A Near Thing
During the Battle of Inkerman in 1854, one of Lord Raglan’s hospital sergeants had a close encounter with a Russian cannonball.
1854
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
During the Battle of Inkerman in 1854, one of Lord Raglan’s hospital sergeants had a close encounter with a Russian cannonball.
1854
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Lord Calthorpe was aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan during the Crimean War of 1853-6 against Russia. The war was a bloody and costly mistake, but the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava on October 24th, 1854, was not the only moment of heroism. A few days after the Battle of Inkerman on November 5th, Calthorpe had this story to share.
I SHOULD also tell you an instance of great sang-froid on the part of a hospital sergeant, I think of the 7th Fusiliers. It was towards the close of the battle, and Lord Raglan was returning from taking leave of poor General Strangways,* and was going up towards the ridge. A sergeant approached us carrying canteens of water to take up for the wounded, and, as Lord Raglan passed, he drew himself up to make the usual salute, when a round shot came bounding over the hill and knocked his forage cap off his head.*
The man calmly picked up his cap, dusted it on his knee, placed it carefully on his head, and then made the military salute, and all without moving a muscle of his countenance. Lord Raglan was delighted with the man’s coolness, and said to him, ‘A near thing that, my man.’ ‘Yes, my Lord,’ replied the sergeant, with another salute, ‘but a miss is as good as a mile.’
Brigadier General Thomas Fox-Strangways (1790-1854) died that day at the Battle of Inkerman on November 5th, 1854. He had fought at the Battle of Waterloo, where he was severely wounded, and gone on to a distinguished military career that culminated in his appointment as Brigadier General in overall command of the British artillery in the Crimea.
A round shot is a cannonball.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
How did the hospital sergeant lose his cap in the middle of his salute?
It was knocked off by a cannonball.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A sergeant saluted Lord Raglan. He carried canteens full of water. They were for wounded soldiers.