Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-20

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The Allied Victory of the French and En-
i alish ON the PeihO-Graphic Account OF
the Bombardment and Capture of the
! Forts-DespeTate Resistance and Great
Slaughter of the Tartars and Chinese.
The special correspondent of the London
Times from the camp on the Peiho, on the
25th of August, gives long and graphic ac-
count of the engagement there between the
French and English forces and the Chinese
and Tartars, and we extract from the cor
respondence as follows:
THE ATTACK ON THE TAKU FORTS.
| At four o'clock on the morning of the 2lst
the English column marched from camp at
Tang-how. In addition to the Royal Arlii.
lery and some Madras Mountain griJs. the
| force consisted of Major Graham s company
/ Royal Engineers, 2l5 Madras Sappers, the
Forty fourth and Sixty seventh Regiments
and $50 Royal Marines, amounting in ali to
upward of $500 men. The French force
1000 infantry and six twelve-pounder canons
rGyeS-under command of Gen. Collineau,
mad marched up to Tang. kow the previous
evening, and arrived on the ground soon
efterward. Itwas arranged that the artillery
fire should open on the upper northern fort
at six A. NJ, while four English and four
French gun-boats shelled the lower northern
fort. The English gun-boats detailed for the
purpose were the Janus, CyolOn, Drake and
Woodcock. The French sent four iron gum
boats, one of which had arrived the day be-
fore the engagement. lss '1
THE .BoMBARDMEYT.
Hardly had the head Of the English column
reached the advanced nicket when the en-
/ emy opened FIRE, about five A. NJ, from both
northern forts from the upper southern fort,
and from the river batteries. Milward's
battery Of Armstrong; Immediately replied,
and one wing of the Sixty-seventh pushed
up to the borders Of a canal affording shelter
at 450 yards from the ditch, wing of the
Forty-tourth rushing up to another canal on
their left. The French took up position on
the English right. Their guns at once
opened on the southern fort, and soon after
six A. M. all the batteries had opened fire.
Govan's and DesborougL's howitzers came
into action, and Mdward's and Barry's Arm
strongs were advanced. At halfpaSt six
o'clock tremendous explosion took place in
the upper northern fort and about ten min
utes later another still more terrific in the
lower northern fort. Beams of wood, earth,
shells, splinters and bodies were hurled into
the air, while the conclusion shook the
ground for miles around. Still the Chinese
stuck to their guns, though their fire waxed
fainter and fainter as that of the Allies be-
came more intense. The whole of the En-
glish field artillery was now pushed up to
500 yards from the gateway and kept up an
incessant fire, under cover of which the
skirmishers obtained q position near the
counterscarp of the outer ditch.
| There was no cover against the bullets,
spears and arrows flying about in every di-
rection, so Captain Gregory placed his men
up TO their middle in water and commenced
O fusillade against the Chinese on the par
m CO a flo fro, 5aI
soldier and using it with excellent effect for
thirty rounds. Man after man of the Forty
fourth continued to drop, and still there was
no bridge. Lieutenant Rogers rushed
through the ditch, pulled out the spikes, and
succeeded in reaching the bernie under the
parapet wall. About the same time the
storming companies of the Sixty-seventh
went at the bitches with will. Some swan.
some struggled through, and few succeeded
in reaching the bernie. There they found
the French, who had already crossed over
light bamboo ladders, carried by their cool
les. These ladders bent when placed across
the ditch. In jumped six coolies up to their
necks. The ladders were supported across
their shoulders, and the French quickly
crossed over.
THE ASSAULT AND THE VICTORY.
And now the soldiers came rushing in,
but still the Chinese fought Capt Prynne
shot the commanding officer with his re-
yolYer. The SiXty-seventh caught the enemy
on the left of the ramp, and bayouetted
twenty-seven in one muss. The French
rushed at them on the other side as they
vRinly ende8vored to escape. At the proper
left angle of the fort lay seventeen bodies,
blown up by shell from Goyan's howitzers,
which Gen, Napier had brought up in sup
port of the French column, rs they stormed
the fort. On the stakes outside were dozens
,,fE hbnfp 81 frrrifl fhafr 4 ,
One had fallen On his eyes; another was
staked right through the body. "They lie
in sections, Sir" said Forty-fourth man.
One hundred and thirty-seven were buried
in the fort in one grave. For days the dead
were hoated from the ditch into the river
borne backward and forward with the tide.
Their wounded were carried off in a most
| ingenious manner. A rope passed under
| their arms let them down into the ditch; they
were then towed to the river, and thence
along the edge of the stream to the lower
northern fort, where they were passed across
| in junks. The Chinese loss in killed and
wounded can not have been less than 1900
men. The English had 200 casualties
seventeen men killed, twenty-five officers
and l6l men wounded. The Forty-fourth
and Sixty-seventh, having provided the
storming parties were naturally the greatest
sufferers. The former had ten men killed,
two officers and fifty men wounded; the
Sixty-seventh had six men killed, eight
| officers and sixty-two men wounded. ap-
pend a nominal return, and am happy to say
that most Of the wounded are doing well.
| The French list of casualties was little over
100. No man was hit on board the gun
boats. Two shots fell harmless on the deck
Of the WOOdeoek Sir Robert Napier had an
| extraordinary escape. During the thickest
of the fight he was quietly surveying the
enemys positioB, when a ball hit the bin
ocular in his hand without injuring him.