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venture with his cavalry of which we shall now have CHAP. to speak.

IV.

Some of our countrymen have imagined that this enterprise of Liprandi's cavalry was a real attempt on the part of the enemy to possess himself of Balaclava; but the Russians declare that the object really contemplated was only that of ruining a park of artillery believed to be near Kadiköi ;* and, judging from the apparently hesitating nature of the movement, as well as from the fact of its having had no support from the infantry, there would seem to be ground for believing that some minor purpose of the kind indicated by the Russians was the one really entertained. The Russian cavalry had been brought into discredit by submitting to be null at the battle of the Alma; and it seems not unlikely that expiation of former shortcomings may have been one of the objects in view.

V.

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The ad

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Be this as it may, General Ryjoff with the main body of the Russian cavalry, and supported by field- of the batteries, began to move up the North Valley.+

Russian cavalry.

bell's

The 93d Highlanders, now augmented to a strength Campof about 550 by the accession of the two companies arrangeunder Gordon, were drawn up in line, two deep, upon defending that rising ground in front of the village of Kadi- the ap

* Todleben.

+ With respect to the numerical strength of this great body of cavalry, see post, p. 123. According to General Todleben, it comprised 2300 horsemen, being fourteen squadrons of hussars and nine sotnias of Cossack, p. 387, 393-94.

ments for

proach by

Kadiköi.

CHAP. köi which was afterwards called the Dunrobin' or V. 'Sutherland' Hillock. Tower of the Coldstream, and Verschoyle, another young officer of the Guards, chancing to be in Balaclava this morning with some thirty or forty men, had seized the occasion for showing the warlike qualities of energy, high spirit, and prompt judgment; for they gathered their people together, brought them up to the front, ranged them quickly along with the Highlanders, and in this way brought Campbell a small accession of strength to eke out his scant means of defence.* The hundred invalids, under Colonel Daveney, were drawn up on the left of the 93d.t On either flank of the scanty body of British infantry thus posted, there stood a battalion of Turks. Campbell's means of defence were materially aided by Barker's field-pieces, already in battery upon convenient ground near the hillock, as well as by a portion of the batteries constituting the inner line of defence, and especially, it seems, by a battery of two heavy guns under the command of Lieutenant Wolf of the Royal Artillery.

Campbell withdrew

The advance of the Russians soon brought their his men to artillery to a ground within range of Campbell's small force; and, two of the Highlanders, besides some of

the foot of the hil

* I am indebted solely to Colonel (now Sir Anthony) Sterling's very valuable MS. letters for the knowledge of the service thus rendered.

+ Campbell's despatch says the invalids were drawn up' in support;' but I have reason for thinking that the statement in the text is accurate.

This account of the disposition made by Sir Colin Campbell may seem to differ in some minute particulars from his published despatch; but there are matters on which the testimony of a subordinate officer is more conclusive than the report of his chief.

V.

caused

lie down.

the Turks, being wounded by the fire then opened, CHA P. Campbell sought to give his men shelter. He therefore moved them back to the foot of the hillock which lock, and their ranks had hitherto crowned, and caused them them to there to lie down. Preparing for such an eventuality as that of the gorge being forced, he despatched Colonel Sterling to Balaclava with orders to apprise the commander of the frigate which lay in the harbour of the pending attack.

Body of

horse de

from the

main body

Meanwhile the Russian cavalry continued to advance up the North Valley; but four squadrons tached detached themselves from the mass, and came shaping their way for the gorge of Kadiköi-the ground sian cav Campbell stood to defend.* When these horsemen alry, and were within about a thousand yards of him, Campbell

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köi.

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gave a brisk order to his little body of foot, directing the gorge them at once to advance, and again crown the top of of Kadithe hillock. This was done at the instant by the Campbell's Highland battalion and the few score of English sol- again diers who had come up to range alongside it. The hillock. troops did not throw themselves into a hollow square (as is usual in preparing for cavalry), but simply formed line two deep. On this slender array all was destined to rest; for the two battalions of Turks which had hitherto flanked the Queen's troops were by this time without cohesion. It would seem that the disintegration of the Mussulman force had begun

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* According to Todleben, the force must have been vastly more than 400 strong-consisting, he says, of nine squadrons, partly belonging to the regiment called the Saxe-Weimar' Hussars, and partly made up of Cossacks; but I accept Campbell's estimate of the force, and he puts it at 400.

V.

CHAP. at the moment when Campbell withdrew his line to the foot of the hillock, and was completed, some few instants later, upon the evident approach of the Russian cavalry. At all events, these two battalions of Turks were now dissolved or dissolving. For the most part, both officers and men turned and fled, making straight as they could for the port, and they cried, as they went, Ship! ship! ship!

Flight of

the Turks.

Position of Campbell after the flight of the Turks.

His perception of

circum

By this defection in presence of the enemy's advancing cavalry, Campbell was suddenly shorn of two-thirds of the numerical strength engaged in defending the gorge; and the few hundred British soldiers who had hitherto constituted but a fraction of his force were now almost all that remained to him upon the hillock in front of Kadiköi.* Whilst the critical he waited the movements of an enemy who was altogether some 25,000 strong, he could not help seeing how much was now made to depend upon the steadfastness of the few hundred men who remained with him still on the hillock. He had, however, so great a confidence in his Highlanders that he judged he could safely impart to them the gravity of the occasion. He rode down the line, and His words said: Remember there is no retreat from here, You must die where you stand!'

stances

in which he was placed.

His determination to impart

to the 93d

the grav

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occasion.

to the

men.

( men!

The

* I say almost, because there were men among the Turks who manfully stood their ground. It would be a great error to question the courage of the fugitives. The one bane of the Turkish forces is the want of officers to whom the men can look up. Without that ingredient cohesion is apt to fail, however brave men may be.

These words were heard by Captain (now Major) Burroughs, the officer then in command of the 6th company of the 93d.

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