The hospital and its vicinity were littered with broken and mangled
human beings. Through the long terrible night, Baron Mundy, Mr.
Mackellar, and their young comrades toiled on unremittingly,
amputating, extracting, probing, bandaging. No sooner was a batch of
wounded attended to and cases affording a chance of life disposed of,
than fresh cargoes were in waiting, now from the other side of the
river, now from the other scene of action in front of the entrenchments
on the heights. Several hundreds of cases were hurriedly seen to during
the night by the English ambulance surgeons alone; but the proportion
of wounded brought in was but small compared with the numbers of poor
wretches left to the ruthlessness of the Turks during the sudden
retreats of the Servian soldiery. The Russian ambulance was doing its
work of humanity as assiduously as were our own countrymen, and a few
Servian surgeons were behaving with courage and assiduity, in marked
contrast to too many who were good for nothing in any sense. Although
daylight was certain to bring an exacerbation of the long struggle,
there was surely no human being in Alexinatz that night who was not
glad when the young rays of the morning sun came glinting through the
lurid pall of smoke that overhung the town.
To this fearful night succeeded a bloody day. The Turks had been
massing all night behind cover, around the fringes of the bare slopes
in front of the entrenchment line, and, after a preliminary artillery
duel, their gallant infantry darted forward to attempt the storm of
their strong position. It was a bold undertaking, fought out with
stubborn valour, for the effort was renewed over and over again.
There was little variety in the method of the Turkish assaults. Let a
sketch of one which I find in my note-book serve for a description of
them all. The short jotting was made while I watched. “The Turks, in
loose order, jump out of the lateral hollow and come on at the double,
under cover of a shower of shells. The Servian guns open with shrapnel,
and a Gatling mitrailleuse rains bullets on the charging Turks. At
five hundred yards the Servian infantry behind the breastworks open
fire. The Turk reply, and still keep pressing forward, falling fast
as they come. They make a rush, headed by a gallant leader. A hundred
yards more, and the forwardest of them are on the lip of the ditch. The
leader rolls into it, shot, and his voice rings no more above the din
of the strife. His followers waver, stagger, then turn and run. The
assault has been repulsed.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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