The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-07 00:00:00

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In the correspondence of the Daily News we find
the following narrative of the British assault:—

Shortly before three a.m. the attacking columns,
supports, and reserves, being in their respective positions
in the trenches, before the sun had risen to dissipate the
dense vapours which a slight breeze from the eastward
failed to remove, and just as the batteries were expected to
open in full force, a sudden fire of musketry between the
Malakoff works and the Mamelon attracted universal
attention. The long lines of ambulance mules of the
French were only commencing to thread their way through
the ravines to the scene of intended attack, the leading
troop of the cavalry expected from below was just ap-
peering in sight, the reserve of Guards and Highlanders
had nut yet arrived. A musketry attack was least of all
expected at that hour. The Russians had advanced by the
left of the Malakoff-hill, and, taking advantage of the un-
certain light of the early dawn, had made a sortie against
the French in their advanced trenches on the Mamelon.
The sortie was repulsed; and had it ended here the chief
points in the programme of the day's events need not have
been interfered with. But by a fatal mistake the success
in repelling the sortie was at once followed up, and,
seizing the temporary advantage, the repulse became con-
verted into an attack upon the Malakoff itself. Some of
the French troops mounted the hill, others, pursuing the
Russians who had made the sortie, followed them to the
gorge of the work, and thus actually gained admission into
the work itself. Now the error was discovered ; the Rus-
sians showed themselves On overpowering numbers, and
but few of our allies who had gained admission into the
works of the Malakoff effected their escape. At the same
time, the enemy crowded upon the parapets, and poured a
deadly rifle tire into the troops attempting to mount the
hill, while grape and canister were discharged from field-
pieces placed in commanding positions. Our allies were
absolutely forced to retire within the protection of their
advanced trench. Before this shelter had been obtained,
and while the troops were fighting within and around the
Malakoff, the flag was hoisted in the eight-gun battery.
The signal for the assault was no sooner given than it was
perceived, and at once the storming columns left their
shelter in the trenches. Just what the Russians were
waiting for: the columns had no sooner shown themselves
than the fire from above opened. It was not to be counted
by guns—it was a raging storm, an incessant rain of grape
and rifle balls. The dead and wounded strewed the
ground ; it was a miracle how any escaped. On the left,
Colonel Shadforth had fallen ; on the right, Colonel Lysons,
wounded in the knee, found himself close to the deep
fosse, but, out of his four hundred, with not more than
forty around him. Neither the woolsaeks nor the ladders
were at hand, but that was a matter of little import, for
the parapets were covered with dense lines of the enemy,
and on every side the deadly grape swept down its victims.
The Redan was filled with troops. Supports sent to the
storming parties could nut be of any avail, and nothing
was left bet to retire, with the hope of renewing the attack
at a more seastseable opportunity.

The writer adds in a later communication :

So little is ever known of the details of French opera-
tions here, that I can give few particulars of their attack
on the Malakoff; but their plan of assault appears to have
consisted in assailing the work on both flanks and the
front simultaneously, and with overwhelming numbers—
twenty-five thousand are said to have been actually engaged.
In just retribution for the disregard of their general to the
good to be expected from a short morning's bombardment,
they found the redoubt swarming with defenders, and guns
bristling from every embrasure. On them, as on our own
men, showers of grape and canister were poured out,
literally mowing down whole battalions at a time ; whilst
from along the whole semicircular line of parapet the
crowding riflemen sent volley after volley into their dis-
ordered ranks, that passed through them like a sheet of
molten lead. Three times they gave way, and as often
rallied ; but were finally driven back after a struggle, of
some three hours and a half, leaving the space between the
Mamelon and Malakoff literally covered with the dead and
dying.
With our own men, the apace to be passed over from our
most advanced trenches to the Redan was somewhere
about seven hundred yards, and from the first moment of
their rushing over the parapet towards the point of attack
they were met by the same awful and annihilating storm
of canister and grape. Many fell within the first dozen
yards, and thence on to some broken ground about mid-
way, in which the remainder sought cover ; the field was
strewed with the slain and wounded. An officer present
in the affair, and who was one of the few who escaped un-
injured, described the fire to me as being perfectly awful—
much more severe than that which greeted our men at
Alma, where he also fought, and received a wound. Few
of them ever reached the ahattis in front of the work—
none, I believe, ever even saw the deep ditch which pro-
tests its approaches. During the whole affair Lord Raglan
and Sir O. Brown were ensconced within our eight-gun
battery ; but though this afl'orded a good view of the scene
of the struggle and of the disorder which marked it, for
sortie reasons unknown to uninitiated spectators they ap•
reared unable to give any efficient directions for the correc-
tion of our multiplied blunders. When the whole sad
scene was ended, our men straggled back by every safe
avenue to the camp, in a state of dispirited confusion well
in keeping with the mob-like disorder in which they had
been throughout the assault. I know not what may have
been the feelings of the home public on reading the tele-
graphic news of our defeat, but here mingled shame and
indignation were general throughout the camp. Officers
and men alike felt that disgrace had been incurred, and
that in consequence solely of the unredeemed mismanage-
ment of their generals. From drum-boys to colonels a
sense of humiliation filled every breast, the deeper that
everybody was sensible that neither men nor regimental
officers had shown themselves deficient in what, under
proper guidance, would have commanded success. II

THE PRESS.