The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-07-04
One Against Eight.

There IS well-known story of the find
ing upon the battlefield of Inkerman OF
the corpses of an English guardsman and
grenadier, lying breast to breast, each
with his bayonet driven to the very shank
in his opponents body. Such proof of
llardihood might have satisfied Leonidas
himself; but still more memorable ex-
ample of the qualities which characterize
the Russian linesman occurred during
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 in
formant:
The town of Kitab, lies in deep, mar
row gully, surrounded on every side bv
steep hills, SO that we could only bring
small force to bear upon any one point;
and the wall, though built Of dried mud.
in the Asiatic fashion, was quite high,
and strong enough to be tough morsel
tor any storming party. However. it
was decided to try it by escalade, for.
you see, we had beaten these fellows 50
often that we undervalued them for oncel
and was with the detachment that was
told off to do it. But the whole thing
was tissue of blunders from beginning
to end, as bad as the assault of Kars I'M
der Mouravieff, in 1866, which was nv
first taste of fighting. First and foremost,
the signal forlorn-hope to advance. was
giveL, by some horrid mistake, before the
pports we're ready to follow up: so for
ward we went, under smashing fire, flor
the Shekri.) without a man to back us,
And then when we got to the wall, 10
and behold our ladders were too short.
Just as it happened at Kars; there we were
being shot down like cartridges, without
a chance of doing anything. Our men
behaved splendidly, Il must say; some tried
to splice the ladders together, while others
attempted to scramble up over each
others shoulders, with the enemy pepper
ing right down among them as hard as
they could pelt. But it was all of no use.
They fell one upon another, just like fish
out of a net: and our Colonel was hit in
the side, and I 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 recall, but our men were
so mad with the repulse, and the losses,
and what not, that they wouldn't retire
even when they were ordered, and Just
when the enemy seeing how few we were,
came rushing out upon us in body.
Now, it happened that in my company
there were two young fellows who were
like second edition of the ''Corsican
Brothers"-regular inseparables in fact,
and one Of them having got. through the
fight with what he called slight wound,
q should have thought it pretty sharp
one myself, was just turning to retire,
when he saw his comrade lying on the
ground, helpless, with 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 him at once. Thereupon the rough
fellow laid his wounded comrade on the
ground as gently as mother, and stand
ing astride of him, dubbed his musket
and fought the whole eight of them single
handed; and when the supports came
up they found one Shekri-Senzian living
on the ground 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 hero, he
looked at us quite surprised and said,
"What was to do father! l couldn't
forsake my cOmrade.