I must beg further to record my thanks for the cordial co-operation and assistance I have received in carrying out the details of the service from the Chief of the Staff, the Adjutant and Quartermaster-Generals, and General Staff, as well as Generals commanding Divisions and Brigades of this Army.
I must reserve to myself, for the subject of a future despatch, bringing before your Lordship the particular mention of officers of the various branches of this Army, whom I shall beg to recommend to your favourable notice.
I entrust this despatch to the care of Brevet-Major the Honourable Leicester Curzon, who has been Assistant Military Secretary to my noble predecessor and myself since the commencement of this war, and who will be able to give your Lordship more minute details than the limits of a despatch will allow.
I have, &c,
James Simpson,
General Commanding.
FINAL ASSAULT ON SEBASTOPOL. Marshal Pelissier's Report.
Head-quarters, Sebastopol, September 11, 1855.
Monsieur le Marechal, — I shall have the honour to send you by next courier a detailed report of the attack which has rendered us masters of Sebastopol. I can only give you to-day a rapid sketch of the principal features of this great military achievement.
Since the 10th of August, the day of the Battle of the Tchernaya, and despite the repeated notifications of a new and more formidable attack of the enemy on the positions which we occupy on that river, every preparation was beiDg made for a decisive assault upon Sebastopol itself. The artillery of the Right Attack opened already on the 17 th of August a
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better sustained fire against the Malakhoff and against the Redan and Careening Bay, the neighbouring defences, and the roadstead, so as to allow the engineers to establish lodgments near the place, where the troops could throw themselves promptly on the enceinte. The engineers, moreover, prepared their scaling ladders, and all our batteries of the left opened a very violent fire against the town on the 5th of September. On their side the English kept up a heavy and incessant fire at the Great Redan and its redoubts, which they had to attack.
Everything being ready, I resolved, in concert with General Simpson, to give the assault on the 8th of September, at noon.
M'Mahon's division was to storm the Malakhoff works; Dulac's division the Redan of Careening Bay; and in the centre the division of La Motterouge was to march against the Curtain which unites those two extreme points. In addition to these troops I have given General Bosquet General Mellinet's division of the Garde to support those three first divisions. So much for the right.
In the centre the English were to attack the Great Redan by scaling it at its salient.
On the left the first corps, to which General della Marmora added a Sardinian Brigade, having at its head Levaillant's division, was to penetrate by the Central Bastion into the interior of the town, and then turn the Flagstaff Bastion, to make a lodgment there. General de Salles* instructions were only to follow up his attack if circumstances allowed him.
Moreover, the fleets of Admiral Lyons and Bruat were to make a powerful diversion by attacking the Quarantine, the roadstead, and sea fronts of the fortress. But the state of the sea, owing to a strong wind from the N.E, was such that neither the line-of-battle ships nor frigates could leave their anchorage. The English and French mortar-boats were, however, enabled to open fire. They fired in a remarkable manner, and did us good service.
Precisely at noon M'Mahon, La Motterouge's, and Dulac's divisions, electrified by their leaders, threw themselves against the Malakhoff, the Curtain, and the Little Redan of Careening Bay. After surmounting unheard-of obstacles, and after a terrible hand-to-hand struggle, M Mahon's division succeeded in making good a footing in the front part of the Malakhoff. The enemy kept up a hail of projectiles of every description upon our brave troops. The Redan of Careening Bay, exposed to a cross fire and to the fire of the steamers, was obliged to be evacuated after having been occupied; but La Motterouge's division held its ground on a portion of the Curtain, and M'Mahon's division gained ground in the Malakhoff, where General Bosquet poured in reserves, which I hastened up.
The other attacks were subordinate to that of the Malakhoff, the key of the defences of the whole place.
From the Brancion Redoubt, where I had placed myself, I saw that the Malakhoff was in our hands, and I gave the signal agreed upon with. General Simpson.