Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/96

 70 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP, ing in person, and there were then no otiier ' Russian columns in tliis part of the field.* So, when the head of Canrobert's Division gained the broken ground on the Russian side of the river, it was for the moment sheltered ; but if it had then ascended above the broken ground so as to peer up over the crest and face the open plateau at the top, it would not only have come under the fire of artillery, but would liave before it the four battalions of militiamen, supported by the four Taroutine battalions. For an army advancing to the attack, a rim of sheltered ground on the verge of the enemy's position is of infinite use, because it enables the assailants to make without hurry their final arrangements for the assault ; but to troops which are not propelled by the decisive order of some resolute commander, such shelter as tlmt is some- times a snare, because it tempts men to hang back. In such a situation the best troops will often abstain from going forward of their own accord ; for it seems, to officers and men, that if 'cow' battalion was for a while forgotten, and that, not re- ceiving in due time the order to rejoin the other Lattalions of the corps, it was left alone in the ravine till it found itself opposed to Canrobert's whole division. If this is the case, and if there resulted anything which could be called a combat between the Russian battalion and the French Division, the statement that Canrobert was not met by any troops except slcirniishers would have to be qualified. The statement of Ciiodasiewicz on this point receives no support from Kiriakoff, and that is the reason why I have not adopted it. Chodasiewic2 did not belong to the 'Moscow' corps.
 * There is some grouiul for supposing that the second 'Mos-