In the Lands of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917)/The Crimean War (28 March 1854-27 April 1856)

8. THE CRIMEAN WAR (28 March 1854-27 April 1856), with entries relating to the mid-September 1854 landings listed alphabetically

Fig. 42 Charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade, 25th Oct. 1854, under Major General the Earl of Cardigan, print by William Simpson (1 March 1855).

See also G61, G122, G124

H1

Royer, Alfred, The English prisoners in Russia: a personal narrative of the first lieutenant of H.M.S. Tiger; together with an account of his journey in Russia, and his interview with the Emperor Nicholas and the principal persons in the empire. London: Chapman and Hall, 1854. xii+195pp.

After taking part in the bombardment of Odessa, HMS Tiger ran aground on 12 May 1854 and Royer and other officers and crew were captured by the Russians. Royer’s account, however, is highly sympathetic to his “captors” in Odessa and elsewhere during his journey through Ukraine to Moscow and, by rail, to St Petersburg, where he was received by the tsar at Peterhof and freed to return to England at the end of June 1854. More of a tourist’s guide than a war journal, it was published in September 1854 and went into six editions by the end of the year.

H2

[Barker, William Burckhardt], Odessa and its inhabitants. By an English prisoner in Russia. London: Thomas Bosworth, 1855. xii+174pp.

Barker, born in Taganrog to German parents who were naturalized British citizens, joined the Royal Navy in 1847 as a midshipman on H.M.S. Tiger, which sailed to the Crimea in 1854 and took part in the bombardment of Odessa. Barker was among those subsequently captured. His book is thereafter essentially a very sympathetic account of the few weeks he spent in “captivity”, befriended by the Potocki family and enjoying the social life of Odessa. He also published under his own name A short historical account of the Crimea, from the earliest ages and during the Russian occupation, compiled from the best authorities (1855).

H3

Montagu, Victor Alexander, A middy’s recollections, 1853-60. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1898. xii+206pp.

Rear-Admiral Montagu (1841-1915) recalls his time as a midshipman during the 1850s, including service in the Crimean War. A first section describes his service with the Baltic Fleet in 1854, remaining in the Baltic Sea until October (pp. 26-32). He re-enters the war in early 1855, when he sailed to Balaklava. Though he largely remained at sea, he made excursions to the battle sites of Balaklava and Inkerman. He details his average day as a midshipman, his involvement in the capture of Kerch on 25 May 1855 and of the successful assault on Kinburn on 17 October 1855. He sailed for home in late October 1855 (pp. 39-76).

H4

Montagu, Victor Alexander, Reminiscences of Admiral Montagu. London: Edward Arnold, 1910. viii+311pp.

Montagu offers briefer descriptions of his time as a midshipman during the Crimean War and his occasional trips to the mainland to observe scenes of recent fighting (pp. 25-27), as well as his recollections of Sir Edmund Lyons (pp. 57-63).

H5

Napier, Charles, Dundas, James, et al, Russian war 1854-55, Baltic and Black Sea: official correspondence. Edited by David Bonner-Smith and Alfred Charles Dewar. London: Publications of the Navy Record Society, 1943-45. 3 vols.

An expertly edited collection that contains the Admiralty correspondence with Vice-Admirals Sir Charles Napier (1786-1860) and Sir James Dundas (1785-1862) and Rear-Admirals Sir Richard Dundas (1802-61) and Sir Edmund Lyons (1790-1858) throughout the Crimean War. Vol. I relates to the Royal Navy’s campaigns in the Baltic and the Black Sea in 1854, vol. II, to the Baltic campaign in 1855, and vol. III, to the Black Sea campaign in 1855. The majority of letters were written from on board ship, although there is the occasional letter written when ashore on Russian territory.

H6

Napier, Charles, The history of the Baltic campaign of 1854. Edited by George Butler Earp. London: Richard Bentley, 1857. xlviii+622pp.

Vice-Admiral Napier (1786-1860) was in command of the Baltic fleet until he was made a scapegoat for the failure of British strategy in the Baltic in the autumn of 1854 and removed from office in October. He never set foot on Russian soil until he paid a visit to Cronstadt in late July 1856 and left a description of the fortress (pp. 592-97).

H7

Sulivan, Bartholomew James, Life and letters of the late Admiral Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan, K.C.B. 1810-1890. Edited by Henry Norton Sulivan. Introduction by Admiral Sir G.H. Richards. London: John Murray, 1896. xxii+442pp.

Sir Bartholomew (1810-1910), naval surveyor and hydrographer, was detailed to assist first Sir Charles Napier and then Sir Richard Dundas during the British campaign in the Baltic. Commanding the paddle steamer HMS Lightning, he conducted many invaluable surveys of the shallow waters around the islands, leading to successful actions against fortresses, before he returned to England in the autumn of 1855. Most of the letters were written while on board various vessels and describe the on-going naval campaigning as well as numerous visits he made to islands off the Estonian coast (pp. 118-374).

H8

Romaine, William Govett, Romaine’s Crimean War: the letters and journal of William Govett Romaine: Deputy Judge-Advocate to the Army of the East 1854-56. Edited by Colin Robins. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Limited, 2005. xxvii+315pp.

As deputy judge-advocate to the British army in the Crimea Romaine (1816-93) was the most senior civilian working at Raglan’s HQ. His detailed letters (beginning on 21 February 1854) and journal (from 21 February 1855) range wide over military, legal, logistical, and social matters (until 23 March 1856). The first of two appendices includes the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry, held on 9 November 1854, into the maltreatment of Russian prisoners following the battle of Inkerman, with related correspondence (9 November 1854 to 21 June 1855). The second contains letters, dating 26 January-8 February 1855, between Romaine, appointed to oversee the project, and the engineers constructing the Balaklava railway.

H9

Heath, Leopold George Letters from the Black Sea during the Crimean War, 1854-1855. London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1897. xx+246pp.

Forty-six letters, dating from 10 April 1854 to 14 September 1855, were sent by Admiral Sir Leopold (1817-1907), serving in the Black Sea, initially as captain of HMS Niger, and, after a period ashore at Balaklava (27 October-8 November 1854), as captain of HMS Sanspareil. Away from the Crimea between 3 February and 12 March 1855, he returned as agent of transports, before leaving for England in November.

H10

Stothert, Samuel Kelson, From the fleet in the fifties, a history of the Crimean War with which is incorporated letters written in 1854-56 by the Reverend S. Kelson Stothert. By Mrs Tom Kelly. Preface by Rear Admiral [Armand Temple] Powlett. London: Hurst and Blackett Ltd, 1902. xxviii+460pp.

Mrs Tom Kelly, the declared author of this work, built her diplomatic and military history of the Crimean War around the numerous detailed letters to family members from Rev. Dr Stothert (1827-97), chaplain to the Naval Brigade. Stothert was in Crimean waters between April 1854 and early January 1855, and between mid-April and early October 1855, much of the time on board HMS Queen. However, he also describes visits to Balaklava and the British camp, and then to Sevastopol in mid-September 1855.

H11

[Anon.], Cronstat and the Russian fleet. London: John W. Parker and Son, 1854. 20pp.

Written by a British resident “for some time past” in Russia and reprinted from Fraser’s Magazine for May 1854, the essay offers a detailed description of the approach from the Baltic to Cronstadt and of its fortifications and naval strength.

[Mid-September 1854 landings]

H12

Adye, John Miller, A review of the Crimean War, to the winter of 1854-55. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1860. x+203pp.

In May 1854, on the outbreak of the Crimean War, General Sir John (1819-1900) went to Turkey as brigade major of artillery. He was promoted to brevet major on 22 September and became adjutant-general of artillery. He arrived in the Crimea on 14 September 1854 and was present with the headquarters staff at the Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman, serving throughout the siege of Sevastopol, and remaining until June 1856.

H13

Adye, John Miller, Recollections of a military life. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1895. x+382pp.

Sir John merged his personal experiences of the Crimean campaign with a general account of military strategies, achievements and failures (pp. 15-120). Between 29 August and 9 September 1872 he was again in the Crimea, accompanied by Colonel Charles Gordon, to inspect the state of the British war cemeteries (pp. 273-83).

H14

Allan, William, My early soldiering days including the Crimean campaign. Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Press, 1897. xii+189pp. [See also William Allan, Crimean letters: from the 41st (The Welch) Regiment 1854-6. Edited by W. Alister Williams. Wrexham: Bridge Books, 2011. 224pp.]

As a young ensign in the 41st Foot, the Welch Regiment, Major-General Allan (1832-1918) served throughout the Crimean War. He was present at the Alma on 20 September 1854, at Inkerman on 5 November and the following year, in the failed assaults on the Malakov and Redan in June and September. Between early December 1855 and February 1856 Allan was back in England, but returned to the Crimea in early March 1856 to describe events following the Treaty of Paris (pp. 46-174). His letters to his parents were edited for publication by his wife Jane Husey Allan. In an ‘Epilogue’ she describes a two-week trip with her husband to the Crimea in May 1893 and their visiting many of the battle sites (pp. 184-89).

H15

Andrews, Mottram, A series of views in Turkey and the Crimea; from the embarkation at Gallipoli to the fall of Sebastopol. London: T. McLean, 1856. 37pp.

Lieutenant-Colonel Andrews (d. 1895) of the 28th Regiment was present at the siege of Sevastopol in 1854-55. His on-the-spot drawings of the town and other places such as the harbour at Balaklava were the basis for the lithographs with accompanying descriptions for the folio volume soon produced for military and aristocratic subscribers.

H16

[Anon.], Manna in the camp; or, selections from the letters of a medical officer to his wife, during the eastern campaign in 1854-55. Dublin: George Herbert; London: Hamilton Adams and Co., James Nisbet and Co.; Edinburgh: W.P. Kennedy and Shepherd & Elliot, 1858. 167pp.

An unidentified Irish doctor sailed with the 9th Regiment of Foot from Dublin in March 1854 for Malta and on to Scutari. He landed at Kalamita Bay on 14 September (pp. 111-42). He accompanied wounded to Scutari on 8 December and returned to camp before Sevastopol on 4 January 1855, fell ill, and was evacuated to Scutari in early February and returned to England at the end of March (pp. 148-52). The eighty letters to his wife are more religious than medical or military in content.

H17

B., H[arry], Letters from the Crimea, during the years 1854 and 1855. London: Emily Faithfull, 1863. vii+151pp.

The letters sent to his parents by an anonymous soldier in the 2nd Rifle Brigade cover the period from 14 September 1854, the day of the landing, until 24 September 1855, shortly before his death during the second British assault on the Redan in early September 1855. He fought at the Alma, Balaklava and in the failed assault on the Redan on 18 June 1855.

H18

Barnston, William, and Barnston, Roger, Letters from the Crimea and India. Edited by Michael Trevor-Barnston. Farndon: M. Trevor-Barnston, 1998. xviii+270pp.

