FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL SIR EVELYN WOOD THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO BY EVELYN WOOD, P.M. V.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G. IN TWO VOLUMES WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS VOLUME I METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published in 7906 College Library DP* Wt Vit TO MY COMRADES PAST AND PRESENT OF ALL RANKS IN BOTH SERVICES I DEDICATE THIS STORY OF MY LIFE 2066838 CONTENTS CHAP. FACE RECORD OF APPOINTMENTS, STAFF APPOINTMENTS, AND WAR SERVICES, EXTRACTED FROM THE OFFICIAL LIST xi I. INTRODUCTION ....... I II. 1852 H.M.S. QUEEN, Il6 GUNS .... 8 III. 1853-4 LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR l6 IV. 1854 INVASION OF THE CRIMEA . . . .28 V. 1854 THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL . . . V 45 VI. 1854-5 A NAKED AND STARVING ARMY 57 VII. 1855 SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL ..... 69 VIII. 1855 ASSAULT OF THE REDAN . . . .82 IX. 1855 ASSAULT OF THE REDAN Continued . . . Q2 X. 1856-7 1 3TH LIGHT DRAGOONS . . . Io6 XI. 1858 CENTRAL INDIA . . . . . Il8 XII. 1858 SINDWAHA . . . . . .131 XIII. 1858-9 A PURSUIT . . . . . .144 XIV. 1859 THE END OF THE MUTINY .... 154 XV. 1859 BEATSON'S HORSE . . . . . 164 XVI. 1859-60 THE SIRONJ JUNGLES . . . .176 XVII. i860 CENTRAL INDIA HORSE . . . . .189 XVIII. 1861-2-3 THE STAFF COLLEGE .... 2O2 xix. 1865-7 "ON THE STAFF" . . . . .218 XX. 1867-71 ALDERSHOT ...... 230 vii viii CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XXI. 1871-2-3 QOTH LIGHT INFANTRY .... 247 XXII. 1873 ASHANTI ....... 257 XXIII. 1873-4 AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI . . 269 XXIV. 1874-8 ALDERSHOT : SOUTH AFRICA . . .287 XXV. 1878 THE GAIKAS AND PERIE BUSH .... 304 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS PAGE MR. E. WOOD, R.N., 1852 ..... Frontispiece From a Painting by LADY WOOD THE BLACK SEA ........ 26 THE CRIMEA, SOUTH-WESTERN PART . . . -34 THE UPLAND . . . . . . . . 44 PLAN OF THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL .... 90 CORNET WOOD ........ IOO BISSAEDAR DHOKUL SINGH BAHADUR . . . .138 AN EPISODE AT SINDWAHA ...... 140 SINDWAHA ........ 142 SINDHARA ........ 188 CENTRAL INDIA ........ 2OO VAGABOND ........ 22O MAJOR WOOD'S QUARTERS, ALDERSHOT, 1869-71 . . .246 THE DEATH OF ARTHUR EYRE ..... 280 THE ASHANTI CAMPAIGN ...... 286 MAJOR WOOD'S QUARTERS, 1876-77 . . . . .292 THE GAIKA REBELLION ...... 302 THE PERIE BUSH ....... 322 NOTE. The Maps are in most cases placed at the end of the chapter, or chapters, which they are intended to illustrate. FIELD MARSHAL SIR EVELYN WOOD V.C, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., P.S.C., BARRISTER-AT-LAW RECORD OF APPOINTMENTS, STAFF APPOINTMENTS, AND WAR SERVICES EXTRACTED FROM THE OFFICIAL LIST APPOINTMENTS ROYAL NAVY, from i5th April 1852 to 6th September 1855. CORNET, 13x11 LIGHT DRAGOONS, 7th September 1855. LIEUTENANT, 13 LIGHT DRAGOONS, ist February 1856. LIEUTENANT, I7TH LANCERS, 9th October 1857. CAPTAIN, I7TH LANCERS, i6th April 1861. BREVET-MAJOR, I7TH LANCERS, igth August 1862. BREVET-MAJOR, 73RD FOOT, 2ist October 1862. BREVET-MAJOR, 17 FOOT, loth November 1865. MAJOR, unattached, 22nd June 1870. MAJOR, goTH LIGHT INFANTRY, 28th October 1871. BREVET-LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, igtii January 1873. BREVET-COLONEL, ist April 1874. LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, QOTH LlGHT INFANTRY, 1 3th November 1878. Half-Pay, isth December 1879. MAJOR-GENERAL, i2th August 1881. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, ist April 1890. GENERAL, 26th March 1895. FIELD MARSHAL, 8th April 1903. xi xii STAFF APPOINTMENTS STAFF APPOINTMENTS NAVAL BRIGADE, ACTING AIDE-DE-CAMP, ist January to 2Qth June 1855- BRIGADE-MAJOR TO FLYING COLUMN, CENTRAL INDIA, ist November 1858 to 1 5th April 1859. AIDE-DE-CAMP IN DUBLIN, 22nd January 1865 to 3 ist March 1865. BRIGADE-MAJOR, ALDERSHOT, 3 ist July 1866 to i3th November 1868. DEPUTY- ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, ALDERSHOT, i4th November 1868 to 25th November 1871. SPECIAL SERVICE, GOLD COAST, i2th September 1873 to 25th March 1874. SUPERINTENDING OFFICER OF GARRISON INSTRUCTION, loth September 1874 to 27th March 1876. ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL AT ALDERSHOT, 28th March 1876 to ist February 1878. SPECIAL SERVICE, SOUTH AFRICA, 25th February 1878 to 2nd April 1879. BRIGADIER-GENERAL, SOUTH AFRICA, 3rd April 1879 to 5 tn August 1879. BRIGADIER-GENERAL AT BELFAST AND CHATHAM, i5th December 1879 to i4th January 1881. LOCAL MAJOR-GENERAL IN SOUTH AFRICA, 151)1 January 1881 to 27th February 1881. MAJOR-GENERAL IN SOUTH AFRICA, 28th February 1881 to i6th February 1882. BRIGADIER-GENERAL AT CHATHAM, i4th February to 3rd August 1882. MAJOR-GENERAL IN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, 4th August 1882 to 3 ist October 1882. BRIGADIER-GENERAL, CHATHAM, ist November to 20th December 1882. SIRDAR, EGYPTIAN ARMY, 2ist December 1882 to 3ist March 1885. COMMANDED ON THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION ON THE NILE, i5th September 1884 to i4th June 1885. MAJOR-GENERAL, EASTERN DISTRICT, ist April 1886 to 3 ist December 1888. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, COMMANDING AT ALDERSHOT, ist January 1889 to 8th October 1893. QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL TO THE FORCES, 9th October 1893 to 3oth September 1897. ADJUTANT-GENERAL TO THE FORCES, ist October 1897 to 3th September 1901. GENERAL, COMMANDING 2ND ARMY CORPS, LATER SOUTHERN COMMAND, ist October 1901 to 3 ist December 1904. WAR SERVICES xiii WAR SERVICES WOOD, SIR (H.) E., V.C, G.C.B. (FIELD MARSHAL). CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN, 1854-5. Served in the Naval Brigade in the battle of Inkerman, and at the bombardments of Sevastopol, in October 1854, April and June 1855, including the assault on the Redan of i8th June (severely wounded). Despatches, London Gazette, 2nd and 4th July 1855. Medal, with two Clasps; Knight Legion of Honour; 5th Class, Medjidie ; Turkish Medal. INDIAN MUTINY, 1858-60. Served as Brigade-Major, Beatson's Horse; commanded ist Regiment of Beatson's Horse; raised and commanded 2nd Regiment of Central India Horse; was present at the action of Rajghur, Sindwaha, Kurai, Barode, and Sindhara. Despatches, London Gazette, 24th March and 5th May 1859. Medal and Victoria Cross. ASHANTI WAR, 1873-4. Raised and commanded Wood's Regiment throughout the campaign ; commanded the troops at the engagement of Essaman, Reconnaissance of 2 7 th November 1873; commanded the Right column at the battle of Amoaful (slightly wounded), and was present at the action before Coomassie. Despatches, London Gazette \ i8th and 25th November 1873 ; 6th, 7th, and 3ist March 1874. Medal with Clasp. Brevet of Colonel ; Companion of the Bath. SOUTH AFRICAN WAR, 1878-9-81. Kafir Campaign, commanded a force in clearing the Buffalo Poort and Perie Bush, and at the attack on the Tutu Bush ; at attack on Intaba Ka Udoda Bush, and in the operations on the Buffalo Range. Zulu Campaign, commanded a column at the actions at Zunguin Mountains, and Inhlobane (horse killed), Kambula, and at the battle of Ulundi. Despatches, London Gazette, i7thMay, nth and i8th June, 1878; and 2ist February, 5th, 1 5th, 2ist, 28th March, 4th, i4th, 2ist April, 7th and i6th May, and 2ist August, 1879. Medal with Clasp ; Knight Commander of the Bath. Transvaal Campaign, conducted negotiations and concluded peace with the Boers. Promoted Major-General ; Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George. EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION, 1882. Commanded 4th Brigade, 2nd Division. Operations near Alexandria, and surrender of Kafr Dowar and Damietta. Despatches, London Gazette, November 1882. Thanked by both Houses of Parliament. Medal; Bronze Star; 2nd Class, Medjidie. xiv OTHER DISTINCTIONS SUDAN EXPEDITION, 1884-5. Nile. As Major-General on Lines of Communication. Despatches, London Gazette^ 25th August 1885. Clasp. GRAND CORDON OF THE MEDJIDIE, ist Class, 1885. KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH, 1901. OTHER DISTINCTIONS PASSED STAFF COLLEGE, 1864. BARRISTER-AT-LAW, 1874. HONORARY COLONEL, 2nd BATTALION ESSEX RIFLE VOLUNTEERS, 1879; and 1 4th MIDDLESEX (!NNS OF COURT), 1900. JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, 1885. DEPUTY-LIEUTENANT FOR THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, 1897. GRAND CROSS IMPERIAL LEOPOLD ORDER, 1904. FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Ancestry Parentage The Grammar School and College at Maryborough I become a Naval Cadet. THE Woods, from whom I am descended, were for hundreds ^^ of years owners of Hareston Manor, Brixton, a small village near Plymouth. There is a record of a John a' Wood living there in the eighth year of the reign of King Edward the Third, and in the north aisle of the church a ledger stone with coat of arms to John Wood, who died A.D. 1724. The Hareston Woods died out, but a younger branch settled at Tiverton, the head of which manufactured lace and serge, and to him was born and duly apprenticed as a lad, Matthew. He soon started in business on his own account, and eventually became a successful hop merchant, being chosen Lord Mayor of London in 1815 and 1816. He represented the City in nine successive Parliaments, 1 and was as fearless in defending the cause of Queen Caroline, which he warmly espoused, as he was in all matters aldermanic and magisterial. When Lord Mayor, he faced, practically alone, a riotous mob, whose leader was exhorting his followers to storm the Bank of England. Mr. Wood running out into the crowd, pulled the ring- leader off his horse, and dragged him inside the Bank railings, a prisoner. In 1820 the Alderman was sitting in his counting-house, 1 He was created a baronet in 1837. I. I 2 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL when an agent of the Duke of Kent, calling late on Saturday afternoon, asked Matthew Wood for the loan of ; 10,000. The agent explained it was important for reasons of State that the expected baby 1 of the Duchess of Kent, who was then at Ostend, should be born in England, and that His Royal Highness the Duke could not cross over unless he received that sum of money to satisfy his more pressing creditors. Mr. Wood promised to reply on the Monday, after consulting his partners; the agent urged, however, that the state of the Duchess's health admitted of no delay and that she ought to cross immediately, so my grandfather gave him the cheque. My mother, to whom I owe any good qualities I may possess, came of a race of Cornish squires. John Michell represented Truro in Parliament in the reign of Elizabeth. My uncle, Admiral Sir Frederick Michell, had a lease of a tin mine from the Crown, granted to Thomas Michell, gentleman, dated more than three hundred years ago ; and we find Michells of Croft West 2 lending money to a courtier in favour with Charles the Second. The Michells were in comfortable cir- cumstances till Thomas, my mother's grandfather, formed, and maintained, the Four Barrow Hunt. This expense and the investment of 60,000 in tin mines resulted in the sale of the family estate. Sampson Michell, the son of Thomas, entering the Royal Navy, fought under Lord Howe. By permission of our Government, he joined the Portuguese Navy in 1783, and was in 1807 its Commander-in-Chief, his younger children being born at Lisbon. He was very popular with the Portuguese of all classes. The Government promoted him as rapidly as possible, and appointed his eldest son, Frederick, a Second Lieutenant when he was eight years old ! The French having invaded Portugal, the Royal Family embarked for the Brazils in November 1807, but the Portuguese ships were still in the Tagus when Marsha] Junot, entering the city with a small escort, himself aimed and fired a gun at the Portuguese men-of-war. The two Michell girls were playing 1 Later Queen Victoria. 2 Croft West, five miles out of Truro, is now (1906) a farmhouse, the flagged stones of the kennels remaining ; and clean cut in a window frame on the ground floor are the names of many Michells, A.D. 1773. INTRODUCTION 3 in the garden when the French appeared, and to escape capture were hurried down to the river without a change of clothes and put on board H.M.S. Lively, a frigate, which only reached Falmouth after a voyage of twenty-three days ! Sampson Michell, Admiral in the Portuguese Navy, died at the Brazils in 1809, leaving a widow and five children. From savings effected out of his pay he had bought a house at Truro, but Mrs. Michell had only go per annum on which to keep herself, two unmarried daughters, and Molly, a life- long servant. The income tax, then raised as a war tax, was at that time lod. in the pound ; bread sold at I4d. the quartern loaf, so life was difficult for the widow. The Admiral left to his sons only a fine example, and sound advice : " Never get into debt ; do your duty to God and to your country." The elder, Frederick, had joined the Royal Navy six years earlier, and died in 1873, when eighty-four years of age, an Admiral, with eight wounds and eleven decora- tions ; but he appears again in my story. The younger son, Charles, having joined the Royal Artillery from Woolwich, was attached to the Portuguese Army in 1 8 1 o, and though only a Lieutenant in our Service, commanded a Battery with marked gallantry and ability up to the final engagement, in 1 8 1 4, at Toulouse. While quartered there he eloped with an attractive but penniless French girl * from a convent school, and was soon after, on the reduction of the Army, placed on half pay, his income being a mere pittance. Seven years later, when still in France, with an increasing family, he received from a friend in England a cutting from the Times, in which the Government advertised for a teacher of " Fortification and Military Drawing" for Sandhurst College, which had been recently moved to its present position. 1 In 1887 my friend Dr. Norman Moore, having been summoned to Algiers to see a patient, was on his return seated at dinner in an hotel at Toulouse, and being the only guest, in talking to the waiter asked, "Is there anyone left of the D'Arragon family?" "Oh no," he said; "the last of them, a young lady, eloped with an English officer after the battle, 1814. When you have finished your dinner, if you come to the window, I will show you the bridge on which they met ; and she carried her bag with some clothes, to show that she met him of her own accord." Norman Moore, who knew the story, said, " Yes, but the bag was not much bigger than a bonbonniere." He greatly interested the waiter by showing he knew much about the family. 4 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1838 Charles was not only a good draughtsman but an engraver, having studied the art under Bartolozzi, and as specimens of his work he sent an engraving of a plan he had made of Passages, a little seaport in Guipuzcoa, Spain, and a sketch of Nantes, Brittany, where he lived. Having obtained the appointment in this unconventional manner, he joined the Instructional Staff, at what is now known as Yorktown, Camberley, in 1824, and was promoted later to a similar but better paid post at Woolwich, whence he was sent in 1828 to the Cape of Good Hope as Surveyor- General, and remained there until he was invalided home in 1848. While holding this appointment he made locomotion possible for Europeans, constructing also lighthouses and sea-walls. I was born at the Vicarage, Cressing, a village near Braintree, Essex, on the 9th of February 1838, the youngest son of John Page Wood, Clerk in Holy Orders, who was also Rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill, in the City of London. My father, 1 educated at Winchester and Cambridge, visited as a lad the Field of Waterloo a few days after the i8th of June 1815, and brought back the small book 2 of a French soldier, killed in the battle. This book, which I still possess, has within its leaves a carnation, and belonged evidently to a Reservist who had been recalled to the Colours in " The Hundred Days." He had served in the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814, and had been discharged on Napoleon's abdication, as is shown by his last pay settlement. My father took his degree early in 1820, and was immediately appointed Chaplain and Private Secretary to Queen Caroline. In the following year he married Emma Carolina Michell, with whom he had been acquainted for some time ; for he frequently accompanied his uncle, Benjamin Wood, to visit copper mines in Cornwall in which the Woods had an interest. Benjamin Wood was later for many years Member for Southwark. In 1846, owing to monetary troubles, our governess was sent away, and her time having been previously fully occupied 1 He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1843. 2 An account-book, carried by soldiers of all European armies, showing their service, with statements of pay received, and due. 1847-51] INTRODUCTION 5 with the elder children, I had but little instruction, and when I went to the Grammar School, Marlborough, in February 1 847, I could only read words of one syllable. This I was ashamed to admit, and was greatly distressed when as a first lesson the master gave me two lines of Latin to learn by heart. My elder brother, understanding my trouble, beckoned me to the bench at his side, and repeated my task until I was word perfect. After two years at the Grammar School, where boys were sufficiently fed, but caned severely for false quantities, I went to the College at the other end of the town. The food was poor and scanty, yet I preferred the College to the Grammar School, from the greater liberty we enjoyed. I gave no trouble while at the College, or at least escaped adverse notice, till December 1851, when unjust punishment made me anxious to leave the School for any place, or for any profession. In October our pocket money (mine was 6d. weekly) was collected for providing fireworks, as had been the annual custom, for Guy Fawkes' Day. On the 5th November, after the fireworks had been purchased, and distributed, the Head Master forbade their being displayed. It did not affect me, as boys of our Form, the Lower Fourth, were considered to be too young to let off the crackers and squibs their money had purchased. When night fell, the younger masters endeavoured to enforce the prohibition ; several personal acts of violence occurred in which the boys were victorious, for the Upper Fifth and Sixth averaged from seventeen to eighteen years of age, and many were as big as their teachers. Fireworks were let off in the dormitories during the night, and acts of insubordination continued throughout November. The Head was a learned scholar and kind-hearted man, but not strong enough to master 500 boys, of whom 100 were verging on manhood. I saw him when approaching his desk in the Upper School struck by a swan-shot thrown by a crossbow. The pellet stuck in his forehead, and he allowed it to remain there till school was up. If, as I believe, the feeling of the Lower Fourth was representative of the School, a tactful man might have utilised the shame and remorse we felt, to quell the rebellion ; but neither he nor his assistants 6 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1851 understood us, and later the masters' desks were burnt, an attempt made to fire some of the out-buildings, and a Trans- lation of the Greek Plays was burnt with the Head's desk. In December the Master expelled three or four boys, and gave the Upper Sixth the choice of being gradually expelled, or of handing up ringleaders for punishment. The low tone of the School was shown by the fact that several selected by the older lads were like myself, under fourteen years of age. About the middle of December I was reported on a Monday morning for being " Out of bounds, when ' confined to gates,' on the previous Saturday." I pleaded guilty to being out of bounds, but added, " I was not ' confined to gates ' ; it ended on Friday at sunset." The Head said, " You are so reported, and I mean to flog you." " The punishment for being out of bounds is 2s. 6d. fine ; may I not ask the Master (he was sitting at the next desk) if he has not erred ? " " No ; you are a bad boy, and I'll flog you." " But, sir, for five years of school-life I have never been flogged." " Now you will be : " and I was. The Reverend at once ex- pressed regret on paper for his error, and the Head Master said he was sorry for his mistake. On the Friday of the same week the decisions on the senior boys' investigations were announced, and I heard read out : " Wood, Quartus, to be flogged, to be kept back two days, and until he repeats by heart three hundred lines of any Latin author, and to be fined 2." It would be difficult to imagine greater travesty of justice than to so punish a boy of thirteen, and moreover by fining his parents. I urged my flogging on the Monday should cancel that now ordered, but the Head dissented, adding, " I apologised for that ; and you are such a bad boy, I'll flog you before your Form." My twenty-two classmates were marched in to the Sixth Form class- room, and I was ordered to get up. The culprit knelt on a bench, his elbows on a desk. Two prefects held his wrists (nominally) with one hand, and the tail of his shirt with the other. When the Master was about to strike, a noise made him look round : he saw all my classmates looking at the wall. He raged, vowed he would flog them all, but in vain ; for when the top boys of the class were forcibly turned about by the prefects they faced round again, and my punishment was 1852] INTRODUCTION 7 inflicted without the additional indignity intended. My class gave me 5. I chose the Fourth Book of the sEneid, and next morning repeated the three hundred lines. 1 I begged my parents to let me leave, offering to go into a London office, Green's Merchant Service, or anywhere, to avoid remaining under the Head Master. My father was negotiating with Green & Co., when shortly after I returned to Marlborough College, in February 1852, I unexpectedly received a nomination for the Royal Navy, being ordered to report for examination at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth Dockyard, in April. I was placed in charge of Mr. Eastman, a crammer at Portsea, for three weeks, that I might acquire the necessary amount of arithmetic to satisfy the Examiner ; for at Marlborough nearly all my school-time was given to Latin and Greek. Thirty-eight boys faced Captain (later Admiral) Chads on the 1 5th April. He read out to us half a page from the Spectator deliberately, with clear enunciation, and many repetitions, so that no boy could fail to catch the words. While the Examiner was reading, " And this was a very barren spot, barren, barren," he passed up and down the room, and as he turned his back a boy held up a sheet of paper on which he had written " baron " with a big mark of interrogation. I had time only to shake my head when Captain Chads turned, and that boy did not get into the Navy. We were given a short paper on English history, but this presented no difficulties to me, because I had been taught it by my mother at home before I could read. The examination for soldiers was often at that time even less formidable, certainly in the case of a distinguished officer who has since risen to command the Army, for on joining at Sandhurst a kindly Colonel asked him his name, and continued, " What ! a son of my friend Major ? " and on receiving an affirmative reply, said, " Go on, boy ; you have passed." 1 Doctor Cotton, later Bishop of Calcutta, who came in 1852, reformed the College, which for many years has been, and is now, one of the best in the kingdom. CHAPTER II 1852 H.M.S. QUEEN, 116 GUNS Drill aloft A daring but unpopular Captain defies a riotous crew, but is removed Captain F. T. Michell succeeds him Disappoints a Patron- age Secretary Officers of H.M.S. Queen Some hard drinkers Hugh Burgoyne His stoical endurance. I JOINED H.M.S. Victory on the I5th May, and five days later was transferred to H.M.S. Queen, 1 1 6 guns (a first- rate, of 3000 tons, launched in 1839, costing about ; 100,000). She had just returned from the Mediterranean, where she bore the Vice-Admiral's flag, and was by universal consent allowed to be the smartest three-decker in the Fleet. She had " held the record," to employ a term not then in use, for reefing top- sails, an operation curtailing the spread of canvas, which was frequently practised every week in the summer in the Vice- Admiral's squadron. The " yard," or spar supporting the canvas, is lowered to the cap, and the sailors crawling out on the yard, take in a reef by passing the reef points, or in other words fasten up the upper part of the sail in a roll on to the yard. The Fleet Orders ordained time was to be recorded from the words " lower away," which was in practice " let go," to " belay," as the reduced canvas was raised again to the required height. No man was supposed to be on the yard while it was being moved down or up, but usually the yardarm men, selected for activity and courage, reached the outer clew before the yard was down, and were seldom in from it till the sail was half-way up. Loss of life occasionally resulted, but the spirit of emulation always produced successors for the dangerous task. In 1853 I saw this operation, which was not directly useful when completed in such haste, for the greater the speed 1852] H.M.S. QUEEN 9 the more ineffective was the reefing, done many times in 6 3 seconds ; but in 1851 the Queen's men did it more than once in 59 seconds. Such almost incredible rapidity was in a measure due to the Captain, a man under whose command I now came for a few weeks. He was a strongly-built, active man, much feared, and still more disliked, by all hands on account of his severity. Nevertheless, he was respected for his activity, indomitable courage, and practical seamanship. His face was scarred by powder marks, a Marine having fired at him close up, when defending a position at Malta, which the Captain attacked at the head of a landing party. Before H.M.S. Queen left the Mediterranean, one morning a treble-reefed topsail broke loose in a gale of wind, and the mass of canvas, flapping with violence, daunted the topsail yardmen, who feared they would be knocked off the yard, on which they hesitated to venture, till the Captain reached them from the deck, and " laying out," passed a rope round the sail and secured it. A few days after I joined, when we were weigh- ing anchor from St. Helen's, Isle of Wight, and had got the stock of our best bower anchor awash, the forecastle man, 1 whose duty it was to shin down the cable and pass a rope through the ring on the stock, to run a hawser in order to " cat " the anchor, twice went half-way down and then climbed back, fearing to be washed off the stock, for the ship's bow rising and falling quickly, gave but little time to pass the rope, and each time the bow fell, the stock went out of sight under water. The Captain, who was as usual dressed in loose frock coat and gold-band cap, cursing the sailor for " a lubberly coward," slid down the chain cable with the rope in his hand on to the stock, and went with it right under water, but when he reappeared he had passed the rope end through the ring. On the 24th May 1852, H.M.S. Queen was lying moored to the Dockyard wall. Now, some fifty years later, attendant tugs are in readiness for outgoing ships, and in those days Captains preferred to have the assistance of a steamer when passing through the narrow exit of the harbour. Our man, however, disdained all such aid. Due honours to the 1 He was killed at my side in the 21 -gun battery before Sevastopol, igth October 1854. io FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1852 Sovereign's birthday having been paid, at high tide we set sail, and, casting off, proceeded to Spithead, where,' as was then the custom, all the heavy guns, and water for the cruise, were shipped. The Queen passed so close to the northern shore that it was necessary to run in our flying-jib boom to save the windows of the " Quebec Hotel," which has since disappeared. Most Captains would have been sufficiently pre- occupied with the ship's safety to disregard a small boy. Not so, however, was our Chief. His eye rested on me, standing with hands in both pockets. " What are you doing, sir, with hands in pockets ? Aft here, sail-maker's mate, with needle and tar." A big hairy seaman came aft, with his needle and tar bucket. " Sew this young gentleman's hands up in his pockets." I was seized, but as the first stitch was put in the Captain said, " Not this time, but if I see your hands there again, there they'll be for a week." Ten days later, when we were lying inside Plymouth Breakwater, I was ordered to the Captain's cabin. He was writing when the Marine sentry ushered me in, and did not look up. Presently he glanced at me, and said, " Youngster, your uncle, Captain Michell, writes asking me to see after you," and then went on writing. I stood silent, respectful, cap in hand, till raising his head he shouted, " Well, get out of the cabin." Orders were issued to " pay down " the ship's company, but they had served long enough with their Chief, and the whole crew of Bluejackets, about 770, the 200 Marines standing aloof, came aft in a body, and demanded to be " paid off." When asked for their reasons, they said anything but what they meant, but gained their point, and were by orders of the Admiralty " paid off" on the 2nd July. When nearly all the men had landed, the Captain " called " his gig, and ordered the coxswain to pull for Mutton Cove. Robert Cowling, his coxswain, when the boat was opposite to Drake's Island, said, " Beg your pardon, your honour, but might I be allowed to land you at Mount Wise ? " x The Captain growled, " Mutton Cove." After another quarter- mile, Cowling began again : " Your honour, might we 1 This place was, and is now reserved for Naval and Military Officers, being close under Government House, while Mutton Cove is the landing-place for private boats and men-of-war's liberty men. 1852] H.M.S. QUEEN n land you this last time at Mount Wise? There are a good many waiting for you at the Cove " " Curse you, do you hear me ? " And the boat went on. There was a large crowd of men just paid off, of wives lawful as well as temporary, whose demeanour and language indicated their hostile intentions. Undaunted, the Captain shouted, as he jumped on to the slimy stone step, " Put the women back, and I'll fight the d d lot of you, one after the other." Then the Bluejackets, who had been waiting to throw him into the water, ran at him in a body, and raising him shoulder high, carried him, the centre of a cheering mob, to his hotel. The pennant having been hauled down on the 2nd July, was rehoisted next day by my mother's elder brother, Captain Frederick Michell, a man differing in all characteristics from his predecessor, except that each was courageous, had a strong sense of duty as understood, and possessed a con- summate knowledge of seamanship. My uncle, born A.D. 1788, was in his sixty-fourth year, of middle height, and slight in figure. A courteous, mild manner hid great determination and force of character. In his earlier service he had repeatedly shown brilliant dash, and had been awarded by the Patriotic Fund a Sword of Honour and a grant of a hundred guineas, for gallantry in a boat attack, when he was wounded ; and was warmly com- mended in despatches for the remarkable determination he had shown in the attack on Algiers in 1 8 1 6. When re-employed in 1852 he had been living at Totnes, Devon, for many years, his last command having been H.M.S. Inconstant, paid off in 1843. His influence in the little borough where he lived in an unostentatious manner, befitting his means, was unbounded. He paid his household bills weekly, never owed a penny, was universally respected, and had been twice Mayor. A vacancy for the Parliamentary representation, impending for some time, occurred within a few weeks of Michell's re- employment. Every voter but the Captain knew, and had told the election agents who solicited the electors, mostly shopkeepers, for their votes and interest, that they " would follow the Captain." On the morning of the polling-day, Captain Michell called on the Port Admiral and asked for a day's leave to record his 12 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1852 vote. The Admiral said somewhat shortly, " I do not like officers asking for leave often ; pray when did you have leave last?" "Well, sir, Lord Collingwood gave me six weeks' leave in 1 806." This settled the question. My uncle went to Totnes, plumped against the Government candidate, and then returned to his ship. The bulk of the electors had waited for him, and the Government candidate was badly defeated. Within a few days Captain Michell received an indignant letter from a Secretary in Whitehall to the effect, " My Lords were astonished at his ingratitude." My uncle, the most simple-minded of men, was painfully affected. He had imagined that he owed his appointment to his merits, and to the consideration that the troubled Political horizon necessitated the nomination of tried seamen to command. He wrote officially to the Admiralty, stating that unless the Secretary's letter was repudiated, he must resign, and ask for a Court of Inquiry. In replying, " My Lords much regretted the entirely unauthorised and improper letter," etc. Captain Michell had the reputation of being strict and autocratic with relatives, and my messmates in the gunroom concurred in advising me to ask for a transfer to another ship, so I asked to be sent to H.M.S. Spartan, then in the Sound ; but another cadet was selected. Later, when two cadets were required for H.M.S. Melampus, bound for the Cape of Good Hope, I volunteered ; but two boys junior to me were chosen. If I had gone to the Cape, I should have missed the Crimea. My uncle asked me why I had volunteered, and I said frankly mainly to get away from him. When Michell took command, the crew consisted of a draft of Seamen-gunners and 200 Marines, and his task was to train the large numbers of West Country lads who made up the balance of 970, all told. Very patient, methodical, and precise in all his ways, he always put back every serious case, which might take a prisoner to the gratings, 1 for twenty-four hours' consideration. Some weeks after he joined, overhearing me speak of the third cutter as " My boat," he called me up and rebuked me, saying, " You mean, sir, Her Majesty's boat you have the honour to command." The Commander of the ship was very different in disposi- 1 Men when suffering corporal punishment were lashed to gratings. 