State of the works—Russian floating-bridge across the harbour—Gallantry of corporal McMurphy and his sappers—The sailors—Advance from fifth parallel on salient of Redan—And on its extreme left flank—Defection of the workmen in the latter sap and firmness of the two sappers in charge—Valour of sergeant Castledine and private McKellar—Intrepid continuance of the right sap—The double sap, left attack—Fifth parallel of the same attack; corporal Paul its overseer—Experienced hands selected for the front; charge of the non-commissioned officers—Casualties—Fresh details—Trench from fifth parallel to cemetery—Unsuccessful attempt to open a screen in advance of white rifle-pit—Notice of corporal Phillips—A sapper guides his party along the open or part of fifth parallel in preference to taking a longer route though a covered one—Perseverance of sappers in the front saps—Sixth bombardment—The works and repairs proceed steadily—Results of the cannonading—Fatal meeting of friends—Siege career of sergeant Wilson.

All the batteries were again fresh and capable, and trunnionless guns and guns with broken muzzles or irreparable vents were in great part replaced by serviceable ordnance. The magazines were firm and full, platforms sufficient and steady, and the traverses stood with scarcely a shot-hole unplugged. On the right the new field structures to rake the Redan and collateral works were in clusters of threes. In front of the famed quarry, and near the fourth parallel, were batteries 16, 17, and 20, facing the salient of the Redan; and 18, 19, and 21, were formed in some trenches in advance of the second parallel, and in rear of the small quarry contiguous to the middle ravine. All the rest of the batteries rose up in natural positions in the parallels and zigzags. Parapets were now formed in both attacks for rockets, which played with brilliant effect on the Russian works, throwing into flames a building in the Karabelnaia faubourg. A well with a clear spring in the third parallel was protected by a stone wall and ditch, and the parched trenchmen drew in safety from its depths. Bread-bags now almost wholly supplanted the sand-bags. Though ill-adapted for hard service, exigency regarded with favour any device that could be made to do duty in a siege which had more than exhausted the trench materials of our parks and arsenals. To save it from enfilade fire, the left of the fourth parallel of the Chapman attack was altered by cuttings and traverses into the form of a serpentine sap.

With vigour quite as conspicuous, the Russians were toiling. Their immense lines of works, of unequalled strength, were in admirable condition; and rising tier above tier were armed at all points with the heaviest artillery, to bear with harassing results on all our most imposing works and approaches. While fires gleamed from different buildings, and others were breached and broken from base to coping, the enemy, fully alive to the chances of defeat, employed all their disposable tradesmen in constructing a wooden bridge of great length, to span the harbour from Fort Catherine to Fort Nicholas. Signs of activity for this undertaking were first perceived on the 29th July. The wharfs were crowded with stores of all kinds, and many small craft were moored along the quay to assist in the service. As by degrees the vast heaps of timber disappeared, the floating bridge assumed proportions of increasing vastness; and by this time—ponderous, like everything Russian—the causeway was completed for the passage of the troops, when the extremity should arrive to necessitate such an operation.

Extremely brilliant was the night of the 26th; nevertheless, an average quantity of progress was made in the foremost trenches. Grape and shell fell so truly into the saps, that the men were in frequent alarm; and of the 90th regiment alone, 30 men were killed and wounded. Corporal McMurphy was in charge of 130 men of different regiments scattered in the advances. Thirty of the number, allotted to the approach from the fifth parallel to a rifle-pit on the right, were under the foremanship of privates Moncur and Joseph Fitzgerald. The work was about 200 yards from the proper right of the domineering Malakoff, and the left of the ambitious Redan. From the latter an active fire was opened on the little batch of pioneers, and also from four embrasures on the right flank of the Malakoff. For a time nothing touched them. Shells and grape whizzed over the works, shaking many a nerve and swimming many a head. Few could keep cool in such danger, and picks and shovels were used with timid vigour; but the steadiness of the two overseers was the record of the day. At length the range of the trench was so accurately obtained, that the shells plunged into the very gabions the sappers were filling, and broke them up in the explosions. The wavering of the party was now very apparent, and corporal McMurphy, an old soldier who before had been in a hot siege of thirty days at Natal, exerted himself manfully to keep the men at their tasks. A few tardy efforts was the measure of their reluctant obedience, when one of the party being killed by the corporal’s side, the entire detachment ran from the trench, leaving the three sappers ahead bent to their work. McMurphy followed, entreating them, if they intended to abandon their posts, at least to return and carry away the dead body of their comrade. Too craven to perform even this touching duty, the corporal repaired with an undismayed pace to the sap, and with the assistance of his two intrepid overseers, bore the shattered corpse to the rear amid a tempest of fire, escaping without a stroke. For their gallantry on this occasion the commander-in-chief presented the privates with two sovereigns each and the corporal with three, who, subsequently, was decorated with the French military war medal. Private Moncur also obtained a “distinguished service” medal and a gratuity of 5l., for throughout the siege he proved himself to be a dauntless man under the heaviest fire, and one of the most efficient sappers for conducting difficult work in the advances and in repairing embrasures.

