14 MILITARY COMMISSION TO EUROPE. 



defenders as the Kussians, it is no discredit to the French that their patient yet hrilliant efforts 

 failed to achieve success. The loopholed wall was either covered by a rampart and parapet, or 

 entirely replaced by a simple parapet ; wherever it remained exposed it was much injured by the 

 long cannonade to which it was subjected. 



The Quarantine Kedans were little more than a simple trench, with the gabionade thrown 

 forward about 3', thus affording a banquette ; the soil in this part was even more rocky than in 

 front of the bastions just described. 



The strength of profile of the works east of the central ravine was very much less than that of 

 the Flag-staff and Central Bastions. The remembrance of the history of the progress of the 

 siege will explain the seeming anomaly that points, now generally considered of secondary 

 importance, should be more strongly fortified than those which common opinion pronounces the 

 key points of the position. Until the spring of 1855 all the efforts of the French were directed 

 against the Flag-staff and Central Bastions ; and for some reason or other (probably the languor 

 with which their approaches were pushed) the Eussians seemed to attach very little importance 

 to the operations of the English. It was therefore natural and proper that the Russians should 

 avail themselves of the time employed by the allies in preparing to open their fire, and of the 

 slackness of the fire during the winter, to turn all their efforts upon the points attacked. It is 

 probable that serious work upon the Malakoff scarcely commenced before the French opened 

 their trenches against it; it was therefore carried on under much more unfavorable circumstances. 



In the leisurely construction of a system of permanent defences for Sebastopol, the neglect of 

 the Malakoff and Sapoune ridges would have been indeed inexcusable ; but the actual works were 

 constructed for the most part under fire, and always in sight of the enemy. The garrison was 

 for along time weak for so extensive a position, and the supply of tools was always inadequate 

 in amount and wretched in quality ; looking at their miserable tools, it was a source of astonish- 

 ment that such gigantic results could have been achieved with such paltry means. 



The Eedan was more properly a salient bastion, and appearances indicated that it was 

 originally a detached lunette, closed at the gorge by a bastioned front, having a good ditch, 

 banquette, &c. ; in fact, this gorge front still existed in fair condition at the close of the siege, 

 the left half bastion alone having for some reason been nearly levelled. The Redan was after- 

 wards connected with the Barrack battery on the one hand, and on the other extended by the 

 line of works crowning the western crest of the Otchakoff ravine. The nature of the ground, 

 espeeially near the salient, was such that the scarp and counterscarp were more gentle than in 

 the bastions already described. Without pretending to enter into details which would neces- 

 sarily be imperfect, the best practical idea of the real nature of the work will be derived from 

 the fact that, although no breach was made, the English, on the 8th September, entered the 

 work without using the ladders. The details of the interior were similar to those of the Flag- 

 staff Bastion, the guns being covered by traverses and parados, which formed shelters very 

 favorable to an attacking column after it had once effected an entrance. It should be distinctly 

 stated that the Redan had no second line of defence. 



In front the ground has a very gentle slope and is unobstructed ; the works connecting the 

 Redan with the Barrack battery border the precipitous side of the great ravine; the ground 

 occupied by the work itself slopes gently from the salient towards the gorge ; in rear it falls 

 rapidly towards the inner harbor, but somewhat less so to the north, so that access is not 

 very difiicult from that direction. 



In the immediate vicinity of the Redan there was a series of remarkable bomb proofs, 

 excavated in the solid rock : first, a ditch 12' wide and 4' deep was excavated; then holes for a 



