In relinquishing a post in which his conciliatory manners, his amiable character, aad his unquestioned personal courage had rendered him popular, but for which he was unfitted no less from his deficiency in that rare combination of various talents which goes to the making-up of a great general, than by his invincible repugnance to the assumption of individual responsibility. General Canrobert adopted a resolution which, while it redounded in the highest degx-ee to his credit, savoui'ed rather of the classic spirit of self-abnegation which characterised the heroic sons of ancient Rome than of tbe degenerate practice of more modern days. He demanded, and his request was acceded to, that he might be permitted to resume his old employment of General of the First Division of the French army, and in this subordinate capacity he continued with cheerfulness and alacrity to render services to the common cause which cannot be too highly appreciated, under the orders of his former subaltern General Pelissier, who on the Emperor's nomination now assumed the supreme command of the French army.
On, the night of the 10th of May, the darkness of which favoured the enterprise, the Russians advanced in force up the Woronzoff Road, and made a determined attack on the trenches on the left of the English right attack. The firing on both sides was so extremely heavy as to warrant the belief that an affair of more than ordinary importance was taking place; but after half an hour's sharp fighting the enemy retired with a loss of about 200 men, our own amounting to only 23 killed and wounded. The attempt was renewed the following night on our left attack, but the sentries were on the alert, and at once gave the alarm, on which Colonel Macbeth of the 68th regiment, who was on duty in the trenches, got his men into order, and received the Russians with a steadiness which completely frustrated their purpose. Some of them contrived to get into the battery, where they were immediately bayoneted. A hand-to-hand struggle then took place outside the lines, in which the Russians were thoroughly worsted, retiring with severe loss. On our side Captain Lloyd Edwards and six men of the 68th were killed, and twenty-two wounded.
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About this time a large portion of the Sardinian Contingent arrived. They were enthusiastically received by the English, already warmly prepossessed in their favour by the memory of their gallant bearing in the struggle which terminated so disastrously on the plains of Novara, and who viewed with generous admiration their soldierlike appearance, their picturesque and serviceable equipment, the grace and activity of their gait, and their perfect organisation, which caused this compact little force to be universally recognised as the very model of an army in the field.
General Pelissier, whose African reputation, as well as his signally dashing conduct in many of the night skirmishes so frequent during the whole siege between the French and Russians, had no doubt led to his selection as the successor of Canrobert, determined to inaugurate his command in a manner which would make an indelible impression alike on friends and foes. General Canrobert, in his despatch of the 17th April, states that all the ambuscades of the Cemetery were occupied and destroyed on the night of the 13th by the French attacking force; but it would appear that the new parallel which he there states to have been constructed in consequence of this success did not embrace the ground thus temporarily acquired, since on the 22d May, the date of the operation which we are now to chronicle, the Russians were still in possession of the Cemetery. This Cemetery and the pits connected with it formed a chain of ambuscades, extending from the Central to the Quarantine Bastions. " This cemetery," says Major Hamley, " was surrounded by a wall, and was about seventy yards square; the further wall was less than 100 yards from the wall of the town, which was of masonry, upright (those of fortified places are in general strengthened with sloping buttresses, termed revetments), and having no ditch. Between the wall of the Cemetery and that of the town was a line of rifle-screens, strongly constructed of earth and gabions, and capable of holding each at least a dozen marksmen."