Chapter XIX: Part 19

Three days’ incessant firing had considerably injured the enemy’s works, and loosened the whole fabric of the lines; but the guns of the Redan and various batteries, peeping from beneath strong rope mantlets, triply plied and tarred, were still serviceable. The apertures through which the missiles were disgorged—small as possible for the purpose—were further blinded by a tarred rope disc matted round the muzzle of the gun just in front of the trunnions, which interposed between the sight of the English riflemen in the trenches and the unseen gunners in the Redan. Ragged and deformed as were the batteries, they, nevertheless, bore up with veteran fronts, and as but few of the Russian artillery were silent, it was expected that the resistance would be obstinate.

At twelve o’clock the French, emerging from their saps—which were about 20 yards from the edge of the Malakoff ditch—bounded into the tower and the little Redan. With a display of heroism which befitted their ancient prestige they captured the Malakoff; but though the little Redan was penetrated by a portion of the column, it was met by a solid mass of the enemy, which sprang on the allies with a fierceness so irresistible it was in vain they contended; and a few minutes more saw them hastily retreating to their lines. Meanwhile the attack on the tower proceeded with desperate violence. Few struggles for triumph were more determined and terrific. At last the Malakoff was won; but the achievement cost a shuddering sacrifice of the best troops of the Emperor.

Now came the signal for the English to advance. When the column knew that the French had conquered, excitement was at its highest, and eager to show how the Redan could be captured, the skirmishers vaulted unexpectedly over the parapet from the advance saps before the party with the ladders had time to debouch from the head of the trench. This was an anxious moment for Lieutenant Ranken. Equal, however, to the difficulty, he run out the sappers, carrying crowbars, axes, and a few intrenching tools, with all speed to the front, and flew on with the foremost ladders under a close fire of musketry and grape. The distance between the gorge of the sap and the ditch at the salient was 197 yards, and in striding on with the ladders across the open slope many a brave man fell. Nevertheless there was no halting, for the stormers were selected for the duty on account of their approved courage; and the column pressed on to the abbattis, which was instantly trodden down or pulled aside by the foremost men with as much ease as if the boughs had been faggots of sticks. Through the gaps the assailants pushed, followed unswervingly by the leading ladders, each 24 feet long, which were quickly planted against the counterscarp of the ditch, the height of which was barely 15 feet. The first one was planted by sergeant Leitch and private Harris, and the latter was the first man to descend by it into the ditch. Scrambling down, many tumbling headlong from the surge behind and many more in the heat of desire jumping into the moat, the stormers quickly tossed the ladders across to the escarp, up which ascended a stream of daring fellows into the body of the work. So skilfully were the ladders placed around the salient, that the troops in sinking into the ditch or climbing into the Redan were but little exposed to the flanking fire of its faces. The first portions of the column moved on steadily to the attack, but succeeding parties running to the head of the sap were so blown, they waited for a few minutes to recover breath. This done, they started in fitful batches, assailed by a withering _mitraille_. No longer in the orderly formations which characterize the battle-field, the troops in independent groups or sections reached the ditch, where, swelling around the salient, they dived into the fossé, and ascended or descended the ladders, as the events in the Redan fed their courage or starved their ardour. General Windham, whose valour and marvellous escapes on that day have astonished Europe, made his way into the place with some 80 or 100 men, but such was the virulence of the fire, such the carnage, a few only of the bold men who had had the temerity to mount the parapet could be induced, though the General himself walked amid the deadly storm, to rush from the traverse behind which they had shielded themselves.

Meanwhile the sappers, one of whom was appointed to every two ladders, after assisting to rear them in the most secure and advantageous situations, were collected by Lieutenant Ranken and set to work to form a practicable entrance into the Redan by means of a ramp. Wherever else their discipline failed, here it was perfect; and not a pulse of fear seemingly beat in any breast. Earth for the ascent was tumbled from the parapet above by a few of the party. Harris was the foremost sapper. Under a horrible fire he bravely tried to dig himself down behind the escarp revetment in order to push the gabions into the ditch, but the soil had been so strongly tamped, and was otherwise so solid with shot and shell which had poured into it from the breaching batteries that he gave up the attempt, and employed himself in efforts which, though they promised less, were in the end more certain of success. At this time there was only one shovel with the party; the few intended to come up with it had failed through casualties and accident. The hulk of the tools were with the lodgment party still in rear. Much depended on the use of this one shovel, but it was soon shattered to atoms in the hands of the workman, private Oldham.

