Letters to Glasgow from the Crimea – January, 1855.

[Currie]

Letters to Glasgow from the Crimea – January, 1855.

Glasgow Herald, Friday, February 2, 1855.

LETTER FROM A SOLDIER IN THE SCOTS GREYS TO HIS PARENTS IN GLASGOW.
Scutari, Jan. 6, 1855.
Dear Father and Mother,—I take the pleasure of writing you these few lines to let you know that I received your kind letter, and was happy to hear that you were all well, as this does not leave me very well at present. I have been badly this some time with dysentery. It comes on you, and it is not easy to get clear of it. There are dozens die with it daily; but, thank God, I am getting all right again. It weakens a man and takes away his appetite, and brings him down to nothing. I am now in Scutari in the General Hospital. The regiment is at Balaklava, convenient to Sebastopol. I will go and join my regiment when I am all right again. The sick are always sent down here when they are anything bad. In the ship I came down in, forty-five died in three days. There was one ship which contained a hundred and twenty sick and wounded. There are from forty to fifty buried here daily. The weather in the Crimea has been very stormy and wet, and the horses are dying in dozens. A good many men have died since we came out; I think we had about twenty-five and two captains. We could get nothing cooked for the wet weather, and for a long time every man was obliged to cook his own food. Then we got a number of camp kettles, and we required to cut down green trees to burn for firewood until there was not a tree nor a bit of wood to be seen. We only get one pound of biscuit; some days we get pork and salt meat; sometimes fresh meat, with two half-gills of rum in the day—the only thing that keeps us alive sometimes. It is very seldom we can get a piece of meat cooked for wet weather and for want of wood. We have been engaged twice; I was slightly wounded in the head, but remained on the field until evening. I was ordered to fall out and I would not go. My rear-rank man got the half of his ear cut off. I went to hospital in the evening and got my wound sewed, and my comrade got his ear dressed. Two hundred and thirty men were our strength; there were about nine times, our number against us; they were in about ten different lines, one covering the other. Our horses being strong, and the men being all in good health—not being so long out here as some of the other cavalry regiments—we were always kept in front. In the first charge we dispersed them in about fifteen minutes. We only had one man killed in the charge; be was shot by a pistol; one or two died of their wounds, but there were many left on the field, and a number went away severely wounded. I was on the saddle from four in the morning till nine o'clock that night, without tasting anything that day. We got a glass of extra grog in the dusk of the evening.—No more at present, but remain, your son,
PETER BURLEY.
P.S.—I have been nine or ten days and never got my face washed. I never had my trousers off from the time we left England; we have to lie down on the ground with our cloak and blanket. We were both lousy and dirty, and every man alike. I inclose a small gold coin which I took from the dead body of a Russian officer. [We have seen this little coin, which is like an American gold dollar. It bears an inscription in French containing an invocation to a saint.]

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Glasgow Herald, Friday, February 2, 1855.

LETTER FROM A COLOUR SERJEANT IN THE 79th, TO HIS WIFE IN GLASGOW.
Balaklava, 9th January, 1855.
My dear Wife,—I have to inform you that I received your very kind and welcome letter, and was happy to hear that yourself and the children were in such a prosperous state of health; I am also glad to tell you, that I still continue to enjoy most excellent health, thank God. I received the inclosed locks of hair of my dear children, and shall preserve them as the dearest relics of my life. My dear Maggie, you cannot imagine the sensation I felt on beholding such a treasure as you was kind enough to send me. Never father felt a parent's love for his offspring more acutely than I did—nay, I can assure you, I kissed them over and over again, in the ecstasy of the time, and wished myself once more to be beside you and them, to be a guardian to you and them. But a truce with complaining, you know my heart, Maggie, and sooner would I die than renounce the profession I have embraced—than leave it at the present time, and in such a crisis, when my-country is at stake—but, a truce with this. Kiss the children for my sake, and I will pray to the Almighty that he may be pleased to watch over you and them, and protect until it be His pleasure that I return unto you again.
I hope that you spent a pleasant New-Year. I did not forget to drink your health in a bumper on that memorable morning, with a speedy termination to the war. We are still lying at the old place. On the 29th of last month, our regiment was ordered to parade at daylight, to reconnoitre; and we marched a distance of five miles. The French, who were upon our left, were the first to encounter the Russians, and a smart engagement took place between them—the Russians, as usual, retiring. We were spectators of the fight, which lasted about two hours. After burning two villages we returned to camp. Nothing extra has occurred since. The winter has set in with great severity. On the 4th of the month, the frost was very severe, almost as intense as in North America; but to-day the weather has moderated a little, with occasional showers of rain. We are still under canvass yet, and I think are likely to continue so. The people of England seem to be very mindful of the army, but they are too late with their favours. Let me know if you received the money all right. Write soon. No more at present, but remains your devoted husband till death, J. R.

