docks, the engineers sent a force of 180 sappers with 100 men of the
line under Major Ranken to destroy the White Barracks, built of
stone, situated to the west of the Karabelnaia. In their magnitude
they were nearly equal to the artillery barracks at Woolwich. The
east and west ranges were almost a quarter of a mile in length,
while the north and south ranges measured each 582 feet long. The
area enclosed within the pile was a rectangle. The two latter ranges
had three stories, the west two, the east one. Many other buildings
for offices and domestic purposes occupied the interior of the
rectangle, starting inwards from the eastern range, leaving a wide
street adapted for parades towards the west. The clock tower stood
over an arched entrance in the centre of a group of miscellaneous
buildings. Heavy vaults were in the principal structures, in which
were several sets of apparatus for warming the rooms. In most cases
the walls were four feet thick. The west range rested upon two rows
of strong pillars, and heavy masonry occurred in situations where
taste and artistic development were desirable for strength and
display. During the siege some of the walls and roofing had been
pierced and torn by shot and shells. Much of the timber had been
burnt, and a great quantity abstracted for war emergencies; but
injured and dismantled as were some of the buildings enough remained
to excite the destructive action of an army bent upon humbling the
military greatness in the Crimea of a stiff-necked and aggressive
people.
No end of mines were made by the sappers in the piers of the
windows, dead walls, vaults and cellars, and in pits underground.
Innumerable were the charges varying in each chamber from 15 lbs. to
600 lbs. of gunpowder. The largest charges were placed in the
vaults. Always tedious were the processes; the labour in many
instances considerable, and the hardships experienced were those
which arose out of intense cold, snow-storms, thaws and frost. The
first charges were fired on the 30th January, the last on the 1st
March, when the six largest vaults each loaded with 600 lbs. of
powder were demolished. The great result of the operations was the
complete destruction of the barracks. Here and there, however, were
broken clumps of wall gravely standing as so many monuments of the
general wreck, creaking upon shattered bases, all sufficiently
dangerous to render the removal of every stone and plank from the
site essential before attempting the re-establishment of such
another pile.
The only drawback to this service—and a lamentable one it was—was
the death of Major Ranken of the engineers on the 28th February.
Sergeant Coppin went forward to ignite some mines which were ready
for exploding. Four of them were in the angle of the south building,
seven in adjacent windows and one outside. These he commenced to
fire, passing on rapidly from one to the other, when to ignite the
last he had to jump out of the window. In applying the light a
rather large heap of powder in its vicinity caught the flame, which
caused the hose prematurely to go off with luckily no other damage
than burning his hand. Four of the mines missed. To repair the
failure promptly was the major’s determination, and so the charges
were relaid in the gable to be fired from one focus, consisting of a
three-feet length of fuse attached to the powder-hose. The major
took with him second-corporal Baker, a man of tried intrepidity, who
assisted in adjusting the fuses and hoses for explosion, and then
passed out of the window already much shaken by two explosions,
through which the major intended to escape after firing the charges.
In front of the opening the corporal stood to attract the attention
of the major, so that should any mishap occur he might readily find
his way out. The corporal saw the match applied, he saw the
danger—the mines suddenly went off! In one fall down came the gable
wall and angle of the building with the roof, and before the major
could escape he was caught by the breaking mass and mangled under
the ruins. Baker run at the instant, struck as he flew in several
places, and was miraculously saved. Expecting that the major was
following he looked back with a foreboding impulse to see how he
fared; but his excitement and sorrow were great, when, seeing
nothing behind him but the thick dust settling slowly over the
ruins, it became his unhappy duty to bear the harrowing tale of the
major’s untimely death to those who were awaiting their return. With
melancholy anxiety the sappers and others turned over the mound of
rubbish to extricate the officer possibly with life. All night the
duty was continued, and his remains were not discovered till eight
o’clock the following morning. In this sad way was lost to the corps
and the service as good and brave an officer as ever drew sword. His
death was the last tragic event of the war!
