Detective Watters Mysteries

Prelude

20th September 1854

The morning breeze had stilled, allowing the sun’s heat to beat down on the Allied army as they leaned on their rifles and lit their pipes. The men had marched steadily since landing at Kalamita Bay on the south coast of the Crimean peninsula. The pick of the French and British armies, they were sixty-three thousand strong, less the hundreds who had already fallen out with sunstroke, cholera, and exhaustion.

They halted at the downward slope that led to the River Alma. The Russians waited on the opposite bank, occupying the Heights of Alma, confident of their strength. The enemies faced each other in all the panoply of nineteenth-century warfare, the British in scarlet and bearskins, kilts and gold braid, the French in blue and red. Forty thousand strong, the Russian army stood in solid ranks of grey-coated infantry, with thousands of cavalry, including the feared Cossacks, and battery after battery of artillery. They waited in a seemingly impregnable defensive position, looking down at the exhausted, cholera-ridden allies. After nearly forty years of international peace, the nations of Europe were once again at war.

As both sides waited for orders, a strange hush fell, broken only by the ripple of the water and the rustle of a breeze through the riverside brushwood. The British and French soldiers saw the task before them and knew they faced a stiff fight. They would have to descend a steep slope, ford the river and attack uphill, all the time under murderous fire from artillery and massed musketry.

More than one British soldier pointed to the crowd of civilian spectators who sat on a specially erected stand. The sun glittered on raised opera glasses and highlighted the gay colours of women’s dresses while top-hatted dignitaries smoked cheroots and discussed the coming battle.

“Would you look at that?” Captain Charles Ogilvy of the 42nd Highlanders, the Black Watch, said. “The Russkies have brought a horde of women to watch the battle.” He focussed his field glasses on the stand. “They look like aristocrats by their bearing and clothes.”

“The Russian commander, Prince Menschikoff, must be confident of victory,” Lieutenant Robert Menzies replied. “We’re providing entertainment for the wives and mistresses.”

Further down the ranks, Private Ian Craig of the same regiment stamped his boots on the hard ground and nodded to his rear marker, Private William Tosh. “Here we go, Wullie.”m

“Aye,” Tosh sucked on an empty clay pipe. “My first time in battle.”

“Mine too,” Craig admitted. “If the Russkies kill me, take my kit, Wullie, and write home to my folks.”

Tosh grunted. “I’ll do that, and you do the same for me. Watch! Here’s Sir Colin!”

Commanding the Highland Brigade, Sir Colin Campbell lifted his voice to speak to his officers. “This will be a good time for the men to get loose half their cartridges.”

“Aye,” Tosh said knowingly. “Sir Colin wouldnae allow that unless he knew we were going to fight.”

Craig nodded. “There will be empty beds the night and women weeping in the Overgate.”

At half past one in the afternoon, the French began the battle with an attack on the Russian left flank and shortly later, the British launched their frontal assault. The Light and Second Division led the British advance, and then the Highlanders and Guards of the First Division eased down the slope and crossed the Alma River.

“Good luck, Wullie,” Craig said as they reached the far bank. The sound of Russian cannon and musketry greeted them, interspersed with the screams of wounded men.

“You too, Iain.”

The officers gave crisp orders, and the Black Watch formed up and began to march up the slope, where the Light and Second Division were already heavily engaged with the enemy. Russian cannons were busy, firing roundshot and deadly grape into the British ranks, tossing men aside, killing, wounding, and maiming.

Owing to the challenging ground, the three Highland regiments, the 42nd Black Watch, 93rd and 79th, advanced in echelon, one regiment following the next.

“Come on, lads,” Captain Ogilvy shouted. He glanced behind him, seeing his company’s tall bonnets and dark tartan kilts and nodded in satisfaction. He was doing what he had always wanted, leading his fighting Highlanders into battle.

“The Lights are getting it hot,” Craig said.

“It’ll be our turn soon,” Tosh ducked as a stray cannonball rushed overhead. “Remember what Sir Colin said. Be steady and fire low.”

The Russian artillery had pounded the Light Division. Craig and Tosh saw the piles of red-coated dead and wounded where roundshot and grapeshot had done their work. A breath of wind blew away some of the g*n smoke, revealing the horror and carrying the terrible sounds of wounded men.

“Jesus!” Craig blasphemed.

“Don’t look,” Tosh advised. “Follow the officers!”

“Ignore the shine, boys,” Ogilvy had heard the men’s comments. “Look to your front and remember who you are! We’re the Black Watch!”

To the onlookers, the Highlanders seemed to glide up the heights as they advanced in line. It was not as easy for the soldiers as they slithered on pools of human blood and peered into the smoke ahead. As they reached the Light Division, the Black Watch formed into fours and passed through the battered ranks, with the Russian artillery now targeting these strange-looking soldiers.

The men of the Light Division watched the kilted Highlanders pass.

“Let the Scotchmen go on; they don’t know what they’re going to get.”

A young soldier, trembling from shock, raised his voice in a high-pitched shriek. “You’re madmen! You’ll all be killed!”

