Scarcely had they gone a few hundred yards when they were met by a
second column, which was advancing at the _pas de charge_, and both
united and again rushed forward. This second attempt was more successful
than the first. They forded the river on the right and left, at the
bridge, and forced its defenders to fall back. The moment the bridge was
free two guns of the 5th Light Brigade of Artillery crossed it and took
position between two of the hillocks on the road which leads to the
plain of Balaklava. A third gun crossed the river by a ford, and all
three began to sweep the road and the heights. The infantry, without
waiting for the portable bridges, the greater part of which had been
thrown away during the advance, rushed breast-deep into the water,
climbed up the embankment, and began to scale the heights. They
succeeded in getting up more than one-half of the ascent, where the dead
and wounded afterwards showed clearly the mark they reached; but by this
time the French met them in the most gallant style. The Russians were by
degrees forced back, and driven across the bridge, carrying away their
guns.
While this conflict took place on the bridge, the other column attacked
the French right in such a swarm that they could neither be kept back by
the aqueduct, nor cowed by the Sardinian guns, which were ploughing long
lanes through their ranks. On they came, as it seemed, irresistible, and
rushed up the steep hill with such fury that the Zouaves, who lined the
sides of it, were obliged to fall back. The officers might be seen
leading the way and animating their soldiers. This furious rush brought
the advancing column to the crest of the hillock, where it stopped to
form. But the French had not been idle. Scarcely did the column of the
enemy show its head, ere the guns opened upon it with grape, and a
murderous fire was poured in by the French infantry. The column began to
waver; but the impetus from those behind was so powerful that the head
was pushed forward a few yards more, when the French, giving one mighty
cheer, rushed upon the enemy, who, shaken already, immediately turned
round and ran. But the mass was so great that all the hurry could not
save them, and more than 200 prisoners were taken, the banks of the
aqueduct, the aqueduct itself, and the river side were covered and
filled with the dead and the wounded. The Sardinian and French artillery
poured a murderous cross-fire into the scattered remains of the column.
It was a complete rout. The French drove them far across the plain. This
defeat completely depressed them; nothing more was attempted against
this side.
Not so on the bridge. Notwithstanding the heavy loss suffered in the
second attack, the Russians collected the scattered remains of the
column which had been routed on the right of the French, and brought up
all their reserves. They crossed the river, and the aqueduct too, but
the French were now thoroughly prepared, and the tenacity of the
Russians only served to augment their losses. This last failure was
decisive, and immediately the advance of the artillery--the usual
Russian preparation for retreat--showed they were on the point of
retiring. Three batteries, each of twelve guns, began to open fire,
while the remains of the infantry rallied behind a rising ground leading
up towards the plateau of Ayker, or Mackenzie's Height.
The Sardinians, who, with the exception of the little outpost fight on
the opposite side of the Tchernaya, had only supported the French by
their artillery, began to move across the aqueduct. The Russian
riflemen, after the last defeat on the right, had retired behind the
banks of the Tchernaya. A battalion of Piedmontese, preceded by a
company of bersaglieri, advanced in beautiful order as if on parade, and
soon drove these riflemen from their position. It even advanced some
way, but it was not intended to force the heights. The French brought up
a new division (Dulac's). The English and French cavalry were in
readiness on the ground of the Light Cavalry charge, to receive the
enemy if they should debouch on the plain. But General Morris would not
risk the cavalry on the plain, intersected as it was by the branches of
the river, and defended, as it was still, by the Russian guns on the
height; so only two squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique followed the
retreating enemy.
The guns which the Russians had brought up to cover their retreat
suffered so much by the fire, which from our side was increased by
Captain Mowbray's battery from the open ground between the Sardinian and
the French positions, that they made off. As the guns retired, a
brilliant line of cavalry appeared from behind the rising ground. I
could distinguish five regiments--three in line and two other regiments
in second line. They advanced at a gallop, and wheeling round, allowed
twelve guns to pass, which again opened fire, but at half-past nine or
ten o'clock black lines moving off, through clouds of the dust on the
Mackenzie Road, were the only traces which remained of the so long
threatened attack of the Russians.
Although not quite so obstinate and sanguinary as the Battle of
Inkerman, this affair resembled it in many points. The Russians gave up
manoeuvring, and confided entirely in the valour of their troops. The
difference was in the manner of fighting. At Inkerman the Russians fell
under file firing; on the Tchernaya it was the artillery which did the
greatest execution. On the banks of the aqueduct particularly, the sight
was appalling; the Russians, when scaling the embankment of the
aqueduct, were taken in flank by the Sardinian batteries, and the dead
and wounded rolled down the embankment, sometimes more than twenty feet
in height.
According to the account of the prisoners, and judging from the straps
on the shoulders of the wounded and dead, three divisions were engaged
in the actual attack,--the 5th of the 2nd _corps d'armée_ (of General
Paniutin), then lately arrived from Poland, under the command of General
Wrangel; the 12th division of the 4th _corps d'armée_ (Osten Sacken's),
formerly under the command of General Liprandi, afterwards under General
Martinolep; and the 17th division of the 6th _corps d'armée_
(Liprandi's), under Major-General Wassielkosky. Before the attack began,
General Gortschakoff, who commanded in person, read a letter from the
Emperor before them, in which he expressed a hope that they would prove
as valorous as last year when they took the heights of Balaklava; and
then there was a large distribution of brandy. Besides the three
divisions which attacked, the 7th occupied Tchorgoun and the heights,
but was not engaged except in the small outpost affair of the
Sardinians.
The French had three divisions engaged--the Division Faucheux to the
right, the Division d'Herbillon in the centre, and the Division (Camou)
on the left of the bridge; their loss was about 1,000 in killed and
wounded. The Sardinians had only one division engaged (the Division
Trotti), and lost but a few hundred men; they had to regret the loss of
a distinguished general officer, the Brigadier-General Count de
Montevecchio, who died of his wounds; but they gained great confidence
from the day, and were proud of holding their own so well under the eyes
of their allies.
The battle had been raging for an hour ere I reached the line of the
French works at Fedukhine. From the high grounds over which I had to
ride, the whole of the battle-field was marked out by rolling columns of
smoke, and the irregular thick puffs of the artillery. All our cavalry
camps were deserted; but the sun played on the helmets and sabres of the
solid squadrons, which were drawn up about two miles in advance of
Kadikoi, and just in rear of the line of hills which the French and
Sardinians were defending, so as to be ready to charge the Russians
should they force the position. The French cavalry, chasseurs, hussars,
and two regiments of dragoons, were on our left. Our light and our heavy
cavalry brigades were formed in two heavy masses, supported by artillery
in the plain behind the second Fedukhine hillock, and seemed in splendid
case, and "eager for the fray." The Allies had, in fact, not less than
6,000 very fine cavalry that day in the field; but they were held in
check, "for fear" of the artillery, which there is no doubt they could
have captured, in addition to many thousands of prisoners, if handled by
a Seidlitz or a Murat. But the French General would not permit a charge
to be executed, though French and English cavalry leaders were alike
eager for it, and so this noble force was rendered ineffective.
Having passed by the left of the cavalry, I gained the side of the hill
just as a large body of French troops crowned it at the _pas double_,
deployed, and at once charged down towards the aqueduct, where a strong
column of Russians, protected by a heavy fire of artillery on the crest
of the ridge, were making good their ground against the exhausted
French. This new regiment attacking them with extraordinary impetuosity
on the flank, literally swept the Russians like flies into the aqueduct,
or rolled them headlong down its steep banks; and at the same moment a
French battery on my right, belonging, I think, to the Imperial Guards,
opened on the shattered crowd with grape, and tore them into atoms. This
column was the head, so to speak, of the second attack on the lines, and
emerging through the flying mass, another body of Russian infantry, with
levelled bayonets, advanced with great steadiness towards the aqueduct
once more. As far as the eye could see towards the right, the flat caps
and grey coats were marching towards the Allied position, or detaching
themselves from the distant reserves, which were visible here and there
concealed amid the hills. As the French battery opened, a Russian
battery was detached to answer it, and to draw off their fire; but our
gallant Allies took their pounding with great gallantry and coolness,
and were not diverted for a moment from their business of dealing with
the infantry column, the head of which was completely knocked to pieces
in two minutes. Then the officers halted it, and tried in vain to deploy
them--the column, wavering and wriggling like a great serpent, began to
spread out from the further extremity like a fan, and to retreat towards
the rear. Another crashing volley of grape, and they are retreating over
the plain.
And now there breaks high over all the roar of battle, heavier thunder.
Those are the deep, angry voices of the great English heavy battery of
18-pounders and 32-pounder howitzers, under Mowbray, which search out
the reserves. These guns were placed far away on my right, near the
Sardinians, and it is acknowledged by all that they did good service
upon this eventful day. The advance I had just witnessed was the last
effort of the enemy. Their infantry rolled in confused masses over the
plain on the other side of the Tchernaya, were pursued by the whole fire
of the French batteries and of the 8-inch English howitzers in the
Sardinian redoubt, and by a continuous and well-directed fusillade, till
they were out of range. Their defeat was announced by the advance of
their cavalry, and by the angry volleys of their artillery against the
positions of the Allies. Their cavalry, keeping out of range, made a
very fair show, with lances and standards, and sabres shining brightly;
but beyond that they did nothing--and, indeed, they could do nothing, as
we did not give them a chance of action. The Russians were supported by
guns, but they did not seem well placed, nor did they occupy a good
position at any time of the fight. The infantry formed in square blocks
in the rear of this force, and then began to file off towards the
Mackenzie Road, and the French rocket battery opened on them from the
plateau, and, strange to say, reached them several times. It was about
eight o'clock when their regular retreat commenced, and the English
cavalry and artillery began to retire also at that hour to their camps,
much discontented, because they had had no larger share in the honours
of the day.
The march of the Russians continued till late in the day--their last
column gained the plateau about two o'clock. It must have been a
terrible march for them--not a drop of water to be had; and even when
they gained their arid camp, it is only too probable that they had
nothing to drink; indeed, the prisoners told us the men were encouraged
to the attack by being told that if they gained the Tchernaya they would
have abundance of water--the greatest inducement that could be held out
to them. I rode down towards the _tête-du-pont_. In order to get a good
view of the retreat, I descended to the bridge, which was covered with
wounded men. Just as I gained the centre of it, a volley of shells was
pitched right upon it, and amid the French, who, with their usual
humanity, were helping the wounded. Some burst in the shallow stream,
the sides of which were crowded with wounded men; others killed poor
wretches who were crawling towards the water,--one in particular, to
whom I had just an instant before thrown a sandwich; others knocked
pieces out of the bridge, or tore up the causeway. As the road was right
in the line of fire, I at once turned off the bridge, and pulling sharp
round, dashed under an arch just as the battery opened on us a second
time, and there I remained for about ten minutes, when the Russians
seemed ashamed of themselves, and gave us a respite for a few moments.
The next time they fired was with round shot; and as I retreated up the
road, to obtain shelter behind the hills, one of these knocked a wounded
Zouave to pieces before my eyes. In the rear of the hill, there was a
party of about five hundred Russian prisoners _en bivouac_. Many of them
were wounded; all were war-worn, dirty, ill-clad,--some in rags, others
almost bootless. The French sentries who guarded them seemed to
commiserate the poor fellows; but two or three of their own officers,
who sat apart, did not look at them, but smoked their cigars with great
nonchalance, or talked glibly to the French officers of the fortune of
war, &c.
In a short time I returned to the front, and saw General Simpson and a
few staff-officers descending from the Sardinian position, whence they
had watched the battle. They were on their way back to head-quarters;
but Captain Colville, aide-de-camp to the General, a young officer of
ability and promise, and always of an inquiring turn of mind, turned
back with me, and we rode over the bridge. The French were, however,
obdurate, and would not let us cross the _tête-du-pont_, as we were _en
pleine portée_ of the guns posted behind a white scarp on a hillock on
the opposite side. We could see that the Sardinians had recovered their
old ground, and occupied the height from which their advanced posts were
driven early in the day. Further, we could see the Russian cavalry, but
the great mass of infantry was in full retreat; and at nine o'clock the
road to Mackenzie's Farm was thronged with a close column of thirsty,
footsore, beaten Russians. The aspect of the field, of the aqueduct, and
of the river, was horrible beyond description;--the bodies were closely
packed in parties, and lay in files two or three deep, where the grape
had torn through the columns. For two days the bodies rotted on the
ground which lay beyond the French lines, and the first Russian burying
party did not come down till the 18th, when the stench was so very great
that the men could scarcely perform their loathsome task. General Read
was killed early in the battle; and the Russians lost every officer in
command of an attacking column. Their total loss was, we estimated, at
from 12,000 to 15,000 men.
CHAPTER III.
