CHECK the 2013 discussion on the CrimeanWar group.
[6]A force, consisting of two troops of the 8th Hussars, two troops of the 13th Light Dragoons, viz., B troop, Captain Soams Jenyns and Lieutenant Jervis, E troop, Captain Arthur Tremayne and Lieutenant Percy Smith, Assistant-surgeon Armstrong; the other troops of the 13th had not landed, the former went without tents. Lord Cardigan was the General in command.
They [PB: why does he not write "we"?] marched from Devna to Bazargik, a large village, deserted, having been plundered both by Bashi Bazouks and Cossacks; another halt was made at Karasi. I must here state that the object of the expedition being to discover whether the Russian army besieging Silistria had any detached parties about the country. The weather was very hot, the water bad, the country entirely deserted, very short of forage, and the horses suffered very much.
From Karasi Captain A. Tremayne was sent out with fifty Turks to patrol over the whole source of the Danube into the Dobritcha, to feel for Cossacks
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supposed to have crossed the river. After the siege of Silistria was raised, they were out from 1 a.m. to 10 p.m. and saw nothing of the enemy.
Lord Cardigan had 200 Turks under his command at Rassova. The river is very wide here. Saw Cossacks on the other side; Lord Cardigan was rather cross at the unsoldierlike behaviour of the officers and men; the facts of the case is this, the officers and men were very hungry, they tried to catch some pigs but did not succeed in doing so. Any one knows what a tractible [sic] animal that is, so the officers took out their revolvers, and as the pigs would not be caught they shot them, like wise men of the east. Notwithstanding the Brigadier's censure, he was glad to sup off little piggy that night.
From there they marched to Silistria; arrived a few days after the Russians had raised the siege; found the town in a most deplorable state. The work called "Arab Tabia" was much damaged by the Russian fire; the town a perfect wreck. They remained two or three days at Silistria. The main body of the Russians were in retreat.
Now I am going to begin with another officer of the 13th, by name Lieut. Percy Smith, the same officer I introduced to your notice in Belturbert, in Ireland, and you must strongly bear in mind this officer had a crippled hand - his right hand. I shall have to speak of him further on. Lord Cardigan after receiving the different reports brought to him, and not hearing or seeing anything of the enemy, he made up his mind to go on himself the following morning, taking with him twenty men and a subaltern, that subaltern was Lieutenant Percy Smith who volunteered to go with the party. They started at day-break, marched some distance beyond Trajan's
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Wall; seeing no enemy, turned back to join the main body, halted at a deserted village to feed and water the horses. The order came to mount. Lieut. P. Smith found the horses so knocked up that he thought it prudent and right to report the same to Lord Cardigan. His Lordship looked the horses over, and told him he had better stay where he was with twelve of the worst of them, he would take the remainder with him, adding that he should come on the next morning, and appear between nine and ten.
When Lord Cardigan left, Lieut. P. Smith took possession of the deserted Khan, that is a coffee house, or a sort of rough hotel, in the middle of the village; made the horses fast round the yard, was about to close the gate and bar up the same when Lord Burghersh (Lord Raglan's senior Aide-de-Camp), who had been with Lord Cardigan in the reconnaissance, rode in, he was asked what was the matter, he answered, "My horse is so done up, " Lord Cardigan had given him leave to remain with the other done up horses that night and rejoin his lordship next morning. The gates were then closed.
The officer in command, viz., Lieut. P. Smith, 13th Light Dragoons, went round the building to see how it could be best defended in case of attack. After telling the men off to their different posts, in the event of an alarm, the men set to work to light a fire; before it was well alight, the sentry reported hearing a drum in the distance. By this time it was pitch dark, the horses were so done up that it would be useless to try to escape. The Lieutenant posted the men at the places already chosen, and ordered them to put the fire out, and not even to whisper for the chance of remaining undiscovered. In a short time, however, the village was
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filled with mounted men of some kind or other; a strong party rode up to the Khan and tried to get in; they were very angry at the gate being closed; some went away, while others formed across the gate. A fire was lighted in an open space not far off, men sitting round it. Lord Burghersh looked at them through his glasses and said, "It's all right, they are Turks."
Another attempt was afterwards made to force the gate of the Khan. Two men had got up into the minaret of a small Mosque; they could see from the latter into the yard, and would have been able to shoot all the horses. Lord Burghersh said it was madness to think of holding the Khan against so strong a force, he would go out and explain to the Turkish officer in command who they were. Lieutenant P. Smith insisted on going with him.
They made their way to the fire. Neither officer at that time knew much of the Turkish language, and were only just able to explain they were English officers. Lord Burghersh wearing a cocked hat was recognised as a British officer, the other officer was taken to be a Russian. They cried out, "Russ! Russ!" and separated him from Lord Burghersh, forcing him to sit some distance off; a giant of a negro was placed over Lieutenant P. Smith with a drawn sword muttering, pointing to his schako "Russ."
