The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-02 00:00:00

graph, wherein lie French and Russians, and the ravines
are shit full of bones, and of fragments of clothing and
accoutrements. Cannon shot appear to have been care-
fully removed. There is an excellent view of the French
position and attack from the edge of the plateau. The
enemy must have had every movement of the allieeunder
their eyes from the time they 1, ft Bouljanak till they
halted to f rao for battle, and the spectacle could not
have been one to give them courage or to inflame
their ardour. The Russians declare they had only 33,000
or 34,000 trie the field ; but, admitting that to be so, they
made a bad fight, considering the position they occupied,
and their cavalry exhibited that passive and unenterpris-
ing character which it maintained throughout the war:
An officer of the old Festal regiment told me that he
charged our first attacking body when they were checked
with the bayonet, and that if all the troops inside aid on
the flanks of the redoubts had rushed out simultaneously
the day would have been lost to us; but he was rather
surprised when he heard that our Third and Fourth' Divi-
sions were still intact, and that the Guards, whom be sup-
posed to have been routed, were never broken except in
the centre, where the Scots Fu,iliers wavered for a me-
i meet in their advacce under the heavy fire of the Russians
and the pressure of the disjointed groups of the Light
Division. Tne French are disposed to think that the
English were too sloe in beginning the attack, which it
was agreed should not take place tilt our allies bad
gained the left of the Russian position. It is certain that
Lord Raglan received one, if not two, pressing messages
from Marshal St. Arnaud to hasten his columns; but
one may ask bow it was that here, as everywhere else,
the honour of taking the initiative was ceded to our
allies, and the opportunity given to them of saying "the
English were too late." Tney only numbered 23,000,
whereas we had about 27,000. If it resulted from their
position on our right, why did they take the left when
we halted before Sebastopol 1 The assaults on the place
were made on the same principle—the French first, the
English afterwards ; and, whether it be true or fa se that
we were "too late," there can be no doubt there was
from the beginning a tendency to say so. It is beyond
question, in the opinion of many officers, that the Light
Division were not followed closely enough by the First
in their advanee up the hill at the Alma. In other
words, the latter were too slow or "too late. The
French did their part admirably, and their, is.
telligence and personal activity were wonderfully
displayed in their progress iip' the steep ravines' and
sides of the high banks of the plateau, but their loss in
killed and wounded was under 700 men, while ours was
just 2,000. Tne Admiral Bouet Willaumez, in his recent
so-called " History of the French Navy," distinctly
avers that the Eoglish General would not permit th•
victory to be followed up by marching next day, and
that the French were retarded by their allies. A diffe-
rent impression prevails in our army, but this is one of
the poiets which must be cleared up for history by those
who were in the con ffaence of Lord Raglan. The state-
ment, at all events, shows what was the belief of the chef
defeat *safer of the French navy in the Black Sea. Of
the necessity and of the motives for the delay, of its re.
sults, of the practicability of getting such aid from the
feet as would have relieved us entirely from the chars•
of sick, wounded, and prisoners, Isbell not speak ; but it
is to be remarked that the feebleness and imbecility of out
arrangements in this portion of our administration became
apparent at the very first pressure by the abandonment
of our ambulances just at the very time they were
mast. needed, by the disgraceful exhibition of the Kane
garoo crowded with sick and wounded till she had to
make the signal that she was unmanageable and unsafe,
in the sight of the whole fleet, by the sufferings of her
inisera'ole cargo, left to the charge of one surgeon, who
eJuld not attend to a tithe of his patients, and who could
not even get at them if he could have dressed their
wounds, and by the wretched, foolish, and cruel expe.
dient of leaving another surgeon, Mr. Thompson, and
his servant on the field is take care of 700 wounded
men:. Dr. Thompson felt the hopelessness and positive
cruelty of such a proceeding, and remonstrated against
it; but he was told that it had been "ordered," and that
if the " Cossacks" canoe down his " professional charac-
ter" wouli protect him. Standing on the banks of the
A'ma one has many bitter reflections to make, and ad
the glories of that name cannot sweeten them. Tire
battle itQclf was one of the most brilliant in the world—
the shortest and sharpest, and our army, young in battle
but veteran in service, displayed the best qualities of
British infantry. We have since heard of the incredulity,
of the di.may, with which the news was received in St.
Petersburg, and of the subsequent eagerness of the Rus-
sian army to avenge the defeat and to hurry to the Crii
mea to drive the allies into the sea. They found it
barrier they could not break at Inkerinan ; but they
are a people prune to put faith in their own invincibility,
and slow to credit defeat, and they believe in themselves

