The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

[Stamped, id, Additionsij

VOLUNTEER N7ORT ATTACK AT
PA VERSHAM.

To the officers of the Kent Artillery
Volunteers belongs the credit of inaugurating a
new era in volunteer amusements, and of pro-
viding a new interest for volunteer corps. The
night attack of Saturday last was so completely
successful, the satisfaction it elicited so manifest,
and the advantages attending it so obvious, that we
make no doubt that the experiment will be re-
peated at no distant day, and on a much larger
scale. Parposely limited to a comparatively small
section of the brigade, but little heard of out of its
own immediate locality this sham fight possessed
features of its own which merit the attention of all
interested in the movement. Devised by the adju-
tant of the corps, Captain Weston, as an easy
means of explaining to its members the real meaning
and practical bearing of their drill, this night attack
was intended less as a public display than as a
private lesson, wherein precept gained strength and
force from example. None of the metropolitan rail-
way companies ran special trains, and all visitors from
Lundou whose duty or pleasure it was to be present
found to their surprise that it would be necessary to
sleep in the vicinity of the field. The announce-
ment as to a return train to town at the concin-
sion of the attack was unauthorised and fallacious,
and both annoyance and surprise were expressed by
the officers of the corps at that and other statements
which had been put forth by a contemporary. On
inquiring at that mighty maze, the Victoria-station,
for the train to the Faversham volunteer sham
fight, we had for answer, "that it was not till ;
Easter Monday, and it would not be at Faversham."
Without explaining the difference between a novel
night attack and au annual review, we took a ticket
by the ordinary train leaving at 3.20, and after a
couple of hours' ride through a pleasant smiling
country, past snug villages and thriving towns,
after noting everywhere the signs of spring, after
explaining to a foreign fellow-passenger that the
small edifices of roughly piled up wood, so plentiful
in the fields we are rushing through, are not wig-
wams but hop poles out of use, we arrive at Fa-
versham, to learn that the gunboats have already
been towed down, and that the fight will begin
punctually at eight. A stroll through the
cleanly little town, which everywhere presents a
pleasant (combination of antiquarian interest and
material prosperity ; a cursory inspection of the
old-fashioned streets, with their overhanging,
heavy-gabled houses, wherein, in many instances,
plate glass and other modern innovations speak of
the owners leaning to the comfortable rather than
to the picturesque ; a hasty glance at the old,
stoutly-pillared market-house, at the graceful spire
of the new, or reconstructed, church, at the Albert
Institute, at the recently built red brick almshouses
(models in their way), and the modern slate-
coloured national schools, and we take the road to
the field, fully convinced that the vicinity of
powder wills and the manufacture of powder con-
duces in no small degree to the circulation of
capital, the endowment of charities, and the
general good fortune of the circuwjaceut towns. A
drive of some three miles, past the house of Major
iu the grounds of which we note a body of
volunteer artillerymen ripe for action, through the
suburb of Davington, where the quaintly-shaped
kilns look like Brobdignagnian cowled monks, wait-
ing to bestow their beuisonon the town's defenders,
and an oddly pointed clump of houses remind the
looker-on of Augers, and other parts of restored
mediaeval Franco ; up the steep and trying hill, at
the top of which is the village of Ore ; past flat,
bare, and marshy looking fields, and mitering by
au open gate, we stand opposite a betrenched and
wooden palisaded space, in which are situate a barn-
looking building, some large guns, and earthworks.
This is the battery to be shortly assailed from the
river. The whole of the road we have driven over
would have reminded us of going to the Derby. if
the Derby were ever run in the twilight. It has been
crowded with pedestrians; the windows and gardens
of the cottages and villas on the roadside have all
been occupied ; costermongers, with paper-lan-
thorned trucks were driving a flourishing trade in
fancy gingerbread, oranges, and the condiment
known as "Bonaparte's ribs ' while all occupants
of vehicles received much good-humoured chaff,
and had to decline many a pressing suggestion
as to the "giving of lifts." Everywhere we discern
symptoms of pleasurable excitement and general
holiday-waking, and the carriages we peas, or
are passed by, the aspect of the horsemen, and
the family parties we find occupying strong posi-
tions in the field, all prove that the coming event
is interesting to widely opposite strata of local
society.
A few minutes' stroll over the field and we are
at Ore Creek, in the centre whereof lie black
and shapeless the three ships' launches under cover
of tire from which the attacking force, composed of
the 13th Kent Artillery (from Sheerness), under
the command of Captain Harper, are to effect a
landing. To arrive here from the battery we have
crossed two wide ditches, temporarily but substan-
tially bridged over, to facilitate the operations of
the invaders, and now stand on what by courtesy
is termed "a sea wall," but which is merely a per-
manent and substantial turf embankment, dividing
the fields or marshes from the creek. The gun-
boats, commanded by Lieutenant Darling, are
each provided with a 6-pounder, and soon com-
mence to exchange shots with the battery, which is
by this time manned by the artillery we passed at
Faversham, under Major Hall, Captain Crooke., and
Lieut. Sheppard. Some sharp firing now takes place,
and the landing party advances, sud divides itself
into two bodies one proceeding in loose order under
the seacoast to the right flank of the battery,whilat
the other charges it in front. More tiring from
gunboats to assist invaders, more return shots from
battery to repel the same ' • some little screaming
and make-believe faintings from the bystanders ; a
few apocryphal assertions as to being scorched by
the vividness of the flash proceeding from each
report from the gunboats, general tremor on the
part of female spectators, touch badinage from the
boys, and we descend the " wall," and retract our
steps to the battery. This we find has been taken.
A solitary artilleryman is in charge of each tweuty-
four pounder, but the place is otherwise deserted,
save by a few inquisitive sight-seers, who
pat, and smell, and wistfully gaze at the
gun, and who ejaculate emotionally, when sto-
lidly informed that it had been spiked by
the enemy, who are pursuing its late defenders up
to Woolwright's Farm. During the retreat, the
worsted party fire regular volleys by sections, while
their pursuers, iu their eagerness for victory, fire
independently and with rapidity, which is evidently
harassing. At the farm-house just mentioned the
Faversham party make • stand, until driven out,
when they fall back some distance to arrive at a
masked battery, from which they, in their turn, '
spread discomfiture and dismay. They have here,
artfully concealed by brushwood, some other mur-
derous-looking 24-pounders, wherewith they at '
once open on the enemy. This turns the fortunes
of the night. The barn lately evacuated by the
retreating Favershamites, and now possessed by the
landing party, becomes a mere target for the guns
of the masked battery, and after an apparently
obstinate defence, Captain Harper, finding his
opponents' guns supported by their infantry
and small arms, retreats with his men to
the captured battery. Even this he fails
to hold. Attacked both in rear and front he beats
a hasty retreat to his boats, while the defenders re-
! take their batteries unapike the guns, and open
fire on him therewith. Nor is this all. In obedience
to a preconcerted signal, the position of the guns
in the masked battery is altered, they, too, are
levelled at the boats, and the hurried re-embarkation
is completed with difficulty under cover of their
cannonades.

