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

OCTOBER 13, 1855. THE WAR. No telegraphic despatches from the allied camp have been published either in Paris or London during the week. Prince Gortschakoff continues to supply the principal intelligence relating to the movements of the allied forces. The two armies appear to retain their old positions. The French have reconnoitred, and found the Russian lines too strong to be forced, and the English troops still remain in camp. The anticipated active field operations appear likely to be confined to simple reconnaissances, and no forward movements of any importance have been, or appear about to be, undertaken. The latest letters reach to the 20th, and the despatches of General Simpson reach also to the same date. The telegraphs which have been received via Hamburg or Vienna and St. Petersburg from Pi ince Gortschakoff up to the 7th have related simply to the movements of the French down the valley of the Belbeck and back; but on the 7th he writes thatnine ships, twenty-eight steamers, and many gun-boats had left Kamiesch that morning. The fleet anchored off Odessa on the Bth, and up to the even ing of the 9th had not commenced the bombardment. A squadron was also anchored off Ockschakon, and therefore we may look hourly for intelligence of active opdrations in that quarter. It is not known whether any large military force accompanied the expedition. PROJECTED ATTACK ON ODESSA. VIENNA, Oct. 9. Intelligence from Nicolaieff states that a division of the allied fleets, consisting of nine ships, twenty-eight steamers, and nine gun-boats, comprising three batteries, anchored on the morning of the Bth before Odessa. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. Sebastopol, Sept. 25. I have the honour to transmit the report of the principal medical officer for this week, as well as for the week ending the 18th of September, which, by mistake, I omitted to send before. Your lordship will read with satisfaction that the health of the army is all that can be desired ; and the marked im provement since the arduous night duties have ceased is very apparent. The troops continue to be employed in the con struction of the roads, and in making preparations for the winter, which are greatly facilitated by the fineness of the weather. The enemy have commenced firing into the town, and the troops stationed there for the purpose of performing fatigue duties have been in consequence withdrawn. Large quantities of timber and building material are daily taken rom the houses by our troops. JiMES Sim ;sow, General Commanding. Sept. 29. Since my last despatch the troops have been employed, to the number of 9,500 men, daily, in making the road from Balaklava to the camp; and as, after a few hours of rain the whole distance is converted into a mass of deep mud, the work that has to be performed, from this reason as well as the great distance that the stones have to be transported, render it one of great labour and difficulty. Large fatigue parties are daily employed in the town, dismantling and conveying timber and other materials from the ruins of the buildings, and I hope, by this means, to get a considerable portion of the troops under cover pre vious to the commencement of the bad weather. The enemy have been firing from the batteries on the north side at the working parties in the town, and although causing some litttle annoyance, they have not prevented the work being carried on : and I am happy to add that one man killed and one wounded are the only casualties occa sioned by their fire. I regret to have to report to your lordship that owing to the explosion of a Russian magazine on the 27th instant one officer and nineteen men were wounded, I ordered an investigation to be made, and from the report I have received the origin was from the explosion of a hidden fougass, a number of which have been dug up in various parts of the town and batteries. The invention of this machine is peculiarly Russian. I have received a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Ready, 91st Regiment, commanding her Majesty's troops at Yeni• kale, reporting the proceedings of a trifling affair, in which a detachment of the 10th Hussars, in company with the Chasseurs d'Afrique, were engaged on the 21st inst with the Cossacks. Colonel D'Osmont, commanding the French troops at Kertch, received information that the Cossacks were col lecting and driving away all the arabas from the neigh bourhood, and, as he determined to endeavour to prevent this, he invited the assistance of the English cavalry to cooperate with the Chasseurs d'Afrique For this service, Lieutenant-Colonel Ready ordered two troops, commanded by Captains the Hon. F. Fitz Clarence and Clarke, of the 10th Hussars. The Cossacks were supposed to have assembled their arabas at two villages. named Koss-Seria Min and Seit Ali, equidistant from Kertch about fifteen miles, and from one another, six and a half. Captain Fits Clarence's troop was ordered to the first village, and Captain Clarke's to the latter. At each of these villages they were to join a troop of the Chasseurs d'Afrique who had preceded them. On arriving M Kom-Sorai Min, Captain FiteClarenco THE PRESS. found both troops of the French Dragoons, and imme diately sent off an order to Captain Clarke to join him that night; the letter was unfortunately not delivered until the following morning. In complying with this order, Captain Clarke, whose troop consisted of only 34 men, fell in with a body of about 50 Cossacks, which he immediately charged and pursued, but, as they were soon reinforced by upwards of 300, he was forced to retire upon the village, with a loss