| Description | Detailed description of Battle of the Alma - on landing only a few Cossacks in sight - battle after two days march - attack on very strong Russian position they expected to hold for 3 weeks - fell in 3½ hours. Russian prisoners astonished - fighting so close that "bayonets crossed, and poor Monck who was shot thro' the head had time to run his sword thro' the body of the man who did it ... shot & shell "like nothing but a very severe hail storm ... our unfortunate line was mowed down by sections, immense gaps being filled by those who were left & who pressed on only more determined than ever .... I was shot just at the end of the business, a ball entered my ankle & remained in the small of my boot. I am all right now. When the Russians retreated our guns were brought up & killed them by hundreds. Nothing that one reads can come up to the realities of a field of battle after an action. The horrible sights, the mangled bodies, the poor wounded men praying for a drop of water for the love of God, or begging you not to let them bleed to death! it is almost worse than the actual fighting ... we have only nine officers left in the regt. to do duty. The 23rd lost nearly all their Officers" - Balaklava captured" after a trifling resistance, indeed the Governor deserved hanging for daring to resist at all" - siege lines drawn up around Sevastopol where "the Russians are as busy as ants throwing up field works & fortifications all of which will cost life and time to take" - trusts in Providence he will again survive - "I have indeed seen much since I left England! enough to make a thoughtless man serious." Six months ago we were 1,000 strong with 30 officers now we can hardly make up 450 men & have only 9 officers left. So much for climate, disease & war". |