Lord Burghersh made another attempt to explain; he forgot the Turkish word for Lieutenant, and made use of the word Captain, literally in Turkish, as I believe in Scripture, "the head of a hundred." "Not a hundred," several called out, "only twelve."
This made matters worse; the giant negro became very excited. Lord Burghersh was with the Turkish commanding officer. They brought him
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bread and salt and a cup of coffee; he partook of a little, jumped up to take the remainder to his brother officer, but was prevented. Ominous sounds of drawing swords all round. Lord Burghersh refused to return to his seat, forced his way to his comrade and companion, and made another attempt to explain, this time more fortunate and successful; bread and salt were then offered to both. Lieut. P. Smith's friend, the negro, ordered to return swords; no doubt, that officer would not be ashamed to acknowledge, to his great relief.
The following day, Lord Cardigan picked that detachment up, and marched to Rassova on the Danube, that was about six miles from the village in which the above occurred. The Turks who came into the village were a regiment of Bashi Bazouks, about six hundred strong. Apparently only three of their officers belonged to the regulars, so it could not be expected their discipline was first-class, or anything bordering on it.
The expedition remained two or three days at Silistria. The enemy on the opposite bank, that was the rear guard, the main body being in retreat, they marched to Schumla, where Omar Pacha was in command of a large Turkish force; the Pacha lent tents which were very acceptable, after so many nights "al fresco;" they marched back to Yani Bazar and Devna, reaching the latter place after travelling nearly all night through a tremendous thunder storm.
The patrol was done by horses who had only been a few days out of the transport. In starting, the horses were burdened like pack horses, having to carry three days' forage, and three days' provision; hence the sore backs. The men's health was good, except that many of them suffered from sore eyes from the hot weather and dust; discipline all that could be wished. Lord Cardigan arrived at Devna in time to order dismiss to be sounded, on that wet and gloomy morning.
[Source: Recollections of Young Soldier During the Crimean War, Oxford, 1876, pp.6-10, by 1228, Trumpeter Harry Powell, 13th Light Dragoons.
Christine Kelley, in a footnote to Mrs Duberly's War (Oxford, 2007), which she edited, summarises it as follows:
"'The sore-back reconnaissance', as it became known, was soon notorious throughout the army because of Cardigan's martinet approach to discipline and lack of consideration for both men and horses. The men were in complete marching order, which meant they weighed about twenty stone, and in addition carried another five or six stone in food, fodder and ammunition, so that each horse carried about twenty-seven stone.
Their three-pint kegs of water were soon drunk but as there were few springs or fountains in the area the daily marches in the relentless heat were often prolonged in the search for water. Despite the cold nights and the heavy dew, they had no tents, except for Cardigan, and for seventeen days none of them took off their clothes except for Cardigan, once."
Excerpts from Mrs Duberly's War:
Sunday, 25th June 1854
Was awoke at four o'clock from a profound sleep, by the words, 'A general order for the regiment to be prepared as soon as possible to march thirty miles.' All the camp was alive. No tents were to be struck, but every one was to move. We could make nothing of the order, until we heard that a courier had arrived to say that the Russians had abandoned the siege of Silistria, and had crossed the Danube.
We still dressed in haste, wondering at the order, when an aide-de-camp came up to say that only a squadron of the 8th and a squadron of the 13th were to go; and that they were to march toward Silistria to make a reconnaissance of the Russian army. The order to 'bridle and saddle' was given, and all was ready for a start, when a counter-order arrived 'The squadrons are to wait until three days' provisions are cooked'; so that of the whole regiment roused at four, two troops went away at half-past ten. If it takes six hours and a half to get two squadrons under weigh, how long will it take to move the whole British force?
At least we had the satisfaction of seeing the poor old creature (pitiable old Cardigan) ride away at the head of a squadron of 8th & a squadron of 13th without having, as I believe, the smallest idea of where he was going or what he was going for.
Cardigan, who commands us, Lord Lucan, who commands the whole cavalry, & Sir George Brown, who commands the Light Division are three of the greatest fidgets and most pitiable old women you ever heard of. The very privates scoff at them and they drive the officers wild...
Does it not seem wonderful that we have been disembarked nearly a month and have made no attempt to get near the Russians in any way? Everything seems to be done to delay and clog. No conveyance, no food, and the Army arriving up by driblets as slowly as it can.
Should we march to Silistria, of which I suppose there is no chance now, we shall have to go 40 miles without water in one day's march at the rate of about 3 miles an hour about 16 or 17 hours in the saddle...
