Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

Part 5

Letter No.27.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Balaklava,

December 30^th. 1854

I suppose I ought to send another journal letter, although there is nothing of importance to record. The weather, which with you begins a conversation merely as a matter of course, is with us a matter of serious importance, and we watch it with the greatest anxiety. With the exception of Christmas Day and the next, when there was a hard frost accompanied by a fall of snow, we have had mild weather, and today has been like a warm day at the end of October in England. But previous rains have thoroughly soaked the soil, and the roads are still as bad as ever.

Yesterday I had an interview with the railroad engineer, he wants his main line to run along the beach road, which I object to on two grounds; first that for the safety of the large ships they must lay their anchors out across the beach road; and secondly because if any one article of provisions should not be forthcoming from the transports at the proper time, all those articles which are landed behind them would have to wait until the first article arrived and could be despatched. I propose that the next street should be selected for the main road, and that sidings from the beach wharfs should be led into it. It appears that Mr. Campbell is not engineer-in-chief, and all he can do is to make a note of the objections and await the arrival of his chief.

I have had the honour of assisting at a Council of War, called by the Generals to inquire whether the Admirals would undertake to bring Omar Pasha’s army over to Eupatoria, and when there to bring their food over from the Bosphorus. They have undertaken it. I don’t suppose there is any great secret in this, but it is as well not to talk of it until the newspapers lead the way. Canrobert reminds me much of the picture of Cromwell, he wears a short surtout coat, buttoned up, and a broad red woollen belt round his waist. He is short but strongly built and active looking, and I should think not much above forty-five. Mules are arriving, and the supplies now go to the front with tolerable regularity. The French help us up with our ammunition, and I suppose that in a fortnight, say the 12^th January, the new bombardment will begin. The Russian outside army has left our neighbourhood, frightened we suppose by the large arrivals of Turks at Eupatoria. It is said they are again entrenching themselves on the Alma.

From what Sir E. Lyons said yesterday I don’t expect to get away under a fortnight. I believe Drummond is my successor, and he has to hunt his ship round the Coast of Circassia. I remain until his arrival. My feelings as to going home or not are of a very mixed nature. I should like to go in and out of Sebastopol Harbour in my ship, and on the other hand I should like to set up Mary’s home and leave her (if I should leave her in the spring which I hardly think probable) snugly settled in her own house. I hope to get permission to take her with me from Malta, which will be very pleasant, to say nothing of being very economical. The “Crimean Army Ships” with good things to be sold at cost price are daily expected. Never was  a greater mistake made, there are at least twenty private traders now in the harbour, and if their profits are destroyed we must trust to the Crimean Army Fund being made a perpetual thing. Free trade principles are evidently not in vogue at the Royal Yacht Club.

Letter No.28

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Balaklava

January 6^th, 1855

As you will see by the date I am still here. I don’t know when I shall start, I wait for Admiral Boxer who relieves me. Sir Edmund Lyons seems to think I shall be here another fortnight, as Admiral Stopford left the Bosphorus for Malta on the 287^th December, whence he will return to take Admiral Boxer’s place in the Bosphorus, and the latter will not start for this until relieved. The “Tribune” has, however, returned from Circassia, and if I were Sir Edmund I should certainly think it a serious business to detain “Sanspareil,” as a time contract has been made for putting new engines into her, and every day’s delay here reduces by so much the chance of her being ready for the spring campaign. We have had four days of very cold weather, thermometer 17 degrees at night, but I don’t hear of many losses in consequence. Two or three officers have died asphyxies from charcoal in their tents. A warning general order has in consequence been issued on the subject. For the last few days large parties have been employed carrying up provisions on their backs to make a depot in front, in case of the roads becoming quite impassable, and the frost has been favourable for this work. One sees plenty of theodolites and measuring chains walking about the country, but no material or navvies have yet arrived. I cannot conceive that the railroad can be made under three weeks from the date of beginning it, and as no one yet knows even whether there is water for feeding the engines on the hill, I should put down six weeks as a very moderate allowance of time for completing the whole concern. I don’t wish to discourage the thing but should like to see a thousand mules arrive in the meantime. The beach is covered with huts; they are not likely, however, to get to the front, except in very limited numbers, for it will take two hundred men to carry one. Three have been set up close to the town and look very comfortable.

The siege is quite at a standstill; a few shot fired on both sides daily but nothing more. Eight hundred French come down daily and carry up two hundred shells for us, and so preparations for the second act of the drama are going slowly on – but only slowly. We flatter ourselves , in spite of what “Our  Own Correspondents” say, that the harbour is in very fair order. I have a first-rate working assistant in Powell, and certainly if any one thing connected with the expedition is carefully attended to and looked after it is the anchoring of the ships. “Our Correspondent” may be a better judge of whether it is well or ill done than we are; but we are quite contented and our consciences quite clear, and I am told the merchant  skippers who are used to Liverpool docks, etc., quite bear us out in our good opinion of our doings.

Letter No.29.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Balaklava,

January 12^th, 1855.

Still no signs of Admiral Boxer, and therefore no preparations for the homeward-bound voyage. I read last night in the Evening Mail, of December 15^th to 18^th, “Our Own Correspondent” on Balaklava Harbour, and am perfectly astonished that a man can sit down and write such downright untruths. I can understand that one whose profession is that of “Graphic Designer” will be constantly prone to exaggerate a little for the sake of points and effect; but he has gone a long way beyond that. It is quite possible that mine may not be the best system at all, whereas there is a very strict one, and I am sure I speak within bounds when I say that not one vessel in thirty comes in without our assistance as pilots. I have done unwisely, perhaps – it depends on the result, which I don’t know – but I have in my civil capacity as Harbour Master sent round a circular to the Masters of Transports asking their opinion as to the justice of The Times statements.* (Vide Page 142) I don’t intend publishing it, even if the answers are favourable, or going to war with The Times, but I shall perhaps be cross-questioned at the Admiralty, and the document would then come in very well.

I see there is a great deal of talk about the “Prince,” and I know that all the authorities have been called on to make reports. I put the chief blame on the Master’s shoulders. He could not have been a good seaman to have lost his two first anchors when bringing up, and to have remained at anchor with his third was bad enough; but to cut the masts of a screw ship away after slipping instead of before is a clear proof of incompetency. The “Melbourne” once lost her topmasts by accident and her screw was jammed for forty-eight hours.

Ammunition still goes to the front, and a store of biscuit is being forwarded as a reserve. Horses are more abundant than of yore, but they are animals which arrive half starved from Varna, and as they are not looked after and have no shelter here their life is but a short one. A cargo of Alicant mules is expected, and I have undertaken to build a shed to hold them on condition that regular grooms shall be appointed to feed and look after them when their day’s work is over. I began at it yesterday, and hope to have it up before the mules arrive, and that this may be the beginning of a better system with the commissariat animals. The harbour is full of huts, but there is not much chance of getting them up in any numbers to the front. Some have been set up in the immediate neighbourhood of the port and give great satisfaction.

