The British Expedition to the CrimeaRussell, William Howard, Sir
History
The British Expedition to the Crimea
Russell, William Howard, Sir
Crimean War, 1853-1856
The quantity of firelocks, great coats, bearskin caps, shakos, helmets
and flat forage caps, knapsacks (English and Russian), belts, bayonets,
cartouch-boxes, cartridges, swords, exceeded belief; and round shot,
fragments of shell smeared with blood and hair, grape and bullets, were
under the foot and eye at every step. Our men broke the enemies'
firelocks and rifles which lay on the ground. As many of them were
loaded, the concussion set them off, so that dropping shot never ceased
for about forty hours. The Russian musket was a good weapon to look at,
but rather a bad one to use. The barrel, which was longer than ours, and
was polished, was secured to the stock by brass straps, like the French.
The lock was, however, tolerably good. The stock was of the old narrow
Oriental pattern, and the wood of which it was made--white-grained and
something like sycamore, broke easily. From the form of the heel of the
stock, the "kick" of the musket must have been sharp with a good charge.
Many had been originally flint-locked, but were changed to detonators by
screwing in nipples and plugging up the touch-holes with steel screws.
The cartridges were beautifully made and finished, the balls being
strongly gummed in at the end, but the powder was coarse and unglazed,
and looked like millet-seed; it was, however, clean in the hand, and
burnt very smartly. The rifles were two-grooved, and projected a long
conical ball. The ball was flat at the base, and had neither hollow cup
nor pin; its weight must exceed that of our Minié ball. These rifles
were made by J. P. Malherbe, of Liège. The bayonets were soft and bent
easily. Some good swords belonging to officers were picked up, and
weapons, probably belonging to drummers or bandsmen, exactly like the
old Roman sword, very sharp and heavy. Some six or seven drums were left
behind, but nearly all of them were broken--several by the shot which
killed their owners. No ensign, eagle, standard, or colour of any kind
was displayed by the enemy or found on the field. Our regiments marched
with their colours, as a matter of course, and the enemy made the latter
a special mark for the rifles. Thus it was so many ensigns, lieutenants,
and sergeants fell.
The sad duty of burying the dead was completed on the 22nd. The wounded
were collected and sent on board ship in arabas and litters, and the
surgeons with humane barbarity were employed night and day in saving
life. In the Light Division there were nearly 1,000 cases for surgical
attendance and operations, at which Drs. Alexander and Tice were busily
employed. Dr. Gordon was active in the Second Division in the same work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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