Spoil of Camp-followers and Sutlers--Renewal of Cannonade--Nature
of Russian Artillery firing--Unwillingness of the Turks to throw up
Earthworks--List of British Wounded, Killed and Missing--British
Reinforcements--Reports of Russian attack on Balaklava--Rumours of
Peace--Peace party in Camp--Tenacity and Endurance of Russians
underrated by them--Desire of English Cavalry to avenge their
Comrades.
After the affair of the 16th, the siege operations monopolized, in great
measure, the military interest which the Tchernaya had attracted for one
moment. But the Tchernaya became a point of attraction for all
curiosity-seeking persons, whose name was legion, in the Allied armies.
Officers and soldiers, although numerous enough, were few in proportion
to the merchant sailors, suttlers from Balaklava and Kamiesch, and other
nondescript camp-followers, who formed a class of themselves, and were
as sure to appear after an action was over as vultures. Everything was
acceptable. They had little chance of getting hold of medals, amulets,
and crosses, and other more valuable spoil, for these disappeared
marvellously; but they were not particular. The Russian muskets were
most in request--cartridge-boxes, riflemen's swords, bayonets, &c., were
taken _faute de mieux_. There were some excellent rifles, with
sword-bayonets, which were in great request; they were, as was usually
the case with all valuable things, picked up by the Zouaves, who
certainly had the best right to them, having won them by their bravery.
The Zouaves sold them, and the gendarmes took them away again, leaving
the purchaser free to single out the Zouave who sold the rifle, and to
get back his purchase-money. But the gendarmes confiscated all arms,
whether paid for or not, as, according to the regulations of the French
army, they ought to have been collected on the battle-field by the
Artillery--a thing which was never done.
The fire, which opened at daybreak on Friday, continued the whole of
Saturday and Sunday, but slackened on Monday. The progress of the French
works was considerable, and the French seemed duly sensible of the
service of our cannonade. I heard a French officer say on Saturday
evening that it had enabled them to do in four hours what they
previously could not have done in fifteen days. Their foremost parallel,
which had been begun at the two ends, could not be completed, owing to
its near proximity to the Malakoff. As soon as a gabion was put up, a
storm of projectiles was hurled against it and the working party;
afterwards the extremities were connected under the cover of our fire.
The distance was indeed so greatly reduced between the French trenches
and the Russian defences, that a vigorous assault seemed certain to
succeed.
[Sidenote: HARASSING NATURE OF "TURNS-OUTS"]
The Russians always considered it a point of honour to go off in great
style on the first day of a bombardment; after which they ran their guns
behind the parapets, covered them with sandbags, and allowed us to blaze
away without making frequent reply. Although earthworks take a deal of
hammering before they show its marks, both the Redan and Malakoff began
to present a very battered appearance. We had, of course, no means of
ascertaining the Russian loss of men. Every night our people kept up the
musketry against the proper right and the curtain of the Malakoff to
protect the French workmen, and shells and bouquets of shells flew all
along the lines right and left--very pretty to look at, but unpleasant
to meet.
At sunset on Saturday evening, the 18th of August, a party of the Naval
Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Gough, dragged a 68-pounder up to No.
11 Battery left attack to bear on the mole-head and on the bridge across
the creek, but it did not appear to impede the movements of the enemy.
On the afternoon of the 20th, between five and six o'clock, the French
batteries on the left opened a furious fire, to which the Russians
warmly replied. General Pelissier, in his open carriage, with his
aides-de-camp and usual hussar escort, passed through the English camp
and went up to Cathcart's Hill. The fire lasted until nightfall, and
then diminished. At midnight it had almost ceased, and one saw but an
occasional shell in the air. At 2 A.M. orders came for the army to turn
out. This was rapidly done; the troops moved to the front, and remained
there until daylight. A line of telegraphic lights had been observed,
commencing at Sebastopol, and running along the Inkerman heights, and it
was supposed that an attack was intended. These "turns-outs" were
frequent and harassing during this period of the siege.
The French, who were convinced that in the face of a strong force of the
enemy, who might come down with his battalions in a few hours during the
night, field fortifications were never _de trop_, threw up three
redoubts to command the bridge, which was the weakest point of their
defence. They were named Raglan Redoubt, Bizot Redoubt (in honour of the
fallen general of Engineers), and La Bussonière Redoubt (in honour of
the colonel of Artillery of that name who fell on the 18th of June).
The Sardinians strengthened their position. Their works assumed the
shape of an entrenched camp, and every variation in the ground was taken
advantage of. The hills were particularly suited for fortified lines.
The Turks, who occupied the extreme right of our position, and who had
to guard the two roads leading from the valley of Varnutka, did nothing
in the _tabia_ line. In vain did the Sardinian engineers throw out
gentle hints about the propriety of erecting a couple of _épaulements_,
and point out divers hills and heights peculiarly suited for a redoubt;
they turned a deaf ear to all these suggestions, and, except the works
which had been previously thrown up by the Piedmontese, when they held
some of the positions guarded by the Turks, not a shovelful of earth
was turned up. This would have seemed so much the more surprising, as
the Turks had become notorious by their fortification, at Kalafat,
Giurgevo, Silistria, and Eupatoria.
[Sidenote: WEIGHT AND CALIBRE OF BRITISH MISSILES.]
On the 25th, the Highland division under General Cameron encamped close
to the Piedmontese. On the same day, General Simpson reconnoitred with
great care the position of the enemy, who had massed a considerable
number of troops on the Mackenzie Plateau at Taura and Korales, and had
pushed forward strong parties as far as Makoul. It was understood from
the spies that two regiments of the Grenadier Corps had been sent down
in light carts from Simpheropol. At the same time the Russians were busy
at a line of earthworks connecting all their defences from the sea to
the West Inkerman Lighthouse Hill. Their bridge of boats or pontoons
from north to south, across the road, was completed. It passed from the
western curve of Fort Nicholas on the south, to the creek between
Nachimoff Battery and Fort Michael. From the 20th to the 23rd of August
inclusive, we lost 2 sergeants, 24 rank and file killed; 8 officers, 8
sergeants, 168 rank and file wounded--total, 220 _hors de combat_. On
the 20th, Lieutenant Home, 48th, was contused on the shoulder;
Lieutenant Campbell, 72nd, slightly wounded; Lieutenant McBarnet, 79th,
ditto; Captain Dickson, R.A., ditto;--on the 21st, Lieutenant Smith,
28th, ditto;--on the 22nd, Lieutenant Campbell, Scots Fusileer Guards,
ditto; Lieutenant Wield, 95th, severely;--on the 23rd, Lieutenant de
Winton, R.A., slightly. The casualties from the 24th to the 26th of
August were--24 rank and file killed; 9 officers, 6 sergeants, and 137
rank and file wounded and missing. On the 24th, Major Warden, 97th, and
Lieutenant Bigge, 23rd, were slightly, and Captain J. F. Browne, R.E.,
was severely wounded. On the 25th, Captain R. Drummond was dangerously
wounded. Colonel Seymour (who was wounded in the thumb at Inkerman) was
hit in the head by a piece of a shell. Lieutenant Laurie, 34th, was
slightly wounded the same day; on the 26th, Lieutenant Rous, of the
90th, and Captain Arbuthnot, R.A., were wounded severely. On the 28th,
Captain Forbes, Grenadier Guards, received a very slight flesh scratch.
On the 29th, Captain Farquharson, Scotch Fusileer Guards, and Major
Graham, 41st Regiment, were wounded, the first slightly, the latter
severely; and on the 30th, Captain Wolsley, of the 90th acting as
Engineer, was severely wounded. From the 27th to the 30th August, 1
officer, 1 sergeant, and 20 rank and file were killed; 6 officers, 4
sergeants, and 152 rank and file were wounded. The casualties from 31st
August to 2nd September were 1 officer, 1 sergeant, 22 rank and file
killed; 6 officers, 7 sergeants, 106 rank and file wounded; 1 officer, 1
rank and file missing. Captain Fraser, 95th, was killed on the 31st, and
on the same night Lieutenant Burningheim, of the 3rd Regiment, was
slightly, and Lieutenant Forbes, 30th Regiment, mortally wounded; and
Captain Ross, of the Buffs, was missing. On 1st September, Lieutenant
Price, R.A., was slightly, and Lieutenant Cary, Rifle Brigade, was
severely wounded. On the 2nd September, Lieutenant Roberts, R.A., and
Captain Smith, 90th, were slightly wounded. On the 4th, the 82nd
Regiment disembarked from Corfu, and relieved the 13th at Balaklava.
The 56th Regiment, about 800 strong, arrived at Balaklava, and were
annexed to the First Division. The army continued to get under arms
before daybreak. On the 26th the cavalry turned out 2,950 sabres, and
500 or 600 more could have been brought into the field.
Reports that the Russians meditated an attack upon Balaklava caused the
Admiral to order the _Leander_ and _Diamond_ to moor by a single cable,
and the _Triton_ was ordered to be ready to get steam up at brief
notice, in order to tow them out to a position whence their guns could
bear on the Marine Heights.
Notwithstanding these preparations, there were many rumours of peace. We
had a peace party in camp, who reasoned that the Russians could sustain
the contest no longer. According to these authorities, in a couple of
months the British Army was to go home again. But there is no magic in
wishes any more than in words, and these prophets of peace underrated
the tenacity and endurance of the Russian Government and people. Our
works on the left continued to advance. Several new batteries--one of 15
mortars--were constructed in front of what had been our most advanced
positions on that part of the line.
The English cavalry came down to the valley every morning, as if
haunting the ground where its comrades fell, and watching an opportunity
to revenge them. The effect was imposing--perfect, one might say, if
anything human could be called so. Horses and men were in excellent
condition, as fit for work as any cavalry could be.
CHAPTER IV.
A few days quietude--Languishment of British firing--Prince
Gortschakoff's opinion of our feeble Squibs--Number of little
globules thrown into Sebastopol in a Month--Efforts to suppress the
number of Sutlers' houses--Conversation with John Bull as to
Composition of Allied Forces, &c.--Terrific and Destructive
Explosion--Heavy and fierce Cannonading--Rumours of Disorganization
in Sebastopol--Heavy Losses in Allied Armies--Naval
Theatricals--Crisis of the Siege--Rumours of a last Grand Attack or
a Sortie by Russians--Eagerness of Allies for a Battle--Dangerous
work of the Trenches--Proposal for a Trench service
Decoration--Condition of Sardinians and French--Fatalities amongst
New and Amateur Trenchmen--Renewed Musketry and Artillery
firing--Crowded state of our Trenches--Effective ruse of the
Russians.
All the latter part of August passed quietly away: the Russians on the
alert to resist an assault--we prepared to meet the rumoured attack upon
our lines. After the failure of June 18, our cannonade languished. We
talked of it as slackening, and considered it extinct. Prince
Gortschakoff assured the world that it was a mere squib, a feeble
firework, which did those tough Russians no harm, and caused their
troops no inconvenience; and yet, somehow or other, between the 18th of
June and 18th of July, not less than eight thousand pretty little
globules of iron, eight, ten, and thirteen inches in diameter, and
falling with a weight equivalent to fifty and to ninety tons, were
deposited inside the lines of Sebastopol, and every one that burst sent
forth some six or eight fragments, of several pounds weight each, a
distance of two or three hundred yards, unless they were stopped _in
transitu_ by traverse or sinew.
The authorities took active measures to curtail the proportions of the
vast village of suttlers' houses at Kadikoi. As there was a report that
the fair was a nest of spies--that strange fires were occasionally
lighted up on the hills behind it, towards Karanyi, and were answered by
the Russians on the Plateau Mackenzie, and people came and departed as
they listed without any interference with their movements, it was
resolved to keep its limits more under control and supervision.
Some divisions managed to get together a considerable accumulation of
stores in advance, and almost in anticipation of the winter, but fuel
was brought up _de die in diem_ by a most thriftless process. It was no
unusual thing to see a string of fine Spanish mules and ponies, each of
which cost a good round sum, coming from Kasatch or Balaklava with a
couple of stout boughs lashed to each side of their pack-saddles, the
ends trailing on the ground, and the drivers urging them at full speed.
The proper load of wood for a mule is 200lb. Judging from the loads I
saw weighed, they actually carried less than 100lb., and at the same
time the costly pack-saddles were ruined, and the animals distressed and
injured by this clumsy mode of carriage. As I could not help exclaiming
at the time, "How the money is flying! If Mr. John could but have stood
upon one of the hill-tops in the Crimea, and if, after gladdening his
heart with the sight of his fine fleet floating grandly on the water
outside the 'beleaguered city,'--rejoicing over his brave sons whose
white tents studded the brown steppe row after row,--and rubbing his
hands with delight at the thunder of his batteries--he would just have
wiped his glasses and looked at the less glorious and exciting portions
of the scene, he would have some uneasy tinglings in his
breeches-pockets, depend on it."
