The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-02 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF SEBASTOPOL.

The following important and interesting informa-
tion is contained in a letter just received from a
captain in the Royal Engineers, in a letter which
is dated the 9th of April. It may be stated that
the officer in question is one of the three superior
Engineer officers upon whom i t will devolve to take
a leading part in the assault upon Sebastopol. He
says :

"On the extreme right of the Russians, and consee
quently opposed to our extreme left, is a
bastion,, called
by the French the Bastion Du mat, and b
y
nsth e
Flag-
staff Bastion, owing to its having,
when we first
cam
e, a flagstaff in the salient. Thisn
bastion is one
large battery, or rather succession of batteries, and the
French left attack is principally directed against' it.
Next come what are called the Garden Batteries, which
are a succession of batteries in three tiers, and very
powerful batteries they are, well supplied with 13-inch
mortars, of which our left attack reaps the entire benefit.
It was one of the shells from these batteries that
wounded
Armit yesterday. We oppose these batteries with the
right pertion of the French left attack and the left por.
tion of the Englieli left attack. Next comes the creek that
rans up towards us, in which the Russians put ships that
can fire on our camp. Then comes the Barrack Battery,
a most powerful assemblage of cannon, against which
the principal force of the English left attack is directed.
We have the battery all to ourselves, as we get the
entire benefit of its fire. Next comes the Redan, con-
sisting of two faces, one of which is directed against our
left attack and the other against our right (I mean the
English right). You must know that the English left
attack and the English right attack join each other and
form the centre of the entire attack, the French left at-
tack being on the left of us, and their attack on the right
of ours, iecluding Inkerrnan and all that part. Well, to
prhoceed. Next to theßedan comes the MalakhoffTower,
wwheerie is the key of the whole position, and the spot
efgaanlilt willthe be
eothnelar
the rear of assault
deb.attletrieies,
obtain possession of it e considerablythat i
f we
to
e
their other
defences in the rear. In front
should sea all
and about
half-way between
it land
the(
it is Sower, and
French right attack, is the of the
advanced works
.1
far-famed Mamelon-hi 1,
which is now causing
such a stir It is a knoll which
commands most of the Russian
works about the tower,
and enfilades many of our 'i
advanced trenches. It was
always considered our weak point. About five weeks
ago the Russians made a lo
aging
,habout half-way between
the t 'ever and the Mainele.
them out of this, and failed. sine French tried to drive
have advanced on the Manaelon itself,eethat the Russians
and,ta. in spite of
all the efforts of the French, have
constructed on it a battery of •13 large gruensined it, and
" My principal duty here is to be in the trenches.
w
There are four captains to take command of thework
s,
each of whom remains 24 hours down there,
so thate m;
turn comes one day in four. We have a subaltern under
us, who only stays 12 hours, so that I remain through
two reliefs of subalterns. The working parties are re-
lieved every eight hours.
"Now, as our advanced works are within 700 yards
of the main batteries of the place, and they keep up a
constant fire on our working parties, you can ima-
gine how harassing this work sometimes is. No
man, be he ever so brave, can stand under fire
for so long a time, inactive so far as fighting is
concerned, without finding it a great wear and tear
to his nerves. The first hour is the worst, as after that
one gets more used to it. The Russians treat us to a
pleasing variety in the way of projectiles. First comes
the round shot of all size, which rushes past you with a
shriek something like a railway whistle badly blown.
Next comes the grape, which flies slower and round,
like a covey of strong birds, flying very swiftly. Then
comes a gunshell, which approaches like a round shot,
but has the pleasing trick of bursting when it reaches
you ; so that you have to run a double risk—first of the
shot itself, and then of the pieces. Next comes the
mortar-shell, which, though it is really the worst
of all the large projectiles, I somehow dread the
least ; it remains in the air for nearly half a minute,
and in the night you can see it quite plainly, owing to
its bearing the fuse. It glances along very gracefully,
rising to a great height, and making a gentle whistle
every now and then like a peewit or plover, which be-
comes louder and louder till it drops. Although you
can see it all the way, it is a most difficult thing to tell
where it will fall ; and none but the oldest hands (men
of whom it is said that they have got so inured to fire
that a cannon ball would hop off the pit of their stomachs)
can really make a good guess as to where they will drop.
What-makes it worse than a gun shell is that the former
flying so low retains its impetus, so that if it is once past
you before it bursts all the pieces will continue to fly for-
ward and you are safe. Whereas as the mortar shell is
pitched as high as it will go into the air, and then drops,
the pieces have no other impetus than what the bursting
charge gives them to fly in every direction for a
radius of upwards of 200 yards, and sometimes consider-
ably more. But my greatest horror of all, and the dead-
liest foe we have, is the Russian rifle bullet. It is not
so perfect as ours, but, as Mercutio says, It will do
well enough.' I will give you a sketch of it the size of
life. (Here is given an admirable pen-and-ink sketch of
the bullet, which is, like the English, conical.) This
little gentleman gives you no warning, but flies about
all day long, and ranges 1,200 yards. At a quarter of
that distance it will go through two men.
"You ale nie my opinion about the siege. In the first
place, I feel great diffidence in speaking about it, having
had no previous practical knowhdge of the subject.
Then, again, our itArtnation concerning the resources of
the en,rny inside the town so uncertain and so contra-
dictory, that one has no guile to go upon. No one who
has seen the awful strength of the defences, stretching as
they do completely round this side, with tiers of batteries
and intrenchmenti one behind the other, and frequent
salient points flanking the entire line, and bringing a
tremendous crossfire upon every point, but must feel
that an assault now will be attended with far greater
carnage than it would have been six months since. And
yet that assault must be made, and, in my humble opi-
nion, within the next ten days. God grant that it may
be successful, for on it will depend the safety of the en-
tire army. I know that the assaulting columns are told
off; and the engineer officer who has to lead them, but
it is kept secret. There are at the present moment in the
left attack only three engineers between whom it will
lie, for it will be a captain, and one of our captains was
wounded three or four days ago. The chances are there-
fore two to one against it being me ; but if it is I shall,
I hope, do my duty, and it I survive I shall have certain
promotion. Anyhow, we shall all get a clasp for the
business, and it is one that must be done sooner or later.
" lam very glad that our present harrassing work is
drawing to a clo:,e. Since we have brought our approaches
so much nearer the enemy our engineering casualties
have greatly increased, and within a fortnight, out of a
strength of 32 engineers, only 23 of whom did trench
duty, and were under fire, we have had two killed, two
wounded, and one taken prisoner. The weakest point
in the Russian line is most undoubtedly the Malakhoff
Tower, and this they have lately strengthened by esta-
blishing forts and constructing a most formidable bat-
tery on the Mamelon-hill, so called from its round and
knoll-like appearance. I fancy this will be the point of
the main assault, though I inakeuo doubt we shall assault
in many other places. We shall then push on and try
to enter the tower works with the retreating Russians.
Once within the tower, we shall seize all the rest of
their lines in reserve, and the south side of the town
must be our Then comes the problem ; for the north
side is a still more powerful fortress than the south, and,
unless the fleet can help us, we shall be completely under
their fire, and unable to retain possession of the place.
Time, however, the disposer of all events, will show,
and in the meanwhile we had better set our houses in
order, and prepare to do our duty, as all Englishmen
should.