The Barnston brothers, William (1832-72) and Roger (1826-57), served in different regiments during the war: William in the 55th Regiment that landed in Evpatoriia Bay on 14 September 1854; Roger in the 90th Regiment, arriving at Balaklava on 6 December 1854. William’s letters describing the Crimea run from 17 September 1854 until 14 November 1854. Wounded at Inkerman, he was then invalided to Scutari. He was back in the Crimea from 1 March until his departure for Malta on 5 May 1856 (pp. 1-10, 17-26). Roger’s more extensive letters run from 6 December 1854 until his departure on 30 June 1856. Subsequent to his promotion to deputy assistant quartermaster general on 16 January 1855, his letters describe his surveying duties. Later letters reflect his passion for photography. From May 1856 onwards he was involved in organising the embarkation of the British army from the Crimea (pp. 33-170).

H19

Bell, George, Rough notes by an old soldier, during fifty years’ service. London: Day & Son, Limited, 1867. 2 vols.

Major-General Sir George (1794-1877) commanded (as a lieutenant-colonel) the 1st Battalion Royal Regiment in the Crimea from 14 September 1854 to 16 March 1855. He writes critically of the privations and difficulties of camp life due to lack of supplies and provisions during the biting winter of 1854-55 and includes the text of a letter he sent to the Times, written on 12 December 1854, describing the real condition of the camp and state of the British campaign in contrast to the deceptions he believed were fed to the British public (vol. II, pp. 173-263).

H20

Bostock, John Aston, Letters from India and the Crimea: selected from the correspondence of the late Deputy Surgeon-General Bostock. London: George Bell & Sons, 1896. xx+270pp.

Bostock (1815-95), who later became the deputy surgeon-general and honorary surgeon to Queen Victoria, was attached to the Scots Guards during the Crimean War. Letters detailing his experience in the Crimea run from 27 September 1854 until he leaves for Malta to recuperate on 30 March 1855. While rarely alluding to his work as a surgeon, they describe, often angrily, the deteriorating condition of the army, the limited and inadequate supplies, the severe weather conditions, and the spread of cholera with occasional notices on the recent events of the campaign (pp. 198-250).

H21

Burgoyne, John Fox, Life and correspondence of Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, bart. Edited by Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. George Wrottesley. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1873. 2 vols.

A lengthy section relates to Sir John’s (1782-1871) service in the Crimea as lieutenant general in the British army between 17 September 1854 and 20 March 1855. A principal strategist during the first months of the war, he was made a scapegoat for the initial limited progress of the siege of Sevastopol and recalled by Secretary of State for War, Lord Panmure on 24 February 1855. There is extensive discussion of strategic planning at key moments during the campaign, disputes between the British and French military staffs, descriptions of the conduct of the siege, and angry letters ridiculing the British press’s charges of incompetence; the last items reveal his reaction to his recall (vol. II, pp. 85-279).

H22

[Calthorpe, Somerset John Gough], Letters from head-quarters; or, the realities of the war in the Crimea. By an officer on the staff. London: John Murray, 1856. 2 vols.

Lt.-Col. Calthorpe, later 7th baron Calthorpe (1831-1912), edited and published anonymously letters he had sent to friends from the Crimea, where he served as aide-de-camp to his uncle, Lord Raglan, whose reputation he stoutly defended. The letters run from 18 September 1854 until 30 June 1855 when, following Raglan’s death on 28 June, Calthorpe returned to Britain. In addition to the detailed account of military actions, Calthorpe mentions his participation in a decoy mission by ship to Yalta in late May 1855 and recalls a pleasure trip he had made to the southern Crimean coast in the summer of 1851.

H23

[Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, Earl of], Eight months on active service; or, a diary of a general officer of cavalry in 1854. London: William Clowes and Sons, [1855]. 122pp.

Cardigan (1797-1868), commander of the Light Brigade, kept a diary during 1854 in which the most notable entry not surprisingly relates his leading of the first line of the charge at Balaklava on 25 October 1854. Ill in November-early December, he was invalided to Constantinople on 6 December 1854.

H24

Chodasiewicz, Robert Adolf, A voice from within the walls of Sebastopol: a narrative of the campaign in the Crimea, and of the events of the siege. By Captain R. Hodasevich. London: John Murray, 1856. xii+252pp.

A captain in the Tarutin regiment of chasseurs, Chodasiewicz (1832-96) arrived in the Crimea on 13 September 1854 and served at Alma and Balaklava and during the siege of Sevastopol. On 5 February 1855, he and a fellow Pole, having heard of the possible formation of a Polish legion to fight against the Russians and “throwing off the yoke of tyranny”, deserted to the English lines near Balaklava and spent the rest of the war helping with intelligence and maps (several of which form an appendix).

H25

[Cler, Jean Joseph Gustave], Reminiscences of an officer of zouaves. Translated from the French. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1860. 317pp.

Colonel Cler (1814-59) commanded the 2nd Regiment of zouaves during the Crimean War, from their landing on 14 September 1854 until after the battle of the Malakov on 23 February 1855, when he was promoted to general and took command of the 62nd and 73rd infantry regiments. The zouaves set sail for Algeria in June 1856 (pp. 165-317). The French original, Souvenirs d’un officier du 2me regiment de zouaves had appeared in Paris in 1859, the year Cler was killed at the battle of Magenta.

H26

Clifford, Henry, Henry Clifford V.C.: his letters and sketches from the Crimea. Edited by Cuthbert Fitzherbert. Introduction by General Sir Bernard Paget. London: Joseph, 1956. 288pp.

A collection of the letters of Sir Henry (1826-83) to family members, his detailed journal, and some thirty-three sketches and battlefield maps he produced in the Crimea during the period 18 September 1854-18 April 1856. An officer in the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, promoted to captain of the Light Division in December 1854 and brevet-major in July 1855, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Inkerman on 5 November 1854. His letters and journal, mainly from the British camp before Sevastopol, offer an often detailed commentary on the siege, camp-life, and his opinions on the army leadership.

H27

Colebrooke, Thomas Edward, Journal of two visits to the Crimea: in the autumns of 1854 & 1855: with remarks on the campaign. London: Privately printed by T. & W. Boone for Dobell, 1856. viii+208pp.

Liberal MP and later Dean of Faculties at the University of Glasgow, Sir Thomas (1813-90) belonged to the category of interested observer. Between 14 September and 3 November 1854 he was on board HMS Britannia, witnessing the British landing at Kalamita Bay, visiting British camps at Evpatoriia and at Balaklava, recording his impressions and conversations with military personnel. On a second trip from 26 August until late October 1855, he notes how Balaklava had changed and offers a commentary on the British army’s conduct of the siege of Sevastopol. In a third and final section Colebrooke offers his “remarks on the campaign”.

H28

Dallas, George Frederick, Eyewitness in the Crimea: the Crimean War letters (1854-1856) of Lt. Col. George Frederick Dallas. Edited by Michael Hargreave Mawson. London: Greenhill Books, 2001. 320pp.

Company commander of the 46th Regiment of Foot, “Fred” Dallas (1827-88) wrote 137 letters to family and friends from the Crimea from 16 September 1854 to 10 July 1855. He writes of the harsh realities of camp life, but also of the developing friendships in his regiment and offers more cheerful anecdotes about camp life. He also writes critically of British strategy and the failures of the army’s military leadership (pp. 32-255).

H29

Duberly, Frances Isabella, Journal kept during the Russian war: from the departure of the army from England in April 1854, to the fall of Sebastopol. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855. 349pp.

Wife of the regimental paymaster of the 8th Hussars, Mrs Duberly, née Locke (1829-1903) loved above all else horses. She rode here, there and everywhere, witnessing the charge of the Light Brigade and entering Sevastopol soon after its fall in September 1855. By the time she and Captain Duberly returned to London, her journal was already published.

H30

Evelyn, George Palmer, A diary of the Crimea. Edited, with a preface, by Cyril Falls. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1954. 148pp.

Evelyn (1823-89), a militia officer, set off from London for Constantinople on 13 December 1853, before the outbreak of war. In September 1854 he became one of the British officers officially attached to the staff of the Turkish army and joined the allied forces proceeding to the Crimea. He left the Crimea on 5 January 1855.

H31

Ewart, John Alexander, The story of a soldier’s life; or, peace, war, and mutiny. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1881. 2 vols.

General Sir John (1821-1904) served with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders during the Crimean War from 14 September 1854 to 23 June 1856. He was promoted to deputy assistant quartermaster general in late September 1854 and to regimental major in mid-January 1855. He offers not only detailed accounts of the battles in which his regiment was involved but also of various reconnaissance and surveying missions. Following the armistice he describes socializing with the Russians, race meetings, and excursions to such sights as the Inkerman caves and Bakhchisarai (vol. I, pp. 171-446).

H32

[Fannan, David], A burglar’s life story in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Crimea, &c. Glasgow: David Bryce and Son, 1897. 150pp.

The sprightly told “confession”of an ultimately reformed Scottish burglar, who in order to avoid arrest enlisted in the 79th Highlanders and served throughout the Crimean campaign, taking part in all the battles from Alma to the fall of Sevastopol with the exception of Balaklava before returning to his family in Glasgow and resuming his old life (pp. 23-42).

H33

[Farquharson, Robert Stuart], Reminiscences of Crimean campaigning and Russian imprisonment. By one of ‘the six hundred’. Edinburgh: privately printed by Thomas Allan, [1883]. 107pp. [Published as Crimean campaigning and Russian imprisonment. Dundee: W. and D.C. Thomson, 1889. iv+140pp.]

A private in the 4th Light Dragoons, Farquharson (b. 1831) arrived in the Crimea on 18 September 1854, took part in the battle of the Alma on 20 September and, memorably, was in the second line of the charge of the Light Brigade under Paget’s command, when he was captured by Cossacks. He was initially maltreated but subsequently received better treatment from Russian officers. He describes his march into captivity at Voronezh, via Simferopol, Ekaterinoslav, Kharkov, his experiences of being billeted on local families, his relations with fellow prisoners, and the beating he received on reaching prison. In August 1855 he was sent to Odessa and returned eventually to Balaklava on 27 October 1855.

H33a

Godkin, Edwin Lawrence, Life and letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin. Edited by Rollo Ogden. London: Macmillan & Co., 1907. 2 vols.

Godkin (1831-1902) may lay claim to being the first British reporter of the Crimean War, sent out to Constantinople in October 1853 by the editor of the Daily News. Reporting initially from Turkey, Bulgaria and Rumania, he then sent back many dispatches from the Crimean battlefields after the British landings in mid-September 1854 until his departure in the late summer of 1855. Sadly, his letters have not been collected, mere extracts in this biography reflect his talents as a war correspondent (vol. I, pp. 21-108). He subsequently emigrated to America, where he founded The Nation in New York in 1865 and remained its editor until the end of 1899.

H34

Goodlake, Gerald Littlehales, Sharpshooter in the Crimea: the letters of Captain Goodlake, VC. Edited by Michael Springman. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2005. x+228pp.

A lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, Goodlake (1832-90) commanded the Sharpshooters of the Guards Brigade in the Crimea between mid-October and November 1854. He had landed in the Crimea on 14 September 1854 and left on 16 Jun 1856 (his letters run from 6 November 1854 until the end of May 1856). He served in the trenches during the winter of 1854-55 before his appointment as deputy assistant quartermaster General of the 1st Division, based at Balaklava between March 1855 and June 1856. His letters detail the main battles of the campaign as well as living conditions and soldier grievances.

