Читать книгу The Battles of the World or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events онлайн

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Animated by these reinforcements, the brave Zouaves gallantly charged the Russian lines, now concentrated nearer the main body, and advanced towards the redoubt whose guns had inflicted such loss in their ranks. Two of their number, Lieutenant Poitevin and a sergeant, rushed in advance of their comrades, and leaping upon the works, planted the French flag on the redoubt. But they paid dearly for their temerity. The shouts of the French soldiers, hailing this gallant deed, had scarcely reached their ears, when they fell mortally wounded beneath the flag they had raised.

Taken by surprise by this desperate assault upon his left wing, Prince Menschikoff hastily detached considerable reinforcements from his main body to the succour of the embarrassed regiments yielding to the prowess of their French antagonists. Then the battle waged fiercely: the French, with all the chivalry of their race, gallantly charged the Russian masses, and at the bayonet’s point forced them to retreat. The enemy’s artillery, however, poured a tremendous fire into the ranks of our allies, and for a time the issue of the contest seemed doubtful. Some French regiments of the line were driven back, so deadly was the fire to which they were exposed; and nothing but the unflinching gallantry of the troops who were enabled to hold their ground, prevented them from being ignominiously precipitated from the cliffs they had so adventurously scaled.