_Japanese_. If ships go there before that time we shall not be able to
give them other than provisions, wood, and water.

_Perry_. The ships that may go there will want such things only as you
may have; if you have them not, of course you cannot and will not be
expected to furnish them; but, as I said before, there is no probability
that ships will go there before the expiration of ten months.

_Japanese_. When you come back from Matsumai, we shall have plenty of
provisions at Simoda for the whole squadron; but to other ships we
cannot furnish more than wood, water, etc.

_Perry_. When we return from Matsumai we shall not want many provisions,
as we shall be going to a place where we shall get plenty. It is only
the principle I wish settled now. I have come here as a peacemaker, and
I desire to settle everything now, and thus prevent trouble hereafter; I
wish to write home to my Government that the Japanese are friends.

_Japanese_. We will write you a letter stating that we cannot furnish
you anything before ten months, but that we can furnish wood and water
immediately, and that we will furnish such other things as we possibly
can. This letter we should like you to answer.

_Perry_. Very well; I will.

_Japanese_. [Entering on another part of the terms agreed on.] We will
not confine Americans, or prevent them from walking around; but we
should like to place a limit to the distance they may walk.

_Perry_. I am prepared to settle that matter now, but they must not be
confined to any particular house or street. Suppose we make the distance
they may walk, the same distance that a man can go and come in a day.
Or, if you choose, the number of _lis_ or _ris_ may be agreed upon.

_Japanese_. We are willing that they shall walk as far as they can go
and come in a day.

_Perry_. There is no probability that sailors would wish to go on shore
more than once from curiosity; besides, they will have their daily
duties to attend to on board ship and will not be able to go on shore.

_Japanese_. We do not wish any women to come and remain at Simoda.

_Perry_. The probability is that few women will go there, and they only
the wives of the officers of the ships.

_Japanese_. When you come back from Matsumai we should like _you_ to
settle the distance that Americans are to walk. It is difficult for _us_
to settle the distance.

_Perry_. Say the distance of seven Japanese miles in any direction from
the centre of the city of Simoda.

_Japanese_. Very well. A few miles will make no difference. You are
requested not to leave agents until after you have experienced that it
is necessary.

_Perry_. I am willing to defer the appointment of a consul or an agent
one year or eighteen months from the date of the signing the treaty; and
then, if my Government think it necessary, it will send one.

In fact, not an article of the treaty was made without the most serious
deliberation by the Japanese. In answer to a question from Captain
Adams, in the very first stages of the negotiation, they replied: "The
Japanese are unlike the Chinese; they are adverse to change; and when
they make a compact of any kind they intend that it shall endure for a
thousand years. For this reason it will be best to deliberate and
examine well the facilities for trade and the suitableness of the port
before any one is determined on." Probably nothing but the exercise of
the most perfect truthfulness and patience would ever have succeeded in
making a treaty with them at all; and from the language of one of their
communications, it is obvious that, with characteristic caution, they
meant that their present action should be but a beginning of
intercourse, which might or might not be afterward made more extensive,
according to the results of what they deemed the experiment.

This, it must be remembered, was the first formal treaty they ever made
on the subject of foreign trade, at least since the expulsion of the
Portuguese, and they evidently meant to proceed cautiously by single
steps.

There is observable throughout the negotiations the predominating
influence of the national prejudice against the permanent introduction
of foreigners among them. The word "reside" is but once used in the
whole treaty, and that in the article relative to consuls. The details
of conferences, already given, show how anxiously they sought to avoid
having consuls at all. Indeed, Commodore Perry says, "I could only
induce the commissioners to agree to this article, by endeavoring to
convince them that it would save the Japanese Government much trouble if
an American agent were to reside at one or both of the ports opened by
the treaty, to whom complaints might be made of any malpractice of the
United States citizens who might visit the Japanese dominions." They
wanted no permanent foreign residents among them, official or
unofficial. This was shown most unequivocally in the remark already
recorded in one of the conferences--"We do not wish any women to come
and remain at Simoda."

