The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 4, 1854. Cannon Gun•carriages, ammunition, and bag gage•waggons, j‘c 588,476 „ Projectiles. Powder The remainder is composed of a multitude of objects too numerous to be mentioned. But it is to be remarked that ,n the above enumeration is not included the marine artillery, weighing 3,520 kilog., or 3,033 kilog. each gun, according to whether they are 36 or 30 pounders. Although Sebastopol is far from being regularly fortified on the land side the works are numerous, and the cannon of large calibre, and the Russian fleet defends the ram parts. Nearly 1,500 guns are opposed to those of the allies, a number far exceeding the ordinary. Valenciennes, in 1793, sustained a siege of 45 days with 173 cannon ; Dant rd., in 1811, had 500 cannon, and yielded through famine at the end of 108 days ; Ciudad ltodrigo, with eighty-sit guns, w. a not taken for twenty-one days. EFFECT OF CANNON SHOT. Apropos of the siege works which the allied forces have so laboriously constructed against Sebastopol, the Siècle gives some interesting data regarding the power which shot of different calibre have of pene trating from various distances the usual substances employed in fortifications. It says In settled ground, half sand and half clay, a ball of 38, bred at a distance of 000 metres, with a charge of 6 kilogrammes of gunpowder, penetrates 2 metres 9 centi metres; fired at 800 metres with the same charge its penetration is 1 m. 62 c. A ball of 24, tired by a charge of 4 kilog. of powder at the distances just named, penetrates 1 in. 84 c. and Im. 68 c. The charge lof guns of 36 is almost always 0 kilog. of powder, but that of guns of 24 exiles down pretty often from 4 kilog. to 3. In that case the penetration diminishes . at 600 metres it is 1 m. 78 c. i►► place of 1 in. 81 c., and at 800 metres, 1 in. 57 c. in place of 1m.68 c. The gun of 16 is fired with a charge of 4 kilog ; 2 kilog. 67 heel.; and 2 kilog. Its penetration at 800 and 810 metres is 1 m. c. and 1 in. 42 c. That force of penetration explains the remarkable effect produced at 13omarsuud by guns of 16. In oak timber of ordinary quality, a ball of 33, fired at 600 metres, penetrates 1 m. 12 c., and at 800 metres, 95 c. only. At these dis tances the penetration of a ball of 24 with a full charge is 90 c. and 78 c. ; and that of a ball of 16. 81 c. and u 5 c. The penetration of a ball of 3) into good mason•work is, at 00J metres, 40 centimetres, and at 100 metres, 38e. ; that of a bell of 24 is 42 c. and 34 c. Now, since so much is said of bombshells, let us state their penetrating for.e at the moment of their fall. Fired at 600 meters, a bomb (of 32 c. in diameter penetrates 50 c. into ground half sand and half clay, 22 c. into oak, and 10 c. into masonry. This is not altogether in accord with the effect generally attributed to shells, but is, nevertheless, exact. We may, however, state that it' the shell is fired at an angle which allows it to acquire the greatest possible rapidity in its fall, it may penetrate 40 c. into oak and 18c. into masonry. Thus it is seen that even at 70J metres, on an average, our artillery must produce absolute ravages in the fortitica tions of various kinds of Sebastopol. It must not, how ever, be supposed that the penetration will be doubled when the distance is one-half less. A ball of 30, which at 000 metres has a penetration of 46 c. into good masonry, is only 07 c. when tired at 300 metres. EQUIPMENTS OF THE FRENCH SOLDIERS. The Constitutionnel, while reviewing the material improvements lately introduced into the French army, and arising from the experience of African warfare, thus describes a variety of ameliorations which have been found most advantageous in the East:— Necessity is a good counsellor, and to it we owe the im• provemeuts in the equipment and manner of .feeding the soldiers, which have produced such good results in the East, and which will produce important consequences, if ever &conflict should break out in Europe. Experience has shown how strengthening-food can be supplied with diminution of weight. During the expeditions biscuit was substituted for bread, rice was employed in rations, coffee was substituted for wine, and the biscuit broken into the coffee gave the soldiers strength to support the most painful fatigues. Such was, with meat, the basis of the food in Africa. The small volume occupied by it enabled six and even eight days rations to be placed in the knapsacks, and that diminished the embarrassments of the baggage train. Blankets were found to be only a slight protection against the pernicious effects of damp in the nights, and the hos pitals were encumbered with patients labouring under ague until the 'cote abri was discovered. That was almost the salvation of the army. The tente-abri is three feet high, four and a half long, and is composed of three pieces of canvass, attached by buttons or strings. Two sticks placed at each extremity serve to support it, and it is fixed by wooden pins to the earth. Three minutes suffice to set it up, and two to take it down. Each tent accommodates three men : each of the three carries a piece of the canvass, and they divide the sticks and pins amongst them, and so they march. The first thing they do on arriving is to fix the tent, and to dig a trench to carry off the water in case of rain. At night they sleep wrapped in blankets and with their knapsacks for pillows. They are thus preserved room damp or rain. The tente-abri permits an army always to bivouac in the open fields, and does away with the necessity of dividing it amongst different villages, so that it is always united. A guarantee fur discipline, and a pro tection for health, it preserves the effective force, and as sures the durttion of an army. It is without contradiction one of the great benefits lrcm Africa,and one of the things which will have the greatest influence on the state of our armies whatever may be the field into which they may be called to combat. With