The following is here set up in type direct from the handwriting of a
retired officer of the Greys, giving his own Crimean recollections. He
is modest of his name appearing; and at first intended that I should
write my own account, after listening to his remarks; but I am glad to
say that I induced him to make his own record, and I have even ignored
his request that I would "edit" his writing.
"War in Europe had ceased for 40 years, when in the reign of Queen
Victoria peace was broken, and troops from the United Kingdom were
being sent out to concentrate eventually in Turkey at the call of
that Power in its resistance to Russian aggression.
"The Greys were not included at first when the expedition started,
though cavalry (Heavy and Light) supplied regiments for the force
concentrated at Varna under Lord Raglan the commander-in-chief of
the British Army allied to the French in the joint expedition.
"The Greys were naturally disappointed at receiving no order to
embark at first, but when it was decided by the Government that an
invasion of the Crimea was to be undertaken in July, 1854, they
received orders to start at once for Constantinople, where they
were quartered in the cavalry barracks at Kulalie on the Bosphorus
for several weeks during the time the flotilla was in preparation
for crossing the Black Sea.
"At last word came that it had embarked for the Crimea, and with it
as far as cavalry was concerned only light cavalry regiments were
included at that time.
"Very shortly, however, the transport _Himalaya_, which had
originally brought out the regiment from England, appeared in the
Bosphorus; and immediately embarked the Regᵗ for service in the
Crimea.
"It so happened that as the _Himalaya_ was passing the Fortress of
Sebastopol the Russians were engaged in sinking ships to block the
harbour to our fleet; a momentous decision! as it proved.
"A remarkable scene then presented itself. First came the British
Fleet, then the French Fleet, covering the flank of the allied
army in full march towards the fortress--the French regiments
being nearest to the sea were sighted first, then the British more
inland, the whole army (though the fact was yet unknown) flushed
with victory of the Alma River which they left that morning behind.
"The Greys in fact joined the army at the Alma River where they
were met by Lord Burghersh, Lord Raglan's Aide-de-Camp, who gave
the first intimation of the Battle and suggested the steamer should
drop down to the next river, the Katcha, and there disembark at any
rate a squadron if possible before dark, so that it might watch for
a force expected from Eupatoria to attack the rear of the army.
"This was done and the bulk of the Regᵗ disembarked the following
morning.
"At the next river, the Belbec, the Greys from being with the
rearguard was moved right through the English and French armies,
bivouacked near the great high road to Sebastopol so as to become
the advanced guard of the whole army, for they were the freshest
troops just arrived from England, and 'turned out' as if for a
Horse Guards Parade!
"It was a strange scene; as soon as the French caught sight of the
bearskin caps they began to cheer lustily, and as the Regᵗ neared
the Highlanders of the British army, hung on cheering and asking
for news from home; the French meanwhile calling out 'Voila de la
Cavalrie, voila des Grenadiers a cheval.'
"What followed is worth mentioning in some little detail, since the
Greys was the only Heavy Cavalry Regᵗ as yet landed in the Crimea,
and a special job fell to their lot that day. The Regᵗ being the
advanced guard of the Allied Forces moving straight to the North
side of the fortress a singular and most important change of
direction had to be made quite suddenly when the Russian outposts
had been reached.
"This movement is known as 'the flank march,' undertaken in
consequence of the allied commanders' acceptance of a memorandum by
Sir John Burgoyne, the distinguished officer of Engineers, pointing
out that the South side of the fortress was practically undefended,
and that if the Allied Forces could successfully move round, the
North side might be left to itself.
"Sir John Burgoyne's memorandum, dated the day after the battle
of the Alma, is given in full in an instructive volume by Sir
John Adye, entitled 'A Review of the Crimean War, published by
Hurst & Blackett, 1860.' On arrival at the Belbec river the allied
commanders adopted the plan proposed in the able memorandum alluded
to.