The naval brigade is being reduced by taking away the crews of ships ordered to England. I suppose this is merely an act of justice to the men and has nothing to do with the prospects of the siege. The weather is again cold, thermometer about 28 deg. I hear sickness has rather decreased. We embark about twelve hundred a week for Scutari.

Balaklava Harbour.

Copy of a paragraph in The Times:-

“Will it be credited that with all our naval officers in Balaklava with nothing else to do – with our embarrass de richess of Captain, Commanders, and Lieutenants – there is no more care taken for the vessels in Balaklava then if they were colliers in a gale off Newcastle? Ships come in and anchor where they like, do what they like, go out when they like, and are permitted to perform whatever vagaries they like, in accordance with the old rule of ‘higgledy piggledy, rough and tumble,’ combined with ‘happy go lucky.’”

“The Times” and Balaklava Harbour.

Circular to Captains of Transports.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil,”

Balaklava

January 10^th, 1855.

Gentlemen,

My attention has been called to the annexed paragraph in The Times newspaper. I am about to return to England, and should be glad to know whether, in your opinions, the strictures in that paragraph are just or unjust.

The question is not whether ships should be moored up and down or athwartships – on this plan or on that plan’ but it is whether there is at present any system at all – whether the ships are placed in any regular order, or whether (as the “Correspondent” states) they are left to anchor where and when they please. I should be glad also to know whether you consider that your interests and welfare in those points specially belonging to a harbour master’s duties are attended to or neglected by us – whether, in fact, there is any foundation whatever for the statements that “there is no more care taken of you than if you were colliers in a gale off Newcastle.”

Your obedient servant,

L.G. Heath,

Harbour Master.

Answers.

“The pilotage of the port under Captain Powell, requiring the largest ships to be handled under critical circumstances, has caused me repeatedly to express my most unqualified admiration. This duty has called for incessant labour, and it has been bestowed with the most untiring zeal and with an ability not to be surpassed by the most practised hand. I consider the present state of the harbour a marvel of exact  management.”

“I beg permission to express my opinion that the harbour arrangements, with the prompt assistance given to all vessels, are perfect.”

“We concur in saying it is false to say that ships take up their position in this harbour as they please; and taking into consideration the smallness and inconvenience of the harbour, we think the ships are moored in the most efficient manner, both as regards safety and expedition.”

“As you are now on the eve of your departure for England, I cannot permit you to leave without acknowledging my grateful sense of the courtesy and gentlemanly consideration I have experienced from yourself as harbour master, as also from your most able assistant, Commander Powell, to whom I am much indebted for the science displayed in the management of my ship whilst piloting her into and out of this very snug but tortuous harbour, when the most profound judgement is required. Indeed, the zeal and ability exhibited by you both, early and late, together with your arrangements and general good management, have excited the admiration of my nautical friends.”

There are sixteen documents much in the same style signed by forty-seven individuals, including the Masters of all the large steamers.

Report on the Wreck of the Transport “Prince.”

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Balaklava,

January 2^nd, 1855.

My dear Sir Edmund Lyons,

I have carefully thought over the subject mentioned in the despatches which you gave me to read, and have come to the conclusion that the principal cause of the loss of the “Prince” was the incompetency of her Master.

The best of seamen bringing a long unwieldy ship, like the “Prince,” to an anchor may be obliged if under sail to do so with fresh way on to avoid contact with other ships, but under steam there can be no possible excuse for doing so, and therefore no possible excuse for losing an anchor and cable, even if the latter were not clinched, still less for losing two.

Again, no person, with any knowledge of the peculiar danger there is of fouling a screw, would have cut away his masts after getting under weigh. If it should be necessary to get rid of them he should do so before slipping and not after. The well-known history of the “Melbourne,” whose screw was jammed for two days be the accidental carrying away of her topmasts should have taught him better.

In the middle of November the defences of Balaklava were not anything like so strong either in entrenchments of men as they are now, and I know Captain Dacres felt with great anxiety that there was a double responsibility upon his shoulders. He felt that if the enemy should make a successful attack it would be of the utmost importance that as few ships as possible should be in the harbour, in order that those which were there should have a chance of escape and not hinder one another. On the other hand he knew the season was advancing, and that although no warning had yet been given (not a single vessel having as yet been driven on shore or received any damage), still an anchorage in forty or forty-five fathoms on an open coast could not but be dangerous.

I have personally had more experience in bringing ships into Balaclava Harbour than any one else, and I would certainly not undertake to bring such a vessel as the “Prince” safely in with a strong southerly wind. “OF two evils chose the least” is a good maxime. The danger of bringing the vessel in was known; the tremendous gale that awaited her was unknown. It is easy to reason after events, and one is apt to forget that if the “Prince” had been wrecked coming in, and the gale of the 14^th had not occurred to justify the attempt, there would have been the same outcry on the subject as there is now.

I do not know whether Captain Christie was aware of the “Prince” having but one anchor left. There can be no doubt that he ought to have been aware of it, and that in that case he ought not to have allowed her to remain at anchor. On this point the whole blame rests with him, because as Principal Agent of Transports he controlled their movements; but I think that under the circumstances the Captain of the “Prince” should not have come into the roadstead without orders, nor with orders without remonstrating.

I am, therefore, once more le to conclude that the incompetence of the Captain was the principal cause of the disaster.

Yours very truly,

L.G. Heath.

Letter No.30.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil”

Balaklava,

January 19^th 1855.

How you must all be wondering and puzzling what the appointment is which I expect. Whatever it may be, it has been offered in such handsome terms that I could not help accepting , however tempting prospects of Moorhurst may be. Now I may as well tell you; don’t you think so? I don’t know how much a year it is, nor any details of that sort. I have been very busy lately building a shed to hold two hundred and fifty mules expected from Alicant. I anticipate it will be the only thing that is not “too late,” as Lord Grey said. – The perhaps the appointment is “Carpenter to the Forces”?

A man has this moment left me who came to get help in making sledges; he was sent down expressly to superintend them, but the frost left us last night, and a boat would be better conveyance to the camp now than a sledge; sledges are clearly “too late” for this frost – however, they may come in again. The cold has been very severe, and many men have been frost-bitten and lost their toes. Thermometer all one day at 22 deg., and down one night to 17 deg. Fahrenheit.

Large working parties from different regiments are erecting stores for the Commissariat and additional huts for hospitals, and altogether there is a good deal of energy at work. Want of mules, railroad or transport of some description is the great want, almost the only one. The system of having the beasts under the Commissariat is a bad one, and I hope to persuade Lord Raglan to being a new and better system with the two hundred and fifty expected mules. – “Then it must be Stable Keeper?”

Letter 31.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Balaklava,

January 23^rd, 1855.

