Hundreds of men had to go into the trenches at night with no covering

but their greatcoats, and no protection for their feet but their

regimental shoes. Many when they took off their shoes were unable to get

their swollen feet into them again, and they might be seen bare-footed,

hopping along about the camp, with the thermometer at twenty degrees,

and the snow half a foot deep upon the ground. The trenches were two and

three feet deep with mud, snow, and half-frozen slush. Our patent stoves

were wretched. They were made of thin sheet iron, which could not stand

our fuel--charcoal. Besides, they were mere poison manufactories, and

they could not be left alight in the tents at night. They answered well

for drying clothes.

I do not know how the French got on, but I know that our people did not

get a fair chance for their lives while wintering in the Crimea.

Providence had been very good to us. With one exception, which must have

done as much mischief to the enemy as to ourselves, we had wonderful

weather from the day the expedition landed in the Crimea.

One day as I was passing through the camp of the 5th (French) Regiment

of the line, an officer came out and invited me to dismount and take a

glass of brandy which had been sent out by the Emperor as a Christmas

gift. My host, who had passed through his grades in Africa, showed me

with pride the case of good Bordeaux, the box of brandy, and the pile of

good tobacco sent to him by Napoleon III.--"_le premier ami du soldat_."

A similar present had been sent to every officer of the French army, and

a certain quantity of wine, brandy and tobacco had been forwarded to

each company of every regiment in the Crimea. That very day I heard

dolorous complaints that the presents sent by the Queen and Prince

Albert to our army had miscarried, and that the Guards and Rifles had

alone received the royal bounty in the very acceptable shape of a ton of

Cavendish.

Although he was living in a tent, the canvass was only a roof for a

capacious and warm pit in which there was a bright wood fire sparkling

cheerily in a grate of stones. We "trinqued" together and fraternised,

as our allies will always do when our officers give them the chance.

It must not be inferred that the French were all healthy while we were

all sickly. They had dysentery, fever, diarrhoea, and scurvy, as well

as pulmonary complaints, but not to the same extent as ourselves, or to

anything like it in proportion to their numbers. On the 8th of January,

some of the Guards of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Household Brigade

were walking about in the snow _without soles to their shoes_. The warm

clothing was going up to the front in small detachments.

CHAPTER IV.

Road made for us by the French--Hardships--Wretched Ambulance

Corps--Mule Litter--Heroism of the Troops--A speedy Thaw--Russian

New Year--A Sortie--Central Depôt for Provisions--Disappearance of

the Araba Drivers from Roumelia and Bulgaria--Highlanders and the

Kilt--The Indefatigable Cossacks--Frost-bites--Losses in the

Campaign--Foraging--Wild Fowl Shooting--The "Arabia" on Fire--The

Coffee Question--Variableness of the Crimean Climate--Warm

Clothing--Deserters--Their Account of Sebastopol.

[Sidenote: MORE HARDSHIPS, BUT NO DESPAIR.]

The road which the French were making for the English from Kadikoi, by

the Cavalry Camp, towards the front progressed, but not rapidly. The

weather was so changeable, and was in every change so unfavourable for

work, that it was hard to expect our allies to labour for us with their

usual energy. However, they did work. They built huts for our officers,

when paid for it, with much activity, and their aid in that way was

invaluable. Some of the warm coats sent out for the officers were much

too small, and I heard a pathetic story from a stout Highlander

respecting the defeat of his exertions to get into his much-longed-for

and much-wanted garment.

There was only one officer in the whole regiment that the largest of the

great coats fitted, and he was certainly not remarkable for bulk or

stature. The men were far more lucky, and their coats were of the most

liberal dimensions, however eccentric in cut and device they might be.

As the Ambulance Corps were quite _hors de combat_ in weather of this

kind--as the men and horses were nearly all gone or unfit for duty, our

sick were subjected to much misery in going from the camp to be put on

board ship. But for the kindness of the French in lending us their

excellent mule-litters, many of our poor fellows would have died in

their tents. Captain Grant, at the head of the Ambulance Corps, was a

most excellent, intelligent, and active officer, but he had no materials

to work with, and this was no place for intelligence and activity to

work miracles in. Experience had taught our allies that the mule-litter

was the best possible conveyance for a sick or wounded man. A movable

jointed frame of iron, with a canvass stretcher, was suspended from a

light pack saddle at each side of a mule. If the sick or wounded man was

able to sit up, by raising the head of the litter, a support was

afforded to his back. If he wished his legs to hang down, the frame was

adjusted accordingly, and he rode as if he were in an arm-chair

suspended by the side of a mule. When the invalid wished to lie down, he

had a long and comfortable couch--comfortable in so far as the pace of a

mule was easier than the jog of an ambulance, and he was not crowded

with others like hens in a coop. These mules travelled where ambulance

carts could not stir; they required no roads nor beaten tracks, and they

were readily moved about in the rear when an action was going on.

It was right that England should be made aware of the privations which

her soldiers endured in this great winter campaign, that she might

reward with her greenest laurels those gallant hearts, who deserved the

highest honour--that honour which in ancient Rome was esteemed the

highest that a soldier could gain--that in desperate circumstances he

had not despaired of the Republic. And no man despaired. The exhausted

soldier, before he sank to rest, sighed that he could not share the sure

triumph--the certain glories--of the day when our flag was to float from

Sebastopol! There was no doubt--no despondency. No one for an instant

felt diffident of ultimate success. From his remains, in that cold

Crimean soil, the British soldier knew an avenger and a conqueror would

arise. If high courage, unflinching bravery--if steady charge--the

bayonet-thrust in the breach--the strong arm in the fight--if calm

confidence, contempt of death, and love of country could have won

Sebastopol, it had long been ours. Let England know her children as the

descendants of the starved rabble who fought at Agincourt and Cressy;

and let her know, too, that in fighting against a stubborn enemy, her

armies had to maintain a struggle with foes still more terrible, and

that, as they triumphed over the one, so they vanquished the other.

On the night of the 12th of January the wind changed round to the

southward, and the thermometer rose to 34°. A speedy thaw followed, and

the roads and camp once more suffered from the ravages of our old

enemy--the mud. The Russians who had been very active inside the town

during the day, and who had lighted great watchfires on the north side

of the place, illuminated the heights over Tchernaya with rows of

lights, which shone brilliantly through the darkness of the cold

winter's night, and were evidently with all possible pomp and

ostentation celebrating the opening of their new year. Lights shone from

the windows of the public buildings, and our lonely sentries in the

valleys and ravines, and the _enfans perdus_--the French sharpshooters

lying in their lairs with watchful eye on every embrasure before

them--might almost fancy that the inhabitants and garrison of the

beleaguered city were tantalising them with the aspect of their gaiety.

At midnight all the chapel bells of the city began ringing. On our side

the sentries and pickets were warned to be on the alert, and the

advanced posts were strengthened wherever it was practicable.

About a quarter past one o'clock in the morning the Russians gave a loud

cheer. The French replied by opening fire, and the Russians instantly

began one of the fiercest cannonades we had ever heard. It reminded one

of those tremendous salvoes of artillery which the enemy delivered on

two or three occasions before we opened our batteries in October. The

earthworks flashed forth uninterrupted floods of flame, which revealed

distinctly the outlines of the buildings in the town, and defences

swarming with men. The roaring of shot, the screaming and hissing of

heavy shell, and the whistling of carcases filled up the intervals

between the deafening roll of cannon, which was as rapid and unbroken as

quick file-firing. The iron storm passed over our lines uninterruptedly

for more than half an hour, and the French, whose works to our left were

less protected by the ground than ours, had to shelter themselves

closely in the trenches, and could barely reply to the volleys which

ploughed up the parapets of their works.

While the firing was going on a strong body of men had been pushed out

of the town up the face of the hill towards our works in front, and on

the flank of the left attack. As it was expected that some attempt of

the kind would be made, a sergeant was posted at this spot with twelve

men. Every reliance was placed upon his vigilance, and a strict

attention to his duties, but, somehow or other, the enemy crept upon the

little party, surprised, and took them prisoners, and then advanced on

the covering parties with such rapidity and suddenness that the parties

on duty in the trenches were obliged to retire. They rallied, however,

and, being supported by the regiments in rear, they advanced, and the

Russians were driven back close to the town.

[Sidenote: MORTALITY AMONGST THE TURKS.]

In this little affair one officer and nine men were wounded, six men

were killed, and fourteen men taken. The French had to resist a strong

sortie nearly at the same time; for a short time the Russians were

within the parapet of one of their mortar batteries, and spiked two or

three mortars with wooden plugs, but the French drove them back with

loss, and in the pursuit got inside the Russian advanced batteries. The

soldiers, indeed, say they could have taken the place if they had been

permitted to do so. At two o'clock all was silent.

A heavy gale of wind blew nearly all day, but the thermometer rose to

38°, and the snow thawed so rapidly that the tracks to the camp became

rivulets of mud. The establishment of a central depôt for provisions

had, however, done much to diminish the labours and alleviate the

sufferings of the men engaged in the duties of the siege; but the

formation of the depôt and the accumulation of the stores wore out and

exhausted many of our best men. Out of a batch of 500 or 600 horses

brought up from Constantinople, 279 died between the 16th of December

and the 16th January. In fact the commissariat consumed and used up

horseflesh at the rate of 100 head per week, and each of the animals

cost on an average 5_l._ The araba drivers from Roumelia and Bulgaria

disappeared likewise--out of the several hundreds there were very few

left; and of the Tartars of the Crimea in our employ the majority were

unwilling or unfit to work in cold weather, accustomed as they seemed to

be to sit all day in close rooms provided with large stoves as soon as

winter set in. Disease and sickness of all kinds swept these poor people

away very rapidly. The mortality of the Turkish troops, which had, as I

before stated, assumed the dimensions of a plague, had now begun to be

attended with much of the physical appearances of the same terrible

disease, and their sanitary condition excited the liveliest

apprehensions of our medical officers in Balaklava, who had, over and

over again, represented to the authorities the danger of allowing the

Turks to remain in the town.

The _Adelaide_ arrived in Balaklava on the 17th of January, after a

splendid passage from England, and the passengers must have been a

little astonished at the truly Christmas aspect presented by the Crimea;

somewhat more real and less jovial they found it than the pictures which

represented florid young gentlemen in gorgeous epaulettes, gloating over

imaginary puddings and Christmas presents in snug tents, and ready to

partake of the fare that England had sent to her dear boys in the

Crimea, but which none of them had then received, and which none of them

would ever eat in such comfort and with such appliances of luxury. There

was a wind that would have effectually deprived, if wind could do it,

any number of rats of their whiskers. Anxious to see what things were

like on the heights above Balaklava, I started, with my gun upon my

shoulder, through the passes across the hill, knee-deep in snow; and

after a shot or two at great, raw-necked vultures, and stately eagles,

and some more fortunate cracks at "blue rocks," scraping the snow off

the points of the cliffs, I arrived in the camp of the Highlanders,

several hundred feet below the elevated position of the Rifles, but

quite high enough to induce me to accept a hearty invitation to stop to

dinner, and rest for the night. Oh, could "_Caledoniensis_," "_Pictus_,"

"_Memor antiquæ virtutis_," or any of the high-spirited Celtic gentlemen

who are fighting about lions rampant and Scottish rights, and the garb

of that respectable person, Auld Gael, but have seen what their

countrymen were like as they faced the Crimean winter, how shamed they

would have been of their kilt and philibeg and stocking declamation! All

such things were clean gone, and if the gallant Highlanders ever wore

the kilt _'twas for punishment_! Breeks--low-lived breeks--and blanket

gaiters, and any kind of leggings over them, were the wear of our

Scottish Zouaves, though, in good sooth, they were no more like Zouaves,

except in popular modern legends, than they were like Dutchmen, _à la_

Rip Van Winkle.

Over the waste or snow, looking down from the heights towards the valley

of the Tchernaya, I saw those indefatigable Cossacks riding about their

picket ground, and a few waggons stealing along from Mackenzie's Farm

towards the heights of Inkerman. A vedette or two were trotting up and

down along a ridge, keeping a bright lookout on our movements, and

through the glass we perceived them flapping their hands under their

armpits, as London cabmen do on a cold night when waiting for a fare.

Towards Baidar, pickets of the same active gentry were moving along to

keep themselves warm. We had no cavalry posts advanced towards them. In

fact we could not conveniently send any out. Those ragged ruffians, in

sheepskin coats and fur caps, mounted on ragged ponies, with deal lances

and coarse iron tips, were able in drifting snow and biting winds to

hold ground which our cavalry could not face.

