The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-13 00:00:00

I have just heard the news of the day before yesterday at Eupatoria. 10,000 Turks had disembarked there, 10,000 more were about to disembark, and Omer Pacha was shortly expected there with 20,000 more, making in all a force of 40,000 of Omer Pacha's people, and therefore fighting Turks. General Cannon had arrived at Eupatoria in command of the force of Turks disembarked, and he has several English officers in the same service upon his staff. THE FRENCH CAMP. The following lively account of the French camp is given by a correspondent of the Salut Public at Lyons : Heights of Sebastopol, Dec. 23. A long and tedious excursion through every portion of our camp enables me to give you a complete resume of our military position. You may rely upon the exactitude of my narration. Since the two attacks which were made against Sebas topol—attacks necessarily limited by the insufficiency of our siege artillery—our army has completed immense works, which will double our means of action. Our batte ries, which were only eleven in number, are now tripled, and armed with guns of heavy calibre, recently brought from France or taken from the ships of the fleet The armament of all the batteries is now completed. We can oppose 100 guns to those of the enemy; one half of those guns belong to the navy, and are served by sailors and marines. The batteries have been constructed by engineer officers, assisted by our brave soldiers, with inconceivable rapidity, despite the incessant and well-directed tire of the town. _ _ The line of the trenches is nearly three leagues and a half in extent. This will explain at once the amount of energy, labour, and patience that was required to execute so colossal a work in so short a time. We are quite ready to open fire. Unhappily, the English have not been able to push on their works as rapidly as us. Notwithstanding the ardour displayed by our allies, it is impossible that their batteries can be ready to open fire before the 10th or 12th of January. The immense stores of the Russian arsenals give them a notable advantage over us. The batteries which protect the place on the land side are armed with about 360 pieces, to which we can only oppose about 220. It is only, there fore, a vigorous assault. after a furious cannonade, that can procure ns any real success. According to reliable information, which is justified by the opinion of all competent men, it is almost certain that the commanders-in-chief will not attempt the assault until they have acted in a decisive manner against the enemy's army in the field. The Turkish army, which is landing at Eupatoria, will take the Russians in the rear, so as energetically to second the attack made in front by the allies. Prince Menschi koff seems to be quite aware of the difficulties of his posi tion. He has retired with the main body of his army be tween the right bank of the Tschernaya, the main road of the peninsula, and the Belbeck, and he endeavours to make good his position and his communications , with Sebastopol by covering his army by immense defensive works erected along the banks of the Tschemaya. His army at the pre sent moment does not appear to exceed 80,000 men. The garrison of Sebastopol, on the other hand, is not inactive. For the last three weeks great activity has been visible in the construction of additional works of defence between the Flag-staff and Quarantine Bastions.! As you are doubtless aware, General Liprandi's division, which threatened Balaklava, has joined the main body of the Russian army ; but the general has left from 5,000 to 6,000 men in the mountain passes from the Tschemaya to the hills before Balaklava. The duty of these troops is, probably, to watch our movements ; they are only separated by the plain of Balaklava from our great line of circum vallation and from General Bosquet's division. In addition to the great works directed against the city, the allied armies have constructed strong defensive works on various points. Thus Balaklava is covered by many redoubts, to prevent an attack by the Russians. On our extreme left the trenches have been pushed to the far end of the Quarantine Battery, under the guns of the fort, so as to insure direct communication with the sea. Such is the complete ensemble of the works of attack and defence, and the general disposition of the allied armies. December 24.