The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-05-02

whole line. Our batteries returned the
fire with shot and shell; the flashes of
the guns made the air quite light, and
the roar was deafening and awful. Still
the contest went or along the whole of
the advanced work. The enemy perse-
vered in their attack on the English,
and poured such masses on our thin and
extended line that at one time it seemed
as if they were about to be successful.
But our gallant countrymen never
finched. Though the enemy were along
the whole top of the parapet, and the
Russian officer to whom l have alluded
was, with five or six others, actually in
side the work, our troops fought with
the same degged ~obstinacy, clubbing
their frelocks and beating down the men
on the parapet, or stabbing desperately
with the bayonet.. Colonel Kellyofthe
34th, { who was field officer in command
of the trench Captain Wears, of the
9th, Hon. Captain Bayley, of the ssth,
particularly distinguished themselves by
the coolenss and daring with which they
led the different detachments, and main
tanned tho contests against such over.
towering numbers, for the enemy were
5000 or 1000 strong, while the whole
of our guard, as 1 nave already said,
only mustered between 1900 and 600
men. Not until this hand to hand COM
bat had lasted nearly twenty minutes.
and not till every man who succeeded in
forcing his way down from the parapet
into the trench was instantly bayoneted,
did the enemy falter in their attack,
oDd avian fhAn Eh@- 49, ILL IL
top of this breastwork. But from this
stand they were driven also ; the 86th
literally pitched them off with their bay
ouets h%eadlong into the ditch below
Even after having been completely drIv-
en- out of the parallel, the enemy stood
still and fred a continued heavy fie-fre
into the work, which, 1 regret to say,
caused some severe losses among o ir gal
liant officers. Captain the Hon. CaVan-
dish Browne, of tho 9TH, while cheering
and a%nimating the men, received no less
than seven musket balls through the
chest, and expired instantly. Under
cover of this fle-fro, the Russians strove
to carry off their wounded, but tho in
cessant volleys of musketry which were
poured in them from our lines eventual
ly compelled them to fall back, though
they still continued to fire heavy mus
kerry from time to time.
While this was going on, on the left
and center, the French on the right were
engaged in a most serious contest. It
seems that our allies were completely
taken by surprise by the enemy's %sortie,
so much so that before they could offer
any e%fectual resistance. or move up their
reserve, the Russians had gained com
plete possession of their portion of the
work, and opened such a deadly fire up
on the French that they were compelled
to give ground before it. The French
soon received achievements, but by
that time the enemy had considerably
advanced, and were destroying the
trench. The French, nevertheless, in
s%tantly charged them, and succeeded in
driving them back for some distance,
though not out of the work. Both par
ties then halted, and within twenty PAGES
commenced a terrific fle-ire into each
both to the enemy and our allies. AT
ter a few minutes of this the French
again charged, and soou, by a series of
desperate struggles, succeeded, In the
course of half an hour, in completely
ejecting the Russians from the trench,
though not, I regret to say, until the
work was very considerably injured, and
our allies had sustained a very heavy
loss in both men and officers. But that
the two columns which attacked the En-
glish line were signally defeated, the
hold which the enemy for a time obtain
ed in the French advanced work might
have proved a most serious affair.
The loss on the English side in men.
was low beyond all precedent, but
among officers, I regret to say, the
casualties have been m severe.
About twenty prisoners were captur-
ed by our men. One, a Russian officer,
whom Capt. Richman engaged and cut
his ear off, and succeeded in capturing
him. The Russian officer who display
ed such courage in leading his men was
bayonetted, with the five soldiers, who,
with him, succeeded in getting into the
trench He was armed with a yataghan
and double edged dagger. The former
was taken by an officer ofthe 89th. It
is a beautiful weapon, handsomely
mounted, and the blade inlaid with gold
Damascene work. Both sword and
dagger were askeen as %razors, and bore
distinct marks of having just been sharp
eued and fine edge quito them.
The loss of the French. Fam sorry
to add, has been unusually heavy. The
very careful manner in which they al
ways conceal their number of casualties,
in affairs like last night, makes it diff
cult to arrive at the truth but 1 am in
formed that they lost no less than Is Off
GERS and upward of 500 men killed and
wounded. OF these, six ofic- rs and $50
men are said to be killed.
The loss of the enemy has been most
severe. To-day 1 visited oar works,
which are only distant about two hun
dred!yards from the scene of the contest,
and from a hill near Gordon's battery,
a long line of Russian dead we're visible
out side our parallel. l should say that
not less than two hundred corpses lie
beyond oar line at this point. In front
of the French they were thicker, some
three hundred being in front of their
works. Nearly enc hundred of the enc
my's dead lie inside the French parallel
as they fell. Only FIVE are in ours-one
officer and four men.