524 
THE SHIPKA PASS. 
4-prs. were used for tlie secondary positions. It was also found 
necessary to increase the number of batteries on Mount St. Nicholas, 
and to construct stronger works. 
The latter was a work of the first necessity. In the first days of the 
defence, while the fighting was going on, the guns fired over the 
parapet. This was necessary, as the guns had to fire on troops which 
attacked them on all sides, and was of great service, as it afforded a 
wider lateral range, which was necessitated by the frequent changes of 
position made by the attacking troops. This advantage, however, was 
counterbalanced by the great exposure of the gun detachments to the 
enemy’s rifle fire, and still more by their exposure to that of his 
artillery. Under these circumstances it was found necessary to place 
the guns behind embrasures. To each battery was now told off a 
definite object, one of the enemy’s positions. 
With the appearance of the enemy’s artillery the necessity arose of 
strengthening the profile of the works. The first hastily thrown-up 
field works now began to assume the appearance of permanent batteries. 
The works were carefully planned and defiladed from the enemies 
batteries and everything prepared for a passive defence. 
Such was the state of affairs on Mount St. Nicholas when we learned 
that our battery was to relieve the 2nd. According to the orders of 
the 0. C. the Artillery of the Corps, one 9-pr. battery was to be furnished 
by each brigade (9th and 14th) for Mount St. Nicholas, and one 4-pr. 
battery by the 14th Brigade, for the “ Circular Battery.” The choice 
of the batteries was left to the officers commanding Brigades. On 
the 19th August, the 1st Battery, 9th Brigade, received orders from the 
0. C. the Artillery of the Corps to proceed to Mount St. Nicholas, 
and relieve the 2nd Battery of the same Brigade. 
We lay in bivouac on the north side of Gabrova, so to reach 
St. Nicholas towards night we had to start at 4 p.m. at the latest. 
Usually all cooked food and the reinforcements arrived at St. Nicholas 
when it began to get dark, but often all communication between the 
“Bed Houses” and St. Nicholas was interrupted by the enemy’s fire 
from the “ wooded bridge,” which they held for this purpose. The 
long ascent of the pass therefore obliged us to start long before evening. 
At that time the battery consisted of 4 guns and 12 ammunition 
wagons. Two guns had already been in the position since the 14th, 
and two others had been given over to the 14th Brigade, to replaee 
two of their guns which had been damaged by the enemy’s fire*. 
Some of the wagons were, with the guns, already in position, and some 
had been handed over to the 2nd Battery. But the 12 we had with us 
were quite sufficient at first, besides, the relieved battery was to leave 
its wagons for the use of the relieving one. This afterwards became 
the rule in the Shipka. It was done for the purpose of lightening 
the task of the relieving battery- in bringing up its wagons. Finally, 
if the number of rounds in the 12 wagons was insufficient, the battery 
* The exchange of guns between the batteries of an army corps took place on the order of the 
0. C. Artillery ; if the guns of one brigade, which was likely to be heavily engaged, had been 
damaged, they were replaced by those of the other. 
