The Osman cigarette was named for Turkish General Nuri Pasa Osman, who had become a hero while fighting Russian troops during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. At the siege of Plevna, Osman and his soldiers held off the Russians for 143 days. Mr. Dick Reynolds, owner of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., was an avid reader of newspapers, and he possessed a remarkable memory. It is thought that Reynolds picked the Osman brand name from the newspaper articles about the general's exploits that he had read over thirty years earlier.