Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/329

 THE 17TH OF OCTOBER. 299 as 54 pieces of ordnance, and those too, upon chap. the whole, of a lighter calibre, he made ready "^ to answer the 53 guns and mortars which the French had in battery with a fire of 64 pieces.* At intervals throughout the night, the Eussians, as it was their custom to do, fired some shots with the purpose of disturbing the working par- ties of the besiegers, but they elicited no reply. So early as an hour before day - break, our volunteer sharpshooters, having stolen forward under cover of darkness, were fastening upon ground very near to the Eussian batteries. + an average about equal, the superiority of the Russian ai-ma- ment was measured by the difference in the number of the pieces, i.e., by the difference between 64 and 53. Still, in the real conflict between the French and the Russians — i.e., the conflict between the batteries on Mount Eodolph and their opponents — the difference in the number of pieces was only 3. It was by the position of his batteries rather tlian by mere weight of metal that Todlcben there prepared to take the ascendant. t Captain (now Colonel) Maunsell, for instance, 28th Regi- ment, who commanded the sharpshooters furnished by the 3d Division, established himself an hour before daybreak upon ground in front of the Greenliill trenches, and he continued to hold it all day, doing, it is believed, no little execution amongst the enemy's gunners, but losing several of his men killed and wounded. The English sharpshooters undertaking this perilous duty in front of the Attacks were volunteers drawn — ten from each regiment— in pursuance of a requisition for the purpose that had been made the day before — that is, on the 16th. The service, so long as it should prove useful, was to go on day after day. This appeal for volunteer sharpshooters brought about the formation of that little body of about sixty men of the Guards which, under Cameron of the Grenadiers, Goodlake of the Coldstream, and Baring of the Scots Fusiliers, became afterwards famous for its extraordinary exploits and Buventures.
 * The calibres of the French and Eussian guns being upon