two of their
colleagues. The Russian outposts, of course, stopped them
and conducted them to our headquarters. Here they pre-
sented their passports, and expressed the desire to return
home. In compliance with this reasonable request they were
guarded, and then conveyed to Tiflis at the expense of the
Russian Government. They w^ere very cixdlly treated here by
the officers. Some, however, gave vent to a certain bitter-
ness of feeling, complaining of the English public having sent
scores of Red Cross expeditions to the murderous Turks, but
none to Russia. I explained that the barbarous and miserably
provided Turks were more in need of medical attendance than
the well- organized and civilized Russians. The fact is, that
every Cossack here is better clad, fed, paid, and attended to
than any Turkish captain.
Our three long rifled 24-pounders bombard slowly the city of
Kars at a very respectable distance, which renders an answer
impossible.
Yery bad weather has set in just now. The cold rain is furiously
beating against my tent ; but, notwithstanding, I hear the
hcjavy boom of our guns cannonading Kars.
On the 4th of !N"ovember the same correspondent wrote : —
A Camp, Boyuk Tekme, November 4th. — The iron band around
Kars is so tightly drawn that no living being can go out or in
without being challenged and stopped. Every day Turks and
Armenians, trying to break the blockade, are arrested and
SO^
A RUSSIAN COXVERT. 623
escorted to headquarters, in order to undergo a close examina-
tion as to their identity and their movements. On question-
ing them, their invariable answer is that they know nothing
whatever about anything; but gradually, either frightened
by threats of being shot as spies, or inveigled by offers of
money and sundry presents, they begin to talk. At first they
are timid and incoherent, but soon, giving course to their
fancy, they state things beyond the limits of all probability.
We made thus, shortly after the battle, a doubtful acquisi-
tion. A young man, calling himself Osman Bey, has deserted
the Prophet's colours, and has declared his readiness to
become again a Christian. The Russians are enchanted at
having made so distinguished a convert. The young man,
however, is simply the son of an English doctor in Pera. An
artillery fire is kept up night and day by a battery of long-
range 24-pounders established near the village of Matzera, in
the neighbourhood of the Little Yagni. Hitherto nothing is
known with regard to the effects of this bombardment, which,
however, will assume more formidable proportions after the
arrival of the siege train from Alexandropol. We only know
that the inhabitants, as well as the garrison of Kars, are
disposed to capitulate, if things should go adverse for the
Turkish arms at Erzeroum.
One of the most important consequences of the victory of
Aladja Dagh will certainly be the reaction which it is sure to
produce in the eastern parts of the Caucasian mountains,
where about two months ago a fraction of the population
took to arms, and rose against the Russian Government,
allured by childish promises which the Stamboul rulers held
out to them through the instrumentality of the son of the
famous Sheikh Schamyl. Emissaries and letters had been
sent to the Kabardians, Lesghians, and Daghestanies, stating,
with a power of imagination worthy of the Thousand and
One Nights, that in the first place half a million of vic-
torious Ottoman soldiers were on the eve of invading Russia,
and of marching to their assistance, and in the second that
some fifty camels, loaded with gold, were ready to cross the
frontier with the view of enriching every one of the valiant
mountaineers. This appeal to the greed of the people was
indeed opportune, for without it we may fairly doubt
whether their chivalrous propensities and religious zeal
would have been raised to the boiling point. What had they
to complain of ? They pay no taxes, are permitted to bear
arms, and nobody ever thought of interfering with their
religion. They may erect mosques, study the Koran in their
own schools, perform their religious duties, and marry as
G24 WAR CORFvESPOXDEXCE.
^
many wives as they think fit for their domestic convenience.
The only obligation imposed upon them in exchange for so
many immunities and absolute personal freedom is to recruit
among themselves, in accordance with their warlike instincts,
a limited number of irregular horsemen as a contingent to
the Russian army in case of a war. These volunteers are not
called out at their ow^n expense, but receive abundant rations
and a monthly pay of thirty roubles. Moreover, all legiti-
mate booty which they chance to make — as cattle and stores
belonging to the enemy — are either bought of them in hard
cash by the Government, or they are at liberty to sell them
wherever they think best. In truth, no people in the world
are better off than these Mohammedan Caucasians. In
addition to all this, they are prevented from carrying on the
sanguinary and ruinous feuds with neighbouring tribes
which formerly not only led to the destruction of a vast
amount of property, but sometimes to the extirpation of
whole tribes, as a consequence of the terrible law of retaliation.
They are intelligent and shrewd enough, however, to under-
stand that, after the battle on the 15th of October, the camel
loads of gold may be considered to have vanished for ever.
No gold, no Circassians, is a proverb the truth of which
G hazi Mukhtar Pacha was enabled to test when his Caucasian
horsemen left him by wholesale desertion, in spite of their
boundless fanaticism. That the Turkish prisoners made on
the 15th ult. were partly escorted by a Lesghian irregular
regiment was a stroke of refined policy on the part of the
Russian authorities which cannot fail to give ocular evidence
of the discomfiture of the host which was so confidently
expected to assist in the deliverance of the Caucasians from
the yoke of the infidels. As after the failure of an insur-
tionary movement discontented populations are disposed
to keep the peace for a long time, the troops employed there
will soon be available.
For Kars, however, a critical period was approaching. As
soon as General Melikoff found that Hussein Hami Pacha
would not surrender, he determined to commence artillery
opemtions against the south-east front of the fortress. On the
4th of November his long-range guns opened fire from Magar-
dik. On the 5th, the Russian army marched from Karajal
to Yezinkoi. On its way it was attacked by ten Turkish
battalions issuing forth from Fort Hafiz Pacha. The Turks
were repulsed, and the Russians, following up their advantage,
1
STORMING OF EARS. 625
entered the fort after its defenders and effectnallj disabled its
guns. When the Russian siege batteries were completed, they
extended from the Kars Tchai, near Komadsoi, to the foot of
the hills near Yezinkoi, and brought a concentrated force to
bear upon the southern and eastern faces of Kars. The object
of General Melikoff was so to harass and dispirit the men as to
prepare the way for an assault, and we know now that in this
he succeeded, for just before the catastrophe Hussein Hami
Pacha telegraphed to Mukhtar Pacha at Erzeroum that his men
were so cowed and dispirited that he feared the fortress would
fall at the first assault. Orders were issued from the Russian
headquarters for attacking Kars on ^November 13th, but the
weather had made the ground slippery, and the operation
was postponed, only however for four days, as the following tele-
gi'am from the correspondent with Genera<l Melikoff shows : —
/\ Yeran Kaleh, Novemher 18th, 6 p.m. — I have just returned
from Kars with intelligence of one of the greatest and most
difficult military feats ever accomplished — viz., the storming
of a fortress, not only of very considerable natural strength,
but also constructed by skilful European engineers, English
and Prussian, after the best modern principles ; a fortress
armed with more than 300 Krupp and other heavy guns.