In the middle of January there were severe and sudden alterations of

temperature. Men were frozen in their tents, and several soldiers on

duty in the trenches were removed to hospital with severe frost-bites,

but the frost enabled the men to get up considerable supplies of warm

clothing, though the means at our disposal did not permit of the wood

for huts being sent to the front. When a path had once been trodden

through the snow, men and horses could get along much more easily than

if they had to wade through mud or across a country in a state of

semi-solution. Many thousands of coats, lined with fur, long boots,

gloves, mits, and socks were served out, but there were regimental

hospitals where they had only one blanket to lie upon.

Our army consisted of officers and regiments almost new to this

campaign. The generation of six months before had passed away; generals,

brigadiers, colonels, captains, and men, the well-known faces of

Gallipoli, of Bulari, of Scutari, of Varna, of Aladyn, of Devno, of

Monastir--ay, even of the bivouac of Bouljanak, had changed; and there

was scarcely one of the regiments once so familiar to me which I could

then recognise save by its well-known number. What a harvest Death had

reaped, and yet how many more were ripe for the sickle of the Great

Farmer! It was sad to meet an old acquaintance, for all one's

reminiscences were of noble hearts now cold for ever, and of friend

after friend departed. And then came--"Poor fellow! he might have been

saved, if----"

[Sidenote: A NONDESCRIPT ARMY.]

Excepting Lord Raglan, Lord Lucan, and Sir R. England, not one of our

generals remained of those who went out originally; the changes among

our brigadiers and colonels were almost as great. Sir George Brown, the

Duke of Cambridge, the Earl of Cardigan, Sir George Cathcart, Sir De

Lacy Evans, General Tylden, General Strangways, Brigadier Bentinck,

Brigadier Goldie, Brigadier Buller, Brigadier Adams, Brigadier Torrens,

Brigadier Cator, Lord de Ros--had all been removed from the army by

wounds, by sickness, or by death. And so it was with the men themselves.

On the 16th the thermometer was at 14° in the morning and at 10° on the

heights over Balaklava. The snow fell all night, and covered the ground

to the depth of three feet; but the cold and violent wind drifted it in

places to the depth of five or six feet. In the morning 1200 French

soldiers came down to Balaklava for shot and shell, and the agility,

good spirits, and energy with which they ploughed through the snow were

alike admirable. The wind blew almost a gale, and the native horses

refused to face it, but our poor fellows came trudging along in the same

dreary string, and there was something mournful in the very aspect of

the long lines of black dots moving across the vast expanse of

glittering snow between Sebastopol and Balaklava. When these dots came

up, you saw they had very red noses and very white faces and very

bleared eyes; and as to their clothes Falstaff would have thought his

famous levy a _corps d'élite_ if he could have beheld our gallant

soldiery. Many of the officers were as ragged and as reckless in dress.

The generals made appeals to their subalterns "to wear their swords, as

there was no other way of telling them from the men."

It was inexpressibly odd to see Captain Smith, of the----Foot, with a

pair of red Russian leather boots up to his middle, a cap probably made

out of the tops of his holsters, and a white skin coat tastefully

embroidered all down the back with flowers of many-coloured silk, topped

by a head-dress _à la_ dustman of London, stalking gravely through the

mud of Balaklava, intent on the capture of a pot of jam or marmalade.

Does the reader wonder why we were all so fond of jam? Because it was

portable and come-at-able, and was a substitute for butter, which was

only sent out in casks and giant crocks, one of which would exhaust the

transport resources of a regiment. Captain Smith was much more like his

great namesake of the Adelphi, when, in times gone by, he made up for a

smuggler-burglar-bandit, than the pride of the High-street of

Portsmouth, or than that hero of the Phoenix-park, with golden wings

like an angel, before the redness of whose presence little boys and

young ladies trembled. All this would be rather facetious and laughable,

were not poor Captain Smith a famished wretch, with bad chilblains,

approximating to frost-bites, a touch of scurvy, and of severe

rheumatism.

This cold weather brought great quantities of wild fowl over the camp,

but it was rather too busy a spot for them to alight in. They could

scarcely recognize their old haunts in the Chersonese, and flew about

disconsolately over their much metamorphosed feeding-grounds. Solemn

flights of wild geese, noisy streams of barnacles, curlew, duck, and

widgeon wheeled over the harbour, and stimulated the sporting

propensities of the seamen who kept up a constant fusillade from the

decks. Balls and No. 1 shot whistled unpleasantly close to one's ears,

and one day a man was startled by receiving a bullet slap through his

arm. Huge flocks of larks and finches congregated about the stables and

the cavalry camps, and were eagerly sought by our allies, who much

admire a _petite chasse_, which furnished them with such delicate

reliefs to the monotony of ration dinners. They were rather reckless in

pursuit of their quarry; the enthusiastic Zouave in chase of a

fluttering bunting was frequently greeted by sounds which his ignorance

of English alone prevented him from considering a _teterrima causa

belli_.

Lord Raglan's visit to Balaklava, on the 18th of January, was a

memorable event. Men were set to work throwing stones down into the most

Curtius-like gulfs in the streets.

Lord Raglan began to go about frequently and ride through the various

camps.

We were astounded, on reading our papers, to find that on the 22nd of

December, London believed, the coffee issued to the men was roasted

before it was given out! Who could have hoaxed them so cruelly? Around

every tent there were to be seen green berries, which the men trampled

into the mud, and could not roast. Mr. Murdoch, chief engineer of the

_Sanspareil_ mounted some iron oil casks, and adapted them very

ingeniously for roasting; and they came into play at Balaklava. I do not

believe at the time the statement was made, one ounce of roasted coffee

had ever been issued from any commissariat store to any soldier in the

Crimea.

The great variableness of the Crimean climate was its peculiarity. In

the morning, you got up and found the water frozen in your tent, the

ground covered with snow, the thermometer at 20°; put on mufflers,

greatcoat, and mits; and went out for a walk, and before evening you

returned perspiring under the weight of clothing which you carried at

the end of your stick, unable to bear it any longer, the snow turned

into slush, the thermometer at 45°. On the 16th the thermometer 10°

noon. On the 22nd it stood at 50°--an alternation of 40° in five days;

but the character of the weather exhibited a still greater difference.

In the southern Crimea the wind riots in the exercise of its

prescriptive right to be capricious. It plays about the tops of the

cliffs and mountain ridges, lurks round corners in ravines, nearly whips

you off your legs when you are expatiating on the calmness of the day,

and suddenly yells in gusts at the moment the stillness had tempted you

to take out a sketch-book for a memorandum of Sebastopol.

[Sidenote: A GHASTLY PROCESSION.]

Desertions to the enemy, from the French and from our own ranks, took

place. The deserters generally belonged to the Foreign Legion, from the

young draughts and from regiments just sent out. We received a few

deserters in turn from the army in the rear, by scrambling along the

cliffs, and one of them told us he was three days coming from Baidar by

that route. These men stated that the part of the town built upon the

slope to the sea was very little injured by our fire, as our shot and

shells did not "top" the hill. To the south faced one steep slope

covered with houses and batteries and ruined works and battered suburbs.

The other descended to the sea, and was covered by public buildings,

fine mansions, warehouses and government edifices. This part had

suffered very little. The ships took refuge below this slope when

pressed by our fire; the workmen and soldiers and sailors found snug

quarters in the buildings.

CHAPTER V.

New Works--A Ghastly Procession--Reinforcements--Havoc amongst

Horses--A Reconnaissance of Sebastopol--Russian

Defences--Camps--Red Tape and Routine--Changes of

Weather--Sickness--Sufferings of the French--Effect of the Author's

Statements--Facts--Continual Drain of Men--Affair of Musketry

between the Russians and the French--Sharp-shooting--State of our

Batteries--Orders with reference to Flags of Truce--A Spy in the

Trenches--Good Fellowship at the Outposts.

We gradually relinquished ground to our allies, and the front, which it

had cost so much strength and so much health to maintain, was gradually

abandoned to the more numerous and less exhausted army. Some of our

regiments were reduced below the strength of a company.

The French relieved the Guards of their outpost duties, and gradually

extended themselves towards Inkerman. What a difference there was in the

relative position of the two armies from that on the evening of the 17th

of October, when the French fire had been completely snuffed out, and

our own fire still maintained its strength.

There was a white frost on the night of the 22nd of January, the next

morning the thermometer was at 42°. A large number of sick were sent

into Balaklava on the 23rd on French mule litters and a few of our bât

horses. They formed one of the most ghastly processions that ever poet

imagined. Many were all but dead. With closed eyes, open mouths, and

ghastly faces, they were borne along two and two, the thin stream of

breath, visible in the frosty air, alone showing they were still alive.

One figure was a horror--a corpse, stone dead, strapped upright in its

seat, its legs hanging stiffly down, the eyes staring wide open, the

teeth set on the protruding tongue, the head and body nodding with

frightful mockery of life at each stride of the mule over the broken

road. The man had died on his way down. As the apparition passed, the

only remark the soldiers made was,--"There's one poor fellow out of

pain, any way!" Another man I saw with the raw flesh and skin hanging

from his fingers, the naked bones of which protruded into the cold air.

That was a case of frost-bite. Possibly the hand had been dressed, but

the bandages might have dropped off.

The French army received important reinforcements. The Eighth Division

arrived at Kamiesch; it consisted of 10,000 good troops. The Ninth

Division, under General Brunet was expected.

Our allies then would muster upwards of 75,000 bayonets. The Turks did

not seem to amount to more than 5000 or 6000. These unfortunate troops

received supplies of new clothing and uniforms from Riza Pasha, the War

Minister at Constantinople, and were assuming a respectable appearance.

It would have astonished a stranger to have seen the multitudes of dead

horses all along the road. In every gully were piles of their remains

torn by wild dogs and vultures. On a lone hillside I beheld the remnants

of the gallant grey on which Mr. Maxse rode to the mouth of the Katcha,

in company with Major Nasmyth, on the eve of the flank march to

Balaklava, and many of the equine survivors of the charge at Balaklava

lay rotting away by the side of the cavalry camp. Some had dropped down

dead, and were frozen still as they fell; others were struggling to rise

from their miry graves. The carcases had been skinned, by the Turks and

French, to cover their huts; many suspicious-looking gaps, suggestive of

horse-steak, were cut out in their flanks.

There was very smart fighting in the trenches and advanced works between

the French and Russians on the night of the 23rd and the morning of the

24th.

On the 24th, Lord Raglan, attended by Major-General Airey and a few

staff officers, rode over to Balaklava. He went on board the _Caradoc_

and had a long interview with Sir E. Lyons alone, previous to which

there was a council of war. Lord Raglan did not return to head-quarters

till it was nearly dusk.

I had a long _reconnaissance_ of Sebastopol on the same day, in company

with Captain Biddulph, of Artillery. It was a beautifully clear day, and

at times it was almost warm. We went up to the hill in advance and on

the left of the maison brulée, and swept every inch of ground. The

aspect of the place itself had changed very little, considering the

hundreds of tons of shot and shell thrown into it; but whitewashed

houses, roofed with tiles, and at most two stories high, in the suburbs,

were in ruins. The roofs, doors, and windows were off, but puffs of

smoke showed that the frames were covers for Russian riflemen. In front

and left, lay a most intricate series of covered ways, traverses,

zigzags, and parallels from the seaside, close to the Quarantine

Battery, over the undulating land to the distance of sixty-five metres

from the outer works of the Russians. Swarms of _Franctireurs_ lined the

advanced parallel, and kept up a continual pop, pop, pop, in reply to

the Russian riflemen behind their advanced works.

[Sidenote: STRENGTH OF EARTHWORKS.]

The works from the Quarantine Fort to the crenelated wall, and thence to

the Flagstaff Battery, seemed very much in the same state as the first

day I saw them, with the exception, that the guns were withdrawn, and

the defence left to riflemen. The Flagstaff parapets had been knocked to

atoms long before, and the large buildings around it were all in ruins;

but, on looking towards the ridge behind it, from which the streets

descend, and which shelters that part of the place, I could see but

little difference in its appearance to that which it presented on the

26th of September. People were walking about (relief coming up from the

sea-side) carrying baskets. Between the rear of the Flagstaff Battery

and this ridge, earthworks could be detected in the openings along the

lines of streets, and immediately behind the first Russian intrenchment

there was a formidable work armed which at two o'clock convinced us they

had pretty good range, by thundering forth an astounding broadside in

answer to fire from the French. There was a rattling fire from the

_enfans perdus_ at the embrasures, the Russians slackened their fire and

replied to the French sharpshooters only. When the smoke cleared away, I

could see the enemy and the French carrying away a few bodies on each

side to the rear.

