Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/83

Rh meant by Turkish resistance behind walls, and no attack by assault was attempted. The ditch being only thirty feet wide by twelve feet deep, it was thought possible to throw the counterscarp upon the main wall of the fortress by means of two or three mines under the front of the outer earthworks, and by entirely covering the revetement to secure a practicable ascent. It was evident that an attack could be made more easily on the southern front (bastions five and six) than elsewhere. It could be raked from D, and the attack could be maintained by batteries rising in terraces on the slope of B. This side was entirely without outworks. It was decided in council at head-quarters to make the attack on the east side in order to have the assistance of the fleet. Bastions two and three were, therefore, the scenes of the real attack, which was changed later in the siege to bastions five and six, commencing with a feint. The Russians' guns numbered ninety-six; sixty-five of their own, the remaining thirty-one having been taken at Brailov. At nine in the morning of the 17th of May, an advance was made upon the fortress from Chernavoda by General Diebitsch, commanding a part of the second and third corps, divided into three columns. The Turks were in possession of the works made the previous year by the Russians, and for some unaccountable reason undestroyed after the raising of the siege. They made a determined opposition to the Russian advance, but were driven back and the trenches fell into the Russian hands. The thirty-one guns captured were placed by the Russians on the left bank of the river, opposite the fortress, at a distance of one thousand yards. The remainder were in readiness to be shipped across the river. The 9th division of infantry, two regiments of horse and three field batteries were in position on the right wing. The centre was held by the 1st brigade of the 7th division of infantry with a single field battery: stationed on the left were three regiments