THE NORTH SIDE OF THE HARBOUR OF SEBASTOPOL,
FEOM F THE HARBOUE, 22nd June, 1855.
This view is taken from a spur of one of the hills in rear of the field of Inkermann, where the French have a picquet posted; and it may be considered as a pendant to one in the First Series which shows the head of the harbour. On the crest of the hill on this side of the bay are the embrasures of some of the French batteries: at its base runs the Inkermann Road, crossing at this point the Aqueduct, which, at the period when the drawing was made, had been so long dry, that its channel was choked up with weeds, grass, and bushes. In the foreground two or three French riflemen are crouching behind some loose fragments of rock, anxiously
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watching for the chance of a shot at any unwary Russian who may show himself within range. Not a ripple disturbs the calm surface of the water on this bright summer's day, and its clear expanse would be unbroken, but that here and there portions of the wrecks of sunken ships emerge into sight. The opposite shore from Fort Constantine at the entrance of the harbour to the work on the right, where the Inkermann West Lighthouse formerly stood, bristles with batteries constructed on an enormous scale and finished with the most elaborate care. These vast preparations for defence were carried on pari passu with those on the South Side, and prove how long the Russians must have contemplated the probability of their being compelled to retreat across the harbour.
There is very little information as to the precise names of these different batteries, and, so unimportant is the role to which the course of events has reduced them, that the deficiency wiU scarcely be regretted. Since the Allies occupied the South Side, even those forts from which it was supposed to be commanded have been utterly impotent for mischief, and the casualties caused by them have been absurdly incommensurate vidth the vast expenditure of ammunition wasted in their abortive fire. Amongst them, however, are two which must not be omitted to be noticed. These are the Wasp and Telegraph batteries, which caused so much annoyance to the fleets in their attack on the seaward forts on the 17th October, 1854. They are the dark line which will be perceived against the sea a little above Fort Constantine.
The three capes at the upper end of the harbour are of limestone, of such a brilliant whiteness as to be dazzling and painful to the eye.
DITCH OF THE BASTION DU MAT.
Up to the middle of May the French pushed their approaches with the greatest vigour in the direction of the works protecting the town of Sebastopol, the ViUe Civile as distinguished from the Karabelnaia. All these works were to the left of the head of the inner harbour, and amongst them the Bastion du Mat seems to have been regarded both by assailants and defenders as the key of the position. The Russians in consequence exhausted the resources of engineering in adding to its strength, and so effectually did they carry out this object, that they succeeded in making it
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
DITCH by far the most impracticable point in the whole of their vast chain of defences. The French, indeed, seem to have considered it impregnable, for, subsequently to the above date, when their advanced parallel was already within a quite inconsiderable distance of the bastion, their efforts in this direction seem to have been completely abandoned, and all the energy of their attack was concentrated on the Malakoff and the works at the head of Careening Bay. On the day of the final assault, when every other point was made the object of an attack either real or feigned, no attempt whatever was made upon the Bastion du Mat: a fact which can only be accounted for on the hypothesis just suggested. The drawing to which we now beg the reader's attention is especially calculated to illustrate the manner in which this work was rendered so extremely formidable; and a detailed reference to the principal features selected for delineation in the sketch will convey an amount of information which will render the result obtained by the Russians no longer a matter of surprise.
The ditch of the bastion was of twice the ordinary width, and flanked at the further end by a caponiere, or bomb-proof block-house, mounting two guns, which, of course, swept it in its entire length, and would have inflicted a loss almost amounting to annihilation on any storming party which might have penetrated so far. At regular intervals along the bottom of the ditch were square apertures leading into a mine of equal length, which communicated by small subterraneous galleries with the Russian rifle-pits in advance of the work, and with the countermines against the French approach.