The British Expedition to the CrimeaRussell, William Howard, Sir
History
The British Expedition to the Crimea
Russell, William Howard, Sir
Crimean War, 1853-1856
ignorant of details, and of the modes by which those operations have
been effected. Alexander, Cæsar, Pompey, Hannibal, may have had many
club colonels in their day, who thought they made "fatal moves;" we know
that in our own time there were many military men who "had no great
opinion" of either General Wellesley or General Bonaparte; but the
results carry with them the weight of an irreversible verdict, which is
accepted by posterity long after the cliques and jealousies and
animosities of the hour have passed away for ever. Now, without being a
member of a clique, having no possible jealousies, and being free from
the smallest animosities, I may inquire was there any generalship shown
by any of the allied generals at the Alma? We have Lord Raglan, as
brave, as calm, as noble, as any gentleman who ever owned England as his
mother-land--trotting in front of his army, amid a shower of balls,
"just as if he were riding down Rotten Row," with a kind nod for every
one, leaving his generals and men to fight it out as best they could,
riding across the stream through the French riflemen, not knowing where
he was going to, or where the enemy were, till fate led him to a little
knoll, from which he saw some of the Russian guns on his flank,
whereupon he sent an order for guns, seemed surprised that they could
not be dragged across a stream, and up a hill which presented
difficulties to an unencumbered horseman--then, cantering over to join
the Guards ere they made their charge, and finding it over while he was
in a hollow of the ground. As to the mode in which the attack was
carried on by us, there was immense gallantry, devotion, and courage,
and, according to military men present, no small amount of disorder. The
Light Division was strangely handled. Sir George Brown, whose sight was
so indifferent that he had to get one of his officers to lead his horse
across the river, seemed not to know where his division was, and
permitted Brigadier Buller to march off with two regiments of his
brigade, leaving the third to join Codrington's Brigade. The men got
huddled together on the other side of the river under the ridge, and lay
there seven or eight instead of two deep, so that when they rose and
delivered fire, their front was small, and the effect diminished. Then
they were led straight up at the guns in a confused mass; when they had
got into the battery they were left without supports, so that the enemy
forced them to relinquish their hold, and were enabled to recover the
work. The Light Division had, it is true, drawn the teeth of the
battery, but still the enemy were able to fire over the heads of the
columns from the hill above. However, the Alma was won. Menschikoff was
in retreat, and the world was all before us on the evening of the 20th
of September. Whether our generals had any foresight of what that world
was to be--what were to be the fruits of victory, or the chances of
disaster--let the history of the war on some future day communicate to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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