“Form line!” Campbell ordered as they passed the Lights. In an unbroken double line, the Black Watch ascended the steep, broken slope, intersected with sudden gullies and isolated rocks.

The Highlanders marched on, stumbling, sliding, cursing, and holding their Minie rifles in calloused hands. The Russian artillery fired, the sound like ragged thunder, and the Black Watch saw five columns of Russian infantry in front. They were tall men in long, drab grey coats, some in linen forage caps and others wearing black leather helmets with brass badges. Two Russian columns loomed menacingly close, the Sousdal and Kazan Regiments, with the men’s long grey coats flapping against their legs and their faces round and white.

“Fire and advance!” Campbell ordered.

“Come on, boys,” Ogilvy ordered. “You heard Sir Colin!”

In common with the other Highland regiments, the Black Watch had been trained to fire while marching. They advanced, firing, as the front rank of the closest Russian column knelt, and the leading few ranks opened fire. Craig saw Campbell’s horse fall under a Russian bullet, and the general immediately transferred to one of an aide-de-camp’s horses.

“Sir Colin doesn’t look pleased with that,” Craig said.

“It’s a shame for the horses,” Tosh grunted. “They shouldn’t have to fight.”

The Highlanders marched through a curtain of acrid smoke from their Minie rifles, steadily advancing towards the Russian columns. The men of the Black Watch were aware of the 93rd and 79th behind them and saw the Russian officers with drawn swords keeping their men in order.

“These Russkies aren’t happy,” Craig said.

“Good!” Tosh gave a fierce grin. “Let’s make it worse for them!”

As the Highlanders drew closer, the Russians began to waver.

“Get ready, boys,” Captain Ogilvy shouted. “They’re breaking!”

Major-general Colin Campbell, a veteran of many wars, knew instinctively that the time had come. He raised his hat to order a charge.

“Here we go, boys!” Tosh roared. “Get right into them!” The Highlanders fixed bayonets and ran forward with a cheer that rose above the thunder of guns. Faced by the glittering bayonets of three regiments of kilted Scottish infantry, the Russians set up a tremendous wail, broke, and ran.

“Chase them, boys!” Ogilvy yelled.

When they reached the ridge’s summit, the Highland Brigade halted and reformed into line. Before them, the Russian infantry was in full retreat.

“Volley fire, boys!” the officers ordered, and the Black Watch fired controlled volleys into the disorganised mass. Many Russians halted to return fire, even as British bullets created havoc in their fleeing ranks. General Campbell waited until the Russians were at extreme rifle range before ordering a bugler to sound the ceasefire.

As the clamour of combat faded, Craig and Tosh viewed the battlefield. As well as the moaning, screaming wounded, there were discarded pieces of uniforms, muskets, canteens, dead horses, caissons, and even a picnic basket.

“Here! Look at this, Wullie!” Craig lifted a women’s parasol from under the wooden platform erected for the Russian aristocrats to view the battle. He opened it and paraded for a moment until Tosh pointed at something bouncing towards them from the French positions.

“Ian!” Tosh lifted his rifle. “What in the name is that?”

“It’s a fancy chariot!” Craig said. “He’s got lost, surely!”

The carriage swayed across the rough ground, the driver wielding his whip like a madman in his efforts to escape from the victorious allies. As the highlanders watched, the vehicle hit a bump, the traces snapped, and the horse galloped to freedom.

Tosh fired, with the bullet screaming above the driver’s head. The man looked over his shoulder, saw the two kilted Highlanders advancing with powder-smoke-blackened faces and fixed bayonets, screamed, leapt from his perch, and fled for his life.

Craig lifted his rifle but lowered it when the carriage door opened, and a woman jumped out. “It’s a lassie!” he said.

“Two lassies,” Tosh corrected as a second woman emerged from the carriage.

The first woman glanced at the Highlanders, said something inaudible to her companion and pushed her back into the carriage.

“What’s she doing?” Craig asked.

“Escaping,” Tosh said as a Russian horseman galloped from the wreckage of his army with two spare horses. He helped the first woman up, and then the pair sped away. The second woman emerged from the carriage, took one look at the Highlanders, hesitated, lifted her skirt, and ran, screaming. Behind her, the carriage rolled to a halt on the rough grass.

“What the devil will we do with this thing?” Tosh asked, eyeing the gold leaf on the black and white coach and the coat of arms on the door. “It’s not the Dundee to Perth stage, that’s for sure.”

“Maybe I should look after it, men,” Captain Ogilvy appeared behind them. “I doubt it would fit in your barracks.”

“It might fetch a few guineas in a Dundee pawn, sir,” Tosh said, tracing the gold leaf with a calloused finger.

Ogilvy nodded. “It might at that, Tosh, but it would be the devil of a job to get it there!” He produced a couple of sovereigns from his pocket. “There you go and be thankful for small mercies!”

“Thank you, sir,” Tosh saluted and marched away, with Craig at his side.

Ogilvy scratched his head and looked at the carriage. “Tosh was right. What the devil am I going to do with you?”