The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-26 00:00:00

of the Zouavea who led the attack. I learn that the ere; on the spot where they fell. The enemy had carried off
pared resistance was much less than had been extra ted. ' 'neatly all their dead and wounded, which accounted f a
• The enemy had evidently been taken by surprise, and the fe enesss of the former found inside the redoubt.
after 3 feeble stand made by:the supports within the re- Terrible were the traces of our fire which here met the
doubt when the French entered, the place was vacated by eye—to say nothing of dismounted guns, shetterett plat-
, its former hoblers, who kept up a running_ fire as terms, arid broken carriages, ',early every square yard of
they retired ; reserves, however, were speedily the place was torn up by round shot and expleded shell.
: • brought up, but as the French continued to pour How any huaian beings could have existed in such a
in at all points in more than an equal ratio,, these too pandemonium of explosive horrors it puzzled every one
. were soon overpowered, and in less than half an who looked on the spot to conceive. The place bad for-
hour aftee the first Zeutave scaled the parapet, the - -merly been a vineyard, and was consequently honey-
combed originally; but these small hollows had been
Malaklaoff was won. The deafening roll of musketry,
however, in no degree diminished, but swept on to the knocked into every possible shape, and scarcely a foot of
eight towards the Little ROdan, whose guns fl inkal the space left which hid not been ploughed up by the fire of
tower ; here, and in the adjoining works, the strugg'e our own and the Frerch guns. Leaving, however, a
mere, detailed description of the interior of this formid-
was contir.ned for nearly a couple of hours, till the last' snore
work fir a future letter, I pass on to the portion of
Muecovite was driven from his cover, and the ground
l occupied by our allies, the town at, the base of the slope which it crowns, and
here, for the firmtime, I tint a glimpse of the utterly-
- In the meantime, however, our own assault had begun,
unknown extent of the injitry which, had been done to
But it must first be mentioned that instead of having
the town itself by our fire. As viewee even with the aid
before them a work whose embrasures had been bunged the
a good glass from our most advanced parallel, not a
lop and its guns silenced, like the lalalakhoff, our men
Led to rush upon a line of battery nearly every piece in tithe-of the mischief was visible, except amongst the
Which was ready to receive them with grape and cauis-
houses oppo its the French left attack, But even here,
ter. The French, too, started from a line of trench only in a portion of the place which everybody supposed to
some forty yards from the point to be attacked, whilst be comparatively uninjured, nothing but ruins met the
our own troops were compelled to cross au open space eye. ' Shot and shell had smashed in roofs, penetrated
of full six times the extent, and that, t io, under a direct and knocked down walls; and, in fact, left nearly every
building one came to crux: bling and shapeless masses
and flanking fire from nearly a score of guns. It is need-
of battered masonry. My exploration in this direc-
less to dilate upon the comparative difficulties of the
tion, hewever, was soon brought to a. dead halt, for as I
• two attacks ; but, whilst awarding to the French a full
wasecressing what had been a small vineyard behind one
meed of praise for their brilliant gajlantry on the (meat-
of the main buildings which led down to the Admiralty
sion, I cannot be' betrayed• by any mawkish generosity
into a concealment of the infinitely greater dangers in-
and Fort Nicholas, a rascally French sentry ordered me
volved in that portion of the day's achievements which to step, and, before I had time to ask why, the scoun-
drel deliberately levelled his piece and fired, sending a
fell to the lot of the British. On the day following the
assault I crossed over the space between our fifth parallel bullet Within -a few inches of my sea f. As there was no
and the Redan, and was then able in soma degree to replying to :such arguments as this, I thought it best to
"
realize the difficulty of making a run over such a distance prosecute my researches elsewhere, and so turned away
and such ground under the desolating fire of HOMO 20 to explore the main body of the town on the opposite
side of the druit ahy Creek. But at every point I found
'
68 pounders loaded with grape and canister. Let all
this be borne in mind before any .of your readers jump Frenchmen' poking into every nook amid tr armee over-
to the false conclusion that the French d splayed a hauling everything and apprepr ating whatever appeared