1852] H.M.S. QUEEN 13 tion, manners, and temperament. A Scotchman, with a high sense of duty, he was much feared by those inclined to indulge in alcohol. Drinking to excess was common, and the Midshipmen sent below in the middle watch to mix the tumbler of spirits and water (gin being then the favourite beverage) of the officers in charge of the watch, used to bet who would put in most spirit and least water. In my first year's service two of our officers died from alcoholism. Our Commander, naturally of a choleric though kindly disposition, was severely tried by some of the older officers in the gunroom, two of whom he often " Proved," when they returned on board from shore leave. He occasionally lost his temper when answered, as he was on many occasions by a hard-drinking officer. One day giving an answer which was deemed to be unsatisfactory, he was greeted by an outburst of passion. " I'll bring your nose to the grindstone ; I'll reduce you to a gooseberry." My messmate calmly replied, in the slow, solemn manner of a man who is conscious of having drunk too much, " You cannot, sir, bring my nose to a grindstone, and to reduce me to a gooseberry is a physical impossibility." However, sometimes the Commander won in these wordy contests. One of our officers, tried in Queenstown Harbour for drunkenness, was defended by a Cork attorney as his " next friend," who thus attempted to trip up the Commander's evidence : " You say, sir, the prisoner was drunk. I suppose you have had much experience? Yes. Well, kindly define what you mean by being drunk." " A man may be drunk very drunk or beastly drunk. Your client was beastly drunk." This settled the case, and the prisoner was dismissed the Service. The First Lieutenant knew his duty and did it, but amongst men of marked characteristics attracted but little notice. Many of the younger officers were above the average in ability and efficiency, the most striking personality being a Mate, named Hugh (commonly called Billy) Burgoyne, a son of the Field Marshal whose statue stands in Waterloo Place. Mr. Burgoyne was as brave as a lion, as active as a cat, and a very Mark Tapley in difficulties. I 4 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1852 We were intimate, for I worked under his orders for some months in the maintop, of which I was Midshipman, and he Mate, and I admired him with boyish enthusiasm for his re- markable courage and endurance of pain, of which I was an eye-witness. In 1852 we were at sea in a half gale of wind increasing in force, and the ship rolling heavily, the topmen of the watch went aloft to send down the topgallant-mast. I presume that most of my readers are aware that the tall tapering poles which they see in the pictures of sailing ships were not all in one piece, but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with nautical terms I explain that the lower mast has a head which supports the top-mast, which in its turn supports the topgallant-mast, and at the head of the top- gallant-mast is similarly fixed a royal-mast. When sailors speak of sending up a topgallant-mast, it means that the mast is placed alongside the top-mast, and pulled up into position by a rope which, passing over a pulley in the top of the top- mast, is then fixed in its position by a wedge-shaped piece of iron called a " Fid," which being pushed in a hole in the top of the top-mast, receives and supports the weight of the top- gallant-mast. When it is desired to "house" or send down the top- gallant-mast, the man at the top-masthead pulls out the fid on which the topgallant-mast rests. The fid is composed of wood, shod with iron in parts, and for the purpose of extrac- tion is fitted with a " grummet " of rope, or hemp handle. In ordinary weather there is not much difficulty in extracting the fid, and most Able-seamen, holding on with their legs, manage to get both hands on to the grummet and pull out the fid ; on this occasion, however, continuous rain had caused the mast to swell, and the fid was embedded tightly ; as the ship rolled heavily in the trough of the sea, the man at the top-masthead did not care to trust to his legs, and therefore put only one hand on the fid - grummet. We were losing time, and Burgoyne, with strong language at the man for his want of courage, ran smartly aloft, and pushing him aside, put both hands on to the fid and attempted to withdraw it ; at first he failed, for the swollen wood defeated his efforts. The Marines on deck, who had the weight of the mast on their arms during the several minutes which elapsed while the 1852] H.M.S. QUEEN 15 Bluejacket was making half-hearted efforts with one hand, had got tired of supporting three-quarters of a ton of dead weight, and thus it happened that just as Burgoyne, getting his fingers inside the hole, had slightly moved the fid, the Marines " coming up " that is, slacking their hold let the topgallant- mast down on Burgoyne's hand, which was imprisoned by the tips of the fingers. He felt his hand could not be extricated until the weight was off it ; if he had screamed, the fifty men on the topgallant- fall, i.e. the hoisting-rope, would have looked up, and he would have remained with his hand still imprisoned. With extra- ordinary fortitude and self-command, Burgoyne putting his disengaged hand to his mouth, hailed the deck, making himself heard above the gale. " On deck there." " Ay, ay." " Sway again." The Marines throwing all their weight on the rope, lifted the mast, Burgoyne withdrew his hand, and then becoming unconscious, we sent him down in the bight of a rope. It is curious that l he and two others of our Mess were lost when in command. 1 Burgoyne was drowned, with all but eighteen of his command, in 1871, in the Bay of Biscay, when H.M.S. Captain, struck by a squall, "turned turtle," being overweighted above her water-line. Eurydice capsized, 1878; H.M.S. Ata- lanta disappeared, 1880. CHAPTER III 1853-4 LIFE ON BOARD A MAN OF WAR Her Majesty Queen Victoria with a steam fleet defeats a squadron of sailing line-of-battle ships Rough weather in the Channel Ship nearly wrecked in Grecian Archipelago My first command At Sinope Captain Michell's seamanship I become a Midshipman William Peel Cholera in the Fleet Reconnaissance of the Crimea. THE young Bluejackets of H.M.S. Queen, trained under zealous and efficient officers, improved rapidly in sea- manship, and on the nth August 1853, did well in a Royal Review off the Isle of Wight. Her Majesty's ships Prince Regent and Queen with three steamers represented an enemy cruising off St. Helen's, and Her Majesty the Queen, in the Victoria and Albert, led nineteen men-of-war steamers to attack us. The British fleet advanced in a crescent formation and nearly surrounded their opponents, the Commanders of which, after expending a quantity of blank ammunition, struck their colours in obedience to a signal from the Senior officer, when Her Majesty going on board the tender Fairy passed round the captured vessels. The Fleet dispersed a few days later, and our young crew was severely tested, H.M.S. Queen being caught in a heavy gale, which after tossing us about under close-reefed topsails, which were on two occasions blown away, obliged us to run for shelter into Torbay. During the gale the ship's bow and stern rose alternately high out of the water, as she pitched in a choppy sea, and a wave striking the rudder violently, made the wheel revolve with such force as to throw two of the helmsmen right over it, one being severely injured. The wheels on the upper and main deck were then double manned, 16 1853-4] LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 17 but it was necessary to control the swaying tiller in the gun- room with steadying tackles, in all thirty-two men being employed for some hours in steering the ship. The temptations of Plymouth were too much for the probity of our Mess, and Wine caterers, a Clerk, and a Master's Assistant, who misappropriated over 200. Three months later they were tried by Court Martial in the Bosphorus, and dismissed the Service, the one who was the more guilty getting six months' imprisonment; but the money had to be repaid, and in the gunroom our bill of fare up to and including Christmas Day varied only to the extent, say Sundays salt pork and plain duff with sugar, Mondays salt beef and pease pudding, while we had to continue paying our usual Mess bills, those of a Midshipman being limited to 305. per mensem, and a wine bill not exceeding /s. 6d. Tourists who steam past Cape Matapan, the southern point of Greece, in a few hours, may find it difficult to realise that H.M.S. Queen, although an unusually good sailer, took seven days to round that promontory. We were nearly wrecked in trying to beat through the Doro Channel. The passage lies between the islands of Negropont and Andros, the most northerly of the Cyclades, there being about six miles from land to land. The wind was north-east, blowing freshly, and dead against us ; we were, however, nearly through, but just before dark on the gth November, when the helm was put down in our last tack, which would have taken us clear, the jib halliards carried away, and the ship missing stays, gathered stern way. We drifted so close to the rocky cliffs of Andros that one might have thrown a biscuit on shore. A staysail brought the ship's head round in time, however, and " wearing," we lay for the night under the lee of the island. Next day the breeze increased to a gale, and the ship was kept under reefed courses, till the mainsail splitting, was replaced by the fore staysail. On the nth December the Captain bore up, and ran back to Milo, there to remain till the gale blew itself out. The harbour being landlocked, the sea was calm, as we duly saluted His Excellency the Governor, who came on board. Some hours later he returned to complain that one of the Midshipmen, in practising with his new pistol, had shot the 1 8 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1853-4 Governor's donkey. His Excellency was well satisfied with twenty dollars, which my messmate had to pay for his pistol practice. When we left Milo we had a fair wind up to Constanti- nople, and from the Golden Horn on to Beicos Bay, where we joined the Allied Fleet. We remained at anchor, amidst lovely scenery, in the Strait, which varying from half a mile to two miles, separates Europe from Asia, for ten days. On the 3rd January the combined fleets weighed to proceed to Sinope, where five weeks earlier a Turkish squadron of seven frigates had been destroyed by the Russian Fleet. H.M.S. Queen and two French line-of-battle ships had reached the northern end of the Strait, when our progress was arrested by signals. The greater part of the fleets had been less prompt in getting under way and making sail, and the wind veering to the N.N.W. and bringing with it a fog, the fleets anchored again in Beicos Bay, the Queen remaining just inside the Bosphorus. Next morning both fleets entered the Black Sea with a southerly wind, and proceeded to Sinope, the Admiral signal- ling, " The ships and territories of Turkey throughout the Black Sea are to be protected, under any circumstances, from all aggression." We reached the Bay, which is a fine natural harbour on the northern extremity of Asia Minor, on the 6th January. The town had suffered considerably from the Russian shells, two streets being entirely demolished, and amongst the wrecks of the Turkish squadron floated corpses of its indomitable crews. Three Russian men-of-war were off the port on the 4th, forty-eight hours before our arrival, and so narrowly escaped capture, or destruction. The town of Sinope, then containing about 1 0,000 inhabit- ants, is beautifully situated, but perhaps its greatest world-wide interest consists in its being the birthplace of Diogenes. The surrounding country is fertile, with many wooded valleys, which my messmates and I explored to our great pleasure on the Governor's horses, favoured by summer-like weather, though while at sea we had suffered from the intense cold. The fleets were back again in Beicos Bay on the 22nd January, and there remained at anchor for two months. I got into trouble at the end of February, the result of 1853-4] LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 19 obeying orders. A Greek brig drifting down the Bosphorus, flying signals of distress, grounded on the Asiatic side, and our Commander sent the launch with the stream anchor, and the cutter of which I was in charge, to warp her off shore. This was accomplished after a hard day's work. When we were about to return, the Senior officer wanted a glass of grog, and ordered me to put him on board the brig, the grateful Captain of which proffered refreshments. I took the cutter to the gangway, where my Superior could have ascended on the battens, assisted by a man rope, but he being stout and inactive, preferred the rope ladder suspended from the stern, and ordered me to go there. In vain I urged the swirling stream might cause the cutter's bow to be injured. He insisted on obedience, and my fears being realised, we had to go back in the launch, leaving the cutter with her bow stove in, hauled up on the beach. On returning on board I was severely reprimanded by the Commander. In my defence I submitted I was obliged to obey the order after I had pointed out its risk. He replied, " I don't care, sir ; you were in charge of the boat, so you are responsible." Three months later I was again censured, but this time because I had tried to assert my command. We were lying at the time in Kavarna Bay, and the ship's crew had leave to go on shore by detachments. In the evening two boats were sent to bring them on board, a cutter for the officers, and a barge for the Bluejackets. A Lieutenant ordered me to take into the cutter some of the men. I paid for extra paint- ing of the boat, and wanting to keep her neat and clean, begged that the men might go off in the barge, but was told peremptorily to obey orders. While we were pulling out to the ship, about two and a half miles off, some of the men became noisy, and the Lieutenant ordered me to keep them quiet. I replied to the effect it was useless to talk to drunken men, and when we got on board was reported for hesitating to obey orders. The Commander lectured me severely, predicting I should come to the gallows ; nevertheless, I suppose he was generally satisfied with me, for a few days before we left the Bosphorus again, I got, at the age of sixteen, my first independ- ent command. Some links in an adjunct to our chain cable, technically called a " Blake stopper," had become strained, and I was ordered to take it to the Turkish dockyard at Constanti- nople, to have them put into a furnace and straightened. This involved absence from the ship for a couple of days, and with the difficulties of language required some tact, but was successfully carried out. I was possibly chosen for this outing because, before we left England, I had already had some practice in handling a boat, and in the winter of 1852-53 Captain Michell commended me warmly, for him a very unusual act. His daughter, who was staying with him on board the Queen, then lying just inside the breakwater which shelters Plymouth Sound, was expecting her son, eight years old, now a distinguished Judge, Sir George Farwell, for a visit. When I left the ship for Mount Wise there was a fresh westerly wind blowing, which before we started to return had increased considerably, and no shore boat ventured to put out to the Sound. We pulled the cutter out to Redding Point, under shelter of Mount Edgcumbe, and then, having close-reefed the sail, stood out till we were under lee of the ship, which was lying head to wind, and got the future Judge up the stern ladder in safety. Indeed, I became so fond of being away in boats, and thus escaping lessons under the Naval Instructor, that he felt bound, as I see by my letters, to get me relieved for a short time, to ensure my passing the two-yearly examination, which I did in due course two years after entering the Service, and thus was enabled to have my jacket adorned with the Midshipman's white patch. The Allied fleets weighed anchor again on the 24th March to enter the Black Sea, and, as a fleet, there remained for over two years. The start was unfortunate. One of the French men-of-war ran aground. The English flagship collided with two vessels in succession, and this enabled our Captain to prove his seamanship and local knowledge. Fifteen years earlier he had commanded a corvette, and later a frigate, which were often in the Bosphorus, and seeing the misfortunes around him decided to sail up, although the wind was not favourable. He ordered the towing hawser to be let go, and hailing H.M.S. Furious, desired the Captain to offer help to the Admiral. We made all plain sail : the Captain knew the soundings and currents thoroughly, and stood so close in to the shore at Therapia, before he put the ship about, as to startle his crew. 1853-4] LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 21 The Admiral, generous in his appreciation of the seamanship shown, signalled " Well done, Queen" a signal repeated at least twice within the next few months. No other line-of- battle ship went up the Bosphorus that day under sail, and the Queen had to make five tacks ere she entered the Euxine. Our Captain's nerve was as good at sixty-five as it was at Algiers in 1816. We cruised for some days, and then anchored in the Bay opposite to the little town of Baljic, about twenty-five miles north of Varna. Our life on board ship was enlivened by frequent competitions in the Fleet ; H.M.S. Queen t called a Symondsite, built after the design of Sir William Symonds, was only 247 feet in length, with 50 feet beam. She was the fastest sailer of all the line-of-battle ships, when beating to windward, and was excelled only by H.M.S. Agamemnon, when sailing with the wind abaft the beam. The men were always eager and excited when the signal having been made, " chase to windward," our ship crossed the bows of all other line-of-battle ships. As every foot of canvas the spars and stays would support was spread, the lee guns were always run in, and the watch on deck ordered to lie down up to windward, to counteract the heeling over of the ship caused by the pressure on the sails. The varying speed of ships was found to be inconvenient later, when the Allied fleets cruised off the Crimea coast, and H.M.S. Queen was often detached with the fastest French line-of-battle ship, Marcngo, placed temporarily under Captain Michell's command. We heard on the 9th April that war was declared, but the French Admiral for some reason did not get the official news for a week later, when three cheers given for war by the English Fleet were repeated by the Allies in unison. On the 1 7th April we sailed for Odessa, and anchored four miles off the city on the 2ist. Next morning the steamers circling round in succession, bombarded the batteries without losing many men, though H.M.S. Terrible was hulled eleven times, and the Vauban set on fire by a red-hot shot. Indeed, the Russian gunners were not sufficiently well trained to make the contest equal, and after four of their magazines had been exploded their guns were silenced. H.M.S. Arethusa, a 5o-gun frigate, engaged a battery five miles off the city in the style of our grandfathers' actions. She 22 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1853-4 was under all plain sail, employed to intercept merchant ships trying to escape along the coast, when the Russians' battery opened fire, and for half an hour an animated fight was maintained by the frigate as she tacked in towards, and out from the land. The Admiral's signal " Recall " was disregarded, until he ordered, " Arethusa's Captain, come on board." This brought the frigate out, but having dropped the Captain into his gig the First Lieutenant took the ship back, and recom- menced the action, when a more peremptory signal, emphasised by the firing of a gun, ensured obedience. The young generation of Captains had never been in action, and were naturally eager to smell powder. A steamer bringing despatches arrived during the bombardment, and crossing the Admiral's bows went in to take part with the other steamers in the operations against the batteries, but was soon recalled in terms admitting of no evasion. I was away all day in a boat intercepting small vessels, and as most of them were laden with oranges, our Mess was well supplied for some time. Three weeks later, while the Allied fleets were cruising off Sevastopol, H.M.S. Tiger ran ashore in a dense fog near the spot where H.M.S. Arethusa engaged the battery. Captain Giffard behaved with great gallantry, but was severely wounded, and with his crew became prisoners of war. No prisoners could have received kinder treatment from their foes, say at Liverpool. The Governor ensured that all the English were well rationed and lodged ; the General's wife sent daily from her own kitchen dishes she had prepared for the wounded officers. While we were cruising off the Crimea we were enveloped by a fog for six days early in May, and hearing guns signalling as we thought an order to anchor, we let go our stream anchor in 89 fathoms. 1 We rang bells and fired muskets every half- hour, but it was so calm that there was little danger of a collision even to ships under way. The dense fog caused much trouble and perplexity to feathered creatures, and our decks and rigging became for forty-eight hours the resting- place for numbers of pretty horned owlets. They were so exhausted as to allow anyone to pick them up, and many 1 Probably a record depth. 1853-4] LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 23 Midshipmen and sailors tried, though I believe ineffectually, to tame them. One of my messmates died at this time from erysipelas in the face. Three nights before his death I stopped him going overboard, when he tried in a fit of delirium to drown himself. He had sent for me previously in the middle watch to tell me to make his coffee, which I had been in the habit of doing at two o'clock in the morning. We were friends in spite of a punishment he gave me, the marks of which I carry now, fifty years after the event. When we were on our passage from England to the East, I remarked on one of his unpleasant habits at table, which all the youngsters in the gunroom about twenty-five in number resented ; I was, I admit, very imper- tinent. He came round to my side of the table, and lifting me from the seat, put me on the stern-sheets locker; then, sitting on my chest, he took my hand, and bent the tip of the little finger nail down till the nail bled copiously at the root. On the 6th July, the cutter of which I had charge won a race open to the Fleet. When we were practising for the race, I removed one of the men, a weak oar, replacing him by a spare number. The man resented my action, and a few days later got me severely punished. There was a Fleet Order that officers in charge of boats would, while waiting near the shore, keep the crew in the boat. The intention of the order was to guard against trouble with the inhabitants ; but at Baljic, after the first week, it was so universally disregarded that the men were always allowed on shore, and were not ordered back even if we saw a Senior officer approaching. At the appointed hour the crew of the boat returned with exception of the aggrieved sailor, and I found him in a Greek wineshop fighting with some of the inhabitants. Four men carried him down, struggling, to the beach, and put him somewhat roughly into the boat. He jumped out, and started, as he said, to swim to the ship, but was soon sufficiently sobered to shout for help. After we took him in, he was so violent that it became necessary to lash him to the bottom of the boat, and he volunteered the information that his main pleasure in getting drunk was to spite me for taking him out of the boat before the race. When I reported, on going on board, the Captain sentenced the sailor to ten days' imprisonment, and directed the 24 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1853-4 Commander to give me a severe punishment. He complied conscientiously, and I got " Watch and watch," including confinement to the ship. " Watch and watch " meant four hours on, four off, in the twenty-four hours, and as the culprit's hammock was taken on deck daily at 6.30 a.m. and he was not excused any duties which came round in his turn below, the process resembled that by which the " Lion King," l many years ago, tamed his wild beasts. The punishment was remitted after three weeks, I believe on the recommendation of the doctor in charge of the ship. If, however, it affected my health, it did not depress my spirits, and I joined every evening in skylarking with my messmates, though I admit now, as I did at the time, I feared doing many of the monkey-tricks which some of us achieved, rather than be deemed to be less courageous than my comrades. The game may be briefly described as that of Follow-my-Leader. Now, I have always been giddy when on a height, and one evening nearly fell from the main truck, which is the flat or slightly round piece of wood crowning the top of the royal- mast, in H.M.S. Queen 147 feet in height. The cap or truck is about the size of a dinner-plate, and my shoes being larger than it, protruded over its edges. I held on to the lightning conductor, which reached my waistband, being so nervous as to want to be sick, and at one moment almost let go my hold. It has always puzzled me why some of us are giddy, while others have no nervous apprehension of falling. When Her Majesty the Queen passed through the Fleet off St Helen's, on the 4th August 1853, and the ship's company having " manned yards" were cheering, I saw Private Buckle, Royal Marine Light Infantry, remove the fore royal-mast lightning conductor, and with folded arms balance on his head on the truck. When we were at anchor in Baljic Bay, I fell overboard one evening when acting as the " Leader " in one of these games. I had come down from the main yardarm, on the brace, and was resting on the brace block, level with the poop, when an officer trying to startle me opened a " quarter gallery " window suddenly, with a shout. He succeeded, for I let go, and falling fortunately immediately between two lower deck 1 Van Amberg, in the forties a celebrated wild-beast tamer, dominated them by breaking their rest. 1853-4] LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 25 ports which were open, reached the water after turning over twice in the air. I made my shins bleed by striking the bulging outside of the ship, but was able to swim to the boats made fast astern. Had I fallen on a port and there was little space between them I must have been killed. On the 2Oth July, General Sir George Brown, who commanded the Light Division, and General Canrobert having embarked in our flagship, H.M.S Britannia, the Fleet stood across the Black Sea, heaving to, off Fort Constantine, while we counted the Russian ships in the harbour of Sevastopol, and tried to estimate the value of the defensive works. Our steamers went in close enough to draw fire, but H.M.S. Fury was the only one hit. We remained on the coast a week, between Sevastopol and Balaklava. After cruising for some days, H.M.S. Queen was detached with the Marengo^ and our frigates, and Captain Michell as Commodore signalling H.M.S. Diamond to take letters into Varna for the English mail, William Peel, her Captain, came on board for orders. All our officers were anxious to see him, for he had already a Service reputation as one of the best, though the youngest Post Captain. He was the third son of that great Minister of whom the Duke of Wellington said, " Of all the men I ever knew he had the greatest regard for truth." Sir Robert had died four years earlier, being mortally injured when his horse fell with him on Constitution Hill. William entering the Navy in 1838, had seen service on the Syrian Coast and in the China War. He had passed such a brilliant examination after six years' service as to gain promotion at once, and two years later became a Commander. After he became a Post Captain, when in command of H.M.S. Diamond^ Peel was sitting one day in the stern cabin reading, dressed in frock coat and epaulets, when hearing a shout of " Man overboard," he ran to the stern window in time to see a Bluejacket under the water ; without a moment's hesita- tion the Captain dived, but the man had sunk, and was not recovered. When I first saw this striking-looking man I had no idea that I was to spend some months with such a highly-strung, nervous, gallant gentleman, and whom I learned to love and esteem more and more daily, as " the bravest of the brave." 26 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1853-4 In 1855, eight months later, I became his Aide-de-Camp, and we were constantly together until the i8th June, when we were both wounded and invalided to England. I was evidently much struck with Captain Peel's appearance and manners, for I recorded in boyish language, " Captain Peel, very intelligent, sharp as a needle ; I never saw a more perfect gentleman." His looks and bearing were greatly in his favour, for both in face and figure there was an appearance of what sportin^ men, in describing well-bred horses, call " quality." He was about medium height, with head gracefully set on broad, well- turned shoulders, light in lower body, and with a dignified yet easy carriage ; his dark brown wavy hair was generally carefully brushed back, showing an oval face, high square forehead, and deep blue-grey eyes, which flashed when he was talking eagerly, as he did when excited. His face when in repose had a somewhat austere look, with smooth and chiselled outline, a firm-set mouth which was the more noticeable because of his being clean-shaved. I do not know that I have ever met so brave a man and yet one who felt so acutely every shot which passed close to him. When we returned to Baljic Bay, early in August, cholera had broken out in the British camps near Varna. In addition to the 600 men who died, each Division had a number of men, equal to about a battalion, who required change of air, and these were sent down to the Bosphorus, while the physical efficiency of many of those who remained at duty was seriously impaired, a fact which was not realised by those who criticised the apparent slowness of the advance, and lack of enterprise after the victory, on the Alma, six weeks later. Cholera soon reached the Fleet. 1 As I showed in The Crimea in 18^4.-^^ the troops were insufficiently supplied with medical equipment, but this could not be alleged as regards the sailors. Indeed, one great advantage in the Naval Service lies in the fact that a crew virtually goes on active service each time a ship leaves harbour. Nevertheless, although we were amply supplied with every requisite, our casualties were greater, because the men were concentrated 1 In my log, 12.8.54, I read: "H.M.S. Trafalgar stood under our stern last night, and asked for medical assistance." 