of his sergeantemajor, farrier, and 13 men taken prisoners. Captain Fitz Clarence's troop, with the Chasseurs, the whole under the command of the officer commanding the French troops, having seen a large body of the enemy, skirmished with them at some distance, and moved in the direction of the village of Serai MM ; where, after having joined Captain Clarke's troop, the whole force com menced their march upon Kertch. At about the distance of half a mile from the village they were attacked by a large body of Cossacks, who were, how ever, beaten back by repeated charges. The loss of the 10th Hussars consisted of two privates, supposed to have been killed ; 1 wounded ; 1 troop sergeant-major, 1 farrier, 13 men,ls horses, missing. From information that has since been received, the Cossacks were supported, within a quarter of an hour's march, by eight squadrons of Hussars and eight guns. Colonel Ready informs me that nothing could exceed the coolness and courage of the troops in the presence of such overwhelming numbers of the enemy, who were only kept at bay by their steady movements. I have the honour to enclose the list of casualties. The health of the army, I rejoice to say, is excellent. JAMES SIMPSON, General Commanding. PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER. The capture of Sebastopol will, after all, prove of no practical value to the allies as a means of shelter during the approaching winter. The north side Russian guns have opened fire upon the town, and our fatigue parties have in consequence been com pelled to withdraw; the Buffs have vacated their quar ters in the dockyards, and about two hundred artillery men comprise the strength of our army in the town. General Simpson further states, in a despatch of the 25th September, that " large quantities of timber and building material are daily taken from the houses by the troops "—so that it is clear the allies will be compelled, from the commanding fire of the Russian guns rendering Sebastopol untenable for barracks, to encamp upon the bleak heights of Balaklava for another winter. How far they are prepared for such compulsion does not appear quite satisfactory. From the assertion of the T imes correspondent of the 24th, that not one•twentieth part of the huts had yet ar rived, and that, notwithstanding all past experience and the cessation of the siege, there would still be much suffering in the army during the approaching winter, we may infer that the authorities at home trusted entirely to the anticipated capture of the town earlier in the year, and made none of those preparations for failure or the possible present position of the army which the commonest prudence would have suggested. Everything, writes the Daily News correspondent, on the 28th, favours the belief that the whole army will winter on its present camping-ground : A first instalment of the promised huts has, I believe, arrived in lialaklava, and others are expected immediately ; it remains to be seen whether or not they will reach us, as was the case last year, when the worst severities of the winter have gone by, and after new holocausts of unaccli matised arrivals have been offered up to the demon of offi cial procrastination, as before. The Times correspondent, under date of the 2ith, writes : Not, ithstanding the cessation of the most arduous duties of the army, and the improvement, or rather the creation, cf roads, the teachings of experience, and all the efforts of the authorities, 1 believe there will be much hardship and ,suffering, incidental, and inseparable, per haps, from the position of our army during the winter, even if they are all hutted. At present, there is not a twentieth of the men in huts. It will be hard work to make up for lost time should the huts arrive in time, and our officers are taking an exceedingly wise step in sending into Sebastopol for wood. An immense train of carts, waggons, dec., went down this morning to the city to get wood out of the ruined and dilapidated houses. A double tent can be made very comfortable for the winter, but single canvas is poor protection against the blasts which sweep over these dreary steppes, with the thermometer at ten degrees. Many of the officers are hutted, or have stink semt•subterranean residences or mined for sunken double tents, and the camp is studded all over with the dingy roofs, which at a distance look much like an aggregate of molehills. However, French, English, and Sardinians are all busily engaged in making roads, digging drains, clearing out trenches, building huts, and themselves making every possible preparation for winter. In the face of such preparations, and of the vigour with which they are carried out, as well as the late period of the year, there seems but one inference to be drawn—that the allied generals feel that the operations in the field this year are to be limited both in extent and period. The Daily News cor respondent writes, under date of the With : We appear to be doomed to disappointment in our ex pectation that a strong allied force would be sent to Eupa toria. The movements and reports which led to this belief appear to have been made and disseminated for the purpose of deceiTing the enemy. The rains and snows of £69 November will probably set in before we gather any fresh laurels in the Crimea. The constructi on of the military roads by the English troops is being carried on with great energy. The guard of the trenches in each attack is reduced to a captain's command, and the greater number of the troops thus set free are employed either iu making roads, clearing the batteries, or making the necessary preparations fur the coming winter. In this respect, among