The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military eventsBorthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
History
The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events
Borthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
Battles; Military history
General Bosquet, a stout soldierlike-looking man, who reminds one
of the old _genre_ of French Generals as depicted at Versailles,
followed, with his staff and a small escort of Hussars, at a
gallop. Faint white clouds rose here and there above the hill from
the cannonade below. Never did the painter’s eye rest on a more
beautiful scene than I beheld from the ridge. The fleecy vapours
still hung around the mountain tops, and mingled with the ascending
volumes of smoke; the patch of sea sparkled freshly in the rays of
the morning sun, but its light was eclipsed by the flashes which
gleamed from the massess of armed men below.
Looking to the left towards the gorge, we beheld six compact masses
of Russian infantry, which had just debouched from the mountain
passes near Tchernaya, and were slowly advancing with solemn
stateliness up the valley. Immediately in their front was a regular
line of artillery, of at least twenty pieces strong. Two batteries
of light guns were already a mile in advance of them, and were
playing with energy on the redoubts, from which feeble puffs of
smoke came at long intervals. Behind these guns, in front of the
infantry, were enormous bodies of cavalry. They were in six compact
squares, three on each flank, moving down _en échelon_ towards us,
and the valley was lit up with the blaze of their sabres, and lance
points, and gay accoutrements. In their front, and extending along
the intervals between each battery of guns, were clouds of mounted
skirmishers, wheeling and whirling in the front of their march like
autumn leaves tossed by the wind. The Zouaves close to us were
lying like tigers at the spring, with ready rifles in hand, hidden
chin deep by the earthworks which run along the line of these
ridges on our rear, but the quick-eyed Russians were manœuvring
on the other side of the valley, and did not expose their columns
to attack. Below the Zouaves we could see the Turkish gunners in
the redoubts, all in confusion as the shells burst over them.
Just as I came up, the Russians had carried No. 1 redoubt, the
farthest and most elevated of all, and their horsemen were chasing
the Turks across the interval which lay between it and redoubt
No. 2. At that moment the cavalry, under Lord Lucan, were formed
in glittering masses--the Light Brigade, under Lord Cardigan, in
advance; the Heavy Brigade, under Brigadier-General Scarlet, in
reserve. They were drawn up just in front of their encampment,
and were concealed from the view of the enemy by a slight “wave”
in the plain. Considerably to the rear of their right, the 93rd
Highlanders were drawn up in line, in front of the approach to
Balaklava. Above and behind them, on the heights, the Marines were
visible through the glass, drawn up under arms, and the gunners
could be seen ready in the earthworks, in which were placed the
heavy ships’ guns. The 93rd had originally been advanced somewhat
more into the plain, but the instant the Russians got possession
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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