Disgrace Made General Die.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 16, 1912:
Toscheff's Suicide Followed Blunder That Lost 7,800 Lives and Cost Him His Epaulets.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Saturday, Nov. 16.— The Daily Telegraph's correspondent in Bucharest sends this dispatch:
    "I have learned the following details of the suicide of the Bulgarian General, Toscheff.
    "A great disaster took place between Kirk-Kilisseh and the village of Raklitza. Two regiments of the elite of Sofia, No. 1. (Tarnova) and No. 6 (Czar Ferdinand) were destroyed owing to a mistake by Gen. Toscheff.
    "He ordered the Tarnova regiment to pursue the Turks, who had retired from Kirk-Kilisseh to the fortified positions at Raklitza. In order to give the Turks the impression that they were attacked in great force, Gen. Toscheff divided the regiment into ten companies, and it was cut up. A similar fate befell the Czar Ferdinand regiment, which was dispatched as reinforcement. Two other regiments then advanced, and put the Turks to flight.
    "Of the two Sofia regiments, consisting of 9,000 men of the middle and upper classes, only 1,200 were left alive, most of these being wounded.
    "By this disaster nearly every house in Sofia was put in mourning. When King Ferdinand learned the sad news, he was deeply moved. Sending for Gen. Toscheff, the King reproached him for the disaster and deprived him of his epaulets. This was the cause of Gen. Toscheff's suicide. It is stated that he was guilty of a similar mistake at Slivnitza during the Bulgaro-Servian war."