of the second parallel, second-corporal James Fraser—a fearless young
non-commissioned officer—was killed. Fraser was working in an
embrasure—a mere crag, so complete was its disruption—patching up the
left cheek with sandbags, while corporal McEachern was reconstructing
the right one. The firing on the battery was very fierce, but the two
corporals, stript to their trousers and shirts, toiled away with
dauntless perseverance. “Never mind the rascals,” said Fraser, with an
encouraging smile, “we’ll finish it in spite of them.” Such was his
determination; but a few moments after, he was blown from the embrasure
by a round shot, which carried away his right arm and the whole of his
breast and ribs, exposing his quivering heart. McEachern heard the shot
pass and felt the heat which its velocity imparted; and on turning round
to see how his comrade had fared, he saw him doubled up on a pile of
projectiles and the gunners and workmen gathering up his remains.
McEachern had seen too many such catastrophes to slacken his energies,
and so resuming the work as if nothing had happened he left it only when
the cheeks were finished.
Private John Malcolm, an hour after, was sent into the same embrasure to
clear the sole, as the gun in its rear could not be sufficiently
depressed to fire with advantage. Stripped to the work, he was
shovelling away the debris, when a splinter from a shell struck him
severely on the head. At the instant, he fell from the aperture to the
platform, and the next moment a shower of fierce stones fell on him,
fretting his flannel shirt as if a rasp had torn it up and wounding him
in both shoulders.
In the night following there were 59 sappers in the front, who were
succeeded next morning by 71 men. Many laboured at the different
batteries and privates John Sykes and William Orr, in charge of No. 10
battery, left attack, were named to Lord Raglan as having behaved with
conspicuous zeal and coolness in removing the debris of broken gabions
and split-bags from the disfigured embrasures and rebuilding the cheeks.
So heavy was the fire at the time, that one gun was disabled in the
battery and some of the artillery carriages injured. General Jones was
an eye-witness of the manly way in which Orr entered the embrasures
between the rounds of fire, and of his unruffled exertions to clear the
soles and mend the revetments; and when the general had it in his power
to mark, in a substantial manner, his appreciation of the private’s
intrepid demeanour, he obtained for him a “distinguished service” medal
and a gratuity of five pounds.
Before nightfall the lodgment was made completely defensible, and a
chevaux-de-frise was fixed, in the shape of a half moon, by a few sapper
blacksmiths, some distance in front, to protect the working parties from
sudden assaults.
It was about this time that the companies, in the midst of their
exertions and trials, eked out sufficient leisure from their camp duties
to show their reliance upon that religion which alone could sustain and
console them in vicissitude and peril. The _edifice_ they erected in
which to offer up their devotions was characteristic, and the following
account of it, transcribed from the ‘Daily News,’ gives a fair view of
the details of this improviséd and unique military cathedral:—
“One among the many interesting objects in the British camp before
Sebastopol is the Sappers’ church, ‘right attack,’ where the Rev. Mr.
Taylor officiates. Its structure affords an excellent example of the
adaptation of local circumstances to a particular object. It is built
wholly of siege apparatus; but these are neither injured nor rendered
unfit for their ultimate purpose; on the contrary, the materials are so
arranged that they are only in store, as it were, ready for use as soon
as required. The articles employed in the construction have been
scaling-ladders, gabions, fascines, timbers ready cut and shaped for
gun-platforms, a few planks, and some pieces of rope. Two
scaling-ladders locked into each other at the top, so as to give and
derive mutual support, form, at certain intervals, the columns which
separate the aisles from the body of the church, and bear the roof. The
framework of the outer wall is made by long upright timbers, which lean
against the summits of each set of ladders respectively, and are secured
by cords. Across these a few joist-beams are lashed, and the outer wall
of gabions, though thicker at the base than above, in a great degree
rest against these horizontal supports. To form the wall the gabions are
placed end to end, one above the other, until they reach the height of
the roof. Nothing can be more agreeable, during the heat of the day,
than the sensation produced by the air entering through this gauge-work
of twigs; it passes freely, but is so sprinkled, as it were, in its
passage—its force is so broken, that, however strong without, it fails
to cause any unpleasant disturbance within. The sun’s light is broken
with an equally pleasing effect, for the rays which find their way in
are so refracted and disturbed, that all glare and dazzle are prevented.
