Monument to Januarius MacGahan

“The pen is mightier than the bullet”

On March 3 1878, the peace treaty that ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 was signed in San Stefano. Bulgaria was liberated after five centuries of Ottoman rule.

The American-born journalist Januarius MacGahan is considered an important chronicler of this war.
During this period, he also reported on the Franco-Prussian War, the Paris Commune, General Skobelev's march to Central Asia, the Third Carlist War in Spain, and the British polar expedition Pandora.

After Russia started the war of liberation in 1877, MacGahan was sent to the region. He had the opportunity to report on the crucial battle for the Shipka Pass in August 1877, when a handful of Russian soldiers and Bulgarian volunteers stopped Suleiman Pasha's army, which was many times larger.

In the wake of General Skobelev's vanguard crossing the Balkan Mountains, he reached San Stefano and witnessed the signing of the peace treaty.
Januarius regularly visited a friend who had typhus. He contracted the disease himself and died on June 9, 1878, in Istanbul.

There are many monuments to MacGahan in Bulgaria, and many Bulgarian cities have streets named after him.

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Source

• Text: Martin Damen
• Photos: Martin Damen