The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-01-19 00:00:00

THE PASSAGE OF THE BALKANS.

From one of those interesting telegraphic letters from
the seat of War, for which the Doily News is so Suetly cele-
brat.A, sent by their Special Correspondent, we extract the
following graphic and descriptive account of the recent
perilous and difficult passage of the Balkans by the Russians.
Writing from the heatLquarters of General Gourko.
Curiak, near Sofia, under date Dec. 29, the Correspon-
dwit says :

Early on Christmas morning began the long-deferred
forward movement across the great Balkans into the
valley of Sofia. The plan of the advance had been
long matured, every detail most carefully studied,
the ground laid out with mathematical exactness, and
only the lack of troops prevented the earlier a coni-
plishment of the movement. First the delay at Im-
perial headquarters to issue orders for the march of
the reinforcements intended for General Gourko ;
second, the severe storm and the bad state of the roads
having retarded the arrival of the additional troops
until the very day before the advance was made. . . .
Before daylight on Christmas morning the bugles
sounded the reveille again and again, and soon the in-
fantry crowded the streets on the march towards
Vracesi. It wa;-.! iitterly cold and frosty. The fog
had settled down o densely that before sunrise the
darkness was absolutely impenetrable, and even after
daybreak objects across the narrow streets were vague
and indistinct. The fog clung to the houses and
trees and the clothhg of the soldiers, and froze there,
covering every surface with a glistening garment of
pure white. At nine o'clock General Gourko and
his staff left Cie town for the bivouac of the Dragoons
on the chausstie just behind the positions there.
It was a rare spectacle this group of horsemen as
they moved slowly along the ice-paved cha,ussee. The
aides-de-camp were dressed in the most fantastic cos-
tumes. Some were in greatcoats of dressed skins
ornamented with embroidery and buttons. Some were
enveloped in Circf-bssian cloaks, all doubled up with
the weight of additional clothing, and with capuchons
and wraps about the head. General Gourko, leading
the group, was alone dressed in a simple surtout, with-
out mufflers of any kind. He rode along apparently
unconscious that the frost was turning his beard white,
and covering himself and horse with frozen crystals.
it resembled more a carnival cavalcade than a general
with his staff, the effect being heightened by the pic-
turesque Kuban Cossacks in the convoy with their
sheepskin hats and curious weapons.
Before we had been out half an hour icicles hung
from the beards and from the horses' mouths, and
like a procession of so many Santa Claus we rode into
the defile through the chill fog, the view being limited
to the snow-laden trees along the roadside. The soldiers
began to struggle, several dropped, overcome with
cold and fatigue, and some were injured by falling on
the ice. Shortly after we passed Vracesi the fog be-
came thinner, and the white mountain tops glistening
in the sunlight shone through the mist as if hung in
the air, for the bases were still shrouded in vapour. A
few minutes further, and we came out of the fog bank
into the bright sunlight, and a warm south wind blew
in our faces, melting the frost and softening the hard
ice on the chausesSe.

The bivouac of the Dragoons, the place of rendez-
vous, was situated at a point where the stream, flow-
ing eastward from the Etropol Balkans meets the
river at the chaussee. It is hen where the road turns
off to cross the mountains to Curiak, not where the
dotted line is on the map. This road is called the old
Sofia road, and was the principal thoroughfare towards
Etropol before the chaussee was made. It was totally
disused for a number of years, and was never more
than a narrow neglected bridle path. It was almost
lost among the trees, and was gullied with the rain and
grown over with bushes. A few days ago two batta-
lions of the Pravbrajnsky Regiment began to
work on the path, graded it somewhat, widened
it nearly the whole extent, and cut steps in the
ice in the steepest place up to the summit. A
portion of the way was in full sight of the Turkish
redoubts east of Arabs. IConak. Therefore work
could be undertaken only at night, and when the
advance was made the path was so good that it was
believed that cannon could be brought up with
horses. When we arrived at the bivouac of the
Dragoons part of the advance guard had already
moved through the defile toward the west. The
weather had grown cold again, and waiting in the
snow was disagreeable. At this point the Princess
Imptrial section of the Red Cross Society had estab-
lished its headquarters and erected six kibitkas,
which began already to be filled with men injured by
falling on the ice. Nearly the whole day we stood
there, and the column did not move a rod an hour.
I finally determined to make my way to the sum-
mit, and started off two hours before sunset. The way
was completely blocked with artillery and infantry.
The soldiers had made fires along the path and were
cooking their suppers, and everybody seemed to be
taking matters very easy. Hard climbing brought me
to the first difficult place in the path, and here I dis-
covered the cause of the delay. Four guns and their
caissons were being hauled up by hand. The ropes
were short, permitting not more than sixty men to
take hold, and even this number worked with exaspera-
ting deliberation. It was soldiers of the line that
were detailed to bring up the first cannon. They
were small men, unused to such work, and after a
long march from Plevna did not enter with any
enthusiasm into the novel and exhausting labour.
General Rauch stood half way up the first steep
incline encouraging the men to pull, and spurring up
the officers. Long after dark I worked my way up
from one crowd of soldiers to another. The intervals
between the cannon grew longer and longer, and when
I reached the first one I found the men all lying about
resting as calmly as if it were not an important part of
the plan of the enterprise that all the troops should
get up the mountain before morning. The officers lay
down and slept. The men made fires. Others scooped
a hole in the snow, and were soon snoring peacefully.
The choruses which had sounded along the path as the
soldiers hauled the heavy caissons up, inch by inch.
finally ceased altogether, and apparently everybody
slept.
On the mountain, however, there was one 'man fully
awake and alive to the importance of energetic efforts,
and that man was General Rauch. The whole night
long he climbed up and down that slippery path en-
deavouring to communicate some of his activity to the
officers and men. The distance up the mountain was
perhaps four miles, and the entire route was lined
with soldiers sleeping on the ice or gathered around
small fires in the snow. When they were awakened
and ordered to move on they never showed any im-
patience, but with their inimitable rang froid got up
and walked a few paces and then slept again, dropping
down like dead men.

