Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/81

 BATTLE OF Till-: ALMA. 56 the faint breeze which came from tlic sea. There, chap. for hours, in a long fallen pillar of cloud, it lay singularly firm and compact, obscuring the view of those who were near it, but not at all staining the air in any other part of the field, XII. The operations of the great column entrusted General to General Bosquet now began to take effect. °^^^^ Bosquet Avas a man in the prime of life. Ten years of struggle and frequent enterprise in Al- geria had carried him from the rank of a lieu- tenant to the rank of a general officer ; * and he was charged on this day, not only with the com- mand of his own — the 2d — Division, but with the command of the troops which formed the Turkish Contingent. The whole column under his orders numbered about 14,000 men. The Arabs and Kabyles of Algeria, though men of a fierce and brave nature, and prone to petty strife, are so wanting in the power of making war with effect, that, as far as concerns the art of fighting, they can scarcely be said to have given much schooling to the bold and skilful soldiery of France ; but the deserts, the broad solitudes, and the great moun- tain-ranges of Xorthern Africa, have inured the French army to some of those military toils which are next in worth to the business of the actual combat ; and for Bosquet, the hero of • A brigadier; and now, at the time of the Crimean war, he was a general of division.