cording to the engineers plan is a distance of 4,000 yards, or over two miles. They have not thrown them into our camp very lately, as their fire is now attracted by the works in our front. They also send up 13 inch shells, but these cannot reach the camp. They are of immense size and make a hole in the ground where they fall as large as though a cartload of earth has been dug out... Lord Raglan rode through our camp, yesterday to look at the works on Shell Hill. He looked very well, and was dressed in a blue pilot coat and glazed forage-cap, and attended by only one officer and an orderly of the 11th Hussars. Gen. Canrobert always goes about with his staff and an escort of ten or twelve dragoons; and, of course, by such a display, draws fire upon himself and others whenever he rides out to reconoitre(sic). Last night, before the moon rose, a party of the enemy managed to surprise and carry off a small post of five men and a corporal who had been sent forward down a ravine in advance of our piquets close to the harbour on the Sebastopol road. The officer’s party pushed forward to the rescue, but the enemy were off in a boat with the prisoners after one volley was fired and rowed down the harbour, playing a fife and drum in triumph. The corporal was a young fellow who had just come out.... About three this morning a sentry of the picquet saw some men on the move near him, and challenged. It was a party of the French and some of the 41st. The French answered the challenge, and the sentry not understanding their language, thought they were Russians, and immediately fired into them and gave the alarm. We turned out directly thinking it was an attack, but the mistake was soon discovered. It was an unpleasant one however, particularly for one man, who was wounded....”
“Dec. 12th, 1854. All goes on just as usual, the weather for the last three days has been very fine and mild, and the ground is dry again, but I am afraid it cannot last long; a change in the wind, and the cold can be cutting. The day after my last letter we had a hard frost. On trying to get out of my tent at daylight I found the flap of the door as stiff as a deal board and glazed with ice. A bowl of tea I had left to drink in the night I awoke and found thickly coated with ice. But today it is so warm that you would think we had gone back two months in the season.” “J. G. Harkness”
In the Black Sea. The following are extracts from a letter written by a Hastings native, serving in the Rodney, and dated “Twenty miles from Sebastopol, Sept. 17th. Although of an earlier date than several of the letters already dealt with, it contains information not previously given. It says –
- “We have been lying here about four days. We were five days coming from Baljick and were towing all the way. When we arrived here we commenced landing our troops, and the Russians -