"Where are all these horses going to?"
"Oh, they're Spanish horses, which have been _cast_ by the artillery,
and they're going to be sold as unfit for service."
"Why, Lord bless me! it's only a few months since I paid £30,000 for
that very lot, and they've done nothing, I hear, but stand at their
picket ropes ever since. They cost me, I'm sure, carriage and all, £100
a-piece. What do you think I'll get for them?"
"Well, sir, to tell you the truth, I don't think as how they'll fetch
more than £10 a-head, if so much."
[Sidenote: CONVERSATION WITH JOHN BULL.]
To speak plainly, for the old gentleman's peace of mind, I would not
advise him to be too inquisitive, and a visit to the camp, when in its
most flourishing condition and healthy aspect, might injure his nerves
irremediably.
"Who are those fellows in that secluded valley, hunting among the vines
for some grapes, while their horses are left to wander through the
neglected gardens?"
"They belong to Division A, or B, or C, or D; see the letter branded
upon the horses' flanks. They are Turks, Elamites, Affghans, dwellers in
Mesopotamia, Kurds, Parthians, Canaanites, Greeks, for whose services in
the Land Transport Corps you, John, pay daily the sum of 3s. per man,
and they ought now to be carrying up provisions for your soldiers; but,
being philosophers of the Epicurean school, they prefer the pursuit of
the grape and the _insouciance_ of the siesta to tramping over dusty
roads, or urging their mad career down stony ravines on thy much
be-whacked quadrupeds!"
"And those miles of mules and carts winding all along the plain,
emerging from ravines, ascending hills, and that vast army of drivers in
quaint attire, the concentration of the floating vagabondage of the
world, the flotsam and jetsam of the social life of every nation, civil
and barbarous, on earth--to whom do they belong, and who pays them and
for them?"
"Even you, my dear sir, and very handsomely too, I can assure you."
"And those ships in Balaklava?"
"Yours again, sir; but don't be uneasy; things are managed better there
now; occasionally the authorities root out a great demurrager, and send
her off hopping after she has lain _perdu_ some months doing nothing.
The other day the _Walmer Castle_, a fine Indiaman, sir, was sent off at
last--she had been in Balaklava since February, doing nothing but
affording comfortable lodgings for a few of the authorities. But we
won't talk of these things any more, for really the arrangements are
much improved."
"Who are those officers in blue, with grey, yellow, and red
facing's--apparently men of rank, with stars and crowns and lace on
their collars?"
"They are of the Land Transport Corps--captains and quartermasters of
brigade."
"Hallo! is there a theatrical company here? Who're the queer-looking
chaps with the huntsmen-in-_Der-Freischutz_-caps and tunics, smoking
short pipes, and driving their carts like so many Jehus?"
"Well, we have the Zouave Theatre and the Sailors' Theatre, but these
men belong to Colonel McMurdo, and certainly they have let their hats
get cruelly out of shape; they were neat enough and looked well while
the rosettes were clean, but now----"
"And who are the gentlemen in grey, with black braid and swords, and
pouch-belts and telescopes--some new riflemen, eh?--capital dress for
sharpshooters."
"Why, dear me, sir, don't you know those are harmless civilians, who
neither wish to shoot any one or to be shot at themselves? They are
civil engineers and civilians belonging to your recently formed Army
Works Corps."
"Hallo! here's another--what's he? a felt helmet with a spike in it and
brass binding--a red frock with black braid--a big horse--a cavalry man,
eh?"
"Well, he's one of the Mounted Staff Corps, and he gets as much as an
Ensign in the line for being ready to go anywhere--when he's wanted."
"Who's that drunken fellow--an old soldier in the odd uniform, with
medals on his breast?"
"Hush! he's the last one left of the Ambulance Corps. They cost a lot of
money, and did some good, but McMurdo won't have them now, unless he
gets his own way with them, and----"
"I beg your pardon, but who is that foreign officer in a white bournous,
and attended by a brilliant staff of Generals--him with the blue and
silver stripe down his trousers I mean, and gold braid on his waistcoat,
and a red and white cap; it must be Pelissier?"
"_That!_ why, that's M. Soyer, _chef de nos batteries de cuisine_, and
if you go and speak to him, you'll find he'll talk to you for several
hours about the way your meat is wasted; and so I wish you good morning,
sir, and every success in trade and commerce to enable you to pay all
the gentlemen you have seen to-day, as well as a speedy entry into
Sebastopol."
[Sidenote: JACK TAR'S THEATRE.]
At one o'clock on the 30th August the camp was shaken by a prodigious
explosion. A tumbrel, from which the French were discharging powder into
one of the magazines near the Mamelon, was struck by a shell, which
bursting as it crashed through the roof of the carriage, ignited the
cartridges; 1400 rounds, 10lbs each, exploded, shattering to atoms the
magazine, and surrounding-works, and whirling in all directions over the
face of the Mamolen and beyond it, 150 officers and men. Of these, 40
were killed upon the spot, and the rest were scorched and burnt, or
wounded by splinters, stones, and the shot and shell which were thrown
into the air by the fiery eruption. A bright moon lighted up the whole
scene, and shed its rays upon a huge pillar of smoke and dust, which
rose into the air from the Mamelon, and, towering to an immense height,
unfolded itself and let fall from its clustering waves of smoke and
sulphurous vapour a black precipitate of earth, fine dust, and pebbles,
mingled with miserable fragments, which dropped like rain upon the works
below. There was silence for an instant, and but for an instant, as the
sullen thunder rolled slowly away and echoed along the heights of
Inkerman and Mackenzie. Then the Russians, leaping to their guns,
cheered loudly, but their voices were soon smothered in the crash of the
French and English batteries, which played fiercely upon their works.
The Russians replied, but they were unable to take any advantage of our
mischance, owing to the firmness of the French in the advanced trenches,
and the steadiness with which the cannonade was continued. The dark
cloud hung like a pall for nearly an hour over the place, reddening
every moment with the reflection of the flashes of the artillery, which
boomed incessantly till dawn. The musketry was very heavy and fierce
all along the advanced trenches, and as no one except those in the
parallels near the Mamelon knew the precise nature of the explosion,
great anxiety was manifested to learn the truth. Some persons asserted
that the Russians had sprung a mine--others, that the French had blown
in the counterscarp of the Malakoff--and with the very spot under their
eyes, people were conjecturing wildly what had taken place; just like
those at home, who did not hesitate to make the boldest assertions
respecting the events which occurred in the Crimea, and of which they
knew neither the scene nor the circumstance.
There were rumours that the garrison of Sebastopol was in an extremely
disorganized state. The losses in the town were frightful, and
notwithstanding their official and non-official declarations, the
Russians suffered from want of water and of spirits. Indeed, it was
confidently affirmed that, owing to the deficiency of forage, their
cavalry had been compelled to fall back on the road to Bakschiserai.
They threw up another battery, close to the Spur Battery, commanding a
small path from the Tchernaya. The French constructed strong redoubts on
the site of the old redoubts in the plain. These works were in
connection with the outer line of defence from Kamara, Traktir, and
Tchorgoun, and the Sardinian and Turkish batteries towards Baidar, and
behind them were the old batteries defending Balaklava, which became one
of the strongest positions in the world.
Our allies were losing heavily, in the White Works, which they captured
on the 7th of June, where they lost one-half of the men who went into it
every day. The 12-gun battery on the north side took them in flank and
reverse, the Malakoff enfiladed them on the other side, and they were
exposed to the direct fire of the shipping in front. They called the
place "l'Abattoir." Our own losses were very heavy, but still the army
were full of hope and courage.
As for Jack Tar, he can speak for himself. This was the bill of his
play:--
THEATRE ROYAL, NAVAL BRIGADE.
On Friday Evening, 31st of August, will be Performed
DEAF AS A POST!
To be followed by
THE SILENT WOMAN.
The whole to conclude with the laughable Farce, entitled,
SLASHER AND CRASHER.
Seats to be taken at 7 o'clock. Performance to commence
precisely at 8 o'clock.
God save the Queen! Rule Britannia!
And right well they played. True, the theatre was the amputating house
of the Brigade, but no reflections as to its future and past use marred
the sense of present enjoyment. The scenes were furnished from the
_London_, the actors from the Brigade. There was an agreeable ballet
girl, who had to go into the trenches to work a 68-pounder at three
o'clock in the morning, and Rosa was impersonated by a prepossessing
young boatswain's mate. Songs there were in plenty, with a slight smack
of the forecastle, and a refrain of big guns booming down the ravine
from the front; but they were all highly appreciated, and the dancing
was pronounced to be worthy of Her Majesty's ere Terpsichore and Mr.
Lumley retired. Nor were fashionable and illustrious personages wanting
to grace the performance with their presence, and to relieve the mass of
2,000 commoners who cheered and laughed and applauded so
good-humouredly. The "Duke of Newcastle" paid marked attention to _Deaf
as a Post_, and led the _encore_ for a hornpipe. Lord Rokeby was as
assiduous as his Grace. The sense of enjoyment was not marred by the
long-range guns, which now and then sent a lobbing shot near the
theatre; and if the audience were amused, so were the performers, who
acted with surprising spirit and taste. What would old Benbow or grim
old Cloudesley Shovell have thought of it all?
There was a sortie early on the morning of the 1st of September on the
advanced trenches of our right attack, and the Russians kept up a very
heavy fire upon our working parties.
[Sidenote: PROPOSED DECORATION FOR TRENCH SERVICE.]
As the crisis of the siege approached, it was affirmed that the enemy
were about to try the chances of war once more, in one grand attack, at
three or four points between Baidar and the gorge of Inkerman, and to
make a sortie in force on our works. Prince Gortschakoff, Generals
Liprandi, Paniutin, and Osten-Sacken were mentioned as the generals of
the attacking columns. The mass was concentrated on the plateau between
Kamishli and Kalankoi, on the south side of the Belbek, supported by
divisions echeloned on the road to Bakschiserai. Near Kalankoi a bad and
difficult mountain road to Balaklava crosses the Belbek; strikes off to
the right to Mackenzie's Farm; descending thence from the plateau,
crosses the Tchernaya at the bridge of the Traktir, and sweeps across
the plain of Balaklava, intersecting in its course the Woronzoff Road.
Several paths or indifferent roads branch from this grand causeway ere
it descends the plateau of Mackenzie's Farm, leading by Chuliou and
Ozenbasch towards Baidar, and it was thought that the Russians might
have put these in tolerable condition, and rendered them available for
the passage of troops and artillery. The Russians concentrated
considerable masses in and about Upu, Ozenbasch, and Chuliou, and Prince
Gortschakoff visited the army destined to operate against the Turks,
French, and Sardinians on the rear, and was prodigal of promises and
encouragement. The intelligence received by the English, French, and
Turkish Generals coincided on these points, and was believed to be
entirely trustworthy. It seemed incredible that any General would trust
his army among those defiles and mountain-passes, because a failure on
the part of the corps on his right to seize Tchorgoun and Kamara would
have left him without support, and an active enemy could have easily
pursued and crushed him before he could have possibly gained the plateau
from which he had descended. Nothing would have given such universal
satisfaction to the whole army as another attempt by the enemy to force
our position. If the Russians descended into the plain we were sure of
success, and the prospect of a sanguinary engagement gave positive
pleasure to both officers and men, alike weary of the undistinguished,
if not inglorious, service of the trenches.
With nearly 3,000 English, and upwards of 5,000 French sabres, we should
have made signal examples of our defeated foes in their retreat; and our
56 field guns, all in high efficiency and order, together with the
admirable batteries of the French, would have annihilated any artillery
which the Russians could have placed in position. As to their cavalry,
they were inferior in number to our own, and in dash and pluck they
could not have matched the men who charged at Balaklava. As to a sortie,
although it might have been made with large bodies of men, it had no
better chance of success, for our reserves had been kept in readiness to
act at once, and the force in the trenches was greatly augmented. It had
been our practice to send only 1,400 men into the trenches of the left
attack, of which one-half was of the reserve; and, as the latter were
allowed to go back to camp in the day, it frequently happened that only
700 men were left to guard the whole of our extensive works in Chapman's
attack. But afterwards our force was increased, and the reserves were
maintained in all their integrity, so as to be ready to give efficient
support to the trench guard should the enemy make any serious
demonstration against our lines.
