The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-09 00:00:00

THE BATTLE OF ALEXINATZ.

The following extracts are from the letter (sent by
telegraph) of the Special Correspondent of The Times,
under date Belgrade, Sept. 3, in which he gives a most
vivid and interesting description of the battle of
Alexinatz and the defeat of the Servians

The Ist of Sentember, 1376, will be memorable in the annals
of Turkey, and also in those of Servia, for on that day the
one country gained a great victory and the other suffered a
most serious defeat. The battle then fought was the battle
of this war. It was sustained unintenruptedly for eleven
hours :Ina a half, and was waged on ground which the Ser-
vians had made the strongest in all this country. It was the
decisive encounter long looked forward to, and it was want-
ing in no feature that could impart horrible grandeur to a
struggle on the one side for supremacy and on the other for
existence. . . .

Tn company with Colonel Loyd Lindsay, Mr. MacCormac,
of St. Thomas's Hospital, Mr. A Lloyd and Captain Cole-
brook Carter, I left Belgrade for the front on Thursday morn•
log, the 31st ult., at seven o'clock. We travelled 1- y boat to
Sarnendria, and there took carriages, post horses for which
along all the distance between Samendria and Alexinatz had
been made ready by order of the Servian Government. We
had with us several young surgeons from St. Thomas's
Hospital, and we all travelled dey and Eight in order to
reach our destination with the least possible delay, fearing
that the final moment might come before. . . .

We reached Alexinatz at half-past eight o'clock on the
morning of the Ist inst. The first shot had then been fired,
but we had seen it: It was fired under our eyes, just as we
had passed Rubovista, a village of a house or two, about
two miles on this side of Alexinatz. . . . The main street
and all the little by-streets off it were then swarming with
confused masses of regular troops, militia, commissariat
men, and that miscellaneous mass of camp followers who are
to be found wherever war is. At the hotel we found Mac
Kellar, of St. Thomas's Hospital, in the uniform of a Ser-
vian Major, and wearing on his left breast a gold cross which
had been bestowed on him for his services to the sick and
wounded during this war. He and some six or seven young
English surgeons also in the Servian uniform, and had just
received a notification that in a coaster of an hour a waggon
would be in readiness to take them to what was believed
would be a battle-field.
• - -

