The Sun. — London, England, 1855-09-26 00:00:00

THE SIEGE SE I I3A'STOPOL. STORMING AND CAPTURE OF THE MALAKHOFF, RETREAT OF THE RUSSIANS. ( Prom the Times' Special Correspondent.) FOURTH DIVISION CAMP, MONDAY, SEPT. 10. The contest on which the eyes of Europe have been turned so long is nearly decided—the event on which the hopes of so many mighty empires depended is all but determined. Sebastopol is in flames ! The fleet, the object of so much diplo matic controversy, and of so many bloody struggles, has disappeared in the deep ! One more great act of carnage has been added to the tremendous, but glorious tragedy, of which tha whole world, from the most civilised nations down to the most bar barous hordes of the East, has been the anxious and excited audience. Amid shouts of victory and cries of despair—in frantic rejoicing and passionate sorrow a pall of black smoke, streaked by the fiery flashings of exploding fort resses, descends upon the stage, on which has been depicted so many varied traits of human misery and of human greatness, such high en durance and calm courage, such littleness and weakness—across which have stalked characters which history may develope as largely as the ttruggle in which they were engaged, and swell to gigantesque proportions, or which she may dwarf into pettiest dimensions, as unworthy the part they played. A dull, strange silence, broken at distant intervals by the crash of citadels and palaces as they fly into dust, succeeds to the in cessant dialogue of the cannon which have spoken so loudly and so angrily throughout an entire year, and tired armies, separated from each other by a sea of fires, rest on their arms and gaze with varied emotions on all that ,remains of the object of their conflicts. How trite all these announce ments appear ! How disheartening it is to the writer to .feel that all he is describing is known in England, and has been discussed and canvassed in every homestead ere he can sit down to tell the story, and that by the time his letters reach those for whom they are intended all that to him appears as novel, and recent as it is interesting and important, will be a twice-told tale! To every one out here the occurrences of the last few days seem prodigious, startling, and momentous. Time will show whe ther we duly appreciate them. On Saturday we felt that the great- success of our valiant Allies was somewhat tarnished by our own failure, and it was doubtful whether the Russians would aban don all hope of retaking the Malakhoff. On Sun day, ere noon, we were walking about the streets of Sebastopol and gazing on its ruins. The army is now in suspense as to its future. The south side of the city is in the hands of the Allies. On the north side the great citadel and numerous regular forts, backed by enormous earthworks and defendeil by a nutnerousarmy, bidus defiance across a narroai strip of watex, and Russia may boast that she has not yet lost Sebastopol. The Allied fleet remains outside, paralysed by Fort Constantine and its de pendencies, and every one is going about asking, " What are we to do now'" In my last letter, a portion of which was written ere the mail started on Saturday, I was so confused by the accumulation of events that I made a seri ous mistake in my dates, which I trust has been rectified at Nome. It is rather hard to have to sit down to save the post when one knows that in 15 minutes from the time he is writing he will ly; the witness of a general assault on one of the strongest places in the world. The last and decisive cannonade . was, as the world knows ever so long ago, begun on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 5, by the French, against the Russian right, consisting; of the Quarantine Batteries, the Bastion Centrale, and the Bastion du Mat with great vigour and effect,, and at night began a devastating bombard ment, in which all the allied batteries joined. A frigate was fired by a French shell and sunk at night. On the morning of the 6th the English and French together opened the cannonade, be - neath which the Russian batteries were almost broken to pieces, and which they did not dare t(► answer. In the evening the bombardment wag; renewed and kept up all night ; a fire appeared behind the Redan, and the enemy seemed by their constant signalling to be in much uneasiness. lt was observed that great qvantities of forage were being sent across the bridge from the north to the south side, although there were no cavalry in the latter. On the 7th the cannonade was continued in salvoes, as before, and it was remarked that tie town showed in an unmistakeable manner the terrible energy of the nightly bombardment. Nearly every house within range was split and in ruins. The bridge between the north and the south side was much crowded all day with men an d carts passing to and fro, an d l arge con voys were seen entering and leaving the town at the north side. Towards evening the head of the ()Teat dockyard shears, so long a prominent object from our batteries, caught fir e , an d b urnt fiercely in the high wind, which was raging all day. A two-decker was set on fire by the French shells, and was destroyed, and a steamer was busily employed towing a large dismasted frigate to the dockyard, out of range. In the middle of the day there was a council of Generals, and at 2 o'clock it becathe generally known that the allies would assault the place at noon on the Bth, after a vigorous cannonade and bombardment. The hour was well selected, as it was certain that i n a siesta the Russians are accustomed to indulge about that time. Iu the course of the night there was an explosion behind the Redan. And now comes the memorable DAY OF THE ASSAULT. SATURDAY, SEPT. S. The weather changed suddenly yesterday. This morning it became bitterly cold. A biting wind right from the north side of Sebastopol blew intolerable clouds of harsh dust into our faces. The sun was obscured ; the sky was of a leaden wintery grey. Early in the morning a strong force of cavalry, under the command of Colonel Hodge, was moved up to the front and formed a chain of sentries in front of Ca,thcart's-hill and all along our lines. No person was allowed to pass this line, unless he was a staff officer or was pro vided with a pass. Another line of sentries in the rear of them was intended to stop stragglers and idlers fromßalaklava, and the object in view was probably to prevent the Russians gathering any intimation of our attack from the unusual accumulation of people on the look-out hills. If that, were so it would have been better to have kept the cavalry more to the rear, and not to display to the enemy a line of Hussars, Lancers, and Dragoons along our front. At 11.30 the Highland Brigade, under Brigadier Cameron, marched up from Kamara and took up ita position in reserve at the Right Attack, and the Guards, also in reserve, were posted o n the same sido of the Woronzoff-road. The first brigade of the Fourth Division served the trenches of the Left Attack the night before, and remained in them. The second brigade of the Fourth Di vision was in reserve. The Guards, who served the trenches of the Left Attack, and only marched out that morning, were turned out, again after arriving at their camp. The Third Division, massed on the hill side before their camp, were also in reserve, in readiness to move down by the Left Attack in case their services were required. General Pelissier during the night collected about, 30,000 men in and about the Mamelon, to form the s tor rai ng columns for the Malakhoffand Little Redan and to provide the nezessary reserves. The French. wet %) reinforced by 5,000 Sardinians, who marched up from the Tchernaya last night. It was arranged that the Fren ch were to attack the Malakhoff at noon, and, as soon as their attack began, that we were to assault the Redan. At the same time a strong column of French was, I understand, to make a diversion on the left and menace the line of the Bastion du Mat, but I do not believe it was in tended to operate seriously against this part of the town, the possession of which, in a military point of view, would be of minor importance. The cavalry sentries were posted at 8.30. At 10.30 the Second Division and the Light Divi sion moved down to the trenches, and were placed in the advanced parallels as quietly and unostenta tiously as possible. About the same hour General Simpson and staff moved down to the second paral lel of the Green-hill Battery. Sir Harry Jones, too ill to move hand or foot, nevertheless insisted