After the cannonade had lasted about four hours and a half, the fleets withdrew out of action. They had brought noo guns to bear; the forts replied with 152. The French ships lost 203 men ; the English, 317 ; the Russian garrison, 138.
On the 1 8th the French batteries were still unable to reopen fire, while the English works and guns, little damaged, once more asserted their superiority over the Redan and Malakoff. But dawn had disclosed a new feature in the problem. At nightfall we had looked on works reduced to shapeless heaps, on ruined batteries and disabled guns. Before morning the parapets had
1 08 English Batteries still efficient.
been rebuilt, the batteries repaired, and fresh guns from the inexhaustible supplies of the ships and arsenal had occupied the embrasures ; and the Allies could now begin to realise how formidable was the opponent who could thus, as chief engineer, wield the resources of the place. The recuperative power of the enemy, taken along with the failure of the French batteries, diminished indefinitely the chances of taking the place by assault. Nevertheless the hope of achieving that result was far from being abandoned, and there was yet a space of time in which the operations of the Allies were concentrated on the preparation for a renewal of the cannonade as the preface to a combined assault on the chief works between the French and the town. It should be noted, to the credit of our engineers, siege- artillery, and seamen, that while explosions frequently took place in the French and Russian batteries, our magazines remained intact ; while their works and the occupants of them suffered severely from enfilade, our losses continued to be slight On the i8th, 1 9th, and 2Oth, when we met single-handed the whole weight of the enemy's fire (the French being for so long unable to resume the contest) our aggregate loss in killed and wounded was only seventy-five men. Up to the 25th October our daily average loss was seventeen, while at the same date the aggregate of Russians killed and wounded in their works amounted to 3834 men.
CHAPTER VI.
ATTACKED AT BALAKLAVA AND ON THE UPLAND.
Outworks before Balaklava — Russians capture them — Movements of the Heavy Brigade — Charge of the Heavy Brigade — Russian Cavalry defeated — The Orders to the Light Brigade — Russians both sides of Valley — Nolan and Lord Lucan — Charge of the Light Brigade —Charge of the Chasseurs— Return of the Light Brigade— Close of the Action — No Attempt at Re-capture — Weak Point in Allied Defences — French Measures too exclusive — First Action of Inkerman — Object of It — The Sandbag Battery — Preparation for an Assault — Assembly of Russian Forces.
THE drama now shifted into a new act, in which the Allies were to be themselves attacked, and forced to fight for their foothold in the Crimea.
Immediately after he quitted Sebastopol, Menschikoff had been joined by the remainder of his forces in the peninsula, hitherto beyond the sphere of action, being stationed in its south-western corner. These amounted to 12,000 men, and he also received the further reinforcements which, as already said,, were on their way from Russia. In fact, the troops which might come to him from thence had, practically, no other limit than the means of transporting them. He therefore drew closer to the place, and while keeping his main force beyond our ken, had begun on the 7th October to send parties down to the Tchernaya. Soon afterwards his lieutenant, General Liprandi, established his headquarters
1 10 Outworks before Balaklava.
at Tchorgoun, on the further bank, and the force of all arms placed under him began to assemble about that place. It gradually grew till it reached, according to Russian official accounts, the number of 22,000 infantry, 3400 cavalry, and seventy-eight guns, when it was considered strong enough for immediate action.