Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/392

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370 COMBAT OF TTIE 2flTII OF OCTOBER. CHAP. II. his plan of attack. General Evans and his re- sources. be able to do all this without being molested or even seen by the pickets of our 2d Division. After moving thus far unopposed, he was to enter upon hostilities, to drive in our pickets, to estab- lish himself on Shell Hill, and thence direct an attack against the main body of our 2d Division which lay camped behind its Home Eidge some three-fourths of a mile further south. The assailing force was to be covered on its right by a separate body of troops moving up the Careenage Eavine. The General to be assailed on Mount Inkerman was Sir De Lacy Evans, a veteran well skilled in that part of the war-craft which belongs to the hour of combat ; and for the purpose of resistance to the feeble attack now attempted, he had, one may say, ample means ; for, although he could bring into action no more than some 2600 in- fantry against a far greater force of assailants, his numerical inferiority was compensated by the strength of the ground, and besides, by his great ascendant in the artillery arm ; but this was not all* The Duke of Cambridge, after sending him an additional battery at the first sound of combat, came up on his right with the Guards ; whilst Cathcart also and Bosquet moved troops towards the scene of the combat. Still, the only force destined this day to be actively engaged on Mount Inkerman was that of Evans's own division — the second — with its two field-batteries,-f and

  • Evans had, it. seems, on Mount Inkerman 2644 men. The

rest of his strength was in the trenches. + One under Captain Turner, the other under Captain Yates, and hoth commanded by Colonel Fitzmayer.