Simoda was one of the ports open for trade with us; they knew that our
people had wives and daughters, and that a man's family were ordinarily
resident with him in his permanent abode, and that if the head of the
family lived in Simoda as a Japanese would live, there would certainly
be women who would "come and remain at Simoda." But more than this. It
will be remembered that the Commodore had submitted to them our treaty
with China, and they had held it under consideration for a week, at the
end of which time they said: "As to opening a trade, such as is now
carried on by China with your country, we certainly cannot yet bring it
about. The Chinese have long had intercourse with Western nations, while
we have had dealings at Nagasaki with only the people of Holland and
China." Now what was "such a trade" as we carried on with China? The
Japanese read in our treaty that five ports were open to us, that
permission was given "to the citizens of the United States to frequent"
them; and further, "to reside with their families and trade there." This
they deliberately declined assenting to when they refused to make a
treaty similar to that with China. They surely would not afterward
knowingly insert it in any treaty they might make with us.

The only permanent residence to which they gave assent, and that most
reluctantly, was the residence of a consul. Temporary residence was
allowed to our shipwrecked citizens, as well as to those who went to
Simoda or Hakodate on commercial business. They are allowed to land, to
walk where they please within certain limits, to enter shops and temples
without restriction, to purchase in the shops, and have the articles
sent to the proper public office duly marked, where they will pay for
them, to resort to public-houses or inns that are to be built for their
refreshment "when on shore" at Simoda and Hakodate; and until built, a
temple, at each place, is assigned "as a resting-place for persons in
their walks." They may accept invitations to partake of the hospitality
of any of the Japanese; but they are not permitted to enter "military
establishments or private houses without leave." Without leave, our
citizens cannot enter them within the territories of any nation with
which we have a treaty. In short, the whole treaty shows that the
purpose of the Japanese was to make the experiment of intercourse with
us before they made it as extensive or as intimate as it was between us
and the Chinese. It was all they could do at the time, and much, very
much, was obtained on the part of our negotiator in procuring a
concession even to this extent.

But, as he knew that our success would be but the forerunner of that of
other powers, and as he believed that new relations of trade once
commenced, not only with ourselves, but with England, France, Holland,
and Russia, could not fail, in the progress of events, to break up the
old restrictive policy, effectually and forever, and open Japan to the
world; and must also lead gradually to liberal commercial treaties, he
wisely, in the ninth article, secured to the United States and their
citizens, without "consultation or delay," all privileges and advantages
which Japan might hereafter "grant to any other nation or nations." And
the Commodore's comments on this article conclusively show that _he_, at
least, did not suppose he had made a "commercial treaty":

"Article IX. This is a most important article, as there can be little
doubt that, on hearing of the success of this mission, the English,
French, and Russians will follow our example; and it may be reasonable
to suppose that each will gain some additional advantage, until a
commercial treaty is accomplished. Article IX will give to Americans,
without further consultation, all these advantages."

All other powers were forced to be content in obtaining just what we, as
pioneers, obtained. Their treaties were like ours. That of Russia was
copied from ours, with no change but that of the substitution of the
port of Nagasaki for Napha in Riu Kiu. We respectfully submit,
therefore, that all, and indeed more than all, under the circumstances,
that could have been reasonably expected has been accomplished.




(1855) THE CAPTURE OF SEBASTOPOL, Sir Edward B. Hamely and Sir Evelyn
Wood


This is the most famous event of the Crimean War, in which Russian power
was pitted against the allied forces of Turkey, France, Great Britain,
and Sardinia. The war grew out of rival demands concerning a
protectorate in Turkey. In 1852 Napoleon III asked for the restoration
of the protectorate of the Holy Places in the Ottoman Empire to the
Latin Church. Supported by Russia, the Greek Church had virtually
supplanted the Latin Church in Turkish dominions, and Russia now put
forward a demand for a protectorate over the Greek subjects of the
Sultan. Turkey had no interest in the religious questions at issue, and
she pursued a wavering course between the disputing powers, fearing to
offend either of them. Russia at last began openly to threaten Turkey,
and, finding vacillation and diplomacy no longer availing for a
postponement of the conflict, the Sultan declared war, October 4, 1853.

In the early engagements of the war the Turks gained some successes over
Russian troops, but the first important event was the destruction of a
part of the Turkish fleet at Sinope, November 30, 1853. This, being
regarded by England as an act of treachery on the part of Russia,
brought Great Britain into the conflict. The Russians occupied the
Danubian principalities, and the Battle of the Alma, in which the allies
first confronted Russia, was won by the former, with greatly superior
numbers, September 20, 1854.

