raising defences for the protection of the post. The men at Scutari
attended to the artificers’ work in the hospitals and barracks, many
being foremen, and sergeant William Sargent overseer. This
non-commissioned officer was soon after discharged and appointed civil
foreman of works at that great invalid depôt. Corporal Rinhy was the
military foreman, and a most energetic and useful man he was found.
Other non-commissioned officers were detached to the hospital-stations
on the Bosphorus as overseers. Sergeant Barnard was at Pera, sergeant
Lynn at Kulalee, corporal Cann at Ismid,[190] and corporal J. T.
Collins, after leaving the trenches in consequence of his wound, was
appointed sapper superintendent in the island of Proti, where the
Russian prisoners were confined, and for whose accommodation huts were
erected and an old Greek monastery converted into an hospital. At
Balaklava the detachment superintended the removal and erection of the
huts at the camp and elsewhere, and fulfilled various duties in relation
to the stores, wharves, and defences; while the party at the monastery
and with the telegraph were busy in carrying out the details of that
interesting field adjunct. Those at headquarters were employed in
offices and as orderlies. Sappers were appointed bâtmen from the
impossibility of retaining civil servants with the officers, and thus a
rule had been broken, which for forty-four years had been adhered to
without infringement. Of the remaining number on the rolls, there were
90 men sick in camp, and 59 dispersed in invalid ships and in the
hospitals on the Bosphorus. Taking all these details into account, there
were only 393 fighting-men left for trench-work, which will at once show
how hard must have been the duties of that half-battalion. As, moreover,
there were other indispensable services in camp which could not be
relinquished, it followed that the usual routine of the companies
necessarily appointed the same men to the trenches every other day or
intervening night; and this, continued without intermission for months,
amid varying vicissitudes of weather, of fearful exposure and untold
hardships and suffering, gives an aspect of sapper character and
endurance which few will be slow to eulogize. Indeed several of the
non-commissioned officers charged with particular services, were every
day in the trenches and sometimes even at night. Nor should it be
omitted to observe that the extreme heat of the season had so enervated
the men, that none but the most acclimatized and inured to fatigue could
bear up against its exhausting influence. Thinned, therefore, by
disease, hard work, long vigils, and night damps in the trenches and
mines, the numbers of the sick fluctuated to such an extent, that the
proportion above stated was at times considerably overshot. The
reinforcements which arrived from England to fill up the places of
casualties almost to a man fell sick from these causes, and many wanting
sinew and hardihood were removed as invalids from the camp without
seeing the trenches.
There were some works in the advance which required a nice appreciation
of intention on the part of the operatives to carry them into effect. Of
these the connection of an approach with a parallel, and one trench with
another, were among those which called for particular circumspection.
Expert men were invariably selected for those duties, whose wariness
greatly mitigated their risks. Few appeared to be more skilful in these
employments than their comrades, but on the night of the 21st, corporal
John Ross, untiring, patient, and intrepid, pushed on like a master in
the sap, and connected, under showers of grape, enough to disturb the
equanimity of the sternest coolness, the fourth parallel with an old
Russian rifle-pit in front. It will help to elucidate the business of a
sapper to describe the process by which the corporal accomplished this
service. With 200 men and a couple of privates of his own corps, he was
sent forward, after dark, to trace and form an approach between the
fourth parallel and the Russian advanced trench. Halting his men in the
parallel, each bearing an intrenching tool and a gabion, he moved to the
front with his two sappers and traced the zig-zag. Without losing a
moment he returned to the party, and to prevent confusion, led them from
the trench in single file. As each man arrived at his place, one sapper
staked the gabion, and the other instructed the workman with respect to
the space to be left for a berm and how to act in forming the parapet.
So pushed on the line of gabions, till the end one touching the
rifle-pit, approached within forty yards of the Russian trench. All the
way the ground was solid rock. To make up for this disadvantage the
corporal sent to the depôt for baskets and had the earth brought up a
distance of sixty or seventy yards. So spiritedly was everything done
through his own laborious example, that the gabions were not only filled
but cover sufficient was obtained for the miners to work in the approach
the next day. To a brisk musketry fire the party was exposed the whole
time, but the darkness of the night favoured the exertions of the
corporal and his men, and they left the boyau without casualty. Corporal
Ross’s conduct in effecting the junction was noticed in brigade orders,
and considered so deserving of reward that General Simpson ordered him
to be paid a gratuity of two pounds. Private James Lacy of the ninth
company was also noticed for his zeal in the work.
