| Description | Regimental officers have been criticized for taking things out of Regimental Funds to the prejudice of the men. Not so in his own Regiment where "beyond a few bottles of Brandy & Port wine distributed amongst us all and I think 3 meat pies, for which we drew lots, not one single thing has ever been touched by us officers. The men have had everything, & as to the sick they have lived in a state of luxury quite unparalleled. I have known Champagne to be given to them 3 or 4 times a day. Our own horses have gone down to Balaklava to fetch up the stores for them & we also lent them all through the winter to get forage for the Regimental ponies, so that they might never be delayed in getting up the houses for the men by having to fetch the forage for themselves, and it was not until nearly every man was hutted that the Colonel & myself took our horses down to get the house up for ourselves. So much for that charge. The staff I believe were not so scrupulous. It is shameful really the way we are abused sometimes. I read in one article in The Times a complaint against us as officers because we did not die in the trenches in the winter like the men . . . We opened fire again about 4 days ago with all our new batteries, but I am afraid we have done very little damage up to the present time. The Russians appear to laugh at us & scarcely condescend to return our fire. We seem scrupulously to avoid firing into the town, which I think is a great mistake. I think the whole thing is political from beginning to end. We shall very soon have expended the ammunition & then what is to be done. The only thing that looks at all like business is the fact of the scaling ladders having all gone down to the front, but they can hardly pretend to make an assault without a great deal of deliberation, for with two armies like ours, unless everything fits into a quarter of a minute the plan must fail and can only end in a massacre and disastrous defeat. To assault Sebastopol now will be to march up in the face of batteries of extra-ordinary strength mined in every direction. There is no doubt that if we get the order we shall do it &, if we get in, no power of Russia will ever get us out again, but with the French the case is different & I am not so sanguine of their success. The Russians do not care for the French but with us the case is different. Alma & Sebastopol have taught them what to expect. What divisions will make the assault we do not know but we shall all be engaged in some way & must hope for the best. There is a report today of the arrival of one hundred thousand Russians at Baluski Serai. I think we shall be in Queer Street if we do not take care. Everybody hopes that peace may come next mail I am afraid it would be too great luck . . . I saw William Bromley yesterday, he is looking very well & lives down at Balaklava with the Guards. The railway is progressing wonderfully & is now very useful in hurrying up all sorts of things". |