Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-03-28
EVENING STAR,
FROM C0NsTANTINoPLE

fkOM COHSThNTIN0PLE.
A friend has furnished us with the FOL-
lowing extract from letter dated Con.
stantinople, February 5, to a gentleman
in this city:
The war drags its slow length along
and is the sole object of conversation
here. Much anxiety is felt among tn,
friends Of the allies for the safety of thei,
troops ia the Crimea. The daily ac
counts represent them as being in the
most wretched and deplorable condition
The English are suffering much more
than the French, and the news tina,
reached here yesterday states that they
had abandoned their trenches to tht
latter. The army had dwindled down
to some 1000 men and scarcely one hall
OF that number capable of doing active
duty. Up to this time, the greater Dor.
ton of the troops have been and still are
living under canvass.
The weather in the Crimea is of the
most trying description. Constant rains,
SHOWS and froSts. The road from Ba-
lakiava. the port to which the English
provisions are consigned, long since has
become so impossible, that it is found
impossible to use it !; the consequence is.
that the rations are not regularly received
or served out to the soldiers, and they
suff fer from the want of food. The cold
weather and the want of forage has been
so destructive to the horses, that the
commissary department are perfectly
helpless. Fuel is so scarce that there is
not enough furnished the men to cook
their food, much less to warm themselves
was told by a physician who recently
returned from Sebastopol, that owing to
the soldiery being obliged to live upon
salt provisions. from the cold and damp,
that there was scarcely one free from
scorbutic symptoms. The dysentery
produced by that disease had broken out.
and was daily carrying off hundreds. In
addition to this, you can readily, as a
physician, imagine what a host of other
maladisS these privations and exposure
has eDgendered in the camp. If the hos
pitfalls here, as l know from my own OBJ.
servations, where they possess every
means requisite to render them efficient,
are in the most wretched and disorsan-
lied state, what must be the condition of
those temporary places they call hospi
tails in the Crimea. | am told that the
patients there are obliged to be placed
upon the damp ground with nothing
around them save blanket, and that
the surgeons are without the proper medi-
cines. Could state more wretched or
miserable be easily conceived? The sick
and wounded are daily arriving hero in
oovrss, Iuany suffering frUIn tie .flruls of
the recent severe frosts.
The hospitals here are filled to over.
flowing, and new ones are daily made.
There are now over $4,000 sick and
wounded IN them. This climate has a
most deleterious effect upon wounds
preventing them from healing 1 am
sure, from what learn, that O: the i'm
mense number that were wounded at
Alma, Inkermann, Balaklava, and in the
trenches, not more than one tenth of
them have survived. From what have
seen of the English surgeons, must
confess that l should not like to be pa
tient of theirs; they cannot be compared,
as body, to those of the French. Their
pay, | suppose, prevents men of any
ability applying for the army. A young
English doctor, who drifted out here in
search OF employment, told me that after
the immense number of wounded came
down from Inkermann, rendering an ad-
dition to the small medical staff then
here absolutely necessary, he thought it
would be an excellent opportunity to
obtain desirable situation. He crossed
over to Scutari, called upon the chief sur
geon of the hospitals, stated his case,
and showed his diploma, and was told
that he could come, have a bed in the
building, and for his services would re-
ceiveseven shillings day-scarcely more
than a common laborer in America gets.
OF course. he declined the proffer.
The French hospitals, in all their ap.
pointments, far excel these of the Eng
lish. Nor do believe the mortality, in
proportion to the number of patients, to
be as great as the latter.
assure you, the most devoted Philo-
Russian could not desire the situation OF
the allied armies in the Crimea to be
worse. The two most severe and inclem-
ent months of the year have yet to come.
When the spring opens, unless daily re-
inforced, the whole army will be reduced
to but a small squad. This, without
being killed by the enemy.
hazard the Crimean expedition as one
of the greatest military follies and blum
ders of this or any other age. Indeed,
when one calmly reflects upon the whole
operation, and sees the generals of two
of the most powerful and civilized nations
of the world-two that have been and are
constantly usurping for themselves all
military science, embarking at such a
season, and with such an army to cap
ture perhaps the most strongly fortified