The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-03 00:00:00

THE ARMY IN THE CRIMEA.

(ram nts SPEW.

NEWS.)

Till DAILY

BALAHLLVA, .Y•x. 19.
There is little news in camp. This is the Nth
day sines the 17th of October, when our Funs
first opened upon Sebastopol. The siege is at
a stand-still, and makes no progrrs whatever.
Oar batteries have long been silent ; indeed for the
last four weeks we have rather been on the defensive,
even against the town to which we are laying siege.
Whatever active operations there have been, were on
the part of the Russians : they fired at us, and every
now and then kept our pickets up to the mark by
one of their frequent sorties. Even they have tired
of these unprofitable diversions : their fire has slack-
ened by degrees, and died away. Since in our pre-
sent condition we cannot even annoy, much less
threaten them, they seem to be contented to let ne
alone, and only watch our movements. They
show a strong force of pickets in the plain, and-seem
to invite, and even to provoke another French recon-
naissance. For the time being the armies may be
said to have gone into winter quarters : the French,
English, and Turks on the plateau of Sebastopol,
and the Russians at Simpheropol, Baktschi-
, Berai, and Sebastopol. Of course there is no say-
ing how long this calm is likely to continue on the
part of our enemies. The latest information given
by deserters, and notably by two deserters who some
days ago surrendered to a picket of the 91st, is, that
. 30,000 fresh troops were, some ten days ago, brought
to Bimpheropol on sledges. This is exactly one of the
deserters' stories in which I am inclined to have

faith. Whenever these men speak of distress in the
camp they have left, of disease and despair among
the troops, and of a general desire to come over to us,
the presumption is that the picture is overdrawn, and
that the men thus overdrawing it tell us what they
fancy will please us most. They have placed their
fate in the hands of men of whom they know nothing
whatever, and are naturally anxious to propitiate our
good will. Good quarters to the bearer of good
new., is the deserter's motto. But when the fugi-
tives from the hostile camp tell us of meditated
assaults on our position, of dangers, and of strong
reinforcements to the enemy's power, the new. is
bad, and there is a strong presumption in favour of
their speaking the truth. And, as considering the
distance, there has been plenty of time, and as the
winter has opened the sledge road over the steppe,
we may take it for granted that 30,000 men have
joined the Russian forces at Perekop in the manner
described. I do not believe that the arrival
of this force will materially affect the pres.nt
suspense of operations. My experience of Russian
armies leads me to suppose that these 30,000 new
arrivals will just make up for the lose of the Russian
army since the sth November. Moat probably they
do not even cover that leis. Life is cheap in Ramie,
and Russian officers are proverbially corrupt, thought-
less, and reckless. Whatever provision may have
been made for the maintenance of the Russian army
in the Crimes, there is a strong probability that the
money and stores have been jobbed and squandered
away, and that thousands of starving soldiers have
helped to fatten a contractor and his jackals. In
this respect the Russians are very much on a par
with the Turks, and I have been assured on the best
authority that the Turkish army in Bulgaria lost
80,000 men in the course of last winter. If the

Russians hold the field against us until the return of
spring their loss from hunger and disease will cer-
tainly not be under 80,000. If they attempt another
Inkerruann there is no saying how great their loss
will be.
The general opinion in our camp is that the next
two months will pass without active operation.. The
general wish is that the Russians may come on and
get another thrashing, such as they got at Inker-
mann. Since we cannot march away from Sebas-
topol heights and attack them at Baktschi-Serai, it is
devoutly desired, though hardly hoped, that they
will come and get the hard knocks which we cannot
afford to carry to their own firesides. If, as they
most likely will, they remain at a respectful distance,
we shall have slow work and a hard time of it, for a
good many weeks to come. The ground is frozen,
and the frost prevenfs the carrying on of engineer-
ing operetions, even if our engineers were equal to
their work, which is, to say the least, an open ques-
tion. The roads are what they long have been—im-
passable. A journey into camp and back again to
Balaklava is an affair of two days. Shot and shells
can go up by hand, but the transport of heavy guns
is altogether out of the question. An attempt is now
making to construct sledges for the conveyance of
stores and ordnance. I shall in due time report on
the result of the experiment.
I have mentioned the impassable condition of the
reads. Need I say that our troops in the Sebastopol
front are still on half, and sometimes on quarter
rations? that they are, indeed, on such allowances
of food as accident or the energy of the Commissa-
riat officers of the divisions permits of being brought
up ? The Light Division, in charge of Assistant
Commissary General Darling, are well off, and so
are the Guards Division. The Second Division get
on tolerably, but loud and bitter are the complaints
of the Third and Fourth Divisions. I do not
think that any mentionable amount of blame
attaches to the Commissariat offimrs in charge
of these divisions. No doubt they do their duty,
and can hardly be held answerable for the extraordi-
nary difficulties which obstruct them in their legiti-
mate endeavours. The fact is, that commissariat
officers in charge of divisions most, at the present
crisis, do more than their duty; that they must not
only be energetic, indefatigable, and inventive,
but, in order to do good, must set about the
task assigned to them with an utter disregard of
self, with a sovereign contempt for their own comfort
and convenience, with a determination, at whatever,
cost and risk to their health and lives, to feed the 1
troops confided to their care, so long as it is within'
the power of human energy and ingenuity to accom-
plish that task. Even with all these qualities,
there are many failures for which the troops have to
suffer. In ordinary times privates and sergeants
consider it a privilege. to be told off to the working
staff of the commissariat officer in charge of the corps.
They get extra pay; their duties are lighter and
more agreeable than their regimental duties ; they
have more liberty and a good deal of spar!, time.
If they misbehave themselves in their privileged
position, they are sent back to their
.regiments. That
is their punishment. Now all this is changed. Far
from considering the special service of the Commis-
sariat a privilege, the men find that their duties
are harder and more inevitable than those of their
comrades on the Sebastopol front. The being sent
back to the regiment ceases to be a punishment.
Indeed, the men declare that they prefer the service
in the trenches to the road work between Balaklava
and Sebastopol. They offend for the express pur-
pose of being sent back to their regiments. And
these offences—absconding, delay, disobedience of
orders, and worse, the loss, or rather the making
away with public property—fall upon their comrades
in camp, and foil the endeavours even of the best
officers.
Apropos of the Commissariat. I hear it asserted
that the Irish constabulary attached to that depart-
ment are about to be sent home. The reason alleged
is that they have not been able to master the duties
or conquer the difficulties of their new position; in
short, that they are inefficient. Whether right or
wrong I know not, but the roasted coffee scandal is
laid at the door of these men. The facts are these.
Thanks to the complaints in camp and their echoes
in the press, arrangements were made, some time
ago, to roast a certain quantity of coffee per diem for
the use of the troops on the Sebastopol front, who,
having the hardest work, can least of all be expected
to roast their own coffee. A certain quantity of
coffee is roasted in Balaklava and issued daily, but
not to the officers in charge of the Sebastopol divi-
sions. However strenuous the efforts of these
officers, they have, some of them , and soma
only very rarely, been able to obtain their share of
the luxury. Where the roasted coffee goes to no one
lean tell. The presumption is that it finds its way
Ito other corps, with feu to do, and in more favour-
able positions. That there is in this affair the
jobbing and the favouritism of underlings, is
self-evident. The constabulary are accused of hav-
ing a hand in the job. I mention the fact, hoping
that time will bring a satisfactory explanation.
A large number of wooden huts are in the harbour,
Nei on the beach, and a few of them have been put
They are very neat to look at, and, as far as I
las tai estead ken those who we them, %bey ire