1856.
CONCLUDING SERVICES IN THE CRIMEA.
Surveys, &c.—Casemates in the Redan and contiguous works—Roads—Injuries sustained by men in their execution—Huts and stables—Wharfs at Balaklava—Company to Cossack Bay—Peace—Bridge across the Tchernaya—Reinforcements to the East—Barrel-floats for the embarkation of the army—Graveyards and monuments—Parting Order by Lord Paulet to tenth company—Final services; Miss Nightingale—Order of leaving the Crimea and Turkey—Reviews at Aldershot; inspections by the Queen—Names of the distinguished men specially paraded before Her Majesty—Wreck of the Clarendon—Last detachment from the East—Statistics since the fall of Sebastopol—Surveys near Erzeroum—Parties detached for employment in the rectification of the Moldavian and Danubian boundaries—Company added to the Cape of Good Hope command—Corporal Mack present at the coronation of the Emperor of Russia at Moscow—A company to Portsmouth—Another to Aldershot—Removal of the museum from Marlborough House to Kensington Gore—A company moved to Devonport—Augmentation—A party embarks for Ceylon—Another for Mitylene—Corporal Pennington wins the “Champion’s Belt” at the foot races on Chatham Lines—Corps incorporated with the royal engineers—Grade of private changed to that of sapper—History of the royal sappers and miners closed.
While the services described in the previous chapters were in progress, others were in hand, which though not so striking, possessed importance either as necessities, precautions or improvements.
A few intelligent men assisted their officers in making observations and surveys of our trenches and the Russian works, and also of the country and coast in the vicinity of the conquered fortress, embracing an area of about twenty square miles.
Other non-commissioned officers and men assisted in taking an inventory of engineer stores which stocked the arsenal of Sebastopol.
The lines covering the fortress were remarkable for the bold expedients adopted by the enemy to shelter the troops required to defend the several works. Rude as they were they were speaking specimens of a nation’s warlike genius. Caves had been hollowed out of the terreplein behind the traverses which ran parallel to the faces of the several formations, and were made bomb-proof by ships’ masts and spars covered by a deep substratum of earth. The descent into them was by narrow flights of stone steps. Lighted by small loop-holed windows, a few inches above the level of the ground, and fitted up with guard-beds, tables, &c., these spacious subterranean chambers gave cover to a large force of defenders who were thus shielded from the chances of hurt even during the raging of a bombardment. As soon as the curiosity with which these structures had been viewed had passed, Captain Schaw of the engineers having under him a number of sappers and miners, set to work to destroy them. Holes were augured into the beams and ribs—hard almost as rock—and when loaded with gunpowder, were blown to pieces. The wood thus broken up was stacked by the line; and in the cold winter, when the means of obtaining fuel was precarious, the supply from the demolished Redan and contiguous ruins was found nearly equal to the demand.
For road-making a large force of sappers was daily detailed. Enormous working parties from the line were also employed. The great trunk communication from Balaklava to Cathcart’s Hill was improved and partly formed from the port to the windmill by the Army Works Corps, and from the Forks on the plateau to the hill by the sappers and line. The stone for it was obtained by mining from two quarries, one on either side of the ravine. To make a solid foundation, the ground for the latter portion was picked up by the line, and when properly formed was covered by Macadamized stone. Its length from the Forks was about two miles, and its width thirty-five feet, including the side channels hollowed out by blasting for carrying off the surface water. It was a thorough serviceable road, and ages will roll over before this instance of British industry will be effaced from those physical characteristics by which the allied occupation of that war-trodden country has been marked. From this great road radiated others, somewhat narrower, from the commissariat stores on the plateau to the several divisions. The ninth company at Kamara with the Highland division repaired the old Baidar road, and made a new piece, nearly half a mile long, running through the Sardinian encampment, which connected the Baidar and Woronzoff roads. Stretches of thoroughfare were also constructed through the cantonment. Each regiment at Kamara furnished working parties for the duties; and all the roads, except that confined to the exertions of the Army Works Corps, were superintended by the sappers as overseers, the engineer officers being the directors.
The sappers injured in forming or mending the roads were privates Alexander Allan and Charles H. Cronk. Both were blown up, receiving severe wounds in the face. Private Samuel Williams at head-quarters had his back broken by a bank of earth falling on him, and died in consequence.
Hutting was another of their employments, and building stables or sheds for horses and mules. The companies with the divisions provided parties for these services. The form of the stabling varied according to circumstances and situation. Some of them—those of the first division for example—were as long as sixty yards by sixteen feet in the clear, with a passage up the centre marked by lines of poles supporting the roof. The sides and ends were made of the staves of barrels, which being bent and open assisted ventilation. Close boarding would have made the places insufferably hot. The roofs were of rough scantling; the planks overlapped and were spiked to rafters. Louvre boards run along the ridge the entire length of each gable. A little more attention and skill were paid to the internal fitments of the officers’ stables; and stalls, troughs and mangers were added.
For several months corporal Stacey superintended the erection of the wharf works at Balaklava, and was removed, when but little was required to be completed, on the 28th February 1856. The wharfage built round the harbour exceeded 500 yards and was appropriated for the use of the several departments, each bearing its own name. There was the “Commissariat wharf,” which had a run of nearly 300 yards; the “Ordnance wharf” had less ambitious dimensions; the “Quarter-Master-General wharf” occupied a length of shore for 150 yards, while the “Engineer wharf” and the “Cattle wharf” were amply provided with spaces. Strong piles from forty to fifty feet in height supported the flooring composed of timbers three inches thick. Vessels to receive their freight came broadside to the wharfs which had been built well into the sea for the purpose. These wooden quays were rapidly and substantially built, everything being put out of hand to serve the wear and tear of years, and was as creditable to the skill of the artificers as if they had been produced in times less trying and exciting. The whole range of wharfs was chiefly built by the 89th and 82nd regiments with casual assistance from other corps and a few sappers. On being relieved from the duty, corporal Stacey was commended for his “excellent conduct and steady perseverance” in constructing the wharf works “in a most satisfactory manner.”