INKERMAN It was soon after five in the morning when the pickets of the second division, keeping such watch as they were able in the misty light, while the rain fell steadily and thickly, dimly perceived a gray mass moving up the hill from the road at the end of the harbor.

Although this point was greatly exposed to attack, nothing had been done to strengthen the position.

A few lines of earthworks, a dozen guns in batteries, would have made the place secure from a sudden attack.

But not a sod had been turned, and the steep hillside lay bare and open to the advance of an enemy.
Although taken by surprise, and wholly ignorant of the strength of the force opposed to them, the pickets stood their ground, but before the heavy masses of men clambering up the hill, they could do nothing, and were forced to fall back, contesting every foot.
Almost simultaneously, the pickets of the light division were also driven in, and General Codrington, who happened to be making his rounds at the front, at once sent a hurried messenger to the camp with the report that the Russians were attacking in force.

The second division was that encamped nearest to the threatened spot.