Towards midnight General Gourko came up the
path, followed by his staff. He could no longer en-
dure the delay, and his sleepless energy would not
permit him to remain inactive in the real. A Cossack
post was found on the summit of the watershed, and
here the General and his staff lay down on the snow
around two fires, which were kept low that the enemy
might not notice them, and slept like the soldiers.
The Pravbrajensk regiment had advanced into the
village of Curiak, already for some days occupied by
the Dragoon outposts, and with them part of the train
of pack horses had descended in the early part of the
night, so that there was little to eat and meagre com-
fort in the snow bivouac. Officers and soldiers lay
around indiscriminately as near the fires as they could
get, for the icy wind was blowing across the peak, and
the snow was freezing hard.
The sun rose on a scene of wonderful picturesque-
ness and a landscape of serene beauty. Generals and
aides-de-camp, some wrapped in Bourkas and furs,
some in overcoats alone, without additional covering,
lay there in the snow huddled together about the
fires. Cossacks and dragoons were already busy with
their cooking, and hundreds of horses tied to the trees
about the bivouac stamped impatiently in the snow.
Southward lay the great plain of Sofia, its pure
white face only broken by little dark lines where
the villages were, and beyond, half veiled in
dense clouds, were the mountains further south,
and the great peak Vitos that towers over Sofia.
Through the trees eastward was clearly visible the
great bare peak near the Bilia-Konak Pass, and the
lines of the Turkish works were drawn on the snow as
plainly as pencil marks on white paper. General
Rauch, always on foot, clambered up to the bivouac
for a few moments' rest, and to consult with General
Gourko, the motive power, and General Maglovsky,
the soul of the enterprise. Then both General Rauch
and General Gourko Were off again to hasten the move-
ments.

1 must pause to say one word in unqualified praise
of the general who has taken upon himself the awful
responsibility of the passage of the Balkans in the
dead of winter with the flower of the Russian army,
the choice Corps of the Guard. Never for a moment
have I seen him lose his presence of mind, or show the
slightest signal of discouragement. Always giving a
personal example of energy and endurance, always
exceeding in activity any of his officers, determined
and courageous, lie has the rare qualities which
make him a thorough soldier and inspire the con-
fidence of the men he leads. With all the weight
of responsibility upon his shoulders he laboured
physically more than his officers, and his enthu-
siasm and energy, brought out clearly in this diffi-
cult passages of the mountains are simply sublime.
Perhaps it is not altogether fair to criticise the work
of the soldiers, whose task is never too easy, and
whose life in the cold and snow has little except phy-
sical discomfort in it; but I cannot help believing that
if the men had worked in reliefs, and had conceived
the importance of haste, the entire column would
have passed up the mountain in the time planned.
To be sure allowance had not been made for the
slippery state of the roads; but the active brains
that had planned the movement had counted on
an echo of their enthusiasm. At all events by
noon on the 20th only four four-pounders with their
caissons were placed on the watershed. News
had come from the column on the right that the
road Was well nigh impossible, and nothing whatever
was heard from Dondeville on the left; but the
Guard had started up the mountains near Etropyl,
and worked with a will, singing and joking
all the time during the long day we waited 'there
chafing with impatience. The road down to Curiak
being in sight of the Turkish positions was closed by
patrols, and no movement permitted in that direction.
Everywhere all over the mountain top soldiers
bivouacked in the snow in picturesque groups, cooking
their food and drying their clothing, under little
shelters constructed of snow and branches.

When the twilight came on we all started down the
mountain, everybody on foot, for the path was so
steer and slippery that no horse could carry a rider
down. A snowstorm began before we had gone far
and doubled the difficulty of the descent. Part of
the way we slid down like so many schoolboys,
and afterwards let ourselves down through the
undergrowth, for the road was one solid sheet of
ice. Two or three miles of this work brought us
to the head of the valley, and we were over
the Balkans, breathless with the exertion of the
descent. We paused a moment, and sho:)k hands
in the darkness, and then pushed on to the village,
where we slept under a roof as peacefully as if the
Turks were twenty miles instead of one mile away.
How the cannon came down this side it is almost im-
possible to tell, for the road was for a long distance
only a gully made by the raiu, and the incline was so
steep and slippery that it was almost iinpos.dble to
stand upon the road. However, the four-pounders
were in the village at daybreak, and the regiment of
the line filed through in the forenoon.
Curiak is a small village hidden away in a gorge,
and a narrow valley winds through the hills to the
plain beyond, a couple of hours' ride diStant, At