The siege of Sebastopol began in October, and during its progress
important battles occurred--that of Balaklava, that of Inkerman,
November 5th, in which the Russians were defeated by the English and the
French; that of Tchernaya, August 16, 1855, a victory for the Russians;
and the storming of the Malakoff, described below. The capture of
Sebastopol was followed by the taking of Kars by the Russians, November
28, 1855, and the war ended. In accordance with the Treaty of Paris,
March 30, 1856, Russia abandoned her claim to a protectorate over
Christians in Turkey, and the Sultan agreed to grant them more favorable
terms.

Sir Edward Bruce Hamley and Sir Henry Evelyn Wood, British generals who
served in the Crimean War, give us the best accounts of the siege and
capture of Sebastopol, in which they were active participants. The siege
had continued through many weeks without decisive developments, when on
June 18, 1855, the French made a strong but unsuccessful assault on the
Malakoff, which, like the Redan, formed one of the main defences. The
following narratives describe the British assault on the Redan and the
final storming of the Malakoff by the French.


SIR EDWARD BRUCE HAMLEY

Seeing how desperate was the condition of the fortress, Prince
Gortschakoff had resolved, after the Battle of the Tchernaya, to abandon
Sebastopol. In letters to the Minister of War, of August 18 and 24,
1855, he expressed this intention, saying there was not a man in the
army who would not call it folly to continue the defence longer. With a
view to conducting a retreat he pressed forward rapidly the construction
of the bridge across the harbor, which was to have a roadway of sixteen
feet and to bear heavy vehicles. He also conferred with Todleben on
other measures to protect the withdrawal, and accordingly barricades
were built across the streets and formed into armed and defensible works
which were intended, as a last resort, to hold in check the assailants.
Preparations were also made for blowing up the principal forts and
magazines.

Another great cannonade had begun on August 17th. The French lines had
now approached so close to the place that new additions to them were
immediately destroyed or rendered untenable by the fire from the
Malakoff and Little Redan; and the shower of small shells, easily cast
into the trenches from the ramparts, and called by the French
"bouquets," greatly increased their losses. For the silencing of the
artillery, which thus hindered the French sappers, the allied batteries
opened in full force against the part of the enemy's lines from the
Redan to the great harbor. But the town front was not included, and the
English batteries suffered greatly from want of support by the works on
their left.

On August 20th Gortschakoff entered the fortress, and went round the
lines of defence, upon which the fire of the allies was just then at its
height. What he saw might well confirm him in his resolution to retreat.
There was no longer either a city or a suburb to defend, for both were
heaps of rubbish and cinders. The parapets of the works, dried in the
heats of summer and split in huge fragments by the shot, were crumbling
into the ditches. The interior space was honeycombed with holes made by
the shells. Gabions and sandbags could not be procured to repair the
embrasures, which remained in ruins. Many of the dismounted guns could
no longer be replaced, not because there were not plenty in the
arsenals, but because to mount them by night, under the deadly fire of
the mortars, entailed such frightful sacrifices of men.

The defenders of the works were packed in caves under the parapets; the
gunners lay dead in heaps on the batteries; the wounded could not be
removed by day, because the communications with the rear were now
searched throughout by the fire of the allies, and so lay where they
fell, in torment in the sun beside the more fortunate slain. On landing,
the Prince had passed the hospitals, full to overflowing, and the
ambulances with the wounded crowding what had been the squares. There
was nothing to relieve the horrible monotony of destruction and
devastation except the bridge, which promised retreat from this misery,
and which was approaching completion.

Yet it was after this visit that the Russian General changed his mind in
the direction of what he had before termed folly. "I am resolved," he
wrote to the Minister of War, on September 1st, "to defend the south
side to the last extremity, for it is the only honorable course which
remains to us." Calculating that the daily loss of the garrison was from
eight hundred to nine hundred, and that he could bring twenty-five
thousand men from the army outside to reenforce it, by leaving only
twenty thousand to guard the Mackenzie Heights, he considered he might
still prolong the defence for a month. Everything was against such a
cruel determination; but he proceeded to execute it so far as in him
lay. Yet it did not rest with him to determine the end.

