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

THE RUSSIAN RETREAT.

Sunday, Sept 0.
At eight o'clock last night the Russians began quietly to
withdraw from the town, in the principal houses of which
they had previously stored up combustibles in order to
render Sebastopol a second Moscow. With great art the
General kept up a fire of musketry from his advanced posts
as though he intended to renew the attempts to regain the
Malakoff. Ere two o'clock this morning the fleet had been
scuttled sad sunk, with the exception of the steamers.
About 12.30 the men of the second division on duty in the
trenches observed a preternatural silence in the Redan,
and some volunteers crept up into it. Nothing could they
hear but the heavy breathing and groans of the wounded
and ding, who, with the dead, were the sole occupants of
the place. As the Redan was known to be mined, the men
were withdrawn, and soon afterwards the Russian tactics
began to develop themselves. Abouttwo o'clock flames were
observed to break out in different parts of the town. They
spread gradually all over the principal buildings. At four
o'clock a stupendous explosion behind the Redan shook
the whole camp ; it was followed by four other explosions
equally startling. The city was enveloped in fire and
smoke, end torn asunder with the tremendous shocks of
those volcanoes. At 4.15 the Flagstaff and Garden bat-
teries blew up. At 5.30 two of the southern forts went up
into the air, and the effect of these explosions was im-
mensely increased by the rush of a great number of live
shell into the air, which exploded in all directions. All
this time a steady current of infantry was passing in un•
broken masses to the north side over the bridge, and at
6.45 the last battalions passed over, and the hillsides
opposite were alive with their masses. Several small ex-
plosions took place inside the town at 7.10. Columns of
black smoke began to rise from the neighbourhood of Fort
Paul at 7.12. At 7.15 the connection of the floating bridge
with the south aide was severed. At 7.16 dames begat, to
aseend from Fort Nicholas. At 8.7 the bridge was floated
off in portions to the north side. At nine o'clock several

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♦iolent explosions took place in the works on our left, op-
posite the French. The town was by this time in a mass
of flames, and the pillar of black, grey, and velvety fat
smoke from it seemed to support the very heavens. The
French kept up firing guns on the left, probably to keep
out stragglers, but ere the Russians left the place the
Zouaves and sailors were in it, and engaged busily in
plundering.

The Russian general is a man of too much genius and
experience as a soldier to lose men in defending an un-
tenable position, and his retreat was effected with mas•
terly skill and with perfect ease in the face of a victorious
enemy. Covering his rear by the flames of the burning
city and by tremendous explosions, which spoke in tones
of portentous warning to those who might have wished to
cut off his retreat, he led his battalions in narrow files
across a deep arm of the sea, commanded by our guns, and
in the face of a most powerful fleet, paraded them in our
sight as they crossed, and carried off all his most useful
stores and munitions of war. He left us few trophies and
many bitter memories. He sank his ships and blew up
his forts without molestation, save some paltry efforts to
break down the bridge by cannon-shot, or to shell the
troops as they marched over.

His steamers towed the boats across at their leisure, and
when every man was across, and not till then, the Rus-
sians began to dislocate and float off the portions of their
bridge and to pull it over to the north side.—lb.
SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS.

Sept. 10.
The town is still burning and in ruins. It is in posses-
sion of the French. The following order has been issued
on the subject—" Five officers and several men injured by
explosions to-day.
Tuesday Morning, 1 a.m.
For the last hour an exceedingly violent storm has been
raging over the camp. The Russians are very busy with
their signals over the Tschernaya. The fires in Sebastopol,
fanned by the wind, are spreading fast, and the glare of the
burning city illuminates the whole arch of the sky towards
the north-west.
4.15 a.m.
In the whole course of my life I never heard or saw any-
thing like the deluge of rain which is now falling over this
portion of the camp. It beats on the roof with a noise like
that of a cataract ; it is a veritable waterspout. The wind
is shifting anti changing all round the compass. The
lightning is fainter, and the gusts less violent. Sometimes
for a minute there is a profound calm; again it blows a
hurricane.

4.23 11111.
The waterspout has passed away. Had it lasted ten
minutes longer it threatened to drown the camp.
9.45.

There is a tornado passing over the camp once more—
hail, storm and rain. The ground is a mass of mud.
ps The disappointment of the many persons who wished to
spend a quiet, snug day hi Sebastopol is diminished by the
knowledge that there is a positive order against going into
the town, and that General Pelissier has declared his sen
tries will shoot any persons who may be found in the
streets in disobedience of that injunction. Passes will be
issued from the adjutant general's department, without
which all persons will be stopped at the entrances to the
works. The rain and hail quenched the fire, which the
wind had previously fanned to exceeding fierceness, so
that there was little left for the flames to devour. Sebasto-
pol is now a mass of white ruins, streaked and barred with
black awoke.—lb.