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

THE WAR.

STORMING AND CAPTURE

OF SEBASTOPOL.

THE anxiously-expected news embodying details of the
sanguinary conflict which resulted in placing the town of
Sebastopol in the hands of the Allies has at length arrived,
and these details are now patent to the public. That the
struggle was a sharp and deadly one was felt by all; but even
anticipation seems to have fallen greatly short of its dreadful
reality. That the assault was gallantly made and desperately
resisted, was a truth of which every one felt satisfied, judging
from the importance of the prize contended for and the oft-
repeated valour exhibited by the competitors for it on both
sides. Now that the information is before us in all the ampli-
tude of its heroic details, we feel in some degree perplexed in
the attempt to realize in the mind's eye the various combats,
successes, repulses, renewed conflicts and ultimate triumph of
those dreadful struggles which ended in the capture of the
town, and the final expulsion of the Russians from all the
strongholds on the southern margin of Sebastopol creek.
According to pre-arrangement between the English and
French commanders, the bombardment, which had been kept
up with unceasing vigour for the three preceding days, was
discontinued at noon on the Bth of September. At that time
a detachment of Zouaves and French troops of the line made
a daring and successful dash at the works of the Malakhoff,
which, after a desperate resistance, they succeeded in cap-
turing and retaining. The success of this great and glorious
operation was the agreed-upon signal for the English attack
upon the Great Redan, and also for simultaneous attacks by
the French upon the Little Redan at Careening Bay, and on
the Central Bastion. All these attacks were made with the
devotion and the resistless sweep of heroes. The several points
were successfully carried, though contested by the assail-
ants at desperate odds. The English attacking columns, not-
withstanding that they had to traverse an open space for a
considerable distance between their entrenchments and the
breach in the salient angle of the Great Redan, exposed to a
dreadful fire of round and grape shot, succeeded in forcing
their way through the breach and establishing themselves
within the walls of the Redan. Here they were exposed to a
murderous fire from traverses which swept the enclosed area
on two sides, while they were so cooped up as to prevent the
possibility of returning the fire, or moving to dislodge their
opponents. Yet this dreadful and unequal combat they sus-
tained for nearly two hours ; but were ultimately compelled to
relinquish the fatal ground which they had conquered and
retained at so enormous a sacrifice of life. The attacks on the
Central Bastion and on the Little Redan failed likewise from
similar causes, and after a corresponding amount of devoted
heroism, in their first capture, and obstinate though only
temporary retention.

The Malakhoff had always been felt to be the key of the
position on the south side of the harbour, and fortunately the
attack on it, aided by the diversion occasioned by the other
assaults, was completely successful, and it remained in indis-
putable possession of the Allies. The Russians, convinced of
the hopelessness of further resistance after the fall of the
Malakhoff, almost immediately evacuated the town, after
having set fire to it in several places, and attempted to blow
up and destroy the principal fortifications. In the course of
the following Monday, two days after the capture of the
Malakhoff, the Allies took undisputed possession of the town,
and the whole of its defences, on the south side of the harbour,
the enemy having precipitately withdrawn to the northern
forts.

CAPTURE OF THE MALAKHOFF BY THE
FRENCH.