greater heroism than ourselves ; for, raw and inexperworth carrying away. A few of our own men had ma-
a;
neged to- dodge the sentries, and were similarly em-
enced as were many of our troops engaged, with some
faW exceptions they fought as became the conquerors of . ployed ; but, besides being numerically only as one to a
tee Alma and Inkerrnann. As soon at the French had : hundred of the Gaul, they went about the business with
a clumsiness and evident inexperience 'which contrasted
made good their footing in theMelak heff a tricolour was
run up to announce the triumpb, and immediately after i strikingly with the practised tact and professional ability
' -a. small white flag—the signal appointed for the ativance of the red-breeched enfants aroyuetl. Ia deecending the
of our own men—was waved from the parapet of the ' slope which leads down to the head of the Creel:, I came
i
Manoelon. At the first glance of it the order was passed in sight of piles of new cannon and shot, ranged as one
on from General Codrington for the stermers to leave
may see them along the river front of Woolwich Ar-
s
corer, and a half a minute after Major Welsford and his sepal, on both sides of the Creek. Certainly this was a
c
party, carying the scaling ladders, boueded over the contradiction of the generally-believed reports of the
enetny's shortness of guns and ammunition ; and similar
parapet of the boyeau. A volley of grape struck down
inearly a third of them, poor Weleford included, but the evieence met my eye at every battery I passed—shot,
shell, grape, canister, powder, end' musket cartridge
remainder rushed aagently or. lii the meantime the
seemed everywhere abundant. On gamin, the summit
Rifles, under Captain Fyers, kept up a vigorous and
of the opposite slope,on and beyond which the main body
deadly fire on the embrasures ; but the thick-matted '
of the town is situated, French, nothing but French, were
onantlets with which these were curtained in a great
measure counteracted this, and the grape continued to to be met with, the majority of them drunk, and all laden
with every conceivable kind of plunder. fahairs tables,fly thick and fast over the death-space to be crossed,
looking-glasses, church otnatnente, poultry kegs ochraudy,
The second body of stormere followed quickly on the
matins. es, bed clothes, cooking utensils—et cry de-
hills of those who were already placing the ladders, and,
mastic movable, in fact, that ever figured in a catalogue
being well supported by those behind, were soon inside '
at the city auction mart, was being can ial or dragged
he Redan. Here a murderous but brief struggle ensued,
along by our light-fingered allies, whilst only at long in-
and before many minutes had elapsed since the first of
our men gained the parapet, none of the enemy, but the tervals was an Et-glielanati to be seen ,with a single
dead and dying remained within it. The Redan, like article, and in three. instances I found Frenchmen dis-
the Malokheff, was won. And here I might have voting their right even to these. More than one lament
on our fai ura before the Redan was also uttered, and in
triumph, too, had not the blund f
chanted a paean in honour o our unqualifiedmismangetnent
one case .n Whmh reproach was thrown into the teeth of
ering
which has so often borne fruit in the sacrifice a brawny Irish Grenadier by a diminutive (Masseur with
of our troops again turned up to deprive us more impudence than discretion I take to myself the
credit of having sacral a subject of the Emperor from
Of our full share of the glory of this memorable day. In-
summary annihilation. Pat had laid hands on a bundle
bused of pouring in supports to the aid of those in pos-
ef erockery ware, and was proceeding c ,mfortably along
session of the redoubt,Geneial Coerington —I believe I
under the iefluence of a double allowance of rum, when
am only justly attributing the blame to him—for some I
Myeterious strategic eeasons known only to himself,
the Frenchmen, still were off for liquor, came reeling by
- '
with a lnokieg-glass antler tine arm and a couple of ducks
kept back elle troops who crowded the trenches in the
rear till the enemy had time to bring up his overpower-
toider the other. `0 Ha, Redan, no, Malakheff yes ;
ing reserves and clear the Redan of our men. The Ingelese no bons !" spirited out the son of France, tap-
ahem fed to make a stand plug the Irishman to h impudent familiarity on the
anxiously expecting eve ry
latter bravely, but vainly,
minute
elbow. The " whirron !" that followed was worthy of
p t,
he arrival of supports,
Donnybrook, east in an instant, dashing his crockery to
but no supports Caine, and they were' swept back into Donnybrook,
the ground, Paddy grasped the Frenchman by the most
another marvellous piece of neglect no attempt at spiking
the open to retreat under fresh *teams of grape—for by .
