The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-10 00:00:00

RUSSIA AND FRANCE.

The following details of the land attack upon
Fort Wagner are from Federal sources :
" Soon after four o'clock the firing from Fort
Wagner ceased. It was then known that
our brave fellows had succeeded in dismount-
ing one gun ; and it was also pretty well
ascertained that another of the rebel pieces
had burst These facts led to the supposition that
the enemy had evacuated the work; and it was de-
termined to attempt its occupation. For this pur-
pose two brigades, consisting of the 7th Connecticut
Regiment, the Third New Hampshire, the Ninth
Maine, the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, and the
Forty-eighth New York, under Brigadier-General
Strong, and the Seventh New Hampshire, Sixth
Connecticut, Sixty-second Ohio, One Hundredth
New York, and Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, coloured,
under Colonel Putnam, who had been under arms all
day, screened from the enemy behind a range of
sand hills, in the rear of our works, were ordered for-
ward. This was at dusk, and both brigades were
formed in line on the beach, the regiment being dis-
posed in columns, expecting the coloured regiment,
which for some reason was given the post of extreme
honour and of danger in the advance, and was drawn
up in line of battle, exposing its full front to the
enemy. This movement of the troops was observed
by Sumter, and fire was at once opened upon them,
happily without doing injury, as the shells went over
the heads of the men. General Strong, who has so
frequently since his arrival in this department braved
death in its many forms of attack, was assigned to
the command of the first brigade. Colonel Putnam,
of the 7th New Hampshire, who, although of the
regular army, and considered one of the best officers
in the department, never led his men into battle nor
been under fire, took command of the second, and
General Stevenson the third, constituting the re-
serve. The 54th Massachusetts (coloured regiment).
Colonel Shaw, was the advanced regiment in the first
brigade ; and the 2d South Carolina (negro), Colonel
Montgomery, was the last regiment of the reserve.
The selection of the 54th Massachusetts to lead the
charge was undoubtedly made on account of the
good fighting qualities it had displayed a few days
before on James Island. Just as darkness began to
close in upon the scene of the afternoon and the
evening, General Strong rode to the front, and
ordered his brigade, consisting of the 54th Massa-
chusetts, Colonel Shaw (coloured regiment) ; the 6th
Connecticut, Colonel Chatfield ; the 48:h New
York, Col. Bartow; the 3d New Hampshire, Col.
Jackson ; the 76th Pennsylvania and the 9th Maine,
Col. Emery, to advance to the assault. At the
instant the line was seen slowly advancing in the
dusk towards the fort, and before a double •quick
had been ordered, a tremendous fire from the
barbette guns on Fort Sumter, the batteries on
Cumming's Point, and from all the guns on Fort
Wagner, opened upon it. The guns from Wagner
swept the beach, and those from Sumter and Cum-
ming's Point enfiladed it on the left. In the midst
of this terrible shower of shot and shell they
pushed their way, reached the fort ; portions of
the 54th Massachusetts, the Gth Connecticut, and
the 48th New York, dashed through. the ditches,
gained the parapet, and engaged in a hand-to-hand
fight with the enemy, and for nearly half an hour
held their ground, and did not fall back until nearly
every commissioned officer was shot down. As on
the morning of the assault of the 11th inst., these
brave men were exposed to a most galling fire of
grape and canister from howitzers, raking the
ditches from the bastions of the fort, from hand
grenades, and from almost every other implement
of warfare. The rebels fought with the utmost
desperation, and so did the larger portion of Gen.
Strong's brigade, as long as there was an officer to
command it. When the brigade made the assault,
General Strong gallantly rode at its head. When
it fell back, broken, torn, and bleeding, Major
Plimpton, of the Third New Hampshire, was the
highest commissioned officer to command it. The
first brigade, under the lead of General Strong,
failed to take the fort. It was now the turn of
Colonel Putnam, commanding the second brigade,
composed of the 7th New Hampshire, the 62d Ohio,
Col. Steele, the 67th Ohio, Col. Voorhees, and the
100th New York, Col. Danley, to make the
attempt. But, alas ! the task was too much for him.
'Through the same terrible fire he led his men to,
over, and into the fort, and for an hour held one half
of it, fighting every moment of that time with the
utmost desperation; and, as with the Ist Brigade,
it was not until he himself fell killed, and
nearly all his officers wounded, and no reinforce-
ments arriving, that his men fell back, and the rebel
shout and cheer of victory was heard above the roar
of Sumter and the guns from Cumming's Point. In
this second assault by Gen. Putnam's brigade Col.
Turner, of Gen. Gillmore's staff, stood at the side of
Col. Putnam when he fell, and with his voice and
sword urged on the thinned ranks to the final
charge. But it was too late. The 3d brigade, Gen.
Stevenson's, was not on hand. It was madness for
the second to remain longer under so deadly a fire,
and the thought of surrendering in a body to the
enemy could not for a moment be entertained. To
fight their way back to the intrenchments was all
that could be done, and in this retreat many a poor
man fell never to rise again. Without a doubt,
many of our men fell from our own fire. The dark-
ness was so intense, the roar of artillery so loud, the
flight of grape and canister shot so rapid and de-
structive, that it was absolutely impossible to pre-
serve order in the ranks of individual companies, to
say nothing of the regiments. More than half the
time we were in the fort the fight was simply a bandi
to hand one, as the wounds received by many clelrey.
indicated ; some had sword thrusts, some areeltias
and
on the head, some were stabbed with bay°.?os
a few were knocked down with the butt end of
omlluesn-
kets, but recovered in time to get away with
toot* it. In this
heads. There was terrible fightinigit
fort, and tsrrible fighting to
wg_et into the
and his volunteer
night nssault, and from.
close, Gen. Gillmo.re,, noiencement to its
IlLsittletield, of the 4th South
aids, coneistiag
01-
C°ll3. annister and Stryker, of the
Carolina, and majorrsment,
vecre constantly under
Paymasters DePa. t
their power to sustain the con-
fire, and doing all in
All
er the troops and urge ou reinforcements.
rage --
that human power could do to carry on this fortnid-
to have been done.
able earthwork seeins lar o one
would have imaginedin the morning that so fierce
a cannonade from both the navy and the batteries
on shore could fail to destroy every bomb-proof
the rebels had erected. But the moment our

