THE THIRD BATTLE OF PLEVNA.
The Third Battle of Plevna--Turkish Genius for
Fortification--How the Redoubts were built--Description of an
Earthwork--Sleeping Underground--Living Men in Holes in the
Clay--The Triple Tier of Fire--Commencement of the Battle--The
"Mammoth Battery"--Lauri and the Live Shell--Radishevo on
Fire--The General Assault--Turkish Civilians join in the
Fight--Attack on the Grivitza Redoubt--The Brushwood Shelter
takes Fire--I visit the Redoubt--The Sight from the Parapet--A
Word to Sadik Pasha--I ride towards Krishin--Turkish Fugitives
from our Redoubt--A Compliment from a Civilian--Panic among the
Troops--Fall of the Grivitza Redoubt and Capture of Two Krishin
Redoubts by Skobeleff--The Counter-attacks--Parapets of Dead
Bodies--Tewfik Bey Invincible--The Krishin Redoubts
recaptured--A Glorious Victory--Delirious Excitement--Russian
Sortie from the Grivitza Redoubt--Repulsed with Terrible
Slaughter--Hospital Work heavy once more--Some Stoical
Sufferers--Russian Bravery--Osman Pasha and the
Wounded--Departure of Drew Gay to run the Gauntlet--A War
Correspondent and his News--Perilous Ride from Plevna.
Those two factors in the Turkish defence, _viz._ rapid rifle fire and
complete field fortification, were justly regarded by the Russian
general, Todleben, the principal defender of Sevastopol, to have been
the chief causes of the overwhelming defeat of the Russians in the third
battle of Plevna.
During the six weeks which had elapsed since we entered Plevna from
Widdin, I had plenty of opportunities of watching the natural genius of
the Turks for fortification unfold itself. The pick and the spade were
never idle night or day since our tired troops first camped on the Janik
Bair; and now on the eve of the great battle the splendid result of
their labours was apparent.
Plevna was defended by a line of earthworks of tremendous strength,
drawing a ring of fire almost completely round the town. The chain of
redoubts extended in the form of a horseshoe, the toe of which, pointing
due east, was formed by the Grivitza redoubt, while one heel was at
Opanetz in the north, and the other at Krishin in the south. Plevna
itself lay, as it were, in the "frog" of the foot, the nearest
earthworks on either side being the Bukova redoubts on the north, and a
double redoubt facing the "Green Hills" and dominating a long stretch of
sloping vineyard on the south. It was round the Grivitza redoubt in the
toe of the horseshoe, and this double redoubt close into Plevna in the
heel, that the fiercest fighting of the whole protracted series of
engagements was centred.
In six weeks the Turkish troops, under the direction of Tewfik Bey, had
constructed the most elaborate and perfect system of field fortification
that the world had ever seen--a system which utterly routed the old
military idea that a bold and well reinforced attack must always
succeed against a defended position. It may be as well to briefly
describe the main features in the construction of these works as they
appeared to an untechnical observer.
The usual type of redoubt was a large quadrangular fort, the walls of
which were about seven feet high on the outside, and about twenty feet
in thickness, the earth of which the walls were formed being a stiff
loam, admirably suited for the work. Field-pieces were mounted inside
the fort and fired through embrasures protected by bonnettes. The troops
fired over the top of the parapet from a banquette reached by steps from
the floor which was excavated below the level of the ground outside. The
Grivitza redoubt, which was one of the largest, was a perfect square,
each side of which was about fifty yards in length. Inside, the redoubt
was divided into four compartments by a huge traverse of earth about
eight feet thick, which was designed to protect the defenders from
reverse fire. Communication between the four compartments was afforded
by narrow passages left open between the cross-walls and the exterior
wall. The ammunition magazine was stored in a great subterranean chamber
excavated underneath the massive cross-walls; and so efficacious was
this mode of storing the cartridges, that during the four days'
bombardment only two explosions occurred, although it is computed that
the Russians fired at least three hundred thousand shells into the
redoubts. In the Ibrahim Bey redoubt a segment of a shell found its way
into the magazine, which blew up during the height of the attack,
killing forty of the defenders, Colonel Ibrahim Bey himself falling at
the head of his men soon afterwards. In the Yunuz Bey redoubt in the
extreme south-west there was also a disastrous explosion. Yunuz Bey, who
commanded all the Krishin redoubts, survived the assault of Skobeleff
and was decorated for personal bravery, together with Tewfik Bey, after
the battle.