I suppose a letter with nothing in it is still better than none at all. I am expecting Admiral Boxer in about two days, and I shall then be off to Malta as fast as the “Sanspareil’s” rickety engines will take me. There I am to have ten days’ leave of absence, after which, if the Admiralty approves of Sir Edmund Lyons’s suggestion, I shall be turned back eastward, and Mary will trudge on to England. I shall leave with the satisfaction of having been the cause of a great improvement in what is now in the greatest disorder of any department connected with the army. I told you I was building stabling for mules; I have now succeeded in getting a cavalry officer and dismounted cavalry soldiers to attend to the grooming, feeding, and stabling department, and by a letter I received yesterday from Lord Raglan I find the example is going to be followed u, and stabling is to be built immediately for some buffaloes that are expected.

Sick still pour down upon Balaklava; eight hundred a week are sent away to Scutari, etc. the weather is again mild, but the melting of eighteen inches of snow has made the plain deeper in mud than ever. Some of my mules are to be lent to carry up huts, which they will do at the rate of seven or eight a day; there seems no other chance of getting them up in any numbers. The loan of these animals has been wrung out of Mr. Filder with great difficulty, and it would seem that under the present system you must send out horses as well as fireplaces with each hut.

Letter 32.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Khersonese,

February 3^rd, 1855.

Here I am at last fairly clear of Balaklava and fairly started, if not on my homeward voyage, at all events on one of relaxation and pleasure. I think I am leaving just in time, for although I feel in as good health as I ever did in my life there is yet something wrong, for a chip of my knuckle which should have healed in four or five days has been now five weeks unhealed, and not only that but has spread into a nasty looking wound; and the same thing has happened to the knuckle of one of my toes, on the top of which a boot had rubbed a hole. Change of air is the grand remedy in such cases, and although I only arrived here yesterday I fancy there is an improvement already.

I don’t think I have written to you for ten days or so. The events during that time have not been very grand or exciting, but on the whole I think matters are improving. I have told you all about my mules, as I have got to call them; they are comfortably housed, and their stabling and grooming, feeding, etc., is under a cavalry officer with a staff of sergeants etc. this is not only a good move in itself, but it has produced fruit in causing the same accommodation to be provided beforehand for a hundred and eight big buffaloes just arrived. The railroad ships have begun to come, and the first batch of navvies had cleared the ground for their house before I came away yesterday. They expect in three weeks to have a single line of rails laid as far as the crest of the great plateau on which the army is encamped.

Three days ago I took leave of Lord Raglan. Being so far on the road I went on to the French entrenchments, and it may be interesting to you to know that I road a horse called St.Arnaud, a present from the late French Commander-in-chief to Lord Raglan. The French have seven and a half miles of zigzags and parallels, the principal portion of them forming two sets of approaches of this description. I suppose you know the general principle as well as I do – it is that when one parallel is made (which serves as cover for the besieging troops) advancing zigzags are made towards the front, but zigzagged at such angles that people behind them are still under cover. After advancing by these means a certain distance, another parallel is formed for the same purpose as the first, and then another advance, and so on. I went up to their furthest, or third parallel, which is only a hundred and ten yards from the top of the Russian flag staff battery. The top of the parapet is formed of bags filled with earth, and at intervals small holes are left for the double purpose of spying and shooting with rifles at the enemy. The first curious thing I saw, and one which was a good example of the sort of life soldiers in such circumstances are accustomed to, was a party of Frenchmen, under an officer, who were employed in improving the trenches. They were standing looking at a broken iron water pipe which ran (when unbroken) through their ground, and they told me they had just been saved the hard work of destroying it themselves by a lucky cannon shot., which had fallen on it and broken it for them without touching one of their party. It was very curious to look at the enemy’s guns within almost a stone’s throw of them, but I confess the peculiar twang of Minie rifle balls passing, as far as one could guess, within a foot of one’s head was – although very exciting – not very pleasant. The Russians posted for this express purpose are excellent marksmen, and as they probably fired on seeing the tip of one’s cap, or something moving, the chances are that the balls did not really pass much more than a foot from one.

There are two mines made by the French; one is completed, and reaches beneath the Russian work; the other, into which I went, has twenty yards further to go. It is a passage about four feet square, the ventilation is keep up by means of a rotatory fan at the mouth. The men working at the further end sit down and dig out with crow bars; other, also sitting down, shovel what is thus removed into four-wheeled trucks, which are driven along on a wooden railway to the mouth, whence the stuff is drawn up in buckets. It was very hot up at the further end, and I should think on a frosty night there would be plenty of volunteers for the work. I think I have somewhere read of mines and counter mines having met, and I could imagine the desperation of such a combat with crowbars as would then take place. I am glad to have been within twenty yards of Sebastopol. This third parallel, being the nearest to the Russian works, is of course the one most the object of attack by the Russian sorties, and many sanguinary fights have there taken place. In one of them the Russians succeeded in carrying off three small mortars, which had been used with very small charges to throw shells just the one hundred and eight yards over the Russian parapets.

Catching a Russian is I see almost like snaring a hare, for the French have all along the inner side of this parallel, at about three feet down from the top, driven short stakes at intervals of three or four yards, between these stakes they have stretched an iron wire, and it is hoped that when next the Russians succeed in clearing the top of the parapet their feet will catch in the wire, and they will tumble head foremost on the bayonets of the defenders. This device has only quite recently been adopted, and no assault has since been made to test its utility.

I should think there were fifteen hundred men guarding the third parallel, all looking jolly enough. The mail had just arrived,  and the officers in groups were discussing Le Presse or the Moniteur, and asked us with some eagerness what we thought of the prospects of peace. I wanted to gather their sentiments on the subject, but came to no conclusion; the most common feeling seemed one rather of indifference. Just what one might expect from people with a knowledge of the hardships of such a campaign and a distant glimmering of a speedy return to the comforts of La Belle France on one side, and on the other with a soldier’s anxiety to take by force of arms the proud fortress that had so long and so successfully resisted them.

This expedition to the French lines took up the whole day, and no time was left for going over to the English, and taking a last look at the few acquaintances and people in whom I am interested amongst them. Richard Crofton has a brother here in the Engineers; I have not seen him since he landed, but I then had the satisfaction of supplying him with a frame work and canvas bedstead, to keep him off the wet ground. Fitzroy, now Captain Fitzroy, I saw a fortnight ago, looking very well. A few Malta acquaintances I should like to have seen, to report their appearance to their wives on my arrival at Malta.

Admiral Boxer arrived on the 31^st, and from the short talk I had with him I am afraid instead of “putting things to rights,” which he conceives is his mission, he will make a very pretty hotchpotch. He says his orders are “to command at Balaklava,” and his idea of doing that seems to be an interference at once (without waiting for gaining local experience of any sort) with every department\, whether naval or military, which he finds established in the neighbourhood. As his plan and mine are the direct opposites of one another, one of us must be very wrong. I joined the Admiral here on the evening of the 1^st. He takes a hundred men from this ship to man the “Royal Albert,” which came out only partially manned. Discharging these men, taking in old stores, invalids, etc., will detain me until this afternoon, and then, wind and weather permitting, I am off for the Bosphorus and Malta. There I expect to be stopped by electric telegraph, and after ten days’ leave of absence to return – I suppose I may now let out my secret to the family, but to the family only – “Principal Agent of Transports, vice Christie superseded.” The Admiral this evening showed me his letter on the subject to the Admiralty. I am too modest to repeat his eulogies of myself, but they were so strong that I think the appointment next thing to certain. His praises of Christie in all respects but fitness for this particular work were equally strong, and if the latter is dismissed his fall will, I am very glad to say, be as gentle a one as possible. The post is a very important one and a good deal beyond my standing. I look on it as not much below that of a Junior Flag Officer. I have some doubt whether my business habits are equal to the duties, but the responsibility of selecting has been the Admiral’s, and I can only do my best.