The earth was now literally pushed from the parapet, and a rough incline in a few minutes was executed. So easy indeed was the ascent by this simple means, that the stormers rushed up the slope, steep and yielding as it was, in preference to climbing the ladders. As the workmen, waiting for the signal to advance had not yet come up, Lieutenant Ranken now appointed his sappers, aided by a few men of the assaulting column, to throw up a breastwork to the left of the salient across the ditch, to counteract the raking fire of the enemy. Well was it that the moat was only eight feet broad. Had it been a yard or two more the service might have been attended with a sacrifice of life appalling to contemplate. Gabions and fascines and boughs of trees and small rough timbers which had been used as binders by the Russians, were torn by some strong and impetuous sappers from the face and crest of the counterscarp to form the caponnière. Earth too was thrown on the rising mound from the parapets above, and the gabions, by extraordinary zeal, were loaded with sand and stones dislodged from the revetment and grubbed up from the bed of the ditch. In this way partial cove was obtained, but it was yet too shallow to protect the troops from the sharp peals of musketry which poured up the fossé. For about twenty minutes the work was persevered in when the impossibility of proceeding, temporarily suspended its progress.

By this time a working party of fifty men of the 77th regiment arrived. No signal for advancing had been given to them, for the almost hopeless state of affairs in the Redan did not warrant the step; but corporal Baker, a trustworthy sapper of known intrepidity and judgment, properly anticipating there would be occasion for the services of a working party, led the detachment to the salient, and driving into the ditch was soon engrossed in the construction of a caponnière across its bottom, a little on the right of the salient. While these engineering details were being stubbornly executed, the troops in the Redan, vainly waiting for two hours to seize an opportunity to dash into the town, many falling in the stand they had made around the traverse, commenced the retreat. With it retired the working party, the ladder-men and sappers; and in passing the open—till the gorge of the foremost sap was reached—so hot was the fire upon the repulsed stormers, that the ground was covered with slaughtered hundreds.

The names of the storming party of sappers were—

Company.
Sergeant Peter Leitch 2nd —wounded severely in the head.
Corporal James Curgenven 10th
2nd corporal David S. Osment 1st
Lance-corporal William Baker 7th
Private John Stephens 1st
” David Boyd 1st
” William Bennett 1st
” Peter Delany 1st
” Thomas Whyte 1st
” David Carswell 1st —wounded dangerously in the head,
died 18th September, 1855.
” John T. Harris 2nd
” Samuel Hammett 2nd —wounded by grape-shot in left
leg, and while hobbling back to
the 21-gun battery, was killed
in the trenches by a round-shot,
which carried away his head.
” James Broad 7th
” James Aitcheson 7th —wounded slightly in the right
arm.
” Christopher Digweed 9th
” John Whitford 9th
” William Clark 9th
” John Oldham 9th
” John Wotherspoon 10th
” Peter Ruthven 10th
” Robert Garrett 10th

“The sappers,” writes Lieutenant Ranken, “all behaved well and exerted themselves in carrying out my orders to the best of their power.” He then proceeds, “I beg especially to call your attention to the conduct of sergeant Leitch who was wounded, and corporal Curgenven who, with privates Harris and Wotherspoon were up with the leading ladders and who worked hard in pulling down gabions and placing and filling them according to my instructions, and of lance-corporal Baker who came up subsequently with the working party of the 77th, and who showed coolness, zeal, and activity in executing my orders.”

Singular were the escapes of corporal Baker. A musket-ball passed through his cap carrying it a few yards in his rear, and another bullet knocking both heads out of his water-bottle struck him in the hip as if a stone had been thrown at him. Had it not been that his canteen was full of water, the ball in all probability would have inflicted a dangerous wound.

