"While this was taking place on the side of Careening Bay, the battle was raging with still more exciting incidents around the Mamelon Vei"t. At the same signal of rockets from the Victoria redoubt, General de Wimpffen, with his brigade, left the trenches, which, on our side, encompass the base of the Mamelon Vert, that is to say, of the j;/act' d'armes on the left and of the third Victoria parallel. Three columns rush forward at once on the enemy's works, and carry by storm two advanced cuttings and intermediary ambuscades. A fire of grape from the redoubt, the combined fire of the Great Eedan and of the batteries to the left of the Malakoff Tower, does not impede their advance. To the right. Colonel Eose, at the head of the Algerian Eifles, carries a battery of four guns annexed to the redoubt. Colonel de Brancion, in the centre, with the 50th, and Colonel de Polhes on the left, with the 3rd Zouaves, resolutely attack the redoubt itself, throw themselves into the trench, scale the parapet, and cut down the Eussian artillerymen at their guns. Colonel de Brancion, who had the honour of being the first to plant his eagle on the redoubt, fell in this attack under the grape of the enemy, gloriously enshrouded in his triumph.
THE EAST.
" Strict orders had been given not to go beyond the gorge of the works, and to form at once a lodgment against the fire and attacks from the town. But, carried away by their ardour, our soldiers pursued the Kussians into the ditch of the Malakoff battery, 400 metres beyond the redoubt, and tried to enter the enceinte with them. The natural consequence was that they were obliged to fall back under the violent point-blank fire of the enemy's reserves which manned the ramparts. The two wings of the French line threw themselves back, while the besieged sent out a column of fresh troops to attack our centre.
" The redoubt of the Mamelon Vert could not as yet offer any shelter. The fire had either blown up a mine laid by the enemy, or a powdermagazine, and this seriously scorched Commandant Tixier, of the 3rd Chasseurs-ii-pied, and a number of men. Planks, beams, and burning ropes gave rise to fears of another explosion. The interior of the work was not tenable. Instead of supporting itself on the redoubt, our line crosses the summit, and forms a semi-circle round the Mamelon. There was not a moment to be lost. General Camou ordered General Verge to leave the trenches; General Bosquet ordered the 5th Division to advance, and was immediately obeyed by General Brunet. The movement of this division was imposing; the First Brigade, commanded by Colonel Duprat de la Eoquette, of the 100th of the Line, occupied the parallels behind the Mamelon; and the Second Brigade, under the orders of General Lafont de Villiers, advanced to the left, in the rear, under cover of some rising ground. The Verge Brigade formed in columns at the same moment under the enemy's fire, and, with the drums beating the charge, ascended the hill, and reinforced General Wimpffen's Brigade.
" The position was carried and the enemy driven back a second time into the town; we were definitely masters of the Mamelon Vert, which our troops triumphantly occupied, amidst shouts, enthusiastically repeated, of Vive I'Empereur.". ' ■
It was now growing dark, and by the most rapid and persevering exertions the French were enabled to establish themselves solidly in all the captured works before morning; detachments of artillery had also turned such of the guns as were serviceable upon the enemy, and those of the work of the 2nd May had been spiked under the fire of the place: these operations were completed under the personal direction of Lieutenant-Colonel de la Boussiniere, and from that moment both the Mamelon and the Ouvrages Blancs were turned into advanced batteries against their late defenders.
Meanwhile a similar step in advance had lieen gained by the British. Detachments from the light and second divisions under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Shirley of the 88th were told off to attack the Quarries.
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