THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 313, 31 October 1855, Page 3

THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.

CONTINUED FIIOM OUR LAST. (From the "Times" Correspondent.) Some of the houses were comfortably furnished. One of them was as well fitted up as most English mansions, the rooms full of fine furniture, a piano in the drawing room, and articles of luxury and taste not deficient. Our men unfortunately found that the cellars were not empty, and that there was abundance of fine muscat wine from the south coast of the Crimea, and of ihe stronger wines, perfumed with roses and mixed with fruits, which are grown in the interior, in the better sort of houses. Some of the officers, when they went away carried off articles of clothing and papers as proofs of their entrance into the place, and some others took away pigeons, guineapigs, Sec, which were tame in the houses. The troops entered the place about four o'clock in the morning, and could not leave it till 9 o'clock in the evening. The Russians blew up many of the houses and set fire to others, and when our men retired the flames were spreading along the street. The 18th regiment lost 250 men. In the middle of the day Captain Esinonde wrote to General Eyre to say that he required support, that the men were short of ammunition, and that the rifles were clogged. The rifles, which were of the Enfield pattern, had been only served to the regiment the day before, and again it was found that these admirable weapons are open, to the grave defect which has been so frequently mentioned, and that they are liable to become useless after firing 20 rounds. A sergeant volunteered to creep back with this letter, but, when he readied the place where the general ought to have been, he found that the latter had been obliged to withdraw owing to his wound, and he therefore delivered the document to Col. Edwardes. As there was no possibility of petting support down to the troops, Coionel Edwardes crept down along with the sergeant and got into the houses to see how matters were going on. The officer in command, on learning the state of the case, ordered the men to keep up the hottest fire they could ; and meantime they picked up the rifles and ammunition of the killed and wounded, and were by that means enabled to continue their fusillade. The 9th Regiment succeeded in effecting a lodgment in the houses in two or three different places, and held their position, as well as the 18th. A sergeant and a handful of men actually got possession of the little Wasp Battery, in which there were only 12 or 14 Russian artillery men. They fled at the approach of our men, but when the latter turned round they discovered they were quite unsupported ; and the Russians, seeing that the poor fellows were left alone, came down on them and drove them out of the battery. An officer and half a dozen men of the same regiment got up close to a part of the Flagstaff B.itterv, and were advancing into it when they, too, saw that they were by themselves, and, as it was futile to attempt holding their ground, they retreated. About. 15 Fiench soldjers ou their left aided them, but as they were likewise unsupported they had to retire. Another officer with only 12 men took one of the Russian Rifle Pits, bayonetted those they found in it, and held possession of it throughout the day. Meantime, while these portions of tlie stb and IStb and parties of the 44th and 28th were in the houses, the detachments of the same regiments and of tbe 38th kept up a hot fire from the Cemetery on the Russians in the battery and on the sharp shooters, all the time being exposed to a tremendous shower of bullets, grape, round shot, and shell. The loss of the brigade, under such circumstances, could not but be extremely severe. One part of it, separated from the other, was exposed to a destructive fire in houses, the uppei portion of which crumbled into pieces or fell in under fire, and it was only by keeping in the lower story, which was vaulted and well built, that they were enabled to hold their own. The other parts of it, far advanced from our batteries, were almost unprotected, and were under a constant milraille and bombardment from guns which our batteries had failed to touch. Captain Smith, of the 9th, was struck by a grapesbot in the back as he was in the act of getting Captain Armstrong, of the 18th into a litter with the assistance of Captain Gaynor. Tiie shot broke his spine and drove his ribs into his lungs. He died yesterday. Lieutenant Douglas and Lieutenant M'Queen were also wounded. Of this regiment six men were killed and 53 wounded. In the 18th, Lieut. Meurant was killed, Major Kennedy, Capt. Hayman

