This service will bear a little elucidation. At dusk the previous evening, the four sappers went into the trench issuing from the first captured pit, to reconnoitre. Each selected his own place to look out, but Harvey having crawled round the head of the sap on all fours, watched for a few minutes the operations in front. The Russians were busy in the screen, and seeing one more bold than the rest strengthening the parapet, Harvey remarked, as he returned to the trench, it was strange that the sentry, a man of the 88th, did not pick him off. He was a Milesian was the 88th man, and a good deal irate to think that, though he felt sure he could lessen the number in the pit by at least the head which dared now and then to overlook the parapet, he was under orders not to fire: but when he learned from Harvey that the pit was to be captured in the morning, the sentry, forgetting his orders, discharged a bullet at the Russian, and thus brought on a fire which produced a number of casualties. Taking up the arms of a wounded man, Harvey, mounting the parapet with others, blazed away till he was called from the summit by Lieut.-Colonel Tylden to answer for his conduct in bringing an unnecessary fire of musketry on the sap. He had been reported by the officer of the line on duty there as the cause of it; but a few words of explanation made clear the misunderstanding, and Harvey, the first to volunteer for the assault, was so conspicuous in his exertions to raze the screen, that he was subsequently distinguished by a medal for gallant behaviour, and received a gratuity of five pounds. It was well that the firing took place as it did, for to its warmth is no doubt attributable the evacuation of the pit without a hand-to-hand encounter.
It was not long before these pits were incorporated with the besiegers’ works by communications hastily thrown up and revetted despite the accurate firing of the enemy’s riflemen; and they held so prominent a place in the tactics of the engineers, that in an after period they formed the outlet for a sortie upon the celebrated quarries. A flying sap from the screens was early extended to the left as far as the rim of the hill overlooking the Woronzoff road, and again to the right, in line with a row of pits still possessed by the Russians, and which run along the whole extent of the quarries. The cover in the lodgment was almost made impenetrable by the sappers who erected a wall of gabions, sand-bags and stones intermixed, as far as the very edge of the ridge.
On the right attack, No. 13 battery for four guns was finished and armed on the night of the 21st April. It was situated to the left of the second parallel near the Woronzoff ravine. Between eight and ten thousand sand-bags swelled its dimensions into a noble field construction. The men of the corps who gave it form from the engineer’s trace, finished it off with something like artistic neatness. The defences of the battery were improved by the addition of lock traverses across the boyau on its left. This was perhaps the first battery built during the siege entirely of sand-bags; and though well ploughed with shot and shell, it made a fair resistance. Its bags frequently burst, and gaps were often made in its puffed-up features, while the pent-up sand was showered over the battery as if winnowed by the wind. There was no lack of the reliable sand-bag, however, and the damages sustained were always expeditiously repaired.
During the same night the embrasures of No. 9 battery on the left attack were nearly all cut through by the sappers and the openings covered up again with masks before daylight. By the 23rd, at night, the remaining mouths were opened and the cheeks of all were flattened by a few parting plashes of the spade. Grim guns occupied the spaces, and at the proper moment No. 9 co-operated with the other works in shelling the enemy’s defences. In the formation of the battery, corporal Robert Hanson of the 7th company, displayed great zeal and ability in superintending a detachment of the 50th regiment, of whose exertions more than once creditable mention was made.
So well in range was No. 10 battery on the left attack it was hazardous to venture into it. Still it was necessary to furnish it quickly with a magazine. To obtain the chance of executing the work in day-time, a temporary blind of sand-bags was thrown up in front of the site during the night, and the sapper carpenters and miners took their stations behind the screen at dawn. The delving and blasting for a durable foundation were done in broad daylight; then up went the frame, and the sheeting followed, covered for a roof with timbers, sand-bags, and earth; and in a few days, without casualty among the builders, the magazine was completed.
