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state they were it . ( Seasatioic ) He beared the commissariat MigW ***«> got eupplies ^ feom &e southern shores of the Black Sea h « d they trad The « mbulaaoes were met what they should be When hwaragimeBt arrived at Scutari , no arrangement had been madewith regard to hospitals for the sink , and wounded . Be had no hesitation in . saying that the commissariat ought to lie -constituted a military instead of a civil department . It would be better that it should be a separate department . It Mias so in India ; and in the French army it was am essentially military department . badTh
The tools supplied to the troops were very . e billhooks were quite useless . It was chiefly in consequence of this-defect that the troops were unable to supply themselves with fuel . The tools were supplied by the Ordnance Department . He believed the health of the French troops was as bad as that of the English . With regard to diet , rice was a very common and Abundant article in Turkey ; and the only reason he could conceive why the army was not provided with it was that it was not an ordinary soldier ' s ration . If proper reinforcements had been poured in , much of the sickness would . have been presented- / ¦ *
. ; . _ .. „ , ., __ , _ Colonel Wilson , of . the Coldstreani Guards , denied that the men ate their meat raw . In reference to change of clothing , he said that from the 14 th of September , when he landed in the Crimea , until the 26 th of November , when lie reached Constantinople , he never changed his clothes . He had no change of linen , and jaever = was led to expect any . He did not know which to praise niost , the admiraible and surpassing bravery of the men , or their pious
resignation . Colonel Shakespear , captain of the Horse Artillery waa examined before the Committee on Tuesday . The effect of bis evidence was chiefly to show that the men whom he commanded were well provided with food , clothing , medicine , tents , and huts . _ He considered the commissariat good . He admitted , however , that lie had lost several horses from overfatigaie , that the state of the roads was very bad , and that the tools were not of good quality .
Mr , Joseph ? Growe , correspondent of the Illustrated London News , ' -testified to the disordered state of Baiafclanra harbour , and . contrasted it with the more ' favourable condition of the French quarters at Kamieschharbour . Captain KeHett , of the * Himalaya , screw steamer , used as a transport , xoade the following astounding statament :- — " A ¦ q . uantity of charcoal , 650 sacks—an article . much wanted by the troops—was put on board at Constantinople by Admiral Boxer , and consigned to the agent of transports , Captain Christie , who would not recaire it ; he had to take it backwards and forwards two or three times , and finally back to Admiral Boxer at Constantinople . " This story was rather strangely received by the Committee with , laughter .
Colonel Sparks , of the 32 nd Regiment , said a large number of his men died from c ^ of the climate . Sometimes they were out in the trenches twenty-four or thirtyrsiie hours . Scurvy brake out , owing ; as . he believed , to the men having too much salt meat . There was a deficiency of medicine , and the tents were old . He thought , the number of medical men sufficient , and , when he left in December , h&coneeived the regiment was tolerably well supplied with winter clothing . Sergeant > Dawson , in- the staff of the Grenadier " Guards , said he was wounded at Inkerman , and it Av ^ asfound necessary ta amputate his left arm . When lie was- wounded : ho was put into an
ambulancewaggon . These waggons wore very inconvenient . While he was being conveyed , he was obliged to lean on one side ; and hold tightly by the right hand , in order that his wounded , shoulder' might not strike on the other side . He frequently slept in the open air during ) the line of march in the Crimea . Many of the men fell ill in consequence . He was received with great kindness at the hospital at Scutari . Good accommodation was supplied in the ship Talavera , in which he came homo . The clothing in the Crimea waa very bad , especially the shoes . Witness also complained of the tools , and said that the bills would not cut a bit of wood , pieces being chipped' out of the edges an inch long * : that the pickaxes were al-1
ways comingoff at the handles , if they did not break ; « nd tkat the shovels wero worse than the picks . On Wednesday , the Earl of Cardigan was examined . Me said no preparations were made at Varna tor the Deception of troops . While at Devna , hia men were very healthy until the cholera broke outf- but , whon afterward * encamped about three miles from Varae * the liealth of the men was not so good , owing , as it was reported , to . the exhalations from the lake bolf a mile off . During 1 his etny at Old Jtortv in . the Crimea , there was a fair supply of forage TUe want of it commenced after the action at Jtafadfclava , the < muae being , as he believed , deflciencyte tito transport . Tlwy were eighteen days without hagr . Be believed there was a large quantity in BaUkktoay but it vm » fonad iuipoesible to bring
