The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-29 00:00:00

922 ♦iolent explosions took place in the works on our left, op posite the French. The town was by this time in a mass of flames, and the pillar of black, grey, and velvety fat smoke from it seemed to support the very heavens. The French kept up firing guns on the left, probably to keep out stragglers, but ere the Russians left the place the Zouaves and sailors were in it, and engaged busily in plundering. The Russian general is a man of too much genius and experience as a soldier to lose men in defending an un tenable position, and his retreat was effected with mas• terly skill and with perfect ease in the face of a victorious enemy. Covering his rear by the flames of the burning city and by tremendous explosions, which spoke in tones of portentous warning to those who might have wished to cut off his retreat, he led his battalions in narrow files across a deep arm of the sea, commanded by our guns, and in the face of a most powerful fleet, paraded them in our sight as they crossed, and carried off all his most useful stores and munitions of war. He left us few trophies and many bitter memories. He sank his ships and blew up his forts without molestation, save some paltry efforts to break down the bridge by cannon-shot, or to shell the troops as they marched over. His steamers towed the boats across at their leisure, and when every man was across, and not till then, the Rus sians began to dislocate and float off the portions of their bridge and to pull it over to the north side.—lb. SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS. Sept. 10. The town is still burning and in ruins. It is in posses sion of the French. The following order has been issued on the subject—" Five officers and several men injured by explosions to-day. Tuesday Morning, 1 a.m. For the last hour an exceedingly violent storm has been raging over the camp. The Russians are very busy with their signals over the Tschernaya. The fires in Sebastopol, fanned by the wind, are spreading fast, and the glare of the burning city illuminates the whole arch of the sky towards the north-west. 4.15 a.m. In the whole course of my life I never heard or saw any thing like the deluge of rain which is now falling over this portion of the camp. It beats on the roof with a noise like that of a cataract ; it is a veritable waterspout. The wind is shifting anti changing all round the compass. The lightning is fainter, and the gusts less violent. Sometimes for a minute there is a profound calm; again it blows a hurricane. 4.23 11111. The waterspout has passed away. Had it lasted ten minutes longer it threatened to drown the camp. 9.45. There is a tornado passing over the camp once more— hail, storm and rain. The ground is a mass of mud. ps The disappointment of the many persons who wished to spend a quiet, snug day hi Sebastopol is diminished by the knowledge that there is a positive order against going into the town, and that General Pelissier has declared his sen tries will shoot any persons who may be found in the streets in disobedience of that injunction. Passes will be issued from the adjutant general's department, without which all persons will be stopped at the entrances to the works. The rain and hail quenched the fire, which the wind had previously fanned to exceeding fierceness, so that there was little left for the flames to devour. Sebasto pol is now a mass of white ruins, streaked and barred with black awoke.—lb. APPEARANCE OF SEBASTOPOL. The ruins of Sebastopol attested the heroic forti tude with which it bad been defended : About noon on the 9th, armed with a pass, cour• teously given me by General Simpson, I crossed the line, and proceeded down to the scene of the preceding day's carnage By the time I reached the fatal opening in front of our fifth parallel, however, the dead had been gathered off the ground—the officers having been taken to the camp, and the men thrown into the deep and broad ditch of the Hedan. And there was a sight harrow ing enough to affect nerves of iron and a heart of stone ; piled up, tow upon row, lay the bodies of the brave fellows whose blood had gained our triumph, nearly filling the huge dike—a ghastly and mangled multitude. As I passed over this bridge of corpses into the interior of the Medan, a fatigue party was already beginning to shovel in the parapet upon the bodies, many of whom thus found a grave on the spot where they fell. The enemy had carried off nearly all their dead and wounded, which accounted for the fewness of the former found inside the redoubt. Terrible were the traces of our fire which here met the eye : to say nothing of dismounted guns, shattered plat forms, and broken carriages, nearly every square yard of the place was torn up by round shot and exploded shell. How any human beings could have existed in such a pan demonium of explosive horrors it puzzled every one who looked on the spot to conceive.—D. News Cur. The unusual strength and solidity of the Russian works is attested by all observers : My first entry into the interior, on the morning after its abandonment, was made by a bridge of broken &seines and gabions, laid hastily over the dead bodies that had just been gathered into the ditch for burial, which has since been done by levelling over them a portion of the parapet above. The ghastly piles nearly filled the vast trench to a level with the outer surface, and the thin covering of earth which now conceals them from view barely falls below the summit of the low bank in front. What first struck one in passing up the cut made by our sappers through the broad parapet, was the unusual solidity and strength of thii last—averaging thirty or thirty-five feet along its entire front. On such a solid mass of gabions, faacines, sand bags, and earth, I need hardly say that artillery of even the heaviest calibre could have no sensible effez,t sixty-eigh THE PRESS. or ninety-eight pound shot might enter, bat they could not penetrate. Compared with this massive structure of mud and wickerwork, the thickest of our own or the French works is as paper to a deal board. Then within, besides the great superiority