It was half-past seven when this stage of the action was finished, and a new one commenced with the arrival on the scene of General Dannenberg. All PaulofFs battalions were now ranged on Mount Inkerman, and with those of Soimonoff which had previously been held in reserve, and were still untouched, raised the number of fresh troops with which he could recommence the battle to 19,000 infantry and ninety guns. Ten thousand of these were now launched against our position, but this time they were massed for the attack chiefly in and about the Quarry ravine, and, neglecting our left, bore against our centre and right, upon which also was now turned the weight of the cannonade. The reason for this, no doubt, was that closer co-operation might be maintained with Gortschakoff, whose troops had extended down the valley till their right was nearly opposite the right of our position, and who, in case of Dannenberg's success in that quarter, might at once lend a hand to him.
At the same time Pennefather also had received reinforcements. The Guards, turning out at the sounds of battle, had now reached the position ; so had the batteries of the First Division ; and Cathcart was approaching with 2100 men of his Division, set free by the absence of any sign of attack upon the siege works.
The troops which had at first so successfully defended the Barrier had been compelled, by the large
148 Greater Obstinacy of the Attack.
bodies moving round their flanks, to fall back, and the Russians held it for a time. But these were driven out, and the barrier was reoccupied by detachments of the 2 ist, 63d, and Rifles, when, from its position, closing the post road, it continued to be a point of great importance. The troops there, reinforced from time to time, held it throughout the battle, repelling all direct attacks upon it ; and it is a singular fact that the enemy's masses, in their subsequent onsets, passed it by, both in advancing and retreating, without making any attempt upon it from the rear.
The first attack was made on Adams, with five Russian battalions, numbering about 4000 against the 700 that opposed them, and took place on the slopes of the Fore Ridge, and about the Sandbag Battery. The Guards, already on the crest, were moved to the support of Adams. Whether the troops of PaulofT were superior in quality, or better led, or whether the lifting of the fog revealed their own superiority in number, the spirit they displayed was incomparably fiercer and more resolute than had yet marked the attack. The conflicts of the first stage of the battle had been child's play compared with the bloody struggle of which the ground between the Fore^Ridge and the edge of the cliffs east of it were now the scene. Useless for defence on either side, the Sandbag Battery may be regarded as a sort of symbol of victory conventionally adopted by both, leading our troops to do battle on the edge of the steeps, and the enemy to choose the broken and difficult ground on which this arbitrary standard reared itself to view for
Action and Death of Cat heart. 149