The Press. — London, England, 1855-05-26 00:00:00

490 They opened a powerful fire on our trenches on the following night and exposed their columns to a heavy musketry fire from the troops on duty. They did not, however, reach the parapets, nor indeed come very near them. Last night a very determined sortie was made upon the advance of our left attack. The enemy moved forward in two columns from the Woronzow road. Our advanced sentries having slowly retired, the guard of the trenches was prepared to receive them, and consequently drove them back in the must determined manner. A few Russians only got into the parallel, and five were left dead close outside The conduct of both officers and men was admirable, and it is with deep concern that I have to report the death of Captain Edwards, of the tlEith Foot, and that of five men. I have also the pain of saying that the wounded amount to thirty. Owing to the great quantity of rain which has fallen during the last few days, the service in the trenches has again been most arduous and severe upon our men, who deserve all praise for their energy and untiring per severance. RAGLAN. The Moniteur publishes the following letter from General Canrohert to the Minister of War:— Head• Quarters, May 8. Monsieur le Marechal,—My letter of the 4th spoke to you of our brilliant combats on the Ist and 2nd of May. All the efforts the enemy was able to make for the recap ture of the work gained by our soldiers, whether by attack or by an extremely heavy fire that rendered its tenure difficult, had no result. We have remained masters of this position, which now forms a vast place of arms, and the parapets of which are now cannon•proof. The losses we sustain there now are far less sensible than formerly ; they are now occasioned only by the hollow projectiles which the besieged throw in in considerable numbers. Advices from St. Petersburg include a telegraphic despatch from Prince Gortschakoff of the 12th inst. The Prince writes that nothing very important had taken place in any part of the Crimea to that date. The file of the allies before Sebastopol, be says, is very moderate. The allies have made a new battery, and effected consitlerable repairs. In the night of the 11th and early in the morning of the 12th, the Russians made a sortie from the Redan, and the positions before it, and spiked several guns in the English batteries. On the 12th the allies ex ploded several camouflets before the Flagstaff Bas tion, but did little harm. From the Baltic intelligence of the capture of several prizes has been received, but no other news. Admiral Penaud left Kiel on Tuesday with the whole French squadron, to join the English fleet in the Baltic, under Admiral Dundas. SIEGE CHRONICLE. Letters from the camp to the 12th inst. have been received this week. The following account of the repulse of the desperate sortie made by the Russians on the British lines on the night of the 9th, is given by the Herald correspondent 1114 v 10.—We have had our dulness enlivened by a brisk sortie which was made against the left attack last night. As usual, the enemy met with a severe re pulse. The trench guard was mounted at the usual hour yester day evening. Near the left attack a working party accom• panied, part for the purpose of repairing the zigzags, and part for the new advanced work, which is now nearly com• pleted. Beyond an occasional shot or shell, Sebastopol was remarkably quiet, and the officers in command con• gratulated themselves on the prospect of advancing the work without molestation. After dark, however, appear ances altered much. The weather, which had been fine during the day, became quite tempestuous, the wind blew half a gale ; it was pitchy dark, with blinding showers of rain ; in fact, a sortie night beyond all doubt. At one o'clock the weather seemed doing its worst. Nothing could be seen for the rain and darkness, and nothing could be heard for the howling of the wind. Suddenly, both wind and rain ceased ; but the darkness was still intense. One of the out-sentries thought he heard something unusual in the direction of the Redan, and with the utmost coolness and judgment tried to dis cover the cause, before giving an alarm. He communi cated his suspicions to two other sentries, and they all ad vanced in the direction of the noise, creeping cautiously along the ground. As they approached the Russian works the noise, as of many men moving about, though not advancing, was distinctly heard. The steps ap peared to be about one hundred yards off, but it was impossible to distinguish anything. Suddenly the sound ceased. The three sentries were in doubt what to do, but eventually one of them returned to the advanced work to report what they had heard, and alarm the cover ing party. The instant the sentry had made his statement the trench guard was aroused—the men formed up in strict silence—the weapons looked to, and each detachment, under the command of its officers, proceeded to its ap- pointed post. Orders were issued that none were to fire until the general command was given. Colonel L. Yea, of the 7th, was field officer in command of the whole party. In the meantime the two sentries, who had remained in advance, waited quietly for some further indication of the enemy's presence. After about a quarter of an hour's anxious expectation, the head of a body of men, advancing quickly and cautiously, was dis tinctly heard. One of the sentries instantly returned to report it, the other remained at his post until the enemy were within forty yards of where he lay. He then began retreating, keeping close to the ground, neither going on THE PRESS. too fast, or suffering the enemy to overtake him. When ' within a stone's throw of our trenches the Russians stopped; our sentry quietly entered our works and pointed out their precise position. All our troops preserved a strict silence, and so quiet were the enemy that it was al most impossible to say that they had not altered their plan, and proceeded in another direction. A few minutes passed in this manner, and