The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-08 00:00:00

LETTARS 'FROM THE CRIMEA

-
(From the Special Corropondent of the Dailg News.)
CAMP, SEBASTOPOL, SEPT. 24.
No change has occurred in the disposition of the Bri-
tish Divisions Since the mail left on the 22d inst. The
First, Third,: Fourth, and Highland Divfsions are held in
readiness to move in case any part of the British force
should take the field. It is not expected that the Light
or Second Divisons will leave their•present encampments
—their espeaial duty will be to guard the south side of
Sebastopol and the neighbouring heights, in case of the
rest of the British force leaving. A conference has been
held this day at the French head-quarters, at which Ge-
neral Simpso❑ was present. The result of the meeting
has not been divulged. The rumour in the camp is that
the French have made a reconnaissance, and reported
that the Russian position between Sebastopol and Batchi-
Serai is so.strongly defended, as well by its natural ad.
vantages as by iti artificial works, and that the enemy
is in such force, that it would amount to rashness to
attempt to dislodge them from it, and that on this ac-
count the projected expedition is for the present aban-
doned. This is a mere rumour, and its truth or falsity
will be decided in a very few days. The weather which
has prevailed lately has been so bad as almost to pre=
elude the possibility of moving artillery. Rain fell-
heavily during the greater part of the week until yester-
day, the 23d inst., and in someAplttites the roads becisule,
nearly impassable from the accumulation of mud. On
the 22d, there were some violent thunderstorms, and
this electric disturbance appeared to change the condition
of the atmosphere ; for since that date no rain has fallen,
the sky has remained clear from rain-clouds, and the
temperature has been considerably raised.
The Russians have sunk some guns on the north side,
and have succeeded in getting the range of the town
and Karabelnaia suburb on the south side. They
have also kept up a frequent fire from Fort Constan-
tine, and from the large square Stone-work, generally
spoken of in camp as Fort Michael, but marked in
plans as Fort Sukaia. From this latter, howitzer shells
have been discharged against the west side of the south
harbour. The principal French mortar battery is con-
cealed by the long range of building comprising Fort
Nicholas, and the shot and shells discharged from the
opposite side with the intention of impeding and si-
lencing the fire of this powerful battery, fall very wide
of their mark. A few of the French artillerymen on
the right, in the battery close to the water of the road-
stead near Careening Bay, have suffered. On our side
one man only of the 3d Buff-,, which regiment was
sent to garrison at Karabelnaia, has been wounded.
He was struck by a piece of shell while walk-
ing near the dockyard, and died shortly after-
wards from the effect of his wound. An extraordi-
nary escape occurred on Sunday morning, shortly
after the hour for divine service. The Russians ap-
pear to have seen the regiment parading, as the men fell
in on the terrace in front of one of the large white build-
ings which they occupied as their barrack. Some shells
were thrown, and one, penetrating the roof, lodged in
the room converted into a surgery. Assistant-Surgeon
Teevan and an orderly were in the apartment, and had
just time to make their escape before the shell exploded.
Neither was injured. As no good purpose was effected
by exposing the troops to this fire, the 3d Buffs marched
back to their old position near the 2d Division to-day.
The French have kept up a harassing fire; day and night-,
against the Russians on the north side. In addition to a
large pile of bui/dings, supposed to be storehouses,
another detached shed, also seeming to be connected
with the commissariat, has been set on fire.
The convoys of waggons ars not observed moving, as
they used to do, in the day time, towards the depots of
stores below the Star Fort; and the working parties and
troops ou the march keep much higher towards the
crest of the line of mountains forming the north
side, instead of moving along the lower road near the
cliffs. The tents, moreover, seem diminished in number,
but the camp on the Inkerman heights remains as ex-
tensive as ever.

