The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THITTSDAY EVENING, APRIL 12, 1865

SIEGE OF NEBASTOPOL.

ENGLISH CAMP, HEIGHTS OV SEBASTOPOL,
Me.nOis 24.
I hasten to correct by the first opportunity au error
into which I was led at the. close of my last letter, in
stating that Colonel Kelly, of the 84th Regiment, field
officer in command of the trenches on the night of the
Rueseen sortie, was killed. This, I am happy to say, is
incorrect, IColonel Kelly not being dead, and, though
severely wounded, not likely to die. I. mast, in self-
defence, state that the report of his death at the time I
closed my letter was universally believed throughout the
camp, and that I received the news on what I then
considered to be the very bast authority on such a subject.
The report of his death arose, I am told, from the fact
.sf Colonel Kelly and Captain Vivian, both of the 34th,
being brought into male) together after such a serious loss
of blood that the latter gallant officer expired almost ins-
Mediately ; and this led to the belief that Colonel Kelly
was also fatally injured, for rumour of the statement of his
sabsequent death was then easy.
Lieutenant Montague, of the Royal Etigineers, is a pri-
soner in Sebastopol. He was captdred while engaged,
with the rest of the covering party, in forcing back seine
of the enemy who had penetrated into the advanced work.
Captain Brown, of the 7tli, was wounded early in the
engagement, and lost so much blood that he nearly fainted.
He, however, declined to leave the work, and after a short
time rallied sufficiently to lead his men on again. In
the final desperate contest he received several bayonet
wounds, and two bullets through his chest, and expired
instantly.
I said in the close of my last letter that a truce of two
hours had been agreed upon to enable the Russians to re-
cover and bury their dead. Shortly before twelve, there-
fore, I went down to our right attack in order to take ad-
vantage of the truce to see the enemy's position as closely
as possible, arriving at Gordon's Battery; however, I
found that firing was still going on, and that the truce
would not commence for another half hour or so. The
+•dvanced work of the enemy—cellei the Memelou, I omit-
ted to mention in my letter—had opened fire this morning
upon the right of Gordon's Battery. It was then only
tiring three gnus of heavy calibre, but eight others were
also in position. *Until the Russians actually unmasked
their guns many of our officers used to express themselves
confidently that they would never attempt to place any
there, but merely continue it as an infantry redoubt. But
the result shows that in this, as in other matters, we have
undervalued our enemy, and the spirit of determination
with which they appear bent on resisting to the last.
After spending a short time in Gordon's Battery, which
is in the most perfect state of repair and good order, Ipro-
ceeded by the zigzags and coveted ways into the advanced
trench on which the sortie was lately made. This is an
advanced work about 200 yards from the Mamelon, about
600 from the Malakhoff Tower, and about 100 yards from
the enemy's rifle pits, which' are scattered more or less
numerously along the whole front of the allied lines. The
marksmen in these latter posts are continually on the alert,
and keep every one else on the alert also. They fire on the
slightest souud, or at the most trifling indication of an
enemy's presence. In approaching the adVanced work by
the covered ways some-of the angles are necessarily a little
•)pen, so that at two or three turnings glimpses of the caps
earl heads of our men passing up and down can be ob-
tained. On these corners the enemy's riflemen seem to con-
centrate all their vigilance, and theugh every one naturally
stoops and darts round them as quick as possible, yet the
izz of a rifle-bullet close above generally shows that the
sharpshooters have been .equally quick and watchful of
their opportunity. Several times were the party I was
with thus admonished by the enemy to be more careful for
Abe future, and though we had a very narrow chance from
one bullet, whiBl.l passed near our heads, we all got to the
advanced trench in safety. This work connects our right
attack with the different new French batteries at Inker-
man. One helf of it down to the middle ravine, in front
of the Matnelon Battery, is held by the English, the other
half, on the right, beyond the ravine, by the French.