H35

[Gowing, Timothy], A soldier’s experience: things not generally known, showing the price of war in blood and treasure. The Christian heroes–four bright examples: Sir Henry Havelock... Major Charles Henry Malan... Captain Hedley [Shafto Johnstone] Vicars... and Colonel John Blackader... By one of the Royal Fusiliers. Colchester: Benham & Co., 1883. vi+274pp. [See also A soldier’s experience; or, a voice from the ranks; showing the cost of war, in blood and treasure: a personal narrative of the Crimean campaign, from the standpoint of the ranks; the Indian mutiny, and some of its atrocities; the Afghan campaign of 1865; also sketches of the career of some of England’s commanders ...together with some things not generally known. Nottingham: printed for the author by Thomas Forman & Sons, 1885. 494pp.]

Gowing (1834-1908) served throughout the Crimean campaign with the Royal Fusiliers and was promoted to sergeant (during the Indian Mutiny, to colour-sergeant). Letters from the Crimea to his parents were written “under difficulty in a bleak tent or hut with the thermometer far below freezing point, with wet rags frozen on my back” and describe his participation at the Alma, Inkerman and many other battles (pp. 23-54, 60-124).

H36

Graham, Gerald, Life, letters, and diaries of Lieut.-General Sir Gerald Graham, V.C., G.C.B., R.E. with portraits, plans, and his principal despatches. By Robert Hamilton Vetch. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1901. xxiv+492pp.

Lt-General Sir Gerald (1831-99) served as a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Engineers and then in the 11th Company of the Royal Sappers and Miners in the Crimea. He sent numerous letters to his family over the period 17 September 1854 to13 July 1856 that offer personal, opinionated and often touching descriptions of his service on both the left and right flanks during the British siege of Sevastopol (pp. 24-134).

H37

Guys, Constantin, Crimean war drawings 1854-1856. Edited and introduced by Karen W. Smith. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. 84pp.

The French artist Guys (1802-82) was sent by The Illustrated London News as their roving military artist to follow the British army from its departure for Turkey and on to the Crimea. Fifty of his water-colours and sketches were exhibited at Cleveland and reproduced in the catalogue, together with the often detailed inscriptions that accompanied them. Most memorable is his eye-witness drawing of the charge of the Light Brigade (no. 20), but he captures the routines of camp life, military reviews and ceremonies and the occasional “excursions” of British officers.

H38

Hall, John, The life and letters of Sir John Hall M.D., K.C.B., F.R.C.S. By Siddha Mohana Mitra. Introduction by Rear-Admiral Sir R. Massie. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911. xxvi+560pp.

Sir John (1795-1866) was the principal medical officer of the Medical Department in the Crimea and the inspector-general of hospitals from 14 September 1854 to 3 July 1856. Hall’s Indian biographer transcribes extracts from his letters and memoranda that include letters written to the Times, to various medical professions both within and outside the British government, and many written to and about Florence Nightingale (pp. 319-465).

H39

Hamley, Edward Bruce, The story of the campaign of Sebastopol, written in the camp. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1855. xv+339pp.

General Sir Edward (1824-93) who illustrated his account with his own drawings, was aide-de-camp to Sir Richard Dacres, commanding the artillery, throughout the Crimean campaign. His account had previously appeared as contributions to Blackwood’s magazine.

H40

Hamley, Edward Bruce, The war in the Crimea. London: Seeley and Co., 1891. vii+312pp.

General Hamley’s systematic history of the war drew on his own experiences as well as on many sources published in the thirty-five years since the end of hostilities. In the interim he had become the first professor of military history at the new staff college at Sandhurst, the author of several novels, and was currently an M.P.

H41

Higginson, George Wentworth Alexander, Seventy-one years of a guardsman’s life. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1916. xii+403pp.

The memoirs of General Sir George (1826-1927) include an extensive account of his involvement in the Crimean War between 14 September 1854 and early June 1856, when he was adjutant of the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards and, latterly, brigade-major. He was present, as participant or observer, at the major battles of the campaign. His account fuses later narrative comment with extracts from contemporary letters and journals (pp. 143-320). In 1884, when he was major-general of the Grenadier Guards, he was invited by Alexander III to attend a review of the Russian army. His diary entries, dating from 11 August to 8 September, refer to dinners with Russia’s military leadership and to trips to Cronstadt, Ropsha, Moscow and Krasnoe selo (pp. 354-72).

H42

Hodge, Edward Cooper, ‘Little Hodge’, being extracts from the diaries and letters of Colonel Edward Cooper Hodge written during the Crimean War, 1854-1856. Edited by the Marquess of Anglesey. London: Leo Cooper, 1971. xiv+166pp.

Colonel Hodge (1810-94) commanded the 4th Dragoon Guards throughout the Crimean War and took part in the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. His diary, which he kept assiduously, is supplemented by letters he wrote to his mother and also by letters from Hodge’s second-in-command, Major William Forrest.

H43

Home, Anthony Dickson, Service memories. Edited by Charles H. Melville. London: Edward Arnold, 1912. viii+340pp.

The Scottish surgeon general Sir Anthony Home (1826-1914) began his Crimean service as a humble assistant-surgeon with the 8th Light Dragoons on 15 August 1854 and was promoted to surgeon with the 13th Light Dragoons on 9 February 1855. He somewhat sketchily describes his medical duties and life at British headquarters and occasional participation in the fighting. After recovering from illness in Scutari in early November-late December 1854, he returned to Balaklava, and took part in the expedition to Evpatoriia in September 1855. He left finally for Scutari in December 1855 (pp. 19-82).

H44

Image, John George, The Crimean journal of Lieutenant Image. Edited by David Ross. Winnipeg: Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, 1971. 44pp.

Image (1835-70), an officer in the 21st Regiment, Royal North British Fusiliers landed on 14 September 1854, fought at the Alma and Inkerman and was wounded during the assault on the Redan on 18 June 1855. He was invalided out on 10 July 1855.

H45

Jocelyn, John Strange, With the Guards we shall go: a guardsman’s letters in the Crimea, 1854-55. Edited by Mabell, Countess of Airlie. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. 322pp.

Captain, later lieutenant-colonel, in the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, Jocelyn (1823-97), later 5th Earl of Roden, arrived at Evpatoriia on 14 September 1854. His letters to his father, edited by his great-niece, cover the period from 16 September 1854 to 30 June 1855, during which time he spent a short period between late February and 27 April 1855 recuperating in Constantinople, before returning to Balaklava. Many of his letters describe in a moving and angry fashion the terrible conditions at Balaklava, the illness among the British soldiers, the shortages of equipment and provisions shortages, and the responsibility of the government for the situation. His last letters describe the failed assault on the Malakov on 18 June and the heavy losses incurred.

H46

Jowett, William, Diary of Sergeant William Jowett, of the Seventh Fusiliers, written during the Crimean War. London: W. Kent and Co., 1856. 80pp.

Sergeant Jowett (1830-56) died from wounds received during the second assault on the Redan on 8 September 1856. He had landed on 14 September 1854 and was present at the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman and the two British assaults on the Redan. In his diary, the last entry of which dates from 6 September 1856, he writes movingly of the sufferings of soldiers in the trenches during the winter of 1854-55. A final section of the work contains letters Jowett sent to his family describing the complications with his wound that were to lead to his death.

H47

Lawson, George, Surgeon in the Crimea: the experiences of George Lawson recorded in letters to his family 1854-1855. Edited, enlarged and explained by Victor Bonham-Carter assisted by Monica Lawson. London: Constable, 1968. xiv+209pp.

Dr Lawson (1831-1903) joined up at the outbreak of war in March 1854 as a young assistant-surgeon and served until June 1855, when he was invalided out. He was at the landing at Kalamita Bay on 14 September, at Balaklava, and the beginning of the siege of Sevastopol throughout the first severe winter, but he fell ill in May 1855 with typhus (pp. 69-178).

H48

Loyd-Lindsay, Robert James, Lord Wantage. V.C., K.C.B.: a memoir. By his wife [Harriet Sarah Loyd-Lindsay]. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1907. xii+474pp.

Loyd-Lindsay, later 1st Baron Wantage (1832-1901), Conservative MP, and a founder of the Red Cross, received the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Alma, when he was a captain in the Scots Fusilier Guards. The memoir includes excerpts from his journals and letters to family and friends from the Crimea from 14 September 1854 until 11 June 1856 (pp. 24-134). In the autumn of 1888 he re-visited the Crimea with his wife (pp. 319-20).

H49

Lysons, Daniel, The Crimean War from first to last. London: John Murray, 1895. x+298pp.

Sir Daniel (1816-98) was a major in the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers, part of the Light Division, and purportedly the first British soldier to land on Crimean soil on 14 September 1854. He was subsequently promoted to the 2nd Division as assistant adjutant general and then, following his promotion to lieutenant-colonel, moved back to the Light Division. His letters from the Crimea begin on 16 September 1854 and end on 19 May 1856, a month before his departure on 14 June. He describes his participation in various battles and engagements, including the second British assault on the Redan on 8 September 1855, when he was wounded. His letters, following the armistice and peace, describe the social events and fraternizing with the Russians, as well as the beauties of the Crimean countryside.

H50

McMillan, William, The diary of Sgt. W. McMillan. Edited by Keith Hingle. London: The Coldstream Guards, [1990]. 36pp.

McMillan (1825-93) served as a corporal, then lance sergeant, in the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, landing at Kalamita Bay, north of Sevastopol, on 14 September 1854. The diary runs virtually without a break until 6 December 1854, then resumes on 11 April 1855, but less consistently and much shorter, until 25 August. Alongside day-to-day activities, McMillan writes of his participation in the battles of the Alma and Inkerman, and the following year, in the assault on the Malakov on 18 June 1855.

H51

Mends, William Roberts, Life of Admiral Sir Wm. R. Mends, late Director of Transports. By his son Bowen Stilon Mends. London: John Murray, 1899. xvi+380pp.

Extensive extracts from the letters of Admiral Mends (1812-97), who was both flag captain and chief of staff of the Mediterranean Fleet during the Crimean War and was personally responsible for the landing of the British forces on 14 September 1854. His letters start from that date and run until his departure from the Black Sea on 9 December 1855. Most were written while Mends was anchored at sea, but occasionally he writes of trips ashore to visit areas of recent fighting. (pp. 131-304).

H52

Mitchell, Albert, Recollections of one of the Light Brigade. Canterbury: N. Ginder, [1885]. 130pp.

A sergeant in the 13th Light Dragoons, Mitchell (1830/31-97), who was in the first line during the charge of the Light Brigade, movingly describes the attack, the desperate retreat and the trauma of the aftermath. He had landed on 14 September and was to leave in November 1855 (pp. 39-130).

H53

Munro, William, Reminiscences of military service with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1883. xii+330pp.

Dr Munro (1823-96), appointed surgeon to the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders in 1854 prior to his departure with the regiment to the Crimea, based his memoir on journals and letters written during the period 14 September 1854 to June 1856. He describes in particular detail the battle of Balaklava during which the 93rd, despite having a line only two men deep (the ‘Thin Red Line’), withstood a Russian cavalry charge. Interesting also for Munro’s tourism (to Simferopol, Alupka), following the February armistice (pp. 7-110).

H54

Nolan, Louis Edward, Expedition to the Crimea. Edited by Alan J. Guy and Alastair Massie. London: National Army Museum, 2010. x+104pp.