It is not often that men who have but little hope of distinction before them, voluntarily undertake a supererogatory service, in venturing which is likely to subject them to the penalties of martial law. Such however was the case with private John Bowman of the first company who was of great height and strength, intrepid and useful. He had been sentry over the tools in the quarries; but when the signal for the advance was given he quitted his post without orders. In passing to the front he saw Captain Sedley of the engineers in the fifth parallel severely wounded. Tendering his assistance he placed his strong arm round the body of the captain and holding him up by the waist-belt supported him to the rear, where he left him in care of a few men who bore him to the camp. Impatient to share in the assault, he now ran through the trenches, and on his way to the Redan accoutred himself with the arms and appointments of a slain linesman. With all haste he joined Lieutenant Ranken and ascended the parapet, where, after firing for a time and throwing heavy stones with his strong arm at any Russians who dared to show themselves; he was killed. He fell on the crest of the work and then pitched headlong into the ditch followed by a mass of earth which crushed him beneath it.

That so few casualties occurred among the sappers of the storming party is attributable to the manner in which Lieutenant Ranken directed the placement of the ladders. More serious however were the casualties in the batteries and parallels. Those struck in the trenches were—

Lance-corporal John Fulton[196]—wounded severely in the left hand by the
splinter of a shell, whilst in the fifth parallel.

Private William Brine—killed in front of the 21-gun battery. Was struck
in both arms, and also disembowelled.

” Edward Lewis—right arm shot off—amputation was performed in the
trenches, and repeated a few days after in the camp. Died 18th
September.

” John Gregory—wounded dangerously in the back. Died 17th Sept.

” Jesse Head—wounded severely in the back.

The assault having failed, Captain Montagu, who was in command of the royal engineer department for the day, employed in the afternoon the sappers and working party at his disposal, in continuing the right advance sap in the direction of a rifle pit which this day’s operations had embraced in the British circumvallation. So wearied and stricken were the Russians by their exertions and losses that they permitted the approach to proceed unmolested.

In the night of the 8th no sappers were told off to the left attack, but thirty-six non-commissioned officers and men were distributed to the lines on the right. Three sappers in charge of one hundred men of the 42nd Highlanders were thrown into the right advanced sap and prolonged it by staking and filling one hundred gabions, in which they were only slightly interrupted by the enemy. The remainder of the brigades and working parties bustling among the parallels and batteries, repaired the embrasures, merlons, and platforms. Corporal John Ross was in charge of a party mending the embrasures of the quarry battery.

