Mr. Deane, the subaqueous engineer, was sent to the Crimea to carry
out services in connection with his profession. After Sebastopol had
fallen he recovered about thirteen guns sunk in the inner harbour.
Private John Williams, an excellent diver, who had been employed at
the ‘Royal George,’ under Sir Charles Pasley, pushed into the idle
dress one day when Mr. Deane was away and dived, bringing up, as the
fruit of his exertions, a brass 8-pounder field-piece and a
gun-carriage, with harness for horses attached. This was the only
opportunity, and a stolen one it was, that he, or any sapper, had of
proving his efficiency in submarine operations.
Footnote 166:
Granted by the Queen under authority, dated 12th January, 1855. See
ante, pp. 185-187.
Footnote 167:
The bridge was thrown, under the direction of Major Bent, by the
sappers and miners, and a party of French pontoneers. The duty of the
seamen was confined to the nautical arrangements for the undertaking,
which comprised the labour of bringing the boats and securing them
stem and stern.
Footnote 168:
During a night of searching cold, some sappers made a blaze with a few
bits of broken gabions and fascines in the tool store in rear of No. 2
battery. It had nearly burnt out when private Corrigan going in for a
warm, chided the men for not keeping up a better fire. “I know where
some good charcoal can be found,” said he, and off he went to collect
it, bringing in with him, soon after, a number of _nice_ little balls,
firmly compacted and crisped with the frost. “Now for it,” said the
firemaster, impressed with the importance of his success, and speaking
contemptuously of the discrimination of his comrades, “we shall soon
have a fire worth looking at.” With the confidence of one proud of his
discovery he stirred up the sticks, and throwing a few pieces of the
compound on the expiring embers, they soon ignited, and to the
unutterable amazement of the group, exploded! Corrigan had perhaps the
greatest reason to be astonished at the treacherous behaviour of his
“patent fuel,” for besides having the hair of his head, moustache, and
beard burnt to the roots, his face was so scorched and scarified, it
took three weeks to cure him of an injury which the Doctors had
latinized into “Ambustio.” The ingredient with which Corrigan hoped to
make a roaring bivouac fire, consisted of some damaged powder which,
removed from the magazine of No. 2 battery, had been thrown loosely
over the ground, and, in mingling with the mud, had in time solidified
into lumps wearing those pleasing characteristics which, in intense
cold weather, was so apt to deceive a poor shivering soul. Ever after,
whatever expedients the sappers employed to light their trench fires,
they took care not to be beguiled into the use of “Corrigan’s
charcoal.”
Footnote 169:
Letter from Sir John Burgoyne, dated 5th February, 1855.
Footnote 170:
The Commissioners, sent to the Crimea to inquire into certain matters
of mismanagement, in their Second Report, dated January, 1856, stated,
that “the date at which the hutting commenced was in no case earlier
than the end of January or beginning of February, and it was not
completed before the end of March.” This information, obtained from
evidences, who no doubt spoke from recollection, is certainly
incorrect.
Footnote 171:
A party of French sappers arrived at Southampton early in December,
1854, to superintend the embarkation of huts for the Imperial army in
the Crimea. From the moment of their landing they were shown every
respect by the British sappers in that city, and, moreover, provided
by them with a generous entertainment at the Floating House Tavern.
The meeting was one of unmixed friendship, as if there never had been,
between the nations, any differences or dissimilar sympathies to mar
its cordiality. Two corps of neighbouring nations, bearing
corresponding names, socially joined at the same feast, is perhaps a
unique incident. The guests were represented by Mons. Von Doyson and
sergeant Tagnier, whose speeches, with those of sergeant-major Steel,
quartermaster-sergeant Simpson, and colour-sergeant Spencer, were warm
and fraternal. The toasts were such as might have been expected in so
loyal a gathering. After shipping no less than 1,850 huts to
accommodate 45,000 men, the French sappers sailed for Sebastopol in
January, 1855.
Footnote 172:
Killed at the assault of the Rifle-pits 19th April.
