Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

BATTLE OF INKERMAN.

111

darkened the air. Through the heavy mists

were heard the pealing of church bells and the singing of psalms from the distant city-the kernel of that great outer shell of stone and fortress. At an earlier hour, a sentry of an outlying picket on the heights, had heard what he supposed was the usual creaking and rumbling of carts and wagons on their way to the town, and he bestowed little attention on sounds which were afterwards known to be caused by the passage of masses of Russian troops and artillery slowly creeping up the rugged acclivities leading to the heights above the valley of Inkerman, where they drew up, ready to make a sudden and resistless onset upon the defenceless flank of the second division.

taken up. With an apparently impregnable | sodden ground and the ravines of Inkerman fortress and its unceasing cannonade on one hand and an encamped army on the other; half-starved, insufficiently clothed, badly sheltered, and suffering not only from the inclemency of the weather but from the effects of disease; they maintained a spirit which was the wonder of their commanders and of those who at home were anxiously awaiting intelligence. Meanwhile Prince Menschikoff was preparing for one great effort which should annihilate them between the fortress, where fresh troops, artillery, and provisions were arriving from the Russian base of operations at Perekop, and the army, numbering something like 60,000 men, which occupied the heights of Inkerman. The allies must now be vanquished at any cost, and there was no other way than to overwhelm them by a furious attack from the Russian vessels in the harbour, from the heavy artillery of the town itself, and from the converging forces that might assail the British at once at the point which was known to be weakest, while Liprandi could so engage the French as to prevent their coming to the rescue. It would be strange, indeed, if an army 50,000 strong, with parks of artillery, aided by a continuous discharge of the heavy ordnance from Sebastopol and the harbour could not at length avenge previous defeats. "A terrible calamity impends over the invaders of your dominions," wrote Menschikoff to the Emperor Nicholas. "In a few days they will perish by the sword or be driven into the sea. Let your majesty send your sons here, that I may render up to them untouched the priceless treasure which your majesty has intrusted to my keeping." It was believed that the two sons of the czar, the Archdukes Nicholas and Michael, were thereupon despatched to the Crimea. They arrived to witness another and a terrible proof of the unyielding determination of the foe against whom the resources of the empire had been concentrated.

On the night of the 4th of November a deluge of rain was falling. The ground of the camp was washed into mire, the tents were soaked, and the whole scene was desolate and dispiriting. On the dawn of the next dayit was Sunday the vapour rising from the

It was remarkable that Brigadier-general Codrington, having, according to his usual custom, visited the outlying pickets of his brigade at about five in the morning, had said to one of his officers that it would not be surprising if the Russians took advantage of the darkness and the wet to attempt a surprise. He had scarcely ceased speaking when the noise of a fusillade was heard in the valley below, and the general galloped back to arouse the sleeping troops. The camp was in commotion; the Russians had dragged up artillery to every point which commanded the English lines. The host swept down upon the pickets of the second and light divisions, which were soon driven in. By a crafty stratagem the outlying sentinels had been prevented from giving the alarm. A small party of Russians had come forward as though they were stragglers about to give themselves up as prisoners, and the picket advancing to meet them were taken prisoners by a number of others, who had been concealed, and rushed upon them before they could fire a shot. The battle began, and raged round the front British position, which the enemy seemed determined to storm at all hazards. It was at first 50,000 men against a handful, for even when all our available troops were engaged, we only numbered about 10,000 men, so greatly had the ranks been reduced by death, wounds, and sickness. A brigade coming to the relief of

