The British Expedition to the Crimea

by Sir William Howard Russell

CHAPTER III.

Four Months of Winter—Situation of my Hut—Warm Clothing—Useful Works—The Electric Telegraph—Crimean Mud again—Spirit Vendors—Drainage—Railway Works—A Sight of the Enemy—Criticisms by Civilians—Omar Pasha's Expedition.

THERE were now four months of winter before us, and the drill-sergeant was busy all day. Every camp resounded to his voice and to the tramp of the awkward squad. Recruits had little time to spend in idleness and drinking, and steps were taken to provide soldiers with the means of reading, which they so much needed and enjoyed in the long winter nights. Why could not Government have been a little more liberal in the matter of candles? The issue of light was one ration to every twelve men—that is, one ration for each tent or sergeant's guard. Now, good Public, do you know what one ration consists of? It is just two-thirds of an ounce of sperm candle, or two ounces of tallow candle—that is, of a bit very like what economic housewives are familiar with under the name of "save-alls." No one need ever say, "Put out the light" in a British camp, for the candle is not lit very long before it dies of its own accord. An officer receives the same ration as is given to twelve men, but he can afford to buy candles, and if he is a field-officer his rations are increased, on the principle, I suppose, that there is more necessity for his keeping wide awake than exists in the case of a subaltern. The libraries were well filled with books, but there was little time to use them by day, and it fell dark before six o'clock; twelve men were not likely to make much progress in a novel, a tract, or an entertaining miscellany by the aid of two-thirds of an ounce of candle. They clubbed their little pieces of candle together, and resorted to many ingenious devices for keeping the lights in. Some of them, like the Russian or Dutch sailors at Spitzbergen, of whose very uncomfortable residence we all have read, used the extra fat of mutton in lamps, but in general they were obliged to purchase what extra candles they required. And all this time there were the canteens alight till an hour or more after "retreat." We had "ball" at Kamiesch, which were distinguished by remarkably good conduct on the part of all present. There were hotels established at Kamiesch, and restaurants, at which excellent fare was to be had at high but not extravagant prices.

THE BALAKLAVA RAILWAY.

My hut commanded a view of a considerable portion of the plateau at the other side of the Tchernaya, and overlooked the spurs at Mackenzie's Farm, the Russian encampments at Inkerman, and between it and the Lower Belbek; from the windows, the movements of the enemy were plainly visible in moderately clear weather. On the 23rd of November we observed the whole of the enemy in motion along the plateau, and from an early hour in the morning till two o'clock in the afternoon their battalions were marching to and fro, but it was evident they were only changing their troops, and that the regiments which left Mackenzie were replaced by regiments from the camp in the rear. The new comers at the spur huts seemed to be dressed better, to be taller men, and to wear darker coats than those who were relieved by them, and that appearance gave rise to the notion that the troops so close to us belonged to the Imperial Guard. Their various camps were rapidly losing the look of snowy neatness of canvas, and were being converted into dingy rows of huts. We could see their telegraphs at work with the greatest facility, and I could make out the flags with my glass. It was a pity one could not have got the Imperial Code Book of Signals and a dictionary.

During November excellent warm clothing was issued to the men, and so uniform was it in style that no one could distinguish officers from men, unless by the difference of style and bearing. Our Allies were astonished at the profuseness of our military wardrobe, which not only contained a waterproof suit, helmet and all, but fur coats and caps, cowhide boots, tweed coats lined with cat or rabbit skin, &c., and for the officers, suits of sealskin, sold at moderate prices. The French only received from their Government an ordinary cloth capote, and were obliged to buy any waterproofs or furs which they found necessary.

The roads indeed, even then, when we had no trenches, no prospects of an attack, no want of labour—the roads were even then objects of much interest to us all. The whistling locomotives on the railway—the "Alliance," the "Victory"—which recalled to us the familiar sounds of Wolverhampton or of Swindon, and made us believe for the moment that we were in a civilized country, were not to be taken as material guarantees for the possession of material comforts in the coming winter. Mr. Beatty, with small means at his command, placed the railway on an excellent basis, as far as wood, iron, and stone could secure it.[34] The soundness of his judgment in laying out the line was confirmed by Mr. Doyne's adoption of a course very nearly parallel to it throughout for the grand main road between Balaklava and the camp. Mr. Beatty was obliged to retire from a post in which he rendered services not only to the army collectively, but to many individuals in it, who will always retain a deep sense of his kindness and friendly assistance in times of domestic difficulty about huts and transports, in consequence of ill-health, which not long after proved fatal to him.

Mr. Doyne, after careful examination, found that it would require much less labour to make a new and good road between Balaklava and Kadikoi by a different route, than to attempt to repair the old one while the traffic was passing over it. Accordingly, a main drain was cut down the centre of the valley, running into the head of Balaklava harbour, to intercept all water flowing from the east of it, and free the road and railway drains rapidly from the rain-water. The road was made parallel to the railway, the material over which it passed being deep, spongy, vegetable soil, easily drained in its natural state, but very retentive if worked up under wet; drains four feet deep were cut at forty feet apart, and the surface between rounded to a foot higher at the centre. Cross-drains were cut at every forty-four yards, connecting main-drains, and the large stone pitching, twenty-eight feet wide, was filled in with smaller stones, and afterwards macadamized. Before laying on the pitching, the whole traffic of the camp was turned over the formed surface for five days to beat it down, and to consolidate it, a strong force of navvies being employed in the morning and evening to keep up the proper form. This course proved perfectly successful—the surface was quite smooth when the metalling was laid on, and consequently the rain ran freely off without penetrating the soil. On this section there was laid down about 13,000 tons of hard limestone pitching and metalling on a length of one mile.

From Kadikoi to the stationary engine the old road up the Vinoy ravine was so steep (1 in 12), and thus liable to be washed away, and the ground over which the down line was prepared to pass was so bad (in some places 1 in 7), that Mr. Doyne determined to abandon both, and to make a new road, round the eastern base of Frenchman's Hill, nearly parallel with the railway, and Sir Richard Airey gave his assent to the change. Here for a considerable distance the road was terraced out in the hill-side, formed of hard carboniferous limestone rock, and a clear metalled roadway was obtained from twenty to twenty-five feet wide throughout. In the next section, to Mrs. Seacole's hut, the old French road was widened, deep drains cut, the centre raised, and a deep coat of limestone metalling laid on.

THE DOYNE ROAD.