THE RUSSIAN BEAR AT BAY--THE LAST ACT OF THE
TRAGIC WAR.
Nearer and nearer to the great fortress crept now the works of the
allied armies. The grip of death was tightening on the brave
defenders of Sebastopol.
Brave? ah yes; give them their due. Their sufferings at this time
were greater even than our own, and under our fire at least two
hundred of them fell every day.
Around and in the ruined heaps of their batteries the unburied dead
still lay in heaps, and sickness, too, was rife.
But now the great and final tug of war must shortly come.
Could nothing be done even yet by their field forces? This is the
question the enemy asked himself.
A council of war was held on the ninth of August, and at this it was
determined to attack our allies on the upper part of the river
Tchernaya.
This was to be the last stand of the Bear at bay--in the open, that
is.
The French had 18,000 men and 48 guns on the heights of Fedioukine;
the Italians or Sardinians--our new allies--were near Tchorgoum, with
9,000 men and 36 guns; in the valley to the rear were the Turks, with
a reserve of 10,000.
The Russians, under Gortschakoff, held the M'Kenzie heights, and on
the night of the fifteenth of August they were reinforced by
regiments from the Belbek.
The Russian army was divided into two. One wing, of 13,000 infantry,
2,000 horse, and 62 guns, was under command of General Read, and was
on the right. It moved on to attack the French. General Liprandi
had the left wing, divided into two columns, one of which followed
Read; the other, commanded by Belgrade, was ordered to descend in
another direction, and halt on the road to Tchorgoum.
Next day, at sunrise, the battle was commenced by the driving in of
the Sardinian outposts. Things opened fairly well for Gortschakoff.
But the goddess Fortuna had surely deserted the Russian cause; for
General Read, mistaking an order, suddenly advanced upon the French
without their position having been cannonaded.
Both his divisions were driven back with great slaughter, and
although the battle raged long after this, as soon as Gortschakoff
saw that the French reserves, as well as the Turks, were being
hurried up for action, he knew that all hope was past, and so
retreated.
The losses on the French and Sardinian sides amounted to nearly 2,000
killed and wounded; but those of the Russians showed how terrible had
been the slaughter entailed by General Read's mistake. Three general
officers and 36 others were killed, 160 officers were wounded, and of
the rank and file over 6,000 were killed or wounded. Would
Gortschakoff, now that he saw his game was almost lost, give up
Sebastopol?
At first he was greatly disheartened by the result of the battle, and
evidently intended to do so; but he changed his mind, after a visit
to the interior of the fortress itself.
This visit of Russia's great general to Sebastopol would have been
called by sailors an inspection.
The only marvel is that, after the ghastly sights he witnessed
therein, he did not, if only out of pity for the poor, brave
defenders, give up the place at once.
The city proper had been demolished, houses were in ruins, public
buildings destroyed, whole streets reduced to chaos. Dismounted guns
could not be replaced even at night, owing to the fire of our mortar
batteries; the embrasures could not be repaired; nor could the
parapets that, cracked and broken, lay in the ditches, be rebuilt.
But, worst of all, the poor wounded men that had fallen by day had to
lie amidst heaps of slain till night permitted their being removed.
It is needless to say that the hospitals were crowded with sick and
wounded; for the death-rate at that time, from shot and shell and
sickness, must have been from 700 to 800 every day.
And in spite of all this, Gortschakoff determined to re-garrison with
half his army from M'Kenzie heights, and defend the works to the very
last extremity, as "the only honourable course that remained to him."
The last words are the tactician's own. And yet he knew that in--at
the outside--six weeks' time he must succumb, and yield up
Sebastopol. So these tactics were surely unwise; nor was
Gortschakoff's resolve in accordance with true honour.
I need say nothing about the saving of life that the capitulation of
Sebastopol, just after the battle of Tchernaya, would have effected
to the allies. The Russian general could not have been expected to
think of these, except to wish them utterly annihilated. But what I
do say--and I believe that my young readers will agree with me--is
that, in abandoning the great fortress at this time, Gortschakoff
could have sheathed a sword of honour; while, by continuing the
contest, the sword which he finally sheathed was one incrusted with
murder.
* * * * *
The bombardment was now continued, and erelong the Malakoff tower and
the works adjoining were silenced.
Our trenches were difficult to work, and their advancement towards
the Redan was soon put an end to by the rocks. As the French soil
was soft, they had worked up to within about forty yards of the
Malakoff. Further they could not get.
It was now agreed at a council of war that the time had come for the
final and grand assault. That chosen by Pelissier for the advance of
the French was exactly at noon, at which hour he knew the relief of
the works he had to take was always carried out--one garrison being
first marched out, and then the other or fresh one marched in. At
noon, therefore, the Malakoff would have fewer defenders.
A glance, at the map or plan will show you the work the French had
before them, which was certainly no child's play. One division was
told off to attack the Malakoff, a second the Curtain, and a third
the Little Redan. These would be supported by brigades.
The Central Bastion was to be attacked by no less than four divisions
well supported. These were to break through the rear of the bastion
or works near it, and capture the Flagstaff Bastion.
Everything being arranged, the cannonade was once more resumed on the
fifth of September.
