In fact, there is some energy exhibited in preparing for the winter, and, if the huts only ari'ive in time, in the sailing ships in which they have been stowed, no doubt winter will be disarmed of much of its rigour and severity. Improved stoves are desirable — those sent last winter were very expensive, inasmuch as they did not last; and it would be curious to inquire how many out of the whole quantity supplied were put back into store when summer came. Muchof the warm clothing, many sheepskin coats, boots, &c. were irretrievably injured, and will not last long should they be re-issued this winter. Indeed, there is a little confusion in the store itself, and I know a case where some men of a certain regiment were sent down to get their old coats, and, after a great deal of confusion and of tumbling over bales of clothmg, only one or two of them could be found.
Captain Gordon, however, is most active and energetic, and his indefatigable efibrts to reduce this chaos into order begin to be attended' with efl'ect. It was on this day twelve months ago that the allied armies marched from Old Fort, and that the Eussians drew first blood at Boulganak. What an eventful year has since elapsed, and liow fcAv have survived through all our suiferings and our glories! The old soldiers have disappeared; in some regiments there are not more than filteen men, in others there are not so many, remaining out of those who moved in magnificent parade to their first bivouac. Those whom the war has swallowed up have not been replaced by better men. Would we could say that they have been succeeded by as good.
The Light Division — those steady, noble soldiers of the Rifle Brigade; the gallant Fusiliers; the 19th, the 23rd, the 33rd, the 77th, the 8Sth — the men who drew the teeth of that terrible Russian battery on the bloody steeps of the Alma — how few of them are left to think and wonder at the failure in the Redan! The Second Division, old companions of the Light in hard fighting and in hard work, can scarcely boast that they are what they once were. The Third Division, though singularly freed from active participation in any of the great battles or sanguinary struggles of the Avaihas been heavily smitten by sickness, and has borne a large share of the exhausting and harassing duties of the trenches and of the siege, and its old soldiers have been used up, as those of the other corps.
The Foui'th Division has earned for itself a high reputation. In the fierce contest of Inkernuinn it won imperishable laurels, which few of the Avinners are left to wear. As to the Guards — those majestic battalions, which sccm'ed the fluttering wings of victory on the Alma, and with stubborn front withstood the sui'ge of Muscovite infantry which rolled up the ravines of Inkermann — disease and battle have done their work but too surely, notwithstanding the respite from the trenches during our wintry spring-time, which was allowed perforce to their rapidly vanisliing columns. Every one feels assured that if the attack on the Redan had been renewed the following morning, the Highlanders and the Third Division must have succeeded, if supported properly by the Guards and the Fourth Division; and that assurance does not throw the shadow of a shade on the brilliant reputation of the Light Division and the Second Division, but simply rests on the fact that, with the exception of the Guards (in which, however, there is more careful recruiting tlian in other regiments), and of some regiments of the Fourth Division, which were engaged at Inkermann, these battalions have not undergone the hard work and constant labours of the Light and Second Divisions, which have, indeed, been "put to everything" since the beginning of the war.
One of the HigUand regiments was sicklj% and lost many men in the winter, but the Brigade has had almost nothing to do except guard the lines at Ealaklava since the battle of the Alma; and at that battle, owing to its position on the left, and the judicious way in which Su* Colin Campbell moved them up the side of the hill, their loss was very insignificant. The men would have been comparatively fresh; they would have had no recollections of a previous repulse to damp their ardour; and — but let us discuss the subject no further. At best it is but a discussion on probabilities, and no one can forget that, on the eve of two unsuccessful assaults we were equally sanguine of a favourable result for the morrow.