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Tn » pause in the operations before Sebastopol is resumed ; but several circumstances point to a probable hastening of the catastrophe , and the opening of some new chapter in the history of the war . By " a mistake in a despatch , " says the Moniteur , the bombardment has been announced as having- recommenced when such is not the fact ; but " the artillery fire" has reopened , and , adds the same authoritj' , " has powerfully contributed to the facilitation of the siege works and approaches directed against the line of works of the Malaklioff . " A reference to another part of our War news of this day will show that , according to the Morning Post , the Russians contemplate an evacuation of Sebastopol . Whether this be correct or not , it is certain that their desperate attack on so strong a position as that which the French and Sardinians hold on the Tchernaya
indicates a degree of frantic despair from which we are warranted in drawing hopeful inferences for ourselves . There seems little doubt that , as we related last week , preparations have been made for a speedy transit from the south to the north side of Sebastopol , which , notwithstanding the denial of the pro-Russian continental papers , appears to be in a frightful state of pestilence and famine ; so that a continuance of the present condition of things for any lengthened period seems highly improbable . Yet , in the face of these facts , the Military Gazette of Vienna states with the utmost confidence that the Emperor of Russia will , towards the latter end of this month , proceed to Sebastopol , with his brothers Nicholas and Michael , in order " to convey in person to the army the expression of the gratitude of his late father , as he verbally promised to do . "
Further accounts of the action on the Tchernaya reveal more clearly the fearful loss which the Russians sustained . An armistice was demanded and obtained . Portions of two days were employed in burying the dead ; and the census , according to the Moniteur , shows the following results : — 4 i Kussians buried by the French , 2129 ; by the Russians themselves , 1200 : total , 3329 . " For this immense loss , there has been absolutely nothing gained ! The details of our attack upon Sweaborg will be found below . They show that the word " destruction , " as originally applied , was not correct ; but they also exhibit a great amount of injury to the enemy . A Hamburg correspondent of the Independance Beige says that the bombardment "has not produced such an effect as ought to give rise to much self-gratulation" to the Allies , lie adds : —
41 The fortress and the encrusted batteries in the five islands of the rond remain , intact . One only of the batteries—that most advanced , and , consequently , most exposed to the enemy ' s shells —was destroyed , and . they have not to deplore any other explosion than that of a i'oiture stationed in this place , and full of powder taken from the depots of the fortress for the use of the guns . The greater number of the private houses in the city , which is very circumscribed , and all the stores of wood , with the building dockyard , have been burnt by the Congreve rockets . For several months , this dockyard has contained ouly articles of very slight value . "
This account is plainly tinctured with Muscovmsm ; and we know that the Russians and their friends never admit any great reverse . If St . Petersburg itself woro battered into ruins , they would say that they had sustained but slight damage , while candidly admitting that they had indeed lost " one Cossack . " The accounts from Asia have reference entirely to the positions and manotMivrin . us of the hostile armies , which appear to be " sparring" at one another , as if blow
neither knew precisely where to plant a . According to the IWsse ' Orient , Krzoroum is said to be threatened ; the Russian army had crossed the Soghanli-Dagh , and occupied the valley of Tchiii-Tchai . Hutlz Pacha was at Baibnth , in groat want of provisions ; but troops are marching from Trebizond to the relief of Krzeroum , and ten thousand Bashi-Buzouks are said to have arrived there . In a supplement to the Invalidc Unsse , we read at ) follows as regards tho position of the Russians near Kiirs : —
" Aide-de-Cainp- < Jeneral Mouravieu announces , under dato of tho 5 th ( 17 th ) of July , that on the 30 th of . Juuo ( 12 th of . luly ) hu trunni \ : rred tho main body of his corps of operation * to tho village of Tikmtf , on the loft bank of the Kars-Tchai , \ vlu ; ro ho formed a junction with Major-Gene ml ItuklauolVn column . The position of Tikintf , by placing our principal l \ uvus in tho rear of the army of Anatolia , ban enabled us to examine with greater facility ami mom minutely tho west » idu of tho intrenched camp at Kuiv , by oontinuul reeonnoissunoiirt . " Tho English contingent , it id euicl , will go to Scliiunlaand not to Asia .
, A despatch from Hamburg , dated Sunday , records that , on tho 10 th , two Kngli . sh steamers bombarded the lintterics of Uiga for five hours . A few of the guns were dismounted in tlio batteries ; hut . this appenre to have been all tho damage , No further aeoounts havo buon rucoivod . Tluro has also been Bouiu dcBlruution of Russian shipping at Whsu .