-----
Footnote 203:
To remove the gates without injury, under fire from the north side
of the harbour, was a tedious service. In each half gate, weighing
about thirty tons, there were no less than 1720 rivets, every head
of which had to be cut off and the pins punched out. Every screw
had also to be removed by the usual means—a difficult process,
arising from the oxidation of the several parts. The sheets were
cut into twelve pieces for easy carriage. The iron girders, twelve
in number, which like ribs sustained the structure, were drawn up
by block and tackle; and then, lowered to rollers, were conveyed
away. The greatest efforts were given in pulling up the
heel-posts, of which there were two; and the strong unyielding
haul of 150 men brought them without flaw from their rocky beds.
One of the girders was broken in rolling it away, but its place
was supplied by one from another gate. This was the only accident
which had occurred during the operation. Sergeant John Docherty
was Colonel Bent’s foreman. An average of five sapper blacksmiths
were daily employed at the work. Mr. Rumble, engineer of the
‘London,’ with two seamen, assisted until their removal to Malta.
Some handy blacksmiths of the artillery also aided, and sergeant
Welton of that regiment was remarkably active with the gear and
tackling.
Footnote 204:
December 7, 1855.
Footnote 205:
The ‘Times,’ February 11, 1856.
Footnote 206:
The sappers continued mining in the docks until the 6th February,
and afterwards at the White Barracks, till they were blown down.
Footnote 207:
This number would have been more correct had it been 185.
1856.
CONCLUDING SERVICES IN THE CRIMEA.
Surveys, &c.—Casemates in the Redan and contiguous
works—Roads—Injuries sustained by men in their execution—Huts and
stables—Wharfs at Balaklava—Company to Cossack Bay—Peace—Bridge
across the Tchernaya—Reinforcements to the East—Barrel-floats for
the embarkation of the army—Graveyards and monuments—Parting Order
by Lord Paulet to tenth company—Final services; Miss
Nightingale—Order of leaving the Crimea and Turkey—Reviews at
Aldershot; inspections by the Queen—Names of the distinguished men
specially paraded before Her Majesty—Wreck of the Clarendon—Last
detachment from the East—Statistics since the fall of
Sebastopol—Surveys near Erzeroum—Parties detached for employment
in the rectification of the Moldavian and Danubian
boundaries—Company added to the Cape of Good Hope command—Corporal
Mack present at the coronation of the Emperor of Russia at
Moscow—A company to Portsmouth—Another to Aldershot—Removal of the
museum from Marlborough House to Kensington Gore—A company moved
to Devonport—Augmentation—A party embarks for Ceylon—Another for
Mitylene—Corporal Pennington wins the “Champion’s Belt” at the
foot races on Chatham Lines—Corps incorporated with the royal
engineers—Grade of private changed to that of sapper—History of
the royal sappers and miners closed.
While the services described in the previous chapters were in
progress, others were in hand, which though not so striking,
possessed importance either as necessities, precautions or
improvements.
A few intelligent men assisted their officers in making observations
and surveys of our trenches and the Russian works, and also of the
country and coast in the vicinity of the conquered fortress,
embracing an area of about twenty square miles.
Other non-commissioned officers and men assisted in taking an
inventory of engineer stores which stocked the arsenal of
Sebastopol.
The lines covering the fortress were remarkable for the bold
expedients adopted by the enemy to shelter the troops required to
defend the several works. Rude as they were they were speaking
specimens of a nation’s warlike genius. Caves had been hollowed out
of the terreplein behind the traverses which ran parallel to the
faces of the several formations, and were made bomb-proof by ships’
masts and spars covered by a deep substratum of earth. The descent
into them was by narrow flights of stone steps. Lighted by small
loop-holed windows, a few inches above the level of the ground, and
fitted up with guard-beds, tables, &c., these spacious subterranean
chambers gave cover to a large force of defenders who were thus
shielded from the chances of hurt even during the raging of a
bombardment. As soon as the curiosity with which these structures
had been viewed had passed, Captain Schaw of the engineers having
under him a number of sappers and miners, set to work to destroy
them. Holes were augured into the beams and ribs—hard almost as
rock—and when loaded with gunpowder, were blown to pieces. The wood
thus broken up was stacked by the line; and in the cold winter, when
the means of obtaining fuel was precarious, the supply from the
demolished Redan and contiguous ruins was found nearly equal to the
demand.