Two days later sergeant Jarvis was again in the trenches of the left attack, having under him 3 sappers and 50 men draining the fourth parallel and making banquettes for riflemen. Sailors were, for some days, cutting a communication from the first parallel to No. 10 battery in the second parallel, and sometimes, to carry on the approach effectually, they turned miners and blew out patches of rock that impeded them. Nothing was amiss to the men-o’-war’s men. In ship, battery, and trench, they were alike English and welcome. Broad-backed, mature, and potent, with beards that fell deep on their breasts, and whiskers that nearly concealed their honest faces, it seemed as if some difficulty would be felt in controlling their energies; but though they defied in their exertions the set rules of procedure, none were more easily led. Working for their own honour they were not jealous of any fame which others might acquire; and knowing nothing of those bickerings and rivallings which in other services often operate mischievously in conducting an enterprise, they laid themselves out cordially to the tasks, and toiled with as much interest and vigour under the engineers and sappers as under their own officers. In ordinary works one sapper was enough for their superintendence, and even when the boring and blasting were in operation the number of overseers among them seldom exceeded two. Indeed they were splendid fellows. Such is the testimony of every sapper who had the pleasure to labour with them.

Going over to the right attack on the night of the 28th, the working parties were seen pushing on in the advanced trenches so sedulously that early developments were promised. Four sappers and forty men were in the boyau stretching towards the Redan. Too light to approach by flying sap, the overseers adopted the method of lodging one gabion and filling it before staking another. In this way the trench was extended twelve gabions. Next night the same number of workmen widened the trench and improved its cover, while eight sappers fixed the gabions and reset those which were occasionally capsized. Every step ahead was treacherous, for the moon was high and clear, and constant vigilance was needed to save the sappers from incautious exposure. To work in day-time in so perilous a spot required bold spirits to make the venture. The engineers would not order the linesmen into it: it was therefore left for volunteers to choose the service. Only ten men offered, who at the morning relief moved to the far front, and superintended by a sapper, “worked well and steadily.” Passing on to the night of the 30th, eight men of the corps were in the trench continuing it by flying sap. Fifteen gabions were pitched and filled by them. Very hard was the soil: the rock had to be split and rent from the ground for cover, while a heavy fire of shot sometimes made gaps in the new parapet by overturning the gabions. It was a night of toil to these ten sappers, and the result of six hours’ patient perseverance only extended the boyau some thirty feet. Eighty linesmen followed deepening and widening the trench. In the night of the 31st eight sappers and ten of the line were again in the Redan advance. So deadly was the approach considered, that the brave men before entering it bade adieu to their comrades. Marvellous indeed it seems that close as it was to the beleaguered defences so few casualties were counted among the working parties. Ten gabions were that night placed and filled by the brigade while the ten linesmen sunk the trench and strengthened the parapet. This was recorded as very excellent progress.

During the same period the new zigzag up the little ravine was steadily advancing on the extreme left flank of the Redan. Major Campbell, assistant engineer, had under his orders on the night of the 28th two sappers and 30 men, who attended so well to their work, that besides improving the trench 30 gabions were planted and made bullet-proof. Fifty more were added the next night by four sappers; and 80 linesmen filled them with stones, bread-bags, and loose earth, persisting in the duty notwithstanding that two of their number were killed and four wounded.