When I entered the trench all the troops • were lying
down under the shelter of the bank, gazing through two or
three crevices at the movements of the enemy in the diffe-
rent batteries. In advance of the work, about 50 yards,
were two or three small banks of saint-begs, under cover of
which lay our own sentries exchanging shots now and
then with their concealed adversaries in the pits. Beyond
a few such compliment a occasionally there was no appear-
ance of hostilities ; in fact, the whole aspect of affairs in
the advanced work was that of serious idleness. The men
in it were laughing and chatting in under tones. Very
many were wrapped up in their great coats, fast asleep. I
walked down the work, looking at the marks which the
place presented of the late desperate attack. In one or
two places the gabions had keen almost deitroyed, and
nearly all the sand-bags in the parapet knocked away.
Those which had fallen inside had been replaced. Those
outside were nearly just as the enemy had left them. In
one part of the trench were the bodies of a Russian officer
and four men. The officer was the ono who *so distin-
guished himself by his determined efforts to force an en-
trance, and who, atlast, unfortunately for himself, succeeded.
Outside the work the dead lay thicker, though with those in
and out not more than 150 were thsre in all. On the right
the appearance of
.the French trench showed that the
struggle had been long and bloody. This work had almost
all been completely destroyed, and though every effort
during the two nights which have since elapsed .has been
made to repair it, it is still in a rather dilapitated condi-
tion. Their gabions had been almost pulled away, and
were lying in heaps in front of the work, and in a long
train up to the Malakhoff Tower, just as the Russians had
thrown them away in their flight. The enemy's dead were
here in serious numbers in front of the work. At least
200 were outside, and nearly as many more inside the
trench. The French troops were now is strong force at
this post, probably between five and six thousand, and
many officers were there, both English and French, wait-
ing till the flag of truce should be raised to cross the trench
and survey the enemy's work.
The time was to be between half-past twelve and two,
yet it was now past one, and no signs of-it-appeared ; on
the contrary, the French and Russian riflemen, from their
respective concealments, were firing away pretty sharply.
A. gun also was fired from the Malakhoff Tower, and went
hissing through the air over Gordon's Battery, but• an in-
stant afterwards a white flag was hoisted -on the Mamelon,
which was replied to by one in the advacced trench. A
few minutes afterwards and all the batteries had white
A ~f TZ lane ao:o
strong, straggled oat from the rear of the Malakhoff Tqwer,
and began descending the hill towards the middle ravine.
Stretchers were then brought up, and the word given to our
men to carry out the bodies of the dead Russians who lay
inside the trench, and the rest of the men, who were watch-
ing this signal, instantly swarmed over the bretistwork, and
began looking about them like boys out of school. From
some mistake or other, as our men showed themselves, two
shots were fired from the rifle pits, upon which the troops
were instantly ordered to return, and one private sent for-
ward with a white handkerchief tied to the end of his
musket. After this no shots were fired, and every one
walked about as he pleased.
I crossed with the rest, and advanced beyond the middle
ravine, almost to the foot of the small steep slope on which
the Mamelon is erected. As this work is likely soon to
figure rather importantly in our future proceedings I sur-
veyed it with much curiosity and interest. Viewed in con-
nection with our chances of capturing Sebastopol, the im-
pression which it produced on my mind was anything but
favourable. It is, as I have said, a steep rocky eminence,
about a mile in circumference at the base, and about a
quarter of a mile at the top. Its average Might from our
advanced parallel is at least 100 feet, its distance from
it about 201 yards, and its distance from the Malakhoff
Tower nearly double that. Seeing, therefore,-that it is
nearer to our works than the Russians, your readers will
doubtless ask with surprise why the allies never occupied
it themselves, especially as its summit entirely commands
every part of the works round the Malaknoff Tower. But
this is a question which no one can answer, and much more
surprise is felt about our remissness in this particular here
in camp, where the importance of the position is fully ap-
preciated, than is ever likely to be excited at home. The
only reason that I have heard assigned is that the place
was never thought of until the °many begeu to fortify it,
and that then, after the failure of the French attack, it
would not have been wise to persevere further. The work,
however, must be stormed, and that, too, before tiny serious
attempt to attack the town itself can be thought of. When-
ever it is stormed, now that it is mounted with guns, the
struggle will be most bloody. Its steep sides are so covered
.with masses of rock and loose stones, that no force of any
strength could possibly advance undiscovered, while the
same cross nature of the ground would equally hinder any
sudden charge to capture it by a coup-de ntain. About 4',)
guns in the Malakhoff Tower works also appear laid so as to
sweep every side of the hill, from its base to the summit.
