San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-01-12
Incidents of the Siege of Pleyna

but would have Deen, were IT not that
on both occasions when he was struck
he was wearing thick double sheen.
skin coat, which turned the rifle ball
and prevented the fragment of shell do.
ing more than rip the flesh. SkobeleA
rode away to visit the Gar, and I, hav.
ing breakfasted with his staff, sailed
out with its chief Col. Keroupat Kline,
to view the positions so CALAMITY taken
and so costinately defended on the night
of the 9th and morning of the 10th. As
scrambled knee-deep in mud up the
steep sides of the "Monte Vert"
could but wonder to myself how, under
the pitiless fire of the Turkish regulars,
the Russians had succeeded at all in
making good their hold on the summit.
Arriving on the crest I had a glimpse at
corner of the Turkish position, but as
it was dangerous work to lift even for
moment ones head above the cover of
the pit, no view could be got worth de-
scribing. Still, what l did witness, and
will endeavor to tell you of, was one of
those little episodes of war which strike
home its horrors to the heart more deep
ly than a days wholesale slaughter.
From the Turkish lines stole out five
men, crouching, creeping and running
over the broken ground between the
lines toward field of maize, distant
some 800 yards from their starting point.
Their rifles were in their left
hands, and every now and then, think
ing themselves safe from Russian ken,
they would stop as though to see who Of
them should go on first, and then went
on again all of them together. Their
object evidently was to gain cornfield
about a hundred and fifty yards from
the spot where Kereupat Kline and 1
were lying, and gather the standing
ears, then make back with them to feast
on with their comrades in their trenches.
But, alas for them, in this very cornfield
the Russians had their -pits-it was
all over in less time than it takes to
write AS the five on hands and knees
got amid the corn, the Russians leaped
from the trenches in which they were
hid, and, in moment four Turks were
quivering under their bayonets. The
fifth had presence of mind enough to
fling from him his rifle, and such was
his agony of fear and the strength lent
by it, that the piece flew some fifty
yards. He was pushed down with the
butt end of rifle and brought in a priS-
oner. He told us that hunger had COM
PEELED some fifty, facing us within the
Turkish trenches, to draw lots of five as
to who should 60 out and gather from
the field in their front bags full of ears
of Indian corn, and to these unlucky
five the chance had fallen.
In the earlier part of the day, whilst
was breakfasting with the staff, as al
ready mentioned, little detail of war
occurred, which, though of no Importance
within itself, serves to mark the charac-
ter of war, and brings out its suflerings
and the callousness to the fate of Others
which it must of necessity engender even
in the kinnest of dispositions.
A young, good-looking sub-lieutenant
of some twenty years or so presented
himself with a military salute before
our breakfast table, holding in his hand
his coat-tail riddled with bullet-holes,
and explained that as junior artillery
officer of his battery he had been order
ed to climb tree 20 direct and mark the
fire on newly constructed redoubt
thrown up by the Turks and out OF
sight of the ground level, that he had
been up there two hours; the latter part
of which he had been the target of some
four Turkish sharpsLooters, who were
gradually improving their practice,
and he thought that he had
had enough of it and begged to be re-
lieved. Every body laughed as the Col
onel, Chief of staff, ordered him back
again to his post, to remain until he
fell or was called down. And as l
laughed too, in chorus, not quite under
for the moment what ,he mat
ter was-of life and of death-he gave
me as he took himself off to obey an
4" Et tn Brute" look that / shall not
forget. As we rode back few drops
of rain began to fall, and biting cold
wind from the east to make itself felt
even through the warm furs in which
was wrapped. An hour later and the
whole country had changed so as to be
no longer recognizable, the few drops
having increased to steady dovnpour