Friedrich Engels 
The fatal siege 


New-York Daily Tribune. 
Nr. 4413, 11. Juni 1855 


The fatal siege. 


By a rather laborious sifting of the British, French, Belgian and German 
journals received by the last steamer we are enabled to inform our read- 
ers with some precision what was the state of the siege-operations at '< 
Sevastopol up to the date of the last report. In truth, since our last 5 
examination of the facts of the case, hardly any advance has been mad 
The progress of the besiegers is exceedingly slow, and appears to be 
carried on more by fits and starts than by regular and steady steps. Thus 
a comparatively great activity was shown in the attack upon the Flagstaff 
bastion, since the Russian counter-guard was carried at the beginning of 10 
May, by which the works of the French were advanced at one single 
bound 150 yards. The main ditch was all but reached by this successful 
operation, and the turning of the parapets against the Russians, the se- .= 
curing of the new establishments against enfilading and rear fire, the 
connecting it with the trenches in the rear, completed under a close and 1 
heavy fire from front and flank and partially even from the rear, does 
great credit to the bravery and skill of the French engineers and sappei> ~* 
engaged in this work. As we have said before, the Flagstaff bastion cm 
be carried any time the French choose to assault it. Even the lowered 
tone of the Russian account admits as much, and seems to prepare the 2 
public for such an event; but whether the loss inevitable in such an a>- < 
sault will be outweighed by the advantages it will secure, is very doubtful. .' 
At any rate the Flagstaff, though connected with the main rampart, ma\ 
be considered, from the commanding ground in the rear and from its 
own projecting position, as a mere outwork, the taking of which vill 25" 
admit ofthe main wall being attacked on this particular point. A redoubt ° 
situated a little westward of the Flagstaff in front of the retired curtain “- 
connecting the latter with the Central bastion (No. 3 ofthe Russians, the 


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The fatal siege 


fe 

it e Flagstaff is their No. 4, the Redan their No. 5, Malakoff their No. 6), is 

*" « still in the hands of the Russians, as Gorchakoff s report up to the sixth 

of May distinctly asserts. 
Of the operations on the allied right attack—against the Redan, Mala- 
is koff and their respective outworks—we have still less definite accounts, 
as the British newspaper-correspondents profess to abstain from details 

— on military grounds. That the trenches are pretty close to the Russian 
works, is evident from the great loss the British engineers have suffered 
since the reopening ofthe active siege. Out of 60 officers 31 are killed or 

o invalided, or have died by sickness, and most of them were lost in the 
trenches. New batteries are being constructed, and it was expected that 

il the fire might be opened again about the end of May, from positions far 
nearer and consequently far more dangerous to the Russians than the 
last time. Yet, until the Mamelon is taken and fortified by the Allies, and 

15 the Russians expelled from Mount Sapun, nothing decisive can be un- 
dertaken against the main rampart on that side. 

Nee ke The inner defenses of Sevastopol are stated by the Russians to have 
been brought to a high degree of efficiency. Not only are the different 
bastions of the main rampart provided with coupures or second lines of 

>0 defense to the rear, so that in case the enemy gets hold of one of them, he 
itil finds himself cut off from the town and even from the adjoining 

is.., portions of the main rampart, but a general and continuous second line is 
completed, running in the suburb of Karabelnaya (east of the Inner Har- 
3or), about 150 to 200 yards behind the main rampart and parallel to it, 

25 while in the place itself it separates the close-built inner town from the 

y stray buildings descending toward the main ramparts, and all but bat- 

-- tered down by the French fire. Finally, the large, solid free-stone buil- 
dings of the inner town and of the dockyard and other naval establish- 

'2!.'{ ments of Karabelnaya, which are said to be quite uninjured by the 

30 bombardment, have been connected by a labyrinth of masonry barri- 
cades forming as many batteries, while the houses themselves have been 

-<*; crenelated for musketry, and where practicable for artillery too. Thus a 
jecond Saragossa has been prepared, but upon scientific principles, and 

~' with all the advantages offered by accomplished engineering skill; and if 

55 this last stronghold should ever be attacked by the Allies it will no doubt 
be defended with the same bravery as Saragossa was, but with infinitely 

4\ more system and ability. What under these circumstances an assault must 
lead to need not be stated. 

Meantime the return of warm and wet weather has revived the forms 
40 of sickness peculiar to Spring and Summer in that climate. Cholera and 
Plague have reappeared in the allied camp—as yet with no great violence, 


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Friedrich Engels 


but severe enough to serve as a warning of what is in store for the armryi 
The miasma from the mass of decomposing animal matter buried only, 
few inches below the ground all over the Chersonese has begun to make- 
itself observable. The correspondent of The London Times gives a de- 
scription of some portions of the camp situated among the graves, and of 
the exhalations rising when the sun shines upon them, which is calculated 
to excite the worst fears for the health of the army as soon as the hot 
weather shall have once fairly set in. Everybody knows the terrible effect 
produced upon health in hot climates by the presence of decaying animal 
matter. Where the mass of this is so enormous, where the living are so, 
closely packed together on the graves of the dead as on the Chersonese, 
that effect must be awful. Besides, the graves are extremely shallow, the 
bodies hardly covered over with a few inches of earth. Of disinfectants* 
too, there is a scant supply—not enough, indeed, to be of the smallest: 
perceptible use in so enormous a burying ground. How the Allies can' 
expect to carry on the siege under such circumstances it is impossible to 
imagine. And it may well be doubted whether the preservation of their, 
works during the approaching campaign in the field can be worth the; 
heavy destruction of life which it must occasion. 34 


358 


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