The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-14 00:00:00

SIEGE CHRONICLE.

Letters from the camp to the 27th have been re-
ceived. Respecting the sortie of the 23rd, the Times
correspondent writes on the 28th ult.:—

The affair of Thursday night and Friday morning last
was not so serious for us as was at first imagined. Onr
loss, instead of being nearly one hundred killed, wounded,
and missing, did not amount to much more than half that
number; and Lieutenant• Colonel Kelly, of the 34th Regi-
ment, is, I am glad to say, alive in Sebastopol, with a slight
wound. Captain Montagu, Royal Etgineers, is also a pri•
soner. The French fought with remarkable energy, and
repulsed the attack on them with great slaughter.

On the 24th a truce of three hours was agreed to,
for the purpose of allowing both sides to bury the
dead who had fallen during the sortie. While hos-
tilities thus intermitted, groups of English, French,
and Russians intermingled in the space between the
trenches and exchanged many courtesies. The fol-
lowing description of the scene is given in the Herald
correspondence :
While the distribution of bodies was going forward, I
walked away from the trench in the direction of the Mala-
koff Tower until midway between it and our advanced work,
which was as close as it was prudent to go ; for, even though
a truce was existing, neither party of course would allow
the other to examine its lines minutely. Still I was
enabled to get within a very reasonable distance of the
tower, and certainly was much struck by the number,
strength, and solidity of the earthworks round it. All of
them seemed in beautiful repair, and more like the per-
manent defences of a regular fortress than the mere efforts
of a sudden emergency. In front was a deep ditch, with
a strong chevaux de frise of rough-pointed timber at the
other side ; while above, from the edge of the fosse to the
slope of the battery, were pointed stakes about three feet
high, set so closely in the earth as to appear at a little dis-
tance like a dark band all round the work. But with such
a commanding point as the Mamelon once in our posses.
sion, the whole of these stockades and the batteries behind
them could be destroyed in a single day.
On the left of Malakoff, but projecting one hundred
yards in advance of it, was the Redan. This is now one
of the most tremendous of all the Russian works. Its three
sides have double tiers of guns, there being in this one
battery alone, it is calculated, not less than 250 pieces of
ordnance, some of them of the very heaviest calibre used
in warfare. This work, like Malakoff, is also defended by
a broad deep ditch, with a cheraux de frise, but without
stakes, on the slope of the parapet.
From between these batteries a most admirable view
could be had right down into the town behind them. Even
with the naked eye everything could be seen quite distinctly ;
but, with a good glass, a minute examination of every
house could be made. But the most minute examination
which I could make failed to show me that we had inflicted
any injury worth speaking of in the town. The little huts
of the Turkish and Tartar population outside the walls are
destroyed. The handsome town inside the walls is, as a
town, uninjured. A barrack and a few warehouses nearest
to the wall are much perforated, and the roofs nearly gone,
but this is aIL The large public buildings, the barracks,
churches, and rows of splendid houses, show no mark of
injury of any kind. As I looked at some of the best streets
I could hardly persuade myself that I was not gazing at
some of the better parts of Bath or Brighton, so white,
regular, and handsome was their appearance. Very few
persons were in the streets ; probably I did not see more
than thirty or forty in all, and of this small number at
least two thirds were soldiers. I saw no women of any
class. A good many boats were busy about the harbour,
and many people seemed at work on shore, a little above
the water's edge on the north, where numbers of carts and
arabas were passing to and fro, but beyond these signs of
life there seemed nothing doing. The town itself ap-
peared almost deserted.

At this inspection I walked past the front of our ad-
vanced trenches, midway between ours and the enemy's.