It continued on the 6th and 7th, the mortars roaring on all night.
It was, indeed, a circle of fire--a _feu d'enfer_.
Todleben tells us that a mortar set fire to a line-of-battle ship on
the night of the 7th, which burned till nearly morning, and that the
blue and ghastly light from which--for the ship contained a large
cargo of spirits--shone along the ramparts, making on the minds of
the brave defenders a most painful impression.
Our own special work was the capture of the Redan, and it was,
considering our isolated position and want of cover, almost a forlorn
hope, being undertaken chiefly, we are told, as a mere distraction of
the enemy in favour of the French.
General Codrington himself was deputed to make the attack with his
Light Division, and with the Second Division, commanded by
Markham--the whole numbering about 3,000 men. Other parts of the
same division, and also the Third and Fourth Divisions, were held in
reserve in the third parallel.
* * * * *
Hardly had it gone twelve o'clock on the eighth of September when
Bosquet's first line made a wild dash for the Malakoff. Pelissier
had certainly chosen his time right well, for not a shot was fired
upon Bosquet's men, so completely taken by surprise were the
Russians. The Zouaves were first in the attack, and right quickly
did they rush the ditch and mount the escarp; those within were
speedily put to sword or bayonet, and this end of the great fort was
thus taken completely.
But they were not to have such easy work after all, for each traverse
or cross-work, running for 380 yards behind the tower, had to be
fought for separately and taken singly.
The Russians had been living in caves and holes dug beneath the
batteries, and they quickly came to the defence of the fort. The
struggle was terrible and bloody in the extreme. Often when the
Zouaves had taken a traverse they were hurled back; only, however, to
rest for a minute, and again to dash in.
Meanwhile MacMahon's forces had stormed the place from the eastern
face, and broken in at the rear of the traverses. Attacked thus,
both in front and rear, soon the whole was in possession of our
French allies.
But again and again Russian reserves were hurried up to retake this
fort. But all in vain; and so, seeing the hopelessness of the
attempt, Gortschakoff finally caused his troops to retire.
This fearful tulzie had lasted for four hours, and deeply and dearly
had the brave Frenchmen paid for their victory, over 3,000 having
been killed and wounded.
The brigades sent against the Little Redan and the Curtain were not
so successful; for though they stormed and took the first lines of
these works, they found other lines of defence stretching behind, and
these were so strongly defended by the Russian field batteries and by
the ships, that the French were decimated, and obliged at last to
withdraw to their trenches, which by this time were crowded with
their wounded. So ended the chief French attacks.
* * * * *
But how about our own attack upon the Redan? The question must be
faced. It is asked; let it be answered. We were _beaten_.
Certainly we may put the blame on the mismanagement of the attack,
and on the forces and difficulties against us. And we can point to
the bravery of our soldiers and sailors in crossing the open space,
amidst a _feu d'enfer_ of grape shot, round shot, case, and musketry.
We even got into the work; but the reserves did not come to time, and
so we retreated--I fear not in the best of order--suffering as much
in the retreat as in the advance.
Had not the French spiked the guns in the Malakoff which commanded
the Redan, but turned them against that fort, things might have ended
in a different way.
As soon as possible after regaining their trenches, the British,
beaten out of the Redan, recommenced their fire against that fort.
The capture of it was postponed till next day, when, English
regiments having failed to dispose of it, Sir Colin Campbell and his
brave and indomitable Highlanders were to have had a chance. Being
myself a Scot and a Celt, may I be forgiven, even by those of my
readers who dwell south of the Tweed, for believing that the kilties
would have been a little more successful?
The left wing of the French, I should inform the reader, failed in
all their attacks on the flanking works of the Central Bastion, and
were finally ordered by General Pelissier to desist in their
fruitless efforts.
Meanwhile, even before sunset, Gortschakoff was withdrawing his
forces across a bridge that had purposely been built, and by means of
boats to the north and therefore safe side of the great harbour. He
had begun to retreat early in the afternoon, and before next day the
whole army was across, and with them as many of the wounded as could
be borne.
But what a night of terror and suffering that must have been to 2,000
desperately-wounded men, who were left behind in a huge hospital all
helpless and alone! For throughout the darkness of night explosion
after explosion of the magazines took place--thirty-five in all were
blown up by the enemy--and the city took fire in every place where
there was anything to burn, adding to the scene a terror that is
indescribable. The last explosion was the loudest and most dreadful
of all, and with it the very earth shook all around. It was the
blowing up of the bridge.
Our losses were very great, those of the French treble, while
altogether the Russians lost over 13,000 men.
But about those 2,000 wounded men? Ah! one's heart bleeds to think
of their sad story. The doctors must, in many cases, have rushed in
panic from the poor wretches without completing their operations; for
when, forty-eight hours after the great day of battle, the Russian
vessel _Vladimir_, under a flag of truce, came over to beg for the
rest of their wounded, only 500 of them were found alive--many whose
limbs were but half amputated being found lying face down in their
own blood on the floor, where they had died in agony unutterable.
All the ships of war that had not been sunk were burned by the
Russians themselves, and as their blackened and fiery hulls sunk
hissing beneath the water, the curtain may have been said to drop on
the last scene of this tragic and terrible war.