1854-1856.
Mr. Gladstone's War Budget--Humiliation and Prayer--The Invasion
of the Crimea--The Battle of Alma--A Fruitless Victory--Effect
in England--War Correspondents--Balaklava--Cavalry Charges by
the Heavy and Light Brigades--"Our's Not to Reason Why"--Russian
Sortie--Battle of Inkermann--Breakdown of Transport and
Commissariat--Hurricane in the Black Sea--Florence
Nightingale--Fall of the Coalition Cabinet--Lord Palmerston
Forms a Ministry--Victory of the Turks at
Eupatoria--Unsuccessful Attack by the Allies--Death of Lord
Raglan--His Character--Battle of Tchernaya--Evacuation of
Sebastopol--Surrender of Kars--Conclusion of Peace.
[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone's War Budget.]
When Mr. Gladstone introduced his War Budget on May 8, he said that the
prosperity of trade and elasticity of the Revenue warranted him in
meeting the expenses of the campaign out of current taxation. He
calculated on this being possible by doubling the Income Tax and
increasing the duty on malt and spirits. Lord Aberdeen, replying to Lord
Roden in the House of Lords, stated that a Day of Humiliation and Prayer
would be set apart for the success of British arms. The Queen
immediately wrote to the Prime Minister, reminding him that she had not
been consulted about this, and objecting to the term "humiliation."
"To say (as we probably should) that _the great sinfulness of the
nation_ has brought about this war, when it is the selfishness and
ambition and want of honesty of _one man_ and his servants which has
done it, while our conduct throughout has been actuated by unselfishness
and honesty, would be too manifestly repulsive to the feelings of
everyone, and would be a mere bit of hypocrisy. Let there be a Prayer
expressive of our great thankfulness for the immense benefits we have
enjoyed, and for the immense prosperity of the country, and entreating
God's help and protection in the coming struggle. In this the Queen
would join heart and soul. If there is to be a day set apart, let it be
for Prayer in this sense."
The Day of Solemn Fast, Humiliation, and Prayer was fixed, but, in
accordance with the Queen's feeling, there were no abject expressions
used in the Prayers prescribed, only a committal of the cause of England
into the hands of the Almighty to "judge between them and her enemies."
[Illustration: _R. Thorburn, A.R.A._} {_From a Miniature in Her
Majesty's possession._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN, 1841.]
Varna, a fortified seaport of Bulgaria, on the shore of the Black Sea,
half way between the Bosphorus and the mouth of the Danube, was the
rendezvous appointed for the British and French forces. Lord Raglan,
who, as Lord Fitzroy Somerset, had lost an arm under the Great Duke at
Waterloo, was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army; Maréchal
Saint-Arnaud that of the French; and the veteran Omar Pasha that of the
Turkish. The Russian commanders had learnt that, whatever might be the
incapacity of the Sublime Porte for rule, its troops were composed of
excellent fighting material when well commanded. The Turkish garrison of
Silistria, on the Danube, maintained such a stubborn defence for many
weeks under two English officers, Captain Butler, of the Ceylon Rifles,
and Lieutenant Nasmyth, of the East India Company's Service, that at
last the Russians had to raise the siege, on June 22, after losing more
than 12,000 men. At Giurgevo, again, on July 7, General Soimonoff (who
afterwards fell at the Battle of Inkermann) was badly beaten, and soon
afterwards the whole of the Russian forces were withdrawn beyond the
Pruth, and Turkish territory was free from invaders. This movement was
due, no doubt, in some measure, to the action of Austria, who had
demanded the evacuation of the Principalities, backed her demand by a
threatening movement of troops, and actually concluded a convention with
the Porte on June 14.
[Illustration: _H. E. Dawe._} {_From an Engraving._
HER MAJESTY IN THE ROYAL PEW, ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR, 1846.]
The great arsenal and harbour of Russia was Sebastopol in the Crimea,
and it was on this point that the attention of Ministers in London and
Paris was chiefly concentrated. There has been great variance in the
accounts of how it came to be decided that the attack of the Allies
should be directed on that town. It is sufficient to state here that, on
June 29, a despatch was sent to Lord Raglan, strongly urging the
necessity of a prompt attack upon Sebastopol and the Russian fleet, but
leaving the final decision to the discretion of the Allied Commanders.
