J. Douglas Borthwick

“ Our English courage is of the old chivalric sort—we fight as men, for great principles, not for the lust of conquest: our soldiers are every one a treasure of immense value, rightly used, not to be cast away to perish when their first use is passed. Human life is to Englishmen intensely sacred: we cheerfully lay it down when demanded, and in proportion do we honour and cherish those who have perilled it in our cause. A single life wilfully sacrificed for a mere strategical advantage would have been a stain on our English honour, which we should not speedily have forgiven. ”

“ Thousands of grim and fierce-looking men, their faces blackened with gunpowder and sweat, moved about the decks, and pointed the guns, amid the crash of falling spars and the groans of their wounded messmates. Beyond the town, a sullen roar was heard, which might have been the echo of the sea-battle, but which the sailors well knew was the voice of the guns on land, many manned by seamen from the fleets, and responded to by a thousand of the enemy’s pieces. The awful boom of the guns grew in intensity as some fresh ship arrived on the scene, and contributed her broadside to the attack. ”

“ Breathing nothing but smoke and ashes,—canopied by flame, and smoke, and cinders,—surrounded by walls of fire that rocked to and fro, and fell with a crash amid the blazing ruins, carrying down with them red hot roofs of iron,—he struggled against an enemy, that no boldness could awe, or courage overcome.
Those brave troops had heard the tramp of thousands of cavalry, sweeping battle without fear, but now they stood in still terror, before the march of the conflagration, under whose burning footsteps was heard the incessant crash of falling houses, and palaces, and churches. ”

“ Three times were the artillerymen swept away from their guns; as many times their places were supplied. Then, under cover of fierce volleys from the town and ships, they succeeded in carrying off their guns. The French batteries now advanced to the crown of the ridge, and opened fire on the retreating masses, flying pell-mell towards the heights. Hundreds fell beneath the deadly volleys—the thunders of the death-dealing artillery drowned alike the shrieks and groans of the wounded and the triumphant shouts of the victors, and the battle of Inkermann was won! ”

“ But when they stood on the hill-tops on that memorable morn, and saw the tents of the Russian army, not a man but felt the strength of a giant, and burned with a fierce desire to cross bayonets with the enemy. Many a brave fellow, who had staggered thus far leaning on a comrade’s arm, and ready to drop behind and perish by the wayside, begged for a draught of brandy, and then, forgetting his weakness, and deriving new strength from the occasion, shouldered his musket, took his wonted position among his comrades, and marched bravely to the encounter. ”

“ The enemy, who had been taken by surprise by the suddenness of the French attack upon the Malakoff, were now thoroughly aroused and manned every gun. Showers of grape and shell poured among our men as they struggled across the open space; General Shirley, the brigadier of the Light Division, was compelled to retire, and hundreds were shot down. When the foremost men reached the Redan, the ladders were too short to reach the breach; but spite of every obstacle our brave fellows climbed the broken walls, and poured into the salient angle of the work. ”

“ The remorseless Russians—assassins rather than soldiers—had bayonetted every one who showed signs of life. The little battery was choked with heaps of dead. Englishmen and Russians lay as they fell stiff in their blood, and disfigured by the agonies of death. Not one was left to tell his victorious comrades, who leaped shouting into the redoubt, how bravely their companions in arms had disputed its possession, how dearly the enemy had purchased a temporary success, or how basely that success had been consummated by the most brutal murder of wounded and unarmed men. ”

“ An extraordinary movement was immediately observed in the Mameluke line, and speedily 7000 horsemen detached themselves from the remainder of the army, and bore down upon the French columns. It was a terrible sight, capable of daunting the bravest troops, when this immense body of cavalry approached at full gallop the squares of infantry. The horsemen, admirably mounted and magnificently dressed, rent the air with their cries. The glitter of spears and cimeters dazzled the sight, while the earth groaned under the repeated and increasing thunder of their feet. ”

“ Their steel-clad knights dismounted, sent their horses to the rear, and formed in a compact mass round the standard car. The Scots came on, shouting their war cry, “Alban! Alban!” Their fierce charge drove in the English infantry, but they could not break through the dense array of mailed warriors who surrounded the standard, and received them on the points of their levelled lances. The long pikes of the Galloway men were shivered against the strong plate-armour of the knights. In vain the Highlanders tried to hew their way with the claymore into the mass of iron-cased chivalry. ”

“ A red flag was hoisted on the gate of St. Denis, amidst the shouts of the people. Tri-coloured flags were promenaded in the streets, and tri-coloured cockades and breast-knots were worn, not only by the French, but by the English and foreigners of all nations. The royal arms, and other ensigns of the government of Charles X that were moveable, were burned in the Place Publique. All Paris was in insurrection. Every movement of the people portended a terrible conflict. The government reposed in security upon a blind and implacable dignity. ”

“ But the blood of the gallant fellows was flowing hotly in their veins; those who, in other times, had borne the shock of battles, felt renewed the old spirit which had made them conquerors at Vimiera and at Waterloo; those who for the first time trod the fatal field felt an indescribable and fierce courage, which the sight of danger and of death infuses into most men. Six months of inaction and passive suffering were about to be consummated by a glorious victory, which should crown them as conquering heroes or immortalize their death. ”