At the other side of the harbour, Fort Constantine was shining brightly

in the sun, its white walls blackened here and there under the line of

embrasures by the smoke of the guns on the 17th of October. Behind it

were visible dark walls rising through the snow, and notched like saws

by the lines of embrasures. The waters of the harbour, as smooth as

glass, were covered with boats, plying from one side to the other, and

one full of men came round the head of the Dockyard Creek towards Fort

Alexander, with her white flag and blue St. Andrew's cross.

The large pile of Government buildings by the side of the Dockyard Creek

was much injured. Close to there was a large two-decker, with a spring

upon her cables lying so as to sweep the western slope of the town. A

small steamer with her steam up was near at hand, either for the use of

the garrison or to carry off the two-decker, in case heavy guns were

unmasked upon her. To the right, at the other side of this creek, we

could see into the rear of our left attack. The houses near the Redan

and Garden Batteries as well as those in front of the Right Attack, and

in the rear of Malakoff were in ruins. The part of the city beyond them

seemed untouched. To the rear of Malakoff, which was split up, from top

to bottom, as it was the first day of our fire, there was a perfect

miracle of engineering.

It is impossible to speak too highly of the solidity and finish of the

earthworks, thrown up to enfilade our attack, and to defend the key of

their works. One line of battery was rivetted with tin boxes, supposed

to be empty powder cases. This was the mere wantonness and surplusage of

abundant labour. Behind this we could see about 2,000 soldiers and

workmen labouring with the greatest zeal at a new line of batteries

undisturbedly.

At the rear of Malakoff there was a camp, and another at the other side

of the creek, close to the Citadel, on the north side. The men-of-war

and steamers were lying with topgallantmasts and yards down, under the

spit of land inside Fort Constantine. Our third parallel, which was

within a few hundred yards of the enemy's advanced works, was occupied

by sharpshooters, who kept up a constant fire, but from my position I

could not see so well into our approaches as upon those of the French.

A circumstance occurred in Balaklava on the 25th, which I stated for the

consideration of the public at home without one single word of comment.

The _Charity_, an iron screw steamer, was in harbour for the reception

of sick under the charge of a British medical officer. That officer went

on shore and made an application to the officer in charge of the

Government stoves for two or three to put on board the ship to warm the

men. "Three of my men," said he, "died last night from choleraic

symptoms, brought on from the extreme cold, and I fear more will

follow."

"Oh!" said the guardian of stoves, "you must make your requisition in

due form, send it up to head-quarters, and get it signed properly, and

returned, and then I will let you have the stoves."

"But my men may die meantime."

"I can't help that; I must have the requisition."

"It is my firm belief that there are men now in a dangerous state whom

another night's cold will certainly kill."

"I really can do nothing; I must have a requisition properly signed

before I can give one of these stoves away."

"For God's sake, then, _lend_ me some; I'll be responsible for their

safety."

"I really can do nothing of the kind."

"But, consider, this requisition will take time to be filled up and

signed, and meantime these poor fellows will go."

"I cannot help that."

"I'll be responsible for anything you do."

"Oh, no, that can't be done!"

"Will a requisition signed by the P. M. O. of this place be of any use!"

"No."

"Will it answer, if he takes on himself the responsibility?"

"Certainly not."

The surgeon went off in sorrow and disgust.

I appended another special fact for Dr. Smith, the head of the British

Army Medical Department. A surgeon of a regiment stationed on the cliffs

above Balaklava, who had forty sick out of two hundred, had been

applying to the "authorities" in the town for three weeks for medicines,

and could not get one of them. The list he sent in was returned with the

observation, "We have none of these medicines in store." The surgeon

came down with his last appeal:--"Do, I beg you, give me any medicine

you have for diarrhoea."

"_We haven't any._"

"Have you any medicine for fever? Anything you can let me have, I'll

take."

"_We haven't any._"

"I have a good many cases of rheumatism. Can you let me have any

medicines?"

"_We haven't any._"

Thus, for diarrhoea, fever, and rheumatism there were no specifics.

Dr. Smith could prove, no doubt, that there were granaries full of the

finest and costliest drugs and medicines for fever, rheumatism, and

diarrhoea at Scutari, but the knowledge that they were there little

availed those dying for want of them at Balaklava.

[Sidenote: EFFECTIVE STRENGTH OF OUR ARMY.]

But with all this, the hand of the plague was _not_ stayed.

Sickness clung to our troops, the soldiers who climbed the bloody steeps

of the Alma in the splendour of manly strength, and who defended the

heights over the Tchernaya exhausted, and "washed out" by constant

fatigue, incessant wet, insufficient food, want of clothing and of cover

from the weather, died away in their tents night after night. Doctors,

and hospitals, and nurses, came too late, and they sank to rest

unmurmuringly, and every week some freshly-formed lines of narrow mounds

indicated the formation of a new burial-place.

It must not be inferred that the French escaped sickness and mortality.

On the contrary, our allies suffered to a degree which would have been

considered excessive, had it not been compared with our own unfortunate

standard of disease and death, and to the diminution caused by illness,

must be added that from the nightly sorties of the Russians and the

heavy fire from the batteries.

According to what I heard from people, I was honoured by a good deal of

abuse for telling the truth. I really would have put on my Claude

Lorraine glass, if I could. I would have clothed skeletons with flesh,

breathed life into the occupants of the charnel-house, subverted the

succession of the seasons, and restored the legions which had been lost;

but I could not tell lies to "make things pleasant." Any statements I

had made I have chapter, and book, and verse, and witness for. Many,

very many, that I did _not_ make I could prove to be true with equal

ease, and could make public, if the public interest required it. The

only thing the partisans of misrule could allege was, that I did not

"make things pleasant" to the authorities, and that, amid the filth and

starvation, and deadly stagnation of the camp, I did not go about

"babbling of green fields," of present abundance, and of prospects of

victory.

Suppose we come to "facts." Do people at home know how many bayonets the

British army could muster? Do they believe we had 25,000, after all our

reinforcements? They might have been told--nay, it might have been

proved to them by figures at home--that the British army consisted of

55,000 men. From the 1st of December, 1854, to the 20th of January,

1855, 8,000 sick and wounded were sent down from camp to Balaklava, and

thence on shipboard! Shall I state how many returned?

Yet people at home told us it was "croaking" to state the facts, or even

to allude to them! The man who could have sat calmly down and written

home that our troops were healthy, that there was only an average

mortality, that every one was confident of success, that our works were

advancing, that we were nearer to the capture of Sebastopol than we were

on the 17th of October, that transport was abundant, and the labours of

our army light, might be an agreeable correspondent, but assuredly he

would not have enabled the public to form a very accurate opinion on the

real state of affairs in the camp before Sebastopol. The wretched boys

sent out to us were not even fit for powder. They died ere a shot was

fired against them. Sometimes a good draught was received; but they

could not endure long vigil and exposure in the trenches.

And now for another "fact." The battle of Inkerman was fought on the 5th

of November, as the world will remember for ever. About 40 per cent. of

the Brigade of Guards were killed or wounded on that occasion. They

received reinforcements, and the brigade which mustered about 2,500 men

when it left England had received some 1,500 men in various draughts up

to the end of the year. What was the strength in the last week of

January of the Brigade of Household troops--of that magnificent band who

crowned the struggle of the Alma with victory, and beat back the Russian

hordes at Inkerman? I think they could have mustered, including

servants, about 950 men in the whole brigade. Here is another fact.

Since the same battle of Inkerman, at least 1,000 men of the brigade had

been "expended," absorbed, used up, and were no more seen. The official

returns will show how many of that thousand were killed or wounded by

the enemy. Another fact. There were two regiments so shattered and

disorganised--so completely destroyed, to tell the truth, that they had

to be sent away to be "re-formed." Now, mark, one of these regiments was

neither at the Alma nor at Inkerman--the other was engaged in the latter

battle only, and did not lose many men.

January 28 was celebrated by an extremely heavy fire between the

Russians and the French. The volleys were as heavy as those at the Alma

or Inkerman, and from the numbers of Russian infantry thrown into the

works, it was evident the enemy intended to dispute the small space of

ground between the last French trench and the broken outworks of their

late batteries with the greatest vigour. Possibly, indeed, orders had

been received to resist any nearer approaches of the French, who had

burrowed up, zigzagged, paralleled, and parapetted the country from the

Quarantine Fort to the Flagstaff Fort.

It was not to be expected that such an affair could take place without

considerable loss on both sides. After daybreak the fire recommenced

with great fury, and about eight o'clock a regular battle was raging in

the trenches between the French and Russians. There could not have been

less than 3,000 men on each side firing as hard as they could, and the

lines were marked by thick curling banks of smoke. The fire slackened

about nine o'clock.

By general orders dated 29th of January, Lord Raglan communicated that

the Russian commanders had entered into an agreement to cease firing

whenever a white flag was hoisted to indicate that a burying-party was

engaged in front of the batteries. Admiral Boxer arrived to assume the

command of the harbour of Balaklava, and by incessant exertions

succeeded in carrying out many improvements, and in introducing some

order in that focus of feebleness, confusion, and mismanagement.

[Sidenote: INTERCHANGE OF CIVILITIES.]

On the 31st, a spy _walked through some of our trenches_. He was closely

shaven, wore a blue frock-coat buttoned up to the chin, and stopped for

some time to look at Mr. Murdoch "bouching" the guns. Some said he was a

Frenchman, others that he "looked like a doctor." No one suspected he

was a Russian till he bolted towards the Russian pickets, under a sharp

fire of musketry, through which he had the good luck to pass unscathed.

Orders were issued, in consequence, to admit no one into the trenches or

works without a written permission, and all persons found loitering

about the camp were arrested and sent to divisional head-quarters for

examination. The French were in the habit of sending out working parties

towards the valley of Baidar, to cut wood for gabions and fuel. They

frequently came across the Cossack pickets, and as it was our interest

not to provoke hostilities, a kind of good-fellowship sprang up between

our allies and the outposts. One day the French came upon three cavalry

horses tied up to a tree, and the officer in command ordered them not to

be touched. On the same day a Chasseur left his belt and accoutrements

in a ruined Cossack picket-house, and gave up hope of recovering them,

but on his next visit he found them on the wall untouched. To requite

this act, a soldier who had taken a Cossack's lance and pistol, which he

found against a tree, was ordered to return them. The next time the

French went out, one of the men left a biscuit in a cleft stick,

beckoning to the Cossack to come and eat it. The following day they

found a loaf of excellent bread stuck on a stick in the same place, with

a note in Russian to the effect that the Russians had plenty of

biscuits, and that, although greatly obliged for that which had been

left, they really did not want it; but if the French had bread to spare

like the sample left in return, it would be acceptable. One day a

Russian called out, as the French were retiring, "Nous nous reverrons,

mes amis--Français, Anglais, Russes, nous sommes tous amis." The

cannonade before Sebastopol, the echoes of which reached the remote

glades distinctly, must have furnished a strange commentary on the

assurance.

CHAPTER VI.

French Demonstration--Opinions on the Siege--Suffering and

Succour--The Cunning Cossack--The Navy's Barrow--Appearance of

Balaklava--Supply of Water--Struggle between the French and the

Russians--General Niel--Canards--A Spy--Omar Pash's Visit--The Bono

Johnnies--Doing nothing--Change in the Temperature.

On the 1st of February the French made a demonstration on our right and

two divisions were marched down towards Inkerman, consisting of about

16,000 men; but the Russians who had been cheering loudly all along our

front, did not meet them.

Every day strengthened the correctness of Sir John Burgoyne's homely

saying about Sebastopol--"The more you look at it, the less you will

like it." Three months before, that officer declared his opinion to be

that the place ought to be assaulted. General Neil we heard, laughed at

the notion of our reducing the place by the fire of our artillery.

The thermometer on the 4th of February stood at 22°. In the afternoon a

party of Cossacks with two light field-pieces, were observed crossing

the head of the valley towards Inkerman, but the Russians mustered over

the heights and on the ridges between the Belbek and the south side of

Sebastopol. They must have suffered very severely during these cold

nights, for they were less able to bear the severity of the climate than

our own soldiers, being accustomed to spend their winters in hot close

barracks. The Cossacks alone are employed in the open country during

frost and snow.