(slightly), Capt. Cormick (severely), Capt. Armstrong (slightly), Capt. Wilkinson (slightly). Ensign Fearnley and Ensign Hotham (severely) wounded ; 34 men killed and 216 wounded. Iv tbe 38th, Lieut. Davies, a brave and esteemed young officer, was killed, and 5 were wounded more or less 'severely, among whom weve the gallant Lieut. Colonel Lowth and Lieut. French; the latter has a.fractured thigh. In the 44th Regiment no less than seven officers were wounded, of whom three—namely, Capt. Bowes Fenwick, Capt. the Hon. Herbert Agar, and Capt. F. Caulfeild, are reported to have died of their wounds. Capt. Mansfield's thigh is fractured ;17 men were killed, 108 wounded. The 89th Regiment was in the trenches and had a few men wounded. The total number of killed and wounded in the Brigade was, up to the last returns I could see, 107 killed, 552 wounded, — total, 659. Some of the officers got away in the great storm which arose about 11 o'clock, and blew with great violence for several hours. " General Eyre has issued the following order:— " Seconjd Brigade Orders, Third Division. June 19. "The Major-General commanding the brigade requests that the officers, non-commis-sioned officers, and men will accept his thanks for their conduct yesterday. He cannot sufficiently express his admiration at their coolness, gallantry, and discipline during a most trying day. He must tender his thanks to the medical department for their judicious arrangements to provide for the wounded, which arrangements were most successful. To Assistant Surgeon Gibbons, 46th regiment, and Geeves, 38th regiment, especially, much praise is due for tbeir zealous and humane exertions in the field, while exposed to a galling fire from the enemy." The detachments from the hard-working and little noticed Naval Brigade consisted of four parties of 60 men each, one for each column, but only two of them went out, the other two beiug kept in reserve ; they were to carry up scaling ladders aud wool-bags, and to place them for our storming parties It is not to be wondered at if they suffered severely. On that eventful day 14 men were killed and 47 men were wounded. Two men we>e killed and several others were wounded, by the bursting of one of our 68 pounders in the left attack. Among the latter was Major Stuart Wortley, who was injured by the explosion. As soon as the two storming columns got out of the parallel, the sailors suffered severely. When the men retreated, overwhelmed by the storm from the enemy's battery, several officers and men were left behind wounded, and endured fearful agonies for hours, without a cup of water or a cheering voice to comfort them. Lieutenant Ermiston lay for 5 hours under the abattis of the Redan, and was reported dead, but he watched his opportunity, and got away with only a contusion of the knee. Mr. Kennedy, senior mate of the London, and of the Naval Brigade, was also left behind close to the abattis, and after several hours of painful concealment he rolled himself over and over like a ball down tbe declivity, and managed to get into the trench. Lieutenant Kidd came in all safe, and was receiving the congratulations of a brother officer, when he saw a wounded soldier lying out in the open. He at once exclaimed— " We must go and save him !" and leaped over the parapet in order to do so. He had scarcely gone a yard when he was shot through the breast and died in an hour afterwards. Only three officers came out of action untouched. Lieutenant Dalyell, of the Leander, was struck in the left arm by a grapesbot, and underwent amputation. Lieutenant Cave, and Mr. Wood, midshipman, were also wounded. Captain Peel who commanded the detachment, was shot through the arm. Lord Raglan has visited the wounded in hospital, and has made many enquiries about them. THE ARMISTICE. June. 19. The natural consequence, in civilized warfare of such a contest «s that which took place yesterday, is an armistice to bury the dead. It was our sad duty to demand it, for our dead lay outside our lines, and there were no Russian corpses in front of the Redan or Malakhoff. After the contest of the 22nd May General Osten-Sacken is said to have applied twice to our generals before an armistice was accorded to him ; and, indeed, General Pelissier expressly says that the truce was granted to the Russian general on his reiterated request. It is no

wonder, then, that the Russians were rather chary of granting us an armistice, when they had no occasion to go outside their lines for their dead or dying and wounded. Somehow or other, the rumour got abroad that there would be an armistice early iv the day, and we hoisted a white nag in the forenoon, but there was no such emblem of a temporary peace displayed by the Russians. Our batteries and riflemen ceased firing, and the Russians crowded the tops of the parapets of the Redan and of the Round Tower (Malakoff) batteries and did not harass us by any fire, but of course it was dangerous to go out in front of the lines till they hoi-ted the white flag also. The advanced trenches were filled with officers and soldiers eager to find the bodies of their poor comrades, but they could not stir out of the parallels. They waited patiently and sadly for the moment when friendship's last melancholy office could lie performed. It was a very hot day, and of all the places in the world were heat displays its utmost power, a trench before Sebastopol is the most intolerable. Every moment anxious eyes were turned to the huge mass of earth before the round Tower and behind the abattis of the Redan, in ihe hope