The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-27 00:00:00

On Monday only did they receive these whom we sent
out to tht:o during a brief armistice for the purpose,
which was, I believe, sought by ourselves, as our over-
crowded hospitals could not contain and our overworked
surgeons could not attend to any more.

side.

every battery to lay a gun upon them. A number of
very capacious dockyard lumps and rowboats were also
secured in these erodes or hung on by the steamers.
In the course of the afternoon of the 11th (Tuesday)
some of the Russian guns in the ruined battery below
the Redan were turned on these eteamen, and in a few
rounds, not more than 12 I think, succeeded in hulling
them eight times. The range was, however, rather
great, and it became expedient to move a little nearer,
in order to afford them the full advantage of our shot
and shell. On Tuesday evening, when Lieutenant
Gough, of the London, who commanded in the Naval
Batteries on the left attack, came down with his men,
he was ordered to take his relief over to the right
attack, and to accompany Lieutenant Anderson, R.E.,
down t i the town, in order to erect a battery for two
95 cwt. guns on the right of St. Paul's Battery.
The site of this battery was about 700 yards from
Fort Catherine, on the opposite side. The men, although
deprived of the quiet night and undisturbed repose they
anticipated, set to work with a will, and began throw-
ing up the parapet, and filling gabions, and, as it was
possible that some interruption of the work might take
place from the other side, a covering party of 120 men
was ordered down from the trenches. There were French
sentries in charge of this portion of the place, and the
little party found that their allies were on the qui vise,
and were keeping a sharp look-out on all sides. The
men had been working some time when it was observed
that one of the enemy's steamers bad left the north side,
and was slowly and noiselessly drooping down on the
very spot where the sailors and the covering party were
at their labours. The night was dark, but they could
clearly make out the steamer edging down upon them,
and coming closer and closer. Every moment they ex-
pecte I her guns to open on them with grape and canis-
ter. The men therefore lay down on their faces, and
kept as near to the ground as they could, and the
steamer came over gently till she was within about 100
yards of the very spot where they had been working.
They heard her anchor splash into the water, and then
the rattle of her cable as it ran through the bawsehoie.
Now, certainly, they were " going to catch it ;" but,
no, the Russian opened no port and showed no light,
but seemed to be making himself comfortable in his
new quarters. Captain Villiers, of the 47th, who com-
manded the covering party, ordered his men to observe
the utmost silence, and the same injunction was given
to the seamen. About 2.30 in the morning, when
she had been an hour or so in her novel berth, a bright
light was perceived in her fore hatchway. The leading
steamer on the opposite side in a second afterwards ex-
hibited gleams of equal brightness, and then one ! two !
three ! fair ! five !—as though from signal guns, the re-
maining steamers, with one exception, emitted jets of
fire fr ,in their bows. The jets soon became columns of
flame and smoke—the wind blew fresh and strong, and
the night was dark, so that the fire spread with rapidity
along the vessels, and soon lighted up the whole of the
northern heavens. The masts were speedily licked and
warmed into a fiery glow, and the rigging burst out into
fitful wavering lines of light struggling with the wind
for life ; the yards shed lambent showers of sparks and
burning splinters upon the water. The northern works
could be readily traced by the light of the conflagration,
and the faces of the Russian soldiers and sailors who were
scattend about on the face of the cliff shone out now
and then and justified Rembrandt, The work of de-
struct on spread rapidly. The vessels were soon nothing
but huge arks of blinding light, which hissed and
crackled fiercely, and threw up clouds of sparks and
embers, and the guns, as they became hot, exploded,
and shook the crazy buds to atoms. One after another
they went down into the seething waters. The cavalry
out on the plains wondered what great conflagration
had br.iken out anew in the town. At daybreak only
one steamer remained. A boat pushed alongside her
from the shore. They boarded her, and, after re-
maining below about 10 minutes, returned to their

