a Russian rifleman who was firing with extreme rapidity. And Capt. Tryon knelt to take aim at him, but while in the act of pulling the trigger a bullet passed through his brain and killed him on the spot. It was found when our fellows closed with the enemy, that the latter were nearly 800 strong; yet though the ground was formidably strong, they never once rallied before our charge. They were taken by surprise, and even if it had not been so, when there is no great disparity of numbers, the Russians have no chance of success against us.”]
Death of a Shoeing Smith. Another Hastings man at the seat of war was Barnett Huggett, son of William a well-known blacksmith. He served as shoeing-smith in the Royal Artillery, but died of cholera in the Scutari hospital, at 25 years of age, in the month of November.
Prolonged Hardships. Writing again from before Sebastopol on the 3rd of December, Thomas Brazier said
- I am sorry to tell you, dear father and mother, that there is death all around me. The wet season has set in, and our poor fellows have to stay in the trenches all night in the pitiless rain, with only their big coats which will not keep out the wet for an hour. They are so worn out with the hardships which they have to undergo that they lie down and in a few hours are taken with the cramp and die. As for myself, I have been wet through for three weeks, but I never lie down, nor will I till I fall. But, oh! dearest father, it is dreadful work to see our brave countrymen fall in this unhappy way – men who would fight like lions if the enemy would give them a chance instead of staying behind walls. But we all hope Lord Raglan will storm the place and let it be over one way or the other, for it could not be worse for us than it is. We are under the Russian fire every day, and why not make a bold stroke for it at once, and not let us lie here and die like dogs. We might be driven back, but I don’t think we should, and if we were, we would only lose some hundreds of men and that we are doing now. But I know – and so does every British soldier here – that we would either take the place or die, and what could men do more? Before this reaches you I expect the papers will tell you all about it [our wretched conditions], yet I thought I would tell you too, myself.”...”Yet we are getting closer to them every day, and when we get our great guns up, let them look out!” “Thomas Brazier, 3rd Compy. 4th Regt.
