The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-03-20
Some Startling Results Of the Late
War,

Some Startling Results Of the Late
War.
WAR Is always q terrible calamity,
but the world has as yet gained only q
very partial idea of the results of the
late war in Turkey. 1t was unlike any
European war of the present century.
Although it was complicated by foreign
invasion it was essentially civil war.
1t was also & religious war. 1t was at
times a war of determination. We know
something in America of civil war al
though, strictly speaking, our last war
was of that character only in certain
localities, as in Eastern Tennessee and
Missouri; but happily we know nothing
as yet of religious civil war-where
each town and village is divided against
itself, and where neighbors, separated
for centuries by religious differences,
regard each other as infidels worthy of
death.
The war commenced in Herzegovina
in July, 1875. 1t came to an end NOM
inally in March, 1873, but in fact is still
in progress in certain localities. Rus
sia took part in it after April, 1877, for
eleven months. There were few inn
portant battles, but the war has proved
to be the most fatal of late years to the
armies engaged. The number of SOL
diers who have perished cannot be less
than million. The Russians acknowl-
edge a loss of over 100000 in Europe
and Asia. The Roumanians, Servians
and Montenegrins lost at least sc, 600.
The Austrians not less than $4,000.
There are, of course, no statistics in re-
orlt 20 .,h h,,t rof,,l
investigation as to the number drafted
and the present force of the army makes
it certain that the number exceeds 600,-
600. The present condition of the
Turkish army is such that if there is no
improvement there will soon be very
little left of it. There is a large force
about twenty miles from Constantinople
engaged in building Notifications. They
are living in tents, with so little cloth
ing that many are unable to leave their
tents at all, with so little food that there
have been days when their whole ra-
ton consisted of half a biscuit. If such
is the condition of troops under the
command of Baker Pasha, an English
man, within twenty miles of Constanti-
nople what must be their fate in other
places under Turkish officers?
1t is sad to think of the sacrifice of a
million brave men, but this is by no
means the most startling result of this
war. 1t has been accompanied by
massacres and by movements of popu-
lation which remind us of DE Quincey's 8
famous story of the Flight of a Tartar
Tribe" and which 1 think have no
parallel in modern times.
This movement commenced in Bos-
mia and Herzegovina in 1875, when the
greater part of the Christian popula-
ton fed to Austrian territory. Some
went to Servia and Montenegro. The
war from the outset was one of plunder,
outrage and massacre, but the Mussul-
man population, comprising most of
the land-holders and supported by the
Turkish army. had every advantage
over the Christian peasantry. Bands
of rebels could maintain themselves in
the mountains, but could do nothing to
defend their homes and families. The
great mass of the people had no choice
but flight or massacre. They fed, and
it is only since the Austrian occupation
that they have been able to return.
During their exile at least half have
died Of cold, hunger and fever, al
though the Austrian Government has
expended large sums of money in aid
ing them. We may estimate the loss
of life at 200, 900 souls in these two
Provinces. Add to this the fear.
anguish, torture and distress of every
kind which have been suffered by the
whole population and we have a picture
OF misery to move the hardest heart.
In the spring of 1876 the Turkish
Government foresaw Servian war and
ordered the Bulgarian massacres, to
terrorize the Province and insure their
rne or communication. About 12,OOO
we're massacred and large number of
towns destroyed. This was followed
by the flight of a large part of the
Christian population of the district to
the mountains and large cities, but un-
fortunately most of them were after
ward induced to return. The war with
Servia and Montenegro depopulated the
frontier districts, but only for time.
When the Russians crossed the Danube
the tables were turned and the Moslem
population ef. the Dobrudscha and of
Northern Bulgaria fled with precipi-
fancy, men, women and children, to
take refuge in the Turkish fortified
towns. At Rustchuck, Shumla and
Varna, for months, they crowded every
house and even lived IN the streets.
The typhus ragged among them, and
great numbers died of want. Some
came to Constantinople. Many, es-
pecially the Circassians, were trans
ported to Asia Minor. The remnant
have just now returned to their homes.
At the same time Suleiman Pasha,
under orders from Constantinople, un-
dertook to exterminate the Christian
population of Eastern Roumelia. Great
numbers were massacred, but most of
the population fled over the Balkans,
suffering untold misery and anguish;
but their fight was in summer, and
their suffering less than that of the
great Mohammedan exodus which took
place when the Russians crossed the
Balkans. 1t was mid-winter, and q
season of unusual severity, but as the
Russians approached q wild panic
seized upon the whole Moslem popula-
ton. They seem to have felt that q
terrible retribution was about to fall
upon them for all the wrong which they
had done to the Christians, and, with
out waiting to see q Russian soldier or
hear q Russian gun, they fled.
I think not less than a million
of souls thus left their homes,
some going toward Macedonia, but
the majority seeking to reach Constan-
tinople. They carried with them what
they could and plundered as they went;
but their sufferings were terrible be-
yond description. Multitudes froze and
sta, we'd to death by the road side. Epi-
denies broke out among them and
swept away hundreds. In some cases
the Russians overlook them. Then
they threw their children away or