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

I JULY 7, 1855. June 23. I informed your lordship in my despatch of the 19th instant that I would make a more special report upon the movements of the third division, as soon as I should re oeive tho reports of Lieutenant-General Sir R. England, and the Major-Generals commanding brigades under him. The first brigade, under Major-General Barnard, p ro . deeded down the oronzow road, and was placed in posi tion on the right of the ravine, ready to co-operate with the columns of attack on the right ; whilst the second brigade, under Major General Eyre, moved down the ravine which separates the left of the English from the right of the French advanced works, for the purpose of attacking the enemy's ambuscades, and making it demonstration on the head of the Dockyard Creek. _ _ _ _ This service was performed with the utmost gallantry ; and, notwithstanding that they were exposed to a most galling fire, the troops maintained themselves in the posi tion they had taken up during the day, and in the evening withJrewlunmolested, leaving apost at the Cemetery, which had been one of the objects of the attack in the morning. The action having from circumstances become a most serious one, I beg, as the most satisfactory way of making your lordship acquainted with the particulars, to lay a copy of the major-general's letter before your lordship, and to solicit your attention to the officers whose services he particularly notices, and at the same time to his own dis tinguished conduct. Your lordship will see with concern that the loss sus tained by this brigade is very considerable, and that Major. General Eyre is himself wounded ; but I have every reason to hope that the injury he has received is not very severe, and will not incapacitate him from the discharge of his duty with the same energy and devotion as he has already applied himself to its performance during the protracted operations before Sebastopol. RAGLAL The part taken by the naval brigade in the affair is thus detailed by Admiral Lyons:— Royal Albert, off Sebastopol, June 19. The inclosed copy of a letter from Captain Lush ington, who commands the naval brigade before Sebastopol, has just reached me in time to be transmitted for the in• formation of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by this day's mail. . . . Their lordships will readily perceive that the gallantry which has distinguished the naval brigade throughout the war was never more distinguished than it was yesterday, during the attack on the Malakoff Tower and Redan ; and on a future early occasion it will be my pleasing duty to bring under their lordship's notice the conduct of those engaged during the late bombardment and attack. EDMUND LYONS. (Inclosure.) Camp, Naval Brigade, June 18. I have the honour to report that on Sunday, at three a.m., we opened fire as before on the different forts of Sebastopol, which was very soon returned, but not with the spirit or skill that usually characterises the enemy's fire. Towards two p.m. the fire became very slack, and their batteries appeared much shaken. The fire continued all day, and the commander of the forces having intimated to me his acceptance of my pro posal to carry the ladders in case of an assault being made on the town and butteries, I told off four parties of sixty men each to accompany the four columns ordered for this service ; and Captain Peel having volunteered his services on this occasion, I placed them under his command, and I beg to inclose a list of the officers under him. I regret to say that the assault which took place at three a.m. was not successful; but our severe loss shows too plainly that the seamen and officers of the naval brigade did their duty most gallantly, and their ladders were at their places in spite of the most murderous fire I have witnessed. Captain Peel led one party in the most gallant style, and Lieutenant Cave led the other. The other two columns did not advance, and consequently the ladder parties, al though exposed to a severe fire, as indeed was every one, did not suffer much. Captain Peel was shot through the arm, but was enabled to continue his duty until the affair was over. I have to regret as well that Lieutenants Urmston, Cave, and Dalyell, Messrs. Parsons, mate, and Wood, midshipman, were all wounded. Lieutenant Kidd and nine seamen were killed, and forty-one seamen wounded, and one missing ; these men, I trust, will be got in to-night after dark. The party under Lieutenant Cave, with the loss of Lieutenant Kidd and five seamen killed, Lieutenant cave and seven seamen wounded, equally performed the duty assigned. A heavy fire was kept up from our batteries with admirable precision, until the commander-in-chief ordered it to be slackened. I have also to report the bursting of one of the ninety five cwt. sixty-eight pounders, which caused the death of four men, and wounded three. The enemy's line-of battle ships did not fire, but the steamers did. I have the honour to return a list of casualties for the last two days, and to inform you our sick list is forty-nice, and all doing well. Every officer and man engaged in this arduous service has done his duty most gallantly, and I only wait your permission to recommend those whose conduct I have particularly noticed. STEPHEN LUSHINGTON. The letters received by the last two mails from the Crimea give a fuller narrative of the assault. The following account is from the Times correspondent : The plan of attack originally proposed was that the allies were to open a cannonade for three hours on the Malakoff and Redan after dawn on the morning of the 18th; that the French were to assault the Malakoff, and that when they had gained possession of it we were to attack the Redan. As the latter work is commanded by the former, it would not be possible to oarry or to hold it till the Ma lakoff was taken, The insuner et our attack was se THE PRESS. follows :—The senior brigades of the light division, second division, third division, and fourth division were to furnish each one column of 1,750 men, to whom were joined sixty sailors, and these columns were to be employed against the Redan and the Cemetery and batteries on our lett of the Redan, close to the neck of the Dockyard Creek. The second brigades of these divisions