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

STRENGTH Of THE FORTRESS.

It is now said we will have to storm the place after
all. No one either here or in England had any idea of
the strength of the place ; in fact, the place is almost
beyond the power of man to take. Into no place, in so
short a time, since the world began, have so many shot
and shell been thrown. Haw many more, ere it is
taken, God only knows. The batteries and outworks
are all mined, and galvanic wires laid, so that we are
to have a toss up if we beat them out. I have no
doubt that this knowledge has led Lord Raglan to fire
on the town, which was not done at first, and the de-
termination seems now to be to lay the whole place in
ashes. What will be done with the other side when
this is taken, I know not.

HAZARDOUS AGRI.
This is the sixth day of the bombardment, and a
dreadful week it has been for us, for I will tell you
what we have had to do. We have had to run all along
the entrenchments with boxes of powder for the gunners,
which is very dangerous work, for we have to run
through all the fire, with shot and shell flying around
us in countless numbers. In fact, you don't know for
a moment but your head may be blown •ff your
shoulders ; but I think God is protecting us, for we
have lost but a very few men, considering the dread-
ful fire they had to stand. All we have lost is about
sixty or seventy men; but they, poor fellows, have met
with a hard fate, for some had their heads cut clean off,
and others were cut clean in two. You must think,
my dear father, what a 56-pounder would do if it hit
you, and the shells of the enemy burst right over our
heads ; but God has saved us so far.

THE LATH CAPTAIN ItOWLET.
The following is an extract of an official letter from
the lamented Col. Hood, commanding the 3d battalion
of Grenadier Guards (who was himself killed the day
afterwards), to Colonel Wood, commanding the Grena-
dier Guards :

" Camp before Sebastopol, Oct. 17.
" lfy dear Wood,—lt grieves me much to have to re-
port the death of poor Rowley. He was killed on duty in
the trenches yesterday morning about 9 o'clock. He 'was
in advance of the trench, lying down. A shot struck the
rock, bounded up at a very short angle, and fell upon him.
He never spoke afterwards, and died about a quarter of an
hour after the blow was given.

"Staff-Surgeon Wilson was with him immediately. No
medical assistance could have been of any avail.
"He is to be buried this morning at 10."
PROBABLE DURATION OF THE SIEGE.

The siege goes on with unabated vigour on our side.
This is now the sixth day of our cannonade, and the
Russians certainly do not seem to give in, so far as I
can see or hear. It is now almost gun for gun. How-
ever, those who ought to understand these things better
than I do, say that the fire from the Russian batteries is
not nearly so strong as it was, and all reports appear to
say that they are losing heart. My opinion is that the
place may ultimately fall, but not for some time. I
would say the siege will last 21 days; the French allow it
the same time, and they are pretty geed judges in these
things, although as soldiers or sailers in real work we
have nothing to learn from them. The first batteries,
erected by the French, blew up two hours after they
opened. This has delayed us at least a couple of days.
It is quite a mistake to think Sebastopol will be like
Bomarsund, for, with the exception of Gibraltar, it is
the strongest place in the world, and the Russian artil-
lery as good as any. The work for our men is now
very severe; they are always on duty 12 hours out of
the 24, one day protecting the trenches, the next repair-
ing the damages, with shot and shell flying all around
them.