This siege is particularly interesting at the present moment, from the
same parties being engaged in a war arising from the same motives as
those which led to this sanguinary and memorable contest.
The position of Ismaïl, situated upon the Danube, in Bessarabia,
tempted the court of St. Petersburg, then at war with the Turks,
to endeavour to make the conquest of it. This was one of the most
important cities of the Turkish empire in its European provinces. It
had a numerous population, and a garrison of forty-three thousand men,
commanded by Auduslu Pacha, one of the best of the Ottoman generals.
Provisions and munitions were abundant, and its artillery powerful.
Its walls, having a circuit of a mile from one bank of the Danube to
the other, were from three to four toises high; at their feet was a
fosse from seven to eight toises deep; they were crowned by pieces
of large calibre. Between the polygons of Bender and Brock, there
was a _fausse-braie_, near a cavalier, capable of containing many
thousand soldiers. The water side was strongly defended by batteries
making a horizontal fire. At the beginning of November, 1790, General
Sudowitsch, with several bodies of troops, made the approaches upon
Ismaïl, whilst Admiral Ribas blockaded it with a flotilla of a hundred
row-boats. They obtained some advantages at sea, but the rigours of
the winter obliged Sudowitsch to raise the siege. When informed of
this, the court of St. Petersburg, accustomed to find no difficulty
insurmountable, ordered Field-marshal Potemkin to return immediately
before Ismaïl and take possession of it. The marshal felt all the
difficulties of the undertaking, but he obeyed. Arrived upon the Pruth,
he detached Lieutenant-General Potemkin with orders to bury himself
under the ruins of Ismaïl; but his efforts were not more successful
than those of Sudowitsch. Suwarrow then came up with a regiment of
infantry, a thousand Arnauts, and two hundred Cossacks. The land army
consisted of twenty-eight thousand men, of whom near one-half were
Cossacks. The first care was to exercise these irregular troops in the
manœuvres of an assault. Many days were employed in reconnaissances, in
order that the general officers might be well acquainted with the posts
they were to attack. When all the observations necessary had been made,
batteries were raised, to lead the Turks to believe that they were
preparing to make a regular siege, and not to carry Ismaïl by assault.
On the 9th of December, Suwarrow sent the seraskier a letter from
Prince Potemkin, to persuade him to surrender. The seraskier replied
that he advised the Russians to retire, if they were unwilling to
experience absolute want in an advanced season, and perish with famine
and misery before a place amply provided with everything. Suwarrow, the
next day, sent another note to the seraskier, in which he announced to
him, that if he did not hoist the white flag that very day, the place
should be taken by assault and the whole garrison be put to the sword.
Many Turks were inclined to surrender; but the seraskier was resolved
to risk everything, and made no reply. Suwarrow immediately assembled
a council of war, and spoke as follows to his troops: “Brave warriors,
remember to-day all your victories, and continue to prove that nothing
can resist the arms of Russians. The affair in hand is not one that
can be deferred, but it concerns an important place, the possession
of which will decide the glory of the campaign, and which the proud
Ottomans consider impregnable. Twice already has the Russian army laid
siege to Ismaïl, and twice has it retreated from it. There only remains
for us, as the third attempt, to conquer or to die with glory.” This
speech inflamed the ardour of his soldiers, and an assault was decided
upon. Suwarrow received a courier from Prince Potemkin, recommending
him not to risk an assault if he was not sure of succeeding. Suwarrow
replied in these few lines: “My plan is settled. The Russian army has
already been twice at the gates of Ismaïl; it would be disgraceful for
it to retire a third time.” Some Cossacks deserted in the evening, and
informed the Ottomans of the approaching attack. The principal part of
the garrison remained all night upon the ramparts. To make the Turks
believe they were short of powder, the Russians fired but little during
the night which preceded the assault. All measures being taken, by
four o’clock in the morning the columns were formed: there were six
on the land side and three upon the Danube. The Cossacks destined to
mount to the assault were all on foot, and their lances had almost all
been reduced to five feet in length, to render them more useful in the
_mêlée_. The first column by water, commanded by General Islenief,
consisted of two battalions of grenadiers, one battalion of chasseurs,
and two thousand five hundred Cossacks. They had on board their
shallops a hundred and thirty pieces of cannon. The second column had
the same number of boats and cannon. In the third, and in the reserve,
were two hundred and thirty-seven pieces of cannon, divided among a
great number of barks, flat-bottomed boats, and floating batteries.