Access to each redoubt was gained from the rear, and in some cases one
side was also left open, as Skobeleff's troops found to their cost in
the work of which they held temporary possession. Sleeping accommodation
for the artillerymen was provided inside the redoubts, while the
infantrymen were lodged outside in the trenches. There was something
weirdly dramatic in the sight of those Turkish gunners, black and weary
and smoke-begrimed with battle, sleeping, as I have often seen them, in
their narrow resting-places scooped out of the stiff loam in the inner
side of the great wall of the redoubt. The Russian shells came crashing
into the exterior face of the earth wall; but the gunners slept on
calmly in their subterranean clay beds, and after a brief slumber
mounted to relieve their comrades again, often indeed only to exchange
their narrow beds in the thickness of the earth wall for couches in the
cold, wet earth outside and the sleep that knew no waking. Immediately
in front of the redoubt in every case was a ditch about fifteen feet
wide and ten feet deep as a first line of defence. Farther in advance
was a line of trenches, in many cases connecting with an adjacent
redoubt; and a second line farther on down the slope of the hill
provided another line of fire. The trenches had breastworks about three
feet high, pierced with loopholes for rifles at intervals of one foot
six inches. Covered passages effectually connected the trenches, and a
network of similar passages afforded ample living accommodation for the
troops. The scale upon which all these works were carried out may be
imagined when it is mentioned that one of the redoubts contained in
interior area more than ten thousand seven hundred square yards, and was
provided with subterranean chambers affording lodgment for troops and
staff as well as ample storage room and stabling for horses.
Of course the redoubts were not all uniform in exact pattern, some of
them being designed for artillery and infantry, while others were
defended by infantry only. In many of the works a second line of rifle
fire was obtained from a covered way leading outside, so that when all
the resources of a redoubt and trenches were at work an unremitting fire
of three and in some cases four successive tiers was obtained. The
supply of ammunition was practically unlimited; and it is not difficult
to recognize that, under such conditions, an assaulting force could not
but be terribly scourged both by infantry and artillery.
During the night of September 6 the Russians brought up their artillery
under cover of the darkness, and threw up cover for the guns with their
entrenching tools. When the morning of September 7 broke in cold and
drizzling rain, the Russians had surrounded us, the Roumanian divisions
being placed in the north and north-east, while the Russian divisions
lay in the south-east and south. All the west side was occupied by
cavalry, who commanded the valley of the Vid and the Orkhanieh road, so
as to cut off the Turkish fugitives who were expected to fly in that
direction.
The Russians had about eighty thousand infantry, twelve thousand
cavalry, and four hundred and forty guns; while the Turkish forces
numbered about thirty thousand infantry with seventy-two guns and an
inappreciable number of cavalry.[3]
Every precaution had been taken by the Russians to avoid a repetition of
the previous disasters which had attended their attempts to force Plevna
by assault, and they relied for success upon their vast preponderance in
numbers and upon a prolonged artillery preparation which was intended to
demoralize the defence.
At six o'clock in the morning of September 7 I heard the roar of the
commencing bombardment from Opanetz in the north, and it quickly worked
round, until the two Grivitza redoubts due east of Plevna were involved.
Across the Bulgarian road, Ibrahim Bey's redoubt and three or four
others connected with it sustained a fierce bombardment, and the line of
guns extending southwards across the Tutchenitza ravine and the Lovtcha
road added their voices to the general roar as far as the village of
Brestovitz, where a heavy fire from siege-guns was concentrated on the
Krishin redoubt. A short experience of the bombardment, however, showed
our troops that they had little to fear from the Russian artillery, and
casualties were few and far between in the redoubts.