1853-4] LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 27 in one place. The French flagship lost 1 40, of whom 40 died the first night ; our flagship lost about one-tenth of the ship's company ; and none escaped except H.M. ships London and Queen. The screams of a sufferer when seized with cramp often brought on other seizures, and the scenes on a middle or lower deck were trying even to strong nerves. We went to sea to try and shake off the disease. A few days later, so many men were enfeebled by intestinal complaints, that some of the ships, carrying crews of 700 to 1000 men, had not sufficient Effectives to work the sails; and when we returned to our anchorage, and the Admiral wanted his boat, officers had to prepare it I was sent on board the flagship with a party to furl sails, and while the epidemic lasted we went at sunrise and sunset daily, to bury her dead. While the fleets were cruising in the Black Sea, the Allied Generals in the Caradoc, escorted by H. M.S. Agamemnon, re- connoitred the bays and mouths of rivers in the Crimea, from Eupatoria on the north to Balaklava on the south. Lieutenant-General Sir George Brown wished to land the troops on the Katcha River, but Lord Raglan and his colleagues considered this was undesirable owing to the proximity of the fortress, troops from which might interrupt the disembarkation, and his Lordship chose Kalamita Bay, six miles north of the Bulganac stream. With one very important exception, the scarcity of potable water, the spot selected was perfect. There was a long, low strip of shingly beach rising gradually 200 yards from the shore, and immediately behind the beach was a lake of brackish water, extending a mile from north to south, and half a mile from west to east. CHAPTER IV 1854 INVASION OF THE CRIMEA The Allied Armies re-embarking from Varna, land in the Crimea The Alma as seen from the masthead of H.M.S. Queen Selecting a Naval Brigade Balaklava Harbour The Upland The English position First bombardment Erroneous forecasts of siege Able-Seaman Elsworthy A Midshipman's daily prayers. THE British troops began to re-embark on the 29th August, weakened by cholera not only in numbers, many having been sent to the Bosphorus for change of air, but also by the enfeebled condition of the men, several falling out as they marched down to the Bay. Sailors do not like many passengers on fighting ships, but H.M.S. Bellerophon and Vengeance were obliged to receive a battalion from a transport on which the epidemic had reappeared, carrying off its Captain with others. On the 4th September the British transports assembled in Baljic Bay, where the French and Turkish troops embarked. A head wind blew on the 6th, but on the morning of the 7th the Allied fleets sailed for the point of assembly, off the mouth of the Danube. Each British steamer towed two sailing transports, the whole moving in columns, the front and flank covered by men-of-war. There were 37 line-of-battle ships, 100 frigates and smaller men-of-war, 200 steam and sailing transports, making a total of over 600 vessels. The British ships anchored first off the mouth of the Danube, but though the speed rate had been fixed at 4! knots, too low to be convenient to our steamers, it was too high for our Allies, whose soldiers were mostly carried in sailing trans- ports, which dropped astern on the afternoon of the 1 1 th, when some squalls rippled the hitherto smooth sea. They 28 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 29 were out of sight on the I2th, and reached the point of con- centration, forty miles west of Cape Tarkan, on the afternoon of the 1 3th September, though the distance in a straight line is only 300 miles. The disembarkation was arranged on the model of that followed by Sir Ralph Abercromby, when he landed in March 1801, in Aboukir Bay. On the I4th September 1854, the men-of-war's boats left their ships, fully armed and provisioned with water and food for three days, and we did not get back until 1 1.30 that night. All the boats loaded with human freight were drawn up in one long line at 8. i 5 a.m., when the Captain, superintending from a fast pulling gig in the centre, waved his flag as a signal for the line to advance. In one hour the seven battalions composing the Light Division were on shore, and by 3 p.m. we had landed 14,000 Infantry and two batteries ; nor were our Allies less expeditious, for they claimed to have put 6000 on shore in less than 25 minutes. Our Bluejackets were very careful of their brothers, and where the plank was not long enough to ensure their landing with dry feet, in most cases they were carried ashore in a sailor's arms. We had had an object lesson from a painful loss the French suffered ; for in Varna Bay, twenty Zouaves in heavy marching order were stepping on a pontoon, which capsized, and all of them went to the bottom. The officers landed in full dress, carrying sword, revolver, with greatcoat rolled horseshoe fashion over the shoulder, some spirits in the wooden water-bottle, then called a canteen, three days' boiled salt pork, and three days' biscuit. The Rank and File being weak, many still suffering with intestinal com- plaints, it was decided to leave their knapsacks on board, and they were sent to Scutari. Each soldier carried fifty rounds of ammunition, three days' rations, greatcoat and blanket in which was rolled a pair of boots, socks and forage cap, of the curious pork-pie shape to which the Army clung until a few years ago. It was a useless article, but not so inconvenient as the handsome head-dress which our Generals liked, but which the men discarded at the first opportunity. In the following winter I saw battalions throwing away their full head-dress as they left Balaklava. Some horses were hoisted out of the ships into barges, 3D FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 others were lowered into the sea, and the supporting sling being detached by a tripping line, one or more horses were attached to the stern of a boat, which, being rowed slowly to the shore, was followed by the other horses. All reached land except three of Lord Raglan's, which on being lowered into the water swam out to sea, and were drowned. At sunset a heavy ground swell broke up the rafts, and obliged us to land all articles by passing them from man to man standing in the water ; but we continued to work till 1 1.30 p.m., re-embarking in our boats on the Bluejackets' shoulders some sick soldiers. It rained dismally that night, and the consequent discomfort and recurrence of cholera induced an order for the tents to be landed, but as we had invaded the Crimea without transport, the sailors had to re-ship the tents again four days later. On the 1 5th, 1 6th, and I7th the Bluejackets were at work from daylight till dark, landing Cavalry, Artillery, and ammunition. Before the I9th, we had taken back to the ships 1500 men who were unable to march. Many of these were stricken with cholera and must have suffered acutely, for after they were on board the engines of the ship carrying them to the Bosphorus broke down, and we had to tranship the unfortunate men to another vessel. The Sister Services saw a great deal of each other in those days, and it was obvious to me then, as it is now, that in similar matters there is much advantage in such association. No sailor would have thought of putting away a part of his kit without a tally or mark on the bag, but there were very few of the soldiers' knapsacks sent to Scutari which could be readily distinguished by any outward sign. While we were landing the troops on the I4th September, H.M.S. Vesuvius and Sampson, standing in to the mouth of the Bulganac stream, shelled a Russian camp, and obliged the enemy to move it inland. Rain fell steadily in the evening, and, lasting all night, when day broke, came down so heavily as to cause great discomfort, and added considerably to the number of the sick. On the ipth September the armies moved southwards towards Sevastopol, distant about twenty-five miles. The British force consisted of 1000 sabres, 26,000 Infantry, and 60 guns. 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 31 The French had no Cavalry, 28,000 Infantry, and 68 guns, and their Commander, Marshal Arnaud, had 7000 Turks under his orders. The troops, after marching some six miles, bivouacked on the southern bank of the Bulganac stream ; next morning the troops " Stood to Arms " early, but did not move till nine o'clock. In a book published ten years ago, I described the battles of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman. The first, on the 2Oth September, I witnessed from the crosstrees of H.M.S. Queen, anchored off the mouth of the river. The two Cavalry actions fought in the Tchernaya Valley, on the 25th October 1854, though within two miles of our camp, being below the plateau on which the Infantry camps were pitched, were out of our sight. Captain Peel rode over and saw the charges, but all those of us who were not in the batteries " Stood to Arms " in camp. I refer to Inkerman farther on, but say no more about the above battles than to show how their results affected the Naval Brigade. The British casualties at the Alma numbered 2000 of all ranks. That evening I took the Commander and some of the officers on shore in the cutter, and saw as much as I could of the battleground before my superiors returned from it. Before the action was over, we had been ordered by the Admiral to have our surgeons ready for the shore, and carrying parties of sailors had already relieved the soldiers to some extent of the duty of transporting the sick on stretchers to the beach. They had no transport, and therefore could not move their sick or wounded, and it appeared to us it would have been far better for the Army to have marched on the 2 1 st, and have left the entire work of collecting the sick and wounded and burying the dead to the Navy. The troops did not move forward till the 23rd, when we had buried over 700 bodies in and around the breastwork, where the most determined struggle occurred. The general impression in the Fleet was one of admiration for certain battalions, but the hero of the battle was Lieutenant- General Sir George Brown, then sixty-six years of age. We were told that he rode in front of his Division. He distin- guished himself forty years earlier, when leading a section of the " Forlorn Hope " into the great breach at Badajos. Though the Army smiled at his decided conservative views, expressed generally in emphatic language, everyone from Colonels to Buglers admired his courage. During the night of the 22nd the Russians blocked the entrance to the harbour of Sevastopol by sinking several of their ships in the fairway. We lost sight of the armies when they returned inland on the 25th September, to move round by Mackenzie's farm to Balaklava, which was taken over from the Commandant and a few invalids. On Sunday, the I st October, I was Signal Midshipman of the watch, and took over a message, " Line-of-battle ships will send 140 men and proportion of officers for service with land forces." While Captain Michell was discussing the details of the detachment, the Commander sent me on board the ship of the Acting Commodore to ask in what uniform the officers were to land. As I stood on the quarterdeck, bare-headed, the Acting Commodore emerged from his cabin, with a large prayer-book in hand. The ship's company were aft for Divine service, as in respectful tones I delivered my message. He answered my question in emphatic language, which cannot be repeated, but was to the effect that he did not care a if the officers painted their bodies black and went naked. Now, if I had repeated the very words, I should never have got on shore ; for the manners of the two captains were as distinct as possible, and yet Michell had great admiration for his Superior, as is evident from one of his letters to his wife I have recently had an opportunity of perusing. It was written after he had returned from a Court Martial, which sat to try the Acting Commodore for having run his ship aground during the bombardment of the forts a month later, and is warm in his expressions of admiration for the way in which the ship was handled, and the courage, skill, and determination of the Captain. I paraphrased the order : " The Commodore's compliments, and he does not attach any importance to the question of uniform." When I delivered this message, our Captain and the Commander were standing on the poop ladder, and grouped around were some of the fortunate officers who had been chosen the Commander, the Lieutenant Gunnery Instructor, and another senior Lieutenant, Lieutenant Douglas, and Mr. Sanctuary, a Mate, who was the only gunroom officer then 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 33 selected. I trembled with excitement as I saw the Commander's eye turn towards me, and then pass on towards the next Midshipman. In those days we generally worked by seniority, but the senior Midshipman had recently been in trouble for having muttered when the Commander vituperated him for some fault, real or imaginary. The next Midshipman, who knew his work, had too high a wine bill to satisfy either the Commander or Captain. They had no proof against him of taking too much alcohol, but their suspicions were not without foundation ; indeed, one or more suits of his clothes passed to me in the guise of my wine bill, for though he would not accept money he let me have them for the amount I was allowed to expend on my monthly wine bill. Now the Captain, in spite of his quiet, gentle, dignified manners, was one of the most determined fire-eaters I ever met. He had always been much more severe towards me, his nephew, than to my mess- mates, and had a month earlier punished me for what was at the worst only an error of judgment. I had received two verbal orders at the same moment ; the first man said, " You are to board and ask " while the second man said, " You are to wait on the Captain." When I did so, he ordered me " Watch and watch " for not having gone to his cabin before I obeyed the other order. Nevertheless, he was fond of me, and in his letters to his sister, while he admits the propriety of a Senior officer, Captain (afterwards Sir) Stephen Lushington, being sent on shore, he adds, " As I could not go myself, I was determined that our family should be represented ; " and turning to the Commander he asked, " Which Midshipman will you take ? " "I am thinking, sir." " Then take young Wood." " Oh, but he is too young, sir ; it will kill him." " No, I think not ; but I will answer for that." And the rugged Commander said, " Well, youngster, you shall go." The selected detachments went on board H.M.S. Firebrand for passage to Balaklava, which is a curious inlet from the sea. When the armies moving round from the north side of Sevastopol, having crossed the Tchernaya Valley, looked down on their objective, they saw below a little pool of water over- shadowed east and west by cliffs, from 500 to 600 feet high. The harbour is indeed small, about 300 yards wide, but there is anchorage for half a mile, with depth of water for ! 3 34 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 even larger ships than we possessed in 1854, and being land- locked the water is as smooth as an inland lake. The historian, Mr. Kinglake, aptly named the treeless elevated plateau on which England's Army fought and won, but suffered and starved for months, " The Upland." The highest part of the crest is 500 feet above the Tchernaya Valley, and the plateau extends in a straight line from north to south eight miles, if we reckon in the elevated ground, Balaklava, and Sevastopol harbour. It is also nearly eight miles from west to east, measuring from Kamiesh Bay, to the height overlooking Tractir Bridge, on the Tchernaya River. For practical purposes we may say the extent of ground over which the British Army worked for nine months was in straight lines eight miles by four. The geological formation is peculiar. The elevated ground, or Upland, being bounded by a cliff-like formation 800 feet high, which runs generally, from the head of Sevastopol harbour on the north, six miles south, and then trends away to the south-west, and passing a mile north-west of Balaklava, joins the cliffs on the sea-coast. The ground falls from this cliff-like formation gradually, northwards towards Sevastopol, north-west to Kamiesh Bay, southwards towards Balaklava, and south-east to the Tchernaya Valley. From the cliffs it rises again slightly about 2000 yards nearer to Sevastopol, thus forming a shallow basin, behind the crest of which the British camps were pitched, generally out of sight of the enemy's batteries, although the camp of the 2nd Division on the north-east corner of the Upland, i.e. Inkerman, was partly visible from the harbour, and subject to shell fire from ships in it. The surface is cut up by many ravines. Those with which we were most concerned in our operations commenced close to the east and southern wall-like boundary, running from south-east to north-west, and they divided the fighting position of the Allies into several different parts. Near the camps they were as obstacles insignificant, but the ravine down which the Woronzow road is carried is, near its mouth, so steep as to be impassable for armed men ; and the Careenage ravine is for some distance at its northern end precipitous, and in parts the cliffs overhang a chasm-like gorge. 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 35 We slept on board H.M.S. Firebrand, Captain Moorsom's ship, which took us to Balaklava on the ist October, but were on shore at four o'clock next morning, when we began to rig up sheers to land our guns. We had got all on shore by sunset, as well as our tents and two blankets each, pitching our camp just under the hamlet of Kadikoi, one and a half miles inland, in immediate proximity to vineyards in which were quantities of ripe grapes. Next morning we were up at three o'clock, when the Commander made me swallow, very much against my will, a dose of quinine. Half an hour later the men were given a similar ration on parade, to make quite sure that no one escaped taking this preventitive against fever. Mr. Sanctuary, our Mate, then took me off to wash in a small ditch, in which we stood stripped to the skin. I was, as I am now, a very chilly individual, and experienced intense discomfort We spent the next six days in dragging guns and ammunition up to the top of the rise which overlooks Balaklava Plain. On the I4th October, the so-called Naval Brigade, of 1400 men, was divided, half working from Balaklava to the height, and the other half dragging the guns from the height to the left, or west of, the Light Division camp. The Artillery lent us travelling-carriages for the 68-pounder guns, but they could not lend us enough for the 32-pounders, and nearly all these we hauled up the hill, and later down into battery, on the little solid wooden wheels called " trucks " on which they were worked on board ship. We had fifty men divided between the drag ropes, and a fifer or fiddler on the gun, and if neither was available, a Bluejacket with a voice and ear for music was mounted on the gun to sing the solo of a chorus song, to the tune of which we hauled the guns. I have never seen men work so hard continuously for so many days. We commenced work at 4.30 a.m., and went on till 7.30 p.m., with one and a half hours off for breakfast and dinner, as our self-imposed task. Later, the men who were going on duty at night rested from 2 p.m. till 8 p.m., working from that hour till daylight. When we got over the wall-like formation I have mentioned, we moved on by detachments, and pitched our tents immediately on the west of the 36 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 Woronzow road, to the east side of which the Light Division was encamped. I describe fully the ground on which our Siege-works and batteries stood, for it was there that the sailors spent their lives as indeed did the soldiers, the latter dying in some battalions at the rate of 71 in every 100, from starvation, want of clothing, and fatigue. It was in these siege-works that the strength of the Russians was worn down, until they withdrew across the harbour the battles, glorious as they were, being merely incidents in the struggle In the Naval Brigade all casualties were replaced from t Fleet which is one of the reasons why our sick list showed such satisfactory results in comparison with that of the Army. We had many sick, but as they were continually replaced by Effectives, at the end of nine months, of the fifty officers who landed on the 2nd October, there remained only three who had served throughout the winter. The renewal of our detachments was not the only cause for the Naval Brigade being so much more healthy than were the soldiers were many reasons for the remarkable difference, but, stated briefly the Naval system for messing was good, the cooking arrangements were excellent-the Army had no arrangements for messing or cooking; the sailors had a fair amount of work and sufficient clothing-the soldiers were overworkec and in threadbare rags. The Allies took up their positions to the east, south, and south-west of Sevastopol, and opened trenches about a mil from the enemy's works as they then existed, /.*. in first week of October. These works, speaking generally, were on ridges opposite to those occupied by the Allies and r the higher points stood the Malakoff, 33 O feet; Redan 300 feet; the Flag Staff battery, 280 feet; and the Centra^ Bastion, 247 feet above the sea. Our engineers were limited in their choice of ground: firstly, from the impossibility of zoing in to the usual breaching distance unless we include in our works the Victoria ridge, which ran down to 1 Mamelon, for Russian works erected on it, as they were somewhat later, would have enfiladed our batteries being able to fire along them, from end to end ; secondly because hills on which we erected our batteries, sloping down from the 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 37 crest which covered our camp, with a gentle fall for a mile and a half, at 1 800 yards' distance from the Russian works, fell suddenly and steeply, so that if we had gone nearer in, to open our trenches, the enemy in our front would have looked down into them ; moreover, from the Inkerman hills in our right rear, they would have taken our batteries in reverse, although at a considerable range. The principal though not the deepest of the ravines mentioned as dividing the Upland, separated the English and French Attacks. I describe only the English portion of the Position, five ridges sloping down from south-east to north-west, all separated by ravines, the northern part of which had steep sides. Of these ravines the two inner fissures ran through the Russian works ; the Careenage ravine, cutting off the Inkerman ridge, terminates in the harbour. The ravine which passed to the westward of the English siege-works joins the largest fissure at the point of connection between the Allied armies, and ends at the head of the Dockyard Creek. On the crest line of the Upland stood on the Woronzow road a posting-house in which the Light Division placed a picket, and henceforth it was known as the Picket-house, so long as we stayed in the Crimea. It was about 600 yards from it that, on the 8th October, we pitched our camp, out of sight of the enemy. As I mentioned, we stood close to the Light Division, to the left rear of which the ist Division was encamped, and in sequence the 4th and 3rd Divisions were pitched from one to one and a half miles south-west of the Picket-house, the Cavalry and Horse Artillery being on the plain, between the wall-like cliff and Balaklava. Two French Divisions encamped on and guarded-- the east and south-east side of the Upland, and two Divisions opened approaches to the left of the English 3rd Division, between it and the sea. From the pth to the i6th we helped to dig the batteries, drag down guns and ammunition, amounting to about 500 rounds per gun. On the i6th October the betting in our camp was long odds that the fortress would fall within a few hours. Some of the older and more prudent officers estimated that the Russians might hold out for forty-eight hours, but this was the extreme opinion. A soldier offered me a watch, 3 8 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 Paris made, which he had taken off a Russian officer killed at the Alma, for which he asked 2os. My messmates would not allow me to buy it, saying that gold watches would be cheaper in forty-eight hours. When Orders came out that evening detailing the Gunnery Lieutenant and Mr. Sanctuary for the first or daylight Relief of the Queen's guns, and Lieutenant Douglas and Mr. Wood for the second Relief, Douglas swore, and I cried from vexa- tion, thinking that all the fighting would be over before we had our turn. THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT At 2.30 on the 7th October all the officers saw the first detachment of guns' crews march off. It interested me to recall this fact when commanding the Aldershot Division, thirty-five years later, and I had difficulty to ensure that officers examined the soldiers' water-bottles when parading for a long march; for my Diary shows that at 2.30 on the i/th October 1854 the officers felt every wooden canteen which carried water, some with a dash of rum in it. We opened every man's haversack to ensure that he had his salt pork and biscuit, and the Navy owes, to such personal attention to details, much of its success. At 6.30 a.m. the bombardment opened, and those in camp fidgeted about till nine o'clock, when Lieutenant Douglas having appropriated my pony, cantered up to the Picket-house, whence he could see the Artillery duel, promising to return soon to enable me to have a look at the operations. This pony had been a great convenience to us all, and especially to me ; for whenever we stopped work during the first few days after landing, the Commander sent me away on messages, so that I got neither rest nor regular meals. 1 I had given 153. for the animal. It was stolen from me soon after, but I replaced it early in November by one I bought out of a drove brought by a speculator from Asia Minor. For this I gave 18, but it was a cheap purchase, for it lived until 1883 at m Y mother's, and later, my sister's residence, in Essex, for the last years of its life. 1 I read in my Diary that in seven successive days later I spent four on duty in the batteries or elsewhere, and three at Balaklava and Kamiesh. 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 39 Lieutenant Douglas had been away half an hour when a Bluejacket ran into the camp from the battery telling us there had been many casualties. He brought an order from Captain Peel for every available man in camp to go down to the battery with powder. I at once loaded up four Maltese carts, with the Relief of the Queen's men, and hurried away down the Woronzow ravine, fearing lest my Senior officer might return, and taking the powder himself, order me to remain in camp. When we got to within 500 yards of the 21 -gun battery, several shot and shell from the Redan, about 2000 yards distant, passed over our heads on the road which is carried down the ravine. We were lower than the battery, and in a line so as to receive the over-shoot of the Russian guns ; a shell bursting immediately over the cart alongside which I was walking, carried away one of the wheel spokes. The men in the shafts and at the drag ropes, dropping their hold, ran for cover. I am constitutionally nervous, but it did not occur to me to run, and thus I was enabled to make a good start with the men, by ordering them peremptorily to return to their duty. I should add that I saw immediately the danger was over. When we got directly behind the battery we were practically in safety, being sheltered by the eastern cliff; for the road there runs deep in the ravine, in some caves on the eastern side of which we stored the powder, and I went into the battery by its left or western end. The smoke was so dense from the continuous fire as to shut out all objects more than a few yards distant, but I knew the position of the battery well. For a week I had been con- stantly in it by night and by day ; indeed, I had guided Com- modore Lushington down on his first visit, thereby gaining a dinner, which was all the more acceptable just then as we were living entirely on salt beef and salt pork. Having placed the men under cover, I went towards the right or eastern end, the guns of which were manned by detachments of the Diamond and the Queen, that part of the battery being called from Captain Peel's ship, the " Koh-i-noor." About the centre of the battery its two faces met in an obtuse angle, and it was there during the next nine months most of our casualties occurred. The guns on the right face fired at the Malakoff 1740, and the Redan 1400 yards distant. Later, the guns on 40 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 the right face had the Mamelon also as a target at 1400 yards range. Two guns in the Redan enfiladed the left-hand guns of the right (or eastern) face of the 2 1 -gun battery, and as I passed them a shell close over my head made me stoop, till I felt my foot was on something soft, and another hasty step repeated the sensation. Looking down, I saw I was treading on the stomachs of two dead men, who had been fighting their guns stripped to the waist when killed, and whose bodies had been placed together. I was not only startled but shocked, and the feeling made me hold my head up when in danger for the next eight months. When I reported my arrival and handed over the men, I was employed carrying powder from caves in the Woronzow road up into the battery, passing in every journey two com- panies of Infantry, who were lying behind a large heap of loose stones, acting as a covering party for the guns. The soldiers were on the southern slope of the hill, on the crest of which our men in the 21 -gun battery were firing northwards. The stones afforded some cover, but the men would have been safer without it, for they were lying exactly where the over-shots from the Malakoff and the Redan crossed. In one of my journeys from the caves to the battery I was passing close to a sergeant as he was cut into two pieces by a round-shot which struck him between the shoulders. I was glad to get to work, commanding three guns' crews in the battery, for it was less trying to nerves, besides the additional interest. I had taken over from my friend Mr. Sanctuary three 32-pounder guns, and we were discussing the exact elevation for the Malakoff Tower, when he offered to lay a gun for me. While we were checking the aim by looking along the sights, a shell burst on the parapet immediately above us, bringing a great portion of it into our faces. Sanctuary was hit heavily in the face. I got much less of the stones and gravel, but was knocked down by my friend's body. We poured some dirty water over his face, and he soon revived, bravely declining all aid ; but either from the wound in his eye, which was destroyed, or possibly from concussion, he could only walk in a circle, and was obliged to accept a man's arm. After he had left the battery, Lieutenant A. King, 1 Horse 1 He commanded the Artillery at Aldershot in 1892. 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 41 Artillery, brought three waggons down with powder, and unloaded most of it near the stones where the covering party of Infantry were lying. It was a peculiarity of our want of system that there was no Commanding officer in the trenches, and it was natural for Lieutenant King to suppose that where the men were lying would be the safest place. He brought one waggon right up to the battery, and having unhooked his horses left it. Although it was in full sight of the Russians, being about three feet above the battery, and was fired on, yet no one was hurt, as it was unloaded by Captain Peel and Lieutenant Douglas. We had more difficulty about the loads left near the stones ; they were out of sight of the enemy, but from the fire of two Russian batteries crossing, shot and shell kept tumbling about the boxes in a manner which seemed to threaten destruction to anyone who approached the spot. It was comparatively simple to unload the waggon close to the trenches, for there two brave officers handed out the cases to men who were only moment- arily in much danger. Captain Peel sent me down with some men to bring up the two loads from near the stones. We got up a case or two, when the men, without actually refusing to carry, declared the work was too dangerous, and took cover. I reported this to my own Commander and to Captain Peel, and was ordered to promise any Bluejacket a sum of money who would come down with me. I made the offer in vain. This I reported to my Commander, 1 who said, " Well, I will come," and turning to the captain of the nearest gun he said, " Come on, Daniel Young ; we will go to the devil together, if at all." He and the willing, stalwart man shouldered a box between them and carried it up, thus encouraging others, and eventually I got nearly all the boxes up, with only one sailor wounded. Mr. Daniels, H.M.S. Diamond^ Aide-de-Camp to Captain Peel, tried with me to carry one up by slinging the box on a fascine. 2 The boxes, holding 112 Ibs. net of powder, were lined with interior cases of thick zinc, having over all solid wooden coverings. The weight was too much 1 He was lost with 200 of the crew in February 1863, when H.M.S. Orpheus was wrecked, being in charge of a pilot, on the Mana Kau reef, New Zealand. 2 An attenuated faggot, used for facing, or revetting earthen walls. 42 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 for the fascine, as indeed it was for us, and the case sagged down three times on to my heels, for I was in front, so we agreed that we preferred to accept the chances, and sit on a box to encourage the Bluejackets to return, until the last box had been taken away. Some soldiers helped, one being a man I afterwards knew, Sergeant-Major H. Burke. We were fortunate in having few casualties, for the Russians aiming high there were more shot striking over the spot than in the battery. While Mr. Daniels and I were sitting on the powder boxes, a mule being led up with two barrels of powder, one on either side, was struck full in the chest by a shell, which exploding scattered the body of the mule, but the powder remained intact. There was another remarkable escape, as the drivers of a waggon we had just emptied were mounting. The wheel driver was swinging his right leg over the horse's back, when its hind quarters were carried away by a round-shot. Later in the afternoon, another waggon which had been brought to the same place was exploded by a shell, one of the horses being thrown high into the air, on which the Russians, standing up on their parapets, cheered loudly. We did the same, however, when about two o'clock magazines in the Malakoff and in the Redan exploded in rapid succession. The latter battery was wrecked by the explosion : only three guns being able to fire, and later, there were only two guns in the Malakoff in action. Before the first bombardment, Captain Peel asked Lieu- tenant Ridge and Midshipman Daniels of H.M.S. Diamond, and Lieutenant Douglas and Midshipman Wood of the Queen, to disregard fire in the battery, by always walking with head up and shoulders back and without undue haste. He himself was a splendid example. I know he felt acutely every shot which passed over him, but the only visible effect was to make him throw up his head and square his shoulders. His nervous system was so highly strung, however, that eight months later a mere flesh wound incapacitated him for many months. He was a most tender-hearted man towards his fellow-creatures and animals ; and in 1851, when he was crossing the Nubian Desert from Korosko to Abu Hamed, he dismounted from his camel in order to give a small dying bird some water. 