Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/434

 408 APPENDIX. absence of any specific statement as to the strength of each hattalion makes it impossible to know how, or with what amount of care, the loosely given total of 'nearly 33,G00' has been reached; and I may own I am inclined to surmise that there has been a clerical error or ' slip ' of some kind, and that the total of horse and foot really meant to be indi- cated was one reached by adding 3G00 cavalry to 33,000 infantry, and thus attaining 36,600 — a number which (Avith the addition of the artillerymen for 96 guns) would bo in fair harmony with the official statement of the strength under the direct command of Prince MentscliikoiT seven days before the battle. Under these circumstances I have felt that it would not be safe for me to discard the result of computations Avhich for a period of some ten years after the battle were regarded iu Europe as trustworthy for the sake of adopting a ' sum 'total' founded on no stated basis, and being possibly the result of a penman's error ; but on the other hand, I so deeply revere the authority of General de Todleben, that I do not venture to negative absolutely that account of the Russian strength on the Alma which he has allowed to appear under the sanction of his great name; and have accordingly taken care to submit the computations on which I rely iu terms distinctly qualified. I may say with great confidence that (in the absence of some special reason for discarding it) the computation which deducted one-fourth from the nominal strength of a thousand, and gave accordingly an average strength of 750 to each Kussian battalion, has proved itself one Avhich seems rather to understate than exaggerate the numerical strength ; for we fortunately know the strength of each regiment which fought at Inkerman, and that knowledge enables us to say that almost all the regiments there en- gaged (saving those that had suffered on the Alma) had at even that late season a strengtli of considerably viore than