The losses of the Regiment were very severe. In the 1st Battalion Captain Cartwright, 5 sergeants and 22 rank and file were killed. And Brevet-Major Rooper and Lieutenant Coote Buller[243] were severely wounded, and 5 sergeants and 26 rank and file were wounded. Colour-Sergeant Noseley,[244] who was dangerously wounded, was taken prisoner.
Cartwright was killed late in the day, while sitting under the Barrier, which the men were then lining. He was shot through the eye and also in the chest. Colonel Horsford was also wounded by a shell, which exploded between his legs, and lifted him off the ground; but not being disabled he did not return himself as wounded.
This Battalion also had to lament the loss of its kind friend Sir George Cathcart, under whom it had fought in Kaffraria, and who had from that time manifested great attachment to it.
In the 2nd Battalion Lieutenant Malcolm and 8 rank and file were killed and Captain Newdigate and 27 rank and file wounded.[245]
Of these Rooper died on the 11th on board the steamer ‘Golden Fleece,’ on his passage to Malta.
For some days after the battle of Inkerman the Riflemen were engaged in burying the dead. Their other duties also were very severe. In consequence of four companies of the 2nd Battalion having been moved to Balaklava the 1st Battalion found duty both on the right and left attack. Even when other regiments were in the trenches they furnished a party a hundred yards in front; and wherever there was an alarm or a position to be stormed the green-jackets were in request. During this time and while the duties were so constant, the men suffered much also from scarcity of rations. And even those issued were such as the men could scarcely use. Until the end of December the coffee was served out green; there were no vegetables for a considerable time; the biscuit when the weather was wet, was mouldy; and fuel was scarcely to be procured. Even such supplies as were in Balaklava were but scantily brought up owing to want of transport; and the position of the 1st Battalion being the most distant from that place, rendered their supply more scanty and precarious.
On November 14 occurred the memorable gale. The tents were blown down, and the hospital marquee of the 1st Battalion being torn to pieces the wounded had to be carried to such of the companies’ tents as could be set up. On this occasion an instance occurred of the good feeling which has always existed in the Regiment between the Riflemen and their officers. Coote Buller was lying in his tent suffering from his wound, a broken thigh, at Inkerman. The men of the company held his tent during the gale, and thus, by preventing his exposure to the storm, rain and hail, probably saved his life.
The tents of the four companies of the 2nd Battalion at Balaklava, and everything belonging to them, except what they were standing in, were blown clean away, and were never heard of afterwards. At the same time the four companies of this Battalion on duty in the trenches were not relieved for forty-eight hours. And one man of this Battalion died from exposure to the cold and to the storm.
The Russian riflemen having established themselves in some rifle pits in front of the left attack along some rising ground, annoyed our working parties as well as those of the French on the opposite side of the ravine by their fire. Lord Raglan determined to drive them back and to take possession of the pits. These pits, caverns, or ‘ovens’ as they were called by the men, are formed by the decay of softer portions of the rock between the harder strata, leaving caves in the sides of the hill. The duty of driving the Russians from them was confided to the 1st Battalion; and on November 20 a party consisting of Lieutenant Henry Tryon, in command, with Lieutenants Bourchier[246] and Cuninghame,[247] 4 sergeants and 200 rank and file, was detailed to carry it into execution. It was kept a secret what the service was to be till the party fell in about four o’clock in the afternoon. Then Tryon wheeled them round him and told the men what they were wanted for. He said that he intended to drive the Russians out, and that he was sure that they could do it. And right well they did it. Marching down to the trenches they lay down till dark. They then advanced stealthily, creeping along the broken ground which led first down a slight incline, and then up towards the enemy, who were completely surprised by the attack. Fifty men under Tryon formed the storming column; 50 the supports under Bourchier and 100 the reserve under Cuninghame. Eventually these parties became practically one. They quickly drove the Russian riflemen from their cover, though supported by a heavy column of Russian infantry. The occupants of the pits were evidently surprised. But soon the guns bearing on the pits poured grape and canister on the Riflemen, who had no cover, for the pits were open on the enemy’s side. In the moment of taking possession of the pits the gallant Tryon fell shot in the head; Bourchier, who succeeded to the command of the party, maintained his advantage; and Cuninghame greatly distinguished himself by the energy with which he repulsed an attempt to turn the left flank of the advanced party, and thereby ensured the success of the capture. Repeatedly during that long night did the Russians attempt to retake the pits; sometimes by sending forward strong columns, sometimes by creeping up a few at a time, and when they got near making signals for their companions to come on. But this handful of Riflemen, under the command of these two young officers, bravely withstood them, and held the position until relieved next day by another party of the Battalion. In this affair Lieutenant Tryon and 9 men were killed, and 17 men were wounded. This gallant feat of arms, the first of the kind during that war, and never surpassed, was thus described in the despatch addressed by Lord Raglan to the Duke of Newcastle:
‘Before Sebastopol, November 23, 1854.