Thursday, 29th June
Two troops of the 11th Hussars joined us today. We had no news of Lord Cardigan's patrol until after dinner, when Bowen rode into the lines on Captain Lockwood's roan horse, who bore him feebly to the picket ropes, and then fell down. For many minutes he appeared dying of exhaustion, but eventually we revived him with brandy and water.
Bowen tells us that the squadrons will not return for some days; that their fatigue has been excessive, and their hardships very great. They appear to have been marching incessantly, for which hard work neither men nor horses are fit...
Frday, 30th June
...Meantime our unfortunate squadron which went out on 25th June under Lord Cardigan ... have never turned up. Cardigan started the morning after the news reached us that the Russians had raised the siege of Silistria & taking two squadrons went to 'try & discover the movement of the enemy', the wildest goose chase that ever was undertaken.
Lord Raglan sent after him to stop him and we heard yesterday that the aide-de-camp had traced them to Schumla by the dead horses on the route!
I hope and trust Cardigan will get his head into such a jolly bag that he will never get it out again. They of course have seen nothing of the Russians who are far enough away from Silistria by this time...
Tuesday, 11th July
The reconnaissance, under Lord Cardigan, came in this morning, at eight, having marched all night. They have been to Rassova, seen the Russian force, lived five days on water and salt pork; have shot five horses, which dropped from exhaustion on the road, brought back an araba [cart] full of disabled men, and seventy-five horses, which will be, as Mr Grey says, unfit for work for many months, and some of them will never work again.
I was out riding in the evening when the stragglers came in; and a piteous sight it was men on foot, driving and goading on their wretched, wretched horses, three or four of which could hardly stir.
There seems to have been much unnecessary suffering, a cruel parade of death, more pain inflicted than good derived; but I suppose these sad sights are merely the casualties of war, and we must bear them with what courage and fortitude we may.
One of these unfortunate horses was lucky enough to have his leg broken by a kick, as soon as he came in, and was shot. There is an order that no horse is to be destroyed unless for glanders or a broken leg.
I will not disgust you by detailing reports just sent in by Cardigan saying that the 90 horses will be reported to Head Quarters as fit to work in 3 days tho' most of them have the whole surface of the saddle raw - flyblown & green...
Thursday, 13th July
A long morning was spent in investigating the state of the horses by Colonel Shewell, Lord Cardigan, and Mr Grey.
...Three more of the reconnoitring party's horses are lying in the shadow of death. I had been pained by all this, and Henry and I, ordering our horses, rode out, in the cloudless summer evening, to a quiet little villagenestled among the hills, to a quiet little village nestled among the hills, where the storks build their nests on the old tree-tops that shade the trickling fountain where the cattle drink...
[Source: Mrs. Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the Crimea, 1854 - 1856. Edited by Christine Kelly. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 26-35.]
[PB, Feb 2014: To follow up: there are a number of references to this in Albert Mitchell's Recollections, e.g. p.14ff.]
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towards Raglan's headquarters at Varna with news that the Russian army under Gortchakoff, 30,000 strong, had moved off from Silistria, after an unsuccessful siege of forty-five days. The resistance of the Silistria garrison, the courage of the Turkish soldiers and the resourceful leadership of Captain Butler and Lieutenant Naysmith, the two British officers present, offered welcome news to Raglan. Less welcome was the prospect of 30,000 Russian troops who might have retired towards Bucharest, but who might equally well be moving towards Vamp.
Raglan acted at once. Late though it was, he sent Lord Burghersh to ride to Devna with urgent orders for Cardigan. Cardigan was to set out at first light with two squadrons of cavalry and three days' rations. He was to scout towards Silistria and, in the shortest possible time, ' ascertain the movements of the enemy'. At four o'clock in the morning, a squadron of the 8th Hussars and another of the 13th Light Dragoons were already prepared for reconnaissance. They then had to wait until half-past ten, while their three days' rations were cooked. 'If it takes six and a half hours to get two squadrons under way, how long will it take to move the whole British force?' inquired Fanny Duberly suspiciously.' [note 17] It was hoped that further supplies could be sent after the column, but to provision the regiments adequately proved quite impossible.
The patrol, with one tent for Cardigan and inadequate rations for everyone, set out to search an area of about 1,000 square miles. It was an arduous reconnaissance, but Cardigan, who had been frustrated by lack of action, described the ordeal as "by no means unsatisfactory to me'. His description of the northward march towards the Danube was succinct and vivid. [note 18]
"We might have come at any moment upon the Russian army; upon the Russian outposts. We travelled over the country, which I may call a perfectly wild desert, for a distance of 800 miles . . . and marched 120 miles without ever seeing a human being. There was not a single house in a state of repair or that was inhabited along all this route, nor was there an animal to be seen except those that exist in the wildest regions."