Lord Raglan did not read these instructions as leaving him any choice,
but regarded them, as he afterwards stated, as "little short of an
absolute order from the Secretary of State," and prepared to obey it. He
was a veteran soldier, it is true, but he had acquired his experience in
campaigns before the days of steam and electricity, and the incessant
and rapid interchange of despatches between Downing Street and the seat
of war no doubt was somewhat bewildering.
[Illustration: _R. Simkin._} {_From Contemporary Prints._
A. Corporal.
B. Sergeant.
C. Officers--Undress.
D. Full Dress.
E. Privates.
UNIFORMS OF THE ROYAL MARINES, 1837.]
[Sidenote: The Invasion of the Crimea.]
The French Commander-in-Chief, Saint-Arnaud, received similar
injunctions from the Emperor Louis Napoleon, who was as strongly in
favour of the project as Palmerston and the Duke of Newcastle; Lord
Raglan, therefore, encountered no opposition from him on the score of
strategy. After three months of inaction at Varna, during which the
troops suffered severely from cholera, the invasion of the Crimea was
undertaken; the Allied Forces set sail for Eupatoria, and on September
21 the Duke of Newcastle telegraphed to the Queen that 25,000 English,
25,000 French, and 8,000 Turks had safely disembarked at Kalamita Bay,
near the mouth of the River Alma, about eight miles north of Sebastopol,
without meeting any resistance. The advance on Sebastopol began on
September 19, and on the 20th the Allies encountered the Russian army,
under Prince Menschikoff, strongly entrenched on the heights south of
the River Alma. Menschikoff of deliberate purpose had allowed them to
disembark unmolested; he had chosen what he believed to be an
impregnable position, where he intended to keep them in play till the
arrival of reinforcements should enable him to leave his entrenchments
and overwhelm the invaders with superior numbers; he watched them
crossing the stream below his position in full confidence that they were
entering the trap prepared for them. But he had underrated the
individual prowess of British and French soldiers. They had discipline,
individual gallantry, and physique in a high degree, but these are often
only so many contributions to the aggregate of disaster unless directed
by sagacious generalship, and the tactics of the Allied Forces at the
Alma were of the headlong character of a schoolboy's playground.
Maréchal Saint-Arnaud was in an agony of illness of approaching death,
as it turned out--and there was little cohesion or concert between the
English on the left and the French on the right of the attacking line.
Only one thing was plain to the men of both armies--there were the
Russian batteries, on the heights beyond the river, with heavy columns
of infantry hanging like a grey cloud along the crests--the one thing to
do was to get at them. Saint-Arnaud, addressing his Generals of
Division, Canrobert and Prince Napoleon, said: "With such men as you I
have no orders to give; I have but to point to the enemy!"
[Illustration: _R. Simkin._}
Royal Marine Artillery--
A. Company Sergeant-Major. B. Gunner. C. Officer.
Royal Marine Light Infantry--
D. Officer. E. Drummer. F. Sergeant. G. Private.
UNIFORMS OF THE ROYAL MARINES, 1897.]
[Illustration: _Chevalier L. W. Desanges._} {_In the Victoria Cross
Gallery, Crystal Palace._
COL. BELL, OF THE ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS,
Obtained the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the Battle of the Alma,
when he seized upon, and captured, a gun which the enemy was carrying
off the field.]
[Sidenote: The Battle of the Alma.]
At two o'clock the Allies crossed the river under a plunging fire, and
advanced up the opposing slopes in face of the batteries and a searching
fire of musketry; the great redoubt was carried by assault; the British
battalions, deployed in double rank, according to the unique practice of
English field drill, poured a withering fire into the solid columns of
the enemy and plied the deadly bayonet at closer quarters. About four
o'clock the Russians wavered, fell back, and broke; the position was
carried and the first European field since Waterloo had been won.
With pardonable emulation historians of both nations have claimed the
chief glory of the day for their own people, nor does it profit now to
weigh out the laurels to each with scrupulous precision. The brunt of
the fighting no doubt fell to the English share; that was their good
luck in what Mr. McCarthy has termed a "heroic scramble"; theirs too was
the heaviest loss. One thing is certain that the day was won by the
Allies, not by the skill of their generals, but by the valour and
endurance of the troops, and that the two qualities which ensured
success were those which chiefly distinguished the two nations
respectively--the resolute steadiness and courage of the one, and the
brilliant dash and fury of the other.
[Sidenote: A Fruitless Victory.]
