The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-29 00:00:00

THE ENGLISH ATTACK OF THE REDAN.

As soon as the tricolour was observed waving over the
parapet of the Malakoff through the smoke and dust, four
rockets were sent up from Chapman's attack one after
another as a signal for our assault on the Redan. They
were almost borne back by the violence of the wind, and
the silvery jets of sparks they threw out on exploding were
nearly invisible against the raw, grey sky.
It was a few minutes after twelve when our men left the
fifth parallel. The musketry commenced at once, and in
less than five minutes, during which the troops had to pass
over about thirty yards from the nearest approach to the
parapet of the Redan, they had lust a large proportion of
their officers. The riflemen advanced admirably, but
from their position they could not do much to reduce
the fire of the guns on the flanks and below the
reentering angles. As they came nearer, the etemys fire
became less fatal. They crossed the abattis without diffi-
culty; it was torn to pieces and destroyed by our shot, and
the men stepped over and through it with ease. The light
division made straight for the salient and projecting angle
of the Redan, and came to the ditch, which is here about
fifteen feet deep. The men, led by their officers, leaped
into the ditch and scrambled up the other side, whence
they got up the parapet almost without opposition, fur the
few Russians who were in front ran back and got behind
their traverses and breastworks as soon as they saw our
men on the top, and opened lire upon them. Lamentable
as it no doubt is, and incredible almost to those who know
how the British soldier generally behaves before the enemy,
the men, when they got on the parapet, were seized by
some strange infatuation, and began firing instead of fol-
lowing their officers, who now began to fall fast as they
rushed on in front and tried to stimulate their soldiers by
their example. The small party of the 9Uth, much dimi-
nished, went on gallantly towards the breastwork, but they
were too weak to force it, and they had to retire and get
behind the traverses, where men of different regiments had
already congregated, and were keeping up a brisk fire on
the Russians, whose heads were just visible above the
breastwork. Simultaneously with the head of the storming
party of the light division, Colonel Windham had got
inside the Redan on their right, below the salient on the
proper left face of the Redan, but, in spite of all his exer-
tions, could 10 little more than the gallant officers of the
00th and 97th, and of the supporting regiments.
As the light division rushed out in the front they were
swept by the suns of the Barrack Battery, and by several
pieces on the proper right of the Redan, loaded heavily with
grape, which caused them considerable loss ere they reached
the salient or apex of the work at which they were to as•

SATURDAY,

*suit. The storming columns of the second division issuing
out of the fifth parallel rushed up immediately after the
light division, but, when they came up close to the apex
Brigadier Windham very judiciously bzought them by a
alight detour on the right flank of the light division, so as
to come a little down on the slope of the proper left face of
the Redan. The first embrasure to which they came was
in flames, but, moving on to the next, the men leaped into
the ditch, and, with the aid of ladders and of each other's
hands, scrambled up on the other side, climbed the per.
pet, or poured in through the embrasure which was unde-
fended. Colonel Windham was the first or one of the very
first men in on this side, and with him entered Daniel
Mahoney, a great grenadier of the 41st, Killeany and Cor.
Dellis of the same regiment. As Mahoney entered with a
cheer, he was shot though the head by a Russian rifleman,
and fell dead across iolonel W►udham, and at the same
moment Killeany and Cornellis were both wounded. The
latter claims the reward of 01. offered by Colonel klerberit
to the first man of his division who entered the Redan.