As the spring advanced, all kinds of aid began to arrive, and even

luxuries were distributed. The Government sent out stores to be sold at

cost price. The Crimean Army Fund opened their magazines, and sold

excellent articles of all kinds. Our parcels and boxes and Christmas

presents turned up slowly in the chaos of Balaklava. The presents sent

by the Queen and Prince to the Guards, in the _St. Jean d'Acre_, were

after a time delivered to the men. Lord Rokeby was affected to tears

when the three regiments paraded, on his taking the command. He

communicated a most gratifying letter from the Queen to the officers, in

which Her Majesty expressed her admiration of the conduct of "her

beloved Guards."

Lord Raglan rode into Balaklava on the 5th, and remained some time,

inspecting the arrangements. A harbour was assigned for French ships to

unload stores for regiments which were nearer to Balaklava than to

Kamiesch.

As I was riding out on the same day towards the camp from Balaklava with

an officer of the Scots Fusileer Guards, I witnessed a refreshing

instance of vigilance. We rode towards the Woronzoff road, and kept a

little too much to our right, so that, happening to look towards the top

of a mound about 300 yards distant, the first thing that struck us was

the head of a Cossack as he crouched down to escape observation. A

little in advance was an English soldier, behind him, at the distance of

some 400 yards, another soldier was running, shouting, with his firelock

at the present. The first man kept walking rapidly on. The other halted

and fired. Still the fellow kept on, and we were riding up to see what

he was, when a Dragoon dashed at a gallop from the cavalry picket, and

rode between the man and the hill. The soldier turned back with the

Dragoon, who marched him to the picket-house, and then went up to the

other who was a sentry in front of the Highland Battery, and had run

after the would-be deserter, whom he had seen edging up towards the

Russian Lines along the plain. It was amusing to watch the Cossack.

Nothing could be seen of him for the time but his little bullet head

over the bank. He evidently imagined that by lying close he might get

one of us, but he was disappointed.

[Sidenote: AN IMPROMPTU WORLD.]

It is strange that the first use--perhaps the only use--the Crim-Tartar

will ever witness of the great invention of recent days should be to

facilitate the operations of war and to destroy life.[15] After the

expedition leaves the shores of the Crimea, and has become a tradition

among its people, the works of our railroad may serve to exercise the

ingenuity of Cimmerian antiquaries, and form the only permanent mark of

our presence on this bloodstained soil.

A new wooden world arose in a few days in early February along the

hill-side over the road to Balaklava. A little town was erected on the

right-hand side of the path, about three-quarters of a mile outside

Balaklava, for the sutlers expelled from the town, in which fires had

been suspiciously frequent; and, from the din and clamour, one might

imagine he was approaching some well-frequented English fair. A swarm of

men, in all sorts of grotesque uniforms, French, English, and Turks,

thronged the narrow lines between the huts and tents, and carried on

bargains in all the languages of Babel, with Greek, Italian, Algerine,

Spaniard, Maltese, Armenian, Jew and Egyptian, for all sorts of

merchandize. Here I beheld a runaway servant of mine--a vagabond

Italian--selling small loaves of bread for 2s. each, which he had

purchased from a French baker in Balaklava for 1s. 6d. As the

authorities did not interfere in such cases, I was left to solace myself

with the poor revenge of seeing him break his shins over a tent-stick as

he ran away to escape my horsewhip.

In the camp all the scoundrels of the Levant who could get across the

Black Sea, were making little fortunes by the sale, at the most enormous

prices, of the vilest articles of consumption, which necessity alone

forced us to use: and a few honest traders might also be seen sitting

moodily in their stalls and mourning over their fast-departing probity.

There was not then one Englishman, so far as I know, among these sutlers

of the British army, though the greatest vein of nuggets that ever

charmed multitudes to a desert was as dross and dirt to the wealth to be

realized in this festering crowd. Camel-drivers, arabajees, wild-eyed,

strange-looking savages from out-of the-way corners of Asia Minor,

dressed apparently in the spoils of the chorus of "_Nabucco_" or

"_Semiramide_," stalked curiously through the soldiery, much perplexed

by the conflicting emotions of fear of the Provost-Marshal and love of

plunder. Then there was an odd-looking acre or two of ground, with a low

wall round it, which looked as if all the moles in the world lived

beneath it, and were labouring night and day--so covered was it with

mounds of earth, through which peered rags and bones. This was the

Turkish burying-ground, and full well frequented was it. Little parties

might be seen flocking to it down the hill-sides all day, and returning

with the empty litters gravely back again. They also turned one or two

vineyards into graveyards, and they also selected a quiet nook up among

the hills for the same purpose. Our own more decent graveyard was

situated outside the town, in low ground, close to the sea. It was soon

afterwards crossed by the railway, and covered by sheds, so that all

traces of the graves were obliterated.

If Birnam Wood had been formed of deal boards, Macbeth might have seen

his worst suspicions realized. He would have beheld literally miles of

men, and of mules and ponies, all struggling through the mud with

boards--nothing but boards. In calm weather they got on well enough, but

a puff of wind put an end to progress, and a strong gust laid men and

horses in the mire. However, they were slowly working up towards the

camp, but how hard it was to take up even one hut, and what a great

quantity of timber had to be moved ere the building was complete.

The cold and frost had almost disappeared; but the inhabitants warned us

not to be misled; March was still to be endured, and we heard that he

roared right royally, and came in, and remained in, with bitter cold and

very strong winds, and heavy falls of rain, sleet, and snow. March was,

in truth, like November. The climate, was beyond all conception fickle.

A bird might be singing under the impression that he had done with foul

weather, and think of getting ready his nest, and shortly afterwards be

knocked down by a blow on the head from a hailstone.

An order was issued to supply charcoal in the trenches; but the

commissariat could not furnish either the charcoal or transport. In

default, the men were obliged to grub out the roots of brushwood or of

vines, and were often obliged to go down the hill-sides under the

enemy's fire, to gather enough to cook their meals.

The "navvies" worked away heartily, pulling down the rickety houses and

fragments of houses near the post-office of Balaklava, to form the

terminus of the first bit of the Grand Crimean Central Railway (with

branch line to Sebastopol). The frail houses dissolved into heaps of

rubbish under their vigorous blows, and the more friable remains were

carted off and shot into and over the ineffable horrors and nastiness of

the Turkish plague and charnel-houses. They landed a large quantity of

barrows, beams, rails, spades, shovels, picks, and other materials.

There was an extremely hot contest on the night of the 6th, between the

French and Russians: the cannonade, which sounded all over the camp,

lasted about an hour. The enemy, were labouring hard at the works in the

rear of the Malakoff (or the Round Tower), and at three o'clock on the

6th I saw they had about 1200 men employed on the earth slopes and

parapets of the batteries. While I was examining the place there was

scarcely a shot fired for two hours. The small steamers and boats were

particularly active, running across the creek and to and fro in the

harbour, and everything seemed to go on in the town much the same as

usual. One portion of the place containing some fine buildings, and a

large church with a cupola, as seen from the picket-house, put one in

mind of the view of Greenwich from the Park Observatory through a

diminishing glass. Lord Raglan ordered ten of our 13-inch mortars to be

lent to the French from the _Firefly_.

[Sidenote: A GENERAL TURN-OUT.]

General Niel, expressed a decided opinion that the batteries were too

far off. When we first sat down before the place, it was proposed that

the first parallel should be at the usual distance of from 600 to 800

yards from the defences; but it was objected that there would be great

loss of life in making it so near, and that the old rule of war which

fixed the distance of the lines of the besiegers from those of the

besieged was abrogated by recent improvements in gunnery, and by the

increased power and range of siege guns. Our batteries were constructed

at upwards of 1000 and 1200 yards from the enemy, and the steadiness of

our artillerymen and the activity of our sailors were frustrated by the

length of the range.

On the 7th of February, the French took charge of the whole of the

Malakoff Attack--the key of the position,--and constructed two batteries

on our right, under the direction of M. St. Laurent. It was said that

Lord Raglan objected to this movement on the part of the French, and

suggested that the British should move towards the right, and that the

French should take our left attack; but his lordship failed to persuade

our allies to accede to his propositions, and they were permitted to

overlap and surround the English army.

"General Rumour" is a very efficient officer in the management of

"_alertes_." He is never surprised, and errs rather on the safe side of

caution than otherwise. On the morning of the 8th of February he turned

out all the troops in and about Balaklava, manned his guns, roused up

Admiral Boxer, awakened Captain Christie, landed the seamen, mercantile

and naval, and taking Sir Colin Campbell and his staff out on the hills,

awaited an attack which never was made, but which, no doubt, would have

been repelled with signal energy and success. It appeared that a spy

passing through the lines of the Rifle Brigade on his way to the

head-quarters of the French army, on being interrogated by a young

officer, informed him that the Russians had about a sotnia, or

demi-troop, in several of the villages towards the eastward of

Balaklava, such as Tchorgoun, and a large body, whom he estimated at

35,000 men, in their rear, removing round to the south-east of Baidar,

so as to approach our right on the heights over Balaklava. The rifleman,

imparted the result of his inquiries to an officer in a Highland

regiment. There is no place in the world like a camp for the hatching

and development of "_canards_." The egg thus laid was very soon matured,

and the young bird stalked forth and went from tent to tent, getting

here a feather and there a feather, till it assumed prodigious

dimensions and importance. How it became "official" did not come to my

knowledge, but at half-past ten o'clock at night orders were sent from

Sir Colin Campbell to the regiments along the entrenchments up the

heights to hold themselves in readiness for an attack, and the 71st

regiment was marched up to strengthen the bold crest occupied by the

Rifles and Marines. Later at night, or early next morning, Colonel

Harding, the Commandant of Balaklava, roused up the Quartermaster-General,

Major Mackenzie, who at once repaired into Sir Colin Campbell's

quarters, and learned that this attack was fixed to come off at

half-past four or five o'clock A.M.

The alarm spread. Captain Christie sent orders to the large merchant

steamers to be in readiness to render all the aid in their power;

Admiral Boxer ordered the men of the _Vesuvius_ to be landed, and the

sailors of the transports to be armed and in readiness for service.

The _Wasp_ and _Diamond_ cleared for action and moored so as to command

the approach of the harbour from the land side. At four o'clock Sir

Colin Campbell and his staff mounted the heights up to the Rifle camp.

It was bright moonlight. A deep blue sky sparkling with stars was

streaked here and there by light fleecy clouds of snowy whiteness, which

swept slowly across the mountain crags, or darkened the ravines and

valleys with their shadows, like masses of infantry on march. Scarcely a

sound was audible near us, except at long intervals the monotonous cry

of the sentries, "Number one, and all's well," or the bells striking the

hours on board the ships; but artillery and incessant volleys of

musketry from the front, told that the French and Russians had availed

themselves of the moonlight to continue their contest. The roar of the

heavy mortars which came booming upon the ear twice or thrice every

minute bespoke the deadly use which our allies were making against the

city of the beauty of the morning.

In the rear, around the deep valleys and on the giant crags towards the

sea, all was silent. The men behind the trench which defended our

position from Balaklava to the seaboard scarcely spoke above a whisper,

and were almost lost to sight, but the moonlight played on long lines of

bright barrels and sparkling bayonets, which just crested, as it were,

the dark outlines of the breastwork, beneath which English, French, and

Turk were lying in readiness for the enemy. The guns in the redoubts and

earthwork batteries were prepared for instant service. All the batteries

were fully manned, and, had the enemy come on at that time, he would

have met with an astonishingly warm reception. I had been roused out

before four o'clock in the morning, but, being rather incredulous in the

matter of _alertes_, I had contented myself with getting on my clothes

and having the horses saddled. The firing from Sebastopol became so very

heavy that the echoes sounded as if there was really a conflict taking

place, and I went out to the heights. An hour and a half of anxious

vigil brought the dawn. All eyes peered through the strange compound of

light, formed by the rays of the rising sun and the beams of his

fast-declining satellite, to discover the columns of the enemy, but

there were none in sight. Just as the sun rose, the eternal Cossack

vedettes came in view on the hill-tops to the east, each figure standing

out sharp and black against the glowing background. A few Russians were

seen about Kamara, but it was evident there was no preparation for an

attack, and Sir Colin Campbell gave orders for the men to return to

their tents.

The events of the day, however, proved that the spy brought trustworthy

intelligence. The Russians returned to the heights over the valley of

Balaklava towards the left of the Tchernaya, and reoccupied the hills

and ravines about Kamara and Tchorgoun in force.

[Sidenote: NARROW ESCAPE FROM FLOGGING.]

Omar Pasha arrived at Kamiesch on the 8th, in the _Colombo_; and next

day visited General Canrobert and Lord Raglan. These interviews

constituted a council of war, and it is reasonable to suppose that the

operations of the campaign were finally determined upon and arranged

between the allied Generals.

