The French had during the battle brought up a new division (Dulac's). Besides this, the English and French cavalry were in readiness on the plain leading to the river, the ground of the Light Cavalry charge last year, to receive the enemy if he should Ibrce the passage of the river and debouch on the plain. But General Morris would not risk the cavalry on the plain, intersected as it was by the branches of the river, and defended as it was still by the Russian guns on the height; so only two squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique followed the enemy. The guns which the Russians had brought up to cover their retreat suffered so much by the fire from our side, which was increased by Captain Mowbray's battery opening upon them from the open ground between the Sardinian and the French positions, that they made off in a hurry.
Scarcely a shot was thrown away, and so admirable was the practice, that all the shot fell at or close to the guns, which we could plainly distinguish, as a slight breeze carrying off the smoke left a beautiful view over the whole battle-field. But the Russian guns returned only for a moment under cover, and soon after you could see a brilliant line of cavalry debouching from the rising ground, where it had been hitherto hidden. I could distinguish five regiments — • three in one line, and two other regiments on the flanks in second line. They advanced at a gallop, and, wheeling round, allowed twelve guns to pass, which again opened their fire, but only for a short time, and at half-past nine or ten o'clock the dust on the Mackenzie-road, and the black lines moving off, were the only traces which remained of the so long threatened attack of the Russians.
Everybody now rushed to the battle-field, and one look was sufiicient to convince them that the allies had won a real battle on the Tchernaya. Although not quite so obstinate and sanguinary as the Battle of Inkermann, which this afi'air resembled in many points, it was a pitched battle. The Russians, as in the Battle of Inkermann, gave up manoeuvring, and confided entirely in the valour of their troops. The essential difference was in the manner of fighting. At the Battle of Inkermann the great mass of the Russians fell under the file firing and the bayonets of the infantry, while on the Tchernaya it was the guns which did the greatest execution. Most of the wounded and dead showed frightful traces of round-shot, grape, shell, and canister, so that, as a battle-field, one could scarcely imagine anything more terrible.
Nearly all the wounds were on the legs and the head. On the banks of the aqueduct particularly, the sight was appalling; the Russians when scaling the embankment of the aqueduct were taken in flank by the Sardinian batteries, and the dead and wounded rolled down the embankment, sometimes more than twenty feet in height. The French made every possible despatch to collect the wounded. They were laid on the open space about the bridge until the am'bulances arrived. While there, the Russians, who could plainly see that the French were engaged in bringing help to their own wretched countrymen, suddenly began to open with their guns upon them, repeating the barbarous practice which they had already often previously shown to the troops. A gentleman who was with me at the moment, and who spealcs Russian, asked one of the poor fellows who was trying to trudge along with deep flesh wounds on both his thighs, what he thought of the behaviour of the Kussians m firing among their own wounded?
He answered, " They are accustomed to beat us when we are with them, and there is no wonder that they should try to ill-treat us when we are on the point of escaping out of their power." According to the account of the prisoners, and judging from the straps on the shoulders of the wounded and dead, three divisions were engaged in the actual attack, — the 5th of the 2nd corps (Tarmee (of General Paniutin), lately arrived from Poland, under the command of General Wrangel; the 12th division of the 4th corps d'ar7nee (Osten Sacken's), formerly under the command of General Liprandi, now under General Martinolep; and the 17th division of the 6th corps d'armee (Liprandi's), under Major-General Wassielcosky. The prisoners say that even the I'eserves took part in the action.