For road-making a large force of sappers was daily detailed.
Enormous working parties from the line were also employed. The great
trunk communication from Balaklava to Cathcart’s Hill was improved
and partly formed from the port to the windmill by the Army Works
Corps, and from the Forks on the plateau to the hill by the sappers
and line. The stone for it was obtained by mining from two quarries,
one on either side of the ravine. To make a solid foundation, the
ground for the latter portion was picked up by the line, and when
properly formed was covered by Macadamized stone. Its length from
the Forks was about two miles, and its width thirty-five feet,
including the side channels hollowed out by blasting for carrying
off the surface water. It was a thorough serviceable road, and ages
will roll over before this instance of British industry will be
effaced from those physical characteristics by which the allied
occupation of that war-trodden country has been marked. From this
great road radiated others, somewhat narrower, from the commissariat
stores on the plateau to the several divisions. The ninth company at
Kamara with the Highland division repaired the old Baidar road, and
made a new piece, nearly half a mile long, running through the
Sardinian encampment, which connected the Baidar and Woronzoff
roads. Stretches of thoroughfare were also constructed through the
cantonment. Each regiment at Kamara furnished working parties for
the duties; and all the roads, except that confined to the exertions
of the Army Works Corps, were superintended by the sappers as
overseers, the engineer officers being the directors.
The sappers injured in forming or mending the roads were privates
Alexander Allan and Charles H. Cronk. Both were blown up, receiving
severe wounds in the face. Private Samuel Williams at head-quarters
had his back broken by a bank of earth falling on him, and died in
consequence.
Hutting was another of their employments, and building stables or
sheds for horses and mules. The companies with the divisions
provided parties for these services. The form of the stabling varied
according to circumstances and situation. Some of them—those of the
first division for example—were as long as sixty yards by sixteen
feet in the clear, with a passage up the centre marked by lines of
poles supporting the roof. The sides and ends were made of the
staves of barrels, which being bent and open assisted ventilation.
Close boarding would have made the places insufferably hot. The
roofs were of rough scantling; the planks overlapped and were spiked
to rafters. Louvre boards run along the ridge the entire length of
each gable. A little more attention and skill were paid to the
internal fitments of the officers’ stables; and stalls, troughs and
mangers were added.
For several months corporal Stacey superintended the erection of the
wharf works at Balaklava, and was removed, when but little was
required to be completed, on the 28th February 1856. The wharfage
built round the harbour exceeded 500 yards and was appropriated for
the use of the several departments, each bearing its own name. There
was the “Commissariat wharf,” which had a run of nearly 300 yards;
the “Ordnance wharf” had less ambitious dimensions; the
“Quarter-Master-General wharf” occupied a length of shore for 150
yards, while the “Engineer wharf” and the “Cattle wharf” were amply
provided with spaces. Strong piles from forty to fifty feet in
height supported the flooring composed of timbers three inches
thick. Vessels to receive their freight came broadside to the wharfs
which had been built well into the sea for the purpose. These wooden
quays were rapidly and substantially built, everything being put out
of hand to serve the wear and tear of years, and was as creditable
to the skill of the artificers as if they had been produced in times
less trying and exciting. The whole range of wharfs was chiefly
built by the 89th and 82nd regiments with casual assistance from
other corps and a few sappers. On being relieved from the duty,
corporal Stacey was commended for his “excellent conduct and steady
perseverance” in constructing the wharf works “in a most
satisfactory manner.”
On the 26th the eighth company, under Captain Schaw, with Lieutenant
Edwards attached, marched to Cossack Bay, and had traced out a line
of entrenchments to be executed for covering the embarkation of the
rear of the army in the event of such an operation being needed,
when an event transpired which rendered the service unnecessary. The
company remained nearly two months at the bay, during which it built
a pier on the shore and run a road to it from the camp.