What was called the "mammoth battery," consisting of a tremendous group
of fifty heavy Russian siege-guns, was placed in position due east of
Plevna, and bombarded Ibrahim Bey's redoubt all day, the guns of the
redoubt replying with spirit. The garrison of the redoubt were so well
covered that they lost only forty men in killed and wounded after the
whole day's firing, and the damage which was done to the earthworks
during the day was repaired at night.
Soon after the commencement of the action I rode over towards Ibrahim
Bey's redoubt, taking Lauri, the newly arrived German artist, with me.
As we rode along together a Russian shell struck the ground about a
hundred yards in front of us, and, ricochetting, flew over our heads and
lodged in the ground behind us. Lauri was tremendously excited. He
rushed off and picked up the shell, which he held in his arms as if it
was a baby, exclaiming at the same time in his broken English, "I am
forty-three years of age, and this is the first time that I haf seen a
gun fired. Ah, what would my wife say if she could now see me!" With
some difficulty I induced him to moderate his transports and drop the
shell, which I was afraid every moment would explode and dissipate poor
Lauri into space. By keeping on the lee side of the hill and dodging up
at intervals we could catch glimpses of the "mammoth battery" scarcely a
mile away, and could see the spirts of flame enveloped in white smoke as
the guns were fired in a tremendous volley. Sometimes the shells struck
the redoubt, and clouds of earth flew up; while at other times the
projectiles went screaming over the crest of the hill, and fell in the
low ground near the town.
I occupied myself in my hospital for the next few days, riding out at
intervals to watch the progress of the bombardment, which was being
prosecuted with terrific force. On the 10th the village of Radishevo,
where the Russian batteries were in position, caught fire, and the
conflagration lit up the wet grey sky in the east. Little damage was
done to our redoubts, and the artillery preparation was so far a
failure.
On the 11th the general assault took place. I was working away in the
hospital all the morning, as the wounded were beginning to come into
Plevna in considerable numbers, when I saw a Turkish sergeant who had
been slightly wounded by a splinter from a shell. He announced that he
was going back to the fight, and I said that I would go with him. I rode
out, while the sergeant followed on foot, and passing our farthest
redoubt I found myself among some trees, with the shells flying about in
all directions. When I looked round for the sergeant, I found that he
had disappeared, and that I was there by myself about two hundred yards
in the rear of our foremost fighting line in the trenches. The troops
were almost hidden from me by smoke, and a few wounded men were
crawling back towards the redoubt for shelter. I formed a little field
ambulance behind the trees, and proceeded to give first aid to the
wounded; but the firing began to get so hot that I was obliged to
abandon the position and ride back. As I crossed the Lovtcha road in the
direction of the Krishin redoubts, I came across three or four isolated
rifle pits in which a few old Turkish civilians, armed with antiquated
rifles, were busily firing upon the Russian lines. They had evidently
not been observed by the Russians, and the old fellows, showing nothing
but a pair of gleaming eyes and the long brown barrels of the rifles
above the level of the ground, were knocking over their men at long
range. How on earth they got there I could not conjecture; but they soon
saw me, and resented my appearance strongly. They called out to me in
most forcible language to take myself and my horse away, as they were
afraid that I should draw the Russian fire upon them. I left them still
diligently potting the unconscious enemy, and at about four o'clock in
the afternoon I heard a terrific musketry fire back towards Grivitza.
After crossing the headquarters camp I could see dense masses of troops
advancing from the village of Grivitza, and a black cloud of men already
in the valley, about five hundred yards in front of the Grivitza
redoubt.
Meanwhile the Russian artillerymen were shelling the redoubt, which was
evidently in imminent danger. The stables at the rear of the redoubt,
which were roofed with boards and hurdles, caught fire from an exploding
shell, and blazed up as I was watching. I could hear the Russians
cheering when they saw the fire.
Seeing the Russians in the valley, I galloped on the lee side of the
hill, where I was under cover, to the Grivitza redoubt. I went into the
redoubt which was being shelled, and, climbing upon the banquette where
the men were firing, I could see large bodies of Roumanians attacking us
on the north, while a detachment of Russians were advancing from the
east. I found Sadik Pasha, who was in command of the redoubt, and told
him that I had seen a strong body of troops in the valley below us and
invisible from the redoubt. A shell exploded in the redoubt while I was
there, and I was glad to clear out as quickly as I could.
