that the French had conquered, excitement was at its highest, and eager
to show how the Redan could be captured, the skirmishers vaulted
unexpectedly over the parapet from the advance saps before the party
with the ladders had time to debouch from the head of the trench. This
was an anxious moment for Lieutenant Ranken. Equal, however, to the
difficulty, he run out the sappers, carrying crowbars, axes, and a few
intrenching tools, with all speed to the front, and flew on with the
foremost ladders under a close fire of musketry and grape. The distance
between the gorge of the sap and the ditch at the salient was 197 yards,
and in striding on with the ladders across the open slope many a brave
man fell. Nevertheless there was no halting, for the stormers were
selected for the duty on account of their approved courage; and the
column pressed on to the abbattis, which was instantly trodden down or
pulled aside by the foremost men with as much ease as if the boughs had
been faggots of sticks. Through the gaps the assailants pushed, followed
unswervingly by the leading ladders, each 24 feet long, which were
quickly planted against the counterscarp of the ditch, the height of
which was barely 15 feet. The first one was planted by sergeant Leitch
and private Harris, and the latter was the first man to descend by it
into the ditch. Scrambling down, many tumbling headlong from the surge
behind and many more in the heat of desire jumping into the moat, the
stormers quickly tossed the ladders across to the escarp, up which
ascended a stream of daring fellows into the body of the work. So
skilfully were the ladders placed around the salient, that the troops in
sinking into the ditch or climbing into the Redan were but little
exposed to the flanking fire of its faces. The first portions of the
column moved on steadily to the attack, but succeeding parties running
to the head of the sap were so blown, they waited for a few minutes to
recover breath. This done, they started in fitful batches, assailed by a
withering _mitraille_. No longer in the orderly formations which
characterize the battle-field, the troops in independent groups or
sections reached the ditch, where, swelling around the salient, they
dived into the fossé, and ascended or descended the ladders, as the
events in the Redan fed their courage or starved their ardour. General
Windham, whose valour and marvellous escapes on that day have astonished
Europe, made his way into the place with some 80 or 100 men, but such
was the virulence of the fire, such the carnage, a few only of the bold
men who had had the temerity to mount the parapet could be induced,
though the General himself walked amid the deadly storm, to rush from
the traverse behind which they had shielded themselves.
Meanwhile the sappers, one of whom was appointed to every two ladders,
after assisting to rear them in the most secure and advantageous
situations, were collected by Lieutenant Ranken and set to work to form
a practicable entrance into the Redan by means of a ramp. Wherever else
their discipline failed, here it was perfect; and not a pulse of fear
seemingly beat in any breast. Earth for the ascent was tumbled from the
parapet above by a few of the party. Harris was the foremost sapper.
Under a horrible fire he bravely tried to dig himself down behind the
escarp revetment in order to push the gabions into the ditch, but the
soil had been so strongly tamped, and was otherwise so solid with shot
and shell which had poured into it from the breaching batteries that he
gave up the attempt, and employed himself in efforts which, though they
promised less, were in the end more certain of success. At this time
there was only one shovel with the party; the few intended to come up
with it had failed through casualties and accident. The hulk of the
tools were with the lodgment party still in rear. Much depended on the
use of this one shovel, but it was soon shattered to atoms in the hands
of the workman, private Oldham.
The earth was now literally pushed from the parapet, and a rough incline
in a few minutes was executed. So easy indeed was the ascent by this
simple means, that the stormers rushed up the slope, steep and yielding
as it was, in preference to climbing the ladders. As the workmen,
waiting for the signal to advance had not yet come up, Lieutenant Ranken
now appointed his sappers, aided by a few men of the assaulting column,
to throw up a breastwork to the left of the salient across the ditch, to
counteract the raking fire of the enemy. Well was it that the moat was
only eight feet broad. Had it been a yard or two more the service might
have been attended with a sacrifice of life appalling to contemplate.
Gabions and fascines and boughs of trees and small rough timbers which
had been used as binders by the Russians, were torn by some strong and
impetuous sappers from the face and crest of the counterscarp to form
the caponnière. Earth too was thrown on the rising mound from the
parapets above, and the gabions, by extraordinary zeal, were loaded with
sand and stones dislodged from the revetment and grubbed up from the bed
of the ditch. In this way partial cove was obtained, but it was yet too
shallow to protect the troops from the sharp peals of musketry which
poured up the fossé. For about twenty minutes the work was persevered in
when the impossibility of proceeding, temporarily suspended its
progress.
