bans are first seen cautiously peeping above the ish population, who are, literally speaking, a summit of the ravines, or through the brush- nation of warriors, renders them at once more wood by which the bridle path is beset; for a formidable as individuals, and less so in masses, few seconds they disappear, when suddenly a than the soldier of western Europe, who has no rush is heard, the clatter of sabres and hoofs such individual prowess to fall back upon, and rings on all sides, and these redoubtable horse- trusts only to his steadiness in the ranks, and men, with deafening shouts, precipitate them-standing shoulder to shoulder with his comrades. selves from all quarters on the unfortunate battalion which has advanced into the toils. The glorious victory of Bajazet over the Veterani, French chivalry at Varna, in 1453, 34: Valantini, Guerre and of the Grand Vizier over Peter the Great, on the Pruth, in 1711, was mainly gained by the aid of the incomparable horse.1

contre les Tures, 12, 13.

Turks in

are now lost.

But the Osmanlis have lost this great advan46. tage by the results of the wars with The advan- Russia during the last century. By tages of the the successive acquisitions of the this respect Crimea, Oczakow with its territory, and Bessarabia, the Russians have not only got a valuable sea-coast, on which they have built the rising harbor of Odessa, the Dantzic of the Euxine, but they have gained the advantage, inestimable in Eastern war, of having got the nomad tribes on their side-of having arrayed against Asia the forces of Asia itself. Immense has been the influence of this decisive change on the relative positions and fortunes of the great contending powers on the banks of the Danube. The territory thus acquired by Russia, the Scythia of the ancients, is precisely that from whence the clouds of horsemen have issued who have determined so many important events in history -who repelled the invasion of Cyrus-who destroyed the army of Darius-who rolled back the phalanx of Alexander. What the Russians have gained by these important acquisitions the Turks have lost, and this has entirely altered the relative positions of the contending parties. The fate which befel Peter the Great on the Pruth in 1711-that of being starved out in the midst of his armed squares by clouds of light-horse-would now be the inevitable fate of any Turkish army which should advance into the same plains; and, strange to say, in the present (1853) war with the Russians, the principal deficiency which 1, the Turks have experienced is in light

12, 15, 19.

47. In what the

the Turks now consists.

horse.2

If worsted in a serious encounter, the Turks, in their own country, and knowing its by-paths, generally disperse; the Russians, far from their home and kindred, fall back upon their fellowsoldiers, and combat, back to back, to the last man. The Ottoman array, like the Vendeans or Spaniards, dissolves upon defeat, and the late commander of a mighty host finds himself surrounded only by a few attendants. When you have once given the Turks a good beating," said one who knew them well (Prince Cobourg), "you are at ease with them for the whole campaign." But the armed force often reassembles as quickly as it had dissolved, and, again issuing from their homes and their retreats, the undaunted Turks enter a second 1 Valentini, time on the career of glory and plun- 12, 13. der.1

48.

The Turkish armies are little to be apprehended now in pitched battles in the open field, and their strength consists Where are rather in the defense of a woody, the Turks broken, or intricate country, where how strongthe individual courage and skill in est in war? the use of arms which they possess may be brought into play. We read frequently, in the ancient wars of the Ottomans with the Austrians and Russians, of bodies of seventeen, twenty, or twenty-five thousand men defeating a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand Turks; and this would probably still be the fate of a Turkish array, should it venture to meet the disciplined battalions of Europe in the open field. But the case is very different when they come to fight in a broken or woody country. The rolling fire of the Russian square generally, in the plains, repels the fierce charge of the Turkish swarm; but the case is widely different when the Osmanlis are posted on the rocks or in the thickets of the Balkan, where they can at leisure, and comparatively free from danger, take aim at their adversaries. There their cool and practiced eye and steady hand tells with desperate effect upon the hostile columns, and the brave and steady array of the Muscovites often melts away before the deadly 2 Veterani, 74, fire of an unseen but indomitable 80; Valentini, opponent.2 29, 30.

49.

