Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea Page 7

  CHAPTER VII.

  BEFORE SEBASTOPOL

  Not long were the Light Division to enjoy the position they had won.Breathless, exhausted, bleeding, they were but a handful; and theRussians, looking down upon them and seeing that they wereunsupported, again advanced in heavy masses, and the Light Divisionfell back.

  Had their division had the whole of their strength they might havebeen enabled to hold the position they had won. But just as theycrossed the river, there was an unfounded alarm of a cavalry attack onthe flank, and the 77th and 88th were halted to repel this, and tookno share in the advance by the rest of the division.

  As the shattered regiments fell back before the Russians in a state ofdisorder, they saw advancing up the slope behind them the brigade ofGuards in as regular order as if on parade. For a moment the splendidformation was broken as the disordered troops came down upon them. Butopening their files they allowed the Light Division to pass throughthem, and then closing up again moved forward in splendid order, theHighland Brigade keeping pace with them on their left, while theregiments of the Light Division reformed in their rear and followedafter.

  Steadily, under a storm of fire, the Guards advanced. Grape, canister,round shot, shell, and shot, swept through them but they kept forwardtill nigh crossing bayonets with the Russian infantry.

  At this moment, however, two British guns mounted on a knoll openedupon the Russians, the victorious French threatened their flank, theRussian gunners limbered up and retired, and their infantry suddenlyfell back.

  On the right of the Light Division, General Sir De Lacy Evans had alsobeen fighting sternly. The second division had advanced side by sidewith that of Prince Napoleon. The resistance which he encountered wasobstinate, but more skilled in actual warfare than his brothergenerals, he covered his advance with the fire of eighteen guns, andso bore forward, suffering far less than the division on his left. Hehad, however, very heavy fighting before he gained the river. Thevillage had been set on fire by the Russians, and the smoke and flamesgreatly incommoded the men as they fought their way through it. The95th, however, dashed across the bridge under a storm of missiles,while the 55th and 30th waded through the river, and step by step wontheir way up the hill. Then the firing ceased, and the battle of Almawas won.

  The force under the Russians consisted of some 37,000 men, of whom3500 were cavalry. They had eighty guns, besides two light batteriesof horse artillery. Inferior in number as they were, the discrepancywas more than outbalanced by the advantage of position, and had thetroops on both sides been of equally good material, the honor of theday should have rested with the defenders.

  The British loss consisted of 26 officers killed and 73 wounded, 327men killed and 1557 wounded. The French had only 3 officers killed and54 wounded, 253 men killed and 1033 wounded. The Turks were notengaged. The Russians lost 45 officers killed and 101 wounded, 1762men killed and 2720 wounded. The Allied Army had 126 guns against 96of the Russians; but the former, owing to the nature of the ground,played but a small part in the fight.

  The whole of the loss fell upon a comparatively small number of theEnglish regiments, and as the French had 9000 men in reserve who hadnot fired a shot, there was no season why the greater portion of thearmy, with all the cavalry, should not at once have followed on thetrack of the beaten Russians. Had they done so, the war in the Crimeawould have been over in three days. That time, however, elapsed beforea move was made. The reason assigned was the necessity of caring forthe wounded and burying the dead. But this might have been committedto the hands of sailors and marines, of whom 5000 might have beenlanded at night; in which case the whole Allied Army could havemarched at day break.

  It was a sad sight when the four regiments of the Light Divisionmustered after their work was done. Hitherto in the confusion andfierce excitement of the fight, men marked not who stood and who fell.But now as the diminished regiments paraded, mere skeletons of thefine corps which had marched gayly from their camping-ground of thenight before, the terrible extent of their losses was manifest. Tearsrolled down the cheeks of strong men who had never flinched in thestorm of fire, as they saw how many of their comrades were absent, andthe glory of the victory was dimmed indeed by the sorrow for the dead.

  "I wanted to see a battle," Harry Archer said to Captain Lancaster,who, like him, had gone through the fight without a scratch, "but thisis more than I bargained for. To think of half one's friends andcomrades gone, and all in about two hours' fighting. It has been adeadly affair, indeed."

  "Yes, as far as we are concerned, Archer. But not for the whole army.I heard Doctor Alexander say just now that the casualties were about1500, and that out of 27,000 men is a mere nothing to the proportionin many battles. The French have, I hear, lost rather less."

  "I thought in a battle," Harry said, "one would see something of thegeneral affair, but I certainly did not. In fact, from the time whenwe dashed up the river bank till the capture of the battery, I sawnothing. I knew there were some of our men by the side of me, and thatwe were all pushing forward, but beyond that I knew absolutelynothing. It was something like going through a tremendous thundershower with one's head down, only a thousand times more so."