" I must add a line, before closing my letter, to inform
you that the whole of the batteries of the allied armies
opened fire this morning. Most unfortunately, all last
night and to-day it has been blowing a fearful storm from
the south-west, accompanied by torrents of rain, and
the trenches, the batteries, the roads, and the camp are
alike one vast swamp. You can have no conception of
the quantity of rain that has fallen during the last 24
hours, and, as it is showing no sign whatever of abate-
ment, there is no guessing what will be the end ofit.
i.
I am sorry to say I shall be on duty in the trenches for
24 hours from 5 p.m: this evening, so that I shall
to pass the night exposed to the full fury it, '
addition to the pleasing excitement of atremendous
cannonade. informs-
cannonade. We can get but very
meagre
it is a
tion as to how we are progressing,
to leave the
for any one
work of considerable danger
and the ff s too
batteries while the fire is so heavy i
camp.
Wei have,
great for us to see anything from the
reports,all of which are
a azine in the
Russian m
g
favourable. We blew up one and, they say, have
however, had several flying
Garden Batteries this afternoon,
materially crippled the enemy's fire in the Redan and
the Malakhoff Tower, If I return safe and sound from
the trenches to-morrow ng
i ht, I will give you an account
have done, for
I suppose by that time we
shall have made some
of what we visible progress, if we are ever to
do so." ,

The following circular, signed by the ...A,,Ajutant-kqene-
iiill
ee rocri Horse
CeGroauillanagercecliosl In
a,
a2n4ciainridg.i3ns.
tygr with
ni
rftrenhoi
ytmtseha:et_rh,oetr,
the enlistment of recruits between the
years, for the limited term of two
c e e doi fn
years, and for any further
Chief, with the concurrence of the
ttreharel::nilste enlistmentobenxe
conformity
m issuedi
it to be notified that all recruit Secretary of War, directs
the same bounty as at present s so enlisting will be allowed.
a longer period." granted to men enlisting for
An inspection of the West Rent
was made on Monday, at M Light Infantry Militia
Assistant Adjutant-6ener 1 Maidstone by Colonel Pipon,
view of ascertaining if th General of Militia, evidently with a
Guards,
authorisinge sp
acting
for removal to the camp e men were properly equipped
the at Aldershott. At the conclu-
sion of the inspection gallant colonel expressed his
satisfaction at the state
The Royal SussesArtilleryiu which he found tchhe
hcaosr
corps.
quartered since the Sth of Militia,h whi
Monckton
larc at Fort .
Goßportreturned
, on Wednesday last from Portsmouth
to the Sussex district, and is now distributed as follows :
—Head-quarters, with two companies, at Eastmore ;
two companies at Fort Langley and the adjoining mar-
tello towers ; and the remaining company at Little.
hampton.
It is intended to distribute, as far as may be 'annum,
ble, the regiments of militia on the home service in the
following manner—viz., English and. Welsh regiments
in Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel Islands ; Irish
regiments in England, Wales, Scotland., and the Chan-
nel Islands ; and Scotch regiments in England, Wales,
Ireland, and the Channel Islands. The several regiments
will be relieved periodically, in order to. perfect the men
in garrison duties of every description. Ten regiments
of Irish militia will be concentrated at lildershott•heath
44 tho fonwitioli of the mop,