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

the right, anri were beginning to scale the heights, when
taken in flank by the Sardinian batteries, which fired
with admirable precision, they were swept down whole-
,ale and rolled into the aqueduct below.

This first rush did not last more than 10 minutes. The
Russians fell back, but they had scarcely gone a few hun-
dred yards when they were met by the second column,
which was advancing a pas de charge to support the first,
and both united and again rushed forward. This second
attempt was more successful than the first. At the bridge
they forded the river on the right and left, and forced the
defenders of it to fall back. Scarcely was the bridge
free when two guns of the oth Light Brigade of Artil-
lery crossed it and took up a position on the opposite
side in an open space which divides two of the hillocks,
and through which the road leads to the plain of Bala-
klava. While those two guns passed the bridge a third
crossed the river by a ford, and all three began to sweep
the road and the heights. The infantry in the meantime,
without waiting for the portable bridges, which had
moreover been thrown away in great part during the
advance, rushed breast-deep into the water, climbed
up the embankment, and began to scale the heights
o❑ both sides. They succeeded on this point in getting
up more than one-half of the ascent, where the
dead and wounded afterwards showed clearly the
mark which they reached ; but by the time they ar-

rived there the French were fully prepared and met
them in the most gallant style. Notwithstand-
ing the exertions and the perEeverance of the Russians,
they were by degrees forced back and driven, atter an
obstinate resistance, across the bridge, carrying away
their guns.

While this attack took place on the bridge the other
column again attacked the French right. This time
they came on in such a swarm that they were neither
kept back by the aqueduct, nor cowed by the Sardinian

guns, which were ploughing long lanes through their
scattered lines. On they came, as it seemed, irresistible,
and rushed up the steep bill with such fury that the
Zouaves, who lined the bides of it, were obliged to fall
back for a moment before the multitude. You could

plainly see the officers leading the way, and animating
their soldiers. I particularly observed one gallant
fellow, who, at least twenty yards in advance of the

whole column, was the first across the aqueduct, and

I could still see him on the other side of the bill. This

furious rush brought the advancing column in an in-
credibly short time to the crest of the hillock, where

t stopped to form. But the French had not been idle

during the time that the Russians were ascending the hill.
The Zouavers had only fallen back from the side of the

hillock to the main body, which bad been drawn up be-
hind the top. Scarcely did the column of the enemy show
its head when the guns opened on it with grape, and a
murderous fire Wa9 poured down upon it by the French
infantry. This immediately stopped the advance of the

column, which began to waver, but the impetus from
those behind was so powerful that the head of it, not-
withstanding the unexpected reception, was pushed for-
ward a few yards more, when the French, giving one
mighty cheer, rushed upon the advancing enemy,
who, shaken already, immediately turned round and

ran down, if possible, faster than they had come
up. But the mass was so great that all the hurry
could not save there, and more than two hundred
prisoners were taken on the spot, while the hillside,
the banks of the aqueduct, the aqueduct itself, and
the river side were filed with dead and wounded.
,The
Sardinian and French artillery poured, moreover, a
murderous crossfire into the scattered remains of the

column, of which scarcely a shot missed. It was a com-
plete rout. The French rushed down the hillside and

drove them far across the plain. This defeat seems to
have so completely cowed them that nothing more was

attempted on this side.

Not so on the bridge. Notwithstanding the heavy
loss suffered by she second attack, the Russians concen-

trated once more all their forces, collected the scattered

remains of the column which had been routed on the

right of the French position, and brought up all their

reserves to attempt one more attack. They again
crossed the river, and the aqueduct too, and tried to take

the heights, but in vain ;the French were now tho-

roughly prepared, and the tenacity of the Russians served

only to augment their losses. They were soon seen fly-
ing in all directions, followed by the French. This last

attack was decisive, and immediately the usual Rus-
sian preparation for retreat—namely, the advance of
the artillery showed clearly that the Russians

acknowledged themselves defeated and were on the

point of retiring. Three batteries, each of 12 guns,

which during the greatest part of the attack had been

nearly silent, began to open their fire while the scat-
tered remains of the infantry columns rallied behind a

rising ground leading up towards the plateau of Akyer,
or Mackenzie's height.
The Sardinians, who, with the exception of the little
outpost fight on the opposite side of the Tchernaya, had
confined themselves to support the French by their ad-
mirable artillery, which entirely subdued the Russian
fire o❑ the opposite plateaux, began now to move across
the aqueduct. The Russian riflemen, after the last defeat
on the right, bad retired behind the banks of the Tcher-

naya, whence they kept up a brisk but ineffective
fire. A battalion of Piedmontese, preceded by a
company of Bersaglieri, advanced in beautiful order
as if on parade, and soon drove these riflemen
from their position. It even advanced some way
towards the plateaux ; but, as it was not intended
to force the heights, it contented itself supported by other
troops, with following the enemy, who was already in
full retreat.

