THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Evening Star, Issue 4282, 16 November 1876, Page 4

THE WAR IN EUROPE.

BATTLE OF The'“special correspondent”- of the I * Times ’ at the seat of war has distinguished I himself by giving the first, and what will 1 'probably be . the only impartial' English I version, of the great battle fought at Alex- I inatz on for he states that I (except two artists representing the illus 1 trated papers) he was the only English cor- I respondent in or near Alexinatz on that day, I The battle, he says, “was sustained uninterruptedly for eleven hours and a half, and 1 was waged on ground which the Servians ; had made the strongest l in all this country. It was the "decisive encounter long looked forward to, and it was wanting in no feature that could impart horrible grandeur to a struggle on the one side for supremacy and on the other for existence.” j The Turkish generalissimo, by a brilliant and masterly movement effected on the night of August 31, withdrew his troops from the right bank of the Morava, and appeared to the astonished Servians in full force oh the left, having established batteries on the slope of the mountains opposite Alexinatz —which lies on the east of the narrow stream—his object manifestly being to recross the Moravea north of Alexinatz, so as to cut oft all communication between that place and Deligrad—a smaller stronghold on the road to Belgrade. Tchernayeff, on perceiving these tactics, displayed great promptude, and the ‘Servian artillery replied with spirit and effect to the Turkish fire. For two hours the battle was an artillery duel Then the Servian infantry commenced an attack. The turning point in the engagement seems to have been the burning of two villages in which the Servians were posted, followed as it was by a panic, which was the beginning of a general rout. One after another the places which the Servians had occupied were surrendered, the Turks pressed forward, and there appears to have been no reason—unless the sufficient one of physical exhaustion—why they should not have entered Alexinatz that night. The battle, which was desperately bloody, lasted ten hours. BEFORE THE BATTLE. ; Colonel Lloyd-Lindsay and the ‘Times.’ correspondent went to the head-quarters of Tchernayeff, ,and found his chargers all ready waiting at .the door, and an escort all ready mounted to attend him to the battlefield. He adds “I told him what we had observed al Rubovistaas to the direction of the enemy’s fire. He said he had guessed rightly the decision of the Turkish commander-in-chief, and that there could be no doubt of it. A most serious attack against the Alexinat; position and the communication between, i and ; Deligrad was contemplated. Th< various divisions of the Turkish army hac already made a vigorous concentralinj movement, consequent on the reverse, sus tainedby their right , wing, when, with i dash, they attacked anal endeavored t entirely break the Servian left. The thre

pashas—Abdul Kerim Pasha, Eyoub Pasha, and the third, I think, called by the general Said' Pasha, but of that I am not sure, had managed to get the whole of their joint forces round to the left bank of the Morava. To effect this they had withdrawn every man from the east and north-east of Alexinatz, so that he should have to bear the brunt of an advance of some 60,000 or 70;000 men, under those commanders, with perhaps the . addition of others who were somewhat in the direction of Gurgosevatz. He had ho doubt that the plan of the Turks was to turn his right wing. Tf he succeeded in repelling such an attack, then he thought Alexinatz was safe, for he did not believe the Turks would make another attempt: against it. If he did not, why then the situation would be indeed grave.” A portion of the battle, and the bravery of the Servian artillery is thus described:— “ The Turks have the best of it in the number of their guns, but the positions which the Servians have taken up are decidedly better. The affair is, however, becoming monotonous, when the Turks increase the number of their batteries from three to six, and push on nearly half-a-mile. Their fire now begins to be tremendous. Not only their batteries, but even the guns of each battery, are considerably apart, but their fire is admirably concentrated on the two Servian batteries now in action, and the range by this time been ascertained so correctly that the Servian gunners are struck. Ten of them are wounded and carried off the field since the six Turkish batteries have got into play—that is, only half an hour. But on this day, when such abject cowardice was shown by too many of the Servian iiP fautry, jfc is’but just to record that the Servian artillery, who are regular troops, behaved admirably. Nothing could have been more spirited than the manner in which the officers and men stood by the guns, though I shall hereafter have occasion to show that at least; a portion of the Servian artillery was brought out of .actipn and parked. at a most critical moment. Its services would literally have been of vital importance seeing that the two batteries are very much over-matched and must ebon succumb to those which the Turks have brought against them. A third battery on the Servian side of the little independent hill between the two defiles, where it becomes a prominent object, to which two Turkish batteries on the south and one on the mountain to the east direct their-assiduous attention. With an adroitness that would do credit to our own Royal Horse Artillery, it constantly shifts its position, and for two long hours, during which, beneath a scorching sun, we watch every incident of the struggle ; it does double service in keeping • the Mussulman guns at bay.”

