The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-09 00:00:00

orders of General Aurelle, has figured worthily in the com-
bat. Lieutenant Poitevin, of the 39th Regiment of the
line, held on the telegraph building that formed the
central point of the enemy's defence, the flag of his regi-
ment ; he died there gloriously, killed by a shot.
During the whole time the battle lasted, the artillery
played a principal part, and I cannot render here too
much homage to the spirit and intelligence with which
this select corps has fought. kta
In a later report, the elements of which I am at this
moment collecting, I will acquaint you with the names
of the officers, sub-officers, and soldiers who have de-
served being put in the order of the day; I shall append
to it a list of claims for reward, which you will certainly
find to be deserved.

Deign to accept, Monsieur le Mar&chal, the expression
of my most respectful sentiments.
The Marshal Commander-in-Chief,
A. DE SAINT ARNAUD.

Head-quarters at Alma.—Battle-field at Alma.
Sept. 22, 1854.
Monsieur le Ministre,—My official report gives an ac-
count to your Excellency of the details of the 1-plendid
day of the 20th, but I cannot allow the courier to start
without saying a few words about our brave soldiers.
The soldiers of Friedland and Austerlitz are still under
our colours, Monsieur le Marechal ; this the battle of
Alma has proved. There is the same glow, the samebrilliant courage. Everything can be done with such
men when they have been inspired with confidence.
The allied armies have carried positions truly formi-
dable. In going over them. yesterday, I recognised
till
the advantages they possessed for offering resistance ;
and, indeed, if the English and French had held them,
the Russians could never have taken them.
Now that everything is more calm, and that the ac-
counts brought in by the deserters and prisoners are
more precise, we can probe the enemy's wounds.
The loss of the Russians is considerable. The deserters
affirm it to be above 6,000 men. Their army is disheart-
ened. In the evening of the 20th it had split in two.
Prince Mentschikoff, with the left wing, marched on
Bakohi-S4rai ; the right wing proceeded to Belbeck.
Best they were without provisions ; their wounded encum-
bered them ; the road is strewed with them. This splen-
did success, Monsieur le Ministre, adds a glorious page
to our military history, and gives to the army a moral
force equivalent to twenty thousand more men. The
Russians have left on the field of battle 10,000 knapsacks
and more than 5,000 muskets. It was a regular rout.
Prince Menschikoff and his generals were very vain-
boasting in their camp I now occupy, on the morn-
ing of the 20th. I think they have now somewhat
changed their tone. The Russian general had demanded
at Alma provisions for three weeks ; I have an idea he
will have stopped the convoy on its way. .
Your Excellency will be able to judge if there is much
prospect for the Russians. In three days I shall be before
Sebastopol, and I shall be able to tell your Excellency
all that is real about that place.
The moral courage and spirit of the army are admir-
able.

The vessels going to Varna for reinforcements of troops
of all arms left here on the 18th. They will reach me at
Belbeck before the end of the month.

My health is as usual ; it is sustained amidst suffer-
ings, crises, and duty. All that does not prevent me
keeping the saddle twelve hours on the day of battle.
But will my strength not give way ?
Adieu, Monsieur le Marechal ; I shall write to your
Excellency, when I am before Sebastopol.
Receive, &c.

MARSHAL A. DR SAINT ARNAUD.

The Government has received from Vice-Admiral
Hamelin, the following report :
VILLE DE Penis, Sept. 23, 1854, at the
Anchorage of the Alma.
Monsieur le Ministre,—Ey, any letter dated Sept. 21 I
hastened to send to your Excellency a telegraphic de-
spatch that related briefly the brilliant victory obtained
by our troops over the Russians, whilst forcing the pas-
sages of the river Alma. I am now able to add some
details to that telegraphic despatch, and to render them
more clear, I enclose two sketches ; one of which
(No. 1) depicts the plan formed by the combined
armies en the evening of the 19th to give battle on
the morrow ; and the other (No. 2) is a view of
the positions of the Alma—of those, for instance, where
our troops attacked the left and the centre of the Ras-
Sian army, under the eyes of the fleet, the steamers of
which supported this movement with their shells.
It will be sufficient for you, Monsieur le Ministre, to
cast your eyes on the first of these sketches in order to
appreciate the excellent military conception it reveals.
According to the plan decided on, in fact, the 2d divi-
sion was to mare!) along the border of the sea, ford the
Alma, which our boats had sounded in the morning,
and carry the heights of the enemy's extreme left,
'under the protection of the eight steamers that
I had stationed over against the extreme left. In the
meantime, the Ist and 3d divisions, under the orders of
the Marshal, attacked in front the position of the enemy's
centre, and the whole English army moved on its side,
to turn his extreme right.
This plan was carried out nearly as it had been con-
ceived in spite of our troops having had to climb, as
soon as they had crossed the Alma rugged cliffs, and
where our African soldiers have solved problems of agi-
lity and boldness really extraordinary. Thanks to these
prodigies of intrepidity and swiftness ; thanks also, it
must be said, to the terror the shells of our steamers
spread through the enemy's cavalry on his extreme left.
The division of General Bosquet succeeded in effecting its
movement with the most brilliant success, and it already
bore down on the centre an hour after the beginning of
the action. On their side, the two divisions of the mar-
shal, after sustaining a sharp fire of musketry from
sharpshooters on the very edge of the banks enclosing
the Alma, climbed with equal boldness and good for-
tune the natural walls where the centre of the enemy
imagined himself in Booth secure from the brunt of an
attack.

