Year: 1877

The Fragments Of a Defeated Armv-A
Graphic Pen-picture of the Horrors Of
the Battlefield.


WAR Correspondence London Daily News.


It was the evening of the battle of
Pleyna. The sun was going down be-
hind the smOke-mantled heights, i'm a
glow of lurid crimson. The dusk was
fast settling on one Of the bloodiest bat
tleields of the cenmry-closng inround
the batteries whose guns were still fir
ing, round detached parties of Russian
soldiers who were doggedly maintaining
the fight against the swarms Of Turks
who formed a ring around them, firing
fierceIy into their midst, round the dead
and the wounded lying thick on the
subbles, on the grassy slopes, in the
hollows among the maize plants and
oak copses, round the knots of wound
ed who had crawled for cover to the lee
side Of the grain stacks on the fields,
and who lay there in the unspeakable
agony of waiting for the inevitable
doom which they knew too well was to
befall them, round the groups Of miscre-
ants rampng about the battlefield in
tent on wreaking that doom on the de-
fenseless wounded, and stopping ever
and anon to perpehate ONE barbanty
Prince Schackoskoy and his staff stood
on the summit of the ridge above the
village of RadiSovO, which was cram
med with wounded men. The fate Of
the battle had hung in the scalefor some
time, but now all hope Of success had
cone. There was no reserve among us
in the acknowledgment that the attack
had been failure, all the concern now
was to do what was possible toward dl-
minshing the results of that failure.
There was no conversation; men
hearts were too heavy to talk. We sat
about on the knoll, gazing down into


THE PANDEMONIUM BELOW.


The General, alone and apart, paced up
and down an open space in the oak
copse; gloom settled on his face. All
around us the air was heavy with the
low moaning of the wounded who, hay-
ing limped or been aided thus far out OF
the fight, had cast themselves down to
gain little relief from the agony OF
motion. There was not even water for
them, for Radsovo is all but waterleSs
village, and what water trickled in
tiny rill from the fountain behind the
village was struggled for eagerly by the
parched and fevered wounded who
crowded around it, cOveting with a
longing, the agony of which the reader
can never know, few drops Of the
precious fluid


The darkness closed in around us, and
the enemy seemed bent on following the
example of the darkness. We had been
on this ridge foS a long time'bey6nd the
range of the enemy's batteries; but now
these were advanced, and we were once
more under fire. Through the dark
ness we could see the flashes of the can
non-shots-they must be back now in
the position on the knoll below the pO-
sition where four hours ago the Russian
soldiers had charged home with the
bayOnet, and whence two hours ago the
Russian cannon had been firing. A sec
ond more, and nearer and nearer came
the whistle of the shells, with a swiftly
gradual crescendO into a scream as they
sped over us and crashed down into the
village in the valley behind us; and yet
nearer there was the flashing of the
musketry fire in the darkness; one could
watch the streaks of flame fore-shOrten-
ed down in the valley there, and nerves
tried by a long day of foodlessness, eX-
citement, fatigue, and exposure to sun,
and the chances of the battlefield,
quivered under the prolonged tension
of endurance, as the Jhrobbing hum of
the bullet sped through or over the
struggling group. No man dared to say
to that


STERN, LOWERING CHIEF,


eating his heart there in the bitterness
of his disappointment, that it was a
bootless tempting of fortune to linger
longer on this exposed spot, nor did any
man care to quit for the sake of greater
safety the companionship which had en-
dured throughout the day. So we lin
gered on till our senses became dulled,
and till some dropped OIL INTO Slumoer,
regardless of the scream of the shells
and the hum of the bullets. 1t was a
humane object which so long detained
the General in a position so exposed
There was no force available to line the
height and cover to ever so little extent
the wounded lyingon and behind it from
the Bashi-Bazouks, who too certainly
were prowling in the vicinity, and ever
coming nearer and nearer. An attempt
had, indeed, been made to get together
a detachment of infantry for this pur-
pose, and a buger, at the Generals
order, persistently sounded the assem-
bly,, bur the result was merely to gather
a handful of stragglers from half a dozen
different regiments; and although but a
company was wanted, that trivial
Stronoth pould not he collected so thp