Recollections of a Military Life

by Sir John Adye

Fourth Conference, August 14. The French state that their batteries on the Mamelon and Careening Bay are ready to open. Proposed, therefore, that we open on the 17th all round, and then push forward our approaches.

In the meantime, and before the final preparations for the assault of Sebastopol were quite complete, the Russians determined to make one more effort to raise the siege by an attack on the position of the allies on the Chernaya. It was a desperate movement on their part. In the first place, the Fedhukine heights were held by 18,000 French troops with 48 guns, and the Sardinians on the hills to their right near Tchergoum were 9,000 strong with 36 guns, and in rear were 10,000 Turks in reserve. The heights themselves, which were well adapted for defence, had been strengthened by entrenchments, and the river Chernaya, as well as a narrow canal, acted as wet ditches along the front, and rendered an assault very difficult. It so happened also that a few days before the battle the allied generals had received information through spies of the intentions of the enemy, and were therefore fully prepared.

On August 12 I was sent to Balaclava to call upon General La Marmora, who wished that some English guns should be placed at his disposal, and by his invitation rode with him to the heights occupied by the Sardinian army, and received his directions as to the position to be taken up by the battery in the event of an assault. At daylight on August 16 the Russians advanced with great courage to the attack. General Pélissier, in his General Order to the French army on the following day, estimated the forces of the Russians as being 60,000 strong, with a numerous artillery and considerable masses of cavalry. Notwithstanding all the obstacles, the enemy succeeded in temporarily capturing the tête-du-pont, and in advancing for a considerable distance up the heights; but, after five hours' fighting, were ultimately driven back and defeated all along the line, losing more than 6,000 men, some of whom were drowned, and leaving 2,200 wounded and prisoners behind. General Pélissier specially alluded to the good service rendered by the English heavy battery, which took part in the action in co-operation with the Sardinians. C troop Horse Artillery was also present towards the close of the battle.

On the following day the allies commenced another bombardment, and in three days alone threw 10,000 shells from mortars into the doomed city, independently of the fire from the heavy guns. The batteries of the Malakoff and Redan were reduced to ruins and were almost silent. The end was approaching. The English artillery at this time, having been largely reinforced, were about 7,000 strong, and, in addition to 200 pieces of ordnance in the trenches, they had 92 guns horsed and ready for the field. Under cover of this great bombardment, work in the trenches was actively carried on, and the French approached close to the counter scarps of the Malakoff. Their losses, however, were reckoned at 100 daily. In view of the crisis which was at hand, the Russians, towards the end of August, constructed a bridge of rafts across the harbour; an evident symptom of a possible withdrawal of the garrison and surrender of the city.

At the beginning of September a final meeting of the French and English officers of artillery and engineers took place, and a careful memorandum was then drawn up for the consideration of the Commanders-in-Chief. After recapitulating the general condition of the trenches, and pointing out that the French were within twenty-five yards of the place, they recommended that the whole of the batteries should re-open at once and maintain a vigorous fire for three days, and that the assault should then be given without delay; the Malakoff to be first attacked and captured, and then the Great and Little Redans, and the works near the Bastion du Mât, so as to divide the Russian forces as much as possible.[43]

The end had come at last. On September 5 the bombardment re-commenced, and the Russians were speedily driven to seek refuge in their numerous underground shelters, in the midst of crumbling ruins and dismantled batteries. On the morning of the 8th the troops of the allies marched quietly down to their allotted positions; and at noon, all being ready, General Mac Mahon led his division straight to the Malakoff, and in a few minutes entered it and hoisted the tricolor. This was the preconcerted signal, and then the other columns also rushed to the assault. On the extreme right, the French in great force attacked the Little Redan and works near the harbour, but, after a prolonged struggle and heavy losses, failed to maintain their ground. The English troops, composed of parts of the Light and Second Divisions and accompanied by a ladder and spiking party, advanced on the salient of the Great Redan, entered the work, and held it for some time. The interior of the work, however, was swept by the fire of artillery and infantry in rear, and they were ultimately forced back with great loss. At the same time, far away on the left, the Bastions Centrale and Du Mât were stormed by French columns, but also without success—in fact, the three subordinate assaults on the city all failed.

Mac Mahon, however, having once gained possession of the redoubt surrounding the old Malakoff tower, held it in spite of the furious efforts of the Russians for hours to drive him out. As one cause of the failure of the subsidiary attacks, it is as well to point out that they were all open works, swept by batteries and interior entrenchments; whilst, on the other hand, the ground round the Malakoff had been converted by the Russians into a closed redoubt which, whilst it may, at the outset, have added to the difficulties of its capture, still, when once taken, gave the French under Mac Mahon the advantage of comparative shelter.

The losses on all sides were very severe, and were as follows:

French	7,567
English	2,271
Russians	12,913
	———
	22,751