Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/182

 156 13ATTLK OF Till-: AI.M.V. CHAP, selves tluil this was the case, and iliey still ' lingered at the parapet, 'i'hen a sergeaot of the 23d, standing upright iu order to make himself better heard, told the men that they had twice Our soldiery heard the 'retire' sounded, and that they must lit I eat from i ■> • ■,, ■. ii.e redoubt, do tlicir dutv and obey. Whilst he spoke he was shot down and killed. But it was now judged by officers and men that a signal twice made and twice carried on along the line from regiment to regiment was not to be neglected. The retreat began; and the men, quitting the shelter of the breastwork, fell back into the open ground, and incurred the fire v/hich was pelting into the slope beneath. As the advance had been, so also the retreat was for the most part without order, but for the most part also it was not hurried. Our soldiers in their retreat took care to ply the enemy with fire ; and they picked up and carried off with them those of our wounded officers and men whom they found lying wounded on the slope. The retreat, speak- ing generally, was like the movement of skirmish- ers when they find themselves recalled to their battalions by sound of bugle. There was, however, one part of the retreating force in which the men had become thronged to- gether, and these presently we shall see face about with a mind to protract the struggle.* Upon this crowd, and upon the lesser clusters of our soldiery then retreating down the hillside, • The.se, I believe, were chiefly men of the 23d and 9Ctb regiineuts.