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

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Bosquet General Mellinet's division of the Guards, to support
the first three divisions. Thus far for the right.
In the centre the English were to attack the Great Redan,
escalading it at its salient.
On the left the Ist Corps, to which General della Marmora
added a Sardinian brigade, having at its head Levaillant's
division, was to penetrate by the General Bastion into the
interior of the town, and then turn the Flagstaff Bastion to
were
only a lodgment there. General de Salles' instructions
only to follow up his attack if circumstances allowed him.
Moreover the fleets of Admirals Lyons and Bruat were to
make a powerful diversion by attacking the Quarantine, the
roadstead, and sea fronts of the fortress. But the state of the
sea, owing to a strong wind from the N.E., was such that
neither the line-of-battle ships nor frigates could leave their
anchorage. The English and French mortar-boats were,
however, enabled to open fire. They fired in a remarkable
manner, and did us good service.
Precisely at noon M`Mahon's, La Motterouge's, and Dulac's
divisions, electrified by their leaders, threw themselves against
the Malakhoff, the Curtain, and the Little Redan of Careening
Bay. After surmounting unheard-of obstacles, and after a
terrible hand-to-hand struggle, M`Mahon's division suc-
ceeded in making good a footing in the front part of the Ma-
lakhoff. The enemy kept up a hail of projectiles of every
description upon our brave troops. The Redan of Careening
Bay, exposed to a cross fire and to the fire of the steamers,
was obliged to be evacuated after having been occupied, but
La Motterouge's division held its ground on a portion of the
Curtain, and M`Mahon's division gained ground in the Malak-
hoff, where General Bosquet poured in reserves, which I
hastened up.
The other attacks were subordinate to that of the Malak-
hoff, the key of the defences of the whole place.
From the Brancion Redoubt, where I had placed myself, I
saw that the Malakhoff was in our hands, and I gave the
signal agreed upon with General Simpson.
The English at once advanced bravely against the salient of
the Great Redan ; they succeeded in lodging themselves there,
and struggled for a long time to keep it; but overwhelmed by
the Russian reserves, which never ceased advancing, and by a
violent fire of artillery, they were forced to fall back into their
parallels.

- At the same signal General de Salles attacked the Central
Bastion. Levaillant's division had commenced establishing
itself there, as also on the right lunette, when, after a sweep-
ing fire of grape, such strong Russian reinforcements came up
that our troops, decimated by the fire, and their officers hors
de combat, were compelled to return to the places d' armes
they had started from.
Convinced that the capture of the Malakhoff must decide
the success, I prevented a renewal of the other attacks, which,
by occupying the enemy on all the points of his vast en-
ceinte, had already fulfilled their chief object, and I concen-
trated all my attention on the possession of the Malakhoff,
now completely in the power of General M`Mahon. A
critical moment was, however, at hand.
General Bosquet had just been struck by a large fragment
of a shell, and I was obliged to give his command to General
Dulac. A powder magazine in the curtain near the Malak-
hoff blew up, and made me fear the most serious consequences.
The Russians, hoping to profit by this accident, advanced
in dense masses, and in three columns attacked the centre,
left, and right- of the Malakhoff. But arrangements had
already been made within the work. General M`Mahon had
daring troops, who feared nothing, to oppose them, and after
some desperate attempts the Russians were compelled to beat
a retreat. From that moment they relinquished any offensive
attack. The Malakhoff was ours, and could not be taken
from us. It was half-past four. Measures were immediately
taken to put us in a condition to repulse the enemy should he
attempt to attack us in the night. But our uncertainty was
soon put an end to. At nightfal flames burst out on all
sides, mines exploded, powder magazines blew up. The spec-
tacle of Sebastopol in flames, witnessed by the whole army,
was one of the most imposing and terrible sights ever pre-
sented in the history of wars. The enemy was evacuating
the place. The retreat was effected during the night by
means of the bridge established between the two sides of the
roadstead, and under cover of the successive explosions, which
prevented me from approaching to harass it. On the morning
of the 9th, the whole south side of the town was abandoned,
and in our hands.
I need not point out to your Excellency the importance of
such a success ; nor need I speak of that brave army whose
warlike virtues and devotion are so well appreciated by our
Emperor ; and I shall have, though the number is great, to
point out to you those who distinguished themselves among
so many valorous soldiers. I cannot do so yet, but I shall
fulfil that duty in an early despatch.
Accept, M. le .Marechal, the expression of my respectful
devotion. PELISSIER, Commander-in-Chief.

