The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 18, 1865.

though the air along their route felt heated as with
a furnace blast, and this on the breezy Brighton
Downs. The only breaks in the continuous stream
were where a few staff-officers, engulfed by the
sudden incursion, walked their horses quietly in the
midst, any attempt at more rapid progress being out
of the question. At a distance of a half to three-
quarters of a mile from the Grand Stand the race:
course was quitted, and the windmill reached. Near
this point several refreshment booths had been
erected. These at once became the centres of such
an amount of custom as to drive their owners nearly
frantic with joy and excitement. Some tall stands
commanding favourable views of 'the subsequent
proceedings were also constructed near this point.
These, however, were outsidetheborough boundaries
and the owners did not exhibit any of that considera-
tion for strangers in the matter of prices which the
Brighton Committee had urged upon their fellow-
townemen.. Just beyond the windmill the nearest of
the battalions composing the rifle forces was drawn
up, their array being by this time almost completed.
The view gained from this point was exceedingly
grand. The Downs maintain their general, rolling
wave-like character here as elsewhere, but the
area within which the conflict took place was
as nearly as possible circular, rising at the side
furthest from the windmill to considerable eminence
and sinking in the centre, so as to form a valley or
gorge called the Bevendean valley, which for a time
defined pretty accurately the territory of the con-
tending parties respectively. The defensive force,
7,000 strong, under General Russell, was drawn up
on the further slope of this valley, having its heavy
artillery on a lofty knoll, from which it was for a
long time impossible to dislodge it. The 2d division,
constituting the attacking army, held the slopes
nearest the windmill, with either flank resting upon
a farmhouse, of which one was supposed to play a
part equally important in the struggle of the day to
that filled at Waterloo by Hougoumont. A battery
of heavy guns was posted at either side of the wind-
mill, and the residue of the ordnance was distri-
buted along the front of the line, as was permitted
by the nature of the ground, which fell very rapidly
at this point. The engagement opened by a heavy
fire from the defenders, who saw themselves ap-
proached on one flank nearer than they thought de-
sirable, and, after a short artillery duel, skirmishers
were thrown out on either side, and some spirited
movements took place among the gorse and broken
ground, forming, as it were, the centre of the circle.
When the firing began there was little or no wind,
and the consequence was that the smoke from the
heavy pieces of ordnance hung without rising near
the spot where the discharge had taken place. Some-
times these smoke clouds looked as tight and hard
as bags of wool. Sometimes they spread out over the
surface of the ground, wearing just such an aspect
as if the heath and gorse had been set on fire, and
the quick, lurid flashes of subsequent discharges were
the crackling flames licking up the briers. At one
time the fire from the opposing batteries was so
constant and heavy that the whole intervening val-
ley was filled with smoke, and it was impossible any
longer to discern anything that was taking place.
Had this state of things continued the battle might
have been fought out, as far as the public were con-
cerned, in complete darkness. Bat fortunately a cur-
rent of wind sprang up and carried off the densestpor-
tions of the vapour, which floated away into the dis-
tance, blotting out as they went an entire portion of the
landscape. Any wreath of smoke which afterwards
interfered with the view resembled rather the light
sea fogs that blow inland occasionally than the thick
clouds which bound the vision like a wall. The area
covered by 20,000 men manoeuvring and marching
to and fro is necessarily so extensive that it was im-
possible to follow with accuracy the different move-
ments, or to individualise the Corps by which they
were undertaken. The general plan of the battle,
however, appeared to be that under cover of a
feigned attack on the right of the defending force
the attacking party extended their lines so far to the
right as first to throw back and eventually to over-
lap the left wing of the defending army. The latter
took up a new position, but only to find the original
assault on its right wing renewed with increased
vigour, so that an advance en masse of the attack-
ing force having commenced the defenders retreated
from the ground in the direction of their lines in
Brighton. Gen. Russell, however, contested every
point with determination, making the most of all
the advantages conferred upon him by his originally
strong position. A considerable proportion of the
troops under his command wore scarlet uniforms;
while at least half those opposedto him were dressed
in lightish grey. This distinction in point of colour,
trivial as the fact itself may appear, lent a wonder-
ful air of reality to the combat.; and one could not
help admiring the truly British tenacity with which
one of the battalions in red clung to the position as-
signed to it long after its chances in a militarypoint
of view might have been deemed hopeless. Some
brilliant cavalry charges took place, but these for
the most part occurred at the limit of the area of
vision, almost on the sky level of the furthest hill,
where the glittering helmets of the Carbineers, seen
through a powerful glass, looked little larger than
so many heads of pins. Universal admiration was
expressed at the manner in which the artillery was
served during the day, the very heaviest guns being
handled with a smartness and such a continued fire
kept up from them as to show that this important
branch is one in which the Volunteers, if ever
called upon, will be qualified to render effectual
service. Firing ceased shortly after four o'clock,
and the united and reconciled Divisions pre-
pared to march back to Brighton by the routes as-
signed to them in the official programme.
The only serious casualty that occurred during
the day was one which happened to Joseph Lam-
bert, of Poplar, gunner in the Tower Hamlets Artil-
lery. He was acting with the men of the Ist Mid-
pintagincglose to the cannon,
to clear the wheel
odlfesaecxarArriatgilelewry h
hi,
cwhweans,
passing
he fell and one of the wheels of the gun passed over
his thigh, not breaking, but bruising it very badly.
The poor fellow was at once conveyed in one of the
Netley ambulances from the field to the temporary
hospital fitted up in case of accidents at the review,
where he was attended to by Brigade Surgeon Bur-
rows, of the Ist Sussex Artillery, assisted by the
doctor of the Civil Service Corps. This little hos-
pital is very neat and airy. It contains four beds,
an operating-table, and all the appliances necessary
in surgical cases of emergency. In addition there
were four accident beds provided at Bevendean
Farm, and a ward to accommodate 30 or 40 cases
was secured in the Industrial Schools. Brigade
Surgeon Burrows had charge of these arrangements,
which were altogether exclusive of those in the
general hospital of the town. Two of the men of
the Carbineers had falls from their horses. One
soon recovered from the shock he received in falling,
and was able to mount again. The horse trampled
on the knee of the other soldier and hurt it, but even
in this case the injury is believed not to be a serious
one.

AN INCIDENT IN THE STRUGGLE AT RICHMOND.—
A New York correspondent, in narrating Sheridan's
achievements at Five .Forks, relates the following :—A
colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us in a
charge. The bayonets were fixed, the men came on with a
yell, their grey uniforms seemed black amid the smoke;
their preserved colours, torn by grape and ball, waved de-
fiantly; twice they halted, and poured in volleys, but came
on again like the surge from the fog, depleted, but deter-
mined ; yet, in the hot faces of the carbineers, they read a
purpose as resolute, but more calm, and, while they passed
along, swept all the while by scathing volleys, a group of
horsemen took them in flank. It was an awful instant ;
the horses recoiled ; the charging column trembled like a
single thing, but at once the rebels, with rare organisa-
tion, fell into a hollow square, and with solid sheets of
steel defied our centaurs. The horsemen rode round them
in vain ; no charge could break the shining squares, until
our dismounted carbineers poured in their volleys afresh,
making gaps in their spent ranks, and then in their waver-
ing time the cavalry thundered down. The rebels could
stand no more ; therreoled and swayed, and fell back
broken and beaten ; and on the ground their colonel lay,
sealing his devotion with his life.

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