The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-03 00:00:00

SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.

PROGRESS OF THE BOMBARDMENT.

( Prom the Special Correspondent of the Morning Herald.)
ENGLISH CAMP, HEIGHTS OF
SEBASTOPOL, APRIL 14.

In my letter of this morning I mentioned the sortie on
the French last night ; but only as a slight affair. The
truth has now transpired, and it turns out to have been a
more serious attack than I was at first led to believe.
The enemy came down from the Flagstaff Battery in
force ; but fortunately our allies were equally well pre-
pared. There was a long and desperate struggle. Twice
the Russians succeeded in entering the parallel in advance
of the battery, and twice were they repulsed ; the second
time with such loss as to compel an immediate retreat.
The French made no attempt at pursuit, as the enemy
were within a stone's throw of their own batteries. They
were thus able to retire in comparative order, carrying
most of their dead and wounded with them. Only 15
bodies—one that of an officer—were left behind.
The French suffered a total loss of between 50 and CO
killed and wounded. General Bizot (the French General
of Engineers), I regret to say, was among the latter. The
gallant officer who has conducted the siege operations of
our allies since the commencement, without ever receiving
any injury, was in the advance parallel, superintending
the progress of a sap towards the Flagstaff, when the sortie
took place. At the first symptoms of the enemy's ap-
proach he brought up his troops, and made such disposi.
tions as ultimately contributed to the failure of the attack.
When the fight was almost entirely over he was struck in
the chest by a chance bullet, which inflicted a most dan-
gerous, if not a mortal, wound. His loss at this crisis is
most deeply regretted by our allies, among whom he was
universally regarded as the ablest and most active of their
engineering generals.
Shortly after the sortie took place, Captain Mitchell-
R.A., was killed by a round shot in the trenches. He i:
deeply regretted by the officers of his corps as a gallant
soldier and a most amiable and accomplished young gentle-
man.

Last night the garrison at lialaklava was edified by the
sight of an immense number of the enemy's watch-fires along
the Woronzow.road. Though they were spread in all di-
rections they were nothing but mere shams, after all, as
the most minute scrutiny with powerful telescopes failed
to detect any signs of a single soldier being around them.
At about two in the morning their out-picket, to the num-
ber of about 30, descended from their post on Canrobert's
Hill, and advancing into the plain fired a volley in the
direction of our Highland out-picket. It of course did no
mischief, as the enemy took good care not to come within
a mile or so. It was evidently done for bravado, or to
harass us. If for the latter purpose it was in its way suc-
cessful, as Sir Colin Campbell insisted on turning out the
troops under arms. A few minutes sufficed to convince
the gallant general that nothing serious was intended, and
the Highlanders again returned to their quarters.

APRIL 15.

The bombardment was continued heavily throughout the
night from all the mortars. Our supply of shell had been
very low indeed, but the indefatigable Mr. Beattie and his
railway remove all our difficulties, and as the bombs have
been wanted so they have been sqpplied. Your readers
will have some idea of the nature of our bombardment,
when I tell them that up to this evening the English
trenches alone have fired away between 16,000 and 17,000
32 and 63-pounder shot and shell, 7,80 J 13-inch shell, and
4,500 10-inch shell, making in all about 2,200 tons of shot
and 500 tons of powder already expended. The English
trenches mount 154 guns and mortars, the French 238
ditto ditto, so that between English and French there has
been used during this week's bombardment about 6,000
tons of shot and shell, and some 1,500 or 1,600 tons of
powder. Yet, for all we can say to the contrary, we are
just as likely as not to have another week of the Same
work. During the middle of last night, when the
Russians were more than sufficiently occupied by our
own and the French guns and mortars, the Gladiator
and Valorous, which were steaming guard off Se-
bastopol, ran in towards the sea forts and fired
three broadsides of shot and shell. The enemy
seemed quite unprepared for the attack, and it was
some two or three minutes before a gun was given in reply-
After that time an irregular scattered volley was opened
at random, and as the night was intensely dark, and the
position of the steam-frigates quite a matter of conjecture,
out of about 100 shots only one struck the Valorous. It
merely glanced by her paddle box, ripping up a couple of
planks, and did no further mischief. For the rest of the
night it was easy to see by the lights in the sea forts that
the garrison were on the qui rive. They appeared to re-
main there at their guns all night, but this vigilance was
quite thrown away, as none of our vessels again came
within range, and were, doubtless, well enough pleased
with the effects of their shot in seeing that the garrison
were kept on the alert and harassed. To-day the firing
has been hot on our side, and sometimes hot on the part of
the enemy, though, on the whole, they have not given one
gun to our two.
The Flagstaff Battery is " nodding to its doom." A
03nsiderable portion of its second tier of guns is quite
silenced. The flanking batteries of the second tier, with
the upper tier, alcue remain in their former vigour.
To do mere justice to the enemy, they seem determined to
fight it to the last gun.' The terrible havoc which the French
mortars and long guns have produced is now manifest to
all. The whole battery is now like a mere pile of earth,
into which the shot and shell never cease to pour. Yet
the Russians to the last persevere. During the night, in
spite of our bombs, they work at repairing the embra-
sures, and during the day fight their guns until they are
dismounted one after another.
Since the commencement of the bombardment the French
have been quietly driving a sap so as to mine the Flagstaff,
and thus settle the question of its existence at one blow.
The enemy appears to have entertained no suspicion of
the design, so the French have worked away unmolested.
By this morning the three mines had been completed, and
charged—one of 10001 b. of powder under the centre of the
parapet, and one of 6001 b. under each of the two bastions.
The hour which—it was privately known—had been fixed
for the springing was four o'clock this afternoon, and ao.
cordingly at about that hour a large number of officers
were on the heights over our batteries to witness the de-
struction of this great bulwark of Sebastopol. Lord Raglan
and the principal French and English officers were looking
on, with perhaps hope, perhaps anxiety, for the lofty
mound which had made such a gallant defence, and which
was then to be levelled with the dust. Four o'clock came,
and people grew anxious ; five o'clock, and they desponded ;
six o'clock, and they entirely disbelieved, and even the
most sanguine straggles a walked away.
The fact is, that both at four and at six the French
1 made two attempts to spring the mine, but, owing to acci-
dents to the fuse, both failed. Fortunately these efforts
did not attract the attention of the enemy ; indeed, while

