The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-29 00:00:00

THE BRAVE BRITISH OFFICERS.

ALL accounts concur as to the brilliant valour
shown by the regimental officers in the assault
on the Redan. They did not merely stand
fire, but courted the glory and peril of being
the first amongst the foremost. They led
their men as became the sons of the gentry of
these islands, and dashed with heroic spirit into
the thickest of the fire. We could not attempt
to draw any line of gradation between the
chivalrous spirits who fell while cheering on
their troops to the deadly and desperate strug-
gle. They had the community of peril—let
them all have a common glory Like water
they poured their blood for their country's
honour, and if the result was at all disappoint
ing, the most cynical could not charge any-
thing to the officers engaged in this tremendous
assault. It is well to fix attention on their
brilliant courage ; for at the commencement of
the campaign some unworthy attempts were
made to insinuate that their martial mettle
was not equal to the trial. Their chivalry has
splendidly refuted their " popular" calum-
niators "Class"-mongers are silenced after
perusing the records of their deeds.
Brigadier WINDHAM'S name has been much
mentioned for his conspicuous heroism. He
belongs to one of those old English families of
the uncoronetted nobility of the land. His
kindred have always been remarkable for
personal strength and determination. One
of his cousins was pronounced by GEORGE
IV. to be the finest man in England, and
several feats of strength are recorded of
various members of his race. Brigadier
WINDHAM appears to have shown admirable
coup Bail as well as courage, and much interest
will be taken in his future career. His pro-
motion has been well deserved. _

The name of Captain FYERs, also, has been
borne above the din of battle. We observe

919

that his heroism is particularly communicated
by several of the correspondents, and it is
asked why has he not been earlier promoted ?
Into such questions we shall not enter, but we
trust that the boldest men of all ranks will not
pass without marked requital.

LORI) PALMERSTON'S " SATISFACTION."
Great as our losses are, we have the satisfaction of knowing
that those losses and those privations are surpassed in magni-
tude by those against whom we are patriotically contending.—
Lord i'o/sterston's .`4leecis at Melbourite, Sept. 13th.

THE HOSPITAL AT SERASTOPOL.
OF all the pictures of the horrors of war which have
ever been presented to the world, the hospital of
Sebastopol presents the most horrible, heartrending,
and revolting. It cannot be described, and the
imagination of a Fuseli could not conceive anything
at all like unto it. How the poor human body can
be mutilated and yet hold its soul within, when
every limb is shattered, and every vein and artery is
pouring out the life stream, one might study here at
every step, and at the same time wonder how little
will kill! The building used as a hospital is one of
the noble piles inside the dockyard wall, and is
situate in the centre of the row at right angles
to the line of the Redan. The whole row was
peculiarly exposed to the action of shot and
shell bounding over the Redan, and to the missiles
directed at the Barrack Battery, and it bears in
sides, roof, windows, and doors, frequent and dis-
tinctive proofs of the severity of the cannonade.
Entering one of these doors, I beheld such a sight as
few men, thank God, have ever witnessed ! In a
long low room, supported by square pillars, arched
at the top, and dimly lighted through shattered and
unglazed window-frames, lay the wounded Russians,
who had been abandoned to our mercies by their
General. The wounded, did I say ? No, but the
dead, the rotten and festering corpses of the soldiers,
who were left to die in their extreme agony, untended,
uncared for, packed as close as they could be stowed,
some on the floor, others on wretched trestles and
bedsteads or pallets of straw, sopped and saturated
with blood, which oozed and trickled through upou the
floor, mingled with the droppings of corruption.
With the roar of exploding fortresses in their ears,
with shells and shot pouring through the roof and
sides of the rooms in which they lay, with the
crackling and hissing of fire around them, these poor
fellows, who had served their loving friend and
master the Czar but too well, were consigned to their
terrible fate. Many might have been saved by ordi-
nary care. Many lay, yet alive, with maggots crawl-
ing about in their wounds. Many, nearly mad by
the scene around them, or seeking escape from it in
their extremest agony, had rolled away under the
beds, and glared out on the heartstricken spectator,
oh ! with such looks! Many with legs and arms
broken and twisted, the jagged splinters sticking
through the raw flesh, implored aid, water, food,
or pity, or deprived of speech by the approach
of death, or by dreadful injuries in the
head or trunk, pointed to tie lethal spot. Mtn
seemed bent alone on making their peace with
Heaven. The attitudes of some were so hideously
fantastic as to appal and root one to the ground by
a sort of dreadful fascination. Could that bloody
mass of clothing and white bones ever have been
a human being, or that burnt black mass of flesh
have ever had a human soul ? It was fearful to think
what the answer must be. The bodies of numbers
of men were swollen and bloated to an incredible
degree, and the features distended to a gigantic
size, with eyes protruding from the sockets, and the
blackened tongue lolling out of the mouth, com-
pressed tightly by the teeth, which had set upcn it
in the death rattle, made one shudder and reel
round. In the midst of one of these "chambers of
horrors"—for there were many of them—were
found some dead and some living English soldiers,
and among them poor Captain Vaughan, of the 00th,
who has since succumbed to his wounds. I confess
it was impossible for me to stand the sight, which
horrified our most experienced surgeons ; the deadly,
clammy stench, the smell of gangrened wounds, of
corrupted blood of rotting flesh, were intolerable
and odious beyond endurance. But what must
have the wounded felt who were obliged to endure
all this, and who passed away without a hand to give
them a cup of water, or a voice to say one kindly
word to them? Most of these men were wounded
on Saturday—many perhaps on the Friday before—
indeed, it is impossible to say how long they might
have been there. In the hurry of their retreat the
Muscovites seem to have carried in dead men to get
them out of the way, and to have put them upon
pallets in horrid mockery. So that their retreat was
floenCllr ed,
Mondaythe
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sent
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Times Correspondent. ulcoduindotnatteot