‘Russo-Turkish War, 1877. Operations in Asia.’ [‎51r] (35/42)

105
«r s s , ‘ Wrteritf r ,™ th * “—* * 1 .
to stop desertion caused U men^lf’ n V ! n f e ?' ded ° n strin S ent measures
and at the same tfme del.Xl t°l f ° r th,S offence when 011 guard,
cowardice in the battle of the 4 th. eral officer3 > including a Bimbasbi, for
Boyim "in^o "jfn* 0t tlle Russians advanced in force from the Deve-
affeTa su pr ^The'o he™ 1 ,! , defendi ^. ''oping no donbt to
feint only onThe works on the south Tr% mtend \ d a ' , P arent ^ make a
”;tK f c S 7 ‘" '"“i' 1 ";' “r”
Thp m i -f i i Vas 1 )US 1 0n an( i attack the works on the Ton Dao-h
in fro^rome Medjhth“rrurtLT rted ^ theT ^ kishou % ia l P'^ets
s^saK«^ss»srr^
garnson of the lunette, penetrated by the salient and unprotected fforo-e and
captured the work' together with a battalion of Mustaphiz— located m a hWL
house or defensible barrack, situated to the right of it-with little or no relist-
at i’ ^ ^ 00r ^ < escaping, however, conveyed intellio-ence to “Canitan”
Mohammed I asha in fort Azizieh, of how things stood, and the valiant Prussian
immediately determined to retake the work at all co^tl By sol mis^ke on
the part of the Russians the party that had succeeded in this brilliant but
t fTTTi " a a n ft q v te unsupported, and dawn was just breakino- when
it was attacked by 2 battalions of Turks, under the “ Capitan ” and nearlv
every man that belonged to the party either killed or taken prisoner Accord^
did not reach t f ““‘t’ th<! - r ,0St their wa ^ 0 ' vi ng the darkness and
storminVnt ? t them > bnt the fact remains the same, the
h an 7i? if'Y .''■us destroyed for want of support. Had the latter been at
p‘ •’ !s admitted on call sides that Erzeroum must have fallen Of the
founTu^nd ^t ^ C ^ tmed the r lunette ’ u P™ rd * of 300 were killed in and
ZX ^ l ? » ken P r ? soners ^ of whom > however, only 14 were saved alive
the r enrlv P a S e f [ tl0ns ;" The ^^sians tried, hut too late, to follow up
the Inn ia S Tf S and b f ou ? ht forward the remainder of the column against
pv! 11 thG Turk ? held their though suffering great lost and
entually the Russians retired, followed for some distance by the Turks.
ie loss on the Turkish side was heavy. Of the battalion holding the
lunette numbering some 820 men, only 230 could be found on the following
THp w remainder having it is supposed either been killed or taken prisoners t
• e t ? tal loss of the Turks is not, however, known. That of the Russians is
given m an official report as 32 killed and 600 wounded, but, as thev left 287
corpses in the Medjidieh lunette alone, this figure is evidently much below the
1 he feigned attack on the south of the town was met by a heavy artillery
and musketry fire from call the Turkish works near, which are described as beino-
soon in a general blaze, firing on imaginary assaulting columns in the darkness
and at daylight the column which had advanced in this direction retired
Trough the Adbul-Rahman-Ghazi defile to the mountains, followed shortly
afterwards to the Deve-Boyun by the column that had failed to support the real
attack. I he lurks, elated by their success, now followed in pursuit for some
distance and inflicted, it is said, considerable loss on the retiring Russians
ihe latter, however, made a stand near the pass, and the Turks retired to their
works.
On the 10 th a skirmish took place between the outposts near the Deve-
1 oyun, leading to no results except adding to the killed and wounded on either
side, and again on the 11 th another engagement of a similar nature took place,
hut on a larger scale. On the morning of the 10 th the Russians sent a bag of
*■ It is stated by the lurks that a Russian Engineer Officer who had formerly been employed
as a dragoman to the Russian consulate in Erzeroum led the storming party. He was killed and
plans of the works were found in his possession.
f lids battalion was threatened with the severest penalties by the Muchir, for their careless
ness; it was found, however that there were too tew left to punish, and their offence was
condoned.