The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-10 00:00:00

THE RUSSIAN ARMY.

(Prom a Correspondent of the Times.)
BERLIN, APRIL 7.
While in my preceding letter I described the
abolition of a peculiar corps in the Russian army,
and the renunciation of a system apparently about
to be revived by the late Emperor, you will find
in the following the rapid extension by the present
Emperor of an organisation commenced by his father.
I allude to the Rifles or Sharpshooters. This body
is not to be confoupded with the Jager regiments,
Which existed previously, but were however nothing
else than Fusilier regiments, standing in this same
relation to the Musketeer regiments as infanterie
Legere does to infanterie de la e., they dif-
fered from each other iu little more than in their
buttons and facings.
All the 42 regiments of Jagers, it may b 3 men-
tioned here, have ceased to exist as a separate arm,
and have been ranged in the same list with the 42
infantry, or Musketeer regiments, with which they
now form 84 regiments. They have, in consequence
of this new arrangement, all received fresh serial
*umbers, and the Jagers have been allowed to re-
tain the names they bore of certainprovinces, towns,
or battles. The Carabineers have also met with the
same fate as the Jagers. They stood in the same
relation to the Grenadiers as the Jagers did to the
Musketeers (they wore black facings, while the
Grenadiers and Musketeers wore white), but in all
essential matters they were as near as possible the
name.

To return, however, to the Rifles. Out of the
one single regiment that the Emperor Nicholas had
at the commencement of his reign—viz., the Fin-
land Rifles of the
.Body Guard—have arisen no less
than 54 battalions, besides the company of Rifles
or Sharpshooters attached to every battalion of in-
fantry as a fifth company. General Ramsay, the
present commander of the separate Grenadier corps,
was the Emperor's right hand in the formation of
these battalions of Rifles. An ardent and. enthu-
aieetic votary of the Rifles, he devoted himself to
the tisk with such ardour that results were ob-
tained totally disproportioned to the time they oc-
cupied. His first attempts, however, were ren-
dered futile by the Emperor Nicholas's notion t hat
these battalions of Rifles could best be raised
among the cantonists, or enfuns de troupe, founded
on the supposition that their better educa-
tion and habits of life would render them
specially apt at this weapon, which, more than any
other, requires smartness, alertness, and a certain
degree of handiness. A very short experience
having shown these youths to be,totally unequal to
the exertions General Ramiay required of them,
the Emperor, though with great regret, abandoned
his idea of thus turning them to good account ;
and, perceiving that nothing but the hardiest ma-
terials would answer the purpose, he allowed the
battalions to be raised among the Tschuwasches,
the Tscheremises, and other tribes whose occupa-
tion is more especially the chase ; and this time the
experiment succeeded entirely. The Rifle com-
panies attached to the different infantry regiments
Were, on the other hand, formed by selecting from
each company first of all the six best marksmen,
and then increasing this number gradually to 24
per company. The aggregate of these picked marks-
men forms now the sth company attached to every
battalion (regiment) of infantry under the name of
Rifles and. Sharpshooters.
Over and above these, there remains to be men-
tioned the Rifle Regiment of the Imperiol family,
originally projected to consist of four battalions,
but subsequently confined to three. This regiment
received a peculiar and exceptional position of the "
Military system, inasmuch as it was placed neither
under the Minister of War nor under the inspector
of the Rifle force, but under the Minister of the
Imperial House. It was raised on the Crown do-
mains from among the Crown peasantry, and num-
bered in its muster-roll a large portion of the
officials of the domains, the foresters, rangers, &c.
Now, let us see how these recent creations of the
late and present Emperor have been adjusted into
the new organisation which Alexander 11. has
given to his army.
Of the three battalions of the Rifle Regiment of
the Imperial family only one has been retained,
chiefly as a memento of the occasion which led to
its being raised. It is held to belong to the Guard,
lytit'it is not attached to any particular division.
Its commander is Prince Galitzin, and the list of
its officers contains many brilliant names.
, In the place of the one Finland battalion of the
Rifles of the Guard there are now three, the first
of which is attached to the Ist division of [the In-
fantry of the Guard, the second to the 2d division,
and the third (which retains the name Finland) to
the 3d division.
' Each of the three ' Grenadier divisions of the .
Grensdier corps has now a battalion of Grenadier
Rifles attached to it.

