The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-28 00:00:00

706 THE WAR. The latest advices from the Crimea are dated Wednesday the 25th, and were published in yester day's Moniteur. They state : After a brisk cannonade the Russians made a sortie, about midnight last night, on the left of the Little Sedan. As we are now quite close to them, it did not take the enemy one minute to reach our gabionnades. They wore vigorously received by the Chasseurs-it-pied of the Imperial Guard, and by some companies of the 10th Regiment of Infantry of the line. The Russians beat a hasty retreat, leaving some wounded, and eight killed, between our ambuscades and the fosse of the place. A very dark night enabled them to carry off the others. This affair does honour to Lieutenant• Colonel de Texis, of the infantry, and to Captain Lecocq, of the engineers. General Itisson was on duty in the trenches. The English War-office received a despatch of similar date from General Simpson, but it announces only that " cholera has not increased since the last report, and the army continues in satisfactory health." General Pellissier had previously reported on the 23rd inst. : The enemy appears to have taken alarm last night, and opened a very brisk fire on the right and left of our lines of attack. Our batteries replied as briskly, and with success. . I have good news from Yenikale. Everything there is going on well, under the direction of Lieutenant• Colonel Osmont, who has taken measures to prevent any disorder at Kertch. The preceding British despatch was of the 20th, and ran as follows : Nothing of importance has occurred. The siege opera. lions progress favorably. The health of the army is good. - - According to the last advices from Constantinople the French troops were putting the last hand to the fortifications of the bay of Kamiesch. The division of General Cantobert was doing duty in the in trenchments. The gun-boats from England were beginning to arrive in the Black Sea, and were to be employed, it wao said, on the coasts of the Sea of Azoff, the Putrid Sea, and the mouth of the Don. Prince Gortschakoff writes from the Crimea, under date of the 16th :—" We made two sorties on the 14th and 15th before the bastion Korniloff, which were satisfactory. Nothing of importance has occurred in other parts of the Crimea." Official published accounts state at 5,775 men the Russian loss in the affairs of the 17th and 18th. Rear-Admiral Pamphiloff has succeeded the late Admiral Nachimotf in command of the vessels and port of Sebastopol. The same accounts state that the Russians are occupied in constructing new works for the defence of Sebastopol. The Invalide Busse reports that Admiral Nachi moff has sunk under his wounds received on the 18th instant. . The death of General Todtleben, the Russian engineer officer, is also announced, and it is stated that General Melnikoff has been appointed to succeed him in conducting the internal defence of Sebas topol. Prince Gortschakoff has sent for the Archbishops of Cherson and Taurida to excite the religious zeal of the garrison. English, French, and Sardinian reinforcements were joining the allied armies at the rate of two to three thousand men per day. All the available men of-war and steamers were under orders to proceed to Toulon, to convey the French reserve army to the East- There is no intelligence of the slightest interest from the fleets, either in the Black Sea or Baltic. THE CAMPAIGN IN ASIA. By the latest accounts, Kars, which was so heavily threatened by the Russians, has not been even assailed, General Mouravieff having abandoned the attempt with some marks of precipitation. Despatches from Constantinople bring news from Trebizond to the 9th to the following effect : The Russians suddenly withdrew, after approaching close to Kars and firing some few shots into the town. They had dispersed some Turkish detachments near Bayazid, and taken 100 prisoners. Geueral Tlouravielf intended, it is said, to attack Erzeroum at the same time that he invested Kars. Fifteen thousand irregular Turkish troops had marched from Trebizond, and 5,000 from Batoum, to reinforce the garrison of Erzeroum. Some of the caravans from Erzeroum to Persia have been stopped on the road by detachments of Cossacks. REVOLT OF THE BASHI•BAZOUKS. Accounts of serious disorders among General Beatsen's corps of Bashi-Bazouks have arrived. In a letter from Abydos, written on the 12th inst., it is stated that:— ----- ---- - On Friday evening last a party of about a hundred of them (some say more) descended from their camp to the THE PRESS. little town of Dardanelles, to rescue a prisoner, one of their native officers, who had been confined for violating the wife of a dragoman. Having effected his release, they proceeded to the house of the general, where they de manded the man's arms. These, after some parley, being given up to their threats of violence, the late prisoner very coolly loaded his pistol before the windows, and then joined his comrades, who marched through the town in the three. tion of the civil hospital at Renkoi. At five o'clock the next morning they presented themselves before a farm in the Troad, belonging to the English consul, and seized whatever they could lay hands on. The brigands carried off about twenty sheep, several horses belonging to the Land Transport Corps which were down there, and about 6,000 piastres which were in the house. After this for a time their movements were unknown, but information was received in a few days that they were en route for Smyrna. Meanwhile a Turkish guard had been sent to the hospital and village, and the ladies brought back to Dardanelles, where the consul received them into his house. Since then, however, the Bashis have again made their ap pearance