Deprived of the powerful aid of their light horse, the main strength of the Turkish armies is now to be found in the strength of skill with which they manage their arms, the perfection of their mark, It results from the same circumstances, that either with muskets or cannon, and the Turks are the most formidable the facility with which the same men of all enemies in the defense of for- Turkish fortican, from their previous habits of life, discharge tified places. The Turkish system fications, and the duties either of a foot-soldier or cavalier. of fortification and mode of defense mode of de Every Turk is armed-the more easy in circum- is essentially different from those fending them. stances, magnificently so. Most of the better of western Europe. It has few outworks, often class have either a horse, or have been trained none; and scarce any of the appliances which from infancy to the duties of horsemanship. If the genius of Vauban invented to add to the a spahi loses his steed, he throws himself into natural strength of places. There are neither the ranks of the infantry, seizes the first firelock ravelins, nor lunettes, nor covered-ways around he can find, and makes a steady grenadier; if a their fortified places. The town, in the form janizary loses his musket, he mounts the first which the natural circumstances of the ground horse he can seize, and uses his redoubtable has given it, is surrounded by a high and strong cimeter as skillfully as any cavalier in the wall, in front of which lies a deep ditch. A few This thorough command of all the ex- bastions or round towers here and there proercises of war, which is universal in the Turk-ject beyond the general line, and form kind of sa

army.

the Turks.

lient angles, often filled with enormous gabions. | of bearing arms are arrayed in defense of the Along the crest of the parapet is placed a line of gabions, between which are the embrasures, from behind which the besieged fire in perfect security on the besiegers. Along the parapet are also placed, at certain distances, square loopholed blockhouses, built of brick, intended to sweep the ramparts in the event of the breach being mounted, which often occasions a serious loss to the besiegers. They have a way also of stationing musketeers at the bottom of the ditch, who communicate with each other, and effect a retreat, in case of need, by a subterra1 Valentini, neous passage worked out below the ramparts.1

63, 64.

50.

place. A city of 30,000 citizens 51.
will array on its walls 10,000 war- Causes of the
riors, each of whom, trained from obstinate de-
infancy to the use of arms, and fense of forti-
splendidly equipped with his own fied cities by
weapons of defense, forms at once
a valuable soldier. They fight desperately,
because, like the citizens of towns in antiquity,
they have nothing to hope in the event of cap-
ture. The male inhabitants will all be put to
the sword, the young women sold for slaves, or
swept into the Turkish harem; the entire for-
tunes of the inhabitants drawn into the coffers
of the sultan or victorious pacha. The com-
mander himself, if he escape death at the hands
of the assailants, is almost sure to meet it at
those of the sultan. Misfortune is punished in
the same way as misconduct, and no amount
of previous skill or valor in defense, can save
the governor who has lost his fortress from the
bowstring. Thus the Turks in fortified towns
make a resolute defense, for the same reason
that the Russians do in the open field: they
have no hope of safety in flight, their 1 Valentini,
only chance is in standing resolutely 64, 65.
together.1

52.

Turks.

