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CHURCH SERVICES.

CATHEDRAL.

CHURCHES.

WREXHAM DEANERY CHORAL UNION…

FRANCE.

THE WAR.

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THE WAR. DESPERATE FIGHTING AT PLEVNA. IMMENSE SLAUGHTER. RUSSIAN LOSS OF 10,000 MEN. We announced in our last issue the dearly-purchased success of the Russians in the assault upon Plevna, which was made during the previous Tuesday. It appears from more detailed accounts that by sunset, after a cannonade which commenced at daybreak, the Russian and Roumanian troops, under General Radionoff, whe was slightly wounded, carried the great redoubt ef Gravitza on the west of the position of Osman Pacha, and that General Skobelef had taken three redoubts on the southern front of the Turkish line between the roads which lead from Plevna in one direction toward Sofia; in another towards Lovatz. Two Turkish standards and Mve guns were captured; but the looses of the assailants were terrible, 5,000, according to the official bulletin, being wounded, and a great number, not ascertained, killed. The advantage thus gained, was, however, only temporary. The redoubts occupied bv General Skobelef were not retained for more than 24 hours. On Wednesday afternoon, the troops which garrisoned them were fiercely assailed by the Turks, who were repulsed five times. Skobelef repeatedly asked for reinforcements, which General Levitskv de- clined to send. Finally, General Kiiloff, on his own responsibility, sent the remnant of a regiment which had been engaged on the previous day, but before they arrived Skobelef had been compelled to retire. The Russians have not resumed the offensive; and, in the opinion of military authorities, there is little probability of their being enabled to do so. But they have not abandoned their positions The Grand Duke Nicholas, in a bu'leun, dated Saturday last, states that the Russian batteries canonaded Plevna all day on Thursday and Friday, the enemy not replying. On Friday evening the Turks made an energetic attempt to recover the Grivica redoubt, but. after an engagement lasting 3t hours, they were repulsed. The Grand Duke states that the Russian losses before Pleyna amount to about 12,500 men, and that of the Romanians down to Friday morning to 3,000. Adding the loss on Friday in the defence ot the Grivica redoubt, we get a total of 16,000 men The Daily Telegraph correspondent who witnessed the fighting, gives a graphic and interesting description. Writing from Sophia, on Monday, he says: When I left Plevna the Ottoman camp was environed by the outposts of the enemy. I e caped by night, conducted on horse- back by six gallant Circassians, who guided me over the mountains by a circuitous route, passing through the very midst of the Russian cavalry and infantry pickets. These brave fellows tracked our way with so much skill that by alternate daring and disguise we were enabled to elude both the regular sentries and the marauding Cossacks. It was a hard and dangerous ride, however. I was 28 hours in the saddle without any repose. The Russc-Roumanian bombardment began on the night of September 6th, and continued until the 14th. The as- sailants poured into our lines upwards of 30,000 shells. Their missiles ploughed up the ground, but made D9 sensible impression on the Turkish fastnesses. On Mon- day, September 10, the Russians delivered three infantry attacks, in which they were repulsed with considerable losses. Meanwhile, howevir, they had more or less completely surrounded the town, and we were te some extent cut off from our communications. On Tuesday, September 11, the long-expected grand attack was made. From daybreak we were assailed with a heavy cannonade on all sides, which continued until midday, when great masses of Russians were seen descending the slopes near the Loftcha road, exactly above the town of Plevna, and approaching the hill which forms the third line of the Ottoman defence facing northward. Osman Pasha was reaSyfor the assault. Without any dalay his prepara- fions were carried onf, the r-duabts biiag manned, i:1d the trenches oa either s'de occupied with roops, while reserves were disposed in the best positions for assisting the defence wherever it might prove the weakest. Ou the southern side ihe task which the enemy had before him was to take three redoubts crowning the top of a high ridge. On the northern side the werk cut oat was to storm another high ridge similarly defended by five redoubt?, also connected by entrenchments, I will describe the Loffcha attack first. As soon as the movement began I wont to the top of the ridge and saw the Russians advancing in heavy masses of close column of battalions. The Turks, held in perfect discipline, reserved their fire till the leading masses of the foe drew near enough for it to tell with deadliest effect. Then opened above the heads of the defenders in the trenches a more than ever terrific cannonade, under which the Russians were seen to desperately quicken their step, advancing in open order, while their men were falling singly and in groups all over the firey field. Now also quickened the dreadful roll of the Turkish infantry fire, bursting forth from the redoubts and intrenchments, to which the Russians could make but a scattered reply, hurrying as they were up hill. While these volleys swept backwards and forwards all along the trenches, the assailants went down by hundreds; but as fast as the advanced files thus melted away swarms of fresh men could be seen pouring up from the rear. They ooly served to feed. however, the awful harvest of lieath; yet, still pushing forward, with a certainly admirable devo- tion, the mass of them at last appeared to be gaining ground. The reason of this was their immense numbers, and the reckless