special war correspondents in the field. The news of the victory was
despatched to London with a rapidity prophetic of the feats performed by
latter-day correspondents. Besides the war correspondents, several artists
of note followed the armies of the allies. Among the French painters who
have perpetuated some of the well-known episodes of the Crimean War were
Horace Vernet, who painted a "Battle of Alma," and Paul Alexandre Protais,
a pupil of Desmoulins, who first came into note about that time. Another
artist who made his early reputation in the war of the Crimea was Adolphe
Schreyer.
[Sidenote: Tolstoi]
On the Russian side, Count Lyof Tolstoi served at the front, together with
his namesake and fellow writer, Count Alexander Tolstoi. There he gathered
impressions for his stories on the siege of Sebastopol, and for his
subsequent great novel of the Napoleonic invasion, "War and Peace."
[Sidenote: Cholera]
Besides the news of victory, the Crimean War correspondents told of the
sore plight of the English army, of the ravages of cholera, and of the
wretchedly organized hospital system. No preparations had been made for a
very long campaign. The taking of Sebastopol, it was thought by the
English, would present no grave difficulties.
[Sidenote: Todleben]
But Sebastopol was better prepared to meet an attack than England knew.
True it is that early in the war the city might have been taken by a dash
from the land and sea. But the chance was now gone. Three days after the
defeat of Alma, Menzikov sank seven vessels of the Russian Black Sea fleet
in the mouth of the harbor. On all sides the city was strongly fortified in
accordance with the suggestion of Todleben, an ingenious artillery officer.
[Sidenote: Allies beaten off]
Instead of moving directly upon Sebastopol the allies first marched to
Balaklava, further to the south, where they would be in constant
communication with the ships and could establish a base of supplies. On
October 17, an unsuccessful attack was made on Sebastopol.
[Sidenote: Russian success]
At dawn on October 25, the Russians crossed the Tchernaya and stole rapidly
on until their vanguard had reached a position from which they could
cannonade Canrobert's Hill, the post most distant from the forces of the
allies and nearest the village of Kamara. The main Russian army under
Liprandi soon came up and began to fire upon Canrobert's Hill and the
adjacent works. The English replied with the assistance of a troop of horse
artillery and of a field battery. Two English divisions and two French
brigades were sent to the aid of the garrison on the hills. The Russians
succeeded in storming Canrobert's Hill and in capturing the next and
smaller fortification. Threatened by overwhelming numbers, the troops on
the remaining hills withdrew.
[Sidenote: Balaklava]
Two English cavalry brigades--the Light and the Heavy--commanded by Lord
Lucan, had been manoeuvring to protect Balaklava. The Light Brigade,
under Lord Cardigan, faced the Tchernaya; the Heavy Brigade, under
Scarlett, was on the Balaklava side of the ridge. A great body of Russian
cavalry swept down the slope upon the Heavy Brigade, and for a moment threw
it into disorder. But Scarlett's men charged the Russians. The two opposing
bodies of cavalry clashed and seemed to melt one within the other. Then the
Russian horsemen yielded, and fled over the ridge whence they had first
appeared five minutes before.
[Sidenote: The charge of the Light Brigade]
A disposition on the Russian side to carry off the captured guns induced
Lord Raglan to send Lord Lucan an order "to advance rapidly to the front
and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns." The order was carried
by Captain Nolan, who found Lucan between his two brigades, with the Light
Brigade beyond Woronzov road. Whose "front" was meant Lucan did not know.
Nolan conjectured that "the guns" in question were those which had retired
with the retreating Russian cavalry. Already the Russian cavalry had taken
protection behind its works toward the Tchernaya, and was supported by
Liprandi's troops posted along the Woronzov road, and by Russian guns
bearing on the valley from the ridge and from Fedioukin heights. Nolan,
Lord Lucan reported later, insisted that these very guns must be regained.
Although Lord Cardigan of the Light Brigade shared Lucan's misgivings he
obeyed the command. With the order, "The Brigade will advance!" the famous
charge of the Six Hundred began. Nolan galloped obliquely across the
Brigade as it started. He was killed by the first shell fired from a
Russian gun. Into the thick of the Russians Cardigan rode with his men. The
forlorn exploit has been immortalized by Alfred Tennyson:
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
[Sidenote: Liprandi's victory]
The whole Brigade would have been wiped out after the repulse, when the
Russian cavalry rode in pursuit, had not several squadrons of French
cuirassiers ridden to the rescue. The fact that the Russians retained the
hills which they had captured justified Liprandi in claiming the victory.
