Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/46

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THE BATTLli OF INKEKMAN. CUAl' I, Iteinforce- ments de- spatched to Heut- scbikotf. fioui tb.e neiglitpurhood of Odessa to reiuiorce Prince Mertscinkoft" -in the Crimea. By that circu' to us . land route which the Eussiaus had been driven to iise since they lost the command of the Euxine, the distance to be compassed was great; but the marches of the troops had been pressed forward with extraordinary vigour, and their progress, it seems, was much quickened by causing numbers of men to be carried in the light carts of the country. From the early days of October, battalions after battalions had been reaching the neighbourhood of Sebastopol. On the evening of the 2d of November, and in the course of the next morning, the 10th and the 11th Divisions successively appeared in the neighbourhood of Sebastopol; and by Saturday the 4th of November the reinforcements thus hurried to the scene of the conflict had amounted strength of to SO large a number that the effective strength o'ftholve'" of the troops then gathered under Prince Ment- man" "' schik'off, and acting as land forces on the Sebas- topol theatre of war, must be computed at not less than 120,000.*

  • General de Todleben states that at this time ' the effective

' strength of the Crimean anny united under the orders of Prince ' Meut.schikoff in Sebastopol and its immediate ueighbourhood, ' sans conter les equipcajes de la Jlotte, reached a streugth of '100,000 men.' -' Defense de Sebastopol,' ]>. 437. The sea- men thus left to be added to the 100,000 men of the land service had been regularly drilled and organised, forming bat- talions of infantry with a strength (at the opening of the siego) of 18,501 ; the marines also at that time having a .strength of 2666, and the ' local companies ' a strength of 1950. There were moreover, 5000 dockyard labourers amenable to discip-