besides, we nave an army of the enemy in our rear, much more numerous than the Allies, with certainly as much artillery, and ten times as much cavalry ; the town we are besieging is of great extent, and with unparalleled resources in men and the munitions of war. Head-quarters before Sevastopol, As usual I must bore you with extracts from my journal. November 19th (Sunday).—We had morning service as usual at head-quarters. Mr. Wright, principal chaplain to the forces out here, officiated. He is deservedly much liked by all who know him. I afterwards rode over to the field of Inkermann. The redoubts are nearly completed, and the battery constructed for us by the French is quite elaborately finished off. The day was fine, and it was cheering once more to see our men apparently comfortable for the time being. Late this evening the arrival of the 79th regiment was announced: they have come direct from Athens, and muster in all near 1200 men. The "Queen of the South" steam-transport also arrived at Balaklava, with drafts for the brigade of Guards and other regiments, upwards of 800 men. Several Polish deserters came in to us again to-day from the town; the following is a summary of what they said :-The garrison of Sevastopol are getting very tired of the siege; their losses have been immense; out of the crews of the ships, which mustered on our arrival nearly 15,000 men, the larger portion of whom have been since that time employed in working the guns in the batteries opposed to the Allies, not more than 7000 men now remain. The rest have been killed, died of disease, or are in hospital sick or wounded. They also said that in some of the batteries their losses had been so great that the men employed there declared that, if the siege lasted much longer, they would spike their own guns sooner than remain to serve them. They added, they had been told by their officers that the Emperor himself was coming with a whole corps d'armée of 47,000 men, and then he would drive the Allies into the sea. It appears, too, that General Lüders arrived with a portion of his division from Odessa, two days ago, at the Russian camp on the north side of the harbour of Sevastopol, and the remainder is expected in a day or two. They state that this division musters 18,000 bayonets, and that in a few days it VOL. I. U is to come into the town and relieve the same number of men now forming a part of the garrison; and that an order has been issued that every month's duty in Sevastopol shall count as a year's service; but, as the men very naïvely remarked, "what is the good of that, if we remain to be killed?" One man told us that our 3-gun battery on the left of our left attack, which fires up the ravine between the French and English trenches, does them more harm than any other, as it continually throws shot and shell into the arsenal and dockyard, where large bodies of men are constantly employed in making gun-platforms, carriages, &c. &c. He said that we ought to have 8 or 10 guns there instead of 3, and that he would point out the places where the guns would do most damage. He informed us also that the Russians have constructed what are called fougasses pierriers* in the front of all their principal works, which of course would be exploded in the event of our assaulting the town. *Fougasse pierrier is a small mine in which the chambers are placed a few feet under the ground, and the axis of whose crater is inclined to the horizon at an angle of 45°. It is filled with heavy stones, which, when the mine is fired, blow outwards against any advancing body of men. " This same man stated, like a former deserter, that, had we attacked the town after Inkermann, we might have taken it with ease, as the garrison found out in the course of the 6th the frightful losses they had sustained. He said that one battalion returned with only 90 men, that had gone out before the battle 650 strong. I should warn you that all intelligence given by deserters must not be taken au pied de la lettre, as doubtless they often invent things which they think will please us, and it is also possible that occasionally the enemy may send in men on purpose to give us false information, in the hope that we may be misled by their statements. Still, one can generally ascertain the truth by comparing the evidence of different deserters. November 20th.-Two Russian soldiers were found this morning in one of the ravines near Inkermann, half hid in a sort of hole. They had been wounded in the battle on the 5th instant; one had a shattered knee and the other was badly contused in the leg; both were therefore unable to crawl any distance. They had lived during these 15 days on the coarse bread and arrack with which the Russian troops are always provided. November 21st.-Last night a very spirited attack was made upon a large Russian rifle-pit, called by us "The Ovens," for what reason I cannot say. It is a sort of half-cavern in the side of a ravine, with stone huts about it, and in these for the last few days have been placed a considerable number of Russian sharpshooters, who have not a little annoyed the men in a portion of our trenches in the left attack, and caused numbers of casualties among the French in their advanced parallel. There might have been room for some 200 men in the "Ovens." The attack was made by a strong company of the Rifle Brigade, under the command of Lieutenant Tryon; they advanced in the most determined manner, and drove out the enemy, who was probably taken by surprise. A good deal of fighting ensued, in which the Russians suffered severely, leaving behind them many killed and wounded. Poor Tryon, when in the act of firing at the retreating troops, was shot himself through the forehead and fell dead on the spot. The command then devolved upon Lieutenant Bouchier, a very young officer, who showed considerable ability and judgment in the way he directed his men in repelling the repeated endeavours of the Russians to retake the post. They came back several times during the night in con |