1855—a Soldier of the 46th Regiment returns to Glasgow.

[Currie]

In the year 1855 a wounded veteran of the Crimean War returned to Glasgow to search for the home and family he had left twenty years before. From the Glasgow Herald of 20th April, 1855.


GLASGOW SOLDIER'S NARRATIVE OF INKERMANN.

We met two days ago with a man named Robert Stewart, a private in the 46th Regiment, who has just returned to this his native place, after partially recovering from a rather frightful hacking which he received on the field of Inkermann. Though comparatively a young man, being about 37 years of age, Stewart is entitled to be called an old soldier, for while a mere youth, and serving his apprenticeship with Mr. Brown, a joiner in Canon Street, he ran off, and joined the legion which fought under General De Lacy Evans in Spain, where he took part in some pretty severe contests with the Carlists, but escaped unhurt. On the termination of this service he was landed in Ireland, and exactly seventeen years ago enlisted at Cork in the 46th Regt., with which he has served at Gibraltar, in the West Indies, in Canada, and in the Crimea, where he has fought the last of his battles. Stewart exhibited to us the marks of his wounds in presence of two medical gentlemen, under whose charge he is, and these hurts are of such a character that excepting to a man of an extremely elastic constitution they should have been "death to nature." In the first place a bullet entered the outer and upper part of the right thigh, went downward and slantingly along the bone, and came out in front of the limb, carrying part of his clothing along with it. Bullet No. 2 ploughed across his right cheek, cutting off part of the nose in its progress; while a third bullet went through the right arm a little below the shoulder and smashed the bone. When he received these wounds he was tired and famishing from want of food, having been in the trenches all the preceding night, and he lay between five and six hours bleeding on the field of battle. Of course it is not to be expected that this poor man can tell us anything new regarding the Battle of Inkermann as a whole; still, the homely narrative of one who has taken a part, however humble, in a mighty struggle, does always possess a certain degree of interest, and we give the following recital, therefore, as we took it down from the brave fellow's lips. He says,—

"I belonged to one of the two companies of the 46th which were first sent out, the rest of the regiment being detained in England till the trial was ended. [He alludes to the well-known court-martial at Windsor in which Lieut. Perry and other officers were concerned.] There would be nearly 250 in our two companies. We sailed from Queenstown in the Avon, along with the 63d, on the 17th July, so far as I remember. We landed at a place called Sultan's Valley, not far from Constantinople, but I have forgotten the day of the month. The Rifles were there at the time. We stopped here about three weeks, and then re-embarked in the Avon. After being a good while on shipboard, we landed with the rest of the army at Old Fort, in the Crimea, on the 17th September. Our companies belonged to General Cathcart's division. I saw the Battle of the Alma going on, but we had no hand in it, as our division was in reserve. We then marched to Balaklava, and afterwards went up before Sebastopol, where we were engaged in picket duty, or working in the trenches; but nothing of any consequence took place with us till the 5th of November. We had been in the trenches all the day and night before, and we left them between six and seven in the morning to go to our tents. I was very hungry at the time, having had nothing to eat or drink for several hours before this. We had just piled our arms, and were going to turn in, when the "assembly" sounded for us to fall in again. Capt. Hardy commanded us at this time, and we were attached to the 68th. We had heard a good deal of firing before this, but we did not exactly know where it was going on. We then marched at the quick-step up to a place called Inkermann hill, about half a mile off, where we joined our own division there—the Fourth. The sky was a little dull at first, but the moment we got to the top of the hill we saw lots of Russians in front of it, both in the hollow and on the hill opposite. We began to fire into them at once. They often charged quite up to us, and we drove them back again, chasing them down the hill, when another lot of Russians would just come back again. We fought up and down this hill for a long time, and I thought there was to be no end of them. We were often quite close together, and two or three times I fired my piece right into a Russian's mouth. I don't know whether I stuck any of them with the bayonet or no—it was such helter-skelter work, and there was a terrible smoke. A good number of our men were knocked over, some of then killed outright, but we kept at it as hard as ever. Nothing harmed me till about half-past eleven of the day. I knew the time, for one of our officers had looked his watch a little while before, and told us it was past eleven. Before this I had nearly emptied my ammunition pouch a second time. I brought fifty-five rounds of ball cartridge from the trenches with me, and after they were done I got a second supply of forty rounds from a serjeant of the 63d. We were so much broken up into small parties by the bushes that we did not fire by word of command. Each man just fired as hard as he could when the enemy was before him, and sometimes my musket got so hot that I had to hold it by the sling. I was moving with my company to the rear of some bushes, and loading my piece—the Russians being a little above us at the time—when I felt a sharp stroke on my right thigh. I did not know what kind of a wound it was, but I saw that part of my greatcoat and trousers were forced into it, and I felt that a good deal of blood was leaving me. I still kept up with the company, firing as before, but in a few minutes I felt as if I had got a terrible blow across the face that almost stunned me, and the blood came running down my chin and neck. There was a gash in my cheek, and part of my nose was cut up. I soon got very weak from loss of blood, and believing I would soon tumble to the ground, I made for the rear. After I had limped on a few yards I put up my right hand to my face to wipe away the blood, and while my arm was raised for this purpose another ball hit me and went right through close to the shoulder. I soon felt that my arm was broken by the ball, for I could not move it. I now got terribly weak from the blood pouring out of me, and I suffered a good deal of pain. I did not fall, but lay down on the ground as easily as I could. I fell into a kind of doze, thinking I was giving in altogether. I daresay I lay about three hours in this state, and when I woke up there was still some firing going on, and I saw the Zouaves driving the Russians over the hill I was lying under. I was very faint, but suffered most from a horrid thirst. I never was half so dry (thirsty) in my life before. A while after, four Frenchmen came up and carried me off. I learned it was now past five o'clock, so I had been lying five hours upon the ground. They took me to the windmill on the Balaklava road, where an officer of the 20th Regiment gave me a little brandy from his flask, which revived me greatly. I was then taken in an ambulance cart to the hospital tent of the 63d, where my wounds were dressed, between seven and eight o'clock, and I was fortified with some hot coffee, with a drop of rum in it. I lay in the tent from the 5th to the 8th, when I was taken down to Balaklava in what they call an araba, and put on hoard the Medway. I lay on a very good mattress there; but, on account of the great storm coming on soon after, we did not get away till the 19th. We lay in Balaklava harbour all the time. I have no complaints to make about the Medway. I believe they did for use all they could. We got to Scutari on the 26th, where I was sent to the Barrack Hospital. I was exceedingly well treated, both in the ship and the hospital. I was regularly attended by the doctors. I had a splendid bed in the Barrack Hospital, and wanted for nothing. Dr. Holding attended me there. I stopped at Scutari, mostly confined to bed, till the 16th February, when I was put on board the Arabia, and landed at Portsmouth on the 6th of March last. I was sent with other wounded men to Chatham, where I stopped till the 4th of this mouth, and then left for Glasgow. I came down in a steamer to Granton, and arrived here last Wednesday. I am to have a pension, but I don't know the amount yet. Meanwhile, I am to have the usual private's pay. I have been in some affairs in Spain, but they were trifles compared to Inkermann, That was the most terrible battle I ever saw or heard of.”