Jumping on my horse again, I galloped off to the south, where Skobeleff
was attacking the Krishin redoubts and the neighbouring works. As I rode
across the Lovtcha road the firing was something terrific. Skobeleff's
troops had taken the second crest of the Green Hills on the previous
day, and this morning they had taken the third crest and driven our men
back from the trenches into the two redoubts described afterwards by
Skobeleff as the Number 1 and Number 2 Plevna redoubts. In spite of a
furious counter-attack by the Turks, the Russian regiments remained in
possession of the height, having thus carried each successive ridge of
the Green Hills and driven our men back into the redoubts.
It was now about half-past two in the afternoon, and as I approached the
rear of the two redoubts which were the objective of the main assault
the intensity of the fire redoubled. The Turks were running out of the
back of the redoubts in hundreds, and I tried in vain to rally them and
get them to return. I saw a Turkish lieutenant, who was one of the
fugitives, endeavouring to climb over a paling fence at the back of one
of the redoubts and get away to Plevna. I upbraided him, and thumped him
in vain with the flat of my sword. As he was getting over the fence he
was struck by a rifle-ball, and fell with his back broken.
As I was shouting, entreating, threatening, and striking the fugitives
to try and get them to rally, I saw two old Turkish civilians in long
beards and caftans. They came up and caught me by both hands, saying,
"Sen choki adam," which means, "You are a noble fellow," or words to
that effect. I remember this incident because it was one of the highest
compliments I have ever received. Troops were flying pell-mell for
Plevna, and shells were exploding at the rate of twenty or thirty per
minute on the side of the hill. The roar of the artillery, the rattle of
the musketry, the explosion of the shells, the loud hurrahs of the
Russians, and the cries of the wounded made up a perfect hell. I met
Czetwertinski near the redoubts, and he and I made renewed efforts to
rally the men; but we were powerless to stop the mad tide of fugitives.
Czetwertinski drove the point of his sword into a man's leg without
being able to stop him; and at last, as it was getting hotter and
hotter, he said to me that it was hopeless stopping there, and we had
better be off.
As I returned to Plevna the men were flying like wild animals. It was a
regular panic. They were like sheep before a bush-fire. When I got into
the town there was a panic among the townspeople. A universal cry of,
"The Russians are coming! the Russians are coming!" went up on all
sides; and wounded men, old, bed-ridden, half-naked women, and screaming
children were all crowding towards the headquarters camp. I learnt then
that Skobeleff had taken the two redoubts within half a mile of the
town, and that the Grivitza redoubt was also in the hands of the
Russians.
Skobeleff, it seems, had given the order to attack at three o'clock; and
the Vladimir and Souzdal Regiments, supported by chasseurs, rose and
rushed forward with bands playing and drums beating. They had to
descend the wooded slopes covered with vines from the third ridge, to
enter the valley, cross the stream at the bottom, and climb a stiff
slope, completely bare for about seven hundred yards, on the summit of
which the redoubt was placed. The attacking force received a terrible
fire from the artillery and infantry in the redoubt attacked, as well as
an enfilading fire from the Krishin redoubt; but when reinforced by the
Revel Regiment, they pushed on doggedly under the hail of bullets, which
had already killed nearly half of their number, flung themselves into
the trenches, and finally climbed the parapet and took the redoubt. The
second redoubt, which was connected with the first, also fell
immediately afterwards after a desperate struggle.
Raked by the guns of the Krishin redoubts and by the fire of the Turkish
infantry, who sallied out from the camp at the rear of these redoubts,
Skobeleff's troops had a fearful night in the defences which they had
captured.