The truce had now lasted nearly two hours, and as I looked
towards the middle ravine, I could see, by the very few of
the allies and the Russians who remained upon the spot,
that most of the dead had been removed, and that there-
fore the brief peace would soon terminate. Impressed
with this notion I hurried in without further loitering, as,
if the flags of truce were hauled down, I should be left
alone in open ground in the midst of a cross tire from bat-
teries and riflemen of both friends and enemies. I there-
fore turned up in the direction of our lines, so as to pass
along the front of our batteries, and came out on the
Woronzow road. The ground over which I passed was
rough and very stony, without a sign of vegetation beyond
a few violets and crocusses here and there. Sometimes it
was very rocky, with pits, quarries, and small cairns of
stones—the very mo lel of good skirmishing ground, but
the last one would choose to conduct a siege on. I was
quite surprised as I walked along at the extreme distinctness
with which every one of our defences could be seen 4 the
enemy. From the pickethouse in rear of our lines tt is
only with much difficulty that our trenches can be seen
below us, but from the Russian side the profi e of every
batttery shows clear and sharp upon the hill sides. As I
came nearer to our lines the tokens of the contest and the
prodigal manner in which the enemy have used their ammu-
nition almost hid the ground. In places where there were
hollows iu the earth the shot and pieces of shell had rolled
into them in such a manner as to quite fill them level with
the surface. Everywhere, in fact, along the whole extent
of our works the shot lay in thousands and thousands,
covering the ground in such a manner as to make it seem
of a deep brown colour. A n immense proportion of the
Russian shells have never exploded at all, and there they
lay just as they had issued from the gun. Within about a
hundred yards of our works the ground is quite cut to pieces
by the deep shot•furrows, while the balls themselves, coming
in contact with others on the ground, have shivered into
little fragments in all directions. In the lower parts of the
Woronzow road, below Gordon's Battery, the shot and shell
have rolled down the bills and almost choke the way.
After this tour I returned on the right attack, and waited
there until the last stragglers of the enemy had gained the
shelter of their lines. Instantly the Russians hauled down
their flags of truce ; we did the same. The snap shots of
the riflemen began on both sides, our right attack fired a
shell, the Mamelon replied, and then everything went on
as it has been for the last siz months.

The Post correspondent writes on the 20th :
This morning a heavy gun on the left embrasure of the
Mamelon was opened on No. 3 battery, in the right attack.
The electric telegraph has now been completed between
Lord Raglan's head-quarters and all the trenches. and by
this a message was sent, informing his lordship of the
opening of the gun, and asking advice. The reply was,
" Fight it," and preparations were made accordingly. A
long 08-pounder gun, from the Terrible, was found to bear
upon the precise spot, and this, therefore, was the gun
selected to fight the Russian one. The practice made
with it was perfect—never wadi better firing seen since the
siege commenced. The very first shot tore away one side
of the Russian embrasure, and laid the enemy's gun coin-
pletely open. The next struck the gun full in the muzzle,
shattering and dismounting it within five minutes after the
order had been given to fight the enemy's gun. Lord
Raglan was informed by the telegraph that it had been
fought, and was then dismounted and broken. Orders
were then sent back for the same 104-pounder to fire every
half-hour in the same spot for the rest of the day. Before
the day was half over the greater part of the earthwork at
each side of the embrasure was quite destroyed, and what
seemed most strange, after their gun was dismounted, not
a single Russian battery fired a shot in reply to oars. This
unusual circumstance no one conld account for. The
Highlanders now appear in their kilts and feather bonnets,
as the weather has much changed and become almost un-
pleasantly warm. The general condition of all the men
improves still more each day.
I am now able to tell you that the electric wires are
down from head-quarters, and very close to Sir George
Brown's quarters. The station at that end will be a
wooden hut (Maltese one), close under the brow of the
hill, and near to the picket-house in front of the light
division, not far from the Womnzoff road. Communica-
tions can be sent thence down to head-quarters, but diffi-
culty is experienced at that end from the want of an
alarm-bell, but this will soon be obviated. We have now
Balaklava, head-quarters, and our extreme right all linked
together within a minute's call. The communication will
even be carried to the trenches by means of a semaphore
which will be erected in the batteries, with one on the top
of the hill in front of the light division, and messages taken
from thence to the electric—the entire process not occu-
pying five minutes. The whole is under the management
of Lieut. Stopford, R.E.
About 400 convalescents have arrived. The army now,
of all ranks under arms, falls little short of 30,000 men.
Many deaths from low fever still occur.
The Himalaya, with her valuable cargo, came off the
harbour yesterday but the wind blew so strong she could
not get in, and was sent round to Kamisch for shelter.
The following extracts are from tho Herald,
March 20th :

