171 GENERAL CAMPBELL'S ATTACK.
CHAP, turned from its course by an unforeseen kind of
VII
. — obstacle.
Theohstmc- What arrested the column was a throng of
tion divert- .
ingitfrom imglish soldiery belonging to various regiments.
the assigned ° J ° ,°.
course. and even to several Divisions who, although not
on duty, were nevertheless so eager to take part
in the attack that they had stolen away from
their camps to this part of the 'Quarries,' and
now crowded in on the trenches with a weight
that intercepted the column and prevented its
course clearing the parapet. Thus obstructed the men
the column; of the 57th (who formed the ' main column')
filed off to their left, moved westward until they
had come to the end of the unfinished parapet,
its actual then abandoned the shelter, and confronted the
position fire that was instantly awakened against them
in,':. from not only the whole western face of the
Great Eedan, but also from the guns further
west that guarded its re-entering angle — the guns
of the Artakoff Battery.*
The column, when thus it emerged, was far re-
moved from the ground that it needs must have
traversed if advancing, as directed by orders, in
the wake of the ladder-party ; and accordingly we
see that the troops meant to form a single body
united under General Campbell were in a dis-
severed state.
Evolving themselves as they were from the
thin trailing column in which they had marched
along the sheltered side of the parapet, and then
all at once facing the open, and confronting great
- Colonel Wan-e, MS.
