The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-03 00:00:00

tIIE SUM LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 8, 1856

THE SURRENDER OF BARS.

ERZEROI7III, Dec. 11.—Our first news of the pro-
bable fall of Kars reached us through that fine old
soldier General Kmetty. Riding in hot haste, he
reached this on the afternoon of the 28th ultimo.
The intelligence he brought simply amounted to
this—that the provisions being all but exhausted
General Williams had sent his aide-de-camp,
Major Teesdale, to Mouravieff, to propose the
opening of negotiations. Knietty's own case was a
desperate one. He had been formally sentenced to
death by the Austrian Government, and had no
mercy to expect at the hands of the Russians.
Things being at this pass, he waited on General
Williams, and besought him to accept his resigna-
tion, and allow him to cut his way through the
enemy's lines. His sword, he said, was now of no
further use, and he would rather blow his brains
out than become a prisoner at discretion. Williams
feeling how little he could do for him if it came to
the worst, allowed him to leave, which he did that
very night, accompanied by General Kolman and
an escort of trusty Kurds. Kolman, as an officer
who had held high rank in the Hungarian revolu-
tionary army, was in the same predicament as
himself. The Russian soldiers on the move at
night recognise each other by a peculiar low, long
whistle ; and, imitating this, the adventurous little
party succeeded in passing several of their patrols.
At last, however, they were recognised, charged,
and dispersed, but, meeting at a place of rendez-
vous previously fixed upon, continued their jour-
ney till they reached this without further accident.
After their arrival we remained in a state of un-
certainty for several days. They had left Kars
before Teesdale return (it turned out aftewards
that he had been detained to dinner by Mouravieff),
and were, consequently, quite ignorant as to what
terms might be offered and accepted on either side.
All they knew was that General Williams's affairs
had reached the point of desperation, and that he
was not in a position to refuse any conditions
which the Russians might please to offer. We were
at last relieved from our painful suspense by the
arrival of Captain Thomson 's interpreter, another
Hungarian refugee in the Turkish service. He lea I
left Kars after negotiations had been closed, and
was enabled to inform us on what conditions it had
been surrendered. They were as follows :—That
all non-combatants should be allowed to leave ;
that private property should be respected, the in-
habitants uninjured, and that all foreigners in the
Turkish service should be permitted to depart un-
questioned. Last, not least, all the officers were
allowed to retain their swords in consideration of
their gallant defence 01i the 29th of September,
and to the honour of Mouravieff be it said, that
this generous clause was inserted in the body of
the treaty with his own hand. Seventy guns, on
the other side, and 20,000 stand of arms, were
made over to the Russians. The Nizam (regulars)
to the number of 5,000 were taken prisoners of war.
The Rediff, or militia, and Bashi-Bazouks were
dismissed, to go whither they would. Liberty,
however, in the case of the latter, has been at best
but a cruel gift. Our Siberian winter has set in
along the loftier mountain ranges, and report speaks
of 150 of these poor wretches being smothered to-
gether in a teppi, or snowstorm, within the wild
passes of the Suwaulee-dagh. Numbers, too, have
been frozen to death, and the villages along the
road from Kars are filled with their miserable com-
rades, who have sunk exhausted upon the way.
We see them staggering in all day along the prin-
cipal thoroughfare into the city, haggard and foot-
sore, their countenances half idiotic from cold,
hunger, and fatigue.
Their condition, even before leaving Kars, was as
wretched as could be ; so much so (I quote word
for word from an eyewitness) that it was positively
painful to stir out of doors. They were lying about
in all directions, groaning piteously—watching the
Russian provision waggons, which, as if to add to
their misery, passed almost all day within their
ken. Townspeople and soldiers alike suffered all
the horrors of famine. The former crowded round
the General as he rode out of his quarters, and
prayed him with all the eloquence of despair to seek
some moans of putting an end to their misery.
Women forced their way into his very rooms, and,
throwing their starving children at his feet, im-
plored him rather to kill them at once than let
them perish thus piecemeal for want of sustenance.
The hospitals were crowded with sick • on the
Thursday before the sut render 80 men died in one
day. Many went mad or became idiots from sheer
hunger and hard work. Those who preserved a
remnant of health, half-starved as they were, and
scarcely clothed, were obliged to mount sentry
almost every night up to the anclee in snow. Since
the battle of the 29th there had been no animal
food to issue to the troops. Horses had indeed been
killed in the General's stables secretly by night,
but the meat was sent to the hospitals for the sick.
A pittance of bread or flour made into weak broth
was all that the working soldiers had to subsist
upon. Discipline was almost at an end. The sol-
diers had at one time all but worshipped General
Williams. After the action, in particular, they
gathered round their gallant leader, only too happy,
after the Eastern fashion, to touch the hem of his
