CHAPTER V.
BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE.
Sir John Burgoyne — Our First Siege Batteries — Chapman's and Gordon's — The First French Batteries — Co-operation of the Fleets demanded — The Fleets to join in the Cannonade — Ships versus Forts — Risk to no Purpose — Positions of the Fleets — The Cannonade begins — French Fire silenced — English Fire successful — Losses on both Sides — Action of the Fleets — English Batteries still efficient.
ALL this time the weather had been of the kind called in America the Indian summer — clear, still, and bright, but not sultry, with cool nights. War had as yet shown us none of its uglier features ; except for the cholera, the armies were sanguine and cheerful, and the work of preparing for the cannonade was carried on in good spirits. Everywhere the soil of the Upland was firm and fairly even, and vehicles could find plenty of space to move on free from impediment.
The officer upon whom the conduct of the siege operations of the English fell, and who, as we have seen, had already been called on to advise in more than one important crisis, was Sir John Burgoyne. He was the oldest officer in the Crimea, born in 1782. He was the son of the General Burgoyne known in history as the commander who surrendered at Saratoga, and in dramatic annals as the author of the comedy of The
94 Sir John Burgoyne.
Heiress. In the first years of the century the son had served in many climes ; afterwards was with Sir John Moore at Corunna ; at the passage of the Douro; helped to construct the lines of Torres Vedras ; at the sieges and assaults of Badajos and Ciudad Rodrigo ; wounded at Burgos and at St Sebastian ; present at most of the great battles in the Peninsula ; and finally at New Orleans. His mind was of the sedate, deliberative order, keeping a strong hold of facts and principles, and most unlikely to be swayed by the sudden impulses of those around him. As an engineer he had a sound judgment, ripened in an uncommon degree by thought and his large experience. He was entirely and, as preceding pages have endeavoured to show, rightly, in favour of employing our siege trains before attempting to assault, and he also believed that their effect would be such as to render an assault possible. Although so advanced in years, his capacity for military service was hardly impaired. The statue in Waterloo Place is an excellent likeness, though one peculiarity, an upstanding and disordered fell of hair, could perhaps hardly be expressed in bronze. The conditions of the task that lay before him will now be briefly described.
One who approaches from the south the hollow in which lies the harbour of Sebastopol, finds the ground rising to heights that form an outer line to those on which stood the Russian works. Between these two lines was an interval of about two miles. From our side the slopes descended for more than half way, and then rose again to the opposing ridges. These
Our First Siege Batteries. 95