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Glasgow Herald, Friday, February 16, 1855.

FROM TWO BROTHERS IN THE 71ST REGIMENT TO THEIR PARENTS IN GLASGOW.
Balaklava, Crimea, 18th January, 1855.
Dear Father and Mother,—I am aware I ought to have wrote you a few lines long before this time, but it is very hard to find an opportunity for writing here. We wrote you last in Gibraltar. I will now try to give you an account of our proceedings since then. We stopped at Algiers for twenty-four hours; a fine looking place it is. We next stopped at Malta for twenty-six hours; a very pretty and a very strongly fortified place. We next anchored at Constantinople, the capital of Turkey; and the next place was in front of Sebastopol, and remained there for two days. We could see the harbour and part of the town, and at night we could see the shot and shell flying very thick. We next landed in the harbour of Balaklava. That was an the 19th of December, 1854. We marched about half-a-mile, and pitched our camp on the side of a hill to the right of Balaklava, and remained there for eight days, and during that time we learned our first lesson in campaigning. We get our rations served out regularly, but raw, and we have to cook them in the open air, cut wood where we can. We get the coffee served out in raw beans, and we must roast and grind it, or chop it small, between two stones. After sleeping eight days with our clothes on, and parading every morning one hour before daybreak, and remaining on parade until good daylight, in case the Russians or Cossacks should be lurking about the hills, we then marched into the town of Balaklava, and are still remaining there in old Russian houses. We are very crowded, but we are the most comfortable regiment in the Crimea. Sebastopol is about four miles from here; but we have both been there twice; carrying biscuits for the troops. The men appear miserable, for there are regiments out ten months who have been living in the open air part of that time, and are living yet in tents, although they are now putting up wooden houses very fast. As for the cavalry horses you would not know them; they work hard here every day, and live in the open air all night; The weather is very bad—frost, snow, and rain: We are all very well provided for, and we have got two Guernsey shirts, two pairs of socks, two pairs of drawers, and two pairs of worsted gloves, and one pair of boots every man, free of expense. We are both in excellent health and very good spirits. The duty is very hard in this town. We mount guard every second day, that is, with one night in bed. All stores and provisions for the British army land here, and we have to keep guard over them and the Russian prisoners. Give our best respects to our brother John, and tell him if he works well we will bring him some Russian presents as soon as the war is over, for there are plenty of good and valuable articles burnt as firewood here. J. F. of the 79th is here. He is well, and sends his best respects to you all. Our regiment, and, in fact, all the Highland brigade, send the Glasgow people their kind thanks for the shipload of potatoes they sent them. We got three dinners of them. This is done in a great hurry. You must excuse this not being paid for; you will require to pay 3d. for it in Glasgow. Now they wont take money here, and postage stamps cannot be got. We have got no pay since we left Canterbury; fact, money is of no use to us here. We get tobacco or anything we want for asking. Write soon. No more, but remain your two affectionate sons,
H. & F. K.

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Glasgow Herald, Monday, February 19, 1855.

