TURKEY. 



727 



Among the irregular troops are the 16 re- 

 giments of gendarmes; the Bashi-Bazouks, 

 volunteer infantry, who receive nothing but 

 weapons and ammunition from the Govern- 

 ment ; the Spahis, volunteer cavalry furnished 

 chiefly by the Mahommedan lords of Bosnia 

 and other provinces ; Bedouins from Asia and 

 Africa, and other volunteer bodies. The auxil- 

 iaries are made up of the contingents fur- 

 nished by the tributary states and the prov- 

 inces not subject to the Nizam or standing 

 army service. Prior to the outbreak of the 

 war, the number of the Turkish troops in Bul- 

 garia was estimated at 115,000 infantry, 3,- 

 000 artillery, and 216 guns. This army was 

 distributed as follows: In Tultcha, 7,000; 

 Silistria, 18,000; Rustchuk, 10,000; Varna, 



8,000; Shomla, 18,000; Tirnova, 5,000 ; Nico- 

 polis and Sistova, 2,000; and in and around 

 Widin, 50,000 men and 144 guns. Another 

 estimate stated that at the outbreak of the war 

 the Turks had about 100,000 men available for 

 the defense of the Balkans and the Danube. 

 At Widin, there were 20,000 men ; at Rust- 

 chuk, 12,000; at Silistria, 20,000; at Shumla, 

 45,000; at other points, 3,000. On the Greek 

 frontier 30,000 Turks were stationed, and at 

 least 90,000 troops were scattered along the 

 borders of Servia, Montenegro, and Austria. 

 The Turkish forces in Asia Minor did not 

 number more than 80,000 men; so that the 

 effective strength of the armies of the Porte 

 was about 300,000. 



The Russian army consists, according to the 

 law of 1874, of the standing army and the 

 Opoltchenie, corresponding to the German 

 Landwehr. The standing army is composed 

 of land and marine troops. The land army 

 comprises troops obtained by an annual con- 

 scription, to which all young men of over 21 

 years of age are liable ; the reserves ; the sup- 

 plementary troops, intended as substitutes for 

 the losses in the active army ; the Cossacks ; 

 and bodies of troops made up of foreigners. The 

 Opoltchenie is made up of the entire remaining 

 male population between the ages of 20 and 40, 

 able to bear arms. The following table gives the 

 strength of the Russian army on a war footing: 



To these must be added the irregular troops, 

 comprising 23 battalions, 180 guns, 8,505 offi- 

 cers, 131,290 combatants, 5,698 non-comba- 

 tants, and 120,999 horses. In preparing for 

 the present war the Russian Government called 

 out or "mobilized" only part of the reserve. 

 According to trustworthy reports, the army 

 organized for the conflict consisted recently of 

 275,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and 900 guns. 

 Prior to the order to enter Roumania, these 

 troops were distributed as follows in proximity 

 to the seat of war: The Seventh and Twelfth 



Corps, numbering 60,000 infantry, 4,000 cav- 

 alry, and 288 guns, were at Odessa and Sebaa- 

 topol. The Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh 

 Corps were at and around Kishenev; they 

 numbered 120,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 

 432 guns. The Army of the Caucasus, intended 

 to invade Asiatic Turkey, numbered 65, 

 fantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 180 guns. Tins dis 

 tribution of the army enabled Russia to begi 

 hostilities with a much greater force than in tli 

 Russo-Turkish war of 1858, when only 74 00 

 men crossed the Pruth at the beginning of tue 



