Since the 16th of August, the day of the Battle of the Tchernaya, and despite the repeated notifications of a new and more formidable attack of the enemy on the positions which we occupy on that river, every preparation was being made for a decisive assault upon Sebastopol itself. The artillery of the Right Attack opened already on the 17th of August a{533} better sustained fire against the Malakhoff and against the Redan and Careening Bay, the neighbouring defences, and the roadstead, so as to allow the engineers to establish lodgments near the place, where the troops could throw themselves promptly on the enceinte. The engineers, moreover, prepared their scaling ladders, and all our batteries of the left opened a very violent fire against the town on the 5th of September. On their side the English kept up a heavy and incessant fire at the Great Redan and its redoubts, which they had to attack.
Everything being ready, I resolved, in concert with General Simpson, to give the assault on the 8th of September, at noon.
M'Mahon's division was to storm the Malakhoff works; Dulac's division the Redan of Careening Bay; and in the centre the division of La Motterouge was to march against the Curtain which unites those two extreme points. In addition to these troops I have given General Bosquet General Mellinet's division of the Garde to support those three first divisions. So much for the right.
In the centre the English were to attack the Great Redan by scaling it at its salient.
On the left the first corps, to which General della Marmora added a Sardinian Brigade, having at its head Levaillant's division, was to penetrate by the Central Bastion into the interior of the town, and then turn the Flagstaff Bastion, to make a lodgment there. General de Salles' instructions were only to follow up his attack if circumstances allowed him.
Moreover, the fleets of Admiral Lyons and Bruat were to make a powerful diversion by attacking the Quarantine, the roadstead, and sea fronts of the fortress. But the state of the sea, owing to a strong wind from the N.E., was such that neither the line-of-battle ships nor frigates could leave their anchorage. The English and French mortar-boats were, however, enabled to open fire. They fired in a remarkable manner, and did us good service.
Precisely at noon M'Mahon, La Motterouge's, and Dulac's divisions, electrified by their leaders, threw themselves against the Malakhoff, the Curtain, and the Little Redan of Careening Bay. After surmounting unheard-of obstacles, and after a terrible hand-to-hand struggle, M'Mahon's division succeeded in making good a footing in the front part of the Malakhoff. The enemy kept up a hail of projectiles of every description upon our brave troops. The Redan of Careening Bay, exposed to a cross fire and to the fire of the steamers, was obliged to be evacuated after having been occupied; but La Motterouge's division held its ground on a portion of the Curtain, and M'Mahon's division gained ground in the Malakhoff, where General Bosquet poured in reserves, which I hastened up.
The other attacks were subordinate to that of the Malakhoff, the key of the defences of the whole place.
From the Brancion Redoubt, where I had placed myself, I saw that the Malakhoff was in our hands, and I gave the signal agreed upon with General Simpson.
The English at once advanced bravely against the salient of the Great Redan; they succeeded in lodging themselves there, and struggled for a long time to keep it; but, overwhelmed by the Russian reserves, which never ceased advancing, and by a violent fire of artillery, they were forced to fall back into their parallels.
At the same signal General de Salles attacked the Central Bastion. Levaillant's division had commenced establishing itself there, as also on the right lunette, when, after a sweeping fire of grape, such strong Russian reinforcements came up, that our troops, decimated by the fire, and their{534} officers hors de combat, were compelled to return to the places d'armes they had started from.
Convinced that the capture of the Malakhoff must decide the success, I prevented a renewal of the other attacks, which, by occupying the enemy on all the points of his vast enceinte, had already fulfilled their chief object, and I concentrated all my attention on the possession of the Malakhoff, now completely in the power of General M'Mahon. A critical moment was, however, at hand.
General Bosquet had just been struck by a large fragment of a shell, and I was obliged to give his command to General Dulac. A powder magazine in the Curtain near the Malakhoff blew up, and made me fear the most serious consequences.