The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-08 00:00:00

Y G, MARCH 8, 1

illß RUSSIAN DEFEAT AT

EUPATORIA.

(!EM the Second Baltic. of the Daily Now of this day.)
BI7PATORIA, Pan. 17.
About half-ea-hour beta► daybreak this morning
I was roused from a sound and comfortable sleep by
the clang of arms, the heavy tread of marching men,
Ruing at double quick time, words of command yelled
labs? than shouted; and on listening more atten-
tively, the dull, heavy roar of the cannon fell on my
ear, as distinctly as the roar of the surge outside
would let it, and caused the windows to vibrate
faintly at every discharge. I had hardly yet got all
my melee into working order when my companion
entered my room, booted, spurred, and armed, and
announced the advance of the Russians. Upon
going out I found the streets crowded with troops,
all hurrying to the point of attack,—officers tearing
at a mad gallop over the frozen mud, the steamers in
the harbour getting up their steam with all possible
haste; the morning breaking slowly through a thick
hare on cloudy sky, which every few seconds was
lighted up by the flash of the rockets, which, in their
fiery course through the air, threw a ghastly light
upon the upturned facia of the Tartars clustered on
the housetops, or standing in groups at the corners
of the streets, and watching the progress of the com-
bat in silent expectation. When I reached the en-
trenchment a furious cannonade was going on to the
right, at an outwork thrown forward a short distance
on the plain, and almost surrounded by diminutive
windmills; for four or five minutes nothing could be
heard but the rapid and tumultuous barking of
the field artillery, and then the heavy pieces broke
in with a roar which drowned all other sounds, and
seemed to rend the clouds, from which the rosy light
of the morning now began to stream faintly upon the
town and the plain. The ground surrounding Eupa-
toria is a vast sandy plain, broken now and then
by hillocks, and close to the entrenchments, by
two or three small ravines. To the ex-
treme right there is a large salt lake,
which completely protects it on that side, and on the
loft an eminence of no great elevation runs away in a
north-westerly direction till lost in the distance.
Upon the summit of this were two large masses of
Russian cavalry, lancers and dragoons, drawn up io
squares,and further on tothe right were huge columns
of infantry, some displayed on the slope, but larger
numbers still, I suspect, were behind the hill, the glit-
tering of their bayonets when the sun rose being
distinctly visible. In front of these, in a
long line, were at least seventy guns, about
a third of which were pouring a torrent of shot
upon the Turkish hornwork and the adjacent portions
of the entrenchment in the rear, the fire being
vigorously returned, not only from the point of
attack, but from all the redoubts on the lett and
centre of the Turkish lines. Anything more pic-
turesque than the flash and smoke of the guns, be-
fore the day broke slowly, can hardly be imagined;
but, when the sun burst through the clouds, and
revealed clearly the enormous masses of artillery and
infantry that crowned the eminence and lined the
slope, I confess—and there were many who partook
of my fears—that I could not contemplate the result
without considerable apprehension, above all when
I remembered that the only means of retreat open
in Nee of reverse, was the Black See, which roared
andbamed in our rear with considerable violence. The
cannonade lasted in this way without any striking
result on either side till nearly eight o'clock, when the
Russians brought down another battery of eight pieces
et
full gallop, and taking up a position within
eight hundred yards of the hornwork, (the garrison
of which, though the works were still unfi-
nished, had defended itself with unshaken courage),
opened a furious enfilading fire. To draw off a
portion of this, a redoubt, the position occupied by the
regiment of Colonel Ogilby, opened its fire, from one
pa, and drew on it instantly a succession of dis-
charges from four pieces out of the eight. Happily
though in one or two instances, they got the
range very fairly, and knocked clay off the
top of the rampart in the men's farm, the majority
of the shots went very high, and, after whizzing
over some tents, fell in amongst some cavalry on
the heights in the centre of the position, or dropped
right into the sea, without hurting any one. This
lasted about an hour, during the whole of which the
cannonade continued towards the outwork and on
the extreme right with the same violence as ever, and
sow became mingled with a sharp rattle of musketry,
which inspired some apprehension for those parts
of the field from this point not visible. In the
mirky part of the day I had planted myself in the
redoubt held by Colonel Ogleby's regiment, but as
soon as it opened fire it became untenable for lookers
on, partly on account of the smoke, and the im-
possibility of remaining upright, without making
one's person a target for such portions of the
Russian artillery as might think it a suitable point
of aim. On going higher up along the entrench-
ment I 'witnessed some splendid practice from
the Valorous steamer I. the the harbour, which
threw shells with great precision across the
mounds of sand on the sea shore, and n amongst
the cavalry on the left, causing them to shift
their position several times, till they got fairly out
of range. 'Throughout the Turkish artillery ac-
quitted itself remarkably well; after every shot we
could see the enemy's home rolling over, or flying
off riderless across the field. Their artillery must
certainly have suffered severely, es was testified by
the number of dead horses, and fragments of gun
carriages found afterwards. About ten o'clock a
column composed of the Azovski regiment was
pushed forward to the assault on the extreme right,
where they had less to fear from the fire of the artil-
lery, through a large graveyard filled with memo-
rials of departed worth in the Jape of stones
of every sine and form, from the simple
was er bead-stone of the peasant to the square
and ponderous tomb of some wealthy shopkeeper,
or climber of the quarantine. What induced them
teams such a spot us this for the attack, it is hard
to imagine, as the inequalities of the ground must
have thrown them more or less into disorder from
the first mowed. A few minutes previously the
Various had sent a rocket party ashore, who landed
an the extreme right of tlie town, and coming roiled
amongst the windmills, opened their fire on the
Russians just as the head of the solemn boned from
the burying-ground and appeared on the glade, and
at the same moment the musketry commenced from
the entrenchment. The column pushed on to a
distance of not more than twenty yards from the
ditch, but there gave way and fell into disorder.
Baling Pasha now made a sortie with a brigade
of Egyptian*, and charged them with the
bayonet; but in the fact of leading his men on
received a musket-ball through the body, and fell
dead. Ismail Bey was also wounded on the same
wallows. Tbe Ranians . now fell into disorder,
gave way, and retired, leaving the graveyard
strewed with their dead. The artillery limbered up,
and went off, Bring occasional shots till it passed the
brew of the hill. The cavalry preceded it at a
easter, but when on the other side the whole retreated
in the most beautiful order, to a distance of about two
`miles, where they isiveneekett on Use piabi. Is
diately after the ceseetiea of the this& I walked