The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-09 00:00:00

THE BATTLE OF .KARS.

The following is an extract of a private letter
from Kars :

" KARS, OCT. 2.
" We have bad, as you are aware, for the last 17
weeks a most tedious and painful blockade, maintained
by a formidable Russian army of at least 35,000 men,
whose numerous cavalry—regular and irregular—did
their duty so well that we could scarcely contrive to get
a letter through their lines. The neglected state of our
army, which, after having been delivered over to the
worst of commanders, had been beaten in five battles,
and since then neither paid nor reinforced, forbade all
idea of our acting in any manner on the offensive. Since
the arrival of General Williams and his staff, however,
the most has been made of the army, the men have been
cared for, encouraged, and instructed by Captains
Thompson and Teesdale, the most formidable batteries
have been planned and erected by Colonel Lake, and
General Williams has worked incessantly to encourage,
feed, and take care of the soldiers, and to arm and in•
spirit the citizens of Kars.

"For some days past we have observed large convoys
of heavily laden waggons proceeding from the Russian
camp, which movements, occurring as they did after the
receipt of the most glorious news of the fall of Sebas-
topol and the landing of Omar Pasha, made us suppose
that the enemy was intending to raise the siege and pre-
pare for the defence of Georgia. One gallant officer,
however, General Kmetz (Ismael Pasha) persisted in the
opinion that the Russians would try an assault before
their departure, and this officer commanded the works on
the heights on that side of the town nearest the Russian
camp. Before I proceed to narrate what happened on the
29th I must give you a rough description of Kars. The
city, a truly Oriental one, lies at the base of a line of
rocky bills, about four miles in length on the north.
The forts of Tahmasl lie on the western extremity of
this range, which is cut in the centre by a deep
gorge through which flows a river ; the eastern ex-
tremity terminates in a large rocky hill called the
Karadagh, well fortified, and on the eastern brink of
the gorge is a strong earthwork, called Arab Tabia.
Between the eastern and western extremities of this
ridge, and to the north of the town, are placed a line of
earthworks, connected by breastworks, called the Eng-
lish Tabias, and the nearest to the Tahmasl forts is that
called Fort Lake, which contains a blockhouse, and is
the key of the whole position. On the south of the city
a certain portion of the plain is enclosed by a square line
of forts and breastworks, like the rest, all of earth and
of recent construction.

" On the morning of the 29th, or rather at midnight,
the distant rumble of guns was heard by the sentries on
Tahmasl, and General Kmetz at once called all the troops
in that direction under arms, but after this a long inter-
val of silence ensued. About an hour before the dawn
sundry suspicious noises were again heard, and at last,
by the feeble light of the crescent moon, a large dark
moving mass was observed advancing towards a battery
in which was Capt. Teesdale, a most gallant young sol-
dier ; at once the guns were opened on the column, when
a loud hurrah arose from enemies unseen who had
almost surrounded the whole of the north-west works.
MI suspense was now at an end, the corps of Turks in
this position found themselves assaulted in front and
flank, while a column was moving round in their rear.
It was still nearly dark, so that in this, the commence-
ment of the action, very little of our powerful artillery
could come into play. The Russian columns, advancing
with wonderful steadiness, were met by volleys of mus-
ketry at point-blank range, directed from flanking breast-
woske, while from time to time Teesdale's guns poured
out murderous grape. At the extreme point of Tahmasl
the enemy actually penetrated into the batteries and
were at once bayoneted. While this murderous struggle
was going on, a vigorous artillery fire from the enemy
was kept up on Kanli Tabia, in the plain, far removed
from the real point of danger. This, of course, was but
a feint. Fort Lake, the key of the whole position on
the north, and the English batteries immediately behind
the town, which I have mentioned, were now attacked,
and the latter being defended by a very weak force,
chiefly irregulars, were carried by assault, and the
enemy then began shelling the town. But daylight
now showed clearly each position and movement of the
enemy. General Williams despatched two or three com-
panies of Rifles to the English Tabias under one of our
best officers, Kadir Bey, and these, with troops from
Fort Lake, charged the Russians, and fairly drove them
out of the batteries at the point of the bayonet ; mean-
time, from Karadagh, Captain Thompson had, with the
eye of a General, albeit a young one, despatched one or
two companies over the gorge and the river, who took
up a flanking position in the midst of rocks commanding
these English Tabias, and by immense exertions he also
got some heavy guns to bear on them, so that he soon
changed the Russian retreat into a rabble rout. Some
Russian cavalry made a gallant charge here, but soon
came to grief among some trous de loup.
" Meanwhile the battle was raging at the original
point of attack ; the rolling fire of the musketry was
incessant, and the thunder of the artillery from the
numerous batteries never ceased for a moment. At
one time, and only once, some little symptom of
giving way was observed, but no sooner observed than
the fresh fire from reinforcements, despatched by Gene-
ral Williams and Colonel Lake, and ably handled by
General Kmetz, changed the backward into a forward
movement ; the loud hurrahs of the Russian hosts were
soon mingled with the yells of the Turk., who fought
with the ferocity of tigers, charging repeatedly with the
bayonet. White-turbaned cit'zens were seen rushing
into the fight, hewing with their scimitars ; and Lazi
bountaineers springing like wolves from behind rocks,
nid charging with the clubbed rifle or broad two-
edged dagger. The grey-coated Russians, too,
fought with wondrous courage ; again and again they
advanced to the deadly breastworks, and were blown
film the very mouths of the guns or layenetted in
thj batteries. As the action continued, and each
nevi' movement of the enemy was tried, the excel-
lersle of Colonel Lake's batteries was fully proved.
Wherever the columns of the enemy were directed
they found themselves under a flanking fire of heavy
guns ; if they gained possession of a battery weaker
than the rest, they were again pounded by our artillery
from some battery which commanded the weaker point;
meantime any assault on the keys of our position was
altogether hopeless,—the Colonel himself, under a heavy
fire, directed the artillery of the two principal batteries,
and well did the Turkish officers, who are second to
none in the world in their practical skill in this branch,
second his efforts.

