On the morning after the assault Lord Raglan and General Pelissier asked for a suspension of hostilities to bury their dead.
The armistice took place at four o'clock in the afternoon, and it was
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evening before the dead were buried and the wounded brought in from the spots where they lay in front of the Redan and Malakoif. " It was agonising," says Mr. Russell, speaking of the interval which elapsed before our flag of truce was answered by the Russians, " to see the wounded men who were lying there under a broiling sun, parched with excruciating thirst, racked with fever and agonised with pain, to behold them waving their caps faintly or making signals towards our lines, over which they could see the white flag waving, and not to be able to help them. They lay where they fell, or had scrambled into the holes formed by shells; and there they had been for thirty hours; oh! how long and how dreadful in their weariness. * The redcoats lay sadly thick over the broken ground in front of the abattis of the Redan, and blue and grey coats were scattered about or lay in piles in the rain -courses before the Malakoif." On a picture so painful as this it is better not to dwell; but, alas! the losses of the army were not destined to end here. On the 24th Adjutant-General Estcourt, who was sincerely loved and respected by the troops, fell a victim to cholera after three days' illness: and a more irreparable loss was sustained shortly after in the death of Lord Raglan on the 29th. This melancholy event was thus feelingly announced to the French army in a general order of General Pelissier.
" Death has just surprised in his command Field Marshal Lord Raglan, and has plunged the English army in grief. We share the regrets of our brave Allies. Those who knew Lord Raglan, who were acquainted with the history of his noble life, so pure, so rich in services rendered to his country — those who witnessed his bravery on the fields of Alma and Inkermann, who remember the calm and stoic grandeur of his character during this severe and memorable campaign — all men of heart, in fact, must deplore the loss of such a man.
" The sentiments which the Commander-in-Chief expresses are those of the whole army. He himself severely feels this unforeseen blow. The public sorrow falls more heavily on him, as he has the additional regret of being for ever separated from a companion in arms whose cordial spirit he loved, whose virtues he admired, and in whom he always found loyal and hearty co-operation."
Such was the epitaph of Lord Raglan — the touching lament of a great soldier for no unworthy colleague, and more eloquent in its noble manliness and simplicity than the choicest phrases ever conned by adulation to engrave upon a tomb.
N THE CRIMEA.. 61
The command of the army, in the absence of Sir George Brown, the next in seniority, who had been compelled by sickness to quit the Crimea on the very day of Lord Raglan's death, now devolved in due course on General Simpson, late chief of the staff, and was speedily confirmed by a telegraphic message from England.
In spite of so many adverse circumstances, the spirit both of the French and English troops continued to be excellent; the only feeling manifested on all hands was one of impatience to be led again to the assault, the result of which was still anticipated with undiminished confidence. During nearly three months, in pursuance of the system which made the Malakoff the principal object of attack, the French sap was now systematically pushed nearer and nearer to this bastion, while a similar advance was made in the direction of a smaller work, situated nearly in the middle of the line of entrenchment which extends from the Malakoff to the western shore of Careening Creek, and which was called by us the Little Redan, and by the French Redan du Carenage. In this operation the Engineers derived shelter and assistance from the French batteries occupying the site of the old White Works on the eminence at the opposite side of the creek.