till he should have seen the Prince of Parma’s army landed in
England, he took no notice of the English fleet, but steadily
directed his course up the Channel. The Armada sailed in the form
of a crescent, of which the horns were seven miles asunder. Its
motion was slow, though every sail was spread; “The winds,” says
the historian, “being as it were tired with carrying the ships,
and the ocean groaning beneath their weight.” The English ships,
which were smaller and more active than those of the Armada,
followed to harass it and cut off stragglers, and during the six
days which it took to reach Calais, it suffered considerably
from their persevering attacks. At Calais the Admiral learned
that the Prince could not embark his troops for want of stores
and sailors, and while he waited, the Armada narrowly escaped
destruction from fire-ships sent into it by the English. A violent
tempest succeeded, which drove it among the shoals on the coast of
Zealand; and a council of war determined that, as it was now in too
shattered a condition to attempt anything against the enemy, it
were best to return to Spain without delay; but as the passage down
the Channel was so full of hazard, it was resolved to sail round
Scotland and Ireland. The Armada, therefore, set sail; the English
pursued it as far as Flamborough-head, where want of ammunition
forced them to give over the chase. Storms, however, assailed the
Armada, and several of the vessels were cast away on the coast of
Ireland, where the crews were butchered by the barbarous natives.
The total loss was 30 large ships and 10,000 men. Philip received
the intelligence with great tranquillity, and ordered public thanks
to God and the saints for the calamity not having been greater.
In this great danger of herself and kingdom, Elizabeth had shown
the spirit of a heroine. She visited the camp at Tilbury, rode
along the lines mounted on a white palfrey, and cheered the
soldiers by her animated language. When the danger was over she
went in state to St. Paul’s, and publicly returned thanks to
Heaven. She granted pensions to the disabled seamen, created the
Admiral, Earl of Nottingham, and bestowed honours and rewards on
his officers. The sudden death of Leicester, shortly after he had
disbanded his army, intercepted the favours she might have designed
for him.
ARMED NEUTRALITY.--A confederacy of the Northern powers against
England, commenced by the Empress of Russia, in 1780. It resulted
in the destruction of the Danish fleet before Copenhagen, April,
1801. This gave England the acknowledged claim to the empire of the
sea. The neutrality was soon after dissolved.
ARMAGH.--This battle was fought A.D. 1318, against Edward Bruce,
who was defeated, taken, and beheaded at Dundalk, and with him 6200
Scots lost their lives.
ARMISTICES, CELEBRATED.--The most celebrated armistices recorded
in Modern History are the following:--That of Leobon, in 1797,
was signed a few days after the victory of Tagliamento, gained
by Napoleon I over Prince Charles. It was Bonaparte himself who
proposed it. This armistice was followed by the preliminaries of
Leobon and the treaty of Campo-Formio. The armistice of Stayer,
concluded on the 25th December, 1800, took place after the battle
of Hohenlinden. It was signed by Moreau, on the 16th January, 1801.
Brune signed the armistice of Treviso, which delivered into the
hands of the French the fortified places of Ferrara, Peschiera and
Porto-Legnano. He was reproached with not having demanded Mantua.
In 1805, Murat concluded an armistice at Hollebrun, which saved the
Russian army, and was the cause of a severe letter written to him
by the Emperor. On the very evening of the battle of Austerlitz,
the Emperor of Austria demanded and obtained an armistice, which
was preliminary to the peace of Presburg. Another armistice, also
celebrated, was signed after the battle of Friedland, and led to
the peace of Tilsit. At Wagram took place the armistice of Zoaim,
which was the prelude to the peace of Vienna, 1809. Lastly, on
the 4th of June, 1813, after Bautzen, was signed the armistice of
Pleiswitz, which the Emperor Napoleon I himself considered a fault.
ARTILLERY.--The first piece was invented by Schwartz, a German
Cordelier monk, soon after the invention of gunpowder, in 1330.
First used by the English by Edward III at the battle of Crecy, in
1346, when that king had 4 pieces of cannon, which greatly aided in
his gaining the battle. Brass cannon, first used 1635--improvements
made by Browne in 1728, and have continued ever since.
ASCALON.--This battle was fought A.D. 1192. Richard I of England,
commanding the Christian army, met and defeated the Sultan
Saladin’s army of 300,000 Saracens and other infidels. No less than
40,000 of the enemy were left dead on the field of battle, and the
victorious Richard marched to Jerusalem.
