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WITH A PORTRAIT OF LORD RAGLAN, AND PLANS.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1856.

17

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

THE following pages were written in the Crimea in the first instance, without any intention of publication, being merely a series of Letters addressed to friends in England. From the circumstance of the writer having been attached to the Head-quarter Staff of the Army of the East, he had many opportunities of hearing and judging of the opinions given, and the difficulties to be overcome, by the Generals of the Allied Armies; more especially, of course, as regards the English Commander-in-Chief, the late Field-Marshal Lord Raglan.

From these circumstances, he was induced by numerous friends to put his letters together in some sort of form, and offer them to the public.

Another circumstance which induced the writer to publish these volumes, was, that on his return to England, he found so many opinions and motive ascribed to Lord Raglan, which the Field-Marshal

never entertained, and so much calumny and abuse unjustly heaped upon his head, that the writer could not forbear, however feebly, from giving his version of some of the illustrious Commander's actions and deeds, and the difficulties with which he had to contend, as much in the council as in the field.

It is needless to remark, that although the following Letters, for the most part, are nearly word for word as they were originally written, still various occurrences, which at the time escaped observation, have been noticed, and extracts from the writer's Journal introduced, in order more clearly to connect the chain of events.

If by the publication of these Letters any transactions, however trivial, connected with the late Lord Raglan, are cleared up, which were before in obscurity, the Author, conscious that his single aim has been to speak truth, and do justice, will feel that he has had his reward.

London, July, 1856.

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