Inkermann. With the exception of a proportion of those who died from
cholera, all the rest of the casualties occurred in the Crimea. Nearly
all the men that were wounded were struck, strangely enough, on the
right side. The men drowned were wrecked in the Black Sea during the
storm of the 14th November, 1854. Private James Deacon was frozen to
death; corporal Thomas Leonard, lance-corporal Joseph Gordon, and
privates Jonas Cole and John Porter died from frost-bite; those found
dead were privates A. Anderson[198] and John C. Guy; and those missing
were privates Thomas Callaghan, John G. Williams and James Thomas. The
two former were lost after the battle of the Alma. Suffering from
cholera and unable to march—one on the banks of that stream and the
other on the Katcha—they were left behind to embark for Scutari, and
most probably perished in some miserable nook on the Kalamitean shore.
Thomas was sent an invalid from the camp to Balaklava on the 2nd
November, 1854, and is supposed to have been nipped by the frost, and
died away from the track of men from cold and exhaustion. A strict but
fruitless search was set afoot to ascertain their unhappy fate.
Four privates of the corps deserted from its ranks in the Crimea, but
none of them entered the service of the enemy. Intrusted as the sappers
were with important duties, and its privates even invested with
authority in the trenches, it may occasion surprise that the
self-respect arising from these circumstances did not check them from
the commission of gross delinquencies. Like their brothers in arms, too
many of them fell by similar temptations, and the inordinate use of
strong drinks—an habitual and disgusting practice with several—subjected
a large catalogue of offenders to that description of disgrace which the
enlightened humanity of the country had, after years of agitation,
reduced to a few stripes. It was found one of the chief difficulties of
command to arrest the pitch to which the vice had risen, and Colonel
Gordon tried the effect of a monthly _exposé_. After showing that for
three months ending 30th November out of an average force of 687
non-commissioned officers and men no less than 11 in every 100 per month
had been awarded punishments of various kinds, he thus wrote in his
orders of the 3rd December, 1855:—“Such a record would bring shame on
any corps on home service. In the field it brings positive disgrace on
the royal sappers and miners. Till the flood of drunkenness has abated,”
continued the Colonel, “and there remains no longer a necessity of
recording our disgrace as a means of helping to remove it, a similar
return to the above will be published monthly.” And what was the result?
The habit of intoxication still went on; and in March, 1856, when the
last account was published, the number of instances of drunkenness out
of a strength of 766 of all ranks had swelled to 16 in every 100 men per
month, or 4 daily, on the whole strength. A public charge like this it
would have been unjust to suppress; and though the light it affords is
rather a lurid one, it may still serve as a beacon to avoid, in future,
the shoals of excess, and lead to the improvement which the stern
confessions of history are intended to effect. Though the truth is
stated, there is no ground for supposing that the corps was more
addicted to intemperance than other troops. Its offences had been
recorded with almost conscientious scrupulousness; and if in other
regiments the same strictness has been followed, a comparison, could
such be instituted, would not yield a result unfavourable to the
sappers.
As a rider to these frailties, let it be repeated how heroic was the
general demeanour of the men in the batteries and trenches. In the order
alluded to occur these sentiments:—“Colonel Gordon has great
satisfaction in knowing there are plenty of men who have nobly done
their duty in the field, and who have conducted themselves well amidst
the prevailing drunkenness.... Great is their merit. Their good example
is more than ever required, and Colonel Gordon thanks them; and he begs
them to persevere in upholding the reputation of the corps.” These pages
testify to many individual cases. Not a few were rewarded with pecuniary
grants; many received promotion, and a chosen number received medals and
honours for their gallant services before Sebastopol.
Those upon whom were bestowed medals for “distinguished service in the
field,” accompanied by gratuities, were:—
Colour-sergeant Henry McDonald annuity of 20_l._ a-year.
