The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-10 00:00:00

men, and the contents eagerly scrutinised. Each had in
it two coarse cotton shirts, two pairs of socks, a pair of
cloth mits, a strong pair of leather boots, and one 1
pair of trousers. All these were arranged in excellent
order and beautifully clean. I have seldom seen linen
cleaner. Nearly every other man's knapsack contained
a pack of cards. No books were found except four or
five Korans in Turkish and Arabic, proving what I had
previously heard, that we should find many Mahome-
dans in the ranks of the Russians. ,
The French had great sport after the battle with some
women's clothes, which they found near the redoubt
where they lost so many men. It appears that some
Russian ladies had been brought by Prince Menschikoff
to view the fight, and that they had erected a sort of
scaffolding for them to see from. This Ibelieve is strictly
true. The ladies must surely have felt very uncomfort-
able on seeing the French ascend the heights on their
left flank.
A few cases of base ingratitude are recorded. Se-
veral of the wounded Russians fired at our wounded
who were lying disabled near thiem. One man deli-
berately fired at and wounded aft artilleryman, who
had just given him some water to quench his burning
thirst. The indignant guardsman instantly clubbed the
scoundrel ; but, on the whole, they appeared thankful
for the attention shown them—as well they might. Some
of our poor fellows seemed jealous of this good treatment,
and appeared to think themselves neglected. To one
man I observed, as a consolation, that, under similar cir-
cumstances, the Russians would have shown him equal
kindness. "Devil a bit," said the man ; and I believe
he was right. The Russians have certainly behaved
barbarously in not sending in. to bury their deal, or to
tend their wounded. An immense number of broken
muskets covered the ground. When our men passed
over the wounded, they instantly destroyed their wea-
pons, by breaking the stock. A great many rifles of
superior workmanship were picked up. Their maker is
Malherbes, of Liege. Many of the Russians shammed
wounded. Inside the redoubt above 300 dead Russians
were found. Outside, an equal number of our poor fellows
fell. Here the Highlanders were busy digging trenches
to contain the dead. A long line of our dead were
placed in a line preparatory t o being interred. The prior
23d figure heavily in this dismal scene. The Prussian
regiment which must have suffered the most is the 32d
Imperial Guard. Hundreds of helmets bearing that in-
scription were on the field. The wounded had thrown
• off this heavy head covering, and had donned their
small and light cap. Very few horses appeared to have
fallen, and these belonged chiefly to our officers.
The hot sun had already touched their carcases, and
to-day the stench is intolerable. In this redoubt a
general officer was captured. He was stretched on the
ground beside his fallen horse, apparently deal. An
artilleryman, who had taken a violent fancy to ;:is coat,
was about to divest the supposed corpse of it, when the
body began to move and nearly frightened the lean off.
It was soon discovered that no harm had conro to the
general, fer on his coat being opened two stars as oimceli
his iwrik. The general's object was evidentl:- to lie
quietly until night, and tacit make off. Tais rt ee com-
plete:). failed.
All day °tor seamen have been engaged in snrinc.fing
down woan&al. They generally inanit4e to sot ,:re some
tro;:llies of the vict-,0r:',7. and come do‘vii stagr;ari 1g alder
a load of muskets and helmets. _Last night many of
the boats' ciecvs were prevented by dark:,ess from
. leaving the beach, where co,sequently they hi., onacke,i.
A magnificent fire was lighted, to which Rust iii i svils
larg ly contributed. A which had out
iVeS crest by omits accident into the flames, aad burst
over the heads of the astonished Jacks, but, fty, 7,enatel3,
without iajnrinig any. Tso accidents occur-el from
want of elution in firing off !ilo picked-up mos. :ets. A
temper,ry hospital has been established in the :illage of
Bourlook. The Russian officers !wade prisoners unite in
declaring the war to he very unpopular in Russia, ex-
cept with the upper classes.

" SEM 22.—The army moves on from the Alma to-
morrow. We were busy to-day and yeiterdfv., 1, en: ling
off sick nod wounded to the fleet and burying -the dead.
"It is said the Russians have retired frein Katcha,
and will defend the liue of the Belbeck."