the pickets checked for a moment the onward rush of the enemy. Another brigade belonging to the second division endeavoured to take them in flank, when the guns which had been brought up in the night opened a tremendous fire of shot and shell. The guards came up and with dauntless valour plunged into the thick of the fight. But so many points were attacked at once, and such masses of Russians were directed against each, that only the utmost individual exertions of every general and every soldier could save the army. Sir George Cathcart, hoping to effect a diversion, charged with his division, but they were surrounded in a ravine, and that distinguished soldier fell at the head of his troops. No one who had fallen on that fatal 5th of November was so deeply regretted by the queen and prince as this distinguished officer. Returning to England from the Cape, where he had brought a difficult war to a successful close, he had gone out at once to the Crimea, landing there in the same battered uniform which he had worn throughout the Caffre war. His experience, genius, and energy had designated him as the man most likely at no distant date to have the command in chief. In fact he had been selected by the government as Lord Raglan's successor in case of emergency, and took out with him to the Crimea a dormant commission for the purpose. This commission he had accepted with reluctance. Carrying him as it did over the heads of his seniors in the service, he knew that it must place him in an invidious position towards them. But as he could not regard it otherwise than in the light of a command from his sovereign, he conceived that no choice was left him but to accept it. When, therefore, the government subsequently decided on recalling the commission, he felt greatly relieved. Only ten days before he fell he had placed it in the hands of Lord Raglan, who, in writing to the Duke of Newcastle (27th October), speaks of General Cathcart's conduct throughout the affair as having been "exactly what might be expected from a man of his high feeling." The Times, in an eloquent commentary on the dearly-bought victory of Inkerman, spoke of him as "that rare and precious character in the British service

a soldier devoted to the science and experienced in the practice of his profession. There was nothing which might not be expected from him, and, with such as he to fall back upon, there was no fear that the army would ever be at a loss for commanders. He now lies, one of thousands, slain by a chance bullet in the tempest of war."

Writing to his widow, the queen said: “I can let no one but myself express to you all my deep feelings of heartfelt sympathy on this sad occasion, when you have been deprived of a beloved husband, and I and the country of a most distinguished and excellent officer. I can attempt to offer no consolation to you in your present overwhelming affliction, for none but that derived from reliance on Him who never forsakes those who are in distress can be of any avail; but it may be soothing to you to know how highly I valued your lamented husband, how much confidence I placed in him, and how very deeply and truly I mourn his loss. Sir George died, as he had lived, in the service of his sovereign and his country, an example to all who follow him." The Hon. Emily Cathcart, daughter of Sir George, was immediately afterwards appointed maid of honour to her majesty, and remained long attached to the court in that capacity.

Not only Sir George Cathcart, but General Goldie and General Strangeways were killed, and General Torrens and Sir George Brown were wounded. The whole English line, including Sir Colin Campbell's Highlanders and the third division, which acted as a reserve, was soon engaged in a fierce and bloody conflict.

Mr. W. H. Russell, the Times' correspondent, in his account of the war says, "The battle of Inkerman admits of no description. It was a series of dreadful deeds of daring, of sanguinary hand-to-hand fights, of despairing sallies, of desperate assaults in glens and valleys, in brushwood glades and remote dells, hidden from all human eyes, and from which the conquerors, Russian or British, issued only to engage fresh foes-till our old supremacy, so rudely assailed, was triumphantly asserted, and the battalions of the czar gave way before our steady courage and the

DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIAN HOST.

chivalrous fire of France." The struggle around the battery on the descent towards the Tchernaya was terrific. It was this point which the Russians strove to capture, and here the guards made an obstinate resistance, fighting like lions, their numbers diminishing till only a few were left; and still they drove back the host that was opposed to them, a host frantic with doses of strong spirit, which had been served out to them before the battle, animated by the promises of their priests and by the knowledge that this was to be a desperate struggle to retrieve the fortunes of Holy Russia and cheer the heart of the emperor. Again and again they were forced back by the remnant of our brave guards, who had determined to hold the position till the last man of them fell, and who—their ammunition being nearly exhausted-fought with their clubbed muskets and even hurled stones at their assailants. For three hours the conflict raged at this point, and the position was already desperate when a shout and a quick clatter of steel announced the arrival of aid from General Bosquet's division. Our ready allies came rapidly to the spot, and held the ground against the discomfited Russians, while those who remained of the English guards retired and took up a position with the second division. It would have been almost impossible for the British alone to have held out against such tremendous odds-nearly five to one-and the Russian attack was so contrived as to carry out the orders of the czar to punish the English and let them have no rest. Liprandi's force was, therefore, directed so to engage the French position as to prevent the co-operation of Canrobert's troops with our own; but General Bosquet, with a soldier's quick perception, saw how hardly things were going at the "sandbag battery,” and sent aid to our guards to protect a position which the enemy appeared resolved to capture at any cost. For a time he imagined that this would suffice, but he soon became aware that the attack of Liprandi's corps d'armée was a feint to draw off the attention of the French, and instantly the French general determined to abandon any serious operations there and to hasten to our support.

