The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-02-14
General Won TOdleben.

General 0 Todleben, the adviser of
the commander-in chief of the allied
forces before Plevna, and virtually the
director of the operations against Osman
Pasha, was born at Mittau, May 30, 1918.
In 1882, he entered the engineer school
in st. Petersburg, leaving it in 1888 with
the commission of sub-lieutenant. Dur
ing the early part of his service he was
attached to the army of the Caucasus,
and distinguished himself at the siege of
several fortified places. During the Cri-
mean war he in the first instance con
Quoted the siege operations against Stills
tria, and afterwards became celebrated
for his obstinate and skillful defence of
Sebastopol. AS a reward for his services
On that occasion, he was appointed gen.
er~al-adjutant to the Emperor Alexander
H., and received the Order of St. George
and a grant of money. In 1858 he was
further given the Grand Cross of the
Order of st. Andrew. In 1860, he was
promoted to the rank of lieutenant gen
eral, and appointed director of the engi-
neer department of the ministry of war,
which post he held until, in September
last, he was called to the seat of war to
conduct the siege operations against
Plevna. General Scobeleff, who was pro-
NOTED to be lieutenant-s%e neral on the
18th of September, 1877, is the youngest
officer of that rank in the Russian, or
probably in any army, having been born
in 1915 He received his first commits
sion in 1868 and distinguished himself so
Frequently and S greatly in the cam
paigns of Central Asia that by 1875 he
mad attained to the rank of m~ajor-gen-
eral. Among other achievements, he
rescued the Khan of Khokand, who was
attached TO the Russian cause and whose
subjects had broken out into open revolt,
captured Ferghana, and drove out the
pretender to the throne. Until March,
1877, when he joined the army under the
command of the Grand Duke Nicholas,
General Scobeletf was governor of Fer
ghana, but failed to display any great
administrative ability. On the evening
before the passage of the Danube at Sim
nitza, having been requested by the
grand duke to call for volunteers from
the division of Cossacks under his COM
mand TO swim the river and r%ecOnnoitre
the opposite bank, General Scobeleff him
self plunged into the water, at the head
of a small party of ten men, and success.
fully accomplished the required work
General Gourko is a much older man
than General Scobeletf, having been born
in 1928. In 1916 he was appointed a
cOrnet in the hussar regiment of the
guard. Passing through the staff school,
he was in 1852 promoted to the rank of
captain, and served in that grade through
out the Crimean war in the Dlebitsch
regiment. In 1867, he was appointed
commander of the Emperor's squadron,
and also to a post in the Emperor's suite.
In 1861, he became colonel aud COM
handed a regiment of hussars during the
Polish campaign of 1868. Promoted to
the rank of major-general in 1867, he
commanded the regiment of mounted
grenadiers of the Guard from that date
until 1878, when he succeeded to the
command Of the first brigade of the sec
ond division of cavalry OF the Guard. Ia
1876, he became a lieutenant general,
and October last was placed in command
Fot a force of 1900 infantry, 5000 cav
airy, and twenty-iour guns, all belonging
to the Imperial Guard.