The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 3, 1855. TILE WAR. CAPTURE OF KINBURN. THE arrival of the long-anticipated despatches of Sir Edward Lyons relating the capture of Kinburn at length places the full details of that operation before us. The arrangements of the allied Admirals appear to have been made with a view to every pos sible contingency. INothing was neglected, every thing was provided for, and, as a result, the most complete success crowned the attempt. For an ac quaintance with the movements of the fleet since the capture of the fort we are entirely indebted to the Russian telegraph, which has daily chronicled, and apparently with minute accuracy, every movement in the allied fleet or forces. After the capture of the 18th, nothing further was attempted on that or the suc ceeding day. On the morning of the 20th, a squadron consisting of 6 steamers, 15 gun-boats, and 5 mortar vessels, in order to ascertain the soundings, ascended the Bug for some distance, until they reached Point Volosschkaia, where a field battery opened fire upon them. After sustaining and replying to the fire for some time, the necessary soundings having been taken, the squadron returned to its anchorage at the mouth of the river. On the 21st a squadron of gun boats and steamers again ascended the river, and partially engaged the batteries ; and in the later despatches, of the 22nd and 23rd, from Nicolaieff, it will be seen that, although no movement up to that date had taken place, the boats of the fleet were busily engaged sounding and buoying the passage of the Dnieper. Whether any future operations will be attempted does not yet appear to be decided. The land force is strongly intrenching itself at Kin burn, and from the smallness of the force (15,000 men), it is scarcely probable that any serious opera tions against Nicolaieff are really contemplated. RUSSIAN DESPATCHES. In its impression of Oct. 23rd, the Journal de St. Petersbourg publishes the following : Nicolaieff, Oct. 22, quarter to one. No change has taken place in the enemy's position. The main body of the fleet remains at anchor near the Kinburn Spit, and its detachment of light vessels in the roadstead of Otchakoff, and at the mouth of the Bug; the total of these forces amounts to ninety-three vessels. To-day, in the forenoon, a few ships of these detach ments reascended the Bug and the Dnieper, but only a short way, and soon returned to their moorings. The vesse's that reascended the Bug did not even come so high up as the spot where they exchanged, yesterday, some cannon-shots with our artillery. The enemy's land troops are stationed between the suburb and fortress of Kinburn. Nicolaieff, Oct. 23, R p.m. The position of the enemy's squadron off Kinburn has not been changed. Their steamers and floating•batteries are in the 'Otchakoff roads, in the embouchure of the Bug, opposite the village of Pat unno, and in the embouchure of the Dnieper, between Stanislav and Rybaltchiz. At the mouth of the Dnieper the enemy is actively engaged in taking soundings along the southern bank of the river. The number of troops landed on the spit of Kinburn has not been increased. According to the statement of three English sailors, who, having ventured on shore, were made prisoners by the Cossacks of one of our detachments, a part of the invading army of the enemy is still on board the vessels of the fleet; it amounts, including the troops disembarked, to about 15,004) men. Aide-de-Camp General Prince Gortschakoff an nounces, under date of Oct. 20, that the enemy bad again come down from the mountains that separate the valley of Baidar from that of the Belbeck, and that he had halted. He has reinforced himself evidently at Eupatoria, but has not yet undertaken anything from that point. • Despatches have also been received from the Sea of Azoff, containing full particulars from Captain Osborn of the late expedition to Taman and Fana goria, which was carried out with the most perfect success; and a fiwther despatch from Major• General nacres to the Commander-in• Chief calls attention to the great and distinguished services of the engineer and attillery officers during the eleven months' siege, and six bombardments of Sebastopol. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. DESPATCH FROM GENERAL SIMPSON. Lord Fanmure received the following despatch from General Sir James Simpson, G.C.8., on Thursday : Sebastopol, October 20. I am happy to be able to congratulate your lordship on the successful termination of the expedition to 'auburn. I transmit a copy of the THE PRESS. report of Brigadier - General the Honottrable A. Spencer. This contains all the information I have received on the operations, with the exception that in a private note, Sir E. Lyons mentions that the enemy have exploded the three forts at Otchakoff, commanding the northern entrance into the Dnieper. In conserynence of the continued fineness of the weather, great progress has been made in the con struction of the road and railway. The divisions have all got some weeks' supply of rations in their camp ; and I entertain no anxiety of there being a scanity of anything during the approaching winter. I informed your lordship, in my despatch of the 13th inst., that the Highland Division. under Lieut.