The cannonade once more reduced the Malakoff, its dependencies and
neighbors, to absolute silence, and enabled the French to push their
works yet closer. The soil between the Mamelon and Malakoff could be cut
into like a cheese, and the trenches were more easily made and better
constructed here than elsewhere. The English trenches before the Redan
had been stopped by solid rock; the French approaches to the Little
Redan, now only forty yards from it, had also got into soil so stony as
no longer to afford cover. The most advanced approach to the Malakoff
was separated from it by only twenty-five yards; in the soft soil the
trenches might have been pushed to the very edge of the ditch, but only
with great loss, and, besides, the facility of mining below them would
increase as the distance lessened. It was therefore deemed that the time
for assault had come, and it only remained to determine the details.

Accordingly, a council of war considered the matter. After the members
had delivered their opinions, Pélissier expressed himself thus: "I too
have my plan, but I will not breathe it to my pillow." There is,
however, no need to be so reticent with the reader. The French commander
had learned that the relief of the troops in the works before him took
place at noon, and that in order to avoid the great additional loss
which would be caused by introducing the new garrisons before the old
ones moved out, the contrary course was followed of marching out most of
the occupants before replacing them. Thus noon was the time when the
Malakoff would be found most destitute of defenders, and noon was to be
the hour of the assault. Also another advantage was offered to the
French. The salient of the Malakoff had been adapted to the form of the
tower which it covered, and was therefore circular; consequently there
was a space in it which could not be seen or fired on from the flanks;
that was the space upon which the troops were to be directed.

Roadways twenty yards wide were made through the trenches, and then
masked by gabions, easily thrown down, by which the reserves could be
brought up in the shortest time. The Malakoff, the curtain, and the
Little Redan were each to be attacked by a division, supported by a
brigade; and four divisions, with other troops, were destined to attack
the central bastion and works near it, and break thence by the rear,
into the flagstaff bastion. But first the cannonade was to be renewed.
It began on September 5th, and this time it encircled the whole
fortress, the French batteries before the town opening no less
vigorously than the rest. At night a frigate in the harbor was set on
fire by a shell, and the conflagration for hours lighted up the
surrounding scenery. On the 6th and 7th the _feu d'enfer_ went on, the
Russians replying but feebly; on the night of the 7th a line-of-battle
ship was set on fire by a mortar, and burned nearly all night; it
contained a large supply of spirits, the blue flames from which cast a
lugubrious light on the ramparts from the harbor to the Malakoff,
producing, says Todleben, "a painful impression on the souls of the
defenders of Sebastopol."

Daylight on the 8th found the Russian defences completely manned, the
guns loaded with grape, and the reserves brought close up. But the
assault was not yet begun, and the result of these preparations to
receive it was increased havoc in the exposed ranks of the defenders.

The attack on the Redan was to be directed by General Codrington. His
division, and the Second, under General Markham, were to supply the
column of attack, of which the covering party, the ladder party, the
working party (to fill up the ditch and convert what works we might gain
to our own purpose), and the main body were to number seventeen hundred,
and the supports fifteen hundred. The remainder of these two divisions,
numbering three thousand, was to be in reserve in the third parallel.
Also, in the last reserve, were the Third and Fourth Divisions.

No attack on the Redan would have been undertaken by the English as an
isolated operation. Our compulsory distance from that work, the want of
a place of arms (that is to say, a covered space in the advanced
trenches of sufficient extent to harbor large bodies of troops), the
construction of which was forbidden by the rocky soil, and the still
unsubdued fire from the ramparts, all condemned an assault. But it was
deemed necessary as a distraction in aid of the French, and it fulfilled
the purpose.

The portion of Codrington's troops destined to head the attack on the
Redan moved rapidly and steadily across the open space, though suffering
much loss from the heavy fire of round-shot, grape, case, and musketry
now directed on them from every available point, and those in front
passed with ease over the battered rampart and entered the work. But the
rest, with too strong a reminiscence of their mode of action in the
trenches, lay down at the edge of the ditch and began firing, alongside
of the covering troops, who alone should have performed this duty. The
supports also reached the ditch, and some of them entered the work. But
the great reserves, in moving through the inches toward the point of
issue, were obstructed and discouraged by meeting the numbers of wounded
men and their bearers, who were of necessity brought back by the same
narrow route, a difficulty which also hindered some of the French
attacks. Colonel Windham, the leader of the attacking troops, finding
that his messages for support produced no result, took the ill-advised
step of going back himself to procure reënforcements. It was not
surprising that before he returned his men also had withdrawn. It is
probably in reference to this that the _Engineer Journal_ said, in
excusing the troops, that "they retired when they found themselves
without any officer of rank."