The coolness of different detachments in the foremost trenches was unaccountably dissimilar. Some, though in terrible danger, held by particular enterprises with unrelaxed industry, while others at the moment of alarm took refuge in flight. Many instances of both kinds have been given; here follows another.

In the darkness of the 30th there was a mixed community of 62 linesmen in the approach in charge of two sappers, who, as overseers, moved along the exposed trace and staked nearly 50 gabions. The operation of filling them was about to commence, when some twenty-five Russians, jumping in at the head of the sap with a cheer, so terrified the working party and sentries that they decamped in utter disorder, despite the efforts to rally them of Captain Wolseley, assistant engineer. The trench, now left to itself, was traversed in its whole length by the Russians, who removed the unfilled gabions,threw down much of the finished sap, and retreated, taking with them several muskets which had been left behind by the timid workmen. “Shortly after this, Captain Pechell of the 77th, at the head of a body of his men, rushed up the trench, drove the Russians in from a small rifle-pit, and held it for the night.”^[195] The artillery fire from the Malakoff, and rattling discharges of musketry from the ravine, occasioned twelve casualties among the workmen and wounded Captain Wolseley severely in the face and leg. The two sappers—privates B. Murray and Patrick Nelles—it is noted stood by their captain to the last; but their steadiness behind the imperfect cover of some overturned gabions—the one firing, the other working—had not the effect of provoking the recreants to re-enter the trench.

It was an adventurous sap this, menaced at every point of its progress by shells and Miniés, and checked by reiterated attacks of Russian detachments, who, surging over the parapet, burst in the trench itself. In the night of the 31st it was again assailed. Eight sappers and 50 men of the line were allotted to extend the approach, with corporal Taylor in charge. Sergeant Castledine was directed to superintend both advances, but from necessity his exertions were chiefly confined to the sap in question. He had been in this boyau before and knew its danger, for he had seen as many as five shells blazing in it at one time. Private John Bramley being the oldest sapper took the lead. He had to place two gabions, and after filling them fall to the rear. Before, however, completing his task, which was about half an hour after the workmen had been distributed, the enemy—more than a company strong—appeared on the high ground near some rifle-pits, and firing on our sentries the latter hastily retired. As soon as they were calmed, sergeant Castledine, by order of Captain Fraser of the 95th regiment, who commanded in the sap, reposted them in the most desirable positions. A desultory firing was kept up for a while without again alarming the sentries or disturbing the labours of the trench; but when another half-hour had elapsed the enemy suddenly pushed up the slope, attacked the sentries, and driving them into the trench, the workmen and covering party took fright and retreated in confusion. Castledine and private McKellar of the ninth company, who were at the head of the sap, alone stood firm; and before the enemy had approached too far, the sergeant sent his steady assistant to recall the sappers from the fifth parallel, into which they had hastened to recover their arms. At this moment a sergeant of the 3rd Buffs, who had heard the firing, ran across the open and voluntarily joined Castledine. In a few seconds the sapper brigade, with that manly fellow McKellar in front, flew into the work, and with this small force the sergeant bounded over the parapet, poured a volley into the hesitating Russians, and then for two or three minutes, while retiring to the sap, continued an independent discharge, which kept the enemy at bay till the covering party, rallied by Captain Fraser, returned and increased by its fire the efficiency of the defence. In the struggle Captain Fraser, who had publicly acknowledged the valour of sergeant Castledine, fell deeply wounded; the other officers were also struck down, and the command of the parties now devolved on Castledine. His force of character gained the noblest support from his brigade as well as from the sergeant of the 3rd Buffs, and even held together the young men who for the first time were entrusted with duty in so perilous a sap. Though the fire of artillery and musketry was sharp enough to make the stoutest hearts quiver, Castledine retained the trench and resumed the work; but, as every missile that entered the sap drove the workmen to their arms, very little resulted from energies so harassed and so capriciously employed. Still, such was his high respect for authority, the sergeant would not take on himself the responsibility of ordering the workmen to retire, and so sending corporal Taylor to the engineer officer—who was directing the progress of other works—he requested permission to remove them. This was acceded to soon after midnight, the party taking with them eleven of their comrades and three of the four officers wounded. The sappers now had the run of the deadly trench, and, undisturbed by the fears and clamours of timid men, laboured with so much dexterity, that, by the hour of relief—two in the morning—they had succeeded to admiration not only in strengthening a portion of the old trench, but in resetting and filling sixteen of the gabions capsized by the Russians the previous night.

