THE blockade of plevha. 
3?2 
In the night from the 27th to the 28th November a deserter reported 
to the commander of the picquet on the Plevna-Lovtcha road that the 
Krishine redoubt had been evacuated by the Turks. General Skobeleff 
ordered a party of riflemen to advance, to ascertain the truth of this 
report; they found the redoubt deserted by the enemy, and later on in 
the morning of the 28th the Greater and Less Krishine redoubts, and 
also the trenches on the Green Hill, were in possession of the troops of 
the 30th Division. 
Simultaneously with the news of the taking of the Krishine redoubts 
by our troops, about 9 a.m., the report reached me that the Turks had 
evacuated Redoubt No. 10, and that the Roumanians had captured the 
redoubt opposite Grivitsa. 
In these circumstances, I ordered all the troops on the right bank of 
the river Yid to advance to the attack, and the brigade of the 16th 
Division, with three batteries, and soon also the 9th, 10th, and 11th 
Rifle Battalions, which had not yet begun their movement towards 
Grivitsa, to follow to the left bank of the Yid, and join themselves to 
the detachment of General Skobeleff. 
At 12 noon the Emperor came to the Imperial redoubt between the 
village of Radichevo and the Tutchenitsa ravine, whence His Imperial 
Majesty was able to follow the advance of our troops from the eastern 
line of defence and the battle on the left bank of the Yid. 
At daybreak began the battle between the army of Osman Pasha and 
the troops of General Ganetski. In the night from the 27th to the 28th 
November, the troops on guard in the parts of the position occupied by 
the Grenadiers were: in the 2nd Grenadier Division the 5th (Kiev) 
Grenadiers, in the 3rd the 9th (Siberian) Regiment. These troops 
occupied all the lodgments in the investing line. The immediate sup¬ 
ports of these two regiments were furnished by the other two regiments 
of the brigades—viz., the 6th (Taurida) and the 10th (Little Russian) 
Grenadiers. All the 9-pr. guns of both artillery brigades were dis¬ 
tributed in the batteries of position of the investing line, the 4-pr. 
batteries remaining with the second brigades of their divisions, and 
forming the reserve, which was stationed at Gorni Netropol and Dolni 
Dubnik. The lodgments to the north of Gorni Netropol and the 
village itself were occupied by the 17th (Archangel) Regiment of the 
1st Brigade, 5th Division, with two Roumanian batteries ; the 18th 
(Yologda) Regiment of the same brigade was kept in reserve with two 
batteries. 
Already in the night cavalry patrols had reported the concentration 
of important Turkish forces on the river Yid, but the strength of the 
force brought against us was not discovered till we were attacked at 
7.30 a.m. To support our chain of picquets, Major-General Daniloff, of 
His Majesty’s suite, ordered the 2nd Battery, 3rd Grenadier Artillery 
Brigade, occupying the Battery of Position No. 3, to open fire, and the 
10th (Little Russian) Grenadiers to move to Kopani Mogil, and at the 
same time called up the 2nd Brigade of the division with the 4-pr. 
batteries. 
While these dispositions were in course of execution, it had become 
just sufficiently light to enable us to examine in detail the forces con- 
