The Express.
London, England, 1860-11-05 00:00:00

~~

THE CHINIEN EXPEDITION.

tenor ors owe oolanirommed
MINT RIAD-QUARTZES, VILLAGE or
ENIIO, anocer ZS
The Commeader- in -Chief having determined, of
sand ul secomaamance, thal the nearest of the Tau
farts w Tankoo, on the north bank of the Pedro
neer, was the vatherable point of the position,
Gelle4l Napier proceeded with a small force in the
alteruou of the 19th to reconnoitre the ground
and prepare for the advance. The troops he took
with nun bivouacked for the night at a distance of
about 20n yards from the forts, on one
ante of a canal, which nine down towards the
river, and as soup :w it was dark the Sappers
set to work to make two bridges over it. They were
not molested by the eoemy, and the work was
completed before moruieg. During the 20th fur-
ther preparations were made, and during the night
the pecked were pushed torsierd, batteries were
thrown up within 900 yards of the wall, and
guns and mortars placed in ponder'. We had two
12-pounder guns, two 24poturikis, two large
howitaars, and three 8-inch mortars. Theme were
all the heavy guns. The party told off for the
attack comprised the 44th and 67th Regiments
of foot, &detachment of the Royal Marilee Batta-
lion, Royal Engineers, and Madras Sappers, Mil-
ward's battery of Armstrong guns, Govan's
9-pounders and howitzeist and a portion of the
Madre mountain train with rockets. The fortifi-
cations on the north bank of the Peiho river con-
sist of two separate forte—one, the larger, at the
point where the river debouches into the sea, which
commands both the direct approach to the mouth
of the river and the line of sea coast
northwards. The second fort, which was the
object of attack, is situated on the bank of the
neer, at a bend 1,500 yards higher up,
and coolie: old, the reach of the river as far as its
mouth, and the ground between it and the larger
fort. Nearly opposite to it but a little lower down
the river is another fort, which can bring a fire to
beat upon the dank of its neighbours, and at the
mouth of the river on the southern side is the
largest and strongest fort of all, the one which was
unsuccessfully attacked last year, which crossing
its fire with the large fort on the northern bank
makes the approach by the ma almost impossible.
The river between these two forts at its mouth was
filled with strong iron stakes, planted in every
direction so thickly as to form an impenetrable
barrier, and above the staltrawasaboomoonstructed
of timber and chain cables, Menthol from one bank
to the other. The forts are all built on the
same plan—a large earthen cavalier or Nilotic*
facing the point to be defended, on the top of which
three guns of heavy calibre are mounted is osee-
mated embrasures. From each side of the cavalier
runs a curtain wall varying in Mg* with the im-
portance of the position, parallel to the line of ex-
pected attack, and with embrasures, mostly case-
mated, in which the guns are placed. If the position
be an important one there are two cavaliers, as in the
northern fort, at the mouth of the river, or three.
as in the opposite southern one—the cavaliers
being connected by the curtain walls. A similar
wall forms the flanks and rear face of all the
works. The cavaliers are only on the front face, but
the dank and rear walls me 12 or 15feet high, with
battlements along the top, and a broad parapet
inside, upon which the guns are mounted. Round
the whole work is a deep ditch filled with water,
with a bottom of unfathomable sticky mud. Some
of the forts have two or even three ditches, with
spaces between covered with bamboo spikes and
wooden stakes sharply pointed. The ditches are
crossed by a drawbridge, in the centre of the rear
face of the fort. The Chinese have apparently made
considerable advance in the science of forti-
fication since 18158. When the Taku forts were
taken on Lord Elgin's advance to Tientsin that
year, they were all open to the country in the rear,
and only affonled cover sod offered opposition is
the front. Whether they have learned that they
are much more formidable to their enemies by being
enclosed all round, or whether they considered that
en open rear offered too tempting facilities to their
own soldiers to run away, I can't say ; but it seems
otirtain that during the last two years the Chinese
engineers have modified their tactics and made this
innovation in their old system of fortifications.
Doubthea, maps and plans of the forts will be
published in England, from which yen will under-
stand far more clearly than from any description
the relative position of the forts. Aa they went all
built for the defence of the river, and we were ap-
proaching by land, it follow that they were taken
in reverse ; but nothing discouraged, as soon as the
enemy discovered our intentions they beinal to
mount guns on the rear face, to turn round the
large pieces on the cave/ism, so as to point the other
way and to strengthen all their outer defences. The
parties employed on the batteries during the night
of the 90th were tired upon repeatedly from the
fort, fire-balls being first thrown up in the air
to ascertain their positions. No harm was I
dune, however, and the work was complete.' without
lona. It was arranged with the French commander-
in-ehief that our allies should send a column of
1,000 men, 500 of whom were to join in the attack,•
and the remainder be held in support. They also
furnished a battery of rifled guns throwing 24-
pounder shot. The French marched down to Taa-
ltoo an the evening of the 20th, and early on
the 21st went out to the front, and took
their &aligned position on the right of our men.
All was ready when day broke. The °yens:ions
were under the direction of Sir Robert Napier, to
whose diviaion the attacking party belonged, and
superintended by the commander-in-chief. The
army opened fire at 5 o'clock, our batteries, replied,
and the fight began. It had been arranged with the
naval commode= that some of the navy of both
minima should co-operate if parable. Ao-
cordingly during the night four English
anal four French gunboats were brought up,
and were run on to the mud flats as far as possible
at high water, on the sea coast tv the north of the
northern forts. In this position they were 2,000
yards (a good shelling distance) from the larger
forts on the north side, and were completely out of I
range of the southern ones. They were left high
and dry in the mud when the tide retired and when
the batteries opened they commenced to throw shells
into the large fort to the north. Our heavy guns
were admirably served, and the fire of the Arm-
strong battery was magnificent At 7 o'clock an
usplusion of a powder magazine took place in the
fort we were attacking, and shortly after another,
and still more terrible one, in the further fort. It
was a stilling sight, a huge fan-shaped column
of dense black nooks suddenly shot high into the
sir, with fragments of beams, and bodies of unfor-
tunate men ; s short silence, and then came the
report—a sharp, stunning crack, like the noise of'
the first buret of thunder when the lightning
shatters the tree at your side, and you fang'
the heavens are rent asunder just over your bead.
Judging from the effects produced sad vieible
in the forts by these explosions, they
mast have caused the death of scores
men. The earth was torn up, showing a huge
crater many feet deep. Massive beam of timber
were dung away like atrawa, and in the larger fort
the huge earthen slope leading up to the cavaliers
was fairly rent by the force of the concussion. The
enemy, however, appeared nothing daunted, and
soon resumed and continued their tire as fiercely as
before. They had many guns in actiou--eume
directed ou the gunboats, one or two from
the other aide of the river ou a picket at
the gate of Tankoo, and the greater num-
ber on the batteries of the attacking party.
They served them with great spirit, but their skill
in pointing and elevating them is small, and their
shot and s6ll--for they fired both—inflicted but
trifling lam. By and bye their fire began to sleeken
—gun after gun shut up. By eight o'clock the fort
which was the object of attack was completely
silenced, and the order was given to advance to the
assault Two companies of the 44th and two of the
57th, a party of Royal Marines carrying pontoons,
and td Sappers carrying ladders, shared the dangers
and the honour, of the storm with our bravo allies.
It is vain to attempt anything like a connected or
emprebeasible mount of the stoma of a place.
If an eye-witness you koow only what you saw, if,
tadesel, you knew that. If you gather the psreicu-