. . . Everybody at the hotel was trying to get a morsel of
focd before setting out to the battle. Duting this scramble
Colonel Loyd Lindsay and myself went to the Head Qnarters
of Tchernaye ff. We found his charger already waiting at the
door and an escort already mounted to attend him to the
battle-field. I had had the honour of making the General's
acquaintance in an earlier period of the war and he at once
received us and took us into his private sitting room. There
he told me that the day which was to decide the fate of
Alexinatz had assuredly arrived, and he was about to proceed
to the field aad direct the Servian movements in person. I
told him what we had observed at Rubovista, as to the direc-
Mon of the enemy's fire. Ile said we had guessed rightly the
decision of the Turkish Commander-In-Chief and that there
could be no doubt of it. . . . Be had no doubt that
the plan of the Turks was to turn his right wing.
If 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. The
General was 'hen kind enough to indicate what would be a
good position from which Colonel Loyd Lindsay and myself
might see the whole battle, or certainly as much of it as
could be seen from any one commanding position. It was
painful both to Colonel Leyd L'ndsay and myself to observe)
that the General seemed almost oppressed with the task be-
fore him. He knew his troops and he was going to try to do
his best with them, but certainly he had net the air of a
General who believed he was going out to victory. Tcher-
nayeff is a brave man, whatever may be his merits as a com-
mander. On this eventful day and on every other day when
he led theeServians in the field he never hesitated to expose
his life when his example might impart courage to men who
are sadly in need of that attribute.
After a brief conversation we parted with the Gereral, and
In company with Mr. MacCormac, Captain Carter, and Mr.
Loyd proceeded so the point indicated by the General, which
was close to one of the Servian batteries, on a height over
the right bank of the Morava. We got up there at about
half-past nine o'clock For some hours the battle was
almost entirely one of artillery, commencing with three
batteries which were advanced from Drenovat, and which at
first was only encountered by two on the Servian side. The
Turks made a creeping advance in a north-easterly
direction, the Servian batteries, which were at Belja and
the more northerly Suotna—for there are two of them—
offering a very steady resistance by a well-sustained and
regular fire. If the reader will imagine himself sitting on
a height which is only separated from the undulatirg plain
and the villager I have named by an insignificant and wind-
ing river, he may, I think, from a little description obtain a
very good idea of the position. . . . It is now eleven o'clock,
and this attempt has has been going on for twohours and a half.
The clay is beautifully clear, the air is thin, and the only
clouds to be seen ere those which rise from the cannon's
mouth at each ell/charge. Up to this one could not say teat
there was any advabtege on either side. The Turks have the
best of it in the number of their guns, but the position which
the Serviaes have taken up are decidedly better. The affair
is, however, becoming monotonous, when the Turks increase
the numi,er of their batteries from three to six and push on
nearly half a mile. Their fire now begios to be tremendous.
Not only their batteries, but even the guns of each battery,
are considerably apart, but their fire is admirably concen-
trated on the two Servian batteries now in action, and the
range has by this time been ascertained so correctly that the
Servian gunners are struck. Ten of them are wounded and
carr:ed 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
infantry, it is but just to record that the Servian Artillery,
who are regular troop!, 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 action 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 soon succumb to those
which the Turks have brought against them A third
battery on the Servian side on the little in-
dependent 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 as-
siducus attention. With an aoroltness which 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. But, despite all this, the enemy is stealthily but steadily
creeping northwards and eastwards. While the great guns
on either side have been so busy, his infantry have been busy
in a little wood behind the chain of undulating ground. We
hear the first fusillade at twenty minutes before twelve
o'clock. The Turkish Infantry have advanced thus far;
they dare not show at the end of the little defiles yet,
for the Servian guns are too close. But they are
not far off, and it that gallant battery which is
doing such good service on the hill between the two defiles
can only be silenced the battle will be at once developed.
From Ale xnatz Infantry and Cavalry are hurrying over the
pontoon i Mews to resist the advance of the enemy's Infan-
try, and Tchernaycff, surrounded by his staff, is riding here
and there and everywhere through his position. The Servian
Infantry are in the valley north of the little independent
hill., and at intervals of a quarter of an hour or so sharp vol-
leys from rifles are heard amid the thunder of some dozen of
, batteries. The storm of battle has begun to rage with con-
fusing fury, when, at half-past one o'clock, we see dense
masses of smoke and sheets of flame rise from a valley rigkt
before us and close to the northern defile. The conflagration
is tremendous ; the brilliant sunshine is completely over-
come by the lurid flames that rise high into the heavens, and
are now only fringed by dense masses of smoke. The more
northern of the two Suotnas is on fire. The Turkish shells
aimed directly at it by the advancing batteries have descended
OD house roofs and corn stacks, and in a few minutes more not
a veralge of the village will remain to tell the tale. The Servian
troops make a precipitate retreat from it, but as yet a good
defence is kept up The Turks advance under cover of their
batteries now skirmishing, now with a rush. The Serviette,
though Alta, are falling back, have not yet lost all heart.
The InferOry realst, but with such trepidation that the
number of malingerers is becoming greater. The battalions
are evidently thinning. It is now past two o'clock, and for a
while the Servian artillery seems to be making ground. That
battery which has been doing such good service on the little
bill has advanced beyond it, and is boldly pouring its fire
further into the enemy's position. But this is deceptive ;
the 'lurks do not care about it. The rattle of their rifle's is
beard more and more to the north at each volley. The return
volleys are beceming feebler, the artillery fire on both sides
has become languid, when, all at once, there is another
great tire. The village of Great Adrowaz is now in flames.
This vti ego was close to Sitkowaz. Snotna still burns,
and the clear air is fall of vast flames and dense masses of
smoke, used the thunder of cannon and incessant volleys el
rifles. Shells have been falling into Bitkowsz for some hours,
but it is not yet on fire. Precilowitz, close by, is. A perfect
panic has set in among the Servians as they witness the
steady advance of the enemy, and whole battalions of them
began te fly. A Russian Colonel, in command of two bat-
tallow, calls on them to advance, though he himeelf is
wounded. Out of the two battalions he can get only twenty
men to respond to his call; the rest fly. Still, some regt ,
ments end the whole of the artillery do their duty. and '
for more than two hours the legions of the three
Pashas make good an advance of eaely halt a mile. But
that has been an advance all along the line. Abdul
Kerirn Pasha has got his left well up to Gredetin,
north of the burning Adrowaz, and his right well round to
Belja, though it is only four o'clock. The carnage is terrible
on both sides. I descend for a short time from the height
where fir hours I have been watching the battle, and I see
the mafn street of Alexlnatz crowded 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 of battle has gone on without a
moment's cessation. It is clear that the left of the Turks
have p reed the town and its redoubts, and are as far as
Tranean 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 right of Tcherrayeff'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 su-
preme moment, and when Tchernayeff has opposed to him
60,00 or 70,000 of the Turkish troops, most of them of the
highest discipline, there are hundreds of sold tens lying about
on the redout hell, and scores of them strolling about tie
town, at the gates of which the Turkish enemy is now storm-
ing? Well, I cannot answer my own question. In my in-
terrogation I have recorded a fact; the solution of that fact
I must leave to others. But the events of this very eventful
twilight;ddeayr l neerses. cburlil
tgnihwi suddenlythdestaiyhallgtlghbtulthdaSrakr,vi wah fallsetnh ewrteonr
worn out
nmidnight
Ismo
not scarcely
s at
that he Turks might grant us one night of peace-
ful rest in Alexinatz, we
~r descended from our hill,
from which we could no ion
the town once more. It was jast sseee, and came into
arrived at the foot of the erornence, seven o'clock when we
and within 20 yards of
the wooden bridge over the Morava, which
street of the town itself, there are four brass is
in
the
main
from which the horses had just been taken. T. 24 pounders,
The horses are
being tied up. We feel the guns, they are so hot at
can scarcely touch the Is there no further use to
m.
trhthe
we
The Serviaus are lighting immense fires all up the hill. Tmh?
Turkish positions right before us already blaze with similar
:
pm, Tbe mangled wounded are corning in on stretobere,