TURKISH GENERALS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 441, 27 September 1877, Page 3

TURKISH GENERALS.

FAIZI PASHA. A Hungarian refugee after 1818, Captain Kohlman, as he was then called, sought rmployment in the Turkish army uudur Xonety. He gained some renown, and was rapidly promoted to the rank of Major-General; but with their usual obstinacy and pride of race the Turks look with jealousy on the man who fought and bled at Kars, who executed the fortifications at Batoum, who reorganised the fourth army corps, and although he has changed his faith and is now as orthodox a Mussulman as the most conscientious Turk, Faizi Pasha has the mortification of seeing men who were boys when ho won his spurs in the Ottoman Army pass over his head, and gain the coveted rank of Mushir, while he still grows grey in tho grade of Ferik. HEIIEJIKT ALI PABIIA. This officer, the new Serdar, Ekrem, or Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman forces in Bulgaria, is not a Turk by birth, but a Prussian. His father Delroy was staff-trumpeter in the Nicholas regiment of cuirassiers of Bradenburg. The boy was named Julius, and when old enough was placed in a house of business at Magdeburg. But he was a lad of an imaginative disposition, and the methodical routine of business life did. not please him. He had a craving for adventure, his mind was running upon sea stories and tales of travel and the splendid fortunes to be made in foreign lands. At length he ran away and got to Rostock, where he found a Mecklenburg brig getting ready for sea. The Captain toe k him on board as a ship boy. They sailed for the Levant, and after a long and tedious voyage anchored in the Bospiiorus. By this time young Detroy was thoroughly disenchanted with a seafaring life. The hard work on board the brig, the menial service which every one exacted from the youug ship boy, the rough treatment and ill usage he received from all, extinguished his illusion, so far as the sea was concerned. On the other hand, he wa3 in the East, in the very country of wonderful fortunes. His resolution was taken. One day there was passing by one of theso beautiful caiques rowed by five or six gaily»dressed oarsmen, in which distinguished Turka are usually conveyed from their yali on the Bosphorus to the Porte in Stamboul. Young "Detroy at once sprang from the brig into.the,sea,~and swam towards the caique. He was seen, and the occupant ordered the boat to be stopped, and had the lad taken in. The Turk was no less a personage than Ali Pasha, afterwards so famous, and Grand Yizier for many years. Detroy had picked up a scanty smattering of French at school and at Magdeburg, and Ali was perfect master of the language." Detroy explained the motives of hi 3 rash act, and besought the Pasha to take him under his protection, declaring that he even desired to become a Mussulman. Ali promised him his protection, but advised him to reflect seriously before he changed his religion. During the next few weeks tho lad remained at the Pasha's palace, enjoying absolute freedom, making rapid progress in Turkish, and frequently admitted to see his patron, who was dewith the frank disposition of his protege. But as Detroy continued to urge his desire to go over to Islam, Ali took an opportunity of mentioning the affair to the Prussian Minister at the Porte, requesting that one of the clergymen attached to the Embassy would visit and remonstrate with the would-be renegade. This waa done; but the chaplain had to report that his efforts were fruitless. Detroy was now definitely taken into the household of the Pasha, and regularly instructed. A vear later he was formally admitted into his new religion, taking tho second name, Ali, out of affection for his benefactor. Two years later his patron sent him to the military school, where he distinguished himself by diligence and intelligence, earning great praise on account of sereral translations of military articles, &c., from French and German. He received his commission in 1853, and made the campaign of the Danube against the Russians. He was first under fire at the siege of Silistria, and it was said that he did not seem very courageous. It has been even alleged by enemies that at the beginning of the bombardment he sought shelter in a cellar. But he scon gare "proofs of intrepidity and even of daring, winning nniversal commendation. He once spent a whole night alone in a captured earthwook. Omer Pasha noticed tho conduct of the young and placed him on his staff, and in this capacity ho went through the Russian war, and later the campaigns iu Montenegro, Arabia, and Bosnia. He became a Colonel in 1863, and iu 18(54 was made a Pasha, or General. He was employed with distinction during the insurrection in Crete, and again on the Montenegrin frontier. In 1873 he was given the chief command of the forces in Thessaly, in order to put an end to the excesses of the banditti, which had become intolerable. Mehemet Ali acquitted himself of this difficult task with great ability. Partly by persuasion, by employing remorseless severity where "examples" were required, by daring attacks, and by skilful operations in combination with the Greek detachments assigned for frontier duty, ho was able, in a shotfc time, to re-establish order in Thessaly. Towards the close of 1875 ne was entrusted with the chief command at .No"vi-Ba;sai', a post of great •tragetic importance, as will be seen at a glance at the map. He has since been engaged in various military duties in connection jyifch the operations against the insurgents in Servia. But the sun of ' ourt favor ha 3 not shone very highly f.)On him; hence, while his reputation for capacity is universal, he had not been assigned buy prominent position until just new, whrn hj«» find 3 himself placed in the first roi h t-ary command in the Empire. In estimr;''.ng hia probable achievements, it will h*Mvell to bear in mind that he has not had the advantage of European training like Omer Pasha and so many of his own subordinates. His capacity alone is toreign ; he will have against him, together with everything else, all the drawbacks of his exclusively Turkish education.