W. H. Russell, the war
correspondent, described the charge of the Light Brigade at
Balaklava, one of the most notable incidents of the Crimean War.]
Supposing the spectator, then, to take his stand on one of the
heights forming the rear of our camp before Sebastopol, he would
have seen the town of Balaklava, with its scanty shipping, its
narrow strip of water, and its old forts, on his right hand;
immediately below he would have beheld the valley and plain of
coarse meadowland, occupied by our cavalry tents, and stretching
from the base of the ridge on which he stood to the foot of the
formidable heights at the other side; he would have seen the
French trenches lined with zouaves a few feet beneath, and
distant from him, on the slope of the hill; a Turkish redoubt
lower down, then another in the valley, then, in a line with it,
some angular earthworks; then, in succession, the other two
redoubts up to Canrobert's Hill.
At the distance of two and a half miles across the valley is an
abrupt rocky mountain range of most irregular and picturesque
formation, covered with scanty brushwood here and there, or
rising into barren pinnacles and plateaux of rock. In outline and
appearance this portion of the landscape was wonderfully like the
Trosachs. A patch of blue sea was caught in between the
overhanging cliffs of Balaklava as they closed in the entrance to
the harbor on the right.
Pages:
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293