The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-24 00:00:00

Alit 24, 1856. and that not pro t e cted by any serious works of defence, against a bold coup-de-mein. The English, however, did not appreciate t he gravity of the situation, though, as we have seen above, it hal been revealed to them by the. French, and still more by the attack made on the 26th. Accordingly,— Whilst all the fears of Lord Raglan were turned towards lialaklava, all the apprehensions of General Canrobert and General 13osquet were on the contrary turned towards lukermann ; and often did the latter speak of it to the Puke of Cambridge, Sir De Lacy Evans, and Sir George Cathcart. And on this subject the author remarks : o a r allies have displayed such great value and such heroic courage that we may be permitted to say all the the truth. Everyone had seen all the danger of the plateau o f Inkermann, perpetually exposed to a surprise, and General Sir de Lacy Evans himself had made observations about it. It was in fact the only point by which the enemy could bring up cannon and endeavour to penetrate to the a llies. But the attack of the 26th October, vigorously repulsed, had doubled the confidence of our allies. Ex haulted too, it must be confessed, by the labours of the siege, they had neglected or delayed, from want of men, to raise defences on this point. All that they did was, by weans of gabions, sandbags, and fascines, to construct a sort of redoubt on the eastern side. The terrible battle of Inkermann, of the sth November, is then minutely described from the beginning to the close. The negligence of the English is first of all brought promi nently forward : It was nearly five o'clock in the morning—Brigadier- General Codrington had just visited the advanced guards otitis brigade of the light division. No movement of the enemy had yet given an alarm, or even caused their pre sence to be suspected. And yet they had already advanced in enormous masses, and began to scale the heights which commanded the valley; and their guns were ready to take their positions as soon as the first dawn of day should per mit them to be placed and to assure the direction of their fire. In the English camp, on the contrary, everything was in repose and security ; the troops sleeping in their •tents were tar from expecting what a sanguinary awaken awaited them. The French, on the contrary, were on the alert : As soon as the first shots had been heard in the camps of the second French division, General Hosquet rushed to his horse. By his order the generale was sounded, and all the troops took arms General Canrobert, informed of the attack, had immediately despatched the (deers of his staff with orders to the different generals to take everywhere positions of defence (these officers found everywhere the divisions already under arms), whilst he himself, getting on horseback, prepared to visit in succes sion the different attacks of the enemy. The Russians, it is known, attacked in two other places, from the plain of the Tschernaya and towards Balaklava, as well as at Inker mann, and the question was which was their reL I attack. 6eneral Bosquet thought it was Inkermann, and he went towards that place at the head of a few battalions and two batteries of artillery : Scarcely had he passed a windmill situated nearly at the extremity of the English lines, than he met Generals Brown and Cathcart. He immediately went to them, and expressed the fears which he felt with respect to the attack lukerniann, and offered them the support of the troops he had with him, and of others if necessary. But the English generals had at that moment no disquietude ; as on the 2tith October, they thanked General Bosquet for his hearty zeal, but said, " Our reserves are sufficient for all eventualities; only be kind enough to cover our right a little iu the rear of the English redoubt." General Bosquet sent, as requested, two battalions to the right flank of the English, and examined as well as he could the two other attacks. After he had done so, — He was still dominated by the belief that these two demonstrations were only a diversion to disguise the prin cipal effort on the plateau of Inkermann, and he said to the secretary of Lord Raglan, Colonel Steel, who was near him, he having come from the English head quarters, " Go to Inkermann! It is at Inkermann that the great struggle will be !" The tame attack on Balaklava, and the thunder of cannon and musketry at Inker mann, soon convinced the General that he was right. And,— At the same moment some English officers hurried up. At their head, gallopping as fast as he could go, was Colonel Steel—his horse was covered with foam. He stopped to speak to General l3osquet ; the others rode to wards Lord Raglan, who was on the heights nearer Bala- The English colonel told General Bosquet what he had anticipated from the beginning of the day—that the serious iittack Was on Inkerniann—that the English were over whelmed by the constantly increasing numbers of the enemy —that from all mints Russian columns appeared to replace those wh o bad been repulsed—and that their masses were inlacing the plateau. Also that the l)uke of Cambridge and his valiant Guards were lighting with desperation; that Generals Cathcart and Brown were everywhere; and that