Their mode of defending these fortified towns is as peculiar, and as different from Their mode the European, as the fortifications of defend- themselves. They disquiet theming them. selves little with the enemy's approaches, seldom even fire at the working parties in the trenches, but occasionally amuse themselves with discharging round shot from their guns at single figures in the distance. Even the breaching of the rampart, considered as so serious a matter in ordinary European war, gives them very little uneasiness. Their whole efforts and on such occasions they are Although the Turks, prior to the great change great indeed-are concentrated on the interior made by Sultan Mahmoud in the milidefenses within the rampart, which is chiefly tary organization of the empire, had Russian valued as affording a covering to their con- few regular troops, and none disci- mode of struction. The whole approaches to the interior plined after the European fashion, fighting the of the city are there retrenched in the strongest yet the vast feudal militia they could manner: huge barricades of wood bar the en- at any time call out was extremely formidable, trance into the streets; while at every door, from the perfect arms, and entire command of every window, every aperture, are stationed them, which every member of it possessed, and two or more Turks, armed with their excellent the individual courage by which they were fusils, who, with deadly aim, open a close and animated. The Russians and Austrians, at least sustained fire on their assailants. The house- till the more recent wars, were almost always tops, which are all flat, are crowded with mus- greatly inferior in number; and as so large a keteers, who in like manner rain a shower of proportion of the Turkish armies in those days balls upon the enemy. So great is the effect was cavalry, this disproportion, by enabling of this concentric fire, that in general the head the enemy to surround them, often exposed the of the assaulting column is swept away the mo- Christian forces to the greatest danger, espement it reaches the summit of the trench; for cially as the scene of conflict generally was the the fire is quite incessant, as each Turk has level country on the banks of the Danube. two muskets, and a pair of pistols in his girdle, They were thus driven by necessity to adopt which they aim with practiced skill. If these the tactics which could alone, in the open field, dangers are surmounted, and the assaulting co- enable them to resist such formidable and sulumn succeeds in making its way into the streets perior enemies. This consisted in constantly or gardens within the rampart, a danger not forming square when the moment of decisive less formidable awaits them; for it is instantly action arrives. These squares were generally assailed on all sides by a mass of Turks, with of five or six battalions each, with artillery at their cimeter in their right hand, and their the angles, capable of firing on either side short sword in their left, with which they cut which might be assailed. They advance into at their opponents, and parry their thrusts; and battle drawn up in this form, and the squares in that mortal strife it has been often proved moving forward in the oblique order in echelon; that the European bayonet is no match for the so that the leading square is protected at least Turkish sabre. So deadly are these methods on one side and rear by the fire of those which of defense, that several repelled assaults of ill- follow it. If broken, the square endeavors to fortified Turkish towns have cost more to the form a still smaller body in the same array, and besiegers than the entire reduction of the best-often becomes reduced to knots of a dozen men constructed citadels of Vauban and Cohorn. Witness the unsuccessful assault on Roudschuck in 1810, which cost the besiegers 8000 men; and that of Brahilow in 1828, which was repulsed with the loss of 3000 men killed and wounded.3

2 Hist. of Europe, c. lxix. 79.

3 Valentini, 61, 62.

A very simple cause explains this obstinate defense of fortified cities by the Turks: it is Necessity. The whole male inhabitants capable

-for the troops are all aware that flight is in-
stant death under the sabre of the Osmanlis,
and their only chance of salvation is
in the rolling fire which issues from Valentini,
the sides of their steady squares.2

18, 19.

Notwithstanding the declining military strength of the Turkish empire, it is by no means easy of conquest, for nature has furnished it with a triple line of defense, which it is difficult even for the greatest military skill and

defends

grapes, which, growing amidst beds of roses
on the sunny slopes, and eagerly devoured by
the northern invaders, spread among
1 Valentini,
them the destructive scourge of dys- 38, 39.
entery."*

strength to overcome. The first of these consists in the plains of Wallachia and 53. Moldavia, which, from their physical Triple barrier which conformation and the habits of their inhabitants, oppose great obstacles Constanti- to an invading army. The greater nople. part of the country, the Scythia of the ancients, consists of wide level plains, and which afford comparatively few resources for a considerable army. There are few roads in the country, and such as exist are speedily cut up, and become nearly impracticable by the passage of any large quantities of artillery or carriages over them. The constant wars between the Turks and Russians, of which this country has long been the theatre, has rendered the inhabitants for the most part averse to till-paratively low ranges of hills, which afford a age. They trust in a great degree to the spontaneous productions of the soil and growth of nature, which covers the earth in spring with a luxuriant herbage, and in summer with crops of the richest hay. But in autumn even this resource fails; the long droughts parch the surface of the soil; vegetation is burnt up, huge gaps and crevices appear-and an invading army, the prey of fevers and contagious disorders, finds neither water nor resources in the thirsty soil wherewith to subsist the troops. Hence it is that it has at all times been felt of such importance to pass over this wasted land debatable in spring, when the herbage of the plains might afford subsistence for the horses and herds of cattle which accompanied the army; and that the fate of a campaign is so much dependent upon possession of the coast, and command of the sea, in order Valentini, to insure getting up supplies by

36, 38.