” Alexander M. McLeod gratuity of 15_l._
Corporal Samuel Cole[199] ” 10_l._
2nd corporal John Paul ” 10_l._
” William Trimble ” 10_l._
Lance-corporal Joseph T. Collins ” 5_l._
” William Jenkins ” 5_l._
” Charles Rinhy ” 5_l._
Private William Harvey ” 5_l._
” William Orr ” 5_l._
” William Bruce ” 5_l._
” Alexander McCaughey ” 5_l._
” James Moncur ” 5_l._
” Neil McInnes ” 5_l._
” Andrew Fairservice ” 5_l._
Those who obtained the French military war medal “for valour and
discipline,” were:—
Colour-sergeant Kester Knight.
Sergeant John McMurphy.
Corporal John Ross.
” Robert Hanson.
” William J. Lendrim.
2nd corporal Walter Conning.
Private John Perie.
The non-commissioned officers created Knights of the Imperial Order of
the Legion of Honour of France by the Emperor Napoleon III., as a mark
of His Imperial Majesty’s approbation of their distinguished services
before the enemy during the war, were:—
Colour-sergeant Henry McDonald.
” John Landrey.
” Kester Knight.
” George Jarvis.
” Peter Leitch.
” Joseph J. Stanton.
Sergeant John Paul.
” Samuel Cole.
Corporal Joseph T. Collins.
Those decorated by Her Majesty with the Victoria Cross for acts of
bravery performed by them before the enemy, were:—
Corporal John Ross.
” William J. Lendrim.
Private John Perie.
Noted for their care and intelligence in the discharge of difficult and
trying duty, the following non-commissioned officers, recommended by Sir
Harry Jones, were appointed by Lord Panmure to be conductors of engineer
stores, with the salaries affixed to their names.
Colour-sergeant George Pringle 100_l._ a-year.
” Alexander M. McLeod 90_l._ ”
Sergeant William Dickson 80_l._ ”
Colour-sergeant Benjamin Castledine 80_l._ ”
” George Wohlmann 70_l._ ”
To hold these non-combatant situations, they were, so to speak,
_seconded_, and retained possession of their regimental allowances; but
when no longer required for the appointments, they fell back into their
old ranks in the corps.
Sergeant William Sargent, who from the first had been employed as a
military foreman, in carrying out the works at Constantinople and other
places on the Bosphorus, was discharged from the sappers, and confirmed
as a civil foreman of works in the royal engineer department.
And to this list must be added the names of non-commissioned officers
who were commissioned by Her Majesty into the Land Transport Corps. They
were—
Colour-sergeant James Falkner[200] }
” John Landrey }
” James Spry } as Cornets.
” George Wohlmann }
” Cornelius Godfrey }
” William Lambert as Quartermaster.
When the honour was conferred on the first two sergeants, Colonel Gordon
of the engineers thus alluded to it in his brigade orders of the 1st
December, 1855, “These are the first non-commissioned officers of
sappers who have been rewarded with commissions for their good and
distinguished conduct in the field. Having contributed by good conduct
and gallant bearing to raise the reputation of the corps of royal
sappers and miners, they carry with them to the honourable positions to
which they have been raised, the best wishes of Colonel Gordon and of
all the corps under his command.”
The roll of non-commissioned officers and men who deserved substantial
appreciation for their merits might have been extended _ad infinitum_,
but the distinctions offered by the Government and the French Emperor
were confined to the limits which these few paragraphs detail.
Here may be a fit place to allude to an institution of the war,
suggested by Major-General Wylde, which was found an important auxiliary
to the army. The field electric telegraph, used for the first time in
any campaign, came first into operation a few months after the great
storm of November, 1854, and was placed under the direction of
Lieutenant Stopford. From him it passed, in the early summer, to Captain
F. Du Cane, and in September, 1855, to Lieutenant Fisher, Captain Du
Cane having been compelled to relinquish it on account of ill health.
