The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-12 00:00:00

FROM A MEDICAL OFFICER.

Her Majesty's ship , at anchor off the forts
of Sebastopol, Sept. 25.
For the past two days I have been literally in a sea
of blood, as I have been employed attending on the
wounded Russians on the battle-field of Alma. No de-
scription I could give would realise the horrors of war
—the dead, the dying, horses, guns, carriages, pole mete
—headless trunks, bodies minus arms or legs, mutila-
tion of every sort and kind—that my blood almost
freezes at the recollection. Every available hut was
improvised into an operating theatre, and under every
disadvantage we performed the most formidable surgi-
cal operations. You may judge how expeditiously wehad to get through things when I mention that Ia
ex-
tracted 23 bails in less than three hours. Dressings
were out of the question. Our surgical bievromune
I cannot
readily known by the number of legs and _
around the scene of our labours. Indeed,
liken sistsnt for
My as
to anything better than au abbatoir.
slid
when
liken the field of battle for the two days aft;
first passer-by,
°strewn
compressing arteries was the
wait
for the result of my
came up. I will not say
muchwas concluded I laid him
:en dead lay
his nerve failed him I had to until somer tohneefieglhset
amputations, as directly
t uos
as the via
trix natures. In the
each
other. Nearly all the balls I
literally heaped on
on a bed of hay or straw,nanned lenfte
redoubts thpheohurßt
n the field. They held the most
47,000 Russians o
army could oc
formidable position any cupy ; but the
extracted were Minid ones.
bulldog courage of our troops overcame everything, and
in five hours they were masters of every commanding po-
sition, and the Russian hosts were in full retreat. No
one, I believe, knows the Russian loss. I counted my-
self more than 400 Russians dead in less than three acres,
and the wounded were beyond n calculation. Their
1 supplications, as I passed them, were heartrending—
when I bad attended one there were 20 unintelligible
supplications front those around me to give them my
surgical aid. Our soldiers behaved in the most humane
manner towards the wounded. I wish I could say as
much for the Turks. The latter attacked the retreating
Russian army, and those who were not killed by their
fire they bayonetted, and cried " Sinope !" to them. Our
army remained at Alma for two days after the action to
attend to the wounded, and when they left there were
many of the enemy still unoperated upon. We have
sent down there to-day a line-of-battle ship to look efter
the rest, but I fear death will have played sad havoc

" BALAKLAVA, Sept. 28.—Yesterday we advanced up
to Sebastopol, about three miles from here, and sent in
a flag of truce to summon the place to surrender, hut
they say they won't go. We returned to our ground
again, and are now busy getting siege guns ashore, for
out they must come ; they cannot be allowed Ito remain
in comfortable quarters now, while we lay out in
the open air, especially as the heights are getting
very cold now. This is a beautiful country. Since
we landed we have been surrounded with vine-
yards and orchards ; every description of fruit is
now ripe—grapes, peaches, apples, pears, almonds,
and vegetables in abundance. Many of our men killed
themselves by making a too free use of them. As we
approach the towns and villages the inhabitants desert
them, and as soon as we come to a bait our men disperse
through them in search of plunder, and such a scene you
could not imagine as is to be seen here in a few minutes.
Thousands of men loaded with tables, chairs, sofas,
chests of drawers, pier-glass, geese, ducks, cabbages,
fowls—in fact, everything that can be imagined. Our
men lay on beautiful feather beds and costly sofas in the
open air ; arm•chairs and mahogany tables to grub off ;
and, in fact, the scene presented is so supremely ridicu-
lous that it excites laughter in those who disapprove of
such wanton and reckless extravagance and devastation.
Even houses are wantonly destroyed ; and some beasts,
destitute of manly feeling, will even rob poor wretches
who, through age,. poverty, or inirinity, have not been
able to escape. There are a few such and some young chil-
dren left here, and I am glad to know, by general order
of last night, that Lord Raglan is determined to repress
plunder and give protection to such of the inhabitants
as choose to remain in the towns or return to them now.
Lord Raglan thanked us for winning on the 20th in a
stunning manner. When I have time I will send you a
copy of it, but it is sure to be in the papers before you
get this. General Sir de Lacy Evans also thanked us in
a most eloquent manner,' and said he never saw a bat-
tery stand such a fire before. He said he had no occa-
sion to send us orders, for where we were most wanted
we were sure to be found ; we gave him three cheers,
and he gave us an extra grog."