The Siege of London (Posteritas)/Chapter 11
THE MARCH OF THE FRENCH ON LONDON.—PREPARATION OF THE ENGLISH FOR THE DEFENCE OF THEIR CAPITAL.—SYDENHAM SEIZED BY THE FRENCH, AND TURNED INTO A FORT.—BATTLE AT DULWICH.—ARRIVAL OF THE NORTHERN ARMY, WHO ENCAMP AT HENDON AND HAMPSTEAD.—NARROWING UP OF THE INVESTING LINES.—GREAT DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY IN LONDON.—APPALLING SUFFERING AMONGST THE PEOPLE.—WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT DESTROYED.—THE TOWER BOMBARDED.
WHILE the operations we have described were being carried out in the North, the Southern Army of Invasion not only obtained entire possession of Dover, with all its powerful works and defences, but it had sent forward a flying column to seize and hold Canterbury. In the meantime, the French transports were pouring in an enormous number of troops, together with a mighty siege train, for the reduction of London, should the capita resolve to hold out.
As soon as a sufficient force had been landed to enable the Commander-in-Chief to march, he ordered the advance of two army corps of 120,000 men, one corps going by Chatham, and the other by Maidstone, while a third was left as a reserve at Dover. No attempt was made to impede the advance of this imposing force, for the uselessness of such an effort was clearly recognised. But in the British metropolis an army was assembled scarcely inferior in numbers to the enemy, while the most elaborate preparations were made for the defence.
At Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, and Southampton the most feverish activity prevailed in converting every available ship into a fighting vessel, as it was hoped that thus reinforced the men-of-war, which were harassing the enemy in the Channel, might be able to break the blockade of the British ports, and cut the enemy’s lines of communication between their own ports and Dover. This was the last and only hope that remained to the sorely-pressed people of England, and it is probable that it would have been realised had the British navy not been so lamentably and shamefully weak, and so utterly inadequate to the task of protecting the country, and its widely scattered interests, all over the world.
The Maidstone division of the invading army met with no check nor obstacle of any description during its advance on the metropolis; but the Chatham division was considerably harassed. It kept parallel to the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, which had been totally destroyed by the English. During its march it had to exercise the utmost vigilance, and to beat off incessant attacks that were made upon it by large bodies of Volunteers, which had the Thames as their base. These Volunteers displayed the greatest courage and good military discipline, and they inflicted great loss on the enemy, necessitating his detaching considerable bodies of men from the main army in order to protect its communications. When the division reached Bromley, a flying column was sent forward to seize and hold Norwood and Sydenham. The English had erected an earthwork here, but their numbers were too small to hold it against a large force, and so, after a gallant resistance, they retired and fell back on the Metropolis. The French at once made this commanding position a base of operations, and strongly fortified it. The two divisions of the army effected a junction at Mitcham, and Streatham, Wimbledon, and Richmond were at once occupied, and the railways were seized.
In the meantime the Northern Army had made its way by slow and laborious marches across the counties of Leicester, Northampton, Bedford, and Hertford; suffering fearful loss and great privations; for the country rose in a body against them, and harassed them night and day. There is little doubt that this army could have been destroyed could a compact body of troops have been sent against them. But in view of the advance from the south every available man had been ordered up to the metropolis. The northern invaders, therefore, succeeded in reaching the neighbourhood of London, although in a weakened and exhausted condition. They at once seized on Hendon and Highgate, making them a base of operations; and, pushing forward their outposts, they found that Hampstead was deserted. It was, therefore, at once occupied, and an intrenched camp formed, and the lines of the North-Western and Great Western railways were also held in force, and in a few days the outposts of the three divisions of the French army of invasion touched each other.
The forces concentrated in London for the defence of the capital consisted of 120 battalions of infantry, most of which had been militia, and were attached to territorial regiments when that organisation of the British Army had been adopted; these battalions, therefore, could not have been more than 400 men each, and their collective strength did not exceed 48,000, The army reserve amounted to 30,000, so that the army of defence numbered 78,000 men of regular infantry. There were in addition fourteen regiments of dragoons, which in effective strength did not exceed 7,000 men; and thirty-seven batteries of horse and field artillery, numbering approximately 5,000 men. Besides these 90,000, there were 100,000 volunteers, and 10,000 yeomanry cavalry from different parts of the country, so that the grand total of effective troops was 200,000. The defence of the City had all along been felt to be extremely difficult against an army of any magnitude. The Tower had been turned into a first-class fortress, although the approach of an enemy by way of the Thames was an absolute impossibility, owing to the measures that had been taken to protect the great water-way. The Arsenal of Woolwich, and the great magazines in Plumstead Marshes were, therefore, safe and of immense advantage to the English. Dulwich, Hammersmith, Wormwood Scrubbs, and Kilburn were held by strong bodies of the defenders, who erected powerful earthworks in these places. It will thus be seen that the two armies were face to face, and almost touching each other. A complete investment by the French, however, was an impossibility without an army treble that at their disposal. But they had the advantage of being in possession of the Channel, and they blockaded the mouth of the Thames by a powerful fleet of light steamers and gunboats.