Footnote 173:
The cross bore this simple epitaph:—“To the memory of a Captain, a
Comrade, and a Friend; Captain A. D. Craigie, Royal Engineers, killed
by the bursting of a shell, March 13, 1855.” Corporal Geo. H. Collins
fashioned the cross and cut the inscription.
Footnote 174:
April 24, 1855.
1855.
9th to 19th April.
SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.
Second bombardment—Gallant exertions of individual sappers—Repairing a
magazine—Assistance to a comrade in an embrasure—Fatal meeting of
schoolfellows—Cheerfulness in suffering—Slippery platforms—Repairing
telegraph wire—Resistance of the magazines—Inkermann lighthouse
battery—Progress of the siege—Mud in the trenches—Battery for two
light field-pieces—Magazine on fire—Burning sand-bag on a
merlon—Fixing mantlets—Unshrinking labours of sappers—Damages and
repairs—Progress of the siege and works—Gallantry of two sappers—and
two linesmen—Noble perseverance in an embrasure—Exertions at the
batteries—Explosion of a magazine—No. 9 battery, left attack—Gallant
extension of left advance sap, right attack—Devotion and firmness of
the last leading sapper in it—Progress of the works—Capture of the
rifle-pits—Gallantry of sergeant McDonald—Casualties—Devotion of
corporal Coles—Acknowledgment of services of sappers in the attack.
As most of the works were ready it was considered advisable not to delay
the second bombardment, which, on the morning of the 9th April,
commenced on our side from 101 guns and mortars. Nearly all our
batteries were in full play, whilst the Russians, opening by degrees a
powerful array of ordnance from their extensive defences, checked the
otherwise irresistible vigour of our well-served armaments. On the left
attack, after blocking up a gap made for the passage of artillery, the
workmen were withdrawn to the first parallel to place them out of
immediate danger, leaving thirteen sappers with Captain Belson to attend
to the urgent details of the fighting batteries. On the right attack
there were 28 men of the corps dressed like their comrades on the left,
in waterproofs and long boots. During the cannonading, 90 soldiers of
the line fed the sappers with sand-bags for the 21-gun battery, and
assisted them in covering the roof of a magazine in 12-mortar battery.
Other sappers worked in No. 10 battery in providing channels for
clearing away the mud which obstructed the artillerymen at the guns. The
damage done by the enemy’s fire was comparatively trifling, and the
breaches, in all vital cases, were promptly restored. Iron gabions made
of the hoops of barrels and the bands of trusses of compressed hay,
were, for the first time, opposed to discharges of heavy metal, and
proved their excellence for defence. The Madras platform, still in use,
only added to the cumulative facts of its inutility. The Russians fired
about one shot to the besiegers’ three; yet the result of this battering
fell marvellously short of what was expected. “The sappers behaved
remarkably well” this day, and second-corporal James Edward McKimm and
private Neil McInnes, of the corps, were mentioned in brigade orders for
their energy and ardour in repairing the works in exposed situations.
The corporal was in charge of eight sappers and a detachment of the line
in the 21-gun battery, and, by his example, excited so strong an
emulation among his men, that the repairs were executed with beautiful
rapidity. Late in the day, when his parties—which had toiled for many
hours with scarcely a minute’s rest—began to show signs of exhaustion,
his conduct was marked by an energy which seemingly rekindled with his
straits. Moving from embrasure to embrasure, he worked upon the tired
powers of the men by his own manly labours, aiding them, when, from lack
of strength or spirit, they were unable to cope with the
quickly-recurring damages. McInnes and John Harris, his most willing
assistants, kept up to the last, but McInnes was the most distinguished
sapper of the day. He had charge of the repairs of three embrasures; two
of them did not require much attention, but the one numbered 17 was
pressing in its wants. The firing upon it was very hot, and while
McInnes occupied the opening, building its cheeks with sand-bags, six
men were killed, and several wounded. Captain Crofton witnessing his
extreme exposure, desired him to suspend work, but the solid man with a
calm smile declined, observing, “I want to make a good job of it.” He
was, however, not permitted to do this, for Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden
soon after appeared, and ordered him from the embrasure. A private of
the 47th helped McInnes as long as he needed sand-bags, bravely
persisting in the duty, though he had been wounded in the head.
