xxii BIOGEAPUICAL SKETCU. 



The troops were neglected and demoralized. Neither General of Di^ision nor Brigadier went 

 amongst them " to give them a cheering up," and recklessness was the order of the day. Bad 

 and insuflBcicnt food produced their inevitable consequences. The Surgeon of the Scots Fusileers 

 reported that, with the exception of the last draft, there was not a single man free from scurvy. 

 It must be remembered that many of the soldiers were mere striplings sent out to replace 

 the stalwart men who were daily dropping off. So little could these young troops be relied upon 

 in front of the enemy, that no officer ventured to let the night pass without visiting the posts 

 under his charge incessantly. 



In another letter Arthur Hay mentions that he had nine men drunk upon duty in a day ! 

 A man was tried for striking a serjeant and an ensign of his regiment, but was pardoned by Lord 

 Raglan. A serjeant was also pardoned, though found guilty of being drunk on duty the same 

 night in the 3rd parallel in the presence of the enemy ! 



AVriting on January the 5th, 1855, he presents the following picture of the condition of 

 the troops : — " At this moment there is not a drop of medicine or brandy — no medical comforts, 

 no bedsteads or bedding, no dry flooring, no means of healing, no hospital tent even for the sick 

 and wounded in camp ; they lie on the wet ground with two wet blankets to cover them. I 

 brouglit out with me 700 Guardsmen ; including these our force of effective men in the Brigade 

 yesterday was 1115; and in the night 67 were admitted to hospital. You will readily under- 

 stand what our men are suffering, when I tell that they are in rags, have no change of shoes 

 or stockings, some nothing but white trowsers to wear, nothing wholesome to eat, small means of 

 cooking from want of fuel ; and now that the snow has fallen, these limited means have been 

 much diminished, while at the same time the men are called upon to do outpost-duty of the 

 severest nature and also trench-work. A captain of tlie 23rd had both his legs amputated 

 this morning, in consequence of frost-bites last night. Before this hard weather we had forty- 

 eight hours of rain in torrents ; then came a hard frost ; and the men's clothes are actually frozen 

 on their bodies." 



He attributes all this suffering — not to any failure on the part of the authorities in sending 

 out stores of food and clothing, but to want of attention on the part of their subordinates to the 

 quality of the articles — to the incompetency or carelessness of the government officials. The 

 men received new shoes, but they proved useless from being too small ; the same observation 

 applied to great-coats and other articles. " France, with an army far larger than ours, with a 

 limited sea-transport, some vessels measuring 30 tons and not even decked, was able to provide 

 warm clothing and abundance of wholesome food for her soldiers." In the treatment and 

 condition of the sick the French had all that was necessary ; the English had nothing, beyond a 

 few miserable huts converted into hospitals, which possibly enabled the occupants to survive a 



