Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1855-08-01

hour before the assaulting force marched
down towards the scene Of its struggle and
defeat
Then another deviation from the origi-
| nal plan of attack was made, also at the
eleventh hour, by Gen Pellisser, to which
both military sense and common sense
agree IN attributing no small share of both
the French and our own failure. Though
the bombardment had been kept up vigor-
| ously the whole of Sunday, night necessa-
rlly compelled slackening of the allied
fire, and during this respite there was rea-
son to expect that the Russians would en-
ploy themselves In making good the inju-
rles done to their batteries during the
day. 1t was therefore arranged that at
daybreak on Monday a terrific fire of shot
and shell should be poured into the Redan
and Malakoff, to render as many of their
guns as possible incapable of mischief
An hour or SO, however, before the COM
bined forces marched from camp, the
French Commander in Chief rode over to
our own headquarters and declared that
he could not wait for this preliminary as
sault of artillery, as he would have so
many men In his trenches before the Nal
akotf that there would be no cover for
them; and consequently, they (and WEI
must attack at day break, at all hazards,
and take the chance of finding the enc
my's guns in the most favorable condition
IN which our bombardment and their ow-
ners subsequent idleness might have left
them.
OF course Lord Raglan complied, tho
forty y-nine out of fifty of the subalterns
IN his camp would have foretold the con-
sequences to be expected; and according
ly, soon after the first streaks of sunlight
broke over the horizon, the doomed thou
sands rushed to defeat and death. So
little is even known of the details of the
French operations here, that | can give
you few particulars of the attack on the
Malakoff but their plan of assault ap-
pears to have consisted in assaulting the
work on both fanks and the front stimuli
taneously, and with overwhelming mum
bers-twenty-f five thousand are said to
have been engaged
In just retribution for the disregard of
their general to the good to be expected
from a short mornings bombardment,
they found the redoubts swarming with
defenders, and guns bristling from every
embrasure. On them as on our own men,
StOzoerS Of grape and canister acre poured
out literally na0aoang dorm ao}tOle 6attaL-
ions at a time whilst from along the
whole semi-circular line OF parapet the
crowd of rife men sent voiley after volley
into their disordered ranks, that passed
through them like sheet of moulteu
lead Three times they gave way, and as
often rallied-but they were finally driven
back after a struggle of some three hours
and a half, leaving the space between the
Mamelon and Malakoff literally covered
with the dead and dying
With our own men, the space to be
passed over from our most advanced treu-
ches to the Redan was somewhere about
seven hundred yards, and from the first
moment of their rushing over the parapet
towards the point of attack, they were
met by the same awful annihilating storm
of canister and grape. Many fell within
the first dozen yards, and thence On to
some broken ground about midway, in
which the remainder sought cover, the
field was strewed with the slain and
wounded. An officer present in the af
! fair, and who was one of the few who es
capped uninjured, described the fire to me
as being perfectly awful-much more Sc
we're, he assured me, than that which gree
ted our men at Alma where be also fought
and received a wound. Few of them
ever reached the abattiS in front Of the
work-none [ believe ever saw the deep
ditch which protects its approaches.
have already mentioned the confusion
which characterized the first commence
ment of our movement and coupling thu:
with the murderous preparations made by
the enemy, you will be at no loss to un
derstand that success was most lmproba
bic. | shall presently mention what the
Russians thought of our generalship, a.
repeated In my own hearing by one o
themselves During the whole affair Si
George Brown and Lord Raglan we're en-
. sconced within our 8 gun battery-bu
though this afforded a good view of tn
, scene of the struggle and the disorde
which marked it, tor some reasons un
known to uninitiated spectators they az
; peared unable to give any efficient direc
tions of our multiplied blunders. Whe
: the sad scene was ended, our men strug
, eled back By every safe avenue to tis
, camp, in a state of disp.rited contusol
, well in keeping with the moblike disodei
in which they had been throuSho't the
/ assault. =,
[ know not what might hse been the
e feelings of your home pubic on reaalng
$ the teIegraphic news of Of defeat-for
q presume the scribes head quarters
5 made no attempt to 'nceal the naked
/. fact that our repulse las neither more or
less than a defeat-bS here mingled shame
; and Indignation we general throughout
the camp Om>rs and men alike felt
. .bot .be I d;sgrace "a been incurred, and that
= n conseaneni solely of the unredeemed
! nismanaaer1nt of their generals. From
= arum.boyso colonels a sense of humilia
: : ION flIe]eyery breast, the deeper sha,
4 = no;iher6en ,.Gt nor regimental officers had
' themselves deficient in what, under
Is s prov prov guidance, would have commanded