of seeing the answering flag, hut our own was the only one in view, and the French were still firing away on our left at the Russian works. It was evident that something was wrong, and it was whispered tbat the Russians had refused our application for an armistice. Boats were at last seen to leave the roads of Sebastopol, and to meet boats from the fleet at the entrance, and it became known that the Russians had acceded to an armistice, and that it was to take place at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. To pass the weary time away, there was nothing to do l»utto watch the Russians at work repairing their batterieslabours which they continued during the armistice subsequently—and to make out the bodies which lav scattered about in front of the Redan and Malakoff. It was agonising to see the wounded men who svere lying there under a broiling sun parched with excruciating thirst, racked with fever, and agonised with pain— to behold them waving their caps faintly or making signals towards our lines, over which they could see the white flag waving, and not to be able to help them. They lay where they fell, or had scrambled into ihe holes formed by shells ; and there they had been for 30 hours— oh! how long and how dreadful in their weariness. " An officer told me that one soldier who was close to the abattis when he saw a few men come out of an embrasure raised himself on his elbow, and, fearing he should be unnoticed and passed by, raised his cap on a stick and waved it till he fell back exhausted. Again be rose, and managed to tear off his shirt, which he agitated in the air till his strength failed him. His face could be seen through a glass, and my friend said he never could forget the expression of resignation and despair with which the poor fellow at last abandoned his useless efforts, and folded his shirt uuder his head to await the mercy of Heaven. Whether he was alive or not when our men went out I cannot say, but five hours of thirst, fever, and pain under a fierce sun would make awful odds against him. The red coats lay sadly thick over the broken ground in front of the abattis of the Redan, and blue and gray coals were scattered about or lay in piles in the raincourses before the Malakoff. I could see, too, that the white port streaks of the Russian vessels were blackened by their broadsides on the morning of the 18th. About 3 o'clock I rode down past the old 13 inch mortar battery in advance of our Picket house into the middle Picket Ravine, at the end of which begins the French approaches to their old parallel, which is now extended up to their recent conquest, the Mamelon, A body of the 12ih Lancers and of some Light Cavalry moved down the Woronzoff road about the same time or a little later, and began extending tbeir files right and left in a complete line across the whole of our front, with the evident object of preventing any officers and men, except those who were required on duty, getting down to the neutral ground. However, my companions and myself were beforehand, and had got down into the ravine before the cavalry halted just behind the picket house. As we advance this ravine is almost paved with shot and shell. They stud its sides or lie in artificial piles out of the path at the bottom. The earth gleams here and there with bullets an.l fragmeius of lead. In one place there is a French picket posted in a bend of the ravine, sleeping under their greatcoats raised on twigs io protect them from the sun, or keeping

watcl) over the eternal ' pot au feu,' making delicious coffee with the rudest apparatus, smoking or talking gravely. Yes, for a wonder, the men are grave, and look almost sullen, but they are merely thoiKjlulul, and think of the comrades whose bodies they will soon have to inter, for yon will find them courteous and prompt to give you si drink of muddy water, or a light for a cigar, or any information they can afford. By the side of this ravine—your horse must needs tread on them, if you are not careful in guiding him—is many an humble mound, some marking the restingplace of individual soldiers, others piled over one of those deep pits where rank and file lie in their common glory covered with lime, and marked now and then with a simple wooden cross. Our Protestant feelings need not he outraged by the fact that this emblem of the old Christian world is not confined to the graves of Roman Catholics, but thai the desire to secure for the remains of their comrades repose in their resting places hereafter has induced many soldiers to erect the cross above those melancholy mounds knowing that the Russians wiil respect it. In other turns in the ravine you will find mules with litters for the wounded, and ambulances, and the horses of the Land Transport Corps waiting for their burden. English and French are mixed together. I saw in one place two of our men, apart from the r.