404 THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY, 
towards Khorassan, where Mukhtar's cavalry were said to be. They 
were to march at 1 p.m. No general reserve was formed. 
At 2 p.m. the left and centre columns advanced and crossed the 
river while the artillery on the right opened fire. 
The left wing climbed the first hill and drove the Turks from two 
rows of shelter-trenches, and then began a small-arm fire to prepare 
for an attack on the next hill, which was defended by three rows of 
shelter-trenches, in which the batteries hitherto brought into position 
co-operated, and which were stormed by a bayonet attack. The 
mountain batteries, which still kept up their fire, were perfectly un¬ 
assailable, because a gully with almost perpendicular sides lay in front 
of them. An attempt made by the troops on the extreme left to turn 
this obstacle was repulsed by the furious fire of the reserves of infantry 
and artillery. A slight support was afforded by the left flanking de¬ 
tachment on the extreme left towards 7 p.m. This detachment had had 
to contend with extraordinary difficulties, and at last, contrary to their 
expectations, found in front of them broken ground, cut up by fissures 
in the rocks, over which they had to attack, and in which cavalry and 
artillery were useless. The 17th Dragoons, both Cossack Regiments, 
and the Gurian Legion then dismounted, and commenced a purposeless 
small-arm fire, which they had to break off on the approach of twilight, 
when hostile columns appeared marching on the Koprikoi road (from 
Delibaba, hastening, under Mukhtar Pasha, to support Ismail. See 
section d). 
In the centre, the two lowest rows of the enemy's shelter-trenches 
were captured at the first rush, under protection of the fire of the 9-prs., 
in spite of the heavy fire of the Turks. An attempt of the 6th Battery 
to come into action here failed, on account of the heavy fire. The 
14th Grenadiers climbed the steep stony slope in front of the redoubt 
to from 40 to 80 metres distance from it, and pressed on with the 
bayonet in close order. After great difficulties, they succeeded in 
assembling at about 20 metres from the redoubt, under a murderous 
fire, but had to fall back under cover of the slope. The steepness of the 
slope may be judged from the fact that the killed and severely wounded 
rolled down it. A second attempt at a storm, this time more to the 
left, also failed before the salvoes of the Turkish front line and those 
of the reserves on the flank. On the right of the 14th, the 15th 
Grenadiers tried to press up the hill between the redoubt and the 
mitrailleuse battery, were repulsed, attacked again with the bayonet 
after a short fusillade, pressed into part of an unfinished breastwork for 
infantry, but had soon to retreat again under cover of the first ridge. 
To support this now almost defenceless regiment, two battalions of the 
18th Grenadiers from the right wing were sent over the river at 6 p.m. 
These tried to turn the enemy's left, and pressed also into their first line, 
which was feebly defended, but were stopped and driven back by the 
repeated attacks of a numerous body of cavalry. 
At last, at 7.30 p.m., a lull in the firing occurred, and soon it stopped 
altogether. A renewal of the Russian attack next morning seemed, 
after due consideration, impossible. The wearied troops who bivouacked 
on the battle-field that night were withdrawn from the left wing during 
