Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/37

 TIIK FLANK MAUCir. 7 judge that there was nothing which ought to chap. hinder his enterprise, the advance of his whole [ —. army to Mackenzie's Farm, and thence to the Tchernaya and the south coast, was to go on. In tliat case, and as soon as the English cavalry, artillery, and waggon - trains should have so far defiled through the forest as to leave the road clear for other troops, the French army was to follow in the same direction. Accordingly, it may be said that, during the first hours of the march, the advance was a 'reconnaissance in force,' but a reconnaissance so arranged that Lord Kaglan, by a word, could convert it into a definitive movement of the whole Allied army, which would be carried on to the top of the- Mackenzie Heights, thence down to the Tractir bridge on the Tchernaya, and at last to the port of Balaclava.* At about half-past eight on the morning of the commenca- 1/11 11 T' ment of tUe 25th of September the dank march began, i'rom march, the first, Lord Lucan's reconnoitring column was but little in advance of the main body of the English army for which it had to feel the way.^f Lord Lucan's order of march was this : at the liead of his column there moved a troop of hussars with which he was present in person. Half the Farm. t Lord Lucan (whose squadrons had bivouacked on the left of the English line) inarched at about the same time as Head- quarters— i.e., at about half-past eight. It seems that in the earlier part of the morning the Rifle battalion had not reached the ground from which Lord Lucan was to move, and that, from that cause, the march of the reconnoitring column began at a later hour than would have been otherwise chosen.
 * See the M;ip, and the Plan of the country near Mackenzie'*