I took the opportunity of referring to this matter to make the following
remarks, which many officers at the time assured me conveyed their
feelings on the subject: "And here I may be permitted to offer one word
on behalf of such officers and men as have not had an opportunity of
sharing the honours conferred on those who have been so fortunate as to
be engaged in general actions during this war. I am certain that there
is a very general feeling in the army that there should be some
distinctive decoration for 'service in the trenches.' Men have been
decorated for the battles of the Alma, Inkerman, and Balaklava, who were
not in the least danger, or even more under fire than if they had
remained in their club card-room; but no man goes into the trenches who
is not exposed to a heavy fire and to continual danger. The
Adjutant-General's returns will show that in a fortnight we lose nearly
as many officers and men as are put _hors de combat_ in a regular
battle, although it will be observed that the proportion of officers to
men killed and wounded is far smaller than it is on occasions of drawn
battle. A man who has served thirty nights in the trenches will have
undergone more fire than if he had been in the hottest fight of the
campaign. Why not let him have a decoration, were it only a bit of iron
with the words 'Trenches before Sebastopol' engraved upon it? The
arduous nature of our trench service is best indicated by our returns,
and by the fact that many young officers who come out from England are
rendered unfit or unable to discharge their duties after a few weeks'
experience. Although there are many complaints of the rawness of the
recruits, they are as nothing compared to the outcry against the crudity
of the lads who are despatched as 'officers' to the Crimea, and who
perforce must be sent in responsible positions into the trenches. A
reference to the daily General Orders will satisfy any one of the
truthfulness of that outcry. The number of officers who sicken and are
ordered home, or to Scutari, or to go on board ship, is increasing, and
it is not found that the recently arrived regiments furnish the smallest
portion of those worn out by _ennui_, and reduced from good health to a
state of illness by a few days' service. The old officers, of course,
grumble, and the grim veterans who have remained with their regiments
since the beginning of the campaign are indignant at having as comrades
puling boys, who, from no fault of their own, are utterly helpless and
inefficient, and soon sicken, and leave the duties of the regiment to be
performed by their overworked seniors. Why should not vacancies in
regiments out here be filled up from regiments stationed elsewhere? Such
a course was pursued in the Chinese war, in our Indian wars, and I
believe in the long war, and it secured the services of experienced
soldiers. There are many ensigns of four, five, and six years' standing
in the latter regiments, while it would be difficult to find many
lieutenants who have seen so much service in any regiment which has been
here since the beginning of the war.
"With all our experience we still permit the existence of absurdities
and anomalies. About 100 doctors are sick from overwork or of disgust,
and yet we have civil hospitals on the Dardanelles, maintained at some
expense, in which the medical men have so little to do that they come up
to camp to 'tout' for patients and practice. The surgeons say that, as
it is very evident Government will never give them any honour or reward,
except mere service promotion and pay, they will look to the latter
alone, and it may be easily imagined in what frame of mind they will
serve in cases where they can escape the necessity of energetic
exertion. With a kind of refined irony, two of the medical officers were
'invited to attend' at the investiture of the K.C.B.'s the other day, as
none of them were eligible as C.B.'s. Two commissariat officers were
kindly invited to represent their body. These complaints are the echoes
of voices in the camp, loud enough to be heard, and as such I report
them."
The Sardinians, acclimatized, flushed with triumph, and anxious for
another opportunity to try their steel, formed a fine corps of about
8,000 effective bayonets, and the Turks could turn out about 13,000
strong. The French, notwithstanding their losses in the capture of the
Mamelon, in the assault on the 18th of June, and, above all, in the
trenches, where they had on an average 150 _hors de combat_ on "quiet
nights," and perhaps twice as many when the enemy were busy, could
present 55,000 bayonets to the enemy.
[Sidenote: EFFECTIVE RUSE OF THE RUSSIANS.]
From the French sap in front of the Mamelon one could at this period
_lay his hand on the abattis of the Malakoff_! It was a hazardous
experiment sometimes. Major Graham lost his arm in trying it _en
amateur_, for he was hit as he was returning up the trench; indeed, it
was a subject of remark that amateurs and officers who had then recently
come into the trenches were more frequently hit than was consistent with
the rules of proportion. Mr. Gambier, a midshipman of the _Curaçoa_,
went as an amateur into the advanced parallel of the left attack, and
took a shot at a Russian rifleman; he was rewarded by a volley from
several of the enemy, and in another instant was going up on a
stretcher, with a ball through both his thighs. It was a very common
thing to hear it said, "Poor Smith is killed; just imagine--his first
night in the trenches." "Jones lost a leg last night; only joined us
this week, and his second night on duty," &c. The Russians, of course,
suffered in the same way, but I doubt if they had many amateurs. They
had quite enough of legitimate fighting, and their losses were
prodigious.
On the 3rd of September, at a quarter past 9 P.M., a heavy fire of
musketry to the left of the Malakoff showed that the enemy were
attacking. The night was dark, but clear, and for half an hour our lines
were a blaze of quick, intermittent light. The musketry rattled
incessantly. Chapman's and Gordon's Batteries opened with all their
voices, and the Redan, Malakoff, Garden, and Barrack Batteries replied
with roars of ordnance. When the musketry fire flickered and died out,
commenced for a quarter of an hour a general whirling of shells, so that
the light of the very stars was eclipsed, and their dominion usurped by
the wandering flight of these iron orbs. Twenty or thirty of these
curves of fire tearing the air asunder and uttering their shrill "tu
whit! tu whit! tu whit!" as they described their angry flight in the
sky, could be counted and heard at once. While it lasted, it was one of
the hottest affairs we have yet experienced.
A party of the 97th, under Captain Hutton, was posted in the advanced
trench of the left of the Right Attack. The Russians attacked our
working party and drove it in. Lieutenant Brinkley and Lieutenant
Preston, with 100 of the 97th, were ordered to proceed to the right of
the new sap. On arriving at the trench they found it crowded with the
23rd, that it was impossible to keep the party of the 97th together.
This crowded state of the trench is said to have arisen from the 23rd
not having recommenced working, and remaining in the trench with the
covering party of the 77th, when the firing ceased. At 12.30
Lieutenant-Colonel Legh, 97th, was ordered to take his men to Colonel
Bunbury, 23rd, who was in advance of the new sap. He collected
forty-five rank and file, and telling Lieutenant Preston to advance with
the rest, proceeded to the head of the sap. Here Lieutenant Preston was
hit, and one man killed. About fifteen yards in front of the sap were
stationed Colonel Bunbury and a party of the 77th, under Captain
Pechell. That party having been relieved by the 97th, Colonel Legh
placed his men in cover, sending out two parties under Sergeants Coleman
and O'Grady in advance. The Russians all of a sudden gave a loud cheer,
and the 97th stood up, expecting a rush. When the Russians saw the
effect of their ruse, they fired a volley, Lieutenant Preston, in front
of Colonel Legh, was mortally wounded, and carried to the rear by
Sergeant Coleman; Sergeant O'Grady fell dead just as he had demanded
permission to take the enemy's rifle-pits. Lieutenants Ware and
Whitehead were sent down to assist. Ware was wounded; but Lieutenant
Whitehead succeeded in bringing in all the wounded, except Corporal
Macks, who was lying close to the rifle-pit with two legs broken.
Lieutenant Brinkley came up in support. The Russians retired from the
pits before dawn, having put 3 officers and 24 men _hors de combat_. The
Russians lost at least 600 men. The French loss was upwards of 300 men
_hors de combat_.
CHAPTER V.
Last Bombardment--Splendid View of the Position from Cathcart's
Hill--French Signal for the Attack--An Iron Storm--Paralysation of
the Russians--Strength of French and English Batteries--Furious and
rapid Cannonade--Perturbed Movements amongst Russians--Joy on
Cathcart's Hill--"Ships touched at last!"--One descried to be on
Fire--Conjectures amongst Spectators as to the Cause--Agitation in
Sebastopol--Partial Silence of Russian Guns--Awful
Explosion--Council of Generals--British Losses.
At last, on the morning of the 5th of September, the Allied batteries
opened fire for the sixth time, and the LAST BOMBARDMENT commenced. A
gentle breeze from the south-east, which continued all day, drifted over
the steppe, and blew gently into Sebastopol. The sun shone serenely
through the vapours of early morning and wreaths of snowy clouds, on the
long lines of white houses inside those rugged defences of earth and
gabionnade which have so long kept our armies gazing in vain on this
"august city." The ships floated on the waters of the roads, which were
smooth as a mirror, and reflected the forms of these "monarchs of the
main." Outside our own fleet and that of the French were reposing
between Kasatch and Constantine as idly as though they were "painted
ships upon a painted ocean."
[Sidenote: A TERRIFIC AND "SQUELCHING" VOLLEY.]
From Cathcart's Hill, therefore, on the right front of the Fourth
Division camp, one could gain an admirable view of certain points of the
position from the sea on the left to our extreme right at Inkerman. That
advantage was, however, rarely obtainable when there was any heavy
firing, as the smoke generally hung in thick clouds between the
earthworks, not to be easily dispelled, excepting by the aid of a brisk
wind. If one of the few persons who were in the secret of the opening of
the French batteries had been on Cathcart's Hill on the morning of the
5th he would have beheld then, just before half-past five o'clock, the
whole of this scene marked out in keen detail in the clear morning air.
The men in our trenches might have been seen sitting down behind the
traverses, or strolling about in the rear of the parapets. Small trains
of animals and files of men might have been continually observed passing
over the ground between the trenches and the camp, and the only smoke
that caught the eye rose from the kettles of the soldiery, or from the
discharge of a rifle in the advanced works. On the left, however, the
French trenches were crowded with men, and their batteries were all
manned, though the occupants kept well out of sight of the enemy, and
the mantlets and screens were down before the muzzles of some of their
guns. The men beneath the parapets swarmed like bees. A few grey-coated
Russians might have been noticed repairing the works of the Flagstaff
Battery, or engaged in throwing up a new work, which promised to be of
considerable strength, in front of the second line of their defences.
Suddenly, close to the Bastion du Mât, along the earthen curtain between
Nos. 7 and 8 Bastions, three jets of flame sprang up into the air and
hurled up as many pillars of earth and dust, a hundred feet high, which
were warmed into ruddy hues by the horizontal rays of the sun. The
French had exploded three fougasses to blow in the counterscarp, and to
serve as a signal to their men. In a moment, from the sea to the
Dockyard Creek, a stream of fire three miles in length seemed to run
like a train from battery to battery, and fleecy, curling, rich white
smoke ascended, as though the earth had suddenly been rent in the throes
of an earthquake, and was vomiting forth the material of her volcanoes.
The lines of the French trenches were at once covered as though the very
clouds of heaven had settled down upon them, and were whirled about in
spiral jets, in festoons, in clustering bunches, in columns and in
sheets, all commingled, involved together, and uniting as it were by the
vehement flames beneath. The crash of such a tremendous fire must have
been appalling, but the wind and the peculiar condition of the
atmosphere did not permit the sound to produce any great effect in our
camp; in the city, for the same reason, the noise must have been
terrific and horrible. The iron storm tore over the Russian lines,
tossing up, as if in sport, jets of earth and dust, rending asunder
gabions, and "squelching" the parapets, or dashing in amongst the houses
and ruins in their rear. The terrible files of this flying army,
extending about four miles in front, rushed across the plain, carrying
death and terror in their train, swept with heavy and irresistible wings
the Russian flanks, and searched their centre to the core. A volley so
startling, simultaneous, and tremendously powerful, was probably never
before discharged since cannon were introduced.
The Russians seemed for a while utterly paralysed. Their batteries were
not manned with strength enough to enable them to reply to such an
overlapping and crushing fire; but the French, leaping to their guns
with astounding energy, rapidity, and vigour, kept on filling the very
air with the hurling storm, and sent it in unbroken fury against their
enemies. More than 200 pieces of artillery of large calibre, admirably
served and well directed, played incessantly upon the hostile lines. In
a few moments a great veil of smoke--"a war-cloud rolling dun"--spread
from the guns on the left of Sebastopol; but the roar of the shot did
not cease, and the cannonade now pealed forth in great irregular bursts,
now died away into hoarse murmurs, again swelled up into tumult, or
rattled from one extremity to the other of the line like the file-fire
of infantry. Stone walls at once went down before the discharge, but the
earthworks yawned to receive shot and shell alike. However, so swift and
incessant was the passage of these missiles through the embrasures and
along the top of the parapets, that the enemy had to lie close, and
scarcely dare show themselves in the front line of their defences. For a
few minutes the French had it all their own way, and appeared to be on
the point of sweeping away the place without resistance. This did not
last long, as after, they had fired a few rounds from each of their
numerous guns, the Russian artillerymen got to work, and began to return
the fire. They made good practice, but fired slowly and with precision,
as if they could not afford to throw away an ounce of powder. The French
were stimulated rather than restrained by such a reply to their
astonishing volleys, and sent their shot with greater rapidity along the
line of the defences, and among the houses of the town. Our Naval
Brigade and siege train maintained their usual destructive and solid
"hammering" away at the faces of the Redan and of the Malakoff, and
aided our Allies by shell practice on the batteries from the Creek to
the Redan. Now two or three mortars from Gordon's, then two or three
mortars from Chapman's, hurled 10 and 13-inch shell behind the enemy's
works, and connected the discharges by rounds from long 32's or 68's.
