The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-11 00:00:00

mu CORPORAL DOWNING, or THE 95TH.

Camp near Sebastopol, Dec. 8, 1854.
My dear Jack—Yours of the 9th of November I re-
ceived yesterday, and am muck obliged to you for writ-
ing, and happy to hear you are doing well. lam still,
thank God, "sound in wind and limb," and hope I'll
live to see and give you a good shake of the fist yet.
This is the country to try a man's mettle and constitu-
tion, and I must sayethat both have been well tried—the
first by the Russians-, and the latter by the climate. My
regiment has suffered a good deal from both cauees. Sir
de Lacy is gone away sick, and so is our Brigadier Peune-
father. A braver soldier never drew a sword. If you
could but hear his "Hurrah ! my darlings," and bullets
flying round him like bail, you could not but admire the
fine old fellow ; all the brigade aro sorry for hien (the
Irish brigade, as we call ourselves). You will, I sup-
pose, have seen in the papers the Balaklava affair, where
the cavalry were engaged, and also that of the 2Gth
of October, where our division hunted the Russians. I
was in the affair of the 26th, though I had no more busi-
ness there than you had, because I was then, and airs
now, employed as clerk in the commissariat department;
but when I heard the firing I slipped on my belt, handled
the rifle, and walked, or rather ran off to join my
company. The fight was then going on hot, so I joined
the first lot I met, which happened to be an outlying
picket of the 30th. The Russians made a bold attempt,
but soon began to give way, and in the end it was as
good as a fox-hunt. Never had such fun in my life.
We followed them under the fire of their own batteries.
Sir De Lacy was so pleased that he released all pri-
soners, and gave an extra ration of runs to every man
in the division. The next good shindy was on the sth
November. The Russians attacked and drove in our
pickets at daybreak, but they soon got reinforced. Our
division was again first into it, and behaved, as usual,
like bricks. The enemy had an enormous artillery,
which I must say was admirably served all through the
day. They took up a position in the night, and
fought like devils from dawn until sunset, and our
own people only were first engaged, but General Cr el-
robed sent to our assistance a strong body of his
chaps, and they soon decided the battle. The Rus-
sians were repulsed with immense loss, and our people
also suffered severely, both in officers and men. It
was a terrible day. I had a narrow escape or two.
I was standing close to my tent, where two pork barrels
were piled one on top of the other. I was leaning
against them, looking at the fight a little above me,
when a cannon ball sent the top one spinning from
my shoulder, and upset a store-keeper of ours, an ex-
London policeman, who was more frightened than hurt.
At the same time down comes my tent with a crash, the
pole being smashed and sent in pieces through the can-
vass. We were then ordered to retire by the commis-
sariat officer in charge, and fetch some stones with
us, which we did some three or four hundred yards. My
friend the storekeeper was sitting upon a stone wall
chatting to me, when a 24-pounder sent the wall to
the ground almost from under him. He turns to me
and says, " Jack, I'll hook it," and hook it he did.
It was a terrible day, my dear Jack, and I'll never
forget it. We have learned from some prisoners that two
Grand Dukes, sons of the Emperor Nicholas, were
there. It is supposed that the Russians were all more
or less drunk, for the greater part of them had raki in
their canteens. The fight was so close at one time that
when our fellows expended their ammunition, they com-
menced throwing stones at the enemy until reserve am-
munition and reinforcements came up. A corporal of
the 55th was shot dead at this time ; there he lay on
his back, and his arm extended, and the stone firmly
clenched in his hand. He was a brave fellow, and the
whole brigade is sorry for his death. Poor Jerry
Donoghue has died of his wound ; he would not submit
to amputation. You have had no mention of the old
people ; I should like to know how they are. Should
you see Florry M'Carthy, remember me to him and also
to all my old friends. Sebastopol, or rather its sove-
reign, is making a good fight of it, but he may as well
spare himself and us the trouble, for have it we will,
please God. Our chaps and the French are all right,
and would do anything for each other, but a Turk gets
no quarters. The friendly " Bono Johnny," with which
we used to greet them in Bulgaria, is now exchanged for
"Goto —, you cowardly rascals." I suppose you
have seen in the papers that they ran away from a for-
tified position they were entrusted with near Balaklava,
and which we had to retake, at a great sacrifice of life.
We have them now at the only work they are fit for,
making entrenchments and repairing the roads. Could
you manage to send me a Kerry paper occasionally ? I
am very glad to hear that my old master and his family
are all well. I have had a severe attack of dysentery,
but am all right again, thank God ! I hope, my dear
old friend, you will write to rue often. lam very hard
up for time, and my hands are so cold I can scarcely
hold the pen ; so I hope you wiil excuse bad writing
and any errors in this letter, fur I have not time to read
it over and correct them.

The siege guns are hard at it to-day.
Good bye, my friend, and believe me to remain yours
very sincerely,
JOHN DOWNING, Corporal, 95th IZegt.
p.s.—l wish you a merry Christmas ; I suppose
mine will be a very curious one.

The following is from a soldier in the ith Com-
pany, Royal Sappers and Miners, a native of
Truro, Cornwall, written to his sister at Leam-
ington :
" Camp before Sebastopol, Dec. 13, 1854.

" It has been very wet ever since our company have
been here, and the wet and cold have caused the death
of many of our soldiers, many of whom, as well as the
horses, are lying dead in all directions. There was as
many as 50 horses died out of the Horse Artillery last
month in one battery. The French soldiers stand it a
great deal better than the English, and their horses the
same. .1 saw about 60 mules belonging to the French
carrying our sick men to Balaklava. Our men and the
French are very kind one towards another. I was at
work yesterday within 400 yards of the enemy's works
at the trenches. They were firing away at us, but we
had too good a cover for them to do any harm. I took
the gun and shot at them several times. Ido not know
whether I killed any of them or not, but I can assure
you they are so very numerous, they are all over the
country. There are a great many Russian officers and
men lying about on the hills ever since the sth of Nov. ;
hats and guns all over the place ; wo buried hundreds of
them ourselves. There aro a lot of our men wearing
Russian boots, which they pulled off them. There was
a Frenchman yesterday pulling one fellow out the grave
to get his boots. I thought I would rather go without
boots for a long time before I would do that. My dear
sister, you wish to know about Sebastopol. lam sorry
to tell you I have not been in there yet ; but when I
am at work by day I can see the people walking about,
and can see the dogs running about the streets. I think
it looks a beautiful place. There is a very fine arsenal.
We can see them working, but we could, if we liked,
fire in and destroy the best part of the town. I believe
Lord Raglan will not allow that, as he thihks of taking
it soon, so by that means he don't wish to destroy any,
or more than he can avoid. The French would go and
storm it at once, if they were allowed to do so, and our
men would likewise. There is no mistake about the
English soldier ; he will go through fire and water if you
I once get his blood warm.

The following is from a letter written on board
the Indiana, and dated " Before the French Camp,
Crimea, Dec. 25, 1854."
"The weather since we came in has been very dis•
agreeable, noting but gales of wind and rain, with a
mall amount of gold. Our ship, however, is in a very