The Battle of the Tchernaya Part 1
Since early August, the allies had been receiving reports of Russian troop movements indicating that some sort of important action was being planned across the Tchernaya river into their rear areas. Much credence was given to a deserter's report that units of the Imperial Guard had arrived and an attack would take place on the 13th. As an insurance Pelissier had created a task force of infantry, cavalry and artillery under General D'Allonville based in the Baidar Valley on the upper reaches of the river to the east of Tchorgun village, to carry out extensive patrolling on the Russian side.
We haven't really studied this area in any great detail, so it may be useful to have a map to hand as I go over the ground. The most accurate one I have found is in Camille Rousset's Atlas; I am afraid that the place names are none too clear, and the French spelling may be unfamiliar, but I've coloured the roads/tracks red and the water blue, so hopefully as a companion to the text it will be understandable. Taking it from east to west, the Tchouliou runs down its valley between the upland undulating plains through the village of Tchorgun after which it joins the Tchernaya at a point where the steep spur flanking the village to the north creates a deep defile with the flanks of Mount Hasford on the southern side. Just past this point water is tapped off into the man made canal feature known as the aqueduct, which runs roughly parallel to the river for about a mile and a quarter, where it and the river are crossed by solid stone bridges some 100yds apart, carrying the road running sw to nne from Balaklava to the Mackenzie Farm. I've coloured the canal purple to distinguish it from the river. It varies between 8 and 10 ft wide and is about 4 feet deep with near vertical stone sides. The river is around 25ft wide but low at this time of year and fordable in most places, though like the Alma, it is laced with deep potholes sufficient to drown the unwary weighed down with battle order equipment. In any event both water obstacles, and certainly the canal are impassible to cavalry, whose only crossing points are at the road bridges. Infantry could cross anywhere, but at the expense of breaking up their tightly packed formations.
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