CHAPTER V.

Move from the Katcha--The Belbek--The Flank March--What might have been done--A surprise--Skirmish with the Russians--Plunder--Balaklava--Mr. Upton made Prisoner--Sebastopol--Its Fortifications--Preparations for the Siege--The Cherson Light-house--Death of Marshal St. Arnaud--French and English Positions.

On the 23rd, it was discovered that the enemy had sunk a line of vessels across the harbour in deep water, so as to form a submarine barrier against us. The ships thus sunk were the _Tre Sviatitel (Three Bishops)_, three-decker; _Sufail_, _Urail_, two-deckers; the frigates _Varna_ and _Med_, and the old two-decker _Bachmont_. This resolute and sagacious measure was advised by Korniloff, and adopted by Menschikoff.

The head-quarters did not move from the Katcha till nearly noon on the 24th. The day was very hot, and the troops, standing under arms, or lying down under the sun while this long delay took place, were very much dissatisfied. The French received between 7,000 and 8,000 men, who landed on the night of the 23rd and the morning of the 24th, at the mouth of the Katcha. The Scots Greys, landed from the _Himalaya_, and the 57th Regiment, which had been all but disembarked at the mouth of the Alma, came round to the Katcha and joined the army.

The country towards the Belbek is hilly and barren for a couple of miles after leaving the Katcha river. Then it becomes somewhat fresher and more level, and at length the river is approached by a gentle descent of meadow and greensward from the hills. The distance between the Katcha and the Belbek is about six miles. The valley of the Belbek is commanded by high hills on the left bank, but instead of being bare, like the summits of the hills over the Katcha and the Alma, they are covered with trees and brushwood.

[Sidenote: A DISORDERLY MARCH.]

As it had been ascertained by _reconnaissance_ that the enemy had batteries along the north-west of the harbour of Sebastopol, in conjunction with the Star Fort and Fort Constantine, which would cause loss in an attempt to invest the town on that face, it occurred to Sir John Burgoyne that a flank movement on Balaklava would turn and neutralize the batteries, secure a new base of operations (of which, we were in want, having abandoned that of the Katcha), and distract the enemy, who would find the weakest part of Sebastopol exposed to the fire of our batteries, and our attacks directed against a point where they had least reason to expect it, and which they might have imagined free from all assault. The whole army marched towards the south-east, on the Black River, and as they were obliged to pass through a thickly-wooded country, intersected by narrow lanes winding up and down the hills, the troops were in some disorder, and had the enemy possessed the smallest enterprise they might have inflicted severe loss and annoyance by a spirited attack on our flank. This operation they at one time contemplated, but they dreaded the result of a second defeat.

At times, from the top of the hills, the town, with its white houses shining in the sun, could plainly be seen. All the afternoon the steamers effected a diversion by shelling the Star Fort and Fort Constantine, but at such a long range they could do but little execution; however, the fire had the effect of engaging the attention of the Russians. They did not make the smallest attempt to interrupt our progress. In the course of our march the baggage was sent too far to the left, and became involved in the line of the French and Turkish troops, who were marching on our flanks. Lord Raglan and his staff rode on (as was their wont) in advance, and reconnoitred Sebastopol. They were close to the north-east fort; but no shot was fired at them, notwithstanding that they were within range.

