Hamley says that the Russians, when hopeless of success, seemed to melt from the lost field-a very different but more probably correct version than the French. The British were too few and too exhausted, the French too little confident in the advantage gained, to convert the repulse into a rout.

NOTE: Lord Raglan, in his returns of casualties from November 2 to November 7, gave the following for the 33rd I officer, I sergeant, 9 rank and file, killed; 2 officers, 2 sergeants, 51 rank and file, wounded; I rank and file, missing. The officer killed was Ensign Thorold. There is some discrepancy in the figures given, for another return fixes the number of casualties for Inkermann alone in the 33rd at one officer and 13 men killed; 2 officers and 60 men wounded.

CHAPTER XXX

THE PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL

A FEW days after Inkermann was fought, a hurricane 1854. swept the coasts of the Crimea with such awful fury as to threaten the very existence of the Allied army. In the midst of snow and sleet and pitiless rain, and a wind which swept away tents and everything that was movable, the transports met with disaster which can well be described as calamitous. Apart from the appalling life at sea, no less than thirty-two of the British ships were completely wrecked, and with their loss came deprivation that is difficult to describe. The British army especially was brought to a state of destitution.

It was the commencement of a dire experience which has become historic. There is not space in this story of the 33rd to describe the horrors of the winter which followed that sweeping tempest of November 14th. It brought the army to starvation point. There was not only shortage of food and fuel in the fiercest of winters, but the loss of warm clothing which went down in enormous quantities in the transports, as well as ammunition, provisions and twenty days' forage.

The huts were at Balaclava, but there was no transport for them across the execrable roads; hence the army was under canvas in the midst of cold so "insufferably bitter, that it was . . . seriously discussed, by those exposed to it, whether a few more degrees of fall in the barometer would not suffice to destroy, to the last man, the remnant of the finest army that ever left these shores."

The French were generous in their help, but in spite of their co-operation the hospitals were crowded out, and the death-rate rose to an appalling degree. At the back of all the suffering must be placed something more than mismanagement-the failure of the calculations of those who, in planning the expedition to the Crimea, anticipated the fall of Sebastopol in a few days. The French suffered terribly in the early days, but ships came from France, bringing tents and huts, winter clothing and provisions, in a steady flow. The criticism of our Allies is worth quoting. "The losses which" the British "had experienced from the tempest of the 14th, and the improvidence, perhaps, of their military administration, which was not so minutely and regularly organised as ours, left them more exposed to the severe trials of the first and more rigorous assaults of the winter. But the courage of that valiant army remained unshaken, although with profound grief we saw it daily reduced by sickness, and but slowly advancing that part of the siege which was assigned to it."

Shortly after the Battle of Inkermann Colonel Blake was invalided home, and Brevet-Major Mundy took the command of the 33rd. That officer was mentioned by Lord Raglan as being among those who especially distinguished themselves at Inkermann.

Throughout the severe winter the Russians were active. Again and again Lord Raglan reported endeavours on the part of the enemy to take up important positions, which added to the rough experiences of the British army, of whom at least 8,000 were in hospital, with a tendency to increase. He reported, moreover, that through those days of November and December it hardly ceased either to rain, hail or snow, so that communications were rendered more difficult, and materially retarded the movement of supplies and stores.

The 33rd suffered severely in this terrible weather, the numbers being greatly reduced by sickness brought on by the severity of the winter, and constant and

arduous duties in the trenches. The depleted regiment was, however, greatly strengthened on the 6th of December, when the companies numbered 16, the Service numbers being 1,120, the depôt numbers 1,098, the total reaching 2,218.

On the 15th of December a General Order was issued in the following terms:

HORSE GUARDS,

15th December, 1854.

The Queen having been pleased to command that a Medal, bearing the word "Crimea," with an appropriate device, shall be conferred upon all the officers, non-commissioned officers, and private soldiers of Her Majesty's Army, including the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners, who have been engaged in the arduous and brilliant campaign in the Crimea, and that Clasps, with the words "Alma " or "Inkermann" thereon, shall also be awarded to such as may have been engaged in either of those battles; the General Commanding-in-Chief desires that this mark of Her Majesty's gracious approbation of the services of that portion of Her forces employed under Field-Marshal Lord Raglan shall be published in the General Orders of the Army.

Field-Marshal Lord Raglan has been requested to forward lists of the individuals entitled to these honourable distinctions.

Yet all this while the winter horrors were continuous, and as Sir Evelyn Wood says, towards the end of November there were no battalions in which some private soldiers were not tainted with scurvy. He adds the startling statement that "although 20,000 lbs. of lime-juice, equal to 634,000 rations, was received on the 19th of December, 1854, at Balaclava, it was not till February, 1855, after the whole army had become so affected, that the first issue was made!" He says

yet more. "Some fresh meat was issued in January and February, but the sick were always served first, and as the whole quantity issued in sixty days amounted only to 14 lbs. per man, and as half the army was in hospital, the men who were still struggling on at duty got but little." What can be said of such a statement as this, that "there was no system, until December, capable of bringing fresh vegetables to the soldiers working in the trenches. (Yet) one ship. arrived from Varna with her decks piled up with cabbages, but the purchaser had omitted to consign them to anyone, and no one being willing to accept the financial responsibility of signing for them, they were eventually thrown overboard?"

One does not wonder that the ranks were depleted in those awful months, while some were blundering through at home; that the hospitals were being crowded out to the doors with the gaunt forms of those who had fallen victims to the sword, to exposure, fatigue, and starvation; and for a time, still more rapidly emptied by the exchange of the narrow bed of pain and fever, for a calmer and untroubled restingplace the grave. That is not the whole of the scandalous story, for Brackenbury goes on to tell how the horses suffered from the lack of system as badly as the men, for when, sometimes, it was found that there was corn, or other forage, available, the authorities had never considered it necessary to send out nosebags!

The Russians suffered greatly, but they were active in keeping the Allied army constantly on the alert. On December 20th two sorties were made from Sebastopol, one, as Lord Raglan said, being conducted silently, on our right in the dead of night; the other on the left, with drums beating, and with shouting. The silent attack on the Inkermann heights was unsuspected until the enemy were close, and made a rush on the most forward parallel, coming on so fiercely that the pickets had to drop back. Some regiments came 1 Brackenbury: "Campaign in the Crimea."