In the course of the day a shell entered a magazine in the vicinity of
McInnes’s work, which sheared away a portion of the roof. To wait for
adventitious chances to apply his skill in such cases was not his maxim,
and so walking up to the point of danger, commenced the repair, assisted
by private Patrick Nelles and two or three men of the 47th regiment; and
though another shell struck the roof, and threw the sand with violence
in his face, he gave himself up to the work with so noble a pertinacity
that Captain Peel of the navy, eulogized his exertions to Captain
Crofton; and when the time arrived for showing the estimate made of his
soldier-like bearing and activity, he was awarded a medal for
distinguished service accompanied by a gratuity of five pounds.
“The country,” wrote Lord Raglan, “was covered with water, and the
ground was again very deep. The trenches were likewise extremely muddy,
and their condition added greatly to the labours of the men employed in
the batteries, chiefly of sailors, artillerymen, and sappers. They
conducted their duties admirably.”[175]
In the 21-gun battery the revetment of an embrasure had tumbled down and
covered the muzzle of a gun. Corporal McGinn at once jumped into the
aperture to remove the debris. Seeing him unassisted sergeant Joseph
Morant forced among the rubbish, and while the corporal laid the bags,
the sergeant shovelled up the earth and packed it to give firmness to
the structure. The day was very wet, and the earth which had fallen on
the sole of the embrasure, had become so muddy and greasy, they found it
difficult to prevent themselves slipping into the ditch. Trying and
hazardous as was the duty, the orifice was restored before the
adventurers quitted it.
In the same battery, Morant was speaking of by-gone times to two seamen,
one of whom, named Soper, had been “a school and form fellow” of the
sergeant. “This,” said he to Morant, “is not such a cricket-match as we
used to have at Portsmouth, and I’d advise you to look well to your
stumps.” Scarcely had he uttered the caution when a shot carried away
his head, and scattered his brains over the breast of his old
schoolfellow.
One sapper—private Thomas Muir—was dangerously wounded in the calf of
the right leg, while mending the embrasure of the right 68-pounder gun
in the 21-gun battery. As sergeant Morant was marching the party down
the middle ravine, he jocosely remarked to Muir, that one or the other
would be struck that day. Two hours after, Muir passed on a stretcher,
and seeing Morant, he called out with unmistakeable cheerfulness, “You
see, sergeant, I’m the first struck;” and onwards he was borne to the
camp, singing all the way, as if for the entertainment of his bearers,
some of those inspiriting Scotch airs which connected his heart with
home. Amputation was resorted to to save his life, but gradually
sinking, he died on the 15th May.
Towards the close of the day the sappers busied themselves in draining
the trenches, wretchedly deep in water and mud. Sawdust was scattered on
the platforms to relieve them from slipperiness. Sliding about in every
direction on the unctuous soil, the heavy mortars were unmanageable, and
so to help the gunners in moving them, they were supplied with iron-shod
handspikes from the engineer park. At night 58 sappers were thrown into
the left attack, and about 28 into the right, and through the darkness
and storm, though miserably wet and cold, completed all the essential
restorations by the following morning. “The officers of engineers,”
writes Major-General Jones, “and sappers and miners continue active and
zealous; the duty in this weather is very hard and severe upon them.”
For some time the field electric telegraph had been in operation under
Lieutenant Stopford. It was worked by several sappers, sergeant Anderson
being the chief executive non-commissioned officer. By the 8th April,
lines of communication were open to the stations of divisions, to the
trenches, and to head-quarters. That night the wire was laid to a cave
near the first parallel on the right attack. It was no sooner completed
than the sergeant received an order from Lieutenant Stopford to fix an
instrument and battery in the cave, to obtain two orderlies from the
covering party in the trenches, and apprise head-quarters as soon as the
service was accomplished. This done, Anderson was directed to remain and
work the instrument. Pleased with this the first appointment to the
station—a dismally picturesque spot it was—he sent and received several
messages. Among the latter was one to the general in command of the
trenches, “to open fire from every gun at daylight.” The bombardment
commenced at daybreak, but in the midst of the din, at ten o’clock in
the morning, an orderly, in breathless haste, delivered a note to the
sergeant announcing the rather startling news that no communication
could be sent to him from head-quarters, as it was supposed the wire was
cut. He was, therefore, directed to examine and repair it. With some of
the party, off he started, in a drenching rain, driving through sheets
of water and swamp, and sinking at every step midleg in mud. He did not
require to use the galvanometer to test the wire, for after bounding
over the 21-gun battery, he soon found the spot where the current was
interrupted. It was in the Woronzoff ravine, near the road, and in rear
of the battery. A Russian 68-pounder had cut the line and laid about
five feet of it bare. The duty was not devoid of danger. Shells burst
around and shots flew by, but none of the manipulators were hurt.