1854] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 43 We opened fire on the i/th with 126 guns. Everyone was certain that the Russian batteries would soon be silenced, and so provision was made for an assault that evening. The troops were kept ready to " fall in," storming columns detailed with Engineer officers as guides, sappers with scaling ladders, and the horses of the Field batteries stood " Hooked in." During the forenoon, however, the French gunners were fairly beaten, two of their magazines blew up, causing great loss of life, and their guns ceased firing at one o'clock, just as the Allied fleets came into action at the harbour's mouth. We were too busy to notice what the effect of the Russian fire was on our men-of-war, but we were all deeply mortified when at sundown we saw them haul out of action. On the evening of the i?th the British Left Attack ran short of ammunition, and it moreover had the undivided attention of the Russian batteries to the westward of it ; for the French still farther west had ceased fire : they had not constructed their magazines with sufficient strength, and in consequence had several explosions. We were better supplied in the 21 -gun battery, and, owing to Captain Peel's foresight and determina- tion, his command was the only one which fired unceasingly until the 24th October. For the opening of the bombardment we sent all our servants into battery, and thus when I got back to camp, just before dark, I had to go with a bucket to the watering-place at the head of the ravine near the 3rd Division, and then to stub up roots in the vineyard for firewood to boil some water. I fried some pork and ship's biscuits, but possibly my efforts as a cook were not approved ; at all events, our servant was not allowed to go to battery on the 1 8th, to my great joy, but he was the only man of the detachment of H.M.S. Queen who was kept off duty, and he had to draw rations, cook, and mend clothes of a Commander, four Lieutenants, one Mate, and a Midshipman. Able-seaman Elsworthy was of that uncommon class of sailors and soldiers who never hesitate on occasion to contradict an officer, but can always remain respectful while doing so. This man had great independence of character, and we became firm friends. I was fond of him because of his care, not only of me, but all my friends, and I respected his determination to 44 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 always support me, when he thought I was doing my best for the Mess. He generally accompanied me on my foraging ex- peditions, on which I went daily for the next eight months when not on duty. Once, however, in December, I went down to Kamiesh Bay alone, and gave 583. for half a large pig. Perhaps I paid too much for it, but I had great difficulty in bringing it home on the pony, and so was mortified when the Commander at dinner found fault with me for my extravagant purchase. Elsworthy, who was waiting on us, interposed, and gravely asserted that the Commander knew nothing about pork, and that not only was the half-pig excellent of its kind, but that it was very cheap. It is only fair to the Commander to add, that I have now, in 1905, read one of his letters at the time to the Captain of the Queen eulogising Elsworthy. That night, before I slept, it occurred to me that I had been very nearly out of this world several times during the day, and that since I had left school I had said very few prayers. A cockpit on board a man-of-war, which for readers who have no nautical knowledge may be described as a cellar lined with wood, to the roof of which, in H.M.S. Queen, some twenty-five hammocks were slung, is not a favourable place for devotions. The furniture consisted of some twenty or thirty whitewashed sea-chests, and I cannot recall having seen a man or boy pray there. I realised in the presence of imminent danger my sins of omission, but like a boy argued it would be cowardly to begin until after the bombardment When it ceased, my good intentions were forgotten until the next bombardment, with its recurring perils, reminded me. Then the same chain of thought recurred, and similar resolutions were made with identical results. This happened again at the third bombardment, and then I was so ashamed that I have ever since been more mindful of my religious duties. CHAPTER V 1854 THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL Captain Peel's heroic conduct My only two pocket-handkerchiefs Sir William Howard's eulogy of the sailors Horse Artillery going into action Battle of Inkerman Sailors prepare to spike their guns Foraging at Balaklava The great gale of the i4th November " Well done, Queen." THE English batteries, Right and Left Attack, had only eight guns dismounted, and re-opened fire soon after daybreak on the i8th October. The French were sanguine the previous day that they would be ready next morning, but they were not, and asked for twenty-four hours' delay for the assault ; but their batteries were not then re-armed, and a further delay became necessary. Indeed, before our Allies were ready, the Russians had repaired their damages, and were in better condition than they had been after a few hours' fire on the 1 7th October. By the 2Oth the English batteries had lost the undoubted mastery they had obtained on the first day. Early on the i8th Captain Peel gave us a proof of re- markable courage. A shell weighing 42 Ibs. penetrating the parapet, rolled into the centre of a gun's crew, who threw themselves on the ground. This would not, however, have saved them, for there were several cases of powder being passed into the magazine on the spot, but Peel stooping down lifted the shell, and resting it against his chest carried it back to the parapet, and, stepping on to the ledge of earth termed Banquette, rolled it over the Superior crest, on which it immediately burst. About noon I had been relieved, and was eating my ration of raw salt pork, a biscuit, and an onion, with some tea without milk or sugar. I was sitting alongside a gun, one of the three 46 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 I had been working, on the far side of which there was a magazine built into the parapet, when a shell bursting on the top of the magazine set fire to the roof and sent a shower of sand over my pork. I was more interested in trying to save it than in the effect of the shell, until the flames created some trepidation, and the officer who had relieved me (not belonging to the Queen} demoralised the men by his excited demeanour. There was really no danger of the magazine exploding unless another shell struck it in the same spot, but the officer yelled, " Shell burst in the magazine, sir ; magazine on fire." Now Ridge, First Lieutenant of H.M.S. Diamond, was as cool and unconcerned as if he had been shifting topsails, and responded without the slightest excitement in his tone, " Ay, ay, put it out," suggesting means which might have been used by Smollett, but cannot here be recorded. The shouts were repeated, and eventually, as the men were still flat on the ground, I put down, though unwillingly, my ration, and got up on the magazine, stamping out the burning bags, and kicking earth into the crater made by the explosion. I soon scorched my socks and the lower part of my trousers, and then extinguished the fire by squatting on the sand-bags, which being filled with earth made only a fitful flame. While I was thus engaged I felt somebody working along- side of me, but I did not pause to look up, for shells and bullets were striking the parapet around us, and thus it was not a spot in which one would stay any longer than was necessary. When the fire was out, a decided voice said, " Jump down," and then I saw it was Captain Peel. He ordered the gun's crew to fall in, sent away the officer who had caused the alarm, and made a speech in praise of my conduct. This was the beginning of a friendship which lasted till his death, in 1858. He was twice my age, and at that period the gulf between a Midshipman and a Post Captain was immense, but as Sir John Robinson, the observant Editor of the Daily News, used to contend, " There is a special bond of comrade- ship between those who have stood together in critical moments of war. Nothing can quite approach it they have been revealed to each other in a supreme test of moral and physical value. They have been close to God, and have seen each other as He and posterity will appraise them." 1854] THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 47 I have often been asked if I was nervous the first time I came under fire, and I have always answered truthfully, " Yes," although I cannot say that my statement has always been credited. Not only was I nervous the first time, but through- out my service the first shot in every action passing near me has been acutely felt, unless I had some duty on hand at the moment. The sense of duty preoccupies a man, and not only from what I felt, but from what I have seen in many actions, the strain on the nerves of a gun detachment is considerably lessened by the fact that the service of a gun being dependent on combined action, compels a Gunner to concentrate his thoughts on his work. I believe Generals, or any officers in command, who have responsibility, if they are the right sort, lose all sense of personal fear. At the end of the first bombardment, which lasted a week, I was conscious of a decided feeling of exulta- tion in the presence of danger, such as men feel when they do well in manly sports, or women feel when they realise they are pre-eminent among their compeers. The events which I have related of the carrying up of the powder 1 and the extinguishing of the fired magazine were reported at the time to the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Raglan, and when the Victoria Cross was instituted a year later, with retrospective effect, caused my name to be put forward for the decoration, and eventually obtained for me a Commission without purchase in the Army. When we opened fire, being very proud of ourselves, we named that part of the 21 -gun battery, the guns of which were manned by sailors, the Koh-i-noor Battery, a play on the name of Captain Peel's ship, H.M.S. Diamond. " Koh-i-noor " was painted in black letters on a white signboard, and near it was hoisted a Union Jack in the centre of our section of half the battery. Neither the board nor the Union Jack remained after an hour's firing. As wood and paint were scarce, we gave up the board ; but the flag-staff was replaced again and again. Captain Peel refixed it twice on the i/th, and in re- placing it on the 1 8th I had a curious escape. The battery 1 Letter from Captain W. Peel, R.N., to the Rev. Sir John Page Wood : " Your son was only known to me through his gallant behaviour. . . . He volunteered to bring up powder through a fire which daunted others." 48 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 was built on a slightly descending slope, about that of St. James's Street, London, S.W., and as the flag stood above the trench or big ditch which formed the battery, shots just missing the top of the parapet, which was about four feet above the surface of the ground, often cut the flag-staff or one of its supports. When the pole had been much reduced in length by its numerous fractures, we fastened the flag on to a spare rammer. This rammer was cut away on the 1 8th, and as I did not like to remain in sight of the enemy while digging a fresh hole, I collected some trucks or wheels of guns' carriages which had been injured, and in them placed the rammer with the flag, filling up the space with stones and fragments of broken shell. I was just putting the finishing touches to what I thought would give a firm hold, when a shot struck the pile of trucks, and cut them down to the ground. On the 1 9th of October our Commander and Lieutenant Douglas were checking the aim of the gun on which my friend Mr. Sanctuary had been wounded : we were not satisfied with our shooting, for it was not till many days later that we realised that two of the Russian guns in the Malakoff Battery which appeared to us to be in the same alignment were not so, one being nearer to us than the other gun standing apparently next to it. The nearer Russian gun required less elevation on our gun for the target, but as we thought the enemy's guns were equidistant from our battery, we believed that the error of " shorts and overs " was due to bad " laying." While the officers were discussing the laying of the gun with the captain of it, the crew of eight men on either side, a 1 3 -inch mortar shell falling immediately in front of the gun close to the carriage, exploded. The result was so strange as to be almost incredible. Our gun was cut in two bits, the charge exploded, and the shot went in the air, the carriage and breech of the gun upsetting, and flying backwards without hurting a man. The following day there was a somewhat similar case. A cart loaded with round-shot had been by error brought in daylight up to the battery, and two men were in the cart throwing out the shot, when a Russian round-shot struck the centre of the load in between the two men without touching either, one man actually having one of our shot in his arms ; but the enemy's shot, while it missed them, struck the heap in 1854] THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 49 the cart, scattered the load high in the air, wounding severely three sailors. That afternoon I gave up a pocket-handkerchief to tie up Able-seaman Simmons, of H.M.S. Diamond, who was dangerously wounded by a shell splinter in the thigh. He returned to the battery six months later, bringing back the handkerchief, and thanking me for the loan ! On the 2Oth I gave up my only other handkerchief to save a man's nose. A shell burst immediately over the gun which I was working, striking down several of the crew, amongst others Edward Hallett, of H.M.S. Queen. He was injured in several places, and as I helped the doctor to turn him on his back for all the wounds were in front of his body we noticed that his nose was nearly off, hanging by a bit of skin. The doctor used my handkerchief to wipe off some of the sand, and then refixed the nose with it. The nose joined satisfactorily, but Hallett died two years later from his other wounds. Sir William H. Russell, Times correspondent, wrote the following tribute to the work of the Bluejackets : " The Sailors' Brigade suffered very severely ; although they only worked about thirty-five guns in the various batteries, they lost more men than all our siege train, working and covering parties put together." On the 24th, the firing, which had slackened down daily, ceased. I spent that night in battery, and returned to camp at daylight. Soon after I returned we heard the sound of firing near Balaklava. Captain Peel was the only officer of the Naval Brigade who saw the charges, one of which was immortalised by Tennyson, and as Peel did not return to our camp till evening we had little idea of the world-wide story. One of our officers who had been to Balaklava, in the evening observed, when we were going to sleep, " That was a smart little affair that the Cavalry had this morning." But we " stood to Arms " until the Infantry reinforcements, which moved to the " Col," l returned to their camps. The difference between the sister Services was noticeable in an incident that day. A Commander was Senior on parade. He had given an order, " Examine arms, draw ramrods," and the Bluejackets having dropped the ramrod to the bottom of 1 The " Col " was the ascent from Balaklava Plain to the Upland. I. 4 50 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 the barrel, and removed it, were holding the head an inch from the muzzle. The Inspecting Officers passed round, but the Commander could not remember the next order, " Return ramrods." A soldier would have blundered or asked, but the Commander called, " Go on, men ; you know the rest." And they did, without any outward sign of merriment. I was sent to battery again that night, and having returned to camp at daylight, witnessed at a distance of about a mile and a half the sortie made by the Russians, who, while on the Inkerman crest, were that distance or less from our parade- ground. At one o'clock I was strolling in the camp, when rapid firing commenced near the 2nd Division camp. Bugles sounded all around, and the Naval Brigade fell in, and got out the ammunition. Then I witnessed a most inspiring sight. " E," or " the Black Battery," now the 1 2th Field Battery, was encamped near Lord Raglan's Headquarters, and after we had " fallen in," passed our camp at top speed, the teams stretched down, and every driver " riding " his horse. I was so much impressed by the set, determined look on the faces of the men, that I have never forgotten it. Not an eye was turned to the right or to the left as the guns swept past us, and nobody seemed to notice the little bank and surface drain on either side of the Woronzow road, which sent the guns jumping up in the air. In silence we watched the battery pass on, until it seemed they came into action in the midst of the Russians, and in a few minutes the enemy fell back. It was on this day that my friend Hewett l gained the Victoria Cross by bravely fighting his battery of two guns, which he had been ordered to spike and retire. On the morning of the 5th November we breakfasted at 2.30 a.m. as usual, marching to battery at three o'clock. It had rained all night, was drizzling when day broke, and there was a fog, dense in the ravines, but which lifted occasionally on the crest-line of the Upland. At four o'clock we heard plainly the bells ringing in Sevastopol, and the noise of Artillery wheels, but at 5.30 p.m. the pickets reported, " All quiet in Front." I tell nothing of the battle-story now, which I narrated in The Crimea in 1854.- 94., ten years ago, but it is 1 Later, Admiral Sir W. M. W. Hewett, V.C., K.C.B. 1854] THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 51 interesting to recall that when our soldiers were being heavily pressed, the Generals commanding the Light and 4th Divisions declined the aid of Bosquet's Division, which was encamped to the south of the 2nd Division. It came later to help us when invited by Lord Raglan. The roads from the Upland into the city of Sevastopol follow the ravines or fissures mentioned on p. 37, two of which join the Careenage ravine, passing at the northern end under precipitous cliffs, with gradients of I in 4. The Russians therefore sent Reserves and ammunition trains by a track which passes to the east of the Mamelon, and then southward down Gordon's Hill into the middle ravine, whence it turns back northwards to the Careenage ravine. We did not understand at the time how greatly the movements of the Russians were cramped by the ground, and we thought that the columns descending Gordon's Hill were coming to turn the flank of the 2 1 -gun battery. Now the guard of the trenches was so weak that it could not protect them in front and on the flank, and therefore our position appeared precarious. As the sound of firing on the Inkerman ridges trended farther southwards, six of our guns on the right were run back to fire along the flank, and spikes for disabling all were issued, and the men were shown the line of retreat. The head of a Russian column turned eastwards and disappeared when 1 1 oo yards from our guns, but must have halted, for the tail of it remained for a long time exposed to our fire, at ranges varying from iioo to 1500 yards, and under its destructive action gradually dissolved. I saw a shell from one of our guns explode in a powder waggon, destroying all the men and horses near it. The enemy endured this heavy fire with resigned courage, their comrades in the MalakofF and the Redan doing all they could to help them by concentrating their fire on the 2 1 -gun battery. The fight was over by one o'clock. If the Russians had not been hampered by the ground, divisions which they intended should ascend by two slopes, getting on to one ridge, the result must have been a disaster for the Allies. Captain Peel was not in the battery that day, going with Mr. Daniels straight from camp to Inkerman. During the fight, when officers and non-commissioned officers were killed, 52 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 groups of privates collecting under some natural or self-elected leader of men, charged again and again, and we heard next day that Captain Peel led seven such counter attacks. When I got back to camp at sunset, I went over to see a shipmate, Captain March, of the Royal Marines, who had been wounded in the fight. We had sent fifty of our two hundred Marines to Eupatoria on the I4th September, and the balance landed at Balaklava, which they garrisoned till a few days before the 5th November, when the Light Division had been so weakened by continuous work as to be unable to relieve their pickets. 1 Captain March was a favourite with everyone on board the Queen, and maintained his reputation by his cheery demeanour when badly wounded. He had been struck just behind the mouth by a big bullet, which had made an enormous hole in his jaw, but had left no sign of its exit ; he lived, however, for forty years after the battle. There were mingled feelings in our camps that evening : the officers felt intense pride in their men's enduring courage, but they reflected uneasily that we had narrowly escaped a disaster. I think that with the exception of some night-fighting in the trenches our Infantry never fought during the war with so great, resolute, and sustained determination as on the 5th November. Three days after the battle I visited the field for motives of business as well as curiosity, for I was nearly barefooted. When on the ist October we were warned that we must carry everything we took on shore, I limited my load to a shirt, two blankets, two pocket-handkerchiefs, and two pairs of socks. My light sailor's shoes were worn out within a week, in carrying messages for our Commander while he and my shipmates were at meals. I could not have gone on working, but that John Handcock, the Marine who had looked after me on board, and who was stationed on Balaklava Heights, hearing of my shoeless state, sent me down a pair of his own boots. These were also worn out, for although I rode my pony down to Balaklava, it was necessary for me to walk up, as it could not carry me and the things I brought 1 The general officer in charge of the Front at Inkerman had written a week previous to the battle, " I have only the six hundred men on this front position." 1854] THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 53 for the Mess. I did not like the idea, however, of despoiling a dead man, so I took a Bluejacket with me, to whom I promised half a sovereign for a satisfactory fit. These he soon produced, and I had reason to praise the good workmanship of the Russian boot contractors. During the last days of October the small quantities of grass remaining in the valleys failed, and it was more and more difficult to keep any flesh on my pony. Els worthy (vide p. 43) and I, in one of our earliest visits to Balaklava, had cast covetous eyes on the stacks of barley laid out on the wharves ready for the ration parties, and later we took the pony down, I carrying ostentatiously the accumulations of my rum ration in a bottle. There was a sentry over the barley, but he perceiving the pony and two men with lashings, one carrying a suggestive bottle of rum, walked to the end of his " beat," and looked steadily towards the mouth of the [harbour until we had balanced a sack on the saddle and lashed it securely. As we departed, the sentry returned and picked up the bottle I had placed between two sacks. This method was followed throughout the winter, and until the month of May, when, being appointed an Aide-de-Camp to Captain Peel, I was able to obtain barley in a legitimate manner, on requisition. 1 I put up a rough shed for the pony, giving it one of my blankets, and had full advantage of its services, as it was never sick or sorry. The last few days in October were pleasantly warm during the day although cold at night, but after the battle of Inkerman the weather grew daily worse. From the loth, rain fell heavily, and continued incessantly for many days. That day I had to admit I was sick. I had been suffering from constant diarrhoea, induced by eating salt pork, often uncooked, and now the malady, aggravated by the cold and rainy weather experi- enced all night in the trenches, had made me seriously ill. The doctor directed me to remain lying down as much as possible, but on the morning of the 1 4th there befell the troops a great misfortune. It was blowing heavily in gusts at 4 a.m. when the battery Relief marched off, and sheets of rain beating 1 Throughout the winter there was always barley for the taking away, except for ten days, and during that time I fed my pony on biscuits and bread, bought in the French camp, paying 2s. 6d. for a 2-lb. loaf. 54 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 on the tent made me congratulate myself I had been excused duty. At about 5 a.m. the tent pole was bending so ominously that the two Lieutenants in the tent with me, having put on all the clothes they possessed, held the pole by turns. At six o'clock, however, while the pole still held intact, a heavier blast of wind, lifting the tent right up in the air, carried it away. I was certainly uncomfortable with the rain beating down on me, and yet my sufferings were as nothing in comparison with hundreds of our soldier- comrades, some of whom wounded, and many sick, lay for hours ex- posed to the fury of the elements ; for the hospital marquees, owing to their great spread of canvas, offered so much resist- ance to the wind that they were the first to fall. Several men in our Army who were " at duty " were found dead in the morning at their posts. Nearly all our horses broke loose from their picket ropes, and wild with terror careered over the Upland, and sixty of the very few we had, died that night. The force of the gale overturned waggons, and it was impos- sible for even a strong man to walk upright against the wind. When the tent blew away, my two companions took shelter under a low wall of stones which we had built round the powder magazine about a hundred yards from where our tent had stood, and when the storm moderated a little, more rain falling, I tried to join them ; but the wind knocked me down, and I travelled the intervening distance on my hands and knees. Even in this fashion, however, the wind was too much for my remaining strength, and I should not have got to the wall but that our Gunnery Lieutenant and two Bluejackets going down on their knees, and joining hands, stretched out to intercept me. When I got under the shelter of the wall my comrades did all they could to help me, giving me the most sheltered spot. As we looked around, we could not see more than two or three tents in any of the camps still standing, and these were protected by stone walls. We lay huddled together, thinking what might have happened to the ships, and watching the storm-driven kit which was swept through our camp. During the height of the gale two drums were borne along close to each other, and afforded us much interest. They rolled rapidly until caught by a stone or a tent peg, when the wind would 1854] THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 55 turn them upright for a few seconds, and then a fresh gust carried them on again. Not far from where we were lying there were two bell- tents still standing, belonging to different ships' detachments. The Queen's were on friendly terms with the officers of both, but the Commanders were very different in their nature. When the Senior in one was asked whether he would receive a sick Midshipman, he replied he was not going to have his tent made wet and dirty. About nine o'clock the officers who were in the other tent, belonging to H.M.S. Bellerophon, heard of my state, and two of them came over to invite me in. They supported me down, but to open the door would have had the effect of carrying the tent away, so I had to crawl in through a pool of water, which added to the mud already covering my jacket and trousers. My hosts, however, made light of this inconvenience, and regardless of the effect of my dirty state, covered me up in their clean dry blankets. I slept till awakened by the voice of our Commander, on his return from the battery, shouting, " Where, and how, is young Wood ? " About twelve o'clock the south-west wind veered to the westward, and then sleet fell, followed by snow, which lay on the hills ; but from two o'clock the wind, though colder, was moderating, and the Naval Brigade set to work to repitch our camp, and by nightfall had collected, in many cases from afar, what remained of it. Our losses that day were great both in lives and in stores, twenty-one vessels being wrecked off the mouth of Balaklava Harbour. A magazine ship carrying ten million rounds, and the Prince, one of our largest transports, laden with warm clothing and stores of all descriptions, went down. The French lost a line-of-battle ship and the Pluton off Eupatoria, where a Turkish line-of-battle ship sank with all hands. Many of the houses in Sevastopol were unroofed in the height of the gale. The Admiral again made the signal, " Well done, Queen" She was anchored off the mouth of the Katcha River, six miles north of Sevastopol, and during a lull in the storm sent boats to rescue men from several Austrian and Greek ships which had gone ashore. It was work of considerable danger, increased by the stupid barbarity of a few Cossacks, who fired 56 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 on the rescue parties, wounding two of our men. Captain Michell, to whom this rescue was due, was not only brave himself, but possessed the more uncommon courage, that of daring to order others to risk their lives. He had previously offered to break the boom which closed the harbour mouth, by taking his ship at it under all plain sail ; but, not unnaturally perhaps, his offer was declined by the Admiral. The rudder- head of the Queen was cracked by the action of the waves, and a week later I see by the Captain's letters to his wife, and to the Commander who was with the brigade on shore, when the Admiral wished to send the Queen and the other sailing vessels down to the Bosphorus, Michell objected on the ground that if the line-of- battle ships could not physically assist the troops, yet their presence might do something to encourage them. Later he was ordered down, and writing to the Admiral from the Bosphorus in January 1885, mentions he has only 330 men on board out of 970 the establishment, all the others having landed. CHAPTER VI 1854-5 A NAKED AND STARVING ARMY Indescribable sufferings of the old soldier Contrast of naval with military system Commodore Lushington's work Lunch with Lord Raglan Times correspondent saves remnant of Army Christmas Day Captain Peel's plan for cutting out a Russian ship A pony's sagacity. THE storm on the I4th was the commencement of misery so great as to defy adequate description. Some writers have ascribed the loss of lives and of health to the climate. This is inaccurate. The climate of the Crimea, though more variable, is no more inclement than that of the north of England ; moreover, we now know that few men or animals, with adequate food and suitable clothing, are killed by bad weather, and as long as they are well fed hard work has little adverse effect on their health. Officers who were able to procure extra food and clothing maintained in comparison their health, while the Rank and File were perishing by hundreds. In eight battalions which served in the immediate Front with the sailors, 73 men out of every 100 died from starvation and want of clothing. The weather was indeed deplorable. I see by my Diary our batteries were flooded on the 2/th November, and to add to the trials of the troops, cholera reappeared on the 2nd December. Some fresh meat was issued in January and February, but the sick were always served first, and as the whole quantity available in sixty days worked out at 14 Ibs. a man, with more than half the Army in hospital, the men still " at duty " had practically none. Moreover, if it had been issued, there were no means of cooking it ; although an Army Order authorising a ration of fuel was issued in the first week in December, it was nearly a month before effect could be given to the order. 