The French had obtained a great superiority in the number of their guns.
On the 5th their armament was as follows:--
FRENCH BATTERIES.
Guns.
Left Attack.--Against Flagstaff-Bastion 129
" " Central " 134
" " Quarantine " 83
----
346
Right Attack.--Against Malakoff, &c. 281
----
Total French 627
ENGLISH BATTERIES.
Guns.
13-inch mortars 34
10-inch " 27
8-inch " 10
Cohorns 20
8-inch guns 37
10-inch " 7
32-pounders 61
68-pounders 6
----
Total English 202
[Sidenote: COMPARISON BETWEEN FORMER AND PRESENT ARMAMENTS.]
It may be as well to add that Batteries Nos. 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12, and 13
of the Right Attack bore on the Malakoff; Batteries Nos. 5 9, 10, 11,
and 12 bore on front and flanks of Redan and other works. In our Left
Attack, Batteries Nos. 1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 12, bore on Barrack and Redan;
No. 4 on Bastion du Mât and Garden; No. 3 on Redan; No. 5 on Creek; No.
6 on Garden; No. 8 on Barrack and Lower Garden; No. 10 on Creek,
Barrack, Redan, and Malakoff; No. 13 on Garden and Barrack; and No. 14
on Creek and Parrack.
It will be observed that there was a great difference in the material of
this armament from that with which we began our first attack on
Sebastopol. On the 17th of October, 1854, we had but ten mortars, and
they were 10-inch. We had also two Lancasters; no 24-pounders. On 17th
of October nearly one-half of our guns were 24-pounders. Sixty-one
32-pounders as compared with seven on 17th October, thirty-seven 8-inch
guns as compared with sixteen, seven 10-inch guns as compared with nine,
six 68-pounders, and three 9-pounders for the heads of the saps. We
threw 12,721 bombs into the town as compared with 2,743 in the first
bombardment; and we fired 89,540 shot against the place as compared with
19,879 on the same date. In the left attack our batteries had been
advanced 2,500 feet towards the front of the old line of fire, but it
was impossible to make any further advance by sap for the purpose of
assault, as the very steep ravine by which the Woronzoff Road sweeps
into the town ran below the plateau on which the attack was placed, and
separated it from the Redan. The old parallel of the attack, wherein our
Batteries Nos. 3, 4, and 5 were placed at the ridiculous distance of
4,000 feet from the Redan, and our Batteries Nos. 9 and 12 at the same
distance from the Flagstaff Bastion works, was now a mere base from
which the advanced works had proceeded. The second parallel was 15,000
feet in front of it, and in that parallel were Batteries Nos. 10 and 14,
still 2,500 feet from the parapet of the Redan. The third parallel was
about 700 feet in front of the second; and as it was found that we could
not hope to advance much beyond that position, owing to the nature of
the ground, our batteries were placed more towards the proper left face
of the Flagstaff Battery, and towards the Garden Battery in the rear of
it. In this parallel, Batteries Nos. 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15 were opened.
Our fourth parallel, which was unarmed, was about 600 feet in advance of
the third, and was filled with infantry and riflemen, who kept up a
constant fire on the place, more particularly at night. The ravine in
which the Woronzoff Road is made ran between our Left and Right Attack,
and separated them completely. The Right Attack, which was by far the
most important, was originally commenced at the distance of 4,500 feet
from the Redan, and of more than 5,000 feet from the Malakoff. It
contained Batteries Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; at its right was the old
Lancaster Battery detached on No. 11; and in an advanced parallel on the
left flank of No. 12 was Battery No. 10. In the approach from the first
to the twentieth parallel was Battery No. 7. The second parallel was
more than 1,000 feet in front of the first parallel; and it contained
Batteries Nos. 9, 14, 12, 6, and 15. The Battery No. 8 was in the third
parallel, which was a few hundred feet in advance of the second. The
fourth parallel, which communicated with the Quarries, was about 1,200
feet in advance of the third parallel. In the Quarries were the
Batteries Nos. 16 and 17. The fifth parallel, from which the assault
took place, was about 300 feet in front of the Quarries; and there was a
feeble attempt at a sixth parallel a few yards in advance.
Our Quarry Battery, armed with two mortars and eight cohorns, just 400
yards below the Redan, plied the suburb in the rear of the Malakoff
vigorously with bombs, and kept the top of the Redan clear with round
shot and grape. Redan and Malakoff were alike silent, ragged, and torn.
At most the Redan fired three guns, and the adjoining batteries were
equally parsimonious. The parapets were all pitted with shot and shell,
and the sides of the embrasures greatly injured, so that the gabions
were sticking out, and dislodged in all directions. There was no more of
that fine polishing and of that cabinet-maker's work which the Russians
bestowed on their batteries; our constant fire by night, the efforts of
our riflemen, and incessant shelling, having rather checked their
assiduous anxiety as to external appearance.
After two hours and a half of furious firing, the artillerymen of our
Allies suddenly ceased, in order to let their guns cool and to rest
themselves. The Russians crept out to repair damages to their works, and
shook sandbags full of earth from the banquette over the outside of
their parapets. Their gunners also took advantage of the sudden
cessation to open on our Sailors' Batteries in the Left Attack, and
caused us some little annoyance from the "Crow's Nest." At ten o'clock,
however, having previously exploded some fougasses, as before, the
French reopened a fire if possible more rapid and tremendous than their
first, and continued to keep it up with the utmost vigour till twelve
o'clock at noon, by which time the Russians had only a few guns in the
Flagstaff Road and Garden Batteries in a position to reply. We could see
them in great agitation sending men and carts to and fro across the
bridge, and at nine o'clock a powerful column of infantry crossed over
to resist our assault, while a movement towards Inkerman was made by the
army of the Belbek. Soon after our fire began, the working parties which
go over to the north side every morning were recalled, and marched back
again across the bridge to the south, no doubt to be in readiness for
our expected assault. From twelve to five o'clock P.M. the firing was
slack; the French then resumed their cannonade with the same vigour as
at dawn and at ten o'clock, and never ceased their volleys of shot and
shell against the place till half-past seven, when darkness set in,
whereupon all the mortars and heavy guns, English as well as French,
opened with shell against the whole line of defences.
[Sidenote: SURMISES AS TO ORIGIN OF CONFLAGRATION.]
A description of this scene is impossible. There was not one instant in
which the shells did not whistle through the air; not a moment in which
the sky was not seamed by their fiery curves or illuminated by their
explosion. Every shell burst as it ought, and the lines of the Russian
earthworks of the Redan, Malakoff, and of all their batteries, were
rendered plainly visible by the constant light of the innumerable
explosions. The Russians scarcely attempted a reply. At five o'clock it
was observed that a frigate in the second line, near the north side, was
smoking, and, as it grew darker, flames were seen to issue from her
sides. Men and officers rushed to the front in the greatest delight and
excitement, and, as night came on, the whole vessel was enveloped in one
grand blaze from stem to stern. The delight of the crowd upon Cathcart's
Hill was intense. "Well, this is indeed a sight! to see one of those
confounded ships touched at last!" These, and many different and
stronger expressions, were audible on all sides, but there were some
wise people who thought the Russians had set the ship on fire, or that
incendiaries and malcontents were at work, and one gentleman even went
so far as to say that he "thought it was merely a signal maybe to recall
their cavalry from Eupatoria!" It is not known precisely how the thing
was done. Some said it was done by the French; others, by ourselves; and
bombs, red-hot shot, and rockets were variously named as the means by
which the vessel was set on fire. In spite of the efforts of the
Russians, the flames spread, and soon issued from the ports and
quarter-gallery. At eight o'clock the light was so great that the houses
of the city and the forts on the other side could be distinguished
without difficulty. The masts stood long, towering aloft like great
pillars of fire; but one after the other they came down; the decks fell
in about ten o'clock, and at midnight the frigate had burnt to the
water's edge.
At night a steady fire was kept up with the view of preventing the
Russians repairing damages. At 10 P.M. orders were sent to our batteries
to open the following morning, as soon as there was a good light, but
they were limited to fifty rounds each gun. At 5.30 A.M. the whole of
the batteries from Quarantine to Inkerman began their fire with a grand
crash. There were three breaks or lulls in the tempest; one from
half-past eight till ten; another from twelve till five; and the third
from half-past six till seven--during these intervals the fire was
comparatively slack.
The agitation in the town was considerable throughout the day; and the
enemy seemed to be greatly distressed. They were strengthening their
position on the north side--throwing up batteries, dragging guns into
position, and preparing to defend themselves should they be obliged to
leave the city. They evinced a disposition to rely upon the north side,
and were removing their stores by the large bridge of pontoons, and by
the second and smaller bridge of boats to the Karabalnayia.
Notwithstanding the large number of men in the town, the enemy showed in
strength from Inkerman to Mackenzie; and General Pelissier and General
Simpson received intelligence which led them to believe that the enemy
meditated another attack on the line of the Tchernaya as the only means
of averting the fall of the place.
The bombardment was renewed on Thursday night at sunset, and continued
without intermission till an hour before daybreak on Friday. The trench
guards were ordered to keep up a perpetual fusillade on the face of the
Russian works, and about 150,000 rounds were expended each night after
the opening of the bombardment. At daybreak on Friday, the cannonade was
reopened, and continued as before--the Russians made no reply on the
centre, but their Inkerman Batteries fired on the French Right Attack. A
strong wind from the north blew clouds of dust from the town, and
carried back the smoke of the batteries, so that it was very difficult
to ascertain the effect of the fire; but now and then the veil opened,
and at each interval the amount of destruction disclosed was more
evident.
A bright flame broke out in the rear of the Redan in the afternoon, and
another fire was visible in the town over the Woronzoff Road at a later
period of the evening. At 11 P.M. a tremendous explosion took place in
the town, but it could not be ascertained exactly where or how it
occurred. At dusk, the cannonade ceased, and the bombardment
recommenced--the thunder of the bombs bursting from the sea-shore to the
Tchernaya sounded like the roll of giant musketry. The Russians replied
feebly, threw bouquets into the French trenches, and showers of vertical
grape into ours, and lighted up the works now and then with fire-balls
and carcasses. Captain John Buckley, Scots Fusileer Guards, was killed
in the evening as he was posting his sentries in the ravine between the
Malakoff and the Redan in front of our advanced trench of the Right
Attack. Major McGowan, 93rd Regiment, was taken prisoner, and Captain
Drummond was killed soon afterwards at this spot. Captain Buckley was a
young officer of zeal and promise. He was devoted to his profession, and
although he was wounded so severely at the Alma that he could have had
every excuse and right to go home, he refused to do so, and as soon as
he came out of hospital, on board a man-of-war, in which he was present
when the attack of the 17th October was made, he returned to his
regiment and shared its privations during the winter of '54-5. In
twenty-four hours, we lost 1 officer 11 rank and file killed, and 48
rank and file wounded.
In addition to the burning ship and the fires in the town, a bright
light was observed at the head of the great shears of the Dockyard about
four o'clock in the afternoon, and it continued to burn fiercely
throughout the night. It was probably intended to light up the Dockyard
below, or to serve as a signal, but it was for some time imagined that
the shears had been set on fire by a shell.[22] The night was passed in
a fever of expectation and anxiety amid the roar of the bombardment,
which the wind blew in deafening bursts back on the Allied camp.
[Sidenote: FALL OF SEBASTOPOL.]
At midday, a council of generals was held at the British headquarters.
After the council broke up, orders were sent to the surgeons to clear
out the hospitals of patients, and prepare for the reception of
wounded. The Guards received orders to occupy the right trenches at
night, and were relieved by the Highlanders in the morning--the attack
was confided to the Light and Second Divisions.
Our losses indeed were becoming so heavy, that even the slaughter of an
assault, if attended with success, was preferable to daily decimation.
From the 3rd to the 6th, we had 3 officers, 3 sergeants, and 40 rank and
file killed; 3 officers, 9 sergeants, and 180 rank and file wounded.
Captain Anderson, Acting Engineer, was killed on the 4th; and Captain
Snow, R.A., was killed on the 6th. On the 3rd, Lieutenant Chatfield,
49th; on the 5th, Captain Verschoyle, Grenadier Guards, and Lieutenant
Phillips, 56th Regiment, were slightly wounded.
CHAPTER VI.
Preparations for the Assault--Last and decisive Cannonade--Day of
the Assault--Plan of Attack--Position of Generals--French rush into
the Malakoff--English charge the Redan--Mistakes--Desperate
Struggle--Colonel Windham's Gallantry--Conflict at the Left Face of
the Redan--Scene at the Salient--Want of Supports--Colonel Windham
goes for Reinforcements--The Russians advance--Failure of the
English Attack--Contest in the rear of the Malakoff--Additional
Details--Cause of the Repulse--Mistakes--Casualties--Duration of
the Attack--Ominous Signs--Losses in the Assault.
