Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1854-11-25
FOREIGN NEWS.
De.aiIs broash, 81 che HsrmanA.

LONDON, November 7, 1854.
The absence Of official intelligence still corsti-
tutes the one great subject Of complaint In London
and Paris. AS far as government dispatches are
concerned, the latest adyices from the Cimea reach
only to the 18th of October; that is to say, to the
day following the commencement Of the lombard
ment; Via other channels, they come down to the
26th, and from Russian sources TO the 29th.
The tenor Of the whole is satisfactory with regard
to the progress Of the SIEGE but Is also such as to
cause pain and anxiety from the unexpected amount
| of carnage.
Taxing hasty review Of all the statements, and
| putting them together with as much conference as
| they will admit Of the following may be given ~
an outline of all that the public have learned since
| the departure of the last steamer.
| The bombardment commenced on the nth, first
from the land batteries and few hours later from
the sea. The activity with which the Russians had
been strengthening their Notifications for several
| days, induced the allied commanders to begin q
day or two before the time they had otherwise con-
| templated. About lit guns constituted the force
Of the attack, and these were directed against q
portion Of the Notifications defended by about 100.
The fire was continued on both sides throughout
the day, and 1t was found not only that the Rus
sian batteries were extremely well served but that
the weight of metal was quite equal II not SUPERIOR
| to that Of their opponents They are understood,
however, to have suffered great loss in killed and
| the first day was insignificant On the second day
| the bombardment was resumed, and the defence Of
| the Russians was still BETTER since they caused
| two explosions among the French works, which
! killed and wounded more than 100 men, and forced
them almost entirely to suspend their operations
For the greater part of this day, therefore, the
English fire was continued alone. 1t was never
theless kept up, until deficiency of ammunition was
experienced. At the same time, the English loss
i IN. Al spA rda1 fsv he autir two
| had amounted only to 90 men,
| Meanwhile, the fleets commenced their attack on
| the sea batteries north and south Of the harbor
Their firing lasted about five hours and then ceas-
ed with the darkness of evening. The result was
that the celebrated Quarantine fort silenced by
the French, while Fort Constantine was almost en-
tirely disabled by the English. This affair cost q
rather serious number of killed and wounded, al
though scarcely SO many as would, according to
ordinary computation have been the case, If the
action instead Of being with granite batteries had
been with wooden ships broadside to broadside
The French had l6 killed and 200 wounded, and
the English 46 killed and $50 wounded. None of
the ships were destroyed or permanently disabled
although one had her masts carried away, anotlS
had her poop blown of, and two were set ON hre
| by red hot shot According to report OF Admi-
| raj Hamein, the experience of the day furnished
another proof like that obtained at Bomarsund
/ that granite forts are quite assailable by wooden
ships. He also expresses an opinion that the play
of the ships upon the batteries would have been
found sufficient at an early period to have allowed
of their entering the harbor if 1t had not been
blocked up by the sunken Russian ships, and that
i the. fleets might thus have got into positions to
command the town and inner Notifications with no
greater loss of life than was sustained by their be-
ing confined to prolonged fire against the two
external defences
With the evening Of the 18th, the official accounts
received by the English and French Governments
terminate The later statements from other sources
are to the effect that the 25th, General Lipran
! di put himself ut the head of 10000 men of the
Russian army, outside Sebastopo and made flank
attack on the English with the view of cutting
| them off from Balakava The outer works of the
English, whose whole army is less than that said to
have been commanded by Lprand consisted Of
four or five batteries, guarded by small number
of Turks, with about eleven guns. These troops
quickly took to fight having previously made an
unsuccessful attempt to spike their guns, and the
Russians seized the position and turned the bate
rics on the English light cavalry, who were advan
| cling to resist them.
| Although inhicting, in this way, immense loss,
amounting, according TO report to five hundred
men, they could not succeed in driving the Eng
lish back. The Scots Grays particularly distin-
guished themselves and stubbornly held their posi-
ton till the arrival Of reinforcements, first English
forced TO retire with considerable loss but not such
as to compel them to abandon the batteries they
had first seized On the next day, the attack APP
pears consequently 10 have been repeated, and, on
this occasion, 1t was supported by sortie Of 5000
men from the garrison. Hence the allies had to
defend themselves in front and rear.
The garrison, however, were driven back, leaving
1000 dead upon the field, while II is also presumed
| that Liprandi met with like resistance, the only
fbatt hoiu Ia offo Had Inv
the latest Dispatches of Menschikof, which are said
to reach to the goth Tor three days after this con-
fict) and which not merely make no mention Of
him. but assert that nothing decisive had occurred
up TO that time
WAR IN THE EAsr--sIEoE OF sEBAsroPoL-
Admiral Hamelin gives the following account of
the relative positions of the French, English and
Turkish squadrons in their attack on Scbastopol
the nth utmo., and Of the progress of the attack
"The French squadron engaged to approach the
Southern breakers TO take up its position at about
seven cables length from the $50 guns Of Quaran-
tine battery with the two batteries Of Fort Alexander
and with the artillery battery. The English squad
ron had to attack, on the skirts Of the northern
breakers nearly at the same distance the 80 guns
Of the Constantine battery, that Of the Telegraph,
and the Macmillan tower Of the North. A line
traced along the entrance of Sebastopol from East
to West would ntersect the attacking position that
/
with two ships, the only ones he had for the mo-
ment within reach, was to anchor North Of the two
French lines; that is TO say, in an intermediate POI
sition between the English and the French ships.
| On the morning Of the nth the attack by the
siege batteries commenced but It was a calm, and
1t necessary to tow the ships by steam frigates
before the line Of twenty six ships belonging to the
allied squadrons could be extended before Sebas-
topol But, notwithstanding this difficulty, and
the dislocated condition OF the French squadron,
part of its ships being anchored at Kamicsh and
part before the Katcha the ships Of first line
advanced about halfpast twelve at noon, under the
fire of the Sebastopol batteries, which they con-
fonted the first for more than half an hour without
replying to It, A few moments after they answered
this FIRE warmly with their brosdsidcs, but did lit
tie execution, on account Of their small numbers.
Subsequently, the other French and English YES
sells arrived in succession, and the attack became
| general.
About halfpsst two the FIRE Of the Russian bat
teries sackencd; Il silenced at the Quarantine
battery. This was the object the French squadron
had particularly in view; but our fire was rcdoublcd
and lasted without interruption until night
| The main object Of this marine attack seems 10
have been to occupy great many Of the gunners
Of Scbastopo with the ieet and thus divert atten-