The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-28 00:00:00

1014 A diary kept by a French officer, and published in the Constitutionnel, gives a succinct account of the proceedings of our allies to the 7th inst. : October 12.—We have been informed that the Russian army of observation is concentrating on the Upper lielbeck, that it has received reinforcements, and that it amounts to about 45,000 men. Our divisions are consigned to their re spective quarters, ready to take the field. The army is being organised into two corps—the siege army, and the army of observation. The first is engaged in reconnoitring the place and landing its materiel, the second has installed itself on the extensive table-land which separates lialaklava from Sebastopol. That position is accessible only on two points—the ravine of the Tschernaya on the north-west, and the pass of Balaklava at the opposite extremity. Sixteen large works, redoubts, lunettes, redans, batteries, but, above all, the steep sides of the table-lend, defend it from the pass to the Tschernaya, and the latter is guarded by the English. The investment, however, is far from being complete, and a convoy, escorted by five battalions, has just entered the plrce. A complete investment is out of the question, with the force the allied armies have to dispose of. October B.—Our troops continue to land the siege artillery, and at the same time to work at the lines defend ing the table-land, on which the army of observation is encamped. The latter has moved towards the pass of /3alaklava. The English appear to attach little importance to these works of defence, and have constructed no intrench meuts. But, on the other hand, they are landing guns from the fleet, some of which are of an enormous size. They have just tried two cylindro-conical howitzers, which have set on fire the roof of one of the Russian barracks. The alarm bell is ringing in the town. October 4.—The same works, favoured by magnificent weather, are continued. We enjoy here the climate of Italy. A Zouave, taken prisoner, has escaped from Sebastopol. He states that sixty English and French marauders, surprised by the Cossacks, had refused to work at the fortifications of the place, and been removed to the interior of the country. Seeing a chance of escaping, he had consented to work, had concealed himself in a hole, and succeeded at night in reaching our advanced posts. The Russians, he says, are very fond of the French, and treat them with kindness, but they entertain a different feeling towards our allies. A Russian officer, disguised as a Turk, has been arrested in our camp. Last night a squadron of Lancers sallied out of Sebastopol, with the intention of surprising a post of Zouaves. An engagement ensued, and the Lancers were repulsed. It was the first dark night we had since our landing, and, for the first time, the weather was rainy. Two Zouaves were killed. October 5 —At two o'clock p.m. the tattoo was beaten. The garrison made a sortie along the coast on our left. The whole army was in an instant under arms. The Russians, seeing that we were on our guard, retired into the place. Their guns, as on the preceding day, have kept up an incessant fire on our reconnoitring parties. In the even ing a convoy, said to consist of 4,000 men, entered Sebas topol. It was to draw our attention to another point that the garrison had feigned a sortie. October 6.—We are still living in expectation. The un avoidable tediousness of our preparations cannot be helped. The Russians, however, will lose nothing for waiting. The four fleets are rapidly landing their heaviest artillery, and if they continue at the present rate the fire will be opened with 1,2u0 guns. Fancy the tremendous uproar they will cause when they all come into play. We may dance to that delightful concert, for English ladies are not wanting in our camps. The Captain of Engineers, Schmitt, had his thigh carried off by a cannon-ball while effecting a reconnaissance, and expired an hour afterwards. The French army loses in him a brave and intelligent officer, and will share the grief of the two brothers of the wort hy captain, who are serving here in its ranks. October 7, at Noon.—Ten battalions of Russian infantry, and sixteen squadrons of the relieving army, have shown themselves at the north-western extremity of our lines, close to the telegraph. Our advanced posts are on foot, and crowds of curious persons line the high grounds. It is so long since we beheld our adversaries on the Alma ! Twenty rounds, fired by the British artillery, drove them back a little, but they still remain within sight. Another French officer writes as follows, under date of the Bth : Our operations proceed with rapidity. The trench was opened on the 3rd, and by the Bth the first parallel was finished. The works proved less difficult than we had ex pected, after our first examination of the spot. At first, after removing the superficial earth, we came upon a tnfa rock, which, however, was of no great extent. Last night our engineers traced the lines of a powerful battery of thirty-five guns. The position of this battery is at the ex treme left, behind the Quarantine Port, and near a laza retto ; it will protect the first parallel, and sustain the at tack on the left. We hope to get it completely established in eight and forty hours. Work in the day is made diffi cult by the enemy, but we make good use of the nights. The other works will commence to-morrow, that is to say, judging from all appearances. The left battery is likely to have the honour of opening the fire ; it will occupy the enemy, and thus protected we can continue our further approaches. We shall have 200 pieces of artillery. The Russians have also a large number of guns, and those very heavy. They have fired red-hot shot, which has done us no great harm. Hitherto we have found no indications of the mines by which the environs of Sebastopol were inter sected, as we are told. Any mines that they may have made can hardly extend further than 250 metres. The cholera is sensibly declining. Later details reach us viA Vienna, having been transmitted thither from Constantinople, where they were received, on the 12th inst., by the steamer Ajaccio, which left the Crimea on the 10th. The preparatory works for the siege were then continuing without ~.