After two o’clock, although the Servian artillery appeared jto be making ground, the Turks continued to pour their fire into the enemy’s position:— “The rattle of their rifles is heard more and more to the north at each volley. The return volleys are becoming feebler, the artillery, fire on both sides has become languid, when, all at once, there is another great fire,* ‘I he village of Great Adrowaz is now in flames. This village was do e to Sirkowaz, Suotna still burns, and the clear air is full of vast flames and dense masses of smoke, and the thunder of cannon and in-* cessaut volleys of rifles. Shells have been falling into Sakowak for some hours, but it is not yet on firej§ Precilowitz, close by, is. A perfect panic has set in among the fcervians as they witness the steady advance of the enemy, and whole battalions of them begin to fly. A Russian colonel, in command of two battalions, calls on them to advance, though he himself is wounded. Out of the two battalions he can get only twenty men to. respond to his call; the rdftt fly. Still, some regiments and the whole of tb'e artillery do their ditty, and for more than two hours the legions of the three pashas made good an advance of only half a mile, but that has been an advance all along the linn. Abdul Kerim Pasha has got his left well up to Gredetin, north to thburning Adtowaz, and his right well round the Belja, though it is only four o’clock The carnage is terrible on Both sides. J descend forik short time from the height .where for hours 1 have been watching the battle, ‘ and I see the main street of Alexinatz crqwded with the wounded. They are staggering in with bleeding arms and legs, or are stretched in carts. There is not much change till about six o’clock, though the din pf battle has gone on

without a moment’s cessation. It is clear that the left of the Turks have passed the town and its redoubts, and are as far as Traasan-and Bagar, though not as yet on the same side of the river as that on which those villages stand. To the south they are in possession of the positions which the j right of Tchernayeff’s army occupied this morning. Why is it that the batteries on the great redoubt, from which we have been viewing the battle, have all day been silent ? Why is it that at this supreme moment, and when Tchernayeff has opposed to him (JO,OOO to 70,000 of the Turkish troops, most of 1 them of the highest discipline, there are I hundreds of soldiers lying about on the reI doubt hill, and scores of them strolling about 1 that town, at the gates of which the Turkish I enemy is now storming? Well, I cannot I answer my own question. In my interroga--1 tion I have recorded a fact; the solution of 1 that fact I must leave to others.

SHOCKING TREACHERY AND CRUELTY. The Hon. Evelyn Ashley writes to the ‘Daily News Sir, —In the absence of any further papers or declarations from our Foreign Office I think it well to send you some extracts from a letter which I have just received from an acquaintance of mine, an Englishman, in Bulgaria. I may add, for the benefit. of the cynical, that he is not an enthusiast, nor a tourist, rior a newspaper correspondent, but an official, namely, a Britsih vice-consul, writing from the viceconsulate. The Foreign < ffice will eas ly guess who he is, but. I don’t give name or place, because, as he is not only British viceconsul, but also occupier of an estate some distance from his post, I fear lest in these disturbed times 1 might expose him to some risk or suffering. About the number of the slain he says : —“ I have seen the first instalment of Mr Baring’s report, dated from Philippopoli, and it seems to me good in many ways, though, if he does not increase his estimate of Bulgarians having been killed, I that he •will have counted only the quarter of the vicI tims.” He writes as follows about the much-discussed story of the burning of forty girls which your correspondent, if X remember rightly, first reported in one of his letters :—“ I suppose you recollect that a statement was made in some English p -.pers that forty Bulgarian girls were seized by Bashi-Bazouks, and, after having been cruelly outraged, were burned. Mr Baring, as i see, says that no Bulgarian girls were burned by Bashi-Bazouks, and as far as the letter goes he is correct. The original statement was founded on the misunderstanding of a colloquial Turkish phrase. To burn in Turkish is yakmak; but this verb is constantly used in the sense of to ruin. A debtor will say to a harsh creditor: ‘ Beni istey, or mousoun yakma?”—Do you want to burn, i.e., to ruin me? The forty girls were taken by Bashi Bazouks Irom the village of Radi-Keni, and were carried off by them into the mountains of the distrut lof Gabrova. They were never more heard of”

After referring to the destruction of the village of Basardjik by troops, my correspondent gives the following pleasing incident as the close of the day’s work :—“ After the 200 peasants had been murdered and the spoil divided, a detachment of regular troops passing through a Bulgarian village about one and a half mile distant from the scene of massacre, found some fugitives concealed. Of these sixteen were given up whom the sob iers took to some distance and found on the road seven more hid in a field of standing rye. They told the twenty-three that if they would dance the national Bulgarian dance, no harm should come to them, and so the victims danced, and as they danced the soldiers shot the dancers down. What ‘ a dance of death !’ The poor peasant flinging out his limbs in the ‘ Horo,’ while the jeering soldiery at a convenient distance make them their target.”