The works which commanded the mouth of the Belbek were inconsiderable, and could easily have been silenced by the fleet. An eyewitness, who served in the Russian army, states that all the troops, as they arrived in at the south side on the 20th and 21st, crossed to the south-west, except the Taioutine regiment. Such a movement would make it appear that the Russians expected a descent upon the south side, or were prepared to hold that side against the north, in case the Allies seized upon the Sievernaya and the northern forts. The only preparation made for the defence of the Sievernaya on the 22nd was as follows:--The Taioutine regiment, four battalions; the four depôt battalions of the 13th Division, and one battalion of sailors, in all about 6,000 men, were placed to garrison the work, which was in a very bad state and badly armed. They received orders to retire by a subterranean passage 4,000 feet long to the sea-side, in case the enemy should attack with vigour. On the 23rd, finding they were not pressed or pursued, the Russians pushed twelve battalions, two field batteries, and a regiment of cavalry, to the Belbek, and at one time seemed to have contemplated a demonstration against our flank. This, however, they abandoned; and on the 24th they turned their attention to the defence of the bridge across the Tchernaya, at Inkerman, on which they brought to bear four field and four siege guns, and the troops which had been on the Belbek, and the 16th Division, the cavalry part of the 14th Division, &c., moved across the Tchernaya by the Traktir bridge, and ascended to Mackenzie's farm, whence on the morning of the 25th they descended to Otoukoi, on the Belbek, and marched to Bakschiserai to await the course of events, being joined there by Prince Gortschakoff, with the rest of the Russian army of the Alma. The troops left in Sebastopol, exclusive of the equipages of the fleet, were four battalions of the reserve of the 13th Division, which had suffered severely at the Alma, four depôt battalions of the 13th Division, and third battalion of the Taioutine regiment, in all nine weak battalions.

All the Russian officers with whom I have conversed--all the testimony I have heard or read, coincide on these two points--first, that if on the 25th we had moved to Bakschiserai in pursuit of the Russians, we should have found their army in a state of the most complete demoralisation, and might have forced the great majority of them to surrender as prisoners of war in a sort of _cul de sac_, from which but few could have escaped. Secondly, that had we advanced directly against Sebastopol, the town would have surrendered after some slight show of resistance to save the honour of the officers. The deduction from these propositions is that the flank march was the certain precursor of a long siege, of bloody battles and great losses; was an evidence of diffidence, and at the same time of boldness which, though favoured by fortune in its execution, was scarcely justifiable in a military sense, and was an abandonment of the original character of the expedition.

And here I may be permitted to remark, that the statement in the letters (of a Staff-officer) "from Head-quarters," page 224, to the effect that Lord Lyons could not have disapproved of the flank march because he was not present when Sir John Burgoyne proposed it, and that his manner, when he received Lord Raglan at Balaklava, "proved he highly admired" that movement, is calculated to lead to very erroneous impressions in the minds of those who attach any weight to the assertions of that officer. Lord Lyons, when he heard of the flank march, expressed his disapproval of it, and when he met Lord Raglan, he (as I heard from his own lips) told his lordship that he conceived the flank march to be a departure from the spirit in which the expedition was undertaken, and said, "This is strategy, but we are in no condition for strategical operation. We came here for a coup-de-main, but this is strategy!" The effects of that march are now matters beyond argument, and we can only weigh probable results against events--a very difficult equation. Whatever may be the opinions of civilians or military men respecting the flank march, it is certain that to Sir John Burgoyne belongs the credit of originating the idea at the conference which took place between the generals on the Belbek.

[Sidenote: A DANGEROUS EXAMPLE.]

On the day of our march from the Katcha I was struck down by fever, fell from my pony into the stream where he was drinking, and was placed by one of the staff surgeons in a jolting araba carrying a part of the baggage of the Light Division, with poor Hughes of the 23rd Regiment, one of the finest men in the British army, who died in the course of the winter. The sun was exceedingly powerful, and when from the top of a wooded hill we saw the delicious valley of the Belbek studded with little snow-white cottages, with stately villas, with cosy snug-looking hamlets buried in trees, and fringed with a continuous line of the most gloriously green vineyards, and the noblest orchards of fruit-trees, there was a murmur of delight throughout the army, the men, precipitating themselves down the steep slopes of the hill-sides, soon swarmed in every garden, and clustered in destructive swarms around every bush. Their halt was, however, a short one.

The word was given to push over the stream, and its bright waters were soon denied by the tramp of many feet. Just as the araba in which I lay was passing by a beautiful little chateau, said to belong to a Russian general, I saw a stream of soldiers issue from it, laden with incongruous, but at the same time the richest, spoils; others were engaged inside, breaking the glasses, throwing mirrors, pictures, and furniture out of the open frames. I learned from an officer who was standing by that the soldiers had not done the smallest mischief till they saw a staff-officer take a bronze statuette out of the house and ride away with it, whereupon the cry arose, "Let us plunder too if our officer sets the example." I could not help thinking what would have been the fate of that officer if he had served under our great Duke.