~-•L. TXIE PrtESS. interruption. The Russians were making extraordi nary efforts to fortify themselves, literally adding de fence to defence, and had brought into requisition all the heaviest artillery of their fleet; but their works were thrown up in haste, and without art, and could not hold out long, as they were completely com manded by the guns of the allies, and besides had not had time to become consolidated. The Russians, however; had received some reinforcements, and were expecting more. Prince Menschikoff had gone towards Perekop to hasten the march of those expected. In the evening of the 7th nine French battalions invested the place on the side of the attack. In the night of the 9th the trenches were completed, thirty guns from the French fleet and 1,000 sailors were to be placed un der the orders of Captain Rigault de Genouilli ; amongst the guns were fourteen mortars throwing shells of 100 lbs., and sixteen of 30. The materiel of the Eng lish was magnificent, but not superior to that of the French. The English were to attack a tower on the western side, which defends the bottom of the port. This tower would, it was said, be soon destroyed, al though the Russians had thrown up earthworks around it, and had even had recourse to the almost incredible expedient of painting it of an earthen colour. The besiegers were within about 700 yards of the ramparts, but it was necessary for the guns to he within 300 or 400 yards, in order to be able to make breaches for assaults. The lire was to com mence with 200 guns, and no one doubted the tre mendous results which would soon be obtained. The Russians disquieted the siege works by inces sant discharges of artillery during the day ; but their aim was not very correct, and the soldiers made jokes on seeing their shot and shell flying about. During the night the besiegers worked without being interrupted. Some sorties, or rather some false sor ties, had been atttempted by the Russians, as a diver sion, but all were repulsed. The armies, as already stated, are divided into two corps, one to carry on the works of the siege, the other to protect them, and watch the enemy. THE COMMANDERS-IN•CHJEF. The Siècle states :—" After the death of Marshal de St. Arnaud, Lord Raglan might have claimed the command-in-chief, for he is invested with a rank to which we have not now an equivalent in the French army. He is a general, that is to say, higher than a lieutenant general or a general of division, and lower than a marshal. Under the first empire there were four colonels-generals of cavalry, a first inspector general of artillery, and a first inspector-general of the engineers, who were higher in rank than generals of division, and lower than marshals. It has been thought better, in order to avoid any unpleasant feel ing, the commands should remain independent under the reserve of a previous concert between the gene rals-in-chief. For this purpose French officers have been placed on the staff of Lord Raglan, and Eng lish officers on that of General Canrobert." In a Constantinople letter of the 10th, published in a Vienna journal, we read : General Canrobert acts in perfect accord in all things with Lord Raglan. The two commanders have made the last summonses to Sebastopol to yield, so as to prevent the effusion of blood. A messenger has besides been sent, with a flag of truce, to the commander of the fortress, with the proposition to send away the women, children old men, and sick, and to hoist a flag on the hospital in order that it may he spared. We are assured that the allied coin manders have resolved to respect the town itself, but to bombard the forts and batteries, the public establishments, and those of the Crown. THE BATTERING TRAIN. Never was a siege in the course of which such heavy guns will be used on both sides. The English siege train comprises about 38 32-pounders, 30 56- pounders, 30 68 pounders, 18 84-pounders, and about a dozen 12 and 13 inch mortars, with six Lancaster guns throwing 96-pound solid shot. The Terrible and Retribution have each given four 68-pounders of 113 cwt., and having a range of from 3,800 to 4,000 yards. The Trafalgar, the Sanspareil, and the Diamond have also landed some of their• heaviest metal, and two long-range Lancaster guns have been landed from the Arrow, and two from the Beagle, which recently arrived from England. There is no possible combination of which stone and mortar is capable which can resist the concentrated action of such guns as these. The Russians, however, are not deficient either in range or weight of metal ; some of the finest and heaviest guns used in modern war fare will be found in the fortresses of Sebastopol. In no respect is it wanting in the defences to be ex• pected from a first-class fortress of such enormous strength and paramount importance. ACTIVITY OF THE BESIEGED; The enemy employs day and night in increasing their means of defence. The entrenchments, stock ades, and batteries which they have thrown up round the east end of the town, and which can he plainly seen from our camp, are tremendous. Every day sees the completion of some new earth battery and the commencement of another. The prisoners whom