Private and Confidential.

H.M.S. “Agamemnon,”

January 15^th, 1855.

My dear Heath,

I may tell you in strictest confidence that I have to propose to the Admiralty a successor to Christie. It is at this juncture a post of the highest importance, and whoever may be appointed by the Admiralty may consider it a signal proff of the confidence of the Board. Now I know no man so fit for it as you are. Shall I propose you?

A more honourable and responsible appointment could not be given to you, in which you sea-time would be going on, and you would be establishing a claim to almost any appointment within the gift of the Board. Captain Christie is borne as supernumerary in the “Fisgard,” in order that his time may count.

I send this and two accompanying notes through headquarters, and the dragoon will wait for your answers to the other two. This, you may possibly (though I hope not) wish to have a night to reflect upon, but  in any case let me have your answer to this tomorrow.

Yours,

E. Lyons

H.M.S. “Agamemnon,”

January 15^th 1855.

My dear Heath,

I hear that the roads may be impassable, so I send the “Arrow” round for your answer to my proposal of yesterday, and I do hope it may be an affirmative one. My letter to the Admiralty must go at 7 a.m. tomorrow, so I shall like to have your answer as soon as may be. If you say “Yes,” I will write to the Admiralty to stop you at Malta by telegraph via Marseilles. Take into consideration that you will be really rendering your country great service at a critical moment of need. You need have no delicacy about Christie, for if you are not appointed some one else will be.

E.L.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

Balaklava,

January 14^th, 1855.

My dear Sir Edmund Lyons,

I cannot tell you how flattered I felt on receiving your offer this afternoon, but I am glad you gave me a few hours for consideration, as I might otherwise have thought I had been led by those feelings without having allowed reason to step in for her share in the discussion. The more I think of it the more I see that however doubtful I may be of doing much better than my predecessor, however much I may hesitate about going out of the regular working line of the service, and however much I may regret the putting off of domestic arrangements, still the appointment is so far beyond my standing, so far more important than any I could hope to hold, that I cannot help seeing that I should be mad not to accept your offer.

I now do so with much gratitude, and much pride at having been selected by you.

Yours sincerely,

L.G. Heath.

Letter No. 33.

Written apparently in February, 1855.

L.G.H.

I think I may as well wind up this series of journal letters by a sort of review of the campaign, premising that the opinions I shall advance are given and were formed, most of them, after the events which I criticise took place. This would not be fair if I were a rival General, or at all professed to have been able at the time to manage matters better than they were managed; but as a looker-on, and a writer in a small way of history, it is, I think, quite legitimate.

Prince Napoleon, the General of Division, now gone home, is said to have described the campaign in these terms – “The conception of an attack on Nicholas’s stronghold was ‘une audace,’ the landing was ‘une audace,’ the battle of Alma was ‘une audace,’ and so was the march on Balaklava, and the sitting down on the heights south of Sebastopol; but there it stopped, and the one ‘audace’ which might have gloriously finished the campaign was wanting.” I agree with him to a great extent, but I think the great original mistake was fighting the battle of Alma in the afternoon instead of the forenoon. We were the aggressors, and could choose our own time; we had a skirmish the previous evening and knew that the enemy was in force, and I think we chose our position for encamping that night too far off. I don’t know if there is any fixed military maxim on the subject, but it seems clear to me that it is the interest of the aggressor to have as much of the day before him as possible, to improve his victory if he gains it; and that of the attacked to put off his opponent, and delay him as much as possible, for the opposite reason.

What were the results of the Alma? What might they have been if the victorious troops had marched on but five or six miles in pursuit? What we did was to gain a great victory, and take what was then one of the outposts of Sebastopol; and in doing so we gained more than the actual victory in the prestige which was attached to it. This advantage which we gained is, I consider, the measure of what we lost by not following up our advantage. All reports agree in stating that on reaching their baggage the Russian army was in perfect confusion, and that the whole of their artillery was left for two days unguarded on the banks of the next river, the Katcha. A few hours’ pursuit would have turned the Russian retreat into a Russian rout. But even if we were obliged to halt that night on the field of battle, would Napoleon or Wellington have remained (I forget how many days) for the sake of the wounded? Would not either of them have pushed on with the main body of the army, leaving a division of soldiers and a division of the fleet to look after the sufferers? Advancing leisurely as we did the road was found strewed with debris of all sorts, showing plainly what would have happened with more energy on our side.

Many people here, and I believe Sir Edmund Lyons amongst them, blame the march round to the south. I am quite of the contrary opinion and think that the saving point for the military reputation of the Allied Generals. That much having been successful, it seems now clear that an immediate attack on the town would also have been successful, and that it might have been foreseen that all subsequent making and arming of earthworks by ourselves, drawing out material from a port seven miles distant, must be overmatched by similar works with guns drawn from the immediate neighbourhood. I think an opinion I once heard set forth that Sir John Burgoyne considered himself a lecturer on practical siege making for the benefit of the young Engineers, with a real Sebastopol for his black board and an allied army for his chalk and long stick, is not far from the true statement of the case. He is said to be seventy-four, and therefore naturally wedded to old opinions and old prescriptive routine, and he has, without doubt, great influence with Lord Raglan. Sir Edmund Lyons says Sir John’s sole reason for objecting to an immediate attack was the existence of a wretched round tower with four guns on its top; but yet he allowed earthworks to grow at night and day, not only round that tower, in rows two and three deep, but also round what was then an almost entirely open and defenceless town, without the slightest attempt at annoying the workemen – saying only that “all he saw could be knocked down in twenty-four hours.” He said this to me on the beach  at Balaklava, and a swell French officer standing by his side added “un coup de pied suffit.” I do not think we fired a single shot from the 26^th September until our batteries opened on the 17^th October. I forgot to mention that the round tower is not a round tower at all, it is round towards Balaklava, but only a semi-circle, and is or rather was open in the rear. What a reward this discovery would have been to one more “audace!”