GENERAL NIEL'S REPORT.
The following is the despatch sent by General Niel, in com-
mand of the Engineers :

SEBASTOPOL, Sept. 11.
Monsieur le Marechal,—The assault was made on the for-
tifications of Sebastopol on the Bth, and placed us in posses-
sion of the Malakhoff, the occupation of which renders the
defence of the faubourg almost impossible, and allows us to
cut off the communications of the town with the north of the
harbour. The enemy have shown that they knew that con-
quest to be decisive. After having made several attacks on us
with a courage which we are bound to pay homage to, finding
that these last efforts remained without result, they com-
menced in the course of the evening evacuating the town.
During the night they set fire to it, and employed gunpowder
to destroy the works of defence and the great establishments
which Russia has been so many years accumulating in this
fortress. They sank all their ships of the line, frigates, and
other sailing vessels, and only preserved their steamers ;
finally, they carried off the bridge of boats by which they
communicated with the northern side, thus abandoning to us
the town, the faubourg, and all that lies on the southern side
of the harbour.
The defence was energetic ; on several points our attacks
were repulsed, but the principal—that which insured to us
eventual success—never remained a moment doubtful. The
Ist Division of the Ist Corps, at present commanded by
General McMahon, carried the Malakhoff at the very first rush,
and maintained themselves there, comprehending clearly that
it held in its possession the keys of the place.
I now proceed to give you an account of the arrangements
which had been adopted to diminish as much as possible the
numerous difficulties which this terrible assault presented,
made, as it was, not on a place regularly invested and with a
limited garrison, but on a vast fortress defended by an army
probably as numerous as that which attacked it.
Near the fortifications of the town our trenches had arrived
within 40 metres of the Central Bastion (tio. 5 of the
Russians), and within 30 of the Flagstaff Bastion (No. 4).
Near the faubourg of Karabelnaia the English, arrested by
the difficulties of the ground and by the fire of the enemy's
artillery, could not approach closer than within 200 metres of
the Great Redan (No. 3), on which their approaches were
directed.
In front of the Malakhoff we had arrived within 25 metres
of the fortification which surrounds the town, and our ap-
proaches had placed us at about the same distance from the
small Redan of Careening Bay (No. 2). That great result
was due incontestably to the superiority which our artillery
had assumed over that of the enemy.
The Generals-in-Chief of the allied armies had decided on
the following arrangements :
The general attack on the place was fixed on for the Bth
of September, at noon. On the sth, early in the morning,
the artillery of the attacks on the town and that of the English
attacks, who had hitherto been sparing of their fire, were to
resume it with the greatest activity. Never was such a can-
nonade heard, for we had in battery, along the two attacks,
upwards of 500 pieces of cannon, the English 200 more, and
the Russians more than we.
The enemy's fire damaged our trenches, but did us but
little harm. Ours, notwithstanding the great extent of the
place, converged on it, and must have caused great loss to the
Russian army. During the few days immediately preceding
the assault the workmen of the infantry were principally em-
ployed in enlarging the several places d'armes most in ad-
vance, in widening the passages, and in transporting to the