They had been overwhelmed by the numbers which the Russians brought into
the open work; and as they hurried back they suffered not less heavily
than in their advance. It was unfortunate for them that the French had
spiked the guns in the Malakoff instead of turning them on the enemy
moving into the Redan, as they ought to have done. With the immense
increase of difficulties in making way through the crowded trenches, and
renewing the attack against works now fully armed and manned, the
attempt was postponed till next day, when fresh troops, headed by the
Highlanders, were to renew it.


SIR HENRY EVELYN WOOD

It may render my narrative of the final assault more readily
comprehensible if I begin by saying that, the Malakoff being now
considered the key of the Russian position, it was determined that all
other attacks should be considered subsidiary to that which was to be
directed against it.

General Bosquet had command of all the French troops employed on the
right of the English attack. MacMahon's division was to assault the
Malakoff itself, having De Wimpffen's brigade with Camou's division in
reserve, and with it two battalions of Zouaves of the Guard. On
MacMahon's right La Motterouge's division, composed of the brigades of
Bourbaki and Picard, was to attack the curtain. It was supported by four
regiments, two of grenadiers and two of Voltigeurs of the Guard. Still
farther north was Dulac's division, supported by Marolle's brigade of
Camou's division and one battalion of Chasseurs of the Guard. These were
to attack the Little Redan. Pélissier himself took up his position in
the Mamelon, and to avoid giving warning to the enemy by any system of a
general signal, the watches of the staff and the generals were carefully
compared in order that the assault might be begun at twelve o'clock.
This hour was chosen by Pélissier in consequence of his having
ascertained that the troops on duty in the Russian trenches were
relieved at that hour, and owing to the works being cramped from the
number of traverses and blindages erected to cover their garrisons from
fire, it had become the habit for the old guard of the works to march
out before the relief marched in, and it was thus anticipated that at
twelve o'clock the works would be nearly empty. This surmise proved to
be accurate.

The French had taken great trouble to screen the concentration of their
troops from the sight of the enemy. Each division had a separate access
to the advanced trenches in which the storming parties were to assemble.
In places where the parapets, having sunk, might have disclosed to the
view of the enemy the troops moving into position, they had been
carefully raised. Cuts had been made through parapets to admit of the
supports moving forward in bodies, and to allow field-artillery
batteries, which were stationed at the Victoria redoubt and the old
Lancaster battery, to pass through to the front. These apertures had
been filled up with gabions, and carefully concealed, so that their
position remained unknown to the enemy.

General Herbillon, still encamped on the Tchernaya, was directed to
cause his force (less Camou's division called up to support La
Motterouge, and Dulac) to stand to arms at twelve o'clock, and his
command was reenforced by a brigade of cuirassiers under General De
Forton. The morning was dull and gloomy, with a cold wind which drove
clouds of dust into the air. A little before twelve o'clock all the
French storming parties were crouching ready for the order.

Bosquet himself was in the sixth parallel; MacMahon, surrounded by his
staff, was standing in the front trench with his watch in his hand. No
one spoke in this group, in which the calm faces showed no sign of the
excitement visible in the zouaves on either side of them, who, though
silent, were trembling with impatience. Close at hand there was a
corporal holding a little tricolor. Two minutes before twelve o'clock
the word was passed in an undertone, "Ready," and as the hands indicated
it was twelve o'clock, on a command from MacMahon a shout arose of
"_Vive l'Empereur_!" bugles and drums sounded the charge, and the
zouaves dashed straight at the Malakoff.

MacMahon allowed two sections to pass him, and then, followed by his
staff, climbed over the parapet, following the advanced guard. It placed
one ladder, by which the General descended into the ditch, and was, it
is said, the first up the escarp of the work. A friend of mine described
to me how he watched the tricolor on the parapet being carried slowly
along, thus indicating exactly how our allies in the body of the work
were gaining ground. The zouaves who crossed the ditch on the proper
left of the Malakoff had some difficulty in climbing up, from the height
and steepness of the escarp.

