The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-09 00:00:00

BULGARIA.

The following is from an interesting letter of the
special correspondent of the Times; dated Rust-
chuk, Jan. 5 :--
" In my last I gave some account of the old and new
fortifications of this place. I now devote some attention
to the not less important subject of the resources whicl,
Bulgaria offers for the convenient provisioning of the
army assembled here, for the supply of materials for the
operations of war, and for those auxiliary department-
which, if scanty or neglected, paralyse the ablest field
command and render nugatory the bravery of the best
troops. For this object Rustchuk, the political capital
of this large pashalic, and the chief Danubian port of
Bulgaria, offers favourable opportunities. In order not
to let myself be dragged into generalities beyond my
personal observation, I have specially in view the gar•
rison of Rustchuk, which consists of seven battalions of
Redif, or militia, each 800 strong, 1,000 Arnaut rifle
men, 1,200 artillerymen, and 325 bashi bozouks, or irre-
gular cavalry ; in all, with unenutnerated fractions of
other arms, somewhat under 10,000 men. There is no
Nizam or infantry of the line here, but these militia-
men, instead of being half-drilled troops, are fully,
trained soldiers, having already completed five years in
the line, and serving the second term of seven years in
the Redif, which prudent provision for a rainy day i,
quite a modern feature in the organisation of the Otto
man army, and has proved the chief lever of the respect
able force that Turkey has evoked from the plough and
the workshop for this great emergency.
" Bulgaria has neither the rich pastures of Bosnia nor
the sterile soil of Albania and Montenegro, where a small
army is beaten and a large one dies of hunger, but it is
altogether one of the best provinces of Turkey for
general productiveness—in corn as well as in other raw
materials of food. The soil on the rivers is good, and
fitted fur heavy wheat crops. That of the Dobroudja.
or tongue of land between the Danube and the Black
Sea, is generally light, but has much rich land in the
neighbourhood of the forests that keep up the humidity.
It is also a pastoral district, and thousands of Transyl-
vanian shepherds in peace time bring down their flocks
in winter to the warmer and more humid environs of the
Black Sea. Altogether the products of Bulgaria re-
semble those of the Principalities and Southern Russia
Rustchuk exports grain largely to ➢latchin, opposite
Braila, for transshipment, to England and Constanti•
nople. _

"There is, therefore, a great abundance of the two
first wants of a commissariat—bread and flesh. Of the
former, the soldiers receive 300 drachms per day.—.
that is to say, three-fourths of an oke of 400 drachms,
or 21 lb., which is even more than many men can con-
sume ; but the allowance of this staff of life is abundant,
as, in campaign, other supplies are not so portable, or
so certainly to be procured One sees no white bread
in the barracks ; it is a good nourishing brown bread,
crisp, and pleasant to the taste. Of butchers' meat the
soldier receives 80 drachms per day. The mutton is
excellent, and is the principal delivery. The soldiers
have a great dislike to beef even when it is good, but
still more so when it is poor, bony, gristly cattle, not
foddered for the market. The beef of this country is
fit only for soup. Said Mirza Pasha, being the pro-
prietor of extensive estates in the Dobroudja, has done
a great deal in the introduction of Spanish and other
varieties of sheep, both with a view to the flesh and the
fleece ; but the fattening of cattle for the butcher is, as
yet, unknown in Bulgaria.
" Next in importance to bread and flesh is rice, of
which the soldier receives 13 drachms daily, except on
Sundays and Thursdays, when he receives 80 drachms
for a pilaff. It is all brought from Philippopuli in ox-
waggons over the Balkan, and, although not equal to
the reddish Egyptian rice, is of average quality On
pilaff days the soldier is allowed an extra supply of
butter, and has besides daily vegetables, such as may he
procured ; at present the usual vegetables are onions
and lentils ; succulent green vegetables, cultivated in
gardens, are very scarce, even in summer, notwithstand-
ing the good soil and abundance of water. The other
allowances of soup, oil, candles, wood, and charcoal are
individually small, but amply sufficient when clubbed to-
gether by the messes.
" I am happy, therefore, to be able to state that the
force here is well provi;ione:l, and the same !nay lie said
of all the army of 130,000 under Oinar Pasha, from
Widdin to Varna and the Salina mouth of the Danube.
From all that I hear, the Turkish troops are far better
fed than the Russians across the river, and this physical
support, added to the more impetuous bravery of the
Turk, renders the private Ottoman soldier decidedly
superior to the Russian. At Oltenitza, the Russian
officers were ahead of the infantry, salm, in h; I,
tugging on the not overwilling tro-p. On the contrary,
the Turkish sandier was like the willing hose that re-
quired neither whip nor spur, It is in the excellent
superior and staff officers, in the admirable cavalry
home, and in the native intelligence of the Cossacks,

=t!i'at the =real trengtii( of the Rua army lies, eel'
not the imiral or physical vigour of the

