The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

HOW SILISTRIA WAS SAVED.

The following is from a military correspondent of
a German newspaper. Being a German, he men
tions Lieut. Grach, who deserves such mention for
his services, but only alludes incidentally to the
presence of English officers. It is clear from his
narrative that the siege of Silistria, so called, was,
in fact, a siege of the Arab Tahia, and it is
well known that the two English officers, Butler
and Nasmyth, were the life and soul of a defence
which throws Saragossa into the shade :
" Allow me, a soldier and impartial, some statements
and remarks on the very interesting siege of Silistria.
"The cause and the issue of this operation have been
so peculiar, so completely without precedent or example
in the history of modern war, that it is worth while to
throw all possible light on every particular of the trans-
action.

"If we consider the duration of the siege and the force
applied to it by Russia, it becomes evident to even an
unprofessional judgment that the result has been utterly
unworthy of the means. The besieging army amounted
to 30,000 men at least, and probably to 45,000, and in
this computation wo do not include the troops kept in
reserve and ready for action on the Wallachian side of
the river, and who, with three bridges at their command,
could at any moment have passed over to support the
operation. The Turks could oppose to these, of regular
troops, after allowance for previous losses, some 12,000
men, i. e., not a third of the enemy's numbers.
"It is reckoned that the siege lasted 39 days. Within
this time, according to a computation by the Prussian
officer in command of the artillery of the place—a com-
putation carefully framed as to be within the truth rather
than beyond it—the Russians lost 12,000 men, while
the loss of the Turks was about 1,400. During the siege,
according to the same authority, from 40,000 to 50,000
projectiles, solid or hollow, were discharged upon the
place, the siege-park having been, both in respect of
number and weight of guns, far more considerable than
that in any of the former Turkish wars. In confirma-
tion of this may be mentioned that, during the 44 days'
of Silistria, in 1829, only 29,000, during the 77 days' siege
siege of Varna, in 1828, only 50,000 shots were fired.
" I'o the question which has been the result of this
undertaking to the Russian arms, the only answer that
can be given is one as mortifying as may be to that
Power.

" We took occasion, soon after the commencement of
the operations against the place, to bring under notice
the fact, that it had only within the last few years been
strengthened by some outworks, thrown up on the plan
of a General Kutzkoffsky, on the 'southward slopes of
the Bulgarian plateau. One of these detached works is
the Arab Tabia. Its exact position may be made intel-
ligible to those who possess Moltke's plan, by our stating
that it is situated on the ridge, or, to speak more accu-
rately, the slope where he has marked the Russian
fieldwork No. 4, and from 200 to 300 paces south of that
work.
" The Arab Tabia is, technically speaking, nothing
more than a fThche,' consisting of a front some 50 paces
hi length, with flanks of about the -same extent thrown
back at a sharp angle. The rear is entirely open, and
was never even palisaded. In and immediately behind
the defences there were never more than 1,000 men at
one time, a number very considerable in proportion to
the extent of the work. The profile of the rampart and
ditch may be considered strong (we have not obtained
the measurements). No part, however, has been faced
with masonry, and the embrasures alone were fitted
with gabions. The work was armed with no more than
six guns, most of which had a calibre of from 20 to 22
okas, the oka equaling 2ilb. These were fired through
embrasures. In other respects the work was simply
adapted for infantry defence.
"A circumstance, however, which materially increasQd
the capabilities of the work for resistance was, that a
kind of trench had been out to the eastward- &Lid west•