The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

Original ytttra front ttt dritnta.

[We have received the following series of letters from an
officer in the Fourth Division, which will be read with in-
terest. It is worthy of remark, that at the very time when
the Duke of Newcastle declared in the house of Lords that
not a day had passed without full rations being supplied to the
army before Sebastopol, the Fourth Division were for eight
days and nights without either rum or meat.]

Camp before Sebastopol, 17th N0v.,1854.

My dear —, 1 write to you ex promiva. I
regret to say it is not in the style I expected. Since
the Bth inst., when we arrived here, till the 11th, the
weather has been very bad indeed, and we naturally
lose a deal of men from cholera, cramps, &c., but on
the 11th inst. it came on to blow a perfect hurricane,
all our tents were blown away, the ground was worse
than the wettest Irish bog, and our sufferings then
are really beyond description ; men dying in the
trenches, on the march to and from the trenches, and
in camp ; no provisions, in consequence of the state
of the roads ; in fact, while it lasted, it was frightful.
We hear to-day that there is something of a capi-
tulation going on, but we never can believe a word,
there are so many different accounts. The army in
our rear, I understand, are certainly gone ; we hear
that 60,000 of them were turned out to attack us, but
the men would not fight the English : they don't care
for the French and the Turks, but the sight of a red
coat utterly dismays them ; and it is certain that our
loss at Inkermann is owing to our men having turned
out in great coats ; they took us for French and
Turks, and if it had not been for the Zouaves coming
to our aid we must have been perfectly annihilated.
The French are splendid soldiers, the Zouaves in
particular. I dined with them yesterday ; they gave
me some stewed mutton, potatoes, and brandy, and
we all considered we had a capital dinner. I have
lived for days out here on biscuit and rum, and was
glad to get it. However, the weather is now very fine,
and we are getting on better; but the fact is if we do
not do something soon, our men cannot stand it. If
you people at home could only see us now,—all the
army have got long beards, and are the most extra-
ordinary-looking fellows that can well be imagined.
Our officers have stood it capitally up to this; weihave
only had one sick.
I tell you the most splendid thing we can get out
here, is a box of provisions from Fortnum and
Mason's for the Crimea, and a hairy coat, cap, and
gloves, with the hair so as to keep off the rain and
keep you warm. We can get things here at immense
prices : in Balaklava, for instance, I went yesterday,
and by the greatest luck got a goose on board some
ship just come in for 12s. It has been the only thing
in the way of fresh meat I have had for a week, so
think what a luxury it is. Certainly if you have money
you can better yourself considerably. Imagine paying
103. for a tin of potted meat which you finish at
your breakfast.
Nov. 30--ended Dec. 2.
I assure you it has rained almost incessantly, and
when rain falls here it comes with a vengeance. You
might often have remarked at the end of a heavy
shower in England, it would fall in torrents for a
few minutes before it clears ; but I don't exaggerate
when I tell you that I have seen it rain here like
that for consecutive days and nights. And what is
the consequence? Why, our gallant fellows are
dying round us like rotten sheep; we have lost eighty-
four men already from diarrhoea. There were some
few cases of Asiatic cholera, but I believe it has now
cleared away : there are this morning 162 men sick,
some of whom will, it is expected, soon be called to
their accounts. Such is the state of things at present
in the —th. The 62nd, who did not arrive till some
time after us, we are told lost ninety men up to this ;
so you see it evidently tells on new regiments.
It has been the case with all the regiments when
first they arrived at Alma and elsewhere, but we, i.e.
the fourth division, have to contend against an
almost more desperate enemy, which is starvation,
having the worst commissariat in the army, who
complain of having no transports, and the conse-
quence is, we have been for eight days and nights
without either rum or meat, and I feel convinced
that we shouldn't have lost half the men if they had
only had their proper rations ; but just imagine men
turning out at four a.m. for the trenches, under a
pouring rain, not getting their allowance of grog
when there, and when relieved at seven p.m. they
come to their wet tents without, perhaps, so much
as some biscuit and coffee. You know this must tell
on the poor fellows, coming from the most com-
fortable ship, where they had all they wanted, to
a place with weather most wretched, and work which
your people in England could scarcely believe pos.
sibla for men to accomplish : and the worst is, we
have lost all our finest men and oldest soldiers.
The Grenadier company have lost almost twice that
of any other company ; and I need not tell you what
fine fellows they were. I try to keep up their pluck
as well as I can, and the poor fellows tell me all
they care for is to get their grub and their grog,
and they all are in the greatest anxiety to have a go
at the Russians. Now, for the officers, some are