II. I I positions for gims, with extensive glacis to the front. Descending from the plateau, some of omparty crossed the hridge, and went out on the plain towards Eouljanak to the tumuli which, stud the plains, and which denote the extreme range of the Eussian guns. On turning round towards the south, the eye takes in the whole scene of battle, from the sea on the right to the low slopes which formed the right of the Eussian position. Their left was separated from their right by a deep ravine running at right angles towards the Alma, and this ravine also is the boimdary between the high and steep clifls which overhang the tortuous course of the Alma on the south bank from the ford to the sea, and the gentler rising grounds on which the enemy's left lay, and which were strengthened by the redoubt and by the mass of the Eussian artillery.
It will then be seen how the Eussian left depended on the nature of the ground as its best defence, and what a fatal mistake Menschikoff committed when he omitted to take into consideration the effect of the fire of the ships. That fire soon drove back tlieir left, and forced it to re-form on the centre, which it put into confusion, and the French, ascending by the ravines with the utmost courage and activity, made good their footing on the right and turned the Eussian left completely, with comparatively little loss. The advance of our allies was covered to a great extent by the thick foliage on the banlts of the Alma, and the cliffs are so high and rotten that guns could not be used with success against them.
The river is much further from the base of the cliffs than it is from the slopes on the Eussian right, where the British attacked, so that it would be scarcely commanded by guns on the top of the plateau; whereas, we were under lire for several hundred yards before we reached the Alma at all. A huge mound, composed of fifteen or sixteen gigantic graves, at the distance of 400 or 500 yards from the river on its north side, denotes the resting-place of those who fell before the army crossed the stream, or who died after the fight in the ambulances. The road by which we advanced to the bridge is just as it was on the 20th of September, and on the right, close to the stream, are the blackened ruins of the village of Bourliouk.
It will be i-emembered that the enemy partially destroyed the bridge, but that it was repaired during the action by Captain Montagu, Eoyal Engineers, and a party of Sappers and Miners. The bridge has been substantially rebuilt, by means of a strong wooden way thrown across the stone arches, and supported by beams and uprights. The old post-house, on the right of the road before you come to the bridge, is about being reconstructed, and a guard of soldiers were lodged in its ruins. It will be, to all appearances, a handsome house of fine white freestone when it is finished. I surveyed its ruins with peculiar interest, for I know a person very intimately who took shelter in this house, part of which was on fire, to get out of a fire still hotter, till he was driven out by a shell falling through the roof, and it was at the wall outside, which is yet torn by shot, that I met the first two wounded officers I saw that day — two officers of the 30th, one hit through the chest or side; the other wounded, I think, in the leg or arm.
They were helping each other from the river, bleeding and weak, and I was fortunate enough to be able to bring to their aid a Staft' surgeon, belonging, I believe, to the Cavalry Division, who kindly examined their wounds under fire. Close to this I had previously seen the first man killed — a drummer, who was carrying a litter, and who was struck by a round shot which bowled slowly along the I'oad and hit hun, with a peculiar squashing sound, on the hip. He fell broken in two, and never moved; nor did his comrade, who was carrying the other end of the litter, stop to mourn over his •death. Alter the intrepid rush of the Light Division up the liill, its wavering, its slow and broken and unwilling halt, the bold advance of Pennefather's Brigade, and the billow-like march of the Guards, I was happy again in being able to warn Colonel Waddy, as he approached at the head of the 50th, that he was moving right along the line of fire of the enemy's guns, and, as there was a very conclusive proof given of the correctness of the statement j ust as I spoke, that gallant officer moved ofi" his men, who were in dense column a little to the left, and got off the Toad to the fields, whence he rapidly advanced towards the heights.