DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES, ILLUSTRATING MR. WILLIAM SIMPSON'S DRAWINGS OF THE SEAT OF WAR IN THE EAST. FIRST SERIES. BY GEORGE BRACKENBURY, LATE SECRETARY AT KADIKOI TO THE HONORARY AGENTS OF THE CRIMEAN ARMY FUND. LONDON: PAUL AND DOMINIC COLNAGHI AND CO., PALL MALL EAST. PREFACE. IN offering to the Public the following pages, designed to illustrate Mr. Simpson's series of drawings of the "Seat of War in the East," the Author is fully conscious how far his humble efforts fall short of what is due to the merits of these admirable productions, and to the genius of the accomplished artist. He is no less sensible that the slight historic sketch of the principal events of the War, from its commencement up to the middle of last winter, which forms the earlier portion of the Work, is but a too inadequate tribute to the bravery, the endurance, and the self-devotion of the noblest and most glorious army which ever poured forth its blood in defence of the liberties and of the honour of England. But, whatever may be his short-comings in these and other respects, he will feel that he has not written quite in vain if he shall have succeeded in throwing one additional ray of light on the spiritstirring and pathetic story, every detail of which has an absorbing interest for millions of his fellow-countrymen, and in cancelling one fraction of the vast debt of gratitude which England owes to the most chivalrous and heroic of her sons. A portion of these pages was already in the press when the long-desired intelligence of the fall of Sebastopol gladdened the public heart; allusions therefore occur in them which that great event has robbed, in a measure, of their appropriateness; but it has not been thought necessary to alter or erase them in consequence, since every hour the Telegraph may bring news which may throw the most recent occurrences into a comparative antiquity. The Author must not omit to acknowledge his obligations to the able and |