MacMahon's leading brigade crossed the short intervening space without a
shot being fired. The enemy's working parties and gunners who were
repairing damages fought bravely with picks, shovels, and hand-spikes,
but were eventually driven back. The very few Russians in the salient
were completely surprised, so much so that some of the superior officers
were found at dinner in an underground chamber of the Malakoff, and the
French without difficulty obtained absolute possession of the south end
of the work. Although the enclosure covered an area of about four
hundred yards by one hundred fifty, there was but very little open space
within it, for behind the remnants of the stone tower were rows of
traverses stretching from side to side of the work. Behind these the
Russians took post as they came up from their bombproof shelters. Every
separate parapet was fought for, hand to hand, and it was not till
Vinoy's brigade, which, entering by the Gervais battery, got behind the
traverses, turning out the regiment Grand Duke Michel, that the enemy
was finally driven from this part of the work.

The leading brigades of Motterouge's and Dulac's divisions, headed by
their chiefs, seized the curtain and the Little Redan, the latter
falling first, as St. Pol's brigade was nearer to it than Bourbaki's
brigade was to the curtain. Once inside these works from which the
Russians were easily driven, the French pressed on to the intrenchment
then being built across the rear. General PÉLISSIER now gave General
Simpson the signal to attack the Redan. At the same time the French
attacked the Malakoff, and there the fate of Sebastopol was really
decided.

The possession of this fort was strongly contested, the Russians
bringing up field-batteries; the French were also fired on heavily by
three steamers, which, circling round, fired broadsides into them, and
batteries sent shells from the north side of the harbor into the French
support. Eventually after a prolonged struggle, in which the French
captured four field-guns, St. Pol's brigade was beaten back, losing its
brigadier, and with him fell the chief staff officer of the division and
two colonels. The Russians followed up closely, and Bisson's brigade,
which for want of space in the trenches had been stationed in the
Careenage Ravine, was too far behind to afford effective aid. Bourbaki's
right being thus uncovered, he also was driven back, although supported
by Motterouge's other brigade.

After Bourbaki and St. Pol had been repulsed, the Voltigeurs and
Grenadiers of the Guard and Marolle's brigade were sent against the
curtain and Redan respectively. These they carried, but were once more
expelled from the Little Redan, Marolle and De Pontevès falling dead at
the head of their brigades, and Mellinet, Bisson, and Bourbaki being
wounded. The French still held the curtain, and Bosquet now ordered up
the two field-batteries then standing behind the Victoria redoubt. They
descended the ridge at the trot, unlimbered in front of the sixth
parallel, and, coming into action, fired with great effect on the
Russian infantry, which offered a broad target. Yet the batteries
suffered terribly; the commanding officer (Souty) was killed, and out of
the one hundred fifty men he brought down, only fifty-five returned when
the guns were dragged back by hand because they lost all their horses
except nineteen.

Bosquet, surrounded by several Russian officers, who were prisoners, and
their guards, was interrogating the captives when a shell burst over
them, killing or wounding both them and the guard--the General only
escaping. Later, when leaning on the parapet watching the progress of
the fight, he was struck in the face by a fragment of a shell. He had
just strength to send word to General Dulac to take his place, when he
fainted.

The struggle in and around the Malakoff was continued till three
o'clock, when Gortschakoff withdrew his troops from the work which they
had defended with such marvellous endurance for eleven months. The prize
was now won, but at heavy cost.

MacMahon's division, which assaulted with forty-five hundred bayonets
and two hundred officers, lost in killed and wounded just half its
strength.

Soon after the Russians had been driven from the salient of the
Malakoff, the French troops occupying it were fired on from the lower
part of the old masonry tower, which was loopholed, and inside which
five officers and sixty Russian soldiers had taken refuge. It was
impossible to dislodge them, as the only entrance was strongly blocked
on the inside. After a time some gabions were collected, and having been
placed in position close to the loopholes, were lighted, but before the
defenders could be smoked out, a mortar fired against the door blew it
away, and the Russians surrendered. The gabions burning fiercely, the
officers became alarmed lest the fire should be communicated to some of
the surrounding magazines, and an attempt was made to extinguish the
blazing fragments. As this was difficult, sappers were set to work to
dig a trench and throw the excavated earth on the fire. While the men
were digging, four wires, communicating with mines, were found and cut.