garment in token of their submission and respect.
Now these same men refused to salute him, turned
their eyes away when they saw him approach. Still,
to the last, he hardened his heart in hope. Omar
Pasha had written to him, on his arrival at Batoum,
to hold out only another month, and he would be'
with him. Tho Muchir here, too, Selim Pasha,
who had been sent from Constantinople to take the
command, forwarded a similar despatch, informing
him that ho was at the head of a large, and well-
disciplined force, all admirably equipped and eager
for the fight, and that he would lose no time in
marching to his relief. Thus deceived, the Gene-
ral determined to hold out as long as a mouthful
of food remained ' • and, in fact, the last biscuit
was issued out of store on the very day of the
capitulation. At last, on finding out the truth
that the Muchir here at least had no intention of
coming to his aid, ho called a general 'council and
proposed a sally. But the troops by this time were
too exhausted even to march, far more to fight
their way for days together over the mountains.
We had no cavalry, no artillery horses ; fight-
ing our way in short, at such odds, was out of the
question, and a surrender was determined upon as
the only remaining resource. Tho terms obtained,
as may easily be believed, were much more favour-
able than the vanquished had any right to expect;
and, allowing all credit to the generous forbearance
of Mouravieff, no small praise must at the same
time be accorded to General Williams for having
managed matters so well under such difficult cir-
cumstances. The two things that he felt most
anxious to settle well were the protection of the
inhabitants and the safety of his brave companions
in arms who might otherwise have paid a heavy
penalty for their doubled devotedness to the cause
of European freedom. His fixed determination on
these points of honour was of an order which needs
no praise of mine. He threatened, in fact, that
unless his wishes in regard to them were acceded
to, he would destroy the guns, blow up the works,
and then leave the Russians to do their worst.
Fortunately, he had to deal with a reasonable
enemy, and the high-minded sacrifice was averted,
no less by firmness on the one side than forbear-
ance on the other. He had no difficulty, as far as
I can ascertain, in settling matters as he wished.
It was late before the Turkish troops were
marched out of the town. Those of the Russians
were drawn up without to receive them, and the
victors presented arms to the vanquished as they
passed.
The higher prisoners were treated with the
greatest kindness and consideration. The General,
after he had despatched the little business that re-
mained on his hands, was sent on the route to St.
Petersburg in Mouravieff's carriage and four, ac-
companied by Colonel Lake,* Captain Thomson,
Mr. Churchill, his private Secretary, and an Eng-
lish soldier servant. All his Turkish servants had
deserted him in their dread of an imprisonment is
Russia ; but, as some similar custom has always
prevailed in the world, and can hardly be consi-
dered peculiar to Turkey, after all there was not
mnch to complain of. As to himself, he was in
good health and spirits, looking forward to a speedy
release.
At the time of our last intelligence the Russians
had just taken possession of Kars, and the town
was in a state of confusion, such as might be ex-
pected from its occupation by a mixed army of
wild Cossacks, Circassians, and Kurds, with no
small portion of a regular soldiery—the hardest
drinkers in the world. All our employes, however,
attached to the Turkish army were treated with the
greatest consideration till their final departure.
M. Zohrab, for instance, on General Williams's
staff as interpreter, was lying ill of typhus at the
time of occupation. On hearing the riot of the
soldiers he thought it would be safer to apply to
the commandant for a guard ; but the latter at
once relieved his fears by assuring him that strict
orders had been issued to insure his not being mo-
lested, and that if anything happened he should be
applied to at once. Passports were granted to the
Hungarian officers in the Turkish service with the
greatest readiness. The conduct of the Russians,
indeed, throughout has been irrepproachable.
There is very little news here as regards Erze-
roum itself. The Muchir has been hanging a few
spies. On riding through the baz
oraar the other day
I found one strung up
at the Ggi-kapu, or
George's-gate. He was suspended only a few yards
from the ground, with his hands tied behind him,
and then fastened to the shutters of a shop at his
back, to prevent the body from swinging. The
Osmanli inmate of the said shop took it very
* Nothing 7iraia e - -
sight, 1 think.—F. H.

le. This must be au oyez.-

b)Awl

.-K ; t

quietly. He was sitting crosslegged on his counter,
smoking his chibouque, and staring at the corpse
as apathetically as possible. It was slung from his
roof, too, like a sign, and, if it had really been so,
he could not have taken it more as a matter of
course. The man was an Armenian, and was to
have received 500 piastres (something less than
41.) in return for his information.
The weather on the hills has been very incle-
ment. I have already mentioned that 150 soldiers
were buried in a snowdrift. A caravan was swept
down in the same storm, and 10 men frozen to
death. The load lost was a valuable one, contain-
ing, however, a curious item—leeches. They form
an important article of Persian export. The value
of them is estimated at 3,0001.