Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-08-10

&C.. SC, &C., sc.
The Russians met a severe defeat on
the last day of July, al Plevna, in execu-
ing part of their onward movement
through the pass in the Balkan mountains
the only formidable obstruction between
them and Constantinopie. The force is
put at 40, 900, and the Turks under Osman
the only officer on their side who has shown
great capacity during thezwar, were en-
trenched to the number of $4,000. The
Russians made two determined assaults,
and were repulsed with such loss as quite
ruined their organization. The London
News correspondent sends from Pore
din. near Plevna an account of the disas-
ter:
ssAnd now all hope OF success anywhere
was dead: nor did a chance offer to make
the best of defeat. Prince Schackoskoy
had nor a man left to cover the retreat.
The Turks struck with stint. They had
the upper hand for once, and were deter
termined to show that they knew how to
make the most of it, They advanced in
swarms through the dusk on their original
first position, and captured the Russian
cannonS before the batteries could be with
drawn. Turkish shells began once more to
whistle over the ridge above Radishova
and fall into the village behind, now cram
med with wounded. The streams Of wound
ed vending their painful way over the ridge
were incessent. The badly wounded most
| lv lay where they fell Later, in the dark
ness a baleful sort of Krankentr6eqer swarm
| ed over the battlefield, III shape of Bashi-
Bazouks, who spared not. Lingering there
on the ridge till the moon rose the Staff
| could hear from below, on the still night
air, cries of pain and entreaty for mercy,
| and the yell of blood thirsty fanatical TIL
umph. 1t was, indeed, an hour to wiring
the sternest heart. We stayed there to
learn, if it might he, what troops were COM
ing out Of the Valley Of the Shadow of
| Death below, were there, indeed, any at
all to come. 1t did not seem to be the case.
| The Turks had our range before dark, and
we could watch the flash of flame over
against us ard then listen to the scream Of
the shell as it tore by us. The sound of
p! rifle bullets was lnceSSant, and the escort
and retreating wounded were struck. A
detachment at length began to come stray
Cling up, but it will give an idea of the dis
organization to say that when a company
was told off to cover somewhat the wound
ed in Radlshova it had to be made up of
men of several regiments. About O'Clock
| ed with grooming men. and moving gently
lest we should tread on the PROSTATE
wounued, we lost our way as we lost our
army. We could find no rest for the soles
Of our feet by reason of alarms Of Bashi-
| >BaZouks swalming in among the scattered
and retiring Russians. At length, at l
O'Clock in the morning, having been in the
saddle since O'Clock on the previous
| morning, we turned into a stubble field,
and making beds of the reaped grain, cor
respondent and Cossack alike rested under
the stars But we were not then allowed
to rest Before o'clock an alarm came
that the Bashi- Bazonks were upon US, and
we had to rouse and tramp away. The
only protection of the chief of what in the
morning was q fine army WAS now a hand
full OF wearied Cossacks. Gen. Krudener
sent word i'll the morning that he had lost
severely and could make no Roadway, and
had resolved to fall hack on the line of the
river Osman, There had been talk, his
troops being fresh, of renewing the attack
! to-day with his cooperation, but it is a
plain statement of fact that we have no
troops to attack with The most moderate
estimate is that we have lost two regiments
say 5000 men, out OF our three brioades.
A CHASTITY number, beating Eylan or Fried
land. This takes no account Of Gen. Kru-
! dener7s losses. We too, retire on the Os-
man river, about Bulgareni. and to the
| best of our weak strength cover the bridge
at Sistova.
Zone cannot, in this moment of hurried
confusion, realize all the possible results
of this stroke SO rashly courted. Not q
Russian soldier stands between Tirnova
and the victorious Turkish army in Loreca
and Plevna, and only q weak division of
the Eleventh Corps stands between Tirno-
va and the Shumla army. Hook nolonger
for this campaign to be counted as q fight
! ing integer. 1t is not ter days since tie
/ Thirtieth Division crossed the Danube in
the pride of superb condition; now, what
| Of it is left is demorallZed and shattered
So on this side Of the Balkans there re-
mains bud the Ninth Corps, already rough
ly handled. once at Nikopolis and once at
, Plevna. One division of the Eleventh
! Corps and the Rustcbuk army. Now, if
/ the Rustchuk army is marched to the west
against Plevno, then the Turkish army of
Rustchuk is let loose on the Russian COM
| munications to Tirnova. One cannot
avoid the conclusion that the advance over
| the Balkans is seriously compromised.
| The Russian strait is SO bad that the scat
tered detaclments have been called up
/ from out Of Romania, and the Romanian
| division, commanded by Gen. Manu-, which
! crossed a day OF two ago at Nikopolis, has
| been called up to the line of the Osman
| river. An alde-de-camp of the Grand Duke
! Nicholas was present at the battle, and at
once started for TirnOva with the evil It'd
| ings. We are just quitting this bivouac
and falling back Oh Bulgareni with all
speed, leaving the Bulgarian villages to the
! tender lnercies of the Turks. AS close I
learn that on our left Gen. Skobeloff was
very severely handled, having lost 800 men
out Of his single infantry battalion
The ''Daily News - correspondent with
Prince schackosky's force, telegraphing
from Simnitza under date of Aug, 1, gives
an account of the retreat. He says:
1.-THE road from Poredin to Bulgareni
was numbered with broken and retreating
troops wholly destitute of order, officers
without soldiers, soldiers without officers,
without cohesion, and mostly without
arms. At the narrow bridge near Bulgar-
eni there was wild confusion and d COM
plete block; tumbrils ambulance wagons,
provision wagons, officers, caleches, led
horses, and carts filled with wounded, all
were damned in indescribable chaos
There had been wounded all along the road,
but the bulk Of the wounded began little
way beyond Bulgaria, and extended in I'M
broken line for seven miles along the road
to Sistova. They we're mostly carried in
OK carts, several cases in ambulances, and
large numbers of the wounded had tramp
ed the whole way from the battlefield, and
were already entering Sistova at O'Clock
yesterday evening. They must have walk
ed forty miles in twenty-four hours.
wounded as they were. Nearly all these
wounded, however, consisted OF men who
had somehow managed to walk out of the
battle. The bad cases were mostly left
where the fell.
The staff officer, with whose estimate I
am inclined to agree, thinks the whole
force lest between six and seven thousand
men in killed and wounded. brigade of
the Thirty-second Division has suffered
the most heavily. Besides the terrible loss
of man, it sacrificed the Imperial banner
of one of its regiments,