War Medals and Their HistorySteward, William Augustus
History
War Medals and Their History
Steward, William Augustus
Great Britain. Army -- Medals, badges, decorations, etc.; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Medals, badges, decorations, etc.
The regiments engaged at Balaklava were the Heavy Brigade, comprising
the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Dragoons; 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards; the Light
Brigade, consisting of the 13th Light Dragoons and 17th Lancers in
the first line, 4th Light Dragoons and 8th and 11th Hussars in the
second line, and the 93rd Highlanders; but men of the Rifle and Naval
Brigades, and of the artillery and various line regiments, including
the 4th, 19th, 21st, 30th, 33rd, 44th, 47th, 50th, 53rd, 68th, and
77th, were also present and received the medal with the bar for
Balaklava.
[Illustration: ABYSSINIAN WAR MEDAL, 1867-8.]
[Illustration: CANADA MEDAL, 1866 AND 1870.]
[Illustration: ASHANTEE WAR MEDAL, 1873-4.]
[Illustration: ZULU WAR MEDAL, 1877-9.]
=Inkermann.=--On Sunday, November 5th, 1854, the battle of Inkermann
was fought. The Russians had received considerable reinforcements;
it is estimated that by that time 120,000 troops were under Prince
Mentschikoff's command, and the Czar's soldiers were in high fettle,
owing to the presence in camp of the Czar's sons, Michael and Nicholas.
A general advance was made by the Russians, Mount Inkermann being
the objective, and the battle commenced by an assault thereon by
General Danneburg with about 40,000 men. The Mount of Inkermann and
the district thereof was held by the Second Division under General
Pennefeather. At daybreak masses of Russians were discerned marching
to the attack, and soon afterwards the armies were in conflict. Then
began the "soldiers' battle," which was to add lustre to the record
of the several British regiments whose gallantry gained the day. How
can one adequately paint the picture of 200 men of the 30th charging a
couple of Russian battalions and putting them to rout, or of the 49th
defeating a strong column and chasing their flying foemen? How can one
do justice to the 525 men of the 41st who fought and dispersed five
battalions of the enemy, and the 260 men of the 77th who put to rout
1,500 of the famous Tomsk Regiment? In the first stage of the battle
4,000 British soldiers beat back 15,000 Russians from the slopes of
Inkermann, where, in the detached fighting that had taken place, many a
V.C. was well earned. In the second stage the terrific struggle ranged
around the worthless sand-bag battery; seven times did the Russians
capture it, and as often was it retaken by the British, each time with
awful slaughter, until the dead lay around the battery in heaps and
filled the entrenchment. In this useless and stubborn fight Generals
Adams, Cathcart, and Torrens fell. There young Captain Stanley of
the "Die Hards" fell as he called to his men to "remember Albuera"
and follow him. There a few hundred Coldstreams, who had 8 officers
killed, fought back to back against 6,000 Russians, and sustained "the
bloodiest struggle ever witnessed since war cursed the earth." Then
two 18-pounders were ordered up by Lord Raglan, and, as happened at
the Alma, helped to determine the events of the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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