WAR SCENES IN SERVIA DURING THE TURKOSERVIAN WAR —BY AN ENGLISH VOLUNTEER.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 811, 28 August 1877, Page 3

WAR SCENES IN SERVIA DURING THE TURKOSERVIAN WAR —BY AN ENGLISH VOLUNTEER.

[Specially Written for thh Waikato ''i 7. Timbs.] ' .-. • Continued from our issue of the (lth inft. No. 111. \ ; After the affair of the bridge, 'we returned to oamp, and remained id/c until the 27th of September. Oar time was passed m parades, fatigue duties, reconnoitering, and the thousand and one duties performed by troops m the -field; daring a temporary lull m actual hostilities. The staff, however, found thaf, though not actually m the combat, there was plenty of work to be done m re-organising the disposition of the forces. For. General jhnernaieff had received certain intelligence that the Turks , were .concentrating . all their available forces m the vicinity of the little village of Kivinik, aud on the high grounds suiroundtng that place he determined to meet the enemy. Before venturing on a decisive battle, it was necessary that the troops under his command should be better equipped and disciplined than they were. So, every nerve was strained m our efforts to place the army m something like fighting trim. Stores of clothing and stands of arms were, with difficulty, obtained from Belgrade, and served out. The. raw levies were pub through a thorough course of drill, and, taught the use of the rifle, which, to many of them, was a new weapon, for they had been previously armed . with smoot-bore donblebarrelled guns, and not a few with the old flint-lock musket. It was no easy task to lick such raw material as the men themselves, peasants and small farmers principally, into shape, but, to his credit be it said, Tchernaieff worked with such energy and success that, on the date above mentioned, the army was reported ready for action. At midnight, therefore, on the 27th September, preparations were commenced for the attack. The head-quarters moved from Deligrad at dusk, and bivouacked close to the village of Kavinik. Our right wing, under the gallant Borvatovick, commanded the village; the left, under Dochtouroff, occupied the rising ground to the eastward, while the centre, comprisiag the oavarly and Montenegrins, and a battalion of Russian volunteers, was commanded by Tchernaieff himself. Our company had the honor of being attached to to this division.

The enemy was drawn up m three lines on the other aide of the valley and between the two armies was a plain about a mile m width, which the enemy commanded by two redoubts and a field battery. Before day-break, each division and brigade commander had received orders to be readiness for the attack, which was to be carried out by a given signal shortly after dawn. . Shortly after we reached our station, the report of the signal gun announced that the fight had commenced ; at the same time our artillery opened fire along the line, The Turks replied, and for more than an hour the air resounded with the roar of artillery, the hissing of shells ancl that most . horrible of all sounds to the ear of a soldier, the "sough" of a round shot as it plunged into the body of a comrade? Now was heard that infernal chorus, the crieß and groans of the wounded and dying. Our' surgeons, under Dr Ziemann, of Manchester, who held the rank of surgeon on the staff, even at that early hour looked more like butchers than medical men. In about an hour the fire slackened, and having opened the ball by a little" artillery practice, our whole line advanced. We were then exjposed to a galling fire from the enemy's first line, and as we deployed into the plain, we encountered the cross-file from the two redoubts and the battery previously mentioned. The right wing still pressed onward, and Colonel Nicolovitob, with a battalion of three hundred Servians and two hundred Russian was ordered, under oover of our artillery, to capture the western redoubt, whilst Colonel Maclver and his cavalry undertook to dispose of the other. Still, we pressed onward. About, nine a.m. a loud explosion announced the obnoxious battery had blown up. Onward, Btill onward ! ! the enemy's first line giving way before us. And now came down upon , us a perfect deluge of fire from masked batteries and repeating rifles. • Then it was that the troops showed the good effects of the stern disciplinarian training of Tschernaiefi, for as man after man fell his place was quickly filled by his rear rank man. Sons took the places vacated by their fethers, and fathers those of thoir sons with but a sternor pressure of the lip, a fierce gleam of bhe eye, and a firmer hold upon their muskets. ! Notwithstanding that our troops were fe insufficiently armed, we. stilf pressed on, and before mid. day had captuVo-4 • two redoubts, a

%»tte?y, ahd the; seeojid line of defehee? ' '. „ — Scarcely had we done^this whb>, the Tufks w6re Heavily reinforced,, and after a hard stubborii fi^ht we were forced to fall back en biir - original positibiv -. on •account' of [& , heavy cro^s fire mairttftUieiJ itrirentitv ■tih^lyby'the ehett'y. On this eVerttV; ful day we. lost sixty bfficens and; about one thousand five hundred :men> The ?few prisoners we ca/p-* fared were kindly treated and 'transferred^ to Belgrade. i^hajr.day, at 'least, must be regarded asia Servian Success. Nothing Oould exceed the heroic courage pf our officers and men, or the gallantry of the brave Montenegrin troops. But for tlie heavy reinforcements of the Turkish troops the day would have teen for us a signal triumj.h. Instances of personal bravery were " of suoh ■ frequent occurrence that to particularise would be inviduous. I cannot, however,; refrain from mentioningthatfor his bravery, at the taking of the Eastern redoubt Colonel Mclver waa decorated with, the gold cross of the Order of Takora.

The following day was spent m tranquility. The wounded had to cared for and the dead buried. Many were .the sad and painful sights witnessedfby us whilst performing these duties. Owing to the closeness of .the ranga the Turkish shot and shell had made fearful. havoc ; m 'our lines ; and : severed limbs and mangled bodies were lying m heaps. Whilst a party was moving a pile of dead, whioh almost filled the trench surrounding the Western redoubt, which still remained m our bands, they came upon a poor fellow the whole of of whose lower jaw had been shot away; he was still alive and' perfectly sensible. On being taken to the rear the surgeons bound up his wound and he was . despatched with other maimed wretches like himself to the, hospital at Belgrade. When I left' Belgrade on my return to England I was, to my great surprise, informed that he was m a fair way towards recovery. The duties «f tending the wounded and burying the dead continued all that day and night. Towards dawn on the. 30th we lay down m our cloaks to snatch a brief repose to'prepare us for the . toils of the morrow.

The battle field lies still and cold, While stars that wutch m silent light Glean here and there on weapons bright In weary sleeper's slackened hold ; Nay, though they dre »m of no alarm, One bugle sound will stir that cajo, Andall the strength of two great nations Eager fqr Rattle, rise and arm.