Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-10-09
Present Condisron or sebas.opol.

A trustworthy correspondent. in a letter
dated COnstantinople. August 20. thus de-
scribes the present state of Sebastopoi. re-
garding which so many contradictory accounts
have lately appeared:
We have accomplished an excursion to tho
Crimea, and were much gratified with it. Sc
bastopol was our headquarters for week, 50
we had plenty of time fully to examine the
various places of interest in connection with
the war. Everything at present remains in
pretty much the same state as at the cOnclu-
sion of the war. The town, which has been n
very fine one. is now but scene of ruin and
desoiation. The present population trednced
from 40 900 10 6,000) mostly live in the wood
en- huts left by the British and French ar
miles, some few stone houses have been T.
built but very few. and of a very common
stock. The magnificent docks remain in the
state Of total ruin to which they were redue-
ed during the occupation of the town by the
allies. aud heaps of stones are the only iHdi-
cations Of the positions Of the forts on the
south side of the harbOr. But on the north
side the forts are in as efficient state as ever,
it being perfectly ludicrous to observe how
7 little damage they received from the bonn
bardment given them. The trenches. bate
ries. and other earthworks remain as they
were during the war, with merely the slight
alterations caused by wind and weather. and,
even at this distance of time. cannon balls,
shot. powder. cans. broken pieces of she'll,
are found lying on the ground Especially in
the neighborhood of the batteries) in such
quantities as to keep men at work collecting
them for their value as old iron, aud taking
them away by carloads.
Even whole uneXploded shells are yet oc-
casionally to be met with. We fell in with
one on the very day of orr arrival; but they
are not pleasant things to mcddie with. as
they AT times explode with no very apparent
good reason: and an unfortunate English sail
or was blown all TO pieces & few months ago
by an accident Of this sort. | remember see
ing. some months ago, in the Times, state
ment to the effect that the graves in tn Cri-
mea We're not taken proper care OF, but
must say | came to quite different conclu-
sion. | visited most of the English cemete-
ries at Balaklava, lnkermann and the Alma.
as well as those near SebastOpol, and, with
one exception. did not see single monument
injured or defaced. The one and only eXcep-
ton is in the case of the Obelisk erected by
the British army in front of the Redan. which
is mutilated Ivy divers visitors having cut
their names in the stone, and the inscription
on it is also partly defaced very probably, |
think. in some drunken fr0lic.
During our short residence among the Rus
slams we found them all, whether rich or poor,
most civil and DESTROYS of obliging us, and
apparently bearing us no ill-will on account
of our country. In the harbor OF SebaS-
topol they are very busily employed, under
the direction of an American, IN working
with the sunken ships. They have relnquish-
ed all hope 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
cessful, and we saw one smaller steamer that
had been just raised when we were there. 1t
certainly looked a 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 Crimaa, had been
submerged for about year, and according to
the captain (whose statement | receive with
doubt) the engines recommended working
without any repairs being required. =
Scotsman