The British Expedition to the Crimea

BY WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL, LL.D. NEW AND REVISED EDITION WITH MAPS AND PLANS LONDON G E O R G E R O U T L E D G E A N D S O N S THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET 1877
THE INDIAN MUTINY. In crown 8vo, cloth, price 7 s. 6 d. MY DIARY IN INDIA, In the Year 1858-9 . BY WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL, LL.D. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TIMES.
I avail myself of a brief leisure to revise, for the first time, letters written under very difficult circumstances, and to re-write those portions of them which relate to the most critical actions of the war. From the day the Guards landed in Malta down to the fall of Sebastopol, and the virtual conclusion of the war, I had but one short interval of repose. I was with the first detachment of the British army which set foot on Turkish soil, and it was my good fortune to land with the first at Scutari, at Varna, and at Old Fort, to be present at Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, to accompany the Kertch and the Kinburn expeditions, and to witness every great event of the siege—the assaults on Sebastopol, and the battle of the Tchernaya. It was my still greater good fortune to be able to leave the Crimea with the last detachment of our army. My sincere desire is, to tell the truth, as far as I knew it, respecting all I have witnessed. I had no alternative but to write fully, freely, fearlessly, for that was my duty , and to the best of my knowledge and ability it was fulfilled. There have been many emendations, and many versions of incidents in the war, sent to me from various hands—many now cold forever—of which I have made use, but the work is chiefly based on the letters which, by permission of the proprietors of the Times , I was allowed to place in a new form before the public.
W. H. RUSSELL.
July, 1858.
The British fleet is once more in Besika Bay, but there is now no allied squadron by its side. No British minister ventures to say that our fleet is stationed there to protect the integrity of Turkey. If the record of what Great Britain did in her haste twenty-two years ago be of any use in causing her to reflect on the consequences of a violent reaction now, the publication of this revised edition of the History of the Expedition to the Crimea, may not be quite inopportune.