Successive assaults were delivered upon them all through the night by
the Turks; but time after time our men were driven back by the murderous
fire of the Krenke and Berdan rifles. On the exposed side of the Number
1 redoubt the Russians had built up a parapet of the dead bodies of
friend and foe alike; and sheltered behind this dreadful barrier, they
poured a hail of bullets into the Turkish ranks. When morning broke I
could still hear the rattle of the rifles; and working away in my shirt
sleeves in the hospital, I could hear the rifle-bullets pattering on the
red tiles of the houses in the town. At daybreak I went back to my
quarters for a sleep. The Russian batteries had advanced to closer
range, and two shells exploded in my garden. A bullet came through the
door of the room where I was lying, and buried itself in the wall just
before I fell asleep.
When I awoke and went out the firing was still going on, and there were
about one thousand five hundred wounded men lying out in the open
square. We started to dress them at once. All the wounded men who had
been in the hospital were removed for greater safety to the south end of
the town, so as to be as far away as possible from the scene of action.
We cleared out a number of small Bulgarian hovels belonging to people of
the poorest class, and installed the wounded in them.
I had not been at the hospital long before my Circassian servant came
down and informed me that the firing at my house was getting very hot,
and he wanted to know what he should do. He said that he thought the
town was on the point of being taken. I told him to go back, pack up my
things, and put them on my horse. I said, "If you see the Russians
coming over the crest of the hill, come down here at once with my
horse, but not otherwise." My horse had not come out of it scatheless,
for a bullet had gone through the muscles of his neck; but he was still
full of pluck and able to carry me well.
Meanwhile let us see what had been happening at the redoubts. Attack
after attack was delivered through the night without success; and at
last, at half-past ten a.m., a vigorous assault, backed up with a
telling shell fire, shook the defence, and the Russians began to pour
out of Number 1 redoubt, their example being followed by those in the
adjoining work. Some of the foremost Turks had already penetrated into
the redoubts; but they were sacrificed in vain, for Skobeleff, with his
extraordinary personal magnetism and great courage, rallied his men
again, and staved off the inevitable moment a little longer. I got away
from the hospital at three o'clock in the afternoon, and rode out
towards the redoubts where the Russians were sustaining a last furious
assault by our troops under Tewfik Bey. As I neared the redoubts this
assault was at its height, and this time the Turkish troops would not be
denied. The columns deployed under fire and formed lines of skirmishers,
who received continuous support from fresh accessions of men behind,
carrying the assault forward in successive waves. Soon the Turks were
over the parapet once more, cutting down the Russian defenders, and
driving the remainder out on the other side and down the slope again
towards their own trenches on the Green Hills.
Thus the third battle of Plevna ended, after five days' fighting, in the
complete defeat of the Russians, who lost nearly twenty thousand men in
the long bloody struggle, and gained nothing but the Grivitza redoubt,
which was absolutely no use to them, and which fell mainly through the
instrumentality of the Roumanian, not the Russian, troops.
It is amusing to observe how the Russian official documents describe the
result. "The points chosen for attack," we read, "were the following:
the redoubt of Grivitza, the works in the centre opposite the heights of
Radishevo, and the third crest of the Montagnes Vertes. After superhuman
efforts and enormous losses, our troops carried the first and last of
these points. The Grivitza redoubt and two of the redoubts south of
Plevna were in our possession; as to the central works, our troops,
notwithstanding that they showed a bravery beyond all praise, could not
carry them. Consequently we had obtained some partial successes; but
fresh troops were necessary to profit by our gains, and these were not
forthcoming. It was decided, therefore, to keep the Grivitza redoubt,
and to abandon the Montagnes Vertes."
When I think of that last tremendous charge of the Turkish infantry,
when the cry of "La ilaha illallah Mohammed Rasul Allah!" rent the air
and rang from one redoubt to the other, as it went like the flame in a
train of gunpowder round the whole circuit of the defences, I cannot
help smiling at the polite official statement, "It was decided to
abandon the Montagnes Vertes."
I was inside the Number 1 redoubt two minutes after the men of the front
firing line, and I shall never forget the scene of carnage that I saw
there. The redoubt was literally choked up with dead and dying men, and
the ground was ankle deep in blood, brains, and mutilated fragments of
humanity. The Turks became almost delirious with the excitement of the
victory. Everywhere men were shouting, praying, and giving thanks to
Allah. About three hundred of them got drag-ropes, and took the captured
Russian guns off in triumph to the headquarters camp; and inside the
redoubt the soldiers fell on each other's necks, danced, and sang in a
perfect frenzy of delight. The excitement of the five minutes following
the recapture of the redoubts was worth a lifetime of common-place
existence; but all the while in the Grivitza redoubt, three miles away,
the enemy stood watching with cannons ready--a silent warning of the
conflicts yet in store for us.