• General Sir Colin Campbell, were to proceed to Eupa ' toria, and co-operate with the French ; but upon the I receipt of your telegraphic despatch of the 13th inst. apprising me that the Russians had resolved to hazard a battle, and attack the allies, I did not con• eider myself justified in weakening the force under my command by so many men, and I therefore countermanded the movement. I have the honour to inclose the weekly reports of Colonel McMurdo and Dr. Hall. JAMES Simrsox, General Commanding. (IncWawa.) Camp before Kinburn, Oct. 17. In reporting, for the information of the general commanding the forces, the fall of the garrison of the fortress of Kinburn, this day, I have the honour to state that the force under my command, as per state inclosed,* effected their landing on Monday, the 16th, unopposed. Owing to a heavy surf, and which continued all" day yesterday, the landing has been accomplished with some little difficulty. The troops, however, were all got on shore on the first day, and have since been employed in Entrenching our position. There are rumours of a force of the enemy collecting at Kherson, about forty miles from here, but our immediate neighbourhood appears to be clear. The advanced line of the position, flanked on both sides by the sea, Ss held by the force under my com mand, and is about a mile in extent. AUGUSTUS SPENCER, Brigadier-General Commanding English Land Force. DESPATCHES FROM REAR-ADMIRAL. SIR E. LYONS. The following despatches have been received from Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons, Bart., G.C.8., Commander-in-Chief of her Mikjesty's Ships and Vessels in the Mediterranean and Black Sea . Royal Albert, off Kinburn, Oct. 18. My letter of the 6th instant, Ao. 834, will have informed the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that an allied naval and military expedition was to leave the anchorage off Sebastopol on the following day, for the purpose of taking and occupying the three Russian forts on Kinburn Spit, at the entrance of Dnieper Bay ; and the telegraphic message, which I forwarded to 'Varna last night, will soon communi cate to their lordships the success which has attended this enterprise. It is now my duty to give a more detailed account of the proceedings of the expedition. I have, therefore, the honour to state that we arrived at a rendezvous off Odessa on the Bth inst., but, owing to strong south-west winds, which would have prevented the troops from landing, it was not until the morning of the 14th inst. that the expedition was enabled to reach the anchorage off Kinburn. During the night the English steam gun-vessels Fancy, Boxer, Cracker, and Clinker, and four French gun-vessels, forced the entrance into Dnieper Bay, under a heavy, but ineffectual, fire from the Spit Fort, and on the following morning the British troops, under the orders of Brigadier-General Hon. A. A. Spencer, together with the French troops, under the command of General Bazaine, were landed about three miles to the southward of the principal ' fort, and thus, by these nearly simultaneous opera tions, the retreat of the garrison and the arrival of reinforcements were effectually cut off. In the evening the English and French mortar vessels tried their ranges against the main fort with excellent effect. The wind having again veered round to the south ward, with a great deal of swell, nothing could be done on the 16th ; but in the forenoon of the 17th a fine northerly breeze, with smooth water, enabled the French floating batteries, mortar-vessels, and gun boats, and the Odin and the mortar vessels, and gun boats named in the margin,+ to take up positions off Fort Kinburn ; and their fire was so effective that before noon the buildings in the interior of the fort were in flames, and the eastern face had suffered very considerably. • Ist Briga.ie, 4th Division; Royal Marines, 1,2n0 men, rank and File ; Royal Engineers, Artillery, and detachment of cavalry. tlortar-vessela—Raven, Magnet, Camel, Hardy, Flamer, Firm. Citin-yeelea—LYnz, Avow, Viper, Snake, Wrangler, Beagle. 