The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-29 00:00:00

soners say that even the reserves took part in the action.
I saw a soldier who said he belonged to the last battalion
of the .reserves, who saki that before the battle began
General Gortschakoff, who commanded in person, had
a letter of the Emperor road before them, in which
he expressed a hope that they would prove as
valorous as last year when they took the
heights of Balaklava, and then there was a large
distribution of brandy. Not a soldier I saw who had
not his bottle lying empty near him, and good-
sized bottles they were too. This brandy distribution
was, however, only for the infantry, whom they wished
to excite to madness. The artillery got only the usual
rations.

Besides the three divisions which attacked there was
another, the 7th, which occupied Tchorgoun and the
heights, but which did not attack except in the small
outpost affair of the Sardinians.

AUGUST 18.

The attack has not been renewed, and the French
have been for the last two days busy in bringing in the
wounded Russians and burying the dead. Up to yes-
terday evening 1,800 wounded and prisoners have been
brought in. The number of dead, of whom I have not
heard any official estimate, cannot be less than from
1,200 to 1,500. Of course the bridge and the banks of
the aqueduct are the spots most crowded with them.
The latter is quite choked up with them, so that it has
been forbidden to water the horses from it for fear it
should be injurious to their health.
The French had three divisions engaged—the Division
Faucheux to the right, the Division d'Herbillon in the
centre of the bridge, and the Division (Camou) on the
left ; their loss is about 1,000 in dead and wounded.
The Sardinians had only one division engaged, the divi-
sion (Trotti), and suffered very little loss—a few hun-
dred men ; but they have to regret the loss of a distin-
guished general officer, the Brigadier-General Count
Monte Vecchio, who is severely wounded and not ex-
pected to live.
Not protected by any intrenchments except that small
epaulement near the bridge, which, moreover, could be
turned on all sides, our gallant allies, although taken
by surprise, showed once more that the Russians have
no chance against them in the field—that they must
remain behind their earthworks, and be protected by
siege guns, in order to establish a kind of equilibrium
with the allies. It is worthy of remark that the greater
part of the Russians were old soldiers, scarcely one
under 30.

According to the account of the prisoners most of
them came from Bakshi Serai, and they had to attack
without resting after their march. They had all large
quantities of bread in their foraging sacks hung across
their shoulders, but no knapsacks.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
( From the correspondent of the Daily News.)
TURKISH CAMP, KAMARA, August 18.—The disas-
trous affair of the 18th June was at least in a great mea-
sure atoned fur by a decisive victory gained on Thurs-
day over a large body of Russians, by the French and
Sardinians on the Tchernaya.
To give you anything like a correct idea of a conflict
which, though fought out, considering the number of
the combatants, in a very small space, derived a great
deal of its incidental importance from the nature of the
terrain, it is almost necessary to call attention to a few
of the leading features of the well known, now so often-
described, district around Balaklava. If you descend
from the northern side of the plateau, on which the be

sieging armies are encamped, into the gorge through
which the Tchernaya empties itself into the harbour,

and follow the banks of the river for a short distance
upwards, you find yourself in a narrow valley, with the
heights of Mackenzie's Farm rising abruptly on your
left, like tall cliffs on the sea shore ; and on your right
a row of small hills, extending, with greater or less in-
tervals between them, on to Tchurgoun. Beyond them
is the plain of Balaklava, which is broken in its centre
by a somewhat similar line of eminences, but in this in-
stance su small as hardly to be entitled to any better
appellation than that of mounds. It was on these last

,tit the Turkish redoubts were thrown up, which were

so precipitately abandoned by their defenders on the
25th of October. The highest of these hillocks does not

rise above two or three hundred feet from the level of

,he plain. Between Tehorgoun and Inkerman they are

same of the most remarkable features in the landscape ;