The Battle of Alma was won, but the fruits of victory--where were they?
The English had lost 2,000 men in two hours' fighting, including
twenty-six officers killed; the 23rd Welsh Fusiliers having suffered
worst, with eight officers killed and five wounded and nearly 200
casualties in their ranks. The French returned their loss at 1,200. What
was to be set to the credit of the account? Menschikoff was in full
retreat with his army in great confusion, which required only the
pressure of pursuit to convert into a hopeless rout. Raglan, the pupil
of the Great Duke, surely had learned a sounder lesson than to allow the
enemy time to reorganise his disordered divisions. Raglan, of course,
was for pursuit, but Saint-Arnaud, physically and mentally shattered,
objected for the reason that he was weak in cavalry; the English
commander hesitated, perhaps on good grounds, to proceed alone, and the
opportunity was lost.
The news of victory caused a great revulsion of feeling in England.
People had become impatient during the summer months of inaction at
Varna, and disheartened by the failure of Sir Charles Napier to carry
all before him in the Baltic. Bomarsund, it is true, had been taken, but
Cronstadt and Sweaborg had proved impregnable. Complaints were general
about the want of vigour displayed in carrying on the war, and
dissatisfaction not only prevailed among the uninformed public, but even
found expression from the lips of Cabinet Ministers.
[Illustration: _Chevalier L. W. Desanges._} {_In the Victoria Cross
Gallery, Crystal Palace._
COL. LLOYD LINDSAY, OF THE SCOTS FUSILIER GUARDS
(now Lord Wantage, K.C.B.), seized the colours and rallied his men when
thrown into disorder in the Battle of the Alma. For this act, and for
gallantry at Inkermann, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.]
[Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Elliott & Fry._
MR. (NOW SIR) WM. H. RUSSELL, LL. D.
The first of War Correspondents. Born in 1821; joined the staff of the
_Times_ in 1843, and has represented that paper in all the considerable
wars which have occurred since.]
[Sidenote: War Correspondents.]
A novel feature in the Expedition to the Black Sea was the presence with
the army of war correspondents, representing the leading daily papers.
This was a symptom of that growth of journalistic enterprise which was
to receive such notable impetus in the following year by the abolition
of the newspaper stamp duty. The name of Mr. W. H. Russell, representing
the _Times_, will be long remembered as that of the pioneer in this new
and exciting form of literature. The vivid descriptions sent home of the
splendid conduct of British troops in the field, and the excellent
relations established between them and their ancient foes the French,
were eagerly perused in England, and sent up the enthusiasm to fever
heat.
But if the war letters in the newspapers were of good service in
allaying public impatience by reporting valorous exploits and heroic
endurance, they tended to intensify the anxiety when the campaign became
prolonged towards winter, without any decisive result. It had been
expected that Sebastopol would be carried by a _coup-de-main_; so it
might have been, perhaps, had the victory of Alma been followed up, even
on the day after the action. But the views of Maréchal Saint-Arnaud
prevailed again; the project of assaulting Sebastopol on the north side
was abandoned; and the Allies undertook the terribly hazardous, though,
as it happened, successful flank march upon Balaklava, which, with its
convenient harbour, was selected as the English base and depôt, while
the French chose Kamiesch Bay.
The Battle of Alma took place on September 20; on the 23rd General
Todleben, commanding the defences of Sebastopol, sunk seven war vessels
at the mouth of the harbour. The Allied Fleet, from which this operation
was plainly visible, were thus effectually shut out; the golden
opportunity of the speedy capture of the city by a combined land and sea
attack had gone by. Such an attack was made on October 17, but the fleet
could only play at long bowls, and the French batteries were silenced in
a few hours. The first attempt ended in failure. There was nothing for
it but a prolonged siege, and the Allied Land Forces were insufficient
to invest the town effectively. Moreover they were threatened by a
Russian army outside, constantly reinforced by fresh troops from the
interior. The besiegers themselves had to stand on the defensive.
[Illustration: _W. Simpson, R.I._} {_From Colnaghi's "Authentic
Series."_
IN THE BATTERIES BEFORE SEBASTOPOL.
Sketched on the spot.]
[Sidenote: Balaklava.]
[Sidenote: Cavalry Charges by the Heavy and Light Brigades.]
