‘Russo-Turkish War, 1877. Operations in Asia.’ [‎37r] (7/42)

77
this affair between Generals Lazareff and Heymann. A Russian official
bulletin, dated Kara Yal, 4th, gives the losses on their side on this day as
3 officers and 40 men killed, and 11 officers and 250 men wounded.
r l he same inaction continued on the 4th, when at length, at 8 p.m., the
Russians began to draw off their forces; but, being continually followed up
and harassed in their retreat, they made a stand at Xabak-Tepeh, when the Turks
also stopped, and both sides remained on the defensive, and exchanged a
lively artillery fire till dark, without collision, Rachid Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. then re-occupying the
Great \ahni without opposition.^ The Russians were, however, obliged to
bivouac on the ground in considerable force and did not finally retire to their
old positions behind the Kara Yal until the forenoon of the 5 th, leaving a
brigade of the Moscow Grenadiers entrenched on the Kabak-Tepeh and to the
south and east of it; here it bivouacked for the night, but again retired on
the 5th, leaving outposts only, and occupying the ground at Kadikler with
a regiment of cavalry, distributed in the villages. They at the same time
withdrew, from Uzunkend, but still held the Utch-Tepeh with outposts at
Kizyl Kilisseh.
As an illustration of the caution with which their reverses in this part of
the theatre of war had inspired the Russians, the battlefield is described by an
eye-witness as literally ploughed up and seamed on every side with rifle-pits and
shelter-trenches, dug by them in their first advance upon the Turkish positions
or in the successive steps of their retreat, both to secure the left flank and
rear of their main column advancing on the Yahni-Tepehs and Kars, as well
as to repel the expected counter-attacks of the Turks.
The Turkish losses in the fighting from the 1 st to the 4th October
inclusive, amounted, according to their official returns, to 2,500 killed and
wounded. Of these, 800 were killed and wounded (amongst fhe former 6 Bim-
bashis)f at the Lesser Yahni. Omer Pasha’s Division lost 117 killed and over
400 wounded in the defence of the Kizyl-Tepeh ; and Moussa Pasha’s Division,
56 killed and about 200 wounded, at Soubatan. The remaining losses ivere
chiefly sustained at Tashnik and Kizyl-Kala, on the Aladja-Dagh, at Hadji-
Veli, and in the counter-attack from Kars, but details are wanting on the
numbers at each place. The Turks lost some 300 prisoners.;);
The Russian losses must have been undoubtedly very heavy, especially in
their repeated attacks on the Lesser Yahni, and are estimated by a competent
eye-witness at not less than 5,000 killed and wounded. Pour prisoners were taken
by the Turks. According to a Russian official despatch, dated Kara Yal,
4 th October, their losses on the 1 st amounted to 9 officers and 1,000 men
killed, and 60 officers and 2,000 men wounded; and, on the 3rd, to
3 officers and 40 men killed, and 11 officers and 250 men wmunded. A
despatch of the Chief of the Staff of the Caucasus Military District afterwards
gave the losses as 472 men killed, 2,540 wounded, and 70 missing in the two
days’ fighting. According to the “ Invalide Russe,” the Russian losses were
83 officers and 3,300 men killed and wounded ; and according to the “ Moscow
Gazette,” there were 2,679 men wounded alone. From the official returns of
officers killed and wounded, the troops engaged appear to have belonged to
the Caucasus Grenadiers, the 1st (Moscow) Grenadiers, the 19th, 20th, 38th,
39 th and 40th Divisions, some battalions of Caucassus Chasseurs, together
with their respective artillery brigades in whole or part.
Mukhtar Pasha’s force had a narrow escape in this battle. Had the Lesser
Yahni fallen and had the Russians made an attack by a coup de main on Kars,
that fortress, in all probability, we are informed on excellent authority, would
have been taken. In either case, the Turkish communications must have been
severed. The defective state of the Turkish transport, commissariat and
administrative services needs no description. They were conspicuous by their
absence, and, with the army entirely dependent upon Kars and Erzeroum for
its supplies and living from hand to mouth with only one day’s provisions in
camp, the critical position of the Turks on the Aladja Dagh—opposed as they *
* According to the Russians they were obliged to abandon the Great Yahni from want of
wa ^ er> f Battalion commanders.
x 140 prisoners were taken by the Russians at the storming of the Great Yahni-Tepeh.