Kars is ours. In a single night it fell into the hands of about
15,000 Russians, who with irresistible courage climbed the
steep rocks, the ramparts, and walls, and drove an equal
number of desperately fighting Turks in a headlong flight
over their ditches and parapets, compelling them to die or
surrender.
All the nice inferences drawn as to the .impossibility of storm-
ing even small intrenchments defended by breechloaders have
proved to be incorrect. The nine forts of Kars, its citadel,
and numerous batteries and redoubts, did not withstand a
single night the onslaught of spirited young troops, for so at
least were the Moscow Grenadiers and the 40th Division.
Such an important event cannot, of course, be described at once
in all its particulars, and especially by a fatigued correspon-
dent, with his fingers as cold and stiff as icicles. The escalade
had been originally fixed for the 13th instant, but was post-
poned OAving to the bad weather until last night. In deep
secrecy the columns assumed their appointed positions.
General Lazereff, with the 40th Division, commanded the
s s
626 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE.
right wing, and attacked tlie Hafiz Paclia Fort, crowning a
steep rocky li eight. General Count Grabbe, with a regiment
of Moscow Grenadiers and a regiment of the 39th Division,
assailed in the centre the Khanli Tabia, Suwarri Tabia, the
Towers, and the Citadel, while the Ardahan brigade and
another regiment of Moscow Grenadiers, under Generals
Roop and Komaroff, assailed positions further to the left at
half-past eight o'clock yesterday evening.
The engagement began in the centre. The chivalrous Count
Grabbe led the foremost of his brigade in storming Klianli
Tabia, and fell dead, pierced by a bullet. Captain Kwad-
micki, of the 39th Regiment, jumped first on the rather tooj-
short ladder, and entered the terrible redoubt at 11. Hi«|
sword was clean cut out of his hand, and his clothes pierced.^"
Hoaene, a large massive redoubt, surrendered early in the
morning, then the three towers. The Citadel and Fort
Suwarri were carried at the same time as Khanli Fort. Hafiz
Pacha Fort was taken, and in the morning Karadagh. The
other forts, especially Tekmash and Arab-Tabia resisted till
eight this morning, then 40 battalions fled towards Erzeroum,
but were overtaken by dragoons and the Orenburg Cossacks,
and laid down their arms, and were brought back as prisoners.
The whole forti^ess and city, with 300 cannons, stores, ammu-
nition, hard cash, &c., fell almost intact into our hands. The
Turks losfc 5,000 killed and wounded and 10,000 prisoners,
and many flags. The Russian loss was about 2,700. The
soldiers made but a trifling booty, and spared peaceful
citizens, women, and children. This I state as an eye wit-
ness.
General Loris Melikoff directed the battle throughout. The
Grand Duke was present also. The former entered the town
at 11 o'clock A.M. to-day.
^ Veran Kaleh, November 20th, JSvening. — Yesterday the
Grand Duke Michael made his solemn entry into Kars, and
received the homage of the inhabitants. He then proceeded
to the citadel, where he entertained his oflicers at breakfast.
Afterwards he visited Forts Hafiz and Kanli. The Grand
Duke thanked the troops in the name of the Emperor, passing
in review several battalions, and the artillery paraded before
the conquered fortifications.
It is ascertained now that the garrison was above 20,000 strong,
Only 18,000 Russians were employed in the attack. The
town is full of Turkish sick and wounded, in a filthy and
neglected condition. Medical assistance is sadly wanted.
Typhoid fever is spreading. The cold is intense.
FALL OF THE FORTRESS. 627
To-morrow the staff will go to Kars. Tartars and other mounted
militiamen are still pillaging unchecked, but order will be
restored to-daj. Great difficulties are experienced with the
numerous Turkish sick and the prisoners.
The following letter from the author of the two preceding
telegrams, describes in detail the capture of the various works
constituting the fortress of Kars : —
/\ Kars, November 24itli : — Changing headquarters is a disagree-
able performance for any one not directly connected with the
staff and its luxuries. The chief annoyance to a Correspondent,
however, is when the telegraph and post offices are shifted,
for a considerable time is almost sure to elapse before thev
are re-established in working order at their new places. The
successful storming of Kars has given rise to a general
migration, and. hence the delay which has taken place in for-
warding a full description of that remarkable feat of arms.
I hope, however, that your readers were the first to receive
from me by telegraph a brief account of the great event.
Five days have I now been wandering through the narrow
streets of this conquered stronghold, without being able to
find a suitable resting-place, for the military authorities have
laid hold of every empty habitable room for the use of the
members of the staff, the commissariat, the ambulance, and
other services. At length I am indebted to the kindness of
one of the German doctors in the Turkish service for a corner
iii his primitive lodgings.
I telegraphed to you that an escalade was imminent, and indeed
it had been fixed for the 13th inst., but as foul weather set in,
the enterprise was postponed. In the hope of deceiving the
numerous spies who had never ceased to sneak through our
camps, and had always managed to inform the enemy of our
movements, strict secrecy was kept with regard to the day
and the military dispositions, and the rumour was intention-
ally spread that the scheme had been abandoned. The pre-
caution was pushed so far that although enough had trans-
pired to make me fully aware of impending contingencies,
a formal denial was given by the staff officers to my ques-
tions to them on the subject. My censor, a baron of the
realm, assured me upon his word that nothing whatever was
likely to take place. Two hours later the staffs of the Grand
Duke and General Loris Melikoff left the camp and rode to
the front. The former observed the action as well as he
might at the distance of about six miles, while the latter
s s 2
028
WAR CORRESPOXDENCK.