On October 25 General Liprandi attacked the English camp at Balaklava
with 20,000 or 30,000 men. It is a day to be much remembered in British
war annals with profound but melancholy pride, because of the blunder
which cost the British Army the loss of two-thirds of its Light Cavalry.
The action began by the capture by the Russians of four redoubts held by
the Turks. Then took place a cavalry encounter which, though it has been
eclipsed in memory by the subsequent exploit of the Light Brigade, was,
in truth, not less splendid and far more fruitful. The Russian horse,
numbering some 3,000 sabres advanced against the British Heavy Cavalry
Brigade under General Scarlett. Immensely outnumbered as they were, and
hampered by tent ropes and enclosed ground, the Scots Greys and
Enniskillens charged them impetuously. For a minute or two it seemed as
if these fine regiments must be swallowed up in the dense columns of the
enemy, but the Royals and 4th Dragoon Guards moving up on the left, and
the 5th Dragoon Guards on the right, charged the enemy on either flank,
and forced them to give way and fly. The whole affair was over in less
than five minutes.
Lord Raglan, who was anxiously waiting for infantry reinforcements,
seeing the Russians preparing to move the guns from the captured
redoubts, sent an order to Lord Lucan to prevent them doing so. "Try to
prevent the enemy carrying away the guns." What guns? Captain Nolan, who
carried the order, pointed to a battery of eight Russian guns at the end
of the valley, supported by artillery on either flank. "There, my lord,
is our enemy," said he, "and there are our guns." Lord Lucan hesitated
at first, but the order seemed explicit, and he directed Lord Cardigan
to form his Light Brigade into two lines. In the first line were four
squadrons of the 13th Light Dragoons and 17th Lancers; in the second
were four squadrons of the 4th Light Dragoons and 11th Hussars, with one
squadron of the 8th Hussars as a kind of reserve. The command was given,
and it was obeyed. Six hundred and seventy-three men rode down that
valley of death straight for the guns, on a venture as hopeless and
devoted as that of Sir Giles de Argentine at Bannockburn, and hardly
less futile. Only one hundred and ninety-five returned.
[Illustration: _Stanley Berkeley._} {_By permission of the publishers,
Messrs. S. Hildesheimer & Co., of London and Manchester._
THE CHARGE OF THE HEAVY BRIGADE AT BALAKLAVA.]
[Sidenote: Breakdown of Transport and Commissariat.]
On the following day the Russians made a sortie in force upon the
English position at Inkermann, and although they were repulsed by Sir de
Lacy Evans's division, there can be no possible doubt that the Allied
Forces at this period were in imminent peril of a terrible disaster.
Five days before the cavalry action of Balaklava, Raglan had informed
the War Office that his army was reduced to 16,000, and that he doubted
if he could maintain it in the field during the winter, even if
Sebastopol should be taken first. Week after week the condition of the
troops was painted in gloomier colours by the war correspondents. The
transport system had broken down; supplies of all sorts were running
short; the hospital arrangements were miserably inadequate for the
numerous wounded and the still more numerous sick. The Turkish
troops--men of the same race who had fought so well under English
officers at Silistria--proved useless--worse than useless, for they had
to be fed--under their own pashas in the trenches before Sebastopol.
[Illustration: _R. Caton Woodville._} {_By permission of the Artist, and
of Messrs. Graves, Pall Mall, Publishers of the Photogravure._
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALAKLAVA.]
The French Emperor took alarm. Hitherto nearly all the fighting had
fallen to the share of the British, and England had very few troops
ready to send as reinforcements. Louis Napoleon proposed to send 20,000
French troops if England would supply the necessary transports. This was
undertaken at once; huts, warm clothing, blankets, tinned meat, and
other stores were sent out in ample quantities, but very few of the
cargoes reached their destination. Winter had burst upon the Black Sea
with almost unexampled fury; the transports and cargo ships were
scattered. Two French men-of-war and twenty-four British transports went
to the bottom in the hurricane; the elements seemed to combine with
man's mismanagement for the annihilation of the Allied Forces. What our
soldiers had to bear, half clothed, half starved, in those bitter
trenches, may be read in Kinglake's narrative.
[Sidenote: Battle of Inkermann.]
