While thus engaged, the proprietors of the ‘Times’ newspaper accepted an offer of his services as their special correspondent in the war between Turkey and Herzegovina and the neighbouring provinces, and he accompanied the Turkish force against the Montenegrins.
The letters written by Ogle from Montenegro and the Herzegovina, from Greece, from Crete, and from Thessaly, are full of picturesque details, brightened by a kindly humour.
While residing at Volo, on the gulf of Thessaly, Ogle learned, on 28 March 1878, that an engagement was imminent between the Turkish troops and the insurgents occupying Mont Pelion and the town of Macrynitza.
On 1 April his headless body was found lying in a ravine, and identified by a scar on the wrist and a blood-stained telegram in his pocket-book addressed to The Times.
In a parliamentary paper, issued on 18 June, Ogle is blamed for imprudence in venturing among the belligerents, and his death was attributed to a wound received while retreating with the insurgents after the second battle of Macrynitza; but these statements were denied by friends.