-st, with melancholy faces. " What are you waiting here for?" said I. "To go for the Colonel, Sir," was the reulv. "What Colonel?" ''Why, Colonel Yea, to he sure Sir," said the good fellow, who was evidently surprised at my thinking there could be any other colonel in the world. And indeed the Light Division will feel his loss. Under occasional brusqueness of manner he concealed a most kind heart, and a more thorough soldier, one more devoted to his men, to the service, and to his country, never fell in battle than Lacy Yea. I have reason to know that he felt his great services and his arduous exeitions had not been rewarded as he had a right to expect. At the Alma he never went hack, a step, aud there were tears in his eyes on that eventful afternoon as he exclaimed to me, when the men had formed on the slope of the hill, after the retreat of the enemy. "There! look there ! that's all that remains of my poor Fusileers! A colour's missing, but thank God, no Russians have it!" Throughout the winter his attention to his regiment was exemplary. They were the first who had hospital huts. When other regiments were -in need of every comfort, and almost of every necessary, the Fusiliers, by the care of their Colonel, had everything that could be procured by exertion and foresight. He never missed a turn of duty in the trenches, except for a short time, when his medical attendant had to use every effort to induce him to goon board ship to save his life. At Inkermann his gallantry was conspicuous. What did he get for it all ? He and Colonel Egertoii are now gone, and there remains in the Light Division but one other officer of the same rank who stands in the same case as the? did. Is there nothing to lie done for o^r colonels ? No recognition of tbeir services? No decorations? No order oi merit? Just as one is thinking of these things, a French officer passes by with two orderlies before him. He is about 35 years of age, and yet his embroidered sleeves and his cap show he is Colonel of a regiment, and his bre-i-t is covered with riband, and star aud cross. Our colonels had entered the service ere this young man, who has won nearly all his honours in campaigns, against Ben Something or other, in Africa, was born. Let us get on, for the .-object is unpleasant. You are now c-iose to the Mamelon. and the frequent reports ofiifles. and the pinging „f balls close to yon prove that the flag of mice has not yet. been hoisted by the enemy. Here come two Volti-g.-'urs, with a young English naval officer between them. They are tvking him offas a spy, and lie cannot explain his position to his captors. He tells us he is an officer of the Viper, that he "alked up to see so in* friends in the Naval Brigade, got into iiie Mamelon, and was taken pri.-oner. The matter isexplainrd to the allien, «h*-y point out that the Naval Brigade is not employed on the Mamelon, mat spies are abundant and clever, arc at last satisfied, and let their captive go wiih the best grace in the world. We are now in the zigzag, a ditch about 6 feet broad and f> fe,-i deep,' with the earth knocked about by shot at the sides, and we meet Frenchmen laden with water canteen* or carrying large tin cans full of coffee, and tins of moat and soup reatiy cooked, uj> to the Mauieloti. They are goukeu in the ravine close at

band, and taken up in messes to the men on duty. The Mamelon rises before us, a great quadrangular work on the top of a mound or bill opposite Aialakhoff, which is about 500 yards nearer to Sebasiopol. The sides are formed of enormous parapets with a sleep slope, aud tl ey hear many traces of our tremendous fire on them, before the Mamelon was taken. The parapets are high inside the work, and are of a prodigious thickness. It is evident the Mnnelou was overdone by the Russians. It was filled with huge traverses, and covers, and excavations inside, so that it was impossible to put a large body of men into it, or to get them into order in case of an assault. The interior is like a quarry, so torn is it and blown up with shells. The stench is fearful. It arises from the dead Russians, who were buried as they fell, and hones, and arms, and legs slick out from the piles of rubbish on which you are treading. Many guns also were buried here when they were disabled by our fire, but they do not decompose so rapidly as poor mortality. I was shown here one of those extraordinary fougasses, or small mines, which are exploded on the touch of the foot, and which the Russians planted thickly about their advanced works. A strong case containing powder is sunk in the ground, and t« it is attached a thin tube of tin or lead, several feet in length ; in the upper end of the lube there is enclosed a thin glass tube containing sulphuric or nitric acid. This portion of the tube is just laid above the earth, where it can be readily hid by a few blades of grass or a stone. If a persons steps on it he bends tbe tin tube, and breaks the glass tube inside. The acid immediately escapes and runs down the tin tube till it arrives close to its insertion into the case, and there meets a few grains of chlorate of p-tass. Combustion instantly takes place, tbe mine explodes, aud not only destroys everything near it. but throws out a quantity of bitumen, with which it is coated, in a state of ignition, so as to burn whatever it rests upon. Later in the day I very nearly had a