Next day the trenches were visited by Major-General Jones in company with Generals Niel and Bizot of the French engineers. It was then determined to open a new approach on the right of the advanced mortar-battery in the third parallel to run into the middle ravine, and there connect with the French parallel from the Inkermann attack. In the following night the work was commenced with a force of 28 superintending sappers, some of whom were early dismissed from day duty to keep their energies intact for the new work. The line furnished two reliefs of 285 and 211 men, for each of which the duration of work was about five and a half hours, but for the sappers eleven. As if by the touch of a magician’s wand, though the night was excessively dark, 444 gabions were lodged along the outstretched arm of the parallel. The sappers led the way, leaving the line to seek the cover; and in this also the former afforded active assistance when they had completed the deposition of the gabions. In some parts the cover was very inadequate, owing to the rocky nature of the ground, and the work was somewhat interrupted by an alarm which drove the working parties to their arms. With all this obstruction the progress was surprising, and corporal Alexander Ramsay of the corps—a man of cultivated ideas and daring demeanour—was particularly useful during the night in leading and instructing the men. Two other corporals—William Wilson and Kester Knight—displayed so much “zeal and capacity” in the operations that, noticed by Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden, they were promoted to be sergeants, and a like advancement would have been conferred on corporal Ramsay, but he early fell an example of bravery and devotion.
Before commencing the work, Majors Gordon and Tylden went out to trace it, taking with them lance-corporal Evans[[172]] and private William Harvey, as also a man of the 34th as a sentry. Having gone as far as they intended, the Majors went away alone to reconnoitre, leaving the men lying on the alert at the end of the tape. In a few minutes the officers returned, and all went forward some distance to a semi-circular rifle-screen built of loose stones about six feet high. This was to be destroyed with all possible haste and the utmost quietness. Pushing into the screen, the sappers disintegrated the stones and handed them to the officers outside, who laid them gently on the ground. Not one was permitted to drop. So went on the demolition till about three feet of the wall had been taken down, when, some Russians having crept up to occupy the screen, and finding from the grating of the stones, which they could distinctly hear, that strangers were present, fired a volley and killed the sentry, who was shot in three places. At the instant, the unarmed sappers vaulted over the masonry, but Harvey having leaped against Major Tylden, both rolled into a stony hollow which had been broken by quarrying. Beyond a bruise or two they felt no inconvenience from the fall. Quickly regaining their feet, they bounded swiftly onwards with Major Gordon and the corporal, and returned to the trenches followed by a stream of fire which miraculously missed them. Of Harvey the official record runs thus:—“He has done good service on different occasions, particularly in assisting to trace works near the enemy’s sentries.”
In the succeeding night the ground was further opened for 200 yards, but a sortie obstructed the operation; and on the return of the Russians they coolly bore away with them, as trophies of their boldness, between forty and fifty unwieldy gabions to embody in their own defences. On the 13th the enemy’s fire on the extended parallel was so annoying the linesmen were withdrawn, leaving two brigades of sappers to continue the work, but they, too, were eventually recalled to save them from unnecessary danger. Night after night the work on this long lean arm of the parallel was pushed forward, and as much accomplished in daylight as the Russian fire permitted. Much blasting was required to deepen and widen the trench, and on several occasions none but sappers could be allotted for the work. Once, when so disposed—the sappers being concealed behind a bend of the revetment—some Russian riflemen stole up in daylight to the head of the trench and rolled from the trace several baskets, which they bore away as far as they were able. Nothing could have been more tantalizing than this audacious proceeding, but there was no help for it, as the sappers were unarmed. Gabions being scarce, cover was obtained by building strong stone rubble walls. With entire success and without material loss, though close to the enemy’s riflemen and exposed to shot, shells, and grape, the Anglo-French parallels were connected on the 17th March.
A few days prior to the union of the international trenches, Captain Craigie of the Engineers was killed. He was returning with his sappers from the 21-gun battery, and had reached the middle ravine, when a shell from the Malakoff burst in the air, and a splinter striking him in the back he fell dead. He was preceded by his bugler—Armstrong—and followed by corporals Kester Knight and John Rowley. When the shell burst, the two non-commissioned officers, seeing the splinter coming, moved on either side, and it passed between their heads, fatally alighting on the Captain. His party carried his body to the camp, and he was mourned by the men as an officer whose kindness had been shown to them in a thousand inobtrusive ways. Just before he dropped he had been conversing with his non-commissioned officers on the best mode of avoiding an exploded shell, but a bursting missile defies all theory and experience, and makes the escape of life depend not on the adroitness of poor humanity, but the will of Providence. The fourth company, which the captain had commanded for several years, and over whose interests he had watched as a friend and father, erected a small monumental cross to his memory at the spot where his remains were interred.[[173]]
Private Henry Masters was wounded on the 14th.
Sir John Burgoyne, who held a consultative appointment, and shared in degree with Lord Raglan the responsibility of the siege, was, though an aged General, ever present to direct the various works, and on resigning his connection with the army, he issued the following parting address to the corps:—
“Head-quarters before Sebastopol,
“21st March, 1855.
“The Inspector-General of Fortifications cannot quit this army without expressing his strong testimony to the exemplary manner in which the officers of royal engineers, and non-commissioned officers and privates of royal sappers and miners have performed, under his own eye, their arduous duties before Sebastopol.
“The I. G. F. is not aware of any siege which has been carried on under more trying and difficult circumstances, and he has had great pleasure in repeatedly pointing out to the Commander-in-Chief how gallantly and creditably every operation by the engineer department has been conducted.