Januarius Aloysius MacGahan was an American journalist and war correspondent working for the New York Herald and the London Daily News.
20 Facts About Januarius MacGahan
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Januarius Aloysius MacGahan was born near New Lexington, Ohio on June 12,1844.
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Januarius MacGahan's father was an immigrant from Ireland who had served on HMS Northumberland, the ship which took Napoleon into exile on St Helena.
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Januarius MacGahan did not get a law degree, but he discovered that he had a gift for languages, learning French and German.
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Januarius MacGahan ran short of money and was about to return to America in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out.
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Januarius MacGahan was arrested by the French military and nearly executed, and was only rescued through the intervention of the US Minister to France.
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In 1871 Januarius MacGahan was assigned as the Herald's correspondent to St Petersburg.
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Januarius MacGahan learned Russian, mingled with the Russian military and nobility, covered the Russian tour of General William Tecumseh Sherman and met his future wife, Varvara Elagina, whom he married in 1873.
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Januarius MacGahan learned in 1873 that Russia was planning to invade the khanate of Khiva, in Central Asia.
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Januarius MacGahan described his adventures in a popular book, Campaigning on the Oxus and the fall of Khiva.
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Januarius MacGahan was married to the daughter of an old Russian noble family.
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Januarius MacGahan was invited by his friend, Eugene Schuyler, the American Consul-General in Constantinople, to investigate reports of large-scale atrocities committed by the Turkish Army following the failure of an attempted uprising by Bulgarian nationals in April 1876.
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Januarius MacGahan reported that the Turkish soldiers had forced some of the villagers into the church, then the church was burned and survivors tortured to learn where they had hidden their treasures.
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Januarius MacGahan said that of a population of seven thousand, only two thousand survived.
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Januarius MacGahan was assigned as a war correspondent for the Daily News, and, thanks to his friendship with General Skobelev, the Russian commander, rode with the first units of the Russian Army as it crossed the Danube into Bulgaria.
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Januarius MacGahan covered all the major battles of the Russo-Turkish War, including the siege of Pleven and Shipka Pass.
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Januarius MacGahan reported on the final defeat of the Turkish armies, and was present at the signing of the treaty of San Stefano, which ended the war.
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Januarius MacGahan was in Constantinople, preparing to travel to Berlin for the conference that determined the final borders of Bulgaria, when he caught typhoid fever.
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Januarius MacGahan died on June 9,1878, and was buried in the Greek cemetery, in the presence of diplomats, war correspondents, and General Mikhail Skobelev.
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Januarius MacGahan is still remembered in Bulgaria for his role in winning Bulgarian independence.