Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1877-12-04
PLETNA.
Scenes Inside and Out.

II
route which Il has ever been my lot to travel.
IL was essential that the expedition which car
ried food and ammunition to Osmsgn Pasha's
HOO Toops !; should move with al possible speed
or SIX days OF the march converted the cOun-
Try INTO a vast swamp, and made the roads
almost impossible. The cold during the night
time was severe. and the miseries of travel.
even to those who were well provided for il.
were very considerable The Bulgarian arab
ajees, who were urged on night and day TO.
wards the beleagured town, were supplied
with no rations. Such food as they had they
owed 10 their own ingenuity and dishonesty.
When ingenuity failed or dishonesty was de-
tected the supplies broke down, and
MEN DIED OF FAMINE BY THE WAY.
Day after day and night after night the mis-
cradle procession toiled along. through mud,
and cold, and rain, until at every halting place
the bullocks died of exhaustion by hundreds.
Those hating places were far apart and the
halts were brief. The WORKOUT beasts, re-
leased for little while from the collar. strayed
into the Swampy fields and lay down there in
huddled groups and died. The whole road
looked like an extended Slaughter-house, for
the Bulgarans always found time to skin the
dead beasts and to open the bodies for the sake
of the entrails. 1t is not easy for Imagination
to do justice to the details of the Marcia
leaden sky; monotOnouS and heavy rain a
fiat and dreary country wrapped in mist, a
miserable banks OF IL the bodies of unburied
men and the stripped carcaSSes of innumera-
BILE beasts. As we neared the close of our
Journey we found evidences of engagements
with the enemy. Scattered at intervals along
the road side were a score or two of dead
Turkish SoldierS-unsghtly objects like the
rest. 1t was natural that Plevna itself should
be the scene of the greatest number of deaths
OF men and beasts from this dismal procession
OF Bulgarian arabaS.
NEITHER MEN NOR BEASTS WERE BURIED.
They lay about the envrons of the town just
as they had Stiffened into death.
j, and the party 10 which had attached my
self, came into Plevna in rear of the first and
10 och M n IN ..f
of an invalid at the time and was a little pet
ted by the doctors. Among other comforts
they gave share in post cart, and as that
SpringleSS and unwedly box on wheels went
splaShing monOtOnOusy through the rain. my
travelling companions would dash up on horse
back, all cleaning and steaming with wet and
warmth To call attention TO this and that spec
tacle on the sides of the road. First we stopped
while DIR. Mackellar looked at the body of
Bulgarian driver whose throat was clean cut
from ear to ear, and who lay there now face
upwards In the dreary rain. Next we stayed
while Capt. MOriSet pointed out the evidences
which surrounded the stark-naked body of
another Bulgarian. Broken sticks lay near
the body, and one stick lay across il, and the
whole PROSTATE figure was lhickly marked
with bruises. We paused again to look at an
other star -naked corpse, also that of Bulga-
rian. This man had been
STRIPPED AND STONED TO DEATH.
The missiles lay thickly about him, and one
stone rested where il fell i'm the open and pas
siye left hand. There was no easy possibility
of mistake about the nationality to which these
murdered men had belonged. Though they
were stripped and all signs of costume We're
carried away, they were to be identified at once
by the long plaitS of hair they w0re,-a fashion
utterly repulsive to the turk. and never adopt
ed by him. These three men lay i'm space of
about two miles, and about three hours dis
lance from the town.
REVIEW OF THE POSITIONS
OF Pleyna leaves in the mind no surprise at
the bloody nature of the contests which have
ragged about them. The great redoubt on the
t.l1 taIx
nabe, though knew while looking at it that
the Russians had already once wrested it from
the Turks. AT what fearful cost they did so
has long since been known. and the probabili-
ties of a second attempt do not seem to be
great. The height on which it stands is con-
frOnted by another hill of similar cOnfOrma-
ton, and troops advancing upon 1t must neces-
sarily be exposed upon the slopes and in the
valley. The superiority of the Turkish arms i'm
respect both of range and accuracy has been
SO often demonstrated that it is not worth
while to dwell upon it here; but even were the
conditions in that respect equal. the assailanis
of the position would fight at extraordinary
and ruinOuS odds. North and west the Turks
have also great advantage of Site Every.
where the earthwOrks are eXcelently cOnStruc-
ted. The men have made good hutS for their
own winter quarters and bear the hardShipS
OF their fortune remarkably well. The troops
quartered in the town appear neither so cheer
full nor so aforementioned as those i'm the
camp. During the rainy weather their aspect
was
DIsTREssINGLY AFFECT
as they wandered aimessly about the streets
The look of the town, with It's closely shattered
shops and its streets knee-deep in mud. and its
aimless, listless crowds is fororn enough.
Things are much more cheerful in the camp
and in the tabiers, where there is danger to be
encountered and work to be done. The Rus
slams have crept in so close in one of these
places that a man might throw a cricket ball
from the Turkish works into theirs The
keenest watch is kept on both sides, and the
Turkish soldiers are accustomed to draw"
the enemy by setting feZ Oh the end of stick
and raising it a little above the parapet The
exposure of a second draws a storm of bullets
and, if the fez should be hit, the cheerful fell
lows chuekle over it as though it were the rich
this redOubt with very great precision from
Russian fort at considerable distance. The
construction Of the earthwOrk is as nearly per-
feet as il can he, and these shells do wonder
fully little harm. 1t would be difficult to i'm
prove in Turkish engineering as exemplified
at Pleyna. Not only are the positions chosen
made the best of; but all the posts are selected
heights to the south Of the town which would
he tempting to a man Of less military genius
than Osman Pasha. They remain unfOrtiied,
and they are wisely left so, although casual
examination would seem to indicate their
value. People grow
VERY INDIFFERENT TO DANGER
when danger becomes common, and the men
shells that familiarity has at last bred con
tempt which Is not quite consistent with safety.
1t is somewhat remarkable i'm riding over the
field, TO notice the large number of shells
which still lie there uneXplOded. Ii is advisa-
bic to give them wide berth even now, since
the tread OF a horses hOOf might awaken the
mischieyOus prOpensities which lie asleep
within them. But the possible harmfulness of
these uneXplOded shells is a thing outside Turk
lsh and Bulgarian understanding, and acct
dents are continually happening. Ride where
one may about Plevna, the thunderstorm of
war has Scared the earth. The turf is absO-
lutely peck marked with shells, and there are
places i'll which bullets lie so thick that thew
might almost pass for exaggerated hailstOnes
The neglect OF sanitary precautions and of
decent consideration for the dead is at once
painful and shocking. The spectacle of dead
bodies stripped absolutely naked and left TO
rot is not creditable To a camp which is other
wise well ordered. i have not seen anybody
in the near neighbOrhOOd of the camp which
could identify as that Of Turk: but the
unburied eOrpses of Russian soldiers are by
no means uncommon, even in places where
their burial would be at once safe and easy
i had no especial taste for being left alone
to winter in Plevna, and 1 came down with
the party 1 had accompanied thither. The
way had the
OLD SPECTACLES OF SORROW
to show us, in addition TO a good many that
were new. We saw more dead bodies of Bull
garians than We had noticed Oh the upward
route, and, our southwark march being more
lAI haee..