At the other side of the valley of the Belbek the hill-sides are exceedingly steep, and were covered with dwarf wood and undergrowth of bushes. It was with difficulty the waggons were urged up the rugged and narrow paths. Lord Raglan occupied one of the plundered villas, near the only bridge the Russians had left across the stream. There was very great confusion in getting the men into their places on this wooded and steep ridge of hills intersected with ravines, and it was long after sunset ere the men finally settled down at their bivouac fires. They had not eaten their scrambling and very heterogeneous suppers, and laid down to rest more than a few hours, when (about 1.30 in the morning) the report of a gun on the hills towards our right woke up the allied armies. The bugles at once sounded, the men stood to their arms, but all was silent. It appeared that the French vedettes saw some Cossacks in their front, and fell back on a picket who were bivouacing by a large fire, when the enemy opened upon them at a long range, either from some of the earthworks of the north side or from field-pieces. The shot whizzed high over head, and one of them passed over the English head-quarters, but as the vedettes reported all quiet in front soon afterwards, the troops piled arms and lay down to sleep again. Cholera was much on the increase, and many fell sick or died during the night.

On Monday morning, the 25th, our troops were under arms at 5.30 A.M.; at seven Lord Raglan, Sir John Burgoyne, and other staff officers proceeded to the French head-quarters, to decide on the course to be pursued in the forthcoming attack on Sebastopol. Marshal St. Arnaud was very unwell, but if M. de Bazancourt is to be credited, he was able to write very unjust entries in his journal, and to speak in a tone of egotistical confidence which his situation rendered painful, and which but for that would have been ridiculous. He says, under the head of the 25th, "The English ought to start first, and do not move till nine o'clock." He must have known that till after nine o'clock it was not decided what course the troops were to take. Again, he speaks of himself as the sole leader, at a time when he had all but resigned the command. "Je les battrai," &c., on the very day when he was obliged to be carried from his tent in Prince Menschikoff's carriage. At the conferences, the French proposed to force the Inkerman bridge across the Tchernaya, and to make a push at the town. Sir John Burgoyne proposed that we should cross the stream by the bridge, at a place called Traktir, or "Restaurant," near Tchorguna, and by his representations carried the majority of those present with him, as he adduced strong reasons for seizing Balaklava, Kamiesch, and Kazatch, which were as much appreciated by our allies as by the English. It was therefore decided that the armies should continue their march on the ridge between the Belbek and the Tchernaya.

Our march was by different routes, the artillery proceeding by a difficult road, which allowed only one horseman to ride by the side of each gun. The Duke of Cambridge's baggage was actually within gunshot of Sebastopol for a quarter of an hour. As Lord Raglan was riding on in front of his staff he found himself, on emerging from a wooded road on the open space in front, in the immediate presence of a body of Russian infantry, which turned out to be the baggage guard of a large detachment of the Russian army marching from Sebastopol to Bakschiserai. They were not more than a few hundred yards distant. Lord Raglan turned his horse, and quietly cantered back to the rear of the first division of Artillery. The cavalry, consisting of a portion of the 11th and 8th Hussars, were quickly got in front--the guns were unlimbered and opened on the retreating mass of Russians; the 2nd battalion of Rifles in skirmishing order threw in a volley, the cavalry executed a charge, and the Russians broke and fled, leaving behind them an enormous quantity of baggage of every description. The enemy were pursued two or three miles on the road to Bakschiserai, but they fled so precipitately the cavalry could not come up with them.

