Turks Capture Missolonghi

Today’s installment concludes Siege of Missolonghi,
our selection from History of Greece from the Conquest by the Romans to the Present Times by George Finlay published in 1864.

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Previously in Siege of Missolonghi.

Time: 1825
Place: West coast of Greece

About midnight small parties of the garrison, and a few women and children, succeeded in reaching the post occupied by the Greek troops; but instead of fifteen hundred men they found only fifty, with a very small supply of provisions to relieve their wants. Here they learned also, with dismay, that the camp at Platanos was a prey to the ordinary dissensions and abuses which disgraced the military classes of Greece at this period. The weary fugitives in order to escape starvation were soon compelled to continue their march to Platanos. Even there they obtained very little assistance from the chiefs of the armatoli; and when they had rested about a week, they resumed their journey to Salona. Many perished from wounds, disease, and hunger on the road. About fifteen hundred reached Salona during the month of May, straggling thither generally in small bands, and often by very circuitous roads, which they followed in order to procure food. Of these about thirteen hundred were soldiers; there were several girls in the number of those who escaped, and a few boys under twelve years of age.

As soon as Ibrahim and Reshid found that the greater part of the garrison had evacuated Missolonghi, they ordered a general assault. Their troops occupied the whole line of the walls without encountering resistance. But it was not until morning dawned that the Turkish officers allowed their men to advance into the interior of the town, though several houses near the walls had been set on fire during the night. A whole day was spent by the conquerors in plundering Missolonghi. The Greek soldiers who were prevented from accompanying their comrades, either by wounds or sickness, intrenched themselves in the stone buildings best adapted for offering a desperate resistance. The party which occupied the principal powder-magazine, when closely attacked, set fire to the powder and perished in the explosion. A second powder-magazine was exploded by its defenders, who also perished with their assailants. A windmill, which served as a central depot of ammunition, was defended un til April 24th, when its little garrison, having exhausted their pro visions, set fire to the powder. All the soldiers preferred death to captivity.

The loss of the Greeks amounted to four thousand. Ibrahim boasted that the Turks had collected three thousand heads; and it is probable that at least one thousand perished from wounds and starvation beyond the limits which the besiegers examined. The nearest points where the fugitives could find security and rest were Petala, Salamis, and Salona. The conquerors took about three thousand prisoners, chiefly women and children. About two thousand escaped, for besides those who reached Salona, a few found refuge in the villages of Aetolia, and some of the inhabitants of Missolonghi and of the surrounding country evaded the Turkish pursuit by wading into the lagoon, and ultimately reached Petala and Salamis, where they received protection and rations from the British Government.

Many deeds of heroism might be recorded. One example deserves to be selected. The Morean primates have been justly stigmatized as a kind of Christian Turks; and, as a class, their conduct during the Greek revolution was marked by selfishness. Yet a Morean primate displayed a noble example of the purest patriotism at the fall of Missolonghi. Papadiamantopulos of Patras, a leading Hetairist, [1] was one of the members of the executive commission entrusted with the administration of Western Greece.

[1:  The Hetairists were members of the Hetaeria Philike, a secret politi cal society founded in 1814 for the liberation of Greece. This organi zation was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the revolution. — Ed.]

In the month of February, he visited Zante to hasten the departure of supplies. His friends there urged him to remain. They said that as he was not a soldier, he could assist in pro longing the defense of Missolonghi more effectually by remaining at Zante, to avail himself of every opportunity of sending over supplies, than by serving in the besieged town. But the noble old gentleman silenced every entreaty by the simple observation: “I invited my countrymen to take up arms against the Turks, and I swore to live and die with them. This is the hour to keep my promise.” He returned to Missolonghi and died the death of a hero in the final sortie.

John James Meyer, a young Swiss Philhellene, also deserves to have his name recorded. He came to Greece in 1821, married a maiden of Missolonghi, and at the commencement of the siege was elected a member of the military commission that con ducted the defense. He was an enthusiastic democrat in his political opinions, and a man of indefatigable energy — acting as a soldier on the walls, as a surgeon in the hospital, as an honest man in the commissariat, and as a patriot in the military commission. A short time before it was resolved to force a passage through the Turkish lines, he wrote his last letter to a friend, which contains these words: “Our labors and a wound in the shoulder — a prelude to one which will be my passport to eternity — have prevented my writing lately. We suffer horribly from hunger and thirst; and disease adds to our calamities. In the name of our brave soldiers of Noti Bozzaris, Papadiaman-topulos, and in my own, I declare that we have sworn to defend Missolonghi foot by foot, and to accept no capitulation. Our last hour approaches.”

In the final sortie he reached the foot of the hills, carrying his child and accompanied by his wife. He was there slain, and his wife and child were made prisoners. Meyer entertained a firm conviction that constancy on the part of the Greeks would eventually force Christian nations to support their cause, and he deemed it to be his duty to exhibit an example of the constancy he inculcated. Greece owes a debt of gratitude to this disinterested stranger who served her before kings and ministers became her patrons.

The conduct of the defenders of Missolonghi will awaken the sympathies of freemen in every country as long as Grecian history endures. The siege rivals that of Plataea in the energy and constancy of the besieged; it wants only a historian like Thucydides to secure for it a like immortality of fame.

[* He was not present at this second siege.]

This ends our series of passages on the Siege of Missolonghi by George Finlay from his book History of Greece from the Conquest by the Romans to the Present Times published in 1864. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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