boat and regaiJed the shore. Wry speedily the
vessel began to be seized with a sort of in-
ternal convulsion—first she dipped her bows, then her
stern, then gave a few uneasy shakes, and at length,
after a short shiver, went down bodily, cleverly scuttled.
Thus was Sinope avenged. Of the men who planned,
the sailors who executed, and the ships which were en-
gaged on that memorable expedition, scarcely one trace
remains. Kornileff, Nachimoff, Istomine, and their
crews have disappeared : their vessels now rest at the
bottom of the roadstead of Sebastopol. The Russians
prefer being agents of their own destruction, and do not
give the conqueror a chance of parading the fruits of
his victory. We cannot delight the good people of
Plymouth or Portsmouth by the sight of Russian liners
and steamers. We can only drive the enemy to the op-
tion of destroying or of doing the work for him, and he
invariably prefers the former.
The Russians are fortifying themselves cn the north
side. The French are gone towards Baidar.
Our Naval Brigade, after long, brilliant, and ill-re-
quited services, is to be broken up at once.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 14.
It is just one year this day since we landed at Kala-
mita Bay. In that time we have stormed the heights of
the Alma, sustained the glorious disaster of Balaklava,
fought the great fight of Inkerman, swept the Sea
of Azoff and its seaboard, wasted Kertch., and seized
upon Yenikale—have witnessed the battle of the
Tchernaya—have opened seven bombardments upon
Sebastopol—have held in check every General and
every soldier that Russia could spare ; and, now,
after the endurance of every ill that an enemy at
home and abroad could inflict upon us—after passing
through the summer's heat and winter's frost—after being
purged in the fire of sickness and death, repulse and
disaster, and above all in the fiery glow of victory, the
British standard floats over Sebastopol. But our army
is not the same. Physiologists tell us that we undergo
perpetual change, and that not a bit of the John Smiz,h
of 1854 goes into the composition of the same respected
individual in 1864, but we have managed to work up
tens of hundreds of atoms in our British army between
1854 and 1855 ; and there are wry few indeed to be
found in the present body corporate who landed in the
Crimea a twelvemonth ago. Some regiments have been
thrice renewed, others have been changed twice over.
The change is not for the better—the old stuff was bet-
ter than the new.

The silence in camp is almost alarming ; were it not
"or a gun now and then between the to vvu and the north

side, and across the Tchernaya, it would be appalling.
There is an English• French Commission sitting in the
town. Colonel Windham is Commandant of the British
portion of it. The 3d Buffs have received orders to on-

cupy it, and the French garrison is strengthened. The
enemy work all day at new batteries. The Guards are

to make the roads between Balaklava and the camp.
The Army Works Corps, like all bodies of men who
come out from England to this climate, have suffered
severely from disease and death, and up to the pre-
sent time not less than 1t per cent. of the navvies and
artificers have died from different forms of malady. One
ship, which sailed some time ago from home with a con-
siderable number of them, has not reached Balaklava,
though she is considerably beyond her time. The corps at
present here does not exceed 540 men, and they are prin-
cipally employed in trenching and repairing the railway,
which is a vital and all-important work. Sir a. J,nea

made an application to Mr. Doyne to send a portion of
his men into the trenches to assist in the siege approaches,
but the latter very prudently urged on the General the
necessity of getting the railway into proper order, and
the bad economy o placing skilled labourers in a posi-
tion which would certainly not conduce to the satisfac-
tory development of their capabilities, as no untrained
and undisciplined men without arms or military habits
and experience could be expected to pursue their work
calmly and energetically with round shot and grape tear-
ing through them, and shell bursting amid their ranks.
At the same time Mr. Doyne and the gentlemen em-
ployed as officers of the corps expressed their readiness to
lead their men into the trenches, if the General of Engi-
neers required them to do so. The reasons urged against
such a mode of employing the corps prevailed, and they
are now engaged in the more safe and peaceful works for
which they are peculiarly fitted. Locomotives and sta-
tionary engines have been applied for, and will speedily
be sent out to prepare the railway more adequately for
its herculean task in the winter, and Mr. Doyne expects
an augmentation of 500 men to the corps under his com-
mand. The sickness which harassed the first corners is

now of a milder type, and diminishes daily in virulence.
Many of the men have suffered from their own reckless-

ness in eating and drinking ; but it is also a fact that
some cf the steadiest and most sober men in the corps
shared the fate of their imprudent and thoughtless com-
rades. In the hour of their illness these men, in common
with many others, have found a kind and successful
physician. Close to the railway, half-way between the
Col de Balaklava and Kadikoi, Mrs. Seacole, formerly of
Kingrton and of several other parts of the world, such
as Panama and Chagres, has pitched her abode—an iron
storehouse, with wooden sheds and outlying tributaries,
and here she doctors and cures all manner of men with

extraordinary success. She is al ways in attendance near
the battle-field to aid the wounded, and has earned

many a poor fellow's blessings.