The bombardment began on the

17^th October, the fleets were to take part in it, and it had been arranged that the French startin from Kamiesh should form in succession in a line for the attack of the forts on the south side, and that the English, commencing from what we call the Wasp Battery, should form in succession round Constantine and attack the northern defences. This plan seemed to me good, but at the last moment Admiral Hamelin persuaded Admiral Dundas not to come down from the northward, but to consider himself part of the French fleet and to form in succession on the leading French ship. The only reason I can conceive for this change was that Hamelin thought there would probably be a gap between the two fleets if the original plan were carried out, and that his leading ship would be singled out for a sort of cross fire from both sides of the harbour. The French plan was adopted with the exception of the “Albion,” “Arethusa,” “Argamemnon,” “London,” and “Sanspareil,” the three last of which are the only ships that did any real good, for all the French were either much too far off or much too late in action. Some ships were not half an hour in action. I don’t think that, however conducted, the naval attack could have been very successful, except as a powerful diversion; but the distance at which the French ships and the English which formed on them were brought into action will be a fair subject of criticism for the historian of the Crimean campaign.

The battle of Inkerman would probably not have been fought if our right had been properly secured, and the reason that it was not properly secured was that we had undertaken a large portion of the offensive line that our small force could fairly cover. What the real reason of this was I cannot say, but suppose it must have been either ignorance as to what could be done with a given number of troops, or too much good nature and bonhomie in Lord Raglan. I do not think, with others, that he should have insisted on keeping his original station – viz., the left of the line – because as we took and kept Balaklava as the base of our operations, I think the right of the position naturally fell to us.

Our sanitary measures have from the first been neglected. The Russians were in no position to attack us when we first came round, we had no trenches to guard, our commissariat horses were still alive, the roads were still good, and yet not a tent did we send to the front for at least ten days, and much sickness was the consequence. No roads were made, no attempt to store provisions in front, no piles of firewood collected, no regimental cook houses established; each mad did for himself, and three or four times the necessary fuel was used. Houses were pulled down, which now would have been invaluable as hospitals or storehouses; not a single precautionary measure was taken with a view to a possible failure  in immediately occupying Sebastopol. Lord Raglan is said to have had permission to order all the Mediterranean garrison to his support; none were sent for until a fortnight after the necessity for them had become a public topic of conversation. I believe Sir Sidney Herbert was quite right in saying that Lord Raglan’s demands had always been forestalled by the supplied from England.

Now for Mr Filder. His great fault has been want of foresight, and bad calculation as to the number of horses required; to which may be added a total want of even an attempt at taking care of the animals he did provide. When the roads became so bad that carts had to be given up, he allowed his bullocks to be killed and eaten; when the roads had again hardened not a dozen bullocks were forthcoming.  A cargo of horses arriving today and numbering three hundred would be sure to be reduced to one hundred and fifty in ten days time. When the poor beasts had travelled six or seven miles, heavily laden, on wretched roads, and returned the same distance , they were turned out into an open yard, eighteen inches deep in mud, off which mud they ate their barley and chopped straw. There were no stable keepers separate from the drivers, and the latter, being as tired after their day’s work as the beasts themselves, acted upon a principle which a campaigning life tends much to foster, that of looking after No.1 first.

Regimental management must have had much to do with our misfortunes, how else can one account for regiments like the  - - -  going bodily to hospital  or the grave, whilst others, like the 75^th, have not a large proportional sick list than the “Sanspareil.” But want of roads and want of mules have been by far our greatest enemies.

Letter No.34.

Malta,

February 27^th, 1855.

I arrived here on the 23^rd, after a long passage of fourteen days from Constantinople, steaming almost the whole way against light westerly winds, but detained at anchor four days out of the fourteen by a strong foul wind. The “Malacca,” a new experimental corvette, took the same time for her journey, and so the “Sanspareil” must not be complained of too much. On arrival here I found a notification of my commission having been sent to Sir Edmund Lyons, and I found on an interview with the hospital doctor (to whom I went as the highest authority) that he thought it would require six weeks to set up my health again. However, I feel sure he overrates my illness, and underrates the benefit of change of scene, change of occupation, and change of air. I expect to be on my return in about a fortnight from the date of my arrival, that will be on about the 10^th March.

I don’t know whether I told you Sir Edmund had agreed to a suggestion from me that I should live on board a small steam man-of-war, instead of shifting about from transport to transport, as Christie had done in a rather undignified manner. The “Triton” is here under repair and will suit me very well; but address all my letters, “Captain Heath, R.N., Principal Agent of Transports, Balaklava.” Your intimation of the amount of my pay rather pulls down my notion of the dignity of my office, for the one may be supposed a measure of the other. I presume it was settled before the business assumed its present gigantic dimensions.

You ask for a history of the coffee-roasting. I cannot remember exact dates, but somewhere in the end of November or beginning of December I directed an an experimental roasting machine to be made by the “Sanspareil” engineers out of empty oil barrels, and this was worked by “Sanspareil” men, burning wood as their fuel, and it roasted I one day sufficient for one-third of the army. I then made two more machines, and turned the three over to the army to work for themselves. They burnt charcoal instead of wood, which of itself was one reason for its roasting more slowly. But besides that, soldiers don’t work like sailors, and I seldom found on my visits to the roasting-shed that the whole three machines were at work; then the charcoal made the men ill, and alterations had to be made in the building. In the meantime the “Sanspareil’s” engineers had undertaken the reventing of the guns in the batteries, and not liking to break them off from there until they had finished, it was some time before more machines were made; but a fortnight before I came away there were six machines made and at work, which did the whole allowance. During the last fortnight, also, a commissariat vessel brought in roasted coffee, and therefore, if from any circumstances there should not have been enough roasted by the machines on any day, the difficiency could be made up from this cargo. There must have been one-third of the coffee roasted during the month of December and more than a half during January, and there is no excuse whatever for the whole allowance henceforward not being issued roasted.

You ask about the numbers of the British army. I send you an official document which will tell you all about them. I think it is dated 26^th January, and there were at that date nearly three thousand men on board ships at Balaklava, waiting for fine weather to disembark, who are exclusive of the return. The marines, about fourteen hundred, and seamen, about nine hundred, are also to be added. I can tell you nothing about the French camp, except that as far as I could judge from my ride through a portion of it when I visited their lines, they did not seem to have so many houses or huts as we have. I shall not be surprised if this Commission, which I see is to investigate the past state of affairs out here, comes to the conclusion that the main point, in which the French differ from us, is in having an organised land transport service, such as we are now beginning to form. I put all, or almost all, our misfortunes down to the utter neglect of our horses and mules. The deficient supply of fodder for any larger number than that which we have had would have made us just as badly off if we had had ever so many, but that could of course have been remedied.

Mary returns to England by the first good opportunity after I leave. Her sister goes with her. All your brotherly and sisterly and motherly invitations have been discussed by us very fully, and we have come to the determination that Eastbury is her proper place, but that she is to spend such lengthy periods with you in turn as shall suffice for her to know you all thoroughly, and you her, and for her to become a regular Heath.

Letter No.35

Balaklava

In great haste

March 12^th 1855.

I have only this morning read Stafford’s telling and eloquent speech, as reported in the Herald. It confirms my opinion of his having been kind to the sick, perhaps from real kindliness of heart, but of his having taken the journey to get up political capital in the shape of grievances. The case in which he refers to me – viz., the “Candia” having arrived in Balaklava with medical comforts on board and having been told to carry them to Sulina, etc., etc. – is a regular bit of humbug. He represents it as an instance of mismanagement. The fact of the things being there is true, and of Captain Field having offered to give them up to any officer with a commission is true. He did so in a letter to me. I wrote to the principal medical officer, and was told that they had held a board on board the ship and had decided that the particular things in question were more wanted at Scutari than at Balaklava, and that they were therefore to be sent back. Could anything else have been done, and would not the Balaklava folks have been to blame if they had done otherwise? Don’t believe even half what you hear from “Eye-witnesses” if Members of Parliament.

Letter No.36.

Balaklava,

March 30^th, 1855.

I see your letter cost you 8d. – I suppose on account of the direction to me as Agent of Transports. Nevertheless be so good as to continue the same extravagant address, because I get the letters a day or two sooner than I should if they were addressed to H.M.S. “Triton.” The said “Triton” has not yet arrived, and in the meantime I am living on board the “City of London.” I suppose I must, on account of Stafford’s kindly acts towards myself, relax in my hatred of his political profligacy.

As you say, this letter is not likely to reach you in time to influence your proceedings, but I am quite content that the line to be adopted should depend on your judgment, and it is a great satisfaction to me to know that you are on the qui vive looking out for me. I should say that as long as I am not attacked I should not move at all. There is no doubt, as you say, a wonderful jumble of dates, and a still more wonderful jumble of names and duties. Many of the things, for which if they did occur I should have been blamed, Christie is attacked for – the dead bullocks, the floating wood and hay, for instance, were all in my department, but by special arrangement with Christie his hospital ships were to look out for the first-named. I don’t plead guilty to any of these things, but perhaps the dead bullocks should have been towed out of the harbour more frequently than they were; but, as I say, Christie had specifically taken over that work. the floating hay was collected as long as there was any fit for collecting. The suggestion was made to Lord Raglan that the wood should be collected for the use of the army. The answer was – “Much obliged, but we have no means of carrying it to the front.” Nevertheless all the time I was there I had an enormous pile, from which any soldier who liked was at liberty to help himself (provided he did not live in Balaklava) and from whence many gun platforms were sawed by the sappers and miners.

The berthing of the ships was, I believe, as perfect as possible. I was responsible for the system, and Powell (whom, however, I had at first to teach and instruct to a certain extent) was responsible to me for carrying it out. I believe the best evidence that the harbour was not quite the chaos of “Our Own Correspondent” – that at all events some attempt was made at regularity – will be found in the official document headed, I think, “Information respecting Balaklava Harbour,” which I drew up for Admiral Boxer’s information, and which was forwarded by Sir Edmund Lyons to the Admiralty.* It is an official document, and drawn up without any other idea than that of giving my successor all the information in my power. Mary has the circular I sent round to the Merchant Captains about The Times criticisms and the answers I received.* I write by this mail to tell her to send them to you at once. I observed in Galignani’s report of (I think) MR. Clay’s evidence that “the Harbour Masters were active,” etc., which The Times of course leaves out.

*Vide next page

* Vide Page 143.

H.M.S. “Sanspareil,”

Balaklava,

January, 1855.

Memorandum Respecting Balaklava Harbour.

Drawn up for the Information of Admiral Boxer.

Piloting and Berthing.

It is of the utmost importance that no sailing vessel should, during the winter months, remain at anchor outside the harbour. Captain Christie has established a signal post on the Eastern cliff, whence information is given respecting ships in the offing. From this post Marriott’s signals are used to the ships outside, and a local code transmits the information received to Captain Christie, and to the Senior Officer in the harbour.

Commander Powell of the “Vesuvius,” assisted by Mr. Reid, Master of that ship, has the entire direction of the piloting of vessels in and out of harbour, and of appointing them their berths.

For this purpose the three tug vessels “Circassia,” “Varna,” and “Shark,” being the smallest and handiest, are in general use.

The “Minna” and “Brenda” are never used for towing, but they go alongside of vessels outside when the water is smooth, and bring in troops. Each of these two vessels will carry seven hundred or eight hundred men, or from sixty to eighty horses.

There are four troop boats and five heavy lighters belonging to the harbour, they are in charge of the Senior Officer. There is also one double boat with a platform over it, but it is not in good repair, and is generally used as a floating wharf.

To ensure clear anchors and close stowage of the vessels in port, it is absolutely necessary that the piloting and berthing should be in the hands of an experienced Officer, and the he should not be diverted from these duties.

Wharfage.

The berths opposite the first open space on the Eastern side after entering the harbour are kept as much as possible for the cattle ships; the smaller ones can land their cargoes (with the assistance of light brows) directly on to the wharf, the larger ones can do so with the assistance of the double boat or floating wharf. This saves much time as the cattle walk on shore.

The next landing place is Ordnance Wharf, where shot and some descriptions of ordnance stores are usually landed. From thence up to the head of the harbour are a number of small projecting landing places, variously appropriated by the Commissariat to the different articles of provisions. Bread, rum, meat, etc., have each a place appointed to them.

The last wharf at the end of the town is solely for embarking sick. Opposite to it is a canvas building for their reception, if they should be detained whilst waiting for boats.

On the Western side of the harbour is a small plot of ground enclosed by rocks, which is the Navy Dockyard and useful for hauling up boats, storing driftwood, etc. The Engineers have a sawpit there, and are working up the large driftwood into sleepers for gun platforms.

The tugs and small steamers can go alongside the next – called the Vesuvius Wharf. All troops are disembarked there.

Sheers are erected at Diamond Wharf, and here all the guns are landed, but the water is shoal and as the large lighters cannot get up they must always be put into troop or paddle-box boats. Shells and powder are also landed here, and hay and chopped straw close to it.

General Duties.

As a rule the transports land as much provisions as the Commissariat require, without assistance in men from the Royal Navy, but when more help is required a special application is made.

Mr. Drake, A.C. General, is the Officer in charge of the provision department of the Commissariat, and it is with this gentleman that the Navy have principally to communicate.

The landing of ordnance stores is almost entirely done by the Navy, also that of horses and cattle when the vessels cannot be taken alongside a wharf. The landing of hay generally requires help, both in men and boats.

Small working parties are constantly required for improvements in the harbour, building piers, etc., and boats’ crews to assist the larger vessels with hawsers when coming in or going out of harbour.

A boarding book is kept from which the length of time a vessel has been in harbour can be ascertained. There is a tendency amongst the private traders to turn their ships into retail shops, and to prevent this, notice should be given to them on arriving that they will not be allowed to remain in harbour a certain day.

On the arrival of such a vessel her Master is required to sign a notice that the sale of spirits or wine except to Officers is forbidden, also a notice enjoining the utmost caution against fire; also a notice to colliers forbidding the sale of coal; and one to steamers requiring them to land all cinders on the beach to harden the roads – of all of which notices I attach copies.