his six days' provisions, his camping effects his equipment, the piece of canvass for histent, his blanket, and sixty ball cartridges, the soldier bears a heavy weight; but experience proves that it is not too much for men of average strength, and that it is better for the man to carry THE PRESS. more, and to recruit his strength by good repose. The blanket and the little tent assure to the soldier refreshing sleep. THE MINIE RIFLE. An eye-witness of the battle of Alma records his impressions of the moral influences caused by the Minie rifle : Here I witnessed the first splendid effect of the Minie rifle, not only as a superior weapon in itself, but also u giving confidence to the soldier, causing him to rely upon the efficacy of his fire, and making him at the same time anxious to have every shot of his tell. The men, far from raising their muskets hastily, and popping them off in the blue air, paused before they fired, singled out the objects at which they proposed to aim, and, taking their aim coolly and deliberately, discharged their pieces. This tire did dreadful execution among the Russians. It mude the tire of their battery slow and irregular; for, while the great guns were being served, if frequently happened that the leaden hailstorm from our battalions picked off the men that were pointing or priming their pieces; and though the Russians were remarkably steady, and fresh men stepped in to fill the place of the killed and disabled, and though in this way all the guns of the battery were worked to the last moment, still much precious time was lost from the service of the guns being interrupted, though but for a few moments, yet continually. When our troops en tered the batteries, they saw that their Miuie balls had stopped many of the enemy's gunners in the act of point ing and printing guns. Some of them actually lay over the guns on which they had fallen when they were struck to death. HUMANITY OF THE FRENCH. An acknowledgment of the humanity displayed by French officers and soldiers towards the wounded was conveyed in a despatch transmitted to the War office by Brigadier-General Rose. The compliment, having been communicated by Lord Cowley to the French Government, was immediately made public in the Moniteur, where the extract from General Rose's letter appears as follows : Head-quarters of the French Army (Left Bank of the Alma), Sept. 213, 18154. My Lord,—Your lordship will learn with lively satisfac tion, I feel certain, that the conduct of the French soldiers and officers towards the enemy wounded at the battle of the Alma has been humane to the highest degree. I have seen, on the very field of battle, French soldiers administer ing food and taking care of wounded Ru'sians, and litters borne side by side, carrying French and Russian wounded. Obeying the inspirations of a noble heart, Marshal St. Arnaud had ordered that the enemy should receive the same attentions as his own soldiers. When the Zouaves had taken the telegraph by storm, they gave loud hurrahs in honour of the Emperor, and many of them came round me and shook me by the hand, cheer ing for the Queen, adding that nothing could resist the French and English united. THE LATE REV. G. MOCKLER. The following letter from the Chaplain to the Forces has been addressed to the brother of the the Rev. G. Mockler, who died from cholera a few days after the bottle of the Alma : _ _ War-office, Oct.. 26. Rev. and dear Sir,—Your excellent brother fella sacrifice to his zeal, and sank under the heavy labour which was un avoidably imposed uponhim. He landed in the Crimea, like the rest of the officers, without tent or baggage of any kind, except what he could carry. He struggled m nobly against failing health, and officiated to the last; he was unceasing in his attentions to the sick and wounded, but his consti tution could not bear up against many rays and nights of exposure, and he died on the 2nd of October, absolutely from exhaustion. The highest testimony is borne to his character and conduct by all who knew him; and it must be the consolation of yourself and the rest of his relations that, if ever martyrdom was endured where death of violence did not consummate the work, your poor brother suffered it. He will find his reward elsewhere. He was buried on the heights of Sebastopol. With sincere commisseration for the sorrow which you are now enduring, believe me very faithfully yours, G. R. Gum. RUSSIAN CIVILITIES. The Moniteur de l'Armee relates the following in cident : _ Captain Du Val de Dampierre, aide-de-camp of General Bosquet, taken prisoner (luring a reconnaiaance, in which his horse was killed, having asked to be conducted to a Russian general, requested him to send word to the ad vanced posts that he was a prisoner and not wounded, in order to reassure his family and Mends. The Russian general, with a courtesy we are happy to proclaim, the more so as it does honour to one of our enemies. replied to M. de Dampierre that he placed every confidence in the word of a French officer, and that he did not hesitate to give him the permission to deliver in person the message to his fiends, on condition that he would immediately return to the Russian camp. M. de Dampierre gratefully accepted the favour, and a few hours afterwards he returned to the Russian advanced posts to redeem his pledge, and resume his ckitivity. HOSPITAL AND COMMISSARIAT SERVICES. The later accounts of the state of the Scutari hos pital are much more favourable than the previous reports. Great improvements had taken place. A vessel full of medical stores, which had been sent up to Varna previously to the battle of the Alma, had come back, and its contents were of great service. Much improvement in every department was per ceptible, though many things were sttll wanted, and the sufferings of the wounded continued to be very severe. Respecting the commissariat, an " Old MINIM .;•;;iilL7'i7' - 11:n`JWWZI 1037 Campaigner" writes thus on the 13th from the camp before Sebastopol:— I must in