did at nightfall. They may have calculated that the advance of Liprandi would cause the weak point on the plateau, for the moment, to be unoccupied ; otherwise it is not easy to account for the enterprise of the day following the action of Balaklava. At noon a force of six battalions and four light field-guns, issuing from the town, ascended the ravine and slope which led to the Second Division. Our pickets fell back fighting, when the Russian field-pieces coming within range, pitched shot over the crest, behind which the regiments of the Second Division were lying down, while their skirmishers maintained, with those of the Russians, a desultory combat in the hollow. The two batteries of the Second Division now formed on the crest, and were presently reinforced by one from the First Division, and before their fire the Russian guns were at once swept off the field. The enemy's battalions then came on successively in two columns, and these, too, were at once dispersed and driven back by the overpowering artillery fire. The men of the Second Division, launched in pursuit, pressed them hard, and they never halted till they were once more within the shelter of Sebastopol. Evans, not knowing of what force these might be the precursors, had determined to meet them on his own crest, and he was not to be drawn from thence till the action was already decided. General Bosquet sent to offer him assistance, but he declined it with thanks, as the enemy were, he said, already defeated. The Russians lost in this action, by their own estimate, 250 killed and wounded, and left in our hands eighty prisoners. We
126 Object of It.
had ten killed and seventy-seven wounded. The attack, therefore, could not be characterised otherwise than as weak and futile. Nevertheless, it had an object. Todleben says it was intended to draw our attention from another attack on Balaklava. But he is, unfortunately, so unreliable in his statements and views that, with another plain interpretation before us, supported by facts, we need not be drawn aside by him. No further serious attack on Balaklava was intended, but preparations for the battle of Inkerman were then well advanced, and it vvas with these that the attack was connected. The Russians had brought out intrenching tools with them to Shell Hill, and, could they have established and armed a work there, they would not only have immensely strengthened their position in the future battle, but would also have provided for another highly important object, namely, the safe and unmolested passage of the troops outside Sebastopol, across the long causeway in the valley and the bridge of 'the Tchernaya. That the present attempt was not made with a larger force was probably owing to the desire to avoid bringing on a general action, and so anticipating prematurely the great enterprise which took place ten days later. But the operations of the Russians for opening that memorable battle will be seen to prove how great would have been their advantage had they possessed a strong lodgment on Shell Hill.
The attack on Balaklava, and its partial success, in depriving us of the hills held by our outposts, had effected its purpose of weakening the forces on the
The Sandbag Battery. 127
Upland. The two other regiments of the Highland Brigade joined the 93d before Balaklava ; some companies of the rifle battalion of the Second Division were also posted there ; and Vinoy's brigade of Bosquet's corps was so placed as to prevent the enemy from forcing a passage to the Upland by way of the Col. The whole of the forces under Sir Colin Campbell now executed a complete line of defence, strengthened with powerful batteries, around Balaklava, which might at last be regarded as secure. Seeing what a source of weakness the place was to us, by causing the great extension of our line, and the absorption of so much of our outnumbered forces, the question had been seriously considered of abandoning it, and supplying our army from the French harbour of Kamiesch, which would have infinitely lightened our toils and diminished our risks. But the Commissary-General declared that without Balaklava he could not undertake to supply the army, and the necessary evil was retained.