After the battle, the Russians withdrew from their positions and retired
on Radishevo.
The Turkish army was mad with joy. We attached but little importance to
the capture of the Grivitza redoubt by the Russians, because the Turkish
garrison simply fell back upon the sister redoubt, which was only one
hundred and eighty yards distant from the other in a north-westerly
direction, and really commanded it. The unimportance of the loss of this
redoubt was proved by the fact that, though the enemy occupied it during
the whole of the remainder of the siege, they did little or no damage
from it.
On the night after the battle, the Russian troops in the Grivitza
redoubt Number 1, or the Kanli Tabiya, made a desperate sortie with the
object of capturing the Number 2 redoubt, or, as we called it, the Bash
Tabiya.
It is strange how the sleeping brain adjusts itself to
circumstances--sleeps with one eye open, as it were. I could always
sleep soundly under the fire of the heavy guns, even in a redoubt,
because my brain recognized that they were practically harmless when we
were under cover; but as soon as the rattle of the rifles began, I
invariably awoke at once with an instinctive knowledge that the fight
was approaching a crisis. So it was on the night after the battle. The
Russian cannon continued to boom sullenly at intervals, and, worn out
with fatigue as I was, they only lulled me to a deeper slumber in my
quarters in the town. Presently, however, a rifle volley rang out,
quickly answered by another and another. In a second I was out of my
sheepskin rug and on my verandah, from which I could see the night
attack three miles away. The night was dark and drizzling; but looking
in a north-easterly direction towards the line of the Janik Bair
redoubts, I could see the flash of the volleys and the spirting flame of
the artillery as the Russians leaped from their redoubt upon the Bash
Tabiya, only one hundred and eighty yards distant from them. The Bash
Tabiya was strongly garrisoned. Its heavy guns swept every yard of the
ground between it and the newly captured forts; and its defenders poured
an incessant hail of bullets from a triple line of rifle-barrels upon
the attacking troops. To succeed under such circumstances was well nigh
impossible, and after a few minutes of this awful fire the Russian
remnant broke and fled back to the protection of the redoubt.
It was only on the morrow that we realized what a complete victory we
had won in the battle of the previous day, because we could then see
plainly that the Russians had suffered terrible losses and had achieved
absolutely nothing. We began to feel more secure of our position; and
the wounded, who had all been sent away to the lower end of the town,
were brought back again and placed in temporary hospitals near our
central depot. In the previous battles we had been accustomed to send
the wounded away to Sofia at once, and the wisdom of Osman Pasha's
decision in this matter was now made apparent. Insufficient as was our
hospital accommodation, it was doubly fortunate that we were not
encumbered with the wounded from the previous battles as well, because
we now had about four thousand patients to deal with, and there was no
chance of sending them away because we realized at last that we were in
a state of siege. The Russians were all round Plevna, and they barred
the Orkhanieh road.
We of the medical staff had four days of real hard work after the
battle. There were an immense number of operations to perform; and as
Osman Effendi and myself had to perform the greater number of them, our
energies were taxed to the utmost. There were about forty doctors all
told in Plevna, to deal with four thousand cases or thereabouts. Owing
to the continuous nature of the work, I never went back to my quarters
during the week after the battle, but used to sleep at the hospital. My
Circassian servant cooked my food, such as it was, at my house, and
brought it down to me while I was at work. As on the previous occasions,
Osman Effendi and myself performed all operations in the open air under
a big willow tree on the bank of the Tutchenitza, and in the shadow of
an old Turkish mosque, where every evening at sundown an ancient
priest, mounting a minaret, called the faithful to prayer.
