The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-29 00:00:00

-ne Ict thee, can be no d )uhr. A speci At train
vith Volunteer. horses v timed to leave London
rlge before 6 a m., and To reach Shal in less
.n an hour and a b.sif ; trait' was stii 11 process
.1 bring un.e-ien a; 9 o'clock.
Pr..)h,hly much of the difficulty -' presented
itself in getting the troops on to the Heath in time
arose from circumstances over which no one can be
justly said to have had control. In their warfare
the Federals have frequently experienced the diffi-
culty of advancing when once they quitted the
course of the navigable rivers. Treating the rail-
ways, for the sake of comparison, in a similar light,
the Volunteers yesterday found soon after they had
turned their backs upon these main lines of com-
munication what obstacles lie in the way of actual
campaigning. For though, as already stated, the
district is easily accessible and the route throughout
abounds with natural beauties, the Heath itself
being but scantily resorted to has no good or regu-
lar approaches. There are but three lanes which
could be employed yesterday, all nearly on a par
in point of straightness, steepness, and sandiness.
One of them,—that leading from the Cbilworth
station,—was set apart for the public, and along one
or other of the remaining passes, distinguished re-
spectively as Phillips-lane and Great Tangley-
lane, the entire Volunteer foree, guns and all, had
to make its way. The light troop of the Hon.
Artillery Company left the road as often as it
could, and went scrambling up the hills with
catlike activity. The heavy guns of position, on
the contrary, had to plough their way slowly
and laboriously over the yielding soil, find-
ing at every step the literal truth of the warn-
ing issued from the Wareoffice—" Phillips-lane, by
which the guns will be taken, is narrow and some-
what steep, and the road leading on to the Heath
is for a quarter of a mile heavy with sand." So
steep and so narrow was the path that, although
each gun was drawn by six horses, furnished in the
case of one battery by the farmers of the neigh-
bourhood, and in the other by a large brewery firm
in Guildford, the gunners, being unable to march in
military fashion beside the limbers, were compelled
to take out their handspikes and from behind to
assist in pushing on the wheels. In this manner
Lord Truro's Artillery battalion, having charge of
six 18-pounders and six 24. pounders, and the batta-
lion of Sussex Artillery, with six 18-pounders, were
enabled to attain the summit, and to place the guns
in position shortly after ten o'clock, Both the
horse artillery and field batteries of the Hon. Artil-
lery Company reached their destination at the same
time. The Ist Middlesex Artillery, under Colonel
Creed, ought also to have made its ascent then, but
not being prepared to start at the right moment, or
for some considerable time afterwards, Colonel
M'Murdo said he could not permit it to run the risk
of choking one of the roads by a stoppage, and
therefore directed it to postpone its departure till
the last of the infantry brigade had passed up. In
this latter process hours were necessarily consumed,
and the hopes of the spectators on the plains above,
which had been excited by the arrival of the ar.
tillery, sunk again as time passed by inactively
and the clouds began to gather ominously
round. Now and then a puff of music, sharp
and momentary as a jet of steam, was borne
to the ear on a current of wind more than
usually strong. Then again there was an inter-
val in which nothing was heard. About eleven
o'clock the first patch of scarlet showed itself above
the gloomy outline bounding the view at the ex-
tremity of the Heath, and from that time forward
there was a tolerably steady flow of armed men in
the direction of the further side of the Heath, some-
times narrowing to the dimensions of a riband, the
tints of which were scarcely discernible, sometimes
spreading out into a broad and brilliant sheet of
colour. As the troops arrived at two stations which
were at a distance of more than three miles apart,
it was impossible to ascertain with exactness either
the numbers or the order in which the brigades
came down. In the order there was certainly a
disruption of the programme, and in the numbers
of which the various corps were made up there
were either additions to or subtractions from the
official lists furnished to the War-office. In the
' absence of the official states, however, the latter
must be taken as the only authentic return, and
according to which the defending force, under Gen.
Russell, was composed as follows :
C,..rps in First Division.—lst Sussex Artillery, six 18-
pounders-Ist Middlesex Artillery, four 18-pounders-Ist
Hants Artillery, Ist Cinque Ports Artillery, 2d Middlesex
Artillery, 21 Surrey Artillery, Ist City of London Artillery,
let Tower Hamlets Artillery, Ist Middlesex Engineers, Ist
City of London Engineers, Ist Hants Engineers, 7th Bat-
talion Middlesex, 36th Middlesex, 2d Middlesex (South),
4th Middlesex, 9th Middlesex (West), 11th Middlesex (St.
George's), 32d Middlesex, 15th Middlesex(London Scottish),
19th Middlesex, 21st Middlesex (Civil Service), 38th Mid-
dlesex, 221 Middlesex (Queen's), Ist Battalion-22d Middle •
sex (Queen's) 2d Battalion-29th North Middlesex, 46th
Middlesex, 2d City of London, 2d Battalion Surrey-
12th Surrey, Ist Battalion Surrey-3d Battalion Surrey--
Ist and 7th Surrey, 10th, 19th, and 23d Surrey, 2d Battalion
II ints—lst and 2d Hants, 3d Battalion Hants-13th, 15th,
16th, and 18th Hants—making a total of about 9,750 men.

