The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-01-03
Incidents of the Siege Of plevna.

Skobeleff's wound was not dangerous,
but would have. been were it not on
both occasions when he was struck he
was wearing thick double sheepskin
coat, which turned the rife ball and
prevented the fragment of shell doing
more than rip the flesh. Skobelef rode
away to visit the Gar, and l, having
breakfasted with his staff, sailed out
with its Chief, Colonel Keroupat Kline,
to view the positions so gallantly Ia
ken and SO obstinately defended on the
night of the 9th and morning of the
10th. AS I scrambled knee-deep in
mud up the steep sides of the Monte
Vert" / could not wonder to myself
how, under the pitiless fire of the Turk
Ssh regulars, the Russians had succeeded
at all in making good their hold on the
summit. Arriving on the crest had a
glimpse at a corner of the Turkish po-
sition, 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. describing. Still, what 1 did wit
ness and will endeavor to tell you of,
was one of those little episodes of war
which strike home its terrors to the
heart more deeply than a days whole
sale slaughter. From the Turkish lines
stole out five men, crouching, creeping
and running over the broken ground be-
tween the lines toward field of maize,'
distant come eight hundred 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 should go on first,
and then went on again all of them to-
gether. Their object evidently was to
gain a cornfeld about hundred and
fifty yards from the spot where Kerou-
pat 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 cornfeld the Russians had
their riAe-pits it was all over in less
time than it takes to writel 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 prisoner. He told us that hunger
had compelled some fifty facing us
within the Turkish trenches to draw lots
of five as to who should 90 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 thesearlier part of the day whilst
was breAkfasting with the staff, as al
ready ID entioned, little detail of war
occurred which, though of no import-1
ance in itself, serves to mark the charac-
ter of war, and brings out its sufferingsl
and the callousness to the fate of others
which it must of necessity engender
even in the kindest of dispositions.
A young, good looking gsub-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 bui1et-holes,
and explained that as Junior artillery
officer of his battery he had been or
dered to climb tree to direct and mark
the fire on a newly-coEstructed 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 Turkish sharpshooteIs, who
were gradually improving their practice,
and he thought he had enough Of it and
begged to be relieved. Everybody
laughed as the Colonel Chief of the
staff ordered him back again to his post,
to remain until he fell or was called
down. And as laughed, too, in chorus,
not quite understanding for the mo-
ment what the matter was-of life and
of death, he gave nae as he took himself
off to obey, an GET tn, Brute" look
that l 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 l was wrapped. An hour
later and the whole country had
changed SO as to be no longer recogniza-
BILE, thefew drops having increased to a
steady downpour of driving rain and
sleet, turning the hollows Of the roads
into very lakes, and the sides of the
hills into miry-sodden mud, in which
the lightest treading horse sank to the
bpaae y