As the alarm of an assault was spread the enemy came
rushing up from the barracks in rear of the Redan, and
creased the force and intensity of their fire, while our sot;
diers dropped fast and encouraged the Russians by their
immobility and the weakness of their fusillade, from which
the enemy were well protected. In vain the officers, by
voice and act, by example and daring, tried to urge our
soldiers on. They had an impression that the Red= was
all mined, and that if they advanced they would all be
blown up, but many of them acted as became the men of
Alma and lnkermann, and, rushing to the front, were
swept down by the enemy's fire. The officers fell on all
sides, singled out for the enemy's fire by their courage.
The men of the different regiments became ruingitd
together in inextricable confusion. The 19th men die not
care for the orders of the offizers of the 88th, nor did the
soldiers of the 23rd heed the commands of an officer who
did net belong to their regiment. The officers could not
find their men—the men had lost sight of their own offi-
cers. All the brigadiers, save Colonel Windham, were
wounded or rendered unfit to the guidance of the attack.
That gallant officer did all that man could do to fin in his
men fur the attack, and to lead them against the enemg.
Proceeding from traverse to traverse, he coaxed the men to
come out, and succeded several times in forming a few of
them, but they melted away as fast as he laid hold of them,
and either fell in their little ranks or retired to cover
to keep up their fusillade. Many of them crowded to
lower parts of the inner parapet and kept up a smart tire
on the enemy, but nothing would induce thew to come out
into the open space and charge the breastwork. This was
all going on at the proper left face of the Redan, while
newly the same scene was being repeated at the salient.
Every moment our men were diminishing in numbers,
while the Russians came up in swarms from the town, and
rushed down from the Alalakoff, which had now beta
occupied by the French. Thrice did Colonel Windham
send officers to Sir W. Codrington, who was in the filth
parallel, begging of him to send up supports in some order
of formation; but all these three officers were wounded as
they passed from the ditch of the Redan to the rear, and
the colonel's own aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Swire, of the
17th, a gallant young officer, was hit dangerously in the hip
as he went on his perilous errand. Supports were, indeed,
sent up, but they came up in disorder from the fire to
which they were exposed on their way, and arrived in
driblets only to increase the confusion and the carnage.
Finding that he could not collect any men on the left face ;
Colonel Windham passed through one of the cuts of Us
inner parapet and walked over to the right face at the dis-
tance of thirty yards from the Russian breastwork, to
which he moved in a parallel line, exposed to a close fire,
but, wonderful to say, without being touched. When he
got behind the inner parapet at the right face he found the
same state of things as that which existed at the left. The
men were behind the traverses, firing away at the Russians
or blazing at them from the broken parts of the front, and
the soldiers who came down from the salient in front only
got behind these works for cover while they loaded
and fired at the enemy. The colonel got some
riflemen and a few men of the 88th together, but
no sooner had be brought them out than they were
killed, wounded,or dispersed by &concentrated fire. The offi-
cers, with the noblest devotion, aided Colonel Windham, and
became the special marks of the enemy's riflemen. The
narrow neck of the salient was too close to allow of any
kind of formation, and the more the men crowded into it
the more they got out of order, and the more they suffered
from the enemy's fire. This miserable work lusted for an
hour. The Russians were now in dense masses behind
the breastwork, and Colonel Windham walked back again
across the open space to the left to make one more attempt
to retrieve the day. The men on the parapet of the salient,
who were firing at the Russians, sent their shot about him,
and the latter, who were pouring volley after volley on all
points of the head of the work, likewise directed their
muskets against him, but he passed through this miss-
fire in safety, and got within the inner parapet on the left,
where the men were becoming thinner and thinner. A
Russian officer now stepped over the breastwork, and tore
down a gabion with his own hands—it was to make room
for a field piece. Colonel Windham exclaimed to several sol-
diers who were firing over the parapet, " Well, as you are
so fond of firing, why don't you shoot that Russian ? '
They fired a volley, and missed him, and soon after-
wards the field piece began to play on the head of the
salient with grape. Colonel Windham saw there was no
time to be lost. He had sent three officers for reinforce-
ments, and, above all, for men in formation, and he now
resolved to go to General Codrington himself. Seeing
Captain Crealock, of the 90th, near him busy in en-
couraging his men, and exerting himself with great
courage and energy to get them into order, he said—" I
most go to the general for supports. Now mind, let it be
known, in case 1 am killed, why I went away." He
crossed the parapet and ditch and succeeded in gaining
the
fifth parallel through a storm of grape and rifle bulled in
safety. Sir William Codrington asked him if he though

SEA. 29, 1855.

