Posts Tagged ‘Sandbag Battery’

Uniform of Capt & LtCol Percy, VC, Grenadier Guards

The Grenadier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea, the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Henry Percy was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards at age nineteen.  After almost twenty years of service, he embarked for the Crimea at age thirty-seven, as a Captain and Lieutenant Colonel (The dual rank system exclusive to Her Majesty’s Guards regiments).

At Alma he was wounded in the arm, but continued to lead his men in battle.  At Inkerman he led a charge into the Sandbag Battery, then held it against repeated Russian assaults by superior numbers.  Having run out of ammunition, he ordered his men to throw stones at the attacking enemy.  The Russians began doing the same, knocking Percy off the parapet once.  Upon his climbing back up, he was knocked senseless with another even larger stone.  He awoke bleeding badly and half blinded, but was able to join his men in a charge driving the enemy down the hill below the battery.  Out of ammunition and cut off, the wounded Percy led his men through dense brush to safety.  He received the Victoria Cross from Queen Victoria, personally, in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857.

This photograph shows his coatee, sash, and epaulettes under an officer’s greatcoat draped over the coatee in the manner commonly worn by officers in the Crimea.  Note that Percy had cut the standing collar from his coatee, no doubt to make it less restrictive on campaign.  The right sleeve of the coatee (not visible under the greatcoat) shows signs of rough field repair and dried blood.  The epaulettes show the grenade of the Grenadier Guards, and the braiding and crown of a Captain and Lieutenant Colonel.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

Bearskin Cap worn by Sir Charles Russell, VC, Grenadier Guards, in the Crimea

The Grenadier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Sir Charles Russell was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest decoration for bravery, for his actions at the Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854, at age twenty-eight.  The then Brevet Major Russell offered to dislodge a significant group of Russians from the Sandbag Battery, asking if anyone would follow him.  A sergeant and two privates volunteered.  His assault party met much resistance, and seemed on several occasions to be close to annihilation.  Their skill, particularly with the bayonet, prevailed, and the enemy was sent on their way.  Russell fought with great distinction, at one point wrenching the rifle from the hands of a large, powerful Russian.  Sir Charles achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring from the Guards.

The 1846 Uniform Regulations describe the cap in the photograph as a “bear-skin, twelve inches deep, fastened under the chin by a plain gilt taper chain.”  Just prior to embarking for the Crimea, the Guards modified their bearskin caps by cutting them down a few inches.  Perhaps in keeping with this modification, the actual measurement for the cap in this photograph was ten inches deep.  It is also interesting that this bearskin is a soft leather collapsible cap, rather than the stiff Guards caps routinely seen, which have a bamboo-like cage beneath the skin itself.  The white goat’s hair plume on the left side indicates the bearskin is Grenadier Guards, who were on the right flank of the Guards Brigade.  A Coldstream Guards’ scarlet cut-feather plume was on the right side, as they were on the left flank.  The Scots Fusilier Guards had no plume and were in the center of the line.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

French Zouave Officer's Kepi

A French Army of approximately 22,000 strong landed alongside the British Army (Approximately 18,000) at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854.  The French infantry had three regiments of Zouaves.  Although the Zouaves when originally formed around 1830, and consisted of native Algerian tribesmen with French officers, by the Crimean War their uniform had become so popular that there were numerous Europeans in their ranks.  The uniform followed traditional Algerian tribal dress:  baggy red trousers stuffed in leather jambieres, a short blue jacket trimmed in their regimental colour, and a red fez with turban and tassel.  Their officers and non-commissioned officers dressed somewhat similarly, but wore a red  Chasseur-style kepi, as shown in this photograph.  The two rows of gilt braid designate the rank of lieutenant, and the wear indicates that this remarkable piece of headgear saw campaign use.

In the Crimea, the Zouaves came to the aid of the Guards Brigade during the desperate fighting in and around the Sandbag Battery.  It was said they advanced “like tigers,” and succeeded in driving the Russians out of the battery.

Interestingly, General George B. McClellan, who was an observer for a short time with the French in Sevastopol, fancied this type kepi.  He is said to have brought the design, with its low silhouette and countersunk round top, back from the Crimea to the United States.  Many officers in the American Civil War, especially those on his staff, adopted the style.  It became known as the ‘McClellan Kepi’.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.