The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-28 00:00:00

and minks of the Sappers and Miners was merely formed bf
a house and three other walls; there were three dwarf wall
forming an enclosure of a courtyard against the house, and
one end of a sail was stretched as it might be against that
wall [the witness pointed to the wall of the court], and the
other end was brought down, and with a rope fastened to
the dwarf wall on the opposite side; that was all the cover-
ing that we used for the shelter of the baggage animals ; but
a shelter of that sort is totally different from what would
have been required by the cavalry in a place like the plateau;
it is not a parallel case at all; what can be done in one place
where there are walls cannot be done in another where there
.is nothing of the sort."
We completely concur in this opinion; and, with regard to
the general charge of " want of promptitude or energy," as
attaching to the cavalry under the command of Lieutenant-
General the Earl of Lucan, it appears by the statement made
to us by Col. Tulloch, and by the whole course of his exami-
nation of witnesses, to have been founded on the assumption
that tools and materials (including canvass) and labour were
either at hand or might have been procured from the fleet or
from Constantinople—an assumption which does not appear
to be borne out by the evidence.
The uncertainty with regard to the occupation of the
plateau by the cavalry appears to us to form a very ma-
terial element in the consideration of this matter, added
to which the difficulty of transport to that place was such
that, evenif it had been possible to haveprocurcd the before-
mentioned tools and materials (including cavass), theycould
not have been there made available.

It further appears that after the cavalry arrived at Kadikol
the Earl of Lucan was unceasing in his endeavours to erect
shelter for the horses.

With regard to digging pits as a means of shelter for the
cavalry horses the Earl of Lucan stated—
"ln that country, with that soil—a soil that puddles after
three or four hours' rain, consisting chiefly, as it did on the
plateau, of a strong brick clay—l say that, without a root,
or unless you could pave, any such trench as is talked of
would have been totally useless; and it would have been
mischievous, because it would very much have obstructed
you in what is far more essential—namely, the constant
removal of your horses. When you talk of a pit, a pit le
not only useless, but it is perhaps the most mischievous
thing into which you can possibly put a horse. It was
attempted—and there is an officer in this court now who
could establish the truth of what I say if he were examined
upon the subject—with the Land Transport ; they did make
pits for their horses, and those pits were deg on the side of the
hills. Still, it was found impossible to drain them sufficiently,
and the horses suffered so much that the Turks, who had
charge of them, could not be got to use the pits after they were
dug. In short, a pit that is neither roofed nor paved would
be more appropriately called a grave than pit."
This is borne out to a certain extent by the evidence of
other offieers, and we are of opinion that, unless material's
existed for paving or covering those pits, they would have
been attended with no advantage to the cavalry.
With regard to so much of the passages as is referred to
in objection 7, the question therein raised seems to relate
to the motive which induced the Earl of Lucan to threaten

to put the officer commanding the Scots Greys (Colonel
Darby Griffiths) under arrest.
We were informed by Colonel Tulloch that the commis•
sioners did not consider it consisent with their instruc-
tions to examine any of the•oflicers who were stated to have
been present on the occasion referred to, and we have not
had an opportunity of doing so.