By this time a working party of fifty men of the 77th regiment arrived.
No signal for advancing had been given to them, for the almost hopeless
state of affairs in the Redan did not warrant the step; but corporal
Baker, a trustworthy sapper of known intrepidity and judgment, properly
anticipating there would be occasion for the services of a working
party, led the detachment to the salient, and driving into the ditch was
soon engrossed in the construction of a caponnière across its bottom, a
little on the right of the salient. While these engineering details were
being stubbornly executed, the troops in the Redan, vainly waiting for
two hours to seize an opportunity to dash into the town, many falling in
the stand they had made around the traverse, commenced the retreat. With
it retired the working party, the ladder-men and sappers; and in passing
the open—till the gorge of the foremost sap was reached—so hot was the
fire upon the repulsed stormers, that the ground was covered with
slaughtered hundreds.
The names of the storming party of sappers were—
Company.
Sergeant Peter Leitch 2nd —wounded severely in the head.
Corporal James Curgenven 10th
2nd corporal David S. Osment 1st
Lance-corporal William Baker 7th
Private John Stephens 1st
” David Boyd 1st
” William Bennett 1st
” Peter Delany 1st
” Thomas Whyte 1st
” David Carswell 1st —wounded dangerously in the head,
died 18th September, 1855.
” John T. Harris 2nd
” Samuel Hammett 2nd —wounded by grape-shot in left
leg, and while hobbling back to
the 21-gun battery, was killed
in the trenches by a round-shot,
which carried away his head.
” James Broad 7th
” James Aitcheson 7th —wounded slightly in the right
arm.
” Christopher Digweed 9th
” John Whitford 9th
” William Clark 9th
” John Oldham 9th
” John Wotherspoon 10th
” Peter Ruthven 10th
” Robert Garrett 10th
“The sappers,” writes Lieutenant Ranken, “all behaved well and exerted
themselves in carrying out my orders to the best of their power.” He
then proceeds, “I beg especially to call your attention to the conduct
of sergeant Leitch who was wounded, and corporal Curgenven who, with
privates Harris and Wotherspoon were up with the leading ladders and who
worked hard in pulling down gabions and placing and filling them
according to my instructions, and of lance-corporal Baker who came up
subsequently with the working party of the 77th, and who showed
coolness, zeal, and activity in executing my orders.”
Singular were the escapes of corporal Baker. A musket-ball passed
through his cap carrying it a few yards in his rear, and another bullet
knocking both heads out of his water-bottle struck him in the hip as if
a stone had been thrown at him. Had it not been that his canteen was
full of water, the ball in all probability would have inflicted a
dangerous wound.
It is not often that men who have but little hope of distinction before
them, voluntarily undertake a supererogatory service, in venturing which
is likely to subject them to the penalties of martial law. Such however
was the case with private John Bowman of the first company who was of
great height and strength, intrepid and useful. He had been sentry over
the tools in the quarries; but when the signal for the advance was given
he quitted his post without orders. In passing to the front he saw
Captain Sedley of the engineers in the fifth parallel severely wounded.
Tendering his assistance he placed his strong arm round the body of the
captain and holding him up by the waist-belt supported him to the rear,
where he left him in care of a few men who bore him to the camp.
Impatient to share in the assault, he now ran through the trenches, and
on his way to the Redan accoutred himself with the arms and appointments
of a slain linesman. With all haste he joined Lieutenant Ranken and
ascended the parapet, where, after firing for a time and throwing heavy
stones with his strong arm at any Russians who dared to show themselves;
he was killed. He fell on the crest of the work and then pitched
headlong into the ditch followed by a mass of earth which crushed him
beneath it.
That so few casualties occurred among the sappers of the storming party
is attributable to the manner in which Lieutenant Ranken directed the
placement of the ladders. More serious however were the casualties in
the batteries and parallels. Those struck in the trenches were—
Lance-corporal John Fulton[196]—wounded severely in the left hand by the
splinter of a shell, whilst in the fifth parallel.