  After parade the men scattered in groups; some went down to the riverto fill their canteens, others strolled through the vineyards pickinggrapes, and in spite of the fact that in many places the dead laythickly together, a careless laugh was sometimes heard. The regimentswhich had not been engaged were at work bringing in the wounded, andDoctor Alexander and his assistants were busy at the ghastly task ofamputating limbs and extracting balls.

  The next day a few officers from the fleet came up; among these wasHawtry, who was charged with a special mission from Jack, who couldnot again ask for leave, to inquire after his brother. The woundedwere sent down in arabas and litters to the ships, a painful journeyof three miles. The French wounded fared better, as they hadwell-appointed hospital vans. Seven hundred and fifty Russian woundedwere collected and laid together, and were given in charge of theinhabitants of a Tartar village near; Dr. Thomson, of the 44thRegiment with a servant volunteering to remain in charge of them, withthe certain risk of capture when the Russian troops returned after ourdeparture.

  On the morning of the 23d the army started, continuing its march alongthe road to Sebastopol, the way being marked not only by debris thrownaway by the retreating Russians, but by the cottages and pretty villashaving been sacked by the Cossacks as they retired.

  The troops halted for the night at Katcha, where the French werereinforced by 8000 men who were landed from transports just arrived,and the English by the Scots Greys and the 57th. As it was found thatthe enemy had batteries along the northwest of the harbor ofSebastopol which would cause delay and trouble to invest, while thearmy engaged in the operation would have to draw all its provisionsand stores from the harbor at the mouth of the Katcha River, it wasdetermined to march round Sebastopol, and to invest it on the southernside, where the Russians, not expecting it, would have made but slightpreparations for a resistance.

  Towards the sea-face, Sebastopol was of immense strength, mountingseventeen guns at the Telegraph Battery, 104 at Fort Constantine,eighty at Fort Saint Michael, forty at battery No. 4, and some fiftyothers in smaller batteries. All these were on the north side of theharbor. On the southern side were the Quarantine Fort with fifty-oneguns, Fort Alexander with sixty-four, the Arsenal Battery with fifty,Fort Saint Nicholas with 192, and Fort Paul with eighty. In additionto these tremendous defences, booms had been fixed across the mouth ofthe harbor, and a three-decker, three two-deckers, and two frigatessunk in a line, forming a formidable barrier against the entry ofhostile ships. Besides all this, the whole of the Russian Black Seafleet were in harbor, and prepared to take part in the defence againstan attack by sea. Upon the other hand, Sebastopol was naturally weakon the land side. It lay in a hollow, and guns from the upper groundcould everywhere search it.

  At the time when the Allied Armies arrived before it the only defen
ceswere an old loop-holed wall, a battery of fourteen guns and sixmortars, and one or two batteries which were as yet scarcelycommenced.

  The march from the Katcha to the south side was performed withoutinterruption, and on the 26th, six days after the battle of Alma, theAllied Army reached their new position. According to arrangements, theBritish occupied the harbor of Balaklava, while the French tookpossession of Kamiesch and Kaznatch, as bases for the supply of theirarmies. At the mouth of Balaklava Harbor are the ruins of a Genoesefort standing 200 feet above the sea. This was supposed to beunoccupied. As the staff, however, were entering the town, they wereastonished by four shells falling close to them.

  The "Agamemnon," which was lying outside, at once opened fire, and thefort immediately hung out a flag of truce. The garrison consisted onlyof the commandant and sixty men. The officer, on being asked why heshould have opened fire when he knew that the place could not be held,replied that he did so as he had not been summoned to surrender, andfelt bound in honor to fire until he did so.

  The British ships at once entered the harbor, and the disembarkationof the stores and siege-train commenced. The harbor of Balaklava wasbut ill-suited for the requirements of a large army. It was some halfmile in length and a few hundred yards broad, and looked like a littleinland lake, for the rocks rose precipitously at its mouth, and thepassage through them made a bend, so that the outlet was not visiblefrom a ship once fairly inside. The coast is steep and bold, the rockycliff rising sheer up from the water's edge to heights varying from400 to 2000 feet. A vessel coasting along it would not notice thenarrow passage, or dream--on entering--that a harbor lay hiddenbehind. On either side of the harbor inside the hills rose steeply, onthe left hand, so steeply, that that side was useless for the purposesof shipping. On the right hand there was a breadth of flat groundbetween the water and the hill, and here and upon the lower slopesstood the village of Balaklava. The valley extended for some distancebeyond the head of the harbor, most of the ground being occupied withvineyards. Beyond was the wide rolling plain upon which the battles ofBalaklava and Inkerman were to be fought. Taken completely bysurprise, the inhabitants of Balaklava had made no attempt to escape,but upon the arrival of the British general, a deputation received himwith presents of fruit and flowers.

