Year: 1877

| LONDON, Sept. z.


A correspondent who was with the
Russian army at the battle of Lovati
thus describes the attack on the las
| Turkish redoUbt, which he witnessed
from the top of Mount Rous. He says
Mount Rous was within easy cannon
shot of the position attacked. The at
tacking force was compelled to cross Q
plain half mile wide before reaching
the base of the hill on which the redoub
was constructed, under the musketry fire
of Turkish infantry securely ensconceC
behind their parapets.


Along the road and on the left hand OF
the Osma were several low ridges OF
earth high enough to cover man in a
creeping posture, and these places OF
refuge we're resting places in the deadly
race for the bluff. A cemetery through
which the Russians also had to pass had
number of tall flagstones standing up.
right, and these were taken advantage of
by the advancing soldiers. The attack.
ing force was commanded by Gen. Raj.
niendareff.


At $50 o'clock the order to attack was
given and the men rushed across the val.
ley amid perfect hail-storm of bullets.
In few minutes the ground was dotted
with dead and wounded Russians, and
the survivors were resting under little
ridges of the road by the Osma. The
men advanced in open order at rush
and the Turks kept up steady stream
of fire. There was not the slightest
break in the rain of bullets, and yet il
was wonderful to see how small portion
of them took effect. Sometimes single
soldier would run across the white space
between the river and bluff. l could see
where every bullet hit around him by the
dust which it threw up, and yet he gen
orally got across unhurt.


There were minutes when no Russian
was under fire, and yet the Turks never
stopped. 1t appears they were lying
down in the trenches firing over the par.
apets without looking. The Russians
declare they never saw even a head
above the bank. By three o'clock a con.
siderable force had collected under the
bluff and commenced working round to
the angle of the redoubt looking up the
Plevna road, while another party, to dis.
tract attention from the first, crept up the
face of the bluff and opened scattering
fire on the face of the redoubt toward
Lovatz.


Away to the northward of Plevna road
the Russian force now makes its appear.
ance with battery of artillery to cut of
the Turkish retreat toward Plevna. An
other attacking column is now seen ad-
vancing up the river Osma from our ex.
treme right. They are scattered in open
order and steal along unobserved by the
Turks to reinforce the party under the
northern end of the bluff. All this time
the Turks keep up an incessant rife fire,
but the guns on the hills at the back of
the redoubt only fire occasionally, as our
troops cannot be seen from that position.
The Russian artillery thunder away very
rapidly, and two batteries are now ad-
vanced down the road nearly to the edge
of the city. The Russians gathered un-
der the bluff now make rush forward
and secure possession of some Turkish
trenches in front of the eastern face of
the redoubt, within a hundred yards of
the ditch.


1t is now four o'clock in the afternoon
and the decisive moment approaches.
The men along the Lovatz front of the
work open fire and draw the bulk of the
Turkish fire in their direction, when sud-
denly about fifty Russians make rush
upon the eastern face of the redoubt and
approach within fifty yards of the ditch.
They were compelled to retire by tre-
mendous Turkish fire. After twenty
minutes of desultory fire the real attack
is made up the slope facing the eastern
side of the redoubt. The Russians rush
up in open order, keeping a steady
stream of reinforcements following the
advance. A perfect deluge of shells is
poured upon the redoubt from our bat
teries as the men rush up the slope, while
the Turkish infantry fire is incessant, and
if it were we'll directed every Russian
would have been shot down. As it is
many fell. Our artillery ceases firing as
our men leap into the bitches and clam
Der up the parapet, while another column
rushes along the Lovatz face of the re-
doubt to clear the advance trenches
The Turks in the trenches fly to the west
ward, firing as they go and falling under
the Russian fire. In the redoubt the
garrison rush to the gorge in the western
face of the work. There is a traverse
covering this gorge and the Turks are
jammed between the traverse and the
western parapet. In few seconds the
firing ceases, the day is ours, and the
Turks are in full retreat to the westward
pursued by the Cossacks.


Immediately after the redoubt was
taken the correspondent entered it. The
road and adjacent plain were thickly
dotted with dead and wounded. Up the
slope where the Russians had charged
the redoubt was surprised to find SC
| few dead, the Turkish fire having prin.
cipally gone too high. On the side of the
redoubt were corpses of Turks and Rus.
slams thickly strewing the ground, but al
the western end where the Turks had
been jammed in, in their efforts to escape
a space of fsrty feet by twenty was COW
| cred with Turkish dead and wounded to
the depth of five feet. The living and
dead were lying on each other in dense
mass.


Around this Moslem pile was fringe
of dead Russians, showing that there had
been afearful struggle on this fatal space
Russian soldiers were standing upon this
mass of humanity. watched them
working manfully to separate the living
from the dead. In half an hour they
had made scarcely any impression upon
that fearful pile. The road was strewr
with Turks, with here and there Rus
sian. Some Turks had been shot first
and then repeatedly bayoneted.


The correspondent estimates the Rus
sian loss at 1000. The masses were moi
exposed as at Plevna. Skill was sub
stituted for brute force.


Flames and Death.