It rained heavily all night on the 9th, and the ground was reduced to

such a state that the _reconnaissance_ which Sir Colin Campbell, aided

by the French, intended to have made was postponed. The atmosphere was

so obscure, that it was all but impossible to catch a glimpse of the

enemy's movements; but a break in the rain and a lift in the haze now

and then enabled us to see them working at some earthworks on the brow

of the hills before Kamara. They pushed vedettes up to the top of

Canrobert's Hill (formerly the site of Redoubt No. 1, held by the Turks

previous to the 25th of October). About the middle of the day three

columns, estimated at 3,000 men, were observed moving round from their

right by the back of Kamara towards the hills over Baidar with guns.

There was a swarm of Cossacks between Kamara and the road to Mackenzie's

farm, and their vedettes were posted along the heights over the

Woronzoff-road. Our vedettes on the mound over that road nearest to our

lines had also been doubled. Some of the Cossacks came so close to our

front that a shell was fired at them from No. 4 Battery, near Kadekeeva

(Kadikoi).

An English artilleryman, for some fancied slight, set upon a Turk, gave

him a beating, and attacked "outrageously" a Turkish officer who came to

his countryman's assistance. He was found guilty of the double offence

by general court-martial, and sentenced to fifty lashes. Osman Pasha,

the commander of the Turkish troops, and the officer who had been

struck, interceded with Lord Raglan for the remission of the man's

punishment, and his lordship, in general orders, rescinded the sentence

of the court-martial.

A considerable number of sick men (217) were sent down on the 10th from

the camp to Balaklava. There were many bad cases of scurvy and of

scorbutic dysentery among the men; and yet vegetables of all sorts, and

lemons and oranges, were to be found in abundance, or could have been

purchased in any quantities, all along the shores of the Black Sea and

the Sea of Marmora. No one could say there were no ships to bring them.

Balaklava contained ships which had been lying here for weeks--ay, for

months--_doing nothing_. The splendid screw steamer _Jason_ fitted up

especially as a horse transport, came in many days before from Ismed

laden _with a cargo of wood for fuel_. The expenses of such a large

vessel must have been enormous, and yet she had been in harbour for

nearly a fortnight doing nothing.

The 11th was a day quite worthy of "General Février's" gratitude--bleak,

raw, and stormy; the wind raging furiously between intervals of profound

calm--the sky invisible in a murky sheet, from which fell incessant

showers of rain, sleet, or snow alternately, or altogether--and the

landscape shut out of sight at a few yards' distance by the grey walls

of drizzling clouds and vapour. It might be imagined that no one who

could help it stirred out; a few drenched fatigue parties and some

artillery wagons sent down for shot and shell were all one could see

between Balaklava and the camp, and in the front all was silent--not a

gun was fired the greater part of the day, and the popping of rifles

also nearly ceased.

CHAPTER VII.

Sickness in the French Camp--Their System of Cooking--Ingenuity--A

Crimean Dinner--Recipes--Cost of a Soldier--Lord Lucan's Recal--A

Reconnaissance--Disappointment--An Adventure--Lose the Way--Russian

Attack--Activity in The Harbour--Good View of Sebastopol--General

Appearance--A Furious Cannonade--An Armistice--Pen-and-ink Work.

There was a good deal of sickness in the French camp, and one regiment

was said to have suffered as much from scorbutic diseases as any of our

own, and to have ceased to exist, like the 63rd Regiment. But the French

had no large steamers which they could send to forage in all the ports

of Asia Minor; and, with their deficient transport, they had less

sickness and less loss of life from disease cent. per cent. than our

troops, while they were better provided with food and soldiers'

luxuries. Had the French army undergone the same amount of vigil,

labour, and fatigue to which our army was exposed, I am convinced it

would have been in as bad a plight, and that it would have suffered very

nearly the same losses. Their system of cooking was better; their system

of hutting was better; instead of having twelve or fourteen miserable,

gloomy fellows, sitting moodily together in one tent, where each man ate

his meal, cooked or uncooked, as best he could, they had four men

together in a tent, who were neither miserable nor gloomy as a general

rule, because they had a good dish of soup and bouilli well made at the

mess fire, and carried away "piping hot" in the camp kettle of the tent.

The canvass of the _tente_ was in bad weather only a roof to a deep pit

in the shape of the parallelogram formed by the flaps of the canvass.

This pit was dug out of the earth; it contained a little fireplace at

one end, with a mud chimney outside, and was entered by a flight of two

or three steps, which descended to the dry floor. Our men rarely dug out

the earth, and their tents were generally pitched on the surface of the

ground. They had no time to do any better.

[Sidenote: NEW RECIPE FOR COOKING MUTTON.]

In cooking, our neighbours beat us hollow. I partook of a sumptuous

banquet in the tent of an officer of the Guards one night, the staple of

which was a goose, purchased for a golden egg in Balaklava, but which

assumed so many forms, and was so good and strange in all--coming upon

one as a _pièce de résistance_, again assuming the shape of a _giblotte_

that would have done credit to Philippe, and again turning up as a

delicate little _plat_ with a flavour of woodcocks, that the name of the

artist was at once demanded.

He was a grisly-headed Zouave, who stood at the door of the tent,

prouder of the compliments which were paid to him than of the few francs

he was to get for his services, "lent," as he was, by the captain of his

company for the day.

A few days after--these were Christmas times, or were meant to be

so--there was a dinner in another friendly tent. A Samaritan sea-captain

had presented a mess with a leg of English mutton, a case of preserved

turnips, and a wild duck. Hungry as hunters, the little party assembled

at the appointed hour, full of anticipated pleasure and good fare from

the fatherland. "Bankes, bring in dinner," said the host, proudly, to

his _chef de cuisine_. The guests were seated--the cover was placed on

the table--it was removed with enthusiasm, and, lo! there lay the duck,

burnt black, and dry as charcoal, in the centre of a mound of turnips.

"I thout vowls wor always ate vurst," was the defence of the wretched

criminal, as he removed the sacrifice for the time. Then he brought in

the soup, which was excellent, especially the bouilli, but we could not

eat soup all night, especially when the mutton was waiting. "Now then,

Bankes, bring in the leg of mutton." "The wawt, zur?" "The leg of

mutton, and look sharp, do you hear? I hope you have not spoiled _that_

too." "Woy, zur, thee's been 'atin oo't!" The miserable being had

actually _boiled_ down the leg of mutton in the soup, having cut large

slices off it to make it fit the pot!

We had great fun with the recipes for cooking rations which appeared in

the papers. M. Soyer's were good and simple, but every one of them had

been found out by experiment months before, and were familiar, however

little successful, to every camp cook. The recipes which taught the men

how to make rations palatable by the help of a "sliced turkey," nutmegs,

butter, flour, spices, and suet, were cruel mockeries. Can any one tell

us why the army was _compelled_ to eat salt pork? Why was this the only

meat except beef that was served out? The lean was always very hard and

tough, and required great care and trouble in cooking to make it

masticable--the fat was ever in undue proportion to the lean, and was

far too "rich" for a debilitated stomach. Are "pigs" a national

institution, to be maintained at any cost? Is the flesh of the bull a

part of the constitution? A soldier is a very dear animal. A crop of

them is most difficult to raise, and once they have been fully grown,

and have become ripe soldiers, they are beyond all price. Had we not

abundance of meals in our warehouses, of vegetables, of all kinds of

nutritious preparations, to bestow on those who were left to us, and who

were really "veterans," for in the narrow limits of one campaign they

had epitomized all the horrors, the dangers, and the triumphs of war?

The ration, with its accessories of sugar, tea or coffee, tobacco and

rice, was sufficient, as long as it was unfailing, and while the army

was in full health; but it was not sufficient, or, rather, it was not

suitable, when the men were debilitated from excessive labour.

What was the cost to the country of the men of the Brigade of Guards who

died in their tents or in hospital of exhaustion, overwork, and

deficient of improper nutriment? The brigade mustered in the middle of

February very little over 400 men fit for duty. It would have been

_cheap_ to have fed the men we had lost on turtle and venison, if we

could have kept them alive--and not only those, but the poor fellows

whom the battle spared, but whom disease took from us out of every

regiment in the expedition. It was the _men_ who were to be pitied--the

officers could, in comparison, take care of themselves; they had their

bât-horses to go over to Kamiesch and to Balaklava for luxuries; their

servants to send for poultry, vegetables, wine, preserved meats, sheep,

and all the luxuries of the sutlers' shops; and they had besides

abundance of money, for the pay of the subaltern is ample while he is in

the field.

Sir George Brown arrived on the 12th, and Lord Raglan went down to meet

him, and returned with him to head-quarters. The gallant old officer

seemed to have quite recovered from the effects of his Inkerman wound,

and was well received by his Division.

On the 14th the great topic of conversation was the recall of the Earl

of Lucan. On the previous forenoon Lord Raglan sent the noble Lord a

dispatch which he had received from the Duke of Newcastle, who stated

that as he had thought fit to find fault with the terms used in his

General's despatch respecting his conduct on the 25th of October, the

Government had resolved on recalling him. The impression was that Lord

Lucan was harshly and unjustly dealt with.

On February 19th, preparations were made for a _reconnaissance_ by Sir

Colin Campbell and Vinoy against the enemy between the Tchernaya and

Kamara. The weather had been unfavourable, but the few fine days from

the 15th to the 19th had made the country in tolerable order for the

movements of artillery and cavalry. The French were to furnish 11,600

men; Sir Colin Campbell's force was to consist of the 42nd, 79th, 93rd

Highlanders, the 14th and 71st Regts. detachments of cavalry, and two

batteries. Soon after dark the French began to get ready, and the hum of

men betrayed the movement. By degrees the rumour spread from one

confidant to the other, and by midnight a good number of outriders and

amateurs were aware of what was going on, and strict orders were issued

for early calls and saddling of horses "to-morrow morning at dawn."

Nothing excites such interest as a _reconnaissance_. Our army was

deprived of the peculiar attractions of most wars in Europe. There was

none of the romance of the Peninsular campaigns about it. We were all

shut up in one dirty little angle of land, with Cossacks barring the

approaches to the heavenly valley around us. There were no pleasant

marches, no halts in town or village, no strange scenes or change of

position; nothing but the drudgery of the trenches and of fatigue

parties, and the everlasting houses and works of Sebastopol, and the

same bleak savage landscape around. The hardest-worked officer was glad,

therefore, to get away on a _reconnaissance_, which gave him an

excitement, and varied the monotony of his life; it was a sort of

holiday for him--a hunt at Epping, if there be such a thing, to cockney

existence.

[Sidenote: SEVERE EFFECTS OF THE COLD.]

Before midnight the wind changed, and began to blow, and the stars were

overcast. About one o'clock the rain began to fall heavily, and

continued to descend in torrents for an hour. Then the wind chopped

round to the north and became intensely cold, the rain crystallized and

fell in hail, the gale rose higher and increased in severity every

moment. Then came down a heavy snow fall. It was evident that no good

could come of exposing the men, and that the attack would be a failure;

it certainly would not have enabled us to form any accurate conception

of the numbers or position of the enemy, inasmuch as it was impossible

for a man to see a yard before him. Major Foley was despatched by

General Canrobert to inform Sir Colin Campbell that the French would not

move, the regiments under arms were ordered back to their tents, which

they found with difficulty. When Major Foley arrived after many

wanderings, at head-quarters, one of Lord Raglan's aides-de-camp was

dispatched to Sir Colin Campbell to desire him to postpone any movement.

This officer set out about six o'clock in the morning for the heights

over Balaklava. On passing through the French camp he called upon

General Vinoy to inform him of the change which the weather had effected

in the plans agreed upon, but the General said he thought it would be

better to move down his men to support Sir Colin in case the latter

should have advanced before the counter-orders reached him. When our

aide-de-camp, after a struggle with the darkness, reached Sir Colin's

quarters, the General was gone. Another ride enabled him to overtake the

General, who was waiting for the French, and had his troops drawn up

near Kamara.

It may be imagined the news was not very pleasing to one who was all on

fire, cold as he was, for a brush with the enemy, but Vinoy's promise

put him into excellent spirits. It was four o'clock when the troops

moved towards the plain, through the snow-storm, which increased in

violence as the morning dawned. The Rifles preceded the advance, with

the Highland Light Infantry, in skirmishing order. Strict orders had

been given that there was to be no firing, it was hoped that we might

surprise the enemy, but the falling snow prevented our men from seeing

more than a few yards, and after daylight it was impossible to make out

an object six feet in advance. However, the skirmishers managed to get

hold of three sentries, belonging probably to the picket at Kamara, but

their comrades gave the alarm. As our troops advanced, the Cossacks and

vedettes fell back, firing their carbines and muskets into the darkness.

