The I troop was posted on the left flank to hold in check a large body of cavahy which were eventually employed in carrying ofl" their artillery. It advanced rapidly to the heights of the Alma, towards which the enemy were flying, opened fire on their masses, and must have done them much damage. No men were hit in the troop, and their casualties were one horse killed and one wounded. On the 23rd of Septemher, nie troop accompanied the cavalrj' in a reconnaissance towards Duvankoi, a ravine formed by the Belbek. Here they were placed in a most dangerous position, owing to the imprudence of the officer in command of the cavalry, and had the enemy possessed the least dash, must infallibly have been all cut oif, as they were isolated and unsupported.
It was midnight ere the cavalry and troop got back. On the 24th the army entered the wooded plateau of the Belbek. The Scots Greys landed and joined the cavalry on the 25th, and the flank march on Balaklava commenced. Having crossed the road to Sebastopol, the troop came upon the rearguard of the enemy making his flank march to Bakshiserai; but they retreated by a woodcutter's road, impassable to artillery, and Captain Maude halted for orders, as cavalry could not act in the brushwood. For four miles they moved through a road in an oak wood, and saw no more of the enemy till they came close to Khutor IMackenzie, when they arrived at an open field, across which the Russians were pushing baggage wagons in great haste.
Lord Raglan and his staff' were in advance when they thus debouched on the enemy — they halted and drew back, and then Captain Maude brought up two guns (but did not unlimber) to the end of the road. Lord Raglan sent out his escort (a ti'oop of the 8th Hussars) to reconnoitre, but the Russians had seen us by tliis time and at once fled through the wood. Captain IMaude puslied on his guns across the open to the place where the road again entered the wood, and there found a body of infantry drawn up to cover the retreat. The artillery at once opened on them — the enemy fired a harmless volley, and disappeared in the wood, through which canister searched them out as they fled.
The Greys followed them for half a mile along the road, and sent dismounted men into the wood, who took some prisoners and reported that many were dead. In their flight the enemy abandoned large quantities of baggage, ninety arabas laden with grain and flour, tumbrels, carriages full of clothing, and an intoxictited artillery officer. Our troops halted half an hour to plunder, and tlion, turning southwards, descended into the valley of the Tchernaya hj the precipitous track from Mackenzie's farm. It was late when they crossed the Tchernaya, and Loi'd Raf^lan and staff and the advanced troops bivouacked there for the night; but the bulk of the army and the baggage had to make a forced march all night on Balaklava amid immense confusion, and with considerable loss from straggler^ and sickness.
On the 27th of September the troops occupied tiie heights above Sebastopol, and the I troop was put into possession of the snug farmstead which subsequently became Lord Raglan's head-quarters, and has since been the English qtiartier-gen^rale. On the 3rd of October they removed to the neighbourhood of Kadikoi, and on the 26th of October accompanied the cavalry to their new position within the lines of Balaklava. Ou the 7th of October the Russians made a reconnaissance in force in the Plains of Balaklava, but found the Turks in the redoubts on the alert, and came upon the English cavalry and artillery, which always turned out ere daybreak in the plain, and did not return to camp till 7'30. Till the 17th the troop horses were worked hard in supplying materiel to the front.
On the 18th of October the enemy again debouched from the Valley of the Tchernaya, but the Turkish redoubts drove them back by a brisk fire. On the 25th, havuig ascertained ouiexact force, the enemy came down in a fog, and carried the ill-placed and defective Turkish redoubts. The Horse Ai-tillery troops I and C advanced to the ridge between No. 3 and JNTo. 4 Redoubts, and the guns were at once opened on the Russian columns, but their artillery, numbering thirty pieces, silenced the Tui'kish guns, and their left was pushed forward to overlap us. Captain Maude was struck by splinters of a shell on the face, in the left leg, and in the left foi-e-arm. As the shell burst right on the shoulder of his horse, which was killed, and blew Captain IVIaude into the air, the wonder is how he escaped so well.