Removing the damaged wire, the sergeant replaced it with an approved
piece, securing the connection by two joints; and after covering it with
gutta-percha, relaid it in the furrow. It was a delicate operation to be
performed under fire and required a cool head and a steady hand to
effect it. On returning to the cave his situation was extremely
disagreeable. Driven by a cutting wind, the rain beat into the chamber,
and pattered against the faces of the operators. At whatever cost, the
sergeant was determined to maintain the instrument in working order,
and, accordingly, without any consideration for his own comfort, took
off his mackintosh, and with it hooded the instrument which was yet to
carry out important correspondences. There was no rest in the cave; the
mind was anxious, the eye on the stretch; and in that miserable hole,
for more than thirty hours, the sergeant was at his post. When relieved,
he again passed along the communication to mend it, if necessary; but in
all parts it was efficient, although he found six shot holes and several
cannon balls lying on the line. His two orderlies belonged to the 47th
regiment, intelligent and willing men, who exerted themselves creditably
in conveying the various messages to the trenches of both attacks.
Next day the bombardment was renewed. There were 36 sappers in the right
works, and 30 in the left. The ordnance organized to play on the Russian
works were about 94 pieces. Much injury was done to the magazines,
embrasures, and parapets, chiefly by the heavy rains causing the
sand-bag revetments to yield in several places. Though struck by several
shot, the magazines on the whole stood well. One in the 21-gun battery
bore up against the shock of a 13-inch shell. It was nevertheless much
riven, but rapidly repaired. A 10-inch shell exploded on a magazine
close to General Jones, simply disturbing a few sand-bags and the
superincumbent earth.
The casualties were very few. Among them was Lieutenant Graves of the
engineers, who received a contusion from stones thrown up by a shot
striking a damaged embrasure, the repair of which by a sapper he was
superintending. Private John Baston was also severely wounded and
lance-corporal Peter Towell slightly. “The sappers behaved very well in
repairing the embrasures, and even reconstructing them under fire;” and
the coolness and soldier-like conduct in this service of privates George
Harris, second company, and William Bruce of the seventh, were brought
to the attention of Lord Raglan, and also communicated to the corps in
general orders.
Early in the morning a corporal and five sappers were sent to the
Inkermann light-house battery on the extreme right of the French
position, to open embrasures and fit the work to share in the
bombardment. It was manned at the time by British artillerymen, and the
sappers were despatched to the battery at the instance of the adjutant
of the siege-train. Two embrasures only were cut through, when the eager
gunners opened fire on the enemy. So weak an armament brought upon it a
crushing cannonade, which effected considerable mischief before the
Russian fire could be drawn off to other batteries. Corporal Ramsay—“a
valuable man”[176]—“one of the best corporals at the right attack, and a
most efficient sapper”[177]—was killed by a round shot, which made a
trough in his chest and tore out his heart. Of this non-commissioned
officer Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden thus wrote: “This morning corporal
Ramsay was killed while at his duty in charge of a detachment opening
embrasures of the battery opposite to the light-house at Inkermann; and
such is the high character this non-commissioned officer bore, and such
the very high opinion entertained of his merits and services since he
joined the siege, that I am inclined to submit to the major-general
commanding royal engineer, that some recognition of his merit be
recorded in corps orders.” Impressed with the justice of this
suggestion, Lord Raglan gave directions that his name and deeds be
recorded at Chatham. Private William Taylor was severely wounded in the
right hand. Two casualties out of this weak brigade induced the
artillery adjutant to relinquish the employment of the men by day in so
fatal a spot. At night the work was completed by four sappers under the
foremanship of corporal George Cann.