fairs play give praise to our commissariat de partment, for I nevee saw a better rationed army in all my life. Not one day have we been without good and whole some provisions—the pork, twice a week, admirable, and every day excellent beef or mutton, l&Ib. each man, tea and sugar daily, and the biscuit remarkably good ; indeed, they deserve very great praise, and, though it is the fashion to abuse the commissariat officers, give what they may, still this is, I believe, only done by boys, who expect to get turtle-soup and champagne. Few can no beater than my self how our army was rationed during the late war—bis cuit and the worst description of beef, no tea, no sugar; we now get a double allowance of the finest rum I ever tasted. They are a set of hardworking officers, who do not certainly spare themselves; I have known many to be up all night riding in search of provisions. I like to give praise where it is due, and few can give better opinions on these subjects than those who have served in the Penin outer campaigns; for, as I said before, boys who have seen nothing but regimental messes in England can give no opi nion on the subject. In every valley there are good cot tages and villas ; you enter a house with all the accommo dation of an English gentleman's—pier-glasses twelve and fourteen feet high, pictures, libraries, Itroadwood's grand pianos, all broken to pieces, and this not done by us, but by their own detestable Cossacks. A SURGEON'S LETTER. A letter from an army surgeon who was present at the Alma is published by a provincial contem. porary : Dear —, You know what is called " fleld-day " at the hospitals in town. Perhaps an amputation or two, with half a dozen surgeons to assist if necesur7, and a hundred surgical eyes looking on. Can yon imagine our fleldday on the banks of the little river Alma? if God spares me again to see old England, I shall probably never more witness as much practice in my whole lifetime es I saw there in two hours. The pluck of a soldier no one has yet truly described. They laugh at pain, and will scarcely submit to die. It is perfectly marvellous, this triumph of mind over body. If a limb were torn off or crushed at home, you would have them brought in fainting, and in a state of dreadful collapse. Here they come with a dangling arm or a riddled elbow, and it's " Now, doctor be quick, if you please-I'm not done for so bad but I can get away back and see." And many of these brave fellows, with a lump of tow wrung out of cold water wrapped round their stumps, crawled to the rear of their tight, and, with shells bursting round them and balls tearing up the sods at their feet, watched the progress of the battle. I tell you as a solemn truth that I took off the foot of an officer, Captain —, who insisted on being helped on his horse again, and declared that he could fight now that his " foot was dressed." Surgeon told him that if he mounted he would burst the ligatures and die on the spot, bat for all that he would have returned to the hill if he could have prevailed on anybody to help him to mount. RUSSIAN VERSION OF MOVEMENTS ]N THE CRIMEA. While the allies were executing the bold and suc cessful flank march around Sebastopol to Balaklava Prince Menichikoff was performing, according to his own account, a somewhat similar piece of strategy. His narration of the operation is published as follows in the Journal de St. Petersburg':— The Anglo-French conducted their united forces before Sebastopol front the north of that town to the south, thus entirely changing the basis of operations. They attained this object by a flank march round the town. The organs of the foreign press cannot find expressions to praise sufficiently the skilfulness of this mansuvre. 'Without wishing to detract from the merit of it, at least it is just to mention also and to explain the oper►tions of Prince Mens chikoff in reference to the enemy. After the battle upon the Alma, the prince, not finding a position strong enough upon the Katscha and the llelbeck to give a fresh battle to the enemy, passed the Tschernaya, and concentrated his forces in a position to the east of the town, after having garrisoned the forts of the north with a sufficient number of troops. The enemy advanced, passed the Katscha and the Bel beck, and reached the heights which ieivound the northern forts. The position of Prince Menschikoff was disadvantageous, inasmuch as it enabled the enemy to occupy the direct communications with the interior of the empire. It was, therefore, necessary to abandon that position, and the prince achieved the object by a luminous idea, carried into effect in the most daring manner. He marched during the night of the 24th to the 25th of September towards Bsktchi Serai, after having crossed the Tschernaya by a single bridge. He executed this march in flank in the course of the night, and in the morning of the 2.lth found himself in the valley of Baktchi Serai, placed in the flank awl the rear of the enemy, having his communications free with the interior of the empire, and with the reinforcements which he expected. The new position of the prince would have been annoying to the enemy if the latter had been desirous of attempting an attack against the forts of the north. For this reason the enemy did not make the at tempt to attack the forts of the north. On the contrary, he adopted the resolution of changing the point of attack from the north to the south of Sebastopol, by turning the town to the east. Let it be permitted to us here to throw a light upon some circumstances, which will enable an im partial judgment to be formed respecting the operations of the two parties. Prince Menechikoff had to march across mountains and by one road, which from the point where Mackenzie's Farm is situate was only at a distance of four vents from the advanced posts of the enemy. Indeed the bivouac tires wire seen thence. The prince could not atttempt to oover his march by the MIMS which are smugly adepead in sash - WI 1 MOMINIP Q