New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-10-25
a Rnasian Renfniaoanoe.


Streets the asphalt Of the B0ueYards was slippery as
glass, siedges secured the Champs Elysees and Bots
de Boal0gne. An icy wind wbistled round the train
as we quilted the shelter Of the station and re-
GREETED as buttoned myself the chin and shrank
into my corner that the carriage not full instead
Of having but one occupant BESIDES myself.
Opposite to me gat hale Of about sixty-fVe,
with quick bright eye an intelligent, geod-hnmor.
/ ed countenance--soneWhat weather teaten-and the
red rrette Of the Legion Of Honor 10 bis button.hoe.
DURING the first half hour he pored over letter,
| whose contents, judging from the animated express
! slon on his pbysiOgnomy interested him strongly.
lie seemed scarcely aware Of my presence. At last
he put up the letter, and them for the first time look
ed me in the face ! had been but few days out Of
sick bed and YVES sensitive to the cold and doubt
! less my appearance was chilly and woe begone
enough for detected a slight approach to a smile
at the corners OF the strangers mouth. To one or
two commonplace remarks he replied, courteousIy but
laconicay, like man who Is neither unsocable nor
| agerse to conversation, but who prefers his own
thoughts to that bald talk with which travellers soFe-
times weary each other, rather than sit silent So
our dialogue soon dropped. The cold increased my
feet were benumbed, and stamped them the floors
| of the carriage to revive the circulation Ny COM
panion observed my proceedings With comical look
| as if he thought me very tender traveller.
"Tlis carriage must he badly closed, | remarked.
1T is bitter cold to the feet"
" For that discomfort have little pity" replied
the Frenchman. A ride on the railway is soon
over, and good fire or brisk walk is quick and
| easy remedy. Mine is a different case. For forty
| years have never known warm feet
| " For forty years. | repeated, thinking | had
misunderstood him.
Eyes, sir, forty years since the winter Of 1872
| the winter of the Russian campaign
| & You were in that terrible campaign% inquired
| in tone Of interest and curiosity. Ny companion,
| previously taciturn, suddenly became communica-
| tive.
"All through It, sir he replied " from the Me
| men to tine Kremlin, and back again. 1t was my
| first campaign and was near being my last. was
| ,Tfa arda in in
| combined Germans and Russians drove US before
them for want of the brave fellows we had LETT in
| Muscovy's snow ; in France in 1914, when the En-
| peror made his gallant struggle against oyerWhelm-
| ing forces ; and at the closing scene in Flanders )
bnt not all those three campaigns put together nor,
as believe all that this century has witnessed, can
match the horrors of that dreadful winter in Russia
| He paused, and leaning back in his corner seemed
% revolve in bis mind events of powerful interest
| long gone by. waited while, in hopes he would
esume the subject, As he did not do so, l asked
lin to what arm he belonged when in Russia.
was assistant surgeon in regiment OF hussars,
! he answered, 1" and in my medical capacity had
| abundant opportunities to make acquaintance with
the horrors of war. On the It'll OF September, for
instance at the observation-disclosures, what shambles
that Was All it was fine to see such yalor on both
sides-for the Russians fought wegallantly, sir or
| where would have been tie glory OF beating them
| But Ney Ney! Oh he was splendid that day His
whole countenance CLEANED as be again and again
lead the bloody charge exposing himself as freely as
!
roy with what vgor he hurled his against that
| terrible redoubt When at last it his, what a
| sight was there. The ground was not strewn with
dead it was heaped-piled with them. They had
been shot down by whole ranks, and there they lay
PROSTATE in line as they stood"
The surgeon paused. / thought of Byron's beauti.
full lines, beginnings Even as theyfel, in files they
lay ~ but said nothing, for saw that my compan
ion was now fairly started and needed no squirting
| Monsieur he presently resumed, "all those
things have been brought strongly to my mind by
the letter you saw me just now reading. 1t Is IRON
an old friend, captain in lSl2-a general now-whC
went through the campaign, and whom was for
tunate as to save from grave in those internal
plains where most of our poor comrades persisted.