Next day private Nathanial Gillard, a rough but hardy miner, was killed
in the advance trenches on the right attack.
While no instance of applause in which the merits of the men are
concerned have been omitted, it would be unfair to hide any
indiscretions which may have subjected any of them to censure. These
pages would be incomplete if commendable deeds only were paraded and the
objectionable ones suppressed. Well is it, however, that no case of
cowardice has occurred in our ranks, although instances of natural
timidity were sometimes discovered. Neglect in the trenches amount to
offences among the sappers which in other corps would not be entitled to
more than ordinary notice. A flagrant instance occurred on the night of
the 22nd July. Very little work was done though the party was large. A
sharp fire was maintained upon the linesmen which made it difficult to
keep them to their tasks. Greatly as this may have operated in retarding
the works, the indolence of the workmen was chiefly attributable to the
carelessness of the non-commissioned officers of sappers in charge, who
added to their heedlessness a disregard of orders repeatedly given them.
Lying down in the trenches, the parties idled away their hours under the
apparent sanction of the overseers, and the names of three
non-commissioned officers seemingly unimpressed with the importance of
their responsibility, were mentioned to General Simpson.
On the 25th the linesmen appeared in the trenches in a brown linen
fatigue suit, like so many storehousemen from a sugar refining
establishment. Unrestrained by stout cloth and tight sleeves they worked
with obvious energy. This novel dress had also the advantage of enabling
the engineer to distinguish the workmen at a glance from the guard of
the trenches, and of assisting the sappers to look after their parties
and prevent attempts at straying or shirking.
On the left three more rifle-pits were sunk in sheltered spots to
command positions from which danger threatened. In broad daylight the
blasters carried out their duties in the communication leading to the
French picket near the cemetery. Many sappers were pushed into the
foremost trenches of both attacks, who blew out the rock with a spirit
that suffered no abatement, though the same men for many successive days
had given their exertions in removing impediments which nothing but
mining could reduce. Impossible to get earth in those difficult
trenches, it was even scraped from the face of the rock, and picked out
of crevices and indentations in which the sweeping wind or the rushing
torrent had lodged it. Soil carried from the rear was husbanded in
diminutive heaps, and shovelled at night on the incipient works. Clay
also was gathered for the purpose and borne in baskets to the front.
Walls of loose stones were formed in short lengths along the different
traces to protect the sappers in their progress. Without this temporary
expedient they could not have advanced. Where their lives were
imminently imperilled, the trench was not thrown forward by day, but was
simply deepened or widened by numerous small explosions. The boulders
and stones thus loosened were worked unsquared into the parapets at
dark, and all vacuities stuffed with clay or earth. So effectual were
the efforts of the blasters, it was ascertained that one sapper in
daylight upheaved enough rock to occupy nine men for four hours at night
in giving it a lodgment in the parapet.
In the valleys the besiegers had penetrated to some old walls and crazy
structures, which formed the buildings of a wild and scattered suburb.
All these were made to serve their uses, either as parts of the
trenches, or in furnishing materials for platforms and magazines. A few
brigades of carpenters having the run of the batteries, took pride in
the efficiency of their labours. In the front parallels sand-bag
loop-holes, and others of wooden troughs after the Russian fashion, were
built to scour the ravines. The latter never obtained favour with the
British riflemen, because the smoke moved lazily from the tubes and
precluded the chances of seeing the effect of the fire. Shot-holes were
plugged up in all the parapets, and breaches mended in places of arms.
Unfinished works, and embrasures ruptured by the enemy’s shot and
shells, necessitated considerable attention; but as revetting materials
had reached their utmost limit of scarcity, the Turks and Sardinians
helped by their labours to meet the deficiency. Gabions made by the
former were slack and ricketty, fit only for secondary uses, while those
put out of hand by the Sardinians were everything that could be desired.
