|
The Welsford-Parker Monument (also known as the Crimean War monument or Sevastopol Monument) is a triumphal arch that is located in the Old Burial Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This is the 2nd oldest war monument in Canada (1860) (Montcalm-Wolfe Monument in Québec City erected in 1828) and the only monument to the Crimean War in North America. The arch and lion were built in 1860 by stone sculptor George Lang to commemorate British victory in the Crimean war and the Nova Scotians who had fought in the war. Britain and France invaded the Crimea and decided to destroy the Russian naval base at the capital Sevastopol. They landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a 35-mile triumphal march to Sevastopol the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. To traverse the 35 miles, the British forces fought for a year against the Russians. Inscribed on the monument are names of the battles the British army fought to reach the capital: "Alma" (September 1854), "Balaklava" (October 1854), "Inkerman" (November 1854), "Tchernaya" (August 1855), "Redan" (September 1855), and, finally, "Sebastopol" (September 1855). (During the siege, the British navy made six bombardments of the capital: October 17, 1854; April 9, June 6, June 17, August 17, and September 5, 1855.) Sebastopol is one of the classic sieges of all time.〔H.C. Elphinstone .Siege OF SEBASTOPOL 1854-55: Journal of the Operations Conducted by the Corps of Royal Engineers. 2003〕 The culminating struggle for the strategic Russian port in 1854-5 was the final bloody episode in the costly Crimean War. During the Victorian Era, these battles were repeatedly memorialized. The Siege of Sevastopol was the subject of Crimean soldier Leo Tolstoy's ''Sebastopol Sketches'' and the subject of the first Russian feature film, ''Defence of Sevastopol''. The Battle of Balaklava was made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and Robert Gibb's painting Thin Red Line. (Treating the wounded from these battles was celebrated English nurse Florence Nightingale.) The Nova Scotia memorial is named after two Haligonians, Major Augustus F. Welsford of the 97th Regiment and Captain William B.C.A. Parker of the 77 Regiment, who both died in the Battle of the Great Redan in 1855 during the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855), in present-day Crimea which was annexed by Russia in 2014. The monument was unveiled on 17 July 1860. During March and April 1855, Nova Scotian Joseph Howe worked tiredlessly to recruit troops for the war effort.〔During March and April 1855 he engaged in a “recruiting” mission to the United States; according to him, he simply made known the conditions of acceptance to those who voluntarily offered their services and he did not break the American neutrality laws. But he himself admitted that, if ordered to violate the policy of any foreign state in order to assist “the gallant fellows in the Crimea . . . , I would have obeyed without a moment’s hesitation,” and there is evidence to suggest that he did commit such violations even without express instructions from his superiors.〕 == Battle at the Great Redan == (詳細はEupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a 35-mile triumphal march to Sevastopol the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. The Great Russian Redan (Bastion #3) was one of the large Russian fortifications that ringed the city of Sebastopol. The Redan was the centre of the defences the British forces were attacking. It became a symbol of the attempt to capture the city and eventually a symbol of its fall. The British made two unsuccessful attacks on the Redan. The first attack was on 18 June when a massive assault was made on the Redan, but failed. The Allied troops were easily driven back to their fortification where they stayed for the next two and a half months. During the second siege, the Battle at the Redan, Nova Scotians Welsford and Parker were on the frontline. The attack was directed against the Redan in two columns. General Sir John Campbell led the left attack with 500 men of the 4th Division and a reserve of 800 under Colonel Lord West; Colonel Yea with a similar force from the Light Division led the right. General Campbell on the left was killed before he could get a few yards beyond the parapet of the forward trench. Under the command of Brigadier Charles Ash Windham,〔(Canadian Biography Online - Windham ); Another hero of this attack was Lieutenant-General William Godfrey Dunham Massy, C.B. "Redan Massy" - to give the gallant colonel of the 5th Lancers the sobriquet by which the British Army best knows him - entered the service in October 1854. Going out to the Crimea he joined the troops before Sebastopol, and was under fire at the battle of Tchernaya. He commanded the Grenadiers of the 19th Foot at the assault on the Redan on September 8th 1855, where his extreme gallantry won him the admiration of all England. In the attack he was dangerously wounded by a bullet which shattered his left thigh, received other less serious wounds, and was left wounded on the field, with the result that the night after the assault he fell into the hands of the Russians. They, however, believing him mortally wounded, did not trouble to remove him. Brought back some hours later to the British camp, Lieutenant Massy, as the gallant general then was, for nearly six months was confined to his camp stretcher, his fortitude and patient endurance, coupled with the splendid heroism he had shown at the attack on the Redan, winning him recommendation from the Commander in Chief in a special despatch and promotion to Captain.〕 on 8 Sept. 1855, Welsford commanded a ladder party in the initial wave of the assault on the Great Redan. He crossed a broad open space of 400 meters while against a hail of bullets. He made it to a ditch in front of the work and proceeded to climb one of the ladders which had been placed against the counterscarp. As he rose above the lip of an embrasure at the top, a gun was fired from within which blew his head off. Welsford was highly regarded in his regiment.〔(Augustus Welsford - Canadian Biography Online )〕 The other Nova Scotian officer, William Buck Carthew Augustus Parker also crossed the 400 meter field under fire, successfully scaled the counterscarp, got inside the work, and made a vain attempt to stem the mounting British retreat before a hail of bullets swept him into the ditch.〔(Augustus Welsford - Canadian Biography Online )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Welsford-Parker Monument」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|