According to a despatch from St . Petersburg , an Imperial ukase orders the embodiment of militia in eleven provinces , commencing on the 1 st October , and finishing on the 1 st November , and in the proportion of 23 men to 1000 souls . The Russians are beginning to feel the constant draught upon their armies . The subject of the resignation of General Simpson is for the moment recalled to our mind by a statement in the Presse d * Orient , to the effect that the present Commander-in-chief will shortly be replaced by General Henry Bentinck . How the said Presse conies to be so learned about the matter , it weuld be hard to say ; but , at the same time , it would not be very surprising to hear of a change in the chief command .
HEALTH OF THE ARMY BEFOBB SEBASTOPOL . A letter from Dr . Sutherland , of the Sanitary Commission , addressed to Sir James Clarke and Lord Shaftesbury , has been published . The Doctor is of opinion that that part of the Crimea in which our armies are encamped is highly malarious and marshy , and that the unhealthiness of the army during the summer months—that is to say , the degree of cholera and fever that has prevailed—is ascribable to these causes ; the mortality of the winter being the result of bad management , exposure , overwork , &c . The harbour of Balaklava and the camp have been greatly improved by sanitary arrangementSj and he believes the latter is now
in a good state . Still , the troops on the low grounds necessarily suffer , while those on the heights have excellent health . The harbour , he asserts , is now " much sweeter than the Thames , and the town is cleaner than nine-tenths of the lower districts of London , Manchester , or Liverpool , " or than entire villages in England . The soldiers complain of nothing but of not being in Sebastopol . The hospitals at Scutari are described as " really beautiful , " and superior , in their sanitary arrangements , to any of the hospitals in London . The water question is thus summed up : — " With proper care , there is
enough ; without proper care , it will require much labour to obtain a proper supply ; after the dry weather is over , there will be water enough for any purpose . " Dr . Sutherland mentions sand or gravel as an excellent disinfectant , six inches of it having entirely deodorised the horrible marsh at the head of the harbour . He conceives that a knowledge of the laws of health should form a compulsory portion of the military education o f every officer . The Doctor is the only one of the Sanitary Commissioners who is not either dead or disabled ; and he does not know one person who has not had diarrhoea .
FAILURE OF RUSSIAN SUPPLIES IN THE CRIMEA . Under this head we read as follows in the Morning Post of Thursday : — " We have , more than ever , reason to believe that the Russian forces in the Crimea are suffering intensely from want of food and necessary supplies ; and that this , combined with other causes , assures their speedy expulsion from Sebastopol and the South of the Crimea . " The Morning Post , despite its semi-connexion with Government , is rather notorious for what are now called " shaves" in connexion with the war ; but the foregoing
is certainly supported by other intelligence , and is rendered not improbable by the immense destruction of Russian stores by the Allied fleets . It is said—and , if it be true , nothing can give a more fearfully vivid idea of the infected condition of the besieged city—that every time the wind blows from Sebastopol the number of sick in the Allied camps is considerably augmented , and the mortality increases in a duo proportion . It is also speculated that the attack on the Tchernaya was made in order to get rid of some of the men , and thus relieve the pressure on the supplies .
Till ! BOSinAHDMKST OK SWKABOIK 1 . We are now in possession of detailed accounts of this exploit ; Admirals Dundas and Penaud , the Journal de i > t . Pttersbnurg , ami other Russian and English papers , having given full narratives of the attack . The English Admiral , after premising that , in the course of the last live months , tho defences of the place have been greatly increased , observes— " It has therefore formed no part of my plan to attempt a general attack by the ships on the defences ; and the operations contemplated by Admiral Penaud and myself were limited to such destruction of tho fortress and arsenal as could be accomplished by moans of mortars . " On tho night preceding tho 8 th of August , tho day on which the bombardment
opened , the French Admiral stationed on tho islet of Abraham , at two thousand motros from the place , a siogo battery of four mortars . The submarine rocks and reefs proved a great obstacle to the boats ; but a position was ultimately chosen in a curved lino on either side of the islot of Oterhall . " The extremes of this lino , " writes Admiral Dundas , " were limited , with reference to the extent , of tho ranpo and tho distance from the Iiouvily-armod batteries of ltuk-Ilolmcn to the eastward , and of Stora lxiuitun to tho westward of Swca--l » org . " Tho battery , together with n » x Knglinh homhkutuhoH , ouch carrying one mortar , and tlvo French bomb-kot olios , each provided with two mortars , opened llro on Swoaborg at half-past wvon on tho morning of tho bth . A lino of mortar-boats , according to the