Equally dangerous was the double sap forming the central communication between the two foremost parallels on the left attack. Not without great toil and watching was it completed. In aspect it bore a wild crenated outline, as if the miners, in struggling to make a direct approach, were so oppressed with difficulties that, defying the energy and capacity of art, they were forced to make progress by running into sidings and notches. The last gabion to connect the sap with the parallel was fixed by corporal Lendrim. The whole way was broken up by mining, and the planting of every gabion was attended with imminent risk. Stones blown from the rock were built into the parapets and compacted with earth and clay thrown among the blocks from sacks and bread-bags. So fierce at times was the firing and so clear the moon, that the extension of the trench throughout an anxious night was confined to the placement of only four gabions. Some nights the sap was pushed ahead as much as ten yards, which was regarded as an exemplary effort. “For every three gabions fixed during the night two were knocked down at daylight by round shot;” and not unfrequently one has been struck from the hands of the sapper essaying to stake it. Such gaps and such violence sufficiently mark the trials of the undertaking and account for its slow and wearying progress. Up to the close of the siege the sap demanded the labour and vigilance of small parties to patch up the broken revetments and replace the shivered gabions. Never were there less than two sappers in this zigzag; seldom fewer than 20 of the line.

Perhaps one of the hardest services during the whole operation was the working of the fifth parallel on the left attack. Sweeping round the brow of the hill, it dropped down the cliff towards the chevaux-de-frise, and ended at a cave which served as a place of arms. To the left it extended, with diminished cover, towards the direct double sap. The boyau communicating with the right of the parallel was a trench about forty yards long, and from the parallel itself issued several small covered ways in advance, with pits at the extremities for riflemen. No trace was followed in the execution of these lines; no breadth, no width uniformly adhered to. All depended on the nature of the obstacles encountered and the stern intricacies of the work, which, giving rise to many deflexions to meet the broken contour of the ground, resulted in a line of sap so irregular in form, as to require many stout traverses and auxiliary cuttings and parapets to prevent certain parts being raked and exposed to cross fires. The labour in executing it was immense, for every inch of the way was driven through rock by the irksome processes of boring and blasting. The hazards were unmitigated; the firing at times terrific; but guided and managed by the experience and judgment of corporal Paul—to whom was entrusted the superintendence of the parallel and its branches—the casualties were so few as to excite surprise. Only one man of the blasting party was killed in the parallel. He was a brave and pushing miner of the 20th regiment. Seldom were less than twenty mines fired in a day, frequently as many as forty. The stones thus broken up were mostly worked into the parapets during the night, but the facing of the work and the formation of the banquettes were left for the miners to attend to in day-time. All the large stones were employed for these purposes; and on one occasion, when building the revetment in the portion of the parallel which descended the hill, one huge block required the united strength of the overseer and the 20th man to fix it firmly. It was a stubborn task, executed only by risking danger; and at frequent intervals for nearly a quarter of an hour they were exposed from the waist upwards in doing it. Immovably calm, always fresh in vigour though constantly at work, a better overseer than Paul could scarcely have been provided for difficult employment, and as a consequence, his example—of zeal, perseverance, and coolness, approaching even to placidity—had the best effect on his parties. So wrapt up was he in the progress of the trench—indeed it was said he was never happy out of it—that his comrades termed the work “Paul’s parallel!” Let not this be an aggravation of the charge preferred in jealousy and ill-feeling against the engineers, because certain works, by common consent, were called after the names of engineer officers—now memorable in history. In this case the application of the designation was simply a sapper one; and if among his comrades who knew of his soldierly qualities and exertions in that trench, which but for his care would perhaps have become a human shambles, he was considered entitled to this very natural honour, who will write an angry pamphlet and say the distinction is unbecoming and should be borne by some one of another corps? From the beginning of the siege he performed severe duties in the front. Before his worth as a sterling sapper was known he was commonly four or five nights in the trenches out of six, and was one of the surest guides to the works when the positions and the roads to them were as yet ill understood by the troops. Selected by Major Bent to be one of his foremen of miners, he was daily in the saps from the middle of May. His permanent duty commenced with the boyaux between the second and third parallels and only terminated a day or two before the fall of Sebastopol. So much for the bravery and spirit of a non-commissioned officer, who, deserving great rewards, became a sergeant, received a gratuity of 10l., a silver medal for “distinguished service in the field,” and the proud decoration of the Legion of Honour.