[Sidenote: Preparing for battle]
In November, the French infantry in the Crimea numbered 81,000, the British
16,000, and the Turkish 11,000. Brave as the Moslems undoubtedly were, they
were not permitted to demonstrate their value in subsequent encounters.
While the allies strengthened their batteries and replenished their
magazines, the Russians likewise fortified their position and gathered
reinforcements. It was a race on both sides for the first delivery of the
attack. On November 4, the allied commanders definitely arranged for a
cannonade and an assault which was to place Sebastopol at their mercy. The
Russians, recognizing their peril, completed the assembly of their forces
to attack the allies and forestall them. In all, Menzikov could oppose
115,000 soldiers to the 65,000 available men of the allies. The Russian
commander assigned the main attack to General Soimonov with 19,000 infantry
and 38 guns and to General Paulov with 16,000 infantry and 96 guns. The
regiments in the valley of the Tchernaya, formerly commanded by Liprandi,
but now led by Gortschakov, were "to support the general attack by drawing
the enemy's forces toward them." The garrison of Sebastopol was to cover
with its artillery fire the right flank of the attacking force. After
effecting their junction, the two divisions were to place themselves under
General Danneberg's command.
[Sidenote: Inkermann]
Soimonov issued under cover of a thick fog from the fortress before dawn on
November 5, and to the surprise of the allies began the attack on the
English left. The timely arrival of reinforcements under Buller enabled the
British to repel the Russians. Soimonov was left dead on the field. The
attack of Paulov on the right was no more successful. The Russians were
here repulsed with frightful loss. When Danneberg arrived on the scene he
found that, with Paulov's battalions on Mount Inkermann and with those of
Soimonov, he could recommence the battle with 19,000 men and 90 guns. Ten
thousand of these men were hurled against the English centre and right by
Danneberg. The carnage was frightful. Between the hostile lines rose a
rampart of fallen men. The Russians would probably have swept away the
British by the sheer force of greater numbers, had they not been taken in
the flank and repulsed by a French regiment which arrived just in time to
save their English comrades.
[Sidenote: A dear victory]
Although the Russian attacking force had been diminished to 6,000 men, it
was once more resolutely launched against the enemy, this time against the
centre and left of the allied armies. So impetuous was the assault, that
for a time the Russians carried all before them. But a simultaneous,
irresistible advance of the French and English not only repulsed the
attacking force, but drove it off the field. Shortly before noon the battle
was decided. The heavy losses suffered by the Russians enabled the allies
to oppose greater numbers of men against Danneberg's broken battalions and
his still unused reserve, and to make use of their guns, now for the first
time superior in number to the Russian ordnance. The battle of Inkermann
closed with no grand charge on the one side, nor wild flight on the other.
When the Russians saw that success was hopeless, they withdrew gradually,
with no attempt on the part of the wearied allies to convert the repulse
into a rout. On both sides, men had been ruthlessly sacrificed.
[Sidenote: Crimean horrors]
Inkermann was followed by a gloomy winter. The Black Sea was swept by
terrible storms which destroyed transport ships laden with stores for the
army. The horses that charged at Balaklava became unfit for service; the
men who had fought at Inkermann languished in field hospitals. In the
wretchedly organized lazarets at Scutari the sick and wounded died by
scores for lack of proper medical attendance. Shameful frauds were
perpetrated in filling the contracts for preserved meats. With grim humor
"Punch" exclaimed: "One man's preserved meat is another man's poison."
After the harrowing misery that prevailed in camp had been pictured in the
London newspapers, something like system was finally established in the
hospitals by the energy of Miss Florence Nightingale.
[Sidenote: Sardinia's offered help]
Balaklava and Inkermann had a profound effect upon the diplomatic
negotiation of the Powers. England and France attempted to induce Austria
and Prussia to take arms against the Czar. But Prussia would do nothing
without the Confederation; and Austria would do nothing without Prussia.
