The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

DECEMBER 1, 1855. ituider Captain Wardlaw, had pushed on by my direction to village about three miles further, where they found in habitanta, who told them that some Russian cavalry had left them that morning. On the 23rd the whole force returned to Kinburn. On the march our rear was threatened by about 250 of the .enemy's cavalry, who, however, soon retired. On the 27th the cavalry and artillery were embarked, and on the 30th the whole of the infantry, to return to the Crimea, leaving French troops to garrison the fort. General Spencer then calls the attention of the commanderin-chief to those officers who particularly distinguished themselves by their zeal and exertions, and concludes with expressing his high sense of the valuable co-operation and counsel afforded him by Sir Edmund Lyons. THE ADVANCE FROM EUPATORIA. Eupatoria, Oct. 30. I have the honour to report that the allied forces sta tioned here marched on the small town of Sak, on the meriting of the 27th inst., under the command of General of Division d'Allonville. At the further extremity of the strand that divides the sea from the Lake of Sazik Gualoie (by which route the column marched ), the ground rises to the level of the steppe land that universally prevails. On reaching this point the allied cavalry and horse artillery made a rapid advance to the front, for about five miles, in an easterly direction, passing to the left of Sak. We there found the enemy in much the same position in which we had left them on the 23rd inst., though they had, to a certain extent, intrenched themselves. General d'Allonville from this point opened a fire with much effect, which continued for nearly an hour, and which was warmly responded to by the enemy. Captain Thor..las's troop of horse artillery being sup ported by the 12th Lancers ; the Carbineers, 4th, and 13th Light Dragoons being in second line in reserve. The loss to the allies on this occasion was thirty killed and wounded ; one English artilleryman having been slightly wounded, two horses killed, and three wounded. We then withdrew to the town of Sak, where we bivou acked for the night. At daybreak, on the 28th inst., the cavalry and horse artillery made another advance in rather a more northerly direction (to the south of the village of Temesh ), in the endeavour to turn the right of the enemy, or to draw him into action, which, however, he appeared to show no dis position to respond to, and we consequently returned to our bivouack at Sak, in front of which the infantry had re mained to secure our rear. On this second night there was a total want of water, in consequence of the drain upon the wells the night before, and there was an absence of water for a circumference of many miles to our front. The column, therefore, returned to Eupatoria yesterday, the 29th inst. 1 beg to report that I have attached Captain the Hon. Charles Keith, 4th Light Dragoons, to General d'Allon ville, during the time the troops are in the field, and that I sent Captain Clifton, 12th Lancers, on board her Majes ty's ship Diamond, to assist Captain Hamilton, R.N., in his operations. GEORGE PAGET, Brigadier-General, Commanding British Troops at Eupatoria. CAPTURE OF RUSSIAN SUPPLIES. Lord Paget, in a brief despatch to the commander in chief, explains the cause of the expedition to the village of Tchotai—siz., a large collection of stores by the Russians at that spot—and incloses the report of Colonel Tottenham. In the concluding paragraph Lord George states that "an attack of fever " had for some days confined him to his bed : Eupatoria, Nov. IL I have the honour to report that, agreeably to brigade orders, of the Ist fist., I proceeded at four a.m. yesterday, in command of two squadrons of the 12th Royal Lancers, to join the force under Ali Pacha, ordered to assemble in front of the Turkish cavalry camp. At daylight we marched through Alcbir to Tchotai, a village about fifteen miles from this. The Turkish cavalry were in advance, supported by the French and English squadrons. We arrived at Tchotai about half-past eleven, awl captured one Russian commissariat officer (as it is supposed), one Cossack, about forty ambits, and about 3,000 head of horses, camels, oxen, and sheep ; three Rue elan carriages were also brought in, and a considerable number of the inhabitants of the village. We started on our return at half-past one, having set fire to the village, and destroyed thirty large ricks of hay. We arrived in camp about half-past eight p.m.: no resistance was offered by the enemy. W. H. TOTTENHAM, Lieutenant• Colonel, 12th Royal Lancers Marshal Pelissier has also reported to the Minister of War at Paris upon this little coup de main, corroborating the account given by Colonel Totten ham. BATTLE OF INGOUR. --- Lord Clarendon on Thursday received a despatch from Major Simmons, her Majesty's military com missioner attached to Omer Pacha's army, detailing the events of the passages of the Ingour by the Turks. Major Simmons states that Omer Pacha's total force consisted of four brigades (thirty-two batta lions) of infantry, four battalions of chasseurs, and 1,000 cavalry, with twenty-seven field-pieces and ten mountain guns, or in all about 20,000 men ; the remainder of his force, about 10,000 men, being em ployed to protect the depots at Godova, Tchinshera, and Soukham ; and proceeds to detail the manoeuvres of the dq, but does net present to us any new facts. THE PRESS. The loss on the side of the Turks is returned at 310 killed and wounded, of whom sixty-eight are killed, and four missing; while that of the enemy does not appear