The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The French suffered a total loss of between fifty and
sixty killed and wounded. General Bizot (the French
General of Engineers), I regret to say, was among the
latter. The gallant officer, who has conducted the siege
operations of our allies since the commencement, without
ever receiving any injury, was in the advanced parallel,
superintending the progress of a sap towards the Flagstaff,
when the sortie took place. At the first symptoms of the
enemy's approach he brought up his troops, and made
such dispositions as ultimately contributed to the failure
of the attack. When the fight was almost entirely over he
was struck in the chest by a chance bullet, which inflicted
a most dangerous, if not a mortal, wound. His loss at
this crisis is most deeply regretted by our allies, among
whom he was universally regarded as the ablest and most
active of their engineering generals.
Shortly after the sortie, Captain Mitchell, R.A., was
killed by a round-shot, in the trenches. He is deeply re-
gretted by the officers of his corps as a gallant soldier and
a most amiable and accomplished young gentleman.
Last night the garrison at Balaklava was edified by the
sight of an immense number of the enemy's watch•fires
along the Woronzow road. Though they were spread in
all directions they were nothing but mere shams after all,
as the most minute scrutiny with powerful telescopes failed
to detect any signs of a single soldier being around them.
APRIL 15.—The bombardment was continued heavily
throughout the night from all the mortars. Our supply of
shell had been very low indeed, but the indefatigable Mr.
Beattie and his railway remove all our difficulties, and as
the bombs have been wanted so they have been supplied.
Some idea of the nature of our bombardment may be con-
ceived from the fact that, up to this evening, the English
trenches alone h..ve fired away between 16,000 and 17,000
32 and 68 pounder snot and shell, 7,1400 13-inch shell, and
4,600 10-inch shell, making in all about 2,200 tons cf
shot and 500 tons of powder already expended. The Eng-
lish trenches mount 154 guns and mortars, the French
238 ditto, so that between English and French there has
been used during this week's bombardment about 6,000
tons of shot and shell, and some 1,500 or 1,600 tons of
powder. Yet, for all we can say to the contrary, we are
just as likely as not to have soother week of the same work.
The Flagstaff Battery is " nodding to its doom." A con-
siderable portion of its second tier of guns is quite silenced.
The flanking batteries of the second tier, with the upper
tier, alone remain in their former vigour. To do mere
justice to the enemy, they seem determined to fight it to
the last gun. The terrible havoc which the French mor-
tars and long guns have produced is now manifest to all.
The whole battery is now like a mere pile of earth, into
which the shot and shell never cease to pour. Yet the
Russians to the last persevere. During the night, in spite
of our bombs, they work at repairing the embrasures, and
during the day fight their guns until they are dismounted
one after another.
To-day our advanced 14 gun battery has suffered ex-
tremely from the fire of a new small battery which the
Russians have thrown up near the Garden works. Some
of our guns have been dismounted, and many of our men
killed. This evening, between four and five o'clock, an
immense convoy of about 600 waggons entered Sebas-
topol from the north aide. It is presumed to lie a convoy
of powder, of which it is confidently believed that the
enemy are at last short. As well as could be judged, not
twenty men attended the convoy on its arrival, so it would
seem much more probable that the Russians are at last
short of troops. However, these are speculations which
we can only solve when we gain possession of the place.
This evening, also, one of our large convoys care in—
viz., the Himalaya, from Suez, with part of the 10th
Hussars from India. For the first time since she has
been out here the Himalaya entered the harbour of Bala-
klava, which she almost fills. She must be towed out
stern foremost, as the harbour is not sufficiently wide to
admit of her swinging round.
I am sorry to say we lost another officer in the trenches
last night, Lieutenant H. B. Preston, of the 88th, having
been killed by a round-shot in the advanced work. He
was struck in the chest, and died almost instantly.
APRIL 16.—Last night was rather an exciting one in
consequence of the French at about nine o'clock making
another attempt to spring their mine beneath the Flag-
staff Battery. This was partially successful. Alarmed at
the explosion, the battery opened a heavy fire, which con-
tinued for nearly three-quarters of an hour, and was re-
turned by the French twice as hotly. The enemy, there-
fore, ceased their cannonade, evidently under the belief that
the mine which had failed was the only one laid. At about
four this morning the French made a last attempt to
spring their two remaining mines. This time they were
completely successful, and Sebastopol and the allied camp
were alike startled by the tremendous concussion and
roar, as both the charges exploded with fearful violence.
For a moment or two afterwards there was a dead silence,
while the huge cloud of smoke and earth hung like a pall
over the Flagstaff earthworks, and then, as the nature of
the explosion broke upon the enemy, and as if they
feared a general assault was about to take place, all their
batteries opened out at once. Never since the commence-
ment of the siege have we witnessed such a cannonade as
broke from the Russian lines. From all their batteries
the guns were discharged almost in volleys until the town
seemed surrounded with a circle of fire.
Early this morning I was on the heights, anxious to as-
certain the precise fate of the Flagstaff, but, much to my
disappointment, I found it was still firing occasionally,
though only about ten per cent of its volleys a week ago.
In the centre of the work is a gap of about 80 feet long,
before which lies a scattered heap of stones and dirt. This
is the spot under which the centre charge of I,ooolb. of
powder was placed, and this is where the greatest cmonnt
of damage has been done. At this place the embrasures
for twelve guns have been completely blown away, with
half the earth from the upper tier of guns. Of the charges
under the right and left bastions, that under the right
failed, but under the left a considerable degree of mischief
Appears to havo been effects& The embrasures there are

