THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 
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Ardahan-Omer Aga-Kars; between c and d, Kars (by two roads), 
through Hadji Kalil or Ardost to Kagizman and Karakilissa. 
Corresponding to those four lines of operation, the Russians 
formed four columns, viz.:—The Rion Column (#), was intended to 
capture the port of Batoum; the rising of the Abchasians, however, 
necessitated the formation of the Ingur Column. The Akhaltzikh 
Column (b), the Alexandropol Column (c), and the Erivan Column {d), 
had, after the taking of Ardahan, Kars, and Bayazid, Erzeroum as 
their objective. Erzingian and Trebizond may be considered as 
ulterior objective points. The tables in the Appendix show the total 
available strength and the composition of the columns. 
(a) Rion Column. 
The coast range of north-east Tazistan, whose steep slopes approach 
the sea, and so leave only a narrow plain, on the average 3 kils. broad, 
and at the foot of which runs the road from St. Nicolai to Batoum, is 
traversed at right angles, from east to west, by the short and deeply 
scored valleys of the Tscholok, Okschamuri, Adkova, Tchorok-Su or 
Kintrischi, and Tchakvistana. Between these run the spurs which 
extend in a north-westerly direction from the main range of the Kolova 
Mountains to the coast. These five spurs have almost everywhere 
steep and terraced slopes, covered in some places with thick woods, 
and the communications throughout them are almost useless for mili¬ 
tary purposes; they therefore offer as many formidable obstacles to 
the advance of the Russian armies as excellent defensive positions for 
the Turks, the most advanced of which is 40 kils. from Batoum. 
On account of the want of Russian ships to oppose the Turkish fleet, 
which was stationed near Batoum to command the coast road, this latter 
was from the first impassable for the Rion detachment, and it had 
therefore to fight its way to Batoum straight across the hills. 
General Oklobjio ordered his troops to cross the frontier in three 
columns on the 24th April. The right flank column (Colonel Prince 
Abaschidze) was to advance from Fort Nicolai on the frontier post of 
Bill, and there unite with the centre column under Col. Worontintsoff ; 
the thus formed right column, under General Schelemetieff, was to 
reach the heights of Mukha Estate. The left column, under 
Major-General Denibekoff, was directed from the Tscholok frontier 
post also on Mukha Estate. Colonel Worontintsoff succeeded on the 
25th April, after a short skirmish, in uniting with Prince Abaschidze, 
who had reached the rendezvous on the 24th without fighting. The 
advanced guard (2 battalions 161st Regiment, 2 sotnias Kutais Horse, 
1 sotnia Jeisk Cossacks) had to clear the heights of Mukha Estate of 
the small Turkish force entrenched there before Maj.-Gen. Schelemetieff 
could take possession of it. 
General Denibekoff had, after a slight skirmish, seized on the point 
of passage of the Okshamuri, and reached Legwa, south-east of Mukha 
Estate. 
In the next few days the whole corps was concentrated in the camp 
of Mukha Estate, on the ridges between the Okshamuri and Adkova, 
