Crimean texts
The Ben Smyth / Kinglake Archive
Transcribed text is shown against a pale orange background like this.
Catalogue references are shown in white against a blue background like this.
Editorial matter, including interjections in the transcribed documents, is shown against a pale red background like this.
Editorial interjections within transcribed texts are also enclosed within square brackets thus: [sic], and may include words probably intended but unintentionally omitted by the author, and guesses at missing words where a page is damaged. Words and phrases where the reading is uncertain are indicated by a query, thus [?].
In 1998 the staff of the Regimental Museum of the Lancashire Fusiliers in Bury found an uncatalogued bundle of papers whose existence had been forgotten. They were mostly to do with the Crimean War of 1854-56.
It was a miscellaneous lot:— various documents relating to the XXth Regiment of Foot (the regiment's old title), letters from Lord Cardigan to Alexander William Kinglake, correspondence between Lord Hardinge and Major General Richard Airey, (respectively the Commander-in-Chief at Horse Guards and Lord Raglan's Quartermaster-General), various notes made by Kinglake, and a journal written in a dilapidated notebook.
Kinglake was a civilian who had spent the first few weeks of the Crimean War in the Crimea at Raglan's headquarters. In 1856 he was commissioned by Lady Raglan to write a history of the war. When this became known, he was sent many documents, official and private, English and foreign, relating to the war. The result was The Invasion of the Crimea: its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan, eight volumes published in sequence between 1863 and 1887. After Kinglake's death in 1891 the archive of documents in his care disappeared. It was assumed that it had been destroyed.
The papers found in the Bury museum included correspondence which suggested that they had been borrowed from Kinglake by Lieutenant Quartermaster Ben Smyth when he was preparing his book, History of the XX Regiment, 1688-1888, published 1889 by Simkin, Marshall, & Co. It seems that in gathering up the papers Smyth wanted, Kinglake had carelessly included many extraneous items.
The Lancashire Fusiliers' Museum thus found itself in possession of part of the Kinglake archive more than one hundred years after it had been given up as lost. The Custodian arranged for all the documents to be microfilmed. A set of the microfiches was passed to the Crimean War Society to be transcribed. The museum retained those papers relevant to the Regiment's history and sold the remainder on behalf of the Museum Appeal Fund. The Cambridge University Library acquired them.
When the material on the microfiches was transcribed, the papers relating to the XXth Regiment were found to contain some detailed accounts of its actions in the battle of Inkerman, as well as letters illustrating the efforts of Colonel Horn, its commander, to care for the welfare of his men. The letters from Cardigan to Kinglake, which had received most attention from the press, shed no new light on the events of the war, but well illustrated the conflict between Kinglake and Cardigan as the latter strove to ensure that the printed account of his conduct in the charge of the Light Brigade would show him in a favourable light. The Airey-Hardinge correspondence reflected the tensions between Whitehall and the generals in the field as the public at home grew increasingly concerned about the conduct of the war during the hardships of the first winter. There were also some notes made by Kinglake, a few individual letters, and even a copy of Raglan's 'third order' annotated by Airey. The notebook was identified as having been written by William Govett Romaine, Deputy Judge-Advocate General to the Army of the East, the most senior civilian in Raglan's headquarters.
This section of Crimean Texts contains transcripts of all this material, including some XXth Regiment papers not relating to the Crimea.