Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/76

 54 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CH a p. had included that cavalry arm which formed so ' large a proportion of the scanty resources standing ready at the first for defence, it is imaginable that he would have been able to say a few words to some such a man as Morris or Alexander Elliot, which would have had the effect of checking the enemy without bringing grave loss on our squadrons.* Such a result would appear to be the more within reach, when it is remembered that Liprandi's advance was in three columns moving upon 1 external lines ' without speedy means of inter- communication, and that Gribbe's column — the one upon which the whole enterprise much de- pended — comprised only three battalions of in- fantry.-f* Generai The Russians had begun their advance at five seizing o'clock in the morning. Without encountering the least opposition, General Gribbe, moving for- ward from the direction of the Baidar valley with three battalions, a squadron of horse, and ten pieces of cannon, had been suffered to take pos- session of the village of Kamara ; and when there, he was not only enabled to cover the advance of the assailing forces on their left flank, but also on the high ground above — ground commanding the and opening object of attack — to establish his ten guns in Redoubt battery, with the purpose of directing their fire, at and Lieutenant Alexander Elliot (aide-de-camp to General Scarlett) merely as the two war-service officers of cavalry then in the Crimea whose names iirst occur to me. They were both of them men who had earned fame in honest w;ir. t See, in the Appendix, Lord Lucan'a view as to this.
 * I refer to Captain Morris (commanding the 17th Lancers)