By degrees the ramification of the lines extended to eight stations,
each connected with the other by under-ground wires, laid in furrows
about eighteen inches deep, and afterwards covered up. The several lines
made up an aggregate length of nearly 24 miles of current. The stations
were at Head-quarters, Kasatch, the Monastery, Engineer park, Right
attack, Light division, Kadikoi, and Balaklava. Various obstacles
occurred to delay the establishment of the stations, such as snow
storms, hard frosts, and heavy rains; the failure of the plough to dig
the trenches in which to deposit the wires, and the consequent resort to
the employment of working parties, already weakened by overwork,
insufficient diet, a dreadful winter, and unnumbered hardships and
trials. These, however, at length, were to some extent overcome; and the
first telegraphic communication was opened between Lord Raglan’s
head-quarters and Kadikoi, a distance of three miles, on the 7th March.
Other stations opened in quick succession, and that formed in one of the
caves between the two first parallels of the right and left attacks
commenced work on the 8th April, 1855.
The offices were the purest make-shifts—the strongest contrasts possible
to the stately establishments of home. Those of the engineer park and
light division were in bell tents; that near St. George’s Monastery was
at an inn which, when the monks were the occupants of that isolated
cloister, formed a sort of refectory for those abstemious celibates.
Four others were in huts, and the last was in a small cave in the
Woronzoff ravine, partially protected from a daily fire by a traverse of
sand-bags. Private East, both night and day, in storm, rain, and wasting
heat, occupied alone that dismal recess, sleeping, when he could get the
chance, on a shelf of rock. So used indeed had he become to it that few
men in camp were more indifferent to comfort, few less disposed to cavil
with disadvantages and hardships than he.
Until the beginning of August the telegraph was exclusively worked by
sappers selected from the companies in the Crimea, who were taught the
use of the instruments and signals by corporal Peter Fraser—a pupil of
the establishment at Lothbury. The instruction was necessarily hurried,
but the men proved to be so quick and intelligent that they were ready
to commence their novel duties when the first station was opened. As
manipulators most of them were very good, particularly the buglers, two
of whom, John Filkin and William Algar, could read sixteen and a half
words in a minute! From the single needle instrument, which was used at
all the stations, this was regarded as a feat in telegraphy, and
probably the best manipulator in London would scarcely come up to this
test of sharpness of sight and fleetness of reading.
Two sappers generally were attached to each station, but two or three
corporals and as many buglers attended to the necessities of
head-quarters. Each office had a single needle instrument, alarm, and
batteries, besides a supply of zinc-plates, acids, &c. The duties of the
sappers comprised the manipulation of the instruments, attending to the
batteries, sending, receiving, and writing all messages and despatches;
recording such as required to be noted, and filing others. Though
carried on amid the excitements and turmoil inseparable from war, and
the pressure arising from haste and a variety of complicated
contingencies and emergencies, the details of the system, including the
registry, check, and examination, were, all things considered, very
complete. Two orderlies from regiments of the line were allotted to each
station to take the messages to their destination; at the head-quarters
there were three.
The messages were on every class of subject from the affectionate
inquiries of anxious parents and friends to the stern orders for
bombardment or assault. Nothing that was required to be communicated
rapidly—from those who had authoritative access to the offices—was
conveyed by any other agency than the field telegraph. All despatches to
and from the Commander-in-chief on matters in which secrecy was
essential were in numeral cypher; all else were couched in brief but
expressive English. An exposition of all the vouchers and messages which
passed in and out of the different offices would form a curious episode
in the history of the war. In August, 1855, one of the months of the
siege in which the cannonading was the hottest, the number of messages
received at head-quarters was 464, and the number sent 402, being an
average respectively of 15 and 13 a-day. The station in the caves of the
Woronzoff ravine, which opened on the 8th April, 1855, received, up to
the conclusion of the siege, 160 messages, or one a-day. To keep on
perpetual watch for this singular dispatch was enough to wear out the
most exemplary patience; and when to this tiresome experience was added
the miseries of a dank vapoury hole in winter and a broiling furnace in
summer, it may occasion but little wonder that the occupant of the cave
was not very remarkable for sobriety. Sergeant Anderson, the senior
non-commissioned officer at the instruments, was stationed at St.
