driven in, the cannonade began on both sides. The
Russians did not leave the allies long in doubt where
they would attack, for, scarcely had the cannonade
begun, when three compact masses of infantry were
seen advancing towards the plain opposite to the French
position. The points chosen were the bridge and the
hillock to the right. The masses, which in the morning
sun looked like glittering waves, protected by the fire
of their artillery, moved in excellent order down to the
river side, notwithstanding the heavy fire of artillery
which greeted them in front from the French, and in
flank from the Sardinians. At the river the first
column detached itself from the rest, and dividing into
two columns, crossed the river, which is now nearly
everywhere easily fordable. Men carrying movable
wooden bridges preceded, but in the first rush the
Russians, without waiting for bridges, went over
wherever they could, and dispersing like a swarm of bees,
rushed forward in columns some against the bridge, the
others against the hillock on the right. The first rush
did not last more than ten minutes. The Russians fell
back, but they had scarcely gone a few hundred yards
when they were met by the second column, which was
advancing à pas de charge to support the first, and both
united and again rushed forward. This second attempt
was more successful than the first. At the bridge they
forded the river on the right and left, and forced the
defenders of it to fall back. Scarcely was the bridge
free when two guns crossed it, and took up a position on
the opposite side in an open space which divides two of
the hillocks, and through which the road leads to the
plain of Balaklava. While those two guns passed the
bridge a third crossed the river by a ford, and all three
began to sweep the road and the heights. The infantry
in the mean time, without waiting for the portable
bridges, which had moreover been thrown away in
great part during the advance, rushed breast-deep into
the water, climbed up the embankment, and began to
scale the heights on both sides. They succeeded on this
point in getting up more than one-half of the ascent,
where the dead and wounded afterwards showed clearly
the mark which they reached: but by the time they
arrived there the French were fully prepared, and met
them in the most gallant style. Notwithstanding the
exertions and the perseverance of the Russians, they
were by degrees forced back, and driven, after an
obstinate resistance, across the bridge, carrying away
their guns.—While this attack took place on the bridge
the other column again attacked the French right.
This time they came on in such a swarm that they were
neither kept back by the aqueduct, nor cowed by the
Sardinian guns, which were ploughing long lanes
through their scattered lines. On they came, as it
were, irresistible, and rushed up the steep hill with
such fury that the Zouaves, who lined the sides of it,
were obliged to fall back for a moment before the
multitude. This furious rush brought the advancing
column in an incredibly short time to the crest of the
hillock, where it stopped to form. But the French had
not been idle during the time that the Russians were
ascending the hill. The Zouaves had only fallen back
from the side of the hillock to the main body, which
had been drawn up behind the top. Scarcely did the
column of the enemy show its head, when the guns
opened on it with grape, and a murderous fire was
poured down upon it by the French infantry. This
immediately stopped the advance of the column, which
began to waver, but the impetus from those behind was
so powerful that the head of it, notwithstanding the
unexpected reception, was pushed forward a few yards
more, when the French, giving one mighty cheer,
rushed upon the advancing enemy, who, shaken already,
immediately turned round and ran down, if possible,
faster than they had come up. But the mass was so
great that all the hurry could not save them, and more
than 200 prisoners were taken on the spot, while the
hill side, the banks of the aqueduct, the aqueduct itself,
and the river-side were filled with dead and wounded.
The Sardinian and French artillery poured, moreover,
a murderous cross-fire into the scattered remains of the
column, of which scarcely a shot missed. It was
a complete rout. The French rushed down the
hillside and drove them far across the plain. This
defeat seems to have so completely cowed them,
that nothing more was attempted against this side.
Not so on the bridge. Notwithstanding the heavy loss
suffered by the second attack, the Russians once more
concentrated all their forces, collected the scattered
remains of the column which had been routed on
the right of the French position, and brought up all
their reserves to attempt one more attack. They again
crossed the river, and the aqueduct too, and tried to
take the heights—but in vain; the French were now
thoroughly prepared, and the tenacity of the Russians
served only to augment their losses. They were soon
seen flying in all directions, followed by the French. This
last attack was decisive.—The Sardinians, who, with the
exception of the little outpost fight on the opposite side
of the Tchernaya, had confined themselves to support the
French by their admirable artillery, which entirely
subdued the Russian fire on the opposite plateaux,
began now to move across the aqueduct. The Russian
riflemen, after the last defeat on the right, had retired
behind the banks of the Tchernaya, whence they kept
up a brisk but ineffective fire. A battalion of
Piedmontese, preceded by a company of Bersaglieri, advanced
in beautiful order as if on parade, and soon drove these
riflemen from their position. It even advanced some
way towards the plateaux; but, as it was not intended
to force the heights, it contented itself, supported by
other troops, with following the enemy, who was
already in full retreat. Everybody now rushed to the
battle-field, and one look was sufficient to convince them
that the allies had won a real battle on the Tchernaya.
Most of the wounded and dead showed frightful traces
of roundshot, grape, shell, and canister, so that as a
battle-field one could scarcely imagine anything more
terrible. Nearly all the wounds were on the legs and
the head. On the banks of the aqueduct particularly
the sight was appalling; the Russians when scaling the
embankment of the aqueduct were taken in flank by
the Sardinian batteries, and the dead and wounded
rolled down the embankment, sometimes more than
twenty feet in height. The French made every possible
despatch to collect the wounded. They were laid on
the open space about the bridge until the ambulances
arrived. While there the Russians, who could see
plainly that the French were engaged in bringing help
to their own wretched countrymen, suddenly began to
open with their guns upon them, repeating the
barbarous practice which they had already often previously
shown to the troops. A gentleman who was there at
the moment, and who speaks Russian, asked one of the
poor fellows who was trying to trudge along with deep
flesh wounds on both his thighs, what he thought of the
behaviour of the Russians in firing among their own
wounded? He answered, "They are accustomed to
beat us when we are with them, and there is no wonder
that they should try to ill-treat us when we are on the
point of escaping their power."—The prisoners say
that even the reserves took part in the action. A soldier
who belonged to the last battalion of the reserves, said
that before the battle began Prince Gortschakoff, who
commanded in person, had a letter of the Emperor
read before them, in which he expressed a hope that
they would prove as valarous as last year, when they
took the heights of Balaklava, and then there was a
large distribution of brandy. Not a soldier who had
not his bottle lying empty near him, and good-sized
bottles they were too. This brandy distribution was,
however, only for the infantry, whom they wished to
excite to madness. The artillery got only the usual
rations.—It is worthy of remark that the greater
part of the Russians were old soldiers, scarcely one
under thirty. According to the account of the prisoners,
most of them came from Bakschiserai, and they had
to attack without resting after their march. They had
all large quantities of bread in their foraging sacks
hung across their shoulders, but no knapsacks.——
Among the killed on the field a Russian general officer
was recognised by his uniform; his head had been
carried away by a round shot. Another general officer,
wounded, was taken to one of the French ambulances.
He was in much distress. Speaking in French, he said
to a French officer by his side at the ambulance, "This
is a sad day of disgrace for Russia, not to have set free