The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-23
RUSSIA'S
MILITARY
LEADERS
Continued from page II

Continued from page II
looked even more like god of wal
fresh from the scene of carnage.
HE was bleeding from half dozen
wounds, but he stood as steady as. q
rock when he saiuted Skobeleff. The
latter suggested that he had better go
into the hospital, but he CURLY replied;
No, General. There is work to be
done.
Il heard afterwards that skobeleff
and Kouropatkin had fought side by
size throughout that bloody day. and
had slain the Turks literally by dozens.
Their exploits formed the theme of
many a story told beside the campfires
of both armies throughout the cam
paign.'
Capt. Kouropatkin. who was the
right-hand man of Skobeleff, all
through the Russo-Turkish war, as well
as in the fight at Plevna, is how Gen.
Kouropatkin, the Cars Minister of
War, and the most noted of all the Rus
sian fighting men.
He was trained in a harder school
than most modern Generals, and went
through enough perils to satisfy the
biggest glutton for adventure. After
one of the bloody fights in the Shipka
Pass he was left for dead upon the
field.
All night he lay there, sore wounded
and unconscious. It was in the bitter
cold of a Balkan night, and he might
have frozen to death had he not been
almost entirely covered by the body of
dying Turk, who had fallen across
him after he sank to the ground with
the agony of his wound.
In the morning Kouropatkin recover
ed consciousness, crawled from under
meath the Turk, and made his way
slowly and painfully to the Russian
camp where his comrades received him
as if he were a ghost.
Kouropatkin became the hero of the
Russian army, second only to his great
leader Skobeleff, by his bravery and
fine generalship at the capture of Geek
Tepe in 1892
When the Russians, baked in their
dreams of winning Constantinople by
the Berlin Congress, were making their
great swoop through Central Asia TO
the gates of Herat, Lord Salisbury tod
the British public not to be alarmed fo1
the safety of India.
'sThey will not be able to conquer
the Turcomans, he declared. The
Turcoman barrier will last for our life
time at least"
Gen. Tergoukasoff, the Russian COM
mander in Central Asia, disagreed with
Lord Salisbury He told the Car that
the Turcomans might be conquered by
three years hard fighting.
THAT is too long" said the Car.
He recalled Tergoukasof and sent
Skobeleff to command the troops. Sko-'
belief promptly secured Kouropatkin
for his chief lieutenant, and together
they performed in a few weeks the
task which the British Premier had
declared would take a lifetime.
Cock Tepe, the great stronghold of
the Turcomans, was carried by assault
after a months siege. The brunt of
the attack fell upon Kouropatkin, who
commanded body Of light troops from
Turkestan.
1t was a great victory, but it sullied
the reputation of both the Russian
leaders. They ordered their troops to
give no quarter to the Turcomans of
either sex, and all the horrors usual
ANGn SUCH OIOtIS dIe 5ANCA NOAS pei .
petrated.
Spectators say that even when the
Turcomans fed in a disorderly mob
across the desert, men, women and
children mingled together, no mercy
was shown to them. Artillery and
cavalry followed in their rear and
moved them down until darkness put
an end to the pursuit.
In that few hours chase 1000 pur-
suing Russians slaughtered 5000 fugi-
tives, while over six thousand We're
massacred in the fortified camp of
Cock Tepe.
The whole country was covered with
corpses." said Samuel Gourovitch. who
acted as interpreter in the Russian
| forces. THE morning after the battle
| they lay in rows like freshly mown
hay. as they had been swept down by
| the mitrailleurs and artillery.
Hundreds of women were sabred
| and 1 myself saw babies bayoneted or
| slashed to pieces. The troops. mad
| with the lust of fighting, We're allowed
70 plumber and kill for three days after
| the assault
This is a single great blot on Gen.
| Kouropatkin's record. 1t is true that
he was not in supreme command, but