New batteries with ample magazines were formed on rocky sites and others
powerfully enlarged. No. 18 battery, on the right attack, was armed on
the morning of the 26th July with seven 13-inch mortars, three of them
being sea-service ones. The work spread out in great length in the first
demi-parallel, nearly to the crest of the middle ravine. Some of the
earliest batteries wore an appearance of age and even permanence, for
spots of scanty verdure grew upon their slopes, and rank herbelets
sprang from shot-rents and seams. The soil had solidified, and tearing
shells had less effect upon them than younger constructions; still the
repairs they needed were generally of some magnitude, because they were
assailed by the heaviest ordnance, of the largest calibres and
weightiest missiles. For several days heavy showers diversified the
obstacles of progress and attack. Fortunately the works suffered little,
but some of the low parts of the trenches were flooded. The increase of
mud, deep as it was, was barely regarded as a difficulty, although every
tramp buried the leg to the swell and played annoying pranks with boots
and shoes inadequately secured with thongs or laces. This was far from
pleasant, and consequently efforts to avoid the pools were carried to an
extravagant pitch by many, who, sooner than soil a badly-polished boot
or draggle in mire the legs of an old pair of trousers, risked their
lives by mounting the reverse of the trench in passing to their duties.
All these discomforts were however speedily relieved, and eventually in
great part removed, by cutting tunnels through the rock and forming
channels by chisel and jumper along its face.
On the 28th at night, Major Campbell of the 46th regiment, assistant
engineer, was wounded in the back and obliged to retire from the right
attack. Sergeant Philip Morant succeeding him, it fell to his lot to
distribute the working parties to their several duties and control their
services until the day relief. It also happened on the 30th, from some
miscarriage of arrangement, that sergeant Docherty, by order of Major
Bent, was placed in charge of the workmen on the left attack. For the
day he stood in the place of an engineer and kept his widely-spread
parties in full activity. These are the only instances during the siege
in which non-commissioned officers of the corps held positions of
unusual responsibility.
Casualties from splinters of shells and flying stones, from cohorns in
the Redan, and heavy shells and carcases discharged from the collateral
works were very great. Those which occurred among the sappers from the
23rd to the end of July were as follows:—
Day 23rd—Colour-sergeant Alexander M. McLeod, slightly wounded in the
right breast. This was his second wound, having been struck in
the head on the 6th June.
Day 25th—Private Alfred Rowlett—killed on the right attack.
Night 25th—Private John Miller—killed on the left attack. Was struck
by the splinter of a shell, which carried away part of his
head when superintending 20 men employed in repairing damages
done by the Russian fire to the central boyau leading to the
fifth parallel.
Day 26th—Lance-corporal Richard Pinch—slightly wounded by the bursting
of a shell, while at work in the fourth parallel, left attack.
Night 26th—Private James Drummond—dangerously wounded on the right. It
was excessively light during the night. Grape and shell swept
over the trenches, and one of the latter on bursting broke his
thigh. He died of his wounds.
Night 27th—Private Francis Collins—wounded in right thigh—right
attack.
Night 27th—Private Roderick Stewart—wounded in right side—right
attack.
Night 28th—Private Alexander Sparks—wounded slightly in the neck in
the right advance trenches.
Day 29th—Private Robert Sharp—severely wounded in right leg, by the
splinter of a shell, while cutting the shell-room in No. 17
battery, left attack.
Entertaining a predilection for sorties, the Russians attempted an
attack on the night of the 2nd August, sending forth a small force to
feel the way, intending, if access were readily attainable, to rush upon
the quarries with powerful columns. Driving up the Woronzoff ravine, the
enemy was brought to a stand by the iron chevaux-de-frise which crossed
the valley and blocked up the road. Confused movements and the clanging
of arms was heard by the British picket in the ravine, who, thus put on
their guard, opposed the assailants with volleys of musketry, from which
the Russians turned and ran into their works, leaving, however, the
impress of their perseverance in the partial destruction of the
chevaux-de-frise. During the sortie the fire by the besieged upon the
right demi-parallel was very fierce. Five sappers and 45 men, altering
its direction from a curvilinear trench to a straight one, held
unflinchingly by their tasks and acquired much credit for their labours.
Lance-corporal John Miller was killed on the right attack.
