Chapter 6, Plate 6 November 1854 "Smile, Boys, Smile" Summary

The group, including the army attachment, is now positioned on a ridge above the Tchernaya valley, opposite some ruins. They are a little more than two miles from the Mount at Inkerman, where a battle is raging, and which the attachment may be forced to defend should the commander, Lord Raglan, call them to do so. Pompey Jones and Potter have a conversation in which they decide that willpower and concentration will ensure survival. Jones determinedly states that he will be a survivor. Once he gets out of this, he says to himself, he will marry a good woman, grow old surrounded by his children, and that no child of his will ever have to beg, as he once did.

Myrtle and Potter have moved in to the hospital tent with...