It is well known that the extent of " approach" at first assigned to the British army, was very disproportionate to its relative numbers as compared witli the French. The whole right attack of the combined army was appropriated to our forces, and thus they had to form those vast trenches (the more extensive as they were distant from the enemy's works), which were afterwards consigned to our gallant allies, and made the basis of the triumphant advance against the key M 33, of t: -the.Mamelon vert, ami the.Maluliiit trench work did not comprise the whole duty, as when n>r so rrying '*' water, and the procuring ot fuel, engrossed the few remaining hour.-.,e leisure enjoyed was lut scant, and the opportunit: ruetinu' any means of pr> tion apiinst tlie cold.
I hiring l>ec.emler,.lanuary, and February. L855 6, tt i Tin ot' duty in the trenches 80 frequent tliat it required superhuman exertion. Thus, l>y tinl it is shown, that out of an elli strength of 11,3(57 in January, told off daily tr duty. The routine of this duty is well illustrated the extr,:i in the (D) from Sir.indrr Tulloch's jiainpljlif for a moment!i/.'ut it half the truth Were p086 that in the phrase trench duty," the hard 1'odi.n of was alone included.
It was the 8tandinu r ankle de-p in mud, or snow, or tV r while they wrked; the want of slielt-r, and absence of a dry resting place when exhau.-: C mental depression produced by such spade and pu-kwork; the danger which accompanied it from den sortie, bounding round shot, and exploding shell; the total absence of all comfort on returning to camp, and the ceaseless recurrence, without apparent results, of the same routine, which rendered this " trench work" so truly what the soldiers called it, " desperate." The evidence of the mental depression to which I refer, will present itself in dread remembrance to those who can recall the condition of the soldiers during the first five months of the siege; and its influence on the outbreak and fatality of disease, as well as on convalescence, cannot, I believe, be exaggerated.