The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-09 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.

The Debats contains an interesting article on the
present position of the allied forces before Sebas-
topol, signed by Colonel St. Ange. The following
is a translation of the most salient points :
"The allied forces encamped in the nearly insular
Chersonesus may be estimated at 100,000 men, taking
into account the continued reinforcements for ,varded
from England and France during the last month, and
the two French divisions that were left in reserve at
Constantinople.
"The Ottoman army at Eupatoria, under the orders
of Omer Pacha, must now be 40,000 strong. As the
three nations are sending corps or detachments on to the
Crimea up to this moin.,‘,nt, everything leads to the be-
lief that the total of the allied armies will amount to
150,000 men in the course of this present month of
March.

"There can be no doubt that the Russian army will
net reach that figure until it has received the last rein-
forcements despatched to Perekop, either by way of
Odessa, Nicolaieff, or Kherson. At present, apparently,
it does not number 100,000, including the garrison of
Sebastopol and the other positions in the Crimea ; and
it could muster only 60,000 or 65,000 men for any stra-
tegical operation. This explains its complete inaction
since the battle of Inkerman, where it deployed only
45,000 men, who, as it may be recollected, were beaten
with immense loss.
"It is a known fact that the ilussiaes have suffered at
least as much as the Allies by sickness, the severity of
the season, and the want of food and forage. In a cli-
mate nearly similar to that of France, the winter has pre-
sented, as with us, frequent alternations of snow, rain,
frost, and thaw. Transport across the Crimea bas been
almost always interrrupted by the breaking up of roads
on which a stone was never at any time laid. In Russia
properly so called, winter is the season for sledge convey-
ance, as the frost generally lasts for four consecutive months,
without any intermitting thaw; but not so in Southern
Russia, and especially in the Crimea. We may thus corn—
prebend the difficulties that must have encountered the
Russian army in the transport of its food and munitions ;
and even the impossibility of the task, when we recol-
lect that a road of six miles from Balaklava to the camp
before Sebastopol became so impracticable that the Eng-
lish army was deprived of its supplies for several days,
and that, to maintain the fire of its batteries, balls and
shells were obliged to be forwarded on the backs of
mules, and even in the arms of men.
" This Balaklava road now exhibits a line of railway
not only marked oat, but nearly finished. On the
French side, a stone road unites their different camps,
and easy communication was early established with the
points of debarkation. Balaklava and Kamiesh be
on their shores two towns of huts and tents,
embracing magazines, ambulances, workshops of all
kinds, a mob of settlers, and a military or nomade
population exhibiting restless activity. A French
army carries in itself all arts and trades ; is sufficient
for itself ; and is, in fact, an entire civili,ation.
This administrative system, military and industrial,
these companies of workmen, this entire organisa-
tion, the English army does not possess ; and its
soldiers, so intrepid in combat, have not the same
aptitude as ours for the various labours of war. Bat
England knows this ; the defects of her military organi.
sation have been revealed to her. Enlightened to her
own cost, she is setting about the remedy with the energy
of a great nation, determined not to be behind others,
the more particularly that her power and her honour are
both engaged in a most serious war, in convert with
France.

We will now proceed to the condition of the besieg-
eg works

The principal attack (that is the name given to a
b
series of trenches du, in a given direction) was com-
menced opposite the Flagstaff Battery, in the centre,
and stretched to the left towards the Quarantine Fort.
Zigzag roads have carried the third parallel to within
100 metres of the ramparts, and the works have been ex-
tended to the Cemetery, which is in our possession, and
as far as Quarantine Bay, where we occupy the hospital.
This progress is considerable. The fortifications are sur-
rounded at so short a distance that our miners have com•
menced the subterranean labours. A first mine has been
discovered by the Russians, who constructed a ‘camon-
liet'—that is, they succeed, by fixing rnvd" and resin,
_ . _