The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

DECEMBER 16, 1854. made a sortie, which was repulsed with a loss of 200 men on their side and twenty six on that of the allies. During the whole night, however, isolated s hots were heard. Towards morning the wind suddenly rose, and threatened us with another hurri • cane. Most providentially its violence was confined to a few gusts, and then it ceased. With this exception nothing of any great interest has occurred. The severe blow sustained by the commissariat department from the disastrous effects of the hurricane has been overcome by the energy displayed in that department. The injury, which at the time appeared irretrievable, is already for gotten, and, although the seamen who strove success- Lilly against this fearful gale will ever remember its awful ravages, on the expedition itself the effects are nil. The Russian forces, both in the rear of Balaklava and at Inkermann, have remained perfectly inactive since their late defeat at Inkermann. Truly, to recover from so terrible a rout, both physical and moral, would demand a longer period than the interval which has elapsed. The enemy has occu pied his time in digging huts—an example which has been diligently followed by the allies. The French display much ingenuity in the construction of their winter quarters, having uprooted the vine yards in forming a species of high wickerwork to protect their tents and sheds from the violent Crimean wind. Decidedly, the next vintage will be a poor one. The Turks, who are certainly patient, if not valorous, have successfully employed their time in digging deep underground huts, with a winding passage to defy the wind, and chimnies constructed of clay, to permit the inmates to enjoy a fire. The British soldier, without any experience in such matters, has done his best to make himself as much at home as possible. The infantry are un fortunately so much engaged in trench-duty that little time can be spared to shelter themselves against tie winter. The artillery and cavalry, with more liisure on their hands, have displayed both patience an 1 ingenuity in the construction of their huts, a 'me of which are most extensive and complicated. I. is really marvellous how the venerable proverb, '• Necessity is the mother of invention," has been proved. The British soldier, who, at the time he quitted his native shore, was the most dependent of mortals, has now learnt to contrive and invent comforts in a manner most surprising—even to him self. In the culinary arts he has made wonderful progress ; and, besides making soups apparently out of nothing at all, he succeeds in disguising ration pork or beef into a palatable form. The cannonade between the siege batteries and the redoubts has been carried on very languidly on kith sides. The French are more active than our selves, but have still many rounds to fire before they attain the number discharged by us. We are awaiting, I believe, the arrival of several immense m irtars, said to be on their way to the Crimea. As it is, we return shot for shot, and nothing more. According to camp reports, or camp " shaves," as they are more expressively termed, considerable R issian reinforcements have arrived within the last fey days. This I very much doubt. If I were to give you all the camp " shaves " in circulation, they would form a very extensive, if not a veracious, folio volume. In the last few days we have had ten deserters, nine privates and one officer. The officer has given detailed and very satisfactory information, and if he is a bona fide deserter, and not a spy sent over to mislead us, we have reason to hope that the Crimean campaign will much sooner be ended than we had a right to expect. He states that the Russian army stiffen dreadfully. That from two to three hundred die every night; that cold and hunger kills them ; that the battle of the sth demoralised them, and caused them utterly to despond; that the generals have in vain tried to persuade the men and officers to fight another battle ; that they frequently march them out in the plain, but that the temper of the troops is not of a kind to justify the commanders in bringing them "up to the scratch." This last part of the officer's story is certainly correct. The Rus- sians are continually turning us out, by showing large columns in the plain, and they do as regularly withdraw those columns after an hour or two. The sum total of our reinforcements in the last week has been 10,000 French, 3,500 English, and 1,500 Turks-15,000 men. THE HURRICANE IN THE CAMP. By way of supplement to the record of disasters at sea, caused by the hurricane of the 14th November, the following graphic description of its effects in the camp is furnished by the Times correspondent : A harsh, screaming sound, increasing in vehemence as it approached, struck us with horror. As it passed along we heard the snapping of tent-poles and the sharp crack of timber and canvas. On it came, " a mighty and a strong wind ;" the pole broke off short in the middle as if it were glass, and in an instant we were pressed down and half stifled by the heavy THE PRESS. folds of the wet canvas, which beat us about the