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Stirring Incidents In The Life of a British Soldier
On the morning of the 8th, a destructive and pitiless storm of shot and shell continued until noon, when the fire of our batteries ceased, and the storming columns of the French issued forth, preceded by riflemen and sappers and miners. The French had bridges as substitutes for ladders; the ditch was crossed by the bridges, and the parapet scaled with surprising celerity. Then commenced the struggle, with guns, rifles, pistols, swords, bayonets, and gun-rammers; but in a quarter of an hour the tricolour flag floated on the Malakoff, announcing that the formidable position was taken.
Although the French had captured it, the Russians so well knew its value, it being the key to the whole position, that they made furious attempts at re-capture. But the French General judiciously sent powerful reserves to the support of McMahon, and these reserves maintained a series of desperate battles against the Russians within the Malakoff, bayonet against bayonet, musket against musket, man against man. The contest continued for several hours; but the French triumphed, and drove the Russians from their stronghold.
Anything more wildly disorderly than the interior of the Malakoff can hardly be imagined. The earth had been torn up by the explosion of shells, and every foot of the ground became a frightful scene of bloody struggles; thousands of dead and wounded men being heaped up within this one fort alone. As soon as the tricolour was seen floating on the Malakoff, two rockets gave the signal for the British columns to storm the Redan. Out rushed the storming party, preceded by the ladder and covering party, a mere handful altogether; indeed it appears astonishing that so few should have been told off for so great a work; every soldier had a perilous duty assigned him. The riflemen were to cover the advance of the ladder party, by shooting down the gunners at the embrasures of the Redan; the ladder party to place the ladders in the ditch. As soon as the storming party rushed from the Quarries, the guns of the Redan opened a fierce fire on them, sweeping them down as they advanced. Col. Unett, of the 19th Regiment, was one of the first officers that fell, and Brigadiers Von Straubenzie and Shirley were both wounded, and scarcely an officer who advanced with the storming party but got either killed or wounded. The distance from the Redan to the Quarries was too great, being over two hundred yards, which gave the enemy a good opportunity to mow the storming party down with a tremendous fire of grape, canister and musketry. The survivors advanced and reached the abatis, the pointed stakes of which, standing outward presented a formidable obstacle to further progress; however the men made gaps through which they crawled. Then came another rush to the ditch, when the ladders were found to be too short. However, our men scrambled down, and climbed up, many falling all the time under the shot of the enemy. Officers and men were emulous for the honour of being among the first to enter this formidable battery; but alas too weak, in the numbers necessary for such an enterprise. Mounting to the parapet, the beseigers saw the interior of the Redan before them filled with masses of soldiers and powerful ranges of guns and mortars; wild and bloody was the scene within the assailed fort. Colonel Wyndham (afterwards Sir Charles) was the first officer to enter; and when fairly within the parapet, he and the other officers and men did all they could to dislodge the Russians from behind the traverse and breast works; but the Russians overpowered our handful of men that were sent to take this stronghold, for we had no support to back up those that got a footing in the Redan. The Russians continued bringing up reinforcements and soon overpowered the few British, who saw they must either retire or remain to be shot down. New supporting parties kept arriving in such driblets and in such confusion as to render impossible any well directed charge against the place. If, for a time a few men were collected in a body, volleys of musketry, grape, canister, and old pieces of iron of every description, fired from their big guns, levelled our men to the dust. The officers and men at last seeing no supports coming to their aid, lost heart and retreated to their trenches.
The embrasures of the parapets, the ditch, and all round the abatis became a harrowing scene of death and wounds; heaps of dead and wounded lay all round the Redan, and piles of them lay at the bottom of the ditch, where they fell by the Russian shot, as they climbed up the scaling ladders. At two o'clock the attack was over, and in these two hours the British loss was very severe. No other day throughout the war recorded so many killed and wounded which amounted to the large number of 2450 in all. The French loss was three times more severe it comprised no less than 7550 killed and wounded.
