The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-09-14
fRIGHTFUL CARNAGE.
An Eyewitness Account of the Capture OF
Loftcha by the Russians-The Turkish
Dead Piled Five Feet Deep.

An Eyewitness Account OF the Capture of
Loftcha by the Russians-The Turkish
Dead Piled Five Feet Deep.
A correspondent with the Russian
army at Loftcha, describing the late bat
tie there, says: Mount Rous was within
easy cannon-shot of the position attacked.
The attacking force was compelled to
cross plain half q mile wide before
reaching the base of the hill on which
the redoubt was constructed, under the
musketry fire of the Turkish infantry
securely ensconced behind their para
pets. Along the road and on the left
bank of the Osma were several low
ridges of earth high enough to cover
man in creeping posture, and these
places OF refuge were resting places in
the deadly race for the bluff. A ceme-
terry through which the Russians also
had to pass had q number of tall flag
stones standing upright, and these
were taken advantage of by the advanc-
ing soldiers.
At 2:30 o'clock the order to attack was
given, and the men rushed across the
valley amid perfect hail storm of bull
let's. In few minutes the ground was
dotted with dead and wounded Russians,
and the survivors were resting under the
little ridges of the road and the Osma.
The men advanced in open order at a
rush, and the Turks kept up steady
stream of fire.
There was not the slightest break in
the rain of bullets, yet it was wonderful
to see how small proportion of them
took effect. Sometimes a single soldier
would run across the whole space between
the river and bluff 1 could see where
every bullet hit around him by the dust
which it threw up, and yet he gener-
ally got across unhurt. There were
minutes when no Russian was under
fire, and yet the Turks never stopped.
1t appears that they were lying down in
the trenches firing over the parapets
without looking. The Russians declare
they never saw even O head above the
bank.
Another attacking column is now seen
advancing up the river Osma from our
extreme right. They are scattered in
open order, and steal along unobserved
by the Turks to reinforce the party I'M
der the northern end of the bluff. All
this time the Turks keep up an incessant
rifle fire, bat the guns on the hills at
the back of the redoubt only fire occa-
sionally, as our troops cannot be seen
from that position.
The Russian artillery thunders away
very rapidly, and two batteries are now
advanced down the road nearly to the
edge of the city. The Russians gathered
under the bluff now make rush forward
and secure possession of some Turkish
trenches in front of the eastern face of
the redoubt, within 100 yards of the
ditch.
1t is now 4 p. m, and the decisive mo-
ment approaches. The men along the
Loftcha front of the work open fire and
draw the bulk OF the Turkish fire i'll their
direction, when suddenly about fifty Rus
slams make a rush upon the eastern face
of the redoubt and approach within fifty
yards of the ditch. They were compelled
to retire by the tremendous Turkish fire.
After twenty minutes of desultory fire the
attack is made up the slope facing the
eastern side of the redoubt. The Rus
slams rush up in open order, keeping a
steady stream of reinforcements follow
ing the advance.
A perfect deluge of shells is poured
upon the redoubt from our batteries as
the men run up the slope, while the
Turkish infantry fire is incessant, and if
it were well directed every Russian
would have been shot down. AS it is,
many fell. Our artillery ceased firing
as our men leaped into the bitches and
Chamber up the parapet, while another
column rushes along the Loftcha face of
the redoubt to clear the advance
trenches. The Turks in the trenches fly
to the westward, firing as they go, and
falling under the Russian fire.
In the redoubt the garrison rush to
the gorge in the western face of the
work. There is traverse covering this
gorge, and the Turks are jammed be-
tween the traverse and western parapets.
In a few seconds the firing ceases, the
day was ours, and the Turks were in full
retreat TO the westward, where no force
had been sent to cut off their fight.
Immediately after the redoubt was
taken the correspondent entered it. The
roads adjacent to the plain were thickly
dotted with dead and wounded.
He says: Up the slope where the Rus
slams had charged the redoubt i was sur
prised to find so few dead, the Turkish
fire having principally gone too high.
Inside of the redoubt were the corpses
of Turks and Russians thickly strewing
the ground, but at the western end,
where the Turks had been jammed in in
their efforts to escape, space of fifty
feet by twenty was covered with Turkish
dead and wounded to the depth OF five
feet.
The living and dead were lying on
each other in dense mass, steaming
with heat and blood. Around this Mos
lem pile was fringe of dead Russians,
showing that there had been fearful
struggle on this fatal space. The Rus
sian soldiers were standing upon this
mass of humanity. / watched them,
working manfully to separate the living
from the dead. In half an hour they
had made scarcely any impression upon
that fearful pile. The road was strewn
with Turks, with here and there Rus
sian. Some of the Turks had been shot
first, and then repeatedly bayoneted.
Dead Letters.