The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-10

campaign.
In each, it is true, their Jul band ac-
! companied every Prusslan and Saxon
regiment, while on the march, but once
the fighting had begu tine musicians
We're converted into ambulance men pro-
tenn, or attached themselves to the
bearer companies. Accordingly we have
to wait for the Russo Turkish war of
1877 before finding military bands again
bringing their influence to bear as an
incentive to discipline and heroispl.
Skobeleff was the general who utilized
| them with this object, and the occa-
sion arose out of one of those bloody
fights around Plevna, when the flower
Of the Russian infantry had been driven
from their parallels with acri5le
slaughter. To retrieve the fortunes OF
the day appeared hopeless for the men
We're thoroughly cowed and hung back
when rallied by the officers AT ais cri-
sis the celebrated general remem oercd
the bands of the Imperial Guard stand
ing idle in the rear, and these were
hastily summoned. Soon the strains Of
the Russian national anthem hurst
forth above the rattle of the Turkish
musketry and the scream of their shrap-
mel, simultaneously the spirit II the dis
heartened assailants underwent d start
ling transformation. They plucllad up
courage again, responded cheerfully to
the word of command and finally sue
ceeded in hurting the enemy back from
the position he had won. In fact, such
was the remarkable nature of The meta
morphosis from dispirited to spirited
troops that in all subsequent assaults,
where they could enliven with their
strains, National hymns and marches
formed the principal feature of the r! o.
gramme, but on several occasions the
firing line fought their way across hull
let swept zones with the haunting re-
frain Of Strauss waltz ringing in their
ears.
The short though sanguinary cam
paign between Bulgaria and SerVia in
the autumn of 1885 witnessed the last
instance of the employment of bands
during active hostilities; and here, too,
the example set Skoboleff was pushed
to truly startling extreme. The third
day of the battle of Slivnica found tile
Servians apparently impregnably post
ed on the steep hills in the neighborhood
of Dragoman. Nothing daunted, how
ever, the brave Bulgarians formed for
frontan attack, and General Bendereif
issued the extraordinary order that
every battalion of infantry would be not
only accompanied but headed by It's
band playing the "Djumi Martha. the
national air Accordingly the charging
battalions toiled up the ascent in this
formation, the bands never casing play
ing for one instant. A German officer
attached to the staff of Prince Alexan~
der of Battenberg in recording his eX-
periences, states that the progress of
each unit could be easily followed by
the crescendo and dimuendo Of the mu-
sic. In the most exposed places the
air became thin and ragged, and the
rattle of the bullets on the brass instru
ments was plainly audible from the val
ley below Then, when the crest was
reached, and the Servians broke and
fled, the ':Djumi Martha" swelled
forth again in victorious volume.
Strange to relate, though, the casual
ties among the musicians were nothing
like as serious as one would have ex-
peoted.
Since 1857, when the Queens Regula-
tons. have laid down that bandsmcn
are to be effective as soldiers to be
perfectly drilled and to be liable to serve
In the ranks in any emergency, the
bands of British regiments have dis
,arded all musical responsibilities when
accompanying their units on active SER
vice. But there Is one compare lively
recent instance-it is the last on record
of a British military band finding
themselves in action with their instru-
nents about them. At the present
uncture the engagement at Bronkhorst !
spruit, on December 90, $780, possesses
peculiar significance, and the details of
hat treacherously planned disaster are,
HAS! too familiar to need recaptula-
ion Therefore it only concerns this |
oaper to point out that the band of the /
imbuscaded Oath Regiment, under Col
mel Anstruther, was in it's usual place |
1t the head of the column and was
abruptly stopped playing by the terrible
yolley which so unexpectedly commence |
ID the first Boer war. The musicians, |
indeed, suffered heavily in this one sided |
lffair, for their instruments and COM
)arative helplessness rendered them an
'asy target-a circumstance of which |
he Beers took every advantage as the
asualty returns will testify.-Pall Mall
Gazette. =,