Next day another attack was to be made on the Redan. Sir Colin Campbell sent down a party cautiously in the night to see how the Redan was occupied; it was found to be vacated, telling plainly of the abandonment, by the Russians, of the south side of the town. It appears that Gortchakoff, when the impossibility of maintaining his position became evident, commenced blowing up the public buildings of the town; the gunners, during the early hours of the night, kept up a sufficient fire to mask their proceedings in the stillness of the night when the allied camps were filled with men, either sleeping or thinking anxiously of the scenes which day-light might bring forth. Lurid flames began to rise in Sebastopol; explosions of great violence shook the earth, and intense commotion was visible to the men in the trenches. The fires began in various parts of the town, and tremendous explosions behind the Redan tore up the ground for a great distance; and other explosions succeeded so rapidly that a thick, murky mass of smoke and flames from burning buildings, imparted an awful grandeur to the scene. Now came a resistless outburst which blew up the Flagstaff battery; then another blew up the Garden battery. As day-light approached, Fort Paul, Fort Nicholas Central, and Quarantine Bastion, were seen surrounded by flames. We could not withhold our admiration of the manner in which Gortchakoff carried out his desperate plan, the last available means of saving the rest of the garrison.
On the morning of the 9th September, when the troops in camp heard the announcement that the mighty city had fallen, the city which, during twelve months, had, day by day, been looked at and studied by our generals and engineers, and in front of which 10,000 of our troops had been killed or wounded on the preceding day, – with difficulty was the announcement credited, so accustomed had all been to the dashing of their hopes, and the non-fulfilment of their predictions. I was one among many who hastened into the town and was astonished at the enormous extent of the batteries, and the manner in which our shot and shell had knocked down and torn up the massive buildings. The French soldiers rushed into the town, peered about the burning houses, and plundered them of chairs, tables, looking-glasses, and countless articles, and carried them up to their camp. The French soldiers always keep a bright look-out for plunder. I must say that our men did not touch a single article, that I ever heard of, except one man, who found a lot of money in a bank. He emptied it into his haversack, and left at once. The bank clerks in their excitement and hurry must have forgotten to take the money in their haste to get out of the city. We had a chain of cavalry all round the town, to keep back stragglers, and stop any person from taking anything out of the town. Thus ended the wondrous Siege of Sebastopol. On the 8th of September, when the allied commanders found that the Russian garrison, together with inhabitants had crossed to the north side of the harbour it became their duty to ascertain whether any traps or explosive mines had been laid by the enemy, before our troops could be allowed to occupy the town, to ward off camp followers, and to divide the spoils of the garrison between the two invading armies; and to take measures for the destruction of the forts and docks.
The appearance of the town, at the time that we entered it, was fearful indeed. Destructive forces had been raging with a violence never before equalled in the history of sieges; and the whole internal area was one vast heap of crumbled earth-work, shattered masonry, shot-pierced buildings, torn-up streets, scorched timbers, broken guns and muskets, and shattered vehicles. The buildings were shattered into forms truly fantastic; some of the lower stories almost shot away and barely able to support the superstructure; some with enormous gaps in the walls. Proofs were manifold that the Russians intended to defend the town street by street, had we forced an entrance for across every street were constructed barricades defended by field pieces. In some of the best houses columns were broken by shot, ceilings falling, which these columns had once supported; elegant furniture crushed beneath broken cornices, beams, and fragments of broken looking-glasses, mingled with the dust on the marble floors. The effect of our 13-inch shells had been extraordinary. These dread missiles, of which so many thousand had been thrown into the town, weigh 200 pounds each, and falling from a great height, have the weight of over sixty tons descending deep below the foundation of the houses, and when they explode, scattering everything around far and wide. Our army still continued to encamp outside the town, sending only as many troops as would suffice to guard it, and take up the principal buildings among the ruins for guard-houses. Now we have plenty of wood, each company sending a fatigue party daily from the camp to Sebastopol for it. These parties could be seen by the Russians from the north side pulling down the houses for the wood, and carrying it to camp. While doing so the Russians invariably fire upon us, from the north side of the harbour, where they have thrown up very strong forts, armed with the heaviest guns. They have placed some of those guns with the breach sunk into the ground, in order to get elevation, and throw shot right into our camp amongst our tents, not unfrequently killing and wounding our men.