54.

water.1

The second defense of Turkey consists in the line of the Danube, which covers The Danube the whole northern provinces of the as a frontier empire. This noble river, which, stream. when it approaches Belgrade, on the frontiers of Turkey, is already twelve hundred yards broad, flows through the whole of Turkey with a rapid current, which renders the construction of bridges over it always a matter of difficulty, sometimes impossible. It is often intersected by large islands, but they do not facilitate the passage, for the current, broken by rocks, flows round them in foaming surges with extraordinary rapidity. The right bank, which forms the northern boundary of Bulgaria, is in general higher than the left, which limits the plain of Wallachia; and in many places bold rocks or steep banks of clay form, as it were, the natural ramparts of Turkey behind this formidable wet ditch. This barrier, naturally strong, is rendered doubly so by the resources of art and the desolate state of the country. Silistria, Brahilow, Roudschuck, and Widdin, are the chief of the fortresses upon its banks, with the siege of which every war between the Russians and Turks commences, and which are never reduced but after a most obstinate defense, and a dreadful sacrifice of men. The waste of human life in these sieges, which are generally prolonged-to the close of the season by the obstinate valor of the Turks, is much augmented by the unhealthy nature of the country on the banks of the Danube in the autumnal months, and the quantity of VOL IL-B

The last and most important barrier of Constantinople is the BALKAN, which, 55. stretching from east to west the The Balkan. whole breadth of Turkey, presents the very greatest obstacle to any invading army. This celebrated range, the Mount Haemus of antiquity, is far inferior to the Pyrenees, the Alps, or the Caucasus in altitude and ruggedness; but it is superior to either in the difficulties which it opposes to the march of armies. This is often the case with comstronger line of defense than mountains of the greatest elevation. The Alps never prevented the march of the French into Italy; the Caucasus was penetrated by the Russians; even the Himalaya was pierced by the battalions of Britain: but from the hills of Torres-Vedras the arms of Napoleon permanently recoiled; and it required two years of harrassing warfare on the part of England, to expel six thousand naked savages in Kaffirland from the recesses of the Waterkloof. The reason is, that lofty mountain-ranges are always intersected by deep valleys, the crests of which can be surmounted at a comparatively moderate elevation, and with little difficulty; while inferior heights are intersected by gullies and watercourses, and generally covered with forests, brushwood, or thickets, which can only be cut through at an immense expense of time and labor. This is exactly the case with the Balkan, which, running nearly parallel to the line of the Danube at from forty to fifty miles to the south, presents a wooded and intricate ridge about thirty miles broad, which must be crossed before the plains of Roumelia are reached, or Constantinople is approached. It is not in general higher than the Vosges Mountains near Kaiserslautern, the Mont Tonnerre in the Limousin, or the Lammermoors in Scotland; but, nevertheless, it took two centuries of almost ceaseless warfare before the Russians crossed this formidable barrier. The very desolation of the country and benignity of the climate augment its defensible character. It is traversed only by bridle-paths, which, without any regard to a gradual slope, ascend hills and descend gullies inaccessible to chariots or artillery; and where the rocky heights on either side are not covered with forest or brushwood, they are laid out in thick orchards, which op pose almost the same impediment to an advancing army. In their wooded intricacies, the superiority of the Russian tactics and discipline is in a great measure lost: war can no longer be conducted by the action of masses, but comes to depend on individual hardihood and

a stony girdle around the globe-forms a vast | with irresistible violence amidst broken scaurs barrier between the Black Sea and the Caspian. and rugged thickets. But in the interior range inaccessible to mortal foot, alternately glitter- the character of the mountains changes: far ing in a cloudless sun, and enveloped in im- above the traveler's head dark forests clothe penetrable mists, there their shaggy sides; their summits 1 Fonton, start up into a thousand fantastic Guerre des and inaccessible peaks, which repose Russies in icy stillness on the azure firma- dans l'Asie Mineur, i. 3. ment.1

"The palaces of nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned eternity in icy halls

Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls
The avalanche, the thunderbolt of snow,'

have from the earliest times formed the subject of imaginative mythology and fabled terrors to the inhabitants of Europe and Asia. On their shivering summits the fancy of Eschylus made Prometheus expiate his generous self-devotion; in their dark caverns the Argonauts sought the Golden Fleece. The poetry of Persia, the tales of Arabia, make perpetual mention of these awful piles of rock, the abode of genii and magicians, which seemed to them to bound the habitable globe, and form the appropriate scene of punishment for the rebellious spirits. They have been rendered familiar to the childhood of all in the charming tales of Scheherezade; they have, in our own time, been the theatre of deeds of heroism rivaling the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and the triumph of Morgarten. Nor is Sacred History wanting to complete the interest of the mountains which have formed the subject of so many fabled adventures; for on one of their summits the ark rested, and on the sides of Ararat the rainbow shone

60.

barrier.

