Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/300

 274 BATl'LE OF Till'. AL^IA. C H A r I. Losses sus- tained by the enemy on the Kourganfi 11)11: by the Guards ami lliglilandeis those who fell, very luaiiy A;ll upon their com- rades, making in some places small banks of slain or wounded men ; but where the round- shot ploughed into columns still keeping some- thing of their old coherence, there the men so fell that there were — but I care not to speak any more of the slaughter that is wrought by cannon when the infantry strife is all over. Of the four Ilussian Generals who took part in this fight of the Kourgan^ Hill, three were Mounded; and nearly all the field-officers, together with very many officers of humbler grade who were on duty with the enemy's infantry in this part of the field, were either killed or wounded. The brave Vladimir and the Kazan corps suffered dreadful losses. The loss of the four Kazan battalions alone was put at no less than seventeen hundred.* This achievement of the Guards and the High- land Brigade w^as so rapid, and was executed with so steadfast a faith in the prowess of our soldiery and the ascendancy of Line over Column, that in vanquisliing eighteen battalions of infantry,-]- and in going straight through with an onset which tore open the liussian position, the six battalions together did not lose 500 men. Is it then with slight loss — is it thus in a swift wa.s made luuler the influence of the despondency created by the retreat. It seems probable, therefore, that it exaggerated the loss. t Including the two battalions of sailors. X The exact number seems to be -ISS, and of this loss a Inrge proportion was occasioned by the disaster which befell the
 * Chodasicwicz, p. 7G. The estimate was not official, and