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

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failure before the Little Redan, after the occupation of
the Malakhoft The -is or eight guns of this work had
continued effective throughout the bombardment ; and
when our a lies, after their dmhing capture of the larger
redouht, passed on to attempt the seizure of the minor
batteries on its proper left, they were received with close
and well-directed discharges of grape, which speelily
checked their impetuous and confident advance:* —Thre7..4-
several times did they repeat the attempt, hut they
were as often driven back with heavy loss, and finally
abandoned the effort. During the night, when the Re-
dan itself was blown np, the works in Careening Bay
shared a similar fate, and were entered, without a blow,
in the morninz. When I last wrote, my impr ‘ssion
was that the French had stormed this line of minor
works with the same successful bravery as had been
previously displayed in 'their seizure of the Malakheff,
but a few hours later I learned my error, and . therefore
add this sentence in correction of what I then state,l. ,
As a sufficiently detailed and accurate description of
the Russian works, as seen from our own trenches, has
already appeared in these columns, I need say nothing
as to the appeahtnce of the Redan externally. Let even.
those of your rea,fers who may not have seen the Olio.
graphical sketch to wh.cb I refer, fancy a huge grey
bank of earth running angularly over the summit of a
broken slope, and fronted by a vast ditch some 18 feet
wide by more than half that number deep. Let them
pierce this with gabioned embrasures at intervals of some
three yards, and mentally picture these bristling with
the black muzzles ef 68 pounders, and their idea of the
outside front of this celebrated work will be sufficiently
complete. My first entry into the interior, on the morn-
ing .after its abandonment, was made by a bridge of
broken fascines and gabions, laid hastily over the dead
bodies that had just been gathered into the ditch for
burial, which has since been done by levelling over them

fl portion of the parapet above. The ghastly plies nearly
filled the vast trench to a level with the outer surface,
end the thin covering of earth which now cnuceah them
from view bi.re'y fa!ls below the summit of the low bank
in front. What first struck one in passing up the scut

made by oursappers through the broad parapet was the
unusual solidity and strength of this last—averaging 30
or 35 feet along its entire trout. On such a soli l mass
of gabions, fascines, sandbags, and earth, I n•-ed hardly
say that artillery of even the heaviest calibre could have
no sen,iole effect : 68 or 08-pound shot might
enter, but they could not penetrate. Coamared with
this massive structure of mud and wickerwork, the

thickest of our own or the F:encla works is as' paper to a
deal board. Then within, besides the great superiority
of their mantlets—strong ropen curtains bung across the
embraseres to shelter the gunnere fr ire the besiegers'
riflemen. You admire the cover provided for their ar-
tillerymen when not actually forking the guns, in tittle
retreats proof against any but the very heaviest eplintere
of shell:. But these, again, are nothing when compared
with the shot and shell proof chambers for the shelter of
larger bodies of troops, which abound throughout the
.work. I (Hied into several of these half subterranean
waiting-rooms, and found many of them fitted up with
fire-places, cooking c 'nveniences, benches, and other
suitable furniture ; whilst in others of smaller dimensions,
and which had evidently been occupied by the officers,
there were in addition bedsteads, chairs, tables, and in
some even handsomely glazed cupboards, centaining
empty wine bottles, and other traces of their occupants'
regard for creature c enforts. Oa a shelf in one of them
I lighted on a cheap Farringdon-street reprint of "Paul
Clifford," and an old copy of the Illustrated News—the
tat.thr with sundry engravings of scene. froin the siege.
Even more interesting than all these, however, were
the inner abutting defences of the redoubt, of which
we had previously heard and imagined so much. From
the irregtfar order in which these occur, it is difficult
to describe them in any way that will convey an accu-
rate idea of their exact appearance and relation to the
main work; but they may be generally mentioned a,
independent sapports similarly armed and of nearly
equal strength in construction to the front line of the
redoubt, which stands to them, in fact, in the relation
of a screen. Their guns, too, so thoroughly command
the whole interior of the Redan that any assailing -force
which might have succeeded in forcing the enter battery
would have been exposed to an inner fire as galling as
and more concentrated than the first. The whole etruc-.
ture and arrangement of these inner defences, indeed, .
are such as to justify the belief that, had the re'doubt
been strenuously defended, no body of attacking troops
that could have bean brought against it would have had
a chalice cf success. And the ease system of rear de.
fences extended down along nearly the whole curtain
leading towards the Malakhoff. The open behind the
Redan, as I have already mentioned, presents a broken
surface, literally ploughed up into narrow trenches by
round shot, aA. honeycombed into small pits by ex-
ploded shell ; I doubt if there be half a foot of square.
space within the whole enclosure on which one or other
of these mi,siles has not &len. The huge pits occa-
sioned by the exploded mines complete the wrecked
appearance of the spot, and give it in the last degree an
aspect of ruin and desolation. Although four days had
elapsed since the closing contest I stumbled on no less
than five dead Russians in different parts of the redoubt;
why they bad been passed over in the general burial I
am unable to explain.