While the authorities at home were straining every nerve to send succour
to the fast-dwindling army in the field, news came to England of another
great battle, far more sanguinary than any previous encounter, in which
once more the brunt had fallen on the British. The Grand Dukes Nicholas
and Michael, with the whole forces in Sebastopol, reinforced by large
bodies of troops newly arrived from the Danubian provinces, in all not
less than 50,000 men, had attacked the right of the English lines early
in the dark morning of November 5. The fighting continued till late in
the afternoon, the French being engaged also; but General Canrobert (who
had succeeded to the command vacated by the death of Saint-Arnaud), in
his telegram to the Emperor, chivalrously attributed the victory to "the
remarkable solidity with which the English army maintained the battle,
supported by a portion of General Bosquet's division." The English loss
in the Battle of Inkermann amounted to 2,573 killed and wounded, of
which 145 were officers, including four generals; the French lost 1,800,
while the Russian casualties were made out in their official returns at
11,959 killed, wounded, and prisoners.
[Illustration: _Chevalier L. W. Desanges._} {_In the Victoria Cross
Gallery, Crystal Palace._
THE BATTLE OF INKERMANN.]
[Sidenote: Florence Nightingale.]
The Allies paid a heavy price for this victory, but the carnage was not
in vain. The power of Russia was crippled for a moment, and time was
given for the succour which busy hands and brains were preparing in
London and Paris. The most heartrending spectacle of all was the state
of the hospitals at Scutari. No sooner did a description of them reach
London than a fund was opened to supply their wants. More than £25,000
was collected, and English women organised themselves as nurses, and
placed themselves under the direction of Miss Florence Nightingale. No
commander so puissant--no statesman so powerful--that his name shall
out-last that of this devoted Englishwoman, whose services, in spite of
the usual routine official objections, were accepted by Mr. Sidney
Herbert, the Secretary at War.[F] Miss Nightingale arrived at Scutari,
with thirty-seven nurses, on the morning of the Battle of Inkermann, and
so clearly did this devoted band prove their usefulness, that Miss
Stanley, the Dean of Westminster's sister, followed not long after with
forty additional assistants. To Florence Nightingale is due the glory of
having initiated a movement which has extended far beyond the limits of
the Crimean Campaign. No army now moves on active service without its
train of skilled nurses, and the Geneva Convention has been the direct
result of this first mission of mercy.
[Illustration: _W. Simpson, R.I._} {_From Colnaghi's "Authentic
Series."_
MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE IN ONE OF THE WARDS OF THE HOSPITAL AT
SCUTARI.
From Sketches made on the spot.]
[Sidenote: Fall of the Coalition Cabinet.]
It would be no pleasant task to retrace at length the sorrowful story of
the siege. British army organisation had broken down hopelessly, and
people in England were maddened by the descriptions in the Press,
perhaps in some instances exaggerated, how their brothers and sons were
dying in the trenches, not by steel and shell, but from the starvation,
disease, exposure, vermin, to which the culpable incapacity of British
officials, as it was believed, had exposed them. It was the system,
rather than its agents, which was to blame; but shoulders had to be
found to bear the blame, and Parliament took the only means in its
power, by passing a vote of censure on Ministers, who were defeated on a
motion by Mr. Roebuck by the crushing majority of 157. The Coalition
Government had collapsed.
[Sidenote: Victory of the Turks at Eupatoria.]
After an ineffective attempt by Lord Derby to form a Cabinet, Lord
Palmerston--the only possible man in the existing state of public
opinion--became Prime Minister. Things had begun already to go better
with the Allies before Sebastopol. Omar Pasha, with his despised Turks,
defeated an army of 40,000 Russians under General Liprandi at Eupatoria
on February 18, being supported by an effective fire from the Allied
Fleet.
The news reached Czar Nicholas on March 1; he was suffering at the time
from the effects of influenza, but his health was not the subject of any
alarm to his Court. Nevertheless he died on March 2; peace negotiations
were immediately opened at Vienna, and the new Czar consented to send a
representative to the Conference "in a sincere spirit of concord."
Great Britain was represented by Lord John Russell and France by M.
Drouyn de Lhuys, but the proceedings were rendered abortive by the
refusal of Russia to consent to the neutralisation of the Black Sea.
[Illustration: _Chevalier L. W. Desanges._} {_In the Victoria Cross
Gallery, Crystal Palace._
LIEUT.-COLONEL SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, BART., V.C.
