HASZARD’S GAZETTE, OCTOBER 17,

THC INTERIOR OF SEBASTOPOL

Wsniuzsmv, San. l2.—It is delightful

to abandon the old heading, “Siege of sebastopol," which for the last eleven months might have been stereotyped, but it is not clear what is to be put in its place, for the enemy, having abandoned the south side, seem prepared to defend the north side, and to erect there another monument of engineering skill, and to leave there memorials of their dogged resolution. Fhe wonder ofall visitors to the ruins of Sebas- topol is divided—they are astonished at the strength ofthe works, and that they were taken; thev are amazed, that _men could have defended them so long with such ruin around them. These feelings are appa- rently in opposition to each other, but a glance at the place could expliiin the appa- rent contradiction. It is clear, in the first

place, that the tire of our artillery was searching out every nook and corner in the

town, and that it would become utterly

impossible for the Russian to keep any

body of men to defend their long line. of parapet and battery without such murder-

ous loss as ivoiild speedily annihilate an

army. Their enormous boinh-proofs, large

and numerous as they were, could not hold

the requisite force to resist a general con- certed attack made all along the line with

rapidity, and without previous warning.

On the other hand, the strength of the.

works themselves is prodigious. One hears our engineers feebly'sa_ving “they are

badly traced,” and that kind of thing, but

it is quite evident, that the Russian, who is no match for the allies in the open field. has been enabled to sustain the most tremendous bombardment ever known and an eleven

months’ siege, that he was rendered capable

of repulsing one general assault, and that a

subsequent attack upon him at four points

was only successful at one, which fortiiiiate- ly happened to be the key ofhis position,

and the inference is, that his engineers were

of consvminate ability. and furnislied him

with artificial strength that uiade him equal

to our best efforts. The details of the French attack will have been made public ere this letter reaches you. t is suflicient to say that of the three or four points attacked, the Little Redan and the. Ma-

lakhofl' on th'e right, and the Basion Central

and the re-entering angle of the Flagstaff Work on the left, but one was carried, and

that wasaclosed work. The Great Re-

dan, the Little Redan, and the line of defence on the left were not taken, although

the attack was resolute, and the contest

obstinate and bloody for both assailants and

defenders. Whether we ought to have

attacked the Great or Little Redan, or to

have touched the left at all, is another question which is ventilated by many, but

which is not for me to touch upon or decide.

It is certain that the enemy knew his

weakness, and was too good a strategist

to defend ii. position of which we held the

key. Sebastopol in flames, his ships sank,

told the story next morning, and some ten

thousand French and English soldiers were

its commentators. Could we have done so,

it would have been well for the English to have claimed the honour of joining in the

assault on the MaIakhufl', the tower of which

we had beaten into ruins, and to have ab- stained from attacking the Redun, which

could offer it desperate and, as events pro- ved, a succssful resistance, till the works around the hlalakhoff weretaken. .

The surprise throughout the camp on Sunday morning was beyond description, when the news spread that Sebastopol was on fire, and that the enemy were retreating. The tremendous explosions, which shook the very ground like so many earthquakes, failed to disturb many of our wearied soldiers When I rose ere day-break, and got up to Cathcsrt’s Hill, there were not many offi- cers standing on that favourite spot; and the sleepers who had laid down to rest, doubtful of the complete success of the French, and certain of our own failure, little dreamed that, Sebastopol was ours. All was ready for a renewed assault on the Redan, but the Russians having kept up a brisk fire from the rifle pits and einbrasiires to the last moment, and having adopted the same plan along their lines, so as to blind our eyes and engage our attention aband- oned it, as is supposed, about twelve o’clock,

and the silence having attracted the atten-_

tion of our men, some volunteers crept up and looked through an embrasure, and found the place deserted by all, save by the dead and dying. Soon afterwards, wandering fires gleamed through the streets and outskirts of the town—point after point became alight—-the flames shone out of the windows of the houses—rows of mansions caught and burned up, and, ere daybreak, the town of Sebastopol—that fine and state- ly mistress of the Euxiue, on which we had so often turned a longing eye—was on fire from the sea to the Dockyard Creek. Fort Alexander was blown up with a stupendous crash that made the very earth reel, early in the night.