Although we were greatly assisted by the magnificent physique of the
patients, still their extraordinary reluctance to undergo operations
perceptibly increased the average mortality. Three days after the
battle, I saw a Turkish soldier crawling slowly along the street and
stopping every minute. He was holding some object in his hand, and his
appearance was so strange that I went over and had a look at him. I
found that he had been shot in the abdomen, and about two feet of the
small intestine had prolapsed, and was protruding through the wound. It
was so altered in appearance by exposure that it looked exactly like a
bit of tarred rope. Two of this man's comrades had been wounded, and had
died in the hospital--a fact which had made him believe that the
hospital treatment was responsible for the fatal termination of their
wounds, and he resolutely refused to allow me to touch him with an
instrument. The intestine was not strangulated; and if he had allowed me
to open up the wound, wash it, and replace the intestine, he would
probably have recovered. As it was, he lived for fifteen days in that
pitiable condition.
The stoicism of the men was truly remarkable. A soldier was brought to
me to be examined one day, and I found that he had been skylarking with
a comrade, who had "jobbed" him in the stomach with his bayonet. The
surgeon who first saw him could detect only a very small wound in the
stomach, and he put a bit of plaster over the place and sent the man
away. In a few hours' time the patient became very bad, and I was asked
to see him. I asked him at once if he had vomited any blood; and when he
replied in the affirmative, I knew that the wall of the abdomen had been
perforated, and that his fate was sealed. He was quite cheerful, but he
died at the end of twenty-four hours.
As the greater part of the fighting had been done from behind parapets
or breastworks, the majority of the wounded were shot through the head
or chest, and a large percentage of these wounds necessarily proved
fatal. There was an infinite variety in the nature of the wounds. One
man came under my hands who received six wounds from one bullet. The
ball struck him on the outside of the right arm between the elbow and
the shoulder, passed through the arm, through the fleshy portions of the
chest, and through the left arm as well, leaving six distinct
bullet-holes, all of which I washed and plugged. He made a rapid
recovery, and after a few weeks in the hospital went back to the
trenches.
Not a single wounded Russian came into my hands after the battle. The
Russians always carried their wounded with them when they retired; and
after the crowning episode of the battle, when I reached the Kavanlik
redoubt as soon as Tewfik Bey had recaptured it, there was not a single
living Russian left there. When the final assault was delivered, a
Russian captain and eighteen men elected to see it out to the bitter
end. Those brave men continued fighting to the last, and were all
bayoneted by the Turkish troops who poured, victorious at last, over the
parapet. It can readily be imagined that fighting of this sanguinary
character left few wounded Russians for us to deal with.
The staff at the principal operating hospital included, besides Osman
Effendi and myself, Weinberger, Kustler, Gebhardt, Kronberg, Waldemann,
and Rookh. We had also a lot of jarra bashis with a rudimentary idea of
surgery to assist us. Each man brought to us for an operation had to
wait his turn, and such was the pressure of the work that many of the
poor fellows were kept there for four or five days before we could
attend to them. Still, at this period a large percentage recovered from
their wounds, owing principally to the fact that the accommodation was
not overcrowded and that we had few cases of septic disease. We were
able to give them a liberal diet, as we had plenty of broth, milk, rice,
and biscuits. These biscuits when soaked and steamed proved most useful.
Osman Pasha has been liberally accused of inhuman neglect towards the
wounded; but those accusations have been made against him by people who
had no opportunity of forming an accurate judgment, and who mistook his
inflexible determination to get the wounded away from Plevna for cruelty
and want of consideration for their sufferings. I had many opportunities
of observing the Muchir during my stay in Plevna, and I can definitely
refute these charges of neglect and apathy in the presence of anguish.
Unsparing of his troops in battle, Osman Pasha never forgot his wounded
men when the fighting was over. At this period, after the third battle,
he constantly visited the hospitals, encouraging the wounded by his
presence and by his kindly words. He let it be understood, too, that all
those members of the medical staff who worked well would be decorated;
and it is only bare justice to say that all of them cheerfully performed
long hours of very hard work on insufficient food and with little or no
sleep during the trying days and nights that followed upon our greatest
victory.