Here it may be remarked that for all the foremost works only experienced hands, upon whom reliance could be placed for qualification and constancy, were selected to lead the work-men. Young soldiers lacking strength and patience in toil and danger were unfitted for the hardships and vicissitudes of the front. So scattered at times were the working parties over the embarrassing meshes of trenches that a private of the corps at different points of the works has been nominated to oversee two small detachments of the line. Wanting rank as non-commissioned officers, they were often resisted, and as supineness in the pioneers sometimes followed, the service naturally suffered. In most cases, however, the sapper privates gained the compliance of their men more by their own earnest example and exertions than by any exercise of authority. Corporals and sergeants frequently controlled the energies of very heavy parties, but when they had any trying or dangerous works to execute entailing the necessity of close observation and personal toil, the workmen under them were usually limited in number. In the latest weeks of the siege, sergeant Jarvis, who was almost daily in the trenches, had with him a force of between forty and fifty men and three or four sappers. His duties were then mostly confined to the fourth parallel on the left, and included the drainage and repairs to banquettes, traverses, and parapets. A firm soldierlike man, with strong physical powers, his conduct throughout the siege in the execution of hard and critical services attracted the notice of his officers, and his bustling activity and usefulness, coupled with his bravery, gained him the decoration of the Legion of Honour. Corporal Cray shared largely in the concluding operations in mending and re-forming embrasures and batteries, assisted sometimes by as many as eight sappers and fifty workmen. His chief work in the trenches was overseeing the rebuilding of No. 8 battery, left attack, so as to alter its line of fire; and the creditable manner in which it was executed was recorded by Major Chapman as one of the incidents of his brave and useful services in Bulgaria and the Crimea. Corporal Hanson is also named in connection with services discharged in 19 battery of the Chapman attack, in which, aided by two sappers and fifty men, he mined the rock and thickened the parapet with the stones thrown up in the blasts. These instances, officially recorded, and, hence, here preserved, may be taken as the average measure of command meted to non-commissioned officers of sappers in the closing throes of this great struggle.

Between the 30th August and 2nd September the following casualties occurred:—

Early in September a small batch of sappers and linesmen fixed six lengths of chevaux-de-frise in extension of the barricade across the Woronzoff valley, and threw up a circular breastwork, issuing from the trench on the right of No. 17 battery of the left attack to flank the main road. An attempt was also spiritedly made to connect the two attacks by running an arm across the ravine and up the hill from the second parallel of the left attack to the right of the third. The gabions laid for the purpose by the sappers were rapidly filled by the line, and a few nights more would have witnessed the completion of the communication, but ulterior events rendered further labour in that trench unnecessary. In the fifth parallel, facing the Redan, two sappers formed loop-holes, chiefly of bread-bags, at intervals along the entire trench for light troops.