As soon as the French had taken up their positions a spirited attack was made simultaneously on Dulwich and Hammersmith, but the English were strongly intrenched, particularly at Dulwich, where an extensive earthwork, armed with heavy guns, had been erected. In each case the assailants were beaten back with heavy loss, and Dulwich was then subjected to a galling fire from the French camp on Sydenham heights. The beautiful college was totally destroyed, and the English suffered terribly. This fire was kept up for two days, when a second attack was made, and the garrison was driven out. The loss of this position was a great blow to the defending army, and at once gave the French an advantage which they were not slow to avail themselves of, and they succeeded after some desultory fighting in pushing their front to Battersea Park, where they at once intrenched themselves. Small steamers carrying heavy guns were sent up the Thames to try and dislodge them, but without effect. Chelsea and Vauxhall bridges were blown up by the English, and batteries were planted along the northern side of the Thames, and kept up a murderous fire on the park, which, however, was returned with disastrous effect, for that part of London was laid in ruins.
During the first fortnight of the siege the relative positions of the two armies remained much the same; but by constant and gallant sorties the English were enabled to inflict tremendous loss upon the enemy. At the beginning of the third week of the siege the French crossed the Thames by the Kew Railway Bridge, which had not been destroyed by the English; and, pushing forward a strong force with two field batteries, a simultaneous attack was made upon the defensive works at Hammersmith and Wormwood Scrubbs. Obstinate fighting ensued, lasting for many hours; and thrice were the assailants beaten back with tremendous loss. They were, however, enabled to bring up strong reinforcements and at last succeeded in driving the English in from the Scrubbs, though the Hammersmith lines of defence remained unbroken.
It will thus be seen that the cruel ring of steel was gradually tightening round the vital parts of the great London, the "Metropolis of the World," as it had been proudly called. Its magnificent monuments, its splendid buildings, its glorious bridges had all more or less suffered by the fire of the invaders. In the beleagured City itself hideous and frightful were the scenes that were witnessed and the misery that was suffered. Every species of human sorrow and agony were undergone; the whole place was like a vast Golgotha, and the air at last became pestilential and fetid with the effluvia from the unburied dead left in the streets. Thousands of the dwellers in the lower quarters, driven to desperation by hunger and wretchedness, broke into riot and made constant attacks on the soldiers placed as guards over the depôts of provisions. In these conflicts there was necessarily great loss of life, and labour sufficient could not be found to bury the slain.
Men and women, gaunt, grim, and ghastly, wandered about in hopeless demoralisation; and starving children with eyes starting from their heads and bones protroding through their skins, made piteous wailing as they moan for food; and yet, in spite of all these awful trials, these unparalleled agonies, the word "surrender" was never once uttered; nay, had anyone dared to suggest it he would have been torn to pieces. These representatives of a once mighty nation would not acknowledge defeat. Conquered they might be, but they knew it not, and throughout the despairing hours and days the famine-stricken population did their best to aid the gallant army in expelling the hated foe. From every quarter of the City hordes of starving men sallied forth to smite and harass the ruthless enemy. But, alas! it was all in vain. The ring could not be broken. Oh! if there had only been a Drake, a Collingwood, or a Nelson to strew the sea with the wreckage of the hostile fleet, these dauntless men, weakened though they were with famine and suffering, would with a mighty effort of supreme despair have turned like the dying lion in its agony and scattered their torturers. Then, with a mighty shout for freedom that would have rent the heavens and shaken the very stars, they would have shivered the shackles that had already been riveted upon them; for it was from the sea that help ought to have come, but England’s maritime power had been allowed to decline by place-seekers and plausible but incompetent officemongers. First Lords of the Admiralty, who gained their position by wealth and influence, but whose incompetency was glaring, had thrown dust into the eyes of the people, and deluded them into false security, and so the naval power of England had been broken by a wiser State, whose navy had been infinitely better sustained; and the English people displayed in vain a valour and a heroism which form one of the most tragic stories in the annals of the world.
The siege now entered upon the second month; and the relative positions of the armies were little changed. The weather had been extraordinarily severe, and the French suffered greatly, although they were infinitely better fed than the besieged, whose stock of provisions was being rapidly exhausted.
The railway bridge over the Thames from Victoria to Battersea had been destroyed by the English, and nearly all the houses in the neighbourhood of the station, as well as whole streets in Pimlico and Chelsea, had been demolished to make room for powerful batteries. From these a tremendous and incessant fire was kept up on the French positions in Battersea Park. This fire, however, was vigorously returned, and the Houses of Parliament and the magnificent pile of Westminster Abbey were almost totally destroyed. In the course of the sixth week, the invaders received large reinforcements, as the reserves from Dover were moved up to the metropolis. They, therefore, began to display more activity, and nearly the whole of South London fell into their hands, and a bombardment of the Tower was at once commenced. A lofty earthwork had been erected in the Green Park, and, as this committed terrible execution amongst the besiegers, a desperate attempt was made to silence it; and such a hurricane of shells beat upon it that it became untenable; and the British Guards, with five other battalions of infantry forming its garrison, marched out of it one morning at an early hour, but they remained near it with a strong force of field artillery, which had been sent to join them. The Tower had at the same time been reduced to ruins, and could no longer be held, and now the French made a simultaneous attack on all the defenders' positions. Hammersmith was carried, and a strong force was sent to seize the Green Park fort, but was at once attacked by its former defenders, and a battle began in Hyde Park. The French were immediately reinforced by two divisions of infantry, with cavalry, and artillery; while the British received a large accession of strength both by troops and townspeople, well armed and full of enthusiasm, and it became evident that the final struggle was to be fought out in the historical park.