THE BLOCKADE OF PLEVNA, 
375 
Brigade, 2nd Grenadier Division, advanced from its trenches and tried 
to envelop the Turkish left flank. The 2nd Battalion, 5th (Kiev) 
Grenadiers, and one battalion of the 6th (Taurida) Regiment, were 
directed also towards the ford on the river Yid, to occupy the heights 
on the right bank of the river. The Grenadiers, having crossed the 
river up to their waists in water, climbed the heights of Blazevatz and 
captured the hostile redoubt, the garrison of which surrendered without 
firing a shot. 
The brigades of the 16th and 3rd Guard Divisions, which were 
brought up, conformably to the orders given by me on the 27th Nov., 
to strengthen the troops of General Ganetski, took no part in the 
battle. According to a report of Lieut.-General Katalei, he sent across 
to the left bank of the Yid at 7 a.m. on the 28th November six battalions 
of the 3rd Guard Division, with two batteries, under Major-General 
Kurloff. At 10 a.m. this force, at the request of General Ganetski, 
took post at Dolni Dubnik, where it received an order from the com¬ 
mander of the Corps of Grenadiers to advance by the Sofia road and 
attack the left flank of the enemy. As this movement was commencing. 
General Skobeleff arrived, and having assumed command of those 
troops, ordered General Kurloff to halt his command, to keep them as 
a reserve, and to await the arrival of a brigade of the 16th Division. 
Having remained about two hours, and not having received further 
orders from General Skobeleff, General Kurloff again moved his troops 
forward on the Sofia road, till he reached the bridge over the Yid, 
when the battle was already over. 
At the time when the 2nd and 3rd Grenadier Divisions were heroically 
repulsing the attacks made against them by the entire Turkish army, 
the troops of the nearest sectors of the investing line, under the com¬ 
mand of Lieuts.-General Zotoff, Baron Kriidener, and Katalei, Major- 
General Shitnikoff, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Roumanian 
Army, General Tchernat, had advanced against the hostile works on the 
east and south fronts. The greater part of these works were already 
evacuated by the Turks, and the troops, in presence of His Imperial 
Majesty, entered the town of Plevna. Having occupied the town, the 
troops, under the personal orders of your Highness, continued the attack, 
with your Highness at their head, to the river Yid, in rear of the enemy, 
and by degrees were concentrated on the ridge of the hills to the south 
of Plevna, near the Sofia road. 
The Roumanian troops, with whom His Highness Prince Charles 
remained during the whole time of the advance to the river Yid, met 
with resistance from the defenders of the Oponetz redoubts, still occupied 
by the enemy. After a protracted struggle, the defenders of these 
works laid down their arms, and the Roumanians took three guns and 
2000 prisoners. 
General Katalei having remarked the retreat of the Turks to the 
river, resolved to attack the redoubts opposite the Yolhynian Hill with 
the battalions of the 3rd Guard Division, which had remained on the 
right bank of the Yid, with a view to preventing the return of the 
enemy into the fortified camp. At 11*30 a.m. the Rijine redoubt was 
taken without a struggle, and after an insignificant resistance the 
