The Express.
London, England, 1855-10-01 00:00:00

OUR ARMY IN THE CRIMEA.

isobefinenthetforheibnobitdedriaerredorn
entrance
blackened appearance given to
its two-tiered arcadotortlancewgoalbrlkyeritehseßbetyyrtroteyhhnsdechreungitt,banprpeun
to have suffered no material jail:it th this,
h - - having-
___..---.
lam unable to say what may be the cue inside. Is
„[lt will be saes that the concluding rt of our entree-
esideat's leveret entirely confirmatory eft the important fa
n pre
erne, cad alides"eostsrelfelsedpeitter
beyotitrinivtesiliporan threimis daysjwolorosltheraemateti
lie be lamedulou.] .• •
pawbritcteshthoeyn hlvee
northea shelling gathlide esnheomttyly'shweoforetkingi
is some one hundred yards behiud this building that
thither,wag writ% a lauds
imell3arrtopollB;x- reached the spot yesterday, tour of theirfroinghaetasathno
(121011 OUlf *4'N CORRESPONDENT.) our Allies have placed the two ten-inch mortars with
The
western
nP
or
Bir FrOittnelliptif
paerStTOotPosLe
hibits a yet more melancholy picture of ruin and
olf3sihnecthis,
hadpiecial.:43,
betahndoonzyveerdal
desolation than the quarter lying behind the hill of
the MalakhEff, which I briefly described in my last to more Inpaolraece.Pofriopursin:aemtmlemteibfikeoiffeeT'wehrTic.h Oppositecrownst thei
the re,r of Fort Nicholas is the entrance to, I believe,
letter. Open as it was to the fire of oar own and the
pshrotp.portAtonalotewly
wsatlrlikointgatualti.
French left attacks, u welt as to whatever odd shots brow of the hill behind. This is by far the most id.
' the shipping were able' from ties to time to throw posing private structure in Sebastopol, and the mars
in, hardly a house in it escaped at least partial de-
esiagtoraarnd to
w orikttnitola
stone,. surmounted. by a. massive. and lofty Ina
struction by shot or shell; whilst eveiy ooe of its prin-
cipal buildiege,sotanding as the did ea elevated and routing,
woozioide -
athehignhrst
htennactotosehurteed
exposed sites, had been battered to art extent of which street,
the great majority of those not enraged in the bat- conducts by a gravel roadway to the foot of a bred
teries had no conception till the presint. With the semicircular flight of stone steps, which branch og
aid of even the best glasses, .the extent of the injury at the first landing into two other flights, that leen
done could only be very partially seen from the allied to the upper
evrree of all. Intl centrecentreof this last
trenches ; and we believed, therefore, that, with some littaladesisaoa, marbleied suraimationanalteeidit
by .withi
ganalleinysctrhiptioa la
few exceptions in that portion of the suburbs which whilst behind, the broad flower-bordered footita4
lay nearest to the siege works, the main body of the conducts to the mansion above. 'this much I
tow. was in reality but little harmed by our fire. could see from the outer street ; further in.
I made a partial tour of this quarter of the town @petition was debarred by the Frenchman who kept
~ an
guard below at the gate. On the same level '
on the 9th, the day after our occupation; but toe the palace stands the church of St. Nicholase a tli
hand.
thronging crowds of plundering French prevented some Grecian edifice, and the chief church of the tows,
any but a very incomplete inspection of the place, Standing prominently on a spur of this lofty bill,
and the explosion of two mines—one of them so near this imposing structure is not without some resew,
as to have covered me with the debris of the blow-up blanoe to the Parthenon, at Athens, though, of coot%
much inferior in size to that splendid relic of the old.