on being carried down to witness the assault, and was borne to the parallel on a litter, in which he re mained till all was over. It was, as I have said, a bitter cold day, and a stranger would have been astonished at the aspect of the British Generals ias they viewed the assault. The Commander-ni -1 Chief, General Simpson, sat in the trench, with his nose and eyes just facing the cold and dust, t and his cloak drawn up over his head to protect ' him against both. General Jones wore a red nightcap, and reclined on his litter, and Sir Richard Airey, the Quartermaster-General, had a white pocket-handkerchief tied over his cap and ears, which detracted somewhat from a martial and belligerent aspect. The Duke of Newcastle was stationed atlCathcart's-hill in the early part of the day, and afterwards moved off to the right to the Picket-house looking out over the Woronzoff road. All the amateurs and travelling gentlemen, who rather abound here just now, were in a state of great excitement, and dotted the plain in eccen tric attire, which recalled one's old memories of Cowes, and yachting and sea-bathing—were engaged in a series of subtle manoauvres to turn the flank of unwary sentries, and to get to the front, and their success was most creditable to their enterprise and ingenuity. The Tartars, Turks, and Eupatorians were sin gularly perturbed for such placid people, and thronged every knoll which commanded the smallest view of the place. At 10.45 General Pelissier and his staff went up to the French Observatory on the right. The French trenches -were crowded with men as close as they could pack, and we could see our men through the breaks in the clouds of dust, which were most irritating, all ready in their trenches. The can nonade languished purposely towards noon ; but the Russians, catching sight of the cavalry and troops in front, began to shell Cathcart's-hill and the heights, and disturbed the equanimity of some of the spectators by their shells bursting with loud " thuds " right over their heads. A few minutes before 12 o'clock the French, like a swarm of bees, issued forth from their trenches close to the doomed Malakhoff, swarmed up its face, and were through the em brasures in the twinkling of an eye. They crossed the seven metres of ground which sepa -1 rated them from. the enemy at a few bounds— they drifted as lightly and quickly as autumn leaves before the wind, battalion after battalion, into the embrasures, and in a minute or two after the head of their column issued from the ditch the tricolour was floating over the Korniloff Bas tion. The musketry was very feeble at first-- indeed, our allies took the Russians quite by sur prise, and very few of the latter were in the Malakhoff ; but they soon recovered themselves, and from 12 o'clock till past 7 in the evening the French had to meet and defeat the repeated attempts of the enemy to regain the work and the Little Redan, when, weary of the fearful slaughter of his men, who lay in thousands over the exterior of the works, the Muscovite General, despairing of success, withdrew his exhausted legions, and prepared with admirable skill to evacuate the place. Of the French attack on the left I know nothing, but that, if intended in earnest, it was Inot successful, and was followed by some loss to our allies. As soon as the tricolour was observed Iwaving over the parapet of the Malakhoff through 1 the smoke and dust, four rockets were sent up from Chapman's attack one after another as a sig nal for our assault on the Redan. They were , almost borne back by the violence of the wind, ( and the silvery jets of sparks they threw out on exploding were nearly invisible against the raw grey sky. I take it for granted that there is no one in England who is not by this time quite well ( acquainted with the exterior of the Redan, and , who does not know its shape and situation. In I my next letter I will endeavour to give au idea of what it is like inside ; at present I have no time to describe it, nor the appearance of Sebas topol, now that one can walk through its flaming i streets. Iu order to give au idea of the plan of the at- tack I send you a copy of the "Divisional After Order," in accordance with which it was arranged, and for the sake of comparison there is appended to it a copy of the essence of the orders issued for the attack of the 18th of June. It will be seen that the differences between the two plans relate to details, and not to principle. When the order was received on the 7th, the general remark was, " This looks like another 18th of June." In fact, the attacking columns were not strong enough, the supports were not strong enough, and were also too far behind, and the trenches did not afford room for a sufficient number of men. Now, it will be observed that, vhere we attacked the Re dark with two divisions only, a portion of each being virtually in reserve and not engaged in the affair at all, the French made their assault on the Malakhoff with four divisions of the second corps u'armee, the first and fourth divitiJlls forming the storming columns, and the third and fifth being the support with reserves of 10,000 men. The French had, probably, not less than 30,000 men in the right attack on the 7th of September. The divisional orders for the 2d di vision were very much the same as those for the light division. The covering party consisted of 100 men of the 3d Buffs, - sunder Captain John Lewes, who highly distinguished himself, and 100 men of the Second Battalion of the Rifie Brigade, I believe under the command of poor Captain Hammond. The scaling-ladder party consisted of 160 of the 3d Buffs, under Captain Maude, whose gallantry was very conspicuous throughout the a ff a ir, in addition to the 160 of the 97th, under Ithe gallant and lamented Welsford. The part of the force of the Second Division consisted I of 260 of the 3d Buffs, 300 of the 41st (Welsh), 200 of the 62d, and a working party of 100 men of the 41st. The rest of Windham's Brigade, consisting of the 47th and 49th, were in reserve, together with Warren's Brigade of the same division, of which the 30th and 55th were called into action, and suffered severely. Brigadier Shirley was on beard ship, but as soon as he heard of the assault c he . resolved to join his ame up to camp that brigade, and ho accordin,,e'ly very morning. Colonel Unef - t, of the 19th Regi ment, was the senior officer in Brigadier Shirley's absence, and on him would have devolved the duty of leading the storming column of the Light Division had the latter not returned. Colonel Unett, ignorant of the B r i ga dier's intention to leave shipboard, had to decide with Colonel Windham who should take precedence in the attack. They tossed, and Colonel Unett won. He had it in his power to say whether he would go first or follow Colonel Windham. He looked ' at the shilling, turned it over, and said, "My choice is made ; I'll be the first man into the Redan." But fate willed it otherwise, and he was struck down badly wounded ere yet he reached the them a s abattis, although he was not leading the column. S carcely had the me n left the fifth parallel when the on the flank of the Redan opened on as they moved up rapidly to the salient, i n cannon, as which there were of course no the nature of such a work does not permit of their being placed in that particular position. In a few secon d s B r i ga di er Shi r l e y was temporarily blinded by the dust and by earth knocked into his eyes by a shot. He was obliged to retire, and his Place was taken by Lieut.