534 
THE SHIPKA PASS. 
only in action for a very short time, f for want of ammunition.'” This 
report was at once sent off to the commander, the Colonel of the Podolsk 
Regiment. To it was added a requisition for sappers, with the necessary 
tools and materials, to he sent up that night to repair damages. Copies 
of the report were sent to the Commander of the Artillery of the Corps, 
to the Commander of the troops in the Shipka Pass, and to the 
Commander of the Brigade. 
As the enemy could easily see into the battery through the two right 
flank embrasures, we took the guns out of them and closed up the right 
one with gabions, forming a blindage in that angle of the battery. We 
replaced the men of the 2nd Battery, serving their gun by our own 
from the reserve, and at night sent the damaged gun of the 2nd Battery 
with both the detachments and the horses of that battery down to 
Gabrova by the high road. 
We now went to look round the battery. The men were mostly in 
the blindages, and talking of the day ; s firing. From one blindage 
rose a mournful song, from another noise, cries, and laughter, in another 
a newspaper was being spelt out. Everything was going on in this 
exposed position as if we had been in a quiet camp or bivouac. We 
looked round the guns and found them as clean as might be expected. 
They had all been loaded and run up, so we did not make a detailed 
inspection. We never had any fault to find with the way in which 
the guns w^ere taken care of after firing. The men cleaned them not 
because they were ordered, but because they were fully convinced 
of the necessity of keeping the guns in good order. They had had it 
instilled into them how much the slightest inaccuracy affects the 
firing, and that there had been cases in which, when a gun had not 
been properly cleaned and rust allowed to form, three men could 
not force the projectile home. From personal experience, each man 
knew that the cleaner his gun was, the quicker he could fire, as 
it made the constant washing out of the bore easier. After the 
sponge had been dipped 10 or 15 times in the bucket, the water 
became so dirty that it only dirtied the bore more to sponge it out, 
so the water had to be poured out and renewed. But fresh water 
had to be carried about a verst under the fire of an enemy who always 
shot at any man showing himself on the road on Mount St. Nicholas, 
or behind Battery No. 1, so to have water enough at hand, it was 
brought up in large pails from the spring, and the gun buckets were 
replenished, w r hen necessary, by this means. Apropos of sponging out, 
a little incident is w T orth mentioning. In his anxiety to sponge out 
smartly, one of the men jammed the sponge so tightly into a bucket 
that it was pulled out with difficulty. It was a sight to see the fright and 
sorry position of the man, as spreading out his hands he turned to the 
detachment, who were cursing his clumsiness, and said:—“Just my 
d—dluck; many a year have I handled a sponge, and that never before 
happened; however, here goes!” This sally, pronounced in disgust 
at his own awkwardness, called forth a burst of laughing. At that 
minute a shell went slap into the next embrasure on the right, and a 
whole volley of jokes, witticisms, and fun burst from the detachment, 
showing their perfect coolness. When the firing began, this same man 
