[193]. The most remarkable instance perhaps occurred on the 17th October. The second gabion from the neck of the left cheek of an embrasure in No. 2 battery was injured by two shots, and pushed so far from the row as to interfere with the firing. Jenkins tried to remove it, but finding from the strong way in which it had been staked and the earth tamped on it, that more than extra exertion was needed to pull it out, he placed his broad back against the right cheek, and with his leg pressing against the left, hauled with all his might on the gabion. While doing so an 8-inch shot swept through his legs with a velocity so great that the wind of it struck him powerless for a few moments. On went the shot, and smashing one of the wheels of a gun-carriage, threw the gun out of action for the remainder of the day.
[194]. From the second parallel of the left attack ran several boyaux to the third parallel. The angle of the trench where the fourth and fifth zigzags joined, was a very dangerous corner, and many a man in rounding it had been killed or wounded. Early in June when corporal Jenkins was passing with Major Chapman of the 20th regiment, this little “shadow of death,” a few rifle bullets whistled so near their ears that their escape was next to extraordinary. Looking up to ascertain the cause of this reception, the Major said, with a good-humoured smile, “I shall not come here again with you, Jenkins, if you wear that swell band on your cap.” The band was a white one.
[195]. ‘Nav. and Mil. Gaz.,’ September 15, 1855.
[196]. When lying wounded, sergeant-major Jamieson passed him. “Well, sergeant-major,” said he, holding up his shattered hand, “this will ruin Chelsea Hospital!” meaning, in a satirical sense, that the extravagant pension he would receive would throw the hospital into a state of insolvency. He was discharged from the corps with a pension of eightpence a-day.
[197]. Sir Harry Jones, in his report of the 9th September, thus wrote of the corporal’s exploit:—“General Simpson determined to renew the assault at daybreak the following morning, but during the night a corporal of sappers conceiving that the enemy had retired from the Redan, crept forward and ascertained such to be the case; as soon as this information was received, orders were sent to re-occupy the Redan.”
[198]. Distinguished at the battle of Giurgevo for his gallantry. A fine, handsome soldier, he was admired by both officers and men. When work had to be done, he would toil like a slave to accomplish it; and when duty demanded his services he was never absent. His propensity to drink, however, placed it out of the power of his officers to award him promotion. At the Cape of Good Hope, he earned a medal for his services in the Kaffir war of 1846-47, and received another medal and a second-class prize for his conduct and usefulness at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was employed in that duty at the instigation of Major Bent, who generously became surety for his good behaviour. Well did he support the Major’s recommendation; but on his removal from London at the close of the Exhibition, he soon relapsed into his former habits. His bravery in the battle of Giurgevo is already told; and the decoration of the order of the Medjidie, placed on his breast by Omar Pacha—a distinction never before conferred on one of so humble a rank—failed to inspire him with sufficient pride to curb his excesses; and there is reason to fear, that his melancholy fate was brought on by his infatuated indulgence.
[199]. A few cases occurred in which the rank of sergeant was attained by a junior non-commissioned officer within eighteen months. Samuel Cole is an instance. He went to the Crimea a young second corporal, but so conspicuous was his conduct in the trenches, and so sustained his usefulness and gallantry, that besides the grant of pecuniary rewards, a special medal for distinguished service, and the Order of the Legion of Honour, he was promoted successively to the ranks of corporal and sergeant. Of him Colonel Gordon wrote on the 6th December, 1855, that he was one of the “most distinguished in the corps for bravery and had just received a step of rank”—that of sergeant—“for very distinguished service in the field.”
[200]. From a feeling of kindness, as modest as generous in its exercise, Major Ranken of the engineers, who fell soon after, buried under the ruins of the White Barracks in the Karabelnaia, presented Cornet Falkner with a grey pony. In asking his acceptance of it, the Major thus concluded his note: “I feel a pleasure in offering it to you as I am enabled thereby to mark my sense of your good services while attached to the company under my command.”
[201]. General Order, 24th October, 1855.
[202]. General Order, 20th November, 1855.