THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR—OPERATIONS IN THE CRIMEA AND BLACK SEA.
January opened upon the starving British army still more terribly than the December of 1854 closed. The French also suffered, but their superior military organization, commissariat, and care of the sick, spared them many miseries which afflicted the whole of the British lines. It was remarkable in the British army that very few officers perished of cold, none of hunger, while their men fell in such numbers. Very few officers died from sickness, unless such as fell victims to cholera, which smote with impartial hand the poor private and his titled chief. Various sick and wounded officers died in consequence of not having been removed in sufficient time to the Bosphorus, or to such other quarters as were not only possible, but convenient, had it not been for the heartless and stupid routine by which the heads of departments, at home and abroad, civil and military, were guided. It was the more remarkable that so few officers died in the camp in proportion to the men who perished, as the proportions were reversed in combat. The facts were, that the officers in battle exposed themselves more gallantly than the men, nobly, although, the latter fought and fell; but in the lines, and at Balaklava, out upon the plain below the plateau, and in the trenches, the officers had such comforts as were procurable for money, and which were unattainable to the men. Stores sent to the soldiers were plundered at Balaklava, and sold in the trenches by Turks, Greeks, Tartars, and rogues of all nations who had followed the army. Those who had money purchased, and fared comparatively well; the poorer soldiers hungered and died. The medical regimental officers behaved nobly; but, generally, they were unwilling to complain of any want of stores and medicines, as they, by doing so, incurred the resentment of the medical chiefs, and their promotion was suspended, or prevented altogether. It became necessary at last to introduce the civil element into the medical care of the army. Among the efforts put forth to this end was the establishment of a civil hospital at Smyrna. The government encouraged various medical men of eminence to abandon their professional prospects in London and go to the East. These men were regarded with jealousy by their brethren in the military service, and with indifference and want of courtesy very frequently by military men in high official positions, The government which, like preceding ministers, had in its contracts for the public service obtained such unenviable notoriety for breach of faith, signalized itself in an especial manner in violating honour and duty with the medical civil officers. This was especially seen in the requital of the officers attached to the hospital at Smyrna. In “Nolan’s History of the War against Russia” there is incorporated an account of the Smyrna hospital, by a very gifted and learned man,* which is too long for quotation here, but which will exemplify all that is here stated of an evil so great, and injustice so flagitious.
* Dr. Arthur Leared, Finsbury Place, South, and 12, Old Burlington Street, London. Chap, xlviii., pp. 810, 811.
According to the imperial commissioner with the French army, the month of January “was fertile in partial combats, and sudden but sanguinary and obstinate struggles.” Mr. Woods, the correspondent of the London Morning Herald, affirmed that the combats were useless skirmishes.
February in the Crimea was chiefly signalized by the battle of Eupatoria, which, as shown in a previous section of this chapter, issued in the signal defeat of the Russian army by Omar’ Pasha, and was probably the cause of the czar’s death. The accession of Alexander II. to the throne of the Russian empire, while it encouraged diplomatic efforts for peace, led to renewed efforts for war, the young emperor being anxious to show his people zeal for “the orthodox church,” and reverence for the policy of his predecessor, whom Russia regarded as a saint and a martyr. The Emperor Alexander resolved upon a desperate effort to bring the war to an issue favourable to his empire by force of arms, unless, through the instrumentality of Austria at the Vienna conference, he could more cheaply conquer peace.
During the month of March, the allies became more active in the siege of Sebastopol. Efforts were put forth of a sanitary nature, which improved the health of the troops, and means of storage and transport were greatly facilitated and enlarged. The soldiers rallied with better food and more favourable weather.
The English generals displayed more activity, but did not inspire more confidence in the troops. Sorties and combats continued. The Russian forces in the Crimea were also refreshed and recruited, although the efforts to accomplish these things drained the resources of the empire.
On the 20th of the month it was known that Prince Gortschakoff succeeded Prince Menschikoff in command of the Russian Crimean forces. The latter prince—the cause of so many troubles, a blind zealot, whose influence over the Emperor Nicholas was most unhappy—was wounded and disabled. The Russian admiral, Istomine, a very brave man, was killed in the Mamelon Fort. Burial truces, combats, and sorties closed the month. In one of these the pious and heroic Captain Vicars fell.
During April the allies made powerful efforts again to bombard the place, The troops continued to suffer through March and the first week of April, although their situation was meliorated from day to day; the spirits of the men were recruited, and an ambition to signalize themselves by some decisive feat of arms was evident among them.
During this period, the Black Sea fleet operated in watching the enemy’s coasts in that sea, and in harassing him in his harbours in the Sea of Azoff.
On the 8th of April Sebastopol was once more bombarded. The English shells were, in a vast proportion, harmless from their bad manufacture. The bombardment eventually failed; the industry, energy, and perseverance of the Russians enabling them to repair the earthworks and batteries as fast as their demolition by the allies seemed to advance. April was signalized by such marked differences of opinion between the French and English generals, that co-operation before Sebastopol was difficult, and impossible elsewhere, although plans for operations at other places were discussed.
