Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/206

 174 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. chap, series of mischances from the cognisance of the vi. . ! Commander-in-Chief — it was never by him re- ifthof e corded in either a public despatch, or any less pn ' formal document.( 10 ) Besides Lieutenant Graham, disabled in the way we observed, there was simply no witness of the fight of the 13th of April except Captain Oldershaw himself and the officers and men en- gaged under him.( u ) Oldershaw was not ordered to make a report of his fight, and — true to that singular modesty — or was it not soldierly pride? — which I have ascribed to him — he not only omitted to volunteer any formal account of his engagement, but even refrained from those un- official statements which might have sufficed to make the truth known. ( 12 ) So austere a neglect of the task of self-asser- tion by an officer in command of a detached force was, after all, too majestic for this busy maze of a world, and his subsequent absence from the Crimea — because on staff duty elsewhere — com- pleted the chain of circumstances which pre- vented Lord Raglan from receiving any account of the fight of the 13th of April in the ' advanced ' No. VII.' On that subject the Artillery Records fell into a state of confusion, and so remain to this day. sir Gerald But the chasm thus left in our records has now been substantially filled. We saw an Engineei officer keenly watching the fight ; but he was only a young lieutenant, well able indeed to give testimony of the highest value, yet not to speak Graham.