The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-01 00:00:00

SILISTRIA:

The Lloyd of Vienna says :—" A despatch from Ka-
larasch, of the 23d, states that the Russian flotilla of
Silistria, composed of two steamers, 18 gun-boats, and
several sailing vessels, left that place on the 22d for
Galatz. Accounts from Widdin state that Mehetned
Paella had arrived with the advanced guard of his corps
from Schumla to within two leagues of Silistria, and
had established his head-quarters at Tckteres. On the
16th a detachment of his corps fell in with a Russian.
corps of observation at Tiakoi, with whom they had a
smart engagement, and compelled them to retire on the
Danube. Skirmishes took place also on the 15th and
17th in the marshes near Silistria, with loss to the Rus-
sians."
The Tenzeswar Gazette says that on the 12th an attack
was directed from Roustchouk against Giurgevo, and
ended in the occupation of the latter town by the Turks.
Twelve thousand Turks are said to have crossed the
Danube on this occasion. After driving out the Rus-
sians, they commenced throwing up entrenchments.
The same paper quotes letters from Krajova of the 19th
stating that in a combat at Silistria, the Turks took 9
cannons from the enemy, besides 400 tants, a quantity
of equipages, and 100 prisoners.
Fur the following description of the state of Silistria,
we are indebted to a letter from Schunila,ofJune 12 :
Several European officers- -two of whom were English
—left together, in company with Rifaat Pacha, and
arrived at Silistria at seven o'clock in the morning. We
hastened to visit the famous fort of Arab Tabia, which
has been so wonderfully defended. It is the weakest
of all the forts, but larger, and contains a more nu-
merous garrison. The Russians have established their
batteries at 100 yards' distance from the entrench-
ment, whilst their riflemen have advanced to within
thirty yards. The Arab Tabia is literally riddled with
bath, and the garrison is sheltered by weak entrench-
ments, originally constructed, for the immediate defence
of the interior of the fort. In the attack of the 10th
the Russians sprung a mine, and succeeded in effecting a
passage through the breach caused in the outer wall of
the Arab Tabia ; they got inside, but were beaten off
with a serious loss. The loss of the garrison on this
occasion was 100 men— verycoviderable forthe defendsra
of a fort. I left the garrison ft this place with regret.
This fort is not indispensable either for attack or de-
fence, and its capture would not entail the fall of Silistria.
The Russians would, however, by gaining possession of
it, be enabled to go on quicker with their siege works, and
the besieged would be exposed to foul times asgreat losses.
For these considerations the fort must be kept, even at
the greatest sacrifices. The siege is being carried on in
the plain, on the right bank of the Danube, to the
east of Silistria. The works are already in advance
of the fort of Jeladli No. 6. From this fort, which is
dreadfully battered, you can see the enemy's workmen
throwing up the earth from the trenches about a hun-
dred yards off. The real works are, however, so dis.
tant from the town, that it will require the construction
of regular siege works, and many weeks must pass be-
fore they can come to the breach.
The works executed to the east of Silistria are
immense. The Russians do not, however, show
themselves better engineers than they were in 1828
and 1829, only they attack with greater energy. The
Turkish soldier is the best in the world ; and if they
had European officers, the Turkish army might alone
' suffice against the Russians.

RUSSIAN ACCOUNT OF OPERATIONS
AGAINST SILISTRIA.
(From, the Invalide Russe.)

The record of military operations which has just been
received from Marslto.l Prince of Warsaw, Count Paskie-
witseh of Erivan, comprises a narrative of the siege of
Silistria from the 24th to the 20th of May. The works
which were proceeded with were chiefly against the ad-
vanced fort. In the night from the 26th to the 27th of
May the organisation of the descent of the ditch was
proceeded with, and at the same time mining operations
were carried on as far as under the enemy's bastion, and
the mine exploded on the 29th, at
.break of day. As a
result of this explosion, which succeeded well, the sap-
pers and the 12th company of musketeers of the regiment
of infantry of. Prague precipitated themselves courage-
ously from the.head of the trenches into the interior of
the enemy's intrenchments, but the Turks, having or-
ganised a second line of defence, continued an obstinate
resistance, and even made a powerful sortie from their
internal breach. Our musketeers returned to the trench,
and, aided by two other companies of the same regiment,

repulsed the attack of the Turks. In this interval de-
tachments were sent, as heretofore, from the camp of
the besiegers to obtain information respecting the
enemy in the environs of Silistria. On the 28th a
reconnaissance in force was made of the enemy's for-
tifications with a considerable number of troops.
31 battalions of infantry, 32 squadrons of cavalry, with
8 sotnias of Cossacks and 12 batteries of artillery, under
the command of the -Marshal in person, executed,
without obstacle, a movement round the whole of
the fortress as far as the village of Kalopetri (to
the south-west.) On approaching that village the ad-
vanced guard of Lieutenant-General Khrowleff met a
corps of from 4,000 to 5,000 Turkish horsemen, routed
them, took from theth a flag and some prisoners, and
forced them to retreat in disorder and with loss towards
the fort of Abd-ul-Medjid.l During this time the greater
portion-of the troops had taken a position on the heights,
to the right of Kalopetri. The enemy then opened a
fire from the fort of Abdul-Medjid, but without doing
us any harm. The whole of our loss during that day
was confined to the advanced guard of Lieutenant-Gene-
ral Khrowleff, and consisted of one subaltern officer
killed and three wounded, and 12 men killed and 18
wounded. Towards evening the whole of the troops
returned quietly to the camp.
Unfortunately, we have to add that during the move-
ment of the troops under the fire from the fort of Abdul-
edjid a ball, which fell at the feet of the Marshal's
horse, gave a severe contusion to his Highness on his
right side. This accident at first appeared so trivial
that the Marshal did not even dismount from his horse
up to the end of the cannonade ; but, on returning to
head-quarters, he felt a great deal of pain, and he will
probably be unable to mount his horse again for several
weeks.

Mussa Pasha, commandant of Silistria, having been
killed, has been succeeded by Hussein Pasha. The gar-
rison of the fortress has received a strong reinforcement
from Rasgrad.