-Col. Banbury, of the 23d Regiment, who was next in rank to Col. Unett, already struck down and car ried to the rear. Brigadier Van Straubenzee re ceived a contusion on the face, and was also forced to leave the field. Col. Handcock fell mortally wounded in the head by a bullet, and never spoke again. Capt. Hammond fell dead. Major Wels ford was killed on the spot. Capt. Grove was severely wounded. Many officers and men were hit and fell ; and of the commanders of parties only acting Brigadier-General Windham, Capt. Fyers, Capt. Lewes, and Capt. Maude got un touched into the Redan, and escaped scatheless from the volleys of grape and rifle balls which swept the flanks of the works towards the salient. It was a few minutes after 12 when our men left the fifth . parallel. The musketry commenced at once, and in less than five minutes, during which the troops had to pass over about 30 yards from the nearest approach to the parapet of the Redan, they had lost a large proportion of their officers, and were deprived of the aid of their leaders, with the exceptions I have stated. The Riflemen ad vanced admirably, but from their position they could not do much to reduce the fire of the guns on the flanks and below the re-entering angles. The bravery and coolness of that experienced, deserv ing, and much-neglected officer, Captain Fyers, were never more brilliantly displayed, or urgently called for. And here let me ask how it is that an officer like Captain Fyers, with twenty-one years' full service, who went through the campaigns of Candahar and Affghanistan in 1841 and 1842, and was present in five ac tions—who was at Khelat, and was with his regiment throughout Nott's campaign—who was conspicuous for his gallantry at the Alma, and , whose conduct in the trenches has been beyond all praise, is exposed to the pain and mortification of seeing young men who were scarcely born when he was a soldier raised above his head because they have had the good fortune to look at a battle from a distance, or to ride in the rear "of some cautious general ? I know nothing of Captain Fyers' past services except by Hart's Army List, by which I learn, also, that he has purchased all his steps. Of his conduct at the Alma and of his present ser vices I hear the praise from every lip. It is to be hoped, at all events, that the question will not do him any harm, and if it does not, it is as well that the country should know how well he has served her. However, it is time to return to our storm ing party. As they came nearer the enemy's fire became less fatal. They crossed the abattis without difficulty ; it was torn to pieces and de stroyed by our shot, and the men stepped over and through it with ease. The light division made straight for the salient and projecting angle of the Redan, and came to the ditch, which is here about 15 feet deep. The party detailed for the purpose placed the ladders, but they were found to bo too short. However, had there been enough of them that would not have mattered much, but some had been left behind in the hands of dead or wounded men, and others had been broken, so that if one can credit the statements of those who were pre sent there were not more than six or seven ladders at the salient. The men led by their officers leaped into the ditch, and scrambled up the other side, whence they got up the parapet almost without opposition, for the few Russians who were in front ran back and got behind their traverses and breast works as soon as they saw our men on the top, and opened fire upon them. To show what different impressions the same object can make on different people, let me remark that one officer of rank told me the Russians in the Redan did not exceed 150 men when he got into it, and that the men could have carried the breastwork with the greatest ease if they had only made a rush for it, and he ex pressed an opinion that they had no field-pieces in side the breastwork. A regimental officer, on the other hand, positively assured me that when he got on the top of the parapet of the salient he saw at about 100 yards in advance of him a breastwork with gaps in it, through which were run the muzzles of field-pieces, and that in the rear of it were compact masses of Russian infantry, the front rank kneeling with fixed bayonets as if prepared to receive a charge of cavalry, while the two rear ranks over them kept up a sharp and destructive fire on our men. The only way to reconcile these discrepancies is to suppose that the first spoke of the earliest stage of the assault, and that the latter referred to a later period when the Rus siansmayhave opened embrasures in the breastwor k and had been reinforced by the fugitives from the Malakhoff, and by the troops behind the.barracks in its rear. Lamentable as it no doubt is, and incre dible almost to those who know how the British soldier generally behaves before the enemy, the men, when they got on the parapet, were seized by some strange infatuation, and began firing, instead of following their officers, who now began to fall fast as they rushed on in front and tried to stimu late their soldiers by their example. Notwithstand ing the popular prejudice to the contrary, most , men stand fire much better than closing with an enemy. It is difficult enough sometimes to get cavalry to charge if they can find any decent excuse to lay by their swords and take to pistol and cara bine, with which they are content to pop away for ever, but when cover of any kind is near at hand a trench-bred infantry man finds the charms of the cartridge quite irresistible. The small party of the 90th, mach diminished, went on gallantly towards the breastwork, but they were too weak to force it, and they had to retire and get behind the traverses, where men of different regiments had already con gregated, and were keeping up a brisk fire on the Russians, whose heads were just visible above the breastwork. Simultaneously with the head of the storming party of the Light Division, Colonel Windham had got inside the Redan on their right, below the salient on the proper left face of the Redan, but in spite of all his exertions, could do little more than the gallant officers of the 90th and 97th, and of the supporting regiments. As the Light Division rushed out in the front they were swept by the guns of the Barrack Battery and by several pieces ou the proper right of the Redan, loaded heavily with grape, which caused them considerable loss ere they reached the salient or apex of the work at which they were to assault. The storming columns of the Second Division, issu ing, out of the fifth parallel rushed up immediately after the Light Division, but when they came up close to the apex Brigadier Windham very judici ously brought them by a slight detour on the right flank of the Light Division, so as to come a little down on the slope of the proper left face of the Re dan. The first embrasure to which they came was in flames, but, moving on to the next, the men leaped into the ditch, and, with the aid of ladders and of each other's hands, scrambled up on the other side, climbed the parapet, or poured in through the em brasure which was undefended. Colonel Windham was the first or one of the very first men in on this side, and with him entered Daniel Mahoney, a great grenadier of the 41st, Killeany, and Cornellis of the same regiment. As Mahoney entered with a cheer, he was shot through the head by a Russian rifleman and fell dead across Colonel Windham, and at the same moment Killeany and Cornellis were both wounded. The latter claims the reward of 51. of fered by Colonel Herbert to the first man of his di vision who entered the Redan. Running parallel to the faces of the Redan there is, as I have described, an inner parapet, intended to shield the gunners at the embrasures from the effects of any shell which might fall into the body of the work, and strike them down if this high bank were not there to protect them from the splinters. Several cuts in the rear of the embrasures permitted the men to retire in case of need inside, and very strong and high traverses ran all along the sides of the work itself to afford them additional shelter. At i n s ]. a a r b e r u e r a s v e t , w u o p r l t c 0 , a o r a a r n e a u kr w r a h p i paeth runs the base o f th e R edan, before the re-entering m n's a a n ng i l r e r s e , g in front of the body of the place. As our men were b b e e h tw in e d en th t e he la s t a t l e i r en a t s r n b ra r e a t h s t e w t ( r ) r a le_ entered through th e em b rasures, the few Russians n a d n g d ot thi f retreated wh o verses to its protection. irom it they poured in a quick fire on the parapet of the crowded by the men of the Light Division, and on the gaps through the inner parapet of the Redan, and our men, with an infatuation which all officers deplore, but cannot always remedy on such occa sions, began to return the fire of the enemy with , out advancing or crossing behind the traverses, loaded and fired as quickly as they could, but did but little execution as the Russians were well covered by the breastwork. There were also groups of Russian riflemen behind the lower traverses near the base of the Redan, who kept up a galling fire on our men. As the alarm of an assault was spread the enemy came rushing up from the barracks in rear of the Redan, and increased the force and in tensity of their fire, while our soldiers dropped fast and encouraged the Russians by their immobility and usi a the weakness of t heir e, d from