May opened brightly and beautifully, as it generally does in the Crimea, and all around the trampled plateau was decked with flowers, which sprung up with wonderful rapidity in the most unlikely places, displaying their grace even among the tents of the warriors. May was attended by as unhappy differences of opinion between the allied generals as was April, although the presence of General Pelissier in the French army tended to promote good feeling and generous forbearance.
Much sickness was experienced in May by the troops of the English army, and the extravagance, dirt, and confusion of the transport service caused a heavier sick list than would otherwise have been reported.
The King of Sardinia having joined the alliance against Russia, several thousand fine troops from that nation landed at Balaklava. They were eventually quartered upon the Tchernaya, and, with some Turkish detachments, and French divisions, held at bay the Russian army in the field, and rendered all further operations of the enemy against Balaklava impossible.
An expedition was sent against Kertch.
When May closed, the allies and the Russians confronted one another, in formidable force, upon the opposite heights of the Tchernaya.
June was an eventful month before Sebastopol. It began with a third bombardment of the gallant city, which, like previous ones, was a failure—the means of the allies, vast as they were, being inadequate to the undertaking. The French made a successful attack upon the White Works and the Mamelon; and the British were equally successful in attacks upon the Quarries, by which the part of the Russian lines which they opposed were protected. The Russians made desperate, but eventually abortive, attempts to retake all these positions.
The third bombardment having failed, the allies lost no time in bringing fresh resources of attack and storm against the defences. A fourth bombardment produced signal havoc and extensive dilapidation. On the 18th of the month, the allies attempted to take the place. A combined assault of a most sanguinary nature was made and defeated. This defeat was accompanied and followed by the loss of many distinguished officers in the British army. On the 28th the English commander-in-chief died. Illness and anxiety, with chagrin at his failure in conducting the siege to the satisfaction of his country, brought on his death. Cholera was the immediate agent in his removal. General Simpson succeeded to the command of the British army, through the instrumentality of his patron and countryman, Lord Panmure. He was still less competent than Lord Raglan for so great a responsibility, and the people of the United Kingdom were indignant at the jobbing and patronage to which the interests of the country were sacrificed. General Simpson while he remained in command was in every respect feeble, and a mere cipher in the hands of the French general. Lord Raglan, by his reserve, dignity of manner, and high rank, preserved influence and respect notwithstanding his inactivity and dulness; but General Simpson possessed no qualities that could set off or redeem his utter incompetency, unless, perhaps, his modesty, and the absence of all self-seeking about him. He urged upon his government that he was unequal to so great an appointment, but Lord Panmure insisted in thrusting the honour upon him.
General Simpson, on his assumption of command, ordered the siege to be prosecuted without intermission, in the hope of giving a fresh and successful assault. The month of July and part of August witnessed the progress of events for the grand and final struggle, but before it could take place, incidents apart from the siege excited general attention in Europe. Lord Raglan had been very anxious for operations against Kertch, and ordered a second expedition against it, which was successful, and was a means of greatly annoying, distracting, and injuring the Russians.
After the failure of the assault on the 18th of June, the opposing hosts on the Tchernaya assumed gradually a more menacing attitude, so that from the middle of July a battle was daily and even hourly expected. It was the interest of the Russians to strike the first blow, and the allies prepared to ward it off, and, if possible, deal in return a more deadly stroke. The great trial of strength on the banks and steep acclivities of “the Black River” was destined to occur in August. On the 16th, the Russians attacked the whole line of the French and Sardinian posts, and, after a long and sanguinary battle, were defeated. This decisive repulse of the Russian army in the field, left the allies more at liberty to prosecute to perfection the works necessary to secure a successful assault. Before that event occurred the British experienced many serious losses; a surprising number of regimental officers fell in conflict or died. The disgraceful state of the English transports caused many deaths. The same inaptness and incompetency for general management characterized the English chiefs as at the very beginning of the siege. The British army experienced a serious injury in the retirement of Lieutenant-general Sir Richard England. He had probably endured more fatigue, and worked on with more patience, perseverance, and continuity of action than any officer in the British army. One by one the English chiefs had fallen away by death, or wounds, or sickness, General England, with frame of iron and indomitable will, still bearing up, although sharing cold, watchings, labours, and privations with his soldiers in a way characteristic of his generous nature and military temper. He was perhaps the least ostentatious soldier in either army. He never put himself forward prominently, but was always ready to perform the most arduous task committed to him with scrupulous precision, and quiet and indomitable resolution. Had he not offended the agents of the press by his resolution of not allowing any reporters within his division—under the conviction, probably erroneous, that the reports which found their way into the English papers, gave information to the enemy injurious to the service—he would have had many a gallant deed, and his stern uncompromising sense of duty, emblazoned to the world. His health at last suffered so severely, that he was obliged to return home, shortly before the grand conquest was achieved.
September opened with the immediate preliminaries of the grand struggle. The final bombardment of the strong city began. The number of guns with which the allies opened the bombardment was 803. On the old French attack there were 332 pieces; on the French Inkerman attack, 267 pieces: making a total in the two separate French attacks of 599 pieces of ordnance.