The roof is made by the platform timbers laid between the tops of the
ladders on each side, and at right angles to these the fascines are laid
in regular rows, until a complete covering is formed. The roof is light,
admits of course of free ventilation, and gives a perfect protection
against the direct rays of the sun. At the end opposite the entrance
into this truly military church, a semicircular sweep is given to the
gabion wall, and in the recess thus formed several sacks stuffed with
straw are arranged, to form a reading-desk and kneeling-cushion for the
preacher. Planks are laid on each side from ladder to ladder, resting at
a convenient height on the lower rails, and these benches are
appropriated for the use of the weak and convalescents from the
hospital; the other soldiers stand during the service.
“When the Union-Jack has been thrown over the primitive reading-desk
above mentioned, and the clergyman is in his usual robes, and the
engineers and sappers are filling the space in their military costume,
all seems so appropriate and in such harmony, that should a visitor be
among the number of the congregation, he soon ceases to feel the
peculiarity of the place, and forgets, while engaged in the service,
that he is not in one of the ordinary churches, with its stoned walls
and steepled roof, in his own mother-country. Now and then the attention
of the listener to the “mission of peace and good-will among men” may be
distracted for a moment by the heavy thunder of a gun, or the bursting
of a shell; for the Sappers’ church is on one side of the ravine leading
to Careening Bay, and since the Russian redoubts and French works have
been established on the heights above, such sounds have become frequent
on all days, and at all hours of the week. But the sappers themselves
know that their yard is out of range, though only just out of it, and
habit in this, as in other matters, produces its usual effect. The gun
is discharged, the shot whizzes through the air, and the shell explodes;
but the sounds, if heard, are not heeded, for the attention is otherwise
occupied.”
By the 10th June, on which date there were 94 sappers in the front, the
batteries were all in admirable order, another screen overlooking the
Woronzoff road was finished, and the lodgment and its communications
looked grim with details which promised to be formidable when completed.
On that day, fifty men of the line had been thrown into the quarries to
assist in converting them to the besiegers’ will; but after a while, so
accurate and fierce was the fire upon them from a mortar and a gun on
the right of the tower, that the party was necessarily withdrawn.
“Whistling Dick,” from the mortar alluded to, was doing its best to thin
the workmen; but luckily its terrific presence was unaccompanied by any
serious disaster. Still the sappers, twelve in number, were retained at
this dangerous spot; and working away amid descending shells bursting in
all directions and splinters driving even into obscure angles, they
strengthened the parapet by building stones into the revetment, made
loopholes, and continued the formation of the banquette. At three
o’clock in the afternoon, Captain Browne of the engineers, persevering
in his endeavours to work the lodgment, sent other fifty men into it who
laboured in the quarries till regularly relieved. More than fifty
casualties occurred in and about the quarries during the day; among
these was private William Lang who was dangerously wounded by a shell
which carried away his arm. A group of his comrades, who were near at
the time, threw themselves down to avoid its splinters. Awful moments
followed, each expecting, but hoping to escape the death that seemed
inevitable. Fortunately the shell buried itself in the earth, then
fizzed in paroxysms for a few seconds, when, grinding further into the
soil, the fuze providentially was smothered. Another sapper, name
unknown, was wounded in the left attack.
Seventy men of the corps were in the trenches during the night of the
10th scattered over the works of the two attacks. The lodgment, still
offering occasion for anxious solicitude, progressed with energy and a
new trench was formed on a segmental trace in front of the quarries,
taking the captured ambuscade as the base of the figure. The spring of
the bow issued from the right of the lodgment, then, bending away in an
arch, abutted on the left of the quarries. The trench was clear of the
salient of the Redan, but intersected the Malakoff abattis at a point
where a gap had recently been made by a round shot from the besiegers.