Notorious for his role in the events that led to the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854, Captain Nolan (1818-54) of the 5th Hussars and ADC to General Airey, was the first man to be killed. His journal runs from 14 September until 12 October 1854 and contains detailed military notes on the disembarking of the British army, patrolling duties along the coast at Evpatoriia, the battle of the Alma and its aftermath, and the incident at Mackenzie’s Farm (pp. 42-83).

H55

O’Flaherty, Philip, The young soldier. Edinburgh: John Shepherd; Belfast: Shepherd & Aitchison, [1854]. 31pp.

The first of two small collections of letters (see also H91) written from the Crimea by the Protestant Irishman O’Flaherty, a private, later corporal, in the 7th Royal Fusiliers, covers the first months of the invasion, the battle of the Alma and the early stages of the siege of Sevastopol (pp. 24-28). An anonymous author provides a sketch of O’Flaherty’s upbringing and religious beliefs.

H56

Paget, George Augustus Frederick, The light cavalry brigade in the Crimea: extracts from the letters and journal of the late Gen. Lord George Paget, K.C.B., during the Crimean War. London: John Murray, 1881. xii+345pp.

General Lord Paget (1818-80), who went to the Crimea as brevet-colonel in command of the 4th Light Dragoons, led the third line in the charge of the Light Brigade and was among the last to leave the field. He had arrived in the Crimea on 16 September 1854, but left on 11 November on the death of his father; he returned on 23 February 1855 and was joined for some months by his wife, before he finally departed on 9 December 1855. Extracts from his journal (pp. 15-151) are followed by later written chapters defending his actions in various battles, as well as other appendices, most interestingly, the comments on Paget’s account by Lieutenant-Colonel John Douglas (1810-71), who led the 11th Hussars during the charge of the Light Brigade.

H57

Peard, George Shuldham, Narrative of a campaign in the Crimea; including an account of the battles of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkermann. London: Richard Bentley, 1855. viii+248pp.

Peard (1829-1918), a lieutenant in the 20th Regiment of Foot, who had arrived at Evpatoriia on 14 September, was one of the first serving soldiers to publish an account of the war, after being invalided to Scutari on 12 December 1854 and returning soon afterwards to England (pp. 35-227).

H58

Pennington, William Henry, Left of six hundred. London: privately printed, 1887. 17pp.

Private Pennington (1883-1923) of the 11th Hussars arrived in the Crimea on 14 September 1854 and was to take part in the charge of the Light Brigade. He was wounded, hospitalized at Scutari, and invalided to England in 1856. His account was reprinted in Mrs Tom Kelly, From the fleet in the fifties (1902), pp. 117-25, 128-38 (see also H10).

H59

Percy, Henry Hugh Manvers, A bearskin’s Crimea: Colonel Henry Percy VC and his brother officers. By Algernon Percy. Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2005. xxxiv+238pp.

Lieutenant-General Lord Henry Percy (1817-77), while serving as a captain in the Grenadier Guards, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery at the battle of Inkerman and soon afterwards promoted to lieutenant-colonel. His letters and papers, covering the period 21 September 1854 to 13 July 1855, provided the basic material for this wider study of the Grenadier Guards’ role in the Crimea written by a distant relative (pp. 20-173).

H60

Powell, Harry, Recollections of a young soldier during the Crimean War. Oxford: privately printed by Upstone and Doe, 1876. 30pp.

Powell (1830-86) was a trumpeter in the 13th Light Dragoons and one of the “six hundred” of the Light Brigade. He landed at Evpatoriia in mid-September 1854 and describes, in brief and unclear detail, his experiences, most importantly, of the charge and its aftermath. He left the Crimea after the fall of Sevastopol (pp. 12-29).

H61

Rawlins, James, One hussar. Edited by Ken Horton. Stourton: privately printed, [1985?]. vi+78pp.

A trooper in the 8th Hussars, Rawlins (1832-1907) landed at Evpatoriia Bay on 15 September 1854, when entries in his diary begin. He served as an officers’ servant attached to the British HQ in the camp before Sevastopol. He was involved in a number of the major military events, but the entries do not describe these in much detail: rather, they describe the camp life of an average soldier. He departed on 25 April 1856 (pp. 11-22)

H62

Robinson, Frederick, Diary of the Crimean War. London: Richard Bentley, 1856. xiv+443pp.

An assistant surgeon with the Scots Fusilier Guards in the 1st Division and landing at Kalamita Bay on 14 September 1854, Robinson (1826-1901) submitted his diaries for publication in 1855 while still on active service before Sevastopol. In April 1855 he was called to British Headquarters at Balaklava, where he recorded life in the camp and in the town. Following the fall of Sevastopol, Robinson visited the town and the Redan fortress and journeyed through the Crimean countryside (pp. 149-443).

H63

Russell, William Howard, The war: from the landing at Gallipoli to the death of Lord Raglan. London: George Routledge & Co., 1855. ii+507pp. [Continued as: The war: from the death of Lord Raglan to the evacuation of the Crimea; with additions and corrections. London: George Routledge & Co., 1856. 486pp.; revised, with numerous emendations and additions, under the title: The British expedition to the Crimea, 1858. 629pp.]

The collected letters to The Times by its famous correspondent (1820-1907), covering the period from 6 March 1854 to 29 June 1856. Russell left with the troops from Southampton, witnessed the unopposed landing at Evpatoriia on 14 September 1854, and reported all subsequent events until the proclamation of peace, bringing home to the British public the horrors of the war, the military mismanagement and the heroism of the soldiers. Russell was knighted in 1895 for services to journalism and is described on his monument in St Paul’s as “the first and greatest of war correspondents”.

H64

Sayer, Frederick, and Jervis, Thomas Best, Despatches and papers relative to the campaign in Turkey, Asia Minor, and the Crimea, during the war with Russia in 1854, 1855, 1856, illustrated with original plans and drawings, executed at the topographical branch of the War Department, under the superintendence of Colonel Jervis, Director. London: Harrison, 1857. v+447pp.

Sayer (1832-1868), deputy-assistant lieutenant-general of the Horse Guards and a favourite at the British Court, fought in the Crimea, was wounded at the Alma in September 1854 and, after a period of recuperation at Scutari, was sent home. This is not a personal account, however, but a collection of official despatches and army papers and orders, covering the period from September 1854 to July 1856 and written by both the British commanders in chief (Raglan, Simpson, Codrington) and divisional commanders and others. Col. Jervis is responsible for the statistics and detailed maps.

H65

Smith, George Loy, A Victorian RSM: from India to the Crimea. Tunbridge Wells: D.J. Costello, 1987. 245pp.

Regimental Sergeant Major Smith (1817-88) of the 11th Hussars was in the Crimea from 16 September 1854 until 25 January 1856 (apart from a supplies-securing mission to Constantinople between mid-November 1854 and January 1855). He offers particular detailed descriptions of the hussars’ role at the Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman, and his involvement in the charge of the Light Brigade (pp. 96-211).

H66

Steevens, Nathaniel, The Crimea campaign with ‘the Connaught Rangers’ 1854-55-56. London: Griffith and Farran, 1878. xviii+359pp.

Lt.-Colonel Steevens (d. 1894), arriving as a young lieutenant with his regiment, the 88th Regiment of Foot, the Connaught Rangers, on 14 September 1854 and soon promoted to captain and then major, was an engineer who became particularly involved with Turkish troops employed on entrenchment works at Sevastopol (he was awarded the Turkish Crimean War medal in 1855). He provides a detailed narrative of his experiences, based primarily on his letters and journals, written between the September landing and his eventual departure on 9 June 1856. Like many other officers, he took the opportunity, following the peace in late March 1856, to explore the sights of the Crimea (pp. 76-333).

H67

Stephenson, Frederick Charles Arthur, At home and on the battlefield: letters from the Crimea, China and Egypt, 1854-88. Edited by Mrs Frank Pownall. London: John Murray, 1915. xviii+383pp.

Lt.-Colonel, later Sir Frederick, Stephenson (1821-1911) served throughout the Crimean War with the Scots Guards as military secretary to General Sir James Simpson. His letters to his family from the Crimea run from 14 September 1854 until 18 April 1856, except for a period away due to illness between 7 August and 16 November 1855. He was present at the Alma and Inkerman and throughout the siege of Sevastopol. In his later letters, following the armistice, he describes the social pursuits and intercourse with Russian troops (pp. 63-162).

H68

[Sterling, Anthony Coningham], Letters from the army in the Crimea, written during the years 1854, 1855, & 1856, by a staff officer who was there. London: privately printed by Robson, Levey and Franklyn, 1857. xlviii+496pp. [Later edition with Sterling as author: The story of the Highland Brigade in the Crimea, founded on letters written during the years 1854, 1855, and 1856. London: Remington & Co., J. Macqueen, 1895. xxii+393pp. ]

The Crimean letters of Sir Anthony (1805-71), who was a brigade major and then an assistant adjutant general to Sir Colin Campbell and the Highland Division, run from 18 September 1854 to 29 November 1855 and then from 17 February to 8 May 1856. The letters, which describe the main battles, are supplemented by contextualising information provided by Sterling in 1857 and with copies of official reports. Feeling dishonoured at having had a junior officer promoted over him, Sterling left the Crimea in November (pp. 81-463). He returned in mid-February 1856 to the camp at Kamara and took part in negotiations with the Russians, before leaving in May 1856 (pp. 467-96).

H69

Walker, Charles Pyndar Beauchamp, Days of a soldier’s life, being letters written during active service in the Crimean, Chinese, Austro-Prussian (66) and Franco-Prussian (70-71) wars. London: Chapman and Hall, 1894. 411pp.

General Sir Charles (1817-94), later long-serving military attaché in Berlin, was in the Crimea from 14 September to 29 November 1854. As aide-de-camp to Lord Lucan and officer in the 7th Dragoon Guards, he was present at the Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman and left a brief eye-witness account of the charge of the Light Brigade (pp. 101-53).

H70

Wellesley, Edward, Letters of a Victorian army officer Edward Wellesley: major, 73rd Regiment of Foot 1840-1854. Stroud: Alan Sutton for the Army Records Society, 1995. xiv+224pp.

The collected letters of Major Edward Wellesley (1823-54) of the 73rd Foot Regiment, who served briefly in the Crimea as assistant quartermaster-general in Lord Raglan’s staff, but died of cholera on 20 September 1854. A section entitled ‘To the Crimea’ contains his letters from 17 March 1854 to 14 September 1854, just prior to his landing at Evpatoriia, but there is no material written by Wellesley from the war itself, though a list of his personal possessions at the time of his death is of note (pp. 192-95).

H71

Whelan, James, A veteran’s memoirs: being episodes of his life and experiences. Manchester: W. Woodford, 1907. 55pp.

Whelan, who served in the Royal marines during the Crimean War, is frequently vague about dates and events but apparently disembarked on 14 September 1854. His account is mainly interesting for the little sketches of camp life, such as Christmas celebrations in camp and the green coffee rationed to the British soldiers. He also describes a flogging he received in February 1855 for accusing a superior of lying (pp. 12-40).

H72

*Wickenden, William S., Adventures before Sebastopol. London: Printed for the author by Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co., 1855. 179pp.