we have taken say that the commandant is making the most strenuous exertions to render ~: _ SATURDAY, our attack ineffectual, and that the troops' are determined to fight to the last man. All the inhabitants, without exception, have been com pelled to work at the trenches eight hours out of the twenty-four. Those whose age and constitution unfits them for the labour have been told-off in parties for the conveyance of the wounded to the hospitals. Many large furnaces have been made for the purpose of heating shot, in case of an attack from our fleet, and the Russian sailors not on the vessels are to work the heavy guns. Every man, woman, and child, is put on rations both of food and water. _ THE BLUE JACKETS AT WORK. The working of the heavy siege train at first pre sented a slight difficulty to our commanders. The troops of the line know less than nothing of their management, and even our best artillerymen would be at sea in conducting for the first time artillery of such heavy calibre. To meet the difficulty, 150 sai lors were drawn from each English three•decker, and 100 from each two-decker, and formed into a division about 1,100 strong, divided into two brigades of 600 each, officers and men. The division was placed under the charge of Captain Lushington, of the Album, and each brigade commanded by Captain Moorsom, and Captain Peel, of the Diamond. " Jack" seernea highly delighted at the prospect of serving ashore at the siege, and, girded with his revolver and cutlass, took up his quarters in the tents on land with as much sang froid as if it was his natural sphere of action. Soon, however, the native jollity of the tars broke out, and uproarious singing was kept up in their different tents until near midnight. The way these fellows got up the ships' guns was perfectly as tounding. An iron gun, eleven feet long and weigh ing 113 cwt., seemed nothing to them. They volun teered to fist it along, and they literally did so, tying ropes to its stand and dragging it by their force over the hills. I have seen fourteen horses and all the apparatus of the artillery barely moving a gun which fifty sailors have dragged after them at a trot To the troops lying under cover of the hills round Sebat. topol the Russian batteries give no peace night or day. Round shot and shell are perpetually coming over the hills and falling near our men. If the enemy was sure of our locale this would he a serious inconvenience, but as it is the firing does little damage. No two men can show themselves without some of the forts giving a practical intimation that they had better remain under cover. Owing to this perpetual cannonade, no one but those actually on duty are allowed to go forward to the outlying pickeLs, as such indiscreet curiosity not only endangers the lives of the parties themselves, but, what is of more consequence, of the troops behind them. Three nights ago a shell was dropped right into our lines, killing two men and dangerously wounding two more who were asleep round a large fire. No doubt the glare of the embers served to direct the missile. Be sides this loss, we have had many men more or less severely wounded by splinters from shells. Fortu nately the Russian mortar practice is of the worst de scription, or our losses in this way would be more severe. Numbers of their shell fall to the ground without bursting; they are nearly all ten, twelve, and thirteen inch.—Morning Herald. CAMP DEMANDS AND SUPPLIES. I will give a price list, with the list of articles most in requisition in the camp—perhaps it may encourage the effia-ts of some enterprising trader. The teetotallers will be sad to learn that, owing to the prevalence of disease and the badness of the water, brandy and sherry are in great de mand, and 6a. a bottle is asked and cheerfully given. That is a long price, considering the ships take their goods out of bond or buy them at Malta. Salt, pepper, and curry powder are articles continually inquired for, and not to be had at any price. Maltese cigars sell at 10s. the hundred. Loaf sugar, no supply. Arrowroot biscuits were much in demand, and could not be had. A small parcel came in the other day ; they sell at hi. a piece. Soap, no supply. Flannel shirts are in enormous demand, and so are flannel jackets, but none are to be had at any price. It is the same with lucifer matches. I was witness when halta crown a box was offered and refused. In short, any one sending out a general cargo of good and useful things. always keeping an eye on the severity of the winter here, would be a benefactor to the army and part of the navy. and pocket large profits at the same time. But the strangest want, which startled even me, is that of books. The army are not generally considered to form an impor tant part of the reading public, but of this I am certain that if any speculative bookseller were to send out a cargo of good, cheap, light books, he could safely demand, and men out here would gladly pay, nn advance of 30 per cent. on the London price. Our army are likely to remain long in quarters wherever they are—at least so long as the men who have hitherto managed the war continue in the dm charge of their kindly offices. The majority of the thou sands of officers out here expected marches and operations on a grand scale—plenty to do—little spare time—boo added to the baggage would lumber it and be a bore. They now find themselves for weeks and months shut up in camps, with no food for the mind except here and these an old newspaper. They cried out for books in Bulgana . ; they will again raise the same cry when once settled le winter quarters in the Crimea. Books are not to be ha s at Constantinople—the most illiterate of capitals. Parcels from Malta and England have a knack of seldom, if avian