The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-12 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY ''.4IVENING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1854.

THE WAR.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
The St. Vincent, 102, in Portsmouth harbour, is being
cleared out and fumigated after having cholera on board.
The beds, &c,, used by troops and Russian prisoners, are
being examined, and will be cleansed or burnt on an island
in Portsmouth Harbour.
The Colossus, FO, new screw-line-of-battle ship, Captain
R. S. Robinson, has had her crow turned over to her to-
day, and she is now ready for sea. She wants some able
seamen to complete her complement, a class of men she
finds a difficulty in getting, as those who are out of employ
(and they must be a small number) prefer entering on
board such vessels as the Curacoa, 30, Harrier, Swallow,
and a number of other now screw small craft now fitting
out. The Colossus is in admirable order, and is a perfect
screw liner, although she has been equipped with some
hate.

The Malacca, 17, screw-sloop, Captain Farquhar, came
into harbour yesterday afternoon to be docked.
The Hornet, 16, screw-sloop, Commander Campbell, was
fitted up with coal at Spithead yesterday by the Orestes
coal-hulk, which was towed out of harbour by the Comet
tug.
The Sphinx, 6, paddle-sloop, came into harbour this
morning from Spithead to have some defects made good.
She landed her captain (Clifford) yesterday at Haslar, to
undergo treatment for the injuries he unfortunately re-
ceived in the breaking of a hawser in towing the St. Vin-
cent from the Baltic, atfer which she went back to Spit-
head to unship her powder and shell.
The Rhadamanthus, steam-transport, Master Belem,
arrived yesterday from Plymouth, whither she had
taken machinery for the Algiers, 91, screw. In coming
through the Needles yesterday morning she got on shore
off Hurst Castle, and information of the fact having been
sent, the Sphinx, 6, paddle-sloop, and Comet, steam-
tug, wero ordered to go to her assistance, the latter taking
a dockyard lighter in tow. Before, however, they had got
away, the Rhadamanthus was seen coming up past Cowes,
so that their services were not required. She came into
harbour yesterday afternoon; and it appears that, at 2 o'clock
in the morning, she got too close to the N.B. buoy at the
Shingles, and, backing her engines to avoid running over
it, she went too far astern, by which she touched the bank.
She remained on• two or three hours, till the
•tide rose,
when she floated off without (as far as can be ascertained)
damage. Sho will take stores round to the Eastward, and
tho crew of a Russian merchant ship, captured by the
Avon, and takes into Plymouth. There are 11 persons in
number.

, • -
known ; anel Captain H. Cust, Coldstream Guards, aide-
de-camp to 3 lajor-General Bentinck, vice Captain Hon.
H. Byng, re ti trued to England on medical certificate. Cap-
tain Fellows is, 12th Lancers, is attached to the staff of the
army, with the pay and allowances of deputy-assistant
adjntant-get teral. The sth Dragoon Guards having suf-
fered sever( dy from the prevailing epidemic, which has
carried off E. everal officers and many men of the regiment,
and having been deprived by sickness of its commanding-
officer, and by death of the next senior officer, the Com-
mander of t lxo Forces is pleased to desire that the regiment
should, as ; 1, temporary measure, be attached to the 4th
Dragoon C nards, and placed under the charge of Lien-
tenant-Cob guel Bodge. The Commander of the Forces
earnestly r, Wommends the regiment to the protection of
Lieutenant -Colonel Hodge, who is requested to attend
carefully to. the maintenance of its discipline, and to ren-
der every a sistance and support to the officer in tempo-
rary toms nd (be is not of five years' service), who, he
doubts no. . will gladly avail himself of the opportunity to
profit by t counsel and advice of so experienced an offi-
cer. Lieu Id mant-Colonel Williams, while on special duty
in Turkey, has, by her Majesty's command, the local rank
of colonel. Captain M'Donald, 92d Highlanders, is ap-
pointed exit ra aide-de-camp to Major-General J. L. Penne-
father, C.ll .

