During the long peace since Waterloo the army had grown unpopular. It had been neglected. Even the Duke of Wellington was averse to making any military display for fear that what army there was should be further reduced.
The force which left England for the East was one of the worst equipped and most badly organised that ever left our shores. On the contrary, the men of which it was composed were the finest. They were all long-service men, of grand physique and of an unrivalled spirit.
Before the Crimean war a red coat was looked on with disdain; after the war the wearer was hailed as a friend. He had proved that he was a worthy descendant of the heroes of the Peninsula, that he could perform as gallant deeds on the blood-stained slopes of the Alma or in the valley of Balaclava as had his forebears at Waterloo, that he could die of disease and starvation as uncomplainingly before Sebastopol as did his predecessors in Spain or Portugal.
In the following pages the author has endeavoured to pay a small tribute to the heroism of the rank and file, and to show how they won for themselves in the hearts of the British public the warm place they have ever since occupied.
The survivors of the Crimean war are, alas! growing yearly fewer; but the author desires to acknowledge with thankfulness much information he has gained from the veterans he has had the opportunity of knowing, amongst whom he wishes specially to mention Sergeant James Mustard, of the 17th Lancers, a survivor of the immortal charge, and happily still alive.
He also wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the fascinating pages of Kinglake’s Invasion of the Crimea and Russell’s British Expedition to the Crimea. Stirling’s Highland Brigade in the Crimea, and Steven’s Connaught Rangers have also been advantageously consulted.
ESCOTT LYNN.
London, 1911.