The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

THE SUBMARINE SERVICE.

Sergeant William Came left Chatham on Saturday
afternoon, to embark on board the Prince steam-ship
for the Crime a. This non-commissioned officer is
joined by privates Lewis, Price, and Toohey, of the
Royal Sappers and Miners, and also with two civil-
ians, selected by Government. These men are well
known for their ability in the duties of submarine
explosions, and are excellent divers. They go out
for the purpose of removing the ships-of-war sunk
by the Russians at the mouth of the harbour of
Sebastopol. They take with them four sets of diving
apparatus, and all other necessary implements, and
twenty galvanic batteries, with five miles of copper
wire. The charges to be used will be from one ton
and a half to two tons of gunpowder, and will be fired
at a distance of about two miles. The operations
will be confided to the especial charge of Sergeant
Came. Messengers will be at his command to trans-
mit every information to Lord Raglan as the works
of the submarine siege proceed.
SEBASTOPOL RECONNOITRED.

No one was allowed to ascent to the brow of the bill, as
the instant they are seen they are fired at, and the troops
exposed to the risk of the falling shot. As a favour the
writer was permitted, in charge of an officer, to ascend to
an abandoned Russian guardhouse on the top of the hill,
which can be approached under cover of some low stone
walls. From the windows of the building he had a perfect
view of the town and fortifications, which lay beneath him
about three quarters of a mile distant. Only nine sail of
the line remain in the harbour, five having been sunk
acros3 the entrance. The others, which are principally
two-deckers, are moored stem and stern, so as perfectly to
command the ground where our trenches must be opened.
Fort Peter and Fort Nicholas, the large works which abut
upon the sea, are almost out of range of our guns, and we
are equally safe from their annoyance. The places where
it seems our attack will be commenced are to the rear and
north of the town and high up the creek. Here we have
opposed to us a long redan wall, mounting some sixty or
seventy guns, and crenelled between the embrasures for
musketry ; and on the north extremity is Fort Constan-
tine, a low, blunt, circular muss of masonry, with three
tiers of guns, which will give us sonic trouble. This latter
fort is also commanded by a stone battery of considerable
strength, situated on the other side of the harbour, and
called by our sailors the " Wasp," on account of its pro-
tected situation and the length and weight of its guns,
which are perpetually blazing away at any ship that strays
within range. To the north Fort Constantine is again
protected by Fort Paul, and three or four ranges of bat-
teries, covering the Quarantine Harbour. Such are a few
of the fortifications which a mere glance enabled him to
discover.
Fort Constantine will evidently be the chief point of
attack, and to render it impregnable the enemy are using
their utmost efforts. They have about 25,000 tnen at woik
round it and in front of the redan wall throwing up in-
trenched works and stockades of the most formidable kind.
As the men work day and night, before oar batteries are
in position the enemy will have doubled their fortifica.
tions.
While surveying their preparations on the Ist, between
8.000 and 10,000 fresh soldiers entered Sebastopol from
the opposite side. These were no doubt the detached
garrisons which have been collected from different towns
in the Cremes. Unless our commanders take some mea-
sures for stopping these reinforcements, we shall com-
mence the s ege to little purpose.
From what we hear from deserters it seems that the
whole of the aristocracy, and, indeed, all the Russian
population of South Crimea, have sought refuge in Se.
bastopol. So great is the concourse of inhabitants that
thousands sleep in the streets each night. As a preli-
minary operation, we have turned aside the little stream