Oa the other hand, the attacking force, under
General Ramley, was thus composed :
Corps in Second Division.—Hon Artillery Company,
Horse Artillery, 2 6• pounder guns—Field Battery, four
6-pounder guns. Light Cavalry, 3d Middlesex Artillery,
four 18-pounders and four 24-pounders, Hen. Artillery
Company, 2d Battalion Middlesex, 26th Middlesex, 37th
Middlesex, 20th Middlesex, 28th Middlesex (London Irish),
39th Middlesex, 49th Middlesex, 48th Middlesex, 4th City
t,f London, Ist Battalion Sussex, 2d Battalion Sussex,
lnt Sussex, 2d Battalion Essex, 3d Battalion Essex, Ist Bat-
telien Kent, 6th Kent, 24 Cinque Ports, Ist City of Lon-
don, 3d City of London, 1: t Battalion Tower Hamlets, 9th
Tower Hamlets, 2d and Bth Tower Hamlets, 4th and 6th
Tower Hamlets, Ist Battalion Berks—making in all a total
of about 8,500 men:

Lieutenant-Ganeral Pennefather, K.C.8., com-
manded in chief, and the following were the mem-
bers of his Stuff:—

Lieutenant-Colonel P. Bayley, Captain A. C. Boyle,
1.". C., and Lieutenant D. H. Doherty, Aides-de-Camp—
Colonel J. W. Armstrong, C. 8., Assistant-Adjutant-Gene-
ral—Captain W. G. Lockhart, Deputy Assistant-Adjutant-
General—Lieutenant. Colonel the Hon. H. H. Clifford,
V.C., Assistant-Quartermaster-General—Captain P. A. A.
T wynaw, Deputy Assistant- Quartermaster- General—
Colonel Simmons, C. 8., R )yal Engineers—Lieutenant A.
L. Buckle, Royal Engineers, Aide-de-Camp--Colonel
Gambier, C. 8., Royal Artillery—Captain Pearse, Royal
Artillery, Aide-de-Camp—Captain W. S. M. Wolfe, R.A.,
Brigade Major—and Colonel Buchanan, Royal Artillery.
The Blackheath of Guildford in no material re-
spect differs either in the inequality of its surface
or, the productions of its poor, thin soil, from the
large tracks of waste land like Chobham or Bag-'
shot which occupy so large a portion of the county
of Surrey. In its general aspect Blackheath very
much resembles Chobham, so popular 10 years ago,
when the first of the modern encampments, and by
far the prettiest of them all, used to draw such
thousands to its reviews. There are the same undu-
lating dark-brown slopes and knolls, covered knee-
deep with tangled heather and moss ; the same long,
narrow, dusty tracks which serve as footpaths across
it, with one or two steep ridges which dominate the
whole ; and here and there, on the edges of the
Common, rough, wild thickets—for woods they can-
not be called—in which latches and firs, sparsely
intermingled with stunted underwood, just afford a
dubious cover to the skirmishers. Oa the northern
extremity, which the Volunteers approached by
Tangley-lane, the land was high and bold, overlook.
ing a beautiful valley well cultivated and dotted
here and there with homesteads—a perfect specimen
of rich English scenery. But the luxuriant vegeta-
tion of the valley soon gives place to the more hardy
furze and heather, the only prouucts of this sterile
sandy region, broken at intervals with patches of
1 trches,oek, and fir. The light yellow sand contrasts
finely with the dark green of the pines, the purple
brown of the heather, and the blossom of the furze,
The small lane which has been ascended now be-
comes little better than a cart-track ; still it is suf-
ficiently well traced to be followed. It goes right
across the Heath in a direction north and south, and
the whole extenL is traversed by footpaths in every
direction.

The little hamlet of Blackheath, which consists of
half a dr zen houses, lies in a hollow on the east side
of the rad. Beyond this again the ground rises ;
but if the hamlet be avoided, and a more westerly
direction t.►ken:, the -depression does not intervene,
the same ridge of hills streWaing away across Far-_
ley-heath to Hurtwood-common, where there are
tho4sands of acres of uncultivated land.
From this side the heath forms a succession of