The drums of the enemy were heard beating, and through rifts in the veil

of snow their columns could be observed moving towards the heights over

the Tchernaya.

By this time our men had begun to suffer greatly. Their fingers were so

cold they could not "fix bayonets" when the word was given, and could

scarcely keep their rifles in their hands. The cavalry horses almost

refused to face the snow. The Highlanders, who had been ordered to take

off their comfortable fur caps, and to put on their becoming but less

suitable Scotch bonnets, suffered especially, and some of them were

severely frostbitten in the ears--indeed, there was not a regiment out

in which cases of "gelatio," chiefly of the ears and fingers, did not

occur. Scarcely had the enemy appeared in sight before the snow fell

more heavily than ever, and hid them from our view.

Sir Collin very unwillingly gave the order to return, and the men

arrived at their quarters about ten o'clock A.M., very much fatigued.

Being anxious to get a letter off by the post ere it started from

Kamiesch, and not being aware that the expedition had been

countermanded, I started early in the morning for the post-office

marquee through a blinding storm of snow. The wind howled fiercely over

the plain; it was so laden with snow that it was quite palpable, and had

a strange _solid_ feel about it as it drifted in endless wreaths of fine

small flakes, which penetrated the interstices of the clothing, and

blinded horse and man. For some time I managed to get on very well, for

the track was beaten and familiar. I joined a convoy of artillerymen,

but at last the drifts became so thick that it was utterly impossible to

see to the right or left for a horse's length. I bore away a little, and

soon after met a solitary pedestrian, who wanted to know the way to

Balaklava. I sincerely trust he got there by my directions. As he was

coming from Lord Raglan's he confirmed me in the justice of my views

concerning the route, and I rode off to warn my friends, the

artillerymen of their mistake. They were not to be found. I had only

left them three or four minutes, and yet they had passed away as

completely as if the earth had swallowed them up. So I turned on my way,

as I thought, and, riding right into the wind's eye, made at the best

pace I could force the horse to put forth, for my destination.

It was not above an hour's ride on a bad day, and yet at the end of two

hours I had not only not arrived, but I could not make out one of the

landmarks which denoted an approach to it. Tents, and hill-sides, and

jutting rocks, all had disappeared, and nothing was visible above,

around, below, but one white sheet drawn, as it were, close around me.

This was decidedly unpleasant, but there was no help for it but to ride

on, and trust to Providence. The sea or the lines would soon bring one

up. Still the horse went on snorting out the snow from his nostrils, and

tossing his head to clear the drift from his eyes and ears; and yet no

tent, no man--not a soul to be seen in this peninsula, swarming with

myriads of soldiery.

[Sidenote: A LUCKY ESCAPE.]

Three hours passed!--Where on earth can I be? Is this enchantment? Has

the army here, the lines of trenches, and Sebastopol itself, gone clean

off the face of the earth? Every instant the snow fell thicker and

thicker. The horse stopped at last, and refused to go on against the

storm. A dark form rushed by with a quick snarling bark--it is a wolf or

a wild dog, and the horse rushed on afrighted. The cold pierced my bones

as he faced the gale, now and then he plunged above the knees into

snow-drifts, which were rapidly forming at every hillock and furrow in

the ground; a good deep fallow--a well or pit--might have put a speedy

termination to one's fears and anxiety at a moment's notice.

My eyes were bleared and sore striving to catch a glimpse of tent or

man, and to avoid the dangers in our path. Suddenly I plunged in amongst

a quantity of brushwood--sure and certain signs that I had gone far

astray indeed, and that I was removed from the camp and the wood-cutter.

The notion flashed across me that the wind might have changed, and that

in riding against it I might have shaped my course for the Tchernaya and

the Russian lines. The idea of becoming the property of a Cossack picket

was by no means a pleasant ingredient in one's thoughts at such a

moment. Still what was to be done? My hands and feet were becoming

insensible from the cold, and my face and eyes were exceedingly painful.

There was no help for it but to push on before nightfall. That would

indeed have been a serious evil. There was a break in the snowdrift, and

I saw to my astonishment a church dome and spires which vanished in a

moment. I must either be close to Kamara or to Sebastopol, and that the

church was in either of those widely separated localities. The only

thing to do was to bear to the left to regain our lines, though I could

not help wondering where on earth the French works were, if it was

indeed Sebastopol. I had not ridden very far when, through the ravings

of the wind, I heard a hoarse roar, and could just make out a great

black wall rising up through the snow. The position was clear at once. I

was on the edge of the tremendous precipices which overhang the sea near

Cape Fiolente! I was close to the Monastery of St. George. Dismounting,

and leading my horse carefully, I felt my way through the storm, and at

last arrived at the monastery. A Zouave was shooting larks out of a

sentry-box; he took my horse to the stable, and showed me the way to the

guardhouse, where his comrades were enjoying the comforts of a blazing

fire.

Having restored circulation to my blood, and got the ice out of my hair,

I set out once more, and a Zouave undertook to show me the way to

head-quarters; but he soon got tired of his undertaking, and having

first adroitly abstracted my Colt's revolver out of my holster, deserted

me on the edge of a ravine, with some very mysterious instructions as to

going on always "_tout droit_," which, seeing that one could not see,

would have been very difficult to follow. By the greatest good fortune I

managed to strike upon the French wagon train, and halting at every

outburst of the tempest, and pushing on when the storm cleared a little,

I continued to work my way from camp to camp, and at last arrived at

Head-Quarters, somewhat before four o'clock in the afternoon, covered

with ice, and very nearly "done up." It was some consolation to find

that officers had lost themselves in the very vineyard, close to the

house, and that aides-de-camp and orderlies had become completely

bewildered in their passage from one divisional camp to another.

The Russians during the night made a slight demonstration against us,

thinking that the sentries and advanced posts might be caught sleeping

or away from their posts. Their usual mode of conducting a sortie was to

send on some thirty men in advance of a party of 500 or 800, in loose

skirmishing order. These men advanced stealthily, _en tirailleur_, up to

the line of our sentries and pickets, and felt their way cautiously, in

order to ascertain if there was a weak and undefended point for the

advance of the main body. If the firing was slack, the latter

immediately pushed on, rushed into the trenches, bayoneted as many as

resisted, and, dragging off all the men they could get as prisoners,

returned to the town as rapidly as possible. Any man, however weak, can

rush across a landing into the nearest room, and do damage in it before

he is kicked out. The French were so close to the Russians, they might

be said to live next door to them. The latter could form in a small

body, under cover of their works, at any hour in the night, and dash

into the works ere our allies could get together to drive them back

again. Some thirty-five men advanced upon the sentries stationed in

front of Major Chapman's batteries (the left attack), but were perceived

and challenged. They replied "Ruski!" and were fired upon. The Riflemen

in the pits in front of these lines gave them a volley, and the

Tirailleurs retreated. It was strange they should have given such a

reply to the sentries' challenge, but the men all declared that the

Russians used the word, which would seem to be the Russians' notion of

their own name in the English tongue.

Next day the sun came out, the aspect of the camps changed, and our

French neighbours filled the air with their many-oathed dialogues and

snatches of song. A cold Frenchman is rather a morose and miserable

being, but his spirits always rise with sunshine, like the mercury of a

thermometer. In company with two officers from the head-quarters camp, I

had a long inspection of Sebastopol from the ground behind the French

position, and I must say the result was by no means gratifying. We went

up to the French picket-house first (_la Maison d'Eau_ or _Maison

Blanche_ of the plans), and had a view of the left of the town, looking

down towards the end of the ravine which ran down to the Dockyard-creek,

the buildings of the Admiralty, the north side of the harbour, and the

plateaux towards the Belbek and behind Inkerman. As the day was clear

one could see very well through a good glass, in spite of the dazzling

effect of the snow and the bitter wind, which chilled the hands so as to

render it impossible to retain the glass very long in one position. The

little bridge of boats from the Admiralty buildings across to the French

side of the town was covered with men, who were busily engaged passing

across supplies, and rolling barrels and cases to the other side of the

creek, showing that there was a centre of supply or some kind of depôt

in the Government stores behind the Redan, and opposite to the fire of

our batteries.

[Sidenote: A PEEP AT SEBASTOPOL.]

Several large lighters, under sail and full of men, were standing over

from side to side of the harbour, and dockyard galleys, manned with

large crews of rowers all dressed in white jackets, were engaged in

tugging flats laden with stores to the south-western side of the town. A

tug steamer was also very active, and spluttered about in all

directions, furrowing the surface of the water, which was scarcely

"crisped" by the breeze, so completely was the harbour landlocked. The

men-of-war, with their large white ensigns barred by a blue St. Andrew's

cross flying from the peak, lay in a line at the north side, the

top-gallant yards and masts of two out of four being down; a two-decker

with bare topmasts lay on the south side, with her broadside towards the

Ville Civile; and the white masts of three vessels peered above the

buildings of the town further away on the right towards Inkerman.

The inner part of the town itself seemed perfectly untouched, the white

houses shone brightly and freshly in the sun, and the bells of a Gothic

chapel were ringing out lustily in the frosty air. Its tall houses

running up the hill sides, its solid look of masonry, gave Sebastopol a

resemblance to parts of Bath, or at least put one in mind of that city

as seen from the declivity which overhangs the river. There was,

however, a remarkable change in the look of the city since I first saw

it--there were no idlers and no women visible in the streets, and,

indeed, there was scarcely a person to be seen who looked like a

civilian. There was, however, abundance of soldiers, and to spare in the

streets. They could be seen in all directions, sauntering in pairs down

desolate-looking streets, chatting at the corners or running across the

open space, from one battery to another; again in large parties on

fatigue duty, or relieving guards, or drawn up in well-known grey masses

in the barrack-squares. Among those who were working on the open space,

carrying stores, I thought I could make out two French soldiers. At all

events, the men wore long blue coats and red trousers, and, as we worked

our prisoners and made them useful at Balaklava, where I had seen them

aiding in making the railway, I suppose the Muscovite commanders adopted

the same plan.

Outside the city, at the verge of the good houses, the eye rested on

great walls of earth piled up some ten or twelve feet, and eighteen or

twenty feet thick, indented at regular intervals with embrasures in

which the black dots which are throats of cannon might be detected.

These works were of tremendous strength. For the most part there was a

very deep and broad ditch in front of them, and wherever the ground

allowed of it, there were angles and _flèches_ which admitted of

flanking fires along the front, and of cross fires on centre points of

each line of attack or approach. In front of most of the works on both

the French and English sides of the town, a suburb of broken-down

white-washed cottages, the roofs gone, the doors off, and the windows

out, had been left standing in detached masses at a certain distance

from the batteries, but gaps had been made in them so that they might

not block the fire of the guns. The image of misery presented by these

suburbs was very striking--in some instances the havoc had been

committed by our shot, and the houses all round to the rear of the

Flagstaff Battery, opposite the French, had been blown into rubbish and

mounds of beams and mortar. The advanced works which the Russians left

on the advance of our allies still remained and it was hard to say

whether there were any guns in them or not, but they were commanded so

completely by the works in their rear that it would have been impossible

to hold them, and they would have afforded a good cover to the Russians,

while the latter could fire through the embrasures of the old works with

far greater ease than the enemy could get at them.

They threw up their new earthworks behind the cover of the suburb; when

they were finished, they withdrew their men from the outer line, blew

down and destroyed the cover of the houses, and opened fire from their

second line of batteries. Their supply of gabions seemed

inexhaustible--indeed, they had got all the brushwood of the hills of

the South Crimea at their disposal. In front of the huge mounds thrown

up by the Russians, foreshortened by the distance, so as to appear part

of them, were the French trenches--mounds of earth lined with gabions

which looked like fine matting. These lines ran parallel to those of the

enemy. The nearest parallel was not "armed" with cannon, but was lined

with riflemen. Zigzags led down from trench to trench. The troops inside

walked about securely, if not comfortably. The covering parties, with

their arms piled, sat round their little fires, and smoked and enjoyed

their coffee, while the working parties, spade in hand, continued the

never-ending labours of the siege--filling gabions here, sloping and

thickening the parapets there, repairing embrasures, and clearing out

the fosses. Where we should have had a thin sergeant's guard at this

work, the French could afford a strong company.

