The Invasion of the Crimea: Vol. V [Sixth Edition] by Alexander W. Kinglake

Author:Alexander W. Kinglake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

When the 11th Hussars had so far descended the valley as to be close to the battery, it appeared that the right troop of their right squadron was confronted by some of the Russian guns, whilst all the rest of the regiment outflanked the line of the battery, and had clear ground before it. Meeting little or no obstruction to their progress from the mounted and dismounted artillerymen who were busy with their teams in the hope of carrying off their Czar’s precious ordnance, this right troop passed in through the battery, and pushed on beyond the limbers and tumbrils which were in rear of the guns. Then the regiment was halted.

The Russians who stood gathered in the most immediate proximity to the 11th Hussars were a confused number, including, it seems, artillerymen and cavalry. They were in a state of apparent helplessness; and one of their officers, not disguised, as was usual, in the grey outer-coat of the soldiers, but wearing the epaulettes of a full colonel, came up, bare-headed, to the stirrup of Lieutenant Roger Palmer, and voluntarily delivered his sword to him. Palmer handed over the sword to a corporal or sergeant at his side, and did not of course molest the disarmed officer, though the condition of things was not such as to allow of taking and securing prisoners.

It soon appeared, however, that this tendency to utter surrender was not as yet general; for when the crowd cleared and made off, it disclosed to the 11th Hussars some squadrons of Russian Lancers formed up and in perfected order.{179}

The 11th Hussars reformed their ranks and made ready to charge; whilst on their part the Russian horsemen brought their lances smartly down as though for an immediate attack. They did not, however, advance. Repeating the mistake already committed that day in the face of Scarlett’s dragoons, and again under Morris’s charge, they remained at a halt, awaiting the attack of our horsemen. Douglas seized the occasion thus given him, and led down his Hussars at the charging pace. For a while, the Russians awaited him with a great steadfastness, and it seemed that, in a few moments, there must needs be a clash of arms; but when our Hussars had charged down to within a short distance of them, the Russians, all at once, went about and retreated. Far on, and into the opening of the gorge which divides the aqueduct from the eastern base of the Fedioukine Hills, the 11th moved down in pursuit.

On the immediate right of the 11th Hussars, and so little in rear of them (by the time they had reached the battery) as to be separated by a distance of no more than some twenty or thirty yards, Lord George Paget was advancing with the 4th Light Dragoons. For some time this regiment had been driving through a cloud of smoke and dust, which so dimmed the air as to hide from them all visible indications of the now silent battery; but upon

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