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

This strategic episode opened up new advantages which were instantly turned to account by the besiegers. Strong parties were sent into the cemetery grounds to extend the lodgment as far as the vineyard wall. A communication was likewise opened to it, in part, from the fourth parallel. Near the vineyard, however, the Russians burnt down some houses, which enabled them to see into the position and worry the workmen. In the night of the 19th, corporal Lockwood had with him a party deputed to a portion of the duty. From the left of No. 7 battery, which overhung the ravine in rear of the caves, he marched along the side of the hill, and, diving into the valley, entered the cemetery through a door-way in the stone boundary wall. His men threw up a parapet from the wall to some rifle-pits; another party under corporal William Donald, continued the trench from the pits, which afterwards became the left portion of the fifth parallel; and a third party under corporal George H. Collins, worked from the fourth parallel down the hill to meet the trench opened by corporal Donald. These three parties were superintended by sergeant Coppin. The firing on the cemetery and the new trenches was fierce and constant; grape and shells fell in incessant showers; and in corporal Lockwood’s party alone, no less than fourteen men were killed and wounded before day-break. In the face of so much hostile activity, with sheets of flames from the burning village lighting up the work, it was not an easy matter to labour, but yet the sappers and linesmen persevered for a time in placing and filling no less than eighty gabions. At last the working party, among whom so many casualties had occurred, decamped, leaving their tools behind them, which were carried away by the sappers, who returned twice to the deadly trenches to complete the removal of the stores and the muskets of the killed and wounded.

For a few nights the work continued under circumstances of great peril. Flights of bullets were levelled at the workmen from musketeers, who, having crept up among the smouldering houses in the vineyard, and sheltered themselves in unseen positions, calculated too truly—from their previous occupation of the place and their foresight—where the besiegers would be appointed to toil. In the night of the 21st it was hardly possible, except at a prodigal loss, to employ more than twenty men and three choice sappers in the lodgment. Covered by a party from the 4th foot under the command of Captain Dowbiggen, who had judiciously posted his guard to make the most of any sudden attack, the workmen repaired the breaches in the trench, and filled as many gabions as it was found practicable to stake. The linesmen and sappers were directed by Lieutenant C. G. Gordon of the engineers. A body of Russians advanced with a cheer towards the cemetery from the vineyard and threatened by their strength to annihilate the little party; but their fire having been returned with more warmth by the guard than was anticipated, the Russians, doubtlessly possessing a delusive notion that the cemetery was held by a powerful force, retired without personally contesting an occupation which would have ended to their credit. That the gallant bearing of the party had deceived the enemy is almost proved by the fury with which it was plied. During the whole night four mortars played on them from the garden batteries; and frequent shots and grape raked them from the Creek and Barrack batteries causing among the steadfast sentries and the industrious sappers and workmen about twenty-two casualties.

It behoved the engineers to proceed with caution in so fatal a spot, and if they could not readily adapt the cemetery to their own purpose, to make it inoperative to the enemy. At the time, the sacrifice of life in working it was more than the advantage of its retention; and it was, therefore, determined to destroy the position and evacuate it. Quietly and quickly were the entrances from the Russian works into the pits filled up, and other depredations committed to nullify communication with the cemetery and little Mamelon behind. In the night of the 22nd, in order to extend the demolition, five sappers under Lieutenant Neville of the engineers, crept into the rifle redoubt above the cemetery with destroying implements. It was a covered loop-holed ambuscade made up of old doors and window-shutters. No time was lost, for the duty was one of imminent risk. Mounting the work, the sappers threw down about thirty-five feet of the splinter proofing, and, hurling it into the ditch, concealed it from observation by a covering of earth. So hard and zealously did the sappers work under a heavy fire of grape and shells, that their names were recorded for the notice of Lord Raglan. Second-corporal George Henry Collins, and privates David Muir, William Goddard, John Ford, and William Eddy, were the men engaged in this intrepid demolition.

The operation was repeated the next night by four sappers under second-corporal Trimble, who worked for four hours filling up the old Russian trenches, while a rattling musketry, intermingled with crashing projectiles, scarcely checked the vigour of their exertions. Though not wholly destroyed, the ambuscade was abandoned, marked only by one trifling wound among the men and the breaking of a shovel helve in the hand of the industrious man who was using it. When the night of the 25th had well advanced, Captain Belson, unaware that the screen had been relinquished, told off a working party to augment the ruins; but finding it unoccupied by a guard, he distributed his men to the general trenches, and went on with corporal Stredwick and a few cool sappers to complete what human energy had not time as yet to accomplish. There was no cover, except what the few standing grave-stones offered, and even this was questionable from the many sharp-edged fragments which, chipped from the slabs at every stroke of shot or shell, fell among the party. A heavy fusillade from sharpshooters in the screens made the situation of the sappers very critical. They worked, nevertheless, with a manliness that gave a noble aspect to labour; parapets were thrown down, ditches filled in, and timbers dislocated; but at length, as a sortie was apprehended—of which there were unmistakeable indications, for the enemy was seen moving up in broken bodies to the little Mamelon—the sappers were withdrawn by Captain Belson from the enclosure without even a scar to tell of their endurance and danger. It was a lucky escape, for a few minutes after, the Russians were in the pit.

