J. Ross

“ The Second Division camp was laid flat, the tents uprooted and scattered, canvas saturated with blood carpeted the ground. Our own camp swarmed with the wounded and the dying, and the sight sent a chill of depression through the few survivors as they returned to their bivouacs. Everywhere on the narrow space of the battleground the victims lay thick, some killed, others groaning in agony, and nowhere thicker than in and around the Sandbag battery, where the contest raged the fiercest. Here the dead were literally piled up on one another as they fell. ”

“ There was much cause for disappointment at this inglorious result; and it was humiliating to the gallant armies of the two foremost nations of Europe, to be sent to the East, merely to eat out their hearts in inactivity, when feats of valour against the enemy were performed almost within earshot of their camps. Nor was the excuse put forward for this apathy—the want of transport—of any value; for every member of the Government knew that transport is indispensable to an army’s motion, and that without it no campaign is possible. That it could have been obtained is not to be denied ”

“ Officers, Non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, I wish personally to convey through you, to the regiments assembled here this day, my hearty welcome on their return to England in health and full efficiency. Say to them, that I have watched anxiously over the difficulties and hardships which they have so nobly borne, that I have mourned with deep sorrow for the brave men who have fallen for their country, and that I have felt proud of that valour which with their gallant allies they have displayed on every field. ”

“ In the short but memorable campaign they have given proofs to the world that they possess in an eminent degree all the good qualities of soldiers; and the Field-Marshal is happy to be able to applaud their regular good conduct in their camps and cantonments, not less than when engaged with the enemy in the field. Whatever may be the future destination of those brave troops of which the Field-Marshal now takes his leave, he trusts that every individual will believe that he will ever feel the deepest interest in their honour and welfare, and will always be happy to promote either. ”

“ A master of the science of war, and gifted with the genius that makes a man supreme in the field of battle, he organized the military qualities of his subjects, who, under his guidance, invaded their neighbours, destroyed their institutions, and overran Europe from one end to the other. One opponent only remained unsubdued, and that was England; and so strong was her resistance to this modern Attila, that she succeeded not only in breaking his power, but in adding also to her own importance and influence in the world. ”

“ Dead and dying inside the work; such a scene of devastation and confusion impossible to conceive: guns broken and upset; powder in the embrasures, two or three inches deep, all loose on the ground; wounded men, French and Russians, still crawling about, and the trenches full of Russians who had crept in.... From the top of the parapet our trenches were spread out like a map. I was wild with delight at thinking the siege was over, and all the country opened to us. I posted off to the White barracks, and ransacked the whole place, coming back through the Redan. ”

“ The Russian Officers behaved like true soldiers. They ever were in front of their less adventurous rank and file, urging them on with voice and uplifted sword; nay, they rushed freely on certain death, with the view of inflaming the sluggish spirit of their followers.... And now half the Brigade—a grandiose title for 1300 men—strewed the ground; some slain outright, others bleeding to death, others vainly imploring to be carried off the field. ”

“ The British Government never had much sympathy with the policy of opposing the Mahdi, whose usurpation of power, founded upon rapine, massacre, and slavery, had been dignified into the movement of a people struggling for freedom! This strange opinion upon the upheaval that swamped every vestige of civilization in the Sudan, was doubtless one reason, but perhaps not the only reason, for the vacillating proceedings pursued there, and for the consequent inability to effect, even at great expense, any useful object. ”

“ On the 2nd of April official tidings of peace were communicated to the several armies engaged in the struggle, by a salute fired upon the upland. Thenceforward the contending forces, drawn together by that mutual respect and esteem with which brave men regard one another, looked upon each other as friends, and all traces of hostility vanished as if by magic. British and Russian soldiers were to be seen in scores on their respective sides of the Tchernaya, conversing as best as they could, and exchanging presents. The thoughts of our men, however, were now naturally turned towards home ”

“ We allied ourselves to a Potentate whose tenure of power was precarious, whose interests were not our interests, and who only wished to adopt a foreign policy of adventure to reconcile his new subjects to his rule. His armies loyally supported ours in the field, and there we happily formed a sincere respect for the brave French troops who fought by our side. But the Government of Paris,—objecting always to transfer the theatre of war to Asia, where the enemy was really vulnerable,—restricted our field of operations to Europe ”

“ Napoleon, though a General of the first order,—whose campaigns will always commend themselves to the student of the art of war,—was less remarkable for his knowledge of that other science which makes a man a statesman. He lived by the sword, and he perished by the sword. He destroyed the prosperity of the people he subdued, but he could not cement a friendship with them. His object was war and only war, and he reaped its reward—military fame ”

