Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1883 — Crimean Battlefields. [ARTICLE]

Crimean Battlefields.

Sebastopol is in ruins: but here and there houses of a better description are cropping up. There is a new admirality and a new church, the latter on the top of the ridge near the old ruined church of SS. Peter and Paul. It is built of Inkerman stone, and, with the new church of Vladimar and the great memorial edifice to the memory of those wlu> fell in the seige, situated on the north side of the harbor, forms three very conspicuous white objects, seen from the deck of the ship as one approaches Sebastopol. There is a good fish market at day-break each day, and the city has three good hotels. The newest, or Grand Hotel, is very comfortable. There are plenty of horses for riding and carriages for hire,so one disposed to revisit the fields of his earlier battles can easily do so, and without either much trouble or expense. The trenches are easily discerned by those who have any knowledge of them. Bits of sole-leather, heels of boots, buttons, the tin inside of pouches are about in all directions, and innumerable pieces of broken bottles. The monuments, from long exposure to the weather, are in many cases illegible. The sites Of camps are now greai meadows with fair crops. The windmill has its roof decayed and..gone. Our roads are our greatest monuments. There they are, unused and tiseless, as the Tartars never travel on macadamized roads if they can go on grass. The battlefield of Inkerman is now a forest of stunted trees. Not even the road up the redoubt is passable for a carriage. The two-gun battery cannot be seen until you are in it. The plains noy ■ underijett ltivation, and are covered with enormous fields of corn, vineyards and orchards. The town has some pleasant new houses, recently built, and a good hotel. It is recreation ground for those who like to get away from the dust‘and dirt of Sebastopol. There has been a good deal of property recovered from the wrecks in the harbor—money, wine, beer, etc. —and hopes are entertained that some of the £60.000 in gold known to be in the Captain’s cabin of the Prince may yet be recovered. I visited Alma then. It lies in solitary grandeur. The cattle and sheep avoid the deadly slopes. The few tombs covering the remains of the compatriots are ruined and neglected. The monument over the officers of the Twenty-third is in pieces. This is to be lamented as it is a beautiful memorial of white marble and conspicuous for many miles as you approach the battery where so many fell to rise no more.— Army and Navy Gazette.