capacious portion of his pantaloons, sent the looking-
glass to shivers, and would have wide work for the
the gune a tb.e place had been made by those who had
hleetor out of its owner if I had riot at that moment come
ports were then given but in harmony with the b'under
geined a footing inside. Orders for the withheld sup-
upte the rescue, Seeing Frenchmen hurrying to the
which had gone before, the intelligent aides-de-camp who sesite. of this ttagi e inoedy from all points, I deemed it
carried the commands, being abut as ignorant of the
best, for my countryman s own sake, to prevent his ad-
topography of the trenches as of the interior of Sehasto-
mini :tering a .chastisement which, however anniey de-
pier, stumbled on the wrong regiments, and ordered up served, might have endangered the safety of its bestower,
the first brigade of the Light Division, which had been and so liberated the frightened impudent, and endea-
eold off as the proper reserve. Evident, however, as
youred to calm down the wrathof the infuriated Kerry-
- _
was the blunder, the gallant " fighting 7th," led on by man. This, however, was no easy task ; but by en-
Maor Turner and the 23d under (Jul. Lons advanced 'pursing his declaration of being able to beat ten French
to th-
j, , e
renewed attack. The other regim enys whot°, should
men any day -I finally reduced the storm, and sent him
have preceded, followed in estate of beautiful pell. m ell, and on his way to the outskirts of the town.
under a fire of grape and canister before which the bravest I cannot refrain from adding one sentence on a sub-
columns of the Old Guard would have staggered, our ject to which I shall again recur—the prohibition which.
young levies—for such were three-fourths of the troops has been issued against our own troops sharing in the
engaged—were led on to regain the ground which had. spoil, whilst carte blanche has been allowed to the French.
been lost through mismanagement before. It was not; Our catnip is swarming with these last offering for sale,
however, in human nature to make headway under such 'every conceivable description of plunder, and getting
an iron storm; the men turned, and fled back under high prices air their goods toe—whilst our own men,
cover of the parapet, keying very many of their own who have equally shared in all the danger and toil of elle
number, and more in proportion of their officers, dead siege, are prevented front fingering as much as an empty
. or dying on this field of death. Two young lieutenants, bottle. The discontent which has risen amongst them
Wright and Colt, of the 7th, were amongst the killed, in consequence is not deeper than it is just, and reflects
and three of the same rank of the 23d. Major Turner credit neither on the jeclement northe regard fir fair play
received a ball through his scalp—one of the narrowest ef those from whom the prevention proceeds. But with us
escapes of the day—whilst Lieutenant Alma Jones, of it is always so ;at Bench, where there was a colouring
fighting fame, was knocked over by a fragment of a fur the prohibition the French plundered all before them
shell. Colonel Lysons carried away a rifle bullet in his —to their own indelible disgrace ; but why. a similar
leg, and only three of all the remainine officers of these bar should be here again placed on the exercise of what
two crack regiments escaped untouched. From the is a right of every soldier who has taken part in the
failure of this second attempt, the attack became one of siege puzzles many more than myself to understand.
musketry-fire over the parapet, aided by the guns of the SEPT. 15.
Quarry and other batteries which bone upon the Redan. My last letter, though written on the third day after
Brigadier Straubenzee, commanding the 13t Brigade of the enemy's abandonment of their stronghold, was ne-
ther Light Division, tried to induce his chief to storm cessarily confined to a narrative_ of the incidents of our
again, offering to lean the assault with the still eater own and the French attack. With a view of giving
you
though shattered regiments of his own command ; but the latest news, I had deferred waving it till thelitst
Sir William declined repeating the attempt at that time. hour allowed me by the post, and was" u consequently u -
Thence on till dusk, we waged a futile war of mu -ketrt atee to do more than refer. to the fact that the town
and artillery fire, which was vigorously replied to by the was already being rifled, Kertch like, by our allies,
enemy, and night closed upon our men, discouraged and whilst our men were virtually deprived of the very
humbled that, through mismanagement on tee part of smallest benefitis in the shape of plunder. The same
those with whom lay the direction of the assault, they had necessity compelled me to postpone till now any detailed
failedavhile the French had triumphed. It seemed as if we description of the state of the town itselaan
and of
the
were aeain to reap the bitter experience entailed on u- works by means of which it has been so long and
so
by similar causes on the 18th of June, after having lost, .bravely defended. In the present letter I shall attempt
in the killed and wounded, nearly half the number of toeltiee your readers some rough idea of both.