E.M.S. AGA.IIMENOIT. KATCEIA RIVER, SE) T. !M
I witnessed the greater part of the battle : the
Agameninoo's maintop, and no one could have; seen it
better. Had I been on the field I should h bye seen
more of personal valour and of the movetnenv.s of par-
ticular bodies of men, but I wished to have a complete
view of the whole of the part taken both by the Eng-
lish and French armies, and in this I was suec,ssful, as
I looked down noon the field of battle as upon a map.
Towards the end of it I joint-A the French, who' formed
the extreme right, and advanced under the co,..ir of the
guns of the in-shore squadron. .The French ce inmence.l
the action, scaling the heights with great corufage and
skill. I have never seen anything more bean Hui than
the way in which the Zoua.ves and Tirailleurs scrawl:acid
up the almost perpendicular cliffs, and formed in line or-
the summit under a very heavy fire. They -.l,aid their
ground until Bosquet's division and the artillee y reached
the heights. The battle then became grand; and the
Russians were steadily beaten back. Their flai.k having
thus been turned, I could scarcely doubt the issue of the
battle. The position, however, vas enormooS,y strong.
F.incy a gradually sloping country, without: a single
object to protect advancing troops, ending ix a river
sweeping round high cliffs of earth, in the ',entre of
which, about three miles from the sea, was amphi-
theatre of hills ; this amphitheatre commanded-the prin-
cipal fords over the river and the open country ;beyond ;
it was strengthened by an earthwork with 10 or 12. guns,
and a permanent battery of 12 guns more. T m great
mistake of the Russians consistea in not sufficietal.iy forti-
fying the heights to their left, which might have"; 'een ren-
dered exceedingly strong. Indeed, it is the gene-r: feeling
that such a position held by French or Euglis .1 troops
would have been almost impregnable. The are lies were
fortunately so placed that they had the work toe to which
best suited the peculiar qualities of their me 1. The
English could not havescaled the heights like the French,
nor would French columns, in ail probability, have
marched up to the batteries with that dogged courage
which so distinguishes British troops when plae ed in the
position in which they were during this battle. The
French having turned the Russian flank and held the
heights, our troops advanced steadily under a enost tre-
mendous fire from batteries. They broke in crossing the
the river, and the Light Division rushed up the slope
without pausing. Tw© regiments—it is impc,ssible to
reconcile the conflicting accounts, each regime at saying
the other gave way—recoiled beneath the trecr idous fire
of the Russian batteries. This part of the batitto is much
criticised by some of the military authorities, who de-
clare that our troops were exposed to almost ;inevitable
destruction ; the earthwork was, however, triumphantly
carried, and the battle decided by an admirable move-
ment of the Highland Brigade, under Sir Celia Campbell
—to whom every one assigns the decisive movement
which secured complete victory ; but the slaughter here
was terrific. The oldest Generals declare that in. no
battle heretofore fought have so many dead been heaped
up in one spot. It would be impossible to dese,ribe to
you the frightful scene which I witnessed in tlaae square
mile comprising this earthwork, the slope beneati a it and
the slope above it, upon which were farm ed the
enormous squares of the Russian infantry. Th's greater
part of the English killed and wounded wet 43 here,
and there were at least fire Russians to every Eng-
lishman. You could not walk for the
The most frightful mutilations the human, body
can i-uffer—the groans of the wounded—the packs,
liehnets, arms, clothes, scattered over the ;ground
formed a scone that ono can never forg at The
two principal batteries having been carried the di 7 was
ours ; the IC.issians retired under a well-scat:in fire
front our Horse ArtiLery and Foot Artillery. I:rialor-.
tunate!y our utter want of cavalry enabled the Rt ssians
to retire in good order, and to carry off all their g a es but
three. Had we possessed cavalry the retreat meet have
ended in a complete rout. Our infantry was too
much -exhausted to pursue them, and the Horse Artil-
lery, unsupported by cavalry, was unable to follow
very far ; it inflicted fearful injury upon the retreating
columns, however, as the immense number of dead since
found on the road to Sebastopol sufficiently pi oyes.
This most brilliant affair only lasted from the very. be-
ginning to the end 3I hours ; our troops were scaecely
engaged for more than two hours, and the Third and
Fourth Divisions were not in action. We learn from
intercepted letters that the Russians made sure of hold-
ing their position for at least three weeks ! The loss on
our part was, as you will see by the official returns, 'very
great. It amounts, I believe, to 2,106, and above 100
officers killed and wounded. The French place theirs
at 1,400, but this is believed to be a considerable exag-
geration. Generals Oanrobert and ,Thomasson were
wounded, the first slightly (I saw him towards the end
of the battle), and the French suffered a great loss in the
commander of the Zouaves, a very brave and able officer,
• greatly respected. The Turks. forming the reserve were
not under fire. It is very difficult to ascertain the loss
of the Russians. A Polish deserter, just corae to us
from Sebastopol, declares that the report abroad was
that they had lost nearly 16,000 men—of course a great
exaggeration, but it shows the effect of the battle on the
. .Russian mind. I believe that their loss must, however,
114‘.'ve, exceeded• 6,000 ; the slaughter was frightful.
'uaen6ehiketra carriage and despatches were captured by
• the French ;we have secured two guns, and among the
prisoners are two generals, one on board the Agamem-
non—a pretty
specimen of a Russian General It ap-
pears that not only had every soldier been withdrawn
from Sebastopol, but even the
marines and 1,500 sailors
were brought to the aid of the army at the Alma ; and
all the deserters declare that such was the state of
Sebastopol and the panic after the defeat that the place
might easily have been taken by our fleet. We remained
for two days on the field ; the French wished to march
on the second day, but Lord Raglan declined. Our victory
.has been glorious, worthy of the Britisharms, and
affords fresh proof that the old English stuff still re-
mains ; but there has been a great wantofscFmroeperor Medi-
cal assistance ; the wounded were left,
nights,• the whole for oils, on the field. From therbatt7loe
they have been bundled on board ship by GOO and 700,''
without any medical attendant. There were no proper
means for removing the wounded from the field; It it
had not been for Admiral Lyons and the in-shore squa-
dron, I know not what would have happened. He and
the sailors of his squadron have behaved nobly ; I can-
not describe to you all they have done. The seamen
and marines, with oars and hammocks, brought the
wounded to the beach, placed them on board the trans-
ports, and tended them like nurses ; officers and all took
part, night and day, in the good work. Ifnever saw
such devotion. Peel, Dacres, Drummond, Moore—in
• fact, all the captains, with Lyons at their head, were in-
defatigable ; and yet remember that there were two divi-
sions of the army that had scarcely lost one man, and
might have done something for the wounded. The num-
ber of lives which have been sacrificed by the want of pro-
per arrangements and xegiect must be very considerable.
The French, on the other hand, managed admirably. I
believe the whole of their wounded were brought in imme-
diately after the battle. Priests and medical officers