An armistice was concluded in the Crimea on the 29th, which
temporarily suspended military operations till the 31st March; but
as the plenipotentiaries at Paris had not then made known their
agreement to a treaty, the armistice was prolonged indefinitely. The
treaty, however, had already been ratified bearing date the 30th
March, and on the 2nd April peace was proclaimed in the Crimean
camps, ending a stubborn war which had taught Russia a grave lesson
of the strength and firmness of the Anglo-French alliance, and
proved that her shores and her fortresses—though vaunting an aspect
of menacing impregnability, were open to the endurance and valour of
the quadruple league.
To break the boundaries which war had narrowed to prison limits and
afford opportunities of intercourse between the belligerents was now
a measure of first consideration. This was the chivalric wish of Sir
William Codrington. To effect it the Tchernaya bridge was renewed.
In thirty-two hours a party of sappers, directed by Lieutenant C. G.
Gordon of the royal engineers, built a superstructure on the burnt
tops of the old piles. The damaged portions, in part, were cut away,
and cross beams being spiked to them, each pair of piles was clamped
together by their heads. There were six pairs of piles at either
side of the bridge, and along the series of clamps was stretched
from end to end a stout beam on which rested a number of girders to
support the roadway. This roadway was ten feet broad and twenty-six
long from bank to bank and raised eighteen inches above the level of
the stream. The Tchernaya was not a tidal river, but was swelled at
times to an average depth of ten feet by mountain streams and the
meltings of snow from the Tchater-Dagh range. The communication
between the armies was open on the 6th April.
While a probability existed of the pending negociations for peace
terminating unfavourably, the War Minister, alive to this
eventuality, did not stay his hand in keeping up the organizations
of the Crimea to an efficient standard. Unmitigated vigour was
displayed everywhere; troops were on the way to Balaklava, and a
reinforcement of sappers, 299 strong, which had embarked at
Liverpool on the 10th March, landed at Scutari on the 8th April.
This force consisted of the 17th and 24th companies, with
detachments to complete the old companies which had suffered during
the war. Too late to be of service, they had not the good fortune to
tread on Crimean soil. Up to this date the strength of the corps
despatched to the East, including Lieutenant and Adjutant Saville,
who joined from the royal artillery at the siege, reached a total of
1,644 of all ranks.
One of the stipulations of the treaty was the rapid evacuation of
Russian territory; and the British troops, with inviolable honour,
were not slow in fulfilling this condition. The breaking up of camps
and the pulling down of huts and stables followed with rapidity. The
sappers and miners performed its share in this extraordinary
clearance, and among an endless variety of services, made stalls for
the officers’ horses on board ships, and portable deck contrivances
for the accommodation of the troops; but its most popular labours,
at this time, were devoted to the construction and working of flying
bridges for the embarkation of the army. No less than sixty rafts,
made of beer barrels and rum casks, with the usual superstructure of
baulks and chesses, were prepared for the operation. Each raft had
fourteen barrels—seven to a pier; and the sixty rafts were lashed
together into eight floats, varying in length according to
circumstances, with pier-heads nearest the shore to bear the
pressure of heavy baggage. The vessels were anchored with their
sterns to the shore, so that each occupied a position between two
bridges; and the troops, as they marched down the floats, only
halted to run up the ladders, which had been reared for them, to the
decks. Every movement of the floats was carried out so adroitly and
with so much celerity that one regiment—second battalion of the
rifle brigade—was embarked in less than twenty minutes!
Rubble walls were built round several of the British graveyards by
some bricklayers and masons of the corps, while many stone-cutters
were permitted to erect tombs and monuments to departed worth. Most
of the memorials were built and inscribed by the sappers.
Lance-corporal Simon Williams was one of the best artificers in this
description of service. He erected the monument to the 44th
regiment; the modest stone which covers the grave of Sir John
Campbell; and the simple cross and reclined slab which mark the spot
where repose the remains of Lieutenant-General Sir George Cathcart.
