It was indeed a victory to be proud of. Three regiments had put to rout no fewer than twelve battalions, including the famous division of picked Czar’s Infantry.
The Russians retreated before the Highland advance across the Belbec River, falling back towards Sevastopol, a strongly fortified place upon the shore of the Black Sea. It is probable that had the pursuit been carried out energetically, as Lord Raglan advised, the Russians would have been utterly dispersed, and the war concluded, but the delay enabled them to enter Sevastopol at their leisure, and in consequence of this movement the Allies decided to march across the Peninsula to Balaclava, and by forcing the action from that point to invest the Russian forces in Sevastopol by land and sea.
CHAPTER XV
THE ‘THIN RED LINE’ AT BALACLAVA
(October 25, 1854)
Gae bring my guid auld harp ance mair, gae bring it free and fast,
For I maun sing anither sang, ere a’ my glee be past.
And trow ye, as I sing, my lads, the burden o’t shall be,
Auld Scotland’s howes, and Scotland’s knowes, and Scotland’s hills for me;
I’ll drink a cup to Scotland yet, wi’ a’ the honours three.
Scotland Yet.