At the Battle of Inkermann, ammunition failing, both British and
Russians hurled stones at each other. In the midst of the mêlée,
Lieut.-Colonel Russell, of the Grenadier Guards, led a party into the
midst of the enemy, and dislodged them from the Sand-bag Battery. He was
nearly bayonetted; his life was saved by a private in the Grenadiers
named Palmer.]
[Illustration: _Sir F. Grant, P.R.A._} {_By permission of Messrs
Graves._
FIELD-MARSHAL LORD RAGLAN, 1788-1855.
Lord Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, created Baron Raglan in 1852, was the
eighth and youngest son of the Fifth Duke of Beaufort. He was Military
Secretary to the Duke of Wellington, 1819-1852, Master-General of
Ordnance, 1852, and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in
the Crimea, 1854.]
[Sidenote: Death of Lord Raglan.]
The war went on; the Allies being strengthened in a minute degree by the
active adherence of the little kingdom of Sardinia, of which the gallant
and resolute monarch, Victor Emmanuel, perceived ultimate advantage to
his designs on the throne of Italy through alliance with Great Britain
and France in a war which concerned him about as much as it did the
Queen of the Sandwich Islands. The bombardment of Sebastopol was resumed
on April 10, and 400 great guns battered away without much result. But
the trenches were drawing ever closer round the doomed city, and the
Allies made a successful expedition to Kertch on May 24, where they
destroyed immense stores provided for the Russian army, as well as a
convoy of cargo ships in the Sea of Azoff. On June 18 a combined assault
was delivered on the Malakoff and Redan Forts, but the Allies were
repulsed with heavy loss. It had been undertaken against the judgment of
Lord Raglan, who yielded reluctantly to General Pelissier's urgent
request. He took this reverse grievously to heart: harassed as he had
been by the censures passed at home on his administration, his health
gave way under this additional blow, and he succumbed to dysentery on
the 29th.
[Illustration: _E. M. Ward, R.A._} {_In the Royal Collection._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN INVESTING THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON III. WITH THE ORDER
OF THE GARTER AT WINDSOR CASTLE, April 18, 1855.
The friendly feeling between England and France which sprang out of
their common interests in the war against Russia, found expression in an
interchange of visits between the Sovereigns of the two countries. The
Emperor Napoleon III. and his beautiful Empress visited the Queen at
Windsor in April 1855. They were met at Dover by the Prince Consort on
the 16th, and remained at Windsor until the 21st. One of the most
impressive ceremonies of their visit was the Installation of the Emperor
as a Knight of the Garter.]
In assuming the chief command of the British Army in this war, Lord
Raglan had undertaken a task of peculiar and, in some respects, novel
difficulty. He brought ripe experience, it is true, acquired under the
greatest soldier of the century, but the lapse of years had brought
about so many changes in military appliances and scientific inventions,
that much of that experience was rendered obsolete. He was the first
British general who had to conduct operations in the field advised,
controlled, directed, censured by telegraphic despatches from the War
Office. He had, moreover, to act in concert with an ally, brave, indeed,
but sensitive, and it was of the nature of things that their counsels
should sometimes clash, at least, that their judgment should not always
be identical. Little reference has been made to the angry impatience
expressed in the English press and Parliament in regard to what was
freely condemned as the incapacity and dilatoriness of Lord Raglan,
because time and reflection have amply vindicated his renown. But it
must have been galling to him at the time, and greatly aggravated the
difficulties of his position. The best evidence of his genuine force of
character is found in the patient courage with which he fulfilled his
office to the last, and the enthusiastic devotion which he won from all
ranks serving under him.
[Illustration: _Chevalier L. W. Desanges._} {_In the Victoria Cross
Gallery, Crystal Palace._
MAJOR (NOW GENERAL) CHRISTOPHER TEESDALE, C.B., R.A., AT KARS, September
29, 1855.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallant conduct in throwing
himself into the midst of the Russians, who had penetrated under cover
of night into the Yuksek Tabia redoubt; also for saving, at great
personal risk, the enemy's wounded from the fury of the Turks.]
[Illustration: _G. H. Thomas._} {_From the Royal Collection._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN DISTRIBUTING MEDALS TO THE HEROES OF THE CRIMEA,
ON THE HORSE GUARDS PARADE, May 21, 1855.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Tchernaya.]