Sergeant Docherty went into the ravine after the Russians had retired to
ascertain the extent of the damage. He passed along the entire length of
the barricade. The centre was embedded in sand washed down by heavy
rains. As it could not be readily dislocated, its spikes were stricken
off by the enemy at the axis. Most of the chains which connected the
tubes were wrenched from their staples, the flank pieces drawn aside,
and gaps at intervals occurred along the line. There were only seven
portions of the chevaux-de-frise left in a serviceable state, and such
of the other tubes and spears as could not be borne away in the flight
were broken with sledge hammers and scattered in fragments to wide
distances over the ground. The sergeant’s little episode was not without
its risks; for the ground was dangerous and the enemy’s picket-house
near. While Docherty was busy ascertaining the extent of the demolition,
the moon rose brightly above and he was perceived. One bullet after
another whizzed in his direction and two of them perforated his
greatcoat, but he cleverly eluded the Russian riflemen by creeping up a
rut in the side of the ravine, which worn away by storm-flows, was
sufficiently deep to cover him. On returning to the trenches he reported
the result of his reconnaissance to the assistant engineer on duty,
Lieutenant Jones of the 46th regiment.
Next day there were 97 sappers in the trenches of the left attack
principally occupied in blasting hard ground in the advance saps. With
the aid of line quarrymen, there were turned into the parallels at least
80 blasters at every relief. The non-commissioned officers
superintending the miners on the 4th August were noticed in the official
journal. Their names are here preserved, having as overseers
superintended the formation of works which in after time, looking at the
danger and extreme difficulty of their execution, may doubtlessly be
held up as examples of extraordinary toil. These were second-corporals
Robert Hanson, John Paul, and James Hill, all of whom received promotion
for “conducting operations of the siege entrusted to them with ability
and perseverance whilst under a constant heavy fire.” Speaking of the
first Colonel Gordon of the engineers acknowledged, under date the 6th
December, that he was one of the “most distinguished in the corps for
bravery, and had just received a step of rank ”—that of corporal—“for
very distinguished service in the field.” This eulogium had reference to
his intrepid services on the left attack, from the beginning of May to
the end of the siege, in conducting the blasting operations for forming
the fourth and fifth parallels from the double sap to the cemetery.
Hanson was an indefatigable man, uniting to a strong frame vigour of
purpose and great energy, which led to his selection by Major Bent to be
one of his standing overseers. Boring rock was a tedious and
uninteresting sort of employment. It chafed many a brave spirit, who
would have preferred the rash hazards of assault to the plodding
exertions and quiet discretion of a resigned miner. Besides its hard
difficulties it was attended with perpetual risks. The ringing of
hammers on the jumpers boring the rock, and the rising clouds of smoke
from the blasts, gave indications so certain that projectiles of all
kinds, from the invisible Minié bullet to the raging shell, were
directed against the quarriers. So greatly exposed were these parallels,
especially on the crest of the ravine and in driving down its broken
side, that the casualties were excessive. Still, though the working of
them was one continued adventure, Hanson moving among his parties early
and late, day after day without missing a tour, was never touched!
So extensive now was the work for carpenters in the front it was found
necessary to break in upon the routine of the rollster and send them
irrespective of any assumed periods of relief to the trenches. Even
those of the corps employed in the parks were added to the skilled
resources of the engineers in both attacks. Magazines and platforms
required repairs in every battery and new huts were wanted for doctors.
Little clusters of these craftsmen were told off to every work, and
without making a marvel of their exertions it is not the less creditable
to say that their perseverance and quickness under the superintendence
of non-commissioned officers who were citizens of the trenches, were, if
not astonishing, highly satisfactory.
The chevaux-de-frise demolished on the 2nd, which left a clear passage
for a sortie of between 45 and 50 yards, was almost made good in one
night by a few sapper blacksmiths, under a direct fire of Miniés,
shells, and grape. More would have been accomplished, but it was found
an intricate matter in the dark to fellow the iron fitments. Next night
two of the men repaired to the ravine to finish the barricade, but
unable to procure help from the guard of the trenches, the moon rose
upon them before the gap was filled up, and it was left for a subsequent
night to complete the junction.
In the night of the 4th the moon again was up, and undimmed by mist or
cloud, shone brightly over the trenches, telling our secrets to the
Russians ensconced in concealed pits. Harassed in their work, the
workmen in the fifth parallel of the right attack were withdrawn to less
open trenches. The firing upon Nos. 17 and 20 batteries was very warm
and the casualties heavy. The line officer in charge was dangerously
injured, and between 20 and 30 other accidents occurred, among whom were
a corporal and two sappers slightly wounded.