"In order to strike the main road which leads into the interior
of the country down the Mackenzie heights towards Sebastopol
and to the plains of Balaclava, the allies who, on the morning
of the 25 September, were on the heights above the Belbec, had
for some distance to march in a south-easterly direction through
thick woods, in which there was only a slight track. On the same
morning Prince Menschikoff, ignorant of the change, and doubtless
conceiving that the plans of the allied generals were fully
decided upon the attack on the _North_ side, was moving a force, a
considerable force, by the same main road up the Mackenzie heights
and into the country towards Bacskiverai, with the intention,
probably, when his troops had somewhat regained their confidence,
and when they had been joined by reinforcements, to return and
attack the Anglo-French army in its rear.
"Thus, on the 25th September the two hostile forces were
unconsciously moving in two lines which intersected each other at
a point close to the crest of the heights. Consequently, to the
surprise of both, the advanced guard of the one suddenly found
itself in the presence of the rearguard of the other. The Russian
rearguard after standing for a moment dispersed into the wood,
taking pot-shots at the Greys, who were forming up on the first
available open space; as this could not be submitted to it became
necessary, as there were no infantry present, to dismount a portion
of the Regᵗ to skirmish in the wood against the irritating Russian
Infantry, who, after firing at the horsemen, threw themselves down
and pretended to be dead.
"Sir Edward B. Hamley, writing in 1855, in his book, 'The Campaign
in the Crimea, London, Blackwood,' alludes to having been present
at this incident, saying, 'Some of the Scots Greys dismounting went
skirmishing through the wood, and about a dozen Russians throwing
themselves down and pretending to be dead, rose after they were
past and fired on them, for which discreditable ruse they were, as
they deserved to be, all put to death.'
"This was too much for Jock and he proceeded to use his carbine,
not however before consulting the Sergeant-Major, (so the
regimental story goes,) in the words 'Sairgent-Major, shall I shoot
'em?' and the prompt reply came, 'Most unquestionably!'
"In the meantime an excited Staff Officer came to the Colonel of
the Regᵗ asking for 'six determined men' to gallop down the ravine
road and upset the foremost Russian carriage so as to secure the
convoy. Again the story goes that the Colonel promptly replied by
ordering 'from the right number off six!' and away they went with
the happiest result--amongst other loot there was Menschikoff's
carriage in which was stored a lot of champagne which it is
needless to say was broached without much delay.
"In the carriage was a Colonel of high rank who evidently had not
forgotten to use the contents of the Prince's carriage.
"He was transferred as a prisoner to the Fleet later on--where he
remained till at Petersburg the authorities consented to release
Lord Dunkellin who had been taken prisoner and whose exchange was
conditional on the return of this officer. There are stories extant
about his subsequent fate.
"This casual encounter was so far useful for the moment, that
it must have rather mystified the enemy as to the places of the
allies, but Lord Raglan feeling the importance of regaining the
coast, his army being for the time scattered for miles along a
thin line, at once retraced his steps and continued his march by
the steep road down the Mackenzie heights: and towards sunset
the light and first divisions streamed across the plain followed
shortly after by the 2nd Division, and subsequently by the French
Army bearing with them in a litter Marshall St. Arnaud in a dying
condition. He died, a few days after the town of Balaclava was
occupied, on board a French Ship of War.
"Sir John Adye who was present on the occasion describes 'the Flank
march' as the one great strategic success of the whole War.
"'The fortunate result of the flank march, by giving the allied
generals possession of the excellent, though diminutive, harbour of
Balaclava, and thus affording them a safe communication with their
fleets, relieved them of one of the anxieties hitherto attending
their movements, and enabled them to devote all their attention to
the one great object of the expedition--the capture of Sebastopol.'
"Considering the immense importance of this little harbour, the
only depot of the English Army and considering its isolated
position, it being several miles from the plateau on which the
infantry of the army was encamped its defence was a cause of keen
anxiety.
"It can scarcely be supposed that a few Turkish redoubts with the
93rd Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell was a suitable defence
for such a place--and yet what was there besides the Cavalry
encamped in the plain?
"The Cavalry it is true had been reinforced by the arrival of the
heavy Cavalry Regtˢ (since the flank march described above) which
had been left at Varna on the other side of the Black Sea: and
their performance on the occasion of the coming battle is perhaps
as well known as any incident during the Crimean War. But the
battle was not merely a dash and a ride, and to understand what
took place requires some sifting of the circumstances so as to
arrive at a definite notion of the _day's work_.