While these services were in progress fires broke out in several places in Sebastopol, and magazines blew up which cast at intervals over the doomed fortress a dismal glare of illumination, which was again deadened by clouds of thick smoke hanging heavily in the air. Conceiving that these were the throes of a general wreck, indications in fact of the desperation with which the enemy was resigning his stronghold, corporal John Ross who has more than once been noticed for his bravery at the siege, went forward to test the accuracy of his surmises and search for two missing sappers who had been left behind in the retreat. It was a beautiful night, mild and starlight. Four or five explosions had just taken place, which in the corporal’s view were ominous of the grave events transpiring in the fortress. As it was not usual to interfere with the sappers in the trenches go where they would, Ross had no trouble to pass the pickets and sentries in the fifth parallel, and a few more paces found him in the last approach. An artillery officer was there looking earnestly over the parapet, but the corporal moved silently along stepping over the bodies of the wounded, who in numbers had crawled into the trench after the failure. Inquiring hastily whether they had observed any Russian pickets lately, he was told they had been withdrawn early in the night. “Have you seen any wounded sapper lying outside?” he asked. “One straight to the front under the abattis,” was the reply of an infantry man who had witnessed his struggles. With this information Ross went on. It was about a quarter-past twelve o’clock when he issued from the outlet of the sap and directed his course to the Redan. The dead were strewn thickly on the open, and the wounded were writhing helplessly. When near the abattis another mine was sprung in the fortress. Ross stopped, for the coolest minds in extreme danger hesitate to make an useless venture. The bursting of magazines and the blowing up of forts and fortifications impressed him with the necessity of caution; and lying still in a momentary reverie, he was again shook into activity by falling stones from the explosions. On his hands and knees over torn ground, cannon balls, fragments of shells, and decomposing remains, he crept noiselessly on. Under the abattis he found his comrade private Carswell and a sergeant of the rifles. The meeting in such a spot was hurried, but as cordial as friendship and imminent hazard could make it. A few interrogatories and answers were interchanged which verified the report relative to the withdrawal of the Russian outposts. “That’s well,” said Ross, calmly. “I’m going into the Redan, and if all goes right I shall be back directly and have you taken to camp.” With them Ross left his flask of rum and water, and moved away. “Thanks—God speed you!” reached his ears in whispers as he glided ahead cheered by the hope that Providence, which had hitherto miraculously saved him from hurt or harm, would extend to him in this adventure the same gracious protection. As the distance between him and the fortress lessened his daring increased, and without a tremor to disturb the firmness of his purpose, he found himself at the brink of the ditch. For a short time he lay and listened. Russians might have been there plundering the dead and alarming the dying, but not a soul was astir. Hearing nothing but the groans of the wounded, he slid into the fossé, clambered up the escarp by the ramp made during the storming, and entered the jaws of a broken embrasure on the right of the salient of the Redan. The gun was there but no artillerymen. Yet he pressed his ear in the direction of the interior to discover, if possible, the footsteps of the gunners or the sound of voices. All was silent, and with a burglar’s creep, soft and wary but determined, he gained the neck of the aperture. At either side he looked, but nothing started up to show that the batteries were occupied. He looked ahead with straining eyes and onwards; still, nothing could he see but huge broken works, and streams of light shooting from burning buildings. All indeed was quiet save the crackling timbers in the distance, the booming of mines and the falling of houses. The Redan, that furnace of the siege, was indeed deserted and desolate! Being alone and unarmed Ross did not descend into the place to invite a conflict with concealed prowlers; and so after keeping watch for a few minutes in the withered embrasure, he quitted the opening while tongues of lurid flame jetting from clouds of heavy smoke, enabled him to pick his way from the battery without treading on wounded men struggling in dissolution. Charged with the possession of important intelligence he ran across the open, recovering himself with strange celerity as he dropped into shell holes or tripped against obstacles that encumbered the ground; and moving with almost winged haste to the engineer hut, he reported, about a quarter to one o’clock, the result of his self-imposed mission to Captain De Moleyns of the engineers.

The Redan evacuated! This was news indeed, and the captain with a young subaltern, Lieutenant Dumaresq, strode away to authenticate by a personal visit to the Redan the corporal’s report. He was also accompanied by sergeant Landrey, corporal Ross and a few sappers, who were joined in the fifth parallel by some men of the line. On the way the corporal pointed out his wounded comrade and the rifleman. Over the first Ross placed his greatcoat, and Lieutenant Dumaresq took off his peacoat and spread it over the sergeant; at the same time a few of the privates were despatched to the trenches for stretchers. The little band now shot on briskly to the salient. Ross and a line sergeant were in front. When the ditch was gained the party pushed into it, and quickly ascending the escarp by the ramp, they drove through an embrasure into the interior, where, seeing a Russian, the sergeant of the line sprang on him, and seized him as his prisoner. No time was lost by the officers in making a reconnaissance of the place; all sorts of dimensions were taken and a mental inventory of its peculiarities treasured up. Between five and ten minutes the adventurers were in the body of the work, and as explosions were going off every few minutes, the debris from which was falling on them, it was considered wise to return. Ross brought away with him two Russian musquets, the first trophies from the Redan. With a generosity equal to his bravery he gave one to Captain De Moleyns and the other to Lieutenant Dumaresq. On the way back the party sought the wounded men, and as the stretchers had not arrived, Ross bore away poor Carswell and Landrey the rifle sergeant. Of the gallant demeanour of these non-commissioned officers, Captain De Moleyns spoke commendably. The corporal’s report, first received with incredulity, was now satisfactorily affirmed, and General Simpson, who had intended to renew the assault at daybreak, gave orders for the re-occupation of the place. At the dawn of the 9th the troops marched unchecked into the Redan and took possession of the two towns which the enemy had evacuated.[197]

“Throughout this long and arduous siege,” wrote Sir Harry Jones on the 9th, “the royal sappers and miners have invariably performed the duties required of them in a highly satisfactory manner. Many have been conspicuous for their bravery and coolness under fire. Their names I brought under the notice of the Commander of the Forces, who was pleased to reward them according to the nature of the case.

