ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
19 
“ Shell after shell," says the Daily News Correspondent, “ is planted 
in our midst with a precision which recalls the battle of Aladja." “ I 
don't believe," said an old Moslem officer at my side, “ that Russian 
officers direct those guns; they are English or they are Prussian." I 
had seen the changed character of the artillery fire when the Russians 
drove us from before Kars backwards on the Soghanli Dagh. The 
Marshal himself, Moukhtar Pasha, called my attention to this extreme 
accuracy of fire, as he had done on a previous occasion when the 
Russians stormed Evliatepessi hill." 1 
But the Russians as they crept nearer opened suddenly out to either 
side, and endeavoured to turn both flanks of their opponent's position. 
All day long the musketry resounded in the glens and valleys, and, 
hard pressed though they were, the Turks stubbornly held their ground. 
In the afternoon the fire of the attack began to slacken, and at 3 
o'clock, when the Russians were seen withdrawing to rally out of 
cannon shot, hope beat high in the bosoms of the defenders. But the 
Russian guns had not been idle while the flank attacks were being 
carried out, and by their fire 14 out of the 18 guns which were posted 
at the Turkish centre were dismounted or rendered useless. 
The next incident in the drama forms one of the most remarkable 
incidents of the battle-field that have ever been chronicled, but has 
been passed by unmentioued in some accounts. Hozier and Norman, 
however, appear to regard it as the decisive event of the day, although 
both account for it differently. The former attributes the movement 
to good fortune and not to any happy inspiration, the latter seems to 
1 “ Daily News War Correspondence,” page 614. 
