The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-28 00:00:00

TIIE NAVY.

T'ne Duke of Somerset, as First Lord of the
Ad• miralty, will hold levees at the Admiralty,
W hitehall, at 2.30 on the following days :—the
V.h, 14th, and 21st of March, and the 11th, 18th,
:and 25th of April.

A. telegram was received at Portsmouth yesterday
'announcing that Rear-Admiral Sir Baldwin
Walker, Bart., would, with his family, arrive at
that port this day (Thursday), and embark in the
Sprightly, Master Commander George Allen, who
will convey the admiral to Spithead to hoist hie
tag on board the Narcissus, 61, screw, Capt. Risk.
The Flying Fish, screw, arrived at Spithead
yesterday from Devonport.
The Isis, 44, smiting frigate, which has been
fitted at Chatham for the pendant, and is in daily
expectation of being commissioned, is ordered to
have a complement of 100 men. She will take out,
in the first instance, a supply of stores for the
island of Ascension, after landing which she will
proceed to Sierra Leone, where she will be employed
as a coal depot for the supply of the steamers at-
tached to the West African squadron. The Isis
has been fitted up in the most complete manner for
the service on which she will be employed, the
whole of the interior space devoted to the stowage
of her coals being lined with thick sheet iron. The
vessel has been thoroughly strengthened in order
that she maybe in every way fitted for the particu-
lar service. She has also been newly coppered.
Yesterday the shipwrights at Chatham dockyard
commenced laying the bilgeway beneath the screw
corvette Rattlesnake, 21, which is being rapidly
brought forward for launching.
Tho following line-of-battle and other screw
steamers are now under the sheds at Chatham
Dockyard, building, and in various stages of pro-
gress, viz., the Bulwark, 91, 600-horse power ; the
Royal Oak, 91, 600-horse power; the Belvidera,
61, 600-horse power ; the Rattlesnake, 21, 400-
horse power ; the Menai, 21, 400-horse power ; the
Itoindoor, 17, 400-horse power ; and tho Myrmidon,
4, 250-horse power.
Orders were received on Monday from the India-
office for pensioning off and discharging with gra-
tuities proportioned to length of service, a large
portion of the non-commissioned staff of the East
India depot at Warley Barracks.
The following • appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Francis C. Alton, chief
engineer to the Doris; John F. Channon, first-class
assist-engineer to the Indus, for charge of the ma-
chinery of the Pantaloon ; Wm. H. Grose, second-
class assist.-engineer to the Indus, for charge of the
machinery of the Steady; Edward E. Williams,
third-class assist.-engineer, to the Fisgard, as super-
numerary; Lawrence Morton, acting third-class
assist.-engineer, to the Indus, as supernumerary;
John Wm. Owen, acting third-class assist.-engi-
neer, to the Indus, for service in the Zephyr; George
Grandidier, paymaster, to the Icarus; John Hill,
paymaster, additional, to the Royal Adelaide ; and
Valentine D. I. Rickcord, assist.-paymaster, to the
Victory, as secretary's clerk.

GAETA.

From the Times' Correspondent.