which the f enem y were well protected. In vain the officers, by voice and act, by example and daring, tried to urge • our soldiers on. They had an impression that the and that if they advanced they Redan was mined, but many of them acted as would all be blown up, became the men of . Alma and Inkerman, and, rush ing to the front, were on swept down by the enemy's all sides, singled out for fire. The officers fell courage. The men of the different regiments became the enemy's fire by their me mingled together in ,in extricable confusion. The 19th men did not care for the 88th, nor did the the orders of the officers of s oldiers of the 23d heed th e commands of an officer who did not belong to hi s regiment. The officers c ould not find their men— the men had lost sight of their own officers. All the Brigadiers, save Col. Windham, were wounded or rendered unfit for the guidance of the attack. That gallant officer did all that man could do to form his men for the attack, and to lead them against the ene my. Pro ceeding from traverse to traverse, he coaxed the THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 26, 1855. men to come out, and succeeded several times in forming a few of them, but they melted away as fast as he laid hold of them, and either fell in their little ranks or retired to cover to keep up their fusillade. Many of them crowded to lower parts of the inner parapet and kept up a smart fire on the enemy, but nothing would induce them to come out into the open space and charge the breastwork. This was all going on at the proper left space of the the nande front the t only Redan, while nearly the same scene was being re peated at the salient. Every moment our men were diminishing in numbers, while the Russians came up in swarms from the town, and rushed down from the Malakhoff, which had now been occupied by the French. Thrice did Colonel Windham send officers to Sir E. Codrington, who was in the fifth parallel, begging of him to send up supports in some order of formation ; but all these three officers were wounded as they passed from the ditch of the Redan to the rear, and the Colonel's own aide de-camp, Lieutenant Swire, of the 17th, a gallant young officer, was hit dangerously in the hip, as he went on his perilous errand. Supports were, indeed, sent up, but they came up in disorder from the fire to which they were exposed on their way, and arrived in dribblets only to increase the confusion and the carnage. Finding that he could not collect any men on the left face, Colonel Windham passed thrtaigh one of the cuts of the inner parapet, and walked over to the right face at the distance of thirty yards from the Russian breastwork, to which he moved in a parallel line, exposed to a close fire, but, wonderful to say, without; being touched. When he got behind the inner parapet at the right face he found the same state of things as that which existed at the left. The men were behind h firing away at the Russians or blazinge flown a v t er t s h e e s m , from the broken parts of th e front, frwoomrktshfeor cover salient while they loaded and fired at the enemy. The Colonel got some riflemen and a few men of the got t o behi came behind d h w e 88th together, but no sooner had he brought them out than they were killed, wounded, or dispersed by a concentrated fire. The officers, with the noblest devotion, aided Colonel Windham, .and be came the special marks of the enemy's riflemen. The narrow neck of the salient was too close to allow of any kind of formation, and the more the men crowded into it the more they got out of order, and the more they suffered from the enemy's fire. This miserable work lasted for an hour. The Russians were now in dense masses behind the breastwork, and Colonel Windham walked back again across the open space to the left to make one more attempt to retrieve the day. The men on the parapet of the salient, who were firing at the Russians, sent their shot about him, and the lat ter, who were pouring volley after volley on all points of the h ea d o f the work, likewise directed their muskets against him, but he passed through this cross fire in sa f e ty, and got within the inner parapet on the left, where the men were becoming thinner and thinner. A Russian officer now stepped over the breastwork, and tore down a gabion with his own hands ; it was to make room for afield-piece. Colonel Windham exclaimed to several soldiers who were firing over the parapet, " Well, as you are so fond of firing, why don't you shoot that Russian ?" They fired a volley and missed him, and soon afterwards the field piece began to play on the head of the salient with grape. Col. Windham saw there was no time to be lost. He had sent three officers for reinforcements and, above all, for men in forma tion, and he now resolved to go to General Codring ton himself. Seeing Capt. Crealock, of the 90th, near him, busy in encouraging his men, and exert ing himself with great courage and energy to get them into order, he said—" I must go to the Gene ral for supports. Now mind, let it be known, in case I am killed, why I went away." He crossed the pa rapet and ditch, and succeeded in gaining the fifth parallel through a storm of grape and rifle bullets in safety. Sir Edward Codrington asked him if he thought he really could do anything with such sup ports as he could afford, and said ho might take the Royals, who were then in the parallel. " Let the officers come out in front—let us advance in order, and if the men keep their formation the Redan is ours," was the Colonel's reply ; but he spoke too late —for at that very moment our men were seen leap ing down into the ditch, or running down the pa rapet of the salient, and through the embrasures out of the work into the ditch, while the Russians followed them with the bayonet and with heavy musketry, and even threw stones and grapeshot at them as they lay in the ditch. The fact was that the Russians havingaccumulated several thousands of men behind the breastwork, and seeing our men all scattered up and confused behind the inner parapet of the traverse, crossed the breast work, through which several field-pieces were now playing with grape on the inner face of the Redan, and charged our broken troops with the bayonet, at the same time that the rear ranks getting on the breastwork, poured a heavy hail pf bullets on them over the heads of the advancing column. The struggle that took place was short, desperate, and bloody. Our soldiers, taken at every disadvantage, met the enemy with the bayonet too, and isolated combats took place in which the brave fellows who stood their ground had to defend them selves against three or four adversaries at once. In this melee the officers, armed only with their swords, had little chance ; nor had those who car ried pistols much opportunity of using them in such a rapid contest. They fell like heroes, and many a gallant soldier with them. The bodies of Eng lish and Russians inside the Redan, locked in an embrace which death could not relax, but had rather cemented all the closer, lay next day inside the Redan as evidences of the terrible animosity of the struggle. But the solid weight of the advanc ing mass, urged on, and fed each moment from the rear by company after company and battalion after battalion, prevailed at last against the isolated and disjointed band, who had abandoned the protec tion of unanimity of courage and had lost the ad vantages of discipline and obedience. As though some giant rock had advanced into the sea and forced back the waters that buffeted it, so did the Russian columns press do wn aga i nst t h e spray of soldiery which fretted their edge with fire and steel a,ad contended in vain against their weight. The I struggling band was forced back by the enemy, who moved on crushingfriend and foe beneath their solid tramp, and, bleeding, panting, and exhausted, our men lay in heaps in the ditch beneath the parapet, sheltered themselves behind stones and iii bomb-cra ters in the slope of the work, or tried to pass back to our advanced parallel and sap, and - had to run the gauntlet of a tremendous fire. Many of them lost their lives, or were seriously wound e d i n thi s attempt. The scene in the ditch was appalling, although some of the officers have assured me that they and the men were laughing at the precipitation with which many brave and gallant fellows did not hesitate from plunging headlong upon the mass of bayonets, muskets, and sprawling soldiers—the lad ders were all knocked down or broken, so that