The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-02 00:00:00

ARMY BEFORE SEBASTOPOL COM-

MITTEE.

The committee re-assembled yesterday morning at the
usual hour. _ .

General Sir John Burgoyne was the first witness
called, and was examined by the chairman.
Ile stated that he had the management of the whole
engineering operations before Sebastopol. He arrived
there with the army. When the army arrived he had to
plan the approaches to the town and to direct the for-
, illation of the trenches. They could not get one half of
the work done which was necessary, in consequence of
the weakness of the army. Before the siege operations
began the communication with Balaklava was verjgood.
That continued up to November, when the bad weather
set in, and the road became a mud-hole. It was their
opinion that Sebastopol would yield to the attack of the
Aides in a very short time after the commencement of
the siege. It would have required a very large force
have constructed the road, and the men employed
ought to have been to some extent acquainted with the
nature of the work. A sufficient number of men could
not have been spared fiom the army—they were all so
heavily engaged in the trenches. In fact the force was
scarcely sufficient to man the trenches with any degree of
efficiency. It was his opinion that it was at that time
more advantageous to the army that the men should be
employed in the trenches rather than in making the
roads. The discomfort which followed did not arise en-
tirely from the bad road ; it arose equally as much from
the mortality amongst the baggage animals. They died
off from want of care and proper attention.
Chairman—Had you any complaints of the want of
tools sent out ?

Sir J. Burgoyne—No complaint wag made to me on
the subject. I nover heard of it until I saw it mentioned
in the papers. I afterwards, however, made inquiries,
end the Sappers told me that the tools they hal might
certainly have been of a better description. I also found
that some of the tools were of the old Peninsular pat-
tern.

Examination continued—ln his opinion the labour of
the men was not impaired by defective or improperly
made tools. He could not understand how the tools
I could have been complained of to the extent they had
been. There was certmnly some little ground of objec-
tion to part of theta in the respect he had mentioned,
but not to the whole of them.
By Mr. Lai and—He did not recollect that the tools
sent out in 1823 to Portugal were condemned and sent
back. To his knowledge no complaints were made of the
toe's by the men.
By General Peel—The siege operations extended over
a space of 3 miles. The covering party consisted of
2,000 men, but the working parties varied in strength
according to circumstances. The covering party was
afterwards reduced in consequence of the weakness of
the army. When the army landed, so far as he knew,
it was in ignorance of the amount of the Russian force
in the Crimea. It was manifest that they must, at all
events, receive large accessions ; and it was therefore
advisable that the siege operations should be commenced
as soon as possible.
By Mr. Layard—He did not make any representation
to head-quarters for a larger supply of men to carry on
the trench operations. He was constantly applying for
men ; but the Adjutant-General informed him that they
could not be afforded, in consequence of the weakness
of the army. He had the command of the corps of
Engineers. His position in the Crimea was different to
that he had held in the Peninsula in conducting siege
operations. The siege operations were, however, en-
tirely under his control, and he considered himself the
responsible person for everything connected with them.
The army arrived at Balaklava on the 27th September,
but no ground was broken until the 10th October. The
troops were in the interval employed in conveying up
materials and tents to the camp. At that time there
were no means at the command of the army to make a
read.

By Lord Seymour—lt was not believed on the Bth
November that the troops would have to winter in the
Crimea ; at all events it was not so to his knowledge.
By the Chairman—When the bad weather commenced
he did not think of making good the road, principally
because he had not sufficient labour at his command.

By Lord Seymour—One important provision which
ought to have been made for wintering there was the
construction of a good and available road. No consul-
tation was held at headquarters relative to preparations
for wintering. If a number of "navvies " had then been
sent out to make the road, they would have been of in-
finite use ; but unfortunately the idea was not thought
of. In his opinion a good road would have been far
more adapted for its purpose than the railway. Lord
Raglan had power to depute officers to inquire into the
best means of providing for the care of the baggage
animals by placing them under cover, and to direct them
to report to him (witness), but it was not done.
By General Peel—The responsibility of constructing a
road devolved upon the Quartermaster-General, but he
derived all the assistance he could from the Engineers.

Sir J. Burgoyne examined by Mr. Layard—He made
no representation or remonstrance to the Quartermaster-
General relative to the road. He did not think the

Turkish troops could have been advantageously employed
in making the road. They were tried once, but they
failed owing to their soon becoming sickly and unable
to work.

By Sir John Pakington—lle thought it would not
have been possible to have obtained tined labour for the
purpose from the surrounding countries. It wa,4, as he
led before said, quite impossible that men could be
spared from the army, even to perform so important a
duty as that of making the road.
By Colonel Lind.ay—After the failure of the first fire
he advised with Lord Raglan as to the next step to be
taken ; and he (witness) recommended that the batteries
should be strengthened, and more ammunition should
be brought up. The increased strength of the batteries
was to be employed as soon as the fresh guns could be
got into their positions. This was one reason why he
did not at that time think that it would be necessary to
winter in the Crimea. Had it not been for the Lad
weather and the state of the road, the batteries could
have been opened sooner than they were. It soldiers
had been employed in making the road, they must have
been taken from other pressing duties of the siege ope-
rations. . .

