A correspondent of the Daily News met Skobeleff just after this occurrence, and thus describes him:
He was in a fearful state of excitement and fury. His uniform was covered with mud and filth; his sword broken; his Cross of St, George twisted around on his shoulder; his face black with powder and smoke; his eyes haggard and blood-shot, and his voice quite gone. I never before saw such a picture of battle as he presented. I saw him again in his tent at night. He was quite calm and collected. He said: "I have done my best; I could do no more. My detachment is half destroyed; my regiments do not exist; I have no officers left; they sent me no reinforcements, and I have lost three guns." "Why did they refuse you reinforcements?" I asked; "who was to blame?" "I blame nobody," he replied. "It is the will of God."
Military critics commenting on this battle say that the Russians had abundant troops that had not been under fire, and there was no real difficulty about sending Skobeleff sufficient reinforcements to enable him to hold his position. If he could have held it until the heavy artillery was placed in position, the capture of Plevna was practically assured. But the Russian commanders had found themselves so severely handled that they had enough of fighting, and determined that Plevna could be taken by siege better than by assault. The Russian killed and wounded were estimated at 18,000 to 20,000, and the Turkish about 5,000 less than the Russian.
The capture by assault having been given up, the Russians sat down to invoke the aid of that engine, more powerful than all their batteries, the engine of starvation. Osman Pasha was to be starved into surrender, and for this purpose the Guards were called from Russia and the army of the Czar was strengthened in the same way it had been strengthened after the disaster of the second attack on Plevna, One by one the roads leading into Plevna were occupied, but it was nearly two months from the terrible
