It was now half-past 8 A.ir. and the combined attack, of which so many sanguine anticipations had been formed, which was to terminate the long and weary labours of the siege, and give Sebastopol to the Allies, had ended in failure and disappointment. Several causes, many of which it is now impossible to trace, had contributed to this deplorable result; but two of them stand out in bold relief, and claim a pre-eminence which precludes the necessity of further investigation. These, which have been already sufficiently indicated, were — the abandonment of the proposed renewal of the bombardment on the morning of the assault, and the absence of simultaneity in the three French attacks. The former enabled the Russians to all but annihilate their assailants by an overwhelming artillery fire, which disorganized them from the moment they quitted their own trenches: and the latter caused the French to be beaten in detail; while their defeat entailed that of the English as a necessary consequence. The mortification attendant on our own reverse was in some measure modified by the news of the splendid conduct and extraordinary success of one of the brigades of the Third Division, which had been ordered to co-operate on the left with the main attack.
" While the direct attack upon the Redan was proceeding," says Lord Raglan, " Lieutenant-General Sir R. England was directed to send one of the brigades of the Third Division, under the command of Major-General Barnard, down the Woronzoff Ravine, with a view to give support to the attacking columns on his right, and the other brigade, under Major-General Eyre, still further to the left, to threaten the head of the works at the Dockyard Greet."
Before daylight General Eyre's brigade, numbering about 2000 men of the 9th, 18th, 28th, 38th, and 44th regiments, proceeded down the ravine, which, running into the inner harbour, separated the English and French attacks at this point. Here they found the enemy strongly posted, with their right resting on a mamelon and their left on a cemetery. These points were occupied by marksmen, and the ground in front intersected, and the road barricaded, by stone walls, which the men were obliged to pull down,
under fire, before they could advance. In the rear the enemy held some houses on both sides of the ravine, and further back bodies of men were held in reserve, while the advancing troops were exposed to a severe fire from the Garden and Barrack Batteries on either side of the creek, and from a low battery on the beach at its head, many of the guns of which however were fortunately not mounted. In the teeth of these difficulties, the gallant brigade pushed resolutely on, and, after driving the enemy from the houses on either side, established themselves in them. The shelter thus obtained was far indeed from rendering their position an enviable one: shot after shot came hotly from the enemy's batteries, tumbling down the houses, and burying their occupants in the ruins. Colonel Boston, of the 9th, after gallantly leading his regiment tlirough the cemetery, brought them up to reinforce the parties in the houses. In the advance, he says, " grape, canister, and round shot swept round me like hail; and for encouragement, just as I reached the cover of one of the buildings, surprised to find myself in a whole skin, one of the latter crashed through the building, as though it had been made of paper. Here," he adds, "we spent fourteen dreary hours, the enemy at one moment bringing down our houses with round shot, burying the wretched wounded beneath the ruins; then throwing shell amongst us, which, owing to the softness of the ground, fortunately penetrated deep, and, in bursting, only formed craters big enough for one's grave."
Under these trying and arduous circumstances the conduct of the troops was exemplary; their only desire was to be permitted to storm the town, the order for which they expected at every moment, ignorant as they were of the grave results which had taken place on their right; wearied but undaunted, they maintained themselves in this position of unexampled difficulty through the long hours of the sultry day, and until the close of evening permitted them to be relieved. Their success, which under more favourable circumstances might have been turned to the greatest advantage, was not even thus entirely barren, as the cemetery remained definitively in our hands.
The loss on all sides in these attacks was most severe: the Russians suffered terribly from the fire which still continued to be poured into their densely crowded works after the assault was abandoned: the French loss was estimated at upwards of 3000 men and officers killed and wounded: and the English amounted to 1535 men and officers hors de combat.