use made of them by their leaders, for the way in which the poor fellows were falling every- where was by this time terrible to witness. Reinforce- ments were now also freely pushed up on the Turkish side, with the effect of feeding afresh the tremendous rifle fire maintained in the trenches. The nearer* ap 'roach of the Russian swarm of stormers to that white and red line of flame and smoke, aud the bursting forth, as it seemed, everywhere of redoubled volleys, made this moment supreme. Clouds of Russians were now quite close to the edges of the trenches, near enough, indeed, to enable the officers who led them to make a visible smployment of the revolvers which they brandished. Amid ever-increasing slaughter on both sides, the Turkish line once again received reinforcements, and then at a sudden signal—raising a tremendous shoot of "Allah, Allah and discharging simultaneous volleys —they were seen to leap over the lips of the trenches nd hurl themselves with steel and clubbed muskets upon the Russians. These latter yielded, and ran. for the shock was intolerable, the ground behind them being soon laterally covered with their dead and wounded as they went down nnder this onset, or were shelled from the redoubts while flying across the valley to the wooded aill opposite. Meanwhile the attack on the northern side of Oaman Pasha's great stronghold was devoloping itself. The nemy was greatly exposed during his passage of the follows to the Ottoman shell fire, which from the iirst was already costing his advance dearly. Leading the way were clearly two whole regiments, each of three battalions; but these, uslike the others, did not spread themselves in a swarm, but advanced in long lines taking every advantage that was possible of the" dips md slopes of the ground. In this order they were able :o maintain from time to time a heavy and regular fire sn the trenches and redoubts facing them, to which the Turks replied vigorously, suffering, however, meanwhile from the enemy's distant artillery, which very persistent- ly shelled their batteries, and the infantry in the trenches as well, with a somewhat trying accuracy. In this manner the Russians gradually advanced, keeping their order, till shortly before four o'clock the word was svidently given then all of a sudden to make a grand rush upon the trenches. It was a splendid and thrilling, but most terrible, sight to see to see the long lines top- ping the brow and breaking into the critical impulse of the charge. As the Russians thus accelerated their pace the Tuiks in the trenches opened upon them a perfectly consuming fire from their rifles, loading and discharging with the most extraordinary and impassive coolness, the effect of which was literally to wipe away line ..after line of those doomed Muscovites as they successfully ap- peared upon the ridge of the hill. No sight, I think, was ever seen before like this in warfare. It was the fearful triumph of the breechloading arm of precision. Again and again, it seemed that scarcely a single man stood up alive after the thunder and lightning of one of those tempests of bullets. The Turkish officers, mean- time, with a calmness worthy of the cool and sturdy stuff that they commanded, directed their men to load and fire as steady as possible, and to hold the muazles of their rifles low down at the waistbelts of their foe. Nevertheless, though the leading Russian files thus faded away from tlie front of the Turkish trenches, the same tactics cf reinforcements were being pursued and, aaa mented by ever fresh bodies of men, another and another attack was delivered on the northern face. The r-jsults were always exactly the same. Tse devotion or desoera- tion of the enemy could not carry him past the edge of those clouds of smoke curling in lighted wreathes from the trenches; and the moment came here also when the Turks, with a load cry of victory, dashed outside their cover and furiously swept the remnants of their enemy from the bill, scarcely numbering now more than a few hundreds of survivors. I estimate, from some experience of battlefields, the dead and wounded that lay around Plevna after all this bloody work at between 4.000 and 7,000. The Turks brought back nine prisoners to the redoubts, who told us that there were battalions amongst those of their side which charged first which had not a dozen men saved alive. After this exciting business there came for some time a period of comparative peace, interrupted only by sudden canuon-firing. By-and-by news was brought to Osman Pasha that the Russians were advancing yet again on the Loftcha side. Once more, therefore, the trenches were silently filled on the threarenei j face, and this time the assault of the Russians proved, if possible, more than ever furious, and was supported in greater numbers than before. A flick attack on the western side of the ridge was moreover combined with the movement; the object being to seiie some outlying redoubtp, which were the weakest part of our position, because the approaches to them were covered for some distance by a low scrub. This part of the ground had been entrusted to Bashi-Bazouks, while the Turkish regulars manned the redoubts and entrenchments be- yond. The Russians, apparently, moved up a whole division for this part of heir effort, advancing rapidly on the front and flank of the outlying redoubts. They were met, a3 heretofore, by a heavy shell fire from our batteries, and a well-sustained storm of rifle bullets from the pits; and, although some of Osman's troops engaged were now grievously fatigued, the attack upon the front of the trenches was again and again repulsed with fearful slaughter, the Turks cheering loudly as the evening slowly fell. Suddenly the Bashi-Baiouks, being unexpectedly assaiie ,tied in a panic, leaving