As I wrote at the time--"It must not be imagined that such rawness can

be corrected and turned into military efficiency out here; for the fact

is, that this siege has been about the worst possible school for

developing the courage and manly self-reliance of a soldier; neither

does it teach him the value of discipline and of united action. When he

goes into the trenches he learns to dodge behind gabions, and to take

pot shots from behind stones and parapets, and at the same time he has

no opportunity of testing the value of his comrades, or of proving

himself against the enemy in the open field. The natural result follows.

Nor can it be considered as aught but ominous of evil that there have

been two Courts of Inquiry recently held concerning two most

distinguished regiments--one, indeed, belonging to the highest rank of

our infantry; and the other a well-tried and gallant regiment, which was

engaged in this very attack--in consequence of the alleged misconduct of

their young soldiers during night affairs in the trenches."

[Sidenote: LOSSES IN THE ASSAULT.]

The difficulty of obtaining accurate information of the progress of an

action cannot be better exemplified than by this fact, that at three

o'clock one of our Generals of Division did not know whether we had

taken the Redan or not. Towards dusk, the Guards, who had been placed in

reserve behind our Right Attack, were marched off to their camp, and a

portion of the Highlanders were likewise taken off the ground. The

Guards had only arrived from the trenches the very same morning; but, to

their great credit be it said, they turned out again without a murmur

after a rest of a couple of hours for breakfast, although they had been

"on" for forty-eight hours previously. The Third Division and a portion

of the Highlanders were sent down to do the trench duties in the evening

and night.

From the following statement of the loss sustained by the Light

Division, it will be seen that this gallant body, which behaved so well

at the Alma, and maintained its reputation at Inkerman, suffered as

severely as it did in gaining the former great victory; and an

examination of the return will, we fear, show that the winter, the

trenches, and careless recruiting did their work, and that the officers

furnished a noble example of devotion and gallantry. In the Light

Division there were 73 officers and 964 men wounded--total, 1,037.

The loss of this division was 1,001 in killed and wounded at the Alma.

The number of officers killed was 15; of men killed, 94--total, 109. The

regiments of the division which furnished storming columns were the 90th

(or Perthshire Volunteers) and the 97th (or Earl of Ulster's). In the

90th, Captain Preston and Lieutenants Swift and Wilmer were killed; only

3 men were killed. Lieutenant Swift penetrated the furthest of all those

who entered the Redan, and his dead body was discovered far in advance,

near the re-entering angle. Captains Grove, Tinling, and Wade,

Lieutenants Rattray, Pigott, Deverill, and Sir C. Pigott, and 90 men

severely; Captains Perrin and Vaughan, Lieutenants Rous, Graham, and

Haydock and 35 men slightly wounded. Total killed, 3 officers, 3 men;

wounded, 12 officers, 126 men. In the 97th, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon.

H. R. Handcock, Major Welsford, Captain Hutton, and Lieutenant Douglas

M'Gregor, and 1 man were killed. Captain Lumley and 10 men dangerously;

Captain Sibthorpe, Lieutenant Goodenough, and 38 men severely; Captain

Woods, Lieutenants Hill, Fitzgerald, Brown, and 40 men slightly wounded.

Total killed, 4 officers, 1 man; wounded, 7 officers, 88 men. The

colonel, having been shot through the head, was carried to his tent,

but, the ball having lodged in the brain, he was never sensible, and

expired that night. Lieutenant M'Gregor, the son of the

Inspector-General of Irish Constabulary, was adjutant of the regiment,

and as remarkable for his unostentatious piety and Christian virtues as

for his bravery and conduct in the field. The rest of the division was

engaged in supporting the storming columns.

In the 7th Royal Fusileers, Lieutenants Wright and Colt, and 11 men were

killed; Major Turner, Lieutenant-Colonels Heyland and Hibbert, Captain

Hickey, and Captain Jones (Alma), were wounded; 67 men were wounded. In

the 23rd (Royal Welsh Fusileers), Lieutenants Somerville and Dyneley

were killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Lysons was slightly wounded, and the

following officers more or less injured by shot, shell, or

bayonet:--Captains Vane, Poole, Millett, Holding, Beck, Hall-Dare,

Williamson, Tupper, O'Connor, Radcliffe, Perrott, and Beck. Total

killed, 2 officers, 1 man; wounded, 13 officers, 130 men. In the 33rd,

Lieutenant Donovan, a most promising and dashing officer, lost his life

while looking over the parapet at the fight. He went with the regiment

as an amateur, in company with his brother, all through Bulgaria, and

into action with them at the Alma as a volunteer, where he so much

distinguished himself that the colonel recommended him for a commission,

which he received without purchase. Lieutenant-Colonel Gough, who was

shot through the body at the Alma, was severely wounded; Captain Ellis

and Lieutenants Willis and Trent were slightly, and the Adjutant

Toseland severely, wounded; 45 men wounded. Total killed, 1 officer;

wounded, 5 officers, 45 men. In the 34th, which was in the parallel

behind the columns, 3 men were killed. Lieutenants Harris and Laurie

were severely wounded, and 62 men were wounded. In the 19th, nearly

every officer was touched more or less, 128 men were wounded, and 25

killed. The officers wounded were--Colonel Unett, severely (since dead);

Major Warden, slightly; Captain Chippindall, ditto; Lieutenants Godfrey,

Goren, and Massey, dangerously; Molesworth severely; Bayley, slightly;

Ensign Martin, slightly; and Ensign Young, dangerously. Total killed, 25

men; wounded, 10 officers, 128 men. In the 77th, 42 men were wounded;

killed not known; Captain Parker mortally wounded. Wounded, Captain

Butts, slightly; Lieutenants Knowles, Leggett, and Watson, ditto. One

officer killed; 4 officers, 42 men wounded. In the 88th Regiment, 105

men were wounded. Captain Grogan was killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell,

C.B., was wounded twice in the thigh and once in the arm severely.

Captains Mauleverer and Beresford, Lieutenants Lambert, Hopton, Scott,

and Ensign Walker were wounded severely. Total, 1 officer killed;

wounded, 9 officers, 105 men. In the Rifle Brigade, Captain Hammond, who

was only three days out from England, and Lieutenant Ryder and 13 men

were killed; and Lieutenant Pellew slightly, Lieutenant Eyre severely,

Major Woodford slightly, Captain Eccles and Lieutenant Riley severely

wounded. Total, 2 officers, 13 men killed; wounded, 8 officers, 125 men.

The loss of officers in Windham's Brigade, and in the portion of

Warren's Brigade which moved to his support was equally severe.

[Sidenote: LOSSES IN THE ASSAULT.]

The Second Division had on the General Staff 1 officer, Lieutenant

Swire, Aide-de-camp, dangerously; 2 officers, Major Rooke and Lieutenant

Morgan, Aide-de-camp, severely; 1 officer, Brigadier Warren, slight

scratch in head; and 1 officer, Colonel Percy Herbert, a still slighter

scratch. Total, 5 officers wounded. In 1st Royals, 2nd Battalion, 1 man

was killed; 2 officers, Major Plunkett and Lieutenant Williams, and 3

men, severely; Captain Gillman, and 2 men, dangerously; Lieutenant

Keate, and 13 men slightly, wounded. Total killed, 1; wounded, 4

officers, 18 men.

3rd Buffs, 39 men killed, 76 wounded, 7 officers. Brigadier Straubenzee,

a scratch over the eye; Captain Wood Dunbar, Lieutenant Cox, Ensigns

Letts and Peachey, wounded. In 41st Foot, 2 officers, Captains Lockhart

and Every, 2 men, killed; Colonel Eman, C.B., dangerously (since dead);

Lieutenant Kingscote, severely; Major Pratt, Captain Rowlands,

Lieutenants Maude and Hamilton, slightly wounded. Total killed, 2

officers, 2 men; wounded, 6 officers, 111 men. In 47th Regiment, 3 men

killed, 27 men wounded. In 49th Regiment, Captain Rochfort and 2 men

killed; Major King, Ensign Mitchell, and 26 men, wounded. In 55th

Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Cuddy, killed; Major Cure, Captain R. Hume,

Captain J. Hume, Captain Richards, Lieutenant Johnson, and 105 men,

wounded. In 62nd Regiment, Captains Cox and Blakeston, killed;

Lieutenant-Colonel Tyler, Major Daubeney, Captain Hunter, Lieutenants

Dirin and Davenport, and 67 men, wounded. In 95th Foot, Captain Sergeant

and Lieutenant Packinton, slightly contused, and 3 men slightly wounded.

In the First Division, 2nd Brigade, the 31st Foot lost an excellent

officer, Captain Attree, before the assault took place; he was mortally

wounded in the trenches. They had two men slightly wounded. In the Scots

Fusileer Guards, and 56th Foot, there were only two men slightly

wounded--one in each regiment; out of 256 men admitted into the General

Hospital, Third Division, camp, 17 died almost immediately. In the

Highland Division, the 42nd Foot had 12 men wounded; the 72nd Foot had 1

officer, Quartermaster Maidmont, mortally wounded; 1 man killed, and 17

men wounded; the 79th had 11 men wounded; and the 93rd had 5 men

wounded. In the Fourth Division, the 17th Regiment had Lieutenant

Thompson and Lieutenant Parker, and 19 men wounded; the 20th Regiment

had 6 men wounded; the 21st, 8 men wounded; the 46th Regiment, 1 man

wounded; the 48th, 6 men wounded; the 57th, 4 men wounded; the 63rd

Regiment, Colonel Lindsay (severely), and 4 men wounded, and 1 killed;

the 68th, 1 man wounded; The Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion, 2 men killed,

and 9 men wounded. In the Right Attack of the Royal Artillery Siege

Train, Commissary Hayter and 5 men were killed; Captain Fitzroy,

Lieutenants Champion and Tyler, and 34 men were wounded. In the Left

Attack, Captain Sedley, Major Chapman, Lieutenant Elphinstone, R.E. and

7 Sappers and Miners, were wounded. The regiments in the trenches lost

as follows:--Rifle Brigade, 2 wounded; 3rd Foot, 2 ditto; 17th, 1 ditto;

23rd Fusileers, 13 ditto; 41st, 3 ditto; 55th, 1 ditto; 62nd, 2 killed,

3 wounded; 77th, 1 killed, 1 wounded; 88th, 1 wounded; 90th, 1 killed,

11 wounded; 93rd, 1 wounded; 97th, 2 wounded; 19th, 1 killed, 1 wounded.

The total given by Sir John Hall was--24 officers, and 129 men killed;

134 officers and 1,897 men wounded.

CHAPTER VII.

Painful Depression--Tremendous Explosions--Retreat of the

Russians--Chronicle of Events--General After-Order--Visit to the

City--Strength of the Works--Surprise in Camp--Rush to the

City--Plunder--Ghastly Sights--The Dead and the Dying--Inside the

Works--Value of the Malakoff--Terrible Picture of the Horrors of

War--Hospital of Sebastopol--Heart-rending Scene--Chambers of

Horrors--The Great Redan--Wreck and Destruction.

There was a feeling of deep depression in camp. We knew the French were

in the Malakoff only, and we were painfully aware that our attack had

failed. It was an eventful night. The camp was full of wounded men; the

hospitals were crowded; sad stories ran from mouth to mouth respecting

the losses of the officers and the behaviour of the men.

Fatigued and worn out, I lay down to rest, but scarcely to sleep. At my

last walk to the front after sunset, nothing was remarkable except the

silence of the batteries on both sides. About seven o'clock, an

artillery officer in the Quarries observed the enemy pouring across the

bridge to the north side, and sent word to that effect to General

Simpson. About eleven o'clock my hut was shaken by a violent shock as of

an earthquake, but I was so thoroughly tired, that it did not rouse me

for more than an instant; having persuaded myself it was "only a

magazine," I was asleep again. In another hour these shocks were

repeated in quick succession, so that Morpheus himself could not have

slumbered on, and I walked up to Cathcart's Hill. Fires blazed in

Sebastopol, but they were obscured with smoke, and by the dust which

still blew through the night air. As the night wore on, these fires grew

and spread, fed at intervals by tremendous explosions. The Russians were

abandoning the city they had defended so gallantly and so long. Their

fleet was beneath the waters. A continuous stream of soldiery could be

seen marching across the bridge to the north, side. And what were we

doing? Just looking on. About half past five o'clock General Bentinck

came out of his hut, close to Cathcart's Hill, to "see what the matter

was." Of course, that careful officer was not in any way concerned in

the arrangements for the attack or for the assault. He was only a

divisional officer, and could not in any way direct the action of the

troops.

[Sidenote: RETREAT OF THE RUSSIANS.]