57 58 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1854 The troops lived practically on salt meat, biscuit, and rum. They preferred pork, because it was more easily cooked than what the sailors call salt-junk, for Chicago beef had not then been canned. Many of the men could eat neither beef nor pork, for their mouths were affected with scurvy. The War Minister wrote in the spring of 1854 to Lord Raglan : " I cannot help seeing through the calm and noble tone of your announcement of the decision to attack Sevastopol that it has been taken in order to meet the views and desires of the Government, and not in entire accordance with your opinions." The disaster is summed up in the Report of the Sevastopol Inquiry Committee presented to the House of Commons in 1855. The Committee show clearly that "the blame rested on the Ministry, and on the nation." The Administration which ordered the expedition had no adequate information as to the amount of the forces in the Crimea, as to the strength of the fortresses to be attacked, or of the resources of the country to be invaded. They did not foresee the probability of a protracted struggle, and made no provision for a winter campaign. The Queen sailed for the Bosphorus early in December. Many Army officers imagine that the comparative plenty in the Sailors' camp was due to their drawing supplies from the Fleet. This is an error. We got canvas, blankets, carpenters' tools, and such like from our ships, but our food was entirely drawn from Army stores ; indeed, the Navy had no storeships on which we could draw, and in the worst of the weather, when snow lay thick on the ground, were occasionally on half rations, and often on the verge of starvation, though there was always food at Balaklava. In the Naval Brigade, when the men returned at daylight from the battery, they were allowed to rest for three hours, and were then marched down to Balaklava for supplies, each man carrying up from 30 to 50 Ibs. in haversacks or bags. The sailors did get their warm clothing a few days earlier than it was available for the Army, our first instalment being issued on the 3ffice I went to London and saw doctors, who prescribed perfect rest, and as my brother-in-law had decided to appoint another Agent, I went over to his estate in Ireland, hoping the change of air might improve my health. I was 1 Aldershot. 22 6 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1867 a but the annual sum was trifling, under two man bad on an estate -* - the estate ^ "So a penny will I pay! Divil a man ,s there m is. sorra F -7 in came two fine ^ack is ? and why would I pack?" "Because when I ^ ^ I will give you your crop and 5 to go away. and 1 will give y / ^^^T:," if V ou pay a year and Rent. 1867] "ON THE STAFF' 1 227 my asking her to marry me, and that moreover I was too fond of my profession to abate in the slightest degree my desire for War Service on any possible occasion. Eventually, on my way to Clones, I wrote to her explaining my unsatisfactory financial position and my feelings as a soldier, and asking her whether she would consider the question of marrying me, on the distinct understanding that she would never by a word, or even a look, check my volunteering for War Service. After I had settled my brother-in-law's business, I went to Turkeenagh, a mountain 12 miles from Scarriff, where I had a share in a moor. I was too ill to walk, but enjoyed the air and the society of my companions. We had had a successful day with the grouse on the hills looking down on Lough Derg, when, getting the Irish Times, I saw an expedition was going to Abyssinia, under General Napier. I packed my bag, and, sending a boy to the nearest public-house for a car, drove 38 miles to Nenagh station, en route for London. I telegraphed to Miss Southwell that I had received no reply to my letter written ten days earlier, and asking her not to answer until she heard again from me. Writing in the train, I explained the object of my journey to London was to try to get to Abyssinia, and although I could not advise her to marry me before I embarked, I should be glad to do so if she wished ; adding I was unlikely to see anyone in Abyssinia whom I should prefer to her, as I had not done so during the six or seven years I had spent in England and Ireland since our first meeting. When I got to London, I received her answer saying that fully understanding my feelings about War Service, she accepted me, but that she would await my return from Abyssinia. I found it was not William, but Robert Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala, who would command ; moreover, the Staff of the Expedition would be chosen almost exclusively from those serving in India, and I was married a fortnight later. There were monetary difficulties, as I was poor ; indeed, an old friend in common, Canon Doyle, had teased Miss Southwell, when she sought his advice, by saying he knew only one great objection besides that of religion, which he explained later, was " Major Wood's dreadful impecuniosity." This lack of means gave an opportunity to my brother-in- 228 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [18G7 law of showing me his character. My mother's brother-in-law when dying had left a large property to his childless wife, with verbal instructions to " take care of Emma's children." She had given without demur 5000 to each of my brothers and sisters when they had married, but although she had not been to church for fifty years, she objected to my marrying a Catholic, and refused to settle anything on me. Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard heard that the marriage might not take place, and wrote to the following effect: "There are many dis- advantages in being as casual about money as I am, but this time there is an advantage in it ; please accept the cheque I send for 5000. I am content to take my chance of your surviving your aunt, and of my eventually getting the money back." I naturally thanked him warmly, but other arrangements were made. Six weeks after my marriage I arranged with his London solicitor to make certain alterations at Clones, and for twenty-one years had the satisfaction of remitting a large annual income to my brother-in-law, without his being troubled with work which he disliked. Sir Thomas, who married my second surviving sister, is a fine classical scholar, and has ever been a capable and indefatigable worker in County business, going as thoroughly into every matter of self-imposed duty as he does in the pursuit of his principal recreation, the breaking in of horses and making them hunters. I have never known a man with better hands, nor one who can encourage more successfully a wayward four-year-old to execute his rider's wishes. He never cared for shooting, but in order to recompense me for supervising his Irish estate, he preserved pheasants in the coverts at Belhus for my pleasure, foxes, however, being the first consideration; indeed, at the end of one season there were to my knowledge thirteen left on the estate of 4000 acres. He has repaid me many times over in the last forty-five years, by unvarying kindness. While he lived at Belhus, his house, before and after my marriage, was my home ; and in 1874, on hearing I was wounded, he offered to go out to the West' Coast of Africa, disregarding the climate, which had carried Insurance premiums up to 45 per centum, and the fact that he had at the time a large family. 1867] "ON THE STAFF" 229 I had been away ten days on my honeymoon when I was recalled by my General, who had the command of a large gathering of Volunteers at Liverpool. He took with him two senior Colonels who commanded battalions at Aldershot ; but they appreciated the pleasures of the table, and falling victims to turtle soup at the Adelphi Hotel the evening we arrived, remained in bed until the Review was over, and we were back at Aldershot. CHAPTER XX 1867-71 ALDERSHOT Sporting Essex farmers An eccentric groom Drunk and incapable in the street Ill-health induces me to think of joining the Bar A fine example on parade Sir James Yorke Scarlett A student of the Middle Temple School feasts A Low Church Colonel An audacious order Sir Hope Grant, his lovable nature. THE winter of 1867-68 was for many years the best season's hunting I enjoyed, although I was occasionally suffering from ill-health. General Napier had lent me a hunter, and besides " Vagabond," already described, I bought a bay mare named " Fractious." When I was sent over to Dublin at Christmas 1866, my friend Mr. Leonard Morrogh wrote me a note, saying that, owing to a week's frost a horse bought by a Colonel in the Indian Army had been kept in its stable at Sewell's Yard, and having refused to leave the yard, had given stablemen heavy falls. The mare was known to be very clever over a banking country, and Morrogh, hearing its owner who gave 70 before the frost would accept 20, advised me to go and look at her. The frost was breaking up when I drove down and had the mare out. She was nearly as broad as she was long, with straight shoulders, but with great power over the loins, and with good hocks, although they were much disfigured, having been fired with something like a fire-shovel. I liked the appearance of the mare, and seeing that she " used " her shoulders well, asked the foreman to put a saddle on her and trot her up and down. He saddled her, but absolutely declined to mount, as did everyone else in the yard. I said to a lad, " It will be worth 55. for you to trot her up and down on the straw ; " but he said, " No, my life is worth more than 55." This compelled me to mount 230 1868] ALDERSHOT 231 the mare. She stood still until I asked her to move, when she went straight up on her hind legs, narrowly missing falling back. This she repeated twice, the third time walking on her hind legs so as to bring my knee against the wall as her fore feet came to the ground. I realised the mare's intention, and instead of pulling her away from the wall, pulled the inside rein sharply, which brought her down with her jaw on the wall, the jar being so great as to almost stun her. Taking advantage of the horse's bewildered state, I applied both spurs, and she trotted quietly out of the yard. Although her shoulder was short and badly put on, she never fell until I shot her, six years afterwards, except twice once in a rabbit hole, and once when a bank broke under her. I had a small pack of drag hounds, the farmers living round Rivenhall, where my mother lived, allowing me to take the Drag anywhere I liked, out of love of my father's memory. One farmer in reply to my request to cross his fields, sent me a message, " Tell Muster Evelyn if there be any one field where he can do most damage, I hope he will go there." Some of the younger ones assisted me by taking on the drag occasionally, so I hunted under favourable conditions, " Vaga- bond " and " Fractious " carrying me, or my sister, fifteen times in twenty-three successive days. I generally rode " Vagabond " with the Drag the day before I hunted him with the Stag Hounds, and saved him all I could by putting the horse in the train whenever it was possible ; but as the kennels were five-and -twenty miles off, I could seldom get a short day. One day I rode him 19 miles to the meet, had a good run of two hours, and then 29 miles home, after taking the deer north of Bishop's Stortford, and without putting him off his feed. I had a groom, excellent when he was sober ; he came into my service in December 1865, and up to the end of 1866, when I was at Aldershot, had not given way to his besetting vice ; but there the attractions of the canteens were too great, and he became troublesome. He should have arrived at my mother's house with the horses some hours before I did on the I4th of February 1868, but did not appear till nightfall. When I went to the stable just before dinner, I found that the horses had apparently been fed and 232 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1868 watered, but the man was drunk. Seeing his condition, I endeavoured to avoid him, especially as my mother's coachman was also under the influence of liquor although not intoxicated ; but the groom approached me rapidly, and as I thought with the intention of hitting me over the head with a lantern, so, knocking him down, I held him by the throat while I called the coachman to bring a halter and lash his legs. The groom had a keen sense of humour, and after the trembling coachman had tied his feet he pulled one out, observing, " Oh, you're a blessed fool, to tie up a man ! " and in drunken tones he apostrophised me and all my family, finishing up with the expression, " And you're about the best of a d d bad lot." I was nervous of leaving the man over the stable for fear he might set fire to it, so putting him into a dog-cart my brother and I drove over to the Petty Sessions House at Witham, where we saw the Inspector of Police, who declined to take charge of him because he was not " drunk and incapable in the street." I asked, "If you saw him drunk and in- capable in the street would you then take charge of him for the night ? " " Yes, certainly, but not while he is in your carriage." I cast off the undergirth, and having tilted up the shafts, shot the groom into the roadway, calling to the Inspector, " Now you can properly take him up." He reappeared next day, contrite, and remained with me two or three years, until he became so troublesome I was obliged to part with him. He was engaged by the Adjutant-General of the Army, without any references to me, and eventually having challenged him to fight, was knocked down, and dismissed. My eldest child, born at Brighton in the summer, was for some time delicate, the nurse and I watching her at night by turns for two months. I had never been really well since I left the Staff College, and this night-watching rendered me altogether incapable of work. I was endeavouring to carry out my official duties while spending two or three hours every evening at Brighton ; this necessitated my spending the night in a luggage train between Brighton, Redhill, and Aldershot, with the result that at the end of August I broke down, and was obliged to go away for a change of air. Towards the middle of the next month I fainted five times one afternoon from the intensity of the pain in the nerves of the stomach. 1868] ALDERSHOT 233 All through 1868 I was suffering from it, and it was not until a year later that Doctor Porter, attached to the 97th Regiment, in the North Camp, cured me. When he had done so, he asked to see me alone, and said, " Now I have cured you of neuralgia, but I fear I have made you an opium-eater for life." I laughed, saying, " I think not." " But you must feel a craving for it, don't you ? " " Only when the pain is on." " But haven't you got to like it ? " " No'; I have never got rid of the feeling that it is exactly like soapsuds." I remained ill so long, however, that I had to face the con- tingency of being obliged to leave the Service, and having some taste for Military law elected to qualify for the Bar. During my service at Aldershot I had made an epitome of every important decision given by Judges Advocate-General relative to Courts Martial in the United Kingdom, and some years later Colonel Colley l asked permission of the War Office to have my notes printed, for the guidance of his class at the Staff College. The application was refused, with the quaint answer : " Permission cannot be given on account of the many conflicting decisions." It is only right I should add the office being then Political, the holders changed with the Govern- ment. The Heads of the Army inculcate uniformity of punishment, but they do not always succeed. In the spring of the year, Frank Markham, Sir Alfred Horsford's Aide-de-Camp, Cricket Club Secretary, asked me for a fatigue party to roll the officers' ground in anticipation of the match. I said, " No, you can have a working party." " Oh, but I have got no funds." " Then go over to the and get some defaulters to roll your ground." " I have been there already, and the Adjutant says if I go after Monday I can have as many as I want ; but that is too late, for we play on Monday, and so I cannot wait." " What does he mean by saying he has got no defaulters now ? " " I asked him that, and he explained that the Colonel being away there were no defaulters, but he is coming back on Monday, and then there will be as many as I can want." There came to Aldershot in the early summer a battalion distinguished for the best Barrack-room discipline in the Army. At that time it was commanded by a courteous gentleman, 1 Later, Major-General Sir George Colley. 234 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1868 typical of the old school. A delightful host in his Mess, on matters of duty he was accurate to the verge of pedantry. Captain , a pillar of the Regiment, being not only a good Company commander, but having business attributes which enabled him to manage successfully all the Regimental institu- tions, was courting his cousin, whom he afterwards married. He had obtained leave from noon to go to London on " urgent private affairs," which were to meet the young lady in the Botanical Gardens, and just as he was starting for the one o'clock train at Farnborough, 1 an orderly came to him, saying, " The Colonel wants you in the orderly-room, sir." Captain got back into uniform, and, putting on his sword, for in the " Wait-a-Bits " z officers attending orderly- room always wore swords, knocked at the door, and entered. The Commanding officer was writing, and nodding pleasantly, said, " Yes, wait a bit, please," and proceeded to finish what was apparently a carefully worded official document ; at all events, it so seemed to the Captain, who stood fidgeting with his watch and calculating whether he could catch his train. At last, his patience being exhausted, he said, " I beg your pardon, sir, but you wished to see me. May I know for what purpose, as I want to catch a train ? " "I wish, Captain ," replied the Colonel, " to impress on you the necessity of being accurate in any documents you send in to this office for my approval." " I am not aware," the Captain said, " that I have sent any in, sir, for I have had no prisoners for some time." The Colonel then handed to him two passes, which the Captain scanned carefully, without finding out what was wrong. It was indeed difficult to make a mistake, as everything except the dates and the signature was printed. After close perusal, he handed them back, saying, " I am sorry, sir, but I cannot see anything wrong." The Chief replied slowly, " You have applied for leave for two privates in your Company to be absent from the 25 to the 27 of July, and if you look, you will see, in each case, there is a ' th ' and two dots wanting." This was too much for the Captain's temper, and he said with much heat, " Have you sent for me, sir, and caused me to lose my train, and thus fail to keep a most important engagement in 1 The Aldershot Railway was not then projected. 2 A local nickname, from an expression often used by the Colonel. 1868] ALDERSHOT 235 London, to tell me to put a ' th ' and two dots ? " " Yes, Captain , I have. And I hope when you have the honour of commanding this Regiment, like me you will appreciate and teach the advantages of accuracy. Good-morning." During the operations then practised in and about the Long Valley he was a trial to excited Aides-de-Camp, who galloping up would exclaim, " The General wants you to advance immediately and attack." To which the Colonel would reply, " Kindly say that again I am rather deaf." And after still more excited repeti- tion would say calmly, " Let us wait a bit, and see exactly what is required." This peculiarity had no doubt become known, and was partly the result of an explosion of anger, and subsequent regret, on the part of the Commander-in-Chief, who one day with his Staff was sitting on Eelmoor Hill South, practising eleven battalions in a new formation imported from Germany, as many movements have been since that time. The idea was to advance in a line of columns, and by filling up the interval from the Rear of each column to lull the enemy into the belief that there was only a line advancing towards him. Five times in succession the battalions advanced and retired, each column being formed of double companies that is, two companies in the front line. The Chief now said, " I am going to try the same thing, but forming the battalions in double columns of subdivisions." l When the Chief gave the order to half a dozen Gallopers, he said, " Advance in a double column of companies, filling up the intervals from the Rear companies." Five of us took the order as we knew the Chief intended, but not as he said, for we had all heard he intended to change the formation ; but the sixth Galloper gave the " Wait-a-Bit " battalion the literal order, and thus, after the Colonel had begun the formation, looking to his right and left he saw that the others were forming double columns of subdivisions, and he proceeded to conform. This involved delay, and the Chief galloping down shouted at him with an oath, " You are the slowest man, Colonel, in the British Army." He had been wounded in the Crimea, and did not therefore carry a sword. Sitting erect on his horse, with his eyes straight to the front, he threw up his maimed hand and saluted, and the Chief rode 1 That is, each battalion would have a frontage of one company composed of two halves of different companies. 236 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1868 back, vexed with himself and all the world, at having lost his temper. Before we got to Eelmoor Hill again, I told the officer who had taken the message that he ought to explain what had happened ; but as he absolutely declined, I told the Chief, who turning his horse cantered back to the battalion, and made in a loud voice a generous apology. I do not know that I admired the Colonel particularly for his self-restraint in the first instance, but he gave me a lasting lesson on hearing the apology, for his face did not relax in the slightest degree nor did his eyes move. When the Chief had ceased speaking, up again went the maimed hand with a grave, punctilious salute a grand example to his battalion of young soldiers. When the troops were going home, the apology was repeated; and then the Colonel, holding out his hand, said pleasantly, " Pray, sir, say no more about it ; I am fully satisfied." A few months later a Cavalry Colonel was called during a manoeuvre a " d d fool," for which at the Conference a full apology was made. The Colonel, a most lovable character, although a high-class gentleman in essentials, habitually used words as did our soldiers in Flanders two hundred years ago. He was an excellent Cavalry leader, although not by any means a finished horseman, and had a habit of heaving his body up and down in the saddle when excited. When the Chief had finished his apology, the Colonel blurted out, " I do not mind, sir, being called a ' d d fool,' but I do mind being called a ' d d fool ' before all these ' d d fools ' of your Staff." l Bad language was then used constantly on every parade, until Sir Hope Grant assumed command two years later. He resolutely setting his face against the practice, did much to stamp it out. In the sixties our Generals delighted in practising compli- cated movements in lines of columns, especially one which was the terror of many Commanding officers, and which consisted in turning one or more battalions about, and then having moved to a flank, in fours, to wheel the column while in fours. The result was often ludicrous ; indeed, I have seen five Captains standing in the leading company of a battalion, which had 1 The custom was so widely spread, that the " Wait-a-Bits," an old-fashioned but one of the steadiest battalions I ever knew at Aldershot, asked me when I was Brigade-Major to be allowed to give up their place in line of columns in order to avoid standing next to a very vituperative though brave Commanding officer. 1869] ALDERSHOT 237 been ordered suddenly to " Halt," " Front." A line of thirteen battalions changing front forwards and backwards, on a named company, of a named battalion, was often practised three times a week, when I went to Aldershot in 1 866, and the Lieutenant- General nearly always placed the Base points for the new alignment, to the mathematical accuracy of which both time and energy were devoted, and which induced much bad language. Those at Aldershot now, who may see this book, will be interested to read that I met Captain Tufnell of the 34th coming in one evening in October with eleven and a half couple of snipe, shot between the Queen's Hotel and the bathing pond on Cove Common. I was more intimate with that Regiment than any other, my brother having served in it for some years. I admired greatly the Colonel, of whose gallantry I had been a witness on the 1 8th June 1855, and thus it came about that, although I dined once a week with each battalion in the North Camp, I generally spent any other free evening in the 34th Mess. In May 1869 two French officers came to the camp bringing an introduction from Lord Southwell, and asked to see an officers' Mess. I sent an orderly over to the 34th to say we were coming, and just as we approached the hut one of the officers came out, saying, " Will you delay them a moment till we throw a rug over our drums ? " I could not stop the officers without giving an explanation, and so walked on, thinking it best to chance their noticing the drums. It was difficult to avoid seeing them, however, as there were five on each side of the very narrow entrance to the anteroom, and the senior French officer asked me their history. I told him frankly, expressing regret that I had inadvertently shown them something of an unpleasant nature, and he replied politely, " Pray do not let it disturb you ; it is only the fortune of war." 1 In July we sent a flying column from Aldershot to Wimbledon, and officers who know the present state of the Mobilisation Stores which are sufficient for an Army Corps, may be interested to read that in 1 869 we had not enough " line gear" 1 At Arroyo dos Molinos, in the Peninsular, 1811, the French 34th was captured by the English Regiment of the same number. The representative bands rushed at each other, with the result that the baton of the Tambour Major and ten of the French Regiment drums remained in the hands of our 34th. 238 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1869 at Aldershot for one Squadron of Cavalry. An officer of the Control Department went to Woolwich on the Saturday, and bringing it across London in cabs, had it sent out in waggons at the trot to overtake the column at Chobham, which had marched two hours earlier. I moved over to the South Camp at the end of the year, becoming Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General, and although I was sorry to leave Sir Alfred Horsford, I learned more in the Divisional office, especially as my Senior officer being in delicate health, I was often left in charge. To serve directly under Sir James Yorke Scarlett was a great privilege. He was a gentleman in the highest sense of the word, and although not an educated soldier, yet the tone he imparted to all under his command was to elevate the sense of duty and discipline. When I had been under his command for some time, I thought it my duty to point out the result of one of his many charities, for both he and Lady Yorke Scarlett, who had fortunes, were never tired of doing good to others around them. Sir James used to pay for a cab for every woman leaving the Maternity hospital, and I told him that the moment his cab put the woman down at her hut on the eighth day after her baby was born, she took up her basket and walked into the town to make good the week's marketing. Said he, " What a capital thing to save her one journey ! " During his absence in London I arranged a visit of the Inns of Court Volunteers, many of the Rank and File in those days being Queen's Counsel, or Barristers of high standing, and provided lunch at the con- clusion of the operations. When the General returned, I told him what I had done, and that I had taken what was in those days the unusual step of debiting the Staff with the expenses according to our pay. He asked, " Well, and how does it work out ? " " Oh, sir, the result is that you will pay four or five times more than what I do." " Quite right," he said aloud ; and then dropping his voice, in a low tone, to me, " And mind you, Wood, if there is any shortage, let me pay it." In the following year Sir James was as usual leading a line of skirmishers of one Force against another many yards in front, 1 as he had led the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava against 1 The Crimea in 1854-94. 1869] ALDERSHOT 239 three times its numbers. This was the habit of our Generals, 1 as I have shown in another book. Sir James was leading an attack up the Fox Hills, near Mitchet Lake, and with cocked hat in hand was cheering on the troops. Three times I respectfully pointed out that he was very far forward, to be rebuffed only with a curt expression beginning with an oath. On the third occasion he turned round and said, " Young man, have I not ordered you twice to hold your tongue ? If I like to lead my skirmishers, what the is that to you ? " Said I most respectfully, " Ten thousand pardons, sir, but it is the enemy's line in retreat you have been leading for the last ten minutes." He was short-sighted, and did not wear glasses, so was unable to see the distinguishing mark, a sprig of heather worn in the shakos of the troops he was attacking. At the end of April, having passed my examination, paying 140 for the fees, I entered as a Law student in the Middle Temple, my Examiner being kind enough to say that my papers were very satisfactory. The questions in History, although requiring an effort of memory, were not beyond me, except in one instance. I was fully equal to the first question, which was : " Give a list of the Sovereigns of England from William the Conqueror to Queen Victoria, showing how, when, and in what particular there was any departure from strict hereditary succession." Girls, no doubt, are generally taught History better than our schoolboys, for my wife laughed at me when I returned in the evening stating I had failed entirely to answer the question " State what you know of the Pilgrimage of Grace." A charming Queen's Counsel examined me, and being in the room a few minutes before the hour stated, I had picked up a Virgil, and was reading it, when passing up the room, he looked over my shoulder. He said pleasantly, " Is that your favourite author ? " To which I replied, " Yes, it is the only one I know." Taking the book out of my hand, and seeing I was in the Eleventh Book of the ^neid, he opened it at random at the passage in the Second Book " Et Jam Argiva Phalanx instructis navibus ibat A Tenedo tacitas per arnica silentia lunae." 1 General Pennyfather led many charges at Inkerman, where Sir George Cathcart was killed at the head of two companies, and as Generals did in war, so did they then in peace. 