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have thrown up works to defend all the approaches. We are very hard worked with outlying pickets and working parties every night. It is a tedious affair.”
- “Today is Sunday. How different to England! We had our church parade at 11, the great guns roaring and the shots tearing through the air all the time. I received your letter from Paris, of the 7th of September on October 18th. It must have been stopped somewhere, as letters are got from London in fourteen and fifteen days; and this was forty days.... Capt. Thomas commands the troop of horse artillery here.”
- “Monday, 23rd, seven a.m. The mail goes at eight. We have had a quiet night. The town is partly on fire, but we fear they will be able to put it out, as they did two days ago. There is a report that the Governor was killed by a round shot, yesterday. Prince Menschikoff keips(sic) with the army in our rear. Lord Dunnkellan(sic) of the Guards, is said to have been taken prisoner. He strayed from the trenches at night and lost his way. I have scarcely time to write. We are told at dusk the mail goes at 8 in the morning. I carry a little paper in the lining of my chaco?, and borrow a pen to address my letter with. The weather continues fine, but cold may come on very suddenly. We have seen in the London papers the first news of the battle of the Alma, and are very curious to see the despatches in the next batch of papers. J. Grandville Harkness.”
George Oliver’s letter, dated Thursday Oct. 19th, is the next from which extracts are made, and appears to corroborate the statement in Lieut Harkness’s epistle that the effect produced by the fleet in its first action upon the forts of Sebastopol was scarcely equivalent to the damage sustained. George Oliver, the writer of what follows was the son of John Oliver, the well-known Hastings boatman and his wife, the equally well known worker and vendor of ornamental shells as made into cushions and other articles. The son was serving in The Queen, and wrote as follows:-
- “My dear father, - I now embrace the opportunity of writing these few lines, giving you an account of the action between the allied fleets and the Russians on Tuesday Oct. 17th. We commenced at about half-past one in the afternoon and came out at about six o’clock in the evening. The French commenced the attack, and we were the first English ship that went into it. We came to an anchor at the head of the French fleet, opposite a three tiered battery, mounting very heavy guns. A Turkish liner came to an anchor on our weather bow, and shut us out from the fort, which so enraged our men that they sent a few shots into her side by way of a caution. Our captain was also in a terrible way about it, and sent a boat to the flag-ship in the heat of the action for the Admiral’s orders. Then -