—1 take advantage of the departure of the Pericles, which conveys Admiral Hamelin to Constanti nople, to say a few words respecting the condition of our troops. Unhappily, for the last month, rain, accompanied at times by snow or hail, has not ceased to fah in the Crimea; moreover, tempestuous south-east winds blow incessantly over the plains of Chersonese. At rare intervals—on the 18th, 19th, and 20th, for instance—the rain ceased, but only to pour down again with additional violence. Thus the whole ground occupied by our troops, trampled over by our beasts of burden, traversed by our heavy waggons and artillery carriages, is at many points impracticable for pe destrians. This is a sad state of things, as it delays the siege operations, and creates much sickness, resulting from cold and the continued humidity of the soil. The moral state of the army could not be better, but the physical condition suffers naturally from the inclemencies of the climate. Reinforcements arrive daily to the French as well as to the English army. Our allies are worse off than ourselves, and it is sad to behold such valiant soldiers subjected to so many hardships from the insufficiency of the administra tive organisation. STATE OF THE ALLIED CAMPS. In the lack of active operations against Sebastopol, public intere , t is attracted towards the condition in which the allied armies arc now carrying on the siege. The comparison between the state and ma nagement of the English and the French camp is little creditable to the former. It is believed that many of the worst features have undergone consi., THE PRESS. derable amelioration since the last-received letters from the Crimea were written, but the picture drawn in them of the then position of domestic affairs among the British troops is very deplorable. The following extracts are from the correspondence of the Herald : There is one gratuitous piece of neglect, against which all—officers and men—do complain, and in terms not to be mistaken or slighted over. I allude to the utter indif ference which the majority of our generals show whether their men are well or ill, alive or dead. I have refrained from noticing this point for some time, but the discontent it has occasioned in the camp is now so bitter and wide spread that I am certain it must already have transpired in private letters. Every regimental officer repeats almost the same remarks, and first and foremost among the gene rals thus spoken of is the commander-in•chief, Lord Raglan. The complaint is that he is never seen—never quits his house—never makes his presence known to the troops, except by occasionally issuing a gene‘ral order. He does not know what the troops suffer, fee he takes care not to witness it. They are hungry, cold, and miserable—yet not once has he ever been among them to show himself or to utter a few cheering words, the recollection of which would for many a day lighten the men's hearts, by showing that they were not totally forgotten by their leaders, whose names they have made illustrious. If there is one officer out here more ignorant than any other of the feelings, the real wants and sufferings of the army, that one is Lord Raglan ; and this ignorance can be his only excuse for the cold, the almost studied neglect with which all ranks, except those on his immediate staff, are treated. At the smallest possible discomfort to himself, Lord Raglan might have become one of the most popular commanders that ever lived. Everything was in his favour, and at first he was liked in spite of himself ; but now the opportunity has passed ; and I will venture to say that, of all the recollec tions of bitter hardships which will survive this campaign, none will be more bitter or more enduring than the memory of the utter coldness and neglect with which Lord Raglan has treated the troops. am sorry to say that the scurvy has appeared rather ex tensively among our troops. Wet and salt provisions, with no vegetables, have brought this formidable disease among us. This result has long been foreseen bythe naval men, who knew that the troops were in the habit of frying their pork and biscuits together, and there is no manner of preparing provisions which more rapidly produces scurvy than this. Yet the men still go on, and the scurvy has begun to spread, and will spread throughout the troops un less immediate and proper precautions are taken to arrest the disease. Fresh provisions, lime juice, and, above all, fresh vegetables, must be got ; for, if it once obtains a foot ing, it will knock up two-thirds of our army in a month. Varna could supply sufficient live stock to give the whole force here three days' fresh provisions each week, and Varna is within thirty hours' steaming from this place. But while our commissariat get salt provisions to their hand they will never trouble themselves about any other, unless some stringent order to that effect is received from head-quarters. The latter contingency is remote, and not very probable, as Lord Raglan is the last person in camp likely to hear of the presence of this terrible disease, which, if unchecked, would infallibly ruin us all. - - • - • • BALAKLAVA, Dec. 18.