Editing Battle of the Alma (section)

==Background==
The allied fleet of 400 ships left the Ottoman port of [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]] on 7{{nbsp}}September 1854 with no clear objective or specified landing point. The allies had been planning to capture [[Sevastopol]] in a ''[[coup de main]]'', but decided instead to sail to [[Evpatoria]], which a landing party captured on 13{{nbsp}}September.{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=201}} [[Prince]] [[Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov]], commander of Russian forces in the Crimea, was taken by surprise. He had not thought the allies would attack so close to the onset of winter, and had failed to mobilize sufficient troops to defend Crimea. He had only 38,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors along the southwestern coast, and 12,000 more around Kerch and Theodosia.{{sfnp|Baumgart|1999|p=116}}

Allied forces reached [[Kalamita Bay]] on the western coast of the Crimea, {{convert|45|km|miles|abbr=on}} north of Sevastopol, and started disembarking on 14{{nbsp}}September. The French disembarked first, and by nightfall, [[Général de division|Général]] [[François Canrobert]]'s 1st Division, Général [[Pierre François Bosquet]]'s 2nd Division and Prince [[Prince Napoléon Bonaparte|Napoleon]]'s 3rd Division were ashore with their artillery.{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=203}} The British landing took much longer to complete compared to the French, as the infantry was landed first, when the sea was calm, but by the time the British tried to get their cavalry ashore, the wind was up and the horses struggled in the heavy surf.{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=204}}

The Ottoman forces sent to Alma consisted of the 3rd Brigade commanded by Major General (''Amirliwa'') Suleiman Pasha Al Arnauti, the 3rd Brigade was made up of the 13th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Brigadier Mustafa Bek) and 14th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Brigadier Ali Bek)

The British troops and cavalry took five days to disembark. Many of the men were sick with cholera and had to be carried off the boats. No facilities for moving equipment overland existed, so parties had to be sent out to steal carts and wagons from the local [[Tatars|Tatar]] farms. The only food or water for the men was the three days' rations they had been given at Varna. No tents or kitbags were offloaded from the ships, so the soldiers spent their first nights without shelter, unprotected from the heavy rain or the blistering heat.{{sfnp|Bonham-Carter|Lawson|1968|p=70}}

The British force comprised 26,000 infantry: the 1st Infantry Division under the [[Duke of Cambridge]]; the 2nd Infantry Division under [[Sir George de Lacy Evans]]; the 3rd Infantry Division under Sir Richard England; the 4th Infantry Division under [[Sir George Cathcart]]; and the [[Light Division]] under [[Sir George Brown]]. The British also had a 1,000-strong Cavalry Division under [[George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan|Lord Lucan]]); four batteries of [[Royal Artillery]]; and one troop of [[Royal Horse Artillery]]).

Despite the plans for a surprise attack on Sevastopol being undermined by the delays, six days later on 19{{nbsp}}September, the army finally started to head south, with its fleets supporting them. The French were on the right of the allied line near the shore, with the Turks following them, and the British were on the left further inland. The march involved crossing five rivers: the Bulganak, the [[Alma River (Ukraine)|Alma]], [[Kacha River|Kacha]], Belbek, and [[Chorna River (Crimea)|Chernaya]].{{efn|See the map on top of page XXVII in Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=XXVII}}}} By midday, the allied army reached the Bulganak and had its first sight of the Russians when a [[Cossacks|Cossack]] vanguard opened fire on the [[13th Light Dragoons]]' scouting party. As the Light Brigade prepared to charge the Cossacks, Lord Raglan sent an order for it to retreat when a large Russian infantry force was discovered in a dip in the terrain ahead.{{sfnp|Small|2007|p=44}} The next morning, the allied army marched down the valley to engage the Russians, whose forces were on the other side of the river, on the Alma heights.{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=205}}

At the Alma, Prince Menshikov, commander-in-chief of Russian forces in the Crimea, decided to make his stand on the high ground south of the river. Although the [[Imperial Russian Army|Russian Army]] was numerically inferior to the combined Franco-British force (35,000 Russian troops as opposed to 60,000 Anglo-French-Ottoman troops), the heights they occupied were a natural defensive position, indeed, the last natural barrier to the allied armies on their approach to Sevastopol. Furthermore, the Russians had more than one hundred [[field gun]]s on the heights they could employ with devastating effect from the elevated position; however, none were on the cliffs facing the sea, which were considered too steep for the enemy to climb.{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=206}}

The allies [[Military camp|bivouacked]] on the northern bank of the Bulganak, next day marching the {{convert|4|miles|km|abbr=on|order=flip|0}} to the north bank of the Alma, where the ground sloped gently down to the river.{{efn|See the map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=XXVII}}}} The precipitous cliffs running along the southern bank of the river were {{convert|350|ft|m|0|abbr=on|order=flip}} high and continued inland from the river's mouth for almost two mi (3&nbsp;km), where they met a less steep, but equally high hill known as Telegraph Hill across the river from the village of Bourliouk.{{efn|See the map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=XXVII}}}} To its east lay Kourgane Hill, a natural strongpoint with fields of fire covering most approaches, and the key to the whole position. Two [[redoubt]]s had been constructed to protect Kourgane Hill from infantry assault; the lesser redoubt on the eastern slope and the greater redoubt on the west. The road to Sevastopol ran between Telegraph and Kourgane Hills, covered by Russian [[Artillery battery|batteries]] located on the hills and in the narrow valley between them.{{efn|See the map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History''{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=XXVII}}}}