1 Veterani, 34; Valanuni, Guerre contre les Tures, 12, 13. Turks in are now 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 bat- If worsted in a serious encounter, the Turks, in talion which has advanced into the toils. The their own country, and knowing its by-paths, glorious victory of Bajazet over the generally disperse; the Russians, far from their French chivalry at Varna, in 1453, home and kindred, fall back upon their fellowand of the Grand Vizier over Peter soldiers, and combat, back to back, to the last the Great, on the Pruth, in 1711, man. The Ottoman array, like the Vendeans was mainly gained by the aid of or Spaniards, dissolves upon defeat, and the the incomparable horse.1 late commander of a mighty host finds himself But the Osmanlis have lost this great advan- surrounded only by a few attendants. When 46. tage by the results of the wars with you have once given the Turks a good beating," The advan- Russia during the last century. By said one who knew them well (Prince Cobourg), tages of the the successive acquisitions of the "you are at ease with them for the whole camthis respect Crimea, Oczakow with its territory, paign." But the armed force often reassemand Bessarabia, the Russians have bles as quickly as it had dissolved, and, again lost. not only got a valuable sea-coast, on issuing from their homes and their retreats, which they have built the rising harbor of the undaunted Turks enter a second 1 Valentini, Odessa, the Dantzie of the Euxine, but they time on the career of glory and plun- 12, 13. have gained the advantage, inestimable in East- der.1 ern 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 12, 15, 15, the Turks have experienced is in light 47. 19. In what the the Turks now consists. horse.2 est in war? The Turkish armies are little to be apprehended now in pitched battles in the 48. 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 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 fortiean, 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. fied cities by 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. 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 great indeed-are concentrated on the interior defenses within the rampart, which is chiefly valued as affording a covering to their construction. The whole approaches to the interior of the city are there retrenched in the strongest manner: huge barricades of wood bar the entrance into the streets; while at every door, every window, every aperture, are stationed two or more Turks, armed with their excellent fusils, who, with deadly aim, open a close and sustained fire on their assailants. The housetops, which are all flat, are crowded with musketeers, who in like manner rain a shower of balls upon the enemy. So great is the effect of this concentric fire, that in general the head of the assaulting column is swept away the moment it reaches the summit of the trench; for the fire is quite incessant, as each Turk has two muskets, and a pair of pistols in his girdle, which they aim with practiced skill. If these dangers are surmounted, and the assaulting column succeeds in making its way into the streets or gardens within the rampart, a danger not less formidable awaits them; for it is instantly assailed on all sides by a mass of Turks, with their cimeter in their right hand, and their short sword in their left, with which they cut at their opponents, and parry their thrusts; and in that mortal strife it has been often proved that the European bayonet is no match for the Turkish sabre. So deadly are these methods of defense, that several repelled assaults of illfortified Turkish towns have cost more to the besiegers than the entire reduction of the bestconstructed 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 Hist. of Eu rope, 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 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 deinfancy to the use of arms, and fense of fortisplendidly equipped with his own the Turks. 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 capture. The male inhabitants will all be put to the sword, the young women sold for slaves, or swept into the Turkish harem; the entire fortunes of the inhabitants drawn into the coffers of the sultan or victorious pacha. The commander 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. Although the Turks, prior to the great change made by Sultan Mahmoud in the military organization of the empire, had Russian few regular troops, and none disci- mode of plined after the European fashion, fighting the yet the vast feudal militia they could at any time call out was extremely formidable, from the perfect arms, and entire command of them, which every member of it possessed, and the individual courage by which they were animated. The Russians and Austrians, at least till the more recent wars, were almost always greatly inferior in number; and as so large a proportion of the Turkish armies in those days was cavalry, this disproportion, by enabling the enemy to surround them, often exposed the Christian forces to the greatest danger, especially as the scene of conflict generally was the level country on the banks of the Danube. They were thus driven by necessity to adopt the tactics which could alone, in the open field, enable them to resist such formidable and superior enemies. This consisted in constantly forming square when the moment of decisive action arrives. These squares were generally of five or six battalions each, with artillery at the angles, capable of firing on either side which might be assailed. They advance into battle drawn up in this form, and the squares moving forward in the oblique order in echelon; so that the leading square is protected at least on one side and rear by the fire of those which follow it. If broken, the square endeavors to form a still smaller body in the same array, and often becomes reduced to knots of a dozen men -for the troops are all aware that flight is instant 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 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 nople. 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 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 tillage. 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 1 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 comparatively low ranges of hills, which afford a stronger 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 brush wood, they are laid out in thick orchards, which oppose 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 56. 