While the Russian officers were surrendering, a desperate struggle was
carried on at the far end of the Malakoff enclosure, the Russians coming
over the parapets in three heavy columns. Khrouleff, the "fighting
general," being wounded, had been replaced by General Martinau. The
combatants fought hand to hand till, Martinau, losing an arm, and his
men being out of ammunition, Gortschakoff ordered them to give up the
struggle and fall back.

Between three and four o'clock a magazine blew up near the point where
the curtain joined the Malakoff, and the division at once ran back to
the French advanced trenches. This occurred at a moment when General La
Motterouge was wounded, but his men were rallied and got back into
position ere the smoke and dust of the explosion cleared away. The flag
of the Ninety-first Regiment was buried so deep that it was not found
till next day, when it was recovered still grasped tightly in the hands
of the lifeless officer who was carrying it when the explosion took
place.

When the Russians withdrew, General MacMahon, contemplating the
possibility of further explosions from undiscovered mines, in order to
minimize possible loss of life, sent back the brigade under Colonel
Decaen, whom he ordered to hold himself in readiness, and, if Vinoy's
brigade should be blown into the air, to come forward immediately and
replace it. Then, turning to General Vinoy, MacMahon observed, "It is
possible, General, that your brigade will be blown up, but Decaen will
replace you immediately, so we shall still hold our position." MacMahon
himself remained in the Malakoff with Vinoy's brigade.

During the afternoon it was reported to General Pélissier that large
numbers of Russian troops were crossing by the floating bridge to the
north side of the harbor, but the allies did not yet feel confident that
the end had quite come. About midnight one of the maritime forts was
blown up, and explosions continued at intervals throughout the night,
fires bursting out wherever any inflammable substance remained.

At 3 A.M. on the 9th Corporal Ross, Royal Engineers, who was employed in
the advanced sap, being struck by the unusual silence within the Redan,
crept across the ditch, and, climbing over the parapet, found that the
enemy had evacuated the work.

At daylight all the Russian fleet except the Vladimir had disappeared
under water, and the last of this heroic garrison was seen forming up on
the north side of the floating bridge, which was then cut, leaving on
the southern side two hundred or three hundred men, who had remained
behind, setting fire to the houses. This was the last of the active
operations. Gortschakoff withdrew his troops, and, placing the cavalry
on the Belbeck, extended the infantry along the Mackenzie Farm heights
position, which he proceeded to fortify.

The allies were now in possession of the bloodstained ruins of
Sebastopol, and the last of the Black Sea fleet was at the bottom of the
harbor. Perhaps it was well that peace ensued. Although we might have
dislodged the Russians from their position on the heights, it would have
been difficult to obtain any further material advantage in the Crimea.




(1857) THE INDIAN MUTINY, J. Talboys Wheeler


From the time when Warren Hastings, the first English Governor-General
of India, was sent to rule there (1774), the British power in that
country grew steadily, and many annexations were made to the territory
under its control. There were frequent wars with the French, England's
rivals in India, and with the natives in different Provinces that one
after another were absorbed into the British possessions. The first
serious menace against this growing power appeared in a native movement,
the culmination of which is known as the Indian or Sepoy Mutiny.

The causes of this rising are traced to distrust and hatred of the
British rulers--feelings that caused a ferment among the Hindus and
Mahometans of India, who suspected a design for suppressing their
religions. The natives also became alarmed at the introduction of
Western ideas and improvements--new methods of education, the
steam-engine, the telegraph, etc.--portending to the Indian peoples the
substitution of a foreign civilization for their own. The truth is that
in attempting to abolish suttee and other ancient native customs, and to
introduce more enlightened practices, the British Government was acting
in the interest of general humanity.

The immediate provocation of the great mutiny among the sepoys or native
troops in the British East-Indian service is well shown, and the entire
story of the revolt is equally well told, by Mr. Wheeler. This author,
while a secretary to the Government of India in the latter part of the
nineteenth century, enjoyed peculiar advantages for study and research.
These advantages he turned to account by writing an authoritative and
interesting history of the land of his official residence.

