The French Army of Observation
Having its extreme left at a distance of about a mile and a quarter from the Guards, with the steeps of the Sapounè Ridge and the lines of circumvallation on its immediate front, and extended
over a space of about two miles and a half along the edge of the Chersonese from the Woronzoff road to the Col, there lay the main part of the French 'Army of Observation,' commanded by General Bosquet. The troops thus camped comprised the brigades of General Espinasse, General d'Autemarre, and General Bourbaki.
Bosquet's primary duty
present in person with this part of his Corps, was charged primarily with the task of there defending the Chersonese against attacks from the east; and accordingly, when put upon the alert, he used to draw up his troops in a line of columns extending along the crest with their front to the plain of Balaclava.
conditions under which he might bring support to Mount Inkerman His extreme left, however, was scarce more than conditions two miles from the camp of our 2d Division; and he might therefore, if he should be freed from all care for port to the safety of the ground m his front, he might soon bring to succour the English a battalion or two to begin with, and go on by degrees reinforc-
we (the Light Division) shall be short of troops to relieve 'pickets.' These letters are quoted in the Journal of the Royal Engineers, and at a page immediately preceding its mention of the battle of Inkerman, p. 47 ; but, as respects the Guards and the 2d Division, the double stress did not really continue to so late a period as might be thence inferred. I must own that the information before me does not enable me to see how the reduction of the strength left in camp could have ever reached the extreme points stated by Evans and Brown; but I suppose they could have explained their meaning.