A new battery—No. 18—for six heavy guns was reared under many difficulties, to rake the middle ravine and throw its metal into the Redan and the Malakoff. It was built on the swell of a trench a little in advance of a group of zig-zags and lateral excavations issuing from the second parallel of the right attack. The work was commenced on the 23rd June, and does not appear to have been wholly completed till the 7th July. Strong parties worked in it at each relief, and when finished, its revetments, standing up in the most solid and approved forms, resisted with some tenacity the crashing cannonade brought to bear upon it.

In the advance trench on the right of the quarries, the sappers, for three or four nights, had to watch with more than usual solicitude in making way against the perils which threatened them. It was good work to place as few as twenty-six gabions in this exposed situation, for the moon shining brightly in the heavens discovered to the enemy the true character of the progress effected; and being within about 300 yards of the Russian batteries, it needed that the men entrusted with the operation should be as collected and brave, as resolute and dexterous. As the moon rose with its meek but tell-tale face, the four sappers were obliged to quit the head of the sap and retire where the cover was thick, to protect them from the projectiles, which frequently overturned the baskets; but when the luminary was dimmed by a passing cloud, which made the gabionade appear indistinct, the sappers rushed forward, reset the overturned gabions, and staked as many more as the duration of the obscurity permitted. In this way was completed a line of initial revetment extending to about 45 feet. No pickaxe could be used or blasting resorted to in the vicinity of the sap. The gabions were, therefore, filled by fits and starts with earth gathered at a distance, brought to the work by thirty linesmen.

On a subsequent night the sky was almost cloudless, and the moon gleamed with so much clearness, that the danger of working the sap was as great as if conducted at noon-day. There were four sappers in the advance and fifty of a working party. When only a gauzy cloud moved between them and the moon, the former, bounding as from a lair, leaped a-head with the gabions and employed the transient intervals in giving them a place. Their exertions were carried on in paroxysms, and a night’s vigilance and ardour only counted the lodgment of nine gabions! So fearful was the risk of achieving even this trivial progress, that none but sappers could be confidently allotted to it. The line was, nevertheless, beneficially tasked in strengthening the cover of less exposed works.

Activity was the order of the trenches. Proud instalments of progress in every direction showed how well the men toiled, and how expeditiously they converted the enemy’s formations into terrible constructions for the future siege. On the right, the quarries, far in advance, were turned into formidable defences. They were strong by nature but vastly improved by art. The high gabions and flour barrels which faced the enemy’s revetments, were made to serve similar purposes in the besiegers’ works. Those quarries became the park for the front, in which was erected the engineer hut—scarcely bullet-proof—from whence orders were dispersed with cool despatch by the officers charged with the execution of the several works. From thence issued the fourth parallel—partly a Russian entrenchment—which cut up the hill and extended as far as the middle ravine; while approaches shot out daringly in front from the left of the old ambuscade in hazardous contiguity to the Russian lines and pits. Against the incessant firing of clear-sighted sharpshooters it was difficult to stand and persevere; yet on went the sap, sneaking stealthily forward like a huge snake, till branching off on either hand, it stretched its length in another parallel in front of the Redan. Three boyaux, cut on the crest of the hill in advance of the quarries, led to the fifth parallel; which, pushed along by energetic men, joined an abandoned Russian trench that breasted the left flank of the Redan, and run along ridge and glen to the famed Mamelon. Old magazines evincing signs of decay were revived, new ones constructed, and traverses, platforms, and the unending appurtenances of a gigantic siege, were made, repaired, or reformed. Instances of instability in the batteries had occurred, which caused the embrasures, &c., to be rebuilt by experienced hands. The 21-gun battery had past its day as a depôt. It was no longer the heart of the system, communicating life by its supplies to the arteries of the hills. Stupendous as it was, it lost everything but vitality, and the importance it had once acquired was now possessed by the quarries.

The weather had settled with intolerable heat, and a blazing sun beaming in a sky of unbroken blue, bronzed the lean faces of the workmen, and, sweating their spare frames, affected the stamina of all. A thunderstorm interposing, cooled the air and moistened the rock. It was an auspicious visitation, for it lessened the oppression and parching to which the workmen were subjected. The rain fell in torrents, and gushing down the ravines in floods, tumbled over balls, fragments of shells, and clods like so many cascades. Young trenches were inundated and older ones in some places covered with water ankle deep. Fears were entertained for the stability of the works and the efficiency of the drains, but when the tempest had ceased, so little was the damage done to the batteries that the necessary repairs were executed in a few hours. The water channels, on the contrary, were much impaired and became one of the chief difficulties in conducting the siege. At this period the number of the corps available for trench duty was 351 only. The sick present were 110 and those at Scutari, &c., were 51. The force detached to different places to carry out the multifarious services for which sappers were constantly demanded was 160. The total strength in the Crimea and in Turkey, as these details show, was 672 of all ranks.

On the left attack the Mamelon Vert above the Cemetery having been taken by the French, the post in the graveyard which had been abandoned was reoccupied in the night of the 27th by a British picquet to protect the right of the allies. The works in it were speedily turned and traverses constructed to ward off the firing from the Flagstaff batteries; while the enemy, confined within the main line of his defences, scarcely dared pit a rifleman beyond the chain. A brigade of sappers followed by a working party descended the side of the ravine warily pushing on gabion after gabion, and then trenching along its bottom and driving through rocks and unsheltered ground, at length reached a wall through which a breach being quickly made, on went the trench in the direction of a lone house in the valley, and in time was extended by blasting to the cemetery.