ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
579 
their ascendancy over the comparatively weak force straggling along 
to the opposite heights. It was at this moment that the two 18-pr. 
siege guns appeared on the scene. They had been drawn the greatest 
part of the way from the siege park by manual labour, and the diffi¬ 
culties to be surmounted had been extreme. In fact, their 150 gunners 
had dragged them there themselves, and with them were Colonels 
Gambier, Collingwood Dickson, Captain D'Aguilar, and several other 
officers. 
Colonel Dickson placed them in position, and almost the second 
round produced destructive effect. A perfect storm of shot and shell 
at once burst on them from the mass of guns opposite. In a quarter- 
of-an-hour 17 gunners fell round them, but as one man dropped another 
eagerly stepped forward to replace him. Meanwhile each gun was laid 
by an officer, the one by Lieutenant Sinclair, the other by Lieutenant 
Harward, and every round visibly carried havoc into the enemy's 
batteries. The value of the concentrated force which lies in a large 
gun was now well exemplified, for the weight of metal had alone to atone 
for disparity in numbers. Thus, what has been described as an un¬ 
exampled contest between two powerful siege pieces and 100 field 
guns, a large proportion of them 12-prs. and also some 32-pr. howitzers, 
raged unremittantly, and the interest of the day became centred in that 
apparently unequal duel. A slight breastwork 2 feet high protected 
the siege guns, and accounted to some extent for their being able to 
maintain themselves as they did. After a quarter-of-an-hour, however, 
the wreck which the heavy, well directed shells spread in the enemy's 
batteries began to tell. While our men experienced “ severe loss, the 
havoc they inflicted might rather be termed devastation," The enemy's 
fire gradually slackened, and as it did so, ours exultingly became more 
masterful, and our gunners suffered less. Meanwhile two French 
Horse Artillery batteries, taking advantage of this new succour, moved 
over the crest on their right, established themselves on the bare slope 
facing the enemy, there gallantly held their ground in spite of the 
shattering fire they had to meet, and joined this combat of artillery. 
During the second quarter-of-an-hour but two or three men fell, and 
the heavy shells flew ever thicker. Then the enemy's gunners grew 
weary of the struggle, and endeavoured by shifting the positions of 
their batteries to escape the pitiless tempest. Such tactics could not 
but hasten the end, and “ within half-an-hour from the time when he 
brought into action the two 18-prs. Colonel Collingwood Dickson had 
made his ascendancy complete, and it was with almost perfect impunity 
that his gunners thenceforward continued to ravage the enemy's 
batteries." 1 
The historian we have just quoted goes on to say, “ From this ruin 
of the enemy's artillery power on Shell Hill many hastened to infer 
his approaching defeat; and, in truth, the change wrought was one of 
great moment." He had before suffered repulses, “ but the force now 
exerted against him was tearing at the very foundations of the power 
he had seized on Mount Inkerman." The two 18-prs. continued to 
1 Kinglake. 
77 