of water which supplied the town, so that the garrison
must soon begin to suffer. When the siege is pressed,
the great mass of the inhabitants will probably be re-
moved by the north side, and most likely with their
escape we would not interfere, as we have no idea of
starving out the fortresses, but storming them.
THE TRENCHES OPENED.
On the evening of the 3rd the following order of
the day was issued by the allied generals regulating
the commencement of the siege works. The
despatches being sent off very shortly afterwards, the
names of the first working detachments could not be
ascertained. It was, however, known that the en-
trenchments had been opened with complete success,
not a shot or alarm disturbing the men during the
first night of their operations
The trenches will be opened this evening against Sebas-
topol; a working party, consisting of —, furnished by
the —, will be marched to the engineers depot at
p.m., where they will receive tools and directions ftom the
engineers' officers and sappers, who will guide them to
the works ; they will be without arms and accoutrements.
The guard for the protection of the working and ground
will consist of —, furnished by —, and will parade in
their camp at be conducted to their positions,
posted, and receive instructions from staff officers who will
be assembled for the purpose.
All the movements of the parties must be, if possible,
kept out of view of the place.
After moving from their last place of assembly, which
will be after dark, the utmost silence must be preserved,
and the least possible noise of any kind made. The
working parties will be arranged in proper order by the
engineers, but will not commence work ti ordered, after
which it must be carried on with the greatest energy.
The engineers will be charged with the arrangements,
but the officers of the troops must be responsible for the
maintenance of order and attention to the directions given
by the engineers, and for the amount of work done : on
diligence and regular conduct of the working parties will
depend more rapid and complete success of the enterprise.
The working parties must not quit the works on slight
alarms. If the enemy make a sortie, the guard will
advance and drive them in, and before they reach the
work, if possible ; should the working party be absolutely
obliged to retire, they will take their tools with them, and
reform a short distance in rear to return to the work when
the sortie is repulsed.
The guard will be posted in rear of the working party,
and near to it, if possible, under cover from the tire of the
place ; if not, they must lie down in order of battle, with
accoutrements on, and each man with his firelock close by
him—one party, not less than one-third of the forces, ab-
solutely on the alert all through the night, taking it alter-
nately, ready for an immediate rush on the enemy.
A sortie is out and on the works in a very short time,
and therefore the guard must be in immediate readiness to
attack it without hesitation : nothing is so easily defeated
as a sortie if charged without delay.
Atter the repulse of any sortie, the guard will return
under cover as soon as possible, and resume their position.
All working parties and guards will be composed of entire
regiments, or parts, anti not of detachments made up of
different corps.
The future progress of the siege operations is thus
foreshadowed in a letter of the 3rd instant from the
camp :—" The first parallel is to be commenced to-
night. About thirty siege guns have been landed,
and we shall hear their music tomorrow. Each
night a fresh parallel will be opened, till within 150
yards, when the breaching battery will be placed.
A few think that the actual siege will last three
weeks, but the majority say that the whole will be
over in a fortnight. Those who ought to be well
informed assert positively that within a month all
the troops will have re-embarked for their winter
quarters."

ULTIMATE INTENTIONS.
Many people have imagined that with the fall of
Sebastopol we might look for a termination of the
war, and the return of our brave countrymen to the
enjoyment of their homes and laurels. This is cer-
tainly not the opinion of the French Government.
The capture of Sebastopol is looked upon as merely
the commencement of a succession of great events.
It is not likely that the Emperor Nicholas will
submit to the humiliation of the defeat he has
already sustained, or will consent on the first check
to the abandonment of that power over the Black
Sea, and, with the Black Sea over Central Asia, which
it has been the policy of his predecessors for cen-
turies past to establish. The French Government
is consequently making preparations on an immense
scale for the prosecution of the war. Not only is
Sebastopol to be taken, but the Crimea is to be
kept, and Perekop garrisoned to resist the huge
armies now on their way to the Crimea to the relief
of their countrymen. it is also said that att soon as
the possession of the Crimea shall have been secured
another expedition of an important character is
contemplated. A winter campaign will take place in
Bessabaria, all the troops which can be spared from
the Crimea being carried back to Odessa, and forming
a junction with Omer Pacha, who will advance for
that purpose from the Pruth. This expedition, if
successfully carried out, would force Russia to
s)andon Ismail, Reni, Toulchkoff, Kilia, and all the
other fortresses on the southern boundary of Bessa-
rabia, which constitute the strength of Russia on
that frontier, and give her the command of the
mouths of the Danube. This is said to be the work

I

cut out for our troops in the ensuing campaign, if
the rumours circulated here be correct ; but, whether
they be so or not, it is certain that in the opinion of
the French Government we are only at the com-
mencement of the war, and that it is making pre-
parations on a gigantic scale for future operations.
A viva number of gun-boats have been ordered, and
the dockyards are in full activity. Great bodies of
men are on their way to Marseilles and Toulon,
where they will be immediately embarked, and
15,000 men have already been despatched. Orders
have also been given for a supply of fusees for con-
greve rockets to the amount of 0,000, and for other
supplies on a similar scale; and, in short, the
preparations now making are greater than they
have been at any period since the commencement of
the war.

