UNDER THE RED CRESCENT.
UNDER THE RED CRESCENT:
ADVENTURES OF AN ENGLISH SURGEONWITH THE TURKISH ARMY ATPLEVNA AND ERZEROUM,1877-1878.
related by
CHARLES S. RYAN, M.B., C.M. Edin.,
in association with his friend
JOHN SANDES, B. A. Oxon.
with portrait and maps.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
153-157, FIFTH AVENUE.
1897.
DEDICATION.
OF
THE STIRRING ADVENTURES OF MY EARLY YEARS
I DEDICATE TO MY SON
RUPERT.
C. S. R.
PREFACE.
In submitting to the popular verdict this book,which aims at being a plain, straightforwardaccount of the experiences of a young Australianin the last great battles which have been foughtin Europe, I feel that a few words of explanationare necessary.
In the first place, it may be asked why I haveallowed twenty years to elapse before givingthese reminiscences to the world. I must answerthat, as a hard-working surgeon leading a verybusy life, I had but little "learned leisure" atmy disposal; and I must also admit that I didnot feel myself equal to the literary labour ofwriting a book. Indeed it might never havebeen written if my friend Mr. Sandes had notagreed to my suggestion that he should reproducein a literary and publishable form the language ofthe armchair and the fireside, and so enable me torelate to the world at large some of the incidentswhich my own immediate friends, when listening[viii]over the cigars to my recollections, have beengood enough to call interesting. So much forthe matter of the book, and also for its manner.
In the second place, military critics as well asthe general public may be inclined to wonderhow it was that a young army surgeon, a merelad in fact, should have been allowed to playsuch an independent part in the field operationsat Plevna as is disclosed in the following pages,and should have been permitted to move aboutthe battle-field and engage in active service, withthe apparent concurrence of the general staffand of the officers commanding the differentregiments. In reply, I have to explain that theOttoman army was not guided by the hard-and-fastregulations which no doubt would renderit impossible for a junior surgeon in any otherEuropean army to act on his own volition andcarry on his work as he might think best himself.Furthermore, I may mention that throughmy close friendship with Prince Czetwertins