he ;ea* eouldi anything with such supports as he could
afford, and said he might take the Royals, who were then
in the parallel. " Let the officers come out in front—let
to advance in order, and if the men keep their formation
the Redan is ours," was the colonel's reply; but he spoke
too late—for at that very Moment our men were seen leap•
fog down into the ditch, or running down the parapet of
ie salient, and through the embrasures out of the work
into the ditch, while the Russians followed them with the
bayonet and With heavy musketry, and even threw stones
and grape-shot at them as they lay in the ditch. The fact
was that the Russians having accumulated several thousands
of men behind the breastwork, and seeing our men all
scattered up and confused behind the inner parapet of the
traverse, crossed the breastwork, through which several
field-pieces were now playing with grape on the inner face
of the Redan, and charged our broken groups with the
bayonet, at the same time that the rear ranks, getting on
the breastwork, poured a heavy hail of bullets on them
over the heads of the advancing column. The struggle
that took place was short, desperate, and bloody. Our
soldiers, taken at every disadvantage, met the enemy with
the bayonet too, and isolated combats took place in which
the brave fellows who stood their ground had to defend
themselves against three or four adversaries at once. In
this melee the officers, armed only with their swords, had
little chance; nor had those who carried pistols much
opportunity of using them in such a rapid contest. They
fell like heroes, and many a gallant soldier with them.
The bodies of English and Russians inside the Redan,
locked in an embrace which death could not relax, but had
rather cemented all the closer, lay next day inside the
Redan as evidences of the terrible animosity of the
struggle. But the solid weight of the advancing mass,
urged on, and fed each moment from the rear by company
after company and battalion after battalion, prevailed at
last against the isolated and disjointed band, who had
abandoned the protection of unanimity of courage and had
lost the advantages of discipline and obedience. As
though some giant rock had advanced into the sea and
forced back the waters that buffeted it, so did the Russian
columns press down against the spray of soldiery which
fretted their edge with fire and steel and contended in vain
against their weight. The struggling band was forced
back by the enemy, who moved on crushing friend and
foe beneath their solid tramp, and, bleeding, panting, and
exhausted, our men lay in heaps in the ditch beneath the
parapet, sheltered themselves behind atones and in bomb-
orateis in the slope of the work, or tried to pass back to
our advanced parallel and sap, and had to run the gauntlet
or a tremendous fire. Many of them lost their lives, or
were seriously wounded in this attempt. The scene in
the ditch was appalling, although some of the officers have
assured me that they and the men were laughing at the
precipitation with which many brave and gallant fellows
did not hesitate from plunging headlong upon the mass of
bayonets, muskets and sprawling soldiers—the ladder■
were all knocked down or broken, so that it was difficult
for the men to get up at the other side, and the dead, the
dying, the wounded, and the sound were all lying in heaps
together. The Russians came out of the embrasures, plied
them with stones, grape-shot, and the bayonet, but were
soon forced to retire by the tire of our batteries and rifle-
men, and under cover of this fire many of our men es-
caped to the approaches. General Pelissier observed the
failure of our attack from the rear of the Malakoff, and
sent over to General Simpson to ask if he intended to at-
tack again. The English Commander-in-Chief is reported
to have replied that he did not then feel in a condition to do
so. All this time the Guards and Highlanders, the
third and fourth divisions, and moat of the reserves were
untouched. They could, indeed, have furnished materials
for another assault, but the subsequent movements of the
Russians render it doubtful whether the glory of carrying
the Redan, and of redeeming the credit of our arms, would
not have been dearly purchased by the effusion of more
♦aluable blood. _ _

As soon as we abandoned the assault the firing almost
ceased along our front, but in the rear of the Malakoff
there was a fierce contest going on between masses of
Russians, now released from the Redan, or drawn from
the town, and the French inside the work; and the fight
for the Little Redan, on the proper left of the Malakoff,
was raging furiously. Clouds of smoke and dust covered
the scene, but the rattle of musketry was incessant, and
betokened the severe nature of the struggle below.
Through the breaks in the smoke there could be seen now
and then a tricolour, surmounted by an eagle, fluttering
bravely over the inner parapet of the Malakoff. The
storm of battle rolled fiercely round it, and beat against it;
but it was sustained by strong arms and stout hearts, and
all the assaults of the enemy were directed in vain against
it. We could see, too, oar noble allies swarming over into
the Malakoff from their splendid approaches to it from the
Mamelon, or rushing with swift steps towards the right,
where the Russians, continually reinforced, sought in vain
to beat back their foes and to regain the key of their posi-
tion. The struggle was full of interest to us all, but its
issue was never doubted. It would be untrue to say that
the result of our assault was not the source of deep grief
and mortification to us, which all the glorious successes of
our allies could not wholly alleviate.—Times Cor.

In a later letter, the same writer more particularly
notices the want of reinforcements :

At the first rush, had Colonel Windham been able to get
a handful of men together to charge at the breastwork, the
few Russians theta must have been routed, and by the time
their reinforcements came up our men would have been
able to reverse the face of the breastwork, and to close the
Redan to their assailants. The salient was held by our
men one hour and fifty-six miuutes ! Colonel Eman, one
of the very best officers in this army—a man of singular
calmness and bravery, who was beloved by his regiment,
his officers and men, and whose loss is lamented by all who
knew him—was shot through the lungs as he was getting
his men in order. Hia sword-arm was uplifted over his
head at the time, and it was thought his lungs were unity

THE PRESS.

jured. The surgeon, when he was carried back, told him
so, but he knew too well such hopes were vain. " I feel
lam bleeding internally," he said, with a sad smile. He
died that night. The 30th Regiment was formed in the
fourth parallel left in front, on the right of the 55th, and
when the storming party moved out of the fifth parallel the
supports occupied it, and were immediately ordered to ad-
vance on the salient angle of the Redan by three companies
at a time from the left. The distance from the place in
which they were posted up to the salient considerably ex-
ceeded two hundred yards, and as the men had to cut
across as quickly as they could in order to escape the raking
fire of grape, and support the regiments in front, they were
breathless when they arrived al the ditch. When they ar-
rived, all blown by their double, they found only two
scaling ladders at the scarp, and two more at the other side
to climb up to the parapet. They got over, however, and
ascended the face of the Redan. fly the time the supports
got up the Russians were pushing up their reserves in
great force, and had already got some fiektpieces up to the
breastwork, and the regiment, falling into the train of all
around them instead of advancing, began to fire from the
parapet and upper traverses till all their ammunition was
exhausted, when they commenced pelting the Russians
with stones. In this condition there were no attempt, being
made to move the reserves whatever, while the Russians ac-
cumulated mass after mass upon them from the open
ground in rear of the Redan, and deployed their columns
on the breastwork, whence they delivered a severe fire upon
us. The whole garrison of the Malakoff and their supporta
also came down on the left flank of the Redan and added
to oar assailants; and indeed there was reason to fight,
for the possession of the Redan would have destroyed the
enemy's chance of escape. In this gallant regiment there
were sixteen officers, twentythree sergeants, etc., and 384
privates; on marching down to the trenches one officer was
killed and ten were wounded, six sergeants were wounded,
forty-one privates were killed and 101 privates were
wounded, and two officers and six privates have since died
of their wounds.