The contest on which the eyes of Europe had been turned so long--the
event on which the hopes of so many mighty empires depended, was all but
determined. On the 9th September, Sebastopol was in flames! The fleet,
the object of so much diplomatic controversy and of so many bloody
struggles, had disappeared in the deep! One more great act of carnage
was added to the tremendous but glorious tragedy, of which the whole
world, from the most civilized nations down to the most barbarous hordes
of the East, was the anxious and excited audience. Amid shouts of
victory and cries of despair--in frantic rejoicing and passionate
sorrow--a pall of black smoke, streaked by the fiery flashings of
exploding fortresses, descended upon the stage, on which had been
depicted so many varied traits of human misery and of human greatness,
such high endurance and calm courage, such littleness and
weakness--across which had stalked characters which history may
hereafter develope as largely as the struggle in which they were
engaged, and swell to gigantic proportions, or which she may dwarf into
pettiest dimensions, as unworthy of the parts they played. A dull,
strange silence, broken at distant intervals by the crash of citadels
and palaces as they were blown into dust, succeeded to the incessant
dialogue of the cannon which had spoken so loudly and so angrily
throughout an entire year. Tired armies, separated from each other by a
sea of fires, rested on their arms, and gazed with varied emotions on
all that remained of the object of their conflicts. On the 8th we felt
that the great success of our valiant Allies was somewhat tarnished by
our own failure, and were doubtful whether the Russians would abandon
all hope of retaking the Malakoff. On the next day, ere noon, we were
walking about the streets of Sebastopol, and gazing upon its ruins.
The weather changed suddenly on the 7th September, and on the morning of
the 8th it became bitterly cold. A biting wind right from the north side
of Sebastopol blew intolerable clouds of harsh dust into our faces. The
sun was obscured; and the sky became of a leaden wintry grey. Early in
the morning a strong force of cavalry, under the command of Colonel
Hodge, received orders to move up to the front and form a chain of
sentries in front of Cathcart's Hill, and all along our lines. No person
was allowed to pass this boundary excepting staff officers or those
provided with a pass. Another line of sentries in the rear of the camps
was intended to stop stragglers and idlers from Balaklava, the object of
these arrangements being in all probability to prevent the Russians
gathering any intimation of our attack from the unusual accumulation of
people on the look-out hills. If so, it would have been better to have
kept the cavalry more in the rear, and not to have displayed to the
enemy a line of Hussars, Lancers, and Dragoons, along our front. At
11.30 the Highland Brigade, under Brigadier Cameron, marched up from
Kamara, and took up its position in reserve at the Right Attack; and the
Guards, also in reserve, were posted on the same side of the Woronzoff
Road. The first brigade of the Fourth Division served the trenches of
the Left Attack the night before, and remained in them. The second
brigade of the Fourth Division was in reserve. The Guards, who served
the trenches of the Left Attack, and only marched that morning, were
turned out again after arriving at their camp, and resumed their place
with alacrity. The Third Division, massed on the hill-side before their
camp, were also in reserve, in readiness to move down by the Left Attack
in case their services were required. General Pelissier, during the
night, collected 36,000 men in and about the Mamelon, to form the
storming columns for the Malakoff and Little Redan, and to provide the
necessary reserves.
[Sidenote: A FEARFUL STRUGGLE.]
The French were reinforced by 5,000 Sardinians, who marched up from the
Tchernaya. It was arranged that the French should attack the Malakoff at
noon, and, as soon as their attack succeeded, we were to assault the
Redan. Strong columns of French were to make a diversion on the left,
and menace the line of Bastion du Mât, Centrale and Quarantine Bastions.
The cavalry sentries were posted at 8.30 A.M. At 10.30 A.M. the Second
and the Light Division moved down to the trenches, and were placed in
the advanced parallels as quietly and unostentatiously as possible.
About the same hour, General Simpson and Staff repaired to the second
parallel of the Green Hill Battery, where the Engineer officers had
placed them for the day. Sir Harry Jones, too ill to move hand or foot,
nevertheless insisted on being carried down to witness the assault, and
was borne to the trenches on a litter, in which he remained till all was
over. The Commander-in-Chief, General Simpson, and Sir Richard Airey,
the Quartermaster-General, were stationed close to him.[23] The Duke of
Newcastle was stationed at Cathcart's Hill in the early part of the day,
and afterwards moved off to the right to the Picket-house look-out over
the Woronzoff Road.
At 10.45, General Pelissier and his Staff went up to the French
Observatory on the right. The French trenches were crowded with men as
close as they could be packed, and we could, through the breaks in the
clouds of dust, which were most irritating, see our troops all ready in
their trenches. The cannonade languished purposely towards noon; but the
Russians, catching sight of the cavalry and troops in front, began to
shell Cathcart's Hill and the heights, and the bombs and long ranges
disturbed the equanimity of some of the spectators by bursting with loud
"thuds" right over their heads, and sending "the gunners' pieces"
sharply about them. After hours of suspense, the moment came at last.
At five minutes before twelve o'clock, the French issued forth from the
trenches close to the Malakoff, crossed the seven mètres of ground which
separated them from the enemy at a few bounds--scrambled up its face,
and were through the embrasures in the twinkling of an eye. They drifted
as lightly and quickly as autumn leaves before the wind, battalion after
battalion, and in a minute after the head of their column issued from
the ditch the tricolour was floating over the Korniloff Bastion. Our
Allies took the Russians by surprise, very few of the latter were in the
Malakoff; but they soon recovered themselves, from twelve o'clock till
past seven in the evening the French had to meet repeated attempts to
regain the work: then, weary of the fearful slaughter, despairing of
success, the Muscovite General withdrew his exhausted legions, and
prepared, with admirable skill, to evacuate the place. As soon as the
tricolour was observed waving through the smoke and dust over the
parapet of the Malakoff, four rockets were sent up from Chapman's attack
one after another, as a signal for our assault upon the Redan. They were
almost borne back by the violence of the wind, and the silvery jets of
sparks they threw out on exploding were scarcely visible against the raw
grey sky.
Now, it will be observed that, while we attacked the Redan with two
divisions only, a portion of each being virtually in reserve and not
engaged in the affair at all, the French made their assault on the
Malakoff with four divisions of the second _Corps d'Armée_, the first
and fourth divisions forming the storming columns, and the third and
fifth being the support, with reserves of 10,000 men. The French had,
probably, not less than 30,000 men in the Right Attack on the 7th of
September. The divisional orders for the Second Division were very much
the same as those for the Light Division.
DIVISION ORDERS.
_June 17th, 1855._
1. The Light Division being about to be employed with others in the
attack on the Redan, provisions will be issued and cooked this
afternoon for to-morrow, and care must be taken that the men's
canteens are filled with water this afternoon. Each man will be
provided with twenty rounds of additional ammunition, to be carried
in his haversack.
2. The whole guard of the trenches will be furnished this evening
from the 2nd Brigade, and that portion of the Brigade which is not
so employed will be formed in the morning in the first parallel, to
the right of the 21-gun Battery, where it will be joined by the
reserve of the trenches at daylight.
3. Weakly men and recruits will be selected for the camp guards and
general care of the camp, where they are to remain, and will be
directed not to show themselves on the high ground in front.
4. The Lieutenant-General having been charged with the columns of
attack, the command of the Light Division will for the moment
devolve on Major-General Codrington.
5. The officer in command of the guards of the trenches will take
care to make such a disposition of his men as shall leave room for
the additional troops which it is proposed shall be sent forward to
the attack.
6. The right attack will be made by the 1st Brigade, under Colonel
Yea, 7th Royal Fusileers, in the following order:--
100 of 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade, under Captain Forman, to form
the covering party.
The 34th Regiment, consisting of 400 men, under Captain Guilt, the
attacking party.
The support, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lysons--300
men of the 7th Fusileers, 300 of the 33rd Regiment, and 200 of the
23rd Royal Welsh Fusileers.
Working party, under the command of Major Macdonell--400 of the 2nd
Battalion Rifle Brigade.
DIVISION ORDERS.
_September 7th, 1855._
[Sidenote: DIVISION ORDERS.]
1. The Redan will be assaulted after the French have attacked the
Malakoff. The Light and Second Divisions will share this important
duty, each finding respectively the half of each party. The 2nd
Brigade of the Light Division, with an equal number of the Second
Division, will form the first body of attack, each Division
furnishing, 1st, a covering party of 100 men, under a
field-officer; 2nd, a storming party, carrying ladders, of 160 men,
under a field-officer (these men to be selected for this especial
duty--they will be the first to storm after they have placed the
ladders); 3rd, a storming party of 500 men, with two
field-officers; 4th, a working party of 100 men, with a
field-officer. The support will consist of the remainder of the
Brigade, to be immediately in the rear.
2. The covering party will consist of 100 rank and file of the 2nd
Battalion Rifle Brigade, under the command of Captain Thyers, and
will be formed on the extreme left of the fifth parallel, ready to
move out steadily in extended order towards the Redan. Their duty
will be to cover the advance of the ladder party, and keep down the
fire from the parapet.
3. The first storming party of the Light Division will consist of
160 men of the 97th Regiment, under the command of Major Welsford.
This party will carry the ladders and will be the first to storm;
they will be formed in the New Boyeau running from the centre of
the fifth parallel; they will form immediately in rear of the
covering party. They must be good men and true to their difficult
duty, which is to arrive at the ditch of the Redan and place the
ladders down it, to turn twenty ladders for others to come down by.
4. The next storming party will consist of 200 of the 97th
Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. H.
Hancock, and 300 of the 90th Regiment, under the command of Captain
Grove. This party will be stationed in the fifth parallel, and will
assault in columns of Divisions at one place. The Light Division
will lead the whole column of attack, which will be formed in
divisions of twenty files, and so told off.
5. The supports, consisting of 750 men of the 19th Regiment and
88th Regiment (with part of a Brigade of the Second Division on
their left), will be placed as they stand in Brigade in the fourth
parallel, from whence they will move into the fifth parallel as
soon as the assault is made by those in front of them.
6. The working party of 100 men will be furnished by the 90th
Regiment, under command of Captain Perrin, and will be placed in
No. 2 and 3 Left Boyeau; they will afterwards receive their
instructions from an officer of the Royal Engineers.
7. The remainder of the Light and Second Divisions will form a
reserve--the Light Division in the Right Boyeaus between the third
and fourth parallels, the Second Division in the Left Boyeaus
between the third and fourth parallels.
8. The First and Highland Divisions will be formed in that part of
the third parallel in communication with the French Right Attack,
and in the Middle Ravine.
9. Two days' rations will be drawn and cooked, and issued to the
men before 6 A.M. to-morrow.
10. Ten additional rounds of ammunition will be served out to each
man on the private parades of regiments to-morrow morning.
11. The men will parade with red coats and forage caps:
water-bottles to be quite full.
12. The covering party and first storming party will assemble at
the usual place of meeting for the trenches, at 7 A.M. The next
storming party, the working party, the supports, and the reserve,
will parade, respectively, at the same place, at intervals of half
an hour.
The covering party consisted of 100 men of the 3rd Buffs, under Captain
Lewes, and 100 men of the Second Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, under
the command of Captain Hammond. The scaling-ladder party consisted of
160 of the 3rd Buffs, under Captain Maude, 160 of the 97th Regiment,
under Welsford. The force of the Second Division consisted of 260 of the
3rd Buffs, 300 of the 41st, 200 of the 62nd, and a working party of 100
men of the 41st. The rest of Windham's Brigade, consisting of the 47th
and 49th, were in reserve with Warren's Brigade of the same division, of
which the 30th and 55th were called into action and suffered severely.
Brigadier Shirley was on board ship, but as soon as he heard of the
assault he came up to camp. Colonel Unett, of the 19th Regiment, was the
senior officer in Shirley's absence, and on him would have devolved the
duty of leading the storming column of the Light Division. Colonel Unett
tossed with Colonel Windham, and Colonel Unett won. He looked at the
shilling, turned it over, and said, "My choice is made; I'll be the
first man into the Redan." But he was badly wounded ere he reached the
abattis, although he was not leading the column.
It was a few minutes after twelve when our men left the fifth parallel.
In less than five minutes the troops, passing over about two hundred and
thirty yards from the approach to the parapet of the Redan, had lost a
large proportion of their officers. The Riflemen behaved, as usual,
admirably; but could not do much to reduce the fire of the guns on the
flanks and below the re-entering angles. As they came nearer, the fire
became less fatal. They crossed the abattis without difficulty; it was
torn to pieces and destroyed by our shot, and the men stepped over and
through it with ease. The Light Division made straight for the salient
and projecting angle of the Redan, and came to the ditch, at this place
about fifteen feet deep. The men, led by their officers, leaped into the
ditch, and scrambled up the other side, whence they scaled the parapet
almost without opposition; for the few Russians who were in front ran
back and got behind their traverses and breastworks, and opened fire
upon them as soon as they saw our men on the top.