  By this time the fleet had come round, and the sailors were soon hardat work assisting to unload the transports and get the stores andsiege materials on shore. It was reported that a marine battery was tobe formed, and there was eager excitement on board as to the officerswho would be selected. Each of the men-of-war contributed their quota,and Lieutenant Hethcote found that he had been told off as second incommand, and that he was to take a midshipman and twenty men of the"Falcon."

  The matter as to the midshipman was settled by Captain Stuart.

  "You may as well take Archer," he said. "You won't like to ask for himbecause he's your cousin; but I asked for his berth, you know, anddon't mind doing a little bit of favoritism this once."

  And so, to Jack's intense delight, he found that he was to form aportion of the landing party.

  These were in all 200 in number, and their work was, in the firstplace, to assist to get the heavy siege guns from the wharf to thefront.

  It is necessary that the position occupied by the Allies should beperfectly comprehended, in order to understand the battles andoperations which subsequently took place. It may be described as atriangle with one bulging side. The apex of the triangle were theheights on the seashore, known as the Marine Heights.

  Here, at a point some 800 feet above the sea, where a ravine broke theline of cliffs, was the camp of the marines, in a position almostimpregnable against any enemy's force, following the seashore. On theland-slopes of the hills, down towards Balaklava, lay the HighlandBrigade, guarding the approach from the plains from the Marine Heightsto the mouth of Balaklava Valley, at the mouth of which were the campsof the cavalry, and not far off a sailor's camp with heavy guns and800 men.

  This side of the triangle continued along over the undulating ground,and some three miles farther, reached the right flank of the positionof the Allies above Sebastopol, which formed the base of our imaginarytriangle.

  This position was a plateau, of which one side sloped down toSebastopol; the end broke steeply off down into the valley ofInkerman, while behind the slopes were more gradual. To the left itfell away gradually towards the sea. This formed the third side of thetriangle. But between Balaklava and Sebastopol the land made a widebulge outwards, and in this bulge lay the French harbor of Kamiesch.

  From the Marine Heights to the crest looking down upon Sebastopol wasa distance of some seven miles. From the right of our position aboveInkerman Valley to Kamiesch was about five miles.

  A glance at the map will enable this explanation to be understood.

  At the commencement of the siege the British were posted on the rightof the Allies. This, no doubt, was the post of honor, but it threwupon them an enormous increase of work. In addition to defendingBalaklava, it was upon them that the brunt of any assault by a Russianarmy acting in the field would fall. They would have an equal share ofthe trench-work, and had five miles to bring up their siege guns andstores; whereas the French harbor was close to their camp.

  It was tremendous work getting up the guns, but soldiers and sailorswillingly toiled away, pushing, and hauling, and aiding the teams,principally composed of bullocks, which had been brought up fromConstantinople and other Turkish ports. Long lines of arabas, ladenwith provisions and stores, crawled slowly along between Balaklava andthe front. Strings of mules and horses, laden with tents, and drivenby men of every nationality bordering the Mediterranean, followed thesame line.

  Parties of soldiers, in fatigue suits, went down to Sebastopol toassist unloading the ships and bringing up stores. Parties of officerson ponies brought from Varna or other ports on the Black Sea, cantereddown to make purchases of little luxuries on board the ships in theharbor, or from the Levantines, who had set up little shops near it.All was life and gayety.

  "It is all very well, Mr. Archer," growled Dick Simpson, an oldboatswain, as the men paused after helping to drag a heavy gun up oneof the slopes, "in this here weather, but it won't be no laughingmatter when the winter comes on. Why, these here fields would be justa sheet of mud. Why, bless you, last winter I was a staying with abrother of mine what farms a bit of land down in Norfolk, and after aweek's rain they couldn't put the horses on to the fields. This heresile looks just similar, only richer and deeper, and how they means toget these big carts laden up through it, beats me altogether."

  "Yes, Dick," Jack Archer answered, "but they expect to take the placebefore the winter comes on."

  "They expects," the old tar repeated scornfully. "For my part, I don'tthink nothing of these soldier chaps. Why, I was up here with thefirst party as come, the day after we got here, and there warn'tnothing in the world to prevent our walking into it. Here we've got50,000 men, enough, sir, to have pushed those rotten old walls downwith their hands, and here we be a-digging and a-shovelling on thehillside nigh a mile from the place, and the Russians are a-diggingand a-shovelling just as hard at their side. I see 'em last nightafter we got back to camp. It seems to me as if these here generalswanted to give 'em time to make the place so strong as we cannot takeit, before they begins. Why, it stands to reason that the Rooshians,who've got their guns all stored close at hand, their soldiers andtheir sailors handy, and no trouble as to provisions and stores, canrun up works and arm them just about three times as fast as we can;and where shall we be at the end of three months? We shall be justa-shivering and a-shaking, and a-starving with cold, and short of grubon that 'ere hill; and the Rooshians will be comfortable in the towna-laughing at us. Don't tell me, Mr. Archer; my opinion is, these 'eresoldiers are no better than fools. They don't seem to have no commonsense."