will tell you how it happened. We were talking Of
the battle Of BOrOdnO. Seventy thousand men, 1t is
said, were killed and wounded in that mnrder0us
fight. We surgeons as you may well think, had our
hands full and still could not suffice for 1.-THE of the
sufferers. 1t was rough breaking in for young
hand, as / was then. Such frghttui wounds as were
there Of every kind and descrpton-from shot, shell
and bullet, pike and sabre. Well, sir, all the misery
and suffering then saw all that vast amount of hu.
man agony and bloodshed whose steam, ascending
to heaven, might well have brought down Gods
malediCtion on His creatures, who could thus
destroy and deface each other, was nothing com
pared with the horrible misery we witnessed OF
our retreat / have read everything that has ap
peared in France concerning that campaign
Segur Lebaume, and other writers. Their narratives
are shocking enough but nothing to the reality
They would have sckened their reader had they tolt
oil they saw If anybody who went through thu
campaign could remember and set down all ne wit
messed, he would make the most heart rending bOof
that ever yet was printed and would be accused o
gross eXaggeraton, Exaggeration indeed! There
was no need to heighen the horrors of the winter
1872 All that frost and famine lead and steel c0ulC
nhCt was then endured ali the crimes that reckless
despai. and ruthless cruelty could prompt were theI
perpetrated"
And how asked, " did you escape when Sc
many, doubtless as strong and courageous and more
Injured to hardship miseraby perishedH
"Under Providence, owed my preservation to the
trustest and most faithful servant ever master had
Paul had been several years in the hussars-was al
old soldier, in fact, although still young man an(
and at d time when all discipline and subordinatioG
were at an end when soldiers needed not the
officers officers avoided their generals and servants
and masters were all alike and upon level, Pau
proved true as steel. AS if cold and the COss8ck
were not enough, hunger was added to our suffer
ings there was no longer commissariat or distri
button of ratuns rations, torsoOth! dead horse wa
luxury have seen men fight for till death, leaI
meat though it was for the poor brutes were al
starved as their riders What little there was to ca
in the village we passed through fell to the share
the first corners, Empty larders, often smoking
ruins were all that remained for those who came be
hind. We'll, sir, when things were at the worst, ant
provender at the sGarcest, Paul always had something
for me in his haversack. One day it would be bi
of bread, On the morrow handful of grain or som
edible roots now and then slice of horse.beef-an
how delicious that seemed, grilled over our scanty
smoky fires There was never enough to satisfy m
hunger, but there was always something enoug
to keep my body and soul together. Paul, as aftel
ward discovered, huShanded his stores, for he we
knew that if he gave all at once, | should hay
nothing, and then | must have tasted for days an
perhaps have fallen from my horse from weakness
But think of the courage and affection of the poo
fellow, himself half starved, to carry the food abou
him, day after day and refrain from deyOuring til
share secretly sci aside for me There were no
many in the army, even OF generals rank, capable
such devotion to the dearest friend they had for e8
treme misery had induced a ferocious seishness
: which made us more like hyenhs than Christians
81 should think the cold must have been eve
/ worse to endure than hungcr,2 said l. screwing II
my chilly extremties which the interest of the doC
tors conversation had almost made me forget
: d" 1t was harder and more tata-at least create
number died of it although, to say the truth fros
and famine there worked hand in hand, and wit
such unity Of action that it was often hard to sa
which was the cause Of DEATH But it was Il Shockin
sight of morning to the poor fellows lying dea
I around the bivouac fires Unable to resist fatigu
and the drowsy influence of the cold, they yielded
sumber, and passed from sleep into death. For thei
sleep was DEATH"
but how, them" asked j" did any ever escap
from Russia, for all must have slept at times n
Il do not believe that any who escaped did sleey
at least not of night, at the bvouac. We used
rouse each other continually, to prevent our giVin
way, and then get up and walk as briskly as W
could, to quicken the sluggish circulation. We SIeE
upon the march, in saddles, and strange it ma
seem to you even those foot slept when mlrchins
They marched in groups or clusters and those in til
center Slept, propped and supported by their con
panons, and moving their legs mechanically. d
not say that il was sound deem slpep hut rather