The short answer at the Alma was that Raglan was up for it but Saint Arnaud refused to participate. His gunners were very low on ammunition and his infantry would need time to collect their packs which they had left on the north side of the river. This is not the wimpish excuse it sounds. The French soldiers were totally self supporting and carried everything they needed in order to fight effectively in their packs. Raglan was not prepared to go it alone, even with two fresh Infantry Divisions and a fresh Cavalry Brigade. Politically his hands were tied to the principle of joint action in everything. The Russians also had reasonably fresh troops in the withdrawal screen including much more cavalry than the British - for this reason he had refused Lucan permission to harry the withdrawal, following which Lucan had petulantly released his prisoners - and the allies were still not sure how much of the Russian Army they were facing. What if it was only the Advanced Guard? Finally three hours of battle had not magically restored the Army's overall poor standard of health and fitness. So the order was given to stand down and bivouac on the battle field.
The breath was coming back, the adrenolin was no longer being pumped, the heartbeats were slowing. It was time to look around and take stock.
The immediate urgent problem was the treatment of battle casualties. The British had 1630 wounded, of which 73 were officers and 1557 men. 353 had been killed, including 26 officers. The 5 regiments which had taken part in Codrington's assault suffered the worst, averaging 25% to 30% casualties. The French wounded totalled 1092, including 59 officers. They lost 6 officers and 253 men killed, making their total casualties 1351.
The Russians lost 46 officers and 1755 men killed, 84 officers (including 4 Generals) and 3085 men wounded, and 7 officers and 728 men missing, a total of 5709. Of these, 3121 occurred in the 4 infantry regiments in action against the British on the Kurgan. The Russians had no field medical service or supplies whatsoever, and made no provision either for the care of their wounded or the burial of the dead -the British and French would have to take it on. All these figures would be inflated by later deaths from wounds and disease - it's been estimated that the battle cost 5000 lives -but those stated give some idea of the immediate problem on the battlefield.
