It may here be observed that on the occasion of the ISth of June some of these temporary hospitals, which are intended to afford immediate aid in cases requiring operations en the spot, were under fire, and a shell burst in the very tent in which Dr. Paynter and his assistants were operating, the ground around it being continually torn up by round shot. On this occasion more care was taken in determining the sites of the tents. Another bad sign was that the enemy never ceased throwing up shell to the front, many of which burst high in the air over ouiheads, while the pieces flew with a most unpleasant whii" around us. These shells were intended for our reserves; and, although the fuses did not burn long enough for such a range, and they all burst at a considerable elevation, they caused some little injury and annoyance to the troops in the rear, and hit some of our men.
The rapidly-increasing swarms of wounded men, some of whom had left their arms behind them, at last gave rise to suspicions of the truth; but their answers to many eager questioners were not very decisive or intelligible, and some of them did not even know what they had been attacking. One poor young fellow who was stumping stiffly up with a broken arm and a ball through his shoulder, carried off his firelock with him, but he made the naive confession that he had '■' never fired it off", for he could not." The piece turned out to be in excellent order. It struck one that such men as these, however brave, were scarcely a fit match for the well-drilled soldiers of Russia; and yet we were trusting the honour-, reputation, and glory of Great Britain to undisciplined lads from the plough, or the lanes of our towns and villages!
As one example of the sort of recruits we have received here recently, I may mention that there was a considerable number of men in draughts which came out last week to regiments in the Fourth Division who had only been enlisted a few days, and who had never fired a rifle in their lives! It must not be imagined that such rawness can be corrected and turned into military efficiency out here, for the fact is, that this siege has been about the worst possible school for developing the courage and manly self-reliance of a soldier; neither does it teach him the value of discipline and of imited action. When he goes into the trenches he learns to dodge behind gabions and to take pot shots from behind stones and parapets, and at the same time he ha.s no opportunity of testing the value of his comrades, or of proving himself against the enemy in the open field.
The natural result follows. Nor can it be considered as aught but ominous of evil that there have been two courts of inquiry recently held concerning two most distinguished regiments — one, indeed. LOSSES IN THE ASSAULT. 1G3 belonging to the highest rank of our infiintry, and the other a well-tried and gallant regiment, which was engaged in this very attack, in consequence of the alleged misconduct of their young soldiers duinng night affairs in the trenches. The old soldiers behaved admirably, and stood by their officers to the last; nor was there any lack of courage among the young lads who had only just joined, but they were deficient in discipline and in confidence in their officers. Whatever the cause, the assault was unsuccessful.
General Simpson remained in the Green-hill Battery till six o'clock, at which hour General Pelissier sent to inform him that the Malakhoff was perfectly safe, and to ask him what the English intended to do with respect to the Redan. General Simpson had bj^ this time, it is said, formed the determination of attacking it the following morning at five o'clock with the Guards and the Third and Fourth Divisions, but he would not act when asked to do so by the French general. The difficulty of obtaining accurate information of the progress of an action cannot be better exemplified than lythis fact, that at three o'clock one of our Generals of Division did not know wdiether we had taken the Eedan or not. Towards dusk the Guards who had been placed in reserve behind our Eight Attack were marched olF to their camp, and a portion of the Highlanders were likewise taken off the ground.