Not ten per cent. of the huts to be erected are yet at the
front. The railway, as far as Karani, is used to get them
up, and each truck holds two or three; but the steepness
of the incline on which the stationaiy engines are situated
has, it appears, been much under-estimated, as the engines
are not strong enough for their work, and only two trucks
at a time can be drawn up very slowly. This is a serions
disappointment, as it was fully expected the engines would
be able to draw up a dozen trucks at once.
Each gun has now 4041 rounds of ammunition, and the
store of powder necessary for this amount of shot is also
nearly completed.
To-day the C'ity of London arrived fmm Malta. Sh
brings ten ' - of

.n 13. inch mortars awl an immense supply of 10

and 13-inch shells. The mortars are to be landed to-
morrow and forwarded to the front with all speed.
The commissariat officers have handed over their oxen,
horses, and mules, to Colonel M'Murdo's Land Transport
Corps, which is working remarkably well under the ener-
getic direction of its commandant. All the commissary
officers have now to do is to make a requisition on the
Land Transport Corps attached to the division for the
carriage of certain stores, and then to distribute them on
arrival.
MARCH 27.—Nothing of importance occurred in the
trenches last night, but the whole of Balaklava was
alarmed about eleven o'clock by the rapid ringing of the
ships' fire-bells. In an instant every one near the harhour
was on the alert, and the Leander, Diamond, Wasp, &c.,
beat to quarters. It turned out to be a fire on board the
transport No. 113, a vessel lying alongside one of our
powder-ships. Fortunately the promptitude with which
the alarm was given brought such assistance as put out
the fire with little difficulty, though, as your readers will
readily imagine, great alarm and confusion for the time
prevailed in the harbour, and many vessels slipped their
cables, though not one of them could have got out.
This morning about 350 filled shell, 300 empty 10-inch
shell, and 2,000 fascinos, were forwarded to camp. By the
railway, as tar as it is completed, 200 13-inch shell were
sent up.
Last night a tremendous affray took place among the
Croats who are hutted at the head of the harbour. Their
swords and daggers, which all wear, were profusely used ;
and before sufficient force could interfere to separate them
two were killed, one mortally wounded, and four others
hurt more or less severely.
The enemy still remain in the neighbourhood of Bala-
klava, but make no signs of hostilities.
The following is from a letter in the Daily News,
dated Balaklava, March 27:

Well-informed men say that there is every reason to be-
lieve that the Russians have removed nearly all their
troops from Sebastopol, and particularly from the north
aide. We know they have withdrawn the army that was,
in fact, besieging lialaklava. All their troops are with-
drawn for the purpose of bringing an overwhelming force
against the Turks at Eupatoria, and if possible driving
them into the sea ; and very serious doubts are felt whether
Omer Pacha will be able to resist them. Are we going to
do nothing to save our allies? Are we not going to make
an effort? Could we not make a diversion? There are
those who openly state that an active general would now
feel his way with a strong reconnoitring force, and see if
the north side is not now assailable—at least the heights
and guns we lost in the battle or butchery of Balaklava
might now be retaken. The Russians have been very bold
in their sorties lately, probably only to cover their weak-
ness. Any well•guarded movement in their rear would
make a diversion in favour of the Turks. It is possible
those critics may be wrong, but long before this letter can
reach you the opportunity, if it is an opportunity, will
have passed. In going through the camp I was delighted
to see the excellent spirits of all, and the extraordinary
and robust health of those who are well. In fact, they
look the very picture of men in full health and spirits.