In athliiion to these, the Emperor has just lately,
while at Zarskoe-Selo, ordered the formation of a
normal company of Rifles, under the command of
Captain Baron von Korff, who has spent much time
of late in studying the most recent improvements
made in this arm in other countries.
As a reserve to these 18 battalions there exist at
present only two reserve Rifle battalions, in conse-
quence of the men composing the original four re-
serve and two supplementary Rifle battalions hay-
ing been draw ;kited off to make up the complement
of the 18 Rifle battalions of the main army.
Attached to the separate Caucasian Corps there
the
now one Caucasian Grenadier Rifle battalion,
'4lO 19th, 20th, and 21st Rifle battalions attached
t 0 the Infantry divisions bearing the same serial
number, and oue Caucasian Reserve Rifle battalion.
Out of the six Rifle battalions of the six Infantry
e4.°rPs (now called Armee Corps) there have been
formed 18 battalions, one of which is attached to
eh of the 18 Infantry divisions of the so-called
-` First Army," or main army.
The six battalions of Rifles that were raised in
Finland out of the ci-devant Swedish Indelta
troops have been increased to nine ; they stand
under the inspectorship of Major-General von
l'°den, and, in 'addition to their own serial num-
°Or, bear the names of the towns where their head-
Varters are stationed Abo, Wasa, Uleaborg,
~,t-uopa, St.. Michael, Tawarthus, Bjerneborg,
and Wiborg. A !normal Rifle battalion
Ais ;the school in which these nine battalions are
'rained.
Although the four ei-devant normal Carabineer
regiments are not reckoned officially as belonging
to the Rifles or Sharpshooters, they must, never-
theless, be mentioned here as forming part of that
force, inasmuch as the Emperor has taken away
from them their former serial number which they
bore as Carbineers, and has named them Normal
Rifle regiments. They were raised among the can-
tonisti of the Nowogrod military colonies, and
form a separate body, under the instruction of
Lieutenant-General Troloff.

The Rifle force of the Russian army consists,
then, of the following :

Battalions.
1. Attached to the Guard, ... ... 4
2. Attached to the Grenadier Corps ... 3
3. Attached to the Sixth Armee Corps 13
4. Attached to the Caucasian Corps ... 4
5. Reserve battalions ... ... ••• 3
6. Vinland battalions (ladelta, including
Normal Battalion) 10
7. Normal Rifle Battalion ... ••• 12

Total ... 54
Simply taken numerically this Rifle fordo far
exceeds that of all other armies ; but, with regard
to its professional efficiency and skill in the use of
its arms, some time must yet elapse, as those who
:know it well and are disposed to form no unfavour-
able opinion of it maintain, before the Russian
Rifles or Sharpshooters will be able to vie with
those of older formation in other armies. In the
meantime no pains are being spared to bring it
'rapidly forward in efficiency and military skill.
On one preliminary question, however, military.
men in Russia have by no means arrived at a har-
monious conclusion as yet—viz., whether such
troops!, possessed of peculiarly good aim and long
range, should be used rather as infantry of position
the question has been carried at present the majo-
lltY of authorities seem, in consequence of the want
of alertness in the Russian infantry of the line, to
to the very natural view, that the Rifles,
the good shots peer excellence, should be employed
as tirailleurs and eclaireurs. One strong convic-
tion, however, they all of them seem to entertain
.111 COMMOn—viz., that should Russia be involved
in another war her army will, in the use of small
anals, not be found so interior to the rest of Europe
as it was in the last.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—ONE SHILLING DAY.—Yesterday.
4,
admissions on payment were 1,045 ; by season tickets,
'‘)z9.,. total, 1,374.
The journey of a company of Spanish artistes, who
mere on their way from Madrid to perform at the Polies
-Nouvelles in Paris, has been attended with a melancholy
accident. The diligence in which they were travelling
vas overturned near the frontier into a ravine. Two
female dancers were wounded in the bead, and a thii-d
bad her right arm broke:24Thu guard wag