[CRIMEAN WAR]. Two letters from a British soldier during the Crimean War. "Balaklava," 1855.

4pp. on bifolium, 7 1/4 x 9 in. Creased at folds, few spots, expected wear.

A partial autograph letter unsigned from a soldier to his wife. Balaklava, 12 March 1855.

"I started on foot for a walk to the 3rd Division, and Wells's tents. It was intensely hot as I toiled up the ascent to teh plateau on which the English & French are encamped. After a six miles walk I made the Bayal tents, and was very warmly welcomed by Wells, Newland, old Montgomery and others. Wells took me down to see the Trenches and I went with him into the advanced paralell [sic] and the battery the nearest to the city. I was much cooler than I expected I should have been, under fire for the first time. The cannon shot, some of which flew over our heads as we crouched on seeing the flash, behind the earthwork made a screeching sort of noise the shells sounded like express trains whistling in the air, but it was not uninteresting to watch them."

He then confesses a "great dislike" for the minie rifle bullets "which whistle over your head, and you cannot hear them until they pass, so that there is rather an unpleasant uncertainty about them."

After viewing "the city" [likely Sevastopol] he calls handsome and well fortified, he and Wells returned by the "'valley of death,'" so called from its being literally paved with shot, and broken shells..."

4pp. on bifolium, 4 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. Creased at folds.

A partial autograph letter unsigned from the same soldier to his wife. Balaklava. 13 April 1855."On Monday last the 9th we opened fire from our batteries and are going on still. Rumours or our assault fly about, but no one knows whether it will take place or not. Altogether affairs do not look very well. The [indecipherable] is healthier, but Sevastopol has been so much strengthened during the winter that I much fear a failure."

"I have just seen Capt. Legt 97 Regt from the front. They think there wil be an assault soon. God grant us the victory, for surely we deserve it, but it will be purchased at an enormous loss of life. I think the officers in the front rather despond about its capture."

TOGETHER, 2 partial autograph letters unsigned from a British soldier to his wife.

[With:] 3 printed engravings including "Departure of the Grenadier Guards / From Trafalgar Square. Feby. 22 1854. / On Their Route to the East."

This lot is located in Cincinnati.