Search -
The Armenian campaign: a diary of the campaign of 1877
The Armenian campaign a diary of the campaign of 1877 Author:Charles Williams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Erzeroum, May 23.—It is no part of my business here to speak smooth things and prophesy deceits ; and reserving to myself the liberty of modifying... more » any opinions I may now express by the light of further experience, I must say that the first impressions are very unfavourable to the Turkish cause. From Moukhtar Pacha himself, down to the Koord drivers of the arabas or bullock carts, whose wooden axles groan and scream perpetual protests against a system which has, in these days of rapidity in warfare, no better means of bringing up supplies than on donkeys or slow-footed camels, or by the yet more tardy method of arabas that make ten miles a-day, and are three weeks on the road between Trebizond and " the army of Asia," there seems to be a want of sustained energy in execution that bodes badly for the result of the struggle. Ardahan, on which for some time the Turks have been spending much money, has, as you know by this time, fallen after, as is reported here, a gallant contest of three days' duration. There is a disposition in some quarters to look upon this as a fatal blow ; but, after all, Ardahan was not a first-class fortress ; and although its loss breaks the chain of artificial defences against Russia, and is even more damaging to Turkish moral, the real defence of this land of contrasts lies in its natural barriers, which should be entirely impregnable. The passes are'few and very difficult; a few pounds of guncotton would make them impracticable. There is hardly a mile of all the mass ofmountains between Batoum and Scanderoon which might not be held for ever by a very small force. But the present difficulties are that the Turkish advanced positions are exposed to flanking operations, that probably one after another of the strongholds along the frontier wil...« less