Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/352

 308 THE HATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, but after the dispersion of iutermixed soldiery ' over a great breadth of copsewood, their sponta- 2d Period jjgQ^^g re-asscmbly and their subsequent restoration to order were processes that would necessarily occupy the greater part of an hour ; and accord- ingly, for some time to come, the remains of our troops engaged on the Kitspur were, almost all, destined to rank with what we called the ' spent ' forces.' A moment's comparison of numbers M'ill show the full import of this change. Before the Sand- bag Battery had yet lured on the Guards to vic- tory, pursuit, and dispersion, the Allies, after duly providing for the defence of their left, had in hand, or else closely approaching, several organ- ised bodies of English infantry with a strength of 4700,* and, besides, two battalions of French infantry comprising 1600 men. f Well ; those French battalions, it is true, were still nearly intact ; but of the 4700 English one half .| had been either destroyed, or otherwise, for the mo- ment, annulled, from the effects of their fight on the Kitspur : and when, also, allowance is made for the losses which Penuefather had sustained J Except the small remnant of the companies of the 49th still acting under Bellairs, none of the 2600 men who fought on the Kitspur were so circumstanced that they could take part, as organised troops, in resistance to the coming attack on Home Ridge. There were about 200 of them who still retained mili- tary cohesion — viz., a f(!W of the Rifles under Horsford ; the 95th— rather more than 100— under Vialls and afterwards Sargent ; and some— Coldstream men - under Townshend Wil- son ; but all these still remained far away on our right front.
 * See ante, p. 170. t 1665.