it was difficult for the men to get up at the other side, and the dead, the dying, the wounded, and the sound were all lying in heaps together. The Russians came out of the embrasures, plied them stones, grape-shot, and the bayonet, but were soon forced to retire by the fire of our batteries and rifle men, and under cover of this fire many of our men escaped to the approaches. In some instances the enemy persisted in remaining outside in order to , plunder the bodies of those who were lying on the slope of the parapet, and p a id th e pena l ty o f their rashness in being stretched beside their foes ; but others came forth on a holier errand, and actually brought water to our wounded. If this last act be true, it is but right to di scre dit th e s t ory t h at t h e Russians placed our wounded over the magazine in the rear of the Redan, near the Barrack Battery, ere they fired it—the only foundation for which, as far as I can discover, is that many of the bodies of our men found in the Redan were dreadfully scorched and burnt ; b u t th ere were many R uss i ans lying there in a similar state. General Pelissier observed the failure of our attack from the rear of rnnyoßd-nfcsCuesose,ahusl and l e an i dd f n nd, the . Malakhoff, and sent over to General Simpson to th e Ftmio. eomoeumau Fourth t m di ttsehh a ndoe n Dof. Commander-in-Chief T e vthu r hhi -se Guards ask if lie intended to attack again. The English is siaHmn r red e oi eg p oes nnhet o ddldroalfi Highlanders, haveettnveroedsrt doubtful a suuted v rbhr e ontevfi r essuT e ohsl p heww l d i Are e hdm : l e l el t t aathu h htnene a i dr.st rials for another assault, but the subsequent move the glory of carrying the Redan, and of redeeming the credit of our arms, would not have been d e a r ly purchased by the effusion of more valuable blo o d. e assault the As soon as we a b andoned th but most ceased a l ong our front, in the rear of the Malakhoff there w as a fi erce contest going on be tween masses of Russians, now released from th e Redan, or d rawn from the town, and the French, inside th e wor k , and the fight on the prop er l o f t of th for the Little Redan Malakhoff', was raging furiously. Cl ou d s of smok e e and scene, but the r a ttl e of musketry incessant, dust covered the and betokened th e severe nature of was the below. Through th e b reaks in thesmokestruggle could be seen now an d th en a tricolour, surmounted there by an eagle, fluttering bravely overtle inner rapet of the Malakhoff. Th e s t orm of battle rolled fiercelybut it was sustained round it, and beat aga i nst it • e sustained by strong arms and stout hearts, and all the assaults of the enemy were directed in vain against it. We could see, too, our noble allies swarming over into the Malakhoff from their splen did approaches to it from the Mamelon, or rushing with swift steps towards the right, where the Rus sians, continually reinforced, sought in vain to beat back their foes and to regain the key of their position. The struggle was full of interest to us all, but its issue was never doubted. It would be untrue to say that theresult of our assault Was not ; the source of deep grief and hiordiieslidu iii ids, which all the glorious successes of our alli es cou ld I.not wholly alleviate. Even those who thought any attack on the liedan useless and unwise, inasmuch as the possession of the Malakhoff would, in their opinion, render the Redan untenable, could not but regret bitterly that, as we had given the assault, we had not achieved a decisive triumph, and that so much blood had been, if not inglo riously, at least fruitlessly, poured forth. The French, indeed, have been generous enough to say that our troops behaved with great bravery, and that they wondered how we kept the Redan so lcng under such a tremendous fire, but British soldiers are rather accustomed to the nil admirari under such circumstances, and praise like that gives pain as well as pleasure. Many soldiers, of the opinion to which I have alluded, think that we should at once have renewed the attempt once made, and it is but small consolation to them to know that General Simpson intended to attack the Redan the following morning, inasmuch as the Russians anticipated our probable success, and by retreat deprived us of the chance of retrieving our reputation, and at the same time acknowledged, by their desperate withdrawal, the completeness of the success achieved by our allies. Our attack lasted about an hour and three quarters, as well as I could make out, and in that time we lost more men than at Inkerman, where the fighting lasted for seven hours. At 1.48 p.m., which was about the time we retired, there was an explosion either of a tumbril or of a fougasse between the Mamelon and the Malakhoff, to the right, which seemed to blow up several French men, and soon afterwards the artillery of the Im perial Guard swept across from the rear towards the Little Redan, and gave us an indication that our allies had gained a position from which they could operate against the enemy with their field pieces. From the opening of the attack the French batteries over Careening Bay had not ceased to thunder against the Russian fleet, which lay si lently at anchor below, and there was a lively cannonade between them and the Inkerman bat teries till the evening, which was interrupted now and then by the intervention of the Redoubt Vic toria, the English Redoubt, and the late Seling hinsk and Volhynia redoubts, which engaged the Russian batteries over the last end of the harbour. At 1 o'clock wounded men began to crawl up from the batteries to the camp ; they could tell us little or nothing. " Were we in the Redan ?" " Oh, yes ; but a lot of them was killed, and the Rus sians were mighty strong." Some were cheery, others desponding ; all seemed proud of their wounds. Half-an-hour more, and the number of wounded increased • they came up by twos and threes, and—what I had observed before as a bad sign—the number of stragglers accompanying them under the pretence of rendering assistance be came greater also. Then the ambulances and the cacolets (or mule litters) came in sight along the Woronzoff-road filled with wounded. Every ten minutes added to their numbers, and we could see that every effort was made to hurry them down to the front as soon as they were ready for a fresh load. The litter-bearers now added to the length of the melancholy train. We heard that the temporary hospitals in front were full, and that the surgeons were beginning to get anxious about accommodation for the wounded. It may here be observed that on the occasion of the 18th of June some of these temporary hospitals, which are intended to afford immediate aid in cases requiring operations on the spot, were under fire, and a shell' burst in the very tent in which Dr. Paynter and his assistants were operating, the ground around it being continually torn up by round shot. On this occasion more care was taken in determining the sites of the tents. Another bad sign was that the enemy never ceased throwing up shell to the front, many of which burst high in the air over our heads, while the pieces flew with a most unpleasant whir around us. These shells were intended for our reserves ; and although the fuses did not burn long enough for such a range, and they all burst at a considerable eleva tion, they caused some little injury and annoyance to the troops in the rear, and hit some of our men. The rapidly-increasing numbers of wounded men, some of whom had left their arms behind them, gave rise to suspicions of the truth ; but their an swers to many eager questioners were not very de cisive or intelligible, and some of them did not even know what they had been attacking. One poor young fallow who was marching stiffly up with a broken arm and a ball through his shoulder, carried off his firelock with him, but ho made the naive confession that he had "never fired it off, for he could not." The piece turned out to be in ex cellent order. It struck one that such men as these, however brave, were scarcely a fit match for the well-drilled soldiers of Russia ; and yet we were trusting the honour, reputation, and glory of Great Britain to undisciplined lads from the plough or the lanes of our towns and villages I As one example of the sort of recruits we have received here recently I may mention that there was a con siderable number of men in draughts which came out last week to regiments in the Fourth Division who had only been enlisted a j few days, and who had never fired