The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03
THE FIRST BoMBARDMENT.
USED BY MOHANMED TO REDUCE
CONsTANTINOPLE


Warfare at the Time-HOv the Re
JnarhnbIe seige Was Conducted.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Siege operations are as old as the world
itself, or at beast as the warfare of the
world, but bombardment is regarded as a
disHnctively modern method of war. How
ever, bombardment is older than 4 general
ly imagined and was used a early as the
fourteenth century. 1t was Mohammed
who first used cannoading to secure the
fan Of a besieged city when in 1853 he cap
tured Constantinople
Mohammed II had resolved upon the
capture of the city. That had long been
the dream and ambition of the Turk, as
II is of the Russian to-day. This splen-
did city was then the capital of the East
ern Empire and the metropolis of the East
ern Church; It's commanding site was girt
with formidable walls; it's population, even
in those days of decline, numbered more
than hundred thousand. But It was not
the force within that Mohammed feared.
He knew that it was little better than a
demoralized mob, and he was able to
bring against it an army of fully 10000
almost exactly the number President Nc
Kinley Is to-day calling out to crush
SPAIN, including some of the finest and
ierccst troops ever mustered. To beat
down those massive walls was the real
problem.
With this in view Mohammed had given
great attention 10 the new science of ar
tillery-then in its loud-mouthed infancy,
far more blatant than effective. Bonn
bards a sort of primitive mortar. were
chiefly in vogue; short, thimble shaped af
fairs, having a vide, flaring bore like
blunderbuss, used for tossing big bould-
ers at a high angle, with awe-lnspring de-
donations, but small damage-eXcept to the
gunners in the event of bursting. This
latter was no infrequent calamity, espec-
tally in the beginning, when bOmbards
were made of iron rods laid together like
barrel slaves and strongly hoped with
rings Of the same metal. But this style
had happily gone out of fashion, and SEN
uine cannon were now cast in bronze.
With this improved artillery Mohammed
was already better supplied than any other
war lord In the world; but he was still
restless and uneasy, fearful that the solid
ity of the city walls might balk even gun
powder
There had come to his camp a refugee,
poor gun-caster named Urban, who,
despite his mastery skill had been fair
ly starved out of Christendom. This man
he called before him. can you cast me
a cannon big enough to break the walls
Of Constantinople?" he demanded.
Il can cast you cannon that would
have preached the walls of Babylon" re-
Piled the artist.
And he kept his word Within three
months the Turk had the most tremendous
piece of ordnance the world had
ever seen. The bore was twelve
palms that is, three feet across;
a hogshead could have been thrus
down the muzzle. The weight of the pro-
jectile-though it was stone, not iron
was at least coo pounds; twice coo, some
assert. When the trial shot was fired
which was not until the whole army had
been cautioned, to avoid a panlc-the ex-
ploson shook the air for ten miles around,
and the stone, after travelling about
mile, buried itself in the earth to a depth
of six feet. In short, 1t made bigger up
roar than our most powerful modern guns,
with less than one-tenth the range and
with insignificant penetration; but it was
a marvel in those days. To move 1t thirty
wagons were chained together, dragged by
a caravan of sixty oxen, with a process
sion of 200 men on each side with ropes
and poles to keep il steady. To haul 1t TO
the scene of action, $50 miles away, re-
quired nearly two months. Besides this
overgrown giant, two other cannon almost
as huge had been made ready.
Constantinople. situated at the point of
a triangular peninsula, itself has the form
of a triangle, each side being about four
miles in length. The side toward the sea
was too strong for assault, and the side
toward the harbor could not be reached,
for a chain, which the Moslem fleet YVES
unable to break, was stretched across the
entrance. The attack was, therefore, be-
gun against the side facing inland. This
was protected by a double wall and
trench 100 feet deep. Here Mohammed
brought to bear his three monster guns
and a multitude of smaller batteries ana
opened fire with roar of artillery that
would have out-thundered Jove himself II
he had brought his stormy ordnance into
competition. It's mere noise could shake
down walls, the city would have gone the
way of Jericho at the tenth blast; but
the balls of the small guns thundered
harmlessly against the masonry, and at
first even the main battery proved singu-
larly ineffective. In fact, 1t was not long
before the mighty gun that was to have
blown down the walls Of Babylon became
overheated and burst which is the more
surprising because with the greatest dill
eence it was found impossible to load and
fire Il more than seven times a day. The
ingeniuos Urban, however saved the rest
by the device of pouring oil into the muz-
zles after each discharge.
Apparently. also ii was by his advice
that the Turkish engineers began to direct
their aim against the two opposite angles
of each projecting bastion; and by this
means they were finally able TO make some
impression. Then the Mohammedan host
sureed forward 20 the trench and endeav-
ored TO fill It's yawning chasm by rolling
in tree trunks, barrels, bundles of brush
wood and all manner Of debris SO head
long was the rush that many were forced
over the edge and fell to be buried forever
under the accommodating mass. But the de-
Tense was obstinate and skillful The gun
ners on the wal, whose every shot was
deadly in so dense a throng made such
havoc that work was slow, and what was
thrown In by day was perseVeringly re-
moved each night
Then The besiegers, dospairins of success
above ground, adopted a new set of tactics
and attempted 60 undermine the walls; bu.
their tunnels were so persistentiy counter
mined by the besieged that this, too,
proved futile. The very obvious scheme of
charging their mines with gunpowder and
blowing up the defense seemed never to
have entered the heads of these duh