Battle of Plovdiv (1878)

{{Short description|1878 battle of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)}}

{{Refimprove|date=November 2007}}

{{Other uses|Battle of Philippopolis (disambiguation){{!}}Battle of Philippopolis}}

{{Infobox Military Conflict

|image= File:0530 Вид на одну из улиц Филиппополя (Пловдива), январь 1878.jpg

|caption= View of one of the streets of Filipoppol (Plovdiv) after the liberation, January 1878

|conflict=Battle of Plovdiv

|partof=the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878

|date= 14–16 January 1878

|place=Sanjak of Plovdiv, Edirne Province, Ottoman Empire
(now Plovdiv, Bulgaria)

|result=Russian victory

|territory= Russians capture Edirne

|combatant1={{flag|Russian Empire|1858}}

|combatant2={{flag|Ottoman Empire}}

|commander1=Iosif Gurko

|commander2=Suleiman Pasha

|strength1=12,000

|strength2=7,000

|casualties1=1,300 killed and woundedEggenberger D. An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. Courier Corporation. 2012. P. 338

|casualties2=5,000 killed and wounded, 2,000 capturedJacques T. Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. P. 804Dowling T. C. Russia at War. From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. 2014. P. 644.Eggenberger D. An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. Courier Corporation. 2012. P. 338

|}}

The Battle of Plovdiv,F. V. Greene, The Russian Arm and Its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878, Read Books, 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=J6wqF5Mx6mwC&dq=%22Battle+of+Philippopolis%221878&pg=PA359 p. 359.]Norman Tobias, The International Military Encyclopedia, Academic International Press, 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mKIpAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Battle+of+Philippopolis%221878 p. 19.] or Battle of Philippopolis,Stanley Sandler, Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=L_xxOM85bD8C&dq=%22Battle+of+Plovdiv%22+1878&pg=PA690 p. 690.] was one of the final battles of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War.

{{Campaignbox Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)}}

Following the crushing Russian victory at the last battle of Shipka Pass, Russian commander Gen. Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko began to move southeast towards Constantinople. Blocking the route was the Ottoman fortress at Plovdiv under Suleiman Pasha. On 16 January 1878, a squadron of Russian dragoons led by Captain Alexander Burago stormed the city. Its defenses were strong but superior Russian numbers overwhelmed them and the Ottoman forces retreated almost to Constantinople. At this time foreign powers intervened and Russia agreed to the Treaty of San Stefano.