COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 175 



"Jos begs me to say that ' his life is a burthen to 

 him (out here)/ and Jenks orders me to tell you that 

 you are a brute for not writing to him." 



Sir Arthur Halkett, who carried the colours of 

 the 42nd at the battle of the Alma, writes : 



" I have read the little book by Sergeant Mitchell 

 of the 1 3th with much interest, and it recalls many 

 scenes. He does not exaggerate any of the miseries 

 of the men and horses. 



" I was in a house at Kadekoi where the cavalry 

 and horse artillery were, which was used as an hos- 

 pital for my regiment, and I lay for three or four 

 weeks looking out upon a battery of horse artillery. 

 The horses stood up to their hocks in snow with a 

 thin blanket on them which generally blew off. They 

 had eaten the spokes of the gun carriages all away, 

 and as much wood of the limbers as they could get at. 



" One day in November the camp was invaded 

 by ravenous cavalry horses, which had broken loose 

 at the sound of the feeding trumpet, and galloped 

 madly, snatching at the hay and barley, undeterred 

 by the sticks and stones of the gunners. 



" I recollect one night in the trenches, when a 

 man was killed and carried out to the open ground 

 in front to be buried ; the Russians heard them 

 digging the grave, and they had just placed the 

 body in it, when a shot came and killed one of them. 

 The survivor laid his comrade's body by the other, 

 buried them both, and returned to the trenches." 



A Russian account of the Light Cavalry charge 

 at Balaklava : 