MOLA DI GAETA, PEI 3. 21.
Curiosity to see the condition of the town and
fortress of Gaeta, and the works of the besiegers
and the besieged, induced me to leave Turin for this
place immediately upon the intelligence of its capi-
tulation reaching the Sardinian capital. A consider..
able amount of valuable time was lost owing to the
'Wretchedness of the post steamboat, the Solferino,
a -worthless, small craft, which took 48 hours to
convey us from Genoa to Naples, and the slowness
of the posting between Naples and Gaeta, which
caused the loss of another day. I was no sooner on
the spot, however, than I perceived I was not one
minute too late; for the want of communication
between the fortress .and its besieging army, the
natural jealousy of any officer in command of com-
plicated military operations, and the danger of
moving about grounds exposed to the artillery on
either side, rendered the part of a mere spectator
and reporter extremely difficult, not to say impos-
sible, durins the continuance of actual hostilities,
or even during the short armistices ; so that a full
and circumstantial account of the siege could only
be attempted after its close. Waiting for the offi-
cial statement of General Cialdini's Staff, it may,
perhaps, be interesting to the readers of the Times
if I venture upon such a sketch of it as a man by
no means conversant with military matters can give
of what falls immediately under a first cursory ob-
servation.
I shall endeavour, in the first place, to give my
impression of the importance of Gaeta as a place of
war. Nature, which intended Italy as one of the
strongest no less than of the loveliest and happiest
lands under the sun, stretched along the length of
its peninsular region that glorious backbone of the
Apennines, from. the main chain of which huge ribs
or ridges stretch on either side to greater or smaller
lengths, but in some instances as far as the
Adriatic on one side and the Tyrrenian or Me-
diteranean Sea on the other, efficiently barring the
way at no very distant intervals, and constituting
so many strong lines of defence, sufficient
to arrest the march of hostile armies from
one province into another. Such a line, for
instance closes the entrance into the Roman terri-
tories between the Legations and the Marches at
La Cattolica, where the frontier of the Rubicon was
laid in ancient Rbtnitii times ; such another is made
by the gigantic mass of the Aran hills, or Carrara
anountaine, separating Liguria from Tuscany ; and
such a third, finally, and to come more immediately
to war subject, is the line of the Garigliano, the
lie :curet barrier of .the kingdom of Naples on the
Mediterranean. side. Though no region in the world
fa point of fact, perhaps, has ever olf. red so feeble
:ra resistance-to forei'ge invasion at all times as this
southern country, nowhere, perhaps, could a brave
race under valiant- leaders make a nobler or more
successful stand against any odds than might be
attempted on these excellent Neapolitan frontiers.
From the central:mass of the Apennines, the vast,
bleak, precipitous ridges come down towering loftily
on the valleys of the Volturno and the Garigliano,
and press so, close upon the sea here at Mole di
Gaeta that, as , all travellers know, between the
mountain and the-sea scarcely rootn enough is left
for the highroad and the straggling line of buildings
which stretch to the length of more than one mile.
Mole di Gaeta is the real fortress on this side, and a
handful of men, with no other stronghold but those
of nature's- own' contrivance, ought to be able to
repel the attiteks. of any army attempting to invade
the kingdom, on the side of Terracina.
The frontier. of.the 'Trento, on the Adriatic side,
supplies several no less admirable lines of defence;
but supposing an enemy even to force his way into
Apulia, he would always have to cross the Apen-
nines, and• could' be met, on his descent, in the
gorges between Isernia and Teano, on a variety of
battlefields by the side of which. the famed straits
of Thermopylae would be mere child's play. In this
instance, however, it-was not on the Tronto or on
the Garigliano that Naples was called upon to de-
fend herself. Garibaldi took the bull by the horns ;
he accomplished a mere triumphal march from
Reggio to the capital, along those Calabrian lines, at
every step of which the mere show of resistance
would have stopped, not merely Volunteer bands,
but the best disciplined and determined troops ;
he travelled through the Basilicata and the Princi-
pality of Salerno ; posted across La Cava, another
gorge of almost fabulous strength, and drove the
faint-hearted Ring, with at least 50,000 of his best,
or, I should say, least worthless troops, to these
lines of the Volturno and Garigliano.
Garibaldi was checked at the Volturno, and met
with an obstacle at. Capua which put the metal of
his Volunfeers-toa deciSive test. Had the contest
been suffered to continue between him and the
King he had driven from his,capital, it would be
difficult to hazard even a conjecture as to the pro-
bable result ; but the Piedmontese came into the
field ; they entered unresisted through the Trento
frontier ; they met only the puniest obstacles on the
Apennines,n or rather through the defiles of Mace-
ro
and while a detachment, under Della Rocca
relieved the -Ge.ribalcha.
and .brenaehethe ns froth duty on the Vol-
turno,
close, the siege of Capua to a ready
inttin body of the army marched from the
Volturno. to the Glee
~undergglaho, when a corps of 6,000
or 7,000 men
p ass of M Dia i 4711 Ties, stormed the narrow
hardly defended by the
35,000 Bourbon troraps, who fell back in disorder,
and huddled together round and into their last
stronghold of Gaeta
.miles from
of moan-
Mola,
Although Gaeta is only four
c
and the latter is the last link tots chain
Lain fastnesses which stretch p
for
itae be
Gaeta
the Apennines, the town itself andto
is no part of the natural etrongliold,
nor can
said to be in any manner the key to this magnifi-
cent fortraerisyslnofilees
position. It is, and was meant for, merely a
place of refuge, From Mola the bay sweeps grace-
fully round, with the hills gradually declining to
the sea, and at the head of the bay, separated from
the last skirts of the hills bj- a narrow sandy
isthmus, rises the peninsula formed by the Monte
d'Orlando, surmounted by the tower of the same
name, at the foot of which, on a smaller and lower

