The Express.
London, England, 1859-09-14 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1869.

CHINA.

We have received by special supreme our oano•
spondence and parcels from India and China by the
overland mail vi& Marseille/.

THE ATTACK ON THE TAKE FORTS.

(Prom the (,4se Oiemeor.)

The lamentable intelligence we have to oonvey by
this mail lea new difficulty with the Chinese autho-
rities, which led to an attack on the 26th of Jose
from and upon the Take Forte, at the month of the
Peiho, resulting in the total defeat of the Britieh
force, with the lave of no less than Bee gunboats and
between 400 and 600 men, or about one-third of our
twee employed.

The following letter contains a graphic and moving
description of the engagement at Take, and of the
heroic valour displayed by ear officers and men :

OFF THE PIIIIIO, lux. 28.
I feel scarcely equal to the painful teak of attempt-
ing to describe occurrences which I am altogether
iaeoespetent to depict in sufficiently striking and
vivid esteem, and yet on the vivid as well as correct
representation of which, I feel, depends the honour
of all the brave men with whom I am serving,—nay
more, of Old England's stainless fig itself.
As I did not keep a journal of the previous day'e
proceedings, I shall cocaine myself to those of the
illedarred 25th.

At daylight on the morning of that day the gun-
boats weighed and proceeded to make a last attempt
to remove the barriers that the Chinese had placed
across the entrance of the river, and were evidently
determined not to remove of their own aceord.

Thews, however, being composed of strong iron
bars and chains, ancesssively resisted all the efforts
made for their removal, up to 12 o'clock, when the
order was given that the men should have their
dinners, after which it was generally understood we
I should open fire on the forts. Strange to may,
daring the six or eight hours in which these
preliminary measures were being effected neither
was a single gun fired from the forts, nor was there
symptom evident that their occupants were pre-
pared to defend them. Every embrasure was screened
with matting, sad not a head was visible over the
ramparts; and this, although the gunboats were all
only from 500 to 700 yards distant, and were all at
sixes and sevens from some getting aground, while
others had to haul them off, and the spaoe in which
they had to move being too confined to allow of their
isanoauvring.

Dinner having been finished, about half-peat one
o'clock the signal was run up to prepare for action,
and the Operetta (Limit• Commander Balfour), with
Captain Willer, R.N., and the Plover,with our brave
old admiral, pushed in close up to the first barrier.
No sooner did they arrive there, than suddenly, and
as if by magi*, the mats that sweated the guns in all
the curtain hattmies were triesd rap, and the whole of
the gnu opened Are. Oar vessels being all well
prepared, however, the fire was immediately re-
turned, and the action became general.
It was at once evident, though, that we had no
ordinary Chinese artillery to contend against. Their
fire, both in weight and precision, was such as few
men, and I feel certain no Chinese oarapaignetee
seer before experienced. In • very few minutes the
Opossum had *emend of her crew killed or wounded.
In the Plover the Admiral was severely bit; her
gallant commander, Ramon, and Captain McKenna,
of the let Royals (doing duty on the Admiral's staff )
were killed, and almost every man of thecrew dis-
abled ; while the Haughty (Lieut. Commander
I Broad), Lee (Lieutenant Commander Jones), Kee-
-1 trel (Lieutenant Commander Bevan), and Cormorant
I (Commander Wodehouse), were so severely crippled
that they were in a sinking state. The Lee, in-
deed, would have gone down at ones but for Limit.
Broad, in the Haughty, dashing in to her rescue,
sad towing her out under a heavy Are. Neverthe-
less, the bombardment was kept up with unabated
♦igour, and in about two hours the enemy's the
began sensibly to slacken ; and (although they bad
got our range so exactly that almost every shot told,
while ours, though admirably directed, did compa-
ratively little damage to their mud walls) shortly
after 4 o'clock it became almost silenced.