Fact or fiction? Do we disbelieve a man of the cloth? Rev. Wickenden (1795-1864), Cambridge M.A., curate of Lassington, author of much doggerel and styling himself “the bard of the forest” as well as “the Anglo-Circassian”on account of his so-called Adventures in Circassia (1847) and A sequel to the adventures in Circassia, (1848) (not included in the bibliography), describes his alleged expedition to Sevastopol in 1854. His Flashman-like adventures included exchanging clothing with a serving soldier and spending a night in the trenches with heroic results. Illness compelled him to return to England on 6 July, before the fall of the city.

H73

[Wilbraham, Richard], Scenes in the camp and field: being sketches of the war in the Crimea. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1857-59. 3 vols.

This account of an anonymous regiment’s experiences throughout the Crimean campaign is attributed to Wilbraham (1811-1900), author of an 1837 account of Circassia (see G56), who was a major in the 7th Regiment of Foot, then adjutant general of the 2nd Division, and promoted to colonel in August 1855. The first volume covers the period from the invasion of Crimea to the battle of Inkerman. (pp. 53-131); the second, experience of the winter of 1854-55 and the outbreak of disease, during the siege of Sevastopol (pp. 41-143); the third, from the fall of Sevastopol to the eventual departure from the Crimea in the summer of 1856 (pp. 39-141). The work provides a voice to women accompanying the regiment and also includes sections on Crimean housekeeping, local landmarks, and religious monasteries.

H74

[Wilson, Charles Townshend], Our veterans of 1854: in camp, and before the enemy. By a regimental officer. London: Charles J. Skeet, 1859. 351pp.

An officer of the Household Brigade, Wilson attempts to tell the story of the “Rank and File”, the “base, common, and popular”, from the landing on 14 September 1854 at Old Fort, south of Evpatoriia, to the hurricane of 14 November, which he terms the end of the “second act of the Russian War, when “our aristocratic military system proved rotten to the core”, but “the real value of the Private Soldier” was established (pp. 105-351).

H75

Windham, Charles Ash, The Crimean diary and letters of Lieut.-General Sir Charles Ash Windham, K. C. B., ‘Redan Windham’; with observations upon his services during the Indian mutiny. Edited by Major Hugh Pearse. Introduction by Sir William Howard Russell. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1897. xii+272pp.

Sir Charles (1810-70) served as quartermaster general of the 4th Division in the Crimean War and his letters and diary run from 14 September 1854 until 15 October 1855. He describes the battles of the Alma and Inkerman, the hurricane of 14 November 1854, as well as the routines and tedium of camp life. He led the storming party of the 2nd Division during the second assault on the Redan on 8 September 1855 (pp. 22-214).

H76

Woods, Nicholas Augustus, The past campaign: a sketch of the war in the East, from the departure of Lord Raglan to the capture of Sevastopol. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855. 2 vols.

Woods (1813-1906), the war correspondent in the Crimea for the Morning Herald, landed at Kalamita Bay on 14 September 1854 and although incapacitated by illness from early May, remained until mid-July 1855. Heavily based on personal observations, but supplemented from official sources and the testimony and correspondence of others, his journalistic account follows the campaign until the fall of Sevastopol. Strongly critical of Westminster politicians, he emphasizes the hardships and horrors of war (vol. I, pp. 285-439; II, pp. 1-365).

H77

Wright, Henry Press, Recollections of a Crimean chaplain; and the story of Prince Daniel and Montenegro. London: Ward and Lock, 1857. 141pp.

Wright (1816-92), who had arrived in the Crimea in mid-September 1854 as principal chaplain to the British Army in the East, delivered on his return to England a series of public lectures at Canterbury. He writes of the religiosity of Raglan, the relations between the British army and clergy, his burial duties in the aftermath of battles and his explorations of the surrounding countryside (pp. 23-83).

H78

68th Light Infantry, “Well done the 68th”: the story of a Regiment, told by the men of the 68th Light Infantry, during the Crimean and New Zealand wars, 1854 to 1866. By John Bilcliffe. Chippenham: Picton Publishing, 1995. 347pp.

The letters and journals of eleven officers and men of the 68th Regiment serving in the Crimea were used in Bilcliffe’s regimental history. They describe the hardships of camp life, the siege of Sevastopol, the incompetence of military superiors. Of particular note are the accounts given of the battle of Balaklava, the changing arms and equipment situation, and the harsh winter of 1854-55 (pp. 4-78).

H79

[Anon.], The war, or, voices from the ranks. London: George Routledge & Co., 1855. 220pp.

A narrative of the campaign from the declaration of war to the battle of Inkerman and the hurricane of 14 November 1854. Includes often long extracts from the letters of mainly unidentified soldiers and sailors and the reports of war correspondents.

[End of mid-September 1854 Landings]

H80

Godman, Richard Temple, The fields of war: a young cavalryman’s Crimea campaign. Edited by Philip Warner. London: John Murray, 1977. viii+215pp.

Between 1 October 1854 and his departure from Balaklava on 19 November 1855 Godman (1832-1912), who rose to the rank of major-general, served as a cornet with the 5th Dragoon Guards and took part in the charge of the Heavy Brigade during the battle of Balaklava on 25 October 1854. His detailed letters to his family describe other actions in which he was involved as well as everyday life in the camps, discuss British press reporting of events, the vexed question of promotion, and record the deaths of friends and horses from battle, disease, deprivation and lack of medicine. Godman, incidentally, took three horses to the Crimea and brought them home unscathed (pp. 60-191).

H81

Wood, Evelyn, The Crimea in 1854, and 1894. With plans, and illustrations from sketches taken on the spot by Colonel the Hon. W. K. Colville, C. B. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld, 1895. xii+400pp.

Sir Evelyn (1838-1919), who was later to switch from the navy to the army, receive the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny, and finish his career as a field-marshal, served in the Crimean War as a midshipman on board HMS Queen. He went ashore as a member of the Naval Brigade on 2 October 1854 and was appointed acting aide-de-camp to Captain Peel on 1 January 1855. Wounded in the failed British assault on the Redan on 18 June 1855, he was soon repatriated. His book was based a collection of articles originally published in the Fortnightly Review, describing his re-visiting the Crimea in August 1894 and re-living his experiences forty years earlier.

H82

Wood, Evelyn, From midshipman to field marshal. London: Methuen & Co., 1906. 2 vols.

A succinct account of his service in the Crimea (vol. I, pp. 28-98).

H83

[Bushby, Henry Jeffreys], A month in the camp before Sebastopol. By a non-combatant. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855. x+125pp.

A collection of ten letters written by a tourist keen to observe the first months of the campaign. He arrived at Evpatoriia Bay on 3 October 1854 and departed on 10 November after an “enjoyable” trip, during which he was in the camp at Balaklava, witnessed the initial bombardment of Sevastopol, and saw a little of the battles at the Alma and Inkerman.

H84

Fisher-Rowe, Edward Rowe, Extracts from letters of E.R. Fisher-Rowe (late captain, 4th Dragoon Guards), during the Crimean War, 1854-55. Edited by his son, Major L.R. Fisher-Rowe. [Godalming]: privately printed, 1907. 59pp.

Fisher (d. 1907), a cornet in Hodge’s regiment, writes home from the Crimea from 8 October 1854 to 29 November 1855, apart from the short period from early December 1854 to 11 January 1855, when he was invalided to Constantinople (pp. 16-59).

H85

[Buchanan, George,] Letters from an officer of the Scots Greys to his mother during the Crimean War. London: printed for private circulation by Rivingtons, 1856. 47pp.

A number of the letters Buchanan (d. 1863), a captain in the Scots Greys, sent to his mother date from 16 October 1854 to 9 July 1855, when he was based at the camp near Balaclava. He describes recent battles and skirmishing, provides news of the fate of his brother officers. He visits French positions before Sevastopol and is struck by the cowardice, the zouaves apart, of the French soldiers (pp. 9-41).

H86

Taylor, George Cavendish, Journal of adventures with the British army, from the commencement of the War to the taking of Sebastopol. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1856. 2 vols.

In the course of some ten months, from 25 October 1854 until 9 September 1855, punctuated by brief visits to Constantinople, Taylor (1826-89), formerly of the 95th Regiment, described events in the Crimea witnessed not as a combatant but as an interested observer. After a period with the Second Division at Sevastopol, he was with the expeditions to Kerch in May 1855, later at Inkerman and Balaklava. He witnessed the attack on Taganrog in June 1855, described the assaults on the Malakov and Redan later that month, and in a final visit in September, visited the evacuated Sevastopol.

H87

Simpson, William, The autobiography of William Simpson, R.I. (Crimean Simpson). Edited by George Eyre-Todd. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1903). xvi+351pp.

The “earliest of war artists”, Simpson (1823-99) received his first and most memorable encounter with Russia in October 1854, when he was sent to the Crimea by Colnaghi’s. Over the next few months he produced numerous sketches from the war zone, including one of Balaklava at the behest of Queen Victoria. In May 1855 he joined the second Kerch expedition before returning to the Crimean battlefields, where he remained until September, when he was invited by the Duke of Newcastle to accompany him to Circassia. He returned to England at the end of the year for the publication of the sketches that brought him fame (pp. 19-79). In April 1869 he returned to the Crimea, visiting Sevastopol and other battle and burial sites (pp. 216-23). His third and final visit was with his wife in May 1883, when he produced his sketches of Alexander III’s coronation and of scenes in Moscow and, subsequently, St Petersburg (pp. 298-99).

H88

Simpson, William, and Brackenbury, George, The campaign in the Crimea: an historical sketch. Accompanied by eighty double tinted plates from drawings taken on the spot by William Simpson. London: Paul and Dominic Colnaghi and Co. and Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855-6. First series (1855): viii+112pp. Second series (1856): vi+136pp.

Brackenbury, styling himself “late secretary at Kadikoi to the honorary agents of the Crimean Army fund”, provides an introductory overview of events (vol. I, pp. 1-56; II, pp. 1-77) and detailed commentaries to Simpson’s drawings. Brackenbury left the Crimea in May 1855 before the end of the siege of Sevastopol. In the first series his own observations are amplified by sources such as Russell’s dispatches to The Times; the second series is wholly dependent on borrowed material that includes Simpson’s own letters.

H89

Codman, John, An American transport in the Crimean War. Introduction by I.C. Roper. New York: Bonnell, Silver & Co., 1897. 198pp.

Codman (1814-1900) was the captain of the American transport William Penn, chartered by the French, and tells his story, as the introduction suggests, “with simplicity and naturalness […] combined with a genuine love of humor”. The ship left Marseilles on 1 November 1854 with troops and ammunition for the Crimea and sailed between Turkey and the Crimea until the contract with the French expired, after which Codman served with the Turks until the end of the war.

H90

Newman, George, The prisoners of Voronesh: the diary of Sergeant George Newman, 23rd Regiment of Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers, taken prisoner at Inkerman. Edited by David Inglesant. Old Woking: The Trustees of the Regimental Museum, The Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1977. xiv+260pp.