VOL. IIL

113

This probably saved both armies from ruin. The British right was being overborne by the tremendous fire of the guns and the enormous masses of the enemy, when two troops of French artillery and a field battery came flying to their aid, followed by two lightfooted regiments of those Zouaves and "Indigenes" or Arabs, who had already fought like tiger-cats against the Russians. These again were followed by the steadily marching troops of the line. The whole affair then assumed a new aspect. The battle was confined to the single locality, where the enemy was bringing up regiment after regiment against the yet unyielding ranks of our men. The allies were still outnumbered, but they fought side by side, and their valour rose as they mutually cheered each other against the common foe. With a fresh and irresistible ardour our troops rushed against the advancing host, which, assailed by antagonists, some of whom, like Turcos and Zouaves, fought in a manner and with an activity which surprised them, recoiled from the shock, wavered, were borne back, broke, and at last retreated through the ravine. Over the whole field their columns were soon in full retreat, leaving behind them heaps of slain and wounded, but slowly and steadily retiring with every vestige of the battle which might have been a trophy for the victors; every gun and even every splintered gun-carriage being carried with them. The allies had no such force of cavalry as might have followed and changed the retreat into a rout. The retiring columns were still protected by the Russian artillery, which remained upon the heights till Lord Raglan ordered two eighteenpounders of our siege train to be dragged up, a feat performed on that rough and miry ground by the united strength of men and horses. These guns were placed in position, and their shot crashed through the Russian batteries and compelled them to move to the top of the hill and finally to retreat altogether, leaving the vanquished and retiring columns to the pursuit of the Zouaves and Indigenes, who followed them and hung about their rear as they hastened towards Sebastopol. "On our part it had been a confused and desperate

50

struggle; colonels of regiments led on small parties and fought like subalterns, captains like privates. Once engaged, every man was his own general. The enemy was in front, advancing, and must be beaten back. The tide of battle ebbed and flowed; not in wide waves, but in broken tumultuous billows. At one point the enemy might be repulsed, while at a little distance they were making their most determined rush. To stand on the crest and breathe awhile was, to our men, no rest, but far more trying than the close combat of infantry, where there were foes with whom to match, and prove strength, skill, and courage, and to call forth the impulses which blind the soldier to death or peril. But over that crest poured incessantly the resistless cannon shot in whose rush there seems something vindictive, as if each were bestridden by some angry demon; crashing through the bodies of men and horses, and darting from the ground on a second course of mischief. Rarely has such an artillery fire been so concentrated, and for so long, on an equally confined space. The whole front of the battlefield, from the ravine on the left to the twogun battery on the right, was about threequarters of a mile. Nine hours of such close fighting, with such intervals of cessation, left the victors in no mood for rejoicing. When the enemy finally retired there was no exultation as when the field of the Alma was won; it was a gloomy, though a glorious triumph."1 The nation appreciated it, however, and Lord Raglan received the baton of a field-marshal.

The English fought in a half famished condition, many of them not having broken their fast. The losses were serious indeed, in our army, already greatly reduced. Fifty officers were killed and about a hundred wounded. Fourteen were officers of the guards. Above 2500 non-commissioned officers and privates were killed, wounded, or missing. The Russian loss could not well be estimated, but it was believed to be at least 15,000, though Russian official reports placed it at 11,959 in killed, wounded, or prisoners. The French loss was 1800 in killed and wounded.

1 The Story of the Campaign, by Captain Hamley.

Much horror and indignation was excited in England by the barbarous atrocity practised by the Russians who threw shells upon our fatigue parties while they were engaged in burying the dead, slaughtered our wounded upon the field of battle, and even killed prisoners. It has been explained by the fact that the men were brought from a long and exhausting journey half frenzied with drink, and aroused to fanatic fury by the representation that the allied troops had desecrated their churches by turning them into barracks, magazines, and stables.

There was sufficient evidence to show that the stories told of the slaughter of the helpless and the wounded on the field of Inkerman were not without foundation, and our men were furious, and many of them eager to make reprisals.

Such are the immediate attendants upon the glory and the triumph of war.

