104 THE BATTLE OF INKEKMAN. CHAP, first and last stronghold of the Inkerman position, L_. against the army brought up to attack it, became ut Period, i-educed to only a few hundred.* When once These dls- positions carried into effect, this plan of splitting the reei- practioaUy . , . , ■ n ^ lirevocabie. mcuts aud pushing them on in fragments to the front under mist and through brushwood could not well be revoked, nor even much altered ; and indeed the character of the tactics adopted at the outset so governed the subsequent tenor of the defence that when reinforcements approached, they were for the most part drawn forward piece- meal, and absorbed, as it were, into the fight. One after another the small bodies of men from time to time coming up were laid hold of for some special combat ; and this in no instance was done by the order of Lord Eaglan, but always to meet the need for ' a hundred or two ' of fresh troops, which was judged to be pressing for the moment at some particular spot. As though it had been understood from the first that the com- ing strife in the brushwood was not to be that of formed battalions, the colours of most of the 2d Division regiments were betimes sent back to the Windmill.-f*
- In the judgment of Sir Percy Herbert — and no living man
can know more of 'Inkerman' from actual personal observa- tion — the number was always less than five hundred. His com- putation, I believe, would not be found to hold good quite con- tinuously (I am thinking of the right wing of the 21st, and the 63d Regiment) ; but, except as regards a limited period of time, he is no doubt substantially right. + General Pennefather did not give this order, and he haa assured me that he never could learn whence it came. The 69th did not send back its colours.
