Note 299 — Chapter X · THE WINTER OF 1854-55 IN THE CRIMEA.

General Order, Memo. , Nov. 1st: “Commanders of divisions will send to-morrow at 9 a.m. to the Quartermaster-General’s office, on the wharf at Balaklava, for potatoes.... They must be paid for at the spot at the price of £1 1s. per cwt.” Ibid. , Nov. 6th: “Those corps or divisions which desire potatoes should send to Balaklava for them; the price is £1 1s. per cwt.... The money required to pay for them must be sent at the same time.” It appears that later, after December 10th, whenever vegetables were available they were supplied to the men gratis; but as they had to fetch them from Balaklava under circumstances of extreme difficulty (as will presently appear), it is scarcely to be wondered that the wearied troops did not always avail themselves of the boon (see Kinglake, vi. 138, note). It should further be stated here, that Lord Raglan, “in consideration of the length of the siege operations, the constant labour the men have been called upon to perform, the inclemency of the weather, and the cheerfulness and good will they have manifested in discharge of their duty,” granted the unusual issue of working pay to the troops employed in digging, etc., in the trenches, at the rate of, for Non-commissioned officers as overseers, one for every twenty men, 1s. by day, 1s. by night; for rank and file, 8d. by day, 10d. by night (General Order , Nov. 14, 1854).