APPENDIX. 423
NOTE VIII.
Respecting the abandoned Theory that the Defeat of the Column of the Eight Battalions had been effected by Infantry.
At one time the French stated (see Du Casse, 'Precis Historique ') that the retreat of this great column was the result of a fight with their infantry ; but no such representa-tion is now persisted in, for the French official statement (agreeing in that respect with Kiriakoff) says fairly that what forced the column to retreat was — not any sort of combat with the French infantry, but the fire of the batteries mentioned in the text. After describing the advance of the great Russian column, the official French statement says : — ' D^j^ cette colonne (5tait parvenue a 150 metres de ' la droite du 7" de ligne, et la situation dovenait tr6s ' critique lorsque les deux batteries de la division Canrobert
- (qui avaient ete forc^es d'aller passer au gue d'Almatamak),
' et les deux batteries de la division Bosquet, arrivent au ' galop sur le champ de bataille, ouvrent un feu terrible ' contre la colonne Russe, lui font eprouver des pertes ' considerables, et la forcent a la rctraite.' — * Atlas His- ' torique et Topographique de la Guerre d'Orient.' The only words in this official statement which might produce a wrong impression are those which describe the guns as coming up at a gallop. AVhen the train was travelling along the hollow, it no doubt moved as fast as it properly coidd ; but when the guns were brought part way up the slope, and unlimbered and ])laced in battery, the operation was piirformed so skilfull}', and, so to speak, so stealthily, that Kiriukoir never made out the quarter whence destruc- tion came, aiid imagined that his column was rent by the junnery of the ships. ^My knowledge of the exact way ia
