Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/418

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

374 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, delivered his message when already the eager '___ artillerymen were harnessing themselves tu the Uh Period. onTis These men were in number about 150. The body of officers with them included Colonel Gambler, their commander, Colonel Collingwood Dickson, Captain d'Aguilar, Captain Mowbray, Captain Chermside, the Adjutant of the siege train,* Lieutenant Sinclair, Lieutenant Harward, and George Symons. Excited by the roar of battle, and chafing at the physical conditions which set bounds to the rate of their progress, all — officers and men alike — had their heart in the work. After finding that the labour of their task had been aggravated by a provoking mistake which led them for some time in a wrong direc- tion, our artillerymen by continued exertions succeeded in dragging forward their guns to the verge of the battle-tield, and presently came under fire. Colonel Gambler, struck down by a round- shot, was forced to give up the command, and he ceded it to Colonel Collingwood Dickson. By laying an embargo upon some teams of draught horses which he saw coming out of the fight with a part of our disabled artillery, Colonel Dickson found means to accelerate the advance of his two eighteen-pounders ; and he then gal- • The official Record, I see, does not .simply say that Captain Cliermside was the adjutant of the .siege-train, but adds that in this liattle he acted as staff-oUieer to Colonel Collingwood Dick- son. It contains {inter alia) these words : ' S] ecially mentioned ' to Lord Raglan by Colonel C. Dickson, R.A., to whom he • acted aa statt-officer, for his conduct at the battle of Inkerman.'