The troops were halted and allowed to take what they liked. They broke open the carts and tumbled out the contents on the road; but the pillage was conducted with regularity, and the officers presided over it to see that there was no squabbling, and that no man took more than his share. Immense quantities of wearing apparel, of boots, shirts, coats, dressing cases, valuable ornaments, and some jewellery were found in the baggage carts, as well as a military chest containing some money (there are people who say it held 3000_l._). A Russian artillery officer was found in one of the carriages, in a very jovial mood. Plenty of champagne was discovered among the baggage, and served to cheer the captors during their cold bivouac that night. A number of handsome hussar jackets, richly laced with silver, and made of fine light-blue cloth, which had never been worn, were also taken, and sold by the soldiers for sums varying from 20_s._ to 30_s._ a-piece. Fine large winter cloaks of cloth, lined with rich furs, were found in abundance.

[Sidenote: A LAND-LOCKED BAY.]

This plunder put the soldiers in good humour, and they marched the whole day, leaving Sebastopol on their right, till they arrived at the little hamlet of Traktir, on the Tchernaya or Black River, just before sunset, and halted for the night. As the baggage was separated from the bulk of the army by the distance of some miles, Lord Raglan was fain to put up in a miserable lodge for the night, while the bulk of his staff slept on the ground in a ditch outside it. Not the smallest attempt was made by the enemy to interrupt or annoy us during this very remarkable march, which could at any time have been greatly harassed by the least activity on the part of the Russians. Continuing our advance early next morning, we crossed the Tchernaya, and proceeded across the plains to Balaklava.

He was a bold mariner who first ventured in here, and keen-eyed too. I never was more astonished in my life than when on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 26th, I halted on the top of one of the numerous hills of which this portion of the Crimea is composed, and looking down saw under my feet a little pond, closely compressed by the sides of high rocky mountains; on it floated some six or seven English ships, for which exit seemed quite hopeless. The bay is like a highland tarn, and it is long ere the eye admits that it is some half mile in length from the sea, and varies from 250 to 120 yards in breadth. The shores are so steep and precipitous that they shut out the expanse of the harbour, and make it appear much smaller than it really is. Towards the sea the cliffs close up and completely overlap the narrow channel which leads to the haven, so that it is quite invisible. On the south-east of the poor village, which struggles for existence between the base of the rocky hills and the margin of the sea, are the extensive ruins of a Genoese fort, built some 200 feet above the level of the sea. It must have once been a large and important position, and its curtains, bastions, towers, and walls, all destroyed and crumbling in decay though they are, evince the spirit and enterprise of the hardy seamen who penetrated these classic recesses so long ago. There may be doubts whether the Genoese built it, but there can be none that it is very old, and superior in workmanship to the edifices of the Turks or Tartars.

The staff advanced first on the town, and were proceeding to enter it, when, to their surprise, from the old forts above came four spirts of smoke in rapid succession, and down came four shells into the ground close to them; but by this time the _Agamemnon_, outside the rocks, was heard. The Rifles and some of the Light Division opened fire, and the fort hung out a flag of truce. The Commandant had only sixty men, and they were all made prisoners. On being asked why he fired from a position which he must have known to be untenable, he replied that he did so in order that he might be summoned, and that he felt bound to fire till required to surrender.

Lord Raglan entered about twelve o'clock in the day. As he approached the inhabitants came out to meet him, bearing trays laden with fruit and flowers. Some of them bore loaves of bread cut up in pieces, and placed on dishes covered with salt, in token of goodwill and submission. Towards evening, the Agamemnon glided in between the rocks in the narrow harbour, and anchored opposite the house of the General, whom Sir E. Lyons speedily visited. The fleet and army were thus once more united, and Lord Raglan had secured his base of operations.

Our cavalry in the afternoon took Mr. Upton, son of the English engineer who constructed so many useful works at Sebastopol. He was captured on his farm, and was taken before Lord Raglan, but refused to give any information respecting the Russians, as he said he could not reconcile it to his notions of honour to injure a Government in whose military service he had been.

All the hills around were barren rock; towards the land they became more fertile, and for a mile towards Sebastopol and Simpheropol were studded with pleasant-looking white villas and farmhouses, principally inhabited by Russian officials from Sebastopol.

