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

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'