Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/394

 368 PLAJ^ OF ATTACKING THE NORTH SIDE. C 11 A P V. Forces available for tlio defence. as to be able to sweep with their broadsides the slopes ou the north of the roadstead. The form of the ravines descending from the Star Fort was such that upon two, if not three, of the approaches from the side of the Belbec, the assailants might come up to the ditch without first incurring a cannonade of any great might or duration.* With regard to the forces available for the defence, it may be said that if the AlHes had advanced against the Star Fort on the morning of the 25th they would have encountered there and on the gi'ound adjoining a battalion of militiamen, "f a company of sappers, and so large a body of sailors — withdrawn, for that purpose, from the ships and from the defence of the South Side — as would bring up the whole number of combatants to 11,000. 1 The sailors were, for the most part, the liositum ill armed, some of them having old flint-and-steel muskets, and others, it seems, only pikes or cut- lasses. This was the force which, extended along a front of a mile, was to defend the fort and the plateau against a victorious army of from 50,000 to 60,000 men, supported and actively aided by their fleets. The defenders, however, were com- manded by one whose name will be long illustri- ous in the annals of llussia. For the present, it dertakes to show elaborately, and in full detail, the power and duration of the fire to which the assailants would be exposed. f I continue to use the term 'militia' as a word for distin- guishing what the Russians call their ' reserve ' battalions. t 11,350.— Todleben, voL i. p. 227. The force defending and 25th Sept. Admiral Koniiloff.
 * In the 'Defi-'iiso de Scbastopol,' General de Todleben un-