FROM A SOLDIER IN THE 93D TO HIS WIFE IN GLASGOW.
Camp, Balaklava, Crimea, 29th Jan., 1855.
My dear Wife,—Your letter of date January 6 I received, and am happy to hear of you all being well, as this leaves me at present. I am very happy to see Nicholas wants peace now; I hope he may get it, but not till we bring down Sebastopol first, for I consider it would be a shameful affair for us to return home now without the honour of taking it; I am not a fighting man myself, but still I would not grumble to go into the field of battle and stand my chance, as I have done before, to take Sebastopol. Then I would consider myself a warrior. I glory to hear of us going to be engaged, for we are serving our country for a just cause, and the country is doing everything they can for both you, me, and my family. Then, why would I not do my utmost to serve them? Yes, while there is life in me I will not shrink one moment to serve my country. Never was married soldiers looked to as they are in this war. My dear Lucy, I trust in God, we may have Sebastopol down before word comes to us from home of peace; I will fight till I breathe my last; this is my motto now. After it is down I wish for home or a station where I will get you and my family alongside of me, and that I soon hope to see. My dear Lucy, fever is very much amongst us now; we have dead, since the 1st of this month, 31 men, of whom the following belong to our company:—David Mure, or Dysart, as we called him, and David Moir, and James Patterson, or Ben the Big Drummer; some more of our company you don't know; Serjeant Grant is dead, I hear, at Scutari. Richard Murray is well and still servant. Tell father these new batteries did not open on the day that I mentioned, in my letter. Give my kind love to all friends, and my love to my two boys, hoping soon to see them.—I remain your affectionate husband,
JOHN WEBSTER.
P.S. —Have you got the ——— sent yet? I hope you have, I will send more at the end of this month.
J. W.

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Alan

[trish1]

Hi Alan

Your newspapers, as always, find such a collection of history - that it had been available in my school days - but you have reminded me of a distant family member - one Lucan Dundas Inkerman Featherstone - born in Tasmania 17 February 1855 - with, it would seem, a soldier or empire supporter for a father. His father was a John Featherstone born about 1810 & I think died 1876 in Tasmania. John had his first child in Tasmania in 1836 -

I have often wondered as to the origins of John Featherstone (there is a convict arrival 1828 which is possible) and whether he served in the Crimea - if you find anything that could relate do let me know.

best wishes for 2012

Trish

[Currie]

Hello Trish,

There can’t be any doubt at all that he got the name Inkerman from the Battle of Inkerman which was fought on November 5, 1854. News of the battle seems to have first reached the Tasmanian newspapers on February 12, 1855, and from then the story built up as more information came to hand.

I think it’s much more likely that the father was an “Empire supporter” rather than a soldier with a connection to the battle. On FreeBMD there was a great rash of births first name Inkerman in the March quarter of 1855 and these gradually petered out until by 1908 there were none. From December 1854 there were many more given Inkerman as a second name and they followed the same trend.

If you thought the father may have been away fighting at the Crimea while the wife was at home awaiting birth, I believe it is possible to check the medal rolls but that you can’t really do that unless you know the regiment.

Regiments that fought at the Crimea are listed here: http://cwrs.russianwar.co.uk/CWFAQ.html

Working from “Stations of the British Army” in the newspapers, in February, 1854, the 11th Foot and the 40th Foot were in NSW, and the 99th Foot in Van Dieman’s Land. That was also the situation the following October and in July, 1855. Those three regiments aren’t listed on the Crimea site.

Hope that helps,
All the best,
Alan

[trish1]

Hi Alan

Many thanks for your thoughts - and I agree it is probably more likely that he was a supporter of the "Empire". My husbands grandfather inherited the names Inkerman Dundas and my husband scored the Dundas as part of his name. A couple of other relatives in 1800s Tasmania also were given Inkerman as part of their name. Prior to finding this ancestor my only knowledge of a Lucan was the disappearing Lord from the 1970s, so it was interesting to research some other Lucans and also Dundas.

I did find a John Featherstone serving, which gave me thought - however he died in the battle & I believe my man died in Tasmania - son Lucan was his last child, which gives a vague thought to the idea - probably just enough to keep me wondering. Unfortunately Tas death certificates of the time give very little information.

thanks again

Trish