then in an instant fifty shots were fired into our lines at a distance of six fret. It seems that when the Russians halted they lay down on their bellies, and crawled forward unobserved until within a musket's length of our trenches, when a number of them fired and sprang upon their feet. Our men were in no way taken by surprise. Their positions were already assigned, and they lay so close under cover that only two men were struck by the enemy's volley—one man killed on the spot, another dangerously wounded. The Russians, who had first risen, made an attempt to rush into the work under cover of their fire, which they believed had taken us entirely by surprise; but nearly all who tried were shot or bayonetted. The rest of the party, which now seemed about 1,000 strong, commenced a heavy fire, but it was totally inefficient against our troops, who were sheltered by the breastwork. Our fire, on the contrary, was cool and well sustained, and at the short distance told with murder ous effect on the crowds of Russians. They fell on all sides, while we scarcely lost a man. After a few minutes the enemy became confused, and fell back iu disorder. It appears, however, to have been only a momentary panic, as, after retreating a short distance, during the whole time of which they were skirmishing, they returned at the charge, and, with the utmost coolness and daring, moving more to the left, tried to storm the breastwork at another point. In this they were as unsuccessful as in their first attempt. The troops reserved their fire until the Rus sians closed, and giving one tremendous volley prepared to receive those who might strive to cross the breastwork with the bayonet. But so severe was the effect of their volley that the enemy seemed paralysed. Their officers tried to lead them up, but the men, though their fired fast, seemed disinclined to follow. They were wavering fast, when a second force of Russians, about SOO strong, came upon the field. The reinforcement made no fresh effort to force our trenches, contenting themselves with skirmish ing to cover the retreat of the attacking perty. The English never quitted their breastwork, but fired with deadly accuracy into the enemy, who were trying to re move their killed and wounded. While effecting this they suffered a severe loss from our fire, which from our very sheltered position they were quite unable to return, at least with any effect. After about a quarter of an hour's skirmishing in this manner, the enemy fell back and got under cover of the Redan. As usual the instant the attack was repulsed and the Russians clear off, their batteries opened fire upon the portion cf our lines on which the sortie had been made. They poured in regular volleys of round shot, grape, and shell. The heavy dark sky which lowered over everything seemed a perfect aurora borealis with the incessant flashes of the guns. This retaliation was Wily expected, and all our troops lay down until the iron hail had passed. Only one man was killed by a round shot. None others were even wounded. In about half an hour the cannonade ceased, and except an occasional gun from the enemy or a large mortar from ourselves and the French, all Sebastopol and the allied trenches were wrapt in perfect silence. Our whole loss from this sortie was three men killed and thirteen men wounded, two of the latter very dange rously. Captain Lawrence, of the 34th Regiment, was also wounded, but not severely. The 7th and 34th Regi ments bore the brunt of the contest, and both behaved with distinguished gallantry. The prudence and courage of the out sentries are highly lauded; but for their precautions the Russians would never have met with such a severe de. feat, and our loss would most probably have been much heavier. The enemy appears to have suffered severely. In spite of their determined efforts to carry off their killed and wounded, one non-commissioned officer and sixteen dead men were left behind, with two wounded skirmishers. The latter most probably fell while covering the retreat, and their loss was not noticed. One was very severely wounded, the other in all probability mortally. The corpses of the dead still lie in front of our trenches ; the two wounded men were brought in directly after the skirmish, and for. warded to Balaklava this morning. This afternoon the Russians sent in a flag of truce for permission to carry off then. dead. The correspondent of the Times writes on the 11th : Last night about ten o'clock there was another alarm along our lines. It was exceedingly dark, and the wind was high. The sentries in front challenged and gave the alert, and the men who were in the advanced parallels be gan to fire with steadiness and rapidity at a body of Rus sians who were trying to get up to them in the darkness. The enemy replied, and for a time there was a desultory firing, the flashes from which were visible, but it was im possible to hear, owing to the violehce of the wind. The fight took place in front of our right attack, and was over in about half an hour or less. The instant the enemy re tired their batteries opened as before, and threw very heavy and repeated flights of shot and shell upon our works. The second division were the principal sufferers. The newly-arrived battalions of the Royals received their bapteme de feu, and had three men killed and four wounded, principally by shells—altogether we had nine men killed and seven wounded. Most of the wounds are of a very serious character, being inflicted by jagged pieces of bombs. MAY 12.—Last night, in the midst of so awful storm of rain and wind, so thick that no one could see a yard beyond him, a body of Russians came up on our left attack, but the sentries gave the alarm just in time ; and Colonel Macbeth, of the 68th Regiment, got his men into order and received the first fire of the enemy as they came up to the trench with perfect steadiness. Some of the Russians SATURDAY, leapt up on the parapet and jumped into the battery, w h ere they at once met their fate. There was a desperate struggle between the Russians and the men of the Otith outside the lines, in which the bayonet was freely used on both bides ; but the enemy were repulsed by our fellows, led by Colonel Macbeth, Lieutenant Hamilton, and a sergeant of the Iftith. 