The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-23 00:00:00

SERIOUS CONFLAGRATION AT THE
BARRACKS.

At four o'clock a serious accident took place, which has in-
flicted some loss on the army in depriving them of a con-
siderable magazine of wood. A shell from the Russians burst
close to the barracks, and a merchant sailor ran to look at
the crater it formed in the ground. Thence he entered the
building itself, and sauntered about smoking his pipe till he
came to some loose gunpowder, on which, being of a scientific
and experimentalizing turn of mind, he tried the effects of
dropping several sparks from the burning tobacco. The
powder, as is not unusual in such cases, exploded with violence,
and blew up the sailor and a sentry outside. They were both
dreadfully burnt. As the floor was covered with cartridges
and loose powder, the fire caught, and went leaping on by fits
and starts to a large quantity of the same combustible matters.
No one could approach to stop the fire. It at last caught the
magazine, and the explosion blew out the walls and ceilings
of the central barrack. The flames set fire to the dry wood-
work, and in a short time the whole pile of buildings,
which were of admirable construction, was in a blaze. The
conflagration lasted till all that could be burnt was consumed,
and lighted up the sky at night to a great distance. All that
remains of the Imperial Barracks of Sebastopol is a mass of
charred and blackened stones, split by the action of fire. The
Russians, thinking that the accident had been caused by their
own fire, plied their guns with increased vigour, and threw
shot and shell around the place, but did no damage. It is not
quite certain that the man who caused the accident was a
sailor. Some people say he was a navvy of the Army Works
Corps. Whoever he was, by the act for which he so dearly
paid, he destroyed not less than 30,000 cartloads of wood, which
would have been made available for hutting and fuel. It is,
on the whole, a miracle that more accidents of the kind do
not occur, owing to the neglect of the authorities and the
carelessness of the men. The Russians seem to be strengthen-
ing their camps near Mackenzie's farm.
OCTOBER 1 (Monday).—There was a council of Generals to-
day at head-quarters, at which Marshal Pelissier was present.
Orders have been sent to the French fleet to prepare for the
reception of 15,000 men to-morrow. The conferences between
the Generals have been frequent of late. There has not been
much firing from or on the town to-day, but the French at
Inkerman are annoying a new Russian camp at the other side
of the ravine, by constant discharges of long-range rockets.
OCTOBER 2 (Tuesday).—At ten o'clock this morning a
general commotion arose in camp, in consequence of the sound-
ing of the assembly and the turning out of all the men. At
the same time the Light Division was inspected, and the ar-
tillery were reviewed in the open space in front of our lines
towards Inkerman. The Ist brigade of the Fourth Division
received orders to hold themselves in readiness to march at
dawn to-morrow morning. So sudden was the order that all
the various working parties were interrupted in their work,
and marched off to their regiments after they had been road-
making only a couple of hours. The men detailed to the
Land Transport Corps and to the Commissariat Department
were sought out and told to rejoin their regiments at once.

EMBARKATION OF AN EXPEDITIONARY
FORCE.

The same same writer, under date of the 4th October, from
the same place, says :
The first Of the 4th Division marched down to
F-Itzatch this morning, and proceeded to embark on board the
ships, to which they were told off as speedily as the circum-
stances permitted. They were minutely inspected by Sir
Henry Bentinck, K.C.8., commanding the division, who de-
livered a few words of advice, kindly meant, and well received,
ere they left. The Brigadier-General Spencer, commanding
the expedition, accompanied them half-way towards the port.
The brigade is in very tine order, and forms a body of 3,300
men, many of them tried soldiers, and others fine, strong men,
able to do anything, and in high spirits and courage. The
Royal Marines began to embark on board the St. Jean d'Acre,
which came round outside Balaklava for them, and the P field
battery, Captain Johnson, moved down to embark on board
the ships told off for them in the harbour.
OCTOBER s.—The preparations for the expedition and the
embarkation of the artillery and of stores continue. A large
body of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, so long encamped
on the heights of Balaklava, were marched down to-day to the
water's edge, and followed their comrades on board the St.
Jean d'Acre outside, to which they were conveyed in the
Wallace steam tug. Her Majesty's steamer Triton, Lieu-
tenant A. D. W. Fletcher commanding, received orders to
prepare to join the expedition, and Captain Leopold Heath,
RN., the superintendent of transports, shifted his flag to the
Bucephalus transport, attended by his secretary, Mr. Barrs.
The Ripon still remains outside the harbour with the drafts
of the Guards of the 82nd Regiment, and of the Land Trans-
port Corps on board, as there is no room for her until the
Medway or some other vessel of equal size moves out. The
Telegraph is discharging a portion of her cargo of navvies
belonging to the Army Works' Corps. There are encourag-
ing reports respecting the progress of the French towards the
plateau of the Upper Belbek. The Russians keep up a slow
steady fire on the town, to which the French reply with their
wonted alacrity, and the duels between the individual bat-
teries sometimes swell into cannonades, but not much harm
is done on either side, except the knocking up of earth and
stones and some trifling casualties. The enemy are engaged
hutting themselves and removing their stores towards the
grand depot between Inkerman and Belbek. A strong body
of cavalry were seen moving northwards and towards Sim-
pheropol in the afternoon, accompanied, as usual, by a force
of field guns.

