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ftEgTVEMfiim m , 1055 . ] THE Mi OB ABE B : gyp
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the honours pf -wMch -is due to Generals Bosquet anc ^ E ^ er ^ thing is quieten the Tchernaya , and we ar < vigilant there . " At eight x / clock on the evening of the * ame day the Wrench . General'writes : — " This morning , I ascertained that the enemy has sunk his steamers . Their work of destruction continued under the fire of our shells . The explosion of mines successively and at different points makes it our duty to defer our entrance into the place , which presents the spectacle of an immense conflagration . •¦ - * ' Glosely pressed by our'fire , Prince Gortschakoff has demanded an armistice to carry away the remainder oi the wounded near 'Fort St . Paul . The bridge , as a precautionary measure , has been broken down by his orders . " Towards these great results , the French and English mortar-boats contributed . Admiral Bruat , writing on September 9 , at a quarter after ten in the morning , thus relates the operations of those vessels : — "A gale from the north ( on the 8 th ) kept the ships at anchor . The mortar-boats , to be enabled to fire , were obliged to enter Streletzka Bay . They fired six hundred shells against the Quarantine Bastion and Fort Alexander . The six English mortar-boats , also at anchor in Streletzka Bay , fired about the same number of shells . " To-day we ascertained that the Russian vessels had been sunk . The bridge was covered with troops retreating to the north side . After eight o ' clock , the bridge was destroyed . I approached this morning the Quarantine batteries on board the Brandon , and ascertained myself that they are now evacuated . They have just blown up . Our soldiers have left their trenches , and are spreading themselves in groups over the--fortifications of the town , which seem to be totally deserted . " At eleven o ' clock on the night of September 10 th ( Monday ) , General Pelissier wrote the subjoined : — "To-day , I have gone over the town of Sebastopol and its lines of defence . The imagination would strive in vain to realise the fall extent of our victory : nothing short of actual inspection on the spot could supply an idea of the extent and multiplicity of the works and material means of defence , which very far surpass all that is recorded in the history of war . " The capture of the Malakhoff , which compelled the enemy to fly before our eagles , three times victorious , has placed in the hands of the Allies immense establishments and material , the importance of which it is impossible yet to estimate precisely . " To-morrow ( Tuesday ) , the troops will enter the Karabelnaia suburb and the town . Under their protection , an Anglo-French commission will take an account of the material abandoned to us by the enemy . " The despatches received from General Simpson and Admiral Lyons merely confirm , in briefer form , the foregoing reports . Speaking of our unsuccessful attack on the Redan , General Simpson writes : — " The casualties , I regret to say , are somewhat heavy : no general officer killed . " General Gortschakoff ; unable any longer to boast of a victory , accompanied by the loss of only one Cossack , thus communicates the particulars of his defeat iu two separate despatches : — " Sept . 8 , 10 p . m . " The garrison , after sustaining an infernal fire , reipulaed six assaults . It is found impossible to drive the enemyifrom the Kornileff ( the Halakhoff ) . Our brave troops , who . resisted to the last extremity , are now retiring to the < north side of Sebastopol . " " Sept . 9 . " The retreat of the garrison to the north side has boon effected with extraordinary success . We have not lost more than one hundred men on this occasion . Wo have only left five hundred wounded on the south side . " 'The reader will of course understand that theso losses refer only to the passage from the one half of the town to the other . For this exploit , General Pelissier has been made a Marshal . A Te Deum lnia been ordered at all the places of worship in Franco . The news of the fall of tho southern side of Seoastopol was known in London on tho afternoon of Monday . A tremendous rush , almost amounting to a riotous disturbance , took place ut tho oflices oi all i ¦ the oven ing papers ; and the town was thrown into a state of tho utmost excitement and enthusiasm . Joy at'the event overcame tho natural fueling of vexation that our own countrymen cannot lay much claim to a share in tho final catastrophe . Groups of eager readerB and talkers formed in tho streets ; the church hollB wore sot ringing ; tho houso of tho French ambassador nt Albert Unto was illuminatod ; and a general ferment of joy spread far and wide . At tho various places of umusemont , tho news was announced from the stage , amidst groat shouting , and was followed by » Par tun t pour la St / rh" and " God save tho Queen . " On tho following morning tho "I anc and Tower guns proclaimed tho success of tho Allies as-flu * as tho wind would carry their report . Jt Is needless to add that in tho provincial towns ,
