CHAPTER XXII.
THE REPULSE AT THE REDAN
The first impulse of Jack, after having stowed his traps in the tentand introduced himself to his new mess-mates, was to make his way tothe lines of the 33d. Here he found that Harry had been sent home sickin January, but that he had sailed from England again with a draft,and was expected to arrive in the course of a few days. Jack found butfew of the officers still there whom he had before known. Several,however, were expected shortly back either from England or from thehospitals at Scutari.
Greatly relieved to find that his brother was alive and well, Jackreturned to the naval camp, where he speedily made himself at home.When he first mentioned to his messmates, two lads about his own age,that he had been a prisoner in Russia, the statement was received withincredulity, and when, at their request, he proceeded to tell some ofhis adventures, they regarded him with admiration as the moststupendous liar they had ever met. It was long indeed before hisstatements were in any way believed, and it was only when, upon theoccasion of one day dining with the officer in command of the brigade,Jack, at his request, related in the presence of several officers hisadventures in Russia, that his statements were really accepted asfacts; for it was agreed that whatever yarns a fellow might invent toastonish his comrades, he would not venture upon relating them asfacts to a post-captain. This, however, was later on.
On the morning after his arrival all was expectation, for it was knownthat the bombardment was about to recommence. At half-past two o'clockthe roar of 157 guns and mortars in the British batteries, and over800 in those of the French, broke the silence, answered a minute ortwo later by that of the Russian guns along their whole line ofbatteries. The day was hot and almost without a breeze, and the smokefrom so vast a number of guns hung heavily on the hill-side, andnothing could be seen as to the effect which the cannonade wasproducing. It was not until next morning that the effect of the firewas visible. The faces of the Russian batteries were pitted andscarred, but no injury of importance had been inflicted upon them. Allday the fire continued with unabated fury on the side of the allies,the Russians replying intermittently. Presently the news circulatedthrough the camp that an assault would be made at six o'clock, and allofficers and men of duty thronged the brow of the plateau, lookingdown upon the town.
At half-past six a body of French troops were observed to leave theirtrenches, and, in skirmishing order, to make their way towards theMamelon. The guns of the Russian fort roared out, but already theassailants were too close for these to have much effect. Soon a greatshout from the spectators on the hill proclaimed that the Zouaves, whoalways led the French attacks, had gained the parapet. Then, fromwithin, a host of figures surged up against the sky, and a curiousconflict raged on the very summit of the work. Soon, however, theincreasing mass of the French, as they streamed up, enabled them tomaintain the footing they had gained, and pouring down into the fort,they drove the Russians from it, the French pouring out in their rear.Twice fresh bodies of Russian reserves, coming up, attempted to rollback the French attack; but these, exultant with success, pressedforward, and, in spite of the fire which the guns of the Round Towerfort poured upon them, drove their enemies down the hill. It wasgrowing dark now, and it could with difficulty be seen how the fightwas going. Fresh masses of French troops poured from their advancetrenches into the Mamelon, and there was no question that that pointwas decidedly gained.
Still however, the battle raged around it. The Zouaves, flushed withsuccess, attempted to carry the Round Tower with a rush, and swept upto the abattis surrounding it. The Russians brought up fresh supports,and the whole hill-side was alive with the flicker of musketry. TheRussian guns of all the batteries bearing upon the scene of actionopened it, while those of our right attack, which were close to theFrench, opened their fire to aid our allies. Had the Zouaves beensupported, it is probable that they would have carried the Round Towerwith their rush, but this was not in the plan of operations, and,after fighting heroically for some time, they fell back to theMamelon.
The fight on the British side had been less exciting. With a suddenrush our men had leaped on the advance trenches and driven theRussians from their position in the quarries. Then, rapidly turningthe gabions of the trenches, they prepared to hold the ground they hadtaken. They were not to maintain their conquest unmolested, for soonthe Russians poured down masses of troops to retake it. All night longthe flash of fire flickered round the position, and six times theRussian officers led up their troops to the attack.
Our assaulting force was over 1000 men, and out of these 365 men andthirty-five officers were killed or wounded. Had a stronger body beendetailed, there is no doubt that the Redan, which was near thequarries, could have been taken, for it was almost empty of troops,and our men, in the impetuosity of their first assault, arrived closeto it. Great discontent was felt that measures should not have beentaken to follow up the success, and both our allies and our own troopsfelt that a great opportunity had been missed, owing to the want offorethought of their generals.
The next day there was an armistice, from one till six, to collect andbury the dead, and the officers and men of the contending partiesmoved over the ground which had been the scene of conflict, chattingfreely together, exchanging cigars and other little articles. Jack,who had gone down with his commanding officer, created no slightastonishment among the Russians by conversing with them in their ownlanguage. In answer to their questions, he told them that he had beena prisoner among them, and begged them to forward a note which he hadthat morning written to Count Preskoff at Berislav, acquainting himthat he had made his escape across the Russian frontier, and hadrejoined the army, for he thought it probable that the letter which hehad given to Count Stanislaus to post, after he left him, might neverhave come to hand.
