River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-01-17
Incidents Of the Siege of PIeyna.


0Skobeleff S wound was not dangerous,
but would have been were it not that on
both occasions when he was struck he
was wearing thick double sheepskin
coat, which turned the rifle ball and pre-
vented the fragment of shell doing more
than rip the flesh. Skobeleff rode away
to visit the Gar, and I, having break
tasted with his staff, sailed out with its
chief, Col Keroupat Kline, to view the
positions so gallantly taken and so obsti
nately defended on the night of the 9th
and morning of the 10th. As | scram-
bled knee-deep in mud up the steep sides
of the "Monte Vert" l 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 / had a glimpse
at corner of the Turkish position, but as
it was dangerous work to lift even for a
moment ones head above the cover of the
pit, no view could be got worth describ-
ing. Still, what did witness and will
endeavor to tell you of was one OF those
little episodes ofwar which strike home its
horrors to the heart more deeply than a
days wholesale slaughter. From the
Turkish lines stole out five men, crouch
ing, 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,
thinking themselves safe from Russian
ken, they would stop as though to see
who of them would go on first, and then
GO on again, all Of them together.
Their object was evidently to gain a
corn-fieid about $50 yards from the spot
where Keroupat Kline and | 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 corn-ield the Russians
had their rifle pits; ii was all over in less
time than it takes to write it. AS the five
on hand 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 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, aud brought in prisoner. lie
told us that hunger had compelled some
fifty facing us in the Turkish trenches
to draw lots of five as to who should go
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 already
mentioned, little detail of war occurred
which, though of no importance in itself,
serves to mark the character of war, and
brings out its sufferings, and the callous-
ness to the fate of others, which it must
of necessity engender. even in the kindest
ofdispositions.
a Young, good looking sub-lieutenant
of some twenty years or so presented him.
self with a military salute before our
breakfast ta',le, holding in his hand his
coat-tail riddled with bullet holes, and ex-
planned that as junior artillery officer OF
his battle he had been ordered to climb a
| tree to direct and mark the fire on new
reconstructed redoubt thrown up by the
Turks and out of sight from the
ground level; that he had been up there
two hours, the latter part OF which he had
been the target of some four Turk
ish sharpshooters, who were gradually inn
proving their practice, and he thought
that he had had enough of it, and begged
to be relieved. Everybody laughed as
the Colonel. chief of the staff, ordered him
back again 10 his post to remain until he
fell or was called down. And 50 laugh
ed too in chorus, not quite understanding,
for the moL.ent what the matter was, :
of life, and of death, he gave me as he
took himself off to obey, an ut tn Brute
look which shall not forget.