i I even yet.
Tbe position of the Alma is so well marked that it can
never be mistaken by any future visitors. The French
attacked the steep and almost perpendicular cliffs.
which are broken here and there by ravines which mount
upwards from the river. They were divided from us bythe
most marked and extensive of these ravines, and eastward
of that boundary the whole of the ground suddenly farm,
and, instead of rising abruptly from the Alma, gains the
high level of the faille by a series of sweeping undulatione3
offering many positions for guns, with extensive glade
to the front. Descending from the plateau, some of our
party crossed the bridge, and went out on the plain re-
wards Bouljanak to the tumuli, which stud the plains,
and which denote the ektrerne range of the Russian guns. 1
On turning round towards the south the eye takes in the
whole scene of battle, from the sea on the right to the
low slopes which formed the right of the Russian posi-
tion. Their left was separated from their right by a
deep ravine running at right angles to wards the Alma,
and this ravine is also the boundary between the high
and steep cliffs which overhang the tortu,us course of
the Alma on the south bank from the ford to the sea,
and the gentler rising grounds on which the enemy's left
lay, and which were strengthened by the redoubt and by
the mass of the Russian artillery. It will then be seen how
the Russian left depended on the nature of the ground as
its best defence,and what a fatal mistake Menschikoffcom-
'pitted when he omitked to take into consideration the
effect of the fire of the ships. That fire soon drove back
their h ft, and forced it to reform on the centre, which
it put into confusion, and the French, ascending by the
ravines with the utmost courageand activity, made good
their bating en the right an I turned the Russian left
completely with coinia-atively little loss. The advance
of our allies was covered to a great extent by the thick
foliage on the banks of the Alma, and the cliffs are so
high and rotten that guns could not be used with suc
cese against them. The river is much farther from the
base of the ciiffs than it is from the slopes on the Rus.
sian right, where the British attacked, so that it would
be scarcely commanded by guns on the top of the pla-
teau,
whereas we were under fire for several hundred
yards before we reached the Alma at all.

A bugs in mad, composed of 15 ()rid gigantic graves,
at the distance of 400 or 500 yards from the river on its
north side, denotes the resting.place of those who fell be-
fore the army crossed the stream, or who died after
the fight in' the ambulances. The road by which we
ladvanced to the bridge is just as it was on the 20th of
ISeptember, and on the right close to the stream are the
blackened ruins of the village of aiurlionk. It will be
rememberAl that the erie:ny partially destroyed the
bridge, but that it was repaired during the action by
Captain Montagu, Rival Engineers, and a party of
Sappers and Miners. The bridge' bas been substantially
rebuilt by means of a strong wo3den way thrown across
the stone arches, and supported by beams and uprights.
The old post-house on the right of the road before you
come to the bridge is abput being reconstructed, and *
guard of soldiers were lodged in its ruins. It will be,
to all appeaTances, a handsome house of fine white free-
stone when it is fini,lied. I surveyed its ruins with
peculiar interest, f I know a person very intimately
who took shelter in this house, part of which was on fire,
ro get out of a fire still hotter, till he was driven out by
a Abell falling throu..fh the roof, and it was at the w.,11
outside, whicu is yet torn by shot, that I met the
first two w‘oinded dfietrs I saw that day—two officers
of the 30 h, one hit thrt.ugh the chest or side ; the other
wounile,l, I think, in the leg or arm. They were helping
e.,ch other from the river, bleeding at.d weak, and I was
fortunate enough to be able to bring to their aid a staff
surgeon, belonging, I believe to the Cavalry Division,
who kindly examined their wounds under fire. Close to
his I had previou,ly seen the first man killed-,-a drum-
mer, who v.ps'clrryir.g
round shot which bowle;i slowly along
,a litter, and who was struck by a
the road and hit
line, with a peculiar
quashing sound; on the hip. fie
fell Iroken in two, and never moved ; nor did his corn-
! who
ove wai carryirg the other end
of the litter, stop
t int..urn r his I:loath.. After the intrepid rash of the
Js hf~ Division up the bill, its.wavering, its slow, and
and the• maieh of . the
broken awl unwilling halt, the hold-advance
of Fenne-
-1 was happy again in being able to warn Colonel
Canards,Brigatie,
\\Toddy, as he approached at the head of the 50th,
that he was movirg right along the line of.fire
of
the enemy's guns, and, as there was a very eanciu.
sive proof given of the correctness of the statement just
as I spike, that gallant officer moved off his men, who

Were in dense coluwn a little to the left, and got ofr

_
the road to the field, whquce he rapidly advanced towards
the heights. All these things and many more came back
ursn ma as 1-leolted around. mall Oat nerrov
t ft •