The task of the French was much easier. The ground on their side was much more easily trenched, and trenches there were not exposed as ours were to be enfiladed (fired into lengthways) by guns outside the fortress. A hill which they named Mount Rodolph gave them the means of opening their trenches against the Central and Flagstaff Bastions at somewhat shorter range than ours, being about 1000 yards, and the proximity of their base enabled them to bring up their siege train with comparative facility.
But, of course, none of the trenches, French or English, were begun till the work of bringing up the siege-guns, and their supplies of ammunition, to depots near at hand, was well forward. It was not till the night of the 9th of October, when a fresh wind from the northeast favoured the enterprise, by preventing the enemy from hearing the men at work, that the French broke ground on Mount Rodolph, and by morning had made
98 Co-operation of the Fleets demanded.
a trench there iioo yards long. On the nights of the loth and the nth the English opened their works on Green Hill and Mount Woronzoff. Each day the Russians cannonaded heavily the works of the night, and each night these works were repaired and pushed steadily forward till, by the evening of the i6th, all the siege batteries were complete in guns and ammunition. The French placed fifty-three guns in battery, making with ours 126 in all. To these the Russians opposed 118; besides which, 220 pieces would bear upon attacking troops.
The cannonade which was expected to usher in the final act of the war was therefore to begin on the morning of the i/th. And now a question had arisen which must always be of interest when (as is so commonly the case in England's wars) the navy is in close co-operation with the army. It appeared to the military commanders that the fleets .might greatly aid the land attack by standing in and engaging the sea-forts. Writing to Admiral Dundas, on the I3th October, Lord Raglan says, " I know no way so likely to insure success as the combined efforts of the Allied naval and military forces." After pointing out that the recent success on the Alma had led all to believe that the capture of the place would be accomplished, he ends thus : " Not to disappoint these universal expectations, the combined efforts of all branches of the naval and military service are necessary, and none, I am sure, will be withheld. Excuse my pressing these considerations on your attention."
The Fleets to join in the Cannonade. 99
Every reader can perceive how difficult it must be for a commander to resist such an appeal. Dundas consented, but, as he himself said, " with reluctance." At a conference of the Allied admirals, on the I5th, it was resolved that all their ships should make a simultaneous attack upon the sea-forts. But all the English captains considered that the attack of the fleets should be made not at the time of the preliminary cannonade, but at the moment of the intended assault. The judgment of the admirals on this point was that it should be left to the military commanders to say in what stage of the conflict the navy should render the aid of its broadsides, whether all at the time of the land cannonade, all at the time of the assault, or partly at each of these stages.
The military commanders replied on the i6th. They chose the last alternative ; they applauded the conclusion the admirals had come to as " a great resolve," and expressed their belief that " moral and material effects " would be produced which must " insure the success of the attack upon Sebastopol."
Now the primary object of the fleets had been to render the passage of the Black Sea secure. This had become less pressing since the sealing up of the harbour — nevertheless the possibility still existed, and must be provided against, of giving to the Russian Fleet still afloat the opportunity of sallying out upon a foe so broken by conflict as to be open to defeat. And the prospects of an engagement between ships and such forts as defended the harbour, solid edifices of hard stone, with casemates for the guns, and armed with a numerous and powerful ioo Ships versus Forts.