Passing down from the rear of the Redan, the path
which lies along what was once a handsome wall of chi-
selled stone—now knocked into a line of shattered
masonry, leads to the first of the great series of govern-
ment buildings which terminate down on a harbour, at
the point at present covered with the ruins of Fort Paul.
Cuncesled as they are from view from our trenches by
the Redan hill, I .as one of many who, till within the
past five days, were utterly ig nt of the extent of the
mischief whicl had been done to these buildings by our
fire. Shattered and riddled at all points, they seem the
very type of architectural ruin, Only a degree better is
the condition of the next range of buildings beyond ; the
terrible effects of shot and shell everywhere meet the eye,
in shattered coluois, leveled side-walls, and &lien roofs.
Even in this extreme of desolation, however, enough
remains to suggest how fine—almost grand--must have
been the structures thus ruthlessly destroyed. The
general character of these piles of buildings resembled
in some degree that of the qua'lrangle of the Admiralty
and other adjacent offices in Somerset-house. As the
distance front the Redan increases, the injury done to
the buildings becomes less in proportion, though, down
to the very last of the series, opposite to where
stood Fort Paul, the damage is con iderable.
Crossing one of the intervening esplanades, I
rode through a wide gap.. made in the wall

separating It from the -I:Mildir.gs of the duck
yard, and entered the road leading down to the
series of basins and locks, of which, with the workshops,
this great establishment is composed. Its low situation

appears to have saved this extensive naval quarter from
much of the injury which hss fallen so destructively
everywhere else, as only hire and there are the marks of
a. shot or shell to be seen. The inesonry of these nplen
did basins equalled, if not surpassed, b-th in fieish and
enlidity,
anything to be seen either in Portia-math or
Woolwich In ose of the largest of the locks lay the
-till smoking remains of a large war steamer, with the
machinery, paddles, and other t o;id ken fi tings standing
all complete, though, of cour e, much damaged by the
fire. Outside all these, and on the bank of the channel
which opens into the creek, stood the charred remains
of the huge shears at which I had so often gaged from
Cathcart's and the Picket-house hills. Then came ruins
of burnt and sunken boats of all sizes, from a captain's
gig to a 50-ton lighter ; and farther out in the creek
till the mast-heads of a sunken brig. The road then
passes down the stone quay, flanked on cfl side by the
waters of the creek, on the other by a continuous pile
of lofty two-storeyed buildings, used apparently for all
three purposes of public offices, naval stores, and hospi-
tals. Here I found a party of the Land Transport
Corps engaged in the loath-semi duty of removing some
400 Russian dead, some Of . whom bad been found,
laid outside along the quays and the remsieder
within the buildings. Of these last a large num-
ber had been discovered in a vault under the buiiding.
oiled up in rows, one on top of the other, sod judging
from their state. they must have been dead at least 9 or
10 days. The officer in command of the party doss ibed
the condition of these bodies as loathsoinein the extreme,
Of those found laid nut or the grk.un I floor of the buil,l-
mg two still breathed when t eev were first discovered,
and a man who had accidentally strolled into the place a
day sooner than t‘ the authorities," affirmed that he had
counted 12 of them alive. Besides these, in anther
vault, some 20 or 30 bodies were found ceffined, some
with the coffin-lids firmly screwed down, a,,d others
with them lying by the side of the dead ; the :e . were
doubtless officers. Theft ansport Corps men were piling
up the last load of corpses as I rodeup, and certainly the
sight and the smell were offari,ive to the last degree.
From this point, some hundreds of yards down the quay,
the bloodstained and noisesame rags of those who had
be-n already borne away still remained ; but they were
to be forthwith piled up and burned. From the disco-
very of the longer dea 1, it is inferred that the wounded
during the three days of the bombardment were carried
hither and here left to die, as every sign appeared of
their wounds baying received no attention whatever.