Buol-Schauenstein, the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, would gladly
have mediated; but the prospects of success were not rosy. To the annoyance
of Austria, Piedmont, which had maintained its position in Italy despite
Austria, offered to take part in the war. Austria saw that she must now act
quickly if she wished to preserve her European prestige. On December 2, she
signed a treaty with England and France binding herself not to negotiate
separately with the Czar; to defend the principalities which she had
occupied in accordance with her compact with Turkey, after their evacuation
by the Russians; and to deliberate with the Powers as to the best course to
be pursued if the war were not ended by January 1, 1855. The treaty was
intended merely to thwart Piedmont.
1855
[Sidenote: Crimean war scandals]
[Sidenote: Parliamentary inquiry]
Complaints of neglect and maladministration in the Crimea waxed ever
louder. The reports of the war correspondents at the front aroused
indignation in London and Paris. Now the London "Times" came out with a
leading article which produced a profound sensation throughout England. The
burden of it was a bitter complaint that "the noblest army ever sent from
our shores has been sacrificed to the grossest mismanagement. Incompetency,
lethargy, aristocratic hauteur, official indifference, favor, routine,
perverseness and stupidity reign, revel, and riot in the camp before
Sebastopol, in the harbor of Balaklava, in the hospitals of Scutari, and
how much nearer home we do not venture to say. We say it with extremest
reluctance, no one sees or hears anything of the Commander-in-Chief.
Officers who landed on the 14th of September, and have incessantly been
engaged in all the operations of the siege, are not even acquainted with
the face of their commander." The exposures of the "Times" were taken up in
Parliament. Already Lord John Russell had urged upon the Earl of Aberdeen
the necessity of having the War Minister in the House of Commons, and
recommended that Lord Palmerston should be intrusted with the portfolio of
war. The Prime Minister refused to recommend the proposed change to the
Queen, on the ground that it would be unfair to the Duke of Newcastle,
against whom, he said, no positive defect had been proved. As soon as
Parliament assembled on January 25, the opposition moved for a commission
of inquiry "into the condition of our army before Sebastopol, and into the
conduct of those departments whose duty it has been to minister to the
wants of that army." Lord John Russell at once wrote to Lord Aberdeen that
since this motion could not be resisted, and was sure to involve a censure
of the War Department, he preferred to tender his resignation. The
retirement of the leaders of the House of Commons served to paralyze the
government's resistance. After a debate of two nights the motion for an
inquiry was accepted by 305 against 148 votes. As Mr. Molesworth, who was
present, wrote:
[Sidenote: Aberdeen's Ministry defeated]
"Never, perhaps, had a government been more decisively defeated. When the
numbers were announced, the House seemed to be surprised, and almost
stunned by its own act. There was no cheering; but for a few moments a dead
silence, followed by a burst of derisive laughter. The Ministers of course
resigned."
[Sidenote: Palmerston, Premier]
Lord John Russell and Lord Derby, each in turn, tried to form a Ministry,
but both failed. Lord Palmerston was then called in, and succeeded in
rallying a Cabinet composed largely of the members of the old
Administration. Thus Lord Granville, Earl Grey, the Duke of Argyll, Lord
Clarendon and William E. Gladstone were retained. The chief change was the
appointment of Lord Panmure to take the place of the Duke of Newcastle as
Secretary of War. Lord Panmure, better known as Fox Maule, had already
served as Minister of War during the six years of Lord Russell's
administration, and had shown himself thoroughly capable in that post.
Commissions of inquiry were now sent to the Crimea. At the same time
diplomatic conferences were reopened at Vienna.
[Sidenote: Cavour's master-stroke]
The evident insincerity of Count Buol stirred up a hornet's nest of
indignation. The people of England and France became incensed as they saw
that Austria showed no inclination to fight. Prussia flatly refused to
assist Austria in any warlike undertaking. Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia took
advantage of the situation to join the allies. On April 21 he sent 15,000
men to the Crimea.
During the diplomatic parleys of the Powers, the siege of Sebastopol
wearily dragged along. The commissariat and land-transport systems broke
down. The armies were weakened by cholera, cold, and starvation.
Negotiations for peace were set on foot by Austria. A conference was opened
at Vienna under promising auspices.