of their mantlets--strong ropen cur• tains hung across the embrasures to shelter the gunners from the besiegers' riflemen—you admire the cover pro vided for their artillerymen when not actually working the guns, in little retreats proof against any but the very heaviest splinters of shell. But these, again, are nothing when compared with the shot and shell proof chambers for the shelter of larger bodies of troops, which abound throughout the work. I dived into several of these half subterranean waiting•rooms, and found many of them fitted up with fireplaces, cooking conveniences, benches, and other suitable furniture ; whilst in others of smaller di mensions, and which had evidently been occupied by the officers, there were in addition bedsteads, chairs, tables, and in some even handsomely-glazed cupboards, containing empty wine bottles, and other traces of their occupants' regard for creature comforts. —/b. The beauty of the city was discernible even in its ruined state:— Whatever idea one has formed from looking at Sebas topol from Cathcart's hill and the trenches, and every one has heard of its respectability as a city, I must say I was little prepared to witness the remains of anything so beautiful. To ride along what must have been the grand street, and see the lamp-posts and pavements, seemed to call forth the remembrance that there are such things yet in the world. The houses, or I should say mansions, that are passed one after another in the most frightful dilapida tion!, are most surprising—a number of these appear to have been public buildings. Nearly every house must have had some architectural pretension, the rows of pillars and columns are unceasing, and from the visible remains 1 should say it ought to have been one of the prettiest places in the world. The cleanliness, and I was going to say order, was astonishing; what I mean by order was the clearness of the streets, save where barricades had been erected. The fronts of some houses appeared so perfect that, with the aid of a strong imagination, you could almost fancy you were riding in a nice town, where nothing had happened, and in other parts that you were only visiting the scene of a disastrous fire, and presently expected to get beyond the pale cf its rage; but alas! wherever you went, all, all was alike—never was destruc- tion and desolation more complete—never had man worked more successfully to destroy his own work. The great point of attraction was a monument just inside Fort Nicholas, and close to the water's edge; and a more en chanting view than that which is attainable at this spot I never remember to have looked upon. It must have been the fashionable lounge of Sebastopol. This monument, which is surmounted by a boat, and bears date 1834, is surrounded by a pleasure ground, from any part of which you may get a view of Forts Constantine and Nicholas, the harbour, the opposite side, and a great portion of the town.—Morning Post Cor. INSUFFICIENCY OF THE BRITISH WORKS. From the outset of the expedition the British army has suffered continual disaster from the weak ness of its force, and especially from the want of sufficient reinforcements and reserves. Hence roads were not made last autumn, and the work of the trenches languished. Hence, also, this spring and summer our sap was not sufficiently advanced, awl our trenches were not roomy enough. Our com manders could not afford the loss of men which would have been required. The following is from a correspondent of the Daily News : You are already aware that the French, by incessant labour, and at great sacrifice of life, had succeeded not merely in constructing several new batteries directed against the Malakoff and the shipping, but in pushing their sap against the former to the very edge of the ditch, so closely, in fact, that they were able to shovel clay into it. The English, to whom the same task was assigned with regard to the Redan, never made much progress, " because," said the engineers, "if we go on a few yards further, we shall arrive at an angle which will expose us to the enfilading fire of the Flagstaff Battery, and we should suffer great loss." Without offering an opinion upon the matter myself, I can only say that the French, whose en gineers are at least fully as good as ours, and many people think vastly better, replied to this by stating that it was true that we should lose a great many men in pushing on, but it was better to lose them thus in sapping than on the day of the assault, seeing that the greater the space of open ground the column would have to traverse in rushing to the attack the longer it would be exposed to the enemy's fire, and the greater were its chances of coming to the scratch weakened and disheartened Remonstrances were accordingly frequently made by our allies, which invariably produced the same effect—that is, none whatever. I sup pose the contumacy of English officials has never been equalled since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah; the misfortune is, in this instance, that the fire was rained, not upon the guilty " parties," but upon their unoffend ing victims. Another point remarked by the French was, that whilst their trenches were wide and roomy, and cape ble not merely of containing, but, as the event proved, of masking an enormous force, one corpulent Irishman more than usual could not be thrust into ours, without his pre sence being noted by the Russian staff. The state of things, then, when the great bombardment commenced four or five days ago, was simply this: our sap was at least two hundred and fifty yards distant from the Redan ; that of the French the breadth of the ditch, and scarce that, from the Malakoff. We had to traverse in assaulting nearly a quarter of a mile exposed to showers of every missile known in warfare, and then meet the garrison in full readiness for us: the French had simply to step in and " lay on." • SATURDAY, DESTRUCTION OF Tll LAST RUSSIAN VESSELS. --- Thursday, Sept. 13. As the Russian steamers were still intact, notwithstand ing the efforts of the French battery at the head of the roads near Inkermann to touch them up, it was resolved to construct a battery on