—I floundered in here this morn ing through such an amount of mud as quite baffles my comprehension to know where it could have all come from. Compared with the dull marshy solitude of the camp,where one almost expects to meet bitterns between the tents, Ba laklava is quite a metropolis; in fact, it is called par excel fence " going to town." I do not think there is another village in the world which, for its size, could show the same amount of business, excitement, dirt, and misery as is perpetually going forward in this little collection of huts, which all the world is talking of under the name of Belaklava. Here, indeed, one sees war. Not as the English are accustomed to picture it—a thing of pride and pomp ; but war as it really is—privation and misery un speakable. The harbour of Balaklava is now like the basin of the London Docks, so crowded is it with shipping of all kinds ; and from every one of these vessels, at all times of the day, supplies are being constantly landed. Along a flat, dirty causeway, rather beneath the level of the harbour, are boats and barges of all kinds, laden with biscuit, bar rels of beef, pork, rum, bales of " winter clothing," siege guns, boxes of Minie ammunition, piles of shell, trusses of hay, and sacks of barley and potatoes. These are landed in the wet, and stacked in the mud, until all the provisions that will spoil are sufficiently impregnated with both to be fit for issuing to the men. The motley crowd that is perpetually wading about among these piles of un eatable eatables, is something beyond description. The very ragged, gaunt, hungry-looking men, with matted beard and monstachios, features grimed with dirt, and torn greatcoats, stiff with successive layers of mud—these men whose whole appearance speaks toil and suffering, and who instantly remind you of the very lowest and most impo verished class of Irish peasantry—are the picked soldiers from our different foot regiments, strong men selected to carry up provisions for the rest of the camp. Mixed with these are about 200 horsemen, whose lank, feeble steeds, covered with huge " yaws," seem barely able to move about with their riders through the thick, tenacious mud. The horsemen themselves are all pretty much alike—that is, they are all ragged and all muddy, yet on examining these men closely you perceive that some have dingy brass hel mets on their beads, others the small Scotch cap of the " Greys ;" the remnants of red trousers indicate a Hussar; while a headdress curiously misshapen discovers a Lancer. From all these facts you suddenly rush to the conclusion that the queer•looking cortege is cavalry, or, rather, all that remains of the nine fine regiments which two months ago landed in the Crimea. Yes, the let Royal Dragoons, the Scots Greys, the bth Dragoon Guards, the tith Ennis killen Dragoons, the 17th Lancers. the 4th Light Dragoons, the Bth Hussars, the 18th Light Dragoons, and 11th Hussars —that formerly had an effective strength of some 2,600 sabres, cannot now among them all mount 200 men in a state fi SATURDAY, e : for even temporary service. The Scots Greys are, nam e . rically, the strongest regiment out here. It mounts 70 men, out of which only about 25 men and horses s are spoken fi for service in the field. For some three or four weeks past we have known that our cavalry, as an arm of the service, was no more ; but still, out of compliment, it was p of as a division, and was therefore, on the whole, a plea. stun fiction to believe in. But now all our cherished fancies are destroyed—the term " cavalry " has no signi. fixation ; the 15 or 20 men remaining out of each regiment are all formed into one corps, and used in carrying biscuit up to the camp. Each soldier leads one horse, which is always such a mass of bones, sores, and general dilapida. Lions, as would excite the indignation of that most polite of philanthropists, the secretary of the Society for the Pre. vention of Cruelty to Animals. The led horse carries one bag of biscuit, and frequently is unable to bear this weight (81)1b.) more than half the distance to the camp, when they fall and get rid of two burdens—their lives and their bis cuits—together. Among these cavalry stalk all kinds of officers, some mounted, some on foot. The rough heavy. looking men in tarpaulin coats, sou'-wester caps, and high boots, are generally officers in the Guards The very "seedy" looking individuals, in dilapidated garments, with breadbags tied round their legs, are officers from the naval brigade. The mounted men, who most re- semble shipwrecked mariners, who have stranded some• where on a mud bank and waded through it to the shore, are cavalry officers. Among these motley characters, gen. tlemen walk about with great-coats made out of their blankets by the simple process of cutting holes in them for their arms. These garments, though primitive-looking, are warm, and to obtain that desideratum there is nothing one would