a rifle in their lives ! It must not be imagined that such raw ness can be corrected and turned into military efficiency out here, for the fact is that this siege has been about the worst possible school for de veloping the courage and manly self-reliance'of a soldier ; neither does it teach him the value of dis cipline and of united action. When he goes into the trenches he learns to dodge behind gabions and to take pot shots from behind stones and parapets, and at the same time he has no opportunity of testing the value of his comrades, or of proving him self against the enemy on the open field. The natural result follows. Nor was it ominous of good that there have been two courts of inquiry recently on the conduct of two most distinguished regiments —one, indeed, belonged to the highest rank of our infantry, and the other a well-tried and gallant re giment, which was engaged in this very attack, in consequence of the misconduct of their young sol diers during night affairs in trenches. The old soldiers behaved admirably, and stood by their ; officers to the last ; nor was there any lack of courage among the young lads just joined, but they were wanting in discipline and iu confidence of their officers. No one can doubt that the assault by the Third and Fourth Divisions would have been quite successful had it been necessary. Gene ral Simpson remained in the Green-hill Battery till 6 o'clock, at which hour General Pelissier sent to inform him that the Malakhoff was quite safe, and asked him what the English intended to do with respect to the Redan. General Simpson had by this time arrived at the determination of attack ing it the following morning at 5 o'clock with the Third and Fourth Divisions. The difficulty of get ting accurate information of the progress of an action cannot be better exemplified than by this fact, that at 3 o'clock a General of Division did not know whether we had taken the Redan or not. Towards dusk the Guards who had been placed in reserve behind our Right Attack were marched off to their camp, and a portion of the Highlanders were likewise taken off the ground. The Guards only arrived from the trenches this morning, but, to their great credit be it said, they turned again withcut a murmur after a rest of a couple of hours for breakfast, although they had been "on" for 48 hours previously. The Third Division and a por tion of the Highlanders were sent down to do the trench duties in the evening and night. From the following statement of the loss in the Light Division it will be seen that this gallant body, which behaved so well at the Alma, and main tained its reputation at Inkerman, suffered as severely as it did in gaining the former great vic tory, and an examination of the return, which is tolerably correct, and is certainly rather under the mark, will, I fear, show that the winter, the trenches, and careless recruiting have done their work, and that the officers furnished a noble ex ample of devotion and gallantry,:which their men did not imitate. In the Light Division there are 73 officers and 964 men wounded—total, 1,037. The loss of this division was 1,001 in killed and wounded at the Alma. The number of officers killed amounts to 13 ; of men killed to 94—total, 107: The regiments of the division which furnished storming columns were the 90th (or Perthshire Volunteers) and the 97th (or Earl of 'Ulster's). In the 90th Captain Preston and Lieutenant S wift and Lieutenant Will mer were killed. Lieutenant Swift got the fur thest of all those who entered the Redan, and his dead body was discovered far in advance. Captain Grove, Captain Tinling, Captain Wade, and Lieu tenant Vaughan, were all severely ; Captain Perrin slightly ; Lieutenant Rattray, Lieutenant Rous, Lieutenant Raitt, and Lieutenants Graham and Haydock, slightly wounded; 125 men were wound ed ; killed not known. In the 97th Lieut.-Col. the Hon. H. R, Hatidcock, Major Welsford, and Lieut. Douglas M'Gregor were killed, 114 men wounded, and 37 were killed. The colonel was shot through the head, and was carried to his tent, but the ball lodged in the brain he never was was sensible, and expired that night. His widow was watching the progress of the struggle from the Picket-house, and all her worst fears were soon realised, for her husband's body was brought by the very place where she stood. Lieut. M'Gregor, the son of the Inspector-General of Irish Consta bulary, was adjutant of the regiment, and was as remarkable for his unostentatious piety and Christian virtues as for his bravery and conduct in the field. Capt. Lumley is dangerously, Capt. Sibtborp, Capt. Woods, Lieut. Goodenough, Ensigns Hill and Fitz gerald and Browne are slightly wounded. The rest of the division was engaged in supporting the storming columns. In the 7th Royal Fusiliers Lieutenant V;; S i , ti.: t. • ' t , e Turner, Captain H e yl an d, C atpain Hibberc, Lieu tenant Hickie, and Lieutenant Jones (Alma), were wounded. 67 men were wounded and 11 killed. In the 23d (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) Lieutenant Somerville and Lieutenant Gubb are dead ; the first was killed ; the latter died of his wounds the following morning. Lieutenant-Colonel Lysons is slightly wounded, and the following officers are more or less injured by shot, shell, or bayonet : Captain Vane, Lieutenant Poole, Lieutenant Mil lett, Lieutenant Tupper, Ensign O'Connor, and Ensigns Redcliffe, Perrott, and Beek ; 130 men wounded ; killed not known. In the 33d Lieut. Donovan, a most promising and dashing officer, lost his life while looking over the parapet at the fight. He accompanied the regiment as an amateur, in company with his brother, all through Bulgaria, and went into action with them at the Alma as a volunteer, where he so much dis tinguished himself that the Colonel recommended him for a commission which he received. Lieu tenant-Colonel Gough, who was shot through the body at the Alma, was severely wounded ; Captain Ellis and Lieutenants Willis and Trent were slightly, and the Adjutant, Tonsell, severely wounded ; 45 men wounded, killed not known. In the 34th, which was in the parallel behind the columns, Lieutenants Harris and Laurie are severely wounded, and 62 men are wounded. In the 19th nearly every officer was touched more or less, but none were killed ; 148 men were wounded, and 27 were killed. The officers wounded are Col. Unett, severely ; Major Warden, slightly ; Captain Chippendall, ditto ; Lieutenants Godfrey, Martin, Doran, and Massey, dangerously ; Moles worth, severely ; Bailey, slightly ; Ensign Martin, slightly ; and Ensign Young, dangerously. In the 77th 42 men were wounded ; killed not known ; Capt. Parker killed. Wounded, Capt. Butts, slightly ; Lieutenants Knowles, Leggatt, and Watson, ditto. In the 88th Regiment 105 men were wounded ; killed about 25. Capt. Grogan was killed ; Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell, C. 8., was was wounded twice in the thigh and once in the arm severely, but not dangerously. Captains Mauleverer and Beresford ; Lieutenants Lambert, Hopton, Scott, and Waterer ; and Ensign Walker, are wounded severely. In the Rifle Brigade Capt. Hammond, who was only three days out from Eng land, and Lieut. Ryder, were killed ; and Lieut. Pellew(slightly), Lieut. Eyre severely, Major Wood ford (slightly), Capt. Eccles and Lieut. Riley se verely. There were no less than 125 men wounded and 13 killed. It will be seen by this that no less than 964 men were wounded in the Light Division, and it is most creditable to the medical officer in charge, Dr. Alexander, and to his surgeons, that all these men were comfortably in bed and had their wounds dressed and their wants attended to by 8 o'clock the same evening. The loss of officers in Windham's Brigade, and in the portion of Warren's Brigade which moved to his support is equally severe. The loss in the two brigades a this divi sion is not less than 790 men. The whole loss can not be estimated at less than 2,200 or 2,300 men. SUNDAY, SEPT. 9. At 8 o'clock last night the Russians began quietly to withdraw from the town, in the principal houses of which they had previously stored up combusti bles in order to render Sebastopol a second Moscow. With great art the general kept up s fire of musketry from his advanced posts, as though he intended to renew the attempts to regain the Malakhoff. Ere 3 o'clock this morning the fleet had been scuttled and sunk, with the exception of the steamers. About 12.30 the men of the 2d division on duty in the trenches observed a