T. W. J. Connolly

“ The round-hill trench—an astonishing achievement of persevering skill and courage, formed, for the most part, through rock at an extraordinary outlay of labour, under very adverse circumstances and interruptions from the galling play of musketry and artillery—was designated the fourth parallel, and though it was at no time armed with a battery, it was mailed at all points with selected light troops.
Every hour made obvious the necessity of hastening the termination of a struggle which had swallowed up an army in its checkered events. ”

“ Not only had the workmen to bear a direct fire, and to be disturbed and interrupted by light-balls, but to suffer from accidents arising from shot and shell rebounding from the hill-side, and rolling in all their fury into the sap beneath.
Six sappers in the 21-gun battery repaired each an embrasure, all of which were in a very shattered state. Fierce and gusty was the wind at midnight, collecting the dust and light sand in its vortex, and blowing it in the faces of the workmen. The trenches were swept as if a hurricane were passing. ”

“ Upon the merlon toils another sapper strengthening it with stones and earth handed to him by his assistants in the battery. Perspiration drops like rain over his beard, and, driven by his strong energy through every pore, moistens the rags which cover him from the night damp. Some bales of hides being brought, feeling makes up for the want of vision in so dark a night, and the cheeks are at length covered with hairy skins. Prudence has adapted their use as well to aid in preserving the embrasures, as to save them from flaming during the rapidity of our own fire. ”

“ As the night crept on 900 of the line and 89 sappers marched into the trenches, who, scattered among the batteries, left no point unstrengthened, no embrasure unequal to its wonted work. Everywhere the platforms obtained fixity, and the gaps which had been made in the parapets for the passage of cumbersome guns were filled up before the darkness sped. Much shattered was the Gordon battery, and its fascines, broken at the bands, were strewn in waste about the gorges, while the sand-bags were ripped up and disembowelled by every telling shot and tearing splinter. ”

“ Expert men were invariably selected for those duties, whose wariness greatly mitigated their risks. Few appeared to be more skilful in these employments than their comrades, but on the night of the 21st, corporal John Ross, untiring, patient, and intrepid, pushed on like a master in the sap, and connected, under showers of grape, enough to disturb the equanimity of the sternest coolness, the fourth parallel with an old Russian rifle-pit in front. ”

“ In about an hour, the workmen becoming cool, they handled their tools with unexpected earnestness. Sixty-three gabions—all that were brought from the abandoned parallel—were staked. Thirty-eight of them were filled, for which distance tolerable cover was thrown up. Great as was the cannonading it was singularly harmless; but just as the party were about to leave the trenches, a shell from a howitzer mounted in the works at the left of the round tower, fell into the communication, killing private Richard Walsh and wounding private George Wood and another sapper, as also two of the workmen. ”

“ Two old acquaintances who had not met for years chanced in the early night, as the darkness was falling, to recognize each other in the quarries. Each grasped the other’s hand, and while engaged in an animated greeting, with the warm smile of welcome on their lips, a round-shot struck off both their heads! The friends were sergeants William Wilson of the corps and Morrison of the royal artillery. A genuine Scotchman was Wilson, with an accent as provincial as a Highlander. Thick-set, well knit, and athletic, he was formed for the hardships of labour. ”

“ He was on duty in the third parallel, and left it without orders, declaring at all hazards he would that day enter the town. But how brittle is human intention! Armed with his carbine and a full pouch of ammunition, he joined the 38th regiment; and losing sight of the fact that he was not in charge of a working party in the saps, cheered on the men with the inspiriting cry, “Now, my boys, follow the sapper!” In the excitement of the moment he caught up the expression, because it had become a settled by-word of the trenches. ”

“ The constant clashing of these heavy tools, which could even be heard at the camp, made the lines as alive with din and rattle as an arsenal, and brought on the miners a fire at time so furious, that to see them, amid casualty and death holding to their employments, was a scene not to be surpassed by any spectacle of endurance in the trenches. Excavations cut by the pickaxe or blown into trenches by blasting, completed, so far, a series of communications which, like so many ligatures, tied together the several works in front and rear. ”

“ Crouched as the men were under the boughs of the abattis and doubled up in shell-holes, they were somewhat saved from its fierceness, but every moment augmented the chances of their not returning. Cool and lion-hearted, the young engineer was everywhere among his parties commending their bravery and endurance; and sergeant Landrey, nobly assisting his officer, encouraged by his conspicuous example and his cheers the dislocated files of the forlorn hope. ”

“ General Windham, whose valour and marvellous escapes on that day have astonished Europe, made his way into the place with some 80 or 100 men, but such was the virulence of the fire, such the carnage, a few only of the bold men who had had the temerity to mount the parapet could be induced, though the General himself walked amid the deadly storm, to rush from the traverse behind which they had shielded themselves. ”

“ An upright collar of scarlet cloth with gilt fuming grenades, chains, hooks, and buttons, make up the sum of its ornaments.
Every non-commissioned officer, as he ascends the weary ladder of preferment, keeps his eye steadily on the cocked-hat. It would therefore be unpardonable to omit the description of a badge which has given rise to more ambition in the ordnance corps than can possibly be satisfied. It is the only commission open to them, and the struggle to gain it is far more difficult than for born gentlemen to attain the rank of General. ”

“ Hot as was the place, the sappers and volunteers continued to work, and the breach quickly filled up with sand-bags, soon extricated the men at the end of the zigzag from hazards to which less alacrity and courage would have committed them. So jealous was the enemy of any progress in this quarter, it was not an easy, matter to throw a few shovels-full of earth over the parapet without a visit from a pair of round shot. That so little harm was done to the workmen was due to the nearness of a Russian screen to the captured pit. ”

