2-995-943 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Volunteer Sham Fight in Camden Park - skirmishers covering the retreat, 1860. Fake battle by British soldiers in Kent. '...the appointed scene of operations [was] a valley, one slope of which was fringed by Bickley Wood, and the other bounded by one of the little Kentish hills...a stream running through at the bottom...completed a miniature field with all the necessary strategical positions. Over the stream was constructed a temporary bridge, which, at the proper stage of the proceedings, blew up with a loud report, the explosion sending planks into the air in all directions, to the imminent danger, apparently, of the retreating South Middlesex Engineers. The troops were divided into two divisions - 1st or Defending Division, under Lieut.-Col. Hicks; 2nd or Attacking Division, under Lieut.-Col. Viscount Ranelagh...The company of engineers of the City Brigade... appeared on the right of the defended position, and, advancing, lined the edge of the wood, through which the enemy was approaching. The Engineers opened fire on them, and it was returned from the wood...The firing...was heavy...there was the continued fire from the whole line, from right to left, volleys by companies, and volleys from the line again'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.