THOSE WHO HAVE ESCAPED THE SWORD DYING OF STARVATION.

The ‘DailyNews’ publishesanotherletter from its special correspondent in Bulgaria respecting the Turkish atrocities the ic. At Klissura, one of the places he has visited, there was a rising, and four Turk s were killed. When the troops arrived, however, no more resistance was offered than at other places. The insurgents ran away, separated, broke up into little parties, and were afterwards caught and miserably killed. Klissura, nevertheless, was pillaged, 200 of the women were killed, every house was burnt down, and a number of old and decrepit and sick people who could not escape perished in the flames. Some tents had since been sent by the Turkish authorities to shelter the survivors, but they were insufficient in number, were old, and though they kept out the sun, did not afford protection from the rain. The sufferings of the people were terrible. As the Commissioner and his party left the place a hundred of the woman ran after him for a mile with cries and lamentations. They had expected food or succour of some kind. When they found that the party had only come to make an inquiry their disappointment was overwhelming, and they sat down by the wayside, exclaiming, “We are starving!” “We are starving!” again and again. A HORRIBLE TALE, The special correspondent of the ‘Daily News’ at Deligrad telegraphs as follows : Accounts of Turkish atrocities are very rife. When the Turks capture any fugitives in the villages they occupy.they torture and then kill them. At Djunis to-day, an old man told me a horrible story. In one of the villages on the slope of Jastrebaz the Turks captured a family while escaping. They took the baby, spitted it, roasted it alive, and absolutely forced the parents to eat the smoked flesh of their own child, after which they butchered tho parents. The old man stated that he had witnessed these himself. He is a priest. The troops were Egyptians, and General Tchernayeff tells me they are worse than the Bashi-Bazouks or the Circassians. THE SUFFERINGS OF WOMEN. Hundreds of people came to us recounting what they had seen and what they had suffered. Not a woman in the place seems to have escaped outrage. They all confess it openly. In othe places where these things occurred the women have shown a hesitation to speak. In some cases they denied they had been outraged, and we afterwards learned they confessed to others that they had been. At Avrat-Alan, a delegation of ladies called on Mr Schuyler to make their complaints, and he was somewhat astonished to find that they had very little to say. Upon going, away, however, they left him a letter signed by them all, saying that scarcely a woman in the place had escaped outrage. They could not bring themselves to tell him vied voce, but, thinking that as he. was investigating here in an official capacity, he ought to know, they had decided to write to him. Here, however, they did not hesitate to speak out. « utrages were committed so publicly and so generally that they fee) it would be useless to try to hide their shame, and they avow it openly These acts were committed not only in the houses but in the street, in the yards, and in the courts; for the Turks have not even the decency which may accompany vice. Mothers were outraged in the presence of their daughters, young gjrls in the presence of their mothers, of their sisters and brothers. One woman told us, wringing her hands and crying, that herself and her daughter, a girl of fifteen, had been violated in the same room, Another that she was

violated in the presence, of her children. A giri of eighteen avowed, shuddering and burying her face in her hands, that she had been outraged by ten soldiei’s. A woman who came to us on crutches, with a bullet still in her ankle, said she had been violated by three soldiers while tying wounded on the ground, groaning in agony. Young, delicate, fragile little creatures, ten and twelve years old, were treated in the same brutal manner. A woman told us that her daughter, a tender, delicate little thing of twelve, had been seiz id and outraged by a Ba&hi-Bazouk, although she had offered all the money she had in the world, although she offered herself if he would spare the child. Another told us of a poor little thing of ten violated in her presence, with a number of other girls. Still another told us how a dozen young girls, twelve or fifteen ; years old, had taken refuge in her house, hoping to escape detection ; how they had been discoverd ; how two of them had been outraged, and killed because they had resisted; and how the others then submitted to their fate—white, shivering, their teeth chattering with fright. We were told of a young girl of sixteen, outraged by three or four Bashi-Bazouks in the presence of her father, who was old and blind. Suddenly she saw one of them preparing in mere sport to kill the poor old man, and she sprang forward with a shriek, threw her arms around his neck, weeping, and trying to shield him with her own delicate body. It was all in vain; the bullet sped on its course, and the sweet young girl and the blind old man fell dead in each other's i r as.