As the Light Division rushed out into the open, the guns of the Barrack
Battery, and on the proper right of the Redan, loaded with grape, caused
considerable loss ere they reached the salient.
[Sidenote: A SCALING PARTY.]
Brigadier Shirley, blinded by dust knocked into his eyes by a shot, was
obliged to retire; his place was taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Bunbury, of
the 23rd Regiment, next in rank to Colonel Unett, already carried to the
rear. Brigadier Von Straubenzee received a contusion on the face, and
left the field. Colonel Handcock was mortally wounded. Captain Hammond
fell dead. Major Welsford was killed as he entered the work through an
embrasure.
Captain Grove was severely wounded. Only Colonel Windham, Captain Fyers,
Captain Lewes, and Captain Maude got into the Redan scatheless from the
volleys of grape and balls which swept the flanks of the work.
One officer told me the Russians visible in the Redan when we got into
it did not exceed 150 men, that we could have carried the breastworks at
the base with the greatest ease, if we had only made a rush for it. He
expressed his belief that they had no field-pieces from one re-entering
angle to the other. Another officer positively assured me that when he
got on the top of the parapet he saw, about a hundred yards in advance,
a breastwork with gaps, through which were the muzzles of field-pieces,
and that in rear of it were compact masses of infantry, the front rank
kneeling with fixed bayonets as if prepared to receive a charge of
cavalry, while the rear ranks kept up a sharp and destructive fire. The
only way to reconcile these discrepancies is to suppose that the first
spoke of the earliest stage of the assault, and that the latter referred
to a later period, when the Russians, having been reinforced by the
fugitives from the Malakoff, and by the troops behind the barracks in
the rear, may have opened embrasures in the breastwork. Lamentable as it
no doubt is, and incredible almost to those who know how well the
British soldier generally behaves in presence of the enemy, the men,
when they reached the parapet, were seized by some strange infatuation,
and began firing, instead of following their officers, who were now
falling fast. Most men stand fire much better than the bayonet--they
will keep up a fusillade a few paces off much sooner than they will
close with an enemy. It is difficult enough sometimes to get cavalry to
charge, if they can find any decent excuse to lay by their swords and
take to pistol and carabine, with which they are content to pop away for
ever; and when cover of any kind is near, a trench-bred infantry-man
finds the charms of the cartridge quite irresistible.
The 77th Regiment furnished 160 men for the ladder party, and 200 for
the storming party. The former, under the command of Major Welsford,
were to proceed to the advanced parallel, and the latter, under the
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Handcock, were to be in the fifth
parallel. At 5 A.M. the regiment paraded and marched off. Eight men were
told off to each ladder, and they had orders to leave the trench when
the appointed signal was made from the Malakoff. They were to be
preceded by 100 of the Rifle Brigade, and by some Sappers and Miners to
cut down the abattis, and they were to be followed by 160 of the 3rd
Buffs, with twenty ladders also. The storming party was to follow the
ladder party. A few minutes after twelve, Major Welsford, seeing the
signal flying from the Malakoff, gave the word--"Ladders to the front!"
The men instantly ran out of the parallel towards the salient of the
Redan, and at the same time, Colonel Handcock, with his 200 stormers of
the 97th, and 100 of the 90th, left the parallel. The ladders were
managed with difficulty, but on entering the place there was little or
no resistance. However, the Russians were soon roused out of their
casemates, and flocked to the traverses, from which they kept up a
heavy fire on the men getting over the parapet or through the
embrasures. By a rapidly increasing flanking and direct fire, converging
on the salient, the Russians diminished our force; and as we were
weakened they were strengthened by parties from both re-entering angles.
The leader of the ladder party was killed by a gun fired as he entered
the embrasure; Captain Sibthorpe was hit in two places; Lieutenant
Fitzgerald and Ensign Hill were wounded; Lieutenant-Colonel Handcock was
mortally wounded; M'Gregor fell inside the Redan; Captain Lumley was
badly wounded; Lieutenant Goodenough died of his wounds; Captain Woods
and Lieutenant Browne were also hit,--so that the 97th Regiment had five
officers killed and six wounded, out of a complement of thirteen
engaged; and 201 non-commissioned officers and men out of 360. Those
officers of the regiment who saw Colonel Windham in the Redan say they
were in ten minutes before they observed him. The 3rd Buffs and 41st
came in through the embrasures immediately after the 97th and 90th, then
the enemy made their rush, and drove the English into the angle, and
finally over the parapet to the exterior slope, where men of different
regiments of the Light and Second Divisions were packed together firing
into the Redan. One hour and a half had elapsed. The Russians had
cleared the Redan, but were not in possession of the parapets, when they
made a second charge with bayonets under a heavy fire of musketry from
the rear, and throwing quantities of stones, grape and round-shot, drove
those in front back on the men in the rear, who were precipitated into
the ditch. The gabions in the parapets gave way, and rolled down with
those upon them; the men in the rear retired precipitately into the
fifth parallel. A party of the 30th advanced from this parallel just as
Colonel Windham was asking for reinforcements, and ran up to the salient
of the Redan, where they suffered severe loss.[24] Captain Rowlands,
41st, made a gallant attempt with a few men, but they were nearly all
killed or wounded, and he was obliged to retire. Colonel Legh,
Lieutenant Whitehead, Captain Sibthorpe, Lieutenants Browne and
Fitzgerald, remained, till only three privates were left in the angle.
[Sidenote: A MOST CRITICAL MOMENT.]
The storming columns of the Second Division issuing out of the fifth
parallel rushed up immediately after the Light Division; but when they
came close to the apex, Colonel Windham brought them to the right flank
of the Light Division, so as to come on the slope of the proper left
face of the Redan. The first embrasure to which they came was in flames,
but, moving on to the next, the men leaped into the ditch, and, with the
aid of ladders and of each other's hands, scrambled up on the other
side, climbed the parapet, or poured in through the embrasure, which was
undefended. Colonel Windham was the first or one of the first men to
enter, and with him, Pat Mahony, a great grenadier of the 41st, Kennelly
and Cornellis, privates of the same regiment. As Mahony entered with a
cheer, he was shot through the head by a Russian rifleman, and fell
dead; at the same moment Kennelly and Cornellis were wounded. (The
latter claimed the reward of 5_l._ offered by Colonel Herbert to the
first man of his division who entered the Redan.) Running parallel to
the faces of the Redan there was an inner parapet, intended to shield
the gunners at the embrasures from the splinters of shell. Cuts in the
rear enabled the men to retire, and strong and high traverses ran along
the sides.
At the base of the Redan, before the re-entering angles, was a
breastwork, or, rather, a parapet with an irregular curve, which ran in
front of the body of the place to the height of a man's neck. As our men
entered through the embrasures, the few Russians who were between the
salient and this breastwork retreated behind the latter, or got behind
the traverses for protection. From these they poured in a quick fire on
the parapet of the salient, which was crowded by the men of the Second
and Light Divisions; and they began to return the fire without advancing
or charging. There were riflemen behind the lower traverses near the
base of the Redan, who kept up a galling fire. The Russians were
encouraged to maintain their ground by the immobility of our soldiers
and the weakness of a fusillade from the effects of which the enemy were
well protected. In vain the officers, by voice and example, urged our
soldiers to clear the work. The men, most of whom belonged to regiments
which had suffered in the trenches, and were acquainted with the
traditions of June 18th, had an impression that the Redan was
extensively mined, and that if they advanced they would all be blown up.
The officers fell, singled out as a mark for the enemy by their courage.
The men of the different regiments got mingled together in inextricable
confusion. All the Brigadiers, save Colonel Windham, were wounded, or
rendered unfit for the guidance of the attack.
This was going on at the proper left face of the Redan, while nearly the
same scene was being repeated at the salient. Every moment our men were
diminishing in numbers, while the Russians were arriving from the town,
and from the Malakoff, which had been occupied by the French. Thrice did
Colonel Windham despatch officers to Sir W. Codrington, who was in the
fifth parallel, to entreat him to send up supports in formation; all
these three officers were wounded as they passed from the ditch of the
Redan to the rear. Supports were, indeed, sent up, but they advanced in
disorder, and in driblets, only to increase the confusion and the
carnage. The narrow neck of the salient was too close to allow of any
formation; and the more the men crowded into it, the worse was the
disorder, and the more they suffered from the enemy's fire. This
miserable work lasted for an hour. Colonel Windham resolved to go to
General Codrington himself. Seeing Captain Crealock, of the 90th, he
said,[25] "I must go to the General for supports. Now, mind, let it be
known, in case I am killed, why I went away." He succeeded in gaining
the fifth parallel, through a storm of grape and bullets, and standing
on the top of the parapet he again asked for support. Sir W. Codrington
asked him if he thought he really could do anything with such supports
as he could afford, and said, if he thought so, "he might take the
Royals," who were then in the parallel. "Let the officers come out in
front--let us advance in order, and if the men keep their formation the
Redan is ours," was the Colonel's reply. But at that moment our men were
seen leaping into the ditch, or running down the parapet of the salient,
and through the embrasures out of the work into the ditch, the Russians
following them with the bayonet, musketry, and throwing stones and
grape-shot at them as they lay in the ditch.
But the solid weight of the advancing mass, urged on and fed each moment
from the rear by company after company, and battalion after battalion,
prevailed at last against the isolated and disjointed band, which had
abandoned that protection which unanimity of courage affords, and had
lost the advantages of discipline and obedience. As though some giant
rock advanced into the sea, and forced back the agitated waters that
buffeted it, so did the Russian columns press down against the spray of
soldiery which fretted their edge with fire and steel, and contended in
vain against their weight. The struggling band was forced back by the
enemy, who moved on, crushing friend and foe beneath their solid tramp.
Bleeding, panting, and exhausted, our men lay in heaps in the ditch
beneath the parapet, sheltered themselves behind stones and in bomb
craters in the external slope of the work, or tried to pass back to our
advanced parallel and sap, having to run the gauntlet of a tremendous
fire.
The scene in the ditch was appalling, although some of the officers
assured me that they and the men were laughing at the precipitation with
which many fellows plunged headlong upon the mass of bayonets, muskets,
and sprawling soldiers, the ladders were all knocked down or broken, so
that it was difficult for the men to scale the other side, and the dead,
the dying, the wounded, and the uninjured, were all lying in piles
together.
[Sidenote: A GALLANT DEFENCE.]
General Pelissier observed the failure of our attack from the rear of
the Malakoff, and sent over to General Simpson to ask if he intended to
renew it. The English Commander-in-Chief did not feel in a condition to
do so. The Guards and Highlanders, the Third and Fourth Divisions, and
most of the reserves, had not been engaged. As soon as we abandoned the
assault, the firing slackened along our front; but in the rear of the
Malakoff there was a fierce contest going on between masses of Russians,
released from the Redan, or drawn from the town, and the French inside
the work; and the fight for the Little Redan, on the proper left of the
Malakoff, was raging furiously. Clouds of smoke and dust obstructed the
view, but the rattle of musketry was incessant, and betokened the severe
nature of the struggle below. Through the breaks in the smoke there
could be seen now and then a tricolour, surmounted by an eagle,
fluttering bravely over the inner parapet of the Malakoff. The storm of
battle rolled fiercely round it, and beat against it; but it was
sustained by strong arms and stout hearts, and all the assaults of the
enemy were vain against it. It would be untrue to say that the result of
our assault was not the source of deep grief and mortification to us,
which all the glorious successes of our Allies could not wholly
alleviate. Even those who thought any attack on the Redan useless and
unwise, inasmuch as the possession of the Malakoff would, in their
opinion, render the Redan untenable, could not but regret bitterly that,
having undertaken the assault, we had not achieved a decisive triumph,
and that so much blood had been, if not ingloriously, at least
fruitlessly, poured forth.
The French, indeed, were generous enough to say that our troops behaved
with great bravery, and that they wondered how we kept the Redan so long
under such a tremendous fire; but British soldiers are rather accustomed
to the _nil admirari_ under such circumstances, and praise like that
gives pain as well as pleasure. Many soldiers, entertaining the opinion
to which I have alluded, think that we should at once have renewed the
attempt. It is but small consolation to them to know that General
Simpson intended to attack the Redan the following morning, inasmuch as
the Russians by their retreat deprived us of the chance of retrieving
our reputation, and at the same time acknowledged the completeness of
the success achieved by our Allies, and the tremendous superiority of
the fire directed against them.
