THE STORMING OF LOFTCHA REDOUBT.

Bruce Herald, Volume X, Issue 959, 20 November 1877, Page 3

THE STORMING OF LOFTCHA REDOUBT.

The. 'Daily News' correspondent with the left wing of -the' Hussion army of attack x>n tbe J^oftcha redoubt writes 9s follows j —

The redoubt SkobeioiF waa attacking wan a double redoubt in the bend of the LoiFlcha road down near Plevna. He badadvanced Hie troops down the Blope ofi the. 'mountain, to within easy range. As the'Tu^ka immediately opened §re" upon ; him ; from th^e redqubtj h& retarned fire with' Bteadinees and breciaion- putting his men under; coyer as much as possible, his cannon .pouring a steady streatn of Bheil and canister into the redoubt as; well ; 'in'facf, ; he Worked the cannon so |npb that; TOra} pieces bay^ been

spoiled. He had . evidently determined to rink everything to capture this redoubt, and if Plevna were not taken ib would not be his fault. For three hours he kept up this fire, and just; after Kriloff's second repulse, the Turkish fire having somewhat relaxed, dominated by the Russians, he thought the moment had come for milking the assault. He bad four regiments of the line and four battalions of sharpshooters. Still keeping up his murderous fire, he formed under its cover two regiments, the Vladimirski and the Zoozolsid, in the, little hollow at the foot of the low hill ou which was built the redoubt, together with two battalions of sharpshooters, not more than 1200 yards from the ecarp! Then placing himself in the beat position for watching the result, he ceased fire and ordered the advance. He ordered the assault party not to fire, and, they rusjied forward with their guns on their., shoulders, with music playing and banners flying, and disappeared in the fog and smoke. Skobeloff is the only general that places himself near enough to feel the pulse of a battle. The advancing column was indistinctly seen, a dark mass in the fog and smoke. Feeling/ as it were,, every throb of the battle, he Haw this line begin to waver and hesitate. Upon the instant he huried forward a rival regiment to support, and again watched the result. This new force"carried the maas further on with its momentum ; bufc the Turkish redoubt flamed and smoked and poured forth such a -torrent of bullets that the line was! again shaken. Skobeloff stood in this shower of balls unhurt. All bis escort were killed or wounded, even to the little Kirghiz, who received a bullet in the shqulder. Again he saw the line hesitate aid waver, and be flung his fourth and last regiment, the Libausky, on the glacis. Again this new wave carried the preced- ; ing ones forward., -until they were almost on the ecarp ;, but that deadly shower of bulletß poured upon them ; men dropped by hundreds, and the result still remained doubtful. The line once more wavered aud hesitated. No a moment was to be lost, if the redoubt was to be carried. Skobeloff had now only two battalions of sharpshooters left, the best in his detachment. Putting himself at the head of them, he dashed forward on horseback. He picked up the, stragglers; he reached the wavering, fluctuating mass and gave it the inspiration of his own courage and instruction. He picked the whole mass up, and carried it forward with a: rush and a shout. The whole redoubt was a mass of smoke and flame, from which screams, shoUtP, and cries of agony and defiance arose, with the deep mouthed, bellowing of the cannon, and above all the steady, awful crash of that deadly rifle fire. Skobeloff's sWorfj was cub in' two In the middle; Then a moment later, when just on the point of leaping the ditch, horse and man rolled together to the ground, the home dead or wounded the rider untouched- He sprang to his feet with a shout, then with a formidable . savage yell the whole mass of men streamed over the ditch, over the pcarp ; and counter-scarp, over the parapet, and swept into the,, redoubt -lilje g , huricane. Their bayonets, made short work of the Turks still remaining. Then a joyous cbfier told that, the redoubt was captured, and that at last one of the defences of Plevna was in the hands of the Russians. SitOßEtOff CJA&iIiES THE BEDOtJIBT. Having seen as' much as I have 'seen 'of, the Tur|jjsh infaptry {Jre- from behind trenches' and walls; I thought.it was beyond .flesh and blood to, break it,, a; belief which bad been strengthened by Kriloff's repulse, which I had just witnessed. Skobeloff- proved the coptrary- tsUt ftt what a sacrifice' In that short rush of a few hundred yards 3000 men had been ; left on the hillside on the glacis, and on the scarp, and the ditch— one-fourth his whole force. Skobeloff had the redoubt. The question 'was now how to hold it; It w r as dominated by the redoubt of J£riabina pn .the left. It was exposed .at the Plevna side to the fire of the sharp- . shooters afid to th? Turk 1 ?' 1 forces' in the' wood, bordering the Sophia road'j a]j^ open to the fire of the entrenched camp. There was a cross fire corning from three different points. At .daylight nest morning the Turks opened fire from all sides. The distance from the redoubt at Krisbina bad pf course been accurately measured, and the guns dropped sheila into the redoubt with "the utmost precision on the exposed sjdes, The b?ck of the redoiibfc was a solid rock, on which it was impose eible to erect a parapet. Ail the earth had been used for the constructign of tt«e pararpets on the other side, It was evident the position was untenable unless the entrenched camp on the other side of Plevna, and the Erbhiria redoubt could be taken. Skobeloff renewed bis demand for' ; reinforcements made the evening before. Jhe Q-rjvJp^ redoubt had also been qarried by, the Roumanians and Russians under General Schnitnikoff. QouMone or two mope positions be carried during Wednesday — say the Krishina redoubt, and one entrenched camp on the same n'dge as the Grivica redoubt —the fall of Plevna might, be considered pertain. At sunrise the Turks began an attack upon the captured redoubt, and the storm of battle again raged with fury hste, while all was quiet everywhere elae. The deeper ite attack of the Turks was repulsed. Another attack was made, and another repu'se, and this continued all day long, until the Turks had attacked and been beaten five successive times. DEATH ON ALL SIDES. The Russian Jossga Mere becoming fearful, general Skobeloff had lost, he thinks, 2000 men in attacking the redoubt. By, the afternoon he had loat 3000 more in holding it, while his battalions shrivelled up and shrank away as if by magic. One battalion of sharpshooters had been reduced to IGO men. A company which had been 150 men wag now 40. Aa