The following ig the full text of the Russian de-
spatch of which we have already given an analysis.
It is addressed to Barn de Budberg, the Russian
Ambassador at Paris :

" St. Petersburg, July 30.
" I have this moment received your despatch of the 25th
July, and at once forward it to Finland, where it will be
laid before the Emperor. lam not, therefore, yet able to
inform your Excellency of the impression it may make on
our august master.
" I will not, however, delay communicating to you, by
the present courier, the observations which ahasty perusal
has suggested. These observations do not bear on the main
question, since we are as yet ignorant of conclusions to
which the French Government will come after consulting
with. the Cabinets of London and Vienna.
"I will only dwell on the judgment which M. Drouyn de
Lhuys expressed in his conversation with you en the diffe-
rent points of our answer.
"I. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, acknow-
ledges that we do not in Principle reject the six points, bat
he differs in opinion as to the preliminary condition pro-
posed by us for their application. He thinks that their im-
mediate execution would hasten the pacification of the
kingdom, whereas, in the state of agitation now prevajling
there, it is impossible to foresee the moment when these le-
forms may be granted, M. Drouyn de Lbuys seems to
conclude that our answer implies a rejection under the
appearance of an adhesion in principle.
"It seems to us, Monsieur le Baron, that facts speak
clearly enough on this point. Most of the measures im-
plied in the six points have been granted by the Emperor.
Far from pacifying the kingdom, they became the starting-
point for armed insurrection. The agitators made use of
these reforms. and of the administrative autonomy which
they introduced, to raise revolt in the country. Their object
was perfectly evident : having conceived the hope of attain-
ing complete independence by the aid of foreign interven-
tion, they could not declare themselves satisfied with the
institutions, liberal, representative, and progressive, of
which the Government had laid the bases, On the con-
trary, they could regard the success of those reforms which
placed the Kingdom of Poland in the path of regular pro-
gress as the rule of their hopee : for that reason they made
the reforms the starting-point of an insurrection. Their
sentiments have undergone no change since the foreign
Powers have proposed these points. They have loudly
declared that they would never be satisfied by or lay down
their arms until they should have attained the end at
which they aim, which is the reconstitution of Poland as
it existed in 1772.
"If the Russian Cabinet did not repudiate from its
political traditions all bad faith and underhand proceed-
ings, it would perhaps have been good tact on its part to
have accepted the six points absolutely, in order to throw
on the insurgents the responsibility of rejecting them in
the eyes of the Powers proposing them. But we were not
disposed to regard so serious a matter as an opportunity
for a political manoeuvre. We had invited the Cabinets
to a sincere exchange of ideas, and we thought them ani-
mated with an equal desire to come to an understanding on
a question which interests humanity and the public tran-
quillity.
" It was therefore with the utmost frankness that we di-
rected their attention to what we considered an evident
truth—namely, that the six points proposed, and which in
principle did not diverge from the intentions of the Em-
peror, could not receive a practical application till after the
re-establishment of material order in the kingdom.
" 11. M. Drouyn de Lhuys has regarded as an accusation
against the French Government our assertion that the per
manently organised conspiracy abroad is the principal cause
of the present insurrection.
"No such intention was ever entertained by us. We
are persuaded that the French Government has seen these
intrigues with regret, and has not failed to perceive their
revolutionary character. But it is none the less true that
these intrigues exist in its despite, that Paris is one of their
principal centres, that they keep up the moral agitation of
the kingdom, and supply it with material resources. These
facts are so palpably evident that it would" be useless to
feign ignorance of them.
" We were bound to mention them, in order to fix the
attention of the French Government and the associated
Cabinets on this essential side of the question. It was a
friendly appeal for their aid in view of an interest which
seemed to us common to all, on two grounds ; first, because
the prompt pacification of the kingdom of Poland, the ob-
ject of general desire, depended directly on the persistence
of these causes ; and, secondly, because the cosmopolite
revolutionary tendency which the Polish agitation as-
sumed more and more by the participation of the anarchi-
cal elements of all countries, gave it in our eyes the cha-
racter of a European danger.
" The Minister of Foreign Affairs disputes our view of
the Polish movement. He refuses to recognise it as pro-
duced by a turbulent minority and the intrigues of re-
fugees abroad ; he observes, on the one hand, that the
movement in the kingdom must be universal to have re•
sisted all the forces of the Russian Government, and, on
the other, that abroad there are not merely the intrigues of
refugees, but the openly expressed sympathies of public
opinion, assemblies, and nearly all Governments.
" The Polish movement presents, in our opinion, two
distinct aspects. In the country we do not deny that
there are germs of discontent, inherent in the nature of
things in a country which has not for gotten its former
independence. It will always be easy to excite men's
minds by
appeal to traditionary sentiments. Russia
an
has held these countries scarcely a century. During that
period events abroad have constantly interfered with the
progress of assimilation necessary to efface historical di.
vergencies under the action of a powerful unity. There
is not perhaps a single State in Europe which, under
such conditions and in so short a space of time, would
have succeeded in founding political unity. We
shall not undertake to examine the different experiments
attempted. They have necessarily been affected by the
agitations of a deeply disturbed period. To remain on
practical ground, we shall only state that the Emperor our
master had undertaken the painful traces of the past by
liberal reforms destined to reconcile the lessons of experi-
ence with the exigencies of the time. His Majesty had
assumed the initiative of the step. The measures which
he had adopted, and those which his foresight had prepared,
differed but little from the bases which the three Courts
have recommended as calculated to secure the pacification
of the kingdom. Why have these efforts remained fruit-
less, and only tended to accelerate the rising of the country ?
" Here influence from without shows itself in the first
place, that of the emigrants who for the last 30 years openly
conspire against the tranquillity of the kingdom, under
shelter of the protection which they have found in some
States, and next political influences in which the hopes of
the revolutionists in Poland have always attached then