—suggested additional reasons for postponing a
world art; but its strikingly handsome rows of
further exploration for some days, when both these Corinthian pillars will, at first sight, suggest a reap!.
hindrances to a quiet look-round would have gone lection of the former to any one who has looked on ill
by. Yesterday, therefore, entering the town by exquisite remains.
the Woronzoff road, which is being thoroughly Continuing my rounds past the Priace's Otte, I
repaired;,* fatigue parties of our men, I passed
wound up the broad street which leads to that part
ofathils town a4ut%hrean,:toirnteh.w.,..eterern
textremity of whic
commenced h
round the eastern end of the Strand Battery, std Q.
a leisurely rids through the much like those behind the Malakhoff Nouse
, oull •
sd
region of shops and private mansions, ex- and semi-eastern in appearance. In hardly any is.
tending from the southern extremity of the Ad- stance do the doors open on the street, but into little
miralty Creek to the Cemetery and Fort Quarantine, enclosed couriyards,entered by wooden gateways from
This battery, which ruts across the whole of the without. But here,sgain, wreck. ruin, and deeolatioa
are everywhere enthroned: what the shot and shell of
narrow valley which separates the Redan hill from the besiegers had left unfinished, has been ensue
that on the slope and summit on which the main mated by the voluntary incendiarism of the besiege.
body of the town is situated, is a low but massive Crouched amid the charred relics of her qucoaaa
work of twenty-one heavy ship pas, that effectually homestead, I discovered a poor cat, who oo my ends.
commanded the approach to the town in thatdirectit n, vouring to reach her, raised a feeble and melancholy esy
—eloquent of starvation—and, evidently in a frisgoos
sweeping, as its armament did, the slopes of both
stage of exhaustion, walked slowly away to die
bills and the valley in front. It now forms the some safer seclusion. Trifling as was the insides fa
incident, ft
dividing line in this direction, between the helped to deepen the sense of ruin and lonelinse
French and ourselves in the occupation of the town. Induced by the surrounding ace roe. Beyond this
Om* past this, the rood, which is every where broken Point, as I epproached the defending batteries on the
and ploughed up by the fire of the Allied batteries. crown of the slope which overlooks the Coastal,
and opposes the works on the French left attack, the
winds gradually upwards along the western bank of destruction done to everything capable of suffering
the creek till it reaches the top of the bill, where an injury reached its climax : in fact the shapeless
abrupt turn to the left leads at once into one of the masses of ruins which covered the whole ground
main thoroughfares of the town. At this could hardly be identified as having ever been ha.
point a strong barricade, formed of heavy man abodes; scarcely one stone stands upon another.
fhe ground, too, is strewn with shot and fragnientti
blocks of stone, and pierced with embrasures .
of shell nearly as thickly as a London street with
for two small pieces of cannon, which have been paving-stones, and honey-combed all over with the
shoved round out of the way, guards the en- pits made by their fall. At several spots of opse
trance to the street, and commands the summit ground in this neighbourhood vast piles of hammered
of the hill. As this species of street defence is similar or chiselled stone had been collected, and are now piled
in construction everywhere throughout the town, I up, as if in preparation for the eiecticn of some pub.
may here remark that it consists of two parts, one of lie buildings, but the execution of this project, if it
which is slightly in advance of, and in a measure existed, is now, I need not say, " incl. finitely posts
overlaps, the other, so as to permit of a passage be- poned." Having scrambled to the brow of the hill,
tween without in any way breaking the line of bar- I reached the largest of the Artesian batteries defend.