All the gabions, 180 in number, which lined the excavation, were staked
and filled before the morning. Not a shot or bullet came in the
direction during its progress. Twelve sappers were appointed to this new
trench, who, receiving the gabions from the line, placed them on the
sweep of the curve with a rapidity and sprightliness so marked, it
seemed as if the men were chasing each other to the goal. The workmen
were chiefly of the 19th regiment, by whom, and a party from the light
division, about 180 in all, the gabions were filled.
Next day there were 103 sappers in the lines, and 74 at night. At
daybreak on the 12th, there were 81 men in the front. Considerable
exertions had been made in mining on the left attack, principally in the
round-hill parallel, where, stopped by rock at every step, not a move
could be made ahead, till by great bodily exertion, and patient coolness
against inevitable personal risks, the obstruction was blown away.
Laborious and fatiguing as were these duties, they were executed with no
abatement of care; and it may be mentioned that from the first, out of
thousands of blasts fired successfully throughout the works, and many
more which failed in critical situations, only two accidents by mining
had occurred. A more striking proof of the proficiency of the men need
scarcely be adduced. The sufferers were private John Stancombe who lost
the sight of one of his eyes, and lance-corporal William Eastley who was
severely wounded by a stone of about 14 pounds weight striking him in
the back. The former was blown up, and receiving the blast full in his
face, blood poured from a hundred punctures, and when the wounds were
healed, his skin was thickly speckled with blue marks as if elaborately
tattooed by some unskilful mariner.
Leaving a party of fourteen rank and file at Yenikale, the remainder of
the company with Sir George Brown’s expedition re-embarked on the 11th
June under Captain Hassard and landed at Balaklava on the 14th.
Lieutenant Anderson was located at Yenikale with six sappers, and
Captain Stanton and Lieutenant Drake proceeded with the rest to Cape St.
Paul. The works to defend these captured positions were commenced
respectively on the 15th and 18th June, the French superintending one
portion, the English the other, both assisted by strong parties of
Turks, sometimes as many as a thousand a-day at each fort. At Yenikale
some old houses were pulled down which furnished timber for the works,
and when this source failed, planking and nails were obtained from some
stranded vessels in the channel. The lines consisted of a cordon of
trenches with a strong lunette in rear and a series of rifle-pits in
front. The stockades, platforms, and the folding loopholed gates of the
lunette were chiefly executed by the sappers, who, after the 14th July,
worked in concert with the French in continuing the covered way on the
right to the sea. On the 4th August, Lieutenant Anderson and his sappers
reappeared in the trenches before Sebastopol.
At Cape St. Paul the intrenchments, extending more than a thousand yards
inland, abutted on bold precipices overhanging the sea. Following the
contour of a broken country, the knolls embraced in the lines became so
many salients armed with one or more field-pieces. Strong works were
thrown up in advance of the main trenches to flank them, and
rifle-screens were constructed on eminences to command access to the
wells, which, situated about 1200 yards in front of the works, were open
to hostile interference. The hard nature of the soil in some places
prevented the digging of ditches, and to counteract the defect,
escarpments were erected about 12 feet high. A considerable portion of
the redoubt at the extreme inland angle of the trenches was built with
rough stones, faced by hewn blocks of a softer kind, accumulations of
which were found already dressed and fit for use. Around St. George’s
Hill huge boulders encumbered the trenches, which in time were borne up
by manual strength and built into the parapets. Thunderstorms frequently
occurring, the rains beat down portions of the earthen cover, which were
renewed, though at great labour, with less yielding expedients. A
mamelon, too, was wholly cut away to insure completeness in the
defences, and the isolated battery on the promontory of Akbornou,
standing up with a cold and truculent aspect, was levelled to the rock
out of which it sprang. At that point was thrown up a bastioned trench
by the 71st regiment to protect the right of the position. The sappers,
eight in all, first under Captain Stanton, then Lieutenant Drake,
superintended the construction of the several works, and returned to
Sebastopol in the middle of December. Corporal McKimm and lance-corporal
R. Crawford Cowan, two excellent sappers both of whom had been named
with honour for their gallantry at the siege, were with the party.
