THE 63RD AT INKERMAN 27 



alive and quite well so far, and with best love to all at home, am, 

 as always, your very affectionate son, 



William Henry Flower. 



Camp near Sebastopol, 

 November 7, 1854. 



My dear Mother — . . . Since I wrote last we have had 

 some stirring events in the regiment, which I may as well tell you 

 about first. On Sunday last (Gunpowder Plot day) the Russians 

 made a great attack upon us, but were repulsed after a very long 

 and desperate battle. Our regiment is said to have gained great 

 laurels, though they were dearly bought, as the loss was very 

 severe.i The battle, I believe, is to be called " Inkerman," as 

 it took place on heights of that name, not a mile from the camp. 

 I saw very little of it but smoke, having quite enough to do to 

 attend to the wounded, who were brought up to hospital almost as 

 soon as they fell. The continual rattling of musketry and roar of 

 artillery was quite astonishing. . . . The Colonel ^ is a great loss 

 and very much regretted. Many a man whose wounds I was 

 dressing said, " I don't care for myself, but to think of the poor 

 Colonel." He was gallantly leading the regiment on to the 

 charge at the time when he fell. Poor Clutterbuck, too, a very 

 fine lad ; he was carrying the colours, and, seeing the men falter 

 under the very heavy fire, he unfurled them round his head, call- 

 ing out, " Come on, Sixty-Third ! " and almost the same instant 

 was shot down. It is a very melancholy thing to see men whom 

 one has lived with so long and intimately so fearfully injured or 

 killed. But great as our own immediate loss has been, it has 

 been nearly, if not quite, as much in the other regiments of the 

 division — the General, Sir George Cathcart, killed; Brigadier- 

 General Goldie, since dead of wounds ; and our Brigadier, 

 Torrens, severely wounded in the chest. Out of thirteen general 

 officers present, eight were killed or wounded j among the latter 

 is Sir George Brown, very severely, I fear, — a loss we can ill 



' Out of sixteen officers of the 63rd Regiment engaged at Inkerman three 

 were killed and eight wounded. 

 2 Lieut. -Colonel E. S. T. Swyny. 