At six o'clock the guns again re-opened; the Russians having made gooduse of their time in arming fresh batteries to counteract the effectof the works we had carried. We had indeed hard work in maintainingour hold of the quarries, which were commanded by several batteries,whose position placed them outside the range of our guns. Our loss wasvery heavy, as also was that of the French in the Mamelon, which wasmade a centre for the Russian fire.
On the nights of the 16th and 17th some of the British and Frenchships stood in close to Sebastopol, and kept up a heavy fire upon thetown. On the 16th it was decided by Marshal Pelissier and Lord Raglanthat the assault should take place on the morning of the 18th of June,and every arrangement was made for the attack. The British force toldoff for the work consisted of detachments of the light, second, andthird divisions, and was divided into three columns. Sir John Campbellhad charge of the left, Colonel Shadforth of the right, and ColonelLacy Yea of the centre column. General Barnard was directed to takehis brigade of the third division down to a ravine near the quarries,while General Eyre moved his brigade of the same division stillfarther along. His orders were that in case of the assault on theRedan being successful, he should attack the works on its right.
On the French left, three columns, each 6000 strong, under General DeSalles, were to attack three of the Russian bastions; while on theirright, three columns of equal force were to attack the Russianpositions: General D'Autemarre assailing the Gervais battery and theright flank of the Malakoff, General Brunet to fall upon the leftflank of the Malakoff and the little Redan from the Mamelon, whileGeneral Mayrau was to carry the Russian battery near the careeningcreek.
Thus the French were to assault in six columns, numbering in all36,000 men, with reserves of 25,000. Our assaulting columns containedonly 1200 men, while 10,000 were in reserve. The attack was tocommence at day-break, but by some mistake the column of GeneralMayrau attacked before the signal was given. In a few minutes theywere repulsed with great loss, their general being mortally wounded.Four thousand of the Imperial Guard were sent to their assistance, andthree rockets being fired as a signal, the assault was made all alongthe line. The Russians, however, had been prepared for what was comingby the assault on their
left. Their reserves were brought up, theRedan was crowded with troops, the guns were loaded with grape, and asthe little English columns leaped from their trenches and rushed tothe assault, they were received with tremendous fire.
The inevitable result of sending 1000 men to attack a tremendouslystrong position, held by ten times their own strength, and across aground swept by half a dozen batteries, followed. The handful ofBritish struggled nobly forward, broken up into groups by theirregularity of the ground and by the gaps made by the enemy's fire.
Parties of brave men struggled up to the very abattis of the Redan,and there, unsupported and powerless, were shot down. Nothing couldexceed the bravery which our soldiers manifested. But their braverywas in vain. The three officers in command of the columns, Sir JohnCampbell, Colonel Shadforth, and Colonel Yea, were all killed. In vainthe officers strove to lead their men to an attack. There were indeedscarce any to lead, and the Russians, in mockery of the foolishness ofsuch an attack, stood upon their parapets and asked our men why theydid not come in. At last, the remnants of the shattered columns werecalled off. Upon the left, the brigade under General Eyre carried thecemetery by a sudden attack. But so hot a fire was opened upon himthat it was with difficulty the position could be held.
This, however, was the sole success of the day. Both, the Frenchcolumns were repulsed with heavy loss from the Malakoff, and althoughGervais battery was carried, it could not be maintained.
The naval brigade furnished four parties of sixty men to carryscaling-ladders and wool-bags. Two of these parties were held inreserve, and did not advance. Captain Peel was in command, and waswounded, as was Mr. Wood, a midshipman of H.M.S. "Queen," who acted ashis aide-de-camp. The three officers of one detachment were allwounded, and of the other one was killed, and one wounded.
Jack had in the morning regretted that he was not in orders for theservice, but when at night the loss which those who bad taken part init had suffered was known, he could not but congratulate himself thathe had not been detailed for the duty. The total British loss wastwenty-two officers and 247 men killed, seventy-eight officers and1207 men wounded. The French lost thirty-nine officers killed, andninety-three wounded, 1600 men killed or taken prisoners and about thesame number wounded; so that our losses were enormously greater thanthose of the French in proportion to our numbers. The Russiansadmitted a loss of 5800 killed and wounded.
Jack was with many others a spectator of this scene from CathcartHill; but it must not be imagined that even a vague idea of what waspassing could be gleaned by the lookers-on. The Redan, which was thepoint of view immediately opposite, was fully a mile away. In a fewminutes from the commencement of the fight the air was thick withsmoke, and the din of battle along so extended a front was socontinuous and overpowering that it was impossible to judge by thesound of firing how the fight was going on at any particular point.
Upon the night before there was a general sanguine feeling as to thesuccess of the attack, and many a laughing invitation was given tofuture dinners in the hotels of Sebastopol. Great, then, was thedisappointment when, an hour after its opening, the tremendous roll ofmusketry gradually died away, while the fire of the allied batteriesangrily opened, telling the tale that all along the line the allieshad been defeated, save only for the slight success at the cemetery.