not wear in the Crimea. Some of the common soldiers mount Russian great-coats, others have extraor dinary-looking habilaments, made somehow out of morsels of old sails—the remnants of the wrecks which have drifted in from outside the harbour. Just around the landing. places, or rather what are supposed to act as Luch, are crowds of lounging Turks, who concentrate all their feeble energies upon purloining a morsel of biscuit from the bags which are piled up on shore. In nine cases out of ten these bungling attempts at larceny are detected by the Turkish official, who, of course, is not hungry, and then the famished Osmanli gets " paid " over the head with a thick stick in a manner which commands immediate at. tention from all within bearing of the blows. With this rebuke the Turk is dismissed to seek out horseflesh, or starve at leisure. Seriously speaking, the miseries and sufferings of these Turks are beyond all description. They are now dying at the rate of 300 per diem, in this village alone. They are dying of positive starvation ! The Turks complain that half their effective men are employed in burying the rest; but even a London sexton would be astonished at the idea which they (generally so careful of their dead) entertain of a grave. Any hollow from which sufficient earth can be scraped to strew over a corpse is considered sufficient. When once the more prominent features of the body are covered the rites of interment are over. It is with reluctance that I mention such a hor rible subject, but the truth is that the bodies of the Turks are hardly buried before the wild dogs which abound round 13alaklava root them up and devour them during the night. These ferocious animals have now become so bold as to collect in crowds round the Turks who are engaged in burying their departed comrades on the hillside, and nothing will drive them from the spot. Any sanitary officer—and the appointment of such I have suggested over and over again—would prevent these appalling scenes, by taking care that the Turks buried their dead at a proper depth. If we are here in the hot weather our disregard of this precaution will revenge itself, but unfortunately not upon those who are really guilty. 1 am certain that lam within the mark when I state that the carcases of at least 1,400 or 1,500 horses lie about among the tents of the English camp, putrefying and poisoning the air for miles round. 1)o our authorities seriously think that the efflu vium arising from such a mass of corruption is not in jurious to the men ? or, if it is injurious, why are they not buried, or destroyed in some way ? I am certain we should soon find a great diminution in sickness if a sanitary officer—a medical gentleman would be best—were ap pointed to each division, to see that all caresses, offal, and ether poisonous filth were regularly covered with earth. No words can give an idea of the stench that prevails in our camp. The following sketch of the armies, including that of the Turks, is drawn by a correspondent of the Cologne Gazette. It may, perhaps, be a little over tinted on one side, but ou the whole seems to be the production of an intelligent and impartial observer. The letter was forwarded from Constantinople on Dec. 25: Chersonese, where most merchant ships land, is the nearest point to the French camp. Here everything has an appearance of care and comfort. On every side the French have laid down paved loads, along which, despite the unfathomable mud of the Crimea, they transport with the greatest ease their guns and provisions, and march without difficulty from one point to another. Their huts ..id tents stand in regular rows, and at the entrance of each street there are signposts to indicate the way. strict camp police is established, and prevents the areumu• lation of dirt and rubbish. Between the tents innumerabl' baking-ovens are erected—some of stone, others portable —in which fresh bread is being continually baked, so that the French soldier is not obliged, like the English soldier, to content himself with biscuit, which en. genders scurvy. Without awaiting the providence of their Government, they have erected warm huts, from wood collected and partly taken from demolished Tartar huts, and the smoke of their chimneys curls up plea. sanity in the air. Under these circumstances there is much more joviality in the French than in the English or Turkish camp. The men talk, tell tales, sing, and work merrily. The clothing of officers and men is as clean as if JANUA they were eh amuse the climbing th( upon them. Are lit at qui as hard as wounds, is t( is the favour next to the Fl uniforms wl and soldier lk; evertheles smoke their from Stamb they were tl lishmen and miration, deeds at In] manners. English can our friend THE The fo Russian 1 despatch states t and ha doubt I sentrie Son at the soldie Colog