at Renkoi, and plundered several houses ; and now it is supposed they will disperse in small bands among the mountains, and become the terror of the neighbourhood. SIEGE CHRONICLE. Further letters from the camp have arrived, bringing intelligence to the 14th instant. Writing on that day, the Daily News correspondent gives the following view of the state of affairs:— - - - The events of the past week have not been marked by any striking features. The French works destined to act against the shipping in the roadstead and the approaches against the Malakoff have been steadily advancing. The new batteries in our position have also been making favor able progress. The enemy had maintained a very deter mined opposition to these advances, and, especially from the direction of the Hellen, had kept up a constant discharge of shell and grape against our working parties. It was determined, therefore, to make the attempt of silencing some of the guns of the Redan, as well as of in terrupting the works known to be in progress there ; and on the 10th instant, a tremendous fire was opened against it, and maintained nearly the whole day. The fire of the enemy against our working parties has been less active since that date, but it is doubtful whether any of the enemy's guns were injured. On the extreme left great tranquillity has been preserved. The general health of the troops engaged in the siege operations continues excellent. Dysentery and fevers are the prevailing diseases. Cholera appears almost to have entirely quitted the front of our position, although it still clings to some peculiar situations. The temperature has continued very high. The subjoined extracts are from the camp diary of the Times correspondent:— Jory 10.—This morning we were roused by a pretty heavy firing on the Redan, which, commencing at daybreak, lasted for nearly four hours. About eight o'clock it gradu ally died away, and for the remainder of the day the occa sional booming of the guns was heard as it has been heard daily for many months. The cause of this morning's activity was that the Redan was impeding the construction of the heavy battery by which the British hope to reach the shipping, and either to destroy them or force them to leave the position which they have held with such obstinacy, and which they used with such effect on the 18th of June. It will be remembered that on that day the Russian vessels moored in double line across the harbour, fired broadsides on the advancing allies, and mowed them down with more fatal effect than even the works of the Malakoff and Redan. The French especially suffered much from this terrible fire, which was sustained during the whole action, and General Pelissier, though by no means a cautious commander, is understood to shrink from sending his troops to be a second time exposed to such a reception. The general opinion is that no new attack on the Malakoff ought to be hazarded until the fleet is dislodged from its position, and driven into a part of the harbour where it will be ineffective against the allies. Of course I say nothing of the means by which this is to be effected. At present everything seems to betoken on both sides the busy preparation for a deter mined attack and stern defence. On our part it is only the repetition of what has often been described—the cease less landing of shot and shell on the encumbered wharfs of l3alaklava, the toil of waggons and of strings of mules along the parched and thirsty road, while the wind carries its clouds of dust before it, enveloping whole convoys, and making them invisible for minutes together, or whirling along in et'dies with a spinning pillar of dust like a water. spout. The monotony of the trenches is relieved by the conviction that a few days will see a renewal of the efforts which were unsuccessful three weeks ago. The French are making visible progress in their sap towards the Malakoff. Half way between this stronghold and the Mamelon, where our allies are firmly established, a long trench is visible, which shows how far they have advanced in the interval since the last attack. The Russians have made no serious attempt to retake this latter position, although the night before last they made a little sortie, in which some sharp fighting took place, the end of it being that the Russians retired after somewhat interrupting the French works. But the enemy is, no ioubt, much more actively employed in strengthening the Malakoff itself, which he must feel to be the key of Sebastopol. Should this now celebrated hillock fall into the hands of the allies, no ingenuity or obstinacy of defence can delay the capture of the southern side beyond a few weeks. There is every reason to believe that the Russians are day and night at work deepening the ditch and constructing abattis. A very large body of troops is constantly under arms, and every means are used to avoid a surprise like that which gave the French such easy possession of the Mamelon. But it seems to be not alone the Malakoff and Redan which the enemy is strengthening. The Russian engi • neers are evidently constructing works on a very high S A.TURDAY, scale behind the fortifications with which we have been brought in contact. The whole harbour is alive with boats. Craft of all shapes and sizes are continually crossing and recrossing, carrying gabions, faseines, and trunks of trees for the construction of abattis, as well as provisions and ammunition. They discharge their cargoes and imme diately return for fresh ones, each boat seeming to make some twelve or fourteen trips a day. The ships' boats seem all to be employed at this work, which is no doubt performed by the sailors. The large supply of wood yielded by the forests of the Crimea has been one of the chief aids to the defence of