head with the greatest fury. Half breathless and blind, I struggled for the door. Such a sight as met the eye The whole head-quarters' camp was beaten flat to the earth, and the unhappy occupants were rushing through the mud in all directions in chase of their effects and clothes, or holding on by the walls of the inclosure as they strove to make their way to the roofless and windowless barns and stables for shelter. Three marquees alone had stood against the blast—General Estcourt's, Sir John Burgoyne's, and Major Pakenham's. The general had built a cunning wall of stones around his marquee, but ere noon it had fallen before the wind, and the major shared the same fate still earlier in the day. Next to our tent had been the marquee of Captain de Morel, aide-de-camp to the Adjutant-General Est court. It lay fluttering on the ground, and, as I looked, the canvas seemed animated by some great internal convulsion—a mimic volcano appeared to be opening beneath it, and its folds assumed the most fantastic shapes, tossing wildly about in the storm. The phenomenon was speedily accounted for by the apparition of the gallant owner fighting his way out desperately against the wind, which was bent on tearing his very scanty covering from his person ; and at last he succeeded in making a bolt of it, and squattered through the mud to the huts. Dr. Hall's tent, close at. hand, was levelled ; and the principal medical officer of the British army might be seen, in an unusual state of perturbation, seeking for his gar ments ere he took to flight. Brigadier Estcourt, with mien for once disturbed, held on, as sailors say, " Like grim Death to a backstay," by one of the shrouds of his marquee. Captain Chetwode, in drawers and shirt, was tearing through the rain and through the dirt like a maniac after a cap which he fancies was his own, and which be found, after a desperate run, was his sergeant's. The air was filled with blankets, hats, great coats, little coats, and even tables and chairs ! Mackintoshes, quilts, india rubber tubs, bed-clothes, sheets of tent-canvas went whirl ing like leaves in the gale towards Sebastopol. The shingle roofs of the outhouses were torn away and scattered over the camp, and a portion of the roof of Lord Raglan's house was carried off to join them. The barns and commissariat-sheds were laid bare at once. As instances of the force of the wind I may mention that large arabas, or waggons, which stood close to us, were overturned; that men and horses were knocked down and rolled over and over; that the ambulance waggons were turned topsy-turvey; and that a large and heavy table in Captain Chet wode's tent was lifted off the ground, whirled round and round till the leaf flew off, and then came to mother earth deprived of a leg and seriously injured. The marines and Rifles on the cliffs over Balaklava lost tents, clothes—everything ; the storm tore them away over the face of the rock and hutled them across the bay, and the men had to cling to the earth with all their might to avoid the same fate. Lord Raglan's house, with the smoke of its fires steaming away from the chimnies, and its white walls standing out freshly against the black sky, was in deed " the cynosure of neighbouring eyes." Our generals' marquees were as incapable of resisting the hurricane as the bell-tents of the common soldiers. Lord Lucan was seen for hours sitting up to his knees in sludge amid the wreck of his establishment meditative as Marius amid the ruins of Carthage. General Pennefather, Sir R. England, Sir J. Camp bell, Brigadier Adams, Brigadier Buller—in fact, all the generals and colonels and officers in the field— were just as badly off as the meanest private. The only persons whose tents weathered the gale, as tar as I could hear, were Mr. Romaine, Deputy Judge- Advocate-General ; Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson, Royal Artillery; and Captain Woodford. The first had, however, pitched his tent within the four walls of an outhouse, and secured it by guys and subtle devices of stonework. They were hospitable spots those tents —oases in the desert of wretchedness ; many a poor half-frozen wanderer was indebted almost for life to the shelter he there received. While all this is going on, never forget that fuel is nearly all gone here, and that there are savage fights, even in fine weather, among the various domestics, for a hit of shaving or a fragment of brushwood. Never forget that all this time the storm is raging with increased violence, and that from half past six o'clock till late in the day, it passed over the camp, with the fury of Azrail, vexing and buffeting every living thing and tearing to pieces &tithing inanimate. Now and then a cruel gleam of sunshine absolutely shot out of a rift in the walls of clouds and rendered the misery of the scene more striking. Gathered up as we were under the old wall, we could not but think with anxious hearts of our fleet at sea—of our transports off Balaklava and the Katscha—of the men in the trenches and on picket. Alas ! we had too much reason for our anxiety. DESTRUCTION OF A RUSSIAN COAST BATTERY. The Tribune, accompanied by the Highflyer and the Lynx, were