The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-31 00:00:00

THE WAR.

THE SIEGE 'OF SEBASTOPOL.

INTELLIGENCE from the Crimea up to the latest
dates represent the army before Sebastopol •as still in
the enjoyment of general good health.; although
Cholera still lingers and lurks among its ranks.
Happily, however, this scourge does not appear to be
productive of any alarming amount of mortality; and
as it induces an unslackening vigilance on the part of
the medical and other sanitary authorities, the proba-
bility is that the vigilance so,excited may be instru-
mental in maintaining the general good health re-
ferred to. Several of the inconveniences and annoy-
ances peculiar to the Crimean summer have begun to
occasion complaint among the troops. Heavy drench-
ing rains and fearful thunderstorms ; oppressive heats
and tormenting myriads of flies :contribute their alter-
nate and serious, though differing degrees of affliction
to the men exposed in the trenches and the camp.
Notwithstanding all which, and in spite of the pro-
tracted nature of the operations of the siege, the
spirits of the men are still buoyant, and the only
anxiety expressed among all ranks is a rooted desire
to bring matters to a conclusion by a combined as-
sault. The progress is still slow, but decidedly in the
right direction.
In reference to the last-named subject. the corres-
pondent of the Daily News, writing from the camp
before Sebastopol, on the 10th inst.., says.:
Connected with the operations of the siege, I have to report
little more than the continuance of the same stand-still state
of things that disgusted and discouraged every one when I
last wrote. To be sure, the same resultless and fitful snatches
of cannonading are kept up by day, with the variations of
musketry by night; and having stated this, I have left little
untold. We hammer away, spasmodically, at the everlasting
Redan, which returns quite as good as it gets ; or helps our
neighbours, the French, by practising on the equally retribu-
tive Malakoff—in either case without making the smallest
measure of headway towards the Russian Troy beyond. On
the night before last, rather a brisk affair took place between
the latter and a strong party of the enemy, who sallied from
the Malakoff to essay the destruction of the French approaches
towards that redoubt. It will be remembered that our Allies,
soon after their own and our defeat on the memorable 18th,
commenced a sap from the Mamelon to its vis-a-vis the
Malakoff. As this work has been prosecuted with more or less
success every night, it has at present penetrated over half the
distance between the two redoubts, and at its further
extremity is within some three hundred and fifty yards
of the Russian embrasures. To stop its further advance,
therefore, the enemy made a strong sortie on Sunday
night, but after a sharp fight were driven back into their own
works with considerable loss ; the attempt was repeated soon
after,but was again repulsed after another determined struggle.
During this second scuffle occurred another grand illustration
of what an untravelled Milesian would call that " most beau-
tiful" system of blundering, in which there seems to be an
understood rivalry between our allies and ourselves. After the
affair of the 18th, I may remark, our artillerymen in the
twenty-one gun and other neighbouring batteries had received
orders to train their guns at night on the approaches to the
quarries on the one hand, and on the space between the Ma-
melon and Malakoff on the other—in this last case, dithout
the smallest arrangement for signals with the French. Accord-
ingly, on Sunday night, when a strong force of French de-
ployed out from the Mamelon to support those who were
already engaged in repelling the enemy, our twenty-one gun
battery opened fire on them, and kept it up most effectively
till a breathless messenger arrived to give notice of the mur-
derous mistake. The well-timed blunder, I learn, afforded the
enemy most valuable aid, and, had it been much longer con-
tinued, would have resulted in the repulse of our allies, and
the destruction of their hard-worked sap. With such general-
ship, what armies could succeed ?
Speculation as to distant and colateral operations
are rife among the different branches of the service ;
and these occasion much interest in the camp. Con-
cerning these, the correspondent of the Morning
Advertiser, on the same day as the preceding, writes :
An expedition to Odessa, and one beyond "Makenzie's
Farm," are still talked of. How far the destruction of that
large trading town, and the setting it on fire, would be con-
ducive to British interests, is for the people of England to say.
There is, however, one point to be considered: Odessa has long
been, and is still, one of the great depots of the Russian army,
both for men and provisions ; consequently a place of consider-
able importance to the enemy. Certain movements of our
troops, early yesterday morning, gave rise to the impression
that an advance was resolved upon; and as there was some
sharp, although short firing, in the direction they had taken,
we were led to believe that some skirmishing had taken place.
The way taken by those troops was along the heights on the
left of the plains of Balaklava—heights well defended by bat-
teries, several are marked—and thence towards the Tchernaya,
which, however, was not crossed. Having rode out yesterday,
about three miles beyond the bridge some ten days ago, with-
out meeting with any obstruction, and without perceiving so
much precaution as was now manifested, we inquired whether
there was anything stirring, and were told that the Russians,
there was reason to believe, had advanced nearer to Balaklava.
If such be the case,as it no doubt is, their object would appear
to be to check any onward movement on the part of the Allies,
who, on their side, would be but too happy to bring the foe to
anything like a general engagement. It is impossible to
estimate too highly the advantage to the Allies of having
possession of the river and of the pretty country about it. The
night before last it was reported that the Russians were making
an attempt to regain the Mamelon, some sharp firing having
been heard for an hour or so. Sucn, however, was not the
case ; but it appears that, in the obscurity, a number of French
soldiers who were carrying gabions mistook the Russian for
the French lines, and did not discover their mistake
until too late. After a gallant resistance, twenty of
the Imperial Guards were taken prisoners. Emboldened by that
little success, theßussians made a partial sortie, but soon retired.
There can be no longer any doubt that in a variety of ways
the French gendarmes arc becoming very officious. In Ka-
miesch, moreover, there are—so it is generally believed—so
many French police spies about, that the traders there are
almost afraid to open their mouths. Not a newspaper is to be
seen—not a word of politics is to be heard. Even the passing
events of the war, when referred to, are narrated in a whisper,
and only amongst friends. As for the French soldiers, they
are kept in the most profound ignorance of all that is
going on in their native country ; and I have had, in my
own person, experience that, in the transmission and delivery
of letters, the Kamiesch Post-office is not to be trusted.
Writing on the 12th inst. from the camp before
Sebastopol, the correspondent of the Times says, in
reference to the reconnoitering expedition in the direc-
tion of the Tchernaya, and the general operations :
Nothing new to-day. The French and Turks have finally
returned from their reconnaissance, and the country about
Baidar is again in the hands of the Cossacks. The quantity
of cattle driven in by them is very great. The beasts, though
not of the large size we are accustomed to in England, are
finer and better fed than those obtained in Asia Minor; at
least, as we see them after a voyage across the Black Sea.
An attack on the Russian position is considered all but
hopeless. Nature seems as if she had constructed the plateau
they occupy as a vast defensible position, which 50,000 men
may hold against four times their number. Of the reduction
of Sebastopol proper before the winter I have no kind of
doubt. That the Russians will hold out with all the
obstinacy of their character, even after the destruction
of their ships and the capture of the Malakoff, may be
expected; but the possession of a new position, com-
manding the harbour and the bridge of boats which crosses
it, must eventually cause the enemy to retreat. The
Russian generals, though brave, and determined on an obsti-
nate defence, may fairly receive credit for the possession of
prudence and forethought. As long as a place can be held
with a chance of success, or even of damaging the enemy,
they will hold it; but all their proceedings give reason to
believe that they will not allow their troops to be cut to
pieces merely for the credit of having made a desperate resist-
ance, and held, without advantage, for a short time longer an
untenable position. When they see that their retreat is seri-
ously endangered, it is not improbable that they will alto-
gether abandon the southern side, which they can hardly hope
to hold should the allies be able to command the harbour.
They, no doubt, count at least on being able to prolong their
resistance until the winter sets in ; if that be impossible, they
will most likely withdraw to the northern side, which it may
be impracticable to lay siege to before the spring of 1856.
What may be done during that time to strengthen the works
we may judge from the industry and skill with which they
have laboured in the defence of Sebastopol proper.
To-day Major-General Barnard was appointed chief of the
staff, in the place of General Simpson. Rumours prevail that
a new Commander-in-Chief is to come out from England.
Whether this be true I have not yet learnt, but it is to be
hoped that the peninsula and Waterloo, at 23 or 24 years of
age, will not be the only qualification. It seems to all here
that the best school for Sebastopol is Sebastopol itself, and
that a man who has been here six months is likely to be a more
efficient general than any one who may be sent out in reliance
on vague reminiscences of campaigns in the field 40 years ago.
It takes some little time to be cognizant even of the ground,
and with autumn drawing on there is no time to be lost. A
general of established reputation may give a lustre to the Brit-
ish name, but, after all, thebest reliance is on skill and energy,
and there are not wanting men at present before Sebastopol on
on whom the command might devolve with satisfaction to the
army, and with reasonable hope of a creditable fulfilment of
duties

