Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/416

 300 COUNSELS ENDING IN THE CHAP. wuulJ there be on the best ground fur attacking ' SebastopoL* Sir John Foi* the purposG of informing himself upon any question of military engineering, Lord Eaglan Lad at his side an accomplished and gifted adviser. Sir John Burgoyne was a general of engineers now serving on the Staff of the army which Lord Rag- lan commanded. His experience of war went back to the great days. It began with the first year of this century at Malta. In 1806 he was serving in Sicily. He was commanding engineer with General I'luser's expedition to Egypt, and was at the assault on the lines of Alexandria, and the siege of Eosetta. He was with Sir John Moore at jNIessina and in Sweden in 1808, and was with him the same year in the Peninsula. He was at Coiunna. He blew up the bridge of ]]enevente in the presence of the enemy. He was with Sir Arthur Wellesley in 1809, and attached to the 3d (Picton's) Division. He was at the passage of the Douro. He served in the lines of Torres Vedras. He blew up Fort Conception in presence of the enemy. He was at Busaco, at the first siege of Badajoz, at Elboden, at Aldea del Ponte, and at the siege and capture of Ciudad Podrigo, where he ' should be attacked on the south side, and Sir John Burgoyne ' leant strongly to the same opinion.' — Private letter from Lord Raglan to the Duke of Newcastle, 2Sth September 1854. This must not be understood as implying — for that would be con- trary to the fact — that Lord Raglan, when once landed on the western coast of the Crimea, did not anxiously desire and pre- fer that there should be au attack on the north side.
 * ' I have always been disposed to consider that Sebastopol