The lighthouse of Cape Cherson fell into our hands, and was lighted up by English sailors. The Russians had left it in darkness, but a party of blue-jackets dashed at it on the 26th of September, and compelled the Russian lighthouse-keeper to illuminate it. Jack was in great delight at this. The _Firebrand_ and _Sanspareil_ landed 1000 sailors from the fleet on the 1st of October. They were placed under canvas at the head of the Bay of Balaklava. One thousand marines garrisoned the heights above the town, and the First Division, liberated by their presence, moved on in advance, and supported the Fourth Division. The Turks encamped at the rear and to the right of our Third Division.

The _Australian_, _Sidney_, and _Gertrude_, with the heavy artillery and siege train, came in on the 27th, and proceeded to disembark their heavy guns at a pier which was repaired by the 3rd company of Sappers. The 4th and 2nd Divisions were pushed on towards the south-west side of Sebastopol, and encamped on ridges about two miles from the city, separated from each other by a ravine, which commences near Balaklava and runs nearly to the head of the creek of Sebastopol. The city was quite visible below. Across the north of the harbour, near the most easterly of the creeks, was placed a two-decker, painted so as to look like a three-decker, with springs on her cable, and her broadside turned towards our position. On the northern side a large circular work, with three tiers of guns--Fort Constantine--was visible, and more inland there was another large fortification, called the "Star Fort." On the near side was a very large fortification, with curtains, running inland, a semi-circular bastion, and some rudimentary earthworks--all outside the town. Lord Raglan and staff rode out and made a reconnaissance. A frigate, anchored inside the two-decker, near the end of the creek, amused herself by firing round shot and shell, but did no damage. The French landed their guns at Kamiesch and Khazatchel.

The cholera, which never left us, made many victims. Colonel Beckwith (1st battalion Rifles), Captain Cox (Grenadier Guards), Colonel Hoey (30th Regiment), Dr. Mackay, Lieutenant Grant (79th), the Rev. Mr. Mockler, and others, were among the number.

[Sidenote: RAVAGES OF CHOLERA.]

On Friday, September 29, Marshal St. Arnaud, who had been obliged to resign his command to General Canrobert on the march, was carried from his quarters in Balaklava on board the _Berthollet_ in a dying state, and expired at sea ere she reached the Bosphorus.

On the 30th, all our heavy guns were parked. On the 1st of October, there was a general rest throughout the army. The enemy the whole of that day amused themselves firing shot and shell over the heads of our artillery, and General Cathcart was obliged to move his quarters, as the Russians found out his range and made beautiful practice at them. However, he left his flagstaff, which seemed of much attraction to them, in the same place, and they continued to hammer away at it as usual. The Second Division moved up on the left of our position on the 8th of October, and the Light Division took ground on the extreme right.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson obtained the command of Captain Patton's battery of artillery, vacated by the decease of the latter-named officer by cholera.

During the first three weeks of our stay in the Crimea we lost as many of cholera as perished on the Alma. We heard strange things from the deserters who began to join us. They said that thirty Russian ladies went out of Sebastopol to see the battle of the Alma, as though they were going to a play or a picnic. They were quite assured of the success of the Russian troops, and great was their alarm and dismay when they found themselves obliged to leave the telegraph house on the hill, and to fly for their lives in their carriages. There is no doubt but that our enemies were perfectly confident of victory.

Forty pieces of heavy artillery were sent up on the 4th of October to the park, and twelve tons of gunpowder were safely deposited in the mill on the road towards Sebastopol. As the French had very little ground left on which to operate on our left, the 2nd Division moved from its position, crossed the ravine on its right, and took up ground near the 4th Division. The French immediately afterwards sent up a portion of their troops to occupy the vacant ground.

Dr. Thomson, of the 44th, and Mr. Reade, Assistant-Surgeon Staff, died of cholera on the 5th of October, in Balaklava. The town was in a revolting state. Lord Raglan ordered it to be cleansed, but there was no one to obey the order, and consequently no one attended to it.