The daily union., 1854-12-16
THE SIEGE OF sEBAsTOPOL AND THE ACCoMPA-
NyING BATTLES

THE SIEGE OF sEBAsTOPOL AND THE ACCoMPA-
NYING BATTLES.
Two months ago the first landing of the allies in the
Crimea predicted the results in realization We
then asserted that the allies had committed fatal military
bunder that they had ventured with $4,000 sub
due fortress Of the secondcass strength defended by the
best quality of troops in Europe that in this they had
oyerrated themselves and underrated their enemy We
spoke Of the policy of Menschikof the he COM
menced his operations outside of Sebastopo referred
the long line of operations of the allies the difficulties of
reinforeemens 10 repair the ordinary disasters of siege
certainty that Nicholas had planned his campaign that
in the end he would accomplish its purpose dwe at
length the qualities of the Russian soldiers the admirable
military organization of the Cars armies and the motives
that inspire them with zeal for their country and fidelity
TO the Gar All that said has been realized TO the let
ter Disaster has followed upon disaster every step of
the allies since they landed They have crossed bayone
with troops their equals in every quality that makes up
the uneonquerable soldier Menschko has hunted them
with all that Russian vgor and fertility of resource that
have marked the armies of the North during the past three
centuries Of conquest and glory The result of it all is
that the siege of Sebastopo is raised the flower of the al
lied army has been wasted and destroyed and Sebastopo
is yet erect She stands without of her for
ress damaged, and in the unimpared strength of all
that the devices of have done to strengthen
havoc and vengeance she hurls defiance at her dis
mayed foes Menschkof has hovered upon the nanks
and rear of the allies as destroying angel the AL
ma BaaEava the repeated sorte from the forts and at
last Inkermann have been disasters if not defeats that
cannot now be retrieved.
They have been claimed by the allies as victories and
yet depored disasters If they are victories where are
the trophies What eagles have the Russians left in the
hands of the allies to grace these pretended rumphs
What Russian guns have been left the battle grounds
in the pretended penell flights of their armies We
have been accustomed think that defeated armies left
their standards and their guns in the hands the vcors
but the allies have yet sent back expecant France
and England the swift courier bearing the boodsained
glories of bate-feds and victories
On the contrary the official dispatches admit that reg
have been thinned broken scattered that be-
fore many fields have been shaken in their seadness
They admit that their batteries have been stored and
red that their guns have been spiked and that the supe
ror artillery of the Russians had covered the retiring ge
tors in falling back, their work having been completed
While these dispatches claim victories they have all the
showings of defeat If we understand the strategy Of
Menschkoff it has not been to make general battle in
the field He operating outside of Sebatopo to aid the
besieged. This is his work, and well has he done it, He
has destroyed all their works and spiked their guns The
labor and toll of month he has brought nough and
literally the siege is raised His policy has been to waste
the enemy by degreesto surprise and TO attack wherever
the advantage is with him--o damage the enemy and 10
himself He is yet reservng his strength and rayn
his energies for blow that will fall with crushing weight
upon France and England.
Let us in few words contrast the state of the two
armies The Russian is unimpaired in its strength, adding
daily to its ranks thousands of fresh troops that pour into
the Crmea under the inspirations Of successes and victories
and up battle in the fanatca belief that the
is holy and that God and victory their side The
allied is with toll fatigue, hardship of every
kind and the weight of disaster discouragemen and de-
feat hangs its crushing incubus the soldiers heart
Their vaor has averted disaster have their fidelity
seadness and constancy yet the slightest advantage
from their enemy. Their best generals have fallen thou
sands of the pride and flower of veteran regiments have
gone headlong the DUST and Sebaopo yet stands in
unimpared strength and its defiant yet floats or
every bastion and fort before that bcleagueed city
These real contrasts, and approach the re-
suit Weare convinced that Sebasopol will not be taken
but if she falls she falls with loss of life shocking
auspcious favor has failed Season. weatherall things
favored the allies in its beginning,
Sebastopo then weak-now is strong reinforced
by than 100000 troops The allied navies now
useless the of that have in Every
pect Of the has changed The beseged have become
the besiegers. The allies, whose mission to takt
trenches and forts, entrenchng themselves. Tht
weather and against them. We come
the momenous question, Can they retrieve hes
/ losses and change the tide Of battle?
W. Locs,
are exhausted of their military materials and here
peat it. Turkey has been crushed by her wars England
has been drained by her vast and colonies and by
immigration to this country of all her surplus population
that heretofore filled the ranks of her armies and
her enormous navies She 60 the agriculture
ranks to the laborers in her Mines the operatives
of her manufactures That iH not DO drain from any
of these drains out the vitality and life of old Eng
land and fills her armies with and sad material fol
I the trade of war;
France has been in lesser degree exhausted of
of war Her possessions in Africa have invited away
thousands and thousands of the classes that heretofore
borne her eagles her battles and gories Louis Napoleon
is not yet firmly enough seated his throne spare
the bayonets required to take Sebastopo He is well
of the smothered vengeance that his bayoncts hold in
check at home and knows too well his interests lessen
the guns which he has placed his throne.
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