THE BRITISH ARMY ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 
163 
arms, and especially did tf D ” troop signalize itself in its work with the cavalry 
on the right of our line. It is a particular pleasure to mention that battle here 
to-night because we have our friends the 3rd Dragoon Guards in the garrison at 
this moment, and it was that regiment and the 4th Dragoon Guards which so 
effectively co-operated with the Horse Artillery on that celebrated and bloody day. 
We must not fail to remember the battle of Yittoria either, which is perhaps the 
greatest artillery battle we have ever had, and is certainly the one during the 
Peninsular war in which our guns bore the largest share. That was so chiefly 
from the fact that, owing to the few roads, the artillery became, rather by chance 
than good guidance, concentrated under the hand of Sir Alexander Dickson, was 
handled in masses against our usual custom, and produced an unprecedented 
effect in consequence. The battle was remarkable too from the fact that the 
whole of the enemy’s artillery was captured and everyone of the guns on our side 
were brought into action, a thing rare in those days of reserve artillery. For 
their services at Yittoria the artillery officers got a special pension, which, by the 
way, did not stand them in very good stead in the long run, because it aroused 
certain jealousies on the part of other officers and caused a large amount of 
irritation on the part of the Duke of Wellington, an annoyance which he showed 
afterwards in a celebrated memorandum he wrote about the artillery at Waterloo. 
The mention of that most decisive of battles reminds us of the §tern front our 
batteries showed there, but that is so well known that I need not dwell upon it 
now. After 1815 there was the long peace and the . next great event in our 
military history was the battle of the Alma. At that battle the most noticeable, 
performance was the action of the two 9-pounders of Turner’s battery which were 
brought up almost into the Eussian position, from there enfiladed the Causeway 
battery and had a great influence on the course of the fight. They were manned 
by officers, amongst whom was Sir Collihgwood Dickson, and Lieutenant 
Waltham was killed in the act of sponging one of them out. Thus we are brought 
up to Inkermann, and again that action is noticeable for the great effect that was 
produced by the two 18-pounders from the siege train brought up by Sir 
Collingwood Dickson and Sir Charles D’Aguilar, who are still happily with us. 
The rest of the Field Artillery did excellent service too, and General Todleben 
has recorded his opinion of it when he says : “ The English artillery sustained 
its infantry perfectly. It followed it everywhere and opened a close fire on the 
Eussian columns.” Put, gentlemen, the greatest and most memorable event of 
the Crimean war was the siege of Sevastopol and that was an operation in which 
the Garrison Artillery pre-eminently shone; and it may be its boast that 
it gained its laurels in what is probably the greatest siege in history, certainly 
in our history, and distinguished itself in the attack as artillery had done 
before in the defence during that other great siege to which I have already 
referred. Now during this siege of Sevastopol an incident occurred which 
I confess I myself knew very little about until I read the last volume of 
Kinglake when it came out some years ago, and then I rubbed my eyes 
and wondered if it could be true, I was. so much astonished. I daresay 
some of you are not familiar with it even now, but it is an incident nevertheless 
that we should all be familiar with. During the bombardment in April 1854 two 
batteries, styled Nos. 7 and 8, had been built in the third parallel of the left 
attack, within some 700 yards of the Eussian battery, known as “the Crow’s 
nest.” It was impossible to get down guns to them during daylight, and such 
work was by no means easy at night owing to the roughness of the ground and 
the mud and wet. The gunners, however, were equal to the task and during the 
nights of the lltli and 12th they got the guns down to the batteries within, as I 
have said, 700 yards of the Eussian guns. Captain Oldershaw, with 65 men, 
