if the Highland Brigade had crossed the river along with the attacking divisions and beyond them, supported by the Fourth Division and the cavalry, then the Light and Second Divisions, secure on their flanks, and closely supported by the Guards, could have brought their whole strength at once to bear, while the Russian reserves would have found too much to do in meeting the onset on their flank to reinforce the defenders of the principal battery. But as there was no unity and no concerted plan, our troops suffered accordingly. The artillery, too, instead of being left to come into action according to the views of its different commanders, should have had its part in supporting the attack distinctly assigned to it. All, therefore, that we had to be proud of was the dash and valour of the regiments engaged. These were very conspicuous, and worthy of the traditions of the Peninsular days. A French officer, who was viewing the field, where our men lay, as they had fallen, in ranks, with one of our naval captains, observed to him, " Well, you took the bull by the horns — our men could not have done it."
Our cavalry, though so inferior in number, would probably not have been deterred by that consideration from engaging (as indeed it proved on a later occasion) but the part assigned to it was that of observation and defence only. " I will keep my cavalry in a bandbox," was said to have been Lord Raglan's expression ; and he was right, for it was all the army had to depend on for the many essential duties which cavalry must in such a case perform.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MARCH ROUND SEBASTOPOL TO BALAKLAVA.
March to the Belbek — Question of attacking the North Side — Menschikoff bars the Harbour — Reasons against Attack of North Side — Todleben's- Strange Contention — Impolicy of moving Allies Inland — The Flank March begun — Rencontre with Menschikoff's Rear— The English reach the Tchernaya — First View of Balaklava — Question of Bases for the Two Armies — Lord Raglan chooses Balaklava — Features of the South Side — Positions of the Allies.
THE next two days were passed on the Alma. The many slain were buried by us. In and about the principal battery were about 700 or 800 bodies, of which two-thirds were Russians, and the dead lay thick on other parts of the field. The close intermixture of Russian and English bodies showed that all the fighting on this part of the field had been between them alone. Hospitals were established in some empty houses in Bourliouk, where surgeons of the army and navy attended to the wounded before they were borne to the ships. And amidst these scenes of suffering the cholera knew no relenting.
On the 23d the armies marched again, and as before, over dry grassy plains, and passing the Katcha, seven miles from the Alma, encamped on the heights beyond about noon. The village here had been deserted
March to the Belbek. 67
in haste by the inhabitants. It had been expected that the enemy might make another stand in the strong position which these heights offered. But their defeat had been too absolute, their retreat too hasty, to admit of such a rally. Kinglake says it became a panic flight for the shelter of Sebastopol. On the other hand, it must be observed that this panic was not evident at the close of the battle, and that our march on the footsteps of Menschikoff s army did not show us marks of such complete disorder. At the mouth of the Katcha the Scots Greys and the 5/th regiment (of the Fourth Division) were disembarked, and joined the army.
The next day a march of six miles carried us across the Belbek. Here the character of the country changed from grassy plains to hills clothed with coppice, and here the army halted during the 25th. These heights were waterless, and the cavalry and horse-artillery led a hard life while covering the army ; the horses had neither forage nor water for forty-eight hours, all which time they remained accoutred and harnessed ; and the men and officers did not, for these and two other days, taste meat.