At 8 o'clock the night before, the Russians began to withdraw from the

town, in which they had stored up combustibles, to render Sebastopol a

second Moscow. The general kept up a fire of musketry from his advanced

posts, as though he intended to renew his efforts to regain the

Malakoff. About 12.30 A.M. the Highland Division on duty in the

trenches, surprised at the silence in the Redan, sent some volunteers to

creep into it. Nothing could they hear but the breathing and groans of

the wounded and dying, who, with the dead, were the sole occupants of

the place. As it was thought the Redan was mined, the men came back. By

2 o'clock A.M. the fleet, with the exception of the steamers, had been

scuttled and sunk. Flames were observed to break out in different parts

of the town. They spread gradually over the principal buildings. At 4

o'clock A.M. a terrible explosion behind the Redan shook the whole camp;

it was followed by four other explosions equally startling. The city was

enveloped in fire and smoke, and torn asunder by the tremendous shocks

of these volcanoes. At 4.45 A.M. the magazine of the Flagstaff and

Garden Batteries blew up. At 5.30 A.M. two of the southern forts, the

Quarantine and Alexander, went up into the air, and a great number of

live shell followed, and burst in all directions. While this was going

on, a steady current of infantry was passing to the north side over the

bridge. At 6.45 A.M. the last battalion had passed, and the hill-sides

opposite the city were alive with Russian troops. At 7.10 A.M. several

small explosions took place inside the town. At 7.12 A.M. columns of

black smoke began to rise from a steamer in one of the docks. At 7.15

A.M. the connection of the floating-bridge with the south side was

severed. At 7.16 A.M. flames began to ascend from Fort Nicholas. At 8.7

A.M. the last part of the bridge was floated off in portions to the

north side. At 9 A.M. several violent explosions took place in the works

on our left, opposite the French. At 10 A.M. the town was a mass of

flames, and the pillar of velvety fat smoke ascending from it seemed to

support the very heavens. The French continued to fire, probably to keep

out stragglers; but, ere the Russians left the place, the Zouaves and

sailors were engaged in plundering. Not a shot was fired to the front

and centre. The Russian steamers were very busy towing boats and stores

across. His steamers towed his boats across at their leisure, and when

every man had been placed in safety, and not till then, the Russians

began to dislocate and float off the different portions of their bridge,

and to pull it over to the north side.

This Redan cost us more lives than the capture of Badajoz, without

including those who fell in its trenches and approaches; and, although

the enemy evacuated it, we could scarcely claim the credit of having

caused them such loss that they retired owing to their dread of a

renewed assault. On the contrary, we must, in fairness, admit that the

Russians maintained their hold of the place till the French were

established in the Malakoff and the key of the position was torn from

their grasp. They might, indeed, have remained in the place longer than

they did, as the French were scarcely in a condition to molest them from

the Malakoff with artillery; but the Russian general possessed too much

genius and experience as a soldier to lose men in defending an untenable

position, and his retreat was effected with masterly skill and with

perfect ease in the face of a victorious enemy. Covering his rear by the

flames of the burning city, and by tremendous explosions, which spoke in

tones of portentous warning to those who might have wished to cut off

his retreat, he led his battalions in narrow files across a deep arm of

the sea, which ought to have been commanded by our guns, and in the face

of a most powerful fleet. He actually paraded them in our sight as they

crossed, and carried off all his most useful stores and munitions of

war. He left us few trophies, and many bitter memories. He sank his

ships and blew up his forts without molestation; nothing was done to

harass him in his retreat, with the exception of some paltry efforts to

break down the bridge by cannon-shot, or to shell the troops as they

marched over.

It was clear that the fire of our artillery was searching out every nook

and corner in the town, and that it would have soon become utterly

impossible for the Russians to keep any body of men to defend their long

line of parapet and battery without such murderous loss as would

speedily have annihilated an army. Their enormous bomb-proofs, large and

numerous as they were, could not hold the requisite force to resist a

general concerted attack made all along the line with rapidity and

without previous warning. On the other hand, the strength of the works

themselves was prodigious. One heard our engineers feebly saying, "They

are badly traced," and that kind of thing; but it was quite evident that

the Russian, who is no match for the Allies in the open field, had been

enabled to sustain the most tremendous bombardments ever known, and a

siege of eleven months; that he was rendered capable of repulsing one

general assault, and that a subsequent attack upon him at four points

was only successful at one, which fortunately happened to be the key of

his position; and the inference is, that his engineers possessed

consummate ability, and furnished him with artificial strength that made

him equal to our best efforts.

It is sufficient to say that of the three or four points attacked--the

Little Redan and the Malakoff on the right, and the Bastion Centrale and

the re-entering angle of the Flagstaff Work on the left--but one was

carried, and that was a closed work. The Great Redan, the Little Redan,

and the line of defence on the left were not taken, although the attack

was resolute, and the contest obstinate and bloody for both assailants

and defenders. Whether we ought to have attacked the Great or Little

Redan, or to have touched the left at all, was another question, which

was ventilated by many, but which it is not for me to decide. It is

certain that the enemy knew his weakness, and was too good a strategist

to defend a position of which we held the key.

The surprise throughout the camp on the Sunday morning was beyond

description when the news spread that Sebastopol was on fire, and that

the enemy were retreating. The tremendous explosions, which shook the

very ground like so many earthquakes, failed to disturb many of our

wearied soldiers.

[Sidenote: A YOUNG PRISONER OF WAR.]

As the rush from camp became very great, and every one sought to visit

the Malakoff and the Redan, which were filled with dead and dying men, a

line of English cavalry was posted across the front from our extreme

left to the French right. They were stationed in all the ravines and

roads to the town and trenches, with orders to keep back all persons

except the Generals and Staff, and officers and men on duty, and to stop

all our men returning with plunder from the town, and to take it from

them. As they did not stop the French, or Turks, or Sardinians, this

order gave rise to a good deal of grumbling, particularly when a man,

after lugging a heavy chair several miles, or a table, or some such

article, was deprived of it by our sentries. The French complained that

our Dragoons let English soldiers pass with Russian muskets, and would

not permit the French to carry off these trophies; but there was not any

foundation for the complaint. There was assuredly no jealousy on one

side or the other. It so happened that as the remnants of the French

regiments engaged on the left against the Malakoff and Little Redan

marched to their tents in the morning, our Second Division was drawn up

on the parade-ground in front of their camp, and the French had to pass

their lines. The instant the leading regiment of Zouaves came up to the

spot where our first regiment was placed, the men, with one spontaneous

burst, rent the air with an English cheer. The French officers drew

their swords, their men dressed up and marched past as if at a review,

while regiment after regiment of the Second Division caught up the cry,

and at last our men presented arms to their brave comrades of France,

the officers on both sides saluted with their swords, and this continued

till the last man had marched by.

Mingled with the plunderers from the front were many wounded men. The

ambulances never ceased,--now moving heavily and slowly with their

burdens, again rattling at a trot to the front for a fresh cargo,--and

the ground between the trenches and the camp was studded with cacolets

or mule litters. Already the funeral parties had commenced their

labours. The Russians all this time were swarming on the north side, and

evinced the liveliest interest in the progress of the explosions and

conflagrations. They took up ground in their old camps, and spread all

over the face of the hills behind the northern forts. Their steamers

cast anchor, or were moored close to the shore among the creeks, on the

north side, near Fort Catherine. By degrees the Generals, French and

English, and the Staff officers, edged down upon the town, but Fort Paul

had not yet gone up, and Fort Nicholas was burning, and our engineers

declared the place would be unsafe for forty-eight hours. Moving down,

however, on the right flank of our cavalry pickets, a small party of us

managed to turn them cleverly, and to get out among the French works

between the Mamelon and Malakoff. The ground was here literally paved

with shot and shell, and the surface was deeply honeycombed by the

explosions of the bombs at every square yard. The road was crowded by

Frenchmen returning with paltry plunder from Sebastopol, and with files

of Russian prisoners, many of them wounded, and all dejected, with the

exception of a fine little boy, in a Cossack's cap and a tiny uniform

greatcoat, who seemed rather pleased with his kind captors. There was

also one stout Russian soldier, who had evidently been indulging in the

popularly credited sources of Dutch courage, and who danced all the way

into the camp with a Zouave.

There were ghastly sights on the way, too--Russians who had died, or

were dying as they lay, brought so far towards the hospitals from the

fatal Malakoff. Passing through a maze of trenches, of gabionades, and

of zigzags and parallels, by which the French had worked their sure and

deadly way close to the heart of the Russian defence, and treading

gently among the heaps of dead, where the ground bore full tokens of the

bloody fray, we came at last to the head of the French sap. It was

barely ten yards from that to the base of the huge sloping mound of

earth which rose full twenty feet in height above the level, and showed

in every direction the grinning muzzles of its guns. The tricolour waved

placidly from its highest point, and the French were busy constructing a

semaphore on the top. There was a ditch at one's feet, some twenty or

twenty-two feet deep, and ten feet broad. That was the place where the

French crossed--there was their bridge of planks, and here they swarmed

in upon the unsuspecting defenders of the Malakoff. They had not ten

yards to go. We had two hundred, and the men were then out of breath.

Were not planks better than scaling-ladders? This explains how easily

the French crossed. On the right hand, as one issued from the head of

the French trench, was a line of gabions on the ground running up to

this bridge. That was a flying sap, which the French made the instant

they got out of the trench into the Malakoff, so that they were enabled

to pour a continuous stream of men into the works, with comparative

safety from the flank fire of the enemy. In the same way they at once

dug a trench across the work inside, to see if there were any galvanic

wires to fire mines. Mount the parapet and descend--of what amazing

thickness are these embrasures! From the level of the ground inside to

the top of the parapet cannot be less than eighteen feet. There were

eight rows of gabions piled one above the other, and as each row receded

towards the top, it left in the ledge below an excellent _banquette_ for

the defenders.

[Sidenote: SICKENING SIGHTS.]

Inside the sight was too terrible to dwell upon. The French were

carrying away their own and the Russian wounded, and four distinct piles

of dead were formed to clear the way. The ground was marked by pools of

blood, and the smell was noisome; swarms of flies settled on dead and

dying; broken muskets, torn clothes, caps, shakos, swords, bayonets,

bags of bread, canteens, and haversacks, were lying in indescribable

confusion all over the place, mingled with heaps of shot, of grape, bits

of shell, cartridges, case and canister, loose powder, official papers,

and cooking tins. The traverses were so high and deep that it was almost

impossible to get a view of the whole of the Malakoff from any one spot,

and there was a high mound of earth in the middle of the work, either

intended as a kind of shell proof, or the remains of the old White

Tower. The guns, which to the number of sixty were found in the work,

were all ships' guns, and mounted on ships' carriages, and worked in the

same way as ships' guns. There were a few old-fashioned, oddly-shaped

mortars. On looking around the work, one might see that the strength of

the Russian was his weakness--he fell into his own bomb-proofs. In the

parapet of the work might be observed several entrances--very narrow

outside, but descending and enlarging downwards, and opening into rooms

some four or five feet high, and eight or ten square. These were only

lighted from the outside by day, and must have been pitch dark at night,

unless the men were allowed lanterns. Here the garrison retired when

exposed to a heavy bombardment. The odour of these narrow chambers was

villanous, and the air reeked with blood and abominations unutterable.

There were several of these places, and they might bid defiance to the

heaviest mortars in the world: over the roof was a layer of _ships'

masts_, cut into junks, and deposited carefully; then there was over

them a solid layer of earth, and above that a layer of gabions, and

above that a pile of earth again.

In one of these dungeons, excavated in the solid rock, and which was

probably underneath the old White Tower, the officer commanding seems to

have lived. It must have been a dreary residence. The floor and the

entrance were littered a foot deep with reports, returns, and perhaps

despatches assuring the Czar that the place had sustained no damage. The

garrison were in these narrow chambers enjoying their siesta, which they

invariably take at twelve o'clock, when the French burst in upon them

like a torrent, and, as it were, drowned them in their holes. The

Malakoff was a closed work, only open at the rear to the town; and the

French having once got in, threw open a passage to their own rear, and

closed up the front and the lateral communications with the curtains

leading to the Great Redan and to the Little Redan. Thus they were

enabled to pour in their supports, in order and without loss, in a

continued stream, and to resist the efforts of the Russians, which were

desperate and repeated, to retake the place. They brought up their

field-guns at once, and swept the Russian reserves and supports, while

Strange's batteries from the Quarries carried death through their ranks

in every quarter of the Karabelnaïa. With the Malakoff the enemy lost

Sebastopol. The ditch outside, towards the north, was full of French and

Russians, piled over each other in horrid confusion. On the right,

towards the Little Redan, the ground was literally strewn with bodies as

thick as they could lie, and in the ditch they were piled over each

other. Here the French, victorious in the Malakoff, met with a heavy

loss and a series of severe repulses. The Russians lay inside the work

in heaps, like carcases in a butcher's cart; and the wounds, the

blood--the sight exceeded all I had hitherto witnessed.