Sergeant Newman (b. 1828) began his diary on 5 November 1854, the very day he was captured at the battle of Inkerman, and completed it on 26 October 1855. He describes the 550-mile march from Sevastopol to Voronezh, via Perekop, Zaporozhe, Dnepropetrovsk, Novomoskovsk and Kharkov, reaching his destination sometime in February 1855. Newman chronicles his and his fellow prisoners’ daily routine, interactions with the local population and observations on Russian customs. Released in August 1855, he travelled for seven weeks back to Balaklava, via Poltava and Odessa.

H91

O’Flaherty, Philip, Sketches of the war: being a second series of letters. Edinburgh: Shepherd and Elliot; London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.; Belfast: Shepherd and Aitchison, 1855. 45pp.

In this second collection of letters (see H55) from 6 November 1854 until 28 April 1855, O’Flaherty describes his regiment’s action at the battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854, the hurricane on 14 November 1854, camp privations during the winter, proselytising conversations with Turkish troops and his distribution of religious material amongst both the British and Turkish soldiers, and his work as an interpreter between British engineers and Turkish troops. The last letter describes a visit to the camp of the French zouaves.

H92

Campbell, Colin Frederick, Letters from camp to his relatives during the siege of Sebastopol. Edited by R.B. Mansfield. Preface by Field-Marshal [Garnet Joseph] Wolseley. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1894. xx+411pp.

Campbell (1823/24-68) was a captain in the 46th Foot Regiment, promoted to major in March 1855, then assistant engineer in May 1855 and finally lt-colonel in December 1855 during service in the Crimea. The letters from Russian soil, addressed to various family members, run from his landing on 8 November 1854 until 31 March 1856, broken up by a period of leave in January 1855. Campbell was fiercely critical of the British military leadership, lack of preparation and flawed strategy, constant themes even as the supply situation began to improve in the spring of 1855.

H93

Young, Adam Graham, A story of active service in foreign lands. Extracts from letters sent home from the Crimea 1854-1856. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1886. viii+262pp.

Young (d. 1897) was an assistant surgeon in the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade and present throughout the siege of Sevastopol. On 20 September 1855 he assumed responsibility for the medical care of the staff of the Light Division. His letters chronicle his experiences in the Crimea between 13 November 1854, when he landed at Kamesh Bay the day before the great hurricane, and his departure on 22 June 1856 (pp. 29-257).

H94

[Lluellyn, Richard], Murder of a regiment: winter sketches from the Crimea, 1854-1855. Edited by Colin Robins. Bowdon: Withycut House, 1994. 53pp.

An officer in the 46th Foot Regiment, Lluellyn was in the Crimea from early November 1854 until his departure on 9 March 1855. Entries in his diary describe the British camp at Balaklava and before Sevastopol, fighting at Inkerman, the 14 November 1854 storm and the weeks he spent on board a vessel in Balaklava harbour when ill from fever (pp. 7-26).

H95

Creagh, James, Sparks from camp fires: an autobiography. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901. vi+339pp.

Creagh (b. 1836), an ensign in the 1st Foot, arrived at Balaklava in the winter of 1854 and served eight months in the trenches. He left the Crimea in July 1856. Short on detail but rich in unexpected anecdotes, his autobiography recounts the terrible conditions of the winter of 1854-55, his witnessing of the Allied attack on the White Works and Quarries on 8-9 June 1855, his participation in the plundering of Sevastopol and his subsequent social interaction with French and Russian colleagues (pp. 112-213).

H96

Dunscombe, Nicholas, Captain Dunscombe’s diary: the real Crimean War that the British infantry knew. The diary of Captain Nicholas Dunscombe, 46th (South Devonshire) Foot. Transcribed, edited and annotated by Major Colin Robins. Bowdon: Withycut House, 2003. 243pp.

Dunscombe (d. 1870), promoted to captain in October 1855, had arrived at Balaklava with his regiment in November 1854 and remained in the Crimea until 14 March 1856 (apart from a short visit to Constantinople in January-February 1855). His diary consists of short entries, with frequent comments on the weather, recent military developments, actions in which he was personally involved, and observations about the practicalities and hardships of camp life.

H97

Jervis-Waldy, William Thomas, From eight to eighty: the life of a Crimean and Indian Mutiny veteran. London: Harrison & Sons, 1914. viii+224pp.

In his “gossipy recollections”, originally intended for the edification and amusement of his family, Jervis-Waldy (b. 1831) recalls his service as a young officer in the Duke of Cornwall’s Regiment in the Crimea in November-December 1854 and, following a period of recuperation in Scutari in the spring and summer of 1856, the post-Armistice period, when he describes fraternizing with the Russians and making trips to battlefields and Crimean towns (pp. 42-87).

H98

Macormick [McCormick], Richard Cunningham, Jr., Two months in and about the camp before Sebastopol. London: William Wesley, 1855. 172pp.

The young McCormick (1832-1901), the future eminent American politician and journalist, was sent to Europe for reasons of health, but within months became a correspondent reporting on the Crimean War for a number of New York papers. His book, based partly on his “hurried letters”, recounts movingly his experiences with the British forces from the end of December 1854 to February 1855. He combines on-the-spot observation with “tourist” information gleaned from printed sources (pp. 12-128). After six weeks he returned to Constantinople and visited the hospitals at Scutari. The American edition was entitled A visit to the camp before Sevastopol (1855) with the correct spelling of his surname!

H99

O’Malley, James, The life of James O’Malley. Montreal: Desaulnier’s Printing Co., 1893. 192pp.

One-time corporal in the 17th Leicester Royal Bengal Tigers, the Irishman O’Malley devotes much of his autobiography to the time he spent in the Crimea between 2 December 1854 and 10 May 1856. Initially at the British camp before Sevastopol, O’Malley subsequently took part in the expedition that travelled to Odessa and was present at the surrender of the fortress of Kinburn on 17 October 1855 (pp. 63-188).

H100

West, Algernon Edward, Recollections 1832 to 1886. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1899. 2 vols.

Sir Algernon (1832-1921), who was later to achieve prominence as principal private secretary to Gladstone, was invited to join a friend who was being sent by the Submarine Telegraph Company to “establish communication from the seat of war by means of a submarine cable”. His diary covers the period from 12 December 1854 to early February 1855 that includes some ten days of cold and disillusionment at “gross mismanagement” spent at Balaklava (vol. I, pp. 161-78). He had earlier included a moving account of the battle of Inkerman sent to him on 7 November 1854 by Captain E.S. Burnaby (vol. I, pp. 127-36).

H101

Faughnan, Thomas, Stirring incidents in the life of a British soldier: an autobiography. Toronto: Hunter, Ruse and Company, 1879. 336pp.

Among the stirring incidents that Faughnan (d. 1883) recalled during his retirement in Canada was the period from 15 December 1854 to 10 May 1856 that he spent in the Crimea as a corporal in the 17th Regiment of Foot. He provides detailed and moving accounts of the two British assaults on the Redan on 18 June and 8 September 1855; wounded during the former, he was evacuated to the hospital in Scutari, returning to Sevastopol on 20 August 1855 (pp. 146-252).

H102

Palmer, Ellen, Crimean courtship. Edited by Betty Askwith. Wilton: Michael Russell, 1985. 144pp.

“Courted” by Archibald Peel, brother of Capt. William Peel VC, the commander of HMS Diamond in Crimean waters, Miss Palmer (1830-63) remained mainly in Turkey but paid a visit to the Crimea to visit her brother Robert, who was in the 11th Hussars and took part in the charge of the Light Brigade. Entries in her diary from the Crimea from 26 December 1854 until 29 January 1855, although succinct, reveal her as an intrepid young lady, visiting the Inkerman battlefield under shellfire and also to the trenches themselves during the height of winter (pp. 63-91).

H103

Gordon, Charles George, General Gordon’s letters from the Crimea, the Danube, and Armenia, August 18, 1854, to November 17, 1858. Edited by Demetrius Charles Boulger. London: Chapman and Hall, 1884. xvi+205pp.

It was as a young officer in the 39th Regiment that General Gordon (1833-85) landed in the Crimea at the end of 1854 – his first letter from the camp at Balaklava dates from 3 January 1855. Upbeat in tone, his letters for the most part describe the idleness of camp life but he gives a detailed account of his part in the failed British assault on the Redan on 18 June 1855 and his search for war trophies in the evacuated Sevastopol fortress. He participated in the Allied expedition that captured Kinburn in mid-October 1855. His last letter from Crimean soil is dated 10 May 1856 (pp. 9-98). Subsequent letters describe his service with the Boundary Commission, fixing the new frontier between Russia and Moldavia and Wallachia and then in Armenia between Russia and Turkey. He weaves in and out of Russian territory, including Georgia, from the end of June 1857 until finally leaving for Constantinople in mid-November (pp. 147-205).

H104

Hawley, Robert Beaufoy, The Hawley letters: the letters of Captain R.B. Hawley, 89th, from the Crimea, December 1854 to August 1856. Aldershot: Printed for the Society for Army Historical Research by Gale & Polden, 1970. 115pp.

Hawley (1821-98), a captain in the 89th Regiment who was promoted to brevet-major on 2 November 1855, arrived at Balaklava on 5 January 1855 and remained in the Crimea until 5 July 1856. He did not participate in any of the major military events of the campaign and his letters reflect rather the everyday tedium of life in camp (pp. 19-115).

H105

Burgoyne, John Fox, The military opinions of General Sir John Fox Burgoyne, bart., G.C.B. Edited by Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. George Wrottesley. London: Richard Bentley, 1859. viii+479pp.

Part II of this collection of essays on military topics contains items relating to the Crimea. They include observations on the circumstances of the allied armies before Sevastopol (15 January 1855), an essay on the Sevastopol fortress’s defences (November 1855), as well as Burgoyne’s response to the critical reports of the army’s conduct of the siege by Sir John McNeill and Colonel Alexander Murray Tulloch (pp. 145-253).

H106

Kelly, Richard Denis, An officer’s letters to his wife during the Crimean war. With an introductory memoir by Ellen Catherine Tait. London: Elliot Stock, 1902. x+452pp.

Ceylon-born Irishman General Sir Richard (1815-96), promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the 34th Regiment in March 1855, wrote detailed and frank letters to his wife from 17 January 1855 until 24 March 1856, edited and introduced by his daughter. Within weeks, on 23 March, Kelly was captured by the Russians and he describes his experience as a prisoner of war as he journeys from Sevastopol, via Simferopol and Ekaterinoslav, to Riazan, where he arrives on 25 May 1855. On his release he travelled back to Balaklava via Kursk, Kharkov, Poltava, Odessa and Constantinople between 14 August and 14 September 1855. An appendix contains letters regarding his falsely reported death in the British press in mid-March 1855 and a letter describing his time as a Russian prisoner Kelly wrote in October 1868 to the historian A.W. Kinglake.

H107

Bazancourt, César Lecat, The Crimean expedition, to the capture of Sebastopol: chronicles of the war in the East, from its commencement, to the signing of the treaty of peace. Translated by Robert Howe Gould. London: S. Low, Son & Co, 1856. 2 vols.

Baron Bazancourt (1810-65), director of the Library of Compiègne under Louis Philippe and subsequently appointed France’s military historiographer by Napoleon III, was sent by the French government to chronicle the Crimean expedition. The resulting two-volume work offers an inevitably French account of the campaign, an exhaustive narrative prefaced and concluded by sections on the war’s origins and outcomes. It is written as an official history, but includes to a degree the personal observations of Bazancourt, who was in the Crimea from January until the autumn of 1855, together with the testimony of others and the evidence of despatches and correspondence.