By Lord Seymour--The whole of the military insti-
tutions connected with the troops in the field were in-
effiAent.

Lord Seymour—What do you mean by military
institutions ?

Sir J. Burgoyne—For instance the engineers were de-
ficient, they required more sappers and more officers.
He thought some alterations in the organisation of the
different departments of the army would be desirable.
At this stage of the proceedings the room was cleared
on the subject of a question put to the witness by Colo-
nel Lindsay, relative to the communication of the Corn.
wander-iu•Uhief with the officers of the army ; and the
doors were closed for about 20 minutes.

On the re-admission of the public,
Lord Seymour called the attention of General Bur-
voyne to the evidence given by General Bentinck, the
Duke of Cambridge, Captain Shakspear, and Captain
Wrottesley, to the defective tools supplied to the army,
particularly the bill-hooks ; and inquired whether this
had come under the knowledge of the witness.
General Burgoyne replied that none of the cases re-

ferred to had coin; under his personal knowledge. He
did not say that the tools alluded to were not bad ; they
might have been, but he never saw them. The tools I
were supplied by the Ordnance ; and it rested entirely
with the storekeeper to whom they were consigned
whether they should be retained, when sent in, or re-
jected. Some of the tools supplied to the Crimean army
came from Malta.
By Sir J. Pakington--After the raising of the siege of
Silistria he was not consulted relative to the attack upon
Sebastopol. At that time he thought the strength of
the Allied Forces was scarcely adequate to such an ope-
ration, what ever might be the resources of Russia.
Sir John Burgoyne afterwards went on to state, in
reply to the chairman, that he approved of the principle
on which the staff appointments were made. The ge-
neral staff was appointed at home ; but the personal
-tall of the Commander-in-Chief was selected by the
Commander-in-Chief himself, and was composed of
officers whose merits or services entitled them to that
position. The staff of the Quartermaster-General and
the Adjutant-General were also appointed by the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and he approved of that principle en-
tirely. '
By Mr. Layard—He proceeded to Gallipoli before the
troops arrived ; and preparations were made for their
reception. It was usual to apportion one horse to every
two men in the land transport department ; but this
regulation was not carried out in the Crimea. Ammu-
nition, shot, and shells were brought up to the camp by
means of artillery horses. It was not advisable to de-
pend on that mode of transport.
By Lord Seymour—He went to Gallipoli to examine
the site for the encampment of the troops. He was with
the army throughout the whole of the winter. The
troops suffered very badly from overwork. He did not
think the troops suffered so much from want of food as
from want of fuel. He heard no complaints of a want
of clothing, though he saw numbers of the men very in-
sufficiently clothed.
This concluded the examination of General Burgoyne;
andcocommittee
mt
tetreee bei int
wo o,cattendance,lock) untilth e
to-day. adjournedngno (aboutother half-pastwitne

The sth, or Elthorne Regiment of Middlesex Milison
,
quartered at Uxbridge, will not proceed on garr
duty until after having had field instruction at Alder-
shott camp.
SINKING OF A FERRY.BOAT AND LOSS OF SEVEN
afternoon a
LIvEs.—BRISTOL, Tuesday.—Yesterday
this city. The
painful accident occurred near
Aust ferry crosses the river Severn from the Aust.
road to Beechley, and forms A link in the chain of
direct communication between Bristol and South
Wales. At present it is worked by a steam-packet and
(at
Aleas t csroewitoifs \
several ferryboats. Yesterday there was a large cattle
,sbabinerd: s
recovered.
hold of
market at Chepstow, near the Monmouthshire side of the
forty, and about 3 o'clock the Despatch, which I) ' ea
an nld boat WA4 often used to carry cattle, left the eln-
Seven of
those lost 'Were Mr \
mout:ishire shore with a lot of live stock, her Mon.
four heeds, and eight or ten passengers.
Pier she struck against one of the piles
reported), and sank almost immediately,
a ilet'er in.
t the Aust 1
passtin.lcrs were drowned. Ami\oiegc,ri;,nzialnueus
tchfer the
Jones, ct,tt'e dealer, Bristol ;
1:::'. to ll:ithiwisegtaniciraueekonl o
Gloll,!ef'ter-hire,
lealer a', East )r, near Bri,t )l,
the re-
mainder(vriowotr;c ts
aiadvreeendut
inahkierandao):wiedi
One of the Bur-
° y one body
struggled with hire • y Eeizing
with the scene into shallow water a cow, which
Of th'
melancholy
lose, le accident maybe• In connexion
Crawshay, who "me years ago recollected the
drowned Watt , in
crouiin i ,of one of the /demi.
, 1..,_, t ati itverai g rota his iron works, was
' wv9Ve • I.other persona and the crew of the