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5 Aug 55 Peter Camp before Sebastopol Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Camp before Sebastopol
August 5th 1855
My dear Mother
I am afraid you thought my last letter a queer document but this is one of the most uncomfortable places going for letter writing. Unfortunately John’s ponies are knocked up so that this visit to the camp has not allowed of my seeing as much of the place as I should have wished.
Yesterday as John had to go to Balaclava & not knowing what to do, I started off not knowing or caring where & at last discovered I was fast approaching the trenches where, strange to say, I was seized with a desire to get under fire. I got as far as the Green Hill battery when I was stopped as no one is allowed to go into the trenches now without an order. But seeing the man coming, I took a round & can say that I have been in the trenches of which I have a relic in the shape of a grapeshot – a thing which I have not seen anywhere else.
I passed on the way there the ‘valley of death’* which is literally covered with shot & shell which lie in heaps all over the valley & surrounding hills.
I have seen Ernest* several times in as much as he likes Porter.*
I found out the surgeon who came out on board the Tynemouth* – he is attached to the 41st & I went over to see him on Friday & he said he should look in upon us today but he has not done so as yet.
Ernest said something about the bombardment commencing on the 10th & an attack on the 12th but what foundation he has I do not know & cannot therefore vouch for the truth of the same.
They are all thinking of preparations for the winter now & as the wooden huts have again been neglected, I expect they will build themselves stone houses for there is nothing but stones wherever you go. In fact the ground is all solid stone.
I went to see a man – I should rather say a boy today who had lost his leg & to whom John took some old papers & books. Col. Cobbe* continues very bad. They do not think he will ever get over it. He eats nothing.
How is Mrs Heath now. As I never get letters it is scarcely any use asking questions. Do not however direct to the Tynemouth as my Father says you have, for you be sure that long before any letter would arrive I should have left her. I am waiting still for the Alipore.
Love to all from
Your affect. son
Peter Laurie
PS Since I wrote the above, I have just received a letter directed to ‘Care of JWL’* etc. & must not forget to congratulate you for Julius on making his lieutenancy of which I heard some time ago.
This evening when I write the PS, I have been walking about watching John & men going to the trenches & continuing my peregrinations for some time after their departure, have been saluted by the Ruski’s (as they are here called) by round shot which I have not before experienced. One struck within 20 yards of me & roused to a state of excitement a body of men waiting to go to the trenches whom it just missed. Another passed shortly afterwards right over my head & as you may imagine rather excited me. It struck in among the regiment encamped just behind the 4th as I learned from a Sergeant I was talking to & was a precious near shave for me.
I am to breakfast with Howley* tomorrow. I think they take advantage of his good nature for whenever anything is wanted, he is the universal resort.
PL
* ‘valley of death’ – Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, had been written and published in 1854, soon after the battle of Balaklava
* Ernest – Ernest Lloyd, probably a second (or more distant) cousin
* Porter – Dark brown bitter beer; like stout but weaker
* Tynemouth – A steam powered merchant vessel belonging to W.S.Lindsay & Co, in whose offices Peter had briefly worked. Tynemouth was fitted out to carry passengers and cargo and had also brought the newly formed Land Transport Corps to the Crimea
* Col. Cobbe – Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper on 1st September 1855 reported his death: ‘On the 6th August 1855 in camp before Sebastopol, Colonel H. COBBE, C. B., commanding 4th Regiment of Foot, of wounds received on the 18th June, 1855’
* JWL – John Wimburn Laurie, his eldest brother, serving with the 4th King’s Own Regiment
* Howley – Lt. John Howley, 4th Regt.