Early in the year 1857, it is said, there were rumors of a coming danger
to British rule in India. In some parts of the country _chupatties_, or
cakes, were circulated in a mysterious manner from village to village.
[Footnote: The form of the cake conveyed information that an
insurrection was in preparation--an old custom--understood by the
natives.--ED.] Prophecies were also rife that in 1857 the East India
Company's _raj_ [rule] would come to an end. Lord Canning has been
blamed for not taking alarm at these proceedings; but something of the
kind always had been going on in India. Cakes of cocoanuts are given
away in solemn fashion; and as the villagers were afraid to keep them or
eat them, the circulation went on to the end of the chapter. Then,
again, holy men and prophets have always been common in India. They
foretell pestilence and famine: the downfall of British rule, or the
destruction of the whole world. They are often supposed to be endowed
with supernatural powers and to be impervious to bullets; but these
phenomena invariably disappear whenever they come in contact with
Europeans, especially as all such characters are liable to be treated as
vagrants without visible means of subsistence.

One dangerous story, however, got abroad in the early part of 1857,
which ought to have been stopped at once, and for which the military
authorities were wholly and solely to blame. The Enfield rifle was being
introduced; it required new cartridges, which in England were greased
with the fat of beef or pork. The military authorities in India, with
strange indifference to the prejudices of sepoys, ordered the cartridges
to be prepared at Calcutta in like manner; forgetting that the fat of
pigs was hateful to the Mahometans, while the fat of cows was still more
horrible in the eyes of the Hindus.

The excitement began at Barrackpur, sixteen miles from Calcutta. At this
station there were four regiments of sepoys, and no Europeans except the
regimental officers. One day a low-caste native, known as a lascar,
asked a Brahmin sepoy for a drink of water from his brass pot. The
Brahmin refused, as it would defile his pot. The lascar retorted that
the Brahmin was already defiled by biting cartridges which had been
greased with cow's fat. This vindictive taunt was based on truth.
Lascars had been employed at Calcutta in preparing the new cartridges,
and the man was possibly one of them. The taunt created a wild panic at
Barrackpur. Strange to say, however, none of the new cartridges had been
issued to the sepoys; and had this been promptly explained to the men,
and the sepoys left to grease their own cartridges, the alarm might have
died out. But the explanation was delayed until the whole of the Bengal
army was smitten with the groundless fear; and then, when it was too
late, the authorities protested too much, and the terror-stricken sepoys
refused to believe them.

The sepoys had proved themselves brave under fire, and loyal to their
salt in sharp extremities; but they are the most credulous and excitable
soldiery in the world. They regarded steam and electricity as so much
magic; and they fully believed that the British Government was binding
India with chains, when it was only laying down railway lines and
telegraph wires. The Enfield rifle was a new mystery; and the busy
brains of the sepoys were soon at work to divine the motive of the
English in greasing cartridges with cow's fat. They had always taken to
themselves the sole credit of having conquered India for the company;
and they now imagined that the English wanted them to conquer Persia and
China. Accordingly, they suspected that Lord Canning was going to make
them as strong as Europeans by destroying caste, forcing them to become
Christians, and making them eat beef and drink beer.

The story of the greased cartridges, with all its absurd embellishments,
ran up the Ganges and Jumna to Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi, and the
great cantonment at Meerut; while another current of lies ran back again
from Meerut to Barrackpur. It was noised abroad that the bones of cows
and pigs had been ground into powder, and thrown into wells and mingled
with flour and butter, in order to destroy the caste of the masses and
convert them to Christianity.

For a brief interval it was hoped that the disaffection was suppressed.
Excitement manifested itself in various ways at different stations
throughout the length of Hindustan and the Punjab--at Benares, Lucknow,
Agra, Ambala, and Sealkote. In some stations there were incendiary
fires; in others the sepoys were wanting in their usual respect to their
European officers. But it was believed that the storm was spending
itself, and that the dark clouds were passing away.

Suddenly on May 3d there was an explosion at Lucknow. A regiment of Oudh
Irregular Infantry, previously in the service of the Mogul, broke out in
mutiny and began to threaten their European officers. Sir Henry
Lawrence, the new Chief Commissioner, had a European regiment at his
disposal, namely the Thirty-second Foot. That same evening he ordered
out the regiment, and a battery of eight guns manned by Europeans,
together with four sepoy regiments, three of infantry and one of
cavalry. With this force he proceeded to the lines of the mutineers,
about seven miles off. The Oudh Irregulars were taken by surprise; they
saw infantry and cavalry on either side, and the European guns in front.