in Scotland and Ireland , and ^ over France , the same amount of enthusiasm . has been manifested . A list of billed and wounded among the officers has been . forwarded by General Simpson . Some of the most-noticeable points in this return are thus summarised in the Globe : — "It would appear fromstne list of casualties among the officers , that the brant of the fighting -at the ^ edan ¦ fell uponthe Second and Light Divisions , ' commanded by Generals Markham and Codrington , and portions of Spencer ' s Brigade of the 4 th , and Horn ' s Brigade of the Highland Division . The First Division , composed of the Guards , with the 3 th , 13 th , 81 st , and -65 th Regiments , were not engaged . The Jfirst Brigade of the Highland Division Tvas up at the Tchernaya ; the Third Division appears to have been out ; of "fire ; and Gscrrett ' s Brigade , the second of 'the Fourth Division , also presents no casualty among its officers . The . contest was thus apparently carried on by a force equal to about three divisions , or one-half the strength of our infantry then before Sebastopol . The list of killed numbers 26 officers , and , with the exception of three officers of the 90 th Light Infantry ( now attached to the Hjghlanc Division ) , they all belong to the Second and Light Division , which , as at . Alma , , Inkennan , and the Quarries , and throughout the . siege operations , maintain their sad but glorious pre-eminence in the list of the slain . The two brigadiers of the Light Division , Van Straubenzee and Shirley , are wounded slightly , as well as one brigadier of the Second Division , Warren and his . aidede-camp . . . . 113 officers are wounded , and 1 is missing . Of the 113 wounded , 17 are dangerously , 55 severely , and 41 slightly . At the Alma , we lost ; precisely the . same number in killed , with 73 wounded ; at Inkerman , the numbers w . ere 43 killed and 101 wounded . " Le Nord , bound to make out the best case under every possible circumstances , says that the evacuation of South Sebastopol exhibits in Prince Gortschakoff " the energy of a great commander , " gives to the army "that unity of movement and action which-until now it has wanted , " and " , places it in a position ' which enables its General to eommand the situation " " (!) It is a happy temperament which allows of all defeats being regarded as victories . The Methodist in the farce " liked to be despised : " Russia likes to be defeated . ^ EVACUATION OJF PETKOPAULOVSKI . The Allied squadrons which sailed in the early part of the year , in order to make a second attack upon Petropaulovski , have been disappointed in their expected revenge . In the early part of last May , the fleet appeared before the town ; but , to their great surprise , they found an American , instead of a Russian , flag flying from the walls , and a strange silence and appearance of desertion about the place . On landing , the officers found that the town had been evacuated , and that the only human beings left were two or three Americans and a runaway French sailor . They were informed by these that orders had come from Siberia for the removal of the Russian troops to the garrison at the mouth of the Ainoor ( or Amur ) river , on the northern borders of China , and that the inhabitants had fled to tho village of Avatscha , some miles distant . Two English steamers , the Barracouta , Captain Parker , and the Encounter , Captain O'Callaghan , were ordered from China in the course of last winter to watch the movements of the enemy at Petropauloveki , and during the spring they lay off . the coast about sixty miles from that place ; yet , notwithstanding the orders they had received to keep an eye on the Russian garrison , every man , woman , and child ( amounting in all to 1200 ) contrived on the 17 th of April to embark on board the Aurora , the Dwina , and four merchantmen ( three of which wore American whalers ) , and to escape with all their stores and ammunition to tho Ainoor river . Tho thickness of tho weather , owing to anow and fogs , is alleged as the excuse for this extraordinary result . The Russian ships , however , passed close to the English , and had a narrow escape . A few days after tho evacuation of the place , a Russian Admiral arrived there iu a small sloop or lugger , with one hundred and fifty men . On learning tho state of affairs , ho too proceeded to tho Ainoor , eacaping with equal good fortune , owing to tbo fog , and to his hugging tho coast . It would soom that tho Russians did not originally contemplate this evacuation ; for , after our ropulso laat September , it was determined to strengthen tho fortifications of Potropaulovski . This was in fact executed ; and thoru wore evidences of fifty-one guns , of tho heaviest calibre , having been mounted iu tho . oinbruourou . Tlieuu cannon , uiilosu they wcro carried away to tbo Ainoor rivor , have probably boun buried . Tho Allicw , disappointed in thoir hqpo of a bucue&sful contest with tho onomy , burnt tho aruouulu , lumgnzinos , &c . ( which wore principally frame buildiijgn ) , together with any Government proporty that could bo found . Thefortifiuutiona wcro likowiao destroyed ; but tho private dwellings were respected . A fence was then erected round tho'graven of Admiral Price und tho English and French who wero killed in the proviouu attack . A corroHpoudont of tho / Sun . Francisco Herald gives tho following account of tho Russian naval force in tho Ainoor : " Tho Russian shipu of war are now all colloctcd iu tho Ainoor , and conuiat of tho following s—The
