With lord Stratford in the Crimean war

IN THE CRIMEAN WAR. 33

shot down when scrambling up that fearful ascent under an overwhelming fire of grape and shell, his name would have been surrounded with the halo of glory which was his lifelong ambition as a soldier. But he was compelled to fall out, saying nothing, for he would naturally hope to overtake his battalion and fall in again. He had to let his men rush on to victory without him, and to lie down on the ground in all the torture of a frightful disease, alone, untended, to die like a dog. How long he lay there alive was never known, but it appeared that he had not been dead many hours when his body was found. What bitter thoughts must have added their torture to that weary agony ! — disappointment that he could not share with his men the dangers of the assault, when the roar of cannon sounded in his ears ; hopeless rage that he Avas lying helpless, yet not even wounded, when their cheers of triumph told him that the day was won ; then a solitary, silent, dreary waiting for a tardy death. Grlorious war has need of all its pomp to cloak the pitifulness of a fate like poor Beckwith's. Another incident at the battle of the Alma excited universal sympathy, but fortunately not of a melan- choly kind. An ofl&cer of the Guards had sold his commission before the war, tired, as so many are, of the monotonous routine of regimental duties in time of peace. When it became known in England that the allied armies were going to embark at Baltshik for

THE FLANK MARCH.

Shortly after the battle of the Alma, Marshal Saint- Arnaud became too ill to command. Himself pos- sessing no elevation of character, no particle of real greatness, he failed to appreciate those rare qualities in others. He thus withheld his assent to Lord Raglan's proposal of attacking Sebastopol from the north. Such a plan of operations was afterwards proved to have been absolutely certain of succeeding. It would have taken the city, with its harbour, con- taining the whole of the Russian Black Sea fleet ; but it would have placed the French army in front, while the alternative movement of a flank march would give the lead to the English army, which occupied the left of the line. There was no want of courage in Marshal Saint-Arnaud, but he did not then feel himself capable of enduring the anxiety and unavoidable fatigue of prominent action. He was ready to follow the guidance of another, in whom he could not help trusting implicitly, and it was no

WITH LORD STRATFORD

ment. He had sent for me, and lie showed me an animated correspondence which he was carrying on with Lord Cowley, our Ambassador in Paris, and with the Foreign Office, relative to the influence produced on the events of the war by the conduct of the French Commanders-in-Chief towards our own. During the two days that I stayed with him, he plied me hard with questions on the subject. Napoleon, it appeared, had published officially, in the Moniteur, a letter which Marshal Saint-Arnaud had written to him about the battle of the Alma, representing it as having been a victory obtained almost exclusively by the French army. Lord Cowley had remonstrated with the French Government in a manner most creditable to him. The Emperor had also gone so far as to insert offensive expressions in a letter of condolence which he had written to Madame Saint- Arnaud on the death of her husband, and this letter had likewise been officially published in the Moniteur. The objectionable words were that ' Marshal Saint- Arnaud had resisted timid counsels.' If any such advice had been offered by French officers to their Commander-in-Chief, it could hardly be sup- posed possible that the Emperor would have censured it in this manner. It was therefore inferred that English counsels had been alluded to. Our Govern- ment had taken up the matter with great warmth. Napoleon had then stated in the Moniteur that he

IN THE CRIMEAN WAR.

' A^ery Avell,' said Lord Stratford, ' the objection to attacking the north forts of Sebastopol immediately after the battle of the Alma may fairly be attributed to Marshal Saint-Arnaud alone, who was then dying.

IN THE CRIMEAN WAR. 33

Five Russians jumped up from the trench and attacked him. His revolver disabled three of them ; but the two remaining shot his horse, and brought him down with a gunshot wound and a bayonet-thrust. Fired by the daring of their popular officer, his battalion charged impetuously and saved his life. The Russian position was taken by storm, and my informant, the captain of artillery, was made prisoner. Hugh Drum- mond was sent to the hospital, and slowly recovered from his wounds. He returned to his duties on the night before the battle of Inkerman, in which he fought with conspicuous bravery, and was killed.

THE TEENCHES.

foot. His soldiers saw Mm fall, and they charged with a shout to recover his body. The Russians ran, unable to withstand the shock, and the English Captain, wounded as was supposed by the enemy's fire, was carried to the rear. His gallant defence of his post was reported to his commanding officer by his Lieutenant, who had taken charge of the company when he fell. Promotion was offered to him, and it was stated in the offer that, the effects of the wound in his foot having incapacitated him from serving otherwise than as a mounted officer, he would be appointed to a vacant majority in another regiment. He wrote a letter of thanks in reply, but he declined to accept promotion on account of a wound accidentally inflicted by his own hand, and concluded by begging leave, to retire from the army, as he could not con- tinue to serve without pronjotion. His elder brother, on hearing this, left his place in Ireland, and went to the Crimea, hoping to dissuade him from insisting on resigning his commission, and wishing to induce Lord Raglan to obtain promotion for him on the sole ground of the services which he had rendered. While the question was pending, his brother's company naturally continued to take its turn of duty in the trenches, and thinking to please the wounded Captain, he volunteered to serve with it as a private soldier. This was just before the battle of Inkerman, and he fought in his plaia clothes and wideawake hat through

IN THE CRIMEAN WAR. 117

vacancy should occur. He seemed to wish rather for an appomtment elsewhere, as he thought this war would come to nothing if the Turks should succeed, unaided, in repelling the Russian invasion, as then seemed likely. General Codrington was present, but said nothing. I^ext mail brought Charles Hay's appointment to the command of the forces in the Mauritius. He went there, did not like the place, resigned, and died shortly after his return to England. General Codrington remained, having probably decided on doing so when he came to the war on the eve of a brevet which must promote him. A brigade in Sir George Brown's Light Division soon became vacant, and he was placed in command of it. At the Alma he distinguished himself by storming the Great Eedoubt in splendid style ; but, for want of timely reinforcements, he could not hold it, and was obUged to retire on the river. The first division, composed of the Guards and Highlanders, had to do the work over again ; but General Codrington's fortune was made by his dash on that occasion, and by his subsequent skill at the battle of Inkerman in the defence of the Victoria Ridge. Before long, he found himself Commander of the Forces in the Crimea. Captain Hedley Vicars, of the 97th Regiment, was one of the most remarkable of those who fell at the trenches. He was leading his men ivith cool intrepidity to repel a night sortie.

INKERMAN.

Dense columns of Russian troops were now advancing on that brigade which held the Victoria Ridge at the battle of Inkerman. The French General, Bosquet, whose division occupied a line between those heights and Balaclava, galloped to the English position, which was threatened, and offered the support of his troops to Generals Sir George Brown and Sir George Cathcart, who had just then reached the right extremity of our lines to form their opinion of the importance of the impending attack. They declined his assistance with thanks, saying that their own forces would suffice to repulse the enemy. They added, however, that their posi- tion might be stronger if its right flank were better covered. General Bosquet then sent General Bourbaki with two French battalions to strengthen that weak