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

intelligent aides-de-camp stumbled on the wrong regiments
and ordered up the first brigade of the Light Division, which
had been told of as the proper reserve. Evident, however, as
was the blunder, the gallant " fighting 7th," led on by Major
Turner, and the 23rd, under Colonel Lysons, advanced to the
renewed attack. The other regiments who should have pre-
ceded, followed in a state of beautiful pell-mell, and under a
fire of grape and canister, before which the bravest columns
of the Old Guard would have staggered, our young levies—for
such were three-fourths of the troops engaged—were led on to
regain the ground which had been lost through mismanage-
ment before. It was not, however, in human nature to make
headway under such an iron storm; the men turned, and fled
back under cover of the parapet, leaving very many of their own
number, and more in proportion of their officers, dead or dying
on this field of death.

V~From the
failure of this second attempt, the attack became
one of musketry fire over the parapet, aided by the guns of
the Quarry and other batteries which bore upon the R,edan.
Brigadier Straubenzee, commanding the Ist Brigade of the
Light Division, tried to induce his chief to storm again, offer-
ing to lead the assault with the still eager though shattered
regiments of his own command ; but Sir William declined re-
peating the attempt at the time. Thence on till dusk, we
waged a futile war of musketry and artillery fire, which was
vigorously replied to by the enemy, and night closed upon our
men, discouraged and humbled. The Russian apothegm of
"an army of lions led on by donkies," had once more been
illustrated; and while our allies were jubilant with well-earned
success, we were humbled by the consciousness of undeserved
defeat.

It was known, however, that with dawn another assault
would be made, and continued at whatever cost till the re-
doubt had been finally gained, and so everyone anxiously
awaited daylight on Sunday morning, when our slaughtered
hundreds were to be avenged, and the tarnish cast upon our
military honour wiped away. About an hour after midnight,
however, the enemy forestalled all by blowing up their
magazine, and abandoning the redoubt. Such, it is presumed,
was the fact, though it is not improbable that the explosion
may have been caused by one of our own shells. Be this as
it may, the result was the same; and on a party of our men
being soon after sent out to reconnoitre, it was discovered
that the Russians had given up the game. Our troops ac-
cordingly marched in, and the first grey streaks of daylight
saw the British ensign waving over a surrender which had
already been a prize.

ATTACK ON THE REDAN BY THE ENGLISH.
In reference to this sanguinary, and less successful attack,
the special correspondent of the Daily News, gives the follow-
ing details :

In the meantime, however, our own assault had begun
But it must first be mentioned that, instead of having before
them a work whose embrasures had been bunged-up and its
guns silenced, like the Malakhoff, our men had to rush upon
a line of battery nearly every piece in which was ready to re-
ceive the grape and canister. The French, too, started from
a line of trench only some forty yards from the point to be
attacked, whilst our own troops were compelled to cross an
open space of full six times the extent, and that, too, under a
direct and flanking fire from nearly a score of guns.
Long before darkness had set in on the previous evening
the French had swept the chain of works on the proper left
of the Malakhoff; and thus the whole line, from the Quaran-
tine Fort to the mouth of the Tchernaya, was in the hands of
the Allies, the Russian batteries opposed to the French left
having been simultaneously evacuated. Dawn showed the
last stragglers of the retiring enemy hurrying over the bridge
of boats, which was promptly destroyed when they had crossed ;
and as the entire shipping—one frigate and a couple of small
steamers alone excepted—had been sunk during the night,
the sun rose upon as desolate a scene as if Sebastopol had
never been inhabited, nor its splendid harbour covered with
ships of war. Even before the blow-up of the Redan several
mines had been fired by the enemy along and within their line
of works, and during the night they consummated the sacri-
fice of their stronghold by blowing up Fort Paul, and firing
nearly all the principal buildings which had not already been
in flames. And thus ended the attack and capture of Sebas-
topol.