1041 At noon the Royal Albert, Algiers, Agamemnon, and Princess Royal, accompanied by Admiral Bruat's four ships of the line, approached Fort Kinhurn in a line abreast, which the shape of the coast rendered necessary, and the precision with which they took up their positions in the closest order, with jib-booms run in and only two feet of water under their keels, was really admirable. At the same moment the squadrons under the orders of Rear• Admirals Sir Honston Stewart and Pellion pushed through the passage between Otchakotf and the spit of Kinbnrn, and took the forts in reverse, whilst the St. Jean d' Acre, Curacoa, Tribune, and Sphinx undertook the centre battery, and the Hannibal, Dauntless, and Terrible that on the point of the spit. The enemy soon ceased to reply to our overwhelm ing fire, and, though he made no sign of surrender, Admiral truat and I felt that a garrison which had bravely defended itself against so superior a force deserved every consideration, and we therefore made the signal to cease firing, hoisted a flag of truce, and sent on shore a summons, which was accepted by the governor, Major-General Kokonovitch, and the gar risons, consisting of 1,400 men, marched out with the honours of war, laid down their arms on the glacis, and, having surrendered themselves RS pri soners of war, they will be embarked in her Majesty's ship Vulcan to-morrow. The casualties in the allied fleets are very few, amounting in her Majesty's ships to only two wounded. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded is, fear, very severe. In the three forts, which have suffered consi derably by our fire, we found eighty-one guns and mortars mounted, and an ample supply of ammunition. This morning the enemy has blown np the forte on Otclisketf Point, which mounted twenty two guns, and we learnt from a Polish deserter, who escaped in a boat from them during the night, that the com mandant apprehended an attack from our mortar vessels, which would not only have destroyed the fort, but also the neighbouring dwellings. I have abstained from entering into the particulars of the proceedings of the squadron under the orders of Rear-Admiral Sir H. Stewart, as he has so ably described them in the letter which I have the honour to inclose ; from which their lordships will perceive that I have received from him on this occasion, as, indeed, I have on all others since I have had the good fortune to have him as second in command, that valuable assistance which might be expected from an officer of his distinguished and acknow ledged *merits ; and I beg leave to add my testimony to his in praise of all the officers, and especial?) , Lieutenant Marryat and Mr. Brooker, whom he re commends to their lordships' favorable consideration. To particularise the merit of the officers under my command, where all have behaved admirably, would be a difficult task indeed ; but it beg leave to mention that the same officers of the navy and the Royal Marine Artillery who were in the mortar vessels at the fall of Sebastopol are in them now, and that on this occasion, as before, they have been under the direction of Captain Willcox of the Odin, and Captiin Digby of the Royal Marine Artillery. Nor can I refrain from stating what I believe to be the feelieg of the whole fleet, that on this expedition, as on that to Kertch, the talents and indefatigable exertions of that very valuable officer, Captain Spratt, of the Spitfire, and of those tinder his com mand, entitle them to our warmest thanks, anfl deserve to be particularly mentioned. I need hardly say that my distinguished colleague, Admiral Bruat, and I have seen with infinite satis faction our respective squadrons acting together as one fleet. tDMI3ND LYONS, Rear-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief. I'alcrous, in Dolga, Bay, Oct. 18. I have the honour to inform you that, in pur suance of your orders, I hoisted my flag in her Majesty's steam-frigate Valorous on the afternoon of the 14th instant, immediately after the arrival of the allied fleets off Kinburn Spit, and proceeded, under the able guidance of Captain Spratt, of the Spitfire, to take up positions at the entrance of Dnieper Bay, where, with the division of steam-vessels placed under my orders (as per margin),* and in company with those under the orders of my colleague, Bear- Admiral Odet Pellion, we remained in readiness to force an entrance into the Dnieper for the purpose directed by you of preventing, as far as possible, any reinforcements being thrown into the forts on Kin burn Spit, as well as to cut off the retreat of the gar rison, should either be attempted. At nine p.m. I instructed Lieutenant Joseph H. Marryat, of the Cracker, to take on hoard Mr. Ed ward W. Booker, additional Master of the A...1)4*e, and endeavour with him to determine the course of the intricate channel through which we were to pass, and to lay down buoys along the south side of it; the French having undertaken to perform the same service on the north side. • Valcrus, Gladiator, Fancy, Cracks, Grinder, Amor, Clinker. I