THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 45 mary design was to seize the outer line of de- chap. fence and the camp of the 93d Highlanders, as ' well as the camp of the Turks established near Kadikoi.* It is plain, however, that the enter- prise of an assailant who might attain to so much as that would be strangely collapsing if he were to stay his victorious advance without doing all he could to bring ruin upon the English in the small crowded port from which they drew their supplies ; and the possession of a spot from which it would have been practicable to shell Balaclava must needs have been coveted. The destruction of the root which the English had taken in Bal- aclava may therefore, perhaps, be regarded as the real, though ulterior object of the intended attack. The force destined for the attack upon the Distribution Turkish redoubts was divided into three columns, sian force: The left column was commanded by General Gribbe the centre column by General Semia- kine, the right column by Colonel Scudery ; and, with that last force, General Jabrokritsky's detachment was in close co-operation. Giibbe" was to issue from the direction of the Baidar valley, seize the heights of Kamara, and thence take part in the attack directed against Can- robert's Hill. General Semiakine, at the same tasks time, was to advance against Canrobert's Hill, toefeh and the Eedoubt Number Two, by the road which leads from Tchorgoun to Kadikoi. Colonel Scudery 's column was to issue from
- Todleben, pp. 384, 387, 388.
