The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—TurkeyHogarth, D. G. (David George)
History
The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey
Hogarth, D. G. (David George)
Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
During the whole season of 1821 the army of Khurshid had been held
before Yannina. But in February 1822 Yannina fell, Ali was slain, his
treasure seized, and his troops disbanded. The Ottoman forces were
liberated for a counterattack on Peloponnesos. Already in April
Khurshid broke up his camp at Lárissa, and his lieutenant Dramali was
given command of the new expedition towards the south. He crossed the
Sperkheiòs at the beginning of July with an army of twenty thousand
men.[1] Athens had capitulated to Odhyssèvs ten days before; but it had
kept open the road for Dramali, and north-eastern Greece fell without
resistance into his hands. The citadel of Korinth surrendered as tamely
as the open country, and he was master of the isthmus before the end of
the month. Nauplia meanwhile had been treating with its besiegers for
terms, and would have surrendered to the Greeks already if they had not
driven their bargain so hard. Dramali hurried on southward into the
plain to the fortress’s relief, raised the siege, occupied the town of
Argos, and scattered the Greek forces into the hills. But the citadel
of Argos held out against him, and the positions were rapidly reversed.
Under the experienced direction of Kolokotrónis, the Greeks from their
hill-fastnesses ringed round the plain of Argos and scaled up every
issue. Dramali’s supplies ran out. An attempt of his vanguard to break
through again towards the north was bloodily repulsed, and he barely
succeeded two days later in extricating the main body in a demoralized
condition, with the loss of all his baggage-train. The Turkish army
melted away, Dramali was happy to die at Korinth, and Khurshid was
executed by the sultan’s command. The invasion of Peloponnesos had
broken down, and nothing could avert the fall of Nauplia. The Ottoman
fleet hovered for one September week in the offing, but Kanaris’s
fire-ships took another ship of the line in toll at the roadsteads of
Tenedos before it safely regained the Dardanelles. The garrison of
Nauplia capitulated in December, on condition of personal security and
liberty, and the captain of a British frigate, which arrived on the
spot, took measures that the compact should be observed instead of
being broken by the customary massacre. But the strongest fortress in
Peloponnesos was now in Greek hands.
[Footnote 1: Including a strong contingent of Moslem Slavs—Bulgarian
Pomaks from the Aegean hinterland and Serbian Bosniaks from the
Adriatic.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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