Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-09-20
THE HERALD.
A Muscovite Brave.

There is a well known story of tn,
finding upon the battlefield of mixer
man of corpses of an English guards
man and Russian grenadier, lying
breast TO breast, each with his bay
onet driven to the very shank in hi;
opponents body. Such o proof Of
hardihood might have satisfied
Leonidas himself; but still more
memorable example of the qualities
which characterize the Russian lines
man occurred during the almost IN.
known seige of the fortified town of
Kitab, in Central Asia. The story
is Dest told in the words Of the Rus
sian officer who related it to our in
fOrmant:
The town Of KItab lies in deep,
narrow gully, surrounded on every
side by steep hills, so we could only
bring a small force to bear upon any
one point; and the wall, though built
of mud, in the Asiatie fashion, was
strong enough to be tough morseI
fer any storming party. However,
it was determined to try it by escal-
ade { for, you see, we had beaten
these fellows so often that we UNDER
valued them for oDce), and | was
with the detachment that was told
eff to do it. But the whole thing
WAS a tissue of blunders from begin.
ming to cnd-as bad as the assault OF
Kars under Mouravieff IN 1855, which
was my first taste of fighting. First
and foremost, tho signal for the for
lOra hope to advance, by some hor-
rid mistake, was given before the
supports were ready to follow up; sc
forward we went, under a smashing
fire, (for the Shekri.Sebzians can
shoot and no mistake) without
man to back US. And then, when
we got to the wall, 10 and be.
hold our ladders were too short.
just as it happesed at Kors, and there
we were being shot down like par
tridges without chance of doing
anything. Our men behaved splen
didly, must say, some tried to
splice the ladders together, while
others attempted to scramble up
over each others shoulders, with
the enemy peppering right down
among them a. hard as they could
pelt. But it was all of no use. They
fell one upon another, Just like fisb
out Of net, and our colonel was bit
in the side and | got bullet in my
shoulder, and the rest dropped one
By one till there was hardly an Of
ficer left. At last we heard the sig
nal of recall, but our men were so
mad with the repulse and the losses
and what not they wouldn't even
retire when they were ordered, and
just then the enemy seeing how few
we were, came rushing out upon us
in a body.
Now it happened that in my COM
pany were two young fellows who
were like q second edition of the
"Corsican Brothers," regular insep-
arabIes.in fact, and one of them hav-
ing got through the fight with what
he called slight wound Ct should
have thought it pretty sharp one
MYSELF was just turning to retire,
when he saw his comrade lying on
the ground helpless, with u bal,
through his leg. In an instant he.
had him on bis shoulder and was
carrying him away, when eight of
the enemy came runnidg upon them
at once. Thereupon the rough fell
low laid his wounded friend on the
ground as gently as mother, and
standing 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-Sebzian lying with his skull
smashed like an egg-shell, and the
Russian, with five sword wounds 10
him. keeping the seven other rascals
at bay. But when we praised him
and called him hero be looked at
us quito surprised like and said,
"Whst was to do, father? | could
not forsake my comrade !"