This is mainly because he held the Bulgarian town of Plevna for five months against superior Russo-Romanian forces in 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War, though the city eventually fell.

His father was a civil worker who, soon after Osman's birth, was appointed to a position in the Ottoman capital, so the family moved to Constantinople (now Istanbul).

[5] After the end of the war, Osman was appointed to the General Staff and, a year later, had risen to the rank of captain with the title of Bey.

In 1859 he was appointed as a military representative in the forming of the cadastral and census map of the Ottoman Empire, a job he fulfilled for the next two years.

[5] His next appointment was Yemen, in 1868, where he was promoted to the rank of major-general with the title of Pasha, but also caught a disease which forced him to return to Constantinople in 1871.

Osman Pasha, who had at that time his headquarters at Vidin, defeated the Serbian Army, but in April 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottomans.

[7] The Russian troops crossed the Danube into Bulgaria and Osman, with his army of 15,000 men and 174 cannons, was tasked with protecting the important fortress of Nikopol.

[citation needed] Osman knew that the Russia's next objective would be to cross the Balkans, the last important natural obstacle before Constantinople itself, but they could not risk that if they had a strong enemy force behind them.

He took advantage of the natural landscape and built a strong network of forts, trench lines, and redoubts that enabled him to fully use his superior armament (his troops had Krupp breech-loading artillery, long range Peabody-Martini rifles and Winchester repeaters, which severely outgunned and outranged the Russians).

Grand Duke Nicholas, commander of the Russian troops, sent an urgent telegram to Prince Carol I of the newly independent Principality of Romania asking for Romanian support.

The Romanian Army sent 40,000 soldiers with 112 guns, modern Krupp pieces equal to those of the Ottomans, and Carol I was named commander of the joint Russian-Romanian troops around Plevna.

After two days of fighting, even though the Allies had managed to dislodge the Ottomans from a few of the redoubts, almost all of them were recaptured, with the exception of Grivitza 1, taken by the Romanian soldiers.

By December, with food and ammunition running low and his troops suffering from starvation, cold and disease, Osman knew he could not hold on throughout the winter and that no help from outside was available.

He is still revered in Turkey today as a sort of tragic hero who displayed gallant perseverance in the face of hopeless odds, and a Turkish flag is often seen draped on his tomb.

Osman Pasha quickly created a strong network of fortifications, raising earthworks with redoubts, digging trenches and gun emplacements.

Rumors of Osman Pasha's death spread panic, and Ottoman troops were driven back and enveloped by Romanian forces.

[23] Minnesota based heavy metal band Kostnatění covered the Plevne March, composed in memory of Gazi Osman Pasha, on their EP "Oheň hoří tam, kde padl" (Fire burns where it falls) released in 2022.