| Description | Now moving up to Silistria. "The soldiers, from infamous Commissariat arrangements are beginning to be rather discontented and feel their hardships more than they otherwise would do ... I am sorry to say that on our first marching into this place some men of the 88th who I suppose were half mad with thirst & hunger went into a village close by took all the eggs, drank the milk, broke into all the wine casks they could find & frightened the inhabitants so much that they shut up their houses taking everything with them into the mountains and we could get nothing for some days. The General has promised to shoot the first guilty person caught `in flagrante delicto', which will be the only way to stop such abominable work. If they do these things in a friendly country one can easily imagine how unmanageable they must be after taking a town. "We are very healthy here, tho' Silistria is reported as swarming with flies & mosquitoes ... I hope my constitution will carry me through. I shall work away at the Quinine like fun. We are well supplied in that respect." Accidental death of a fellow officer - Wallace (?) - thrown from his horse - buried deep "to prevent the Turks from digging him up again which they would be likely to do as an infidel". Relations with the French v. good. "They are first rate soldiers and do not appear to have any jealousy of us. The men get drunk together and the officers visit each others tents & stop until very late or rather early hours ... We have just got the order to do away with stocks [Note: the highly uncomfortable & unpopular Army issue leather collar]. They have at last discovered the mistake of throttling a man in a hot climate". |