ColoneiGriffithi, by his answer to question 66, does not
appear to have ever contemplated erecting any shelter for his
horses, but merely the digging of a drain in front and rear of
them, provided he could obtain a guarantee from the Earl of
Lucan that his camp would not be moved.
Whatever may have been the misunderstanding between
the Earl of Lucan and Colonel Griffiths, it does not appear
by the evidence adduced that any officers were influenced by
it. It is therefore to be regretted that such an inference has
been sought to be established reflecting on Lieut.-General
the Earl of Lucan.
Upon the whole, we are satisfied by the evidence, docu-
mentary and oral, adduced before us, and by a perusal of the
Earl of Lucan's divisional orders and correspondence that his
Lordship used every exertion to meet the peculiar difficulties
which he had to contend with; and that he is therefore not
chargeable with neglect in the performance of the important
duties attached to his command.
MAJOR-GENERAL THE EARL OF CARDIGAN'S CASE.
The Earl of Cardigan called our attention to the following
passages of the bport of the Commissioners, as containing
the statements of which he complained (p. 198)
There is one case, however, from which such serious con-
sequences have arisen that it requires some special notice.
" The Light Cavalry Brigade, which had for some time
previously been stationed in the valley adjacent to Balaklava,
was removed first to the vicinity of head-quarters for two or
three days, and thereafter, on the Ist or 2d of November, to
Inkerman, where it was stationed near the Windmill, a dis-
tance of at least seven or eight miles from Balaklava. This
change, at a time when the roads were in an extremely bad
state, and where there was great difficulty in obtaining the
means of transport, created very serious obstacles to a proper
supply of forage being obtained.
" It is alleged by Deputy Assistant Commissary-General
Crookshanks, that there was a certain quantity of hay at Ba-
laklava, but not the means of carrying it to the front ; occa-
sionally ho managed to bring up a little, till the 14th Novem-
ber' when the supply failed entirely. After that data the want
of transport affected the supply of barley also, which on seve-
ral days did not exceed 131 b. to :31b. daily per horse, beingall
that they had to keep them alive. The returns of ,me of the
regiments show that for the last four days they were on the
ground the average was only about 221 b. for each horse,
previously exhausted as they had been by the want of hay
or straw during the early part of the month.
41 When the supply began to fail the Commissariat officer
referred to, who appears to have done everything in his power
to, meet the difficulties, of the case, proposed—as he knew
there was plenty of barley at Balaklava—that if a detachment
of the horses
.were allowed to go down daily he would engage
to bring up enough for the rest of the brigade.

"Tins proposition appears to have been brought especially
under the notice of Lori Cardigan by Lieut.-Colonel Mayon,
Assistant-Quartermaster-General of Cavalry, who states that
his lordship declined to accede to it, as he had previously
done when a similar proposition was made to him to send the
horses down for hay before that supply failed.
" The whole brigade remained in this state till the 2d of
December, when it was directed to return to its previous
position, but by that time the horses were reduced to such
a state from starvation that they could no longer bear the
weight of their riders ; they had to be led down, many were
left on the ground in a dying state, and of the remainder 17
died .on the road before they could reach their former station,
a distance only of about six miles,
"It is no part of our duty to enter into the military rea-
sons which may have led to the detention of this brigade on
a spot where the horses could not be foraged by the Commis-
sariat, or which may have induced a refusal to adopt the
only measure by which apparently they could be subsisted;
we merely call attention to the fact, as one of the instances
of a deficiency of supply which formed the special subject of
an inquiry.
His Lordship's complaint was—
That the commissioners had here charged him with having
contributed to the ultimate inefficiency of the Light Brigade
by his refusal to adopt a suggestion which, in the opinion of
the commissioners, was calculated to improve the condition
of the brigade—viz., the sending the troop horses down to
Balaklava for forage (p. 198).
He contended that, in not adopting that suggestion, he had
exercised a sound discretion, and one which was calculated
to enable the brigade, so far as the difficulties permitted, to
continue to discharge its various duties (p. 198) P •
Inasmuch as, had the horses been sent down, he thought it
very uncertain whether they could have obtained supplies (p.
204);
And further, because such a journey, in the then state of
the roads, would, in his opinion, have caused a greater loss
of horses than actually occurred from the inefficiency of the
supplies (p. 205).
He further contended that, had he thought it expedient to
send his horses to Balaklava, he should not have considered
himself at liberty to do so, since the absence of so many as
would have been required to convey the forage from Balaklava
(for an indefinite numberof hours) would have been inconsist-
ent with the positive orders of Lord Raglan that the Light
Brigade should, for military reasons, retain that position (pp.
206, 207', 213, 219, 229)
It appears by Lord Cardigan's statement that his lordship
did not demand an inquiry into his conduct, but that he
gladly availed himself of the opportuniry of appearing before
the Board, in order to enter more fully into the consideration
of the remarks of the commissioners in their report, which re-
fer to his command while with the Light Brigade of Cavalry
in the Crimea.