By the time that I hod noted these particulars, all the
French, English, and Russian officers and soldiers had met
and were mingled .together on the space outside the
trenches. It certainly seemed an extraordinary scene.
Everything was ut once so warlike and 'yet so peaceful.
Grim batteries were frowning down upon the spot from
every side, yet the white flag was floating, and the para-
pets and embrasures were quite hidden with people eagerly
looking down upon the spectacle below. When all the
different troops had met—the privates grinning and offering
each other pipes—the officers bowing to one another, as if
all were on the most friendly terms, and as if in the course
of a couple of hours they would not be doing their very
utmost to murder and destroy the very men on both sides
to whom now both sides were so polite, across from our
trenches, in the direction of the Malakhoff Tower, a man
with a white flag was leading a large fatigue party, carry-
itig some of the enemy's dead. Russian fatigue parties
were also busy round and inside the French trench, en-
gaged in the same melancholy duty; while the idlers on
both sides, of Whom there were considerable numbers,
strolled about, picking their way among masses of stone,
pieces of shell, piles of round shot, 'dead Russians in
every attitude of mortal agony, torn sand-bags, gabions,
fascines, bayonets, broken firelocks, thousands of flat-
tened bullets, unused cartridges, and all the litter
of a scene of comblt. The Russian officers were well
and neatly dressed in long fine great-coats, white cross-
balls, and swords. Two or three had quite a profusion of
handsome rings on their fingers. All seemed to speak
French well ; some were very friendly and chatty, offering
our own and the French officers cigars, while others were
polite; but very grave and reserved, bowing to the allied
officers when they passed, but never entering into conver-
sation or appearing to pay the least attention to anything
but tha duties in which they were immediately engaged.
One Russian officer, conversing with a party of ours,
said that the large 68-pounder in the right of Gordon's
battery had done the Matuelon works considerable injury,
but they hoped soon to repair it. Another asked, with the
utmost simplicity, " When the allies were going away ?"
The question was at first not understood, and he repeated
it, asking when we intended to raise the siege and leave
the Crimea ? One of our officers replied that we never in-
tended quitting until Sebastopol was levelled, upon which
the Russian officers smiled, and the same who had before
spoken said there was very little chance of our doing that.
The Russian soldiers were both dirty and ragged, but be-
yond this defect in their appearance were well enough.
They 'were very fine young men, and all in robust health,a
with round ruddy faces, on which was a porpetuel grin at
at
everything our men did or said. Their uniform
short thick greatcoat of grey frieze, with waistleth er beltsbo
same material, round flat caps, and tight aotfs,thine
fact, just the uniform of the men we foueh
oft
imperiala D
None had the helmet or other equipments
Guard. The stretchers which they bran
tsoeccharfvyoraktv7ays
their dead had evidently beeancn:
the canvass was perfectl?rhbolr3,l
t:vevci IrtstblZl; v.C.:eipnioooliecsa"on'of..
-were properly made strerych
Nies of wood• n
vacs clumsily tied
nearly all the slain re:
st gi'antic thre.h mm er tightly
tl7ose of fi nay:lllg men,
,OvanseamnanAiln.
Al-
particular was of apinion°
banian, f a?,eis side
aa
small leather
graspeci6inanndednwellityahnutt
steel
for
ouclio----e „hin were not
.1
spikes
t so-d soldiers, 'nut worespik spiking
ge
guns.dre as
' pouch,
among thethe Levantine Greeks, and were evi,
° lower order o
,"of th° k nom the inhabitants of Sebastopol. Whethel.
' deatly
°volunteers, or whether, free, want of men, the
the°°. ‘rerl'iave been compelled to press the townspeople into
riz-sileurs„.Co_ it is difficult to say.
300 and 400 dead lay about the French works,
i Between