there was not a moment to be lost. THE PRESS. " 1 knew it would be so !" cried General Bosquet ; and then, turning to Colonel Steel, he said, " Go, tell our allies that the French are hastening to their assistance ! " The General immediately gave the necessary orders for his troops to hasten to attack the Russians ; orders which it seems were exe cuted with surprising rapidity. Then,— Other English officers hastened up, ani.nated by the combat, affected at the sight of the dead who strewed the ground, their horses jagged by spurring, and covered with blood and fuam. But though the English had the discredit of being caught sleeping when they ought to have been on the watch, they made a noble stand : Meanwhile a terrible drama was passing at Inkermann ; there was the shock of battalion against battalion, like the waves of the sea tossed by a tempest. The English had been surprised in their tents by can• non, grape shot, and balls; and horses and men still sleep ing had been killed by cannon balls. What an awakening amidst the most complete security ! Officers and soldiers seized their arms in the darkness, and, scarcely clothed in their uniforms, rushed out without knowing where to direct their steps. In the midst of the musketry and of the roar of artillery, the cries of the chiefs rallying the batta lions to the flag of England were heard. " Hurrahs " replied to them from all parts—those of the English hastening up, those of the Russians advancing. A thick fog en veloped the scene of confusion and tumult. Over the overthrown tents the combat raged, and dead became piled up ; blood flowed in the gutters formed by the rain ; and battalions hastily formed stepped about iu the bloodstained mud. England made up for her want of foresight by her heroic, and indomitable courage. The combat became fiercer everywhere, and especially at the redoubt:— It was on towards the redoubt where the brigade of Guards had hastened that the combat was most furious. There was remarked in all its extent the calm and indefa tigable courage of the English, who covered with heaps of their bodies the soil they could no longer defend, sooner than consent to abandon it. The death of General Cathcart and Colonel Seymour is described in terms of admiration due to their heroism. At last we come to the anival on the scene of action of a portion of the French—near eight o'clock : They saw on all sides tents overthrown, or torn into shreads by grape shot, remains of uniforms, arms belonging to the two nations, and wounded forgotten in the midst of the dead and the dying. On arriving at the battery which the English had established, General Bourbaki formed his battalions, and without waiting an instant rushed into the taidst of the brushwood which covered the soil. France extended her hand to England, and came to take her share of the combat : In seeing their allies hasten np to them with the impe tuosity peculiar to them, the English raised loud cries, and ceased to combat for a moment to wave their blood-stained arms in the air. The wounded half rose, and cried " Hurrah !" The French, on their part, responded by cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" and then they charged with fury. They seemed like a masa of steel moved by an invisible hand. In their first onset, Colonel de Camas, of the 7th Light Infantry, w•as killed:— He received a musket•shot in the breast to the left. A sergeant, calling to his aid one of his comrades, removed him to a distance of about thirty paces. 1)e Camas, who did not seem to suffer, but who lost a good deal of blood, told them to go away and to leave him to die. He soon became nearly insensible, but as he was extended on the ground he seemed to seek something with his hand, and repeated more than once, " My father's sword." Meanwhile— The General•in•Chief Canrobert, having ascertained that the attack on Balaklava was not serious, had gone towards Inkermann with part of the second division, after having arranged with Lord Raglan to bring up all the reserves and have them ready to suppart the troops engaged. In reconnoitring the ground near Inkermann— He met an Irish regiment which, after having fought with heroism, and consumed its last ball cartridge, was quietly marching to seek a new supply of ammunition. General Rose," said the general, " Tell the colonel to place his men here, and if they have no more ammunition to fire let them raise their bayonets above the brushwood, in order to show to the enemy that the passage where we now are is guarded ; and we will send the colonel cart ridges." The English colonel bowed, and, with the intrepid calm which distinguishes our brave allies, placed his soldiers in the position indicated. A little after this, the French General-in• Chief having rejoined Lord Raglan, was pre siding with him over the despatch of the troops towards Inkermann, when the startling intelligence was communicated to him that— The left of the French besieging corps was invaded by a strong column of the enemy, and that the false attack on lislaklava had become a veritable attack, and enveloped the English position. The situation, as the author justly remarks, was critical, and— , rr 4 Every hour that pasha(' seemed to aggravate it, for the Russnals at the same moment carried the plateau of Inkermanu, and