At sunrise, four large explosions on the left followed in quick succession, and an- nounced the destruction of the Quarantine Forts and iiiagaziiies of the batteries ofthe Central Bastion and l“lagstafi' Fort. In a moment afterwards the proper left of the Redan was the scene of a very heavy ex- plosion, which must have destroyed a num- bcr of wounded men on both sides. For- tunately the soldiers who had entered it early in the night were withdrawn. The Flag'stafl' and (iurdcn Batteries blew up, one after another, at 4. 45. At 5. 30 there were two of the largest and grandest ex- plosions on the left that over shook the can-tli—uiost prolfitbly from Fol‘! Alexander and the Grand Magazine. bliick smoke, of grey and white vapour, of masses of stone, beams of timber, and ma- sonry into the air was appalling, and then followed the roar of a great bombardment; it was a magazine of shells blown up into the air, and exploding like some gigantic pyrotechnic display in the sky—the effect ofthe innumerable flashes oftire twittering high up in the column of dark smoke over the town, and then changing rapidly into as many balls of white smoke like little clouds. All this time the Russians were marching with sullen tramp across the bridge, and boats were busy carrying off mutt-rial from the town, or beating men to the south side, to complete the work of destruction and roneiv the fires of llltltlt'll mines, or light up untouched houses. Ofthe fleet, all that remained visible were the eight steauu-rs and the masts of the sunken‘ line of-battle ships. As soon its it was down, the French began to steal from their trenches into the burning town, iindisinayed by the flames, by the terrors of thesq explosions, by the fire ofa lurking enemy, or by the fire of their own guns, which kept on slowly discharg- ing cannon shot and grape into the suburbs at regular intervals, possibly with the ob- ject of deterring stragglers from risking their lives. But red breeches and blue breeches, kcpi and Zouave fez, could soon be distinguished in amid the flames, and moving from house to house. Ere 5 o’clock there were numbers of men coming back with plunder, such as it was, and Russian relics were ofl'ered for sale in camp before the Russian battalions had marched out of the city. The sailors, too, were not be- liindhand in looking for “loot,” and Jack could be seen staggering under chairs, tables, and lumbering old pictui-es, through every street, and making his way back to the trenches with vast accumulations of worthlcssness. Several men lost their lives by explosions on this and the following day. At 7, ten several small detonations of shells and powder magazines took place in the town behind the Redaii and also on the left ofthe Dockyard Creek. At 7. J2 immense clouds of black smoke rose from behind Fort Paul, probably from a steamer which we found burning in the dockyard. The Russian columns, which had been defiling in a continuous stream across the bridge, now became broken into small bodies, or went over in intermittent masses unscathed by the shot and shell which plunged into the water close beside them. At 6. 45 the last dense column marched past, and soon after- wards the bridge was pulled asunder, and the pieces were all floated across to the north side at 8. 7. The boats did not cease to pull backward and forward all the time, and the steamers were exceedingly busy long after the garrison moved. At nine

there were many explosions in the town amid the burning ruins, and the battlemcnts of Fort Paul. As the rush from camp now became very great, and every one sought to visit the Malakhotf and the Redan, which were filled with dead and dying men, a line

The rush of

lof English cavalry was posted across the front lrom our extreme left to the French right. They were stationed in all the ra- VI_nes and roads to the town and trenches, with orders to keep back all persons except the generals and staff, and oflicers and men 0!} duty, and to stop all our men returning with plunder from the town, and to take it from them. As they did not stop the French, or Turks, or Sardinians, this order gave rise to a good deal of grumbling, par- ticularly when a man after lugging up ii. heavy chair several miles, or a table, or some such article, was deprived of it by our sentries. The French in one instance complained, that our dragoons let English soldiers pass with Russian muskets and would not permit the French to carry ofl' tncsc trophies, but there was not any foun- dation for the complaint. There was as- suredly no jealousy on one side or the other. It so happened that as the remnants t.'lljfil:_’l‘(il on the left against tiic lllalaklioff aml Little ltcdan marched to their tents this morning, our second division was drawn up on the parade ground in front ofthcir camp, and the Ficnch had to pass their lines. The in.-‘taint the lending regiment ofZouavc-* came up to the spot where our liist regi- ment was placed the men with one spontane- ous burst rentthe air with an Englisli cheer. The Freucli ofliccrs drew their swords, their men dressed tip and marched past as if at a review, while regiment after regi- ment_ofthe second division caught up the cry, and at last our men presented arms to their brave comrades of France, and the officers on both sides saluted with their swords, and this continued till the last man had inarclied- by. Mingled with the plun- derers from the front were many woinided men. The ambulances never ceased, now moving heavily and slowly with their bur- dens, again rattling at a trot to the front for a ll'('..~‘ll cargo, and the ground between the trenches and the camp was studded with cacolots or mule litters. nrral p(ll‘tlt's had commenced their labors. The Russiaiis all this time were swarming on the north side, and took the liveliest in- terest in the progress ofthe explosions and conllagrations. Tliey took up ground in their old camps, and swarmed all over the