■ mHBI
comniancled tlie operations at the limits of tlie enemy's fire.
As soon as the moonlit darkness covered the scene the different
bodies of troops marched to their appointed positions. Instead
of giving here a minute description of the site of Kars and
its fortifications, I annex a plan of them : — \
j^v^^
V
K> FOfirrVELY PASHA
^^■^ (or BLUM R^5HA]
.1 fA
A glance at the plan shows that the different works which
encircle and protect the city are naturally divided into three
distinct groups. One cluster of five forts crowns the heights
to the westward which are called the Tchoraklou Hills, and
Avhich are separated from the opposite hills on the east
side, called the Karadagh, by the deep defile of the Kars
R-iver, meandering through it with several sharp turns.
. It is difficult to understand why the water has broken in
. capricious bends through that massive accumulation of
- black lava crags, instead of following the plain around the
foot of the mountains. In all probability an original rent or
gap in that volcanic elevation has directed its flow, which has
produced in the course of time this stupendous chasm. The
i-ocky Karadagh is defended by the fort of the same name
and the Arab Tabia, both to all appearance of impregnable
strength. The third series of fortifications consists of the
outworks erected on the rocky undulating 23lain stretching
before the town to the south of it, with the citadel in itn
THE FORTS OF KARS. 629
centre. The fort Hafjs Pacha, Kanly, and Son vary defend
there the entrance of the city. They are connected with each
other by a systemf of lunettes and entrenched lines. Special
protection is afforded to the town and to these works by the
lofty Citadel of solid masonry piled on an almost perpendicu-
lar crag, frowning over the Kars River, which washes its base
and encompasses it on three sides. Here the Turks had
stored numerous new cannons and firearms, clothes, accoutre-
ments, and an enormous quantity of provisions. This vast
edifice, composed of bastions, walls, towers, and covered
galleries, was constructed shortly after the Crimean War.
From its threatening battlements some fifty luckless indi-
viduals. Christians and Mussulmans, were not long- since
hurled into the abyss below, for alleged high treason duriug
the blockade. Others were hung summarily on mere suspi-
cion.
With reference to the forts and redoubts I cannot forbear to
add, in contradiction to the statements of some tourists and
professional military men, that the works in general, and
especially those designed to protect the city from the side of
the plain, were by no means adequate to the requirements of
modern warfare. They were, in the first place, situated far
too near the outskirts, and were therefore unable to prevent
the town from being bombarded. The shells flew right across
it, and endangered even the powder magazine visible on the
slopes behind. Moreover, the particular technical arrange-
ment of each separate fort reveals anything but the genius of
a Vauban. These works had on their most vital parts neither
ditches nor mured escarps, and the ramparts were formed
there of mere turf sods and nothing else. The main default
was, however, the utter absence of any kind of flank defence,
in the shape of caponnieres, which would have rendered an
escalade impossible. Once under the ramparts, the assailants
were no longer exposed to the firing, and were enabled to
reach the crown of the breastworks in comparative security.
Arrived there they had to fight the defenders again, but,
being covered themselves, they fought on equal terms.
Enormous sums have been expended by the Porte on Kars,
but in vain. Hafys Pacha Tabia possessed, it is true, some
bomb-proof vaults and a central redoubt which served as
barracks for the garrison, but not having been sunk deep
enough it was, previously to the attack, utterly destroyed by
the Russian shells, and afforded consequently neither shelter
nor assistance at the critical moment. The Kanly Tabia, a
large redan, was shut up at its gorge by a solid edifice, which,
in the course of the attack, proved to be so serious an obstacle
630 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
tliat the Russians, lield in check by the continuous deadly fire
poured from its embrasures, loopholes, and windows, thought
for a moment of abandoning the fort. This partial, or rather
momentary, discomfiture was due to their want of experience.
In such an event the best plan is evidently to break through
the covering on the top, and throw into the opening as man;^
bombs as may be necessary for insuring the surrender of an;
obstinate garrison.
The decisive assault was fixed for the night of the 17th. I had
no intimation except that which careful observation afforded,
of the fact that an attack was on the point of being attempted,
but an unusual moving of army vehicles attracted my atten-
tion. I accosted my imperturbable censor who sat musing
on a rock above my tent. His thoughts were, perhaps, now
wandering to his beloved wife and children, and then fixed
in fascinated immobility on the white enamel of the Cross of
St. George with its black and yellow ribbon, the dream and
glory of every Russian officer. " Baron," I said, " I have
gTounds for supposing that we are going to storm Kars to-
night. Many tokens point to that probability." " Oh," he
replied, " you always have such queer ideas ; we don't think
of knocking our heads against those impregTiable rocks."
" But," I ventured to object, " I know that a Council of War
' was held yesterday, which in principle pronounced for the
assault. I observed, moreover, this morning, a movement
of troops and army carriages which speaks in favour of my
opinion." " Don't you believe it," he retorted, yawning,
" our councils are in the habit of doing the contrary of that
which they resolve, lest they might be betrayed before the
time for action. To my knowledge nothing will occur. At
all events you may depend on my giving you full information
as soon as anything is likely to be carried out." An hour
•afterwards the truthful censor left with the staff and Greneral
Loris Melikoff, who took a position somewhere in the centre,
with the view of directing the operations, so far as this was
practicable during that night, though beyond a distance of
500 yards little more could be made out by the eye than the
sparkling of the rifle-firing and the bright broad flash of the
cannons and their bursting projectiles.