The correspondent of the Times gives an account of the
affair somewhat similar in effect, and much more ample in
detail, differing, however, but little in its condemnatory spirit,
and where it does differ, being, in fact, more severely crimi-
native than the other. He says :
When the order was received on the 7th, the general re-
mark 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. It will be observed that,-where
we attacked the Redan 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 d'armee, the first and
fourth divisions forming the storming columns, and the third
and the fifth being the support, with reserves of 10,000 men.
The French had probably not 1 less than 30,000 men in the
right attack en the 7th of September. The divisional orders
for the 2nd division were very much the same as those for the
light division. The covering party consisted of 100 men of
the 3rd Buffs, under Captain John Lewes, who highly dis-
tinguished himself, and 100 men of the second battalion of
the Rifle Brigade, under the command of Captain Hammond.
The scaling-ladder party consisted of 160 of the 3rd Buffs,
under Captain Maud, whose gallantry was very conspicuous
throughout the aflair, in addition to the 160 of the 97th,
under the gallant and lamented Welsford. The part of the
force of the second division consisted of 260 of the 3rd Buffs,
300 of the 23rd (Welsh), 200 of the 62nd, and a working party
of 100 of the 41st. The rest of Wyhnham's brigade, consist-
ing of the 47th and 49th, were in reserve, together with War-
ren's brigade of the same division, of which the-30th and 55th
were called into action, and suffered severely. It was a few
minutes after twelve when our men left the fifth parallel.
The musketry commenced at once, and in less than five mi-
nutes, 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. The rifle-
men advanced 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. As they came nearer, the ene-
my's fire became less fatal. They crossed the abattis without
difficulty: is was torn to pieces and destroyed 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 be 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 wound-
ed men, and others had been broken, so that if one can credit
the statements made by those who were present, 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 breastworks as soon as
they saw our men on the top, and opened fire upon them.
At the base of the Redan, before the re-entering angles, is a
breastwork, or rather, a parapet with an irregular curve, up to
a man's neck, which runs in front of the body of the place.
As our men entered through the embrasures, the few Russians
who were between the salient and this breastwork retreated
behind the latter, and got from the traverses to its protection.
From it they poured in a quick fire on the parapet of the
salient, which was 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 occasions, began to return the
fire of the enemy without advancing or crossing behind the
traverses, loaded and fired as quickly as they could, but did
little execution, as the Russians were well covered by a breast-
work. 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 intensity of their
fire, while our soldiers dropped fast and encouraged the Rus-
sians by their immobility and the weakness of their fusillade,
from which the enemy 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 Redan was
all mined, and that if they advanced they would all be blown
up ; but many of them acted as became the men of Alma and
Inkerman, and, rushing to the front, were swept down by the
enemy's fire. The officers fell on all sides, singled out for the
enemy's fire by their courage. The men of the different regi-
ments became mingled together in inextricable confusion. The
19th men did not care for the orders of the officers of the 88th,
nor did the soldier of the 23rd heed the commands of an officer
who did not belong to his regiment. The officers could not
find their men—the men had lost sight of their own officers.
All the brigadiers, save Colonal Wyndham, 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 enemy.
The fact was that the Russians having accumulated 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 breastwork, through which several field-
pieces were now playing. with grape on the inner face of the
Redan, and charged our broken groups with the bayonet, at
the same time that the rear ranks, getting on the breastwork,
poured a heavy hail of 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 disad-
vantage, met the enemy with the bayonet too, and isolated
combats took place in which the brave fellows who stood their
ground had to defend themselves against three or four adver-
saries at once, In this mgl‘e the officers, armed only with
their swords, had little chance ; nor had those who carried
pistols much opportunity of using them in such a rapid con-
test. They fell like heroes, and many a gallant soldier with
them. The bodies of English 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 advancing 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 dis-
jointed band, who had abandoned the protection of unanimity
of courage, and had lost the advantages of discipline and
obedience. The struggling band was forced back by the
enemy, who moved on crushing friend and foe, beneath their
solid tramp, and, bleeding, panting, and exhausted, our men
lay in heaps in the ditch beneath the parapet, sheltered them-
selves behind stones and in bomb craters 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 wounded in this
attempt.

As soon as we abandoned the assault the firing almost
ceased along our front, but in the rear of the Malakhoff there
was a fierce contest going on between masses of Russians, now
released from the Redan, or drawn from the town, and the
French, inside the work, and the fight for the Little Redan
on the proper left of the Malakhoff, was raging furiously.
Clouds of smoke and dust covered the scene, but the rattle of
musketry was incessant, and betokened the severe nature of
the struggle below. Through the breaks in the smoke there
could be seen now and then a tricoloursurmounted by an eagle
fluttering bravely over the inner parapet of the Malakhoff.
The storm of battle rolled fiercely round it, and beat against
it ; but it was 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 splendid approaches to it from the
Mamelon, or rushing with -swift steps towards the right,
where the Russians, 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 the result of
our assault was not the source of deep grief And mortification
•to.P, which all the glorious successes of our allies mild _not