-

peninsula or headland, lies the town. The meant
and the town constitute the Vehol'e ntronghold,
which has no outworks beyond the isthm
The Neapolitans, who had made so poor a defence
of Mola on the first onset, ashamed, perhaps, of the
manner in which they had yielded their ground before
such disproportionate forces, Venttiinccd on an attack
of ck
of the Piedmentesey alrek-s. repulse I without diffi-
culty; they crossed the isthmus for the last time,
and allowed their adversaries to take possession
of the whole range of the hills facing the fortress,
as well as of the Berge, or suburb which, beginning
almost immediately across the isthmus at little
more than 60 or 60 metres from the town gate,
stretches for more than a mile along the sea lining
the bay, and also of an old Roman monument, called
the Torre Adratina, somewhat in the shape of Castel
St. Angelo and Cecilia Metella, a round and mouldy
mass, not unlike a Mitch cheese, but still whole
and solid, not to be battered by cannon. These
positions, the existence of which ought to have been
considered incompatible with the safety of the place,
as they interfered with the free play of its artil-
lery, were taken by the Piedmontese at the very
beginning of the siege, and never relinquished. The
B ersaglieri and other light troops were stationed
in the houses all along the Borgo, the very foremost
of which, although greatly damaged, are still stand-
ing, with those very doors and windows which
served as loopholes for the besiegers to a great ex-
tent unscathed. The siege, therefore, was from the
earliest period reduced to a kind of duel between
the two parties merely separated by the isthmus—
the besiegers, who held the Borgo and the whole
range of the hills that command it, and the be-
sieged, whose domains were limited to the town
and the Roland's Mount, at the base of which it lies.
At the very outset, however, on the side of the
Monte Orlando, the town, and all its bastions were
lined with batteries armed with no less than 400
cannon ; while, on the other side, the ground occu-
pied by the besiegers was wild and bleak, and almost
entirely impervious. The Borgo was open, and its
buildings of the slenderest and most wretched de-
scription. At the close of the siege the Piedmontese
had constructed no less than 29 miles of capital
roads. Theyhad reared batteries on three successive
lines on the hills ; they had unmasked other bat-
teries at different points along shore in the Borgo ;
they had mounted at least 80 rifled cannon, and had
advanced their works close on the border of the
sandy isthmus. The fortress, on the other hand, its
bastions and batteries had been to a great extent
put hers de combat ; a great many of the houses in
the town were a mass of ruins, and the capitulation
only anticipated by a few days the fall of the place,
which would infallibly have been taken by storm,
and entered through the breach.
The headquarters of General Cialdini were per-,
manently situate here at Mola di Gaeta, a distance
of about 5,000 metres across the bay to Gaeta, out
of range altogether of the guns of the fortress, though
two of the powerful Cavell cannon, reared at a few
yards from the house where I am writing, sent
their terrible projectiles into and even beyond the
town. From Mola the first attempt to construct a
battery was made at Monte Cristo, a hill on the
right of the besiegers' line, about 190 metres above
the sea level, and consequently overtopping by
about 2.3 metres the summit of the Torre d'Or-
lando, the culminating point within the beleaguered
stronghold. The battery on Monte Cristo did not
' seem very efficient, and more deliberate and high-
finished works were constructed on Monte Tortono,
at a height of 148 metres—a height placed at great
advantage over the highest of the town batteries,
as the Batteria Regina, half way up the Monte
d'Orlando, is only 80 metres high. Subsequently
the Piedmentese reared a second very long line on
Monte Lombone, 109 metres, and Cappuccini, 67
metres, by which they found themselves more on a
level with their adversaries in the same measure as
they neared them. The first parallel on Monte
Tortono was placed at about 3,500 metres from the
fortress. The Cappuccini-hill was hardly at half
the distance. A third line was begun and partly
achieved almost on the border of the isthmus, be-
ginning at the Roman round building called Torre
At: aline, 39 metres, and descending to Arena Rossa,
24 metres, almost on a level with the sand. Some
of the Cavell guns, each of which requires at least
i
twenty-four hours to place it n position, only
opened their fire on the last day of the struggle,
and the eve of the capitulation. Besides these three
lines of batteries on the hills, the besiegers had laid
batteries along the shore in the Borgo, at Albano,
Abzano, and San Martino.