The battle was necessarily much more the work of the subaltern
officers and privates than of the generals — a fact which was
the best pledge for a prompt victory, if victory were possible
at all. Of course, the enemy was likely to be driven over his
own parapets without my knowing anything about it ; never-
theless, it would have been interesting to ascertain whether
the project of a nocturnal attack, which was so much in
h
1
THE AETILLERT ATTACK, 631
accordance with tlie opinion I had. formed for myself, had a
successful issue or the contrary. I walked about an hour in
the direction of Kars, and at eight o'clock reached the summit of
the foremost peak belonging to the group of isolated porphyry
hills which enclosed our now deserted headquarters near
Verankoi. The cold was intense and penetrating. Alight breeze
blowing from the east chilled my blood, but I did not heed it
in my eagerness to watch the great drama which was on the
point of being performed. The full moon shone from the dark
blue sky. The plain, the lower hills and valleys, seemed to
slumber peacefully in the dark, but above them loomed the
snow- wrapped mountain ridges glimmering in the beams of
the moon. The deep boom of the heavy guns, which for some
weeks had interrupted the general silence at night, had ceased
for a while to remind the inhabitants of the presence of the
enemy, who now crept stealthily up to them like a lion towards
his prey. They were far from supposing that the ominous
silence was the preamble of a sanguinary calamity which was
destined to befall their city before the dawn, of day. Although
numerous spies had gone to and fro they could only give con-
tradictoiy information, in accordance with the contradictory
rumours spread deliberately by our crafty staff. It is astonish-
ing how well the Russian strategists have learnt the arts of
superior warfare within the last three months.
The Turkish authorities inside were in a high state of irritation,
on account of the annoying uncertainty in which they were
kept with regard to their adversaries' plans, and began to
accuse their own officers of high treason. The very morning
before the assault the commander ordered a lieutenant to be
hanged summarily on that indictment because he had pro-
nounced himself in favour of surrender in one of the coffee-
houses. It is said, and is probable too, that a few hundred
roubles had been found in his pockets. Might he not have
stolen the money from some Russian officer or merchant ?
His death was soon to be avenged. I had hardly strained
my eyesight for a few minutes, in order to distinguish the
doomed city, hid in the dark bosom of the rocks, when the
sudden flash of a cannon burst out as a signal in the centre
of the Russian lines, and broke the lingering calm. Then
more flashes followed in rapid succession before forts Hafys
Pacha, Kanly, and Souvary, and some seconds later detonation
after detonation were heard. Again a few minutes elapsed.
Then a swift reply flashed and thundered from all the detached
works and the citadel. The forts and field-guns in the trenches
between them vomited fire and iron, and sent a profusion of
loud bursting shells, shrapnels, and rockets into the dark
632 WAR CORHESPOXDEXCE.
plain where invisible columns of Russian infantry steadily
moved onward. Shortly afterwards the action was proceed-
ing with relentless fnry. In the meantime the commanding
Pacha sat at his dinner-table and enjoyed his meal with epi-
cnrean placidity. He received the report of an aide-de-camp,
who, as a perfect Tnrkish courtier, disliked to disturb his
superior's good appetite and subsequent digestion by unplea-
sant news ; and who therefore, on being questioned in reference
to the cannonading, said that the Russians had made an insig-
nificant demonstration, but they w^ere by that time already
baffled and in full retreat. Thereupon the Pacha continued to
enjoy his dinner, and afterwards his pipe and coffee. Only when
the roar of the battle was ever increasing, and rose finally to
vehemence, did he shake off his optimism. The Russians,
obedient to the instructions they had received not to betray
their j)osition by inopportune firing, advanced in silence, in
nowise daunted by the shower of shells, shrapnels, and bullets
which whirred through the air above them, but which could
only be aimed at random, owing to the insufficient light of
the hazy moon.
On the Russian right wing operated the 40th Division, sixteen
battalions strong, directing their columns against the Hafys
Pacha, the Karadagh, and the Arab Tabias. In the centre,
designed to storm the Kanly and Souvary Tabias, the city and
its towering Citadel, were the 2nd Brigade of the Moscow
Grenadiers, the Sebastopol Regiment of the 19th Division,
two battalions of Caucasian riflemen, and two of sappers,
together, if I am not mistaken, fourteen battalions. These
combined forces were placed under the command of the
energetic and intelligent Lieutenant- General Lazareff. They
had to perform the most serious part of the attack, and were
directed to carry the aforesaid works at any cost. Separated
from them, beyond the left bank of the Kars river, to the
north of the rocky steeps of the Tchorak Tepe, another divi-
sion, under Lieutenant- General Roop, was stationed. Its task
consisted principally in making a resolute demonstration on
the western and northern sides of that hill, defended by five
strong forts which efficiently cover each other ; but are, on
the other hand, in the awkward position of being almost of
no avail, in case the Karadagh forts and the city should be
taken. There is no water at hand on those rocks, and the
defenders are dependent on the depots and magazines in Kars
and the Citadel for the necessa^-y supply of provisions and
ammunition. In the face of this fact it must be considered
as a wise arrangement on the part of the Russians not to
sacrifice, by a reckless assault, an unlimited number of gallant
THE STORMING COLUMNS. 633
men ttere. It is true tliat the eagerness of tlie soldiers to get
at the enemy thwarted in some instances the original scheme ;
hut on the whole the programme was faithfully and well car-
ried out. The Turks w^ere, curiously enough, of a widely
different opinion. They seem to have held fast to the strange
idea that the Tchorak Tepe fortifications would become the
principal object of the enemy's attack ; whether because the
valiant Kamaroff, the conqueror of Ardahan, stood in its
vicinity with his old solid troops, or for some mysterious yet
unrevealed grounds ; in short, they had massed there the
bulk of their forces, some thirty battalions. The impregnable
Citadel, on the contrary, had no infantry garrison at all, and
was merely defended by a company of artillerymen. The not
less inaccessible Karadagh was likewise only manned by a few
feeble battalions of demoralized and disaffected Shia-Arabs
from Mesopotamia and Irak. These foolish arrangements
are worth investigation in order to ascertain why the com-
manding Pacha and his councillors ordered so strange a
disposition of their forces, which numbered well nigh 20,000
combatants, for such a garrison should be fully equal to the
task of defending a fortress like Kars, even against twice that
number of the best soldiers in the world. The Russian Divi-
sion brought to bear on the five forts of the Tchorak Tepe
was composed of the 1st Brigade of Moscow Grenadiers and
the Ardahan Brigade, constituting a force of fourteen bat-
talions, commanded, as I have already stated, by Greneral Roop.