On the 6th August sergeant George Jarvis, a useful and pushing overseer
and accredited to be one of the most competent, gallant, and go-ahead
sergeants of the left attack, held a roving superintendence with a party
of 54 men of the 68th regiment and 4 sappers. With broken stones they
filled up the shot holes and craters in the second, third, and fourth
parallels, and also collected loosened rock in heaps to be worked into
the parapets at night. Sand-bags and gabions at this time were very
scarce. In some works they could not be had. The latter, heavy with wet
and bulged and ricketty by pressure and hard service, were nevertheless
made to do duty in the front, intermixed with gabions woven with the
iron hoops of broken barrels. These, with beef casks, worn tubs, and
fascines tied with rope-yarn, strips of hide or iron bands, were the
staple of the new constructions; and bread or biscuit bags, laid with
gingerly care, formed faces to the revetments, backed by blocks of rock
rolled into the parapets by manual labour. Even coal-sacks, heavy as
they were when filled with earth, were found to be useful auxiliaries to
the sand-bags. With singular abnegation the stalwart sailors mended
their own embrasures, supervised by a few of the old sappers; and in
driving some new communications gave material help, overriding by their
strange but energetic combinations and procedure the more orderly but
less picturesque efforts of disciplined troops.
On the 8th, though a storm broke over the trenches, choking up the
channels and beating down the parapets, the men still worked. Many
casualties were counted in the advance saps that day, two of whom were
sappers—privates Matthew Hall wounded in the head, and John Fraser in
the face, both slightly.
In the following night, the play of cohorn shells was more grand and
vivid than hurtful. As many as sixteen of these missiles were screaming
in the air at one time, marking their vicious courses through the
darkness by a continuous burst of fire. Several of them pitched in the
unfinished portions of the fifth parallel of the right attack, where
parties of sappers and some men of the 31st regiment were busy reversing
an old Russian trench. Corporal Curgenven, who was in charge, seeing no
absolute shelter anywhere hugged the parapet closely, as did also a
sergeant and an officer of the 31st who fell in line behind the
corporal. Just then a shell burst above, scattering its splinters
without apparently touching any one. “Are you hit, corporal?” asked the
sergeant. “Not I,” said Curgenven, cheerfully. “Depend upon it you are,”
returned the sergeant, “for a fragment fell so near you, I wonder you
are alive to say you escaped.” When about to withdraw from the parapet,
the corporal felt so heavy a weight on his hand, he fancied a portion of
the revetment must be bearing on it. He was soon undeceived. A splinter
had struck him, benumbing the limb to such an extent that the sensation
produced was one of overpowering pressure. After satisfying himself that
no bones were broken, and binding up his hand which was bleeding and
much swoln, he resumed work as if nothing had transpired to cause him a
moment’s uneasiness.
It was a hard matter when grape showered among the parties to keep them
at their tasks. From this cause in the same night very little progress
was made. An unarmed detachment appointed to cut a drain to the front on
the left of the fourth parallel of the right attack wavered in its
performance notwithstanding the personal risks and labours of the sapper
in charge to win their firmness and zeal. At daybreak on the 11th
sergeant Jarvis was again the chief sapper superintendent on the left,
and with a force of sixty linesmen attended to the general drainage of
the trenches. In the following night forty men were employed clearing
loosened rock in the fifth parallel and building traverses. This party,
under corporal Cray, whose constant faithfulness and ardour secured him
many commendations, worked exceedingly well. On the 12th there were
ninety-eight sappers mostly miners, boring and blasting in the fourth
and fifth parallels. This was the largest force of sappers in the
trenches of either attack at one time, except on the 3rd March, the
first night of breaking ground for No. 7 battery of the left attack. At
midnight on the 14th, twenty-five men in charge of a corporal of
sappers, extending the fifth parallel of the right attack to the white
Russian rifle pit, were opposed by shells and shot, which breaking the
rock threw the stones into the gabions; but one striking more
effectually tore up the last-pitched gabion and dashing it at the
corporal knocked him down. Next day private Alexander Weir, a strong and
pushing miner, was killed on the left attack; and in the succeeding
night sergeant William Wilson on the right attack was entrusted with
raising from the trace a 2-gun battery (No. 21) to enfilade the right
face of the Redan. It was built on the right central boyau leading to
the fourth parallel.