The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-25 00:00:00

THE BRITISH EXPEDITION .

CAMP BEFORE SEBASTOPOL, DEC. 4.—lf any of
our great geologists want to test the truth of their
theories respecting the appearance of the primeval
world, or are desirous of ascertaining what sort of
view Noah might have had when he looked out of
the Ark from Ararat, they cannot do better than
come out here at onec. The whole plateau on which
stands " the Camp before Sebastopol "—the entire
of the angle of and from Balaklava round to Kher-
son and thence to the valley of Inkerman—is fitted
at this moment for the reception and delectation of
any number of ichthyosauri, sauri, and crocodiles
—it is a vast black dreary wilderness of mud, dot-
ted with little lochs of foul water, and seamed by
by dirty brownish and tawney-coloured streams
running down to and along the ravines. In some
deserted London enclosures, where rubbish may
he shot, in the outskirts of the great metropolis,
about St. John's-wood, where the town and coun-
try have long joined battle, and have laid waste
the fields for which they contended, where heaps of
earth and mysterious holes and pitsful of water,
and rotten timber and tumuli of decayed bricks,
attest the baffled assaults of civilised man, and his
great protagonist the builder, in his attempt to get
a material guarantee from nature ; in the bed of
the Thames, at very low tides, I have seen, and
every one has seen, something on a small scale like
that which is presented for many a weary mile by
the ground on which Briton and Gaul are contend-
ing against the Muscovite and his old ally winter.
Something like only, for in such places there is but
little sign of life, and here all is motion and
activity.
" Chaos has come again," or rather has just de-
parted from the scene. A grand plateau of bog,
varying in depth from a foot to two feet, extends
from the valley of Inkerman to the sea at Bala-
klava. It is trodden into holes in every direction
I y the hoofs of mules, horses, and camels. It is
scarred deeply by the wheels of carts and arabas,
and the white tents dotting its surface, and a few
scattered white farm-houses, and the snug quarters
of Lord Raglan, contrast strongly with the black
profound amid which they rear their straight out-
lines. All over its surface are strewed the carcases
of horses and miserable animals torn by dogs and
smothered in mud. Vultures sweep over the
mounds in flocks ; carrion crows and " birds of
prey obscene " hover over their prey, menace the
hideous dogs who are feasting below, or sit in
gloomy dyspepsia, with dropped head and dropping
wing, on the remnants of their banquet.
It is over this ground, gained at last by great toil
and exhaustion, and loss of life on the part of the
starving beasts of burden, that man and horse
have to struggle from Balaklava for some 4 or 5
miles with the hay and corn, the meat, the biscuit,
the pork, which form the subsistence of our army.
Every day this toil must be undergone, for we are
fed indeed by daily bread, and only get half rations
of it. Horses drop exhausted on the road, and
their loads are removed and added to the burdens
of the struggling survivors ; then, after a few ef-
forts to get out of their Slough of Despond, thepoor
brutes succumb and he down to die in their graves.
Men wade and plunge about, and stumble through
the mud, with muttered imprecations, or sit down
on a projecting stone, exhausted, pictures of dirt
and woe unutterable. Sometimes on the route the
overworked and sickly soldier is seized with illness,
and the sad aspect of a fellow-countryman dying
before his eyes shocks every passer-by—the more
because aid is all but hopeless and impossible. Of
in huge sailors' boots, purchased at Balaklava
for about 5 times their proper price, trudge on
earnestly in the expectation of being able to carry
back to their tents the pot of preserved meat or the
fowl, bought at a fabulous cost in that model city
of usurydom, ere the allotted portion of wood
under the cooking-tins has been consumed. It re-
quires a soldier's eye to tell captains from corporals
now, mounted on draggle-tailed and unkempt
ragged ponies covered with mud. The pride and
hope of our aristocracy, of our gentry, of our manu-
facturing bourgeoise, of our bankership, and ship-
ping owners, and money-owning and money-
making classes, with dubiously-coloured faces, tat-
tered and bepatched garments, and eccentric great
coats and bead-gear, are to be seen filing up down
the filthy passes, between Balaklava and the camp
carrying out ligneous hams, or dishevelled turkeys,
strings of onions, sacks of potatoes, Dutch cheeses,
almost as fatal as Russian bullets, bread, the worst
varies of " Goldner," bottles of wine and brandy,
crocks of butter, and assortments of sausages, from
the economical but nasty saveloy up to the be-
silvered and delicate Bologna. They are de-
cidedly "disreputable-looking." The liveliest sus-
picions of Bow-street would be excited at their ap-
pearance in court. They are hairy and muddy; as
the police reports would say, in short, " wearing the
air of foreigners," but the vast majority of them are
the noblest, cheeriest, bravest fellows in Europe—
men who defy privation, neglect, storm, and tem-
pest—who, in the midst of difficulties, rarely de-
spond, and never despair, and who comfort end
animate by the brightest examples of courage and
high valour, of constancy, and unflinching resolu-
tion; the gallant fellows around them.
