The struggle was full of interest to us all, but its issue was never doubted. It would be vmti'ue to say that the r<^sult of our assault was not the source of deep grief and morti lication to us, which all the glorious successes of our allies could not wholly alleviate. Even those who thought any attack on the Eedan useless and unwise, inasmuch as the possession of the iWalakhoft" would, in their opinion, render the Redan untenable, could not but regret bitterly that, having undertaken the assault, we had not achieved a decisive triumph, and that so much blood had been, if not ingloriously, at least fruitlessly, poured tbrth. Tiie French, indeed, have been generous enough to say that our troops behaved with great bravery, and that they wondered how we kept the Redan so long under such a tremendous fire; but British soldiers are rather accustomed to the nil admivari under su(;h circumstances, and praise like that gives pain as well as pleasure.
IMany soldiers, entertaining the opinion to which I have alluded, think that we should at once have renewed the attempt. It is but small consolation to them to know that General Simpson intended to attack the Redan the following morning, inasmuch as the Russians by their i-etreat deprived us of the chance of retrieving our reputation, and at the same time acknowledged the completeness of the success achieved by our alHes, and the tremendous superiority of the fire directed against them. As any particulars must be interesting, I have no hesitation in giving some additional details of the events of the 8th of September: — " The Second Bi-igade, Light Division, stormed at noon of the eighth. The 97th and 90th, 300 of each, commanded — the former by Major Welsford (whose head was blown off as he was mounting an embrasure — the gun was fired by a Russian officer, who immediately gave himself up as a prisoner to a sergeant of the 97th, that entered the moment after, throwing down his sword and saying, 'I am a prisoner of war'); the latter by Captain Grove, the senior officer of the regiment, present with the service companies.
The salient was carried at once, and the men entered the stronghold, which is a work traced on a most obtuse angle, requiring a large mass of men to assault it, not only at the salient, but at the same moment on both flanks, so as to turn them, and to enable the salient storming party to advance down the interior space of the works at once, taking the defenders in front and flank, and indeed in rear, at the same moment. In consequence of attacking the salient only, no front could be formed, on account of the small interior space at that point; the men were forced to advance by dribblets, and at the sami; moment fired on irom traverses on cither flank where they could not see their assailants, an evil at once obviated had the attack on the flanks and salient been simultaneous.
The handful of men who assaulted and took the salient most gallantly held it against far superior numbers for a considerable time, until their ammunition being nearly expended ivnd receiving no flank support, which could alone assist them to any purpose, and being rushed on from these flanks by a vastly superior force, they retreated to the extreme side of the parapet, where they remained, and, being reinforced by some fresh men, kept up a heavy and continuous fire on the Russians in the interior of the work; they held their ground on this fast sinking parapet of loose earth, stones, and broken gabions, under a most galling fire from both Hanks and in ii'ont, and continuous showers of vertical grape, from inside the work, for an hour and a half at least, when a sudden rush, made by the enemy, who had crept up the faces by the traverses, obliged the troops to retire, and step by step, pelting each other with huge stones, they retired, slipping and tumbling into the ditch, where many poor fellows were buried alive, from the scarps giving way.
Then came the fearful run for life or death, with men rolling over like rabbits, then tumbling into the English trench, where the men lay four deep on each other. The men once in manned the parapet, and kept up a heavy and continuous fii'e on the enemy on the parapets of the Redan. The rest you know. The Rifles, as usual, behaved nobly, and where they had tried to creep up the ditch to pick oft' the Russians on the flanks they lay four and five deep, all together. Colonel Lysons, of the 23rd, as usual, was all energy, and, though severely wounded through the thigh and unable to stand, remained on the ground cheering on the men and giving directions to the last.