Private William Brine—killed in front of the 21-gun battery. Was struck
in both arms, and also disembowelled.
” Edward Lewis—right arm shot off—amputation was performed in the
trenches, and repeated a few days after in the camp. Died 18th
September.
” John Gregory—wounded dangerously in the back. Died 17th Sept.
” Jesse Head—wounded severely in the back.
The assault having failed, Captain Montagu, who was in command of the
royal engineer department for the day, employed in the afternoon the
sappers and working party at his disposal, in continuing the right
advance sap in the direction of a rifle pit which this day’s operations
had embraced in the British circumvallation. So wearied and stricken
were the Russians by their exertions and losses that they permitted the
approach to proceed unmolested.
In the night of the 8th no sappers were told off to the left attack, but
thirty-six non-commissioned officers and men were distributed to the
lines on the right. Three sappers in charge of one hundred men of the
42nd Highlanders were thrown into the right advanced sap and prolonged
it by staking and filling one hundred gabions, in which they were only
slightly interrupted by the enemy. The remainder of the brigades and
working parties bustling among the parallels and batteries, repaired the
embrasures, merlons, and platforms. Corporal John Ross was in charge of
a party mending the embrasures of the quarry battery.
While these services were in progress fires broke out in several places
in Sebastopol, and magazines blew up which cast at intervals over the
doomed fortress a dismal glare of illumination, which was again deadened
by clouds of thick smoke hanging heavily in the air. Conceiving that
these were the throes of a general wreck, indications in fact of the
desperation with which the enemy was resigning his stronghold, corporal
John Ross who has more than once been noticed for his bravery at the
siege, went forward to test the accuracy of his surmises and search for
two missing sappers who had been left behind in the retreat. It was a
beautiful night, mild and starlight. Four or five explosions had just
taken place, which in the corporal’s view were ominous of the grave
events transpiring in the fortress. As it was not usual to interfere
with the sappers in the trenches go where they would, Ross had no
trouble to pass the pickets and sentries in the fifth parallel, and a
few more paces found him in the last approach. An artillery officer was
there looking earnestly over the parapet, but the corporal moved
silently along stepping over the bodies of the wounded, who in numbers
had crawled into the trench after the failure. Inquiring hastily whether
they had observed any Russian pickets lately, he was told they had been
withdrawn early in the night. “Have you seen any wounded sapper lying
outside?” he asked. “One straight to the front under the abattis,” was
the reply of an infantry man who had witnessed his struggles. With this
information Ross went on. It was about a quarter-past twelve o’clock
when he issued from the outlet of the sap and directed his course to the
Redan. The dead were strewn thickly on the open, and the wounded were
writhing helplessly. When near the abattis another mine was sprung in
the fortress. Ross stopped, for the coolest minds in extreme danger
hesitate to make an useless venture. The bursting of magazines and the
blowing up of forts and fortifications impressed him with the necessity
of caution; and lying still in a momentary reverie, he was again shook
into activity by falling stones from the explosions. On his hands and
knees over torn ground, cannon balls, fragments of shells, and
decomposing remains, he crept noiselessly on. Under the abattis he found
his comrade private Carswell and a sergeant of the rifles. The meeting
in such a spot was hurried, but as cordial as friendship and imminent
hazard could make it. A few interrogatories and answers were
interchanged which verified the report relative to the withdrawal of the
Russian outposts. “That’s well,” said Ross, calmly. “I’m going into the
Redan, and if all goes right I shall be back directly and have you taken
to camp.” With them Ross left his flask of rum and water, and moved
away. “Thanks—God speed you!” reached his ears in whispers as he glided
ahead cheered by the hope that Providence, which had hitherto
miraculously saved him from hurt or harm, would extend to him in this
adventure the same gracious protection. As the distance between him and
the fortress lessened his daring increased, and without a tremor to
disturb the firmness of his purpose, he found himself at the brink of
the ditch. For a short time he lay and listened. Russians might have
been there plundering the dead and alarming the dying, but not a soul
was astir. Hearing nothing but the groans of the wounded, he slid into