required spots the means of crossing the ditches.
The great object of all our efforts was to obtain possession
of the work constructed behind the Malakhoff Tower. This
work (the Kornileff Redoubt of the Russians), which is an
immense redoubt (a sort of citadel in eFth), occupies a
height which commands the whole interior of the
Karabelnaia faubourg. It takes in the flank of the Redan,
attacked by the English, and is only 1,200 metres from the
southern port, on which the Russians had constructed a
bridge of boats, become their only communication between
the faubourg and the town. The fort of the Malakhoff is
350 metres in length and 150 metres in width. Its
parapets are eighteen feet above the ground, and in
front of them is a ditch which before our attacks
was six metres in depth and seven in width. It was
armed with sixty-two guns of various calibres. In the front
part, enclosed by the parapet, in the Malakhoff Tower, of
which the Russians have only preserved the rez de chaussee,
which is crenellated. In the interior of the work the Rus-
sians had raised a vast number of traverses under which were
excellent blindages where the garrison found shelter, and
had beds arranged on each side in two rows one above the
other. A Russian officer of engineers, who was made
prisoner, states that the garrison of this part of the Malak-
hoff, which I have just described in order that you may judge
of the difficulties which our soldiers had to surmount, con-
sisted of not less than 2,500 men.
The Malakhoff front, which is a thousand metres in length,
is bounded on our left by Fort Malakhoff, and on our right by
the Little Redan. This last work, which, at the commence-
ment of the siege, was only a simple redan, was transformed
little by little into a redoubt, closed at the gorge and heavily
armed. The exterior fronts of the two redoubts of Malakhoff
and the Careenage were connected by a curtain armed with
16 cannons ; and behind the enceinte the Russians had
raised a second, which connected the fronts of the gorges of
the two redoubts. The second enceinte armed in part, had
not, however, a ditch presenting a serious obstacle.
The rocky nature of the soil had hindered the enemy from
excavating everywhere equally the ditch of the first curtain
and of the Little Redan, and on several points the troops
were able to pass it without very much difficulty. For pass-
ing the ditches, which had a considerable depth, we had con-
trived a system of bridges which could be thrown in less
than a minute by an ingenious manoeuvre, to which our
sappers and soldiers d'elite had been trained.
The French artillery was so superior to that of the Russians
that it had extinguished the fire of nearly all the guns pointed
directly at our attacks. The filled-up embrasures relieved us
from the fear that our columns might be assailed by grape as
they issued from the trenches. The parapets were destroyed
and a part of the earth had rolled into the ditch. Finally the
Malakhoff fort had been assailed by so large a number of shells,
thrown from our batteries and those of the English, that the
guns which did not look directly upon our attacks had their
embrasures also filled up, and everywhere the terrassements
had lost their original form. But, behind the defences situ-
ate in the first line the Russians had preserved a large
number of pieces, which we could not contre-baltre com-
pletely, and the columns which proceeded to attack the
Malakhoff were exposed to the fire of numerous batteries
which the Russians had raised to the north of the roadstead,
and which, though fired from a great distance, were neverthe-
less dangerous.

