Leaving the struggle in Asia in the position above noticed, it is necessary to turn once more to Turkey in Europe.
When the conquering Turks drove the flying Russians before them through the Principalities, the Austrians marched in and took possession of the quarters abandoned by the fugitives. Interposing between the victors and the vanquished, the Austrians rendered valuable services to the Russians, and, perhaps, preserved their army from total destruction. Without the knowledge of the Western allies, Austria concluded a convention with the Porte for the occupation of the Provinces. There were many circumstances to prove that the French government was privy to this design, and a special policy on the part of France began to develop itself. Whatever the motives of that policy, it had, for its effect, a concert with the Austrians in exercising a domination over the Roman Provinces far more intolerable than that from which Turkish valour had delivered them. The oppressed Romans sought and obtained the sympathy of the English; but both Austria and France were jealous of that sympathy, and dreaded the dissemination of English constitutional opinions. Austria, ever the foe of freedom, barred out, as it were, English intercourse and views, in virtue of the power she obtained by her convention of occupation with the sultan. The policy of Austria was also vacillating and indeterminate. At one time she would appear ready to join the fortunes of the allies, and immediately after direct her endeavours to secure the Russian frontier from the assault of the allied armies. It was generally believed that Russia was more vulnerable from the confines of Podolia, and by a campaign carried into Poland, than elsewhere. Austria dreaded the appearance of French and English uniforms in too close proximity to Russian Poland; nor was Prussia less timid of that phenomenon; for both were apprehensive of a general rising of Poland against her tripartite oppressors. At one time Austria was said to be willing to join in the war and march across the Russian frontier in the rear of an allied invasion, provided England and France backed the movement by a certain amount of force. As the Western nations could not, or would not, march an amount of troops in that direction, such as Austria deemed necessary in consequence of the vulnerability of her own frontier line, she declined the peril, and satisfied herself with holding the Dacian Provinces in the name of the sultan; but, for her own purposes, Austria had designs upon Moldavia and Wallachia, and when the war was brought to a termination, could with difficulty be persuaded to withdraw her troops from them, and did not retire until public opinion, in England and France, was expressed in terms of resentment and menace. Such was, in brief, the history of the success of Turkey upon her own European frontier, and of the quality of the help afforded by Austria to Turkey and the allies during the war.
Another sphere of action now demands attention. The allied fleets entered the Bosphorus immediately upon the slaughter of Sinope. Still, as war was not declared, they confined their action to keeping the Russian ships of war blockaded in their own harbours. One Russian vessel, the Vladimir, gallantly broke the blockade; scoured the Black Sea; and, in spite of the allied cruisers, inflicted severe injury upon Turkish shipping all around the coasts of the Black Sea to the very entrance of the Bosphorus, escaping back to Sebastopol with impunity. Throughout the war, the enterprising and daring captain of the Vladimir performed feats worthy of the reputation of any navy in the world. It became necessary for the allies to send a flag of truce to Odessa, the bearers were treacherously fired upon. This exasperated the allies, and Odessa was bombarded. The admirals endeavoured to spare the commercial portions of the place, it being a free port; the destruction of the defences was, in consequence, only partially effected, while much damage was nevertheless inflicted upon the city itself. After the bombardment, the Muscovites, with great activity, repaired and strengthened the defences, so that the bombardment was little more than an empty demonstration of power. It displayed, however, the skill of the allied squadrons; for one of the most scientific and beautiful naval operations of the war was accomplished. The ships fired while in motion; circling round the place; delivering their broadsides as they passed; and, by their rapidity of movement, gave little chance to the batteries on shore to inflict any damage.
The British and French navies held possession of the Black Sea, incurring little loss. The destruction of the British frigate Tiger was, however, an incident which caused much regret in England. In certain operations in shallow water near Odessa, the ship went aground, and was captured. The Russians, vindictively and cowardly, continued to fire upon it while any living object was seen upon its decks. Few acts were ever perpetrated, by even the most barbarous enemy, more at variance with the laws of war, and the instincts of honour, gallantry, and generosity. The allied armies continued most uselessly to linger on the shores of the Bosphorus and at Varna, until the season proper for military operations had passed away. Never was an expedition more unprofitable. The Turks were allowed to battle against the whole power of Russia upon the Danube without the slightest help, while two large armies were within forty miles of them. In England, suspicions of treachery were entertained. Some believed that the Aberdeen government was unwilling to weaken the power of Russia; others believed that France and Austria had covert designs, and were unwilling to prosecute the war. It was not until the middle of September that the allies acted in concert. In the meantime, Russia fomented disturbances in the Greek provinces of Turkey, and invited the Greeks of independent Greece to invade the sultan’s territory. The troops of the padishaw suppressed revolt with sanguinary effect, and drove the Greek sympathizers across the borders. The allied fleets landed detachments of troops in Greece, and compelled neutrality.
