more than 500 cannons. The English had about 200,
and the Russians more than we. The fire of the enemy
damaged our trenches, but did us little harm. Ours,
notwithstanding the great extent of the place,
converged on it, and must have caused immense loss to the
Russian army. During the last days which preceded
the assault our infantry fatigue parties were principally
employed in enlarging the most advanced place d'armes
and the defiles, and in carrying to the spot the means
of crossing the ditches. The aim of all our efforts was
the capture of the work constructed behind the Malakhoff
Tower. This work (called the Korniloff Redoubt
by the Russians), which is an immense redoubt, a kind
of citadel of earth, occupies a mamelon which commands
all the interior of the Karabelnaia suburb, takes the
Redan attacked by the English de revers, and is only
1,200 metres from the south port, on which the Russians
had constructed a bridge of rafts, now their only
communication between the suburb and the town. The
Malakhoff Fort is 350 metres by 150 metres in dimensions.
The parapets have more than six metres of
relief above the soil, and in front of them is a ditch
which before our attacks was six metres in depth and
seven in width. It was armed with 62 guns of various
calibres. In the front part, enclosed by the parapet, is
the Malakhoff Tower, of which the Russians have only
preserved the rez de chaussée, which is crenellated. In
the interior of the work the Russians had raised a vast
number of traverses, under which were excellent
blindages where the garrison found shelter, and had
beds arranged on each side in two rows, one above the
other. A Russian officer of engineers, who was made
prisoner, states that the garrison of this part of the
Malakhoff, which I have just described in order that
you may judge of the difficulties which our soldiers had
to surmount, consisted of not less than 2,500 men. The
Malakhoff front, which is a thousand metres in length,
is bounded on our left by Fort Malakhoff, and on our
right by the Little Redan. This last work, which, at
the commencement of the siege, was only a simple
redan, was transformed little by little into a redoubt,
closed at the gorge and heavily armed. The exterior
fronts of the two redoubts of Malakhoff and the
Careenage were connected by a curtain armed with 16
cannons; and behind the enceinte the Russians had
raised a second, which connected the fronts of the
gorges of the two redoubts. This second enceinte,
armed in part, had not, however, a ditch presenting a
serious obstacle. The rocky nature of the soil had
hindered the enemy from excavating everywhere equally
the ditch of the first curtain and of the Little Redan,
and on several points the troops were able to pass it
without much difficulty. For passing the ditches, which
had a considerable depth, we had contrived a system of
bridges which could be thrown in less than a minute by
an ingenious manoeuvre, to which our sappers and
soldiers d'élite had been trained. The French artillery
was so superior to that of the Russians that it had
extinguished the fire of nearly all the guns pointed directly
at our attacks. The filled-up embrasures relieved us
from the fear that our columns might be assailed by
grape as they issued from the trenches. The parapets
were destroyed and a part of the earth had rolled into
the ditch. Finally, the Malakhoff Fort had been
assailed by so large a number of shells, thrown from
our batteries and those of the English, that the guns
whicli did not look directly upon our attacks had their
embrasures also filled up, and everywhere the terrassements
had lost their original form. But, behind the
defences situated in the first line, the Russians had
preserved a large number of pieces, which we could
not contre-battre completely, and the columns which
proceeded to attack the Malakhoff were exposed
to the fire of numerous batteries which the Russians
had raised to the north of the roadstead, and which,
though fired from a great distance, were nevertheless
dangerous. You are aware that ever since my
arrival before Sebastopol I was decidedly of opinion
that the true point of attack was the tower or mamelon
of Malakhoff, and that this opinion having been adopted
by General Canrobert, those attacks of the right were
undertaken, which were executed by the 2nd corps.
From the side of the town we had been content to
extend towards the left the approaches executed by the
1st corps. Taking things at the point where they stood
when the assault was resolved on, there was no doubt
that the possession of the Malakhoff fort would lead to
a decisive result; and on the other hand, it was to be
presumed that if a failure took place on this point,
success obtained elsewhere could not lead to great
results. However, it was not proper to attack a place so
extended upon one single point. It was necessary to
obtain that division of the enemy's forces which resulted
from the great development of the enceinte that he had
to defend, and especially to make him uneasy about the
town, to which the bridge led whereby he might make
his retreat. It was to satisfy these various considerations,
it was to ensure success, while economising as
much as possible the blood of our soldiers in the terrible
struggle then preparing, that the General-in-Chief
decided that the assault should first be made on the front
of the Malakhoff; that if this attack, which would be
made under his personal inspection, should succeed,
then at his signal the English should attack the Redan
and the first portion of the town, so as to prevent the
enemy's concentrating all his efforts against the troops
that should have already taken possession of the
Malakhoff Fort. The front of the Malakhoff was to be
attacked by three columns: the one on the left,
commanded by General de McMahon, moving in a straight
line on the Malakhoff Fort by the front that faced us,
and in turning it slightly on the right hand, had for its
task the taking andkeeping of it, cost what it might;
the right column, Dulac's division, was to march against
the Redan of the Careening Bay, to occupy it, and
detach a brigade on its left, in order to turn the second
enclosure; lastly, the central column, being the division
of La Motterouge, issuing from the sixth parallel, having
a longer extent of ground to pass over, and arriving a
little later, was to carry the curtain, to proceed then.
against the second enclosure, and send one of its
brigades to the assistance of the first column, if this latter
should have not yet gained possession of the Malakhoff
Fort. Such was the importance of these positions that
we could not doubt that the enemy, if he lost them,
would make great efforts to retake them. In
consequence, the troops of the Imperial Guard were given as
a reserve to the 2nd corps. The chief of the Engineer
Battalion Ragon, having under his orders several
brigades of sappers, marching with the first column, had
to throw bridges across the ditches, see after the mines,
open everywhere a passage to the columns, and as soon
as these should be masters of the fort, to close it at the
gorge; and in order to oppose any rallying attack in
return, to open in the rear large passages for the arrival
of the troops and the artillery. The chief of the
engineer battalion, Renoux, attached to the right column,
and Captain Schoennagel, attached to the central
column, having also brigades of sappers under their
orders, had to fulfil an analogous mission. All the
arrangements concerning the duty of the engineers in
the attacks to be made on the Malakhoff had been
made by the General of Brigade Frossard, commanding
the engineers of the 2nd corps. In attacking the town, in
order to avoid the obstacles accumulated by the enemy
at the salient of the Flagstaff Bastion, it had been decided
that the principal assault should be given at the Central
Bastion, between its salient and the lunette on the left;
that the assaulting column, as soon as it should be
established within the Central Bastion, should detach
a part of its forces towards the gorge of the Flagstaff
Battery, whose right face should then be assailed by a
Sardinian brigade, which had come to take part in the
operations of the First Corps. General Delesme,
commanding the Engineers of the First Corps, had made
arrangements for attacking the town similar to those
which I have just explained with reference to the
attacks of the Karabelnaia faubourg. On the 8th of
September, at 8 o'clock in the morning, we threw on
the Central Bastion two mines of projection, each
charged with 100 kilogrammes of powder. The
explosion took place near the middle of the bastion, and
appeared to cause great disorder. At the same hour we
exploded, in front of our approaches to the Malakhoff
Fort, three mining chambers, charged in all with 1,500
kilogrammes of powder, in order to destroy the lower