were to be in reserve, and the Guards' brigade and Highland brigade were moved up and kept in reserve also for any duty that might occur. The attacking party of the second division was the only exception to these rules, as it was formed of broken brigades. Sir George Brown had the direction of the as sault. The 1,750 men in each instance were formed of 400 men for the assaulting column, a working party of 400 men to cover them in case of a lodgment and to re verse the work, 800 men as a support, and 100 riflemen or sharpshooters preceding the head of the assaulting column to keep down the fire of the batteries and of the enemy's chasseurs, and 50 men carrying woolpacks to bridge over the ditches. To these were added sixty sailors, bearing scaling-ladders. Soon after twelve o'clock they moved down from camp and took ground in the trenches. The movement was simultaneous, and the troops moved off together till they came into the trenches, from which they were to issue forth to attack the dark wall of earth serrated with embrasures before them. These embrasures were only too well filled. The fire which we opened on Sunday morning preliminary , to the assault was marked by great energy, weight, and destruct iveness. In the first relief the Quarry Battery, commanded by Maier Si.range, threw no less than 300 eight-inch shells into the Redan, which is only 400 yards distant, and the place must have been nearly cleared by the incessant storm of iron splinters which flew threw it. So near are the works that fragments of our thirteen inch shells fly back from the Redan into the Quarry Battery, and on some occasions our men have been injured by the splinters of their own shells, which have radiated from the inside of the Russian batteries. Throughout Sunday our artillery fired 12,000 rounds of the heaviest ordnance into the enemy's lines, and on the following day we fired 11,946 rounds of shot and shell. The Russian fire was weak and wild. Although they fired a good deal, they kept many pieces masked, and one six•gun and one eight•gun battery on the flanks of the Redan were silent, and were left compara tively unnoticed by our artillerymen. The only damage they did by all their fire throughout the whole of Sunday was the demolition of the wheel of a gun-carriage. Had the three hours cannonade and bombardment which Lord Raglan decided on administering to the Russian batteries before we assaulted been delivered to them, it is very pro bable that we should have found but a small body of troops prepared to receive us at the parapets ; and it must be es teemed a very unfortunate circumstance that his lordship was induced to abandon his intention in deference to the wishes of General Pelissier. General Pelissier, in request. ing the English general to change the original plan of attack and to forestall the hour which was at first agreed upon, is not stated to have assigned any specific reason for the alteration, but it is reported that he wished to anticipate the enemy, who were about, as he was informed, to make an assault on the Mamelon. He felt, too, that the masses of French whom he had prepared could not be concealed from the Russians for any length of time, and that they would soon be revealed by the noise which always attends the movements of large bodies of men. It would, indeed, have been impossible to conceal the fact of the accumula tion of so many battalions close to the Malakoff, and their presence would have been indicated certainly as soon as dawn, and probably earlier. The Russian column which is said to have issued from Malakoff just before our assault, to attack the Mamelon, was certainly so small that it was, according to some, merely intended as a feint to draw out the French and lead them to the assault, for which the enemy were only too well prepared. A deserter who came in yesterday (Tuesday) has declared that the garrison have been ex pecting an attack ever since the termination of the third bombardment, and that the allies got the Quarries and the Mamelon because the bulk of the Russians were concen trated in the Redan and Malakoff, which they thought we should attack as soon as we had seized these outlying works. Heavy columns of infantry have been marched up every night, according to his statement, to the rear of the batteries as soon as our fire ceases, and are withdrawn soon after daybreak. As the 34th Regiment advanced, the supports, by some means or another, got mixed together with them, and some confusion arose in consequence. On crossing the trench our men, instead of coming upon the open in a firm body, were broken into twos and threes. This arose from the want of a temporary step above the berm, which would have enabled the troops to cross the parapet with regula rity ; instead of which they had to scramble over it as well as they could, and, as the top of the trench is of unequal height and form, their line was quite broken. The moment they came out from the trench the enemy began to direct on their whole front a deliberate and well-aimed mitraille, which increased the want of order and unsteadiness caused by the mode of their advance. Poor Colonel Yea saw the consequences too clearly. Having in vain tried to obviate the evil caused by the broken formation and confusion of his men, who were falling last around him, he exclaimed, " This will never do ! Where's the bugler to call them back?" But alas ! at that critical moment no bugler was to be found. The gallant old soldier by voice and gesture tried to form and compose his men, but the thunder of the enemy's guns close at hand and the gloom of early dawn frustrated his efforts ; and, as he rushed along the troubled mass of troops which were herding together under the I rush of grape, and endeavoured to get them into order for P a rush at the batteries, which was better than standing still or retreating in a panic, a charge of the deadly missile I passed, and the noble soldier fell dead in advance of his men. The division lost upwards of 320 men killed and , wounded, and suffered severely as it retired from the futile • attack. The signal for our assault was to be given by the discharge of two service rosketa, which wars to havelptsa 635 fired when the French got into the Malakoff, and the latter were to have hoisted a flag as a signal of their success. It