others, the aban donment by the enemy of the south side, ooenrring as it did a month or six weeks before the commencement of the severe season, Las rendered the most important servioe to the British force. lied it taken place a month later, there is every reason to believe that the winter would have caught us without any hut the railroad to depend upon for communication and the conveyance of supplies. Now there is every reason to expect that the plateau will be traversed in all directions by firm and eubstential well drained roads. It it impossible to overrate the great value and advantage of the opportunity thus afforded to us for insuring constant provision against the moat material exigencies of the coming winter. Those only who had occasion to observe the increase and multiplication of this varied miseries and sufferings which arose last winter from the want of means of transport and communication will be able to appreciate the real value of the different circumstances under which the army will be placed during the ensuing winter. —lb., Sept. 24. The Times correspondent also observes:— The great road from Kailikoi to the camp gets on but slowly, but a really great work is in the course of execu- tion in cutting a kind of canal for the waters of the stream let which runs through the flat, marshy laud close by the railway between Kadikui and the top of the harbour. This work will materially tend to the strength and efficiency of the railway in winter, and will carry off the surface water which turned the whole of this marsh into a lake in winter. The Sardinians ere at work on the railway from the Woronsoff road to the main line at Kadikoi; but our en gineers declare that they take such pains in elaborating, polishing, and finishing off trenches and cuttings as to lose valuable time. The French have not yet done any towards the execution of the line laid down by Mr. Campbell from the Col de Balaklava to Kamiesch.—Sept.24 ; The Sardinians appear to be very expert in their hut building. A Pitainontese correspondent of the Morning Port writes on the 21st : Our troops will pass the month of September In ing their huts for the winter, making roads, and strengthening our position. The way we proceed is, by digging a square place in the ground, and forming a roof of the earth supported by sticks. The fireplace is at the end, supplied with tubes. The constructions for the officers are, of course, better and larger, and the difficulties of a winter campaign are provided for. The health of the army is improving, but many who have suffered will be sent home before the cold weather arrives. The weather continued much finer than it was at the same period last year. The health of our army bad singularly improved since the conclusion of trenchwork, and every preparation was making by the military authorities on the spot against the con. tingenoies of winter:— During the last two days the weather has been sunny ant' fine, but the nights have been exceedingly cold. By contrast with the present year, the army seems to hate been singularly favoured, in respect to weather, during its march from Enpatoria and subsequent occupation of Bala. klava, and the position above Sebastopol iu September of 18154. It is said that a part of the fleet is to take its de. parture soon—the larger sailing vessels to go to the Bos phorus, and some of the smaller steamers to Malta. The Rodney leaves for England in a few days. The troops are in excellent health. The cessation of the trench duties, and the opportunity gained of rest at night, aro evidently producing the beneficial effects which might be expected. All are actively employed in making prepara tions to meet the coming winter. Military roads are fast progressing in the directions of the principal mntes. The Divisional Commissariat stores are accumulating, as well as the head-quarter establishments, and will render the necessity for transport during the winter a comparatively unimportant matter. Should the huts which are expected from England arrive in time to be erected before the rains set in, there is every reason to expect that the sanitary state of the troops will be as remarkably favorable this winter as it was unfavorable during the last winter.—l). News Cor., Sept. 20th. A portion of the winter clothing for the men had arrived, but the Government appear to be about behaving in a very niggardly manner to the officers : A portion of the winter clothing for the men, I am glad to say, has been disembarked during the past week, and will be issued without delay to the regiments whose commanding officers have secured the first turns. An un creditable deviation, however, from the course followed last season is, it is said, to be made in the case of the officers, for whom no provision is to be allowed in this respect. Last winter they were very properly served out with waterproof great-coats, leggings, and jack-boots, besides the short, but very comfortable, tweed and canal's coats, for which a cost charge of seven and sixpence was made to each recipient. It now appears that not one of these most needful articles is to be provided this winter, but that the hard-worked and not overpaid gentlemen to whose perseverance and bravery, in conjunction with the pati , mt courage of our men, we owe all that has been achieved, are to be left to purchase them at extortionate prices from the camp dealers, or from the hardly more reasonable shopkeepers of Pere. If such a niggardly and discreditable intention exist there is yet time to abandon it, and exercise the same generous liberality that resulted in so much comfort to our regimental officers throughout the horrors of last awd a meadow 411 which,