beautiful as any ever painted by*Salvator Rosa. On
this side the frontier stretched out the long and wide
array of the Turkish white and green tents, several
isolated and grass-covered mountains in the plain which
leads on to Kars, and at the base of one of them the
partially visible encampment of the foe. In the distance
beyond lay the white towers of Gumri, vaguely dis-
cernible in the moonlight, while behind; and on either
side of them rose the snow-capped bills. of Georgia in
sharp and prominent relief against the uncloude sky.
Without the remotest attempt at fine writing or pictu-
resque description, I may soberly say that I have seldom
looked upon a finer panorama of moon-lit scenery than
was this, the quiet surface of which was so soon to be
disturbed and clouded by the death-dealing thunders of
a battle.
"In-lead of an hour after sunset, it was midnight be-
fore the troops began their march from the camp, the
first 'con-cqnences of which late start being constant
stumbles of the artillery and cavalry into the frequent
ruts and holes which honeycomb the first portion of the
line of march; horses fell, men shou!-ed, and for a'con-
siderable time all was confusion and &sorder. Torches
were at length procured, and by their dim and flickering
guidance more than 35,000 cavalry, infantry, and artil-
lery, felt their way, confusedly and with difficulty, on
towards the foe. Alternately marching and halting,
they crept on over the plain, till the grey streaks of
dawn, struggling over the mountains of Georgia, revealed
a status quo as unlike as possible to the marching order
of an army, and with it the still more unpleasant fact
that the Russians Were already awaiting us some few
hundred yards a-head. After half-an-hour's delay in
bringing up and arranging the scattered columns, the
army was again got into motion, and the first division,
under the command of Kherim Pasha, advanced to
take up position in order of battle. I should have men-
tioned that the avant-garde, consisting of a detached
corps of five battalions of infantry, two squadrons of
irregular cavalry, and one mountain battery, had been
despatched earlier in the night to take possession of
the heights which command the Russian camp, and from
which, on a previous occasion, the enemy's skirmishers
had done considerable damage. There they were now
posted, in threatening and effective contiguity to the
Russian right wing. The enemy had taken up an ad-
vantageous position on a sloping eminence to the right
of their camp, and numbered in all 16 battalions, with
four of a reserve further back towards the tents.

" A Turkish battery of the left wing opened the ball,
and after a few rounds of shot from it, which were
speedily answered by the Russians, to try the range of
the guns, the cannonade soon became general. For
nearly half an hour the Russian firing was execrable ;
nearly every shell and shot passed high over the ene-
my and fell far in the rear. Afterwards it improved,
and, as I can personally vouch, generally hit with a pre-
cision which was not to be surpassed. Fine, however,
as it was, the Turkish from the very first shot was
better; and in little more than an hour drove the Mus-
covites from the advantageous position which they oc-
cupied. Thus pressed, the right wing of the latter gra-
dually fell back towards the base of the mountain, where
a masked battery suddenly opened in their support; but
a brief concentration of the Turkish fire upon this point
soon silence 1 it, and the enemy, unable to resist the
desolating shower of shot and shell poured on them by
the Turkish artillerists, began to give way. I may as
well remark here that neither as yet, nor up to the end
of the action, did the party who held the summit of the
hill fire a shot ; early in the engagement the Turkish
officer who commanded became non est, and Major Tevis
(an American serving in the Ottoman army), next in
command, urged them in vain to make a movement
upon the enemy's rear, as was intended. Had this
party acted with energy at the outset of the battle, the
result might have been very different; as it was, they
were merely safe spectators of the storm which raged in
front and on either side below them.
"Up to this point success was steadily on the side of
the Turks, The right wing of the enemy was driven
back, and the fierce tide rolled past the front of the moun-
tains to where the minor conflict of musketry and lance
was being waged between their left and the right of the
Turks, close upon the Georgian border. Here the ba-
lance turned, Resul Pasha (mentioned in a previous
letter from Erzeroum in terms of confidence, which his
present conduct, has belied) being the first to set the
example of flight. While opposed only by Russian in-
fantry or cavalry, he and his Arabs stood firm enough,
but on the first shot of cannon they turned and fled with
an energy truly worthy of a better cause' than
cowardice. Unpursued by a single Russian, they ran
till far out of reach of shot or shell, and, except by the
contagion of their example, had no further influence
upon the fortune of the day. The force of example,'
however, soon showed itself, and the regular cavalry, as
on nearly every previous occasion, proved themselves no
braver than the Bashi-bazonks. Noticing the first
symptoms of their wavering, Kourschid Pasha (chief of
the staff) ordered Vely Pasht, who commanded the right
wing of the second division, to advance to the support of
the first ; but, personal jealousy being operative even
then, he refused to do so without a direct order from the
Corninander-in•Chief. Now, thke tatter person, being
'noWhere.'" was not to be found till after a delay of
nearly an hour, when he gallopped into sight, bareheaded
(having lost his fez in the hurry of flight), in most co-
mical alarm at having unwittingly strayed within range
of a Russian gun in another part of the field. I hap-
pened to be passing the spot at the time that a shell
passed over the staff and burst some 12 or 15 yards off,
and I can, in all soberness, testify to the ludicrous effect
upon the Generalissimo's nerves. With sudden terror
blanching every 'feature, from his forehead to his chin,
ho roared Al-lah !' and dug the spurs into his horse's
hide till the animal jumped from the ground as if at-
tacked by a whole battery of electric eels, nor halted till
safely beyond the reach of Russian metal. When he had
sufficiently recovered from the effects of this fright, the
necessary order was given to the second division, which
now advanced, but too late to regain the lost ground; the
first was already in full retreat, pursued by two regiments
of Russian dragoons, and no efforts of the Mushir could stop
them. Kourschid Pasha succeeded in arresting the flight
of four battalions of infantry, one regiment of cavalry,
and a battery of artillery, and with these returned to
the charge. The cavalry, however, again fled, but with
the infantry and artillery he drove the enemy from the
heights, which they had already taken from Vely Pasha,
and held them to the last. But no efforts of individual
skill or bravery could now prevent the catastrophe of a
defeat. Having disposed of the first division, the Rus-
sians threw their whole force on the second, which,
though its infantry and artillery fought well, was barely
able to maintain its ground and cover the retreat.
Though numerically equal to the entire strength of the
enemy, in it, as in the other division, the cavalry proved
cowards almost to a man, and left the other arms to bear
the brunt of all.