Sebastopol. Fuel for the steamers and for cookery has been obtained in abundance, and the want of coal has probably been little felt. Treta felled and brought a distance of ten or twelve miles form the strong abattis, six feet high, which is one of the chief defences of the itedan. Fascinea for the works have been obtained from the same quarter, and are brought in vast quantities. The great number of arabas captured by the French in their expedition across the Tschernaya would seem to indi cate that large means of transport exist in the peninsula; but the forage for sustaining the beasts which draw the Russian carts and the herds of cattle with which the gar rison is supplied with meat must now begin to fail. In the spring and early summer the country is covered with a rich long grass, which is sufficient for all the purposes of a most extensive transport and commissariat. As June draws to a close this begins to wither, and, although the present summer has been more than usually cool, and the north winds have kept the atmosphere moister than is usually the case, yet in the vicinity of our camp such a thing as a green blade of grass is hardly to be found, except close to the Tschernaya. The other streams of which the Russians have possession are of much smaller volume than this river, and the steppe to the north is without doubt entirely dried up. Hence will arise difficulties in the means of sustaining their army which will try all the skill and energy of our enemies. The camp is healthy enough, and it is probable that the summer will pass away without any of that sickness to which the nation has looked forward with such forebodings. The heat is by no means equal to what has been the general temperature of the country in former years; in fact, both here and in Turkey the summer has been cool, and fever and diarrhcea have prevailed to a less extent than usual. Belaklava has been, it is true, much afflicted with cholera, but the scene of its greatest ravages was the top of the harbour, where many thousand Turks lie with only a few inches of light mould between them and the air, and where the bodies are often laid bare in all their hideous ghastliness by one of the thundershowers of the Crimea. The vessels outside the harbour were tolerably free from the disease, and since the crowd of transports. which lay touching one another in the narrow and land locked port has been somewhat thinned the place may be said to have become tolerably healthy. If a low and sultry village like Balaklava be free from disease in the middle of July, there is little cause for melancholy forebodings as to the health of troops encamped on a lofty plateau, ex posed to every breeze that blows, and far removed from n too prolific vegetation. Last year the seeds of cholera 111141 fever were brought to life by encampments in wooded Bulgarian valleys, in the vicinity of fetid morasses. or within the limits of a crowded and filthy seaport. 'the disease thus engendered was brought by the two armies to the Crimea, where privations and fatigue caused it to ex tend its ravages far beyond the season at which they gene rally cease. Before Sebastopol the allies are encamped on a spot where no deleterious emanations can reach them, except those engendered by the necessary irapurites of a camp, and these, through the care taken in burning or burying all offensive matter, have as yet had little 'fleet on the health of the troops. As to fever, the usual season for it is June, and this month is now passed without ally unusual sickness in the camp. It is therefore to be hoped that the autumn will pass away without any serious calamity. JULY 11.—To-day heavy shelling from the Redan. Lieutenant Monsell, 30th Regiment, was killed in the trenches. The French are fast completing their battery at the. Ouvrages Blanca. I have to relate the melancholy deaths of two gentlemen connected with the commander in-chief. One is Colonel Vico, French Commissioner at. the head-quarters of the British army, and holding the same situation which General Rose holds with General Pelissier. The death of Colonel Vico was caused by cholera, which has struck down so many of the notables. of the camp within the last few weeks. Mr. Calvert, a gentleman well acquainted with the Russian language, and employed as interpreter and confidential agent to the commander-in-chief, is also dead. People are beginning to fear that the pretty little farmhouse where Lord Raglan established himself on his arrival before Sebastopol must be placed on a spot more than usually subject to malific influences. Certainly, fatal cases of disease have followed one another with a rapidity unknown in other ?arts of the camp, and the impression which might be made on the minds of people at home by the deaths of several distin guished officers in succession would convey too unfavorable an idea of the state of the army in general. JULY 12.—Nothing new to-day. The French and Turks have finally returned from their reconnaissance, and the country about Baidar is again in the hands of the Cossacks. The quantity of cattle driven in by them is very great. The beasts, though not of the large size we are accustomed. to in England, are finer and better fed than those obtained in Asia Minor—at least, as we see them after a voyage across the Black Sea. An attack on the Russian position is considered all but hopeless. Nature seems as if she had constructed the plateau they occupy as a vast defensi ble position, which 50,000 men may hold against four times their number. Of the reduction of Sebastopol proper before the winter I have no kind of doubt. That the Russians will hold out with all the obstinacy of their character, even after the destruction of their ships and the capture of the Malakoff, msy be expected; but the posses