It is needless to observe that if the fortress of
Gaeta, which cost King Ferdinand so much money
and care, had been built according to the common
rules and usages of war, clearing the ground before
it, so far as the range f its cannon extended, the
Piedmontese could not so easily have lodged them-
selves in the Borgo, the Torre Atratina, and the
other points on the hills, where, behind walls and
buildings, and sheds of every description, they were
able to work entirely unseen, and perfectly undis-
turbed. It was also extremely fortunate for the
Piedmontese that, notwithstanding the numbers of
the besieged, they never, during so long a time, ven-
tured on any sally, so that they never had any
knowledge of their adversaries' movements and
operations, and fired at random here and there with-
out any definite aim or object, in no instance im-
peding or even retarding those works which were
in the end to consummate their ruin. Some of the
batteries in the Borgo were constructed inside
houses which were exposed to the point blank fire
of the place at an insignificant distance •, yet the
whole work proceeded undisturbed behind the
flimsy wall which masked them, and the first hint
the Bourbon troops had of it was in the shape of the
heavy projectiles which shattered their marine bat-
teries.

It has been said, and not perhaps unreasonably,
that the Neapolitan gunners fired well; they could,
it seems, aim correctly, and fire away with spirit,
but there was no method or plan in their cannon-
ade; they were at a loss to tell on what point their
efforts could lead to the best, or indeed to any re-
sults ; their fire was vague and desultory ; it was
inefficient even to leven with the ground or seri-
ously to injury any of the houses in the Borgo, and
I could see but few traces of their missiles among
the batteries on the hills, hardly any on the high
and distant Monte Tortono, and but little of any
consequence even on the heavier and more invul-
nerable Moute dei Cappuccini. '
There is no doubt that Gaeta laboured in this
contest under the great disadvantage of inferior
weapons; the Piedmontese opposed by land only
1.50 cannon and mortars to the 400 guns which
lined the batteries of the fortress, but 80 of the
besiegers' guns, as I said, were rifled; and the
Neapolitans, whatever may have been said to the
contrary, had hardly any of these modern contri-
vances within the place, and the few rifled pieces
they attempted to cast, or those they received as
presents from their friends, were hardly ready in
time and availed them but little. The Piedmon-
tese were well armed and used their weapons to
good purpose ; but men well versed in the subject
speak rather disparagingly of the Cavell guns; their
fire is, indeed, tremendous, but the amount of iron
plates by which they are blindes, or made invul-
nerable, has been found unwieldy, difficult to near
in sight of and within reach of the enemy's fire (as
it takes at least 24 hours to mount one piece), per-
fectly useless otherwise, and by no means safe
against the casualties of heavy projectiles falling
upon them. Several men serving oneof those pieces
were killed by the fragments of a shell exploding
against the plate and forcing Its way through the
embrasure. '
All difference in the respective means of attack
and defence was, however, of little importance if we
bear in mind. the temper and spirit of the combat-
ants on either side. After a ride of, three or four
th
ho
au
tr ahl
atg
beenlgl 'e
works of
es ot fl y thea m besiegersazed
at
thel mus sa
activitysay
and energy displayed by the troops
in so short a
time and with comparatively such limited means.
The besieging army at no time exceeded the num-
ber of about 15,000 men, and not more than one-
third of the number could be turned out daily in
fatigue parties. With these means not only did
they make more than 20 English miles of most ex-
cellent roads in a hilly, rocky country, and construct
three long lines of batteries, earthworks, trenches,
camps and magazines, and all contrivances belong-
ing to such enterprises, but they found leisure to
house themselves in neat and tasteful mud or stone
huts, with fenced gardens, painted and glazed walls,
quaint picturesque gables, 'and every device by
which they could make themselves at home in the
camp. I myself am no judge whatever of military
matters, but I believe what I am told, that the
Italian Engineers are more precise and particular as
to the finish and solidity of their works than either
the French or any other military nation. Indeed,
it would seem that this fastidiousness is carried
rather too far; that it wastes precious time, 'and
gives the works rather an over-tidy, finnikin ap-
pearance. The result is, however, highly pleasing,
and must prove most satisfactory in the long run ;
and I must say that all I saw here struck me as the
no plus ultra of military taste, elegance, and prac-
tical ingenuity.
Those of your English connoisseurs who visited
the Sardinian camp in the Crimea were delighted
with the care bestowed by the common soldiers on
their quarters, so as to procure, even to so tempo-
rary a dwelling as a mud cabin, all the comforts
and even luxuries that circumstances would allow.
The fact is these men are trained to look upon con-
stant employment as the main duty and the only
resource of their calling ; and when at rest from
their road or trench, work they contrive to rid
thpers.selyea, of the ennui
of their long day by im-
ror
ng and -embellishing their situation T • he Italian and -embellishing
French are drawn by con-
scription, /..!a9xtatitaltrao
ug
the ranks of agriculturibts