1 regret to say that Captain Lloyd Edwards and six men of the tltith were killed, and twenty-two men of the same regiment were wounded. We took some wounded prisoners. It is impossible at this hour to ascertain the particulars of the attack, as the men have not come up from the works yet. Some of our men were wounded by stones flung by the Russians, whose guns would not go off, owing to the wet. The enemy lost heavily, and they were seen dragging off their dead during the night. It is now blowing hard, and it has rained all night. The camp is a mass of mud, and has resumed its old wintry aspect. Miss Nightingale has visited several of the hospitals since her arrival, and has, 1 believe, found matters much better than she expected. A marvellous change has, in deed, been effected within the last few months. Miss Nightingale remains on board a steamer in the harbour of lialaklava, and is attended by Mr. Bracebridge. M. Soyer has also arrived, and it is to be hoped that he can suggest some good and simple mode of cooking and messing, in stead of our present very imperfect, irregular, wasteful, and unwholesome system. ABANDONMENT OF THE KERTCH EXPEDITION. Details of this singular interlude, which will take its place among the most remarkable failures and absurdities of the war, have arrived since our last impression. The correspondent of the lktoning Herald, who accompanied the expedition, in the belief that some active operations would have been undertaken, gives the following account of the departure and abrupt return of the squadron : I sailed from 13alaklava early on the morning of the 4th. All the troops had previously embarked and started for their destination. Only two commissariat vessels, one steam-sloop, and a ship for the wounded, remained be hind. I was in one of these, and all four proceeded with haste to Karniesch, in order to learn the direction in which they were to steer to overtake the rest of the squadron. On arriving at Kainiesch we found that Captain Mitchell, of the Queen, was senior officer, and that he only was aware of our destination. But, as it unfortunately happened, Captain Mitchell was absent at Lord Raglan's head quarters, and no one knew in which direction we were to proceed. In the course of the afternoon Captain Mitchell returned, and informed all the vessels then waiting that they were to use all speed, and repair instantly to the rendezvous in lat. 44.55, long. 8d.28. This at a moment's glance at the map showed to be off Kertch, and by no means far off it either, but well in sight of land. The positive delight which was manifested by every one on finding that an attack on Kertch was really intended was almost beyond bounds, and away we steamed in the direction of the rendezvous—the three steamers towing the sailing hospital-ship--satisfied with ourselves, our expedition, and even with our generals. Towards night a regular dense Black Sea fog set in, and we were compelled, much to our dissatisfaction, to proceed at half speed. At first the morning of the sth promised a continuance of the fog, but as the day wore on it cleared, and towards noon we came in sight of a dense smoke bank, amid which the tapering spars of men-of-war showed that we were fast approaching the rendezvous. As we came up all the vessels appeared in motion. The huge screw three and two deckers were steaming along in stately rapidity, followed by a train of vessels of all kinds and sizes, the steamers towing the sailers. We rejoiced that we had over taken them in time, though greatly perplexed at the direc tion in which the flotilla was steering. The high bold land and fertile shores of Kertch were full in view. Three hours more would have brought us to the spot selected for our disembarkation ; yet beyond all doubt the fleet was not proceeding in that direction, but, on the contrary, was retracing its steps, apparently on the route to Bala kite/a. For a moment a dismal gloom fell on all. Had we forgotten all our ammunition ; had the military and medical chests been left behind; or had Sir George Browne and the French general quarrelled ? were the questions eagerly asked of men who knew the general tenor of our arrangements far too well to suppose that any absurdity of the kind was improbable. Every one could conjecture, but no one could answer, till some one, who was unwilling to believe that an expedition the most secret, the most perfect, and best managed of its kind, would be abandoned without cause, suggested that Kertch was a mere ruse, and that we were now proceeding to our real destination—very likely Nicolaief or Perekop. The hint was eagerly caught at. Anything rather than suppose the expedition was abandoned, and so we closed and followed in the wake of the fleet, without much murmuring or discontent. Just as we were about to proceed to the admiral to report our arrival, and solicit instructions, the Fury steam frigate ran alongside and hailed. Our captain informed the Fury what we were and what officers and stores we had on board, but the answer was imperative—" It does not matter who the devil you are or what the devil you have got. The admiral's orders are, that you return with the rest of the squadron to Balaklava 1 " The news came upon us like a thunderbolt. No one could believe that he heard aright, and all seemed mar vellously inclined to be insubordinate, and attack Kertch on their own hook. But the orders were far too clear to leave any loophole for mistake. They were given plainly and coolly; they were distinctly heard and were evidently said with the most intense disgust and dissatisfaction. In addition to these orders the whole fleet was evidently re turning ; there could be no mistake about that; and so with heavy hearts the ship was put about, and bidding adieu to the shores of Kertch we followed with the rest.