Descending from the Malakoff, we came upon a suburb of ruined houses

open to the sea--it was filled with dead. The Russians had crept away

into holes and corners in every house, to die like poisoned rats;

artillery horses, with their entrails torn open by shot, were stretched

all over the space at the back of the Malakoff, marking the place where

the Russians moved up their last column to retake it under the cover of

a heavy field battery. Every house, the church, some public buildings,

sentry-boxes--all alike were broken and riddled by cannon and mortar.

Turning to the left, we proceeded by a very tall snow-white wall of

great length to the dockyard gateway. This wall was pierced and broken

through and through with cannon. Inside were the docks, which, naval men

say, were unequalled in the world. The steamer was blazing merrily in

one of them. Gates and store sides were splintered and pierced by shot.

There were the stately dockyard buildings on the right, which used to

look so clean and white and spruce. Parts of them were knocked to atoms,

and hung together in such shreds and patches that it was only wonderful

they cohered. The soft white stone of which they and the walls were made

was readily knocked to pieces by a cannon-shot.

Of all the pictures of the horrors of war which have ever been presented

to the world, the hospital of Sebastopol offered the most horrible,

heartrending, and revolting. How the poor human body could be mutilated,

and yet hold its soul within it, when every limb is shattered, and every

vein and artery is pouring out the life-stream, one might study there at

every step, and at the same time wonder how little will kill! The

building used as an hospital was one of the noble piles inside the

dockyard wall, and was situated in the centre of the row, at right

angles to the line of the Redan. The whole row was peculiarly exposed to

the action of shot and shell bounding over the Redan, and to the

missiles directed at the Barrack Battery; and it bore in sides, roof,

windows, and doors, frequent and distinctive proofs of the severity of

the cannonade.

[Sidenote: A PEEP AT THE GREAT REDAN.]

Entering one of these doors, I beheld such a sight as few men, thank

God, have ever witnessed. In a long, low room, supported by square

pillars arched at the top, and dimly lighted through shattered and

unglazed window-frames, lay the wounded Russians, who had been abandoned

to our mercies by their General. The wounded, did I say? No, but the

dead--the rotten and festering corpses of the soldiers, who were left to

die in their extreme agony, untended, uncared for, packed as close as

they could be stowed, some on the floor, others on wretched trestles and

bedsteads, or pallets of straw, sopped and saturated with blood, which

oozed and trickled through upon the floor, mingling with the droppings

of corruption. With the roar of exploding fortresses in their ears--with

shells and shot pouring through the roof and sides of the rooms in which

they lay--with the crackling and hissing of fire around them, these poor

fellows, who had served their loving friend and master the Czar but too

well, were consigned to their terrible fate. Many might have been saved

by ordinary care. Many lay, yet alive, with maggots crawling about in

their wounds. Many, nearly mad by the scene around them, or seeking

escape from it in their extremest agony, had rolled away under the beds,

and glared out on the heart-stricken spectator--oh! with such looks!

Many, with legs and arms broken and twisted, the jagged splinters

sticking through the raw flesh, implored aid, water, food, or pity, or,

deprived of speech by the approach of death, or by dreadful injuries in

the head or trunk, pointed to the lethal spot. Many seemed bent alone on

making their peace with Heaven.

The attitudes of some were so hideously fantastic as to appal and root

one to the ground by a sort of dreadful fascination. Could that bloody

mass of clothing and white bones ever have been a human being, or that

burnt black mass of flesh have ever held a human soul? It was fearful to

think what the answer must be. The bodies of numbers of men were swollen

and bloated to an incredible degree; and the features, distended to a

gigantic size, with eyes protruding from the sockets, and the blackened

tongue lolling out of the mouth, compressed tightly by the teeth, which

had set upon it in the death-rattle, made one shudder and reel round.

In the midst of one of these "chambers of horrors"--for there were many

of them--were found some dead and some living English soldiers, and

among them poor Captain Vaughan, of the 90th, who afterwards died of his

wounds. I confess it was impossible for me to stand the sight, which

horrified our most experienced surgeons; the deadly, clammy stench, the

smell of gangrened wounds, of corrupted blood, of rotting flesh, were

intolerable and odious beyond endurance. But what must have the wounded

felt, who were obliged to endure all this, and who passed away without a

hand to give them a cup of water, or a voice to say one kindly word to

them? Most of these men were wounded on Saturday--many, perhaps, on the

Friday before--indeed it is impossible to say how long they might have

been there. In the hurry of their retreat, the Muscovites seem to have

carried in dead men to get them out of the way, and to have put them on

pallets in horrid mockery. So that their retreat was secured, the enemy

cared but little for their wounded. On Monday only did they receive

those whom we sent out to them during a brief armistice for the purpose,

which was, I believe, sought by ourselves, as our over-crowded hospitals

could not contain, and our over-worked surgeons could not attend to, any

more.

The Great Redan was next visited. Such a scene of wreck and ruin!--all

the houses behind it a mass of broken stones--a clock turret, with a

shot right through the clock; a pagoda in ruins; another clock tower,

with all the clock destroyed save the dial, with the words, "Barwise,

London," thereon; cook-houses, where human blood was running among the

utensils; in one place a shell had lodged in the boiler, and blown it

and its contents, and probably its attendants, to pieces. Everywhere

wreck and destruction. This evidently was a _beau quartier_ once. The

oldest inhabitant could not have recognized it on that fatal day.

Climbing up to the Redan, which was fearfully cumbered with the dead, we

witnessed the scene of the desperate attack and defence, which cost both

sides so much blood. The ditch outside made one sick--it was piled up

with English dead, some of them scorched and blackened by the explosion,

and others lacerated beyond recognition. The quantity of broken gabions

and gun-carriages here was extraordinary; the ground was covered with

them. The bomb-proofs were the same as in the Malakoff, and in one of

them a music-book was found, with a woman's name in it, and a canary

bird and a vase of flowers were outside the entrance.

CHAPTER VIII.

Russian Steamers--Tornado--Destruction of Russian Steamers--Sinope

avenged--A Year's Work--Its Effect on the British Army--Destruction

of Russian Docks--Opinions of Russian Officers on Prospects of

Peace--Medals and Ribands--Celebration of the Alma

Anniversary--Honours to French and English Commanders--Encampment

of Russian Army--Russian Method of removing Dead and

Wounded--Anxiety of British Army and Navy "to do

something"--Activity of the Russians--Appearance of Balaklava--What

the British Army were doing to kill Time.

As the Russian steamers were intact, notwithstanding the efforts of the

French battery at the head of the roads near Inkerman to touch them, it

was resolved, on the day after the fall of the place, to construct a

battery on the ruins of Fort Paul, within 700 yards of the northern

shore, under which they had taken refuge. The steamers lay in three

irregular lines to the eastward of Fort Catherine, where the deep creeks

in the high cliffs gave them some sort of shelter against the fire of

the French. There they had been agents of much mischief and injury to

the Allies, from the time of the battle of Inkerman. There was the

famous _Vladimir_, with her two large funnels and elegant clipper hull;

the _Elboeuf_, the steamer which made the celebrated dash into the

Black Sea through all our fleet the year before, and burnt some Turkish

vessels near Heraclea, just as the _Vladimir_ was seen in Odessa harbour

in the month of July, 1854; there was the _Gromonossetz_, which had

caused such an annoyance from the Dockyard Creek; the _Chersonese_, and

_Odessa_; and there were three others with hard, and to me unknown

names, as calmly floating on the water as though no eager eyes were

watching from every battery to lay a gun upon them. A number of very

capacious dockyard lumps and row-boats were also secured in these

creeks, or hung on by the steamers.

[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF RUSSIAN VESSELS.]

On the morning of the 11th, about an hour after midnight, an exceedingly

violent storm raged over the camp. The wind blew with such fury as to

make the hut in which I was writing rock to and fro, at the same time

filling it with fine dust. The fires in Sebastopol, fanned by the wind,

spread fast, and the glare of the burning city illuminated the whole

arch of the sky towards the north-west. At 2 o'clock A.M. the storm

increased in strength, and rain fell heavily; the most dazzling flames

of lightning shot over the plateau and lighted up the camp; the peals of

thunder were so short and startling as to resemble, while they exceeded

in noise, the report of cannon. The rain somewhat lessened the intensity

of the fire at Sebastopol, but its flames and those of the lightning at

times contended for the mastery. There was, indeed, a great battle

raging in the skies, and its thunder mocked to scorn our heaviest

cannonade. In the whole course of my life I never heard or saw anything

like the deluge of rain which fell at 4 o'clock. It beat on the roof

with a noise like that of a cataract: it was a veritable waterspout. The

lightning at last grew fainter, and the gusts less violent. At 9.45 the

tornado passed over the camp once more--hail, storm, and rain. The

ground was converted into a mass of mud.

In the course of the afternoon some of the Russian guns in the ruined

battery below the Redan were turned on these steamers, and in a few

rounds--not more than twelve, I think--succeeded in hulling them eight

times. The range was, however, rather long, and it became expedient to

move a little nearer. On Tuesday evening, when Lieutenant Gough, of the

_London_--who commanded in the Naval Batteries on the Left Attack--came

down with his men, he was ordered to take his relief over to the Right

Attack and to accompany Lieutenant Anderson, R.E., down to the town, in

order to erect a battery for two 95-cwt. guns on the right of St. Paul's

Battery. The site of this battery was about 700 yards from Fort

Catherine, on the opposite side. The men, although deprived of the quiet

night and undisturbed repose they anticipated, set to work with a will,

and began throwing up the parapet and filling gabions; and as it was

possible that some interruption of the work might take place from the

other side, a covering party of 120 men was ordered down from the

trenches. There were French sentries in charge of this portion of the

place, and the little party found that their Allies were on the _qui

vive_, and were keeping a sharp look-out on all sides. The men had been

working some time, when it was observed that one of the enemy's steamers

had left the north side, and was slowly and noiselessly dropping down to

the very spot where the sailors and the covering party were at their

labours. The night was dark, but they could clearly make out the steamer

edging down upon them, and coming closer and closer. Every moment they

expected their guns to open upon them with grape and canister. The men,

therefore, lay down upon their faces, and kept as near to the ground as

they could, and the steamer came over gently till she was within about

100 yards of the very spot where they had been working. They heard her

anchor splash into the water, and then the rattle of her cable as it ran

through the hawsehole. Now, certainly, they were "going to catch it,"

but, no--the Russian opened no port and showed no light, but seemed to

be making himself comfortable in his new quarters.

Captain Villiers, of the 47th, who commanded the covering party, ordered

his men to observe the utmost silence, and the same injunction was given

to the seamen. About 2.30 in the morning, when she had been an hour or

so in her novel berth, a broad light was perceived in her fore hatchway.

The leading steamer on the opposite side in a second afterwards

exhibited gleams of equal brightness, and then one! two! three! four!

five!--as though from signal guns, the remaining steamers, with one

exception, emitted jets of fire. The jets soon became columns of flame

and smoke--the wind blew fresh and strong, so the fire soon spread with

rapidity, and soon lighted up the whole of the heavens. The masts were

speedily licked and warmed into a fiery glow, and the rigging burst out

into fitful wavering lines of light, struggling with the wind for life:

the yards shed lambent showers of sparks and burning splinters upon the

water. The northern works could be readily traced by the light of the

conflagration, and the faces of the Russian soldiers and sailors who

were scattered about on the face of the cliff shone out now and then,

and justified Rembrandt. The vessels were soon nothing but huge arks of

blinding light, which hissed and crackled fiercely, and threw up clouds

of sparks and embers; the guns, as they became hot, exploded, and shook

the crazy hulls to atoms. One after another they went down into the

seething waters.

At daybreak only one steamer remained. A boat pushed alongside her from

the shore, and after remaining about ten minutes regained the shore.

Very speedily the vessel began to be seized with a sort of internal

convulsion--first she dipped her bows, then her stern, then gave a few

uneasy shakes, and at length, after a short quiver, went down bodily,

cleverly scuttled. Thus was Sinope avenged. Of the men who planned, the

sailors who executed, and the ships which were engaged on that memorable

expedition, no trace remained. Korniloff, Nachimoff, Istomine, and their

crews, disappeared: their vessels rest at the bottom of the roadstead of

Sebastopol. The Russians preferred being agents of their own

destruction, and did not give the conqueror a chance of parading the

fruits of his victory. We could not delight the good people of Plymouth

or Portsmouth by the sight of Russian liners and steamers. We could only

drive the enemy to the option of destroying or of doing the work for

him, and he invariably preferred the former.

[Sidenote: DOUBTFUL PROSPECTS OF PEACE.]

