Colonel Handcock, of the 97th, was shot through the head on the crest of the Redan, and died soon after arriving in camp. Captain Preston, and Lieutenants Swift and Wilmer, of the 90th, were all killed inside, where their bodies were found the next morning. Captain Vaughan, of the 90th, whose conduct was beyond praise, was shot in both legs severely, and taken prisoner when we left the place, it being impossible to get him over the ditch. He was found in a Russian hospital to-day, and brought to camp. Colonel AVindham was most energetic in striving to keej) down the fire of tlio flanks after the first retrogression, and stood where the fire was hottest, trying to force a few men to make an attack on them; but so dense was the fire tluit the men were mowed down as fast as a handful could be got together.
He was backwards and forwards, cheering, directing, &c.; but a formed body of men alone could be of service, and that could not be got. Lieutenant and Adjutant Dyneley, of the 23rd Fusiliers, was so severely wounded that he is since dead, — a most excellent officer, and a great loss to the regiment and the service. Individual deeds of daring were too frequent to particularize. The fii'st dead llussian on the e.Ktreme salient was a Eussian officer shot through the mouth, a singularly handsome man, with hands and feet white and delicate as a woman's. I wont trust myself to returns. The fire of our artillery had been splendid, as the number of broken guns proved." JEx lino disce omncs. The Light Division was deprived of its Brigadier, and of Colonels Unett and Lysons, the next senior officers, eai'ly in the day, and was left to tlie command of Colonel Bunbury.
The 41st, which followed the Light Division storming party, whose position in advance was detennined, as I have already stated, by Colonel Windham and Colonel Unett " tossing up for choice," got into the Redan nearly as soon as the 90th and 97th, who formed the leading colunni of attack on the salient, and the parties of each division were soon inextricably mixed. I do not know the names of the fii'st soldiers of the 90th and 97th who got in, but several soldiers of these regiments lay dead and wounded in advance near the Russian breastwork on the morning of the 9th. The men of the 41st who rushed into the Redan with Colonel Windham are really named Hartnadj^, Kennedy, and Pat IMahoney; the last, a fine tall Grenadier, fell dead in the embrasure by Colonel Windham's side, shot through the heart as he was shouting, '' Come on, boj's, come on!" His blood spouted over those near him, but the men rushed on till they became confused among the traverses, and then the scene took place which I have tried to describe in my former letter.
The salient, however favourable to the assailants in one sense, was extremely disadvantageous to them in another, inasmuch as it prevented them getting into any kind of formation. It was of course the apex of the triangle, and was very narrow, while the enemy firing from the base poured a concentrated fire upon the point, and lelled every man who showed boldly from behind the traverses, while thoj'' swept with a rapid file fire the top of the parapet on which our soldiers were crowded. At the iirst rush, had Colonel Windham been able to get a handful of men together to charge at the breastwork, the few Russians there must have been routed, and by the time their reinforcements came up our men would have been able to reverse the lace of the breastwork, aiid to close the Redan to their assailants.
Biit seconds of time generate great events in war. Our delay gave the enemy tune both to recover from their panic when they wei'e driven from the salient, and to send up sti'ong bodies of men li-om their bomb-proofs and the cover at tlie back of tlie Redan^ and by degrees this accumulating mass advancing from the angles of the breastwork moved up along the traverses parallel with the parapets of the Redan, and drove our men into the salient, where, fed by feeble dribblets and incapable of formation, they were shot down in spite of the devotion and courage of their leader and the example of their officers. The salient was held by our men for one hour and fifty-six minutes! While General Codriugton, who seems to have become confused by the failure of the attack, and to have lost for the time the coohiess which has hitherto characterized him, was hesitating about sending up more men, or was unable to send them up in any formation, so as to form a nucleus of resistance and attack, the Redan was lost, and our men, pressed by the bayonet, by heavy fusillades, and by some field guns, which the enemy had now brought up, were forced over the parapet into the ditch.