March 4th. I was one of a covering party in the advanced trench; it was a bright moonlight night, with sharp, cold frost. The Russians availed themselves of the brightness of the night by keeping up a constant fire of musketry on our trenches. At daybreak the volleys of musketry lasted an hour, mingled with the roar of round shot, whistling and bursting of shells, under cover of which they made a strong sortie on our trenches, and were repulsed with heavy loss; they also made a strong sortie on the French lines at the same time, and met no better success. General Canrobert and staff rode past our camp to-day on his way to visit the British Head-Quarters, where he met Lord Raglan and several generals of our army, with whom he held a council of war, but nothing is known publicly respecting the result of the council.
March 6th. Yesterday our first spring meeting took place and was numerously attended. The races came off on a level piece of ground near the Tchernaya River, and were regarded with much interest by the Cossacks on Canrobert's Hill. They evidently thought at first that the assemblage was connected with some military demonstration, and galloped about in a state of great excitement to and fro. In the midst of the races a party of twelve Russians was seen approaching the sentry on the old redoubt beyond Inkerman; the sentry fired and ten of them fled, and when the piquet came up to the sentry they found two deserters had come in from the Russians. One of them was an officer, and the other had been an officer, but had suffered degradation. They were both Poles, spoke French fluently, and expressed great satisfaction at their escape and said, "Send us wherever you please, provided we never see Russia again." They stated that they had deceived the men who were with them into the belief that the sentry was one of their own outposts, and, as they had lately joined, they believed them, and advanced boldly till the sentry fired at them, when they discovered their mistake and fled. As they were well mounted, they dashed towards our lines; the Cossacks tried to cut them off, but did not succeed. They requested that the horses might be sent back to the Russian lines, as they did not belong to them—they did not wish to be accused of theft. The horses were then taken to the brow of the hill and set free, when they galloped towards the Cossacks. The races proceeded as usual, and subsequently towards six o'clock the crowd dispersed.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ST. PATRICK'S DAY—RIFLE PITS—FOURTH DIVISION—FRENCH LOSS—THE SIEGE—GENERAL ATTACK—FLAG OF TRUCE—BURYING THE DEAD—WOODEN HUTS—TURKISH TROOPS—DIVINE SERVICE.
March 18th. Yesterday being St. Patrick's day, many officers and men were to be seen early in the morning on the hill-side in search of something green to wear as a substitute for a real shamrock, the old symbol of Erin. In the afternoon we had horseraces to celebrate St. Patrick's day, and show that Irishmen, though far from their native land, had not forgotten the rights and ceremonies by which this celebrated day was remembered by them. They were in excellent spirits, the day was fine, and the ground dry; both officers and men enjoyed the day's sport; the thunder of the siege guns rose up frequently above the shouts of the crowd in the heat of the races. There has been a fierce struggle between the French and Russians last night, for the possession of the rifle-pits. These pits are situated in front of the Mamelon, and the Russian sharpshooters occupy them every night, and keep up a most galling and destructive fire against the exposed parts of the advanced trenches of our right attack as well as that of the French. The shot of our batteries make the rifle pits too hot a place for the Russians during the day, but at night they come back and re-occupy them, supported by large bodies of infantry; in these encounters the enemy has had many men killed and wounded. These rifle pits have cost both armies large quantities of ammunition, as well as the sacrifice of many men; but the French are determined to wrest them from the Russians at any cost, for they are a source of the greatest annoyance to them. They sent a strong force of about six thousand men down close to our second and light divisions, before dusk yesterday evening, and shortly afterwards they were sent to the advanced trenches, on our right; the covering party and riflemen were ordered out to occupy the rifle pits; they advanced but found the Russians had anticipated them, and that the enemy were already in possession of the pits. A fierce battle then commenced, but it was found that the enemy were there in much larger force than was expected; therefore the French could not then drive them from their position, notwithstanding their repeated attempts to do so. The contest was carried on by musketry, and the volleys which rang out incessantly for five hours, roused up the whole camp.
From the roll of musketry, and the flashing light in front, one would have thought that a general engagement between large armies was going on. The character of the fight had something peculiar about it, owing to the absence of round shot or shell. About 7.30 o'clock, p.m., the 4th division was turned out by order of the General, Sir John Campbell, and took up its position on the hill near the Green Hill battery, and the light division, under Sir George Brown, at the same time marched towards the 21 gun battery; the second and third divisions were also turned out and marched to the trenches in their front, after the French had desisted and retired from the assault on the rifle-pits. These divisions, after remaining under arms for five hours, were marched back to their respective camps. Had the French required our assistance we were ready to give it; but they were determined on taking these pits, which are in front of their advanced trenches, without any aid from us. The Zouaves bore the heaviest part of this battle; we could distinctly hear their officers between the volleys of musketry, cheering on their men, and encouraging them, and the rush of men generally followed, then a volley of musketry was heard, followed by rapid file firing, then a Russian cheer and more musketry. Between each volley we could hear the officer again giving the command. This work went on for about five hours, when the French at length retired. The French loss at this affair was twenty officers and 200 rank and file killed, wounded and taken prisoners; the Russian loss was over 600 killed and wounded.