The two battalions of the Guards, with some men rallied from the Scots battalion, went up the hill on each side of the gap in their centre, and were met by the four
General Retreat of the Russians. 6 1
battalions of the Vladimir regiment, and the two Kazan battalions, much shattered in the fight, which had hitherto been engaged with the 7th. This new phase of the battle was not of long duration. The columns could not stand before the close fire of the lines. Moreover, at this moment the Highland regiments, after receiving the badly aimed fire of the field-guns in the earthwork on the flank (which then rapidly withdrew from the action), had now approached the right of the Russian position. The brigade was in echelon, the right battalion leading and already past the earthwork defended by the Vladimir. This Russian regiment, after undergoing heavy loss, still hotly assailed in front by the Guards, and its rear threatened by the Highlanders, retreated to its right rear towards the right Kazan column, upon which it endeavoured to form, and both came under the fire of the leading Highland regiment (426). At the same time Campbell's other regiments attacked the columns hitherto in reserve high up the Kourgane Hill. These did not maintain the contest; the Russian forces all over the position were quitting it. No attempt was made by their cavalry or artillery on this side of the field to cover the retreat ; they seemed to have shifted for themselves, leaving the infantry columns to make their way off the field, which they did without panic, though shattered as they went by our most advanced field batteries. The English, moving over the whole field, from the eastern slopes of the Kourgane on the extreme left to the slopes of the Telegraph Hill now occupied by the French, once more completed the connection of the Allied Forces, Lord
62 rfhe Losses.
Raglan proposed to push the enemy in his retreat with the untouched troops of the two armies ; but the French Marshal declined to join in that step, on the ground that his men had divested themselves of their knapsacks before ascending the heights, and that it was impossible to advance till they had resumed possession of them. The leading English batteries continued, however, to pursue the enemy with their fire for some little distance on the plateau, where some of them bivouacked at nightfall, covered by a few companies detached for the purpose.
In the battle the English lost 106 officers, of whom twenty-five were killed ; nineteen sergeants killed, and 102 wounded ; of rank and file, 3 1 8 killed, 1438 wounded ; and nineteen missing, supposed to be buried in the ruins of Bourliouk; total 2002. The French lost only three officers killed, yet their official accounts placed their total loss at the disproportionate number of 1340; but there were good reasons for believing that this was a great exaggeration. Lord Raglan (says Kinglake) believed that their whole loss in killed was sixty, and in wounded 500, and there was a general belief in our army that the French losses were slight. The Russians stated their own losses at 5709.
As to the tactics of the Allies, they had before them a position very difficult of access on their right, very advantageous for defence in the centre, and with open and undefended ground on their left. Supposing they had neglected the part so difficult of access near the sea, and carried their whole line inland, till their right was
Tactical Views of the Battle. 63