If the Russian army had indeed been advancing upon Varna, then Cardigan's two squadrons of cavalry would probably have met it head on. During the next four days, accompanied by a detachment of Turkish horsemen, the British column rode across the great plain of
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the Danube delta. With Cardigan at their head, they moved as nearly as possible to the regulation British cavalry speed for Bulgaria, which was 3.2 miles an hour. They had no clothes, other than the uniforms in which they set out, no tents except one, 'just large enough to cover a spring sofa bed' , in which Cardigan slept. There was no food except the three-day supply of salt meat and biscuit. The reconnaissance was to last seventeen days. In the hazy stillness and heat of the plains it was, as Captain Jenyns of the 13th Light Dragoons remarked, ' No joke.' [PB: Source?] In the cold nights and under thick dew, men and horses slept side by side upon the ground, except when the troopers were required to ride all night to reach their next destination.
For three days the two hundred men of the column scouted along the southern bank of the Danube, riding as much as fourteen hours a day. Then they began a two-day march to Silistria itself. At last the main body of the Russian army, under the veteran General Lüders, was sighted on the opposite bank of the great river. The soldiers of England and Russia had come as nearly face to face as the broad sweep of water would permit. What followed was part of the etiquette of war.
A Turkish officer was sent over under a flag of truce, in a manner reminiscent of Cardigan's leaving his card upon a new arrival in town.
Lüders inquired whether the cavalry was French or British. He was told that they were British. There was time for Lüders to survey Cardigan and for Cardigan to survey Lüders through their respective spy-glasses. The spy-glasses were put away, the Turkish officer returned, the British patrol and the mass of the Russian regiments moved off in opposite directions. Not a shot was fired. The formalities of war had been observed.
Before Silistria, the exhausted patrol rested for a day. Cardigan sent back regular reports to Raglan by his best riders. The first rode into the Light Brigade camp at nightfall on 29 June, both horse and man so spent that brandy-and-water was needed to revive them. From the banks of the Danube, Cardigan's own aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Maxse, was sent back at full speed to report the situation to the Commander-in-Chief. While the solitary dispatch riders galloped across the wide, deserted plains towards Varna, the rest of the column struggled back from one fresh-water spring to another. Five horses were dead and seventy-five more unfit for duty. Some of the cavalrymen themselves were too weak to ride and completed the journey in a commandeered Turkish cart, or _araba_, drawn by bullocks. Yet those
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who accompanied Cardigan on the patrol, as opposed to his critics who did not, thought him 'a capital fellow to be under at this work', not least because of the 'tremendous praise' with which he encouraged his men. This reputation spread beyond the cavalry to the Brigade of Guards, where George Higginson remarked, ' They say he is very quiet and attentive, and that he explains his wishes and gives his orders most clearly." [note 19]
After marching all night through a thunderstorm, the bedraggled column reached the Light Brigade camp soon after dawn on 11 June. Half the horses were no longer fit for active service but were herded towards the camp by their dismounted riders who appeared like so many drovers behind a herd of cattle. Awarding to Cardigan's second-in-command, Lord George Paget (brother of Lord William Paget of the criminal conversation case), no more than 80 of the 200 horses were fit for further cavalry duties." [note 20]
Sergeant Mitchell of the 13th Light Dragoons watched his regimental comrades return and was shocked to find them 'mere shadows of their former selves', after the seventeen days of reconnaissance. Lord George disapproved of Cardigan's misuse of the soldiers; Fanny Duberly was appalled by the treatment of the horses, and Colonel Daniel Lysons deplored the expense incurred by the expedition. Yet none was so heated in his criticism of Cardigan as Captain Lewis Edward Nolan, a thirty-four-year-old prodigy of cavalry skill, aide-de-camp to the Quartermaster General, General Airey. The son of the British consul in Milan, Nolan had passed through the Viennese Military College with distinction, served with the 10th Hungarian Hussars on the Polish frontier, and then been commissioned in the British army as Cornet in the 15th Hussars. While serving in India, he had acquired a dazzling reputation as a horseman and swordsman, as well as being the author of two standard books on cavalry training and tactics. lmpetuous, and impatient of his elders, he regarded both Lucan and Cardigan as fools. Even William Howard Russell of _The Times_, who was no admirer of either of the brothers-in-law, was astonished at the heat of Nolan's anger against Cardigan after the patrol, which was becoming known as 'the sore-back reconnaissance' . [note 21]
Raglan, at least, acknowledged that Cardigan had found out the most important thing, that 'the Russians have withdrawn' and that there was no immediate threat to the base at Varna. 'I hope'. added Raglan, ' that the fatigue that you and the squadrons have undergone
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