Whatever accidents or failures in arrangements took place with the line contingents by which they were late for the trenches or not provided, the sappers always appeared in the lines and turned to the work with great ardour. As an instance, it may be mentioned, that the trench party of twenty-eight sappers were, on the 22nd April, three hours in the batteries before the morning relief arrived, during which, besides attending to various matters of essential detail, they levelled two crumbling embrasures in the 21-gun battery, and rebuilt them for action with stout revetments in little more than two hours.
Too inexorable was the siege to allow any relaxation in the development of the lines, and every day added to the accumulation of posts and duties which called for the anxious attention and valorous exertions of the engineers. The officers were severely wrought and the casualties among them spoke of their labours and exposure. The sappers likewise were greatly overtasked. Some nights they were in the trenches as long as the darkness lasted, and then only left to repeat their long vigils the ensuing night. Next day, perhaps, they would be permitted to rest for a few hours, when at noon some camp duty, some hutting or draining, the making of fascines, or the execution of a tedious round of et cetera, absorbed the remaining portion of the day. The approaching night or the next, again saw them at work in the far-spreading trenches. For several months this was their constant routine, when, happily, reinforcements arriving, they were, in degree, relieved from an excess of fatigue and watchfulness which, were it not for their hardihood, would have considerably diminished their weak files.
It has been remarked that the sappers exhibited less ingenuity and application of resource in their camp arrangements than many regiments in the Crimea. Much skill was shown by some corps in the use of contrivances and rural expedients for rendering their locations comfortable within, and pleasing and picturesque without. All these devices were strangely absent among the sappers. Oddly enough this seems; but it is easily accounted for by the fact, that the men, more constantly at work than other troops, were too tired to seek for superfluous comforts when ordinary ones satisfied their few wants. Indeed they had no leisure to busy themselves about extraneous conveniences.[[181]]
Overworked as the linesmen were, the regiments possessed facilities for carrying out domestic minutiæ which wore off the rougher asperities of a trying campaign. To most of them washermen were appointed who attended to the concerns of the regimental laundry and ensured to the men the comfort of wearing clean linen. Such was not the good fortune of the sappers. Every man was wanted for some absolutely pressing duty, and it was only when the caprices of chance threw in their way a vagrant interval that they could seek to afford themselves the companionship of a well-washed shirt. From this cause it can occasion no wonder that the men were often foul and distressed by vermin. In this condition there were not a few who would steal at times into some cave to relieve themselves in silence of the loathsome brood. No perseverance, however, was sufficient to free them from the creeping things which swarmed in every seam and around every fretted hole of their threadbare clothes. So extreme was this discomfort felt by many poor fellows, that a general officer of the corps, who took great interest in the feeble and attenuated invalids as they landed at Portsmouth from the Crimea, was constrained officially to represent the pitiable state in which he found them. Comparatively of all the troops they were the most miserable and sympathising with their misfortunes, the general and his benevolent lady generously supplied the sufferers with clean linen and apparel.
Then, again, though sufficient food was afforded them, it was not of that description and variety to give the pioneer adequate strength and cheerfulness to bear up against his depressing toils. Hard biscuit, salt beef and pork formed the staff of the military regimen. Now and then they enjoyed the luxury of tasting fresh meat. None of the sappers at this time could command sufficient relief from front duty to master the mysteries of the cuisine so as to manufacture anything like a relishable meal. This was left as an achievement for after times when the inimitable Soyer superintended the military kitchens. Many hardy men at last broke up; and one hale fellow—the type of many more—in alluding to his trials on account of the rations, observed, “My teeth are the only parts that are failing me!” Hardship was unequal to make an inroad upon that strong man’s frame, but flinty biscuit and tough beef spoiled the efficiency of an apparatus which, under other circumstances, might have stood his need for half a century. He then added, “all the money I can get goes for soft bread to ease my teeth and mitigate the aching of my jaws. The French come round with it almost every day, and we give 2s. 6d. and sometimes 3s. for a three-pound loaf!” Those indeed were hard times and the prices such as would be excessive in a famine.