Among the troops embarked were the prince de Ligni, the colonel duke
de Richelieu, and the count de Langeron. A circumstance is remembered
in which the count de Langeron, an emigrant, exhibited to the haughty
Potemkin, the czarina’s favourite, a pride worthy of a Frenchman.
Langeron, as an emigrant, was talking with him about the troubles
which agitated France. “Colonel,” said he, “your compatriots are mad;
I should require nothing but my grooms to bring them to reason.”
Langeron could not suffer his nation to thus spoken of, and replied
haughtily,--“Prince, I do not think that you and all your army could do
it.”
The weather, which had been fine and serene during the night, grew
cloudy towards daybreak, and a thick fog enveloped the horizon till
nine o’clock. All the columns marched in silence. At the aspect of the
walls, the whole army halted in consternation. Suwarrow exclaimed to
those who were near him, “You see those walls; they are very high; but
the empress commands us to take possession of them.” He then suddenly
fell upon his knees, arose, and marched to the assault, followed by
all his army. The Turks did not fire a shot till the Russians were
within three or four hundred paces of them, but then saluted them with
a shower of _mitrailles_, which did them great injury. They however
approached the fosse, in which there was in several places water up to
the shoulders, threw in their fascines, planted their ladders against
the ramparts, many parts of which were so high that they were obliged
to tie two together, although every one was five toises long. As in
some places the besiegers did not find this expedient quick enough,
they assisted each other with as much vivacity as address, and climbed
up the ramparts with the aid of their bayonets. The arquebusiers fired
from the edge of the fosse upon the Turks who defended the ramparts,
to prevent them from beating back the assailants. The second column,
commanded by the Marshal de Lasci, arrived first, but was not assisted
with sufficient energy by the first and third. The first had had
to overcome a great difficulty: it had met with a chain of strong
palisades, which extended to the banks of the Danube. The grenadiers,
who were at the extremity of the palisades, rushed against them, one
after the other, to turn them; and those most distant from that spot
jumped over them. Another fosse was yet to be got over before they
reached the ramparts. The Russian grenadiers took possession of the
first bastion, and attacked without order the cavalier which was
between that work and the second; but in doing so, they lost many
men. Kutusow, who had taken the two left polygons on the side of the
left bank of the Danube, would have arrived upon the rampart at the
same time as the second column, if he had not been obliged to send
assistance to the fourth and fifth columns, which had met with a
vigorous resistance. The fosse was full of water at the place where
these columns were obliged to cross; the men, being up to their
middles, soaked their long Cossack clothes, and had great trouble in
disengaging themselves from them. They mounted the ladders, but when
they came to the ramparts, they could not maintain themselves there;
the two columns were thrown back at the same time. They were separated
by the gate of Bender; eight or ten thousand Turks made a sortie from
that gate, uttering frightful war-cries. Among these were a great
number of women armed with poniards. The besieged charged all at once,
in all parts; the infantry of the reserve came to the rescue, and made
way with their bayonets; the Cossacks, finding themselves supported,
repulsed the Turks. Such as could not gain the bridge to re-enter
Ismaïl, were cut in pieces or smothered in the fosse. The Russians
then made a fresh effort, surmounted all resistance, and established
themselves upon the rampart of the bastion which was assigned to them.
Kutusow, however, remarked that the two battalions of reserve, although
masters of the rampart, could not yet hold out against the enemy; he
in consequence sent them a battalion of chasseurs, who enabled them
to keep their position. Every bastion having a powder-magazine under
the rampart, the conquerors immediately established a strong guard
there, in order that the enemy might not be able to set fire to it and
blow up the troops. There consequently followed slight actions between
the besiegers and the besieged, who still continued to endeavour to
introduce themselves there, but they could not succeed; so that no
accident happened. Day began to appear, and every one could ascertain
his position, which, till that time, had only been indicated by the
different war-cries of the two nations. Whilst the Turkish infantry was
fighting in the fosses near the Bender gate, a numerous body of cavalry
fell upon the camp of the besiegers, where the Cossacks received them
with so much vigour, that scarcely any of them returned, and the Bender
gate fell into the hands of the Russians.