it up , owing to tfae ibiUy mature of the ca « mtr > y . The b » rse 8 «« ffered usery much from want of forages four hundred had to be shot . In No member , the sickness of the men increased very aaauch . The hospital tents were in the rear of the lines . He ¦ visited them , and was sorry to- see the condition of tnemen in them . There was no feel for firing , and the « ien bad to Me on-their second horse-blankets and cloaks usually . The horses- suffered very much from exposure in November . He could not say that the Light Brigade ever -suffered much from a deficiency of medical attendance . The duties of the commissariat were performed well as regarded his own brigade . The officers exerted themselves to the uttermost , and dad
everything in the world they could ; indeed he never saw more zealous officers . When he -left the Crimea on the 8 th of December , the clothing of the troops was becoming very bad indeed ; and he should say a great deal of it was worn out . No winter clothing had then been received ; but the quarfcer-mastergeneral and non-commissioned officers of each regiment had been sent off by steamer to Constantinople to buy warm ^ clothing , and boots and shoes ; and when he got to Constantinople they were still there , and had not succeeded in getting the articles they required . He could not say when it was firsttenowii that the army would winter before Sebastopol , but itwas not generally believed or supposed that the army
was going to asemain there during the winter . This was after the : battle of Inkerman . It had by this time ( become extremely wet . It rained night and day . Nothing , as regarded cleanliness , could be worse than the state of the harbour at Balaklava . No attempts were made to remove the offal or dead animals ; There-were a great many seamen unemployed in the harbour ; and if they had had instructions , he thought they might have cleared it in a ceupleof days . He was-aware that large amounts of stores and forage had come in vessels to Balaklava , and had stone away , made ene or two trips , and returned with -the same eaa ? go . One vessel came with the hold jftlled with boots , and went away with them .
He did . not know whether that was at the time when the men wanted boots most , but they always wanted them . With regard to the management of those harbours and ports , he was of opinion that an officer should be placed there with supreme command , and that his orders should beiasfcaatly obeyed , whatever those orders might be . No quays were provided at Balaklava for the landing of the horses , and he remembered seeing some of them fall intothesea in consequence . Mr . Filder never came ; to his division to inspect it . The original number of men in the Light Division was 1250 ? but when he left the Crimea there were only 300 rmen and horses remaining . The tents he had were not old , and he had heard of no
complaints against them . Mr . James Macdonald , the gentleman deputed to distribute the funds and clothing collected through the instrumentality of the Times , spoke mainly to the state of the hospitals at Sc utari , which were two in number—the general hospital and the barrack hospital : * Hecould not tell how-many cases there were in the two hospitals , as there were no records kept . Of . the whole number of patients , he should say that one-thfrd were on bedsteads and two-thirds on the floor . In the general hospital , with the
exception of want ' of beds , the patients were well provided for . With regard to the barrack hospital , he found that small provision had been made for concerting it into a hospital at alL In the barrack , or supplemental hospital , he should say there were from 1500 to 1800 patients at the time of his arrival . Not being head-quarters , it had not the repose of the general hospital or other facilities . The medicnl staff was insufficient . Two supplemental ship hospitals were in the Golden Horn . There were no beds for the men , except twenty-five in the Turkish convalescent hulk for severe cases . The other was
called tho Bombay convalescent . The men were vory poorly clad : many of them had nothing but their coats ; Those who had no beds lay on the floor in the clothes in which they came from the Criuioa , or in their blankets . There were about 650 men in these two vessels * . There were about 2800 pationts of all descriptions in the hospitals at the time of hia arrival . He visited these hospitals before and after tho battle of Inkerman . When he was first there the men were cheerful and hopeful ' : but on his second visit they were desponding , and on wet days they wrapped themselves in blankets and were buried in silence . The purveying department was
not worthy the name . The first purveyor who was sent out was Mr . Ward , a person upwards of seveaty yeawof age > who was exhausted by a walk from the general to the barrack hospital , a distance of a quarter of a mile . He had two assistants and two boys—a most inefficient staff . No language could describe the deplorable state of tho poor fellows who came down sick and wounded—almost without clothing , and sometimes without medicine , &o . Sometimes it happened that in bad weather tho poor fellows were taken to the hospitals without any covering , tho rain pouring down upon tlteui . tioroe of the tnon who had boon' put on board
but Miss Nightingale made a great -change in these matters as soon as she arrived . He attributed the mismanagement of the hospitals to want of organisation under a single head . While at Balaklava he noticed the state of the harbour . Unlike the rest of the Euxine , the water of which was black , the water in the harbour was grey and green . In fact , it was a great cesspool . There was a terrible effluvium from the burial grounds ; but that met one in every part of the Crimea—at least , as for as our position was concerned . He returned to Scutari in February .