practical experience of the working of these mines, for an English sentry, who kindly warned me off, did not indicate tbe exact direction till he found be was in danger of my firing it, when he became very communicative on the subject. One of them blew up during the armistice, but I don't know what damage it did. We have lost several men by them. While tbe ground is occupied by the Russians they mark them by small flags, which are removed when the enemy advance. It makes it disagreeable walking in the space between the works. The < bite flag was hoisted from the Redan just as I turned into the second English parallel on' my left, where it joins tbe left of the French right. What a network of zigzags, and parallels, and traverses one has to pass by and through before he can reach the front! You can see how easy it is for men tube confused at. night—how easy to mistake, when the ground is not familiar. Thus it was that the Fourth Division, who were accustomed toman one attack, did not know where they were in passing through the works of another, and thus, no doubt, did the error arise owing to which Sir John Campbell attacked near the apex of the Redan instead of at the flank. The Russians threw out a long line of sentries along their works in front of the abattis which guards them, and at the same time we advanced another line of sentries opposite the Redan, and the French a similar cordon before the Mamelon. The officers on duty hastened to the intermediate space, and the burying and searching parties came out on their sad duty. The Quartermaster General and his staff were on the spot, and every precaution was taken to keep officers and men from crowding about. The men in the trenches were enjoined not. to get up on the parapets or into the embrasures, or to look over. All officers and men not on duty were stopped by the cavalry a mile behind or at the boyanx in the trenches. The Russians seemed to be under restraint also, but they crowded on the top of the Redan and of the Malakhoff parapets, and watched the proceedings with great interest. I walked out of the trench unmolested on the right and rear of the Quarries, under the Redan, m which we have now established a heavy battery at the distance of 400 yards from ! the enemy's embrasures. The ground slopes down from our attack for some few hundred yards and then rises again to the Redan. It is covered with iong rank grass and weeds, with large stones, with tumuli, alas ! of recent formation, and with holes ranging i„ depth from 1)1 feet or 4 feet to a foot, and in diameter from % feet to 7 or 8 feet, where shells have fallen and !

exploded. It is impossible to give a notion of the manner in which the earth is scarred by these explosion.':, and by the passage of shot. The grass, too, is seamed in all directions by grapeshot, and furrowed by larger missiles, as if ploughs, large and small, had. been constantly drawn over it. Sometimes it is difficult to get over the inequalities iv the ground, which is naturally of a broken and uneven surface. There is a red jackoi in the grass—a private of the 34th is lying on his face as if he were fast asleep; Ihr rifle, with tbe barrel curved quite round, and bent nearly in two by the grapeshot which afterwards passed through the soldier's body, is under him, and the right hand, which protrudes from under his chest,still clutches the stock. It was tbe first body I saw, and tbe nearest to our lines, but as we advanced and passed the sentries they lay thick enough around and before him. The litter-bearers were already busy. Most of our dead seemed to lie close to tlie abattis of the R>dan, and many, no doubt, had been dragged up to it at night for plunder's sake. Colonel Yea's body was found near the abattis on the right of theßedun ; his boots and epaulettes were gone, but otherwise his clothing was untouched. His head was greatly swollen, and his features, aud a fine manly face it bad been, were neariy undisiinguhshable. Colonel Shadfortb's remains were discovered in a similar state. 'Ihe shattered frame of Sir John Camphell lay close up to the abattis. His sword and boots were taken, but the former is said to be in the Light Division Camp. It is likely he was carried away from the spot where be fell up to the ditch of the abattis for the facility of searching the body, as he could not have got so far in advance as tbe place where he lay. Already his remains were decomposing fast, and his face was much disfigured- Captain Hume, his attached aide-de-camp, had the body removed, and this evening he was interred on Cathcart's hill—his, favourite resort, where every one was sure of a kind word and a cheerful saying from the gallant Brigadier. It was but the very evening befoie his death that I saw him standing within a few feet of his own grave. He had come to the ground in order to attend tbe funeral of Captain Vaugban, an officer of his own regiment (the 38tb), who died of wounds received two days previously in the trenches, and he laughingly invited one who was talking to him to come and lunch with him next day at the Clubhouse of Sebastopol. I must close here for the present.