The correspondent of the Daily News, writing from the
camp before Sebastopol, on the 10th ult., says :
At twelve o'clock exactly, on the Bth, the fire of the bat-
teries ceased, and the party of Zouaves, who led the French
attack, dashed over the parapet of their advanced sap, and in
less than a minute had crossed the intervening forty yards,
and were scrambling up the parapet of the round tower. Con-
trary to all hope, the solitary gun on the proper right of the
work was the only piece that received the assaulters with a
discharge, and there was no time to reload it before our allies
were inside the redoubt; the mischief inflicted by its one
round of grape was but small. Swarm after swarm of our
allies crowded up the steep embankment, till the whole parapet
was literally covered with them, and then commenced such a
fire of musketry as never echoed through the ravines around
Sebastopol before. I can compare its unbroken continuity to
nothing but the rattling tattooes of a thousand tenor drums.
I have witnessed 70,000 men engaged in a general action; but
the infantry fire delivered on the occasion was but as child's
play compared with the ceaseless roll that poured in upon the
Malakhoff during Saturday's attack.
The enemy had evidently been taken by surprise, and after
a feeble stand made by the supports within the redoubt when
the French entered, the place was vacated by its former hold-
ers, who kept up a running fire as they retired. Reserves,
however, were speedily brought up, but as the French con-
tinued to pour in at all points in more than an equal ratio,
these, too, were soon overpowered, and in less than half an
hoar after the first Zouave scaled the parapet, the Malakhoff
was won. The deafening roll of musketry, however, in no de-
gree diminished, but swept on to the right towards the Little
Redan, whose guns flanked the tower : here, and in the ad-
joining works, the struggle was continued for nearly a couple
of hours, till the last Muscovite was driven from his cover, and
the ground occupied by our allies.
In reference to the same important event the special cor-
respondent of the Times, under date of the 10th of Septem-
ber, says :
The weather changed suddenly yesterday. 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 wintry gray. 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 Cathcart's Hill and all along our lines. No person
was allowed to pass this line, unless he was a staff-officer or was
provided with a pass. At 11 30 the Highland brigade, under
Brigadier Cameron, marched up from Kamara, and took up
its position in the reserve in the right attack, and the guards,
also in reserve, were posted on the same side on the Woron-
zoff 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 division was in re-
serve. 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 the 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 Mame-
lon, to form the storming columns for the Malakhoff and
Little Redan, and to provide the necessary reserves. The
French were reinforced by 5000 Sardinians, who marched up
from the Tchernaya last night. It was arranged that the
French were to attack the Malakh3ff at noon. At 10 30 the
Second Division and the Light Division moved down to the
trenches, and were placed in the advanced parallels as quietly
and unostentatiously as possible. About the same hour Gen.
Simpson and staff moved down to the second parallel 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 remained till all was over. The Duke of Newcastle was
stationed at Cathcart's-hill during the early part of the day,
and afterwards moved off to the right of the picket-house,
looking out over the Woronzoff-road. Shortly after 10 46
Gen. 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 cannonade 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. A few minutes before twelve
o'clock the French, like a swarm of bees, issued
from their trenches close to the doomed Malakhoff,
swarmed up its face, and were through the embrasures in the
twinkling of an eye. They crossed the seven metres of the
ground which separated 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 bastion.
The musketry was very feeble at first—indeed our allies took
the Russians quite by surprise, and very few of the latter
were in the Malakhoff; but they soon recovered themselves,
and from twelve o'clock till past seven 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 not successful, and was followed by some loss to our allies.
As soon as the French had made good their footing in the
Malakhoff a tricolour was run up to announce the triumph,
and, immediately after, a small white flag—the signal ap-
pointed for the advance of our own men—was waved from the
parapet of the Mamelon. At the first glance of it the order
was passed on from General Codrington for the stormers to
leave cover, and half a minute later, Major Welsford and his
party, carrying the scaling ladders, bounded over the parapet
of the boyeau. A volley of grape struck down nearly a third
of them, poor Welsford included, but the remainder rushed
k$ pt
on. In the meantime the Rifles, under Capt. Fyers,
kept up a vigorous and deadly fire on the embrasures ; but
the thick-matted mantlets with which these were curtained in
a great measure counteracted this, and the grape continued to
fly thick and fast over the death-space to be crossed. The
second body of stormers followed quickly on the heels of those
who were already placing the ladders, and, being well sup-
ported by those behind, were soon inside the Redan.
Here a murderous but brief struggle ensued, and before
many minutes had elapsed since the first of our men gained
the parapet, none of the enemy, but the dead and dying, re-
mained within it. The Redan, like the Malakhoff, was won.
And here I might have chaunted a wean in honour of our
unqualified triumph, too, had not the blundering mismanage-
ment, which has so often borne fruit in the sacrifice of our
troops,
again turned up deprive us of our full share of the
glory of this memorable day. Instead of pouring in suppoits
to the aid of those in possession of the redoubt, General Cod-
rington, for some mysterious strategic reasons known only to
himself, kept back the troops who crowded the trenches in the
rear till the enemy had time to bring up his overpowering
reserves and clear the Redan of our men. The latter bravely,
but vainly, attempted to make a stand, anxiously expecting
every minute the arrival of supports ; but no supports came,
and they were swept back into the open to retreat under fresh
storms of grape—for by another marvellous piece of neglect
no attempt at spiking the guns of the place had been made by
those who had gained a footing inside.
Orders for the withheld supports were then given, but the