Miles Thinks Turks Are Not Yet Beaten.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 2, 1912:
American General Doubts Reports of Stampede and Expects Some Ding-Dong Fighting.
HIGH PRAISE FOR BULGARS
Reminded Him of the American Backwoodsmen In the Civil War — His Son with Ferdinand.
Special to The New York Times.
    FITCHBURG, Mass., Nov. 1.— "The marvelous success of the Bulgarian Army," said Lieut. Gen. Nelson A. Miles to-night at Fitchburg to a New York Times correspondent, "is due to three essential things that they have observed in preparing for war: thorough training, entire secrecy, and rapidity of mobilization."
    Gen. Miles's son, Capt. Sherman Miles, is the American military attaché in the Balkan States, and has been with the main Bulgarian Army. During the last eight months he has been making a careful study of the organization and equipment of the Balkan armies.
    "The personnel of the Bulgarian troops is splendid, as I personally witnessed when I went to the Balkans for the war of 1895," continued Gen. Miles, "The physique of the men is superb, and the only comparison I can make is with our own American backwoodsmen during the civil war. Filled with enthusiasm as they now are they are the equal of any soldiers in the world. We may say that a new first-class fighting power has arisen at the storm centre of Europe.
    "Unless the accounts from the seat of war are exaggerated the battle around Adrianople is the bloodiest yet fought. A loss of 40,000 out of even 200,000 is incredible and I am inclined to think there is a mistake. At Gettysburg in three days fighting only about 40,000 fell on both sides. Plevna, with weeks of fighting, only cost the Turks and Russians 40,000. Sixty thousand fell at Port Arthur, but the series of battles outside the fortifications lasted more than a month.
    "I am inclined to think that Adrianople was carried by night rushes, after an all-day bombardment. Successful frontal attacks on anything like an equal number — and the Turks are reported to have had 40,000 more men in the field — are almost an impossibility with modern weapons.
    "I don't think that there will be any stampede to Constantinople, and am inclined to think the Turks are retiring in better order than is reported. The news that 50,000 men have been landed on the Black Sea coasts above Constantinople is very important if true. It will mean that the Bulgarian Army can be taken in flank anywhere between Kirk-Kilisseh and the capital in rough and difficult country.
    "In talking of pursuit it has to be remembered that an army, after fighting forty-eight hours, is too tired to do much. Even one night's grace would allow the Turkish Army to entrench themselves sufficiently well to make one man equal to five. Savoff's army cannot expect much help from either the Servian or Greek armies in an attack on Constantinople. There is too great a distance between the armies. The nearest the allies can send troops by sea without passing the Dardanelles is 130 miles from Constantinople."
    Gen. Miles said he did not look for active intervention by any one power owing to mutual jealousness.
    "Should Austria decide to intervene, however," he said, "a very large army would not be necessary for her purpose. It would be the moral effect of foreign military occupation in her rear that would be effectual in bringing Bulgaria to terms. I understand there is nothing she dreads so much as the march of an Austrian Army through her territory. There are elements in the Austro-Hungarian Army which hate the Bulgars and Serbs, and which no discipline could keep from excesses.
    "No words are too high for the vigor and activity the Bulgarian Army has shown. The rules of warfare are as old as war itself and never will alter essentially. They are to divide the enemy if possible while keeping together and to bring the whole forces on the isolated wing. This is the reason that an inside position with the enemy converging is sometimes a positive advantage and outweighs disparity in numbers. It was the favorite strategy of Frederick the Great.
    "Two allied armies can never form a junction safely in the actual presence of an enemy. Remembering what the Turks did at Kars and Plevna I should say plenty of hard ding-dong fighting is to be looked for in the next few days."