614 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CUAP. I. Question as to the expediency ol'attackiii;^ the RussiiiM position iu Iront. The plan actually followed by fit Arnaud. XLVII. Wliether it was wise to assail the euemy on his chosen ground, and to do so by a front attack in- stead of moving first so far eastward as to be able to come down on his left flank and compel him to iiglit with his back to the sea — this is a question highly interesting to soldiers ; * but no such design was put forward at the time ; and, if what Mar- shal St Arnaud definitively sought to do can be inferred from what he did, his intention as ulti- mately moulded was simply this : he resolved to The Russian Army. English Army. The French Army. possess himself of the unoccupied ground which lay between the Russian position and the sea- shore, to pit the rest of his forces against Prince ground on which the nearest of the French troops had been moving. Apparently it was calculated that any Englishman who chanced to observe the French drivers would assume that they were acting under authority from Lord Raglan, and that when once the gun was in the French lines, the trans- cendant importance of the alliance, and of a cordial feeling between the two armies, would be relied on as grounds which might prevent the English General from reclaiming it.
- Marshal Pelissier (the Duke of Malakolf) oncesiroke to me
with immense vehemence on tins subject, showing how, if he had been in command, he would have rolled up the Russian army from its right to its left and driven it to its utter destruc- tion.
