The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-04 00:00:00

His leg was broken, and ho was so weak from loss of blood
that he died under the operation of removing it. Sir R.
Is ewman was stabbed all over. Ruesian officers were seen
passing their we:. -de through the bodies if our men as
they writh el in agony on the ground, and pointing to their
men to bayonet them as they passed. Such are the armies
of the Czar ! These are the men to whom the Kings of
Europe are to be indebted for their thrones, and it is to
such Allies that Prussia would give the hands of those
whose ancestors fought under the Great Frederick ! A
major of the rnffiian soldiery who perpetrated these deeds
is, however, in our hands, and evidence can be brought
against him to show that he was one of the principal actors
as well as one of the chief instigators of atrocities which
will make Europe shudder with horror. Mr. Romaine,
the Deputy-Judge-Advocate-General, has received in-
structions to prepare a case against this man. There
aro several men to swear to his identity ; and, if it can
bo satisfactorily proved that ho has committed the
acts laid to his charge, he will be swung
.on a gibbet
in front of the walls of Sebastopol. He is a
Baron—a man of rank—and it is suspected ho has already
used the gold which was left on his person to purchase
silence. While the Guards were at their utmost need the
French columns moved down Impetuously on the exulting
enemy, and, taking them in the flank, forced them back
along the side of the hill under the fire of our divisions.
The Allies charged them, and hailed ball and shot into
them with deadly effect. The enemy, though supported
by the file of tremendous artillery, could not withstand
us, and before 11.45 a.m. their army was retiring before
8,500 British and 9,000 French infantry. The fall of rain
and the gloom, to which I have before alluded as having
occurred about this time, enabled them to collect and make
another stand, but the Allies speedily drove them back,
and at 12.35 they were in full retreat towards Sebastopol,
covered by their guns.
A little before this time I had ridden up to an advanced
picket-house of ours, which commands a view of the
French lines and of our right attack. I found there Mr.
Layard, who is still an anxious and eager amateur out
here, and a group of officers, looking down from the front
on the town, which was smiling freshly in the returning
sunshine, and talking of an expected assault by the French.
The redoubts, earthworks, and redans, as well as the
French and English attacks, were blazing away as usual
against each other, and dotting the scene with puffs of
white smoke. Suddenly a sharp, crashing rattle of mus-
ketry, which came distinctly to our ears through the roar
of the cannon, was heard on the left towards the Flagstaff
Battery, in front of the French lines. Through the glass
I could see the caps of some French troops, who were ad-
vancing from the last parallel by a wall, which seemed to
me inside the town. "Hurrah," was the cry, "the French
are in the place !" In a moment afterwards the Russians
could be made out running as hard as they could from the
rear of the Flagstaff Battery down towards the houses at
the side of the first harbour, and ere three minutes
elapsed one ! two ! three ! up shot pillars of dust and
dark smoke into the air. The Russians had sprung three
mines inside the work. In less than two minutes more
two more mines were sprung. The musketry ceased, the
smoke cleared away, revealing a mass of ruins and broken
timbers, and beams of cottages, and presently the guns in
front of the Flagstaff Battery opened on the French, and
destroyed all our hopes that there had. been a successful
assault. I heard this evening that the Russians had made
a sortie, and traversed two parallels ere they were re-
pulsed, and that the French followed them closely to the
town. It is probable that the Russians fired the mines to
prevent pursuit, fearing they might enter the place along
with them. The French buried 200 dead Russians before
sunset, and have 80 more in front of their lines to bury
to-morrow. After this little episode we turned our atten-
tion to our right, whole the battle was still carried on by
the artillery. A very large battery was stationed on the
heights on the right of the picket-house and in front of a
straight lino drawn from it to Inkerman, which pitched
shot and shell remorselessly into our camp, aided by the
steamer at Inkerman, while a portion of it replied to the
fire of our guns, two of which alone seemed to touch them.
These were Dickson's two 18-pounders. In the valley be-
hind the Russian guns we could see the Russian infantry
retiring over the road at a good pace, but in tolerable
order, while their retreat was further protected by a
strong body of cavalry drawn up on a mound in rear of the
guns. A few rockets were directed against the cavalry by
our men in the batteries, but they did no execution that I
could see. Our admiration was soon excited by the splen-
did fire of our two 18-pounders. They werefiring at about
1,500 yards, but their shot went right between the enemy's
guns, smashing horses, men, and carriages at every round.
" Bravo, they're limbering up !" And so they were,
leaving five tumbrils, one broken gun carriage, 27 dead
horses, and 13 dead men behind thorn, on a very small
space of ground. Again they halted, unlimbered, and
fired a few rounds, but their 21's and 32's were soon silenced
by our 18's, and at 1.30 they were retreating after their
infantry into Sebastopol. Lieutenant Hoare, in his
Lancaster Battery, had prepared a parting volley for
both. He removed his gabions and sandbags, got a good
" open " on the road, and whenever a body of men or
horses came in view upon it, bang went the long fellow,
and the ponderous cone:of iron whistled among them, rip-
ping the column from end to end, and strewing the road
with dead.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson was assisted in his emr-