It was rather an unpleasant reflection, whenever one was discussing the

range of a missile, and was perhaps in the act of exclaiming "There's a

splendid shot," that it might have carried misery and sorrow into some

happy household. The smoke cleared away--the men got up--they gathered

round one who moved not, or who was racked with mortal agony; they bore

him away, a mere black speck, and a few shovelsful of mud marked for a

little time the resting-place of the poor soldier, whose wife, or

mother, or children, or sisters, were left destitute of all solace, save

memory and the sympathy of their country. One such little speck I

watched that day, and saw quietly deposited on the ground inside the

trench. Who would let the inmates of that desolate cottage in Picardy,

or Gascony, or Anjou, know of their bereavement?

[Sidenote: A RECONNAISSANCE.]

We descended the hill slope towards Upton's house, then occupied by a

strong picket of the French, under the command of a couple of officers.

From the front of this position one could see the heights over Inkerman,

the plateau towards the Belbek, the north side, the flank of the

military town opposite the English, our own left attack, and the rear of

the redoubtable Tower of Malakoff. The first thing that struck one was

the enormous preparations on the north side, extending from the sea

behind Fort Constantine far away to the right behind Inkerman towards

the Belbek. The trenches, batteries, earthworks, and redoubts all about

the citadel (the North Fort) were on an astonishing scale, and indicated

an intention on the part of the Russians to fall back on the north

side, in case of our occupying the south side of the place.[16]

About three o'clock three strong bodies of cavalry came down towards the

fort, as if they had been in the direction of the Alma or the Katcha.

They halted for a time, and then resumed their march to the camp over

Inkerman. In this direction also the enemy were busily working, and

their cantonments were easily perceptible, with the men moving about in

them. At the rear of the Round Tower, however, the greatest energy was

displayed, and a strong party of men were at work on new batteries

between it and the ruined suburb on the commanding hill on which the

Malakoff stood.

Our own men in the left attack seemed snug enough, and well covered by

their works; in front of them, on the slopes, were men, French and

English, scattered all over the hill side, grubbing for roots for fuel;

and further on, in front, little puffs of smoke marked the pits of the

Riflemen on both sides, from which the ceaseless crack of the Minié and

Liège smote the ear; but the great guns were all silent, and scarcely

one was fired on the right during the day; even Inkerman and its

spiteful batteries being voiceless for a wonder. As one of the officers

began to rub his nose and ears with snow, and to swear they were

frostbitten, and as we all felt very cold, we discontinued our

_reconnaissance_, and returned to camp. The wind blew keenly, and at

night the thermometer was at 16°. There were few cases of illness in the

trenches; but sickness kept on increasing. Typhus fever, thank God!

nearly disappeared.

Major-General Jones declared the position was not so strong as he

expected to find it from the accounts he had heard, but it was only to

the eye of a practised engineer that any signs of weakness presented

themselves. The heights over the sea bristled with low batteries, with

the guns couchant and just peering over the face of the cliffs. Vast as

these works were, the Russians were busy at strengthening them. Not less

than 3,000 men could have been employed on the day in question on the

ground about the citadel. One could see the staff-officers riding about

and directing the labours of the men, or forming into groups, and

warming themselves round the camp fires.

I was woke up shortly after two o'clock on the morning of the 24th of

February by the commencement of one of the most furious cannonades since

the siege began. The whole line of the Russian batteries from our left

opened with inconceivable force and noise, and the Inkerman batteries

began playing on our right; the weight of this most terrible fire, which

shook the very earth, and lighted up the skies with incessant lightning

flashes for an hour and a half, was directed against the French.

The cannonade lasted from a quarter-past two to half-past three A.M.

When first I heard it, I thought it was a sortie, and rode in the

moonlight towards the fire; but ere I could get over the ground to

Inkerman, the tumult ceased, and it was only next morning that we found

out the cause of such a tremendous exhibition of power. It appeared that

the activity of the French in making their approaches against the

Malakoff had rendered the Russians so uneasy that they began to make

counter approaches, and pushed out trenches to rifle-pits placed on the

Mamelon and on the head of Careening Creek ravine. These were observed

by the French, and General Bosquet, acting by order of General

Canrobert, directed General de Monet and General de Meyran to attack

these works with 1,000 of the 2nd Zouaves, a battalion of the 6th of the

Line, a battalion of the 10th of the Line, and a strong body of Marines;

that operation was effected about two A.M. The Russians offered a very

vigorous resistance, the Zouaves were not properly supported by the

Marines, or the troops of the Line. De Monet was badly wounded; he lost

one hand, and the other was much mutilated. In the conflict the Zouaves

lost 3 officers killed, 13 wounded, 1 missing, 69 men killed and 159

wounded.

The Zouaves were exceedingly irritated against the marine infantry, whom

they threatened in detail with exceedingly unpleasant "quarters of

an-hour" at some time to come for their alleged retreat on the morning

of the 24th. The Zouaves got it into their heads not only that the

marines bolted, but that they fired into those before them, who were the

Zouaves aforesaid. In their excessive anger and energy they were as

unjust to their comrades, perhaps, as they were complimentary to

ourselves, and I heard more than two of them exclaim, "Ah, if we had had

a few hundred of your English we should have done the trick; but these

marines--bah!"

On the night after this contest the enemy sunk four or five ships inside

the booms, so as to present a fourth barrier across the roads.

An armistice took place for an hour on the 27th. In the orders for the

day, Lord Raglan notified that at the request of General Osten-Sacken,

an armistice was granted from twelve till one o'clock to enable the

Russians to bury their dead. At twelve o'clock precisely, white flags

were run up on the battery flagstaffs on both sides, and immediately

afterwards a body of Russians issued from their new work near the

Malakoff, which had been the object of the French attack of the 24th,

and proceeded to search for their dead. The French were sent down from

Inkerman on a similar errand. A few Russian officers advanced about

half-way up towards our lines, where they were met by some of the

officers of the allies, and extreme courtesy, the interchange of

profound salutations, and enormous bowing, marked the interview. The

officers sauntered up and down, and shakos were raised and caps doffed

politely as each came near an enemy.

[Sidenote: A NOVEL AND ASTONISHING SIGHT.]

The exact object of the armistice it would have been hard to say, for

neither French nor Russians seemed to find any bodies unburied. Shortly

before one o'clock, the Russians retired inside their earthwork. At one

o'clock the white flags were all hauled down in an instant, and the last

fluttering bit of white bunting had scarcely disappeared over the

parapet, when the flash, and roar of a gun from Malakoff announced that

the war had begun once more. The French almost simultaneously fired a

gun from their batteries also; in a minute afterwards the popping of

rifles commenced as usual on both sides. The Cossacks about Balaklava

were particularly busy, and, having nothing better to do, I spent an

hour watching them through my glass from the artillery camp at Kadikoi.

They had a picket of ten horsemen at Kamara, from which the vedettes on

the top of Canrobert's Hill were furnished, and they had a similar body

of eight horsemen on the slope at the back of No. 2 Redoubt. There were

a few regular Hussars in a handsome dark blue or green uniform, with

white belts, on duty as sentries. The horses seemed to follow the

Cossacks about like dogs. The men all wore long loose grey coats and

round fur caps. They could not be very badly off for provisions,

inasmuch as the fields behind them towards the slope of the hill to

Mackenzie's farm were tolerably well filled with cattle.

From the top of Canrobert's Hill their vedette could see everything that

went on in the plains, from the entrance to Balaklava to the ridges on

which the French right rested. Not a horse, cart, or man, could go in or

out of the town which this sentinel could not see if he had good

eyesight, for he was quite visible to any person who gazed on the top of

Canrobert's Hill. The works of the railway must have caused this Cossack

very serious discomposure. What on earth could he think of them?

Gradually he saw villages of white huts rise up on the hill-sides and in

the recesses of the valleys, and from the Cavalry Camp to the heights of

Balaklava, he could behold line after line of snug angular wooden

buildings, each with its chimney at work, and he could discern the

tumult and bustle of Vanity Fair. This might have been all very

puzzling, but it could have been nothing to the excitement of looking at

a long line of black trucks rushing round and under the hill at Kadikoi,

and running down the incline to the town at the rate of twenty miles an

hour. A number of the Cossacks did gallop up to the top of the hill to

look at a phenomenon of that kind, and they went capering about, and

shaking their lances, in immense wonderment and excitation of spirits

when it had disappeared.

In addition to the old lines thrown up by Liprandi close to the

Woronzoff road, the Russians erected, to the rear and north of it, a

very large hexagonal work, capable of containing a large number of men,

and of being converted into a kind of intrenched camp. The lines of

these works were very plain as they were marked out by the snow, which

lay in the trench after that which fell on the ground outside and inside

had melted. There were, however, no infantry in sight, nor did any

movement of troops take place over the valley of the Tchernaya.

Emboldened by the success of the 24th, the Russians were apparently

preparing to throw up another work on the right of the new trenches, as

if they had made up their minds to besiege the French at Inkerman, and

assail their right attack. They sent up two steamers to the head of the

harbour, which greatly annoyed the right attack, and it occurred to

Captain Peel, of the _Diamond_, that it would be quite possible to get

boats down to the water's edge and cut these steamers out, or sink them.

Lord Raglan and Sir Edmund Lyons reconnoitred their position, but on

reflection the latter refused to sanction an operation which would have

gone far to raise the prestige of our navy, and to maintain their old

character for dash and daring.

[Sidenote: SCARCITY OF BOOTS AND SHOES.]

BOOK V.

THE COMMENCEMENT OF ACTIVE OPERATIONS--THE

SPRING--REINFORCEMENTS--THE SECOND BOMBARDMENT--ITS FAILURE--THIRD

BOMBARDMENT, AND FAILURE--PERIOD OF PREPARATION.

CHAPTER I.

Preparations--The Railway in use--Vanity Fair, or Buffalo

Town--Intrusion--Flowers and Birds--Exciting Sport--First Spring

Meeting--Rumours--The Turkish Levies--The Electric Telegraph--News

of the Death of Nicholas--Mismanagement--Progress of the Siege

Works--Jack in Clover--Improved Condition of the Army--Admiral

Boxer--Council of War--Affair between the Russians and the French.

It froze on the night of the 1st of March. The thermometer was at

twenty-four degrees at two A.M. next morning, the wind strong and very

cold. It was scarcely to be believed that, with all our immense stores

of warm clothing, boots and shoes were at that time by no means

plentiful in the army. About three hundred pairs of boots were served

out to the 14th Regiment, which was employed in fatigue duty in and near

Balaklava; but the thick heavy clay sucked the soles off, and for a week

some of the men went about without any soles to their boots--_ergo_,

their feet were on the ground, with the thermometer at thirty degrees:

that was not agreeable locomotion.

About 240 sick men were sent in from the front to Balaklava on French

ambulance mules, and were received and refreshed at the Caradoc

restaurant. The preparations for the renewal of our fire were pressed

on; and arrangements were made to send up 2000 rounds a day to the

front. About 200 mules were pressed into this service in addition to the

railway, and the Highlanders and the artillery horses were employed in

the carriage of heavy shell to the front, a duty which greatly

distressed them. The men of the Fourth Division, the 17th and 18th

Regiments, were armed with the Minié rifle.

The silence and calm were but the omens of the struggle which was about

to be renewed for the possession of Sebastopol. The Russians were silent

because the allies did not impede their works. The allies were silent

because they were preparing for the contest, and were using every energy

to bring up from Kamiesch and Balaklava the enormous mounds of

projectiles and mountains of ammunition which were required for the

service of the new batteries and to extend, complete, and strengthen

their offensive and defensive lines and trenches.

The railway had begun to render us some service in saving the hard

labour attendant on the transport of shot and shell, and enabled us to

form a sort of small terminal depôt at the distance of two miles and

three quarters from Balaklava, which was, however, not large enough for

the demands upon it, and it was emptied as soon as it was formed by

parties of the Highland Brigade, who carried the ammunition to the camp

depôt, three miles and a half further on. The railway was not

sufficiently long to induce Mr. Filder to avail himself of it largely

for the transport of provisions to the front, as he conceived a partial

use of it would impede the formation of the rail, derange his own

commissariat transport, and produce endless confusion at the temporary

terminus. The commissariat officers of the Second Division were,

however, allowed to use the rail between six and eight o'clock every

morning.

The navvies, notwithstanding the temptation of the bottle and of strange

society in Vanity Fair or Buffalo-town, worked honestly and well, with

few exceptions, and the dread of the Provost-Marshal had produced a

wholesome influence on the dispositions of the refractory. The Croat

labourers astonished all who saw them by the enormous loads they

carried, and by their great physical strength and endurance.

