Clothes are going to rags, diarrhoea is prevalent, and boils result from eating so much salt meat. Until yesterday, we had had no fresh meat for a fortnight. Boiled rice, mixed with rum and sugar! is the only accompaniment. We get tea, but no vegetables. No one who knows all these things could grudge an officer the few advantages, he, perhaps, possesses at home after the hardships of service. There is no rest for him here. I hope a few days more will settle Sebastopol, and allow us to go away to the Mediterranean or somewhere else for a little rest. Here, we have been knocking about, I may say, since the beginning of April. Poor Tyler was left sick at Varna and died there. Birch died last Sunday week of 15 hours cholera. We have lost in all seven officers in six months. I am quite well, and if it please God to protect me as He has hitherto done, I shall be none the worse for it all. It really seems a miracle to have had shot, shell and musketry flying around me on two or three occasions besides Alma, and still to remain untouched. The cannonade continues and will continue all night. Some of the enemy’s magazines have gone up, with a frightful explosion. All letters come quick and safely now. Of course you know all about the Alma, and also that any lieutenancy is without purchase. It is nearly dark, and there are no candles here. Good bye and God bless you, dear mamma! Your affectionate son, J. Granville Harkness.”
- Oct. 22nd, 1854. We are not yet inside the place, and are just in the same position as when I last wrote on the 17th. This is the 6th day of incessant cannonading. At night, too, the firing is partially kept up. We have sharp-shooters out in front of the batteries, trying to pick off the enemy’s gunners, but he has sharp-shooters also, and they practise at each other all day. The result of yesterday was 24 Russians and one English killed. To-day an officer and two soldiers were brought in. These and several deserters say that our shells are doing awful damage, and that their batteries [See illustration, page 114.] are encumbered with the dead, whom they do not remove. Gunners are getting scarce among them, but they stick to their guns in a most obstinate manner. The works are a very thick parapet of earth, which are much more difficult to destroy than masonry, as the damage done by day can be repaired in a night. The night before last, the Russians made a sortie on the French, but were immediately driven back, leaving 21 men and five horses on the field. The fleet has done nothing since the first day. I believe it was found that the effect produced was scarcely equivalent to the damage sustained, but it is quite ready to renew the attack at the proper time. There is a considerable number of Russians in our rear, but we do not think it likely that they will venture to attack our position, which is a good one, and we -