"After the middle of October the first reinforcements for Prince
Menschikoff's army having arrived the enemy had been observed for
some days hovering in the neighbourhood of Balaclava and the troops
there were constantly kept on the alert.
"At day break on the 25th October General Liprandi with 20,000
infantry, supported by a strong force of cavalry and about 40
guns made a determined attack and in the words of Sir E. Hamley
the battle commenced by 'the Russian guns on the eminences and in
the valley opened a cannonade on the outposts held by the Turks.
A troop of Horse Artillery and a field battery supported by the
Scots Greys were ordered up to Balaclava to the slopes between
the outposts and found themselves opposed to the fire of several
field batteries and service guns of position which covered an
advance of infantry against the hills on the right. As the troop
was armed with only 6-pounders, it and the field battery were
quite over-matched, both in metal and in numbers; nevertheless our
artillery maintained the contest till its ammunition was exhausted,
when it retired, having lost a good many horses and a few men
besides Maude the Captain of the troop, who was severely wounded by
a shell which burst in his horse.'
"Time had still to be given to the infantry to arrive from the
plateau miles away, therefore the squadrons had to be withdrawn
very _gradually_, all the time being under the fire of Liprandi's
guns.
"Thus opened the Battle of Balaklava, the engagement continued
through the day with separate incidents, with intervals between
them, and marked by singular interest. Sir Edward Hamley, after
speaking with measured words of one of these incidents which
immediately preceded the well-known cavalry charge of the Heavy
Brigade, says, 'There was something almost theatrical in the
grandeur of this portion of the spectacle; the French stationed on
the heights, and the English passing along them, looked down, as if
from the benches of an amphitheatre, on the two bodies of cavalry
meeting in mortal shock on the level grassy plain, which enclosed
on every side by lofty mountains would have been a fit arena for a
tournament of giants.'"
The next home movements of the Regiment were: 1857, Newbridge; 1858
and 1859, Dublin; 1860, Newbridge; 1861, Dublin; 1862 and 1863,
Edinburgh; 1864, Birmingham; 1865, Aldershot; 1866, Newbridge; 1867,
Dublin; 1868, Dundalk; 1869, Cahir; 1870, Dublin; 1871, Longford; 1872
and 1873, Edinburgh; 1874, Aldershot; 1875, Brighton; 1876 and 1877,
Leeds; 1878, York; 1879 and 1880, Dundalk; 1881, Dublin; 1882 and 1883,
Ballincollig; 1884 and 1885, Edinburgh; 1886 and 1887, Aldershot;
1888, Brighton; 1889 and 1890, Dundalk; 1891 and 1892, Newbridge;
1893, Dublin; 1895 and 1896, Aldershot; 1897, Hounslow; 1898 and
1899, Edinburgh; 1900, 1901, and 1902, South Africa; 1903 and 1904,
Stellenbosch in Cape Colony; 1905, Norwich; 1906, Edinburgh; 1904,
Middelburg.
[Illustration:
MEMORIAL
ERECTED TO THE
MEMORY OF
FALLEN HEROES
+OF THE+
ROYAL SCOTS GREYS
UNVEILING CEREMONY
PERFORMED BY
THE RT. HON.
EARL OF ROSEBERY,
+K.G.+, +K.T.+,
EDINBURGH,
+16th November, 1906+.]