The painful reflection which ever occurs to one is,
what necessity is there for all the suffering and
privation created by this imperfect state of our com-
munications ? Why should not roads have been
made when we sat down before the place ? Their
formation would have saved many jives, and have
spared our men much sickness and pain. Had there
been the least foresight—nay, had there existed
among us the ordinary instincts of self-preservation
—we would have set the Turks to work at once while
the weather was fine, and have constructed the roads
which we are now trying to make undermost disad-
vantageous conditions. The wretched state of the
country is caused by the attempts of the men to
get on good ground out of the trodden paths, and
as the earth is so " sticky," the holes made by the
horses' hoofs hold water, and it is soon all in nearly
the same condition, the depressed portions of the
surface being of course worse than the ridges. '\Ve
must now do our best to retrieve the serious disasters
that have been brought upon us by carelessness ;
there is n• excuse whatever for what has occurred,
and, in addition to the evils created by the disturb-
ance of the communication which we struggled
for so arduously between the camp and Balaklava,
we must reckon this the most formidable of all.
The siege operations have been sometimes com-
pletely—sometimes partially—suspended, and the
attack on Sebastopol has languished and declined.
Neither guns nor ammunition could be brought up
to the batteries.
The number of heavy guns, the quantity of shot,
shell, and powder landed on the beach daily, under
the superintendence of Captain Anderson, R.A.,
are enormous, but they lie there with no present
prospect of their being moved to the point.
The Russians have been emboldened by our in-
activity to prowl about at night, and beat up the
advanced posts. It is no wonder that men who
may have carried a considerable load from Bala-
klava to the camp, and who may be sent out after
a scanty meal to pass 12 hours in a ditch, sometimes
are less vigilant than they ought to be for the safety
of the army. In some such way was it that the
pickets of the 50th were surprised the other night
in front of the right attack, and indeed report says
some of the men were bayoneted by the Russians
as they lay in their blankets. The officer on duty
will barely escape censure, for somnolence on the
part of sentries in front of the enemy is not com-
patible with the security of a camp. It was just
at the time that the reliefs came down that they
were attacked, and the Rifles, who were moving at
the time and repulsed te Russians have spread a
pleasant mot " that the s relieved the 50th,
and we relieved the Russians."
There are many points on which a little attention
and care would save great trouble to the men, and
husband their strength. For instance, the coffee
which is served out to the men is the green unburnt
berry. The men have neither roasting nor grind-
ing apparatus. The top of a mess tin is mad Stones
o do
duty for the one, and is spoiled ; a couple of
are used in lien of the other, and spoil the coffee ;
but the hardship of roasting and grinding the berry
over small bits of sticks, and in wet and storm, can
only be known by those who try to get a breakfast
by adopting these conditions of obtaining it. Why
not send out good coffee ready ground in handy
tins i Surely it is not worth while to practise eco-
nomy on such a dear article as a soldier. The
French are generally provided with coffee mills and
roasters, but even when they have no such apli-
ance experience has suggested a hundred means of
supplying the deficiency. These are not " grumbles,"
but honest complaints against the perpetuation of
remediable grievances. The want of clothing, the
want of fuel, the want of shelter, the want of food,
which have cost the army and the nation so dearly,
might, I sincerely and solemnly believe, have been
obviated by a small exertion of ordinary " prevoy-
ance." The articles which are arriving to-day in
the Belgravia should have been here long ago,
we and
the supplies we are expecting daily, ago,
and
are late. They will be of service only to
those who have survived, or have maintained
health and strength under cold and wet. We have
tents, but cannot get them up to the camp. There
is a great deficiency of hospital marquees, and,
horrible as it is to think of such a thing, it is no
less true that, according to information received
from no doubtful source, five men of a battalion of
the Guards were found dead outside one of the
tents within the last thirty hours.
The decks of the Avon were a terrible sight to
behold, covered with sick and woun
Ih ded
avme heen
and
as
thickly as they could be stowed.
that ere she sailed the authorities hold an investi-