The epitaph, which records in simple language the great events of
his life, is written in English and Russian.[208] Corporal Keyte
built the monument to the corps of sappers, which bore the name of
every man who had fallen or died during the war. He also worked
several other tombs and grave-stones, among the best of which was
the one erected in honour of Major Ranken of the engineers. Private
David Thompson, an excellent mason, erected the monuments to the
officers of the 23rd, 30th, and 33rd regiments. The masons of the
tenth company, under the direction of Lieutenant Brine, executed the
obelisks which stand at Balaklava and Inkermann. The one built in
front of the Redan—of stones taken from the docks of Sebastopol—was
reared chiefly by the companies quartered in the Karabelnaia and
finished by the tenth. These three memorials rested on pedestals
with copings, mouldings, and simple ornature, and were approached by
three or four steps with broad treads. One panel of each displayed a
cross, the other three short inscriptions in English and Russian.
Private D. Thompson lettered those at Balaklava and Inkermann and
assisted to inscribe the Redan monument. Private James Dickson of
the third company executed two of its epitaphs and the cross.[209]
Just prior to breaking up the light division, Major-General Lord
William Paulett commended the tenth company in his orders of the 7th
June—“My thanks,” wrote his Lordship, “are also due to the officers,
non-commissioned officers, and men of the tenth company royal
sappers and miners, whose assistance has been most valuable to the
division and their conduct most exemplary.” Lieutenant Brine
commanded the company.
The last services performed by the corps in the Crimea were building
two tablets in memory of Lord Raglan in the wall of the room where
his lordship died.[210] This was done by private William Church. A
monument was also built on Balaklava heights, overlooking the
Sanatorium, which could be seen from the sea. It was a plain white
marble colossal cross, without inscription, cut by Turkish and
Armenian masons at Constantinople, and arrived after all appliances
necessary to raise it had been stowed away in the ships about to
sail for England. Its erection, nevertheless, proceeded, tackle
being lent for the purpose from the ‘Leander,’ and was accomplished
by some sappers hurriedly and with difficulty under Mr. Sargent,
late of the corps. The cross was risen at the expense of Miss
Nightingale, whose many graceful acts of deep sympathy and patient
exertion for a suffering army have given her name historic
celebrity. A strange influence she possessed which worked out
remarkable results. Hundreds of mutilated soldiers, and hundreds
more wasted by pestilence and disease, seemed to revive by her
presence; and lived to bless her, or died unrepining, cheered
through the vale, by the solace of her voice and the charm of her
encouragement. How she brought order out of chaos; how she overcame
giant obstacles; how she managed interminable offices, nursed the
sick and wounded stretched before her in miles of ward and corridor,
and in her tender devotion was herself twice thrown down by
dangerous fevers, to renew, when only partially recovered, her hard
but noble labours, are events which belong to the history of the
world as well as the war. England has produced many self-denying and
heroic philanthropists whose calm zeal to ameliorate human misery
and suffering have won the lasting admiration of nations; but the
beautiful honour of being the chief of that excellent band belongs
to Florence Nightingale.
The companies of royal sappers and miners embarked at Balaklava in
the following order:—
1856. Company.
23rd May 2nd— landed at Gibraltar 4th June, and there took up
its station.
27th ” 1st— landed at Malta 7th June, and there remained.
27th ” 9th— landed at Corfu 3rd June, and there remained.
11th June 4th } landed at Portsmouth 9th July; moved to Aldershot
11th ” 7th } the same day, and marched into Chatham 19th
11th ” 8th } July under Major Nicholson, R.E.
11th July 3rd } landed at Portsmouth from the ‘Dragon,’ 5th August,
11th ” 10th } and marched into Chatham the 9th, under the
11th ” 11th } command of Major Robertson, R.E. The accommodation
on board the war steamer was very limited, but
Captain Houston Stewart, R.N., permitted the
quarter-deck to be fitted up for them, which
prevented that inconvenience and sickness to which
a crowded vessel is usually subject. Exemplary
was the behaviour of the men, “and Captain Stewart
expressed to them the great satisfaction their good
conduct and willingness in rendering assistance in
carrying on duties on board had given him.”
12th ” 17th— embarked at Scutari; landed at Malta 22nd July, 1856,
and there remained.
17th ” A troop— embarked at Kulalee, landed at Woolwich 9th August,
and removed next day to Aldershot to be stationed.
22nd ” 24th— embarked at Scutari; landed at Gibraltar 5th August,
and there remained.