We have now regular guards and sentries all over Sebastopol. After posting a sentry one day, I happened to go down some steps which led to the basement of a large building, and there I found to my horror fifteen dead Russians. My sense of smell first detected them in the dark vault; they were in the worst state of putrefaction. It was found on removing them that they had all been wounded, and had crawled in there and died from their wounds. We buried them where thousands of their comrades were buried, in rear of the Redan. The army is now quiet – no firing except an odd shot from the Russians at our fatigue parties in Sebastopol. We have no trench duty to perform – nothing but the regular camp guards; we have plenty of fuel and good rations; any amount of canteens on the ground, so we are making up now in comfort for the hard times we had last winter. The army was now at a stand-still, having nothing to occupy their time.
But the commanders began to look forward to a second wintering in the Crimea as a probability. Invaluable as the railway had become, it was inadequate to the conveyance of the immense bulk and weight of supplies required day by day in the army, and hence it is necessary to do that which, if done in the early part of last winter, would have saved so many valuable lives – to construct a new road from Balaklava to the camp. Therefore the road was laid out and large numbers of our men worked on it daily; but making roads is only child's play compared with making trenches under shot, shell, grape and canister. The whole of the divisions were kept continually at road-making; the road promises to be a splendid one, and we were all anxious to make it. We had no less than 10,000 men working on this road, between Balaklava and the front. By the end of October a most excellent road was constructed, including branch roads to the several divisions. The French at the same time constructed a road across the valley which connects their camp with the main road to Kamiesch; and besides they have improved the old Tartar roads.
Our army suffered much last winter from the want of roads. This excellent road which the British army has constructed, will ever remain as a memento of British occupation. During the three weeks of September which followed the evacuation of the south side of Sebastopol the Russians were quietly but actively strengthening their fortifications on the north side, making all the heights bristle with guns, and firing a shot whenever an opportunity offered to work mischief upon our guards, sentries, and fatigue-parties in the town. We had planted a few guns in position so as to bear on the northern heights; but no disposition was shown to open a regular fire on them, except an odd shot to remind them that we were ready for them at any time.
Camp rumours arose concerning some supposed expedition into the interior of the Crimea, but the securing of the captured city was regarded as the first duty.
On the 20th September, 1855, the anniversary of the battle of the Alma, a distribution of the medals for the Crimea, and clasps for Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman, took place among the troops; these decorations were very much appreciated by the officers and men. The day was commemorated with much festivity and amusement in both camps.
CHAPTER XXII
EXPEDITION TO KINBURN – THE VOYAGE – ODESSA – LANDING – CUTTING TRENCHES – BOMBARDMENT – THE WHITE FLAG – CAPITULATION – THE PRISONERS – RECONNAISSANCE – THE MARCH – VILLAGE – BIVOUAC – MARCH – A VILLAGE – PIGS AND GEESE – DEPARTURE – THE FLEET – RETURN – SIR W. CODRINGTON – RUSSIAN SPY.
An expedition to Kinburn having been decided upon by the allies, on the 6th of October a squadron of H. M. fleet were in readiness at Kamiesch Bay to convey the 17th, 20th, 21st, 57th, and 63rd Regiments, together with marines, artillery and engineers under the command of General Spencer. As we marched to Kamiesch Bay the morning was close and sultry. When we got a third of the way private Hanratty fell out of the ranks and reported himself sick, when Captain Smith calls out, "Corporal Faughnan, take Hanratty back to hospital." "Yes, sir," says I, we were then marching down a very steep hill. I marched back to the hospital, although I was badly able, for I was bad with dysentery myself at the time, and for upwards of two weeks previously, and was so weak that I could scarcely march; but I did not wish to give in and be left behind. After I gave over the sick man, I saw the regiment a long way off in the valley. I marched as fast as I was able with a full kit. In the afternoon rain commenced to drizzle, and the regiment halted to cloak. I then gained on them and soon overtook them. When we halted at the beach I could have fallen down from weakness and exhaustion, but I kept up my pluck and never gave in. The troops were embarked on board the fleet by small steam-tenders; the 17th Regiment had the honour of being conveyed to Kinburn by the flag-ship "Royal Albert."
