Identifier: decisivebattless00knox (find matches)
Title: Decisive battles since Waterloo : the most important military events from 1815 to 1887
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Knox, Thomas Wallace, 1835-1896
Subjects: Monitor (Ironclad) Battles Military history Military art and science Naval battles Naval history Naval art and science Hampton Roads, Battle of, Va., 1862
Publisher: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons New Rochelle, N.Y. : Knickerbocker Press
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: State of Indiana through the Indiana State Library

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bastions were placed ten guns,four on each front, leaving only one on each flank ; andthe lines of the ditch, which were very short, were poorlydefended. There were four gates, two opening on theland and two on the river. There existed no way of fill-ing the ditch with water, as its bed was higher than thelevel of the Danube, and there was no water running intoit. Around the front facing the land, a lunette aboutnine feet deep, but quite dry, had been dug in the ditchas a safeguard against Russian mines. General Rothfound himself besieging Silistria with an insufficient forceand almost no artillery; only one battering train havingbeen provided for carrying on a campaign in which foursieges had to be undertaken. The Turks were defeatedin several sharp fights in which they engaged the Russianswhen the latter were approaching Silistria. GeneralRoths first position was strictly defensive, his soldiersbeing posted on the high ground in front of the fortressand beyond the range of its guns.
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5i 52 DECISIVE BATTLES SINCE WATERLOO. At a distance of two thousand yards from the fort theRussians began their trenches. On the right the linereached to the Danube, but the left couid not be broughtto the river,- being still held by the Turks. For fourweeks the hostile armies retained this position ; except-ing a few sallies of no consequence there was no break intheir relations. At midnight of August 28th the Russiansmade an assault upon the Turkish forces encamped onthe two heights nearest them (A and B), and drove themaway. The Turks lost about five hundred men. OnAugust 10th a fleet of thirty-six Russian ships appearedbefore Silistria, but without engaging the fortress. Thebesiegers were considerably reduced in numbers by thewithdrawal of two divisions, who were ordered to Shumlaon the 15th of September. The troops suffered fromdisease, and besides they were poorly fed. There wasno ammunition, and the one hundred and twenty gunswhich the Russians had were useless. Winter was nea

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