Commissariat, both in the Crimea and at Constantino-
ple, is making laudable preparations for a regular supply of
provisions dupng the coming winter. Depots are to be estab-
lished at Ismld and Sinope, and a regular transport service
will he organized between various places on the coast and the
port of Balaklava.

The same correspondent, writing on the 13th, says,
referring to the Russian resistance :

Last night the Russians kept up a tremendous fire. It has
been blowing a gale for the last 24 hours, and the wind bore
the sound of the heavy guns towards us,
so that the very
ground shook. I am sorry to say that the battery which the
French have constructed between the Mamelon and the Ma-
lakoff has been knocked to pieces by the powerful fire of the
latter fort. A colonel and about 30 officers and men were put
hors de combat, and the siege works have received a decided
check. In fact, as the allies advance to the actual defence of
the pittee, they must expect to meet more elaborate works,
and laetacles heaped on one another with all the care which
nine months of preparation admit. Even now the enemy are
strengthening the Malakoff every day. It is not what it
was on the 18th of June, and a fortnight hence it will not be
what it is now. The battery at the White Works, however,
still goes on, and its effect will be proved in a few days.
On the subject of the effect produced on the Redan
by our fire, the correspondent of the Daily News,
writing on the 10th, says :
A powerful fire was opened against the Redan at 3 a.m.
this morning, from both the left and right British attacks,
and was continued about nine hours. The Redan answered
quickly and vigorously. Our practice was most excellent.
Three of the most powerful mortars in the Greenhill attack
were constantly discharged together, and the effect produced
by the shells falling within the Redan at short distances from
each other mat strongly marked. They reached the ground
almost at the same instant, and clouds of dust rose after
their explosion. Frequently the shot from the French-
man's hill batteries were noticed to pass right through the