240 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1869 Showing me the passage, he said, " Write out that page." This I found easy, and when he had looked it over he said, " Well, it is a very good translation ; but your rendering, ' tacitse per arnica silentia lunae,' ' in the favouring obscurity of a moon in its first quarter,' is somewhat free." I said, " Yes, but I am a soldier, and over thirty years of age, and Virgil, who knew a good deal about campaigns, must have meant what I have written." " Can you quote me any authority for ' Lunae tacitae ' being a moon in its first quarter ? " " Yes, Ainsworth's Dictionary, which if everyone will not admit, is good enough for me, and I looked it out only three weeks ago." He laugh- ingly said, " Well, if you will tell me that you looked it out only three weeks ago, I also shall accept it." Then he observed, " After your very frank remark about your limited knowledge, I must put you on in something else ; " and to my relief he took up a " Caesar," which although I have not read always appears to me to be the easiest of all Latin authors, and I had no difficulty in satisfying him. I took the opportunity of being in the Headquarters Office of striking out a new line of management in the Divisional School Feast. I had mooted the question when I was a Brigade- Major that the feast as arranged, assembling the children in the largest riding school for tea and cake, was not making most of the holiday, and I suggested that the children should be taken out to one of the parks around Aldershot. I was met by the usual objections : it had never been done before, the owners of the neighbouring parks would be unwilling to receive 1500 children, and moreover it would be impossible to transport them, besides the risk of acci- dents. I found no difficulty, the Bishop of Winchester gladly placing his park at my disposal. T. White & Co., the Outfitters, and all the Brewers employed, lent me waggons, with the result that some 1500 children spent a most en- joyable afternoon, the ride backwards and forwards being perhaps the greatest pleasure, and for many years my plan was followed. At the end of 1869 the Agent on my brother-in-law's estate died of scarlatina, and it became necessary to appoint a successor. Sir Thomas Lennard desired me to make the appointment, and after advertising I selected three names 1870] ALDERSHOT 241 representing what appeared to be the most desirable can- didates, and to these I wrote, asking them to 'come and stay with me for at least forty-eight hours, my object being to find out which was most likely to suit an agency where the agent must fully represent the landlord, who very seldom visited the estate. My second child was but a few weeks old, and as the accommodation in our hut was limited, and a person with normal hearing must know nearly everything said in the hut, the opportunities of finding out the guests' nature were favourable. My choice fell on Frederick Wrench, 1 who had not long left the University. He had never been an agent, but had worked for six months in the office of Mr. John Vernon, an agent of high standing in Ireland, who strongly recommended the young man, and undertook to give him, or me, any advice as long as we required it. Wrench and I worked together for twenty-one years, during which time we never had a difference of opinion. Five years after he had taken over the Clones agency, he telegraphed to me to come to Dublin, and meeting me, said, " If you will tell the Trustees of an estate that you think well of me, I shall get another agency worth ;8oo a year ; but they want a personal interview, not a written opinion." He held it until he took over the man- agement of the Colebrooke estate for his brother-in-law, Sir Victor Brooke, and was eventually selected by the Secretary for Ireland z for the Irish Land Commission, where I believe he has given as much satisfaction to those who know what his work has been, as he did to my brother-in-law and to me. In the summer I obtained a half-pay Majority by purchase. This was convenient, because the battalion to which I had been transferred against my will in 1866 (after paying 500 to exchange to the battalion which was due to remain in England) was ordered for Foreign Service, and I must have paid another 500, or embarked with it. Shortly after- wards, a Colonel of Cavalry I had known since 1856, when we were quartered for a short time together at Scutari, before I was sent to Hospital, tried to persuade me to exchange with a Major of his Regiment, offering to lend me 3000 on my personal security at 3| per cent. He was 1 The Right Hon. F. Wrench, Irish Land Commissioner. J The Right Hon. Arthur Balfour, M.P. I. 16 242 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1870 very fond of his Regiment, and foreseeing that he must soon retire, was anxious that I should succeed him. I explained, however, that my private income was not sufficient to enable me to do justice to a Cavalry regiment, and so, although very grateful, I declined his offer. My friend the Colonel was very Low Church, and one day, as we came out of All Saints', at the conclusion of the Cavalry Brigade Divine service, he said, " Are you Church- warden ? " " Yes, sir." " Very well, I am going to report you for the way you go on in church." " What do I do ? " " Why, you say ' A-a-a-men ' in three motions. Why the devil don't you say ' Amen,' and have done with it ? " " Does it hurt you, sir ? " " Yes." " Stop your saying prayers ? " " Yes." " Do you try ? " " Well, as well as a wicked old man can ; but I ask you plainly will you stop it ? " " No, I will make no change." Within a week I received a rebuke from the Secretary of State for War, addressed to me personally as Churchwarden, for having permitted intoning at a Parade service, which (quoting an Army circular, dated before I was born) was against Regulations. Two Sundays later, I turned the tables on my friend, when at the conclusion of the service I asked, " I beg your pardon, sir, but are you in command of the Cavalry Brigade ? " " Yes why ? " " Because I am going to report you for allowing the opening sentences, ' I will arise and go to my Father ' to be sung." " Well, why can't it be sung ? " " Because by the canons of the Church we are forbidden to sing or chant until we have confessed our sins to Almighty God." "Is that really the case?" "Yes." "Well, I say, old fellow, you like it, don't you ? " and I admitted I did. I believe I gave the most audacious order ever issued in peace-time on the 9th July. Her Majesty the Queen had reviewed the troops between Long Hill and the Steeple Chase brook. The arrangements were thoughtlessly made ; for the Cavalry, which had the shortest distance afterwards to get into position, came past before the Infantry, which had to go nearly a mile farther. The scheme arranged was that the Division should concentrate behind Miles Hill and Eelmore Hill close to the Canal, and should then advance past Her Majesty's carriage, placed on Eelmore Hill South, and attack Caesar's Camp. I was detailed as guide to Her 1870] ALDERSHOT 243 Majesty. I went as slowly as possible, but it was impossible to take longer than ten minutes to drive from LorJg Hill to Eelmore Hill South, and thus the Queen's carriage was in position before even the head of the column of Infantry had reached the spot where it was to wheel about. Her Majesty sat with evident impatience for over half an hour, when General Sir Henry Ponsonby beckoned me to come on one side, and warned me as follows : " Unless something is done immediately, the Queen will go back to the Pavilion." Pick- ing up my writing-tablet, I wrote as follows : " Lieutenant- General Sir James Yorke Scarlett. The Cavalry will attack immediately up the Long Valley, and reversing the front attack back again, by which time it is hoped that the Infantry will be ready to advance. By Command. Evelyn Wood, Major." I sent an orderly at speed to the Lieutenant- General, who was then under Miles Hill, and within a few minutes, he himself leading, the Cavalry galloped up the valley and down again, to Her Majesty's evident gratification. The moving and exciting scene occupied her attention for the best part of a quarter of an hour, and then the Infantry came on. At the conclusion of the Review, after the Queen had thanked the Lieutenant-General, I told him, as we rode home together, of my action, of which he quite approved. Next month, to my regret, I vexed him a little by de- clining to tell him where I was going with a Squadron of the 1 2th Lancers, being determined that nobody should know whence we intended to start. I had made a scheme that we should bivouac out over night, and march from westward into Aldershot next day, somewhere between the Canal and the Aldershot and Farnham Road, the Cavalry Brigade watching for us in any position that the General might select. I rode round the previous day and looked at various spots, and as I was leaving Dogmersfield Park, which I had given up as unsuitable, I called at the house, saw Sir Henry Mildmay, and told him that although I did not intend to request his per- mission to use his park, I wished to tell him what I had intended to ask, if satisfied with the water supply. Next morning I got a note from him saying he considered it his duty to help the Army in every way, and he would 244 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1870 supply as many barrels of fresh water as the men of the Squadron required, and hoped that all the officers and I would dine with him, when he would give us something better than water. We dined with him, and early next morning went away towards Woolmer, lying up in Alice Holt wood. The Cavalry Brigade came out to the valley of the Wey, but instead of leaving a standing patrol to watch the avenues of approach from the south, sent small parties patrolling up and down the Farnham-Bentley Road. We watched until a patrol had passed westwards, and then proceeded at a slow trot, 1 crossed the road, which was the only danger point, got inside the line of outposts, and had no difficulty in reaching the men's Barracks at twelve o'clock. The Cavalry Brigade did not hear till the afternoon that their line had been pierced, and returned between four and five o'clock in an unhappy frame of mind. Early in August I got a lesson from a Major in an Infantry regiment who had asked leave "on private affairs." I returned the letter to the General commanding the Brigade, calling attention to the Divisional Order requiring a special reason to be given in an application for leave in the Drill Season, and the answer was " Sea bathing at Margate," to which I sent back the usual formula, " The Lieutenant-General regrets he cannot sanction leave during the Drill season for the purpose alleged." This evoked a humorous protest. The Major, who was in temporary command, replied that he had only three days previously received the Lieutenant-General's approval to an application he put forward for three of his Subalterns to shoot grouse in Scotland ; that he himself, when young and unmarried, used to shoot grouse ; now that he was elderly and poor, his solitary surviving pleasure was to see his children playing on the sands at a bathing-place, but he could not see why that should make a difference in obtain- ing a privilege. I knew that my General would, if told, refuse the leave, but felt so strongly the absurdity of our official position that I wrote " Leave granted. By Order," and never since have I asked an officer his reasons for desiring leave of absence. 1 Which pace I was bound not to exceed, neither could we trot farther than a mile at one time. 1871] ALDERSHOT 245 My General was going away, and although I was not the officer of his choice, he having recommended one of my most intimate friends, Major William Goodenough, for the post, yet I had been most kindly treated by him, and every day I worked with him I got to like him better. We knew he was to be succeeded by General Sir Hope Grant, who had the reputation of being very Low Church, and I seriously con- templated resigning my appointment, but was deterred by the wiser counsels of my wife, who urged me to wait and see whether her religion would in any way interfere with the smoothness of my relations with the General. She was right, for both he and his wife became two of our most intimate friends, as kind as any we ever had, and we enjoyed their friendship till they died. In the spring of 1871 I negotiated with three different Majors, arranging to pay various sums, from i 500 to 2000, for an exchange. I had settled with one Highland Regiment, but a Captain who had been a Colour- Sergeant at the Alma wrote me a manly letter, appealing to my feelings as a soldier not to stop his advancement by coming into the Regiment. Ultimately, in the autumn of 1871, shortly before purchase was abolished, I paid .2000 to exchange into the poth Light Infantry. All through the spring and summer months I was employed by Sir Hope Grant in prospecting ground for camps for the manoeuvres, which were eventually held the follow- ing year. I saw a great deal of my General, and of his Aide-de-Camp, Robert Barton, Coldstream Guards. They were well matched in nobility of soul and in their high sense of duty. I have heard of many noble traits of Hope Grant, and of his indomitable courage, moral and physical. My General, with all his lovable qualities, had not much sense of humour, and one day when we were riding from his office back to Farn- borough Grange, where he resided, we passed the 3rd Bed- fords, a smart Militia battalion, commanded by Sir John Burgoyne. 1 When Sir Hope came opposite the Guard tent, the Guard turned out, and it was obvious that the sentry was not quite certain how to " Present Arms." A man lying down 1 Who a few weeks later conveyed Her Majesty the Empress Eugenie from the French coast to England in his yacht. 246 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1871 in a Company tent in his shirt sleeves, ran out, disarmed the sentry, and presented arms very smartly, and then looked up in the General's face with a grin, for approval of his smartness. My General, however, saw only the enormity of a sentry being disarmed. In September H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge came down to handle the Army Corps, the larger proposed manoeuvres having been countermanded. He left the Adjutant-General and Quartermaster-General in the War Office, bringing down only the Deputy Adjutant-General, who was very ill, and indeed never once went on parade. My General, Sir Hope Grant, had taken over temporarily with the Staff the command of an Infantry Division, and I was left as the Duke's Staff officer, and was thus brought into daily relations with him. Although he had not been educated in the higher sense of a General's duties, his natural ability made it pleasant to serve under him. I had difficulty, however, in getting him to understand that when he gave me instructions at six o'clock in the evening and* invited me to dine at eight, it was utterly impossible for me to obey both commands, for to get the Orders out I was obliged to remain in my office till a very late hour of the night. Indeed, for one week I was not in bed till three in the morning. The Aldershot printing-press establishment was then in its infancy, and I generally had to check three revises of Orders. At the end of October, Sir Hope Grant's application for an extension of my appointment having been refused, I left Aldershot, and shortly afterwards visited the battlefields to the east of and around Paris with General Arthur Herbert, Majors Home and Leahy of the Royal Engineers. We had an enjoyable trip, slightly marred by the necessity of saving money ; for after spending seven or eight hours in studying a battlefield it is unpleasant to travel all night in a second- class railway carriage, in order to save the price of a bed. CHAPTER XXI 1871-2-3 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY Stirling Castle defended Arthur Eyre Colonel Eyre Route marching Dunkeld A survivor of Albuera Back to Aldershot On Staff for Cannock Chase Manoeuvres Ordered to the Gold Coast. AT Christmas 1871 I joined my new battalion, the poth Light Infantry, as Junior Major, assuming command of three companies at Stirling Castle. I had seen the Germans man the walls of Thionville instead of having a march out a fortnight earlier, so I put the detachment through the same exercise in the Castle, having the drawbridge raised for the purpose. The Officer in charge of Barracks protested against the drawbridge being touched, saying it had not been moved in the memory of man, and would probably break. I persisted, however, and nothing untoward occurred. My new comrades saw parts of the Castle that they had never before visited, their attention having been confined to the way out of it into the town, over which it stands. Some few days after I joined, I went over early to Glasgow to pay my respects to the Colonel, who was there with three companies, two being stationed at Ayr. The Colonel was away on leave, and when I entered at half-past nine the dingy little anteroom, there sat four or five officers who had just breakfasted ; rising, they bowed, with awkward shyness, which was the more marked in contrast with the self-possession and polished manners of a young officer with an eyeglass, who came forward and talked to me as if he were receiving me in his mother's drawing-room. After a few minutes' conversation, he said, " If you will excuse me, sir, I will go into the next room and have my breakfast ; " and when he closed the door I asked his name, and was told 247 248 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1872 it was Arthur Eyre. " Is he a son of the late Sir William ? " " Yes." " He was not only brave in action, but very deter- mined in the maintenance of discipline, as you will under- stand from my story. In June 1852 (mid-winter), during a Kafir war, his battalion, 73rd Perthshire, made a forced march from King William's Town to the Dohne, Kabousie Nek, to endeavour to surprise Sandilli. The men carried their packs : two blankets and greatcoats, seven days' biscuits and groceries, and 70 rounds. There was much grumbling in the Ranks, and 60 men straggled out of their companies, though fear of the Kafirs kept them between the battalion and its Rear guard. When the murmurs of the laggards could no longer be ignored, Eyre asked them what they meant. ' We cannot march farther, sir, carrying all this load.' The Colonel halted, ordered the 60 men to ' pile ' their blankets and 'Stand clear.' Then moving the battalion 50 yards away, he made the Pioneers burn the blankets, and resumed the march. I have no doubt the facts were as I narrate." As I finished speaking a deep voice came from an elderly Captain on the sofa, who had not previously spoken : " It's tr-r-rue, every wur-r-rd, for I was there as a Pr-r-ivate in the Regiment." The officer who corroborated my story was Captain Rennie, who, promoted into the 9Oth from the 73rd, gained his V.C. at Lucknow. I had some little trouble when I first took over the command of the detachment at Stirling. On checking the distances entered by the Acting Orderly Room Clerk of the Route marching, I found to the Bridge of Allan and back entered as about 10 miles, which was nearly twice the actual distance. The first day I marched with the men we went for a walk of about 12 or 13 miles, and many of the Rank and File were certainly tired, and when going out at the end of the week (for the exercise was carried out twice weekly) nearly half the detachment was absent. I took no notice, but on our return had the names of all the men who had reported Sick that morning " put on the gate." Next morning the men asked to see me, and urging that they had not committed any crime, protested against their being con- fined to Barracks, which they felt the more that under the easy-going system of the place at least half the detachment 1872] 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY 249 slept out nightly in the town. I agreed that they had not committed any crime, but as it was obvious that sleeping out was not conducive to good marching, their names would remain " on the gate " until they had done another march. After this, we had no trouble in doing any distances up to 1 5 miles. At the end of January I informed the men that there would be a voluntary Parade the next day for Divine service, to be held as a Thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from enteric fever. I explained that attendance was absolutely voluntary, that I intended to go myself, but that I wished the men to do exactly as they pleased. Those who did not attend Divine service would carry out their usual duties. Before we marched off next day, the Senior non-commissioned officer reported that all the men except the guard and one other man were present on parade. I inquired with some little curiosity who the one man was, but the name told me nothing except that he was Irish. When the men broke off after the service and were entering their Barrack-rooms, I heard derisive cheering as I was going down the hill, and turning back, I found the one soldier who had not attended the Parade being drilled in Marching order. On inquiring the reason, I learnt that the morning was ordinarily that for Route marching, so the Acting Orderly Sergeant, resenting the man's declining to go to parade, had determined to carry out the letter of my order that those who were not attending Divine service should perform their usual duties. This one man was a shoemaker, and had anticipated being allowed to work in the shop, but to the delight of his comrades had to carry his pack while we were in church. While quartered at Stirling I several times visited Dunkeld, the scene of the heroic defence of the Cameronians, now the Scottish Rifles, against the Highlanders, being greatly impressed by the courage and determination of Cleland, who, when his Lowlanders, all Glasgow Covenanters, upbraided him for having brought them into the Highlands to be massacred by their foes, saying, " It is all very well for you ; when they come down, you can mount your horse and ride off," replied, " Bring out the horses ; " and when they were led forth, said, 25t> FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1872 " Now cut their throats." With a revulsion of feeling the Cameronians refused, and on the 2ist August 1689 withstood the determined and repeated attacks of 5000 Highlanders till 1 1 p.m., when they raised a Psalm of triumph and thanks- giving, as their foes drew off and dispersed. On my third visit, I asked the caretaker to show me Cleland's grave. She said, with much astonishment, " Wha's that ? If ye come here, I'll show ye a real Christian's grave," and she took me over to the opposite side of the graveyard and showed me the tomb of a Bishop. I said, " I am not interested at all ; I wanted to see where Cleland's body lies, who, with his officers, gave up his life in defence of this building." " Ah, man," she said, " but this was a Christian." " Well, and why should not Cleland have been a Christian ? " " Nae, man ; ye said he was a sodger." When I joined the poth Light Infantry, it came to my knowledge that although it had been in possession of its new Colours for two years, the tattered remnants of those that had been previously carried were still in the Quartermaster's Store at Glasgow, and after some correspondence the Regiment accepted my suggestion, and I was asked to arrange with the Provost and Council of Perth to hang the Colours in the Cathedral of the City in which the Regiment was raised. The arrangements necessitated two or three visits to Perth, and on the first occasion, as the Councillors accompanied me back to the station, which was close to the Council Chamber, I asked one of them, pointing to a distinguished-looking old man, with a long white beard, who he was, and received the some- what contemptuous reply, " Oh, he is of no importance only an old Peninsula soldier." I repeated my question to the stationmaster, who was more sympathetic, and at my request obtained his initials from the Goods Office. When I got back to Stirling, I went up to the Mess-room, where we had Army Lists for eighty years past, and was rewarded by rinding the name of the distinguished-looking old man, who had been present in a Fusilier Regiment at the battle of Albuera in 1811. William Napier wrote marvellously graphic English, but of all his work one piece stands out pre-eminent, " The Attack of the Fusilier Brigade at Albuera," and I committed to memory rather more than a page of his account of the climax 1872] 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY 251 of the battle. On the 27th June we went up to Perth 16 officers and 14 non-commissioned officers, and the Commanding officer asked me to return thanks for our reception at the luncheon given to us by the Provost and Council. On rising, I said, " I should have been glad to do so, but that I stand in the presence of one who has taken part in a more stubborn struggle than it has ever been my fate to see," and I recited Napier's stirring description. As I finished the last sentence, " The rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood, and 1500 un wounded men, the remnant of 6000 unconquerable British soldiers, stood triumphant on the fatal hill ! " I said, " I call on Lieutenant of the Fusiliers to answer for the Army." He was at the end of the Council Chamber, having taken, literally and metaphorically, a back seat, and rising slowly and with difficulty, for he was more than eighty years of age, he doddered over to the table, and leaning heavily upon it, said simply, " Let me greit ! " And " greit " he did ; but presently brushing away his tears, and drawing his body up to its full height and he was 6 foot 2 inches he made an admirable speech, the gist of which was that he had lived in the City of Perth since 1814, and no one had ever asked him anything about the Peninsula ; no one had ever spoken to him about the battle of Albuera ; " but now," he concluded, " when I have one foot in the grave, I see before me officers in the same coloured coats, and with the same sort of faces, and instead of talking about what they did in the Crimea or the Indian Mutiny, they recount in wonderful language the crowning scene of my Military life." Then sinking back into a chair, he added, " I shall die happy." Two Colour-Sergeants out of the three at Stirling were intelligent men, and I had a considerable amount of success in imparting the method of Road Sketching to them, for they were both highly commended when they reached the Camp as among the four best in Aldershot, which seems to indicate that what one has often heard is true that it is not always the most proficient artist who makes the best teacher; for they were certainly much more successful draughtsmen than was I, their master. I got the Captains of the three companies 252 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1872 to teach their men the art of making straw mats to cover the ground of their tents ; to exercise the men regularly in pitching and striking camp ; and in drilling at one-pace interval, which was introduced the following year at Aldershot. The battalion went to the Camp at the end of July, and a fortnight afterwards I was put on the Staff of the Second Army Corps, and sent down to Blandford to select and prepare camps for the Force under the command of General Sir John Michel. I had taken down three horses, but the distances to be covered were so great, and the hours so long, that on the loth I was riding a hack hired at the King's Arms. I had been upon the Racecourse Down, and was returning by appoint- ment to meet a Cavalry regiment reaching Blandford that afternoon. When I got close to the meadows I had selected for the Camp, I saw the Camp Colour men waiting for me, but between us was a high hedge. I rode to a gate, and getting off tried to open it, but it was chained up so strongly that I found it would take me a long time to unfasten it. The meadow was just at the foot of a Down, so that I could not approach the gate straight, as the fall in the ground was too steep, and I was obliged to ride in a slanting direction, and at the gate post. The horse failed to clear it, and falling, got up with my leg under its shoulder. I at first thought that the ankle was broken, as I had lost all sensation in it. I was carried into the King's Arms, where I was attended by many doctors. It was known that I had been an advocate for some time of the " Hospital " as against the " Regimental " system, and I had to undergo a considerable amount of chaff when it was known that nine different doctors attended me in one week ! The treatment was changed nearly as often as were the Medical attendants : one gentleman prescribed hot fomentations ; another ice, with perfect rest. I did not make much progress for the first week, when a young Doctor came in, and after looking at the ankle, which was then very big (and even after thirty-three years is still so), asked, " Do you wish to have a stiff ankle all your life ? " " Not by any means." " Then get up and walk round the room." " But I can't move it." " Try, and when you have walked round once, rest." This was advice after my own heart, and I followed it. 1872] 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY 253 On the day of my fall, my wife was coming down to spend the Sunday, and she arrived to find me in a small lodging, to which I had been carried in order to avoid the noise of the hotel, which was crowded with officers of the Staff of the Army Corps. Mr. Glyn, 1 the Liberal Whip, was then living at Ranston, and hearing of my accident, came to see me, and eventually sent his wife with instructions to stop outside my lodging until I came away in the carriage. I have never had kinder hosts, and they put a wing of the house at our disposal, overwhelming us with their attentions. I did not get into Camp till the end of the month, when I was able to ride with my foot in a slipper. When we got back to Aldershot from Manoeuvres, Captain Blake, of the Royal Marines, a barrister of the Middle Temple, came to see what progress I had made ; for he had been send- ing me a series of Examination papers for the previous two years. Throughout 1870-1 I studied from 4 to 7.30 a.m. and never missed being in my office at 9 a.m., and it was thus I acquired any slight knowledge I possess of legal books. I drew up, and circulated, in October 1872, proposals for Mounted Infantry. General Sir John Fox Burgoyne had predicted that in all wars of the future Mounted Infantry would play an important part. My attention had been turned to the subject by his correspondence, and the scheme which I drew up then has been closely followed, except that I always advocated, and still recommend, a certain number of men being carried on light waggons. In the spring of the follow- ing year I urged this point in a lecture on Mounted Infantry that I gave at the United Service Institute. When I went to Aldershot from Stirling in the Spring of 1872, I asked Mr. Thomas White, who was not only my outfitter, but whom I regarded as a friend, to hire for me a house in the best sanitary position. He replied that he had taken two houses himself, in the highest part of the town, for his wife and relations, and proposed that I should take a house in the same block. This I did. Here I nearly lost my two children from Diphtheria, and as my wife was not allowed to go near them, I had an anxious three weeks, sending my 1 Later, Lord Wolverton. I knew him in the sixties, as he rode brilliantly with the Essex Stag Hounds. 254 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 wife out of the house at short notice, and sitting up half of every night. Eventually, when the children were convalescent, I placed them at an hotel near Hungry Hill, and thus had four houses on my hands at one time. Except for two days, I carried out my Military duties as Commandant of the School of Instruction for Auxiliary Forces, as it was difficult to delegate the work to anyone else, the School being always full, and the officers, my pupils, being enthusiastically eager to learn. Eventually, from having been up so many nights, when the tension was over I was unable to sleep, and on the ist April the Medical officer in charge of the Regiment expressing some concern about my appearance, I told him of the insomnia, which he ascribed to a want of will power, and said he would send me to sleep then and there. Pulling a syringe out of his pocket, he injected into my arm what proved to be an overdose of morphia. Half an hour later, I was sitting at the dinner-table, when calling to my servant, " Catch me," I sub- sided on the floor, and as I opened my eyes at eight o'clock the next morning learnt that my second son had been born at 4 a.m. My wife was soon convalescent, and the summer passed pleasantly, for I frequently had command of the battalion. We invariably moved off " Right in Front," and were so wedded to this custom that the battalion always faced on its return from a Field day in the opposite direction to which it stood on assembling for exercise, and these idiosyncrasies of the Commanding officer I endeavoured, and successfully, to overcome by always moving " Left in Front." At that time the two senior Majors in the Army were promoted on New Year's Day, and I, as one, became in January a Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel, after io| years' service as Brevet- Major. In the month of August I was sent to Rugeley, in Stafford- shire, as the Staff officer of General Sir Daniel Lysons, who taught me more of the details of Camp life than anyone else under whom I have served. In the month of May I had chanced to go into Sir Garnet Wolseley's office in London, and found him poring over a Dutch map of Ashanti, and he told me, in reply to my question, that there was a King there who required a lesson to bring him to a sense of. the power of 1873] 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY 255 England. I said laughingly, " There is a river half-way the Prah I will steer your boat up ; " and he turned round sharply, saying, " So you shall, if we go." It was while going up that river many months later that Sir John Commerell was wounded. I had been only a few days at Cannock Chase when I received a letter from Arthur Eyre saying it was known at Aldershot that an Expedition was about to start for the West Coast, and asking me to interest myself in his behalf. I did so readily, from the following circumstance. When riding one afternoon with my wife in the previous autumn, I noticed Eyre trying five hunters in succession over the practice-jumps under Tweezledown Hill. The horses had been bought by brother-officers at Tattersall's two days before, and their owners preferred that their capabilities as hunters should be tested by some person other than the purchasers. Marking the look of determination with which Eyre rode, fixing his eyeglass by contracting the muscles of his brow, I observed to my wife, " If I go on Service again, that boy shall come with me." So, on receiving Eyre's note, I endorsed it with the curt remark, " The son of a good soldier, his mother is a lady ; " and he was selected. It was the end of the month when I received a telegram from Sir Garnet Wolseley : " We go out on the 1 2th September. You go with me on Special Service." Sir Garnet's original intention had been to take two battalions, each about 1 300 strong, made up of picked men from the most efficient battalions in the Army at home, each of which was to furnish a company under its officers, and I was to have commanded one of these battalions. The Commander- in-Chief, however, vetoed this principle, which has, nevertheless, since been accepted in the organisation of Mounted Infantry Regiments, and Sir Garnet was told he was to try and do the work with what natives he could enlist, and that if he failed he might have the three battalions first on the roster for Service. This sound principle where large numbers are concerned was very unsatisfactory when every man, whether an officer or in the Ranks, was of value. My soldier-servant, Private Rawson, begged leave to be allowed to go with me, but the Secretary of State refused 256 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 his permission in a letter the wording of which, consider- ing that 2 5 officers were embarking, is peculiar : " Mr. Secretary Cardwell considers that the climate is particularly fatal to the constitutions of Europeans." On receipt of this quaintly worded refusal, I wrote to the Army Purchase Commissioners I having been a Purchase officer up to the rank of Major to ask what I was worth that day, in other words, how much the country would give me if I retired, and received for answer the sum of 4500. I had declined to join in the petition to Mr. Cardwell, which was originated and put forward by two of my friends who are still happily alive. One of them, however, having been an Artilleryman, had paid nothing for his steps. The claim in the petition to have the purchase-money returned at once was not only illogical, but^if granted would have been grossly unfair ; for if A had purchased over B, B would undoubtedly have resented A getting his money back and retaining the seniority that he had purchased with the money. It was stated, and I believe with accuracy, that if the petitioners had confined their request to the Secretary of State that the money should be payable to their heirs on their decease, Mr. Cardwell would have supported the application. But as the matter stood, on accepting promotion to the rank of General, I, like my brother Purchase officers, helped the Consolidated Fund of the Nation. CHAPTER XXII 1873 ASHANTI Elmina Ex-Governors' wives Essaman, the first successful Bush fight The head of the road Kossoos' cruelty A Fanti order of battle. THE steamer in which Sir Garnet and his Staff left Liverpool on the 1 2th had been newly painted, which added to our discomfort. She rolled so heavily as to throw a watch out of the waistcoat pocket of one of the Staff overboard as he leant over the ship's side, and on more than one occasion we thought she had turned turtle as we were all tossed out of our berths. We reached Cape Coast Castle on the morning of the 2nd October. I was sent to Elmina, a Dutch fort, about 1 2 miles off, to the west of the chief village l of the settlement. There were six officers in the Fort, of whom three had fever, and the other two startled us by the offer of " Square-face " z instead of five-o'clock tea, and one of them still more so by drinking the glass poured out for but declined by Arthur Eyre, after he had drunk his own. It was, perhapspmore remarkable that they were alive than that they were not well, but the climate at that season was, it must be admitted, intensely depressing. Amongst my instructions was an order impressing upon me the necessity of exercising great care over the scanty supply of rain water, there being no springs. All the potable water was collected from off the roof of the Castle into iron 1 The fort, St. George della Mina, named from the gold mines in the vicinity, is said to have been built by French merchants in 1383, though the Portuguese allege that they built the first fort. The Dutch held it from 1637 to 1872, when England took it over. St. George stands on a rock close to the sea, just above high water, and St. lago, a fort inland, 100 feet higher, commands both St. George and the town built on either side of the Beyah backwater. 