In the cemetery the gabionade being much shattered was quickly repaired. A trench too was run out from that gloomy area, crested by a parapet made up of the usual expedients; and the rude slabs and blocks which, struck down and broken by shot and shell, lay confusedly over the ground. Another was cleverly cut from the point where the double sap joined the centre of the fifth parallel, and, descending the hill in a backward sweep, connected with the approach from the cemetery. Two or three brigades of sappers, working simultaneously at different parts of the trench, fixed the gabions sometimes by the flying method, and at others, when the firing was heavy, by the surer plan of completing the cover before moving an inch in advance. One night at this sap corporal Henry T. Stredwick had with him a half brigade of sappers who were tasked to lodge and fill eighteen gabions, but the moment they began to work a galling array of heavy projectiles opposed every foot of progress. Repeatedly the gabions were capsized; full ones on two or three occasions were blown from the trace, and the sappers knocked over and buried under them. Even resolute men would have had ample excuse for abandoning so murderous a spot; but regarding nothing as insuperable or too hot, the sappers held obstinately to the work, and succeeded in lengthening the trench by twelve gabions. A rifle-screen was partly formed half way between the cemetery and the central communication to the fifth parallel, and two old Russian pits, by a slight deviation, were embodied in the sap. A gentle ridge being on the line of trace, the sappers, too quick to calculate the inconvenience of their go-ahead zeal, planted the gabions for the revetment nearly on its edge. Once filled, the earth thrown up for the parapet fell down the slope, and no end of bread-bags were emptied to gain cover. There was no remedy for the defect but perseverance; and this being cheerfully yielded, a tolerable mound in time had risen, which outvied in strength with the contiguous parapets. The work was chiefly done at night; the darkness was great, the firing incessant. Varied was the progress; sometimes as few as nine or ten gabions were fixed, at others as many as twenty-four. This was looked upon as excellent work, and St. Jacques of Monzon himself might have been proud, to share in such success. Steadily was the trench pushed on, and in a few days it was numbered among the finished formations.

In the night of the 2nd it was intended to open a screen in advance of the white rifle-pit on the right attack. Two officers of engineers reconnoitred the ground, attended by a volunteer party carrying tools and gabions. Being perceived, the enemy’s pickets plied them with so hot a fire they were compelled to make a hurried retreat, while the men who were struck bore on as best they could with gashing wounds; but one poor fellow, more deeply injured than the rest, was left on the field. Indisposed to yield their comrade, sergeant Newman of the 62nd led back six men, one of whom was private McNamara of the sappers, to search for the missing man and recover the abandoned tools; but another volley of hissing bullets drove them in haste to the sap. Yet again did these men offer their services to renew the search; but as the moon had newly risen, rendering distant objects visible, the engineers wisely declined to permit an exploit which in all probability would have sacrificed the entire party. For his spirited conduct the sergeant received a present of three sovereigns from General Simpson.

Passing on to the night of the 4th, there were 17 sappers in the trenches on the left, and 32 on the right. Those on the left were distributed in 17 and 19 batteries, and the circular breastwork, flanking the Woronzoff ravine; a few also were in the cemetery, and others in the excavation leading down the hill to it. Of this small party two were wounded: private John Boyce severely in the eye, and second-corporal Charles Phillips, “a most zealous and active non-commissioned officer,” in both arms. The left was broken above the elbow by a grape-shot, and though subsequently cured without amputation, a frightful limb was left, withered, rigid, and useless. He had been working during the early night in the double sap with Mooney and Lancaster, two first-class sappers, from which he was removed by Lieutenant Neville to complete the screen spotted half-way between the cemetery and the sap to the fifth parallel. He had with him four men of the 57th regiment. As the screen was small, and barely permitted the little batch to move in it, the corporal jumped from the hole, and directed their exertions on the open slope. He also withdrew one of the privates, and soon after on came the grape, inflicting the injuries described and striking the hilt from the bayonet of his comrade.

Boyce had missed his way and wandered with his men into the double sap. Corporal Phillips happening to be there at the time, instructed him how to rectify his course. The route was one of risk, for the trench down the hill had only been cut in parts. Sooner than retrace his steps, and thus obtain the cover necessary to protect him, he shot across the open at the head of his men, and luckily reached the spot to which he had been appointed without casualty. The injury to his eye occurred soon after.

The sappers on the right were chiefly in the advance works, extending the trenches by flying saps. That on the Redan was prolonged 31 gabions, which were all loaded with earth and stones; and the other up the little ravine had 36 gabions staked, but only 16 filled. The moon now appearing put an end to the onward flight of the sappers, who when withdrawn into safer cover brought with them the body of Captain Anderson of the 31st regiment, assistant engineer, who was killed while directing the approach to the Redan. Few, indeed, left those perillous saps without a scar, or a shot-hole in their garments. “From the heavy fire maintained on the head of our sap,” wrote General Simpson, under this date, “the progress made has been slow, and accompanied, as must be expected, by several casualties among the sappers and working parties.”

