167 Years Later: The Battle of Inkerman

[GCCE1854]

Having just realized that today was the 167th anniversary of the Battle of Inkerman, I didn't want the day to go by without a short post here. Hoping to add more later, but it's a thing to remember. There were 2,357 British casualties in what was termed "The Soldier's Battle". 

Here's a rather poignant image of the Field of Inkerman, complete with trenches.

 

 If anyone has any reminiscences or memoirs to share here, please do! I'll be back with some myself.

In the meantime, I'm going to share a couple bits from the 1916 autobiography of General Sir George Higginson of the Grenadier Guards seems quite telling. More than sixty years after the battle, General Higginson penned these lines -- and it's obvious in his entire book that the Crimean War (particularly the Battle of Inkerman) was the most memorable part of his life. While these have been quoted before online, it's obvious why they're a favourite piece when you read his full account of the battle. It's like his emotion was written onto the pages. Apparently, the one of the only (or the only, depending on what I've read) British Colours carried on the battlefield that day were those belonging to the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards and were kept as a rallying point, though at a great cost.

 

"Clustered round the Colours, with scarcely a round of ammunition left, the men pressed slowly backwards, keeping their front full towards the enemy, their bayonets ready at the “charge”. As a comrade fell, wounded or dead, his fellow took his place and maintained the compactness of the gradually diminishing group that held on with unflinching stubbornness in protecting the flags. More than once from the lips of this devoted band of noncommissioned officers and rank-and-file came the shout, “Hold up the Colours!” fearing, no doubt, that in the mist and smoke they might lose sight or touch of those honoured emblems, which they were determined to preserve, or in their defence to die. The two young officers, Verschoyle and Turner, raised them well above their heads, half unfurled, and in this order we moved slowly back, exposed to fire, fortunately desultory and ill-aimed, from front, rear, and left flank. Happily the ground on our right was so precipitous as to deter the enemy from attempting to outflank us on that side. As from time to time some Russian soldiers, more adventurous than their fellows, sprang forward towards our compact group, two or three of our Grenadiers would dash out with the bayonet and compel speedy retreat. Nevertheless, our position was critical. By the time, however, we had traversed half the distance to the breastworks of the Second Division (which I proved by subsequent measurement to be 700 yards distant from the Sandbag Battery), the pressure on our rear and left was relaxed, the Russian column having been sternly repulsed by the force occupying the ridge; while our men welcomed with a cheer a company of Zouaves bringing up at last on our right the timely aid which General Bosquet had, no doubt for sufficient reasons, been prevented from sending earlier. The enemy on our immediate front soon realised the danger of a further advance and fell back. Free at length to rejoin our main body, we hastened our pace, and soon descried the Duke of Cambridge and the rest of our Brigade on the crest of the ridge. I shall never forget the cheer with which the returning Colours were welcomed by all ranks; HRH being almost moved to tears for, as they all aid, “We had given you up for lost.” Many a time have my thoughts flown back over the waste ofyears to this stirring episode; many a time I have told the story among friends; never until now have I ventured to commit it to writing; for, indeed, my pen would have failed at any time in an attempt to impress a reader with the varying emotion which filled my mind while the safety of our Colours was in jeopardy. The mere possibility of the Colours of the First Regiment of our Sovereign’s Guards being laid as a trophy at the feet of the Czar had to be faced, and 1 believe that a prayer went up from all of us that such dishonour might be averted at all costs. Certainly the grave faces and resolute attitude of our Grenadiers made me realise that there was no exaggeration in the language used by Sir William Napier in his well-known description of the behaviour of the 1500 British soldiers, all who remained to stand triumphant on the fatal hill at Albuera -” one know with what majesty the British soldier fights.”

 

And he mentions these colours again, thinking of them more than sixty years later . . .

Time has not served to dim my respect and admiration for the bravery and devotion of this little group of Grenadiers in the defence of their Colours on the day of Inkermann. The tattered fragments of those Colours have found their final resting place on the walls of the Guards' Chapel. I feel confident that none of my readers is so cynical as to smile if I admit that I never enter that treasure house of memorials, so dear to every member of the Brigade of Guards, and feel able to gaze without emotion on the Colours which served as our rallying point on the dark upland of lnkermann.

 

May the memory of that action and sacrifice not dim . . . even 167 years later. 

[Salvage Sailor]

Thanks for the reminder.  Note the Sandbag Battery of the 41st dangling on the upper right under pressure from Pauloff

 

Photos:  Inkerman 1854