| Description | "The papers you sent out by this last mail was very interesting & the people must now have a very good idea of our plan of assault & the reason it became a failure. As soon as the pieces on the Redan opened upon us we all knew that it could end in nothing but butchery for us without the faintest hope of success. Pelissier [Marshal ] was at the bottom of it by altering his plans late the night before, he said that owing to his masses of troops he could not conceal them at all in the trenches so that when daylight broke they would have been seen and the plan discovered. The original intention was to open at daylight with what the Russians call a fire of hell, which was to last 3 or 4 hours & would effectively drive out any troops that might have been concentrated in the Redan and Malakoff Tower. The Abbatis that stopped us all is a net work of boughs of trees & branches placed in all directions about 20 feet thick & 6 or 7 feet high which has to be cut through & quite stops any regular advance. In many places it had been cut to pieces by the fire from our batteries but was still a serious obstacle. It is placed almost 20 yards from the ditch & most likely at the bottom of the ditch are all sorts of infernal machines to prevent climbing up the parapet of the Redan, but no one knows yet what there is at the bottom of the ditch as no one got so far on the 18th. The whole thing on that day was botched from the confusion as we attacked the salient when we ought to have attacked the [illegible] angle. I was very much astonished on reading the dispatches to see Turners name mentioned, I can only account for it by the fact of his being Commanding Officer at the time, for anything that was done by one more than another on that day there was not a pin to choose. However some men have great luck & one is always glad to see it stick to them. I perceive that one must either be killed or be in command to get any praise. Turner was very slightly wounded on the 7th. All my seniors are now at home, so I am doing duty and running into danger without the slightest chance of promotion. I wish they could send them out and give me a turn. I am the only one left who has seen the whole business. The only thing I applied for I have been refused and I intend to abuse General Barnard for it, he is now chief of the staff. I am doing Major's work and I wanted pay for it and Field Allowances for another horse, which was refused to me and has been given in other cases." |