Under the Red Crescent

Chapter VI

We were roused early next morning by the arrival of the first convoy of wounded from Plevna, and during all the ensuing week several hundreds were brought in daily. The only hospital in the town was one recently opened by Temple Bey, principal army medical officer in this district, formerly surgeon of the 1 8th Royal Irish in the Crimea, but for the last twenty years in Turkish service in Constantinople. There was very scant accommodation in the town, but having obtained the Konak and some other houses as hospitals, we detained some 250 of the most severe cases, such as we thought would scarcely bear further transport. As all the other cases, numbering about 5000, were dressed and sent on to Sofia, it can be understood that we were not at all idle during that week.

These poor fellows were all conveyed over the rough roads in the little oxen-arabas which had gone up under Chefket Pachas convoy laden with food, forage, and ammunition. They had already been three days on the road, and would, probably, be other four or five in reaching Sofia, having the difficulties of the Orkhanieh pass to overcome. Their sufferings must have been intense, for the nights were now becoming very cold, and they had to sleep out in the arabas without covering, while they had no regular supply of food beyond a scant quantity of bread or biscuit. It is almost unnecessary to add that a large number died by the way. The state these men were in is almost beyond belief. Most of them had been wounded in the heavy fighting of the first attacks on Plevna — four, six, or eight weeks before, — yet many had still the bullets and fragments of shell in their wounds ; compound fractures of the worst kind had never had a splint on them ; maggots of an enormous size swarmed in many of the wounds, and could only with the greatest difficulty be removed. Many of the men were reduced to the last stage of emaciation from prolonged suppuration, diarrhoea, dysentery, and inadequate food, and all of them were, indeed, pitiful spectacles. One could not but contrast the condition of these poor fellows with that of the sick and wounded of our own army in time of war, and think how thankful the latter should be for the care and comfort of which they are the recipients, even when circumstances are most adverse.

The clothes of these unfortunate men hung in tatters about them, and were actually swarming with vermin, of which, as can be understood, it was impossible for us to escape receiving a liberal share. In fact, this was one of the greatest discomforts we had to endure, and gave us many an hour s earnest occupation at night.

During the first week or two we were scarcely out of the hospitals from morning to night, having to do everything ourselves towards getting them in order, the few soldiers given us as hospital servants proving worse than useless. We were unable to get the houses prepared in any way before taking in the patients, and, at first, they were literally "chambers of horrors" but gradually we got them into better order — the men were taken off the floors and laid on hay-stuffed mattresses, clean shirts and drawers took the place of their filthy clothing, and the poor fellows were made as comfortable as they could be under the circumstances. It was touching to see how grateful they were for all that was done; they would have kissed our hands, and invoked the blessing of Allah on us all day.

The diet we were able to give them was not very nourishing— though better than they had been getting — and consisted mainly of the Government rations of bread and pilaff, i.e., rice stewed with small pieces of fat ; but what gave us great pleasure was being able to distribute amongst them from our stores a quantity of tobacco, a treat they seemed to prize above everything else. Tobacco is everything to the Turk, and it was quite wonderful to see the change from sombre wretchedness to glad contentment effected by the distribution of a few packets of Turkish tobacco and cigarette papers. It is a question worth consideration whether smoking, which is such a solace, and even a necessity to many, might not be more freely allowed in our civil hospitals ; of course, under definite regulations as to time and place. I believe its soothing effect and the contentment it affords would assist the surgeon in his work, and it would, at least, do much to lighten the weary hours of a long hospital confinement.

A large proportion of our cases urgently required operation, that being the sole chance left of recovery, though, in many instances, but a slender one. Before operating it was necessary, by order of the Sultan, to obtain the patient's free consent ; and though many availed themselves of our services, there was a considerable proportion who persistently refused, preferring to die. This aversion to operation arose from the Mohammedan belief, that as they die so will their bodies re-appear in Paradise ; and as the loss of a limb was a mode of punishment under the old Mohammedan law, they dreaded appearing before their prophet in a maimed condition.

Ghefket Pacha had established for the defence of the road between Plevna and Orkhanieh three imperfectly fortified positions, occupied by a few thousand soldiers, while he himself, with about twelve thousand men, lay nearly inactive at Orkhanieh. These positions, situated at the villages of Telliche, Gabrovitza, and Lukovitza, were certain to be the scene of fighting ere long; so, with the intention of getting as near the scene of hostilities as possible, and of establishing a dressing post at some point about midway between Plevna and Orkhanieh, a party, consisting of Dr. Sarell, Dr. Pinkerton, Dr. Vachell, Mr. Douglas, a dresser, Col. Coope, M. Lorando (one of the Levantine officials), and three servants, left Orkhanieh about mid-day of 23rd October. They were unable to get further than the small village of Poma-Keui the first night, but on reaching Lukovitza the following day they heard heavy firing, showing an engagement was going on not many miles distant. They busied themselves obtaining a house in Lukovitza, and preparing it as a dressing station, in charge of which Dr. Pinkerton was left, the remainder of the party going on the following morning. On reaching the principal position at Telliche, five miles further on, they found fifty wounded men from the engagement of the previous day, in which the Russians had been repulsed ; though, on the same day, they had captured Gorny Dubuik, the first position on the road, three miles from Telliche, and the same distance from Plevna.