frigates { Pallas and Aurora , the corvette . Dwina , tmo steamships , and a few transports . pit is believed that they have -all been partly disarmed and , conveyed as high , up the river as -possible , -so as to be placed beyond the reach of the guns of the Allied squadrons . The mouth of the Ainoor is defended by ; strong forts , -and garrisoned by from 8000 to 10 , 000 < men . Reinforcements are constantly coming down the river from Siberia . " The Barracouta and the Encounter had proceeded to 'the -mouth of the Amoor at the date of the last intelligence ; and it was expected that by the J . 5 th . of July the English and French divisions on the China station , forming a collective force of twenty vessels , including seven large war steamers , would have arrived at the same . spot . The correspondent from whom we have just quotedhas the following : — " The Allied forces , including the French frigates Forte and Alceste , with the corvette Eurydice and the British line-of-battle ship Monarch , the frigates President and Dido , and the screw steamer Brisk , have gone to the Russian settlements in the Aleutian Islands and to Kodiak . They will pick up any Russian trading-vessels that they may meet with . They will afterwards look in at Sitka . If there are any Russian ships-of-war there , they will assail the place and try to cut them , out ; if not , they will respect it , unless provoked by the Russians opening the . first fire . Sitka is placed beyond the sphere of hostilities by an agreement between the English and Russian companies which their respective Governments have sanctioned . The French do not deem themselves bound by this agreement . " Later accounts state that the Allied fleet has visited Sitka ; but , upon being satisfied that no vessels of war were in the harbour , the place was left unmolested . The chief business of the town is in the hands of a Russian American company , who supply the Californians with ice for their " sherry cobblers ; " but the trade hitherto carried on between Sitka and the Aleutian Islands and other places in Okhotsk has been greatly injured by the blockade established by our fleet . The Russian possessions in that direction are said to be suffering from want of-provisions . The Times Californian Correspondent remarks : — " Recurring to the affair of last autumn at Petropaulovski , we have now undoubted information that the Russians were reduced to a few pounds of powder , the two vessels Aurora and Dwina , which were moored across the entrance and drawn up as batteries , having been reduced to just sufficient for one broadside , and the garrison to about the same extremity ; that , a train was aid under the vessels to blow them up , and a man in readiness with a fuse to apply it ; and , finally , that the flag on the batteries would have been struck as soon as the vessels were destroyed , and the garrison would then have surrendered . -All this would have been accomplished if the Allied fleet had not unluckily hauled off a little too soon . " It seems probable that Petropaulovski will not be capable of being turned to any further account by the Russians ; but they have exchanged for it a fortification which bids fair to be much more formidable , and which has already been described aa " the new Sebastopol . " ¦ A bar extends over the mouth of the Amoor , which is never covered by any greater depth of water than thirteen feet ; so that our ships Tvill not beiable to ride over , as the firo of the batteries will prevent our adopting an expedient resorted . to by the Russians , who took out the guus and discharged everything from their men-ofwar , which , being thus lightened , were floated over tho obstruction into deep water . The vessels wore then formed into a sort . of batbery , and the guns -were replaced . The distance from the fortifications at the outside of the bar iseoid to bo too great for our fleet to operate on them . In a paper-read in Martin last before the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec , wo find the Russian fortresses at the mouth of tho Amoor thus described : — " Within the last eighteen months , "the Russians have availed themaolves of their -possession of the mouth . of the magnificent river Amoor ( which they have obtained by taking advantage of tho present troubles in China ) to itronsport a hu-go number of heavy guns , and an immense quantity of other munitions of war , from the interior of Siberia to 'tho 'Pacific , and thence to their posts in America . ! By this now seizure . of territory from China , and'tho consequent acquisition of the entire navigation of tho Ainoor , upon which they have already plaaeri several steamboats , tho Russians have boon ublo toisecure a splendid naval 'harbour , and to establish a depot of warlike and othor supplies upon tho western shores of tho 'Pacific , in a climate which admits of navigation during the -whole winter , within reach of tho grout uroonuls and manufactories of Siberia , und of tho great lino of communication running through tho latter itothe wont , and , therefore , of tho whole resources of the umpire , and uIbo of their possosrtions in America , by which tho latter have become of fur nioro importance to thorn , and far more formidable to their eiieinJoa . un « i England mid Franco sirnH -maint ain a Huflloloneor n « morouH fleet iu tho Pacific , to capture or blockade tbo coast of Itusaian America , or to capture the now Solmstopol , which it . fust rmints In offensive , «« well as m . JofeiiBlvo , strength at tho mouth of the Amoor , tho lattor wil constitute the m «* pawrttal wi'POrt . « ud rosorve ¦ to tho former ; and , tho iron and cowlugo of Siberia being
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1855, page 879, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2106/page/3/
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