During this time, the English army had given up
turning the extreme right of the enemy, and advanced
to attack vigorously the strong intrenched positions of his
right. There the Russians had placed not only field pieces
in battery, as on the rest of their lines, but a battery of
12 32-pounders, which our brave allies carried, not without
severe loss. In a few words, the attack of the positions
began at half-past twelve, and at half•past three they
were carried along the whole line. The Russian army
was in full retreat, and many of the corps of which it
was composed presented nothing more than a confused
Thassof soldiers jumbled together, strewing with corpses
a portion of.the positions of which our troops had deprived
them. If we bad had cavalry, without the least doubt
we should have made many thousand prisoners, and
taken a great number of guns.
As to the losses sustained by the allied armies they
are serious, from the fact of the difficulties of the posi-
tions which they had to carry. We reckon about 1,500
killed and wounded. The English have suffered to the
amount of 1,500 or 2,000.
As to the enemy, be has strewed the whole length of
road between Katcha and the Alma with dead bodies,
and bas left on the field of battle many thousand slain.
Three of our steam-frigates have sot out to carry our
wounded to Constantinople. We have sent with them
a portion of the Russian soldiers, who receive the same
attention as our own men.

To-day we accompany the army to Katcba.
I amt with profound respect, &c., HAMELIN.

THE BATTLE OF ALMA.

The following letters from the Morning Chronicle
will be read with interest
CONSTANTINOPLE, Sept. 25.—The first news of the
glorious victory gained by the British and French arms,
let the passage of the River Alma in the Crimea, on the
20th of September, reached this early on the morning of
Saturday, the 23d. The French war-steamer Orinoque
appeared in the Bosphorus, gaily decked out in all her
colours, and after touching at the British and French
embassies at Therapia, cast anchor at the entrance of the
Golden -Horn. I trust that, long ere this, the special
message, which I sent off to you for the telegraph, by
Tatar to Belgrade, will have reached you.
Your special correspondents at the seat of war will
Tarnish you with all the particulars of this brilliant
achievement. As there is, however, still some uncertainty
of the mail from the Crimea reaching Constantinople in
time for the French post of to-day, it will be as well to
give your readers as many particulars about the battle as I
have been able to gather here from some of the officers
'who have come clown in charge of the wounded. I have
been shown a list of the killed and wounded, and would
have sent you a copy; as I was, however, informed that
it had been very hastily drawn up (in pencil), and that a
great many mistakes, both in the names and in the character
of the wounds and deaths, &c., existed, I abstained from
doing so on the consideration that it would be a cruel thing
to supply you with such !harassing information, if it could
not be relied on with certainty. The friends and relatives
of the gallant men who have fallen will hear of their death
only too soon, as they will be immediately gazetted by the
Government.
The river Alma is a very small stream. On the heights
at the other side the Russians had entrenched themselves,
to the number of from 45,000 to 50,000, having three forts
or batteries on the heights, with a very large amount of
artillery. They were also plentifully furnished with cavalry,
which did not, however, take any part in the action. The
3d French division stormed the height to the left, whilst
the centre, at which the heaviest Russian artillery
had been posted, was stormed by the English. It
was
here that the 23d Welsh Fusilierswere so
dreadfully mowed down. I am informed that
only five officers of this regiment are unharmed. Colonel
'Chester fell whilst planting the British standard on the
Russian battery. The colonel, two majors, and two cap•
tains of this regiment are said to have been shot clown on
the advance. The Guards and Highlanders also stormed
the centre battery, advanced up with fixed bayonets to the
wary guns, without firing a shot. French and English be-
haved alike well • indeed, I am assured that the coin-
mandingofficers have expressed themselves utterly aston-
ished at the behaviour of their troops, which they knew
to be excellent, but of whom they scarcely dared expect
such prodigies of valour. The action commenced five
minutes after one o'clock, the Russians firing the first gun,
and in three hours' time the positions wore stormed, and the
Russians flying, completely beaten. If wo had had suffi-
cient cavalry on the field they could have been pursued,
and greatly molested in their flight. An eye-witness tells
me the Russians fought well, especially the 12,000 men of
the Imperial Guard, who returned gallantly twice to the
harge, but nothing could equal the fury of the allied
'troops, who literally rushed at them with a determination
against which nothing could stand.
The loss sustained is, I regret to say, very heavy, esPe•
cially amongst the British ; and it bears testimony to the
difficulty and the hardness of the struggle.
General Thomasson, of the French army, was brought
down in the Orinoque, badly wounded. General Can-
robert was wounded in the left arm. I have not hoard of
am British general officer having been wounded.
The Andes came down yesterday with 270 wounded
Inen
under the care of Staff-surgeon Tyce, of the light di-
:111'1211—four officers are said to have died of their wounds
,Lt..n ~e passage. The medical staff all did their duty well,
,Tiasetung on the field attending to the wounded, under
Im4°neatest diffloultw. s and amidst conedderablo danger.