The Diamond, Wasp, and Leander go home at once.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 15, 10 A.M.
No news. The Russians are still fortifying the north

As any particulars must be interesting, I have
no hesitation in trespassing on your space with
some additional details of the events of the Bth of
September, with which I have been favoured :

" The Second Brigade, Light Division, stormed at noon
of the Bth. The 97th and 90th, 300 of each, commanded—
the former by Major Welsford (whose head was blown off
as he was mounting an embrasure—the gun was fired by
a Russian officer, who immediately gave himself up as
a prisoner to a serjeant of the 97th, who entered
the moment after, throwing down his sword and saying
I am a prisoner of war'); the latter by Captain Grove,
the senior officer of the regiment, present with the ser-
vice companies. The salient was carried at once, and
the men entered the stronghold, which is a work traced
on a most obtuse angle, requiring a large mass of
men to assault it, not only at the salient, but at
the same moment on both flanks, so as to turn
them, and to enable the salient storming party to
advance down the interior space of the works at once,
taking the defenders in front and flank, and indeed in
rear, at the same moment. In consequence of attacking
the salient only, no front could be formed, on account
of the small interior space at that point ; the men were
forced to advance by dribblets, and at the same moment
fired on from traverses on either flank where they could
not see their assailants, an evil at once obviate f ha I
the attack on the flanks and salient been simultaneous.
The handful of men who assaulted And took the salient
most gallantly held it against far superior numbers for a
considerable time, until their ammunition being nearly
expended and receiving no flank support, which could
alone assist them to any purpose, and being rushed on
from these flanks by a vastly superior force, they re-
treated to the extreme side of the parapet, where they
remained, and, being reinforced by some fresh men, kept
up a heavy and continuous fire on the Russians in

the interior of the work ; they held their ground on this
fast-sinking parapet of loose earth, stones, and broken
gabions, under a most galling: fire from both flanks and in
front, and Con ti nu ous showors ef verica I grape, from inside
the work, for an hour and a half at least, when a sudden
rush, made by the enemy, who had crept up the faces by
the traverses, obliged the troops to retire, and step bystei.s,
pelting each other with huge stones, they retired,
slipping and tumbiing into the ditch, where many
poor fellows were buried alive, from the scarps giving
way. Then came the fearful run for life and death,
with men rolling over like rabbits, then tumbling into
the English trench, where the men lay faur deep on
each ether. The men once in manned the parapet, and
kept up a heavy and continuous fire on the enemy
on the parapets of the Redan. The rest you know.
The Rifles, as usual, behaved nobly, and where they
had tried to creep up the ditch to pick off the Rus-
sians on the flanks they lay four and five deep, all
together. Colonel Lysons, of the 23,1, as usual, was
ail energy, and, though severely wounded through
the thigh and unable to stand, remained on the
ground cheering on the men and giving directions to
the last. Col. Handcock, of the 97th, was shot through
the head on the crest of the Redan, and died soon after
arriving in camp. Captain Preston, and Lieutenants
Swift and Wilmer, of the 90th, were all killed inside,
where their bodies were found next morning. Captain
Vaughan, of the 90th, whose conduct was beyond praise,
was shot in both legs severely, and taken prisoner
when we left the place, it being impossible to get him
over the ditch. He was found in a Russian hospital to-
day, and brought to camp. Colonel Windham was most
energetic in striving to keep down the fire of the flanks
after the first retrogression, and stood where the
fire was hottest, trying to force a few men to make
an attack on them ; but so dense was the fire that
the men were mowed down as fast as a handful could
be got together. He was backwards and forwards,
cheering, directing, &c. ; but a formed body of men
alone could be of service, and that could not be
got. Lieutenant and Adjutant Dyneley, of the 23d
Fusileers, was so severely wounded that he is since
dea,l—a most excellent officer, and a great loss to the
regiment and the service. Individual deeds of daring
were too frequent to particularize. The first dead Rus-
sian on the extreme salient was a Russian officer shot
through the mouth, a singularly handsome man, with
hands and feet white and delicate as a woman's. I
won't trust myself to returns. The fire of our artillery
had been splendid, as the number of broken guns
proved."