THE WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 263, 6 November 1877, Page 2

THE WA R.

DESPERATE FIGHTING IN SHIPKA PASS. The special correspondent of tho Daily News, after giving au account of the bloodybattle in the Shipka Pass on the 22nd and 23rd of August, supplies the following graphic description of the arrival of the Russian reinforcements and the subsequent fighting • The two Russian generals were on the" peak which the first position half encloses, iheir glasses anxiously scanned the visible glimpses of the steep brown road leading up there from the Jautra 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 poiuts 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 J" 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 ghut of sunshine flashes, banishes the sombreuess and dances on the glittering bayonets Such a gust of Russians cheers whirls and eddies among the mountain tops that the Turkish war cries are wholly drowned in the glad welcome which the Russian soldiers send 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 cau 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 lurkish position. There are no riders ou the horses now, and they arc on their way down hill. But a column of Russian infantry are on the swift tramp uphill till thoy get within firing distance of the Turks on the J?gut, aud then they break, scatter, and from behind every stone aud bush spurt white jets of smoke. It is a battalion of the Rifle Brigade, the brigade itself is not three kilometres behind, and it is a rifle brigade tbat needs no more fighting in the Balkans to link its name with the great mountain chain. It is the same rifle brigade which followed General Gourko in his victorious advance and chequered retreat. The brigade has inarched fifty-five kilometres straight on end without cooking or sleeping, and now is in actwn without so much as a breathing halt, buch is the stuff of which really good soldiers are made. Their general, gallant Tzwitinsky

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accompanies them, and pushes an attack on the enemy's position on that wooded ridge on the Russian right. But Radetsky, who himself brought, up the tirailleurs, ond ao at the least reckoning saved, the day, marches on np tha 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 battemes of the first position. -^As senior and highest officer present, he atffonce took command, complimenting General Stoletoff, whom he relieved, on the excellence of his dispositions and stubbornness of defence. lv . the night a renewed attempt to carry the Turkish positions threatening the right flauk could well be spared. But .it was .felt that there .was no safety, far less elbow-room, for the Russians until tbe Turks should bo 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 the nest day's fighting began at daybreak with a renewed attack of tho Russians on the positions named. " The Bulgarian peasant boys displayed singular gallantry in the same work as that in which the despi&ed Indian bheestie has so often done good service to our soldiers, by going down ioto the actual battle, right into the .first line, with stone crocks full of water for the fighting men. The water was fetched from far iv the rear, along a bullet-swept road, for there is no water in 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 reinforcements of the 9fch Division sent down effected much perceptible good. About nine Dragimiroff arrived with two regiments of the 2nd Brigade of his own division, the Podolsk Regiment. He left in reserve near the khan the Jitomer Regiment, and .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 his left was impracticable, and reported besides to be swarming with Baahi-Bazouks. The Jitomer men lost heavily while making this promenade, and having reached the peak fouud no safe shelter, for tbe Turkish rifle fire was coming from two quarters simultaneously. So tbe infantry were stowed away till wanted in the ditch of the redoubt. Radetsky and hia staff remained on the slope of tbe peak, and here Dragimiroff joined and wa* welcomed by his chief. The firing in the valley waxed and waned fitfully as the morning wore on to near noon. The Turks were very strong, evidently in their wooded position, and there was an evident intention on their part to work round their left, and edge in across the narrow throat of the valley towards our rear. "About 11 the firing in tha valley swelled in volume. It was wholly musketry fire, be it remembered, and taking off my white hat I crept up to the edge of the ridge and looked down upon the scene below. The Russians had their tirailleurs in among tbe trees of tbe gTurkish slope, leaving the bare ground behind strewn with killed and wounded. The ambulance 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 coul<l be seen, the cover was so thick, but it was clear that the battle waged to and fro, now (he Russians, now the Turks gaining ground occasionally. The Russians at some point would be hurled clean back out of the wood and with my glass I could murk the Turks following them eagerly to its edge, and lying down while pouring out a galling fire. It seemed an even match; the Turks aud Russians alike accepting valiantly the chances of battle. The Russian tirailleurs, finely trained skirmishers, looked out dexterously ior cover, aud the Turks displayed fine skirmishiug abHity, but tbe soldiers of the Breaneki line regiment were not so good at findiDg cover. There was clearly uo thought among - them of quailing, but they stood up in the open as 1 bave seen our Guards do in a sham fight, aud took what came. As a natural result this line regiment showed the greatest proportion of casualties. " There is something terrible in a fight in a wood. You can see nothing

save an occasional flasji of dark colour among the sombre foliage, and the white clouds of smoke rising above it like sopa bubbles. Hoarae cries come back to you on the wind from out the mysterious inferno. How is it to go ? Are tbe strong-backed Moscovites, with these ready bayouet points of theirs to end the long drawn-out fight with one short, impetnous irresistible rush, or are the more lissom Turks to drive their northern adversaries out of the wood backwards into- the fire blistered opon ? Who can tell ? The fire rages siill. The mad clamour of the battle stitl surges up around into the Berene blue Jieaveos, Wounded man come staggering. p,i^t from^mqng the swarth^ trunks apd sit down in a heap, or crawl on to .the larpbulaoce pon. I \eave the edge of the ridge, 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 left knee General Dragimiroff, who has been standing calmly in the face of the fire, looking down upon the battle. One the best generals in the Russian army is Jiors de combat. He is as brave as he is skilful. He never so much as takes his spectacles off, but quietly sits down, and, ripping up his trousers-leg, binds a handkerchief round the -wound. Surgeons gather around him ; but, like tbe true soldier he is, he says he will take his iuru whan it comes. He is carried out of the line of fire somewhat, hia boot removed, and the limb bandaged. Then he is placed on a stretcher, and he is borne away. The last words on the noble soldier's lips nre a fervent wish for gooi fortune to tfche arms of the Czar. " The tirailleurs and Brenhski regiment are not njakiug headway in their difficult enterprise of attacking direct in front the steep Turkish slope, with its advantage of wooded cover, although they have foiled tha efforts of tha Turks to work round by their own left into our rear. We could see on the sky-line their reinforcements as they came up out of the valley by the road close to the mountain battery, on the base spot near the edge of their left flank. It was at last determined to deliver a counter flan^ attack on the rii»ht edge of the Turkish ridge, simultaneously with a renewed strenuous attack ef the tirailleurs and the meu from below. Tbe two battalions of tbe 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 tha more level grass land at the head of the intervening valley. They bave no great dip to traverse and tbeir way is good marching ground, but the Turkish mountain guns, from the battery high up on ths wooded peak of the Turkisi position, ere ready for tbem, as also is the Turkis-i infantry on the Turkish right edge. The fire sweeps through them, and many a gallant fellow dyes the grass with bis blood. But tbe battalions press Bteadily on, and 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 below bad come into action. But now the artillery had to cease, for there was danger in blind firing into the wood when our men were in it. Tho arbitrament had to be left to rifle and bayonet. " The ci isi3 of the battle had now arrived. It remained for us but to gaze into tbe perplexing mystery of forest, and to hope fervently. Tbe fighting of the infantry ou the Turkish front and flauk laefced for a long hour, and raged with great fury, but it was clear that the Russians were gradually gaining grouud. The Turks were seen withdrawing their battery of mountain guns near the 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 Breanskis had gained the ridge on the Turkish left also. Tbere remained but the central peak of the Turkish position. That carried, the rid^e was ours, and our right flank would be set free from the dangerous pressure on it."