The comprehensive history of England : civil and military, religious, intellectual, and social, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt . magazines of immense and solid stmicture,attested the great political importance of theplace, and marked it out as a vital part of theempire at which a death-blow might be aimedby a bold enterprising enemy. And adequateto its importance were the numerous strongdefences which had been erected for its protec-404 706 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Civil and Military. tion both by land and sea. On the south, theport was defended by six principal ba
The comprehensive history of England : civil and military, religious, intellectual, and social, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt . magazines of immense and solid stmicture,attested the great political importance of theplace, and marked it out as a vital part of theempire at which a death-blow might be aimedby a bold enterprising enemy. And adequateto its importance were the numerous strongdefences which had been erected for its protec-404 706 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Civil and Military. tion both by land and sea. On the south, theport was defended by six principal batteries,each mounting from 50 to 190 guns; on thenorth were four batteries, mounting from 18to 120 pieces; and besides these were severalsmaller batteries. Before the war commenced,850 pieces of artillery guarded the port, of which 350 could be brought to bear upon a single shipentering the bay; but during the siege these weremultii^lied to an indefinite amount. By land,the original defences were by no means so for-midable; but these were improved and multipliedwith incredible rapidity as necessity and thechanges of attack required, so that, almost daily,. now eartiiworks were constructed and freshguns planted; and from these, at the very com-mencement of the siege, no fewer than 25,000rounds wexe fired before our batteries openedupon them. Such was the place which people atliome ignorantly imagined would be taken by acoup de main! The occupied by theenemy, wrote Lord Raglan in one of his de-spatches, is not that of a fortress, but ratherthat of an arm} in an entrenched camp on verystrong ground, where au apjiarently unlimitednumber of heavy guns, amply provided witligunners and ammunition, are mounted. Itmust . be kept in mind that while the alliedarmies had no covering force to protect them—tliat while their whole existence was staked uponthe alternative of success or defeat—there waswithin the city an army nearly ;is numerous asthe assailants, and on tlie
Size: 1764px × 1416px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthormacfarlanecharles1799, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860