It must, however, be remembered that the above enumerated
forty-two battalions were not all engaged in the escalade, but
that about one-third of them formed the reserves. One
hundred and forty-four field-pieces and fifty -two position
guns seconded the movements, so far as this was possible. I
am assured that their practice was excellent, notwithstanding
the uncertain light of the moon. They were directed in their
aim by the enemy's fire.
The first outwork scaled, by placing ladders against the steep
parapets, was the Hafys Pacha Tabia, the massive redoubt of
which had been previously destroyed during the bombard-
ment. The Arab troops posted there left the ramparts, the
turrets, and the intervening trenches in headlong flight,
abandoning the field-pieces which were placed in them. At
the same time the 2nd Brigade of Moscow Grenadiers assailed
the Souvary and the Kanly Tabias. The former, an ordinary
redoubt, was soon carried ; but the latter, a very strong fort,
was tenaciously defended, and occasioned the loss of many
gallant officers and men. Major- General Count Grabbe, a
zealous and distinguished soldier, the father of four children,
634 WAR CORRESPOXDEXCE,
led his column on horseback on the Kanlj Tabia. At about
eleven o'clock, however, two bullets simultaneously pierced
his breast and terminated his gallant career. He expired
before reaching the ambulance. Only a few weeks ago he
had been decorated with the cross of St. Greorge for his
valorous behaviour at the storming of Ardahan. I met him
some days before the battle, and he showed me then two other
such crosses w^hich he had received by the same post from his
wife and his sister as a congratulatory present. " You see,"
he said, smiling in a melancholy way, " I am well provided
should I perchance lose my cross." I observed him often
kneeling before his field-bed absorbed in prayer and medita-'
tion, with his head buried in the cushions. Colonel Blumer-
ing, of the Sappers, then assumed the command of the brigade,
and, wdth iron grasp, seized the formidable redan. He and
the pony he is accustomed to ride seem to be shot-proof, as
on several occasions, especially at Ardahan, they remained
for hours unscathed in a hailstorm of bullets. The earth-
works of the Kanly Tabia were taken by escalade, and the
garrison w^as driven out by the bayonet. Captain Kwidnitzky,
of the Sebastopol Regiment, was the first on the ladder and
on the crown of the rampart. The handle of his sword w^as
shot away, and his clothes were torn to rags by bullets and
bayonets. He showed me the ladder which he had climbed,
still leaning against the walJ. I found it to be about three
yards too short, an awkward circumstance, which might have
led to failure had it not been for the demoralized state of the
defenders. Some of them, however, animated by an energetic
Pacha, had shut themselves up in the long massive redoubt at
the gorge, and thence kept up a murderous rifie firing till four
o'clock in the morning. The young Russian troops already
thought of abandoning their conquest, on account of the rapid
volleys fired from the loop-holes, which dealt very badly with
them. They sent word to that effect to General Loris-Melikoff ,
asking for reinforcements, or for leave to retreat. The Com-
mander-in-Chief, having no reserves at hand, ordered tw^o
sotnias of Cossacks to dismount, and to assist the wavering
infantry. The riders followed the summons with loud cheers,
and backed the Grrenadiers so efficaciously that they regained
their exhausted courage, and braved anew the enemy's fire as
steadily as the old Caucasian soldiers. Greneral Grubsky, the
gallant and able chief of the artillery, a man of modesty and
spotless character, managed to finish the sanguinary struggle
by the threat of blowing the whole redoubt up with dynamite.
As in all probability this ingenious scheme would have been
carried into execution, the Pacha inside reflected on the
CAPTURE OF THE CITADEL. 685
matter, and thought it best to open negotiations, npon which
he surrendered on the condition, which was readily glinted,
that his and his soldiers' lives should be spared.
In the meantime, at half- past ten o'clock, the troops who had
been victorious on that part of the line of battle entered the
town, and drove the despairing Turks fi^om street to street
and shelter to shelter towards the Tchorak Tepe and the
Citadel. The frightened inhabitants on their part had either
hid themselves in their stone hovels and cellars, or taken refuge
in the Armenian quarter, situated at the back part of the
town and up hill. A German doctor had the pleasure of
sheltering and protecting some fifty Turkish women and
children in his small lodgings. Deadly fear prevailed among
all the worshippers of the Arabian Prophet, for they knew
they had insulted and murdered nearly all the Russian
wounded and such prisoners as had the misfortune to fall
into their barbarous hands. They expected nothing less than
death. Even E/Ussian officers expressed the fear that their
excited soldiers might, in the case of complete success, put
aside all feelings of humanity and spare no living soul. But,
contrary to expectation, the jovial, good-natured fellows,
with genuine religious feeling, refrained from taking revenge
on their fanatical foes, and behaved as Christian men. Not
a single civilian was slain, or even insulted, and not a
woman had to complain of insult. I wonder how many other
soldiers of Europe would have so leniently dealt with the
inhabitants of a stormed fortress, stained with the blood of
hundreds of defencelessly slaughtered comrades ? Many
windows were, it is true, pierced by bullets : but behind
them no one was killed, save such Turkish soldiers as were
obstinate enough to withstand to the last. I saw a loophole
of a minaret riddled with shots all around like a tai-get,
where some fanatical imaum, perhaps, had insidiously fired
his rifle on the passing Russians, and had thus finally attracted
their attention.
