By Dr. Clarence D. Ussher

Dr. Ussher's memoirs give us invaluable insights into social and political life in the Armenian Heartlands of Ottoman Turkey. They also give a detailed account of the siege of Van in 1915, when Armenians resisted the Ottoman authorities' attempts to exterminate them. Ussher and his American hospital lay inside Armenian lines, which were pounded by Ottoman artillery for several weeks. The siege came to an end when the Russians occupied the city. Ussher's memoirs of this period are complemented by Grace Knapp's The Tragedy of Bitlis, and Rafael de Nogales's Four Years Beneath the Crescent. The latter commanded Ottoman artillery during the siege of Van.