cupy Plevna as soon as possible, and Baron Krudener sent forward General Schilder-Schuldner to carry out the orders. There had been reports of the advance of a Turkish army from Widin, marching on the Russian flank, under command of Osman Pasha, and other reports of a column moving from Sophia. Due credence seems not to have been given to these reports, and Baron Krudener was not aware of the Turkish advance until it was close upon him. Schilder-Schuldner had 6,500 men and 46 guns in the division with which he went to capture Plevna; he was attacked by a vastly superior force of Turks before he had reached his objective point, and the first battle of Plevna was disastrous to the Russians.
A brigade of Don Cossacks had been ordered to join Schilder-Schuldner's command. They were taking their dinner on the 19th, when the cannonade opened about eight miles to the southeast, right in the direction they were going. As soon as possible they hurried on in the hope of finding him, but found themselves cut off by a column of Turkish infantry, which lay stretched across the road. There was some sharp fighting with the infantry and artillery of the command, and when night came on neither party had any decided advantage. On the morning of the 20th the Turks began the fighting at Bukova, just north of Plevna, where they engaged the Russian right. The Russian centre attacked the heights of Grivitza, to the east of Plevna, and after a hard struggle drove out the Turks from some of their positions, and forced them fairly into Plevna. On the Russian left the Turks were driven back, but not without heavy losses by the Russians, and some of the regiments suffered so severely that they were put in retreat.
While the Russians were considering the fight nearly over, and thinking that another attack would put them in possession of Plevna, the streets of that town seemed to vomit forth Turkish troops by the thousand. On and on
