Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/163

THE MAIN FIGHT. 119 infantry and 18 guns ; but the infantry reinforce- chap. ment at this early moment brought up comprised " only the four companies of the Connaught IJangers, ^*' ■p<»^<* with a strength of less than 30U men. When the four companies of the Kangers had The four companies reached the camp of the 2d Division, General <>fti'e ^ Connaught Pennefather riding hurriedly past directed them Rangers: to press forward on the left of the road, and rein- operation!= force the pickets of his Division. The Eangers, advancing by fours, marched on till they gained the crest of the sloping ground on the left of Home Kidge, and then, after deploy- ing into line, continued to press forward; but, the maintenance of any closely connected forma- tion being ere long forbidden by the density of the brushwood and the broken character of the ground, the troops perforce opened out, and thence- forth, one may say, they moved virtually in skir- mishing order. Upon reaching the Mikriakoff Spur, the Eangers fell in with some of Pennefather's ])ickets ; and, no enemy at the moment being visible, because of the mist, Captain Browne, who commanded the Grenadier company, asked an officer of the 30th regiment what was going on. The answer was : ' Oh, you will soon find out, for there are GOOO ' men on the brow of the hill.' The Eangers had worked on some way lurther and were crossing the Mikriakoff Glen, when from its opposite or northern bank, as well as from ground further east, the enemy directed a power- ful onslaught upon the slender chain of com-