The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-14 00:00:00

guardship. The Cruiser and two gunboats will re-
main in the Gulf. The American Minister was
holding communication with the Chinese officials
at a more northern entrance to the Peiho. It is
expected he will proceed to Pekin."

(Front the Ceylon Observer.)

The lamentable intelligence we have to convey
by this. mail is a new difficulty with the Chinese
authorities, which led to an attack on the 25th of
June from-and upon the Taku Forts, at the month
of the Peiho, resulting in the total defeat of the
British force, with the loss of no less than five gun-
boats and between 400 or 500 men, or about one-
third of our force employed.

The following letter contains a graphic and mov-
ing description of the engagement at Teku, and
of the heroic valour displayed by our officers and

then

" OFF THE PEIHO, June 28.
" I feel scarcely equal to the painful task of at-
tempting to describe occurrences which I am alto-
gether incompetent to depict in sufficiently striking
and vivid colours, and yet on the vivid as well as
correct representation of which, I feel, depends the
honour of all the brave men with whom I am
serving—nay more, of Old England's stainless flag
itself.

"As I did not keep a journal of the previous
day's proceeding% 1 shall confine myself to those of
the ill-starred 25th.
"At daylight on the morning of that day the
gunboats weighed and proceeded to make a last
attempt to remove the barriers that the Chinese
had placed across the entrance of the river, and
were evidently determined not to remove of their
own accord.

" These, however, being composed of strong iron
bars and chains, successfully resisted all the efforts
made for their removal up to 12 o'clock, when the
order was given that the men should have their
dinners, after which it was generally understood
we should open fire on the forts. Strange to say,
during the six or eight hours in which these preli-
minary measures were being effected neither was a
single gun fired from the forts, nor was there a
symptom evident that their occupants were pre-
pared to defend them. Every embrasure was
screened with matting, and not a head was visible
over the ramparts ;- and this, although the gunboats
were all only from 500 to 700 yards distant, and,
were all at sixes and sevens from some getting
aground, while others had to haul them off, and
the space in which they had to move being too con-
fined to allow of their manoeuvring:

" Dinner having been finished, about half-past 1
o'clock the signal was run up to prepare for action,
and the Opossum Lieut.-Com. Balfour, with Capt.
Willes, R.N., and the Plover, with out brave old
admiral, pushed in close up to the first barrier. No
sooner did they arrive there, than suddenly, and as
if by magic, the mats that screened the guns in all
the curtain batteries were triced up, and the whole
of the guns opened fire.. Our vessels being all well
prepared however, the fire was immediately re-
turned, and the action became general.
" It was at once evident, though, that we had no
ordinary Chinese artillery to contend against.
Their fire, both in weight, and precision, was such
as few men, and I feel certain no Chinese cam-
paigners, ever before experienced. In a very few
minutes the Opossum had several of her crew killed
or wounded. In the Plover the Admiral was se-
verely hit ; her gallant commander, Rason, and
Capt. Allienna, of the Ist Royals (doing duty on
the Admiral's staff) were killed, and almost every
man of the crew disabled ; while the Haughty
(Lieut.-Com. Broad), Lee (Lieut.-Com. Jones), Kes-
trel (Lieut.-Com. Bevan), and Cormo7..ant (Com.
Wodehouse), were so severely crippled that they
were in a sinking state. The Lee, indeed, would
have gone down at once but for. 'Lieut. Broad, in
the Haughty, dashing in to her rescua, and towing
her out under a heavy fire. Nevertheless, the
bombardment was kept up vvith unabated vigour,
and in about two hours the enemy's fire began sen-
sibly to slacken; and (altb.ough they had got our
range so exactly that ahr.ost every shot told, while
ours, though admirably directed, did comparatively
little damage to their mud walls) shortly after four
o'clock it became al ;Host silenced.