Townris the extremity of the quay is a new, half-
finished building of cut atone, of &denier arethitec
tural character to the line of edifices along the front
of which I had already passed. Even it, far removed
as it is from the scene of action above, bore not a few
traces of cannon shot ; many a handsomely chiselled
cornice and well-fitted joining having been shattered
and displaced by a stray long ranger. Nearly opposite
this point, on the other side of the creek, and within
some hundred yards of the rear of Fort Nicholas, the
French had mounted a mortar, and were then throwing
shells at a working party employed in the construction
of a fort on the north side. Tney made very pretty
practice; sending nearly every other shell within,eor
close upon, the new parapet, and inflicting evident de-
triment on those at work. The Russians replied with a
few round shot, but without effect ; and when I turned
from viewing the pile of broken stones and mortar,
which is all that remains to tell where stood the once
handsome structure of Fort Paul, our allies were still
pounding away. Besides blowing up the Fort, the
Russians had likewise burned several rows of small
buildings in this neighbourhood, and the fallen•in roofs
of these were still snaoulderingas I rode along. Through
the openings between these, as well as from the top of
the ruins of Fort Paul, I had an unbroken view of the
harbour, from its mouth at Fort Constantine to its ter-
mination at the embouchure of the Tchernaya. Close
tinder Fort Paul, in about twenty feet of water, lay
the remains of the burned ship whose destruction I
reported some ten days ago ; out further, about the
middle of the harbour, appeared the mast-heads of
the last sunk liners, and away beyond, under the oppo.
site shore, was the burnt wreck of the long-fancied
\Vladimir steamer, which, with the other steamers and
remaining vessels, bad been burned a few days before—
the day after I last wrote. This final sacrifice of the
last remains of their once proud Blank Sea fleet was
occasioned by our having, on Tuesday last, brougnt
down a couple of guns-from our advanced batteries to a
point near the harbour, which commanded these few re-
maining vowels ; our. gunners put four shots into the
- •

hull of one of the steamers, which were replied to by a
few shell% when, teeing that further defence was useless,
the enemy consummated the destruction of their vetsel,
by burning or sinking everything that remained, except
a few insignificant barges, which are not worth a shot.
Not less wreckful and desolate, in its own way, is the
present aspect of this once crowded and navy-laden bar-
-hour than the most ruined quarter of the town itself.
View the entire scene 'from whatever point you may, it
seems_ as if,. a destroying curse had fallen upon and
blasted the whole. Though nothing is to be seen in the
-shape-of buildings on tile north side, beyond the forts on
the shore and some wooden huts scattered over the face
of the slope, there is an extensive gathering of tents,
and signs of great activity all over the enemy's new set-
dement The width of the harbour is so.inconsiderafde,
that all-their movements can be seen readily with the
naked eye.
I returned to our lines by the quarter behind the
Malakhoff, and through that redoubt itself. With a
few exceptions, all the houses in this locality are much
inferior to those in the main body of the town behind
Fort Nicholas ; being_ mostly of only one storey, and,
many of them built of unhurnt bricks. The streets
here, too, partake more largely of the character of
those of an E= 'stern town ; many of them being simply
a couple of parallel' deed walls, broken at intervals by
doors or low gateways
.leading_ to open courtyards in-
, side, round one 'or two sides of which I found similar
'galleries •running to those which one meets with in
Asiatic towns. Iwide, however, I saw no -traces of
the universal divans to be seen in all the rooms of an
Asiatic dwelling ; but, externally, the streets, with the
exception of being wider, might have passed for those of
Erzeroum, Diarbekir, or Antioch. Although ruin had
swept like a Ntorrn over this quarter too, the consum-
mating touch of Frauch fingers hal not been wanting to
perfect the deSolation—an it had not been withheld ;
benches, doors, windows, and every internal article of
furniture worth carriage to their camp, had been borne
'away, and what would not have ,repaid, this trouble
Was ,all smashed to pieces. Littie enclosures of flowers
and ornamental trees fronted many of the houses ; but
even these had not escaped the gratuitous wrecking
which had been everywhere perpetrated; up-torn
rose bushes, roots of deal tulips, camellias,
daisies, and the like, • met the eye and foot