Slowly the columns advanced on the Citadel, and arrived at
the foot of the zigzag road which runs to its summit. The
narrow causeway was thickly crowded with fugitive Moham-
medans, men, women and children, who all strove to enter
the precincts of the stronghold, when the gleam of Russian
bayonets appeared in their rear. Thus the gunners on the
ramparts had only the option of massacring their own kins-
men or of giving up. They adopted the second alternative
and surrendered. Thus this strong pile of masonry, contain-
ing the arsenal and depots of costly Peabody-Martini and
Winchester breechloaders, many Ejcupp cannon, together
636 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
wifch an enormous amount of ammunition, provisions, and
other military stores, fell, without a serious blow, into the
hands of the victorious Russians. In looking from my win-
dow at that almost perpendicular crag, frowning some 150 yards
high over the Kars River, crowned with a series of solid fortifi-
cations, I am astonished, and I am at a loss to understand, how
it could have been so easily conquered, and why it was not
more valiantly defended. I am sure that a single battalion of
lirst-class soldiers might have kept it for months in the
teeth of the most powerful army. At the time of its inglori-
ous fall some battalions of the 40th Division had climbed the
not less rocky sides of the Karadagh Hill, and took, after a
short but sharp struggle, at the point of the bayonet, the
massive castle-like fort on its top. Its partner, the Arab
Tabia, of equal strength, surrendered at dawn of day, almost
without offering a serious resistance. The Arab troops, who
garrisoned them both, paralyzed by the cold, the want of their
accustomed food, and by disease, unlike their Syrian brethren
in Bulgaria, withstood only for a few minutes the determined
onslaught of the sturdy Russians, and then either took to
headlong flight or laid do^vn their arms. One must have
seen the Karadagh position in order to form an exact idea of
its very formidable natural and artificial strength. Like the
Citadel, it is surrounded on two sides by the abyss of the
Kars river, and falls off towards the southern plain in super-
posed lava blocks, presenting the aspect of a Cyclopean wall.
With the conquest of these essential points, which, beyond
doubt, are not only the strongest around Kars, but are perhaps
not surpassed in defensive power by any fortifications in the
world, the remainder of the forts had become virtually
untenable, and the partly successful resistance of four of the
five outworks situated on the Tchorak Tepe was of no
practical avail. There the Ardahan brigade and the 1st
Moscow Grenadiers had to meet and keep at bay the Turkish
main force. The Russians were received there by a tre-
mendous fire of cannon and musketry, which it was difficult
to meet. Their instructions, however, did not permit them to
storm those works, but only to content themselves with an
energetic demonstration, ^dth the view of retaining the Turks
there, and of preventirg them from assisting the city and the
Karadagh. This object had been fully attained, to an extent
even beyond the original expectation, though it was accom-
panied by severe losses to the aggressors. The Russian
soldiers, finding themselves out of control in the darkness,
advanced audaciously to the very margin of the ditches, and
kept up a sharp skirmishing engagement with the Turks,
I
THE WESTERN FOETS. 637
Sheltered beliind tlieir ramparts. From mj porpliyrj peak
I could only make out tliere, during the whole night, the
incessant flash of the cannon, and the undiminished sparkling
fire of the breechloaders. At midnight, however, the firing
ceased suddenly on the Tchakmak (Tokmak) Tabia, and a
few minutes later three rockets rose into the air and burst
with a red light, as a signal announcing the capture of that
large and well-constructed fort. The remaining four, how-
ever, successfully repelled the repeated attempts to storm
them, which w^ere made in spite of instructions. There blood
was unnecessarily spilt. When the Commander of the w^hole
fortress, who w^as present on those hills, became at daybreak
aware that the forts in the plain, the town, the Citadel, and
the Karadagh w^ere silenced, and saw the victorious Russian
colours flying from their battlements, his heart sank and he
lost his head. It was impossible to procure water and pro-
visions for his remaining troops, and his ammunition had run
short. It was then he came to the decision to avail himself
of a gap Avhich the Russians had left open expressly for that
purpose, in their investing lines, and evacuating the forts and
other positions, he tried to make good his escape towards
Batoum, w4th the remnants of his forty battalions and his
cavalry. Instead of remaining with the rear, as w^as his duty,
he consulted only the interest of his personal safety, and w^as
among the foremost fugitives. Thanks to his fleet Arab
steed, he succeeded in crossing the snow-covered mountains
which border the Kars plain to the westward, with some 150
well-mounted followers, and escaped.
Thoroughly stiffened by the cold, which during the same night
killed eleven prisoners, I returned to our camp at a quick
pace, and ordered my servant to saddle the horses, after
having indulged in a glass of brandy and some cakes, w^hile
the battle was still going on around the Tchoraklou Tepe
fortifications. Then I rode at full speed towards Kars. I at
once saw^ the Turkish columns fleeing towards the opposite
snow-capped mountains. Their endeavour to escape in that
direction proved vain. From all sides numerous Russian
cavalry regiments, accompanied by horse-artillery, galloped
onward, with the view of cutting off their retreat. The
ISTishninovgorod and the Sever Dragoons, with the Orenburg
and other Cossacks, were quick on their heels, and, overtak-
ing them, summoned them to surrender. The Turks, under
the apprehension of being cut down, refused ; but when the
Horse Artillery began to play on them w^ith shrapnel, they
took a more reasonable view of the case, and laying down
their arms, gave themselves up to General Prince Tcherbasdff,
638 WAR CORRESPONDEN"CE.
n
the commander of that cavalry brigade. It was said in camp
that this gallant trooper had been killed during the night,
but this was happily Tintrne. I had the pleasure of meeting
him in full health on the same day, and w^as glad to see him
display his accustomed joyous humour. Another prince —
heaven and the Emperor know there is no lack of princes in
the Caucasian provinces — whose somewhat queer name I
don't remember, a colonel of a Cossack regiment, pursued the
Turkish cavalry sharply, and crossed swords with it. He
was slightly wounded in his right hand, but the enemy was
cut down to the last man. The Turkish pony cannot race
with the Russian light cavalry horse, though the genuine
Arab coursers have proved to be more than a match for
him. I suppose that the reception which the Turkish com-
mander of Kars is likely to meet with in Constantinople
will hardly be a flattering one. At all events he deserves,
partly for his cruelties, partly for the miserable defence of so
strong, well-provided, and well- garrisoned a fortress, to be
hanged on the highest gallows which Turkey can erect.
That attempts to bribe somebody were made, and had a
chance of being brought to the desired end, I positively know,
but whether the goodwill of an important traitor was really
secured, and if so, whether he was able to fulfil his promise,
I cannot tell. Further, I am quite in the dark with regard
to the individual who may have entered into the black
bargain. The European doctors here account for the disaster
which so suddenly befell the Turks, by stating that the troops,
especially the Arabs and Kurds, were in a despondent state
of mind, badly clad and fed, and never paid, and had more-
over a dislike to fighting the battles of their Sunnite masters.