" i,i.o Tur,sih ~oldier is B,A much wo7 so dressed
and equipped than the Russian as he is better fed. The
coat and the two vets which he receives once a, year are
Loth of bad cloth and bad y fitted. Instead of being
done by o!,en c,mtract-, they come out of the Govern'
went at Constantinople, and Sllvno, iu
Bulgaria. Tue suidier alto receives one fez and of°
shirts a-year, which are of fair quality; but the fez
certainly a most unsuitable head dress—cold in winter,
and exposing the eyes to the glare of both sun and snoly,
The want of a cravat is also a great defect. The alloo"
ance of shoes is apparently liberal, being three pairs
a-year; but there is no soling, and they are often worn
out in six weeks. In order to prevent the soldier front
wearing his shoe down at the heel, the heels are hard,
and consequently rub out the stocking in a day's tiine.
The great *oat and hood, furnished once in three years,
are t e be.u, part of the costume ; but altogether one
nay say respectfully to the Minister of War, ' Reforra
your tailors' bills... . _

" The saddlery is, upon the whole, suited to the
purposes wanted ; but the old Turkish bit, which is
retained, is too sharp, and there is a want (,
that steady support which the English bit glveg
to the trot. The consequence is, that there is nothing
Oetween a high stepping walk and a gallop—a great de'
feet, for it is the steady trot in line, before breaking into
gallop, that gives full power to the shock of cavalry in,
a charge. The cavalry sabres are much too short and
ineffective. The muskets. of the infantry are fair ; the
2.000 Millie rifles excellent. The powder was rather
.veak, not from want of a proper prescription, but froin
some little peculation in saltpetre at Constantinople ;
but Moussa Pacha, the practical Master-General of tho
Ordnance, a first-rate officer, has latterly stopped this,
and the powder is now manufactured of the proper
strength.

"The arsenal of Rutschuk I found in full activity, the
forge being under the direction of the Demirzi Bashi
Emir Ai a, of the army of Roumelia, a skilful working
engineer and smith, and all the different departments 01
handicraft were characteristic of that segregation of no'
tionality and religion in Turkey which is still so decidedly
visible, and so unsusceptible of fusion. All the hear/
,mith work was done by Bulgarians in their black sheep'
,kin caps, the light iron work by gipseys, the carpenters
.vere all Turks, the sawyers Bulgarians, while the tinmen
for the grape canisters were all Jews. I found the greatest
ictivity in gun carriages, which were all of oak and un'
commonly solid ; the first essays in autumn were yell
uneven, but through the exertions of the Marange4
Bush' Hulil Aga, of the army of Roumelia, they are noif
:is good as those at Constantinople. This man informed
me that eight workmen had made eight new carriages
and 70 new wheels in three weeks. No- cannons are
ast here, the supply being abundant from Constantino'
ole ; the grape shot (11 calibres for howitzers) is cast at
Sumakow, and fitted with canister here. To judge froth
Russian grape balls picked up at Oltenitza, and shown
:ne they are more globular and freer from seams than the
Turkish. But, by all accounts, the Russian shrapnel
ire complete failures, from some miscalculation or neg'
;igence in the manufacture.

-"
The behaviour of the garrison is exemplary, evert
excess being strictly forbiduen, and the presence of a
Turkish army is no longer a terrible scourge to a Turkish
population, as it was in the days chronicled by the
comparable Von Hammer."

