The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-08 00:00:00

THE WAR.

DESPATCHES have been received during the week from
General Codrington, the most important feature of which is
the report of Dr. Hall, the principal medical officer to the Bri-
tish army. From that we learn the gratifying fact that the
troops continue healthy, notwithstanding the inclemency of
the weather, which has been wet and stormy. The total num-
ber of patients admitted to the hospital, in the week ending
Dec. Bth, was 1,093, and the deaths were 38, against 1,059 ad-
missions and 37 deaths in the previous week.
Prom the Crimea the news communicated continues to be
but little " stuffed with epithets of war," and it remains, as
it has done for some weeks past, more fertile in conjecture and
more rife with criticism than full of incident or rich in
stirring events. The Times' correspondent, writing on the
13th of December, from the camp before Sebastopol, says in
reference to
A STORM OF RAIN AND WIND :

The storm howled and raved fearfully over the camp last
night, and was laden with a deluge of rain, which it dis-
charged in waterspouts, driving it through huts and tents,
and forcing it in streams through the minutest interstices.
The gusts were extremely violent, and the beating of the
rain kept many a one awake with only one topic of consola-
tion, namely, that there was "No trench guard to-night."
Until four o'clock the wind seemed to come from the south-
westward, but at that hour it veered round towards the north,
and became bitter cold ; the rain at once was changed into
hail and snow ; the wet ground began to freeze ; and, at eight
o'clock, by one of those magical changes which can only
be equalled by the chemical landscapes of our childhood, the
whole camp, which was an expanse of blackish mud, dotted
with white tents and huts, at sundown last night, became a
sheet of dazzling white, marked with lines of dusky grayish
habitations of canvas and wood. The wind has now
diminished in force, but it is exceedingly cold and penetrating.
The unfortunate natives of Southern Europe or of Asia, em-
ployed in such myriads in the service of the army, suffer
greatly on such occasions, and perish like flies when the
frost comes. The wind ceased about mid-day, and it froze
sharply ; the sun was bright and the sky tolerably clear.
Black tracts already appear in the white snow, as the men
and carts toil across the plateau. In the distance, on the
heights over the Tchernaya, the Russians can be seen at drill.
There is some reason to believe that the position from Inker-
manto Aitodar is partly occupied by militia regiments, and
no doubt they undergo a good deal of goose-step these quiet
times.
SUFFERINGS OF THE NATIVE DRIVERS.
One may witness even now some few of the incidents of the
scenes of last year repeated. It was but yesterday that I saw
an old Turk in a moribund state carried into Balaklava on the
back of a native almost as wretched-looking as himself ; and,
riding on to the Land Transport camp, between Kadikoi and
the Col, I beheld a native bearing in the same way a living
skeleton from one tent to another. These men, who are gene-
rally employed as muleteers, are provided by Government with
long Turkish gregos, but, somehow or other, exposure to bad
weather produces disastrous results on them, although their
frames seem very vigorous. I am afraid the Temperance
Society won't forgive me if I express a private opinion that a
little stimulant might be " exhibited " on these poor fellows,
who eat largely of vegetables, and are saturated with onions,
garlic, and leeks, and that under present circumstances they
might without injury partake of a moderate quantity of spirits.
There is this morning a very pretty little rebellion among the
native drivers of the Land Transport Corps of the Fourth
Division They won't stir, in spite of eloquent exhortations
in the best Hindostanee addressed to them by Captain Dick,
who is standing knee-deep in snow and mud, and haranguing
them as they lie inside their tents. They "sahib" away and
shrug their shoulders, and plaintively express a decided desire
to be flogged, accompanied by suggestions also that they should
be at once executed; but they one and all declare that work
they will not on such a raw and gusty day as this. Many of
these Hindostanees will be sent away forthwith.
The same correspondent remarks, on
THE RUSSIAN FIRE ON SEBASTOPOL :
The Russians keep up a pertinacious fire on the town. The
reports of their guns shake my hut this fine day at the rate of
about two a-minute, and the sound is tolerably loud with this
wind. Sebastopol is a disagreeable place to go to on pleasure,
for shot and shell are continually lobbing along the streets,
houses are falling piecemeal, and the stones flying about from
the shock of cannon-balls. The casualties, however, are very
few, and the French have displayed great ingenuity in erect-
ing comfortable magazines and shops in out-of-the-way parts
of the town, where one can get a cup of coffee and a cigar
without much danger. But to the uninitiated the roar of a
ball and the twittering hiss of a shell fail to give zest to these
luxuries. It is no longer an occurrence of every week to go
down to Sebastopol once or twice, and few people resort to
the docks unless they are on duty, or have just come out, and
are under the painful necessity of going en amateur. The
whole establishment of a cantinie're went to smash the other
day through the operation of a shell, and, although it was
tolerably well filled, the only damage done was to the poor
proprietress, who lost her hand and an immense amount of
crockery, comestibles, and customers. The labours of the
Sappers and Miners have been very heavy in making the
mines to destroy the docks, and it is to be hoped they will
receive some extra reward for their laborious duties, which
have only begun with the end of the siege.
FRIDAY, Dec. 14.—The frost continues and the thermometer
marks 20 deg. this morning, but there is a clear fine sky and
a bright sun above. The mud is now a rigid furrowed lake,
with iron waves cast up by old cart tracks and horses' hoofs,
and the roads are crowded and blocked up by the vast num-
bers of fourgons, carts, horses, and pack animals so suddenly
forced upon them. With the fine weather and the cessation
from hard work the mortality among the mules of the Land
Transport Corps has ceased, but the natives are sickening and
dying from the effects of cold, to which they are unaccustomed.
Colonel Wetherall is indefatigable in visiting the camps, and
in making himself acquainted with the minutest details of
the department over which he has been called upon to preside.
Severe weather continues to try the endurance as well as
the stamina of the troops, yet, heavy as the effects of the
weather are, they do not seem materially to impair the health
of the troops.
The correspondent of the Daily News, under date the 21st
December, says, in reference to
THE FROST AND THE HEALTH OF THE
TROOPS :

