He was perhaps the least ostentatious soldier in either army. He
never put himself forward prominently, but was always ready to perform
the most arduous task committed to him with scrupulous precision, and
quiet and indomitable resolution. Had he not offended the agents of
the press by his resolution of not allowing any reporters within his
division--under the conviction, probably erroneous, that the reports
which found their way into the English papers, gave information to the
enemy injurious to the service--he would have had many a gallant deed,
and his stern uncompromising sense of duty, emblazoned to the world. His
health at last suffered so severely, that he was obliged to return home,
shortly before the grand conquest was achieved.
September opened with the immediate preliminaries of the grand struggle.
The final bombardment of the strong city began. The number of guns
with which the allies opened the bombardment was 803. On the old French
attack there were 332 pieces; on the French Inkerman attack, 267 pieces:
making a total in the two separate French attacks of 599 pieces of
ordnance.
The English had 204 pieces, consisting of 91 mortars, and 113 guns.
The bombardment began upon the 5th,--the heaviest ever known in the
history of sieges. Terrible mischief was effected by the constant
discharge of so many engines of destruction; and the alarm and distress
of the inhabitants and garrison could be witnessed from the lines of the
besiegers.
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