8-4 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
Cases of naval attack on forts, 
1 5. The only cases in which I have been able to obtain data of the effect of 
the fire of ships upon forts are those of the naval attack upon the forts at 
Sebastopol in 1854, and upon Port Sumter in April, 1863. In the former 
case, it is true, the guns employed were very inferior to those now in use ; 
but the masonry of the forts was also weaker in nearly the same proportion. 
In the latter case the conditions were reversed. Guns of the largest calibre 
were brought against a work designed to resist only the old class of 
ordnance. 
Naval attack on Sebastopol. 
16. In the naval attack on Sebastopol the allied fleet consisted of 27 
ships, viz. 11 English, 14 French, and 2 Turkish, mounting in all 2488 guns. 
Half this number 1244, were engaged. The French state that 30,000 
rounds were fired, but Todleben, who calculates the number of rounds fired 
at 50,000, considers that the French account only refers to the fire of the 
French fleet. 
Five Russian works, two of which were casemated, took part in the defence, 
viz. as follows. 
Work. 
Fort Quarantine (open battery) . 
Fort Alexander (partly casemated) .. 
Fort Constantine (casemated, with guns in open 
battery on terreplein).... 
Wasp Redoubt . 
Telegraph Battery .. 
Armament^ 
48 guns. 
51 „ 
43 „ 
5 „ 
5 „ 
The French and English fleets opened fire at ranges varying from 1000 
yds. to 1900 yds., the English being on the left and nearest the batteries to 
which they were opposed, viz. Fort Constantine, the Wasp Battery, and the 
Telegraph Battery. 
The engagements lasted about four hours, and the allied fleet was obliged 
to haul off with a large number of its ships seriously disabled. 
The only damage done to the Russian works by the fire of the fleet, was 
as follows 
* The English account states the number of guns in these works to be as follows, viz. 
guns. guns. 
Fort Quarantine . 61 I Fort Constantine . 104 
Fort Alexander. 64 j Wasp Redoubt . 12 
Telegraph Battery, 17 guns. 
This number must, however, refer in each case to the whole work, whereas the Russian account 
refers only to that part of the work which was engaged; 
