War Medals and Their History

by William Augustus Steward

The Alma.—The Russians had taken up a position commanding the road to Sebastopol, with a front of two miles, mainly on the range of hills varying in height from 120 ft. to 200 ft. on the left bank of the River Alma, and on the morning of September 20th the allies prepared to attack them. The French and Turks began the battle, Marshal St. Arnaud attacking the left of the Russian position, and the centre with the aid of one British division, and Lord Raglan the right. The French General Bosquet made a brilliant advance, and drove the enemy from some high ground, but the French centre did not support him, and he was isolated; Raglan therefore decided to order the second and light divisions to advance, and this they did under a murderous cannonade. "Opposed to the English were at least two-thirds of the Russians," but the young and untried soldiers of Britain once again demonstrated the splendid fighting material of which they were made. Through the entangling vineyards and into the rapid waters of the Alma they steadily marched; emerging, they were ordered "to fix bayonets, get up the bank, and advance to the attack." They quickly climbed the steep and rugged hill-sides, but received a check, and then some one calling "Cease fire and retire," they became somewhat confused; they soon rallied, and the light division stormed into the great redoubt with its 14 guns of heavy calibre, carried the Kourgane hill, defended by 17,000 men with two redoubts and 14 guns, and then, with their depleted and broken ranks swelled by the Guards and the Highlanders, the Black Watch to the fore, who had pressed into the fight and up the Kourgane hill, charged the heights and at the point of the bayonet drove the Russians off in confusion. Thus the battle of the Alma was won, not by the brilliant tactics of the officers, but by the courage and tenacity of the men, and so by 6 o'clock in the evening Marshal St. Arnaud's tent was pitched on the spot where Mentschikoff had his headquarters in the morning. After the battle, a staff officer relates, Lord Raglan's eyes filled with tears when he shook hands with Sir Colin Campbell, and "he could not speak when the brave old veteran said to him, pointing to the dead Highlanders, 'Sir, it was they who did it,' and then the cheer went up when he asked to wear a bonnet! With its horrors, war has its romance." The same officer, writing a little later, said, "Glory when looked at close, and while it is being earned, is rather an ugly thing." The heroes of the Crimea certainly learned that.

The late Major-General (then Colour-Sergeant) Luke O'Connor, gained his Victoria Cross in this battle. Ensign Anstruther of the Royal Welsh had with boyish impetuosity gallantly rushed forward and, outpacing all, proudly planted the Queen's colour on the parapet of the Redoubt; riddled with Russian bullets he fell, but O'Connor, taking the colour from his dying grasp again planted them on the Redoubt, and, although wounded in the breast, carried them through the rest of the fight. Captain (afterwards Major-General) Bell, C.B., also won his V.C. at the heights of Alma for his daring conduct on that day, when, all the senior officers of the regiment being placed hors de combat, he found himself in command, and successfully brought the 23rd out of action. The gallant Welsh Fusiliers, who were the first to land in the Crimea, lost their colonel and 8 officers, and the Light Division, of which they formed part, lost 47 officers and 850 men. The Division was composed of the 7th, 19th, 23rd, 33rd, 77th, and 88th. The total British losses were 2,000, and those of the French 3 officers, including Generals Canrobert and Thomas wounded and 560 men. The Russians had 5,000 placed hors de combat, including 45 officers, among whom were Generals Karganoff and Shokanoff.

The regiments present at the Alma were the Grenadier, Coldstream, and Scots Guards; 1st, 4th, 7th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, 28th, 30th, 33rd, 38th, 41st, 42nd, 44th; two companies of the 46th; 47th, 49th, 50th, 55th, 63rd, 68th, 77th, 79th, 88th, 93rd, 95th Foot; 4th and 13th Light Dragoons; 8th and 11th Hussars and 17th Lancers. The cavalry were never called into action. Lord Raglan had said he preferred to keep his "cavalry in a band-box."

Siege of Sebastopol.—On September 23rd, 1854, the army began its slow and "most remarkable flank march in military history." Balaklava was ultimately reached, "the result of blind accident rather than knowledge of how war should be conducted," and the armies of Britain and France settled down on the Chersonese upland, and the siege of Sebastopol commenced. From September 28th, 1854, it ran its long course until September 11th, 1855, when the Russians, who had fought so well under Todleben, retired and the allies entered it unopposed. This long and complex siege cannot here be dealt with in detail. How the unfortunate troops fared in the trenches has passed into the history of this country as a blot upon the administration which allowed brave men to die like flies; "between November 1854 and February 1855 there were 9,000 deaths in hospital, and by the end of February there were no less than 13,600 officers and men in hospital," and no wonder when men, emaciated by disease and tried by the severe weather, "carrying great-coat and blanket, marched through a sea of mud to the trenches," where they remained in a cramped position all night until day broke, and, after a few hours' rest, "often in a puddle, which chilled their bones under a worn-out tent through which the rain beat"; they who had the heart of a lion were compelled to do asses' work. The hospitals were frequently merely bell tents, and "the men lay, often in mud, on the ground, and in many cases their diet was only meat and biscuit. They were, moreover, so crowded together that the doctors could scarcely pass between the patients." The heroic Florence Nightingale, as every one knows, with her band of nurses helped to lighten the burden of pain and suffering which the men endured, but the lasting disgrace which attaches to the callous administrators of the period is only accentuated when we consider the dire necessity for her action.

Capture of the Mamelon.—Sebastopol was bombarded, with the co-operation of the fleet, on October 17th, and the Russians made their first sortie on the 26th; in March 1855 they made another, and on April 9th the place was ineffectively bombarded; but on June 6th a bombardment was followed by an assault, and the Mamelon, an outwork of the Malakoff, was taken. Then the allies essayed the capture of the Malakoff and the Redan, the French to take the former and the British the latter; but despite the strenuous efforts of the men, the forts remained in the possession of the enemy. In these abortive attempts on June 17th and 18th the French lost 3,500 men, and the British 1,500; and of the six British and French Generals and Commanders who led the attacks on the 18th, 4 were killed and 1 wounded. The Royal Irish lost 259 officers and men by death and wounds in the attack on the Redan, and Captain Thomas Esmond of that regiment gained the V.C. and Sergeant John Grant the Meritorious Service medal. The Russians lost 4,500 officers and men killed and wounded. The siege was, following these repulses, resumed in the ordinary way, and the stubborn Russians, who were losing 250 men each day, began to realise that their magnificent courage could not stand much longer against the determination of the allies; and at the end of August, when the brave garrison was being depleted by the loss of over 900 each day, they determined upon the evacuation of the fortress they had held so well. So they built a bridge across the outer harbour, and made preparations to cover their retreat.

Capture of the Malakoff.—Then the allies again determined to reduce the fortress, and bombarded it for practically three days and nights, at the end of which, on September 8th, the French again assailed the Malakoff, and carried and held it against the enemy, but the British failed to capture the Redan. The British losses were 2,271 officers and men placed hors de combat, including three generals wounded, and the French 7,567, including 5 generals killed and 4 wounded. The Russian losses were 12,915, including 9 generals. During the night the Russians exploded their mines, and Prince Gortschakoff successfully took his garrison, with most of the wounded, across the bridge, which they destroyed, and took up a position on the heights to the north of Sebastopol, from whence they cannonaded the fortress which the allies had occupied. The war was thus virtually at an end, although hostilities continued until February 1856, and the treaty of peace was not signed in Paris until March 29th.

(Obverse.)
MEDAL FOR INDIAN MUTINY, 1857-8.

(Reverse.)
MEDAL FOR NEW ZEALAND WARS, 1861-6.