The Second Brigade, Light Division, stormed at noon. The 97th and 90th,
300 of each, commanded, the former by Major Welsford (whose head was
blown off as he was mounting an embrasure--the gun was fired by a
Russian officer, who immediately gave himself up as a prisoner to a
sergeant of the 97th, that entered the moment after, throwing down his
sword and saying, "I am a prisoner of war"), the latter by Captain
Grove, the senior officer of the regiment present with the service
companies. The salient was carried at once, and the men entered the
stronghold, which is a work traced on a most obtuse angle, requiring a
large mass of men to assault it, not only at the salient, but at the
same moment on both flanks, so as to turn them, and to enable the
salient storming party to advance down the interior space of the works
at once, taking the defenders in front and flank, and indeed in rear, at
the same moment. In consequence of attacking the salient only, no front
could be formed, on account of the small interior space at that point;
the men were forced to advance by driblets, and at the same moment fired
on from traverses on either flank, where they could not see their
assailants, an evil at once obviated had the attack on the flanks and
salient been simultaneous. The handful of men who assaulted and took the
salient most gallantly held it against far superior numbers for a
considerable time, until their ammunition being nearly expended, and
receiving no flank support, which could alone assist them to any
purpose, and being rushed on from these flanks by a vastly superior
force, they retreated to the extreme side of the parapet, where they
remained, and, being reinforced by some fresh men, kept up a heavy and
continuous fire on the Russians in the interior of the work. They held
their ground on this fast sinking parapet of loose earth, stones and
broken gabions, under a most galling fire from both flanks and in front,
and continuous showers of vertical grape, from inside the work, for an
hour and a half at least, when a sudden rush, made by the enemy, who had
crept up the faces by the traverses, obliged the troops to give way, and
step by step, pelting each other with huge stones, they retired,
slipping and tumbling into the ditch, where many poor fellows were
buried alive, from the scarps giving way. Then came the fearful run for
life or death, with men rolling over like rabbits, then tumbling into
the English trench, where the men lay four deep on each other. The men
once in manned the parapet, and kept up a heavy and continuous fire on
the enemy on the parapets of the Redan.
The rest you know. The Rifles behaved nobly, and where they had tried to
creep up the ditch to pick off the Russians on the flanks, they lay four
and five deep, all together. Colonel Lysons, of the 23rd, as usual, was
all energy, and, though severely wounded through the thigh and unable to
stand, remained on the ground cheering on the men. Colonel Handcock, of
the 97th, was shot through the head on the crest of the Redan, and died
soon after arriving in camp. Captain Preston, and Lieutenants Swift and
Wilmer, of the 90th, were all killed inside, where their bodies were
found the next morning. Captain Vaughan, of the 90th, was shot in both
legs, and taken prisoner when we left the place, it being impossible to
get him over the ditch. He was found in a Russian hospital and brought
to camp to die. Lieutenant and Adjutant Dyneley, of the 23rd Fusileers,
was mortally wounded. Individual deeds of daring were too frequent to
particularize. The first dead Russian on the extreme salient was a
Russian officer shot through the mouth--a singularly handsome man, with
hands and feet white and delicate as a woman's.
[Sidenote: THE DANGERS OF DELAY.]
The 41st, which followed the Light Division storming party, whose
position in advance was determined, as I have already stated by Colonel
Windham and Colonel Unett "tossing up for choice," got into the Redan
nearly as soon as the 90th and 97th, who formed the leading column of
attack on the salient, and the parties of each division were soon
inextricably mixed. I do not know the names of the first soldiers of the
90th and 97th who got in, but several soldiers of these regiments lay
dead and wounded in advance near the Russian breastwork on the morning
of the 9th. The men of the 41st who rushed into the Redan with Colonel
Windham, were, Hartnardy, Kennelly, Cornellis, and Pat Mahony; the
last, a fine tall grenadier, fell dead in the embrasure by Colonel
Windham's side, shot through the heart as he was shouting, "Come on,
boys--come on!" His blood spouted over those near him, but the men
rushed on till they became confused among the traverses, and then the
scene took place which I have tried to describe. The salient, however
favourable to the assailants in one sense, was extremely disadvantageous
to them in another, inasmuch as it prevented them getting into any kind
of formation. It was, of course, the apex of the triangle, and was very
narrow, while the enemy firing from the base poured a concentrated fire
upon the point, and felled every man who showed boldly from behind the
traverses, and the parapet upon which our soldiers were crowded. At the
first rush, had Colonel Windham been able to get a handful of men
together to charge at the breastwork, the few Russians there must have
been routed, and by the time their reinforcements came up our men would
have been able to reverse the face of the breastwork, and to close the
Redan to their assailants. But seconds of time generate great events in
war. Our delay gave the enemy time both to recover from their panic when
they were driven from the salient, and to send up strong bodies of men
from their bomb-proofs and the cover at the back of the Redan; and by
degrees this accumulating mass, advancing from the angles of the
breastwork, moved up along the traverses parallel with the parapets of
the Redan, and drove our men into the salient, where, by feeble driblets
and incapable of formation, they were shot down in spite of the devotion
and courage of their leader and the example of their officers. The
salient was held by our men for one hour and fifty-six minutes!
While General Codrington, who seemed (in the opinion of those around
him) to have lost for the time the coolness which characterized him, was
hesitating about sending up more men, or was unable to send them up in
any formation so as to form a nucleus of resistance and attack, the
Redan was lost,[26] and our men, pressed by the bayonet, by heavy
fusillades, and by some field guns which the enemy had now brought up,
were forced over the parapet into the ditch. Colonel Eman, one of the
very best officers in the army,--a man of singular calmness and bravery,
who was beloved by his regiment, his officers and men, and whose loss
was lamented by all who knew him,--was shot through the lungs as he was
getting his men into order. His sword arm was uplifted over his head at
the time, and it was thought his lungs were uninjured. The surgeon, when
he was carried back, told him so, but he knew too well such hopes were
vain. "I feel I am bleeding internally," he said, with a sad smile. He
died that night. Two Captains of the same regiment fell beside
him--Corry and Lockhart. Captain Rowlands, who very much distinguished
himself, had the most extraordinary escapes, and was only slightly
wounded, though hit in two places. This detachment lost 184 officers and
men. The 49th, who were in reserve, lost 1 officer killed, 2 wounded, 2
privates killed, and 23 wounded. For the last thirty minutes of this
contest the English, having exhausted their ammunition, threw stones at
their opponents, but the Russians retaliated with terrible effect by
'hand-grape' and small cannon-shot, which they hurled at our men.
Captain Rowlands was knocked down and stunned by one of these missiles,
which hit him right on the eye. As soon as he recovered and got up, he
was struck by another grape-shot in the very same place, and knocked
down again.
The 30th Regiment was formed in the fourth parallel, left in front, on
the right of the 55th; and when the storming party moved out of the
fifth parallel the supports occupied it, and were immediately ordered to
advance on the salient angle of the Redan, by three companies at a time,
from the left. The distance from the place in which they were posted up
to the salient considerably exceeded 200 yards; and as the men had to
cut across as quickly as they could in order to escape the raking fire
of grape, and to support the regiments in front, they were breathless
when they arrived at the ditch. When they arrived, all blown by this
double, they found only two scaling-ladders at the scarp, and two more
at the other side, to climb up to the parapet. They got over, however,
and ascended the face of the Redan. By the time the supports got up, the
Russians were pushing up their reserves in great force, and had already
got some field-pieces up to the breastwork; and the regiment falling
into the train of all around them, instead of advancing, began to fire
from the parapet and upper traverses till all their ammunition was
exhausted, when they commenced pelting the Russians with stones. In this
condition no attempts were made to remove the reserves whatever, while
the Russians accumulated mass after mass upon them from the open ground
in rear of the Redan, and deployed their columns on the breastwork,
whence they delivered a severe fire upon us. The whole garrison of the
Malakoff and their supports also came down on the left flank of the
Redan and added to our assailants; and indeed there was reason to fight,
for the possession of the Redan would have destroyed the enemy's chance
of escape. In this gallant regiment there were 16 officers, 23
sergeants, &c., and 384 privates. On marching down to the trenches, 1
officer was killed and 10 were wounded, 6 sergeants were wounded, 41
privates were killed and 101 privates were wounded, and 2 officers and 6
privates died of their wounds.
[Sidenote: HEAVY LOSSES OF THE FRENCH.]
The 55th Regiment was the support along with the 30th, and was stationed
in the fourth parallel till the assaulting columns had cleared out of
the fifth parallel, which it then occupied, and left soon afterwards to
mingle in the _mélée_ at the salient of the Redan. Poor Lieut.-Colonel
Cuddy, who assumed the command when Lieut.-Colonel Cure was wounded in
the right arm, was killed as he led his men up the open to the face of
the Redan; and of the remaining ten officers who went out with the
regiment, Captain Morgan, Captain Hume, Lieutenant J. R. Hume, and
Lieutenant Johnson were wounded. The regiment went out less than 400
strong, and suffered a loss of 140 officers and men killed and wounded.
The 62nd Regiment went into action 245 of all ranks. They were formed
into two companies, with four officers to each, and the Colonel, Major,
Adjutant, and Acting. Assistant-Surgeon O'Callaghan, and formed part of
the storming party. Colonel Tyler was hit in the hand crossing the open
space in front of the Redan, and retired. Lieutenant Blakeston was shot
in getting through an embrasure of the Redan. Lieutenant Davenport was
shot through the nose. On the parapet 2 officers were killed or died of
their wounds, and 4 officers were wounded out of a total of 11; 3
sergeants were killed and 4 wounded out of 16; 1 drummer was killed out
of 8, and 14 rank and file were killed, and 75 were wounded, out of 210.
Such was this heavy day. To show how it fell on our Allies, I give the
following _fact_:--The 15th Regiment, Colonel Garrain, went into action
900 strong against the Little Redan, and came out 310. The 2
Chefs-de-Bataillon were killed, 11 officers were killed, and 19 officers
were wounded. It was observed that an immense number of the Russian dead
in the front were officers.
Our attack lasted about an hour and three-quarters, and in that time we
lost more men than at Inkerman, where the fighting lasted for seven
hours. At 1.48 P.M., which was about the time we retired, there was an
explosion either of a tumbrel or of a fougasse between the Mamelon and
the Malakoff, to the right, which seemed to blow up several Frenchmen,
and soon afterwards the artillery of the Imperial Guard swept across
from the rear towards the Little Redan, and gave us indication that our
Allies had gained a position from which they could operate against the
enemy with their field-pieces. From the opening of the attack the French
batteries over Careening Bay had not ceased to thunder against the
Russian fleet, which lay silently at anchor below; and a lively
cannonade was kept up between them and the Inkerman batteries till the
evening, which was interrupted every now and then by the intervention of
the English redoubt, and the late Selinghinsk and Volhynia redoubts,
which engaged the Russian batteries at the extremity of the harbour. At
one o'clock wounded men began to crawl up from the batteries to the
camp; they could tell us little or nothing. "Are we in the Redan?" "Oh,
yes; but a lot of us is killed, and the Russians are mighty strong."
Some were cheerful, others desponding; all seemed proud of their wounds.
Half an hour more, and the number of wounded increased; they came up by
twos and threes, and--what I had observed before as a bad sign--the
number of stragglers accompanying them, under the pretence of rendering
assistance, became greater also. Then the ambulances and the cacolets
(or mule litters) came in sight along the Woronzoff Road filled with
wounded. Every ten minutes added to their numbers, and we could see that
every effort was made to hurry them down to the front as soon as they
were ready for a fresh load. The litter-bearers now added to the length
of the melancholy train. We heard that the temporary hospitals in front
were full, and that the surgeons were beginning to get anxious about the
extent of their accommodation for the wounded.
Another bad sign was, that the enemy never ceased throwing up shell to
the front, many of which burst high in the air, over our heads, while
the pieces flew with a most unpleasant whir around us. These shells were
intended for our reserves; and, although the fusees did not burn long
enough for such a range, and they all burst at a considerable elevation,
they caused some little injury and annoyance to the troops in the rear,
and hit some of our men. The rapidly increasing swarms of wounded men,
some of whom had left their arms behind them, at last gave rise to
suspicions of the truth; but their answers to many eager questioners
were not very decisive or intelligible, and some of them did not even
know what they had been attacking. One poor young fellow, who was
stumping stiffly up with a broken arm and a ball through his shoulder,
carried off his firelock with him, but he made a _naïve_ confession that
he had "never fired it off, for he could not." The piece turned out to
be in excellent order. It struck one that such men as these, however
brave, were scarcely a fit match for the well-drilled soldiers of
Russia; and yet we were trusting the honour, reputation, and glory of
Great Britain to undisciplined lads from the plough, or the lanes of our
towns and villages! As one example of the sort of recruits we received,
I may mention that there was a considerable number of men in draughts,
which came out to regiments in the Fourth Division, who had only been
enlisted a few days, and who had never fired a rifle in their lives!