The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

OCTOBER 13, 1855. parapet with traverses—in fact, a line of batteries—strikes out from the north side of the fort, and crests the seaward face of the cliff, communicating with the Wasp Fort, Star Fort, and the works of the sea defences towards the mouth of the ectbecic. Next to Constantine, on the her. bour, there is a large earthwork, with heavy guns, behind which is the citadel, which has recently been much strengthened, and is in a commanding position on a hillside. Next come more earthworks, a large stone store. house, and the casemated walls of Fort Catherine, with two tiers of guns ; then more earthworks, till the line of defence merges into the works at Inkermann. In fact, Fort Constantine, Sievernaia, Fort Michael, and Fort Catherine, with their connecting works, and the citadel and forts in their rear, form one great battery, too far to injure us seriously behind Sebastopol, but quite able to withstand any infantry attack from the south side. The fire of these forts against the south was daily increasing, according to the letters of the 29th. Under that date the Daily News correspondent writes : There is scarcely anything to record beyond the con• tinned bombardment of the north side, and the increasing fire of the enemy against the town and Karabelnia on the south side. The fire against the latter suburb has so much increased that, although little mischief has been done beyond the further destruction of houses already in ruins, it has been thought prudent to abandon it for the present. It does not prevent, however, the fatigue parties going for timber, firewood, roofing, and numberless articles of building materials and furniture, to be employed in hutting and making snug against the inclemency of the ensuing winter. One thing is evident, writes the correspondent of the Morning Post, that if the Russians do not clear away themselves, or are not driven from the north side, the occupation of any por tion of Sebastopol will be not only disagreeable, but ex tremely dangerous, no man calling his life his own for the shortest space. - - The accuracy of the fire of the northern batteries is borne out by the fact that one shell on the 22nd suddenly fell into the room occupied by the Anglo• French commission engaged in their labours of ap portioning the spoils of the town, and another came through the roof of the temporary hospital : The Anglo-French commission sits daily, and their labours were interrupted the other day by a Russian shell, which scarcely gave them time to adjudicate on the pro prietorship of its splinters, as it burst as soon as it fell through the roof of the building in which they were sitting. If the Russians are spiteful, they will open fire some fine day on the town and make it too hot to hold us ; indeed, the Buffs are to be withdrawn for the present, and the strength of the French in the town has become diminished, as a useless display of force only drew the fire of the enemy's batteries.—Times Cor., Sept. 25. An extraordinary escape occurred on Sunday morning, shortly after the hour for divine service. The Russians appear to have seen the regiment parading, as the men fell in on the terrace in front of one of the large white buildings which they occupied as their barrack. Some shells were thrown, and one, penetrating the roof, lodged in the room converted into a surgery. Assistant• Surgeon Teevan and an orderly were in the apartment, and had just time to make their escape before the shell exploded. Neither was injured. As no good purpose was effected by exposing the troops to this fire, the 3rd Buffs marched back to their old position near the second division to-day. The French have kept up a harassing fire, day and night, against the Russians on the north side. In addition to a large pile of buildings, supposed to be storehouses, another detached shed, also seeming to be connected with the commissariat, has been set on fire.—D. News Cor., Sept. 25. The vast quantity of stores accumulated on the north side appears to have been removed successfully to a depot out of range ; The convoys of waggons are not observed moving as they used to do, in the daytime, towards the depots of stores below the Star Fort; and the working parties and troops on the march keep much higher towards the crest of the line of mountains terming the north side, instead of moving along the lower road near the cliffs. The tents, moreover, seem diminished in number, but the camp on the Inkermann heights remain as extensive as ever.— lb., Sept. 24th. The retreat from the south side on the 6th, from intelligence through spies, appears to have been arranged with singular precision and forethought, and the " disgraced " and "flying enemy " to have walked out of the town in unbroken order : Spies have, however, informed the authorities in the most positive manner that the Russians were prepared to retreat, and had all in readiness to cover a retrograde movement, in ease the fleet succeeded in forcing a passage, and the allies evinced a determination of throwing their whole force against the north side. Their field guns and guns of position were all in readiness, and were strength ened by a very large corps of cavalry, which would hold our infantry in check, and our cavalry could not, of course, get over the water in less than several days, nor could it gain the heights of Mackenzie unless the infantry had pre viously established themselves there. Everything was foreseen and calculated, and the Russians were in hopes that they might catch us at a disadvantage amid some of their fortified positions in a difficult country, and retrieve their past disasters, or, at all events, make a masterly re treat. Bat when they saw that all was hesitation, if not Confusion, in the army of the allies, they