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THE DEBT TO RAGLAN. Lobd Raglan has depa...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Survey Of The War. Wae, When Waged In Th...
Gfeneral Pemssieb ' s plan was to storm the whole line , from the right of the Malakhoff where it abuts the ravine , to the Careening Bay , with three division * pressing forward simultaneously . General J £ atbah was instructed to carry the works on the left of the Malakoff , while General Bettnet turned the left of that formidable entrenchment , and General d'Atttemaebe manoeuvred so as to
carry the work by entering on its right next to the Redan . Lord Raglan was left at liberty to assail the Uedan at a fitting moment and complete the conquest . Sir GrEOEGE Bbown was entrusted with this task , while General Babnaed was sent down the "VToronzoff Road , and General Eyre down the south ravine to make demonstrations there in conjunction with the French , and take any advantage he could . the
But one accident disconcerted all arrangements . It was agreed that three rockets from the Lancaster * battery should be the signal for the assault . But to his surprise , General Pemssier saw the action begun on the extreme right when he was above half a mile from his post of observation . The consequences were terrible . By some mischance General Mayban" mistook a blazing shell for the signal , and his men xushed forward obedient to the command of their chief .
Consequently he was engaged alone , under the concentrated fire of the Russian batteries . General Bbtjnet , not yet quite prepared , was forced to go forward in support , and of course came in turn under the withering blasts of shot that screamed through the ranks of our allies . Lastly , D'Atjtemabke , unable to understand what the far off divisions were about , hurled forward ; his men when the signalrockets flew aloft . He pressed on and entered the Russian works , despite the cannon and
the musketry of the enemy , and for a moment the eagles were planted in the hostile lines . But the day was lost . Lord Eagian , seeing how badly matters went , felt hound to draw off some of the fire . . The men of the Light and Fourth Divisions rushed headlong to the attack , got into disorder under the heaviest fire Lord Ragxan ever witnessed ; their leaders fell , they could not stand the iron storm , and . they sullenly fell back frustrated for the first time before the enemy . Meanwhile General Etbe had carried the Russian
works in the South Ravine , and the 18 th and the 9 th had actually penetrated into the suburb of the town , and established themselves under the wall of the Grarden Battery , exposed to a severe fire . Had the attack on the right succeeded , these men would have secured the victory ; as it failed , they were prisoners all day , and they retired at night . From these details the reader wiH see , first that the attack primarily failed , because it was a succession of waves instead of one
mighty surge . The whole strength of the enemy , instead of being broken and divided , bore upon the different points in succession . Secondly , it was a battle of men against gune - —always a losing game—the guns again being powerfully aided by an incessant roll of musketry from an army covered by their lines . Thirdly , he will see ttiat there are roads into the eastern face of Sebastopol ; for General Etbe found out one , and General D'Atjtemabbe another . It is also remarkable
that the steamers in the harbour , which it was stated had been compelled to keep out of range , took part in , and materially aided the defence , Nevertheless , the assault was nearly a success , and is an earnest of victory in the next endeavour . 2 % e CCchernai / a . —It is satisfactory to find that tax advance was made across the Tchor . naya to the north-east by the Turks and Sardinians on . the 18 th and 10 th of June-Passing the river above and below Tchor-
Survey Of The War. Wae, When Waged In Th...
goun , the Turks taking the right and the Sardinians the left , they pressed on as ' tar as Koutska , and bivouacked there for ^ the ni ^ ht . The next day / moving further up the ( hills , they occupied TJpti and Ozembash , and came in sight of the pass of Aitodor . Tms the Russians held , as it is the key of the road to Bakstchi-Serai , turning the ridge in front or Mackenzie ' s Farm , and debouching by Albat , in the valley of the Upper Belbek , m the
rear of the supposed Russian position at Korales . It is probable that had the assault on the 18 th been successful , a general advance would have been made along the whole line , the Turks and Sardinians turning the ridge , while the French attacked it in front , and strove to carry the Russian p osition above Inkerman . But the assault failed , and the Turks and Sardinians fell back nearer to Tchorgoun .
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The Debt To Raglan. Lobd Raglan Has Depa...
THE DEBT TO RAGLAN . Lobd Raglan has departed , leaving the country his debtor . It is a painful reflection for any man who , loving his country , takes its honour to heart . If a man dies in debt , his friends can make good his forfeit , or his debtors can forgive him . His good deeds can be set off against his default ; and at the worst there is no great harm done . But if a man dies with his country in debt to him , there is only one way in which the country
can acquit itself . It is no paltry pittance to the survivors that can satisfy the claims ; still less when the patriot has , like Raglan , sacr ificed himself in the service of his country , and while in the very act of making the sacrifice , has sustained the hardest consequence hy being made , the butt of misrepresentation and obloquy . It is , then , a double debt . While he lived his wages were ingratitude , and now that he is dead we have fco give him his reward , and to make good that which was unjustly filched from him .
