Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 edition. Excerpt: ... CONCLUSION. Effect of the loss of Kara -- Could Kars have been relieved ? -- Conduct of Omer Pasha -- Mouravieff's opinion of it -- Selim Pasha -- General Williams. Here, then, we arrive, after hurried and discursive steps, at the end of this campaign in Anatolia. While I express my unfeigned sense of the defects of a narrative hastily compiled from rough and very brief notes, I would also state that, except I had been urged from quarters entitled to my respect, to lay these facts and comments before the public, it is more than probable they would never have been published. But on my arrival in England I could not fail to perceive the intense interest and impatience with which authentic and explanatory intelligence of the sad fate of the beleaguered city was desired. It would have been far more satisfactory to myself if these events coud have been recorded by the abler pen of my chief or of the other British officers who are now in captivity. This could not be; and therefore, utterly defective as I felt must be my work, I obeyed what I conceived to be a call of duty; and have done what I could to satisfy the just impatience of an expectant public. That the loss of Kars is a blot on a year otherwise successful for the arms of the Allies cannot be denied: an injury has been thereby inflicted on the prestige of England, which we must all regret. Sevastopol was doubtless a grand triumph, calculated to produce a vast political effect throughout Europe and the West; but Asiatics scarce knew of its existence, whereas scores of wandering dervishes and fakirs from the regions of Central Asia, Persia, and Northern India have visited Kars, and are thoroughly aware of its importance. These men take the place of newspapers in the East, and their...