but on crossing the river on the road from Balaklava to
the former of those places they no longer stand apart,
each from its neighbour, but become more and more
closely crowded together, and are lost in the picturesque I
contusion of the great range of hills which extend with-
out interruption along the whole of the southern coast.
On two or three of these, which lie in a cluster on the
side of the plain next lukerman, and directly facing the
Mackenzie Heights, the road from which passes between
them, have encamped for some time past three divisions
of French. On the side next the Tchernaya the position
was defended by a precipitous and acarpe descent, on
which some stunted brushwood still remained, but which
in most places, stripped of the soil by the rain of ages,
presents but the white masses of the chalk which plays
so important a part in the geology of the whole die-
trict ; on the side next Balaklava the descent is com-
paratively easy. On the summit rested the right wing
of Liprandi's army on the 25th of October, and on the
southern side were planted the greater number of
the batteries which mowed down the British Light
Cavalry, as they charged along the slope which leads
gently towards the ford on the road to Tchorgoun.
This ford is reached through a tolerably wide open-
ing, which separates the French position from that of
the Piedmontese, who occupied the heights immediately
under the village of Kamera, extending a short distance
to the right. The valley still further to their right,
which is traversed by the Woronzuff-road, leading on to
Baidar, was defended by the Turks. The three armies
occupied a chain of eminences forming a semi-circle
drawn from Inkerinan to the sea, and embracing Bala-
klava and the plain within its two wings—or, in other
words, just the position taken up by Liprandi last
autumn. The French divisions were encamped on the top
of the hills ; between these hills runs the road leading up
to Mackenzie's Farm, and crossing the river in the valley
by a stone bridge, for the protection of which a small
redoubt had been thrown up in front. This
tete de pont was on the night of the 18th instant
guarded by the 20th of the line. The Piedmontese
had batteries regularly fortified on all the heights
overlooking the ford on the road to Tchorgoun, and
had the upper end of the valley completely within
their range. On the other side of the river, on the top
of a hill, similar in every respect to those I have been
describing, they had on the same night au outpost com-
posed of two companies of infantry, for whose greater
security, considering their distance from their own lines,
a small entrenchment had been thrown up.
For some time past, as I mentioned in eeveral of my
recent letters, rumours have been afloat each night that
an attack in force along the whole line would be made
on the morrow. For a long while, however, these ap-
pear to have had no better foundation than the fact,
which seemed pretty well ascertained, that the Russians
bad received large reinforcements, and, from hearing so
many warnings, which time did not justify, as is usually
the case, the French and Piedmontese both, I think, fell
into a state of greater carelessness than if they had never
received any warning at all. Still the air seemed thick
with omens ; nobody could fully satisfy himself that no
danger was imminent, though ho could not make up
his mind as to when or in what shape it would present
itself. The deserters had too often proved false prophets
that people began to doubt all their stories, until on
Wednesday evening three spies came in, who positively
declared that an attack would be made in force on the
following morning ; and hardly had they ceased speak-
ing when General Allonville, commanding the French
cavalry at Baidar, telegraphed that the heights around
were covered with troops, and that he wished to retire,
from the fear that he might be cut off, but could not,
owing to the road being blocked up by some hundred
of commissariat waggons. He went on to give some
details regarding the attack, which made it evident
that he had likewise received some information,
when a fog came on, and the telegraph ceased work-
ing. The Turks remained under arms all night,
but, strange to say, the French, who were most of all
interested iu the matter,
,seem to have given them-
selves no trouble whatever about it, but went to bed and
slept tranquilly. A peloton of Chasseurs d'Afrique
went out to patrol during the night, and on the other
side of the river fell into an ambuscade, and were all
made prisoners, except two men, iwho escaped and gave
the alarm ; but even this was treated as one of the ordi-
nary events of night duty in presence of the enemy.
About an hour before daybreak the French sentinels in
front of the bridge thought they could perceive shadows
gliding past them in the darkness and fired. There was
no reply, and silence deep as, death followed ; about the
same time a few shots was heard from the bill occupied
by the Piedmontese outpost, but, as the utmost stillness
prevailed afterwards on every side, no precautions were
taken till just as the first break of light made itself visible
in the horizon a sharp fire was opened from a Par"'
of
lt
skirmishers agaiest the tcte de Pont,
made:upon the Sardinian picket. Gen. de la Marrnoirail
to
was
already a regular assault
already on the ground, and sent a battalion of hersa ie
reinforce the post, so thatthey might defend themselves till
the troops could be got under arms, and the neces ay
arrangements made. When the reinforcements arrived
half the picket was already hors de combat, and the as-