, "At about five o'clock, the anxiously expected
signal was accordingly made for the troops to land
and assault, which was briskly answered by them;
every boat colrotaining them striving to be the first
to reach the. shore. Not a soul in the squadron at
that moment, I believe, doubted our obtaining a
speedy victory, Just as the first boat touched the
shore, however, bang went a gun again from the
forte, immediately followed by a perfect hurricane
of shot, shell, gingall balls, and rockets from
'all the southern batteries, which mowed down our
men by tens as they landed. Nevertheless, out of
the boats they all leaped with undiminished ardour
(many into water so deep that they had to swim
to the shore), and dashed forward through the mud,
while the ships threw in as heavy a covering fire as
they possibly could.'
" The enemy's fire, however, continued to be so
deadly, and the mud proved so deep (in most places
reaching up to the men's knees, at least—often up
to their waists) that out of the 1,000 men who
landed barely 100 reached the first of the three
deep and wide ditches, which, after some 500 yards
of wading through the mud, presented themselves
before the gallant few who got so far, and out of
that small number scarcely twenty had been able
to keep their rifles or their ammunition dry. Never-
theless, they boldly faced those new difficulties,
and some fifty of them, with a crowd of officers
(among whom were conspicuous the commanding
officer of the French contingent, Commanders Com-
merell and Heath, RN., Major Parke, and Lieut.
Hawkey of the Marines, Major Fisher and Lieut.
Maitland of the Engineers), succeeded in getting
as far as the furthest bank of the third ditch, from
which they would certainly have made a good
attempt to scale the walls had ladders been forth-
coming ; but, out of the number that were landed,
all but one had either been broken by shot or had
stuck in the mud. With the remaining one, how-
ever, ten devoted men sprang forward, three of
whom were immediately shot dead, and five
wounded severely.
" A vertical fire of arrows, as well as a constant
fusillade, was kept up on the select band who now
crouched in the ditch, waiting, but in vain, for rein-
forcements ; and that any of them afterwards
escaped alive is miraculous. Seeing what insur-
mountable difficulties presented themselves, -the
order was at last given to retire ; the lion-hearted
commander of the troops, Colonel Lemon, of the
Royal Marines (who was one of the first into the
furthest ditch) ; Captain Vansittart, of the, Magi-
cienne ; and Capt. Shadwell, of the Highflyer—all
having been severely wounded. The latter was
badly shot through the foot shortly after landing,
but nevertheless managed to struggle manfully for-
ward, even to the advanced trench. Poor Captain
Vansittart had his leg shot off. Lieutenant Graves
of the Assistance, Lieutenant Clutterbuck of the
Coramandel ; young Herbert, of the Chesapeake;
and Lieutenants Inglis and Woolridge, of the Royal
Marines, were all killed while gallantly cheering
on their men ; and at least three-fourths of the
officers who landed were more or less severely hit.
In effecting the retreat even more lives were lost,
perhaps, than in advancing, as the Chinese, by
lighting blue lights, were enabled to discover the
exact position of our then reeling and thoroughly
exhausted men, and so to shoot them down like
birds. Even on arriving at the water's edge, mat-
ters were not improved, as so many of the boats had
been smashed to pieces by round shot that there
were not enough remaining to take off the surviving
men. Several were drowned in attempting to get
off, while many- had to remain for more than an
hour up to their necks in water before they could
get a place in a boat; and even then their dangers
were not past, as the fire from the forts continued
so heavy that several boats full of wounded were
struck and swamped while pulling off to the ships.
The Coromandel was made the temporary hospital
ship, and the scene on her upper deck was truly
horrible. It was nearly one o'clock before the last
boat load of wounded was brought off to her, and
long ere that hour she was crowded with the muti-
lated
staff (to whom, and glwatasedmaanded b
y thethe
d medicaly Every exertion, however,
espe-
cially to Dr. Little, of the Marines, great credit is
due), and long ere daybreak every sufferer had his
wounds tended. Every operation (and their num-
ber was sickening) I was gratified to hear was per-
formed under the influence of chloroform.
" Our
ful-434 killed and wounded. The Ist battalion of
Proportionate loss has, indeed, been fright-
Marines alone, which landed barely 400 strong, has
lost altogether 172 killed and wounded; the Chesa-
peake 26 killed or missing, and 34 wounded ; and
the gunboats, 90 killed and wounded. No expecta-
tion whatever is entertained of those who are re-
turned Withs
circumstances
henemies
as
he
of the case, all such hope is out of the question.
the Chinese,
missing
and beingunder stilltbe alive.
peculiar "
The belief is universal throughout the squadron
that Europeans manned the batteries as well as
Chinese. Men in' grey coats, with closely cropped
hair, and with Russian features, were distinctly
visible in the batteries, and the whole of the fort'•
fications were evidently of European designing.
Some of those who advanced near to the wall even
go so far as to declare that they heard men calling
for " more powder," in Russian ; and this morning
it is reported that two dead bodies floated -out of
the river, dressed in Chinese clothes but having
incontestably European faces. The damaged forts
have already been repaired, and have never ceased
to fire upon the boats that are still engaged under
Capt. Willes and Commanders Commerell, Heath,
and Wynniatt, in struggling to rescue the stranded