ASPERNE.--This battle was fought between the Austrian army under
the archduke Charles, and the French, on the 21st of May, 1809,
and two following days. In this most sanguinary fight the loss
of the former army exceeded 20,000 men, and the loss of the
French was more than 30,000; it ended in the defeat of Bonaparte,
who commanded in person, and was the severest check he had yet
received. The bridge of the Danube was destroyed and his retreat
endangered; but the success of the Austrians had no beneficial
effect on the subsequent prosecution of the war.
ASSAYE.--Fought September 23rd, 1803, between the Duke of
Wellington (then General Arthur Wellesley) and Scindiah and the
Rajah of Berar. This was Wellington’s _first_ great battle in
which he opposed a force fully ten times greater than his own. In
Stocqueler’s Life of the “Iron Duke” we have the following account
of this battle: “Scindiah’s army having changed its position,
occupied the whole space between the Kaitna and Assaye, with a
great number of guns in front, and commenced a murderous cannonade.
The small number of British guns was quite incapable of coping
with this vast battery. General Wellesley, therefore, directed his
infantry to advance with the bayonet.
With the determined courage which had given them victory at
Seringapatam, in the actions with Dhoondia Waugh, and on the walls
of Ahmednuggur, the line dashed forward, carried the guns on the
right, and approached Assaye. At this moment a cloud of Mahratta
horse had stolen round the village, and fell upon them--sabre to
bayonet--with characteristic fury. The 74th regiment wavered--the
charge was too much for them.
Colonel Maxwell of the 19th Light Dragoons saw that the critical
moment had arrived, _Forward!_ was the word. Falling upon the
Mahratta cavalry, the Dragoons gave the British infantry time to
rally, cut up the Mahratta horse, pushed through the Scindiah’s
left, and threw the whole of that part of the army into confusion.
In the meantime the enemy’s centre, which had remained untouched,
closed in upon the ground before occupied by their left wing, and
uniting with such of their infantry and artillery as had been
passed over unhurt by the British cavalry, formed itself into a
kind of crescent, with its right horn resting on the river Jouah,
and its left on the village of Assaye; thus presenting themselves
in a fresh position on the flank of our infantry, on which, having
collected a considerable number of guns, they recommenced a heavy
fire. The battle was now to be fought over again, with this
difference, that the contending forces had changed sides, and had
the enemy’s horse behaved with the least spirit, while our cavalry
was absent in pursuit of their broken battalions, there is no
guessing what the consequences might have been; but, happily for
General Wellesley, they kept aloof. To oppose the enemy in their
new position, the Sepoy battalion on the right was immediately
advanced against them, but without effect, being obliged to retire.
Another was brought forward and equally repulsed. The cavalry,
having by this time returned from the pursuit, and formed on the
left, and the enemy’s horse having disappeared before them, the
General ordered the 78th regiment and the 7th cavalry up, to head
a fresh attack against the enemy’s infantry and guns, which still
defended their position with obstinacy. No sooner, however, had he
formed the 78th regiment in line, in directing which his horse’s
leg was carried off by a cannon shot, than the enemy without
waiting an attack, commenced their retreat across the Jouah, which
they passed in tolerable order before our troops could come up with
them. Previously to this last attack Colonel Maxwell had requested
and obtained permission to charge a considerable body of infantry
and guns, which having formed part of the reserve, were seen
retiring in good order, along the right bank of the Jouah.
The 19th Dragoons were not long in coming up with the enemy, who
having formed with their left to the Jouah, steadily waited their
approach. The charge was sounded. The Dragoons advanced with
rapidity, amidst a shower of musketry and grape, and had already
got almost within reach of the bayonets of the enemy, who still
gallantly stood their ground.
“At this moment,” writes an officer engaged in the charge, “instead
of dashing among their ranks, I suddenly found my horse swept round
as it were by an eddy torrent. Away we galloped right shoulders
forward, along the whole of the enemy’s line, receiving their fire
as we passed, till having turned our backs on them, we took to our
heels manfully; every one called out _Halt! Halt!_ while nobody
would set the example! till at last a trumpet having sounded, we
pulled up, but in complete disorder, dragoons and native cavalry,
pell-mell. On this occasion Colonel Maxwell fell, pierced by a
grape-shot. He was gallantly leading the charge when he received
his death blow. Having involuntarily checked his horse and thrown
his arm back, when he received his wound, the soldiers immediately
behind him, not knowing the cause, mistook the gesture for a signal
to retire, and did so accordingly. At least this was the reason
afterwards assigned for the failure, and if true, shows how the
fate of armies, and even of nations, may depend on the direction
of a single shot.” Recovering from their disorder, the Dragoons
renewed the charge with terrible effect, and the enemy gave way in
every direction.