At night on the 12th, Lieutenants Elphinstone and Graham traced the
first portion of the fifth parallel facing the right flank of the Redan.
They had with them second corporal George H. Collins and private Moncur,
two smart and reliable sappers, to whom the executive superintendence of
the work was intrusted. After completing the trace, 7 other sappers and
120 of the line commenced a boyau from the most advanced trench in front
of the quarries. Fifty-six gabions were laid and filled in this
approach, and then the sappers run along the new parallel with fifty
other gabions, placing ten more at the extremity of the series, with a
short obtuse angle backwards, to screen the linesmen while filling the
baskets and forming the parapet of the new work. Alarms twice occurred
which caused the workmen to retire. Collins, indisposed to yield to a
questionable danger, went some distance to the front to ascertain if
there existed any reason for it; but seeing nothing to justify the
retreat, he encouraged the men to return and they readily resumed work.
The relief had been in the trench some time when the second interruption
took place. Again Collins restored confidence by mounting the parapet
and there remaining till the ill-founded fears of the linesmen had
subsided. Both parties, nevertheless, worked very well and obtained
excellent cover. The sappers were on duty at this new sap for seventeen
hours without relief.
The following detail shows the force of sappers furnished by night and
day for front duty during the period comprised in the table.
Ever-varying circumstances caused the number to fluctuate, so that with
each party it was hardly possible to afford a stronger contingent of
overseers than was marched at daybreak and at dusk into the trenches:—
Attacks. No. of Officers on Duty.
Men.
Night 12th June Right 48 Lieuts. Elphinstone and Graham.
Left 33 Capt. Belson and Lieut. Donnelly.
Day 13th ” Right 40 Capt. Browne and Lieut. Darrah.
Left 63 Major Chapman, 20th regt., assist. eng.
Night 13th ” Right 40 Lieut. Fisher.
Left 32 Captain Jesse and Lieut. Neville.
Day 14th ” Right 44 Lieuts. James and Somerville.
Left 65 Capt. Penn, R.A., assistant engineer.
Night 14th ” Right 40 Capt. De Moleyns and Capt. Wolseley,
90th, assistant engineer.
Left 36 Capt. Armit and Lieut. C. G. Gordon.
Day 15th ” Right 40 Lieuts. Graves and Graham.
Left 49 Lieut. Donnelly.
Night 15th ” Right 40 Capt. Browne and Lieut. Darrah.
Left 34 Capt. Belson and Major Chapman, 20th.
Day 16th ” Right 40 Lieut. Elphinstone and Major Campbell,
46th, assistant engineer.
Left 42 Lieut. Neville.
Night 16th ” Right 40 Lieuts. Murray and Fisher.
Left 35 Capt. Jesse and Capt. Penn, R.A.
Day 17th ” Right { 32 Lieuts. Murray and Fisher.
{ 44 Lieuts. James and Somerville.
Left 24 Lieut. C. G. Gordon.
Night 17th ” Right 12 Capt. Wolseley, 90th, assist. engineer.
Left 23 Capt. Armit.
Day 18th ” Right 20 Capt. De Moleyns.
Left 24 Capt. Armit and Lieut. Jones, 46th,
assistant engineer.
During these few days, as an assault was in contemplation, the line
workmen were active and pushing. Rather strong parties of sappers
superintended them, who also cut and formed the embrasures, and took the
lead in the new trenches where the skill of craftsmen was indispensable.
The lodgment was now wholly completed, communications to it were
perfected, and a boyau, issuing from the left of the quarries, had been
thrown up with almost daring impertinence for about 120 yards towards
the Redan. The gabions were lodged by some sappers in so ready and firm
a manner it seemed as if they possessed a genius for such enterprises.
Far from being reckless, they advanced, though diligently and coolly, by
prudential efforts; and thus effected, so to speak, their own
deliverance; while the line, less calculating the danger of their work
and less of course accustomed to it, were struck down in rather serious
numbers. A new battery, No. 16, for three 32-pounders, and one for four
mortars, No. 17, also rose up in the vicinity of the lodgment. Rapidly
they were completed with magazines, platforms, and traverses, and the
guns and mortars, drawn at night to their positions by the track from
Egerton’s rifle-pit, were promptly placed on their beds, armed with
gunners, and worked with more or less fury as occasion served against
the enemy. When all was done the half-moon chevaux-de-frise of spikes
was withdrawn from the front and piled up in the lodgment.
