Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/181

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 155 ground where they hiy, that the sounding of the cilAF, error; and in order that they might determine what should be done, the officers of several regi- ments, but more especially of the 23d, gathered into a group and began to consult together. Being firm, proud men, with a great self-respect, conference • 1 ,. -I 1 1 o*^ officers at they did not, it seems, crouch lor shelter under the parapet. the parapet whilst exchanging counsel, and, on the contrary, remained standing upright, but under so thick a flight of balls that several — nay, they say almost all of them — were struck down and Their fate, killed.* As before, so after the conference our officers continued to say that the sounding of the 'retire' must have been a mistake, and that the force ought to hold its ground. But then, again, and from the same quarter as The 're- before, a bugle sounded the ' retire,' and again, as sounaed" before, the signal was taken up along the line. The repetition of the signal seemed to make it almost certain that the order must be authentic ; but the troops were yet slow to persuade thcm- killed ill the 23d and the other regiments which stormed the redoubt, hut 1 cannot undertake to say which of them fell at this time. In general, it seems to be almost beyond the power of human testimony to lix the time and the spot at which an officer fiills when he is killed in battle. The difficulty is occasioned, not by the dearth, but by the vast abundance of testimony — testimony all seeming to be perfectly trustworthy, yet strangely contradictory. It will be seen, however, that the number of officers killed in the 23d was very great ; and there is an im- pression tlxat no small proportion of them met their death in the way abuve stated.
 * retire ' was believed to have originated in some '
 * I shall presently give the names of tlic officers who were