George’s Monastery. He received the despatches from England through the
submarine line from Varna, and telegraphed them to head-quarters. In
like manner he received those from Lord Raglan and the staff, and also
the Sardinian Commander-in-chief, through the head-quarter office, and
conveyed them to the submarine line for communication by way of Varna to
England and elsewhere. Corporal Fraser, the chief telegraphist, was in
charge of the manipulators at the head-quarter office. The extra
allowances paid to the sappers for this duty ranged from 1_s._ to 5_s._
a-day. Those who received the last rate in succession were sergeants
Anderson and Montgomery and corporal Fraser.
Every day the sappers were at the instruments, and each, turn about,
continued at work throughout the night. It was, however, permitted to
the men on night duty to snatch, if they could, any intervals which
might offer for rest; and so rolling themselves up in their blankets
they commenced a series of forty winks in front of their apparatus. No
dependence could be placed on a single minute for tranquillity; for in
all probability just as the sapper had made himself as comfortable as
his limited means allowed, and he was beginning to close his drowsy lids
in grateful unconsciousness, he was again forced to his seat by the
alarm bell, which continued its shrill noise until the disturbed
manipulator communicated with the station from whence the ringing
originated. This however was barely regarded as a hardship; but it
really amounted to one when the sappers who had been relieved from duty
were driven from their slumbers to assist their comrades. Delays were
inadmissible, and no inconvenience, circumstance, or right of remission
from labour, could be pleaded as an excuse to stave off applications
which pressed for communication. Disturbances like this occurred as many
as three or four times in a night, and to shake oneself from sleep when
nature was well nigh spent for the want of it, demanded a strength of
effort and purpose which few men would be willing to exercise. And yet
the operators were seldom indisposed to give their services however
unreasonable or litigious were the calls for them. What with constant
watching, the irritating interruptions of sleep, the tedious care to
prevent error, coupled with the anxieties which each felt for the
success of a new and rather tender undertaking, it is somewhat
remarkable that none of the sappers broke down from their vigils and
overwork.
It not unfrequently happened that the gutta-percha covered wire which
carried the electric stream from station to station became broken. The
causes were various and even curious. Digging in the neighbourhood to
find roots for fuel, or by traffic, was a common cause of interruption;
burying horses’ offal, &c. was another. Often the line was cut by
designing men, who, having abstracted a few yards of it, withdrew the
wire from its covering and used the hollow gutta-percha tubing for pipe
stems! Once the current was stopped on the Kazatch line by the industry
of an insidious field mouse. With great difficulty the site of the
disconnection was detected, when baring the line, it was found that the
wire, which passed through a nest of mice, was bitten in two by the
matron of the haunt. Occasionally accidents to the line took place
during bombardments by round shot and splinters of shells. Not without
some trouble were the lines repaired. Two interesting instances have
already appeared in the narrative.
From August the telegraph was mutually worked by civilians and sappers.
The Government having sent out a civil superintendent and ten civil
telegraph clerks to the Crimea, they were added to the staff under
Captain Du Cane, who distributed them to the several stations—one sapper
and one civilian to each. The men whose services were thus dispensed
with, and who had assisted to give efficiency by their care and
attention to a delicate experiment, were sent into the trenches. It was
a needless arrangement this, for the sappers at the time were performing
the duty with every satisfaction. Whatever may have induced the
incorporation of the civil element with an undertaking that had been
organized and carried out as a military duty, it is enough to show the
interest with which this scientific appendage to the army was held by
the Ministry at home; and whatever success may have resulted from the
combination of the two elements in working the field telegraph, is due
equally to the intelligence and efficiency of each, but more so to the
officers whose anxious superintendence and incessant watchfulness, gave
vigour and all but perfection to the system they devised and directed.
In time the entire charge of the field telegraph was confined to the
sappers, and the civilians on being removed joined the submarine branch.
