He may, however, accomplish much in re-organizing the army durinsr the wintei*. ECHAPTER XIII. The first, of September — Prospect of another winter in the Crimea — Terrible cfTcct of tlie bombardment — How tlie Croats enjoy thcmselve.s — The "Vanity Kair" at Kadikoi suppressed— Spies — S-tory of the arrest of a Polisli officer in Englisli imiform — Accumulation of stores — Lavisli expenditure — Nuts for John Bull to crack — Spanish mules — Auxiliaries from every region — Transports— Land Tr.insport Corps— Army Works Corps — Mounted Staff Corps — Disasters in tlie Allied Camp — Progress of the Siege — Fearful explosion in the Mamelon — Daring attempt of the Russians to gain possession of a portion of the English works — Loss in the affair.
Before Sebastopoi,, September 1. There is many a fine fellow in camp thinking this morning of some pleasant terrain, where partridges abound, and friends are gathered intent upon harmless slaughter, who will never see the old country again. It is to he hoped, indeed, that omarmy will not suffer so severely this month as it did in the corresponding period of last year, after the victory of the Alma, and the forced march to Balaklava; but it cannot be forgotten, that with a small force on this plateau, we then suffered many losses from sickness, and that we have not now such " seasoned troops" as the veterans of Varna and Btilgaria, while the numbers of men and animals, and the consequent sources of disease, have been enormously increased, and are now accumulated in the same space of ground.
The army is, it appears, by common consent, doomed to remain here another winter, which may be, that the will of Heaven and the improvidence of man will render more terrible in its effects than the last. There is no apparent reason why we should not succeed in establishing ourselves on the south side, ere the frost and snow interrupt active operations. The case will be altered this time twelvemonth, should the Russians be able to maintain their army till then. Mortars are coming in by scores, and there is abundance of sliells and fuses for the present use of our batteries. Sebastopol has an insatiable raaw ibr nuiterial, and devours tons ■upon tons of iron witliout any apparent inconvenience. Even when there is no " fire," no bombardment, the mass of ammunition expended in reducing the fire of the phice, and in covering our own and preventing the enemy's works, is, to a civilian, incredible.
After the failure of June 18, our cannonade languished. We talked of it as slackening, and considered it extinct. Prince Gortscbakofi' assures the world that it was a inere squib, a feeble firework, which did those tough Russians no harm, and caused their troops no inconvenience; and yet, somehow or other, between the 18th of June and 18tli of July, not less than eight thousand pretty little globules of ii'on, eight, ten, and thirteen inches in diameter, and falling with a weight in the first instance equivalent to fifty, and in the second to fifty to ninety tons, were deposited inside the lines of Sebastopol, and every one that burst sent forth some six or eight fragments, of several pounds weight each, a distance of two or three hundred yards, unless they were stopped in transitu by traverse or sinew.
The eiFect of the fire of two hundred mortars (of which we are now talking), properly protected by horizontal fire, would speedily render the portion of the south side within range quite untenable, and if once we gained the hills and ridges on which either the Bastion du Mat, the Redan, or the MalakhofF is seated, we should be in a position to command the whole of the harbour and roadstead of Sebastopol. Nor does it seem likely that the enemj' could construct any very efficient defences on the steep descent which leads to the water's edge, at the other side of the works, such as would hold us in check if once we had entered the place, or that the Russians would risk their army \)j defending them.
The preparations for road making and road repairing are promising for the winter. The railway is to be trenched in and ballasted up, the permanent way is to be placed in perfect order; but, unless the disgusting brutality of the men who drive the horses on the line be restrained, we shall have no horse power left to work it. It was but yesterday I saw a ruffian beating a horse across the loins with the heavy billet of wood used to cog the wheels when the truck halts on an incline. The navvies understood how to use their horses; the men of the Land Transport Corps, some of them at least, seem to do their best to kill them, and to destroy the trucks as fast as they can.