Naval battles of the world : $b Great and decisive contests on the sea ... with an account of the Japan-China war and the recent battle of the Yalu; the growth, power, and management of our new Navy.Shippen, Edward
History
Naval battles of the world : $b Great and decisive contests on the sea ... with an account of the Japan-China war and the recent battle of the Yalu; the growth, power, and management of our new Navy.
Shippen, Edward
Naval battles; Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895; United States. Navy
tremendous energy, and reckless disregard for the lives of his troops.
The garrison continued to make sorties, under cover of the boats of
the English squadron, but the 1st of May found the French successful
in establishing a breach, from the concentrated fire of twenty-three
pieces of artillery. They then made a desperate attempt to storm the
place.
The Theseus was moored on one side of the town, and the Tigre on the
other, while the gun-boats and launches flanked the enemy’s trenches.
Notwithstanding a tremendous fire from the shipping, and in the very
face of a heavy fire from the walls of the town, the French bravely
mounted to the assault; but, in spite of all their efforts, were
repulsed with great slaughter. Several English officers and seamen
were killed in this affair, and Colonel Philipeaux, a French Royalist
officer of engineers, serving with the English against Bonaparte, died
of excessive fatigue.
The French continued to batter in breach, and continued their attempts
to storm; in spite of which Sir Sidney Smith managed to construct
two ravelins, within musket shot of the besiegers. All this involved
the most extreme fatigue on the part of both the besiegers and the
besieged. Frequent sorties were made, which impeded the French in their
work; and on May 7th a reinforcement of two Turkish corvettes, and
twenty-five transports with troops, arrived.
Bonaparte determined to make one more effort to capture the place
before these troops could be landed. Although the British fire from
the vessels was kept up, Bonaparte had succeeded in throwing up
epaulements and traverses, with his great engineering ability, which
in a great degree protected his working parties from the naval party.
The pieces which annoyed him most were in the light-house tower, and in
the north ravelin, and two 68-pounders, mounted in native flat-bottomed
vessels and throwing shells. These were all manned by the English
seamen.
In spite of all this, Bonaparte gained ground, and having battered
down the northeast tower of the walls, the ruins formed a sort of
ladder, and at daylight on the 8th of May the French stormed again, and
succeeded in planting their colors on the outer angle of the tower.
Their position was sheltered by two traverses, which they had
constructed during the preceding night, composed of sand-bags and
bodies of the dead built in with them, and forming a wall so high that
only their bayonets could be seen above them.
In the meantime the reinforcement of Turkish troops, under Hassan Bey,
were being debarked, which only increased Bonaparte’s endeavors to get
possession of the place before they could be put in position.
It was a most critical moment, and Sir Sidney, to gain time, himself
led the British seamen, mostly armed with pikes, to the defence of the
breach. Here he found a few Turks, who were hurling huge stones down
upon the French. The latter, being reinforced, charged up, and the
fight became a hand-to-hand one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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