The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-01-12
The Humanity Of the Russians In Bull
garia.

|
military Correspondence Of the London Times.l
do say that the Russian army was
exceptionally humane when compared
with other armies that / have seen in
the field, and, perhaps, less than any
other deserves 10 be branded as cruel.
On the march from the Danube towards
1irnova, when the village of Batak was
occupied by the Dragon Brigade of the
Duke Eugene of Leuchtenberg, some
shots were fred from house at Rus
sian soldiers and officers walking in the
street. The men who did the deed were
taken captive, treated with clemency
and Kindness, and sent next day to the
rear to be judged by military law.
Every day armed men were captured in
civil dress and brought to headquarters
for examination. With one accord
they put the strange and suggestive
question. "What death are we to die ~
| to an>audience which, half amused, half
indignant, always replied: "Wc are
Christians, and don't kill prisoners.
Do you take us for Turksw At Tirnova
there remained few Turks, who were
treated with special kindness, and told
that protection would be extended to
them and all that might come in. The
soldiers were not even quartered upon
the inhabitants, and during the many
hours that elapsed before an orderly
government was set up in the town,
there was not only no cruelty, but no
parade of conquest. From the villages
around came mass of frightened Turk
ish men, women and children, whom
the Russians received and fed because
they had fled from the Bulgarian peas
ants. OF this Bulgarian cruelty | will
speak hereafter. AT present, let us talk
only of the Russians.
At Kezanlik very few Cossacks en-
tered some of the Turkish houses and
asked for money, which was given to
them; but complaints were made at
once to the authorities, and prompt
end was put to all such Irregularities. |
could never trace single act of bar
barity on the part of the Russians.
Yet men were not ashamed to come to
me with such trivial complaints as that
q Cossack had snatched off a fez in the
streets. | should certainly have known
of any really cruel excuses had they
occurred, just as / did know Of such ex
cesses on the part of the Bulgarians.
On the day when the Shipka Pass was
taken by the troops of General Gourko,
there was to be seen n strange spectacle.
Within a couple of hundred yards were
two groups of men; on this side Turks,
on that Russians. The Turks were pris-
oners, guarded with all care, but treated
with mercy, and almost tenderness.
They were being supplied with food and
water. Those Of them who were
wounded were under the hand of Rus
sian surgeons, who were dressing the
wounds with every care. And there
were surgeons enough for the task, be-
cause they had no Russian wounded to
attend to- Not one Every man who
had fallen under the fire Of the Osmanli
the day before, when the attack had
been repulsed, lay in that other group,
headless and hideously mangled. Their
living bodies had been subjected to tor
ture and mutilation Of the most insult
ing kind. Their comrades, men of the
same race, and even of the same bril-
gade, looked on the awful spectacle,
turned away, and with mingled wrath
and grief in their hearts washed the
wounds of the men who had done that
terrible deed. This is no hearsay tale
! saw it, and the scene was depicted by
French and Spanish officers who had ar
rived that day, too late to see the gal
liant fighting of the Russian tirailleurs,
but not too late to record their terrible
fate or the grand forbearance OF their
comrades. Yet at that time and since
the favorite expression in England has
been that with regard to cruelty it
was "six Of one and half dozen of the
other" Englishmen love fair play, and
their recognition of this quality. OF
mercy in the Russian character is only
question of time.
/ might quote instance upon instance
of Russian kindness and mercy, might
describe in detail how the prisoners who,
in great numbers, delivered themselves
up to the Cossacks, and were brought,
without hurt or insult, to Kezanlik,
were fed exactly like the Russian sol
diers, and treated with honor; how the
Turkish wounded bad a hospital to
themselves, under their own doctors
better found and cleaner than that of
the Russians in the monastery. But
surely sufficient has been said to prove
to all who will listen to the truth that
savagery is not characteristic OF the
army which has invaded Turkey. Yet,
lest any should imagine that the Russian
soldier became less careful to show
mercy as time went on south OF the
Balkans, it may be well to remind them
that during the very last fight, when
Gourko defeated Reouf Pasha after q
severe fight, the tirailleurs, finding, as
the struggle swayed backwards and for
wards in the wood, that all their
wounded comrades who fell into the
hands of the Turks were treated as those
others had been above Shipka, began to
bayonet such of their enemy as they
caught, without heed to whether they re,
sisted or not, but were sternly checked
by their officers, who said: leave
their punishment to God" The ex-
preston had a meaning to them-for
the Russian soldier is a religions animal
and the tirailleurs obeyed.