419

rent and damaged, and of course their guns must have
been overturned, and their ways injured. The enemy, it
is said, have made attempts to repair it since the mine was
sprung this morning; but it would be much easier now to
throw up a new work than repair the old.
The Barrack Battery still shows a good front, though it
is suffering much, and is evidently fast en route after the
Flagstaff. The Ream is reported as silenced and unten-
able, and most certainly during to-doy it has been silent
enough, barely firing a dozen gulls. Its front seems much
cut, in fact is more like a ridge of rubbish than a row of
embrasures. The injuries to the batteries round the
Malakoff Tower have, of course, been considerably aug-
mented since our advanced battery was opened. The
centre of the semi-circular earthwork is almost cut in two,
but the flanking batteries are yet serviceable, and return
some of our guns, though not to any extent. It can
hardly be said that this work is fit for storming, as no
amount of breaching will ever fid up the deep ditches in
ita front, and as these have to be crossed somehow, it
would hardly be safe to storm while they have a gun left
to serve.

A shot from a flanking battery near this tower entered
our advanced work, and blew up one of our small maga-
zines. 1 have not yet ascertained the casualties caused by
this accident, but tun informed that they were shtht, and
no injury was done to the work. The guns in it tired away
as usual two minutes after the explosion.
The Mamelon, in spite of the incessant efforts which the
enemy have made to repair it, is almost useless. lt appears
to mount only one gull, and during the whole of this day
it has only tired that one three times. This would appear
to bear out the suspicion that the Russians ale short of
ammunition, as if this gun could be tired once it could
have been fired a hundred times to-day, but for some
reason or other the enemy appear either not to work their
ordnalice, or not to have the weans of doing so.
Beyond the Mamelon tho Russian works at the head of
the harbour and the French works at lnkermanni keep up
a smart lire, in which the French u.ost certainly gain no
advantage ; on the contrary, 1 am into' turd then• batteries
are much hurt, and, if the contest lasts much longer, will
be almost silenced.

Fort Constantine and the forts north of the harbour for
the first time took part in the contest today, firing clear
across the harbour anti town into our own and the French
lines. Their shot appeared to be of an innuenbe weight,
and their guns of considerable range, as no undue eleva•
tion apparently was given. About 100 rounds were fired
from this side of the harbour. Our officers take it as a
gentle hint that even after storming the south side will be
untenable while the north remains in their hands.