At about five o'clock, the anxiously expected
signal wee accordingly made for the troops to land
and smelt, which was briskly answered by them;
every boat containing them striving to be the first to
reach the shore. Not a soul in the sqnsdron at that
moment, I believe, doubted our obtaining a speedy
victory. Just as the first boat touched the shores
however, bang went a gun again from the
forts, immediately followed by a perfect hurricane
of shot, shell, gingall bath, and rockets from
all the southern batteries, which mowed down oar
men by tens es they landed. Nevertheless, out of the
bate they all leaped with undiminished ardour
(many into water so deep that they had to swim
to the shore), and dashed forward through the
mud, while the ships threw in as heavy a cover-
ing fire as they possibly could.
The enemy's fire, however, continued to be so
deadly, and the mud proved so deep (in most places
reaching up to the men's knees, at least—often up
to their waists) that out of the 1,000 men who landed
barely 100 reached the first of the three deep and
wide ditcher, which, after some 500 yards of
wading through the mud, presented them-
selves before the gallant few who got
so far, and out of that small number scarcely
twenty had been able to keep their rifles or their
ammunition dry. Nevertheless, they boldly faced
those new difficulties, and some fifty of them, with a
crowd of officers (among whom were conspicuous the
commanding officer of the French contingent, Com-
manders Commerell and Heath, R.N., Major Parke,
and Lieut. Hawkey of the Matinee, Major Fisher
and Lieut. Maitland of the Engineers), succeeded
in getting as far as the furthest bank of
the third ditch, from which they would
certainly have made a good attempt to ecale
the walls had ladders been forthcoming; but, out
of the number that were landed, all bat one had
either been broken by shot or had stuck in the mud.
With the remaining one, however, ten devoted men
sprang forward, three of whom were immediately
shot dead, and five wounded severely.

A vertical fire of arrows, as well as a constant
fusillade, wee kept op on the select band who now
crouched in the ditch, waiting, but in vain, for rein-
forcements ; and that any of them afterwards
escaped alive is miraculous. Seeing what in-
surmountable difficulties presented themselves,
the order was at last given to retire; the lion-
hearted commander of the troops, Colonel Lemon, of
the Royal Marines (who was one of the Bret Into the
farthest diteh); Captain Vansittart, of the Magi-
donne; and Captain Shadwell. of the Highftyer, all
having been severely wounded. The luta was
badly shot through the foot shortly after LAMB',
but nevertheless managed to struggle manfully for-

ward, even to the advanced Mesas. Poor Captain
Yeasittart had his leg shot off. Lieutenant Graves
of the Assistance, Lieutenant Clutterback of the
Otwomandel; young Herbert, of the Chesapeake;
and Lieutenants Inglis and Woolridge, of the Royal
Marines, were all killed while gallantly cheering
Me their men ; and at least three-fourths of the
officers who landed were more or less severely bit.
In effecting the retreat even more lives were lost,
perhaps, than in advancing, as the Chinese, by light-
ing blue lights, were enabled to discover the exact
position of our then reeling and thoroughly
exhausted men, and so to shoot them down
like birds. Even on arriving at the water's
edge, matters were not improved, as so
many of the boats had been smashed to
pieces by round shot that there were not enough
remaining to take off the surviving men. Several
were drowned in attempting to get off, while many
had to remain for more than an hour up to their
necks in water before they could get a place in •
boat ; and even then their dangers were not past, as
the fire from the forts continued so heavy that
Wend boats full of wounded were stria and
swamped *nue -palling off to the ships. The
Ctficanandel was made the temporary hoe-
pital ship, and the scene on her upper deck was
truly horrible. It was nearly one o'clock before the
lut boat load of wounded was brought off to her, and
long ere that hoar she was crowded witii the muti-
lated and the dying. Every exertion, however, was
made by the medical staff (to whom, and especially
to Dr. Little, of the Marines, great credit is due),
and long ere daybreak every sufferer had his wounds
tended. Every operation (and their number was
sickening) I wee gratified to hear was performed
under the influence of chloroform.