2 Trade gin. I. 17 258 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 tanks, so before daylight the next morning I went to the issue place, and after a few West India soldiers had been supplied, I was astonished by the approach of a long line of elderly black women, each with a large earthen jar on her shoulder. " Who are these people ? " I asked the interpreter, " and why should they consume our water ? " To which he replied glibly, " Please, sir, all ex- Governors l wives have liberty take water." I allowed it for the morning, but had the women informed that I could not recognise their claim for the future. The state of Elmina was peculiar. The Ashantis had attacked the loyal part of the town, which was separated from that inhabited by Ashantis and their friends by the Beyah backwater from the sea, and had been repulsed by Colonel Festing, Royal Marines. The main body of the Ashantis remained at villages about 1 5 miles from the Coast undisturbed by us until after Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival. I was instructed to summon the Chiefs of the villages who were supplying the Ashantis. Those in the hamlets so close to us as to feel insecure, obeyed my summons ; but the Chief of Essaman wrote back, " Come and fetch me if you dare ; " the Chief of Ampeene, a village on the Coast, sent no answer, but cut off the head of a loyal Native, and exposed it to our view. The strangest answer came from another Head man, who was evidently of a vacillating mind ; for he wrote, " I have got small- pox to-day, but will come to-morrow." I was ordered to punish these men, and without telling any of my officers what I was about to do, collected sufficient Natives in the loyal part of Elmina to carry our ammunition, and hammocks for wounded men, into the Castle at sunset, and having had the gates locked, spent the night in telling them off as carriers for their respective duties. When Sir Garnet Wolseley and the Headquarter Staff, with some White and Black troops, landed at daylight just under the Castle, we were able to start within an hour 180 White men and 330 Black soldiers. A small party of Haussas under Lieutenant Richmond led the Advance, and then came a section of the West India Regiment under Lieutenant Eyre, followed by Sailors and Marine Artillery, and two companies of Marines. For an hour we marched across a marshy plain, often through water, and in 1 The English Government took over the Fort in 1872. 1873] ASHANTI 259 one place up to our knees for 100 yards. On each side, as we passed away from the marsh, were wooded undulations, with shrubs bordering the path, which was about a foot wide. Beautiful creepers, purple, red, mauve - coloured sweet - peas, and bright yellow convolvuli met the eye at every moment. Farther on, the Bush, which was in patches only close to the plain, became denser, and occasionally we passed through defiles which, if held by an enemy, must have cost us many lives. We were near the village of Essaman at 7 a.m., when the Advance guard received a volley fired at I oo yards distance ; occasionally some brave men awaited our approach until we were so close up that the slugs did not spread in the body of the first of our men killed. The enemy stood around the clearing on a hill upon which we formed up, and the 2nd West India Regiment, with the hammocks, became enfolded in dense smoke. The Special Service officers were serving under the eye of Sir Garnet Wolseley, and apparently wishing to justify his choice in selecting them, adventured their lives freely. Colonel M'Neill, Chief of the Staff, led the advance. The command of the Column was entrusted to me, and Sir Garnet, who was carried in a chair, had no definite duties, which was also the case with his Staff, so that they were free to enjoy themselves, which they did by leading the advance with a lively audacity which, whilst it excited my admiration, caused me some uneasiness when I reflected on what might happen if they fell. Led by these Staff officers, the Column pressed on, and we never again during the campaign advanced so rapidly on our foes. The enemy left the village of Essaman as Captain Brackenbury 1 and Lieutenant Charteris 2 reached it. The surprise of our foes was complete, and we found the place stored with provisions and powder. Having rested for an hour, we marched on to Ampeene, about 5 miles off, situated on the beach. Its Chief fled with most of his people, after firing a few shots. It was 12 noon, and the heat was intense as we started, as it had been for the last four hours whenever the Bush was clear enough for us to see the sun. All the Euro- peans had suffered considerably, and Sir Garnet proposed that 1 Now General Sir Henry Brackenbury, G.C.B. 2 Son of Lord Elcho died of fever. 26o FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 we should rest content with what we had done; but I had undertaken to visit the Chief of Ampeene, who had beheaded the loyal Native, and expressed my desire to fulfil my promise. Sir Garnet, in the first instance, said I might go on with the Native troops only, but the Sailors, with whom my relations were always happy, wished to accompany me with their 7-pounder guns ; then the Marines were unwilling to be outdone by the Bluejackets, and thus at two o'clock the whole party went on to the village, a toilsome march of 5| miles along the edge of the sea, through deep sand. We had no casualties at Ampeene, where Sir Garnet and his Staff embarked in a launch for the Commodore's ship, returning to Cape Coast Castle, while after destroying the village I turned back towards Elmina, which was reached at 10 p.m. Some of the officers never recovered their health during the campaign after this march. We covered 2 2 miles, most of the time under a burning sun. 1 This action, though not of much importance in itself, was the first successful Bush fight in West Africa, and therefore not only the experience but its result was valuable. All previous attempts had ended disastrously from 1823 down- wards. A few white men under the Governor then sold their lives so dearly that the Ashantis quarrelled for his heart, hoping they might assimilate with it his undaunted courage. The details of this fifty-years-old story were remembered, and thus the effect of the fight on the Ashantis, who had hitherto been the attacking party, was great; but the effect on the Coast tribes was even greater. We had left them, although they were supposed to be under our protection, to defend themselves, until they had ceased to believe in our power or courage to oppose the foe. The orders issued before Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival were in themselves demoralising; for instance, an officer sent to Dunquah was directed to give " every moral aid " to the Fantis, but he was " on no account to endanger the safe concentration of the 1 Sir Garnet Wolseley wrote : "CAPE COAST CASTLE, 5.38 a.m., October \$th. " What hour did you get back last night ? I watched you through a glass till you got close to the Marines we left on the beach. ... I have to congratulate you on the very able manner in which you did everything yesterday. I am very much obliged to you. The operations were well carried out, and all your previous arrangements were admirable." 1873] ASHANTI 261 Haussas under his command." The Chiefs of the Fantis gave the same sort of order, for we learnt after the campaign that a King who furnished a contingent of fighting men for our service strictly enjoined his brother, who commanded them, not to venture under fire on any account, whatever the white officers might say. Sir Garnet Wolseley in his Despatch dwelt on the moral effect of the Expedition into the Bush, and two months later received the approval of Her Majesty. 1 On the 26th October, leaving Elmina in charge of Captain Blake, and Bluejackets of H.M.S. Druid, I marched at daybreak to Simio, which I reached about eleven o'clock. I had with me half a company of the 2nd West India Regiment, and 3 5 Elminas of No. 2 Company, and was joined by a large party of Fantis from the neighbourhood of Abbaye. The latter showed great disinclination to move farther north, and absolutely refused to stop at Simio for the evening. They returned, therefore, to Abbaye, but their Chiefs remained with me. I proposed to attack the Ashantis at Mampon next morning, and sent to Captain Blake to ask him to come up and help me ; but I was not able to carry out my intention, for I was ordered back to Elmina by the General, which, considering what we learnt later of our Black Allies, was fortunate. It was some weeks before I raised my (Wood's) Regiment of four companies, to something over 500 strong. The ist Company was composed of Fantis, enlisted near Cape Coast Castle, and it would be difficult to imagine a more cowardly, useless lot of men. The 2nd Company, which was the only one of fighting value, and which did practically all the scouting work, started on a modest footing of 1 7 men, enlisted generally in the disloyal part of Elmina, or that part sympathising with the Ashantis, and some few Ashanti Haussa slaves that we took in one of our first reconnaissance expeditions. The 3rd Company, Haussas, had been brought from Lagos, and were described as the sweepings of that Settlement, all the best men available having been previously enlisted. They were first put 1 "I have Her Majesty's commands to convey to you and Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, who under your general direction was in immediate command, Her Majesty's approbation. ... I observe with great satisfaction the terms in which you speak of the services rendered by Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, V.C." 262 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 under the command of Lieutenant Gordon, who had been the moving spirit at Elmina before we landed, but he being sent to the Hospital ship, they were commanded by Lieutenant Richmond, until he in turn succumbed to the effects of the climate. I was then in some difficulty, but Martial Law having been proclaimed, the Civil prison was under my jurisdiction, in which there was a fine stalwart Black, whom I asked for what he had been imprisoned. He said for attempted murder. " What made you do it ? " "I was drunk." " Well, if I let you out, and enlist you, will you undertake not to murder me, drunk or sober?" He promised cheerfully, and I got the advantage of that promise on Christmas Day, which we spent at Prahsu. The Sergeant had been of great use, and maintained an iron discipline, in a way of which I could not approve ; for he kicked and cuffed every Black whom he could reach, and who was not as brave and active as himself. The men therefore hated him. He had remained quite sober until Christmas Day, when I was sent for by one of the officers, who said the Sergeant had got a loaded rifle, and had cleared the camp of No. 2 Company. When I reached the spot he was dancing, and mad drunk, defying all and sundry. I told off a dozen men to stalk him, and then approached him unarmed. He recognised me, and did not offer to resist. I walked straight up to the man, saying, " Stop this nonsense, and give me that gun ; " and he handed it over. It was no sooner out of his hands than three or four of his men, who had doubtless suffered at his hands, jumped on him from behind, and knocking him down, tied him. This was apparently a sufficient lesson, for he gave no further trouble for the next three months we spent in the country. The Haussa company was later withdrawn, being replaced by 160 men from the Bonny and Opobo rivers, under command of Prince Charles of Bonny, who had been educated in Liverpool. The men were small, beautifully made, very clever at all basket- work, but with no special aptitude for war. The 4th Company enlisted in the Interior, east of Sierra Leone, were Kossoos. 1 They came with a great reputation for courage, saying they preferred to fight with swords, and we gave them Naval cutlasses ; but their only marked characteristic 1 Wild pigs. 1873] ASHANTI 263 was intense cruelty. It is said that they did charge on the 3 1st December under Lieutenant Clowes, who was an excellent leader, after I had been wounded ; but although I credit them with the intention, the fighting could not have been serious, as they had few or no casualties. Later on in the campaign, I personally took an Ashanti prisoner, while scouting at the head of the road, and knowing that he would not be safe away from me, had him put outside my living hut, where he was fed for three days. I was out of camp for half an hour, superintending the bridging of a stream, when Arthur Eyre ran to me, crying, " Pray bring your pistol ; I want you to shoot one or two of these brutes of Kossoos. They have got the Ashanti prisoner away, and are practising cutting him in two at one blow." I hastened to the spot, but the man was beyond human aid, his body having been cut three parts through. I had the Haussa sentry who stood over him brought before me as a prisoner, and called upon him to recognise the Kossoos who had taken him away ; but the man said he could not tell one Kossoo from another, adding he took no notice, as several men having come with a non-commissioned officer, he understood I wanted the man killed. The Kossoos realised that Englishmen would disapprove of their conduct, for when they were paraded within a few minutes of my arrival, they had anticipated that I should inspect their swords, and every cutlass was bright, and without a sign of the bloody use to which it had been put. I learnt afterwards that they had told the Ashanti to stand up, as they wanted to practise cutting him in two at a stroke, and, with the stoicism of his race, the man made no difficulty. A peculiarity of the battalion was that while the 1st or Cape Coast Castle company could talk to those raised at Elmina, but never would do so, as they were deadly foes, neither company could talk to the Kossoos, or the Haussas, or indeed understand them. There was, however, one advantage in this diversity of language and interests ; for whereas corporal punish- ment was our only deterring power, except execution, and neither company would flog its own men, I made the Kossoos flog the Haussas, and the Haussas flog the Kossoos, and so on all round. During the month of December, Chiefs Quamina Essevie and Quacoe Andoo came to offer me assistance. I had had a 264 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 great deal to do with Essevie when I first landed. Andoo was such a fluent orator that we nicknamed him " Demosthenes " ; and Essevie, though he said but little, was evidently a man of determination. They both accompanied me on our first expedi- tion to Essaman and Ampeene, twelve days after we landed, with the carriers. Andoo had brought carriers in for me, and when I told him I was going out, he begged to be allowed to go home and do fetish. I was somewhat inclined to refuse, but reflecting that the man had come in on the understanding that he was a free agent, I assented, and he returned at i a.m., four hours before we started, and we are still on friendly terms. Essevie joined me early in December with twenty-two sons of his own body begotten, all between the ages of twenty and twenty- three, he himself being a man of about forty years of age, and the finest of the family. He brought also about twenty of his relations, but all his men were engaged on the following terms, which were approved by Sir Garnet, " that we be discharged on the day upon which Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, from any cause whatsoever, ceases to command the Regiment." On the 6th November, in obedience to an urgent order from the General, I made a long march, which lasted from 8 a.m. till 10 o'clock at night, to join him at Abrakampa, which village, held by Major Baker Russell, had been invested by the Ashantis, but whose attack was, however, limited to a heavy expenditure of ammunition. The morning after I arrived, I ooo Cape Coast Castle men, who had been sent by Sir Garnet to fight under my command, joined me at Abrakampa, and were paraded in the clearing facing the Bush. The order of battle was extraordinary. In the British Army, officers and their men quarrel for the post of honour, but here each company struggled, and edged away to the west, where it was supposed there were fewer Ashantis than in the front (north). The Fantis were fine men in stature, bigger than the Ashantis, and all armed with Enfield rifles. Behind them stood their Chiefs, handling whips, and yet again behind the Chiefs were Kossoos with drawn swords. My warriors being ordered to advance, moved forward a dozen paces, while their Chiefs belaboured all within reach, and in time drove all the men into the Bush, remaining themselves, however, in the clearing until some of Sir Garnet's Staff assisted me by using 1873] ASHANTI 265 " more than verbal persuasion." One gifted Officer used so much persuasion to a Chief as to break a strong umbrella ! With much shouting and firing the warriors slowly advanced, followed closely by the menacing Kossoos ; but once in the Bush the Fantis got beyond control, for 100 Kossoos could not drive on 1000 Fantis, and nothing more was done, the Ashantis falling back until a party of Haussas and Cape Coast Castle men cut off their retreat at the village of Ainsa, when a few of them, taking the offensive, put the Cape Coast Castle men into such a panic that they fired into each other, killing 20 of their own men, and coming on the Haussas, who were in the act of crossing a stream, ran over them so hastily as to drown one of the company. They ran on till they reached Cape Coast Castle, 20 miles away, and there dispersed. The General, writing of them, said : " Their duplicity and cowardice surpasses all description." While the King of Akim told us frankly that their hearts were not big enough to fight in the way the white men desired, yet individuals behaved well enough to satisfy even exacting Englishmen. The personal servants of the Staff Officers as a rule showed courage in action when accompanying their masters, and the two Elmina Chiefs while with me never showed signs of fear, Essevie, the father of many children, being remarkably courageous. It should be recorded also that the Fantis, when deserting, never stole their loads. Although they dropped them under the influence of fear when fighting was going on, they took the opportunity as a rule of leaving them close to a guard before they ran home. The women had most of the qualities which are lacking in the men. They were bright, cheerful, and hard-working, and even under a hot fire never offered to leave the spot in which we placed them, and are very strong. As I paid over 130 to women for carrying loads up to Prahsu, I had many opportunities of observing their strength and trustworthy character ; for to my knowledge no load was ever broken open or lost. They carried 50 or 60 Ibs. from Cape Coast Castle to Prahsu, a distance of 74 miles, for los. ; and the greater number of them carried a baby astride of what London milliners used to call a " dress improver." 266 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 When I moved into the Bush with the few men I had en- listed, although I was immune from fever I suffered considerably from exhaustion. In my Diary for the I2th November is written : " When I got into the clearing where we halted, I could only lie down and gasp." My head, eyes, and forehead ached, and I remained speechless until I was conscious of being severely bitten, when I struggled up, and obtaining a lantern, found my stretcher was placed on an ant-heap. All the officers, in carrying out work which would only be that of an ordinary day in Europe, were affected by the exhausting nature of the climate. Our men behaved badly ; but then, as I have explained, we could not talk to them, and the command of the companies constantly changed hands, from officers falling sick. The Haussa company commanded by Lieutenant Gordon, after ten days was put under Lieutenant Richmond, who in his turn became sick, and although he tried determinedly to remain at duty, he never really recovered the exhausting march of the 1 4th October, except for one week at the end of November, in which he rendered us great assistance by his stoical demeanour under fire. Another Lieutenant spent nearly all the campaign on board the Simoom, a Hospital ship lying off Cape Coast Castle. He landed for duty eight times, but only did one march, when he was obliged to return. The climate affected our tempers, too, and most of the officers preceded their words with blows. Eventually, after issuing several Orders forbidding the practice of striking or kicking our soldiers, I wrote a Memorandum, which I passed round to the officers, to the effect that I would send back to Cape Coast Castle for passage to England the next officer who struck a soldier in Wood's Regiment. Three days later a man came with a bleeding shin, and babbled out a complaint of which I understood nothing but the words " Massa ." Calling for the doctor, whose courage in action was only equalled by his more than human kindness to all under his charge, for he never took food or lay down to rest till he had seen all the officers, I said, " Surgeon-Major, examine No. l and report on his injury, and how he came by it." I did not venture to ask the company 1 As every Black man was apparently called Quashi or Quamina, we knew them only by the numbers suspended from their necks. 1873] ASHANTI 267 Commander, for being as straightforward as he was brave, he would at once have answered, " I kicked him," and indeed there could be no doubt that he had done so, for the man's shin was marred with hobnails and mud. The doctor reported in writing : " I have examined No. , and, his statement to the contrary notwithstanding, am of opinion he injured his shin by tumbling over a fallen tree." I called the officer concerned and read the two memoranda to him, observing, " If another man in your company injures his shins in that way, you will go back to England." He saluted, and went back to his bivouac, when I said to my friend the doctor, " How could you write such an untruth ? " " To save you from a great folly. I knew if I told the truth you would have sent him home. You have not got a braver officer here, nor one more devoted to you, and you will never be killed in this Expedition if he can save your life; that is the reason I told a lie." I was really very glad, for the occurrence had the desired effect; although I do not pretend to say that no officer struck another Black, yet they all realised that I was in earnest in endeavouring to suppress the practice. I sympathised fully with those who lost their temper ! Our officers were brimming over with energy, and had to deal with Races naturally indolent, and the climate was, as I have said, very trying. Ten days before I left Elmina, Captain Redvers Buller 1 came over from Cape Coast Castle, carried in a hammock, and the moment he reached the Castle, taking out his note-book, said, " Please order me a cup of tea, and give me some informa- tion as quickly as you can." I asked, " Why this hurry ? " " Because I feel I have got fever coming on, and I am not certain how long my head will last." He wrote down carefully all I had to tell, and then, having drunk a cup of tea, started back. He soon became delirious, and imagined that the Fanti carriers were Ashantis surrounding him. Seizing his revolver, he fired three shots, but fortunately in the air. The General also suffered considerably, and when I went on board the Simoom to see him, I felt doubtful if he would ever get to Coomassie. We lost touch with the Ashantis for three weeks in November. They were moving back towards the Prah, and 1 General the Right Honourable Sir Redvers Buller, V.C., G.C.B. 268 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 avoiding the main track running from south to north until they got clear of our advanced post, which was then near Sutah. I was now ordered to take charge here, the General writing to me, " There has been a terrible want of energy lately at the Head of the road, so I want you to go up there, for I expect very different from you. I will send you some more officers when the next mail comes in. Have the enemy's position constantly under your scout's supervision, so that I may hear when he begins to cross the Prah, as I may possibly come up with 500 Sailors and Marines, and attack him." CHAPTER XXIII 1873-4 AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI A gloomy forest Two brave Company leaders Major Home Wood's Regiment become carriers Major Butler invades Ashanti with 20 Native Police Amoaful I am wounded A forced march Ordasu Arthur Eyre killed Sent down with wounded The disobedient Bonnys Chiefs Essevie and Andoo. THE day after we occupied Sutah, which the Ashantis had quitted the previous morning, I went out with 6 European officers and 300 men to advance to Faisowah, and left No. I Company (the Fantis) at Sutah, to bring up our baggage as soon as some carriers were obtained from the Fanti camps in the neighbourhood. The enemy's Rear guard of 4000 men under Amanquatsia had been reinforced two days earlier by 5000 (slaves) fresh troops from Coomassie, and the Com- mander had orders to retake the offensive. The country in which we were operating was a dense forest of gigantic trees, many 150 feet high, laced together with creepers supporting foliage so thick as to shut out the sun, which we never saw except in the villages ; indeed, the light was so dim that I could not read my English letters until we came to a clearing, and the dreary monotony of endless green was oppressive beyond description. There were scarcely any birds or animal life except small deer the size of a terrier, and rats and venomous insects ; few flowers, except round the villages, where the undergrowth was not so thick as near the Coast. On the other hand, it was close to the villages that most of the fighting, such as it was, occurred, where the system of African cultivation offered good cover to our enemies. They clear the ground by fire, then sow, in the ashes of the trees, and when the soil is exhausted abandon the spot, and build another 269 270 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 village. This is easy, as four men can make a hut, the walls formed of palm leaves, within an hour. On the sites of these deserted villages there rose lofty vegetation, impenetrable except to naked savages crawling on their hands and knees. Our track ran almost due north, passing occasionally through swampy ground, there being water up to our knees in one place for over 900 yards. At 2 p.m. the Advanced guard under Captain Furse, 42nd Highlanders, who was acting as Second in Command of Wood's Regiment, was fired on half a mile south of Faisoo, but drove the Ashanti Rear guard back across the river, and from the open ground of Faisowah. He took a prisoner, who, seeing our numbers, advised us not to go on, stating that as it was Adai that is, the Ashanti Sunday they would not retire. Furze under these circumstances asked for orders. Now, I had been ordered to " harass the enemy, hang on his rear, and attack him without ceasing," so I gave the order " Advance." When we came under heavy fire in the clearing of Faisowah, I extended Richmond's Kossoos to the east of the track, and Woodgate on the west side with the Elmina company, in which there were 25 Haussa Ashanti slaves, whom we had taken in previous reconnaissances. The Haussas I extended in line behind, intending to pass through them if I were obliged to retire. Sergeant Silver and two white Marine Artillerymen were with me, using a rocket tube, and their cool, courageous bearing was an object lesson to the Blacks who could see them. There was a heavy expenditure of ammunition for half an hour, when, as I had no reserve of it, and the Ashantis were extending round both flanks, I said to Arthur Eyre, the Adjutant, " Now, neither of the men in front of us will come away as soon as they are told, but Woodgate will be the slower, so go to him first, and order him to retire at once ; and then come back to me, and you shall go to Richmond." This he did; and my forecast was correct, for after I had got Richmond and his Kossoos safely back through the extended Haussa line, I had to wait for Woodgate. For a mile our retreat was carried out in perfect order, but just south of Faisoo some carriers came up with my Fanti company, which I had left to bring up the baggage, and who, though not actually 1873] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 271 under fire, fled panic-stricken. They threw their loads down on the ground, unsteadying the greater part of the Kossoo company, and all the Haussas, who rushed along the narrow path on a frontage of 1 1 men a path which only accom- modated two men abreast in the Advance. The Elmina company only kept its ranks ; the officers of other companies, Gordon, Richmond, Woodgate, and Lieutenant Pollard, R.N., by holding a few men together, kept back the Ashantis, who followed us up 4 miles. Our casualties were slight one killed and eight wounded, while four men who fled into the Bush, reappeared, one a month later. The bush on either side was so thick that the Ashantis could only crawl slowly through it, and did not dare come down the path, as they were shot by the European officers. I feared at one time that Sergeant Silver, Marine Artillery, would be trampled upon till he was insensible, and drew my revolver to keep back the crowd from him. I was just about to fire, when a black man seeing my face knocked down the nearest Haussa who was pressing on Silver, and kept back the fugitives until the Sergeant recovered his breath. I halted at nightfall, when we had retreated 7 miles, intend- ing to stand ; but the Ashantis, imagining I had been reinforced, became panic-stricken, and fled northwards recrossing the Prah three days later. Sir Garnet reported : " This attack caused the whole of the Ashanti Army to retreat in the utmost haste and confusion, leaving their dead and dying everywhere along the path." The effect on the European officers of their exertions on the 27th was marked. Next morning I was the only effective officer, and spent the day in instructing three companies in aiming Drill. I had been on my back on the i6th, after two very long marches extending over twelve hours, although the progress made was comparatively small ; but possibly on this occasion the excitement of the fight kept me up, and I did not suffer at all. Lieutenant Richmond was never again effective during the Expedition, and the health of his predecessor Gordon was seriously broken ; but he had been for months on the Coast prior to Sir Garnet's arrival. Lieutenant Woodgate struggled on, but some days afterwards I found him lying insensible on the track ; and some conception of our duties may be formed 272 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1873 when I state he had 132 on him, mostly in silver, for we were all paying carriers as they put down their loads. Arthur Eyre, also, whose irrepressible energy always led him to overtax his strength, had to go on board ship sick, and came back to me only when we reached Prahsu. The energy of the Commanding Royal Engineer of the Expedition, Major Home, was inexhaustible. I was warned by our Surgeon-Major that my friend, who was living with me, must break down unless he tried his system less. At the doctor's suggestion, I issued a circular Memorandum that " officers under medical treatment were not to go out in the sun without the doctor's sanction." Home resented this order, and told me that he did not intend to obey it. A few hours after, on returning from visiting parties cutting a path towards the Ashantis, he intimated his intention of going southwards, and, instigated by the doctor, I begged him to lie down instead. He absolutely refused to do so, and told his hammock-bearers for he was being carried to proceed. I shouted to the Rear guard, composed of men from the Bonny River, to stand to their Arms, and then explained to Home that he would suffer the indignity of being stopped and brought back by the little black men, unless he obeyed my order. He did so, and lying down on my bed, desired me to get a messenger to go back to Cape Coast Castle with a letter, reporting me to Sir Garnet. This I did ; and he, being too weak to write the letter, dictated it to me, and I steadied his hand while he signed it, for he was in a high state of fever. I wrote on the outside, " The poor fellow is off his head," and agreeably to my promise sent the messenger off at once. We duly received an official answer to his question whether he was to be considered as under the orders of anyone but Sir Garnet Wolseley. It was to the effect that as Commanding Royal Engineer he received his orders from the Leader of the Expedition, but as an officer he was under the Senior in whose camp he might be on duty. The Ashantis having recrossed the Prah, I asked that I should have a fortnight in which to teach my men to shoot. They, under Major Home's directions, had built Barracks for Europeans at every halting-place up to Prahsu, and I suggested that the work at the Head of the road should be taken by Major Baker Russell, whose Regiment had been at Abrakampa, or 1873] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 273 some other clearing, for six weeks ; but on the day the order was issued the whole of the carriers deserted, and the General was obliged to order Russell's and Wood's Regiments, as well as the men of the 2nd West India Regiment, to carry loads for a fortnight, for without this help the rations for the Europeans could not have been got up to the Front. I spent Christmas Day at Prahsu, helping Major Home to build a trestle bridge across the river. The King of Coomassie sent down ambassadors to arrange terms of peace. They were somewhat alarmed on first crossing the river, but became reassured when in the camp of Wood's Regiment, where they were kindly treated. Unfortunately, in the afternoon they were shown the action of a Catling gun, and the sight of the bullets playing on the water in a reach of the river (which is broad at Prahsu) so alarmed one of them, that, by a compli- cated arrangement of a creeper fastened to his toe and to the trigger of a long blunderbuss, he blew off his head that night. We duly held an inquiry, much to the astonishment of the most important ambassador, who, after listening to the evidence, showed some impatience at our endeavouring to record the facts accurately, and observed, " The man being a coward was afraid to live, that's all." I was ordered to take the body over the river, that the man might be buried in Ashanti, and the Bonnys being clever at all basket-work, in a very short time made a perfect Hayden's coffin. 