Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/417

 THE RETENTION OF BALACLAVA. 395 tration of his scanty forces, and increase by no chap. less than one-fourth the strength of the English ' infantry disposable for the next day of battle. As a measure of prudence, which need not of uis airec- necessity await his final decision, he requested captain Captain Tatham (the able naval officer then com- r.n. manding in the port of Balaclava) to embark at once any of the landed ship's guns or stores which were not then in use, to remove from the harbour all the vessels that could well be dispensed with, and to bring down the rest to a lower part of the bay. This step taken, he addressed himself to the question awaiting his judgment. It was evident that, with Liprandi close by, at Theadvan- the head of some 24,000 men, the continued oc- abandoning cupation of Balaclava would necessitate a formid- able deduction from the strength of the Allied forces disposed in front of Sebastopol; and no soldier who had glanced at a map could well fail to see that, if the English, as well as the French, could draw all the supplies they required through the bays of Kamiesch or Kazatch, they might add largely to their military power by abandoning a town aDd port which lay altogether detached from the main position, and concentrating the whole of their strength on the ridges of the Cher- sonese upland. Upon the question of abandon- ing his accustomed port of supply, Lord Kaglan Lord indeed determined to have the opinion of his SSfioate resolve Commissary -General; but with that reservation he seems to have adopted the measure, and Cap- tain Heath (then in port with the Niger) received