rier opposed to an attacking force in front. In some of ing this quarter of the town, end had an opportunity
the broader thoroughfares these barricades mount four of constrasting its construction with that of theßeeme
pieces of cannon, and,sbut loss they are on either fl 'Lk described in my last letter ;* but I found it to be
by the houses, form in such instances, very formida- merely another instance of the rule to which that
ble street batteries. Behind all of them, abundant work and its immi dilate flanking supports appose to
supplies of grape, conirer, and round shot had been form the only . xeeptions. It consisted only of the
placed in readiness, so tbs., what with a short point- usual sited° line of battery with the ordinal
blank fine from these and musketry from the houses strengthening abutments; but without soy of the
oneitberside,anassailing column would have met with near supports which constitute the Redan a virtually
such a reception as few troopecould have endured. In- double work. This peculiar character of the latter
deed,ioternally defended softie now seen to be at every redoubt was certainly a practical compliment to its
point from which a gun could have been worked opponents, the English, though had it been fought
with advantage one's surprise at the abandonment out to the list it would have quadrupled their die
of the town becomes increased the farther one pens- ficulty in eff-cting its reduction. It would have been
trates. To be sure, in the long run, its defenders easier to take ten elalakhoffs then one Redan, con•
i could have been buried amid its ruins; but any sidering that even in Its perfect state the former
attempt to reduce them by a piecemeal capture of the work, if once entered in front or turned in flank. was,
' town by troop, must have resulted in a loss which to properly supported assailants, an accomplished
' would have far eclipsed any the allied army has yet capture; whilst with the latter, at this point the
• sustained. difficulties and dangers of an enemy cult:wooed. The
Passing along the broad roadway into which I bad runs of this battery on the western side of the town,
now entered, I found that the gift er part of the ruin differently from any others I had seen, ran upon a sort
visible on both sides bad been caused tey the voluo- of railway, and were each worked from a smell elevated
tary burning of the enemy themselves. The majority platform much above the inner level of the batter,
of the bowels on the right, which were mostly of one itself: their carriages, too, were of a constructem.
' story, had apparently been 'chops, and every one of which permitted of a much greater depression thee
these, as well as the handsome villa structures on the in any of the other Russian works I have hitherto
opposite si e of the street, had been destroyed by the visited, to a degree, indeed, which would have raked
flames. Most of the latter buildings were separated from an attacking party on the very edge of the ditch.
the street by small ecelosed oourt-yerds. or ornamental without. Nearly in the matte of the curve formed
parterres, fenced in either by low walls of cut stone by this battery, and some twenty yards in the back•
or lines of handsome iron roiling; gutted and black- ground, was ono of those earth-guna, so to speak,
coed as they had been by the fire, they pruented a with whose long range shits and shells and enemy
sad picture of ruin and desolation. I passed through used to annoy our regiments in front, as I have
one of their gateways, before which a French sentry had occasion to report more than once. The gas
was standing with as nonchalant an air as if he bad in this indent* was neither more nor lees than a plain
been on guard at the Palais Royal or the Piece Vet,- oast iron tube, without either trunnions or external
dome, and explored the interior, as well as the debris of moulding of any kind, and was sunk about four feet
the fireand the other obstructions permitted. Ahead. into the earth, at an angle of about 43 degrees. It
some balcony ran along the whole front of the house, was apparently of a 10-inch bore, and a shell of that
which was of two stories, and to this a stone stair. dimension was visible within it at the time. Some{
case led up front the courtyard, at either end, score of small cohorn mortars were also lyier
Along the balcony several atone vases gave evidence about, as likewise several eight or ten six,
of the floricultural taste of the late inhabitants of the Pounders on light field carriages. In the
mansion ; a couple of small aloes, a broken orange centre of the redoubt, and under cover,
tree, and some other plants yet remaining amid the of the earth-work, stood a small wooden chapel,'
general wreck around and below them. Is the rear inside which some simple altar fittings, with pieces
of the house a garden, laid out with exquisite taste, of half-burnt tapers, still remained. I may just add,
stretched in a succession of stair-like terraces up the that in this, as in all their other batteries which I
face of the hill, balustraded flights of stone have yet seen, the enemy were abundantly supplied
steps leading up from one to the other, and gravelled with every variety of ammunition ; grape, canister,
pathways, walled in with trellised railing covered round shot, and shell lying piled up everywhere
with vine'', running from end to end of each, from throughout the redoubt.
