History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, Volume 2 (of 2) / From the Formation of the Corps in March 1712 to the date when its designation was changed to that of Royal Engineers

by T. W. J. Connolly

Major Bent, to lead the storming party and supports.

Lieutenant C. G. Gordon, to control the working party with two brigades of sappers.

Obedient to the signal, about half-past three o’clock in the morning the right column debouched from the quarries, the skirmishers opening out in good order and advancing steadily on the Redan. The spaces between the files exposed the sappers to a heavy fire, but they pressed forward led by Lieutenant Fisher, preserving their narrow rank compactly. Bravely moved the rest of the column headed by Lieutenant Graves, but the weight borne by the ladder parties did not admit of a dashing approach; the more so, as the seamen and rifles had to cross with their burdens, two old Russian trenches before they could lay hold of the skirts of the wool-bag[wool-bag] party. Lieutenant Fisher, nevertheless, strode on at a confident pace, not too hurried, his sappers at his side, under a shower of grape and musketry; and on gaining the abattis, halted to receive the strength of the ladder party, as well as the stormers and supports. Standing longer inactive than he expected, swept by grape from the Redan, Lieutenant Fisher’s party threw themselves down to await the moment when the column could rush forward, unclogged, to the assault. Interrupted by ditches, the riflemen and sailors bearing the ladders could only scramble forward. At every step they were smitten by unerring volleys and with them fell the ladders. All this time Lieutenant Fisher maintained his post with invincible command. To stand against a storm of fire with a bared breast was not an easy virtue, yet his men wavered not. Looking back with some anxiety to watch through the dim grey light the progress of the seamen and rifles, he could not see a single ladder. Minutes past and no help reached him; his men were falling fast and his straits increasing. Emboldened by the apparent hesitation which had held back the column, the enemy sprang upon their parapets and fired upon the little force which had the temerity to reach the barricade. Crouched as the men were under the boughs of the abattis and doubled up in shell-holes, they were somewhat saved from its fierceness, but every moment augmented the chances of their not returning. Cool and lion-hearted, the young engineer was everywhere among his parties commending their bravery and endurance; and sergeant Landrey, nobly assisting his officer, encouraged by his conspicuous example and his cheers the dislocated files of the forlorn hope. Still the ladders were unseen; the stormers were yet in rear, and, at length, as no means for scaling the ramparts were with the advance and its numbers were reduced to a handful, Lieutenant Fisher, seeing no officer present senior to himself, reluctantly, but wisely, retreated with his men to the trenches.

A beautiful instance of valiant humanity occurred in the retreat. Seeing a wounded officer lying near the abattis with a shattered leg, Lieutenant Fisher, assisted by a sailor, carried him some distance. Already fatigued by his exertions at the storming, he was soon exhausted, and private Jesse Head, pushing out from a piece of broken ground in which he had sheltered himself, took charge of the helpless grenadier and bore him into the trenches. So grateful was the officer for the devotion shown to him, that he offered the gold watch he wore to private Head, who, with the generous feeling of a chivalric soldier, refused the gift. The officer was shot through the leg below the knee. He was a very tall fine-looking man, belonging to a grenadier company of, it is believed, the 33rd or 34th regiment.

Meanwhile, the left column, under the command of Sir John Campbell, moved out of the trenches to attack the right flank of the Redan. The skirmishers went boldly forward followed by Lieutenant Murray of the engineers, leading the sappers and carpenters with destroying tools and powder-bags. All edged well to the left taking a sort of cart-track winding along the broken crest of the Woronzoff ravine. Close upon them were the ladders under Lieutenant Graham, who had in his party two able leaders, corporal Paul and private Perie. The sappers with this column belonged to the left attack and were less acquainted with the characteristics of the ground than those on the right. “Who of the sappers here know anything of the ground?” asked Lieutenant Graham. “I do, sir,” cried Perie, with an impatience that evidenced his desire for selection, “I know every inch of it;” and he was accordingly appointed to head the sailors with the ladders. The hindmost spur of the hill was reached when tremendous peals of musketry and grape from the Redan, flanks, and creek batteries, made the skirmishers falter. Here they halted, lying down for a few minutes to spring onwards when the fire should lessen. Lieutenant Murray early fell severely wounded. Though agonising with pain he declined, after sergeant Coppin and private Mole had bound up his shattered arm, to be borne away by his men, and so alone and unaided he walked in a sinking state to the trench and soon after expired. His place was instantly supplied by Lieutenant Graham. Tall, commanding, and collected, vigourous in purpose and brave in danger, he took the direction of the contingents. It was now that Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden rushed to the front to impart by his presence, spirit and confidence to the skirmishers. Barely had he approved of Lieutenant Graham storming the salient instead of the flank of the Redan than a grape-shot passed through his thighs and took from the crisis an engineer, whose valour and exploits blazon history. The truly generous neglect their own safety in the humane wish to administer relief to those who suffer. Lieutenant Graham first on the spot, raised him from the ground; and sergeant Coppin with private Ewen of the eighth company, both of whom more than once had proved their devotion to their officers, carried the colonel to a sheltered spot under a ledge of rock at the side of the Woronzoff ravine and there laid him down. Faint as he was from the loss of blood he would not retain the sergeant; and so dismissing him to his party, Ewen remained to soothe the colonel by his attentions, and later in the day to assist four or five sappers in bearing him from the nook to the camp.