The queen, writing to King Leopold said, "Many of our poor officers who were only slightly wounded were brutally butchered on the ground. Several lived long enough to say this. When poor General Sir G. Cathcart fell mortally wounded, his faithful and devoted military secretary (Colonel Charles Seymour), who had been with him at the Cape, sprang from his horse, and with one arm-he was wounded in the other-supported his dying chief, when three wretches came and bayoneted him."

The Russians behaved like savages, and upon the proof of it in a court of military inquiry, remonstrances were addressed to Prince Menschikoff, who, while denying the general truth of the charge, admitted that individual instances of such brutality might have occurred in the heat of combat. But he went on to vindicate the conduct of his men as having been provoked by a religious sentiment. They had learned that the church of St. Vladimir, near Quarantine Bay, which was very holy in their estimation, had recently been pillaged by the French; and thence, as Mr. Kinglake says, "he went on to conclude that if any of the French or the English had been despatched on the battlefield while lying disabled by wounds, they must have owed

BREAK-DOWN OF THE COMMISSARIAT.

their fate-not to the ruthlessness, butplainly to the outraged piety of the troops." But at any rate this was no defence for the Russian artillery fire being directed, as it was upon more than one occasion, on English and French soldiers when they were engaged in bringing help, not to their own, but to the Russian wounded. A signal instance of this occurred, some months afterwards, at the close of the battle of the Tchernaya, on the 16th of August, 1855. While the Russians were still in the act of retreating from the battlefield, the French set actively to work to collect the Russian wounded, and to lay them out in an open space to wait the arrival of the ambulances. While occupied in this task, the Russians, who could see plainly how they were engaged, suddenly opened fire from their guns upon them, heedless of the destruction they were pouring upon their own country

men.

The French, General Bernard wrote to Colonel Phipps, two days after the battle, “took in 1800 of the Russian wounded, but were obliged to leave crowds out, because the Russians opened a heavy fire on their parties engaged in this merciful and Christianlike duty."

The Times' correspondent, who was upon the spot, thus reports the answer of a Russian soldier, who was limping along with deep flesh wounds in both his thighs, to the question what he thought of the behaviour of his friends in firing among their own wounded: "They are accustomed to beat us when we are with them; no wonder they try to ill-treat us when we are upon the point of escaping from their power!"

To return to the result of the battle of Inkerman. Again the Russians had failed to drive the allied forces from their position, and preparations could now be made for continuing the siege of Sebastopol on a scale better calculated to lead to its ultimate destruction. But where were troops to be found to supply the place of those which had perished, and to raise the regiments to an effective strength? Before the battle of Inkerman Lord Raglan had written to the Duke of Newcastle that what he wanted at the moment was troops of

115

the best quality. "Ten thousand men," he said, "would make us comfortable. As it is, the divisions employed are overworked, and of necessity scattered over a too extensive position, and we are enabled, and that with difficulty, to give but one British brigade, the Highlanders, for the defence of Balaklava, assisted, however, by marines and sailors, and a French brigade."

The stress of the Russian attack had chiefly fallen on the British force; and the diminution of that force was alarming, not only to us, but to the Emperor of the French, who at once announced his determination to send large reinforcements to the Crimea if we would find the means of transport. If England would help him with ships, he told our ambassador in Paris, he was ready to send every man he had. He had employed all the vessels at his disposal, including his own yacht, and he urged the recal of the Baltic steam fleet, that it might be employed for the transport of troops. In this respect, however, we were not much behind hand. On the 12th of November English transports were already on their way from the Black Sea to Toulon to embark French troops, and it was stated that an additional fleet of steam transports would be sent to Toulon from England, which would embark 8000 men there before the 10th of December. It was understood that provision had already been made for despatching 6000 English and 20,000 French troops, to arrive in the Crimea before Christmas.

While preparations were being made for sending reinforcements, the sufferings of the men who had been sustaining the brunt of the battle had not been forgotten. There was no lack of money, and provisions for housing, clothing, and feeding the troops during the winter were liberal enough, but our whole practical administration was so disorganized that men were starving, shelterless, and halfclad, while huts for 20,000 soldiers, large supplies of warm clothing, greatcoats, blankets, ample stores of comforting food and drink, and appliances of various kinds, were either knocking about in other ports or had been landed in the wrong place, or in some inscrutable manner had utterly failed to reach the

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »