The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-02-08
GROWING experience.

De1C6uI WOIhiuS VI VIZ - - ~ $3.50
each of them responsible to different
Minister at home, here first resulted in
open and uumistakeable clashing. Want
reigned in the camp, while the garrison
of the Varna had the best of comforts
The Commissariat, lazily, indeed, got to-
gether some means of transport from the
country; but as the Commander-in- chief
did not appoint any escort wagons, the
Bulgarian drivers disappeared again as
fast as they had been brought together.
A central depot was formed at constan-
tinople-a sort Of first base OF operations;
but it served no purpose except to create
fresh centre of difficulties, delays, ques-
tions Of competency, quarrels between
the army, the Ordnance, the paying staff,
the Commissariat and the War Office
Wherever anything was to be done, every
body tried to shove it off his own should
ers upon those of somebody else. The
avoiding of all responsibility was the gen.
eral aim.-The consequence was that
everything went wrong and that nothing
whatever was done. Disgust at these
proceeding, and the certainty of seeing
his army rot in inactivity, may have had
some influence in determining Lord Rag
Ian to risk the expedition to the Crlmea,
This expedition crowned the success OF
John Bulls military organization. There,
in the Crimca, came the decided hit. y
So long as the army was, in point Of fact,
in state of peace, as at Gallipoli,
Scutari, and Varua, the magnitude of the
disorder, the completely of the confusion,
could hardly be expected fully to develop
itself. But now, in the face of the enemy,
during the course of an actual siege, the
case was different. The resistance of the
Russians gave full scope to the British Of
fcials for the exercise of their business
like habits. And it must be confessed =,
never was the business of destroying an
army done more etfectually than by these
gentlemen. Of more than 10000 men
sent to the East since February last, not
more than II, 900 are now fit for duty;
and of these, some 60 or SO die daily, and
about 200 or 250 are every day disabled
by sickness, while out of those that fall
sick, hardly any recover. And out of the
$4,000 dead or sick, not I 600 have been
disabled by the direct action of the en-
emy!
When first it was reported in England
that the army in the Crimea wanted food,
clothing, housing, everything; that Meth
er medical nor surgical stores were on the
spot; that the sick and wounded had
either to lie on the cold, wet ground, ex-
posed to the weather, or be crowded on
board ships moored in open roadsteads,
without attendance, or the simplest re-
quisites for medical treatment; when it
was reported that hundreds were dying
for want of the FIRST necessaries; every
body believed that the Government had
neglected to send proper supplies to the
scene of action. But soon enough it be-
came known that if this had been partial
ly the case in the beginning, it was not so
now. Everything had been sent there,
even in profusion, but unfortunately,
nothing ever happened to be where it was
wanted The medical stores were at
Varna, while the sick and wounded we're
either in the Crimea or at Scutari; the
clothing and provisions had arrived in
sight of the Crimea, but there was no.
body to land them, Whatever by chance
got landed was left 20 rot on the beach
The necessary CO. operation of the naval
force brought fresh element of dissen-
sion to bear on the already distracted
councils of the Departments whose con-
6cts were to insure triumph to the Brit
isb Incapacity, sheltered by regulations
made for peace, reigned supreme; in one
of the richest countries of Europe, on the
sheltered coasts of which hundreds Of
transports laden with stores lay at an
chor, the British army lived upon half
rations; surrounded by numberless herds
of cattle, they had to suffer from scurvy
in consequence of being restricted to salt
meat; with plenty of wood and coal on
board ship, they had SO little of it on
shore that they were often compelled to
eat their meat raw, and could never dry
the clothes which the rain had drenched.
Think Of serving out the coffee, not only
onground, but unroasted. There were
stores of food, of drink, of clothing, of
tents, Of ammunition, by tons and hun
dreds of tons, stored away on board the
ships, whose masts almost touched the
tops of the cliffs, where the camp was
placed and yet, Tantalus like, the Brit
ish troops could not get at them. Every
body felt the evil-everybody ran about,
cursing everybody else for neglect of du-
ty, but nobody knew, to use the vernacu-
lar expression, which was which; for ev-t
had his own set of regulations
carefully drawn up, and sanctioned by the
competent authority, and showing that
the very thing required was no part of
his duty, and that he, for one, had no
power to set the matter right.
Now, add to this state of things the In
creasing inclemency of the season, the
heavy rains setting in, and transforming
the whole Heracleatics Chersonese into
one uninterrupted pool of mud and slush,
knee deep, if not more; imagine the sol
iiers, two nights at least out of four in
Ihe trenches, the other two sleeping
lrenched and dirty, in the slush, without
j A