On one of these nights ten men of the infantry under a sapper were sent
to repair a bridge over which the ammunition was usually conveyed to the
batteries in the third parallel. The bridge spanned the fourth boyau a
little in rear of No. 13 battery of the left attack. Sergeant Drew set
the men to work; but as the shelling was warm on the spot the party
asked to be removed. It was of some moment to repair the smashed
timbers, and the sergeant urging the men by an appeal to their courage
to resume the work, said he would visit them again in ten minutes. He
reappeared within the time appointed, but the whole party had decamped.
Going in quest of them, he found that two of the men had been severely
wounded, and the rest were carrying them on stretchers to the rear.
Looking abroad on the works which now spread over many miles of ground,
meshed by cross-trenches in all directions, it was obvious that nothing
had been omitted which it was in the nature of foresight, resource, or
exertion to have executed. In every battery the revetments had been
strengthened or rebuilt; the gabionades improved or restored, and
cheeks, merlons, traverses, magazines, and every imaginable desiderata
attended to with spirited pertinacity. The usual expedients for field
constructions had long since began to fail, but now their deficiency was
largely felt. Still never at a loss for schemes, the engineers applied
all sorts of agencies, regarding nothing as crude or trivial, to perform
in emergencies effectual parts in the great siege. Iron and wooden
hurdles, powder-boxes and ammunition-cases, were thus pressed into the
service to do the work and stand the wear of better contrivances.
Frequently molested by riflemen and shelled from the batteries, the
sappers and pioneers held their posts with unflinching constancy, and
each succeeding night saw the restoration of the day’s havoc. Even in
the glaring sunlight the most essential repairs were executed, while
shot and shell were dropping around and Minié bullets were pinging over
the parapets and thugging into the slopes. A rifle-screen on the right
attack was erected in one night on the very edge of the cliff to sweep
the ravine, which harboured in its cavities the Russian sharpshooters.
It was difficult of access, but to lessen the danger of reaching it, a
species of approach was formed to protect the light troops while driving
into the pit. Ten men of the line prepared the screen superintended by a
sapper. The 21-gun battery, as of old, received material help to make
vigorous and solid its vast proportions and to mend its long inventory
of damages. It was the head-quarters for the right-attack, from whence
the working parties, guided by the sappers, filed off to their appointed
duties. The batteries on Greenhill, the picket-house, and those in the
foremost parallels, were also attended to with equal promptitude and
maintained in a state remarkably efficient.
None laid the platforms or built the magazines, splinter-proofs, &c.,
but the sappers. Everything, indeed, which came under the denomination
of artificers’ work, was executed by them. The fixing of platforms was
only second in importance, as far as hazard was concerned, to the
formation of the embrasures. Repeatedly the carpenters were called upon
in broad daylight to render them serviceable. Relaying sprung sleepers
or planks, and renewing cleets or bolts broken by the violence of the
fire or a tearing recoil, were frequently attended to whilst the siege
was at its highest; and the only protection which the carpenters
received under such circumstances was the scanty cover of a shallow
genouillère, with perhaps a sapper or two in the gorge busy mending the
cheeks of a shivered embrasure. In former sieges the laying of a
platform under fire was held to be an act of great personal daring; but
in this wonderful enterprise, it was so much a habit of the sappers to
see to this particular detail, that it passed among occurrences as a
common matter.
What is an embrasure? So much has been said about it, it needs the
question; and the answer may not be misplaced here. Look at one while
the battle rages. It is a formal cut in a mound of earth, taking the
shape of a wedge, with the broad end to the enemy, the narrow to the
platform. The narrow end is called “the neck,” and possesses just width
enough to admit a man or the muzzle of a gun. It then extends to the
front for more than twenty feet with a widening orifice, ten or twelve
feet broad at the greatest expansion, which is designated “the mouth.”