During the night of the 10th there were allotted to the engineers
seventy-three sappers, who were so disposed that the repairs were
executed with promptitude. The trenches were knee-deep in mud; the night
was foggy, and the wind and rain, though heightening the miseries of the
men, scarcely interrupted their exertions. Of the 9-pounder battery on
the left attack, the revetments of one of its epaulments, penetrated by
wet, subsidized and partially tumbled down. Efforts were made to restore
it, but the morning broke before the desired solidity was attained. In
every battery of the first parallel the embrasures were rebuilt and
several magazines repaired and strengthened. Three embrasures were also
reconstructed in the Picket House battery, and several gun and mortar
platforms mended in different places. Among the numerous works on the
right, the 21-gun battery and those bearing the numbers 8 and 11 claimed
especial attention. When the working party had been removed at three
o’clock in the morning three brigades of sappers were retained to finish
the repairs. By daylight the embrasures, merlons, and parapets were all
squared, even to their crests, and ready again for action.
Sixty-six fresh sappers were at work on the 11th. With the assistance of
strong parties of the line all essential repairs were made to the
batteries, traverses, &c. Sand-bags were filled in great numbers, and a
magazine cave on the left of the second parallel of the Chapman attack
was completed. The mud was cleared away in several places to the depth
of eight inches. Pools standing in hollows or rocky localities were
drained off and a flooded magazine was relieved of the storm water by
baling. Difficulties like these added vastly to the fatigues of the
workmen, and now and then, as a shell with its roaring fuze plunged near
them, their only resource for safety was to dive into the turbid soil,
from which, when the danger passed, they arose more picturesque than
comfortable. The Major-General commanding made known in orders his
appreciation of the good conduct of the companies in performing the
laborious duties required of them in the siege.
Corporal William Hollis and private Joseph Finch were this day
distinguished among their comrades for quickness and cleverness in the
batteries, imperilled as were their lives by the enemy’s fire. It
occurred in this way. The parapet on the right of No. 8 battery in the
third parallel of the left attack had been washed down by the storm for
several yards. It was an object of great moment to restore it, with a
view to protect from enfilade a two-gun battery on its right. The ground
was so muddy the two sappers were obliged to undermine the low parapet
by drawing from it some dry earth and spreading it in the direction of
their exertions to render their task less heavy. No sooner had they
repaired the revetment with sand-bags and thickened the work as far as
an elbow of the trench, than they were appointed to clear the embrasures
of the new battery on the right for two light field-pieces to play on
the quarries, which, harbouring a nest of expert marksmen, picked off
our artillerymen at the guns. Wanted in a hurry, it was impossible to
provide platforms in the time named, and a couple of boards for one gun
having been laid to assist the recoil, in a few minutes a 9-pounder was
run up to the aperture and fired on the quarries. At every discharge the
boards sank deeper into the soil; now one, then the other was depressed
so much that the gun heeled on either side and threw it out of the line
of aim. Energetic attempts were made by the sappers to rectify the
defect by forcing earth under the plank which happened to be lower; but
the next discharge driving the boards still deeper in the mud and
tilting the gun it was evidently useless to persevere in a service which
demanded labour altogether disproportioned to its questionable
advantages. Both embrasures were finished and supplied with temporary
platforms in the night, and afterwards the battery swelled into a
formidable structure—No. 14—armed with 32-pounders.
Larger contingents of men were sent to the attacks the following night,
among whom were 90 sappers and miners. This was rather an effective
party, and the weakened works were reproduced in as strong a condition
as practicable. A new mortar-battery—No. 12 on the right—was also
completed, and the great 21-gun work, with its ragged revetments, worn
platforms, and disfigured magazines and traverses, was adjusted in a
manner that, however dexterous were the men who wearied themselves in
patching up its breaches, still bore the rugged features of its stern
resistance.