The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-30

firing westward from an excellent artillery posi-
81 cannot understand why the whole OF tn,
reserve brigade was not put Into the fight be
tho Turks were going to show also through tn,
bypass to the westward, as a Greek patrol ha6
the previous evening come across an Ottoman
Gusgunari. northwest Of Pharsala. II may bt
freely admitted that once tho Turks won theiI
way to the skyline almost simultaneously nj
two points this movement Of tho reserve would
have been too late. But there was q full hour
curing : v which A. 1t - might have aSs turned srfendt the 3, seal" y;
right across the meadows between. the
Enipeps Tor rather tho spur, which hides II
while one Of it's battnlions held on where IL was,
and did very good work from behind low earth
works in checking the Turkish advance on the
west side OF the long, struggling. town. Up to
this time, about 4 o'clock, tho fighting had not
been what an Englishman can call hard. Both
sides observed very respectful distances, az
though they did not desire TO have any lnvidious
comparisons drawn, between the temper Of their
derstand, like their tactics, made In Germany.
There was an exception. Tho Foreign Legion,
two hours against a whole Turkish battalion.
Capt. Birch was wounded in the thigh, and had
four other Englishmen wounded, with, curionsly
enough, four Frenchmen and four Italians. Tho
o'clock, andthen found that tho order had been
In due course. Indeed, the Greek rear. guards
have been well managed throughout. but one
s %Gald s hfS0 d lIaeS . tS 5 in is S%Gins she Of m ssS
into o. d in the fight. 1 confess. that in this
! have been hugely disappointed, The stafi,
to me to be always both Industrious and alert,
but the battalion and company officers do not
Greek soldier is brave enough, there is practi-
cally no discipline In or out of a fight, and IRE
abssnPee' the or order nEa of the h II GSniBP sins precisely SS ,fs
British maxim, Fire low and 9re SLOW The
Turks. Both sides. in fact, wasted ammunition
beyond belief by firing at where they had seen
"just before j O'clock the Duke of Sparta and
some of his staff left Pharsala, being cheered by
q few men who were struggling out Of the town
stragglers had been reformed two or three miles
til the appointed minute. Meanwhile a great
tactical mistake was made by the Greeks. Tho
m Mssf fr road I'M hi t6Sn runs bafsrs e # , the h inatb bT tSr miles
a narrow pass. with, however. a good and only
too well metalled road. There are, moreover. two
No attempt was made by. the Greeks either to
conceal the evacuation till nightfall or to pre-
which for the first mile or two are one. Instead.
a battery was placed at tho very mouth OF the
western pass so as to direct the attention of the
Turks to the fact that this was the road for the
main column, and also for the prodigious guam
tity of luggage which. in the absence Of prop
country vehicle which can be found, or on mule,
horse and donkey back.
III course the TURKS at once put a battery on
to lombard the mouth of the pass and the Greek
battery there. 1t might have wrecked the de-
parting column but for the fact that it was the
threw abundance of common shell. but not one
of them did a particle Of damage or even went
greek Gree e'i bntte srs Which TGdo ' Was setu shS } RSsS t 1F the the
Turkish fire on to the highway, being Itself
about thirty yards therefrom. However, the
Turks wasted all this ammunition, and / pro-
fess that l have seen women throw stones better
than these Turkish gunners threw Shells"
The concluding paragraph of the above extract
furnishes an interesting object lesson In the
methods of the new journalism" as applied to
war correspondence. The writer OF the most
lurid dispatches which have como from the
front throughout the war has been the CORE
spondent who represents tho Reuter- News
Agency with Edhem Pasha's army. He is de-
scribed in the reports sent out by the Chicago
Associated Press as its special correspondent.
The most impressive despatch which he has
written in the whole campaign perhaps was his
description of the incident above noted by MI.
Williams. The editor of the Chronicle is I'M
kind enough to reprint this new" journalists
account Of the Turkish bombardment of the re-
treating Greeks. as follows:
AZ soon as the Greeks abandoned the bills
and worked terrible havoc in their ranks. Tn
scene at this time was at once terrible and mag
niicent. From all sides the retreating Greeks
bridge. which afforded the sole passage across
the river. I could see the mass of humanity
Ing and flowing like a rapidly rising torrent in
Fat sssdS y men shsli after fhsiI t1en III t5s
through my glass that they were directed with
marvellous precision, and that the shrapnel, as
this sustained artillery fire. which must have
a large section OF the Greek army.
Then the editor of the Chronicle remarka with
This is exceeding precise and striking; The
through his feldgiass the awful slaughter Of the
Greek troops; In fact, he was moved. to deep
nifty. But is it the fact that anything of the sort
! So far as we know, the only English
man actually with the retreating Greeks at the
point in question was our special war corre-
one Of the most experienced in the
world, and a man whose name, is a guarantee of
accurate observation, We publish his account
American readers Of war literature from this
source will be able to estimate its value from
Capt. Cullum Birch, the commander of the
section of tho Greek Foreign Legion in
the Thessalian campaign, is lying in hospital at
Athens with a bullet in his thigh. received dur.
ing the battle which preceded the retreat from
take the following from his nara
tive Of experiences as given to a correspondent
of the Manchester Guardian:
Another day the monotony Of picket life was
relieved by the capture of a spy. who was hanged
by the heels to a tree by the Evzoni in order to
induce him to give information. 1t was a dis
sight, but ultimately the man gave In,
and the Evzoni officers heard from him that two
peasants in the neighborhood. by whom he was
were in continual communication
with Edhem Pasha. He himself had been to
that day to find out the numbers of the
Greek army. He also informed us that fifteen
Eyzoni who had been wounded In an engagement
with the Turks had been chained together and
burned alive.
"on Wednesday. May s. 1 received orders
from Capt Varatassi to take out all my availa-
BILE men-seventeen, to be accurate-to make a
reconnaissance to the northeast. Or making
the summit of the chain of hills running east
and west some Evzoni, from a post to our right
at Tekes. were sent to inform me that they had
seen O movement of Turkish troops about ten
miles to the north. Presently we found that
this movement. was nothing less than the adj
vance of the whole Turkish army from Larissa
artillery. infantry. and cavalry-bY three sepa-
rate roads. 1t was q really imposing shit Ashley
came nearer they opened into, attack formation, |
from the Greek battery at Tekes. It was an
swered by a battery behind the village of
Bakratsi, to our north, and later by a battery to
our left front. From 1ekes the ninth battalion |