APRIL 17.—The bombardment was rather slack last night
in consequence of the want of shell. In place of them an
immense number of rockets were thru•u. The hie was
resumed this morning, and coutmues with unabated
vigour. The tire of the enemy is even less than last night.
The assault is now pretty sure to take place in • few
days.
The Times correspondent, writing on the 17th,
thus sums up the existing state and progress of the
attack:—

The siege goes on as usual—that is, there are many
guns fired every day, tons of powder are discharged, hun-
dreds and thousands of tons of shot and shell are hurled
against the Uussian earthworks, and the French are
making some progress iu establishing themselves in trout
of their lines towards the eireuiya batteries, and have
gained a bit of vantage-ground nom them in aunt ot the
Flagstaff Battery. A ship steals close in to the entrance of
the roads at night, fires her broadside at the town, and de.
parts. The railway groans beneath the weight of the
trucks full of ammunition sent up by it; and the electric
wire cable has been landed at St. Ueorge's to convey the
news of our grand success to Cape Kaliakri when we are
fortunate enough to achieve it.

A certain number of killed and wounded are struck off
the strength of our army every day, and the Russians still
hold their own, though their losses must be very great
and the cannonade must cause considerable injury to the
town. It is said that there is to be au assault "to
morrow," i.e., on the day after that on which the Speaker
is addressing you ; but at present it would he a hazardous
thing to attempt, for the Itusaians last night showed us
that they had plenty of guns and amen to man them all
along their lines, and that as yet they have ample supplies
of ammunition and round-shut. Their shells seem to be
used more parsimoniously than they were when our fire
first reopened. It is little short of marvellous how they
have kept up their supplies so long; the stores of Sebas-
topol cannot be like the widow's cruse, and one would
think they had been pretty well cleared out by this time.
Where the Russians get their shut and shell from it is
not easy to determine, and still leaf can it be ascertained
how they carry such prodigious loads of materiel into the
city. The real strength of the corps of Orten.backen anti
Liprandi, which extend outside as tar as below Daniel and
the Belb;ck, cannot be exactly discovered, but steps will
shortly be taken to beat up their quarters with the aid of
the Turkish reinforcements, and an offensive movement
may be expected against the enemy's right flank in a few
days. The French, developing that high degtee of mili-
tary science for which they are celebrated, use all the
means of attack known in modern sieges with considerable
success, and advance their works daily towards the enemy,
whom they bombard and cannonade and discharge rockets
at incessantly. The sap and the mine are at viurk eating
their way slowly into the cuter deleoces of the place, but
the cannon will never take Sebastopol. It is, besides,
asbestoslike, its buildings will nut burn even if we could
set them on fire, and, in fact and truth, out batteries are
too far from the public edifices iu that part of the city to
which they are opposed to reach then), always excepting
those portions of them armed with large mortars, which as
yet, however, have not produced any Out appreciable to
elrilian outside the town.

A Polish deserter has come in, who reports that we
missed a golden opportunity last Monday. It appears
that the Russians were apprised of the landing aml march
of the Turks, and received information which led them to
believe we were about to attack Liprandi's army. Every
available man was sent out of Sebastopol on Sunday last,
and %hen we opened fire on Monday morning they had
only 8,000 men in the place. This accounts for their
silence and for their surprise. For two days they were
working might and wain to got their men back from
Liprandi's army to the town again, and they have now
28,p,Nt men inside. The deserter says " the place is a per-
fect hell." There are 300 French sick and wounded in the
hospital; •o English. The hospital is exposed to tire.
All the Poles who have deserted arc sent to Varna to join
Zinuoiski's Polish Legion.
- - -

