The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1908-07-31
Plevna and Port Arthur.

The death of Osman Pasha, whose
heroic defense of Plevna during the
/ Turco- Russian war gained for him
his place in history, served moment
arily to recall the memory of that
half-forgotten siege and justifies a
rather interesting comparison, The
victorious Pasha" held the Rus
SLAMS out of Plevna not quite five
months, beating off repeated attacks
When all hope OF relief had passed
/ he gathered his troops for last eff
! fort and hurled them at his besiegers
attempting to cut his way through
the investing lines. Though greatly
outnumbered, the Turks carried the
first Russian line, penetrated the sec
Ond, and fought for hours between
| the second and third Finally their
ammunition gave out, they were
forced back to their defenses, and
Osman Pasha was compelled to sur
render on the Russian terms Yet
his Sultan paid him signal honOrs,
and the Russian Czar, Alexander, in
recognition Of his gallant defense, re
turned him his sword
Stoessel, succeeding to command
at Port Arthur, found a deplorable
lack of preparedness and disorganiza-
ton. Alexieff, Russia's evil genius
in the East, had been recalled. The
tragic death of Makaroff, who replac-
ed him and was blown up with the
Petropavlovsk, had weakened the
morale of the defending forces. The
new commander found an army i'll
organized, an army staff honey
combed with intrigue He was set
upon by braver and more resource
full foe than had hemmed the Turk
Where Osman Pasha commanded
troops trained to implicit obedience,
Injured to hardship and imbued with
fanatical courage, Stoessel had to
deal with intriguing subordinates and
soldiers of far inferior calibre. Yet
he held Port Arthur longer than the
victorious Pasha" defended Plevna,
finally capitulating only when all
hope of relief had been dissipated and
the salient points of his defeuses
were in the hands of the japanese.
And where the Turkish commander
earned honor and advancement,
though his defense was Unsuccessful,
| humiliation from the descendant of
the very Czar who had paid honor to
the valor of a defeated enemy.
Osman Pasha may have been the
| better soldier of the two, though it
would be hard to make a just ccm-
! parison between the conduct of de-
| fenses made under such widely diff
/ fering conditions. Stoessel was ac-
| cused by certain of his subordinates
| of personal cowardice. No such
charge was ever laid at the door of
the Turk But the Russian bayed at
| Port Arthur nevertheless held stub
| bornly to his post and made the Jap
anese pay dearly for its capture. If
relief had been possible, the Russian
/ forces outside were given ample time
and opportunity TO raise the siege,
aud the after-event has shown that
a prolongation of resistance would
| have been useless. The conclusion
| seems to be that Stoessel suffered,
not for his own faults, but for the
neglect and incompetence of the Rus
sian bureaucracy, which plunged
the nation into an unpopular war,
was hopelessly beaten and sought to
shoulder off its own responsibility
for the tragedy upon some scape-
goat. The role was forced upon the
unfortunate defender of Port Arthur.
| New Orleans Times-Democrat.