The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-19 00:00:00

doubt, mounted with six guns well manned, Both
these batteries command San Angelo, anii were it
not for the rising ground which intervenes they no
doubt would effect consWerable damage among the
vast number of men bivouacking around the base of
the hill. The Bavarians, however, have proved
themselves good marksmen, all their firing in the
battles of the 19th September and of the Ist inst.
having been made with great accuracy. From the
batteries I have just mentioned as being situated on
the right bank of the Volturno, about two miles
eastward of Capua, they have already obtained a
pretty accurate range of the village beneath, and
while I write shot and shell are whizzing around
with a precision that does honour to their artillery.

Every day from sunrise within the past week we
have had a constant salute, and I am happy to say
with a loss comparatively small on our side. On the
morning of the Bth, about daybreak, we were sud-
denly awoke by a crash through the wall of the
house where we were sleeping. Col. Bourdon, who
is in command of a battery, jumped up and was for-
tunate enough to escape unscathed. The shell burst,
however, after it had penetrated through the wall
and killed a French officer, who was still aselep, and
wounded severely two others. On our side the injury
did not long remain unrequited, the sentinels on our
advanced posts opening fire on the enemy's lines in
the direction of Ponticello. The royalists, who had
made trenches during the preceding night, whither
they had carried down four pieces of cannon, re-
plied briskly, when General Milwitz sent down two
battalions, under the command of Major Folliero,
who gallantly attacked the enemy, and after about
an hour's resistance dispersed them, capturing their
four pieces of artillery, and making a good number
of prisoners.

The organisation of the army is still very defec-
tive, and notwithstanding the unflagging exertions
of the Dictator it is daily becoming more and more
apparent that the Piedmontese troops must step
in and give a helping hand with the siege of Capua.
Disease and fever have already produced a disas-
trous effect upon many brave fellows, who after the
campaign in Sicily and that long and tiresome
march through Calabria might have expected shel-
ter from the inclemency of the season. Few of
those who are compelled to bivouac in that vast
plain which separates Santa Maria from Capita are
provided with tents, and now that winter has
already set in with an unusual severity the number
of patients in the hospitals must, it is to be feared,
greatly increase. What a contrast they present
with the hale, ruddy faces of a regiment of Pied-
montese Bersaglieri, who have come down to en-
camp at Caserta. The Sardinians are well provided
with canvass, have an excellent commissariat, and,
above all, are an admirably disciplined and fresh
body of troops, more capable of enduring the
rigidity of the season than the heroes of the Sici-
lian campaign.
5,000 Sardinians,
Orders have been given for about
who have arrived in Naples f
within the past
and while I Write
days, to join us in the front,
its contingent. oach successive train brings up
continues The Dictator
out-
posts,--
accompanied by to visit daily our
enere.l Medici and General
Cosenz, who, in the ab
has been appointed ow:leen" of General Turr, who
or er-General of Naples, is
probably on the point
resumingyou are
the command of
a division. Cosenz, as
of War, but within the aware, is Minister
without him
past week Garibaldi ;
andhaass
will
seldom been down our lines •
nameo Generaldoubt inform
your Naples correspondent
you, the Dictator is anxious to
whose health continues to be inadequate Turr,
to out-
post work, to that ministry. A
rumour prevails
throughout the camp that Victor r--va"'"
Emmanuel had,
after stopping a few hours at Grottamare, advanced
in the direction of the frontiers, and that after his
entry into Naples on the 23d he will assume the
command of the entire army before Capua, in
person.
I believe also there is no great probability of any
regular attack on our part immediately, the Dic-
tator being still unwilling or unable, from a want
of proper artillery, to cope with the well-mounted
bastions of the enemy. Oar two best, and I might
say only batteries, are those of San Angelo, one of
which is commanded by a brave countryman of
yours, Colonel Dowling, and in truth these batte-
ries serve to cut off a retreat from Capua or Chiazzo
rather than to dislodge the enemy. To demolish
Vauban's fortifications in the Castel Nuovo will
require not merely the dash and intrepidity of
Gtxribaldi's followers, but the military genius of a
well pained
corps of engineers. This fact the
xtoy taut* are
that they
I.e well aware of, and though it is said
offers of ettpi:lraletely disheartened, and that
ti
no doubt i 5 on are being made to the Die-
tator,fmtertain d by the various mill-