In one year we stormed the heights of the Alma, sustained the glorious

disaster of Balaklava, fought the great fight of Inkerman, swept the sea

of Azoff and its seaboard, wasted Kertch and seized upon Yenikale,

witnessed the battle of the Tchernaya, opened seven bombardments upon

Sebastopol, held in check every general and every soldier that Russia

could spare; and, after the endurance of every ill that an enemy at home

and abroad could inflict upon us--after passing through the summer's

heat and winter's frost--after being purged in the fire of sickness and

death, repulse and disaster, and, above all, in the glow of victory, the

British standard floated over Sebastopol! But our army was not the same.

Physiologists tell us that we undergo perpetual charge, and that not a

bit of the John Smith of 1854 goes into the composition of the same

respected individual in 1864; but we had managed to work up tens of

hundreds of atoms in our British army between 1854 and 1855, and there

were few indeed to be found in the body corporate who landed in the

Crimea a twelvemonth before. Some regiments had been thrice renewed,

others had been changed twice over. The change was not for the

better--the old stuff was better than the new. The old soldiers had

disappeared; in some regiments there were not more than fifteen men, in

others there were not so many, remaining out of those who moved in

magnificent parade to their first bivouac. Those whom the war had

swallowed up were not replaced by better men. The Light Division--those

steady, noble soldiers of the Rifle Brigade; the gallant Fusileers; the

19th, the 23rd, the 33rd, the 77th, the 88th--the men who drew the teeth

of that terrible Russian Battery on the bloody steeps of the Alma--how

few of them were then left to think and wonder at the failure in the

Redan! The Second Division, old companions of the Light in hard fighting

and in hard work, were sadly reduced. The Third Division, though

singularly freed from active participation in any of the great battles

or sanguinary struggles of the war, had been heavily smitten by

sickness, and had borne a large share of the exhausting and harassing

duties of the trenches and of the siege, and its old soldiers had been

used up, as those of the other corps. The Fourth Division earned for

itself a high reputation. In the fierce contest of Inkerman it won

imperishable laurels, which few of the winners were left to wear. As to

the Guards--those majestic battalions which secured the fluttering wings

of victory on the Alma, and with stubborn front withstood the surge of

Muscovite infantry which rolled up the ravines of Inkerman--disease and

battle had done their work but too surely, notwithstanding the respite

from the trenches during our wintry spring-time, which was allowed

perforce to their rapidly vanishing columns.

The silence in camp was almost alarming; were it not for a gun now and

then between the town and the north side, and across the Tchernaya, it

would have been appalling. The Naval Brigade was broken up and sent on

board ship. Our batteries were disarmed; the Army Works Corps, assisted

by soldiers, engaged in the formation of a new road from Balaklava,

parallel with the line of railway. Everything around us indicated an

intention on the part of the chiefs of putting the army into winter

quarters on the site of their encampment.

The Sappers and Miners sank mines, to destroy the docks that had cost

Russia so much anxiety, money, and bloodshed; and, if it were not that

they were intended to be, and had been, accessory to violence, one would

have regretted that such splendid memorials of human skill should be

shattered to atoms. But the fleet of Sinope sailed thence, in them it

was repaired on its return; and these vessels were built, not to foster

peace and commerce, but to smite and destroy them.

There was an armistice on Tuesday, Sept. 11th, to effect an interchange

of letters, for the benefit of the prisoners, and to make inquiries

respecting missing officers on both sides. The Russian officer who

conducted it, and who was supposed to have been the commander of the

_Vladimir_, expressed the same opinion as the Russian Admiral did on

Monday, Sept. 10th--"With this before us," pointing to the ruins of

Sebastopol, "peace is farther off than ever." The Russians had very

large parks of artillery on the north side of the harbour; and the piles

of provisions, _matériel_, and coal which were visible, showed that they

did not want the means of carrying on the war, as far as such things

were concerned. Many of the guns found here were cast at Carron, from

the letters on their trunnion heads and breeches.

The enemy persisted in casting up formidable earthworks on the north

side, and we looked on as we did from September 27 till October 17,

1854, and saw them preparing their defences, with the sure conviction

that we should be able to carry them, or sap up to them, or take them in

some way or other in a year or two. Meantime, the weather came in with a

word of its own, and said to our deliberating Generals, "Stop! as you

have waited so long, I won't let you move now."

It was on the 19th of September, twelve months before this was written,

that the Allied armies marched from Old Fort, and that the Russians drew

first blood at Bouljanak. What an eventful year had elapsed! and how few

survived through all our sufferings and our glories!

The medals and ribands issued to commanding officers were distributed on

the 20th of September, about ten medals for each company. As to the

riband, there was but one opinion,--that it was unbecoming and _mesquin_

to a degree. Men differed as to the merits of the medal; but a large

majority abused it, and the clasps were likened generally to the labels

on public-house wine-bottles. The proceedings at the distribution were

tame and spiritless. A regiment was drawn up, with the commanding

officer in front; beside him stood a sergeant, with a big bag. "John

Smith" was called.

"Here."

The Colonel dipped his hand into the bag, took out a small parcel, and

said, "John Smith, you were Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman?"

"Yes." The Colonel handed him the parcel, and John Smith retired to his

place in the ranks, carrying the said packet in his hand, which he

opened at the "dismiss." Perhaps the John Smith alluded to never saw a

shot fired except at a distance. He might have been on peaceful guard at

Lord Raglan's head-quarters on the 5th of November; yet he wears the

clasp for Inkerman. He might have been engaged in no more sanguinary

work than that of killing oxen and sheep for the division in the

commissariat slaughter-house, and yet he will show on his breast

"Crimea," "Alma," "Balaklava," "Inkerman."

This great anniversary was celebrated enthusiastically throughout the

army. There were many "Alma dinners" in the regiments, among both

officers and men; and music and song kept the camp awake till long after

midnight. Many a memory of the dead was revived, many an old wound

reopened, at these festive meetings. The French also had their banquets

and festivities. They had a grand ceremony early in the morning--a

_Missa Solennis_ for the repose of the dead.

General Pelissier was made a Marshal of France, and received from Her

Majesty the Grand Cross of the Bath. Of the latter order he seemed

exceedingly proud, and he signed his name "Pelissier, G.C.B." General

Simpson received the distinction of the Grand Cross of the Legion of

Honour.

[Sidenote: RESOURCES OF THE RUSSIANS.]

At daybreak on the morning of the 21st of September, I saw through the

mist on the Mackenzie ridge a numerous line of watch-fires, and later in

the early light a strong column of the Russian infantry was visible in

bivouac to our right of the telegraph station and to the left of the

Spur Battery, near the Mackenzie Road. Part of these marched away again

in the course of the day; the rest remained in the same place, and

hutted themselves with great skill and alacrity. They were encamped in a

sort of chapparell, and they converted the branches into the sides and

coverings of their huts. Their arms were piled when they first arrived

at the bivouac, but three hours later the glistening barrels and

bayonets had disappeared, having possibly been placed in some dry and

secure place. Having secured their right flank by the very formidable

earthworks and batteries which we permitted the enemy to erect, in

addition to their former defences and their regular forts, the Russians

directed the bulk of their army to protect their centre, resting on the

Tchernaya and Mackenzie, and their left at Aitodor, and on the Upper

Belbek to Bakschiserai. They prepared to hold this extensive line; and

as the Allies could scarcely spare men enough to send to Eupatoria, and

thence to march on Simpheropol, or to force the Russian position on the

Belbek by a moving corps to operate against them on the north, and as

there was no apparent intention of attacking them from Inkerman or the

Tchernaya, the dead lock was likely enough not to be relaxed that

winter.

The quantity of stores removed by the Russians from the north side to

their depôt showed that they were not in want of provisions, unless they

took the trouble to carry dummy sacks and fill their carts with

"make-believes." It must have been difficult for them to feed their

army, but somehow or other they did so. They left considerable

quantities of food behind them in the city; large flocks and herds

studded the plains near the citadel. The soldiers who fell into the

hands of the Sardinians and French on the 16th of August carried

abundance of bread and spirits, and they had meat and plenty of

everything except water, when they came down to attack the Allies; so

that, altogether, I was not so very sanguine as to think the Russians

would be forced to abandon their position on the approach of winter. The

country around them would supply abundance of wood for fuel, and they

were skilled in making comfortable and warm underground huts. The enemy,

therefore, would be as well housed as the Allies, supposing the latter

succeeded in getting up huts before the winter set in. "Leaving them

alone" would never drive a Russian army out of the field; the only thing

to do that was the French and English bayonet, and plenty of fighting.

The Muscovite generals cannot be accused of any great regard for their

killed and wounded, but they have certainly much respect for the

prejudices and feelings of their soldiers. We were over and over again

astonished at the wonderful way in which the dead and wounded

disappeared after the repulse of a sortie in which there were probably

200 of the enemy put _hors de combat_. Except the dead and wounded left

in our trenches, none were ever to be seen after such contests when day

broke. A soldier of the 68th (M'Geevor), who was taken prisoner in a

sortie, and who returned to his regiment after a long and (to others)

interesting march in Russia, explained the mystery, such as it was. On

the night alluded to it could not be ascertained what the Russian loss

was, but it was certain that the firing had been very heavy and the work

very warm while it lasted. As this man was being carried to the rear

after a stout resistance, he observed that there were hundreds of

soldiers without weapons between the reserves and the column of sortie,

and that these men were employed exclusively in removing the dead and

wounded, who would otherwise have been left in the hands of the British.

The most extensive provision we make in such cases is sending one, or at

most two, litters to a regiment, except when the ambulances go out for a

pitched battle. Perhaps we do not calculate on leaving our ground, but

the best General is always prepared for retreat as well as for victory,

and if ever we should be placed in the same circumstances as the

Russians have been, it would be advisable to follow their example.

On the 24th Sir Edmund Lyons and Admiral Stewart, with several

post-captains, attended at head-quarters, and it was understood that

they, in common with the whole fleet, were most anxious "to do

something" ere the season was too far advanced for naval operations. At

Eupatoria they found no less than 31,000 Turkish infantry in a fine

state of discipline, and in perfect readiness for any military service.

These soldiers were all reviewed and inspected on the occasion, and

officers of rank, English and French, were alike gratified by the

disciplined alertness and efficiency of these neglected and almost

useless infantry. It is difficult to imagine that these Turks could not

have aided us materially in driving the enemy from Sebastopol if

strengthened by an English division and two French divisions, which

could have been easily spared from the army before Sebastopol. Moreover,

they might have been aided by all our cavalry, which were in very

excellent condition, and were of no earthly service at Kadikoi or

Baidar. Between French, English, and Sardinians, we could have sent a

force of at least 5,500 sabres to the north side of the Alma, which

certainly would have had nothing to fear from any Russian cavalry in the

Crimea. The Land Transport Corps had more than 10,000 horses and mules.

The allied fleet could have embarked and landed the whole force in sixty

hours, at any point between Balaklava or Kamiesch and Eupatoria. Army

and fleet were alike inactive--the only tokens of military life were

displayed on the side of the enemy.

The celerity with which they threw up and finished the most

formidable-looking redoubts on the land and sea sides was astonishing.

The Russians are admirable diggers, and if Marshal Turenne's maxim, that

as many battles were won by the spade as by the musket be true, they are

good soldiers. The fire across the roads increased in frequency and

severity every day, but the mortars of the French caused some injury and

impediment to the Russian workmen, and occasionally damaged their

magazines.

[Sidenote: RECREATIONS OF THE ARMY.]

The army, French, English, and Sardinians, as well as the few Turkish

troops, prepared for the winter with energy, but no steps were taken to

operate against the enemy. Balaklava presented a singular aspect. There

were only some dozen of the original houses left scattered amid iron

storehouses, mountainous piles of wood, heaps of coal, of corn, of

forage, of shot and shell, and of stores multitudinous. The harbour was

trenched upon by new quays and landing-places, and two long wooden

jetties projected far into its waters at the shallow head of the

harbour, and rendered good service in taking the pressure off the quays

at the waterside. _The quantity of corn issued for horses, mules, and

ponies in the English army was_ 280,000lb. _daily_.

Many of the officers were hutted, some constructed semi-subterranean

residences, and the camp was studded all over with the dingy roofs,

which at a distance looked much like an aggregate of molehills. In order

to prevent _ennui_ or listlessness after the great excitement of so many

months in the trenches, the Generals of Division began to drill our

veterans, and to renew the long-forgotten pleasures of parades,

field-days, and inspections. In all parts of the open ground about the

camps, the visitor might have seen men with Crimean medals and Balaklava

and Inkerman clasps, practising goose-step or going through extension

movements, learning, in fact, the A B C of their military education,

though they had already seen a good deal of fighting and soldiering.

Still there were periods when the most inveterate of martinets rested

from their labour, and the soldier, having nothing else to do, availed

himself of the time and money at his disposal to indulge in the delights

of the canteen. Road-making occupied some leisure hours, but the

officers had very little to do, and found it difficult to kill time,

riding about Sebastopol, visiting Balaklava, foraging at Kamiesch, or

hunting for quail, which were occasionally found in swarms all over the

steppe, and formed most grateful additions to the mess-table. There was

no excitement in front; the Russians remained immovable in their

position at Mackenzie's Farm. The principal streets of Sebastopol lost

the charm of novelty and possession. Even Cathcart's Hill was deserted,

except by the "look-out officer" for the day, or by a few wandering

strangers and visitors.