When the brunt of the work was over, I went back to my quarters, and
Czetwertinski and Victor Lauri went with me--Czetwertinski because he
was very delicate, and Lauri because he had no servant of his own, and
did not know where else to go. About four days after the battle,
Czetwertinski, who was in touch with the headquarters staff, heard that
Osman Pasha was looking for some one who would endeavour to run the
gauntlet of the Russians, posted all round Plevna, and carry his
despatches to Constantinople. The gallant young Pole brought me the
news, and asked me if I would join him in an attempt to get through with
the papers. We sat up most of the night talking the matter over, and
Czetwertinski carefully explained to me that, while we should certainly
be hanged if we fell into the hands of the Russians, we should be
rewarded with the highest decorations if we were successful in the
attempt.
We agreed to offer our services as despatch-carriers to Osman Pasha, and
next morning Czetwertinski waited on the commander-in-chief and formally
represented our decision. Osman Pasha thanked us warmly, but declined
our offer, preferring to entrust the task to a Circassian, who, being
more intimately acquainted with the country, would stand a better chance
of getting through the enemy's lines.
Gay, the _Daily Telegraph_ correspondent, however, was extremely anxious
to get away. He had shut himself up in his own room as soon as the
battle was over, and had been writing all day and all night ever since,
preparing a glowing description of the stirring events which had taken
place. He had completed a fine budget of work, and was naturally burning
to get it into his paper; for it meant a great journalistic coup for
the _Telegraph_, as Gay was the only correspondent with the Turkish
army, though Forbes, MacGahan, and many others were with the Russians.
The first step was to engage a guide, and Gay selected a smart young
Circassian, who willingly undertook the job for the munificent reward of
three thousand piastres, which he was promised as soon as Sofia was
reached. Sitting in his room in Plevna, Gay wound up his despatch for
the _Daily Telegraph_ by describing his plans for getting it to Sofia.
"To-day, September 15," he wrote, "the cannonade goes forward languidly,
nor is it at all likely that it will end so long as the Russians have a
gun or a man anywhere near us. But it is comparatively harmless, so far
as affecting the Turkish position goes, and will some day, when Osman
Pasha is reinforced, as he shortly will be, come to an untimely end. For
my own part I am about to endeavour to-night to break the blockade which
surrounds Plevna. For two days I have sought for Circassians who would
undertake the task of piloting me over the mountains in the dark and
failed. Last evening Osman Pasha found a one-eyed chieftain, who with a
comrade has engaged to conduct me if the feat is at all practicable, and
according to present arrangements I am to start to-night about the time
it begins to get dark. Mr. Victor Lauri too is anxious to go with me;
and a Turkish officer also desires to be one of the party, which will
thus consist of two Circassians, a Turkish sergeant, and my servant, an
Ionian lad, a Greek groom, Mr. Lauri, the Turkish officer, and
myself--in all a party of eight well armed. At the moment of my writing
the Circassians and the Greek are out on a voyage of exploration, with a
view to seeing whether there is the possibility of our accomplishing the
task, in which case they will be back by evening ready to pilot us. As
the risk is great, the Circassians are to be amply rewarded directly
Sofia is reached, that is, if the work be faithfully done, and upon
their report now all rests. For myself I am determined to go if they
will take me. What the result will be time alone can show. But if you
get this letter safely, I shall have run the gauntlet, and will then
telegraph you the history of our risky ride across country."
As a matter of fact Gay did not start on that night. Czetwertinski and I
went out with him to the outposts to see him off; but it was plain that
the psychological moment was not yet. It was a bright moonlight night,
and we could see the Russian vedettes sitting on their horses all round
us. A cat could not have got through the lines without being seen, let
alone a man on horseback; and the captain in command of our outpost
absolutely refused to allow the attempt to be made, pointing out that
it meant certain capture and death for all the party.
On the following night, however, Gay and his escort got away. We heard
afterwards that they had a lively time of it, for they were chased by
Cossacks, and fired on repeatedly by startled Russian sentries. It was
only through the speed and bottom of their horses that they reached
Orkhanieh in safety, and thence made their way to Sofia. Gay had a
quarrel with Lauri before he went, and the result was that the little
German artist stayed behind with me.