The French had during the battle brought np a new
division (Dulac's). Besides this, the whole English and
French cavalry were in readiness on the plain leading to
the river, the ground of the, Light Cavalry charge last
year, ready to receive the enemy if he should force the
passage of the river and dehouch on the plain. But Gen.
Morris would not risk the cavalry on the plain, inter-
sected as it was by the branches of the river, and de-
fended as it was by the Russian guns On the height ; so
only two squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique followed the
enemy.

The guns which the Russians had brought up to cover
their retreat suffered so much by the fire from our side,
which was increased by Capt. Mowbray's battery open-
ing upon them from the open ground between the Sardi-
nian and the French positions, that they made off in a
hurry. Scarcely a shot was thrown away, and so ad-
mirable was the practice that all the shot fell at or close
to the guns, which we could plainly distinguish, as a
slight breeze carrying off the smoke left a beautiful view
over the whole of the battle-field. But the Russian guns
returned only for a moment under cover, and soon after
you could see a brilliant line of cavalry debouching from
the rising ground, where it had been hitherto hidden. I
could distinguish five regiments—three in one line, and
two other regiments on the flanks in second line. They
advanced at a gallop, and, wheeling round, allowed 12
guns to pass, which again opened their fire, but only for
a short time, and at half-past nine or ten o'clock the
dust on the Mackenzie road and the black lines moving
off were the only traces which remained of the so long-
threatened attack of the Russians.
Everybody now rushed to the battle-field, and one
look was sufficient to convince them that the allies bad
won a real battle on the Tchernaya. Although
not quite so obstinate and sanguinary as the battle of
Inkerman, which this affair resembled in many points,
it was a pitched battle. The Russians, as in the battle
of Inket man, gave up manoeuvring, and confided entirely
in the valour of their troops. The essential difference
was in the manner of fighting. At the battle of Inker-
man the great mass of the Russians fell under the file
firing and the bayonets of the infantry, while on the
Tchernaya, it was the guns which did the greatest exe-
cution. Most of the wounded and dead showed fright-
ful traces of roundshot, grape, shell, and canister, so that
as a battlefield one could scarcely imagine anything inore
terrible. Nearly all the wounds were on the legs and
the head. On the banks of the aqueduct particularly
the sight was appalling ; the Russians when scaling
the embankment of the aqueduct were taken in flank
by the Sardinian batteries, and the dead and wounded
rolled down the embankment, sometimes more
than 20 feet in height. The French made every possible
despatch to collect the wounded. They were laid on the
open space about the bridge until the ambulances arrived.
While there the Russians, who could see plainly that the
French were engaged in bringing help to their own
wretched countrymen, suddenly began to open with their
guns upon them, repeating the barbarous practice which
they had already oftea previously shown to the troops.
A gentleman who was with me at the moment, and who
speaks Russian, asked one of the poor fellows who was
trudging along with deep flesh wounds on both his thighs,
what he thought of the behaviour of the Russians in fir-
ing among their own wounded ? He answered, " They
are accustomed to beat us when we are with them, and
there is no wonder that they should try to ill-treat us
when we are on the point of escaping their power."
According to the account of the prisoners, and
judging from the straps on the shoulders of the
wounded and dead, three divisions were engaged in the
actual attack,—the sth of the 2d corps d'arntee (of Gen-
Paniutin), lately arrived from Poland, under the com-
mand of General Wrangel ; the 12th division of the 4th
corpsied of General d'arinee(Osten Sacken's), formerly under the com-
na Liprandi, now under General Martino-
lep ; and the 17th division of the 6th corps d'arniee (Lip-
randi's) under Major-General Wassielcosky. The Fri.