The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-06-23
ONE AGAINST EIGHT.
A Russian Soldiers Defence of His Com
rade.

4 Russian Soldiers Defence of His Com
rade.
There is u well-known story of the
finding upon the battlefield of mixer
man and the corpses of an English
guardsman and the Russian %grenadier,
lying breast to breast, each with his
bayonet driven to the very shank in his
opponents body. Such "a proof of
hardihood might have satisfied Leondas
himself; but a still more memorable ex-
ample of the qualities which character
iZe the Russian linesman occurred dur
ing the almost unknown siege of the
fortified town of Kitab, in Central Asia.
The story is best told in the words of
the Russian officer who related it to our
informant:
The townof Kitab lies in n deep, mar
roy gully, surrounded on every side by
steep hills, so hat we could only bring
Il small force to bear upon any one
point; and the wall, though built of
dried mud, i'll the Asiatic fashion, was
quite high and strong enough to be a
tough morsel for any storming party.
However, it was decided to try it by
escalade flor, you see, we had beaten
these fellows so often that we under
valued them for once), and l was with
III uCltClllutlll lldI Ntlt lOlu III ~ 10
it. But the whole thing was a tissue of
blunders from beginning to end, as bad
rs the assault of kars under Mourivieff,
in 1855, which was my first taste of
lighting. First and foremost, the signal
for the forlorn hope to advance was
given, by some horrid mistake, before
the supports were ready to follow up;
SO forward we went, under a smashing
fire flor the Shekri-Sebzians can shoot
and no mistake), without a man to back
u.s. And then when We got to the wall,
10 and behold! our ladders were too
short, just as it happened at Kars; and
there we were being shot down like
cartridges, without a chance of doing
anything. Our men behaved splendidly,
| must say; some tried to splice the lad
ders together, while others attempted to
scramble up over each others shoulders,
with the enemy peppering right down
among them as hard as they could pelt.
But it was of no use. They fell one
upon an other, just like fish out of a
net: and n Colonel was hitin the side,
and l got a bullet through my shoulder
and the rest dropped one by one till
there was hardly an officer left. AT
last we heard the signal of recall, but
our men were so mad with their repulse,
III lut lOSStS, anu Nlldl HOt, lldl IlcN
wouldn't retire even when they were
ordered, and just then the enemy, see
ing how few we were, came rushing out
upon US in a body.
Now it happened that in my company
there were two young fellows who were
like second edition of the "Corsican
Brothers"-regular in~separables, in fact
and one of them got through the fight
with what he called a slight wound II
should have thought it a pretty sharp
n myselfl, was just turning to retire,
when he saw his comrade lying on the
ground helpless, with a ball through his
leg. In an instant he had him on his
shoulders and was carrying him away,
when eight of the enemy came rushing
upon them at once. T%hereupon the
rough fellow laid his wounded friend
on the ground as gently as mother,
and, standing astride of him, dubbed his
musket and fought the whole eight of
them single-handed; and when supports
came up they found one Shekri-Sebzian
lying with his skull smashed like an egg
shell, and the Russian with five sword
wounds in him, keeping the other seven
rascals at bay. But when we praised
him, and called him a hero, he looked
at US quite surprised-like, and said.
"Whatwas / to do father? 1 couldn't
forsake my comrade.n