to have been ascertained. Up to the present time, writes Major Simmons, 347 have been buried, of whom are eight officers, among which the prisoners report there are two colonels. DEATH OF ADMIRAL BRUAT. The French Minister of Marine received on Tues day the following despatch from the chief of the staff of the Mediterranean squadron : On board the Montabello, at sea, Nov. 20, 1855. Admiral Bruat died yesterday, the 19th of November, at three in the afternoon, from an attack of cholera. The departure of the late Admiral Bruat for France called forth a most gratifying and complimentary letter from the deceased officer to Admiral Lyons : consider it, my dear colleague (said this letter), a duty, and the moat agreeable duty I could have t.l perform, to add to the congratulations of his Excellency the Minister of Marine my personal thanks and the expressive► of my gratitude for the very loyal and willing support which you have never ceased to give me. I beg of you, my dear col• league, to be the interpreter of my sentiments to the officers and crews of your squadron. • Admiral Lyons replied in equally expressive fermi of friendship and esteem, while the closing paragraph of his letter anticipates a home-welcome for his brave and accomplished colleague which a sudden and disastrous death denied : Your excellency (observes Admiral Lyons) is kind enough to say that you leave us with regret. We are fully convinced of it, and are deeply touched by it; but it is not in the nature of things that this separation should be so keenly felt by you as by us, for we remain on these shores while every league which increases the distance between us brings you nearer to your country and to your families, who are already preparing to receive you with open arms, and to thank you for the noble actions you have accom plished. THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. General Simpson officially announced his resigns. Lion of the command on the 10th ult., in the order of the day, dated " Head-quarters, Nov. 10th," informing the army of the appointment of his successor. General Simpson briefly thanks the army for its good conduct while under his command : In resigning his command, the general desires to express to the troops the high sense he entertains of the admirable conduct of the officers and men of this army during the time he has had the honour to serve with them. In taking leave of them he tenders his best thanks to all ranks, and offers his earnest wishes for their success and honour in all the future operations of this noble army. General Codrington on assuming the command issued the following general order to the army on the following day : Headquarters, Sebastopol, Nov. 12. I have assumed the command of the army, in obediem to her Majesty's orders. It is with a feeling of pride, and with a feeling of confidence in the support which I know will be heartily given to any officer honoured with such a commission. The armies of France and Sardinia are united with us on this ground. We know their gallantry well, tor we have seen it ; we know their friendship, for we have profited by it; we have shared difficulties, dangers, and successes, the groundwork of mutual esteem ; and all will feel it our pleasure as well as our duty to carry on that kindly inter course which is due to the intimate alliance of the nations themselves. Our army will always preserve its high character in the field. The sobriety, the good conduct, and the discipline which it is our duty to maintain, are the beat sureties of future success ; and I trust to the efforts and assistance of all ranks in thus keeping the army to be an instrument of honour, of power, and of credit to England. W. J. CODRINOTON, General, Commander of the Forces. A farewell address to the light division was also issued by Sir William Codrington, and read to each regiment on parade. The gallant general alludes to the arduous services they have undergone together, and asks them to continue in the " true line of disci pline, order, and good conduct." THE GREAT EXPLOSION. The tremendous explosion of the magazines on the 15th appears by the latest letters from the camp to have completely occupied the attention of the whole army. It was of so appalling a nature, and so terrific in its force, that for the first moment men and officers could scarcely comprehend the nature of the catastrophe. But, after a trifling period of uncer tainty, the truth forced itself upon their minds by the dense columns of smoke which rolled out across the country, and the fury of the fire which threatened destruction to the whole encampment. The special correspondent of the Daliy News describes it in the following terms To say that it equalled in violence the combined salvoes of a thousand parks of artillery might seem extravagant ; and yet the simile would but feebly convey an idea of the volume of thundering sound that shook the earth for miles around, tearing down the most substantial masonry and wooden huts, and levelling tents as by the sweep of some invisible giant-arm. I had seen the explosions on and after the Bth of September, which so many pens have since described ; but no half-dozen of them together would have equalled this one, either in force or sound. Over an sass of nearly half a mils from the spot of its omarronoo, 1139 the air was one huge column of powder, smoke, and cut up earth, up into and athwart which igniting or exploding shells and rockets ever and anon darted and flashed by hundreds, spreading destruction to nearly everything ani mate and inanimate within a radius of more than a thou sand yards. Heavy siege-guns were wrenched from their