180 THE RATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, told them that the Guards were comiuy; up in VI. , ^ ^ support. ^d Period. ipi^Q fiohtiiifT at this time grew closer, and here Conthmanco . of tiio and there it was hand to hand. In some instances, tigliting. our people grew furious against the weight of numbers which was beginning to heave them back. Four young officers of the 41st — Captain Richards, Lieutenant Swabey (already wounded, but refus- ing to quit the fight), Lieutenant Taylor, and Lieu- tenant Stirling, all these sprang forward, encourag- ing their men, and then calling, they say, upon one another, rushed into the enemy's ranks, and, not being followed by their men, were slain. Colonel Carpenter, the commander of the same regiment, being struck down at a moment when our people were losing ground, remained during some cruel instants in the enemy's hands ; and, though presently rescued by the valour of a private soldier named Thomas Beach,* he afterwards died from his wounds. Amongst those who fell on the side of the Russians was Colonel Bibikoff, an officer of, it seems, high distinction, commanding the four Okhotsk battalions. Even in an earlier stage of this conflict the ranks of our soldiery had become much opened out, for the gaps which losses occasioned could not well be made good on such ground by order- Adams ing the men to close up ; and from that cause in part, but much more from the eagerness of the
- For this act Thomas Beacli — a man of the 55th Regiment,
and evidently one belonging to Barnstoji's picket — was rewarded with the Victoria Cross.