"Which first spoke peace to man."

carriages traverse this terrific bar-
Few passes accessible to troops or wheel-

rier.

61.

which the great military road of of the passes The principal one, through Description Georgia passes, is that of Vladi- through the

Caucasus.

ed by fortified block-houses at all the stations,
Caucase, or Dariel, which is defend-
and which, at its highest point of elevation at
the mountain of the Holy Cross, is 1329 toises,
about the height of the Great St. Bernard in
or 7974 feet above the level of the sea; being

Switzerland.

summit, forms the Pile Caucasia of the anThe pass, in approaching that cients, and is called by the Persians "The Iron which forms the great Russian line of communiGate." The next in point of importance, and cation to the eastern parts of Georgia, is that which goes by the shore of the Caspian, through the famous Gates of Derbend. This celebrated pass, the Pila Albania of the ancients, is formed by the meeting of a perpendicular precipice, 1400 feet in elevation, the last face of the Caucasus, and the waves of the Caspian. It is called now the "Gates of Derbend," which signifies In a military point of view, the Caucasus narrow passage. The Turks call it Demirforms a more important barrier than Kapi, or the "Gates of Iron." It is strongly Its value as either the Alps or the Pyrenees; for, fortified, and forms the western end of this a military equally with them, it runs from sea great natural barrier; these fortifications, like to sea, and it is more inaccessible, the wall of China, having been erected in anand less penetrated by passes than either. Gen- cient times by the kings of Persia, to avert the erally speaking, it consists of two vast ranges, incursions of the Tartars. They never had this running, like those of the Finster-Aarhorn and effect, however, for any length of time, any Monte-Rosa, opposite to each other, and both more than the wall of Antoninus had that of terminating in a peak of surpassing magnitude repelling the incursions of the Caledonians, or and elevation. The Elbruz is the culminating the rampart of Trajan those of the northern point of the northern of the two ranges, and Germans. The chief incursions of the Tartars, Mount Ararat of the southern. Each is about which proved so frightful a scourge to Persia 15,300 feet in height, or as nearly as possible and Asia Minor, those of Genghis Khan and Timthe elevation of Mont Blanc.† The medium our, were effected by this pass, through which elevation of the two chains is about 10,000 feet, repeatedly three and four hundred thousand of and their summits are so rugged and sharp these ruthless barbarians have pass- 2 Fonton, 10, that, except in a few places where they are in- ed on horseback, carrying their for 15, Malte tersected by deep and narrow ravines, forming age at their saddle-bows, bent on Brun, vii. 62, the well-known passes through them, they are southern devastation and plunder.2 wholly impassable even by foot-soldiers. Seen ASIA MINOR, which, in every period of history, from the vast steppes which stretch to the has borne an important part alike northward from its front toward Tartary, the in Asiatic and European annals, is Description of Caucasus presents a vast barrier, rising insensi- a country of great extent, inter- Asia Minor. bly from 1200 to 10,000 feet in height. Im-sected with a variety of mountain ranges, and mense downs, covered with grass, unbroken by tree, shrub, or rock, compose the summits of the first range, which in general does not exceed 4000 feet in height; but their sides are furrowed by frightful ravines, whose torrents descend

* BYRON.

†The Elbruz has been only once ascended. In 1829, M. Kupfer, of the Academy of St. Petersburg, with two other gentlemen, ascended to a point only six hundred the slipperiness of the melting snow. In the night, however, a shepherd, named Killar, taking advantage of the frost, surmounted the difficulties, and reached the summit, from whence he was seen by the Russian detachment under General Emanuel, which was stationed in the valley.-FONTON, p. 5.

feet below the summit, but could not reach it, owing to

2 63.

62.

in its valleys and plains abounding with all the choicest gifts of nature. The climate in the valleys of Georgia, which stretch to the south, is mild and temperate. Sheltered from the chilly blasts of the north by the huge rampart of the Caucasus, all the productions of the temperate zone come to maturity; and with them are blended, where the valleys approach the plain of Mesopotamia, the palm-trees, pomegranates, and dates of the tropical regions. It is on these sunny slopes that the Garden of Eden is placed by Scripture, and from thence that the human race set out in its pilgrimage through the globe. On the banks of the Kara,