“ It must not be supposed that we always stood rooted on our ground, that we never 220budged. No, the fight rested not steadfast for an instant. It was now backward, now forward, now sideways. Here, a Grenadier party, after a frantic tussle, would be forced by overwhelming swarms out of the battery; there, a knot of Coldstreamers would arrest the advance of an entire Russian battalion; in another place, a cluster of Fusiliers, rallying after a repulse, would fling themselves upon a column, and with the sheer might of strong hearts, arms, and steel, send it slap-dash over the height’s crest. ”

“ During the continuance of the present phase in the world’s history, when every Continental nation is armed to the teeth, it is not likely that Parliament will withdraw its annual expenditure upon the army any more than on the navy. But it is right to add that, while the country can provide the money, public opinion will of itself never be able to foster military efficiency, nor instil into the army those qualities which make a man a soldier. ”

“ When the fall of Sevastopol was known in England, there was much rejoicing that the Allied arms had captured the enemy’s stronghold and great naval arsenal in the Black Sea. But hostilities were not at an end, nor was an immediate peace in prospect. Nevertheless, certain distinct stages in the war were concluded, and victory had more than once smiled upon our standards. ”

“ It is pleasant to record that the Duke of Wellington adopted an entirely different system in his relations with the inhabitants; everything was paid for regularly, property was respected, and the people were unmolested. In short, the British army set an example of humanity, generosity, and forbearance, which not only did honour to their country and to their noble profession, but which also (notwithstanding national antipathies) , gained them the respect and almost the affection of the French themselves. ”

“ The British fought with a valour and constancy that surpassed even the glorious traditions of the past. Led by Officers who hurled themselves like the old Knight Errants into the thick of every danger, they nobly followed on with that unflinching steadiness produced by constitutional bravery, by devotion to their leaders, and by the splendid discipline that was the predominant characteristic of our Crimean troops. ”

“ Our ammunition was beginning to fail, some of the men had not had a round of their own for a long time: the dead furnished the living; but now even that began to fail, and the men in their excitement threw stones, lumps of earth, anything they could see, over the parapet among the Russians, and they came back again amongst us with interest. One of the most remarkable things about Russian troops is the noise they make in action, and I think it is catching, as I never heard our men make such a yelling as they did all this day ”

“ No statesman could neglect to examine the causes of these stupendous events, and the institutions which had rendered them capable of realization: no soldier could abstain from studying the new conditions under which hostilities in the future must be conducted, and the numerous questions of warlike interest which modern science had introduced. It is not surprising that the Prussian system should speedily have become our model in the affairs relating to the army, and that the British nation should determine to make a searching inquiry into its military concerns. ”

“ At that date the advantages gained by the battle of the Alma had not been entirely dissipated: the Crimean field army, under Menshikoff, was beaten, and was far away from the scene of hostilities, refitting and awaiting reinforcements; the garrison of Sevastopol—composed of a mere medley of details, imperfectly armed, and many of whom could scarcely be called “combatants”—was physically and morally weak; the entrenchments were slight and incomplete; the guns to oppose an attack were light. On the 17th of October a great change had been effected. ”

“ In the divided councils of the Emperor, Lafayette gained a great advantage, and giving voice to the one thought that filled all minds in that moment of anguish, he resolved that Napoleon’s deposition should forthwith, and at all hazards, be carried into immediate execution.
A struggle—a one-sided struggle—took place between the Emperor and the Chambers. The former could only rely upon his previous military prestige and upon the halo of influence that still might be supposed to surround his name; but he did nothing to rouse himself out of the lethargy that oppressed his moral faculties. ”

“ What the best of battalions is, when, in some Royal Park at home, it manœuvres before a great princess, that the Coldstream was now on the banks of the Alma, when it came to show its graces to the enemy. ”

“ There can be no doubt, that it was anomalous and very inconvenient to send out a military expedition to check Russian aggression with no rational plan of action. In the beginning of the 158year, the terror which the supposed omnipotence of the Emperor Nicholas inspired, made us believe that all our efforts would be required to save Turkey from certain and swift destruction. We even imagined that Constantinople was in imminent danger; and the French rushed to Gallipoli, to take up a flanking position against the hostile columns, which were almost immediately expected to assault that city. ”

“ The termination of the Crimean war, though it entailed considerable reductions in the army, was not accompanied by the acute distress that marked the close of the great struggle with France in 1815. In the latter case, the country had been seriously engaged with a formidable enemy for twenty years, and was constrained to devote all its resources to crush him. For nearly a generation, Great Britain had been a nation standing in arms, and thriving, so to speak, upon the success of her operations by sea and by land. ”