The enemy, unable to advance through the narrowed space on a full front, such as would have enabled him to make a simultaneous attack all along our position, entered it with his right in advance of the centre and left, and the first attack therefore took place on our left. Only his foremost battalions being visible, the nature of the attack was not at first fully appreciated, and might have been supposed to be merely a very formidable sortie. His battalions advanced, some in a column composed of an entire battalion, some split into four columns of companies, but the broken nature of the ground dissolved all these more or less into dense crowds which had lost their formation. One of these, on the extreme Russian right, preceding for some unexplained reason the others, pressed on till it came in contact with a wing of the 49th, which, delivering a volley, charged, drove it back, and pursued it even on to the slope of Shell Hill. Soimonoff then led in person twelve battalions, numbering 9000 men, against our left and centre, while a column * moved up by the Careenage ravine beyond our
* Kinglake says this column was composed of sailors, and therefore not included in the numbers of the army.
The British repulse Him. 143
left flank. At the same time there were arriving on our left 650 men of the Light Division, and a battery from the Fourth Division, raising Pennefather's force on the field to exactly 3600 men and eighteen field-guns. About 400 of Buller's men (88th), which had at first passed over the crest, fell back before the Russian masses, and three guns of the battery which was following them fell into the enemy's hands. At the same time the Russian column in the ravine, after surprising a picket of the Light Division, was making its way to the plateau in rear of our line, and close to our camp, by a glen which led in that direction. It was only just in time that Buller himself arrived with the remainder of his 650 men (/^th), who were at once pushed into the fight, Part of them attacked the head of the turning column just emerging from the glen, while a company of the Guards, on picket on the other bank, fired on it from thence, and the column, which had so nearly attained to success that might have been decisive, was driven back, and appeared no more on the field. SoimonofPs right battalion, advancing on the plateau, was encountered by a wing of the 47th, spread out in skirmishing order on a wide front, which harassed it by so destructive a fire that it broke up and retreated, and two other battalions of the same regiment (the same which had just captured our guns) came to a halt, having before them the troops which had pursued the Russian battalions that first met us to the slope of Shell Hill, and had then fallen back. Passing these on the right, Buller's companies (260 men of the 7/th) entered the
144 Pauloff's Troops engage.
fight, met two Russian battalions, fired, charged, and drove them quite off the field. Seeing this discomfiture of their comrades going on so near, the other battalions just spoken of as halted on our left of these, followed them in their retreat, leaving the captured guns to be recovered by our men. It was about this time that Soimonoff was killed. On our side General Buller was disabled by a cannon shot which killed his horse.
Five of the twelve battalions, besides that other which attacked first, and the turning column in the ravine, were thus accounted for. Seven of SoimonofFs still remained. One of these diverged to the Russian left, where it joined part of Pauloff's forces, then arriving on the field. The remaining six advanced by both sides of the post-road upon our centre, and were defeated like the rest, partly by the close fire of the battery on our left of the post-road (that on the right had been silenced by the fire from Shell Hill), partly by the charge and pursuit of some companies of the 49th, and the pickets which had halted here, and which held the ground beside the guns.