The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-23 00:00:00

over.

And now commenced the bloodiest struggle ever
witnessed since war cursed the earth. It has been
doubted by military historians if any enemy have ever
stood a charge with the bayonet, but here the
bayonet was often the enly weapon employed in conflicts
of the most obstinate and deadly charaeter. We have
been prone to believe that no foe could ever withstand
the British soldiers wielding his favourite weapon, and
that at Maida alone did the enemy ever cross bayonets
with him, but at the battle of Inkerman not only did
we charge in vain—not only were desperate encounters
between masses of men maintained with the bayonet
alone—but we were obliged to resist bayonet to bayonet
the Russian infantry again and again, as they charged
us with incredible fury and determination. The Battle
of Inkerman admits Of no description. It was a series
of dreadful deeds of daring, of sanguinary hand-to-hand
fights, of despairing rallies, of desperate assaults—in
glees and valleys, in brushwood glades and remote dells,
hidden from all human eyes, and from which the con-
querors, Russian or British, issued only to engage fresh
foes, till our old supremacy, so rudely assailed, was
triumphantly asserted, and the battalions of the Czar
gave way before our steady courage 'and the chivalrous
fire of France, No one, however placed, could have
witnessed even a small portion of the doings of this
eventful day—for the vapours, fog, and drizzling mist
obscured the ground where the struggle took place to
such an extant as to render it impossible to see
what was going on at the distance of a few yards.
Besides this, the irregular nature of the ground, the
rapid fall of the hill towards Inkerman, where the
deadliest fight took place, would have prevented
one under the most favourable circumstances seeing
more than a very insignificant and detailed piece of
the terrible work below. It was six o'clock when all
the Head-Quarter camp was roused by roll after roil of
musketry on the right and by the sharp report of
field guns. Lord Raglan was informed that the enemy
were advancing in force, and soon after seven o'clock he
rode towards the scene of action, followed by his staff,
and accompanied by Sir John Burgoyne, Brigadier-
General Strangways, R.A., and several aides-de--camp.
As they approached the volume of sound, the steady,
unceasing thunder of gun, and rifle, and musket told
that the engagement was at its height. The shell of
the Russians, thrown with great precision, burst so
thickly among the troops that the noise resembled con-
tinuous discharges of cannon, and the massive fragments
inflicted death on every side. One of the first things
the Russians did, when a break in the fog enabled them
to see the camp of the Second Division, Ras to open fire
on the tents with round shot and large shell, and tent
after tent was blown down, torn to pieces, er sent into the
air, while the men engaged in camp duties and the un-
happy horses tethered up in the lines were killed or muti-
lated. Colonel Gambier was at once ordered to get up
two heavy guns (IS-pounders) on the rising ground, and
to reply to a fire which our light guns were utterly ina-
dequate to meet. As he was engaged in this duty, aid
was exerting himself with Captain Daguilar to urge them
forward, Colonel Gambier was severely but not dan
gerously wounded, and was ob:iged to retire. His place
was taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson, and the con-
duct of that officer in directing the fire of these two
pieces, which had the most marked effect in deciding the
fate of the day, was such as to elicit the admiration of
the army, and as to deserve the thanks of every man
engaged in that bloody, fray. But long ere these guns
had been brought up there had been a great slaughter of
the enemy, and a heavy loss of our own men. Our
generals could not see where to go. They could not
tell where the enemy ware—from what side they were
coining:, and where going to. In darkness, gloom, and
rain they had to lead our lines through thick scru'sby
bushes and thorny bfakee, which broke our ranks and
irritated the men, while every pace was marked by a
corpse or a man wounded, from an enemy whose position
was only indicated by the rattle of musketry and the
rush of ball and shell.

Sir George Cathcart, seeing his men disordered by the
fire of a large column of Russian infantry which was
outflanking them, while portions of the various regi-
ments composing his division were maintaining an
unequal struggle with an overwhelming force, rode
down into the ravine in which they were engaged
to rally them. He perceived, at the same time, that
the Russians had actually gained possession of a
portion of the bill in rear of one flank of his division, but
still his stout heart never failed him for a moment. He
rode at their head encouraging them, and when a cry
arose that the ammunition wag failing, he said coolly,

" Hare you not got your bayonets?" As he led on his
men it was observed that another body of men had
gained the top of the hill behind them on the right, but
it was impossible to tell whether they were friends or

foes. A deadly volley was poured into our scattered
regiments. Sir George cheered them and led them back
up the bill, but a flight of bullets passed where he rode,
and he fell from his horse close to the Russian columns.
The men had to fight their way through a host of ene-
mies, and lost fearfully. They were surrounded and
bayonetted on all sides, and won their desperate way up
the bill with diminished ranks and the loss of nearly 500
men. Sir George Cathcart's body was afterwards re-
covered with a bullet wound in the head and three bayo-
net wounds in the body. In this struggle, where the
Russians fought with the greatest ferocity, and bayo-
netted the wounded as they fell, Colonel Swyny, of the
63d, a most gallant officer, Lieutenant Dowling, 20th,
Major Wynne, 68th, and other officers whose names
will be found in the Gazette, met their death, and Briga-
dier Goldie (of the .57th Regiment) received the wounds
of which he has since died. The conflict on the right was

equally uncertain and equally bloody. In the Light Divi-
sion, the 88th got so far into the front that they were sur-
rounded and put into utter confusion, when four companies
of the 77th under Major Straton charged the Russians,
broke them, and relieved their comrades. The fight
had not long commenced ere it was evident that the
Russians had received orders to fire at all mounted offi-
cers. Sir George Brown was struck by a shot, which
went through his arm and struck his side. I saw with
regret his pale and sternly composed face, as his body
was borne by me on a litter early in the day, his white
hair flickering in the breeze, for I knew we had lost the
services of a good soldier that day. Further to the right
a contest, the like of which, perhaps, never took place
before, was going on between the Guards and dense
columns of Russian infantry of five times their number.
The Guards had charged them and driven them back
when they perceived that the Russians had outflanked
them. They were out of ammunition too. They were
uncertain whether there were friends or foes in the rear.
They had no support, no reserve, and they were fight-
ing with the bayonet against an enemy who stoutly con
tested every inch of ground, when the corps of another
Russian column appeared on their right far in their rear.
Then a fearful mitraille was poured into them, and vol-
leys of rifle and musketry. Tim Guan's were broken
they had lost 12 officers dead in the field ; they had left
one-half of their number on the ground, and they re-
tired along the lower road of the valley. But they wer
soon reinforced, and they speedily avenged their loss.
The French advance about 10 e'clock turned the
flank of the enemy. They retired at 1.40, with a los,
of 9,000 killed and wounded.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
(Prom, Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.)

It crag on Sunday, the sth of November, that the
battle of Liken' an was fought and won. The adtion
commenced at daybreak and terminated at five in the
afternoon, In the night and the early hours of the sth