BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 13 about 300 yards from the river, he threw up a chap. breastwork — a -vvorlc of a very slight kind, pre- ' senting no physical obstacle to the advance of ^et(J^^fo^ troops, but sufficiently extended to be capable of cnin'lfii." receiving the twelve heavy guns with which he armed it.* This work, on the day of the battle, was called by our people the 'Great Redoubt.' f Trince Mentschikoff was delighted with it. ' Is ' not this a grand thing ? ' said ho to General Kiriakoff the day before the action; 'see, it will ' do mischief both ways.' And he then pointed out how, whilst the face of the redoubt com- manded the smooth slope beneath it, the guns at the shoulder of the work would throw their fire across the great road on either side of the bridge.
- In speaking of this field-work, one of the Reviewers ex-
pressed a belief 'that its armament consisted of six or eight, not guns of 'position, but field-gnns and liowitzers.' As to the number of the guns, I rely upon Prince GortscliakofT iiimself, as well as upon General de Todleben, p. 173. And in proof tiiat they were ' guns of position ' I say that the two of them which were captured by our army are now at Woolwiuli, and liave been duly measured. The report from Woolwich snys : — 'The calibres of the guns taken at the Alma were as follow : — • Bnuss shot-gun, . . 4.82 inches. ,, howitzer, . . 6.12 ,, t The work was formed by cutting a shallow trcncli and throwing up the earth in front of it. In calling this and the other entrenchment ' redoubts,' I follow the language very gen- erally used by our officers on the day of the battle ; but they were open towards the rear, and therefore, of course, the use of the term in its special sense would be inaccurate. The word, however (like some others, as, e.g., the word 'ship'), has a gen- eral, as well as a special, meaning, and, accordingly, St Arnaud, in his official despatch, calls these works 'rcdoutes.' Sir Colin Campbell, in his despatch, also calls tiie greater of the two works a * redoubt.'