1 When we were standing round the grave, I was astonished by two of the Ashantis throwing earth on the coffin, in precisely the same reverential way we see at our Burial services, and on our return to camp asked the ambassador what was the meaning of it. He said briefly, " For luck," adding a widow always did it at her husband's funeral, hoping that she would thus get another spouse by whom she would have children. Imagining that the custom must have been adopted from seeing our missionaries bury their dead, I asked if the practice had originated since white men came to the country, but he replied that it had been in use hundreds of years earlier. 1 So called from the gentleman who proposed in the early seventies openwork coffins for burial in England. I. 18 274 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 Before we advanced from the Prah, I received the follow- ing original letter from Major W. Butler : l "AKIM SWAIDROO, January 2nd, 1874. " MY DEAR COLONEL, The King of Accassi's Queen has been carried off by the Haussas, and her chastity is in danger. Express messengers have arrived to announce her detention at Prahsu when tending plantains. Please do what you can to save Her Majesty's honour or the plantains for I cannot make out which is rated at the highest figure by the King. I am en route to Iribee. Yours in haste, " W. BUTLER." The messenger brought a slip of paper also, with the significant words, " Please send me some quinine." I had to send Her Majesty back under escort, as she preferred the society of a Haussa to that of the King. Major Butler had expended much energy, and all the ready eloquence for which he is distinguished, in endeavouring to induce the Kings to the east of the Cape Coast Castle Prahsu road, to march with him across the Prah. His reports were a series of buoyant hopes due to the man's indomitable nature, alternating with despair at the successive disappointments which he had to undergo. We heard that he finally crossed the Prah with 3 Fanti policemen, but he was followed a few days later by 400 Akims, who could not be persuaded even by my courageous and persuasive friend to incur any risk from the enemy's bullets. On the morning of the 3Oth January, a few minutes after we reached the clearing south of Egginassie, where Wood's Regiment was to bivouac as Advanced guard, Home asked me for a Covering party for the Fanti road-cutters. I walked round and looked at the faces of my seven officers, who were asleep; all had fever. I thought Woodgate looked the brightest, so I awoke him, though he had been on Piquet all night. " Covering party ? Yes, sir ; I'll start at once." " Have some breakfast first." " Oh no ; I've got some biscuit, and there's plenty of water about the track." That evening Russell's and Wood's Regiments had cut a pathway that would take three 1 Now General Sir William Butler, G.C.B. 1874] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 275 men abreast, up to the outpost of the Ashanti Army, which was holding the clearing, and village of Egginassie, the southern end of Amoaful, which gave the name to the fight of the next day. The General's plan was to advance, with one European battalion, by the pathway which ran from south to north, while a column under Colonel McLeod, 42nd Highlanders, consisting of I oo Sailors and Marines, and Russell's Regiment, with two guns and rockets, cut a path in a north-westerly direction. A similar column under my command was to cut a path to the north-east. The brunt of the fighting was borne by the 42nd under Major Cluny Macpherson, which advanced with great de- termination, pressing back and breaking through the front line of the Ashantis. As the Bush was very dense, this fact was not known to the Ashantis on the east and west, and they continued to work round our flanks, penetrating between them and the 42nd Highlanders on both flanks. The right column before I was wounded had cut 200 yards of track, the procedure being as follows : two workmen, each wielding two cutlasses, slashed at the Bush, being protected on either side by Sailors or Marines. We had been working an hour or two, when besides slugs which rattled round us, fired generally by Ashantis lying prone on the ground, there came several bullets over our heads, fired rather behind us, where I was superintending the advance. I called to the men behind me to go into the Bush and see who was firing, and shouted, " 42nd, don't fire this way." At first nobody moved, and with an angry exclamation I ran back, and was parting the thick bush with my hands, when Arthur Eyre, pulling me by the skirt of my Norfolk jacket, protested, " It is really not your place," and pushed in before me. There was immediately an explosion of a heavy Dane gun, and when the smoke had cleared away, I saw Eyre was unhurt, and he exclaimed, " There are no 42nd men there ; the fellow who fired at us is black, and quite naked." Two or three volleys cleared that part of the Bush, but between nine and ten o'clock, as I turned round to speak to a Staff officer who was bringing me a message from the General, an Ashanti lying close to me shot the head of a nail into my chest immediately over the 276 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 region of the heart. Sticks were flying freely all the morning, and when I recovered from the stunning effect of the blow, I asked Arthur Eyre, who was bending over me, " Who hit me on the head ? " " No one hit you, sir." " Yes, somebody did, and knocked me down." " No, I'm afraid you are wounded." " Nonsense ! It is only my head is buzzing, I think from a blow." He pointed to my shirt, through which trickled some blood, and said, " No, you have been wounded there." He helped me up, and said, " Let me carry you back," but asserting I was perfectly able to walk alone, I asked him to stop and ensure the advance was continued. I walked unconsciously in a circle round and round the clearing we had made, and so had to submit to being supported back to Egginassie, where the ammunition-carriers and hospital stretcher-bearers had been placed. As most of the enemy were firing slugs, my body could only have been seriously hurt in the spot in which the slug struck ; for Woodgate had stuffed my pockets with the War Office note-books, which he asked me to carry, and when I protested, said, " Well, as you are sure to be in front, I should like to save your chest." My friend the Surgeon -Major, who had been taken away from Wood's Regiment a fortnight previously, to serve on Head- quarters Staff, came to see me, and put a probe into the hole through which the head of the nail had passed. The first doctor who examined me had expressed an unfavourable opinion, based on his diagnosis of the very weak action of the heart. Noticing my friend's face was unusually grave, I said, " I believe you know I am not afraid to die, so tell me frankly what my chances are." He replied, " There is some foreign substance just over your heart ; I cannot feel it with the probe, and do not like to try any farther, but as you are alive now, I can see no reason why you shouldn't live ; " and this satisfied me I was not to die that day. It, however, was not the opinion of the other Medical officers, and the Principal Medical officer of the Expedition, afterwards Sir William Mackinnon, Director-General of the Army Medical Department, a friend of mine, went to Sir Garnet, who was on the west side of the clearing, to ask him to say good-bye to me before I was carried back to a clearing at Quarman, three-quarters of a mile farther south, where it was intended to establish a 1874] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 277 hospital. Sir Garnet Wolseley has an optimistic temperament, which has carried him onward through his remarkable career, and he absolutely declined to say " good-bye " to me, alleging that he would see me again at the Head of the road within a week, as indeed he did ; but Mackinnon said, " No, sir, you never yet saw a man live with a shot in his pericardium." l The stretcher-bearers put me down in the clearing, and a man of the Army Hospital Corps dosed me with Brand's Essence of Beef, and brandy, until I somewhat petulantly asked him to leave me alone, and attend to somebody who required assist- ance more. "But you are very bad, sir," he said. Ten minutes later the Ashantis attacked the clearing. My Sierra Leone servant, putting my rifle between my feet, and revolver on the stretcher, sat down tranquilly alongside with his Snider. However, the measures for defence taken first by Captain C. Burnett, 2 and somewhat later by Colonel Colley, 3 who managed to be present at every fight or skirmish from the time of his landing, repulsed the attack, which was never serious. Next day there was a skirmish, after which the Sailors paid me the compliment of asking Commodore W. N. W. Hewett, 4 my friend of the Crimea, to get them placed under my command, as they were not happy under a Military officer who did not understand them. The Force moved slowly on, and on the evening of the 3rd of February was only 16 miles north of Amoaful. That morning I received a note from Arthur Eyre, lamenting my absence, both for my sake and for that of his comrades, who had worked so hard since early in October. Eyre wrote that Sir Garnet and his Staff had forgotten the promise made after our very hard work, that, come what might, Wood's Regiment should be represented when the troops entered Coomassie. Eyre ended his letter, " Our last company has now been left to garrison a post, and we shall never see Coomassie till it 1 From Sir Garnet Wolseley to Secretary of State for War : "AMOAFUL, 1st February 1871. "The Officers commanding the columns performed their difficult task most excellently. . . . Lieutenant-Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C., was wounded, while at the head of his troops." 2 Now Lieutenant-General C. Burnett, C.B. 3 Later, Sir George Colley. 4 Died as Admiral Sir W. N. W. Hewett, K.C.B. 278 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 falls." After reading the pathetic appeal twice over, I sent for the doctor, and in order not to give him any chance, assured him that I was perfectly well. This was not absolutely accurate, for I had been lying on my back since noon on the 3 ist; but I showed him Eyre's letter, and in accordance with my assurances he sympathetically replied that I might try and overtake the General. I started half an hour afterwards, and sent a runner to the Chief Staff officer, Colonel W. G. Greaves, 1 with a message that I was coming up, and intended to carry forward the most advanced company in accordance with the General's promise. I was detained for 5 hours by the Commandant of a post, who declined to allow me to take on the company until a strong patrol he had sent out returned ; but eventually moving at a quarter to six, we marched all night, Furze, Woodgate, and Arthur Eyre. Rain fell in torrents, and it seemed that every step we took forward on the greasy path brought us at least half a pace backwards, but finally at four o'clock we came up with the Headquarters. Colonel T. D. Baker 2 warmly con- gratulated me on my arrival, saying, " The Chief is asleep, but he told me to give you his love, and say he is delighted you have come up, and wishes you to take the advanced section of the Advanced guard, when we move at daylight." I took over the duty from my friend Major Baker Russell, who grumbled good-humouredly at my luck in getting up in time to replace him in the forefront of the fight. He had enough, however, for we were together all the morning. He observed, " As you are here, I must tell you that there is an Ashanti about 60 yards in front of us with a heavy blunderbuss ; I hope you won't let him put its contents into you." We had been ordered to do everything we could to save the lives of the Ashantis, and I took over from Baker Russell a wretched interpreter, himself an Ashanti, whose duty it was to ad- vance with me, calling out in the vernacular, " It is peace, it is peace. Don't fire." This man knew his countryman's position behind the tree, and showed the greatest disinclina- tion to accompany me when, about six o'clock, we advanced ; but the ambushed Ashanti fired over our heads. 1 Now General Sir George Greaves, K.C.B. " Later, General Sir Thomas Durand Baker. 1874] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 279 We were three-quarters of a mile from Ordasu, a village on the river Ordah, which the Ashantis had anticipated holding ; for when eventually we drove them out of it, their food was still boiling in the cooking vessels. I spent four hours trying to get the Bonny men to advance. They had never been taught to fire, and their idea was to lie prone on the ground, and, elevating the muzzle of the Snider in the air, fire it as quickly as possible. My friend Essevie, who was there, with a few of the Elmina company, showed the courage which he had always displayed, and kicked and buffeted all black men, including his sons, with the greatest impartiality, to drive them on ; but we made little progress. I think it was a mistake to allow the Blacks to head the advance. They had built barracks, they had made bedsteads, they had taken every outpost, no European soldier being disturbed at night, and we should have got on faster if Europeans had been placed at once at the Head of the track. There were few casualties in fact, nearly all were confined to the weak company of Wood's Regiment, which lost I officer and 3 men killed and 10 wounded, while the European Regiment supporting us with a strength of 450 men had only 17 men wounded, most of them slightly. The density of the Bush may be realised by this fact : while I was teaching a Bonny man to fire, an Ashanti in the Bush discharged his gun so close to the Bonny man's head that the slugs did not spread, and the force of the charge threw the man's body from west to east across the path. While Baker Russell and I were talking, he standing up with the complete indifference to danger he always apparently felt, I ordered Arthur Eyre to kneel down, like the other Europeans, but he had scarcely done so when he was shot through the body, and from the look in his face I saw that his last hours had come. He held up his hand for me to remove his rings, saying, " Good-bye ; please give them to my mother." The bullet had pierced the bladder, and he suffered so terribly, in spite of the doctor giving him all the morphia that his system would accept, that I felt relieved when he 1 died two hours afterwards. He had accompanied me, except when in Hospital, in every patrol and skirmish I undertook, and whenever he foresaw danger invented some excuse to get 1 The only surviving child of a widow. 280 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 between me and the enemy. He had inherited his father's impulsive temperament and all his determined courage, and was moreover a delightful companion. When we got into the clearing at Ordasu we halted for an hour, and the 42nd Highlanders coming up with heads erect and shoulders back, moved on into the Bush on either side of the track. Colonel McLeod was old-fashioned in his ideas. I never saw him willingly deploy to the right, or outwards. When at Aldershot he was accustomed to deploy to the left, and would move his battalion from the left up to the right to deploy back again ; but there was certainly no more stoical man in the Army when bullets were flying. When he had extended a company, half on each side of the track, he called for the Pipe-Major, and saying, " Follow me," walked down the path, followed by another company. The resistance soon died away, and the Column moved on in single file towards Coomassie. Just before it started, Major T. D. Baker l came to me and said, " The Chief says you are to take over the Rear guard." A wounded Marine had just been decapitated by Ashantis, who had crossed the path immediately behind the Headquarters Staff. I protested that I had been walking since 10 a.m. on the 3rd, and to put me on Rear guard would result in my not reaching Coomassie till after dark. I mentioned the name of an officer senior to me for the duty, but Baker said, " No, I suggested that, but Sir Garnet wishes you to do it." Shortly after we left the clearing we came on the body of a Chief, who had been shot by the 42nd Highlanders, while near him were three slaves who had been decapitated by one of the Chiefs relations, for the Ashantis have a theory that when a great man dies he should be accompanied into the next world by slaves as body-servants. At the southern entrance of Coomassie Lieutenant Maurice, 2 Sir Garnet's secretary, met me at 9 p.m., and said, " The Chief says you are to take up a line of outposts covering the town." As the night was pitchy dark, I observed, " Where is the Chief, and where is the enemy supposed to be, and where am I to 1 Later, General Sir Thomas Durand Baker, K.C.B. 2 Now General Sir Frederick Maurice, K.C.B. S| 2 5 -. B <_ !_ Z C C H tf > a: I OH ^r v l s ^ E^S 1 ^ 5 = 1874] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 281 go ? " Maurice replied, " I asked him that, and he observed, 'Evelyn Wood is sure to know, leave it to him.'" I went away a few hundred yards from where I understood the Head- quarters Staff was lying, and, halting close to some huts, sent an Ashanti for clean water ; for the stream we had just crossed had been polluted by the bodies of human sacrifices. I had barely fallen asleep when a Staff officer came to me and told me to fall in my men, and proceed to the Palace, which was on fire. I went at once, but the fire was nearly out when we arrived, and I slept till daylight, when I was again summoned, and ordered down to the Coast, with a convoy of sick and wounded. I left Coomassie on the morning of the 5th February, with the remnants of Russell's and Wood's Regiments, and a company of the Rifle Brigade, escorting some 70 wounded and sick Europeans, nearly all the former belonging to the 42nd Highlanders. Although no serious attack was probable, my charge occasioned me some anxiety. All the wounded who were unable to march were in cots slung on long bamboo poles, carried by eight men, and so in single file, which was the only arrangement of which the path admitted, our line of march extended over nearly two miles. When Sir Garnet went forward to the Ordah River, the troops accepted cheerfully four days' rations for six, and thus it came about that on the evening we arrived at Ordasu, where Arthur Eyre was buried, except a small bit of biscuit, the wounded had no rations of any kind. Just as we had lifted the cots of the wounded off the ground and placed them on tripods of bamboos, an impending storm broke, the heavens opening, rain fell as it does only in the tropics, and within ten minutes there were I o inches of water on the ground. I had | Ib. of tea and some sugar, which my servant carried in a haversack, and, assisted by Furse of the 42nd, after infinite trouble, I made a fire over a projecting root of a big Banyan tree. In turn we held an umbrella to shelter our fire from the rain, and finally had the satisfaction of raising the water to boiling-point, and into it I put all my tea and sugar. When we had handed round the last pannikin, I said I would have given a sovereign for a tin of tea, and Furze 282 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 remarked, " I would have gladly given two." Next day we moved onwards, and met a convoy of Supplies, so there was no further scarcity. I received orders to halt, send the convoy on with the Rifle Brigade, and remain behind, following the Europeans as Rear guard. The strength of the white soldiers was husbanded, and wisely so, in every respect. They were never put on out- posts. Up to the Prah 74 miles, just half-way to Coomassie they slept in large bamboo huts which accommo- dated 50 men, provided with comfortable beds, filtered water, washing-places, latrines, cooking-places, sentry boxes, com- missariat stores. A Hospital and Surgical ward was erected every 8 or 10 miles. Everything, in fact, was so arranged that the Europeans had nothing to do except cook their food and lie down on their arrival in camp. All these arrangements were carried out by Major Home, to whom Sir Garnet ex- pressed his warmest thanks. They were deserved. During the Expedition, Home and his officers had cut a fairly smooth track, about 8 feet wide. He bridged 237 streams, laid down corduroy over innumerable swamps, some of which required three layers of fascines, and in one place alone, between Sutah and Faisowah, stretched over 800 yards. When the Ashantis in their retirement approached the main path, near Mansu, Home was there with 43 Natives, and had just built a fort. His men Fantis were untrained, and he had only 40 rounds of ammunition. The General ordered him to fall back towards the Coast, but Home held his fort, and the enemy, not being able to pass him, moved farther northwards in the Bush before they regained the track. When we were coming down country, some of the worst traits of the Bonny men became evident. They absolutely refused to carry their own sick and wounded, and after I personally coerced 8 men into carrying a Bonny who was very ill, when I had gone back to look for another sick man on the line of march, they deliberately carried their comrade into the Bush 50 yards off the track, and there left him to die. The exertion of walking from front to rear of the Column was great, and thus it was that, when coming along slowly for I was suffering from intestinal complaints, and 1874] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 283 could walk only by resorting frequently to laudanum and chlorodyne I heard a noise in the Bush which attracted my attention. My servant told me he thought it was nothing, but I persisted in looking, and there found the Bonny man whom I had put into a hammock an hour earlier. I had him carried to the next encampment by some of Baker Russell's men, and upbraided Prince Charles, the Captain of the company, who spoke and wrote perfect English, for the conduct of his men. They, however, received my reproaches with apparent unconcern. Next morning I arranged that the Bonny company should march behind the sick ; but when moving off, Prince Charles informed me that his men absolutely refused to carry, saying that they never regarded a sick and wounded man in their own country, and always left him to die. I halted the Kossoo company, and directing them to cut some stout bamboos, told the Bonnys that I should begin with the right-hand man, and unless they picked up their sick comrade they would suffer severely until they obeyed orders. They refused, so I had the right-hand man thrown down and flogged until I was nearly sick from the sight. Then I had the next man treated in a similar manner, but he received only 2 5 lashes when, turning his head, he said, " I will carry." The company then gave in, and undertook to carry their comrade down to the Coast. Two marches farther on, from the carelessness of an interpreter, and the peculiar reticence of the Native character, I nearly had a man flogged unjustly, the remembrance of which would have been very painful to me. The Native soldiers for choice carried everything on their heads, blanket, ammunition, rifles and cooking-pots, and thus when a shot was fired in the Bush, or a man moved unexpectedly, everything came down with a crash, and as we had several false alarms, I was obliged to provide against this trouble. This I did by issuing two cross belts for each black soldier. For two successive mornings I noticed that one man in the Elmina company was still carrying loads on his head. I fined him a day's pay, and when I saw him disobeying orders the third morning I had him made a prisoner. He still refused to carry his kit except on his head, so I sent for the doctor, and said to the Elmina, " When the men have eaten, I shall flog you." 284 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 While I was having a cup of cocoa, a deputation came to the tree under which I was sitting, to beg their comrade off, saying, " You have put us in front on every occasion ; when you, or your white officers went out, whether they belonged to our company or not, we have always escorted them, and we beg you will not flog this man." I explained that he must obey orders. They still gave me no indication of why the man had refused to obey orders, but when I saw him and asked for a reason, he replied simply, " The belts hurt me ; " and on my further questioning him, he opened the front of his shirt, and showed a deep hole in his body, which he had received from a slug in action at Ordasu, and into which, without troubling a doctor, he had stuffed a lump of grass ! I rejoiced in my persistence in questioning the man, which was the means of saving me from doing a great injustice. I spent some anxious days at Elmina on my return, for Arthur Eyre had kept all such Public accounts as we had, as well as my private accounts, and I provided the food and liquor for all the officers of Wood's Regiment, charging them the actual cost, and although my friend had kept accurate accounts up till his death, it was difficult for me to arrange satisfactorily with the officers, who seldom messed with me four or five days at a time. Finally, I embarked on board the Manitoban, and came home with our General, to whom the success of the Expedition was due. When he went out there was a cloud of evil auguries ; advisers differed, and the causes of anticipated disasters varied, but nearly all predicted failure. The successful result was due primarily to Sir Garnet Wolseley. His mind it was that animated all, for to his other great qualities he added that fire, that spirit, that courage, which gave vigour and direction to his subordinates, bearing down all resistance. Every one acknowledged his superior Military genius, and when, on coming home, I was asked by the Adjutant-General and the Military Secretary what my brother-officers and I thought of Sir Garnet, I replied, " If he had gone down, I doubt whether there was any man big enough to have entered Coomassie with only one day's rations." As I was leaving Elmina, I said to my friend Essevie, " You have done very well throughout the four months you 1874] AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 285 have served with me, and I should like to send you a present from England. Have you any preference ? " After a moment's reflection, 1 he replied, " Well, I should like a tall black hat." Before the ship sailed, however, he wrote me a letter, asking if I would sell him one of my umbrellas. I sent him both as a present ; but the request put another idea into my head, and on reaching London, having ordered him a 233. Lincoln & Bennett black hat of the largest size ever made, I called on Mr. Lawson, Secretary of the Army and Navy Co-operative Society, and said I wanted him to make the biggest umbrella ever seen the sort of thing which would take two men to carry and with a different and startling colour between every rib. " Do you know that will cost you over twenty guineas ? " " Possibly ; but I should like to send a black man something of which he may be proud." And he booked the order. A few days later he wrote to me that, as I probably knew, my idea was not original, and he had found in the City an umbrella such as I desired, which had been ordered by the Colonial Office for a Chief on the Gambia River three years previously ; but the sable Potentate having misbehaved, the umbrella was still on sale, for, as Mr. Lawson quaintly wrote, " There is no demand." He bought it for me for 12, and also made for me a ten-guinea walking-stick, ornamented with gold bosses, and the hat, umbrella, and stick, on receipt at Cape Coast Castle, were handed over to Essevie and Andoo, on a Full-dress parade of the garrison, which marched past these somewhat unusual emblems of honour. Twenty-two years afterwards, my eldest son took part in the next expedition to Ashanti, and was sitting one day in the market-place of Coomassie, when he saw a Native carrying a handsome gold stick. He, like most Englishmen, thinking that money would buy anything that a black man possessed, called to him, " Hey, sell me that stick." The man replied, " I cannot ; it belongs to my Chief." " Oh, he will take 5 for it." " No," said the man, " he would not take any money for it ; " and somewhat unwillingly he handed it over for closer inspection. My son read on it, " Presented to Chief Andoo by Colonel Evelyn Wood, 1874." Essevie was dead 1 He wore only a small loin-cloth on his gigantic body. 286 FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL [1874 but Andoo still lives, and was in Coomassie with the Expedi- tion of 1895-96. My mother was staying at Belhus, the seat of Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard, when I arrived home, and the tenantry and local friends gave me a great reception, as did, a week later, the 9