At last the period arrived for the decisive movement of the allied armies, and it was resolved to invade the territory of Russia, and destroy her great naval and military arsenals on the Black Sea. For this purpose the troops were embarked at Varna and other places, and escorted by the fleets to the Crimea. A landing was effected at Old Fort without opposition. The allies began their march towards Sebastopol, skirmishing as they proceeded. Eupatoria, a port and city in the Crimea, was also seized by the allies, and put in a state of defence on the land side, so as to be held by a garrison against any army likely to be sent to recover it.
The armies, arriving at the river Alma, found the heights which commanded its passage occupied by the enemy in great force. A battle ensued; the first of the war in which the British and French were engaged together. The allies were successful. The Russians were completely defeated; and had the French consented to pursue them, it is possible that the Russian army might have been cut off. The British distinguished themselves greatly at the battle of the Alma. The second division, under the chivalrous Sir De Lacy Evans, bore the brunt of the combat on the British lines. His division was ably assisted by Sir Richard England, who was left in support, and without orders from his chief. He, with his guns, hastened to the aid of Sir De Lacy Evans, and distinguished himself by his courage, promptitude, and presence of mind. The Duke of Cambridge commanded the first division, with Sir Colin Campbell as his senior brigadier. His royal highness displayed in this, his maiden battle, the skill and courage for which all who had served under him had given him credit, and which he was destined to evince still more signally on the bloody slopes of Inkerman.
The allies, in consequence of the want of carriage and other appliances of a campaign, lingered for days on the site of their victory before they resumed their march against the great citadel. On arriving at the north side, it was deemed by the allied commanders desirable and feasible to effect a flank march to the south side. Curiously, at the same juncture, the Russian army, under Prince Menschikoff, attempted another flank march from the south to the north. The wings of the hostile armies came into collision; many Russians were slain or made prisoners. Neither army had any idea of the strategy of the other, and both were surprised at the partial rencontre. Arriving at the south side, Balaklava was made the basis of the allied operations: the British occupying the right, and facing, of course, the left defence. The Honourable General Cathcart advised an immediate assault upon the place, which was very indifferently defended in that direction; but General Burgoyne, the chief officer of British engineers, and the commanderin-chief, were alike opposed to it. General Evans, and other officers of high authority, were against the plan of General Cathcart as rash. Those officers still retain the opinions which then influenced the decision arrived at. It was determined to besiege the place, and conquer it by regular approaches. The Russians, who were so dispirited that it is questionable whether they would have resisted an immediate assault with any vigour, took heart and threw up defences. A young officer of engineers, named Todtleben, conceived the idea of vast erections of earthworks, and the Russians were set to defend the place with pick and mattock more strenuously than by artillery or musketry. The result was a protracted defence. The Russians plied the spade and shovel with astonishing vigour and perseverance, and Todtleben proved himself equal in genius to the exigency. The Russians were reinforced; confidence took the place of despair, and the city was defended with desperate hardihood and energy. Besides the garrison, there was a Russian army in the field upon the Tchernaya, and the heights by which it was commanded. Such was the state of affairs, with occasional skirmishing and gunnery, up to the 26th of October, when the too celebrated battle of Balaklava was fought, and the British generals incurred the imputation of folly, such as seldom has been laid to the account of military chiefs, and the British army gained a reputation for chivalrous valour which will live when even the stupidity which made the occasion of its display is forgotten. It would be impossible, within the limits of this work, to give the details of such a battle. There were redoubts thrown up in the plain beyond the heights of Balaklava, which were garrisoned by Turks. The worst possible generalship was displayed by the British commander-in-chief in occupying these redoubts with small bodies of troops far from any support. The Russians attacked and conquered the redoubts; Sir Colin Campbell, at the head of a body of infantry, took up a position in the plain. The Earl of Lucan and the British cavalry advanced beyond that position. The Russians occupied a gorge between two hills, flanked with field-pieces, a line of horse artillery in front, and guns of position placed Upon the heights so as to rake the ground upon which an attacking force must approach. To draw the British to attack them in this strong position, was the strategy of the Russian general. He succeeded. The cavalry were ordered to charge; the order was conveyed from Lord Baglan to Lord Lucan by Captain Nolan. The lieutenant-general has been censured for obeying the command; but he had no discretion allowed him; it was