Hussion official paper , - bad been constructed from Ronskher to Grokhar . Bombs were thrown , principally , says the same authority , into the fortress of Sweaborg , and partly into the fort of Longorn and upon the Nicholas battery ; while " two vessels anchored upon Sandbam also opened fire against the island and battery No . 2 . " In less than three hours serious damage was done . Fires broke out in rapid succession on several distinct points , and the flames rose above the dome Of the church situated in the northern part of the isle East SwarftJ , which , however , was respected by the fleets , and saved from destruction . Presently , the conflagration reached some magazines filled with munitions of war , and four tremendous explosions shook the air . " For several minutes , " writes Admiral Penaud , " we heard the detonations of the bombs and shells , which covered the
seaboard with fragments . " The hostile fleets , however , did not slacken their fiery tempest , but still poured forth discharges which , at one time numbered thirty per minute , or one every two seconds . " Two of the enemy ' s frigates , and a steamer , " says a Russian telegraph , " were placed between Melk-E and Droums-E , and kept up a constant fire against the latter island . " On the evening of the 9 th , the intricate nature of the reefe , on which the gunboats occasionally grounded , compelled Admiral Dundas to recal them ; but next morning they were again directed to engage . On August 10 , the telegraph reported that the assailants were concentrating their fire upon the fort of Wester Swarto ; but , it is added , "thank God , they have not succeeded in doing us injury . All our batteries are intact . " The Allies are recorded to have fired at least ten
thousand bombs during August 9 , and to have thrown rockets at the rate of thirty a minute . A three-decked ship , which had been moored by the Russians to block up the channel between Gustafsvaard and Bak-Holmen , was withdrawn during the night to a more secure position . " Late on the evening of the 10 th , " says Admiral Dundas , " her Majesty's ship Merlin , under the command of Captain Sullivan , struck upon an unknown rock on ground which he had himself repeatedly examined while conducting me along the line of the mortar-vessels . No blame whatever can attach to this officer on the occasion . "
The bombardment ceased at half-past four on the morning of the 11 th , after having lasted two days and two nights , " during which period , " says Admiral Penaud , " Sweaborg presented one vast expanse of flame . The fire , which still ( August the 11 th ) continues to rage , has devoured the whole place , and consumed workshops , magazines , barracks , various establishments belonging to the Government , and a great quantity of the materials of the arsenal . The firing of our mortars and howitzers was so true that the enemy , fearful of seeing the three-decker which had been anchored across the pass between Sweaborg ^ and the island of Back-Holmen entirely burned , withdrew that vessel into the harbour during the night . "
" It is reported here , " says the Berlin Correspondent of the Daily News , " that the unexpected favourableor , according to Prussian opinions , unfavourable—result of the bombardment of Sweaborg was owing to the employment of Earl Dundonald's discovery . The French steamer Pelican , which brought the intelligence to Dantzic , is said to carry iu her hull marks of the Russian cannon-balls . "
THE ACTION OJJ THE TCHERNAYA . The following is General Pelissier ' s account of this affair : — 14 In the attack of yesterday ( August 16 th ) the enemy came forward with five divisions , 6000 horse , and twenty batteries , determined to occupy the Tediouchine mountains . After passing the river at several points , they brought up an immense accumulation of sapping tools , planks , madriera , fascines , and ladders , all which they abandoned in their flight . According to its usual custom , our artillery fought bravely and with great success . An English battery of position on tho Piedmontese hill afforded very ellicient assistance .
44 Tho Russians left on tho field at least 2500 dead . Thirty-five of their officers and 1620 soldiers are in our ambulances . Three Russian generals were killed . We have made besides 400 prisoners . Our loss consists of 181 dead and 810 wounded . Tixier , Darbois , Alpy , and Saint Remy ore severely wounded ; De Polbes and Barthc less severely , and Gagneur has only received a slight wound . " General Simpson reports thnt it was not Liprandi , ns at first stated , but Prince Gortsclmkoff himself , who commanded . Tho presence of tho oommunder-in-chief gives another proof of tho importance which tho Russians attached to this movement . Among tho Russian generals killed is General Read , the son of a Scotchman who settled in tho land of the Czars .
Prince Gortschukoff ' s account of his defeat ou tne rehernayn is as follows , according to V ^™« despatch received at Horlin : — " A portion of our troops crossed tho Tohornaya , and attacked tJ . o corny on the so-called Kodud . oni heights . Hnv ., !»« " . I ft « cn « my in considerable force , our iroop * , alior « n « l »« Mn ¦ corn ^ bat , witlulrow to tho right !> ... * of the r . vor , and th « e awaited tho oi . emy for four hours . Ah ^ lul n > t « d ^ vane * , they returned to their former positions . The low o "r ± sr : r ^« <« i-p- - «^ *
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THE WAR
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August 25 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . $ 07
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 25, 1855, page 807, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2103/page/3/
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