recovered their courage, stared the situation in the false for one moment, ind the nut were busily emylo7ed in making the beet of ihubriwiso Cri s nth Sept THE PRESS. In the rooont cruises of the fleet to and from Eupatoria no traces of an encampment north of the Alma or anywhere along the coast could be dis covered. The Russians appear to have closely con centrated their army round the Belbeck and Mackenzie Heights, and to avoid using the direct Perekop road, preferring the more eastern route by Tchongar. It would seem, indeed, as if the Russians did not use the Perekop road to any great extent, or that their convoys made a detour towards the east in order to avoid any flying column from Eupatoria. Possibly they send most of their supplies down by the Tchongar road, and there is every reason to believe that the Russians have established another route between Perekop and Tchongar for the pur pose of advance or retreat. 1 have heard that some time back Captain Sherard Osborne with one man in a punt passed up the Straits of Genitchi, and pushed along through the rushes in the pestilential salt marshes up to Tchongar bridge, which he observed minutely, and that he saw enough to satisfy him that an immense proportion of the Russian supplies were carried into the Crimea by that route.—lb. About Perekop the depth of the water he asserts is very shallow : Perekop is quite safe from the sea side. The SpiVire was not able to get very near to the land, but, to make assurance doubly sure, the enemy take the road south between the Staroe and Crasnoe lakes, instead of going between the seacoast and Staroe. The route becomes, however, matter of indifference if we are not to make any offensive movement, and, although some people hug the hope that the Czar will not be able to feed his army during the winter, the quantity of stores piled up on the north aide is, to my mind, a guarantee for their disappointment' —lb. PREPARATIONS IN SEBASTOPOL. The Constantinople journals of the 27th contain letters from the camp of the 24th, which give a few details of interest concerning the preparations in Sebastopol for the erection of batteries, &c. A cor respondent writes as follows : In speaking of the military operations, I forgot to mention that large batteries were being erected beyond the Redan, and that very shortly a fire will be opened from it against the northern part. From what I see Sebastopol is about to become the centre of operations, but I think that it will be a very arduous task to make the town al all supportable. It is said to be in contemplation to bring the railway into the place ; there is rather a long slope on the side of Inkermann which will much facilitate that opera tion. Mr. Beattie, the director of the line, has made several surveys during the last few days, which will, I hope, be attended with good results. There was in the first ac counts considerable exaggeration as to the number of bodies of Russian soldiers found half consumed in the midst of the ruins of the burnt houses, and it was added also that several French soldiers, having become intoxica- Gated after entering the town, had perished in the ruins. A rigid examination has been made into the matter, and it has been ascertained that very few Russians lost their lives in that manner, and as to the accidents which have happened to the French since the taking of the place, either from imprudence or any other cause, they do not exceed eighteen. In spite of this doubt that the town will be sup portable under the fire of the northern batteries, tradesmen and cantiniers press for permissions to open hotels and stores in the town : The governors of the town are literally besieged with demands from the tradesmen and merchants at Kamiesch and Balaklava, for permission to open branch-establishmeuts at Sebastopol. They all solicit permission to occupy the shops, and some persons have applied for authorisation to reopen two or three hotels (the signs of which are still up), and which they offer to repair at their own expense. The establishment of two or three comfortable houses of this kind would be very desirable, and they are in fact becom ing necessary, as tourists are flocking to Sebastopol. Another correspondent, who is clearly a Frenchman, remarks upon the number of " eccentric " tourists who daily visit Sebastopol : Every day intrepid horsewomen may be seen riding through the streets and promenades of the town, and many of these eccentric tourists, who are evidently English, have inscribed their names on the walls of the principal buildings. —M. Pose, Sept. 22. KAMIESCH UNDER THE FRENCH. The French, with their usual rapid self-adaptation to circumstances, have established quite a neat little town at their head-quarters in lieu of the straggling rows of broken wooden sheds which hitherto crowded Kamiesch : Regularly laid-out streets of substantial and neatly-built wooden houses have been erected along the whole face of the slope running up from the northern shore of the bay, and in these are to be seen shops filled with every variety of eatable, drinkable, and wearable merchandise ; behind the counters of which, too, buxom Marseillaises or Parisiennes may be seen dealing out creature-comforts to groups of red-coated ensigns and lieutenants, whom they daily bewitch all the way from the English camp, to listen to their merry laugh, and drink in unsettling poison from their wicked but lustrous black eyes. What if mademoiselle charges her delighted customer sixty shillings a dozen for yin ordi. naire, or, in the prettiest broken English in the world—to which her juvenile admirers will persist in replying in still more disjointed French—recommends her Medoe (?), at four guineas the case ; is it in British human nature, es pecially on the green side of twenty-five, to h e for prilos with so