London, January 19. Sir Howard Douglas has added a critical 
appendix on the events of the recent war to a new edition of his 
famous work on Naval Gunnery.2 Among other things, he proves, 
from most recent experience and on the basis of official material 
at his sole disposal, that fleets are inadequate against casemated 
forts if the latter are correctly constructed and properly defended; 
the uselessness of bombs against solid masonry; and finally, that it 
is possible to make a breach in towers and casemated forts, such as 
the ones at Bomarsund and Sevastopol, only with heavy siege- 
guns—32-pounders at least—and that, moreover, in the old 
manner, because the unsteady aim from a ship would never cause 
a breach without exposing the ship to certain destruction. As to 
the Crimean campaign in particular, Douglas, in spite of his 
partisanship for the commanders in the Crimea, and with all due 
semi-official consideration for his official position, comes to the 
conclusion that ultimately the Crimean expedition will prove a 
failure. But has not the Thunderer of The Times imparted the 
great news that Sevastopol was to be taken by storm after a 
forty-eight-hour cannonade! It had this, said The Times, from a 
reliable source, and it was solely to withhold its information from 
the Russians that it did not reveal all concerning an event which 
would definitely take place within the next few days (see The 
Times from December 26 to 31). There was no doubting it: 
Sevastopol was to be taken within the next few days.” 

“ Engels gives the title in English.— Ed. 
> The Times, No. 21942, January 4, 1855, leader.— Ed. 

This is what happened. As everyone knows, The Times displayed 
furious opposition to the Foreign Legion Bill, because it learned 
about this measure only when the rest of the general public did. 
Then it began to fret and fume and to grumble at the Ministry. 
To keep the paper quiet, the latter was cowardly enough to fling it 
a bit of news—the storming of Sevastopol, in doing which the 
Ministry transformed a design, considered by the generals for use 
in certain contingencies and under certain conditions, into a 
positive plan of campaign. That French papers—that is to say, 
semi-official organs—made similar reports is not surprising, for 
the loan of five hundred millions was near at hand. That The 
Times was duped is equally obvious. It believes every news item 
which it receives twenty-four hours earlier than any other paper. 

The situation in the Crimea has slightly improved. While the 
French suffer comparatively few losses from illness, their cavalry 
being well mounted and their infantry lively and active, the British 
continue daily to send 150 men into hospital and to bring out 
forty to fifty dead. Their artillery has no horses and their cavalry 
has to dismount, so that their horses may wear themselves out in 
hauling up the heavy cannon from Balaklava. Every two to three 
days the weather alternates between rain and light frost, so that 
there has been no decrease at all in the expanse of mud. Since 
almost all means of transport are occupied in supplying provisions 
for the army, the procuring of which remains the foremost 
necessity, neither cannon nor ammunition can be brought up. In 
the meantime, trenches have been dug close to the enemy 
positions, and a third parallel has been constructed which, 
although it cannot be provided with arms, must nevertheless be 
defended against sorties. It is impossible to say how close these 
trenches. are to the nearest points under attack, since reports are 
contradictory and, of course, not published officially. Some say 
140 or 150 yards, while, according to a French report, the nearest 
point is still 240 yards away. In the meantime, French batteries, 
now completed and mounted, must wait because the desultory and 
utterly ineffectual November cannonade has reduced supplies of 
ammunition, and a repetition of so desultory a fire would be 
inept. Thus the Russians have had, and still have, sufficient time, 
not only to repair any damage suffered through earlier attacks, 
but to raise new works, and they are doing this with so much 
enthusiasm that at present Sevastopol is stronger than ever before. 
Any decisive storm is quite outside the realm of possibility, as there 
are several lines of defence one behind another, and as the large 
stone buildings in the town behind the last circular wall have been 

Critical Observations on the Siege of Sevastopol 595 

transformed into as many redoubts. Whenever the siege recom- 
mences, everything will have to start again from the beginning, 
but with the difference that the batteries have come considerably 
closer to the town and hence are more effective. But at what a 
price has this advantage been bought! It was precisely the task of 
guarding these extended communication trenches which caused 
most of the cases of sickness in the British army by depriving the 
soldiers of their sleep to an excessive degree. Besides, the Russians 
were active enough in making sorties which, although not always 
successful, served to exhaust an already overworked enemy. 

In the meantime, the Turkish army has gradually arrived in 
_Eupatoria whence it will have to operate against Simferopol and, 
simultaneously, watch the northern side of Sevastopol. This 
operation which completely divides the Turks from the Anglo- 
French army, thus forming two quite separate armies, is another 
strategic blunder which invites the Russians to defeat each one 
separately. However, it was unavoidable. It would have been an 
even greater mistake to accumulate yet more troops on the small 
Heracleatic Chersonese. | 

This is how the results of the famous Balaklava “flank march” 
are developing.