Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1859-09-30
Daily Siroiaiau.
tfrom the Correspondence Of tho Ccylon obsesvsrl
Interesting Details Of the British Disaster
ON thu Paih0

on the Peiho.
The following letter contains graphic descrip-
tlon OF the engagement at Taku, and Of the he
rc conduct displayed by tho officers aud men !.
Orr Tns PEiHo, June o.
| feel scarcely equal to the painful task OF at
| tempting 10 describe occurrences which am al-
together incompetent to depict in sufficiently stri-
| king and vivid colors: and yet on the vivid
| well correct represent alton Of which feel de-
pends the honor of all the brave men with whom
| am serving-nay, more, OF Old England's stain
| less flag itself.
| AS did not keepa Journal of the previous
days proceedings, shall coniinc myself to those
| Of the ill-starred 25lh.
AT daylight on the morning uf that day. tho
| gun-boats weighed and proceeded to make u last
attempt to the barriers that tho Chinese
had placed across the entrance OF the river. and
| were evidently determined not 10 remove Of their
own accord.
These, however, being composed of strong iron
bars and chains, successfully resisted all The ei-
| forts made for their removal up To II O'Clock,
when the order was given that the men should
! have their dinners. after which it was generally
understood we should open fire upon tho forts.
Strange to say during the SIX or eight hours IN
which these prelimlnry measures were being Ell
| iecteJ neither IL single gun fired hou. the
forts nor was there n symptom evident their
pants were prepared to defend them. Every en-.
brasure screened with mating and not
head wns visible over the rampafts: and this, al
though the gun-boals were all only from 800 10
| 100 wards distant. md were nil nc SKIES and
ems from some getting aground. while others had
t. hnul them VI, and the space IN which they had
| to move being too confined to allow Of their ma
nuuvrns.
Dinner having been finished, about halfpast
one O'Clock the signal was run up to prepare for
action. and the Oposum (iicutenant Conmnn-
der Raf,ur,) with Captain W;lles, \. N, aud
the Plover. with our brave old admiral, pushed
IN rlose up to the first barrier. No sooner did
,hov arrive than suddenly. and ns il by magic the
mats thai screened the guns IN NIL the curtain
batteries We're trived up, and the whole o the guns
opened fire. Our vessels being all well prepared,
how ever, the fire WAS Immediately returned, and
the action became general.
1t was at once evident though that We had no
ordinary Chinese artillery To- contend acninst.-
Their fire, both i'll weight and precsion was such
as few men, and | feel certain no Chinese cani-
paigners, ever before experienced In Teiy few
minutes the Opossum had several of the crew xii
led wounded. In The Plover the Admiral was
severely hit her gallant commander, Rason, aud
Captain M'kenna, Of the lst Royals lloing duty
on the Admiral's staff, were killed and almost
every man ot the crew DISABLED; while the lluugh
! ty, (Dieutcnant-C pmm lrr ir,al) Ice, (l.ru-
tenant Commander Jones) kcstrel, tLicuteuant-
! Commander Beyen) and Conorant, Commander
WodehouSe) were go severely crippled that they
were IN n siukng state. The Ice, indeed. would
have gone down at but for Lieutenant Broad.
in the lIaughtv, dashing into her rescue and
towing her out under heavy fire. Nevertheless.
lomhardment was kept up with unabatcd vigor,
and in about two hours the cncmy's fire hegnn
sensillv to slacken : aud lalthough they had got
! our range exactly that almost every shot told,
while, ours, though admiralI Y directed. did com
parati,ely little damage to their mud wallis
shortly after O'Clock it became almost slenccd.
AT about o'clock the snxIuu> y-expeced sig
! nul lin.rl ly IlR IIrth ms Ia lunI
and assault, which was brskly answered by them,
every beat containing them striving to be frat 10
reach the shore. Not soul in the squadron ut
, that moment, ! believe doubted our obtaining
| srcedv victory just as the FIRST boat touched the
shore however, bang wet gun again from the
forts Immediately followed by perfect hurr
cnne of shot, shrll gingal balls and rockets. from
| all the southern batteries, which moved down our
men by tens they landed. Nevertheless, out
of the bouts they all leaped with undiminished
ardor, (mapy into water so deep that they Ind To
swim to the shore and dashed forwards through
the mud. while the ships threw in as heavy coy
cring fire as they possibly could.
The enemy's fire. however, continued to he so
deadly and the mud proved so deep lin most pin-
ces reaching up to the mems knees, at least II
ten up to their waists that out OF l,oO0 men who
landed barely 100 reached the first "f tho three
| deep and wide bitches, which, after some 800
yards Of wnding through the mud, presented them
selves before the gallant few who got SD far, aud
ont of tEe small number scarcely twenty had been
able to keep their rifles or their ammunition dry.
Nevertheless, they boldly a'ei thee new Difficult
ties. and fifty Of them, with II crowd OF ofi
GERS among whome were conspicuous the com
manding officer of the French contingent: Com
manters Commerel and Heath, II. N, Major
Parke, and Lieut.. llawkey, OF tie marnes:Mhlor
Fisher and Lieut.. Maitland of the engineers sue.
creded in getting rs far n the furtherest bank Of
the thilG ditch from which they would certain
ly have made good attempt to scale tie walls
had ladders been forthco ming; butout of the mum
Der that were landed, all but one had either been
| broken hv shot or had stuck in the mud. With
the remaining one. however, ten devoted men
sprang forward, three Of whom were immcdi-
ately shot dead, and five wounded severely.
A vertical fire of arrows, as well M n constant
tcsiladc was kept up ON the select band, who now
cronched in the ditch waiting, hut in vain for re-
nforcenlents; and that if any of them afterwards
escaped i've is miraculous. Seeing what insur-
mountable difficulties pre-er ted themselves. the
J order ut last gi . to retire; the honheartei
commander Of the troops, Col Lemon. ofthe r"y-
al marines, lwho was one OF the first into the tur-
thest ditch. Capt Vansttart. of the Magicienne.
and Capt Shadwell Of the Iiishhyer, all having
been severely wounded. The latter WIS badly shot
through the i"nt shortly after landing, but never
theless managed to struggle manfu!ly forward, e.
| ven to the advanced trench. Poor Capt fansit-
tart had his leg shot off, Lieut. Graves of the As
sistance Lieut.. Clutterbuck, of the CoromandeI,
young Herbert IF the Chesapeake, and Lieuts. In
| gs and Woodbridge, Of the royal marines, were
all killed while gallantly cheering on their men;
and at least three fourths Of tho offcers who Ian
ded were more or less severely hit.
| In eHecting the retreat even more lives were
lost, perhaps. than in advancing, as the Chinese,
by Lighting blue lights, were enabled to discover
| the exact position Of our then reehng and tho
| roughly exhausted menand SO to shoot them down
! like birds. Even arriving at the waters edge
matters were not improved, a. many of the beats
had been smashed to pieces hy round shot that