The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-29 00:00:00

were supported by French or English. A message was
accordingly sent to General Maurice, the French general
commanding the cavalry, requesting him to push for-
ward a body of his men in the rear of the Piedmontese,
but he declined, alleging that he had positive orders
not to pursue, having returned a similar answer to a
similar request on the part of General Erbillon, who
commanded on the heights. This is extraordinary, but
true, and the only thing one can say about it is to ex-
press a hope that there was some good reason for it not
visible at first sight. The greater part of the Russian
artillery now retired, followed up for a short disance by
the French Chasseurs de Vincennes : the cavalry then
advanced in an immense line, forming a crescent, from
out of which issued three guns, which fired away to pro-
tect the retreat, till the last column had wound its weary
way up the road to. Mackenzie's Farm, or disappeared
among the hills towards Tchionlion.
Nothing now remained but to visit the field of battle,
on which the Zouaves had already descended like vul-
tures, and were removing everything portable. The
scene which presented itself on the banks of the river,
below the canal, was something fearful beyond descrip-
tion, much more fearful than.the ordinary horrors of a
battle field. The canal itself was choked with dead, most
of whom had doubtless fallen into it living, after rolling
dawn the hill side, and found repose in its muddy waters ;
broken muskets, bags of bread, cartridges, on dark red
stain on the white chalky gravel, often alone marked the
spot where the men firstfell; in a moment afterwards tum-
bled back to perdition. Many had fallen, after scrambling
up to the brink of the aqueduct, and ere they had time
to cross it, and if not caught in the bushes, rolled into
the plain, breaking their bones in the descent, and lie
there as we passed, shrieking in agony, and imploring
us to kill them and thus put an end to their suffering,
Never did eye rest upon humanity in forms so mutilated,
defaced, and disfigured as these unhappy wretches, who
lay writhing there in their bloody rags, their faces so
plastered over with gore and dust that neither wife nor
mother would ever have recognised son or husband in
those hideous masses of mortality. Some, but they were a
small minority, sought to drag themselves to the shade
of the few bushes that skirted the river ; some sought to
hide their heads from the fiery heat of the midday sun under
their tattered garnients, and others lay with faces upturned
and ghastly, their limbs still trembling in the last quiver,
and the flies already burrowing in their wounds. Men
shot down by any sort of missile, and lying where
they fall, gory and mutilated though they may be,
is a sight to whicho-ne soon gets;habituated, but wounded
men who have been rolled over a rough soil, and their
bones broken in their progress, is one of those sights
that one rarely witnesses, and which he who has once
seen it never wishes to see snore. On towards the bridge
the dead lay thicker and thicker. On the banks of the
river about it, and in the river itself, they were "heaped
and piled," mostly fine men, in the prime of life—many
with a vieuxgrognard air, which bespoke long years of
service. Nearly every one bad a brandy bottle, either
actually in his hand, co lying near him, or broken under
him in his fall. I was xiding with a Polish officer, who
conversed with a great many of the wounded, who in-
formed us that large qussntities of brandy had been served
out to the soldiers before the action, except the artillery-
men. There were a great'. many small platforms lying
about, some resembling ladders with the rungs very close,
and carried by rope•slings attached to each end, as bridges
to be thrown across the aqueduct. The great majority,
however, passed without then. The Zouaves had made
a general collection of orosse 5, relics, and medals, and
retailed them to the visitors, in addition to which pick-
ings from the dead bodies, they made small collections
of money from the persons of the wounded, managing
dexterously to extract it' from the inside of the trousers
close to the knee, where the Russian soldiers generally
carry their money, while pretending to examine into the
nature of their wounds, thus avoiding giving any mental
pain to the sufferers. Some very fine rifles, quite new,
and now seen for the first time, were Isund on the field,
but were instantly taken possession of by the military
authorities, and the sale prohibited. Juriging from what
I saw myself, and from comparing notos with others,
and without being able to say how many bodies may be
in the aqueduct, I should say the number left on the
field was 1,500; the usual calculation is that twice as
many are wounded as are killed, and this, with between
five and six hundred prisoners not wounded, taken by the
French and Piedmontese, would make the total loss of
the Russians little short of 5,000 men hors de combat.
The divisions engaged were the sth, 7th, 12th, and 17th,
most of them belonging to different corps d'armee. One
had never been under tire before, and bad made a rapid
march from Bakshi-Serai and rested eight hours before
the attack. One man, who fell high upon the hill side,
assured us that he was in the last battalion of the re-
serve, and that every single soldier had been sent down
from the heights ; so thathad we pursued them we might
have gained the Mackenzie plateau along with them
and held it. Prince Oortcsbakoff commanded in chief,
and General Martinaloff the assaulting columns. The
whole force, including cavalry and artillery, is calculated
at 50,000 men. There were 60 guns in the field.
There were only ten or twelve officers left on th•
ground, which proves that a great number must have
been carried off in the retreat. The Piedmontese
have lost 300 men killed and wounded ; amongst others,
General MonteVecchio, commanding one of the brigades,
who was shot through the body, and was not expected
to survive through yesterday. The French have about
1,100 men hors de combat.

•
I was standing at the bridge while the French were
collecting the wounded from the other side, and placing
them in the ambulances. The Russians could see per-
fectly well what they were about from Mackenzie heights,
and nevertheless had the barbarity to fire from one of
their batteries right into the crowd on the road. A scene
of great confusion ensued; the ambulance mules galloped
off, causing the wounded they were carrying to shrink
with pain. It was little short of a miracle that no one
was hurt by the shot, which 1 am told, after my depar-
ture, continued to be fired at intervals during the whole
day.