immense proportion of officers were killed, or wounded only. Only one commander of a regiment is alive; scarcely a head -of a battalion is left. Two officers •of-- the staff are killed, one of whom was Yerastchagi.u, brother of the great, artist.. Another .brother was wounded. General Bobrovolsky, commander of sharpshooters, was killed. One officer was blown to pieces by the explosion of a caisson. Captain Kurapatikin, chief of the staff, standing beside this officer, had his hair singed and suffered a severe contusion. Only General Skobeloff himself remaiced untouched. He seems to bear a charmed life.. He visited the redoubt three or four times during the day, encouraging the' soldiery telling them help would soon arrive ; Plevna would soon be taken,; ;■ victory; would soon cr ; own their, efforts ; 'telling them it was the n*Dal decisive blow struck for their country — for the honour and glory of the Russian arma — and they always replied by v thej same cheery shouts, while their numbers; were dwindling away by hundreds. - LEFT TO PATE. .... He again and again sent for reinforcements, and again and again informed the Commaride-in-Chief that the position was untenable. The afternoon wore away and no reinforcements came: Levitsky formally refused reinforcements, either because he thought the position, in spite of General Skobeloff's representations, was tenable, or because he had no reinforcements to give. General Kriloif,on his own responsibility, sent the remnant of a regiment which bad attacked the redoubt, which I caw rush forward and then back through the Indian cornfield. Of the 2500 there were barely 1000 left, so it was utterly incapable of going into action that day, and even this regiment arrived too late. General Skobeloff had left the Fedoubt at 4 o'clock to go to his tent on a woody bill opposite. He had been there scarcely an hour when he was informed that the Turks were again attacking' the right flank on the Loftcha road immediately above Plevna. He eal loped forward to eee,and was met by an orderly with the news that the Turks were also attacking the redoubt a sixth time. He dashed forward towards the redoubt in hopes of reaching it in time, but was met by a stream of his own men flyiug back. They were exhausted by fortyi,eight hours' incessant fighting, and were worn out, hungry, and dying of thirst and fatigue. One bastion was held till the last by a young, officer, whose name I regret I have forgotten, with a handful of men. They refused to fly, and were slaughtered to the last, man.

It was just after this that I met General Skobeloff, the fi.rst time that day. He was in a fearful state, of excitement and fury. Hi 8 uniform was covered with mud &»d filt^ bis sword broken, hiß < roes of St, George twisted round on his shouldert*, his face black with powder and _Bin<<ke, his eyes haggard and bloodshot,, and tis voice quite gone. He spoke in a hoarse whisper. 'I; never before saw such a picture of battle as he presented. 1. saw him again in hig tent night. He was quite calm and collected,