Yet these very worthies, whose disposition could be no secret
for the commander and his council, had been appointed and
left in insufficient numbers to defend the most important and
the most vulnerable points of the fortress.
I arrived at Kars just when the occupation of all its outworks
by the Russians had been effected. The Turkish dead lay
by scores in and behind the trenches, wherever I looked, all
frozen stiff in the attitude in which they had expired.
Hundreds of large wild dogs gnawed the bones of the nume-
rous dead horses, whose skins, however, had been previously
flayed by some hardy speculator. I then entered a broad
ravine, likewise strewn with corpses, and wheeled my horse
towards a wooden bridge over the Kars River, together with
some stray soldiers who went to visit the conquered city for
the sake of plunder or curiosity. Suddenly a gendarme rode
up in wild haste, shouting and gesticulating, " Take care !
I
II
THE KAXLY TABIA. 639
Don't you advance ! Tlie Turks will attack you." I did not
understand at first what he meant, but felt uneasy on seeing
the soldiers slide behind the rocks, preparing and levelling
their rifles. This induced me to stand aside so far as the
perpendicular borders of the ravine permitted. I could not
but believe that a quarter of the town was still in possession
of desperate fighting Turks, ready to make a sortie ; but no
report of fire-arms argued in favour of this supposition. At
last the mystery was disclosed. Some fifty well-armed horse-
men, recognizable as Turks by their pink fezzes, dashed with
clanging hoofs over the bridge, fast pursued by a squad of
Cossacks. The situation became rather critical for me, as I
was crammed in between the barbarous riders and the Rus-
sian soldiers. It was evident that the Mussulmans, relying
on the excellence of their horses, had the intention of break-
ing out on this side, and riding for life and liberty through
the stragglers. Luckily for them and me, however, when
they had crossed the bridge and found themselves engaged
in the ravine through which the road runs with some twenty
breech-loaders pointed at them, they halted and deliberated,
obviously uncertain as to their further steps. Time pressing,
they thought prudence the better part of valour, and sur-
rendered to the Cossacks. As they had wounded and killed
some Russians, shooting behind them after the Parthian
fashion, in their precipitous flight, they were not too tenderly
handled. The Cossacks pulled them off their horses, and
stripped them in a twinkling of all they possessed, appro-
priating their animals. Had a broker been present he might
have concluded excellent bargains. I refused an army revolver
which a Cossack tendered to me as a token of his special
esteem. This little adventure warned me not to enter the
tow^n on this side, and therefore I rode round to the principal
entrance. Previously, however, I had the fancy to visit the
Kanly Tabia which was not far out of my way. There Captain
Kwddnitzki showed me obligingly the manner m which the
escalade had been effected. I entered into the massive
redoubt Avhich had served as barracks and hospital for the
garrison. Now its vast rooms were croAvded Avith Turkish
AA'Ounded, chiefly Arabs, who piteously called for medical
assistance. This Avas unluckily out of the question by that
time, because the Russian surgeons had enough to do AAdth
their own people, while the foreigners in the Turkish serA^ce
did not dare to leaA^e their houses for fear of being insulted,
and stripped in the yery streets. Besides, drugs, bandages,
and other surgical appurtenances, had been wantonly AA^asted
by plundering- Russian soldiers, or had been put aside
G40 WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
by careful Turkisli officials for their own benefit. So tlie
" doctors were unable to jDerform their duty, and tlie sick
suffered for days without attendance.
Sick of the ghastly sight of hundreds of dead, expiring and
helpless men, tortured by cruel wounds, and stunned by the
cold, I left the Kanly Fort and returned to the town. Kars
has no enceinte, evidently an incredible neglect on the part
of the military engineers, who have spent the Sultan's trea-
sures, or the European loans, on its rocky heights only. At
the outskirts, before the entrance of their princi^oal street —
a narrow lane, about five yards wide — a crowd of old and
young Turks had assembled, waiting for the commanding
general, Loris Melikoff, who had not made his appearance
vet. They seemed to be rather uneasy, as the plundering w^as
fast going on. A drowning man grasps at a straw. Although
I had no army or retinue behind me, they admired, perhaps,
my badge as a Correspondent, thought it perchance the grand,
cross of some order in honour of the most distinguished of
the innumerable Russian saints, and insisted on my accepting
their oifer of bread and salt, imploring mercy for their per-
sons and property. At that moment a gang of Armenian
militiamen rode into the town. An insolent-looking lad,
their leader, addressed the bereaved Turks w^ith the air of
Hannibal entering Saguntum, and said, " IS'ow^, you Tuikish
scoundrels, I have come to settle with you. 'Now you shall
feel that we are your masters." My presence evidently kept
him from striking the Mussulmans. Had I ever had an
opportunity of seeing that hero and his like only wdthin a
cannon shot's range near the enemy, I would have pardoned
him his arrogance ; but considering that the petulant boy
v>'as, perhaps, a few months ago, a noways honourable member
of a Turkish bathing establishment, I could not but feel dis-
gusted. Having been informed that General Loris Melikoff's
arrival was imminent, I waited a little longer in the same place,
and amused myself with observing the Russian soldiers,
who came out of the city heavily loaded with sundry booty.
It is true that the goods which they had pilfered were not of
a very valuable description, and had been evidently taken
■with the view of mitigating the hardships of camp life in
their thin, cold, uncomfortable tents ; but, on the other hand,
they belonged to the necessities of the poorer class of the
population. Blankets, rugs, old carpets, kettles, shoes, articles
hardly worth one's while to cany away, had been abstracted
by the soldiers. The Tartars, Armenians, and Circassians,
reaped the fruits of the Russian victory with far more cir-
cumspection. Guided by some refugee well acquainted with
1
EARS AFTEE THE CAPTURE. 641
the vsituation, they broke only into houses where they had
almost the certainty of extorting hard cash and jewellery.
