While he was boatswain's mate of the _Saint Jean d'Acre_, and serving in
the naval brigade, he volunteered to proceed in a punt, during a dark
night, into the harbour of Sebastopol, and to endeavour, with an
apparatus he carried, to blow up one of the Russian line-of-battle
ships. He reached the harbour, and had got past the enemy's steamboat
at the entrance of Careening Bay, when he was prevented from proceeding
farther by a long line of boats, which were carrying troops from the
south to the north side of Sebastopol. On the 16th of August, he again
made the attempt from the side of Careening Bay, then in possession of
the French.
The above are only some few of the gallant deeds done by the officers
and men of the naval brigade before Sebastopol. All, from Sir Stephen
Lushington downwards to the youngest midshipman or ship-boy, did their
duty right nobly; and though the bluejackets of England have no cause,
as a rule, to complain that their gallantry is not sufficiently
appreciated, perhaps on this occasion the service they rendered to their
country is scarcely understood as it should be. On the disastrous
assault on the Redan, 18th of June 1855, the naval brigade consisted of
four parties of sixty men each, one for each column; but two only went
out, the other two being kept in reserve. They were told off to carry
scaling-ladders and wool-bags, and to place them for the
storming-parties. They were led by Captain Peel. Severely they
suffered. Out of the two small parties, fourteen were killed and
forty-seven were wounded.
When the soldiers, overwhelmed by the terrific fire of the batteries,
retreated towards the trenches, several officers and men were left
behind wounded, and endured fearful agonies for hours, without a drop of
water or a cheering voice to comfort them. Among others, Lieutenant
Ermiston lay for five hours under the abattis of the Redan, and was
reported dead; but he had only a contusion of the knee, and, watching
his opportunity, he got safely away.
Mr Kennedy, mate of the _London_, was also left behind, close to the
abattis, and, after several hours of painful suspense, concealed among
the dead, he rolled himself over and over down the declivity, and
managed to get into the trench.
Lieutenant Kidd came in all safe, and was receiving the congratulations
of a brother officer, when he saw a wounded soldier lying out in the
open. He at once exclaimed, "We must go and save him!" and leaped over
the parapet in order to do so. He had scarcely proceeded one yard on
his errand of mercy, when he was shot through the breast, and died an
hour afterwards.
Lieutenant Dalyell, of the _Leander_, had his left arm shattered by a
grape-shot, and underwent amputation.
Lieutenant Cave, and Mr Wood, midshipman, were also wounded; as was
Captain Peel, as has been described. Indeed, of the whole detachment,
only three officers came out of action untouched.
Not only were the subordinate officers of the navy thus conspicuously
brave and active, but a sailor was from the first one of the ruling
spirits of the campaign. To Sir Edmund Lyons did England owe, in an
incalculable degree, the success which attended our arms on the shores
of the Euxine.
He it was who organised and conducted the expedition to the Crimea,
prepared the means of landing, and superintended all so closely, that
"in his eagerness he left but six inches between the keel of his noble
ship and the ground below it." Not only in matters connected with the
transport of the troops, but also in every subsequent stage of the
expedition, Sir Edmund Lyons gave the most valuable assistance to Lord
Raglan and his successors. How, at the battle of the Alma, he supported
the French army by bringing the guns of his ship to bear on the left
flank of the Russians, and what a conspicuous part he took with the
_Agamemnon_ on the first bombardment of Sebastopol, are incidents
well-known at the time. But he had more to do in the way of advice and
of encouragement than the public ever heard of. Day after day he might
have been seen on his grey pony, hovering about the English lines on the
heights of Sebastopol; he was present at Balaclava, and he was present
at Inkermann. It was thus that, having conveyed our soldiers to the
Crimea, he saved them from being compelled to leave it, baffled, if not
vanquished. A day or two after the battle of Balaclava, Sir Edmund
Lyons, on landing, learnt to his astonishment that orders had been
issued to the naval brigade to embark as many guns as possible during
the day, for Balaclava was to be evacuated at night,--of course,
surrendering to the enemy the greater portion of the guns. On his own
responsibility, the admiral at once put a stop to the execution of this
order, and went in search of Lord Raglan, who, it appears, had come to
the resolution of abandoning Balaclava, in consequence of the opinion
expressed by the engineers, that, after the loss of these redoubts in
our rear lately held by the Turks, we ought to concentrate our strength
on the plateau. Taking Lord Raglan aside, Sir Edmund Lyons strongly
opposed these views. He pointed out that the advanced position in the
valley in front of which these redoubts were situated had been
originally occupied in accordance with the advice of those very
officers, and in opposition to that of Sir Edmund, who had suggested at
the time that they were covering too much ground. He argued that, as
the engineers had been mistaken once, they might be wrong again; and he
clinched his argument by saying that, whatever might be the value of his
opinion in such a case, he was at all events entitled to pronounce an
opinion as to the insufficiency of Kamiesch as a harbour for the allied
armies; that this harbour was utterly inadequate; and that the
abandonment of Balaclava meant the evacuation of the Crimea in a week.
After some conversation, Lord Raglan said, "Well, you were right before,
and this time I will act upon your advice." Sir Edmund obtained leave
to countermand the orders which had been issued; Balaclava was
maintained as our base of operations, and the army was saved from what
might have proved an inglorious defeat, if not a terrible disaster.
This, as we have said, was perhaps the most important of all the
services rendered by the admiral, and he well deserved the peerage which
it earned for him.
Sir Stephen Lushington, having attained his rank as admiral in July
1855, was succeeded in the command of the naval brigade by Captain the
Honourable Henry Keppel, whose gallantry on various occasions had been
especially conspicuous. At length, on the 19th September, Sebastopol
having fallen, the gallant naval brigade was disbanded,--the jovial
bluejackets leaving Balaclava to return to their ships, amid the
enthusiastic cheers of their red-coated comrades, among whom but one
feeling was universal, that of regret at losing the company of so merry
a band. Not a soldier but admired their bravery, their invariable
good-humour, and marvellous aptitude in adapting themselves to whatever
circumstances they might fall in with.