Thus closed this memorable battle, one of the most bloody on record
to the victors. Out of about 4500 men in action, upwards of 2000
were either killed or wounded, the former amounting to more than
one-third of the whole number.”
ASSYRIANS AND JEWS.--the Battles, &c., between--B.C. 710.
These battles resulted in the total destruction of the army of
Sennacharib, so graphically described by the Sacred penman--and
afterwards in the destruction of Jerusalem, the overthrow of
Solomon’s Temple, and the exile of the Jews to Babylon, for 70
years.
ATHLONE.--The English army under General Ginckel stormed Athlone,
then a town of prodigious strength--crossing the Shannon in the
face of the Irish army, yet not losing more than 50 men. This bold
and successful enterprise procured for Ginckel the title of Earl of
Athlone, 1691. _See Aughrim._
ATTILA.--Surnamed _The Scourge of God_, ravaged all Europe, A.D.
447. He invaded the Roman empire with an army of 500,000 Huns, and
laid waste all the provinces at Chalons-sur-Marne. Aetius, the
Roman prefect, met him, and defeated him with the loss of 200,000
men. Afterwards he was as signally defeated by Thorismond, King of
the Goths, and died in the midst of his career.
AUERSTADT, BATTLE OF.--In this most sanguinary conflict, between
the French and Prussian armies, October 14th, 1806, the Prussians
were routed on every side, having lost 200 pieces of cannon, 30
standards, and 28,000 prisoners, and leaving 30,000 slain on the
battle field. Both the King of Prussia and Napoleon commanded at
this engagement. The French Emperor immediately afterwards entered
Berlin, from which city he issued his memorable Berlin Decrees.
AUGHRIM, BATTLE OF.--Near Athlone, in Ireland. This battle was
fought, July 12th, 1691, between the Irish, headed by the French
General St. Ruth, and the English under General Ginckel, when the
former lost 7000 men; the latter only 600 killed and 960 wounded.
St. Ruth was slain. This engagement proved decisively fatal to the
interests of James II in Ireland, Ginckel was immediately created
Earl of Athlone; the ball by which St. Ruth was killed is still
preserved suspended in the choir of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
AUGSBURG, BATTLE OF.--Fought between the Imperialists and the
French army, the latter commanded by Moreau; who obtained so
complete a victory, that Augsburg and Munich were opened to him.
It was fought August 26th, 1796; Moreau, September 2nd following,
again defeated the Austrians on the Jun, and again, September 7th,
at Mainburg.
AUSTERLITZ, BATTLE OF.--Fought December 2nd, 1805, between the
French and Austrian armies; gained by the former. Three Emperors
commanded at this battle, Alexander of Russia, Francis of Austria,
and Napoleon of France. The killed and wounded exceeded 40,000 on
the side of the Allies, who lost besides, 40 standards, 150 pieces
of cannon, and many thousands of prisoners. This decisive victory
of the French led to the treaty of Presburg, which was signed
December 26th same year.
B.
BABYLON.--This city was first taken by Ninus, B.C. 2059, then by
Esar-haddon, B.C. 680. Both Darius and Cyrus took the city, the
first through the fidelity of his officer Zopyrus, who having cut
off his nose and ears fled to the Babylonians, and was admitted
within the walls, and found means shortly afterwards to betray the
city--the other by turning the course of the river Euphrates, and
marching his soldiers up the dry bed into the city.
BADAJOS, SIEGE OF.--This important frontier fortress had
surrendered to the French, March 11th, 1811, and was invested
by the British under Lord Wellington, on March 16th, 1812; and
stormed and taken on April following. The siege is one of the most
important in the annals of warfare; for the victory was not only a
glorious military achievement in itself, but it obliged the French,
who had entered Portugal for the purpose of plunder, to commence a
precipitate retreat from that kingdom. For particulars, see Life of
Wellington, and Napier’s Peninsular War.