Eagerly were the wounded questioned, as, carried on stretchers, orslowly and painfully making their way upon foot, they ascended thehill. In most of them regret at their defeat or anger at theincompetence of those who had rendered defeat certain, predominatedover the pain of the wounds.
"Be jabers," said a little Irishman, "but it was cruel work entirely.There was myself and six others and the captain made our way up to alot of high stakes stuck in the ground before the place. We lookedround, and divil another soul was there near. We couldn't climb overthe stakes, and if we had got over 'em there was a deep ditch beyond,and no way of getting in or out. And what would have been the good ifwe had, when there were about 50,000 Russians inside a-shouting andyelling at the top of their voices, and a-firing away tons ofammunition? We stopped there five minutes, it may be, waiting to seeif any one else was coming, and then when four of us was killed andthe captain wounded, I thought it time to be laving; so I lifted himup and carried him in, and got an ugly baste of a Russian bullet intomy shoulder as I did so. Ye may call it fightin', but it's just murderI call it meself."
Something like this was the tale told by scores of wounded men, and itis little wonder that, sore with defeat and disappointment, andheart-sick at the loss which had been suffered, the feelings of thearmy found vent in deep grumblings at the generals who had sent out ahandful of men to assault a fortress.
The next day there was another truce to allow of the burial of thedead and the collection of the wounded who lay thickly on the groundbetween the rival trenches. It did not take place, however, till fourin the afternoon, by which time the wounded had been lying for thirtyhours without water or aid, the greater portion of the time exposed tothe heat of a burning sun.
Ten days later Lord Raglan died. He was a brave soldier, an honorableman, a most courteous and perfect English gentleman, but he was mostcertainly not a great general. He was succeeded by General Simpson,who appears to have been chosen solely because he had, as a lad,served in the Peninsula; the authorities seeming to forget that forthe work upon which the army was engaged, no school of war couldcompare with that of the Crimea itself, and that generals who hadreceived their training there were incomparably fitter for the taskthan any others could be.
Two days after the repulse at the Redan, Jack was delighted by theentry of his brother into his tent. Harry had of course left Englandbefore the receipt of Jack's letter written when he had crossed thefrontier, and was overwhelmed with delight at the news which he hadreceived ten minutes before, on arriving at the camp, that his brotherwas alive, and was again with the naval brigade close by. Jack'stent-mates were fortunately absent, and the brothers were thereforeable to enjoy the delight of their meeting alone, and, when the firstrapture was over, to sit down for a long talk. Jack was eager to learnwhat had happened at home, of which he had heard nothing for sixmonths, and which Harry had so lately left. He was delighted to hearthat all were well; that his elder sister was engaged to be married;and that although the shock of the news of his death had greatlyaffected his mother she had regained her strength, and would, Harrywas sure, be as bright and cheerful as ever when she heard of hissafety. Not till he had received answers to every question about homewould Jack satisfy his brother's curiosity as to his own adventures,and then he astonished him indeed with an account of what he had gonethrough.
"Well, Jack, you are a lucky fellow!" Harry said, when he hadfinished. "To think of your having gone through all those adventuresand living to tell of them. Why, it will be something to talk aboutall your life."
"And you, Harry, are you quite recovered?"
"I am as well as ever," Harry said. "It was a case of typhus andfrost-bite mixed. I lost two of my toes, and they were afraid that Ishould be lame in consequence. However, I can march well enough forall practical purposes, though I do limp a little. As to the typhus,it left me very weak; but I soon picked up when the wind from Englandwas blowing in my face. Only to think that all the time I was grievingfor you as dead and buried by the Russians among the hills over therethat you were larking about with those jolly Russian girls."
"Oh, yes, that's all very well," Jack said. "But you must rememberthat all that pretty nearly led to my being hung or shot; and it was ahot time among those Poles, too, I can tell you."
The next few days passed quietly. On the 12th of July Jack rode outwith his commanding officer, who, with many others, accompanied thereconnaissance made by the Turks and French, on a foraging andreconnoitring party, towards Baidar, but they did not come in contactwith the Russians.
Both parties still worked steadily at their trenches. The French werefortunate in having soft ground before them, and were rapidly pushingtheir advances up t
owards the Malakoff. This position, which couldwithout difficulty have been seized by the allies at the commencementwas in reality the key of the Russian position. Its guns completelycommanded the Redan, and its position would render that postuntenable, while the whole of the south side of Sebastopol would layat our mercy. In front of the English the ground was hard and stony,and it was next to impossible to advance our trenches towards theRedan, and the greater portion of the earth indeed had to be carriedin sacks on men's backs from points in the rear.
The working parties were also exposed to a cross-fire, and largenumbers of men were killed every day.
On the 31st a tremendous storm broke upon the camp, but the soldierswere now accustomed to such occurrences, the tents were well secured,and but little damage was suffered. Save for a few sorties by theRussians, the next fortnight passed quietly.
The cavalry were now pushed some distance inland, and the officersmade up parties to ride through the pretty valleys and visit thevillas and country houses scattered along the shores.