It is singular that so few accidents have occurred in
be town and suburbs, and among the deserted fortifica-
tions, from the mines and magazines left by the enemy,
and arranged to be exploded. Fresh magazines were dis-
covered daily, until the last three days, with trains laid,
and everything prepared for explosion. No casualty
occurred, however, and the quantity of gunpowder se•
cured from these sources is enormous. A few men have
been injured by treading on fougasses, but the number
injured by these has been remarkably small, both among
the French and ourselves.
Major-General Markham has been suffering so much
from rheumatism and general ill-health that it is feared
he will be compelled to leave the army in the field for
a time. When first ordered to join the force in the
East under Lord Raglan, General Markham was in the
north-western provinces of India. To comply with the
order he travelled by rapid journeys, and on his way
met with a serious injury in consequence of the upsetting
of his conveyance, and receiving a severe kick from a
horse in the chest, which fractured some ribs. The
General was too earnestly bent on the object of his
journey to adopt the necessary means of care for this
hurt, and in consequence of absence of proper attention
on this occasion his health appears to have suffered. He
has been ailing ever since he reached the Crimea, but it
is fully expected that after a few weeks' rest and care he
will have regained health and strength sufficient to en-
able him to resume duty. Brigade-Major W. F.
Rooke, 47th Regiment, who, while doing duty with
the 2d brigade of the 2d division, was wounded in
the head at the assault of the Redan, is lying in a
very precarious state, and not expected to live.
Brevet-Major Remnant Chapman, 20th Regiment, doing
duty as acting engineer, died at the siege-train of the
left attack on the 20th instant. He received a wound
in the knee. He was nephew to Lieutenant-Colonel
Edward Chapman, Royal Engineers, whose name has
been so intimately associated with the engineering ope-
rations on the left, and was residing with him at the
time of his death. Captain Halsted Poole, 23d Regi-
►nent, has also sunk from the effect of his wounds, which
were of a very serious character. He was supposed at
first to have been killed, as he was not found till the
morning after the assault. As a general rule the wounded
are reported to be going on remarkably well, and many
have already been enabled to leave the field to complete
their cure in England.
The Ist and 2d battalions of the Royal Regiment have
received orders to join the Highland Division. This,
the Ist Regiment, is reported to have been once known
as the Royal Scots Regiment, and still bears as its em
blew the royal cypher within the collar of St. Andrew.
This circumstance is said to have influenced its selection
to form part of the Highland Division. The division
will now consist of two brigades, each formed of four
battalions. One brigade will be composed of the four
kilted Highland regiments ; the other of the two regi-
ments, one of which, the 71st, is still at Kertch, wearing
trews, and the two battalions of the Royal Regimens.
The head-quarters and greater part of the Highland
Division still remain encamped near Kamara.
The French are restoring the bridge across the south
harbour, to connect the west side with the Karabelnaia
suburb. They are placing it in its original position--
that which it occupied before the more powerful and ad.
vanced fire of the siege guns compelled the enemy to
shift it to a greater distance. It is nearly completed.
The communication is at present round the head of the
harbour, and includes a considerable circuit, which will
be avoided by the direct passage.
The construction of the military roads by the English
troops is being carried on with great energy. The guard
of the trenches in each attack is reduced to a captain's
command, and the greater number of the troops thug
set free are employed either in making roads, clearing
the batteries, or making the necessary preparations for
the coining winter. In this respect among others, the
abandonment byethe enemy of the south side, occurring
as it did a month or six weeks before the commence-
ment of the severe season, has rendered the most impor-
tant service to the British force. Had it taken place a
month later, there is every reason to believe that the
winter would have caught us with nothing but the rail-
road to depend on forcommunication and the conveyance
of supplies. Now there is every reason to expect that
the plateau will be traversed in all directions by firm
and substantial well-drained roads. It is impossible
to overrate the great value and advantage of the op-
portunity thus afforded to us for insuring constant
provision against the most material exigencias'of the
c ming winter. Those only whothad occasion to observe
the increase and multiplication of the varied miseries
and sufferings which arose last winter from the want of
means of transport and communication will be able to
appreciate the real- value of the different circninstances
under which the army will be placed during the ensuing

winter,

All the shot and shell belonging to the siege guns

CAMP BEFORE SEBASTOPOL, SEPT. 25.
With the exception of the excavated rock remains of
Inkeeman—of which their situation as yet limits our
examination to a telescopic survey—the ruins of Hera-
clea Chersonesus, on the little headland that bounds
Quarantine Bay on the• west; are the only architectural
relics of any historic interest-in the roighbourhood of Se-
bastopol. Till within so recent a period, I believe, as 20
years ago, several others were scattered over the plateau
from the mouth of the tcherOeia to Balaklava, along
.the eastern declivity of which a 'wall connecting these
two points served to protect the promontory against the
Scythians and Bosphoranic kings'; but what the dens
edax temper-is had been slowly effecting for centuries the
"march of improVement "
_had speedily consummated
since then, and, excepting the few blocks of Chersonese
masonry which I have mentioned, not a trace is to be
seen over this broad expanse of hill and valley of either
Greek or,Genoese remains. The last and m sweep-
ing clearande of the 'arc'llitectueo relics of thip ce e-
. k•
..bratodLcity_of n qui y place on the
building of Nicolaieff, on the Bong, when all the
finest of its green marble pillars and slabs were car-
ried off to form part of the houses in the new town.
Later, the rise of' Sebastopol itself occasioned a still
further diminution 'of the ruins, by the extraction of
almost every remaining block that could be turned to
account in the erection of the great Russian stronghold ;
till hardly enough now remains to guide the wanderer in
his search after the site of the capital of one of the most
powerful free states of the ancient world. On Sunday I
rode over to Kamiesch, and after making the tour of the
large wooden town into which this French landing-place
has grown, proceeded overlhe heights on its north-east, ,
and rambled for a time amid the crumbling relics of the
old Greek city, and the tombs in the very picturesque
graveyard of the Church of St. Wladimir, a short way
beyond. Before attempting any description of either of
these last, however, I may just prefix a remark or two
on the present state of Kamiesch itself, and the line of
works by which it is now fortified.
But a few weeks ago, this bead-quarters of the
French administrations and principal locale of the
traders who followed the army consisted of little more
than a couple, or at most three, straggling and broken
rows of wooden sheds, portions of which bore, to be sure,
sufficiently imposing names, such as Hotel des Allies,
Cafe de l'Univers, Grand -Magazin de Monsieur Quel-
qu'un et Cie., and the like ; but sounding as might be
the nomenclature given by the various proprfitaires to
their shops, they were little better than so many detached
hovels, and their stocks in trade were anything but first-
class. Wondrous, however, is the change which has
taken place : regularly laid-out streets of substantial and
neatly-built woolen houses have been erected along the
whole face of the slope running up from the northern
shore of the hay, and in these are to be seen shops filled
with every variety of eatable, drinkable, and wearable
merchandise ; behind the counters of which, too, buxom
Marseillaises or Parisiennes may be seen dealing
out creature comforts to groups of red-coated
ensigns and lieutenants, whom they daily be-
witch all *he way from the;, '*nglish camp, to
listen to their merry laugh, and drink in unsettling
poison from their wicked but lustrous black eyes.
What if Madlle. charges her delighted customers 60.4. a
dozen for vin orclinaire, or, in the prettiest broken Eng-
lish in the world—to which her juvenile admirers will
persist in replying in still more disjointed French—re-
commends her Medoc (?), at four guineas the case ; is it
in British human nature, especially on the green side of
25, to. haggle for prices with so charming a pickpocket?
Mademoiselle and her employer both know that it is
not, and wax rich accordingly. Indeed, with some few
exceptions, it is only at Kamiesh that the face of wo-
mankind is to be seen at all ; and to the fact that many
a pretty specimen of " that same" may be there gazed
at till the gazer is content, for the trifling premium of
some 40 per cent. of extortion on what he buys, the
place, lam disposed to think, owes a large proportion
of its English and most profitable trade. Substantial
wooden landing-wharves line the shore of the bay,
and behind these rows of army stores, numerous
and capacious enough, one would fancy, to hold vic-
tualling and other supplies for the whole allied force
before Sebastopol.
Then comes the first of the ten or a dozen of broad
streets into which the town is laid out, running
parallel with the shore, and kept perfectly free from
obstructions and nuisances of every kind. Neatly-
painted tablets fixed on the corners of the streets
tell the stranger that he is walking through the Rue
Napoleon, cr Rue de la Gloire, or Place de la Qua-
rantine, or some other equally well baptised thorough.
fare which the enterprise of our allies has called into
existence within a very recent period. A busy popula-
tion, and crowds of arriving and departing customers
throng and jostle each other in the roadways, and, with
the aid of strings of waggons and light carts, inter-
