Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/259

 BEFORE SEBASTOPOL. 229 crest of the Heights.* Men of foretliou-jht per- chap. • IX Cfived the expediency of throwing up works on ' Mount Inkeruian, but the forces there in charge Avere the English, and they — with their small, dwindling numbers, and being eagerly intent on the siege — did not choose to devote any toil to a simply defensive object.f Thus, except in one quarter, the defences of the Mount Allies on the Chersonese were all to be soundly constituted. But against any Eussian attack directed upon the north-east of the table-land, there was neither the obstacle of the sea, nor the barrier of interposed trenches, nor the defence that can be afforded by a corps of observation exclu- sively charged with such duty ; and in these cir- cumstances, there lay heaped upon the English siege forces the additional and separate task of providing for the security of the Allied army in what would have been otherwise an undefended part of its narrow dominions. Besides answering for the three ridges on which they meant to estab- lish siege batteries, our people had charge of the field because the powerful force under Bosquet— the half of the French army, with, besides, several Turkish battalions — was there established as a corps of observation, not busied with any siege duties. i The fact of our people having thrown up the ' Two Gun ' or 'Sandbag' Battery, constitutes no exception to the above statement. The object of the Sandbag Battery was merely to silence a gun which the enemy had placed near the Inkerman Ruins ; and, that done, the two 18-pounders used for the pur- pose were withdrawn. It was after the dismantling of the Sand- bag Battery that its site became famous in history.
 * ■ -^ lakeiiuan
 * Labour could be prodigally bestowed upon that part of the