Russia Enters Romania

On June 6th Emperor Alexander, accompanied by his Chancellor, arrived in Romania and took up his headquarters.

Continuing Russo-Turkish War 1877,
our selection from Political History of Recent Times by Wilhelm Mueller published in 1882. The selection is presented in twelve easy 5-minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Russo-Turkish War 1877.

Time: 1877-1878
Place: Balkans

The position of Romania between the two belligerents rendered its alliance a matter of importance to both sides. On April 16th a convention was concluded with Russia by which free passage through the principality was conceded to the Russian army, together with the use of the railroads, post, and telegraph and it was also provided that the Rumanian Commander-in- Chief should establish magazines at all important points, excepting Bucharest, in the rear of the Russian army of operation. As this convention was a virtual declaration of war with Turkey, orders were issued on the 18th to concentrate ten thousand men at Bucharest, and two days later the mobilization of the whole army was commanded. Prince Charles assumed the chief command in person.

The Russian army entered Romania on April 24th, but its progress toward the Danube was very slow. There was but one railroad leading from Bessarabia to the Turkish frontiers, and this had been rendered useless at places by the heavy rains, while from the same cause the roads were almost impassable. Skobeleff’s cavalry brigade, pushing forward with all speed, accomplished the distance from the Russian frontier to Barboshi in one day. Infantry and artillery followed. Galatz and Braila were strongly garrisoned, and the possession of the bridge secured. The Turks had expected great things from their Danube flotilla, but their expectations were doomed to disappointment. Batteries were erected at Braila and other points, and the passage of the river at Reni and Matshin was obstructed by torpedoes. On May 6th a Turkish monitor was blown up by a shell from the Braila batteries, and a few days later an ironclad turret-ship was disabled. On the 26th two Russian officers, Dubasheff and Shestakoff, blew up a Turkish monitor in the Matshin Canal by means of torpedoes. The Turkish fleet in the Black Sea, on the other hand, proved of great value, enabling the Turks to send troops and provisions by water, while the Russians were confined to land communications.

On June 6th Emperor Alexander, accompanied by his Chancellor, arrived in Romania and took up his headquarters at Ployeschi, north of Bucharest, where the Grand Duke Nicholas had been since May 15th. The waters of the Danube were still sixteen feet above the normal level, rendering the passage of the river for the present impracticable. The army under the Grand Duke’s command consisted of nine army corps. How strong the Turkish forces opposed to the Grand Duke’s army were, it is scarcely possible to estimate even approximately. According to the most probable guess there were twenty thousand men in the Dobrudja, ten thousand in Silistria, thirty thousand in Rustchuk, twenty thousand in Shumla, and thirty-five thousand in Viddin, making a total of one hundred fifteen thousand. In addition to these a reserve army, about thirty thousand strong, was formed to the south of the Balkans, and soldiers were brought back from Montenegro. These were all regulars; the number of the irregulars it is impossible even to conjecture. These forces were under the chief command of Abdul-Kerim Pacha, who arrived at Shumla on April 17th, and distinguished himself, so long as he remained in command, by complete inaction.

In the night of June 21st, the Russians crossed the Danube in boats at Galatz and dislodged the Turks from the heights of Budyak. On the 23d Matshin was occupied by the Russians, and by the 28th the Fourteenth Army Corps, commanded by General Zimmermann, was on the right bank of the river. The Turks now abandoned the Dobrudja and fell back on the line of defense between Czernavoda and Kustendje (Trajan’s Wall); but this also was abandoned after a faint resistance and occupied by the Russians on July 19th. The passage of the main army took place at Simnitza on the night of the 26th. By three o’clock in the afternoon of the 27th Sistova was in the hands of the Russians, and the Turks were in full retreat, some toward Nikopoli, others toward Tirnova. On the same day a proclamation was issued to the Bulgarian people announcing their freedom from Muslim oppression and calling upon them to render the Russian army all the assistance in their power. On July 2d a bridge across the Danube was completed, and by the middle of that month four army corps were on Bulgarian soil, two still remaining on the left bank.

For the next few weeks, the Russians met with no check, and almost with no resistance. Biela was taken on July 1st, Tirnova on the 7th, and Drenovo and Gabrovo on the 10th. On the 12th the Grand Duke Nicholas, accompanied by Prince Cherkassky, who was entrusted with the reorganization of the civil administration of Bulgaria, took up his headquarters in Tirnova. On the 13th General Gourko, with the advance-guard of the Eighth Army Corps, began the passage of the Balkans by the Hankioi Pass to the east of the Shipka. On the 14th he was in the Tunja Valley, and his Cossacks had destroyed the telegraph wires at Yeni-Sagra. On the 17th, in spite of the opposition of Reouf Pacha, he occupied Kazanlik and Shipka, at the southern extremity of Shipka Pass. On the 18th his forces entered the pass from the south, cooperating with Prince Mirski, who had entered it with two regiments from the north, and on the 19th Shipka and Hankioi passes were in the hands of the Russians.

The Russian advance had been along the line of the Jantra; in order to secure that line, it was necessary to reduce the fortress of Nikopoli, and General Krudener, with the greater part of the Ninth Corps, was detailed for that duty. On July 16th, after a three-days’ siege, the garrison, consisting of two pachas and six thousand men, surrendered to the Russians. Selvi and Lovatz were also occupied by small detachments, so that the greater part of Central Bulgaria, with the Balkan passes, was in the hands of the invaders. From those passes Russian cavalry were dispatched still farther southward.

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