The English had 204 pieces, consisting of 91 mortars, and 113 guns.
The bombardment began upon the 5th,—the heaviest ever known in the history of sieges. Terrible mischief was effected by the constant discharge of so many engines of destruction; and the alarm and distress of the inhabitants and garrison could be witnessed from the lines of the besiegers. The following extract from the author’s “History of the War against Russia,” describes with brevity and accuracy the final bombardment.
When the sun set, the shells, rockets, and other fiery missives from the besieging lines, sped like flights of meteors over the enemy’s works, and searched the recesses of the city. Throughout the night of the 5th a fire of musketry had been directed against the faces of the works to be assailed; but on that of the 6th, this was more sustained and heavy. During the 6th, the enemy made a comparatively feeble resistance. On the early morning of the 7th, the bombardment gave place to a cannonade, which was as terrible as if opening for the first time., The enemy opened a galling fire from their Inkerman batteries across the harbour upon the French right, sweeping the batteries of the latter, slaying many, and damaging the works. A strong wind blew the smoke from the town, accompanied by clouds of dust, into the faces of the besiegers, impeding their aim, and rendering it difficult for them to observe the effect of their shot.
At half-past three a fine two-decker in the harbour was set on fire, and continued to burn through the remainder of the day and all night, with a flame exceeding in intensity and volume that of previous ships. A fire also broke suddenly forth in the rear of the Great Redan. Late in the evening another broke out in the town over the Woronzoff Road, and another at the head of the dockyard. The combined effect of all these conflagrations was terrible beyond description, associated as they were with the deafening roar of at least 1000 pieces of cannon, for as many were constantly engaged, notwithstanding that the number of the enemy’s guns silenced was very great. When daylight died the cannonade was, as before, succeeded by a bombardment, with all its fierce concomitants. The Russians showed throughout the night a constant apprehension of assault, for they threw showers of vertical grape-shot; and notwithstanding the glare of the flames from the burning ships, and the fires in the city, they lighted up their works with fire-ball and carcasses. They repeatedly threw bouquets into the trenches of the French. Thus, until the morning of the 8th, shells and rockets fell in fiery deluge upon Sebastopol, and the roll of the musketry against the faces of the chief defences never ceased. On the morning of the 8th the cannonade began with the day, and was delivered more rapidly and fiercely than before. Meanwhile preparations were made for the assault.
The assault on the English side was unsuccessful; the same bad generalship which marred the actions of the English so frequently throughout the war, threw its fatal influence over their efforts on the terrible day of the 8th of September. The French would also have failed, in all probability, had they not effected a surprise, by suddenly seizing the Malakoff, the key of the defence, at a moment when the Russians felt secure that no attack would be made. The French with great courage and adroitness secured the advantage gained, and that advantage was decisive of the contest. The Russians, after a vain struggle, retreated from Southern Sebastopol, having lost a multitude of slain, and leaving vast spoil in the hands of the captors.
The tidings of this result was spread by the electric wire and by the press until all Europe caught the exultation and rejoiced everywhere—except in the courts of Naples and Athens, and among the members of the Greek church, who, wherever they were scattered, showed the utmost sympathy for Russian tyranny and bigotry.
During September, the allies gathered the spoils of war from the conquered city. October and November afforded fine weather for military operations, but nothing of importance was done by the allied commanders from the basis of operations before Sebastopol; while the Russians still lay in strength beyond the Tchernaya, and held Northern Sebastopol in greater strength than ever.
General Simpson resigned his command, in obedience to the popular opinion at home; and General Codrington, a general of less than two years standing, assumed the important post. Discord among the allied commanders, and intrigues in the French foreign-office and the imperial court of France, paralyzed the vigorous purposes of the English cabinet. The French emperor wished to conciliate his brother autocrat of Russia, and was unwilling to strike a blow which in proportion as it humbled Russia exalted England. A fear lest any glory or influence in the East should accrue to England swayed the French ministry. Napoleon had other designs which England was less likely to favour than was Alexander II., and the policy adopted was to gain an ally in the enemy which England aided him to subdue.
A second winter encampment before Sebastopol was necessary. The dreary plateau was once more the abode of the weary and suffering soldiers during the inclement period which terminated the year in the Crimea. The British soldiers were, however, cheered by increased numbers and efficiency, and by the care and comfort which the indignant patriotism of the British people compelled the government to bestow upon its noble army.
During the inactive of the allied armies before Sebastopol, and in the neighbourhood of the Tchernaya, certain expeditions were undertaken, which were important. An expedition was ordered against certain strong places on the European shores of the Black Sea. The reduction of Kinburn, a strong naval arsenal and place for ship-building, was effected; and Ockzakoff, an important place from which the approaches to Kinburn could be well defended, was totally destroyed.
At Eupatoria the Russians, notwithstanding the continual drain upon their resources at Sebastopol, harassed the garrison. Cavalry skirmishes were frequent, and rather sanguinary. The allies maintained their position, and constantly threatened the enemy’s communications.