preternatural silence iu the Redan, and some volunteers crept into it. No thing could they hear but the heavy breathing and groans of the wounded aed the dying, who, with the dead, were the sole occupants of the place. As the Redan was known to be mined, the men were withdrawn, and soon afterwards the Russian tac tics began to develope themselves. About 2 o'clock flames were observed to break out in different parts of the town. They spread gradually all over the principal buildings. At 4 o'clock a stupendous explosion behind the Redan shook the whole camp; it was followed by four other explosions equally startling. The city was enveloped in fire and smoke, and torn asunder with the tremendous shocks of these volcanoes. At 4.45 the Flagstaff and Garden Batteries blew up. At 5.30 two of the southern forts went up into the air, and the effect of these explosions was immensely increased by the rash of a great number of live shell into the air, which ex ploded in all directions. All this time a steady current of infantry was passing in unbroken masses to the north side over the bridge, and at 6.45 the last battalions passed over, and the hill sides op posite were alive with their masses. Several small explosions took place inside the town at 7.10. Columns of black smoke began to rise from the neighbourhood of Fort Paul at 7.12. At 7.15 the connexion of the floating-bridge with the south side was severed. At 7.16 flames began to ascend from Fort Nicholas. At 8.7 the bridge was floated off in portions to the north side. At 9 o'clock several violent explosions took place in the works on our left, opposite 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 strag glers, but - ere the Russians left the place the Zou ayes and sailors were in it, and engaged busily in plundering. Not a shot was fired to the front and centre. The Vladimir and Grossomonetz were very busy towing boats and stores across. Cavalry and sentries were sent up to prevent any one going into the town, but without much success. I visited a good portion of the place. Explosions occurred all through the day. The plunder was enormous. The following After-Order of the day has been issued : " GENERAL AFTER-ORDER. "Head-quarterA, Sept. 9. The Commander of the Forces congratulates the army on the result of the attack of yesterday. "The brilliant aseault and occupation of the Mala khoff by our gallant allies obliged the enemy to aban don the works they have so long held with such bravery and determination. " The Gimmander of the Forces returns his thanks to the General Officers and officers and men of the Second and Light Divisions, who advanced and attacked with such gallantry the works of the Redan. He regrets, from the formidable nature of the flanking defences, that their devotion did not meet with that immediate success which it so well merited. "He condoles and deeply sympathises with the many brave officers, non-commissioned officers, and men who are now suffering from the wounds they received in the course of their noble exertions of yesterday. " He deeply deplores the death of the many gallant officers and men who have fallen in the final struggle cf this long and memorable siege. "Their loss will be severely felt and their names long remembered in this army and by the British nation. "General Simpson avails himself of this opportunity to congratulate and convey her warmest thanks to the general officers, and soldiers of the several divi-ions. to the Royal Engineers and Artillery, for their cheerful endurance and almost unparalleled hardships and suffer ings. and for the unflinching co - irage and determination which on so many trying occasions they have evinced. "It is with equal satisfaction that the Commander of the Forces thanks the officers and men of the Naval Brigade for the long and uniform course of valuable ser vice rendered by them from the commencement of the siege. "137 order, H. W. BARNARD, Chief of the Staff. i It is difficult, as I have ociasion to observe on similar occasions, to give with any pretensions-to accuracy the details of a battle, but it becomes almost impossible to attain correctness in describing such an affair as the assault on the Redan under the peculiar circumstances which attended it. In addition to the smoke of battle there were flying clouds of dust mingled with sand, which blew right into the faces of the men and swep the hills in their rear, which were crowded with the spectators, or those who tried to be so, and the irregula r ity o f th e groun d o ff ere d other im pediments to their view ; but greater than all these obstacles was this, that no one could from any con ceivable position in front see what was going on inside the Redan, which seemed to engulf our soldiers within its huge dun-coloured and ragged parapets, only to vomit them forth again in di minished numbers. It was all along but too plain to understand what was taking place w ithi n from the external aspect of that ill-fated work, the slopes of which have astonished the world with the sight of British troops in flight t w i ce i n two successive attacks on its formidable defences. The Redan has cost us more lives than the capture of Badajoz, not to speak of those who have fallen in the trenches and approaches to it ; and, although the enemy evacuated it, we can scarcely claim the credit of having caused them such lo4s that they retired owing to their dread of a renewed assault. On the contrary, we must, in f a i rness, admit that the Russians maintained their grip of the place till the French were fairly established in the Malakhoff, and the key of the position was torn from their grasp. They might, indeed, have remained in the place longer than they did, as the French were scarcely in a condition to molest them from the Malakhoff with artillery, and could not be permitted to interfere with our attack had they been able to send reinforcements to us ; but the Russian general is a man of too much genius and experience as a soldier to lose men in defending. an untenable posi tion, and his retreat was effected with masterly skill and with perfect ease in the face of a vic torious 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 re treat, he led his battalions in narrow files acroys a deep arm of the sea, commanded by our t c fi..e p • en:4sec', paraded th em i n our sight as they and carried of all his most useful stores an munitions of war. He left us few trophies a , n ir many bitter mem o ries. He sank his ship s and h,le up his fo r t s w ith ou t mo l es t a tion, save som e s hot, paitrY efforts to break d own the bridge by can non or to shell the troops as they marched over. sure, and when every man was across, a nd not ti ff steamers towed his boats across a t their lei- His flo at off then , g the Rus s i ans bean to dislocate and the portions of th e i r bridge and to pull it over the north side. SEPT 10. - The town is still hurninc , and in ruins. It ' S o -- possession of the F renc h. Th e following order h been issued on the subject—" five officers and seve ral men injured by explosions to-day." TUESDAY MORNOV , 1 • 31. _ For the last hour an exce edingly violent stortaw has been raging o ver th e cam p. The win d is r°, the southward a nd eas twar d, a nd blows w ith st l c' fury as to mak e the h u t i n which I am Writing rock to and fro and to fill it with fine dust, white flies in through ' every crevice. The R ussians a n , very busy with their s;gnals over the T cherual re The fires in Sebastopol, fanned by the win d, , a i t y spreading fast, an d th e g l a r e of the burning,:',he illuminates the whole arch of the sky to wer north-west. north-west. 2 o'CLoog • 18 The storm has increased in strength, an d r a alli tn es beginning to fall heavily. Th e most d mil a up of lightning shoot over the plateau a lighv , e the camp for an instant, the peals of thunder aree'd. short . and startling as to resemble, while far ele e uas ins in noise, rain ,_„ s , the report of cannon. somewhat lessene I the intensity of the fire at See i l g topol, but its flames and those of the ligh ni t p bern seem at times to contend for the masterf., an d is, indeed, a great battle raging in the skle s n 'de. its thunder mocks t o scorn our heaviest can non This supply of water will be very seasonable °been camp, where th a t ar ti c l e o f consu mption h as for a long time scanty and dirty. 