On the 7th October, the troops having been on board, and everything ready, we set sail, accompanied by several line-of-battle ships, small steamers, gun-boats, mortar-vessels, and three French floating batteries, constituting an armament of great magnitude. The English squadron comprised six steam line-of-battle ships, seventeen steam frigates, ten gun-boats, six mortar vessels, three steam tenders and ten transports. The Russians north of Sebastopol were in wild excitement when this large squadron appeared; but the ships soon disappeared from the Crimea.
The admirals signalled to the several captains to rendezvous off Odessa. As we got out to sea the band discoursed music while the officers were at dinner; before dinner they played as usual the "Roast Beef of Old England," which we had not heard for many months before.
We had no hammocks, so we were obliged to lie all round the decks in groups during the night. At eight o'clock next morning we cast anchor off Odessa, three miles from the town. It was then the turn for the citizens to be alarmed by this display of force.
The Russians on the heights, in barrack square and all round the city became incessantly active in making observations. We could see the old fashioned telegraph on the towers along the coast working, and clouds of Cossacks, infantry and artillery, formed up along the cliffs, ready to defend the place if attacked. All day on the 9th the fleet remained at anchor, about 80 French and English vessels forming a line six miles in length, eagerly watched from the cliffs by large masses of troops. The rocket-boats, gun-boats, mortar-vessels, and floating batteries might have gone nearer and crumbled the city to ruins; but such was not our orders, and not a shot was fired, and thus was Odessa spared for the third time during the war.
The object of the admirals in making this feint on Odessa, was to draw the Russian troops away from Kinburn, thereby reducing the number of troops in that garrison.
The 10th and 11th we were still at anchor, dense fogs giving the seamen a foretaste of the dangers of that coast; and as the 12th and 13th were very stormy, the admirals would not risk leaving until the weather moderated; thus it happened that the citizens had the threatening fleet in view for six days. The squadrons weighed anchor on the morning of the 14th, and cast anchor off Kinburn that afternoon; in the evening some of the French and English gun-boats entered the estuary of the Dneiper, passing the Fort of Kinburn under a heavy fire from the enemy.
On the morning of the 15th the troops were landed along the beach out of range of the fort, by the launches of the ships, each being filled with soldiers, and made fast to each other by means of the painter. After the troops were all got into the launches, they formed several long lines of red coats in little boats – each boat was steered by a naval officer.
The front boat of the line being made fast to a small steamer, the whole were then towed in front of the beach where we were to land. As the steamer ran in towards the shore, she cast off the line of boats, and while they were under way each let go the painter, and headed towards the beach running in close on a sandy bottom, when the troops jumped ashore and deployed from where we landed to the River Dneiper, while the gun-boats went up the river. By this double manœuvre the Russians were prevented from receiving reinforcements by sea, while the garrison were cut off by land. In the evening the mortar vessels began to try their range on the forts.
The troops brought no tents, and only three days' rations. After posting outlying pickets, we were set to work cutting a trench from the sea where we landed to the river Dneiper, a distance of five miles. While we were digging the trench during the day, the outlying pickets had a skirmish with a small force of Cossacks; but the chief labour was the landing of stores and artillery, tedious and dangerous work over the rough surf, occasioning the swamping of some of the boats. A camp was formed, but without tents. At two o'clock in the morning we had the trench cut and manned ready to receive the Russian reinforcements for the garrison, which were expected from Odessa, but which did not come. However, a large force of Cossacks came along at three o'clock in the morning, when we opened a heavy fire upon them from our new trench, forcing them to retire quicker than they came, we then kept a good look-out till morning. Generals Spencer and Bazaine made a cavalry reconnaissance at day-break, when the Cossacks retired altogether.
About four companies of the French and English marksmen were placed under cover at a distance of four hundred yards in rear of the fort, and kept up a fusilade on the Russian gunners; while at the same time the artillery opened a strong fire on the fort; at nine o'clock the ships opened fire on the garrison.