“The duties of the Adjutant to the royal sappers and miners,” adds the General, “have been very efficiently performed by Captain Ewart, who has devoted his best energies to the men.”

In the order issued by the Commander-in-Chief, when the occupation of the Redan had become a settled event, occurs this passage:—

“General Simpson avails himself of this opportunity to congratulate and convey his warmest thanks to the general officers, officers, and soldiers of the several divisions, to the royal engineers and artillery, for their cheerful endurance of almost unparalleled hardships and sufferings, and for the unflinching courage and determination which, on so many trying occasions, they have evinced.”

So ended a conflict carried through a period of 337 days made up of a freezing winter and a wasting summer. The trenches were nearly nine miles long, and counted 22 batteries on the right and 20 on the left, which, for the final assault, were armed with 116 guns and 85 mortars. In the formation of the works no less than 20,000 gabions, 4,000 fascines, 340,000 sand-bags, 7,413 bread-bags, and a hundred different extemporized expedients had been employed to give them shape and solidity. Some of them were of colossal magnitude and master-pieces of field art. Rearing such formidable structures in rocky ground, amid hardships and catastrophes, harassed by sorties, surprises, and alarms, and opposed by tempests of shell and shot, grape, canister, and Miniés, were exploits of toil and constancy, the lustre of which can never be lessened by any example which history may offer as a parallel; and when it is considered that the works were run up by men overworked and wearied, oppressed by sickness, privation, and difficulties, and carried on in the presence of an enemy teeming with numbers, inspired by religious fanaticism, and protected by a stupendous array of works backed by an arsenal exhaustless in siege appliances, in artillery, and the engines of war, a day may come when it will be the fashion of the world to speak less of the military achievements of old Greece and Rome, but more of those of England and France.

-----

Footnote 196:

When lying wounded, sergeant-major Jamieson passed him. “Well,
sergeant-major,” said he, holding up his shattered hand, “this will
ruin Chelsea Hospital!” meaning, in a satirical sense, that the
_extravagant_ pension he would receive would throw the hospital into a
state of insolvency. He was discharged from the corps with a pension
of eightpence a-day.

Footnote 197:

Sir Harry Jones, in his report of the 9th September, thus wrote of the
corporal’s exploit:—“General Simpson determined to renew the assault
at daybreak the following morning, but during the night a corporal of
sappers conceiving that the enemy had retired from the Redan, crept
forward and ascertained such to be the case; as soon as this
information was received, orders were sent to re-occupy the Redan.”

1855.
SEBASTOPOL.
9th September, 1855-28th January, 1856.

Statistics—Andrew Anderson—Misconduct of the sappers—Non-commissioned
officers and men who received honours, appointments, or commissions
for their gallantry or useful services—Sergeant Samuel Cole—Field
electric telegraph—Private Fox taken prisoner—Exploring the batteries
for machines and electric wires—Commence batteries near Fort
Paul—Sappers removed to the Karabelnaia—Reinforcements from Gibraltar
and England—Driver troop to Scutari—Sapper quarters in the
docks—Huts—Companies attached to divisions of the army—Expedition to
Kinbourn—Marshal Pelissier’s acknowledgment of services of the sappers
attached to it—Sir William Codrington assumes the command of the
army—Explosion of the great French magazine—Exertions of tenth company
in arresting the fire—Gallantry in preserving the Inkermann magazine
mill—And removing live shells from the vicinity of the
flames—Construction of a magazine for small-arm ammunition—Stone
bridge over the middle ravine—Barrel causeway across its swampy
bottom—Another reinforcement from England.

The siege concluded, it may not be amiss to afford a statistical recapitulation of matters connected with the contest which concern the royal sappers and miners. From the commencement of the campaign nine companies were sent to Turkey and the Crimea, as also small parties for especial services. Some of the companies served for a period in the unhealthy region of Varna, and detachments were employed on the Danube, at Bucharest, and in Circassia. The united sapper force despatched to the East up to the 9th September, 1855, counted a total of 935 non-commissioned officers, privates, and buglers. Of this number 887 reached the Crimea, the remainder being retained in Bulgaria, Scutari, and Gallipoli for particular services, or on account of sickness which invalided them to England.