"Thus, after a struggle of four or five hours' dura-
tion, was the battle of Kurakder4 (the name of the vil-
lage nearest the scene of action) fought and lost. With
a vivid impression of the whole engagement, from the
first cannonshot to the last straggling discharges of
musketry, I can use no language 'too strong to express
my reprobation of the conduct of nearly four-fifths of the
Turkish officers present. In accounting for the defeat
of an army numbering nearly 40,000 men of all arms by
a hostile force of less than one half that number, it is
not sufficient to say that the *management of the
whole
battle on the side of the Turks was a series of blunders
from first to last ; strategical errors might have pro-
tracted the engagement, and have added to the cost of
a victory—but downright cowardice alone—which no
generalship osuld have redeemed—gave the day to the
Russians. One arm, and one only, behaved well—the
artillery—which, with its commander, Tahir Pasha,
acted worthily of any army in Europe. Of the whole
40 battalions of infantry two regiments—the sth Anato-
lian and 4th Desardat—alone stood their ground and
resisted cavalry. Three successive times did three
squadrons of Russian dragoons bear down upon these
exceptionally brave regiments with a force before which
many better disciplined troops would have yielded
without effecting an opening in their ranks ; and
it was only after a fourth charge, supported
by the fire of a field-piece, that they gave way,
when only 250 of the first and 400 of the second escaped
death from the Russian sabres. Than the conduct of
the rest of the infantry nothing could well be worse, ex-
cept that of the entire cavalry, which would have dis-
graced the rawest Bashi-bazouks. If such, however,
was the conduct of the men, that, as I have said, of the
great majority of the superior officers was still more in-
famous. An hour after the action began, there was
hardly a Bunbashi (major) or Murallai (colonel) to be
seen ; almost to a man they had deserted their regi-
ments, and fled back to the camp to secure their baggage
and send it off to Kars. Battalion upon battalion, and
squadron upon squadron, were thus left without leaders
—a status quo, among others, which mainly contributed
to the general confusion and ultimate defeat. In Europe
the reward of such conduct is understood and certain
enough ; but here it has merely excited some short-lived
and fruitless remark. These, however, have been the
causes of defeat ; the plan of the battle (by Kourschid
Pasha) was admirable, but the cowardice of those with
whom lay its execution would have rendered vain the
strategy of Wellington himself.
" On regaining the camp after the battle I found the
tents already stripped, and nearly everybody's baggage
either startines or already gone to Kars. With some
the instinct of personal safety had been stronger than a
regard for their chattels, and they accordingly had al-
ready fled thither, leaving chibouques, carpets and other
personalities to take care of themselves. The cannonade
had drawn the Kurds in crowds from the neighbouring
mountains, like vultures to carrion, and they were now
making rapid appropriating on all hands. Having my
own horses, however, I succeeded in bundling together
as many of my movables as my servant bad been able to
protect, and fell into the rapid stream of the retreat,
which, with Bashi-bazouks, infantry, cavalry, artillery,
baggage-mules, camels, and bullock-carts, packed
with the wounded, formed as motley and scattered
a host as ever figured on panoramic canvas. From
Hadjivelekey to Kars, some
eighteen miles, it was
one unbroken stream, hurrying in quick disorder
from the dreaded pursuit of the victorious Giaours ;
soldiers without arms, stragglers with plunder, and
horses without riders—on they hastened in noisy and
jostling confusion, which could find no parallel but in
some similar scene. But all this was nothing when COM-
pared with the state of things at Kara itself. Even be-
fore the battle bad terminated, ay/arras of the flying