Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/139

 IJATTLK OF TilH ALMA. 113 the path ol' duty, were anxiously seeking advice ciiAi'. from oHicers, and trying, in fact, to place them- ' selves under such command as time and circum- stance would allow. In this condition of things the utmost that could be done in most cases was to try to give to the mass the rudiments of a line- ibrmation ; and upon the whole it may be said that although tliese five battalions, having now open ground before them, were no longer a helpless mass, their state was not such as v/ould enable a chief to manoeuvre them by simple word of command. They were an armed and M'arlike crowd. The five battalions thus gathered on the crest of Tiictask the bank were the first body of Allied troops which before 'them moved up to dispute with the enemy for ground he was holding in strength. Both their right and their extreme left confronted Russian infantry columns, drawn up near each flank of the Great Redoubt ; but the centre and left centre of this part of our assailing force stood right under the face of the work, and directly meeting its frown. Although far from having been able to open out as was wished, the knotted chain of the red- coats had still a much greater front than the par- apet of the opposing redoubt ; and accordingly those troops which constituted the flanks of our assaulting force had no mission to throw them- selves forward (as the centre was going to do) against the mouths of great guns ; but on the other hand, they needs must encounter the gathered masses of infantry drawn up abreast of the work. VOL. in. 11