The "Royal Albert," "Algiers," "Agamemnon," and "Princess Royal," and four ships of the line, approached abreast of the principal fort; the "Tribune" and "Sphinx" attacked the earth-work battery. The "Hannibal," "Dauntless," and "Terrible," took position opposite the battery near the end of the fort, while the smaller vessels directed their attack on the east and centre of the fort. Thus the Russians, from the shape and position of the fort, were attacked on all sides at once. Each ship poured its broadside upon the port and the strand batteries as it passed, and received the enemy's fire in return. From nine o'clock until noon these powerful vessels maintained their terrible fire against the forts, crashing the parapets and disabling the guns, while the mortar vessels set fire to the buildings within the fort. The "Arrow" and "Lynx," with others, were exposed to much danger. Having taken up a position close to the batteries to discharge their shell upon the fort, they received in return an iron torrent which tried the resolution of the crew.
At twelve o'clock the Russians hoisted a white flag, when an English and a French officer met the Governor at the entrance of the fort, when he tendered his surrender in military form by giving up his sword, but not without bitter tears and a passionate exclamation expressive of wounded national and professional honour. The officers bore the scene with dignity, but with deep mortification, and many of them were on the verge of mutiny against the Governor, so strong did they resist any proposals of surrender. The garrison laid down their arms, and were marched outside the town and placed close to our camp, with a chain of sentries and the French around them. The number of prisoners taken was 1,500, besides 500 killed and wounded; several of our doctors were sent to attend their wounded in the fort.
The prisoners were divided, the English half were taken on board the "Vulcan," while the other half were taken on board the French ships. The prisoners having been sent off to Constantinople, the captors proceeded to garrison Kinburn, repairing and increasing the defences, clearing away the ruins, repairing the walls and embrasures, replacing the damaged cannon by large ship guns, deepening the ditch, reforming the palisades, strengthening the parapets, restoring the casemates, completing efficient barracks and magazines, in the interior of the fort, and depositing a large amount of military stores of all kinds.
When the small garrison, the other side of the estuary, opposite Kinburn, Aczakoff, found that their guns could effect little against the invaders, and that Kinburn was forced to yield, they blew up the St. Nicholas battery, on the morning of the 18th, and retired a few hours afterwards. On the 20th Generals Spencer and Bazaine set out on a reconnaissance with several regiments of both forces, about five thousand strong. After marching on a sandy plain, like a desert, ten miles, we halted close to a village, piled arms, and were allowed to go foraging into the village, which we found deserted by the inhabitants; but they left abundance of pigs, geese, fowls and provisions, bread baking in the ovens, pails of milk and several other most useful articles, besides in the gardens we found abundance of potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, pumpkins, and almost all sorts of vegetables. We divided the town with the French; after tearing down several houses for fuel and making camp fires, we commenced cooking fowls, turkeys, geese, potatoes, cabbages and vegetables; while others were off through the village killing pigs, geese, turkeys, and chickens, others cutting down branches of trees from a wood hard by, for the purpose of making huts to protect us for the night, as we had no tents, and covering them with hay from the hay yards, and shaking plenty of hay inside to lie on; every mess erected one of these huts. After indulging in the good things, which I can assure you we enjoyed, we lay down very comfortably for the night in the hay, and slept most soundly. Next day at two o'clock General Spencer reviewed the troops under his command, with the French General and his soldiers looking on. We were to have the pleasure of another night in this camp. After enjoying boiled fowls, roast turkeys and plenty of fresh vegetables, we lay down among the hay and slept well, thanks be to God. Next morning, after breakfast, we marched to another village named Roosker, ten miles off. We halted outside the village, and sent in foraging parties from each regiment, dividing the town with the French and placing line of sentries in the centre. As we approached the village, the people fled, leaving everything behind, pigs, geese, ducks, fowls, bread, milk and butter. As we killed the live stock, we placed them on the commissariat waggons and brought the spoils back to camp. It was a most amusing scene, the French and English officers and soldiers shooting geese, ducks and hens, with their revolvers, and the men chasing the pigs and stabbing them with their bayonets. A soldier catches a pig by the hind leg, the animal drags him into the French lines, when a French soldier claims the animal, and a kind of a good natured quarrel ensues about the ownership of the pig. The geese rose in flocks, and the officers had the greatest sport shooting them. These were jolly times. After ransacking the town, we set fire to it, and marched back to our old bivouac, ten miles distant.