In their greed they showed a singular impartiality with
regard to their victims, inasmuch as they robbed the Chris-
tians quite in the same style as the genuine Moslem. Who-
soever had a full purse in his pocket passed as their natural
enemy, and was violently deprived of its contents. During
the first two days it was impossible to put a stop to depreda-
tions, but then order was vigorously restored. Many of
these infamous marauders were arrested, and compelled to
give up their plunder. Patrols of Cossacks paraded the
streets day and night, and searched every suspicious-looking
individual wearing the beehive fur cap. An old man
decorated with two immense medals, one of gold and the
other of silver, dedicated, perhaps, to Apollo, and Diana, or
some other pagan saints, ran after a young Armenian militia-
man, accusing him of having stolen his gold watch. Imme-
diately the Cossacks seized the delinquent, and, searching
him, extracted the missing precious object from his fur cap,
and returned it to the excited owner, an antiquated Russian
consular official.
As the Armenians, with few exceptions, are on the whole not
an energetic race, the Russian Governor, General Papko, had
no choice left but to enlist in the police force an adequate
number of Turkish volunteers, former zaptiehs and others,
who, being well and regularly paid — thirty roubles a month
— exercise their accustomed sway over the overawed popula-
tion with zeal and fidelity. Should the Christian races in
Turkey, whether Sclavs, Greeks, or Armenians', not be
allowed to take .a prominent part in the administration of
the country, the Turks themselves, if treated on equitable
terms, and not marred by interference with their religious
superstitions, will loyally submit to any European govern-
ment. They are loth to obey their own sluggish Byzantine
rulers, and are prepared to accept any other state of things
that may prove to be better, and afford them a fairer chance
of enjoying the fruits of their labours. Hitherto they have
had no notion of a more orderly rule existing in the world.
False statements spread by their cunning tyrants induced
them to believe that Europeans in general, and Russians in
particular, would persecute and ill-treat them because of
their religious creed, and assign them a humiliating position,
similar to that which they have inflicted upon their Christian
subjects. The latter would no doubt have been entitled, with
the Turks, to far more consideration, were it not for their
cowardice and untrustworthy character, which could not but
T T
642 WAR CORRESPOXDENCE.
excite tlie contempt of a warlike race. Now the Russians,
though far from being paragons of civilization, show hj their
equity and leniency how false have been the alleg-ations --
published by the Stamboul officials and newspapers. M
After having waited for a quarter of an hour at the entrance of ■■
the town, I saw at last a numerous cavalcade advancing
towards it. Thereupon the Turkish notabilities, on horse-
back and on foot, went to meet it in order to present their
homage to the Commander-in-Chief. An interview followed,
with the object of exchanging assurances of good faith and
obedience, and the promise of administering strict justice,
and maintaining strict discipline and order. The command-
ing general had dismounted, and on seeing me from afar
called for me. Full of joy and good temper, he shook hands
with me, and I seized the opportunity of congratulating him
upon so brilliant and lasting a victory. On my remarking that
Greneral Mouravieff had during the Crimean War, in an un-
successful attempt to storm Kars when it was much less
fortified than it is now, lost 7,000 men, he corrected me,
stating, " I was present ; we lost more than 8,000 killed or
disabled." A few minutes later General Loris Melikoff
entered the conquered city, in his modest manner, as the
precursor of the Grand Duke Michael. The town still
swarmed with lawless or hostile individuals. The Imperial
Prince held his triumphant entrance there only on the
following day. The commanding general and his retinue
proceeded through the winding, narrow, dirty lanes of Kars
to the house of one of the Turkish notabilities, where he
accepted for about half an hour the man's hospitality,
as a token that all hostile feelings had ceased, and that
the inhabitants were entitled to his powerful protection.
This ceremony of Egistern sanctity was soon gone through,
whereupon the general and his staff returned imme-
diately to the Yeran Kaleh Camp, without having pre-
viously visited other parts of the town or its citadel. On
the road a report from General Prince Tchadtchevadze
reached us, announcing the wholesale sarrender of the forty
battalions which had tried to escape across the mountains,
but were arrested by the Russian cavalry. The officers
hailed this important news with repeated cheers. Thus, the
victory had been brought to a very satisfactory close, and
henceforward Erzeroum and Batoum are the only points in
Armenia which caA hope to uphold for a while the Sultan's
standard. Not the genius of Mukhtar and Dervish Pachas
protects them, nor the valour of their soldiers, but solely the
THE RUSSIAN TROPHIES. 643
bad season wMcli is likely to prove for the Russians a more
dangerous adversary than the armed rabble of the Grhazi.
The Russian trophies in Kars are beyond expectation. 312
cannons, among them 42 field-pieces, whole depots of rifles
and revolvers, large quantities of ammunition, stores and
provisions, and about 16,000 prisoners fell into the hands of
the conquerors. The remainder of the garrison must be
considered as killed, or as having deserted. The Russians
shut their eyes to Turkish desertions, as they find it very
troublesome and costly to transport their countless prisoners
in this season into the interior of their ice- shackled country.
Whosoever manages to procure for himself a suit of plain
clothes may run away and make himself comfortable in one of
the villages, or in his own homestead. Voluntarily these men
will not again join Mukhtar Pacha's hungry and neglected
host. The Russian losses, it seems, do not exceed 2,000 men,
and are at all events less than had been originally supposed.
The staff and different officers, including those of the telegraph
and post, are now comfortably installed here. The town is
quiet, and its Turkish inhabitants, ruled by a police force of
their own countrymen, submit to their new form of govern-
ment without complaining. Some fanatics may mutter
harmless prayers addressed to Allah and his Prophet for the
restoration of the old rule, but the bulk of the population is
quiet, and even satisfied.
The renewal of hostilities, on a large scale at least, is not likely.
The weather is very severe. It is freezing and snowing fast
just now, and the plain around has for the first time a chance
of being wrapped in its customary white winter covering.
Thus fell the great Ottoman stronghold in Asia. The event
made a deep impression upon Europe. It raised the military
capacity of the Russians, and at the saine time exposed the want
of resources of the Turks. In the army before Plevna it was
hailed with great rejoicings, for it excited the hope that after
so many months of reverses and hardships the good fortune of
the western army of Bulgaria might not be less than that of
the Army of the Caucasus.
Woodfall <fe Kinder, Printers, Milford Lane, Strand, London, W.C.
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