The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

HUMANITY OF THE FRENCH.

An acknowledgment of the humanity displayed by
French officers and soldiers towards the wounded
was conveyed in a despatch transmitted to the War-
office by Brigadier-General Rose. The compliment,
having been communicated by Lord Cowley to the
French Government, was immediately made public
in the Moniteur, where the extract from General
Rose's letter appears as follows :
Head-quarters of the French Army (Left Bank of
the Alma), Sept. 213, 18154.
My Lord,—Your lordship will learn with lively satisfac-
tion, I feel certain, that the conduct of the French soldiers
and officers towards the enemy wounded at the battle of
the Alma has been humane to the highest degree. I have
seen, on the very field of battle, French soldiers administer-
ing food and taking care of wounded Ru'sians, and litters
borne side by side, carrying French and Russian wounded.
Obeying the inspirations of a noble heart, Marshal St.
Arnaud had ordered that the enemy should receive the
same attentions as his own soldiers.
When the Zouaves had taken the telegraph by storm,
they gave loud hurrahs in honour of the Emperor, and many
of them came round me and shook me by the hand, cheer-
ing for the Queen, adding that nothing could resist the
French and English united.

THE LATE REV. G. MOCKLER.
The following letter from the Chaplain to the Forces
has been addressed to the brother of the the Rev. G.
Mockler, who died from cholera a few days after the
bottle of the Alma : _ _

War-office, Oct.. 26.

Rev. and dear Sir,—Your excellent brother fella sacrifice
to his zeal, and sank under the heavy labour which was un-
avoidably imposed uponhim. He landed in the Crimea, like
the rest of the officers, without tent or baggage of any kind,
except what he could carry. He struggled m nobly against
failing health, and officiated to the last; he was unceasing
in his attentions to the sick and wounded, but his consti
tution could not bear up against many rays and nights of
exposure, and he died on the 2nd of October, absolutely
from exhaustion. The highest testimony is borne to his
character and conduct by all who knew him; and it must
be the consolation of yourself and the rest of his relations
that, if ever martyrdom was endured where death of
violence did not consummate the work, your poor brother
suffered it. He will find his reward elsewhere. He was
buried on the heights of Sebastopol. With sincere
commisseration for the sorrow which you are now enduring,
believe me very faithfully yours,

G. R. Gum.

RUSSIAN CIVILITIES.

The Moniteur de l'Armee relates the following in-
cident : _

Captain Du Val de Dampierre, aide-de-camp of General
Bosquet, taken prisoner (luring a reconnaiaance, in which
his horse was killed, having asked to be conducted to a
Russian general, requested him to send word to the ad-
vanced posts that he was a prisoner and not wounded, in
order to reassure his family and Mends. The Russian
general, with a courtesy we are happy to proclaim, the
more so as it does honour to one of our enemies. replied to
M. de Dampierre that he placed every confidence in the
word of a French officer, and that he did not hesitate to
give him the permission to deliver in person the message
to his fiends, on condition that he would immediately
return to the Russian camp. M. de Dampierre gratefully
accepted the favour, and a few hours afterwards he returned
to the Russian advanced posts to redeem his pledge, and
resume his ckitivity.
HOSPITAL AND COMMISSARIAT SERVICES.

The later accounts of the state of the Scutari hos-
pital are much more favourable than the previous
reports. Great improvements had taken place. A
vessel full of medical stores, which had been sent up
to Varna previously to the battle of the Alma, had
come back, and its contents were of great service.
Much improvement in every department was per-
ceptible, though many things were sttll wanted, and
the sufferings of the wounded continued to be very
severe. Respecting the commissariat, an " Old

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Campaigner" writes thus on the 13th from the camp
before Sebastopol:—
I must in fairs play give praise to our commissariat de-
partment, for I nevee saw a better rationed army in all my
life. Not one day have we been without good and whole-
some provisions—the pork, twice a week, admirable, and
every day excellent beef or mutton, l&Ib. each man, tea
and sugar daily, and the biscuit remarkably good ; indeed,
they deserve very great praise, and, though it is the fashion
to abuse the commissariat officers, give what they may,
still this is, I believe, only done by boys, who expect to get
turtle-soup and champagne. Few can no beater than my-
self how our army was rationed during the late war—bis-
cuit and the worst description of beef, no tea, no sugar;
we now get a double allowance of the finest rum I ever
tasted. They are a set of hardworking officers, who do
not certainly spare themselves; I have known many to be
up all night riding in search of provisions. I like to give
praise where it is due, and few can give better opinions on
these subjects than those who have served in the Penin-
outer campaigns; for, as I said before, boys who have seen
nothing but regimental messes in England can give no opi-
nion on the subject. In every valley there are good cot-
tages and villas ; you enter a house with all the accommo-
dation of an English gentleman's—pier-glasses twelve and
fourteen feet high, pictures, libraries, Itroadwood's grand
pianos, all broken to pieces, and this not done by us, but
by their own detestable Cossacks.
A SURGEON'S LETTER.
A letter from an army surgeon who was present at
the Alma is published by a provincial contem.