at the Crimea came down to Constantinople without shoes , or with such shoes as one saw upon beggars in this country . Their shirts were thrown away with utter disgust at their filthiness , or torn into shreds . Sometimes they arrived without coats at ali , -while other * wore the coats of comrades who had died on the . passage . If it had not been for the supplies which he was the -means of affording , the poor fellows mast have gone without . During the first five wee ks after his arrival in th e East th ere was no washing . The patients' clothes were put under their beds , covered , not only with vermin , but with discharges of wounds and maggots . ( Sensation . ) There were no means of washing the hospital floors
and found great improvements . I > r . Cumming had become medical inspector , and for the first time the hospitals had a head . New hospitals had been opened at Khodes and Smyrna , and additional supplies had been sent out . No arrangements had been made for hospitals previous to the arrival of the English armies , but the French had , previous to their armies being sent out , provided hospitals which , in their general arrangements , were as good as hospitals in London or Paris . There was a great deal of submission and resignation on the part of the patients , none of whom were ever heard to complain .
The examination of Lord Lucanj on Thursday , elicited no new facts , but added confirmation to those-already stated by other witnesses . His lordship spoke of the gross deficiency of the Commissariat , many of the officers being youths from the Treasury ; of the want of proper arrangements for landing at Old F ort ; of the scarcity of forage , of which they never had more than one day ' s store on hand , though- ships fall of hay and . barley were in the harbour ; of the sufferings of the houses from insufficiency of food , and exposure to the weather ; of the inattention of Mr . Commissary-General Filder to his lordship ' s urgent representations ; of the ragged condition of the-iuen ; of the imperfect nature of which he
of the transport service , for the remedy made a proposal" to Lord Raglan , which was nofc heeded ; of the defective character of the ambulance waggons ; and of the general absence of management and supervision . With respect to their want of forage , his lordship said— "Between the 14 th and 20 th of November , General Canrobert was kind enough to furnish them with chopped straw sufficient for . thirty days . In January , tue French were short- of forage ; but they complained that this -was caused in consequence of our commissaries not fulfllling-their e « gageaients , _ andJreturiiing the . cliopped straw they lent to the English . " ( Murmurs of disapprobation from the public . )
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SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND SWEABORG . The Times of Monday last contains a letter from Sir diaries Napier , giving hiB reasons for not attacking Sweaborg and the other fortified places in the Baltic . One of the main difficulties he conceives to have arisen from the sunken rocks and shoals , on which he avers that it is impossible in winter to place buoys and beacons . Several days , he states , would bo required for this operation , whilo the men employed would bo under fire night and dny . He adds that tlie Russians themselves could not navigate these seas without beacons , and that they have taken care to remove them all . Sir Charles also complains or "having had noither gun-boats nor mortar-boats to cover the approach of tho vessels . " With respect to the much-mooted topic of " discretion" versus « ' daring" he observes : —
" I served with Sir Sydney Smith on Ins attempt on Boulogne in November , 1805 . Ho did not weigh difficulties and forestnl contingencies , and ho lost all an boata , and very nearly lost hia ships . Nelson hnd not my difficulties to contend with , eithor at tho Nile or Copenhagen . At the former , his enemy waa at anchor in an open roadstead in A-ugust . At Copenhagen , in the month of April , he had a safe harbour to lie m to make hia arrangements ; no gales of wind could nltect either hia ships or boata , he could choose hia day—as tuo „ , ;«« at * i « A / lmlrnitv told mo to do in tho montn wise men at tho Admiralty told mo to do in tuo mim u
, of October—but I will cngnge not one of them -wouit havo found tho day had they been in my place , honi Exmouth attacked Algiers in tho middle of summer , ami there wore neither rocks nor shoals there . Ho did jiot capture it , and I doubt whether lie would have tried u again . At Acre the weather was fiuo and no difficulties , and , had tho Egyptians hold out , notwithstanding tnu explosion , its capture was doubtful , and -with a Russian garrison impossible flir Jnmcs Saumarez , 'With « vory superior forco , waa beat off at Algoair-a-j , and lo . it a sinp ;
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2 m THE IiEADHK [ SA . TTTBJDAT ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2082/page/6/
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