tionsr)P637lt;in7D7Agullarand Lieutenant Chermside,
and no less than 17 gunners were struck down beside and
close to him at the guns. The Horse Artillery were not
engaged. Captain Turner and Captain Wodehouse did
good service with their batteries. By the death of Briga-
dier-General Strangways the command Of the Artillery
devolves upon Colonel Dacres. Colonel Patton, of the
74th Regiment, who accompanied Lord Raglan's staff as
an amateur on the day of the Alma, acted on this occa-
sion as aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Strangways till
the latter was mortally wounded.
The revolvers carried by our officers saved their lives on
several occasions this day. When Captain Nicholson, of
the 77th, was lying on the ground he was bayonetted by a
Russian. The Colonel immediately shot the scoundrel
dead. Ensign Butts, of the 77th, was taken prisoner by a
Russian, who made him hide himself in the bush as his
regiment went past, by keeping his cocked firelock to his
head. The young feliow watched his chance, and shot
him dead with his revolver, getting off in safety to rejoin
his regiment. No doubt there will be abundance of pri-
vate letters full of similar details. Our men were very
short of ammunition. The Guards in particular expended
all theirs very soon. W hat was the cause of this ? They
surely did not fire their 50 rounds a man.
Great exertions were used this evening to get our
wounded into hospital, and the Ambulance corps did good
service. The wounded of the Light Division, under charge
of Dr. Alexander, were under cover by 11 o'clock, and a.. 1
operations performed. In the 4th Division hospital,
under Dr. Anderson, all patients were in bed and had
each a cup of tea by eight o'clock, and the operations
were over early the following day.
Dr. Smith's letter has filled us with astonishment.
Surely he must know that there is not a regiment
out here with three surgeons for duty. The slowness with
which vacancies aro filled up at home is a great evil. Oue
case in point is worth a week's writing. Dr. Chapman went
home about the end of May. The vacancy was not filled
up till October. Bad economy, Dr. Smith. The succes-
sor to Dr. Chapman has only just come out here, and either
he is now de troy), or he ought to have been here long ago.
NOVEMBER, 6.