the fossé, clambered up the escarp by the ramp made during the storming,
and entered the jaws of a broken embrasure on the right of the salient
of the Redan. The gun was there but no artillerymen. Yet he pressed his
ear in the direction of the interior to discover, if possible, the
footsteps of the gunners or the sound of voices. All was silent, and
with a burglar’s creep, soft and wary but determined, he gained the neck
of the aperture. At either side he looked, but nothing started up to
show that the batteries were occupied. He looked ahead with straining
eyes and onwards; still, nothing could he see but huge broken works, and
streams of light shooting from burning buildings. All indeed was quiet
save the crackling timbers in the distance, the booming of mines and the
falling of houses. The Redan, that furnace of the siege, was indeed
deserted and desolate! Being alone and unarmed Ross did not descend into
the place to invite a conflict with concealed prowlers; and so after
keeping watch for a few minutes in the withered embrasure, he quitted
the opening while tongues of lurid flame jetting from clouds of heavy
smoke, enabled him to pick his way from the battery without treading on
wounded men struggling in dissolution. Charged with the possession of
important intelligence he ran across the open, recovering himself with
strange celerity as he dropped into shell holes or tripped against
obstacles that encumbered the ground; and moving with almost winged
haste to the engineer hut, he reported, about a quarter to one o’clock,
the result of his self-imposed mission to Captain De Moleyns of the
engineers.
The Redan evacuated! This was news indeed, and the captain with a young
subaltern, Lieutenant Dumaresq, strode away to authenticate by a
personal visit to the Redan the corporal’s report. He was also
accompanied by sergeant Landrey, corporal Ross and a few sappers, who
were joined in the fifth parallel by some men of the line. On the way
the corporal pointed out his wounded comrade and the rifleman. Over the
first Ross placed his greatcoat, and Lieutenant Dumaresq took off his
peacoat and spread it over the sergeant; at the same time a few of the
privates were despatched to the trenches for stretchers. The little band
now shot on briskly to the salient. Ross and a line sergeant were in
front. When the ditch was gained the party pushed into it, and quickly
ascending the escarp by the ramp, they drove through an embrasure into
the interior, where, seeing a Russian, the sergeant of the line sprang
on him, and seized him as his prisoner. No time was lost by the officers
in making a reconnaissance of the place; all sorts of dimensions were
taken and a mental inventory of its peculiarities treasured up. Between
five and ten minutes the adventurers were in the body of the work, and
as explosions were going off every few minutes, the debris from which
was falling on them, it was considered wise to return. Ross brought away
with him two Russian musquets, the first trophies from the Redan. With a
generosity equal to his bravery he gave one to Captain De Moleyns and
the other to Lieutenant Dumaresq. On the way back the party sought the
wounded men, and as the stretchers had not arrived, Ross bore away poor
Carswell and Landrey the rifle sergeant. Of the gallant demeanour of
these non-commissioned officers, Captain De Moleyns spoke commendably.
The corporal’s report, first received with incredulity, was now
satisfactorily affirmed, and General Simpson, who had intended to renew
the assault at daybreak, gave orders for the re-occupation of the place.
At the dawn of the 9th the troops marched unchecked into the Redan and
took possession of the two towns which the enemy had evacuated.[197]
“Throughout this long and arduous siege,” wrote Sir Harry Jones on the
9th, “the royal sappers and miners have invariably performed the duties
required of them in a highly satisfactory manner. Many have been
conspicuous for their bravery and coolness under fire. Their names I
brought under the notice of the Commander of the Forces, who was pleased
to reward them according to the nature of the case.
“The duties of the Adjutant to the royal sappers and miners,” adds the
General, “have been very efficiently performed by Captain Ewart, who has
devoted his best energies to the men.”
In the order issued by the Commander-in-Chief, when the occupation of
the Redan had become a settled event, occurs this passage:—
“General Simpson avails himself of this opportunity to congratulate and
convey his warmest thanks to the general officers, officers, and
soldiers of the several divisions, to the royal engineers and artillery,
for their cheerful endurance of almost unparalleled hardships and
sufferings, and for the unflinching courage and determination which, on
so many trying occasions, they have evinced.”
