Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-10-07
PRESENT CONDITION

trustworthy correspondent in letter dated
Constantinople, August 20, thus describes the
present state of Sebastopol, regarding which so
many contradictory accounts have lately ap-
peared T r..- .... :, q
"We have accomplished an excursion TO the
Crimea, and were much gratifed with 1t. Sc.
bastopol was our headquarters for a week. 40
We had plenty of time fully to examine the va.
rious places Of interest in connection with the
war. everything at present remains in very
much the same ate as at the conclusion of the
war. The town, which has been a very q ne
one, Is now but a scene Of ruin and desoiation
The present population (reduced from 40. 600 to
oVV0,) mostly live In the wooden huts left by
the British and French armies; some few stone
houses have been rebuilt, but very few, and Of
avery common sort. The magnificent docks
remain In the state of total ruin, which they
were reduced during the occupation Of the
town by the allies, aud heaps of stones are the
only indications of the positions of the forts on
the south side Of the harbor. But on the north
side the forts are in efficient state as ever.
1t being perfectly ludicrous to observe how
little damage they received from the lombard
ment given them. The trenches, batteries,
and other earthwOrks remain as thex> were
during the war, with merely the Sigh Ytera-
tons caused by wind and weather, and even
ut this distance of time cannon balls shot,
powder, cans, broken pieces of shells, &c are
found lying on the ground especially in the
nelghborhood OF the batteries) in such quant-
TIES as to Keep men at work collecting them for
their value as old iron, and taking them away
by cartloads.
Even whole unexpioded shells are vet occa-
sionaily to be met with. We fell in with one
on the very day Of our arrival but they are
not pleasant things to meddle with, as they at
Tunes explode with no very apparent good rea-
son; and an unfortunate English sailor was
Tn rin
accident Of this sort. remember seeing some
months ago in the Times some statement TO the
elect that the graves in the Crimea were not
taken proper care of, but must say / came to
quite different conclusion. I visited most of
the English cemeteries at Balaklava Inker-
mann, and the Alma, as we'll as those nearer
SebastoPol, and with one exception, did not
see a single monument injured or defaced
The one and only exception is in the case of
the obelisk erected by the British army in
front Of the Redan, which is mutilated by
divers visitors having cut their names in the
stone, and the inscription on it is also partly
defaced, very probably, think, in SOME
drunken frolic. During our short residence
among the Russians we found them all. whether
rich or poor, most civil and desirous of obliging
US, and apparently bearing US no il-wiiI on
account OF our country. In the harbor of
SebastopOl they very busily employed,
under the direction of an American in work
ing with the sunken ships. They have re-
linquished all hopes of getting up the large
men-of-war entire, and are now blowing them
up, and so getting them up piecemeal; but with
some OF the smaller craft they are more sue
eessful, and We saw one small steamer that had
been just raised when we were there 1t GER
tainly looked queer affair but they said the
wood was sound, and that few repairs would
make the engines all right. The steamer that
took US from ConstantInople to Odessa, on our
way to the Crimea, had been submerged for
about a year, and according to the captain
Whose statement receive with doubt the
engines recommended working without any re-
pairs being required. ."-.ScotSman.