Parties of men were out late last night and early this
morning searching the hillside for wounded mon and pri-
soners. Several wounded Guardsmen were not found till
this morning and afternoon in the places where they had
rolled down among the bushes in their struggles with the
enemy.
From a prisoner whom wo examined to-day I gleaned
soma interesting particulars respecting the formation of
the Russian army. The man was not very "bright," but
he told the truth according to the light that was in him,
and I believe the statements ho made were tolerably cor-
rect. It had long been a puzzle to ignorant people like
ourselves why the Russian soldiers had numbers on their
shoulder-straps different from those on their buttons or on
their caps. In recording my observations on tho appoint-
ments of the men killed at the Alma, I remarked, it may
be remembered, that certain "regiments" were present,
judging by the shoulder-straps. It will appear that these
numbers referred not to regiments, but to divisions. So
lot our Pole—ho is a deserter—one of tho few who came in
lately, speak for himself through an interpreter :—" What
does the number oa the strap on your shoulder indicate ?"
—" It is No. 16. It shows that I belong to the 16th Vivi-
!lion of the army." " Who commands it?"—" I don't know
—a General." " What does the number 31 on your buttons
mean ?"—lt means that I belong to polk 31, of the 16th
Division." What does the number 7on your cap, with P
after it:mean ?"—lt indicates that I belong to the 7th rota
of the polk." " What doss a rota mean ?"—"lt means a
company of 250 men." "How many rotas are in a polk?"
" There are 16 rotas in each polk." And how many polka
are in a division?"—" There are four Folks in a division."
"If that is so, why have you 31 on your buttons ?"
pause, a stupid look.)—" I don't know." Finding our
friend was getting into that helpless state of confusion into
which the first glimpses of decimal fractions are wont to
plunge the youthful arithmetician, we left him. Now let
us combine our information, and see what, according to
this Polish authority, a Russian division consists of. It
stands thus :

1 Rota equal to
16 Rotas „ 1 polk equal to
4 Polks „ 1 division „
To this add cavalry and artillery ...

250 men.
4,000 ~
16,000 „
4,000 „

Total ... ... 20,000
In going over the field of battle on Monday, I observed
the following numbers on the shoulder straps of the men, or
in other words, there were men there belonging to the dif-
ferent divisions indicated thus :-2, 10, 11, 16, 17, 19, 20,
21, 22, 33, 34, 51. This, of course, gives no information
with respect to the numbers ougageh in the action of the
sth against our little force, but it proves what exertions
Russia has made to collect her forces against us. Had the
divisions represented by the numbers given above been
complete, we should have had an army of 240,000 men
against us. Again, it is very remarkable that we do not
find in our enemy's army of the sth of Nov. many of the
divisions which fought against us on the 20th of Septem-
ber. Where was the 32d division, with which we were
principally concerned in the bloody charge up to the bat-
tery on the hill at the Alma? Where was the 12th, 31st,
and 18th divisions on the sth of November? They were
present at the Alma,. but they were not present at Inker-
mau. The only divisions which I recognised as old enemies
of the Alma wore the 11th and 17th, and considerable num-
bers of both of these fell at lakerman. The prisoners tell
us that they belong to the army of Wallachia—they aro
the men that were beaten before Silistria, and it is
the highest encomium one
the Turks to say that these
were the men who could not drive them back at
Oltenitza or beat them out of Arab Tabia. Such a differ-
ence between the soldiers of the Sultan in the Crimea and
on the banks of the Danube can only be accounted for by
the different qualities of their leaders. They have no
Omer Pasha here, and without confidence in their Generals
the Turks will not fight.
The Russian Generals who are here, according to the
statements of the prisoners and deserters, aro Menschikoff,
Gortschakoff, Osten-Sacken,* Luders,* Villeboisj Li-
prandi,t Lewtsk , Dannenberg,t Soinionoff, Pauloff,t
day. .
The Twom other Generals
Zalifkin. The laYt si ihtrne (llGvserneerlif
aylilivnadsokdi.lldd early in the
men
resemblednnarmd ein those
samesewe rflweay. t atlythee
sAawlmnao, andin
wore clad .
fantry with helmets, 1 wever, and our soldiers were dis-
appointed to find theqoi,ussians had, in most cases, come
whiteness knapsacks.nes of their out without their
tTrhgeerps
and of their feet
was were very
t
cleanly, and the w
was rensakable.
whenever marauders, who. ever them had socks on, and the
they were worth taking. Our
over a battle-field, had re-
moved their boots
soldiers and sailors, as wellas the
avidity for a good pair of Russian French, look out with
beets, and are quite
adepts in fitting themselves to a
mode of measurement. Many of the nicety
by their simple
men had silver medals
and ribands striped green and white for " the campaign of

The stateuaeuts of the prisoners respecting the Generals
marked thus * differed. Some said they have arrived ; others
that they have not yet come, but that they are expected.
The names marked thus t will be recognised, I think, as
those of Generals who were in the Principalities.