The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-03 00:00:00

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r PRICE SD.

LETTERS FROM THE CRIMEA.

[FROM AN OFFICER OF THE ROYALS.
Camp above Sebastopol, Dec. 12.
We have had two days of fine cold weather, with
the wind from the north. Yesterday the wind got
round to the south-west again, which is the rainy
quarter, and it began a little this morning, but it
is fine again now. We got an alarm this morning
at 7, and an order from head-quarters to be ready
to turn out at a moment's notice, and we hear that
the Russians are gathering and threatening our
right flank at Inkerman, but there has been no
firing in that direction as yet. Sunday seems to be
their favourite day for fighting.
The mountains near Simphoropol are covered
with snow, down to a few miles from our position,
but we have had none here yet. I was in the
trenches the night before last, and it was most
bitterly cold. I had two flannel shirts on, a waist-
coat, then a pea-jacket, and my regimental great-
coat, yet it was as much as I could do to keep warm.
The ground, fortunately, was hard and the moon
bright, and the Russians not firing, so that we
could keep in motion, but if there had been the usual
rand it would have been perishing work.
lam now, I hope, quite over the troublesome
attack of diarrhoea, and feel quite well again, and
if I could only get fresh meat this work would,l am
sure, agree very well with me, but I shall soon get
accustomed to the salt meat. The men, too, thank
God, are getting round, with these fine days, but
the loss has been very great. We were till the
last fortnight the healthiest regiment by far, and
all the sickly time at Varna lost hardly any men.
Since the 27th Nov. upwards of 80 have died, and
out of the 120 men who carne out in the last draught
40 are already buried. This shows more than any-
thing else how deadly the fatigue in the trenches is
to those unaccustomed to it. The 9th joined from
Malta 10 days ago, 520 strong ; they have been
some time in the Mediterranean ; now they
have only 250 for duty, and I hoar they can hardly
bury their dead. This may be exaggerated, but
there is no doubt that the British army has suf-
fered more these last few weeks from sickness than
from the sword. Our men drag on to the trenches
While they can scarcely stand, and take a pride in
never shirking or casting their duty ou others ;
they are much to be pitied, all of them, looking so
thin and out of condition ; indeed, three, four,
and sometimes five nights out of bed running is
enough to kill anybody. If this goes on through
the winter, as some suppose, nobody will be able
to survive it : they must send out enough from
England to give them another night in bed, and
then it will not be so bad ; but it is very weari-
some trying to walk about in slush for 12 hours at
a time ; indeed, the young hands cannot do it ;
they sit or lie down in the wet, get cramps, and
are carried to hospital, where they die. That is
the way they have all gone. The old soldiers
know that their only chance is to keep moving
about, which they do while they can stand. We
hear rumours of iron houses being sent out to us
from England. I only hope it may be true, as we
shall then have a dry place to go to, and where we
can have some chance of keeping our things dry.
December, they say, is generally a fine mouth out
here ; January and February very bad ; but
nothing could be much worse than the last fort-
night, which is a sort of consolation. Some ar-
rangements must be made about firewood ; there
is none within two miles of us ; but near the Light
Division there is brushwood which would last
some time ; we have no animals here of any sort,
or else we might lay in a supply.
The artillery have taken advantage of the fine
weather to bring up two 13-inch mortars, and the
French have dragged up five cannon ; they began
to repair our platforms yesterday in the bat-
teries, which looks as if they intended to have
another brush at them. Our last 68-pounder on
the left attack was disabled two days ago in a
curious manner. It was a ship gun, and the
sailors had loaded, and were standing by ready to
fire, when a shell from one of the Russian guns
entered the muzzle. The concussion sent our gun
off, and at the same time the enemy's shell
burst inside the gun, tearing two or three feet of
the lip to pieces. I saw the gun yesterday in the
trenches, all jagged and splintered. Not one of
the eight sailors was touched. Our guns present a
very melancholy spectacle ; some burst, others with
trunnions broken off, and placed hors de combat in
every possible manner ; but if we have fine wea-
ther, and the beasts, of which 500 are coming from
Constantinople, arrive, I hope we shall be able to
open fire with Incro effect than on the first
days. The streets are, I believe, barricaded and
trenched in every possible way, and, with their ap-
parently inexhaustible supply of powder, shot,
and shell, we shall have much trouble with them
even when once inside the place. They are work-
ing night and day, and we can see plainly long
strings of arabas and dromedaries passing and re-
passing to and from the city. With a telescopeyou
can see plainly the people walking quietly along
the streets, while the town, with the exception of a
few barracks, or large houses on the outside, is
perfectly uninjured, and if it was not for the re-
ports of the rifles and the occasional discharge of a
gun from our batteries, no one could tell there was
an hostiio army before the place ; all the magnifi-
cent arsenals and buildings near the docks are per-
fectly uninjured. I walked over the field of Inker-
man yesterday ; it is still covered with fragments
of shot and shell, bullets, bayonet scabbards,
pouches, and torn clothing, &c. We are making
strong redoubts to prevent a second attack on that
flank, and the Russians are doing the same on the
other side ; it was there they were seen in motion,
and collecting in largo masses this morning. Ira a
few days the works will be finished, and then they
will have hard work to turn the position ; the guns
are not up yet.