You are aware that ever since my arrival before Sebastopol
I was decidedly of•opinion that thetrue point of attackwas the
tower or Mamelon of Malakhoff, and that this opinion having
been adopted by General Carobert, those attacks of the right
were undertaken, whieh were executed by the second corps.
From the side of the town we had been content to extend
towards the left the approadhes executed by the first corps.
Taking things at the point where they stood when the assault
was resolved on, there was no doubt-that the possession of the
Malakhoff fort would lead to a decisive result; and on the
other hand it was to be presumed that if & failure took plane
on this •point, success obtained elsewhere ,4ould not lead to
great results. However,4t,svas not proper -to attack a place
so attended upon one singlelpoint. It,was :netessary to ob.

taus that division of the enemy's forces which resulted from
the great development of the enciente that he had to defend,
and especially to make him uneasy about the town, to which
the bridge led whereby he might make his retreat.
It was to satisfy these various considerations, it was to
ensure success, while economising as much as possible the
blood of our soildiers in the terrible struggle then preparing,
that the General-in-Chief decided that the assault should first
be made on the front of the Malakhoff ; that if this attack,
which would be made under his personal inspection, should
succeed, then at his signal the English should attack the
Redan and the first portion of the town, so as to prevent the
enemy's concentrating all his efforts, against the troops that
should have already taken possession of the Malakhoff Fort.
The front of the Malakhoff was to be attacked by three
columns ; the one on the left, commanded by General de
M`Mahon, moving in a straight line on the Malakhoff Fort by
the front that faced us, and in turning it slightly on the right
hand, had for its task the taking and keeping of it, cost what
it might ; the right column, Dulac's division, was to march
against the Redan of the Careening Bay, to occupy it, and de-
tach a brigade on its left, in order to turn the second enclo-
sure; lastly, the central column, being the division of La
Motterouge, issuing from the sixth parallel, having a longer
extent of ground to pass over, and arriving a little later, was
to carry the curtain, to proceed then again to the second en-
closure, and send one of its brigades to the assistance of the
first column, if this latter should have not gained possession
of the Malakhoff Fort.
Such was the importance of these positions that we could
not doubt that the enemy, if he lost them, would make
great efforts to retake them. In consequence, the troops
of the Imperial Guard were given as a reserve to the 2nd
Corps.
The chief of the Engineer Battalion, Ragon, having under
his orders several brigades of sappers, marching with the first
column had to throw brigades across the ditches, see after the
mines, open everywhere a passage to the columns, and as soon
as these should be masters of the fort, to close it at the gorge;
and in order to oppose any rallying attack in return, to open
in the rear large passages for the arrival of the troops and the
artillery.
The chief of the Engineer Battalion, Renoux, attached to
the right column, and Captain Schoennagal, attached to the
central column, having also brigades of sappers under their
orders, had to fulfil an analagous mission.
All the arrangements concerning the duty of the engineers
in the attacks to be made on the Malakhoff bad been made by
the General of Brigade Frossard, commanding the engineers
of the 2nd Corps.
In attacking the town, in order to avoid the obstacles accu-
mulated by the enemy at the salient of the Flagstaff Bastion,
it had been decided that the principal assault should be given
at the Central Bastion, between its salient and the lunette of
the left ; that the assaulting column, as soon as it should be
established within the Central Bastion, should detach a part
of its forces towards the gorge of the Flagstaff Battery, whose
right face should then be assailed by a Sardinian Brigade,
which had come to take part in the operations of the First
Corps.

General Delesme, commanding the Engineers of the First
Corps, had made arrangements for attacking the town similar
to those which I have just explained with reference to the
attacks of the Karabelnaia faubourg.
On the Bth of September, at eight o'clock in the morning,
we threw on the Central Bastion two mines of projection,
each charged with 100 kilogrammes of powder. The explo-
sion took place near the middle of the bastion, and appeared
to cause great disorder. At the same hour we exploded, in
front of our approaches to the Malakhoff Fort, three mining
chambers, charged in all with 1500 kilogrammes of powder,
in order to destroy the lower galleries of the Russian miners,
and to give security to our soldiers, who had to crowd within
the trenches under which deserters announced that the soil
was mined.