ADVANCE OF CAVALRY.—CLEVER RUSE.
The correspondent of the Daily News, writing also on the
sth of October, says :
I mentioned a few posts ago, that two French divisions and
the whole of the Sardinian cavalry bad pushed on beyond
Baidar, with the view of turning the lines of the Belbek, and
securing a position beyond Mangup-Kaleh, to operate on the
rear of the enemy, whilst another force took them in the flank
from Eupatoria. Intelligence reached the camp to-day that
this first step in the grand operation has been successfully
taken. A glance at the map will show that the Mackenzie
range is penetrated by three passes; it is by the most eastern
of these that our allies have effected their very important ad-
vance from the valley of the Tchernaya, round the Albat on
the northern bank of the southern branch of the Belbek river.
From the entrance of the pass beyond Baidar to the near
neighbourhood of the Mangup-Kaleh Fort, which commands
the eastern mouth of the Aitodor pass, they met with no nu-
merous body of the enemy ; but on reaching the fort, and,
reconnoitring, they found several strong columns camped
along the slopes of the adjacent heights, and to avoid a col-
lision with these, made a slight detour to the eastward.
Thence on to the river their line of march was unobstructed,
and they crossed at a point a little above Albat, where they
now are. They reached this village during the night, and,
when the heavy fog cleared away at dawn, discovered that
they had almost entered the lines of a strong encampment of
the enemy. The situation was critical, but with admirable
generalship the French chief made a show of moving forward
his advanced columns, as if for attack, and the Russians, sup-
posing that they only saw the leading division of a much
stronger force, packed up whatever light baggage could be
seized on the moment, and beat a rapid retreat. Had they
discovered the comparative weakness of our allies, the latter
might have failed in a way which would have in some degree
squared accounts for the affair at the Traktir Bridge ; but by
the masterly feint of the French general this mishap was
happily averted, and their position secured. The intention of
sending the whole of our cavalry to winter at Kulalee has
undergone a modification : a thousand of the " lights"—
comprising the 4th and 13th Dragoons, with the 12th Lancers
and the Carabineers—have received orders to hold themselves
in readiness for immediate embarkation for Eupatoria, under
the command of Lord George Paget, and will be taken on
board, I believe, in the beginning of the coming week.
THE POSITION OF THE ALLIES.

CAMP OE THE ALLIED ARm lES ON THE TCHERNAYA,
Oct. 6th.—The expeditiontothee pnorth, the orders received
by the light cavalry brigade to he
treadinessFrench to embark to
troops in
Eupatoria, and fresh augmentation of
Baidar, principally by
cavalry, and rumours e
Tchongar, the
da enn d
simultaneous
movement from Kertch towards the peninsulaa
of
seem all to indicate at last some combined movement,
end of the time of preparations. Although the
siege operations leaves us at liberty to employ a great numberlle
of men formerly required for the trenches, although the de.
struction of the Russian fleet relieves our own from a tedious
blockade, and thus gives us unlimited means of transport, to
throw a body of men on any point of the coast, and makes it
possible at any moment to choose a new base of operations,
there are still no small though by no means insuperable diffi-
culties in the wax of a movement in advance from our side.
The chief difficulty arises from our being obliged to guard
the ruins of Sebastopol, in order to prevent the Russians from
establishing themselves there once more. We have thus to
occupy a long line and to divide our army, which gives the
advantage to the Russians to operate iu a central position, and