It appears that on the 2d of November the Light Brigade
was moved to the Heights of Inkerman, wider a special ar-
rangement between Lord Raglan and the Commander-in-Chief
of the French army, and continued in that exposed situation,
for military reasons, until the 2d of December, the Earl of
Cardigan having resigned his command on the 29th of No-
vember.

After the storm of the 14th of November the men and
horses were exposed to inclement weather. The rations of
forage, owing to the diminution of means of Commissariat
transport, were reduced, and towards the end of November
the supplies of hay failed entirely.
The commissioners have charged Lord Cardigan with hay-

ing contributed to the ultimate inefficiency of the Light Bri-
gade, by his refusal to adopt a suggestion which, in the opi-
nion of the commissioners, was calculated to have preserved
the Light Brigade from the destruction that threatened it—
namely, the sending the troop horses to Balaklava for forage.
It appears that at the latter end of November the greatest
number of horses in the encampment of the Light Brigade
was 330, of which, owing to so many men being .14...au au-
sent, only 286 could be mounted.
From this number it would have required 120 horses to
have brought up forage from Balaklave. ; and to have de-
tached se large a proportion of the force would have di-
minished it to such an extent as to have rendered it vir-
tually nseless for the purpose for which it had been placed in
the pisition it occupied.

With reference, therefore, to the military reasons noticed
,by the commissioners, it appears to us that Lord Raglan
alone could` judge of the fitness of a measure, and that it
could not have been resorted to without his sanction.
He appears to haVe been made acquainted by the Major-
General commanding the brigade, by the Lieutenant-General
commanding the division, and by Commissary-General Filder
with the hardships which the cavalry were suffering. But
there is no evidence to show that Lord Raglan's attention
was particularly called to the proposal of the Assistant-Com-
missary-General that the horses should be sent to bring
forage from Balaklava. What steps, therefore, might have
been taken by Lord Raglan hid that proposal been distinctly
brought to his notice can now be only matter of conjecture.
The military reasons for keeping a largo proportion of the
cavalry in the position which they then occupied seem to have
rendered the case peculiarly embarrassing: for these reasons
appear in some degree to have been irrespective of considers..
tions of forage.
The opinion, however, expressed by Lord Cardigan, that
to have sent the horses for that purpose to a place so distant
as Balaklava would only have augmented the losses of the
brigade, although not in entire accordance with some of
the opinions offered in evidence before us, appears to be sup-
ported by a reference to the difficulties experienced by the
Royal Artillery at the same period; for it is in evidence
that the horses in that force were on two occasions, between
the 23d and 27th of November, 1854, at great wear and tear,
sent down to Balaklava for hay, at the urgent request of the
Commissariat,,and on their arrival there it was found that no
hay was procurable.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR RICHARD AIREY'S CASE.
Sir Richard Airey said, -
" With regard to the passages which I regard as containing
matters of -animadversion, they' are intermixed with other
passages involving no animadversion, so that it would be
difficult to point out the exact sentence, or parts and bits of
sentences, of which I complain; but I can say it is the whole
of the London Report, down to-the end of the sixth line of
the 37th page, and to that part I invite inquiry."
At the commencement of his. address Sir Richard Airey
commented on the circumstances under which the evidence
was taken by the commissioners, and contended that those
circumstances rendered it dangerous to draw conclusions
from that evidence, and scarcely possible to assign a value
to a report founded thereon.
He set forth at length various reasons for entertaining
this opinion, which reasons will be found in the proceedings
(pp. 230-1-2-4-5, 252, 261, 337-8-9).
stated that the evidence, as priatil 11 the co=gs.