BOOK VIII.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE TWO ARMIES--THE DEMONSTRATIONS FROM BAIDAR--THE

RECONNAISSANCE--THE MARCH FROM EUPATORIA--ITS FAILURE--THE

EXPEDITION TO KINBURN AND ODESSA.

CHAPTER I.

Strange Inaction--What might have been done--The North Side--Its

Fortifications--Sick Officers--French Reconnaissances towards

Aitodor--An Ambuscade--The Mounted Staff Corps and the Ambulance

Corps disbanded--Comforts for the Sick--Previous

Mistakes--Disbandment of the Naval Brigade--Its Services--Rumours

of Active Service--Road-making--The Russians Renew the Fire--A

Serious Accident--The Sailors' Experiment--An Explosion.

The contrast between the actual proceedings of the Allied armies and the

fevered dreams in which the public at home, as represented by the press,

soon after the capture of the south side, indulged, was as striking as

it was painful. The Russians, so far from flying in discomfort over

boundless wastes, calmly strengthened their position on the north side.

The face of the country bristled with their cannon and their batteries.

Day and night the roar of their guns sounded through our camp, and

occasionally equalled the noise of the old cannonades, which we hoped

had died into silence for ever. There was no sign of any intention on

their part to abandon a position on which they had lavished so much care

and labour. They retired from the south side when it became untenable;

it had been shaken to pieces by a bombardment which it was impracticable

for us to renew. In their new position, they had placed between

themselves and us a deep arm of the sea, a river, and the sides of a

plateau as steep as a wall. We permitted them to get off at their

leisure, and looked on, much as we might have gazed on the mimic

representation of such a scene at Astley's, while the Russian battalions

filed over the narrow bridge, emerging in unbroken order out of that

frightful sea of raging fire and smoke, which was tossed up into billows

of flame by the frequent explosion of great fortresses and magazines.

[Sidenote: THE ARMY HUTTED.]

With the aid of a few men the army would have been ready to take the

field and to carry provisions and ammunition for our available strength

of bayonets detached on a short expedition. As to the French, they had

certified their mobility by the rapid demonstration of four divisions on

Baidar. Then, why did not the English move? Orders and counter-orders

were sent day after day--requisitions on Captain This to know how many

mules he had to carry ball cartridge, orders to Captain That to turn out

his battery for the purpose of taking the field at daybreak next

morning; counter-orders in the evening recountered and retracted at

night, till it was hard to say what was to be done; and if the men who

gave the commands were in half as confused a state of mind as those who

received them, they were indeed in a pitiable plight. Cato with his

_Plato_ could not have been at all puzzled like unto them. It was quite

evident that the expectations of the people at home were not gratified

to the full extent, that we were not in undisputed possession of

maritime Sebastopol, that the Russians were not utterly defeated, and

that the campaign would have to be renewed the following year by doing

what might have been done immediately after the fall of the place.

Large parties of our men went down every day to Sebastopol, and returned

with timber, doors, window-frames, joists, slabs of marble and

stonework, grates, glass, locks, iron, Stourbridge firebricks, of which

a large quantity was found, and various other articles of common use in

camp, and the huts which arose on every side were models of ingenuity in

the adaptation of Russian property to British and French uses. However,

the vast majority of the soldiers were under canvas, and were then

likely to be so for a couple of months longer. The trenches--those

monuments of patient suffering, of endurance, of courage--were fast

disappearing. The guns were withdrawn. The gabions were going fast, for

the men received permission to use them for fuel. It was melancholy,

amid all these sounds of rejoicing and victory, to think that an army

had been all but lost and swallowed up in these narrow dykes, and that

it was "done by mistake." The firing into the town was occasionally very

heavy, and was returned with spirit by the French mortars, and by a few

guns in position.

The number of sick officers anxious to return home was not on the

decrease. Many of those whose names appeared in general orders were,

however, sufferers in the attack of the 8th of September. The proportion

of men invalided on account of ill-health was about equal to the number

of officers. Poor fellows! they, however, had no "private urgent

affairs" to attend to, and that was the cause assigned for many "leaves

of absence." It is curious and interesting to observe how rank and

social position carry with them special cares of business and the labour

of affairs from which the lowlier classes are exempted. Thus, the

officers of the Guards seemed to be harassed to death by "urgent private

affairs," which could no how be settled anywhere but in England, and

which required their presence in that land of business from October till

just the week after Christmas before there was the smallest chance of

their satisfactory adjustment. How the gallant fellows could have

managed to stay in the army and attend to their regimental duties with

such delicate negotiations to conduct, such stupendous arithmetical

investigations to make, such a coil of accounts to examine, such

interviews to go through, such a constant pressure of affairs to

sustain, is inconceivable! Sometimes no less than three of them

succumbed on the same day, and appeared in orders as victims to these

cruel urgencies. There were some people in camp who maintained that the

killing of grouse, partridges, pheasants, and salmon, is a necessary

condition of existence, and that when these were combined with the

pleasures of society, with a light course of opera, and the claims of

the family, they constituted an urgent private affair quite strong

enough to draw any man from the Crimea. No one blamed these officers for

feeling so strongly that they were citizens. We should all have liked to

get home if it had been consistent with our duty, but some of our

officers think they have nothing to do when once the fighting is over.

After a time, our Allies began to feel their way towards the enemy's

position on our rear and on the right.

The position of the armies, with the exception of the movement of the

troops towards Baidar, remained unchanged in its larger features.

Pelissier seemed inclined to rest upon his bâton for the time. His gaze

was fixed, no doubt, upon the Mackenzie plateau, but his courage failed

him; nor did he care to repeat his little proverb, which was in his

mouth when slaughter and bloodshed were spoken of in his presence in

reference to our grand assaults--"On ne peut pas faire des omelettes

sans casser des oeufs." The Marshal gave up the manufacture of

omelettes: he had plenty of eggs if he had liked to break them.

[Sidenote: PREPARATIONS FOR STAGNATION.]

After the siege was over, the Mounted Staff Corps and the Ambulance

Corps ceased to exist, and the Duke of Newcastle left the camp on a

cruise to the coast of Circassia. Of course the Duke of Newcastle's

presence had no more to do with the fate of these bodies than it had

with the conduct and events of the war, but it was odd enough that the

two, which were most lauded at the time of their creation, and at whose

birth his Grace presided with parental solicitude, should have come to

an end, within the space of a few months, under his very eyes. The

service of the ambulance was performed by soldiers detached from the

army for that purpose, and officers of the line were employed in command

of them at a time when they could be very ill spared from their

regiments. Charges of harshness were made by those sent in their charge

to Scutari, &c., against some of the old ambulance men; they at all

events served as a foil to the allegations that the men were as

comfortable as they could be made on all occasions. The stream set the

other way, and the authorities vied with one another in providing every

accommodation, and even luxury, for the sick and wounded soldier. Dr.

Hall at various periods received requisitions for such articles as "Rose

water!" "Eau de Cologne!" "Champagne!" Different times these from what

the army had the year before, when Sir George Brown, like some great

bull of Basan, went bellowing over the camps of the affrighted Light

Division, seeking for "medical comforts," that he might devour them in

his wrath, and goring and butting Dr. Alexander and Dr. Tice because

they would not reduce their store of medicines to that blessed old

Peninsular allowance of which Sir George had only the dim recollections

of a subaltern, although, with many strange oaths and ancient instances,

he affirmed them to be the perfection of pharmaceutical wisdom. Perhaps

the public, "the confounded public," as they were sometimes called by

certain people, agreed with me in thinking that things might have been,

mended when they learned that just two hours before the attack on the

Redan the surgeon in the Quarries was "run out" of lint, plaster, and

bandages, and could get no one to go up to his principal medical officer

for them for a long time, although a great action with the enemy was

then just impending, and the Quarries were the very place where a large

number of casualties must have been expected. This statement I had on

the word of a general officer, to whom the surgeon applied for

assistance. Again, some regiments did not take down more litters than on

ordinary occasions. This practice, however, would be approved by those

who maintain, with considerable strength of argumentation, that no

wounded officers or men should be taken off the field at all while an

action was going on, inasmuch as every wounded man taken to the rear

carries off six or eight combatants, who retire on the pretence of

carrying or attending on him, thus affording opportunities for skulking

and sneaking away to a few cowardly men who set a bad example to others.

The army was amused by rumours of active service, while in camp there

were signs of hybernation. The work of the army was actually that of

preparation, not for motion, but for stagnation. The men were engaged on

great roads from the ports to the front, which will be permanent marks

of the occupation of this portion of the Crimea by the Allied armies for

centuries; in fact, with so much labour at their disposal, our

authorities were determined, if possible, to atone for the apathy of the

autumn before. The roads which we made were almost beyond the

requirements of an army of temporary occupation. They were broad and

well paved--in some places they had been tunnelled through the rock,

which here and there could only be removed by heavy blasting charges.

The railway assumed an appearance of great activity. Beside it wound the

Central Road, and from the new central depôt, removed from the Col de

Balaklava to an open space in the rear of the Second Division, and

between the Guards' Brigade and the Fourth Division, there were

divisional roads, which communicated with the divisional depôts. All

these preparations were made to enable the army to exist comfortably in

its winter cantonments, to bring up huts, food, clothing, and fuel, and

to remove guns, mortars, &c., from the front. For these peaceful labours

we were blessed by the most lovely weather. The days were warm, and the

air was charmingly fresh and pure. The autumnal or second summer of the

Crimea shone upon us with all the delightful influences of repose. The

earth teemed again with herbs and flowers of autumn. Numerous bulbous

plants sprung up over the steppes, among which the _Colchicum Autumnale_

held a prominent place, and the hill-sides rung with the frequent

volleys directed upon innumerable quail, against which our army waged

fierce battle.

On the 27th of September, a shell sent by the Russians burst close to

the barracks, and a merchant sailor ran to look at the crater which it

formed in the ground. He then entered the building itself, and sauntered

about, smoking his pipe till he came to some loose gunpowder, on which,

being of a scientific and experimentalizing turn of mind, he tried the

effects of dropping several sparks from the burning tobacco. The powder,

as is not unusual in such cases, exploded with violence, and blew up the

sailor and a sentry outside. They were both dreadfully burnt. As the

floor was covered with cartridges and loose powder, the fire spread to a

large quantity of combustible matter, reached the magazine, and blew out

the walls and ceilings of the central barrack. The flames set fire to

the dry woodwork, and in a short time the whole pile of buildings, which

were of admirable construction, was in a blaze. All that remained of the

Imperial Barracks of Sebastopol in an hour more was a mass of charred

and blackened stones. The Russians, thinking that the accident had been

caused by their own fire, plied their guns with increased vigour, and

threw shot and shell around the place, but did no damage. The act

destroyed not less than 30,000 cartloads of wood, which might have been

made available for hutting and fuel. It was, on the whole, a miracle

that more accidents of the kind did not occur, owing to the neglect of

the authorities and the carelessness of the men. No one seemed to think

it necessary to destroy the great quantities of powder, loose and in

cartridges, in all the Russian batteries, and in every nook and corner

of the place. It was only a day or two before the accident that a naval

officer pointed out to me the danger arising from the number of live

shell lying inside the Redan. The fuses were simply open tubes of wood,

and had no caps, so that a spark setting fire to one fuse would cause

all the shells to explode. These live shells were to be seen in all

directions, generally nicely imbedded near small magazines or piles of

cartridges.

CHAPTER II.

The Mixed Commission: its Composition and Proceedings--Spoils of

War--Doctors in dudgeon--Strength of the Army in October,

1855--State of the Russian Army--The Deserter's Tale--Newspaper

Paragraph--Honours to the Commanders--Preparations for an

Expedition--Russian Account of the Capture of Sebastopol--General

Simpson's Despatch--Wellington's Circular to all Commanding

Officers of Divisions and Brigades, dated Frenada, November 28th,

1812.

[Sidenote: THE MIXED COMMISSION.]

On the 10th of July, 1855, a treaty was entered into between France and

England with respect to the distribution of booty and trophies, which

authorized the French and English Governments to form a mixed

commission for the purpose of classifying and arranging such articles.

In compliance with this provision, immediately after the capture of

Sebastopol, Marshal Pelissier named the following officers on behalf of

the French army:--General of Division Niel, Aide-de-Camp de l'Empéreur,

President, and commanding the Engineers; General of Division Thiry,

commanding Artillery; Admiral Regault de Genouilly, commanding Marine

Artillery; M. Paris, Intendant (Commissary-General); M. Budin,

Payeur-Général. General Simpson named the following officers for the

English army:--Sir G. Dacres, commanding Royal Artillery; Captain

Drummond, R.N.; Colonel Chapman, commanding Royal Engineers; Mr. Drake,

Assistant-Commissary-General. It will be observed that the English

officers were not equal in rank or numbers to the French members of the

Commission.