We have only to add to the above simple yet interesting narrative, that Stewart's father was a shoemaker in Tradeston, Gorbals, and when he went away there were father and mother, two brothers, and three sisters living. With the carelessness too common amongst soldiers, especially those who, like himself, have run away from an apprenticeship, he corresponded very little with his family during his absence. He thought however, he had nothing to do but go back to the old house in Tradeston; but reaching the locality, he found it so much changed that he got quite bewildered, and it was some time before he could thoroughly understand that his early home had entirely disappeared, and that the line of the Glasgow and Paisley Railway runs over the spot. He is not able to make a pedestrian tour through the city in search of such of his relatives as may be alive and residing here; but it is to be hoped that this public notice will bring them to him. On application to the Herald Office they will learn his whereabouts. We also trust that some of our benevolent citizens will carve out for the poor fellow some light employment, such as watcher, gate-keeper, or the like, whereby, with a small wage added to his pension, he may be placed in circumstances of ease and comfort. From the weak state of his arm and leg, severe bodily labour is as yet out of the question.


I was hoping to find a follow-up to this story, that there was a happy ending and his family had found him. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything and don’t know what became of the poor fellow. He must have been only 16 or 17 when he ran away from home as General De Lacy Evans and his Legion landed in Spain in August, 1835. According to regiments.org the 46th was located as follows: 1834 Ireland, 1837 Gibraltar, 1842 West Indies, 1845 Nova Scotia, 1845 Canada, 1847 Nova Scotia, 1848 England, 1854 Crimea.

Hope that’s interesting,
Alan

[nelmit]

Great story Alan. Here he is, part of the 46th regiment, in 1851.

Robert Stewart
Age: 30
Estimated birth year: abt 1821
Relation: Private
Gender: Male
Where born: Glasgow, Lanarkshire (Glasgow), Scotland

Civil parish: Extraparochial
Town: Kingston Upon Hull
County/Island: Yorkshire
Country: England

Registration district: Sculcoates
Sub-registration district: Sutton
ED, institution, or vessel: Garrison of Hull Stationed in the Citadel

Regards,
Annette

[Currie]

Thanks Annette,

At least we know now that he was a real person and not just made up as a way of selling newspapers. Maybe there wasn’t a happy ending. You would think that if the family contacted the newspaper to claim him the readership would have been told about it.

All the best,
Alan

[Jake Drummond]

Are records of Crimean War serving soldiers available anywhere online?

[Currie]

Hello Jake,

Lists of Crimea casualties were published in the newspapers of the time and you may find partial casualty lists for some regiments online. There’s no full online or offline list of Crimea War participants anywhere to my knowledge.

Chelsea Pension records, presumably including Crimea veterans who qualified for a pension, may appear online before too long as described here
http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/20 ... cords.html

Here’s a National archives guide to researching soldiers but if you don’t know the regiment you’re paddling against the current. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cata ... afletID=23

If you know the regiment it’s possible to check whether that particular regiment served in the Crimea. The wherabouts of the British regiments were published at least monthly in the newspapers of the time. They also were listed on the regiments.org website which is now deceased but is accessible with difficulty.

Did you have a particular regiment in mind?

All the best,
Alan

LATER:
I almost forgot about the Crimea Medal Roll ( http://www.my-ancestryuk.com/archives.html ), but not available online, also regiments.org is available at the Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/200801160904 ... ments.org/

Alan

[Jake Drummond]

No, I've no firm idea which regiments Alan, nor if my 'lost' relatives were soldiers who may have gone to the Crimea really. It's just that 'family folklore' mentions that some of my Drummond & Gardner side relations were soldiers around the time, and that the military legacy passed down to my GGF who lied about his age to get into the Kaiser war by taking ten years off!
I'm searching for one relative right now; Cowden Gray, and wondered if the lack of documentation relating to him might be explained by him being under colours.