At the morning relief of the 5th there were 53 sappers and 41 line miners in the left trenches from five to nine o’clock, and 17 from three to seven in the evening, who placed the batteries in substantial order for the intended cannonade, and completed the splinter-proof hut for the surgeons in the first parallel. To-day commenced the sixth bombardment, very warmly by the French, less so by the English, who only discharged periodical shells at the Redan and Garden batteries. Brisk as was the fire from the Russians, only one man of the working party, out of about three hundred men, was killed on the left, viz., lance-corporal Richard Pinch—a very useful sapper, who had been wounded on the 26th July.

On the right there were 16 sappers employed all day in superintendence, chiefly in the deadly saps. A few were also scattered singly to No. 18 and the batteries in the first and second parallels, restoring embrasures and revetments. Two or three were finishing the doctors’ hut in the quarries, a like number plugged up shot-holes in the parapets, and three others were founding a new battery—No. 22, near Egerton’s pit—to open on the left flank of the Redan. With singular good fortune, only one casualty occurred among the workmen in the right attack, although a fire of average steadiness dismounted a gun in No. 17; knocked down the embrasures of No. 14, and damaged two or three magazines.

Night came on, and 32 sappers with 400 linesmen poured into the Gordon trenches, and half the number were detailed for the Chapman lines. Both parties were on duty for six hours, confining their exertions, in great part, to the renovation of the embrasures, merlons, and magazines. The front saps were still perseveringly advanced. Sixteen gabions were added to that advancing towards the Redan; and the unfilled ones, lodged the previous night near the little ravine, were crammed with earth in sand-bags brought from the rear. What was most unusual, not a shot or shell entered the saps during the darkness, and freed from this annoyance the workmen added much to the solidity of the trench. No. 22 was rapidly rising amid the general restorations, and while the chasms produced by driving shot and bursting shells were being filled up with the readiest contrivances, the battered magazines stood up with stronger roofs and stouter stanchions.

The effect of our fire was visible in the burning of a line-of-battle ship in the harbour, which threw out sheets of flame of such breadth and intensity, that the Russian works were wholly illuminated. Its magazines blew up, one after another, its shotted guns exploded, and in time the huge timbers which formed its ribs and walls were burnt to the water’s edge. Some storehouses on the west side of the dockyard creek also took fire, and blazed away till they had collapsed into ruins. These calamities did not in the least check the vigour of the besieged; the usual firing was kept up but with insignificant results. Not a man on the left was injured; and this shows what an outlay of treasure, endurance, and courage it costs to take at long ranges a single life. Private James Chesterman, on the right attack, was wounded slightly.

Two old acquaintances who had not met for years chanced in the early night, as the darkness was falling, to recognize each other in the quarries. Each grasped the other’s hand, and while engaged in an animated greeting, with the warm smile of welcome on their lips, a round-shot struck off both their heads! The friends were sergeants William Wilson of the corps and Morrison of the royal artillery. A genuine Scotchman was Wilson, with an accent as provincial as a Highlander. Thick-set, well knit, and athletic, he was formed for the hardships of labour. His composure under fire was remarkable; of danger he knew nothing. Among detachments of the corps he was the spirit of the trench, and moved about the lines and batteries with the same air of tranquillity as in a workshop. As a sapper few were more excellent, few more apt and bold in situations of difficulty, peril, and surprise than he. Throughout the siege he scarcely ever missed his turn in the front. If counted up, it would be found there were not many in the corps who had passed as many months in the trenches as Wilson. Safe and reliable, he was greatly in requisition by his officers. When new approaches were to be opened or new batteries constructed, Wilson, if not more importantly employed, was mostly deputed to start them. Indeed, of the execution of many he had the charge, and the tact he exercised in the arrangement of his working parties was something extraordinary. For many weeks of the concluding operations he was rarely away from the trenches, and had he lived, his brilliant services would have put him in the possession of the highest honours it belonged to his class to wear. That non-commissioned officer must have been a valuable public servant, when testimonies like the following—written under feelings of sorrow and sadness for his loss—became records of his merits:—

This was the opinion of an officer who had a thousand opportunities, in the different phases of the siege, of taking the measure of this exemplary non-commissioned officer. A reflex of this commendation found its place in the brigade-orders of the 6th September in these words:—

Such was Wilson.