The Commission met on the 15th of September at the quarters of General

Niel. Its first act was to order an inventory in detail to be made of

everything found in Sebastopol. To effect this the city and forts were

divided, and the care of exploring each part devolved upon

sub-commissions.

The following is a list of the members of the sub-Commissions:--

FRENCH.

Mazure, Général d'Artillerie.

Feldtrappe, Capitaine du Génie.

Laurent, Lieutenant de Vaisseau.

Cicoza, Capitaine d'Artillerie.

Goutier, Adjoint à l'Intendance.

De Calac, Capitaine d'Artillerie.

Cadurst, Chef de Bataillon du Génie.

Genoux de la Coche, Capitaine de Frégate.

La Cabrinière, Sous-intendant.

ENGLISH.

Captain Drummond, R.N.

Brigadier-General Dupuis, R.A.

Major Staunton, R.E.

Commander F. Martin, R.N.

Assistant-Commissary-General Crookshank.

Captain Shaw, R.A.

A. Rumble, R.M.A.

Lieutenant Buller, R.N.

Captain Montagu, R.E.

Assistant-Commissary-General Lundy.

Captain Dickson, R.A.

A. W. Johnson, Secretary to the Commission.

On the 25th of September the Commission held its second sitting, and

all the members were present except General Thiry, who was represented

by General Mazare. That officer and Brigadier-General Dupuis, as

presidents of the sub-commission, then laid on the table a detailed

statement of everything found in Sebastopol. The number of cannon in

bronze (brass) was 128; that of iron guns, 3,711; total, 3,839. The

President read the convention of the 10th of July, and it was then

unanimously agreed that the guns should be divided into two equal parts,

paying due regard to the different calibres, and that one-half should be

sent to France, the other half to Great Britain, with the exception of

two brass field-pieces, which should be offered to General della

Marmora, with the approbation of the Commanders-in-chief. It was also

resolved that these cannon and guns should remain in Sebastopol, and in

the redoubts and fortifications of Kamiesch and Balaklava, till such

time as they were not required for the defence of the place, when each

Government might do what it liked with its own share. These decisions,

taken conformably to the first act of the Convention, left the valuation

of the pieces out of the question; but by the 4th article of the same

Convention it is agreed that the value of the booty, &c., shall be

divided between the two Powers proportionally to the number of men

employed by each in the siege. The effective strength of the

Anglo-Sardinian army on the 8th of September was 63,715 men, and that of

the French army on the same day was 126,705 men. The Commission,

therefore, decided that France should have two-thirds, and Great Britain

one-third of the _value_ of the booty and trophies.

[Sidenote: THE SPOILS OF WAR.]

It was declared impossible to fix the value of the guns immediately, in

consequence of want of sufficient information and of the necessity of

employing the iron guns in the defence of the place. The Commission,

therefore, passed on to the partition of the other _matériel_ taken, and

divided the following into three parts, two for France, and one-third

for England, with the understanding that they are to remain for the

supply of the defence:--407,314 round shot; shell, 101,755; canister

cases, 24,080; gunpowder, 525,000lb.; ball-cartridges for muskets and

carbines, 470,000 in good condition, and 160,000 damaged; waggons, 80;

yawls, 6; logs of _lignum vitæ_, 500; anchors of port moorings, 400;

anchors of different sizes, 90; grapplings and small anchors, 50; chains

for anchors, 200 yards; old copper for sheathing, 104,000lb.; old ropes,

100,000lb.; water-casks, 300; new ropes of different sizes, 50,000lb.;

pulleys, 400; spars, 40; tools, 300; bar iron and steel, l,460,000lb.;

iron wire, 400lb.; iron checks, 320lb.; sheet iron, 16,000lb.; tin

plate, 14,000lb.; red copper, 120,000lb.; nails, 6,000lb.; firwood, a

large quantity; pitch and tar, 200 barrels; barrels of paint, 150; small

boilers, weighing 6,000lb.; the remains of a steam-engine of 220-horse

power, taken out of a steamer burnt by the Russians; large copper

boilers, weighing 100,000lb., 8; old copper, 100,000lb.; copper screws,

10,000lb.; old iron, 160,000lb.; large bells, 6; small bells, 10;

hospital beds, 350; iron forges, in great numbers; main tackles, 12;

coal, 2,000 tons; steam-engines, of 30-horse power, for the basins, 2;

large pumps, for the basins, 3; iron boilers, 3; one high-pressure

engine of 16-horse power, for the basins; iron cranes, 17; an engine of

12-horse power in the military bakery; two dredging machines of 30-horse

power, unserviceable; a still, a clock, six marble statues, two

sphinxes, a large basso-relievo; biscuit, 500 tons; flour, 150; barley,

9; buckwheat, 117; oats, 18; millet, 54; wheat, 20; peas, 1-1/2; salt

meat, 60; wheat in the granaries, 500 quarters, &c.

The Commission having examined the quantity and quality of the

breadstuffs found in the magazines, declared them unfit for the use of

the Allied armies, and decided that they should be sent to Eupatoria for

the support of the Tartars, to whom the Allies furnish subsistence. The

French Intendance is charged with the duty of transporting these

supplies. They consisted of 11,000 sacks, weighing 500 tons, of black

bread, 370 sacks or 150 tons of flour, 100 sacks or 9 tons of barley;

1,300 sacks or 117 tons of black barley, 18 tons of hay, 54 tons of

millet, 20 tons of barley, 1-1/2 tons of peas, 60 tons of salt meat, and

500 quarters of barley in the granaries. The Commission decided further

that the few objects of art found in the place should be placed at the

disposal of the Generals-in-Chief, and finished the sitting by

nominating as secretary M. de Genoux, Capitaine de Frégate, Mr. Johnson,

Naval Instructor, being named as English Secretary.

The third sitting took place on the 30th of September, and the subject

of their deliberation was the valuation of the guns. As the calibres of

the Russian artillery do not correspond with those of the Allies, it was

decided unanimously that in the valuation of the guns they should only

estimate the value of the metal, which was fixed at 2f. 50c. per

kilogramme for brass guns, and at 10c. for iron guns. One of the members

observed, that among the brass guns there were two Turkish field-pieces,

and it was at once declared to be the wish of the Commanders to put

these guns at the disposal of the Ottoman Porte. It was further decided

that, as many of the articles could not be divided, such a distribution

should take place as might be best arranged, and, accordingly, a

high-pressure engine of 20-horse power, a distilling machine, and a

clock were comprised in the French list, and in the English a

high-pressure engine of 16-horse power and a furnace. As it would be

impossible to divide the wood of the houses and buildings to be

demolished, the city itself was portioned out, and to the English was

allotted the eastern, and to the French the western part.

The following is a part of the English return:--

GUNS IN MALAKOFF, REDAN, &c.

Serviceable. Unserviceable.

8-inch guns 38 23

7 to 7-1/2 inch ditto 76 11

6 to 6-1/2 ditto 846 135

5 to 5-1/2 ditto 310 85

Smaller calibres 449 42

13-inch mortars 17 1

10-inch ditto 8 0

Brass cohorns, 6 to 6-1/2 inch 21 0

Brass field-pieces 16 0

Wall pieces 9 0

----- ---

Total guns 1,790 297

297 ---

-----

Total 2,087

The return includes eight 8-inch and two 3-7/8-inch brass guns.

Number Live Powder and small

of shot. Shell. Grape. Shell. Ammunition.

257,314 60,515 13,380 1,240 419,200lb. of powder;

436,000lb. of ammunition.

Three small bells and one large one, of fine tones.

Two marine condensing steam-engines of 30-horse power, in

good condition, nearly new £2,000

Three large pumps for pumping out the docks, in good

condition, with gear complete 2,500

Three iron boilers for engines 1,500

Spare gear for the above 700

Blocks, with brass sheaves 10

One 16-horse power engine, for pumping out cofferdam, not

complete 800

Three 3 ton cranes, good 1,500

One ditto, not fixed, good 200

One 12-horse power condensing engine, for bakery 200

One 20-horse high pressure engine, incomplete, with gear

packed in cases 900

Iron boiler and iron chimney, complete 800

Copper boiler, for steaming plank 336

Pair of 220-horse power marine engines, unfit for use,

original value 12,000

Eight copper boilers for ditto, repairable, 50 tons 5,600

Patent ship cradle dredging machine, &c. 3,100

------

Copper, pumps, forges, hydraulic pump 32,146

Cranes, &c. 13,280

------

Total £45,426

This, taken with the French return, gives the total in the list; but

there were an immense number of small articles which would swell this

inventory to a formidable extent. The Karabelnaïa, or English side, it

will be observed, contained the largest and most valuable portion of the

articles captured. The fourteen bells were divided thus--one of 2500·00

kilos. French Parc de Siége, one 21 cwt. ditto, one 16 cwt. ditto, one

533·00 kilos. at Right Siege Train, another of 146·00 kilos. at ditto,

one 88·00 kilos. at French Parc de Siége, one 76·00 kilos. at Right

Siege Train, one of 1 cwt. at Parc de Siége, one of 3 qrs. 22lb. at

ditto, ditto; one of 3 qrs. 17lb. at Parc du Moulin; one of 36·00 kilos.

at Right Siege Train; one of 26·45lb. at French Parc de Siége; one of

9·00 kilos. at General Mazare's office.

[Sidenote: ANGRY DOCTORS.]

The mixed Commission combined the functions of the three infernal

judges with great skill, and was by turns Minos, Æacus, and

Rhadamanthus--for, although it condemned no one to death, it consigned

many worthless bodies of _matériel_ to destruction. Its deliberations

were perturbed, if not suspended, by the attentions of the enemy's

cannoneers, for the street in which the house of the commissioners was

situate was selected with a view to remind them of the value of guns,

balls, and gunpowder, as it was completely enfiladed by the fire of one

of the batteries. Sometimes a shot bumped against the walls of the

mansion, and shook the bodies corporate, though it did not disturb the

nerves of the members. Sometimes a shell blurted into the rooms, and

routed outlying artists as they sketched the ruins of Sebastopol. But

the commissioners pursued and terminated their labours.

It is generally known that Englishmen like to grumble. Is it true that

England gives them reason for indulging in their notorious tendencies?

Now, for instance, the doctors (in common with nearly every class of

officers) were highly indignant at the alleged neglect and indifference

of the authorities to their claims. Is it to be understood that English

military surgeons are not entitled to any honorary reward? Lord Panmure

did not say so, but he let Lord Raglan's shade stand betwixt him and the

angry doctors. The case stood thus:--After the publication of the lists

of brevets, promotions, and decorations of the Bath, &c., Dr. Hall,

urged thereunto by sundry weighty considerations, addressed an energetic

and reasonable letter to Dr. Andrew Smith, animadverting upon, or at

least pointing distinctly to, the exclusion of the surgeons of the army

from the rewards bestowed with no niggard hand upon their comrades of

the Staff and of the regiments. Dr. Smith sent that letter to Lord

Panmure, and his Lordship, who has not studied polemical divinity for

nothing, and is, moreover, a capital hand at finding out a good official

excuse, replied to it, and met the case by a plea of confession and

avoidance. Nothing would his Lordship be more ready, nothing was he more

anxious to do, than to recommend deserving medical officers for

promotion, but the fact was, that he was in utter ignorance of the

deserts of the gentlemen in question; for, on looking to Lord Raglan's

despatches, he found that the Field-Marshal had never said a good word

for any of that genus or species of man-militant. They could not even

boast of the official damnation of a faint applause from head-quarters,

nor was there much solid pudding to compensate for the want of empty

praise from which they suffered. Although these officers did not wish to

be placed under a system of supervision like that of the French

intendance, they felt that such a course would at least relieve them

from much responsibility and consequent blame, and that it would secure

to them special mention and official recognition of meritorious services

or of extraordinary exertion.

In one case, at least, I know for a fact that a General of Division,

with many of the oaths which he lavished in enforcing professions of

earnestness and sincerity, declared to the principal medical officer of

his division that he had intended to mention him specially to Lord

Raglan, for his zeal and devotion after the battle of the Alma, but that

he had unfortunately forgotten to do so in his despatch. "However, he

would. He would, by ----, do so at once--write a despatch," and so on.