carriages and thrown many perches from where they had been standing, whilst the carriages themselves, torn asunder, as a strong man might rend bird-cages, were flung high into the air, and fell in scattered fragments far away amongst the surrounding tents. It seemed, also, as if whole piles of round-shot and grape were similarly caught up into the air and showered far and near, for I can personally testify that, more than 500 yards from the scene of the explosion, they and pieces of burst shell fell and ploughed up the earth nearly as thickly as if all the Rus sian batteries on the north side had been transferred to Inkerniann, and brought into random play against the light division at the time. This may sound extravagantly, know : but it no more than describes the terrific, but happily brief, storm of missiles vomited around on all sides by this disastrous blow up.—D. News coo. As soon as it was perceived that the great English magazine had not exploded, an effort was made to save the building containing the powder ; and here one of those cool and daring acts for which English men are pre eminent was achieved by Lieutenant Hope, of the 7th Fusiliers, and a small party of volun teers Immediately after the first great explosion, however, when it was ascertained that the windmill itself—which forms our main magazine in this part of the camp, and contains some hundred and eighty tons of powder—had escaped, General Straubenzee, who commands the brigade, hurried up to the tents of the 7th Fusiliers and asked if any of the men would volunteer to mount the wall of the mill and cover the roof with wet tarpaulins and blankets as a protection against the thickly-flying sparks and burn ing wood. Now, the concussion had literally thrown the roof off the old building, and there it stood in the very centre of the spreading flames, exposed every minute to a thousand chances of instantaneous destruction. Hardly anything could exceed the danger attending such a labour as the general proposed, but, notwithstanding, Lieutenant Hope (senior) and twenty-five men at once responded to the brigadier's appeal and proceeded to the powder crammed building. A sergeant and some men of the Rifles, with also a party of the 84th Regiment, were in duced to accompany them ; and, within ten minutes from the first great blow-up, Mr. Hope was on the walls of the mill piling the wet coverings over the exposed powder boxes—exploding shells and burning wood trying through the air in perfect storms the while. Whilst the officer and some half-dozen of the men were thus employed, the re mainder carried water to throw upon the blankets and bare rafters of the mill, and in little more than half an hour this vast pile of powder was as well protected from the thickly flying sparks and rockets as it could be, short of entire re moval from the scene of the conflagration. The danger, however, was still great, for a shell might at any moment penetrate the textile coverings and send the whole into the air, spreading around destruction and death, compared with which the injury already done would have been as nothing. The troops, were, therefore, kept as far as • possible from the scene of the fire till late in the evening, when it had so expended its fury as to give less ground for apprehension.—lb. Lieutenant Hope was publicly thanked by the general on next day's parade. So great was the hurricane of shot and shell sent into the camp by the explosion, that many dreadful accidents of course occurred, while at the same time some of the escapes were miraculous : Major Strange had only just stepped out of the door of his hut when two thirteen-inch shells dropped through the roof and exploded on the very chair he had been occupy ing. Every board of the little dwelling was sent flying into the air, as was the case with the hut next it, and yet out of this tornado of wooden splinters he escaped with out a scratch. Another, which occurred in the 88th Regiment, distant nearly half a mile from the spot, was scarcely less so. A shell passed through the roof of the canteen, knocked a bottle out of the hand of the canteen man's wife, and, rolling off a yard or two, burst and destroyed the whole concern, without seriously wounding any of the eight or ten people in the place at the time. A soldier was leading, in the camp of the 2'.lrd Regiment, a valuable charger belonging to Major Robert Bruce. A shell burst, disembowelling the horse and tearing him into nearly two parts, but the soldier escaped unhurt. Two of the large marquees occupied by the sick men of the regiment were torn by shells, and a round-shot passed through one of the wooden huts, in which were several patients, finding its way out close to the head of one of them, who was perfectly disabled from moving; yet none were injured. —lB. Of the accidents, one of the most painful was the case of an English artilleryman, who, without re ceiving any bodily injury, either from the force of the explosion or by the sudden shock, has been rendered idiotic:— He attracted general attention as he was led by, bare headed, between two of his comrades, uttering silly excla mations, and quite lost to consciousness of all that was passing around him. He seemed to be possessed by a feel ing that he was in England, for all his rambling remarks referred to home; while a smile on his face, vacant and unmeaning as was its expression, seemed to show that he had at least as much satisfaction as be was any longer capable of enjoying.—lb. The cause of explosion will probably never be positively discovered, as the wilful or accidental per petrator must have been destroyed at the moment. t t 1 i