It will not, perhaps, be misplaced to mention here the names of privates Samuel Evans and James Callaghan of the 19th regiment. Seeing a sapper—private Alexander McCaughey—toiling by himself in the difficult repair of a broken embrasure—No. 17 of the 21-gun battery—the former voluntarily went into the opening and shared with the overseer the duty of removing the debris. The latter received a blow on the head from a stone sufficient to draw blood, and certainly sufficient for ninety-nine men out of a hundred to get excused from a working party, but he nevertheless remained steadily at work.[179] These instances of devotion were noticed in general orders and praised by Lord Raglan. After the embrasure spoken of was cleared Evans quitted it; and private David Thompson, who had just finished the repair of a neighbouring one, came to the assistance of McCaughey. Both were robust men, immovable in danger, and nobly stood the fire of two guns from the Redan, the accurate aim of which sent several missiles into the work. Of one cheek they had replaced the gabions and partly filled them, when a 68-pounder shot swept four of them from the row, and shortly after another whizzed closely over Thompson’s head as he was springing from the sole to avoid the threatened blow. In another instant both were at work again, but as the firing became still warmer, their labour was obviously as fruitless as that of Sisyphus. “You cannot do impossibilities, men,” said Captain Owen, who witnessed their perseverance, and ordered them from the aperture, which, on leaving, they blinded with a gabion. The gun mounted in rear of the opening was a 68-pounder, and a black sailor, considered to be one of the best artillerists in the battery, usually fired it. McCaughey was “considered an able and active sapper for difficult duty in the trenches;” a character he well sustained throughout the siege. Throughout the following night spirited efforts were made to mend the breaches sustained in the day. There were nearly 700 of the line and 82 of the corps given up to these midnight labours. Great as the force was it scarcely fulfilled the immediate requirements of an exacting siege. Mist and rain fell through the darkness, the men were drenched, and the wind swept with unfriendly chills over the hills; but before the morning the damages were nearly all made good in battery and trench to prolong a contest the end of which was still far distant.