The guns which had been firing directly in front of the attack were silent during the assault, but there were two or three guns behind, on a little elevation of the ground, and when the Russians fled these began to fire one after another. It was not that vigorous firing which one would have naturally expected in such a critical moment, had the guns been destined to play upon the French, but a kind of slow, measured fii'ing, which I shoidd be at a loss to explain otherwise than as a gentle admonition to advance. Every one who saw the Russians. running back could not doubt that they were thoroughly routed. The battlefield gives an additional proof of this. The Russians are very particular about carrymg away their wounded and officers, especially general officers.
In the late action three general officers were lound on •fclie field, one mortally wounded, and the two others dead. One of the dead is said to have been General Bellegarde, who was last yeai" in the Principalities. General Eead, who commanded the leading columns of the attack, died of his wounds. Gort-.schakoff was during the action at the observatory at Mackenzie's Farm-. He is said to have given orders to retire before he knew the result of the attack, because he guessed the result from seeing the French tents still standing on the hillocks. Could he have seen inside them, he would perhaps not have given the order so quickly, for the tents alone stood, everything else — stores, ammunition, &c. — had been removed.
It is confirmed on all sides that the attack took place at the express order of the Emperor. There is a better chance of our success if the strategical operations of the Russian army are dictated from St. Petersburg. War has been compared to chessplaying: there may be some truth in this, but the player is not yet born who can plaj^ the game of war from a distance of 1000 miles with success. When the attack was over, and the Russians began to retire, everybody expected something from another side, but, when nothing came, and the Russians, after a partial attack on our centre, which, althoiigh violent enough, lasted not more than two hours, fell back, the v/hole attack seemed incomprehensible. It appeared incredible that a movement for which the Russians were known to have been preparing so long should end thus, as all kinds of suppositions arose that it was only a reconnaissance in force, that the main attack was to have been from the Sebastopol side, &c.
Now that it is (;onfirmed by the papers found and by the prisoners that the attack was made at the express order of the Emperor, from whom, as I v/rote you in my last, a letter was read to the soldiers in the beginning of the action, the thing explains itself The order was obeyed against the better conviction of him who had to execute it, and this latter seized the first opportunity to draw back from an enterprise in the success of which he had no faith. The loss of 6000 or 7000 men liors de combat was qiiite sufiicient proof of obedience. During the attack on the Tchernaya there was likewise a demonstration towards Baidar. The French cavahy had retired during the night preceding the attack and during the early part of the morning, and had occupied the ridge on which Count Ticrawsky's villa is situated at the entrance of the valley, while the two battalions of infantry, wliich had been down for the protection of the passes, retired on the hills ahove Biuk Miskoniia.
Thej^ had scarcely gone off when two hundred Cossacl<s came down into the valley and picked np everything the French had left hehind them — a number of bullocks, some biscuits, rice, and 140 loads of hay. Content with this plunder they retired again to the heights. Some changes have taken place in the commandership of the French troops at the Tchernaya, General d'Herbillon commanded during the attack as senior general of division. Now, as the Imperial Guard has been added as a reserve to the troops on the Tchernaya, General Renaud de St. Jean d'Angely takescommand of the whole as General d'un Corps d'Armee. There is, besides, some talk of uniting the command of the allied troops on the Tchernaya in one hand. Notwithstanding the dilhculties which such a plan must naturally oiler, it would be an excellent measure if it could be carried out.