H108

Goodman, Margaret, Experiences of an English Sister of Mercy. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1862. 234pp.

Goodman was a Devonport Sister of Mercy, a member of the group travelling with Florence Nightingale to the hospital at Scutari, where they arrived on 4 November 1854. Although mostly concerned with her work at Scutari, her account describes her visit to Balaclava in January 1855 and her interaction with British soldiers. She left soon after the armistice (pp. 209-34).

H109

Pack, Arthur John Reynell, Sebastopol trenches and five months in them. London: Kerby and Endean, 1878. viii+212pp.

This is the posthumous publication of detailed journal entries by Colonel Pack (1817-60), of the 7th Regiment of Foot, the Royal Fusiliers, during five months in the trenches before Sevastopol between January and June 1855. Contains sketches drawn on the spot by Captain Michael Biddulph (1823-1904) of the Royal Artillery.

H110

Porter, Whitworth, Life in the trenches before Sebastopol. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856. x+195pp.

Porter (1827-92), a major in the Royal Engineers, offers an anaesthetized and uncritical account of his time in the Crimea between January and May 1855, when he was invalided to Scutari. Many of his descriptions of camp life and daily routines are rarely linked to specific dates or events, but he includes extracts from his diary from 3 March to 11 May 1855 (pp. 23-180).

H111

Davis, Elizabeth, The autobiography of Elizabeth Davis, a Balaklava nurse, daughter of Dafydd Cadwaladyr. Edited by Jane Williams. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1857. 2 vols.

After an “incredibly” eventful life that took her from Wales to Waterloo (just after the battle), to the West Indies, Tasmania, and many other places, Betsy Davis (1789-1860) volunteered as a nurse when the Crimean War broke out, but finished up as a cook in the hospital at Balaklava and was highly critical of Miss Nightingale (vol. II, pp. 127-200).

H112

Reid, Douglas Arthur, Memories of the Crimean War: January 1855 to June 1856. London: The St Catherine Press, 1911. xiv+206pp. [See also Soldier-surgeon: the Crimean War letters of Douglas A. Reid, 1855-1856. Edited by Joseph O. Baylen and Alan Conway. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1968. viii+158pp.]

Reid (1833-1924), an assistant surgeon in the 90th Light Infantry, provides an account based upon letters sent home during his service on Russian soil between 2 February 1855 and 14 June 1856 (except for a period between early August and early September 1855, when he was invalided to Scutari). After his return from Scutari, Reid describes the terrible losses amongst the British and French forces in the trenches due to their proximity to the Russian lines and how in the wake of the failed British assault on the Redan on 8 September, he worked non-stop for forty-eight hours. His final letters describe the festivities following the fall of Sevastopol and his visits to the Russian lines following the Treaty of Paris (pp. 4-175).

H113

[Sullivan, Edward Robert], A trip to the trenches in February and March, 1855. By an amateur. London: Saunders and Otley, 1855. 284pp.

Sir Edward (1826-99), fifth baronet of Thames Ditton and author of several travel works, describes a stay in the Crimea between 2 February and 6 March 1855, undertaken to satisfy his curiosity about the war. He provides very detailed descriptions of the difficult conditions at the British camp at Balaklava and visits various battle sites, with particular attention to the site of the battle of Inkermann (pp. 86-263).

H114

Fenton, Roger, Roger Fenton, photographer of the Crimean War. With an essay on his life and work by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. London: Secker & Warburg, 1954. 106pp.

Fenton (1819-69) had visited and photographed in Russia in 1852 but it was his visit to the Crimea that ensured his reputation. Taking with him his “photographic van”, a wine-merchant’s carriage converted into a mobile darkroom, two assistants, and letters of introduction from Prince Albert, Fenton left England on 20 February 1855. Over the next few months he photographed military commanders, local figures, and studies of camp life, and wrote copious letters, mainly to his wife Grace and to Thomas Agnew & Sons, the sponsors of his trip. The Gernsheims include extracts from the surviving twenty-five letters, preserved in two letter-books, over the period 27 February to 25 June 1855.

H115

Fox Maule, 2nd Baron Panmure, The Panmure papers: being a selection from the correspondence of Fox Maule, second Baron Panmure, afterward eleventh Earl of Dalhousie, K. T. G.C.B. Edited by Sir George Brisbane Douglas and Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908. 2 vols.

Lord Panmure (1801-74) was both Secretary-at-War and Secretary of State for War between February 1855 and the fall of the Palmerston ministry in February 1858, having been appointed following the public censure of the Duke of Newcastle for the poor conditions and equipment of the British army besieging Sevastopol. His papers, arranged by month and containing correspondence with political, military, diplomatic and royal figures, contain many letters, often edited, received from military figures based in the Crimea. Letters from Lord Raglan at Sevastopol run from 27 February 1855 until his death on 28 June 1855; from Admiral Houston Stewart, on board HMS Hannibal, from 24 March 1855 until 17 July 1855; from General James Simpson at the British camp before Sevastopol from 16 April 1855 until 10 November 1855; and, the most numerous, from Major General William Codrington, from 10 November 1855 until 11 July 1856, when he left Balaklava (vol. I; vol. II, pp. 1-271).

H116

Seacole, Mary, Wonderful adventures of Mrs Seacole in many lands. Edited by W.J.S. With an introductory preface by W.H. Russell, Esq., the ‘Times’ correspondent in the Crimea. London: James Blackwood, 1857. xii+200pp.

Daughter of Scottish seafarer and a Jamaican former slave, Mary (née Grant, 1805-81) was on her third visit to England when the Crimean War broke out. Disappointed in her attempt to be accepted as a nurse, she travelled independently to Scutari to provide provisions to the troops. She set up a hotel at Balaklava in February 1855, took a food trolley to the front lines, and nursed, until her return in 1856 to England and to (short-lived) acclaim.

H117

Frossard, Émilien, The French pastor at the seat of the war: letters written from the East. Translated from the French. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1856. 302pp.

A pastor of the French Reformed Church, Frossard (1802-81) was sent to the Crimea to care for the needs of the Protestants within the French army. Although he remained mostly in Turkish territory, he was on Crimean soil between 8 March and 27 March 1855. His letters include descriptions of visits to camp hospitals, life in the French camp before Sevastopol, his interaction with Turkish soldiers, his religious duties, and the phenomenon of war tourism (pp. 137-99). Back in Constantinople, he received letters from other pastors still in the Crimea.

H118

[Anon.], A visit to Schamyl. Translated from the German, with notes. London: John W. Parker and Son, 1857. ii+34pp.

The original letter was published in Berlin in 1855 by a Prussian officer serving in the Russian army in a regiment commanded by Prince Mikhail Vorontsov. It recounts a meeting in March 1855 with Shamyl (1797-1871), the “imam of Daghestan” and leader of the Circassian resistance to Russian occupation, to effect the exchange of the family of Prince Chavtchavadze, imprisoned since July 1854, for Shamyl’s eldest son.

H119

Laurie, Peter George, My recollections of the Crimea and the siege of Sebastopol, 1854-1855. Brentwood: privately printed, 1900. 36pp.

Laurie (1838-1912) visited the British camp before Sevastopol between spring 1855 and early spring 1856, describing the daily routines and noting the soldiers’ adoption of “moustachios” (pp. 20-36).

H120

Douglas, William, Soldiering in sunshine and storm. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1865. viii+322pp.

A private in the 10th Royal Hussars promoted to a commissariat position in October 1855, Douglas (b. 1827) describes his service in the Crimea from his arrival at Balaklava on 15 April 1855 to his departure for winter quarters in Turkey on 13 November 1855 (pp. 158-277).

H121

Buzzard, Thomas, With the Turkish army in the Crimea and Asia Minor. London: John Murray, 1915. x+310pp.

Buzzard (1831-1919) was a British doctor attached to the Ottoman headquarters under Omer Pasha in the Crimea and Transcaucasia. This account, written some sixty years after the events but including frequent transcriptions from Buzzard’s diary, contains a section relating to the Crimea that runs from his landing at Balaklava on 18 April 1855 until his departure on 8 October 1855 (pp. 35-205).

H122

Greig, David, Letters from the Crimea: writing home, a Dundee doctor. Edited by Douglas Hill. Introduction by Trevor Royle. Dundee: Dundee University Press, 2010. xi+224pp.

Recently qualified as a doctor at Edinburgh, Greig (1832-90) sailed from England on the same ship as Florence Nightingale and reached the British military hospital at Scutari on 4 November 1854. It was only on 18 April 1855 that he went to the Crimea. In October he was aboard HMS Albert during the attack on Kinburn, then returned to the camp at Sevastopol. He eventually left the Crimea for Constantinople at the end of June 1856 (pp. 73-203).

H123

Christie, Peter, Facts relating to the late Captain P. Christie, R. N. while principal agent of transports in the Black Sea. Aberdeen: printed by John Avery, [1856]. 97pp.

An anonymous defence of Christie (d. 1855), the Royal Navy’s principal agent of transports at Balaklava, who died in April 1855 while returning from the Crimea to England to face a court martial on charges of being unfit for duty made against him in the House of Commons due to his actions during the 14 November 1854 storm. The work includes letters and memoranda by Christie (as well as letters of support from colleagues in the Crimea).

H124

Nightingale, Florence, ‘I have done my duty’: Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War, 1854-56. Edited by Sue Goldie. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987. 326pp.

A selection of 100 out of the 300 letters written by Nightingale (1820-1910) during the Crimean War to a variety of addressees: potential recruits, family, friends, colleagues, and officials in the War Office. They detail her work, her attempts to inform and influence Sidney Herbert at the War Office and to gain recognition of the nursing establishment by the Medical Department. Her first letter from Crimean soil is dated 10 May 1855 from Balaklava (pp. 128-30). A second series of letters was written during a visit to the Castle Hospital in Balaklava, between 15 October and mid-November 1855 (pp. 159-79). On her third visit from 24 March until 27 June 1856, she was based at the General Hospital in Balaklava, when her letters reflect her on-going wrangling with Sir John Hall and of her efforts to run the hospital (pp. 235-77).

H125

Soyer, Alexis, Soyer’s culinary campaign. Being historical reminiscences of the late war. With the plain art of cookery for military and civil institutions, the army, navy, public, etc. etc. London: G. Routledge & Co., 1857. x+597pp.

In his autobiography the French chef and dietician Soyer (1810-58) describes the three visits he made to the Crimea in 1855-56 to reform the catering facilities and practices of the British and French camps, including the installation of new models of field stoves. From his base in Constantinople, Soyer, accompanied by Florence Nightingale, first visited the British, French, Ottoman and Sardinian camps and inspected the ovens at Balaklava between May and June 1855 (pp. 160-289). In August-September 1855 he oversaw the installation of the new ovens and described the actions at Chernaia, the Malakov and the Redan and a visit to the newly evacuated Sevastopol (pp. 328-89). During the third trip, between March 1856 and June 1856, he describes social engagements, fraternising between the British and Russian armies and the celebratory events in camp following the peace accord (pp. 400-83).