•
Notwithstanding the season and the trying weather, the
health of the British troops continues very satisfactory. As
might be expected, there has been an increase of the number
of sick admitted into the hospitals, the prevailing ailments
being those which usually follow exposure to wet and cold ;
but there has not been a proportionate increase in the number
of deaths, indicating that they have not generally been of a
dangerous character. Our French allies are said to be suffer-
ing more severely, and one division is named as losing no less
than 25 men daily, although without cholera or any other
epidemic prevailing. The cause assigned is the influence of
sudden change in the weather, which occurred a short time
since, and the continuous rain and cold which followed. Lieut.
Basil H. Browne, of the 77th Regiment, a young officer, who
had not been long in the Crimea, died, on the 15th instant,
from fever. Frost has continued during the past week, and
the cold has been intense. The lowest temperature which has
been met, with during the present winter occurred during the
night between the 18th and 19th instant. Its effects were
felt the" more severely on account of strong northerly gales
prevailing at the same time. At seven a.m. of Wednesday,
the 19th, the mercury stood at five degrees below zero in
Fahrenheit's thermometer. During the night mentioned,
and in the course of the following
_day, many soldiers and
others were frost-bitten, but it would seem that, in the majo-
rity of instancee, this was the result of imprudent negligence.
In some instances the men had brought it on by lying out
while in a state of intoxication ; in some, the frost-bite had
occurred during sleep in ill-secured tents; in a few cases, it
took place while the men were engaged at target practice or
employed on fatigue duties. The parts frozen were generally
the Angers, feet, or ears. I only heard of one death, and this
was evidently in consequence of excess in drinking, for the
man was found lying in the snow, frozen, but bearing evi-
dences of previous intoxication. No men were frost-bitten
who were properly clothed, or whose occupation admitted
of their wearing gloves. The woollen mits served out to the
soldiers might be much improved: they are put on and off
with difficulty, they shrink in washing, and the sharp wind,
by entering between the meshes of their texture, chaps the
skin of the bands. The dark-coloured cloth-mite of the Rus-
sian soldiers are much more appropriate : they reach higher,
protecting the wrists, and are as easily removed as put on,
while a large loop attached to them admits of their being
suspended, when not worn, to a convenient part of the uni-
form. The'four fingers are together in one space, the thumb
being in a second. The texture is close, so that no wind can
pass through.; at the same time the cloth is sufficiently
pliable to admit, of every necessary movement of the hand
while the glove remains on. Their cost must be comparatively
trifling, especially when their durability is taken into account.
The long boots this year have proved a failure ; in most
instances the material, sewing, and shape, all are bad; and
the troops are on many occasions resorting to the short
ammunition boots, which they had in wear previously to the
issue of the winter boots. The transport animals_ are still

suffering severely ; as many as sixty in the establishment, it
is said, die daily. The greater number of those which are
sick appear to be disabled by sore backs, and the debility
resulting from excessive discharge from the sores. Many are
also said to be suffering from diseases of the lungs, consequent
on exposure during the late wet weather, and some also from
glanders. In some divisions the officers' private bat horses
are being employed for purposes of public transport, and this
is a subject of discontent. The officers of the Land Transport

say, however, that the stabling of all the animals will soon be
completed, and that after a short rest the department will be
in full operation again. The French troops encamped in the
plain and towards Baidar are said to be suffering a good deal
from diarrhoea and other sickness. The English troops con-
tinue healthy. Although the number of sick has increased,
the proportion has not been great, and the cases, generally
attributable to the changeable character of the season and
its temperature, have not been of a serious character.
Our allies have no fuel served out to them, as we have; in
addition to which they are not warmly clothed, have no gloves
or stockings, except what they themselves buy at the stores.
As they walk along they appear half starved, and to be suffer.
ing greatly from cold. Their hands, from the severity of the
weather and hard diet, appear in most cases almost black. Yet
they are very industrious, hard-working, and fortunately have
no pride. I have seen many picking out bones and discarded
sheeps'-heads from our ashpits or dunghills, and I have also
seen others in camp selling paper which they have perhaps
bought tolerably cheap by going to Kamicsch or Kadikoi.
Every French soldier you meet, from a Chasseur-a,-Pied to a
Zouave, will tell you, if asked, that a great many of his regi-
ment are frost-bitten in the toes and fingers, and that a large
proportion of their new arrivals are dying from a kind of
cholera just as our men did last winter. On the night of
the 18th, and during the following day, a large number of our
soldiers were frost-bitten. Our regiment, the 90th, had an
officer and eight men frost-bitten when out ball-firing. The
55th and 34th also suffered. One man—l think of the 33rd—
is likely to lose both his hands ; he was on sentry, and had no
wits on. The thermometer, last Sunday, between sunrise and
sunset, stood at 11, 14i and 15—rather cold work to have to
attend divine service on such a morning for three-quarters of
an hour. On Tuesday night it was 5 below zero, and during
Wednesday morning it stood at 3 deg., or 29 deg. of frost.
Since then the weather has been a little milder, but no tha.w—
just the weather to suit an Englishman, and keep aur.army
healthy.