Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/338

 312 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP, and afterwards by orders wlucli the ])aiiic oii- ^' gendered — the army was hastily roused, and thrown once more into full retreat. It moved upon Sebastopol.* XLVI. rK)ssesof In this action the French lost three officers killed ; "f* and on grounds which he deemed, and (privately) stated to Le, to his mind 'conclusive,' Lord Eaglan came to the belief that their whole loss in killed was 60, and their number of ofuic wounded 500. J The English army lost 25 Knslish. i tt i t is mainly derived from Chodasiewicz ; but on the 23d of Sep- tember the peasantry of the village of Eskel, on the banks of the Katcha, desciiljcd to me the scene of panic which they had witnessed in the night of the 20th. t St Arnaud's Despatch. J The French official accounts state the total loss of their army in killed and wounded at 1339 (or, according to M. St Arnaud's despatch, 1343), but those statements have not ob- tained such credence as to induce me to place the figures in the text. Lord Raglan, I know, believed not only that the French returns were grossly erroneous, but that they were intentionally falsified ; for in the same letter in which he states it to be 'impossible' their accounts could be true, he also speaks of the 'pains' which the French authorities took to make him believe them. On the other hand, I think it right to say that I am acquainted with the grounds on which Lord Raglan based his low estimate of the French losses, and that, not thinking them quite so conclusive as he did, I have abstained from hazarding a positive statement on the .subject. The field of battle did not give indication of considerable losses by the French ; and I recollect that the morning after the battle a French soldier told me he estimated the whole loss of his people at fifty (une cinquantaine). As an actual estimate of the losses, of course, his statement was of no worth, but it went towards showing what was the first impression of the French army as to the extent of the carnage.
 * iIy knowledge respecting the enemy s retreat to the Katcha