Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/166

 1.22 THE BATTLE OF liNKliKAIAN. HAP. VI. XIII. Under the vehement personal impulsion of Colonel Diivid Wood (whose ardouv was not to st Period. ^q (^Qoled bv the mere want of ini'antry supports), Advance of „. ., -n, ^ ■ ■^ • rownsend's iownseud s Battery was at tins time advancin*' battery. . "^ ^ in column of route along the Mikriakoff Spur.* AVhilst groping, as it were, through mist, the battery had already become involved in tliick brushwood, when Lieutenant Miller (the officer in command of the two foremost guns), who had ridden forward some paces to reconnoitre the ground, was met by the two left-hand companies of the Connaught Eangers, and the companies of the 49th under Grant. Miller judged that the infantry thus falling back should form up in rear of his guns — three of which by this time were unlimbered — and believed that with this support he might be able to open upon the enemy with artillery-fire ; but, although Major Maxwell, Lieutenant Baynes, Lieutenant liiley, and with them two privates of the Con- naught Rangers, stood fast by the guns for a while, it soon became plain that (owing to the widely extended order in which these companies of the Eangers had been moving) it was imprac- ticable to collect all at once upon the menaced had been struck by the advantageous position which this spur seemed to offer for artillery, and was anxious to give effect to the opinion then formed.
 * In examining the ground some days before, Colonel Wood