Note 25 — Chapter VI

Very unfavourable comments have been made upon Major-General (then Colonel and acting Brigadier) Windham's conduct in leaving the Redan at such a moment, and some French officers did not hesitate to speak of his "desertion" of his men, as they called it, in the severest terms. I have therefore thought it advisable to give the lengthened statement, which was furnished to me on the best authority the very day after the assault, of the motives which led General Windham to quit the Redan, and of the circumstances which preceded and followed that proceeding. I offer no opinion on the merits of the controversy. I merely state what were presented to me—I believe correctly—as facts by one who ought to have been conversant with them.—W. H. Russell.