The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON DON, WEDNESDAY EVENINn. A_PRiIL 9, 1856

FTXRD MtNl' A

THE MILITARY BOARD OF INQUIRY.
(This Day.)

instances, were attended to, and his lordship read vari-
ous documents in confirmation of his statement.
General Peel asked the noble lord if he agreed witl
Lord Cardigan that, notwithstanding, as he (Lore
Lucan) had said the horses had d tsriorated in condito
previous to their embarkation at Varna, that the Ligh,
Division horses were in good condition ?
Lord Lucan said he differed from that opinion, and
read an extract from an order he issued at the time,
pointing out the bad condition of the horses of the light
cavalry, and calling on the officers and men to use their
best and strenuous exertions to 3 procure forage for
them, and for the men not to continue longer mounte
than necessary, and that the pace should be as slow as
possible. He had issued 72 order.; for the care of the
horses. The condition of the horses on landing at
the Crimea, from what they had suffered whilst at sea,
he could scarcely recognise them.
The Court adjourned at half-past 1 o'clock, and re-
turned shortly after two o'clock, when the eiaminatio
of the noble lord was proceeded with.

71,ArLirATI.

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Compang.

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yesterday

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this .lay

London Sz'
N. West.
L. &N. W.
Caledon.„
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Gt. N rtr n.
E. Count.
Caldonian.

The Board of General Officers re-assembled this morn-
ing at the usual hour, at the Great Hall, Chelsea. As
the inquiry proceeds public interest appears to be more
excited in the inquiry, and the hall to-day was three
parts full before the commencement of the businesq.
Lord Lucan and his friends arrived before 11 o'clock,
as did Col. Tulloch, Lieut.-CGI. Gordon, Col. Doherty,
Cal. Connelly, and Col. Griffiths.
There was a much larger attendance of ladies, the
friends of general officers end others connected with the
inquiry, in the reserved portion of the hall surrounding
the president's table.
Lord Lucan said that his object was not so much to
secure juitica to himself as to those officer's who were
inculpated with himself by this report, and again called
attention to the publication of another article in to-day's
Times, and to consider howlar that paper had attended
to the suggestion of the board.
The Deputy-Judge-Advocate (to Lord Lucan)—To
what do you attribute the great mortality amongst the
horses

95 - 97
94 - 98

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Gt. Weetr•
Yk. New.
& Berw.
Y. &NM,

104 - 106

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IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

Norfolk
Do
L.,k N. W
& Midld.
Stekton
Darlingt.

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HOUSE OF COMMONS.—(This Day.)
The SPEAKER took the chair at twelve o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

2i - 2f

9-‘ - 93

Lord Lucan —D Des this refer to any particular period,
or "t• the whole of the time the cavalry division was
under my command ? .

The Haslinden Water Bill and the Southport Water
Bill were severally read a third time and passed.
Mr. DUFF presented a petition from a place in the
north of Ireland against the Bleaching Works Bill.
The petition, which was read at length by the clerk at
the table, stated that certain petitions that had been
presented to the house in favour of the bill had been ob-
tained by misrepresentation, and prayed for inquiry inv
the circumstances.
Sir W. WEBB presented several petitions from North
Wales in favour of Medical Reform.
Sir F. THESIGER presented a petition from Stain-
ford against the Oath of Abjaration Bill.
Mr. E. LOCKHART presented a petition frOrn Sel-
kirk against the Oath of Abjuration Bill.
Mr. M. GIBSON presented a petition from the Man-
chester Commercial Association, and also a petition from
166 of the principal firms in Manchester against the
Theaching Works Bill.
Mr. BROTHERTON presented two petitions against
the Maynooth grant.
ROCHESTER ELECTION.