The command of the British forces devolved upon General Simpson. On
August 16 General Liprandi made a formidable attempt to raise the siege
by an attack on the French and Sardinian position on the Tchernaya, but
was repulsed with tremendous slaughter. This was the last encounter in
the open field. The final assault on the town was opened by a tremendous
fire from the Allied batteries on September 5, and the bombardment
continued without intermission throughout the 6th and 7th. On the
morning of the 8th the French made a splendid dash at the Malakoff Fort,
the key of Sebastopol, and captured it. The English fared not so well in
an attempt to storm the Redan and suffered severely in a repulse. But
the defence was at an end.
[Illustration: _C. Jacquand._} {_From the Royal Collection._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCE CONSORT LANDING AT BOULOGNE, August
18, 1855.
This was the first visit of an English Sovereign to France since Henry
VI. was crowned in Paris in 1422. The Royal Visitors were received by
the Emperor on the landing stage at Boulogne, and conveyed to the Palace
of St. Cloud. During their stay in Paris they paid several visits to the
Palais des Beaux Arts, a part of the Exposition Universelle in which
they were greatly interested.]
[Illustration: _G. H. Thomas._} {_From the Royal Collection._
REVIEW IN THE CHAMPS DE MARS AT PARIS, August 24, 1855.
During their stay in Paris, Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince Consort
were present at a grand review of troops held in the Champs de Mars.
Especial interest was attached to the spectacle, as at the moment the
armies of France and England were fighting side by side in the final
struggle in the Crimea. Canrobert, one of the heroes of the war, was
present, and was decorated by the Queen with the Order of the Bath. Her
Majesty, with the Empress and Princess Mathilde, are sitting together in
the balcony, while the Emperor and the Prince Consort are below watching
the movements of the long series of battalions.]
[Sidenote: Evacuation of Sebastopol.]
After repeated attempts to retake the Malakoff, the Russian commander
resolved on evacuating the town. Fortunately the wires connected with
the magazine in the Malakoff were discovered in time by the French and
cut, for arrangements had been made for blowing up all the forts. One
after another they went up with terrific din during the night; early on
the morning of the 9th the Russians executed a masterly evacuation
across a floating bridge, leaving their town in flames and their fleet
at the bottom of the harbour. Sebastopol had fallen, but not into the
hands of the Allies; it had been erased from the face of the earth.
[Illustration: _E. M. Ward, R.A._} {_From the Royal Collection._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN VISITING THE TOMB OF NAPOLEON I. IN THE INVALIDES,
PARIS, August 24, 1855.]
[Sidenote: Conclusion of Peace.]
The Congress of Paris met on February 26, 1856, and a treaty of peace
was signed by the plenipotentiaries of the Great Powers on March 30. The
most important Article was that which guaranteed the perpetual
neutrality of the Black Sea; Russia received back the ruins of
Sebastopol in exchange for the wreck of Kars, and the Eastern Question
was laid to rest, at least for a season.
[Illustration: THE EARL OF ROSSE'S GREAT TELESCOPE AT PARSONSTOWN.
This great reflecting telescope, still the finest in the world, is 56
feet long; the speculum or mirror of copper and tin at the bottom of the
tube is 6 feet in diameter and weighs nearly 4 tons. Its nominal
magnifying power is 6,000, and it reflects about 165,000 times as much
light as the naked eye itself would receive. It was designed and
constructed in 1845 by the late Earl of Rosse, and has rendered great
service to science.]
[Illustration: [_From a Photograph by the late Mrs. Cameron._
SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL, BART.
1792-1871.
Astronomer. Son of Sir Frederick W. Herschel. His first great work was
his Catalogue of Double and Triple Stars; later on he catalogued the
nebulæ, and made researches in Sound and Light. He discovered the
solvent effects of hyposulphite of soda on silver salts--the basis of
photographic processes. Created a Baronet in 1838, Master of the Mint
1850-55. For many years he was among the most prominent of English
scientists.]
For this result England had to pay down four and twenty thousand lives
and add forty-one millions to her National Debt; but she learned in
addition to take vigilant precaution against the enervating influence of
prolonged peace. To this may be added the bracing moral effect which
follows on the supreme and disciplined exercise of a nation's power.
[Illustration: _Sir Oswald Brierly, R.W.S._} {_In the Royal Collection._
ACTION AT FATSHAN, CHINA, June 1, 1857.
The Chinese fleet of about ninety junks was completely destroyed in two
severe engagements, in which the Chinese fought their guns with
unexampled constancy. Owing to the shallowness of the water the British
attacked in small boats.]