At noon precisely our soldiers rushed from the advanced
places d'armes in front of the Malakhoff. They crossed the
ditches with surprising agility, and, jumping on the parapets,
attacked the enemy to the cry of " Vive l'Empereur !" At
the Malakhoff fort, the interior slope having a great height,
those who arrived first halted an instant to form. They then
mounted on the parapet and jumped into the work.
The combat, which had commenced with discharges of fire-
arms, was carried on with the bayonet, with stones, and with
butt-ends of muskets. The rammers became weapons in the
hands of the Russian gunners, but everywhere the Russians
were killed, taken prisoners, or made to fly, and in less than a
quarter of an hour after the attack had taken place the French
flag waved on the conquered redoubt.
The Careenage Redan had also been carried after a very hot
struggle. The centre column had advanced as far as the
second enceinte. Everywhere we had taken possession of the
works attacked. The general-in-chief gave the concerted sig-
nal for the attack of the Great Redan, and soon after the
attack of the town. The English had 200 metres of ground
to go over under a terrible fire of grape. This space was pre-
sently covered with dead, but these losses could not stop the
march of the attacking column, which advanced to the capital
of the work. It descended into the ditch, which was about
five metres in depth, and, notwithstandinc, all the efforts of
the Russians, it escaladed the scarp and tookb from them the
salient of the Redan, but after the first struggle, which cost
the Russians dear, the English soldiers found before them a
vast open space crossed in all directions by the balls of the
enemy, who themselves were sheltered behind distant tra-
verses. Those who came up were scarcely sufficient to replace
those who were placed hors de combat. It was not until they
had sustained, during nearly two hours, this unequal combat,
that the English resolved to evacuate the Redan.
The attack upon the Central Bastion presented the same
result. In front of the Malakhoff the Russians made great
efforts to reconquer the works. Repeated attacks were made,
but in vain. The dead bodies of the enemy were piled up in
front of the gorge, but the First Division remained im-
moveable, and in the evening we were masters of this citadel,
without which the Russians could not continue their defence
for more than a few days.
Thus terminated this memorable siege, in which the means
of defence and of attack attained colossal dimensions. The
Russians had 800 cannon in battery, the besieging army about
700.

In finishing this report, I ought to tell you, Monsieur le
Marechal, that the greatest harmony has never ceased to pre-
vail between the artillery and the engineers. 'Whenever one
of these two services could come to the assistance of the other,
he did it with eagerness, and this community of views and
action has given us the means of overcoming many difficulties.
I have also had to congratulate myself in every instance on
my relations with General Harry Jones, commanding the en-
gineers of the English army. Oar object was the same, and
we have never differed in opinion on the means to be employed
for attaining it. Already, at the siege of Bomarsund, I had
the opportunity of appreciating the loyalty and the noble cha-
racter of this general officer. I have been happy at finding
myself again in relations with him at the siege of Sebastopol.
Accept, Monsieur leMarechal, the homage of my mostrespect-
ful devotion.

The General of Division, A.D.C. of the Emperor, Com-
manding the Engineers of the Army in the East,