the breaks in which the eye took in the fine peso- I returned by a route which, with the rambles a[•
rams of the broad Admiralty Creek below, the white my two previous visits, formed a tolerably complete ,
pilesof government buildings beyond, and the heights round of the entire town on this side of the Creek,
away across the harbour on the north side. Even and I everywhere saw the same utter destruction,
here, however, round shot and fragments of shells and the like complete system of street barricades
lay thick around ; and-a huge gap bad beep battered which had been prepared against a last final struggle,
in the fenoe-wall at the top by an ugly Lahcister to the death. Verily it would have been such to
shot, which lay among the ruins. What a contrast contest as Frenchmen, with all their trio-
was the whole scene to the picture of beauty sad ditional acquaintance with street fights before
refined enjoyment which the place doubtless pre- and since the Bastille, never encountered be..
seated twelve or fifteen months ago! fore. I would have re-entered our own lines-
Further down, on this left side of the street, were through the Redan, but was glad to be stopped, rev
' the remains of what had bctn a row of very hand- the ground that the magazines, remarked on in my!
some European shops, also of two stories, and very last letter, as left to themes-lees for explosion, were
similar in appearance to those which may be seen in being emptied of their dangerous contents. Why
Lyons, Rouen, or any of the other first-class pro- the smouldering fabric above had not been at moo
rinds' towns in France. Very few of then bore any extinguished, and this removal sffected at first, I
external traces of cannot shot, and the whole had am puzzled to conceive; bat in this, as in some ether
evidently been complete and comparatively unin. things, our chiefs seem to be tardily recognising the
jured, till fired by friendly hands ten or fifteen days principle of " better late than never.', A strong work-
ago. Portions of the gilt-lettered sign-boards still ing party was also engaged in shovelling more earth
remained overthedoors,and the relics of burnt counters over the dead hundreds in the ditch of the Redan,
and shelving were visible within. A fewhundred yards whence effluvia were already emerging in volumes
farther on on the opposite side of the street, stands sufficient to poison the atmosphere for miles roved.
the green-cupolaed building which had all along Report affirms that our engineers are already Pro*
been so conspicuous an object from our own camp. paring to blow up the whole of the beautiful dry
A French sentry demurred to my entering, but a docks and other buildings belonging to the Arsenal,
franc settled hie scruples and I passed within the now in our occupation; bat beyond this rumour I
broad doorway which leads into the interior. The know nothing of the intention or the probability of
whole structure with the exception of a small its execution. The French have already collected the
branching wing in the rear, is covered by the dome, fragments of the flowing bridge, which had drifted
which 'rends with a fine spa, over a flagged into the Amiralty Creek, and are connecting them, to
chamber of some thirty-five or forty feet in the form a passage from their side of the creek to our
Square; a low railed-off platform or dais, occupied the own.
further side, and gives the place very much the appear- Such, then, briefly, is*the state of Sebastopol, and
ance of a court of justice without advises-tee' beacbes. such, too, the only works which its captors have as
A chain to which a lamp or chandelier had been at- yet commenced within it. What a week or a month i
tachedbungdownfromtheoentreoftheroof,andbroken may bring forth in its destiny, the uninitiated, like .
furniture of various kinds lay all round the building. myself, can neither foresee nor foretell. The novelty ,
A short way past this Town-ball, or whatever it may of the change in our camp lifee_which has followed its,
have been, the street terminates in abroad esplanade, fan, bas not even yet worn off ; and, in the strange"
on the other side of which stands the long range of stillness which night now ushers in, sleep is almost
Fort Nicholas and its stunt sagszleee. An you difficult to court, after the cannonading lullaby to which
have already printed a saMelestly seearate deserlp. we had been so long accustomed. Novel as this quill ;
tion of this formidable piles as mesa from the, is during the day, when everywhere seems pervaded
trenches, I may merely remark that the by an oppressive silence like that which reigns ova'
oily change which it has iliac* vatiorgooN a school play-ground on the; first day after the