The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-30 00:00:00

THE BALTIC FLEET.

KIEL, HOLSTEIN, Nov. 26.—Since my despatch
of yesterday, authentic information has reached me
that, since the departure of the English fleet from
Nargen, several of the Russian line-of-battle ships
have put to sea for the purpose of uniting with the
squadron at Helsingfors. They had scarcely got
fairly out of harbour ere a heavy gale came
n
The flag-ship lost her rudder, and three of the ship.os
in company got on shore. Their critical situation
being observed, steamers were sent to their assist-
ance, succeeded in towing them off, and conducted
them back again to port. The Czar is highly in-
censed at the occurrence, and has remarked that
he considered it an extraordinariraiclicrecuhmasdtanfocer
that the ships of England and
months past been navigated in the Bal tic seas with-
sut meeting any casualties—whereas his
acquaintedis
own fleet,
the officers of which were more perfectly
with the situation of the various shoals which exist,
had, on merely being ordered to proceed to Hel-
singfors, when scarcely out of harbour, placed in
imminent danger the ships entrusted to their com-
mand.

In an article which appears in the Independance
Peige of the 23d inst., under date of Hamburg, of

the 20th, it is stated with no small degree of con-
fidence that the
,merchant vessels of the Allied
Powers, navigating the Russian seas, had been
chased by several of the enemy's war steamers, that
three had been captured, and taken into the port
of Riga, the entry to which, up to the 15th inst.,
was free from ice. I do not think that there is
much reliance to be placed in the statement, as it
is barely possible that any of the Russian vessels of
war could proceed down the gulph of Finland with-
out being intercepted by-some of our ships cruising
in that quarter.
By advices from Archangel up to the 10th inst.,
that port was then free from ice an unusual circum-
stance at the advanced period of the season. Many
vessels were taking on board large shipments of
grain, which they hoped to convey through the
White Sea before the navigation thereof was com-
pletely closed.

The Bulldog, steam-frigate, Captain W. H. Hall,
has beer, despatched to Copenhagen, and thence to
Elsinore, for a further supply of live cattle and vege-
tables. The Rosamond, steam-sloop, Commander
G. Wodehouse, left the harbour this forenoon to
procure pilots for two more line-of-battle ships—
the James Watt and Cfesar, which are ordered to
England forthwith. They have crossed top-gallant
yards and bent sails, and on arrival of the pilots to
conduct them through the Great Belt, having in
the interim transferred their surplus provisions,
over and above a month's consumption, to the
Edinburgh and Blenheim, will depart on their home-
ward voyage. Thus, by two at a time, will the
screw line-of-battle ships be withdrawn rom their
present anchorage. The whole fleet will be in Eng-
land by the middle of December—the Duke of
Wellington remaining until the latest moment.

THE BATTLE FIELD OF INKERMAN.

(From a Letter dated Nov. 7.)
In every bush—on every yard of blood-stained ground
—lay a dead or dying Russian. The well-known bear-
skins of our Guards, the red coats of our infantry, and
the bright blue of the French ,Chasseurs, revealing
each a silent horror in the glades, and marking the
spot where stark and stiff a corpse lay contorted on
the grass, pointed out the scenes of the bloodiest con-
tests. The dead were happy—the dull cold eye—the
tranquil brow—the gently opening lips, which had given
escape to the parting spirit as it fled frown its bleeding
shell, showed how peacefully a man ma-3, die in battle
pierced by the rifle ball. The British and the French,
many of whom had been murdered by the Russians as
they lay wounded, wore terrible frowns on their faces,'
with which the agonies of death had clad them. Some
in their last throes bad torn up the earth in their hands,
and held the grass between their fingers up towards
heaven. All the men who exhibited such signs of pain
had been bayoneted. The dead men who lay with an
eternal smile on their lips had been shot. But the wounded.
For two days they had lain where the hand and the ball
had felled them. They were very few, it is true, but all
our searching had not discovered the secrets of that
blood-stained hill-side, and it was towards noon to-day
ere the last of our soldiers had been found in his lair and
carried to the hospital. But the Russians groaning and
palpitating as they lay around, were far more numerous.
Some of these were placed together in heaps, that they
might be more readily removed. Othersglared on you from
the bushes with the ferocity of wild beasts as they hugged
their wounds. Some implored, in an unknown tongue, but
in accents not to be mistaken, water, or succour; holding
out their mutilated and shattered limbs, or pointing to
the track of the lacerating ball. The sullen angry scowl
of some of these men was fearful. Fanaticism and.
immortal hate spake through their angry eye-balls,
and he who gazed on them with pity and compassion
could at last (unwillingly) understand how these men
would in their savage passion kill the wounded, and
fire on the conqueror, who, in his generous hu-
manity, had aided them as he passed. It was a
relief to see that their arms were broken—that their
cartridges were lying opened in heaps on the ground.
Litter-bearers, French and English, clothed the hill-
side, now toiling painfully up with a heavy burden
for the grave, or with some subject for the doctor's care ;
now hunting through the bushes for the dead or dying.
Our men have acquired a shocking facility in their diag-
nosis. A body is before you ; there is a shout, " Come
! here boys ; I see a Russian !" (or " a Frenchman," Or
" one of our fellows.") One of the party comes forward,
raises the eyelid if it be closed, peers into the eye, shrugs
his shoulders, says quietly, "He's dead, he'll wait,"
and moves back to the litter ; others pull the feet, and
arrive at equally correct conclusions by that process.
. The dead are generally stripped of all but their coats.
The camp followers and blackguards from Balaklava,
and seamen from tke ships anxious for trophies, carry
off all they can take from the field. At particular spots
you see a party of men busy at work. Groups of them
are digging away all along the hill-side, at the distance
of 40 or 50 yards apart. Go over and you find them
around a yawning trench 30 feet in length and 20 tat in
breadth and 6 feet in depth, at the bottom of which, in
every conceivable attitude, lie packed together with ex-
ceeding art some 30 or 40 corpses. The grave-diggers stand
chatting on the mounds by the sides, waiting for the arri-
val of some bearers to complete the number of the dead.
They speculate on the appearance of the body which
is being borne towards them. "It's Corporal —, of
the —th, I think," says one. "No it's my rear rank
man, I can see his, red hair plain enough, and so on. -
They discuss the merits or demerits of dead serjeants- of
comrades. " Well, he was a hard man : many's the
time I was drilled through him, but it's all over now !"
or "Poor Mich! he had 15 years' service—a better fellow
never stepped." This scone is going on all about the hill-
side. Frenchmen, with litters, are also busy looking out
for their dead and wounded, and in sharing the sad
labours of the day. At last the number ia the trench
is completed. The bodies lie as closely as they can be
packed. Some of them upraised arms, in the attitude
of taking aim ; their legs stick up through the mould
as it is thrown upon them ; others are bent and twisted
into shapes like fantoccini. Inch after inch the earth
rises upon' them, and they are left " alone in their
glory." No, not alone, for; the hopes, and fears, and
affections of hundreds of human hearts lie buried with
them.