Note 4 — Chapter XXIX · THE BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE.

The losses incurred by our troops in the Crimea, from cholera and other diseases, was a lasting disgrace to English administration. When, through the letters of Dr W. H. Russell, the Times correspondent in the Crimea, the facts became known, the popular wave of indignation it aroused swept the inept Ministry from power. So far as the men were concerned, a finer army than the one sent to the Crimea, or one worse provided for, never left our shores. It is not too much to say that the transport, commissariat, and medical services, as we now understand the terms, did not exist. We had been at peace too long, we had lost the art of making war, the lessons of the Peninsular campaign had been forgotten. The men were sent to face a severe Russian winter in thin clothing, there were practically no tents, no blankets, no medical stores, no reserve clothing; but little food and less forage. The result was that sickness was rampant, the men died off by scores and hundreds, some regiments losing so many as to be disregimented, as were the 5th Dragoon Guards. Our total loss from cholera was about four thousand three hundred; from other diseases, largely the result of starvation, overwork, and exposure in the trenches, sixteen thousand; the number killed or who died of their wounds was three thousand five hundred and seventeen; so that for every man killed by the Russians we lost nearly six by disease. These numbers speak for themselves.