NIEL,

SECOND REPORT OP MARSHAL PELISSIER.
HEAD-QUARTERS, SEDASTOPOL, Sept. 14.
Monsieur le Marechal,—l have the honour to address to
your Excellency, as announced in my despatch of the 11th,
my report on the capture of Sebastopol.
The moment for the assault seemed to have arrived. On
the left the works of the Engineers had for some time been
within 30 to 40 metres of the Flagstaff battery (No. 4 of the
Russians), and the central bastion (No. 5 of the Russians).
To the right, our roadway, actively pushed under the protec-
tion of a sustained fire from the artillery, opened upon the
17th, was not more than 25 yards from the salient of the
Malakhoff and the Little Redan of the Careening Bay. Our
artillerists had nearly finished 100 batteries in a complete state,
and provided with every necessary, and presented a body of
250 guns to the attacks of the left, and 250 to those of the
right. On their side the English, although greatly arrested
in their course by the difficulties of the ground, had arrived
within 200 yards of the Great Redan (Bastion No. 3 of the
Russians), upon which they directed the fire. of 200 guns
entrenchment,
finish.
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oietnnlwitibahafisetnitstneei
,drpiteoehor.
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army
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came
susingheaouedet
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succour
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or allowedoprofitably,
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enemy was completely beaten on the 16th, at Tchernaya.
They had suffered considerable losses, and it was not probable
that they would come again to renew an attack on points
which we had rendered stronger, and where we were enabled
to repulse all the efforts of the enemy.
It was then agreed between General Simpson and myself,
that we should make the decisive attack. The generals com-
manding the artillery and engineers of the two armies were
unanimously of the same opinion. The Bth September was
fixed for that attack.
As I have already had the honour of explaining to your
Excellency, the enemy was to be attacked on the principal
points of his vast enceinte to prevent him drecting all his
reserves against one single attack, and to alarm him respect-
ing the town where the bridge is thrown by which he could
retreat. General de Salles, with the Ist corps, reinforced by
a Sardinian brigade offered to me by General della Mar-
morn, was to attack the town on the left ; in the centre the
English were to storm the Great Redan ; finally, on our
right, General Bosquet was to attack the Malakhoff and the
Little Redan of Careening-bay (Bastion No. 2of the Russians),
the salient points of the Karabelnaia enceinte. The following
arrangements were made on each of these attacks :—On the
left, Levaillant's division, 2nd Regiment of the Ist Corps;
Brigade Couston ; 9th battalion of Chasseurs-a-pied, Com-
mander Rogie ; 21st of the Line, Lieutenant-Colonel Villeret ;
42nd of the Line, Lieutenant-Colonel de Mallet ; Trochu's
Brigade; 46th of the Line, Lieutenant-Colonel Le Banneur ;
80th of the Line, Colonel Latterrode, charged with the attack
on the Central Bastion and its lunettes, was placed on the
most, advanced parallels. On its right was d'Antemarre's di-
vision (Brigade Niol ;) sth battalion of Chasseurs-a-pied,
Commander Gamier; 19th of the Line, Colonel Guignard ;
26th of the Line, Colonel de Sorbiers ; Brigade Breton ; 39th
of the Line, Colonel Comignan ; 74th of the Line, Colonel
Guyot de Lespart, who was to follow in the steps of Le Vail-
laint's division, and to take the gorge of the Flagstaff Battery
and the batteries erected there. The Sardinian brigade of
General Cialdini, placed by the side of d'Autemarre's division,
was to attack the right flank of the same bastion. Finally,
Bouat's Division, 4th of the Ist corps, General Lefevre ; 10th
Chasseurs-a-pied, Commander Guiomard ; 18th of the Line,
Colonel Dontin ; 79th of the Line, Colonel Grenier ; 2nd Bri-
gade, General de la Roquette; 14th of the Line, Colonel de
Negrier ; 43rd of the Line, Colonel Broutta ; and Pate's Di-
vision, 3rd of the Ist corps, Brigadier Beuret ; 6th Battalion
of Chasseurs-a-pied, Commander Fervier de la Prevotais
28th of the Line, Colonel Lartigues ; 98th of the Line, Col.
Conseil Dumesnil ; Bazaine's Brigade ; Ist Regiment of the
Foreign Legion, Lieutenant-Colonel Martenot de Cordoue ;
2nd Regiment of the Foreign Legion, Colonel de' Chabrieres,
served as a reserve to Le Vaillant's Division ; moreover, and
to be prepared for eventualities on that side, 1 had ordered up
from Kamiesch, and placed under the orders of General de
Salles, the 30th and 35th Regiments of the Line, which had
been placed on the extreme left, and made sure the possession
of our lines on that side.
On the Karabelnaia, as I have already stated, our attack was
to take place on three points; on the left, on the Malakhoff
and its redoubt ; on the right, on the Little Redan of Careen-
ing Bay ; and in the centre, on the curtain which unites those
two works. The Malakhoff works were decidedly the most
important point of the enceinte ; their capture would natu-
orders all the infantry of the Imperial Guard.
ehaadd taod tdhe ed .tsou ctchees stirvo
troops
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efernGc
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I araindl
The left attack on the Malakhoff was entrusted to General
M`Mahon ,(First Division, 2nd Corps) ; Ist brigade Colonel
Decaen ; Ist Zouaves, Colonel Colineau; and 7th of the Line
20tAdham of, thewh Line,ad
Colonel Deeaen ; 2nd brigade, General Vmoy ; Ist battalion
o
CthornofmtahnedLerinGea,
Colonelmbier;
in reserve the Wimpfeu brigade; 3rd Zouaves, Col. Pollis;
-30th of the Line, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas ; and Algerian
oCfolCoiiealssOcuh rearsntePi ;et