The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-13 00:00:00

JANUARY 13, 1855.

LETTER FROM THE CAMP.
We have been permitted to publish the following
extract from a private letter, written by a young
officer of the fourth division :
Camp before Sebastopol, Dec. 18, 1854.
My dear —, As I have no doubt but that a
letter direct from the trenches before Sebastopol will
be a great treat to you all at , I have deter-
mined to write you a letter to yourself, though of
course you see my letters to . Well, here
we are encamped on an immense raised plateau,
reaching from Balaklava to Sebastopol, about eight
miles, surrounded on three sides by any number of
Russians you like, and the sea on the fourth side,
not a very enviable position, as we can neither go
forward nor backward, so that we must do some-
thing decisive unless we want to stay here till peace
is concluded, or we are all dead of dysentery, which
I don't think would take long if the present horrid
weather continues. About one-third of the whole
army are sick at the present moment ; firewood is
very scarce, and gets scareer every day, and we
don't know what fresh meat is. I have not warmed
myself by a fire since I left England, and don't ex-
pect to again till I get into Sebastopol ; and what is
worse, as if my Ws d►dn't run enough risk by round-
shot, shell, and bullets, I am beginning to get very
seedy from continual exposure to wet and cold, with-
out an opportunity of drying myself until the weather

gets dry:
'What do ycu all think of Sebastopol not falling ?
Do you expect to hear the good news by every mail?
If so, I can tell you I'm afraid you'll be disappointed
every mail, for I don't expect it to fall for two or
three months, and I don't see how it is go then. We
have not made the slightest impression on it yet, ex-
cept to make it stronger, for everybody allows that it
is six times as strong now as it was when we first
came up. The Russians get new batteries and new
guns mounted every day, while ours have gradually
got weaker and fewer since the day they begun, till
at last now I don't believe we could fire a dozen guns
at once. The Russians make lots of sorties on us
and the French (the latter particularly, as their
works, from the nature of the ground, are nearer to
the town), but invariably get licked back. I have
seen some of those night affairs (they are always by
night), and rum sort of things they are. As ;ar as I
can see you stand as good a chance of being shot by
your own side as by the enemy. The engineers
have made a great mull most decidedly. They say
that in a week or so we are to begin the bombard-
ment afresh with a hundred new guns, and that to be
followed up by a grand assault ; but I don't believe
a word of it. If we were to assault the place we
should lose half the army at least, and then what
would. England say? I should think that there will
be row enough about Inkermann when people begin
to bear the real truth about it, and find ouz, how entirely
attributable it was to the carelessness and want of
foresight in ow leaders.
I am sitting in my tent writing this by candlelight;
my candlestick is a bayonet (Russian) stuck in the
ground, my table is an empty powder-canister, and
my seat is a hospital stretcher across two knap-
sacks, being appropriate pieces of furniture for a
camp, I think you will allow. I had hoped that
they would have written to me from home by every
post, for never were letters of any sort, more parti-
cularly from those that are dear to you, so wel.
come as they are out here. I hope that I shall
find a better correspondent in you. Direct to
me, " British Army in the Crimea, via France," and
pay it, or I shall never get it. If -- was out
here with all his dogs they wouldn't cost him much
to keep, for the whole plain is covered with dead
horses; at one place I saw 128 all together—that
was where the battle of Inkermann was fought. You
never saw such a lot of eagles in your life as I saw
one day over the battle-field of Balaklava, I suppose
there were 200 all in a flock, and such whoppers.
I longed to have a gun in my hand, as they come
pretty close to you—great, black, and yellow devils.
There are also packs of great dogs which, I sup-
pose, have been attracted by the horse-flesh, and
fellows go out with their revolvers to practice on
them. I came on a covey of nineteen to-day, and
wounded three before they got out of shot; at night
they are very fierce.
When did C. shoot the big wood, and what was
the bag ? I wish I had been there, for I can assure
you shooting pheasants at is much more
pleasant than shooting (or rather being shot at by)
Russians at Sebastopol. Another mail has come in
since I wrote this, and still no letters from home.
L give them up altogether now, and hope to have a
better correspondent in you. The Royal Albert has
arrived to-day with 1,200 fresh troops. Dundas is
surperseded, and Lyons has the command, to ti e
delight of everyone out here. Reinforcements are
really arriving now, as three new regiments took up
their ground yesterday, besides lots of French. I
expect we shall have a great battle soon, as the
Russians have 100,000 more men approaching. Of
course we shall lick them, but with great loss most