Seeing no chance of an opportunity to make the flank, the skirmishers rose from the holes into which they had crushed themselves and retreated to the advanced trenches in the quarries. Some time was spent in filling up the blanks in the ladder men, who, as soon as the bearers were paired, were impatient to proceed. Corporal Paul was now strictly enjoined by Major Bent not to permit the ladder men to move a step forward unless orders were given for renewing the assault. It was difficult to fetter the impetuosity of eager men; but corporal Paul, an imperturbable sapper, displayed so much cool discipline himself, that gross indications of rashness were immediately restrained the moment his measured voice was heard among them. Once indeed for the exactness with which he carried out his orders, he was likely to have been bayoneted by a brave but inconsiderate comrade. Paul was not the man to flinch from any attack, or to repel one by a force as irrational as that which threatened him; and so simply lifting his finger, as if that were sufficient to ward off the thrust, the exasperated man, sobered by the corporal’s composure, averted the weapon and both, at the proper moment, went on with the ladders.

In the same order as before, the stormers again advanced—this time to scale the salient of the Redan. When the ladders had passed to the front of the advanced trench, the skirmishers had moved so much to the left, that the sappers and escalading parties were much exposed. Lieutenant Graham now halted the sailors and riflemen to allow the skirmishers to rectify their position, and shelter in degree the sappers, woolsack men and escalading parties; but the firing on them continued so terrific, the skirmishers, valiant as they were, could not effect the movement; and the whole, by order, after standing for ten minutes bared to a ceaseless cannonade, were withdrawn into the advanced trench. Hopeless as it was to push on with so small a front, the struggle nevertheless could not be abandoned save on the gravest grounds; and arrangements were again made by Lord West, who commanded the storming-party, to essay the assault. Yet a third time the skirmishers re-formed with a front increased by a detachment of the 57th regiment led out by one of its captains, who soon fell. The sappers, too, were drawn up with their axes, grapnels, and powder-bags, so also were the woolpack men, and the seamen and riflemen with the ladders. Steadily and firmly they advanced met by a crashing and annihilating fire. Every step onwards was retarded by shocks which made the stormers desperate. A few more bounds were attempted, succeeded by another halt that showed the enterprise was impossible; and swept back by a continuous roll of musketry and shells no troops could withstand, the daring men who thrice threw themselves before the enemy, reeled back into the trenches defeated.

But few of the stormers succeeded in reaching the abattis. Of the sappers, there were at least four or five who gained it, or nearly so. Coppin and private Mole, belonging to the party with destroying tools, made the barricade to the left, while corporal Paul and Perie went directly to the front. All bent themselves behind knots of rock, or dropping into shell-holes or hollows, fired away with all the coolness of riflemen, such ammunition as they could collect from the pouches of the killed and wounded. When it was evident the day was lost, sergeant Coppin, directed by Lieutenant Graham, ran to the front to command the skirmishers to retire. His mien was that of a calm man and a fearless soldier. He first communicated the orders to the officer in command of the rifles, and then to the sergeant of the 57th, as the captain who had led them to the front was killed. Coppin was thus one of the last men to return to the trenches. Paul and Perie were afterwards awarded distinctions, which but a minimum of their comrades attained. Besides a gratuity of ten pounds and a medal for distinguished service, Paul was promoted to the rank of sergeant and received the Legion of Honour; while Perie, an unlettered man but a first-class sapper and leader, was decorated with the military war-medal of France “for valour and discipline.” Coppin, though it was not his good fortune to obtain a badge to show his merit, was, by the voice of his comrades, as brave and ready a sapper as ever toiled in the trenches.

Among the sappers with the right column there were five casualties:—

Private Thomas McNeil ” Joseph Barnes	}	killed.
Lance-corporal Joseph Maycock, wounded in the head Private Samuel Spear, wounded in the left knee			}	Both were struck by rifle-balls, and died of their wounds.
” Edward Pearson, wounded in the hand.