En. Conn.
E. Count.
Do.
Do

i - iP
55 - 57

The Deputy-Judge-Advocate--The question has been
altered to this form. To what do you attribute the
great mortality amongst the horses during the time the
cavalry division was under your command ?
Lord Lucan—The cavalry was not under my command
until they landed in the Bast, and I need not refer .to
the horses lost on their passage. His lordship, who spoke
slowly and cautiously, said the question I am afraid will
require a very large answer. I may say independent of
of the horses lost in action, and which I can explain, I
might attribute the loss of the horses in the army first, I
may say, that perhaps excepting a day or two--for a
very few days at long intervals—l may say that the
horses of my cavalry were ',ever properly fed any one
day whilst under my command. From the inefficiency
of the food, and from the irregularity by which they ob-
tained it, the horses were never in condition at any one
time during •the whole time they were under my com-
mand. I may say thatthe horses deteriorated in condition
from the moment they landed at Scutari or Varga. lean-
not say they continued to deteriorate, because they could
not be in a worse condition— but they deteriorated from
that moment until they got into that desperate state of
emaciation from starvation that, as you observe, but a
very small proportion of them survived. It miretber
a ell known to all accustomed to horses, that when ex-
posed, it was the same with them as, I believe with an
other animals, that they required more food than at any
other time. I say that the rations of food issued to the
cavalry were insufficient ; and when the whole of the ra-
tions were given it happened very rarely in Bulgaria.
I will confine my remarks to those regiments under my
immediate command at Varna, rather than speak of-at-
happened at Dome, and which came under my personal
knowledge, because my brigadier did not keep me sup-
plied with very perfect information of what occurred
there. At Varna, till the time of the great fire in
August, there was not much difficulty in procuring bar-
ley and chopped straw. My first duty after arriving at
&uteri was to become the president of a board tesein-
quire into the supply of rations fur troop, artillery, and'
baggage horses of the army. His lordship's statement was
of a very rambling character. We gathered, however, from
it that the subject of foraging was considered, and it was
arranged, with the consent of Lord Raglan, that the
artillery and cavalry horses should have 12ths. of barley
and 10 be. of hay or 1611 es. of chopped straw, anethe,
baggage horses were to have a quarter less of barley,
but the same quantity of hay or chopped straw. -At.
Varna, before the fire, there was not much difficulty in
Betting the quantity of forage, always getting the barley
and in most instances the quantity of hay ; but setae-
times they got but 61bs. of hay, and in the Crimea the
greatest quantity of hay they bad was Blbs. After the
fire at -Varna there was a want of both hay and barley,
and I bad only the services of Mr. Murray, who Was-
berth new to the country and the service, to asssist me
in getting what I required ; and bad it not been for my
aide-de-camp, Capt. Walker, the cavalry would have
been in a much worse condition than they realty were.
One of the great evils at that time was that of the Com-
missariat sending all over the country young men to
secure forage for the horses, the consequence of
which was that in many cases they were bidding
against each other, and raising the prices considerably
a sheaf of corn, that generally sold for two or three
piastres, fetched on this occasion four or five piastres.
At Devna the forage efraa so • ehoet Lend, it generally_
happen ed -that: it the, sol4iecrtFaacdfiffeient the enerat'
was so. also) that I had (cede' 'priest my baggage horses of
their forage, and leave them to do their best, to provide
my chargers with food. This deficiency continued
dining the time the cavalry was in Bulgaria, and I
called personally on Mr. Commissary Filder often re-
specting it ; and, although I am always prepared to
give him the greatest possible credit for the manner in
which he rationed the men, I must say, with equal fair-
ness, that I was always dissatisfied with the way in
which he fed the horses. I never had an interview with
him about the forage that I did not leave him without
being dissatisfied with him on that account. I found
from the inefficiency of the forage that my horses
were failing, and as they were almost my first
care I oould not feel satisfied at finding they were
starving. When the light brigade came in from Devna
I inspected them the morning after their arrival, and,
with the exception of a few of them, I could not see much
difference in their condition between them and the heavy
brigade, although Lord Cardigan had stated they were
in good condition, and that he was satisfied with their
condition. I consider there was the greatest misman-
agement p )ssible in embarking the cavalry for the Cri-
mea, consisting of 1,100 horses. After they had been
at sea a few days, one of the officers on board of the
Simla came to me and complained that there was no
forage on board for the horses, although Lord Raglan—