“ Lord Raglan at last became weary of this inactivity—his spirit was up—he looked around and saw by his side men on whom he knew he might stake the honour and fate of Great Britain, and anticipating a little, in military point of view, the crisis of action, he gave orders for our whole line to advance. Up rose those serried masses, and passing through a fearful shower of round shot, case shot, and shell, they dashed into the Alma, and floundered through its waters, which were literally torn into foam by the deadly hail. ”

“ Truly the daring courage of the English gentleman has not deteriorated in these latter days! The chivalric valour which placed the officers in the very front of danger was nobly seconded by the unquenchable spirit of the men whom they led; they were mostly fasting, when they hurried to the scene of conflict, and for ten long hours were engaged in one of the deadliest struggles the military historian has ever recorded. Some were sick, all were gaunt and emaciated. It was Agincourt once more. The starved legions met and overthrew five times their number. Such was the bloody battle of Inkermann! ”

“ The battle was a series of detached groups, sometimes a few dauntless Guardsmen, bareheaded and back to back, disputing every inch of ground, and with their bayonets inflicting terrible execution on the enemy; sometimes a young officer, rallying a few of his men around him, dashing with a ringing cheer at a phalanx of the foe, and as their dense mass was broken by the impetuosity of the attack, falling pierced by a dozen bullets, with his last breath cheering on his men to the charge. ”

“ A mighty and close packed city of houses, and churches, and palaces, wrapt from limit to limit in flames, which are fed by a whirling hurricane, is a sight this world will seldom see. But this was all within the city. To Napoleon, without, the spectacle was still more sublime and terrific. When the flames had overcome all obstacles, and had wrapped everything in their red mantle, that great city looked like a sea of fire, swept by a tempest that drove it into vast billows. ”

“ Many men will march dauntlessly to the cannon’s mouth, and show no signs of fear, but with cheerful voice, and light step, dash through the enemy’s fire, and over the bodies of the dead. But in the stillness of the night, when no excitement warms his blood, the bravest will be despondent, and the strong man be moved with emotions as keen as those which agitate the breasts of the tender woman or the sympathetic child. ”

“ By the time that the 20th and 41st had been driven back, as we have just recorded, the Duke of Cambridge had reached the scene of action with the brigade of Guards—those renowned soldiers whose bayonets had carried the heights of Alma, and whose prowess was a theme of terror in the Russian camps. No soldier who had shared in or witnessed that tremendous fight could forget the terrible onslaught of those bear-skinned warriors, when the choicest troops of the Czar were trampled under foot, or scattered like chaff before their irresistible charge. ”

“ They were not yet drawn up in order of battle, neither had they got their arms in readiness, when they found themselves attacked in front, in rear, and in flank. In a moment all the ranks were put into disorder. Flaminius, alone undaunted in so universal a surprise, animates his soldiers both with his hand and voice; and exhorts them to cut themselves a passage with their swords through the midst of the enemy. But the tumult which reigned everywhere, the dreadful shouts of the enemy, and a fog that was risen, prevented his being seen or heard. ”

“ As night drew its curtains over the splendid capital, Napoleon entered the gates, and immediately appointed Mortier governor. In his directions, he commanded him to abstain from all pillage. For this, said he, you shall be answerable with your life. Defend Moscow against all, whether friend or foe. The bright moon rose over the mighty city, tipping with silver the domes of more than 200 churches, and pouring a flood of light over 1000 palaces, and the dwellings of 300,000 inhabitants. The weary army sunk to rest; but there was no sleep for Mortier’s eyes. ”

“ The Russian line brings forward each wing as our cavalry advance, and threatens to annihilate them as they pass on. Turning a little to their left, so as to meet the Russian right, the Greys rush on with a cheer that thrills to every heart—the wild shout of the Enniskilleners rises through the air at the same instant. As lightning flashes through a cloud, the Greys and Enniskilleners pierced through the dark masses of Russians. ”

“ The battle was assuming a more awful and tremendous aspect, and the faint rays of sunshine which shot at intervals through the lifting clouds only gave the scene greater terror. Horses without riders careered among the wounded, who were crawling all over the plain, dismounted dragoons dragged themselves to the rear, and men came crawling along in such numbers that they appeared like a broad fringe to the edges of the battle. The rolling of musketry in the hollows beyond smothered the voice of the cannon. ”

“ They cast a mantle over his body, took his banner from the dead hand of the squire, raised it, and shouted, “Douglas!” The Scots came thronging up to the cry. They levelled their lances, and pushed with such courage that the English were soon driven beyond the spot where the Douglas lay. Again the shout of “Douglas!” rose more vehement and loud. The Scots in a dense mass renewed the onset, bore the enemy before them, and broke them so completely that they never rallied again. Percy himself was made prisoner. He and his pennon, too, had to go to Scotland. ”

“ It was three o’clock. The efforts of the Austrians to occupy Klum and free their centre had failed, the right was driven down in a helpless mass towards Konigsgratz, quivering and palpitating as shot and shell tore through it. “Alles ist verloren!” Artillery still thundered with a force and violence which might have led a stranger to such scenes to think no enemy could withstand it. The Austrian cavalry still hung like white thunder-clouds on the flanks, and threatened the front of the Prussians, keeping them in square and solid columns. ”