The w.lnt of reserves at band is also distinctly in-
dicated by correspondents of the Daily News, as in
the following paragraph :

As usual the whole affair was wretchedly managed, and
great many lives sacrificed uselessly. The reserves were
too far back—in fact, nearly upon the camp, and nearly an
hour's march from the scene of action. General Simpson was
ill, and sat wrapped up in a capotc in an arm-chair in the
Green-hill Battery. So was General Bernard. The as-
saulting column rushed bravely forward, were decimated by
grape in going up the slope, crossed the ditch, mounted
the parapet, and found inside a second ditch or covered
way, and behind it another parapet armed with field-pieces
vomiting grape, and then three lines of infantry—the first
rank kneeling with the bayonet presented as if receiving
cavalry, and the other two firing over their heads—were
repulsed, but the supports, instead of riving them time to
rally, rau up Loo soon, got mingled in the retreating crowd,
and after that the whole was a scene of horrible confusion.
For three mortal hours the men remained on the parapet,
penetrated twice into the interior, to be massacred use-
lessly in detail, but no efforts of the officers could induce
them to go forward and fling themselves on the enemy
en masse, because the soldiers were not men, but mere boys
just come out, without either physical strength or moral
pluck, or discipline to make up for the want of them.
In the same journal it is broadly stated that with
adequate support the Redan would have been ours :

inevitably repulsed as they were, our shattered com•
panies were compelled to fall back on the trench which
they had left ; and to regain this, they had to pass through
the same terrible storm of fire as before. had they, indeed,
been properly supported, this second ordeal would have been
spared them ; and, in spite of all its grape and canister, the
liedan would, without doubt, have been our own. To every at-
tempt at repeating the attack the same formidable front was
shown ; and, cut up as they had been in their first essay, it was
not to be wondered at that our young troops, many of whom
were under direct fire for the first time, shrank from a
second exposure to the desolating storm.
The weakness of the assaulting columns is also in-
sisted on in this correspondence :
Granting the necessity of attacking the liedan, there
were manifestly many mistakes in the way in which tt was
attempted to be carried out. The assaulting columns were
too weak, and on reaching the work, instead of trusting to
the bayonet to drive all before them, they directed a musket-
fire from behind the parapets against the enemy, who had
retired behind their intrenchmenta, as if it were an affair of
the advanced parallels in the trenches. The supporta were
brought up without method or order, and, on reaching the
assaulting parties, crowded up to them in a mass, instead of
waiting wherever they might be most safe from fire—in the
ditch for example—until they were required to move for•
ward. The consequence was, con fUsion became rampant,
the different regiments were mixed together ; there was no
head to order or direct, and much unnecessary slaughter
was the result.

A correspondent of the Morning Post tells the
same tale:—

On rushed the men, gallantly led by Captains Lewis,
Maude, and Fyera ; they leaped into the ditch, olambered
up into the embrasures, and, mounting the parapets, for a
moment so astonished the Russians by the vehemence and
ardour of their onset, that the place was their own. But
they were not in sufficient force ; nor could they be brought
to act in concert in the confusion that ensued. The inte-
rior of the Redan was in itself fortified ; the wall or breast.
work that served to protect their artillerymen from the
fragments of shells that might be thrown into the Redan,
and burst there, now availed the Russian troops as
defences. The English soldiers thought themselves
trapped within these double walls, the sight of which was
unexpected; and more than all—for they were, too many
of them, young recruits—they dreaded the sudden explo.

921

lion of the many mines with which the battery in particu-
lar had the character of being honeycombed.. They
preferred either to remain on the parapet, where they could
see their foes and fire upon them, or to dodge behind the
traverses, and play the same game of rifle shooting as
they had become used to in the trenches. In vain their
officers called upon them to advance—they would not ; in
vain the Russians tried to force them back—neither would
they go back, but fought desperately, in hand-to-hand com-
bats, still maintaining their ground.