The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-10-24
Scenes before and in sebastopol

T. = III ~ u
spot where our frs regimeut was placed
the men with one spontaneous burst rem
the air with an English cheer. TIL
French officers drew their swords, thei
men dressed up and marched past as
at review, while regiment after regimen
of the second division. caught up TIL
cry, and at last our men presented arm
to our brave comrads of France, and tn,
officers on both sides saluted with thei
swords, aud this continued till the las
man had marched by. Mingled Will
the plunderefs from the front there wcrt
many wounded men. The ambulances
never ceased, now moving heavily anc
-RRzly with their burdens, again r~attling
~Itxot tothe front for a fresh cargo
Iae ground between the trenches
and the campswas studded with ~cacolets
or mule litters. Already the funerai
parties had commenced their labors.
rNsIEETHE
Irside the sight is too horrible tt
dwell upon. The French are carrying
away their own and the Russian wound
ed. and there are five distinct piles OF
dead formed to clear the way. The
ground is marked by pools of blood, and
the smell IS already noisome;- swarms OF
flies settle on dead and dying; broken
muskets, torn clothes, caps, shakos,
swords, ~bayonetts, bags of bread, can
teens and haversacks are lying in indie
scribable wreck all over the place, min
gled with heaps of shot, of grape, bits of
shell, cartridges, case and canister, loose
powder, official papers aud cooking tins.
The ~traverses are SO high and deep that
tits impossible almost to get a view of
the whole of the Malakof from any one
spot, and there is a high mound of earth
in the middle of the work, either intend
mains of the old White tower. The
guns, which tothe number of sixty were
found in tho work, are all ships guns
There are o few old-fashioned, oddly
shaped mortars. Look around the work,
and you will see that the strength of the
Russian was his weakness-he fell into
his own bomb-ppoofs In the parapet CT
the work ma be observed several en-
frances, very narrow outside, but des-
cending and enlarging downwards, and
opening into eons some four or five
feet high ard eight or ten square. These
are only lighted from the outside by day,
and must haye been pitch dark at night,
unless the men were allowed lanterus.-
Here the garrison retired when exposed
to a heavy bombardment. The odor of
these narrow chambers is vllainous,
and the air reeks with blood and aboini-
Batiors unutterable. There are several
of these places, and they might set de-
faiee to the heaviest murtars in the
world; over the roof is the layer of ships
mas;s cut in junks aid deposited very
carefully; then there is over them a solid
layer OF earth, and above that a layer
of gabions, ard above that a layer of
earth again. In one of these dungeons,
which is excavated in thesalid rock, aud
was probably underneath the old White
tower, the officer commanding seems to
have lived. Thrust have been dreary
residence. The floor and the eutrance
was Uttered a foot deep with repor's s, re-
turns, and perhaps dispatches, assuring
the Gar that the place had sustained
M damage. The garrison were in these
marrow chambers, enjoying their %siesta,
which they Invariably take at ~ o'clock,
when the French burst in On them like
a torrent, aud as it were drowned them
in their holes.
HOSPITAL scene.
0fallthe pictures of the horrors of
war which have been presented to the
world, the hospital of Sebaslopol pre-
sents the most horrible, Leart-reuding,
and revolving. Entering une of these
doors | behold such a sight OF few men
thank God, have ever witnessed, In a
long low room, supported by Iuare pill
lars, arched at the top, and dimly light
ed through shattered and unQ,aecd win
dow frames, lay the wounded Russians,
who had been abandoned to orr mercics
by their General. The wounded did I
saY2 No, but the death, the rotten and
fostering corpses of the soldiers, wht
were left to die in their extreme agony
INTENDED, uncared for, packed as close
ashley can be slowed, some on the floor,
others on Hretched treastles and bead
steads, or pallets of straw, sopped and
saturated with blood, which oozed and
trickled t rough upon the floor, mingled
with the droppings of corruption.
With the roar of exploding fortress
es, in their ears. with shell aud shot fore
ing through the roof and sides of the
rooms in which they lay, with the crack
ling and Kissing of FIRE around them,
these poor fellows, who had served their
loving friend aud master the Gar but
two well, were consigued to their terrible
fate. Many might have been saved by
ordinary caae. Many lay, yet alive,
with maggots crawling about in their
wounds. Many nearly mad by the
scene around them, or seeking escape
from it in their EXTREMIST agony, had
rolled away under the beds. ard glared
out on the heart stricken spectators, oh
with such looks. Many with legs and
arms broked and twisted, the jagged
ysplinters sticking through the raw flesh,
,~implored aid, water, food, orpity, or de-
.priyed of speech by the approach of
death, or by dreadful inquiries on the
head and trunk, pointed to the lethal
spot.
Many seemed bent alone on making
their peace with heaven, The attitudes
.ofsome were SO h~ideously fantastic as to
appal and root one to the ground by a
sort of dreadful fascination. Could
that bloody mass of Clothing and white
bones aver have been a human being,
Orthat burnt black mass of flesh have
ever been a human soul? 1t was fear
full to think what the answer mus. boz
The bodies ofnumbers of men were swoI.1
len aud bloated to an incredible degree,
and the features distended to a gigantic
size, with eyes protrudiug from the sock
cts, and the belckencd tongue Iolling
out of the mouth, compressed tightly by
%ba 4aofh mbfeb Nd sat no,o A. /