_Lord Rosebery, at the unveiling of the Memorial, spoke as follows_:--
+Colonel Coventry Williams, and Gentlemen of the Scots Greys+,
You have done me a great honour in asking me to unveil this
memorial, and, if I may say so, you have done a wise thing in
erecting it. You have raised to the memory of your comrades a
memorial in the Capital of Scotland, under the shadow of Edinburgh
Castle, in the noblest street in the world. But, as things are,
it must be a memorial not merely to the dead, to those who have
fallen, but to that proud and illustrious regiment which you
represent, and which, in the inscrutable dispensation of the higher
powers, we are so soon to lose for ever from our midst. For the
Scots Greys are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. They were
raised, indeed, in these Lowlands of ours under circumstances which
do not so much elicit our sympathy as the events of their later
history, though they were raised by a Lothian man, Colonel Dalziel
of Binns; as they were raised for the purpose of harrying the
Covenanters, who represented the backbone of the character and the
history of Scotland in the reign of the last two Stuarts. However,
they were soon to be called to higher duties than those of civil
war. They served gloriously under Marlborough in the Low Countries;
they fought all through the wars of the eighteenth century; they
captured a standard at Dettingen; and yet the time of their full
glory had not come. It was at Waterloo that their chance came;
it was in that tremendous charge when, with the Inniskillings
and the Royals, they rode down masses of French infantry--in
that tremendous charge where Sergeant-Major Ewart, one of your
non-commissioned officers, wrested an eagle from the French, and
cut down successively three gallant Frenchmen who stood to defend
it. Later on that day they came to the assistance of a small body
of the 92nd Highlanders, and they together, to the cry of "Scotland
for Ever," annihilated a greatly superior column of the enemy which
was opposed to them. And, again, as the shades of evening drew on,
they joined in the unrelenting pursuit of the broken enemy until
darkness put an end to the engagement. Surely no regiment ever had
a prouder day than that. It need not be fiction, but may well be
believed, that Napoleon himself recognised their achievement, and
honoured their heroic courage. It is not, then, in vain, that to
this day, and for all time to come, the Scots Greys bear with them
the symbol of the Eagle and the name of Waterloo.
Then they were called to serve in the Crimea. We speak in the
presence of a distinguished Russian officer; but the brave honour
the brave, and he will allow me to recall, even in his presence,
that charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, partially forgotten
in the more startling achievement of the Light Brigade, but still
splendid and memorable, when the Heavy Brigade, headed once more
by the Scots Greys and the Inniskillings, rode through the dense
masses of the enemy. It was at the close of that day that Sir Colin
Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde, rode up to the regiment and with
bared head said to them: "Scots Greys, I am sixty-one, but were
I a young man I would ask for nothing better than the honour of
serving in your ranks." Then came the South African War. That was a
very different campaign. It was war carried on in vast solitudes,
against small bodies of men--against an enemy that was almost
always invisible. No such heart-breaking or harassing work for a
soldier can be conceived. It afforded no room for the splendid
achievements of Waterloo and the Crimea. It required perseverance,
patience, and vigilance, almost as much as courage; but is not cold
courage--cold-blooded courage prolonged through long years--at
least as meritorious as the hot, warm-blooded courage of the onset?
The British Army in South Africa fought under harassing conditions.
They fought a new warfare; they fought hardship and disease; and
they fought under the discouragement of military operations carried
on with patience through long years to a tardy but triumphant
result.
Gentlemen, I was with the Scots Greys at their last dinner in this
city; it was a cheerful dinner, but it was not glad or triumphant.
We met under the shadow of a humiliating reverse; we knew that,
humanly speaking, we could not expect that all who were then
present would return to us again. We knew at any rate that all were
about to face the unknown, and we then resolved and declared that
evening that having put our hands to this thing we would see it
through; that we would muddle through somehow, and somehow or other
we did muddle through. Some of those who were there that night did
not return, and it is to their memory that we erect this memorial
to-day.
Honour to the unreturning brave, the brave who will return no
more. We shall not see their faces again. In the service of their
Sovereign and their country they have undergone the sharpness of
death, and sleep their eternal sleep thousands of miles away in
the green solitudes of South Africa. Their places, their comrades,
their saddles will know them no more, for they will never return
to us as we knew them. But in a nobler and a higher sense, have
they not returned to us to-day? They return to us with a message of
duty, of courage, of patriotism. They return to us with a memory
of high duty faithfully performed. They return to us with the
inspiration of their example. Peace, then, to their dust. Honour to
their memory. Scotland for ever!
[_A copy of the speech was presented to every Trooper of the
Regiment, with Lord Rosebery's best wishes._]