The siege diary is thus continued by the Herald
correspondent :
APRIL 18.—Last night the Mangler, screw gun-boat,
made a div rsion at the sea-face of Sebastopol. The day
had been very foggy, but towards night the mist grew in-
tensely thick. Admiral Lyons ordered the Wrangler to
steam in slowly, preceded by boats with muffled oars to
sound. With this assistance she was enabled to approach
within four fathoms from the forts. The wind blow strong
off shore, so that there was but little danger of going too
near. A little after eleven she cast loose her Lancaster '
guns, and from that time till past one filed shot, shell, and
rockets incessantly. Almost immediately atter the first
two guns, the sea forts replied with a volley, but the fog
was so thick that it was impossible to make out, even by
the Hashes of her gnus, where she lay, and the wind being
strong off shore prevented her position being ascertained
by sound. Thus every one of the enemy's shot passed
wide, the very nearest being those which poured over both
hull and rigging. At one o'clock, after having thrown
above a huM.-ed 10-inch shell and rockets into the place,
she retired, sustaining from first to last no further injury
than the cutting of one of the stays. What mischief she
did we can only guess, though it must have been something
considerable.
During to-day the firing from the trenches has been
much more slack, both French and English being limited
to thirty rounds per gun per day. This makes a most con-
siderable difference in our fire, as the day before yesterday
the left attack fired 147 rounds a gun, and the other bat-
teries very nearly the same amount.
The right attack has suffered very considerably. Even
the occasional volleys from the Mainelm, Reilan, and Ma-
lakoff have so mach injured its earthworks that shot and
shell come clear through some parts, with apparently un-
diminished force. Our advanced trench of eight guns and
four mortars has also been sadly mauled. The trench ad-
joining it, passing the middle ravine, has been cut almost
entirely to pieces. It.wa.s never a protection against round-
shot—now it is scarcely efficient against musketry. Occa-
sionally our officers complain of the slightness with which
our works are thrown up, and the comparative indifference
which the engineers testify towards giving our troops an
adequate protection against the enemy's tire.
The Russian defences appear to have suffered still more
than our own. All the batteries of the enemy appear to
have suffered more or less in their earthworks, though not
in their guns. The Russians withdraw these during the
day, and bring them forward each night, in ease of a general
assault being attempted. This inaumuvre answers but
too well. Only a few, some fifty or sixty, which are well
screened, now return our fire, and these are so admirably
placed that, though they can hardly reply one shot to our
ten, they still continue to effect some mischief.
Owing to the much-increased trench duty, our troops
are again sadly overworked. To-night is the third time
that the :ifsth have been on duty without one night's rest.
They muster about 280 effective men, though in the Adju-
tant-General's list they figure as SOU strong. The 9Dth,
which according to thte latter authority is DUO strong, only
musters seventy three serviceable men.
Amu. 19.—The firing was slack last night, in conse-
quence of the supply of bombs being still further restricted
by Lord Raglan's orders. No attempt was made to dis-
lodge the French from the Flagstaff Battery, which augurs
ill, and looks as if the enemy were making preparations
for a sweeping attack on their position.
Last night the Furious and Tribune steam-frigates
steamed into Sebastopol, and aroused its slumbering in.
habitants with their heavy broadsides. The sea forts this
time instantly replied, but without doing any mischief to
the vessels, but as the night was clear and tine they were
unable to remain long. Such perpetual alarms from the
fleet must harass the garrison beyond measure—to say
nothing of the damage whioh thirty or forty Fitt-pounder
shot and rockets pouring into the batteries must naturally
effect.

APRIL 20.—The English had sharp fighting in the
trenches last night, and succeeded in capturing the first of
the rife•pits. An attetnpt was being made to continue the
parallel, but the Russian sharpshooters' fire was so galling,
that it was impossible to persevere without an unwar-
rantable loss of life. Orders were then sent down for 260
of the covering party on the right attack (composed en.
tirely of regiments front the Light Division 1 to advance
and capture the pit. The men accordingly moved down
quietly to where the advanced work terminated, close to
the first trench. Colonel Graham Egerton, field officer in
charge of the trenches, led the parry. At a given signal
our gallant fellows dashed from the breastwork, and, with
a smothered cheer, ran straight upon the trench. The
enemy appeared completely surprised, and fired a scattered
volley. One of these shots unfortunately killed Captain
Audley Lempriere, of the 77th, as he was in the act of
cheering on the men. The instant the volley was tired
the Russians sprang out of the trench, without any ftirther
attempt at resistance, and began flying in all directions.
Some were shot as they ran, bet the inijorityescaped.
The trench was immediately occupied by such of our
troops as it would contain (about fifty), while the others