(FROM ANOTHER OFFICER.)
Camp near Sebastopol, Dec. 13.
We were all turned out of bed this morning at 1
o'clock by the alarm sounding • there was a very
heavy fire of musketry along all" the line of French
trenches, and at one part of ours. We fell in and
remained under arms, expecting to get the order
to march down in support ; but the attack on our
line was repulsed in about three-quarters of au
hour, and the orderly galloped up to say we were
not wanted. The light and grenadier companies
were sent out on picket, and we had to stop on
the top of a 1 hill on the left of our attack for
two hours. We all expected to have a second In-
kerman-day, as the Russians had been moving in
large masses on our right flank all clay, and so we
thought the attack on our front a mere diversion.
I do not know the particulars of it, but they ad-
vanced in heavy columns up a ravine, through
which runs the high road from Sebastopol to Bala-
klava. There are high cliffs with caves on each
side " • the road is broken up, and a ditch and para-
pet thrown across it. We generally have two com-
panies in the caves and on the road by night, and
one by day; and if it is true that the Russians ad-
vanced in columns, they must have got their
" greens." Our men were in high delight at the
prospect of getting a supply of Russian boots, and
I found my martial glory evaporated very fast by
the time we were marched from our picket. We
are very hard worked indeed, especially the Third
Division. We were in hopes that the 90th would
join our brigade ; but I hear they aro posted to the
Second Division, on the right of our line (they have
no trench work ; a few pickets is all they have to
furnish) ; but we are obliged to keep a large force
there, as the Russians continually threaten us in
that direction. For the same reason the Highland
Brigade and Cavalry Division, with the Marines,
are down at Balaklava, useless as far as the siege
operations are concerned, hut still necessary to pre-
serve our base of operations, which might be cut
off at any time without them, as General Liprandi
is somewhere in that direction, though, they say,
he has moved towards the Alma to hold the Turks
at Eupatoria in check. The 90th and 34th aro
still at Balaklava ; they are inuring them a little
to the climate, as the fearful experience of the 9th
Regiment and our draughts shows how deadly hard
work is to new arrivals ; the 9th have lost half
their regiment in the ten days they have been
here. They marched up from Balaklava, pitched
their tents on a wet day, slept on the wet soil ; the
next night, also wet, they relieved us in the
trenches, and that sealed their death warrants.
They were all old soldiers, and had been some
years in the Mediterranean.
I was in the trenches the night I came in with
our draught ;it rained without ceasing. By the
next afternoon four of them wore dead, and since
then, out of 120 men, 42 are buried. Now they
allow no new arrivals to go in the trenches for the
first week. The 46th and 57th, too, have suffered
very much ; but for the last week, thank God, the
weather has been dry. It is a most extraordinary
climate. With a north wind, it has been exces-
sively cold and frosty ; to-day the wind is south,
and as warm as an English spring day. January
and February, with part of March, are very bad,
and the cold will be most intense. The houses in
Bala,klava are all built with very thick walls, large
stoves, double windows, the roofs lined with fas-