embrasures of the Redan, ploughing up the cheeks of the
opening as they passed along. Yet it is doubtful whether
much damage was done to the enemy's guns. Often when
our artillerymen had supposed that certain guns, from their
continued silence, had been knocked over, these guns would sud-
denly appear in their embrasu?es, and open fire. Even late in
the evening, after the fire had been renewed in the afternoon
against the Redan, the guns appeared able to reply whenever
it suited the purpose of the enemy that they should do so.
It is fully evident that the enemy possesses some means of
speedily drawing the guns away from the embrasures and
placing them under safe cover, where they can be loaded and
kept ready for use, and afterwards of speedily replacing them
in the embrasures. What kind of " blindage" is used cannot
be distinguished. After a gun from the Redan had been
fired the space in the embrasure was often observed to become
vacant, and only re-occupied just before another discharge
took place. But though the guns may have remained for the
most part uninjured, it was seen that the artillerymen suf-
fered severely. Behind the hollow between the Redan and
Malakhoff hills part of a broad road is visible. This road
emerges from behind the Redan hill, passes in front of the
barrack and part of the dockyard wall, and is lost to view be-
hind the Malakhoff hill. Along this way men bearing
stretchers and ambulance waggons were observed to pass and
repass in unusual numbers. Nor could it be understood how
the requisite number of men for working the guns could re-
main within the Redan, and great loss not occur among them
from the discharge of such an overpowering weight of metal.
Writing on the 14th, the same correspondent says:
For several days and nights before the 10th inst. the enemy
had been most troublesome to our advanced working parties,
reducing their progress in fact to a nullity. It was therefore
resolved that a smart cannonade fora few hours should be
administered by way of corrective; and accordingly about 6
a.m. on Saturday morning, our batteries opened a pretty brisk
fire of shot and shell on the Redan and its neighbouring works,
which was kept up without much intermission till noon. The
Redan offered no reply till 8 o'clock, when it commenced a
sharp fire, but after continuinc, this for two hours, ceased and
withdrew its guns, nor took' further notice of our attack,
though we opened again at 4 p.m. and blazed away for another
couple of hours. Every night since then, however, the Russian
guns have been as busy as our own, and to hear and see the
fire of both one would hardly imagine that a " bombardment"
is not going on. Latterly they have adopted the practice of
peppering our working parties with cohorns, small thin shells
which they fire with little powder from pigmy mortars behind
the Redan, and which, as the report is hardly heard, and the
usual peculiar shell whiz wanting, fall plump into the middle
of a party without the smallest warning. A few days ago
an excellent infantry captain, on duty with his party
in the trenches, suggested to an artillery officer in
command of one of the batteries that we should
try the same practice, as it proved so mischievous
to ourselves. After consultation and some discussion with
the general for the day, it was agreed that the suggestion
should be carried into execution ; and a couple of cohorn
mortars were accordingly brought from a distant battery and
got into position, when it was first remembered that there
was no ammunition wherewith to work them anywhere nearer
hand than Balaklava ! Accordingly no cohorns have as yet
been sent in answer to the daily and nightly scores which play
havoc amongst our own men. I venture to think there can
be no harm in calling this bad management. Thus, by help
of our own neglect, a combined fire of cohorns, bouquets, and
shells—with fireballs by night to hell) their aim—the enemy
have as yet been able to retard our advance work very con-
siderably. Last night, however, the French and our own guns
kept up a brisk fire for the greater part of the night—the
former, besides their practice on the Malakoff, throwing
rockets from the Victoria Redoubt into the town and the ship-
ping. Nearly a hundred of these last-named fearful missiles
were discharged in the course of the night, darting away on
their deadly errand like avenging comets.
Since I last wrote, we have taken possession of a portion of
St. George's Monastery, to be converted into a sanitarium for
sick officers, for which no spot within the whole range
of our possession is half so well adapted, either by beauty or
healthiness of situation. Cholera and fever have both greatly
abated throughout the camp ; but dysentery has set in to
work much of the mischief of the other two, and, I regret to
say, is becoming increasingly prevalent. A roasting sun by
day and damp heavy fogs overhanging and permeating every-
thing by night, need strong constitutions and a careful regimen
to resist them ; nor have we reached the climax of either yet.
Our thin single tents, instead of sheltering from the heat,
appear to concentrate its rays, and certainly subject all who live
in them to the daily atmosphere of an oven ; nor are they
proof against the murky disease-laden air of night either.
Already, I believe, the disproportion between the number of
tent-dwelling patients and those residing in huts, which are
received into the regimental hospitals, has been very marked ;
nor is it likely to be less, as the present heat rises to its climax
during the coming fortnight.