The officers who commanded the sappers on this duty have thus spoken of
their aptitude and labours:—
Lieutenant Stopford writes: “The sappers showed great quickness in
learning the use of the instrument, although not one of the men, except
corporal Fraser, had any knowledge or indeed had seen the single needle
instrument before; therefore to him is due the credit of teaching all
the manipulators. Sergeant Anderson was in charge of the telegraph party
and one of the first to learn the use and working of the instrument.”
When reporting upon the operations generally, Captain Du Cane commended
them for their exertions in these words: “I consider great credit is due
to the sappers for the prompt manner in which the repairs”—to the
wires—“were executed.” Elsewhere in his report he mentioned, “that the
sappers evinced considerable intelligence in working the telegraph, and
although in one or two instances misconduct occurred, yet on the whole
they discharged their duties in a satisfactory and efficient manner.”
“The working of the telegraph,” says Lieutenant Fisher, “was done in the
most satisfactory manner by men of the royal sappers and miners, many of
whom, more especially the buglers (four), showed a very great aptitude
for learning the manipulatory process. Fifteen of the corps had been
wholly initiated in the art, and,” continues the officer, “from the
great pains taken by corporal Peter Fraser in their instruction many of
the men and boys have become excellent telegraphists.”
Early in the morning of the 9th two sappers actuated by an inquisitive
feeling approached within a short distance of Fort Nicholas, which was
still in possession of the enemy. One was a bugler, the other a private.
The latter had armed himself with a Russian musket. Having satisfied
their curiosity they were waiting a chance conveyance to take them over
to the English side of the dock-yard creek. Private George Fox descrying
a well-laden boat in the distance went in its direction. It pulled
towards him, and the sailors stepping to land courteously gave him a
place among them. They turned out to be Russians, and Fox was thus a
prisoner of war. After seeing the boat push off and waiting about an
hour the bugler returned to camp. Rejoining the corps by exchange on the
26th January, 1856, Fox went into hospital five days after and died on
the 14th February. Worthless as a man from his dissipated habits,
Colonel Gordon however placed it on record that he “was a most valuable
sapper in the trenches.” He was the only sapper taken prisoner during
the war.
After the troops had occupied the Redan, small parties under Major
Montagu and Lieutenant Lennox of the engineers, and Captain Penn of the
royal artillery, were employed in examining the ground for explosive
machines and searching for galvanic wires leading to magazines. Several
were discovered in different places where it was expected the assailants
would enter in storming the works.
Detachments of sappers, assisted by working parties and sailors,
commenced on the evening of the 11th the construction of a battery for
two ninety-five cwt. guns on the right of St. Paul’s battery. Some
little progress had been made in rearing it, when the work was
abandoned. A fortnight later a more extensive battery near the ruins of
Fort Paul was begun, for ten guns to sustain a contest with Fort
Sivernaia on the opposite side of the harbour. It was built in a bakery,
the rear wall having been thrown down, leaving the under portion of it
as a parapet, while the front wall, retained as a mask which a few shots
would have crumbled into ruins, concealed the nature of the battery from
the enemy. The firing from the northern works was nevertheless pretty
brisk, but harmless, and the work proceeded steadily. Other objects,
however, being determined on, the battery, though its embrasures were
partly cut and revetted, was never armed.
In the meantime the eighth company and a detachment of the 3rd Buffs
moved into the Karabelnaia to be employed in the destruction of the
docks, and were quartered in the storehouses of the dockyard, which
being exposed to the Russian fire from across the water, was
occasionally visited by the intrusion of shot. Two or three of these
missiles plunged into the barrack-room but providentially not a man was
injured by them.
Demands for men became so urgent as the siege progressed, that, while
waiting for reinforcements from England, Gibraltar was called upon to
furnish as many sappers as possible from its effective rolls.
Accordingly on the 29th August, 48 men under Lieutenant Cumberland
embarked on board the ‘Orinoco,’ and landed at Sebastopol six days after
its fall.