[Sidenote: Death of Emperor Nicholas]
[Sidenote: The Four Points]
Czar Nicholas, with whom the war was a personal grievance, died on March
2--of pulmonary apoplexy, reported the physicians--of bitter disappointment
and despair, claimed his people. His son, Alexander II., peace-loving as he
was known to be, did not venture to show himself less of a true Russian
than his father. The Conference proved a failure. Lord John Russell,
England's representative, was instructed to insist upon the admission of
Turkey into the Concert of Powers. To secure this end, four principal
points were to be considered, now famous under the name of the Four
Points--the fate of the Danube principalities, the free navigation of the
Danube, the limitation of Russian supremacy in the Black Sea, and the
preservation of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. The attempt to limit
Russia's supremacy in the Black Sea was the chief point upon which the
Powers could not agree.
[Sidenote: Changes at the front]
The operations in the Crimea were vigorously renewed. Lord Raglan died and
was succeeded by General Simpson. Long before him, old Marshal St. Arnaud
was carried away by disease. His post was taken by Canrobert, who afterward
resigned in favor of Pelissier. On August 16, the Russians under Liprandi
made a desperate effort to raise the siege by an attack on the allies. The
assault was made on the French divisions and on the Sardinian contingent.
Liprandi was foiled. Northern Italy was in a delirium of joy when the news
came that the banner of Piedmont had been carried to victory over a great
Power, side by side with the flag of France. The far-sightedness of
Cavour's audacious policy was now fully appreciated.
[Sidenote: Russian works assaulted]
[Sidenote: Zouaves storm the Malakov]
[Sidenote: British beaten off]
[Sidenote: Sebastopol yielded to allies]
[Sidenote: Cost of the great siege]
The repulse proved fatal to the Russians. Nearer and nearer the French drew
to the city. But the ingenious Todleben threw up works which also brought
the Russians closer to the enemy. Sometimes it seemed as if the allies were
the besieged and not the besiegers. Malakov Tower and the Mamelon battery
in front of it were the scenes of bloody conflicts. Night sorties were made
and repelled. On June 7, the English assaulted the quarries in front of the
Redan, and the French assailed the Mamelon. Both attempts were successful.
On the 18th, a fierce attack was made on the Redan and the Malakov
batteries, which resulted in failure, because the French did not act with
sufficient precision. A simultaneous assault was made on the Malakov and
the Redan on September 5. The French upon capturing the Malakov were to
hoist their flag, and thereby signal to the English when to move against
the Redan. A brilliant success was won by the Zouaves. Their tricolor waved
over the ramparts fifteen minutes after they had started to scale the steep
heights. The task of the English troops proved more difficult. They were
compelled to advance under a galling fire, but stormed the parapets despite
the resistance which they encountered. The attacking force, however, was
too small; reinforcements did not come in time, and the remnant of the
party was compelled to withdraw. It was the story of Balaklava told over
again with bloody emphasis--the story of splendid courage on the part of
the men, of wretched generalship on the part of their commanders. After the
attack, the Russians withdrew from the south side of Sebastopol. That
portion of the city had been so thoroughly bombarded that Gortschakov could
no longer hold out. "It is not Sebastopol that we have left to them, but
the burning ruins of the town, to which we ourselves set fire," wrote the
Russian commander after his brave defence. He could indeed boast that later
generations would "recall with pride" the great siege and its stirring
events. The investment had lasted eleven months. It involved the
construction of seventy miles of trenches and the employment of 60,000
fascines, 80,000 gabions, and 1,000,000 sandbags. One and one-half million
shells and shot were fired into the town from the cannon of the besiegers.
The Russian forces in and about Sebastopol numbered 150,000; their losses
sustained in its defence amounted, in killed, wounded and missing, to
90,142. The allied armies numbered 80,650 French, 43,000 English, and
20,000 Turks in January, 1855. The British troops suffered terribly from
disease. The forty-one English infantry battalions, which embarked
originally, mustered 36,923, and were reinforced by 27,884. Their strength
at the conclusion of hostilities was 653 less than it was at the beginning.
The Sardinians suffered proportionately. The wastage, due principally to
disease, thus amounted to 28,537 men.
