THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE 125ever, are clear that thousands of men, women, and children were slaugh-
tered and scores of villages were destroyed.
It is well known that the Balkans were an unstable region and that the
Russians had carefully fostered that unrest. This particular region of Bul-
garia, however, had a history of peaceful coexistence prior to 1860 when,
for some unknown reason, the Sublime Porte, in a fit of extreme stupidity,
imported 60,000 Circassian settlers from Asia Minor into Bulgaria. The
Circassians formed a major part of thebashi-bazouks,or feudal levy of
the Turkish army, and as such were mobilized to quell a minor insurrection
of Bulgarian nationalism, probably as a result of the Circassians in 1875–
76 being given land taken from Bulgarian peasants. The Circassians pro-
ceeded to massacre every Bulgarian they could catch, and the Turkish
government was powerless or perhaps disinclined to stop the events. It
was left to MacGahan to describe, with whatever literary license he chose
to employ, the sights that met his eyes as he explored the region occupied
by the Circassianbashi-bazouks.
World press screamed for action, and Russia had its excuse to invade
yet again, this time with at least tacit Western approval. MacGahan, having
created the war with anti-Turkish stories, now reported favorably on the
heroism of the Turkish army. In effect he created the war, and then the
heroes to people it!
The Russian armies marched forward in 1877 and drove to the focal
point of the region, the city of Plevna. They met Osman Pasha, a coura-
geous and modern soldier with the flower of the new Turkish army, at that
fortress city commanding the pass through the Black Mountains. Arriving
on July 19, he took up positions on the bare hills to the north and east of
the city. The Russian General Schilder-Schuldner, who commanded the
5th Division, IX Corps, had completed his capture of Nikopol and had
been ordered to march on Plevna. He arrived in front of the fortress shortly
after Osman Pasha had taken up positions there. The Russians quickly
brought their guns into action and on July 20, without having bothered to
reconnoiter the position, Schilder-Schuldner sent his infantry forward in
four separate columns.
On the north, the Russians drove back the Turkish right wing. Desperate
Turkish counterattacks drove back, breaking the offensive momentum and
forcing them to withdraw, leaving 2,800 of the 8,000 attackers dead on
the field. The Turks lost about 2,000. Thus ended the first Battle of Plevna.
The outnumbered Turks had fought in the open against a modern army
and held their ground. Now it was time to dig in.
Osman immediately began the fortification of his positions. Night and
day the Turks dug entrenchments and redoubts. A stream of reinforce-