porary :
Dear —, You know what is called " fleld-day " at the
hospitals in town. Perhaps an amputation or two, with
half a dozen surgeons to assist if necesur7, and a hundred
surgical eyes looking on. Can yon imagine our fleldday
on the banks of the little river Alma? if God spares me
again to see old England, I shall probably never more
witness as much practice in my whole lifetime es I saw
there in two hours. The pluck of a soldier no one has yet
truly described. They laugh at pain, and will scarcely
submit to die. It is perfectly marvellous, this triumph of
mind over body. If a limb were torn off or crushed at
home, you would have them brought in fainting, and
in a state of dreadful collapse. Here they come with a
dangling arm or a riddled elbow, and it's " Now, doctor be
quick, if you please-I'm not done for so bad but I can get
away back and see." And many of these brave fellows,
with a lump of tow wrung out of cold water wrapped round
their stumps, crawled to the rear of their tight, and, with
shells bursting round them and balls tearing up the sods
at their feet, watched the progress of the battle. I tell you
as a solemn truth that I took off the foot of an officer,
Captain —, who insisted on being helped on his horse
again, and declared that he could fight now that his " foot
was dressed." Surgeon told him that if he mounted
he would burst the ligatures and die on the spot, bat for all
that he would have returned to the hill if he could have
prevailed on anybody to help him to mount.
RUSSIAN VERSION OF MOVEMENTS ]N THE
CRIMEA.
While the allies were executing the bold and suc-
cessful flank march around Sebastopol to Balaklava
Prince Menichikoff was performing, according to his
own account, a somewhat similar piece of strategy.
His narration of the operation is published as follows
in the Journal de St. Petersburg':—
The Anglo-French conducted their united forces before
Sebastopol front the north of that town to the south, thus
entirely changing the basis of operations. They attained
this object by a flank march round the town. The organs
of the foreign press cannot find expressions to praise
sufficiently the skilfulness of this mansuvre. 'Without
wishing to detract from the merit of it, at least it is just to
mention also and to explain the oper►tions of Prince Mens-
chikoff in reference to the enemy.
After the battle upon the Alma, the prince, not finding
a position strong enough upon the Katscha and the llelbeck
to give a fresh battle to the enemy, passed the Tschernaya,
and concentrated his forces in a position to the east of the
town, after having garrisoned the forts of the north with a
sufficient number of troops.
The enemy advanced, passed the Katscha and the Bel-
beck, and reached the heights which ieivound the northern
forts.
The position of Prince Menschikoff was disadvantageous,
inasmuch as it enabled the enemy to occupy the direct
communications with the interior of the empire. It
was, therefore, necessary to abandon that position, and
the prince achieved the object by a luminous idea, carried
into effect in the most daring manner. He marched
during the night of the 24th to the 25th of September
towards Bsktchi Serai, after having crossed the Tschernaya
by a single bridge. He executed this march in flank in the
course of the night, and in the morning of the 2.lth found
himself in the valley of Baktchi Serai, placed in the flank
awl the rear of the enemy, having his communications free
with the interior of the empire, and with the reinforcements
which he expected. The new position of the prince would
have been annoying to the enemy if the latter had been
desirous of attempting an attack against the forts of the
north. For this reason the enemy did not make the at-
tempt to attack the forts of the north. On the contrary, he
adopted the resolution of changing the point of attack
from the north to the south of Sebastopol, by turning the
town to the east. Let it be permitted to us here to throw a
light upon some circumstances, which will enable an im-
partial judgment to be formed respecting the operations of
the two parties.
Prince Menechikoff had to march across mountains and
by one road, which from the point where Mackenzie's Farm
is situate was only at a distance of four vents from the
advanced posts of the enemy. Indeed the bivouac tires
wire seen thence. The prince could not atttempt to oover
his march by the MIMS which are smugly adepead in sash

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