1854] RELATIONS WITH THE FRENCH 115
services of the Rifles upon this occasion that he issued a general order upon the subject to his army, eulogising very highly our riflemen, and holding up their conduct as an example to be followed by his own troops. This will give you an idea of the footing we are on with the French, and the opinion they have of our services. The climate here has proved, on the whole, fortunate, and extremely mild as yet; we have had plenty of rain, but little or no cold, and I hope we shall be in Sebastopol before the cold weather commences. I am living in a tent with a Captain Fraser, one of my subalterns; the other, Captain Coke, has a tent to himself. We all dine together in my tent and breakfast too, squatting on the ground, for we have neither chairs nor tables. Fraser and myself lie down together at night with a blanket or waterproof under us, and a blanket over us; we seldom or never take off our clothes, being always ready to turn out, night or day, at a moment's notice.
To Lady Stephenson
Before Sebastopol, December 7, 1854.
My dearest Mother, — I am afraid the letter I wrote you after the battle of Inkerman did not reach you nearly as soon as it should have done, for I hear that the letters were detained here, for some reason or other, for some days, which I am afraid has caused a great deal of unnecessary anxiety to you all, as well as to most people in England. However, by this time your suspense will have been long since ended. There never was a more glorious victory. The Russian loss is now computed at upwards of 20,000 (Is it not awful?), and the loss of the Allies at under 4000. The return sent in to Lord Raglan of the number of Russians we actually buried was 5200 and odd. Since that numbers, in fact heaps of dead Russians have been found in places too much exposed to the fire of the enemy's batteries to make it worth our
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while to bury them — and there most of them are lying still. I do not think 6000 killed to be at all under [? over] the mark; then there were the prisoners and wounded we took, exclusive of the wounded the enemy carried off during the action. We were taken completely by surprise, partly owing to the foggy weather, which enabled them to bring their guns and troops into position before the 2nd Division had almost time to form. This plan was well laid and well commenced, but they did not push their first success with sufficient vigour; and although they fought well, as far as allowing themselves to be shot went, they certainly ought to have kept the position which they held at the commencement of the action. These enemies of ours are sad barbarians in some respects; they always bayonet our poor wounded fellows who can't move. Such a practice is too atrocious in these times to be used by a civilised nation, and I hope it will soon be made known throughout Europe, to the everlasting shame of their army. We have lost many officers and men in this manner, whom, on retiring, we left wounded on the ground, and whom, when we advanced again and finally drove the enemy from the field, we found bayoneted in the most savage way in the face and in the belly, and many poor fellows with five or six such wounds in them. Many of these men would have recovered, but, owing to the overwhelming force with which we were assailed, we were obliged to leave them on the ground till our return, and the Russians bayoneted these poor helpless creatures as they passed them. Lord Raglan sent a strong remonstrance to Menschikov upon this brutality, who sent back an evasive sort of an answer, most discreditable to him and the Russian army. He stated that such a practice was contrary to his wishes and might perhaps have been indulged in in a few isolated cases, and pleaded for his men that they had been much exasperated by the French having desecrated one of their churches near Cape Cherson, a flimsy excuse for bayoneting
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