the ruins of Fort Paul, within seven hundred yards of the northern shore, under which they had taken refuge. The steamers lay in three irregular lines to the eastward of Fort Catherine, where the deep creeks in the high cliffs gave them some sort of shelter against th e fire of the French. There they were agents of much mil l . chief and injury to the allies from the battle of Inkennann down to this time. There was the famous IV/adimir, with her two large funnels and elegant clipper hull; the Elbeuf, the steamer which made the celebrated dash into the Black Sea through all our fleet last year and burnt some Turkish vessels near Heraclea, just as the Wladimir was seen in Odessa harbour in the month ofJ uly, 1854 ; there was the Chwmonosset. r, which had caused such annoyance from the Dockyard Creek; and there were five others with hard, and to me unknown, names, as calmly floating on the water as though no eager eyes were watching from every battery to lay a gun upon them. A number of very capa cious dockyard lumps and rowboats were also secured in these creeks or hung on by the steamers. On Tuesday evening ( 1 lthl, when Lieutenant Gough, of the London, who commanded in the Naval Batteries, on the left attack, came down with his men, he was ordered to take his relief over to the right attack, and to accompany Lieutenant Anderson, 8.E., down to the town, in order to erect a battery for two 95-cwt. guns on the right of St. Paul's Battery. The site of this battery was about seven hun dred yards from Fort Catherine, on the opposite side. The men, although deprived of the quiet night and undisturbed repose they anticipated, set to work with a will, and began throwing up the parapet, and filling gabions, and as it was possible that some interruption of the work might take place from the other side, a covering party of one hundred and twenty men was ordered down from the trenches. There were French sentries in charge of this portion of the place, and the little party found that their allies were on the qui vice, and were keeping a sharp look out on all sides. The men had been working some time when it was observed that one of the enemy's steamers had left the north side, and was slowly and noiselessly dropping down on the very spot where the sailors and the covering party were at their laboure. The night was dark, but they could clearly make out the steamer edging down upon them, and coming closer and closer. Every moment they expected her guns to open on them with grape and canister. The men there fore lay down on their faces, and kept as near to the ground. as they could, and the steamer came over gently till she was within about one hundred yards of the very spot where they had been working. They heard her anchor splash into the water, and then the rattle of her cable as it ran through the hawsehole. Now, certainly, they were " going to catch it;" but, no, the Russian opened no port and showed no light, but seemed to be making himself comfortable in his new quarters. Captain Villiers, of the 47th, who com manded the covering party, ordered his men to observe the utmost silence, and the same injunction was given to the seamen. About '2.30 in the morning, when she had been an hour or so in her novel berth, a bright light was per ceived in her fore hatchway. The leading steamer on the opposite side in a second afterwards exhibited gleam+ at equal brightness, and then one ! two ! three ! tutu.. five ! —as though from signal guns, the remaining steamers, with one exception, emitted jets of tire from their bows. The jets soon became columns of flame and smoke—the wind blew fresh and strong, and the night was dark, so that the firer spread with rapidity along the vessels, and soon lighted up the whole of the northern heavens. The masts were speedily licked and warmed into a fiery glow, and the rigging burst out into fitful wavering lines of light struggling with the wir,di for life ; the yards shed lambent showers of sparks and, burning splinters upon the water. The northern works , could be readily traced by the light of the conflagration, and the faces of the Russian soldiers and sailors who were scattered about on the face of the cliff shone out now and then and justified Rembrandt. The work of destructif a spread rapidly. The vessels were soon nothing but huge arks of blinding light, which hissed and crackled fiercely, and threw up clouds of sparks and embers ; and the guns, as they became hot, exploded, and shook the crazy hulls to atoms. One atter another they went Joan into the se, thin waters. The cavalry out on the plains wondered v hat great conflagration had broken out anew in the town. At daybreak only one steamer remaii.ed. A boat pushed alongside her In m the shore. They I oarded her, and after remaining below about ten minutes, returned to their boat and regained the shore. Very speedily the vessel began to be seized with a sort of internal convuhion —first she dipped her bows, then her stern, then gave a few uneasy shakes, and at length, after a short shiver, went down bodily, cleverly scuttled. Thus was Sinope avenged. Of the men who planned, the sailors who executed, and the ships which were engaged on that memorable expedition scarcely one trace now remains. Kornileff, Nachimoff, Istomine, and their crews have disappeared • their vessels now rest at the bottom of the roadstead of Sebastopol. The Russians prefer being agents of their own destruction, and do not give the conqueror a chance of parading the fruits of his victory. We cannot delight the good people of Plymouth or Portsmouth by the sight of Russian liners and steamers. We can only drive the enemy to the option of destroying or doing the work for him, and he invariably prefers the former. The Russians are fortifying themselves on the north side. The French are gone towards Balder. Our naval brigade, atter long, brilliant, and ill-requited services, is to be broken up at once.—Times Cor. RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. Friday, Sept. 14. It is just one year this day since we landed at halamits Bay. In that time we have stormed the heights of the Alma, sustained the glorious disaster of Balaklava, fought