they were making them the fire of our allies was so incessant
as to leave the Russians no time for attention tq anything
else. It is expected even now that the mine will be sprung
in the course of an hour or so.

To-day our advanced 14-gun battery has suffered
extremely from the fire of a new small battery which the
Russians have thrown up near the Garden works. Some
of our guns have been dismounted, and many of our men
killed. It will be repaired in the 'course of to-night, in
such a manner as to obviate another attack to-morrow.
Should it not do so, the serviceable guns will be removed
to another position, and the work abandoned. Thia o‘-oo-
lag, Lotwaan four and fire o'clock, an immense convoy of
about 600 waggons entered Sebastopol from the north side.
It is presumed to be a convoy of powder, of which it is
confidently believed that the enemy are at last short. As
well as could be judged, not 20 men attended the convoy
on its arrival, so it would seem much more probable that
the Russians are at last short of troops. However, these
are speculations which we can only solve when we gain
possession of the place.

This evening, also, one of our large convoys came in—
viz., the Himalaya, from Suez, with part of the 10th Hus-
sars from India. For the first time since he has been out
here the Himalaya entered the harbour of Balaklava, which
she almost fills. She must be towed out stern foremost,
as the harbour is not sufficiently wide to admit of her
swinging round.
I am sorry to say we lost another officer in the trenches
last night, Lieut. H. B. Preston, of the 88th, having been
killed by a round shot in the advanced work. He was
struck in the chest, and died almost instantly.

APRIL IG.

Last night was rather an exciting one in consequence of
the French at about 9 o'clock making another attempt to
spring their mine. This was partially successful, that is to
say a 6001 b. charge under one of the bastions was fired, bu t
the other two did not take. The one sprung was under the
right hand angle of the battery, and seems and is said to have
been very badly placed. Most of the charge escaped by the
sap or entrance to the mine, without doing much damage to
the work. Alarmed at the explosion the battery opened a
heavy fire, which continued for nearly 3 quarters of an hour,
and was returned by the French twice a hotly. The
enemy, therefore, ceased their cannonade,
the belief that the mine which had failed was the only one
laid. Our mortars, with those of the French, hcdently under
tinned throughout the night throwing shell with their
usual destructive effects. The Russia, mortars replied at
intervals, but they were few and far between. Some of
our vessels of war, it is said,
again went in and threw shells
onlytun-
usual
hat into the sea forts ; but as yet I have not heard of any, or
of the names of any, likely to be so engaged.
The Cossack Battery, under the Inkerman light, fired
of often
n ;
feature but this,i
n tuhle) tilln ig fhotu rthis
bombardment. morning, was
t the
about
hour the French made a last attempt to spring their two
ar, as concussionand the
SebastopolbfuyLthaendtremenou s
allied
and camp Were alike startled
exploded with fearful violence. both charges
exploded a
wards there was a dead silence, moment or two after
smoke and earth hung like a pall
the huge cloud of
earth-
works, and then, as the nature of the explosion broke upon
about to take place, allthey feared a general assault was
Never !ilince thetheir batteries opened out At once.
commencement
witnessed ' such a of the siege have wo
i lines. From
cannonade as broke
wra all their batt • from the litnisiat
batteries thy run were divollarged