selves.
" However active and persevering the agitaticibilatoflitthtlee
emigrants may have been, they would have had they had
effect on the internal situation of the kingdalft;in political
not derived the means of unlimited actoinnsterial order.
influences. Every country has needed to that ind
Govern-
is-
The mass of the people is generall9 The Russian
pensable condition of all pronertY; that essential element
ment might and still may Tb_rjor, In proportion as i 1
which existed in Poland as
eci°l7and completed the institu,
would have applied, imPri'v,r, and our august master's
Lions prepared by the Nr°P—ini interests and moral
initiative developededuce-
meter
Passions appeased,
tion of the counrbrY, thenight hope to see
ea, effaced, and the kingdom habituate
irritating remeTde ;
side with Russia in a path a progress
itself to go on
certainly have been more favourable to its
which would
welfare than the
national hatred and the sanguinary con-
flictsink two countries have been driven. That
result which the emigrants most feared and
is Pree— ld have deprived them of all their political' im-
which vrou
nartoe anall their opes. Tat is why they have en-
aeavaonured at any cost tho disturbh that work of appeasement
and pacification, and why, in order to attain their object,
they have held up before the eyes of the Poles the hope of
a restoration of their independence by foreign intervention.
That is the true cause which has led to and kept up the
movement. Without that hope the emigrants might have
been able to cause some disturbances, but not an insurrec-
tion—the peaceable inhabitants would have rejected these
attempts—the masses would have remained hostile to them,
as to everything that disturbs them in their laborious exist-
ence—and that in fact is the picture which the agitation in
the kingdom has hitherto presented. It anything can dis-
simulate the character of that agitation in the eyes of the
classes who, by their nature and their interests, ought to
remain strangers to it, it is solely the mirage of sympathies
and of excitements of all kinds provoked from abroad, and
finally that of an intervention in favour of the complete
independence of Poland.
The instigators of the movement have perfectly under-
stood this. It is neither for institutions more or less repre-
sentative and liberal that they have taken up arms and
raised the country ; they have clearly and loudly declared
that their exclusive object was the reconstitution of Poland
within the limits of 1772, and they have constantly repre-
sented to their fellow-countrymen a foreign intervention