[Illustration: BALAKLAVA--"OUT OF THE MOUTH OF HELL--"
Painted by Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler)
Copyright. By permission of Henry Graves & Co., Ltd., London]
[Sidenote: The defense of Kars]
With the fall of Sebastopol the war may be said to have ended. A brilliant
chapter which had little effect on the Crimean campaign, partly because it
occurred after the fall of Sebastopol, partly because it concerned chiefly
the Armenians, was the long defence of Kars by Colonel Williams and Wassif
Pasha against an overwhelming Russian army under General Muraviev. Williams
sturdily held his ground, bravely repulsed a violent attack in which the
Russians lost over 5,000 men, and surrendered on November 27, with all
the honors of war, only when starvation stared his little garrison in the
face.
[Sidenote: First ironclads before Kinburn]
[Sidenote: Success of first trial]
Hostilities still continued for a time in the Crimea. The allied fleet was
sent to bombard various sea forts. The most important of these naval
operations from a historical standpoint was the expedition against Kinburn,
for here it was that the modern ironclad was first tried. On September 5,
1854, Napoleon had ordered the construction of five armored floating
batteries, which embodied the results obtained in the tests of plating made
before the War Ministry's representatives at Vincennes. The ships were of
1,400 tons displacement, were armed with eighteen 50-pounder smoothbores,
and protected by four inches of iron armor. They were the prototypes of the
later ironclads. Not without some misgivings three of these batteries were
sent to the Crimea to join the allied fleet under Admirals Lyons and Bruat.
The English squadron consisted of six line-of-battle ships, seventeen
frigates and sloops, ten gunboats, six mortar-boats and ten transports. The
French fleet, besides the three armored batteries mentioned, included four
line-of-battle ships, three corvettes, four despatch boats, twelve gun
boats and five mortar-boats. The combined fleets prepared to attack the
Russian works at Kinburn. On October 18, the bombardment began. The
ironclads steamed up to within 800 yards of the main fort; the other ships
took up positions at distances varying from 1,200 to 2,800 yards. Without
appreciable effect the Russian 32-pound and 18-pound shot and shell
dropped into the sea from the iron plating of the French ships. Whatever
injury was sustained was caused by the entrance of shot and splinters
through the portholes. Unable to withstand the well-directed fire of their
invulnerable enemy, the Russians hoisted the white flag, after having lost
45 killed and 130 wounded. The allies lost but two killed and had but
forty-five wounded--all on board the armored ships. "Everything may be
expected of these formidable engines of war," wrote Admiral Bruat in his
report. The Black Sea was the cradle of the modern ironclad.
[Sidenote: Achievements in Science and Letter]
Another achievement of far-reaching consequences was Captain Henry
Bessemer's process for manufacturing steel. He took out a patent for his
invention of forcing air through liquid molten iron. Other inventions of
interest were Brewster's prismatic stereoscope, Garcia's laryngoscope (a
mirror for examining the throat), and Drummond's light, patented by Captain
Thomas Drummond. Captain Robert Le Mesurier M'Clure of the "Investigator"
received the L5,000 prize for the discovery of the Northwest Passage and
was knighted. Famous English books of the year were Robert Browning's "Men
and Women," Charles Kingsley's "Westward Ho!" and George Henry Lewes' "Life
of Goethe."
[Sidenote: Death of Charlotte Bronte]
Charlotte Bronte, the novelist, died on the last day of March. She was born
in 1824, the daughter of the Rev. Patrick Bronte of Haworth in Yorkshire.
In June, 1854, she married her father's curate, the Rev. Archer Bell
Nicholls. Under the pseudonym of Currer Bell she published several novels,
in which she displayed great power in the delineation of character. The
most important of these were "Shirley," "Villette" and the celebrated "Jane
Eyre." At the same time her sister, Emily Jane, who published under the
name of Ellis Bell, won fame by her novel "Wuthering Heights." She died six
years earlier.
[Sidenote: Corot]
This year Jean-Baptiste Corot, the famous French painter of "Paysage
Intime," and follower and modifier of the new realistic schools under the
lead of Courbet, exhibited his "Souvenir de Marcoussy," which was purchased
later by Napoleon III.
[Sidenote: Death of Rogers]