96 THK BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CRAP, the Old City heights. By most men the distant ' rumbling of wheels was not thought to be a lit Period. sQ^i^iifj of much import ; but Captain Sargent, judging otherwise, reported the incident promptly to the field-officer on duty; and, although he concurred with Major Grant in ascribing the sound to long trains of arahas, he still, as we have seen, took care to accept the warning.* In another part of the field, Morgan of the 95th heard the same rumbling noise, and sent in a non-commissioned officer with orders to convey the intelligence ; but the distant journeying of the enemy's artillery or waggon-trains at night had been heard so often before, that these tidings when brought into camp found seemingly little attention, and at all events raised no alarm. •{• In the hour before sunrise, as was their daily custom, the troops in the camp of the 2d Division
- Owing probably to the softened state of the road, the sound
resembled that made by a train of arabas or country carts ; but was really occasioned, as we now know, by the march of Pauloff's artillery, which began at 2 A.M. I have no reason for suppos- ing that Major — now General — Thornton Grant (who was a particularly vigilant and careful officer) omitted to send in an accotuitof the sound reported to him by Sargent, and also heard by himself, but I do not remember his mentioning the fact to me. The General is now commanding a division in India. t This is i)roved by the report— 'unusually quiet'— (see anta, p. 37) which was given as the answer to Captain Ewart's official inquiry from headquarters. It was stated that a soldier had come to Major Bunbury of the 23d, and told him that he had heard the rumbling, and that Major Hunbury did not report the fact. This statement is an example of the deception that may lurk in an imperfect truth. The man did report the circumstance to Bunbury, but not till the dai/ after the battle.
