" The redoubt of the Mamelon Vert could not as yet offer any shelter. The fire had either blown up a mine laid by the enemy, or a powder-magazine, and this seriously scorched Commandant Tixier, of the^3rd Chasseursa-pied, and a number of men. Planks, beams, and burning ropes gave rise to fear of another explosion. The interior of the work was not tenable. Instead of supporting itself on the redoubt, one line crosses the summit, and forms a semicircle round the Mamelon. There was not a moment to be lost. General Camou ordered General Verge to leave the trenches; General Bosquet ordered the 5th Division to advance, and was immediately obeyed by General Brunet. The movement of this division was imposing; the First Brigade, commanded by Colonel Duprat de la Roquette, of the lOOth of the Line, occupied the parallels behind the Mamelon; and tho Second Brigade, under the orders of General Lafont de Villiers, advanced to the left, in the rear, under cover of some rising ground. The Verge Brigade formed in columns at the same moment under the enemy's fire, and, with the drums beating the charge, ascended the hill, and reinforced General Wimpffen's Brigade.
" The position was carried and the enemy driven back a second time into the town; we were definitively masters of the Mamelon Vert, which our troops triumphantly occupied, amidst shouts, enthusiastically repeated, of Vive r Enipercur.'"
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It was now growing dark, and by the most rapid and persevering exertions the French were enabled to establish themselves solidly in all the captured works before morning: detachments of artillery had also turned such of the guns as were serviceable upon the enemy, and those of the work of the 2nd May had been spiked under the fire of the place: these operations were completed under the personal direction of Lieutenant-Colonel de la Boussiniere, and from that moment both the Mamelon and the Ouvrages Blancs were turned into advanced batteries against their late defenders.
Meanwhile a similar step in advance had been gained by the British. Detachments from the light and second divisions, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Shirley of the 88th, were told off to attack the Quarries. The storming party, consisting of two bodies of two hundred men each, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell of the 90th, was to turn the extremities of the work, and, after driving out its occupants, to advance towards the Redan, and, lying down there, keep up a fire to cover the operations of a working-party of 800 men to be engaged in throwing up a parapet. At the appointed signal the men rushed out of the advanced trench, and dashed into the Quarries, of which they gained possession almost without a struggle, although Colonel Campbell was unfortunately twice wounded in leading them in. The covering party proceeding, in pursuance of the plan marked out, in the direction of the Redan, were unmolested, in consequence, as it is conjectured, of the garrison of that work having left it to reinforce the Russians when the tide of the French attack rolled on the Malakoff; and our troops were permitted to establish themselves in the Quarries without interruption. This first advantage, so easily gained, was however only maintained by the unflinching gallantry of our officers and men, and at the price of a severe loss of life. During the whole of that night, and even after daylight on the 8th, the enemy made several desperate efforts to retake the work, and on thi-ee occasions overpowering numbers succeeded in re-entering it, but were each time driven back at the point of the bayonet. Each of these attempts was supported by large bodies of troops and by a heavy musketry and artillery fire; but the captors, reinforced by the 62nd Regiment, and a strong detachment of the 55th, obstinately held their ground in spite of every effort to dislodge them; and next day, when Colonel Campbell, who with his party had remained in charge of the work throughout the night, was relieved, the Quarries were in our undisputed possession.
The English loss in this attack, including that of the Naval Brigade, who from the commencement of the bombardment had distinguished themselves by the accuracy of their aim and their ardour in serving the guns, amounted to 11 officers and 112 men killed, and 30 officers and 552 men wounded. The total loss of the French was 1700 men killed and wounded, and that of the Russians considerably exceeded 2000 men, exclusive of prisoners.