Oar proportionate loss has, indeed, been frightful
—434 killed and wounded. The Ist battalion of
Marines alone, which landed barely 400 strong, has
lost altogether 172 killed and wounded; the Chesa-
peake 26 killed or missing, and 34 wounded; and
the gunboats, 90 killed and wounded. No expecta-
tion whatever is entertained of those who are re-
turned missing being still alive. With such enemies
as the Chinese, and under the peculiar circurostanoes
of the ease, all such hope is out of the question.
The belief is universal throughout the squadron
that Europeans manned the batteries ea well as
Chinese. Men in grey coats, with closely cropped
hair, and with kaolin feature', were distinctly
visible in the batteries, and the whole of the fortifi-
cations were evidently of European designing. Some
of those who advanced near to the wall even go so
fez u to declare that they heard men calling for
" more powder," in Russian ; and this morning it is
reported that two dead bodies Boated out of the
river, dressed in Chinese clothes, but having incon-
testably European faces. The damaged forts have
already been repaired, and have never ceased to
fire upon the boat" that are still engaged under
Captain Willes and Commanders CommereU,
Heath, and Wynniatt, in struggling to rescue the
stranded noels. I should have stated that the
Plover, Lee, and Kestrel, all sank in.the oonne of
the evening of the 26th, and the Haughty and Cor-
morant (despatch vessel) early next morning.
Thanks to the untiring efforts of our gallant tare,
however, the Haughty and Kestrel have, under a
heavy fire from the forts, been floated again, and
are in comparative safety, while all the van-
able contents cf the Cormorant, Lee, and Plover
have been either saved or effectually destroyed. All
who have witnessed the operations are loud in their
praises of the gunboat officer., who have all done
duty like heroes. It has undoubtedly been a most
unfortunate affair; but, whatever befell, no one can
deny that the men did all that mortal men could
do. The point selected for landing certainly appears
to have been ill chosen, but yet, as we could not get
past even the first barrier, it seems that after all it
was as good as any that was accessible; and, as to
the expediency of the attack being made at all, I
would only ask—what would they have said in
England, what would the world have said, had we
declined the attack when, as far sa we knew, we bad
only rascally Chinese to contend with ?
Time, I em confident, will prove that Europeans
were our principal opponents, and that to have suc-
ceeded in our attempt we should have bad at least
five times, if not ten times, the force we had.
Lieutenant Peard of the Cormorant is partial-
, laxly worthy of mention for his conduct. Besides
'Ming in action all day with his vowel, he landed,
was first in the ditches, took back a message to the
boats and returned again to the advanced trench.
Lieutenant Peard had served in the trenches during
the whole of the siege of Sebastopol.
The great majority of the men hit are either dan-
gerously or severely wounded, but I am happy to say
they are almost all doing well. The weather is very
favourable for them, being cool, with fresh breezes
from the north and north-east.

The French, out of their small landing party of
00 meo, had 15 killed or wounded. The Americans
assisted as considerably, by means of a small
steamer with which they towed up several of our
boats into action from the large ship', and
also after the action, by taking out to their
respective ships a number of our men, to whom they
showed every kindness. They were loud in their
praises of the daring our men showed, and have sent
large presents of fresh meats and vegetables for the
benefit of our wounded.

The following remote were actually engaged:—Coro-
mandel, 2 guns, tender to deg-shit', Clatterbuck, lieutenant-
commanding; Comment, 4 guns, gun vessel, Wulehouse,
conszaudec ; Nimrod, 6 VMS, gun rased, Wynniatt, acting
commander; Plover, 2 guns, gumboot, Ration, lieutenant-
commeading ; OposeLn, 2 guns, gunboat, Balfur, Idiots-
nent-ccmmanding ; Haughty, 2 goo, gubost, Broad, lieu-
taunt-commanding; Les, 2 guns, gunboat, Jones, haute-
mat-commanding; Kestrel, 2 guns, gasket, Bevan,
inuenent-commanding ; Janus, 2 guns, gunboat, Lewitt,
Bailment" commanding ; Butane, 2 guns, gunboat, Jen-
hiee, lieutenent-conatunding ; Sterling, 2 guns, gunboat,
Whitshed, lieutenant-commanding; Forester, 2 guns, gun-
boat, limes, lieutenant-commanding. Also a small French
gunboat with one bow gun.
Casualties before the Psi-ho Forts on the 25th of
June, 1659 :

KitMd.—Lieut. Graves, R.N., Assistance, killed cc
shore ; Lieut. Clutterbuck,R.N., Coromandel, do.; Lieut.
Basco, R.N., Plover, killed on board ; Capt. McKenna,
Royal Regiment, do. Ploysit ; Mr. Herbert. mid., Chesa-
peake, Medea short ; Lient.Woolridge, R.M. Brigade, do.
do. ; Lint. Inglis, R. K. Ingham, killed in boat.
Wounded.—Adralnl Hope, effetely; Captain Vanalteart.
Megideame, for of Wt leg below boss ; Captain Birdwell,
Higheyer, severe wound of foot; Captain Willes,Chmapeeke,
slightly; Colonel LIMO, R.M. Brigade, eeverely ; Lieut.
Higher', allght/y; Lieut. Buckle, Magi-
came, slightly ; Mr. Burdens, Heater, Bante•rer, elightly;
Mr. Armitage, noidablpreen, Cruiser, severely; Mr. Paulin;
mideihignma, Cambriaa, severely ; Yr. N. B. Smith, sets,
Cr'-.lerama severely; Mr. Phillips, mooted UMW, Pll~.
allginly; Lieut. Langley, B. Bug., Plover, timely;
Rev. H. Hnlse, chaplain, N. M. Brigade, severely; Captain
Maeleee, Chesapeake; Captain Slaughter, B. K. Brigade;
Lissiumat Wiillame, R. K. Artillery ; LlentenemiCreerford,