spersed with here and there a mounted vivandiere, rid-
ing "not sideways but otherways," complete a very
striking and peculiar picture of life in one of its not
least suggestive phases.
The high plateau behind the town is mainly occupied
by Government stores and scattered bits of encampment,
some couple or three hundred yards distant from which
runs the line of field-works which ortifies the position,
in a sweeping curve from north to south. In point of
solidity and apparent permanency these defences far sur-
pass those by which Balaklava and its neighbourhood
have been strengthened, their construction baying no-
thing whatever about it which is improvised or tempo-
rary in appearance. The whole oonsists of the usual work
of a continuous line of ditch and substantial stone-faced
earth bank, crowned with batteries at intervals of every
five hundred yards, which are so constructed as to pour
a cross-fire upon any attacking force that might attempt
to force the line. Those of the redoubts which I saw on
Sunday had not received their guns ; but this, I pre-
sume, will be done before winter sets in. The impression
given to a glance at the whole, was certainly such as in no
way favoured the notion that our allies meditate an early
retreat from the situation ; but rather encouraged the
belief that, peace or no peace, they'll hold Kamiesch for
some time to come.
From the point at which I emerged from this admir-
able line of defence works, the route towards the ruins
lay down a steep and very stony declivity, at the bot-
tom of which was a French encampment. Then an
open space, then a patch of encampment again, and
so or for nearly a mile, when the path entered a
broad grassy open, on the other side of which lay
all the crumbling ruins that have as yet escaped
removal. Spread over this were several Frenchmen
impressed with the delusive notion that they were
" doing it" in the line of quail shooting ; but I counted
five shots out of six running in which the sportsman
missed his " feathers." They carried cheap double bar-
rels, however, and were girt on with game-bags—a com-
pleteness of outfit which doubtless brought with it a
keen sense of sporting enjoyment, and so, minus the sup-
plementary game, realised its wearer's object well
enough. The first portion of the ruins I came to was a
thick arid lofty wall, much frayed and honeycombed,
but still likely to resist the action of time for centuries
to come, if spared so long by the more destructive hand
of man. Outside of this massive line of masonry, and
nearly washed by the sea, was a collection of ruinous
buildings, also of evidently considerable antiquity, but
forming no part of the ruins which give interest to the
spot. Within, nothing remains to point out where
temple, or forum, or marketplace once stood ; odd and
scattered fragments of foundation walls having alone
outlived the annihilating breath of some twenty centu-
ries, and escaped the yet more fatal agency of a vandalism
which can neither value nor respect what has been con-
secrated by time. The French had taken advantage
of one of these low masses of antique masonry in
the construction of the extreme outside battery of their
left attack, and here in incongruous fellowship with ga-
biome, fascines, and sand-bags, were to be seen the relics
of buildings which bad become ruins before ever Gaul
had emerged from its anti-Inedieeval barbarism, or the
savage peopled forests of Scandinavia echoed to the
sound of the first civilising axe, Further on, in advance
of this battery, the ruins presented very much the ap-
pearance of an exhausted quarry, heaps of broken slabs
and massive ehisselled blocks lying thickly all over the
ground, and almost hiding the few traces of foundations
the eye could still discover amid the surrounding rubbish.
After picking my way cautiously, and not without danger
to both horse and rider, through these historic wrecks and
pitfalls for a few hundred yards, I came upon the re-
mains of a few modern houses, in an open space, before
which were piled fragments of the old Greek pillars, capi-
tals, and other productions of the architectural chisel,
cut out of a rough white marble, and but little disco-
loured by time. The heap would have filled some six or
eight ordinary waggons. They may probably have been
in course of removal to Sebastopol at the time of the
arrival of the Allies, and the sadly fractured condition in
which I found them was no doubt largely owing to the
round shot and shell which had fallen and exploded on
and around the spot during the siege. A few perches
beyond this was another French battery, like nearly all
the rest, dismantled and empty, and serving as a sort of
abutment to this was the last fragment of the Chersonese
masonry, a portion of the wall of what appeared, from
the foundations, to have been a small circular tower,
Winding through the labyrinth of old trenches and am-
buscades which lay behind this, I reached the crown of
the little slope which divides this extreme end of Quaran-
tine Bay from the grassy and secluded valley from the
centre of which rose the green and gilt spire and cupola
of the " holy and ancient" church of St. \Vladimir. It
was the sight of thr sacrilegious plundering of this build-
may perhaps remem-
ing by the French, your readers