The casualties were as follows:—

Men.
Killed in the trenches 37
Died of wounds 18
Wounded severely, who survived 42 }
Wounded slightly 61 } 103
Perished by drowning 6
Frozen to death 1
Died from frostbite 4
Found dead 2
Missing, supposed to have perished 3
Died from cholera, diarrhœa, &c. 152
———
Total 223
———

Those invalided amounted to 119 non-commissioned officers and men, of whom 4 died in this country and many were discharged, one of whom, private A. McConnell, had lost his feet from frost-bite. Out of a force of 935 of all ranks there were therefore 445 casualties.

None of the corps were killed or wounded at the Alma, Balaklava, or 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.

Under Lieutenant Edwards, 51 non-commissioned officers and men from Chatham arrived at Balaklava in the ‘Adelaide’ on the 18th September; and then followed on the 5th October, the disembarkation at Scutari of the twenty-third company—93 strong—under Captain Siborne. This was the driver troop, a community of little jockeys, light in weight and sprightly in action, whose antecedents as ostlers, cabbies, grooms, and carters, rendered them so ductile in military equestrianism that, when inspected at Woolwich on the 17th August by Sir John Burgoyne, he pronounced their evolutions and the management of their horses to be very commendable. Captain Siborne had the merit of achieving this proficiency, as his adjutant did not join the troop until its arrival at Scutari. Eighty-eight horses were sent out in the ‘Assistance’ steamer with the company, nine of which were killed before the landing of the drivers. The stations of the troop were at Haida Pasha, Kulalee, and Scutari. The total force despatched to the East up to this time counted 1,127 non-commissioned officers and men.

Late in September the eighth company was removed from the docks. A month later the eleventh company was sent to the Karabelnaia, and took possession of the same store for a barrack. It was a cold and cheerless fabric, built on the wharf of the creek. At this time the fire upon it was considerably diminished. Two or three companies of the 18th regiment deputed to work with the sappers occupied quarters in the same range. These were the only troops except the allies quartered, at one time, in the dockyard. The French miners were cantoned in stores at the West end—the English sappers at the East. In the selection of barracks there was no occasion for national jealousies or bickerings, for neither district was a Belgravia; that of the French only possessing the designation without its style or a tithe of its comfort.

Working from the experience of the previous winter the Government entered into contracts in the summer for the immediate provision of materials for hutting the army in the Crimea. For a supply of such magnitude a forest was scarcely sufficient, and no less than thirty-four vessels of good tonnage were freighted with the residences. Between the 31st August and 10th October, all the ships were at sea, accompanied by 67 non-commissioned officers and men, chiefly carpenters, in charge. In the ‘Cochrane’ only one sapper had embarked, but in all the rest two each. The first vessels arrived on the 13th October luckily when the pressure in front had ceased, and then followed others in quick succession. Second corporal R. Lewis was appointed under the authority of a general order issuer of huts with an allowance of 2_s._ 6_d._ a-day from the 20th October. Two of the hutmen did not arrive until about the 31st December.

Between the erection of the huts and the demolition of the docks, the business of the sappers was principally divided. There were besides many other services which claimed their attention, such as dismantling the trenches and batteries, mending the roads, repairing hospitals, wharves, piers, waggons, &c., and surveying. A company was attached to each infantry division[201] of the army to attend to its exigencies. It was not however removed from its original hutting ground, except when the requirements of the division rendered it desirable. As this arrangement necessarily limited the command of the chief engineers in the direction of the energies of the sappers so far as any work not a divisional one was concerned, an explanatory instruction soon after followed.[202] Each company was considered as under the orders of the general commanding the division, and to preserve that command, the sappers when wanted for a public duty, were obtained for its performance on the authority of the commander of the forces communicated to the general officers of the respective divisions. In this way there was no check to the fullest employment of the corps, and the identification of particular companies with particular divisions was not without advantage.