enemy, the men, when they got on the parapet, were
seized by some strange infatuation, and began firing,
instead of following their officers, who now began to
fall fast as they rushed on in front, and tried to stimulate
their soldiers by their example. Notwithstanding
the popular prejudice to the contrary, most men stand
fire much better than closing with an enemy. The
small party of the 90th, much diminished, went on
gallantly towards the breastwork, but they were too
weak to force it, and they had to retire and get behind
the traverses, where men of different regiments had
already congregated, and were keeping up a brisk fire
on the Russians, whose heads were just visible above
the breastwork. Simultaneously with the head of the
storming party of the Light Division, Colonel Windham
had got inside the Redan on their right, below the
salient on the proper left face of the Redan; but in
spite of all his exertions, could do little more than the
gallant officers of the 90th and 97th, and of the
supporting regiments. As the Light Division rushed out
in the front they were swept by the guns of the
Barrack Battery and by several pieces on the proper
right of the Redan, loaded heavily with grape, which
caused them considerable loss ere they reached the
salient or apex of the work which they were to assault.
The storming columns of the Second Division issuing
out of the fifth parallel rushed up immediately after
the Light Division, but when they came up close to the
apex Brigadier Windham very judiciously brought them
by a slight detour on the right flank of the Light
Division, so as to come a little down on the slope of the
proper left face of the Redan. The first embrasure to
which they came was in flames, but moving on to the
next, the men leaped into the ditch, and, with the aid
of ladders and of each others' hands, scrambled up on
the other side, climbed the parapet, or poured in
through the embrasure which was undefended. Colonel
Windham was the first, or one of the very first, men in
on this side, and with him entered Daniel Mahoney, a
great grenadier of the 41st, Killeany and Cornellis
of the same regiment. As Mahoney entered with
a cheer he was shot through the head by a Russian
rifleman and fell dead across Col. Windham, and
at the same moment Killeany and Cornellis were
both wounded. The latter claims the reward of £5
offered by Colonel Herbert to the first man of his
division who entered the Redan. Running parallel to
the faces of the Redan there is, as I have described,
an inner parapet intended to shield the gunners at the
embrasures from the effects of any shell which might
fall into the body of the work, and strike them down if
this high bank were not there to protect them from the
splinters. Several cuts in the rear of the embrasures
permitted the men to retire in case of need inside, and very
strong and high traverses ran all along the sides of the
work itself to afford them additional shelter. At the
base of the Redan, before the re-entering angles is a
breastwork, or rather a parapet with an irregular curve,
up to a man's neck, which runs in front of the body of
the place. As our men entered through the embrasures,
the few Russians who were between the salient and
this breastwork retreated behind the latter, and got
from the traverses to its protection. From it they poured
in a quick fire on the parapet of the salient, which was
crowded by the men of the Light Division, and on the
gaps through the inner parapet of the Redan, and our
men, with an infatuation which all officers deplore, but
cannot always remedy on such occasions, began to
return the fire of the enemy without advancing or crossing
behind tho traverses, loaded and fired as quickly as
they could, but did but little execution, as the
Russians were well covered by the breastwork. There
were also groups of Russian riflemen behind the lower
traverses near the base of the Redan, who kept up a
galling fire on our men. As the alarm of an assault
was spread the enemy came rushing up from the
barracks in the rear of the Redan, and increased the force
and intensity of their fire, while our soldiers dropped
fast and encouraged the Russians by their immobility
and the weakness of their fusillade, from which the
enemy were well protected. In vain the officers, by
voice and act, by example and daring, tried to urge our
soldiers on. They had an impression that the Redan was
all mined, and that if they advanced they would all be
blown up, but many of them acted as became the men of
Alma and Inkerman, and, rushing to the front, were
swept down by the enemy's fire. The officers fell on
all sides, singled out for the enemy's fire by their
courage. The men of the different regiments became
mingled together in inextricable confusion. The 19th
men did not care for the orders of the officers of the
88th, nor did the soldier of the 23rd heed the commands
of an officer who did not belong to his regiment. The
officers could not find their men—the men had lost
sight of their own officers. All the brigadiers, save
Colonel Windham, were wounded or rendered unfit for
the guidance of the attack. That gallant officer did all
that man could do to form his men for the attack, and
to lead them against the enemy. Proceeding from
traverse to traverse, he coaxed the men to come out, and
succeeded several times in forming a few of them, but
they melted away as fast as he laid hold of them, and
either fell in their little ranks or retired to cover to
keep up their fusillade. Many of them crowded to the
lower parts of the inner parapet and kept up a smart
fire on the enemy, but nothing would induce them to
come out into the open space and charge the breastwork.
This was all going on at the proper left face of
the Redan, while nearly the same scene was being
repeated at the salient. Every moment our men were
diminishing in numbers, while the Russians came up in
swarms from the town, and rushed down from the
Malakhoff, which had now been occupied by the French.
Thrice did Colonel Windham send officers to Sir W.
Codrington, who was in the fifth parallel, begging of
him to send up supports in some order of formation;
but all these three officers were wounded as they passed
from the ditch of the Redan to the rear, and the
Colonel's own aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Swire, of the
17th, a gallant young officer, was hit dangerously on the
hip as he went on his perilous errand. Supports
were indeed sent up, but they came up in disorder from
the fire to which they were exposed on their way, and
arrived in driblets only to increase the confusion and
the carnage. Finding that he could not collect any men
on the left face, Colonel Windham passed through one
of the cuts of the inner parapet and walked over to the
right face at the distance of thirty yards from the
Russian breastwork, to which he moved in a parallel line,
exposed to a close fire, but, wonderful to say, without
being touched. When he got behind the inner parapet
at the right face he found the same state of things as
that which existed at the left. The men were behind
the traverses, firing away at the Russians or blazing at
them from the broken parts of the front, and the soldiers
who came down from the salient in front only got
behind these works for cover while they loaded and fired
at the enemy. The colonel got some riflemen and a few
men of the 88th together, but no sooner had he brought
them out than they were killed, wounded, or dispersed
by a concentrated fire. The officers, with the noblest devotion,
aided Colonel Windham, and became the special
marks of the enemy's riflemen. The narrow neck of the
salient was too close to allow of any kind of formation, and
the more the men crowded into it the more they got out
of order and the more they suffered from the enemy's fire.
This miserable work lasted for an hour. The Russians were
now in dense masses behind the breastwork, and Colonel
Windham walked back again across the open space to
the left to make one more attempt to retrieve the day.
The men on the parapet of the salient, who were firing
at the Russians, sent their shot about him, and the
latter, who were pouring volley after volley on all points
of tho head of the work, likewise directed their muskets
against him, but he passed through this cross fire in
safety, and got within the inner parapet on the left,
where the men were becoming thinner and thinner. A
Russian officer now stepped over the breastwork, and
tore down a gabion with his own hands; it was to make
room for a field-piece. Colonel Windham exclaimed to
several soldiers who were firing over the parapet, 'Well,
as you are so fond of firing, why don't you shoot that
Russian?' They fired a volley and missed him, and
soon afterwards the field-piece began to play on the head
of the salient with grape. Colonel Windham saw there
was no time to be lost. He had sent three officers for