"I am unable to do justice to this gallant affair of
the heights of Kars ; the battle continued without inter-
mission for seven hours, and about midday the Russian
columns were seen running down the hills much faster
than they had advanced, their cavalry and horse artil-
lery protecting their retreat. Two of our forts, named
Chico Tabia and Tek Tabia, or the one-gun battery,
both of which were out of reach of the enemy's light
guns, fired into their retreating columns with heavy ord-
nance, the former battery especially doing much execution.
Oh for two regiments of cavalry to complete our day's
work ! But we had none, and so were mortified to see
the Russian army, or what remained of it, quietly re-
treating to their original camp, but not without consi-
derable symptoms of disorder. I rode round the batte-
ries soon after the action, which forded about 11 a.m.,
and seldom had the oldest soldier seen a more terrible
sight ; there were literally piles of dead stripped of their
clothes and lying in various postures, while the plaintive
cries of men with shattered limbs arose from all sides
from amid these acres of defaced humanity. I have no
time to go into further details, nor will I endeavour to
form a calculation of the Russian loss iu killed and
wounded, lest I be accused of exaggeration, but I will
give you an unadorned fact. We have already buried
upwards of 4,000 dead Russians, numbers of the enemy
also crowd our hospitals, where the Turks treat them as
musafirs or guests, a sacred word used by the Musbir
Vassif Pasha, as he directed them to be taken care of
even more than our own men. Our own losses are
scarcely above 1,000.
"P.S. Oct. 3.--I reopen this letter to say that we
have buried already 6,300 Russians ; numbers were car-
ried off by the enemy besides. A deserter came last
night into our camp, and he tells us that the second in
command was killed, and numbers of the highest Rus-
sian officers. Some thousand carts were sent to Gumri
this morning, full of wounded. A heavy rain has fallen
during the night, which prevents Mouravieff from
moving. Had we but two regiments of cavalry the en-
tire destruction of his army would be a certainty. I
must mention that when the English batteries were car-
ried several Lazi flags were taken ; these were small
mountain standards belonging to the villages, and are
almost the only trophies the enemy has got in exchange
for the ruin of his army. If Omer Pacha show a little
enterprise the conquest of Georgia will present no diffi-
culty whatever. During the attack Mouravieff ordered
up reserve after reserve until his camp was almost en-
tirely unprotected. A large body of Kurdish and Cir-
cassian irregulars, in Russian pay, were unable to resist
so fine an opportunity for indulging their predatory
habits, so they fell upon the camp and pillaged it."

THE HUME MEMORIAL.—At a preliminary meeting of
the friends of the late Joseph Hume, held last evening,
at the residence of Sir James Duke, M.P., Mr. Nicholay
accepted the office of chairman of committee, Mr. W.
Williams, M.P., Col. Sykes, and Sir James Duke, Bart.,
M.P., consented to act as trustees of the Memorial Fund,
and it was resolved that an appeal be made to the coun-
try for raising subscriptions to commemorate in a suit-
able manner-his eminent public services ; and, with
view to carry ont that object, it was proposed
public meetings in the districts of the metronor