men, and much more than that proportion of officers, of Before entering on anything in the shape of ade
_the whole force engaged. The Russian apothegm of scription, either of the defending redoubts,
ot. of Seloa;
" enermy of lions led on by, denkies," had once more topel itself, however, I wish to add to my former brief
been' illustrated ; and whilst our allies were jubilant account of the operations of the Bth a further re
h with well-earned success, we were humbled by the con- mask or two in defence of the part enacted by our
sciouspessuf undeserved defeat. tar) men, aed in correction of an error which I there
Up till midnight, such was pretty much the state of committed, in stating that the French sal stormed the
' feeling prevalent throughout the camp, as also amongst ' Little Redan and its adjoining works in Careening Bay.
the men who remained in the trenches keeping up the I should be most sorry to pen a line which would boar
distant attack on the work which they hid won and lost. the interpretation of jealousy or ill-sag towards our gal-
It was known that with dawn another assault would lane allies, whose bravery and ink:imitable energt I have
be made, and continued at whatever cost till the redota t so often had occasion to admire ; but, whilst extending
had been finally gained ; but this hope was, after all, a full meed of praise fir all they have both endured and
but a feeble consolation after the signal and costly re accoMplis.hed, I would permit no squeamish generosity
pulse we had sustained before the eyes of the triumphant- towards them to dull my recollection, or qualify
my
French. However, there was nothing else for it ; anti, eulogy, of what our own troops have in like manner But
so everyone anxiously awaited daylight on Sunday fered and achieved. That in the two combined attacks,
morning, when our slaughtered hundreds were to be 'however, which have terminated' the siege of Sebastopol,
, avenged, and the tarnish cast-upon our military honour our allies succeeded in that undertaken by them, whilst
Wiped away. About authry ter midnight. however, ?we failed in the other allotted to us, may at first sight
the enemy forestalled all t is y blowing up their maga- ' seem humiliating to
of
rthmeilittaroy pride h but when the
zine, and abandoning the redoubt. Such, it is presumed, relative difficulties operations are cf,
pestle
the fact, though it is not improbable that the explo. tiered, I venture to think thatw we shall suffer eta
sion may have been caused by one of our own shells. either in our own estimation or in that of Europe
.Be this as it may, the re-alt was the same ; and on a generally. Mainly owing to the fire of our Eng-
party of our men being soon after sent out to recnn- lish batteries during the three previous days of
noitre, it was discovered that the Russians had given the bombardment—for the Marnelon had ained
up the game. Our troops were accordingly marched all lint silent throughout that period—thereFurenbcoh
.in, and the first grey streaks of daylight saw the on the forenoon of the 8 h found every gun
dt
British ensign waving over a surrender which one in the Malakh .II silenced. Their advanced
had already been a prize. Long before darkness sap, too, had brought them to within some forty
had set in on the previous evening, the French had yards of their point of attack, and during their rapid
swept the chain of works on the proper left of the Ma- drab in column over this narrow space, they were ex-'
laahoff; and thus the whole line, from the Quarantine paired only to the grape-shot of this one gun. Once on
se .. Fort, the mouth of the Tchernaya, was in the hands the face of the parapet,from they were safe a second
of the Allies—the Russian batteries opposed to the discharge, and had then only to contend against the
, . French Left having been simultaneously evacuated, faint and brief resistance of a body of trench gutrds,•
, Dawn showed the last stragglers of the retiring enemy who bad evidently been' taken unawares. A
;rapid,and
la- hurrying ever the bridge of boats, which was promptly well-sustained fire of musketry soon expelled these, and
l',et - destroyed when they had crossed ; and as the entire the reserves who were hurried up by the enemy
had
- slopping—one frigate and a couple of small steamers equally little. chance against the swarming catunne of
alone excepted—had been sunk during the night, the our allies, whom good generalship kept pouring in to
h , • sun rose upon as desolate a scene as if Sebastopol had the support of the first stormers as fast as human legs
never been inhabited, nor its splendid 'harbour covered could scramble up the broad parapet and jump inside
With ships of war. Even before the blow-up of the the redoubt. Such a contest was merely a question of
Redan several mines had been fired by the enemy along numbers ; and, baying made excellent arrangements to
and within their line of works, and &meg the night secure their own superiority in this respect, the French
