How Stanley to the fore
The citadel rush’d to guard,
With that old Albuera cry
Fifty-seventh! Die hard!
Yet saw not how his lads clear the crest,
And, each one confronting five,
The stubborn squadrons rive,
And backward, downward, drive,—
—Death-call’d to rest!
—O proud and sad for thee!
And proud and sad for those
Who on that stern foreign field
Not seeking, found repose,
As for England dear their life they gladly shed!
Yet in death bethought them where,
Not on these hillsides bare,
But within sweet English air
Their own home-dead
In a green and sure repose
Beside God’s house are laid:—
Then faced the charging foes
Unmoved, unhelp’d, unafraid:—
For they knew that God would rate each shatter’d limb
Death-torn for England’s sake,
And in Christ’s own mercy take
On the day when souls shall wake,
Their souls to Him!
The battle of Inkermann was mainly fought on a ridge of rock which projects from the south-eastern angle of Sebastapol: the English centre of operations being the ill-fortified line named the ‘Home Ridge.’ The numbers engaged in field-operations, roughly speaking, were 4,000 English against 40,000 Russians.
The curtain-mist; The battle began about 6 a.m. under heavy mist and drizzling rain, which lasted for several hours. Through this curtain the Russian forces coming down from the hill were seen only when near enough to darken the mist by their masses.
Egerton; He commanded four companies of the 77th, and charged early in the battle with brilliant success;—his men, about 250, scattering 1500 Russians.
The gallant chief; General Soimonoff, killed just after Egerton’s charge.
With that old Albuera cry; Prominent in the defence of the English main base of operations, the Home Ridge, against a weighty Russian advance, was Captain Stanley, commanding the 57th. This regiment, it was said, at the battle of Albuera had been encouraged by its colonel
with the words, ‘Fifty-seventh, die hard’:—and Stanley, having less than 400 against 2000, thought the time had come to remind his ‘Die-hards’ of their traditional gallantry;—after which he himself at once fell mortally wounded.