shaming a piskpookott e an 4 ber employer both know that it is not, and wax rich ac• cordingly. Indeed, with some few exceptions, it is only at liannesch that the face of womankind is to be seen at all ; and to the fact that many a pretty specimen of " that same " may be there gated at till the gazer is content, for the trifling premium of some forty per cent. of extortion on what he buys, the place, 1 am disposed to think, owes a large proportion of its English and most profitable trade. Substantial wooden landing•wharfs line the shore of the bay, and behind these run rows of army stores, numerous and capacious enough, one would fancy, to bold victualling std other supplies for the whole allied force before Sebaa topold—D. News Got., Sept. 24. THE REDAN DITCH ON THE Brn. In confirmation of everything which has been told of the personal heroism of Lieut. Massy, of the 19th, an extract from a letter of an officer in the light division has appeared this week, and gives a touching account of the noble spirit this young hero evinced as he lay wounded in the Redan ditch : Sebastopol, September 18. By the way, I must give you the history, in a few words, of a few hours in the life of a hero, and depend upon it of a future great man, if he lives. He is in the next regiment to us, and 1 have the details from a wounded sergeant of ours who lay next him during the day and night of the Bth. I allude to young Dunham Massy, of the 19th-1 believe the youngest officer of the army. He is now known as " Roden Massy," for there are three of the same name in the regiment. This noble boy, in the absence of his cou sin, led the grenadier company, and was about the first man of the corps to jump into the ditch of the Redan, waving his sword and calling on his men, who nobly stood by him till, left for nearly two hours without support, and seised by a fear of being blown up, they retired. Young Massy, borne along, endeavoured to disengage from the crowd, and stood almost alone, facing round frequently to the batteries, with head erect, and with a calm, proud, dis dainful eye. Hundreds of shot were aimed at him, and at last, when climbing the ditch, he was struck and his thigh broken. Being the last, he was of course left there. Now, listen to this. The wounded around were groaning, and some even loudly crying out. A voice called out, faintly at first, loudly afterwards," Are you Queen Victoria's soldiers" Some voices answered, "I am ! lam !" "Then," said the gallant boy, " let us not shame ourselves ; let us show those Russians that we can bear pain as well as fight like men." There was a silence as of death, and more than once he bad it renewed by similar appeals. The unquailing spirit of that beardless boy ruled all around him. As evening came on the Russians crept out of the Redan and plundered some of the wounded, at the same time showing kindness, and in some cases giving water. Men with bayonets fixed frequently came over the body of young Massy. One fellow took away his havreaack. Sometimes he feigned death—at other times the pain of his wound would not permit him. A Russian officer with a drawn sword came to him, and endeavoured to disengage the sword which the young hero still grasped. Seeing that resistance was in vain he gave it up. The Russian smiled gently and compassionately on him, fascinated probably by his youth, and by the bold, unfaltering glance which met his. When the works of the Redan were blown up in the night by the retreating Russians, the poor boy had his right leg fearfully crushed by a falling stone. He was found in the morning by some Highlanders, and brought to hi■ regiment almost dead from loss of blood. Great was the joy of all at seeing him, as he was about to be returned as " killed " or " missing." " Dangerously wounded " was substituted, but he is now doing well. THE WAR IN ASIA. Letters have been received from Kars to the 3rd and Erzeroum to the 11th of September. The town still held out, though the condition of the garrison and inhabitants was becoming daily more distressed. Mouravieff swept the country with his cavalry, car ried off all the corn and fodder, closely blockaded Kars, and narrowly watched Erzeroum. The cavalry and artillery horses in Kars were in such a wretched condition that three thousand had been sent out of the town, with a thousand men in charge, in the hope that they might safely reach Erzeroum : but the Russians fell upon them, killed two hundred of the Turks, dispersed the rest, and only a few bad arrived at their destination. The garrison was healthy, but the fall of the town was considered im minent, as it was almost impossible that Omer Pacha could effect any serious diversion of the Rus sian forces in time. The fall of Kars will be a very serious blow to the allies and a corresponding success to the Russians. It will vastly augment their in fluence in Asia Minor, and, unless they are checked in some degree, Erzeroum will follow the fate of Kars, and Mouravieff obtain a hold on the country from which it will not be easy for Omer Pacha to drive him. The Invalide Ruue, according to a despatch from Berlin, state-4 that Mouravieff, on the 11th, had de feated 3,000 Turks, who left 400 dead upon the field, and Ali Pacha a prisoner in the hands of the Russians. In an extraordinary supplement of the 2nd of October, it adds the following details from General Muuravieff:— Aide•de•Camp General Mouravieff, commander•in•chief of the corps of the Caucasus, announces under date of the 4th (16th) Sept., from the camp at Tchaotlik•Tchai, that the festival of his Majesty the Emperor had been sig nalised by a happy affair of cavalry, in which our Cossacks, oar militia, and our dragoons, commanded by Lieutenant• General Kovalevsky, had completely beaten a detachment of 1,000 regular eamlrh about 1,000 Bashl•Bazoukai