Did he? If he did, Lord Raglan never paid the least attention to it. The

wretched jealousies of our system were contagious. The instant a

civilian became connected with the army he was caught at once, and

became involved with A, B, or C. The military surgeons were jealous

of--well, they did not like--the civil surgeons. The latter thought the

former assumed too many airs, and that they despised the civil element,

which was fresher from the hospitals, and knew a great deal more about

the theories of the day than besworded and bespurred fogies who swore by

Lawrence or Larrey. There was an internecine battle of "corps," which

was chiefly developed in brisk affairs of outposts. What man of the Line

or Guards was not "down" on the Engineers? What Engineer had recovered

the mortal wounds inflicted on him by lazy soldiers who would not work

in the trenches? Was not that "confounded Naval Brigade, that gets all

the praise," an eyesore and a stumbling-block to the ill-used Siege

Train? Were not the Infantry tickled with ironical mirth at the notion

that the Cavalry had done anything? Were not the Cavalry wroth that they

should have been turned into draymen, porters, and hewers of wood and

drawers of water for the Infantry during the winter? The Royal Horse

Artillery had similar grievances. As to the contests between

Commissariat officers and Land Transport officers, if smothered by

official forms, they blazed below the paper. The Navvies waged _horrida

bella_ with the Commissariat department. The Quartermaster-General's

department tried to do as little as it could in the way of complying

with the requests of the Army Works Corps. The Railway and the

Road-making interest were by no means on the best possible terms. The

Ambulance Corps, while it still existed in the body, was savagely

tickled up, probed, walked into, reported upon, and attacked by the

doctors; and as to higher quarters--

"Tantæne animis coelestibus iræ?"

In the first week of October the army was in excellent health. It was

almost as numerous as that with which the Duke fought the battle of

Vittoria. The infantry numbered 27,000; the cavalry 3,500; the artillery

9,000--in fine, General Simpson had under his command not less than

38,000 effective men. There were few matters of complaint; but an army

is insatiable, and its providers must be as thoughtful and foreseeing as

ants. Vast piles of stores disappeared in a day. To all commissariat

officers at Balaklava it might be well said--"_Nulla fronti

fides_,"--"Have no faith in the front."

[Sidenote: ESPRIT DE CORPS.]

Of the condition of the Russian army encamped on the Belbek nothing

certain could be known, but now and then one got a glimpse of the world

beyond the adverse sentries. There were many races in the Russian army,

but none seemed willing to desert except the Poles, and the number of

disaffected soldiers who came over to us was very small indeed. The

pickets now and then brought in some footsore, ragged, emaciated,

sickly-looking deserter, who told a sad tale of want and suffering. Was

he a Dolon or not? The last two who arrived at General Simpson's, a Pole

and a Russian, were in such a condition as to excite the liveliest

compassion among our soldiers. Their clothes were in rags, and the

fragments of their boots scarcely clung to their feet. They came from

the army near Baidar, and stated that all the men were in the same

condition; that all they had to eat was bread or biscuit and barley,

that they got no meat, and had only occasional issues of quarter rations

of vodka, or spirits; and these two men were observed to laugh and throw

up their hands in surprise as they passed the great piles of provisions

accumulated at our depôt on the Col. They said they were laughing at the

lies which had been told to them. Their officers said that the Allies

were starving, and had no forage for their horses. Colonel Blane sent

down Sergeant Gillespie, of the Provost Marshal's department, under

whose immediate control all prisoners were placed, to the Russian stores

of Sebastopol, to get them greatcoats and clothing, but he could not

find any boots; it was observed that there were no boots in store when

the place was taken, and that the sixty-two prisoners, who were found

drunk and asleep amid the ruins, were badly dressed and ill provided

with shoes or boots.

The men taken in affairs of outposts by the Sardinians were in the same

state, and it was evident that the Russians were rapidly declining in

condition. They got 3lb. of bread or 1-1/2lb. of biscuit a day, and a

little barley, which they boiled into a kind of soup; this constituted

their rations. They were kept alive by assurances that the Allies must

soon go, and then they would have the spoils of the English camp, which

was rich in everything but food. Most of these men were exceedingly

tractable, and were excellent servants so long as they were not allowed

rum. One of them, a Polish non-commissioned officer, was of great use,

but he was seized with an unconquerable desire to join the Polish Legion

at Varna, and got as far as Odessa, when he was recognized and shot as a

deserter.

For some time the actual work of the army consisted in preparations for

the winter on the plateau, dismantling the houses of the city for wood,

and destroying the trenches for the sake of the gabions, which burned

well and saved fuel. Sebastopol gradually came up piecemeal to the camp.

Doors, windows, locks, hinges, fireplaces, stoves, pictures, chairs,

tables, beams of wood, roofing, ceiling, flooring, sheet-lead, rolled

copper, cut stone, crockery, and innumerable articles of every

description, were brought up by carts, horses, ponies, and by men, every

day in great quantities, and were found most useful in the construction

and ornamentation of our huts. There were very few officers who had not

got some trophies; arms of various descriptions, greatcoats, and helmets

are the most common; but pictures of saints, often embellished by the

finders with grotesque adornments of moustachios, short pipes, and

eye-glasses, and portraits of the late Czar, which had not quite escaped

the spirit of improvement manifested by our soldiery, were very common.

Many articles of English workmanship abounded, and canary birds sang and

flowers bloomed amid all the murky horrors of these blood-stained

casements. All the shot and shell were collected, and the French gave

their soldiers about 3-1/2_d._ or 4_d._ for each 13-inch shell or large

shot which they brought up to certain depôts indicated for the purpose.

The road made great progress. Upwards of 6,000 men were engaged upon it

daily, and if Mr. Doyne could have procured more tools from the

Quartermaster-General, the work would have gone on still faster; but he

experienced considerable difficulty in getting the authorities to comply

with his requisitions, although he handed over the _matériel_ of the

Corps to them when he arrived in the Crimea. Labour was ample, and was

not denied; the tools were, however, worn out and worthless, and we were

guilty of the very bad economy, in a country like the Crimea, where

skilled labour cost so much, of repairing implements which had been

damaged or used up, instead of issuing new ones. Many of these tools

belonged to the Engineers' department, and were completely worked up by

the Sappers and Miners during the siege. No, we were _not_ perfect even

yet. Though Sebastopol was ours, there _were_ little blurs and blotches

which might have been removed from our administrative escutcheon by very

small labour. We borrowed flour from the French, and from the

Sardinians, and, as we had been liberal lenders, they could not complain

of our making small requisitions upon them now and then.

[Sidenote: FLAGS OF TRUCE.]

Although Forts Alexander and Nicholas were nearly intact, the Russians

resolved not to spare them, and the effect of their practice upon them

proved that the stone of which they were composed would not resist a

lengthened and continuous fire at close quarters. When their shot hit

the stones at the angle of the fort, they generally split and broke the

outer masonry. The stones were of white freestone, cut in long

parallelograms, and if a shot struck the middle of a block it generally

split it right through, so that a few projectiles at any one point would

speedily destroy all cohesion, and crumble the wall into a breach.

Still, the forts were beautifully built, and were of very great

strength, notwithstanding the inferior nature of the building material.

They were all reared upon capacious vaults of solid masonry, and the

casemates, curtains, and parapets were of prodigious thickness, and of

very superior finish and workmanship. If a line-of-battle ship could

have got alongside, she could soon have destroyed Fort Alexander, or any

fort built of similar material. The enemy suspected that the French

were making a battery behind Fort Alexander, and they shelled frequently

in that direction; and, knowing the position of the mortar battery

behind Fort Nicholas, they directed a pretty constant vertical fire on

the guard behind that work.

A boat was sent round from Kamiesch to the harbour whenever a flag of

truce appeared. Gortschakoff being pleased to consider that the south

side of Sebastopol belonged to the Allies, suggested that it would save

much time and inconvenience if a boat was kept in the Dockyard Harbour,

near Fort Paul, so as to be ready to go out with or for communications

in cases of armistice, several of which, relating to prisoners'

property, exchange of letters, &c., had then recently taken place. The

Russians always came across, in very well-appointed, handsome boats,

manned with picked crews of well-dressed, clean-looking sailors, and the

officers sent on the duty were generally very accomplished linguists and

agreeable men. They were, however, very strict and very sharp in their

practice as regards flags of truce, being extremely jealous of the

smallest informality, and quick in firing the instant the flag of truce

was hauled down. They insisted that the Malakoff had been taken by a

surprise, and that all the garrison, except those who could get into the

casemates, had gone off to enjoy their _siesta_ when the French rushed

in; but they admitted that the town was getting too hot to hold them,

and that our fire was too heavy to be much longer withstood. Had they

possessed mortars with which to reply to our vertical fire, they say

they would have held out for another year at least, "but the army of

defence, with a deep seaway in its rear, with one flank menaced by a

fleet, and the other by the works at Inkerman, so that in reality its

centre was only effective, could not strategically resist an army of

attack which had such advantages of position." Our Siege-Train and

Artillery and Naval Brigade, according to the Russians, took the town,

as by their fire they made its defence impossible. During the last two

bombardments from French and English, the garrison "lived in holes like

rats," and the telling-off of reliefs and moving of reserves were always

attended with danger and certain loss.

Was it old Turenne who said, "More battles were won by the spade than by

the musket?" We won all ours by the bayonet and musket alone, and we

certainly suffered great loss and were exposed to much disadvantage from

not being able to approach within 200 yards of the Redan, whereas the

French got up to the abattis of the Malakoff, and within 25 mètres of

the parapet. Our gallant Allies could, indeed, spare more men to work,

and could afford to lose more in the approaches, than we could. That

their labours were not light, or their casualties trifling, we may infer

from the fact that they lost not less than 64 officers of Engineers in

the siege, of whom 30 were killed. As labourers, our soldiers are not

equal to the French, and are far inferior to the Russians. Our Engineers

complained that the only regiments that worked well were the Guards and

some of the Rifle Brigade, and that the Irish and Scotch regiments did

not know how to handle the tools used in military works. In fact, only

those soldiers who were originally agricultural labourers, and were

therefore used to the spade and pick, can get through the labours

usually required for the construction of approaches or defences.

Herdsmen, gillies, sworddancers, huntsmen, deer-stalkers, mowers,

hodmen, mechanics, and town labourers, however strong, active, and

willing, and wherever they come from, cannot use the implements which

are put into their hands by Sappers and Miners, and it would be

exceedingly desirable to teach men who may be employed in such works how

to work and what to do with the tools.

General Simpson's despatch respecting the operations on the 8th of

September gave considerable satisfaction. It afforded evidence that the

Commander-in-Chief could rise above the very dead level of the

uninteresting General Orders which will make the records of this army

intolerable to the patience and not easy to the digestion of the most

resolute and hardy antiquarian in times to come. Who will venture to

publish our despatches? And yet we had notable penmen at head-quarters,

who were at their vocation night and day, and who injured their tempers

and manners by incessant scrivenery, the results of which were buried in

the pigeon-holes of Whitehall, never to be seen even in the lively pages

of a blue-book. The French authorities entered less into detail and

exhibited less penmanship. If an Englishman presented himself at the

French head-quarters, or made any application in writing for passes to

the trenches, or such slight facilities, he was presented with them at

once, in a manner which enhanced the value of the obligation. If he

wrote to the Adjutant-General of the English army, the chances were that

he would never receive any answer to his letter, although his request

were of the smallest kind, unless indeed he happened to belong to the

_dii minores_, or possessed such recommendations as had full

consideration in the eyes of that dignitary of the army.

And even now it is not too late to reproduce a despatch of a very

different character from those we read of in the _London Gazette_ or in

General Orders. It was, indeed, no less applicable to our army than it

was when it was written, and the truths it contained were as patent and

as pregnant with value and interest as they had been nearly half a

century ago. The writer says,--

"I have no hesitation in attributing these evils--of irregularities, of

bad cooking, and of want of discipline--to the habitual inattention of

the officers of regiments to their duty, as prescribed by the standing

regulations of the service and by the orders of this army.

[Sidenote: BRITISH OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS.]

"I am far from questioning the zeal, still less the gallantry and

spirit, of the officers of the army; and I am quite certain that if

their minds can be convinced of the necessity of minute and constant

attention to understand, recollect, and carry into execution the orders

which have been issued for the performance of their duty, and that the

strict performance of this duty is necessary to enable the army to serve

the country as it ought to be served, they will in future give their

attention to these points.

"Unfortunately, the inexperience of the officers of the army has induced

many to consider that the period during which an army is on service is

one of relaxation from all rule, instead of being, as it is, the period

during which, of all others, every rule for the regulation and control

of the conduct of the soldier, for the inspection and care of his arms,

ammunition, accoutrements, necessaries, and field equipments, and his

horse and horse appointments--for the receipt, and issue, and care of

his provisions, and the regulation of all that belongs to his food and

the forage for his horse--must be most strictly attended to by the

officers of his company or troop, if it is intended that an army--a

British army in particular--shall be brought into the field of battle in

a state of efficiency to meet the enemy on the day of trial.

