Alouf Pasha with three battalions had been in the town for some time, and Osman Pasha had sent us on in advance to assist him in holding Plevna until the main body could arrive.
When I rode into Plevna at eleven o'clock in the morning of July 18, I went straight to a khan and had a Turkish bath, after which I sallied out to survey the town.
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST BATTLE OF PLEVNA.
The Town of Plevna—A Natural Stronghold—Le Petit Village—The Gypsies' Warning—Dr. Robert—An Expatriated Bacchanalian—We attend a Banquet—The First Battle of Plevna—An Artillery Duel—Surgical Aid to the Wounded—A Gunner's Death—The Zacuska—Arranging the Hospitals—Disposition of the Turkish Line of Defence—Commencement of the Battle—Fighting on the Janik Bair—Arrival of the Wounded—Sufferings in the Arabas—Variety in Gunshot Wounds—Some Extraordinary Recoveries—Turkish Fortitude—Objections to Alcohol—And to Amputation—Berdan v. Krenke Bullets—A Man shot through the Brain—Rapid Cure—An Erratic Rifle-ball—Remarkable Example of Vitality—A Missile in the Heart of a Living Man—My Second Hospital—A Turkish Colonel's Wound—Insufficient Beds—Mangled Wretches lying on the Floor—Two Russians wounded—They both die—The Shambles in the Mosque—Our Open-air Operating Theatre—Calling the Faithful to Prayer.
The town of Plevna is built in the valley of the Tutchenitza, a small affluent of the Vid, about three miles from the meeting of the two, and just south of the confluence of the former with the Grivitza, which gave its name to the celebrated Grivitza redoubt. Before the war Plevna contained about seventeen thousand inhabitants, eight mosques, and two Christian churches. All round the angle formed by the confluence of the Grivitza and Tutchenitza are rolling hills, rising to their highest on the north near the villages of Opanetz, Bukova, and Grivitza. To the east one could see a number of small isolated hills, forming natural mamelons; and on the south a huge natural rampart defends the town. On the left bank of the Tutchenitza rise a succession of knolls, which were called by the Russians the "Green Hills"; and here some of the heaviest of the fighting afterwards took place.
When we of the advance guard arrived at Plevna on the morning of July 18, the uncut maize stood high on the hill-slopes round the town, and in places even a cavalry trooper might be hidden. The Green Hills were covered with vineyards, and there was plenty of timber, consisting mostly of oaks and beeches, which speedily vanished as the campaign progressed, until the hills were desolate in their absolute bareness. When Osman Pasha arrived, the fortifications consisted of a single blockhouse, between the Vid and the Tutchenitza on the Sofia road, of the kind which one saw all along the Servian and Albanian frontiers. The position, however, offered splendid opportunities for defence, enclosed as it was on three sides by hills, which afforded admirable sites for defensive works, hiding the interior and allowing reserves to be concentrated out of sight ready to be directed on any threatened point. The deep ravines which break up the country and for the most part converge on Plevna rendered the lateral communication of the attacking force very difficult, so that the tactical contact, which is so important to the success of a combined attack on two points, was scarcely possible. It was easy to see that the ground was difficult for the movements of cavalry and guns; and the maize, vineyards, and scrub combined to prevent the rapid movement even of infantry.
In a short but highly suggestive sketch entitled Le Petit Village, Zola describes a modest little hamlet, nestling in a valley, remote from the busy world outside, and screened by a curtain of closely planted poplars from the eyes of curious strangers. It is watered by a small gurgling stream, along the banks of which are built the simple cottages of the country folk. To-day the very existence of the hamlet is unknown, even to the dwellers in the neighbouring towns. To-morrow the curtain of poplars has been rent by shot and shell, the little river runs red with blood, and the name of "Woerth" is blazoned in letters of fire upon the page of history. So has it been with Plevna. The little town had never been heard of before the campaign of 1877-1878, and it is not even mentioned in Von Moltke's sketch of the defensive advantages of Bulgaria. Now its name is known to every schoolboy, and the mere mention of it makes the pulse beat faster wherever pure patriotism and unflinching devotion to duty in the face of fearful suffering are recognized and honoured.