The visions of England :: :: University of Virginia Library

In the solid sombre mist
And the drizzling dazzling shower
They may mass them as they list,
The gray-coat Russian power;
They are fifties 'gainst our tens, they, and more!
And from the fortress-town
In silent squadrons down
O'er the craggy mountain-crown
Unseen, they pour.

On the meagre British line
That northern ocean press'd;
But we never knew how few
Were we who held the crest!
While within the curtain-cloud

The battle began about 6 a.m. under heavy mist and drizzling rain, which lasted for several hours. Through this curtain the Russian forces coming down from the hill were seen only when near enough to darken the mist by their masses.

dark shadows loom
Making the gray more gray,
Till the volley-flames betray
With one flash the long array:
And then, the gloom.

For our narrow line too wide
On the narrow crest we stood,
And in pride we named it Home,
As we sign'd it with our blood.
And we held-on all the morning, and the tide
Of foes on that low dyke
Surged up, and fear'd to strike,
Or on the bayonet-spike
Flung them, and died.

It was no covert, that,
'Gainst the shrieking cannon-ball!
But the stout hearts of our men

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Were the bastion and the wall:—
And their chiefs hardly needed give command;
For they tore through copse and gray
Mist that before them lay,
And each man fought, that day,
For his own hand!

Yet should we not forget
'Gainst that dun sea of foes
How Egerton

He commanded four companies of the 77th, and charged early in the battle with brilliant success;—his men, about 250, scattering 1500 Russians.

bank'd his line,
Till in front a cloud uprose
From the level rifle-mouths; and they dived
With bayonet-thrust beneath;
Clench'd teeth and sharp-drawn breath,
Plunging to certain death,—
And yet survived!

Nor the gallant chief

General Soimonoff, killed just after Egerton's charge.

who led
Those others, how he fell;
When our men the captive guns
Set free they loved so well,
And embraced them as live things, by loss endear'd:—
Nor, when the crucial stroke
On their last asylum broke,
And e'en those hearts of oak
Might well have fear'd,—

How Stanley to the fore
The citadel rush'd to guard,
With that old Albuera cry

Prominent in the defence of the English main base of operations, the Home Ridge, against a weighty Russian advance, was Captain Stanley, commanding the 57th. This regiment, it was said, at the battle of Albuera had been encouraged by its colonel with the words, ‘Fifty-seventh, die hard’:—and Stanley, having less than 400 against 2000, thought the time had come to remind his ‘Die-hards’ of their traditional gallantry;—after which he himself at once fell mortally wounded.

Fifty-seventh! Die hard!
Yet saw not how his lads clear the crest,
And, each one confronting five,
The stubborn squadrons rive,
And backward, downward, drive,—
—Death-call'd to rest!

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—O few and faithful those
Fast anchor'd on their ground,
Who on that stern foreign field
The rest they sought not found,
As for England dear their life they gladly shed!
Yet in death bethought them where,
Not on these hillsides bare,
But within sweet English air
Their own home-dead

In a green and sure repose
Beside God's house are laid:—
Then faced the charging foes
Unmoved, unhelp'd, unafraid:—
For they knew that God would rate each shatter'd limb
Death-torn for England's sake,
And in Christ's own mercy take
On the day when souls shall wake,
Their souls to Him!

The battle of Inkermann was mainly fought on a ridge of rock which projects from the south-eastern angle of Sebastapol: the English centre of operations being the ill-fortified line named the ‘Home Ridge.’ The numbers engaged in field-operations, roughly speaking, were 4,000 English against 40,000 Russians.