4.15 r d In the whole course o f my lif e I never h es Or or saw anything like the deluge of rain which is ts li oe falling over this portion of the camp. it u s 'it is the roof with a noise like that of a catered' ; " a d a veritable water spout. The wind is shift in g in - g is changing all round the compass. The ligh, tn ,,7for fainter, and the gusts less violent. Sometr - b i a minute there is a profound calm ; aga in ' t ° a hurricane. 4.2 0 A• 3f ict Had i t lasted The waterspout has pass e d awa y. the cal' minutes longer it thr ea t ene d t o - drown 9 " once There is a tornado passing over the nau 3 P m ass ground more—hail, storm, a n d ra i n . Th e l id i 8 - of mud. Who The disappointment of the many person - is r wished to spend a qu i e t snug. d a y in Sebastoosi. diminished by th e k now l e d ge th a t there is Post tive order against going into the town , an will General Pelissier has declared his sentri streets shoot any persons who may be found in the i be in disobedience of that injunction. Pass es e vi „„ l e ot, issued from the Adjutant-General's dePar'q the without which all persons will be stoPPe d s n ' n hea entrances to the works. The rain and hail C l ile- Ad to the fire which the wind had previously fau n- l e ft little re o exceeding fierceness, so that there was for . the flames to devour. Sebastopol is ne. w ,., 3 1 ,1 0 ,01c et. white ruins, streaked and barred Wit'" smoke. cleleied For some reason unknown the mail is gel'st .nrig to-day. Although r the wind is high it is not enough to preitgk' good steamer going O° All sorts of contradictory telegraphic es qust' have been goin g f rom th e Admiral to the it is office at headquarters throughout the day „ A i& a strange c o in c id ence th a t d e l a y s occurred ia 'ope ing off the mail after Alma and I n kerolan• t he order way that the mail was to be lauded frost 13$- Arg) at Kamiesh and sent to the Argus, at„3leo laklava, or vice versa as to the ships, for the are rather puzzling. ANOTHER ACCOUNT. (From the Correspondent of the Daily Netts ) ,i,„ CAMP BEFORE SEBASTOPOL, SOT. in g g The Union Jack and the Tricolour are at last we ° o f over Sebastopol. Long before the following detailiss the great achievement by which this glorious resu lt o p been accomplished can reach you, the electric teleg,l,,ut will have spead the news of our triumph throur :id England and France, bringing joy to the masses' sorrow, alas ! to many a bereaved home ; it 0 4 ° 1 ' 4 ti therefore, to us, whose slower messenger is the 11 4 h merely to furnish the particulars of the struggle 1/13- has ended in so glorious, though costly, a success. „sl When my last letter was being despatched the i'-i. volleys of the bombardment were booming on th e eit •b; and the brave battalions by whom the attack was t° t. made were parading a few hundred yards from m y tel% The Light and Second Divisions being those selecteclot:_ our own share of the operation, the regiments oftb . v ; two most distinguished sections of our arm)? r eed o ,.el orders on Friday night to have two days' rations co.,..seg. and served out at six o'clock on the following ni °11 : 1• 1 00 At seven a.m. the first storming party, consisting o'‘.ol, men of the 97th Regiment, under Major Wels_l',o, and first covering party, 100 men of 2d battalion_ ,tirtii Brigade, under Captain Fyers—paraded, and battalion_ to afterwards marched down to the trench es ; schere:oo- former took up their position in the new boYeatid the ning out of the centre of the fifth pa rallel, shoo fer latter in extended order on their left, ready t t° or their advance, and keep down the fire from he d I: 7oa y pet of the Redan. Half-an-hour later, t he see" ttoder of storrners, composed of 200 of t he 97th , o ver Col. Hancock, and 300 of the 90th und er Capt. ` - ' 1 0 t he followed, and formed immediately behind the parallel itself. After a similar interval these each , • O. f 'Bowed by working parties of 100 men from each o f . b , two Divisions engaged, succeeded half-an -hour let; e,si .: supports of 750 men each from the 19th and 88 t h , . s e first, i were ments, with part of a brigade of the Second niV i i si v , f o r these were stationed in the fourth advancing into the. fifth as soon as the assault was"' u je Lastly came the reserves, consisting of the first brig i it h of the Light Division, who, as the sequel will shea r ' s : Q IN their usu it luck, came in for a share of the actual as of t he parallel, rs at L i ,30 This, I think, is a tolerably accurate staterantof i be relative division of the duties of the attack, an • strength of the parties employed. ea '' As on the 18th of June it was again arrauc 0 reto 4 the English should assault the Redan and the OO s. the Malakhoff. The experience of that disastrous to is sion, however, taught the necessity of pern3ittiaog to a latter redoubt to be first captured before our ew of t h e attempted the former ; inasmuch as the gu ns ,pal .8 Round Tower effectually commanded the ° P ell , a n rore /' over which a force attacking the Redan te a ' _ t tit • To be sure there as reason to believe st"thencea Malakhoff had at length been effectuallyeffectually,.. e a b' but a similar notion was entertaine d 00 ti.e- degiri I sion of the last assault, and its error Mal l'- proved. Every embrasure b u t one of the daylig4at hid had been blocked up as early " that Ilei of the 7th ; but this was no guarantueoe der cover, guns had not, as before, been drawn in lj jag f o r the'l3d ready in a minute's time to clear en ° with gra pe 3 '' selves and receive an attacking fe l.° Of J u ne. Ja' ° ' canister, as on the morning of the ht cordingly the guns of our own rig ,- play vigorously on the Round Tower ti f that its osoll before noon on Saturday, notwithstauding au ec ca ' f re- - fire had all but entirely ceased the day be e re 1... it go re sional shot from a single gun being all the P oe 2,ic y to the onslaught of the besieging artillery. _r_ o, whi Ch laSttta.?sc_oenivtiranuinedatgi: lakhoff, therefore, even more than on the li c 4 was to be stormed by our own men, did ou f rg e n e n : their fire, rendering the work a perfect nd precisii) Of ploding shells, and to the sustained vigour and preCl , ploding shells, and to the sustained ibuted the succes s ' 1f P 1- of this practice is mainly to be attributed t time , y the attack which followed. In them e.aonto their it• i. 30,000 French bad been moved down other g cover' c 0f s- e , t , vanced trenches before the Mamelon a General Bosque wa s Und' ir spots around it, under the command of Our own force, I am forgetting to mention,. en sv . mend ; GeVell '' General Markham as second in command t e Twenty-on , the chief direction of Sir William Codringt , it , Simpson himself being somewhere near h i n the ma ••• u G a u g n e m ß e a n t Battery, e o r f y , the but operations. le d the Frenc h ' ceased, and the party of Zouaves, wof their advanced attack, dashed over the ParaPehtad crossed the inter- At twelve o'clock exactly the firheoof the batteris. I sap, and in less than a minute al o n g up the parapet vening forty yards, and were oas t 0 hope, one solitary of the Round Tower. Contrar with a discharge, and there t gun hat oork was the only piece e our allies were inside orneeethiveedprtohpeerasisiaguhitteorfs tbeyw %%33 no time to reload it e after swarm of our allies but small. Swe' m • grape was the redoubt ; the mischiefb embankment, till the whole to. inflicted by its one round of crowded up the steep red with them, and then co pet was literally to ol before. I can compare the ravines round Sebes usketry as never echoed throne P h' but the rattling tattooeS h ut ssed 70,000 nfautry fire d in a general action but lave ur men ebgage . • o u m f e e unbroken oe thousandk e such e c o h r a t i ntM tongs n e i tocyorof covered m o e nut drums. 1 n . but as child's Play c° g I ave delivered on the ocGasion was As usual, no Or* Malakh .Ef during Saturday's attack. • of the oneration ea° cea-eless roll that poured in upon t.he c p u a m re:l:Li t t i b ai t o b r e complete narrative from the habitual iecommut.lic i . els but from °°. be given, Wings , our allies observe in all their proceedings ' at•v ' ene - vihich of.! Pared re,i The enem after a fee doubt wh( it 4 forme] they ti !Drought in at all Were soot Up til feeling r the men distant It was I be math had bee] but a fe pulse w( French, so ever Morninl avenge( wiped a the ene' zine, ai was the eion ms Be this party o noitre, up the in, and British had a had set swept lalthoff Fort ,tc of the Frenct b p d e u a s r w t r r yi Dawn shippit alone Bun ro never with Redar and w they c blowii buildi thus c By enein , crowd As or and bast wer