Private Walter Conning—slightly, in the hip.
” Samuel Dines—slightly, in the head, by a rifle ball, while entering an embrasure of the 21-gun battery.
” Alexander Hosie—severely, in the throat, by splinter of a shell, while in the 21-gun battery.
” Peter Slade—severely, in the head, in No. 9 battery, left attack.
“Notwithstanding,” wrote Lord Raglan, under date the 9th June, “the frequency of the endeavours of the Russians to regain possession of the quarries, and the interruptions to the work to which these attacks gave rise, Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden was enabled to effect the lodgment, and to establish the communication with the advanced parallel; and this redounds greatly to his credit and that of the officers and men employed as the working party; and I cannot omit this opportunity to express my approbation of the conduct of the sappers throughout the operations.”
With remarkable skill the quarries had been entrenched by the Russians and novel schemes adopted to render them successful against an assault. About twenty yards in front of the works there were hidden dangers intended to throw advancing columns into hopeless confusion. It was well that the troops had no knowledge of their presence or they might have shrunk from an attack which yielded them such important advantages. Entering the quarries by the flanks, they were preserved from calamities that awaited them had they made the attack direct. Cubical boxes, filled with gunpowder, were buried in the ground with glass tubes attached to them containing an explosive composition. Delicately adjusted, though roughly constructed, these infernal machines only required the tread of hasty feet to produce combustion and blow up the stormers. Luckily, no accident occurred during the attack; and although forty or more of the boxes had subsequently been extracted from the soil, only two or three, bursting by pressure, occasioned any accident.
1855.
8th June-18th June.
SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.
Repairs to the works—Death of corporal Fraser—Conduct of private Orr—Improviséd church—Perseverance in the quarries—Segmental trench in front of them—Successful exertions of the miners—Yenikale—Cape St. Paul—Detail of sappers furnished for the trenches—Completion of defences in the lodgment—Casualties in a party mending a trench bridge—State of the works—Platforms—What is an embrasure?—Destruction of one—Its repair—Casualties—A tolerated grumbler—Generous conduct of corporal Lockwood—Fourth bombardment; preparations for assault—Vigorous conduct of sergeant Anderson in repairing the electric wires—And of corporal Borbidge in renewing a platform for a sea-service mortar—First storming of the Redan—Chivalric behaviour of private Head—Casualties—Conduct of the sappers in the assault—Volunteer services of sergeant Drew and corporal Jenkins—They rescue some of the wounded—So also does private Ramsay—Brigadier-General Eyre’s column in the cemetery grounds—Valiant behaviour of corporal Baker—General casualties—Death of Lord Raglan.
No time was lost in making the most of the position won by the gallantry of the besiegers; but on the 8th June, owing to the exhausted state of the troops from the labours of the previous night, no working party could be provided for the right attack. Fifty-two sappers, however, took their places as usual in the lines, repairing embrasures, improving the cover of the quarries, and deepening the communications to them. To preserve their energies, they were employed in four reliefs of four hours each throughout the day. Very heavy was the firing from the Russian batteries during the first relief, occasioning many casualties among the guard of the trenches and harassing though not interrupting the workmen. On the left there were 150 linesmen and 38 sappers scattered over the trenches, restoring demolished embrasures and parapets, and re-roofing magazines torn up by shells.
While thus employed in No. 10 battery situated on a central projection of the second parallel, second-corporal James Fraser—a fearless young non-commissioned officer—was killed. Fraser was working in an embrasure—a mere crag, so complete was its disruption—patching up the left cheek with sandbags, while corporal McEachern was reconstructing the right one. The firing on the battery was very fierce, but the two corporals, stript to their trousers and shirts, toiled away with dauntless perseverance. “Never mind the rascals,” said Fraser, with an encouraging smile, “we’ll finish it in spite of them.” Such was his determination; but a few moments after, he was blown from the embrasure by a round shot, which carried away his right arm and the whole of his breast and ribs, exposing his quivering heart. McEachern heard the shot pass and felt the heat which its velocity imparted; and on turning round to see how his comrade had fared, he saw him doubled up on a pile of projectiles and the gunners and workmen gathering up his remains. McEachern had seen too many such catastrophes to slacken his energies, and so resuming the work as if nothing had happened he left it only when the cheeks were finished.