“ The officers of the 2nd Queen’s spoke in terms of high commendation of the spirited manner in which the sappers acted, and of their cheerfulness in obeying their officers. Private James Murray behaved with great courage in exciting the men both of the 2nd and his own corps to follow him. Running forward like one whose life depended on the action of the moment, he was followed by several who lined the bush to which he drew them, and some fell in their gallant exertions. ”

“ The secret of success in a siege, next to good generalship, is expedition in the construction of essential works and attention to their efficiency. This was ever borne in mind; and though opposed by astounding obstacles, never a day passed but a sensible addition was made to the vast network of trenches. Parallels and approaches now covered the hills, and saps daringly progressed in front. Dingy pits filled with groups of prying and fatal marksmen studded the advances and flanks. ”

“ Large gabions filled with fragments of rock faced the embrasures, and the soles were bevelled outwards from the necks to admit the guns being sufficiently depressed to fire down the ravine. A magazine for gunpowder and shot was hollowed out of the rock under the parapet, and two traverses were built to protect the gunners from the cross fire of the Malakoff. Constantly were the workmen annoyed by musketry. Shells fell so truly at times that they even burst on the platforms, but the steady miners, habituated to danger, never quitted their labours. ”

“ The labour in executing it was immense, for every inch of the way was driven through rock by the irksome processes of boring and blasting. The hazards were unmitigated; the firing at times terrific; but guided and managed by the experience and judgment of corporal Paul—to whom was entrusted the superintendence of the parallel and its branches—the casualties were so few as to excite surprise. Only one man of the blasting party was killed in the parallel. He was a brave and pushing miner of the 20th regiment. Seldom were less than twenty mines fired in a day, frequently as many as forty. ”

“ Gabions and fascines and boughs of trees and small rough timbers which had been used as binders by the Russians, were torn by some strong and impetuous sappers from the face and crest of the counterscarp to form the caponnière. Earth too was thrown on the rising mound from the parapets above, and the gabions, by extraordinary zeal, were loaded with sand and stones dislodged from the revetment and grubbed up from the bed of the ditch. In this way partial cove was obtained, but it was yet too shallow to protect the troops from the sharp peals of musketry which poured up the fossé. ”

“ Such was not the good fortune of the sappers. Every man was wanted for some absolutely pressing duty, and it was only when the caprices of chance threw in their way a vagrant interval that they could seek to afford themselves the companionship of a well-washed shirt. From this cause it can occasion no wonder that the men were often foul and distressed by vermin. In this condition there were not a few who would steal at times into some cave to relieve themselves in silence of the loathsome brood. ”

“ Still it bravely holds up in its ruggedness against a storm of fire. Another well-directed shell is delivered and its splinters knock everything to pieces. The feeble props at length are torn away, and all above, like an avalanche, slides upon the sole, which heaving with its own weakness gives way, and in part crumbles into the ditch. Necks, cheeks, and throat—all now have disappeared; and of the outline of that stern formation, nothing remains but a distorted mouth, with the broken wattle of gabions and the stakes of fascines sticking confusedly out along its extended jaw ”

“ Private James Weir was perhaps the most daring sapper in building stages for the observatories. Like the chamois he could climb heights almost inaccessible, and stand or sit at work on ledges, copings, pinnacles, vanes, and pieces of timber, where scarcely any human being would dare to venture without all the accessories and appliances which precaution could command for insuring safety and preventing alarm. ”

“ So scattered at times were the working parties over the embarrassing meshes of trenches that a private of the corps at different points of the works has been nominated to oversee two small detachments of the line. Wanting rank as non-commissioned officers, they were often resisted, and as supineness in the pioneers sometimes followed, the service naturally suffered. In most cases, however, the sapper privates gained the compliance of their men more by their own earnest example and exertions than by any exercise of authority. ”

“ The ground was so muddy the two sappers were obliged to undermine the low parapet by drawing from it some dry earth and spreading it in the direction of their exertions to render their task less heavy. No sooner had they repaired the revetment with sand-bags and thickened the work as far as an elbow of the trench, than they were appointed to clear the embrasures of the new battery on the right for two light field-pieces to play on the quarries, which, harbouring a nest of expert marksmen, picked off our artillerymen at the guns. ”

“ Earth was collected with as much care as flour in a famine and brought on men’s shoulders from a distance to give quality to the cover. Every stone dislodged by the miners, treasured as if it possessed intrinsic value, was pitched into the gabion or added to the parapet behind. Upon 378the tier of gabions forming the revetment, sand-bags were laid in courses as fast as they could be delivered by the line. The trials of this foremost work were incalculable; the placement of every gabion was opposed, and every inch of progress furnished its obstacles. ”

“ The concussion of our own guns assists to loosen the work and the hot fire of the artillerymen dries up the gabions rendering them less susceptible of resistance. These, ere long, woven with so much compactness, are broken up and strewn as in a wood-yard, and fascines unband and yield their bundles to choke up the gorge. One slope after another loses form and splay, fissures appear, stones rock and fall, and the structure totters on a few fragments. ”

“ With faultless energy and confidence, they persevered in the work though harassed by an incessant fire, with grape in clusters, blown from mortars, dropping into the trench. Presently a shot crashed against the revetment, capsized three gabions and two fascines, wounded lance-corporal James Veal in the neck, and knocking down corporal Hanson, buried him beneath the rubbish. There was great reason to fear that the smash was fatal, and Major Chapman, who happened to be in the work at the moment, called out in the forlorn hope of receiving a reply, “Are you hurt, corporal?” ”