Duna.

We have already garrisoned our portion of the town
—the Admiralty, with its adjacent buildings—with a
body of troops, a service which is to be taken in turn by
each of the regiments in front. I regret to report that
a shot from one of the batteries on the north side fell
into these new quarters a few nights ago, and killed a
couple of men of the 3d Buffs, who happened to be the
regiment that then supplied the occupying detachment.
M. Soyer, I am also sorry to have.occasion to men-
tion, has been seriously ill for the last ten days with a
bad attack of fever, and is yet confined to his tent. The
cltif had intended to have left ere this for England, to
complete his arrangements for the carrying on of his
winter culinary campaign here ; but this severe indispo-
sition has knocked all his arrangements thus far on the
head.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF DUNAMUNDE
AND BULLEN.

RIGA, Sept. 29.—As the season is getting so far ad-
vanced, without our seeing anything of the allied fleets,
we were beginning to think there would be no bombard-
ment this year, when yesterday morning at an early
hour the inhabitants of this city were suddenly awak-
ened by a loud and severe cannonade. It appears that
during the night eight British rnen-of-war—four
battle ships, a frigate, and three corvettes—had ap-
proached our coast unperceived, and at daybreak opened
their fire upon our batteries at Dunamunde, the mouth of
the Duna. The bombardment was kept up for nearly
three hours, without, however, inflicting much damage
on the batteries, except dismounting a few guns, after
which the hostile squadron stood off to the westw_F ,
and took up a position opposite the colony of Bujie.ae)
th
situated at the mouth of one of the channels of

Here they opened a heavy fire on the bat

' teries, which was but feebly answered by the Russian
artillerymen. This second bombardment lasted_
more im-
portant
for two
hours, and the damage done was considerably
than at Dunamunde. About noon the slaps
drew off altogether, and disappeared in a north-easterly
direction.
Intelligence has this day been received here of a simi-
lar hostile visit at Old Sails, a small town situated at the
mouth of the river Salle, about 50 miles higher up the
coast. On Tuesday last,
the 25th of September, a couple
of large steam-frigates, under the British flag, arrived off
Chet
mouth of the river Sails, and cast anchor within gun-
shot of the town. A boat and cast
lowered,
which, manned by an officer and seven sailors, pro-
ceeded to sound and reconnoitre the mouth of the river
and the channel. On having accomplished this, they
a signal to the ships,
gavewhen four more boats,
containing four officers and 54 men, pushed off and
joined the first boat. These five boats then pulled in
towards the shore, the foremost of them displaying a
white flag in her bows, which
was answered by a
similar one hoisted on the flagstaff on the shore, in
the
hope of thereby saving the ten timber vessels lying at
and
anchor about a werst up the river, without their masts
rigging. Whilst the lastly-arrived four boats lay on
their oars, the first one approached the landing-place,
and the English officer in command inquired of Herr
von Behaghel, the principal proprietor and inhabitant of
Old Salis, whether the vessels lying in the river belonged
to the government or were private property. This gen-
tleman replied that they belonged to him and his people,
upon which the lieutenant expressed his regret, but his
positive orders were to destroy them and all others they
might find along the coast. Representations and en-
treaties were of no avail ; the sailors set fire to all the
vessels, after which they returned to the frigates. As
soon as the latter were out of sight, attempts were made
by the inhabitants of Old Salis to extinguish the flames
and save some of the burning vessels, but without much
success, as only two were partially saved, whilst the re-
maining eight were burned to the water's edge and to
tally destroyed.