This concluded the volunteer night attack. It
lasted about two hours, commenced punctually,

[TWOPENCE

and was finished at the time promised. There
was, as far as we could see, no hitch at any
stage of the proceedings, and the programme
resolved on by the leaders, though neither printed
nor distributed, was rigidly carried out. Standing
as we did behind the masked battery from the time
of the retreat of its defenders to the turning of the
scale of the battle, the feature which impressed us
most was the apparent reality of the scene. Horace
Vernet himself could nut have painted a battle
picture more vividly. The vast volumes of
smoke eddying up in the moonlight, the martial
figures looming out therefrom, the con-
stant firing, the uncertain light, the distant
music, the hastily spoken words of command,
the heavy tramp of armed men retreating or ad-
vancing at the double, the clanking of their
accoutrements, the occasional appearance of some
mounted spectator who looked every inch an
orderly, and the solemn boom of the cannon, all
aided the illusion. In the shadowy light of the
' moon the number of volunteers was multiplied
indefinitely, and for all purpose/ of practical
observation there might have been as many thou-
sands as there were hundreds engaged. A detach-
ment of the Kentish constabulary bad been sent
over, and their long cloaks and semi-military Gaps
' gave them the aspect of otticers prepared for a
night bivouac. Save fur thus adding to the local
colouring, their presence was unnecessary. The
order preserved by the self-disciplined spectators
was so admirable that in no instance did we see the
force called upon to exert authority or assert its
presence.
Modestly spoken of as an experiment, this
sham-tight was so skilfully arranged and so per-
fectly carried out, that there can be no hesita-
tion on the part of the government authorities in
rendering similar facilities on future occasions. The
gun-boats lent, and the tacit approval implied by the
lending, evinced a confidence in Lieutenant. Colonel
Gladdisb, the commander of the brigade, and Cap-
tain Weston, its adjutant, which the issue of Sa-
turday proved not to be misplaced. After this suc-
cess we presume a repetitiou of the night attack
may be looked for at no distant date. In the
event of this taking place we strongly counsel all
lovers of the picturesque, all desirous of arriving at
an approximate estimate of real warfare, all eager
for the permanence of our volunteer army, to make
an effort to be present. With a little organization
on the part of the rade ay companies, London visi-
tors might have reached home on Saturday soon
after midnight. When, therefore, the Kentish ar-
tillery or their neighbours next propose a similar
display, we trust every means will be adopted to
ventilate their intention. With a not unnatural
feeling, they would have preferred making their
first essay in comparative privacy. But now that
they have tried their strength ; now that the dis-
cipline, the regularity, and the endurance (for two
hours iu an open gun-boat is no trifling matter on a
March night) of their troops have been sufficiently
tested, there need be no hesitationabout seeking pub-
licity and inviting co.operation. They have not
merely given a powerful stimulus to their oNn corps,
but have added a new page to volunteer annals, and
the night attack of Saturday will be hereafter
quoted as an important epoch in the history of
the movement,