There is no more painful spectacle than that which we discern , when we look back and survey Lord Raglais ' s career in the Crimea . Nay , we cannot quite say so much ; for indeed he did witness some scenes that must have done his heart good . For there are many things worse than the most terrible misfortune that can possibly befal tlie good : there is the fate of those who , being selfish or base , have poisoned the very sources of their own faith . Ragiatt was none of
these ; and amid all the things which lie had to endure , there was always something to sustain him in his own generosity , his calmness , and the simplicity of his good faith . It is reported of him that , when he read the coarse censure which was heaped upon him , he did not ascribe malice to those who judged him even unjustly .
Still the spectacle is most melancholy , of a good man treated like a bad man ; of a successful general made to endure the actual results of ill success . For in whatever stage of the conflict we view him , it is the same . If he is riding through the camp leisurely and unostentatiously , in order to ascertain how the men bear themselves under their trials , the unostentatious character of his attendance
originates the report that lie is never seen ; and the bad management , wbich was organised by an incompetent department , is laid at his door , at the very time when he is eking out the stinted means of the empire from the munificence of his own pocket . Ho remonstrates , he alleviates , and he is pointed at as the prime author of the sufferings ho witnesses and cannot help . "We see him reading the despatches which ordered him to undertake the expedition , and . obeying with the fidelity of a soldier , though ho saw before himself and his army the destiny that he dreaded for his men but biuvcd for himsolf .
"We see him , wtifle thus enduring the consequence -of th © <* ytrrsettgainst whiehr he remonstrated , reading the journals and ttate speeches in Parliament ; making him the instigator of the calamity ; but while reading those thing 8 j still faithfully pursuing his duty . Age may enfeeble him , hut he still goes forward . We see him reading the spoken and written obloquy of criticism in Parliament and in the press ; we see him also reading the silence of Ministers . He accepted a divided command , but strove
to prevent th « division of the command from appearing in the results or in his own conduct ; and we see him reading those letters from t he reckless St . Abnatjd , who called the English general " slow , " because he possessed the temperament which prevailed at Waterloo ; from the fussy and vacillating Canrobebt , ever anxious to be-in the right , never certain of being so ; from the impetuous and merciless Peussieb , to whom war is a razzia rather than an art . We see the
companion of " Wellington consenting to forego his own studied conviction , to accept the half of Pjslissieb ' s defeat . " We see him viewing from his station the carnage that he had foretold , —shuddering at it , not because he had dreaded danger , but because he revolted from the cruel waste of brave lives without result . We see him , nevertheless , sacrificing thousands of his countrymen to a foreknown doom , rather than draw even a doubt upon their honour—the most
gigantic sacrifice perhaps which any single man ever undertook . We see him recalling his troops from the useless slaughter , and turn sickening from a baffled field , sinking under the long strain of thwarted counsels , and still resisting the fiend of death , though haunted on his mortal pillow by reproaches which others had earned for him ; and at last , unable to contiuue the struggle longer , lying down to find repose alone in the eternal sleep .
Even in the long torture of that twelvemonth ' s trial , Raglan had hia stay and his consolation . Duty was his law , and to obey it was to know that he had not fallen from his own standard . If to the chivalrous instincts of the soldier a career of victory was denied—a victorj r given only in hasty snatches , —a disappointment and not a foretaste , —he had at least his fill of the spirit of chivalry which flowed through all the hearts around him . He found the English soldier once
more his companion on the field of battle , rising above his old character , and yet displaying the same generous qualities that the rudest Englishman displays . The sacrifice , as he made it , was for from being unredeemed ; the sacrifice , as the country received it , was indeed dishonestly taken . It ia as beautiful to receive as to make a sacrifice , when the nature of the sacrifice , and the feeling with which it is rendered , are pe rfectly
understood . A gift from the generous to the generous is reciprocal . But when a sacrifice is lightly taken , because the heart that receives cannot rise to the generosity that gives , then indeed it is desecrated by a heartless meanness . The country never showed , through the Ministers who exist by its sufferance , that it was worthy to receive the sacrifice that Raglan made .
To the departed Chief is duo a more solemn compensation . It is not acquitted in the shilling a day extra to the men , or in tlio pensions to three of Lord Raglan ' s family . There is a debt still to pay for tho blood of our . countrymen ; for the obloquy which was unjustly cast upon Raglan whero oihora had deserved it ; for the ungenerous silence which left him to bear the burden of tho silent . And there is n compensation which can always be made to n generous man : it is to crown the ondeuvoure which ho loft uncompleted with
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1855, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07071855/page/10/
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