Thus the pleasant autumn weather passed away. All was quiet round Sebastopol, beyond the Tchernaya and around the Baidar Valley, and the only activity displayed was in those expeditions we have described on the extremities of the Crimea—at Kinburn, at Eupatoria, at Kertch, and in the Sea of Azoff. The reasons for this inactivity may be safely traced to differences at Paris and London touching the conduct and field of war, and to the desire of making peace, which the Allies were resolved should be honourable and satisfactory to them, and which the Russians were anxious should involve the minimum of sacrifices on their side. But there was another reason of great weight. General Sir James Simpson had sent home his resignation immediately after the fall of Sebastopol. He was a brave and able soldier, but he had passed the prime of life, and not knowing the French language, he was in a false position, and unable to struggle with success against the natural self-assertion of Marshal Pélissier. He had also been unjustly assailed because a few hundred British soldiers had not been able to wrest the Redan from thousands of Russians, supported by heavy flanking batteries. The Government accepted his resignation. That was easy. Whom should they put in his place? They were at a loss for an answer. The fittest man was Sir Colin Campbell—old, it is true, but still as hardy and active and vigorous as ever. But a report had been industriously spread that Campbell would quarrel with the French, and he did not, besides, belong to the privileged few. Perhaps the Cabinet wanted a safe man, one who would not propose or urge decisive action. At all events, they found one. Sir William Codrington—a guardsman who had not seen a hundredth part of Campbell's service, who had not a hundredth part of Campbell's ability, but who was an average soldier, a brave leader in battle, and one of the "right set"—was selected to command the Anglo-Sardinian armies.
Three days afterwards a great calamity befell the French, and inflicted several losses upon us. On the 14th of November the powder magazines in the park of the French siege train, containing 250,000 pounds of gunpowder, blew up; not powder only, but an immense quantity of shells, carcasses, rockets, and cartridges. Happily all were not panic-stricken. General van Straubenzee, calling for volunteers from the gallant 7th, Lieutenant Hope and a number of men stood forward. These brave fellows headed by their officer, quickly joined by others, ascended the walls of the roofless mill used as a powder magazine, and by great labour succeeded in covering up the powder with wet blankets. It was a service where the risk was awful, for all around were conflagrations; the air was full of fleeting flames, and there stood the great magazine without doors, windows, or roof; all had been blown in or torn off. Yet the daring deed was well done, and the place saved. By this calamity we lost ten men killed and sixty-nine wounded. One of the killed was Deputy-Assistant Commissary Yellon. The French lost six officers killed and thirteen wounded, and 166 men killed and wounded. The cause of this catastrophe was never discovered.
We must now leave the Crimea to narrate the operations of the British fleet in the Baltic and Pacific. The naval operations of the Allies in 1855 were again entirely confined to encounters between ships and forts. The war seemed to be made on purpose to furnish illustrations of the superiority of a well-designed scheme of coast and harbour defence over a navy, be it ever so powerful. It is further remarkable as a war between Maritime Powers unmarked by a single naval action. The Russians, of course, outnumbered everywhere, except in the Gulf of Tartary, were not bound to fight, and they were, except in the Pacific, shut up in narrow seas. These are and must be their only legitimate excuses for yielding up their waters to the Allies without striking or attempting to strike a blow.
The British fleet was more powerful in 1855 than in 1854. Government had built several gun and mortar boats, and destined for the Baltic a larger force of frigates and ships of the line. Sir Charles Napier had pushed his quarrel so far with the Admiralty that it was impossible to give him the command again. The officer selected was Rear-Admiral Richard Saunders Dundas, with Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour as second, and Rear-Admiral Baynes as third in command; and Captain Pelham, who distinguished himself in the attack on Bomarsund, as captain of the fleet. A light squadron, under Captain Watson of the Impérieuse, consisting of six ships, started for the Baltic on the 19th of March, and on the 4th of April Admiral Dundas sailed from Portsmouth with thirteen sail of the line and four frigates; Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort being present on board the royal yacht. The Russians did not show a sail in the Baltic. The frigates, as soon as the ice permitted, scoured the narrow seas, capturing some prizes, and establishing a blockade. The Gulf of Finland was closed in May, when the main body of the fleet lay off Nargen, where they could watch Revel and Helsingfors. The French fleet, under Rear-Admiral Penaud, did not sail till later. They were not in the Baltic until the 21st of May. The British fleet had gone up the Gulf of Finland towards Cronstadt, and it was here on the 1st of June that the French joined them. The British ships lay across the gulf, and as the French came up, out of compliment to their allies they formed a second line, and after communication with Admiral Dundas, the two fleets formed combined squadrons, showing both flags in front line to the enemy. But the Russians, who had not been tempted by the smaller, showed no disposition even to look at the larger force. All their ships, except a few steamers, were dismantled, and lying under the protection of the forts. There was nothing to be done but reconnoitre, fish up "infernal machines," and engage in small operations. For three weeks the fleet lay off Cronstadt. On the 14th of July part sailed for Nargen, leaving Admiral Baynes with a powerful squadron to watch Cronstadt.
While the allied fleet was off Cronstadt an incident had occurred which showed that the enemy, irritated by his losses, could descend to acts of revenge and treachery. At Inkermann the wounded had been slain in cold blood, and the parties gathering up the wounded had been shelled by the war steamers. At Odessa, in 1854, a flag of truce had been fired upon by the shore batteries; and now a party, from H.M.S. Cossack, bearing a flag of truce, were massacred at Hango on the coast of Finland. Six sailors were killed, and the event, which was cynically defended by the Russian Minister of War, Prince Dolgorouky, aroused universal reprobation. A thrill of horror and indignation ran through the British people.
During the month of July the lighter craft performed some smart actions on the enemy's coasts. Captain Storey had already destroyed 20,000 tons of shipping near Nystad, in the Gulf of Bothnia. On the 4th of July Captain Yelverton, with the Arrogant and two other vessels, appeared off Swartholm. Here the enemy had abandoned and blown up a fort of immense strength, commanding the approaches to Lovisa; and on the 5th, Captain Yelverton, shifting his flag to the Ruby gunboat, and accompanied by the boats of the squadron, went up to Lovisa, landed, and made search for Government stores. He found they were in the town, and therefore he spared them, lest in burning the stores he should burn the town—a magnanimous answer to the Hango massacre. Nevertheless, Lovisa was burnt down, not by the British, but by accident. On the 20th, Captain Yelverton, with three frigates and a gunboat, attacked, and in one hour silenced, a six-gun battery at Frederiksham, between Sveaborg and Lovisa. His loss was three men wounded. On the 26th, with three frigates and four mortar vessels, Captain Yelverton made a successful descent upon the island of Kotka, drove out the garrison, and, landing the marines, burnt the Government buildings and immense stores of timber. Thus the whole coast, from Viborg on the east almost up to Sveaborg, had been visited, and the enemy harassed; while Rear-Admiral Baynes, steaming up the channel north of Cronstadt, showed his flag to the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, and from the yards of his ship looked on the Russian capital. The remainder of the fleet, except the flying squadrons and blockaders, was at Nargen, preparing for an attack upon Sveaborg.
SIR COLIN CAMPBELL.
(After the Portrait by Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A.)