Telliche was garrisoned by about four thousand men, with four six-pounder field guns, under the command of Ismael Hakki Pacha ; and, although the Russians had been repulsed, it had been at considerable cost, the hill-side on which the redoubt was placed being covered with corpses.

Having reported themselves to the Commandant, by whom they were cordially received, the surgeons set to work and dressed the wounds of the fifty men who were lying in the deserted khan of the village, and sent them off in oxen- arabas to Orkhanieh. Evidently considering discretion the better part of valour. Dr. Sarell determined to return, M. Lorando consenting to wait with the surgeons as interpreter until a dragoman should be sent from Orkhanieh.

Having finished their work, our men picked out the most commodious house in the village, on the roof of which they fixed a long pole bearing the Red Crescent flag, while within the house they made themselves as comfortable as possible by rigging up four stretchers as beds. In the afternoon, on receiving permission from the officer in command, they went outside the breastwork to view the Russian dead. About fifty yards from the breastwork they were horrified by coming on the bodies of some three hundred of the Imperial Guard, a large number of these being stripped naked, and terribly mutilated. Some had their heads cut off, some their ears and noses ; and on examining the wounds closely it was evident that many of the poor fellows had been murdered after having fallen wounded.

Such a sight was enough to disgust even the most ardent Turcophile ; but it is only just to exonerate the Turkish garrison from any share in this crime, and state by whom, and under what circumstances, it had been committed. It had been entirely the work of a body of Circassians, whom our men had met on the road, wearing the gold-laced uniforms of the Russian Guard, and carrying their Berdan rifles, which they were offering for sale. When one remembers the dreadful cruelties which these people suffered at the hands of the Russians only a few years ago, and the intense hatred with which they regard the people who drove them from their homes, such acts of retaliation, though by no means justified, cease to be so much wondered at.

Early next morning the Russians, under General Gourko, again attacked Telliche, and this time in much superior force. Having succeeded in placing their batteries in position on three sides of the village, they poured in on its little garrison a cross-fire from no fewer than ninety-six pieces of artillery. For five hours the Turkish soldiers bravely sustained this terrible fire, which soon disabled their guns, and was working dreadful carnage among them, the men being actually blown to pieces in the trenches. Chefket Pacha was known to be on the march from Orkhanieh, but for some inexplicable reason he remained inactive all day at Gabrovitza; and Hakki Pacha was at length forced to capitulate.

Our men, under the leadership of Col. Coope, were busily engaged during the bombardment, and had to carry on their work amid great danger — their house, despite the Red Crescent flag floating over it, being not exempt from its share in the bombardment. Indeed, a battery of six guns opposite seemed to make the house its special target, and one of the party had to be told off to watch this battery and give the word -when it fired, all then throwing themselves on their faces beside the patients. Fortunately every one escaped unhurt, and after the capitulation they were brought before General Gourko, who was very courteous to them, and promised they would be sent to Rahova, a town on the Danube still in Turkish hands, and there set free. They were then formally constituted prisoners, their revolvers taken from them, and a guard of Russian soldiers placed over them, under charge of whom they were marched the following day to Bogot, the headquarters of the Grand Duke Nicholas.

The Grand Duke appeared very anxious to make out that they were English officers and combatants. But Dr. Vachell and Mr. Douglas had papers proving they were surgeons ; and after some detention, during which Douglas was nearly carried off by dysentery, they were sent on to St. Petersburg, from whence they returned to England. It fared worse with Col. Coope and M. Lorando. They had no papers to shew their connection with the ambulance, and the Colonel especially incurred the Grand Duke s suspicion from having been an English officer, and at the same time holding a commission in the Turkish Gendarmerie. Hakki Pacha and the surgeons certified that they were there solely in connection with the ambulance, and they shewed the Red Crescent brassards on their arms ; but the Grand Duke was not satisfied, and ordered them both into Russia as prisoners of war. They were taken under guard to the town of Novgorod, suffering great indignities by the way, and being treated there with shameful severity until 4th January, 1878, when, through the intervention of Lord Augustus Loftus, our ambassador at St. Petersburg, they obtained their liberty. Shortly after his return to England, Col. Coope published a very interesting account of his adventures, under the title of '* A Prisoner of War in Russia." . . .