In addition to these auxiliary and supplemental resources, provision was now made for a more permanent method of meeting the wants of the army, based on the commercial principle of supply and demand; and the sutlers and shopkeepers, who had been expelled from their usurped domiciles in Balaklava, were organised in a bazaar, situated on the slope of the hill above the railway at Kadikoi.
This settlement was generally known in the camp as Vanity or Donnybrook Fair; and, whi'e the migration brought every article of luxury or necessity within easier reach of the front, it liberated a large number of houses in the town, which were at once devoted to the formation of regimental stores.
Meanwhile the belligerents were not idle.
On the side of the Allies, the batteries of our third parallel and the French right attack at Inkermann were armed. The Russians reoccupied tlie line of heiglits in front of Balaklava which had been abandoned by them earlier in the winter, strengthened the fortifications of the MalakofF, and pushed their works of defence with a vigour which gave them much of the menacing aspect of a counter-attack.
The initiative in the first serious action of the campaign was assumed by the Russians, who, on the 17th of February, attacked Eupatoria in force. Omar Pasha had recently landed here with a Turkish division, and the disembarkation of his troops was still actually proceeding while the battle was raging.
On the 15th several large convoys, accompanied by bodies of troops, were observed marching from the eastward along the north shore of the Sasik Putrid Lake, a large body of water extending mostly towards the southward and eastward of Eupatoria, and divided from the sea to the south-west by a narrow strip of land. This movement caused Omar Pasha to place the garrison on the alert, but nothing further occurred on the part of the enemy until the morning of the 17th. During the preceding night, favoured by the darkness, the troops intended for the attack, part of whom had left the camp before Sebastopol six days previously, while the remainder consisted of detachments from Perekop and Simpheropol, threw up around the place a sort of irregular parallel consisting of earthen mounds, intended as a cover for their artillery and riflemen, and calculated to protect the former from a coup-de-main. These works were thrown up on the ridge of a gentle range of heights fronting Eupatoria on the land side, behind which the Russians had mustered a large force of cavalry and infantry, supported by a powerful artillery, the whole amounting, it is supposed, to between 30,000 and 40,000 men of aU arms.
The attack commenced at daylight on the 17th by a strong cannonade on the intrenchments of the town, from guns of heavy calibre, among which were several 32-pounders. The enemy at first made a powerful demonstration along the whole front of the Turkish position; but finding that the left was protected by a well-directed fire from the ships of the Allies, consisting of the English vessels Cura5oa, Furious, Valorous, and Viper, the French steamer Veloce, and the Turkish steamer Schehfaer, they soon concentrated the attack against the centre and right. In consequence of this change of tactics, and at the request of Omar Pasha, the Viper, the Veloce
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and the Schehfaer, took up a position on the right, where they contributed energetically to the result of the day. The Generalissimo at the same time reinforced the right with some battalions of infantry and pieces of artillery which he withdrew from the left; and for two hours the enemy continued their fire without ceasing from the position occupied by their artillery, supported by a vigorous fire of skirmishers, without any material result. At the end of this time their infantry, carrying planks and ladders, prepared to assault the town on the right or north-east side, where the smallest number of guns were mounted.
Five battalions advanced to within 400 yards of the fosse, protected by a fragment of wall belonging to an old cemetery. And hence two of the five battalions were pushed on to a point 300 yards nearer, when, received by a brisk musketry fire, they were compelled to retire in confusion. Twice more was the assaulting column urged forward only to be driven back as often; and in one of these movements of retreat it was pursued by a Turkish battalion, who, making a sortie from the town, fell on it with the bayonet's point, while the small body of the Turkish cavalry, which did not number 300 horses, charged it on the flank.