Alma (Crimean War).
Fought September 20, 1854, between the Russians, 40,000 strong, under Prince Mentschikoff, and the allied British and French armies, 26,000 strong, under Lord Raglan and Marshal St. Arnaud. The bulk of the fighting fell upon the British Second and Light Divisions and the Guards, who carried the heights held by the Russians at the point of the bayonet, and utterly routed them. The Russians lost 1,200 killed, and left 4,700 prisoners, many of them wounded, in the hands of the allies. The British loss amounted to 3,000 killed and wounded; that of the French to 1,000.