H126

Alexander, James Edward, Passages in the life of a soldier, or, military service in the East and West. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1857. 2 vols.

Twenty-five years after his first unhappy visit to the Crimea (see G14), Alexander, knighted in 1838 and now a lt-colonel, left Canada to join his regiment, the 14th Foot, in May 1855, remaining until June of the following year. He describes the last year of the war and his meetings with many fellow countrymen, both soldiers and non-combatants, such as Florence Nightingale and William Russell (vol. II, pp. 1-284).

H127

Tronson, John M., Personal narrative of a voyage to Japan, Kamtschatka, Siberia, Tartary, and various parts of coast of China; in H.M.S. Barracouta. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1859. xvi+414pp.

Tronson was an officer on the steam-sloop Barracouta that took part in various expeditions over the years 1854-56 during the Crimean War. It was part of a squadron that entered the harbour of Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka on 1 June 1855 and subsequently razed fortifications and captured a Russian whaler, before sailing for the mouth of the Amur river in Siberia (pp. 89-149). In the following year they twice patrolled in the sea of Okhotsk (pp. 266-93, 301-39).

H128

Buchanan, George, Camp life, as seen by a civilian: a personal narrative. Glasgow: Charles Maclehose, 1871. xii+298pp.

Dr Buchanan (1827-1905), on his appointment as a surgeon at one of the military hospitals near Sevastopol, travelled first to Constantinople, where his account begins on 25 June 1855, and then proceeded to Scutari. Arriving at Balaklava on 4 July, he was only there for a week (pp. 55-96) before escorting wounded back to Scutari, where he met Florence Nightingale. He arrived back in the Crimea only on 15 September, when his real experience of camp life can be said to begin. He describes sightseeing in Sevastopol, racing, and other activities before sailing for home on 20 October (pp. 176-274).

H129

Clayton, John William, ‘Ubique’, or, English country quarters, and eastern bivouac. London: Charles J. Skeet, 1857. 175pp.

Clayton (1833-1913), a cornet, later captain, in the 13th Light Dragoons, arrived in the Crimea in July 1855 but illness forced him to leave for Constantinople in September on board the hospital ship HMS Severn. He describes camp life at Balaklava, visits the site of the charge of the Light Brigade, and gives an account of the battle of Chernaia in August 1855, but in general he offers more an indulgent tourist’s journal than a soldier’s memoirs, describing trips taken purely for amusement (pp. 87-137).

H130

Hall, Jasper, Letters from the Crimea: Captain Jasper Hall of the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot to his sister and father. Lancaster: King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum, 1977. 36pp.

Lieutenant in the 4th Regiment, promoted to captain on 29 December 1854, Hall (d. 1856) was appointed aide-de-camp to General Codrington in December 1855. Four of the five letters are datelined from the Crimea between 19 July 1855 and 26 February 1856 and recount life in the trenches, his participation in the 8 September assault on the Redan, his visits to the newly evacuated Sevastopol fortress, and his attendance at a military review in February 1856.

H131

Money, A. and Money, George Henry, Sevastopol: our tent in the Crimea; and wanderings in Sevastopol by two brothers. London: Richard Bentley, 1856. xiv+443pp.

The detailed description of the month-long excursion to the Crimea of the Money brothers, self-styled “travelling gentlemen”, between 11 August and mid-September 1855. The first part is written by “A” from their arrival until his departure due to dysentery on 1 September (pp. 62-144); the narrative is continued with much detail on the siege of Sevastopol by George, who leaves two weeks later (pp. 151-355).

H132

Vieth, Frederick Harris Dawes, Recollections of the Crimean campaign and the expedition to Kinburn in 1855: including also sporting and dramatic incidents in connection with garrison life in the Canadian lower provinces. Montreal: John Lovell and Son, Limited, 1907. xiv+309pp.

The young Canadian Vieth (d. 1910), who became a lieutenant in the 63rd West Suffolk Regiment five months after enlisting, arrived in the Crimea on 26 August 1855, just before the first assault on the Redan, and remained until the spring of 1856. He recalls his part in the seaborne attack on Kinburn on 17 October 1855 and his raising of the Queen’s Colour, “the first British flag on the soil of Russia proper” (pp. 27-103).

H133

[Anon.], Inside Sebastopol and experiences in camp: being the narrative of a journey to the ruins of Sebastopol, by way of Gibraltar, Malta, and Constantinople and back by way of Turkey, Italy, and France; accomplished in the autumn and winter of 1855. London: Chapman and Hall, 1856. vi+382pp.

Another example of war tourism. The anonymous author describes his long journey to and from the Crimea, where he spent nine days between 10 and 18 September 1855. He made excursions to key military positions during the siege of Sevastopol and to the evacuated town itself. He records conversations with British military personnel and included what he alleged was the first truthful account of the failed British assault on the Redan on 8 September 1855 based on the testimony of an unnamed British officer (pp. 133-244).

H134

Skene, James Henry, With Lord Stratford in the Crimean War. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1883. iv+352pp.

The Scottish ethnologist and diplomat Sir James (1812-1886), who served as the British consul in Aleppo during the Crimean conflict, writes much about the words and actions of Stratford Cannon, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (1786-1880), the British ambassador at Constantinople, but also provides a general narrative of the war. Skene himself made at least two visits to Sevastopol, the first following the Russian evacuation from the city on 10 September 1855 (pp. 317-22), the second a few months later, when he accompanied Lord Stratford (pp. 338-46).

H135

Money, Edward, Twelve months with the Bashi-Bazouks. London: Chapman and Hall, 1857. iv+220pp.

Money, who later was a lieutenant-colonel in the Indian army, wrote an account of the year he served as a captain in the Ottoman Bashi-Bazouk regiment, during which he spent a short period of leave in Sevastopol in late September and early October 1855, before returning to Constantinople (pp. 110-19).

H136

Wraxall, Frederic Charles Lascelles, Camp life; or, passages from the story of a contingent. London: Charles J. Skeet, 1860. xii+307pp.

Author of numerous works of military theory, history and fiction, Sir Frederic (1828-65) recounts the time he spent as an assistant-commissary of the Field Train with the Turkish Contingent at Kerch, where he seems to have been based between autumn 1855 and summer 1856. The tone of the chapters is journalistic and often light-hearted, as he describes camp life, including much on the quality of food, servants and quarters. His relations with the Turkish Contingent were often poor, but he includes descriptions of various interesting individuals he met, his relations with and his views on the French troops, the organization of horse racing following the armistice and excursions out into the countryside around Kerch (pp. 12-217).

H137

Beddoe, John, Memories of eighty years. Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1910. xii+322pp.

Dr Beddoe (b. 1826), F.R.S., was a member of the “Civil Hospital Staff” dispatched to Turkey to serve in a new hospital near Renkioi in the winter of 1854. In October of the following year he and a friend made a short trip to the Crimea, visiting the battlefields of the Redan, Inkerman and Balaklava (pp. 80-86).

H138

Aloysius, Mary, Memories of the Crimea. London: Burns & Oates, 1897. 128pp.

Sister Mary (b. 1821) was one of a group of Irish nuns who served in the hospitals at Scutari, Koulali, and Balaklava. She arrived in Scutari at the end of December 1854 and nursed the wounded throughout the cholera outbreak, but on 7 October 1855 she left for Balaklava, where she remained until 12 April of the following year (pp. 59-96). In 1897 Queen Victoria bestowed on her the order of the Royal Red Cross.

H139

Oliphant, Laurence, The Trans-Caucasian campaign of the Turkish army under Omer Pasha: a personal narrative. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1856. xxviii+234pp.

After embarking on a diplomatic career in the USA and Canada, Oliphant (see G120-23) returned to England in January 1855, but was soon on his way to Turkey and the Crimea, hoping to fulfil his wish of meeting Shamyl, the Caucasian leader. Instead he became attached as a special correspondent of The Times to the Turkish troops under Omer or Umar Pasha (1806-71) in their brief campaign in Circassia, witnessing their engagement with the Russians at the Ingur river.

H140

Oliphant, Laurence, Patriots and filibusters; or, incidents of political and exploratory travel. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860. viii+242pp.

Oliphant’s recycling of material from his visit to Circassia in the last months of 1855, more travelogue than war-reporting, and forming Part I under the title ‘Patriots’ (pp. 1-131), reprinting “with corrections and additions” articles that had appeared in the June-July 1856 issues of Blackwood’s Magazine.

H141

Lake, Henry Atwell, Kars and our captivity in Russia: with letters from Gen. Sir W.F. Williams, Bart. of Kars, K.C.B.; Major Teesdale, C.B.; and the late Captain Thompson, C.B. London: Richard Bentley, 1856. xv+367pp.

After the fall of Kars on 28 November 1855, Colonel Sir Henry (1811-81), who had been responsible for the city’s fortifications, set out, together with Gen. Williams, the general’s secretary Henry Churchill, Major Teesdale, and Capt. Thompson, on their march into Russian captivity. They were to travel to Tiflis, where they remained for a month, before Lake and Thompson were ordered in January 1856 to proceed to Penza. They journeyed through the Caucasus, reached the Don at the beginning of February and travelled via Tambov to Penza, everywhere treated with respect and hospitality. It was in Penza that they were freed from captivity with the ending of the war, and they travelled home via Moscow and St Petersburg (pp. 246-337).

H142

[Anon.], Observations on the Turkish Contingent. By a field officer of the force. London: Printed by Smith, Elder and Co., 1856. 31pp.

Written at Kerch, the pamphlet is a rebuttal of criticisms of the Turkish Contingent which was staffed by East India Company officers. The anonymous author refers to perceived outrages ranging from grave desecration, plundering of towns, and murder, although there are no specific references to places in the Crimea itself. He also addresses the issue of cultural tensions between the various ethnic groups among the Turkish conscripts and their Christian officers following a severe outbreak of cholera.

H143

*[Murray, Eustace Clare Grenville], Pictures from the battle fields. By ‘the roving Englishman’. London: George Routledge & Co., 1855. xxviii+259pp.

The illegitimate son of the 1st Duke of Buckingham, Murray (1823-81) was British consul in Odessa for some thirteen years from 1856 (see I92). Prior to that, he was in Bulgaria and it is difficult to establish if and when he visited the Crimea, specifically Balaklava and the heights above Sevastopol, and to distinguish fact from fiction in subsequent chapters with observations on Allied and Russian officers and soldiers (p. 91-112).

H144

Shaw-Lefevre, George, Photographic views of Sebastopol taken immediately after the retreat of the Russians, September 5, 1855. London: J. Hogarth, 1856. Folio.

A series of twelve photographs, taken by Shaw-Lefevre, Baron Eversley (1832-1928): they include views of the Malakov and Redan and also of HMS Leander in Balaklava harbour.

H145

Smith, William Adams, A last appeal! War-peace, or an armed truce: with some observations on the condition, conduct, and prospects of the British soldier. Portsmouth: Henry Lewis, and London: Hamilton and Co., 1856. viii+30pp.

Describing himself as “recently returned from the Crimea” and having “sojourned in different parts of Turkey and the Crimea for a period of fifteen months” before leaving in November 1855, Smith introduces personal encounters with British soldiers in his impassioned lecture against an ignoble peace.

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0042.08

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