the important point they held in the hands of the Russians, who, pouring after them in enormous numbers, rushed upon and into the redoubts higher op, which the Turks, half surprised, were unable to deny to them, and con- sequently retired or f/ln, fighiiBg hand to hand, the enemy swarming in and extendieg his temporary advaatage afterwards to the possession of two other redoubts, which were seized and filled with his men. Wednesday morning dawned, and found the Turkish commander gloomy and taciturn, but wrathfullv deter- mined to recover the compromised points of his defence Orders were given by Osman to Emin and Thahir Pashas to attack the lost hilluck with twenty battalions. The fight began with the very first clear streaks of light in the sky, the Russians resisting all the more desperately because during the night they had managed to throw up rough ramparts of earib in reverse of our captured position. The Turks, never:heks^, gradually recovered line after line of the entrenchments, till at mid-day they were well lodged near the top of the eminence the Russians still holding its wooded ;hou'd"r and also the j redoubts on the ridges, in which spots rhei hea-iq iar'^r camp and other neighbouring batteries fiorc4y "-b-lied,! them with a precision costing them terrible sacrifices The Muscovites, largely reinforced, once and again drove back from the disputed redoubts their sin-dy antagonists who, however, on each occasion retired oRlv to return with fresh cheers, till they stood firm at last ucder cover of the wood. At three o'clock the ferocious corn- bat reached its culminating point, for stoutly as the Russians tried to hold their conquest, they were at hurled out bodily beyond rampirt Bnd trench, doing the utmost that courage permitted, bHt utterly unable to resist the indomitable resolve of the 'Osmanlis. Abiut this time also two freeh battalions of our fide came wp in rear of the wood, and when the bugle sounded clear above the thunder of the notes of the Turkish charge—tbit nevar-*o-b<»-forgotten cry of "AI1"h Allah!"—echoed again along all our line, and Osman's men, sweeping forward at the top of their spe-i thrust down the hill the last throngs of the lingering Rnss;an resistance. The soldiers of the Czar, in a wild sauve que peut, now flung away their arms and scampered down the incline, leaving their guns and everything belonging to them in the battery. The Tu k, in the pursuit, strewed the glacis of the redoubts with flying Rus«ian% and it seemed that those who escaped were saved chiefly by the energetic fire opened from the Russian batteries. Osman's men captured here six cannon (including two which had been previously lost"), as well as immense quantities of small arms and ammunition. I estimate the Muscovite loss in this second engagement on Wednes- day as at leaat 5,000. I assure you that the long hill and the valley lying beneath it presented at this crisis a picture of human pas-ions and human anguish perfectly indescribable for the furv and horror displayed. On Thursday, and also during part of Friday, the broken enemy feebly and, as it were, formally. bombarded our head-quarter camp from 1h north- eastern side, without any result. It was on Saturday evening that I left Plevna. Several of the Pashas in Osman's army had been wounded in the fightinsr; but all of them I believe are doing well. The Sultan's forces have, of course. lo-t many hundreds of kilted and wonnded, though the totai relatively to the Russian acrifices is small. The 'roops were in the highest spirit every man of them feeling, seemingly, the most perfect confidence in the genius ar.d fortune of his commander. But the sight of sights to which my thoughts recur— and to which they must ever recur with mingled admira- tion an 1 horror as Ionian I live—is that twofold flaming field f battle and « tre awful re-nlt* 01 it lying on tlle r,\¡( hills of Bulgaria. As I cam out of the iœ¡;roiil,I rtress 60 -.v eer fully created b,) Osman Pasha, and so superbly deferded. I passed over the fighting ground of the previous days on the Lofrcfi* side. 1 limit my imagination as strictly as I can fa expressing the opinion that the corpses lying still unburied there—principally Russian—numbered at leut as many a. 8,000. Dreadful by daylight, the aspect of that vaat Golgotha was yet more awfu! under the light of the stars, a large part of the dead bodies amid which we picked our way lying naked in every conceivable posi- tion, with distorted limbs, with black aDd bloodv facœ on the grin, with clenched fists and glaring eves, some of them sitting bolt upright, their dead jaws dropped ani. stiffened fingers grimly pointing. There were places where these victims lay in even lines, just as swathes of grain lie in the corn-field. Thsre were others where the ground was covered with single separate carcases, as if a crowd of spectators at some out of-door show had suddenly been struck dead where each man stood. where was evidence of the deadly nature of the musketrv fire which the Turks had fed with the almost peifect weapon which had been put into their hands for this war. Along the incline of a large hill, right across both fl-ink* of a wide valley, and far again over another rise, dead Russians literally paved the ground which I cro,sed in quitting Plevna. Much the same overwhelming- sight was to be witnessed on the north-eastern side, and aLo in the other points where the Russian generals hurled 'heir brave, but unfortunate, rank and file recklesslv eg. oat the muzzles of the Ottoman rifles, till for sheer lack. at last, of more human biood to spill and squander, they had to desist from their cruel undertaking.

I-THE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE…

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UNITED STATES.