"Considering the immense importance of this little harbour, the only depot of the English Army and considering its isolated position, it being several miles from the plateau on which the infantry of the army was encamped its defence was a cause of keen anxiety. "It can scarcely be supposed that a few Turkish redoubts with the 93rd Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell was a suitable defence for such a place--and yet what was there besides the Cavalry encamped in the plain? "The Cavalry it is true had been reinforced by the arrival of the heavy Cavalry Regtˢ (since the flank march described above) which had been left at Varna on the other side of the Black Sea: and their performance on the occasion of the coming battle is perhaps as well known as any incident during the Crimean War. But the battle was not merely a dash and a ride, and to understand what took place requires some sifting of the circumstances so as to arrive at a definite notion of the _day's work_. "After the middle of October the first reinforcements for Prince Menschikoff's army having arrived the enemy had been observed for some days hovering in the neighbourhood of Balaclava and the troops there were constantly kept on the alert. "At day break on the 25th October General Liprandi with 20,000 infantry, supported by a strong force of cavalry and about 40 guns made a determined attack and in the words of Sir E. Hamley the battle commenced by 'the Russian guns on the eminences and in the valley opened a cannonade on the outposts held by the Turks. A troop of Horse Artillery and a field battery supported by the Scots Greys were ordered up to Balaclava to the slopes between the outposts and found themselves opposed to the fire of several field batteries and service guns of position which covered an advance of infantry against the hills on the right. As the troop was armed with only 6-pounders, it and the field battery were quite over-matched, both in metal and in numbers; nevertheless our artillery maintained the contest till its ammunition was exhausted, when it retired, having lost a good many horses and a few men besides Maude the Captain of the troop, who was severely wounded by a shell which burst in his horse.' "Time had still to be given to the infantry to arrive from the plateau miles away, therefore the squadrons had to be withdrawn very _gradually_, all the time being under the fire of Liprandi's guns.