face of the hills behind the northern forts. Their steamers cast anchor, or were moored close to the shore among the creeks, on the rioi-tli side, near Fort Catharine. By degrees the generals, French and English, and the staffoflicers, edged down upon the town; but Fort Paul had not yet gone up, and Fort Nicholas was burning, and our engineers declared the place would be un- safe for 48 hours. Moving down, however, on the right flank of our cavalry pickets, a small party of us managed to turn them cleverly, and to get out among the French works between the Mamelon and Malakoff. The ground is here literally paved with shot and shell, and the surface is deeply honey- combed by the explosion of bombs at every square yard. The road was crowd- ed with Frenchmen, returning with paltry plunder from Sebastopol, and with files of Russian prisoners, many of them wounded, and'all dejected, with the exception of a fine little boy, in a Cossack’s cap and a tiny uniform great-coat, who seemed rather pleased with his kind captors. There was also one stout Russian soldier, who had evidently been indulging in the popularly credited sources of Dutch courage, and who danced all the way into the camp with a Zouave and an Indigene. There were ghastly sights on the way, too, Russians who had died, or were dying as they lay, hrouuht so far tfiards the hospitals from the tal Malakhoff. Passing through a maze of trenches, of gabionades, and of zig-zags and parallels, by which the French had worked their sure and deadly way close to the heart of the Russian defence, and treading gently among the heaps of dead, where the ground beiirp full tokens ofthe _bloudy fray, we come at last to the head of the French sap. It is barely ten yards m that to the base of the huge sloping ound ofearth which rises full twenty feet in height above the" level, and shows in every direction the grinning muzzles of its guns. The tricoloiir waves placidly from its highest point, and already the French are busy constructing a semaphore on the mp. Step briskly out of the sap--avoid ghost: poor mangled bilves who are lying

all around, and come on. There is a deep ditch at your feet, some 20 or 22 feet deep, and I0 feet broad. See, here is the place where the French crossed—here is tlto bridge of planks, and here they swarmed in upon the unsuspecting defenders of the Ma- lakoff. They had not ten yards to go. We had ‘200, and were then out of breath. VVero nct planks better than scaling ladders? See how easily the French crossed. You ob- serve on your right hand, as you issue from the headof the French trench, a line of ga- bions on the ground running up to this bridge. That is a flying sap, which the French made the instant they got out of the trench into the Malakoff, so that they were enabled to pour a continuous stream of men into the works, with comparative safety from the flank fire of the enemy. In the same way they at once dug a trench across the work inside, to see if there were any galvanic wires to fire mines. Mount the parapet and descend—of' what amazing thickness are those emhrasures! From the level ofthe ground inside to the top ofthe parapet cannot be less than I8 feet. There are eight rows of gabions piled one above the other, and as each now recedes towards the top it leaves in the ledge below an ex- cellent banquctte for the defenders. Inside the sight is too horrible to dwell upon. The French are carrying away their own and the Russian wounded and there are five distinct piles of dead formed to clear the way. The ground is marked by pools of blood, and the smell is already noisome; swarms of flies settle on dead and dying; brokrn um.~kets, torn clothes, caps, shakes, swords, liayuncts, bags of bread,.cantccns, and haversacks are lying in indescribable wreck all over the place, mingled with heaps of shot, of grape, bits ofshell, car- tridges, case and canister, loose powder, official papers, and cooking tins. The traverses are so high and deep that it is

. impossible almost to get a View ofthe whole Already the fu- Iof the -Malalroff from any one spot, and {there is a high mound of earth in the middle iofthe work, either intended as a kind of

:shell proof, or the remains ofthe old \Vhito ;Towcr. The guns, which to the ninnber of 160 were found in lllc_WUll(, are all ship’s guns, and mounted on ship’s carriages, and worked in the same way as ship’s guns. ‘There are a few old-fa.-liioned, oddly-shaped mortars. Look around the work, and you will see that the strength of the Russian ,was his weakiicss-—he fell into.his° own boinb-proofs. In the parapet of the work may be observed several entrances—very narrow outside, but descending and enlarg- ing downwards, and opening into rooms some four or five feet high and eight or ten square. These are only lighted from the outside by day, and must have been pitch dark at night, unless the men were allowed lanterns. Here the garrison ietircd when exposed to a heavy bombardment. The odour ofthese narrow chambers is villain- ous, and the air reeks with blood and abo- minations unutterable. There are several oftliese places, and they might set defiance to the heaviest mortais in the world: over the roof is a layer of ships’ masts, cut in junks and deposited carefully; then there is over them a solid layer of earth, and above that a layer of gabions, and above that a pile of earth again. In one of these dun- geons, which is excavated in the solid rock, and was probably underneath the old VVhite Tower, the oflicer commanding seems to have lived. It must have been a dreary residence. The floor and the entrance was littered a foot deep with reports, returns, and perhaps despatches assuring the Czar that the place had sustained no damage. The garrison were in these narrow cham- bers enjoying their sicsta, which they in- variably take at twelve o’clock, when the French burst in on them like a torrent, and, as it were, drowned them in their holes. The Malakoff is a closed work; it is only open at the rear to the town, and the French having once got in, threw open a passage to their own rear, and closed up the front and the lateral communications with the curtains leading to the Great Redan and to the Little Rcdan. Thus they were enabled to pour in their supports, in order and with- out loss, in a continued stream, and to re- sist the efforts of the Russians, which were desperate and repeated, to re-take the place. They brought up their field guns u

once, and swept the Russian reserves and

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