at every point along the street on which this little
floral nook had ahutted ; as if sheer love of ruin had

been as strong an impelling motive with the destroyers
as their unsparing itch for piunder itself. I may here
mention that all this quarter of the town, as well as the
great body of it on the opposite side of the Creek, is at
present fur rally iu the occupation of our allies, the only
portion of the place which is in our hands being -the
government buildings and dockyard, which I have
already noticed. This small moiety of the city lies be-
hind our right attack, the reason, I suppose, why we are
allowed to hold even it. In this, as in a thousand other
things connected with the whole affair, English interests,
are most unblushingly overridden by those of the French,
who, in fact, seem by their effrontery and unconcealed
air of ownership, rather to tolerate our presence in the
place than to recognise an equal right to a share in it and
what it contains. I would again disclaim any ungene-
rous feeling towards our.allies ; but really, in view of
their general bearing since the fall of Sebastopol, one's
British " monkey" is often disposed to rise and show it-
self. Their sentries are posted over quite three-fourths
of the entire town, and into these quarters admission is
forbidden us, unless armed with a pass from the French
esmrnander. Alt,tgether, amity in fact aid amity
in print, are here shown to be distinctions with a dif-
t,rence. Talk as credulous apostles of French and
English unity may, the British Lion and Gallic Eagle
vial cherish antipathies, and occasionally show them to
the end of the chapter : the traditional feelings of more
than three centuries are not so easily extinguished, but
Mill . retain a smouldering vitality under all the surface
of factitious harmony which mere palitical contingencies
may create fur the time.
In *oonstruction and general appearance the Malakhoff
differs liiee frOm its neighbour the Mamelon ; the same
massive parapet. of earthwork, gabions, and sandbags,
with similar underground strdabs to those in the Redan,
but without the 'formidable rear defences to be seen
within that redoubt,. so.that. the outer line of battery
.on7e. gained, the mastery, of the interior became merely
an affair of tunsketry and the bayonet. As in the case
of the Red in, so here again near'y every inch of g•nund
behind the breastwork was cut up by our own and
the French fire. The embrasures still remain closed,
.nv on. the . morning of..the eth, and will, of course,
never be re.-cp -nod in the same direction. As in
all the other baiteties belonging to the enemy which
I have visited. there has appeared no scarcity of
ammunition—round shot, shot, grape, canister, and
every. other. missile known to artillerists, everywhere
abounded. I noticed that at the moment of the

enemy's flight v ry many of their mortars had been left
loaded, and wanti g only the application of a match to

send their deadly e-ititents into our own or the French

lines. Before passing from this subject of the enemy's
fill l clefeilis, however, I may jest mention that in the
Redan, and, I believe, some of the other batteries, large
mazazines full of Russian powder still remain, the daily
explosion of which, strange to say, we await—passing in
crowds over those hidden mines the while. The quan-
tity of the powder is alleged as a bar to its removal; but,
if so, why our authorities do not take measures to blow
it up selon la regle, instead of permitting it to take its Own
timo un ler dim ern .uklering gabions and other woodwork
on the surface of the ground, puzz!es my civilian under-
standing. A sentry, for example, will cooly warn you
not to come near him, as he is over a magazine, " which

.may at any minute blow up." In the body of the town,
also, it is suspected that unexploded mines yet exist;
but of this there can be no certain knowledge. Apropos

of explosions, I may mention a marvellous escape of a
paymaster of the Miles a few days ago within the town ;
be was riding quietly along when a ahell tnrown from
the north side of the harbour struck the ground imam-

diately under his horse's body, and exploding at the mo-
ment killed the animal without seriously injuring hie
rider. Were an incident of this kind mentioned in a

work of fiction, one would he more disposed to place it
to the account of the author's imagination and ignorance

of what shells are than to believe re its possibility. The
fact, however, occurred as I have stated it, and is con-

.idered of the narrowest shaves known in the whole

course of the siege.