despatched some time since on a cruise to the eastward, towards the straits of Kutch, 1183 from which these vessels returned on the 20th ult. to the Katscha. During the cruise, and when about eighteen miles to the southward of Anapa, and within a short distance of the shore, tire was opened upon them from a two gun battery, which had been formed close to a windmill. A few broadsides, how ever, completely silenced them, and the seamen and marines landed to destroy the place. On their ap proach the Cossacks retreated, and it was determined to blow the place up. The train not exploding as soon as antictpated Captain Moore and Lieutenant Smitbett unluckily approached the place to see if anything had gone wrong. When close to it, the powder exploded, severely scorching them, but happily doing no serious injury. Letters from Admiral Dundas to the Admiralty give the following official narrative of the affair. The admiral w►ites : Britannia, off the Katscha, November 22. . I beg you will lay before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty a copy of a letter I have received from Captain the lion. S. T. Carnegie, of the Tri bune, detailing the proceedings of that ship, the Highilyer, and the Lynx, during their late cruise. The attack on, and destruction or, the enemy's force and battery appear to have been planned and executed with skill and judgment. The uncertain and heavy weather prevented further operations on the coast; indeed, it was with great difficulty that Captain Carnegie got the people off after destroying the tower and battery, although perfectly smooth sea when they landed. J. W. D. DUNDAS, \gee-Admiral. (ENCLORIIIII.) H.M.S. Tribune, Straits of Kertch, NOT. 17. Sir,—l have the honour to acquaint you that on the forenoon of Sunday, the Nth instant, whilst standing in for the coast of Circassia, about ten miles to the N.W. of the Fort of Anapa, guns were observed to be fired from a large marten() tower, situated at a spot which commands the coast road from Anapa to Kertch, and which is marked on the charts by the word " Daheinetie." Her Majesty's ships Tribune, Ilighflyer, and Lynx stood in as far as the depth of water would allow them, anchored at a dis tance of nine hundred yards from the beach, and opened a fire upon the place, which in a short time compelled the garrison to leave it. Some of the seamen and marines were immediately landed, and completed the destruction of the place by fire. The tower, with two guns, ammunition, &0., was blown up under the direction of Captain Moore, of her Majesty's ship Higliflyer, and I regret to add that in the performance of this service that officer was slightly, and Lieutenant M. E. Smithett, of her Majesty's ship Tribune, severely, wounded by the explosion. The landing was effected without trouble, but the surf rose with such rapidity afterwards that it was with dint culty our boats were enabled to rejoin their ships. 'l' he officers who landed behaved with skill and ability; and I wish to bring under your notice the exertions of Captain Moore, Lieutenant Luce, commanding the Lynx, Lieutenant M. E. Smithett, of her Majesty's ship under my command, and Lieutenant Armytage, of the Higlytyer, whose conduct in getting the boats over the surf was most conspicuous. (Signed) THE BALTIC FLEET. Sir C. Napier in the Duke qf Wellington, and ac companied by the chief part of the British Baltic squadron, left Kiel on the 7th on their return to England. Two ships were then left, the Edinburgh, with the flag of Rear-Admiral Chads, and the Eurya/us, which also weighed anchor from Kiel on Monday last. The Princess Royal, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Seymour, arrived at Plymouth on Sun day froth the Baltic. S. T. CARNECkti, Captain. SIEGE LIFE. The agrentem of a siege life are strikingly depicted in a letter from the camp, published by the Tines Let the reader imagine the bleakest common in all England, the wettest bog in all Ireland, or the dreariest muir in all Scotland, overhung by leaden skys, black as ink and lashed by a tornado, sleet, snow, pelting drizzle, and rain—a few broken stone walls and roofless huts dotting it here and there, roads turned into torrents of mud or water across it, and then let him think of the condition in which men and horses must have been placed in such a spot on a November morning, suddenly deprived of their frail covering, and exposed to bitter cold and wet, with empty stomachs, and not the remotest prospect of obtaining food or shelter till the storm ceased. Think of the men in the trenches, the covering parties, the patrols, and outlying pickets and sentries, who had passed the night in storm and darkness, and who returned to their camp only to find fires out and tents destroyed, These were men who dared not turn their backs for a moment, who could not blink their eyes, on whose vig.lance the safety of our position de • pended, and many of whom had been for eight or ten hours in the rain and cold. These are trials which demand the exercise of the soldier'u highest qualities. A benighted sportsman caught in a high land storm thinks no misery can exceed his own, as fagged and drenched and hungry he plods along the