Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-10-01
NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE.

n
NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE.
The En,epsail sv,--T1e Grand Expectation d
tho AAies 20 Ss5astopoi- DESCRIPTION Of Abe Place
and ifs Defsncss--hs Importance and ifs SpoiLs--
Facts from the Recent BEAUTIFUL sc0sk 0ss South
ers RAssa, by C0usa Denidef, &C., &c.
New York, SsTt %, 1854.
With the arrival Of the steamer Alps at Bos-
ton, and the America at Halifax, we are ad-
vised Of the departure, from Varna, Of the al
lied forces for Sebastopol. The expedition is
the most formidable of its kind which the
world has ever Witnessed. Some two hundred
vessels of war, one-half steamers, and four hum
dred transports, with 10000 men on board,
and all the engines of modern science, throw
the inyincible Spanish armada completely into
the shade. eX
On the side Of the Russians, they will proba-
bly, be waiting at Sebastopol, with garrisons in
its circle of fortresses amounting to forty or
fifty thousand men, and with land force, col
lected from the wastes of the Don and the
Volga, and from the confines Of Western Asia,
Of perhaps hundred thousand fierce Cossacks
and Tartars, including disciplined nucleus
from Western Russia of twenty or thirty thou
sand men. s.fl.f
From Varna, across the arm of the Black
Sea which divides it from Sebastopol, is some
five days sail for sailing vessels. In this pas
sage storm may possibly damage the expe-
dition, for You know that Byron says:
There's not sea the passenger ere passes in,
Turns up more dangerous breakers than the
Euxine.n
Surprising, however, that the trip will be
safely made we may soon expect to hear an
earthquake at Sebastopol worthy Of the colossal
price employed in this heavy and dubious war
The harbor Of Sebastopol is natural in
dentation Of the north coast of the Black Sea,
deep and splendid basin, with narrow en-
trance to the bay which runs inlan two
or three leagues, branching off into several
basins, deep enough to float ship of 100
guns, within few feet of the shore. This
beautiful harbor is locked in by circle of
cliffs, bristling with Notifications all around,
from the waters edge to the top of the pre-
cipice. For a number of years the Gear had
employed upon these works from thirty to
fifty thousand men. But the works were not
limited to the Notifications. Five spacious
dry-docks have been erected within the harbor,
and as there are no tides in the Black Sea,
(Which is this respect is the same as the Medi-
terranean,) these dry-docks of solid masonry,
are filed and emptied from several fresh water
rivers, which pour down into the harbor from
the interior. The ships are lifted up into the
docks by means of locks, when all that is ne
cessaryto be done is to let the water of, and the
smallest schooner or the largest man-ofwar is
high and dry.
obtain this information from the splendid
book published in 1853, in London, on south
ern Russia and the Crimea, by the Count Dem.
idoh, distinguished Russian noble, whose
wife is the sister of Louis Napoleon. He
made this expedition under the patronage Of
the emperor, to whom this book was dedicated
The information is, therefore, official, and was
intended to enlighten the world upon the mag
nitude Of the military and scientific works &C
complisbed by the industrious Nicholas, in
southern Russia, lately but wilderness of
Tartars. The gives list, also, of the Black
Sea Russian feet, amounting to some twenty
five ships-ofwar, headed by the Wareaw ship
ofthe-line, of 40 guns, and embracing ten
other ships of ninety guns each. All these
vessels now, and perhaps dozen more, are
shut up within this fortified basin ofSabastopol,
and to get at them the fortications must first
be reduced.
This is now the grand object of the war; and
the plan is TO capture the forts from the land
side, after the style Of the reduction Of San
Juan d'Ulloa by General Scott. Hence the
shipment of those land forces and siege guns
from Varna across to the Crimea. The allied
feet, or the bulk Of il, when the land attack is
made, will take up its position at the gate Of
Sebastopol to prevent the escape Of the Rus
sian ships. If clean capture is achieved, the
spoils will be tremendous. Two thousand
pieces, and perhaps more, OF artillery in the
forts, and the provisions and munitions of war
necessary for their garrisons Of forty thousand
men, and twenty-five or thirty ships of war,
one half steamers, win be magnificent haul.
1t would foot up good many millions of dol
lars. But in view of the balance of power in
the Black sea, it is absolutely necessary at any
cost, Sebastopol should be taken; and once
taken and broken up, OF occupied by the allies,
the power Of Russia is destroyed in that quarter,
for the lock and key is in the hands of her enc
mics.
1t would probably cost our government at
least one hundred millions Of dollars to erect
and put in working order similar chain of
forts, basins and dry docks to those of Sebasto-
pol /; and fifty millions more to build and equip
such feet as that in that harbor. But Mich
olas is an absolute despot He commands
thirty thousand--or million--of men to work
at his defences, and orders them to be supplied
with provisions, materials and clothing, and
it has 10 be done. Possessing this vast capital