THE FUSILIER GUARDS AT ALMA.
The following letter from the seat of war, addressed
to the Countess of Annesley, by her non, the Hon.
Hugh Annesley, of the Fusilier Guards, contains an
interesting account of the part taken by the writer in
the victory of the Alma :
H.M.S. London, Sept. 21.
My dear Mother,— . . . We forced the passage of
the Alma yesterday, and defeated the Russians most glo-
riously, though with great loss to ourselves, owing to their
extraordinarily strong position. Old officers say it was as
strong as Torres Vedras. The Russian army was drawn
up on the heights, upwards of 40,000 strong, and with im-
mensely heavy artillery, 24 and :12-pounders. The light
division advanced to the attack, supported by the first divi-
sion (Guards and Highlanders). They got across the river,
and then advanced against the entrenchments. The 2.3 rd
was in column when the brigade of Guards charged in line.
My company (4th) was next to the colours, and in the very
centre of the line. We got up to within fifty yards of the
ditch, when the regiment before us (which has had the
three senior officers killed) turned right about, and came
down in our face, thus breaking our line. We were about
thirty paces then from the ditch, and the fire was so hot
that you could hardly conceive it possible for anything the
size of a rabbit not to be killed. I kept on shouting,
" Forward, Guards!" to the few men that were not swept
away, when a ball came and stopped my mouth most un-
ceremoniously. It entered the left cheek, and went out at
the mouth, taking away the front teeth. I instantly turned
to the rear, feeling it was about 100 to 1 against my ever
getting there, as the bullets were whizzing round me like
hail. I tripped, and thought it was all over with me.
However, I got up again with the loss of my sword and
bearskin, and at last got into the river, and out of tire. 1
had then another struggle on the other side, where grape
and round shot were ploughing up the ground, and shells
bursting ; however, I stumbled on, and at last got out of
fire, and sat down among wounded and dying soldiers and
horses. The doctors gave me some water, and then were
obliged to go to others ; so when they left I sat there for
above half an hour before I could find out where our
hospital was. At last an officer of the 10th, though
wounded himself, gave me his arm, and took me to the
Fusilier Hospital, where I got some water, and sat down
to bathe my face.
There were six or seven of our fellows there ; one with
five balls in him, another three, and a third with his leg
broken. My servant got me some blankets, and then we
got a stable, half burned down, cleaned out, and five of us
lay there for the night, very wretched, as you may suppose,
operations going on all round us. Some weak brandy and
water and some tea were all we had. The shed we were
in was a horrid thing—the heat, and dust, and flies into-
lerable ; so in the morning four of us came down to the
fleet, and I with two others am on board her Majesty's
ship London. W. S. has been most kind and attentive. I
shall never forget his kindness. I had shot bath and some
arrowroot. I was nearly famished, having had nothing to
eat since four o'clock a.m. the day before. The doctor
says the swelling will soon go down; it is rather painful,
of course, at present.
B-- is all right; the cavalry, being so few, were not
made use of. They showed themselves at the end of the
action, and more than double the number of Russian
cavalry ran away from them like sheep. Poor B—
came to see me in the hovel we were lying in, and burst
into tears when he recognised me, I was so altered. Of
course one cannot have an ounce of lead through one
without swelling, and my face is like a good-sized turnip ;
my mouth much larger than I have any desire to see it in
future. Ido not suppose the ball could have hit me in any
other part of the head where it would not have been
attended with mote danger. A most summary dentist the
ball was to take out all my teeth at one smash, except
four grinders (there was a decayed one, which I hope has
gone with its brethren, but I can't make out yet if it has
or not). There is a good bit of tongue gone also ; but the
doctors say that will not signify, and that I shall speak as
plain as ever, or, at most, only with a becoming lisp; so,
altogether, I think even you must allow that I have every
reason to be thankful, and I hope you will not allow your-
self to fret the least about me.
Just as we were charging the great redoubt, I prayed
" 0 God I spare me!" and I really no more expected to
return alive than if I had been tied to the cannon's mouth.
Only fancy grape and canister being tired at us within
thirty yards, besides a whole battalion letting drive as hard
as they could into us. Both the other officers in my com-
pany were wounded. The colonel (Berkeley) had his leg
broken. All the sergeants were wounded, and two killed ;
and, I believe, at least twenty or thitty of our men.
I was close to Lindesay when the Queen's colour was
smashed in his hand ; there were twenty bullet-holes in it,
yet he was not touched ! Our loss has not been exactly
ascertained, but I should say it is above 1,000 killed and
wounded, and that of the French, I believe, is greater,