held as the war progressed;
but even at the commencement there were those who lauded their coolness,
and said that they did not exhibit any of that tremor under fire which
is not wholly unnatural in young soldiers.

Before these men were called into action, however, their powerful allies
had suffered terrible defeats at the hands of the enemy. Dealing only
with that division of the Russian army which was engaged in Bulgaria,
we have to note the following events. On June 27, 1877, the main body of
Russians, or the 'army of operations,' as it was called, which was under
the command of the Grand Duke Nicholas, crossed the Danube in floating
ferries from Simnitza to Sistova, feints having been made to concentrate
and pass over in other places at the same time, so as to mislead the
Turks as to the intended point of crossing. Although some efforts were
made by the latter to prevent the landing on the Bulgarian shore, which
resulted in many being killed and wounded on either side, the Russians
effected the passage in safety and occupied Sistova, where they found
all the houses of the inhabitants sacked and plundered by the Turks, who
had beaten a retreat. The Emperor and the Grand Duke Nicholas were
either on the spot or in the immediate vicinity at the time of the
crossing, the headquarters being then at Ploiesti, on the Bucarest and
Orsova, railway, and from that time forward they sustained a series of
terrible reverses.[177]

As soon as a sufficient force was landed, they divided the army into
three sections, one of which, under General Ghourko, pressed on to the
famous Shipka Pass in the Balkans, where he encountered the brave enemy;
he occupied the pass on July 19. Another section under the Grand Duke
himself--part of the 9th Army Corps--marched onwards to the equally
well-known position of Plevna, where Osman Pasha was in command of the
Turkish forces, and where the Russians met with their first check.
General Kruedener, who commanded the attacking force, was not only
repulsed, but, being assailed in his turn by the Turks, he was badly
beaten. Two days afterwards, having been reinforced, he, in conjunction
with General Schahofskoy, commanding a force of 32,000 men, made a
second assault on Plevna, but they were again defeated with terrible
loss. On July 31 Ghourko met with a still more serious defeat. He had
penetrated with a Russo-Bulgarian force as far as Eski-Zagra (or Zara),
where he met the Turks under Suleiman Pas