Whilst the land columns were marching against Ismaïl, other columns
were formed upon the Danube. The first, composed of a hundred
boats, manned by troops, prepared to make a descent, advanced in
two lines, keeping up a continual fire; the second line, consisting
of brigantines, floating batteries, double shallops, and _lançons_,
followed it. The fire became still more warm as these two lines
approached each other. The Turks had on the water side a work of small
height, but great strength, furnished with eighty-three cannon of large
calibre, fifteen mortars, and a howitzer of six hundred pounds of
balls. The fire of the mortars of the second line covered the cannonade
of the first; when they had arrived at some hundreds of paces from the
shore, the second line divided, and placed itself on the two wings of
the first; in this fashion it formed a half-circle. Both sides kept up
a warm fire of _mitrailles_, and the combat lasted an hour. But as it
was still night, some Russian battalions only suffered, without any
vessel being sunk. About seven in the morning the total descent was
effected. The Turks had abandoned the few vessels they had left. The
resistance was brave and persistent, particularly on this side, which
was defended by more than ten thousand Turks. The greater part of these
were put to the sword, the rest saved themselves in the _chanas_, or
houses solidly built with stone.
At eight o’clock, the Russians were masters of the ramparts on the
water side, as well as on that of the land. A terrible conflict then
commenced in the interior of the city, in the streets and public
places, to which the inhabitants came from all parts. There were
skirmishes beyond number, both sides fighting with equal inveteracy.
The Turks defended themselves with desperation, maintaining an
incessant fire from the windows, particularly in the narrow
streets. The Russians swept the larger ones with the fire of twenty
field-pieces, to which the Turks, having no cannon but in their chanas,
could not respond. There were two thousand Turks in the first chana
that was attacked: they made great havoc among the Russians with their
artillery. Suwarrow ordered it to be taken, and it was escaladed, in
spite of a determined resistance, and, for the first time, during
the day some hundreds of prisoners were made; the unfortunate Auduslu
Pacha had taken refuge in a still more considerable chana. The combat
there lasted more than two hours; cannon were required to batter in the
gate. Two thousand of the best Janissaries defended themselves in this
place with all the rage of despair; but the Russian grenadiers rushed
in the moment there was an opening, with advanced bayonets, and all
were cut to pieces, with the exception of a very few hundred prisoners:
the pacha was of this number. He came out into the open place; a
chasseur perceiving a rich poniard in his girdle, thought it his duty
to take it from him. As several Turks still had arms, a Janissary,
who was near the seraskier, endeavouring to repulse the chasseur with
his sabre, wounded a captain of chasseurs in the face. The Russians
instantly charged their bayonets upon all that remained: they massacred
the greater part, the brave seraskier being of the number: scarcely
a hundred men of his immediate train escaped. Petty conflicts still
continued in every place capable of the slightest defence; every post
was carried at a heavy expense of blood. The terrible resistance made
by the Turks was more like frantic rage than the opposition of trained
soldiers; the women even fearlessly encountered the Russians, armed
with poniards and other weapons. All the Russian commanders faced
danger with heroic courage, and their soldiers as bravely seconded
them; the _mêlée_ lasted ten entire hours, without the Russians in the
least heeding the superiority of the Turks in number. The city was
given up to pillage; thirty-three thousand Ottomans there perished in
one day! and ten thousand were made prisoners! A single man had saved
himself in a fortified house; he was slightly wounded, but contrived
to drop from a window into the Danube, where he was fortunate enough
to meet with a plank, by means of which he gained the opposite shore.
This man carried the vizier the news of the loss of Ismaïl; there were
no less than six sultans among the dead. The Russians lost fifteen
thousand men. Suwarrow wrote Prince Potemkin these few words: “_The
Russian flag floats over the ramparts of Ismaïl._” He was equally
laconic to the empress Catherine II. “_Madame, the haughty Ismaïl is
at your feet._” The booty of this city was valued at ten millions of
piastres. Inaccessible to every interested view, Suwarrow, according
to his custom, abstained from sharing any part of it; satisfied with
the harvest of glory he had reaped, he disdained wealth. But he did
not, in a similar spirit, respect the rights of humanity; the massacre
of thirty-three thousand men in one day, with the murder of women,
children, and unarmed soldiers, procured him the name of _Muley_
Ismaïl, in allusion to the barbarous emperor of Morocco, who had
borne that name. The empress of Russia caused a medal to be struck to
perpetuate the memory of this important conquest. A year after, Ismaïl,
which had cost so much blood, was restored to the Turks as a guarantee
of the peace between the two powers--and forty-eight thousand human
beings had been slaughtered, and countless women and children had
perished or been rendered miserable, to secure the conquest of it!
“O, but man, proud man!
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence,--like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep!”