to fall with their whole force upon one or the other point of
our line of operations. This would be indeed a hazardous
operation for them if a considerable force of ours was in the
north. It would be throwing everything on one chance, and
exposing themselves to be shut up in the south of the Crimea
and starve during the winter ; but it might succeed, and cause
us considerable losses. To obviate this we must either destroy
what is destructible on the south side, and retire behind the
lines of Kamiesh and Balaklava, which would free at once the
greatest part of the army for field operations, or make the
south our basis of operations, forcing the plateau from Baktchi-
Serai down the north plateau of Sebastopol, having only a fly-
ing corps, principally of cavalry, to harass the communications
of the Russians ; or else, as a third alternative, to take up
only positions this year, which may serve as bases of opera-
tions for the next. The extensive road-making and hut-build-
ing, not only on the plateau de la Chersonese, but likewise all
along the Tchernaya line up to Alsu, seem to indicate the in-
tention of occupying this line during the winter.
THE COMMISSARIAT AT KAMIESH.

The correspondent of the Morning Herald, writing from
Kamiesh on the 6th October, says :

The most of our gunboats arrived during Thursday and
Friday (yesterday) in these waters, from Kertch, and will pro-
ceed with the admirals on the "particular service" now
decided on. Brigadier-general Spencer is in command of the
English portion of the troops. The French commander is
said to be General Bazaine. The expedition, it is anticipated,
will certainly start to-day or to-morrow. The mortar-boats,
as well as gunboats, French and English, are in company.
Transports have taken artillerymen and guns on board (the
"P " Battery) ; and five days' supply of cattle have very
apropos been brought across from Soejak Kaleh (Circassia) by
her Majesty's steamer -Magmra, and a merchantman under her
orders. The price paid for each bullock is given at 40s. to 50s.
English. The late breeze has blown itself out, and the weather
is again superb, so that all augurs well for the expedition.
Altogether there are about 35 English pendants, transports
exclusive, but the number of French vessels none of us can
yet clearly ascertain. It must be about the same number.
We are almost out of coals at Kamiesh ; the admiral could not
send the Telegraph steamer away yesterday for this cause. I
know not what general effect the fitting out of this expedition
may have had on the markets of Kamiesh, but certainly, with
regard to a few articles, they are now no longer to be procured.
At eleven o'clock on Friday morning (yesterday), not a single
loaf of bread was to be had " for love or money" in Kamiesh !
And there is now only one man in the town or port who pos-
sesses a few barrels of flour ! Then, as to butter ; not only is
there none here, but the craft long expected to bring some in
from the south have just arrived with the intelligence that
butter is not to be bought, even at Constantinople ! Of course
I mean English butter, not the Levantine apology for it.
Three cattle-boats run continually between this place and the
Turkish capital, so that there is but little want of fresh meat,
though the French commissariat, when they come to make up
their accounts, will, I fear, find they have all along paid much
more dearly for it than they, in their Oriental inexperience,
yet imagine. And the loss of cattle by death on the voyage,
chiefly from overcrowding, is enormous. I believe lam cor-
rect in saying that one vessel lost no less than 150 oxen in
one trip ! Meals, when meat is scarce ashore, are eked out by
many of the French officers, with fish, which with much
patience they here catch themselves in Kazatch Bay, generally
of a small size, with some larger, such as mackerel ; while out-
side and more seaward, very fine turbot are taken. But fish-
ing lines and nets are "few and far between" in these parts.
They would sell well. The bum-boats, manned by soi-disant
Maltese, but generally Greeks, belonging to this port, are
mustered every night off the English dockyard, Kazatch Bay,
and a sentry placed over them till daylight. The men sleep
in their boats, and this regulation is certainly a check on the
spy system. For some time at Balaklava, fishing boats were
not allowed to leave the harbour, because it was discovered
that they landed spies, who set off for the Russian camp from
a point on the coast eastward of Balaklava, but now that the
Russians are so far from the Tchernaya, and the French ad-
vanced to the very ridge next to them, this precaution is
deemed unnecessary. So that Balaklava is now daily supplied
with excellent fish, and in some quantity.
THE BOOTY FOUND IN SEBASTOPOL.