the masses became more and more re doubtal,le. Lord Raglan shook hie head, and, with the calm which never abandoned him, said, " I think that we are—very sick." " Not too sick, my lord, let us hope " replied Oeneral Canrobert. But before long it was ascertained that the sortie of the Russians in the French works had been repulsed, and that the attack on Balaklava was decidedly not serious. It was to Inkermaun accordingly that all the efforts of the defence were again directed, and there the awful battle continued:— The fog had disappeared, the combatants were able to see each other and count each other. What heaps of dead! It was at the redoubt on the plateau that masses, incessantly renewed, fought most desperately. The English regiment of Guards fought foot to foot in and around that open work. The Russians possessed themselves of it, but were repulsed by the desperate efforta of those soldiers dente, who fell one by one sooner than give way. At one moment the enemy surrounded this fine regiment and uttered a cry of joy which passed through the ranks and became prolonged like a funeral echo. But by this time General Bosquet and the re mainder of his division had arrived ; they con sisted of &naves, chasseurs-i-pied (riflemen), and the Algerian riflemen, and they only awaited the signal to advance:— General Bosquet passed along the ranks, reminded them of their past energy and glory, and then he cried, " Forward, my irresistible Zouaves ! Forward, my brave chassenrs r And turning to the Arabs he said in Arabic, " Show yourselves children of fire!" A loud cry which dominated the noise of the combat responded to him. AU rushed forward, taking advantage of the irregularities of the soil, sometimes getting behind the high brushwood to reload their arms, at others sud denly advancing. One would have said that they were a flock of wild beasts unchained all at once. The Russian balls could not hit them, for they disappeared, reappeared, dung themselves on the ground, rose again, but always uncom batting. " They are panthers bounding in the brush wood !" cried General Bosquet, with a beaming eye. More French came up, and the author calls the onslaught they made on the Russians " a human avalanche ": The Russians were petrified. It seemed to them that the earth had opened to cast. up new combatants. What than took place was not a combat, but a frightful slaugh• ter. Battalions were overwhelmed, crushed, rent asunder, —the living fell pell-mell with the (lead. The soldiers slew—slew !—without seeking, without looking, without understanding. The unchained Zommes thus arrived at the redoubt, where a large body of the enemy were col lected, firing at the heroic remains of the Guards. They surrounded them, enveloped them, escaladed the redoubt, and hacked the Russians to pieces. The enemy fled in disorder; our soldiers, maddened with massacre and the heat of the combat, pursued them to the extreme limit of the plateau, and pushed them down pell-melt, causing each man to meet with certain death. At the bottom of the valley heaps of corpses were collected, as on the plateau above. The spot in which this frightful carnage, which put an end to the combat of Inkermann, took place, afterwards retained the terrible name of the Abet- Lois (slaughterhouse). After the final retreat of the Russians : The ground was so encumbered with dead and dying that horses could not advance ; in some places the dying and the dead were several ranks deep ; sonic of them, sup ported by the brushwood, remained standing. The two generals•in-chief who came up were obliged to dismount in order to go beyond the redoubt, towards the extremity of the plateau. _ . _ As soon as Lord Raglan perceived General Bosguet be went to him, and, holding out kis hand, said, "In the name of England I thank you ?" Shortly after the Duke of Cambridge arrived ; his features were marked with deep emotion. He had fought like a soldier at the head of his brave Guards. The gene rals complimented him. " All my friends are killed " re- plied he bitterly, " and if I ant not dead with them, it is not my fault !" And so saying, he showed his uniform riddled with ball. In a footnote the author gives a more de tailed account of this remarkable scene, though why he should not have honoured it with a place in the text we cannot tell : It was half•past two o'clock. The generals•in-chief and General Bcsquet were at fifty paces in front of the wind- mill on the heights occupied by the. English Near them were their numerous staffs ; everything indicated the com bat—animated features, fierce ees, swords only half thrust into the scabbard, cannon thunderin -, by intervals on the horizon to cover the retreat of the Ittssituis. The Duke of Cambridge arrived : his features, generally so affable, expressed the bitterest and most painful senti ments. At one moment he was silent and discouraged, at another, on the contrary, he spoke rapidly, and his eyes filled with tears. " They are dead !" he repeated often. " They are dead! all my friends, my brethren in arms— all with whom I lived!" The young Prince, I am t ld by the generals who bay related to me the different episodes of this memorable battle, " fought like a lion." He was insensible to tilt death which so long hung suspended over his own head' 4