• they consummated the sacrifice of their stronghold by commenelers had no cau eto doubt the result. Widely
blowing up Fort Paul, and firing nearly all the principal different, however, was the case on our side. Differently
buildings which had not already been in flames. And construcSed-as I shall presently describe—and stretch-
,thus ended the attack and capture of Sebastopol. 'leg over a long line, in hardly any point exposed to so
By early daylight, as soon as it was evident that the close and direct a fire as that which bore upon the Ma-
enemy had indeed cleared out of the town, the French leicheff, the Redan had replied to our batteries with a :n. cro,vded in, like crows to a carrion, to gorge their plan-• [referable vigour throughout the entire bombardment;
doming appetites with what spoil bad been left behind, and at noon of the Bth still continued to show fight with
$a on the whole of the previous day, during the pro- a dozen or so of uninjured guns. Instead, too, of forte
grew of the attack, double lines of cavalry sentries yards of open space, the nearest point from our
were posted along the whole front of our camp ; and most advaeced parallel to the ditch' of the Redan mea. through this impassible barrier no one not on cured 220, and this, also, everywhere exposed to the fire
duty, or not belonging to the omnipotent staff, was of twelve or fourteen 68-pounders. I have several times
allowed to .go. About noon, however, armed with a crossed this fatal
spot since the capture of the place,
p
Pass, courteously given me by General Sim son, I and each time with increased wonder how a single man
crossed the. line, and proceeded down to the
scene of- of our whole etormere could have escaped the tornado of
ihe the preceding day's carnage. By the time I reached the grape and canister which such an armament to mid, and
fatal open in front of our fifth parallel, however, the- 'did, send forth. •Searcely:
afoot of surface is there Ariake
S dead
had been gathered off the ground—the officers n did not swee ;1,0E714v/hen I add that the eddy
hiving been taken to the camp, and. the men thrown ahagdutime to fire three n S from every piece, frontlet:Do
into the deep and broad ditch of the Redan. And there fiat issue of our men from the shelter of our own para.
was a sight harrowing enough to affect nerves of iron pet till their arrival at the broad ditch where so many
and.a heart of stone ; piled up, row upon row, lay the have since found a grave, lam disposed to think that
bodies'of the braie fellows salaam blood had gained our your re
ghastlya,ders ivill share in nay Fur prise. itably re-
. triumph, nearly filling the huge dike—a and pulsed, thee.; as they Were, our shatteredlnev companies
mangled multitude. Those who had diedwithin the were compelled to fall back on the trench which they
Itedan had also been gathered into the ditch ; so that I had left ; and to, regain this they had to pass through the
looked upon nearly all the British who had fallen in this same storm of fire as before. Had they, indeed, been
last scene of an eleven months' tragedy. The first' fact properly supported, this second ordeal would have been
Which struck an observer was, that nearly all whoilay spared themh and, insp i
ite of all its grae cauister,
:there were old soldiere, men who had borne the heat and the Roden would, without doubt, havebeen our own.
burthen of the day.Lhaaay a beirdlesa -face was to be To every attempt at repeating the attack the same for-
'een ; the second, the calmness which appeared on midable front was shown, arid cut up as they had been
almost every countenance, even where the lie eth•wounds in their first essay, it was not to be wondered at that
had been. the most severe. Some, whose death must our young troops,
many of whom were under direct fire
have been instantaneous, lay with unclosed eyes for the first time, shrank from a seoond exposure to the
a
gazing on the sky," and but for the glazed desolating storm.
an p
d ghastly countenance, might. have been supposedulrms Such, then, is a brief statement of the relative diffi-
basking for pleasure in the sun i - whilst others again culties of the two attacks on the Redan and Malakhoff ;
Were stretched out in all the seeining composure of and, bearing in mind these facts, few, lam inclined to
at. Cahn sleep. Amongst them lay a few Russian.; believe, will consider that the French have much ground
441eous in their mew and dirt, but displaying like- for boasting, as compared with ourselves. That they
Wise but few- of tee lour owiras traces of acute or fought and conquered bravely I would he the last to
'•%' ranged death-throes. As I passed fiver this j deny; brit that they would have Succeeded, with the
es
, .ete of corpses into the interior of the Redan, a 1 eatee-numerics stren th as our own. age'
Pali
Ue g party was already beginning to shovel in the pee tho impartial and intelligent man could bellies-ate:hel Redan,proo
p7t 77 the bodies, many of Whom thus found !, gray! ?f this, and rather more, I may add mention of their
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