  "I hope it's not as bad as all that, Dick," Jack laughed. "But itcertainly does seem as if we were purposely giving the Russians timeto strengthen themselves. Bu
t you'll see when we go at them we shallmake short work of them."

  "Well, I hope so, Mr. Archer," Dick Simpson said, shaking his headominously, "but I'm dubious about it."

  By this time the oxen and men had recovered their breath, and theyagain set to at their tiresome work. Although the weather was fine andthe position of the camps high and healthy, the cholera which hadravaged their ranks at Varna still followed them, and during the threefirst weeks in the Crimea, the Allies lost as many men from this causeas they had done in the Battle of Alma.

  By the 4th of October forty pieces of heavy artillery had been broughtup to the front, and the work of the trenches began in earnest.

  On the morning of the 10th the Russian batteries for the first timeopened a heavy fire upon us. But the distance was too great for muchharm to be done. On the 11th the Russians made their first sortie,which was easily repulsed.

  On the 17th of October the bombardment commenced. The French andEnglish had 117 guns in position, the Russians 130. The fire commencedat half-past six. By 8.40 a French magazine at the extreme right blewup, killing and wounding 100 men, while the French fire at this partwas crushed by that of the Russians opposed to them. All day, however,the cannonade continued unabating on both sides, the men-of-war aidingthe land forces by engaging the forts.

  During the night the Russians, having plenty of guns at hand, andlabor in abundance, mounted a larger number of guns, and theirsuperiority was so marked that the bombardment was graduallydiscontinued, and even the most sanguine began to acknowledge that anenormous mistake had been made in not attacking upon our arrival, andthat it was impossible to say how long the siege would last.Ammunition, too, was already running short.

  For the next day or two, however, our guns continued their fire. Butthe French had been so completely overpowered by the heavy Russianmetal that they were unable to assist us. The sailors had had theirfull share of work during the bombardment. Captain Peel, who commandedthe party, was just the man to get the greatest possible amount ofwork from them. Always in high spirits, taking his full share in allthe work, and exposing himself recklessly in the heaviest fire, he wasalmost idolized by his men.

  Jack Archer lived in a tent with five other midshipmen, and wasattended upon by one of the fore-top men, who, not having been toldoff for the party, had begged permission to go in that capacity.

  Tom Hammond was the most willing of servants, but his abilities wereby no means equal to his good-will. His ideas of cooking were of thevaguest kind. The salt junk was either scarcely warm through, or wasboiled into a soup. The preserved potatoes were sometimes burned fromhis neglect of putting sufficient water, or he had forgotten to soakthem beforehand, and they resembled bits of gravel rather thanvegetables. Sometimes the boys laughed, sometimes they stormed, andTom was more than once obliged to beat a rapid retreat to escape avolley of boots and other missiles.

  At first the tent was pitched in the usual way on the ground; but oneof the boys, in a ramble through the camp, had seen an officer's tentprepared in a way which added greatly to its comfort, and this they atonce adopted. Tom Hammond was set to dig a hole of eighteen inchessmaller diameter than the circle of the tent. It was three feet indepth, with perpendicular sides. At nine inches from the edge a trencha foot deep was dug. In the centre was an old flour barrel filled withearth. Upon this stood the tent-pole. The tent was brought down so asto extend six inches into the ditch, the nine-inch rim of earthstanding inside serving as a shelf on which to put odds and ends. Awall of sods, two feet high, was erected round the outside of thelittle ditch. Thus a comfortable habitation was formed. The additionalthree feet of height added greatly to the size of the tent, as theoccupants could now stand near the edges instead of in the centreonly. It was much warmer than before at night, and all draught wasexcluded by the tent overlapping the ditch, and by the wall outside. Ashort ladder at the entrance enabled them to get in and out.

  Tom Hammond had grumbled at first at the labor which this freak of hismasters entailed. But as the work went on and he saw how snug andcomfortable was the result, he took a pride in it, and the time wasnot far off when its utility was to become manifest. Indeed, later onin the winter the greater portion of the tents were got up in thismanner.

  The camp of the Light Division was not far from that of the sailors,and the two brothers were often together. Fortunately both of them hadso far escaped the illnesses which had already decimated the army.