bad ordered, previous to their embarkation, that there
should be six weeks' forage put on board each of the
vessels. In consequence of that deficiency it became
necessary- to shorten the rations. His lordship then
described the debarkation of the troops in the Crimea,
which occupied three days, to show what a condition
the horses must have been in. After then landing,
Lord Cardigan took 200 horses on patrol, and these
horses, in addition is short forage, had to go 30 hours
without water, from which they suffered much, being
sucject to a harrassing patrol. As the cavalry proceeded
they found no forage except a few stacks of what could
hardly be called straw—there was a total absence of
corn. The horses for some days after the commenced
their march in the Crimea had but little corn and but
little water, which was also very scarce. On the morn-
ing of the battle of the Alma I was promised some
corn, and a little was given to some of the regiments,
who shared it with the others. So alarming was
the state of the cavalry at this time that on the
morning of the battle I spoke to Lord Raglan
about it, to which he replied, "I fought to bave
come to him before, and not to annoy him then
about it." I informed him I had, not done so,
hoping it would have been better by that time. The
cavalry remained at Alma two days, and the first night
a little forage was supplied, and the horses were then
much below condition, having had to do 12 or 14 hours'
work a day with short rations. From the moment the
cavalry landed in the Crimea the supply was irregular
and very short, and on one occasion the cavalry divided
their forage with the French. When they were within
a quarter of a mile of Balaklava barley was eupolied to
the cavalry, and tie horses were in a better condition at
the battle of Balaklava than they bad been pre-
viously, from the extra fodder that had been
supplied, but they still suffered from want of water.
After marching to the plateau on the 30th Oct., 1854,
the horses had their allowance of barley, but only 81h.
of hay, whilst the artillery horses had 101 b. of bay, and
on my remonstrating I was informed by Mr. Filder
that it was in accordance with Lord Raglan's
orders, which I foolishly believed was the case, but
I afterwards found that the reduction had been
made by the Commissary, and not by Lord Raglan's
orders. On the let November the light brigade
was ordered to take up a position seven miles from
Balaklava, on which I remonstrated on the difficulty
there would be of providing them with forage, but I was
informed that I must proceed. If I had bad the assist-
ance of a Commissary-General, whose business would
have been to have superintended the forage of the ca-
valry, I should have been informed of what was going
on, which I did not receive from the Commissary, who
probably considered the brigadier was his commanding
officer, and not me. The noble lord then proceeded to
state the nature of the weather at this time, the difficul-
ties be bad to contend with in supplying forage, the
harassing nature of the work the horses had to dis-
charge, and the unavailing representations he
made of the state of the cavalry to his supe-
rior officer, and raid that the effective strength
of the cavalry at Varna was 16 squadrons of 155
horses each. The light brigade lost during September,
from horses being thrown overboard and a considerable
number that were lost in landing, between 50 and
60, besides what were killed in action. The heavy bri-
gade lost on the passage to the Crimea 226 troop horses,
besides a considerable number of baggage horses, and
many officers' chargers. In all the heavy brigade
lost then about 300 horsey. I have an account of the
daily loss of horses, and I find that in October not more
than a dozen horses were lost. In November 46 horses
were killed. and 68 wounded in the Battle of Balaklava.
The light brigade lost 341 horses, which arose from the
enemy crossing the lines and taking them away ; 120
horses, however, died in the month of November.
In reply to a question from the Deputy-Advocate-
General,
His Lordship said that his recommendations, in many

L. &N.W.

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ICU Northnl
Lancash&
Yorksh.
T. Brassey
M.MClean
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PREFERENCE; SHARES.

Aberdeen
Du. N 0.2, 7 p. 0. .
Do. Debentures
Rlyth and:l'3m, 10
cs. prof. (issd. at 501
St. 100 &is. it Es. 4p.c. St
20 5 Do. 4p. c. Shares
St. 100 Caledonian £lO
15 all Ohes.8:1o. flu. 5i pc
91 all Do. do. Pref. No. 2.
211 all Do. do. Pref. No. 2
64 all Cork dtßanclons2p.c
all Dun.Prth .4r A ber. J.
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St. 'lOO Do. do Cls. C7p. c.
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10 all Do. New 6p.c. St
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5 all Do. 51., 10 per cent
10 all Do. 10/. Debentr.SL
St. all Do. do. 4 per cent ,
SI. 100 [llast Lancash. 6 p.cts
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118 - 122
115 120
84 90

93 i 6

The following members were chosen to serve on the
cornmitt,e to inquire into the late election for Rochester,
viz., Mr. Floyer, Sir H. F. Davy, Mr. J. Smyth, Mr.
R. Ingham, and Mr. Byng.

96 - 98
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