The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-01-03
The Humanity of the Russians in Bull
garia.
military Correspondence of

/ 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 to be branded as cruel.
On the march from the Danube towards
Tirnova, when the village of Batak was
occupied by the Dragon Brigade of the |
Duke Eugene of Leuchtenberg, some |
shots were fired 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 p
to an audience which, half amused, half
indignant, always replied: We are
Christians, and don't kill prisoners.
Do you take us for Turks? ?' 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 fed from the Bulgarian peas
ants. OF this Bulgarian cruelty l 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. L
could never trace a 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
Cossack had snatched off .fez in the
streets. I should certainly have known
of any really cruel excesses had they
occurred, Just as l 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 a strange spectacle.
Within 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 bri
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 theil
comrades Yet at that time and since
r the favorite expression in England ha;
: been that with regard to cruelty il
t was six of one and half dozenof the
, other" Englishmen love fair play, ano
f their recognition of this quality O.
e mercy in the Russian character is only
e question of time.
r / might quote instance upon instance
of Russian kindness and mercy, nigh
describe in detail how the prisoners who
in great numbers, delivered themselve
up to the Cossacks, and were brought
without hurt or insult, to Kezanlik
r were fed exactly like the Russian sol
= diers, and treated with honor; how tn
o. Turkish wounded had a hospital +
a themselves, under their own doctors
e better found and cleaner than that O
l. the Russians in the monastery. Blu
O surely sufficient has been said to prov
!. to all who will listen to the truth tina
e savagery is not a characteristic of tn
r army which has invaded Turkey. Yet
It lest any should imagine that the Russia
e soldier became less careful to sho'
e mercy as time went on south of th
d Balkans, it may be well to remind theI
IS that during the very last fight, whe
a Gourko defeated Reouf Pasha after
a, severe fight, the tirailleurs, finding, &
g the struggle swayed backwards and fo
e wards in the wood, that all thei
n wounded comrades who fell into th
D. hands of the Turks were treated as thos
c. others had been above Shipka, began
r bayonet such of their enemy as the
ID caught, withoutheed to whether they r
rs sisted or not, but were sternly checke
le by their officers, who said: "Lea,
e. their punishment to God" The e.
N preston had a meaning to them-ft