Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/54

 28 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP of the enemy. It was so early as lialf-past five • that Bosquet, with the 2d French Division and the Turkish battalions, began his march along the coast; and at seven o'clock the main body of the French army was under arms and ready to march. But the position taken up by the Eng- lish for the defence of the Allied armies on the Bulganak had imposed upon Lord Raglan the necessity of showing a fi'ont towards the east ; and for the Divisions so employed a long and toilsome evolution was needed in order to bring them into Cst'MCi de- the general order of march.* At that time too, march of'* there was a broad interval between our extreme army"^"'' right and Prince Napoleon's Division. Moreover, the line of the coast which the armies were to follow trended away towards the south-west, forming an obtuse angle with the course of the stream (the Bulganak) on which the Allies had bivouacked ; and in the movement requisite for adjusting the front of the Allied forces to the direction of the shore, the English, marching upon the exterior arc, had to undergo more labour than those who moved near the pivot on which the variation of front was effected. "f" This was not all. The baggage-train accom- the front line, and the segment in which the troops would have to wheel in order to get into the line of march would be nearly 90 degrees. t Several military reports and documents explain this, but the plan prepared by the French Government shows with ad- mirable clearness the nature of the evolution which the English army had to perform. See the plan, No. 4, ' Invasion of the ' Crimea,' vol. ii. of Cabinet fldition.
 * Those divisions had been posted nearly at right angles to