The French trade in the proceeds of their plunder
continues to flourish, higher prices for everything being
demanded a►s days r ill on. In the centre of a small

knot of commercial Z .ivaves, outside the trench baaaar
on the Woronzoff road, I noticed, a few days ago, no less
distinguished a purchaser than the nuke of Newcastle,
who vas bargaining f, iraorne Russian trophies with a close-
ne4R that would have done credit t,) the economic instinct

of Lord Aberdeen, The Gauls chaffed hie grace with
a freedom which showed how little they siispeCted
that their customer was no less a personage than the
British ancien ministre de la guerre, frequently displ►y•
ing their sympathy with the duke's linguis.tic difficulties
by assuring him that he way a bono Ingle= notwithstane-
ing. The Marquis of Sli4o is also at present in the
camp, on a visit to his brother, Captain Lord Richard
Browrie, of the ?th nsiliers, . During the late attack,
and for some time preceding it, Colonel Powall Thomas,
of the Contingent, was present as a volunteer with the
44th Regiment—the only one of the force to which be
belongs who has as yet, I believe, taken a part in any
of our operatiotin,

By ilt'kt post I hope to hs able to give you some in-
formation as to what is likely to be our next move—if
any is to take place before spring. In the meantime
there is nothing tangible even afl iat on the breeze of
„lamp rumour ; and I need, therefore, hazard no personal
surmises. Another visit to the French part of the town,
as yet undescrihed, will also furnish me with some ma-
terials of interest for the same mail.

MARSHAL PELISSIER'S DESPATCH.

TIEAD.QUARTSB3 At SELls'rePot,, SttT. 114
M. la Marectial,—l shall have the honour to send you
by the next courier a detailed report on the attack which
has placed Sebastopol in our power. To-day I can only
give you a rapid sketch of the principal achievement of
this great event of the war.

Since the 16th of August, the day of the battle of the
Tchernaya, and notwithstanding repeated warnings of a
new and more formidable attack by the enemy against
the positions which we occupy on this river, every pre.,
paration was made to deliver a decisive assault against
Sebastopol itself, The artillery of the right attack com-
menced on the 17th August a well-sustained fire against
the Malakhoff, the Little Redan, the neighbouring de-
fences, and the rcads, in order to permit our engineers
to establish defences close to the place, front which the
troops might be able instantly to
upon the enceinte. Our engineers besides prepared
materials for escalade, and on the 6th of September all
our batteries or the lea opened a very violent fire
against the town, Whe English on their side kept up a
hot cannonade against the Great Radon and its redoubt,
which they were to attack.
All being ready, I resolved, in coneert with General
Simpson, to give the assault on the gth of Sept.) at the
hour of noon.
General M'Mahon's Division Was td EaltrY the works
of the Malakhoff; General tlalac's Division was to
attack the Little Redan.; and in the centre the Division
~f Generd La Motterouge was to march against the
support
tet
tGheene frrai t
curtain connecting these two extreme points. Resides
tmheesueinterto:rdsivlisiohnadofgitvheen
GtouaGrds, t aol
ener
three divisions. Thus far for t e right.
In the centre the English were to attack the Great
Redan, escalading it at its salient.
On the left the Ist corps, to which General de la Mar-
morn had wished to join a Sardinian brigade, having at
its head General Levaillant's division,
was to penetrate
into the interior of the town by the Central Bastion,
and afterwards turn the Flagstaff Bastion in order to,
establish a lodgment there likewise.
General de Sallee had instz nations not to pursue his
attack further than circumstances might render it ad-
visable.

Further, the fleets of Admirals Lyons and Druid were
to operate a powerful diversion by firing against the
Quarantine, the Roadstead, and the sea front of the for-
tress ; but the state of the sea, agitated by a violent
north-west wind, was such that neither the line-of-battle
ships nor the frigates were able to quit their anchorage.
The English and French mortar boats, however, were
able to go into action. Their fire was of remarkable ex•
cellence, and they rendered us great assistance. At noon
exactly the divisions of Generals M•Mahon, La Mate-
rouge, and Dulac, electrified by their chiefs, sprang to the
Malakhoff, the Curtain, and the Little Redan of the Ca-
reenage. After unexampled difficulties, and a most exciting
foot-to-foot combat, Gen. M‘Mabon's division succeeded in
etfectiog a i.donent in the anterior part of the Mala,
khoff. The en:Jloy showered down a htorm of projetiles
of all kinds upon our brave troops. The Redan of the
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