"These are the points, then, to which I most earnestly entreat you to

turn your attention and the attention of the officers of the regiments

under your command--Portuguese as well as English--during the period in

which it may be in my power to leave the troops in their cantonments.

The commanding officers of regiments must enforce the orders of the army

regarding the constant inspection and superintendence of the officers

over the conduct of the men of their companies in their cantonments; and

they must endeavour to inspire the non-commissioned officers with the

sense of their situation and authority; and the non-commissioned

officers must be forced to their duty, by being constantly under the

view and superintendence of the officers. By these means, the frequent

and discreditable recourse to the authority of the provost, and to

punishments by the sentence of courts-martial, will be prevented, and

the soldiers will not dare to commit the offences and outrages of which

there are too many complaints, when they well know that their officers

and their non-commissioned officers have their eyes and attention turned

towards them.

"The commanding officers of regiments must likewise enforce the orders

of the army regarding the constant, real inspection of the soldiers'

arms, ammunition, accoutrements, and necessaries, in order to prevent at

all times the shameful waste of ammunition, and the sale of that article

and of the soldiers' necessaries. With this view both should be

inspected daily.

"_In regard to the food of the soldier, I have frequently observed and

lamented in the late campaign the facility and celerity with which the

French soldiers cooked in comparison with those of our army._

"The cause of this disadvantage is the same with that of every other

description--the want of attention of the officers to the orders of the

army, and the conduct of their men, and the consequent want of authority

over their conduct. Certain men of each company should be appointed to

cut and bring in wood; others to fetch water, and others to get the

meat, &c., to be cooked; and it will soon be found that, if this

practice were daily enforced, and a particular hour for seeing the

dinners and for the men dining named, as it ought to be, equally as for

parade, the cooking would no longer require the inconvenient length of

time which it has lately been found to take, and the soldiers would not

be exposed to the privation of their food at the moment at which the

army might be engaged in operations with the enemy.

"You will, of course, give your attention to the field exercise and

discipline of the troops. It is very desirable that the soldiers should

not lose the habits of marching, and the division should march ten or

twelve miles twice in each week, if the weather should permit, and the

roads in the neighbourhood of the cantonments of the division should be

dry."

Now, the writer of this "offensive production" was Arthur, Duke of

Wellington, and it is an extract of a circular addressed to all

commanding officers of divisions and brigades, dated Frenada, Nov. 28,

1812. It was not the Duke's province to inquire into the reason of "this

want of attention to the men" of which he complains; but in a service in

which there were only two captains in a regiment, and all the other

officers except the colonel and major were boys who had seen but a few

weeks' service, intent only on champagne, tarts, good grub, dog-hunts,

and horse-races, it was not wonderful if the same thing occurred in the

Crimea in 1855.

The testimony of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Bentinck to the good

conduct and services of the Fourth Division, during the period he

commanded it, was read with interest:--

EXTRACT FROM DIVISIONAL ORDERS, DATED _October 13_.

"Private and important family affairs compelling Lieutenant-General Sir

H. Bentinck, K.C.B., to return to England, he cannot relinquish the

command of the Fourth Division without expressing the great regret with

which he does so.

"Although he has only had the command of it for the short period of

little more than four months (but during a very eventful period), he has

witnessed with great satisfaction the manner in which all ranks have

conducted most difficult, arduous, and dangerous duties, with a spirit,

energy, and good humour not to be surpassed.

[Sidenote: EXPEDITION TO ODESSA.]

"Having already expressed to Brigadier-General Garrett on his quitting

the division, and to Brigadier-General the Honourable A. Spencer and the

First Brigade, on the morning of their departure on another expedition,

his opinion of their services, it only remains for Sir Henry Bentinck to

thank Colonel Wood, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of

the Royal Artillery, and the commanding officers, officers, and

non-commissioned officers and men of the Second Brigade, for the

assistance they have at all times rendered him; and he cannot refrain

from expressing his high approbation of the manner in which all ranks

have done their duty to their Queen and country.

"The Lieutenant-General begs to thank the Staff officers of the division

for their zeal and energy in the discharge of their duties, and he

cannot conclude without expressing also his satisfaction at the manner

in which Dr. Roberts has performed his; to the Commissariat Department

and Land Transport Corps of the division, to whom it is indebted for

their supplies, and with a regularity seldom equalled, and reflecting

great credit on the officers of those departments.

"The Lieutenant-General has only further, in taking leave of the

division, to wish it renewed glory, and he will always feel the greatest

interest in its proceedings generally, and of the regiments composing it

particularly.

"By order,

"G. ELLIOTT,

"Deputy-Acting-Adjutant-General."

CHAPTER III.

Expedition to Kinburn--Off Odessa--Objects of the

Expedition--Appearance of the Fleets--The English Portion of the

Expedition--Odessa from the Sea--Alarm on Shore--The eternal

Cossacks--Clouds, Fog and Vapours--Signal Gun--The Fog

thickens--Arrangements for the Attack--Order of Formation--Plan of

Attack on Kinburn--Proceedings of the Advanced Squadron for Buoying

the Dangers--A Skirmish.

At last it was determined by the Allied Governments that it was a mere

waste of power to keep the armies and fleets inactive, and that

"something must be done." The Light Brigade, under Lord George Paget,

received orders to hold themselves in readiness to embark for Eupatoria.

A small corps of infantry was told off for the expedition which had been

organized to make an attack upon Kinburn in conjunction with the French.

The English portion of the expedition was constituted as follows:--

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIPS. |

| |

| Guns. | Captains |Troops on Board. | Royal |

| | commanding. | |Marines.|

+-------------------------+--------------+------------------+--------+

|_Royal Albert_, } | | | |

| Sir E. Lyons, } | | | |

| G.C.B. &c., } | | | |

| having on board } | | | |

| Brigadier-General } | | | |

| Spencer commanding} 121 |W. R. Mends |17th Regiment 800 | 80 |

|_Hannibal_, Sir H. } | | | |

| Stewart, K.C.B., } | | | |

| second in command } 90 |J. Hay |21st Regiment 670 | 80 |

|[A]_Agamemnon_ 90 |Sir J. Pasley | | |

|_Algiers_ 90 |C. Talbot |20th Regiment 500 | 80 |

|_St. Jean d'Acre_ 101 |G. King | | 1030 |

|_Princess Royal_ 91 |L. Jones |63rd Regiment 700 | 80 |

| --- | | ---- | ---- |

| 583 | | 2670 | 1350 |

| |

| STEAM FRIGATES, SLOOPS, ETC. |

| |

|_Curaçoa_ 30 |G. F. Hastings| | |

|_Dauntless_ 33 |A. P. Ryder | | |

|_Firebrand_ 6 |E. Inglefield | | |

|[A]_Furious_ 16 |W. Loring | | |

|_Gladiator_ 6 |C. Hillyar | | |

| | {|Left wing, 57th, | |

|_Leopard_ 18 |G. Giffard {|and reserve | |

| | {|ammunition 370| |

|_Odin_ 16 |J. Wilcox | | |

| | {|Right wing, 57th, | |

|_Sidon_ 22 |G. Goldsmith {|and reserve | |

| | {|ammunition 300| |

|_Sphinx_ 6 |A. Wilmott | | |

|_Spiteful_ 6 |F. Shortt | | |

|_Spitfire_ 5 |T. Spratt | | |

|_Stromboli_ 6 |R. Hall | | |

|_Terrible_ 21 |J. M'Cleverty | | |

|_Tribune_ 31 |J. R. Drummond| | |

|_Triton_ 3 |A.W.D.Fletcher| | |

|[27]_Valorous_ 16 |C. Buckle | | |

|_Vulcan_ 6 |E. Van Donop | | |

| --- | | ----| ---- |

| Totals 830 | | 3340| 1350 |

+-------------------------+--------------+------------------+--------+

THE BRITISH FLOTILLA.

SMALLER VESSELS.

Gun-boats. Guns. Commanders.

1. _Arrow_ 4 Lt. W. K. Jolliffe.

2. _Clinker_ 1 Lt. Hudson.

3. _Cracker_ 1 Lt. Marryat.

4. _Fancy_ 1 Lt. Grylls.

5. _Moslem_ 1 ----

6. _Lynx_ 4 Lt. C. M. Aynsley.

7. _Viper_ 4 Lt. H. Comber.

8. _Wrangler_ 4 Lt. Burgoyne.

9. _Beagle_ 4 Lt. Howitt.

10. _Snake_ 4 Lt. Buckley.

MORTAR-VESSELS--(CAPTAIN DIGBY COMMANDING.)

1. _Firm_ Lt. Leet, _St. Jean d'Acre_ Lt. Hewitt, R.M.A.

2. _Hardy_ Pierson, Mate, _Princess Royal_ Lt. Foster, R.M.A.

3. _Camel_ Vaughan, Mate, ditto Lt. Starr, R.M.A.

4. _Flamer_ Lt. Creagh, _St. Jean d'Acre_ Lt. Brookes, R.M.A.

5. _Magnet_ Blunt, Mate, _Algiers_ Lt. Pitman, R.M.A.

6. _Raven_ Hunt, Mate, _Hannibal_ Lt. Festing, R.M.A.

STEAM TENDERS, ETC.

_Banshee._ _Danube._ _Brenda._

TRANSPORTS.

No. Freight, &c.

_Prince Alfred_ 126 Royal Artillery.

_Arabia_ 83 Royal Artillery, &c.

_Orient_ 78 Medical Staff--Hospital Ship.

_Lady Alice Lambton_ 99 Stores.

_Durham_ 179 Miscellaneous.

_Indian_ 197 Commissariat Staff, &c.

_Charity_ 140 Civil Land Transport Corps and

Commissariat Stores.

_Colombo_ .. Shot and shell, &c.

_Zebra_ 211 Fuel.

_Arthur Gordon_ 238 Stores.

Dr. Gordon, in medical charge of the expedition, Surgeon Foaker, second

in charge, and a number of medical officers, embarked on board the

_Orient_.

Deputy-Commissary-General (in charge of the expedition) Tyrone Power,

Assistant-Commissary-General Cumming, Deputy-Assistant-Commissary-General

Sutherland, and Commissariat Clerk Robinson; Lieutenant Wardlaw, and

twenty Dragoons, Captain Nicholson, R.E., Lieutenant Gordon, R.E., and

Lieutenant Scratchley, R.E., in command of the Sappers and Miners,

embarked on board the _Orient_. Major Bent, Royal Engineers, embarked on

board the _Royal Albert_.

The First Brigade of the Fourth Division marched down to Kazatch on the

4th October, and proceeded to embark on board after they had been

inspected by Sir Henry Bentinck, K.C.B., commanding the Division.

Brigadier-General Spencer commanded the Brigade, which was in very fine

order, and formed a body of 3,300 men, many of them tried soldiers.

The embarkation of the artillery and stores continued on October 5th. A

large body of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, so long encamped on the

heights of Balaklava, were marched down to the water's edge, and

embarked on board the _St. Jean d'Acre_, to which they were conveyed in

the _Wallace_ steam-tug. Her Majesty's steamer _Triton_, Lieutenant A.

D. W. Fletcher commanding, received orders to join the expedition,

Captain Leopold Heath, R.N., the Superintendent of Transports, shifted

his flag to the _Bucephalus_ transport.

On the 7th October, the Allied squadrons, with a large flotilla of

gun-boats, bomb-vessels, and small steamers, stretching in two lines in

front of Kazatch and Kamiesch, must have displayed to the garrisons of

the north side of Sebastopol a spectacle of portentous grandeur. We

could see the enemy manning their batteries on the north side, and their

troops under arms in front of their camps. It is likely they believed

the Allies were about to make a descent in their rear. The French had

four line-of-battle ships, several steam frigates, and a number of gun

and mortar boats. In addition to that force they had a formidably ugly

armament of three floating steam batteries; but England, with all her

maritime and mechanical resources, could not aid her ally by even one of

these tremendous fortresses! These French floating batteries, called the

_Devastation_, _Lave_, and _Tonnant_, curiously unprepossessing in

appearance, and painted of a bluish stone colour, as if to increase the

gloominess of their aspect, showed eleven or twelve ports a-side, and

carried twenty-two fifty-pounders (French) each. They were crowded with

men, and were remarkably steady on the water, but the French

bomb-vessels and gun-boats rolled heavily on the smallest provocation.

The men-of-war had their ports triced up and guns run in, so as to give

air to the soldiers between decks, and presented long lines of kepis and

red trousers from stem to stern. The day was very fine, and the wind was

scarcely strong enough to blow away the black and white wreaths of smoke

and steam from the funnels of the fleet as they slowly got in motion.

Each steamer had a mortar-vessel or gun-boat in tow. At 11.15 the _Royal

Albert_ set driver and fore and aft canvas, and slowly forged ahead,

followed by the _Hannibal_ and the rest of the squadron; the French

division, led by the _Montebello_, moving on in a parallel line with us,

on the port or left hand.