The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

THE AFFAIR AT MATSCHIN.

A LETTER from Galatz, of the 15th ult., gives the
following narrative of this attack, the first military
operation which has taken place on the right bank of
the Danube :
In the night between the 12th and 13th December, two
Russian steamers, having six gun-boats in tow, passed in
front of Galatz on their way to Ibraila. ()n the following
',Aiming, about ten o'clock, a heavy cannonade was heard
in the direction of Matschin, a Turkish town, containing
from 4,0(X) to 5,0(N) souls, situated about four leagues
south-east of Ibraila, in the embouchure of one of the arms
of the Danube, at the foot of a range of mountains, where
a few small breastworks have been thrown up. According
to the latest information received the following are the
cause and circumstances of the combat which took
place near• Matschin. For nearly a month the garrison of
that place, consistingof from 5,000 to 0,45)0 infantry, and
a small detachment of cavalry, was a continual source of
annoyance to the garrison of Ibraila, by sending out excur-
sions of sharpshooters to attack the Wallachian outposts
stationed on an islaud opposite the town. These outposts,
• ght or ten in number, which commanded a view of the
Turkish operations, were successively destroyed by small
detachments, which, under cover of night, landed on the
island, surprised and set fire to their quarters. General
Ludsrs, wishing to put an end to these continual attacks,
had issued the order to the commander of the garrison of
Ibraila to organise a volunteer corps, to constitute some
companies of sharpshooters, to be conveyed across the
right bank to make excursions in the vicinity of Matschin.
But as the appeal was feebly responded to, though height-
ened, it appears, by the prospect held out of booty in the
s'iape of pillage, the general resolved to attempt a coup de
us On against Matschin.
Accordingly, on the night of the 12th December, the two
steamers, with the six gun-boats, landed 5,000 men on
the right bank of the Danube, 2,000 of which belonged to
the garrison of Ibraila, 1,000 to the camp of Sereth, and
the remainder to the garrison of Galatz. This little corps,
commanded by Brigadier-General Engelhardt and Colonel
Daman, advanced on Matschin with the intention of at-
tacking it in the rear or the north-eastern side. Whilst
this movement was being carried out, the flotilla under the
direction of General Luders, who, with his staff, was on
board one of the steamers which did not take an
active part in the action, arrived where the canal
crosses into the Danube, and attacked a battery
situated on the extreme left of the town. The fire opened
at half•past ten, and was kept up on both sides till 110011,
at which hour it ceased, when the flotilla, abandoning that
point, attacked a second battery on the extreme right of
the town, so as to combine its fire with that of the in
fantry, which was approaching the town. This second
battery received the enemy still more vigorously than the
first, and withstood unsubdued the firing of the flotilla till
nightfall. The water of the river being very low, the Rus-
sian guns were pointed too high above the banks, and the
balls nearly all passed over the battery. This resistance,
joined to the energetic defence of the garrison of the town,
which at noon exchanged a warm fusillade with the Russian
infantry, completely defeated the projected coup de main,
the only object of which was to take the place and burn it
down, and compel the Turkish garrison to retreat into the
interior. According to Russian officers, the same plan
appears to have been adopted to drive away the Turkisi
garrisons from all the points they occupy on the right bank
"f the Lower 1 ianiibe, and from which they would not fail
to make excursions to the left bank should the river become
frozen over.

Even according to the Russian version they had from
404) to 34)4) wounded at the attack on Matachin. The
troops forming the expedition returned to their quarters on
the night between the 13th and 14th. The flotilla re-
ceived very immaterial damage, from which it would ap-
pear that the guns of the Turkish batteries were of very
light calibre.