[Illustration: 848.jpg BOMBARDMENT OF SWEABORG]
THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR--OPERATIONS IN THE CRIMEA AND BLACK SEA.
January opened upon the starving British army still more terribly
than the December of 1854 closed. The French also suffered, but their
superior military organization, commissariat, and care of the sick,
spared them many miseries which afflicted the whole of the British
lines. It was remarkable in the British army that very few officers
perished of cold, none of hunger, while their men fell in such numbers.
Very few officers died from sickness, unless such as fell victims to
cholera, which smote with impartial hand the poor private and his titled
chief. Various sick and wounded officers died in consequence of not
having been removed in sufficient time to the Bosphorus, or to such
other quarters as were not only possible, but convenient, had it
not been for the heartless and stupid routine by which the heads of
departments, at home and abroad, civil and military, were guided. It was
the more remarkable that so few officers died in the camp in proportion
to the men who perished, as the proportions were reversed in combat.
The facts were, that the officers in battle exposed themselves more
gallantly than the men, nobly, although, the latter fought and fell; but
in the lines, and at Balaklava, out upon the plain below the plateau,
and in the trenches, the officers had such comforts as were procurable
for money, and which were unattainable to the men.
Pages:
4413
4414
4415
4416
4417
4418
4419
4420
4421
4422
4423
4424
4425
4426
4427
4428
4429
4430
4431
4432
4433
4434
4435
4436
4437