Every vessel on arriving should immediately send its invoice of cargo to the department to which they are consigned, and will receive thence directions for their disposal. The Commissary-General receives the Commissariat goods. Mr. Young, Commissary of ordnance  stores, and Major Mackenzie, D.A.Q.M. General , the Quarter-Master General’s stores. All packages for the Navy should be brought on board the Senior Officer’s ship, and all for the Army should go to the private parcel office, to which an officer under Major Mackenzie has been appointed.

The “Sir Robert Sale,” No.88, is a depot ship for provisions, etc., for the Naval Brigade, her own master and crew are on board her, and Mr. Brown, Acting-Paymaster, has charge of the provisions, etc. He victuals the Naval Brigade, and supplies clothing and monthly money both to them and the Marines. Mr. Churcher Clark has charge of the medical stores.

Correspondence.

The boat signals will communicate information through successive stations to and from Head Quarters. There is regular communication between Major Mackenzie and Head Quarters by means of mounted orderlies, and letters addressed to the care of Colonel Steele, Military Secretary, can be sent by that route to the Naval Commander-in-Chief at Karatch Bay.

Government Stores.

A voltaic battery with apparatus for destroying sunken ships is on board the “Queen of the South,” and large cylinders of a similar description are on board the “Ottawa.” The “Ardent’s” anchor and chain have been recovered near the entrance of the harbour, and are used as a stern mooring for ships berthed in that neighbourhood, and there is a large anchor belonging to the “Hydaspes” in use at present as a quarter mooring for the “Sanspareil.”

L.G.Heath,

Captain H.M.S. “Sanspareil.”

And Harbour Master.

Letter No.37.

Balaklava,

April, 1855.

This is a very frightfully large sized sheet of paper for a man who intends to send a full one once a week. I must hope for the capture of Sebastopol or peace; in the one case my sheet will be easily filled, in the other I shall not have to fill it. It is nearly two months since I left, and fine weather and lots of hard work have, during that time, made a great change in the village of Balaklava. A great number of the stone houses, which had been appropriated as hospitals for the unfortunate Turks have been pulled down altogether, and turned into macadamization for the streets; for the stone houses wooden huts have been substituted. We, of course, do not expect again to have the country ankle deep in mud, and therefore, these improvements (which would be great and invaluable for a next winter’s campaign) must, I am afraid, be classed with the very large number of “too lates” already in the field. The new macadamization is a present rather a nuisance than otherwise.

The railroad progresses, but at a slow rate. The four miles to which it now extends have been made under most favourable circumstances of weather, but yet it has taken two months to complete it, instead of seventeen days as we expected when I left on the 1^st February. I don’t complain of the navvies, but if Sir John Burgoyne had been the master hand, instead of Messrs. Peto and Co., “Our Own Correspondents” would have been by this time hard at work writing him down.

Talking of “Our Own Correspondents,” I dined last night with Sir Colin Campbell, and there saw a most delightful correspondence. “Our Own Correspondent” wrote to Colonel Harding, Commandant of the town, stating that he had been chased close to the French lines by Cossacks, and that having escaped them he made his way into Balaklava without once being challenged by a sentry. The letter was officially forwarded to Sir Colin Campbell, who commands the Balaklava district, and he turned it over to be answered by Stirling (known to Douglas[Heath]) the Adjutant-General. The answer is most delightfully satirical, and ends with something of this sort  - “You state that the gentlemen in question is the correspondent of The Times; this gives a clue to the extraordinary exaggerations which appear in the newspaper relative to the events of the war.”

General Vinois, who is Sir Colin’s French neighbour, dined with us. He was present at the armistice and talked with a Russian General who said they were all very sick of it, and anxious for peace; they regretted the bon vin de France and were very short of cigars. A young sailor officer was just married to a “nice little English woman” and had to fight against her countrymen, and more-over was turned into a fantassin, neither of which arrangements did he approve of.

The general appearance of everyone is wonderfully improved. There are garrison, or rather, I believe, divisional races, both of horses and men, and I am sorry to say the English have beaten the French in running(!) – which I should not have expected. Balaklava is surrounded with huts. There is a convalescent hospital on the neighbouring heights; it consists of a series of huts containing eighteen men each, and a strong symptom of prevailing good spirits is that many of them have little gardens in front filled with transplanted wild flowers. Another striking change is that soldiers now universally salute the officers they meet – a thing never thought of when they could but just move their legs along, and had no energy left for lifting their hands to their caps. Instead of forty or fifty miserable looking mules, with no masters, there are now seventeen hundred, well looked after and cared for; they are under Colonel McMurdo, the head of the newly-established land transport corps. Then there is the railway, most useful already with it great big English cart horses, and I don’t know that I have seen anything within the last two years that has so reminded me of Old England as meeting a team of these animals, with the chain traces, swingle-tree (or whatever it is called) thrown over their backs, returning to their stables, a navvy mounted sideways on the back of each, with a short pipe in his mouth and a long carter’s whip over his shoulder.

There is little doubt but that the guns will open this week, and that in all probability the bombardment will be followed by an assault; with what results remains to be seen. I hear various opinions, but sanguine on the whole, there is no doubt that the Russians have lost no time, and that their ditches are both wide and deep, and it is probable that when they are passed, mines will be sprung, which will lose us men from our advanced parties, but which will make the ground the easier for those who follow. We are preparing floating hospitals for the wounded, who will not be sent away until the critical period for their wounds is passed. This day week I hope to write to you of Victory; and this day month you to me of consequent Peace. Nous verrons.

Letter No.38.

Finished, Balaklava

April 10^th, 1855

I think I described in lasts week’s letter my general impressions on returning to Balaklava after nearly two month’s absence. I have since then had  my hands pretty full, for as Captain Christie expected to have to face an inquiry on his conduct on his arrival in England, he naturally wished to take his secretary with him, and the obtaining a successor has been a longer process than I anticipated. The first to whom I offered the berth was the “Sanspareil’s” clerk, but being now senior clerk in theAdmiral’s office he will get the first death vacancy as a paymaster, and I think wisely prefers that prospect to a mere temporary gain in income. The second one turns out to be too young to be eligible for the appointment. The third, who is appointed (Mr Arlidge), was paymaster of the “Carodoc,” and has had to settle all his own accounts with his successor before coming to me. I believe I shall have him tomorrow. He seems a very nice gentlemanly fellow which is a great points as I intend to make him my messmate; he is also said to be very hard working, which is another great point. I have had not only to write my own letters, but also to copy them into a book, and I have had to make out returns of the present employment of the transports. These were left me in a form according to the numbers of the transports. I have collected them under separate heads, so that my return gives a synoptic view of how many are employed on this duty, and how many on that. Then there is a daily report of cargo discharged by each transport which I have set going; and there is moreover a certain amount of personal visiting, etc. – all of which has employed me pretty continuously. When I catch Mr. Arlidge I shall be able to turn over the clerical work to him and take more to the active part.