KALAFAT.
The special military correspondent of the Moriv,
ing Chronicle gives, in a letter from Kalafat of
Jan. 15, some further particulars respecting the
battle of Citate, as well as some interesting info!'
nation as to the state of things in and about Kala'
tat :
" The accounts of the battle of Citate sent to you oe
the 7th and 9th, it is to be regretted, were incomplete
in one particular, viz., that the Turks lost two guns on
that occasion. This fact is much to be deplored by their
well-washers ; for though, in all truth, the victory wile
theirs, yet the fact above-mentioned—added to that of
he redoubt being held still by the Russians till after the
[lurks retired, and that the Turks did not sleep on the
ield of battle—will fully persuade numbers that they
were beaten.
" The case is shortly this. Achmet Pacha thought
to surprise a small detachment, and was in a fair
vay of exterminating or making prisoners of the
whole of it, when a very large force of RussiatiS
came to its assistance. This latter force was beaten
ia.ck in great confusion, and with great loss, by
ibout half its number of combatants. The Turks
sad bivouacked without food during the preceding night
and had fought for eight hours, when the Russian rein-
forcements were sent to the right-about. Both parties
cad suffered severely. Under these circumstances, it
can be easily imagined that they were in no position to
storm the redoubt. It was to be feared, too, that a
eight march would give rise to confusiOn ; they there'
fore returned to Kalafat in search of food and repose.
"The loss of the guns was owing to the misconduct et
fhe officer who commanded a portion of the cavalry in
the rear of the village, and to that of the officer cony
'landing the battery to which they belonged. The
;round was deep in mud, and the gunners, seeing the
three Russian battalions making for the redoubt, hag'
tened to go out of their way. A part of the.Russiall
infantry advanced against them, and the drivers started
~ff before the guns were limbered up, leaving them to
,e quietly taken possession of, and to be transported
into the redoubt. The officer commanding the cavalry
night have charged them in flank, but he did not.
Iliac Rice lacrhymce.
"That the lois on the Russian side must have been
treat, and that they retired in hot haste, is fully proved
by what they left behind them. In the accounts pre-
viously sent it was mentioned that Russian firelockS
were a drug in the market at 25 piastres, and that quan-
tities of them might be seen carried about the streets ;
the guns had returned laden with them. Since then
two of the Russian ambulances (waggons for the
wounded) were brought into Kalafat, filled with fire-
locks, of which the writer saw 350 in the pacha's ante-
room ; probably 1,500 were taken in all. Every officer,
nigh and low, had a collection of arms of different
natures. Decorations similar to those taken at Oltenitza
and those of officers for long service, of the order of St.
George or St. Michael, are plentiful. A large number
of capital camp-kettles were likewise collected and
brought it.
"It should have been stated that the Russian force
evacuated the redoubt at Citate on the evening of
the battle, after having hastily buried their dead--
30 hastily, that the Wallachs had to do it over again
—and that it is now occupied by three squadrons of
Turkish cavalry ; so that, but for the unfortunate loss
of the two guns—a loss at-the time unknown to nine-
tenths of the Turkish force—the Russian bulletin manu-
facturers would require all their proverbial ingenuity to
make out a good story in their favour.
" Instances of the heroic conduct on the part of the
Russian officers are current among the Turks, particu-
cularly that of one old officer who wore a decoration for
long service. He is described as having struck his sole
diers with his sword and pushed them with his
shoulders, &c., and to have made himself very con-
spicuous. The Turks, seeing that things would go badly
with then if he was allowed to remain in command,
levelled at him, and brought him down, and shortly
afterwards that part of the Russian force retired. The
Turks, too, describe what is not easy to understand,
how the Russian officers, being frequently seen similarly
employed at the head of their men, had pulled their caps
down over their eyes, not, as some of the Turks have
asserted, that they did so to hide the danger before
them, but more probably to prevent their caps from
falling off while making a rush or fighting in a ntaee.
" Since the 6th all has been perfectly quiet, both par-
ties refitting and tending their wounded. Reinforce-
ments to Kalafat, from Sofia and other places, have
been said for the last vekek or two to have been daily
expected One regiment of regular cavalry has actually
arrived from Loin Palanka, a post a few hours down the
Danube.
"A thaw which commenced about a week or so back
has altered the Turkish position at Kalafat for the bet-
ter. The branch of the river between the island and
the mainland of the left bank is no longer frozen, so that
the island, in case of a reverse in the entrenchment,
might be well defended against any number of Russians.
But Achmet Pacha is more inclined to fight it out to
the last in the entrenchment, and therefore takes no
particular care of securing a retreat. This is certainly
against all the rules of war, and would be considered
bad generalship in civilised Europe ; but, perhaps, it is
not totally unsuited to the peculiar situation of the Turks.
The position at Oltenitza was precisely the same ; had
they been beaten out of it, every man must have been
lost. It was, perhaps, this feeling that made them stick
so stoutly to their parapets, and which gained them the
victory ; and in ease of an attack on Kalafat, against
whatever odds, there can be no doubt that they will
defend the ground to the last inch.
" A stupid report has got about, the manufacture of
some professional inventor of canards, that the forces at
Kalafat are to be increased to some 50,000 or 60,000,
and that the Turks intend taking possession of Krajowa.
and Little Wallachia generally. This is too absurd
an operation to be directed by so clear-headed a general
as Omer Pacha. The idea of pending an army across
the Danube at the extreme end of the line, and marching
at right angles to the bate of operations, having neces-
sarily denuded it of a considerable force, appeals to our
sense of the ridiculous. It would be giving the enemy
all the advantages of concentration, and lending
one's-self to be beaten in detail. Besides, numbers
are decidedly in favour of the Russians, now that the
3il corps de ai•in:.ce has entered into Wallachia under
General Osten-Sacken—the great reason for concentra-
tion on the pa t of the Turks.
"Out of the 600 wounded men at Widdin there have
been seven deaths. This appears rather surprising, con-
sidering the manner in which the medical department is
recruited.

" fbere is a peculiarity about the wounds of the Turks
that is remarkable. The greater part, in a very large pro-
portion, are wounded low—from the hip downwards.
Again, it is stated upon good authority that the Russians
killed were struck high up, numbers being hit on the
head. Attempt,; have been made to account for those
facts Winch are hy no means satisftctory The Rus-
-BlatlB, it is said, in taking aim, u the method taught to
English riflemen, namely, to point the piece downwards,
gradually raising it up until the object is covered,
and then to pull the trigger and firing on this method,
while in a state of great excitement, would throw the
bullet low, from the soldier pulling the trigger too soon.
The Turks, on the other hand, bring up the piece to a
horizontal position at (nice, and fire. Now, it is well
kn,.vu that all soldiers tinder excitement tire too high,
avid that, consequently, the system adopted by the Rus-
sians is the best to insure hitting under any cii cum-
s:ances, more particularly when firing Ma line of smoke,
which is about all they saw of their enemies after the