St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-09-14
The Horrors of the Eastern War.


GREAT SLAUGHTER OF CHRISTIANS
MASSACRE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
The following is the closing portion
of letter from Edward King in the
Boston Journal of Sept. 9. Mr.. King is
following the armies in the east as cor
respondent, and gives this awful picture
of Turkish atrocities:
The great slaughter of Christians oc-
Cured on the 3lst of July. 1t came
about something in this wise: The
Russians, after their occupation of Ka-
saulik, the Shipka Pass, ETC., began
pushing out right and left over the
country, seemingly regardless of the
possibility of the assemblage of large
forces against them. There was much
burning of defenceless villages on both
sides. The Bulgarians burned and pill
laged Turkish towns, and the Bashi-B
ZOuks, wherever they could finda chance
turned fields and towns into desolate
deserts. On the Sunday preceding the
3lst of July the Bulgarian Legion and
three squadrons of Cossacks, together
with some little artillery, went out from
L Ia
forces appearing in the neighborhood.
There was a battle which lasted some
hours, and the Russians took up their
positions near Karabunar, four hours
from Jeni Zaghra and two hours from
Eski Zaghra. On Monday the battle
began again, the Turks steadily increas-
ing in numbers. The fight lasted all
day, and during this time the Russians
were compelled to retire to one hours
distance from Eski Zaghra. (This fash.
ion of counting by hours, by the way,
is universal in Turkey in Europe; the
distance i'll miles from point to point is
very often unknown, the roads never
having been measured property Dur
ing the whole of Monday the losses
were insignificant; one Russian officer
and few members of the Bulgarian
legion were wounded. On Tuesday
the 3lst, early in the morning, there
was heavy firing for short time. Then
quiet prevailed, and the unhappy peo-
pie in Eski Zaghra, the thousands who
had taken refuge there from the neigh
boring villages, began to take courage.
The Turks apparently retired; the
Russians still held their positions, bur
at one in the afternoon arrived immense
reinfOrcements from Adrianople under
Suleiman Pasha. Before these the Rus
slams were of course forced to retire.
taking with them as many of the Bull
garians as they could. The Turks at
once took up positions very near Eski
ZaghIa, and began a furious lombard
ment. One of their aims was to strike
the fugitives, and they succeeded III
| killing a goOdly number of unarmetI
and defenceless persons, despite the
fact that the Russians did their best to
prevent it. Then began an engagement
which lasted about four hours. The
Turks crept nearer and nearer the town
but as the Bulgarian legion fought des-
perately, opportunity was afforded to
many more citizens to retire.
1t has been denied by some English
men that the Bulgarians can make good
soldiers, but they seem in this affair to
have shown that they could die bravely
in defence of their country. About
eight hundred of them were killed in
this brief encounter. The first drujina
division of a thousand men fought
with exceeding bravery, many of the
men continuing the battle after they
were wounded, and falling dead in Their
tracks. Toward evening the cruel, re-
morseless, fanatical enemy began to
reach the outskirts of the town, and the
| inhabitants were compelled to yiel,i
themselves like sheep to the slaughter
From the statement of my informant
| CLEAN the following details. One of
his friends, a farmer, who had become
persuaded that the battle had turned in
favor of the Russians and Bulgarians,
was in the loft of his farm house about
seven O'clock in the evening. He heard
a noise in the lower room, and looking
through a hole in the rough ceiling
he saw two Circassians ransacking hi.,
premises. He remained watching them.
almost paralized with fright, for some
minutes, at the end of which time all
alarm was sounded in the Christian
quarter of the town. Then the whole
dreadful truth burst upon him at once
As good luck would have it, the Circas-
slams rushed out, intent on new
| slaughter, and he managed to make his
way to the open fields. The Christian
quarter was Immediately fired, and as
| fast as the inhabitants were driven from
their houses by the flames they were
shot down or hacked to death with
hatchets. The Turkish inhabitants who
had fled at the approach of the Russians
but who had returned with the Mahom-
etan trOOps-men, women and children
fell upon the poor Bulgarians and
aided in putting them to death. Hosts
of young girls, pretty, very decent.
cultivated and well bred, were violated
by the bowling fiends who had accom-
panied Suleiman Pasha. Two school
mistresses, young women of refinement
and great beauty, endured fate which
the pen refuses to record. All the
young girls were brutally and shame
fully slain after these execrable wretch
es had abused and insulted them to
their hearts content. Sentinels were
posted at intervals of every hundred
feet all around the town, and shot down
every person in Bulgarian dress who