| Description | Another attack of dysentery - "indeed reduced to a wafer nearly" - thought at first it was cholera - "an interposition of Providence as it prevented me from taking any part in the assault last night, which I was really & truly sorry for as I have missed the one thing that for 8 long months we have toiled night & day for in fact the only bright spot in our existence the certainty that one day we shall be awfully revenged. Well! last afternoon at 6 p.m. the telegraph will have told you I suppose, in went the French & English. The unfortunate Light Divisions first as usual. Our share was from the Quarries to the Mamelon which included a line of intrenchments & a lot of rifle pits. The French took the Mamelon & afterwards went at the Malakoff tower, got in, but eventually were driven out. No pen can describe the scene, no picture of a siege that was ever drawn can give the faintest idea of the reality of an assault. The musketry, the carnage, the shell flying, the infernal din; the swarms of French, like ants climbing up the Mamelon made one of the most extra-ordinary scenes I suppose ever witnessed. The French soon took it the first time but were driven out & took it again all in the face of batteries of grape which you could see knocking the poor fellows over at every discharge. The assaulting party of our regiment consisted of 100 men with one Captain. & 3 Subalterns under Mills. The lot fell on Captain. Turner who was the first for duty. If it had been my turn no illness should have prevented me from going. As it was I only missed a working party which consisted of filling the Russian trenches so as to turn them for ourselves when the fighting was over: very dangerous work & no glory. Mills was wounded so was Turner & 3 subalterns. I believe they behaved most gallantly and the hand to hand fighting was something wonderful - the 7th lost 15 killed & 89 wounded - up to this morning we have still men in the front working & I am afraid more will come in yet. They say Major Dickson of the 62nd is killed. You remember him when quartered in Macclesfield. I think the telegraph is a nuisance in some things as it gives enough news to frighten people and it is a fortnight before the rest comes home. They say the rest of the town will be in our possession tonight. I can hardly believe it, what will England think? The 3rd Division are to storm the Redan, so much for Sebastopol". |