Broad-chested, flat-backed men, round-shouldered, with long arms, lean

flanks, thick muscular thighs, and their calfless legs--feeding simply,

and living quietly and temperately--the Croats performed daily an amount

of work in conveying heavy articles on their backs which would amaze any

one who had not seen a Constantinople "hamal." Their camp, outside the

town, was extremely picturesque, and, I am bound to add, dirty. A rich

flavour of onions impregnated the air for a considerable distance

around, mingled with reminiscences of ancient Parmesan, and the messes

which the nasty-handed Phillises dressed for themselves did not look

very inviting, but certainly contained plenty of nutriment, and were

better, I dare say, than the tough pork and tougher biscuit of our own

ration. The men were like Greeks of the Isles in dress, arms, and

carriage, but they had an expression of honest ferocity, courage, and

manliness in their faces, which at once distinguished them from their

Hellenic brethren. We had also a number of strong "hamals" in our

service, who were very useful as beasts of burden to the commissariat.

[Sidenote: FLOWERS AND BIRDS OF THE CHERSONESE.]

Parties of men were lent to Mr. Beatty to assist in the works of the

railway, and 200 men of the Naval Brigade detailed in order that the

construction of it might be hastened and facilitated as much as

possible. I was favoured by a striking proof of the energy of the

proceedings of the navvies one day. I had left my delectable premises in

their usual condition, in Balaklava, as I did each week, to spend some

days going from division to division, and regiment to regiment: outside

my den a courtyard of abominations unutterable, the favourite resort of

Tartar camel-drivers, when they had a few moments to devote to the

pursuit of parasites, and of drunken sailors, who desired dignified

retirement from the observation of the Provost-Marshal's myrmidons, was

surrounded by a wall which enclosed a few old poplar trees and a ruined

shed, in which stood some horses. I left on one post-day and returned on

another, and it was with difficulty I recognised the spot. A railway was

running right across my court-yard, the walls were demolished, a

severance existed between the mansion and its dependencies, and just as

my friends and myself entered the "saloon and bedchamber"--a primitive

apartment, through the floor of which I could investigate the

proceedings of my quadrupeds below--the navvies gave us a startling

welcome by pulling a poplar down on the roof, which had the effect of

carrying away a portion of the balcony, and pent-tiles, and smashing in

my two windows elegantly "glazed" with boards.

Unusual energy was displayed in most departments. The word "must" was

heard. Whether its use was attributable to the pressure of the French,

to instructions from home, to the necessity which existed for it, or to

any specific cause, I am unable to surmise. Certain it is that officers

were told that so many guns _must_ be in the batteries on such a day,

and that such a work _must_ be finished by such a time, and a _General_

visited the trenches every day, and saw that the men did not neglect

their duty. General Simpson, as a Chef d'Etat-Major, was expected to

harmonize the operations of the Quarter-master General's and

Adjutant-General's departments. A sanatorium was established on

Balaklava heights.

The soil, wherever a flower had a chance of springing up, poured forth

multitudes of snowdrops, crocuses, and hyacinths. The Chersonese abounds

in bulbous plants, some of great beauty, and rare shrubs. The finches

and larks had a Valentine's-day of their own, and congregated in flocks.

Brilliant goldfinches, buntings, golden-crested wrens, larks, linnets,

titlarks, tomtits, hedge sparrows, and a pretty species of wagtail, were

very common; and it was strange to hear them piping and twittering about

the bushes in the intervals of the booming of cannon, just as it was to

see the young spring flowers forcing their way through the crevices of

piles of shot, and peering out from under shells and heavy ordnance.

Cormorants and shags haunted the head of the harbour, which was also

resorted to by some rare and curious wildfowl, one like the _Anas

sponsa_[17] of Linnæus, another the golden-eyed pocher, and many sorts

of widgeon and diver. Vultures, kites, buzzards, and ravens wheeled over

the plateau in hundreds at a time for two or three days, disappeared,

and returned to feast on garbage. Probably they divided their attention

between the allies and the Russians. The Tchernaya abounded with duck,

and some of the officers had little decoys of their own. It was highly

exciting sport, for the Russian batteries over Inkerman sent a round

shot or shell at the sportsman if he was seen. In the daytime they

adopted the expedient of taking a few French soldiers down with them,

who, out of love of the thing, and for the chance of a _bonnemain_, were

only too happy to occupy the attention of the Cossacks, while their

patrons were after mallard. There were bustards and little bustards on

the steppes near the Monastery of St. George, and the cliffs presented

an appearance which led two or three officers acquainted with Australia

to make fruitless searches for gold ore. The ravines abounded with

jasper, bloodstone, and there was abundance of "black sand" in the

interstices of the rocks, which were of exceeding hardness; but

south-west of St. George, there were fountains of the fine blue

limestone.

On the 4th of March the French and Russians had a severe brush about

daybreak. Generals Canrobert, Niel, Bosquet, Bizot rode over to the

English head-quarters in the course of the day, and were closeted with

Lord Raglan, assisted by Sir George Brown, Sir John Burgoyne, and

General Jones. They met to consider a proposition made by General

Canrobert to attack the north side, by the aid of the Turks, as it

seemed to him quite hopeless to attempt to drive the Russians from

Inkerman.

On the morning of the 5th of March early there was a repetition of the

affair between the French and Russians, who began throwing a new redoubt

towards the Victoria Redoubt. In order to strengthen our right, which

the enemy menaced more evidently every day, the whole of the Ninth

Division of the French army was moved over there. Our first spring

meeting took place on the 5th, numerously attended. The races came off

on a little piece of undulating ground, on the top of the ridges near

Karanyi, and were regarded with much interest by the Cossack pickets at

Kamara and on Canrobert's Hill. They thought at first that the

assemblage was connected with some military demonstration, and galloped

about in a state of excitement, but it is to be hoped they got a clearer

notion of the real character of the proceedings ere the sport was over.

[Sidenote: WAR A CREATOR AS WELL AS A DESTROYER.]

In the midst of the races a party of Russians were seen approaching the

vedette on No. 4 Old Redoubt in the valley. The Dragoon fired his

carbine, and ten turned and fled, but two deserters came in. One of them

was an officer; the other had been an officer, but had suffered

degradation for "political causes." They were Poles, and the ex-officer

spoke French and German fluently. They expressed great satisfaction at

their escape, and the latter said, "Send me wherever you like, provided

that I never see Russia again." They stated that they had deceived the

men who were with them into the belief that the vedette was one of their

own outposts, and advanced boldly till the Dragoon fired on them, when

they discovered their mistake. The deserters state that a corps of about

8000 men had joined the army between Baidar and Simpheropol. On being

taken to Sir Colin Campbell, they requested that the horses might be

sent back to the Russian lines, for, as they did not belong to them,

they did not wish to be accused of theft. Sir Colin granted the

request, and the horses were taken to the brow of the hill and set free,

when they at once galloped off towards the Cossacks. The races proceeded

after this little episode just as usual, and subsequently the company

resolved itself into small packs of dog-hunters.

The weather became mild, the nights clear. Our defensive line over

Balaklava was greatly strengthened, and its outworks and batteries were

altered and amended considerably. The health of the troops was better,

mortality and sickness decreased, and the spirits of the men were good.

The wreck of Balaklava was shovelled away, or was in the course of

removal, and was shot into the sea to form piers, or beaten down to make

roads, and stores and barracks of wood were rising up in its place. The

oldest inhabitant would not have known the place on his return. If war

is a great destroyer, it is also a great creator. The Czar was indebted

to it for a railway in the Crimea, and for new roads between Balaklava,

Kamiesch, and Sebastopol. The hill-tops were adorned with clean wooden

huts, the flats were drained, the watercourses dammed up and deepened,

and all this was done in a few days, by the newly-awakened energies of

labour. The noise of hammer and anvil, and the roll of the railway

train, were heard in these remote regions a century before their time.

Can anything be more suggestive of county magistracy and poor-laws, and

order and peace, than stone-breaking? It went on daily, and parties of

red-coated soldiery were to be seen contentedly hammering away at the

limestone rock, satisfied with a few pence extra pay. Men were given

freely wherever there was work to be done. The policeman walked abroad

in the streets of Balaklava. Colonel Harding exhibited ability in the

improvement of the town, and he had means at his disposal which his

predecessors could not obtain. Lord Raglan was out before the camps

every day, and Generals Estcourt and Airey were equally active. They

visited Balaklava, inspected the lines, rode along the works, and by

their presence and directions infused an amount of energy which went far

to make up for lost time, if not for lost lives.

The heaps accumulated by the Turks who perished in the foetid lanes of

Balaklava, and the masses of abomination unutterable which they left

behind them, were removed and mixed with stones, lime, manure, and

earth, to form piers, which were not so offensive as might have been

expected. The dead horses were collected and buried. A little naval

arsenal grew up at the north side of the harbour, with shears,

landing-wharf, and storehouses; and a branch line was to be made from

this spot to the trunk to the camp. The harbour, crowded as it was,

assumed a certain appearance of order. Cesspools were cleared out, and

the English Hercules at last began to stir about the heels of the oxen

of Augæus.

The whole of the Turks were removed to the hill-side. Each day there was

a diminution in the average amount of sickness, and a still greater

decrease in the rates of mortality. Writing at the time, I said a good

sanitary officer, with an effective staff, might do much to avert the

sickness to be expected among the myriads of soldiers when the heats of

spring began.[18] Fresh provisions were becoming abundant, and supplies

of vegetables were to be had for the sick and scurvy-stricken. The siege

works were in a state of completion, and were admirably made. Those on

which our troops were engaged proceeded uninterruptedly. A great

quantity of mules and ponies, with a staff of drivers from all parts of

the world, was collected together, and lightened the toils of the troops

and of the commissariat department. The public and private stores of

warm clothing exceeded the demand. The mortality among the horses

ceased, and, though the oxen and sheep sent over to the camps would not

have found much favour in Smithfield, they were very grateful to those

who had to feed so long on salt junk alone. The sick were nearly all

hutted, and even some of the men in those camps which were nearest to

Balaklava had been provided with similar comforts and accommodation.

An electric telegraph was established between head-quarters and Kadikoi,

and the line was ordered to be carried on to Balaklava. The French

preferred the old-fashioned semaphore, and had a communication between

the camps and naval stations.

The news of the death of the Emperor Nicholas produced an immense

sensation, and gave rise to the liveliest discussions as to its effect

upon the contest. We were all wrong in our surmises the day the

intelligence arrived. The enemy fired very briskly, as if to show they

were not disheartened.

The story of the guns of position, at this time available, was

instructive. It will be remembered that the Russians inflicted great

loss upon us by their guns of position at the Alma, and that we had none

to reply to them. Indeed, had they been landed at Kalamita Bay, it is

doubtful if we could have got horses to draw them. However, if we had

had the horses, we could not have had the guns. The fact was, that sixty

fine guns of position, with all their equipments complete, were shipped

on board the _Taurus_ at Woolwich, and sent out to the East. When the

vessel arrived at Constantinople, the admiral in charge, with

destructive energy, insisted on trans-shipping all the guns into the

_Gertrude_. The captain in charge remonstrated, but in vain--words grew

high, but led to no result. The guns, beautifully packed and laid, with

everything in its proper place, were hauled up out of the hold, and

huddled, in the most approved higgledy-piggledy _à la Balaklava

ancienne_, into the _Gertrude_, where they were deposited on the top of

a quantity of medical and other stores. The equipments shared the same

fate, and the hold of the vessel presented to the eye of the

artilleryman the realization of the saying anent the arrangement of a

midshipman's chest, "everything uppermost and nothing at hand." The

officer in charge got to Varna, and in vain sought permission to go to

some retired nook, discharge the cargo, and restow the guns. The

expedition sailed, and when the _Gertrude_ arrived at Old Fort, had

Hercules been set to clear the guns, as his fourteenth labour, he could

not have done it. And so the medicines, that would certainly have done

good, and the guns, that might have done harm, were left to neutralize

each other!

[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE WORKS.]

The weather was in the early part of March so mild and fine, that it was

scarcely generous to notice the few Black Sea fogs which swept over us

now and then like shadows and so departed. Our siege works were a kind

of Penelope's web. They were always approaching completion, and never

(or at least very slowly) attaining it. The matter was in this

wise:--Our engineers now and then saw a certain point to be gained by

the erection of a work or battery at a particular place. The plans were

made and the working parties were sent down, and after a few casualties

the particular work was executed; but, as it generally happened that the

enemy were quite alive to our proceedings, without waiting for their

copies of _The Times_, we found that the Russians had by the time the

work was finished, thrown up another work to enfilade or to meet our

guns. Then it became necessary to do something to destroy the position

and fresh plans were drawn up, and more trenches were dug and parapets

erected. The same thing took place as before, and the process might have

been almost indefinite but for the space of soil.