in writing—it was distinct—and the officer who delivered it, coming directly from Lord Baglan, must have known what the latter really intended. It has been universally believed that Captain Nolan used insulting language to the Earl of Lucan, taunting him with cowardice. This is untrue; the author of this history can declare so upon the authority of the noble lord himself. Captain Nolan did point to the enemy and the captured guns borne by them from the Turkish redoubts, and directed the general’s attention to the duty of their recapture. The Earl of Lucan had no alternative but to obey, more especially as the cavalry had been much criticised by anonymous writers from the camp. The Earl of Lucan ordered the light brigade of his division to charge, and advanced the heavy brigade to its support as far as it could be brought for such a purpose. Some of the regiments of the heavy brigade advanced so far as to be under the fire of the enemy’s guns. The light brigade was commanded by the Earl of Cardigan, who led it into action in the most gallant style. Whoever has read Tennyson’s poem, “The Six Hundred,” will have perused the most graphic and striking description of the exciting scene which followed. The brigade moved on, losing the gallant Nolan before it had reached the charge; he was the first who fell. It is commonly supposed that he led the charge. This is not so; he rode at a little distance from the line when the shot took effect, which deprived the army of one of its ablest and bravest cavalry officers. In this terrible charge, the charge of six hundred men against an army in position, with its flanks defended by strong batteries on elevated positions, there was no flinching. The gallant leader has told the author of this work that various officers shouted, brandished their swords, and were excited; that if any effort were required on the part of the commander, it was to keep the men cool and the lines regular as they galloped forward to the terrific encounter. The charge was made, how gallantly the whole world admits. The wonder is that any escaped. Probably, hardly any would, had not Colonel Sewell, at the head of the Royal Irish Hussars, thought of the peril of the Russian cavalry wheeling from the flanks and blocking up the way of return. He immediately turned his rear and found this danger in actual existence. He charged the Russian cavalry, and, with the aid of a handful of French horsemen, kept open the way for the return of those who had dashed,
“With fetlock deep in blood,”
their fiery steeds through the lines of the enemy. The leader and a portion of his gallant band escaped. It has been said of the Earl of Cardigan that “he was the first in and the first out.” This is simply not true. He entered the Russian lines at the head of his men, and when his brigade was broken in pieces upon the guns and lines of the enemy, he, as a fragment of the shattered mass, like other fragments, turned to re-form and act as duty then might dictate. He rode slowly from the Russian lines under the fire of the enemy, and joined the rest of the survivors, who received him with cheers. The Earl of Lucan, with the heavy brigade, rendered the retreat of the light brigade possible. The Russian cavalry swept down in masses, approaching the British infantry, by whose fire they were deterred from charging. They approached the cavalry camp; General Scarlett was ordered, with a portion of the heavy brigade, to charge them. It was a gallant and glorious deed. Lord Raglan, who witnessed it from the heights, declared, in his despatch, that he had rarely seen such a splendid charge of cavalry, and that it was so made as never for a moment to leave success in doubt. The Russians retired to their positions and kept there, but the redoubts were held by them. Had Lord Raglan advanced his infantry, an action of a more general and scientific character would have ensued, and an opportunity might have been made available for inflicting a defeat upon the enemy which would have relieved Balaklava of his vicinity. Such was the opinion of various officers of authority, and Sir De Lacy Evans, who had as good opportunities as any general to form a judgment upon the occasion, and was as competent as any officer in Europe to do so, expressed, in conversation with the author of this History, the same opinion.
The men and horses of the British army were now suffering severely from the climate, and from various privations, which the bad commissariat arrangements, and the want of energy and capacity on the part of the commanderin-chief, entailed upon them. November opened gloomily in every way upon the besiegers. Its first event of importance was the battle of the Little Inkerman, as it was called among the soldiers. The Russians attempted a surprise upon the dangerous and exposed post of the second division, which was fortunately commanded by Sir De Lacy Evans. The result was the most scientifically-fought battle of the war. General Evans, not hampered by the interference of a commander-in-chief, whose only title to command him was that conferred by his social rank and favour with the ministry, had full scope for his own superior powers. The Russians were repulsed with great slaughter and with little loss to their victors. The French offered assistance tardily, but their aid was declined—good generalship won the battle. The men of the second division knew how to obey the commands of a general whom they trusted, and to follow a leader himself the bravest of the brave.