So ended a conflict carried through a period of 337 days made up of a
freezing winter and a wasting summer. The trenches were nearly nine
miles long, and counted 22 batteries on the right and 20 on the left,
which, for the final assault, were armed with 116 guns and 85 mortars.
In the formation of the works no less than 20,000 gabions, 4,000
fascines, 340,000 sand-bags, 7,413 bread-bags, and a hundred different
extemporized expedients had been employed to give them shape and
solidity. Some of them were of colossal magnitude and master-pieces of
field art. Rearing such formidable structures in rocky ground, amid
hardships and catastrophes, harassed by sorties, surprises, and alarms,
and opposed by tempests of shell and shot, grape, canister, and Miniés,
were exploits of toil and constancy, the lustre of which can never be
lessened by any example which history may offer as a parallel; and when
it is considered that the works were run up by men overworked and
wearied, oppressed by sickness, privation, and difficulties, and carried
on in the presence of an enemy teeming with numbers, inspired by
religious fanaticism, and protected by a stupendous array of works
backed by an arsenal exhaustless in siege appliances, in artillery, and
the engines of war, a day may come when it will be the fashion of the
world to speak less of the military achievements of old Greece and Rome,
but more of those of England and France.
-----
Footnote 196:
When lying wounded, sergeant-major Jamieson passed him. “Well,
sergeant-major,” said he, holding up his shattered hand, “this will
ruin Chelsea Hospital!” meaning, in a satirical sense, that the
_extravagant_ pension he would receive would throw the hospital into a
state of insolvency. He was discharged from the corps with a pension
of eightpence a-day.
Footnote 197:
Sir Harry Jones, in his report of the 9th September, thus wrote of the
corporal’s exploit:—“General Simpson determined to renew the assault
at daybreak the following morning, but during the night a corporal of
sappers conceiving that the enemy had retired from the Redan, crept
forward and ascertained such to be the case; as soon as this
information was received, orders were sent to re-occupy the Redan.”
1855.
SEBASTOPOL.
9th September, 1855-28th January, 1856.
Statistics—Andrew Anderson—Misconduct of the sappers—Non-commissioned
officers and men who received honours, appointments, or commissions
for their gallantry or useful services—Sergeant Samuel Cole—Field
electric telegraph—Private Fox taken prisoner—Exploring the batteries
for machines and electric wires—Commence batteries near Fort
Paul—Sappers removed to the Karabelnaia—Reinforcements from Gibraltar
and England—Driver troop to Scutari—Sapper quarters in the
docks—Huts—Companies attached to divisions of the army—Expedition to
Kinbourn—Marshal Pelissier’s acknowledgment of services of the sappers
attached to it—Sir William Codrington assumes the command of the
army—Explosion of the great French magazine—Exertions of tenth company
in arresting the fire—Gallantry in preserving the Inkermann magazine
mill—And removing live shells from the vicinity of the
flames—Construction of a magazine for small-arm ammunition—Stone
bridge over the middle ravine—Barrel causeway across its swampy
bottom—Another reinforcement from England.
The siege concluded, it may not be amiss to afford a statistical
recapitulation of matters connected with the contest which concern the
royal sappers and miners. From the commencement of the campaign nine
companies were sent to Turkey and the Crimea, as also small parties for
especial services. Some of the companies served for a period in the
unhealthy region of Varna, and detachments were employed on the Danube,
at Bucharest, and in Circassia. The united sapper force despatched to
the East up to the 9th September, 1855, counted a total of 935
non-commissioned officers, privates, and buglers. Of this number 887
reached the Crimea, the remainder being retained in Bulgaria, Scutari,
and Gallipoli for particular services, or on account of sickness which
invalided them to England.
The casualties were as follows:—
Men.
Killed in the trenches 37
Died of wounds 18
Wounded severely, who survived 42 }
Wounded slightly 61 } 103
Perished by drowning 6
Frozen to death 1
Died from frostbite 4
Found dead 2
Missing, supposed to have perished 3
Died from cholera, diarrhœa, &c. 152
———
Total 223
———
Those invalided amounted to 119 non-commissioned officers and men, of
whom 4 died in this country and many were discharged, one of whom,
private A. McConnell, had lost his feet from frost-bite. Out of a force
of 935 of all ranks there were therefore 445 casualties.