The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-02 00:00:00

HORRORS OF THE RITSSIAN HOSPITAL.

Of all the pictures of the horrors of war which have
ever been presented to the world, the hospital of Sebastopol
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within, when every limb is shattered, and every vein and
artery is pouring out the life-stream, one might study here at
every step, and at the same time wonder how little will kill.
The building used as an hospital is one of the noble piles in-
side the dockyard wall, and is situate in the centre of the
row at right angles to the line of the Redan. The whole row
was peculiarly exposed to the action of shot and shell bound-
ing over the Redan, and to the missiles directed at the Bar-
rack Battery, and it bears in sides, roofs, windows, and doors,
frequentand destructive proofs of the severity of the cannonade.
, Entering one of these doors I beheld such a sight as few men,
thank God, have ever witnessed ! In a long low room, sup-
ported by square pillars, arched at the top, and dimly lighted
through shattered and unglazed window frames, lay the
wounded Russians, who had been abandoned to our mercies
by their general The wounded, did I say ? No, but the
dead, the rotten and festering corpses of the soldiers who
were left to die in their extreme agony, untended, uncared
for, packed as close as they could be stowed, some on the
floor, others on wretched trestles and bedsteads, or pallets
of straw, sopped and saturated with blood, which oozed
and trickled through upon the floor, mingled with the
droppings of corruption. With the roar of exploding
fortresses in ther ears, with shells and shot forcing through
the roof and sides of the rooms in which they lay, with the
crackling and hissing of fire around them, those poor fellows,
who had served their loving friend and master the Czar but
too well, were consigned to their terrible fate. Many might
have been saved by ordinary care. Many lay, yet alive, with
maggots crawling about in their wounds. Many, nearly mad
by the scenes around them, or seeking escape from it in their
extremest agony, had rolled away under the beds, and glared
out on the heart-stricken spectators, oh ! with such looks.
Many with legs and arms broken and twisted, the jagged splin-
ters sticking through the raw flesh, implored aid, water, food,
or pity, or deprived of speech by the approach of death, or by
dreadful injuries on the head or trunk, pointed to the lethal
spot. Many seemed bent alone on making their peace with
Heaven. The attitudes of some were so hideously fantastic as
to appal and root one to the ground by a sort of dreadful fas-
cination. Could that bloody mass of clothing and white bones
ever have been a human being, or that burnt black mass of
flesh have ever had a human soul ? It was fearful to think
what the answer must be. The bodies of numbers of men were
swollen and bloated to an incredible degree, and the features
distended to a gigantic size, with eyes protruding from the
sockets, and the blackened tongue lolling out of the mouth,
compressed tightly by the teeth which had set upon it
in the death-rattle made one shudder and reel round. In the
midst of one of these " chambers of horrors"—for there were
many of them—were found some dead and some living
English soldiers, and among them poor Captain Vaughan, of
the 90th, who has since succumbed to his wounds. I confess
it was impossible for me to stand the sight, which
horrified our most experienced surgeons—the deadly clammy
stench, the smell of the gangrened wounds, of corrupt blood,
of rotting flesh, were intolerable and odious beyond endur-
ance. But what must the wounded have felt who were
obliged to endure all this, and who passed away without a
hand to give them a cup of water, or a voice to say one
kindly word to them. Most of those men were wounded on
Saturday—many perhaps on the Friday before—indeed, it is
impossible to say how long they might have been there. In
the hurry of their retreat the Muscovites seem to have carried
in dead men to get them out of the way, and to have put
them upon the pallets in horrid mockery. So that this re-
treat was secured the enemy cared but little for their wounded.
On Monday only did they receive those whom we sent out to
them during a brief armistice for the purpose, which was, I
believe, sought by ourselves, as our overcrowded hospitals
could not contain, and our overworked surgeons could not
attend to any more.

The Great Redan was next visited. Such a scene of wreck
and ruin ! All the houses behind it a mass of broken stones
—a clock turret, with a shot right through the clock—a
pagoda in ruins—another clock tower with all the clock de-

itroyed save the dial, with the words " Barwise, London,"
thereon—cook-houses, where human blood was running
among the utensils : in one place a shell had lodged in the
boiler and blown it and its contents, and probably its in-
habitants, to pieces. Everywhere wreck and destruction.
This evidently was a beau quartier once. The oldest in-
_

habitant could not recognise it now. Climbing up to the
Redan, which was fearfully encumbered with the dead, we
witnessed the scene of the desperate attack and defence,
which cost both sides so much blood. The ditch outside

made one sick—it was piled up with English dead, some of
them scorched and blackened by the explosion, and others
lacerated beyond recognition. The quantity of broken gabions
and gun-carriages here was extraordinary, the ground was
covered with them. The bomb-proofs were the same as in

the Malakhoff, and in one of them a music book was found,
with a woman's name in it, and a canary-bird and vase of

flowers were outside the entrance.

DETAILS OF THE ASSAULT,

BY THE FRENCH GENERALS.

MARSHAL PELISSIER'S REPORT.
HEAD-QUARTERS, SEBASTOPOL, Sept. 11.
M. le Marechal,—l shall have the honour to send you by
the next courier a detailed report on the attack which has
placed Sebastopol in our power. To-day I can only give you
a rapid sketch of the principal achievement of this great event
of the war.

Since the 16th of August, the day of the battle of the
Tchernaya, and notwithstanding repeated warnings of a new
and more formidable attack by the enemy against the posi-
tions which we occupy on this river, every preparation was
made to deliver a decisive assault against Sebastopol itself.
The artillery of the right attack commenced on the 17th of
August a well-sustained fire against the Malakhoff, the Little
Redan, the neighbouring defences, and the roads, in order to
permit our engineers to establish defences close to the place,
from which the troops might be able instantly to throw them-
selves upon the enciente. ,Our engineers besides prepared
materials for escalade, and on the.sth of Sept. all our batteries
of the left opened a very violent fire against the town. The
English on their side kept up a .hot ,cannonade against the
Great Redan and its redoubt, which-they were to attack.
All being ready, I resolved, in concert.with General Simp-
son, .to give the assault on the Bth of :September, at the hour
of noon.
General M`Mahon's division was to carry the works of the
Malakhoff; General Dulac's division was toattack the Little
:Redan ; and in the centre the division of. General Le Motte-
rouge was tc•-,march against the curtain connecting these two
extreme pointe. Besides these troo.ps, I latul, given tckCienerni