Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/68

 24 THE BATTLE OF INKEllMAN. CHAP, disparity. The opposing armies were both of ' them liampered with duties which confined a great part of their respective forces to particular tracts of ground ; for the Kussians were obliged to keep manned the whole southern front of their fortress, and the Allies, on the other hand, were under the necessity of not only guarding their trenches and their ports of supply, but also — and in pure self-defence — the whole of that Cher- sonese topland, on which their main strength lay encamped. The Sebastopol lines of defence had a front of nearly four miles; but the belt of ground alotig which the Allies were compelled to stand tethered had a very much greater extent. There indeed was no part of their line — a line nearly twenty miles long — which they could well leave unguarded ; and accordingly the chain thus distended was of very necessity weak, but especially so at one place, for the infantry defending Mount Inkerman — and this was ground vitally precious — had a strength of only 3000.* From this state of things it results that the aptest computation of numbers would be one that can answer two questions ; 1st, ' With how many ' men could the Russians afford to make their ' attack ? ' 2d, ' What amount of reinforcing power t)u) 2d Division was 2950 ; and the presence of 30 men of the (Juards, under Captain Goodlake, raised the infantry force on Mount Inkerman to 2986.
 * Supported, as we saw, by 12 gims, the infantry strength of