is certain that the French did for a short time establish themselves in the Malakoff, but they were soon expelled with loss, and 1 saw a large triangular blue and black flag waving front the Malakoff all during the fight. The moment the rockets were fired the light division rushed out of cover; in a quarter of an hour this infantry Balaklava was over, so far as any chance of success was concerned. The second division, seeing that the flank attacks failed, wisely kept under cover, and suffered but a trifling lose. Had they foolishly advanced, we should have to deplore greater and more useless slaughter. The fourth division were guided down by their active quarter master general, Colonel Wyndham, and took ground in the trench to the left, but it would seem as if they attacked a little too near the apex of the Hedan. Poor Sir John Campbell seems to have displayed a courage amounting to rashness. He sent away Captain Huu►e end Captain Snodgrass, his aide-de-camp, just before he rushed out of the trench, as if averse to hying them into the danger he meditated, and fell in the act of cheering on his men. It soon became evident that the contest on the left was as hopeless as the fight on the right, and in fifteen minutes all was over. The brigade under Major-General Eyre, which was destined to occupy the Cemetery and to carry the Barrack Batteries, turned out at twelve o'clock, and proceeded to march down the road oil the left of the Greenhill Battery to the Cemetery, and halted under cover while the neces sary dispositions were being made fur the attack. General Eyre, addressing the 18th, said, l hope, my men, that this morning you will do something that will make every cabin in Ireland ring again !" The reply was a loud cheer, which instantly drew on the men a shoiier of grape. The skirmishers advanced just as the general attack began, and, with some French on their left, rushed at the Cemetery, which was very feebly defended. They got possession of the place after a slight resistance, with small loss, and took some prisoners, but the moment the enemy retreated their batteries opened a heavy tire on the place from the left of the Redan and from the Barrack Battery. Four companies of the 18th at once rushed on out of the Cemetery towards the town, and actually succeeded in getting possession of the suburb. Captain Ilayinun was gallantly leading on his company when he was shot through the knee. Captain Esmonde followed, and the men, once established, prepared to defend the houses they occupied. As they drove the Russians out they were pelted with large stones by the latter on their way up to the battery, which quite overhangs the suburb. The Russians could not depress their guns sufficiently to fire down on our men, but they directed a severe flanking tire on them from an angle of the Redan works. There was nothing for it but to keep up a vigorous tire from the houses, and to delude the enemy into the belief that the occupiers were more numerous than they were. Mean time the Russians did their utmost to blow down the houses with shot and shell, and fire gr pe incessantly, lAA the soldiers kept close, though they lob is occasionally, and they were most materially aided bj the tire of the regiments in the Cemetery behind them, which was directed at the Russian embrasures ; so that the enemy could not get out to fire down on the houses below. Some of the houses were comfortably furnished. One of them was as well fitted up as most English mansions, the rooms full of fine furniture, a piano in the drawing room, and articles of luxury and taste not deficient. Our men unfortunately found that the celleis were not empty, and that there was an abundance of tine muscat wine from the south coast of the Crimea, and of the stronger wines, per fumed with roses and mixed with fruits, which are grown in the interior, in the better sort of houses. Some of the officers, when they went away, carried off articles of cloth ing and papers as proofs of their entrance into the place, and some others took away pigeons and gniueapigs, which were tame in the houses. The troops entered the place about four o'clock in the morning, and could not leave it till nine o'clock in the evening. The Russians blew up many of the houses and set fire to others, and when our men retired the flames were spreading along the street. The 18th Regiment lost 2:50 men. The 11th Regiment succeeded in effecting a lothment in the houses in two or three different places, and Lela their position, as well as the 18th. A sergeant and a handful of men actually got possession of the little Wasp Battery, in which there were only twelve or fourteen Russian artillerymen. They fled at the approach of our men, but when the latter turned round they discovered they were quite unsupported ; and the Russians, seeing that the poor fellows were left alone, came down on them and drove them out of the battery. An officer and half a dozen men of the same regiment got up close to a part of the Flagstaff Battery, and were ad vancing into it when they, too, saw that they were by themselves, and, as it was futile to attempt holding their ground, they retreated. About fifteen French soldiers on their left aided them, but as they were likewise unsupported they had to retire. Another officer with only twelve men took one of the Russian rifle pits, bayoneted those they found in it. and held possession of it throughout the day. Meantime, while these portions of the .sth and 18th and parties of the 44th and 28th were in the houses, the detachments of the same regiments and of the 3mth kept up a hot fire from the Cemetery on the Russians in the battery and on the sharpshooters, all the time being ex posed to a tremendous shower of bullets, grape, round shot, and shell. The loss of the brigade. under such cir cumstances, could not but be extremely severe. One part of it, separated from the other, was exposed to a destruc tive lire in houses, the upper portion of which crumbled into pieces or fell in under tire, and it was only by keeping in the lower story, which was vaulted and well built, that they were enabled to hold their own. The other parts of it, far advanced from our batteries, were almost unprotected, and were under a constant entrailis and bombardment from guns which our batteries had failed te Vouch.