55, 56. of the Muscovites. of an army capable of threatening Constantino- 1 Valentini, 58. It is So great are these difficulties, that, notwithstanding the rapid decline of the Country be- Ottoman power during the last centween the tury, it was not till the year 1829 Balkan and that the Russian forces succeeded Constanti- in passing the Balkan and reaching nople. Adrianople, and then it was only with an army not exceeding 25,000 men. The best military authorities have declared that the passage of the Balkan need not be attempted with less than 140,000 men, which large force would only leave 60,000 disposable to advance upon Constantinople. When Valentini, this barrier, however, is surmounted, the defenses of Constantinople are carried; and unless a force capable of keeping The principal defense of the Balkan, against the field and repelling the enemy in the open an enemy approaching from the north, country exists, nothing remains to the Turks consists in the fortified camp of SCHUM- Schumla. but submission. From the southern face of the LA. This celebrated stronghold has Balkan to the gates of the capital the country borne so important a part in all the last wars is entirely open, and for the most part unculti-between the Turks and Russians, that a descripvated. Luxuriant herbage, coming up to the tion of it is indispensable to the understanding horses' girths, at once attesting the riches of of the last and most important of them. the soil, and showing the oppression of the gov- a considerable town, containing thirty thouernment, continues up to the gates of the cap-sand inhabitants, lying upon the northern deital. In this open and level country there is clivity of the Balkan, and, seen from the plains no defense whatever against an invading army, of Bulgaria as you approach it from the northespecially if it possesses the superiority in light ward, resembles a triangular sheet spread upon horse which the Russians, ever since their con- the mountains, as Algiers does when seen from quest of the nomad nations, decisively enjoy. the blue waters of the Mediterranean. It is not If a hostile army reaches Constantinople, the regularly fortified like the fortresses of Flanconquest of the city is easy, and can not be ders, but still it is very strong, and can not be long averted. The ancient walls still remain in reduced but by a very large army. A promonimposing majesty, but they are in many places tory of the Balkan, in the form of a horse-shoe, mouldering, and, by cutting off the aqueducts surrounds its sides and rear, which is covered which supply the city with water, it may easily with thick and thorny brushwood, extremely be starved into submission. The old cisterns, difficult of passage, and affording an admirable of enormous magnitude, constructed by the Ro- shelter to the skilled Turkish marksmen. The 3 Ubicini, 366, man emperors to guard against town itself is surrounded by a deep ditch and 369; Clarke's this danger, still exist; but they high wall, flanked by the square towers for Travels,vii. 247, are in part filled up, are no longer musketeers which are peculiar to the Turkish Constantinople, water-tight, and could not now be fortresses. It forms the centre of the intrenchapplied to their destined purpose." ed camp, which shuts it in on every side. Its It results from these peculiarities in the phys- great extent, the steep declivities, wooded ical situation of Turkey, that the heights, and rocky precipices which surround The command command of the sea, or the sup- it, render it extremely strong, and the nature of the sea, or port, or at least the neutrality of of the adjoining hills, impassable for artillery, the support of Austria, is essential to a successful secure it from the dangers of bombardment. sential to the irruption into the plains of Rou- A stream of pure and perennial water flows success of melia by the forces of the Czar. through its centre, amply sufficient for a garRussia. No amount of force, how great so- rison of any amount. All the roads from the ever, at the command of the Muscovite generals, north over the Balkan, whether from Roudscan relieve them of this necessity; on the con- chuck, Silistria, or Ismael, intersect each other trary, it only renders it the more imperious. in this fortress, which thus becomes a strateTurkey is defended by the effects of its own getical point of the very highest importance; oppression: it has rendered its territory a wil- and, garrisoned by thirty thousand derness, through which the enemy, without sup- janizaries, it is equally impossible to Valentini, 48, 49. plies brought by the Danube or the sea, can pass, and difficult to reduce." not pass. External support is indispensable. It is impossible by land-carriage to bring up the requisite supplies for a large army from Sevastopol and Odessa-a tract of nearly seven hundred miles, in great part without roads practicable for wheel carriages. Equally impossible is it to find in the desert plains of Roumelia the requisite supplies for the support 251; Walsh's 272. 57. Austria, is es 2 If its natural defenses are alone considered, the ASIATIC PROVINCES of Turkey are 59. casus. a stony girdle around the globe-forms a vast barrier between the Black Sea and the Caspian. Inaccessible to mortal foot, alternately glittering in a cloudless sun, and enveloped in impenetrable mists, there "The palaces of nature, whose vast walls Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls have from the earliest times formed the subject In a 60. "Which first spoke peace to man." military point of view, the Caucasus forms a more important barrier than Its value as either the Alps or the Pyrenees; for, a military equally with them, it runs from sea barrier. to sea, and it is more inaccessible, and less penetrated by passes than either. Generally speaking, it consists of two vast ranges, running, like those of the Finster-Aarhorn and Monte-Rosa, opposite to each other, and both terminating in a peak of surpassing magnitude and elevation. The Elbruz is the culminating point of the northern of the two ranges, and Mount Ararat of the southern. Each is about 15,300 feet in height, or as nearly as possible the elevation of Mont Blanc.t The medium elevation of the two chains is about 10,000 feet, and their summits are so rugged and sharp that, except in a few places where they are intersected by deep and narrow ravines, forming the well-known passes through them, they are wholly impassable even by foot-soldiers. Seen from the vast steppes which stretch to the northward from its front toward Tartary, the Caucasus presents a vast barrier, rising insensibly from 1200 to 10,000 feet in height. Immense 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 with irresistible violence amidst broken scaurs ment.1 rier. 61. Caucasus. which the great military road of of the passes 63. ASIA MINOR, which, in every period of history, has borne an important part alike 62. in Asiatic and European annals, is Description of a country of great extent, inter- Asia Minor. sected with a variety of mountain ranges, and 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 tem†The Elbruz has been only once ascended. In 1829, perate zone come to maturity; and with them M. Kupfer, of the Academy of St. Petersburg, with two are blended, where the valleys approach the other gentlemen, ascended to a point only six hundred plain of Mesopotamia, the palm-trees, pomefeet below the summit, but could not reach it, owing to the slipperiness of the melting snow. In the night, how-granates, and dates of the tropical regions. It ever, a shepherd, named Killar, taking advantage of the is on these sunny slopes that the Garden of 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. * BYRON. 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, |