BADEN, TREATY OF.--Between France and the Emperor, September
7th, 1814. It was erected into a grand duchy of the Rhenish
Confederation in 1806. Its territorial acquisitions, by its
alliance with France, was guaranteed by the Vienna Congress of 1815.
BALAKLAVA, BATTLE OF.--Fought October 25th, 1854. If the exhibition
of the most brilliant valour, of the excess of courage, and of
a daring which would have reflected lustre on the best days of
chivalry can afford full consolation for the disaster of to-day, we
can have no reason to regret the melancholy loss which we sustained
in a contest with a savage and barbarous enemy.
I shall proceed to describe, to the best of my power, what occurred
under my own eyes, and to state the facts which I have heard from
men whose veracity is unimpeachable, reserving to myself the
exercise of the right of private judgment in making public and in
suppressing the details of what occurred on this memorable day.
Before I proceed to my narrative, I must premise that a certain
feeling existed in some quarters that our cavalry had not been
properly handled since they landed in the Crimea, and that they had
lost golden opportunities from the indecision and excessive caution
of their leaders. It was said that our cavalry ought to have been
manœuvred at Bouljanak in one way or in another, according to the
fancy of the critic. It was affirmed, too, that the Light Cavalry
were utterly useless in the performance of one of their most
important duties--the collection of supplies for the army--that
they were “above their business, and too fine gentlemen for their
work;” that our horse should have pushed on after the flying
enemy after the battle of the Alma, to their utter confusion,
and with the certainty of taking many guns and prisoners; and,
above all, that at Mackenzie’s farm first, and at the gorge near
Inkermann, subsequently, they had been improperly restrained
from charging, and had failed in gaining great successes, which
would have entitled them to a full share of the laurels of the
campaign, solely owing to the timidity of the officer in command.
The existence of this feeling was known to many of our cavalry,
and they were indignant and exasperated that the faintest shade of
suspicion should rest on any of their corps. With the justice of
these aspersions they seemed to think they had nothing to do, and
perhaps the prominent thought in their minds was that they would
give such an example of courage to the world, if the chance offered
itself, as would shame their detractors for ever.
In my last I mentioned that several battalions of Russian infantry
had crossed the Tchernaya, and that they threatened the rear of
our position and our communication with Balaklava. Their bands
could be heard playing at night by the travellers along the
Balaklava road to the camp, but they “showed” but little during
the day, and kept up among the gorges and mountain passes through
which the roads to Inkermann, Simpheropol, and the south-east, of
the Crimea wind towards the interior. The position we occupied,
in reference to Balaklava was supposed by most people to be very
strong--even impregnable. Our lines were formed by natural mountain
slopes in the rear, along which the French had made very formidable
entrenchments. Below those entrenchments, and very nearly in a
right line across the valley beneath, are four conical hillocks,
one rising above the other as they recede from our lines; the
furthest, which joins the chain of mountains opposite to our ridges
being named Canrobert’s Hill, from the meeting there of that
General with Lord Raglan after the march to Balaklava. On the top
of each of these hills the Turks had thrown up earthen redoubts,
defended by 250 men each, and armed with two or three guns--some
heavy ship guns--lent by us to them, with one artilleryman in
each redoubt to look after them. These hills cross the valley of
Balaklava at the distance of about two and a half miles from the
town. Supposing the spectator, then, to take his stand on one
of the heights forming the rear of our camp before Sebastopol,
he would see the town of Balaklava, with its scanty shipping,
its narrow strip of water, and its old forts on his right hand;
immediately below he would behold the valley and plain of coarse
meadow land, occupied by our cavalry tents, and stretching from the
base of the ridge on which he stood to the foot of the formidable
heights at the other side; he would see the French trenches lined
with Zouaves a few feet beneath, and distant from him, on the slope
of the hill; a Turkish redoubt lower down, then another in the
valley, then, in a line with it, some angular earthworks, then, in
succession, the other two redoubts up to Canrobert’s Hill. At the
distance of two or two and a half miles across the valley there is
an abrupt rocky mountain range of most irregular and picturesque
formation, covered with scanty brushwood here and there, or rising
into barren pinnacles and _plateaux_ of rock. In outline and
appearance this portion of the landscape is wonderfully like the
Trosachs. A patch of blue sea is caught in between the overhanging
cliff’s of Balaklava as they close in the entrance to the harbour
on the right. The camp of the Marines, pitched on the hill sides
more than 1000 feet above the level of the sea, is opposite to you
as your back is turned to Sebastopol and your right side towards
Balaklava. On the road leading up the valley, close to the entrance
of the town, and beneath these hills, is the encampment of the 93rd
Highlanders.