We read in a letter from Sebastopol, of the 2nd inst. :
The joint commission appointed to report on the booty
found in Sebastopol, and to determine its mode of distribu-
tion, has completed its labours. The report was signed by
the Commissioners on the Ist inst. 3,800 cannon of large
and small calibre, 6 steam-engines, 18,000 or 19,000 balls,
bomb-shells, anchors, chains, rigging of all kinds, &c., have
been found. The Commission has decided that all the booty
shall be divided between France and England. But it has
been agreed at the same time that, after having valued the
different articles according to their weight, the distribution
should take place in proportion to the number of men in each
army ; and that if on this calculation England should have a
right to only one-fourth of the whole, she should restore to
France the value of the additional amount she may have re-
ceived, at the rate of 10c. per kilogramme, the price of old
iron. There is no mention of the Turks in the report. As
to the Sardinians, it is unnecessary to say that, being included
in the English army, they have a claim to a portion of the
amount assigned to the latter. The following arrangements
have been made with regard to the town :—That portion of
the city comprised within the Quarantine, Fort Nicholas, the
Military Harbour, and the Flagstaff Battery, shall be the ex-
clusive property of the French. The English shall have for
their part the Karabelnaia suburbs, at the same time that the
French will be free to erect hospitals there, and to use Careen-
ing Bay, the docks, &c.

A letter from Sebastopol, of the 2nd inst., states that the
English have found in the Karabelnaia 2,222 guns, 390,000
bombs and round shot, engines to the value of £40,000, chain
and anchors estimated at £20,000, metals at £12,000, 3,000
tons of coal, more than 3,000,000 of rations, and arms and
clothing of various kinds. The writer says :
We shortly expect a strong reinforcement of English
troops, consisting of the 51st, 54th, 66th, 82nd, and 92nd Re-
giments of the Line, drawn from Malta, Corfu, and Gibraltar,
where they are, to be succeeded by the militia. A regular line
of steam-packets is now organised between England and the
Crimea; the departure from the latter will take place every
Saturday ; wounded soldiers are to be sent home, and fresh
troops regularly brought out in these packets. Fine weather
has now set in after several days' rain, and the sanitary con-
dition of the army is excellent. We have resumed our garrison
life, and each of the allied divisions has been reviewed within
the last week in the plain of Balaklava. You must not,
however, imagine that the comparative repose has had on us
the eftect of the enjoyments of Capua, for we are looking for-
ward to the pleasure very soon of a last encounter with the
Russians, who, we have reason to believe, are not disposed to
wait for us, as we have observed for some days various
movements in the Russian camp which would seem to indi-
cate the commencement of a retreat.
BLOWING UP OF THE FORTS DELAYED.
The Journal des Dibats has the following, dated Sebas-
topol, September 30 :
I mentioned to you in my last letter that trains had been
laid to blow up the arsenal and a considerable portion of
Sebastopol. Everything was ready, and nothing was wanting
but the signal to begin, when a telegraphic despatch arrived,
conveying the order to suspend the work of destruction till
such time as the telegraph should transmit the command to
that effect. There is quite time enough for the execution of
such an order, and for the present the buildings about to be
destroyed will be useful to the allied armies. The city still
presents an aspect of desolation and solitude that appals the
visitors. The firing is not very brisk between the north and
south sides of the town. The Russians scarcely fire 150 guns
in 24 hours, and do us but little injury. There are in the
town only a few artillerymen, necessary to work the guns,
and guard picquets. A melancholy accident has just occurred,
which is a little calculated to damp the ardour of tourists.
An English soldier happened to walk on an infernal machine,
which immediately exploded, killing or wounding some sixty
men. This accident has suggested the propriety of making
fresh examinations, and on all sides are to be seen men busily
employed digging, with a view to discover those destructive
engines of the Russians. Floating batteries and gunboats
are preparing to attack Fort Constantine.
A letter from Sebastopol of the 27th, in the Gazette du
Midi, says :
The allies appear to be quite decided on destroying the
Russian military establishments which remain standing in
Sebastopol ; nevertheless, in the councils of war which have
been held, opinions were divided on the subject. It was pro-
posed to make use of the docks and of the naval establish-
ments for the allied fleets, but the admirals were opposed to
that course, and their opinions prevailed. The engineers are
therefore employed in the destruction of the docks, and they
carry on the work with the greatest activity. In closely
examining these establishments, it is seen that they are most
ingeniously constructed. The docks are seven in number,
and are supplied with water by the Tchernaya. A weir
which bars the river turns the water into a large basin,
from whence it flows into the seven docks by canals, so that
the vessels requiring repairs enter into the dock with salt
water, and leave with it that of the Tchernaya.