In this action the enemy left all their cannon, and upwards of 6000 men dead, wounded, and prisoners, in our hands. Our loss in killed and wounded was estimated at little less than 4000 men. Our own dead, as also the Russians, were buried, and all our wounded were sent on board the fleet, but hundreds of wounded Russians were left in the places where they lay. Much has been written as to the policy pursued by Lord Raglan, of not following up the retreating enemy and completing their destruction ere they reached Sebastopol. With this I have nothing to do, but I may remark that it would have been worse policy to have left our dead on the field to fester in the burning sun, and so spread disease and death, more terrible than dying in action, throughout the whole army. The wounded would also have been left without succour, for it must be remembered that no assistance was sent from the fleet: the survivors had to bury their dead comrades, and carry the wounded to the ships. A weary, harassing night was that after the battle, in which I had myself happily to take no part, being engaged on picket duty; but I could plainly hear the shrieks and groans of the wounded as the surgeons amputated the poor fellows' legs or arms, and dressed the less serious wounds. The action was fought on the 21st September, but not until the morning of the 23rd did we leave the vicinity of the battle-field. The fleet had orders to sail about the same time in the direction of Balaclava. On our line of march we found that our old foes, the Cossacks, had ruthlessly plundered several houses that had evidently been inhabited by well-to-do natives, and we found numerous smaller houses along the banks of the Katcha river, from which the inhabitants had fled, leaving them to be plundered by the bloodthirsty ruffians. Here and there, however, we met with a Tartar farmer, who, more bold than the rest, came forth from their hiding-places to stare at us from motives of sheer curiosity. On arriving at a village called Eskel, we were allowed to dismount, and here we found plenty of newly-gathered corn for our horses, who much enjoyed eating it from the straw, and we equally enjoyed the rich clusters of grapes, which hung invitingly from the vines which surrounded nearly every dwelling. We learned from the few natives who were visible, that the defeated army had reached the village on the evening of the battle in a sadly deteriorated condition, and after only an hour's rest an alarm was spread that our army was pursuing them, and they continued their retreat in great disorder.