The cavalry lines are nearer to you below, and are some way in
advance of the Highlanders, but nearer to the town than the Turkish
redoubts. The valley is crossed here and there by small waves of
land. On your left the hills and rocky mountain ranges gradually
close in towards the course of the Tchernaya, till at three or
four miles’ distance from Balaklava, the valley is swallowed up in
a mountain gorge and deep ravines, above which rise tiers after
tiers of desolate whitish rock, garnished now and then by bits of
scanty herbage, and spreading away towards the east and south,
where they attain the Alpine dimensions of the Tschatir Dugh. It
is very easy for an enemy at the Belbek, or in command of the road
of Mackenzies’s farm, Inkermann, Simpheropol, or Bakshiserai,
to debouch through these gorges at any time upon this plain
from the neck of the valley, or to march from Sebastopol by the
Tchernaya, and to advance along it towards Balaklava, till checked
by the Turkish redoubts on the southern side, or by the fire from
the French works on the northern side--_i.e._, the side which,
in relation to the valley to Balaklava, forms the rear of our
position. It was evident enough that Menschikoff and Gortschakoff
had been feeling their way along this route for several days past,
and very probably at night the Cossacks had crept up close to our
picquets, which are not always as watchful as might be desired, and
had observed the weakness of a position far too extended for our
army to defend, and occupied by their despised enemy, the Turks.
At half-past seven o’clock this morning, an orderly came galloping
in to the head-quarters camp from Balaklava, with the news,
that at dawn a strong corps of Russian horse, supported by guns
and battalions of infantry had marched into the valley, and had
already nearly dispossessed the Turks of the redoubt No 1, (that
on Canrobert’ Hill, which is farthest from our lines), and that
they were opening fire on the redoubts Nos. 2, 3, and 4, which
would speedily be in their hands unless the Turks offered a stouter
resistance than they had done already.
Orders were despatched to Sir George Cathcart, and to H.R.H.
the Duke of Cambridge, to put their respective divisions, the
Fourth and the First, in motion for the scene of action; and
intelligence of the advance of the Russians was also furnished to
General Canrobert. Immediately on receipt of the news, the General
commanded General Bosquet to get the Third Division under arms, and
sent a strong body of artillery and some 200 Chasseurs d’Afrique
to assist us in holding the valley. Sir Colin Campbell, who was in
command of Balaklava, had drawn up the 93rd Highlanders a little in
front of the road to the town, at the first news of the advance of
the enemy. The Marines on the heights got under arms; the seamen’s
batteries and Marines’ batteries, on the heights close to the town,
were manned, and the French artillerymen and the Zouaves prepared
for action along their lines. Lord Lucan’s little camp was the
scene of great excitement. The men had not had time to water their
horses; they had not broken their fast from the evening of the day
before, and had barely saddled at the first blast of the trumpet,
when they were drawn up on the slope behind the redoubts in front
of their camp to operate on the enemy’s squadrons. It was soon
evident that no reliance was to be placed on the Turkish infantry
or artillerymen. All the stories we had heard about their bravery
behind stone walls and earthworks proved how differently the
same or similar people fight under different circumstances. When
the Russians advanced, the Turks fired a few rounds at them, got
frightened at the distance of their supports in the rear, looked
round, received a few shots and shell, and then “bolted,” and fled
with an agility quite at variance with common-place notions of
Oriental deportment on the battle-field. But Turks on the Danube
are very different beings from Turks in the Crimea, as it appears
that the Russians of Sebastopol are not at all like the Russians of
Silistria.
Soon after eight o’clock, Lord Raglan and his staff turned out
and cantered towards the rear of our position. The booming of the
artillery, the spattering roll of musketry, were heard rising from
the valley, drowning the roar of the siege guns in front before
Sebastopol. As I rode in the direction of the firing, over the
thistles and large stones which cover the undulating plain that
stretches away towards Balaklava, on a level with the summit of the
ridges above it, I observed a French light infantry regiment (the
27th, I think) advancing with admirable care and celerity from our
right towards the ridge near the telegraph-house, which was already
lined by companies of French infantry, while mounted officers
scampered along its broken outline in every direction.