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John Whyborn, in a second letter, wrote as follows:-
- “H.M.S. Rodney, off St. Bastopol(sic) , Nov. 8th, 1854. Dear Father, I must tell you we have not taken Sebastopol yet, but I hope, please God, it will not be long before we do; for, to tell you the truth, we are all sick and tired of it. We have now been twenty three days bombarding it, day and night by land, but have only been in once with our shipping. The weather holds out very fine, and I hope it will continue so until the place is taken. We had another very hard engagement on the 5th of this month, with our land force against the Russians, close at the back of Sebastopol, which continued from daylight till dark. One division came out of Sebastopol in the night, and with a reinforcement from Odessa and Anapa, our men were attacked in four places, but were too wide awke(sic) for them. We don’t know how many we have had killed and wounded, but we are afraid they will amount to thousands. The Russians had 15 or 16,000 killed and wounded [The Russian losses on the 5th were confirmed as 15,000, five thousand of whom were buried by the allies]. It was another such battle as that of the Alma. The morning before this action our men found one of our riflemen – an out-picket – crucified with six bayonets sticking in him, but even then not dead. During the action one part of the Russians got surrounded by the English and French, and finding they could not get away, they threw down their arms and cried for quarter, but our men would not show them any, they having before cruelly crucified our own men. [The allied generals demanded an explanation from Prince Menschikoff as to the order issued to the Russians before the battle to give no quarter. They bayonetted or otherwise stabbed every English and French soldier within their reach – Viscount Chewton for example.] We totally defeated them, as we had done in every engagement since we had been in the Crimea. But it will be a most bloody war before it is finished. I told you in my last letter that it was fort Alexander we were under, but it was fort Constantine. We knocked all the tops of the forts off, and this fort is now propped up with great balks of timber. Our Admiral said that we and the Agemenon(sic) did more execution than all the rest put together, and gave us great praise for it.... We expect to storm the place every day now, and I hope by the next time I write I shall be able to tell you it is ours. It is an awful thing to see so many thousands of fine men slaughtered, and all for the sake of one man. Some have escaped from Sebastopol, and they say the Russians that are killed are lying in heaps by thousands and are being burnt to clear the streets. What an awful tale to tell!” John Whyborn”
