Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1855-06-07

and Round Towers with great success
Still we must give the French every
praise for the perseverance of their at
tack, deprived as they have been O
their fair share of support from our fire
for some days back. They have Ger.
ftainly atoned for their failure on the
18th of October, which was caused by
the melancholy accidents to their mag.
azines. There are mysterious whisper:
that we shall "open FIRE" again in a few
days, with an allowance of one hundred
rounds gun per diem. A supply o.
some useful 56 and few SO FOUNDER
guns have been brought up from Bala.
klava to the batteries, and considerable
additions have been made to our arma.
ment since l last wrote. A moderate
supply of IS inch bombfuses has been
raked together, and if promises are to
be trusted, we really shall effect great
things on this, the third Commence
ment" of the siege.
NIGHT sKIRMIsHEs.
Up to the date of this present letter,
there is no material change in the posi-
ton of the allied armies before Sevasto-
pol, or in the attitude of the enemy in
and out of the city. On Tuesday even
ing soon after dusk, a heavy fusilade
began on our left, between the French
and the Russians, which never ceased
till dawn. 1t seemed as if a pitched
battle was going on, and the volume of
sound, the incessant heavy rolls of
musket and MIME, recalled the contests
of Inkermann and the Alma. It. is
scarcely known in camp what all the
firing was about, but the rumor is that
an enormous force of Russians threw
themselves suddenly on the advanced
portion of the works on the left, were
repulsed by our gallant allies, who
rushed after them into the very out
skirts of the Flagstaff Bastion, and
seized on the Russian rife-pits, where
they maintained desperate conhictfor
several hours, but were finally forced
to retire, as the whole force of the Rus
slams opposite our left, was brought to
bear upon them. The loss on both
sides must have been very heavy. 1
could see very distinctly yesterday a
new gabion work on the left, towards
the Quarantine Fort, with French SOL
diers inside it, SO that it is very proba
BILE our allies have established new
sap in that direction, and that portion
of the fight took place around it.
Nothing is more difficult to ascertain
than the particulars of these nocturnal
encounters. The right hand man does
not know what his left hand man is do
ing, and the great labor to ascertain the
truth with respect to the proceedings of
our own expeditionary force on such oc-
casions is aggravated, and becomes ut
terly thrown away in the case of our al |
lies. After cannonade and furious f.
ring, which would keep a stranger in a
state of intense excitement all night, it |
is common to hear some such dialogue
as this the following morning: 81 say,
Smith, did you hear. the row last night?"
"No, what was it?" "Oh, blazing
away like fury. You don't mean to say
you didn't hear it?" "Not a sound;
came up from the trenches last night,
and slept like top" Halloo, Jones,
TO distinguished cooked hat on horse
back, riding past, tell us what all the
shindy was about last night" "Shin-
dy, was there? BY Jove, yes, did
hear some fring-the French and the
Russians, as usual, suppose" "No,
it sounded to me as il it was in front of
our right attack" Another thinks it was
on the left, another somewhere else,
and so the matter ends, and rests for
ever in darkness, unless the Inyalide
Russo, the Moniteur, or the Gazette,
throw their prismatic rays upon it.
RUSSIAN PERSEVERANCE.
If a committe were sitting on siege,
hat committee would report progress.
AS yet there is no result. The cannon :
ade against the town has been kept up,
.hough not necessarily, since it COM
nenced on Monday last. Our fire has
been brisk each day from sunrise to
sunset, but, owing to strange fatality,
It has always slackened during the night.
The last siege showed the ineficiency /
Of fitful fire, and, although the vice in {
our practice has this time been improved {
upon, it is not entirely corrected. If
he fact is not forgotten. at least it is
not vividly enough remembered, that it
IS not common fortress we are besieg- {
ng, but place full of military stores /
and work-yards, and that the nation
against whom we are fighting are pa
,ient, industrious, hard working, inde- [
'atigable, and of unequalled excellence
n the art of patching and repairing {
Who that ever posted It in Russia but {
arrived at his jonrney's end with the !
profound conviction that every plough !
BOY, pressed for the nonce into the SER !
rice as position, is a great mechanical
yenius, whose mind makes up for the /
ack of material genius fertile of re-
sources, and inexhaustible in expedients?
Who but Russian can drive ricketty &
zibitka, and drive, too, as fast as horses t
IAN go, over stones and through pools of !
water, and across ruts deep as trenches;
and who but Russian, when the kibit- I
"a breaks down, as of course it must,
IAN repair 1t without assistance, without S
ntruments but stone from the road ]