Note 283 — Chapter IX · THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN.

Letter of Mr. Taylor, late Quartermaster Somersetshire Militia, then in the Coldstream; one shell killed and wounded eight men. Colonel Upton was wounded at this period. See, also, Our Veterans, etc. , p. 299.

The action of the Guards at Inkerman seems to be imperfectly described in Kinglake. According to that writer, the bulk of the Brigade came out of action at 8.30; though he notes that the force under Wilson joined the last attack undertaken by the French about 11 o’clock, and allows that the companies which followed Upton were in the field as late as 10. Giving Bosquet’s impressions of the scene presented to his observation at that hour, he says, “High above on the right, where there sauntered a red-coated Officer with the bonnet de poil and a singularly unconcerned air (Colonel Upton), some men of the Guards could be seen lying down among the brushwood” (Kinglake, v. 382). Yet Tower and Wilden, whose accounts have been given, state that they were relieved on the Kitspur by the Algerines and Zouaves—that is, after 10 o’clock; and Wilson who, according to Mr. Kinglake, was on that portion of the battle-field later than any other Guardsman, tells us himself that he got back to Home Ridge before the bulk of the Brigade reached it. Some isolated groups, separated during the fierce struggle in the fog and brushwood from the main body, possibly found themselves on Home Ridge before; Taylor says he helped to pull up the two 18-pounders, which, as we know, took place about 9.30.