The Colonel got some riflemen and a few men of the 88th together, but no sooner had he brought them out than they were killed, wounded, or dispersed by a concentrated fire. The officers, with the noblest devotion, aided Colonel Windham, and became the special marks for the enemy's riflemen. The narrow neck of the salient was too close to allow of any kind of formation, and the more the men crowded into it the worse was the disorder, and the more they sufiered Irom the enemy's fire. This miserable work lasted for an hour. The Russians had now congregated in dense masses behind the breastwork, and Colonel Windham walked back again across the open space to the left, to make one more att*?mpt to retrieve the day.
The men on the parapet of the salient, who were fii'ing at the Russ;itms, sent their shot about him, and the latter, who were pouring volley after volley on all points of the head of the work, likewise directed their muskets against him, hut lie passed through this cross fire in safety, and got within the inner parapet on the left, where the men were becoming thinner and thinner. A Eussiau officer now stepped over the breastwork, and tore down a gabion Avith his own hands; it was to make room for a field piece. Colonel Windham exclaimed to several soldiers who were firing over the parapet, " Well, as you are so fond of firing, why don't you shoot that Russian?" They fii'ed a volley and missed him, and soon afterwards the field piece opened on the head of the salient with grape.
Colonel Windham saw there was no time to be lost. He had sent three oflacers for reinforcements, and, above all, for men in Ibrmation, and he now resolved to go to General Codrington himself. Seeing Captain Crealock, of the 90th, near liim busy in encourairinor liis men, and exerting: himself with s^reat courage and energy to get them into order, he said, " I must go to the General for supports. Now mind, let it be known, in case I am killed, why I went away." He crossed the parapet and ditch, and succeeded in gaining the fifth parallel, through a storm of grape and rifie bullets, in safety; and standing on the top of the parapet he again asked for support. Sir Edward Codrington asked him if he thought he really could do anything with such supports as he could afibrd, and said, if he thought so, " he might take the Eoyals," who were then in the parallel. •' Let the officers come out in front — let us advance in order, and if the men keep their formation the Redan is ours," was the Colonel's reply; but he spoke too late — for, at that verj'' moment, our men were seen leaping into the ditch, or running down the parapet of the salient, and through the embrasures out of the work into the ditch, while the Russians might be perceived following them with the bayonet and with heavy musketry, and even throwing stones and grapeshot at them as they lay in the ditch.
The fact was, that the Russians having collected several thousands of men behind the breastwork, and seeing our men scattered and confused behind the inner parapet of the traverse, crossed the breastwork, through which several field-pieces were now playing with grape on the inner face of the Redan, and charged our broken groups with the bayonet. At the same time the rear ranks mounting on the breastwork, poin-ed a heavy hail of bullets upon them over the heads of the advancing column. Tho struggle that ensued was short, desperate, and bloody. Our soldiers, taken at every disadvantage, met the enemy with the bayonet too, and isolated combats occurred, in which the brave fellows who stood their ground had to defend themselves against three or four adversaricis at once.
In this melee the officers, armed only with their swords, had but little chance; nor had those who carried pistols much opportunity of using them in such a close and sudden contest. They fell like heroes, and many a gallant soldier with them. The bodies of English and Russians inside the Redan, locked in an embrace which death could not relax, but had rather cemented all the closer, were found next day as evidences of the terrible animosity of the struggle. But the solid weight of the advancing mass, urged on and fed each moment from the rear by company after company, and battalion after battalion, prevailed at last against the isolated and disjointed band, which had abandoned that protection which unanimity of courage affords, and had lost the advantages of discipline and obedience.