No gloomy forebodings, however, of this nature damped the ardour with which all ranks, from the General to the recruit, set foot for the first time on
Russian soil. The landing had been effected with a success the most sanguine could scarcely have looked for. Sebastopol was. before them, and a dreary period of weariness and inaction was about to be replaced by the chequered incidents and the ever novel excitements of a campaign. The spot selected for disembarkation was a narrow strip of beach or causeway between the sea and one of those salt-water lakes so common in the Crimea:
" On one side lay the Ocean, and on one Lay a great water."
To the south of this causeway rose, at a gentle elevation, a plateau conducting into the interior of the country, and it was here that our army passed their first night in an enemy's land. The day, independent of its own overwhelming interest, had not been uneventful in incidents of a more dramatic nature. In the morning, a Eussian Officer, well mounted, and attended by l three Cossacks, was seen coolly taking notes in his memorandum-book, as he rode along the cliff, of the number and disposition of the fleet, of which he was also observed to make a sketch. He was within rifle range, but was permitted to obtain whatever information he required unmolested: nor was this forbearance without its share of policy, since the substance of his observations could scarcely have been of an inspiriting nature to the Kussians.
Later in the day. Sir George Brown, in pushing a reconnaissance too far without a sufficient escort, narrowly escaped being cut off by a party of Cossacks, who had been hidden from his view by an intervening eminence. He was only saved from capture by the timely fire of a piquet of Fusiliers and Eiflemen, who put the Cossacks to flight, and drew the first blood of the campaign, by wounding a poor arabajee, who unfortunately happened to be in their line of fire.
During the disembarkation, a Russian camp, which had been discovered about eight miles to the south of the landing-place, was shelled by the Sampson, the Fury, and the Vesuvius, and by three French steamers, with great success. The practice of the Sainimm was excellent, and her shells fell with such accuracy into the centre of the camp, that it was sjieedily desti'oyed, and the soldiers compelled to seek shelter in the interior of the country.
Such were the events of the Allies' first day in the Crimea, and if they were, as all will allow, of an encouraging character, it must be equally confessed, tliat the trials of their first night's experience of the hostile soil were such as might well have damped any ardour less unqualified than theirs.
In order to be enabled to dispose of as many effective men as possible, Lord Raglan had decided that all tents and officers' baggage should be left behind; and the men were landed with nothing but a small kit, their arms and ammunition, and the officers with their great coats, haversacks, and revolvers; all carrying three days' rations, consisting of salt meat and biscuit. The day had been showery, and towards night the sky became completely overcast, and heavy rain began to fall. In spite of this, officers and men had fallen busily to work, and had prepared for their first bivouac, by collecting heaps of weeds, and of the fragrant shrubs with which the soil was covered and the air scented.
On these Arcadian couches, which, with a higher temperature and beneath a serener sky, a Sybarite might not have disdained, our tentless Army betook themselves to repose. As the night wore on, the rain increased in violence, and for hours it poured down in sheets of water, whose weight and volume mocked the powers of resistance of great coats and blankets, and only found an impervious aquascutum in the human skin. The General and the private soldier shared the exposure alike, and one only embraced in the former category, thanks to the care of his staff, was provided with shelter from this "pitiless pelting." All were alike rejoiced when daylight enabled them to rise from the pools into which their bed-places had been converted, and, by a process the secret of which is confined to campaigners, obtain fire from such pieces of damp brushwood as could be collected on the spot, and thus cook their meal, which, if not a sumptuous one, wanted not at any rate the most undeniable of sauces. During the day the Artillery and the Cavalry were landed in spite of a heavy sea and a dangerous surf, and, though some horses were lost, this difficult operation was accomplished on the whole most successfully.