I have had a fight a little with Admiral Boxer to place myself on the footing prescribed by my instructions; but I think that is all over and that we now understand one another. He is a most hard-working, zealous man, but without the slightest approach to method, and some of his work has in consequence to be done over again. If he wants a ship cleared for any particular purpose he will put all her cargo on the beach, without the slightest care as to whose charge it is to go into. I can quite conceive the confusion as to stores etc. in the Bosphorus during his reign, from hearing him report to someone, who came from Sir Edmund Lyons to inquire, that there were only four hundred tons of coal in the harbour, when I myself (who have nothing to do with the colliers but only with the transports) know of upwards of eight hundred tons.

During the last few days a portion of the Turkish army at Eupatoria has been brought up to the camp via Kamiesh. I at first heard that ten thousand were to come, but I hear today the number is to be increased to twenty-five thousand. This would seem to imply that the notion of investing north side was abandoned, and that a great push is to be made, perhaps simultaneously, on the town and on Lyrandi. Deserters told us that an attack was to be made on Balaklava on Easter Day, but that has passed with no such occurrence. The officer commanding the cavalry picquet, however, had his eyes so sharpened by the report, that he sent up a daylight to head quarters to say he saw some guns mounted on what we used to call No.3 Redoubt, opposite Balaklava. They turned out to be dark marks on the side of the hill!

Our fire opened in earnest this morning at daybreak (April 9^th) , and at the same time, or rather a few hours, previous, the rain, which has been absent for six weeks, began to come down, and it is rather advantageous to us than otherwise, as it prevents Liprandi from making an attack on our end of the line, if he were so inclined. We have had but few people in from the front, but they all say that our fire is three or one superior to the Russians. I don’t myself see why the Russians should fire at all; their object is to hold their own, and I think they would do that most effectually by keeping under cover, and working at repairing damages during the night with undiminished forces.

April 10^th. – I have waited so long in hopes of getting some authentic news for you from the front that I have hardly time to finish my page. The latest account is that we have got the south side, but you must not make sure until you see the newspaper, for this is a shocking place for gossip.

Two o’clock. – Nothing new. The firing going on with no material result as yet. Russian fire rather stronger than yesterday.

Letter No.39

Balaklava,

April 12^th, 1855

Your letter of March 29^th has just arrived, and almost simultaneously with it the news that Captain Crofton, R.E.*, a brother of Richard in the Artillery, has lost his leg, and as I shall go to the front tomorrow morning to see what I can do for him, (he shortly died of his wounds) I had better answer you at once, rather than risk missing the mail which is made up here tomorrow evening. I read all the evidence before the Committee as reported in the Evening Mail, and therefore, I suppose, as reported in The Times. But you see the Herald, which I do not, and I was quite unaware that it’s abuse of me still continued. We have learnt much during the war as to our commissariat, etc., but if we ever make such another war without gagging “Our Own Correspondents” at the very beginning, we shall make a greater mistake than any we have made on this occasion. I have within the last week met Sir John McNeil and also two other members of the Sanitary Commission. The latter both expressed their surprise at the difference between what they found and what they expected to find. The former is carrying on his investigation very quietly, and apparently very temperately, but I find him as open to a gobe-mouche story as nay of the Correspondents.

On his arrival here about a month ago Admiral Boxer,* who has usurped Christie’s functions, ordered by Sir John McNeil to be received on board an empty steamer called the “Gottenberg,” a steamer who hire cost £50 a day. This was the common topic of conversation, and I suppose it came to Boxer’s ears, because a few days after my arrival (taking Christie’s place) he took measures for transferring Sir John to a depot ship, and the “Gottenberg” was ordered by me to England, where she and vessels of her class were much wanted. Down comes a note from General Airey to know – “Why the ‘Gottenberg,’ which costs less than the ‘Oscar’ should be ordered home when the ‘Oscar’ is not?” I answer – “They are both of 50s. a ton, but one is large than the other, one is empty and the other is full, and moreover the ‘Gottenberg,’ like the ‘Oscar,’ is hired for six months; she goes home to bring our another cargo, and if she costs twice as much as the other it would make no difference, for whether lying here doing nothing or loading with a fresh cargo at Portsmouth she receives the same pay.” It turned out that General Airey’s query was founded on Sir John McNeil’s representation, which was founded on the statement of the master of the “Gottenberg.” I taxed Sir John with it, and pointed out it was just the sort of information on which “Our Own Correspondents’” “facts” were founded, which he admitted, but took credit to himself for sifting to the bottom at once. There are two “Arabias,” the one you heard of in England is not my friend – yours was only once, that I remember, in Balaklava; the other is a sailing ship, and has been here a good deal. I think you have best advanced my interests by doing nothing. As to the “Candia,” you are quit mistaken in supposing there was a shipload of medical comforts; it was merely the surplus of a supply put on board for the use of the body of troops brought from Marseilles to Kamiesh, and was very insignificant in quantity. I never took any of it; Peel may have done so in the “Diamond” – for I see Stafford makes rather a hash in his speech between our names and our ships.

As far as I have seen of the evidence before the Sebastopol Committee it strikes me as the most wonderful jumble of gossip and second editions of newspaper correspondence that has ever been gathered together before so solemn a tribunal. The witnesses have first read The Times, and then (so weak is poor human nature) they have digested it until it has become (like other food) part and parcel of themselves, and they have given it to the Committee as their own opinion. The Times then turns round and says, “ See how true our reports have been.”

As to “Mr King versus Captain Heath,” I am inclined to let all alone until the capture of Sebastopol – which may take place tomorrow – or the Vienna conferences send me to England. Just think with wat force I shall come down on the Duke – “Having been absent serving under the distinguished officer, Sir Edmund Lyons, in the Crimean war, advantage has been taken by those who live at home at ease to oust me from certain privileges, etc., etc.” I am very grateful to you all for going to Portsmouth to meet Mary. It will smooth her way very much, for even when she left me she was a little frightened at the thoughts of meeting you all, and your brotherly kindness will reassure her.

P.S. – I asked this evening the name of the Herald’s correspondent. It is Wood, and that is all I know about him.

Letter No. 40.

May 5^th, 1855.

The Telegraph is now working sixteen hours between this and London, but only for the Government. I have not left myself a minute’s time even to thank you for your zeal in my service. The biggest “one” I have read in the evidence, as far as I am concerned, is told by the Master of the “Andes.” He said he “managed somehow to get into this harbour and had no assistance whatever.” It so happened that having taken a ship out I went on board the “Andes” outside the harbour myself, and whilst waiting for a tug I breakfasted with the Captain and then brought his vessel in. He was particularly civil, for when finally placed in safety he said “ I am sure, Sir, I am very grateful to you for bringing me in, I don’t know how I should have managed without you, I had no idea the place was so small and so crowded.” The Captain of the “Himalaya” comes next. He was suddenly ordered to Varna on an emergency, having some charcoal on board him. He was to have returned from Varna immediately, but his engine broke down and he was obliged to go to Constantinople, instead of returning with what he had been sent for and the charcoal. All this part he leaves out in his evidence and gives the Committee to understand he was ordered with the charcoal to Varna and thence to Constantinople.